In the late 1270s Robert Kilwardby, archbishop of Canterbury, conducted a visitation of the diocese of Lincoln. When he reached Bardney, a Benedictine abbey in the Witham valley, east of the city of Lincoln, he found a house already in disarray. The abbot, Peter Barton, had recently been removed by the bishop of Lincoln, Richard Gravesend, but he appealed to Kilwardby who reinstated him. The pattern was already set for future conflict. Kilwardby identified four monks as troublemakers, and ordered their removal: Nicholas (de) Hagworthingham (Hagwinchingham), Henry Merle, Richard (de) Hayntone, and Robert (de) Wainfleet (Wainflete). It was Wainfleet who was to become the leading character in the subsequent drama. Kilwardby's visitation of Bardney was apparently incomplete when he was promoted to the rank of cardinal, and he resigned the see of Canterbury in June 1278. That same year the newly reinstated Abbot Barton proposed going overseas, though for what cause is unknown.

Kilwardby's successor, John Peckham, was archbishop of Canterbury from June 1279, and on 19 July of that year he wrote to the abbot of Bardney ordering him to receive those four rebellious monks back into the abbey, and to report back to him within fifteen days. A month later (12 August) Peckham ordered the rebel monks, now reduced to three in number, to return to Bardney without delay. It may not be coincidence that in spring of the following year, 1280, Peter Barton resigned the abbacy.