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A56177 A legal resolution of two important quæres of general present concernment Clearly demonstrating from our statute, common and canon laws, the bounden duty of ministers, & vicars of parish-churches, to administer the sacraments, as well as preach to their parishioners; with the legal remedies to reclaim them from, or punish and remove them for their wilfull obstinacy in denying the sacraments to them. By William Prynne Esq; a bencher of Lincolns Inne; to whom these quæres were newly propounded by some clients. Prynne, William, 1600-1669. 1656 (1656) Wing P3995; ESTC R219602 25,257 35

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upon the Stat. of West 2. 13 E. 1. c. 41. as Fitzh. Natt Brev. f. 209 L. 5. E. 3. 25. b. Register f. 238. Fit ●essavit 12 18 24. 12 H. 4. 24. 45 E. 3. 10. Ploud f. 58. Cook 4. Rep. f. 118. 11. Rep. f. 63. 2. Instit. f. 460. more then intimate if not fully resolve These legal remedies if pursued in a just and Christian way may through Gods blessing reduce many refractory Parochical Ministers and Vicars to the due administration of the Sacraments to their Parishioners which too many of them have of late totally divers in a deplorable measure cast off restore the comfortable frequent enjoyment of them to those Parishioners who have a long time earnestly thirsted after them and prevent the Anabaptistical Jesuitical design of g John Canne with his Fraternity and others of late yeers crept into Parochial Cures of purpose to subvert them with all other Parochial Congregations and all Patrons rights to present unto them a design most eagerly prosecuted publikely allowed and much advanced of late yeers by unchristian and illegal practices gilded over with religious pretences this is the Opinion and Judgement in answer to your Case and Quaeres of your Friend and Counsellor Will Prynne Lincolns Inne 20 Junii 1656. AN APPENDIX OUr Vicars and Ministers refusal to administer the Sacraments to their Parishioners is in truth an actual penal suspension and excommunication of them and their Infants from the Lords Supper and Baptism without any precedent citation articles legal proceeding hearing or sentence denounced against them in any Ecclesiastical Classis or Judicature against all rules of Religion Conscience Law Justice and the express Letter of Magna Charta c. 29. Wherefore as King Edw. 1 2 3. did issue forth several Writs and Mandates to their Bishops and Clergy * not to convent question censure excommunicate any of their Officers or Subjects within their Dominions for discharging their Duties duly obeying their Mandates and to absolve all those they had excommunited upon this account and likewise issue out Writs to their Sheriffs De promulgantibus sententiam excommunicationis in Ministros Regis capiendis imprisonandis for obeying their commands So by like Justice Reason may Writs be issued to all those Vicars and Ministers who deny the Sacraments to their Parishioners without any legal cause or sentence of suspension or excommunication first denounced against them commanding them peremptorily to admit them to and administer the Sacraments duly to them yea Writs to the Sheriffs to attach and imprison them in case of their wilful neglect or contempt herein Claus. 12. E. 2. m. 20. The Archbishop of York and his Ministers oppressed vexed the people of his Diocess in his Courts and Visitations by malicious citations for pretended adulteries and other Ecclesiastical crimes before they were publickly defamed of or presented for them and for which they could not aid themselves by the Kings prohibition they having legal conns●●s of these crimes upon Petition to the King and his Counsel against these malicious citations by the people there issued a special Writ to the Bishop reciting and prohibiting such citations and proceedings for the future De oppressionibus populo per citationes non inferendis By like reason and equity may special Writs now be granted to Ministers not to oppress vex injure their Parishioners especially such as are neither scandalous ignorant nor actually excommunicated by depriving them of the Sacraments at due and accustomed seasons far worse then those malicious citations which were but Ecclesiastical process when as these amount at least to Ecclesiastical censures suspensions excommunications from the Sacraments that for sundry months may yeers of many whole Cities and Parishes without any legal accusation conviction hearing In times of popery if any religious person or Monk professed departed from his house and wandred abroad in the Country against the rules of his Religion or Order upon a certificate thereof in Chancery by the Abbot there issued a Writ de * Apostata capiendo of which I finde * many presidents in our Records for the Sheriffs to apprehend and deliver him to his Abbot or his Attorney to be chastised according to the rules of his Order And if any Priests wore long hair against the Canons and rules of their Order in the Kings Court where the Ordinaries had no power to reform them the King himself granted a special Writ and commission to certain persons giving them plenam potestatem scindendi capillos Clericorum