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cion, L. 3. T. 16. c. Quoniam Propt. v. Cenfuram Ecclefiaft. & ad Ordinarium. & L. 5. T. 16. c. Sacramentum, v. non tenere. The Conftitution of Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, de Decrimis, gives Power to the Affiftant Priefts (capellanis) after three Admonitions, to Excommunicate a Parishioner that withdraws his Tythes. And it appears, that Curates did likewife, without Commiffion from their Bishop, abfolve Perfons that were under the greater Excommunication, till Archbishop Peckham made the Conftitution abovementioned, viz. Sacramentum; whereby fuch Proceedings were forbid for the future. To denounce, or publish an Excommunication paft by a Superior, by virtue of a Letter under Seal of Court, was fo far from being an Office peculiar to Clergy men, that by the Conftitution of Archbishop Boniface, Item contra, L. 5. T. 17. this was allow'd to be done by Apparitors, or even by Beadles. I dare not fay how far Cuftom has leffen'd the Power of Incumbents, but the Rubric is a fafe Rule for them to act by.

By Statute 35 Eliz. 1. any Minifter may in the 1, Parifh-Church, take the Submiffion of a Penitent Recufant, and the Recantation of a Schif matick, by Can. 17. And I fuppofe that every Minifter has Power to abfolve every Penitent at the Hour of Death, from any of the greatest Crimes, upon a fincere Confeffion and Repen

tance.

There are indeed feveral Cafes mention'd by the Canonifts, as referv'd to the Bishop, and from which none could Abfolve but he in Perfon; as Incendiarifm, Herefy, &c. but in Ar

ticulo mortis every Curate could Abfolve even from thefe. See Provinc. Præterea of Archbifhop Peckham, and Superno of Archbishop Stratford. And if fuch a one die without Abfolution, yet upon Application to the Ordinary Abfolution may be palled after his Death; tho, I believe, any difcreet Clergyman would, in fuch a Cafe, think it a fufficient Juftification for burying fuch a Perfon, if he have good Witnefes that can testify his Repentance, without putting the Friends of the Deceased to the Charge and Trouble of a formal Absolution from the Ordinary.

In times of Popery there was another Cenfure ufed to be inflicted by Ordinaries, or Bifhops; which was the forbidding all Sacraments and Divine Offices to be performed (except Baptifm to Children, and the Sacraments of the Eucharift, and Unction at the point of Death) within any Parish, Town, County, or Nation; and farther, they fometimes prohibited the People living within fuch Places, to be prefent at Divine Service, in any other place. This Cenfure was commonly inflicted, on pretence, that the Privileges of the Church and Clergy, had been violated by the Lords, Magiftrates, or Princes of any Place or Nation, and fo the Innocent fuffer'd together with the Guilty; and the Subjects or People, for the Faults of their Superiors. In the Reign of King John, this Kingdom lay under a Papal Interdict for above fix Years together, beginning Anno Dom. 1208, for no other Caufe, but that the King was not willing to own Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury, he being preferr'd to that See by the fole

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Authority of the Pope, in oppofition both to the King and Convent, who had long before jointly elected Gray, Bishop of Norwich, to the Archiepifcopal Chair; and at laft the Pope carried his Point. And the Pope, as far as in him lay, put the Republick of Venice under this Cenfure, about the beginning of the laft Century. There was alfo an Interdict against particular Perfons, whereby they were for fome leffer Crimes prohibited from entring within the Church Doors. This, Lyndwood fays, fucceeded in the room of the Leffer Excommunication.

Popish Ordinaries did not only inflict these Cenfures beforementioned, but fometimes Sentenced Offenders to be Baftinado'd, or to run the Gantlope. This they call'd Fufigatio Solennis circa forum vel Ecclefiam. Athon alks a fawcy Queftion, viz. Whether a Gentleman or Freeman might be thus handled? And leave it undetermin'd. Conft. Othob. De Archiadiaconis Verb crimina puniant. And who can wonder, that Subjects were thus dealt with in thofe Times, when he confiders, that one of our Kings, Henry II. was in fome fuch manner difciplin❜d by the Monks of Canterbury, for being the Occafion of Archbishop Becket's Death?

CHAP.

CHAP. XX.

Of Holy Days.

Holy-Days of Obligation by the Conftituti. on of Simon Iflip, Archbishop of Canter

bury, who fate in the middle of the 14th Cen tury, were thofe which we now obferve, (excepting St. Paul's Converfion,and St. Barnabas): and alfo over and above what we obferve, St. Thomas the Martyr (Becket) on Dec. 29. Wednefday in Eafter and Whitfun-Week; The Invention of the Crofs, May the third; Corpus Chrifti Day, being the Thursday after Trinity. Sunday; Tranflation of St. Thomas (Becket) July 7th; St. Mary Magdalen, July 21ft; St. Laurence, Aug. 1oth; Alfumption of the Virgin Mary, Aug. 15th; Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Sept. 8th; Exaltation of the Cross Sept. 14th St. Nicholas, Dec. 6th; Conception of the Virgin Mary, Dec. 8th; The Dedication of every Church, to be kept by the Inhabi tants of that Parish only; as alfo the Festival of the Saint to which every Church was De dicated; Henry Chichely, Archbishop of Can terbury, afterwards added the Feast of St.George April 23d; and of St. David, Mar. 1ft; St Chad, Mar. 2d; St. Winefred, Nov. 3d; And afterward St. John of Beverly, May 7th. By an Act of Convocation, pafs'd by Henry VIII Anno Dom. 1536. the great Number of Holy Days is complain'd of, and in fome Measur leffen'd

leffen'd For the Feast of the Dedication of every Church is order'd to be kept upon one and the fame Day every where, viz. the first Sunday in October; and the Church Holyday, that is, the Saint's Day to which the Church is dedicated, wholly laid afide. By Statute the 2d and 3d of Edw. VI. c. 3. the Feafts are the fame that are now, only the Converfion of St. Paul, and St. Barnabas, were added at the Beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign. There was an Office for St. M. Magdalen's Day in the first Book of Edw. VI. but it was omitted in the fecond, and in all the Editions fince that.

By this A&t of Edw. VI. all Perfons were equally oblig'd to keep Holydays and Sundays; and all Perfons offending, were to be Cenfur'd by the Ordinary, who was to enjoin them Penance at difcretion: But this Act was Repeal'd by Statute 1 Mary c. 2. and afterwards; this Statute of Mary was Repeal'd by 1 Jac. I. c. 25. Wingate and others doubt whether this Act of Edw. VI. be Revived by the Repeal of Jacob.I. but, according to Coke, it is well Revived. Watf. c. 25. p. 249.

However, the Obfervation of Holydays, is, as it were, part of the Common-Law of Eng land; they having, in all probability, been kept ever fince Chriftianity itself was here received. In the Council of Cloveshoe, where not only the Prelates, but King and Nobility were prefent, in the Year 747, the Obfervation of Holydays (the Nativities of the Saints, as well as thofe inftituted in Honour of our Bleffed Saviour) was enjoin'd by all the Authority, both Sacred and Civil, of this Church and Nation. K

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