English Nuns and the Law in the Middle Ages

Download or read book English Nuns and the Law in the Middle Ages written by Elizabeth M. Makowski and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late medieval England, cloistered nuns, like all substantial property owners, engaged in nearly constant litigation to defend their holdings. They did so using attorneys (proctors), advocates and other ""men of law"" who actually conducted that litigation in the courts of Church and Crown, following the increased professionalism of legal practitioners during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. However, although lawyers were as crucial to the economic vitality of the nunneries as the patrons who endowed them, their role in protecting, augmenting or depleting monastic assets has never been.