163. First Act of Repeal of Mary

FORASMUCH as by divers and several Acts hereafter mentioned, as well the divine service and good administration of the sacraments, as divers other matters of religion, which we and our forefathers found in this Church of England, to us left by the authority of the Catholic Church, be partly altered and in some part taken from us, and in place thereof new things imagined and set forth by the said Acts, such as a few of singularity have of themselves devised, whereof has ensued amongst us, in very short time, numbers of diverse and strange opinions and diversities of sects, and thereby grown great unquietness and much discord, to the great disturbance of the commonwealth of this realm, and in very short time like to grow to extreme peril and utter confusion of the same, unless some remedy be in that behalf provided, which thing all true, loving, and obedient subjects ought and are bound to foresee and provide, to the uttermost of their power. In consideration whereof be it enacted and established by the queen's highness, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons in this same present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that an Act made in the Parliament begun at Westminster the fourth day of November in the first year of the reign of the late King Edward VI, and from thence continued to the twenty-fourth day of December then next ensuing, that is to say, in the first session of the same Parliament, entitled, An Act against such Persons as should irreverently speak against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar, and for the receiving thereof in both kinds; and also one other Act in the same session, which is entitled, An Act for the Election of Bishops, and what Seals and Styles they and other spiritual Persons exercising Jurisdiction ecclesiastical should use; and also one other Act made in one other session of the said Parliament holden upon prorogation at Westminster the fourth day of November in the second year of the reign of the said late King Edward VI, and there continued and kept to the fourteenth day of March in the third year of the said late king's reign, entitled, An Act for the Uniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm; and also one other Act made in the session last before [named], which is entitled, An Act to take away all positive Laws made against the Marriage of Priests; and also one other Act made in one other session of the said Parliament holden upon prorogation at Westminster the fourth day of November in the third year of the reign of the said late King Edward VI, and there continued and kept to the first day of February in the fourth year of his reign, entitled, An Act for the abolishing and putting away of divers Books and Images; and also one other Act made in the same session last before mentioned, entitled, An Act made for the ordering of the ecclesiastical Ministers; and also one other Act made in one other session of the said Parliament holden upon prorogation at Westminster the twenty-third day of January in the fifth year of the reign of the said late King Edward VI, and there continued and kept till the fifteenth day of April in the sixth year of the reign of the said late king, entitled, An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and the Administration of the Sacraments; and one other Act made in the same last session, entitled, An Act for the Keeping of Holy Days and Fasting Days; and one other Act made in the session last recited, entitled, An Act made for the Declaration of a Statute made for the Marriage of Priests and for the Legitimation of their Children; and every clause, sentence, branch, article, and articles mentioned, expressed, or contained in the said statutes and every of them shall be from henceforth utterly repealed, void, annihilated, and of none effect, to all purposes, constructions, and intents; any thing or things contained or specified in the said statutes or any of them to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all such divine service and administration of sacraments as were most commonly used in the realm of England in the last year of the reign of our late sovereign lord King Henry VIII shall be, from and after the twentieth clay of December in this present year of our Lord God 1553, used and frequented throughout the whole realm of England and all other the queen's majesty's dominions; and that no other kind nor order of divine service nor administration of sacraments be, after the said twentieth day of December, used or ministered in any other manner, form, or degree within the said realm of England, or other the queen's dominions, than was most commonly used, ministered, and frequented in the said last year of the reign of the said late King Henry VIII.

III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no person shall be impeached or molested in body or goods for using heretofore, or until the said twentieth day of December, the divine service mentioned in the said Acts or any of them, nor for the using of the old divine service and administration of sacraments, in such manner and form as was used in the Church of England before the making of any of the said Acts.

