Canterbury Proctors at the Court of ‘Audientia Litterarum Contradictarum’

Abstract

Little is known of the early history of the court of audientia litterarum contradictarum. Professor Barraclough has suggested that its origins must be sought in the 1150's and 1160's, when under the popes Eugenius III and Alexander III there was considerable development of judicial procedure by rescript. To begin a suit before papal judges, the plaintiff or his proctor produced a letter to the pope announcing the petition, stating the ‘libellus’ or charge, and beseeching him for the cause to be heard at Rome, or, more frequently, for a mandate to judges delegate. It is likely that the plaintiff would have informed the charged party of his action, and that by this time the defendant's proctor, too, would have been instructed in the matter and would be ready to appear at the papal court.