Of these acknowledged customs and dignities of the realm, a certain part is contained in the present writing. Of this part the heads are as follows:

§ 1. If any controversy has arisen concerning the advowson and presentation of churches between laymen, or between laymen and ecclesiastics, or between ecclesiastics, it is to be considered or settled in the court of the lord king.

§ 2. Churches of the fee of the lord king cannot be given perpetually without his assent and grant.

3. Clergymen charged and accused of anything, when they have been summoned by a justice of the king shall come into his court, to respond there to that which it shall seem good to the court of the king for them to respond to, and in the ecclesiastical court to what it shall seem good should be responded to there; so that the justice of the king shall send into the court of holy church to see how the matter shall be treated there. And if a clergyman shall have been convicted or has confessed, the church ought not to protect him otherwise.

It is not lawful for archbishops, bishops, and persons of the realm to go out of the realm without the permission of the lord king. And if they go out, if it please the lord king, security that neither in going nor in making a stay nor in returning will they seek evil or loss to the king or the kingdom.

they shall give

$ 5. Excommunicated persons ought not to give permanent security nor offer an oath, but only security and a pledge to stand to the judgment of the church, in order that they may be absolved.

§ 6. Laymen ought not to be accused except by definite and legal accusers and witnesses, in the presence of the bishop, so that the archdeacon shall not lose his right, nor anything which he ought to have from it. And if there are such persons as are blamed, but no one wishes or no one dares to accuse them, let the sheriff when required by the bishop cause twelve legal men of the neighbourhood or of the township to take an oath in the presence of the bishop that they will show the truth about it according to their conscience.

$ 7. No one who holds from the king in chief, nor any one of the officers of his demesnes shall be excommunicated, nor the lands of any one of them placed under an interdict, unless the lord king, if he is in the land, first agrees, or his justice, if he is out of the realm, in order that he may do right

concerning him; and so that what shall pertain to the king's court shall be settled there, and for that which has respect to the ecclesiastical court, that it may be sent to the same to be considered there.

§ 8. Concerning appeals, if they should occur, they ought to proceed from the archdeacon to the bishop, from the bishop to the archbishop. And if the archbishop should fail to show justice, it must come to the lord king last, in order that by his command the controversy should be finally terminated in the court of the archbishop, so that it ought not to proceed further without the assent of the lord king.

§ 9. If a contest has arisen between a clergyman and a layman or between a layman and a clergyman, concerning any tenement which the clergymen wishes to bring into charitable tenure, but the layman into a lay fief, it shall be settled by the deliberation of a principal justice of the king, on the recognition of twelve legal men, whether the tenement pertains to charity or to a lay fief, in the presence of that justice of the king. And if the recognition shall decide that it belongs to charity, the suit will be in the ecclesiastical court, but if to a lay fief, unless both are answerable to the same bishop or baron, the suit will be in the king's court. But if both shall be answerable concerning that fief before the same bishop or baron, the suit will be in his court, provided that the one who was formerly in possession shall not lose his possession on account of the recognition which has been made until it has been decided upon through the suit.

§ 10. If any one who is of a city or a castle or a borough or a demesne manor of the lord king has been summoned by the archdeacon or the bishop for any offence for which he ought to respond to them, and is unwilling to make answer to their summons, it is fully lawful to place him under an interdict, but he ought not to be excommunicated before the principal officer of the lord king for that place agrees, in order that he may adjudge him to come to the answer. And if the officer of the king is negligent in this, he himself will be at the mercy of the lord king, and afterward the bishop shall be able to coerce the accused man by ecclesiastical justice.

§ II. Archbishops, bishops, and all persons of the realm, who hold from the king in chief, have their possessions from the lord king as a barony, and are responsible for them to the justices and officers of the king, and follow and perform all royal rules and customs; and just as the rest of the barons

ought to be present at the judgment of the court of the lord king along with the barons, at least till the judgment reaches to loss of limbs or to death.

$ 12. When an archbishopric or bishopric or abbacy or priorate of the demesne of the king has become vacant, it ought to be in his hands and he shall take thence all its rights and products just as demesnes. And when it has come to providing for the church, the lord king ought to summon the more powerful persons of the church, and the election ought to be made in the chapel of the lord king himself, with the assent of the lord king and with the agreement of the persons of the realm whom he has called to do this. And there the person elected shall do homage and fealty to the lord king as to his liege lord, concerning his life and his limbs and his earthly honour, saving his order, before he shall be consecrated.

§ 13. If any one of the great men of the kingdom has prevented archbishop, bishop or archdeacon from exercising justice upon himself or his, the lord king ought to bring him to justice. And if by chance anyone has deprived the lord king of his right, the archbishops and bishops and archdeacons ought to bring him to justice in order that he may give satisfaction to the lord king.

