ABSTRACT
The statutes of Provisors in the fourteenth century formally excluded papal rights of provision, and in the fifteenth century this meant in practice that the king and the pope reached an understanding by which the pope made nominal provisions to bishoprics but that he appointed those men whom the kings wished. The pressures which were involved in the election of a dean are much more clearly revealed in proceedings at Exeter in 1509, a year in which the chapter twice were faced with a vacancy. The first election was necessitated by the death of dean Edward Willoughby on 23 November 1508, after some seven years in the post. The Crown certainly saw the higher positions in the Church as a means of rewarding its servants, but it was not invariably able to carry its desires into effect, nor was it prepared to overstep the legally defined limits of accepted procedures.
