Parliament since the first entrance upon a Reformation in this Kingdome It is true that in the Reigne of King Henry the eight one Cranmer was active in the cause of God against those sixe bloudy Articles which cost so many their lives But of all the Hierarchie not one was found to joyne with him but all opposed and he alone for three dayes together was faine to stand to it and at length by the malice practice and potency of the Prelates hee was overcome and the cause carryed against him Acts and Monuments par 2. page 1037. edit 1610. This was in the yeare 1540. When about foure or five yeares after Cranmer in two severall Parliaments used his best endeavours to get that bloudy Law repealed and had before hand as he thought drawne over to his side the Bishops of Worcester Chichester and Rochester who promised to assist the cause in Parliament yet when it came to the tryall all the Bishops forsooke him and the cause againe In so much as the King himselfe and the Nobility stood to him so farre as to give way to a moderating of the former Law when the Bishops would not abate the least part of the rigour thereof Antiq. Britanni in Cranmero In King Edward the sixth his Reigne it is true a blessed Reformation was happily begun but by whom By the Bishops No verily Cranmer only excepted For he and the Protector were the men that advised the King and went through with the worke As for the great Bishops Gardiner of Winchester and Tonstall of Duresme Bonner and others they served to fill prisons and diverse ran away And in all Letters of the Lords for more particular Reformation it was onely Canterburie and the Nobilitie that did promote the businesse See Acts and Monuments in King Edward the sixth But in Queene Maries dayes who but Bishops for the Masse and all the grosse body of Popery both in Convocation and Parliament Cranmer and the rest of the Orthodox Bishops were soone persecuted and at length committed to the fire while the Popish Prelates being restored to their places spared no diligence to promote Popish Idolatry throughout the Kingdome and that by their Votes in Parliament whereby they might more plentifully shed bloud by a Law When GOD delivered this Kingdome from those Marian flames and set up blessed Queene Elizabeth it cannot be denyed but that in the Bill for restoring all ancient Jurisdictions to the Crown and for reestablishment of Religion and ejection of Popery the Lords Spirituall are named in the Act because the bill being carryed by the greater number of Votes the dissenting party which was the lesse are included in the rest and it becomes the Act of all in common repute and esteeme of Law But little thankes to the Bishops for any of that Reformation which was then restored We finde the Bishops of Winchester Litchfeild Chester Carlile and Lincolne appearing in open defence of Popery while that Parliament was sitting Act and Monuments par 2. page 1619. edit 1610. But these were not all that stood for that cause Witnesse the deprivation of Heath Arch-Bishop of Yorke Tunstall Bishop of Durham White of Winchester Thyrlby of Ely Watson of Lincolne Baines of Coventry and Litchfeild Bourne of Bath and Wells Christopherson of Chichester Oglethorp of Carlile Scot of Chester Morgan of Saint Davids beside Bonner imprisoned Pates of Worcester Goldwel of Saint Asaph in exile for the same Pseudo-Catholike cause None of all which can with any probability of reason bee imagined to have Voted for the restoring of the Truth they being by vertue of that Statute deprived for opposing the Truth And albeit I know nothing but by heare-say of the generall carriage of Bishops in Parliaments sithence and so doe not charge them yet how often they have with-stood bills against Non-residency * In 31. Elizabeth a Bill against Non-residents passed the House of Commons being in the other House greatly approved of much spoken for by many of the Temporall LORDS yet through the earnest labouring of the Bishops it could have 10 passage there Another Bill for reforming Ecclesiasticall Courts in King James his time passed till it fell among the Bishops and there was stayed Pluralities and other evils and defects in the Reformation of Religion and of their Courts the world hath beene sufficiently informed insomuch as the House of Commons hath already declared and resolved at a Generall Committee of the whole House Iune eleventh 1641. That the Bishops have beene found by long experience to bee great hinderances of a perfect Reformation and of the growth of Religion En majus bonum Ecclesiae produced by the Vote of Bishops in Parliaments And as their voting in Parliament in matters of Religion is ad detrimentum potius quam ad utilitatem Ecclesiae so it cannot bee imagined how their Votes there in Civilibus should conduce more ad majus bonum Ecclesiae Except the