Constitutions of Clarendon
Commentary
Rev. Paul Michael Raymond

This document, written in 1164, was a result of discrepancies between the clergy and the civil justices of the king. It also illustrates for us the devoted reliance upon God and the Ethics of Scripture in civil affairs as a rule for both clergy and justices. The Constitution was a call to the king to adhere to his predecessors in all things righteous and lawful. This document is a fine example of how the clergy should  engage the civil realm to its accountability before God in its several offices.

Constitutions of Clarendon
1164

From the year of our Lord's incarnation 1164, the fourth year of the papacy of Alexander, the tenth of the
most illustrious Henry, king of the English, in the presence of the same king, was made this remembrance
or recognition of a certain part of the customs, liberties, and dignities of his predecessors, that is to say
of King Henry his grandfather and others, which ought to be observed and held in the kingdom. And
because of dissension and discords which had arisen between the clergy and the lord king's justices and
the barons of the kingdom concerning the customs and dignities, this recognition has been made before
the archbishops and bishops and clergy, and the earls and barons and great men of the kingdom. 

And these same customs declared by the archbishops, bishops, earls, and barons, and by the nobler and older
men of the kingdom, Thomas archbishop of Canterbury and Roger archbishop of York and Gilbert bishop
of London and Henry bishop of Winchester and Nigel bishop of Ely and William bishop of Norwich and
Robert bishop of Lincoln and Hilary bishop of Chichester and Jocelin bishop of Salisbury and Richard
bishop of Chester and Bartholomew bishop of Exeter and Robert bishop of Hereford and David bishop of
St. David's and Roger elect of Worcester conceded and on the word of truth firmly promised by word of
mouth should be held and observed for the lord king and his heirs in good faith and without subtlety,
these being present: 

Robert earl of Leicester, Reginald earl of Cornwall, Conan earl of Brittany, John earl of Eu, Roger earl of Clare, earl Geoffrey de Mandeville, Hugh earl of Chester, William earl of Arundel, earl Patrick, William earl of Ferrers, Richard de Luci, Reginald de Mowbray, Simon de Beauchamp, Humphrey de Bohun, Matthew de Hereford, Walter de Mayenne, Manser Biset the steard, William Malet, William de Courcy, Robert de Dunstaville, Jocelin de Baillol, William de Lanvallei, William de Caisnet, Geoffrey de Vere, William de Hastings, Hugh de Moreville, Alan de Neville, Simon Fitz Peter, William Maudit the chamberlain, John Maudit, John Marshall, Peter de Mara, and many other great men and nobles of the kingdom both clergy and laymen.

A certain part of the customs and dignities which were recognized is contained in the present writing. Of
which part these are the articles:

1. If a controversy arise between laymen, or between laymen and clerks, or between clerks concerning
patronage and presentation of churches, it shall be treated or concluded in the court of the lord king.

2. Churches of the lord king's fee cannot be permanently bestowed without his consent and grant.

3. Clerks charged and accused of any matter, summoned by the king's justice, shall come into his court to
answer there to whatever it shall seem to the king's court should be answered there; and in the church
court to what it seems should be answered there; however the king's justice shall send into the court of
holy Church for the purpose of seeing how the matter shall be treated there. And if the clerk be convicted
or confess, the church ought not to protect him further.

4. It is not permitted the archbishops, bishops, and priests of the kingdom to leave the kingdom without
the lord king's permission. And if they do leave they are to give security, if the lord king please, that they
will seek no evil or damage to king or kingdom in going, in making their stay, or in returning.

5. Excommunicate persons ought not to give security for an indefinite time, or give an oath, but only
security and pledge for submitting to the judgment of the church in order that they may be absolved.

6. Laymen ought not to be accused save by dependable and lawful accusers and witnesses in the presence
of the bishop, yet so that the archdeacon lose not his right or anything which he ought to have thence.
And if there should be those who are deemed culpable, but whom no one wishes or dares to accuse, the
sheriff, upon the bishop's request, shall cause twelve lawful men of the neighborhood or the vill to take
oath before the bishop that they will show the truth of the matter according to their conscience.

