for such and so long time as shall please your Highness, your heirs. or successors, such person or persons being natural born subjects to your Highness, your heirs or successors, as your majesty, your heirs or successors shall think meet, to exercise, use, occupy and execute under your Highness, your heirs and successors, all manner of jurisdictions, privileges and pre-eminences, in any wise touching or concerning any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction, within these your realms of England and Ireland, or any other your Highness dominions and countries: and to visit, reform, redress, order, correct and amend all such errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts and enormities whatsoever, which by any manner of spiritual and ecclesiastical power, authority or jurisdiction, can or may lawfully be reformed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained or amended, to the pleasure of Almighty God, increase of virtue, and the conservation of the peace and unity of this realm; and that such person or persons so to be named, assigned, authorized and appointed by your Highness, your heirs or successors after the said letters patents to him or them made and delivered, as is aforesaid, shall have full power and authority by virtue of this act, and of the said letters patents under your Highness, your heirs and successors, to exercise, use and execute all the premises, according to the tenor and effect of the said letters patents: any matter or cause to the contrary notwithstanding.

XIX. And for the better observation and maintenance of this act, may it please your Highness that it may be further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and every archbishop, bishop, and all and every other ecclesiastical person, and other ecclesiastical officer and minister, of what estate, dignity, pre-eminence or degree soever he or they be or shall be, and all and every temporal judge, justice, mayor and other lay or temporal officer and minister, and every other person having your Highness' fee or wages within this realm, or any your Highness' dominions, shall make, take and receive a corporal oath upon the Evangelist, before such person or persons as shall please your Highness, your heirs or successors, under the great seal of England to assign and name, to accept and to take the same according to the tenor and effect hereafter following, that is

to say,

I, A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my conscience, that the Queen's Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and all other her Highness' dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual

or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal; and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate, hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities and authorities, and do promise, that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queen's Highness, her heirs and lawful successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences, privileges, and authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness, her heirs and successors, or united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm. So help me God, and by the contents of this book.

XX. And that it may also be enacted, That if any such archbishop, bishop, or any other ecclesiastical officer or minister, or any of the said temporal judges, justiciaries, or other lay officer or minister, shall peremptorily or obstinately refuse to take or receive the said oath; that then he so refusing shall forfeit and lose only during his life all and every ecclesiastical and spiritual promotion, benefice and office, and every temporal and lay promotion and office, which he hath solely at the time of such refusal made; and that the whole title, interest and incumbency, in every such promotion, benefice, and other office as against such person only so refusing, during his life, shall clearly cease and be void as though the party so refusing were dead.

XXI. And that also all and every such person and persons so refusing to take the said oath, shall immediately after such refusal, be and from thenceforth, during his life, disabled to retain or exercise any office or other promotion which he at the time of such refusal hath jointly, or in common, with any other person or persons. XXII. And that all and every person and persons, that at any time thereafter shall be preferred, promoted or collated to any archbishopric or bishopric, or to any other spiritual or ecclesiastical benefice, promotion, dignity, office or ministry; or that shall be by your Highness, your heirs or successors, preferred or promoted to any temporal or lay office, ministry or service within this realm, or in any your Highness dominions, before he or they shall take upon him or them to receive, use, exercise, supply or occupy any such archbishopric, bishopric, promotion, dignity, office, ministry or service, shall likewise make, take and receive the said corporal oath before mentioned, upon the evangelist, before such persons as have or shall

have authority to admit any such person to any such office, ministry or service, or else before such person or persons as by you your Highness, your heirs or successors, by commission under the great seal of England, shall be named, assigned or appointed to minister the said oath.

XXIII. And that it likewise may be further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any such person or persons, as at any time hereafter shall be promoted, preferred or collated to any such promotion spiritual or ecclesiastical, benefice, office or ministry, by your Highness, your heirs or successors, shall be promoted or preferred to any temporal or lay office, ministry or service, shall and do peremptorily and obstinately refuse to take the same oath so to him to be offered; that then he or they so refusing shall presently be judged disabled in the law to receive, take or have the same promotion spiritual or ecclesiastical, or the same temporal office, ministry. or service within this realm, or any other your Highness' dominions, to all intents, constructions and purposes.

(He that sueth livery or oustre le maine. He that doeth homage to the Queen. He that shall be received into the Queen's service. He that taketh orders. He that taketh degrees in any university to take the oath,)

XXVII.

