power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of causes Ecclesiastical and to correct all vice and sin whatsoever and to all such persons as your Majesty shall appoint thereunto That in consideration thereof as well for the Instruction of ignorant persons as also to avoid the occasion of the opinion aforesaid and the setting forth of your prerogative Royal and Supremacy It may therefore please your Highness that it may be ordained and enacted by the authority of this present Parliament That all and singular persons as well Lay as those that be now married or hereafter shall be married being Doctors of the Civil Law lawfully create and made in any Vniversity which shall be made ordained constituted and deputed to be any Chancellour Vicar-General Commissary Official Scribe or Register by your Majesty or any of your Heirs or Successors or by any Arch-Bishop Bishop Arch-Deacon or other person whatsoever having authority under your Majesty your Heirs and Successors to make any Chancellour Vicar-General Commissary Offical or Register may lawfully execute and exercise all manner of Iurisdiction commonly called Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and all Censures and Coercions appertaining or in any wise belonging unto the same albe it such person or persons be Lay married or unmarried so that they be Doctors of the Civil Law as is aforesaid any Law Constitution or Ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding Now here it appears plain that all Authority must be derived from the King and he alone as head of this Church hath power to correct or amend Heresies and all other Misdemeanours having the sole jurisdiction in Courts Spiritual called Ecclesiastical Courts and none to be made or Synold held but by his authority and permission so that it cannot be imagined by any that the Clergy had power to make Canons either new or to go on with their old ones till another Law be made and power given them by the King as the Law directs And from this time of the making of this Law none of the Canons or pretended Canons are any more in force in England than if there never had been any such thing in the world This therefore I lay down as a sure rule that the Ecclesiastical Courts have no power but what must be given them by the Statute Law of the Land. And therefore to come nearer to the matter I shall set down what Laws have been since made in their favour and what against them Which is thus King Edward the Sixth being a Protestant and having a wise and honest Council about him foreseeing the great benefit did accrue to the Crown and whole Nation by those good Laws made in his Fathers time made a Law that takes away all scruple and doubt whatsoever about the Ecclesiastical Courts and gives them not so much as power to hold any Courts in their own name nor to use their own Seal although they were suffered to act by from and under the King according to the Laws made by his Father And it appears by the Statute Entituled viz. An Act for the Election of Bishops Which Act for the better information I have inserted at large hoping those worthy Spiritual men will vouchsafe the reading it Which is as follows Forasmuch as the Elections of arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops 1 Ed. 6. cap. 2. by the Deans and Chapters within the Kings Majesties Realms of England and Ireland at this present time be as well to the long delay as to the great costs and charges of such persons as the Kings Majesty giveth any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick unto And whereas the said Elections be in very déed no Elections but only by a Writ of Conge d'Eslire have colours shadows or pretences of Elections serving nevertheless to no purpose and séeming also derogatory and prejudicial to the Prerogative Royal to whom only appertaineth the Collation and gift of all Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks and Suffragan Bishops within his Highness said Realms of England and Ireland Wales and other his Dominions and Marches For a due reformation hereof Be it therefore enacted by the Kings Highness with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same That from henceforth no such Conge d'Eslire be granted nor Election of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop by the Dean and Chapter made But that the King may by his Letters Patents at all times when any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick is void confer the same to any person to whom the King shall think méet The which Collations so by the Kings Letters Patents made and delivered to the person whom the King shall confer the same Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick or to his sufficient Proctor or Attorney shall stand to all intents constructions and purposes to as much and the same effect as though Conge d'Eslire had béen given the Election duly made and the same confirmed And thereupon the said person to whom the said Arch-Bishoprick Bishoprick or Suffraganship is so conferred collated or given may be consecrated and sue his Livery or Ouster le Main and do other things as well as if the said Ceremonies and Elections had béen done and made Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that every such person to whom any collation and gift of any Arch-Bishoprick or Suffraganship shall be given or collated by the King his Heirs or Sure essors