wilfull and incorrigible continuing in a course forraine and contrary to their proper Calling and such as being duely performed is a very great hinderance to the exercise of their Ministeriall Function as hath beene before declared can redound to the greater good of the Church which they seldome looke after unlesse to receive the profits of it and to plague those who are profitable in it that themselves may more splendidly and securely in Parliament and every where else Lord it over the whole heritage of God 3. ANSVVER to the first REASON The Apostles unnecessarily put themselves to more hinderances to worke for their livelihood Acts 20.24 1 Thessalo 2.9 2 Thess 3.8 EXAMEN Vnnecessarily Boldly spoken and were I sure that one of my fellowes or equalls had written it I should without breach of good manners pronounce it saucinesse little short of blasphemie Was it not necessary that the Apostles should have a livelihood And was the procuring of it by labouring with their hands although I know none but one after CHRISTS Ascension that was put unto it to avoyd the oppression of poore converts or to prevent scandall among either poore or rich converted or unconverted an unnecessary thing This may bee a straine of Policie passable enough among Spirituall Lords of Parliament but was never knowne to bee good Divinity among such as desire to approve themselves unto GOD. I have bin taught that Necessarium is put sometimes pro utili pro congruo convenienti as well as pro naturali seu debito or pro violento sua coacto And I have learned among the Schoole-men that there is a necessitie not only absolutè simplicite sic dicta but also ex suppositione conditione when a thing not simply necessary in it selfe becomes such in regard either of end meanes circumstances or otherwise When Saint Iohn 1 Epist 2.27 tells the Christians yee need not that any man teach you was his writing to them to instruct them further unnecessary When Saint Pauls abiding in the flesh was more needfull
and to see more of this may consult Lancelott Perusin Institut Iur. Can. Lib. 1. Tit. 5. De Episcopis summo Pontif. Cap. Ad hos in the addition of Io. Bapt. where it is said in multiplicibus casibus Archiepiscopus in subditos Episcopos ordinariam habet jurisdictionem ut in C. pastoralis de offi ordin Sylvest ponit duodecim And if these be not enow hee may also see Hostiensis sum li. 1. de offic ordin where there be more cases even eighteene in number expressed in certaine verses which are there likewise interpreted by the same Author of those summes Henricus de Segusio Officium varium forus appellatio crimen Peccans non parens res consultatio deses Praesul Canonici tumidi sententia nequam Visitat indulget Custos quia Papa dat usus Permutat socijs suspectum cumque remittit Casibus his Primas * Subjectos forsan subjectio Prasules arcet I forbeare to mention our owne Lindwood and many moe These may suffice to shew in how many things Bishops have dependance upon and may be obnoxious to their Metropolitan and how many wayes the Arch-Bishop can meet with them if they go not his way in all things that he is set upon And were it true that there is no dependency upon nor obedience due to the Arch-bishop but in Appeales and Visitations as it is a truth that these have in themselves no reference to Votes in Parliament yet who knowes not what influence an active and pragmaticall Arch-bishop hath into the Votes of all his Suffragans whom hee can pleasure or displease as he listeth as they Vote with him or dissent from him after intimation or insinuation of his mind in private to them Indeed if we could imagine Bishops and Arch-Bishops to be so complete in sincerity and sanctitie as their high Calling bespeakes them there were little strength in this Reason of the House of Commons But as the Prelates bee men and not free from that which is humane so the House of Commons conceived it not undecent or uncharitable to insinuate something more than is plainely expressed to such an Honourable and Intelligent Assembly of Lords which reason as it is hath force enough in it to weigh with rationall men however for the reverence they bare to the Ministeriall function the House held it fitter to leave somewhat to be tacitely understood than to speake all out that is couched under it 2. ANSWER to the fourth REASON This Argument reacheth not the two Arch-Bishops discharged in the Rubricke from this Oath and therefore is no reason for the passing of this Bill EXAMEN No Reason I am sure it reacheth twentie foure Bishops home enough although two Arch-Bishops should slip Collar which one of them cannot and I thinke the other shall not And the Answerer may bee pleased to remember that the House of Commons brought up Reasons Why Bishops ought not to Vote in Parliament It cannot be denyed but that in the maine body