LACY, EDMUND

Bishop of Exeter; d. Chudleigh, Devonshire, Sept. 18, 1455. The son of Stephen Lacy of Gloucester, he was a fellow of University College, Oxford, by 1391; he became doctor of theology in 1414. However, he was called "the king's clerk" and enjoyed royal patronage on a moderate scale from 1400. He may have been attached to Henry (V), Prince of Wales, for he became dean of the chapel in the royal household soon after Henry's accession in 1413. Lacy resigned this office and ceased to attend the king after his consecration as bishop of hereford in 1417. He was translated to exeter in 1420, and for the remainder of his life he generally resided in the diocese. In 1435 Lacy was excused from attending parliaments and councils because of a long-standing disease of the shin bones (Cal. Patent Rolls 1429–36 453). This affliction may have occasioned his promotion of the therapeutic cult of St. Raphael, for whose feast he composed an Office to be observed in Exeter Cathedral and the collegiate churches of Crediton and Ottery St. Mary; he eventually secured its observance in Hereford and York Cathedrals as well. Lacy's tomb in Exeter Cathedral is said to have been the scene of many miraculous cures[U. M. Radford, "The Wax Images Found in Exeter Cathedral," The Antiquaries Journal 29 (1949) 164–168].

Bibliography: Lacy's registers have been pub. Hereford, ed. a. t. bannister (Canterbury and York Society; London 1918); Exeter, register of institutions, ed. f. c. hingeston-randolph (Devon and Cornwall Record Society; Exeter 1909). For his Exeter common register, ed. g. r. dunstan (Canterbury and York Society; London 1963–). a. b. emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to a.d. 1500 (Oxford 1957–59) 2:1081–83.

[r. l. storey]