behalf.

and arraigned, shall be admitted to purge or try his or their 1547. innocency, by as many or more witnesses in number, and of on their as good honesty and credence, as the witnesses be which deposed against him or them or any of them.

Blessed

where

otherwise

requires.

And forasmuch as it is more agreeable, both to the first insti- The tution of the said Sacrament of the most precious body and Sacrament blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and also more conform- to be administered able to the common use and practice both of the Apostles and in both of the primitive Church, by the space of 500 years and more kinds, after Christ's ascension, that the said blessed Sacrament should except be ministered to all Christian people under both the kinds necessity of bread and wine, than under the form of bread only, and also it is more agreeable to the first institution of Christ, and to the usage of the Apostles and the primitive Church, that the people being present should receive the same with the priest, than that the priest should receive it alone; therefore be it enacted by our said sovereign lord the king, with the consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said most blessed Sacrament be hereafter commonly delivered and ministered unto the people within the Church of England and Ireland, and other the king's dominions, under both the kinds, that is to say, of bread and wine, except necessity otherwise require:

And also that the priest which shall minister the same, The priest shall, at the least one day before, exhort all persons which to exhort the people shall be present likewise to resort and prepare themselves to receive to receive the same. prepared.

ment to be denied to

And when the day prefixed comes, after a godly exhorta- The Sacration by the minister made (wherein shall be further expressed the benefit and comfort promised to them which worthily no person receive the said holy Sacrament, and [the] danger and indig- devoutly

that shall

humbly

nation of God threatened to them which shall presume to and receive the same unworthily, to the end that every man may desire it. try and examine his own conscience before he shall receive

1547.

the same), the said minister shall not, without lawful cause, deny the same to any person that will devoutly and humbly The usage desire it; any law, statute, ordinance, or custom contrary thereunto in any wise notwithstanding; not condemning hereby the usage of any Church out of the king's majesty's dominions.

of other Churches

not condemned.

1547.

Chantries, &c., tend

to superstition.

LXVIII.

ACT DISSOLVING THE CHANTRIES, A. D. 1547.

1 EDWARD VI, CAP. 14.

LEGISLATION with regard to chantries began in the year 1545; the war with France calling for monetary supplies, an Act (37 Hen. VIII, cap. 4) was passed reciting that the possessions of chantries were generally misapplied, and vesting them in the king for the term of his life. Commissioners were appointed to inquire into the possessions of chantries, but it seems doubtful if any were actually suppressed till 1547, when the following Act was passed, the previous Act having expired.

[Transcr. Statutes of the Realm, iv. 24.]

The king's most loving subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, considering that a great part of superstition and errors in Christian religion has been brought into the minds and estimations of men, by reason of the ignorance of their very true and perfect salvation through the death of Jesus Christ, and by devising and phantasing vain opinions of purgatory and masses satisfactory, to be done for them which be departed, the which doctrine and vain opinion by nothing more is maintained and upholden, than by the abuse of trentals, chantries, and other provisions made for the continuance of the said blindness and ignorance; and further considering and understanding, that the alteration,

change, and amendment of the same, and converting to good and godly uses, as in erecting of grammar schools to the education of youth in virtue and godliness, the further augmenting of the Universities, and better provision for the poor and needy, cannot, in this present Parliament, be provided and conveniently done, nor cannot nor ought to have any other manner person to be committed, than to the king's highness, whose majesty, with and by the advice. of his highness's most prudent council, can and will most wisely and beneficially, both for the honour of God and the weal of this his majesty's realm, order, alter, convert, and dispose the same.

