said book; or shall use, wilfully and obstinately standing in the same, any other rite, ceremony, order, form, or manner of Mass openly or privily, or Matins, Evensong, administration of the sacraments, or other open prayer than is mentioned and set forth in the said book (open prayer in and throughout this Act, is meant that prayer which is for other to come unto or hear either in common churches or private chapels or oratories, commonly called the service of the Church); or shall preach, declare, or speak anything in the derogation or depraving of the said book, or anything therein contained, or of any part thereof; and shall be thereof lawfully convicted according to the laws of this realm, by verdict of twelve men, or by his own confession, or by the notorious evidence of the fact :- shall lose and forfeit to the king's highness, his heirs and successors, for his first offence, the profit of such one of his spiritual benefices or promotions as it shall please the king's highness to assign or appoint, coming and arising in one whole year next after his conviction: and also that the same person so convicted shall for the same offence suffer imprisonment by the space of six months, without bail or mainprize: and if any such person once convicted of any offence concerning the premises, shall after his first conviction again offend and be thereof in form aforesaid lawfully convicted, that then the same person shall for his second offence suffer imprisonment by the space of one whole year, and also shall therefore be deprived ipso facto of all his spiritual promotions; and that it shall be lawful to all patrons, donors, and grantees of all and singular the same spiritual promotions, to present to the same any other able clerk, in like manner and form as though the party so offending were dead: and that if any such person or persons, after he shall be twice convicted in form aforesaid, shall offend against any of the premises the third time, and shall be thereof in form aforesaid lawfully convicted, that then the person so offending and convicted the third time shall suffer imprisonment during his life.

And if the person that shall offend and be convicted in form aforesaid concerning any of the premises, shall not be beneficed nor have any spiritual promotion, that then the same person so offending and convicted shall for the first offence suffer imprisonment during six months, without bail or mainprize: and if any such person not having any spiritual promotion, after his first conviction shall again offend in anything concerning the premises, and shall in form aforesaid be thereof lawfully convicted, that then the same person shall for his second offence suffer imprisonment during his life.

II. And it is ordained and enacted by the authority abovesaid, that if any person or persons whatsoever, after the said feast of Pentecost next coming, shall in any interludes, plays, songs, rhymes, or by other open words declare or speak anything in the derogation, depraving, or despising of the same book or of anything therein contained, or any part thereof; or shall by open fact, deed, or by open threatenings, compel or cause, or otherwise procure or maintain any parson, vicar, or other minister in any cathedral or parish church, or in any chapel or other place, to sing or say any common and open prayer, or to minister any sacrament otherwise or in any other manner or form than is mentioned in the said book; or that by any of the said means shall unlawfully interrupt or let any parson, vicar, or other ministers in any cathedral or parish church, chapel, or any other place, to sing or say common and open prayer, or to minister the sacraments, or any of them, in any such manner and form as is mentioned in the said book; that then every person being thereof lawfully convicted in form abovesaid, shall forfeit to the king our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, for the first offence ten pounds. And if any person or persons, being once convicted of any such offence, again offend against any of the premises, and shall in form aforesaid be thereof lawfully convicted, that then the same persons so offending and convicted shall for the second offence forfeit to the king our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, twenty pounds; and if any person after he, in form aforesaid, shall have been twice convicted of any offence concerning any of the premises, shall offend the third time, and be thereof in form abovesaid lawfully convicted, that then every person so offending and convicted shall for his third offence forfeit to our sovereign lord the king all his goods and chattels, and shall suffer imprisonment during his life: and if any person or persons, that for his first offence concerning the premises shall be convicted in form aforesaid, do not pay the sum to be paid by virtue of his conviction, in such manner and form as the same ought to be paid, within six weeks next after his conviction, that then every person so convicted, and so not paying the same, shall for the same first offence, instead of the said ten pounds, suffer imprisonment by the space of three months without bail or mainprize. And if any person or persons, that for his second offence concerning the premises shall be convicted in form aforesaid, do not pay the sum to be paid by virtue of his conviction, in such manner and form as the same ought to be paid, within six weeks next after his said second conviction, that then every person so convicted, and not so paying the same, shall for the

same second offence, instead of the said twenty pounds, suffer imprisonment during six months without bail or mainprize.

III. And it is ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and every justices of oyer and terminer, or justices of assize, shall have full power and authority in every of their open and general sessions to inquire, hear, and determine all and all manner of offences that shall be committed or done contrary to any article contained in this present Act, within the limits of the commission to them directed, and to make process for the execution of the same, as they may do against any person being indicted before them of trespass, or lawfully convicted thereof.

