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0 . 6 . Ring James I. taking into his Royal Breadthe Conftitution of this Mo ft Noble Order, that it wasin the Nature of a Diftind Sovereignty, govern’d byLaws and Conventions proper to the Body, and him-felf as Sovereign in Matters immediately relatingthereunto, had the foie and uncontrdulable Authorityof reviling, adding, or explaining; and finding /thatthe Penfions paid to the Officers of the Order (as thofeto the Alms-Knights) and fome other Expences, hadbeen anciently made payable out of his Exchequer byvertue of the Great Seals of England, or otherwife byPrivy-Seals; and conceiving it incongruous, that theOfficers fhould claim their Penfions by vertue of artyother Seal than that of the Order, for it is in fame1 kind derogatory to the Honour of the Order, to per-mit other Seals to be ufed within the fame : He there-upon with twelve Knights-Companions in a Chapterheld at Whitehall , the i:d of May, zojac. I. palled aDecree, That all things concerning the Order Jhottld here-after he ratify'd under the Seal of the Order only , and in par-ticular, that the Grants of poor Knights Places, after theirbeing Signed by the Sovereign, Jhottld be pafjed under the Seal ofthe Order only, and none other , And the Year following,the Chancellor was ordered, That he fhould take Addaof the Sovereign's Attorney-General how by Vertue of theSea! of the Order, the Penfions, (given to the Poor Knights)might be paid and receiv'd, His Majefty’s further Fleafurebeing, That all Grants and Payments concerning the Order,Jhottld afterwards he confirmed under the Sealofithe Order only,and hy Vertue thereof.

As to the Alms-Knights Patents, this Decree was ofForce and Validity, but in the other Generals, how farit was purfu’d we know not 5 for in fome of them it grewobfolete and ufelefs. Butin a Chapter called at VAndfw,the a 2d of April, 10 Car. I. a Debate arofe about fettinga Part of the Annual Summ of 1000 /. out of the Re-ceipts of his Mxjefty’s Exchequer, to be employ’d par-ticularly in difeharge ofExpences towards theFeaftsofthe Order, Legations to Foreign Princes, Payment ofthe Officers Penfions, e?v. difburfed for the Neceflkyand Reputation of this Noble Order. Afterwards at a

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