Christopher St. German's 'Doctor and student': From legal debate to religious division

In the First Dialogue of Doctor and Student, Christopher St. German address ed and audience of lawyers and judges for whom he sought to clarify the rel ation between Chancery and courts of common law. By the time he turned to t he Second Dialogue, St. German was directing his attention to a more genera l public, and shifting his interest to the role of conscience in chancery l aw. Comparing the use of that principle in secular and ecclesiastical court s, he concluded that the former offered better legal remedies, but acknowle dged that the jurisdiction of secular courts could not be enlarged effectiv ely unless English law was changed. St. German contributed to Henry VIII's anti-clerical campaign in a third dialogue entitled New Additions, which ou tlined new parliamentary measures aimed at limiting the jurisdiction of ecc lesiastical courts.