One portion of the canons relates especially to the ordination of the Clergy of the Church of England, in which department is comprised the 36th canon, the subscription to whose articles now excludes so large a portion of the laity of this country from the degrees and honours of the University of Oxford.

The original ecclesiastical character of College Fellowships was shown in the 33rd Canon, with reference to the titles of such persons as are to be made Ministers, where the Bishop of London, and the Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Chapters, and Colleges with the rest of the Clergy in Convocation refer to the Decrees of the ancient Fathers, that none should be admitted either Deacon or Priest, who had not first some certain place where he might use his function, and in accordance with these ancient examples they ordain,—

"that henceforth no person shall be admitted into Sacred Orders, except he shall at that time exhibit to the Bishop of whom he desireth imposition of hands, a Presentation of himself to some Ecclesiastical Preferment then void in that Diocese; or shall bring to the said Bishop a true and undoubted certificate, that either he is provided of some Church within the said Diocese, where he may attend the cure of souls, or of some Minister's place vacant, either in the Cathedral Church of that diocese, or in some other Collegiate Church therein also situate, where he may execute his ministry; or that he is a Fellow, or in right as a Fellow, or to be a Conduct or Chaplain in some College in Cambridge or Oxford, or except he be a Master of Arts of five years' standing, that liveth of his own charge in either of the Universities; or except by the Bishop himself, that doth ordain him Minister, he be shortly after to be admitted either to some Benefice or Curateship then void. And if any Bishop shall admit any person into the ministry, that hath none of these titles as is aforesaid, then he shall keep and maintain him with all things necessary, till he do prefer him to some Ecclesiastical Living. And if the said Bishop shall refuse so to do, he shall be suspended by the Archbishop, being assisted with another Bishop, from giving of orders by the space of a year."

The 34th Canon describes, in the following words, the qualifications of such as are to be made Ministers :—

"No Bishop shall henceforth admit any person into Sacred Orders, which is not of his own diocese, except he be either of one of the Universities of this realm, or except he shall bring Letters Dimissory (so termed) from the Bishop of whose diocese he is; and desiring to be a Deacon, is three and twenty years old; and to be a Priest, four and twenty years complete: and hath taken some degree of school in either of the said Universities; or, at the least, except he be able to yield an account of his faith in Latin, according to the Articles of Religion approved in the Synod of the Bishops and Clergy of this realm, one thousand five hundred sixty and two, and to confirm the same by sufficient testimonies out of the Holy Scriptures; and except moreover he shall then exhibit Letters Testimonial of his good life and conversation, under the seal of some College of Cambridge or Oxford, where before he remained, or of three or four grave Ministers, together with the subscription and testimony of other credible persons, who have known his life and behaviour by the space of three years next before."

Next, the 35th Canon prescribes an Examination of such as are to be made Ministers.

"The Bishop, before he admit any person to Holy Orders, shall diligently examine him in the presence of those Ministers that shall assist him at the imposition of hands; and if the said Bishop have any lawful impediment, he shall cause the said Ministers carefully to examine every such person so to be ordered. Provided, that they who shall assist the Bishop in examining and laying on of hands, shall be of his Cathedral Church, if they may conveniently be had, or other sufficient. Preachers of the same diocese, to the number of three at the least and if any Bishop or Suffragan shall admit any to Sacred Orders who is not so qualified and examined, as before we have ordained, the Archbishop of his province having notice thereof, and being assisted therein by one Bishop, shall suspend the said Bishop or Suffragan so offending, from making either Deacons or Priests for the space of two years."

Canon 36. Subscription required of such as are to

be made Ministers.

"No person shall hereafter be received into the Ministry, nor either by institution or collation admitted to any Ecclesiastical

Living, nor suffered to preach, to catechize, or to be a Lecturer or Reader of Divinity, in either University, or in any Cathedral or Collegiate Church, City, or Market-town, Parish Church, Chapel, or in any other place within this realm, except he be licensed either by the Archbishop, or by the Bishop of the diocese, where he is to be placed, under their hands and seals, or by one of the two Universities under their seal likewise; and except he shall first subscribe to these three Articles following in such manner and sort as we have appointed."

"I. That the King's Majesty, under God, is the only supreme Governor of this realm, and of all other his Highness's dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes, as Temporal; and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, Ecclesiastical or Spiritual, within his Majesty's said realms, dominions, and countries.

