¹ The fullest biographies of Alexander are those by Russell, J. Cox, ‘Dictionary of writers of thirteenth-century England’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Special Supplement no. 3 (1936), 17–18Google Scholar; Gibbs, M. and Lang, J., Bishops and reform 1213-1272, Oxford 1934, 29–32Google Scholar; Emden, A. B., A biographical register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, Oxford 1957–9, 2217.Google Scholar

² There were families with similar toponyms at Stainsby, Derby, and at Stainsby within Thornaby-on-Tees, N. Yorks. For the latter see Early Yorkshire charters, ed. Farrer, W., 3 vols, Edinburgh 1914–16, ii, no. 907n.Google Scholar

³ For Master Richard see below pp. 617-18. For Alan see PRO E 327/530, whence Madox, T., Formulare anglicanum, London 1702, no. 530.Google Scholar Master William helped draw up a settlement confirmed by Bishop Alexander: (BL, MS Hlarley 3540 (Welbeck cartulary), fo. 124r–v), and witnesses charters of the bishop in The coucher book or chartulary of Whalley Abbey, ed. Hulton, W. A., 4 vols (Chetham Society, 1847–9), i. 140–1, 143—4.Google Scholar; ‘Chartulary of Dieulacres Abbey’, ed. Wrottesley, G., Collections for a history of Staffordshire (William Salt Archaeological Society, n.s. ix, 1906), 311, no. 6.Google Scholar

⁴ Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1527 (Lichfield cartulary), fo. 93V.

⁵ Curia regis rolls, 17 vols, London 1922-91, vii. 299, 308; The registrum antiquissimum of the cathedral church of Lincoln, ed. Foster, C. W. and Major, K., 12 vols (Lincoln Record Society, 1931–73), ii, no. 474; vi, nos 1906, 1913.Google Scholar He may be the same Gilbert who in 1229 sued the abbot of Halesowen for detention of goods in Staffordshire: Close rolls 1227-31, London 1902, 231.

⁶ Master William may have been the nephew of William, and son of Ralph of Stainsby, active in Lines, c. 1190-1200: Pipe rolls 5 Richard I (Pipe Roll Society, 1927), 71; 7 Richard I (Pipe Roll Society, 1929), 169 ; 9 Richard I (Pipe Roll Society, 1931), 102, 104; 10 Richard I (Pipe Roll Society, 1932), 52; Registrum antiquissimum, vi, no. 1915; BL, MS Cotton Vespasian E xviii (Kirkstead cartulary) fo. 5r; BL, MS Add. 46701 (Stixwold cartulary), fo. 46V. By the 1260s we find men named Nicholas, David, William, Walter and Stephen of Stainsby: Registrum antiquissimum, ii, nos 446, 473, 475-6.

⁷ Chronica Rogeri de Hovedene, ed. Stubbs, W., 4 vols (Rolls Series, 1868–71), iii. 274Google Scholar; Pipe rolls 7 Richard I, 91 ; 9 Richard I, 51; York Minster fasti, ed. Clay, C. T., 2 vols (Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, 1958–9), ii. 16.Google Scholar

⁸ English Episcopal Acta, IV: Lincoln 1186-1206, ed. Smith, D. M., Oxford 1986, nos 219, 223, 228, 242, 243, 259, 268, 273, 274, 285, 286, 290, 294, 297, 299.Google Scholar See no. 12 for the possibility that he was admitted vicar of a moiety of Cranwell church at the presentation of Walter de Neville. See also Curia regis rolls, iii. 143, for Master William as the bishop's attorney.

⁹ Close rolls 1234-7, London 1908, 313, and see below p. 618.

¹⁰ Pipe rolls 12 John (Pipe Roll Society, 1951), 215–16; 13 John (Pipe Roll Society, 1953), 271.

¹¹ Russell, Cox, ‘Thirteenth-century writers’, 121–2Google Scholar; Calendar of liberate rolls 1226-40, London, 1916, 129.Google Scholar The fact that he was rector of Castle Donnington, Leics, 1227-31, explains his appearance, by mistake, amongst a list of the masters of Castle Donnington hospital: Nichols, J., The history and antiquities of the county of Leicester, 4 vols, London 1795-1815, iii. 780.Google Scholar

¹² R. H., and Rouse, M. A., ‘The verbal concordance to the Scriptures’, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum xliv (1974), 5–30.Google Scholar I should like to thank Nigel Ramsay for his help in tracing Master Richard's career.

