MINISTERS OF CHURCHES, SCOTLAND Oaths OF ALLEGIANCE, SUPREMACY, AND ABJURATION THE ECCLESIASTICAL STATUTES AT LARGE. ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS, ENGLAND. original. bition, 18, 20. Mortuaries. 13 EDWARD 1, Stat. 4. CIRCUMSPECTE AGATIS.— Certain cases therein the king's prohibition doth not lie.- * The king to his judges Not in orig. sendeth greeting. Use yourselves circumspectly in all matters con- in the king's cerning the bishop of Norwich and his clergy, not punishing them prohibition if they hold plea in court christian of such things as be mere 2 Inst. 487. spiritual, that is to wit, of penance enjoined by prelates for deadly 13 Co.41. sin, as fornication, adultery, and such like, for the which sometimes 5 Co: 67. corporal penance, and sometime pecuniary is enjoined, specially if a freeman be convict of such things. Also if prelates do punish for leaving the church-yard unclosed, or for that the church is uncovered, or not conveniently decked, in which cases none other penance can be enjoined but pecuniary. Item, if a parson demand * of his parishioners oblations or tithes Tithes and due and accustomed, or if any parson do sue against another parson The lines for tithes greater or smaller, so that the fourth part of the value of in italies are the benefice be not demanded. Item, if a parson demand mortuaries in places where a mortuary fitz. prohihath been used to be given. Item, if a prelate of a church, * or of a patron, demand of a parson • Not in orig. a pension due to him, all such demands are to be made in a spiritual court. And for laying violent hands on a clerk, and in cause of 4 Co. 20. defamation, it hath been granted already, that it shall be tried in a 22 Ed. 4, f. 20. spiritual court, when money is not demanded, but a thing done for Bro. prohipunishment of sin, * and likewise for breaking an oath. In all cases Breach of an afore rehearsed, the spiritual judge shall have power to take know- oath. • Not in orig. ledge, notwithstanding the king's prohibition. le case, 115. 38 H. 6, f. 29. 11 H. 4, 1. 88. Regist. 36, 45, 50, 51, 57, &o. Rast, pla. 483. See 24 Ed. 1, where a consultation is grantable. By 9 Ed. 2, stat. 1, c. 1, no prohibition shall be granted where tithes are demanded. See further 9 Ed. 2, c. 2, 4, and 5, 1 Ed. 3, stat. 2, c. 11, 18 Ed. 3, stat. 3, c. 5, 50 Ed. 3, c. 4, and 2 H.5, stat. 1, c. 3. 25 EDWARD 1, Stat. 1, CAP. 4.-Excommunication shall be pronounced against the breakers of the said charters.-See Title* CHURCH, HER RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES," vol i. p. 516 f. 9 EDWARD 2, Stat. 1, CAP. 6.- Where a suit for one offence may be prosecuted both in court spiritual and temporal.-See Title“CHURCH, HER RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES," vol. i. p. 516 n. Certain statutes made during the reigns of king Henry the third, king Edward the first, or king Edward the second, but uncertain when, or in which of their times.-- Articles against the kings prohibitions.l'nder what form shall laymen purehase prohibitions generally upon VOL. III. Pension. Kel. 39. Bro. act. sur B tithes, oblations, obventions, redeeming of penances, mortuaries, violent hands laying on a clerk or lay brother, and in cases of defamation, in which cases spiritual penance must be enjoined ? The king answered to these articles, that in tithes, oblations, obventions, and mortuaries, when they be pleaded as before is said, the king's prohibition doth not lie. II. And if a clerk or a person religious do sell his corn being in his barn, or other where, to any man for money, if the price thereof be demanded before a spiritual judge, the king's prohibition doth lie; for by the sale the spiritual are become temporal, and so tithes pass into chattels. III. And if debate hang in a spiritual court for the right of tithes, having his original from the right of the patronage, and the quantity of the same tithes do pass the fourth part of the value of the benefice, a prohibition shall lie. IV. Also if a prelate enjoin penance pecuniary to any man for his sin, if the money be demanded before prelates, a prohibition shall lie. V. And if any lay violent hands on a clerk or lay brother, for the peace broken, amends shall be made before the king, and for the excommunication before a bishop or prelate. VI. And if a corporal penance be enjoined, which the offender will redeem by giving money to the prelate, or to the party grieved, a prohibition shall not lie. 9 Ed. 2, st. l, VII. In causes of defamation, prelates may freely correct, the See further king's prohibition notwithstanding, first enjoining a corporal pe50 Ed. 3, 6:4, nance, which if the party will redeem, the prelate may lawfully receive the money, though the prohibition be shewed. 1 EDWARD 3, Stat. 2, CAP. 11.—No suit shall be made in the spiritual court against indictors.—Item, the commons do grievously complain, that when divers persons, as well clerks as lay people, have been indicted before sheriffs in their turns, and after by inquests procured, be delivered before the justices; after their deliverance they do sue in the spiritual court against such indictors, surmising against them that they have defamed them, to the great damage of the indictors, wherefore many people of the shire be in fear to indict such offenders; the king will, that in such case every Regist. 