extraordinary alterations it is not only requisite to abolish all bad opinions out of the mindes of those that know not the drift of the enterprisers but it is also necessary that the defence of such alterations be made forcible against the opposition of all gainesayers we will descend to the particulars and joyne issue with the Admonitor And upon all allegations exceptions witnesses and records to bee made sworne examined and produced out of the holy Scriptures and Lawes of the Land already setled on the behalfe of our cause before our Soveraigne Lord the King his Nobles and Commons in Parliament we shall submit our selves and our cause to the Kings Royall and most Christian judgement In the meane time we averre that not only the former clause of this admonitory bill but that all other clauses following in the same bill for the invaliditie insufficiency indignitie and nullitie of them are to bee throwne out and dismissed from the Kings Court especially for that the particulars opened by the Admonitor can not serve for any reasonable warning to induce the common people to rely themselves upon his I am of opinion to the which we plead at barre as followeth ADMONITION First saith he the whole State of the Lawes of the Realme will be Page 77 altered For the Canon Law must bâ— utterly taken away with all Offices to the same belonging which to supply with other Lawes and functions without many inconveniences would bee very hard the use and studie of the civill Law will bee utterly overthrowne ASSERTION When by a common acceptance and use of speech these words whole State of the Lawes of the Realme are understood of the Common and statute lawes of the Realme that is to say of the Kings temporall Canon and civill Lawes no part of the Laws of the Realme but only by sufferance lawes and not of Canon or Civill lawes it cannot follow that the whole state of the Lawes of the Realme should be altered though the Canon and Civill Lawes with all offices to the same belonging should be utterly taken away and be wholly overthrown For no more could the Admonitor prove the Canon or Civill Law at any time heretofore to have beene any part of the Lawes of this Realme otherwise than only by ` a 25. H. 8. C. 21. in the preamble sufferance of our Kings acceptance long use and custome of our people than can any man prove a parsley-bed a rosemary-twigge or an ivie-branch to be any part of the scite of the Castle of Farnham And therefore he might aswell have concluded thus the whole scite of the Castle of Farnham will be transposed for the Boxetrees the Heythorne Arbours and the Quick-set hedges planted within the Castle-garden must bee removed and cast away which were but a proofe provelesse and a reason reasonlesse If then by the abrogation of the Canon or Civill Law scarce any one part of the lawes of this Realme should be changed what reason have we to thinke that the whole state of the lawes of the Realme must be altered Besides to conclude the whole by an argument drawne ab enumeratione partium and yet not to number the tenth part of such parts as were to bee numbred is I am sure neither good logick nor good law Moreover if all the Canon-law I mean all the Papall and forraigne Canon Law devised and ordeined at Rome or elsewhere without the Realm and consequently all the Offices and functions to the same belonging bee already utterly taken away what hope of reward can Civilians expect from the use of such things as are within the compasse of that law or of what efficacy is this argument to prove an alteration of any part of the lawes of this Realme or that the studie of the Civill Law should be utterly overthrowne For the whole state of the Lawes properly called the Lawes of the Realme hath stood and continued many years since the same Papall and Canon Law was abolished An imbasement for civilians to have preferment by offices of the Canon law The Canon law be abolished out of the realme and ought not to be used And as touching the Civilians for them to seeke after preferments by Offices and functions of the Canon Law is an embasement of their honourable profession especially since farre greater rewards might very easily bee provided for them if once they would put to their helping hands for the only establishment and practice of the Civill Law in the principall causes now handled by them in the Courts called Ecclesiasticall But how may it be proved that the Papall and forraign Canon law is already taken away and ought not to bee used in England For my part I heartily wish that some learned men in the Common Law would vouchsafe to shew unto the King and Parliament their cleare knowledge in this point In the meane season I shall not be negligent to gather and set downe what in mine understanding the statute-Statute-Law hath determined thereof By the statute of submission 25. Hen. 8. revived 1 Eliz. as the very words and letter of the petition and submission of the Clergy of the body of the law and of the provisoes doe import the very true meaning and intent of the King and Parliament is evident and apparent to be thus as followeth and none other viz. That such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Synodall or Provinciall which before that time were devised and ordained or which from thence orth should bee devised or ordained by the Clergie of the Realme being not contrariant or repugnant c. should only and alonely be authorised and to be put in ure and execution And consequently that all Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Papall and made by forraigne power without the Realm should wholly and utterly be abrogated adnulled abolished and made of no value The words touching the petition and submission mentioned in that Statute in substance are these Where the Kings humble and obedient subjects the Clergie c. have submitted themselves and promised in verbo Sacerdotii that they will never from henceforth presume No Canons provinciall or other to bee put in ure therefore no papall canons in force to attempt alledge claime or put in ure any Canons Constitutions Ordinances provinciall or other or enact promulge or execute any new Canons c. And where also divers Constitutions Ordinances and Canons Provinciall or Synodall which heretofore have beene enacted and be thought not only to bee much prejudiciall to the Kings prerogative Royall c. the Clergie hath most humbly besought Canons provinciall heretofore enacted being prejudiciall are to be abrogated the Kings Highnesse that the said Constitutions and Canons may be committed to the examination and judgement of his Highnesse and of two and thirty persons of his subjects c. and that such of the said Canons and Constitutions as shall bee thought and determined by the said 32. persons or the more part of them worthy to be abrogated
any person detaining his tithes and offerings the Hospitall of S. Leonards in Yorke of the Kings foundation and Patronage endowed of a thrave â—ospital of S. Leonard 1 2. h. 6. c 2 of Corne to bee taken yearely of every plough earing within the Counties of Yorke Comberland Westmerland and Lancaster having no sufficient or convenable remedie at the Common Law against such as with-held the same thraves it was ordained by the King in Parliament that the Master of the said Hospital and his successors might have action by writ or plaints of debt or detaine at their pleasure against all and every of them that detained the same thraves for to recover the same thraves with their dammages And by the Statute of 32. H. 8. c. 4. it is enacted That the Parsons and Curates of five Parish Churches whereinto the Towne of Royson did extend it self and every of them and the successors of every of them shall have their remedie by authoritie of that act to sue demand ask and recover in the kings Court of Chancerie the tythes of corn hay wooll lamb and calfe subtracted or denyed to be paid by any person or persons Againe Vicars Parsons or improprietaries do impleade any man in the Ecclesiasticall Court for tythes of wood being of the age of twenty years or above for tyth-hay out of a medow for the which time out of mind and memorie of man there hath only some Meade-silver beene paid or if a debate hang in a spirituall Court for the right of tythes having his originall from the right of Patronage and the quantity of the same tythes do passe the fourth part of the value of the benefice a prohibition in all these and sundry other cases doth lie and the matters are to bee tried and examined in the Kings Courts according to the course of the Common Law unlesse upon just cause there bee granted a consultation And if in these cases in maintenance of the Common Law the defendants have reliefe in the Kings Courts I thinke it more meet to leave it to the consideration rather of common than to the judgement of Canon Lawyers to determine what alteration the Common Law could sustaine in case if plaintiffes as well as some defendants might