In medieval England, a defendant who refused to plead to a criminal indictment was sentenced to pressing with weights as a coercive measure. Using peine forte et dure ('strong and hard punishment') as a lens through which to analyse the law and its relationship with Christianity, Butler asks: where do we draw the line between punishment and penance? And, how can pain function as a vehicle for redemption within the common law? Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this book embraces both law and literature. When Christ is on trial before Herod, he refused to plead, his silence signalling denial of the court's authority. England's discontented subjects, from hungry peasant to even King Charles I himself, stood mute before the courts in protest. Bringing together penance, pain and protest, Butler breaks down the mythology surrounding peine forte et dure and examines how it functioned within the medieval criminal justice system.
Author(s): Sara M. Butler
Series: Studies in Legal History
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 459
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
List of
Tables
Acknowledgments
Table of Statutes
List of
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Peine Forte et Dure: The Medieval Practice
2 Standing Mute in the Courts of Medieval England
3 Due Process and Consent to Jury Trial
4 Peine Forte et Dure as Barbarity? Putting the Practice in Context
5 Why Stand Mute?
6 Standing Mute as Imitatio Christi
7 Rejecting the Jury, Rejecting the Common Law, Rejecting the King
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
