The fines which they levied were discretionary, and often occasioned the total ruin of the offender, contrary to the established laws of the kingdom.

The imprisonment to which they condemned any delinquent, was limited by no rule but their own pleasure.
They assumed a power of imposing on the clergy what new articles of subscription, and consequently of faith, they thought proper.

Though all other spiritual courts were subject, since the reformation, to inhibitions from the supreme courts of law, the ecclesiastical commissioners were exempted from that legal jurisdiction, and were liable to no control.

And the more to enlarge their authority, they were empowered to punish all incests, adulteries, fornications; all outrages, misbehaviors, and disorders in marriage: and the punishments which they might inflict, were according to their wisdom, conscience, and discretion.

In a word, this court was a real inquisition; attended with all the iniquities, as well as cruelties, inseparable from that tribunal.