Constitutions of Clarendon: Investiture Controversy: Canons of Pope Urban II

The following Canons were reported by Anselm archbishop of Canterbury to Henry I after he had been recalled from exile by Henry following his coronation, and seizure of the crown following the death of his brother William Rufus. Henry offered to give Anselm his archbishop's see back if he would do homage and swear fealty to him for it. Anselm refused on the grounds of these canons which forbade him to accept such an arrangement. Henry was none too pleased with him, Thus began the Investiture Crisis in England.

At the Council of Clermont in November 1095 Pope Urban II had announced the following Decrees

Concilii Claramontani

Canon XV. — Nullus ecclesiasticum honorem de manu laici accipiat.

Ut nullus ecclesiasticorum aliquem honorem a manu laicorum accipiat.

Ut clericus nullum ecclesiæ honerem a laicali manu recipiat.

Canon XVI. — Ut principes investituras non faciant.

Interdictum est, ne reges vel alii principes aliquam investituram de ecclesiasticis honoribus faciant.

Canon XVIl. — Ut episcopus aut presbyter fidelitatem laicis non faciat.

Ne episcopus vel sacerdos regi vel alicui laico in manibus ligium fidelitatem faciat.

Canon 15.

No one may accept an ecclesiastic honour from the hand of a layman.

So that no-one may take any ecclesiastical honour from the hands of laymen.

So that no cleric may receive any ecclesiastical honour from the hand of a lay person.

Canon 16.

In order that princes may not perform investiture

It is forbidden for kings or other princes to invest anyone with ecclesiastic honours.

Canon 17

As a bishop or a priest they may not swear fealty to laymen.

No bishop or priest may make an oath of allegiance between the hands of a king or any other lay person.

References

Church-History of the Government of Bishops and their Councils abbreviated, etc. B. Griffin, for T. Simmons. 1680. pp. 372–.

Richard Baxter (1681). Church history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated: including the chief part of the government of Christian princes and popes, and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the Reformation ... Printed for Thomas Simmons. pp. 356–.

Jacques Paul Migne (1854). Opera omnia. Patrologia Latina Tomus CLXII Migne. pp. 717–.

Johann Carl Ludwig Gieseler (1836). 726-1517. Carey, Lea, and Blanchard. pp. 173–.

Leidulf Melve (13 November 2007). Inventing the Public Sphere (2 vols): The Public Debate during the Investiture Contest (c. 1030–1122). BRILL. pp. 613–. ISBN 978-90-474-2275-4.

Johann Lorenz Mosheim (1819). An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern, from the Birth of Christ, to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century. R. Baynes. pp. 524–.

John S. Ott (December 2015). Bishops, Authority and Community in Northwestern Europe, c.1050–1150. Cambridge University Press. pp. 207–. ISBN 978-1-107-01781-8.

Rosamond McKitterick (1995). The New Cambridge Medieval History: pts. 1-2. c. 1024-c. 1198. Cambridge University Press. pp. 294–. ISBN 978-0-521-41410-4.

At the Council of Rome, in April 1099

Juvabit &c. describere verba Rogerii Hoveden, parte annalium priore. Habent enim de hac synodo peculiare non nihil. Anno, inquit, MXCIX. Urbanus papa tertia hebdomada paschae magnum concilium tenuit Romae, in quo excommunicavit omnes laicos , investituras ecclesiarum dantes: & omnes, easdem investituras de manibus laicorum accipientes : necnon omnes , in officium sic dati honoris consecrantes. Excommunicavit etiam eos, qui pro ecclesiasticis honoribus, laicorum homines fiunt:

Dicens, nimis execrabile videri, ut manus, quae in tantam eminentiam excreverunt, quod nulli angelorum concessum est, ut Deum cuncta createm suo signaculo creent, et eundem ipsum pro saluti totius mundi, Dei Patria obtitibus offerant, Et ab omnibus acclamutum est "Fiat, fiat"
Hoveden Ann 1099

In the year 1099, in the third week after Easter, pope Urban held a great council at Rome, at which he excommunicated all laymen who gave investiture to churches, and all who received investiture from the hands of laymen, as well as all those who consecrated persons for the duties of the office so bestowed. He also excommunicated those who, to gain ecclesiastical honours, did homage to laymen; affirming that it seemed most shocking that hands which had attained a distinction so high that it was granted to none of the angels, namely, by their touch to create the God who created all things, and in the presence of God the Father, to offer up his own self for the salvation of the whole world, should be reduced to such a pitch of disgracefulness or folly as to become the handmaids of those hands which by day and night are denied by obscene contact, or, used to rapine and the unrighteous shedding of blood, are stained thereby; upon which, all shouted with one consent, "So be it! So be it!" and thereupon the council was concluded.

Roger Hoveden (1868). Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scripture: Or, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland During the Middle Ages. Longman. pp. 155–.

Roger (of Hoveden); Henry Thomas Riley (1853). The annals of Roger de Hoveden: Comprising the history of England and of other countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201. H.G. Bohn. pp. 188–.

Eadmer (2012). Eadmeri Historia Novorum in Anglia: Et, Opuscula Duo de Vita Sancti Anselmi Et Quibusdam Miraculis Ejus. Cambridge University Press. pp. 114–. ISBN 978-1-108-05222-1.

Urbanus 2 (1853). Patrologiae cursus completus, Volume 151. Migne. pp. 251–.

Walter of Coventry (2012). The Historical Collections of Walter of Coventry. Cambridge University Press. pp. 116–. ISBN 978-1-108-05112-5.

John (of Worcester) (1995). The Chronicle of John of Worcester: The annals from 1067 to 1140 with the Gloucester interpolations and the continuation to 1141. Clarendon Press. pp. 91–. ISBN 978-0-19-820702-3.