Читать книгу Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. With an Historical Introduction онлайн

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Perhaps its chief provisions are those in favour of the Church, supplementing a vague declaration that the Church should be “free” by specific promises that the bishops should have exclusive jurisdiction and power over churchmen and their goods, along with the sole right to superintend their distribution after death. Here was a clear confirmation of the right of the Courts Christian to a monopoly of all pleas affecting the clergy or their property. It is the first distinct enunciation in England of the principle afterwards known as "benefit of clergy"—and that, too, in a form more sweeping than was ever afterwards repeated. Stephen also explicitly renounced all rights inherent in the Crown to wardship over Church lands during vacancies—a surrender never dreamed of by either Henry I. or Henry II.

Grants to the people at large followed. A general clause promising peace and justice was again supplemented by specific concessions of more practical value, namely, a promise to extirpate all exactions, unjust practices, and “miskennings” by sheriffs and others, and to observe good, ancient, and just customs in respect of murder-fines, pleas, and other causes.