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Bishop of St. David's
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2008
The best known of all medieval English canonists is William Lyndwood, compiler of the Provinciale. His name derives from what is now Linwood, in Lincolnshire, where his father John (d. 1419) was a woolman, and where (according to his will) he was born. William was sent to Cambridge, where he studied at Gonville Hall and is said to have become a fellow of Pembroke Hall. In the old library of Gonville and Caius College there was an inscription in the window requesting prayers for Lyndwood as ‘hujus collegii quondam commensalis’. His lectures have not survived, and the exact dates of his university residence are not known; but he was certainly a doctor of both laws by 1407, when he was ordained priest. By that time he already held a number of benefices – the earliest we know of was the wardenship of a hospital in 1396 – and he was to collect many more in the course of his career. These were not actual occupations, but sources of income intended to maintain a lawyer destined for high office.
1. Biographical details from Rigg, J. M., ‘William Lyndwood’ in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXXIV (1893), pp. 340–342Google Scholar; Emden, A. B., Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500 (1962), pp. 379–381Google Scholar; Reeves, A. Compton, ‘The Careers of William Lyndwood’ in Hamilton, J. S. and Bradley, P. J. (ed.), Documenting the Past (1989), pp. 197–216.Google Scholar
2. They are cited in Lyndw. Prov. 299, gl. Fore praestanda (‘Hanc materiam tetigi in Lectura Decretorum 22, q. 1 in prin.’).
3. Some writers say that his doctorate was from Oxford, though there is no direct evidence of this. He did leave a law book to Oxford, but also two to Cambridge.
4. He mentions one such occasion in Lyndw. Prov. 192, gl. Provinciam, when the word ‘archbishopric’ in a canon was replaced by ‘province’.
5. Lyndwood mentions Lollardy in Prov. 284 and 300, and the penalty for heresy at p. 293.
6. Reeves, , ‘The Careers of William Lyndwood’, pp. 206, 207, 213.Google Scholar
7. Reproduced in Monumental Brass Society Portfolio, series I, part 8, plate 3; Page-Phillips, J., Children on Brasses (1970)Google Scholar, fig. 7. He is wearing the LL.D. congregation habit with two arm-slits, hood, and round cap; the upper third of the figure is worn almost flat.
8. The principal studies are Maitland, F. W., Roman Canon Law in the Church of England (1898), ch. 1 (pp. 1–50)Google Scholar; Cheney, C. R., ‘William Lyndwood's Provinciale’ (1961) 21 The Jurist 405–434Google Scholar, reprinted in Medieval Texts and Studies (1973), pp. 158–184.Google Scholar
9. Lyndw. Prov. 95, gl. Commenta (‘praesens opus non praecipue nee principaliter viris scribo scientia literarum praeditis, sed potius simpliciter literatis et pauca intelligentibus, quorum labor, ut plurimum, magis assuescit in inspiciendis constitutionibus provincialibus quam aliis eccelsiae constitutionibus generalibus’.)
10. Lyndw. Prov. 79, gl. Audire praesumant (‘ratio hujus constitutions potuit esse, quia, ut communiter, tales decani rurales sunt imperiti, et juris ignari’).
11. See (1991) 2 Ecc. L.J. 159.
12. Cheney, , ‘Lyndwood's Provinciale’, lists 57Google Scholar MSS. in an appendix.
13. See (1991) 2 Ecc. L.J. at 160–161.
14. See the block on p. 272. Cf. the shield on Lyndwood's father's brass at Linwood.
15. The date on the title-page. The explicit (p. 356) is dated 5 id. Jul. 1678, and identifies the publisher as Richard Davis. Ayton's book was included in the same volume. Citations here are to this edition.
16. Cheney, , ‘Lynwood's Provinciale’, p. 176Google Scholar, instances an amendment to Winchelsey's decree concerning chancel repairs. The text stated simply that the responsibility rested on the rector, but Lyndwood interpolated the words seu ad quos pertinent so as to accommodate local customs (such as that of London) where the chancel belonged to the parishioners and was their responsibility.
17. This Canonical ius commune unlike English common law, was largely written (i.e. of legislative origin).
18. Lyndw. Prov. 271, gl. Matrimonium; Maitland, op. cit., p. 39.
19. See Maitland, , Canon Law in the Church of England, pp. 19Google Scholar et seq., 41–42.
20. Lyndw. Prov. 346–347; Helmholz, R. H., Select Cases on Defamation to 1600 (1985) Selden Soc. vol. 101, pp. xiv–xli.Google Scholar
21. Lyndw. Prov. 217, gl. Foro Regio (‘In quo tractatur causa juris patronatus de consuetudine regni Angliae, licet pertineat ad forum ecclesiasticum secundum canones’), 316, gl. Jure Patronatus (‘licetcausa juris patronatus sit annexa spiritualibus, et sic pertineat ad forum ecclesiasticum & consuetudo dat cognitionem foro temporali’).
22. Lyndw. Prov. 170, gl. Insinuationem (‘Haec autem publicatio de consuetudine Angliae pertinet ad judices ecclesiasticos ’). He cites authorities to the effect that jurisdiction may be enlarged by custom.
23. Lyndw. Prov. 172, gl. Consuetudinem Patriae, Defunctos contingit, and p. 178Google Scholar, gl. Defunctum.
24. Lyndw. Prov. 53, gl. Reparatione, and p. 250, gl. Defectus Ecclesiae; Baker, J. H., ‘Lay Rectors and Chancel Repairs’ (1984) 100 L.Q.R. 181.Google Scholar
25. Lyndw. Prov. 104, gl. Usum Sarum Ecclesiae. This is ‘ex longa consuetudine’.
26. Lyndw. Prov. 246, gl. Corrigatur. Cf. Co. Litt. 3a (citing year books).
27. Lyndw. Prov. 212, gl. Cum socia; Maitland, , Canon Law in the Church of England, pp. 27–31.Google Scholar
28. Lyndw. Prov. 201, gl. Negotiationum (questioning a custom of London). Cf. Ibid.,. 25, gl. De consuetudine (custom of England, laboriously defended).
29. Lyndw. Prov. 118, gl. Cappis Clausis. The cappa clausa was kept up only in the ancient universities, and a vestige may still be seen in Cambridge at congregations of the Regent House.
30. Cheney, , ‘Lyndwood's Provinciale’, p. 177.Google Scholar It is not certain whether this direction was ever carried out. The autograph was last heard of in Oxford, in the possession of an executor, in 1448.
31. Submission of the Clergy Act 1533 (25 Hen. 8, c. 19), s. 7.
32. See, e.g., Helmholz, R. H., Roman Canon Law in Reformation England (1990), pp. 68, 143, 145.Google Scholar
33. The Church-History of Britain (1655), vol. II, p. 176.
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