This Monday marks the eight-hundredth anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta by King John. Though widely thought of as the result of a power struggle between monarch and barons, it emerges that the origins of the charter lie in theological ideas and the influence of senior clerics.

Theos Research Director Nick Spencer | The Tablet (subscription required)

Theos's reportThe Church and the Charter: Christianity and the Forgotten Roots of the Magna Carta is available here