ſubſtantiation, communion in one kind, the celibacy of the clergy, monaſtic vows, the ſacrifice of the maſs, and auricular confeſſion; which points were “determined and reſolved by the moſt godly ſtudy, pain, and travail of his majeſty: for which his moſt humble and obedient ſubjects, the lords ſpiritual and temporal and the commons, in parliament aſſembled, did not only render and give unto his highneſs their moſt high and hearty thanks,” but did alſo enact and declare all oppugners of the firſt to be heretics, and to be burnt with fire; and of the five laſt to be felons, and to ſuffer death. The ſame ſtatute eſtabliſhed a new and mixed juriſdiction of clergy and laity for the trial and conviction of heretics; the reigning prince being then equally intent on deſtroying the ſupremacy of the biſhops of Rome, and eſtabliſhing all other their corruptions of the chriſtian religion.
I shall not perplex this detail with the various repeals and revivals of theſe ſanguinary laws in the two ſucceeding reigns; but ſhall proceed directly to the reign of queen Elizabeth; when the reformation was finally eſtabliſhed with temper and decency, unſullied with party rancour, or perſonal caprice and reſentment. By ſtatute 1 Eliz. c. 1. all former ſtatutes relating to hereſy are repealed, which leaves the juriſdiction of hereſy as it ſtood at common law; viz. as to the infliction of common cenſures, in the eccleſiaſtical courts; and, in caſe of burning the heretic, in the provincial ſynod only[1]. Sir Matthew Hale is indeed of a different opinion, and holds that ſuch power reſided in the dioceſan alſo; though he agrees, that in either caſe the writ de haeretico comburendo was not demandable of common right, but grantable or otherwiſe merely at the king's diſcretion[2]. But the principal point now gained, was, that by this ſtatute a boundary is for the firſt time ſet to what ſhall be accounted hereſy; nothing for the future being to be ſo determined, but only ſuch tenets, which have been heretofore ſo declared, 1. By the words of the canonical ſcriptures; 2. By the firſt four general councils, or ſuch others
