by giving money to the prelate or person injured, neither in such
cases is there place for prohibition.
In defamations of freemen let the prelates correct, the king's
prohibition notwithstanding, although it be tendered.
45. The Statutes of Westminster ; the Third :
Quia Emptores
(July, 1290. Latin text, I S. R. 106, Stubbs, S. C. 478. Translation, I S. R.
106. 2 Stubbs, 126, 259.)
i. FORASMUCH as purchasers of lands and tenements of the fees
of great men and others, have many times heretofore entered into
their fees, to the prejudice of the lords, to which purchasers the
freeholders of such great men and others have sold their lands and
tenements to be holden in fee to them and their heirs of their
feoffers, and not of the chief lords of the fees, whereby the same
chief lords have many times lost their escheats, marriages, and
wardships of lands and tenements belonging to their fees ; which
thing seeme'd very hard and extreme unto those great men and
other lords, and moreover in this case manifest disheritance : our
lord the king, in his parliament at Westminster after Easter, the
eighteenth year of his reign, that is to wit, in the quinzime of
Saint John the Baptist, at the instance of the great men of the
realm, granted, provided, and ordained, that from henceforth it
shall be lawful to every freeman to sell at his own pleasure his
lands and tenements, or part of them ; so that the feoffee shall
G
82 English Constitutional Documents
hold the same lands or tenements of the same chief lord, and by
the same services and customs as his feoffor held before.
2. And if he shall sell any part of such lands or tenements to
any, the feoffee shall immediately hold it of the chief lord, and
shall be forthwith charged with the services, for so much as per-
taineth, or ought to pertain to the said chief lord for the same
parcel, according to the quantity of the land or tenement sold.
And so in this case the same part of the service shall cease to be
taken by the chief lord by the hands of the feoffor, from the time
that the feoffee ought to be attendant and answerable to the same
chief lord, according to the quantity of the land or tenement sold,
for the parcel of the service so due.
3. And it is to be understood, that by the said sales or pur-
chases of lands or tenements, or any parcels of them, such lands
or tenements shall in no wise come into mortmain, either in part
or in whole, neither by policy nor craft, contrary to the form of
the statute made thereupon of late. And it is to wit, that this
statute extendeth but only to lands sold to be holden in fee simple ;
and that it extendeth to the time coming ; and it shall begin to
take effect at the feast of Saint Andrew the apostle next coming.
46. Writs of Summons to Parliament
(30 September -3 October, 1295. Latin text, Stubbs, S. (7.484. Transla-
tion, Cheyney, 33. 2 Stubbs, 133, 209, 211, 235.)
Summons of the Clergy
THE King to the venerable father in Christ Robert, by the same
grace archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, greet-
ing. As a most just law, established by the careful providence of
sacred princes, exhorts and decrees that what affects all, by all
should be approved, so also, very evidently should common danger
be met by means provided in common. You know sufficiently
well, and it is now, as we believe, divulged through all regions of
the world, how the king of France fraudulently and craftily de-
prives us of our land of Gascony, by withholding it unjustly from
us. Now, however, not satisfied with the before-mentioned fraud
and injustice, having gathered together for the conquest of our
kingdom a very great fleet, and an abounding multitude of warri-
ors, with which he has made a hostile attack on our kingdom and
the inhabitants of the same kingdom, he now proposes to destroy
Writs of Summons to Parliament 83
the English language altogether from the earth, if his power should
correspond to the detestable proposition of the contemplated
injustice, which God forbid. Because, therefore, darts seen before-
hand do less injury, and your interest especially, as that of the rest
of the citizens of the same realm, is concerned in this affair, we
command you, strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in
which you are bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the
feast of St. Martin, in the approaching winter, you be present in
person at Westminster; citing beforehand [praemunientes] th-
dean and chapter of your church, the archdeacons and all the
clergy of your diocese, causing the same dean and archdeacons in
their own persons, and the said chapter by one suitable proctor,
and the said clergy by two, to be present along with you, having
full and sufficient power from the same chapter and clergy, to con-
sider, ordain and provide, along with us and with the rest of the
prelates and principal men and other inhabitants of our kingdom,
how the dangers and threatened evils of this kind are to be met.
