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Crime and Punishment in Britain, c1000–present

Case study: the Church, sanctuary and trial by ordeal

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Sanctuary and the choice it forced, Benefit of Clergy and the Bible verse used to claim it, when trial by ordeal was used, the ordeals by hot iron, cold water and blessed bread, and why the ordeals ended after the Pope's ban of 1215.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

How did sanctuary and Benefit of Clergy let an accused person escape the king's justice in the Middle Ages?

Key term

What was sanctuary?

Key term

What choice faced a person who had claimed sanctuary?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was sanctuary?

    Model answer

    Protection given by a church to an accused person, who could not be seized by the authorities while inside.

  2. 2

    What choice faced a person who had claimed sanctuary?

    Model answer

    Within forty days they had to stand trial or swear an oath to leave the kingdom and go into exile.

  3. 3

    What did Benefit of Clergy allow an accused man to do?

    Model answer

    To have his case moved out of the king's court and heard by a Church court instead.

  4. 4

    How was Benefit of Clergy claimed in court?

    Model answer

    By reading aloud a set verse from the Bible, which was supposed to prove the reader was a churchman.

  5. 5

    Why did men learn that verse by heart?

    Model answer

    Because Church courts never sentenced anyone to death, so a successful claim saved a guilty man from hanging.

  6. 6

    When was trial by ordeal used?

    Model answer

    When a jury of local men could not decide whether the accused was guilty, so the judgement was left to God.

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