Lyttleton's Comments: Constitutions Clause 12

George Lyttelton (1767). The History Of The Life of King Henry the Second,  Notes to the Second and Third Books.  Sandby and Dodsley. pp. 143-.

When an archbishoprick, or bishoprick, or abbey, or priory, of royal foundation, shall he vacant, it ought to he in the hands of our lord the king, and he shall receive all the rents and issues thereof, as of his demesne; and 'when that church is to be supplied, our lord the king ought to send for the principal clergy of that church, and the election ought to he made in. the king's chapel, with the assent of our lord the king, and the advice of  such the prelates of the-kingdom as he shall call for that purpose; and the person elect shall there do homage and fealty to our lord the king, as his liege lord, of' life, limb, and worldly honour (saving his order) before. he be consecrated. 

Of the foundation of the right asserted to the king by this statute enough has been said in the preceding book of this History. I will only add here, that the same practice prevailed in the kingdom of France, in the dutchy of Normandy, and in the Norman kingdom of Sicily. Notice has also been taken of the saving clause at the end of it, which certainly opened a wide door to elude all the obligations contracted by the prelates in the act of homage and oath of fealty; though I find it affirmed by Becket, in a letter to the pope, that the same form was then used by the -whole Christian church. He likewise adds, that, when his Holiness absolved  him from the oath he had taken at Clarendon, that pontiff told him, that not even for the preservation of his life should a bishop lay himself under any obligation without a saving to his order and to the honor of God: which he adhered to pertinaciously in his whole dispute with the king. As for the form of election, which is laid down in this statute, it must be observed, that the vacant church, with the advice of only such of the prelates of the kingdom as he should call for that purpose, seems to have been a practice of no very ancient date, not older, I presume, than the reign of Henry the First, or William Rufus. For Mr. Tyrrel has proved by many authorities, that, during the times of the Saxons, the English prelates had been usually elected in the witenagemote, or great council, and with the advice, or concurrence, of the whole assembly. It likewise appears from the Saxon Chronicle, that the same form was continued under William the First. The 

words are these: "Hoc anno (1070) Lanfrancus,  Cadomensis Abbas, compellente rege Willielm et jubente Papa Alexandro, Angliam venit; et primatum regni Anglorum in ecclesia Cantuariensi suscepit, eligentibus eum senioribus ejusdem ecclesiae cum episcopis, et principibus, clero et populo Angliae in curia regis." But whatever form, or appearance, of more or fewer electors, had been kept up in those times, or was continued in those of which I write, it appears from a passage in a letter of Peter of Blois, which is inserted in the Appendix to the preceding volume of this History, that the thief power in these elections was by the constitution of the kingdom assigned to the king. Speaking of Henry the Second, he says, "Cum autem juxta regni consuetudinem "in electionibus faciendis potissimas et potentissimas habet partes," &c. Indeed the statute here recited requires no more, than that the prelate shall be elected with the assent of the king; but in fact that assent was little different from a real nomination. The pope and clergy were desirous to exclude the king and all the laity from any share in their elections, which was one principal reason of Alexander's condemning this statute,

References

https://archive.org/stream/historylifeking11lyttgoog#page/n7/mode/2up

George Lord Lyttelton (1767). The History of the Life of King Henry the Second and of the Age in which He Lived ... 2. Ed. - London, Sandby 1767-1771. Sandby. pp. 361–.

Baron George Lyttelton Lyttelton (1769). The history of the life of King Henry the Second, and of the age in which he lived: in five books ; to which is prefixed a history of the revolutions of England from the death of Edward the Confessor to the birth of Henry the Second. Printed for J. Dodsley. pp. 374–

John Allen Giles (1846). The Life and Letters of Thomas À Becket: Now First Gathered from the Contemporary Historians. Letter LXXX Becket to the Pope 1169: Whittaker. pp. 164–.

Lyttleton Comments: Constitutions Clause 16

George Lyttelton (1767). The History Of The Life of King Henry the Second,  Sandby and Dodsley. pp. 153–.

The sons of villeins ought not to be ordained without the consent of

their lords, in whose lands they are known to have been born.

The reason of this was, that the ordaining of a slave had the effect of

an enfranchisement, and therefore, the sons of villeins being born in

slavery, it was robbing their lord, to set them free in this manner, without

his consent.

