Definition
De sancto Petro is a Latin phrase meaning "of Saint Peter" or "from Saint Peter." In English legal history, it appears as a descriptor in connection with Peter's Pence (also called Romescot or Romfeoh), the annual ecclesiastical due paid to the See of Rome. The phrase functioned less as a standalone legal term than as a qualifying Latin tag identifying obligations, payments, or institutions associated with Saint Peter — most prominently the papacy — in ecclesiastical and feudal legal instruments.
In ecclesiastical law, a payment described as de sancto Petro was a contribution to the Roman church, which claimed Saint Peter as its founding apostle and whose authority derived symbolically from Petrine succession. Such payments were enforced through canon law and, for a time, recognized in English common law practice.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No entry. The phrase is not in ordinary modern English use.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined. "Saint Peter" refers to the apostle Simon Peter, considered in Catholic tradition the first Bishop of Rome.
The phrase de sancto Petro has no meaningful common-language counterpart. Its appearance in historical legal instruments is exclusively ecclesiastical and administrative, marking dues or rights tied to the authority of the papacy. A researcher encountering it in a document should read it as a marker of Roman ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not a generic religious reference.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers are most likely to encounter de sancto Petro in pre-Reformation English ecclesiastical records, manorial surveys, or instruments recording Peter's Pence obligations. After the break with Rome under Henry VIII and the Statute of Peter's Pence (1534, 25 Hen. 8, c. 21), payments formerly made de sancto Petro were abolished by statute. Any document post-dating the Henrician Reformation that contains this phrase likely predates its recording date or is reproducing older terminology in a historical or archival context.
The phrase also appears in place names and institutional names that entered English legal records — including property descriptions and conveyances referencing churches or lands dedicated to Saint Peter — which can create confusion with the specific ecclesiastical-due meaning. Context is decisive: a conveyance of land "belonging to the church of St. Peter" and a tithe schedule noting a payment de sancto Petro are distinct legal contexts.
Burrill's entry cross-references the Anglicized forms St. Peter, St. Pierre, and Sampier, suggesting that researchers working with later or anglicized records may find the obligation recorded under any of these variants rather than the Latin form. In indexing and search queries across the Law Mind corpus, all four variants should be used.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides only a minimal entry for de sancto Petro, consisting entirely of the cross-references to St. Peter, St. Pierre, and Sampier, without substantive definition. This brevity is characteristic of how the historical dictionaries treated Latin ecclesiastical tags that were understood as descriptive phrases rather than independent doctrinal terms.
The historical dictionaries more fully treat the underlying subject — Peter's Pence — under those anglicized headings. Burrill's approach of collapsing de sancto Petro into the St. Peter entry reflects the practical reality that by the time Burrill compiled his dictionary, the Latin form survived only in antiquarian and historical legal usage. Researchers should not interpret the sparse dictionary treatment as indicating the phrase was unimportant; rather, the significance is fully located in the Peter's Pence doctrine and its abolition history, not in the Latin tag itself.
No historical dictionary entry consulted provides a substantive independent definition of de sancto Petro as a term of art. It functions as ecclesiastical Latin shorthand, not as a technical legal concept with elements or doctrinal content of its own.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase is specific to the legal history of England and jurisdictions under Roman ecclesiastical authority before the Reformation. It has no operative legal significance in any modern common law jurisdiction. Researchers in Scottish ecclesiastical history may encounter related Latin formulations but should not assume identical usage.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Peter's Pence
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Ecclesiastical Dues and Obligations
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Henrician Reformation and Canon Law in England