Confessors' Manuals and the Practice of Law in Medieval Ecclesiastical Courts. Issue 3 (2nd September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kirkland, J. S.
• Is Part Of: Journal of legal history. Volume 42:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 258
• Page End: 277
• Publication Date: 2021-09-02
• Subjects: Canon law -- confessors' manuals -- ecclesiastical courts -- medieval England -- legal practice; Law -- History -- Periodicals; 340.09
• DOI: 10.1080/01440365.2021.1996039
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0144-0365

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article suggests that confessors' manuals are key to understanding the practice of law in the late medieval ecclesiastical courts. Using court records from fifteenth-century England, it suggests that the courts may have used the ideas found in confessors' manuals in their application of the law. Court scribes seem to have included information in the court records which was vital to confessors' manuals, but inconsequential from the perspective of the official canon law. If confessors' manuals were deemed acceptable sources of law by medieval ecclesiastical courts, then it would add yet another layer to the complexity to medieval law.