CAP. VIII.
§ 1.
Concerning the Officers appointed for the service of the Order, to give it a greater degree and augmentation of Honour, the Founder constituted a Prelate, Register and Usher, assigning them several Duties. Some of his Successors added the Chanchellor and Garter, and all of them Sworn to be of the Council of the Order; among these the Prelate and Chanchellor are usually nominated the Principal, the other three the inferiour Officers of the Order.
In this Chapter we shall give some account of their Institution, Oath, Habit, Ensigns, Privileges and Pensions; for as to the nature of their Offices and their Duties, they are for the general, Recorded in the Black Book, under the Title Constutiones ad Officiales Ordinis [Garterij] peculiariter attinentes, &c. Upon the Establishment, Anno 13. Hen. VIII. 1521. and annex’d to his Statutes, and more particularly their Duties, will occur in several places of the ensuing Discourse, where they properly fall in to be Treated of, as follows;
The Prelate is the first and primier Officer, and in the Founders Statutes, call’d Prælatus Ordinis; and that the then Bishop of Winchester, William de Edyngton was the first Prelate is very obvious from thence; he is an Officer of Honour only, and hath neither Pension nor Fees allowed him by the said Constitutions; this Office is vested in the Bishop of Winchester, for the time being; and from the Annals of the Order it’s manifest his Successors have continued Prelates to this Day, except the interruption only of a few Months, Anno 7. Ed. 6. immediately after the publishing this King’s Statutes; wherein the other Four Officers were constituted anew, to attend the Order, but the Prelate wholly laid by.
What high reputation this See hath been favour’d with, may be collected from an Act of Parliament, 31. Hen. VIII. concerning the Placing of the Lords in Parliament Chamber, and other Assemblies and Conferences of Council, whereby this Bishop had Place assigned him next to the Bishop of Durham, who hath place by that Act, next the Archbishop of York; tho’ before in respect of the prehemenence of this noble Order, he had precedence and Place granted above all Bishops, and next unto the Arch-Bishops. At that Officers admittance he is oblig’d to take an Oath in the presence of the Soveraign or his Lieutenant, which consists of these particulars.
1. To be present in all Chapters, whereunto he is Summoned.
2. To report all things truly without Favour or Fear.
3. To take the Scrutiny faithfully, and present it to the Sovereign.
4. To keep secret, and not disclose the Councils of the Order.