7 - The canons of 1597 (1598)*

Summary

The chapters or ecclesiastical constitutions drawn up by the archbishop, bishops and other clergy of the province of Canterbury in the synod begun at London on the twenty-fifth day of the month of October 1597, in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of her most serene highness in Christ, Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc., and later approved and confirmed by her royal majesty and promulged by the same royal authority, under the great seal of England, that they might be more diligently observed both in the province of Canterbury and in the province of York

That suitable persons be admitted to holy orders and ecclesiastical benefices (as they are called).

1 [33]. First, care must be taken that henceforth no-one be ordained who has not also, at the same time as his own presentation to some benefice within the diocese or jurisdiction of the same bishop from whom he seeks holy orders, shown that the benefice is then vacant, or who has not given the same bishop a certain, true and indubitable certificate concerning some church within the diocese or jurisdiction of the said bishop, in which he may minister to the cure of souls, or who has not been enrolled in some cathedral or collegiate church, or college in Cambridge or Oxford, or at least, who is not soon to be admitted by the same bishop to some benefice with the intention of serving the cure (as it is called) then being vacant.

2 [34]. Finally, no bishop shall henceforth ordain anyone who is not from his own diocese unless he has graduated from either of our universities, or unless he brings letters dimissory (as they are known) from his own diocesan bishop, has already attained the age of twenty-four years and has also received some academic degree

etiam in altera dictarum academiarum gradum aliquem scholasticum susceperit; vel saltern, nisi rationem fidei suae iuxta articulos illos religionis in synodo episcoporum et cleri approbatos Latino sermone reddere possit, adeo ut sacrarum litterarum testimonia, quibus eorundem articulorum Veritas innititur, recitare etiam valeat;