Justice and Mercy

Philippa Byrne is Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Oxford

‘Justice and Mercy is a remarkable book…the book resounds with the historiographic traditions and conflicts among the different schools of legal history and of intellectual history, both in Britain and on the continent. While the author is obviously well aware of them, she manages to avoid the pitfalls of adding to these ongoing conflicts.’Esther Cohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Medieval Review'I dearly wish this excellent book had been available twenty years ago when I was writing one of my own on the changing ways that the human urge to vengeance were expressed c. 1000–1300. Philippa Byrne, a first-time author, has assembled an amazing amount of difficult theological material, much direct from manuscript, to make a persuasive and novel case that judges had to include in their sentencing policy what she calls “reciprocal mercy,” a kind of subset of “deliberative” justice, generated in the schools by “a sophisticated and long-running debate about judicial ethics”. [...] This is an enviably able, solid, fresh, and exciting first book that will give all kinds of readers much to think about.'Paul R. Hyams, Speculum

• Prologue: the vanishing adulteress1 Introduction2 The problem with mercy: the schools3 The problem with mercy: the courts4 Twelfth-century models of justice and mercy5 Who should be merciful?6 Judgement in practice: the Church7 Histories of justice: the crown, persuasion and lordship8 Love your enemies? Popular mercy in a vengeance culture9 ConclusionBibliographyIndex