pray the Kings aide for the recoverie of tythes especially seeing at this day the manner of paying tythes in England for the most part is now limited by the common and statute lawes of the Realm and not by any forraigne canon law But there is some fact Object happily so difficile so secret and so misticall in these causes of tythes as the same cannot without a very great alteration of the Common law Answer be so much as opened before a lay judge or of the hidden knowledge whereof the Kings temporall Judges are not capable Why then let us What facts touching the upholding of tyths are examinable in the Ecclesiasticall courts see of what nature that inextricable fact may be I have perused many libels made and exhibited before the Ecclesiasticall Judges yea and I have read them over and over and yet for ground of complaint did I never perceive any other materiall and principall kinde of fact examinable in those Courts but only such as follow First that the partie agent is either Rector Vicar Proprietarie or Possessor of such a Parish-Church and of the Rectorie Vicaridge farme possession or dominion of the same and by vertue thereof hath right unto all tythes oblations c. apertaining to the same Church and growing within the same parish bounds limits or places tythable of the same Secondly that his predecessors Rectors Vicars c. time out of mind and memorie of man have quietly and peaceably received and had all and singular tythes oblations c. increasing growing and renewing within the Parish c and that they and he have beene and are in peaceable possession of having and receiving tythes oblations c. Thirdly that the partie defendant hath had and received in such a yeer c. of so many sheepe feeding and couching within the said Parish c. so many fleeces of wooll and of so many Ewes so many Lambes c. Fourthly that the defendant hath not set out yeelded or paid the tyth of the wooll and lambe and that every Tyth fleece of the said wool by commâ—n estimation is worth so much and that every tyth Lambe by common estimation is likewise worth so much c. Fifthly that the defendant is subject to the jurisdiction of that Court whereunto he is summoned Lastly that the defendant doth hetherto deny or delay to pay his tyths notwithstanding he hath beene requested thereunto These and such like are the chiefe matters of fact whereupon in the The Kings Iustices are as able to judge of exceptions against tyths as the Ecclesiasticall Iudges Ecclesiasticall Courts proofes by witnesses or records rest to be made for the recoverie of tythes And who knoweth not but that these facts upon proofes made before the Kings Justices may aswell bee decided by them as by any of the Reverend Bishops or venerable Archdeacons their Chancellors or Officials If there be any exception alleaged by the defendant as of composition prescription or priviledge the Kings Justices are as able to judge of the validitie of these as they are now able eo determine customes de modo decimandi or of the use of high wayes of making and repairing of Bridges of Commons of pasture pawnage â—estovers or such like Truth it is that of Legacies and bequests of goods the reverend Bishops by sufferance Legacies how they may be recovered at the common law of our Kings and consent of our people have accustomably used to take cognizance and to hold plea in their spirituall Courts Notwithstanding if the Legacie bee of lands where lands be divisible by Testament the judgement thereof hath beene alwayes used and holden by the Kings writ and never in any Ecclesiasticall Court Wherefore if it shall please the King to enlarge the authoritie of his Courts temporall by commanding matters of legacies and bequests of goods aswell as of lands to be heard and determined in the same it were not much to be feared but that the kings Justices the kings learned Counsell and others learned in the Law of the Realm without any alteration of the same law would speedily finde meanes to apply the grounds thereof aswell to all cases of Legacies and bequests of goods as of lands For if there be no goods divisible by will but the same are grantable and confirmable by deed of gift could not the kings Justices aswell judge of the gift and of the thing given by will as of the grant and of the thing granted by deed of gift or can they not determine of a Legacie of goods aswell as of a bequest of lands If it should come in debate before them whether the Testator at that time of making his will were of good and perfect memorie upon proofs and other
against us that we which urge the same holy law for the bringing in of the discipline by pastors and elders should notwithstanding contrary to the same law intend the leaving out or altering any one of the three estates But which of the three estates was it that he meant should bee left out I trow there is none of the state of prelacie so ill advised as to take upon him the proof of this position viz. That the Lords spiritual The state of the prelacie is not one of the three estates in parliament by themselves alone doe make one of the three estates or that the statutes of England to this day have stood by their authorities as by the authoritie of those who alone by themselvs are to be accompted one of the three estates For if that were so how much more then might the great Peeres Nobles and temporall Lords challenge to make by themselvs an other estate And without contradiction to this day the commons summoned by the kings writ have ever been reckoned a third estate Now then if statutes have hitherto stood by authoritie of the Lords spirituall as of the first estate by the authoritie of the Lords temporall as of the second estate and by authoritie of the commons as of the third estate I would gladly be resolved what accompt the Admonitor made of the Kings estate It had not beene liegnes nor loyaltie I am sure howsoever hee spake much of the Lords spiritualls dutie and fidelitie in the execution of our late Queenes lawes to have set her Royall person authoritie and state behind the lobbie at the Parliament doore Either the kings Royall person then as not comprised within the compasse and circumcription of the three estates by his meaning which had beene but a very bad meaning must be thought to have beene hitherto secluded from authorizing the statute lawes made in Parliament Or els it is a most cleare case that the Lords spirituall themselves alone do not make any one of the three estates And what matter then of more weight may it happily seeme to be to alter the authoritie of the Lords spirituall and to leave them out of the Parliament when as notwithstanding they being left out the statutes of England may remaine and continue by authoritie of the three estates And it were not amisse for the Lords spirituall to consider that the bodie and state of the weale publike both now is and ever hath beene a perfect entire and complete bodie and State without the bodie and state of Prelacie and that the King and Nobles and Commons of the Realme without Prelates Bishops or Clerkes doe make up all the members and parts of the bodie and of the state and may therefore ordaine promulg and execute all manner of lawes without any consent Anno 36. h. 8. fo 51. h Anno m. j. fo 93. â— approbation or authoritie yeelded unto the same by the Bishops spirituall or any of the Clergie And thus much our Divines Histories and Lawes do justifie Sir Iames Dier Lord chiefe Justice of the Common pleas in his reports telleth us that the state and bodie of a Parliament in England consisteth first of the King as of the head and chiefe part of the bodie secondly of the Lords as principall members and lastly of the Commons as inferiour members of that bodie By a statute of provisoes it appeareth That the holy Church of 25. Ed. 3. holy church founded in the state of prelacie by the King England was founded into the state of prelacie within the Realm of England by the grand father of King Edward the third and his progenitors and the Earles Barons and other Nobles of the Realme and their Ancestors for them to informe the people of the law of God and to make hospitalities and almes and other workes of charitie in These uses are changed to the keeping of great horses great troopes of idlers wiâ—h long haire and great chaines of gold 6 Eliz. c. 1. The King bound to do lawes made without assent of prelates to bee kept as lawes of the realmes the places where the Churches were founded From whence it followeth First that the Archbishops and Bishops only and alone doe not make of themselves any state of prelacie but that the whole holy Church of England was founded into a state of Prelacie Secondly it is plaine that the Kings of England before they and the Earles Barons and other Nobles and great men had founded the holy Church of England into a state of Prelacie ought and were bounden by the accord of their people in their Parliaments to reforme and correct whatsoever was offencive