of their Reasons they included Arch-Bishops too And it is true this argument reacheth not to them What then did the House undertake to strike home even unto Arch-bishops in every one of their Reasons Where doth that appeare It is enough that they have sufficiently done it in all the rest foregoing If the Answerer thinke otherwise hee shall be sure to meet with more Arguments against them in the Reasons following Here indeed he hath sufficiently confuted this fourth Reason as to Arch-bishops but it was not their good happe to get ought by the bargaine because the House of Commons thought not fit to include them within the compasse of the Argument which is bent directly against Bishops onely and it is the unhappinesse of the Answerer to goe without his Trophee even where he made himselfe sure of the Victory for he hath fought with a shadow 5. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause they are but for their lives and therefore are not fit to have Legislative power over the honours inheritances persons and liberties of others I. ANSVVER Bishops are not for their lives onely To this Reason a 5. fold Answer is shaped but for their successors also in the Land and Honour that pertaine to their places as the Earles and Barons also are for their successors in their owne Lands and honours And holding their Lands in fee simple may with as good Reason Vote in the Honours inheritance persons and liberties of others as others may and doe in theirs EXAMEN When the House of Commons saith that Bishops are but for their lives I conceive the House to meane that Bishops have no right to place in Parliament but what dies with them as to their heires without hope that their sonnes shall after succeed them in that dignity by vertue of their birth-right or of the fathers sitting in Parliament before them And that therefore In the fourth of his Reigne Case of Tenures 35. a. Bishops being at first but casually mounted to that height and extent of power by William the Conqueror the more to endeere and oblige them upon all occasions to serve him and his successors in Parliament they cannot rationally and according to the principles of Policy and State be hoped to be so carefull and resolute in disposing of their Votes and in maintaining the priviledge and honour of Parliaments as Temporall Lords may well be presumed and expected to bee For these being by birth-right and the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Lords of Parliament and one of the Estates of the Kingdome without whom a Law regularly cannot palse they will bee more active and zealous for the good of their posterity that are sure to succeed them in the same place and Honour and to share in the benefit of the prudent and faithfull dispose of their present suffrage But now the Answerer denying the Bishops to bee for their lives only and affirming them to be for their successors also c. waives the sense and intention of the House of Commons and diverts his Reader from the strength of their Argument For hee tells us that Bishops are for their successors as a kinde of Corporation in Law It is true that a Bishop is a Corporation to some uses but that he is so in respect of his place and Vote in Parliament the Answerer hath yet neither made nor offered any proofe at all The Bishop is called thither by Writ to counsell the King upon presumption of his personall sufficiency and fidelity but ubi gentium doth it appeare that by vertue of the fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome the Bishops must needs sit there as a Corporation without which the Lords House cannot be full Is it not only from Grace that Bishops were first allowed place there And if so they are not immoveable out of their places and therefore they do not necessarily take up those places for their successors But suppose they sit there for their successors yet will it bee very hard to
excesses and intolerable exorbitancies of the present tyranny of many Bishops who dishonestly cal it by the honest name of Iurisdiction so long as the Bishops be suffered to vote in Parliament For the Bishops bee themselves the greatest Offenders therin either acting in it or else as Galba wittingly permitting those to usurpe whom they ought to bridle or willingly ignorant of what they ought to know Therefore it was desired that their Votes in Parliament might be taken away to make passage for another Bill that might regulate their Iurisdiction as in the former Reason was plainely intimated But the Answerer was willing to slide over that which was the life of the present Reason viz. the engagement of Bishops to maintaine their jurisdiction id est as now it standeth and Lap-wing like to carry his Readers from the nest to gaize upon the destruction of Episcopacy it selfe which on my conscience was not then intended by the