❧ Articles to be inquired of by the Minister, Churchwardens, and Sidemen of every Pari●… within the Archdeaconry of London: And Presentment to be made by them to Master Archdeacon of London, or his Official, Containing a particular Answer to every Article. The form of the Oath taken by the Churchwardens and Sidemen. YOu shall swear, that you & every of you shall duly consider & diligently inquire of these Articles given you in charge, and that all favour, hatred, hope, fear, or any other corrupt affection set aside, you shall present all and every such person which now is, or lately was in your Parish, as have committed any offence or default comprised in any of these Articles, or which are vehemently suspected or defamed of any such offence or default. Wherein you shall deal according to an upright conscience, Canon. neither presenting nor sparing to present any person contrary to truth. So help you God, and his faithful promises in jesus Christ. WHETHER have you in your Church all things requisite for the common Prayer, and due administration of the Sacraments, according to his majesties Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical lately established: Concerning the Church. And namely a fair Bible, 80. 81. 82 83. 84. 70. the book of common Prayer, lately ordained only to be used? A Font of stone set up in the ancient usual place? A decent Communion table standing upon a frame, with a Carpet of silk or some other seemly stuff, and a fair linen cloth to lay thereon at the time of communion? A fair communion Cup with a cover of Silver? a decent Pulpit with a cloth and Cushion for the same? a convenient seat to read service in? a comely large surplice? a strong chest for alms for the poor with three locks & keys, and another chest for keeping the Ornaments of the Church and Register book? And whether have you a Register book in parchment of all Christen, Weddings, and Burials? and whether is the same kept according to the said Canons? and whether doth your Minister upon every Sunday read the names of such as have been christened, married, or buried the week before? 2 Whether your Church, 85. 88 Chancel, and Churchyard be kept in good reparatoms aswell within as without? whether any profanation be used in them, or any man hath encroached upon them? And whether your Prisonage or vicarage house, and all housing thereunto belonging, be likewise maintained in sufficient reparations? If not, through whose default, and what is the defect? 3 Whether have you a Terrier of all the gleabes, 87. lands, meadows, gardens, orchards, houses, stocks, ymplements, Tenements, & portions of Tithes lying within or without your Parish, which belong unto your Parsonage or Vicarage, & in whose hands, it doth remain? If not, you shall together with your Minister make diligent inquiry of all the premises, and exhibit with your next presentment a true note of them in parchment subscribed with your hands, specifying how they are but alled or bounded, & in whose occupation at this present they are? 4 whether divine service be said in your Church by your Minister distinctly and reverently, Concerning the Minister. upon Sundays and such holy days as are appointed to be observed by the book of common Prayer, 14. 15. 58. and their Eves, and upon Wednesdays and Fridays at convenient and usual times? And whether doth he in ministering the sacraments, solemnizing of matrimony, visitation of the sick, burying the dead, churching of women, and all other rites and offices of the Church, use the forms of prayers prescribed in the said book without any omission or additton? And whether doth he read the book of Canons once yearly and wear a Surplice according to the said Canon? 5 Whether doth your Minister solemnly give warning to his parishioners for the holy cammunion, 22. 64. 67. 84. 66. 26. 27. 28. 29. 62. 63. 68 69. 62. 100 and for all holidays and fasting days? And whether doth he visit the sick and exhort them to give to the poor? And whether doth he confer with recusants in your Parish (if there be any) according to the Canons? And whether doth he admit to the holy communion any notorious offenders, schismatics, or strangers: or reject any, who are not by presentment or public scandal infamous for some notorious crime? And whether doth he admit any Father to be Godfather to his own child, or any to be Godfathers & Godmothers which have not received the holy communion, or doth not use the sign of the cross in baptism: or doth baptise in any basin or other vestell, and not in the usual Font, or doth baptise any children that were not borne within the parish? And whether doth he marry any in any exempt place, or without banes published three several Sundays or holidays, or without a sufficient dispensation or licence, or without licence in times prohibited, albeit the banes were thrice published, or not between the hours of 8. and 12. in the forenoon, or if the parties be under the age of 21. years, before their parents have signified their consent unto him, or whether doth he refuse to christian, or to bury, or doth defer the same longer than he should, and whether by his default any child hath died without baptism in your parish? 6 Whether doth he preach, 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. minister the communion, baptise children, (unless in case of necessity) solemnize marriage, or church women in private houses? Or doth keep or suffer any Fasts, Prophecies, Exercises, or exercismes without lawful authority: or doth hold or suffer any private conventicles contrary to the Canons? And whether doth he frequent Taverns, Alehouses, or any place suspected for incontinency, or doth table or lodge in any such house: or is he a common Gamester at Dice, Cards, Tables, or any other unlawful game, a swearer or drunkard, or one that applieth not himself to his study, or is otherwise offensive and scandalous to his function and ministry, or doth not use decency in his apparel, as by the Canons he is enjoined? 