In 1621 the archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot, was out for a days hunting with a crossbow in Hampshire. Unfortunately, instead of hitting the buck that he was aiming at, he hit and killed a beater. The Church of England had not reformed Canon Law at the Reformation, and so was still bound by the medieval rules, which stated that a cleric who shed a mans blood was no longer to be able to celebrate the sacraments, or, if he were a bishop, to exercise jurisdiction. In the Middle Ages, of course, Georges laywer would have sent off to the pope for an absolution from his crime, but this was no longer possible. Three newly-elected Anglican bishops refused to be consecrated by him, and, as Abbot himself said, the whole matter became the talk of laymen to the rejoicing of the papist and the insulting of the puritan. In the end, the matter had to be decided by King James I, described by one biographer as the oddest and most learned of British kings, who told Abbot not to worry and get on with his job, as an angel might have made the same mistake.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 12:19:33 +0000
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