to the lawes and rights of the crowne and to make remedie and law in avoiding the mischiefes dammages oppressions and grievances of their people yea and that the Kings were bound by their oathes to doe the same lawes so made to bee kept as lawes of the Realm though that thorough sufferance and negligence any thing should at any time be attempted to the contrary For whereas before the statute of Caerlile the Bishop of Rome had usurped the Seignories of such possessions and benefices as whereof the Kings of the Realme Earles Barons and other Nobles as Lords and Avowes ought to have the custodie presentments and collations King Edward the first by assent of the Earles Barons and other Nobles and of all the communaltie at their instances and requests und without mention of any assent of the state of prelacie in the said Parliament holden at Caerlile ordained that the oppressions grievances and dammage sustained by the Bishop of Romes usurpation should not from thenceforth be suffered in any manner And forasmuch as the grievances and mischiefes mentioned in the said Act of Caerlile did afterward in the time of King Edward the third daily abound to greater dammage and destruction of the Realm more than ever before and that by procurement of Clerks and purchasers of grace from Rome 31 Ed. 5 sta of â—â—ering the said King Edward the third by assent and accord of all the great men and commons of this Realme and without mention of any assent of Prelates or Lords spirituall having regard of the said Act of Caerlile and to the causes conteyned in the same to the honour of God and profit of the Church of England and of all this Realme ordained and established that the free elections of Archbishops Bishops and all other dignities and benefices elective in England should hould from thenceforth in the manner as they were granted by the Kings progenitors and founded by the ancestors of other Lords And in divers other statutes made by King Edward the third it is said that our soveraigne Lord the King by the assent of the great men and all the Commons hath ordained remedie c. That it was accorded by our Soveraigne Lord the King the great men and all the commons 36 Ed. 3. c. 6 8 Ed. 3. 3. statute of provisours
of Yorke and Silby were there present In a booke intituled the burning of Pauls Church in London 1561. and in the fift question moved by a papist it is said that this manner of ministration of Sacraments set forth in the booke of Common prayers was never allowed nor agreed upon c. no not by the Clergie of England at the last Parliament but only it was agreed upon by the Laitie which had nothing a doe with spirituall matters or causes of religion Whereunto the reverend Father Master Pilkington Bishop of M. Pilkington Bishop of Durisme Duresme answering was there not saith he a disputation for Religion appointed by the Queenes Majestie wherein your Clergie was affraid to utter their foolishnesse in defending their superstition lest they had taken more shame in answering than they did in holding their peace I thinke the Vniversities with so many places of this Realme receiving religion and these other disputing for it may bee counted to be some part of the clergie of the Realme And so it was not received without consent of the Clergie But these were not of the Parliament What then But as Ioash Josaphat Ezechias and Iosias did not make a new Religion but restored that which was defaced and had long lyen buried so our Parliament did not set forth a new religion but restore that which was godly begun before the good K. Edward confirmed by the Parliament and Clergie then c. But nothing can bee concluded as a law by Parliament say they without consent of the Clergie there present But this having not their consent cannot be counted a law as they think I had rather saith M. Pilkington leave this to be answered by the Lawyers than otherwise Yet that the world may see that something may be said in it we grant him not this to be true that no law at all can be made without consent of Bishops Look your old statutes of Parliament when Bishops were highest afore Edward the third and ye shall read that they passed by consent of the Lords temporall and commons without any mention of the Lords spirituall which statutes many of them stand in strength at this day Then it may well be gathered that the consent of the Clergie was not alwayes so necessarie as they thinke it The Lawyers Judges and Justicers put in practice and execute these lawes therefore their doings may be a sufficient reason to lead the unlearned what opinion they have of this statutes For Religion except Justice Rastall first executing that and afterward running away may condemne the rest which I trust he may not I thinke they would not execute them except they had the strength and nature of lawes If they doe contrary to their knowledge and opinion they cannot be able to answer their doings but I think no wise men are of this opinion Only these corner creepers that dare not shew their face and would deceive the people go about to deface all good and godly order that displeases them In the dayes of K. Edward they had the like fond opinion that the king could not make lawes in his minoritie untill he came unto full age and to make the people to disobey their Prince Hitherto M. Pilkington L. Bishop of Durisme with whom the most worthy and learned M. Jewell late Bishop of M. Iewel B. of Salisburie Salisburie agreeth in every point The wise and learned faith hee could have told you that in the Parliaments of England matters have evermore used to passe not of necessitie by the speciall consent of the Archbishops and Bishops as if without them no statute might lawfully be enacted but only by the more part of voyces yea although the Archbishops and Bishops were never so earnestly bent against it And statutes so passing in Parliaments onely by the voyces of the Lords temporall without the consent and agreement of the Lords spirituall have neverthelesse beene alwayes confirmed and ratified by the Royall assent of the Prince and have beene enacted and published under the names of the Lords spirituall and temporall Reade saith hee the statutes of King Edward the first there shall ye find that in a Parliament holden at S. Edmundsbury the Archb. and Bishops were quite shut forth and yet the Parliament held on and good and profitable lawes were there enacted the departing or absence or malice of the Bishops spirituall notwithstanding In the Records thereof it is written thus Habito Rex cum suis Baronibus Parliamento Clero excluso statutum est The King keeping a Parliament with his Barons the Clergie that is to say the Archbishops and Bishops being shut forth it was enacted c. In provisione de matrona in the time of K. Edward the third whereas matter was moved of bastardie touching the legitimation of bastards borne before mariage the statute passed wholly with the Lords temporall whether the Lords spirituall would or no. and that contrary to the expresse decrees and canons of the Church of Rome And thus much the most reverend and godly Father M. Iewell Bishop of Salisbury Wherefore to conlude this point against the Admonitors position I dispute thus All those persons who by any necessitie are none of the three estates aâ—d by whose authorities the statutes of England to this day have not stood to leave out the same persons may happily seem a matter of lesse weight than all men do judge it But the Archbishops and Bishops are such persons as by nâ—cessitie are none of the three estates and by whose consents the statutes of England to this day have not stood Therefore to leave out the Archbishops and Bishops may happily seem a matter of lesse weight than all men doe judge it If our Evangelicall Bishops be of that opinion of which the Popish Bishops were viz. that the house of Parliament is an unfit and an unmeet place to have the holy cause of the religion of God debated and concluded upon and that the Laitie without the clergie ought not to conclude any thing in Religion and that in respect hereof their presences their voices and their assents are necessary in the â—arliament If our Evangelicall Prelates I say make this objection then besides that hereby they unseemely unmannerly and unchristianly accuse the whole land of ignorance and blindnesse in religion supposing neither King nor Nobles nor Commons to be able to discern betweene night and day besides this I say so shamefull an abuse of a whole Christian nation I would pray them to remember what the most reverend Fathers Master Pilkington and Master Iewell have answered to such cavillous slanders For what else intended they by many examples and proofes brought for the Parliaments of England consisting of the King the Nobles and the Commons to be lawfull Parliaments and to have right to establish religion but to justifie against Popish scoffers that religion might be conceived and established in Parliament notwithstanding the absence or exclusion of the Clergie Besides since our