Lyttleton Comments: Constitutions Clause 11

George Lyttelton (1767). The History Of The Life of King Henry the Second,   Sandby and Dodsley. pp. 152–.

Archbishops, bishops, and all dignified clergymen who hold of the king in chief, have their possessions from the king as a barony, and answer thereupon to the king's justices and officers, and follow and perform all royal customs and rights, and, like other barons, ought to be present at the trials of the king's court with the barons, till the judgement proceeds to loss of members or death.

The evident intention of this constitution, or statute, was, to enforce on the prelates the obligations and duties arising from their baronies, as settled by the legistature under William the First, against the immunities they now claimed, and particularly the service of attending the judicature of the curia regis in all trials there. The exception to cases of blood seems to have been grounded on that part of the canon law, which had been received in this kingdom. For in the council of London held under Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, in the ninth year of William the First, some canons made in Spain were admitted and confirmed, by which no bishop, or abbot, or ecclesiastical person, was allowed to judge in cases extending to life or limb, or to assist in such judgements. [Concilia Magnæ Brit. edit. Wilkins p. 363], "Ex Concilis Eliberetano et Toletano undecimo, ut nullus epiicopus, vel abbas, seu quilibet ex clero, hominem occidendum vel membris truncandum judicet, vel judicantibus suæ auctoritatis favorem commodet." Concerning this point there is a remarkable passage in the works of Peter de Blois. He says, in his treatise De Iustitutione Episcopi ,

"Illud cælestera exasperatiram, et plerisque discrimen æternæ damnationis accumulati quod quidam principes, sacerdotes, et seniores populi, licet non diclent judicia sanguinis, eadem tamen traclent disputando, et disceptando de Hits, seque ideo immunes a culpl reputant, quad mortis aut truncatione membrorum judicium decernentes, a pronuntiatione duntaxat aut executions panalis sententia se absentant."

This proves undeniably, that in Henry the Second's time, the prelates only withdrew from the pronouncing of the sentence in cases of blood, but not from the trial or from any debates thereupon.


Richard Burn (1781). Ecclesiastical Law: In Four Volumes. For T. Cadell, in the Strand. pp. 18–.

Historical Notes of Clause 15: Breach of Faith - King's Justice or Ecclesiastical Court?

Cap. XV. Placita de debitis quae fide interposita debentur, vel absque interpositione fidei, sint in justitia regis.

Clause 15. Pleas concerning debts, which are owed on the basis of an oath or in connection with which no oath has been taken, are in the king's justice.

or

Let those pleas of debts, which are due with or without the interposition of a trust, be in the king's jurisdiction.

As early as the reign of king Stephen the Church had attempted to turn the ecclesiastical courts into ones dealing with matters of equity. For example, the Church claimed that suits involving pro laesione fidei [for injury to faith] belonged to its courts, as the matter concerned the harm and damages done by breach of faith or promise, and the Church considered these to be spiritual offences against the conscience. Thus the Church regarded that any case concerning the non-payment of debt or any breach of contract to be its business. Clause 15 of the Constitutions of Clarendon was instituted to put a stop to this practice, by stating pleas of debt belonged to the king's justice, thereby seeking to abolish the Church's right to hear such suits. The pope condemned this clause.

The Bible is peppered with the language of debt. Sin, forgiveness, reckoning, redemption - all of these words actually derive from the language of religion.  Debt is sin: Forgive us our debt.

Debt was very common amongst the lower classes. Cash, that is silver pennies, or physical money was largely used only for paying taxes to the king. Commonly if one wanted to "buy" a cow on credit one generally borrowed it from the creditor; one obtained the cow on loan for a pledge: in essence one had leased the cow. If the debt fell foul for any reason, a plea of debt was raised by the lender with the court. The claimant if the case were proved would be entitled to the promised pledge. Usury was strictly again Canon Law for Christians.

One problem this procedure was likely to generate was physical proof that a contract had been made, such as a tally-stick.

References

Wilfred Lewis Warren (1973). Henry II. University of California Press. pp. 546–8. ISBN 978-0-520-02282-9.

Sir William Blackstone (1775). Commentaries on the Laws of England: In Four Books. Clarendon Press, printed for W. Strahan. pp. 52–.


