Perhaps its chief provisions are those in favour of the Church, supplementing a vague declaration that the Church should be “free” by specific promises that the bishops should have exclusive jurisdiction and power over churchmen and their goods, along with the sole right to superintend their distribution after death. Here was a clear confirmation of the right of the Courts Christian to a monopoly of all pleas affecting the clergy or their property. It is the first distinct enunciation in England of the principle afterwards known as "benefit of clergy"—and that, too, in a form more sweeping than was ever afterwards repeated. Stephen also explicitly renounced all rights inherent in the Crown to wardship over Church lands during vacancies—a surrender never dreamed of by either Henry I. or Henry II. Grants to the people at large followed. A general clause promising peace and justice was again supplemented by specific concessions of more practical value, namely, a promise to extirpate all exactions, unjust practices, and “miskennings” by sheriffs and others, and to observe good, ancient, and just customs in respect of murder-fines, pleas, and other causes. Strangely enough, there is only one provision specially benefiting feudal magnates, the King’s disclaimer of all tracts of land afforested since the time of the two Williams. The omission of further feudal concessions must not be attributed either to Stephen’s strength, or to any spirit of moderation or self-sacrifice in the magnates. Each baron of sufficient importance had already extorted a special charter in his own favour, more emphatic and binding from its personal nature, and accordingly more valued than a mere general provision in favour of all and sundry. Such private grants generally included a confirmation of the grantee’s right to maintain his own feudal stronghold, thus placing him in a position of practical independence. It is instructive to compare these wide promises of Stephen with the meagre words of the charter granted by Henry of Anjou at or soon after his Coronation.[178] Henry II. carefully omits all mention of Stephen and his charters, not, as is sometimes supposed, because he did not wish to acknowledge the existence of a usurper, but because of that usurper’s lavish grants to the Church. Henry had no intention either to confirm “benefit of clergy” in so sweeping a form as Stephen had done, or to renounce wardship over the lands of vacant sees. ----- Footnote 178: The charter of Henry II. is given in Bémont, _Chartes_, 13, and in _Select Charters_, 135. It seems worth while to mention in this connection a notable mistake of a writer whose usual accuracy is envied by his brother historians. Mr. J. H. Round (_Engl. Hist. Rev._, VIII. 292) declares that “the royal power had increased so steadily that Henry II. and his sons had been able to abstain from issuing charters, and had merely taken the old tripartite oath.” -----