House of Commons had that first Bill been quietly yeelded by the Bishops in the House of Peeres Nor did the House of Commons I presume by the instance of Scotland and of those in England and Ireland intend in this Reason a purpose of Abolition of the Calling but onely made use of it as an Argument a majore ad minus to this effect That if the Iurisdiction of Bishops as now they terme it be found so greivous that in Scotland they would endure Episcopacy it selfe no longer and many in England and Ireland have petitioned for the abolishing of it in these other Kingdomes it cannot be thought unreasonable and immodest for the House of Commons to passe a Bill for a lesser matter to witt for taking away the Votes of Bishops in Parliament without which there is little or no hope that the Bishops will ever suffer an other Bill to bee enacted for the thorough Reformation and regulating of their Iurisdiction so as to give ease of the many Greivances that still ly upon the subjects of both Kingdomes of England and Ireland and to satisfie the Petitioners with Reason worthy of such a Parliament at such a time of generall discontent cheifly caused by the usurpations of sundry Bishops and of their domineering party What is in the Answer with shew of modesty said that peradventure ten times as many desire the continuance of Episcopacy as there be Petitioners against it It might peradventure be so before the Bishops procured that first bill grounded upon these Reasons to be rejected above and before the world was made acquainted with that Abstract of the Answers given to them But I dare say that now without all peradventure if we may judge of mens desires by their expressions there is scarce one of ten who before were for Episcopacy reformed but are now against it the reason is because they see there is no hope that ever the Bishops will cheerfully yeeld to a perfect Reformation of themselves and their Order and that if hereafter the Prelates should happen against their will to bee over ruled in it such a forced Reformation will never doe good nor secure the Kingdome against the Evills too long sustained under them if the Calling it selfe be continued And verily no one thing hath more alienated exasperated the hearts of all sorts than the apprehended insufficiencies of these printed Answers to the Reasons of the House of Commons So that if Episcopacy happen to miscarry I am perswaded the Bishops will find Cause to ascribe the opening of so speedy a way to their destruction not to any thing so much as to the unhappy Answers given to these Reasons of the House of Commons if those Answers offered to the House of Lords were no other or better than they are presented to publike view in that more unhappy Abstract most unhappily printed 2. ANSVVER to the eighth REASON There wil be found Peeres enough in the Vpper House to reforme any thing amisse in the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction although the 26. Prelates should bee so wicked as to oppose it As there were found Peeres enough in that Noble House to curb the Court of Rome and the Revenues of the Cardinals under Edw. 3. To meet with the Provisors under Rich. 2. To put all the Clergie into a Premunire under Hen. 8. And to reforme the Religion 1 Eliz. notwithstanding the opposition of all the Bishops EXAMEN Mark here his Plea in Barre against the Bill There were Peeres enough to curb the Court of Rome in Edw. 3. and Rich. 2. when none were more glad of the curbing of that Court than our Bishops themselves Ergo there will ever be found Peeres enough to reforme the Bishops jurisdiction I will not say of this putting our Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction and the Court of Rome so neere together Pares cum parihas facillime congregantur But it will perhaps make sport to some to finde them in this Abstract so close one by another yet can it not secure wise men that because the Peeres curbed the Pope Ergo there will ever be enough to curb our Bishops unlesse the Bishops will yeeld themselves to hold of the Pope or to be of the same stamp and resolve to rise and fall with him As for those Cole-worts in Edw. 3. and Rich. 2. now a second time heated I referre the Reader who desires a fresh taste of them to the Examination of the former Answer In the case of Premunire in Hen. 8. who knowes not that if any such had passed in Parliament the Clergie were not so much overborn by the Nobility as overawed by that stern and stout King with whom the proudest Prelate durst not to contest But when wil it be proved that this passed in Parliament Surely Holinshed others tell me that the Bishops were called into the Kings Bench about it but before their day of appearance there was a Convocation wherein it was concluded that the Clergie of the Province of Canterbury should offer 