Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	africa_n	bishop_n	rome_n	4,127	5	6.9616	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56213	The substance of a speech made in the House of Commons by Wil. Prynn of Lincolns-Inn, Esquire, on Munday the fourth of December, 1648 touching the Kings answer to the propositions of both Houses upon the whole treaty, whether they were satisfactory, or not satisfactory : wherein the satisfactorinesse of the Kings answers to the propositions for settlement of a firm lasting peace, and future security of the subjects against all feared regall invasions and encroachments whatsoever is clearly demonstrated ... and that the armies remonstrance, Nov. 20, is a way to speedy and certain ruine ... / put into writing, and published by him at the importunate request of divers members, for the satisfaction of the whole kingdome, touching the Houses vote upon his debate.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1649 (1649)	Wing P4093; ESTC R38011	126,097	147

more worldly businesse then spirituall devotion and more pomp and boast outward then holinesse inward Religio peperit divilias filia devoravit matrem which our Bishops and Translators of the Bible likewise mention in their Epistle prefixt to it And Ockam saith and others observe That whereas all or most of the Bishops of Rome before that time were Martyrs scarce one of them proved a Martyr afterwards but in stead of being Martyrs fell a persecuting and making Martyrs And if this voyce of the Angel perchance a Bishop since our Prelates will needs have the Angels in Rev. 2. to bee Bishops weretrue and subsequent experience hath found it so That Bishops and Church-mens Temporall Lands Possessions and endowments are no other but poyson to the Church and his Majesty be convinced of the truth of this story I hope he will be satisfied in point of Conscience that it is no sacriledge but wholesome Physick to take away this poyson from the Church which hath so much infected corrupted and would in fine destroy it and the Bishops too and eat out all their piety and devotion Thirdly most Bishops long after Constantines time had very small or no Revenues Lands and no other Palaces to reside in but poor little Cottages it being all mens opinion in those dayes That stately Palaces belonged onely unto Emperours and Princes and Cottages and Churches unto Bishops The fourth councell of Carthage about the yeare of our Lord 390. decreed That the Bishop should have HOSPITIOLVM ali●tle COTTAGE or Hospitall to dwell in neer the Church not a Palace And in the Excerptions of Egbert Archbishop of York An. 750. I find the same Canon renewed among us as the Canon Law of this Realm That Bishops and Presbyters should have Hospitiolum a small Cottageneer the Church to live in not a stately Mansion So as our Bishops in those dayes had no great Palaces Mannours Temporalities and their very Cathedrals were built onely with Wattle or a few boards pieced together and covered but with reed Stone-Churches covered over with Slat or Lead being not in use among the Britians Scots or Irish for many hundred yeers as Bishop Vsher himselfe asserts out of Beda Eccles. hist. l. 3. c. 4. 5. and Bernard in the life of Malachy And if their Cathedrall Churches were so meane their Palaces certainly were but answerable poor little Cottages and their revenues little or nothing● but the peoples Almes Saint Augustine that renowned Bishop of Hippo had but a meane house to live in his Dishes and Trenchers were all Earthen Stone or Wood his Table furnished with Pulse Hearbs and a little Pottage onely for the most part seldome with Flesh he had no Plate but five or fix Spoones and when he dyed he made no Will at all because the poore Saint of Christ had nothing to bequeath as Possidonius records in his life Saint Chrysostome the Great famous Patriarch of Constantinople ● and Gregory Nazianzen his Predecessor had no stately Palace Furniture Houshold stuffe traine of Attendance nor any goods or Revenues at all nor Iohn the Almoner that succeeded them nor that famous Spiridion who kept a stocke as a mean Shepherd though a Bishop and eminent Saint Hierom though no Bishop yet the learnedst and famous Scholar in his age or any after and of great repute writes of himselfe that he lived in pa●peri Tuguriolo in a poore little cottage having scarce clothes to cover his nakednesse So Saint Ambrose Bishop of Millaine was very poore brake the Chalices in pieces to relieve poore people and used this Maxime Gloriosa in Sacerdotibus Domini paupertas And if these great Lights Bishops and Fathers of the Church in whose Names our Prelates so much triumph were so poor that they had no Palaces Houses and temporall Possessions as our Arch-bishops and Bishops had I can yet discerne no matter of concience in it why our Bishops should have more then these Pillars of the Church either enjoyed or desired they