Seniour or Deacon Therefore much lesse shall every Parish be burdened to find a company of Seniours c Where the Admonitor complaineth that many parishes are not Tolerable and intolerable Ministers able to finde one tolerable Minister we would gladly learne by what brand tolerable Ministers are knowne from intolerable Ministers according as the Lords spirituall judge or judge not of tolerable and untolerable Ministers For if all reading Ministers as needes with them they must bee or else why doe they tolerate them bee tolerable Ministers what a vaine and idle distinction hath hee coyned touching the scarcitie of maintenance for tolerable Ministers Considering all Ministers by intendment of law bee able to reade and considering also a very small maintenance is esteemed to bee a tolerable maintenance for reading Ministers For else why doe the great Bishops in their great Churches of Commendams and the rich Doctors in their rich Churches of non residencies make so small allowances to their reading and stipendarie Curates And where then is that parish in England that is not able to maintaine a tolerable Minister ADMONITION The next Argument that the people might not choose their Pastours Pag. 78. Elders and Deacons as is required is drawne partly from a feare that the same will be a matter of schisme discord and dâ—ssenâ—ion in many places partly from affection and want of right judgement of the people partly from the unrulinesse of the Parishes and partly from the broyle and trouble which may follow ASSERTION Vnto this objection if I should answer nothing at all but only should The objection of feare c. answered deny that any feare or any other inconvenience at all pretended in this place is to be feared to ensue my simple negation were more to be tolerated than his simple affirmation for by the canon Law non inficienti sed ponenti incumbit onus probandi And yet because Doct. in â—si cui de prebâ—â—â— the Lord hath spoken unto Iosua and in him unto us all that wee should not feare nor be discouraged to observe and to doe all that is written in the law for then sâ—ith the Lord shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good successe therefore in the word of the Lord I say that none of all this feare broyle trouble or turmoyle is to be feared at all Nay that it is most assuredly and without all doubt to be hoped and looked for that he would so blesse the attempt of putting this order in execution as that the peoples approbation and allowance of their Ministers should be a matter of all peace quietnesse unitie concord good successe and prosperitie to the whole Church of God in England For what an heathenish incredulitie were it for us to reply upon the erroneous conceit of a timorous and suspicious fancy that feare and I wot not what unrulinesse and unquietnesse shall follow when wee receiving the lawes of peace from the Prince of peace have his most stable truth that his peace shall rest upon us and that all feare and evill successe shall cease and vanish away No busie headed body therefore shall be able to leade any man away to disquiet either Church or common wealth otherwise than as the Church in all ages by the malice of Satan and his instruments hath evermore beene disquieted if once the holy law of the Gospell touching this point were observed and put in ure And if it be feared that the choice to be made by the people of God and which is allowed unto them by the holy laws of God would prove to be a matter of schisme discord and dissention how much more reason have we to feare that the fiâ—e of schisme discord and dissention being blowen already should not breake out and fame among us if still one man alone be suffered to thrust upon the people of God not tolerable Ministers according to Gods heart but intolerable Ministers according to mans tradition The Admonitor hath insinuated unto us often in his Admonition that it is dangerous to innovate And so I say too unlesse there be evident â—â—de constitu prim L. 2. utilitie of innovation For saith the Emperour in rebus novis constituendis evidens esse utilitas debet ut ab eo jure recedatur quod diu aequum visum est But is it not as perillous yea sometimes much more perillous not to innovate for proof whereof it shall suffice to take witnesse of our owne times and of our owne experiences It seemed equall a long time and for many yeares that the Sacrifice of the Masse with all the pelf and trumperie thereof should not once be Dangerous to innovate unlesse ther be evident utilitiâ— of innovation spoken against But we all know that the abandoning thereof hath not yet brought any perillous subversion upon any nation that purely and soundly in place thereof hath embraced the holy sacrament of the Lords Supper It seemeth also to be equall for many ages past that the Bishop of Rome might have supreme and absolute power over all persons states and causes not onely in Rome Italy Spaine Germany and other forraigne kingdomes but also in England and Scotland But as yet to the view of all the world it hath not proved perillous for the King and Queene of England and Scotland to establish new laws for the alteration of that ancient abuse And why hath it not been dangerous so to do Why forsooth because there was evident utility in doing of it But how could an evident utilitie appeare before it was done How Forsooth because the holy law of God had warranted an alteration For faith having eyes to see the wisedome the power and the truth of God in his word discerned a far off that the institution of the Lords Supper was long before the sacrifice of the masse And therefore our Kings by abandoning poperie out of the Realme did not institute any new religion but onely they restored the old Now then if a same holy law of God do condemn the choice and thrusting of the pastour upon the people by one man alone and again it the same Law doe impugne the primacie of one pastour over all Pastours as well in a Diocesse or Province as in the whole West part of Christendome what danger can it be not to disfranchise the one sithence without any manner of danger we have abolished the other or what perill can it be not to countenance the sonnes sithence without perill we have discountenanced the father Especially seeing in this place of the admonition wee have a plaine confession that the common manner of election of Pastors Elders and Deacons in the old Churches was made by the people For if the examples of schism discord and contention did commonly appeare in the old Churches while that manner of election did continue then by his owne mouth Common manner of elections in the old churches was by the people that manner of election
and contained in the Scriptures that infants must bee baptized neither is it expressed and contained in the Scriptures that the bishop of Lichfield must have but one wife Yet because it is contained in the Scriptures that God in the beginning brought but one woman unto one man and gave to one woman but one husband I assure my selfe it will not be denyed but that the bishop must and doth content himselfe with one wife and that every Christian ought to bring their children to be baptized Besides if Master Bilson distinguisheth bishops in England from pastours in England and Archbishops in England and Pastors in England two severall orders and degrees of Ministers in the Church of England then I grant that it is neither expressed nor contained in the Scriptures that the people must choose their bishops in England And why but because the Scriptures having put no difference betweene bishops and pastours know no such bishops as we have in England And therefore bishops Bishops in England are only Bb. by the Kings grace and not by divine institution in England being bishops only by the Kings grace and not by divine institution and ordination as pastours in England be hence is it that the Kings of England by their prerogative Royall and not the people by the rule of Scriptures have chosen their bishops in England And for this cause also was it that K. Hen. 8. with advice of the Parliament did resume the nomination appointment investiture and confirmation of his Kingly bishops from the pope As for the nomination of pastours having cure of soules in parishes otherwise than all patrons by right of patronage doe give presentments their choise institution translation oâ— deprivation the Kings of England by their Pastours in parochiall Churches were never placed by the King as Bb. are in their Bishopricks regall power never yet hetherto tooke the same upon them And if the Kings of England by any fact or by any law did never take away the right interest and freedome from the people in choosing their pastours what right other than by usurpation can the bishops have to impose or thrust upon the people pastours without their liking But by custome and consent the people have