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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34480	Jura cleri, or, An apology for the rights of the long-despised clergy proving out of antient and modern records that the conferring of revenues, honours, titles, priviledges, and jurisdiction upon ecclesiasticks is consistent with Scripture, agreeable to the purest primitive times, and justified by the vsance and practce of all nations / by Philo-Basileus Philo-Clerus.	Philo-Basileus Philo-Clerus.	1661 (1661)	Wing C612; ESTC R23895	70,115	98

token of Reverence an honour which he shews not to any other Subject and will hardly vouchsafe the like to the mightiest Monarch upon earth Neither do the inferiour Degrees want their due esteem for after their Mufti they have their Cadelischers somewhat resembling the Christian Patriarchs next their Cades answerable to our Bishops then their Santons Talismans suitable to our Presbyters and Deacons the lowest of whose number is highly respected by the people Elma●in Hist Arab. Id. Then for the old Saracens t is a matter sufficiently known that with them for some 100 of years the same Person was both Prince and Caliph I might multiply innumerable instances to this purpose but I shall not weary my Reader Now let not any envious Momus imagine that all this while I drive on a design to have this revived and made a pattern for Christians no my only meaning is to put our Clergy-haters to the blush if they have so much of vertue left as the Colour when they see how by the common consent of Nations which Tully calls the Law of Nature the highest Honour was ever given to the Priest The Prince of Philosophers laying it down for an Axiom that t was a work most proper for the worthiest Aristotle 7. Polit. c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Peasant no Artisan must defile these Sacred things quia par est Optimum ab Optimo coli Summum à Summo there must be some resemblance and Analogy between the Master and the Servant And therefore if we will beleive Trigautius amongst the wise Chinois olim Rex hodie soli litant Magistratus primarii Regnique Proceres No Inferiour person must come neer the Altar CHAP. III. Englands Respect to the Clergy FOr their Nobility in our own Nation Spelman and Lambard S●pelm C●●nc Ep. ad ●eg confessedly the Ablest Pair of our Saxon Antiquaries do avouch that the Saxons ever reputed the Bishops equal and in some points Superiour to their Greater Thanes whom Posterity call Barons and as may be seen in * Archaion Lambard the Laws of Ethelbert Ina and Aethelstan do rate them accordingly Nay in all the ancient Charters the first place was ever given to the Spiritual Lords In a Donation of Ethelbert A. 605. to the Monastery of S. Peter in Canterbury the first witnesse subscribing is Austin the Bishop and after him several Dukes and Earls In a Charter of King Ina's A. 725. to the Monastery of Glassenbury after the Bishops Beorthwald and Fordred we have Waldhere Ethelherd Umming and Winchelin the greatest Peers in the Nation putting their names Presently after in a Grant of Offa's to the Abby of Worcester A. 780 Brordran Berhtand Eadbald and Eadbald two Princes and two Dukes follow the Bishops Monast. Angl. Spelm. Conc●possim And at the same Kings Consecration of St. Albans A. 793. no lesse than ten Dukes besides other Nobles give place to the Prelates Come down an Age Lower in the Donation of Edgar to the Covent of Glassenbury the Bishops lead and Elphere Oslac Ethelwine three Dukes bring up the Rear And to make an end in a Charter of Edward the Confessors to the Monastery of Winchester immediatly after the King subscribed Plegmund and Frithestan the Bishops being followed by Ethelweard the Kings Brother Aethelstan and Aelfweard the Kings two Sons Ordluf Osred Brorhtulf Ordgar and Heethferth Dukes many more of this Nature might be produced out of the same Authors and others as standing monuments of the Clergies eminent Reputation the Reverence our Religious Ancestours bare to their Function And that this may not be thought to proceed meerly from the courtesie of England as in some other Cases t is familiar We have it confirmed by Statute 31. Hen. 8. c. 10. where in all Degrees and Offices are placed in Assemblies and Conferences and there the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as Primus Par Regni the first Peer of the Kingdom is ranked before all the Nobility seated at the Kings right hand next and immediatly after the Royal Blood and the Vice-Gerent and the rest of the Bishops follow him in their due Precedency according to the Dignity and Anciancies