The Rolls and Register of Bishop Oliver Sutton, 1280-1299

This is the sixth of eight volumes containing the record of the institutions performed in the archdeaconry of Lincoln by Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln from 1280 to 1299. As a scholar he appears to have been competent rather than distinguished; but he was a thoroughly good man, a trained canonist who was determined to uphold the law, and an administrator at once efficient and humane. For nearly twenty years he devoted himself almost completely to his diocese, ruling it with unending patience and a determined sense of justice. Among other fascinating details, his register describes incidents in the course of which clerks were maltreated and sometimes killed, rights of sanctuary violated and churches desecrated by bloodshed.