7 Whether is he continually resident upon his benefice, and how long time hath he been absent) from the same? And (in case he be licensed to be absent whether doth he cause his cure to be sufficiently supplied, 45. 46. 47. 74. according to the Canons? And whether (if he be allowed a preacher) doth he preach one sermon every Sunday: or (if not so allowed) doth procure monthly sermons and read homilies? And whether (not being so allowed) doth he expound any scripture, or suffer any man to preach in your Church, whom you have not well known to have been sufficiently yeeneed, and who hath not first subscribed his name, together with the day when he did preach, and who was not severely and decently appareled? 8 Whether doth your Preacher and Lecturer read divine service, 56. 55. and minister the Sacraments twice a year at the least in his own person, according to the said Canons? And whether doth he use the form of Prayer before his Sermons for the Kings most excellent Majesty, exhorting the people to obedience to his Majesty, and other Magistrates in authority under him? 9 Whether doth your Minister on Sundays & holidays catechize the youth & ignorant persons in your parish according to the order prescribed in the book of common prayer, and according to the said Canons? 59 And whether doth he in the Rogation days use the perambulation of the circuit of the parish appointed by law, according to his duty? 10 Whether doth he every six months denonce in his parish Church all such of his parish as do persever in the sentence of excommunication, 65. not seeking to be absolved? And whether hath he admitted any such excommunicate person to the Communion, or to the church without certificate of his absolution? And whether doth he or any of your parish familiarly frequent the company of any such excommunicate person? 11 whether any of your parishioners do not cause their Children, Concerning Parishioners. Servants, and Apprentices, to come to their Minister upon Sundays and holidays to be instructed in the Catechism by him? 59 And whether any of them refuse to come, or if they come, refuse to learn those instructions set forth in the said book of common prayer? And what be the names of them so not causing, or refusing? 12 Whether any of your parishioners, 13. 14. 18. or other strangers sojourning, lodging, or commonly resorting to any house within your parish, above 16. years of age, do wilfully or negligently absent themselves from your parish Church, upon Sundays or holidays at morning and evening prayer, or who come very late to church upon the said days, or who depart from church before service be finished: Or who do not reverently behave themselves during the tune of divine service, devoutly kneeling at such times as the general confession of sins, the Litany, the Ten commandments, and all prayers and collects are read: Or who do use any gaining or pastime abroad, or in any house, or do sit in the street, or Churchyard, or in any Tavern, or Victualling house upon any of those days in the time of divine service, or who have quarreled, brawled, or used violence to any person within your Church or Churchyard: Or who have used filthy & profane talk, or other rude and immodest behaviour? 13 Whether there be any of or within your parish being sixteen years of age and upwards, 21. 22. 28. that do not receive the holy Communion in your Church thrice in this year at the least, and chief once at Easter next: And whether any of your Parish doth not devoutly kneel at the receiving thereof? And whether doth not your Minister receive it himself on every day that he administereth it to others, and use the words of institution at every time that the bread & wine is administered? And whether do yourselves diligently observe your office, in marking what persons of or within your parish offend against this and the next precedent Article, and in due presenting their names? 14 Whether any in your parish having a Preacher to their Parson, Vicar, or Curate, do absent themselves from his sermons, and resort to other places to hear other preachers? And whether any having been ordained Priest or Deacon hath relinquished the same and betaken himself to a course of life as a lay man? Or whether any not being in orders, doth openly read common prayer, or execute any ministerial duty in your church, and what be their names? 15 Whether there be any that do publicly or privately speak against the Book of common Prayer, 4. 6. 10. 57 9 10. 100 depraving the same or any thing therein contained: or against any of the said Articles of Religion agreed upon in Anno. 1562. Or against the King's Royal supremacy in causes ecclesiastical, or against any of the rites or ceremonies of the Church of England: Or against the government of the said church of England under the Kings most excellent Majesty, by Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Archdeacon's, and other officers in the same, affirming that the same is repugnant to the word of God, and that the said ecclesiastical Officers are not lawfully ordained? Or whether there be any that be Authors or maintainers of schism or frequenters of any private conventicles or meetings: Or that be, or be suspected to be Anabaptists, Libertines, Brownists, of the Family of Love, or of any other heresy or schism: And what be their names? 