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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2020
Behind the rhetoric and theory of crown-church conflict there was much cooperation in the everyday world, where practice and pragmatism often overrode legal and theoretical rules. This article examines the ways in which fourteenth-century English bishops and their clerks responded to the demands made of them by the royal courts. Bishops were bombarded with commands from the crown, with a resulting impact on diocesan records. The crown sought historic information about finance and rights, and commanded bishops to collect clerics’ debts and to enforce their attendance before the lay courts in both civil and criminal cases. Enquiries about the current status of individuals, whether professed in religious orders or legitimate, made considerable work for bishops. How enthusiastically and efficiently these orders were carried out is also evaluated and discussed.
1 In Lincoln, Lincolnshire Archives (hereafter: LA), register 12B, the present writer discovered a new document about John Wyclif (‘John Wycliffe's Mission to Bruges: A Financial Footnote’, JThS n.s. 24 [1973], 521–2) and an unsuspected nest of Lollards: ‘Bishop Buckingham and the Lollards of Lincoln Diocese’, in Derek Baker, ed., Schism, Heresy and Religious Protest, SCH 9 (Cambridge, 1972), 131–45.
2 Brief exceptions are Churchill, Irene Josephine, Canterbury Administration, 2 vols (London, 1933), 1: 520–1Google Scholar; Helmholz, R. H., ‘Canon Law and English Common Law’, in idem, Canon Law and the Law of England (London, 1987), 1–19Google Scholar, at 5–8. Jones, W. R., ‘Relations of the Two Jurisdictions: Conflict and Cooperation in England during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 7 (1970), 79–210Google Scholar, is an overview which does not examine the evidence presented here.
3 The Register of Roger Martival Bishop of Salisbury 1315–1330, 3: Royal Writs, ed. Susan Reynolds, CYS 59 (Torquay, 1965). On Martival's enthusiasm for recording all writs, see Kathleen Edwards, ‘General Introduction to the Registers’, in The Register of Roger Martival Bishop of Salisbury 1315–1330, 4: The Register of Inhibitions and Acts, ed. Dorothy M. Owen, CYS 68 (Torquay, 1975), vii-lvi, at x.
4 LA, Reg. 5B. MCD 997 is a calendar of the first 700 writs, using Susan Reynolds's model, made by Judith Cripps, a former assistant archivist.
5 The Register of Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter, ed. F. C. Hingeston-Randolph (London and Exeter, 1892), 413–44, lists 412 writs addressed to the bishop or his vicar-general.
6 The Register of Walter Reynolds, Bishop of Worcester 1308–1313, ed. Rowland A. Wilson, Dugdale Society 9 (London, 1928), 159–80.
7 Helmholz, Richard H., OHLE, 1: The Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s (Oxford, 2004), 315Google Scholar.
8 For example, John de Berwick, keeper of the queen's gold (1285–90) and of the queen's wardrobe (1286–90), left office and died owing the crown £863 8s 4½d: Reynolds Register, ed. Wilson, writ nos 94, 110; T. F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England, 6 vols (Manchester, 1920–33), 2: 42 n. 2; 5: 238, 272. Adam de Wycheford, ‘lately chamberlain in North Wales’ and rector of Wick (Worcestershire), left office owing £211 7s 6d: Roy Martin Haines, ed., Calendar of the Register of Simon de Montacute, Bishop of Worcester, 1334–1337, Worcestershire Historical Society n.s. 15 (Worcester, 1996), no. 1053. In 1316, Martival was ordered to produce £10 which Master Richard Havering owed to Edward I's widow Queen Margaret: Martival Register, 3, ed. Reynolds, no. 64. For his career, see A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, 3 vols (Oxford, 1957–9), 3: 2181–2.
9 For example, Stapeldon Register, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, writ nos 55, 74.
10 Martival Register, 3, ed. Reynolds, xii–xxxiv, is a formulary of all the types of writs received.
11 McHardy, Alison K., ed., Royal Writs addressed to John Buckingham, Bishop of Lincoln, 1363–1398. Lincoln Register 12B: A Calendar, CYS 86 (Woodbridge, 1997)Google Scholar. This register was omitted from David M. Smith, Guide to Bishops’ Registers of England and Wales (London, 1981).
12 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, no. 314.