of their Respective Sees And t is farther observable that they are ever named before the Temporal Lords in Magna Charta Charta de Forest c. Nor were they ever excluded from the greatest imployments of Honour and Trust in the Nation And to evidence that this is not spake without book I shall subjoyn a Catalogue of Church-men collected out of Malmesbury Harpsfield Godwin Spelman Isaacson c. that have borne all at least the most Honourable Offices of State and however bespattered by some discharged them with much integrity and repute England owing more of its happinesse to men of this Calling then any other Though it cannot be denied but some miscarriages may here and there be found yet as few as can be expected in such a multitude and if a man were disposed to carp he might without much sweat produce two for one in critically examining any other Profession I shall begin with the Metropolitan to whom this Primacy justly appertains and take the rest in order CANTERBVRY WE find fewer of this See upon the Civil Stage then any other most Offices being lookt upon as below the Archi-Episcopal Dignity and therefore a Nobleman upbraided Hubert with it when A. 1199. according to Spelman Godwin 93. he was made Chancellour of England Chief Justice and High Governour of all the Dominions under King Rich. 1. Afterwards King John entrusted the same Prelate with the Government of the whole Realm at his departure into Normandy Walter Reynalds Chancel A. 1310. John Stratford Chancel under Edw. 3. and when the King invaded France no person thought so fit in his absence to have the Government of the Nation entrusted to him Simon Islip of the Privy Council to Edw. 3. John Stafford to Hen. 5. John Moorton to Hen. 6. and Edw. 4. But why stand I upon this when in truth it has been seldom known that any of them have been omitted Fox Martyr Nor was this proper only to the times of Popery Come to the Reformation we find Cranmer of the Privy Council to Hen. 8. and Edw. 6. and very active in civil matters yet a man so averse to Rome so instrumental in planting the Gospel so laborious so holy that a great * * Brightman Com. Apocalytpical man and no friend to the Hierarchy takes him to be that Angel pointed at by the Spirit of God Revel 14. that had power over the fire Under the renowned Queen Elizabeth John Whitgift of the Council and the Government of the Principality of Wales given up to him YORK Walter Gray Chancellour under King John had the Government of the Realm entrusted to him under Hen. 3. William de Melton successively Treasurer and Chancellour of England A. 1317. William de Zouche Vice-Gerent to King Edw. A. 1346. John Kempe A. 1425.

to Foraign Embassadors and to appoint a time and place for the choice of the new King After him follow the rest of the Ecclesiasticks who in the * Assemblies take place of all the Secular Nobles My Authour farther enlarges this to have proceeded from the Piety of the Polish Kings towards the Church that the Sonnes of it should for ever have the highest Place in all Conventions with many other Priviledges which to this day they enjoy in his own words No Clergy-man neither but a Lawyer maximo illius Regni Commodo Emolumento Adjumento addo Ornamento Id. Cromerus addes that there is ever a Royal standing Council assigned the King of which number there are alwaies Two Arch-Bishops and Seaven Bishops Then how considerable a number in all the German Dyets the Ecclesiasticks are * L. de Comitiis ●mp Panvinius is a witness beyond exception who reckons up 34. Bishops that have their votes there besides Abbots Priors c. who passe for Religious Persons And in the Septemvirate we find no lesse then 3 Clergy men Ments Arch-Chancellour of Germany Coln of France and Triers of Italy I shall wholy out of this Catalogue omit Spain and Italy as being such known Vassals to the Pope where the Clergy rule the roast But one word dashes all this they are Papists which is argument enough to many to condemne a thing though back'd by never so strong reasons Let us examine how matters stand with others who have no correspondence with Rome Andreas Bureus in his description of Sweden acknowledges that the Ecclesiasticks were heretofore the prime men in the Senate till the Covetuousnes of Gustavus the first despoiled them of their Revenues Yet since the Reformation they still to this day retain their suffrages in all publick Dyets of the Kingdome Burei Descrip Suec And when the new Crowned King makes choice of his Counsellours the Arch-Bishop of Vpsal is still the first who is allowed a greater proportion of Attendants when he comes to the King then