[176] According to 23 Eliz. c. i, sec. 4 and sec. 6.
[177] See A.P.C., xiii, 271-2 (1581). Cardwell, Doc. Ann., i, 406 (Whitgift alludes to the "waywardnes" of juries).
[178] Not suspension from office (as might be supposed) but from service and sacraments.
[179] P. 19, note 33, supra.
[180] Hale, Crim. Prec., 150 ("Contra … Because he will not be churchwarden accordinge to the archdeacon's judgment." Excommunicated. 1566). Ibid., 162 ("Contra … Detectum that he obstinately refuseth to be churchwarden, notwithstanding he was chosen by the consent of the parson and parishioners." Excommunicated. 1576). Cf. ibid., 183 (Presentment for refusing to be sideman), and ibid., 207 (Refusing churchwardenship).
[181] In equity specific performance is nothing more than the giving of an instrument transferring title after all has previously been done on both sides, but this, to complete the transaction.
[182] Denunciation "in many poyntes resembleth a Presentment," Cosen, An Apologie (etc.), 70. See his book for the modes of proceeding. Cf. also Hale, Crim. Prec., Introd., p. lviii. In commenting on Archdeacon Hale's book, which we have so often here cited (A Series of Precedents in Criminal Causes from the Act Books of Ecclesiastical Courts of London, 1475-1640 [pub. in 1847]), Sir J.F. Stephen in his History of Crim. Law in England, ii, 413, makes these observations: "It is difficult even to imagine a state of society in which, on the bare suggestion of some miserable domestic spy, any man or woman whatever might be convened before an archdeacon or his surrogate and put upon his or her oath as to all the most private affairs of life; as to relations between husband and wife; as to relations between either and any woman or man with whom the name of either might be associated by scandal; as to contracts to marry, as to idle words, as to personal habits, and, in fact, as to anything whatever which happened to strike the ecclesiastical lawyer as immoral or irreligious."
[183] The case of John Johnson in the official's court in Durham city forms an excellent commentary on the whole system. He was presented as suspected of incontinency. After repeated citations and a threat of excommunication, he appeared, denying the charge and alleging that a churchwarden with others had falsely concocted it. At the petition of an apparitor, who acted as public prosecutor, seven of Johnson's fellow-parishioners were cited to swear not to the fact of his guilt, but to the general belief in it. Articles were then drawn up upon which depositions were taken and published. The case was adjourned repeatedly so that the many formalities of procedure might drag out their weary length. The oath ex officio was forced on Johnson, but he denied all guilt. Finally, he was enjoined to procure three compurgators. These swore that they believed "in animis suis" that Johnson had sworn to the truth. Though pronounced innocent, Johnson was condemned to pay the costs of all the formalities that the apparitor had set in motion against him, and a last time was dragged into court in order to be admonished under pain of excommunication to pay these fees, amounting to £1. 3s. 4d., within a month! The case had extended from 11th June, 1600, to 22nd May, 1601. Surtees Soc., lxxxiv (1888), 359-362. Cf. also the following: "payed for annswerynge dyuerse faulse vntrothes suggested by [five names] to the sayd Commyssyoneres vj s. viij d." Minchinhampton, Gloucester, Acc'ts, s.a. 1576 (archbishop's visitation), Archaeologia, xxxv. "pd. for our charges to lycoln when we were p[re]sented by the apparytor unjustly for that our church should by [be] mysvsed vs. vjd." Leverton, Lincoln, Acc'ts, s.a. 1579, Archaeologia, xli, 365. Under 1595 the Leverton wardens have the entries: "pd. to the apparitor for fallts in the churche ijs. viijd.," and: "for playing in the churche iijs. viijd." The last is explained by a third entry: "to the apparator for suffering a plaie in the church." (Op. cit., 367.) This looks like bribery, or blackmail, or both. For examples of bribery see Wing Acc'ts, s.a. 1561, Archaeologia, xxxvi ("to ye S[um]m[o]ner to kepe us ffrom Lincoln for slacknes of or auters"). Abbey Parish Acc'ts, s.a. 1600, Shrop. Arch. Soc., i. 65 ("paid to Cleaton, the Chauncelor's man for keeping us from Lichfield"). Great Witchingham Acc'ts, Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc., xiii, 207 ("Simp the sumner for his fees for excusing us from Norwich"). St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, London, Acc'ts, s.a. 1594 ("more unto the paratour and Doctor Stanhopes man for their favours"). Hale, Crim. Prec., 202 ("Fassus est that he gave xs. to … the apparitor to thend that he might not be called into this corte." 1590). For examples of fees paid for absolution from an unjust excommunication see Minchinhampton Acc'ts, s.a. 1606 ("layd out [at] Gloucester when we wer excommunicated for our not appearinge when wee were not warned to appeere, vj s. viij d"). St. Clement's, Ipswich, Acc'ts, East Anglian, in (1890), 304 ("Payed for owr Absolution to the Commissary, being reprimanded for that we did not give in our Verdict, where as we nether had warning nor notice given us of his Corte houlden, ij[s.] x[d.]:" and: "Payed more ffor the discharg of his boocke, viijd." 1610). Churchwardens accounts are pretty reliable evidence, for they were subject to the scrutiny of those who had to foot the bills.
[184] See Mr. Andrew Clark's Shirburn Ballads (Oxon. 1907), 306 ff. Mr. Clark's notes and illustrations drawn from other contemporary sources are most valuable.
[185] A number of broadsides and pamphlets were published in 1641 upon the abolition of the spiritual courts. Consult Mr. Stephen's Catalogue (1870) for those in the British Museum. One of them is entitled The Proctor and Parator their Mourning … Beinge a true Dialogue, Relating the fearfull abuses and exorbitances of those spirituall Courts, under the names of Sponge the Proctor and Hunter the Parator. In the spirited dialogue between the two Hunter tells of his ways of extorting money from recusants, seminary priests and neophytes, "whose starting holes I knew as well as themselves"; also, he adds, "I got no small trading by the Brownists, Anabaptists and Familists who love a Barne better than a Church." "Poor Curates, Lecturers and Schoolmasters … that have been willing to officiate their places without licences" are also his special prey. As for minor offenders "against our terrible Canons and Jurisdiction … had I but given them a severe looke, I could … have made them draw their purses …" "I tell you," he concludes, "the name of Doctors Commons was as terrible to these as Argier [Algiers] is to Gally-slaves." Sponge admits that he has made many a fat fee by Hunter's procurement. For more serious documents in corroboration see Whitgift's circular to his suffragans in May, 1601, and also his address to his bishops a few months later in Strype, Whitgift, ii, 447 ff. Among many other and grave abuses he refers to "the infinite number" of apparitors and "petty Sumners" hanging upon every court, "two or three of them at once most commonly seizing upon the subject for every trifling offence to make work to their courts." Cf. Canons of 1597, can. xi (Multitude of apparitors and their excesses) in Cardwell, Syn., i, 159. Also Canons of 1603/4, ibid. Most of the Elizabethan and Stuart metropolitan and diocesan injunctions call for the presentment of the abuse of apparitors and other court officials. See Cardwell, Doc. Ann., ii, passim. Also Appendix to 2nd Rep. of the Com. on Ritual to Parliament (1870), where a large number of injunctions from Parker to Juxon (1640) are gathered together.