shall pay do and yield to all and every person all such fées interests and duties as of old time hath béen accustomed to be done any thing in this Act or in any other to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding And whereas the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Spiritual persons in this Realm do use to make and send out their summons citations and other processes in their own names and in such form and manner as was used in the time of the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome contrary to the form and order of the summons and process of the Common Law used in this Realm séeing that all Authority of Iurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal is derived and deducted from the Kings Majesty as supreme head of these Churches and Realms of England and Ireland and so justly acknowledged by the Clergy of the said Realms that all Courts Ecclesiastical within the said two Realms be kept by no other power or authority either foreign or within the Realm but by the authority of his most excellent Majesty Be it therefore further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all summons and citations or other Process Ecclesiastical in all suits and causes of Instance betwixt party and party and all causes of Correction and all causes of Bastardy or Bigamy or enquiry de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of Administrations of persons deceased and all Acquittances of and upon account made by the Executors Administrators or Collectors of goods of any dead person be from the first day of July next following made in the name and
the Imperial Crown of this Realm the Ancient Iurisdictions Authorities Superiorities and Preheminencies to the same of right belonging and appertaining by reason whereof we your most humble and obedient Subjects from the five and twentieth year of the reign of your said dear Father were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of diverse great and intollerable charges and exactions before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such Forreign power and authority as before that was usurped until such time as all the said good Laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second years of the Reigns of the late King Philip and Queen Mary your Highness Sister intituted an Act repealing all Statutes Articles and provisions made against the See Apostolick of Rome since the twentieth year of King Henry the eight and also for the Establishment of all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and Hereditaments conveyed to the Laity were all clearly repealed and made void as by the same Act of Repeal more at large doth and may appear By reason of which Act of Repeal your said humble Subjects were eftsoons brought under an usurped Forreign power and Authority and yet do remain in that bondage to the intollerable charges of your loving Subjects if some redress by Authority of this your high Court of Parliament with the assent of your Highness be not had and provided Sect. 2 May it therefore please your Highness for the repressing of the said usurped Forreign power and the restoring of the Rites Iurisdictions and Preheminencies appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this your Realm that it may be Enacted by Authority of this present Parliament That the said Act made in the first and second years of the Reign of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary and all and every branches Clauses and Articles therein contained other then such branches Clauses and Sentences as hereafter shall be excepted may from the last day of this Session of Parliament by Authority of this present Parliament be repealed and shall from thenceforth be utterly void and of none effect Sect. 16 And to the intent that all Vsurped and Forreign power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly exting uished and never be used or obeyed within this Realm or any other your Majesties Dominions or Countries May it please your Highness that it may be further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last day of this Session of Parliament use entry or exercise any manner of power Iurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm or within any other your Majesties Dominions or Countries that now be or hereafter shall be but from thence forth the same shall be clearly abolished out of this Realm and all other your Highness Dominions for ever any Statute Ordinance Custom Constitutions or any other matter or cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Sect. 17 And that also it may please your Highness that it may be established and enacted by the Authority aforesaid that such Iurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminencies Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power or Authority hath heretofore been or may fawfully be exercised or used for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner of Errors Herefies Shismes Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this present Parliament be united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Now by these Branches of this Statute it is most clear that all manner of Jurisdiction in Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical is more absolutely invested in the Crown then ever before so that if that of Edward the sixth be repealed yet here