medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
A few comments on the points raised in this strand:
English law was initially a mixture of royal (later statute) law and
precedence - the Common Law; 'reason' may be said to have entered in the
later middle ages in the hearing of cases (largely involving trusts) that
fell outside the common law before the Lord Chancellor, deciding things by
what seemed to him to be 'equitable' means. Ironically, by the nineteenth
century this simple law of Equity had become so complicated that it produced
cases such as Jarndyce vs Jarndyce in Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House'
Execution for heresy only began in England with the Statute 'De haeretico
comburendo' enacted in 1401 but few were executed before the reign of Henry
VIII (although if you were to read only Foxe you might think that as many as
50 times the real number were burned). Incidentally, very few witches seem
to have been burned before the Reformation [in all the cases of supposed
witches that came before the bishop of Lincoln in the 1440s, he sent them
home because they were 'old decrepit women', or words to that effect]
The reason Eleanor Cobham was accused of treason and heresy (more commonly
witchcraft - which was a form of heresy) together was because she was
supposed to have used witchcraft to find out when the king might die - and
perhaps to help him on - because her husband, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester,
was heir presumptive. Her punishment of penance and imprisonment for the
heresy/witchcraft was mild compared to the punishment she might have had if
found guilty of treason
Margaret Clitheroe's form of execution (as I think we have discussed before)
was that meted out on those who refused to enter a plea. Without a plea you
could not be found guilty of a felony and your goods could not be taken from
your family.
best wishes to all
Rosemary Hayes
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Izbicki" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 6:59 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 22. November
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I am not arguing the Frederick's Liber augustalis had influence in England.
Rather it is the equation of the 2, starting then, that I regard as at
issue. There were Roman law borrowings, directly & through canon law. They
are least visible in procedure & land law; most visible, in areas like
admiralty jurisdiction [from Roman law directly] and wills [via canon law].
Tom Izbicki
Thomas Izbicki
Collection Development Coordinator
Eisenhower Library
Johns Hopkins
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410)516-7173
fax (410)516-8399
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/22/05 1:47 PM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thomas Izbicki wrote:
>According to J. G. Bellay, The law of treason in England in the later
>Middle
>Ages (Cambridge, 2004) there were Roman law borrowings in the statutes of
>treason. And Eleanor Cobham was accused of both treason & heresy.
>Unfortunately, our copy of his book on the Tudor period was not on the
>shelf.
>
>Tom Izbicki
I don't dispute this. However, I still question how much influence
Frederick's equation of treason and heresy had in Britain.
In the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I the distinction between the two
certainly became blurred, when professing Catholicism could easily entail a
conflict of loyalties between monarch and pope. However, Frederick died in
1250, during the reign of Henry III and 235 years before Henry VIII's
accession. Was it really as big an issue then?
Gordon
-------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Gordon Arthur | Orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is
[log in to unmask] | another man's doxy. (Bishop Warburton)
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ecumenist.org/
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