Men who were "hinderers" and
"contemners" of religion; who refrained from going to church without
lawful cause; who had mass-books or super-altars[193] in their
possession;[194] who spoke in contempt of the Book of Common Prayer
and its rites;[195] who caused their children to be baptized with
forms other than those prescribed;[196] ministers who omitted the
cross in baptism;[197] who left off the surplice;[198] who refused to
church women;[199] who called purification "a Jewish ceremony," or who
in their sermons preached seditious doctrine[200]--all these and other
like offenders were indicted at quarter sessions or at the assizes.
CHAPTER II.
PARISH FINANCE.
Speaking generally of the average parish, Elizabethan churchwardens
accounts and vestry minutes show that for the purposes of raising
money amongst themselves to meet every-day parish expenditures,[201]
the parishioners of the period did not commonly resort to rates, if by
"rate" be understood a general assessment of all lands or all goods
alike at a fixed percentage of their revenue or value above a minimum
exempted.
It must not be supposed, however, that in the case of offerings or
gatherings, or of levies to raise a certain sum where each man
assessed himself, it was entirely optional for each to give or to
refuse.
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