Praemunire Facias, the Statutes of Praemunire, and the Offence of Praemunire That They Created
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[1] Church, State, and Reformation: the use and interpretation of praemunire from its creation to the English break with Rome Daniel Frederick Gosling Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The University of Leeds School of History September 2016 [2] The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his/her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement © 2016 The University of Leeds & Daniel Frederick Gosling [3] Acknowledgements I owe an enormous debt of thanks to a great many people who have helped and guided me these past few years. First and foremost, my deepest thanks go to my original supervisor, Paul Cavill, whose expert advice and guidance have been invaluable throughout this research process. Thanks too to Stephen Alford, for taking over supervision duties from Paul on a topic that is niche to say the least. To my secondary school history teacher, Andrew Dunne, I offer thanks for first introducing me to praemunire in sixth-form, and – more importantly – managing to do it in such a way that I recalled it years later, a far greater achievement. Many other academics have given me invaluable help and advice over the past few years. Hannes Kleineke warrants particular mention first for his sound advice and knowledge of legal history, and second for his incredibly well-placed London office, where a cup of coffee and a willing ear was always available if I had a particularly tricky query. To Alex Brondarbit, Euan Roger, Charles Farris, Steven Franklin, and Mark Whelan, I also offer thanks for their constant advice and encouragement. More generally the conveners and regular attendees of the IHR Late Medieval Seminar have always offered me help and advice when I needed it, and to them I am also eternally grateful. Thanks too are reserved for Andrew Mussell, archivist at the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, for employing me during my studies and allowing me to bore him with medieval legal technicalities over coffee. To my parents, Marie and Doug, I offer my heartfelt thanks for supporting me in all my endeavours without question, and providing love and encouragement whenever I needed it. I reserve my final and warmest thanks to my wife, Alice, without whom these past few years would have been a lot lonelier. She has always been there to support me and for that I am forever grateful. [4] Abstract This thesis examines the use and interpretation of praemunire from its fourteenth-century creation to the English break with Rome. Although much has been written on praemunire in the Tudor period, when Henry VIII and Thomas Wolsey used the offence to intimidate their rivals in the years preceding the break with Rome, little work has been done on the offence in the century-and-a-half before this date. The central point of this thesis is to connect the creation of the offence of praemunire in the fourteenth century to this sixteenth-century use, to see how it changed from an offence designed to protect both the ecclesiastical and temporal spheres in England from an encroaching papacy, to one that could bring low the mightiest of England’s churchmen. As this thesis deals primarily with how the offence changed over time, the chapters follow a broadly chronological structure. Chapters one to three look at the fourteenth-century creation of the writ of praemunire facias, the Statutes of Praemunire, and the offence of praemunire that they created. Chapters four and five look at the spiritual responses to the offence in the fifteenth century. Chapter four looks at the papal reactions to praemunire and the ostensibly similar provisors legislation. Chapter five looks at the contemporary records of convocation to measure English ecclesiastical opinion of praemunire in the fifteenth century. Chapter six look at the legal interpretation of the offence, from the deposition of Richard II to the accession of Henry VII, to see how the offence was confirmed as one that could be used against the English ecclesiastical courts. Finally, chapters seven and eight examine the use of praemunire in the Tudor period, and reassess the high-profile events in the sixteenth century based on this new understanding of praemunire. [5] Contents Abbreviations: ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Sources .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Complexities of Praemunire .............................................................................................................. 14 Chapter Breakdown .......................................................................................................................... 15 Prologue: A Problem of Patronage ....................................................................................................... 19 Rival Patrons ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter I: The Statutes of Praemunire ................................................................................................. 27 The Statute of Carlisle, 1307 ............................................................................................................. 28 The Ordinance of Provisors, 1343 ..................................................................................................... 30 The First Statute of Provisors, 1351 .................................................................................................. 36 The First Statute of Praemunire, 1353 .............................................................................................. 41 The Second Statute of Praemunire, 1365 ......................................................................................... 43 Anglo-papal Negotiations 1373-77 ................................................................................................... 47 The Second Statute of Provisors, 1390 ............................................................................................. 50 The Great Statute of Praemunire, 1393 ............................................................................................ 53 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 56 Chapter II: The Writ(s) of Praemunire Facias ........................................................................................ 58 Antecedents to the writ .................................................................................................................... 59 The Writ of the Statutes.................................................................................................................... 64 The Writ of ‘Premunire Facias’ ......................................................................................................... 70 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 76 Chapter III: The Offence of Praemunire ................................................................................................ 77 Early Fourteenth-Century Appeals to Rome ..................................................................................... 78 The Offence of Provisors ................................................................................................................... 81 The Offence of Praemunire ............................................................................................................... 83 The Great Statute of Praemunire ...................................................................................................... 88 Awareness of the Statutes ................................................................................................................ 92 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 96 Chapter IV: Popes and Provisors ........................................................................................................... 98 Lancastrian Legitimisation ................................................................................................................ 98 Martin V’s Crusade Against Provisors ............................................................................................. 109 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 113 [6] Chapter V: Complaints in Convocation ............................................................................................... 115 Clerical Concerns by 1400 ............................................................................................................... 115 Praemunire in Convocation ............................................................................................................. 120 Charta de Libertatibus Clericorum