very
different man filled the see of Lincoln in his stead. On the 3rd of
June following, Robert Grosteste was appointed to the vacant episcopal
throne.

Grosteste was a man who had learned his life-lessons, not from priest or
monk, from Fathers or Decretals, but direct from God. I do not presume
to say that he held no false doctrine, or that he made no mistakes: but
considering the time at which he lived, and the corruption all around
him, his teaching was singularly free from "wood, hay, stubble"--
singularly clear, evangelical, and true to the one Foundation.
Especially he set himself in opposition to the most popular doctrine of
the day--that which was termed grace of congruity. And for a man in
such a position to set himself in entire and active opposition to
popular taste and belief, and to persevere in it, requires supplies
either of vast pride from Satan, or of great grace from God. Grace of
congruity is simply a variety of the old heresy of human merit. It clad
its proud self in the silver robe of humility, by professing to possess
only an _imperfect_ degree of qualification for the reception of God's
grace. Grace of condignity, on the other hand, put itself on an
equality with the Divine gift, by its pretension to possess that
qualification to the uttermost.

The summer was chiefly occupied by pageants and feasts, for there were
two royal marriages, that of the Princess Marjory of Scotland with
Gilbert de Clare, and that of the Princess Isabel of England with the
Emperor Frederic the Second of Germany. The latter ceremony did not
take place in England, but the gorgeous preparations did: for Henry the
Third, who delighted in spending money even more than in acquiring it,
provided his sister with the most splendid trousseau ever known even for
a royal bride. Her very cooking-vessels were all of silver, and her
reins and bridles were worked in gold. She was married at Worms, in
June: the wedding of the Princess Marjory took place on the first of
August. Abraham and Belasez were faithful to their promises, and the
beautiful scarf, wrought in scarlet and gold, was delivered into
Marjory's hands in time to be worn at the wedding. The young people of
the Castle were naturally interested in the stereotyped rough and silly
gambols which were then the invariable concomitants of a marriage: and
the stocking, skilfully flung by Marie, hit Margaret on the head, to the
intense delight of the merry group around h