CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON AS A CAUSE OF CONFLICT

CONSTITUTION OF CLARENDON: 1164

Legislation passed in England by Henry II
They were made up of 16 articles or constitutions and was Henry’s attempt to restrict the Church’s power and increase his
They were to restore the power balance and relationship that was present in Henry I’s reign
The main point was to confront the issue of criminous clerks and bring them back under secular law and punishment
Thomas Becket resisted the constitutions viewing them as a personal insult and an infringements on both his rights and the rights of the Church
Henry II then exiled Becket and his family, arguments still continued and so he altered two of the constitutions that affected canon law but left the rest as state law

The constitutions of Clarendon were a cause of conflict between Henry II and Thomas Becket?

When Henry became King of England in 1154 after Stephen, the country was in disarray. Stephen had let both the Church and the aristocracy run wild without curbing their power. Illegal castles were all over the country and the power balance that had worked well during his grandfather’s reign (Henry I) had been destroyed. So Henry called for the constitutions of Clarendon, he with some of his advisors drew up a list of declarations or constitutions that would dictate the church/state relationship before presenting it to Becket for his signature. Becket declined, knowing that if he signed the declaration his power and influence within the Church would weaken as the secular drew more omnipresence in everyday life. The constitutions were to lay out in writing what each party expected of the other, for Henry this meant that criminal clerks would be handed over to his secular courts to be judged either instead of or after the ecclesiastical courts. This was because Henry felt that the Church’s punishment by humiliation was not severe enough and wished them to be tried as if they were an ordinary man who had committed the same crime. Becket was scared not because he was being asked to agree to them, but because he had to sign a paper copy, the codifying of the constitutions meant that Henry was taking sure steps to make sure the Church bowed to him, he threatened a much more strict observance of these constitutions. The Pope did not like the constitutions and the limitations this would bring to the Church’s ability to operate in England and so forbade Thomas to sign it. The conflict came between Becket continually having to decide between which “master” he was going to serve – his God or his King. Unfortunately for Henry, Becket chose his God.

CONSTITUTIONS

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

2. Churches of the fee of the lord king cannot, unto all time, be given without his assent and concession.

3. Clerks charged and accused of anything, being summoned by the Justice of the king, shall come into his court, about to respond there for what it seems to the king's court that he should respond there; and in the ecclesiastical court for what it seems he should respond there; so that the Justice of the king shall send to the court of the holy church to see in what manner the affair will there be carried on. And if the clerk shall be convicted, or shall confess, the church ought not to protect him further.

4. It is not lawful for archbishops, bishops, and persons of the kingdom to go out of the kingdom without the permission of the lord king. And if it please the king and they go out, they shall give assurance that neither in going, nor in making a stay, nor in returning, will they seek the hurt or harm of king or kingdom.

5. The excommunicated shall not give a pledge as a permanency, nor take an oath, but only a pledge and surety of presenting themselves before the tribunal of the church, that they may be absolved.

6. Laymen ought not to be accused unless through reliable and legal accusers and witnesses in the presence of the bishop, in such wise that the archdean do not lose his right, nor any thing which he ought to have from it. And if those who are inculpated are such that no one wishes or dares to accuse them, the sheriff, being requested by the bishop, shall cause twelve lawful men of the neigh bourhood or town to swear in the presence of the bishop that they will make manifest the truth in this matter, according to their conscience.

7. No one who holds of the king in chief, and no one of his demesne servitors, shall be excommunicated, nor shall the lands of any one of them be placed under an interdict, unless first the lord king, if he be in the land, or his Justice, if he be without the kingdom, be asked to do justice concerning him: and in such way that what shall pertain to the king's court shall there be terminated; and with regard to that which concerns the ecclesiastical court, he shall be sent thither in order that it may there be treated of.

8. Concerning appeals, if they shall arise, from the archdean they shall proceed to the bishop, from the bishop to the archbishop. And if the archbishop shall fail to render justice, they must come finally to the lord king, in order that by his command the controversy may be terminated in the court of the archbishop, so that it shall not proceed further without the consent of the lord king.

9. If a quarrel arise between a clerk and a layman or between a layman and a clerk concerning any tenement which the clerk wishes to attach to the church property but the layman to a lay fee: by the inquest of twelve lawful men, through the judgment of the chief Justice of the king, it shall be determined, in the presence of the Justice himself, whether the tenement belongs to the church property, or to the lay fee. And if it be recognized as belonging to the church property, the case shall be pleaded in the ecclesiastical court; but if to the lay fee, unless both are holders from the same bishop or baron, the case shall be pleaded in the king's court. But if both vouch to warranty for that fee before the same bishop or baron, the case shall be pleaded in his court; in such way that, on account of the inquest made, he who was first in possession shall not lose his seisin, until, through the pleading, the case shall have been proven.

10. Whoever shall belong to the city or castle or fortress or demesne manor of the lord king, if he be summoned by the archdean or bishop for any offense for which he ought to respond to them, and he be unwilling to answer their summonses, it is perfectly right to place him under the interdict; but he ought not to be excommunicated until the chief servitor of the lord king of that town shall be asked to compel him by law to answer the summonses. And if the servitor of the king be negligent in this matter, he himself shall be at the mercy of the lord king, and the bishop may thenceforth visit the man who was accused with ecclesiastical justice.

11. Archbishops, bishops, and all persons of the kingdom who hold of the king in chief have their possessions of the lord king as a barony, and answer for them to the Justices and servitors of the king, and follow and perform all the customs and duties as regards the king; and, like other barons, they ought to be present with the barons at the judgments of the court of the lord king, until it comes to a judgment to loss of life or limb.

12. When an archbishopric is vacant, or a bishopric, or an abbey, or a priory of the demesne of the king, it ought to be in his hand; and he ought to receive all the revenues and incomes from it, as demesne ones. And, when it comes to providing for the church, the lord king should summon the more important persons of the church, and, in the lord king's own chapel, the election ought to take place with the assent of the lord king and with the counsel of the persons of the kingdom whom he had called for this purpose. And there, before he is consecrated, the person elected shall do homage and fealty to the lord king as to his liege lord, for his life and his members and his earthly honours, saving his order.

13. If any of the nobles of the kingdom shall have dispossessed an archbishop or bishop or archdean, the lord king should compel them personally or through their families to do justice. And if by chance any one shall have dispossessed the lord king of his right, the archbishops and bishops and archdeans ought to compel him to render satisfaction to the lord king.

14. A church or cemetery shall not, contrary to the king's justice, detain the chattels of those who are under penalty of forfeiture to the king, for they (the chattels) are the king's, whether they are found within the churches or without them.

15. Pleas concerning debts which are due through the giving of a bond, or without the giving of a bond, shall be in the jurisdiction of the king.

16. The sons of rustics may not be ordained without the consent of the lord on whose land they are known to have been born.

	Created by marialidd about 10 years ago

BA Hons Medieval History (Causes and consequence of Becket's and Henry II disputes) Note on Constitutions of Clarendon as a Cause of Conflict, created by marialidd on 16/05/2014.