The Concordat of London on August 1107 was a formal agreement made between Henry I, king of England, and the Church over the right of investitures. Hitherto the Norman kings believed they had absolute right over the appointment and investiture of archbishops, bishops and abbots in England, and hence absolute control over the church in their land. In the crisis preceding the Concordat Henry I was strongly opposed by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury. The Concordat (equivalent to an international treaty) reached in August 1107 essentially was the following: Henry I gave up the right of investiture of the bishops and abbots, but reserved the custom of requiring them to come beforehand before him in person to do homage for their temporalities (the feudal properties or regalia of the episcopacy or abbacy), directly from his hand. During the homage ceremony the candidate bishop or abbot would effectively be made a baron, a tenant-in-chief of the king, and have to do service (provide knights) or pay scutage for their landed properties. After the candidate bishop or abbot had done homage and sworn fealty to the king in the commendation ceremony (saving their order), like any other secular vassal, the Church could then proceed to invest the candidate with their symbols of ecclesiastical office and consecrate them.
Ambiguity remained who selected, or recommended the candidate bishops and abbots in the first place, and whether the required clerical election processes took place before the homage ceremonies or afterwards, just before consecration. It could be supposed that the previous bishop or abbot, if they were not dead, and had only resigned, had a large say in the nomination of their successor. Technically bishops were to be elected by the canons of the chapter of their cathedrals, and abbots were to be elected by the monks of an abbey. Symbols of investiture into ecclesiastical office for bishops and abbots were their croziers and rings, and, in the case of an archbishop, the receipt of a pallium from the Pope.
As reported by Eadmer
Eadmer (15 November 2012). Eadmeri historia novorum in Anglia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 186–. ISBN 978-1-108-05222-1.
An. Dom. 1107. Concilium Londoniæ Palatinum de investituris.
Concilium Londini Palatinum. A.D. 1107. (id est, 8. Henr. I.) in Cal. Augusti, Conventus omnium Episcoporum, Abbatum, & Procerum regni, Londoniæ in palatio Regis factus est; & per tres dies (absente Anselmo Archiepiscopo) inter Regem & Episcopos satis actum e Ecclesiarum investituris, quibusdam ad hoc nitentibus, ut Rex eas faceret more Patris & Fratris sui, non juxta præceptum & obedientiam Apostolici. Nam Papa Paschalis in sententia quæ inde promulgata fuerat, firmus stans, concesserat hominia, quæ Papa Urbanus æque ac investituras interdixerat: ac per hoc Regem sibi de investituris consentaneum fecerat. Dehinc, præsente Anselmo, astante multitudine, annuit Rex & statuit, Ut (ab eo tempore in reliquum) nunquam per dationem baculi pastoralis, vel annuli, quisquam de Episcopatu aut Abbatia, per Regem, vel quamlibet laicam manum investiretur in Anglia: Concedente quoque Anselmo, ut nullus in prælationem electus, pro hominio quod Regi faceret, consecratione suscepti honoris privaretur.
Quibus ita dispositis, pene omnibus Ecclesiis Angliæ, quæ suis erant pastoribus diu viduatæ, per consilium Anselmi, & Procerum regni, sine omni virgæ pastoralis, aut annuli investitura, patres a Rege sunt instituti. Instituti quoque sunt ibidem & eodem tempore, ab ipso Rege, quidam ad regimen quarundam Ecclesiarum Normanniæ, quæ similiter erant suis patribus destitutæ.
Clause 12 of the Constitutions of Clarendon reflects the Concordat reached. It also suggests that the election of the abbot or bishop should take place before all the more important clerics and prelates of the kingdom in the king's own chapel with his consent beforehand.
...
Cap. xii. Cum vacaverit archiepiscopatus, vel episcopatus,
vel abbatia, vel prioratus de dominio regis, debet esse in manu
ipsius, et inde percipiet omnes redditus et exitus sicut domin-
icos. Et cum ventum fuerit ad consulendum ecclesiae, debet
dominus rex mandare potiores personas ecclesiae, et in capella
ipsius domini regis debet fieri electio assensu domini regis et
consilio personarum regni, quas ad hoc faciendum vocaverit.
Et ibidem faciet electus homagium et fidelitatem domino regi
sicut ligio domino, de vita sua et de membris et de honore suo
terreno, salvo ordine suo, priusquam sit consecratus.
...
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 [the king's] 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.
Clause 12 of the Constitutions was subsequently condemned by Pope Alexander III (Hoc damnavit).
The Catholic Encyclopaedia suggests
...
"In the same year, however, an agreement was arrived at, and was ratified by the pope in 1106, and by the Parliament in London in 1107. According to this concordat the king renounced his claims to investiture, but the oath of fealty was still exacted. In the appointment of the higher dignitaries of the Church, however, the king still retained the greatest influence. The election took place in the royal palace, and, whenever a candidate obnoxious to the king was proposed, he simply proposed another, who was then always elected. The chosen candidate thereupon swore the oath of fealty, which always preceded the consecration. The separation of the ecclesiastical office from the bestowal of the temporalities was the sole object attained, an achievement of no very great importance."
...
References
Uta-Renate Blumenthal (2010). The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press. . ISBN 0-8122-0016-0.
David Wilkins (1737). Concilia
Magnae Britanniae Et Hiberniae: A Synodo Verolamiensi A.D. CCCCXLVI. Ad
Londinensem A.D. MDCCXVII. Accedunt Constitutiones Et Alia Ad Historiam
Ecclesiae Anglicanae Spectantia. [Quatuor Voluminibus Comprehensa]. Ab
Anno CCCCXLVI. ad Annum MCCLXV.. Gosling, Gyles, Woodward, Davis. pp. 386–.
Sir Thomas Littleton; David Hoüard; France (1766). Anciennes
loix des françois,: conservées dans les coutumes angloises, recueillies
par Littleton; avec des observations historiques & critiques, où
l'on fait voir que les coutumes & usages suivis anciennement en
Normandie, sont les mêmes que ceux qui étoient en vigueur dans toute la
France sous les deux premieres races de nos rois. Ouvrage également
utile pour l'étude de notre ancienne histoire & pour l'intelligence
du droit coutumier de chaque province. Imprimerie de Richard Lallement. pp. 226–.
Project Gutenberg.Anciennes loix des françois conservées dans les coutumes engloises recueillieshttp://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32298
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