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Excommunication in Twelfth Century England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Richard H. Helmholz
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Extract

John Noonan was my teacher some twenty-five and more years ago. I was then a graduate student at the University of California, trying to discover enough about the history of the law of the Church to write something sensible about it. He took me under his wing. He suggested a subject, and he taught me—at least he showed me—the possibility of seeing larger themes in the details of legal and historical research. Attention to the details was essential, but no less important was thinking about their background and their implications. It was a lesson I might have learned in law school. Apparently I had not. This lesson came back to me forcefully when, in more recent days, research on the development of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England raised the subject of the place of excommunication in the subject's early history. Excommunication, dealing as it does with the complex interrelationships between legal doctrine and human behavior, is a subject about which Judge Noonan might have written a wonderful book.

Type
Symposium in Honor of Judge John T. Noonan, Jr.
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1994 , pp. 235 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1994

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References

1. See, for example, Noonan, John T., Power to Dissolve: Lawyers and Marriages in the Courts of the Roman Curia (Belknap Press of Harvard U Press, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I recall that Professor Noonan suggested the subject of “Sanctions under the Canon Law” to one of the students in the seminar he was then teaching, in which I was also enrolled. I do not recall what, if anything, came of the suggestion.

2. See C 11 q 3 c 21 and glossa ordinaria ad id. (“Et dicuntur homines tradi Satanae, cum a tota ecclesia separantur.”).

3. See, for example, Henricus de Susa (Hostiensis), 8 Lectura in libros decretalium X 5.6.6. (Ita quorundam) (repeating and expanding slightly on Gratian's characterization).

4. Logan, F. Donald, Excommunication and the Secular Arm in Medieval England: A Study in Legal Procedure from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Century (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1968)Google Scholar.

5. See, for example, glossa ordinaria at C 24 q 3 c 17 s v episcopate: “quod excommunicato spectat tantum ad officium episcopale, nam mucro episcopi dicitur.” For fuller discussion of this point, together with the many legal complexities ignored here, see Fournier, Paul, Les officialités au moyen âge 134–39 (1880)Google Scholar.

6. See Gratian dictum post C 2, q 1, c 20, made dramatic in the glossa ordinaria ad id, by the case where an offence had been committed before the judge's eyes; if the person accused denied it, even then “ordo juris servari debet licet iudex et alii multi sciant.”

7. See Gratian, C 2 q 1 c 9 (cited in note 6) and glossa ordinaria ad id.

8. See Huizing, Petrus, The Earliest Development of Excommunication latae sententiae, 3 Studia Gratiana 279 (1955)Google Scholar.

9. Vodola, Elizabeth, Excommunication in the Middle Ages (U of California Press, 1986)Google Scholar. See also Huizing, Petrus, Doctrina Decretistarum de excommunicatione usque ad Glossam ordinariam Joannis Teutonici (1952)Google Scholar; Zeliauskas, J., De Excommunicatione vitiata apud Glossatores (1140-1350) (Pas Verlag, 1967)Google Scholar.

10. See, for example, Kober, Franz, Der Kirchenbann nach den Grundsätzen des canonischen Rechts (Laupp, 2d ed, 1863)Google Scholar; Schilling, B., Der Kirchenbann nach kanonischem Rechte (1859)Google Scholar; Vernay, Eugène, Le ‘Liber de Excommunicatione’ du Cardinal Bèrenger Frèdol prècèdè d'une introduction historique sur l'excommunication et l'interdit en droit canonique (A. Rousseau, 1912)Google Scholar; Huizing, Petrus, Doctrina Decretistarum de excommunicatione usque ad glossam ordinariam Joannis Teutonici (1952)Google Scholar.

11. See Rosser, Gervase, Parochial Conformity and Voluntary Religion in Late-Medieval England, 1 Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 174 (6th ser 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12. See generally Kuttner, Stephan Georg, Harmony from Dissonance: An Interpretation of Medieval Canon Law (Archabbey Press, 1960)Google Scholar.

13. See, for example, the charter of King Ethelred (d 1006) in Whitelock, Dorothy, ed, 1 English Historical Documents c 500-1042, 123 (Oxford U Press, 1955)Google Scholar (“May Almighty God and his holy Mother and Ever-Virgin Mary,… despise him in this life and destroy him, despised, in the future, world without end.”).

14. See the discussion and examples in Plummer, C., ed, 1 Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae clxxiii–clxxiv (Oxford U Press 1910)Google Scholar.

