e That is, the tonsure or circle on the crown of the head, which was always kept shaved. 13. That 'tithes be not paid but to the Church only. This seems to intimate that the Norman lords had impropriated some tithes, and that the synod intended to resume them. 14. That churches or prebends be not bought. 15. That new chapels be not made without consent of the bishop. 16. That churches be not consecrated till all necessaries be provided for the priest and it. 17. That abbots do not make soldiers, and that they eat and sleep in the same house with their monks, except in case of necessity. [By facere milites here we may understand "creating of knights." [Addenda.] Great abbacies were now baronies, every baron was to maintain several knights; these abbots were bound to do this, as well as other barons. But they are here forbid to invest them in their knighthood, according to the forms and ceremonies used by secular barons. This was thought inconsistent with their character, as they were ecclesiastics.] 18. That monks enjoin penance to none without their abbot's consent, and that abbots give no licence to enjoin it to any but such whose souls are intrusted to their care. 19. That monks be not godfathers, nor nuns godmothers. 20. That monks may not hire farms. 21. That monks do not accept [of the impropriations] of churches without the bishop's consent, nor so rob those which are given them of their revenues, that the priests who serve them be in want of necessaries*. 22. That promises of marriage made between man and woman without witness be null, if either party deny them. 23. That they who have hair be so clipped that part of their ears be visible, and their eyes not covered. 24. That they who are related within the seventh degree be not coupled in marriage, nor cohabit if married; and if any that is conscious to this crime do not discover it, let him. acknowledge himself a complice in the incest. See Lanfranc's canon, 6. 1075. [ut presbyteri ibi servientes, in his, quæ sibi et ecclesiis necessaria sunt, penuriam patiantur, S. W.] 25. That corpses be not carried out of their parishes to be buried, so that the priest of their parish lose his just dues. h The canon law in this case obliged those who had buried the corpse in their church or churchyard to take it up and resign it to the church to which it belonged while alive. Decretal, lib. iii. tit. 28. c. 5, 6. 26. Let no one attribute reverence or sanctity to a dead body or a fountain, or other thing (as it sometimes is to our knowledge) without the bishop's authority. i This stupid superstition continued down to the fourteenth century. It is complained of and forbid in a diocesan synod at Winchester, A. D. 1308, Sir H. Spelman, vol. ii. p. 456, and is still continued with the approbation of the ruling part of the Church of Rome. 27. That none exercise that wicked trade which has hitherto been practised in England, of selling men like beasts. 28. In the same synod, profligate, obstinate sodomites, were struck with anathema, till by confession and penance they deserve absolution: and it was ordained that if any ecclesiastical person were guilty of this crime, he be never admitted to any higher order, and that he be degraded from that in which he is: if any layman, that he be deprived of all lawful dignity in the whole realm, and that no one but the bishop presume to absolve him, except he be a 'vowed regular. * This is left out in the first copy of Sir H. Spelman, and the reason is plain, viz., that this filthy vice was then so rife that Anselm was forced to forbear the publication of it every Lord's day, according to the decree of council and indeed it is particularly observed, that all these canons were soon brought into contempt, insomuch that the clergy of York province absolutely refused to profess chastity upon their ordinations, and to submit to the other regulations here enjoined: even the most beastly sin here mentioned found its patrons; insomuch that Anselm himself was awed into a connivance at it, till this king about the tenth year of his reign was pleased to countenance the execution of these canons. 1 Vowed regulars were to be absolved by their abbots, or other superiors. 29. That the aforesaid excommunication be published in all churches throughout England, every Lord's day. *["Vid. Edgar's Canons, A.D. 960. 16." MS. note Wrangham.] A.D. MCVII. PREFACE. COMPROMISE OF INVESTITURES. AFTER a long dispute between King Henry I. and Archbishop Anselm upon the point of investitures, the king finding that the pope was against him, and that though Girard, archbishop of York, was willing to consecrate such as received investiture from the king, yet William Giffard, bishop elect of Winchester, refused to be consecrated by him; and Reinelm, bishop of Hereford, resigned his bishopric upon a scruple of conscience, because he believed himself guilty of a great offence in having received investiture from the king; therefore this wise prince, being not willing to push matters too far, though he had banished William Giffard for his contempt of the archbishop of York's consecration, recalls him, and assembles all his bishops, abbots, and great men at London, where the dispute concerning investitures was compromised by the two following articles. A.D. MCVII. COMPROMISE OF INVESTITURES. LATIN. [Sir H. 1. THAT for the future none be invested by the king, or Spelman, any lay hand, in any bishopric or abbey, by delivering of a vol. ii. p. 27. Wilkins, vol. i. p. 387.] pastoral staff or a ring. 2. By the concession of Anselm, none elected to any prelacy shall be denied consecration upon account of the homage which he does to the king. The king is also said at the same time to have promised that he would forthwith deliver vacant bishoprics and abbeys, to the successors; and the dispute which had lately been revived between the two archbishops concerning the primacy was at the last determined as formerly; and Girard of York, laying his hand on Anselm's of Canterbury, swore the same subjection to him that he had formerly done, when he was consecrated to the bishopric of Hereford; yet this controversy was renewed upon the death of Girard; for Thomas elect of York refused to swear obedience to Anselm; and thereupon Anselm pronounces anathema against any that should consecrate him till he complied. It seems probable that he cursed too all that should abet Thomas in refusing obedience to the see of Canterbury; at least King Henry so understood it; for upon Anselm's death he called a council, and declared he would not continue one hour under Anselm's curse; and therefore with consent of all the bishops and great men, Thomas was obliged to profess obedience in the usual form, to Ralph, Anselm's successor. And, says Hoveden, Anselm consecrated five bishops in one day at Canterbury, (others ["Ex Eadmer. Hist. Nov., lib. iv. p. 91. Cf. R. Hoveden, A.D. 1108, p. 471. ed. Savile."] say six,) the suffragans of that see assisting him in that of fice; that is, as he adds, Girard archbishop of York, Robert of Lincoln, John of Bath, Herbert of Norwich, Robert of Chester, Ralph of Chichester, Ranulph of Durham. No body, as the historian adds, remembered so many bishops elected and consecrated at once, since the time of Plegmund in the reign of Edward the Elder, who consecrated seven bishops to seven churches in the same day*. ⚫ [See in Johnson's first volume, A.D. 908.] |