qui sunt in Hospitio no●●ro familia nostra longos crines habentium capillos nutrientium c. Pat. 21. H. 3. dor 3. By the like and better reason then may special Writs be issued to reduce Ministers off●ending in and apostatizing from the very essential duties of their function not in circumstantials only as these in former times to the due execution of the duties of their function and administration of the Sacraments to their Parishioners according to the rules of their Order the Statutes of the Realm the Doctrine custom of the Church of England so much now slighted contemned by them to Gods dishonor the vilipending of their Ministery function yea the Sacraments themselves and their peoples grief offence and spiritual prejudice who may doubtless have a * special action at law against them on the Stat. of 1 Ed. 6. 1 Eliz. c. 2. for their relief herein The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper are bequeathed by Christ to all visible Members of every visible Church as visible who are known to their Ministers not to the elect invisible regenerated Members only infallibly a known to God alone but not to any mortals Every Member of a visible Church hath an equal right to and b in all Sacraments Ordinances Priviledges of the visible Church as he is a Member of it by vertue of his Membership as c all Freemen of England have an equal interest in all the Laws Rights Liberties Franchises of the Realm of England as they are native Freemen of the Body politick of England As therefore no English Freeman may or can by Law be debarred from the use and benefit of the common Laws Liberties and Franchises of England or any pretended or real crimes but by and upon a legal conviction and judgement according to the Laws of England so no member of the Church of England of ripe Yeers and in his right Senses may or can be debarred from the Lords Table or any other publick Ordinances Priviledges of the Church of England for any pretended scandal but by a judicial legal sentence of Excommunication whereby he is actually suspended or cut off from being a Member of the Church for the present his very Membership whiles he is a Member entituling him of Right to whatever Ordinances any other Members enjoy and to participate with them therein It is therefore as great as high an Injury Injustice
c. 2. and upon the second conviction he is Ipso Facto deprived of all his spiritual Promotions and his Vicaredge and the Patron may present another 2. They may all after such refusal joyntly detain their Tythes and Duties demanded by him as their Vicar because by his own confession he was never legally instituted to discharge all the Duties of an Incumbent according to 13 Eliz. c. 12. and disclaims to own them as his proper Flock and Cure owning onely his Segregated Congregation for such in opposition and contradistinction to his Parish which they may plead in Bar of any Legal Action to recover his Dues this p disclaiming of them being a kinde of resignation of his Vicaredge and bar unto his Dues quia Beneficium propter Officium and if he be not their true real Parochial Vicar and do not his duty to them he hath no right to their Parochial dues nor yet unto the Glebe If he will muzzle their mouths * not tread out the corn to them at the Lord's Table they may also muzzle his mouth that he shall not eat of their Corn at his own or their Tables by way of retaliation Our * Law-Books resolve That if an Annuity be granted to a Lawyer Attorny or Physitian pro Consilio suo impenso impendendo if they stop or refuse to give the Grantors their Counsel when required or if A. grants an Annuity to B. for the use of a way and B. stops the way that hereupon the Grantors may justly stop and detain the Annuities being forfeited by their stoppage and refusal of their Counsel Advice or way granted and may plead the same in Bar of any Action at Law for these Annuities much more then may the Parishioners do it when their Vicar or Incumbent not only peremptorily refuseth to give them the Sacraments but disclaims to be their Vicar or Pastor in a Parochial and Legal way If they will reap all their temporal things and duties it is just they should sow and administer to them all their spiritual things and Nutriments if the Parishioners must not muzzle their mouths much less must they muzzle their Parishioners by keeping them back from the Lord's Table 1 Cor. 9. 10 11. Rom. 15. 17. 3. Every particular Parishioner grieved may by the Statutes of 13 E. 1. c. 24 25 50. have a special Action upon the Case against him at the common Law as I conceive since he can now have no remedy in any spiritual Courts as formerly being all suppressed by the self-same Reason as Executors and Legatees now sue at the common Law and in Chancery for such things such Legacies and Ministers for such Tythes and Duties as formerly they had no suit nor remedy for but in Ecclesiastical Courts alone else there should be a great failer of Justice and because no Ecclesiastical q Jurisdiction is now either wronged by nor can be claimed pleaded against such Actions there being none to take present conusans of them Or at least they way have a * special Action against him upon the Statutes of 1 Ed. 6. c. 1. 