Witness the king at Wangham, the thirtieth day of September.
Identical summons were sent out to the two archbishops and
eighteen bishops, and, with the omission of the last paragraph, to
seventy abbots.
Summons of the Barons
The king to his beloved and faithful relative, Edmund, Earl of
Cornwall, greeting. Because we wish to have a consultation and
meeting with you and with the rest of the principal men of our
kingdom, as to provision for remedies against the dangers which
in these days are threatening our whole kingdom ; we command
you, strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in which you are
bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast of St.
Martin, in the approaching winter, you be present in person at
Westminster, for considering, ordaining and doing along with us
and with the prelates, and the rest of the principal men and other
inhabitants of our kingdom, as may be necessary for meeting
dangers of this kind.
Witness the king at Canterbury, the first of October.
Similar summons were sent to seven earls and forty-one barons.
Summons of Representatives of the Counties and Boroughs
The king to the sheriff of Northamptonshire. Since we intend
to have a consultation and meeting with the earls, barons and
other principal men of our kingdom with regard to providing
remedies against the dangers which are in these days threatening
84 English Constitutional Documents
the same kingdom ; and on that account have commanded them
to be with us on the Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin
in the approaching winter, at Westminster, to consider, ordain, and
do as may be necessary for the avoidance of these dangers ; we
strictly require you to cause two knights from the aforesaid county,
two citizens from each city in the same county, and two burgesses
from each borough, of those who are especially discreet and capa-
ble of laboring, to be elected without delay, and to cause them to
come to us at the aforesaid time and place.
Moreover, the said knights are to have full and sufficient power
for themselves and for the community of the aforesaid county, and
the said citizens and burgesses for themselves and the communities
of the aforesaid cities and boroughs separately, then and there for
doing what shall then be ordained according to the common coun-
sel in the premises ; so that the aforesaid business shall not remain
unfinished in any way for defect of this power. And you shall have
there the names of the knights, citizens and burgesses and this
writ.
Witness the king at Canterbury on the third day of October.
Identical summons were sent to the sheriffs of each county.
47. The Bull " Clericis Laicos "
(February, 1296. Latin text, Rymer's Fcedera, i. 836. Translation,
G. and H. 87. 2 Stubbs, 135.)
"DONIFACE bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the
U perpetual memory of the matter. That laymen have been
very hostile to clerks antiquity relates, which too the experiences
of the present times manifestly declare, whilst not content with
their own bounds they strive for the forbidden and loose the
reins for things unlawful. Nor do they prudently consider how
power over clerks or ecclesiastical persons or goods is forbidden
them : they impose heavy burdens on the prelates of the churches
and ecclesiastical persons regular and secular, and tax them, and
impose collections : they exact and demand from the same the
half, tithe, or twentieth, or any other portion or proportion of
their revenues or goods ; and in many ways they essay to bring
them under slavery, and subject them to their authority. And,
as we sadly relate, some prelates of the churches and ecclesiasti-
cal persons, alarmed where there should be no alarm, seeking
The Bull "Clericis Laicos " 85
transient peace, fearing more to offend the temporal majesty than
the eternal, acquiesce in such abuses, not so much rashly as
improvidently, authority or licence of the Apostolic See not having
been obtained. We therefore desirous of preventing such wicked
actions, do, with apostolic authority decree, with the advice of
our brethren, that whatsoever prelates and ecclesiastical persons,
religious or secular, of whatsoever orders, condition or standing,
shall pay or promise or agree to pay to lay persons collections or
taxes fbr the tithe, twentieth, or hundredth of their own rents, or
goods, or those of the churches, or any other portion, propor-
tion, or quantity of the same rents, or goods, at their own estimate
or value, under the name of aid, loan, relief, subsidy, or gift, or
by any other title, manner, or pretext demanded, without the
authority of the same see.
