Definition
A Latin phrase from medieval English law meaning "simple pilgrimage." It refers to a pilgrimage undertaken in its ordinary form — that is, a journey to a holy site or shrine made without additional legal consequence or ecclesiastical penalty attached. The term appears in Fleta, the late thirteenth-century English legal treatise, in the context of ecclesiastical penances and their civil legal implications.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is encountered almost exclusively in medieval and early English legal sources. Researchers working in ecclesiastical law, canon law influences on common law, or the history of legal penalties will find it surfacing in discussions of penance as a legal sanction. The key navigational point: simplex peregrinatio is defined against more severe forms of pilgrimage — particularly those imposed as formal legal or ecclesiastical punishment, which carried distinct civil disabilities. Understanding the distinction matters when reading Fleta or related sources, because the legal consequences attached to a penitent's status depended in part on whether the pilgrimage was "simple" or one of a graver, judicially imposed character.
Researchers should note that this term will not appear in modern legal materials. Its utility is entirely historical. When tracing the intersection of ecclesiastical and common law jurisdiction in medieval England — a productive area of legal history research — this term may appear in proximity to discussions of outlawry, excommunication, and the civil effects of religious censure. The Fleta citation (lib. 4, c. 2, § 2) is the anchoring primary source; researchers should go directly to that text for context rather than relying on the dictionary entries alone, which provide no further elaboration.
The maxim appended by both Black's and Burrill's to this entry — Simplicitas est legibus amica; et nimia subtilitas in jure reprobatur ("Simplicity is favorable to the laws; and too much subtlety in law is to be reprobated") — is recorded at 4 Coke 5b/8 and is a separate legal maxim, not a definition of the term itself. Both historical dictionaries run the entry into the maxim without clear separation, which can mislead a reader into treating the maxim as part of the definition of simplex peregrinatio. It is not. The juxtaposition is alphabetical, not conceptual.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in agreement on the core definition: simple pilgrimage, attributed to Fleta lib. 4, c. 2, § 2. Neither source elaborates on the legal consequences of simplex peregrinatio or explains precisely how it was distinguished from more severe forms of pilgrimage in practice. Burrill adds the Latin adverb simpliciter as a following entry, which continues the theme of "simpleness" in legal Latin but is a distinct term.
Both dictionaries append the maxim Simplicitas est legibus amica immediately after the term, with only minor variation in the Coke citation (Black's cites 4 Coke 8; Burrill cites 4 Co. 5b — these refer to the same report, the variation reflecting differences in pagination or edition used). Neither source provides enough context to fully situate the term within medieval ecclesiastical-legal procedure. Researchers needing depth should consult Fleta directly and, for the broader framework of pilgrimage as penance in English law, should look to secondary scholarship on canon law reception in medieval England.
What the historical dictionaries miss: any discussion of which authority — ecclesiastical court or royal court — imposed or recognized a simplex peregrinatio, and what civil legal effects, if any, flowed from a person being subject to one.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to medieval English law and its ecclesiastical dimensions. It has no recognized equivalent or counterpart in American law and does not appear in modern statutory or common law contexts.