CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON, 1164.
Source.—Historical Documents of the Middle Ages. Henderson. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
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.
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 his 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.
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.
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 Justiciar, if he be without the kingdom, be asked to do justice concerning him.
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 judgement 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.
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 offence 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.
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.
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.
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.