Inquisitions and Other Trial Procedures in the Medieval West

H.A. Kelly

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040242810
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

'Inquisition' was the new form of criminal procedure that was developed by the lawyer-pope Innocent III and given definitive form at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. It has since developed a notoriety which has obscured the reality of the procedure, and it is this that Professor Kelly is first concerned with here. In contrast to the old Roman system of relying on a volunteer accuser-prosecutor, who would be punished in case of acquittal, the inquisitorial judge himself served as investigator, accuser, prosecutor, and final judge. A probable-cause requirement and other safeguards were put in place to protect the rights of the defendant, but as time went on some of these defences were modified, abused, or ignored, most notoriously among papally appointed heresy-inquisitors; but in all cases appeal and redress were at least theoretically possible. Unlike continental practice, in England inquisitorial procedure was mainly limited to the local church courts, while on the secular side native procedures developed, most notably a system of multiple investigators/accusers/judges, known collectively as the jury. Private accusers, however, were still to be seen, illustrated here in the final pair of studies on 'appeals' of sexual rape.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• I Inquisition and the Prosecution of Heresy: Misconceptions and Abuses Church History 58. Chicago, IL, 1989
• II Inquisitorial Due Process and the Status of Secret Crimes Monumenta iuris canonici, Series C: Subsidia, Vol. 9 = Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law (UCSD, 1988), ed. Stanley Chodorow. Vatican City, 1992
• III The Right to Remain Silent: Before and After Joan of Arc Speculum 68, no. 4. Cambridge, MA, 1993
• IV Joan of Arc's Last Trial: The Attack of the Devil's Advocates Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, ed. Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood. New York/London, 1996
• V Trial Procedures against Wyclif and Wycliffites in England and at the Council of Constance Huntington Library Quarterly 61, no. 1. San Marino, CA, 1999
• VI Lollard Inquisitions: Due and Undue Process The Devil, Heresy and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey B. Russell, ed. Alberto Ferreiro. Leiden, 1998
• VII English Kings and the Fear of Sorcery Mediaeval Studies 39. Toronto, 1977
• VIII The Case Against Edward IV's Marriage and Offspring: Secrecy; Witchcraft; Secrecy; Precontract The Ricardian 11, no. 142. Haywards Heath, West Sussex, 1998
• IX Statutes of Rapes and Alleged Ravishers of Wives: A Context for the Charges against Thomas Malory, Knight Viator 28. Turnhout, 1997
• X Meanings and Uses of Raptus in Chaucer's Time Studies in the Age of Chaucer 20. Columbus, OH, 1998
• Addenda and Corrigenda
• Index