THE CORONATION OATH OF KING STEPHEN (1136).
Source.—William of Malmesbury, De gestis regum Anglorum, ed. Stubbs, vol. ii., p. 541. (Rolls Series.)
“I, Stephen, by the grace of God, by assent of the clergy and people, elected king of England, and consecrated by the lord William, archbishop of Canterbury and legate of the holy Roman Church, and afterwards confirmed by Innocent, Pope of the holy see of Rome, out of reverence and love for God, grant that Holy Church be free, and confirm to it due reverence. I promise that I will not do or permit any simony in the church or in matters ecclesiastical. I admit that justice and power over ecclesiastical persons and all clerks and over their goods, and the distribution of ecclesiastical goods is in the hands of the bishops, and I confirm the same. I decree that the immunities of churches confirmed by their charters, and their customs observed by ancient use, remain inviolate, and I confirm the same. I grant that all possessions and holdings of churches, which they had on the day on which king William my grandfather was alive and dead, be theirs freely and absolutely, quit of all recovery by any claimants. But as touching anything held or possessed before the death of the king, whereof the church is now deprived, and for which the church shall sue hereafter, I reserve the same to my indulgence and dispensation for discussion or restitution. Moreover I confirm all grants made after the death of the king by the generosity of kings, the benefaction of princes, or the offering or sale or exchange of the faithful. I promise to make peace and to do justice in all things, and to preserve the same so far as in me lies. I reserve to myself the forests which king William my grandfather, and William the Second my uncle made and held; the rest, which king Henry added thereto, I give back and grant quit to the churches and the realm. And if any bishop or abbot or other ecclesiastical person before his death shall reasonably distribute his goods, or ordain the distribution thereof, I grant that the same shall remain valid; and if he be forestalled by death, the same distribution shall be made for the salvation of his soul by the counsel of his church. Moreover when sees be void of their proper pastors, both they and all the possessions thereof shall be committed into the hand and guardianship of the clerks and good men of the same church, until a pastor be canonically instituted. I utterly uproot all exactions and fines and injustices evilly imposed whether by sheriffs or by others whomsoever. I will observe good laws and the ancient and just customs in murder-fines and pleas and other causes, and I command and ordain that the same be observed. Given at Oxford in the year 1136 after the incarnation of our Lord, in the first year of my reign.”
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I scorn to give the names of the many witnesses, for he so basely broke almost all his promises, as if he had sworn only in order to show himself to the whole realm as an oath-breaker. I must speak the truth, gentlest of princes though he was; for if he had lawfully obtained the kingdom, and in administering the same had not lent too ready an ear to the intrigues of evil-minded men, verily little would have been lacking to his royal dignity. Under him, however, the treasure of some churches was plundered, their landed possessions were given to laymen; the churches of the clergy were sold to aliens; bishops were imprisoned and forced to transfer their goods; and abbeys were granted to unworthy men, either to reward friends or to pay debts. Still I consider that these evils must be ascribed to his counsellors rather than to himself; for they persuaded him that he need never lack money so long as there were monasteries packed with treasure.
FEUDAL ANARCHY UNDER STEPHEN.
Source.—The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Thorpe, vol. i., p. 382. (Rolls Series.)
When the traitors perceived that he was a mild man, and soft and good, and did no justice, then did they all wonder. They had done homage to him and sworn oaths, but had held no faith; they were all forsworn and brake their fealty; for every mighty man built his castles and held them against him; and they filled the land full of castles. They cruelly oppressed the wretched men of the land with castle-works. When the castles were made, they filled them with devils and evil men. Then they took those men whom they deemed to have any possessions, both by night and by day, husbandmen and women, and put them in prison for gold and silver, and tortured them with unspeakable torture, for never were martyrs so tortured as they were. They hanged them up by the feet, and smoked them with foul smoke; they hanged them by the thumbs or by the head, and hung fires on their feet; they put knotted cords about their heads, and twisted them so that it went to the brain. They put them in dungeons, in which were adders and snakes and toads, and so killed them. Some they put in a “crucet hus,” that is, in a chest that was short and narrow and shallow, and put sharp stones therein, and pressed the man therein, so that they brake all his limbs. In many of the castles were ... neck-bonds, so that two or three men had enough to bear one. It was made thus, that is, fastened to a beam; and they put a sharp iron about the man’s throat and his neck, so that he might no wise sit or lie or sleep, but must bear all that iron. Many thousands they killed with hunger; I cannot and may not tell all the wounds or all the tortures which they wrought on wretched men in this land; and it lasted the nineteen winters while Stephen was king; and ever it was worse and worse. They laid gelds on the towns continually ...; when the wretched men had no more to give, they robbed and burned all the towns, so that thou mightest well go all a day’s journey, and thou wouldst never find a man settled in a town, nor the land tilled. Then was corn dear, and meat and cheese and butter, for there was none in the land. Wretched men died of hunger; some went seeking alms, who were sometime rich men; some fled out of the land. Never yet had more wretchedness been in the land, nor did heathen men ever do worse than they did; for everywhere they spared neither church nor churchyard, but took all the goods that were therein, and then burned the church and all together. Nor spared they a bishop’s land, nor an abbot’s, nor a priest’s, but robbed monks and clerks, and every man another who anywhere could. If two or three men came riding to a town, all the township fled before them, deeming that they were robbers. The bishops and clergy cursed them ever, but nothing came thereof, for they were all accursed and forsworn and lost. However a man tilled, the earth bare no corn, for the land was all undone with such deeds, and they said openly that Christ slept, and his saints. Such and more than we can say we endured nineteen winters for our sins.