5 original certificate of the said judges shall be delivered to the most reverend father in God the lord archbishop of Cant. his grace, to be kept and preserved amongst the records of his court. King Charles' letter to the high commissioners to proceed against such as refuse to take the oath, etc.-Reg. Laud. fol. 287. a. CHARLES REX. MOST OST reverend father in God, right trusty and right entirely beloved counsellors; right trusty and right well beloved cousins and counsellors; right reverend 10 father in God, right trusty and well beloved; right trusty King Charles' letter] The oath 'ex officio' was an oath "whereby any person might be obliged to make any presentment of any crime or offence, or to confess or accuse himself of any criminal matter or thing, whereby he might be liable to any censure, penalty, or punishment 15 whatsoever." This process, utterly unknown in the courts of common law, and irreconcilable with the spirit of English jurisprudence, had been employed in ecclesiastical courts on the authority of ancient canons, and was justified on the ground that such inquiries were not taken to be "pœnæ" but "medicinæ," tending to the reformation of the delin20 quent, and the satisfaction of the church. (Strype, Whitg. vol. iii. p. 235.) This process however, oppressive as it would be considered at all periods, was made most formidable in the year 1583, when queen Elizabeth, on issuing a new high commission, empowered the court to and well beloved counsellors, and right and well beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we are given to understand, that divers disorderly and refractory persons have been seduced, or withdrawn themselves from their obedience to our ecclesiastical laws into several ways of separation, 5 sects, schisms, and heresies; and being convented for the same, or for other their misdemeanours and enormous offences before you our commissioners for causes ecclesiastical, are grown to that obstinacy and disobedience, that some of them refuse to take their oath, and others 10 being sworn refuse to answer to the articles and matters there objected unto them, or by equivocation, or other administer the oath with penalties for obstinacy or disobedience, and archbishop Whitgift provided twenty-four articles of examination for the service of the court, "so comprehensive as to embrace the whole 15 scope of clerical uniformity, and yet so precise and minute as to leave no room for evasion." The opinion entertained of them at that period may be expressed in the following words of lord Burghley, in a letter written by him to the archbishop, July 15, 1584. "I have read your twenty-four articles, and find them so curiously penned, so full of 20 branches and circumstances, as I think the inquisitors of Spain use not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their prey. It may be the canonists may maintain this proceeding by rules of their laws; but though 'omnia licent,' yet' omnia non expediunt.' I pray your grace bear that one (perchance a) fault, that I have willed them not to answer 25 these articles, except their conscience may suffer them." (Strype, Whitg. vol. iii. p. 106.) The period was a critical one, owing to the influence of Cartwright and the system of discipline newly established by the non-conformists; and although lord Burghley remonstrated, and the house of commons soon afterwards joined in the remonstrance, the 30 queen would not suffer any alteration to be made in the proceedings of the court. Fresh interrogatories were added, as the altered circumstances of dissent seemed to call for them, and more especially in the year 1590, when the discipline was established as a system in various parts of the kingdom. (Bancroft's Dangerous Positions, p. 91.) 35 Another important epoch in the history of this oath was in the reign of James I., when archbishop Bancroft endeavoured to extend the authority of the ecclesiastical courts, and met with a powerful antagonist in the person of sir Edward Coke. That able judge in his Institutes, (P. iv. p. 324.) confines the powers of a high commission within very 40 undue evasions do not make full and plain answer to the same, as by law they ought; now forasmuch as you our said commissioners for causes ecclesiastical are authorized by our letters patents under our great seal, and that your 5 proceedings are not only and wholly according to the formal manner and terms of the civil or canon laws, but with some relation to the form of proceeding used in our courts of star-chamber, chancery, or courts of requests, and exchequer, wherein defendants and delinquents have 10 always used to answer upon their oaths in causes against themselves, and also to answer interrogatories touching their own contempts and crimes objected to them, which narrow limits; and in the actual warrant which he was directed to issue, he omitted the power of fining for refusal to take the oath, leaving the 15 commissioners, as lord keeper Williams expressed it, (Cabala, p. 306,) "nothing but the rusty sword of the church, excommunication, to vindicate the authority of the court." He ruled also in the king's bench in the year 1616, after three terms' deliberations, that