( 14 * )

fhould be difannullcd, and no Account to be made ofthem for the future 5 and for the quicker Execution, SirWilliam Petre (that Day admitted Chancellor) had Or-ders to fee them fpeedily expung’d out of the Book ofStatutes, and forthwith defac’d, left any Memory ofthem fhould remain to Poftcrity} and only thofe ofher Father, Hen. VIII. and his Royal Predeceflors, Ihouldbe retain’d.

In this Affair King Philip, her Husband, appear’d nolefs zealous; for on the 5 th of Av.gufl, x and 2 Philipand Mary, (which was the 3d Day after he had beeninvefted with the Habit) himfelf being prefent at aChapter at Windfor, it was ordain’d, That all A 61 s andDecrees in the Great Book, [ i.e. the Black, Book, afore-faid) which were repugnant and difagreeable, eitherwith the ancient and receiv’d Statutes of the Order, orelfe with the Laws of the Realm, fhould clearly beabolifh’d and erafed, by the Marquis of Winchejler , theEarls of Arundel, Pembroke, and the Lord Paget.

No fooner was Queen Elizabeth fix’d on the Throne,but foon after, viz. on St. George's Day, in the fecondYear of her Reign, a View of the Statutes was com-mitted, by Commiffton, to Four of the Knights-Com-panions, viz. the Marquis of Northampton, the Earls ofArundel and Pembroke, and the Lord Howard of Effing-ham, who were thereby impower’d to perufe and con-fider thofe Statutes with the utmoft Care and regard,if any of them were repugnant to the Religion, Lawsand Statutes of the Realm ; and if any luch were re-corded, to reprefent them faithfully to the Sovereign,that /he, in Conjunflion with the Knights-Companions,might eftablifh fuch Decrees concerning them as fixefhould think fit} but that any thing was done in pur-fuance hereunto, doth not appear for the Tranfcriptsof her Father’s Body of the Statutes, throughout theTime of her Reign, were prefented to the Knights-Companions at their Inftallations ; and the Pra 61 ice ofher Time was purfuant to the Direction therein, exceptin feme few Things now and then added or alter’d atfuture Chapters, when there arofe frefh Matters forfuch Expedients.

King