Inquisitions and Other Trial Procedures in the Medieval West by Henry Ansgar Kelly

Abstract

REVIEWS Johnston develops his thesis with an extended series of readings of Chaucer—of the Squire’s Tale, the Franklin’s Tale, the Tale of Sir Thopas, the Tale of Melibee, the Man of Law’s Prologue and Tale, the Clerk’s Tale and the Legend of Good Women—and through analysis of Usk, Scogan, Gower, Hoccleve, Lollardy, Pecock, and visual representations of Chaucer . In the short space available here, it is impossible to do justice to the variety, depth, and complexity of these readings, each of which forms part of the overall thesis of the book and also puts forth a distinct argument . Readers will find much to engage them in each of these chapters; they are painstakingly researched and precisely argued. But as an exercise in literary criticism, Clerks and Courtiers is perhaps hampered by its own exhaustiveness; so broad is its scope and so thorough its attention to the critical tradition that the very qualities it identifies as distinctively Chaucerian—ambiguity, nuance, density, and complexity—are often given short shrift. In sum, Clerks and Courtiers advances a thesis about Chaucer’s relationship to the dominant forms of poetic identity in the fourteenth century that is well worth considering; though it is less groundbreaking than its author claims, the argument of this book will give critics much to think about as work on the emergence of English vernacular literature continues. Fifteenth-century scholars will no doubt find themselves the least satisfied with the argument rendered here, which tends to undervalue the capacity of Chaucer’s immediate successors for understanding and perpetuating his poetic project, but they too will find insight in Johnston’s readings of Hoccleve and Pecock. Ultimately, it is the salutary ambition of Clerks and Courtiers to articulate a broad vision of Chaucerian poetics and its influence; though it will not radically revise our understanding of Chaucer, the book thoroughly fulfills that ambition. Maura B. Nolan University of Notre Dame Henry Ansgar Kelly. Inquisitions and Other Trial Procedures in the Medieval West. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Aldershot, Hants., and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2001. Pp. xxvi, 354. $105.00. In the introduction to this collection of some of his important articles on medieval law, the author writes of having taken part in a television 391 ................. 10286$ CH15 11-01-10 13:55:11 PS STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER program called The Inquisition. When the program was aired, he found to his horror that his full and measured statements had been reduced to ‘‘a few snippets,’’ apparently in order to make it look as though he had characterized the medieval church’s inquisitorial methods as having been brought into being designedly to convict and burn alleged heretics. He seemed also to be arguing that the inquisitors were not bound by any notion of due process. He had in fact said just the reverse. Many academics will recognize the experience and remember their own chagrin in similar circumstances. In this volume, Professor Kelly has the chance to redress the balance and to present his own conclusions more fully and accurately, and he does so. The first eight of the ten essays deal with various aspects and incidents in the history of inquisitorial process. It was introduced, or at least formally authorized for the church, by Pope Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). Thereafter it was taken up and used in most parts of the Western church to deal with routine disciplinary matters, including, but by no means limited to, heresy cases. Its essence was to shift the burden of prosecution from private parties (accusatio) to the court itself. The judge and his staff took over the function of preparing the case and carrying it forward. They could lawfully do so, however, only if there was sufficient fama publica to make it reasonable to suspect the person of a crime—roughly equivalent to modern ‘‘probable cause.’’ This was important. Under the medieval ius commune there was to be no trial for secret faults, and due process was to be afforded to those who were brought before the courts of the church. It is quite true that these protections were not always afforded in fact. These...