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 be granted in perpetuity without his consent 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 that 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 abiding by the judgment 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 anything 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 neighborhood 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 justicar, 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 seisen, 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 being unwilling to answer their summons, 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 summons, 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.

II. 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 of 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 council of 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 honors, saving his order.

13. If any of the nobles of the kingdom shall have prevented an archbishop or bishop or archdean from doing justice upon himself or his, the lord king shall compel them to do justice. And if by chance anyone 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 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. Moreover, a record of the aforesaid royal customs and dignities has been made by the aforesaid archbishops and bishops, and counts and barons, and nobles and elders of the kingdom at Clarendon on the fourth day before the purification of the blessed Mary the perpetual virgin; the Lord Henry being then present with his father the lord king; there are, moreover, many other and great customs and dignities of the holy mother church, and of the lord king, and of the barons of the kingdom, which are not contained in this writ, and may they be preserved to the holy church, and to the lord king, and to his heirs, and to the barons of the kingdom, and may they be inviolably observed forever."

Cotton, Claud, B. 2. f. 26; Stubbs, 135; Gee and Hardy, 68.

John's Grant of England to the Pope, 1213.

(Henderson's Trans.)

"John, by the grace of God, King of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou, to all the faithful of Christ who shall look upon this present charter, greeting. We

wish it to be known to all you, through this our charter, furnished with our seal, that inasmuch as we had offended in many ways God and our mother the holy church, and in consequence are known to have very much needed the divine mercy, and cannot offer anything worthy for making due satisfaction to God and to the church unless we humiliate ourselves for him who humiliated himself for us unto death, the grace of the holy spirit inspiring, not induced by force or compelled by fear, but of our own good and spontaneous will and by the common counsel of our barons, do offer and freely concede to God and to his holy apostles, Peter and Paul, and to our mother the holy Roman church, and to our Lord Pope Innocent and to his Catholic successors, the whole Kingdom of England and the whole Kingdom of Ireland, with all their rights and appurtenances, for the remission of our own sins and those of our whole race, as well for the living as for the dead; and now receiving and holding them, as it were a vassal, from God and the Roman church, in the presence of that prudent man Pandulph, sub-deacon and of the household of the lord pope, we perform and swear fealty for them to him our aforesaid Lord pope Innocent, and his Catholic successors and the Roman church, according to the form appended, and in the presence of the Lord Pope if we shall be able to come before him we shall do liege homage to him; binding our successors and our heirs by our wife forever, in similar manner to perform fealty and show homage to him who shall be chief pontiff at that time, and to the Roman church without demur. At a sign, moreover, of this our perpetual obligation and concession we will and establish that from the proper and especial revenues of our aforesaid kingdoms, for all the service and customs which we ought to render for them, saving in all things the penny of St. Peter, the Roman church shall receive yearly a thousand marks sterling, namely, at the Feast of St. Michael five hundred marks, and at Easter five hundred marks--seven hundred, namely, for the Kingdom of England, and three hundred for the Kingdom of Ireland-saving to us and to our heirs our rights, liberties and regalia; all of which things, as they have been described above, we wish to have perpetually valid and firm; and we bind ourselves and our successors not to act counter to them. And if we or anyone of our successors shall presume to attempt this, whoever he be, unless being duly warned he come to his senses, he shall lose his right to the kingdom, and this charter of our obligation and concession shall always remain firm.

Form of the Oath of Fealty.

I, John, by the grace of God, King of England and Lord of Ireland, from this hour forth will be faithful to God and St. Peter and the Roman church and my lord Pope Innocent and his successors who are ordained in the Catholic manner. I shall not bring it about by deed, word, consent or counsel, that they lose life or member or be taken captive. I will impede their being harmed, if I know of it, and will cause harm to be removed from them if I shall be able; otherwise, as quickly as I can, I will intimate it or tell of it to such persons as I believe for certain will inform them. Any counsel which they entrust to me through themselves or through their envoys or through their letters, I will keep secret, nor will I knowingly disclose it to anyone to their harm. I will aid to the best of my ability in holding and defending against all men the patrimony of St. Peter, and especially the kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland. So may God and these holy gospels aid me. I myself bearing witness in the house of the Knights Templar near Dover, in the presence of Master H., Archbishop of Dublin, etc., on the fifteenth day of May, in the fourteenth year of our reign.

Cotton, Nero, C. 2; Foedera I, 3-12; Stubbs, 284; Henderson, 430; Gee and Hardy, 75.

The Ecclesiastical Charter of John, 1214.

("The provisions of this charter held good in law up to the Reformation, even if in actual practice they were not seldom evaded. They underlie the legislation of the Reformation and through it exercise an influence on the law at the present day."-Makower, 29.)

(Gee and Hardy Trans.)

"John, etc., (agreement being now made between king and bishops.) We wish not only to make satisfaction to them, as far as in God we can, but also to make sound and beneficial provision for all the church of England forever; and so whatsoever custom has been hitherto observed in the English church, in our times and those of our predecessors, and whatsoever right we have claimed for ourselves hitherto in the election of any prelates, we have at their own petition, for the health of our soul and the souls of our predecessors and successors kings of England, freely of our mere and spontaneous will, with the common consent of our barons, granted and constituted, and by this our present charter have confirmed: that henceforth in all and singular churches and monasteries, cathedral