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

Abstract

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.