A.D. MLXXVI. LANFRANC'S CANONS AT WINCHESTER. Sir H. p. 13. LANFRANC, archbishop of Canterbury, assembled another LATIN. council at Winchester, Indict. 14, the most glorious William Spelman, reigning in Britain, Lanfranc presiding at Canterbury †, vol. ii. Thomas at York; on that year I say a council was held at Wilkins, Winchester, on the kalends of April, by the same primate of vol. i the church of Canterbury; and therein was the cause of [Addenda.] Aylrica our brother, formerly bishop of Chichester, determined, and brought to a final issue: and therein it was also decreed, &c. The legate a Aylric, or Egelric, is the same name with Agelric. deposed him, and the Conqueror, we have heard, had by force thrust him from his see into a gaol at Marlburgh, but without crime. And now things being brought to a sort of a settlement, he applied to the archbishop in synod for his enlargement. For by the old laws of England, which the Conqueror pretended to observe, ecclesiastics were to be tried by bishops only. (See MLXIV. 5, &c.) And this bishop was very famous for his knowledge in the laws and constitution of England: insomuch that he was brought in a waggon (quadriga) to Pinnenden-Feath in Kent, to assist at the determining of a great cause there, tried between Odo bishop of Bayeux, (who was also the king's brother, and earl of Kent,) and Lanfranc the archbishop in 1074. It was probably by Aylric's means that Lanfranc recovered his lands then in dispute. (For it does Lot appear, that there was then any such distinct rank of men as those now called lawyers.) And at the same time the archbishop recovered some secular privileges, as that neither king nor earl could claim any thing in the archbishop's lands, excepting that if the archbishop's men digged a ditch, or felled a tree in the king's highway; or that murder or bloodshed was committed, and the party taken in the fact; the satisfaction was to the king; if he were not taken in the fact, the satisfaction belonged to the archbishop. Farther, it was adjudged that the archbishop had satisfaction due to him for murder committed even on the king's and earl's land, from such time as they cease to sing alleluia, (that is, I conceive, from Septuagesima,) till low-Sunday; and also half the cyldpice or satisfaction for a child unlawfully begotten. Lambard calls this the correction of adultery and fornication, and says, the bishops ["Ex M. Parker Antiq. Brit. eccl. ed. London, p. 173." Archbishop Parker notes his authority in the margin thus; "Ex lib. constitutionum ecclesia Wigorn., p. 101." The same JOHNSON, C canons are also extant in Bodl. MS. [Johnson omits totius Britannie p. 367. had not yet gotten it wholly into their hands, because the king had half the forfeiture; whereas in truth this child-wite was a mere secular right, and part of the archbishop's royalty. The correction of the offender for his soul's health was a distinct thing, and had ever been the right of every bishop within his own diocese. Aylric, who had carried the cause for the archbishop, could not fail of pleading his own cause effectually, when he came to a fair hearing. His bishopric indeed (which was that of Seolsey, now Chichester) was irrecoverably gone, by royal will and pleasure of the Conqueror; but even his successor Stigand, who now sat as one of his judges, could do no less than vote him his liberty. The good man could not long survive this; for Eadmer, in his life of Dunstan*, (where he speaks of the other with respect,) says, that he was almost contemporary to that archbishop, who had been now dead 88 years.] 1. That no canon have a wife; that such priests as live in castles and villages be not forced to dismiss wives, if they have them; but such as have not are forbidden to have any. And for the future, let bishops take care to ordain no man priest or deacon, unless he first profess that he hath no wife. [Addenda.] [An oath of chastity was in this age imposed on all that entered into the superior orders, as Sir H. Spelman proves by a letter written by Gerard, archbishop of York, to Anselm, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, in which are words to this effect, "when I call on any to enter into [the superior] orders, they oppose it with a stiff neck, that they may not upon their ordination profess chastity +." He justly supposes that the oath was now the same with that mentioned by me in 740 MS. Preface: yet it is clear from this canon, and from can. 4. 1102, that this oath had not been universally taken of late years.] 2. That no clergyman or monk be received without his bishop's letters: and if a monk be canonically received, yet let him not publicly serve in the churches. 3. It is decreed that no clergyman, either in the city or country, pay any service for his ecclesiastical benefice, but what he paid in the time of King Edward. This is to be understood of secular service, viz., finding men or arms for the wars, paying any rent in coin, money, or work to the lord, either mean or sovereign. For not only the king himself, but his great men did all they could to humble the poor English clergy: yet Lanfranc and the Norman bishops seem to condemn this: but to very little purpose. 4. If laymen are accused of any crime, and will not obey * [Eadmeri Vit. S. Dunst. prolog. [Spelman, vol. ii. p. 23.] the bishop, let them be summoned three several times; if upon the third summons they are never the better, let them be excommunicated. If after their being excommunicate they come to make satisfaction, let them pay their forfeiture to the bishop for every summons. • This forfeiture is thus expressed in the Latin, forisfacturam, quæ Anglice vocatur Oferhyrness seu Cahslyte. Orenhynnerr is the old Saxon word for disobedience or contumacy. [The forfeiture for contumacy to the [Addenda.] bishop, according to law 35 of Henry I., was 20 marks.] I have never elsewhere met with the other word; but it seems to me to signify a contempt of the keys, that is, of ecclesiastical authority: as Lahrlite signifies a mulet for the contempt of the common law; quasi Laga-slite; so tablice was a forfeiture for the contempt of the keys; quasi Læga-slite†. (Somner here reads Lahslite.) And since those Norman bishops had the name from the old English Saxons, we may safely conclude they had the thing too: I mean, that they cited men before them by a pure ecclesiastical authority, and might lay mulcts on them that were guilty of contumacy, and that therefore they had courts distinct from the secular. See King William's rescript following next after these canons. 