Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/56

lii priests within their dioceses and jurisdictions as heretofore they had been accustomed, "Mortuaries were thus shorn of their luxuriance; when effects were small, no mortuary should be required; when large, the clergy should content themselves with a modest share. No velvet cloaks should be stripped any more from a rector's grasp; no shameful battles with apparitors should disturb any more the recent rest of the dead. Such sums as the law would permit should be paid thenceforward in the form of decent burial fees for householders dying in their own parishes, and there the exactions should terminate."

It was not until 1713 (by 13, c 6) that these special privileges were taken away from the Bishops. They were then abolished because the demand for and payment of the same impoverished the clergy, and lessened the small provision which the clergy generally were able to make for the support of their families. This abolition was accompanied by compensation to the Bishops. The Bishops of St. Asaph and Bangor and their successors were respectively to be entitled to the profits and advantages of the first rectory which should become void after June 24, 1714. To the Bishopric of Llandaff, the Treasurership, with the prebend belonging thereto, was to be annexed and united for ever; and to the Bishopric of St. Davids, the prebend of Llangammarch, with all its profits and benefits, passed as compensation.

A.D. 1534—In 1534, an Act (26 8, c. 4) was passed designed to prevent the undue resort to "jurors in, by the friends and kinsmen of offenders on trial for felonies and murders whereby the jurors were openly and notoriously suborned to acquit the accused." It was therein enacted that a bailiff should be sworn for the true and diligent keeping of the said jurors; and that he, under the Justiciar's direction, "should not give the jurors any bread, drink or meat, fire or light, and should not suffer them to speak