At first, it looks like just another effigy.  A man in bishop’s robes carved in stone lies in peaceful repose, one hand raised in blessing, his head guarded by an angel.  But beneath the effigy is another figure – shockingly, this is the figure of a rotting corpse, wrapped only in a shroud.  This is the cadaver tomb of Bishop Richard Fleming at Lincoln Cathedral, and it is the oldest one still surviving in England.

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