The Sanctity of Contracts in English Law - College of Social ...

6 Growth of Sanctity of Contractsentered into an agreement ratified by an oath—andthen failed to fulfil that promise or agreement, hisfailure constituted an ecclesiastical offence for whichhe was answerable in the Church courts as a sinnerin need of correction. The King's courts, however,seem to have steadfastly refused to enforce contractsmade or ratified only under such a pledge of faith:and the Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164, 8 discouragedthe ecclesiastical courts from attempting to enforcethem. Nevertheless these latter courts, in spite ofmany prohibitions, continued from time to time toexercise jurisdiction over persons who had pledgedtheir faith to perform contractual obligations andthen failed to honour their word. 9 Professor Plucknettsums up the situation in these words: " TheChurch very early took a strong view of the sanctityof contractual relationships, insisting that in consciencethe obligation of a contract was completelyindependent of writings, forms and ceremonies, andtried so far as she could to translate this moral theoryinto terms of law." 10The point I want to make is that although "sin,"on the one hand, and " crime" and " breach ofcontract " on the other are to us today quite distinctconceptions, this was not always so; for the obligationsof religion and of law in the field of promiseswere in medieval times almost indistinguishable.Throughout the medieval period, a pre-eminently8 See generally Plucknett, A Concise History of the CommonLaw, 5th ed., p. 17.9 See generally on this Holds. H.E.L. Vol. Ill, pp. 414-415.10 Plucknett, op. cit. at p. 627.