THE FACULTY OFFICE

F

THE FACULTY OFFICE

1533-1964

The records of the Faculty Office have been divided into the following categories:

Muniment Books

Fiats

Papers relating to Public Notaries

Papers relating to Dispensations for plurality

Papers relating to Noblemen's Chaplains

Papers relating to Lambeth Degrees

Office Papers

Licences to eat meat and dispensations from fasting

Marriage Records

<p>For Faculty Office medical licences, see : M. Barber, Directory of Medical Licences</p>

English

The Faculty Office was established by the 'Peter's Pence Act', 25 Henry VIII, c.21 (1533). This act gave the Archbishop of Canterbury and his successors the power and the authority, by themselves or by their 'sufficient and substantiel [sic] Commissary or Deputy' to grant instruments under the name and seal of the Archbishop. The faculties to be issued were restricted to those 'accustomed to be had at the See of Rome, or by the aurthority [sic] thereof', other instruments to be granted only by the order of King or Council. A faculty is a dispensation, or a licence, granted to a clergyman or layman applying to be dispensed from existing laws; for example for a clerk to hold more than one living, for marriage without banns or for a physician, midwife, or public notary to be allowed to practise.

Henry VIII as head of Church and State ensured that the link between the two was maintained in the Faculty Office. The Faculty Office officials were to direct the process of application and issue, and grant the faculty, while the Clerk of Dispensations and Faculties in Chancery was entrusted with the issue, under the Great Seal, of confirmations of commendams, dispensations and doctorates, and enrolling these, with M.A.s and public notaryships, on the Dispensation Rolls (Guiseppi, Guide to the Public Records, I (London, 1963), pp. 9, 19). The officials of the office were to be responsible to the Archbishop alone, but the laws governing procedure have been made by successive acts of Parliament, as in the case of issuing marriage licences or appointing public notaries. As created in 1533 the Faculty Office continues its work today.