A midwife’s licence was drawn up as follows: beginning:—“Thomas Exton, knight, doctor of laws, commisary general, lawfully constituted of the right worshipful the dean & chapter of St. Paul’s in London; to our beloved in Christ, Anne Voule, the wife of Jacob Voule, of the parish of St Gile’s Cripplegat, sendeth greeting in our Lord God everlasting: Whereas, by due examination of diverse, honest, and discreet women, we have found you apt and able, cunning and experte, to occupy & exercise the office, business & occupation of midwife,” and continuing after many wise and humane rules for her guidance with an exhortation “to be diligent, faithful and ready to help every woman travelling of child, as well the poor as the rich, and you shall not forsake the poor woman and leave her to go to the rich; you shall in no wise exercise any manner of witchcraft, charms, sorcery, invocation, or other prayers, than such as may stand with God’s laws, and the king’s,” concluding thus:—“Item, you shall not be privy to or consent that any priest or other party shall in your absence, or your company, or of your knowledge or sufferance, baptize any child by any mass, Latin service, or prayers than such as are appointed by the laws of the Church of England; neither shall you consent that any child borne by any woman, who shall be delivered by you, shall be carried away without being baptized in the parish by the ordinary minister where the said child is born.”[636] Footnote 636: _Sussex Arch. Coll._, Vol. IV., pp. 249-50. Extracts from Parish Registers.