REGISTRARS.

CXXXIV. Abuses to be reformed in Registrars.

If any registrar, or his deputy or substitute whatsoever, shall receive any certificate without the knowledge and consent of the jndge of the court, or willingly omit to cause any person cited to appear upon any court-day, to be called; or unduly put off and defer the examination of witnesses to be examined by a day set and assigned by the judge; or do not obey and observe the judicial and lawful monition of the said judge; or omit to write or cause to be written, such citations and decrees as are to be put in execution, and set forth before the next court day; or shall not cause all testaments exhibited into his office to be registered within a convenient time; or shall set down or enact, as decreed by the judge, anything false, or conceited by himself, and not so ordered or decreed by the judge; or, in the transmission of processes to the judge ad quem, shall add or insert any falsehood or untruth, or omit anything therein, either by cunning or gross negligence; or in causes of instance, or promoted of office, shall receive any reward in favor of either party; or be of counsel directly or indirectly with either of the parties in suit; or in the execution of their office shall do ought else maliciously or fraudulently, whereby the said ecclesiastical judge or his proceedings, may be slandered or defamed; we will and ordain, That the said registrar, or his deputy or substitute, offending in all or any of the premises, shall by the bishop of the diocese be suspended from the exercise of his office for the space of one, two, or three months, or more, according to the quality of his offence; and that the said bishop shall assign some other public notary to execute and discharge all things pertaining to his office, during the time of his said suspension.

CXXXV. A Certain Rate of Fees due to all Ecclesiastical Officers.

No bishop, suffragan, chancellor, commissary, archdeacon, official, nor any other exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatsoever, nor any registrar of any ecclesiastical courts, nor any minister belonging to any of the said offices or courts, shall hereafter for any cause incident to their several offices, take or receive any other or greater fees than such as were certified to the most reverend father in God, John late archbishop of Canterbury, in the

year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred ninety and seven, and were by him ratified and approved; under pain, that every such judge, officer, or minister offending herein, shall be suspended from the exercise of their several offices for the space of six months, for every such offence. Always provided, That if any question shall arise concerning the certainty of the said fees, or any of them, then those fees shall be held for lawful which the archbishop of Canterbury for the time being shall under his hand approve, except the statutes of this realm before made do in any particular case express some other fees to be due. Provided furthermore, That no fee or money shall be received either by the archbishop, or any bishop, or suffragan, either directly or indirectly, for admitting of any into sacred orders; nor that any other person or persons under the said archbishop, bishop or suffragan, shall for parchment, writing, wax, sealing, or any other respect thereunto appertaining, take above ten shillings, under such pains as are already by law prescribed.

CXXXVI. A Table of the Rates and Fees to be set up in Courts and Registries.

We do likewise constitute and appoint, that the registrars belonging to every such ecclesiastical judge shall place two tables, containing the several rates and sums of all the said fees: one in the usual place or consistory where the court is kept, and the other in the registry; and both of them in such sort, as every man, whom it concerneth, may without difficulty come to the view and perusal thereof, and take a copy of them: the same tables to be set up before the feast of the Nativity next ensuing. And if any registrar shall fail to place the said tables according to the tenor hereof, he shall be suspended from the execution of his office, until he cause the same to be accordingly done: and the said tables being once set up, if he shall at any time remove or suffer the same to be removed, hidden, or any way hindered from sight, contrary to the true meaning of this constitution, he shall for every such offence be suspended from the exercise of his office for the space of six months.

CXXXVII. The whole Fees for showing Letters of Orders,

and other Licenses, due but once in every Bishop's time. Forasmuch as the chief and principal cause and use of visitation is, that the bishop, archdeacon, or other assigned to visit, may get some good knowledge of the state, sufficiency, and ability of the clergy and other persons whom they are to visit; we think

it convenient that every parson, vicar, curate, schoolmaster, or other person licensed whosoever, do at the bishop's first visitation, or at the next visitation after his admission, show and exhibit unto him his letters of orders, institution, and induction, and all other his dispensations, licenses, or faculties whatsoever, to be by the said bishop either allowed, or (if there be just cause), disallowed and rejected and being by him approved, to be, as the custom is, signed by the registrar; and that the whole fees accustomed to be paid in the visitations in respect of the premises, be paid only once in the whole time of every bishop, and afterwards but half of the said accustomed fees in every other visitation, during the` said bishop's continuance.

APPARITORS.

