FACE, 468. BONI- this subject. His holiness was so disgusted with the cenAbp. Cant. sure of his conduct, that he endeavoured to lessen the bishop's authority, to distress him in his fortune, and sink his credit. At last he proceeded to an open revenge, and had him solemnly excommunicated. It seems, the archbishop had taken the freedom, amongst other things, to tell him, that when our Saviour commissioned St. Peter to feed his sheep, he did not give him any authority either to flay, or eat them. Another ground of the pope's displeasure was the bishop's refusing to admit unqualified Italians to any The death livings in his diocese. When he was upon his death-bed, archbishop he complained of the pope's injustice, and made his appeal to heaven. He wrote several tracts, and died with the character of so pious a prelate, that Matthew Paris mentions a Pits et God- miracle wrought by him in his last sickness. of Sewal, of York. Paris, p. 956. 964. 969. win. A provincial synod at Merton. Annal. Burton, p. 388. See Re cords, num. 39. The provisions of the synod in In April this year, Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, sent a summons to his suffragans to meet him in a synod at Merton, in Surrey, upon the Thursday before St. Barnabas. The form of the summons is mentioned in his mandate to Roger, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. This prelate, upon receiving the archbishop's order, sent a summons to the archdeacon of Stafford, enjoining him to appear at the time and place appointed, and come furnished with an authority, or letters of proxy: from whence it is evident that the inferior clergy were represented in synods and convocations by the archdeacons of the division. It appears likewise from the archbishop's mandate, that the deans, abbots, and priors, were commissioned by their respective chapters, abbeys, and convents, to transact for them. To proceed; the bishops, clergy, and religious, met at Merton, on the festival of St. Barnabas, pursuant to the archbishop's mandate. And here, as the record words it, there were several provisions or constitutions made for the reformation of discipline, and to secure the Church against the encroachments of the laity. 1. The first article sets forth, that archbishops, bishops, and other inferior prelates, are frequently summoned into defence of secular courts to answer to such interrogatories and pleas, ecclesiastical privi- and to give an account of such matters as plainly belong to lege and the jurisdiction of their character, and the cognizance of the jurisdiction. Their particular grievances. III. checked in ecclesiastical court. For instance; they are frequently HENRY summoned into the king's courts concerning the instituting, K. of Eng. or refusing to institute clerks, concerning excommunications and interdicts in their own diocese, concerning consecrating of churches, and giving orders. They are likewise called in question for giving judgment in causes purely spiritual: for instance, concerning tithes, oblations, limits of parishes, and such like, which cannot with any colour be tried in secular courts: the prelates have likewise trouble given The bishops them for taking cognizance of the sins and immoralities of their juristheir people such as, perjury, breach of faith, sacrilege, tion. encroaching upon the privileges and liberties of the Church. Notwithstanding, those who break in upon the liberties of the spirituality granted by the king's charters, are excommunicated ipso facto. They complain likewise of being prosecuted for exercising their jurisdiction in churches and chapels, annexed to bishopricks or monasteries, and become void by the death or cession of the respective prelates: and for doing other things of a resembling nature, which plainly belong to the authority of an ordinary. Now the article provides, that in case the bishops and other prelates happen to be summoned into the king's courts to defend themselves against any actions, or answer any prosecutions in the cases above mentioned, they should refuse to make their appearance. However, that the matter might be decently managed, and the king treated with due regard, the prelates were to write to his highness, and acquaint him that they could not obey the order of his courts, without deserting their character, and throwing up the privileges of the Church. They were likewise to entreat him to consult his spiritual interest, and not press such impracticable commands upon them. If this remonstrance had no success, and the prelates were attached or distrained for their non-compliance, their last remedy was to excommunicate the sheriffs, and put the king's lands, towns, and castles, under an interdict. clerks. 2. Because it frequently happens, that clerks are put in Intrusion of possession of parochial churches by the laity, without any ecclesiastical authority, it was decreed, that if any clerk intruded into any cure of souls in this manner, he was to be excommunicated, and made for ever incapable of that benefice; and in case his obstinacy was such as to continue BONI- under the sentence of excommunication for the space of a FACE, Abp. Cant. year, he was then to be declared disabled from holding any living within the kingdom of England. And if any such intrusions shall be made by the king's authority, the bishop of the diocese was to entreat him to desist and revoke his order, otherwise the king's lands and towns in that diocese were to lie under an interdict. And if any temporal lord overlooked the authority of the Church so far as to put any clerk into a living without application to the bishop, the clerk was to be excommunicated; and unless satisfaction was made within two months, the nobleman's lands in that diocese were to be interdicted. Excommunicated per sons set at liberty without tisfaction. 469. 