“I Discovered Such a Lay Force That I Could Not Remove Them”: Sacred and Secular Space and Ecclesiastical and Secular Authority in the Parish in the Fourteenth-Century Diocese of York

Abstract

In 1309, the parish church of Harewood in Yorkshire, England, was invaded by a group of armed parishioners opposing the decisions of the church courts. The story of this invasion and the ways in which Church and State attempted and failed to remove it demonstrate how an apparently local quarrel could be part of national political events and of the intertwining of the laws of Church and State. It also demonstrates, importantly, a largely overlooked aspect of the relationship between the laity at a local level and the Church as an institution.

Keywords

• violence
• politics
• medieval law
• medieval church
• church courts
• common law