Præmunire

Præmunire, the name given, in English law, to a species of offence of the nature of a contempt against the sovereign and his government, and punishable with forfeiture and imprisonment. The name is derived from the first words (præmunire or præmonere facias) of a writ originally introduced for the purpose of repressing papal encroachments on the power of the crown. The attacks of the popes on the rights of private patrons, by bestowing bishoprics, abbacies, &c. on favourites, often aliens, and the pope's insisting on deciding in his curia cases that ought to have been tried in the king's courts, were especially unpopular in England, and were the immediate cause of various statutes of præmunire. Severe penalties were imposed on those who gave or sought to enforce obedience to the papal encroachments. The Statute of Provisors (1350; see ENGLAND, CHURCH OF, Vol. IV. p. 357) was an early act of this sort; the first act called Præmunire was passed in 1353; but the name of Præmunire is specially used of an act of 1393, in which Richard II. re-enacted and strengthened the statute of Edward III. Under Elizabeth it was made a breach of the Statute of Præmunire to refuse the oath of supremacy. By later statutes a number of offences of a miscellaneous description were rendered liable to the penalties of a præmunire, as (by 6 Anne, chap. 7) the asserting that any person, other than according to the Acts of Settlement and Union, has any right to the throne of these kingdoms. The knowingly and wilfully solemnising, assisting, or being present at any marriage forbidden by the Royal Marriage Act is declared by 12 Geo. III. chap. 11 to infer a præmunire.