16 Whether do you know any Schoolmaster that doth teach, or Curate that doth read divine service within your parish, without licence of his Ordinary under his scale? And whether doth not such Schoolmaster instruct his scholars in the Catechism, 77. 48. 79. and teach them the grounds of Religion, and bring them to Church to hear divine service & sermons, and whether is he a common officer or artificer, or any ways reprovable in life? And whether is your parish Clerk also allowed by the Ordinary? And whether doth your Clerk serve more eures than one? And whether do they demean themselves according to their several duties? 17 How many Midwives have you in your parish which do exercise that office, how long have they so done, and by what authority? Also how many in your parish do practise as Physicians or Chirurgeons, how long have they so done, and of what skill are they reputed in their profession? 18 Whether do you know any persons that do administer the goods of the dead without lawful authority, or suppress the last will of the dead, or withhold any stock of the Church, or any legacies given to godly and charitable uses: 89. and whether is the Alms of the Church faithfully distributed to the use of the poor? And whether the late Churchwardens have given a just account according to the Canons? 19 Whether do you know in your parish any common swearers, 109. drunkards, blasphemers, any simonical persons, or usurers contrary to the statute 37. of Henry the eight, any witches, conjurers, soothsayers, charmers, fornicators, adulterers, incestuous persons, brawlers, common slanderers of their neighbours, railers, scolds, filthy & lascimous talkers, sowers of discord between neighbours, or any that receive or lodge incontinent persons, or harbour women with child which be unmarried, conveying or suffering them to go away before they have made satisfaction to the congregation, or any persons that are by common same noted or vehemently suspected of any of these crimes, or that being heretofore suspected, or presented for any of these faults, have for that cause departed out of your parish, and are now returned again? 20 Whether there be any persons within your parish that be married within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity, 99 57 or their old wines or husbands being yet alive, albeit divorced from them, or that being lawfully married, do live scandalously apart, or that were married in times prohibited, or without banes three several Sundays or holidays published having no sufficient licence or dispensation for the same? And whether there be any that do communicate, or cause their children to be baptised in other Parishes abroad, or keep their children unbaptized longer than is convenient? 21 Whether any woman delivered of child in your parish, in time convenient after Childbirth, do not come to the usual place in the Church to give God thanks, as is appointed by the book of common Prayer? And whether doth your Clerk lay a Cushion at the said usual place? And whether doth your Minister admit any thereto, who was begotten with child in adultery or fornication, without licence from the Ordinary? 22 Whether any Inhabitant within your parish doth detain the Clarks wages, duties for bread and wine, or any other Church duties? Present particularly what be their names, and what and how much those duties be? 23 Whether any person in your parish do exercise any Trade, Handicraft, or bodily labour, or do buy & sell, or keep open shops or Warehouses upon any Sunday or holiday, by themselves, their servants or Apprentizes, or have otherwise profaned the said da●es contrary to the orders of the Church of England? And whether there be any innkeepers, alehousekeepers, or Victuallers, that permit any persons in their houses to eat, drink, or play at any games during the time of divine service, or Sermon in the forenoon or afternoon upon those days? 24 Whether do any in your parish familiarly frequent the company of excommunicate persons? And whether doth your Minister or any of your parish without consent of the Ordinary, cause any to do penance, or to be censured or punished by any Vestry meetings, or otherwise by their own authority, or do or have taken any money for any crime or matter punishable by the ecclesiastical Law, who have been so punished, in what manner, and upon what cause? 25 If any one or more of you do know, or have heard of any fault inquired of in these Articles, or of any other crime, the reformation whereof belongeth to the spiritual jurisdiction, happening from the _____ day of _____ that than you do inform one another thereof, 117. and you shall likewise present the same by virtue of your oaths? 26 The Minister of every parish may join in every presenment with the Churchwardens and Sidemen, who if they will not present, the Minister may himself present to the said Archdeacon or his Official such faults or crimes abovesaid, as shall be thought to require due reformation? 113. You are charged to specify the fault or crime, 118. 128. proper name & surname, trade or addition, & place of dwelling of every person presented. And to bring your first general presenment upon all these Articles into Christ-church in London, in the forenoon between the hours of viii and xj. of the clock, the. _____ day of _____ And your last general presentment on the Tuesday seven-night immediately ensuing after Easter day next, or else then and there to appeal personally, to show the cause of your default therein. Intimating further, that you may (besides those general) present offenders, as oft as you shall think meet, as by the said Canons is prescribed.