一七世紀イングランド北部における法廷と地域秩序 : 国教忌避者訴追をめぐって
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概要
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Catholicism, as "recusancy", became a crime prosecutable in the secular courts of early modern England after the introduction of the "recusant penal laws" during the 1580s. Recusancy, however, remained one of the least effectively prosecuted crimes throughout the seventeenth century. This was especially true in the north of England, remote from the centre and close to the northern border. The present case study concentrates on a lawsuit brought before the Star Chamber in London which was fought between groups of leading magistrates of the East Riding of Yorkshire. The case stemmed from a conflict that arouse among local justices over a much-disputed recusant prosecution at the quarter session at Pocklington (Yorkshire) in January 1615. The conflict flared up against a backdrop of heightened rivalries among leading Yorkshire gentry, which were reinforced by religious antagonism. The conflicting reactions of magisterial factions on recusant proceedings caused various interactions and subtle negotiations among the justices and between them and the grand jury, which played a crucial role in indicting recusants. The interplay among those involved, reconstructed from the interrogatories, depositions and witnesses, highlights several problems that existed in enforcing the recusant penal laws in the north of England. It also illuminates different stances adopted by individual justices and the grand jury and their influences at different points in the legal process. Furthermore, the allegations of litigants and their alleged conduct both testify to how they justified themselves at the two courts in question, one in the centre (the Star Chamber) and the other in the locality (the quarter session at Pocklington). By reconstructing process of recusant prosecution, the author describes the negotiations that took place among the conflicting justices and the grand jury, each of them acting according to the rules of law and locality. The two courts bacame strong magnetic fields to which were drawn intersecting polemics of Catholic/Protestant, old/new, and the justices/the grand jury dichotomies. It was a process in which people fought, achieved and maintained order in their locality, thus determining the practices regarding recusancy and its prosecution in the North. Furthermore, participation of individual subjects in this judicial process itself worked as an important opportunity for forging how order in the kingdom would be constituted.
- 2012-10-20