100000. pound for composition which was accepted and a pardon promised to passe in Parliament to free them of the Premunire So in 7. Hen. 8. the Convocation incurred a Premunire for citing one Standish to appeare before the Convocation when they had not jurisdiction which yet was compounded and no Act of Parliament passed on it Nor needed there an Act for it for the Bishops themselves confessed the thing and so it could not come to a contest in the Parliament This is all that I know of this matter And if the case be thus this instance is not to the purpose But the last is of all other the most impertinent and scandalous Impertinent because all the world knowes that the Reformation of Religion was the designe of the Queene whom the Prelates might not crosse such as did thwart were duely rewarded for their paines as hath beene formerly touched Therefore untill it can bee found that the Bishops were over Voted in a Cause wherein the PRINCE went with them or expected their assistance to Vote for him the force of
for their owne lives and surely I beleeve it will be very hard for the Answerer to give so much as any one instance of an Almesman that hath beene allowed to Vote in Parliament Not that my purpose is hereby to disparage any of that Order in reference to their function or present honours but only to speake of them as the Law it selfe doth meerely and only for bolting out of the strength of this branch of the Answer to the Reasons of the House of Commons against the continuance of the Bishops place and Votes as Peeres in Parliament 3. ANSVVER to the fifth REASON The Knights Citizens and Burgesses are chosen for one Parliament only and yet use their Legislative power Nor will their being elected difference their Cause for the Lords use that power in a greater eminence who are not elected EXAMEN The Knights Citizens and Burgesses sit not there as single men but as the representative body of all the Commons of England each of them give their Votes with reference to all those from whom they are sent Besides they are by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome to be there qua tales however the Election of the particular persons bee arbitrary and contingent And although those very persons may never perhaps serve again yet the right and inheritance of the Commons of England whence every member of that House deriveth never dyes so long as the Kingdome lives Therefore who ever for the time hath the honour to bee a Member of that society Voteth in right of the Kingdome not of a particular man As for the LORDS although they neither bee elected nor doe Vote for any but for themselves and their owne posterity yet they have this priviledge from an higher Originall than the Bishops can prove themselves to be descended from namely as wee said before not precario from Grace and favour but from the fundamentall Lawes and Constitutions of the Kingdome Besides their bloud breeding interest in the publike and care for their posteritie borne to so high places must needs assure us more of their wise carefull and zealous managing of their Votes in Parliament than can by any prudentiall or morall grounds be hoped from the Prelates 4. ANSWER to the fifth REASON A Burgesse that hath a Freehold but for terme of life only may Vote and assent to a Law in Parliament EXAMEN Cokus in Littâ— Instit Sect. 133. The Free hold of a Burgesse is not by the tenure of Frank almoigne of which the present debate is for no Lay-man can hold any Land in that tenure Hee is therefore in that regard somewhat more capable But however this may bee yet that which was but a little before said to the next precedent Answer will serve here also A Burgesse doth not Vote in the House of Commons as a Free-Holder although haply none but Free-Holders or Free-men be eligible but as a person chosen by and for a Burrough which hath right to send Burgesses to Parliament and being there he Votes by the fundamentall Laws of the Realme Therefore it is not materiall whether his Free-hold bee for life or for longer time When Bishops shew the like warrant and Commission or the like fundamentall constitutions of the Kingdome for their Voting in Parliament then this Answer may be welcome to the House of Commons 5. ANS to the fifth REASON No such exception was ever heard of in the Diets of Germany the Corteses of Spaine or the three Estates of France where the Prelates Vote in all these points with the Nobility and the Commons EXAMEN What exception hath beene taken to Bishops in other Kingdomes is unknowne to me and perhaps to the Answerer also Unlesse he have seene all the Records and Journals of all those Kingdomes Nor doe I believe that the House of Commons had any Reference to other Nations nor doe intend to bee presidented by them As if because Bishops have this priviledge elsewhere therefore