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Discipline of The Clergy: Medieval and Modern
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2008
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Discipline of the clergy is a subject of perennial interest—both in the popular press whenever something sensational takes place, and among the clergy and thoughtful lawyers when they are confronted either with the general problem of how best to fashion the church's law or the more immediate problem of how to deal with offenders against the church's law. The subject also has a long history. The purpose of this article is to bring to light a chapter from the century or so before the Reformation. Evidence taken from the medieval canon law and from the court records of the later Middle Ages may be of interest—and perhaps even relevance—to members of the Ecclesiastical Law Society. It has been my pleasure and good fortune to discover that many of them are not immune to the claims of history.
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References
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