And also whatsoever emperors, kings, or princes, dukes, earls,
or barons, powers, captains, or officials, or rectors, by whatsoever
names they are reputed, of cities, castles, or any places whatsoever,
wheresoever situate, and all others of whatsoever rank, pre-emi-
nence or state, who shall impose, exact, or receive the things
aforesaid, or arrest, seise, or presume to occupy things anywhere
deposited in holy buildings, or to command them to be arrested,
seised, or occupied, or receive them when occupied, seised, or
arrested, and also all who knowingly give aid, counsel, or favor,
openly or secretly, in the things aforesaid, by this same should
incur sentence of excommunication. Universities, too, which
may have been to blame in these matters, we subject to ecclesias-
tical interdict.
The prelates and ecclesiastical persons above mentioned we
strictly command, in virtue of their obedience, and under pain
of deposition, that they in no wise acquiesce in such things with-
out express licence of the said see, and that they pay nothing
under pretext of any obligation, promise, and acknowledgement
whatsoever, made so far, or in progress heretofore, and before
such constitution, prohibition, or order come to their notice, and
that the seculars aforesaid do not in any wise receive it, and if
they do pay, or the aforesaid, let them fall under sentence of ex-
communication by the very deed.
Moreover let no one be absolved from the aforesaid sentences
of excommunication and interdict, save at the moment of death,
without authority and special licence of the Apostolic See, inas-
much as it is part of our intention that such a terrible abuse of
secular powers should not in any wise pass under dissimulation,
any privileges whatsoever notwithstanding, in whatsoever tenors,
86 English Constitutional Documents
forms or modes, or arrangement of words, conceded to emperors,
kings and the others aforesaid ; against which premises aforesaid
we will that aid be given by no one, and by no persons in any
respect.
Let it then be lawful to none at all to infringe this page of our
constitution, prohibition, or order, or to gainsay it by any rash
attempt ; and if any one presume to attempt this, let him know
that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of his
blessed apostles Peter and Paul.
Given at Rome in Saint Peter's on the twenty-fourth of Feb-
ruary in the second year of our pontificate.
48. Confirmatio Cartarum
(October, 1297. French text and translation, I S. R. 123, Stubbs, S. C.
494-496. 2 Stubbs, 146.)
EDWARD, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of
Ireland, and duke of Guyenne, to all those that these present
letters shall hear or see, Greeting.
1 . Know ye that we to the honor of God, and of holy Church,
and to the profit of our realm, have granted for us and our heirs,
that the great Charter of Liberties, and the Charter of the Forest,
which were made by common assent of all the realm, in the time
of king Henry our father, shall be kept in every point without
breach. And we will that the same charters shall be sent under
our seal, as well to our justices of the forest, as to others, and to
all sheriffs of shires, and to all our other officers, and to all our
cities throughout the realm, together with our writs, in the which
it shall be contained, that they cause the foresaid charters to be
published, and to declare to the people that we have confirmed
them in all points ; and to our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other
ministers, which under us and by us have the laws of our land to
guide, that they shall allow the same charters in all their points,
in pleas before them, and in judgments ; that is to wit, the Great
Charter as the common law, and the Charter of the Forest accord-
ing to the ^Assize of the forest, for the wealth of our realm.
2. And we will, that if any judgment be given from henceforth
contrary to the points of the charters aforesaid by the justices, or
by any other our ministers that hold plea before them against the
points of the charters, it shall be undone and holden for nought.
Confirmatio Cartarum 87
3. And we will, that the same charters be sent, under our seal,
to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, and
shall be read before the people two times by the year.
4. And that all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the
sentence of great excommunication against all those that by deed,
aid, or counsel do contrary to the foresaid charters, or that in any
point break or undo them. And that the said curses be twice a
year denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid. And if
the same prelates, bishops, or any of them be remiss in the denun-
ciation of the said sentences, the archbishops of Canterbury and
York for the time being, as is fitting, shall compel and distrain
them to make that denunciation in form aforesaid.
5. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear,
that the aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime
towards our wars and other business, of their own grant and good
will, howsoever they were made, might turn to a bondage to them
and their heirs, because they might be at another time found in
the rolls, and so likewise the prises taken throughout the realm
by our ministers in our name ; we have granted for us and our
heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises into a
custom, for any thing that hath been done heretofore, or that may
be found by roll or in any other manner.
6. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs as well to
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy Church,
as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land,
that for no business from henceforth we shall take of our realm
such manner of aids, tasks, nor prises, but by the common assent
of all the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the
ancient aids and prises due and accustomed.
And for so much as the more part of the commonalty of the
realm find themselves sore grieved with the maletote of wools,
that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of wool, and
have made petition to us to release the same ; we at their requests
have clearly released it, and have granted that we will not take
such thing nor any other without their common assent and good
will ; saving to us and our heirs the custom of wools, skins, and
leather, granted before by the commonalty aforesaid. In wit-
ness of which things we have caused these our letters to be made
patents.
Witness Edward our son at London the tenth day of October,
the five and twentieth year of our reign.
And be it remembered that this same charter, in the same terms,
word for word, was sealed in Flanders under the king's great seal,
88 English Constitutional Documents
that is to say, at Ghent the fifth day of November in the twenty-
fifth year of the reign of our aforesaid lord the king, and sent into
England.
49. De Tallagio non Concedendo
(1297. Latin text, I S. R. 125, Stubbs, S. C. 497. Translation, I S. R. 125.
2 Stubbs, 148, 545.)
1. No tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by us or our heirs
in our realm, without the good will and assent of the archbishops,
bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freemen of
our realm.
2. No officer of ours, or of our heirs, shall take corn, wool,
leather, or any other goods, of any manner of person, without the
good will and assent of the party to whom the goods belonged.
3. Nothing from henceforth shall be taken in the name or by
occasion of maletote.
4. We will and grant for us and our heirs, that all clerks and
laymen of our land shall have all their laws, liberties, and free
customs, as largely and wholly as they have used to have the same
at any time when they had them best and most fully ; and if any
statutes have been made by us or our ancestors, or any customs
brought in contrary to them, or any manner of article contained
in this present charter, we will and grant, that such manner of
statutes and customs shall be void and frustrate for evermore.
5. Moreover, we have pardoned Humphrey Bohun earl of
Hereford and Essex, constable of England, Roger Bigod, earl of
Norfolk and Suffolk, marshal of England, and other earls, barons,
knights, esquires, and namely John of Ferrers, with all other being
of their fellowship, confederacy, and bond, and also to all other
that hold twenty pound land in our realm, whether they hold of
us in chief, or of other, that were appointed at a day certain to
pass over with us into Flanders, the rancor and ill-will which for
the aforesaid causes we conceived against them, and all other
offences, if any, that they have done against us or ours unto the
making of this present charter.
6. And for the more assurance of this thing, we will and grant,
for ourselves and our heirs, that all archbishops and bishops
for ever in their cathedral churches, this present charter being
first read, shall excommunicate, and publicly in the several parish
churches of their dioceses, shall cause to be excommunicated, or
The Statute of Carlisle 89
to be declared excommunicated twice in the year, all those that
willingly do or procure to be done any thing contrary to the tenor,
force, and effect of this present charter in any point and article.
In witness of which thing we have set our seal to this present
charter, together with the seals of the archbishops, bishops, earls,
barons, and others which voluntarily have sworn that, as much as
in them is, they shall observe the tenor of this present charter in
all causes and articles, and shall extend their faithful aid to the
keeping thereof forever.
50. The Statute of Carlisle
(March, 1307. Latin text and translation, I 5. R. 150. G. and H. 92.
