After inquisitorial procedure was introduced at the Fourth Lateran
Council in Rome in 1215 (the same year as England's first Magna
Carta), virtually all court trials initiated by bishops and their
subordinates were inquisitions. That meant that accusers were no
longer needed. Rather, the judges themselves leveled charges
against persons when they were publicly suspected of specific
offenses--like fornication, or witchcraft, or simony. Secret crimes
were off limits, including sins of thought (like holding a
heretical belief). Defendants were allowed full defenses if they
denied charges. These canonical rules were systematically violated
by heresy inquisitors in France and elsewhere, especially by
forcing self-incrimination. But in England, due process was
generally honored and the rights of defendants preserved, though
with notable exceptions. In this book, Henry Ansgar Kelly, a noted
forensic historian, describes the reception and application of
inquisition in England from the thirteenth century onwards and
analyzes all levels of trial proceedings, both minor and major,
from accusations of sexual offenses and cheating on tithes to
matters of religious dissent. He covers the trials of the Knights
Templar early in the fourteenth century and the prosecutions of
followers of John Wyclif at the end of the century. He details how
the alleged crimes of ""criminous clerics"" were handled, and
demonstrates that the judicial actions concerning Henry VIII's
marriages were inquisitions in which the king himself and his
queens were defendants. Trials of Alice Kyteler, Margery Kempe,
Eleanor Cobham, and Anne Askew are explained, as are the unjust
trials condemning Bishop Reginald Pecock of error and heresy
(1457-59) and Richard Hunne for defending English Bibles (1514). He
deals with the trials of Lutheran dissidents at the time of Thomas
More's chancellorship, and trials of bishops under Edward VI and
Queen Mary, including those against Stephen Gardiner and Thomas
Cranmer. Under Queen Elizabeth, Kelly shows, there was a return to
the letter of papal canon law (which was not true of the papal
curia). In his conclusion he responds to the strictures of Sir John
Baker against inquisitorial procedure, and argues that it compares
favorably to the common-law trial by jury.
General
Imprint: |
The Catholic University of America Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law |
Release date: |
September 2023 |
Authors: |
Henry Ansgar Kelly
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
500 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8132-3737-4 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-8132-3737-8 |
Barcode: |
9780813237374 |
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