Prelates and Clergy of Ireland. King and Lords The Irish clergy request the repeal...

Petitioners

Prelates and Clergy of Ireland.

Addressees

King and Lords

Nature of request

The Irish clergy request the repeal of the Statute [of Absentees] passed during the Westminster parliament of the king's third year. The statute, to which they did not assent as they were not summoned to the parliament, allows the king to seize two-thirds of the benefices of all clergy absent from their land without licence, for which reason they cannot continue their studies at Oxford or Cambridge due to lack of financial resources. This is to the great damage of them and their land, particularly since the clergy of their Irish enemies are not affected.

Nature of endorsement

[None]

Places mentioned

Ireland

Westminster

Rome, [Italy]

Oxford, [Oxfordshire]

Cambridge, [Cambridgeshire].

For another petition on this matter from Irish law students, see SC 8/121/6044

For transcript, see no.62 of PRO 31/7/109

• Irish Material in the Class of Ancient Petitions (SC 8) in the Public Record Office, Analecta Hibernica, vol. XXIV, P. Connolly, (Stationery Office of Ireland, 1987), p.42 (brief calendar of petition)
• Parliaments and Councils of Medieval Ireland, vol. I, ed. H.G. Richardson and G.O. Sayles, (, 1947), pp.205-6 (full transcript and discussion of this petition)
• Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento, vol. III, Ric II and Hen IV, (Record Commission, 1783), pp.85b-86a (no.42) (statute of absentees)