royal blazon or coat of arms HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE dieu ET MON DROIT  
¶ By the King.  
❧ A Proclamation declaring that the proceedings of His majesties ecclesiastical Courts and Ministers, are according to the laws of the realm.  
WHereas in some of the libellous books and Pamphlets lately published, the most reverend Fathers in God, the Lords Archbishops, and Bishops of the realm, are said to haue usurped vpon His majesties prerogative royal, and to haue proceeded in the High Commission, and other ecclesiastical Courts, contrary to the laws and Statutes of the realm, It was ordered by His majesties high Court of starchamber the twelfth day of june last, that the opinion of the two Lords, chief Iustices, the Lord chief Baron, and the rest of the Iudges and Barons, should be had and certified in these particulars, viz. Whether Processes may not issue out of the ecclesiastical Courts in the names of the Bishops: Whether a Patent under the great seal be necessary for the keeping the ecclesiastical Courts, and enabling Citations, Suspensions, Excommunications, and other Censures of the Church: And whether the Citations ought to be in the Kings name, and under his seal of arms, and the like for Institutions and Inductions to benefice, and correction of ecclesiastical Offences; Whether Bishops, Archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical persons may or ought to keep any Visitation at any time, unless they haue express Commission or Patent under the great seal of England to do it, and that as His majesties Visitors onely, and in His Name and Right alone.  
Whereupon, His majesties said Iudges having taken the same into their serious consideration, did unanimously concur and agree in opinion, and the first day of july last certified under their hands as followeth, That Processes may issue out of the ecclesiastical Courts in the name of the Bishops; And that a Patent under the great seal is not necessary for the keeping of the said ecclesiastical Courts, or for the enabling of Citations, Suspensions, Excommunications, and other censures of the Church; And that it is not necessary that Summons, Citations, or other Processes ecclesiastical in the said Courts, or Institutions, or Inductions to benefice, or correction of ecclesiastical Offences by censure in those Courts, be in the Kings name, or with the style of the King, or under the Kings seal, or that their seals of Office haue in them the Kings arms; And that the Statute of primo Edwardi sexti, cap. secundo, which enacted the contrary, is not now in force: And that the Bishops, Archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical persons, may keep their Visitations as usually they haue done, without Commission under the great seal of England so to do: Which opinions and resolutions being declared under the hands of all His majesties said Iudges, and so certified into His Court of Star-Chamber, were there recorded: And it was by that Court further ordered the fourth day of the said month of july, that the said Certificate should be enrolled in all other His majesties Courts at Westminster, and in the High Commission, and other ecclesiastical Courts, for the satisfaction of all men, that the proceedings in the High Commission, and other ecclesiastical Courts, are agreeable to the laws and Statutes of the realm.  
And His royal majesty hath thought fit, with advice of His council, that a public declaration of these the opinions and resolutions of His reverend and learned Iudges, being agreeable to the judgements and Resolutions of former times, should be made known to all His Subiects, as well to vindicate the legal proceedings of His ecclesiastical Courts and Ministers, from the unjust and scandalous imputation of invading or entrenching on His royal prerogative, as to settle the mindes, and stop the mouths of all unquiet spirits, that for the future they presume not to censure His ecclesiastical Courts or Ministers in these their just and warranted proceedings: And hereof His majesty admonisheth all His Subiects to take warning, as they will answer the contrary at their perils.  
given at the Court at Lyndhurst, the eighteen day of August, in the thirteenth year of His majesties reign.  
❧ God save the King.   

¶ Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent majesty: And by the assigns of John Bill. 1637.