Clergy formed a distinct and privileged group in later medieval society as regarded violent crime. Church law was intended to protect them from it, induce them to avoid it, and exempt them from secular justice following it. But in practice, were the clergy so separate from the violent culture around them and different from the laymen who dominated it? In the first full-length study of this subject in the later medieval period, Peter Clarke shows that clergy accused of violent and other crimes increasingly submitted to secular justice like laymen, seeking clerical immunity only as a last resort. It reveals that church authorities, in providing legal redress for clerical victims of lay violence, sought to heal divisions between laity and clergy, not to deepen them. Additionally, it explores the motives and contexts behind clerical involvement in violent crime, both as perpetrators and victims, revealing that clergy often acted similarly to laymen.

‘This is an exciting and innovative study of the rules developed by medieval canon law in relation to serious violence committed by clerics and against clerics and how these were applied and interpreted in England during the later Middle Ages and how they intersected with (and arguably influenced) the workings of English royal criminal justice. It is also a valuable study of the social settings of such violence and one which draws upon an impressive volume of original evidence from English ecclesiastical courts, the records of the papal penitentiary as well as English royal courts.’

Paul Brand - University of Oxford

‘Few modern historians of medieval England and Wales can draw on such a wide range of archival and manuscript sources as does Clarke in this book: canon law commentaries, apostolic penitentiary registers, English ecclesiastical archives, and English royal archives. On that massive and varied documentary base he constructs fresh and original arguments about the dilution in social practice of the theoretical difference between clergy and laity. Wide comparative reading about explanations for violence link up his research with work on other regions and periods. The book is a major contribution to both church history and the history of violence.’

D. L. d’Avray - UCL and Jesus College Oxford

‘In Clergy and Criminal Violence, Clarke illuminates the stark divide between theory and practice in the post-Becket world, where royal courts routinely reached the merits before handing clerics over to the ecclesiastical arm for purgation. Clerics might at once be held to a higher standard-with clerical hypocrisy sometimes inspiring violence against them-and yet never fully extricate themselves from the masculine culture in which they were raised. A must-read for historians of common law, canon law, and culture, Clarke’s masterful book highlights the shared reservoir of ideas, often canonically inspired, evident in the royal and ecclesiastical courts charged with prosecuting serious crime.’

Elizabeth Papp Kamali - Harvard Law School

‘Peter Clarke has written a penetrating and detailed study on a major theme in medieval society: violence. He has turned his attention away from much studied lay violence to the much less examined criminal behaviour of ecclesiastics. The result is a fascinating story that takes readers from the tumult of the streets to the sobriety of the courts.’

Ken Pennington - The Catholic University of America