The Theological Use of Science at the Oxford Franciscan School: Thomas Docking, Roger Bacon, and Robert Grosseteste’s Works

The chapter examines the employment of scientific examples in the commentary on Deuteronomy by Thomas Docking, the seventh regent master of the Oxford Minors in the early 1260s, who might have been one of the followers of Robert Grosseteste or, more likely, of the latter’s friend and collaborator, Adam Marsh. Docking dwells on scientific discussions in his exegetical works by quoting from Grosseteste’s works; and this makes him a good candidate for testing whether and how Grosseteste’s scientific ideas were applied in English Franciscan theological writings in the second half of the thirteenth century. This study proposes a comparison of the three masters’ exegesis of Ecclesiasticus 43: 4, in which they all address the problem of heat on mountains, and challenges both Docking’s real commitment to Grosseteste’s methodology and Roger Bacon’s empathy with Docking’s use of science for theology.