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William Lyndwood and the Provinciale: Canon Law in an Undivided Western Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

B. E. Ferme
B. E. Ferme
Affiliation:
Professor of Canon Law, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome
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Abstract

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Anyone coming across the fourteenth-century church of St Cornelius in Lyndewode, now Linwood, a short distance from the Lincolnshire town of Market Rasen, is struck by its stark isolation—it virtually stands alone in fields. Anyone entering the church will most likely be struck by two interesting objects which have some bearing on this lecture. The first, at the west end of the north aisle, are two fine excellently preserved brasses, both of wool men. They had clearly prospered in the economic development of Lincolnshire in the later middle ages. One of these brasses is of John Lyndwood, who died in 1419, with his wife, four sons and three daughters under smaller canopies. The other represents another John Lyndwood, the son of the former, who died in 1421.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 4 , Issue 20 , January 1997 , pp. 615 - 628
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 1997

References

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2 On Lyndwood in general, see Ferme, B E, Canon Law in Late Medieval England. A Study of William Lyndwood's Provinciale with particular reference to Testamentary Law (Studia et Textus Historiae Iuris Canonici 8, Rome, 1996)Google Scholar. See also Baker, J H, ‘Famous English Canon Lawyers IV: William Lyndwood’ (1992) 2 Ecc L J 268–272CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Cheney, C R, ‘William Lyndwood's Provinciale’ (1961) 21 The Jurist 405–434Google Scholar: Reeves, A C, ‘The Careers of William Lyndwood’. in Documenting the Past. Essays in Medieval History presented to George Peddy Cuttino. eds Hamilton, J S and Bradley, P J (Woodbridge, 1989), pp 197–216.Google Scholar

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25 The recommendation is printed in Williams, G, Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton Secretary to Henry VI and Bishop of Bath and Wells (Rolls Series, London, 1872), vol I, pp 1–3.Google Scholar

26 See Cheney, C R, ‘Provincial’, p 161. n 4Google Scholar. where it is pointed out that at the very time of Lyndwood's writing. Archbishop Nicholas of Gniezno had published in 1420 a collection of provincial statutes in five books sub certis et consuetis titulis.

27 See Provinciale, p 95a, a.v. Commenta.

28 Provinciale. p. 356a. He also seems to have prepared an index or ‘tabula compendiosa’ completed ‘in festo conversionis sancti pauli, anno domini MCCCCXXXIIΓ’

29 Maitland, F W, Roman Canon Law in the Church of England (London, 1898), p 38.Google Scholar

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31 See Provinciale, p 22b, a.v. Interpretatione; p 32a, a. v. Quia quidam el infra; p 90a, a.v. Excussis; p 191b, a.v. Quoniam; p 167b, a.v. De Lambeth.

32 See (1852) 34 Archaeologia pp 419–420: ‘Item, volo quod liber meus quem compilavi super constituciones provinciales reponatur in cathenis et inferratus sit, ut salvo et secure custodiatur, in superiori parte capelle sancti Stephani predicte vel alias in vestiario eius capelle, ut quociens opus fuerit pro veritate scripture primarie eiusdem pro correctione aliorum librorum ab eodem tractatu copiandorum recurri poterit dum sit opus’.

33 For a list of manuscripts, see Ferme, B E, Canon Law in late Medieval England, pp 147–148.Google Scholar

34 ibid., pp 52–53.

35 Provinciale, p 298b, a.v. Fore praestanda.

36 See Bale, J, Index Brittaniae Scriptorum, ed Poole, R L and Bateson, M (Oxford, 1902), p 133Google Scholar, and Bale, J, Illustrium Maioris Brittaniae Scriplorum (Ipswich, 1584), fol 158b.Google Scholar

37 See Ferme, B E, ‘William Lyndwood’, The Caian, November 1989, pp 62–68.Google Scholar

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41 Maitland's views are collected in F W Maitland, Roman Canon Law. The first chapter is dedicated to Lyndwood.

42 Roman Canon Law, p 2.

43 ibid. p 12.

44 For examples, see Adams, N and Donahue, Ch, Select Cases from the Ecclesiastical Courts of the Province of Canterbury c 1200–1301 (Selden Society, vol. 95, London, 1981)Google Scholar, and Helmholz, R H, Canon Law and the Law of England (London, 1987).Google Scholar

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46 Helmholz, R M. Roman Canon Law in Reformation England, p 19.Google Scholar

47 ‘The testamentary executor in Lyndwood's Provinciale’ (1989) 49 Jurist pp 632–678.Google Scholar

48 Stubbs, W, Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Mediaeval and Modern History (3rd. edn., Oxford, 1900), p 351Google Scholar: ‘As we proceed, however, we are struck more and more with the prominence of the scientific element in legal education’.

49 ‘The History of English Law’ (cited in note 39 above), p. 165.Google Scholar

50 See Kuttner, S., ‘Pope Lucius III and the Bigamous Archbishop of Palermo’, in Medieval Studies Pnosented to Aubrey Gwynn, S J ed Watt, J A, (Dublin, 1961). pp 409–453.Google Scholar

51 See I Tim 3:2,12: fit 1:6.

52 See Provinciale, p 31a. a.v. Bigamos.

53 ibid.

54 See Hostiensis, , Summa Aurea (Lyons, 1588). f 50dGoogle Scholar: ‘Hoc tamen “non potest”, idest non congruit potential’ suae’, The reference is to the decretal cum ad monasterium. X.3.35.6.

55 See Provinciale, p 91b, a.v. Teneatur: ‘Alium casum habes. si Mandatum vergat in periculum animae, utputa, si papa mandat provideri impuberi de Beneficio curato’.

56 Provinciale, p 273a, a.v. Solennem Editionem. ‘… hic vero tenet, quia non est potestas Papae in dissolvendo carnale matrimonium, sicut spirituale’.

57 See Provinciale, p 180a, a.v. Decedentium. For further examples, see Provinciale, p 173b, a.v. Voluntatem ultimam: p 172a, a.v. Intestatis: p 176b, a.v. Inventarium.

58 See Ch Donahue, ‘Lyndwood's Gloss propriarum uxorum: Marital Property and the ius commune in Fifteenth-Century England’, in Europaisches Rechtsdenken in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Festschrift fur Helmut Coing zum 70. Geburtstag. ed Horn, N, (Munich, 1982), vol I, pp 19–37.Google Scholar

59 Summa Aurea. I. De officio ordinarii, n 4. See Gallagher, C, Canon Law and the Christian Community (Rome, 1978). pp 126–138Google Scholar. For Hostiensis concept of equity, see Brugnotto, G, “L'Aequitas Canonica”. Studio e Analisi del Concetto negli Scritti di Enrico da Susa (Cardinal Ostiense)’. unpublished doctoral dissertation. Universitá Pontificia Gregoriana, Rome 1996.Google Scholar