Thomas Edlyne Tomlins (1820). The Law-dictionary: Explaining the Rise, Progress and Present State of the British Law: Defining and Interpreting the Terms Or Words of Art, and Comrising Also Copious Information on the Subjects of Trade and Government. Article on EQUITY: Payne. pp. 427–.

George Lyttelton (1767). The History Of The Life of King Henry the Second,  Notes to the Second and Third Books.  Sandby and Dodsley. pp. 142-3.

BU Law - Our Faculty - Scholarship - Legal History- The Year Books - Report #1460.019

R. H. Helmholz (January 2004). The Oxford History of the Laws of England: The Canon law and Ecclesiastical jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s. Oxford University Press. pp. 358–. ISBN 978-0-19-825897-1.
Ann E. Faulkner (2002). Historical Dictionary of Late Medieval England, 1272-1485. Circumspecte agatis: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 117–. ISBN 978-0-313-29124-1

Thomas Atkins Street (1999). The History and Theory of English Contract Law. Pledge of Good Faith in Contract Law: Beard Books. pp. 11–. ISBN 978-1-893122-24-6.

Thomas Atkins Street (1999). The History and Theory of English Contract Law. Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts: Beard Books. pp. 13–. ISBN 978-1-893122-24-6.

Thomas Atkins Street (1999). The History and Theory of English Contract Law. Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts: Beard Books. pp. 11–. ISBN 978-1-893122-24-6.

Ranulphus de GLANVILLA; John Rayner; John Eardley WILMOT (1780). Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus Regni Anglie.

David Hoüard; Ranulf de Glanville; Andrew Horne (1776). Préface. Dissertation préliminaire sur les variations de la législation françoise et angloise, depuis l'entrée des Saxons dans les Gaules jusqu'au onzième siècle. Extraits du Domesday. Loix d'Henry I. Traités sur les coutumes angloises, par Glanville. Saillant, Nyon & Valade. pp. 532–.

David J. Ibbetson (2001). A Historical Introduction to the Law of Obligations. Glanvill and the Law of Debt: Oxford University Press. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-0-19-876411-3.

A Translation of Glanville Chapter III

A Translation of Glanville Chapter XII

Richard Firth Green (2002). A Crisis of Truth: Literature and Law in Ricardian England. Chapter 4: The King's Law: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 121–. ISBN 0-8122-1809-4.

Vermeersch, A. (1912). Usury. In The Catholic Encyclopedia
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15235c.htm

Usury - Wikipedia

R. H. Helmholz; John Hamilton Baker (2003). The Oxford History of the Laws of England: The Canon law and Ecclesiastical jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s. Oxford University Press. pp. 378–. ISBN 978-0-19-825897-1.

R. H.Tawney (1998). Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. Transaction Publishers. pp. 299–. ISBN 978-1-4128-3294-6.

The constitutional history and constitution of the Church of England; tr. from the German of Felix Makower

Ecclesiastical Courts §59,§60Phillipp Schofield; Nicholas Mayhew (2002). Credit and Debt in Medieval England c.1180-c.1350. Aspects of the Law of Debt 1189-1307: Oxbow Books. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-1-78570-402-4.

History of contract law - Wikipedia

Contracts in Early English Law

Frederick Pollock

Harvard Law Review

Vol. 6, No. 8 (Mar. 15, 1893), pp. 389-404

Published by: The Harvard Law Review Association

Article DOI: 10.2307/1321304

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1321304

Alfred William Brian Simpson (1987). A History of the Common Law of Contract: The Rise of the Action of Assumpsit. Clarendon Press. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-0-19-825573-4.

Alfred William Brian Simpson (1987). A History of the Common Law of Contract: The Rise of the Action of Assumpsit. II The Writ of Debt: Clarendon Press. pp. 53–. ISBN 978-0-19-825573-4.

Alfred William Brian Simpson (1987). A History of the Common Law of Contract: The Rise of the Action of Assumpsit. Clarendon Press. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-0-19-825573-4.

Thomas A. Street (1999). The Theory and Development of Common-Law Actions. The Action of Detinue: Beard Books. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-1-893122-25-3.

The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, Volume 1 - Maitland and Pollock

Travers Twiss (1895). the history of english law before the time of edward I. Volume 2 CUP Archive. pp. 199–.

