Statute of Praemunire

The Statute of Praemunire was an act of the Parliament of England enacted in 1392 during the reign of Richard II, intended to limit the powers of the papacy in England by making it illegal to appeal an English court case to the pope if the king objected, or to act in a way that recognized papal authority over the king's own authority. In the fifteenth century it came to be read as also banning ecclesiastical courts inside England, and it was later reaffirmed by the Statute in Restraint of Appeals of 1532 in the reign of Henry VIII, when it was used to remove Thomas Wolsey from power.