XII. Should the parties not like to apply to the minister, or if the minister refuse to act, the same shall be published on Sunday or holyday, immediately after evening service, by the chief registrar or clerk of justice, in presence of the judge or justice, or the person deputed by him; at the bottom of the notice, containing the names and additions of the parties, the date of the publication shall be mentioned, and if it be the first, second, or third time; and likewise the dispensations, if any have been obtained. The whole shall be signed by the justice, or officer deputed by him, and by the registrar, and a fair copy afterwards affixed on the out-side of the church door.

XIII. In case the banns be published in the manner last mentioned, all opposition to the marriage must be signified to the officer of justice who was present at the publication; the registrars or clerks are to mention the said oppositions in the certificates of publication of banns which they give the parties, under pain of the loss of office and making satisfaction to the said parties; and in no case shall permission to enforce the said opposition be sued out from any other judges than those who are publicly known to belong to our courts of justice, who shall determine in the usual manner, allowing to those who think themselves aggrieved the liberty of an appeal.

XIV. When the declarations of marriage, spoken of hereafter, shall not be made before the minister, they shall be made before no other judge than the chief officer of justice of the place, whether royal or seigneurial, in whose jurisdiction one of the parties lives, or before him who acts in his stead, in case of absence, on pain of the whole being considered as void.

XV. In all our bailiwicks and other courts, the chief officer, duly appointed, and conforming to the laws of the kingdom, shall be enabled to grant, within his jurisdiction, licenses to dispense with the publication of banns to those who are not of the Roman Catholic religion, in the same manner as the ordinaries of places grant them to such as are of the said religion. And the said judges shall also grant dispensations of consanguinity exceeding the third degree; but as to those who are nearer related, their dispensations shall be made out and sealed in our court of chancery, and registered free of expence by the clerks of the registry in the said places.

XVI. Whether the said parties have caused their banns to be published by the parochial minister, or the officer of justice, it shall be lawful for them to make their declaration of marriage before the said minister, or before the chief officer of justice mentioned in the XIVth article, whichever they like, bringing with them at the same time certificate of the said publication without

opposition; the proof of every opposition being removed, if any have been made; and the necessary dispensations; together with the consent of their fathers, mothers, guardians, or trustees; the same as required by law with regard to our other subjects, and under the same penalties.

XVII. In order to make the said declaration, the contracting parties, attended by four witnesses, shall repair to the house of the minister of the parish where one of the said parties resides, or to that of the said judge, and there declare that they have taken and do take each other in lawful and indissoluble marriage, and mutually promise fidelity.

XVIII. The said minister, or the said judge, shall declare to the parties, in the name of the law, that they are joined together in lawful and indissoluble wedlock; insert the said declaration in the register and duplicate intended for this purpose; and mention the publication of banns, whether without opposition, or, if any has been made, that it was lawfully removed; the dispensations, if any have been granted; together with the consent of the fathers, mothers, guardians, or trustees; sign the whole, and cause the same to be signed by the contracting parties, if able to write, and by the witnesses.

XIX. In case the contracting parties do not both live in the same parish, they may go to the minister, or judge hereinbefore described, of either parish, which they please, provided it be the residence of one of the parties, and there make their declaration; but neither the said minister, nor the said judge, shall allow the same, unless he first have a proper certificate of consent from the minister or judge of the other parish; and the said certificate of consent, which cannot lawfully be refused, either by the minister or judge from whom demanded, shall be expressed and dated in the declaration of marriage entered in the register.

XX. The rectors, vicars, or curates, to whom the parties apply to receive their declarations of marriage, shall insert them in the common parish register and duplicate of marriages within their parish; the judges in such registers as are hereinafter described, and the whole, as above mentioned, shall be subject to the same penalties as set forth in our ordinances, edicts, declarations, and regulations, with regard to the forms to be observed in the marriages of our Catholic subjects.

XXI. And with respect to the conjugal unions which may have been entered into by any of our non-catholic subjects or foreigners settled in our dominions, without having observed the legal forms, our will and pleasure is that, provided they comply with the following regulations, within the space of one year from the day of

the date on which this present edict shall be published and registered in our courts within the jurisdiction of their residence, they shall acquire, for themselves and children, all the rights and privileges resulting from lawful wedlock, to be reckoned from the day of this union, of which they shall bring proof, and declare the number, age, and sex of their children.

XXII. The said husbands and wives, with four witnesses, shall go before the minister, or the king's judge, where they reside, and make their declaration of marriage, which they shall be obliged to repeat in the same form before the minister or the judge of the district which they have quitted the residence of within six months, if in the same diocese; or within a year if in a different one.

XXIII. In case the said parties should be under age at the time of the said declaration, they shall bring with them, in writing, the consent of their fathers, mothers, guardians, or trustees, which the minister, or judge, shall be obliged to mention in the register where he enters the marriage; and the said proceedings shall be inserted in the same registers with the declarations of marriages newly contracted, under the penalties declared in the XXth article hereinbefore written.

XXIV. Should any disputes arise with respect to marriages contracted or declared in the forms above described, they shall first be heard by our bailiffs and seneschals duly appointed, and by no others, allowing to the party dissatisfied the right of appeal to our courts of parliament and inferior councils, and reserving to ourselves, furthermore, the power of regulating, as we shall see cause, the civil effects of unions contracted by such of our subjects, or foreigners residing in our kingdom, not being Catholics, as are dead.