restrained themselves Hereunto if it were not alreadie sufficiently answered that the people could not lawfully restraine themselves yet Master Bilson himselfe answereth That the late bishops of Rome never left cursing The people lost their consent by cursing and fighting of the Popes and fighting till they had excluded both prince and people and reduced the election wholly to the Clergie By cursing and fighting then have the people beene overruled and excluded and not by custome or consent have they restrained themselves Yea and by vertue of this cursed fight only doe the Bishops of England at this day exclude both Prince and people from medling in the choise of pastours For by authoritie of the canon law made by those late cursing and fighting Bishops of Rome the bishops of England have the sole ordination and placing of pastours over the people And from hence also it is plaine that the peoples right was not by their default or abuse relinquished and forfeited For then the late Bishops of Rome needed not to have cursed and fought for it And now whether it be not meet that the Lord Bishops professing themselves to be Christian bishops should still retaine in their hands and not restore unto Christian people the possession of their Christian equitie and freedome extoâ—ted from them by the cursings and fightings of antichristian Bishops I leave it to the consideration of the reverend bishops themselves Touching the mischiefes and inconveniences of schismes troubles strifes and contentions so often inculcated and so much urged and excepted against the election of the people there is no man able as I thinke to produce any one pregnant proofe out of any ancient or late historie that any king or Soveraigne power hath interposed any supreme authoritie to appease any discord or dissention ensuing or raised upon the bare choise made of any meere parochiall pastour by any faithfull and christian people The schismes strifes and factions that were raised in the old churches sprang out and slowed onely Schismes and contentions spring from schismaticall and proud clergie masters from the heads and fountaines of those schismes strifes and factions and namely from proud ambitious and hereticall bishops and great clergie masters For they being infected and poisoned with the contagion of schisme and heresie and having sowred the mindes of their Disciples with the leaven of their hereticall doctrines no marvaile if the people became followers of the evill manners of their teachers and no marvaile if they verified the proverbe Like master like man like Priest like people Eustatius Bishop of Antioch being a Sabellian heretike was deposed by the Councell of Antioch after whose deposition a fierie flame of sedition was kindled in Antioch Socr. 1. c. â—â— because one sort of the common people sought to translate Eusebius Pamphilus from Caesarea to Antioch some other would bring againe Eustatius Eusebius bishop of Nicomedia and Theognis bishop of Nice being both Arians with their confederates raised skirmishes and tumults against Athanasius after the death of Alexander bishop Socr. l. 2. c. 2 of Constantinople about the election of a bishop there was greater stirre than ever before time and the Church was more grievously turmoyled The people were devided into two parts the one egerly set with the heresie of Arius clave to Macedonius the other cleaved very constantly to the decrees of the Nieene Councell and choose Socr. l. 2. c. 4 Paulus to be their Bishop The cause of division among the Citizens of Emisa about the election of Eusebius Emisenus was for that he was charged with the studie of the Mathematickes and accused of Socr. l. 2. c. 6 the heresie of Sabellius After the death of Eusebius when the people of Constantinople had brought againe Paulus to be their bishop the Arians chose Macedonius The authors and chiefe doers in that stirre were certaine Arian bishops who before aided Eusebius that turned up side downe the whole state of the Church These Socr. l. c. 9 and sundry such like sturres discords factions and dissentions are found to have beene raised and pursued by schismaticall and hereticall bishops their favourites and followers in the old Churches but that these or the like mischieves and inconveniences can be proved to have fallen out by the election of Parochiall pastours in the old Churches we deny And why then should not the interest and freedome of faithfull and Christian people wrested from them by cursings and fightings of faithlesse and antichristian Popes be restored to them againe And the cause ceasing why should not the effect likewise cease And therefore we humbly intreat the Lords bishops that against the grounds of reason and nature against Christian equitie A â—equest to the â—everend
bishops and societie against the right and freedome of the law of God against the principles of humane fellowships against that which was in the begining and against that which the Apostles left in the Churches by colour of lawes brought into the Church by the cursings and fightings of the late Romane Bishops they would not henceforth barre and seclude the Kings Christian and faithfull people from giving their consents unto their pastours Yea and we further beseech their Lordships that are schollers unto the Apostles and as servants unto the old way of reason of nature of the law of God of the equitie of Christ and of humane societie they would hereafter imbrace that way which was from the beginning which is the old way and the best way and not any longer persist in a cursed and quarrelling way which is the new way and the worst way But if the Lords spirituall of their own accord shal not readily vouclsafe to yeeld unto us this our right at our intreatie then for my part I will briefly shew mine opinion what were expedient for the A supplieation to the king by the Lords and commons for the restitution of their right in the choice of their pastors Lords and commons in open parliament dutifully to pray and to supplicate at the Kings Majesties hand Namely At the humble petitions and supplications of all his Lords temporall and commons in Parliament assembled his majestie would bee well pleased to give his Royall assent to an act to be intituled An act for the restitution of the ancient right and freedome which the people of God in the old Churches had and which the people of England ought to have in to or about the election of their Pastours and abolishing all papal power repugnant to the same For if as it is plainly confessed the people of all Churches have right and freedome by the law of God by the equitie of Christ by the grounds of reason and nature by the principles of humane fellowships and by that which was from the beginning to elect their pastours and if also the same right and freedome being left to the old Churches and especially to the Church at Ierusalem by the Apostles have beene taken away by the cursings and fightings of the late Bishops of Rome then cannot the people without violation of those lawes rules and grounds by any Episcopall power be any more excluded from their said right and freedome than could or might the ancient jurisdiction of the Crowne of England have beene still usurped by the pope from the Kings of England ADMONITION But alas the common people of England thorough affection and want of right judgement are more easily wrought by ambitious persons to give their consâ—nt to unworthy men as may appeare in all those officâ—s of gaine or dignitie that at this day remaine in the choise of the multitude ASSERTION The Admonitor in one place of his admonition telleth us that he must not put all that he thinketh in writing and yet he writeth in this place that thing which might far better have been utterly unthought than once written for could he thinke to win the common people of England to a continuall good liking of high and stately prelacie by upbraiding and charging them to their faces in a book dedicated unto them with affection and wanting of right judgement Was this the way to procure grace favour and benevolence at their hands And albeit this slander deserved rather to have beene censured by the Commons in Parliament than by confutation to have beene answered yet for the better clearing of the right judgement of the common people giving their consents to most worthy men in all offices of gaine or dignitie remaining in their hands I thinke it necessarie to shew the indignitie of this contumelie There be I confesse in London Yorke Lincoln Bristow Exceter Norwich Coventry and other principall Cities and townes corporate Majors Sheriffes Stewards Recorders Bailiffes Chamberlains Bridge-masters Clerkes Swordbearers Knights Burgesses and such like offices some of dignitie some of gaine but that the officers of these or any other places whether of dignitie or gaine be chosen by the multitude of those places is utterly untrue for onely according to their ancient customes