7. No one who holds of the king in chief or any of the officials of his demesne is to be excommunicated or
his lands placed under interdict unless the lord king, if he be in the land, or his justiciar, if he be outside
the kingdom, first gives his consent, that he may do for him what is right: yet so that what pertains to
the royal court be concluded there, and what looks to the church court be sent thither to be concluded
there.

8. As to appeals which may arise, they should pass from the archdeacon to the bishop, and from the
bishop to the archbishop. And if the archbishop fail in furnishing justice, the matter should come to the
lord king at the last, that at his command the litigation be concluded in the archbishop's court; and so
because it should not pass further without the lord king's consent.

9. If litigation arise between a clerk concerning any holding which the clerk would bring to charitable tenure
but the layman to lay fee, it shall be determined on the decision of the king's chief justice by the
recognition of twelve lawful men in the presence of the king's justice himself whether the holding pertain to
charitable tenure or to lay fee. And if the recognition declare it to be charitable tenure, it shall be litigated
in the church court, but if lay fee, unless both plead under the same bishop or baron, the litigation shall be
in the royal court. But if both plead concerning that fief under the same bishop or baron, it shall be
litigated in his court; yet so that he who was first seised lose not his seisin on account of the recognition
that was made, until the matter be determined by the plea.

10. If any one who is of a city, castle, borough, or demesne manor of the king shall be cited by
archdeacon or bishop for any offense for which he ought to beheld answerable to them and despite their
summonses he refuse to do what is right, it is fully permissible to place him under interdict, but he ought
not to be excommunicated before the king's chief official of that vill shall agree, in order that he may
authoritatively constrain him to come to his trial. But if the king's official fail in this, he himself shall be in
the lord king's mercy; and then the bishop shall be able to coerce the accused man by ecclesiastical
authority.

11. Archbishops, bishops, and all ecclesiastics of the kingdom who hold of the king in chief have their
possessions of the lord king as barony and answer for them to the king's justices and ministers and follow
and do all royal rights and customs; and they ought, just like other barons, to be present at the
judgments of the lord king's court along with the barons, until it come in judgment to loss of limbs or
death.

12. When an archbishopric or bishopric, or an abbey or priory of the king's demesne shall be vacant, it
ought to be in his hands, and he shall assume its revenues and expenses as pertaining to his demesne.
And when the time comes to provide fro the church, the lord king should notify the more important clergy
of the church, and the election should be held in the lord king's own chapel with the assent of the lord
king and on the advice of the clergy of the realm whom he has summoned for the purpose. And there,
before he be consecrated, let the elect perform homage and fealty to the lord king as his liege lord for life,
limbs, and earthly honor, saving his order.

13. If any of the great men of the kingdom should forcibly prevent archbishop, bishop, or archdeacon
from administering justice in which he or his men were concerned, then the lord king ought to bring such
an one to justice. And if it should happen that any one deforce the lord king of his right, archbishops,
bishops, and archdeacons ought to constrain him to make satisfaction to the lord king.

14. Chattels which have been forfeited to the king are not to be held in churches or cemeteries against the
king's justice, because they belong to the king whether they be found inside churches or outside.

15. Pleas concerning debts, which are owed on the basis of an oath or in connection with which no oath
has been taken, are in the king's justice.

16. Sons of villeins should not be ordained without the consent of the lord on whose land it is ascertained
they were born.

The declaration of the above-mentioned royal customs and dignities has been made by the archbishops,
bishops, earls, barons, and the nobler and older men of the kingdom, at Clarendon on the fourth day
before the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, lord Henry being present there with the lord king his
father. There are, indeed, many other great customs and dignities of holy mother church and of the lord
king and barons of the kingdom, which are not included in this writing, but which are to be preserved to
holy church and to the lord king and his heirs and the barons of the kingdom, and are to be kept inviolate
for ever.

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