A.D. 1585. Heads of a Conference agreed upon between the King and the At Holyrood House, the 17th of February, 1585. It is condescended to in reasoning, that the name of a bishop hath a special charge and function annexed to it by the word. His election to be a presentation to be directed by his majesty to the general assembly, of whom he shall receive his admission, provided always that the particular flocks being forewarned, have place to oppone, as in the election of other ministers. That he shall be appointed to a special charge, where he shall keep residence, and there serve the cure as a minister. That the general assembly shall choose out a senate, or presbytery, of the most learned and godly within his bounds, to be limited to him, to have the oversight of, and visitation, which shall be only used by the advice of the presbytery. By the senate's advice he shall receive all presentation of ministers within the said bounds, and by their advice proceed to their trial and collation, which collation shall be subscribed by the bishop or commissioner, and the greatest part of the said senate or presbytery in assembly lawfully convented; and by himself shall be done nothing but that which a particular minister or moderator is astricted to by his office. If he be slanderous in his life, or doctrine, he shall be answerable to the general assembly to be appointed immediately, upon complaint made thereof to his majesty, by one or two of the ministers, and if he be so found in deed, to be deprived by them. Whereupon another shall be immediately presented by his majesty thereto. If he admit or deprive without the consent of the most part of the senate, the deed to be null and void, and the doing thereof a sufficient cause of deprivation to him. The number of the senate shall be appointed at the first by the general assembly, with his majesty's advice, and if any of the persons appointed thereupon depart this life, another to be chosen in his place by the synodal. His power to be "ordinis causa non jurisdictionis." He shall be visitator within his own bounds to be appointed to him, and where he may not conveniently discharge the whole bounds, called of old the diocess, commissioners shall be presented by his majesty to the general assembly, and shall be tried and admitted by them to the office, as the bishops are to theirs, and to be accountable only to the general assembly. And the bishops to have no power within the bounds committed unto them, no more than they have within his. The commissioners being elected (as is said) to have a like senate-power in the execution of their office as the bishops have. The bishops and commissioners shall visit the presbyteries, and the moderator of the presbyteries shall visit the particular churches. The same cause of life and doctrine to deprive a bishop that deprives a minister. The presbyteries of persons ecclesiastical shall be erected in convenient places by the general assembly, with the advice of his majesty and commissioners, and the whole realm to be conveniently divided to that effect. Where and in what presbytery the person presented is to be admitted minister, upon advertisement made to the bishop, or commissioner, he shall repair thither immediately with his senate or presbytery, and upon trial taken, admitted or refused. Assemblies. Synodal assemblies to be twice in the year. (1.) General assembly to be the 10th of May next in Edinburgh, or where his majesty shall otherwise appoint, and to be convocate by his majesty's proclamation, and missives to the bishops and commissioners. And in the said assembly, where, God willing, his highness means himself to be personally present, his majesty, by the advice of such of the number present as he shall adjoin unto him, shall advise and set down good and solid order for the convocating and appointing all other circumstances belonging thereto in time to come. Moderator of the first general assembly shall be chosen by most voices. 100. Jurisdiction. Jurisdiction of the Church consisteth in doctrine, ministration of the Sacraments, and exercises of discipline, and correction of manners by excommunication and other usual censures of the Church, as likewise absolution of the same. That there are some offences which properly appertain to the Church to enquire upon, as heresy, apostacy, witchcraft, idolatry, adultery, and all other frailty in the flesh: blasphemy, perjury, usury, abusing of the Sacraments, breaking of the Sabbath. That there are other which the Church may punish by the censures, and not cognosce upon, as slanderous, strickers, open disobeyers to their parents, smoulderers of children, and such like; and notwithstanding that the civil magistrates have remitted the penalty of the law to the committer. That Mr. Robert Montgomery, bishop of Glasgow, shall be represented to the general assembly, and there purge his offence, and be orderly reconciled to the Church. That Mr. William Watson, in his odious comparison of his majesty to Jeroboam, and making him inferior to him, is thought to have committed an offence worthy to be amended, and purged in open pulpit, and which the ministers present shall wish and desire him to do, the rather for his promise made to give satisfaction. Apud Holyrood House, the 19th of February, 1585. It is agreed and thought meetest, that the subdivisions of divers causes