15. See Little, Lester, Formules monastiques de malédiction aux IXe et Xe siècles, 58 Revue Mabillon 377–99 (1975)Google Scholar.

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17. Pirenne, Henri, ed, Histoire du meurtre de Charles le bon, comte de Flandre par Galbert de Bruges 1127–28 (A. Picard, 1891)Google Scholar.

18. Becket, Materials at No 113 (“Et mirum est quod sacerdos ita Deum incantare possit ut, velit nolit Deus, Willelmus a comitatu ejiciatur.”) (cited at note 16).

19. See Galbert of Bruges, The Murder of Charles the Good, at x, note 5 (Columbia U Press, Ross, James Bruce trans, 1960)Google Scholar.

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21. Vita S. Bernardi auctore Guillelmi S. Theoderici, c 11, no 55 in Migne, , Patrologia 185:1, col 256 (cited in note 20)Google Scholar. For a clear treatment of St. Bernard's attitude towards the canon law, a subject of lively recent debate, see Brundage, , St. Bernard and the Jurists, in Gervers, Michael, ed, The Second Crusade and the Cistercians at 25 (St. Martin's Press, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22. Migne, Patrologia (cited in note 20), “Nullo igitur occurente remedio, dixit sanctus, ‘Excommunico eas’ et mane omnes pariter mortuas invenerunt.” See also the 1120 excommunication of caterpillars by the bishop of Laon, described in Desmaze, Charles, Les pénalités anciennes 31 (H. Plon 1866)Google Scholar.

23. See those collected in Hagen, J., ed, Gerald of Wales, Gemma ecclesiastica, c 53, translated as The Jewel of the Church at 121–23 (J. Brill, 1979)Google Scholar.

24. Douie, Decima & Farmer, Hugh, eds, 2 Magna Vita sancii Hugonis 20–25 (Nelson, 1961–1962)Google Scholar.

25. Id at 31-2. See generally Leyser, Karl J., The Angevin Kings and the Holy Man, in Mayr-Harting, Henry, ed, Saint Hugh of Lincoln 19 (Oxford U Press, 1987)Google Scholar.

26. Stubbs, William, ed, Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Hovedene, 51:4, Rolls Series, 158 (1201) (1868–1871)Google Scholar (“Cumque archiepiscopus pro volunatate sua in his procederé nequivisset, excommunicavit Hugonem Murdac”). See also Blake, E., ed, Liber Eliensis, Lib III, c 1, 112 Camden Society 3d ser 245 (1962)Google Scholar (“Unde quia episcopali timori nullam servabant reverentiam, gladium bis acutum ad eos domandos exercuit.”).

27. Cambrensis, Giraldus, De rebus a se gestis, in Brewer, J. S., ed, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, 21:1, Rolls Series, at 54 (Longman, 1861–1891)Google Scholar) (“non vocatos non citatos non convictos aut confessos, impetuose et insonsulte quosdam suspendere et alios excommunicare praesumpsit”); see also Saltman, Avon, Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury at 120–121 (Athlone Press, 1956)Google Scholar.

28. See notes 30-34.

29. See Stephen, William fitz, Vita sancti Thomae, in Materials, Becket, at 43, Vol 67:3 (cited in note 16)Google Scholar. See also Stubbs, William, ed, The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, Chronicle of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, 73:1 Rolls Series 54 (Longman, 1879–1880)Google Scholar (the archbishop's excommunication of the monks of Canterbury for appealing to the Roman court against his actions); Stubbs, William, ed, Epistolae Cantuarienses, 38:2 Rolls Series (1864–1865)Google Scholar (objections to the archbishop's sentence of excommunication, that “sententia hujusmodi contra juris ordinem prolata, et post interpositam appellationem, nec timenda aliquantenus esset nec timenda.”).

30. See, for example, Knowles, David, The Episcopal Colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket at 50–52 (Cambridge U Press, 1970)Google Scholar; text accompanying notes 50-54.

31. See Hewlett, Henry, ed, Roger of Wendover, Liber qui dicitur Flores historiarum 40-41 84:1 Rolls Series, (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1886–1889)Google Scholar (“[S]ed ipsi absentes et non vocati nec convicti, ut dicebant, excommunicati … appellaverunt et ecclesiam intraverunt.”).

32. Barlow, Frank, Thomas Becket 184 (U of California Press, 1986)Google Scholar (“None of these ten seems to have been specially warned or cited, which enraged Gilbert Foliot and his friends and seriously disturbed other distinguished canon lawyers like Baldwin, archdeacon of Totness.”).