¹³ Rouse and Rouse, ‘Verbal concordance’, 15–16Google ScholarPubMed, for the suggestion that a MS of Stainsby's concordance at St Jacques was the fair copy. The same authority acknowledges that a system of coding genders, cases and numbers of nouns is to be found only in MSS of Stainsby's concordance surviving at Oxford, suggesting that it was of English, not Parisian origin.

¹⁴ Russell, Cox, ‘Thirteenth-century writers’, 121–2.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Councils and synods II, ed. Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., 2 vols, Oxford 1964, i. 211.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Ibid. i. 174, 407, 514, 606, 1026-7. The practice was certainly known in Alexander's home diocese of Lincoln by the 1290s: ibid. 309n.

¹⁷ The chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, ed. Butler, H. E., London 1949, 43–4.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Little, A. G., ‘Theological schools in medieval England’, English Historical Review lv (1940), 624Google Scholar; Le Neve, J., Fasti ecclesiae anglicanae 1066-1300, ed. Greenway, D. E., London 1968- , iii. 16–17Google Scholar; Goering, J., William de Montibus (c. 1140-1213): the schools and the literature of pastoral care, Toronto 1992, 16–28.Google Scholar For the election of 1228 see Paris, Matthew, Chronica majora, ed. Luard, H. R., 7 vols (Rolls Series, 1872–84), iii. 169–72.Google Scholar Alexander occurs as a colleague of Master William, chancellor of Lincoln, in 1231, probably as papal judge delegate. Master William subsequently served as papal judge in a case involving Alexander's temporalities and his rights over Coventry priory: The Register or rolls of Walter Gray, lord archbishop of York, ed. Raine, J. (Surtees Society lvi, 1872), 40Google Scholar; The great register of Lichfield Cathedral known as Magnum Registrum Album, ed. Savage, H. E. (William Salt Archaeological Society, 1923), no. 376Google Scholar; Les registres de Grégoire IX (1227-41), ed. Auvray, L., 4 vols, Rome 1896–1955, nos 2902, 2936.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Registrum antiquissimum, iii, no. 879. See also Acta Stephani Langton Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi, ed. Major, K. (Canterbury and York Society 1, 1950), no. 42.Google Scholar

²⁰ Powicke, F. M., Stephen Langton, Oxford 1928, 214–15.Google Scholar Set against this see Major, K., ‘The familia of Archbishop Stephen Langton’, English Historical Review xlviii (1933), 550.Google Scholar

²¹ For Langton and Master William see Roberts, P. Barzillay, Stephanus de Lingua-Tonante: studies in the sermons of Stephen Langton, Toronto 1968, 90–4, 221.Google Scholar

²² Councils and synods II, i. 211. For Langton and the office of St Thomas see Duggan, A., ‘The cult of St Thomas Becket in the thirteenth century’, in Jancey, M. (ed.), St Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford: essays in his honour, Hereford 1982, 33–4, 37–41.Google Scholar

²³ Goering, , William de Montibus, 54–6Google Scholar. See also p. 619 above and pp. 622-3, 624, 630 below.

²⁴ For the basic outline of what follows see Hinnebusch, W. A., The early English friars preachers, Rome 1951, 333, 443–4Google Scholar; Vicaire, M.-H., Dominique et ses prêcheurs (Studia Friburgensia n.s. lv, 1977), 61–4.Google Scholar

²⁵ Paltrinieri, I. and Sangalli, G., ‘Un’Opera finora sconosciuta: “II liber Miraculorum B.M.V.” di fra B. Tridentino’, Salesianum xii (1950), 385, no. 81.Google Scholar

²⁶ Fratris Gerardi de Fracheto: vitae fratum ordinis praedicatorum, ed. Reichert, B. M., Rome 1897, 19–20.Google Scholar The qualities to be found at St Nicholas are here likened to the various objects at Christ's nativity : the stable of penitence, the crib of continence, the ass of simplicity and the ox of discretion etc., presumably drawing a deliberate comparison between the birth of Christ and the inception of the Dominican order.

²⁷ Legenda Sancti Dominici auctore Humberto de Romanis, Rome 1935, 400-1, no. 40.

²⁸ Jacobi a Voragine: legenda aurea vulgo historia Lombardica dicta,ed. Graesse, Th., 2nd edn, Leipzig 1850, 472, 482-3Google Scholar; The golden legend (Wynkyn de Worde's edn), London, August 1527, fos 196r, 192V (misnumbered 202V in the copy in Cambridge University Library, Sel 3.5).Google Scholar

²⁹ F. Nicholai de Triveti de ordine Frat. Praedicatorum, annales, ed. Hog, T., London 1845, 224–5.Google Scholar

³⁰ Bale, J., Scriptorum illustrium Maioris Brytannie catalogus, Basle 1557–9, Pt i. 280Google Scholar; Index Britanniae scriptorum, ed. Poole, R. L. and Bateson, M., Oxford 1902, 21Google Scholar; Godwin, F., De praesulibus Anglic commentarius, London 1616, 370–1.Google Scholar

³¹ Monumenta diplomatica S. Dominici, ed. Koudelka, V. J. and Loenertz, R. J., Rome 1966, 172–4, no. 174Google Scholar; ‘Monasterio di Santo Stefano di Bologna’, ed. Belvederi, G., in Chartularium Studii Bononiensis, 13 vols, Bologna 1909–40, iii. 193, 197-9.Google Scholar

³² Vicaire, Dominique et ses prêcheurs, 65–74.

³³ Triveti annales, 209.

³⁴ Magnum registrum album, no. 762.

³⁵ Cartulary of the monastery of St Frideswide, ed. Wigram, S. R., 2 vols (Oxford Historical Society xxviii, xxxi, 1895–6), i. 204–7.Google Scholar

³⁶ Hinnebusch, , Friars preachers, 105–6Google Scholar; VCH Cheshire, iii. 171 —2, 174Google Scholar.

³⁷ Shrewsbury School, MSS i, xxxv, noticed by Ker, N. R., Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, Oxford 1969–92, iv. 289, 322.Google Scholar I am most grateful to J. B. Lawson Mr., Shrewsbury's librarian, for supplying me with Ker's unpublished descriptions of the MSS and for many helpful references. Besides the works alluded to, MS xxxv also contains 14 hexameters from the tract by Maurice, prior of Kirkham (fl. 1170) on the identity of Salome, companion of the two Marys, for which see James, M. R., ‘The Salomites’, Journal of theological studies xxxv (1934), 287–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The hand which Ker suggests is Stainsby's was mistakenly identified by Harrison Thomson, S., The writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235-53, Cambridge 1940, 72,Google Scholar as the hand of Grosseteste.

³⁸ Roberti Grosseteste Episcopi quondam Lincolniensis epistolae, ed. Luard, H. R. (Rolls Series, 1861), 120–2, no. 34.Google Scholar

³⁹ See below p. 627; Calendar of charter rolls 1226-57, London 1903, 187.

⁴⁰ Councils and synods II, i. 207–26. The only contender is Grosseteste who includes ten scriptural references within the space of 46 short clauses: ibid. 265–75. Stainsby's tracts are briefly analysed by Kemmler, F., ‘Exempla’ in context: a historical and critical study of robert mannyng of brume's ‘handlyng synne’, Tübingen 1984, 30–1.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Rouse and Rouse, ‘Verbal concordance’, 8, 10Google Scholar; Roberts, , Stephanus de Lingua- Tonante, 221.Google Scholar

⁴² Councils and synods II, i. 211, no. 5.

⁴³ Ibid. i. 214.

⁴⁴ Ibid. i. 216-19. That confessions were delivered in the vernacular, even to the religious, is suggested by an interesting settlement (1238) between the nuns of Higham, Kent and their mother house in France, providing that they were to have at least one chaplain who was a native English speaker to take the nuns’ confessions: Cambridge, St John's College, Muniments Dio. 29.

⁴⁵ Councils and synods II, i. 214, no. 26.

⁴⁶ For a very tentative suggestion that the tracts are the work of a Dominican see Cheney, C. R., English synodalia of the thirteenth century, 2nd edn, Oxford 1968, 42.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ J. B. Lawson, who examined the surviving MSS on my behalf, could find no evidence that the tags included in Alexander's statutes had been marked in the gloss.

⁴⁸ Councils and synods II, i. 215–20.

⁴⁹ In general see Michaud-Quantin, P., ‘Premières “Summa Confessorum’”, Recherches de Théologie Ancienne et Médiévale xxxvi (1959), 264–306, esp. p. 292.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ MacKinnon, H., ‘William de Montibus, a medieval teacher’, in Sandquist, T. A. and Powicke, M. R. (eds), Essays in medieval history presented to Bertie Wilkinson, Toronto 1969, 32–45, esp. pp. 34, 41–5.Google Scholar William's tract is edited in full by Goering, William de Montibus, 179–210.

⁵¹ J. W., Baldwin, Masters, princes and merchants: the social views of Peter the Chanter and his circle, 2 vols, Princeton 1970, 34–6.Google Scholar See also the introduction to de Chobham, Thomas, Summa confessorum, ed. Broomfield, F., Louvain-Paris 1968Google Scholar; Neve, Le, Fasti, iv. 38–9, 60.Google Scholar For a similar work on confession, attributed to Walter de Cantilupe, bishop of Worcester, see Goering, J. and Taylor, D. S., ‘The Summulae of Bishops Walter de Cantilupe (1240) and Peter Quinel (1287)’, Speculum lvii (1992), 576–94.Google Scholar

⁵² Cheney, English synodalia, 119n., suggests that Grosseteste's statutes were consciously modelled on those of Alexander.

⁵³ Reg. Greg. IX, nos 2902, 2936; Magnum registrum album, no. 376.

⁵⁴ Murray, A., ‘Confession as a historical source in the thirteenth century’, in Davis, R. H. C. and Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. (eds), The writing of history in the Middle Ages: essays presented to Richard William Southern, Oxford 1981, 305–10Google Scholar; Gieben, S., ‘Robert Grosseteste on preaching with the edition of the sermon “Ex rerum initiatarum” on redemption’, Collectanea Franciscana xxxvii (1967), 100–41, esp. pp. 111–12.Google ScholarWenzel, S., ‘Robert Grosseteste's treatise on confession, “Deus Est”’, Franciscan Studies xxx (1970), 218–93,Google Scholar edits a text which includes disquisitions on penance and the seven deadly sins, far more subtle and scholastic than Stainsby's tract. For Grosseteste see also Kemmler, , ‘Exempla’ in context, 32, 39–46.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Murray, , ‘Confession’, 179–81, 308–12.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Russell, Cox, ‘Thirteenth-century writers’, 109–10.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Ibid. 13-14. See also BL, MS Cotton Caligula A xiii (Pipewell cartulary), fos 70V–IV for a settlement drawn up in 1232 by Hales as archdeacon of Coventry, confirmed by Bishop Alexander.

⁵⁸ Michaud-Quantin, , ‘Premières “Summa Confessorum”’, 294, 301-2.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Rotuli litterarum clausarum, ed. Hardy, T. D., 2 vols, London1833–44, ii. 138Google Scholar; Patent rolls 1225–32, London 1903, 62, 85–6; Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 113–14.

⁶⁰ Rot. lit claus, ii. 207; Patent rolls 1225–32, 108; Diplomatic documents preserved in the Public Record Office 1101-1252, ed. Chaplais, P., London 1964, no. 203.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Patent rolls 1225—32, 161–2; Calendar of liberate rolls 1226–40, 48.

⁶² Ibid. 123; Annales monastici, ed. Luard, H. R., 5 vols (Rolls Series, 1864–9), i. 71; iii. 112–13Google Scholar; Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 157, 169.

⁶³ Patent rolls 1225-32, 243–4; Calendar of patent rolls 1232-45, London 1906, 41, 43, 55, 59, 102, III, 144; Close rolls 1231-4, London 1905, 553, 590; Close rolls 1234-5, London 1908, 367, 453; Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 273.

⁶⁴ Cal. pat. rolls 1232-47, 64, 74; Calendar of liberate rolls 1265-72, London 1964, nos 2200, 2404; PRO, C 47/13/1, no. 1.

⁶⁵ Cal. pat. rolls 1232-45, 116, 122.

⁶⁶ Canterbury Cathedral Library, MS MAI (Accounts of the shrine of St Thomas), fo.70r–v: ‘Item solvimus magistro Alberto x marcas de anno domini m°cc°xxv° per manum episcopi Cestrensis’. Elsewhere in the accounts Master Albert is identified as Master Albert ‘the Roman’.

⁶⁷ Annales monastici, ii. 299. For the office of clerk of the papal chamber, subordinate to that of chamberlain see Rusch, B., Die Behörden und Hofbeamten der päpstlichen Kurie des 13. Jahrhunderts, Königsberg-Berlin 1936, 30–1.Google Scholar All the early thirteenth-century papal chamberlains enjoyed close relations to England, including Pandulph, bishop of Norwich (1215-1226) and Octavian, a canon of Southwell. For a list of the chamberlains see Rusch, , Die Behörden, 139Google Scholar, and for Octavian see The Cartulary of Dale Abbey, ed. Saltman, A., London 1967, nos 398–9.Google Scholar In 1214 an un-named clerk of the papal chamberlain, Stephen of Fossanova, cardinal priest of the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles, was in correspondence with Hubert de Burgh: Diplomatic documents, no. 16.

⁶⁸ Annales monastici, ii. 295.

⁶⁹ Regesta honorii papae III, ed. Pressutti, P., 2 vols, Rome 1888–95, ii. no. 4317;Google ScholarCalendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland 1198–1304, ed. Bliss, W. H., London 1893, 91.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ PRO, C60/18 m. 5, where the words ‘in manu archiepiscopi’ have been altered to ‘sub regimine’; see also Patent rolls 1216–23, London 1901, 382.

⁷¹ For the dispute between Langton and des Roches see ibid. 382, 383, 425; Rot. lit. clans., i. 560b, 578, 629, and in general Carpenter, D. A., The minority of Henry III, London 1990, 301–42, esp. pp. 310–11, 318.Google Scholar For the Coventry-Lichfield dispute see VCH Staffordshire, iii. 140ff; Knowles, D., The monastic order in England, Cambridge 1940, 322–4Google Scholar; Cheney, C. R., Pope Innocent III and England, Stuttgart 1976, 129–33.Google Scholar

⁷² Acta Stephani Langton, no. 61; Wharton, H., Anglia sacra, 2 vols, London 1691, i. 437–8.Google Scholar For Langton's general hostility to monk bishops see Gibbs, and Lang, , Bishops and reform, 5–7.Google Scholar

⁷³ Wharton, , Anglia sacra, i. 437–8Google Scholar; Patent rolls 1216–23, 439. The register of Honorius III notes merely that in his eighth year the pope consecrated 9 bishops in Rome, including the (un-named) bishop of Coventry: Vatican, Archivio Segreto, MS Reg. Vat. 12 fo. 210v.

⁷⁴ Gibbs, and Lang, , Bishops and reform, 30–1Google Scholar; Sayers, J., Papal Government and England during the pontificate of Pope Honorius III (1216–1227), Cambridge 1984, 177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the politics see Carpenter, , Minority of Henry III, 343–70.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Annales monastici, i. 225; iii. 87; Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 87; Foedera, conventiones, litterae el cuiuscumque generis acta publica, ed. Rymer, T., new edn, i, pt i, London 1816, 175Google Scholar; Royal and other historical letters illustrative of the reign of Henry III, ed. Shirley, W. W., 2 vols (Rolls Series, 1862–6), i. no. cciv.Google Scholar Later, between 1226 and 1230, Alexander was involved as a papal agent in attempts to settle Fawkes's estate: Reg. Hon. III, ii. no. 6016; Reg. Greg. IX, no. 485; Calendar of papal registers, 112, 124.

⁷⁶ Close rolls 1227–31, 110; Diplomatic documents, no. 203. See also Acta Stephani Langton, nos 98, 107.

⁷⁷ Gibbs, and Lang, , Bishops and reform, 28Google Scholar; Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 157, 169–72.

⁷⁸ Magnum registrum album, nos 410–19.

⁷⁹ Ibid, nos 466, 761; Annales monastici, iii. 104. See also the Lichfield proctor's schedule of arguments preserved in PRO, C270/36/20 dealing with the election of 1208–14, but drawn up c. 1224x1227.

⁸⁰ Magnum registrum album, pp. xxxvi–xxxvii, no. 175, where the joint title first appears in Sept. 1226/7. For the monks’ appeals see Reg. Greg. IX, no. 2902.

⁸¹ Ibid, nos 2197, 2902–3, 2956–7, 3115; Calendar of papal registers, 150–1, 153; Magnum registrum album, nos 466, 712.

⁸² Ibid. no. 720.

⁸³ Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 531–2, 541–2.

⁸⁴ Rot. lit. claus., ii. 207; also found in a contemporary copy in PRO, E 135/8/49.

⁸⁵ Calendar of charter rolls 1226–57, 118; Rot. lit. Claus., i, 296, 625b; ii. 65, 109, 142; Close rolls 1227–31, 320; Cal. of lib. rolls 1226-40, 27, 64, 86, 109, 123, 149, 175, 181.

⁸⁶ Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 268.

⁸⁷ Magnum registrum album, no. 220.

⁸⁸ Early charters of the cathedral church of St Paul, London, ed. Gibbs, M. (Camden 3rd ser. lviii, 1939), no. 182.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Cat. pat. rolls 1232–47, 41, 55, 59, 76; Close rolls 1231–4, 553, 564, 590.

⁹⁰ In 1237 he was appointed one of several authorities set to keep the peace within the newly escheated honour of Chester: Cal. pat. rolls 1232–47, 182.

⁹¹ A full list has been deposited with Dr David Smith at the Borthwick Institute, St Anthony's Hall, York.

⁹² Magnum registrum album, no. 470; Coucher book of Whalley Abbey, i. 143–4; Dugdale, W., Monasticon anglicanum, ed. Caley, J. and others, 6 vols in 8, London 1817–30, vi. 407Google Scholar, taken from PRO, E 315/48/230; An edition of the cartulary of Burscough Priory, ed. Webb, A. N. (Chetham Society 3rd ser. xviii, 1970), no. 167Google Scholar; The registers or act books of …Bishop Robert de Stretton 1358–1385, ed. Wilson, R. A., 2 vols (William Salt Archaeological Society n.s., viii, x, pt ii, 1905–7), i, 128–9Google Scholar; The Shrewsbury cartulary, ed. Rees, U., 2 vols, Aberystwyth 1975, nos 67–70Google Scholar; The cartulary of Darley Abbey, ed. Darlington, R. R., 2 vols (Derbyshire Archaeological Society, 1945), 35, 606–7Google Scholar; BL, MS Harley 3640 (Welbeck cartulary), fo. i24r–v; MSHarley 4799 (Lichfield cartulary), fos 44v–5r; MS Cotton Caligula A xiii (Pipewell cartulary), fos 7ov–2r; Bod. Lib., MSLaud Misc. 625 (Leicester cartulary), fo. 182V.

⁹³ Councils and synods II, i. 112.

⁹⁴ Ibid. i. 209–26, esp. pp. 210, 219; Magnum registrum album, no. 435; Calendar of papal registers, 149; Reg. Greg. IX, no. 2898.

⁹⁵ Bod. Lib., MS e Museo 30, fo. 164V.

⁹⁶ Magnum registrum album, nos 175, 440; BL, MS Cotton Caligula A xiii (Pipewell cartulary), fo. 7or; Burscough cartulary, no. 163; Register of Robert Stretton, i. 132.

⁹⁷ Madox, Formulare anglicanum, no. 530; Stafford, William Salt Archaeological Society, MS M539 (Dieulacres cartulary roll), m. 5d no. 28; Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare Birthplace Library, Gregory-Hood MS 1406 (Leger Book), p. 249; and see below, p. 635.

⁹⁸ Magnum registrum album, no. 500.

⁹⁹ Indulgences for Glastonbury and Westminster are mentioned or recited in Bod. Lib. MS Lat. Hist. a2 m.6, and Westminster Abbey Muniments, MS Domesday, fo. 402r. There also survive indulgences for the hospital of St Ethelbert at Hereford and for St Paul's Cathedral, London: Hereford Cathedral, MS charter 2038; London, Guildhall Library, MS 25124/4 no. 3, and see also PRO, E 135/6/38.

¹⁰⁰ Vatican, Archivio Segreto MS Reg. Vat. 13 (Register of Honorius III year II), fo. 152V, no. 407, calendared in Reg. Hon. III, ii. no. 6100, and Calendar of papal registers, 114: ‘Ea que ad curandas vel preservandas animas a noxiis excessibus pertinere noscuntur tibi committimus confidenter, quern vigilantem novimus circa curam officii pastoralis.’

¹⁰¹ Calendar of papal registers, 134, 136; Reg. Greg. IX, no. 1330. See also ibid, nos 1422, 2038, 3103, 3780.

¹⁰² Calendar of papal registers, 149; Reg. Greg. IX, no. 2897; VCH Warwickshire, ii. 89–91. See also Dugdale, , Monasticon, vi. 407Google Scholar; PRO, E 315/48/230.

¹⁰³ VCH Staffordshire, iii. 149; Close rolls 1227–31, 471; Close rolls 1234–7, 103; Close rolls 1237–42, 46.

¹⁰⁴ Wharton, , Anglia sacra, i. 437Google Scholar; Magnum registrum album, no. 433. Note that the first decanal election under the new system must have been that which followed the promotion of Ralph Neville as bishop of Chichester in Nov. 1222. In other words it is possible that Lichfield exploited the illness of Bishop Cornhill to secure the reform. For the cathedral's first written constitution, derived ultimately from that of Rouen and ascribed to Bishop Hugh de Nonant see Magnum registrum album, pp. xxv–xxvi; Statutes of Lincoln Cathedral, ed. Bradshaw, H. and Wordsworth, C., 3 vols, Cambridge 1892–7, ii. 11–25Google Scholar; Dugdale, , Monasticon, vi. 1255–6.Google Scholar Diana Greenway has pointed out to me that Lichfield had a subdeanery, unknown at Rouen.

¹⁰⁵ Magnum registrum album, no. 435. For York see Reg. Hon. III, ii. no. 5802.

¹⁰⁶ Staffordshire, iii. 142-3, 146.

¹⁰⁷ Magnum registrum album, nos 446, 470, 472; Jeayes, I. H., ‘Descriptive catalogue of the charters and muniments belonging to the Marquis of Anglesey’, Collections for a History of Staffordshire (William Salt Archaeological Society, 1937), no. 87Google Scholar; BL, MSCotton Caligula A xiii (Pipewell cartulary), fo. 7or–v.

¹⁰⁸ Magnum registrum album, no. 175.

¹⁰⁹ Information supplied by Diana Greenway, for whose definitive work on the Salisbury statutes see ‘The false institutio of St Osmund’, in Greenway, D. and others (eds), Tradition and change: essays in honour of Marjorie Chibnall, Cambridge 1985, 77–101, esp. pp. 79 n. 7, 91–2.Google Scholar There seems already to have been correspondence between practice at Salisbury and at Lichfield from at least 1215, since Richard Poer's Nova constitutio of that year applies residence requirements at Salisbury, known elsewhere in England only at Lichfield where they had been introduced during a legatine visitation by Hubert Walter, former bishop of Salisbury, c. 1195: Greenway, ‘False institutio’, 91–2, which corrects K. Edwards, The English secular cathedrals in the Middle Ages, 2nd edn, Manchester 1967, 53–5. For the reference to Alexander's statute on the treasurer see Statutes of Lincoln Cathedral, ii. 20.

¹¹⁰ Magnum registrum album, nos 706, 750; Cartulary of Dale Abbey, no. 173. It was almost certainly Alexander who secured an additional 10 marks per annum for the sacristy from the church of Youlgreave, Derbs, which he had earlier granted to Leicester Abbey: ibid. no. 24; BL, MS Harley 4799 (Lichfield cartulary), fos 44v–5r, 74V.

¹¹¹ VCH Staffordshire, iii. 147–8Google Scholar, which here and elsewhere fails to recognise the personal role of Bishop Alexander, crediting improvements and reforms merely to pressure by the chapter.

¹¹² Magnum registrum album, nos 502, 634, 719; Wharton, , Anglia sacra, i. 446Google Scholar; Bod. Lib., MS Ashmole 1527 (Lichfield cartulary), fo. 93V. Following Bishop Alexander's death, cash prebends of 4 marks each were paid from the vacancy receipts to Master Simon de Stayland and Master W(illiam) of Gloucester: PRO, E372/85 m. 3.

¹¹³ Magnum registrum album, nos 446, 718.

¹¹⁴ Ibid, nos 24, 363, 446. Alexander's endowment of the prebend has not been traced. It probably occurred c. 1232 at which date he conferred half of the greater tithes of Wellington on Shrewsbury abbey: Shrewsbury cartulary, nos 63–5.

¹¹⁵ Magnum registrum album, nos 348–50; VCH Staffordshire, iii. 143.Google Scholar The last recorded rector of Prees as an independent church occurs c. 1230: H. E. Savage, Theprebendal system (Lichfield Cathedral pamphlet recording an address given at the Feast of St Chad 1921), 12, citing Eyton, R. W., Antiquities of Shropshire, 12 vols, London 1854–60, ix. 256.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Magnum registrum album, nos 139, 342, 346, 347–50, 357; Bod. Lib. MS Ashmole 1527 (Lichfield cartulary), fos 3or, 68v–9r, 90v-ir; Curia regis rolls, xiii. nos 873, 1092, 1193.

¹¹⁷ Bod. Lib., MSAshmole 1527 (Lichfield cartulary), fo. gir.

¹¹⁸ Ibid. fo. 93r; Wrottesley, G., ‘Extracts from the plea rolls of the reign of Edward II’, Collections for a history of Staffordshire (William Salt Archaeological Society ix, 1888), 53–4.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Magnum registrum album, nos 262, 527, 529, 539–47.

¹²⁰ Reg. Hon. III, ii. nos 5802, 5982, 6099, 6222; Reg. Greg. IX, nos 19, 1330, 3215, 3257, 4044, 4294; Calendar of papal registers, 105, 114, 116–17, 134, 149, 167, 172; Chartulary of the Austin priory of Trentham, ed. Parker, F. (William Salt Archaeological Society xi, 1891), 330Google Scholar, taken from an original now Stafford, Staffordshire Record Office, MSD593 (Duke of Sutherland's collection) B/1/23/8/1, no. 14. Alexander's tract on confession shows his familiarity with several decretal collections, and is careful to note those classes of excommunication which could be dealt with only in Rome: Councils and synods II, i. 224–6.

¹²¹ Calendar of papal registers, 137; Reg. Greg. IX, no. 1563.

¹²² Calendar of papal registers, 130; Reg. Greg. IX, no. 871. For earlier promises by the papacy to restrict provision, see Councils and synods II, i. 96–8.

¹²³ Roberti Grosseteste epistolae, 137–40, nos 45–6; Register of Walter Gray, 61. See below for Salisbury.

¹²⁴ For papal provision in the 1220s see Sayers, Papal government, 177–80, where it is suggested that particular bishops actively supported papal provisors in the hope of winning privileges for their cathedrals. If so it is strange that Lichfield, subject to so much litigation in Rome, should have gone unaffected.

¹²⁵ Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 169.

¹²⁶ Ibid. iii. 518.

¹²⁷ At Derby on 15 Dec. 1238 he issued letters of admission to the church of Boylestone, Derby: PRO, E 326/3594; Jeayes, I. H., Descriptive catalogue of Derbyshire charters in public and private libraries and muniment rooms, London 1906, no. 331.Google Scholar Montfort's son was born on 28 Nov., and it seems unlikely that his baptism would have been delayed until after 15 Dec.

¹²⁸ Sarum charters and documents, ed. W. Rich-Jones, and Macray, W. D. (Rolls Series, 1891), 260–1, no. 228, misdated.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ Register of St Osmund, ed. Rich-Jones, W. H., 2 vols (Rolls Series, 1883–4), ii. 84Google Scholar; Paris, Chronica majora, iii. 189.

¹³⁰ Register of Robert Stretton, i. 132. For the date of his death see Wharton, , Anglia sacra, i. 438.Google Scholar

¹³¹ See Magnum registrum album, nos 645, 718; VCH Cheshire, iii. 184–5.Google Scholar Shipwreck crops up as a metaphor in Alexander's tract on sin, where the drunkard is likened to a captainless vessel lost at sea: Councils and synods II, i. 220.

¹³² Wharton, Anglia sacra, i. 438; Magnum registrum album, nos 651, 740.