Dean of Paul's, Gabriel Goodman Dean of Westminster, Gilbert Gerrard Esquire our Attorney General, Robert Nowell Attorney of our Court of Wards and Liveries, Richard Ousley Clerk of our Duchy, Peter Osbourne one of the Remembrancers of our Exchequer, David Lewes judge of our high Court of the Admiralty, Robert Weston Dean of the Arches, Thomas Huyck Chancellor to the Bishop of London, Masters of our Court of Chancery, Thomas Yale Chancellor to the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Drury Commissary of the faculties Doctors of the Law, and Thomas Watts Archdeacon of Middlesex, greeting....

[III.] Wherefore we, earnestly minding to have the same several acts before mentioned to be duly put in execution and such persons as shall hereafter offend in anything contrary to the tenor and effect of the said several statutes to be condignly punished, and having especial trust and confidence in your wisdoms and discretions, have authorized, assigned and appointed you to be our commissioners, and by these presents do give full power and authority unto you or three of you, whereof you the said Archbishop of Canterbury or you Bishops of London, Ely, Rochester or you the said Thomas Smith, Walter Haddon, Thomas Sackford, or Gilbert Gerrarde to be one, from time to time hereafter during our pleasure to enquire as well by the oaths of twelve good and lawful men as also by witnesses and all other ways and means ye can devise of all offences and misdemeanours done and committed and hereafter to be committed and done contrary to the tenor and effect of the said several acts and statutes . . .

[XV.] And whereas there were divers cathedral and collegiate churches, grammar-schools and other ecclesiastical incorporations erected, founded and ordained by the late king of famous memory our dear father King Henry the Eighth and by our dear late brother King Edward the Sixth and by our late sister Queen Mary and by the late Lord Cardinal Poole, the ordinances, rules and statutes whereof be either none at all or altogether imperfect or, being made of such time as the crown and regiment of this realm was subdued to the foreign authority of Rome, they be in some points contrary to the present state of religion within the same; We therefore do give full power and

authority to you or to six of you, of whom we will the aforenamed Archbishop of Canterbury, the aforesaid Bishops of London, Ely or Rochester always to be one, to cause and command in our name all and singular the ordinances, rules and statutes of all and every the said cathedral and collegiate churches, grammar-schools and other ecclesiastical incorporations and foundations to be brought and exhibited before you or six of you as is aforesaid; willing and commanding you or six of you, as is aforesaid, upon the exhibiting and upon diligent and deliberate view, search and examination of the said statutes, rules, ordinances, letters patents and writings, as is aforesaid, not only to make speedy and undelayed certificate of the enormities, disorders, defects, surplusages or wants of all and singular the said statutes, rules and ordinances, but also with the same to advertise us of such good orders, rules and statutes as you or six of you, as is aforesaid, shall think meet and convenient to be by us made and set forth for the better order and rule of the said several erections and foundations and the possessions and revenues of the same, and as may best tend to the honour of Almighty God, the increase of virtue and unity in the same places, and the public weal and tranquillity of this our realm, to the end we may thereupon further proceed to the altering, making and establishing of the same and other statutes, rules and ordinances according to the late act of Parliament thereof made in the first year of our reign.

[XVI.] And whereas we are also informed that there remaineth as yet still within this our realm divers perverse and obstinate persons which do refuse to acknowledge, confess and set forth our superiority, prerogative and preeminence within this our realm and other our dominions and also to observe such ceremonies, rites and orders in divine service which hath been established and set forth by the laws and statutes of this realm and by our injunctions; We therefore do assign, depute and appoint and do give full power and authority and jurisdiction to you or three of you, whereof the Archbishop of Canterbury, the said Bishops of London, Ely, or Rochester to be one, to receive and take of all Archbishops, Bishops and other persons, officers and ministers ecclesiastical, of what 11 Eliz. 22 (above, p. 36).

estate, dignity, preeminence or degree soever they be, a certain corporal oath upon the holy Evangelists, specified, mentioned and set forth in the aforesaid statute or act of Parliament, entitled an Act restoring to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over the state ecclesiastical and spiritual and abolishing of all foreign power repugnant to the same: the same oath to be taken and received before you or three of you [special quorum as before] of the said persons and every of them according to the tenor, form and effect of the said act: willing and requiring you or three of you [special quorum as before] to take and receive the same oaths of all persons before rehearsed and every of them, and to certify us without delay into our Court of Chancery of the receipt of the same under your seal or the seals of three of you [special quorum as before]...

At Westminster the xxth day of July.

Patent Roll, 4 Eliz. part 3.

(c) The Commission of 15721.

Commissio directa archiepiscopo Cantuariensi et aliis pro ecclesiasticis causis.

