[1581/10/22]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Item, because sundry ministers provided to benefices for their lifetimes, without regard of conscience or how their successors should live after them, for some present profit, set their said benefices and rents thereof in feus, tacks, rentals or convey pensions out of the same, to the utter overthrow of the kirk and great prejudice, both of the king's majesty, the commonwealth and prosperity to come; it is therefore thought expedient, statute and ordained by our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates and whole body of this present parliament, that no persons being in the function of the ministry provided to title of benefices under prelacies shall, in time coming, make or set any feus, tacks, rentals, convey pensions or make other dispositions of the rents of his benefice to the prejudice of his successor and diminution of the rental whereat he finds it at his entry thereto, under the pain of deprivation from the said benefice, whereunto, in case he fails, his set and location to be decreed null and himself to be deprived as well from his function in the ministry as from the benefice itself, which upon his default, tried and judged as said is orderly, shall be declared to be vacant and to be presented and conferred of new as if he was naturally dead.
[1581/10/23]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Item, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates of this present parliament, that all benefices of cure under prelacies shall be presented by our sovereign lord and the lawful persons in the favour of able and qualified ministers apt and willing to enter in that function and to discharge the duty thereof; and in case any shall happen to be given and conveyed otherwise hereafter, decrees and declares the gifts and dispositions to be null and of no value, force nor effect.
[1581/10/24]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates of this present parliament, ratifies and approves the act of parliament held at Edinburgh on 1 February 1551 [1552], entitled 'The act against them that swear abominable oaths', and ordains the same to have effect and execution in time coming after the form and tenor thereof under the fourth and last pain specified in the same, that is to say: for the first fault, every prelate of kirk, earl or lord, 4s; a baron or beneficed man constituted in dignity ecclesiastic, 12d; a landed man, freeholder, vassal, feuar, burgess and small beneficed men, 6d; a craftsman, yeoman or servant man, 4d; the poor folks that have no gear to be put in the stocks, jougs or imprisoned for the space of four hours; and women to be weighed and considered according to their blood and estate of their parties that they are coupled with. For the [second]† fault, every prelate, earl or lord, 8s; every baron or beneficed man in dignity, 2s; every landed man, freeholder, vassal, feuar and small beneficed man, 12d; and every craftsman, yeoman or servant, 8d; the space of the poor folks' imprisonment to be doubled. And for the third fault, the said second pains to be doubled. And for the fourth and last fault, the offenders to be banished or put in ward for the space of a year and a day at the king's will, and likewise all other estates after their quality to be punished appropriately, and the aforesaid pains to be taken up and applied to the use of the poor folks. And for the better execution hereof, that censors be appointed in the market places of all burghs and other public fairs, with power to put the swearers of such abominable oaths in ward until they have paid the said pains and find surety to abstain in time coming, and that by direction and commission of the sheriffs, stewarts, bailies, provosts, aldermen and bailies of burghs, lords of regalities and other ordinary officers; and that all householders report to the magistrates the names of all such persons as transgress this present act, that, upon complaint thereof to be made to the king's majesty and his privy council, they shall be called and committed to ward during his highness's will and find surety under great pains at his highness's sight for exact diligence to be shown in executing of the said act thereafter.
[1581/10/25]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Forasmuch as part for want of doctrine and rarity of ministers, and partly through the perverse inclination of man's engine to superstition, the dregs of idolatry yet remain in diverse parts of the realm by using of pilgrimage to some chapels, wells, crosses and such other monuments of idolatry, as also by observing of the festival days of the saints, sometimes named their patrons, in setting of bonfires, singing of carols within and about kirks at certain seasons of the year, and observing of such other superstitious and popish rights to the dishonour of God, contempt of the true religion and fostering of great error amongst the people; for remedy whereof, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates in this present parliament, that none of his highness's lieges presume or take upon hand in time coming to resort to, frequent or use the said pilgrimages or other forenamed superstitious and popish rights under the pains following, namely, each gentleman or woman landed, or wife of the gentleman landed, £100 pounds, the unlanded 100 merks and the yeoman £40, for the first fault; and for the second fault, the offenders to suffer the pain of death as idolaters. And for the better execution hereof, commands, ordains and gives power to all sheriffs, stewarts, bailies, provosts, aldermen and bailies of burghs, lords of regalities, their stewarts and bailies and others whom it shall please our sovereign lord to grant special commission to search and seek the persons passing in pilgrimage to any kirks, chapels, wells, crosses or such other monuments of idolatry, as also the superstitious observers of the festival days of the saints, sometimes named their patrons, where there are no public fairs and markets, setters out of bonfires, singers of carols within and about kirks, and of such other superstitious and popish rights, and apprehending them in the actual deed of the transgression of this present act, after speedy judgement of their transgression, to put and hold them in prison and firmness until they redeem their liberty by payment of the pains above-written and find caution to abstain in time coming, under the pain of doubling of the same pain; and if the persons apprehended be not able to redeem their liberty by payment of the said pecuniary pains, that then they keep the persons, transgressors, in prison, irons or stocks, upon bread and water, for the space of one month after their apprehension, causing them when they are set at liberty to either find caution or make faith to abstain thereafter; and in case they happen to pass out of the shire where they offend without apprehension, that the sheriffs and other ordinary judges of the next shire, burgh or jurisdictions apprehend them and proceed in like manner against them, declaring the one half of the pecuniary pains to pertain to the said ordinary judges for their pains and for sustaining of the persons to be kept in ward, irons or stocks, and the other half to be brought in to the use of the poor of the parish.