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164. Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain

WHEREAS most instant suit hath been made to your most excellent Majesty, on the behalf of the most noble and most victorious prince Charles, emperor of Rome, &c., for marriage to be had between your Highness, and his only son and heir the noble prince Philip of Spain, &c.: whereupon to the pleasure of Almighty God, to the comfort of your most noble person, and to the great and singular honour, wealth, benefit and commodity of this your realm of England, and of all us your most humble and obedient subjects of the same, there hath passed and been concluded in two sundry treaties, certain pacts and covenants touching the said marriage, with dependances and circumstances of the same; and in the one treaty these articles: first, it is covenanted and agreed that as soon as conveniently may be, true and perfect marriage, by words of the time present, shall be contracted, solemnized and consummated in England, between the said most noble prince, and the said most virtuous lady, the queen; by force of which marriage so celebrated and consummated, the said most noble prince Philip shall during the said marriage have and enjoy jointly together with the said most gracious queen his wife, the style, honour and kingly name of the realms and dominions unto the said most noble queen appertaining, and shall aid her Highness, being his wife, in the happy administration of her Grace's realms and dominions; the rights, laws, privileges and customs of the same realms and dominions being nevertheless preserved and maintained: and specially it is provided and covenanted, that the said most noble prince shall permit and suffer the said most gracious queen his wife, to have the whole disposition of all the benefices and offices, lands, revenues and fruits of the said realms and dominions, and that they shall be bestowed upon such as shall be naturally born in the same; and that all the matters of the said realms and dominions shall be treated and maintained in the same tongues wherein of old they have been wont to be treated, and by the natural born of the same realms: it is also covenanted that the same most noble queen, by virtue of the aforesaid matrimony, shall be admitted into the society of the realms and dominions of the said most noble prince, as well such as he hath now presently, as such other also as during the same matrimony may come hereafter unto him; and for her dower, in case that her Highness overlive the said most noble prince her husband, she shall yearly receive three score thousand pounds, after the value of forty groats, Flemish money, to the pound; the same to be allotted and appointed upon all the realms, lands and patrimonial dominions of the said most victorious lord, the emperor, his father, [part omitted] And lest that among their children there might arise some strife for the succession, and thereby disturb the fruit of perpetual concord that is hoped shall ensue of this matrimony between the realms and dominions of either party, the said succession shall be ordered in manner and form following: first, that as touching the right of the mother's inheritance in the realm of England, and the other realms and dominions depending of the same, the children as well males as females that shall be born of this matrimony shall succeed in them, according to the laws, statutes and customs of the same: and as touching the lands that the said most noble prince shall leave behind him; first, there shall be reserved unto his eldest son the lord Charles of Austria, Infante of Spain, and to the children and heirs of him descending, as well females as males, all and singular their rights which to the said prince do either now or hereafter shall belong, and shall at any time by the death either of the noble queen his grandame, or the most victorious emperor Charles the Fifth his father, (which God long defer), be devolved unto him in the realms of Spain, of both the Sicilies, with all their appurtenances, in the dukedom of Milan, and other lands and dominions in Lombardy and Italy, whatsoever name and title they have, which nevertheless shall be burdened and charged with the aforesaid dower of sixty thousand pounds; in which realms, lands and dominions the children of this present matrimony shall pretend nothing so long as the said lord Charles the Infante, or any issue of his body lawfully begotten, do live: but if it fortune the same lord Charles to die, and the issue of his body to fail, then and in that case the eldest son of this matrimony shall be admitted into the said right, and according to the nature, laws, and customs of the said realms and dominions shall succeed: the same eldest son shall also succeed in all the dukedoms, earldoms, dominions and patrimonial lands belonging unto the said lord the emperor, as well in Burgundy as in the lower Germany [part omitted] Provided nevertheless and expressly reserved in all and singular the above declared cases of succession, that whatsoever he or she be that shall succeed to them, they shall leave to every of the said realms, lands and dominions whole and entire their privileges, rights and customs, and the same realms and dominions shall administer and cause to be administered by the natural born of the same realms, dominions and lands, and in all things faithfully procure their utility and quiet, and shall rule and nourish them in good justice and peace, according to their statutes and customs: finally, that between the said emperor, the prince and his successors, their realms and dominions whatsoever, and the said most gracious queen and her realms and dominions, there shall be from henceforth an entire and sincere fraternity, unity and most strait confederacy, forever (God willing) happily to endure, so as they shall mutually one of them aid another in all things which to themselves and their honour, and to the conservation of their heirs and successors shall be most agreeable, according to the strength, form and effect of the latter treaty of a strait amity, bearing date at Westminster the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred forty and two, the declaration of which treaty beareth date at Utrecht the sixteenth day of January in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred forty and six.

