typically restricted marriages to other families of similar status. It is clear that
some people continued to flout church rules– there is a record of the
prosecution of John Sencler and Agnes Webbe, who had continued to live
together despite a previous sentence against them. They were both beaten
three times around the church.
Priests were often also prosecuted for moral crimes. Peter of Fangefosse
admitted that Juliana ate Denne had been his mistress for years, and the couple
had many children as a result. He lost his job. Priests were usually punished
with fines, or were sent on pilgrimage. It was not thought acceptable to whip
the erring cleric, but their ladies were less fortunate, and had to suffer public
beatings. The upper classes were also treated more leniently–a knight in
Canterbury who had committed adultery merely had to give alms to a local
hospital, but his partner, by whom he had two children, was beaten five times
round the church and marketplace, dressed only in her shift.
People accused of crimes by the church were brought before the court by an
officer known as a summoner, who also enforced the payment of fines and
carried out punishments. The summoner in Chaucer’sCanterbury Taleswas a
venal character, who could be bribed to allow people to escape prosecution.^2
Heresy was a problem for the church, especially in Europe, with sects such
as the Cathars attracting many followers. The papacy ordered confiscation of
property and imprisonment for heretics, and threatened princes with
excommunication if they failed to stamp out heresy in their lands. In 1231,
Pope Gregory IX founded the Inquisition. Inquisitors were sent across Europe,
to convict and burn heretics. It only took the testimony of two strangers for
someone to be arrested for heresy. The courts had to extract a confession from
the prisoner, and regularly used torture to do so. Confession led to such
punishments as beatings, fines, or penitential prayers. Not confessing, or being
unable to prove one’s innocence, was punished by life imprisonment or
execution, and the seizing of all the accused’s property. Once again, it was the
secular authorities who carried out the sentences, as the church was not
allowed to spill blood. Accused heretics could not bring any defence counsel
nor question their accusers. There was no appeal from sentence.
Another crime that came under church law was blasphemy. Punishments
took the form of a‘two strikes and you are out’system– after the first
conviction, the blasphemer was publicly shamed and fined. The second
offence carried a heavier fine, but a third offence resulted in exile, or being
sent to be a slave on galleys. Sacrilege, robbery from a church, cremation of
the dead, failure to be baptised, and eating meat on the many holy days of the
year were all offences which could be punished by execution.
MEDIEVAL CRIME