any Noble-man in the Nation no lesse then 40. Horse being permitted him whereas others Retinue must not exceed 30. And in the great Assembly A. 1600 convened at Lincopen we find mentioned both Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks For Denmark Pontanus recites 7 Bishops as the Ecclesiasticall Nobility who have Votes in all grand meetings Jonas ab Elvervelt distributes the states of Holstein into Three Orders 1 King and Princes 2 Prelates 3 the Families of the Nobles and he makes the Bishops of Lubec and Sleswick the 2 prime Peeres in all the Dyets MS in Arch. Bodl. entit the man of hald Par. Scot. In Scotland anciently the Bishops and Prelates were essential members of Parliament and had their Seates on the Right Hand of the Prince And in a Parliament held at Edinburg A. 1597 a Vote passed for restoring the Clergy to their Original Priviledges as the 3 Estate of the Kingdom the Learned King James condemning that Act of Annexing their Temporalties to the Crown as * Basil Dor. l. 2. p. 43. vile and pernicious Then for Geneva who is so much a stranger to the conduct of that Reformation as to be ignorant what a stroke Calvin and others had upon the Senate or grand Counsel which gave occasion to the complaint of some that they had expelled one Bishop and admitted many If remoter Countries be regarded amongst the Abissines the Clergy is Paramount * Dresser Orat. imployed in affaires of all natures and we read in Damianus a Gôes of Zaga-Zaba an Ethiopian Bishop Viceroy of Bagana sent Embassadour to the King of Portugal In Muscovy their Supreame Convention which the Inhabitants call Zabore consists of the great Duke 20 Nobles and as many Ecclesiasticks the common People being wholy excluded Gaguin And when they are met together to deliberate the Patriarch and Ecclesiasticks are first consulted and deliver their Opinion I shall conclude this Paragraph only reminding that neither Pagans nor Mahomatans are so inhuman so discourteous towards their Priests as to deny them this Liberty For Tully acquaints us that it was by the appointment of the gods Orat. pro Dom. suâ that the Pontisices should not only take care of Religion but summae Reip. praeesse Voluerunt Nay at this very day the Barbarous Turks never exclude their Mufti but allow him free entrance into all their Councills and Divan CHAP. II. The Clergies Antient Priviledges in this Kingdom and their Restitution pressed by many Arguments T Is Recorded to the Glory of England that her Bounty and Liberality to the Church in Stately Fabricks and Revenues her Favour and Indulgence in large Priviledges and Immunities have come short of no Nation in the World I might produce many instances to that purpose but for the present shall single out one as more eminent and glorious then the rest viz. Admitting them to all publick Debates and Assemblies I 'le begin with the Saxons who had many solemn meetings 1. their Scire-Gemots which some learned Antiquaries resemble to our County-Courts or Sheriffs-Torn in which all Causes both Criminal and Civil concerning Church or State were handled The Persons bound to be present were the Sheriff the Bishop and all the Nobles of the County till at last upon their Humble Petition Ecclesiasticks were dispensed with by the Statute of Marlborough 52. Edw. 3. unlesse urgent necessity required it Secondly Their Folc-mots a kind of Annual Parliament commonly held the beginning of May in which all the Princes of the Kingdom Bishops and Magistrates assembled and the Laity took the Oath of Allegiance and confirmed their own mutual Union before the Bishops The Original of this is intimated to be as high as King * L.L. Edv. Conf. c. 35. Arthur Thirdly Their Wittena-Gemots or Mycel-Synoth the Grand Convention of the Wisemen These whosoever desires to look farther into may have recourse to Spelmans Laborious Glossary V. Gemot Now out of none of these were the Clergy excluded but ever reckoned an eminent Principal part of each their Counsel Votes and Approbation demanded before any Laws were constituted For proof of this we shall look back above 1000 years to Ethelbert who presently after Austins arrival A. 605. calld a grand Assembly tam * Spelm. Con. p. 126. Cleri quam Populi .. In the Laws of King Ina which Florentius Wigorn. dates A. 686. Spelman 692. Lambard 712. we read that they were written by the perswasion and advice of his Bishops Hedda and Erkenwald and though Spelman excerps no more then concern the Church as being only proper to his design yet Lambard mentions many Civil matters there determined And when the Great League and Union between the Britons Saxons and Picts was concluded we have it ratified per commune Consilium Assensum Omnium Episcoporum Procerum Comitum omnium Sapientum Seniorum Populorum Bed Hist l. 1. per Praeceptum Regis Inae In the Laws of K. Ethelstan about the

