The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial AspectsWare, Sedley Lynch
History
The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects
Ware, Sedley Lynch
Church of England -- Finance; England -- Church history -- 16th century; Parishes -- Great Britain
[171] As to the expense in suing out the writ, and also the slackness
of bailiffs, etc., in executing it, see [R. Cosen], _An Apologie of
and for Sundrie proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall_ (1st ed.,
London, 1591), 64-5. Speaking of the great charges incurred in suing
out the writ Cosen writes: "So that I dare auowe in Sundrie Diocesses
in the Realme, the whole yeerly reuenue of the seuerall Bishops there
woulde not reach to the iustifying of all contemnours ... by the
course of this writte." That temporal judges sometimes set prisoners
under the writ free at their own discretion without notice to the
spiritual judges, see Bancroft's _Petition to the Privy Council_ in
1605, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_. ii, 100. For hostility of temporal judges
for ecclesiastical jurisdiction, see Bancroft, _op. cit_., 85. He
counts up 488 prohibitions during Elizabeth's reign, many of them
awarded without good cause and "upon frivolous suggestions" of
defendants (_Op. cit_., 89).
[172] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 145 ("_Dominus decrevit scribendum fore
regie majestate pro corporis capcione_ [etc.]." The threat subdued the
excommunicate, for 15 days later "_solutis_ xxxiiis.... _pro expensis
contumacie_," absolution was given, and penance enjoined. 1562).
_Ibid_., 172 (Similar threat, we do not hear of the outcome).
Cf. R.W. Merriam, _Extracts from Wilts Quarter Sess_. In
_Wilts Arch. and Nat. Hist. Mag_., xxii (1885), 20 (Affray because
of an arrest under the writ. 1604). See also Whitgift's note to his
bishops in 1583, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 404-6 ("If the ordinarie
shall perceave that, either by slackness of the justices or
waywardness of juries," recusants cannot be indicated at quarter
sessions, then the ordinary shall, after first trying persuasion,
excommunicate the culprits, and after forty days procure the writ
against them). Bancroft writes, March, 1605, that he will use his
"uttermost endeavour" to aid his suffragans in procuring the writ, and
in having it faithfully and speedily served. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_.,
ii, 80. Cf. also the satirical single-sheet, published June, 1641,
entitled _The Pimpes Prerogative ... a Dialogue between Pimp-Major Pig
and Ancient Whiskin_, in Brit. Mus. _Coll. of Polit. and Personal
Satires_. Pig: "Tush, their Excommunications fright not us; but our
Land-ladies (poore soules) lie in most danger; for them they serve
after with _Excommunicato capiendo_, and then our Forts are
beleaguer'd with Under-Sheriffs, Bum-Bayliffs, Shoulder-clappers,
etc., whom we sometimes beat back by violence."
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