Decretals of Gregory IX
Lyndwood, however, is chiefly remembered for his great commentary upon the ecclesiastical decrees enacted in English provincial councils under the presidency of the Archbishops of Canterbury. This elaborate work, commonly known as the "Provinciale", follows the arrangement of the titles of the Decretals of Gregory IX in the "Corpus Juris", and copies of much of the medieval English legislation enacted, in view of special needs and local conditions, to supplement the "jus commune". Lyndwood's gloss gives an account of the views accepted among the English clergy of his day upon all sorts of subjects. It should be read together with John of Acton's gloss, composed circa 1333–1335, on the Legatine Constitutions of the thirteenth century papal legates, Cardinals Otto and Ottobuono for England, which was published with the Provinciale by Wynkyn de Worde.