Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology: The Annual Lincoln Medieval History Lecture.
Wednesday 7th May, 2025.
5:30pm.
Cargill Lecture Theatre, University of Lincoln.
The Annual Lincoln Medieval History Lecture in partnership with the Lincoln Record Society.
This year’s talk entitled ‘Combatting the ‘swinish snouts’ of heretics: the life and episcopate of Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln 1420-1431’ will be delivered by Dr Nicholas Bennett.
The monument of Bishop Richard Fleming may be found on the north side of the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral. It incorporates not one, but two effigies: above lies the bishop, resplendent in pontifical vestments, while below is his cadaver, displayed in all its gruesome simplicity. Its message of the vanity of human achievement is reflected in Fleming’s life: a glittering ascent of the ladder of ecclesiastical advancement and then, caught in the crossfire between Pope and Royal Council, the contrast of humiliation, poverty and ill-health. Yet despite this, Fleming’s legacy is not merely a warning against vainglory. His life of learning and teaching, urging the need to reform the clergy in order to combat the ‘swinish snouts’ of those promoting heresy, produced a monument to scholarship that still flourishes today – Lincoln College, Oxford.
Dr Nicholas Bennett is a Senior Fellow of the University of Lincoln. He is editing The Registers of Henry Burghersh 1320-1342 and Lincolnshire Parish Clergy c.1214-1968: A Biographical Register for the Lincoln Record Society.
To book a place, please complete this MS Form – https://bit.ly/3GhHgKh