The history of English law before the time of Edward I, by Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland : Pollock, Frederick, Sir Volume II Chapter V Contract  pp.184-

Sir William Jones; John Balmanno; Robert Raymond Baron Raymond (1804). An Essay on the Law of Bailments. London, printed, Philadelphia, re-printed, for P. Byrne. pp. 9–.

Edward Farley  (1788). Imprisonment for debt, unconstitutional and oppressive, proved from the fundamental principles of the British Constitution, and the rights of nature. Printed and sold by T. Hookham. pp. 48–.

Equity, also the forms of action at common law - Lecture IV The Modern Trust

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The history of contract in early English equity

Philip Augustus and the Norman Church

by John W. Baldwin

French Historical Studies,Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring, 1969), pp. 1-30

Published by: Duke University Press

http://www.jstor.org/stable/286242

...

In twelfth century Normandy as throughout
Western Europe many contracts involving landed property and moveables
contained a pledge of faith (fides) in support of the obligations
of the contract. By this means contracting parties pledged their
Christianity to fulfill the terms of the agreement. Parallel to this pledge,
they might also swear an oath (sacramentum, juramentum) to guarantee
the contract. Since both the pledge of faith and the oath were
religious acts, contracts containing them were considered by the churchmen
to come under ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
...
In the Constitutions of Clarendon King Henry II decreed that pleas of debts,
whether involving the pledge of faith or not, belonged to the king.
His meaning is not entirely clear, but Archbishop Thomas Becket's
party understood him to deprive the ecclesiastical courts of all competence
over breach of faith and perjury. Pope Alexander III condemned
this proposition, and after Becket's murder Henry retracted his innovation.

Clauses of the Constitutions of Clarendon Allowed/Tolerated or Condemned by the Pope

Clauses condemned by Pope Alexander III

1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 15.

1. If a controversy arise between laymen, or between
laymen and clerks, or between clerks concerning patron-
age and presentation of churches, it shall be treated or
concluded in the court of the lord king.

3. Clerks charged and accused of any matter, sum-
moned by the king's justice, shall come into his court to
answer there to whatever it shall seem to the king's court
should be answered there ; and in the church court to what
it seems should be answered there; however the king's
justice shall send into the court of holy Church for the
purpose of seeing how the matter shall be treated there.
And if the clerk be convicted or confess, the church
ought not to protect him further.

4. It is not permitted the archbishops, bishops, and
priests of the kingdom to leave the kingdom without the
lord king's permission. And if they do leave they are to
give security, if the lord king please, that they will seek
no evil or damage to king or kingdom in going, in making
their stay, or in returning.

5. Excommunicate persons ought not to give security
for an indefinite time, or give an oath, but only security
and pledge for submitting to the judgment of the church
in order that they may be absolved.

7. No one who holds of the king in chief or any of the
officials of his demesne is to be excommunicated or his
lands placed under interdict unless the lord king, if he
be in the land, or his justiciar, if he be outside the king-
dom, first gives his consent, that he may do for him what
is right: yet so that what pertains to the royal court be
concluded there, and what looks to the church court be
sent thither to be concluded there.

8. As to appeals which may arise, they should pass
from the archdeacon to the bishop, and from the bishop
to the archbishop. And if the archbishop fail in furnishing
justice, the matter should come to the lord king at the
last, that at his command the litigation be concluded in
the archbishop's court; and so because it should not
pass further without the lord king's consent.

9. If litigation arise between a clerk and a layman or
between a layman and a clerk concerning any holding
which the clerk would bring to charitable tenure but
the layman to lay fee, it shall be determined on the de-
cision of the king's chief justice by the recognition of
twelve lawful men in the presence of the king's justice
himself whether the holding pertain to charitable tenure
or to lay fee. And if the recognition declare it to be
charitable tenure, it shall be litigated in the church court,
but if lay fee, unless both plead under the same bishop or
baron, the litigation shall be in the royal court. But if
both plead concerning that fief under the same bishop or
baron, it shall be litigated in his court; yet so that he
who was first seised lose not his seisin on account of the
recognition that was made, until the matter be deter-
mined by the plea.

10. If any one who is of a city, castle, borough, or
demesne manor of the king shall be cited by archdeacon
or bishop for any offense for which he ought to be held
answerable to them and despite their summonses he re-
fuse to do what is right, it is fully permissible to place
him under interdict, but he ought not to be excommuni-
cated 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.
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 pur-
pose. 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.
15. Pleas concerning debts, which are owed on the
basis of an oath or in connection with which no oath has
been taken, are in the king's justice.

