Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Medieval Petitions and Strategies of Persuasion
- 1 Blood, Brains and Bay-Windows: The Use of English in Fifteenth- Century Parliamentary Petitions
- 2 Petitioners for Royal Pardon in Fourteenth-Century England
- 3 The Scribes of Petitions in Late Medieval England
- 4 Patterns of Supplication and Litigation Strategies: Petitioning the Crown in the Fourteenth Century
- 5 Petitions of Conflict: The Bishop of Durham and Forfeitures of War, 1317–1333
- 6 A Tale of Two Abbots: Petitions for the Recovery of Churches in England by the Abbots of Jedburgh and Arbroath in 1328
- 7 ‘By Force and Arms’: Lay Invasion, the Writ de vi laica amovenda and Tensions of State and Church in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
- 8 The Papacy, Petitioners and Benefices in Thirteenth-Century England
- 9 Playing the System: Marriage Litigation in the Fourteenth Century
- 10 Killer Clergy: How did Clerics Justify Homicide in Petitions to the Apostolic Penitentiary in the Late Middle Ages?
- Index
3 - The Scribes of Petitions in Late Medieval England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: Medieval Petitions and Strategies of Persuasion
- 1 Blood, Brains and Bay-Windows: The Use of English in Fifteenth- Century Parliamentary Petitions
- 2 Petitioners for Royal Pardon in Fourteenth-Century England
- 3 The Scribes of Petitions in Late Medieval England
- 4 Patterns of Supplication and Litigation Strategies: Petitioning the Crown in the Fourteenth Century
- 5 Petitions of Conflict: The Bishop of Durham and Forfeitures of War, 1317–1333
- 6 A Tale of Two Abbots: Petitions for the Recovery of Churches in England by the Abbots of Jedburgh and Arbroath in 1328
- 7 ‘By Force and Arms’: Lay Invasion, the Writ de vi laica amovenda and Tensions of State and Church in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
- 8 The Papacy, Petitioners and Benefices in Thirteenth-Century England
- 9 Playing the System: Marriage Litigation in the Fourteenth Century
- 10 Killer Clergy: How did Clerics Justify Homicide in Petitions to the Apostolic Penitentiary in the Late Middle Ages?
- Index
Summary
In contemporary society, e-petitioning faces criticism on the grounds of accessibility; as documents that are easy to set up and to sign, they are viewed as potentially encouraging the promotion of frivolous causes or of ‘slacktivism’, political activism that has very little chance of achieving real-life impact and is largely aimed at promoting a feeling of well-being in the supporter. In the words of one journalist: ‘Opening a link, clicking on a send button … can anyone possibly take this seriously as a way of engaging in debate on any subject that matters? It's effortless moral outrage, requiring neither understanding nor commitment on the part of the clickers.’ By contrast, for the medieval petitioner, we would assume that understanding and commitment were prerequisites; no-one would go to the trouble of having a petition drawn up and presented who did not have a real grievance or belief that a particular issue required redress. The basis for comparison between medieval and modern petitioning is clearly very slight, but serves to underline the importance of accessibility and the role of the mediator. In contrast to petitioning today, the medieval petitioner required the services of a trained scribe who would be able to structure their request according to the appropriate forms. This chapter addresses the question of identity of these scribes, their role in the petitionary process and the implications this has for our understanding of petitioning as a means of accessing medieval justice. It draws on examples from petitions addressed to the highest English secular authorities: the king, parliament and chancellor.
The status of petitions is somewhat ambiguous; as Dodd has observed, ‘they fit comfortably neither into the category of records produced by the Crown nor into the designation of “local” documents written independently of influence from the royal secretariat’. Previously, several commentators have argued that the petitions surviving in The National Archives are not themselves the originals, but copies drawn up by the chancery clerks. This is now generally agreed to be a false supposition; however, the identity of those scribes responsible for drafting petitions remains a matter of debate. There are a number of potential scenarios in which petitions were drawn up.
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- Petitions and Strategies of Persuasion in the Middle AgesThe English Crown and the Church, c.1200–c.1550, pp. 64 - 87Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2018
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