Flags of Freedom
Hereford Cathedral
January to December 2015
The banners hanging in the nave are inspired by some of the most important clauses in
Magna Carta which have a lasting impact on our law and society today. They have been
created by Hereford artist and designer, Chris White, who has used traditional pen and inks
to replicate the experience of scribes 800 years ago. Each banner features a clause
surrounded by examples of how we interpret that term today in a script that beautifully
reveals the poetry and rhythm of the written word.
The English Church shall be free
Clause 1: We have first of all granted to God, and by this our present charter confirmed, for
ourselves and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church is to be free, and to have its full
rights and its liberties intact
No punishment without fair trial
Clause 39: No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions,
or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force
against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the
law of the land.
None shall be sold or denied right or justice
Clause 40: To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
[Clause 39 and 40 are the foundation of the free and fair treatment of the individual
embodied in English law, the American and other constitutions throughout the world and
current Human Rights legislation.]
No prosecution without evidence
Clause 38: In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported
statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.
Lawsuits shall be held in a fixed place
Clause 17: Ordinary lawsuits (common pleas) shall not follow the royal court around, but
shall be held in a fixed place
By common counsel of our kingdom
Clause 12: No scutage or aid (royal tax) is to be imposed in our kingdom except by the
common counsel of our kingdom, unless for the ransoming of our person, and knighting of
our first-born son, and for marrying, once, our first-born daughter, and for these only a
reasonable aid is to be taken. Aids from the city of London are to be treated in like manner.
Let there be one measure in the realm
Clause 35: There is to be one measure of wine throughout our kingdom, and one measure of
ale, and one measure of corn, namely the quarter of London, and one breadth of dyed,
russet and haberget cloths, that is, two ells within the borders; and let weights be dealt with
as with measures.
All these liberties we have granted
Clause 60: All these customs and liberties that we have granted shall be observed in our
kingdom in so far as concerns our own relations with our subjects. Let all men of our
kingdom, whether clergy or laymen, observe them similarly in their relations with their own
men.