Workshop "The Power to Pardon in Medieval and Early Modern Christianity: Exceptions and Diversities"

In the medieval and early modern Christian world, the power to exercise pardon over rigor of justice was one of the strongest manifestations of sovereignty and, as such, it was almost ubiquitous. While the Pope was probably one of the first monarchs to initiate an extensive use of pardon after establishing the Apostolic Penitentiary in the thirteenth century, he was rapidly imitated by lay rulers – kings, princes, and even magistrates – who started to grant letters of pardon for those who petitioned for clemency after committing a crime. For these merciful rulers, the exercise of pardon was a means to enforce peace and impose their authority and justice over any other jurisdiction, whereas for the subjects, it was primarily a way to save their lives and escape punishment that was often less expensive than other mitigating practices. For historians and legal scholars, finally, studying the predominant role of pardon in medieval and early modern societies raises the question on how these pardons operated in complex legal systems characterized by a plurality of legal orders, where various means of conflict resolution coexisted, interacted, and sometimes replaced each other, while litigants had to navigate between multiple levels of authorities.

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