registry of the Bishop of the Diocese, or of the Dean and Chapter under whose jurisdiction the said Peculiars are, every original testament of every person in that time deceased, and by them proved in their several peculiar jurisdictions, or a true copy of every such testament examined, subscribed, and sealed by the peculiar Judge and his Notary. Otherwise if any of them fail so to do, the Bishop of the Diocese or Dean and Chapter, unto whom the said jurisdictions do respectively belong, shall suspend the said parties and every of them from the exercise of all such peculiar jurisdiction, until they have performed this our Constitution.

JUDGES ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEIR SURROGATES.

CXXVII.-The Quality and Oath of Judges.

No man shall hereafter be admitted a Chancellor, Commissary or Official, to exercise any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, except he be of the full age of six and twenty years at the least, and one that is learned in the civil and ecclesiastical laws, and is at the least a Master of Arts, or Bachelor of Law, and is reasonably well practised in the course thereof, as likewise well affected, and zealously bent to religion, touching whose life and manners no evil example is had, and except before he enter into or execute any such office, he shall take the oath of the King's supremacy in the presence of the Bishop, or in the open court, and shall subscribe to the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Convocation in the year One thousand five hundred sixty and two, and shall also swear that he will to the uttermost of his understanding, deal uprightly and justly in his office, without respect or favour of reward: the said oaths and subscription to be recorded by a Register then present. And likewise all Chancellors, Commissaries, Officials, Registers, and all other that do now possess or execute any places of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or service, shall before Christmas next in the presence of the Archbishop or Bishop, or in open court, under whom or where they exercise their offices, take the same oaths, and subscribe as before is said; or upon refusal so to do, shall be suspended from the execution of their offices, until they shall take the said oaths, and subscribe as aforesaid.

CXXVIII. The Quality of Surrogates.

No Chancellor, Commissary, Archdeacon, Official, or any other person using ecclesiastical jurisdiction, shall at any time substitute in their absence any to keep any court for them, except he be either a grave Minister and a Graduate, or a licensed public Preacher, and a beneficed man near the place where the courts are kept, or a Bachelor of Law, or a Master of Arts at least, who hath some skill in the civil and ecclesiastical law, and is a favourer of true religion, and a man of modest and honest conversation, under pain of suspension for every time that they offend therein from the execution of their offices for the space of three months toties quoties: and he likewise that is deputed, being not qualified as is before expressed, and yet shall presume to be a substitute to any judge, and shall keep any court as is aforesaid, shall undergo the same censure in manner and form as is before expressed.

PROCTORS.

CXXIX. Proctors not to retain Causes without the lawful Assignment of the Parties.

None shall procure in any cause whatsoever, unless he be thereunto constituted and appointed by the party himself, either before the Judge, and by act in court, or unless in the beginning of the suit, he be by a true and sufficient proxy thereunto warranted and enabled. We call that proxy sufficient, which is strengthened and confirmed by some authentical seal, the party's approbation, or at least his ratification therewithal concurring. All which proxies shall be forthwith by the said Proctors exhibited into the court, and be safely kept and preserved by the Register in the public registry of the said court. And if any Register or Proctor shall offend herein, he shall be secluded from the exercise of his office for the space of two months, without hope of release or restoring.

CXXX.-Proctors not to retain Causes without the counsel of an Advocate.

For lessening and abridging the multitude of suits and contentions, as also for preventing the complaints of suitors in courts ecclesiastical, who many times are overthrown by the oversight and negligence, or by the ignorance and insufficiency of Proctors, and likewise for the furtherance and increase of learning, and the advancement of Civil and Canon law, following the laudable customs heretofore observed in the courts pertaining to the Archbishop of Canterbury, we will and ordain, That no Proctor exercising in any of them shall entertain any cause whatsoever, and keep and retain the same for two court days, without the counsel and advice of an Advocate, under pain of a year's suspension from his practice: neither shall the Judge have the power to release or mitigate the said penalty, without express mandate and authority from the Archbishop aforesaid.

CXXXI.—Proctors not to conclude in any cause without the knowledge of an Advocate.