And in one other treaty these articles following: first, that the said most noble prince shall not promote, admit or receive to any office, administration or benefice in the said realm of England, and the dominions thereunto belonging, any stranger or person not born under the dominion and subjection of the said most noble queen of England: that the said most noble prince shall receive and admit into the service of his household and court gentlemen and yeomen of the same realm of England in a convenient number, and shall esteem, entertain and nourish them as his proper subjects, and shall bring none in his retinue, nor have none with him that will do any displeasure or wrong to the subjects of the said realm; and if they do, he shall take order to correct them with condign punishment and see them expelled his court: that the said most noble prince shall do nothing whereby anything be innovated in the state and right, either public or private, or in the laws and customs of the said realm of England or the dominions thereunto belonging; but shall contrary wise, confirm and keep to all estates and orders their rights and privileges: that the said lord prince shall not lead away the aforesaid most noble lady the queen, out of the borders of her Highness' realm, unless she herself desire it, nor carry the children that shall be born of this matrimony out of the same realm of England, but, to the hope of succession to come, shall there suffer them to be nourished and brought up, unless it shall be otherwise thought good by the consent and agreement of the nobility of England; and in case that no children being left, the said most noble queen do die before him, the said lord prince shall not challenge any right at all in the said kingdom, but without any impediment shall permit the succession thereof to come unto them to whom it shall belong and appertain by the right and laws of the said realm: item, that the said most noble prince shall not bear or carry over out of the aforesaid realm, the jewels and precious things of estimation, neither shall he alienate or do away any whit of the appurtenances of the said realm of England, or suffer any part of them to be usurped by his subjects or any other; but shall see that all and singular places of the realm, and specially the forts and frontiers of the same, be faithfully kept and preserved to the use and profit of the said realm and by the natural born of the same; he shall not suffer any ship, guns, ordnances whatsoever of war or defence to be removed or conveyed out of the said realm, but shall contrary wise cause them diligently to be kept and renewed when need requireth, and shall so provide that the same may always be ready in their strength and force for the defence of the realm: item, that the realm of England, by occasion of this matrimony, shall not directly or indirectly be entangled with the war that is between the most victorious lord the emperor, father unto the said lord prince, and Henry, the French king, but he the said lord Philip, as much as shall lie in him, on the behalf of the said realm of England, shall see the peace between the said realms of France and England observed, and shall give no cause of any breach; [part omitted] so it may also please your Majesty for the more perfect corroboration and strength of the said articles, grants, pacts and agreements, and to the intent that the same may be the more inviolably observed and kept, that it may be enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that all and singular the said articles, covenants, grants, pacts, treaties anti agreements, had, made and concluded for and concerning the said marriage between your Highness and the said prince of Spain, and all and singular the dependances thereof before rehearsed, shall immediately after the said marriage had and solemnized, stand, remain and abide in perfect force and efficacy, according to the effect, sense and true meaning of the said treaty.

