XV The Procureur du Roi v. Pierre Maugier and the Procureurs of the University of Paris and the Earl of Salisbury

Abstract

This suit was concerned with two issues, the patronage of the church of Boisney, and the claim of a member of the University of Paris to exemption from pleading in a case elsewhere than at the Châtelet in Paris. The suit had already been heard by the ‘prévôt’ of Paris who had ruled it should be heard before his court. In the present suit, an appeal from that decision, the ‘procureur du roi’ claimed that cases involving the king should be heard and decided in the localities, in this case, more specifically, in Rouen. The University, on the other hand, insisted that its members should not be disturbed in their studies by the necessity to plead outside Paris, arguing that the king's rights would in no way be threatened by having the suit heard in the capital. To this point of view the answer of the ‘procureur du roi’ was that in a case of patronage such as this, claims should be pursued by the patron (in this instance, the earl of Salisbury) and not by the University seeking to defend the rights of the person presented to the cure.