Clerical Exemption in Canon Law from Gratian to the Decretals. Medieval Worlds|Religious Exemption in Pre-Modern Eurasia, c. 300-1300 CE - Volume 6. 2017 medieval worlds Volume 6. 2017|

The question of clerical exemption from secular judgment was a core constituent of the fierce dispute that set King Henry II of England against Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury in 1163 and culminated in the latter’s murder in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. This paper traces the Roman origin of immunity, its confused treatment in Gratian’s Decretum, and the working out of a reasonable modus vivendi through episcopal-papal consultation in the following eighty or so years