II. And where among other the articles above remembered, it is agreed, that the said most noble prince shall, during the said marriage, have and enjoy jointly together with your Majesty, the style, honour and kingly name of the said realms and dominions to your Highness appertaining, and shall also aid your Highness being his wife in the happy administration of your realms and dominions, the rights, laws, privileges and customs of the said realms and dominions being nevertheless reserved and maintained; and where also it is provided, covenanted and agreed among other the said articles in the said treaty by and on the behalf of the said most noble prince, that the said most noble prince shall permit and suffer your most excellent Majesty to have the whole disposition of all the benefices and offices, lands, revenues, and fruits of the said realms and dominions, and that the said most noble prince shall not do anything whereby the estate and right, either public or private, or the laws and customs of the said realm of England, or the dominions thereunto belonging be innovated: for the more express explanation and declaration of the premises, we your faithful, loving and obedient subjects, do most humbly beseech your Highness that it may be provided, enacted and established by the authority of this present parliament, that your Majesty as our only queen, shall and may solely and as a sole queen, use, have and enjoy the crown and sovereignty of and over your realms, dominions and subjects, with all the preeminences, prerogatives, dignities, authorities, jurisdictions, honours, castles, manors, lands, tenements and hereditaments belonging to the same, in such sole and only estate and in as large and ample manner and form in all degrees, acts, exercises and conditions, from and after the solemnization of the said marriage, and at all times during the same, which God grant long to continue and endure, as your Highness now hath, useth, exerciseth and enjoyeth the same, and as your Grace hath had, used, exercised and enjoyed, or might have had, used or enjoyed the same before the solemnization of the said marriage; without any right, title, estate, claim or demand to be given, come or grow unto the said most noble prince as tenant by the courtesy of this realm, or in or by any other means by force of the said marriage, of in and to your said imperial crown, sovereignty, realms, dominions, subjects, preeminences, prerogatives, dignities, authorities, jurisdictions, honours, castles, manors, lands, tenements and hereditaments belonging to the same, by any laws, usage or custom whatsoever; the said marriage or any statute, custom, prescription or other thing to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

III. And yet nevertheless that it may be enacted, ordained and established by the authority of this present parliament, that all and singular gifts, grants, letters patents, exchanges, confirmations, leases and other writings, which after the said marriage and during the same shall pass and be made of the said benefices, offices, lands, revenues and fruits or any of them, shall be entitled, set forth and made in the names of the said most noble prince and of your most excellent Majesty, whether the said most noble prince shall be present within the said realms and dominions or within any of them, or absent: and the same gifts, grants, letters patents, exchanges, confirmations, leases and other writings, so set forth and made, shall be signed and firmed with the sign manual of your Highness; and the same so signed, and sealed with the great seal of this realm, or with such seal as bath been accustomed, shall be by authority of this present parliament deemed, adjudged, declared and pronounced to be as good, perfect and of like force, strength and effect in the law, to all intents, constructions and purposes, against the said most noble prince, and against your Highness your heirs and successors, as if your excellent Majesty had been at the time of the making thereof sole and unmarried. [part omitted]

IV. And that it may be also further enacted, ordained and established by the authority aforesaid, that all commissions, instructions, pardons, writs of summons, prorogations or dissolutions of parliaments, royal assents, adjournments of terms, original writs and other process, instruments, licenses, judicial acts and all manner writings, other than the said gifts, grants, letters patents, exchanges, confirmations, leases and other writings concerning or in any wise touching the said benefices, offices, lands, revenues and fruits or any of them, after the said marriage, and during the time of the same, whether the said most noble prince shall be present within the said realms and dominions, or within any of them, or absent, after the signing by your Majesty of the warrants or writings of them heretofore used to be signed, shall pass, be set forth and made from time to time in the names of the said most noble prince, and your most excellent Highness, by such officers and ministers and in such manner, form and order as hath been used and accustomed to pass, be set forth and made in the time or times of your Grace's most noble progenitors or any of them; and shall be by the authority of this present parliament, of the same and like force, strength and effect in the law to all intents, constructions and purposes, as if your most excellent Majesty were then sole and not married: the said marriage or any law, usage or custom to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.

[Part omitted]

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165. Revival of the Heresy Acts

FOR the eschewing and avoiding of errors and heresies, which of late have risen, grown, and much increased within this realm, for that the ordinaries have wanted authority to proceed against those that were infected therewith: be it therefore ordained and enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that the statute made in the fifth year of the reign of King Richard II., concerning the arresting and apprehension of erroneous and heretical preachers, and one other statute made in the second year of the reign of King Henry IV., concerning the repressing of heresies and punishment of heretics, and also one other statute made in the second year of the reign of King Henry V., concerning the suppression of heresy and Lollardy and every article, branch, and sentence contained in the same three several Acts, and every of them, shall from the twentieth day of January next coming be revived, and be in full force, strength, and effect to all intents, constructions, and purposes for ever.