XXV. The births of the children of our non-catholic subjects, married according to the forms prescribed by our present edict, shall be verified, either by their being baptised, if brought to church for that purpose, or by the father and two witnesses residing in the place, or in his absence four witnesses also living in the same parish, going before the judge of the place and saying they are desired by the mother to declare that the child is born, has been baptized, and has received a name.

If the parents of the child be of a sect which does not acknowledge the necessity of baptism; in that case those who carry it shall declare the birth of the child, the sect in which it was born, and show that the father and mother have been married according to the form prescribed by this present edict.

XXVI. The said declaration shall be entered in the register and duplicate designed for this purpose; signed by the father, if present, and able to sign; the witnesses; and the judge and the

same forms shall likewise be observed as are laid down by our ordinances, edicts, and declarations, with respect to the baptism of children born of Catholic parents, upon pain of the whole being null and void.

XXVII. In case of the death of any of our subjects, or foreigners residing or travelling in our dominions, to whom the rites of ecclesiastical burial cannot be granted, the mayors, aldermen, and other chief officers of towns, boroughs, and villages, are hereby ordered and required to appropriate a proper piece of ground for interment in each of the said places; and we do charge our proctors or attorneys who have the management of our affairs in the said places, as also the stewards of our lords of manors, to see that the pieces of ground intended for the said interments be properly fenced out, in the same manner as the cemeteries of our Catholic subjects are, or ought to be.

XXVIII. All declarations of death shall be made by the two nearest relations or neighbours of the deceased; and in their default, by our proctor, or the steward of the chief lord in whose manor the demise happened, who shall be accompanied by two witnesses; and the said declaration may be made, either before the minister of the parish, or the judge, who shall receive the same and make entry thereof, the said minister in the common register of deaths, and the judge in the register intended for this purpose, of which mention will hereinafter be made; and the said declaration shall be signed by him before whom it was made, and the relations or neighbours who attended; or, in default, by our proctor, or the lord of the manor's steward, and the two accompanying witnesses,

XXIX. If the relations or neighbours of the person deceased prefer having the declaration of death inserted in the parish register, they shall give notice of it to the judge of the place, who will name a deputy to attend the burial, if he cannot be present himself; and in all cases the declaration of death shall be signed by the deputy or officer of justice who was at the interment.

XXX. The corpse of no one, to whom the service of the Catholic Church is refused, shall be placed before the door of the house, as is the custom with regard to those who die in the established religion. The relations and friends of the person deceased, may accompany the funeral, but shall not be allowed to sing or read prayers aloud; and we forbid all our subjects to cause or excite any tumult, insult, or scandal, on account of the said funerals,, upon pain of being punished as disturbers of the public peace.

XXXI. The better to carry into execution our present edict, there shall be kept, in the principal court of justice in all towns, boroughs, and villages, of our kingdom, where there is a likelihood of the beforementioned declarations being made, two regis

ters, the one of stamped paper, in those places where it is customary, and the other of common paper, in order to enter therein the said declarations; and also for the chief clerk or registrar of the said court to give abstracts to those who require them, in the same manner as is done with regard to the registers of baptisms, marriages, and deaths, kept by the ministers of parishes; and the paper for the said registers shall be furnished by the inhabitants of the said towns, boroughs, and villages.

XXXII. The leaves of the said registers, properly ruled from beginning to end, by the first officer of the said court, (free of expense,) with an alphabet to command the whole, shall be deposited among the records of the said court, and the chief clerk be obliged to produce it when required. The declarations of births, marriages, and deaths, mentioned in the present edict, and in the form hereinbefore described, shall be inserted therein one after another, and without any blanks; and at the end of each year, the said registers shall be closed and adjusted by the judge, directly after the last entry therein made, and such leaves as are not used shall be barred with lines across by him.

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XXXIII. Within six weeks after the end of each year, the said register or its duplicate shall be deposited among the records of the bailiwick or lordship, lying within the jurisdiction of our courts, to which the said justices may be able to have recourse and copies shall be sent by the proctors of the said tribunals to our attorney-general in the court where he attends, who shall place the same among the rolls of the said court; and those, who wish to have extracts from the said registers, may apply, either to the register office of the parish, to that of the bailiwick or lordship, or to that of the court where any of the said registers are deposited. . XXXIV. The chief clerks of our bailiwicks and lordships, properly appointed in our courts, shall also have a register bound, and properly ruled from beginning to end, by the principal officer, with an alphabet to command the whole, in order to enter therein, one after another, and without leaving any spaces between, the dispensations of consanguinity, or publications of banns, which the said clerk has granted, together with those issued out of our chancery, and directed to the said judges to that effect. This register may serve for more than one year; but at the end of each, and not later than the first of January in the following year, it shall be closed and adjusted by the said judge.

XXXV. The parties obtaining the said dispensations shall likewise be obliged to have them examined, within three days at most, at the comptroller's office within the said district, for which they shall the comptroller ten sols; but no duty or other per-. pay

15d. sterling.