Law and Society in Later Medieval England and Ireland by Travis R. Baker

Author:Travis R. Baker [Baker, Travis R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367594367
Google: tsKTzQEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2020-06-30T05:01:07+00:00

8

Two jurisdictions in dispute about canonical appeals

London and Canterbury, 1375–61

F. Donald Logan

Introduction

The Court of Arches was the most important church court in medieval England. It was the appellate court for the province of Canterbury, which was comprised of eighteen of the twenty-one dioceses of England and Wales. Except for the years 1321 to 1335 the medieval court sat in Cheap-side in the city of London at the church of St Mary le Bow (ecclesia beate Marie de arcubus), from which it took its name curia de arcubus (Court of Arches).2

Appeals could come to the court either from the decision of a lower jurisdiction or from an alleged offence (appelatio a gravamine) of a lower jurisdiction, which could be either past or threatened. Although such appeals would usually proceed through the hierarchy of lower courts before reaching the Arches, another type of appeal could bypass all inferior courts entirely. This was an appeal to the apostolic see. Such an appeal was called a tuitorial appeal, which was, in fact, two appeals: one to the papal court for the matter being appealed and the other to the Court of Arches for protection (pro tuicione) for the appellant to prosecute the appeal to the pope. It was a tuitorial appeal in 1375 that gave rise to a particularly bitter dispute between the jurisdiction of the bishop of London and that of the archbishop of Canterbury.

The matter began with a visitation of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in West Smithfield, London.3 Its master, Richard Sutton, was charged with incontinence with Joan Pertenhale, a sister at the hospital. The commissioners of William de Courtenay, bishop of London, imposed on Sutton the sentence of suspension from entry to church (ab ingressu ecclesie), a form of personal interdict.4 The commissioners, acting as vicars general in spirituals for Bishop Courtenay (tunc in remotis), were John Appleby, dean of St Paul’s Cathedral; Robert Holme, chancellor of St. Paul’s, and the canonist Master Adam Mottron.5 Sutton then made a tuitorial appeal to the Court of Arches. What followed is largely recounted by Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury (1375–81), in an intimacio that took the form of a universal letter. It is dated 15 July 1376 and is the text presented here.6

Sutton’s tuitorial appeal was heard by Master Nicholas Chaddesden, dean of the Arches, acting as commissary of the court in the absence of the Official. Tuition was granted, which had the effect of suspending the penalty imposed by the London commissioners for one year, during which Sutton could prosecute his appeal at the papal court. It was routine in such matters for the Court of Arches to send a letter of inhibition to the lower jurisdiction. Receipt of this inhibition caused a strong reaction. The dean of St Paul’s and his co-commissioners instructed their proctor, Reginald Spaldyng, to write to Chaddesden, dean of the Arches, that he should revoke within three days the tuition granted to Richard Sutton; otherwise Chaddesden was to appear before them on the following day to give reason, if he had any, why he should not be placed under ecclesiastical censure.

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