No Judge in any of the said courts of the Archbishop, shall admit any libel, or any other matter, without the advice of an Advocate admitted to practise in the same court, or without his subscription: neither shall any Proctor conclude any cause depending, without the knowledge of the Advocate retained and feed in the cause: which if any Proctor shall do, or procure to be done, or shall by any colour whatsoever defraud the Advocate of his duty or fee, or shall be negligent in repairing to the Advocate, and requiring his advice what course is to be taken in the cause, he shall be suspended from all practice for the space of six months, without hope of being thereunto restored before the said term be fully complete.

CXXXII.-Proctors prohibited the Oath In animam Domini sui. Forasmuch as in the probate of testaments and suits for administration of the goods of persons dying intestate, the oath usually taken by Proctors of courts In animam constituentis, is found to be inconvenient:

we do therefore decree and ordain, That every Executor or Suitor for administration, shall personally repair to the Judge in that behalf, or his Surrogate, and in his own person (and not by Proctor) take the oath accustomed in these cases. But if by reason of sickness or age, or any just let or impediment, he be not able to make his personal appearance before the Judge, it shall be lawful for the Judge (there being faith first made by a credible person, of the truth of his said hindrance or impediment) to grant a commission to some grave ecclesiastical person abiding near the party aforesaid, whereby he shall give power and authority to the said ecclesiastical person in his stead, to minister the accustomed oath above mentioned, to the Executor or Suitor for such administration, requiring his said substitute, that by a faithful and trusty messenger he certify the said Judge truly and faithfully what he hath done therein. Lastly, we ordain and appoint, That no Judge or Register, shall in any wise receive for the writing, drawing, or sealing of any such commission, above the sum of six shillings and eightpence; whereof one moiety to be for the Judge, and other for the Register of the said court.

CXXXIII.-Proctors not to be clamorous in Court.

Forasmuch as it is found by experience, that the loud and confused cries and clamours of Proctors in the courts of the Archbishop, are not only troublesome and offensive to the Judges and Advocates, but also give occasion to the standers by, of contempt and calumny toward the court itself: that more respect may be had to the dignity of the Judge, than heretofore, and that causes may more easily and commodiously be handled and dispatched, we charge and enjoin, That all Proctors in the said court do especially intend, that the acts be faithfully entered and set down by the Register, according to the advice and direction of the Advocate, that the said Proctors refrain loud speech and babbling, and behave themselves quietly and modestly; and that when either the Judges or Advocates, or any of them, shall happen to speak, they presently be silent, upon pain of silencing for two whole terms then immediately following every such offence of theirs. And if any of them shall the second time offend herein, and after due monition shall not reform himself, let him be for ever removed from his practice.

REGISTERS.

CXXXIV. Abuses to be reformed in Registers.

If any Register or his deputy, or substitute whatsoever, shall receive any certificate without the knowledge and consent of the Judge of the Court, or willingly omit to cause any person cited to appear upon any court day to be called, or unduly put off, and defer the examination of witnesses to be examined by a day set and assigned by the Judge, or do not obey and observe the judicial and lawful monition of the said Judge, or omit to write, or cause to be written such citations and decrees as are to be put in in execution and set forth before the next court day, or shall not cause all testaments exhibited into his office to be registered

within a convenient time, or shall set down or enact as decreed by the Judge any thing false, or conceited by himself, and not so ordered or decreed by the Judge, or in the transmission of processes to the Judge Ad quem, shall add, or insert any falsehood or untruth, or omit any thing therein, either by cunning, or by gross negligence, or in causes of instance or promoted of office, shall receive any reward in favour of either party, or be of counsel directly or indirectly with either of the parties in suit, or in the execution of their office, shall do ought else maliciously, or fraudulently, whereby the said ecclesiastical Judge or his proceedings may be slandered or defamed: We will and ordain, that the said Register or his deputy or substitute, offending in all, or any of the premises shall by the Bishop of the Diocese be suspended from the exercise of his office, for the space of one, two or three months, or more, according to the quality of his offence, and that the said Bishop shall assign some other public Notary to execute and discharge all things pertaining to his office, during the time of his said suspension.

