Abstract
An appeal to the Roman Rota launched in 1511 may seem unusual in the reign of Henry VIII because of the Statute of Praemunire, especially when the case involved prelates close to the crown. Two Statutes of Praemunire (1353 and 1393) had forbidden appeal of cases to the pope over royal objections or recognizing papal judicial authority as superior to the king’s. These statutes of Edward III and Richard II respectively had aimed at limiting papal power in England, as did the several fourteenth-century statutes against papal provisions to English benefices. A Writ of Praemunire was available in cases of illicit appeals. However, the Statute and Writ seem to have fallen into disuse by early Tudor times except as a means of exacting payments from clerics. The case discussed in this article shows a dispute being appealed to the Roman Rota early in the reign of Henry VIII, with the king intervening late in the proceedings without employing a Writ of Praemunire. Nothing was said by the king denying the bishops involved the right to appeal to Rome. This suggests that the Statute of Praemunire was revived as a political device to bring down Cardinal Wolsey in 1529, possibly on the advice of his enemies. Then it was used to promote the King’s Great Matter and used soon thereafter to force the English clergy to accept the Royal Supremacy.