Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A65678
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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 his day : being a short and brief account of the several statutes made concerning the spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction / by E.W.
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Whitaker, Edward.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing W1701; ESTC R186469
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32,330
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43
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Highness her Heirs and Successors all manner of Iurisdictions Priviledges Preheminencies in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction within these her Realms of England or Ireland or any other her Highness Dominions and Countries and to visit reform redress order correct and amend all such Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by any manner 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 Vnity of this Realm And that such Person or Persons so to be Named Assigned Authorized and appointed by her Highness her Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as aforesaid should have full Power and Authority by Vertue of that Act and of the said Letters Patents under her Highness her Heirs or Successors to exercise use and Execute all the Premises accordidg to the Tenor and Effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And whereas by culler of some VVords in the aforesaid Branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are Authorized to Execute their Commission according to the Tennor and effect of the Kings Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and in-Sufferable VVrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction restored by that Act and divers other great Mischiefs and Inconveniencies have also ensued to the Kings Subjects by reason of the said Branch and Commissions issued thereupon and the Executions thereof Therefore for the Repressing and Preventing of the aforesaid Abuses Mischiefs and inconveniencies in time to come Be it Enacted by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by Authority of the same That the aforesaid Branch Clause Article or Sentence contained in the said Act and every word matter and thing Contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from henceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made void for Edect any thing in the said Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And be it also Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Arch-Bishop Bishop or Vicar-General nor any Chancellor Official or Commissary of any Arch-Bishop Bishop a Vicar General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iudge Officer or Minister of Iustice nor any other Person or Persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Iurisdiction by any Grant Licence or Commission of the Kings Majesty his Heirs and Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the first Day of August which shall be in the Year of our Lord God One Thousand Six Hundred Forty and One award impose or inflict any pain penalty fine amerciament imprisonment or other Corporal Punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanour Crime Offence matter or thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Iurisdiction or shall Ex Officio or at the Instance or Promotion of any Person whatsoever Vrge enforce tender give or Minister unto any Church-warden Sideman or other Person whatsoever any corporal Oath whereby he or she shall or may be Charged or Oblieged to make any presentment of any Crime or Offence or to confess or accuse himself or her self of any Crime Offence Delinquency or Misdemeanour or any neglect matter or thing whereby or by reason whereof he or she shall or may be siable or exposed to any censure pain penalty or Punishment whatsoever upon pain and penaity that every person who shall offend contrary to this Statute shall forfeit and pay treble Dammages to every Person thereby grieved and the Summ of One Hundred pounds to him or them who shall first Demand and Sue for the same VVhich said Treble Dammages and Summ of One Hundred Pounds shall and may be Demanded and Recovered by Action of Debt Bill or Plaint in any Court of Record wherein no Priviledge Essoin Protection or VVager of Law shall be admitted or allowed to the Defendant And be it further Enacted That every Person who shall be once Convicted of any Act or Offence Prohibited by this Statute shall for such Act or Offence be from and after such Conviction utterly dissabled to be or continue in any Office or Imployment in any Courts of Iustice whatsoever or to exercise or execute any Power Authority or Iurisdiction by force of any Commission or Letters Patents of the King his Heirs or Successors And be it further Enacted That from and after the first Day of August no New Court shall be Erected Ordained or Appointed within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales which shall or may have the like Power Iurisdiction or Authority as the said High Commission Court now hath or pretendeth to have but that all and every such Letters Patents Commissions and grants made or to be made by his Majesty his Heirs or Successors And all Power and Authority granted or pretended or mentioned to be granted thereby and all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by Vertue or Culler thereof shall be utterly void and of no effect After the making of this Act all Jurisdiction of the Spiritual Courts was wholly dain'd as appears plainly by the Statute Thus it stood still 13 Car. 2d Now in this Act of Car Primi it must be observed that it meddles no farther with the Act of Eliz. then that one branch about Commissions it meddles not with the Ecclesiastical power being in the Crown nor with the Statute 8 Eliz. Nor any thing of Edward 6. or Henry 8. which must be observed Thus then their power was wholly discontinued till the thirteenth of Charles 2d And then coming into their Bishopricks and great Estates they thought it hard that they must have their Spiritual Swords tied therefore all hands to work to get loose and so an Act is passed the 13 Charles 2d For Repeal of part of the Act Car Primi And now they thought all was sure but as it fell out this will do them no good at all neither for the Act which was intended to Repeal this Act of the 16 of Charles the first hath misrecited it and called it an Act made the 17 of Charles the first not only in the Title but all along in the body of the Act which is plain upon the Roll though not in the Statute Books viz. An Act for Explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the seventeenth year of the late King Charles Intituled an Act of Repeal of a Branch of a Statute Primo Elizabethe concerning Commissions for Causes Ecclesiastical viz. VVhereas in an Act of Parliament made in