1547.

sessions should be

given to

the king to be 'devoted

And calling further to their remembrance, that in the Their posParliament holden at Westminster the seven-and-thirtieth year of the reign of our late sovereign lord King Henry VIII, father to our most dread and natural sovereign lord the king that now is, it was ordained, enacted, and established to certain amongst other things, that all and singular colleges, free purposes. chapels, chantries, hospitals, fraternities, brotherhoods, guilds, and other promotions mentioned in the said former Act, had or made to have continuance in perpetuity for ever, and then being, or that had or ought to be contributory or chargeable to the payment of the first-fruits and tenths, according to the laws and statutes in that behalf had and made, by what name, surname, degree, or corporation they or any of them were founded, ordained, established, erected, named, called, or known, and all and singular the mansion Recital of houses, manors, orchards, gardens, lands, tenements, VIII, c. 4, 37 Hen. pastures, woods, waters, rents, reversions, services, com- dissolving mons, tithes, pensions, portions, churches, chapels, advowsons, nominations, patronages, annuities, rights, interests, entries, conditions, leets, courts, liberties, privileges, franchises, and other hereditaments whatsoever, then appertaining or belonging, or that did appertain or belong, or were assigned or appointed to any such college, free chapel,

chantries.

1547.

chantry, hospital, fraternity, brotherhood, guild, stipendiary priest, or other the said promotions, or to any of them, or accepted, known, or taken as part, parcel, or member of them or of any of them, and to the said colleges, chantries, free chapels, hospitals, fraternities, brotherhoods, guilds, stipendiary priests, or other promotions, or to any of them. united or annexed, which between the fourth day of February in the seven-and-twentieth year of the said late king's reign, and the five-and-twentieth day of December in the thirtyseventh of his grace's reign, by reason of any entry, expulsion, bargain, sale, feoffment, fine, recovery, lease, or other conveyance thereof made, were dissolved, determined, or relinquished by any of the ways, means, or conveyances mentioned in the said Act, or otherwise, other than such of them as then were in the possession of the said late king, or that were granted or assured by his licence, agreement, consent, or letters patent to any person or persons, or then had been lawfully obtained or recovered by any person by any former right or title, without fraud or covin, or by the king's licence, should from thenceforth, by authority of the same former Act, be adjudged and deemed, and also be in the very actual and real possession and seisin of the said late king, and of his heirs and successors for ever, in as large and ample manner as the said priests, wardens, masters, ministers, governors, rulers, or other incumbents, or any of them, or the patrons, donors, or founders of any of them, at any time since the said fourth day of February in the twenty-seventh year aforesaid, had occupied or enjoyed, or then had occupied or enjoyed the same, and as though all and singular the said colleges, chantries, hospitals, free chapels, fraternities, brotherhoods, guilds, and other the said promotions, and the said manors, lands, tenements, hereditaments, and other the premises whatsoever they be, and every of them, had been in the said former Act specially, particularly, and certainly rehearsed, named, and

expressed by express words, names, surnames, corporations, titles, and faculties, and in their natural kinds and qualities; the said entries, expulsions, bargains, sales, fines, feoffments, recoveries, or other assurance and conveyance whatsoever they were, had or made (except before, in the former Act, excepted) to the contrary notwithstanding.

1547.

given to Henry VIII com- thereby to

into enter upon

lands of

&c.

And where also it was enacted and granted to the said Power late king, by the said former Act, that the same late king, during his natural life, might make and direct his mission and commissions under his great seal, to enter all and singular such and as many chantries, free chapels, such hospitals, colleges, and other the promotions mentioned in chantries, the said former Act, and into all and singular such manors, mansions, houses, meases, lands, tenements, pastures, woods, waters, rents, reversions, services, possessions, and other hereditaments whatsoever, or into any part or parcel thereof, in the name, seisin, and possession of all the hereditaments. annexed, united, belonging, or appertaining to any chantry, hospital, free chapel, college, fraternity, brotherhood, guild, or other the said promotions, or whereof any priests, provosts, governors, rulers, or other incumbents of them or of any of them, by what name, surname, degree, title, or corporation they and every of them or any of them were founded, erected, ordained, established, named, called, or known, then had or enjoyed, or that hereafter should have or enjoy, to the said chantries, hospitals, free chapels, colleges, fraternities, brotherhoods, guilds, and other the said promotions that then were chargeable to the payment of the first-fruits and tenths, and all colleges that were chargeable or not chargeable to the said payment of the first-fruits and tenths as is aforesaid, or to any of them, as should be named, expressed, and appointed in the same commission or commissions, and to seize and take the same chantries, hospitals, colleges, free chapels, fraternities, brotherhoods, guilds, and other the said promotions, manors, lands, tene