priviledges and Charters by the chief Citizens Townsmen and Borough-masters are those officers chosen The number also of which Electors in all places is not alike In London the Aldermen choose the Lord Major In other Cities and Townes sometimes eight and forty sometimes fourteene sometimes twelve sometimes only such as have borne office as Majors Sheriffes and Bailiffs in the same places nominate and elect their new Major Sheriffs and Bailiffes But that the Aldermen principall Towns-men Borough-masters and men having born chief offices in those cities towns and boroughs have easily been wrought by ambitious persons to give their consents unto unworthy men though it have pleased the Ll. Bb. with seene and allowed to have spred and published this saying yet that the same saying is wholly unworthy of any credit to bee given unto it or to bee regarded of any wise and indifferent man let the sober and peaceable elections made of the worthies of the land hereafter mentioned be witnesses The officers in Cities and townes corporate chosen with out contention and ambitious working of unworthy men And to leave to speake of the election of the Lord Major of the Citie of London Sheriffs Aldermen Wardens of companies Chamberlains bridge-masters and other annuall officers of honour and dignitie let us consider whether the Citizens of London have beene wrought by ambitious persons to choose M. Wilbraham M. Onslie M. Bromley to be their Recorders â—ll three afterward the Queenes solicitors and M. Bromly Lord Chancellor of England and let us consider whether the same Citizens as men of affection and want of right judgement did elect to be Recorders of the same Citie M. Serjeant Fleetwood Master Serjeant Flemming Master Serjeant Drue and how Master Crooke a man wise learned and religious and a Counseller and justicer within the principâ—litie of Wales The Recorder of the towne of Bedford is the right honourable the Lord S. Iohns of Bletsoe The Recorder of Bristoll was a long time Master Poppam now Lord chief Justice of England The Recorder of Northampton before he came to be Judge in the Kings bench was Master Serjeant Yelverton a favouter of the truth and an upright Justicer The Recorder of Warnick was Master Serjeant Puckering afterward Lord keeper of the great seale And of the same towne the Recorder now is a worthy Knight descended from a noble house Sir Foulke Grevile The Recorder of Coventrie is Sir Iohn Harrington Knight a man zealous for the true feare of God The Recorder of Chichester was M. Serjeant Lewkner now chiefe Justice in the principalitâ—e of Wales The Recorder of Norwich was Master Cooke the Kings Atturney generall And who soever shall enquire after the names and after the manner of election
trouble and expence yea and with greater priviledge than he did before Thus therefore touching the office and person of the King the duetie of the Presbyterie and people the right of the Patron and the person of the Minister to be ordained thus and thus we say and thus and thus as we think may our sayings well stand with lawes setled By an act primo Eliz. c. 1. the King hath full power and authoritie by Letters Patents under the Great Seale of England when and as often as need shall require as he shall thinke meete and convenient and for such and so long time as shall please his Highnesse to assigne name and authorize such person or persons being naturall borne subjects as his Majestie shall thinke meet to exercise use occupie and execute under his Highnesse all manner of jurisdictions priviledges and preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme of England Againe by the booke of ordeyning Bishops Priests and Deacons it is prescribed that the Bishops with their The Bb. and Priests must lay on their hands Priests shall lay their hands severally upon the heads of every one that receiveth Orders that every one to be made a Minister must be of vertuous conversation and without crime sufficiently instructed in the holy Scriptures a man meet to exercise his ministerie duely that he must be called tried and examined that he must be presented by the Archdeacon and be made openly in the face of the Church with prayer to God and exhortation to the people And in a statute made 21. of King Hen. 8. it is affirmed That a Bishop The Bishops must use six Chapleins at giving of orders must have sixe Chaplaines at giving of orders Besides by an ancient and lowable custome the Parishes and Parish Churches within every Archdeaconrie remaine unto this day distributed into certaine Deanries the Parson or Vicar of the auncientest Church commonly called the Mother Church of the Deanrie unlesse by Every Archdeacon divided into Deanries consent some other be chosen by the Ministers themselves hath the first place and is the chiefe director and moderator of whatsoever things are propounded in their Synodall meeting which Minister also is called Archipresbyter or Decanus curalis according to the appellation of the chief Minister of the mother or chief Church of that Diocesse who is called Archipresbiter or Decanus cathedralis so that unto this day these Ministers meeting at the Archdeacons visitations once in a yeere at the least there remaineth in the in the Church of England a certaine image or shadow of the true ancient and Apostolicall conference and meetings Wherefore from these lawes and from this ancient manner of the meetings of Ministers and of having one principal and chief Moderator amongst them according to the Apostolicall practice and usage of the primitive Church thus already setled in the Church of England wee humbly leave it to be considered by the Kings Majestie First whether it were not meet and convenient for his Highnes by his letters patentes under the great Seale of England to assigne A Minister to be ordained by the Bishops and a â—ompany of Ministeâ—s at the Kings commandement name and authorize the Bishops and six or moe Ministers within every Deanerie continually resiant upon their benefices and diligently teaching in their charge to use and execute all manner of jurisdiction priviledge and preheminence concerning any spirituall ordination election or institution of Ministers to be placed in the Parochiall Churches or other places with cure of soules within Secondly when any Parish Church or other place with cure of soules shall be voide whether it were not meet and convenient that the auncients and chiefe Fathers of that place within a time to be limited for that purpose should intimate the same vacancie unto Vacancie of a benefice to be intimated tâ— the Kingâ— office the office of the Kings civill Officer appointed for that Shire or Diocesse to the end the same Officer by authoritie from the King might command in the Kings name the Bishop and other Ministers to elect and ordaine and the people of the same place to approve and allow of some able and godly person to succeede in the Church Thirdly the Patrone if the same be a common and lay person A Lay patrone insteed of varying his Clerk may present two Clerks at one time having now libertie to vary his Clerk if he be â—ound unable whether it were not meet and convenient to avoide all manner of varying that within the time perâ—â—xed hee should nominate at one time two Clerks to bee taken out of the Uniâ—ersities or other Schooles and Nurseries of the Prophets and that the same nomination be made unto the Bishop and the said sixe Ministers to the end that both the Clerkes being tried and examined by them the abler of the two might be preferred to that charge And of this manner of presenting two Clerkes by the Patrone we have a president not much unlike in the statute for nomination of Suffraganes By which act every Archbishop and Bishop desiring to have a Suffragane hath libertie to name and present unto the King two honest and discreet Spirituall Persons c. that the King may give to one such of the said two Spirituall Persons as shall please his Majestie the title name stile and dignitie of a Suffragane Fourthly the Bishops and Presbyters having thus upon triall and A Minister found able for gifâ—s is to be sent to the parish that his life may be examined and to have the consent of the people examination found one of the Patrones Clerks to be a fit and able man to take upon him the executioÌ„ of the Ministery in that Church whether it were not then meet and convenient that by them he should forthwith be sent to the same Church as well to acquaint the people with their judgement and approbation of his gifts and abilitie to teach as also that for a time he should converse and abide amongst them to the end his life manners and behaviour might be seen into and enquired after by their carefull endeavours Fiftly the people within a time to be perfixed not making and proving before the Magistrate any just exception against his life A man allowed for gifts and Conversation is to be ordained with prayer fasting and laying on of hands A Minister to be inducted into thâ— Church bâ— the Kinâ—â— Writ manners and conversations whether it were not then meete and convenient that the Bishop with sixe â—ther Ministers or moe of the same Deanrie authorized by the King as aforesaid under some paine and within a certaine time should be bound in the presence of the Elders and people and in the same Church with fasting prayer and laying on of hands to ordaine and dedicate him to the Ministerie and Pastorall charge of that Church Lastly these things being thus finished whether it were not