IV. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and every archbishop and bishop shall or may at all time and times at his liberty and pleasure join and associate himself, by virtue of this Act, to the said justices of oyer and terminer, or to the said justices of assize, at every of the said open and general sessions to be holden in any place within his diocese, for and to the inquiry, hearing, and determining of the offences aforesaid.

V. Provided always, that it shall be lawful to any man that understands the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew tongue, or other strange tongue, to say and have the said prayers, heretofore specified, of Matins and Evensong in Latin, or any such other tongue, saying the same privately, as they do understand;

VI. And for the further encouraging of learning in the tongues in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, to use and exercise in their common and open prayer in their chapels (being no parish churches) or other places of prayer, the Matins, Evensong, Litany, and all other prayers (the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass, excepted) prescribed in the said book, in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew; anything in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

VII. Provided also, that it shall be lawful for all men, as well in churches, chapels, oratories, or other places, to use openly any psalm or prayer taken out of the Bible, at any due time, not letting or omitting thereby the service or any part thereof mentioned in the said book.

VIII. Provided also, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the books concerning the said services shall at the costs and charges of the parishioners of every parish and cathedral church be attained and gotten before the feast of Pentecost next following, or before; and that all such parish and cathedral churches, or other places where the said books shall be attained and gotten before the said feast of Pentecost, shall within three weeks next

after the said books so attained and gotten use the said service, and put the same in use according to this Act.

IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no person or persons shall be at any time hereafter impeached or otherwise molested of or for any of the offences above mentioned, hereafter to be committed or done contrary to this Act, unless he or they so offending be thereof indicted at the next general sessions to be holden before any such of the justices of oyer and terminer or justices of assize, next after any offence committed or done contrary to the tenor of this Act.

X. Provided always, and be it ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and singular lords in the Parliament, for the third offence above mentioned, shall be tried by their peers.

XI. Provided also, and be it ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the Mayor of London, and all other mayors, bailiffs, and other head officers of all and singular cities, boroughs, and towns corporate within this realm, Wales, Calais, and the marches of the same, to the which justices of assize do not commonly repair, shall have full power and authority by virtue of this Act to inquire, hear, and determine the offences abovesaid, and every of them yearly, within fifteen days after the feasts of Easter and St. Michael the Archangel, in like manner and form as justices of assize and øyer and terminer may do.

XII. Provided always, and be it ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and singular archbishops and bishops, and every of their chancellors, commissaries, archdeacons, and other ordinaries, having any peculiar ecclesiastical jurisdiction, shall have full power and authority by virtue of this Act, as well to inquire in their visitations, synods, and elsewhere within their jurisdiction, [or] at any other time or place, to take accusations and informations of all and every the things above mentioned, done, committed, or perpetrated, within the limits of their jurisdiction and authority, and to punish the same by admonition, excommunication, sequestration, or deprivation, and other censures and process, in like form as heretofore has been used in like cases by the king's ecclesiastical laws.

XIII. Provided always, and be it enacted, that whatsoever person offending in the premises shall for the first offence receive punishment of the ordinary, having a testimonial thereof under the said ordinary's seal, shall not for the same offence again be summoned before the justices; and likewise receiving for the said first offence punishment by the justices, he shall not for the same

offence again receive punishment of the ordinary; anything con tained in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

161. First Mention of Lords Lieutenant

(1550. 3 & 4 Edward VI. c. 5. 4 S. R. 107.)

XIII. PROVIDED always and it is enacted by the authority abovesaid, that if the king shall by his letters patents make any lieutenant in any county or counties of this realm, for the suppressing of any commotion, rebellion or unlawful assembly, that then as well all justices of peace of every such county and the sheriffs and sheriff of the same, as all mayors, bailiffs and other head officers and all inhabitants and subjects of any county, city, borough or town corporate within every such county, shall upon the declaration of the said letters patents and request made be bound to give attendance upon the same lieutenant to suppress any commotion, rebellion or unlawful assembly, unless he or they being so required have any reasonable excuse for his not attendance, upon pain of imprisonment for one whole year.

162. Second Act of Uniformity of Edward VI

(1552. 5 & 6 Edward VI. c. 1. 4 S. R. 130. G. and H. 369–372.)

WHERE there has been a very godly order set forth by the

authority of Parliament, for common prayer and administra. tion of the sacraments to be used in the mother tongue within the Church of England, agreeable to the word of God and the primitive Church, very comfortable to all good people desiring to live in Christian conversation, and most profitable to the estate of this realm, upon the which the mercy, favour, and blessing of Almighty God is in no wise so readily and plenteously poured as by common prayers, due using of the sacraments, and often preaching of [the] gospel, with the devotion of the hearers:

And yet this notwithstanding, a great number of people in divers parts of this realm, following their own sensuality, and