or use or execute any power or authority in the Court usually called the Star-Chamber, nor shall have any suffrage or voice or use, or execute any judicial power or authority in any other temporal Court whatsoever; nor shall be any Justice of Peace, nor use nor execute the office of a Justice of the Peace by virtue or colour of any statute, commission, charter or otherwise within the kingdom of England or dominion of Wales; nor shall have or enjoy any judicial room or place in any of the said Courts, nor shall execute any commission that shall issue from any standing temporal Court whatsoever; nor shall be of the Privy Council of His Majesty, his heirs or successors, but shall be wholly disabled and incapable to have, receive, use or execute any of the said offices, places, powers and authorities aforesaid. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all acts from and after the said first day of January which shall be done or executed by any Archbishop, Bishop, Parson, Vicar or other person whatsoever in Holy Orders, and all and every suffrage, vote and voice to be given or delivered by them or any of them, contrary to the purport and true meaning of this present Act, shall be utterly void in law to all intents, constructions and purposes; and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any Archbishop, Bishop, Parson, Vicar or other person whatsoever in Holy Orders from or after the said first day of January, shall give his or their votes, suffrage or voice, or shall do or execute anything prohibited or forbidden by this Act, contrary to the true intent and meaning thereof, shall for the first offence forfeit and lose so much money as shall amount unto the full and true value of one whole year's profit and benefit of all his and their spiritual and ecclesiastical livings, benefices, dignities and promotions whatsoever, the same to be recovered in any of His Majesty's Courts of Record by action of debt, bill, plaint or information by him or them that will sue for the same, in which suit no essoine, protection, wager of law, aid, prayer, privilege, injunction or order of restraint, nor any more than one imparlance shall be in anywise prayed, granted, admitted or allowed, the one moiety whereof to be unto our Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs and successors, and the other moiety to him or them that will sue for the same. And if any Archbishop, Bishop, Parson, Vicar or other person whatsoever, once convict of any offence concerning the premises or against whom any such recovery shall be had as aforesaid, shall therein offend again or shall thereafter do anything

contrary to the true intent and meaning of this law, and shall be thereof duly convicted by indictment, information or any other lawful ways or means, then such party shall, from and after such conviction, forfeit and lose, and be incapable to hold all and every the spiritual and ecclesiastical livings, benefices, dignities and promotions which he shall then have, and be from thenceforth utterly disabled to have, receive, take or enjoy any the same spiritual or ecclesiastical livings, benefices, dignities or promotions whatsoever; and that all the spiritual and ecclesiastical livings, benefices, dignities and promotions which he shall have at the time of such conviction1, shall be to all intents, constructions and purposes utterly void. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no lapse shall incur against the patron or such person as ought to present unto, collate or dispose of all or any such spiritual or ecclesiastical benefices, livings, dignities or promotions until six months after notice given by the Ordinary of the Diocese within which such spiritual or ecclesiastical living, benefice, dignity or promotion shall be, unto the patron or other person that ought to present thereunto, or collate or dispose thereof. And be it likewise further provided and enacted, that this Act, or any clause or thing therein contained, shall not extend unto the exercise of any jurisdiction, power or authority within either of the two Universities or the liberties thereof, nor unto any person or persons being or who hereafter shall be in Holy Orders, and who is or hereafter shall be a Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron or Peer of this kingdom by descent, nor unto the exercise of any the power of a Justice of Peace at any time heretofore given by any Act of Parliament to the Dean of Westminster within the liberties of Westminster, at Saint Martin's Le Grand in London.

And to the end that Archbishops and Bishops within their several dioceses may have such assistance as may hereafter tend and be for the better execution of their said offices and places, be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that within every shire or county of each several diocese within the kingdom of England and dominion of Wales there be nominated, in such manner as is hereafter expressed, twelve ministers being in Holy Orders, and being fit both in respect of their life and doctrine, to be assistants to every such Archbishop and Bishop, together with the Dean and Chapter of each several diocese, in conferring of Holy Orders