Clauses Tolerated or Allowed by Pope Alexander III
2, 6, 11, 13, 14 and 16.

2. Churches of the lord king's fee cannot be perma-
nently bestowed without his consent and grant.

6. Laymen ought not to be accused save by depend-
able and lawful accusers and witnesses in the presence of
the bishop, yet so that the archdeacon lose not his right
or anything which he ought to have thence. And if
there should be those who are deemed culpable, but
whom no one wishes or dares to accuse, the sheriff, upon
the bishop's request, shall cause twelve lawful men of
the neighborhood or the vill to take oath before the
bishop that they will show the truth of the matter ac-
cording to their conscience.

11. Archbishops, bishops, and all ecclesiastics of the
kingdom who hold of the king in chief have their pos-
sessions 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 judg-
ment to loss of limbs or death.

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 con-
cerned, 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-
deacons ought to constrain him to make satisfaction to
the lord king.

14. Chattels which have been forfeited to the king are
not to be held in churches or cemeteries against the king's
justice, because they belong to the king whether they be
found inside churches or outside.

16. Sons of villeins should not be ordained without
the consent of the lord on whose land it is ascertained
they were born.




References

L'Abbé's Latin Version

George Lord Lyttelton (1767). The History of the Life of King Henry the Second and of the Age in which He Lived . Sandby. pp. 358–.

George Lyttelton Baron Lyttelton (1769). The History of the Life of King Henry the Second: And of the Age in which He Lived. J. Dodsley. pp. 83–.

Sir Matthew Hale (1820). The History of the Common Law of England: And An Analysis of the Civil Part of the Law. Henry Butterworth. pp. 167–.

Robert Ross (Lecturer on History, Normal College, Cheltenham.) (1861). Manual of English History. pp. 84–.

William Francis Finlason (1869). Reeves' History of the English Law: Vol. 1: From the time of the Romans to the end of the reign of Henry 3. Reeves & Turner. pp. 126–.

J.J.S. WHARTON (1867). The Law Lexicon Or Dictionary of Jurisprudence: Explaining the Technical Words and Phrases Employed in the Several Departments of English Law.... Stevens and sons. pp. 191–.

 Augustin Thierry (1871). History of the Conquest of England by the Normans: Its Causes, and Its Consequences, in England, Scotland, Ireland, & on the Continent. Daldy. pp. 66–.

Historical Notes on Clause 16: Requirement of Rustics to have Permission from their Lord to become Clerics

Cap. xvi. Filii rusticorum non debent ordinari absque
assensu domini de cujus terra nati dignoscuntur.

16. Sons of villeins should not be ordained without
the consent of the lord on whose land it is ascertained
they were born.

Guernes (de Pont-Sainte-Maxence); Janet Shirley (1975). Garnier's Becket: translated from the 12th-century Vie saint Thomas le martyr de Cantorbire of Garnier of Pont-Sainte-Maxence. Phillimore. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-85033-200-1
2541 'No villein's son shall ever be ordained without the consent of the lord on whose land he was born.' And God has called us all to his service! Better an intelligent and valiant man whose father was a villein than a gently born coward and outcast!

Technically this was always a requirement of the Canon Law. This canonical restriction was applied by the Church to all the unfree whether they were servus, villanus, nativus, adscripticius or colonus.

In a sense upon being ordained in the Church the person becomes a bondsman of God, and cannot serve another master.


The total abolition of unfree status of villeins in England was not seriously proposed for another 200 years, until 1381.

One might ask why did Henry II consider it necessary to have such a clause. It is clear that he did not want the Church to be used as a backdoor for social advancement.

References 

R. H. Helmholz (2010). The Spirit of Classical Canon Law. Chapter 3: Qualifications of the Clergy - Ordination of the Unfree. University of Georgia Press. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-0-8203-3463-9.

The Spirit of Classical Canon Law by R. H. Helmholz

Review by John Witte, Jr.

Journal of Law and Religion

Vol. 16, No. 2 (2001), pp. 367-371

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1051665

Frederick Pollock; Frederic William Maitland. The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I. The Unfree The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 457–. ISBN 978-1-58477-718-2.

