miss professor only

IAH 221B-730

Summer I 2016

16th Century English Laws Regarding Religion

The Act of Supremacy, 1534 – issued by King Henry VIII

Albeit the King's Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England, and so is recognized by the clergy of this realm in their Convocations, yet nevertheless for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errors, heresies and other enormities and abuses heretofore used in the same:     Be it enacted by authority of this present Parliament that the King, our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted and reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia;  and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all honors, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits and commodities to the said dignity of supreme head of the same Church belonging and appertaining; and that our said sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offenses, contempts and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner, spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity and tranquillity of this realm, any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription or any other thing or things to the contrary hereof notwithstanding.

The Second Statute of Repeal, 1555 – issued by Queen Mary

Whereas, since the twentieth year53 of King Henry VIII of famous memory, father unto your Majesty, ... much false and erroneous doctrine hath been taught, preached and written ... , by reason whereof as well the spiritualty as the temporalty of your Highness's realms and dominions have swerved from the obedience of the See Apostolic and declined from the unity of Christ's church, and so have continued until ..., your Majesty being ... raised up by God and set in the seat royal over us ..., the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolic sent hither ... the most reverent father in God, the lord Cardinal Pole, legate de latere,54  to call us home again into the right way ...; and we ... , seeing by the goodness of God our own errors, have acknowledged the same unto the said most reverend father, and by him have been ... received and embraced into the unity and bosom of Christ's church ... , upon our humble submission and promise ... to repeal and abrogate such acts and statutes as had been made in Parliament since the said twentieth year of the said King Henry VIII against the supremacy of the See Apostolic... [therefore, such legislation is repealed] .     And finally, where certain acts and statutes have been made in the time of the late schism concerning the lands and hereditaments of archbishoprics and bishoprics, the suppression and dissolution of monasteries, abbeys, priories, chantries, colleges, and all other the goods and chattels of religious houses; since the which time the right and dominion of certain lands and hereditaments, goods and chattels, belonging to the same be dispersed abroad and corne to the hands and possessions of divers and sundry persons who by gift, purchase, exchange, and other means, according to the order of the laws and statutes of this realm for the time being, have the same; for the avoiding of all scruples that might grow by any the occasions aforesaid or by any other ways or means whatsoever, [we ask that] it may please your Majesties to be intercessors and mediators to the said most reverend father ... that all such causes and quarrels as by pretence of the said schism or by any other occasion or mean whatsoever might be moved, by the Pope's Holiness or See Apostolic or by any other jurisdiction ecclesiastical, may be utterly removed and taken away; so as all persons having sufficient conveyance of the said lands and hereditaments, goods and chattels, ... may without scruple of conscience enjoy them ...

The Second Act of Supremacy, 1559 – issued by Queen Elizabeth I

And for the better observation and maintenance of this Act, may it please your Highness that it may be further enacted ... that all and every archbishop, bishop, and all and every other ecclesiastical person, ... of what estate, dignity, pre-eminence or degree soever he or they be or shall be, and all and every temporal judge, justice, mayor and other lay or temporal officer and minister, and every other person having your Highness's fee or wages, within this realm or any your Highness's dominions, shall make, take and receive a corporal oath upon the evangelist,55  before such person or persons as shall please your Highness, your heirs or successors under the great seal of England to assign and name to accept and to take the same, according to the tenor and effect hereafter following, that is to say:       "I, A. B.,56  do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Queen's Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other her Highness's dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal, and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities and authorities, and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queen's Highness, her heirs and lawful successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences, privileges and authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness, her heirs or successors, or united or annexed to the imperial crown of this realm.  So help me God, and by the contents of this Book." ...

Articles Touching Preachers and Other Orders for the Church, 1583 – issued by Queen Elizabeth I