1 Convention in MS.

H

and in the exercise and administration of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and for such other purposes as be hereafter declared; and that none of the said Archbishops or Bishops at any time from henceforth shall confer any Holy Orders upon any person or persons without the presence and approbation of four of the said assistants at the least; and that none of the said Archbishops or Bishops, or any Dean, Archdeacon, Chancellor, Commissary, Official, Surrogate or other person having or exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction within any of the dioceses aforesaid, or within any places of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction whatsoever, shall pronounce any sentence of degradation, deprivation or suspension against any minister or other person in Holy Orders, or any sentence of excommunication or absolution of or against any person whatsoever, or shall proceed to the final sentence of any cause whatsoever depending in any of their several Courts, or to the sentence or taxation of costs or charges of suit, or to the making of any request or instance to any ordinary or superior Judge to hear or determine any cause depending before them without the presence and approbation of two or, at the least, of one of the said assistants next dwelling; and that the said assistants shall from time to time be nominated or chosen in manner following, that is to say: before the said first day of January four of them by the King's Majesty, his heirs or successors, under the sign manual; four other of them by the order of the Lords in Parliament assembled, and the other four by the order of the House of Commons in Parliament assembled; and upon the death or removal of any of the said assistants out of any of the shires or counties in the several dioceses aforesaid respectively, such other person or persons shall be named in their stead and to supply their rooms, as by His Majesty, his heirs or successors, shall be nominated and appointed in like manner as is aforesaid, which said assistants and every of them respectively, shall from time to time hereafter give their personal attendance in and for the due execution of the trust by this Act in them reposed, at each public Ordination within each several diocese, and at such other times when any such sentence, or any such taxation of costs, or any such act for request or instance shall be made as is aforesaid, upon sufficient notice to be given or left at their several dwelling-houses by the known apparitor of any such Archbishop or Bishop by the space of fourteen days next before any meeting shall be had for any of the purposes aforesaid; and if any such assistant, having such

notice as is aforesaid, shall fail to appear at the place so intimated unto him as is aforesaid, that then the said assistant for every such default shall forfeit £10, to be levied by distress and sale of the goods of every such offender (rendering to every such offender the overplus) to the use of the poor of the parish where such assistant shall be then dwelling, by warrant from any Justice of the Peace next or nigh adjoining to the said parish, to be directed to the constable, churchwarden or overseer of the same parish or any of them, unless the said offender shall have such reasonable excuse for his said default as shall be allowed by the said Archbishop or by the Bishop of the same diocese and the said then other assistants respectively, or the greater number of them, within three months next after any such default. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all sentences and other of the acts of Courts aforesaid, which at any time hereafter shall be sped, pronounced, declared or made in any other manner than is by this present Act appointed, shall be utterly void to all intents and purposes; and that all and every Archbishop, Bishop and other the ecclesiastical Judges aforesaid, which shall speed, pronounce, declare or make any of the said sentences or acts of Court, or which shall confer any Holy Orders otherwise than as by this Act is limited and appointed, shall ipso facto be suspended from the exercise of their said respective places, offices and functions by the space of one whole year next ensuing every such offence, and shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of £100, to be recovered by bill, action, plaint or information by any person that shall sue for the same in any of His Majesty's Courts of Record, in which no wager of law, essoine, protection, privilege, injunction or order of restraint, nor any more than one imparlance shall be admitted or allowed, the one moiety of the said forfeiture to be to such person or persons as will sue for the same, and the other to be employed to and for the relief of the poor of the parish where the said offence shall be committed.

And that from henceforth such persons may be preferred to be Archbishops and Bishops which shall be of the best integrity of life, soundness of doctrine and fitness for government, be it therefore enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that upon every avoidance of any of the Archbishops or Bishops aforesaid at any time hereafter to be made, the Dean and Chapter of each several diocese respectively, and the said assistants of all the shires and

counties within the said diocese, so to be named as is aforesaid, or the greater number of the said Dean, Chapter and assistants then living within twenty days next after every such avoidance, shall, by a writing under their hands and seals, recommend and present to His Majesty, his heirs or successors, the names of three persons in Holy Orders within the same or any other of the said dioceses, whom in their judgments they shall hold fit and worthy for so great a function; and that thereupon His Majesty, his heirs or successors, shall and may be pleased by his or their Letters Patents, under the Great Seal of England, to nominate one of the said three persons to be Archbishop or Bishop of the see so respectively being void; and if the same be a Bishopric which shall be so void, that then the nomination by His Majesty, his heirs or successors, to be as aforesaid made, shall be made to the Archbishop of the Province within which the see of the said Bishopric shall happen to be; and if it shall be an Archbishopric which shall be so void, that then every such nomination shall be made to the other Archbishop or, in his vacancy, to four such Bishops within this realm of England as shall be thereunto appointed by His Majesty, his heirs or successors; and that with all convenient speed, after every such nomination to be made as is aforesaid, the said Archbishop or four Bishops, to whom the same shall be made as is aforesaid, shall invest and consecrate the said person so nominated to the said Archbishopric or Bishopric so being void; and that every person hereafter being so nominated as aforesaid to any Archbishopric or Bishopric, and so invested and consecrated and receiving their temporalities out of the hands of His Majesty, his heirs or successors, and taking their oath and making their homage as in such case is now accustomed, shall and may from thenceforth be installed and have and take their restitution out of the hands of His Majesty, his heirs or successors, of all the possessions, rents and profits belonging to the said Archbishopric or Bishopric whereunto they shall be so nominated as is aforesaid, and shall be from thenceforth enabled fully and to all intents and purposes to do, execute and perform all and every thing and things in the present Act expressed and declared to be done by every such Archbishop and Bishop respectively, and in such manner as in and by this present Act is expressed, limited and appointed, and also to do all such other thing or things as any Archbishop