the suit in the same: the same to be recovered before the ecclesiastical judge according to the king's ecclesiastical laws.

III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and every person which hath or shall have any beasts or other cattle titheable, going, feeding, or depasturing in any waste or common ground, whereof the parish is not certainly known, shall pay their tithes for the increase of the said cattle so going in the said waste or common, to the parson, vicar, proprietor, portionary, owner, or other their farmers or deputies of the parish, hamlet, town, or other place, where the owner of the said cattle inhabiteth or dwelleth.

Lands discharged of tithe by prescription

or composi

IV. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority afore said, that no person shall be sued or otherwise compelled to yield, give, or pay any manner of tithes for any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, which by the laws and statutes of this realm, or tion. by any privilege or prescription, are not chargeable with the payment of any such tithes, or that be discharged by any composition real. 32 H. 8. c. 7. § 5.

of barren

ground.

V. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority afore- The tithe said, that all such barren heath or waste ground, other than such as heath or be discharged for the payment of tithes by act of parliament, which waste before this time have lain barren and paid no tithes by reason of the same barrenness, and now be, or hereafter shall be improved and converted into arable ground or meadow, shall from henceforth, after the end and term of seven years next after such improvement fully ended and determined, pay tithe for the corn and [60] hay growing upon the same; any thing in this act to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.

VI. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any such barren, waste, or heath ground, hath before this time been charged with the payment of any tithes, and that the same be hereafter improved or converted into arable ground or meadow, that then the owner or owners thereof shall, during seven years next following from and after the same improvement, pay such kind of tithe as was paid for the same before the said improvement; any thing in this act to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.

pay their

VH. And be it also further enacted by the authority aforesaid, Who shall that every person exercising merchandises, bargaining and selling, personal clothing, handicraft or other art or faculty, being such kind of per- tithes. sons, and in such places, as heretofore within these forty years have accustomably used to pay such personal tithes, or of right ought to pay, (other than such as been common day-labourers,) shall yearly, at or before the feast of Easter, pay for his personal tithes the tenth part of his clear gains, his charges and expences,

1548. according to his estate, condition, or degree, to be therein abated,

Handi

craftsmen

to pay

allowed, and deducted.

VIII. Provided always, and be it enacted, that in all such having used places where handicraftsmen have used to pay their tithes within these forty years, the same custom of payment of tithes to be observed and to continue; any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

tithes.

The ordi

nary may examine him that

refuseth to pay his

tithe.

Payment of offerings.

IX. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person refuse to pay his personal tithes in form aforesaid, that then it shall be lawful to the ordinary of the same diocese where the party that so ought to pay the said tithes is dwelling, to call the same party before him, and by his discretion to examine him by all lawful and reasonable means, other than by the parties own corporal oath, concerning the true payment of the said personal tithes.

X. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and every person and persons, which by the laws or customs of this realm ought to make or pay their offerings, shall yearly, from henceforth, well and truly content and pay his or their offerings to the parson, vicar, proprietor, or their deputies or farmers, of the parish or parishes where it shall fortune or hap[61] pen him or them to dwell or abide; and that at such four offering days, as at any time heretofore within the space of four years last past, hath been used and accustomed for the payment of the same, and in default thereof to pay for their said offerings at Easter then next following.

Tithe of fish.

Payment of tithe by houses.

XI. Provided also, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to any parish which stands upon and towards the sea-coasts, the commodities and occupying whereof consisteth chiefly in fishing, and have, by reason thereof, used to satisfy their tithes by fish; but that all and every such parish and parishes shall hereafter pay their tithes according to the laudable customs, as they have heretofore of ancient time within these forty years used and accustomed, and shall pay their offerings as is aforesaid.

XII. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend in anywise to the inhabitants of the city of London and Canterbury, and the suburbs of the same, ne to any other town or place that hath used to pay their tithes by their houses, otherwise than they ought or should have done before the making of this act; any thing contained in this act to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.

Suits for XIII. And be it further enacted by authority aforesaid, that if withholding tithes shall any person do substract or withdraw any manner of tithes, obven

1548.

be in the

nication of

tions, profits, commodities, or other duties before mentioned, or any part of them, contrary to the true meaning of this act, or of any other act heretofore made, that then the party so substracting ecclesiasti or withdrawing the same, may or shall be convented and sued in the king's ecclesiastical court, by the party from whom the same shall be substracted or withdrawn, to the intent the king's judge ecclesiastical shall and may then and there hear and determine the same, according to the king's ecclesiastical laws: and that it shall not be lawful unto the parson, vicar, proprietor, owner, or other their farmers or deputies, contrary to this act, to convent or sue such withholder of tithes, obventions, and other duties aforesaid, before any other judge than ecclesiastical. And if any archbishop, Excommubishop, chancellour, or other judge ecclesiastical, give any sentence the party in the foresaid causes of tithes, obventions, profits, emoluments, condemned. and other duties aforesaid, or in any of them, (and no appeal ne prohibition hanging,) and the party condemned do not obey the said sentence, that then it shall be lawful to every such judge ecclesiastical to excommunicate the said party so as afore condemned [ 62 ] and disobeying; in the which sentence of excommunication, if the said party excommunicate wilfully stand and endure still excommunicate by the space of forty days next after, upon denunciation and publication thereof in the parish-church, or the place or parish where the party so excommunicate is dwelling, or most abiding, the said judge ecclesiastical may then, at his pleasure, signify to the king, in his court of chancery, of the state and condition of the said party so excommunicate, and thereupon to require process de excommunicato capiendo to be awarded against every such person as hath been so excommunicate.

