Selected quad for the lemma: king_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A38840
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The Evil eye plucked out, or, A discourse proving that church revenues cannot be alienated by any secular persons or powers without a manifest violation of the known fundamental laws of this kingdom, and of publick justice, and a common-honesty
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1679
(1679)
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Wing E3555; ESTC R6758
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19,644
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92
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and experience to perfect it be not sacred yet in the sense of our Laws they are Clerks too that are exceedingly well read and Learned as Clergy-men are or should be From which use of the name Clerk by I know not what cause there are no Pen and Ink-horne men now relating to the Law termed Clerks but those that use Pen and Ink in Courts as Clerks of Parliament Roles Clerks of Chancery c. But blessed be God that the Laws of this Kingdome are not so little cultivated or understood especially by Gentlemen of any note or account in this latter age but that the interests of the Church and religion are sufficiently conceived and that by the constitution of this state the Lands both of the Clergy and themselves are so founded that one cannot be attacqued or invaded without a manifest wrong to the very settlements and freedoms of the other And therefore little doubt that so many hundreds or thousands should ever combine to do any acts of wrong and unrighteousness to them and therein besides the violation of their trust and consciences weaken and enfeeble themselves and their posterities for ever Nor have these Church-preferments been entailed to the off-spring of the Peasantry and common people which for the most part have not ability to give Education unto their Children to qualify them for such Offices but have generally been the reward and support of some branches of the most ancient and frequently of the most Honourable families of the whole Kingdom insomuch as those that have been born to sit with Princes have not disdained by a sedulous and studious life to fit themselves for those dignities Nor did the Policy of any former ages esteem them ever the less qualified to serve their Princes when they were so well prepared to serve God and his Church This little Catalogue that I have subjoyned will let you see that the dignities of the Church have been the Seats for several of the greatest families of this Nation which for the more speed I have set down promiscuously without any orderly marshalling Thus Agelnothus Bishop of Cant. was Son of Earl Agelmare Athelmarus Bishop of Winton was Son to Hugh Earl of March and Queen Isabel Henry de Bloys Bishop of Cant. was Brother to King Stephen Hugh de Pudsey Bishop of Durrham was Earl of Northumberland Boniface of Savoy Bishop of Cant. was Vncle to Queen Eleanor wife of Hen. 3. Richard Talbot Bishop of London was Allyed to the Talbots after Earles of Shrewsberry Henry Beaufort Bishop of Lincolne was Son of John of Gaunt Will. Courtney Bishop of Cant. was Son of Hugh Courtney E. of Devon Giles de Bruse Bishop of Hereford was Son of Will Lord de Bruse George Nevil Bishop of Exon was Brother to Richard Nevil Duke of Warwick Thomas Peircy Bishop of Norwich was Allyed to the Piercies E. of Northum Lionel Woodvil Bishop of Sarum was Son to Earl Rivers of Sarum Thomas Vipont Bishop of Carlile was Allyed to Viponts then Earls of Westmoreland Marmarduke Lumley Bishop of Carlile was Allyed to the house of Lumley's Walther Bishop of Durrham was Earl of Northumberland Julius de Medices Bishop of Worcester was Allyed to the house of Medices in Italy Nicholas de Longespee Bishop of Sarum was Son to Will Earl of Salisbury Will Dudley Bishop of Durrham was Son of Jo. Lord Dudley Walter de Cantilupo Bishop of Worcester was Of a great house in Normandy Lewes Beaumont Bishop of Durrham was Of the Bloud Royall of France Thomas Arundel Bishop of Cant. was Son to Rob. Earl of Arundell and Warren James Berkley Bishop Exon was Son to the Lord Berkley Rich. Scroope Bishop Cov. and Litchf was Brother to Will Scroope Earl of Wiltshire Thomas Bourchier Bishop Cant. was Son to Hen. Bourchier Earl of Essex Roger de Clinton Bishop Cov. and Lichf was Of the same family with Geofery de Clinton Jo. Stafford Bishop Cant. was Son to the Earl of Stafford Will. de Vere Bishop Heref. was Brother to the Earl of Oxon. Richard