33. 67:5 Materials, Becket, No 204 (cited in note 16). See also Bishop Jocelin of Salisbury's complaint about his own excommunication, in id, No 206 (“non tertio, non secundo, sed nec semel citatum, ut predictum est, absentem, indefensum, non confessum, non con-victum, condemnasse”).

34. Materials, Becket, No 223 (“quia diversis modis excommunicantur diversi”) (cited in note 16).

35. Morey, Don Adrian and Brooke, C.N.L., eds, The Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot 167 (Cambridge U Press, 1967)Google Scholar(“Ordo iudiciorum novus hie est, hucusque legibus et canonibus, ut sperabamus, incognitus: damnare primum, et de culpa postremo cognosces.”). See also a similar characterization of the archbishop's actions in Barlow, Frank, ed, The Letters of Arnulf of Lisieux, No 54a, 61 (Camden Society 3d ser 1939)Google Scholar.

36. Gemma ecclesiastica, c 53, at 122 (cited in note 22).

37. Id. On Gerald's knowledge of the canon law, see Richter, M., ed, introduction to Giraldus Cambrensis, Speculum duorum, lii–lvii (U of Wales Press, 1974)Google Scholar.

38. Morey and Brooke, eds, Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot (cited in note 35).

39. Examples are found in: Stubbs, William, ed, Epistolae Cantuarienses, 38:2 Rolls Series No 83 1187 (Longman, 1864–1865)Google Scholar; Foreville, R. and Ker, G., eds, The Book of St. Gilbert 134–5 (Longman, 1987)Google Scholar; Mayr-Hartirig, Henry, ed, Acta of the Bishops of Chichester, 1075-1207, No 67 (1174 × 1180) (Devonshire Press, 1964)Google Scholar; Stubbs, William, ed, Ralph of Diceto, Ymagines historicarum, 68:2 Rolls Series, 72–73, (1189)(Longman, 1876)Google Scholar; Stubbs, William, ed, Benedict of Peterborough, Gesta regis Henrici secundi, 49:2 Rolls Series, 211–12 (1191)(Longman, 1867)Google Scholar; Adams, N. and Donahue, C., eds, Select Cases from the Ecclesiastical Courts of the Province of Canterbury c. 1200-1301, A4 (1203-05), 95 Selden Society 11–14 (1981)Google Scholar; Thompson, R.M., ed, Chronicle of the Election of Hugh, Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds and later Bishop of Ely 46–47 (1214)(1974)Google Scholar.

40. See Sayers, Jane, Papal Judges Delegate in the Province of Canterbury 1198-1254, at 3–5 (Oxford U Press, 1971)Google Scholar.

41. Brewer, J., ed, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, 21:1 Rolls Series, 227–28 (Epistolae)(Longman, 1861–1891)Google Scholar (“antiquo, sed et antiquato more”).

42. Whitelock, Dorothy, et al, eds, C 7 in 1:2 Councils & Synods With Other Documents Relating to the English Church, 1064 (Clarendon, 1981)Google Scholar. Compare C 5 of the legatine Council of London (1151), id at 825. See also Gibbs, Marion & Lang, Jane, Bishops and Reform 1215-1272 124 (Frank Cass & Co., 1934)Google Scholar.

43. For example, Gilbert of London c. Alexander of Fakenham (Diocese of Canterbury 1294), Canterbury Cathedral Library, Ecclesiastical Suit No 176 (the plaintiff alleged that the defendant, as vicedean of Blackburn, had excommunicated him “non monitum non confessum non convictum nec absentem per contumaciam … minus iuste absque causa rationabili contra statuta generalis concilii.”) Prosecutions appear fairly regularly in the act books of the ecclesiastical courts which survive from the later Middle Ages; see, for example, Ex officio c. Vicar of Hailing (Diocese of Rochester, 1446), Kent Archives Office, Maidstone, MS DRb Pa2, fol 42v (proceeding “super eo quod suspendidit parochianum suum propria auctoritate.”).

44. See, for example, the abuse suffered by the chaplain attempting to conduct services in the church of Leverton (diocese of Lincoln) c. 1202. His reaction was to bring a complaint before the chapter held by the rural dean of Holland. See the document taken from “Christ Church Letters” in the Canterbury Dean and Chapter muniments, printed as an appendix to Cheney, Christopher, From Becket to Langton 196 (Manchester U Press, 1956)Google Scholar.