[I] Elizabeth by the grace of God [&c.] To our trusty and well-beloved the most reverend father in God, Mathew Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitan, the reverend fathers in God, Edwin Bishop of London, Robert Bishop of Winton, Richard Bishop of Ely, Nicholas Bishop of Worcester, Richard Bishop of St David's, Edmond Bishop of Rochester, Richard Bishop Suffragan of Dover, and to our right trusty and well-beloved Councillors, Sir Francis Knowles Knight, Treasurer of our household, Sir Ralph Sadler Knight, Chancellor of our Duchy of Lancaster, Sir Walter Mildmay Knight, Chancellor of our Exchequer, Sir Thomas Smyth Knight, [and to 58 others] greeting:

...

[XVI.] . . . And if any the archbishops, bishops or other persons, officers or ministers ecclesiastical afore rehearsed, or any of them, shall peremptorily and obstinately refuse to take

1 This Commission is the same, but for a few verbal or unimportant differences, with that of 1562, except that it adds to § XVI the clause printed below, and after § XVIII (§ XVI of 1559) the sections numbered XIX, XX, XXI.

and receive the same oath, then to certify the same recusation or recusations of them or any of them unto us into our Court of Chancery without delay likewise under your seals or the seals of three of you.

[XIX.] And further our will and pleasure is that you the Bishop of Saint David's, the Bishop Suffragan of Dover [and 26 others named] do only intermeddle in and about the execution of this our commission for the reformation of incorrigible and disordered subjects residents only within the dioceses of Canterbury, Winchester, Worcester, Saint David's or Chichester, and that only where ordinary course of common justice or law is wanting or defective, without the prejudice or hindrance of the due execution of such things or orders as shall be done or appointed by other our commissioners resident at Lambeth or London by virtue of our said commission.

[XX.] And that from this day forward we do revocate and call in the like commission ecclesiastical last granted to the said archbishop with others named in the same, not meaning hereby to derogate or to hinder anything begun by virtue of any commission aforesaid: and that the same begun shall be determined by virtue of this said commission.

[XXI.] And if any necessary witness or witnesses that shall be thought meet and convenient to be brought to examination for the proof of any matter depending in controversy before you by virtue of this our commission shall be so sick and diseased that the same cannot come without danger of his life to be examined before you or three of you, or else if upon consideration of the poverty of any that shall sue or be sued before you, it shall be thought that his or their witnesses cannot conveniently be brought to be examined before you without the great impoverishing of the said parties, because they dwell or be resident in places of long and great distance from the place where you shall sit in judgment, then we grant and give authority unto you or three of you [quorum as before] to appoint by your letters missives subscribed by three of you some public notary to examine the said person or persons in the place of his or their habitation upon such interrogatories as you shall join in writing to your said letters missives, and 1 The original here inserts the word 'convenient.'

the said examinations being so taken and certified to you or three of you by the said notary under his notary seal to be of so good force as if the said examinations were taken before yourselves.

At Westminster the xith day of June.

Patent Roll, 14 Eliz. part 8.

(d) The Commission of 15761.

I. Elizabeth, by the grace of God [&c.], to the most reverend father in God, our right trusty and right well-beloved Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitan, and to the reverend fathers in God, our right trusty and well-beloved, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, Worcester, St David's, Norwich, Chichester and Rochester for the time being, Richard Bishop Suffragan of Dover, and to our right trusty and well-beloved councillors, Sir Francis Knolles Knight, Treasurer of our household, Sir Thomas Smyth Knight, Francis Walsingham Esquire, our Principal Secretaries, Sir Ralph Sadler Knight, Chancellor of our Duchy of Lancaster, Sir Walter Mildmay Knight, Chancellor of our Exchequer [and to 58 others], greeting.

[IV.]... And also to take order by your discretions that the penalties and forfeitures, limited by the said act for Uniformity of Common Prayer &c. against the offenders in that behalf, may be duly from time to time levied by the churchwardens of every parish where any such offence should be done, to the use of the poor of the same parish, of the goods, lands and tenements of every such offender by way of distress, according to the limitation and true meaning of the said statute.

[VI.] And also we do give and grant full power and authority unto you or three of you, as is aforesaid, from time to time and at all times during our pleasure to enquire of, search out and call before you all and every such person or persons ecclesiastical which have or shall have ecclesiastical livings, that shall advisedly maintain or affirm any doctrine directly contrary or repugnant to any of the Articles of Religion which only con

1 This Commission omits §§ VI, VII, XVII of 1559, and §§ XIX, XX, XXI of 1572. The clause of § IV printed below, and §§ VI, XI, XVIII are new, while § XVI differs considerably from the corresponding § XVI of 1562 and 1572.