3. That no person imprisoned upon a writ of excommunication should be set at liberty without the consent of the prelates, and making due satisfaction to the Church. And making sa- here, the article complains that the king's writ for seizing the excommunicated person is frequently denied; and that sometimes the king and his bailiffs, or ministers of justice, converse publickly with such excommunicated persons that this practice was a contempt of the keys, and subversive of the authority of the Church. It was therefore decreed, that excommunications should be denounced with the circumstances of bell, book, and candle, and published wherever the ordinary shall think fit. And that the sheriffs, and other bailiffs, who shall set such excommunicated persons at liberty, before the ordinary has received satisfaction, shall be solemnly excommunicated themselves. However, if it appears, such sheriffs, &c. have acted by the king's commands, it is left to the discretion of the ordinaries to deal more favourably with them. But then those clerks who shall dictate, engross, seal, or give their advice for the drawing up any such writs, precepts, or orders, to the prejudice of the Church, shall be solemnly excommunicated. And all those clerks who are reasonably suspected of any such practice, shall be incapable of holding any benefice, till they have purged themselves of such imputations according to the direction of the canons. And when the customary writ de excommunicato capiendo was denied, the king was to be petitioned by the ordinary, that it might be granted. And in case the refusal was continued, the king's castles, towns, &c., in that diocese, were to be interdicted. And as for those who kept company with excommunicated persons, they were to be punished, pursu- HENRY ant to the discipline of the Church. III. Clerks pro upon false 4. That if any persons who are known to be clerks and of good fame are apprehended only upon suspicion, and secuted kept in durance by any lay person, and not delivered to the or insuffiordinary to be tried in his court, that then such lay persons cient suggestions. are to be solemnly excommunicated; and the places in which the clerks are so confined, and the estates of those that apprehend or keep them in prison, are to be interdicted till they have set such prisoners at liberty, and, over and above, made due satisfaction for taking them into custody. Those likewise that shall exhibit any false information or charge against any clerks, and maliciously occasion their being imprisoned, shall lie under the censure above mentioned. 5. When any wandering and unknown clerks happen to be taken and detained in prison, upon making proof of their clerkship, they shall be demanded by the ordinary of the place to be tried in the court Christian; and if the delivery of them is refused to the ordinary, those who detain them shall be punished as aforesaid; and if they are put into the ordinary's hands, they shall be tried by the form of the canons. Neither shall the ecclesiastical court be obliged to attend for the concurrence of the king's justices. And if any of those justices shall fine the bishop for not bringing such clerks before them, that then the said justices, whether clergy or lay, shall fall under the Church censures above mentioned. 6. A clerk cast before his ordinary for committing any trespass in a forest, shall be bound to make restitution to the king, or any other person damnified, and to undergo such farther punishment as the ordinary shall think fit. 7. But when clerks, charged with committing trespass or other crimes shall have passed the test of a canonical purgation, and cleared themselves in an ecclesiastical court; if in this case the lay ministers of justice shall keep their goods and chattels under seizure, those who thus detain their effects shall be punished with ecclesiastical censure, as Prohibiin the foregoing articles. 8. And in regard the clergy and others, in the course of commerce, frequently assure the performance of the contract by a solemn promise, or taking their corporal oath, tions. BONI- and being summoned before an ecclesiastical judge for vioFACE, Abp. Cant. lating so solemn a security, procure the king's prohibition to avoid being tried in the court Christian for perjury and breach of faith. To prevent this disorder, it was provided, that if the prohibition was procured by a layman, he was to be excommunicated; and if he refused to desist, his estate to be interdicted; but if the criminal was a clerk or a monk, he was to be corrected by the canons; and in case of obstinacy, the ecclesiastical censures above mentioned were to pass upon him. The laity discouraged an oath in spiritual courts. 470. And if the plaintiff shall waive the prosecution, or withdraw his action for fear of the king's prohibition, when the matter happens thus, it shall be lawful for the ecclesiastical judge to carry on the process, and punish the delinquent at his discretion. And if he happens to be distrained in his lay fee, both the ministers of justice and the king himself are to be proceeded against, as in the instances already recited. And in case he has no lay fee, the bishop is not to deliver him to the hands of secular justice. And if the bishop is distrained for his non-compliance, the crown, and those that levy the distress, are liable to the Church censures already mentioned. 9. The synod complains, that the prelates, who were from taking obliged by their office to enquire into the misbehaviour of the people, are checked in the exercise of their authority; that the king and the great men of the realm, forbade their tenants taking an oath to declare their knowledge at the bishop's instance: and likewise that the prelates were not permitted to punish, either corporally, or by fining, proportionably as the quality of the person or fault shall require. It is therefore decreed, that the laity, notwithstanding this discouragement, shall be obliged to take the oath above mentioned, in the ecclesiastical courts, and submit to the penalties put upon them by their ordinaries, and that, under the censure of excommunication. And that those who hinder the taking such oaths, or submitting to the punishment of the spiritual courts, shall be proceeded against by interdict and excommunication. Jews. 10. And because, by encroachments of the same nature, the prelates are hindered in the exercise of their authority, when any Jews happen to be injurious to the Church, either |
