18.: Act of the Privy Council on the position of the Communion Table at St. Gregory’s. - Samuel Rawson Gardiner, The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660 [1906]
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The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-1660, selected and edited by Samuel Rawson Gardiner (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906).
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- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- I.: To the Meeting of the Third Parliament of Charles I. [—— 1628.]
- II.: From the Meeting of the Third Parliament of Charles I to the Meeting of the Long Parliament. [1628-1640.]
- III.: From the Meeting of the Long Parliament to the Outbreak of the Civil War. [1640-1642.]
- IV.: From the Outbreak of the Civil War to the Execution of the King. [1642-1649.]
- V.: The Commonwealth and Protectorate. [1649—1660.]
- Part I: From the Accession of Charles I to the Meeting of the Third Parliament of His Reign.
- 1.: Speech of Sir Nathaniel Rich, Proposing Terms On Which the House of Commons May Be Prepared to Grant Supply.
- 2.: Protestation of the Commons.
- 3.: Documents Relating to the Impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham.
- 4.: The Restraint of the Earls of Arundel and Bristol.
- 5.: The King’s Letter and Instructions For the Collection of a Free Gift.
- 6.: Commission For Raising Tonnage and Poundage With Impositions.
- 7.: The Commission and Instructions For Raising the Forced Loan In Middlesex.
- 8.: The Case of the Five Knights, Before the Court of King’s Bench.
- Part II: From the Meeting of the Third Parliament of Charles I. To the Meeting of the Long Parliament.
- 9.: Notes of a Bill Brought In By Sir Edward Coke to Secure the Liberties of the Subject.
- 10.: The Petition of Right.
- 11.: The Remonstrance Against Tonnage and Poundage.
- 12.: The King’s Speech At the Prorogation of Parliament At the End of the Session of 1628.
- 13.: The King’s Declaration Prefixed to the Articles of Religion.
- 14.: Resolutions On Religion Drawn By a Sub-committee of the House of Commons.
- 15.: Protestation of the House of Commons.
- 16.: The King’s Declaration Showing the Causes of the Late Dissolution.
- 17.: The Declaration of Sports 1 .
- 18.: Act of the Privy Council On the Position of the Communion Table At St. Gregory’s.
- 19.: Specimen of the First Writ of Ship-money.
- 20.: The King’s Case Laid Before the Judges, With Their Answer 2 .
- 21.: Extracts From the Speech of Oliver St. John In the Ship-money Case.
- 22.: Extracts From the Argument of Sir Robert Berkeley, Justice of the King’s Bench.
- 23.: The Scottish National Covenant.
- 24.: Petition of Twelve Peers For the Summoning of a New Parliament.
- 25.: The King’s Writ Summoning the Great Council.
- Part III: From the Meeting of the Long Parliament to the Outbreak of the Civil War.
- 26.: The Root and Branch Petition.
- 27.: The Triennial Act.
- 28.: The Protestation.
- 29.: The Act For the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford.
- 30.: The Act Against Dissolving the Long Parliament Without Its Own Consent.
- 31.: The Tonnage and Poundage Act.
- 32.: The Ten Propositions.
- 33.: Bill On Church Reform Bead Twice In the House of Lords 1 .
- 34.: The Act For the Abolition of the Court of Star Chamber.
- 35.: The Act For the Abolition of the Court of High Commission.
- 36.: Act Declaring the Illegality of Ship-money.
- 37.: Act For the Limitation of Forests.
- 38.: Act Prohibiting the Exaction of Knighthood Fines.
- 39.: Resolutions of the House of Commons On Ecclesiastical Innovations.
- 40.: Order of the House of Lords On the Services of the Church.
- 41.: Extract From the Instructions to the Committee In Scotland, Proposed By the House of Commons.
- 42.: The King’s Speech to the Recorder of the City of London.
- 43.: The Grand Remonstrance, With the Petition Accompanying It.
- 44.: The King’s Proclamation On Religion.
- 45.: The King’s Answer to the Petition Accompanying the Grand Remonstrance.
- 46.: The Impeachment of One Member of the House of Lords, and of Five Members of the House of Commons.
- 47.: A Declaration of the House of Commons Touching a Late Breach of Their Privileges.
- 48.: The Clerical Disabilities Act.
- 49.: The Impressment Act.
- 50.: The Militia Ordinance.
- 51.: The Declaration of the Houses On Church Reform.
- 52.: The King’s Proclamation Condemning the Militia Ordinance.
- 53.: The Nineteen Propositions Sent By the Two Houses of Parliament to the King At York.
- 54.: Declaration of the Houses In Defence of the Militia Ordinance.
- 55.: The King’s Letter Sent With the Commissions of Array to Leicestershire.
- 56.: The Votes of the Houses For Raising an Army.
- Part IV: From the Outbreak of the Civil War to the Execution of the King.
- 57.: The Propositions Presented to the King At the Treaty of Oxford.
- 58.: The Solemn League and Covenant.
- 60.: The Ordinance Appointing the Second Committee of Both Kingdoms.
- 61.: The Propositions of the Houses Presented to the King At Oxford, and Subsequently Discussed At the Treaty of Uxbridge.
- 62.: The King’s Propositions to Be Discussed At Uxbridge.
- 63.: The Self-denying Ordinance.
- 64.: The Negative Oath.
- 65.: Order of the Two Houses For Taking Away the Court of Wards.
- 66.: The Propositions of the Houses Sent to the King At Newcastle.
- 67.: The King’s First Answer to the Propositions Presented At Newcastle.