it is past all doubt that Act is now by this more inforced then ever And that it may appear more plain that no Court Spiritual was to Act any more but by Authority from the Queen in the next Section of this Statute of 1. Eliz. Power was given to the Queen in express words to grant Commissions to hold Courts under the great Seal of England or else by this Statute none could be held at all neither in their own name nor in the name of the Queen which branch of the said Statute runs thus Sect. 18 And that your Highness your Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm shall have full power and authority by vertue of this Act by letters patents under the great Seal of England to assign name and authorize when and as often as your Highness your Heirs or Successors shall think meet and Convenient and for such and so long time as shall please your Highness your Heirs or Successors such person or persons being natural born Subjects to your Highness your Heirs and Successors as your Majesty your Heirs or Successors shall think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under your Highness your Heirs and Successors all member of Iurisdictions Priviledges and Preâ—enâ—nences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction within these your Reaâ—â—s of England and Ireland or any other your Highness Douâ—â—â—ions and Countries and to vis it reform redress order correct and amend all such errors herisies schisms abirses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power Authority or Iurisdiction can or may lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and the conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm And that such person or persons so to be named assigned authorised and appointed by your Highness your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full power and authority by vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under your Highness your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premises according to the Tenor and effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Here it is most evident that the Queen had the only sole power to nominate and appoint by her Commission under the great Seal of England both lay-men as well as Bishops to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction when and as often as she pleased and it is most evident it was not to be done at all without such Commissions But besides this Law it was the practice both in the times of Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth and King James That all the Bishops and the Spiritual Courts whatsoever were held by such Commissions and to satisfie the Reader I have here inserted a Copy of one of them taken out of the Rolls Verbatim viz. Elizabeth by the Grace of God Rot. 9. Pars. 10. Eliz. c. To
aforesaid shall be thought most expedient necessary and upon due proof had and the Offence or Offences before specified or any of them sufficiently proved against any person or persons as by you or six of you by confession of the party or by lawful Witnesses or by any other due means before you or six of you whereof the said Mathew Parker Edmond Grindale Thomas Smith Walter Haddon Thomas Sack-ford Richard Godrick or Gilbert Gerrard to be one that then you or six of you as aforesaid shall have full power and Authority to award such Punishment to every Offender by fine Imprisonment or otherwise by all or any of the ways aforesaid and to take such order for the redress of the same as to your Wisdoms and Discretions or six of you whereof the said Mathew Parker Edmond Grindale Thomas Smith Walter Haddon Thomas Sack-ford Richard Godrick or Gilbert Gerrard to be one to call before you or six of you as aforesaid from time to time all and every Offender or Offenders and such as by you and six of you as aforesaid shall seem to be suspected persons in any of the premises and also All such Witnesses as you or six of you as aforesaid shall think fit to be called before you or six of you as aforesaid and them and every of them to examine upon their Corporal Oaths for the better Tryal and opening of the premisses or any part thereof And if you or six of you as aforesaid shall find any person or persons obstinate or disobedient either in their apparrel before you or six of you as aforesaid at your calling and Commandment or else not accomplishing or not obeying your Orders Decrees and Commandments in any thing touching the premisses or any part thereof that then you or six of you as aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority to commit the same person or persons so offending toward there to remain until he or they shall be by you or six of you as aforesaid enlarged and delivered And further we do give you and six of you whereof the said Mathew Parker Edmond Grindale Thomas Smith Walter Haddon Thomas Sack-ford Richard Godrick or Gilbert Gerrard to be one full Power and Authority by these presents to take and receive by your Discretions of every Offender or suspected person to be convented and brought before you a Recognizance or Recognizances Obligation or Obligations to our use in such sum or sums of Mony as to you or six of you as aforesaid shall seem Convenient as well for their personal appearance before you or six of you as aforesaid as also for the performance and accomplishment of your Orders and Decrees in case you or six of you as