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166. Second Act of Repeal of Mary

WHEREAS since the twentieth year of King Henry VIII. of famous memory, father unto your majesty our most natural sovereign and gracious lady and queen, much false and erroneous doctrine has been taught, preached, and written, partly by divers the natural-born subjects of this realm, and partly being brought in hither from sundry other foreign countries, has been sown and spread abroad within the same:

By reason whereof, as well the spiritualty as the temporalty of your highness's realms and dominions have swerved from the obedience of the See Apostolic, and declined from the unity of Christ's Church, and so have continued, until such time as your majesty being first raised up by God, and set in the seat royal over us, and then by His divine and gracious providence knit in marriage with the most noble and virtuous prince the king our sovereign lord your husband, the pope's holiness and the See Apostolic sent hither unto your majesties (as unto persons undefiled, and by God's goodness preserved from the common infection aforesaid) and to the whole realm, the most reverend father in God, the lord Cardinal Pole, legate de Latere, to call us home again into the right way from whence we have all this long while wandered and strayed abroad;

And we, after sundry long and grievous plagues and calamities, seeing by the goodness of God our own errors, have acknowledged the same unto the said most reverend father, and by him have been and are the rather at the contemplation of your majesties received and embraced into the unity and bosom of Christ's Church, and upon our humble submission and promise made for a declaration of our repentance, to repeal and abrogate such Acts and statutes as had been made in Parliament since the said twentieth year of the said King Henry VIII., against the supremacy of the See Apostolic, as in our submission exhibited to the said most reverend father in God by your majesties appears: the tenor whereof ensues:

II, We the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons, assembled in this present Parliament, representing the whole body of the realm of England, and the dominions of the same, in the name of ourselves particularly and also of the said body universally, in this our supplication directed to your majesties, with most humble suit, that it may by your grace's intercession and mean be exhibited to the most reverend father in God, the lord Cardinal Pole, legate, sent specially hither from our most holy father the Pope Julius III and the See Apostolic of Rome, do declare ourselves very sorry and repentant of the schism and disobedience committed in this realm and dominions aforesaid against the said See Apostolic, either by making, agreeing, or executing any laws, ordinances, or commandments against the supremacy of the said see, or otherwise doing or speaking, that might impugn the same: offering ourselves, and promising by this our supplication, that for a token and knowledge of our said repentance we be and shall be always ready, under and with the authorities of your majesties, to the uttermost of our powers, to do that shall lie in us for the abrogation and repealing of the said laws and ordinances in this present Parliament, as well for ourselves as for the whole body whom we represent: whereupon we most humbly desire your majesties, as personages undefiled in the offence of this body towards the said see, which nevertheless God by His providence has made subject to you, to set forth this our most humble suit, that we may obtain from the See Apostolic, by the said most reverend father, as well particularly and generally, absolution, release, and discharge from all danger of such censures and sentences, as by the laws of the Church we be fallen into; and that we may as children repentant be received into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church, so as this noble realm, with all the members thereof, may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolic and popes for the time being, serve God and your majesties, to the furtherance and advancement of His honour and glory. We are at the intercession of your majesties, by the authority of our holy father Pope Julius III and of the See Apostolic, assoiled, discharged, and delivered from excommunications, interdictions, and other censures ecclesiastical, which have hanged over our heads for our said defaults since the time of the said schism mentioned in our supplication: it may now like your majesties, that for the accomplishment of our promise made in the said supplication, that is, to repeal all laws and statutes made contrary to the said supremacy and See Apostolic, during the said schism, the which is to be understood since the twentieth year of the reign of the said late King Henry VIII, and so the said lord legate does accept and recognize the same.