1 Eliz. c. 2. as well as upon the Statutes of Magna Charta c. 20. of Merton c. 10. and other Acts 4. I conceive the Patron himself from the forecited Reasons of Littleton's Cases of Frankalmoigne Sect. 136 137. and of Conditions in Law Sect. 378 379. upon the Vicars refusal to own the Parishioners and administer the Sacraments to them as his Flock for which end the Glebe and Duties thereunto belonging were first given by the Patron and his Tenants to the Vicar and his Successors as well as to preach may justly enter upon him for breach of this Condition in Law out him of the Glebe and Vicaredge and bestow them on some other by his immediate deed of Collation and Livery of Seisin without any Presentation as * free Chappels used to be and are still collated and that upon this Legal Ground r because Patrons originally had the sole right of collating inducting instituting Clerks and Incumbents to their Churches without the Bishops special license as they conferred other Freeholds to their Tenants by their own immediate grants and liveries till Bishops and Ordinaries by sundry Canons extorted by degrees this Jurisdiction from them ingrossing the power of approving admitting instituting and inducting Clerks into Parochial Churches by degrees into their own hands Which Bishops with their Canons Ordinances being now suspended or abrogated in England and their ancient Jurisdiction by no express Act of any real Parliament legally transferred to any other Ecclesiastical or Civil Jurisdiction thereupon the Patron 's original right of collating Benefices by immediate grant and livery and outing the Incumbent thereof as Patron s and Visitor of the Church for not administring the Sacrament and discharging his pastoral Office is * revived resetled in him by Law So as he may now justly enter put out or deprive the Vicar as the Bishop and Ecclesiastical Courts might formerly have done there being no other Legal Ecclesiastical Powers here extant to depose him which the Marginal Law-Books with other Authorities will cleer compared with 21 E. 3. 46. 13 E. 4. 8 9. Br. Extinguishment and Reviver 16. 46. Cooks 1 Instit. f. 319 338. 24. E. 3. 72. Bro. Escheat 9 19 and 13 E. 1. c. 25 50. 5. I conceive a special Writ may be framed and directed to the Vicar commanding him to administer the Sacraments to his Parishioners according to his Pastoral duty and the Laws and Customes of England and if then he refuse to do it thereupon he may be fined attached ejected for this contempt and that upon this Ground Our King heretofore being * Supreme Governours in and over all Ecclesiastical and Temporal Causes and persons had by the very Common Law of England a Soveraign Power without any Act of Parliament by their remedial Writs upon all occasions to enjoyn all Officers Prelates Priests Ministers persons under them to discharge those Offices Duties which the Laws themselves and their Offices engaged them to perform This is evident not only from the examples of Solomon Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah Ezra and other godly Kings and Governours in Scripture who appointed the Courses of the Priests and Levites to be in the Temple commanded them to wait upon and execute their Offices in every particular according to their charges to offer Sacrifices praise and minister before the Lord as the duty of every day required to kill and prepare the Passeover for the people but likewise by special Proclamations Edicts commanded both Levites Priests people to keep celebrate and eat the Passeover a Type of the Lords Supper which succeeds it when they had neglected it sundry years 1 Chron. 24. 2. Chron. 8. 14 15. c. 13. 10 12 18. c. 29. 16 to 35. 30. 3 16 24. c. 35. 2 to 18. Ezek. 6. 18 to 22. But also 1. From the Elegant t Oration of King Edgar to
Panormitan in Rubrica de Parrochiis Petrus Rebuffus de Collationibus p. 655 Willielmus Lyndewoode Provinc Constit l. 3. Tit. de Parrochiis Duarenus de Beneficiis Disputat Anniversaria l. 1. c. 26. Franciscus Zerula Praxis Episcopalis pars 1. Tit. Parochia Goffriàus Abbas Tit. Parrochi● with sundry others define a Parish to be Locus in quo degit populus certis finibus limitatus et alicui Ecclesiae Deputatus And a Parish Church to be Ecclesia quae habet Parochiam ad ejus curam deputatam ad quam convenit populus * Ad Recipienda Sacramenta et ad audienda sacra et verbum Dei et rudimenta fidei diebus sacris Which Dr. Iohn Cowel in his Interpreter and Iohn Minshaw in his Guide unto Tongues in the word Parish thus second English A Parish in our Common Law is the particular charge of a Secular Priest and then subjoyn A Parochial Church is that which is instituted for the saying of Divine Service and Ministring of the holy Sacraments to the people dwelling within such a compass of ground near unto it With them accords the Book of Mich. 34 E 1. Fitz. Quare Impedit 187. where they prove a Church to be no Chapel but a Parish Church because it had Sepulture Baptism and Sacraments administred in it And the Statute of 32 H. 8. c. 32. For the Church of Whitegate to be made a Parish of it self and no part of the parish of Over proves it to be a Parish Church antiently from this very reason Because the Inhabitants