aforesaid shall see it so convenient And further our will and pleasure is that you shall appoint Our Trusty and well beloved John Skinner to be your Register of all your Acts Decrees and Preceedings by vertue of this Commission and in his default one other sufficient person and that you or six of you as aforesaid shall give such Allowance to the said Register for his pains and his Clerks to be levied of the fines and other profits that shall arise by force of this Commission and your devices in the premisses as to your Discretions shall be thought meet And further our will and pleasure is that you or six of you as aforesaid shall name and appoint one other sufficient person to gather up and receive all such sums of Mony as shall be assessed and Taxed by you or six of you as aforesaid for any fine or fines upon any person or persons for their Offenees And that you or six of you as aforesaid by Bill or Bills signed with your hands shall and may assign and appoint as well as to the said person for his pains in receiving the said sums As also to your Messengers and Attendants upon you for their trouble pains and charges to be sustained for us about the premises or any part thereof such sums of Mony for their rewards as by you or six of you as aforesaid shall be thought expedient willing and commanding you or six of you as aforesaid after the time of this our Commission expired to certifie unto our Courts of Exchequer as well the name of the said Receiver as also a Note of such fines as shall be set or taxed before you to the intent that upon the determination of Account of the said Receiver we shall be answered of that to us shall justly appertain Willing and Commanding also our Auditors and other Officers upon the sight of the said Bills signed with the hands of you or six of you as aforesaid to make unto the said Receiver due allowances according to the said Bills upon his account Wherefore we will and Command you our Commissioners with Dilligence to Execute the premisses with effect any of our Laws Statutes Proclamations or other grants priviledges or Ordinances which be or may seem to be contrary to the premises notwithstanding And more we will and command all and singular Justices of peace Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Constables and other our Officers Ministers and faithful Subjects to be ayding helping and assisting you and at Commandment in the Due Execution hereof as they tender our pleasure and will Answer the contrary at their utmost perills And we will and grant these our Letters Patents shall be a sufficient Warrant and discharge for you and every of you against us our Heirs and Successors and all and every other person or persons whatsover they be of and for or concerning the premises or any parcel thereof of or for the Execution of this our Commission or any part thereof Witness the Queen at Westminster the Nineteenth day of July Anno Regni Regine Elizabethe Primo Per ipsam Reginam Thus by what hath been said you see both by Statute Law and President of the very Commission themselves which the Bishops Acted by it is clear they ought not to Act or Hold any Courts whatsoever in their own Names nor in the Kings without his Special Commission under the great Seal of England And altho' there was a Statute made in the First of Queen Mary Intituled An Act for Repeal of certain Statutes made in the time of King Edward the Sixth vid. 1 Jac. Cap. 25. yet by the First of King James Cap. 25. that Statute of Repeal is Repealed so that cannot stand our Spiritual Persons in no stead at all tho' my Lord Cook did insist upon it in his 2d Institutions But to proceed In the 8th Year of Queen Elizabeth you will find the very same thing asserted by the Act made 8 Eliz. Cap. 1 8 Eliz. Cap. 1. Intituled An Act declaring the making and Consecrating of the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realm to be good Lawful and Perfect In which Act Sect. 2. it is Declared thus VIZ. Sect. 2 First It is very well known to all degrees of this Realm that the late King of most famous
THE Bishops Courts DISSOLVED OR THE LAW OF ENGLAND TOUCHING Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction STATED Wherein it appears that the Spiritual Courts want both Power and Might to execute their Wills upon his Majesties good Subjects at this day BEING A short and brief Account of the several Statutes made concerning the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction By E. W. LONDON Printed for T. Reyner to be sold by Rich. Janeway in Queens-head-alley in Pater-noster-row 1681. THE Bishops Courts DISSOLVED OR THE Law of England Touching Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Stated THe design of this Narrative whatever Censurers it may meet with hath no other end than to bring truth to light and that truth more especially which hath been so long masqued and hid under Church-mens Gowns and which hath been most industriously concealed with great Artifice from the ignorant vulgar as they are generally pleased to term Lay-men though some of those Lay men nay the most of them I think are both for Parts and Piety not in the least inferiour to the best of them though they call themselves the only Clergy-men as if every member of Christs Church were not the Clergy or Gods heritage as well as they But my present business is only to meddle with the coercive power they pretend