[Part omitted]

XXV And where we your most humble subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, have exhibited to your majesties one other supplication in form following: We the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, representing the whole body of this realm, reduced and received by your majesties' intercession to the unity of Christ's Church, and the obedience of the See Apostolic of Rome, and the pope's holiness governing the same, make most humble suit unto your majesties to be likewise means and intercessors, that all occasions of contention, hatred, grudge, suspicion, and trouble, both outwardly and inwardly in men's consciences, which might arise amongst us by reason of disobedience, may by authority of the pope's holiness, and by ministration of the same unto us by the most reverend father in God the lord Cardinal Pole, by dispensation, toleration, or permission respectively, as the case shall require, be abolished and taken away, and by authority sufficient these articles following, and generally all others, when occasion shall so require, may be provided for and confirmed:

XXVI. First, that all bishoprics, cathedral churches, hospitals, colleges, schools, and other such foundations now continuing, made by authority of Parliament, or otherwise established according to the order of the laws of this realm, since the schism, may be confirmed and continued for ever.

XXVII. Item, that marriages made infra gradus prohibitos consanguinitatis, affinitatis, cognationis spiritualis, or which might be made void propter impedimentum publicae honestatis, justitiae, or for any other cause prohibited by the canons only, may be confirmed, and children born of those marriages declared legitimate, so as those marriages were made according to the laws of the realm for the time being, and be not directly against the laws of God, nor in such case as the See Apostolic has not used to dispense withal.

XXVIII. That institutions of benefices, and other promotions ecclesiastical, and dispensations made according to the form of the Act of Parliament, may be
likewise confirmed.

XXIX. That all judicial processes made before any ordinaries of this realm, or before any delegates upon any appeals, according to the order of the laws of the realm, may be likewise ratified and confirmed.

XXX. And finally, where certain Acts and statutes have been made in the time of the late schism, concerning the lands and hereditaments of archbishoprics and bishoprics, the suppression and dissolution of monasteries, abbeys, priories, chantries, colleges, and all other the goods and chattels of religious houses; since the which time the right and dominion of certain lands and hereditaments, goods, and chattels, belonging to the same, be dispersed abroad, and come to the hands and possessions of divers and sundry persons, who by gift, purchase, exchange, and other means, according to the order of the laws and statutes of this realm for the time being, have the same: for the avoiding all scruples that might grow by any the occasions aforesaid, or by any other ways or means whatsoever, it may please your majesties to be intercessors and mediators to the said most reverend father Cardinal Pole, that all such causes and quarrels, as by pretence of the said schism, or by any other occasion or mean whatsoever, might be moved by the pope's holiness or See Apostolic, or by any other jurisdiction ecclesiastical, may be utterly removed and taken away; so as all persons having sufficient conveyance of the said lands and hereditaments, goods, and chattels as is aforesaid, by the common laws, acts, or statutes of this realm, may, without scruple of conscience, enjoy them without impeachment or trouble by pretence of any general council, canons, or ecclesiastical laws, and clear from all dangers of the censures of the Church.

[Part omitted]

XXXIII. And therefore be it enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, that all and singular articles and clauses contained in the said dispensation, as well touching the establishment of bishoprics and cathedral churches, as also the confirmation of marriages in degrees prohibited by the canons of the Church, the legitimation of children, and the ratification of processes, and of sentences in matters ecclesiastical, touching the invalidity of them for want of jurisdiction, and the institutions and destitutions of and in benefices and promotions ecclesiastical, dispensations and graces given by such order as the public laws of the realm then approved, and all other things before contained in the said letters of dispensation, shall remain and be reputed and taken to all intents and constructions in the laws of this realm, lawful, good, and effectual, to be alleged and pleaded in all courts ecclesiastical and temporal, for good and sufficient matter, either for the plaintiff or defendant, without any allegation or objection to be made against the validity of them, by pretence of any general council, canon, or decree to the contrary made, or to be made, in that behalf.

XXXIV. And whereas divers and sundry late monasteries, priories, commanderies, nunneries, deaneries, prebends, colleges, hospitals, houses of friars, chantries, and other religious and ecclesiastical houses and places, and the manors, granges, messuages, lands, tenements, rectories, tithes, pensions, portions, vicarages, churches, chapels, advowsons, nominations, patronages, annuities, rents, reversions, services, and other possessions and hereditaments to the said late monasteries, priories, nunneries, commanderies, deaneries, chantries, prebends, houses of friars, colleges, hospitals, and other religious and ecclesiastical houses and places, and to sundry archbishoprics and bishoprics, within this realm, late appertaining and belonging, came as well to the hands and possession of the said king of famous memory, Henry VIII, father unto your majesty, our said sovereign lady, by dissolution, gift, grant, surrender, attainder, or otherwise, as also to the hands and possession of divers and sundry other persons and bodies politic and corporate, by sundry means, conveyances, and assurances, according to the order of the laws and statutes of this realm.

