Chap. VI. The HIS T 0 R Y if the PuRITANS.' 627 ,, thirty-nine articles of religion, with a declaration of his u'!feigned a.f King d I r. h fi il: · h h Charles II. cc jent and confent to the fame: An un e.s t e r time e preac es any 1662 • " lecture or fermon, he £hall openly read the common ·prayer, and de- v-..-....J, " clare his afient to it; and £hall on the firil: lecture-day of every month " afterwards before leCl:ure, or fermon, read the common-prayer and " fervice, under pain of being difabled to preach ; and if he preach " while fo difabled, to fuffer three months imprifonment for every of- " fence. " The feveral laws and il:atutes formerly made for uniformity of " prayer, &c. lhall be in force for confirming the prefent book of " common-prayer, and ilia!I be applied for punilhing all offences con– ,, trary · to the faid laws, with relation to the faid book, and no " other. " A true printed copy of the faid book is to be provided in every " parilh church, chapel, college, and hall, at the coil: and charge of the " parilhioners, or fociety, before the feafl: of St. Bartholomew, on pain " of forfeiting three pounds a month, for [o long as they lhall be un– " provided of it." It was certainly unreafonable in the legiflature to limit the time ofRemarks; fubfcr;ption to fo lhort a period, it being next to impoffible that the clergy in all parts of the kingdom lhould read and examine the alterations within that time. The dean·and prebendaries of Peterborough declared, that they could not obtain copies before Augujl 17, the Sunday immediately preceding the feafl: of St. Bartholomew ; fo that all the members of that cathedral did not and could not read the fervice in manner and form as the act di reCts, and therefore they were obliged to have recourfe to the favour of their ordinary to difpenfe with their default; however, their preferments were then legally forfeited, as appears by the act , of the 15th of Charles II. chap. 6, entituled, an ael }or the reliif if {ttch as by Jicknefs, or other imprdiments, were dt[abled from jitbfcribing the dt-claration.r:f the aCl if uniformity: which fays, " that thofe who " did not fubfcribe within·the time limited were utterly difabled, and ip-· " Jo faCio deprived, and their benefices void, as if they were naturally " dead." And rf this was· the cafe at Peterborough, what mull: be the condition of the clergy in 1he more northern counties? In fact, there was not one divine in ten that lived at any' confiderable dHl:ance from London, who did perufe it w.ithin that time~ but the matter was driven on with fo much precipitancy, (fa~s bif??P Bui'!Zet), that it feems implied, that the clergy p. 185." jhould fubfcnbe Impltcitly to a blK>k they J!Jad never feen, and this ~vas done- by too many, as the bitlwps themfelvwo6nfelfed. 4 L 2 The ,
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