The Index Statutorum of several Sessions in this Reign, does not agree accurately in its Contents, nor in its Arrangement, nor in the Titles of the Acts, either with the Roll in Chancery, or with the Calendar at the Parliament Office. 34 & 35 Hen. VIII.The Index which is at the End of An. 34 & 35 Hen. VIII.[1], is distinguished particularly by having, opposite to several of the Articles, Numbers, not in a regular Series, but which tally exactly with the Acts as numbered on the Roll in Chancery. The whole Number of Acts in this Index is Forty-eight; of which Thirty-six only are on the Roll in Chancery, and distinguished in this Index Statutorum by Numbers accordingly; the Titles very nearly, but not exactly agreeing. The Calendar of the Acts, and the corresponding Bundle in the Parliament Office for this Year also enumerate and contain Forty-eight Acts; but of these there are Two Numbers 37 and 47 in the Calendar, concerning some Estates of the Countess of Devon and Earl of Hertford, which do not appear either in the Roll in Chancery or in the Index Statutorum in the Journal; while Two which are contained as well on the Roll, No. 3, 4, as in the said Index, No. 12, 13, are omitted in the Calendar and Bundle at the Parliament Office: These are the Acts for the Subsidy of the Temporalty and of the Clergy. A further Instance of Inaccuracy is, that this Bundle does actually contain a Subsidy Act of some preceding Year, but which is not noticed in the Calendar.
In Anno 35 Hen. VIII. all the Acts appear to have been passed by Commission. The Commission, and also the Acts which received the Royal Assent thereby, were required to be enrolled in the Parliament Roll[2]. But this Commission does not appear on the Roll in Chancery, nor is the Original to be found in the Bundle of that Year at the Parliament Office. The Royal Assent appears at the Top of the Front of the Acts, some of which have also the Royal Sign Manual at the Top, but some of them are without it; though the Omission of that Sanction appears unusual before this Time. The Acts are all separate, and no Intimation appears upon any of them of their having received the Royal Assent by Commission.
In the Journal of the Thirty-eighth Year, the last of King Henry the Eighth’s Reign, there appears a Commission[3] to give the Royal Assent to the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Surrey; as also an Entry of the Assent being given by the Commissioners, in the Presence of the Lords and Commons accordingly. There is no Roll in Chancery of the Parliament of this Year; and this appears to have been the only Act passed in that Session, as the King died next day, and the Parliament was dissolved. The Commission, and the Act for the Attainder annexed, are preserved in the Parliament Office, in the Bundle, and entered in the Calendar, of the Thirty-seventh Year. At the Bottom of the Commission, on the Left Hand, appears the King’s Sign Manual, remarkably fair. At the Top of the Act are written the Words of Royal Assent “Soit fait” &c. But the Sign Manual is not upon the Act.
MARY.
In the First Year of Queen Mary, Sess. 2. the Duke of Norfolk applied to make void the Act of Attainder passed, as above mentioned, in 38 Hen. VIII., and an Act was passed for that Purpose. See No. 34. on the Roll, 1 Mary, in Chancery; and No. 27. of the Acts of that Year, in the Parliament Office; the latter is thus endorsed: “Certificat̃ in Cancellar̃ Dñe nr̃e regine xij° die Decembr̃ Ao regni Regine Marie primo.” The Session ended on December 6. The Act was not specially certified by itself into Chancery, nor otherwise than in the Parliament Roll of that Year, which is signed “Examinat̃ et Certificat̃ ꝑ me Franciscum Spelman Cler̃ Parliamentoꝝ.” Several other original Acts of this Year are indorsed with the Word “Certificat̃,” only. There is no Journal of this Session. The Contents of this Act are important, in a general view, with relation to the Ratification and Evidence of an Act of Parliament. It is classed in the later printed Editions as Cap. 13. of the List of Private Acts of 1 Mary, Sess. 2: but has never been printed at length in any Edition of the Statutes. The following is copied and abridged from the Roll in Chancery, which has been compared, and found to agree with the Original in the Parliament Office.
34.