14. The chattels of those who are in forfeiture to the king no church or church-yard must detain against the justice of the king, because they are the king's whether they have been found within the churches or without.

§ 15. Suits concerning debts which are owed through the medium of a bond or without the medium of a bond should be in the jurisdiction of the king.

§ 16. Sons of rustics ought not to be ordained without the assent of the lord upon whose land they are known to have been born.

The acknowledgment of the aforesaid royal customs and dignities has been made by the aforesaid archbishops, and bishops, and earls, and barons, and the more noble and ancient of the realm, at Clarendon, on the fourth day before the Purification of the Blessed Mary, perpetual Virgin, Lord Henry being there present with his father, the lord king. There are, however, many other and great customs and dignities of holy mother church and of the lord king, and of the barons of the realm, which are not contained in this writing. These are preserved to holy church and to the lord king and to his heirs ard to the barons of the realm, and shall be observed inviolably forever.

(Translations and Reprints, ed. cited,)

61. The King's Rash Words and Becket's Death

William Fitz Stephen

The Archbishops of York and the Bishops of London and Salisbury, with the Archdeacon of Poictiers (the Archdeacon of Canterbury was delayed on the sea by bad weather), having crossed the water, came to the King's court. He had already heard of the suspension and excommunication of the bishops. They repeat to him the whole story. They lay all the blame upon the Archbishop; they declare him to be guilty of treason in what he has done. Falsehood doubles his offence. It had been told the King that the Archbishop was making the circuit of the kingdom at the head of a large body of men. The King asks the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of London and Salisbury to advise him what to do. "It is not our part," they say, "to tell you what must be done." At length one says, "My lord, while Thomas lives, you will not have peace or quiet or see another good day." On hearing this, such fury, bitterness, and passion took possession of the King, as his disordered look and gesture expressed, that it was immediately understood what he wanted.

When they saw his emotion, four knights, barons of the king's household, seeking to please him, named Reginald Fitz Urse, William de Traci, Hugh de Morville, Richard Brito having sworn the death of the Archbishop, departed sailing from different ports. By the guidance of the devil. the old enemy of all good, they met at the same hour on the morrow at the castle of the family of Broc, at Saltwood.

Whilst we were lately assembled in council before our lord and king, and supposed we were going to discuss important matters connected with the Church,... we are told by some who are just come over from England, that certain enemies of the archbishop, provoked to madness, it is said, by frequent causes of exasperation, have suddenly set upon him, and I can hardly write for my tears—have attacked his person and put him to a cruel death. At the first words of the messenger the king burst into loud lamentations, and exchanged his royal robes for sackcloth and ashes, acting more like a friend than the sovereign of the deceased. At times he ceased his cries and became stupid; after which he burst again into cries and lamentations louder than before. Three whole days he spent in his chamber, and would receive neither food nor consolation, but by the excess of his grief it seemed as if he had thoroughly made up his mind to die. The state of things indeed became alarming, and we had now

a double cause for anxiety. First we had to lament the death of the bishop, now we almost despaired of the life of the king, and so in losing one we thought our evil fortune would deprive us of both.

(William Fitz Stephen. From St. Thomas of Canterbury, ed. cited. p. 232.)

62. The Assize of Clarendon
(1166)

Select Charters

The Assize of Clarendon is of great importance to the historical student because of its re-arrangement of judicial processes. It is a valuable legal landmark. By it the custom of the country was crystallised in the provision for a jury of presentment, analogous to the modern grand jury. The old form of compurgation was finally superseded, and that of collective responsibility reaffirmed. The whole document is worthy of intensive study.

Here begins the Assize of Clarendon, made by King Henry II. with the assent of the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls and barons of all England.

§ 1. In the first place, the aforesaid King Henry, with the consent of all his barons, for the preservation of the peace and the keeping of justice, has enacted that inquiry should be made through the several counties and through the several hundreds, by twelve of the most legal men of the hundred and by four of the most legal men of each manor, upon their oath that they will tell the truth, whether there is in their hundred or in their manor, any man who has been accused or publicly suspected of himself being a robber, or murderer, or thief, or of being a receiver of robbers, or murderers, or thieves, since the lord king has been king. And let the justices make this inquiry before themselves, and the sheriffs before themselves.

§ 2. And let anyone who has been found by the oath of the aforesaid, to have been accused or publicly suspected of having been a robber, or murderer, or thief, or a receiver of them, since the lord king has been king, be arrested and go to the ordeal of water and let him swear that he has not been a robber, or murderer, or thief, or receiver of them since the lord king has been king, to the value of five shillings, so far as he knows.

83. And if the lord of the man who has been arrested or his steward or his men shall have claimed him, with a pledge, within the third day after he has been seized, let him be given up and his chattels until he himself makes his law.

§ 4. And when a robber, or murderer, or thief, or receiver