Apostolical practise were alwaies binding how comes it to passe that many things approved by them as Community of goods extream unction abstaining from blood c. are now in the revolution of time disused and condemned Nay if there were any strength in this arguing the brainsick Anabaptist and railing Quaker would be furnisht with an unanswerable Plea against our Churches for who knows not what hard shift the poor Primitive Christians were put to how glad they were of private Houses Barns yea Vaults and Caves of the Earth to meet in and secure themselves from the rage of their watchful Persecutours Hence in some antient Monuments Churches are called Cryptae hiding places because through the violence and heat of persecutions the poor Christians were forced with Nicodemus to go to Christ by night and we have frequent mention of their antelucanos hymnos in Pliny Ep. c. But no sooner did God restore a little breathing and send peace then they left their dens and holes building and beautifying Churches and providing liberal maintenance for their Preachers And now there 's nothing more common in Nazianzen and the Greek Writers then to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their Majesty being the Pallaces of the great King For in Constantines daies when the World newly divorced from idolatry was enamoured with true Religion they thought they could never build their Churches-starely and sumptuous enough but how strangely now have they left their first love If a man should read of or view the Ancient Piles the Greek St. Sophia our English St. Pauls the Roman St. Peters c. The stupendious Church at Tyre described by Eusebius at Antioch by Hierony in Chron. at Hierusalem by Cyril in his Catech. which the Piety and Devotion of our Fore-fathers erected and compare them with our Modern whifling Structures he would blush at the sordid penuriousnesse of degenerating posterity I must needs say it has oftentimes moved both pity and anger in me to see an Impropriating Patron flaunting it in a Royal Fabrick when the House of God adjoyning crouched under it in a tottering ragged condition Exclamet Melicerta perisse frontem de rebus David was otherwise minded 2. Sam. 7.2 Nor would former ages have born it who spared no cost no pains to build no care to consecrate these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Authors tearm them those Sacred Structures For this is no novel Invention the practise we find as antient as Hygynus A. 140. whose Decree to that purpose is yet extant Deeret de Consecrat Dist 1. c. Omnes Basilicae And come but a little lower when Constantine had erected that Magnificent Temple in Mount Calvary Zozomen informs us L. 2. c. 25. what an Assembly of Reverend Prelates there met to Consecrate it Nor was any thing more usual amongst the Primitive Fathers Athanas Ep. ad Constant Ambro L. 1. Ep. 5. St. Aust Serm. de Temp. L. 56 Nay it appears by the Titles of severall of St. Austins Sermons that they had Solemn Anniversary Commemorations upon the Consecration day But to return T is confessed then that in the Apostles daies and the Ages immediatly succeeding the poor Christians were glad with any thing and reckond the least toleration a favour but when the State of the Church was changed by those great Revolutions in the Roman Empire order and decency began to be lookt after And is it not downright madnesse in any to complain of their happinesse to desire to return to that condition which the Fury of Persecutors enforced as if they repined at the goodnesse of a merciful God who dissolved that Cloud and made the Sun of Prosperity to break out upon his weather-beaten Church turning a dark morning into a glorious evening Now if such a wild rate of reasoning be allowed a man may as well conclude that all the Succeeding Kings of England are bound to lay aside their State and Imperial Robes because time was when his present Majestie in his own Kingdom to escape the malice of his implacable enemies contented himself with a homely Cottage * Nay a Loyal Oake bestrid a Millers Horse and had none but Dame Joane to wait upon him I know the Courtiers would smile at such Logick though I must needs say t is little better that our learned Sophisters use against the Clergy .. For thus they reason the Clergy enjoyed small Revenues lesse Honours few Priviledges no Jurisdiction under Persecuting Pagans therefore