two persons who had been committed by the commissioners for refusal to take the oath 20 must be delivered, because it was illegal to require any one to accuse himself of the breach of a penal law. (Croke's Reports, P. ii. p. 388. Comp. No. CXXIII.) The oath had originally been employed against Romanists as well as puritans, but with little success in the former case. For the practice," says Dr. Lingard, "compelled some persons, chiefly 25 among the catholics, to adopt the doctrine of mental reservation." (Hist. vol. v. p. 519.) Dr. Bancroft had stated in the year 1593, (Dangerous Positions, p. 4,) that they "dallied with their oaths," sheltering themselves under the note given in the Rhemish Testament on the 23rd chap. of the Acts of the Apostles;" he also accused the puritans 30 (Survey, &c. p. 249.) of being infected with the same evil principle of the Jesuits. The increased authority which king Charles conveyed to the court of high commission by his letter of February 1638 was of very short duration. The court was abolished by the long parliament in the year 35 1641 (Stat. 16. Car. I. c. 11.) and immediately after the restoration of Charles II. it was enacted (Stat. 13 Car. II. c. 12.), that the oath 'ex officio' should never again be administered. Collier, vol. ii. pp. 602. 682. Neal, Purit. vol. i. pp. 271. 342. Strype, Whit. vol. ii. pp. 28–32. Hallam, vol. i. pp. 216. 227. Burn, Eccl. Law, art. Oaths. Blackst. 40 Com. vol. iii. p. 67. Barlow's Conference, 3rd day. course in those courts is daily practised and held agreeable to the laws and customs of this our realm; therefore for the better regulating of such contemptuous persons in and for their obedience to our ecclesiastical laws, we do hereby declare and signify of our own mere motion, and 5 certain knowledge, and by our supreme power ecclesiastical do order and appoint, that all such persons, as shall be legally called into our high commission court before you our said commissioners, shall and may lawfully by you be enjoined to take their corporal oaths, and 10 by virtue thereof to answer to such articles and interrogatories as shall be there objected against them, being of ecclesiastical cognizance, and within the limits of our said commission by our said letters patents granted unto you our said commissioners; and if any person or persons out 15 of their own perverse will or obstinacy shall either refuse to take such oath before you our said commissioners, or being sworn shall refuse to answer, or not make a full and plain answer to the said articles or interrogatories to them objected, that then after due monition given, and intima- 20 tion made to the said persons in that behalf, if they shall still continue and persist in this their contumacy, every such person so refusing to be sworn, or being sworn refusing to answer, or not fully and plainly answering to the said articles and interrogatories, shall and may be de- 25 clared and adjudged by you our said commissioners "pro confesso," and shall be held and had as confessed and convicted legally of all those articles and matters, to which he so refuseth to be sworn, or being sworn shall refuse to answer, or not make full and plain answer as aforesaid : 30 and these our letters shall be a sufficient warrant and discharge in that behalf. Given under our signet at our palace of Westm. the fourth day of February, in the XIIIth year of our reign. To the most reverend father in God; our right trusty 35 and right entirely beloved counsellors William, lord 5 archbishop of Cant. primate and metropolitan of all England, and Richard, lord archbishop of York, primate and metropolitan of England, and to the rest of our commissioners of our court of high commission now being, and to all and singular the commissioners of that court that hereafter for the time shall be. CXLVII. Sede Cant. Anno Christi Reg. Angliæ The king's majesty's most gracious letter and declaration to the bishops, deans, and prebends, etc. about the augmentation of small vicarages.-Collated with Wh. Kennet's Case of Impropriations, p. 153. CHARLES R. AS nothing is more in our desires, than to provide that the church of England, under our reign, might be 10 furnished with a religious, learned, sober, modest, and prudent clergy; so we are ready to give encouragement 66 The king's majesty's most gracious letter] Soon after the restoration a bill was brought into the house of commons for erecting and augmenting of vicarages, and had a first reading, but proceeded no 15 further; having, as is supposed, been superseded and laid aside (at least for that time) in consideration that the ends proposed in it would be in some degree answered by his majesty's letter to the several bishops respectively. And this design was the more practicable at that time by reason of the number and largeness of the fines that were 20 then due. And accordingly many and large augmentations were then made. But the design was not intended barely for augmentations then to be made at that particular time, but also for the making thereof by the same bodies in future times. And to confirm and perpetuate the same the statute 29 Charles II. c. 8. was made." This statute, citing |