School of Lawgivers (1859). Fresco. 1400 x 1200. Lincoln's Inn. The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. Lincoln's Inn is recognised to be one of the world's most prestigious professional bodies of judges and lawyers. Lincoln's Inn is situated in Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden, just on the border with the City of London and the City of Westminster, and across the road from London School of Economics and Political Science, Royal Courts of Justice and King's College London's Maughan Library. The nearest tube station is Holborn tube station or Chancery Lane. Lincoln's Inn is the largest Inn, covering 11 acres. It is believed to be named after Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln. During the 12th and early 13th centuries, the law was taught in the City of London, primarily by the clergy. Then two events happened which ended this form of legal education: firstly, a papal bull in 1218 that prohibited the clergy from teaching the common law, rather than canon law; and secondly, a decree by Henry III of England on 2 December 1234 that no institutes of legal education could exist in the City of London. The secular lawyers migrated to the hamlet of Holborn, near to the law courts at Westminster Hall and outside the City. As with the other Inns of Court, the precise date of founding of Lincoln's Inn is unknown. The Inn can claim the oldest records-its black books documenting the minutes of the governing council go back to 1422, and the earliest entries show that the inn was at that point an organised and disciplined body. The third Earl of Lincoln had encouraged lawyers to move to Holborn, and they moved to Thavie's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery, later expanding into Furnival's Inn as well. It is felt that Lincoln's Inn became a formally organised inn of court soon after the earl's death in 1310. At some point before 1422, the greater part of Lincoln's Inn, as they had become known, after the Earl, moved to the estate of Ralph Neville, the Bishop of Chichester, near Chancery Lane. They retained Thavie's and Furnival's Inn, using them as training houses for young lawyers, and fully purchased the properties in 1550 and 1547 respectively. In 1537, the land Lincoln's Inn sat on was sold by Bishop Richard Sampson to a Bencher named William Suliard, and his son sold the land to Lincoln's Inn in 1580. The Inn became formally organised as a place of legal education thanks to a decree in 1464, which required a Reader to give lectures to the law students there. During the 15th century, the Inn was not a particularly prosperous one, and the Benchers, particularly John Fortescue, are credited with fixing this situation. Lincoln's Inn had no constitution or fundamental form of governance, and legislation was divided into two types; statutes, passed by the Governors and ordinances issued by the Society. A third method used was to have individual Fellows promise to fulfill a certain duty; the first known example is from 1435, and starts Here folowen certaynes covenantes and promyses made to the felloweshippe of Lyncoll' Yne. The increase of the size of the Inn led to a loss of its partially democratic nature, first in 1494 when it was decided that only Benchers and Governors should have a voice in calling people to the Bar and, by the end of the sixteenth century, Benchers were almost entirely in control. Admissions were recorded in the black books and divided into two categories: Clerks who were admitted to Clerks' Commons; and Fellows Socii who were admitted to Fellows' Commons. All entrants swore the same oath regardless of category, and some Fellows were permitted to dine in Clerks' Commons as it cost less, making it difficult for academics to sometimes distinguish between the two-Walker, the editor of the Black Books, maintains that the two categories were one and the same. During the 15th century, the Fellows began to be called Masters, and the gap between Masters and Clerks gradually grew, with an order in 1505 that no Master was to be found in Clerks' Commons unless studying a point of law there. By 1466, the Fellows were divided into Benchers, those at the Bar, and those not at the Bar. By 1502, the extra barram Fellows were being referred to as inner barristers, in contrast to the utter or outer barristers. In Lord Mansfield's time, there was no formal legal education, and the only requirement for a person to be called to the Bar was for him to have eaten five dinners a term at Lincoln's Inn, and to have read the first sentence of a paper prepared for him by the steward.