Juristic Theology in More’s Polemics: The Bilney Case

Abstract

Thomas More built his opposition to reform on a foundation of canon law because he believed the offenses of the reformers fell within the spiritual jurisdiction rather than the temporal; that these offenses were by right adjudicated in the church courts, not the Crown courts; and that the supreme authority in cases of unlawful theological innovation was not that of English kings but that of popes and councils. This paper’s argument is that the canonical system that served as More’s defense against innovation was created in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This was the era of Gregorian reform, of Gratian’s Decretum, and of the phenomenon known as juristic theology. The main premise of juristic theology, that no region of the soul is exempt from legal judgment, is present in More’s critical analysis of the trial of Thomas Bilney in A Dialogue concerning Heresies.