to in Courts Christian or Spiritual Jurisdiction which for them to claim such a power in England distinct from the legal power known in this Kingdom and contrary to the Supremacy of the King in direct opposition to his Authority as he is by Law supreme head of the Church of England is a very great wonder to me and I believe to the Ingenuous Reader if he consider the matter of fact as it lyes In the first place the Reader must know that all manner of Spiritual Jurisdiction used in this Nation had its original and foundation from the un-holy Mother Church the See of Rome and her Canon Law and was born or rather brought into this Northern Island of England by Austin the Monk for before his time we do not find any tract of Church-Government that is by way of Excommunication in Court Christian When he came here it was with the same specious pretence that Rome and her Adherents and Devotaries to this day use that is decency and regular government of the Church of Christ But no sooner had this Monk set foot into this Kingdome but he began to shew his cloven foot◠as it evidently appear'd in a very short time after for when he found that the Christians in this Island were more holy than himself and that they liked not his Pride and Arrogancy he fell upon the Monks of Bangor and began to Curse them with Bell Book and Candle till they should submit to him and the unholy See of Rome And from that time and not before all manner of Ecclesiastical Courts and Censures of the Church both grew and continued in this Kingdom until the time of Henry the Eighth under the Popes Authority and how they used the people in these Courts and how many were murdered and destroyed for Religion sake in all that time is too great a number now to be reckoned But not withstanding they had this vast power and held Courts Canonical as they term them by Authority from the See of Rome even from Austin the Monk to William the First commonly called the Conquerour and from thence to the time of Henry the Eighth yet the Bishops and Clergy of England sometimes by the Statute Law of the Land met with many rubs in their Canon Law for their oppressions being become very great even so great that in those dark times and fogs of Popery the Lay-men began to discover their cheats and therefore the wings of the Clergy began sometimes to be a little clipped by the Statute Law of the Land as you will find by several Statutes made since Henry the Third Vide Rot. An. 1257. 3 Ed. primi Cap. 2. particularly in the Statute made in Edward the First 's time which ordains That a Clerk being indicted of Felony by solemn Inquest of lawful men in the Kings Court in no manner shall be delivered without due Purgation Now before this Statute the Church-men pleaded exemption from the Temporal Law and offenders it should seem which were Church-men claimed a priviledge to be only liable to the power of the Church In the next place you will find by the Statute of Edward the First in the thirteenth year of his Reign the Spiritual Courts were prescribed what it was they should be suffered to take Cognizance of and no more see the Statute Viz. The King to his Iudges sendeth gréeting Called Stat. de circumspect agatis made 13 E. 1. Anno Dom. 1285. Vse your selves circumspectly in all matters concerning the Bishop of Norwich and his Clergy not punishing them if they hold plea in Court Christian of such things as be meer Spiritual that is to wit of Penances enjoyned by Prelates for deadly sins as Fornication Adultery and such like for the which sometimes corporal Penance and sometimes pecuniary is enjoyned especially if a Fréeman be convicted of such things Now after this Kings time those spiritual men finding themselves by his Laws kept within some moderate bounds Vid. Rot. de Artic. Cleri An. 9 Ed. 2. A. D. 1315. grew very uneasie and therefore in Edward the Second's time they began to stir for the enlarging their power For you will find in his Reign that the Clergy got Laws to pass then that the Clergy might correct in their Spiritual Courts for defamation and corporal penance was to be enjoyned as you may see by the Rolls of those times In these Statutes made at Lincoln they had diverse Priviledges given them Idem Cap. 3. as in the third Chapter they had power allowed them to lay Corporal punishment And in the fourth Chapter Cap 4. Prelates might correct for Defamation by that Statute In the eighth Chapter it appears that the Clergy did use to meddle with the Kings servants Idem Cap. 8. and censure them at their pleasure till they were limited and bounded by this Ordinance which Ordinance viz. It pleased our Lord the King that such Clerks that attend in his service if they ostend they shall be corrected by their Ordinary like as other but so long as they are occupied about the Exchequer they shall not be bound to kéep Residence in their Churches And in the same year among the Articles made for to give power Idem Cap. 14. and to restrain it is ordained viz. Also if any dignity be vacant where Election is to be made it is moved that the Electors may fréely make their Election without fear of any power Temporal The Kings Answer was They shall be made frée according to the form of Statutes and Ordinances This power continued to the Clergy till King Henry the Eighth only sometimes there was some small abridgements by several Statutes and Ordinances as in 31 Ed. 3. Cap. 4.