18 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 32. 



this Realm, and others having care of souls, the Queen's 

 Jlajesty is informed, that in sundry places of her said 

 Realm, in their several Dioceses, there are certain 

 persons which do secretly, in corners, make privy as- 

 semblies of divers simple unlearned people, and after 

 they have craftily and hypocritically allured them to 

 esteem them to be more holy and peifect men than 

 other are, they do then teach them damnable heresies, 

 directly contrary todivers of the principal Articles of our 

 Belief and Christian Faith ; and in some parts so ab- 

 surd and fanatical, as by feigning to themselves a mon- 

 strous new kind of speech, never found in the Scriptures, 

 nor in antient Fatlier or writer of Christ's Church, by 

 which they do move ignorant and simple people at ihe 

 first rather to marvel at them, than to understand them ; 

 but yet to colour their sect withal, tliey name them- 

 selves to be of the Family of Love, and then as many as 

 shall he allowed by them to be of that family to be 

 elect and saved, and all others, of what Church soever 

 they be, to be rejected and damned. And for that 

 upon conventing of some of them before the Bishops 

 and Ordinaries, it is found that the ground of their sect 

 is maintained by certain lewd, lieretical, and seditious 

 books first made in the Dutch tongue, and lately trans- 

 lated into English, and printed beyond the seas, and 

 secretly brought over into the Realm, the author 

 whereof they name H. N., without yielding to him, 

 upon their examination, any other name, in whose 

 name they have certain books set forth, called Evan- 

 ffelium Rer/ni, or, A Joyful Message of the Kinydom ; 

 Documental Sentences ; The Prophecie of the Spirit of 

 Love ; A Publishiny of the Peace upon the Earth, and 

 such like. 



" And considering also it is found, that these Sectaries 

 hold opinion, that they may before any magistrate, 

 ecclesiastical or tempor.il, or any other person not 

 being professed to be of their sect (which they terra 

 the Family of Love), by oath or otherwise deny any 

 thing for their advantage, so as tliough many of them 

 are well known to be teachers and spreaders abroad of 

 these dangerous and damnable sects, yet by their own 

 confession they cannot be condemned, whereby they are 

 more dangerous in any Christian Realm : Therefore, 

 her Majesty being very sorry to see so great an evil by 

 the malice of the Devil, first begun and practised in 

 other countries, to be now brought into this her 

 Realm, and that by her Bishops and Ordinaries she 

 understandeth it very requisite, not only to have these 

 dangerous Heretics and Sectaries to be severely pu- 

 nished, but that also all other means be used by her 

 Majesty's Royal authority, which is given her of God 

 to defend Christ's Church, to root them out from fur- 

 ther infecting her Realm, she hath thouglit meet and 

 convenient, and so by this her Proclamation she wiileth 

 and commandeth, tliat all her Officers and Ministers 

 temporal shall, in all their several vocations, assist the 

 Archbishops and Bishops of her Realm, and all other 

 persons ecclesiastical, having care of souls, to search 

 out all persons duly suspected to be either teachers or 

 professors of the foresaid damnable sects, and by all 

 good means to proceed severely against them being 

 found culpable, by order of the Laws either ecclesi- 

 astical or temporal ; and that, also, search be made in 

 all places suspected, for the books and writings main- 



taining the said Heresies and Sects, and them to de- 

 stroy and burn. 



" And wheresoever such Books sliall be found after 

 the publication hereof, in custody of any person, other 

 than such as the Ordinaries shall permit, to the intent 

 to peruse the same for confutation thereof, the same 

 persons to be attached and committed to close prison, 

 there to remain, or otherwise by Law to be condemned, 

 until the same shall be purged and cleared of the same 

 heresies, or shall recant the same, and be thought meet 

 by the Ordinary of the place to be delivered. And 

 that whosoever in this Realm shall either print, or bring, 

 or cause to be brought into this Realm, any of the said 

 Books, the same persons to be attached and committed 

 to prison, and to receive such bodily punishment and 

 other nnilct as fautors of damnable heresies. And to 

 the execution hereof, her Majesty chargeth all her 

 Officers and Ministers, both ecclesiastical and tem- 

 poral, to have special regard, as they will answer not 

 only afore God, whose glory and truth is by these 

 damnable Sects greatly sought to be defaced, but also 

 will avoid her RIajesty's indignation, which in such 

 eases as these are, they ought not to escape, if they 

 shall be found negligent and careless in the execution 

 of their authorities. 



" Given at our Mannour of Richmond, the third of 

 October, in the two-and-twentieth year of our Reign. 

 " God Save the Queen." 



Lichfield, May 23. 1850. Richakd Geeexe. 



iONDOX PARISH BEGISTERS. 



The interleaving of a little work in my posses- 

 sion, publisbed by Kearsley in 1787, intitled 

 Account of the several Jf^ardi, Precincts, and 

 Parishes in ihe City of London, contains MS. 

 notes of the commencement of the registers of 

 fifty of the London parislies, and of four of South - 

 wark, the annexed list* of which may beef use 

 to some of the readers of " Notes and Queries." 

 The book formerly belonged to Sir George Nayler, 

 whose signature it bears on a fly-leaf, 



• We have collated the list with the Population 

 Returns (Parish Register abstract) IS.Tl, and noted any 

 ditference. Lt addition to the list given from Sir Geo. 

 Nayler's MS., the following early registers were extant 

 in 1 8:3 1 : — 



1538. Allhallows, Bread Street; Allhallows, Honey 



Lane; Christ Clnirch ; St. Mary-le- Bow ; 

 St. Matthew, Friday Street; St. Michael, 

 Bassishaw ; St. Pancras, Soper Lane. 



1539. St. Rlartin, Ironmonger Lane; St. Martin, 



Ludgate ; St. Michael, Crooked Lane. 



1547. St. George, Botolph Lane, at the commence- 

 ment of which are 22 entries from tombs, 

 1390 — 1410. 



1553. Allhallows the Less; St. Andrew, Wardrope ; 

 St. Bartholomew, Exchange; St. Christopher- 

 le-Stoek; St. Mary-at-Hill, St. Michael le 

 Quern; St. Michael, Royal ; St. Olave, Jewry; 

 St. Thomas the Apostle; St. Botolph, Bishops- 

 gate. 



