The Medieval Court of Arches

First full-length study and edition of the acts of the Court of Arches, the most important medieval English ecclesiastical court.

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The appellate court of the archbishop of Canterbury as metropolitan of the province of Canterbury [covering all of England south of the Humber and all of Wales] was the most important ecclesiastical court in medieval England; it sat in the church of St Mary le Bow in London, from whose Latin name [de arcubus] it took its popular name, the Court of Arches. This volume offers the first full-length study of the Court. The introduction traces its history from its first appearance in the records of the mid- thirteenth century to 1533, when the Statute in Restraint of Appeals altered its constitution, and describes how cases proceeded in the court from initial appeal to final disposition. It is followed by an edition of the essential texts governing the court - its statutes and its customs - as well as editions of treatises about the court's procedure, which were written by practitioners in the Arches. A list of the court's personnel, including proctors and advocates, and a discussion of the court's calendar complete the volume.