Apologeticall Animadversions of certaine Abuses that may be reformed in Ecclesiasticall persons, and Ecclesiasticall Courts, without the utter extirpation of either. Presented to the consideration of the high and Honourable Court of Parliament.
1. THat every Archbishop, Bishop, Chancelor, Vicar Generall, Surrogate, Archdeacon, or any having authority in that behalfe (when he Instituteth, Collateth, or Investeth any Clerk in any Benefice with cure of Soules, or any dignity in a Cathedrall or Collegiate Church, or any other spirtuall promotion) shall in the presence of the Register, and one or two publique Notaries, minister the Oath of Simonie to Patron and Clerk, and cause an [Page 2]Act to be made thereof, upon a certain paine.
2. No Bishop to admit any youth under 23 yeares of age, nor any that is not of sufficient learning, unto Holy Orders, upon a paine to be inflicted upon the deliquent Bishop.
3. No Archbishop or Bishop shall employ any to be Vicar Generall, but such as have potest tem clavium, neither shall any Simoniacall person use and exercise such authority in any visitation Provinciall or Episcopall, upon a paine.
4. No Bishop or other inferiour Clergyman shall be a notorious Blasphemer, Drunkard, Sweater, Adulterer, Incestuous, Fornicatour, &c. or keepe or maintaine any such in his house, being by presentment under censure Ecclesiasticall, upon a paine.
5. No Bishop upon a Bond to save harmlesse, or such like pretence, shall discharge any party that is followed by due course of Law to an Exco. capiendo in a cause of instance between party and party, upon a paine.
6. No man presented by Churchwardens or Minister for drunkennesse, adultery, incest, fornication, or other criminall cause, and followed to Excom. capiend. shall be freed without publique Confession of his offence, and an act of his Confession for satisfaction to the Church, upon a paine.
7. No man shall be allowed above two moneths to profecute an appeale upon presentment, and the higher Court shall not hold it above a twelve month, upon a pain.
8. Every Citation upon a Iudge a Quo, shall be served in open Court, And an Act thereof, upon a paine.
9. No Archbishop, Bishop, Deane, &c. or other having authority, shall grant, seale, or deliver any Patent to a Register before he hath taken the Oath of Simonie, and the Oath to doe justly and uprightly, as is required by the Canon, upon a paine.
10. All Archbishops, Bishops, Deanes, Chancellors, and all having authority, shall without fraud employ Commutation mony to pious uses, and thereupon shall cause an [Page 4]Act to be made, where the name of the offender, his crime, the time, place, and summe of his Commutation, and he manner how it was bestowed, shall be expressed, upon a paine.
11. Every Archbishop, Bishop, Dean, Archdeacon, Cannon, Prebend, or any person Lay or Ecclesiastical holding any Impropriation, shall lease it unto the Incumbent for the time being with Cure of Soules Sans fine upon the usuall rent, upon a paine.
12. The Registers negligence in transmitting a Record shall not be a cause sufficient for the Iudex ad quem to excommunicate the Iudex a quo, unlesse it appeares, that being admonish'd, the Iudge a Quo did refuse to exhibite his Patent. And the Iudge ad Quem upon appeale, to avoyd delay shall not intend the tearmes of the Courts as the Merit of the Cause.