this must bee a Reason sufficient for the continuing their possession of it here Nay every Nation hath its proper Lawes and Customes and though it be no shame to borrow any thing that is better than our owne for the publike Weale yet it is no Answer to a Reason drawne from experienced inconveniency at home to say that this Reason was never heard of in forraigne States But yet I thinke if the matter were throughly examined it will appeare that in those Kingdomes Bishops have a kind of Soveraignty over their severall Territories and are Temporall Governours as well as spirituall Pastors And by the fundamentall Constitutions of those several Empires or Kingdomes those Bishops doe make one of the Estates of the Kingdome without which a Law cannot passe Sure I am it is so in Germany and I beleeve so or the rest although with some difference for they may make a third Estate and yet not bee secular or soveraigne Governors over their severall Ditions Now all know that it is farre otherwise with the Bishops of England and therefore this plea will not be of any force to breake the strength of this Reason of the House of Commons till the Prelates can translate our Lawes and Government into that of those Kingdomes from whence these presidents are impertinently borrowed 6. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause of Bishops dependency and expectancy of Translations to places of greater profit I. ANSVVER This Argument supposeth all Kings and all Bishops to be very faulty if they take the tune of their Votes in Parliament from these dependencies and expectances EXAMEN This Argument taxeth not Kings but medles only with Bishops It is true Kings bring them in and can be wise enough to serve themselves if they meet with men that will put themselves to sale for preferment And to speake plainely the receding from the ancient way of Electing Bishops by the Church is no small occasion and meanes to byas them and to engage them still to goe that way which they perceive him that hath the power of electing and of advancing them higher to bee inclined so that if a King should desire to draw them into a wrong course they scarce know how to deny him nor would many of them sticke much at it for they being men and sometimes none of the best are not onely subject to like temptations and failings that others be but more ready and officious to serve turnes than many times Princes do require And although the House of Commons doe not alwayes take the tune of Bishops Votes in every Parliament from these dependances and expectances yet when they see how much Bishops that have but meane Bishopricks doe continually labour to obtaine greater and to get up higher and then compare these ambitious practices with the tunes of their Votes in most things which concern the more perfect Reformation of Religion and the Clergy and the promoting of the power of Godlinesse c. they cannot but find to their griefe that Bishops Votes in Parliament
for a monument to the eternall infamie of the Composers of it and factors in it Now the Bishops do or ought Nulli sacerdoti liceat Canones ignorare dist 38 cap. Nulli to know that if a Iudge be once taken tardy and guiltie of corruption and wicked judgement hee is for ever presumed to bee corrupt and therefore unmeet to bee trusted in another Court any more For it is in Maxime both in the Civill and Canon Lawes which holds in all Lawes Reg. juris 8. Semel malus semper praesumitur esse malus And this presumption is not onely praesumptio hominis or praesumptio facti but praesumptio juris too quia jus sic praesumit ex facto saith the Glosse upon that rule So that if Bishops have thus encroached upon the consciences and properties of the Subject in Convocation as t is now declared they have they are unmeet and unworthy to bee trusted any more with Votes in Parliament where they may doe as much again or more if opportunity bee offered and therefore this Reason of the House of Commons is invincible But have they not done as much in Parliament also What meant the Statute of 2. H. 4.15 against the Lollards procured by Thomas Arondel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Prelates against diverse of the Nobilitie for they are not at all mentioned in that Act What meant their struggling for the sixe Articles in 31. H. 8. 