CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENTS REIGN OF ELIZABETH. I-STATUTES. FIRST PARLIAMENT. Jan. 23-May 8, 1559. I ELIZ. CAP. I. An Act restoring to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over the State ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolishing all foreign power repugnant to the same. Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithful and obedient subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled, That where in time of the reign of your most dear father of worthy memory, King Henry the Eighth, divers good laws and statutes were made and established, as well for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and foreign powers and authorities out of this your realm and other your Highness' dominions and countries, as also for the restoring and uniting to the imperial crown of this realm the ancient jurisdictions, authorities, superiorities and pre-eminences to the same of right belonging and appertaining; by reason whereof we your most humble and obedient subjects, from the twenty-fifth year of the reign of your said dear father, were continually kept in good order, and were disburdened of divers great and intolerable charges and exactions before that time unlawfully taken and B 1 exacted by such foreign power and authority as before that was usurped, until such time as all the said good laws and statutes by one Act of Parliament 1 made in the first and second years of the reigns of the late King Philip and Queen Mary, your Highness' sister, intituled an Act repealing all statutes, articles and provisions made against the See Apostolic of Rome since the twentieth year of King Henry the Eighth, and also for the establishment of all spiritual and ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the laity, were all clearly repealed and made void, as by the same Act of Repeal more at large doth and may appear; by reason of which Act of Repeal your said humble subjects were eftsoons brought under an usurped foreign power and authority, and yet do remain in that bondage, to the intolerable charges of your loving subjects, if some redress by the authority of this your High Court of Parliament, with the assent of your Highness, be not had and provided: May it therefore please your Highness, for the repressing of the said usurped foreign power and the restoring of the rights, jurisdiction and pre-eminences appertaining to the imperial crown of this your realm, that it may be enacted by the authority of this present Parliament; That the said Act made in the said first and second years of the reigns of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary and all and every branch, clauses and articles therein contained (other than such branches, clauses and sentences as hereafter shall be excepted) may from the last day of this session of Parliament, by authority of this present Parliament, be repealed, and shall from thenceforth be utterly void and of none effect. II. And that also for the reviving of divers of the said good Laws and Statutes made in the time of your said dear father, it may also please your Highness, That one Act and Statute 2 made in the twenty-third year of the reign of the said late King Henry the Eighth, intituled an Act that no person shall be cited out of the diocese where he or she dwelleth, except in certain cases; and one other Act made in the twentyfourth year of the reign of the said late King, intituled an Act that appeals in such cases as hath been used to be pursued to the See of Rome shall not be from henceforth had nor used 3 24 H. VIII. 12. 1 1 & 2 P. & M. 8. 223 H. VIII. 9. |