Note 206 — Chapter IX
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His Lordship on another occasion, when on the Western Circuit, remarked in a charge which he delivered to the jury:—"That in case any ministers did not do the duties of their office, as particularly to baptize their children, and to administer the Sacrament to all but such as were ignorant and scandalous, they might refuse to pay them their dues, and they should present such ministers, which was agreeable to the law, and if they were by them presented, they should be dealt withal."
The same Judge also observed that the payment of tithes was in return for the performance of religious service by the minister, and if he did not perform his duty he could not claim his rights. The ministry, he said, in many places now dealt worse with the people than did the Popish priests. They gave the laity one element, but these would not allow them bread or water.
These documents are in the State Paper Office, Dom. Interreg., petitions, &c., vol. xiv., p. 313. Connected with them is a petition to Oliver Cromwell from several ministers, complaining that they had been presented at the assizes for not administering the Lord's Supper, and praying for protection.