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Student (2nd year): Stan Alexandra Elizzabet (Andrie)

Instructor: Dr. Remus Bejan
Course: British Civilization
Date: 18th of November 2016

The Monarchy vs. the Church in Medieval England

The established Christian Church in England was founded as a national Church by the
Act of Supremacy in 1534, after which it developed from a Roman Catholic into a Protestant
Church. () its legal position in the state is confirmed by the Elizabethan Church Settlement
and Parliament. It is not a state church, since it receives no financial aid from the state, apart
from salaries for non-clerical positions and help with church schools. The church therefore has a
special relationship with the state, although there continue to be calls for its disestablishment
(cutting the connections between church and state) so that it might have autonomy over its own
affairs. (Oakland, J., British Civilization. An introduction, 2003: 240)
The sovereign is the secular head of the Church; its religious leader is the Archbishop of
Canterbury; and its senior ruling hierarchy of archbishops, bishops (24 of whom sit in the House
of Lords) and deans are formally appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The Church is not completely free of state influence since its forms of worship are subject to
approval by Parliament, although it receives very little state finance. (Oakland, J., A Dictionary
of British Institutions, 1993: 37).

During the most part of Medieval Age, the Church was the state itself, the one that
impose a certain order in Europe, the unquestioned leader. It was the government, so being part
of the church was a sign of being part to the upper classes. They lived lavish lifestyles, and were
among the wealthiest people, sometimes more powerful than the kings of the day.
One of the first changes in the Church order that led to the conflict between Church and
Monarchy was after 1066, when William the Conqueror rewarded the Norman lords in his
service with the lands of the defeated Saxons. Even the monasteries sacred treasures were
plundered, while the Saxon prelates were constrained to resign their cathedrals to Norman
strangers, so that by 1086 only two bishops were Saxon.
In 1164, Henry II put out the most controversial document, The Constitutions of Clarendon, that
had a clause which referred to the fact that if a clerk of the holy orders was convicted of a crime
in a church court, he should than be available for punishment by the law authorities. (Bejan, R.,
Britain. Past and Present, 2001: 66). This put the king and the Archbishop of Canterbury into an
open conflict, which darkened the latter, part of Henrys reign.
A writ, <<Circumspecte agatis>> of 1282, attended royal jurisdiction over ecclesiastical
courts, but arouse the vehement opposition of the Pope, who stated that taxation of the clergy
could be decided only by the Holy Sec. Yet, the almost inescapable conflict with the Church was
temporarily avoided due to Edwards Charters and agreed on paying a third of their
temporalities, with the promise that the freedom of the Church would be observed. The
settlement considerably diminished the privileges of the English clergy. (Bejan, R., 2001: 67)
Henry the I was involved in a dispute with the Archbishop over his claims that the clergy
should do homage to him for their lands. They got to the agreement that only the Church could
create bishops, while the clergy agreed to pay homage to the king.

In 1162 Henry II appointed his Chancellor and friend Thomas Beckett Archbishop of Canterbury
in an effort to take control over the church. He also required that priests, if accused of a crime,
should be tried in royal judges.
The Church was a strong presence I medieval society, particularly after the Fourth Lutheran
Council of 1215 had made confession obligatory. Its traditions encompassed all aspects of the
life of an individual and community, so that the boundary between the secular and the religious
became increasingly indistinct. A militant body, the Church was a factor of progress and change
throughout the Middle Ages. Religious orders, such as Benedictines, the Cistercians, the
Dominicans or the Franciscans maintained an ideal of asceticism, humility and labour that
refined manners. The speedy accumulation of wealth, however, destroyed this idealism, and their
impact on the people diminished in the 13th century. (Bejan, R., 2001: 97)
This led to confusion between religious and secular interests. The inequities, even within
the body of the Church itself, that they generated movements of contest, such as Lollardy, one of
the most organized religious form of protest in the fourteen century. The movement originated
in Oxford and was condemned as a heresy by the ecclesiastical hierarchy of England. John
Wycliffe, its spiritual leader, urged that the Bible should be placed in the hands of everyone,
questioned the doctrines of the corporate wealth of the Church, condemned monasticism, and
advocated the marriage of the clergy. Although it failed to achieve its objectives, Lollardy had its
role in entertaining a spirit of popular dissent that would favor Reformation a century later.
(Bejan, R., 2001: 98)
This succession struggle, combined with change and plague affected Britain and Ireland,
which led to the Hundred Years War, which lasted from 1337 until the English were defeated, in
1453. During the Middle Ages, also called the Dark Ages, the Church and its leading institution,

the papacy, like the monarchy, became weak and disorganized. The earliest manifestation of
church-state struggle of this period was the conflict between Henry II and Archbishop Thomas
Becket, led further on to a more legalistic approach by Edward I, whose Statute of Mortmain in
1279 was designed to prevent the dead hand of the church gaining further gifts of land to
circulate within lay society and to make land more easily taxable by the crown.
To conclude, it can be seen that the power of the Church grew proportionally with the
conflict with the state. The Church did not keep its responsibilities, but enjoyed all the privileges.
Eventually dominancy of Church could not be handled by State, which wanted more power and
authority. This medieval struggle between secular and religious power found its purpose after the
Reformation of Martin Luther, which changed the whole scenario for the entire religious order of
Europe.

Reference list

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Bejan, Remus, Britain. Past and Present, Institutul European, Iai, 2001;
Oackland, John, British civilization. An introduction, Routledge, London, 2003;
Oackland, John, A dictionary of British institutions, Routledge, London, 1993;
https://www.academia.edu/8384384/Conflict_between_church_and_state_in_medieval_E

urope
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/overview_middleages_01.shtml