The Magna Carta

The implementation of liberty and most important instrument of English constitutional history, was issued by King John in June 1215 A.D. at Runnymede “The MAGNA CHARTA (commonly called the MAGNA CARTA).”

Under the compulsion of the barons, John was forced to sign this document, because of his continual extortion of money, and his violations of feudal rights. He not only fell into disfavour with the nobles but also with the knights and with the townspeople. John also quarrelled with Pope Innocent III over who would be archbishop of Canterbury. In 1208, Innocent put England under an interdict, cutting off the entire land from the services and sacraments of the church. John retaliated by confiscating the property of the archbishop of Canterbury. In 1209, the pope excommunicated John and offered the crown of England to King Philip II of France. Philip and a mighty army prepared to cross the English Channel and take England away from its excommunicated King.

It seemed that John was trapped. He knew he could not count on the nobles for help. They hated him for his lack of respect for the feudal promises between lord and vassal. To escape the English nobles on the one side, and the French warriors on the other, John ran to his third enemy, the Pope. He repented of his deeds, restored the church property, and then, to the horror of all Englishmen, he offered England to the pope as a fief of the papacy. “Here I resign the crown of the realm of England into the Pope’s hand, Innocent III,” he said, “and put me wholly in his mercy and ordinance.” John’s cowardly deeds aroused the patriotism of the nation. The great English nobles, called barons, vowed that they would never be slaves of a pope. Even the English clergy now felt that the Roman pope had too much power over the English church because of the alliance with John.1

The MAGNA CARTA (1213-1215) was seen as the first bill of rights, for it was the guarantee of the supremacy of the individual over the King. It also provided for the freedom of the church. Most important it was later to be interpreted as a guarantee of trial by jury and of Habeas Corpus [the right of the family to see the body of the detained prisoner]. It can be said to be the foundation of religious and civil liberty.

King John was released from its observance by the Pope.2It can be right for us to say that because of this document’s approach to freedom, it was hated by the Papacy, for it was in direct opposition to the principles of the inquisition that were developing in Europe at that time. In 1066 A.D. the military subjugation started when William the Conqueror secured the sanction of the Pope, to raise an army and fleet. He defeated and slew King Harold in the Battle of Hastings. Overcoming what little resistance that remained in Kent, he made his way to London, received the city’s submission, and was crowned King on Christmas day.3 We would like to remind the reader that never since that time more than nine hundred years ago, has a Papal sponsored army put its foot on the mainland of England. God’s omnipotent providence has kept England free from the “Vatican’s invasion forces for nearly a thousand years.”

“It is important to note that The Magna Carta (1215), as confirmed by Edward I in 1297, cannot legally be ignored or repealed by parliament - parliament is but the means of enacting day-to-day government and is restrained and refined in action by the countervailing disciplines maintained by the constitution on behalf of the British people, protecting them as individuals. In particular, The Magna Carta is a treaty between the subject and the monarch. It stands above both and provides a means of redress if the treaty is ignored or broken by either side. Parliament has no power to amend or repeal it and it remains in force. In other words, no-one is above the law, whether King, commoner or in between.”4

References:
1. World History Book, p. 182-183
2. W. S. McKechnie, Magna Carta (1914)
3. E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest
4. Sovereign Britain, The Magna Carta Society Web Site, July 2006