14. first concluded in their Holy Synod in spite of CRANMERS teeth What meant their Conspiracy to pull downe Religion in 1. Mar. after it had happily in great part beene reformed in King Edward the sixth his time What need we any further proofe Habemus confitentem this Answerer himselfe hath confessed as much in the close of his Answer to the next Reason following where he roundly acknowledgeth the opposition of all the Bishops to the Reformation of Religion in 1. Eliz. But I must on to the rest of the Answer ANSWER Nor yet at the Votes of such Bishops there as are not guilty of that offence That is of passing such Canons in Convocation EXAMEN This Exception may save the Credits of those men who were present and protested legally against such illegall and wicked proceedings so as they may have peace within and without too if after by post-fact they contracted not the guilt of Accessories by administring those Canons But yet in the account of Law and in the estimate of Law-makers before whom such lewd Canons bee arraigned the Bishops doe know that it is another Maxime and Rule in Law Refertur ad universos quod publice fit per majorem partem That is justly imputed to all that was publikely done by the Major part If they who dissented not did not protest in due forme of Law or absented themselves because they disliked the businesse but had not the courage and fidelity to oppose it as became their duty they are justly involved within the number of the guilty at least so far as to be held unworthy to be any further trusted to Vote either in that place or in an higher much more because through negligence incogitancy cowardise and the like they did not their utmost to helpe the Lord against the mighty and to oppose those wicked Canons with all their might I passe on to the next branch of the Answer ANSVVER Nor need the Subject to be discouraged in complaiing against the like grievances though twentie sixe of that Order continue Iudges For they shall not Vote as Iudges in their own Cause when they are legally charged EXAMEN What encouragement shall one or some few private subjects hope to finde when the whole House of Commons by the labouring of some Prelates lesse in number than twenty sixe cannot get passage for a necessary Bill grounded upon so many solid and weighty Reasons against the Votes of Bishops in Parliament And who can be assured that hereafter they shall not vote as Iudges in their owne Cause when even now de facto they have already done it Perhaps there is a secret in that clause When they are legally charged which I cannot discover But surely I thinke the meaning of it to be that the Bill came not home to a legall charge that might exclude them from votcing in it because the House of Commons would needs be so civill towards the present Bishops as not to name them in the Bill whereby not their persons but their Order onely was charged And if this were the error upon which the first Bill miscarried the House of Commons are wise enough to make use of this close wipe of the Answerer and to finde out a way to avoyd the like fault in the next The Answerer goes on ANSVVER And if they should vote what were that to the purpose when the Lay-Peeres are still foure to one EXAMEN If the Lay-Peeres as he termeth them were tenne to one yet if but a few of those twentie sixe Bishops have a mind to be active which in their own cause is not unlikely they know wayes enough how to draw over to their party Noble and ingenuous natures apt to be more taken with reverence of their function and gravity than willing to suspect their ends or to dispute their grounds how often so ever themselves or their Ancestors have beene circumvented and misguided by them But he will give you instances to the contrary which may put all out of feare ANSVVER The Bishops assisted with a double number of Mitred Abbots and Priors could not hinder the Lawes made gainst the Cou t of Rome the Alien Cardinals and Prelates the Prov sors the Suitors to the Popes Consistory under Edw. 3. Ric. 2. and Hen. 4. much more may those emergent exorbitancies of the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction be soon curbed redressed in this inequality of votes betweene the Temporall and Spirituall Lords EXAMEN The Bishops so assisted could not hinder Nay rather they could not hinder the Lawes made against the Pope Strangers For the more the Pope encroached the more our Bishops smarted under those Vsurpations and groaned under the many continuall heavy taxes whereby all the Clergy of England were impoverished in their Estates and the Bishops much curbed in their Iurisdictions He should shew himselfe an egregious Ignaro to the Stories of those times that should require Instances hereof there being so many much elder than Edward the third Matthew Paris and sundry other Historians abound herein Therefore I will content my selfe with only one instance in the reigne of Hen 3. In his time the exactions pollings of the Clergy and Kingdome were found to be yearly 60000 Antiq Britan. ex Mat. Paris in Bonifac. Markes which at that time exceeded the Kings owne Revenues No benefice or dignity belonging to the Nobility Clergy or Gentry not many pertaining to the King himselfe could bee void but the Popes Provisors were ready to seize on it instantly for some of his Creatures Italians and other