45. See, for example, Little, S. G., ed, Thomas Eccleston, Tractatus de adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam 69, 81, 96 (Manchester U Press, 1951)Google Scholar; Luard, Henry, ed, Annates Monasterici Oseneia, 36:4 Rolls Series, at 83-84, 135 (1869)Google Scholar. And compare the Vita of St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester, 1244-53, in Acta Sanctorum, 3 April, at 285-308 with that of St. Hugh of Lincoln (cited in note 25).

46. Compare, for example, English Episcopol Acta VI, Norwich 1070-1214, No. 40 (1136 x 43) with id, C. Harper-Bill, ed, No 184 (1180 x 82) (1990). See also Saltman, Avron, Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury 212–13 (Athlone Press, 1956)Google Scholar.

47. See, for example, Bond, Edward, ed, Chronica monasterii de Melsa, 43:1 Rolls Series (1197-1210)(1866–1868) 292–96Google Scholar (“ordine juris in omnibus obervato”); Salter, H. E., ed, Cartulary of Oseney Abbey, 90 Oxford Historical Society, No 782 (1176)(1929)Google Scholar; Timson, R., ed, Cartulary of Blyth Priory, 27 Thoreton Society, No 319 (early 13th century)(1973)Google Scholar.

48. See, for example, Watkin, Aelred, ed, The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury, Somerset Record Society, 59, No 176 (1174-76) (1947)Google Scholar; Walter Holtzmann, 1 Papsturkunden in England, 185 (privilege for Order of Sempringham, 1159-81) (1931).

49. See the comments of Cheney, Mary G., Roger, Bishop of Worcester 1164-1179 166 (Oxford U Press, 1980)Google Scholar (By the death of Alexander III in 1181, there had been “a rapid development, a change so dramatic as to appear as a revolution.”).

50. See, for example, Webb, A., ed, Cartulary of Burscough Priory, 18 Chetham Society No 59 (1232–50)(1970)Google Scholar; Peckham, W., ed, The Chartulary of the High Church of Chichester, 46 Sussex Record Society, No 254 (1260)(1943)Google Scholar; Fleming, L., ed, Chartulary of the Priory of Boxgrove, 59 Sussex Record Society, No 251 (1225–1250)(1960)Google Scholar; Mason, E., ed, The Beauchamp Cartulary: Charters 1100-1268, 43 Pipe Roll Society NS, No 78 (1252)(1980)Google Scholar.

51. See Anglo-Norman Canonists of the Twelfth Century, 7 Traditio 279 (1949–1951)Google Scholar.

52. Duggan, Charles, Twelfth-century Decretal Collections and their importance in English History (Athlone Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

53. Papal Judges Delegate in the Province of Canterbury, 1198–1254 (1971)Google Scholar. See also Morey, Adrian, Bartholmew of Exeter, Bishop and Canonist 44–78 (Cambridge U Press, 1937)Google Scholar; Holtzmann, Walter and Kemp, E.W., eds, Papal Decretals Relating to the Diocese of Lincoln in the Twelfth Century, 47 Lincoln Record Society (1954)Google Scholar.

54. The Becket Dispute and Two Decretist Traditions, 4 Journal of Medieval History 347 (North Holland Publishing Co., 1978)Google Scholar. See also Duggan, Charles, The Becket Dispute and the Criminous Clerks, 35 Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 1 (Longman, 1962)Google Scholar.

55. See Wahrmund, L., Quellen zur Geschichte des römisch-kanonischen Prozesses im Mittelalter (5 vols 1905–1931)Google Scholar; see also Logan, , An Early Thirteenth Century Papal Judge-delegate Formulary of English Origin, 14 Studia Gratiana 75 (Institutum Juridicum Univer-siatatis Studiorum, 1967)Google Scholar.

56. This is the important theme of the introduction to Caenegem, R.C. Van, Royal Writs in England from the Conquest of Glanvill, 77 Seiden Society, (1958–1959)Google Scholar, reiterated and amplified in some of the author's later works. See, for example, Caenegem, R.C. Van, The Birth of the English Common Law (Cambridge U Press, 2d ed, 1990)Google Scholar.

