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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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ammam pertinent en le hundred , men solonque les episcopal leges et canons—tout eeo appiert per le charte de Boy WiJHaui . Irrot . 2 , R . % pro Decano et cap . Eccles . Lincoln ^ . Jan . Aug . 76-77 . " ( See Bolls . Ab . 2 . S 1 G- )
The statute of circumspect ^ agatis directs u non puniencT eos si placitum tenuerint in curia Christianitatis de his quae mere sunt spirituaHa . " ^ In bis note upon this passage , Lord
Coke says , ( Inst . 2 . 4 & 8 , ) " Britton saitib * que seint eglise eyt coniisance de juger de pure spirituality—heresie , schismes , holy orders and the like are mere spiritual thinges . "
The spiritual courts had thus , it appears , early acquired the sole controul of the undefined crime of heresy ; but they had no power of imprisoning or proceeding temporally against the offender for a long time . The conviction seems to have been
before the Archbishop in a provincial synod , ai * d not in any petty ecclesiastical court , ( Blackstone , IV . 46 , ) and the writ , de haeretieo comburendo , was issued by the King in council , who had 9 however , a discretion on the
subject , the writ not being of course , but issuing only by his special direction . In & Richard II . an attempt was made by the clergy to obtain assistance from the temporal authorities , in punishing this crime , and an act still
appears on our statute book , being stat . 2 , c . 5 , by which sheriffs are commanded to apprehend preacliers of hereaie and their abettors , and the enormities ensuing such preachings are declared . There are , however , great grounds for discrediting the authenticity of this statute , and JLovd Coke ,
i « particular , ( Inst- 3 , p . 4 O , ) says , " The Commons , in the next parliament , preferred a bill , reciting the said supposed act , and constantly affirmed tha * t they never consented thereunto , a * nd therefore desired that the said supposed net might be anisnted and declared to be void ; for they protested that it rfever was their
intent to be iuotifted , and to biaad themselves ana their successors to the ptretetest ttjonei than their ancestors had dime . " Notwitkstanrdtng this manly stand gainst fche encroachment of the cfcurch , the cletgy carped their point
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so far as to continue the act on the statute book , although it had never the assent of the Commons , and does not appear ever to have been acted upon . In the reign of Henry the Fourth , however , the clergy , irritated by the
spread of Lollardy , and " taking advantage of the King ' s dubious title , to demand an increase of their power , obtained the act , 2 Hen . IV . c . 15 , which sharpened the edge of persecution to its utmost keenness * " ( Blackstone , IV . 47 . ) By this statute , (
according to the abridgment of it in the statute book , ) " the orthodoxy of the Church of England was asserted , " and thus some progress was made towards defining the crime of heresy ; the jurisdiction of the church over it was also increased , because by it the
diocesan was empowered , without the aid of a synod , to convict , and unless the offender abjured , the Sheriff was bound ex oflieio , if required by the Bishop , to commit him to the flames without waiting the consent of the crown .
Lord Coke ( 3 Inst . 89 ) , shews at considerable length , that the Ecclesiastical Court alone had the jurisdiction over heresy before this statute , as appeared by the preamble to it 9 and that it was made only to give the diocesan assistance in enforcing the ecclesiastical censures . " From this
act , " says he , «* aaid other acts and authorities quoted in the iwargent , these two conclusions are to be gathered : first , that the diocesan hath jurisdiction of heresy , and so it hath
been put in use in all Queen Elizabeth ' s reign , and accordingly so resolved by the fudges , HiL 9 James I . in the case of Legate- Secondly , that without the aid of thataet the diocesan
could imprison no person aecuised of heresy , but was to proceed against him by the censures of the church . " Tbfc clergy seem to have made good use of this statute , though , as will soon be seen , their authority was slill thought not sufficiently ample . The
first case under it that is reported , seems to be that of Master Thorpe , ( 8 Hen . IV . A . D . 1407 , reported in State Trials , Vol . I . p- 17 , ) who was tried ( if we can with any propriety use the word ) before the A rdboisbop of Canterbury , who was then Lord
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5 $ @ On Religions Offences inddetable at ConiMdn Law
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1817, page 536, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2468/page/24/
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