Constitutions of Clarendon were an early attempt, in England, to define the boundaries between the rights of the church and the jurisdiction of the king. They were drawn up by King Henry II and presented for acceptance to the church at a council at Clarendon, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 1164. The 16 “constitutions” asserted various rights of the king, and of his courts, to jurisdiction in certain church-related matters. For example, clergy convicted of criminal offences were to be punished by civil courts. The church opposed these ideas.
