WHereas in some of the libellous Bookes and Pamphlets lately published , the most Reuerend Fathers in God , the Lords Archbishops , and Bishops of the Realme , are said to haue vsurped vpon His Maiesties Prerogatiue Royall , and to haue proceeded in the High Commission , and other Ecclesiasticall Courts , contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme , It was ordered by His Maiesties high Court of Starre-Chamber the twelfth day of Iune last , that the opinion of the two Lords , chiefe Iustices , the Lord chiefe 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 Ecclesiasticall Courts in the names of the Bishops : Whether a Patent vnder the great Seale be necessary for the keeping the Ecclesiasticall Courts , and enabling Citations , Suspensions , Excommunications , and other Censures of the Church : And whether the Citations ought to be in the Kings name , and vnder his Seale of Armes , and the like for Institutions and Inductions to Benefices , and correction of Ecclesiasticall Offences ; Whether Bishops , Archdeacons , and other Ecclesiasticall persons may or ought to keepe any Visitation at any time , vnlesse they haue expresse Commission or Patent vnder the great Seale of England to doe it , and that as His Maiesties Visitors onely , and in His Name and Right alone .

Whereupon , His Maiesties said Iudges hauing taken the same into their serious consideration , did vnanimously concurre and agree in opinion , and the first day of Iuly last certified vnder their hands as followeth , That Processes may issue out of the Ecclesiasticall Courts in the name of the Bishops ; And that a Patent vnder the great Seale is not necessary for the keeping of the said Ecclesiasticall 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 Ecclesiasticall in the said Courts , or Institutions , or Inductions to Benefices , or correction of Ecclesiasticall Offences by censure in those Courts , be in the Kings name , or with the stile of the King , or vnder the Kings Seale , or that their Seales of Office haue in them the Kings Armes ; 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 Ecclesiasticall persons , may keepe their Visitations as vsually they haue done , without Commission vnder the great Seale of England so to doe : Which opinions and resolutions being declared vnder the hands of all His Maiesties 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 moneth of Iuly , that the said Certificate should be enrolled in all other His Maiesties Courts at Westminster , and in the High Commission , and other Ecclesiasticall Courts , for the satisfaction of all men , that the proceedings in the High Commission , and other Ecclesiasticall Courts , are agreeable to the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme .

And His Royall Maiestie hath thought fit , with aduice of His Councell , that a publike declaration of these the opinions and resolutions of His Reuerend and learned Iudges , being agreeable to the Iudgements and Resolutions of former times , should be made knowne to all His Subiects , as well to vindicate the legall proceedings of His Ecclesiasticall Courts and Ministers , from the vniust and scandalous imputation of Inuading or Intrenching on His Royall Prerogatiue , as to settle the mindes , and stop the mouthes of all vnquiet spirits , that for the future they presume not to censure His Ecclesiasticall Courts or Ministers in these their iust and warranted proceedings : And hereof His Maiestie admonisheth all His Subiects to take warning , as they will answer the contrary at their perils .