Scripture to be given them by God and therefore the King and Parliament may be pleased to abolish both them and their power as King Hen. 8. did abolish Monkes and Friars 26. 40. and 28 The challeng for Lordly primacy out of the great charter answered 28 The study of the civill Law and the professors of it may florish more than now they doe 28 Fees for probate of testaments let to farme 29 Fees dew for execution of functions of the Canon Law disproportionable for a Dâ—ctor of the Civill Law 30 An Act of Parliament for the advancement of the Civill Law is set downe and a forme laid for all proceedings in the Courts in which the Civill Lawyers should be Iudges 32 33 It will advance the honour of the King and the good of his subjects to have matters of tithes and testaments and matrimony reduced by act of Parliament to bee tried by the Iudges of the Common Law 37 Matters of tithes and other causes of light nature pertaine to civill justice 37 The temporall law may easily bee applyed to causes now reputed Ecclesiasticall 39 How legacies may be recovered at the Common Law 42 Matters of marriages more fit to bee decided by the Kings officers than by the Bishops 43 Much adâ—e in the Bishops Courts about Accipio and Accipiam 44 The common Law preferred by the Bishops above the Law of God and the civill Law 45 Causes of Adulteries Slander Heresie which by sufferance only have bin exempted from the Cognizance of the King may be arbitrated by the Iudges of the common Law 47 Hierarchy may be judged felony if it please the King 49 The cognizance of all crimes as well as of some by the Law of God belong to the King 50 No impeachment and impropriations in lay mens hands the stat of 15. Rich. 2. and the 4. Hen. 4. being observed for a Vicar endowes yet if it please the King Parliament a law may be made for reducing of impropriations which may bee done First by restitution Secondly by commutation Thirdly by redemption Fourthly by contribution 52 Parochiall Churches to what use they were founded 56 First restitution of many may and ought to be which are now accounted the temporall revenues of Archbishops and Bishops which were given to severall Churches are now spoyled of them by Archbishops and Bishops 55 56 57 58. Secondly commutations may be made of many of the Bishops lands given to superstitious uses for many impropriations in the Kings hand and the hands of many of the Nobility 56 58 59 Thirdly there may bee a redemption made of the same land or buying in of many impropriations by a common purse or treasury which will increase 1. When the people shall be discharged of the burden of Ecclesiasticall Courts 2. The treasure will increase by the dissolution of Chapels of ease and uniting two Parishes into one and especially in great Cities and Towns where often are but small Livings 61 Dissolution of Chapels no new thing Ibid. Chapels the Seminaries of hirelings 62 3. By sequestration of the Livings of non residents 4. By the forfeiture of penall Lawes due to the King 60 61 62 63 Sequestration of the Churches of pluralists may further the treasure for redemption of impropriations 63 By what contributions Impropriations may bee brought to the use of the ministery 63 Fourthly the fourth meanes viz by contribution wherby Impropriations may be reduced to the ministery 63 64 65 How and by what means impropriations may be reduced into the ministery 65 66 None of the three estates in Parliament is lost by removall of the Hierarchy as appeares by severall statutes viz. 25. E. 3. c. 24. 31. Ed. 3. Stat. of Herrings 3. R. 2. c. 3. 7. R. 2. c. 12. 1. E. c. 2. 68 69 70 71 72 73 The state of Prelacy founded by the Grandfather of K. E. 3. 69 The K. having the assent of the Nobles and Commons may repeale statutes without the assent of the Prelates 70 The argument answered in which it is said that it hath been alwayes dangerous to pick quarrels against laws setled 74 75 Lesse danger to reforme the Church by new lawes than to continue corruption by old lawes 74 That argument answered in which it is said that there must of necessity be in every Parish one Pastor a company of Seniors and Deacon or two at the least and all those to be found of the Parish 75 76 77 78 What kind of men ought to be chosen Seniors and Deacons 76 The judgment of the Commissioners of Ed. 6. touching Elders and Deacons 77 The election of Pastors by the people stands upon the ground of reason and nature rules of Christian equity and the law of God therefore by no Law or custome can justly be taken away though actually it was by the Pope 79 to 87 Dangerous to innovate unlesse there be evident utility in innovation 80 The common manner of election in the old Churches was by the people 81 The King without the people hath power to nominate the Kingly Bishop 82 M. Bilson confirmes the peoples election of their Pastor 83 A great difference betwixt the choice of Bishops in England and Pastors 86 No Schisme hapned by choice of Pastors by the people ancient schimes were ever from the election of Bishops 87 88 therefore a Stat. is desired for the giving of election of their Pastors 86 Election of publike officers in Cities and Boroughs is by the principall men of these places 90 91. therefore Ministers may bee elected the officers of Cities and Townes Corporate chosen without contention therefore Pastors may be also chosen 90 The people would be more carefull of their Election than Bishops have been the people could make no choice of insufficient Ministers unles the Bishops did make insufficient Ministers 93 94 The common people accused of backwardnesse in Religion the reason of that must needs be from their ill guides 95 Men of excellent gifts and men of no gifts are unequally matched in the ministery of the Gospell 96 The people may know a man to be a fit Minister though he be not brought up among them 98 What knowledge of a Minister is required in the people before they choose him No partiall suits can follow the election of Ministers by the people 100 The means to take away all symony for places in the Ministry 100 The inconveniences of Bishops ordination set downe 102 As many suits betweene the Bish and the Clerke 2. suits between the Clerke and the Archdeacon 3. suits betweene the B. and the Archdeacon 4. Riots and breaches of the Kings peace 5. unlawfull Fees for Letters of institution 6. unlawfull Fees for letters of sequestration 105. 7. Perjury by the Clerk and robbery by the Patron 8. Chopping of benefices and dispensations 106. A supplication to the Parliament to consider these inconveniences and likewise a briefe way is set downe of the redresse of them 107 Diverse things set down concerning ordination of Ministers
the defendant is ready to aver maintaine and prove his answer as shall please the King to award and to command And therefore he most humbly beseecheth the King if it please the King and that hee have found favour in his sight that his exceptions may be admitted and read and that his counsell learned in the law may be heard and suffered to speake This platforme of government intended by the admonitor not to be liked of in this place is that platforme of Church government Booke of Com. Pray tit Commination Homil. 2. part of the right use of the Church Admo pag. Whitgift p. 654. M. Nowell in his Cate. M. Calvin M. Iunius Looke Peti to her excellent Majestie p. 11. by Pastours and Elders which the Booke of Common Prayer the Doctrine of the Church of England doe highly command and which he himselfe Master D. Whitgift now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and very many other c reverend Divines of our age doe publikely confesse in their writings to have beene practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church From whence it followeth that the government of the Church by Archbishops Bishops Suffraganes Archdeacons Deacons Chancellours Commissaries and Officialls now already planted and liked of was not practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church And therefore for my part I cannot but marvell that a disciple of the Apostles Doctrine and a successor in the Apostles Chaire should be drawne to humane reasons not to like of the Apostles government nor to tread in the steps of the Primitive Church For seeing the same is acknowledged by himself to be the first ways to be the old and ancient way as being the Apostles way why Ier. 6. 