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

188 страница из 194

So far, our investigations by no means prove that the equality of all classes, or the equal participation by all in the privileges of the Charter, was an ideal, consciously or unconsciously, held by the leaders of the revolt against King John. Magna Carta itself contains evidences which point the other way, namely, to the existence of class legislation. At the beginning and end of the Charter, clauses are carefully inserted to secure to the Church its “freedom” and privileges; churchmen, in their special interests, must be safeguarded, whoever else may suffer. “Benefit of clergy,” thus secured, implies the very opposite of “equality before the law.” Other interests also receive separate and privileged treatment. Many, perhaps most, of the chapters have no value except to landowners; a few affect tradesmen and townsmen exclusively, while chapters 20 to 22 adopt distinct sets of rules for the amercement of the ordinary freeman, the churchman, and the earl or baron respectively—an anticipation, almost, of the later division into the three estates of the realm—commons, clergy, and lords temporal. A careful distinction is occasionally made (for example, in chapter 20) between the freeman and the villein, and the latter (as will be proved later on) was carefully excluded from many of the benefits conferred on others by Magna Carta. In this connection, it is interesting to consider how each separate class would have been affected if John’s promises had been loyally kept.