13 Ibid., Appendix A, nos 5 (Churchill, Oxfordshire, 1372), 400 (Olney, Buckinghamshire, 1392).
14 Ibid., nos 449, 454.
15 Ibid., no. 455.
16 Rotuli Hugonis de Welles, Episcopi Lincolniensis, A.D. MCCIX–MCCXXXV, 3, ed. F. N. Davis, CYS 4 (London, 1908), 29.
17 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, nos 463–5 (Thornton, Leicestershire), 467 (Brackley, Northamptonshire), 470–1 (three churches in Leicester, St Mary de Castro, St Leonard and St Martin).
18 Robert Grosseteste as Bishop of Lincoln: The Episcopal Rolls, 1235–1253, ed. Philippa M. Hoskin, Lincoln Record Society, Kathleen Major Series 1 (Woodbridge, 2015), no. 950; see also The Acta of Hugh of Wells Bishop of Lincoln 1209–1235, ed. David M. Smith, Lincoln Record Society 88 (Woodbridge, 2000), no. 370, for Wells's confirmation in 1232 of the arrangement between the hospital's founders and the patron and rector of nearby Polebrook church.
19 The archdeaconry of Buckingham was contested for much of the fourteenth century: John Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541, 1: Lincoln Diocese, ed. H. P. F. King (London, 1962), 15.
20 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, nos 390, 391.
21 Holdsworth, W., A History of English Law, 3rd edn, 3 vols (London, 1923), 3: 624–5Google Scholar. For this and the following two notes, thanks are due to John Hudson.
22 For Lanfranc's pronouncement on the subject, see The Letters of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. and transl. Helen Glover and Margaret Gibson (Oxford, 1979), 166–7 (no. 53); Cyril T. Flower, Introduction to the Curia Regis Rolls 1199–1230, SelS 62 (London, 1944), 107–211.
23 Pollock, Frederick and Maitland, F. W., The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1968), 1: 433–8Google Scholar. Banishment and abjuring the realm were the other causes of this disqualification.
24 Kew, TNA, Warrants for the Great Seal: Religious Apostates, C 81/1791/2, 17 November 1366. For the order for her arrest, see CPR 1364–67, 369.
25 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, nos 43, 44; the original writ and return of no. 44 is in TNA, Certiori: Ecclesiastical, C 269/4/29.
26 She may have been the Alice de Everingham, widow of Thomas de Normanvile, who petitioned parliament in 1395: TNA, Ancient Petitions, SC 8/312E1.
27 TNA, C 81/1789/3, 20 April 1393. She was likely to be found in London, Buckinghamshire or elsewhere.
28 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, nos 416, 417; CCR 1389–92, 363.
29 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, nos 418–20, 13 November 1392, 18 January and 12 February 1393.
30 Return to TNA, C 269/8/18, piece 1, writ of 12 February 1393.
31 CCR 1392–96, 70–1. Buckingham's commission was to five doctors of law: McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, no. 417.
32 ‘The canon law proclaimed the exclusive jurisdiction of its courts over substantive matrimonial questions, and the English royal courts did not contest this claim’: Helmholz, OHLE, 1: 522.
33 Helmholz, R. H., ‘Bastardy Litigation in Medieval England’, AJLH 13 (1969), 360–83Google Scholar, especially for changes during the fourteenth century; Barton, J. L., ‘Nullity of Marriage and Illegitimacy in the England of the Middle Ages’, in Jenkins, Dafydd, ed., Legal History Studies 1972 (Cardiff, 1975), 28–49Google Scholar.
34 Helmholz, R. H., Marriage Litigation in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1974), 3Google Scholar.
35 Reynolds Register, ed. Wilson, no. 48.
36 Martival Register, 3, ed. Reynolds, nos 61, 690, 692.
37 The common pleas writ of inquiratis de bastardia was dated 20 November 1309, received on 27 November, and the reply dated the following 30 April: Stapeldon Register, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, writ no. 64.
38 Writ dated 24 November 1312, return 20 January 1313: ibid., no. 181.
39 For Brocas, see Linda Clarke's biography in J. S. Roskell, Linda Clark and Carole Rawcliffe, eds, The History of Parliament. House of Commons, 1386–1421, 2: Members A –D (Stroud, 1992), 359–62.
40 Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other Analogous Documents preserved in the Public Record Office, 16: 7–15 Richard II (London, 1974), no. 155, for Agnes's property. Nothing is listed for Northamptonshire.
