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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture .. but most bishops doubled up as secular landlords, and thus had some responsibility for secular justice on their lands. And 'church' law included such issues as adultery among commoners. At least that's my impression. 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. Bishops prisons seem quite often to be part of bishop's palaces, often in an area adjacent to their cathedral church. One of the bishop's suffragans often worked almost full time as a judge. And the bishop's consistory court was very often in the church itself, though the precise location often seems unclear. A post-Reformation example survives under the south west tower at Chester; the bosses in the Bauchun chapel in the east end of Norwich are on a Marian/judicial theme and the court was held beneath them, I understand; the north-west chapel at Exeter likewise. I don't know of any other pre-Reformation examples that have been 'pinned down'. Jon -----Original Message----- From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Briggs Sent: 16 July 2006 15:49 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [M-R] bishop's prisons medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Postles, Dr D.A. wrote: > > We're used to the idea of the spiritual authority using the 'secular > arm' to impose punishment, I thought that was just for punishment which the 'spiritual arm' could not impose - e.g. the death penalty? John Briggs ********************************************************************** 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 ********************************************************************** 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