"II. That the Book of Common Prayer, and of Ordering of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God, and that it may lawfully so be used; and that he himself will use the form in the said Book prescribed, in public Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and none other.

"III. That he alloweth the Book of Articles of Religion agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both provinces, and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord God one thousand five hundred sixty and two; and that he acknowledgeth all and every the Articles therein contained, being in number nine and thirty, besides the Ratification, to be agreeable to the Word of God."

"To these three Articles whosoever will subscribe he shall, for the avoiding of all ambiguities, subscribe in this order and form of words, setting down both his Christian and Surname, viz. I, N. N., do willingly and ex animo subscribe to these three Articles above mentioned, and to all things that are contained in them. And if any Bishop shall ordain, admit, or license any, as is aforesaid, except he first have subscribed in manner and form as here we have appointed, he shall be suspended from giving of orders and licences to preach for the space of twelve months. But if either of the Universities shall offend therein, we leave them to the danger of the law, and his Majesty's censure."

To show the real bearing of this regulation, and that the Convocation merely intended the 36th Canon to refer to the Clergy, it will be requisite to quote the two next Canons ; the first on the Subscription by clergymen in presence of the Bishop:

Canon 37. Subscription before the Diocesan.

"None licensed, as is aforesaid, to preach, read, lecture, or catechize, coming to reside in any diocese, shall be permitted there to preach, read, lecture, catechize, or minister the Sacraments, or to execute any other Ecclesiastical function, by what authority soever he be thereunto admitted, unless he first consent and subscribe to the three Articles before mentioned, in the presence of the Bishop of the diocese, wherein he is to preach, read, lecture, catechize, or administer the Sacraments, as aforesaid."

The next canon refers to the censure of those clergymen who did not follow out what they had subscribed:

Canon 38. Revolters after Subscription censured.

"If any Minister, after he hath once subscribed to the said three Articles, shall omit to use the form of Prayer, or any of the Orders of Ceremonies prescribed in the Communion Book, let him be suspended; and if after a month he do not reform and submit himself, let him be excommunicated; and then if he shall not submit himself within the space of another month, let him be deposed from the ministry."

An impartial consideration of these Canons must lead to the conclusion that the extension of the subscription in the 36th Canon, to "all that take any degree in schools," as required by the Royal directions of 1616, was an extraordinary exercise of despotic power on the part of the Crown, intended probably, at the time, to check the progress of Puritanism at Oxford, but which may have afterwards led to the arbitrary right of the Sovereign himself being called in question by some of the bolder spirits of the University.

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PAREUS CONDEMNED.

457

In the year 1622, a preacher of the name of Knight declared in the pulpit of St. Peter's Church, "that the inferior magistrate had a lawful power to order and correct the "King, if he did amiss ;" and on being required by the ViceChancellor to deliver up the notes of his discourse, with an account of the contrivers and abettors of the sermon, he asserted that in this doctrine he had followed Paræus, then a professor of Divinity at Heidelberg, in his commentary on the thirteenth chapter of Romans; and that King James was at that very time sending aid to the inhabitants of Rochelle, who were in arms against their King. Knight was imprisoned for the seditious language of his sermon, and Royal letters were sent to Oxford, enjoining on the Heads of Houses, that the course of study in Divinity recently recommended by the King should be observed throughout the University; a mandatory letter, signed by fourteen members of the Privy Council, was also sent to the academical authorities, directing the works of Paræus to be publicly burnt, which was accordingly done, and the tenets of that writer on the subject of ecclesiastical authority were censured by a unanimous decree in convocation, as false, seditious, impious, and destructive of all civil government. It was farther declared by the academical convocation, that all Doctors, Masters of Arts, Bachelors of Law, and Bachelors of Physic, living within the University, should subscribe the censures and decrees on this subject which the University had promulgated, and that "whosoever did hereafter take any degree "in any faculty whatsoever should first acknowledge the "truth and justice of those censures by his subscription to "the same, and should withal take his corporal oath, "that he did not only from his heart condemn the said "doctrines of Paræus, but that he would neither preach, teach, nor maintain the same, nor any of them for the "future."

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Young divines were still found at Oxford, notwithstanding this pressure of academical authority, who controverted the doctrines then so popular at court, and among these