Grosseteste should have enemies who sought to curtail his power. Amongst the foremost of those who withstood him were the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln. They did so on the ground that he had no right to visit them as they were an "exempt" jurisdiction. Grosseteste insisted that the right was inherent in his office and could not be abrogated. Accordingly he suspended the Dean, the Precentor and the Sub-dean from their offices, and announced that he was coming to visit the Cathedral. When he came he found nobody there to receive him. Grosseteste then proposed that the matter should be referred to the legate for settlement. The Dean and Chapter demurred. Then Grosseteste proposed certain arbitrators. That was agreed to, but it came to nothing; and, in fact, the quarrel was never made up but lasted throughout the Bishop's life. The Chapter tried to bring the case before the King's Court. Grosseteste was most indignant, and reproved them for trying to destroy the privileges of the Church by bringing a purely ecclesiastical matter before a secular tribunal. Then the canons produced a forged document about the foundation and privileges of their church. They produced it publicly, but the forgery was detected as soon as the document was brought forward. This is a curious example of the great number of forged charters and documents that were manufactured by the monasteries throughout the Middle Ages, from a desire to prove that their communities had possessed privileges from an earlier age than was actually the case. The dispute dragged on for several years, until Grosseteste's patience was exhausted.