CXXXVIII. The Number of Apparitors restrained. Forasmuch as we are desirous to redress such abuses and aggrievances as are said to grow by somners or apparitors, we think it meet that the multitude of apparitors be (as much as possible) abridged or restrained: wherefore we decree and ordain, That no bishop or archdeacon, or their vicars, or officials, or other inferior ordinaries, shall depute or have more apparitors to serve in their jurisdictions respectively, than either they or their predecessors were accustomed to have thirty years before the publishing of these our present Constitutions. All which apparitors shall, by themselves, faithfully execute their offices; neither shall they, by any color or pretence whatsoever, cause or suffer their mandates to be executed by any messengers or substitutes, unless it be upon some good cause, to be first known and approved by the ordinary of the place. Moreover, they shall not take the office of promoters or informers for the court; neither shall them upon they exact more or greater fees than are in these our Constitutions formerly prescribed. And if either the number of the apparitors deputed shall exceed the aforesaid limitation, or any of the said apparitors shall offend in any of the premises, the persons deputing them, if they be bishops, shall, upon admonition of their superior, discharge the persons exceeding the number so limited; if inferior ordinaries, they shall be suspended from the execution of their office, until they have dismissed the apparitors by them so deputed; and the parties themselves so deputed shall for ever be removed from the office of apparitors; and if, being so removed, they desist not from the exercise of their said offices, let them be

punished by ecclesiastical censures, as persons contumacious. Provided, That if, upon experience, the number of the said apparitors be too great in any diocese, in the judgment of the archbishop of Canterbury, for the time being, they shall by him be so abridged as he shall think meet and convenient.

AUTHORITY OF SYNODS.

CXXXIX. A National Synod the Church Representative.

Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, That the sacred synod of this nation, in the name of Christ and by the king's authority assembled, is not the true Church of England by representation, let him be excommunicated, and not restored until he repent, and publicly revoke that his wicked error.

CXL. Synods conclude as well the absent as the present.

Whosoever shall affirm, That no manner of person, either of the clergy or laity, not being themselves particularly assembled in the said sacred synod, are to be subject to the decrees thereof in causes ecclesiastical (made and ratified by the king's majesty's supreme authority), as not having given their voices unto them, let him be excommunicated, and not restored until he repent, and publicly revoke that his wicked error.

CXLI. Depravers of the Synod censured.

Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, That the sacred synod, assembled as aforesaid, was a company of such persons as did conspire together against godly and religious professors of the gospel; and that therefore both they and their proceedings in making of canons and constitutions in causes ecclesiastical, by the king's authority, as aforesaid, ought to be despised and contemned, the same being ratified, confirmed, and enjoined by the said regal power, supremacy, and authority, let them be excommunicated, and not restored until they repent, and publicly revoke that their wicked error.

WE, of our princely inclination and royal care for the maintenance of the present estate and government of the Church of

England, by the laws of this our realm now settled and established, having diligently, with great contentment and comfort, read and considered of all these their said Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, agreed upon, as is before expressed; and finding the same such as we are persuaded will be very profitable, not only to our clergy, but to the whole church of this our kingdom, and to all the true members of it, if they be well observed; have therefore for us, our heirs, and lawful successors, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, given, and by these presents do give our royal assent, according to the form of the said statute or act of parliament aforesaid, to all and every of the said Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, and to all and everything in them contained, as they are before written.

And furthermore, we do not only by our said prerogative royal, and supreme authority in causes ecclesiastical, ratify, confirm, and establish, by these our letters patent, the said Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, and all and everything in them contained, as is aforesaid; but do likewise propound, publish, and straightway enjoin and command by our said authority, and by these our letters patent, the same to be diligently observed, executed, and equally kept by all our loving subjects of this our kingdom, both within the provinces of Canterbury and York, in all points wherein they do or may concern every or any of them, according to this our will and pleasure hereby signified and expressed; and that likewise, for the better observation of them, every minister, by what name or title soever he be called, shall, in the parish-church or chapel where he hath charge, read all the said Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, once every year, upon some Sundays or holy-days, in the afternoon, before divine service; dividing the same in such sort, as that the one half may be read one day, and the other another day: the book of the said Canons to be provided at the charge of the parish, betwixt this and the feast of the Nativity of our Lord God next ensuing straitly charging and commanding all archbishops, bishops, and all other that exercise any ecclesiastical jurisdiction within this realm, every man in his place, to see and procure (so much as in them lieth), all and every of the same Canons, Orders,