Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages

Ernest Flagg Henderson

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9783849661755
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

To students of history, this book will assuredly become ( to use a hackneyed, but in this case correct word ) indispensable. The documents that are carefully translated in these pages cover nine hundred years of the great medieval period. It is positively delightful to be able to lay hold of a single easily - held volume, and to find all these rich stores at once pleasantly accessible. The volume is divided into four sections or books, each having its own introductory chapter. These sections are England, the Empire, the Church, and Church and State. Under the first head are included Laws of the Conqueror, Bull of Adrian IV. empowering Henry II. to conquer Ireland, Constitutions of Clarendon, Assize of Clarendon, Exchequer Dialogue, Laws of Richard, Magna Carta, Statutes of Mortmain and Quia Emptores, Manner of holding Parliament ( fourteenth century ), and Statute of Labourers. Under the second head are the Salic Law, Capitulary of Charlemagne, Division of the Empire, Treaty at Aix, Truce of God, Peace of the Land, Duchy of Austria, Gelnhausen Charter, Count Palatine as King of the Romans, Golden Bull of Charles IV., and Charter of Heidelberg. Under the third head are the Rule of St. Benedict, Ordeal Formulas, Forged Donation of Constantine, Foundation of Cluny, Summons of Pope Eugene III. to a Crusade, Decree of Papal Elections, 1179, Summons of Pope Innocent III. to genuine fieldwork etc. etc.

Book I. England.

Introduction.

The following short notes concerning the documents here translated, are not intended in any way to be exhaustive. They will fully answer their purpose if they prove to be suggestive, if they seem to make the pieces they refer to desirable and interesting reading. The works of Gneist and Stubbs will furnish all the general knowledge that is necessary as a ground work.

No. I., the laws of William the Conqueror, is probably the sum and substance of all the enactments made by that sovereign. Especially interesting are the reference in § 6 to the wager of battle — the first mention of that institu- tion in English law — and the law against capital punish- ment in § 10. Important also is the act dividing the spiritual from the temporal courts — an act which tended to increase the independence of the clergy.

No. II., the bull of pope Adrian IV., long has been, and still is, an apple of discord among scholars. Is it a genuine document or not? The question is a weighty one, for the transaction it bears witness to was the first step towards the annexation of Ireland to England — an annexation which really took place, after a warlike expedition sixteen vears later. That a papal bull was dispatched to England about this time and concerning this matter is certain. That this was the actual bull sent is doubted by many—I myself am not among the number—from the fact that in form and wording it differs from other papal bulls of the time. The question is still being investigated, and we are promised a word from a certain Berlin professor whose authority is very great in such matters.

It is interesting to note that the claim of Adrian IV., here advanced, to jurisdiction over all islands was founded, as we learn from John of Salisbury, on the forged donation of Constantine (v. Book iii. No. iii.). Urban II. had disposed of Corsica under the same pretension. Lord Lyttleton in his still valuable History of Henry II. (vol. v. p. 67) speaks as follows concerning this whole transaction:

"Upon the whole, therefore, this bull, like many before and many since, was the mere effect of a league between the papal and regal powers, to abet and assist each other's usurpations; nor is it easy to say whether more disturbance to the world, and more iniquity, have arisen from their acting conjointly, or from the opposition which the former has made to the latter! In this instance the best, or indeed the sole excuse for the proceedings of either, was the savage state of the Irish, to whom it might be beneficial to be conquered, and broken thereby to the salutary discipline of civil order and good laws."

No. III., is the list of articles laid before Thomas Becket in 1164, for finally refusing to sign which that prelate went into his long exile.

The custom of appealing to Rome—a custom which had begun under Henry I. whose brother was papal legate for England—had assumed alarming dimensions under Henry II. The king had almost no jurisdiction over his clerical subjects. And, to make matters worse, the clergy did not refrain from crimes which called for the utmost severity of the law. In ten years we hear of more than one hundred unpunished cases of murder among them. It was to put a stop to such lawlessness that Henry caused the constitutions of Clarendon to be drawn up by two of his justiciars. They contain nothing new, no right that did not belong by precedent to the crown. It was the way in which the struggle with Becket was carried on, not the weakness of the King's standpoint that caused the latter to fail in his endeavours. Public sympathy turned against him and, in 1174, he was obliged to expressly permit appeals to Rome. Papal influence was to increase in England until it reached its zenith under Innocent III.—liege lord and collector of tribute. Of No. IV., the Assize of Clarendon, Stubbs says (Charters, p. 141): "It is a document of the greatest importance to our legal history, and must be regarded as introducing changes into the administration of justice which were to lead the way to self government at no distant time."