57. This is the influential formulation in Stenton, Doris, English Justice between the Norman Conquest and the Great Charter 1066-1215, 22–53 (G. Allen & Unwin, 1964)Google Scholar. For similar treatment in a less specialized work, see Warren, Wilfred L., Henry II 317 (U of California Press, 1973)Google Scholar (The practice of English law was transformed in Henry II's reign). But compare Richardson, H. & Sayles, G., The Governance of Mediaeval England from the Conquest to Magna Carta 189 (Edinburgh U Press, 1963)Google Scholar (the authors' conclusion that already under Henry I (1100-35), the system of royal justice was “already in an age of sophistication.”).

58. See, for example, Clark, , ed, Liber Memorandorum Ecclesie de Bernewelle 26–27 (Clarendon Press 1907)Google Scholar (In 1287 the bishop of Norwich, enraged by a remark of the prior “cum furore recedens excommunicavit omnes inhabitantes.” However, the next morning he must have thought better of it, because he then quickly relaxed the sentence); Thompson, R.M., ed, Chronicle of the Election of Hugh Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds and Later Bishop of Ely 16–17 (Clarendon Press 1974)Google Scholar (“Unde venerabilis A. supprior premeditatem super eos intulit excommunicationis sententiam, quam, ut postea in pleno capitulo ad presentiam coram eisdem ductus, penituit se dedisse.”).

59. Magna Vita sancti Hugonis at 150 (cited in note 24).

60. See, for example, Book of St. Gilbert at 76-77 (cited in note 39)(of the wrongful accusers of St. Gilbert, the author says, “et ut cautius hoc probaret iuris ordinem et iusticie processum servavit in lite.”).

61. See Millor, W. and Brooke, C.N.L., eds, II The Letters of John of Salisbury: the Later Letters (1163–1188), No. 144 (1165) (1979)Google Scholar. See also his defense of Becket's excommunications, id No 289 (1169).

62. See, for example, the purely formal compliance, almost to the extent of burlesque, in the 1282 excommunication of the bishop of Hereford. See Finucane, R.C., The Cantilupe-Pecham Controversy, in Jancey, Meryl, ed, St. Thomas Cantilupe Bishop of Hereford 106 (Friends of Hereford Cathedral, 1982)Google Scholar.

63. See, for example, the characterization of this period in Moore, Robert Ian, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (Basil Blackwell, 1987)Google Scholar.

64. See, for example, the equivalence between scrupulous observance and the ordo iuris and fraud in a 1235 agreement between the abbot of Battle Abbey and the bishop of Chichester contained in Peckham, W., ed, The Chartulary of the High Church of Chichester, 46 Sussex Record Society, No 274 (1943)Google Scholar. See also Fleming, L., ed, Chartulary of the Priory of Boxgrove, 59 Sussex Record Society, No 68 (1185–93)(1960)Google Scholar (Confirmation of the rights of the monks, “forbidding that anyone presume to molest or harm the monks… either unjustly or by legal process.”).

65. A rule enacted by the Third Lateran Council of 1179. See Decretum Gratiani, C 17 q 4 c 29 (Si quis suadente).

66. See the Council of Reading's (1279) admonition in Powicke, F.M. & Cheney, C. R., Councils & Synods with other Documents Relating to the English Church II, 848 (Clarendon Press 1964)Google Scholar.

67. See Glossa ordinaria ad X 3.49.4 (Non minus) s v commoniti (“Admonito enim semper precedere debet vindictam, xii q ii indigne [C12 q 2 c 21] et nisi se correxerint per admonitionem sunt ipso iure excommunicati”).

68. Denunciations in English medieval practice are noticed in Woodcock, Brian, Medieval Ecclesiastical Courts in the Diocese of Canterbury 94, esp note 4 (Oxford U Press, 1952)Google Scholar. For practice with regard to violence against clerics, see Si quis suadente' (C 17 q 4 c 29): Theory and practice, in Linehan, P., ed, Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Medieval Canon Law 425, 432–37 (1988)Google Scholar.

69. For example, Ex officio c Randell (Diocese of Norwich 1509), Norfolk Record Office, Norwich ACT/1 s d 5 December (Defendant summoned “ad dicendam causam rationabilem quare non deberet excommunicari”).

70. Such criticism was made by canonists and other men familiar with the canon law; see, for example Jean Gerson (1363-1429), De potestate ecclesiastica, Cons IV, in 6 Glorieux, P., ed, Oeuvres Complètes 218 (Desclee, 1960)Google Scholar; Stephanus de Avila (1549-1601), De censuris ecclesiasticis tractatus, Pt II, c 5, disp 2 (1608) and references to the opinion of other canonists found therein.