A copy of shall be delivered to the judges before a prohibition

the libel

granted.

XIV. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any party at any time hereafter, for any matter or cause before rehearsed, limited, or appointed by this act, to be sued or determined in the king's ecclesiastical court, or before the ecclesiastical judge, do sue for any prohibition in any of the king's courts where prohibitions before this time have been used to be granted, that then in every such case the same party, before any prohibition shall be granted to him or them, shall bring and deliver to the hands of some of the justices or judges of the same court where such party demandeth the prohibition, the very true copy of the libel depending in the ecclesiastical court, concerning the matter wherefore the party demandeth the prohibition, subscribed or marked with the hand of the same party; and under the copy of the said libel shall be written the suggestion wherefore the party so demandeth the said prohibition: and in case the said suggestion, by two honest A consultand sufficient witnesses at the least, be not proved true in the court ation grant. where the said prohibition shall be so granted, within six months fault of

ed for de

1548.

proving a

next following after the said prohibition shall be so granted and awarded, that then the party that is letted or hindred of his or Suggestion. their suit in the ecclesiastical court by such prohibition, shall, upon his or their request and suit, without delay, have a consultation granted in the same case, in the court where the said prohibition was granted; and shall also recover double costs and damages against the party that so pursued the said prohibition, the said costs and damages to be assigned or assessed by the court where the said consultation shall be so granted; for which costs and damages the party to whom they shall be awarded may have an action of debt by bill, plaint, or information, in any of the king's courts of record, wherein the defendant shall not wage his or their law, nor have any essoin or protection allowed or admitted.

[63]

Of what things a

judge ecclesiastical shall not

XV. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend to give any minister or judge ecclesiastical any jurisdiction to hold plea of any matter, cause, or thing, being contrary or repugnant to hold plea. or against the effect, intent, or meaning of the statute of Westminster second, the fifth chapter, the statutes of articuli cleri, circumspecte agatis, silva-cædua, the treatise de regiâ prohibitione, ne against the statute of anno primo Edwardi tertii, the tenth chapter, or any of them, ne yet hold plea in any matter whereof the king's court of right ought to have jurisdiction; any thing herein contained to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.

XVI. Provided nevertheless, where heretofore such a custom hath been in many parts of Wales, that of such cattel and other goods as hath been given with the marriage of any person, their tithes have been exacted and levied by the parsons and curates in those parts which custom being dissonant from any part of this realm, as it seemed when the said country of Wales was, through civil dissension, unculted, for want of other sufficient profits that might otherwise grow to the curates and ministers there, to have been for that time tolerable: so now the country being well manured and husbanded, and the tithe is duly paid there of corn, hay, wool, and cheese, and of other increase of all manner of cattel, as it is commonly in all other parts of this realm, the same custom seems to be grievous and unreasonable, specially where the benefices are else sufficient for the finding of the said ministers and No tithes of curates: that it be therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, goods shall that, from and after the first day of May next coming, no such tithes of marriage goods be exacted or required of any person within the said dominion of Wales, or marches of the same; any thing in this act contained, or any other act, custom, or prescription, had or made to the contrary hereof notwithstanding.

marriage

be paid in Wales, &c.

Die Veneris 8 Novembris 1644.

An ORDINANCE of the LORDS and COMMONS, assembled in Parliament, for the true Payment of Tithes and other such Duties, according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm.

1644.

• WHEREAS divers persons within the realme of England, and ⚫ dominion of Wales, taking advantage of the present distractions, and ayming at their own profit, have refused, and still do refuse, to set out, yeeld, and pay tithes, offerings, oblations, obventions, and other such duties, according to the law of the said 'realme, to which they are the more incouraged, both because ⚫ there is not now any such compulsory meanes for recovery of them by any ecclesiastical proceedings as heretofore hath been, and also for that by reason of the present troubles there cannot be had • speedie remedie for them in the temporal courts, although they • remaine still due, and of right payable, as in former times;' be it therefore declared and ordained by the lords and commons in parliament assembled, that every person and persons whatsoever within the said realme and dominion, shall fully, truly, and effectually set out, yeeld, and pay respectively all and singular tithes, offerings, oblations, obventions, rates for tithes, and all other duties commonly knowne by the name of Tithes, and all arreares of them respectivelie, to all and every the respective owners, proprie- [66] tors, improprietors, and possessors, as well lay as ecclesiastical respectivelie, their executors and administrators, of parsonages, vicarages, or rectories, either impropriate, or presentative, or donative, and of vicarages, and of portions of tithes respectivelie, within the said realme and dominion, according to the law, custome, prescription, composition, or contract respectivelie, by which they or any of them ought to have been set out, yeelded, and paid at the beginning of this present parliament, or two yeares before; and in all and every case where any person or persons hath at any time since the beginning of this present parliament, or two yeares before, substracted, withdrawn, or failed, in due payment of, or hereafter at any time shall substract, withdraw, or faile in due paiment of any such tithes, offerings, oblations, obventions, rates for tithes, or any duty knowne by the name of Tithes, or arreares of them, or any of them, as aforesaid, the person or persons to whom the same is, hath been, or shall be respectivelie due, his executors or administrators, shall and may make his and their complaint thereof to any two justices of peace within the same countie, citie, towne, place, riding, or division, not being patron or patrons of the church where such substraction, withdrawing, or failer of paiment hath been, or shall be, nor being interested any way in the things in question; which justices of peace are authorized hereby, and shall