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Item

? No Petitioner named As the right of sanctuary at Westminster Abbey is being greatly...

Catalogue reference: SC 8/18/897

What’s it about?

This record is about the ? No Petitioner named As the right of sanctuary at Westminster Abbey is being greatly... dating from [c. 1378] in the series Special Collections: Ancient Petitions. It is held at The National Archives, Kew.

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Full description and record details

Reference
SC 8/18/897
Date
[c. 1378]
Description
Petitioners
? No Petitioner named
Nature of request
As the right of sanctuary at Westminster Abbey is being greatly abused, and as a result of a petition complaining about this, the king has had the abbey's charters examined by masters of theology, doctors in both laws, and justices and other people learned in the laws of the realm, to see if this right applies to cases of debt and other personal actions. On their advice, and having heard the abbot's arguments, he is exercising his right to interpret his progenitors' charters, and has declared that no one should have right of sanctuary there for any such case, saving to Holy Church its franchise concerning felony. Nevertheless, out of love for the abbey, and reverence for the body of St Edward and its other relics, and for the bodies of his progenitors buried there, he will allow immunity there in certain genuine cases of debt.
Nature of endorsement
[None].
Places mentioned
Westminster.
People mentioned
[Richard II], King of England
Abbot and convent of Westminster
Edgar, King of England
Edward [the Confessor], King of England.
Note
Rot. Parl. vol. III p.51a-b (no. 4) assigns this schedule to 2 Richard II (22 June 1378 - 21 June 1379), and more specifically, to the parliament held at Gloucester, on the Wednesday following the feast of St Luke, 2 Richard II (1378). However, their estimations of the dates of these petitions are not always accurate.
Related material

The petition which occasioned this response is SC 8/146/7263

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Former department reference
Parliamentary Petition 3153
Legal status
Public Record(s)
Language
French
Closure status
Open Document, Open Description
Publication note(s)
Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento, vol. III, Ric II and Hen IV, (Record Commission, 1783), p.50b-51b (no.4) (full edition of original document and related petition)
Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C9061050/

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Series information

SC 8

Special Collections: Ancient Petitions

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Within the series: SC 8

Special Collections: Ancient Petitions

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850-900. Individual petitions are described , dated, and are available at item level.

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? No Petitioner named As the right of sanctuary at Westminster Abbey is being greatly...

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