39, man that feeleth himself grieved thereby, shall have a prohibition formed in the chancery upon his case. 1 RICHARD 2, CAP. 13.—Ecclesiastical judges shall not be vexed 2 Inst. 489. for suits for tithes in a spiritual court.-Item, the prelates and clergy of this realm do greatly complain them, for that the people of holy church, pursuing in the spiritual court for their tithes and their other things, which of right ought, and of old times were wont to pertain to the same spiritual court, and that the judges of holy church, having cognizance in such cases, and other persons thereof meddling according to the law, be maliciously and unduly for this cause indicted, imprisoned, and by secular power horribly oppressed, and also enforced with violence by oaths and grievous obligations, and many other means unduly compelled to desist and cease utterly of the things aforesaid, against the liberties and franchises of holy church. Wherefore it is assented, that all such obligations made and 2 H. 5, st. 1, c. 3. 12. 120. or to be made by duress or violence, shall be of no value. And as 2 HENRY 5, Stat. 1, CAP. 3.- A copy of the libel in the spiritual 12 Co. 61. 4 JAMES 1, CAP. 5, Secs. 8 & 9.—An act for repressing the odious and loathsome sin of drunkenness. VIII. Provided always, that this act, or any thing therein con- Enlarged by tained, do not in anywise abridge or restrain the ecclesiastical 21 Jac. 1, c. 7, power or jurisdiction, but that all ordinaries, and other ecclesiastical No restraint judges and officers, shall and may proceed to inquire of, censure a-tical jurisand punish all such offenders according to the ecclesiastical laws of diction. this realm, in such manner and form as before they lawfully might do; any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding. IX. Provided also, that when any of the offenders against the There shall 27 GEORGE 3, CAP. 44.-An act to prevent frivolous and vexatious fence. courts. cation dis except in England, Wales, or the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, unless the same shall be commenced within six calendar months from the time when such defamatory words shall have been uttered. Limitation II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no ofesintsinec- suit shall be commenced in any ecclesiastical court, for fornication, clesiastical or incontinence, or for striking or brawling in any church or churchyard, after the expiration of eight calendar months from the time when such offence shall have been committed; nor shall any prosecution be commenced or carried on for fornication at any time after the parties offending shall have lawfully intermarried. 53 GEORGE 3, CAP. 127.–An act for the better regulation of ecclesiastical courts in England; and for the more easy recovery of church rates and tithes.—Whereas it is expedient that excommunication, together with all proceedings following thereupon, should, saving in certain cases, be discontinued, and that other proceedings should be substituted in lieu thereof; and that certain other regulations should be made in the proceedings of the ecclesiastical courts; and that more convenient modes of recovering tithes and church rates in certain cases should be provided ; be it therefore enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament Excommuni- assembled, and by the authority of the same, that, from and after continued, the passing of this act, excommunication, together with all proceed ings following thereupon, shall in all cases, save those hereafter to certain cases be specified, be discontinued, throughout that part of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England; and that in obedience to such lawful orders or decrees, or when any person or persons shall commit a contempt in the face of such court, no sentence of excommunication shall be given or pronounced; saving in the particular cases hereafter to be specified; but instead thereof, it shall be lawful for the judges or judge who issued out the citation, or whose lawful orders or decrees have not been obeyed, or before whom such contempt in the face of the court shall have been committed, to pronounce such person or persons contumacious and in contempt, and within ten days to signify the same in the form to this act annexed, to his majesty in chancery, as hath heretofore Same as in been done in signifying excommunications; and thereupon a writ de contumace capiendo, in the form to this act annexed, shall issue from the court of chancery, directed to the same persons to whom capiendo. the writs de excommunicato capiendo have heretofore been directed; and the same shall be returnable in like manner as the writ de excommunicato capiendo hath been by law returnable heretofore, and shall have the same force and effect as the said writ; and all rules and regulations not hereby altered, now by law applying to the said writ and the proceedings following thereupon, and particularly the several provisions contained in a certain act passed in the fifth year 5 El. c. 23. of queen Elizabeth, intituled an act for the due execution of the writ the writ de excommunicato |