Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 9.djvu/606

132 XXII. And it is also enacted, That every person, which shalbe named to be Commissioner in the said Commission, after that he hath knowledge thereof, shall effectually put his diligence & attendance in and about the execution of the said Commission, & before that he shal take upon him the execution of the same comission, shall take a corporal oath before the Lord Chancellor of England for the time being, or before him or them to whom the said Lord Chancellor shall direct the kings writ of Dedimus potestatem, to take the same, the tenor of which oath hereafter ensueth.

E shall sweare that yee to your cunning, wit and power, shall truely and indifferently execute the authority to you given by the Kings Commission made for correction of heretikes and other offendors mentioned in the same Commission, without any favor, affection, corruption or malice to be borne to any person or persons,'As God you helpe and all Saints.

XXIII. And in case that any of the said persons named to be Commissioners, refuse to take the said oath, or willingly absent or eloine himselfe from the taking of the said oath, then every such person so offending, and the same offence extreated or certified into the kings Exchequer by the said Lord Chancellor, or by him or them to who any such writ of Dedimus potestatem, as is aforesaid, shall be directed, shall forfeit and loofs to our said Sovereigne Lord the King for every time so offending, five markes of lawfull money.

XXIV. And it is also enacted by the authority abovesaid, That the said Commissioners and every of them shall from time to time have full power and authority by vertue of this Act to take into his or their keeping and possession, all and all manner of bookes, which be and have beene, or hereafter shall be set forth, read and declared within this Realme or other the Kings dominions, wherein is or be contained or comprised, any clause, article, matter or sentence, repugnant or contrary to the tenor, forme or effect of this present Act, or any of the articles contained in the same: and the said Commissioners or three of them at the least, to burne or otherwise destroy the said bookes or any part of them, as unto the said Commissioners or unto three of them at the least, shall be thought expedient by their discretions.

And it is also enacted by the authority aforesaid, That every Parson, Vicar, Curate, or parish Priest of every parish Church within this Realme or other the Kings dominions, or his or their deputy, upon the Sunday next after the first day of September next ensuing, and so from thenceforth once in every quarter of the yeere at the least, shall openly, plainely and distinctly read this present Act in the Parish Church, where he is Parson, Vicar, Curat, Parish Priest or deputy, unto his or their parishioners then assembled together to heare divine Service. And that every such Parson, Vicar, Curat, or Parish Priest, making default of reading this Act contrary to the forme aforesaid, shall forfeit unto our said Sovereigne Lord, his heires or successors, for every such default xl. s. sterling, Saving to all & singular person and persons, bodies politike and corporate, their heires and successors, and to the heires and successors of every of them (other then al and singular such person and persons that shall be hereafter convicted or attainted of, or for any of the offences or contempts above specified, their heires and successors, and the heires and successors of every of them) all such right, title, claime, interest, entree, possession, rents, reversions, fees, annuities, commons, offices, profits and demands whatsoever, as they or any of them have, or then at the time of the said conviction or attainder, had, shall have, of, in or to any Honours, Castles, Lordships, Manors, Lands, Tenements, Liberties, Franchises, advovson and other hereditaments which any such person or persons being so convicted or attainted, as aforeseid, had or were intituled to have at the time of their offence or offences committed, or at any time after, and that in as ample maner, forme and condition, to all intents, constructions and purposes, as if this Act had never been had or made, any thing contained in this Acte to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

XXVI. Provided alway, That the Lords shall not have nor claime any Escheats of any offendor or offendors that shall bee judged to be burned by authority of this Act.

"XXVII. And because disputations and doubts might perhaps rise hereafter upon the words in this Act, that is to say, Advisedly made to God." Be it therfore provided & enacted by authority aforesaid, these words in the Act, that is to say, Advisedly made to God for vowes of chastity or widowhood, shall bee all onely taken, expounded and interpreted, to bind such person or persons and none other, saving Priests, to and by the same, which at the time of any of their so vowing, being thereto admitted, were or shall be of the age of one and twenty yeeres or above, and then did or doe consent, submit themselves or condescend to the same, and continue or continued in observation of it any while after, unlesse any such person or persons doe or can duely proove any unlawfull cohercion or compulsion done to them or any of them for making of any such vow. Anno