Beauchamp B. Hereford was Allyed to Beauchamp then Duke of Warwick Jo. Grandison B. Exon was Of the house of Grandisons Dukes of Burgundy Edmund Audley B. Heref. was Allyed to Audley E. of Glocester Hen. Burwesh B. Line was Nephew to the Baron of Leeds Jo. Zouch B. Llandaff was Brother to the Lord Zouch Hen. Beaufort B. Linc. was Allyed to the Beauforts E. of Dorset Fulco Basset B. Lond was Lord Basset James Stanly B. Ely was Brother to the Earl of Darby Simon Montacute B. of Ely was Allyed to the Montacutes then Earls of Salisbury I might extreamly enlarge this if there were either time room or need so to do And as for the Gentry and the Lawyers and Merchants which according to the constitution of this Kingdome are to be had in no small regard very few of all the Bishops of this Kingdome have been from any lower families than such or if here and there one have risen from small beginnings it hath been extraordinary merit parts and industry that have been the means of their promotions And such unthought-off advancement is common to the Laity as well as the Clergy amongst whom many of the now highest rank may attribute their rise purely to the grace and favour of Princes who as one saith have so much of God in them whose deputies they are that they oftentimes raise the poor out of the dust that they may set than with Princes even with the Princes of their people And although these preferments and dignities in the Church have in this latter age fallen more generally to the hands of such that have been the Branches of Knightly and Gentile Families and not to those that are the Sprouts of Peers there is no reason that the Peers should envy this honour and advantage unto those Worthy Families and neither accept of those imployments themselves nor be content that others enjoy them there is no cause that while they esteem those advantages too small for the least Peers they should conclude them too liberal or splendid for the best Commons Especially when by a chargeable Education and a painful and industrious Life they have acquired learning and parts to be able to undergo them to the glory of God and the honour of their houses It were most unreasonable and disingenious for the Nobility after themselves are entered into the Court of Honour to pull up a Draught-Bridg and shut to the Gates that none else may enter There are but these two ways for the Commons by merit to aspire unto honours by the Gown and by the Sword And if this way should ever be bayed up the rest of the pathes of the Gown would become so wondrous rough and uneven that there would hardly any ready way for them to come unto dignities remain but what they could dig out with the Sword For as for riches It is much more uncertainly attained by all industry than Wisdom and Learning and if
and Estates and ought for to have And these two are so far from crossing one another that they mutually go together for the honourable and comfortable support of both For as it is the duty of Subjects to supply their King so it is the part of the Kingly Office to support his Subjects in the propriety and freedom of their Estates And truly all Magistrates are to guard this therefore it was the less wonder that that brave Roman Emperor should make his whole Army stand still to do right to a poor Widow But to this chiefly are the Kings of this Island so much obliged that it is the principle Article of the Coronation Oath which the King sweareth to maintain Sir Will you grant Arch-Bishop keep and by your Oath confirm to your people of England the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England your lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the antient Customs of this Land King Ex Libro Regali I grant and promise to keep them To which he afterward sweareth Now the Rights and Franchises granted by St Edward first are contained chiefly in the Magna Charta and in the Charta de Foresta 9 Hen 3. made 9 Hen. 3. of which this is the History This poor Island torn to pieces by innumerable Factions for the support of the particular dominions of the Heptarchy was at last gotten into the hands of Canutus the Dane An. Christi 1018. yet so as by Conquest where all under his subjection were at his mercy for wherever a Kingdom is overrun and grasped by Conquest the Kings will is the only Law Quod principt placuerit legit habet vigorem The Kingdom in this condition descended to St. Edward An. 1043. called for his excellent Holiness the Confessor who considering the uncertain estate of a Governor who hath nothing but the point of his Sword to guard him considering