Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

(8) Theother part of their Jurifdli ion iscalled Contentious ; And here the tcof,.Tab. Bithop may himfelf judge in force Cafes Cf 3 but in the ordinary courte s. of Jurifdi Lion, a Civil Lawyer called his Chancellor is the Judge ' This Chancellor is and muff be a Lay-man, which even Bithop Goodman of Gloucefler, [Myft. Rel. Epiff. ` i have it and can produce it at this time, `under the Kings own Hand and Seal,wherein he forbids that any Church- man or Prieftin HolyOrdersbe a Chancellor : and this was theoccafion `of all thecorruption of the Spiritual Courts : For Chancellors live only on theFees of the Court : and for them todifmifs a Caufe, it was to lofe ' fo much blood. See further in him.] aPapift Bifhop of a Proteftant Diocefs, complaineth in Print, that he could not get Reformed. This Chancellor keepeth an Ordinary Court, in the form of a Civil Court, gcot Tab, where are Advocates for Council, . and Prod ors for pleading : [g] Cer _. &Tab, tain men called Apparitors (whole name is commonly a fcorn among s. the people,) do from abroad the Country bring them in Accufations, and Summon the perlonsaccufed ; befides thofe that by Plaintiffs are ac- cufed. Here are judged Caufes about Church Materials, and Caufes Criminal; which he that readeth the whole Book of Canons and the Vi- hcof.ibid. fitation Articles may fee, they being toomany for me to recite. [h] Be- fides a multitude of Cafes about Marriages (to be contracted, diffolved, cot, ibid. feparation) and Teftaments, and the Goods of Inteftate perlons. [i] Prietts, Deacons and Lay-men are judged in thefe Courts; The final conftraining penalty is Excommunication, or before that Sufpenfion, and other degrees of Church punithment before mentioned as belonging to the Bithop: The fuppofed offenders are no otherwife dealt with to bring them to true Repentance, than as in Civil' Courts by other Lay-Judges. They that appear not, and they that pay not the Feesof the Court and Officers, are Excommunicate, and they that obey not the Orders of the Court. In Excommunications and'Abfolutions the Lay Chancellor is Judg, but he writeth the Decree in the Bifhops name : And (atleaft fometimes) pro forma, force Prieft or other is procured to be prefent (noBithop,) to utter the Sentence which the Lay Judge Decreeth: This Sentence is fent by the Chancellor to the Minifter of the Parifh where the offender liveth, who mutt publifh it in the Church openly (as the Cryer doth the Kings Proclamation;) But if it be the Minifter himfelf that is Excom- municated, another Minifter 'readeth it. The whole procels of their Judicial Tryals, Sentences and Executions you may fee in Colins, Tab. y. ro. Befides the Chancellor's Courts (called the Bifhops) the Archdeacons have certain inferiour Courts, where they enquire after faults, and re- "cocTab, turn the great ones to the Bifhops Courts. [k] And they lndu t or give poffellïon of Benefices. As for the Parifh Priefts or Minifters, ordinary Parifhes have but one to each ; but Great Parilhes cannot be ferved (as they call it) without a Cura:e ; andeach Chapel hath a Curate ; but all under One, that hath the foie

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=