Page "Court of Chancery" Paragraph 12

The Chancery and its growing powers soon came to be resented by Parliament and the nobility ; Carne says that it is possible to trace a general " trend of opposition " during the Plantagenet period, particularly from members of the clergy, who were more used to Roman law than equity.

From the reign of Richard II, the House of Commons regularly complained about the work of the Court, and in 1390 it petitioned the King to pronounce that the Court could not act contrary to the common law, nor annul a judgement without due process.

At the same time, it asked that no writ could be issued that would compel a man to appear before the Court ; if it was, the clerk who issued it would lose his job and the Lord Chancellor would be fined £ 100.

The King gave evasive answers to the requests, and made no decision.

The Commons did succeed in making some changes to the Court's procedure, however ; in 1394 the King assented to their request that victorious defendants in the Court have their costs recompensed from the other side, and in 1341 the King, on their application, allowed the Lord Chancellor to send cases directly to the common law courts, to avoid the common law judges having to waste time travelling.

Kerly suggests that many complaints from the Commons came from lawyers of the common law, aggrieved at the Chancery's extended jurisdiction that overlapped with that of the common law.

These complaints from the Commons did not prevent the Court from successfully functioning ; in 1393, for example, it was considered prominent enough that the House of Lords sent 2 cases there to be dealt with.