These measures (S165), says Bishop Stubbs, were "really a part of a
great scheme of administrative reform." They were drawn up by a
committee of bishops and barons, with the Justiciar or Chief Minister
at the head. The object of the Constitutions was "to assert the
supremacy of the State over clergy and laity alike." They limited the
jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts; they established a more
uniform system of justice; and, in certain cases, they provided for a
kind of jury trial (see Stubb's "Constitutional History," I, 525; or,
for a brief abstract of the Constitutions, see Acland and Ransome's
"Political History," p. 24).