CXXXV. -A certain rate of Fees due to all ecclesiastical Officers.

No Bishop, Suffragan, Chancellor, Commissary, Archdeacon, Official, nor any other exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction whatsoever, nor any Register of any ecclesiastical courts, nor any Minister belonging to any of the said officers or courts, shall hereafter for any cause incident to their several offices, take or receive any other or greater fees, then such as were certified to the most Reverend Father in God, John, late Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year of our Lord 1597, and were by him ratified and approved, under pain that every such Judge, Officer or Minister offending herein shall be suspended from the exercise of their several offices, for the space of six months for every such offence. Always provided, that if any question shall arise concerning the certainty of the said fees or any of them: then those fees shall be held for lawful, which the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being shall under his hand approve, except the statutes of this realm before made, do in any particular case express some other fees to be due. Provided furthermore, that no fee or money shall be received either by the Archbishop, or any Bishop or Suffragan, either directly or indirectly, for admitting of any into sacred orders, nor that any other person or persons under the said Archbishop, Bishop or Suffragan, shall for parchment, writing, wax, sealing, or any other respect thereunto appertaining, take above ten shillings, under such pains as are already by law prescribed.

CXXXVI. A Table of the Rates of Fees to be set up in Courts and

Registries.

We do likewise constitute and appoint, That the Registers belonging to every such ecclesiastical Judge, shall place two tables, containing the several rates and sums of all the said fees: one in the usual place or consistory where the court is kept, and the other in his Registry, and both of them in such sort, as every man whom it concerneth may without difficulty come to the view and perusal thereof, and take a copy of them; the same tables to be so set up before the Feast of the Nativity next ensuing. And if any Register shall fail to place the said tables according to the tenor hereof, he shall be suspended from the execu

tion of his office, until he cause the same to be accordingly done: and the said tables being once set up, if he shall at any time remove or suffer the same to be removed, hidden, or any way hindered from sight, contrary to the true meaning of this Constitution, he shall for every such offence be suspended from the exercise of his office for the space of six months.

CXXXVII. The whole Fees for showing Letters of Orders, and other Licences, due but once in every Bishop's time.

Forasmuch as a chief and principal cause and use of visitation is, that the Bishop, Archdeacon or other assigned to visit, may get some good knowledge of the state, sufficiency and ability of the Clergy, and other persons whom they are to visit: we think it convenient, that every Parson, Vicar, Curate, Schoolmaster, or other person licensed whosoever, do at the Bishop's first visitation, or at the next visitation after his admission, show and exhibit unto him his letters of orders, institution and induction, and all other his dispensations, licences or faculties whatsoever, to be by the said Bishop either allowed, or (if there be just cause) disallowed and rejected: and being by him approved, to be as the custom is, signed by the Register; and that the whole fees accustomed to be paid in the visitations in respect of the premises, be paid only once in the whole time of every Bishop, and afterwards, but half of the said accustomed fees, in every other visitation during the said Bishop's continuance.

APPARITORS.

CXXXVIII. The Number of Apparitors restrained.

Forasmuch as we are desirous to redress such abuses and aggrievances as are said to grow by Somners or Apparitors; we think it meet that the multitude of Apparitors be (as much as is possible) abridged or restrained: wherefore we decree and ordain, That no Bishop or Archdeacon, or their Vicars or Officials, or other inferior Ordinaries, shall depute or have more Apparitors to serve in their jurisdictions respectively, than either they or their predecessors were accustomed to have thirty years before the publishing of these our present Constitutions. All which apparitors shall by themselves faithfully execute their offices, neither shall they by any colour or pretence whatsoever cause or suffer their mandates to be executed by any messengers or substitutes, unless it be upon some good cause to be first known and approved by the Ordinary of the place. Moreover, they shall not take upon themselves the office of promoters or informers of the court, neither shall they exact more or greater fees than are in these our Constitutions formerly prescribed. And if either the number of the Apparitors deputed shall exceed the foresaid limitation, or any of the said Apparitors shall offend in any of the premises, the persons deputing them, if they be Bishops, shall, upon admonition of their superior, discharge the persons exceeding the number so limited: if inferior Ordinaries, they shall be suspended from the execution of their office until they have dismissed the Apparitors by them so deputed, and