Chap. VII. The HISTORY of the PURITANS. 279 The law lays, no man (hall be fined, ultra tenementum, beyond his Queen eftate or ability. But the fines railed by this courtin the two next reigns, Eh be h, were fo exorbitant, that no man was fecure in his property or eftate; tho' to lord Clarendon, their power of levying any fines at all, was very Of their doubtful. Sorne for fpeaking an unmannerly word, or writing what thefn°. court was pleafed to conftrue a libel, were fined from five hundred to ten thoufand pounds, and perpetual imprifonment ; Tome had their ears cut off and their nofes flit, after they had been expofed feveral days in the pillory; and many families were driven intobanifhment ; till in procefs of time the court became fuch a general nuifance, that it was diffolved by parliament, with a claufe that no fuch court fhould be erected for the future. Further, the commfon gives no authority to the court to frame arti- Of their Iles, and oblige the clergy tofiebfcribe them. It empowers them to reform Fòwer to all errors, herefies and fchifrns, which may lawfully be reformed, accord-'1efor the, ing to the power andauthority, limitedand appointed by the laws andftatutes clergy. of the realm. But there never was a claufe in any of the commiffions, empowering them to enforce fubfcription to articles of their own devifing. Therefore their doing this, without a 1pecial" ratification under the great M.S. p. 573," feal, was no doubt an ufurpation of the fupremacy, and brought them' within the compafs of a preemunire, according to the ftatutes of the 25th of Henry the VIIIth, chap. 20. and r Eliz. chap. 3. Laftly, Though all fpiritual courts (and confequently the high cam- mifliion) are and ought to be fubjeEt to prohibitions from the fupreme courts of law, yet the commiffioners would'feidom or never admit them,, and at length terrified the judges from granting them : So that upon the whole, their proceedings were for the molt part. contrary to,the act of fubmfon of the clergy, contrary to the ftatute laws of the realm, and no better than aJJiritual inqui/ition. If a clergyman omitted any of the ceremonies of the church in his publick miniftrations, or if a parifhioner bore an ill-will to his minifter;. he might inform the commiffioners by letter, that he was afu/peeled per- fan; upon which a purfuivant or mefienger was fent to his houle with a citation, to the following effeét E will and command- you, and every of you, in her majefty'sForme ty name, by virtue of her high commjìonfor caufs ecclfa/lical, to lion. " us and others directed, that you, and every of you, do make your M.S; p.4az.. " perfonal appearance before us, or others his majefty's commiffioners in `s that behalf appointed, in the confiftory- within the cathedral church of St. Paul's, London, [or at Lambeth] the feventhday next after the fight `r- hereof, if we or other our collegues tlaail: then: happen to fit in corn- `6 mif lon.
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