Authors: Huw Pryce
ISBN-13: 9780198203629, ISBN-10: 0198203624
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: April 1993
Edition: (Non-applicable)
University College of North Wales, Bangor
This is the first full scholarly study of the relationship between native secular law and the church in medieval Wales. The interaction was close, despite Archbishop Pecham's condemnation of native law as the work of the devil. Huw Pryce assesses the influence of the church on Welsh law, examining the participation of churchmen in the composition of lawbooks and the administration of legal processes and analyzing ecclesiastical criticism of native customs, notably those concerning marriage. He considers the extent to which Welsh law defended the authority and possessions of the church, focusing in particular on the status of clerics and on rights of sanctuary and lordship. The book throws revealing new light on both the law and the church in Wales in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As a study of the impact of ecclesiastical reform on a society perceived by some contemporaries as barbarian and immoral, this scholarly and lucid account makes an important contribution to medieval history.
List of Maps | ||
List of Tables | ||
Abbreviations and Conventions | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
Pt. I | Co-operation and Conflict | 15 |
1 | Lawbooks and Lawyers | 17 |
2 | The Sacred Dimension to Legal Processes | 37 |
3 | Ecclesiastical Criticism of Welsh Law | 71 |
4 | Marriage and Inheritance | 82 |
5 | Testamentary Disposition | 113 |
Pt. II | Privilege and Power | 129 |
Introduction | 131 | |
6 | The Legal Status of Clerics | 133 |
7 | Ecclesiastical Sanctuary | 163 |
8 | Land and Lordship | 204 |
9 | Church and State | 234 |
Conclusion | 252 | |
Glossary | 259 | |
Bibliography | 261 | |
Index | 281 |