It is interesting to note (in § 21) the comparative mildness of the measures against heretics. Half a century later heresy and apostasy were alike punished with death. No. v., the Dialogue concerning the Exchequer, is one

of the few actual treatises of the middle ages. It is a most learned essay concerning all that went on at the bi-yearly meetings of the exchequer officials, and branches out into a description of all the sources of revenue of the English crown, and of the methods of collecting them. The value of this essay for early English history cannot be over-estimated; in every direction it throws light upon the existing state of affairs.

According to Brunner, Gneist, Pauli, and P. Liebermann^[1] the Dialogue was completed in the winter of 1178-9. Stubbs thinks—or has thought— that it was composed after 1181, perhaps as late as 1188. The author of the work, whose name is not mentioned in the two existing manuscripts, has been proved by Madox to be Richard, son of Bishop Nigel of Ely. Richard, as well as his father, was for many years a high official at the exchequer, was clear-headed and logical, and was, in addition, gifted with great literary ability. His knowledge of the classics is shown by his frequent quotations from them.

As a result of the combination of so many good qualities in its author the Dialogue is not only learned but readable and interesting. There is much to make one believe that the work has an official character, and that it was composed by order of the government. Liebermann regards it as a parallel work to Glanville's Tractatus.

In general Richard's assertions are deserving of the highest confidence. Occasionally, indeed, in the matter of derivations and of the origin of institutions, he is found to be weak.

Much of his information was gained orally, and in all cases he seems to have gone directly to the highest authority on the particular point to be treated of.

No. VI., Richard's punishments for criminal crusaders, is interesting as showing the discipline that was to be preserved on the ships going to Jerusalem. Curious is the mention of tarring and feathering. As far as I have been able to ascertain this is the first appearance in history of this peculiar punishment, still in vogue in America, though never administered except informally.

No. VII., Magna Carta, is the most valued bill of concessions ever wrested by a people from its king. It was granted by the most feeble and worthless monarch that England ever had, but strong and weak alike have since been forced to confirm it. Whenever, thereafter, a king wanted money or other favors from the people, he was obliged to swear once more to this charter of liberties. Thirty-eight distinct confirmations of this kind are recorded.

John succeeded in losing all that kings ave to lose. To France he sacrificed the great fiefs held by the English from the French kings—he had scorned to answer before Philip Augustus for the death of Prince Arthur, and they were confiscated in consequence. Of the church he became the bondsman, laying the independence of England in the hands of a papal legate, and promising a shameful tribute.^[2] To the barons he conceded the privileges here translated. They will be seen to place legal restraint on the king in many different ways. The death-knell of absolutism had struck in England.

The demands that the king, as feudal lord, could make on his subjects were distinctly regulated—what aids he might ask, for what purposes, and when and how often. All barriers were levelled which had prevented freemen from obtaining justice in the county and other courts — either in criminal or in civil cases. Fines for petty offences

were not to be inordinate, and clemency in cei'tain cases was guaranteed. The taxes and payments of cities as well as of individuals were established upon a just basis. All in all, as Hallam remarks, "Magna Carta is the foundation stone of English freedom, and all later privileges are little more than a confirmation and commentary upon it."

No. VIII., the Statute of Mortmain, was intended, as Stubbs tells us, to put an end to " the fraudulent bestowal of estates on religious foundations, on the understanding that the donor should hold them as fiefs of the cliurch, and as so exonerated from public burdens. . . The Statute of Mortmain bears a close relation to the statute Quia Emptores, enacted eleven years later, in which the feudal dues of the superior lords, the king the chief of them, are secured by the abolition of subinfeudation; as, in this act, they are secured by the limitation of ecclesiastical endowments."

No. IX., the Quia Emptores just mentioned, was passed by Edward I., in 1290, to prevent tenants from disposing of their holdings to others, sub-tenants, who felt themselves dependent on no one save the lord from whom they immediately held. Henceforth the feudal aids were to be paid directly to the lords in chief.

No. X. The Manner of holding Parliament. Stubbs describes this document as a " somewhat ideal description of the constitution of parliament in the middle of the fourteenth century." Its value consists in its undoubted antiquity, for it is found already in fourteenth century manuscripts. Its claim to be a relic of the times of the Conqueror seems to have been urged in answer to an inward craving for the sanction of long custom. Just so, many of the laws in the " Sachsenspiegel " are made to date back to Charlemagne.

No. XI., the Statute of Labourers, was issued after the great plague of the Black Death, which raged in Europe from 1347 to 1349. The same fields remained to be tilled, the same manual labour to be performed; but a large proportion of the labourers had died, and the rest could command what wages they pleased. Edward III., to stop this evil, issued this rather Draconian decree.

Footnotes:

1 "Einleitung in den Dialogus cle Scaccario." Gottingen. 1875.

2 See Book iv. No. v.

I. STATUTES OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

(Stubbs' "Charters," p. 83-85.)