[1581/10/26]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Concerning the supplication made to the king's majesty and his three estates of this present parliament, craving an explanation of the act of parliament made in the reign of [Mary], the queen, his highness's dearest mother, concerning adultery, that is what shall be esteemed and judged in law to be notorious and manifest adultery, worthy of the pain of death mentioned in the said act; it is therefore declared by his highness, with advice of his three estates in this present parliament, that it shall be judged in law notorious and manifest adultery, worthy of the said pain of death, where there are bairns, one or more, procreated between the persons, adulterers, or when they keep company and bed together well known, or when they are suspected of adultery and thereby give slander to the kirk, whereupon, being duly admonished, to abstain and satisfy the kirk by repentance or purgation, and yet contemptuously refusing, are excommunicated for their obstinacy; all these three degrees of adulterers, and every one of them, being lawfully called and convicted before the justice and his deputes, shall incur and suffer the said pain of death.
[1581/10/27]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Forasmuch as certain fugitives and other persons, our sovereign lord's born subjects now remaining out of this realm, professing themselves the subjects and servants of other princes, upon disdain and malice borne by them against the true and Christian religion now publicly preached and by law established within this realm, cease not so far as in them lies to pervert the youth of this nation passing out of this realm to the schools and to visit other countries, and also make, set forth, send home and cause to be dispersed in this realm diverse famous books and libels in praise and defence of the Pope and his usurped authority, damned by God's word and our sovereign lord's laws; as also sundry of the same persons presume often times to repair in this realm themselves, under colour to seek the recovery of their health by the air of their native country, intending to seduce the simple and ignorant people and others in any way affected to their superstitious and erroneous doctrine. For remedy whereof, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates, that the acts made for punishment of his highness's subjects, adversaries to the true and Christian religion and persons suspected to have declined from there, be put in due execution in all points, with this addition: that it shall not be lawful to any of the said persons, his highness's subjects or strangers (not being ambassadors, messengers nor merchants), adversaries of the true and Christian religion, or that has declined from there, to return in this realm or remain therein, except within the space of 40 days after the end of this present parliament they satisfy and obey his highness's laws concerning the giving of their confession and assenting and subscribing to the articles of the said true and Christian religion; and in the meantime, that none of them repair in the king's majesty's presence, palace or dwelling place, or remain longer than three hours in any part near the same within the space of seven miles; and whoever fails herein (their names being noted by the bishops, superintendents or ministers of the king's house to the ordinary judges wherever the said persons repair or remain), they shall be taken and held in prison by his master of household or other judges ordinary until they have found sufficient surety, each person under the pain of 500 merks that they shall either recant their errors and obey his highness's laws by professing of the said Christian religion, or depart out of the realm within the space of 15 days thereafter. And that also in the meantime, they shall neither teach nor sow the said Pope's erroneous doctrine, nor any other erroneous doctrine repugnant to the said true and Christian religion now publicly preached and by law established in this realm to none of the subjects thereof, either by words or writing, under the said pain, and that all his highness's subjects that have or shall make, set forth, bring home, sell or disperse within this realm any of the said famous books and libels in the praise and defence of the said Pope and his usurped authority or other erroneous doctrine, to the contempt of our sovereign lord and true religion presently professed within this realm, being called and duly convicted for that, according to the laws of the same, shall incur by pain of banishment and confiscation of all their goods moveable to our sovereign lord's use. And because sundry persons, disobeyers of his highness's authority, for not giving of the confession of their faith according to the acts of parliaments, have thereupon lost their benefices ipso facto, the same being lawfully and duly provided by our sovereign lord's presentation and admission of the kirk to persons serving in the ministry and the fruits thereof assigned to them for their yearly livings and stipends, nevertheless, in seeking letters to be answered and obeyed of the said fruits, they are often hindered through licences purchased of our sovereign lord to the said persons departing and remaining out of the realm for diverse years, without hurt or danger to be incurred by them in their persons, livings, goods and gear, in respect of the which licences the judges, before whom they are produced, stay and cease further proceeding in the said cause, to the great hurt and prejudice of the act of his highness's parliament entitled 'That the adversaries of Christ's religion shall not enjoy the patrimony of the kirk'. For remedy whereof, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord and three estates of this present parliament that all such licences purchased of his highness shall have no effect, strength nor force, annulling and discharging the same by this act in so far as they may in any way tend to the prejudice and hindrance of the execution of the said acts of parliament, or to the titles and provisions of benefices and other ecclesiastical rents made and granted by virtue thereof, commanding the said judges, before whom the said actions are or shall happen to be intended or depend, to proceed and do justice therein with expedition, notwithstanding the said licences or absence of the persons in whose favour the same are or shall happen to be granted, which licences shall be esteemed as privy writings without a sufficient testimonial instantly shown, that the person to whom the same licence is granted professes the true religion and has already satisfied his majesty's laws made to that effect.