The Court of High Commission: A Newly Discovered Elizabethan Letters Patent, 20 June 1589

Abstract

The first letters patent establishing an Elizabethan Court of High Commission was issued 19 July 1559. It was addressed to nineteen ecclesiastical commissioners, including Matthew Parker, archbishop-elect of Canterbury, Edmund Grindal, bishop-elect of London, two privy councilors-Francis Knollys and Ambrose Cave-and fifteen others. The quorum was established as six, with the proviso that one of the six must be selected from a list of seven specified commissioners. Although earlier commissions had been based the royal supremacy, the new Elizabethan commission was established by parliamentary statute, the Act of Supremacy of 1559, section 8, and promoted by letters patent. Included in the letters patent was the suggestion that John Skinner be appointed as registrar.1 The second general commission, dated 20 July 1562, enlarged the membership to twenty-seven, reduced the quorum to three, and required that one of the quorum should be selected from a list of eight specified commissioners. William Bedell was designated as the registrar. Whereas the commission of 1559 included two bishops, that of 1562 included four. The clerical and civilian constituency was strengthened by the addition of Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's; Gabriel Goodman, dean of Westminster; Robert Weston, dean of the Arches; Thomas Yale, chancellor to the archbishop of Canterbury; and Thomas Watts, archdeacon of Middlesex.2 The third and last general commission during Archbishop Parker's administration was issued 11 June 1572. This commission was almost the same as that of 1562, but its membership was expanded to seventy-one, including nine bishops. Its designated list of commissioners consisted of twenty-five, and once more a committee of three was empowered to act, one being selected from a stipulated list of officials.3 Perhaps the increased emphasis the ex-officio oath begins about this time, since the letters patent recommends that suspects and witnesses be examined on their corporal oaths. During the archiepiscopate of Edmund Grindal, 1575/76-1583, only one commission was issued, 23 April 1576, two months after his translation to Canterbury. The membership consisted of seventy-three appointees, mak-