‘The Enemy of God and His Church’: James Hobart, Praemunire, and the Clergy of Norwich Diocese

Review of periodical literature published in 2011

“…Debates over the proper use of church funds exercised the minds of the Quakers of Lancashire for largely spiritual reasons. Cavill's article about the clergy of Norwich brings us back into the realm of earthly power, and in particular, that of kings. Before the Reformation, the clergy owed allegiance to both the monarch and to Rome.…”

“…There was a spate of praemunire cases in the Norwich diocese in the early sixteenth century. Cavill uses the records of the cases to record the struggle between church and Crown over funds. Many of the cases seem to have originated in a dispute over tithes.…”

Thomas Becket, William Warham and the Crisis of the Early Tudor Church

“…A particular target was the irascible bishop of Norwich, Richard Nykke, who in a letter of 1504 described the attorney general as 'the enemy of God and his Church', and threatened to excommunicate promoters of praemunire suits as heretics. 50 The praemunire statutes post-dated St Thomas of Canterbury's clashes with Henry II.…”

Remembering usurpation: the common lawyers, Reformation narratives and the prerogative, 1578-1616

“…21 The destruction of Wolsey and the cowing of the Henrician clergy recalled praemunire's harsh penalties, and it has recently been suggested that praemunire actions were affecting the ecclesiastical jurisdiction's business as early as the reign of Henry VII. 22 To the spiritual court judges, Ridley's objection that praemunire no longer lay against their courts was, on the face of it, correct. 23 Yet the sixteenth century saw an increasingly broad application of praemunire to include any litigation that derogated from the common law.…”