King John and the Church

Joshua C. Tate, Southern Methodist University School of Law, has published Episcopal Power and Royal Jurisdiction in Angevin England in Studies in Canon Law and Common Law in Honor of R. H. Helmholz, Robbins Collection Studies in Comparative Legal History 15-26 (Troy L. Harris ed., 2015). Here is the abstract.

During the second half of the twelfth century, powerful and charismatic bishops presented a threat to the emerging jurisdiction of the king’s courts. By contrast, King John was able to fill key episcopal vacancies with loyal bureaucrats who acted as servants to the king. This paper will consider how the assertion and subsequent cession of power by English bishops under the Angevin kings shaped the developing jurisdiction of the common-law courts, particularly in disputes over advowsons, or rights of presentation to churches. The evidence suggests that the bishops played a significant role in the development of the early common law, first by sending litigation into the king’s courts and later by declining to challenge the primacy of royal jurisdiction.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.