Source Problems in English History
fuse to do what is right, it is fully permissible to place him under interdict, but he ought not to be excommunicated before the king’s chief official of that vill shall agree, in order that he may authoritatively constrain him to come to his trial. But if the king’s official fail in this, he himself shall be in the lord king’s mercy; and then the bishop shall be able to coerce the accused man by ecclesiastical authority.
11. Archbishops, bishops, and all ecclesiastics of the kingdom who hold of the king in chief have their possessions of the lord king as barony and answer for them to the king’s justices and ministers and follow and do all royal rights and customs; and they ought, just like other barons, to be present at the judgments of the lord king’s court along with the barons, until it come in judgment to loss of limbs or death.
12. When an archbishopric or bishopric, or an abbey or priory of the king’s demesne shall be vacant, it ought to be in his hands, and he shall assume its revenues and expenses as pertaining to his demesne. And when the time comes to provide for the church, the lord king should notify the more important clergy of the church, and the election should be held in the lord king’s own chapel with the assent of the lord king and on the advice of the clergy of the realm whom he has summoned for the purpose. And there, before he be consecrated, let the elect perform homage and fealty to the lord king as his liege lord for life, limbs, and earthly honor, saving his order.
13. If any of the great men of the kingdom should forcibly prevent archbishop, bishop, or archdeacon from administering justice in which he or his men were concerned, then the lord king ought to bring such an one to justice. And if it should happen that any one deforce the lord king of his right, archbishops, bishops, and arch-
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