Prec_., 145 ("_Dominus decrevit scribendum fore
regie majestate pro corporis capcione_ [etc.]." The threat subdued the
excommunicate, for 15 days later "_solutis_ xxxiiis.... _pro expensis
contumacie_," absolution was given, and penance enjoined. 1562).
_Ibid_., 172 (Similar threat, we do not hear of the outcome).
Cf. R.W. Merriam, _Extracts from Wilts Quarter Sess_. In
_Wilts Arch. and Nat. Hist. Mag_., xxii (1885), 20 (Affray because
of an arrest under the writ. 1604). See also Whitgift's note to his
bishops in 1583, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 404-6 ("If the ordinarie
shall perceave that, either by slackness of the justices or
waywardness of juries," recusants cannot be indicated at quarter
sessions, then the ordinary shall, after first trying persuasion,
excommunicate the culprits, and after forty days procure the writ
against them). Bancroft writes, March, 1605, that he will use his
"uttermost endeavour" to aid his suffragans in procuring the writ, and
in having it faithfully and speedily served. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_.,
ii, 80. Cf. also the satirical single-sheet, published June, 1641,
entitled _The Pimpes Prerogative ... a Dialogue between Pimp-Major Pig
and Ancient Whiskin_, in Brit. Mus. _Coll. of Polit. and Personal
Satires_. Pig: "Tush, their Excommunications fright not us; but our
Land-ladies (poore soules) lie in most danger; for them they serve
after with _Excommunicato capiendo_, and then our Forts are
beleaguer'd with Under-Sheriffs, Bum-Bayliffs, Shoulder-clappers,
etc., whom we sometimes beat back by violence."
[173] Cardwell, _loc. cit_., 100. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction derived
also much temporal strength from the fact that practically every
bishop was also a justice of the peace. For proof of this see Strype,
_Annals of the Reformation_ (Oxon. ed.), iii, Pt. ii, 451 (Bishop of
Peterboro' complaining that he alone was left out of the commission.
1587). Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, 80 (Bancroft's letter, 1605: "We
that are bishops, being all of us (as is supposed) justices of the
peace"). When commissioning justices Burghley referred to the bishops
for lists of orthodox men. See such lists in Strype, _op. cit_.,
453-60. Also in Strype, _Life of Whitgift_, i, 187-8. _Victoria County
History of Cumberland_, ii, 73-4. _Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll_., ii
(1849), 58-62. Mary Bateson, _Letters from the Bishops to the Privy
Council_, 1564, _with Returns of the Justices of the Peace_, etc., in
_Camden Miscellany_, ix
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