- 68.: The King’s Second Answer to the Propositions Presented At Newcastle.
- 69.: Suggested Answer to the Propositions Drawn Up For the King By the Leading Presbyterians and a Small Number of the Independents, and Forwarded By the French Ambassador to Cardinal Mazarin to Be Laid Before Queen Henrietta Maria.
- 70.: The King’s Third Answer to the Propositions Presented At Newcastle.
- 71.: The Heads of the Proposals Offered By the Army.
- 72.: The King’s Answer to the Propositions of Parliament.
- 73.: Letter of Charles I to the Speaker of the House of Lords.
- 74.: The Agreement of the People, As Presented to the Council of the Army.
- 75.: The Four Bills, With the Propositions Accompanying Them.
- 76.: The Engagement Between the King and the Scots.
- 77.: Additional Articles of the Engagement.
- 78.: The King’s Reply to the Four Bills and the Accompanying Propositions.
- 79.: The Vote of No Addresses.
- 80.: The Act 1 Erecting a High Court of Justice For the King’s Trial.
- 81.: The Agreement of the People.
- 82.: The Charge Against the King.
- 83.: The King’s Reasons For Declining the Jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice.
- 84.: The Sentence of the High Court of Justice Upon the King.
- 85.: The Death Warrant of Charles I.
- Part V: The Commonwealth and Protectorate
- 86.: Act Appointing a Council of State.
- 87.: Engagement Taken By the Members of the Council of State.
- 88.: The Act Abolishing the Office of King.
- 89.: An Act Abolishing the House of Lords.
- 90.: An Act Declaring England to Be a Commonwealth.
- 91.: An Act Declaring What Offences Shall Be Adjudged Treason.
- 92.: Engagement to Be Taken By All Men of the Age of Eighteen.
- 93.: Act Repealing Several Clauses In Statutes Imposing Penalties For Not Coming to Church.
- 94.: Act For the Settlement of Ireland.
- 95.: Declaration By the Lord General and the Council On the Dissolution of the Long Parliament.
- 96.: Summons to a Member of the So-called Barebones Parliament.
- 97.: The Instrument of Government.
- 98.: An Ordinance By the Protector For the Union of England and Scotland.
- 99.: An Ordinance By the Protector For Elections In Scotland.
- 100.: An Ordinance By the Protector For Elections In Ireland.
- 101.: The Constitutional Bill of the First Parliament of the Protectorate.
- 102.: The Humble Petition and Advice.
- 103.: The Additional Petition and Advice.
- 104.: The Writ Summoning Richard Cromwell to the House of Lords of the Protectorate.
- 105.: The Declaration of Breda.
- Appendix: the Navigation Act.
18.
Act of the Privy Council on the position of the Communion Table at St. Gregory’s.
[November 3, 1633. Prynne’s Canterbury’s Doome, 88. See Hist. of Engl. vii. 310.]
At Whitehall, the third day of November, 1633.
Present, the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury [William Laud],
Lord Keeper [Sir Thomas Coventry],
Lord Archbishop of York [Richard Neile],
Lord Treasurer [Earl of Portland],
Lord Privy Seal [Earl of Manchester],
Lord Duke of Lennox,
Lord Chamberlain [of the Household, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery],
Earl of Bridgwater,
Earl of Carlisle,
Lord Cottington,
Master Treasurer [of the Household, Sir Thomas Edmondes],
Master Comptroller [of the Household, Sir Henry Vane],
Lord High Chamberlain [Earl of Lindsey],
Earl Marshal [Earl of Arundel],
Master Secretary Coke,
Master Secretary Windebanke.
This day was debated before His Majesty sitting in Council, the question and difference which grew about the removing of the communion table in St. Gregory’s church, near the cathedral church of St. Paul, from the middle of the chancel to the upper end, and there placed altar-wise, in such manner as it standeth in the said cathedral and mother church (as also in all other cathedrals and in His Majesty’s own chapel), and as it is consonant to the practice of approved antiquity: which removal and placing of it in that sort was done by order from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s who are ordinaries thereof, as was avowed before His Majesty by Doctor King and Doctor Montfort, two of the prebends there; yet some few of the parishioners, being but five in number, did complain of this act by appeal to the Court of Arches, pretending that the Book of Common Prayer and the 82nd Canon do give permission to place the communion table where it may stand with the most fitness and convenience. Now His Majesty having heard a particular relation made by the counsel of both parties of all the carriage and proceedings in this cause, was pleased to declare his dislike of all innovation and receding from ancient constitutions, grounded upon just and warrantable reasons, especially in matters concerning ecclesiastical order and government, knowing how easily men are drawn to affect novelties, and how soon weak judgments in such cases may be overtaken and abused. And he was also pleased to observe, that if these few parishioners might have their wills, the difference thereby from the foresaid cathedral mother church, by which all other churches depending thereon ought to be guided, would be the more notorious, and give more subject of discourse and disputes that might be spared, by reason of St. Gregory’s standing close to the wall thereof. And likewise for so much as concerns the liberty given by the said communion book or canon, for placing the communion table in any church or chapel with most convenience; that liberty is not so to be understood, as if it were ever left to the discretion of the parish, much less to the particular fancy of any humorous person, but to the judgment of the ordinary to whose place and function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point, both for the thing itself, and for the time, when and how long, as he may find cause. Upon which consideration His Majesty declared himself, that he well approved and confirmed the act of the said ordinary, and also gave command that if those few parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said appeal, then the Dean of the Arches (who was then attending at the hearing of the cause) shall confirm the said order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter.
Sir Henry Marten.