"With all his imperfections on his head,
Unhouselled, unanointed, unannealed,"
he evidently means that his royal sire had not received the last offices of religion; "unhouselled" meaning that he had not received the sacrament of the eucharist; "unanointed" that he had not received the Roman Catholic sacrament of extreme unction; "unannealed," or as it should be unanknelled, that he had not had the passing bell tolled for him as he was dying, to cause all pious Christians to pray for his soul.
1679.—"For a warrant to take the names of the Papists," 6d.
This was probably in consequence of the excitement following the discovery of Titus Oates's Popish plot.
A subsequent allusion to the Romanists occurs many years afterwards, when it was "agreed that Papist Franks' child be put on the roll," as though it had been a matter of grave deliberation first. I suppose this means, that belonging to Popish parents precluded children from the benefit of being put on the rolls for parochial relief, but that after some discussion this single case (perhaps a pressing one of destitution) was admitted.
1682.—"For paceboard for the excomunicated p'sons," 4d.
1683.—"Charges of the excomunication," £6. 10s.
The above charges were probably for a list of Papists and others who had been excommunicated in the Ecclesiastical Court here, and which list was fixed to the church door. Excommunication may still in some cases form part of the sentence of our ecclesiastical courts, but is now regulated by the statute 53 George III, chap. 127.
The most recent remarkable instance of excommunication was that of the celebrated Mr. Michael Scales, who, in Trinity Term, 1829, was excommunicated for brawling in the church of St. Mary, Stratford Bow, in the county of Middlesex; and in this case Dr. Lushington, in delivering judgment said, "In the year 1813 an act was passed effecting an alteration by changing the punishment annexed to the penalty of excommunication; the court, however, is not released from passing a sentence of excommunication, but the consequences of that sentence are very different from what they were before the passing of the 53 George III, chap. 127. Since the passing of that statute the ancient punishment of excommunication is taken away—the person excommunicated incurs no civil penalties except such imprisonment as the court, in the exercise of its discretion, may think proper to direct, not exceeding six months."
Mr. Scales was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment, but the King's Advocate (Sir Herbert Jenner Fust) said that he would rest contented with the sentence of the court without proceeding to enforce its further execution.