canonizing Becket, and keeping a festival in honour to him, were publicly read. This archbishop constituted three archdeacons in his diocese, which of old had, and now hath but one; yet some say it was Baldwin did this. Albertus and Theodine, two cardinals, came from Rome to enquire into this murder, and the "king hearing that they were arrived in Normandy, immediately crossed the seas from Ireland to England, and at the place appointed by the cardinal legates, did publicly by oath upon the relics of certain saints, and on the gospels, purge himself from the imputation of having commanded those four men to kill the archbishop; nay, he declared himself much afflicted for his death: but because he apprehended that the indignation which he had expressed against Becket might give occasion to those assassins to commit the bloody fact; and because those malefactors had escaped from justice, (though others say that by the law as it then stood, the murderer of a priest was privileged from suffering death, which yet scarce seems credible,) therefore he swore to perform the following satisfaction before he was absolved, viz., 1. That he would not withdraw his obedience from Pope Alexander and his successors, (for the king had threatened formerly to join with Victor the antipope,) so long as he was treated like a catholic prince. 2. That appeals might be made from England to the see of Rome, so that if the king had any suspicion of the appellors, he might cause them to swear that they meant no hurt to him or his kingdom. 3. That he would for three years wear the cross, and go to Jerusalem to fight for the Holy Land, beginning next summer, except the pope dispensed with him; but his expedition might be deferred for so long a time as he thought fit, to fight against the Saracens in Spain. 4. That he should give so much money to the templars as they should think sufficient to maintain two hundred men to defend the Holy Land for one year. 5. That he should pardon and call home all that were banished on account of Archbishop Becket, and restore all things taken from the monks of Canterbury, and make them in as good condition as they were the year before that archbishop left England. 6. That he would give up all the customs against the Church introduced in his King Henry II. upon this and other occasions paid a great deference to the pope, yet it is evident he did it not out of blind obedience, but for other prudential reasons, as appears by his speech to Hilary bishop of Chichester ; for when that prelate was magnifying the pope's authority, "You argue," says the king, "with much sophistry for the power of the pope, which was granted him by men, against the royal dignity given to me by God." See Spelman, vol. ii. pp. 57, 58*. * [Wilkins, vol. i. p. 431.] A.D. MCLXXV. ARCHBISHOP RICHARD'S CANONS. RICHARD, successor to Thomas Becket in the archbishopric of Canterbury, with eleven English bishops beside himself, and the bishop of St. David's, and four abbots, being together in London, there celebrated a provincial council. King Henry the Second being just returned from Normandy with his son Henry, who was crowned king by his father's order, they were both of them present in the assembly, and consented to what was done. Sir H. 103. The archbishop opened the synod by intimating that he LATIN. rather chose to adhere to the rules of the a fathers than to Spelman, make new ones, and that he had thought fit to have certain vol. ii. heads published and observed by those of his province; and that they who opposed the statutes of this synod were to be deemed transgressors of the sacred canons. Every one of the following canons except the sixth and ninth, is attributed to some pope or council, but they seem to have been transcribed with great latitude or negligence: the first, for instance, is said to be Alexander the Third's, who was at that present pope, and eagerly espoused by our king and Church, in opposition to Victor, who was his rival: and Roger, to whom this epistle is said to be written, did at this time sit in the see of Worcester, and was present in this synod, and there are several letters in the Corp. Jur. Can. directed to our English bishops on this head, and one in particular to the bishop of Worcester, (Decretal. Greg. IX. lib. i. tit. 17. c. 4,) but in words quite different from those here cited: the same may be said of most of the other canons; therefore I have not been so punctilious as to refer my reader to them, unless in some special cases. See Const. of Richard Wethershed, A.D. 1229. [Concilium Westmonasteriense habitum die dominica ante ascensionem Domini anno gratiæ MCLXXV. præsidente eidem Richardo, Cantuariensi archiepiscopo, et convocato suæ provinciæ clero. "Ex MS. Benedicti will Wilkins, p. 476.] 1. From the decretal epistle of Pope Alexander the Third, to Roger bishop of Worcester. If any priest or clerk in 'holy orders, that has a benefice, publicly keeps a concubine, and does not dismiss her upon a third admonition, let him be deprived of office and benefice: any under subdeacons must keep their wives, if they are married; except by mutual consent they choose to be ‘religious : but they are not to be beneficed if they live with their wives. But they who have married since they were subdeacons are to leave their women whether they consent or not *. And dlet not sons be instituted into their fathers' benefices, unless some one succeed between them. b That is, subdeacon or any order above that: for the other orders were inferior. • That is, monks, or recluses; qui ad conversionem (not conversationem) veniunt. Somner. d Yet Clement the Third in the year 1189 allowed all sons of clergymen lawfully begotten to succeed their fathers. His decretal is extant in the first book. Tit. 17. c. 12. 2. From the third council of Carthage +. Let not clerks in [vide supra b] holy orders go to eat and drink in taverns, nor be present at drinking bouts, unless in their travels. Let the offender desist, or be deposed. 3. From the third council of Toledo ‡. Let not a man in [vide supra b] holy orders be concerned in judgments concerning blood; nor by himself, nor by any other, inflict deprivation of member. Let the offender be deprived of office and place. We threaten anathema to that priest who takes the office of sheriff or reeve. 4. From the council of Agde §. Clerks that wear long hair are to be clipped by the arch [So much is given as a constitu tion of Archbishop Richard in Lyndwood's text, Provinciale, p. 128. Concilia, tom. xxi. col. 1088.] Cf. [See Conc. Carthag. III.A.D. 398. can. 27. Concilia, tom. iii. col. 884.] [See Conc. Tolet. XI. A.D. 675. can. 6. Ibid., tom. xi. col. 141.] [See Conc. Agathens. A.D. 506. can. 20. Ibid., tom. viii. col. 328.] deacon even against their will. Nor may they use any clothes or shoes but what are decent. He that does not mend upon admonition, let him be subject to excommuni cation. 5. From divers decrees of Urban, Innocent, the councils of Chalcedon and Carthage. Because clerks for their ignorance, incontinence, defect of birth, title or age, despairing of [higher] orders from their own bishops, procure, or pretend themselves to be ordained by foreign bishops, and so bring seals unknown to their own diocesans; we therefore annul their orders, forbidding with the terror of anathema, any to admit them to the exercise of their function. Let any bishop of our jurisdiction, who knowingly ordains or receives such a clerk, be suspended from conferring that order to which he thus admitted the foreigner, till he makes due satisfaction *. 6. Item. Since the church of God ought to be a house of prayer, not a den of thieves, therefore we forbid under terror of anathema, all secular causes concerning blood and corporal punishment to be tried in churches or churchyards; for they are sanctuaries for the guilty, not courts of blood and cruelty. 7. From the synod of Triburia, or Trevur †. The holy synod detests simoniacal heresy, and ordains that nothing be demanded for orders, chrism, baptism, extreme unction, burial, communion, nor the dedication of a church; but that what is freely received be freely given; let the offender be anathema. 32.] 8. From the decree of Urban the pope ‡. Let no prelate exact, or take by way of bargain, any price [Cf. Lyndwood, Provinciale, p. [See Conc. Tribur. A.D. 895. can. 16. Concil., tom. xviii. col. 140.] [Epist. Urbani P. II. (A.D. 1087.) ad Madelmum. Ibid., tom. xx. col.700.] |