Читать книгу A Concise History of the Common Law - Theodore F. T. Plucknett - Страница 103

Very soon after the Norman Conquest the inquisition appears in England as an administrative device for obtaining all sorts of information useful to the government from an unwilling populace. The officers of William the Conqueror were told to—

“enquire by the oath of the sheriff and of all the barons and of their Frenchmen, and of all the hundred, of the priest, of the reeve, and of six villeins of every vill, what is the name of the manor, who held it in the time of King Edward, who now, how many hides, how many ploughs,—how many men, how many villeins... how much it was worth and how much now; and all this at three times, the time of King Edward, the time when King William gave it, and now”—¹

and the answers were collected in Domesday Book. The Constitutions of Clarendon, which settled the controversy of Church and State in 1164, recount that—²

“This record or recognition was made in the year 1164 in the presence of the King concerning a part of the customs and liberties of his ancestors which ought to be held and observed in the realm. And by reason of the dissensions and discords which have arisen between the clergy and the King’s justices and barons concerning his dignities and customs, this recognition was made before the archbishop and bishops and clergy, and the earls, barons and nobles of the realm.”

Here we have the principle of the inquisition used to ascertain even such vague matters as the customary political relations between Church and State.