they are immodest to desire it should be otherwise under Believing Christians To speak plainly then once for all in point of Doctrine I reverence those early times equal to any man but in matters of Discipline Order and Decency to draw Rules from a poor persecuted Church that was constrained to use what the necessity of the times would bear not the Gospel allow and to confine posterity to their hardships when the wise providence of God has changed the Series of Affairs is just as if a man should be enjoyned to wear the same Garments in fair weather as he did in foul and not to change the nasty attire he had on in a boisterous Storm though the clearest Calm succeeds it The time then that we must principally eye is that when God gave Rest Peace to his long afflicted Saints when the Great Monarchs of the earth veiled their Crowns to the Crosse and if from those daies their Civil Jurisdiction cannot be cleared let an irrevocable Decree be passed against them Not that I grant them wholly excluded in those elder times many footsteps of their private medling in secular matters being every where found as has already been evidenced But how could it rationally be expected that any Precedents of such Eminent Authority and Power conferred either upon the Apostles or their immediate Successours should be produced since the Jus Divinum of Civil Jurisdiction belonging to the Clergy is utterly disclaimed and no title pleaded to it but the Favour of the Supreme Magistrate and who is such a stranger in Israel as to be ignorant how little the Professours of the Gospel were then set by when all the Great Potentates of the World ran madding after Idols and t was no lesse then death to own our Crucified Redeemer So that if this be strictly stood upon we shall at last joyn issue with the Frantick Euthusiasts who deny it lawful for a Christian to be a Magistrate there being no expresse command for it in the New Testament nay many Texts seemingly against it not any Example of the Apostles hardly of the Professours of the Gospel known to be such in those early times that bare an Office Well then for the first 300 years the Church had no Kings for its nursing Fathers none that gave up their names to Christ in Soveraign authority the wise God that disposes of all times and Estates reserving that mercy for these later daies exercising them with great tryals till the Earth was watered with the blood of

rational to conceive that Church so full of errors that it had not one dram of truth remaining that once pleasant Garden of Christ so overrun with weeds that it had not one good flower in it I remēber Valentinus Gentilis made it a great argument against the Reformed Chuches for that they agreed with the Papists in the Doctrine of the Trinity But we must not tearm every thing Superstitious that is believed or practised by the Church of Rome no more then we do every thing Ceremonial that we read of in use amongst the Jews who we know had customs Moral as well as Levitical I shall never therefore rashly condemn any thing as Popish meerly because I find it amongst them unless Scripture Antiquity or reason induce me Sure I am Peter Martyr and Jewel were never suspected adherents to that party yet see what Titles the former gives the later in the Preface to his Treatise of Ubiquity and every where in his Epistles But I shall not waste time and paper in contending for this since if the Substance be once recovered the Revenues and Jurisdiction this Shadow will soon follow THE CLERGIES PRIVILEDGES CHAP. I. The ancient Immunities of the Clergy with their present State in other Nations THe Prudent Piety of the first Christian Emperours for the better incouragement of Religion and Learning conferred many large Immunities and Exemptions upon Church-men freeing them from Subsidies Impositions and sundry Services wherewith the rest of their Subjects were burdened * Eccle. Hist L. 10. c. 7. Z●zom L. 1. c. 9. Eusebius and Zozomen record several Priviledges granted by Constantine that those who minister in holy Religion be wholly free and exempt from all publick burthens Nor were the Ancient Franchises of our British Church short either for number or extent being all confirmed by Magna Charta without restraint My Lord Cook acknowledges that the Clergy had more and greater liberties then other of the Kings Subjects which to set down would ask a Volume some few he recites as that they were discharged from Purveyances Tols Customs Distresses by the Sheriff in the old inheritance of the Church with others of the like nature But most of these are now lost and their condition reduced below