XXXV. And where also divers manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, parcel of the possession of archbishoprics and bishoprics, and many and sundry late deaneries, colleges, chantries, rectories, prebends, free chapels, guilds and fraternities, manors, houses, granges, lands, tenements, rents, services, and other ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments, goods and chattels, to the said archbishoprics, bishoprics, deaneries, colleges, chantries, free chapels, rectories, guilds, and fraternities, late appertaining and belonging, or appointed to and for the finding of priests, obits, lights, or other like purpose, came as well to the hands and possession of the late noble king, Edward VI, brother unto your majesty [our] sovereign lady, by virtue of an Act of Parliament thereof made, or otherwise, as also to the hands and possession of divers and sundry other persons and bodies politic and corporate, by sundry means, conveyances, and assurances, according to the order of the laws of this realm; a great number of which said late monasteries, priories, nunneries, commanderies, deaneries, colleges, hospitals, prebends, chantries, free chapels, guilds, and fraternities, and the manors, granges, messuages, lands, tenements, rents, reversions, services, tithes, pensions, portions, vicarages, churches, chapels, advowsons, nominations, patronages, annuities and hereditaments, goods and chattels, to the said monasteries, priories, nunneries, commanderies, deaneries, colleges, hospitals, chantries, free chapels, guilds, fraternities, and other ecclesiastical houses, archbishoprics, and bishoprics belonging, as well for great sums of money, as for other good and reasonable causes and considerations, have been conveyed and assured to divers the subjects and bodies politic of this realm, as well by the said King Henry VIII, the said King Edward VI, and by your highness our sovereign lady, and jointly by both your majesties, as also by divers the owners of the said ecclesiastical possessions; which said conveyances and assurances, by their sundry letters patent, and other writings more plainly do and may appear:

Forasmuch as the said most reverend father has also by the said dispensations removed and taken away all matter of impeachment, trouble, and danger, which by occasion of any general council, canon, or decree ecclesiastical, might touch and disquiet the possessions of such goods moveable, lands, tenements, possessions, and hereditaments as were of late belonging to any of the said archbishoprics, bishoprics, monasteries, priories, nunneries, commanderies, deaneries, colleges, chantries, prebends, rectories, hospitals, houses of friars, or other religious and ecclesiastical houses and places, of what nature, name, kind, or quality soever they be of, yet for that the title of all lands, possessions, and hereditaments, in this your majesties' realm and dominions, is grounded in the laws, statutes, and customs of the same, and by your high jurisdiction, authority royal, and crown imperial, and in your courts only, to be impleaded, ordered, tried, and judged, and none otherwise; and understanding that the whole, full, and most gracious intents, mind, and determination of your most excellent majesties be that all and every person and persons, bodies politic and corporate, their heirs, successors, and assigns, and every of them, shall have, keep, retain, and enjoy all and every their estates, rights, possessions, and interests that they, and every of them, now have, or hereafter shall have, of and in all and every the manors, granges, messuages, lands, tenements, tithes, pensions, portions, advowsons, nominations, patronages, annuities, rents, reversions, services, hundreds, wapentakes, liberties, franchises, and other the possessions and hereditaments of the said monasteries, abbeys, priories, nunneries, commanderies, deaneries, colleges, prebends, houses of friars, hospitals, chantries, rectories, vicarages, churches, chapels, archbishoprics, bishoprics, and other religious or ecclesiastical houses or places, or of any of them, within this realm or the dominions of the same, by such laws and statutes as were in force before the first day of this present Parliament, and by other lawful conveyances to them thereof made:

XXXVI. That it may be enacted . . .

[Part omitted]

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