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History of England, from the Accession of James the Second, the — Volume 2 by Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay
page 95 of 767 (12%)
entrusted the whole government of the Church to seven
Commissioners.97 The words in which the jurisdiction of these
officers was described were loose, and might be stretched to
almost any extent. All colleges and grammar schools, even those
founded by the liberality of private benefactors, were placed
under the authority of the new board. All who depended for bread
on situations in the Church or in academical institutions, from
the Primate down to the youngest curate, from the Vicechancellors
of Oxford and Cambridge down to the humblest pedagogue who taught
Corderius, were at the royal mercy. If any one of those many
thousands was suspected of doing or saying anything distasteful
to the government, the Commissioners might cite him before them.
In their mode of dealing with him they were fettered by no rules.
They were themselves at once prosecutors and judges. The accused
party was furnished with no copy of the charge. He was examined
and crossexamined. If his answers did not give satisfaction, he
was liable to be suspended from his office, to be ejected from
it, to be pronounced incapable of holding any preferment in
future. If he were contumacious, he might be excommunicated, or,
in other words, be deprived of all civil rights and imprisoned
for life. He might also, at the discretion of the court, be
loaded with all the costs of the proceeding by which he had been
reduced to beggary. No appeal was given. The Commissioners were
directed to execute their office notwithstanding any law which
might be, or might seem to be, inconsistent with these
regulations. Lastly, lest any person should doubt that it was
intended to revive that terrible court from which the Long
Parliament had freed the nation, the new tribunal was directed to
use a seal bearing exactly the same device and the same
superscription with the seal of the old High Commission.98
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