the meanest Calling in the Nation It would make a man mourn and weep as often as He looks back upon the Charity of our Saxon Ancestours who in their greatest Impositions ever excused Ecclesiasticks no part of that insupportable Tax of * Spelm. Glos V. Daneg Danegelt under which the Kingdom so much groaned being paid by them and till after the Conquest they were ever priviledged For * Spelm. Con. Ethelwolfe in a full Convention of his States at Winchester A. 855. enacted that Tithes and Church-Lands throughout all his Dominions should be free from civil burthens and exactions as much as Royal Tributes great and smal But how strangly has the Case been altered of late How unequal were Contributions and Quarterings during our Intestine Wars What heavy burthens did the poor Clergy bear no Redresse to the bitterest complaints being found from their Lay-Judges who only made sport at their misery and oppression as if nothing were too bad for Black-Coats Now those daies through mercy are over and must be forgotten but still to be wounded by the hand of their friends and to receive the same hard measure from pretended well-wishers that strikes to the very heart When no regard is had of all their past sufferings First-Fruits Tenths no small standing Revenue of the Crown amounting as some compute to neer 40000. per an which they joyfully discharge but they must still be left to the arbitrary disproportionat Impositions of every domineering insolent Officer The Consideration hereof has convinced many formerly of a different perswasion that t is not onely useful but expedient but necessary to the Church to have some of its own order in power to protect them and hear their just grievances But what farther concerns our own Priviledges being so learnedly handled by the immortal Spelman and the General ones so fully Collected by * De Stud. privileg Rebuffus and others I shall not here insist upon them The grand Concern at present which I principally design is how far they were priviledged as to publick Assemblies and State Consultations And that Constantine with many other succeeding Emperours made use of their Advice both at home and abroad imployed them in Embassies and other Important Transactions has been allready demonstrated It now remains to see how they fared in other Places And first if such an Argument could hope to sway with Christians it should soon be proved that those who attended the worship of the Heathen gods were admitted into the Pan-Aetolium and Amphictyonian Council amongst the Athenian Areopagites and Roman Senators that the old Gauls divided their States * Caes Com. L. 6 in Druidas who had omnium Rerum immunitatem Equites Plebem as the Strabo L. 17. Egyptians did into Priests Soldiers and Artificers But leaving Gentilisme I shall hasten to Christendome And here once for all premise that by the Fundamental Constitutions of most Nations in Europe Three Estates are generally setled whereof the Clergy or Priesthood is ever one Now to make this good though I might produce variety of Instances yet I shall content my self with the single Testimony of Calvin knowing that it will go farther with many then a Jury of others This we find expressely asserted in that * Instit L. 4. c. 20. Sect. 31. Piece which some cry up next to the Writings of the Apostles in singulis Regnis tres sunt Ordines which how to make up without the Spiritualty is beyond my skill In our neighbour Nation of France the practice is notoriously known the antient style of the Royall edicts alwaies running as 't is recorded of Pepin A. 744. per consilium Sacerdotum * Thuan. passim Optimatum ordinavimus per consilium Sacerdotum Optimatum Ordinavit Carolomannus It might farther be noted that Six Prelates here are Peeres of the Kingdome Three of them being styled Dukes three Counts though the whole number of the Pairie exceed not 12. As likewise that the Bishop of Paris has a peculiar Indulgence of being present in every Court of that Royal City without exception Ch●ppinus Look into Hungary there Thwroczius informes us that by the Fundamentall Lawes of K. Stephen the Bishops in Concilio Regis Primi assistunt Poland comes behind none in its Reverence to the Clergy where the Arch-Bishop of Gnesna is Primas Regni Stanisl Krzis tanowick Descrip Pol. Princeps primus whose Jurisdiction is not limited to the Spiritualty alone but has the chief place in the rank of the Senators assigned him the greatest Authority in all Consultations And when at any time there happens an Inter-regnum as it frequently may in those Elective Kingdomes it belongs to him to Summon a Dyet to give Audience