that the surest fortress was the love of the people and withal that nothing could gain so much upon their affections as Liberty and Emancipation he took this course to caress them to infranchise them and remit the standing Revenue that had been formerly paid to the Crown in acknowledgment of their Vassalage called Daneguilt being 40000 pounds per annum And that their Persons or Estates might not be subject to the Will of any violent person but be protected by a Law he digested a body of Laws out of the Customs and Ordinances of four Countries An. 1044. which was the beginning of our Common Laws But when William Duke of Normandy came on this Kingdom An. 1066. and made a new Conquest his Sword cut all former Charters asunder Those that were then his Vassal must submit to his pleasure both for Lives and Estates He that had gotten a great Kingdom with great dangers and difficulties used the English with little Mercy The whole Nation was in such a condition that they knew not what to call their own Stows Chron. He deposed the greatest part of the English Nobility and distributed their Earldoms Baronies Bishopricks and Dignities to his Normans On the Commons he laid what Restraints Burdens and Bridles he pleased For thirty Miles together in Hampshire without Mercy or Conscience he depopulated and laid wast a great number of TOWNS VILLAGES and CHURCHES without any satisfaction to the Inhabitants to make a Chace for Wilde Beasts which is now called the New Forest He charged at his pleasure what Souldiers he pleased on the Bishops Earls Barons Shiriffs c. He caused the whole Kingdom to be Surveyed in a book to understand what Land every Baron did possess how many Knights-fees how many Plough-Lands how many Villains how many Beasts or Cattle every man possessed within this Kingdom Such strange doings continued all the time of Will. Rufus from the greatest to the least and as the Historian affirms the Land was full of mischiefs that came of this doing Hen. 1. his Son well weighing the sad inconveniences of this Tyranny took other courses He restored the state of the Clergy Ans Reg. 1. he asswaged the grievous payments restored again St. Edward's Laws and at length gave once more a manumission and compleat emancipation to the Kingdom Stows Chron. and made us a free people Afterwards confirmed and ratified by the Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta in the 9 year of the Reign of Hen. 3. Which particularly and in the first place doth enfranchise the Church 9 Hen. 3 c.1 We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and for our Heirs for evermore that the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her holy Rights and Liberties inviolable And truly before the Promulgation of that Charter all the Kingdom were Slaves and at the will of the Sword both for their Estates and Lives Nay even after this Charter many great Pregogatives were claimed and held by the succeeding Kings As the bestowing of the youngest Daughter of any deceased Baron in Marriage as he pleased with all her Fathers inheritance although the Eldest were Married in their Fathers life time and with his liking Si aliquis Baro dicti Domini Regis tenens de Rege obiisset non haberet haeredem nisi filias primogenitae filiae maritatae sunt in vita patris Dominus Rex daret postnatam filiam quae remanet in haereditate patris alicui militum suorum cum tota haereditate patris sui de qua obiisset seisitus ita quod aliae filiae nihil reciperent adversus postnatam filiam in vita sua Et omnes Reges habuerunt hanc dignitatem a conquestu And some Prerogatives continue to the Crown at this day of a like nature notwithstanding the Property of the Subject by the great Charter As in defailance of Heirs the King inherits so that the last Possessor cannot dispose or alienate it by Will In Treasure Trover in whose Land soever found it goes not to the Proprietor of the soil In the case of Mines discovered of perfect Metals they go to the King in whose Land soever they are found Now although this great Charter was so early granted yet some succeeding Kings invading the Property of the Subjects and Ruling according to their own Lusts was the occasion of those fearful Civil Cammotions called the Barons Wars Particularly the insolent and intolerable Violence and Tyranny of King John Stows Chron. in the Reign of K. John For there were many Noble mens Wives and Daughters whom he oppressed and defiled othersome with great Exactions he brought into great Poverty the Friends and Parents of some he banished and turned their Inheritances to his own use