Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large, 1763.djvu/207

^[1]II. Wherefore our foresaid Lord the King, considering that it would be very prejudicial to him and his People if he should any longer suffer so great Losses and Injuries to be winked at, and therefore being willing to maintain and defend the Monasteries, Priories, and other Religious Houses erected in his Kingdom, and in all Lands subject to his Dominion, ⟨according to the Will and pious Intentions of their Founders⟩^[2] and from henceforth to provide sufficient Remedy to reform such Oppressions, as he is bound, by the Counsel of his Earls, Barons, Great Men, and other Nobles of his Kingdom in his Parliament holden at Westminster, ⟨on the Lord's Day next after the Feast of St. Mathew the Apostle⟩^[3] in the five^[4] and thirtieth Year of his Reign, hath ordained and enacted,

THAT no Abbot, Prior, Master, Warden, or other Religious Person, of whatsoever Condition, State, or Religion he be, being under the King's Power or Jurisdiction, shall by himself, or by Merchants or others, secretly or openly, by any Device or Means, carry or send, or by any Means cause to be sent, any Tax imposed by the Abbots, Priors, Masters or Wardens of Religious Houses their Superiors, or assessed amongst themselves, out of his Kingdom and his Dominion, under the Name of a Rent, Tallage, or any kind of Imposition, or otherwise by the way of Exchange, mutual Sale, or other Contract howsoever it may be termed; (2) neither shall depart into any other Country for Visitation, or upon any other Colour, by that Means to carry the Goods of their Monasteries and Houses out of the Kingdom and Dominion aforesaid. (3) And if any will presume to offend this present Statute, he shall be grievously punished according to the Quality of his Offence, and according to his Contempt of the King's Prohibition.

MOreover, our foresaid Lord the King doth inhibit all and singular Abbots, Priors, Matters, and Governors of Religious Houses and Places, being Aliens, to whole Authority, Subjection, and Obedience the Houses of the same Orders in his Kingdom and Dominion be subject, that they do not at any Time hereafter impose, or by any Means assess any Tallages, Payments, Charges, or other Burdens whatsoever, upon the Monasteries, Priories, or other Religious Houses in Subjection unto them (as is aforesaid) and that upon Pain of all that they have or may forfeit.

The Common Seals of Abbeys.^[1]AND further, our Lord the King hath ordained and established, That the Abbots of the Orders of Cestercienses and Premonstratenses, and other Religious Orders, whose Seal hath heretofore been used