Note on sources

Note on the Sources

As for other cathedrals, some important sources for the Lincoln Fasti do not originatein the city or diocese, but are found in the central records of church and state. (fn. 1) Thepapal registers and the royal patent and close rolls contain much information on papalprovisions, royal collations to dignities and prebends, and the restitution of thebishops' temporalities. In the papal registers, too, and in the curia regis rolls, arereferences to disputes and judgements concerning respectively the spiritualities andestates of certain prebends. The registers of some of the archbishops of York recordcollations and institutions to those Lincoln prebends situated in the York diocese. (fn. 2) The registers of the archbishops of Canterbury provide some biographical details,and the Canterbury records also include the professions of obedience made by thebishops of Lincoln. Some taxation records have important evidence for the personneland financial arrangements of the Lincoln chapter. The Pipe Rolls for 1167, 1168,1182, 1183, 1185, and 1186, when the see was vacant, are particularly useful. Theclerical taxations of 1254, called the Valuation of Norwich, (fn. 3) and of 1291, the Taxatioof pope Nicholas IV, give the values of the prebends and some names of prebendaries.

Although certain chronicles and annals written outside the diocese have informationfor the Lincoln Fasti, such as Howden and the annals of Worcester, the most valuablenarrative sources originate from within the diocese. Matthew Paris wrote his ChronicaMajora at St. Albans; other chroniclers wrote at Dunstable, Hagnaby, Osney, andLouth Park. (fn. 4) Some writers were closer to the cathedral itself. Henry of Huntingdonwas archdeacon of Huntingdon, a member of the Lincoln chapter, and son of one ofthe earliest canons. His letter De Contemptu Mundi, in two versions, the first composedc. 1134 (D.C.M. I) and the second c. 1146 (D.C.M. II), contains his recollectionsof the dignitaries of his own and his father's days, stretching back to bishop Remigius'sestablishment of the chapter before 1092. (fn. 5) Another writer close to the cathedral,although not a canon, was Gerald of Wales, who lived in Lincoln for many years.His Vita S. Remigii, originally composed c. 1198, gives information, not whollyreliable, on Remigius and the other twelfth-century bishops. It was revised andcombined with the Vita S. Hugonis to form a two-volume work presented to archbishop Stephen Langton in 1214. (fn. 6) This work was used by John de Schalby, bishop'sregistrar and canon (d. 1333), for the early part of his lives of the bishops of Lincoln,written c. 1330. Schalby's main purpose was to document the customs of the cathedral,so that his account of the bishops forms only a small part of his book Martilogium, buthe was uniquely well-informed of the events of his own time, and therefore providessome chronological details unknown from other sources. (fn. 7) Of the other 'unofficial'sources, the most valuable concern two notable bishops of Lincoln. For Hugh ofAvallon, there is Adam of Eynsham's Life of St. Hugh, whose 'reliability and fullnessof detail' are said to be 'almost unsurpassed in medieval hagiography'. (fn. 8) For RobertGrosseteste, besides an abundance of varied literary material, we have also a collectionof his letters. (fn. 9)

At Lincoln Archives Office there survives the earliest series of bishops' registers inwestern Christendom. From 1214 or 1215 until 1290 these are in the form of rollscompiled by archdeaconry, chiefly recording institutions; after 1290 they are inregister form, and include not only institutions, but also collations to dignities andprebends, ordinations, dispensations, and much other material. (fn. 10) Although the Lincolnrolls and registers are now almost entirely in print, (fn. 11) those before Sutton were printedin an abbreviated form, with the names or initials of archdeacons often omitted.Reference to the original rolls is therefore often made in the present volume. Thecollations to prebends in Sutton's register have not yet appeared in print, and theentire registers of Dalderby and Burghersh are unprinted. These are cited as follows:

The records of the dean and chapter are rich and varied. MS. 1 in the Dean andChapter Library, the Great Bible, is the surviving volume of the two given by archdeacon Nicholas (? de Sigillo, of Huntingdon, c. 1164-c. 1187), (fn. 12) and contains fourdocuments of great value. On fo. 1r is a catalogue of books recording the growth ofthe library in the twelfth century, and the names of donors, most of them membersof the chapter. (fn. 13) At the beginning of the Psalter, fo. 207r, are two lists of canons. Thefirst, cited below as L.P. I, is a late twelfth-century copy of a list of ? c. 1132. It isheaded 'Hi sunt ad psalterium canendum', and lists the psalms allotted to the fortythree members of the chapter. (fn. 14) The second list, cited below as L.P. II, belongs toc. 1187, and gives fifty-three names and three blanks. (fn. 15)

The Great Bible also contains, on fos. 204v-206v, the earliest and most valuableobituary, cited below as obit. I, which gives the dates of commemoration of morethan seventy members of the chapter from its origins to c. 1188. This is written inseveral different hands, and palaeographically it is far more complex than appearsfrom the editorial annotations of the two printed versions. (fn. 16) The compilation wasprobably complete before 1189, as pointed out by Bradshaw and Wordsworth, forking Henry II is not commemorated (d. 6 July 1189). Three commemorations suggestthat the obituary was still incomplete in 1182 and 1183: Hamo the chancellor probably died on 17 August 1182, (fn. 17) Geoffrey the dean probably died on 26 October 1182, (fn. 18) and Gentilius the canon probably died on 23 October 1183. (fn. 19) It seems likely thatwork on the obituary continued after the compilation of L.P. II, in c. 1187. This isindicated by two names in the obituary: 'Guarinus' who may well be 'Warinus' ofL.P. II, and if so was still alive in c. 1187, (fn. 20) and Nicholas the canon and archdeaconwho gave the Bible, who is probably to be identified with Nicholas de Sigillo, archdeacon of Huntingdon, who also occurs in L.P. II. (fn. 21) The obituary has therefore beenassigned to c. 1188.

There are some commemoration dates, too, in the first residence lists (Re and Ve),whose chief value however is that they record the 'comings and goings' of canons(recedendi et veniendi) week by week in 1278 and 1279, and are cited below as R.L. Iand R.L. II. These are kept in Lincoln Archives Office and are isolated documents,there being no more of this type extant until 1437: (fn. 22)

The Chapter Act Books at the Archives Office begin in 1305. The first two volumes,called the 'Liber Primus' are:

The Audit Accounts of the Common survive from 1304, and record the names of theresident and non-resident prebendaries year by year. (fn. 24) These are cited as follows:

Much material, especially for the twelfth century, exists in the original charters,chiefly class Dij in the Archives Office, and in enregistered copies of charters. Manyhave been printed in the ten volumes of R.A.L., which provides an edition of themost precious of the Lincoln cartularies, the Registrum Antiquissimum (A/1/5), andprints also numerous additional and related charters, mostly from before 1235. (fn. 25) Many charters after that date, and a few earlier ones, (fn. 26) remain unprinted. The important fourteenth-century cartularies containing charters that are cited in this volumeare: