The Finances of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century

The organisation of the properties of a medieval secular cathedral like Lincoln differed radically from that of a monastic foundation like Canterbury or Durham. In the latter the endowments, though particular estates might be permanently assigned to one or other of the obedientiaries, were all used for the community as a whole. At Lincoln great estates and wealthy rectories were allotted to individual canons as their prebends so that accounts of these never came into those of the chapter except in vacancies of the prebends, which were rarely of long duration. The properties which were used for the additional payment of those of the canons who were in residence (their commons) and for the maintenance of the services and general administration were known as the Communa or Common Fund of the canons. It is from the records of this Common Fund that we learn much of the internal management of chapter affairs and of the relations of the chapter with external bodies

Administration (probate law · Archaeology · Commons · Economic history · Economics · Foundation (evidence · Genealogy · Payment · Political science · Residence · Sociology · Classics · Demography · Finance · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History