5. Farther, it is ordained that no man give his daughter or kinswoman in marriage without the priest's benediction: other marriage shall be deemed fornication. d 6. We forbid all supplantation of churches. * William the Conqueror and his minions endeavoured to strip churches and monasteries of their estates by enquiring into the titles by which they held them: the clergy and monks were destitute of written deeds and charters, whereby to give such evidence of their right as the Normans demanded : in some cases the old English Saxons conveyed their lands by instruments in writing; yet for the most part estates were given by word of mouth, and by delivering a sword, a staff, or the like: but for want of charters they lost a great share of their endowments: this is what the synod here calls a supplantation of churches. And there is reason to believe that the third canon and this made little impression upon the consciences of the Normans. Ingulphus was made abbot of Croyland this very year, and was the king's great favourite, though of English extract; yet he found occasion to forge a set of charters, whereby to secure the lands of his abbey from these harpies for the monks made no conscience of supplanting the supplanters, and this was the cause of so many false deeds and charters as are every where to be found in the repositories of the antiquarians. [Overseunesse . . . episcopi X. mane. T.] + [Cahslite in Spelman is probably a mere mistake, because he here quotes not from a manuscript, but from Antiq. Brit. Eccl. impr. Hanoviæ, 1605, P114, where the word is lahslite, as in the other edition, London, 1729: no LATIN. A.D. MLXXXV. A KING WILLIAM THE FIRST'S MANDATE FOR SEPARAT- WILLIAM, by the grace of God king of the English, to R. Bainard, G. of Magneville, and Peter of Valoins, and all my liege men of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex, [Wilkins, greeting. Sir H. vol. i. This is without date, as very many ancient instruments of the greatest importance were. Sir H. Spelman, justly I think, places it about A.D. 1085. The Norman bishops prevailed on the king to make this great alteration in the constitution, by which the spiritualty was more untacked than the temporalty; and it was very agreeable to the temper of the Church of Rome, which always declared against clergymen's meddling with secular judicatures +. But they are greatly mistaken who think that the bishops and prelates got any thing by this separation. For they ever had their distinct judicatures for merely spiritual matters, and it is greatly to be lamented that they ever assumed to themselves the cognizance of any civil matters in their own courts. However it will appear that this separation occasioned great disputes, (see articles of Clarendon). The old English bishops were probably neither disposed nor encouraged to sit in temporal courts with the then Norman lords: the Norman bishops declined it, as contrary to their scheme of government; so that the judicatures might be separated in fact long before this law was made. Know ye, and all my liege men in England, that I have determined that the episcopal laws be mended (as having not been right according to the tenor of the canons, even to my time, in the realm of the English) by a common council, and by a council of my archbishops, bishops, abbots, and principal men of my kingdom: wherefore I command and charge you by royal authority, that no bishop nor archdeacon do hereafter hold plea in the hundred, according to the laws ["Ex cod. MS. penes dec. et capit eccl. cathed. S. Pauli London. A. fol. 1. a. collat. cum registro Lincoln. Remigius, fol. 9."] ["950. 5. See ad A.D. 1064 in Addend. note a, and 1076. 4." MS. note Wrangham.] episcopal, nor bring those causes before the secular judicature, which concern the regimen of souls. But whoever is impleaded by the laws episcopal, for any causes or crime, let him come to the place which the bishop shall choose and name for this purpose, and there make answer concerning his cause and crime; and that not according to the "hundred, but according to the canons and the laws episcopal, and let him do right to God and the bishop. But if any one being lifted up with pride, refuse to come to the bishop's court, let him be summoned three several times; and if by this means he be not brought to obedience, let application be made to the power and court of the king or sheriff; and he who upon summons refuses to come to the episcopal court shall make satisfaction for every summons, according to the laws episcopal. This also I absolutely forbid, that any sheriff, provost, minister of the king*, do any ways concern himself with the laws which belong to the bishop, or bring another man to judgment any where but in the bishop's court. And let judgment be no where undergone but in the bishop's see, or in that place which he appoints for this purpose. * Hundred here signifies not only the lesser court kept in every district that had ten tithings, but every common law court, that of the county not Excepted for that was but a collection of many hundreds, and every lesser court consisted of one or more of these hundreds; for they were not confined to any certain number. Here the king expressly owns a satisfaction due to the bishop for not appearing at his summons before the making of this partition of judicatures; therefore there can be no reasonable doubt, but that the bishop exercised a separate jurisdiction in foregoing times. But he sat in the county court too, and he or his archdeacon in every lesser hundred court. For there he was sure to meet such offenders (if they were to be found) as would not appear without force. And farther, it was his duty to assist the alderman or sheriff in dispensing civil justice. By judgment here I understand ordeal. [I have not taken into this collection the laws ecclesiastical of King [Addenda.] Henry I., partly because they were too bulky, and so interwoven with the temporal laws as not easily to be separated; but especially because in the main they contain very little besides repetitions of the Saxonic laws, which I have already given my reader in the former volume. The English in these and the foregoing reigns desired, and even de [Johnson omits nec aliquis laicus homo. S. W.] |