Maitland; Selden Society (1895). Mireur a Justices [Mirror of Justices]. B. Quaritch. ISBN 978-0-85423-086-0.

The decline of serfdom in medieval England; : Hilton, R. H. (Rodney Howard), - Internet Archive

Mark Bailey (2014). The Decline of Serfdom in Late Medieval England: From Bondage to Freedom. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84383-890-6.

Corpus juris canonici notis illustratum, Gregorij XIII. iussu editum : complectens Decretum Gratiani,

Distinctio LIV Canon 1

Servi autem ordinari prohibentur

http://archive.org/stream/corpusjuriscanon00cath#page/n178/mode/1up

Corpus juris canonici notis illustratum, Gregorij XIII. iussu editum : complectens Decretum Gratiani,

Distinctio LIV Can. 1

Servi autem ordinari prohibentur

http://archive.org/stream/corpusjuriscanon00cath#page/n178/mode/1up

Abbé Jacques Paul Migne (1855). Patrologiae latina cursus completus ... series secunda. Aqud Editorem. pp. 47–.

Medioevo romanzo. G. Macchiaroli. 1990. Volume 15 p. 9.

The English Manor C.1200 To C.1500. Manchester University Press. 7 September 2002. pp. 33–. ISBN 978-0-7190-5229-3.

Edward Miller; John Hatcher (2013). Medieval England: Rural Society and Economic Change 1086-1348. Longman Group.

Hatcher, John. “English Serfdom and Villeinage: Towards a Reassessment.” Past & Present, no. 90, 1981, pp. 3–39. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/650715. 

Frederic William Maitland, historian: selections from his writings; : Maitland, Frederic William, 1850-1906 - Internet Archive

 

Frederick Pollock; F. w. Maitland (30 June 2007). "The Unfree". The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 412–. ISBN 978-1-58477-718-2.

John Allen Giles (1846). The Life and Letters of Thomas À Becket: Now First Gathered from the Contemporary Historians. Whittaker. pp. 129–.

Paul R. Hyams (1980). Kings, Lords and Peasants in Medieval England: The Common Law of Villeinage in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-821880-7.

Kings, Lords and Peasants in Medieval England: The Common Law of Villeinage in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries by Paul R. Hyams
Review by R. H. Helmholz
Speculum
Vol. 57, No. 3 (Jul., 1982), pp. 621-623
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2848712

King, Lords and Peasants in Medieval England: The Common Law of Villeinage in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries by Paul R. Hyams

Review by Alan Harding

The English Historical Review

Vol. 96, No. 381 (Oct., 1981), pp. 854-857

http://www.jstor.org/stable/569850

Martyn Whittock (2013). A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages. Constable & Robinson Limited. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-1-4721-0766-4.

Constitutions of Clarendon: Vills and Villeins

David Charles Douglas; George William Greenaway (1996). English Historical Documents, 1042-1189. Psychology Press. pp. 439–. ISBN 978-0-415-14367-7.

Assize of Clarendon 1166 Clause 20

Moreover. the Iord king forbids monks or canons or any religious house to receive any men of the lower orders as a monk or a canon or a brother, until it be known of what reputation he is. unless he shall be sick unto death.

Bracton Online - Harvard Law School Library

OF PERSONS

That all law relates either to persons, things or actions. 29

• The first classification of persons.
• What freedom is.

What bondage is. 30

• Bondsmen are either born unfree or are made such; how they are born unfree.
• How men are made bond.

Who may be called free and who freeborn. 31

• Who are called freedmen.
• Who may and may not be called children and reckoned as such.
• Another classification of men.

Seignorial potestas sometimes is ended by manumission, as where a lord, by one of the several methods of manumission, sets his bondsman free, 

• Whether a gift may be made to bondsmen.Bracton- Thorne Edition- English. Volume 2, Page 84 - 86

Fernand Bernard (2010). The First Year of Roman Law. Chapter I: Freemen and Slaves. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-1-61619-022-4.

Paul Vinogradoff (2010). Villainage in England: Essays in English Mediaeval History. Chapter II: Rights and Disabilities of the Villain. Cambridge University Press. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-1-108-01963-7.   Villainage in England - Internet Archive

Bracton

An ambitious legal treatise, composed in the wake of Magna Carta, attributed to Henry of Bratton, De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae (England, 13th century).