Clergy and criminal violence in later medieval England and Wales / Peter D. Clarke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clarke, Peter D., author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought ; new ser., v. 4.

Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought. Fourth series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--England--Clergy--History--To 1500.

Catholic Church.

Catholic Church--Wales--Clergy--History--To 1500.

Church history--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Church history.

Violence--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--To 1500.

Violence.

Violence--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"Clergy formed a distinct and privileged group in later medieval society as regarded violent crime. Church law was intended to protect them from it, induce them to avoid it, and exempt them from secular justice following it. But in practice, were the clergy so separate from the violent culture around them and different from the laymen who dominated it? In the first full-length study of this subject in the later medieval period, Peter Clarke shows that clergy accused of violent and other crimes increasingly submitted to secular justice like laymen, seeking clerical immunity only as a last resort. It reveals that church authorities, in providing legal redress for clerical victims of lay violence, sought to heal divisions between laity and clergy, not to deepen them. Additionally, it explores the motives and contexts behind clerical involvement in violent crime, both as perpetrators and victims, revealing that clergy often acted similarly to laymen"-- Cambridge Core

Contents:

Jurisdiction over violent clergy

Protecting clergy from violence

Clergy and contexts of criminal violence

Clergy as killers

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed June 1, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Clarke, Peter D. Clergy and criminal violence in later medieval England and Wales

ISBN:

9781108920117

110892011X

OCLC:

1545080396

Publisher Number:

CIPO000291910

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license