being content with food and raiment as Paul was and desiring no more It is storied of our ancientest Bishops that I read of present at the Councell of Ariminum Anno Domini 379. That they were so poore that inopia preprii publico ust sunt they were maintained at the Emperours publique cost for want of private maintainance of their owne yet they were eminent both for Piety and Learning And if their Predecessors were anciently so poore it is no point of conscience to deprive our Lord Bishops not onely of their Lands but Function too for the peace and settlement of three Kingdoms now at the point of ruine When the Church of Christ was miserably rent and torn in Affrica by the schismaticall Donatists who would have no Prelates and Bishops that eminent Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine and almost three hundred Affrican Bishops more were content to lay downe their Bishopricks wholly for that Churches peace and thereupon Saint Augustine uttered these memorable words which I heartily with all our Bishops would consider and then they would lay downe both their Lands and Bishopricks too for our three Kingdomes present peace An vero Redemptor noster c What verily did our Redeemer descend from Heaven it selfe into humane members that we should bee made his members and doe we feare to descend out of our Chaires left ●is very members should be torn in pieces with cruell divisions We are ordained Bishops for Christian people that therefore which profitith Christian people to Christian peace that let us doe concerning our Episcopacy What I am I am for thee if it profit thee I am not if it hurt thee If we be profitable Servants why do we envy the eternall gains of our Lord for our temporall sublimities Our Episcopall dignity will be more fruitfull to us if being laid downe it shall more unite the flock of Christ then if it shall desperse it being retained If when I shall retaine my Bishoprick I shall disperse the flock of Christ how is this dammage of the flocke the honour of the Pastour for with what forehead shall we hope for the honour promised in the world to come from Christ if our honour in this world hinder Christian Vnity They had no Bishops Lands then to part with but yet for Peace and Unity sake they were thus content to part with their very Bishopdoms themselves And will not the King then in point of conscience part with the Bishops Lands for our present Peace when he shall know or be truly informed of all this Fourthly for the Judgement of Divines I could produce divers against the great Possessions of Bishops in all ages as making them secular proud vitious lasie which I have formerly published at large but I shall onely at present informe you that our famous Iohn Wickliffe professedly maintained That the King and temporal Lords grievously sinned in endowing the Bishops with large temperall possessions

this to depose and bring the King to Justice disinherit the Princes and Kings posterity dissolve the present Parliament and pull all future Parliaments and ' their Priviledges up by the roots subvert the Fundamentall Government of the Realm and set up a new representative to dash all these in pieces and destroy Religion Magistracy and Ministry Did they not all abhor and disclaim in Publique all such thoughts and intentition as these and when objected by the King and his party out of jealousie amd fear did not the Houses presently resent and remonstrate against it as the grossest scandall and their adherents too Or would ever a man have engaged with the Houses or the Houses with them in this War or enrolled his name even in this New Model'd Army had he been told at first That he must fight to depose and bring the King to execution to dis-inherit his posterity dissolve this Parliament and the very Rights Priviledges and being of all future Parliaments to set up a new Government and representative in our Church and State to alter and change all things at their fancies and to break every clauses and article of the Solemn League Conant If not one of these was the true end of our Wars and Engagement against the King at first and all along till now but the clean contrary to them then how can they now be propounded as the only fruits of our wars and means or conditions of our Peace and Settlement Will they not all say if the Houses or Army proceed in their Proposals for Peace and Settlement mentioned in their last Remonstrance that they engaged and took up Arms to doe quite contrary to what they now propose to the Houses and endeavour to enforce them to put it in punctuall execution And will they not now say That they are by their originall Engagement and Covenants obliged with their lives and estates to oppose and oppugn the Army in all these particulars that having thus declared and resolved they cannot pray for but against the Armies late successes herein that they cannot henceforth contribute towards their future pay and