Ref: EDC 5/11/2

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[5/11/2 image 1]

[…]
[…] to appere afore vs the […]
[…] this behalffe for the transg[ressions] and […]
enormities within the comite off lancaster […]
deputed in the parich church off […]
the <blank> Daye off <blank> next after the date
her off att <blank> off the cloke off the same Daye
not onlie to present all such enormities fornicators
and adulterers […] all diuorcients not
lafullie made as bie anye wais maye be bie
them or anye off them infidderentlie knowen, as
also to present all such churchis […] chapelles
ruynose and in decaye for the […] reparacion
and reedificacion off the same, […] this not
to fayle with a […] certification off your doying
to be afore vs att yt Daye and […] bie ye
to be exhibited and off all other […] doyngges
as you will answare att your […] perill
att Wigan xxix^mo septembris 1550 And
also to giff knolege and […] in
euery off the said churchis to all [and] singular
persons yt find them selff greued in anye off
the premisses to appere att the [s]ame daye
and howre apointed and apon the declarans
off that mater they shallbe lafullie harde.

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[5/11/2 image 2]

15^th of December in the year of our Lord 1550 in the parish church of Manchester

At which place and time Robert Worseleye, knight, appeared personally and under protestation of not consenting to the lord commissioners […] this he alleged that he is bound by law if and to what extent he and a certain Alice Tylsleye, free from and equally unrestricted by [….] of marriage or betrothal, contracted together any marriage, and had solemnised it in the face of the church in the usual way […] however, the said Alice, totally forgetting the law of marriage and faith placed in this marriage contract between […] committed with several men, completely dissolving this bond of matrimony […] the said Robert Worseleye […] marriage contract unlawfully oppressed by this violation, brought an action before certain of the king’s majesty’s […] lawfully deputed and constituted in this respect so that he might be divorced from the said Alice on account of this adultery and totally released from the provision of conjugal duties. Therefore, the commissioners aforesaid, lead or moved by lawful reasons and by the adultery aforesaid completely […] promulgated sentence of divorce between him, Robert, and the said Alice and from the tenor of the same it is clear and appears […] the sentence itself in what way they are allowed and he is allowed, as appears both from the book of our right reverend father John Hooper, [bishop of] Gloucester […] the opinion of several theologians, rightly and in accordance with the true sense of holy scripture written in that respect, and also by the example […] of this realm of England who, after a similar divorce, also contracted a second marriage, contracted marriage with Margaret Betham, as is permitted to him by divine law, as he believes; moreover, if you extremely well-considered commissioners […] your sentence, signed and corroborated with your hands and seal, should wish to ordain that, his second marriage, by divine law is not […] against the judgement of the aforesaid Reverend father and other theologians also to the prejudice and derogation of marriages […] they will be troubled by distress and thus it is not permitted to any man after divorce on the grounds of adultery to marry another woman, he will put away the aforesaid […] otherwise he will always act to the benefit of spirit of divine law, notwithstanding any prohibition of yours which is not, indeed, falsified by the said law […] was jointly and severally, and he prays that right and justice will be administered to him and that he will be completely spared from any further harassment.

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[5/11/2 image 3] 

[Endorsement]

[there is no surviving contemporary endorsement]

[in pencil in a later hand]

1550

/2

[Produced with the permission of the Chester Diocesan Board of Finance.]

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