of deprivation, voting in parliament, commissioners' and moderators' stipends, and the setting a stedfast and continual order of the ministers' stipends, shall be remitted to a new conference, to be appointed by his majesty here at Holyrood House, or where it shall please him to be, for the time of eight or ten days before the next general assembly, some chosen men of the ministry, and such others as his majesty shall think meetest for that purpose, being warned there. Touching the fasting general, (that is, a general fast) it is remitted to the general assembly, the particular to every particular Church, according to their zeal, and the present occasion. XCIV. Mr. Secretary Knolly's Letter to Sir Francis Walsingham. March 20, Touching the writing I sent unto you yesterday, concerning Paper-office the superiority of bishops, I must needs say unto you, that my A.D. 1588. lord archbishop, and the rest, take a dangerous course against her majesty's supreme government, for they do claim a superiority of government to be knit to their bishoprics jure divino directly. Although they do grant that all the superiority that they have as bishops, that they have the same by way of mediation of her majesty, and their meaning is, that because her majesty doth make them bishops, whereunto their superiority is knit (as they suppose), therefore they do grant it by way of mediation, they have their superiority of the queen's majesty, nevertheless when they are once made bishops by her majesty, then they do claim their said superiority to be due unto them as knit unto their bishoprics directly jure divino, how weak soever their reasons be to maintain their claimed superiority. But my lord treasurer is partly persuaded, that the said bishops do not deny that their superiority is holden by them as a grant given unto them directly from her majesty, and that they do not claim their said superiority directly to be given unto them, when they are bishops jure divino, that is to say, directly from the word of God. But I must needs say, that my lord archbishop of Canterbury, and my lord bishop of Winchester, have protested and plainly avowed unto me, that the bishops of England have a superiority over their inferior brethren directly jure divino, and prove their said claim of superiority to be knit to their bishoprics directly jure divino: and moreover, the archbishop of Canterbury's book against Cartwright (when the said bishop was but Dr. Whitgift) doth manifestly declare the said archbishop's opinion in that behalf in many places of the said book: nevertheless, if my lord-treasurer would, in her majesty's name, demand of the said bishops, whether they would claim any such superiority directly jure divino, to be due unto them to the prejudice of her majesty's supreme government, then I do verily think that they durst not stand to their claimed superiority, unless it be upon hope that her majesty would yield unto them their claimed superiority, to the prejudice of her supreme government, and to the light regard Regist. A.D. 1595. 1. General of the con stitutions. of the opening the high-way to popery; to be made by the Jesuits to follow upon the same. XCV. Orders which the Right Reverend Father, Richard, Lord Bishop of London, desires to be assented unto, and carefully observed by every Ecclesiastical Officer exercising Jurisdiction Ecclesias tical under him, within the Diocese of London. Dat. March the 8th, 1595. Touching the constitutions lately imprinted, published, and observations by her majesty commanded to be observed, that as well every judge, as all registers, apparitors, and all other inferior ministers, do every one of them, so far as they do any way concern himself, diligently and carefully put the said constitutions, and every part of them, in execution, and do within the time in any of the said constitutions limited, return certificates to his lordship of all such matters as they by the said constitutions are to certify. 2. Curates and schoolmasters. 3. Judges' seals. It is desired, that none be received or admitted to serve as curate by any judge ecclesiastical within this diocese having authority to grant such license, nor to teach either grammar or petites, either publicly or privately, who shall not before he be admitted exhibit unto the judge either letters testimonial, commonly called Dimissories, from the ordinary in whose diocese he continued last for the space of one year before, or letters testimonial under the hands of the masters and seniors, or fellows of the college, in Cambridge or Oxford, where he had his last residence one year before, or a true certificate under the hand-writing of the next justice of the peace to the parish where the party dwelt for one year before; together with the subscription of the parson, churchwardens, and other honest near neighbours of the said parish, testifying his honest conversation of life, and his obedience to her majesty's government ecclesiastical, and that for learning he be qualified as the constitutions require in a deacon. It is desired, that no ecclesiastical judge of this diocese shall have any other seal, but one for the sealing of all matters incident to his office, which seal shall always be kept by himself, or his lawful substitute exercising jurisdiction for him, remaining within the jurisdiction of the said judge, which seal shall |