Here is shown what William the king of the English, together with his princes, has established since the Conquest of England.

1. Firstly that, above all things, he wishes one God to be venerated throughout his whole kingdom, one faith of Christ always to be kept inviolate, peace and security to be observed between the English and the Normans.

2. We decree also that every free man shall affirm by a compact and an oath that, within and without England, he desires to be faithful to king William, to preserve with him his lands and his honour with all fidelity, and first to defend him against his enemies.

3. I will, moreover, that all the men whom I have brought with me, or who have come after me, shall be in my peace and quiet. And if one of them shall be slain, the lord of his mvirderer shall seize him within five days, if he can; but if not, he shall begin to pay to me forty-six marks of silver as long as his possessions shall hold out. But when the possessions of the lord of that man are at an end, the whole hundred in which the slaying took place shall pay in common what remains.

4. And every Frenchman who, in the time of my relative king Edward, was a sharer in England of the customs of the English, shall pay according to the law of the English what they themselves call "onhlote" and "anscote." This decree has been confirmed in the city of Gloucester.

5. We forbid also that any live cattle be sold or bought for money except within the cities, and this before three faithful witnesses; nor even anything old without a surety and warrant. But if he do otherwise he shall pay, and shall afterwards pay a fine.

6. It was also decreed there that if a Frenchman summon an Englishman for perjury or murder, theft, homicide, or " ran "—as the English call evident raptj which can not be denied—-the Englishman shall defend himself as he prefers, either through the ordeal of iron, or through wager of battle. But if the Englishman be infirm he shall find another who will do it for him. If one of them shall be vanquished he shall pay a fine of forty shillings to the king. If an Englishman summon a Frenchman, and be unwilling to prove his charge by judgment or by wager of battle, I will, nevertheless, that the Frenchman purge himself by an informal oath.

7. This also I command and will, that all shall hold and keep the law of Edward the king with regard to their lands, and with regard to all their possessions, those provisions being added which I have made for the utility of the English people.

8. Every man who wishes to be considered a freeman shall have a surety, that his surety may hold him and hand him over to justice if he offend in any way. And if any such one escape, his sureties shall see to it that, without making difficulties, they pay what is charged against him, and that they clear themselves of having known of any fraud in the matter of his escape. The hundred and county shall be made to answer as our predecessors decreed. And those that ought of right to come, and are unwilling to appear, shall be summoned once; and if a second time they areunwilling to appear, one ox shall be taken from them and they shall be summoned a third time. And if they do not come the third time, another ox shall be taken: but if they do not come the fourth time there shall be forfeited from the goods of that man who was unwilling to come, the extent of the charge against him,—"ceapgeld" as it is called,—and besides this a fine to the king.

9. I forbid any one to sell a man beyond the limits of the country, under penalty of a fine in full to me.

10. I forbid that anyone be killed or hung for any fault, but his eyes shall be torn out or his testicles cut off. And this command shall not be violated under penalty of a fine in full to me.

Ordinance of William I., separating the Spiritual and Temporal Courts.

William by the grace of God King of the English, to R. Bainard and G. de Magnavilla, and P. de Valoines, and to my other faithful ones of Essex and of Hertfordshire and of Middlesex, greeting. Know all of you and my other faithful ones who remain in England, that in a common council and by the advice of the archbishops and bishops, and abbots, and of all the justices of my kingdom, I have decided that the episcopal laws, which up to my time in the kingdom of the English have not been right or according to the precepts of the holy canons, shall be emended. Wherefore I command, and by royal authority decree, that no bishop or archdeacon shall any longer hold, in the hundred court, pleas pertaining to the episcopal laws, nor shall they bring before the judgment of secular men any case which pertains to the rule of souls; but whoever shall be summoned, according to the episcopal laws, in any case or for any fault, shall come to the place which the bishop shall choose or name for this purpose, and shall there answer in his case or for his fault, and shall perform his law before God and his bishop not according to the hundred court, but according to the canons and the episcopal laws. But if any one, elated by pride, shall scorn or be unwilling to come before the judgment seat of the bishop, he shall be summoned once and a second and a third time; and if not even then he come to make amends, he shall be excommunicated; and, if it be needful to give effect to this, the power and justice of the king or the sheriff shall be called in. But he who was summoned before the judgment seat of the bishop shall, for each summons, pay the episcopal fine. This also I forbid and by my authority interdict, that any sheriff, or prevost, or minister of the king, or any layman concern himself in the matter of laws which pertain to the bishop, nor shall any layman summon another man to judgment apart from ...

Table of contents

• General Preface.
• Book I. England.
• BOOK II. THE EMPIRE.
• BOOK III. THE CHURCH.
• BOOK IV. CHURCH AND STATE.
• APPENDIX.