King John and the Church | Magna Carta | 9 Minute History

[Music] on 23rd March 1208 English bishops under orders from Pope Innocent the third-placed England under a general interdict this was the religious equivalent to a general strike priests were not to celebrate Mass to anoint the dying or bury the dead in church grounds even the ringing of church bells was forbidden only baptism and hearing deathbed confessions were allowed this state of affairs lasted for over six years until the internet was finally listed in July 1214 the cause of this spiritual crisis stem from a political dispute and 12-hour vibe between King John and the Pope over who should be Archbishop of Canterbury John wanted to appoint with one of his favorites John degre the Pope's choice was even lengthen a biblical scholar who spent most of his life in Paris in the ensuing standoff monks were chased out of Canterbury Cathedral Church property and revenue received and the Pope excommunicated John and his court a sanction did not only consign John's soul to hell but invited foreign rulers to depose him however just seven years later in the summer of 1215 the Pope was a staunch ally of John Pope Innocent declared Magna Carta to be illegal and just harmful to royal rights and shameful to the English people what had happened in the intervening years to cause such a dramatic reversal in a to men's relationship and what role did the church play in the crisis that led to the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215 to find answers to these questions I've come to Royal Holloway to speak with medieval historian clare kenan prayer was John's conflict with the church unusual to this time the first thing we need to understand is that John was not the first Plantagenet King to have a difficult relationship with the church we all remember the story of John's father Herod second on Thomas Becket Henry had appointed Becket was Archbishop promotionally because he expected the Alpha close friends he could be relied upon to take his side when the interests of the church in the crown came into conflict but when it became clear that Becket was not willing to simply bowel - Henry's will their relationships it rapidly ending with three of the King's Knight's murdering the archbishop in canterbury cathedral whilst they were not acting under direct orders from the king henry was widely held to be responsible for the murder if we then look at richard the lionheart you might expect that a king who spent most of his reign fighting in the crusade would be a firm friend of the church but like his father Richard also taxed the church heavily to finance his walls both Henry and Richard also handed out or sold bishoprics to their favourites as rewards or incentives for loyalty however John's early relationship with the church Awards particular for and there are several reasons for them the main one is financial the church in medieval England was a major landowner and its wealth can be as much 42 million pounds a year when a bishopric became vacant the crown collected its income so it actually in the Kings interest to keep the bishopric vacant for as long as possible John kept the bishopric of Lincoln vacant for almost two years pocketing a profit of around 1.3 million pounds John's character and personal life also played a role he took married noble women as his mistresses and contemporary chronicler criticized his failure to attend Mass and accused him of blasphemy so how did John go from being excommunicated to having the Pope as an ally there are three key points to explain this change firstly John eventually back down in a Stephen rank under speed faced with the threat of a French invasion and domestic unrest at home John made a calculation that he needed to make peace with the Pope John met with the Pope's representative at your outside Dover on the 15th of May 12 13 and there he accepted the Pope of his overlord he had effectively surrendered his crown to the Pope and then walked it back for an annual tribute or a payment of 1,000 marks Langdon was allowed to travel to England and along with the bishops of London Eli Lincoln and he referred he met with John on the 20th of July 1213 at Winchester according to contemporary accounts John of self was need cried and begged the bishops and the Pope to have mercy on him in England he swore to return the property he had seized to defend the church and restore the good laws of his ancestors the excommunication and the interdict were then listed the second point is that John promised to go on crusade and this too was a careful piece of political calculation subjects and foreign princes were forbidden by the church to rebel or make war on a king he was preparing to go on crusade the third point is that the Pope was not just a spiritual leader he will directly over a large part of central Italy and so it's equally anxious to stamp out any innovative means of holding rulers to account innocent approved of the belief but waters are accountable only to God and after all he was God's representative on earth and so this made him uniquely powerful but does this mean that the church was now on the Kings side not entirely Langdon himself seems to have been sympathetic to the Barons some medieval chroniclers suggest but it was actually Moncton who referred the Barons to the original coronation shelter of Henry the first as a model of the sort of Charter which journalist should be compelled to agree to one turn you will remember was an Englishman who had spent most of his life living and teaching in Paris during this time Langton drew upon the examples of good and bad kingship in the Bible and he used this to criticize Kings in his own times Langdon argued that Kings should obey the law that they should only tax their subjects when absolutely necessary and that they should war for the common good not just to their own glory and this made him naturally sympathetic to the Barons cause it is also likely that Langton in addition to being a leading mediator at Runnymede was in part responsible for the content of Magna Carta after all the first Clause of the Charter states that the English church shall be free and shall have its rights under minish and its liberties unimpaired so the Pope was on the Kings side and the Archbishop of Canterbury was on the Barons side while it may appear this way Michel was first and foremost concerned with protecting the rights at the church and to do this he had to remain as neutral as possible and what role did lengthen and the church play after the Pope at an old Magna Carta again we see a split between Lincoln and innocence Langdon remained committed to upholding the settlement reached at Runnymede he continued to mediate between the opposing and copies of Magna Carta was sent out to the English cathedrals to ensure their safe keeping meanwhile Pope Innocent had ordered lankton to excommunicate the rebel barons and when Windell refused to do this he was suspended the archbishop and the Pope only reconciled at the death of King John on the 18th of October 1216 and the crown then passed on to John's nine-year-old son the future Henry the 3rd who relied upon William Marshall and the Pope's ambassador Pandolf to defend his right to the throne Magna Carta was now reissued stripped of its most radical clauses and sealed by both Marshall and Pandolf it was being transformed from a shameful document in the words of the Pope to being a freely given manifesto of good government endorsed by the Pope's ambassador and this combined with a victory for rooibos forces at Lincoln of Sandwich ended the rebellion and ensure the survival of the Charter so to recap John and the Pope had a long-running feud over who should be Archbishop of Canterbury resulting in John being excommunicated and the churches in England being closed for six years the two were reconciled when John fearful of a French invasion submitted to the Pope in 1213 and accepted Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury while Langton was sympathetic to the band's cause he attempted to mediate between the two sides in the crisis that led to the sealing of Magna Carta while Pope Innocent was hostile to the Charter and in 1216 declared it shameful and illegal it was only when Magna Carta was stripped of its most radical clauses and reissued under Henry the 3rd in 1216 that it was supported by the Pope [Music]