Date: the reign of Henry II, 1154-1189. [I haven't yet narrowed the date]
TEXT:
Henry by the grace of God king of the English, and duke of the Normans
and Aquitanians, and count of the Angevins, to all his archbishops, bishops,
abbots, counts, barons, justiciars, viscounts, bailiffs, and vassals, Greetings.
You should know that the dispute which was raging between Walter, archbishop of Rouen, and Henry, abbot of Fécamp, concerning a certain monk of Fécamp [who] is living at Monte Aviscum, [and] whom the archbishop had excommunicated since he claimed that he [the monk] had received men excommunicated by the archbishop into the church of Avisco Monte while the divine offices were being celebrating there, and had given them communion, was ended when each side sought arbitration from me; since I, having taken counsel with my bishops and barons, arbitrated thus concerning the matter: namely that the aforesaid monk should seek absolution from the archbishop and that the archbishop should absolve him without penalty or oath; that the altars destroyed by the said archbishop and restored by the abbot should be destroyed anew by the abbot and should afterwards be rebuilt by him [the archbishop], and [that] the bishop of Evreux should bring, or cause to be brought, holy water to reconsecrate that church; and that no monk shall be put in charge of [preficeretur] the aforesad house who does not first swear in the presence of the archbishop or his official (if the archbishop happens to be absent) that he will not knowingly receive those excommunicated by the archbishop in his church nor offer them communion, nor impede or infringe upon the judgments which the archbishop shall deliver to his parishioners, but will assist with as much as pertains to him that they [the judgments] be held firm. And all these things were done saving the right of each church, thus so that this deed shall not hinder nor be able to hinder in posterity the right or the privileges of either church.
Witnesses: H. bishop of Durham; Robert son of William, archdeacon of Nottingham; William clerk of the Chamber; Earl William de Mandeville; William fitzRalph, seneschal of Normandy; Roger son of Reinfred; Seerius de Quincy; Hugh de Cressy.
[Done] at Rouen.
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