SOURCE.-Carta de Dunewic. John (1167?-1216). Stubbs' Select Charters. Oxford, 1888. P. 311. Trans. C. W. Colby.

Charter of Dunwich.

Know that we have granted

9

John by the Grace of God, etc. and by this present charter confirmed to our burgesses of Dunwich that the borough of Dunwich be our free borough and have soc and sac1 and toll 2 and theam 3 and infangenthef,1 and that the citizens be quit throughout our whole land of thelony 5 and lestage and passage and pontage and stallage and of leve 10 and of Danegeld and of ewage 11 of wreck and lagan 12 and of all other customs (saving the liberty of the city of London) and that they pay a just and wonted rent by their own hand to our exchequer; and that they plead not in the shiremoot nor in the hundredmoot except before our judges; and when they are summoned before judges they send twelve lawful men of the borough in their behalf who shall represent them all; and if perchance they incur the penalty of fine, they be fined by six honest men of their own borough and by six honest men from without the borough. We have moreover granted to them that they freely give their sons and daughters in marriage throughout our land, and likewise widows by the counsel of their friends, and that they give their possessions of land and buildings in their town or sell them, or do whatever they wish with them. We have also granted to them tradegild and gild-merchant as they had been wont to have them. Wherefore we wish and firmly enjoin that our said burgesses have and hold the aforesaid liberties and free customs freely, peaceably and intact, without any impediment. [Names of witnesses.] June 29th, in the first year of our reign.

1 Jurisdiction.

2 Duty on imports.

3 The right of compelling the person in whose hands stolen or lost property was found to name the person from whom he received it. Jurisdiction over a thief caught within the limit of the estate to which the right belonged.

5 Duty on imports.

7 Taxes upon passengers.

6 A custom exacted on a ship's lading.

8 Bridge-toll.

9 Payment for having a stall in the market.

10 An exaction or compulsory gift to the magistrate.

11 A tax on water carriage.

12 The right to matters thrown up by the sea.

[All these definitions are taken from the glossary in Select Charters.]

29. THE INTERDICT (1208).

Roger of Wendover was a monk of St. Alban's, and a contributor to the Chronica Majora which usually goes under the name of Matthew Paris. His abbey was rich in resources, rich also in archives and chroniclers. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it produced more historians who attain a creditable standard than any other religious house in England. Roger of Wendover's hand in the Chronica Majora begins with 1189 and continues to 1235. Hoveden stops at 1201, leaving him free scope to trace John's troubles with the pope and the barons. We may therefore borrow from him passages relating both to the interdict and Magna Carta. Interdict was the last and deadliest missile which a pope could launch. Excommunication was aimed at a single person; interdict at a whole realm. Pope Innocent III., who defeated John by this means and by turning enemies against him, was the most powerful of mediæval pontiffs.

SOURCE. Chronica Majora. Roger of Wendover (d. 1235 ?). Trans. J. A. Giles. London, 1849. Vol. ii., p. 245.

The King of England admonished by our Lord the Pope.

In the same year pope Innocent, on learning that king John's heart was so hardened, that he would not either by persuasion or threats be induced to acquiesce in receiving Stephen [Langton] as archbishop of Canterbury, was touched to the heart with grief, and, by advice of his cardinals, sent orders to William bishop of London, Eustace bishop of Ely, and Mauger bishop of Winchester, to go to the said king, about the matter of the church of Canterbury, and to give him wholesome counsel to yield to God in this matter, and so secure the Lord's favour; but if they found him contumacious and rebellious as he had hitherto been, he ordered them to lay an interdict on the whole kingdom of England, and to denounce to the said king that, if he did not check his boldness by that means, he, the pope, would lay his hand on him still more heavily; since it was necessary for him to conquer, who for the safety of the holy church had made war on the devil and his angels, and despoiled the cloisters of hell. He also, by letters of the apostolic see, gave orders to the suffragan bishops of the church of Canterbury, and to the

other prelates of that diocese, that, by virtue of their obedience, they were to receive the aforesaid archbishop as their father and pastor, and were to obey him with all due affection.

How England was laid under General Interdict.