as we suppose considering that they are already limited and confined as no Antient Canon or Spiritual Laws are in force that are either contrary to the Laws Statutes or Customes of this Realm or tend to the Dammage or Hurt of our Prerogative Royal. For the Grievances apprehended in the Commission First a Soveraign King being Mixta Persona and having Authority as well in Causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal it was with great Wisdom ordained Matters of the Church being many ways impugned and the Censures of it grown into contempt That there should be a Commission consisting as well of Temporal as Ecclesiastical Persons who might have power for one Offence at one time and by one sentence to inflict as there should be cause both Spiritual and Temporal punishment but as to the Inquiry by Juries it hath not for many Years been practised And we are content that hereafter it be omitted in our Commission And concerning Appeals the use hath always been to exclude them in Commissions of this nature And yet if any of our Subjects shall be justly grieved with any Sentence given by our Commissioners we shall be content as we find just cause to grant unto them a Commission of Review Also for the Execution of divers Statutes aimed at in your Grievances although it hath been from time to time committed in some sort unto our Commissioners And that every such Commission hath been still penned by the Attorney-General with the Advice of the chief Temporal Judges yet we are well pleased and will give commandment accordingly that our Temporal and Ecclesiastical Judges assisted with our Learned Council shall confer together concerning the Exceptions by you taken to the end that hereafter our said Commissioners may have no further power to intermeddle with the Execution of any part of the said Statutes then it shall be found fit for our Service necessary for the suppressing of Popery and Schism and no ways repugnant to the Laws and Pollices of this our Realm But for making any Innovations in the forms and proceedings heretofore used by our said Commissioners we know no cause to depart therein from the Examples of our Progenitors nor from that which the Laws of this our Kingdom hath Approved And touching Fees since it is a Court by Statute erected and no Fees in the Statute expressed it was very fit That the Commissioners should have Authority to limit and Appoint to every Officer his Reasonable Fees And we will commend the further care thereof to some Principal person of our Commissioner to take a view of them and as to reform what they find amiss so to Establish such as shall be Moderate and Reasonable touching the Grievances found in the Execution of the Commission We know that there is no Commission nor Court either of Ecclesiastical or Temporal Jurisdiction but may be subject more or less to Abuse in the execution of their Authority Nevertheless it is Our part to have our Ear open to receive Complaints of that kind especially from our Parliament when we shall find them to be just And therefore our purpose is to see such Reformation made of all Abuses made in the execution of the said Commission as may best procure the ease of Our Subject from charge of Vexation And such punishment to be inflicted upon any Pursivants or other inferior Ministers which shall be Offenders as may repress such Misdemeanors in time to come Sure if this Record be considered there is ground enough to justifie that the Spiritual Courts cannot be holden but by the Kings Commission Therefore I need say no more the Case being plain the Law was so to this Year of 1610. which I set down the rather because a use will be made of it by and by But in King Charles the First 's time the Bishops cast about them how to get rid of these Shackles And therefore in Bishop Laud's time the point about Holding Courts in their own Names without the Kings Commission was by him stated and in the Star-Chamber where he ruled the Rost got the Judges there tho' it was but an extra Judicial Judgment to declare in their favour which was easie enough to be done when both the Judges and His Grace were resolved upon the point for those very Judges most of them were the same that gave their Judgment about the Shipp-Money And we know what became of that Judgment and them And for your Prelate he met with his due at Tower-Hill after but before his Lordship had finished his Ministry so prevalent he was that I am told he got a Proclamation to publish the Extra judicial Opinion which made a great noise in the World for Noyse and Decency was all along the Cheat that was put upon the People in those Days by that Prelate and his Gang. But I think no Man will say that that Extra Judicial Opinion is either equal with the Statute Law or with the Judgement of Parliament therefore I shall say no more but proceed After that Extra Judical Opinion of the Judges and by means of the long Intervals of Parliament the Spiritual Courts as well as the Star-Chamber were Lords Paramont and so great that they became a most Heavy Burden to the people of all sorts therefore before the Troubles began the Parliament in 16 Car. primi made an Act to take away the Power that was given by the Statute of 1 Eliz. for the Granting any Commissions at all by which means they well knew that no Courts could be held at all And therefore an Act passed to Repeal that Branch of the Statute of 1 Eliz. which was only one Clause about the granting Commissions as by the Act of Car. primi appears and all Spiritual Courts were utterly Abolished by that Act The Title of the Act runs thus VIZ. A Repeal of the Brauch of a Statute primo Elizabethe concerning Commissions for Causes Ecclesiastical VVhereas in the Parliament holden in the first Year of the Reign of the late Queen Elizabeth 16 Car. c. 11. late Queen of England there was an Act made and Established Intituled An Act Restoring to the Crown the Antient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and Abolishing all Forreign Power Repugnant to the same In which Act amongst other things there is contained one Clause Branch Article or Sentence whereby it was Enacted to this effect Namely That the said late Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm should have full Power and Authority by vertue of that Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to Assign Name and Authorize when and as often as her Highness her Heirs or Successours should think meet and Convenient and for such and so long time as should please her Highness her Heirs or Successors such Person or Persons being Natural Born Subjects to her Highness her Heirs or Successors as her Majesty her Heirs or Successors should think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under her