THE REGISTER OF RICHARD FLEMING BISHOP OF LINCOLN 1420-1431 Volume III

This volume completes the edition of the register of Bishop Fleming. The general memoranda include licences and dispensations familiar in such registers: letters dimissory permitting clerks to seek ordination in other dioceses; licences to clergy to celebrate anniversaries, to preach or to be non-resident, usually for the purpose of study; licences for oratories in private chapels; licences to hear confessions. Some clergy are reprimanded: the vicar of North Mimms is deprived for non-residence; a chaplain of Dingley is reported to have buried a suicide in consecrated ground. Wills and other probate documents are transcribed in full. There are commissions appointing vicars-general when the bishop was absent overseas. On four occasions the bishop ordered special prayers to be said in all archdeaconries: for the king and his army at war overseas, for the soul of King Henry V, for the soul of the bishop's sister and for the bishop's journey overseas on the king's business.

Dr Nicholas Bennett is a Senior Fellow of the University of Lincoln. He has worked on the archives of the cathedral and diocese of Lincoln for nearly fifty years. In addition to the Lincolnshire Parish Clergy project, he is editing The Registers of Henry Burghersh 1320-1342 for the Lincoln Record Society