I. That the laws late made against the recusants be put in more due execution considering the benefit that hath grown unto the Church thereby, where they have been so executed, and the encouragement which they and others do receive by remiss executing thereof. 2. That all preaching, reading, catechiZing and other such like exercises in private places and families, whereunto others do resort, being not of the same family, be utterly inhibited, seeing the same was never permitted as lawful, under any Christian magistrate, but is a manifest sign of schism, and a cause of contention in the Church. 3. That none be permitted to preach, read, or catechize in the church or elsewhere, unless he do, four times in the year at the least, say service, and minister the sacraments, according to the Book of Common Prayer. 4. That all preachers, and others in ecclesiastical orders, do at all times wear and use such kind of apparel as is prescribed unto them by the book of Advertisements and her majesty's Injunctions anno primo. 5. That none be permitted to preach, or interpret the Scriptures, unless he be a priest, or deacon at the least, admitted thereunto according to the laws of this realm. 6. That none be permitted to preach, read, catechize, minister the sacraments, or to execute any other ecclesiastical function, by what authority soever he be admitted thereunto, unless he consent and subscribe to these Articles following, before the ordinary of the diocese wherein he preacheth, readeth, catechizeth, or ministereth the sacraments, viz.:       (I) That her majesty, under God, hath, and ought to have, the sovereignty and rule over all manner of persons born within her realms, dominions, and countries, of what estate, either ecclesiastical or temporal, soever they be; and that no foreign power, prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, preeminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within her majesty's said realms, dominions, and countries.       (2) That the Book of Common Prayer, and of ordering bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth nothing in it contrary to the word of God, and that the same may lawfully be used, and that he himself will use the form of the said book prescribed in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, and none other.       (3) That he alloweth the book of Articles of religion, agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops of both provinces, and the whole clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord God 1562, and set forth by her majesty's authority, and that he believeth all the Articles therein contained to be agreeable to the word of God. 7. That from henceforth none be admitted to any orders ecclesiastical, unless he do then presently show to the bishop a true presentation of himself to a benefice then void within the diocese or jurisdiction of the said bishop, or unless he show unto the same bishop a true certificate, where presently he may be placed to serve some cure within the same diocese or jurisdiction, or unless he be placed in some cathedral or collegiate church, or college in Cambridge or Oxford, or unless the said bishop shall then forthwith place him in some vacant benefice or cure. 8. And that no bishop henceforth do admit any into orders, but such as shall be of his own diocese, unless he be of one of the universities, or bring his letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese, and be of age full twenty-four years, and a graduate of the university, or at the least able in the Latin tongue to yield an account of his faith, according to the Articles of religion agreed upon in Convocation, and that in such sort as that he can note the sentences of Scripture whereupon the truth of the said Articles is grounded, and bring a sufficient testimonial with him of his honest life and conversation, either under the seal of some college in the universities, where he hath remained, or from some justice of the peace, with other honest men of that parish, where he hath made his abode for three years before; and that the bishop, which shall admit any into orders being not in this manner qualified, be by the archbishop, with the assistance of some one other bishop, suspended from admitting any into orders for the space of two years. 9. And that no bishop institute any into a benefice, but such as be of the ability before prescribed: and if the Arches, by double quarrel or otherwise, proceed against the said bishop, for refusal of such as be not of that ability, that the Archbishop of Canterbury, either by his own authority or by means procured from her majesty, may stay such process, that the endeavour of the bishop may take place. 10. That one kind of translation of the Bible be only used in public service, as well in churches as chapels, and that to be the same which is now authorized by the consent of the bishops. 11. That from henceforth there be no commutation of penance, but in rare respects and upon great consideration, and when it shall appear to the bishop himself that that shall be the best way for winning and reforming of the offender, and that the penalty be employed either to the relief of the poor of that parish or to other godly uses, and the same well witnessed and made manifest to the congregation; and yet, if the fault be notorious, that the offender make some satisfaction, either in his own person, with declarations of his repentance openly in the church, or else that the minister of the church openly in the pulpit signify to his people his submission and declaration of his repentance done before the ordinary, and also in token of his repentance what portion of money he hath given to be employed to the uses above named.       As persons of honest, worshipful, and honourable calling may necessarily and reasonably have occasions sometimes to solemnize marriage by licence for the banns asking or for once or twice without any great harm, so for avoiding generally of inconveniences noted in this behalf, it is thought expedient that no dispensations be granted for marriage without banns, but under sufficient and large bonds, with these conditions following:       First, that there shall not afterwards appear any lawful let or impediment by reason of any pre-contract, consanguinity, affinity, or any other lawful means whatsoever.       Secondly, that there be not at that present time of granting such dispensation any suit, plaint, quarrel, or demand moved or depending before any judge, ecclesiastical or temporal, for and concerning any such lawful impediment between such the parties; and       Thirdly, they proceed not to the solemnization of the marriage without the consent of the parents or governors.       Lastly, that the marriage be openly solemnized in the church. The copy of which bond is to be set down and given in charge for every bishop in his diocese to follow; provided that whosoever offendeth against this order be suspended ab executione officii for one half-year.