Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Medieval Petitions in Context
- 2 Parliamentary Petitions? The Origins and Provenance of the ‘Ancient Petitions’ (SC 8) in the National Archives
- 3 Petitioning in the Ancient World
- 4 Petitioning Between England and Avignon in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century
- 5 Petitions to the Pope in the Fourteenth Century
- 6 Understanding Early Petitions: An Analysis of the Content of Petitions to Parliament in the Reign of Edward I
- 7 Petitions from Gascony: Testimonies of a Special Relationship
- 8 Murmur, Clamour and Noise: Voicing Complaint and Remedy in Petitions to the English Crown, c. 1300–c. 1460
- 9 Queenship, Lordship and Petitioning in Late Medieval England
- 10 Taking Your Chances: Petitioning in the Last Years of Edward II and the First Years of Edward III
- 11 Words and Realities: The Language and Dating of Petitions, 1326–7
- 12 A Petition from the Prisoners in Nottingham Gaol, c. 1330
- 13 Thomas Paunfield, the ‘heye Court of rightwisnesse’ and the Language of Petitioning in the Fifteenth Century
- Index
4 - Petitioning Between England and Avignon in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction: Medieval Petitions in Context
- 2 Parliamentary Petitions? The Origins and Provenance of the ‘Ancient Petitions’ (SC 8) in the National Archives
- 3 Petitioning in the Ancient World
- 4 Petitioning Between England and Avignon in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century
- 5 Petitions to the Pope in the Fourteenth Century
- 6 Understanding Early Petitions: An Analysis of the Content of Petitions to Parliament in the Reign of Edward I
- 7 Petitions from Gascony: Testimonies of a Special Relationship
- 8 Murmur, Clamour and Noise: Voicing Complaint and Remedy in Petitions to the English Crown, c. 1300–c. 1460
- 9 Queenship, Lordship and Petitioning in Late Medieval England
- 10 Taking Your Chances: Petitioning in the Last Years of Edward II and the First Years of Edward III
- 11 Words and Realities: The Language and Dating of Petitions, 1326–7
- 12 A Petition from the Prisoners in Nottingham Gaol, c. 1330
- 13 Thomas Paunfield, the ‘heye Court of rightwisnesse’ and the Language of Petitioning in the Fifteenth Century
- Index
Summary
The account of Gerald of Wales concerning his trip to the papal curia in 1198 epitomises the procedures that any petitioner had to follow at the end of the twelfth century in order to obtain a grace from the pope:
And so passing the Alps and passing hastily through Italy and Tuscany, he [Gerald] came to Rome about the Feast of St Andrew and, approaching the feet of Pope Innocent III, who was then in the second year of his papacy, he presented him with six books, which he had composed with much study, saying among other things, ‘Others give you pounds [libras], but I give you books [libros].’ … And after no long delay, but about fifteen days before Christmas, a courier brought letters from the archbishop of Canterbury to the curia.…Now twelve letters were there, sent to the pope and to the cardinals. But Gerald, when he heard this, bade the clerk first show him the letters addressed to one of the cardinals that he might see whether it was sent against him or not. So the clerk showed the letters addressed to Peter of Piacenza; and when Gerald broke the seal and looked into the letters, he found that they were full of denunciations, bringing grave accusations both against himself and his election. Now the pope, as soon as he received the letters of the archbishop, summoned Gerald and ordered that the letters should straightaway be shown to him.…on the day after Epiphany,…the archdeacon in full consistory declared that he was ready to reply to the letters which the archbishop of Canterbury had sent against him.
Similarly the English chronicle of Thomas of Marlborough describes at length the adventures of the monks of Evesham abbey who had to go to the papal curia on several occasions between 1204 and 1206 in order to defend their exemption rights against Mauger, bishop of Worcester.
As Gerald and Thomas described in their accounts, between the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, petitioners were still required to visit the papal curia in person, when they had to present an appeal, while only petitioners of higher rank could send representatives. Evidently such procedures were both expensive and laborious. The petitioners in fact had to deal with elaborate and often obscure administrative procedures, as Thomas of Marlborough and the monks of Evesham discovered on their journeys to Rome.
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- Medieval PetitionsGrace and Grievance, pp. 64 - 81Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009
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