Excommunication in Thirteenth-Century England

Excommunication was the medieval churchs most severe sanction, used against people at all levels of society. It was a spiritual, social, and legal penalty. Excommunication in Thirteenth-Century England offers a fresh perspective on medieval excommunication by taking a multi-dimensional approach to discussion of the sanction. Using England as a case study, Felicity Hill analyzes the intentions behind excommunication; how it was perceived and received, at both national and local level; the effects it had upon individuals and society. The study is structured thematically to argue that our understanding of excommunication should be shaped by how it was received within the community as well as the intentions of canon law and clerics. Challenging past assumptions about the inefficacy of excommunication, Hill argues that the sanction remained a useful weapon for the clerical elite: bringing into dialogue a wide range of source material allows effectiveness to be judged within a broader context. The complexity of political communication and action are revealed through public, conflicting, accepted and rejected excommunications. Excommunication could be manipulated to great effect in political conflicts and was an important means by which political events were communicated down the social strata of medieval society. Through its exploration of excommunication, the book reveals much about medieval cursing, pastoral care, fears about the afterlife, social ostracism, shame and reputation, and mass communication.

FELICITY HILL is a lecturer in medieval history at the University of St Andrews. She was previously a research fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and a Scouloudi fellow at the Institute of Historical Research. She holds degrees from the University of Manchester (BA), University College London (MA), and the University of East Anglia (PhD).

- Introduction - PART I: INDIVIDUALS - 1: The Spiritual Effects of Excommunication: Instilling Fear - 2: Belief, Fear, and Conscience - PART II: COMMUNITIES - 3: Exclusion from the Community of the Faithful - 4: Apathy, Rejection, and Divided Loyalties - PART III: PUBLICITY - 5: Publicity, Reputation, and Scandal - 6: Violence, Excommunication, and Dispute Settlement: Thame, 1292-1294 - 7: Ecclesiastical Broadcasting in the Thirteenth Century: The Origins of the Great - Conclusion - APPENDIX I: IPSO FACTO SENTENCES TO BE REGULARLY PRONOUNCED IN THIRTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND - APPENDIX II: WILLIAM OF PAGULA'S LIST OF IPSO FACTO SENTENCES (OCULIS SACERDOTIS, C. 1320)