medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Jon Cannon <[log in to unmask]>
>most bishops doubled up as secular landlords, and thus had some
responsibility for secular justice on their lands.
> As I see it (and don't count out my being way off beam here), all
landowning institutions - bishops or secular chapters or monastic houses
- had some legal powers, usually relating directly to tenancy matters;
some had powers that went much further, the furthest extremes being the
bishoprics of Ely and Durham where there were very little secular or
ecclesiastical judicial power was beyond the church's reach.
in France (at least) as a landowner, a Bishop had whatever rights of justice
pertained to the land which he held.
in most cases this would include those of "High Justice" (which covered the
capital offenses of murder and arson), and "Low Justice" (lesser crimes).
these would have been seperate from whatever violations of ecclesiastical law
which might have come under his jurisdiction as Bishop.
justice rights went with the land --as did the serfs who worked it.
if the Bishop was Capitalis Dominus of a bit of land, he would have it all; if
he held it in fief from a C.D., he would hold whatever went with his fief, the
C.D. reserving the remainder.
> Bishops prisons seem quite often to be part of bishop's palaces, often
in an area adjacent to their cathedral church.
in Chartres the Bishop's "Palace" ("domus", in the c. 1100 charter which freed
it from pillaging by the Count on the death of the Bishop) was just off the
East end of the cathedral, part of a complex of buildings, gardens, etc. which
were protected by a wall (at least from St. Ivo's time).
presumably the Bishop's court of justice would have been held there, and there
is a tradition (i'm not sure of its source) that a very substantial stone
situated close to the gate to the Bishop's close which has a large iron ring
attached to it was the place where folks were chained who were awaiting
justice in the Bishop's court.
>One of the bishop's suffragans often worked almost full time as a judge.
"justice", in the m.a., was a major source of income, for the lords who
exercised it.
>And the bishop's consistory court was very often in the church itself, though
the precise location often seems unclear.
this would be a little surprising --in France, at least, the cathedral church
was basically the property of the canons, and i would be very surprised if
there were any judicial procedings held *within its fabric*, much less those
which concerned the Bishop's exercise of his own particular rights.
c
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|