It is instructive to note the means by which he carried out his purpose. There is a common impression that these pre-Reformation prelates were possessed of great wealth. In some few instances, this was the case, namely, where the prelate had held in plurality several wealthy benefices, or had occupied a rich see for a great number of years, or had inherited a large private fortune; but in the majority of cases, the bishops were not wealthy men, and from year to year spent the revenues of their sees in works of public munificence or private charity. Every bishop, however, had partially under his control several of the Church endowments of his diocese, and could divert them, even in perpetuity, to the use of any institution he favoured, so long as they were not alienated from the Church. Accordingly, Fleming proposed, as it seems, to build the College out of his own moneys; but to provide for its endowment by attaching to it existing ecclesiastical revenues. He therefore obtained the sanction of the king (Henry VI.’s charter is dated 13th Oct., 1427) and Parliament, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the mother-church of Lincoln, the Archdeacon of Oxford, the parishioners of all three parishes, and the Mayor and Corporation of Oxford, to dissolve the three contiguous parish churches of All Saints, St. Mildred, and St. Michael,--all three being in the patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln,--as also the chantry of St. Anne in the church of All Saints, which was in the patronage of the city of Oxford; and to unite them into a collegiate church or college, which was to be “Lincoln College.” St. Mildred’s was a small parish occupying the present site of Exeter College, and about half of the site of Jesus College; its church was sadly out of repair, and had no funds for its maintenance; and the ordinary parish population had given place to Academical students with their Halls and Schools. Fleming therefore planned to build his college on the site of this church and its churchyard, increasing the area by the purchase, on 4th April, 1430, of Craunford Hall, which stood south of the churchyard, and, on the 20th June, 1430, by the purchase of Little Deep Hall, which stood on the east of the churchyard. The ground-plot so formed is represented by the present outer quadrangle of the College.