Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "for the admitting of the clerk." Ad admittendum clericum is a writ issued in the nature of an execution, directed to a bishop, commanding him to admit a successful claimant's clerk to a vacant benefice following judgment in a quare impedit action. It is the final enforcement mechanism in the ecclesiastical presentation process: once a patron won his suit establishing the right to present a clerk to a church living, this writ compelled the bishop to complete the admission.
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Common Confusion
Ad admittendum clericum is frequently encountered alongside other writs in the quare impedit cluster and can be confused with the quare impedit itself. The distinction is functional, not substantive: quare impedit is the original action by which a patron asserted his right of presentation against a disturber; ad admittendum clericum is the downstream writ that executes the judgment once that right was established. One initiates the litigation; the other ends it.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs almost exclusively to the historical and ecclesiastical law of England and will appear in English common law sources, Year Books, and early chancery materials. Researchers encountering it should understand several navigational points.
First, the writ is inseparable from the law of advowsons — the property right to present a clerk to a church benefice. Without understanding advowsons, the writ makes little sense. The entire quare impedit procedure was the common law's mechanism for adjudicating competing claims to that right, and ad admittendum clericum was the coercive instrument that gave the judgment teeth when a bishop was recalcitrant or had wrongfully filled the living.
Second, this writ has no modern American counterpart. The established church framework that gave rise to advowsons and the associated writ practice did not transplant to the American colonies in operative form. Researchers working in American legal sources will not find this writ in use; it surfaces only in historical treatments or in academic writing on English ecclesiastical law.
Third, the writ illustrates the jurisdictional boundary between the royal courts and the ecclesiastical courts in medieval and early modern England. The common law courts could adjudicate the temporal right of presentation but could not themselves install a clerk — that act belonged to the bishop. The writ was therefore directed not to a sheriff (as most writs of execution were) but to an ecclesiastical officer. This boundary, and the tensions it produced, generated substantial litigation and commentary across centuries of English legal history.
Fourth, the truncated entry in the first edition of Black's Law Dictionary — which breaks off mid-sentence — signals that researchers relying solely on that edition may have an incomplete definition. The second edition supplies the critical functional language ("in the nature of an execution, commanding the bishop to admit his clerk"). When working with primary sources and encountering this writ, the second edition entry is the more useful reference point.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's editions present the writ as a directive to a bishop following success in a quare impedit, which is accurate. The second edition is the more complete source, specifying the writ's nature as executory rather than initiatory. Neither edition supplies jurisdictional context, historical depth, or discussion of how this writ fit into the broader structure of advowson litigation — limitations that are expected in dictionary format but which researchers should supplement with treatise sources on English ecclesiastical and common law.
The historical dictionaries agree on the essential meaning and are not in tension with one another; the first edition entry is simply incomplete as reproduced.
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Jurisdictional Note
This writ is specific to English ecclesiastical law and the common law courts of England. It has no operative equivalent in American law. Researchers working in English legal history or comparative ecclesiastical law will find it relevant; those working in any modern American jurisdiction will encounter it only as historical background.
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