And for the more sure observation of this act and the utter extinguishment of all foreign and usurped power and authority; may it please your Highness, that it may be further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons dwelling or inhabiting within this your realm, or in any other your Highness realms or dominions, of what estate, dignity or degree soever he or they be, after the end of thirty days next after the determination of this session of this present parliament, shall by writing, printing, teaching, preaching, express word, deed or act, advisedly, maliciously and directly affirm, hold, stand with, set forth, maintain or defend, the authority, pre-eminence, power or jurisdiction, spiritual or ecclesiastical, of any foreign prince, prelate, person, state or potentate, whatsoever, heretofore claimed, used or usurped within this realm, or any dominion or country being within or under the power, dominion or obeyance of your Highness; or shall advisedly, maliciously and directly put in use or execute anything for the extolling, advancement, setting forth, maintenance or defence of any such pretended or usurped jurisdiction, power, pre-eminence and authority, or any part thereof that then every such person and persons so doing and offending, their abbettors, aiders, procurers and

counsellors, being thereof lawfully convicted and attained, according to the due order and course of the common laws of this realm, for his or their first offence, shall forfeit and lose unto your Highness, your heirs and successors, all his and their goods and chattels, as well real as personal.

XXVIII. And if any such person so convicted or attainted shall not have or be worth of his own proper goods and chattels to the value of twenty pounds, at the time of his conviction or attainder, that then every such person so convicted or attainted, over and beside the forfeiture of all his said goods and chattels, shall have and suffer imprisonment by the space of one whole year, without bail or mainprise.

XXIX. And that also all and every the benefices, prebends, and other ecclesiastical promotions and dignities whatsoever, of every spiritual person so offending, and being attainted, shall immediately after such attainder be utterly void to all intents and purposes as though the incumbent thereof were dead; and that the patron and donor of every such benefice, prebend, spiritual promotion and dignity, shall and may lawfully present unto the same, or give the same, in such manner and form as if the said incumbent were dead.

And if any such offender or offenders after said conviction or attainder, do eftsoons commit or do the said offences, or any of them, in manner and form aforesaid, and be thereof duly convicted and attainted as is aforesaid; that then every such offender and offenders shall for the second offence incur into the dangers, penalties and forfeitures ordained and provided by the statute of Provisions and Praemunire, made in the sixteenth year of the reign of King Richard II.

And if any such offender or offenders, at any time after the said second conviction and attainder, do the third time commit and do the said offences, or any of them, in manner and form aforesaid, and be thereof duly convicted and attainted as is aforesaid; that then every such offence or offences shall be deemed and adjudged high treason, and that the offender and offenders therein, being thereof lawfully convicted and attainted, according to the laws of this realm, shall suffer pains of death and other penalties, forfeitures, and losses as in cases of high treason by the laws of this realm.

And also that it may likewise please your Highness, that it may be enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no manner of person or persons shall be molested or impeached for any of the offences

aforesaid, committed or perpetrated only by preaching, teaching, or words, unless he or they be lawfully indicted within the space of one-half year next after his or their offences so committed; and in case any person or persons shall fortune to be imprisoned for any of the said offences committed by preaching, teaching, or words only, and be not thereof indicted within the space of one-half year next after his or their such offence so committed and done, that then the said person so imprisoned shall be set at liberty, and be no longer detained in prison for any such cause or offence.

(All things touching praemunire in 1 & 2 Philip and Mary, c. 8, to continue in force.)

XXXV. Provided always, and be it enacted as aforesaid, That no manner of order, act or determination for any matter of religion, or cause ecclesiastical, had or made by the authority of this present parliament, shall be accepted, deemed, interpreted or adjudged at any time hereafter, to be any error, heresy, schism, or schismatical opinion; any order, decree, sentence, constitution or law, whatsoever the same be, to the contrary notwithstanding.

XXXVI. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That such person or persons to whom your Highness, your heirs or successors, shall hereafter by letters patent, under the Great Seal of England, give authority to have or execute any jurisdiction, power or authority spiritual, or to visit, reform, order or correct any errors, heresies, schisms, abuses or enormities by virtue of this act, shall not in any wise have authority or power to order, determine or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresy, but only such as heretofore have been determined, ordered or adjudged to be heresy, by the authority of the canonical scriptures, or by the first four general councils, or any of them, or by any other general council wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the canonical scriptures or such as shall hereafter be ordered, judged or determined to be heresy by the high court of parliament of this realm, with the assent of the clergy in their convocation; anything in this Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

(None shall be indicted or arraigned but by two witnesses, A proviso for them that give relief to offenders.) Stat. at Large VI, 107; Prothero, 1; Gee and Hardy, 442.

Uniformity Act. Eliz. c. 2, 1559.

"Where at the death of our late sovereign lord King Edward the Sixth there remained one uniform order of common service and