Note 101 — THE OPINION OF AN EMINENT LAWYER[96], &c.
Reading edition
The ignorance of the Inquirer, who asserts that the University has nothing to do with ecclesiastical censures, and that suspension from degrees, in particular, is a punishment merely academical (p. 26), is amazing. Had he been in the least qualified to treat the matter he has undertaken, he would have known that suspension is not merely an usage of the University Court, as such, but was practised by the Ecclesiastical Court of the Bishops or Archbishops, as long as they had jurisdiction in the University. To let in one ray or two of light, in mere compassion, on that utter darkness which environs him, and shuts out all law, canon as well as civil, I will just refer him to Arundel’s Constitutions in a provincial Council; where Members of the University offending in the premisses are declared suspended, ab omni actu scholastico, and deprived, ab omni privilegio scholastico. [Lyndwood, de Hæret. cap. Finaliter.] And the same appears in a Constitution of Archbishop Stratford. [Ib. De Vit. & Honest. Clericorum, cap. Exterior.]