The bishops of London, Ely and Winchester, in execution of the legateship entrusted to them, went to king John, and after duly setting forth the apostolic commands, entreated of him humbly and with tears, that he, having God in his sight, would recall the archbishop and the monks of Canterbury to their church, and honour and love them with perfect affection; and they informed him that thus he would avoid the shame of an interdict, and the Disposer of rewards would, if he did so, multiply his temporal honours on him, and after his death would bestow lasting glory on him. When the said bishops wished, out of regard to the king, to prolong the discourse, the king became nearly mad with rage, and broke forth in words of blasphemy against the pope and his cardinals, swearing by God's teeth, that, if they or any other priests soever presumptuously dared to lay his dominions under an interdict, he would immediately send all the prelates of England, clerks as well as ordained persons, to the pope and confiscate all their property; he added moreover, that all the clerks of Rome or of the pope himself who could be found in England or in his other territories, he would send to Rome with their eyes plucked out, and their noses slit, that by these marks they might be known there from other people; in addition to this he plainly ordered the bishops to take themselves quickly from his sight, if they wished to keep their bodies free from harm. The bishops then, not finding any repentance in the king, departed, and, in the Lent following, fearlessly fulfilled the duty required of them by the pope, and accordingly on the morning of the Monday in Passion week, which that year fell on the 23rd of March, they laid a general interdict on the whole of England; which, since it was expressed to be by authority of our lord the pope, was inviolably observed by all without regard of person or privileges. Therefore all church services ceased to be performed in England; with the exception only of confession, and the viaticum in cases of extremity, and the baptism of children; the bodies of the dead too were carried out of cities and towns, and buried in roads and ditches without prayers or the attendance of priests.

The Eucharist as given to persons in danger of death.

30. THE EXTORTION OF MAGNA CARTA (1215).

The length of Magna Carta would prevent its insertion here, even were its provisions less occupied with legal and constitutional matters than they are. It contains sixty-three sections, most of which discuss feudal questions at issue between king and nobles. The document differs wholly from the American Declaration of Independence and from the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. They deal with abstract and natural privileges: Magna Carta confines its notice to concrete abuses. Sections 39 and 40 are its nearest approach to a declaration of the subject's liberty. 'No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized or outlawed or exiled, or any wise destroyed; nor will we go upon him, nor send upon him, but by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. To none will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice." Leaving aside the text of Magna Carta for reasons already stated, we come to the circumstances under which it was granted.

SOURCE.-Chronica Majora. Roger of Wendover (d. 1235?). Trans. J. A. Giles. London, 1849. Vol. ii., p. 304.

Of the Demands made by the Barons of England for their Rights.

A.D. 1215, which was the seventeenth year of the reign of king John; he held his court at Winchester at Christmas for one day, after which he hurried to London, and took up his abode at the New Temple, and at that place the above-mentioned nobles came to him in gay military array, and demanded the confirmation of the liberties and laws of king Edward [the Confessor], with other liberties granted to them and to the kingdom and church of England, as were contained in the charter,1 and above-mentioned laws of Henry the First; they also asserted that, at the time of his absolution at Winchester, he had promised to restore those laws and ancient liberties, and was bound by his own oath to observe them. The king, hearing the bold tone of the barons in making this demand, much feared an attack from them, as he saw that they were pre

1 See No. 19.

pared for battle; he however made answer that their demands were a matter of importance and difficulty, and he therefore asked a truce till the end of Easter, that he might, after due deliberation, be able to satisfy them as well as the dignity of his crown. After much discussion on both sides, the king at length, although unwillingly, procured the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Ely, and William Marshal, as his sureties, that on the day pre-agreed on he would, in all reason, satisfy them all, on which the nobles returned to their homes. The king however, wishing to take precautions against the future, caused all the nobles throughout England to swear fealty to him alone against all men, and to renew their homage to him; and, the better to take care of himself, he, on the day of St. Mary's purification, assumed the cross of our Lord, being induced to this more by fear than by devotion.

Of the principal persons who compelled the King to grant the Laws and Liberties.

In Easter week of this same year, the above-mentioned nobles assembled at Stamford, with horses and arms; for they had now induced almost all the nobility of the whole kingdom to join them, and constituted a very large army; for in their army there were computed to be two thousand knights, besides horse soldiers, attendants and foot soldiers, who were variously equipped.

All of these being united by oath, were supported by the concurrence of Stephen archbishop of Canterbury, who was at their head. The king at this time was awaiting the arrival of his nobles at Oxford. On the Monday next after the octaves of Easter, the said barons assembled in the town of Brackley and when the king learned this, he sent the archbishop of Canterbury, and William Marshal earl of Pembroke, with some other prudent men, to them to inquire what the laws and liberties were which they demanded. The barons then delivered to the messengers a paper, containing in great measure the laws and ancient customs of the kingdom, and declared that, unless the king immediately granted them and confirmed them under his own seal, they would, by taking possession of his fortresses, force him to give them sufficient satisfaction as to their beforenamed demands. The archbishop with his fellow-messengers then carried the paper to the king, and read to him the heads of the paper one by one throughout. The king when he heard the purport of these heads, derisively said, with the greatest indignation, "Why, amongst these unjust demands, did not the