Pr'munire - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition pr-munire

Definition :

Pr'munire [fr. pr'moneri Lat., to be forewarned]. It is an offence so called from the words of the writ preparatory to the prosecution thereof: pr'munire facias A.B. (cause A.B. to be forewarned) that he appear before us to answer the contempt wherewith he stands charged; which contempt is particularly recited in the Preamble to the writ. The offence of pr'munire is, in effect, described by Balckstone to be 'introducing a foreign power into the land, and creating imperium in imperio, by paying that obedience to alien process which constitutionally belonged to the King alone'; see 4 Bl. Com. pp. 103 et seq.

The statute of pr'munire (which are all still unrepealed, and are of the most confused character) were framed to encounter papal usurpation by presentation of aliens to English benefices. The first of them, called the Statutes of Provisors, was passed in 1350, in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Edward III., and was the foundation of all the subsequent statute of pr'munire, of which 16 Rich. 2, c. 5, passed in 1392, is the 'Statute of Pr'munire' generally so called, and incorporated by reference in many subsequent statutes; e.g., in 25 Hen. 8, c. 20, s. 6, whereby an archbishop or bishop refusing to confirm and consecrate a person elected bishop still incurs a pr'amunire; and 13 Car. 2, c. 1, whereby to assert maliciously and advisedly, by speaking or writing, that both or either House of Parliament have or has a legislative authority without the sovereign, is still an offence within the statutes of pr'munire, or as it is shortly called, a pr'munire; and the (English) Habeas Corpus Act, 31 Car. 2, c. 2, s. 11, Whereby it is still a pr'munire to send any subject of this realm a prisoner, under certain exceptions in the Act specified, into parts beyond the seas.

The punishment of the offence is (see 25 Edw. 3, st. 5, c. 22, and 16 Rich. 2, c. 5) that, from the conviction, the defendant be out of the Crown's protection, and his lands and goods are forfeited to the Crown. Until the passing of the repealed 5 Eliz. c. 1, it was perhaps lawful to kill the defendant. Consult Co. Litt. 391 a and Harg. Note.