The history of the Augustinian general chapters between the Fourth Lateran Council and the Constitutions of Benedict XII is very similar to that of the black monks. Although the organization and procedure had been established in all fullness by the decrees of the Council, Innocent III gave special attention to the English black canons. The abbot of Leicester was detained in Rome till the end of February 1216, in order to carry home with him a letter from the pope to his fellow-canons; in this, Innocent, doubtless after previous arrangements with the abbot, fixed the first chapter for 8 November of that year, and gave Leicester as the place of meeting; instead of the white monks of the Council's decree, two white canons, the abbots of Welbeck and Croxton, were appointed as assessors to the presidents.

At this chapter the heads of houses from the two provinces of Canterbury and York met together, but after a few years, and in all probability soon after the chapter at Bedford in 1220, the provinces were separated. In contrast, however, to the records of the black monks, the acts of the northern province have survived in greater bulk than those of the southern, and its decrees would seem to have been at least as important.