nferior ecclesiastical
courts were carried before the high commission; and, of consequence, the
whole life and doctrine of the clergy lay directly under its inspection.
Every breach of the act of uniformity, every refusal of the ceremonies,
was cognizable in this court; and, during the reign of Elizabeth, had
been punished by deprivation, by fine, confiscation, and imprisonment.
James contented himself with the gentler penalty of deprivation; nor
was that punishment inflicted with rigor on every offender. Archbishop
Spotswood tells us, that fee was informed by Bancroft, the primate,
several years after the king's accession, that not above forty-five
clergymen had then been deprived. All the Catholics, too, were liable to
be punished by this court, if they exercised any act of their religion,
or sent abroad their children or other relations to receive that
education which they could not procure them in their own country. Popish
priests were thrown into prison, and might be delivered over to the law,
which punished them with death; though that severity had been sparingly
exercised by Elizabeth, and never almost by James. In a word, that
liberty of conscience, which we so highly and so justly value at
present, was totally suppressed; and no exercise of any religion but the
established, was permitted throughout the kingdom. Any word or writing
which tended towards heresy or schism, was punishable by the high
commissioners, or any three of them: they alone were judges what
expressions had that tendency: they proceeded not by information,
but upon rumor, suspicion, or according to their discretion: they
administered an oath, by which the party cited before them was bound to
answer any question which should be propounded to him: whoever refused
this oath, though he pleaded ever so justly, that he might thereby
be brought to accuse himself or his dearest friend, was punishable by
Imprisonment: and in short, an inquisitorial tribunal, with all its
terrors and iniquities, was erected in the kingdom. Full discretionary
powers were bestowed with regard to the inquiry, trial, sentence,
and penalty inflicted; excepting only that corporal punishments were
restrained by that patent of the prince which erected the court, not by
the act of parliament which empowered him. By reason of the uncertain
limits which separate ecclesiastical from civil causes, all accusations
of adultery and incest were tried by the court of high commission; and