CLARENDON, CONSTITUTIONS OF. A body of laws defining the sphere; of ecclesiastical and seddar jmisdiction in the courts of England, adopted in 1164. In that year Henry 11. sum moned the whole body of bishops and barons to a council at Clarendon, and some of the oldest members of the council were ordered to set down in writing the customs in use under Henry I. The report was to be made the basis for the definite determination of the disputes between the King and the clergy. The document known as the 'Constitutions of Clarendon' was presented as the result of the inquiry. The constitutions were sixteen in member. The substance of the most important articles was as fellows: bers of the elery accused of crime should be sent to the ecclesiastical courts for trial, and, if there convieted, were to be turned over to the law courts for further punishment. There was to he no appeal to Rome without the con sent of the Curia Regis, which court also deter mined what matters were to be by the ecclesiastical tribunals. No beneficed clergy man might leave the realm without, the King's consent. No villein could be ordained without the consent of his lord, and no tenant-inehief of the King could be excommunivated without the King's knowledge. In addition to these more hnportant subjects, the 'constitutions' de cided the questions of advo•son and presenta tion, baronial titles of pmlates, election to bishoprics and abbacies, and the right of the King to goods of deposited under the prote(lion of the Church. Finally, the questions
of titles to ecclesiastical estates, the trial of laymen for spiritual olfenses, and the bestowal of churches in the King's gift were determined.
A great authority upon the 'Constitutions of Clarendon' says: "They are no mere engine of tyranny, or secular spite, against a church man: they are really a part of a great scheme of administrative reform. by which the de batable ground between the spiritual and tem poral pi)we•s can be brought within the reach of common justice, and the lawlessness arising professional jealousies The enactment of the 'Constitutions of brought to a crisis the dispute between Ilenry 11. and Thomas ii Becket (q.v.), who made him self the champion of the ecclesiastical power. siding with Pope Alexander Ill. when the latter rejected the 'constitutions.' Though the King had to undergo penance after the munler of Becket, most of the provisions of the 'Constitu tions of Clarendon' remained permanent gains to the civil power. Consult: Stubbs, The Con stitutional History of England (Oxford, 1874 ;S) : Pauli, Gesehiehte von England ((lotha, 1853-3S) and for the text of the 'Constitutions,' Stubbs, Select Charters Illustratire of English Constutitmal History (7th ed., Oxford, 18901.