Definition
A writ of ecclesiastical process origin directing a bishop to accept sufficient security (bail or caution) from an excommunicated person held in prison for contempt of church authority, and upon acceptance of that security, to release the prisoner. The writ issued when a bishop refused to free a person who had already offered adequate surety — known in the sources as *idoneam cautionem* — to comply with the commands of the church. The Latin phrase translates literally as "for admitting caution (or security)."
The writ operated as a check on episcopal discretion in the administration of ecclesiastical contempt: where the church had imprisoned a person for excommunication or related contempt, and that person offered to purge the contempt or give security for future obedience, the bishop could not simply maintain the imprisonment. De cautione admittenda compelled him to take the offered security and release the prisoner.
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Common Confusion
The writ is closely related to the writ *de excommunicato capiendo* (for seizing an excommunicated person) and the writ *de excommunicato deliberando* (for releasing one). Researchers frequently conflate these writs. De cautione admittenda is the narrower instrument: it does not address the original capture of the excommunicate or a general discharge, but specifically targets the bishop's refusal to accept security already tendered. The prisoner remains potentially subject to further ecclesiastical process after release — release on caution is not the same as absolution from excommunication.
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Why It Matters in Research
This is a writ of specialized historical interest with no modern counterpart. Researchers are most likely to encounter it in three contexts:
**Ecclesiastical law and the common law interface.** The writ represents a significant jurisdictional moment: a royal common law writ directed at a bishop exercising ecclesiastical prison authority. It is evidence of how temporal courts superintended ecclesiastical process even before the Reformation disrupted the relationship between church courts and the Crown. Researchers tracing the history of that jurisdictional boundary will find de cautione admittenda a useful marker.
**Imprisonment for contempt.** The underlying mechanism — imprisonment pending security for compliance — connects to the broader history of contempt procedure, bail, and the writ of *capias*. The concept of *cautio* (security, surety) runs through both civil law and canon law traditions and intersects with common law bail doctrine in ways that older treatments do not always articulate clearly.
**Corpus traps.** The writ appears in early form books (see Registrum Omnium Brevium and Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium) under variant spellings and abbreviations. Researchers working in manuscripts or early print sources may encounter *cautione admittenda* (without the "de") or fragmented Latin headings. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry simply cross-references *cautione admittenda* rather than providing an independent entry, which can send researchers in circles. Black's second edition entry is incomplete as printed — the text cuts off mid-sentence — so researchers relying solely on that edition will find the entry truncated and should consult the first edition or Bouvier for the complete text.
**Obsolescence.** This writ had no life in American jurisprudence. It belongs entirely to English ecclesiastical legal history. Any American citation to it is either historical commentary or a transliteration error.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both editions) and Bouvier's are in substantive agreement: the writ issued against a bishop who refused to release an excommunicated person despite the offer of sufficient security. Both cite Fitzherbert's *Natura Brevium* at folio 63 as the primary authority — the writ's procedural home in the formbook tradition. Black's first edition additionally cites *Registrum Omnium Brevium* at folio 66, which is consistent with what is known of the Registrum's contents.
The two dictionaries differ modestly in framing. Bouvier's Latin gloss ("admitting bail") is somewhat loose — *cautio* in canonical usage is broader than common law bail, encompassing any security, pledge, or undertaking — but captures the practical effect accurately. Black's is more precise in specifying the context of excommunication and contempt, making clear that the prisoner is not an ordinary debtor or criminal but specifically one held for ecclesiastical disobedience.
What neither source addresses is the procedural relationship between this writ and the sequence of writs surrounding excommunication. Neither source discusses whether de cautione admittenda had any chancery revival after the Reformation, when ecclesiastical courts continued to function under royal supremacy. On that question, historical dictionaries are silent, and researchers would need to consult ecclesiastical law treatises directly.
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Jurisdictional Note
De cautione admittenda is exclusively English in origin and application. It presupposes an established church court system with episcopal prison authority and a parallel royal chancery willing to issue supervisory writs into that system. No American jurisdiction adopted it. It appears in American legal dictionaries solely as a historical reference.
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