support in point of conscience or prudence but must withdraw and withhold their contributions and resist them to their Faces declare their Commissions null and not look on or take them as an Army but as a tumultnous rout of persons assembled without Commission to act over Iack Cades Treasons again and quite pull down that frame of Government and Order which they have been building up and supporting these many years with such vast expence of Treasure and bloud Better then displease the ARMY then that all these Covenanters and Engagers should suffer to theirs the three Kingdoms hazard Ireland's certain losse and this very Armies overthrow which these Jesuiticall designs wil certainly destroy in a very short space if they Iehu-like drive on so furiously in prosecution and execution of them as they have done of late Consider I beseech you of the desperatenesse and excessive unavoidable destructivenesse of these monstrous wayes to the speedy peace and settlement of our Church and State and of the safety and security of the things your selves have pitched on for Peace and Settlement in and by the Treaty and Lord guide our Hearts and Votes a right therein that we choose not death in stead of life the wayes of misery and destruction in stead of the way of Peace which Armies seldom know or prescribe to themselves or others Mr. Speaker HAving thus demonstrated to you the unavoydable destructivenesse and confusion of those Counsels and pretended wayes of settlement which the Officers of the Army have propounded and would imperiously and forcibly thrust you upon to the Kings Kingdomes Parliaments Religions their own our and Irelands certain and most speedy ruine I must now crave leave with much sadnesse of heart to unbosome my very soul unto you and discover you that secret which God hath so clearly manifested to my understanding that I dare not under the highest penalty but acquaint you with That the Jesuites and Roman Priests and Catholicks are the originall contrivers and principall somenters of the late and present distempers and undutifull mutinous proceedings and counsels of the Officers and Army and chief contrivers of the new Babel or model of confusion which they have tendred to you in their late Remonstrance as the only way to peace and settlement And if I shall clearly demonstrate this unto the House I hope every Member present and the whole Army and Kingdome when they know it will eternally abhor and renounce it and never henceforth countenance or promote this Jesuiticall and Romish designe which I am perswaded the Generall and most of the Officers and Souldiers in the Army in the simplicity of their hearts with honest and publick intentions of Justice and common Freedom have been ignorantly drawn into by over-reaching pates and Machiavilian Policies of these cunning Iesuites who can metamorphose themselves into any shapes and invisibly infinuate themselves into their counsels and actings to promote their own interest and our destruction I do not prosesse my self to be any great Statesman or exactly to know what ever is secretly transacted among us But this I can say without disparagement to others or vain-glory to my self That I have for many years last past been as curious an observer of all the great transactions of Affairs in Church or State and of the instruments and means by which they have been covertly contrived and carried on as any man in this House or Kingdom and that God hath honoured me in being one of the first discoverers and opposers of the Jesuites and Papists plots to undermine our Religion and usher in Popery by degrees into our Church by making use of our Popish and Arminian Prelates and Clergy-men as their Instruments and broaching one Arminian and Popish Doctrine and introducing one Popish Superstition and Innovation after another of which I have given this House and the Kingdome the fullest and clearest discoveries of any man and likewise of introducing Tyranny Arbitrary power and civill combustions in our State of which I likewise made seasonable discoveries and opposition the ground of all my sufferings close imprisonment and banishent to prevent the like detections and oppositions And since my return from exile I have in my ROME'S MASTER-PIECE The ROYALL POPISH FAVOVRITE HIDDEN WORKS OF DARKNESSE BROVGHT TO PVBLICK LIGHT The ANTIPATHY OF ENGLISH PRELACY TO VNITY and MONARCHY and The HISTORY OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBVRY's TRY ALL and other Writings given the World such an exact account of the Iesuites and Papists plots and influences upon our Church State Court Councels Prelates corrupt Clergy and all sorts of people to reduce us back to Rome supplant Religion subvert Parliaments set up tyranny and involve us in civill Wars both in England Scotland and Ireland concealed from most and scarce known to any before these discoveries as none else before or since mee have done all