This chapter reviews the book University Education of the Parochial Clergy in Medieval England: The Lincoln Diocese, c.1300–c.1350 (2014), by F. Donald Logan. In 1298, Pope Boniface VIII’s constitution cum ex eo was published. It was considered a landmark in the provisions of higher education for the parish clergy, opening the way for parish rectors who had not yet been ordained as priests to absent themselves from their parishes for up to seven years to attend university. Logan explores how this constitution was implemented across Europe by focusing on the diocese of Lincoln, the largest in England with nearly 2,000 parishes. Logan emphasises the distinction between cum ex eo dispensations and the parallel procedure called licencia studendi, both of which contributed significantly to the enhancement of clerical education in fourteenth-century England.
