De Decem Mandatis

Throughout his career, one of Robert Grosseteste's abiding concerns was the worthiness of pastors for the cure of souls. His De Decem Mandatis (probably dated in the early 1230s) exemplifies this concern. Couched - for Grosseteste - in simple, straightforward language, it abounds in illustrations in the first and second person singular, and was clearly intended as a guide to pastors faced with the everyday problems of imparting moral instruction to their flocks. It is largely free of the mind-bending argumentation so characteristic of his academic treatises, but is by no means a simple work. Grosseteste was a demanding instructor. In this work he had already begun to think about some of the themes which would play a large part in De Cessatione Legalium and Hexaemeron , but these ideas are still in a preliminary stage in De Decem Mandatis . His principal source is scripture itself, especially Ecclesiasticus, the Psalms, the Gospels and the Epistles. As his guide to understanding them Grosseteste relies most heavily on Augustine, and to a lesser extent on Ambrose, Jerome, and Isidore.
The only Greek father quoted is Chrysostom (and even this is a Latin translation), since Grosseteste's interest in Greek was still in its early stages. Somewhat surprisingly in a work of this sort, Seneca is used extensively, and other authors cited in Latin include Aristotle, Horace, Ovid, and Cicero. Philosophers; medievalists.