Effectiveness and authority: the Bishop of Lincoln's Court of Audience in the early sixteenth century

Roberts, Martin Owen (2020) Effectiveness and authority: the Bishop of Lincoln's Court of Audience in the early sixteenth century. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

This thesis examines authority and effectiveness in the early sixteenth-century English ecclesiastical justice system. It concentrates upon the bishop of Lincoln’s court of audience between March 1528 and March 1530 but seeks to provide insight into that jurisdiction throughout late medieval England. To better understand how effective such justice might have been, and how some of the challenges were met, it investigates that court’s jurisdictional coverage and procedural flexibility and considers those who spent much of their working lives engaged within its arenas, their legal knowledge, acuity, professionalism, ethical outlook and inter-personal relations. It rarely deals with high politics or theology but instead with often ordinary lives and the sometimes traumatic, emotional, and uncommon events which happened to those who lived them. It looks at marriage litigation to reveal more about lay and lawyer involvement, courtroom dynamics, and decisions made by or forced upon participants whilst it was underway. It examines enforcement of discipline, especially after sexual misconduct, and particularly the processes of inquisition, sentence construction and penitential punishment. It concludes with a retrospective and looks to future research possibilities.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Lutton, Robert
Taylor, Claire
Keywords: A thesis on the church courts of pre-Reformation England
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian denominations
D History - General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Arts > School of History
Item ID: 60051
Depositing User: Roberts, Martin
Date Deposited: 31 Jul 2020 04:40
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2022 04:30
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/60051

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