41 Beaurepaire and Sherborne St John (Hampshire), Clewer (Berkshire) and St Olave, Silver Street, London, on 19 June 1365. The enquiry is printed from Buckingham's memoranda register: LA, Lincoln Register 12, fols 306r–308v; McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, nos 90–4.
42 TNA, Ancient Petitions, SC 8/97/4804; SC 8/97/4802B; SC 8/97/4802A; SC 8/13/647A.
43 Reynolds Register, ed. Wilson, writ no. 14. ‘Boughton’ is probably Bourton on the Hill, Gloucestershire.
44 A rare example of precision is given in Burghersh's writ register where a writ of 6 July 1321 was received on 7 October: LA, MCD 997, no. 46.
45 For details of Martival's visits to Noseley, see Edwards, ‘Introduction’, to Martival Register, 4, ed. Owen, xxxviii–xliii. Burghersh's clerks usually recorded the place and date of receipt.
46 One writ could not be executed because he was about to set out for parliament at Lincoln: Martival Register, 3, ed. Reynolds, no. 25.
47 Stapeldon Register, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, no. 218; McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, no. 36.
48 LA, MCD 997, no. 106.
49 Ibid., no. 158; Stapeldon Register, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, nos 126, 196, 218; McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, no. 2.
50 LA, MCD 997, no. 27.
51 Reynolds Register, ed. Wilson, no. 91; Martival Register, 3, ed. Reynolds, no. 52.
52 Burghersh reported of one rector that ‘before Lammas he sold to his parishioners the harvest tithes and other offerings … for which fraud and transgression we are proceeding against him in accordance with the canons’: LA, MCD 997, no. 216; Martival Register, 3, ed. Reynolds, no. 83.
53 This was Gryffyth Damport, formerly chancellor of Thomas (Holand), earl of Kent: LA, Register 15B (Philip Repingdon, Writs), fol. 1.
54 For example, a series of writs to the bishop of Worcester against the rector of ‘Bedyndon’ elicited the return that there was no such church in the diocese. Beddington is in Winchester diocese: Roy Martin Haines, ed., A Calendar of the Register of Wolstan de Bransford 1339–1349, Worcestershire Historical Society 4 (London, 1966), no. 1114.
55 Between March 1308 and midsummer 1315, the bishop of Exeter received sixty-two writs about the various debts of Nicholas de Lovetot, to one of which he made the return that ‘all his ecclesiastical goods in the diocese had, long before the receipt of this writ, been sequestered by order of the Holy See’, Stapeldon Register, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, no. 241.
56 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, no. 231 and n. See also Buckingham's assertion in 1363 that he could find no ecclesiastical goods of the dean of Lincoln: ibid., no. 7B.
57 The point made by Helmholz in reviewing McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs: Legal History 20 (1999), 137–8.
58 McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, nos 49, 51, 75, 84.
59 Stapeldon Register, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, nos 4, 5, 337; Reynolds Register, ed. Wilson, writ no. 91.
60 Haines, ed., Calendar of the Register of Simon de Montacute; Emden, Biographical Register, 3: 1295–6, s.n. Montagu.
61 See Smith, Guide to Bishops’ Registers; McHardy, ed., Lincoln Writs, xii-xvi.
62 In the 1370s the auditors of the Rota ‘determined that the English custom of hearing civil cases involving clerical defendants before secular courts was a wholly invalid custom under the canon law. But nothing changed in consequence’: Helmholz, OHLE, 1: 315.
63 Jones, W. R., ‘Bishops, Politics and the Two Laws: The Gravamina of the English Clergy, 1237–1399’, Speculum 41 (1966), 20–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Denton, J. H., ‘The Making of the “Articuli Cleri” of 1316’, EHR 101 (1986), 564–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Phillips, Matthew, ‘Bishops, Parliament and Trial by Peers: Clerical Opposition to the Confiscation of Episcopal Temporalities in the Fourteenth Century’, JEH 67 (2016), 288–304Google Scholar.
64 W. Mark Ormrod, Helen Killick and Phil Bradford, eds, Early Common Petitions in the English Parliament, c.1290–c.1420, Camden 5th series 52 (London, 2017), 47–8.
65 Logan, F. D., Excommunication and the Secular Arm in Medieval England (Toronto, ON, 1968)Google Scholar; idem, Runaway Religious in Medieval England, c.1240–1540 (Cambridge, 1996).