2 Stubbs, 163.)
late it came to the knowledge of our lord the king, by the
grievous complaint of the honorable persons, lords, and other
noblemen of his realm, that whereas monasteries, priories, and
other religious houses were founded to the honor and glory of God,
and the advancement of the holy Church, by the king and his
progenitors, and by the said noblemen and their ancestors, and a
very great portion of lands and tenements have been given by
them to the said monasteries, priories, and houses, and the reli-
gious men serving God in them, to the intent that clerks and lay-
men might be admitted in such monasteries, priories, and religious
houses, according to their sufficient ability, and that sick and fee-
ble men might be maintained, hospitality, almsgiving, and other
charitable deeds might be exercised and done in them for the
souls of the said founders and their heirs ; the abbots, priors, and
governors of the said houses, and certain aliens their superiors, as
the abbots and priors of the Cluniacs, Cistercians, and Premon-
stratensians, and of the orders of Saint Augustine, and Saint Bene-
dict, and many more of other religion and order, have newly
appointed to be made, and at their own pleasure ordained divers
unwonted, heavy, and intolerable tallages, payments, and imposi-
tions upon every of the said monasteries and houses in subjection
unto them in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, without the
privity of our lord the king and his nobility, contrary to the laws
and customs of the said realm ; and thereby the number of reli-
gious persons, and other servants in the said houses and religious
places being oppressed by such tallages, payments, and imposi-
tions, the service of God is diminished ; alms are withheld from
90 English Constitutional Documents
the poor, the sick, and feeble, the healths of the living and the
souls of the dead be miserably defrauded, hospitality, almsgiving,
and other godly deeds do cease ; and so that which in times past
was charitably given to godly uses, and to the increase of the
service of God, is now converted to an evil tax ; by permission
whereof besides those things which are before mentioned, there
groweth great scandal to the people, and infinite losses are well
known to have ensued, and are still like to ensue, to the dis-
heritance of the founders of the said houses and their heirs, unless
speedy and sufficient remedy be provided to redress so many and
grievous detriments : -wherefore our foresaid lord the king, con-
sidering that it would be very prejudicial to him and his people
if he should any longer suffer so great losses and injuries to be
winked at, and therefore being willing to maintain and defend the
monasteries, priories, and other religious houses and places erected
in his kingdom, and in all lands subject to his dominion, accord-
ing to the will and pious wishes of their founders, and from hence-
forth to provide sufficient remedy to reform such oppressions, as
he is bound, by the counsel of his earls, barons, great men, and
other nobles and of the commons of his kingdom in his parlia-
ment holden at Westminster, on the Sunday next after the feast
of Saint Matthias the apostle, in the three and thirtieth year of
his reign, did ordain and enact :
2. "That no abbot, prior, master, warden, or other religious
person, of whatsoever condition, state or religion he be, being under
the king's power or jurisdiction, shall by himself, or by merchants
or others, secretly or openly, by any art or device, carry or send,
or by any means cause to be sent, any tax imposed by the abbots,
priors, masters, or wardens of religious houses or places, their
superiors, or in any way assessed among themselves, out of his
kingdom and his dominion, under the name of a rent, tallage,
tribute, or any kind of imposition, or otherwise in the name of
exchange, sale, loan or other contract howsoever it may be
termed ; neither shall depart into any other country for visitation,
or upon any other color, by that means to carry the goods of
their monasteries and houses out of the kingdom and dominion
aforesaid. And if any will presume to offend this present statute,
he shall be grievously punished according to the quality of his
offence, and according to his contempt of the king's prohibition.
3. " Moreover our foresaid lord the king doth inhibit all and
singular abbots, priors, masters, and governors of religious houses
and places, being aliens, to whose authority, subjection, and
obedience the houses of the same orders in his kingdom and
The Statute of Carlisle 91
dominion be subject, that they do not at any time hereafter im-
pose, or by any means assess any tallages, payments, impositions,
tributes, or other burdens whatsoever, upon the monasteries,
priories, or other religious houses in subjection unto them as is
aforesaid ; and that upon forfeiture of all that they have in their
power, and can forfeit in future."
4. And further, our lord the king hath ordained and established
that the abbots of the orders of Cistercians and Premonstraten-
sians, and other religious orders, whose seal hath heretofore been
used to remain only in the custody of the abbot, and not of the
convent, shall hereafter have a common seal, and shall deposit the