and Tenants within such places and precincts time out of mind came and resorted to the said Parish-Church of Whitegate within which times they have continually received Sacraments and Sacramentals at and in the said Church and have continually used to marry bury and Christen within the same And the Statute of 32 H. 8. c. 44. reduced the Town of Royston belonging to 5 remote parish-Churches to one Parish Church new built i nt because it was over-painfull especially to the impotent sickly and aged Inhabitants to travel to those Churches so remote or any of them to hear their divine Service and they could not have the Sacraments and Sacramentals to be ministred to them according to the laudable custom of holy Church to their great perils and jeopardies through the remoteness of these Churches and absence of their Parsons and Curates in such cases of necessity when their presence o the comfort and consoliation of their Parishioners is most requisite and ●ehovefull So that Parish Churches so stiled because originally built by the Patrons and Parishioners for their ease use benefit and the use of and ast; seats in them are still in the Patron Parish who repair them were originally built and ast; consecrated as well for the Administration of Sacraments in them by their Parish Priests Parsons and Vicars as for Divine Service Prayers and Preaching Of which the people cannot be deprived without their great disconsolation perils and jeopardies as this Paliament and Statute resolve to which the Statute of 1 Jacobi ch. 30. For errecting a New Church in Melcombe Regis to be the Parish Church of Radipol c might be added to the like effect This will be most apparent and irrefragable by considering the Office and Duty of every Parish-Priest Parson and Vicar and why he is stiled Par●chial he his stiled a Parish-Priest or Minister as Duarenus and others forecited resolve because he is specially obliged to preach administer the Sacraments and perform all other duties belonging to a Minister to all and every Inhabitant of that Parish to whose Church he is presented instituted inducted and not to any others but only voluntarily when he pleaseth being married and espoused to that peculiar parish whence he is stiled * Parochus and the people Parochia by the Canonists and Lawyer a Angelus de Clavasio and b Franciscus Zerula thus describe the Office of a Parish-Priest or Vicar Parochi officium est Primo praedicare Pueros rudimenta fidei et obedientian docere Vim et usum Sacramentorum exarare populo oves sass agnoscere et bono exemplo pascere Sacramenta administrare c. c Rebuffus thus seconds them Ecclesia Parochialis dicitur Beneficium saeculare et cum administratione Quia Curatus tenetur ministrare Sacramenta Ecclesiastica c. aliaque opera Parochianos tangentia facere tenetur And he is called an d Incumbent both by the Common and Canon Law from the word Incumbo because he ought diligently and wholly to apply him self to discharge these his Pastoral duties him●elf 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. Acts 6. 4. This duty of administring the Sacraments as well as preaching is so inseparably annexed to every Parochial Minister Vicar and Incumbent that e Jacobus de Graffiis f Jo. Andreas and other Casuists question whether Parochus potest assumere alium Sacerdotem in adjutorem pro administranda Eucharistia vel in officio praedicandi vel aliis Resolving affirmatively that he may only for a season when himself by reason of sickness or multitude of the Communicants or other necessary occasions is unable to discharge those duties in person quia tunc necessitas legem non habet Non tamen possit per viam delegationis generalis committere alicui omnem suam curam quia videretur se exonerare Cum tamen debeat per se exercere With these Canonists the book of the consecration of our English Ministers the Homilies touching the Use and Administration of the Sacraments The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments with the Rubricks therein the Articles of the Church of England Artic. 23 26. confirmed by several Protestant Parliaments the English * Injunctions of H. 8 Qu. Eliz. Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum in King Edward the 6. his reign and the Canons of K●ng James and the Convocation under him Can. 20 21 22 23. fully accord injoyning all Parsons Vicars Incumbents whatsoever to administer Baptism and the Eucharist to their Parishioners at least * thrice every year in person which they used to administer ever● Lords day to the people in the primitive Church as I have elsewhere prov'd at large as well as to preach Catechise and read Divine service to them Memorable is that passage in that Pathetical exhortation prescribed by the Church of England in the B●ok of Common Prayer to be used by all Ministers when they shall see the people negligent to come to the ho●y Communion viz. when God calleth you be you not ashamed to say I will not come c. I for my part am here pesent and according to mine office I bid you in the name of God I call you in Christs behalf I exhort you as you love your own Salvation that ye will be partakers of this holy communion c. And whereas you offend God so sore in refusing this