910 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 180J. 



81. Item ; Whether any sister of 

 this house hath any familiarity with 

 religious men, sccuiar priests, or 

 lay-men, being not near of kin unto 

 them ? 



82. Item ; Whether any sister of 

 this house hath been taken and 

 found with any such accustomably 

 so communing, and could not slicw 

 any reasonable cause why they so 

 did? 



83. Item ; Whether any of }'ou 

 doth use to write any letters of love 

 or lascivious fashion, to any person, 

 or receive any such, or have any 

 privy messengers coming and resort- 

 ing- nnto you, or any of you, with 

 tokens or gifts, from any manner of • 

 secular person or other ? 



84. ltd)) ; Whether any of you 

 doth use to speak with any manner 



. of person, by night or by day, by 

 grates or back ^^indows, or other 

 privy places within this monastery, 

 without licence of your head ? 



dib. Item ; Whether the confessor 

 of this house be a discreet nMn, of 

 good learning, virtue, and honest 

 behaviour, of good name and fame, 

 and whether he hath been always so 

 taken ? 



86. Item; IIow ofttimes in the 

 year the sisters of this house use(h 

 to be confessed and communicated ? 



//. General lnjimctio)h<s to be given on 

 the King^s UigJwess's behalf, in all 

 Monasleiiea mid other Houses, ij 

 whatsoever Order or Religion theij 

 be. Cott. Libr. Cleop. E. IV. 



First ; that the abbot, prior, or 

 president, and all other brethren of 

 the place that is visited, shall faith- 

 fully, truly, and heartily, keep and 

 observe, and cause, teach, and pro- 

 cure to be kept and observed of 

 ^ther, as much as in them may lie, 



all and singular contents, as well as 

 in the other of the king's highness 

 succession, given heretofore by thera, 

 as in a certain profession lately seal- 

 ed with the common seaj, and sub- 

 scribed and signed with their own 

 hands : also, that they shall observe 

 and fuliill, by all the means that 

 they best may, the statutes of this 

 realm, made, or to be made, lor the 

 suppression and taking away of the 

 usurped and pretended jurisdiction 

 of the bishop of Rome, v/itliin this 

 roaim; and for the assertion and con- 

 firmation of the authority, jurisdicti- 

 on, and prerogative of ourmostnoble 

 sovereign lord the king, and his siic- 

 cessors ; and that they shall dili- 

 gently instruct their juniors and 

 30ungers, and all other committed 

 to their care, that the king's power 

 is, by the laws of God, most'excel- 

 lent of all under God in earth ; an^ 

 that we ought to obcj' him afore all 

 other powers, by God's prescript; 

 and that the bishop of Rome's ju- 

 risdiction or authority, heretofore 

 usurped, by no means is founded or 

 established by holy scripture : but 

 that the same, partly by the crnft 

 and deceit of the same bishop of 

 Rome, and by his evil canons and 

 decretals, and partly by the tolera- 

 tion and permission of princes, by 

 little and little hath grown up ; and 

 therefore now, of most right and 

 equity, is taken away and clean ex- 

 pelled out of his realm. 



Also, that the abbot, prior, or 

 president and brethren, may be de- 

 clared, by the king's supreme power 

 and authority, ecclesiastical, to be 

 absolved and loosed from all manner 

 of obedience, oath, and profession, 

 b}' them heretofore perchance pro- 

 mised or made to the said bishop of 

 Rome, or to any other in his stead, 

 or occupying his authority, or to 



any 