16. should we not walke therein as in the only good and perfect way The reverend Bishops will not deny that the Apostles and Primitive Church for their manner of governement had the mind of Christ and that we should follow the Apostles as having them for examples because they were the followers of Christ Againe they cannot but grant that the manner of governement practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church is written within the booke of the covenants of grace All which notwithstanding we see in this place that from the new Testament from the Articles of grace from the law from the testimonie from the example of the Apostles and from the mind of Christ we are addressed and turned over to our state of government to our countrey to our people to our Common weale and to our Lawes But this turning of devises shall it not bee esteemed as the Potters clay Isa 29. 16. But saith he to plant those things in this Church which are required to be redressed might bring rather the overthrow of the Gospell than the end that is desired Indeed say I if this might be as soone proved as it was soone said the case might have gone well with him But this parable is so darke that unlesse it be opened there is no light at all to be seene in it For he well knew that in stead of the government practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church the jurisdiction of Archbishops Bishops Suffragans Deacons Archdeacons Chancellors Commissaries and Officials is already planted in this Church And he was not ignorant also that the same jurisdiction only and none other is required to be redressed Now then if request be made that this manner of governement be redressed how can it evidently bee seene that to plant that manner of government might bring rather the overthrow of the Gospell than the end that is desired But it may be that he meant more lightsomely than he spake Yea let it be that he intended thus viz. to unplant that which is now planted and to plant those things which are yet unplanted by reason of many and great alterations might bring rather an overthrow of the Gospell than the end that is desired well I say be it so that he thus meant How is this thing evidently seene or how can it evidently be proved The best sight that the servant of Christ can have is faith For Faith is an evidence of things which are not seene This overthrow Heb. 11. then of the Gospell not being seene with his bodily eyes must needs be intended to have beene seene with the eyes of his faith But where is the word of Christ whereupon the eyes of his faith were fixed If then he hold no word of faith then of necessitie was his evident sight but an evident fancy And in deed what else could it be For what other thing is there desired to bee planted in this Church but only the Apostolicall government of Christ And what other Gospell could hee evidently see that might bee overthrowne by holding forth this scepter but only the Apostolicall doctrine of Christ A marvellous strange and unkinde sight I trow to be seene that the Apostolicall Governement could no sooner bee planted but that the Apostolicall doctrine must needs be rooted up That Christ by his owne scepter were not able to maintaine his owne grace by his owne order should weaken his owne oath or by his owne sword should cut from the people of God his owne Word But seeing it was his purpose to perswade the people unto a dislike of the Apostolicall government by arguments and reasons drawne from humane policie rather than to confirme them in a good opinion of the Prelaticall Government by proofes taken from the authoritie of holy Scripture we will follow him in this his veine Yea and by the help of God we will try of what efficacy such his politike and humane reasons may be as wherewith he did assay to disswade the people from consenting unto any other manner of Church Government than is already setled among us The generall effect of all which both here and else where spoken of by him briefly gathered is this Such things may not be planâ—ed in the Church of England as by attempting the planting whereof there is an evident sight that the Gospell among us may be overthrowne But there is an evident sight that the Gospell among us may be overthrown by attempting to plant that Government in the Church of England which was practised by the Apostles and the Primitive Church Therefore that manner of Governement may not be planted The assumption of which sillogisme hee endeavoureth to confirme thus whatsoever will draw with it many and great alterations of the state of Government and of the lawes the same may bring rather the overthrow of the Gospell than the end that is desired but the planting of the Governement practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church will draw with it many and great alterations of the state of Government and of the lawes Therefore the planting of this manner of government may rather bring an overthrow of the Gospell c. If any shall object that by thus gathering his argument I had in this place falsified his argument by adding more than is here
and No Constitutions or Ordinances provinciall or other canons to bee alledged therefore once they were all abolished adnulled shall be abolite and of no value and such other of the same Constitutions and Canons as by the said 32. persons c. shall be approved to stand with the Lawes of God and consonant to the Lawes of this Realme shall stand in their full strength and power c. These are the words of the petition and submission c. the letter of the body of the Statute in effect is this Be it therefore enacted c. That they nor any of them from henceforth shall presume to attempt alledge claime or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances The King and thirty two persons have no power to examine papall canons therfore papall canons intended to bee wholly abolished Provinciall or Synodall or any other Canons And forasmuch as such Canons Constitutions c. as heretofore have beene made by the Clergie or this Realme can not c by reason of the shortnesse c. be it therefore enacted c. that the Kings Highnesse c. shall have power c. and that the said 32. persons c. shall have power and authoritie to uiew search and examine the said canons constitutions c. Provinciall and Synodal heretofore made and such of them as the Kings Highnes c. shall deeme and adjudg worthy to be continued and kept shall be from henceforth kept c. and the residue of the said Canons constitutions and ordinances provincial which the K. Highnes c. shall never be put in execution within this Realme These are the words of the body of the Law the words of the Proviso are these Provided Canons provinciall already made only on authorised by the proviso therefore no papall Canons in force that such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provinciall being already made which be not contrariant c. shall now still be used and executed as they were before the making of this Act till such time as they be viewed searched c. by which words of the petition body of the statute and proviso three things seeme principally to be meant and intended First an utter and absolute abolition of all Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals before that time made by the Clergie within the Realme or by any forraigne power within the Realme whatsoever Secondly a view search and examination of all Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provinciall or Synodall before that time made by the Clergy within the Realm And lastly because the Church should not utterly bee destitute of all Canons c. Provinciall or Synodall a reestablishment or reauthorisement of all such of the said Canons Provinciall or Synodall as were not onerous to the people contrariant or repugnant to the Lawes Statutes or customes of the Realme nor prejudiciall to the Kings prerogative Royall was agreed upon till the said Provinciall Canons c. were viewed searched and examined All Papall and forraigne Canon Law then before that time made without the Realme being once inhibited to be attempted alledged claymed or put in ure and by consequence adnihilated abolished and made voide unlesse the same be againe revived and reestablished remaine frustrate and adnulled still and therefore ought not to be attempted alleaged claimed or put in ure Besides it is plaine that forraign and Papall Canon Law was never intended to be reauthorised because the same Law was never committed to the view search and examination of the King and 32. persons The King therefore and 32 persons by vertue of this act not having any authoritie to view search and examine any forraign Canon Law though he and they had deemed and adjudged any part of the same Law worthy to have beene continued kept and obeyed yet neverthelesse had not the same beene of any force or validitie For only such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provinciall or Synodall being not contrariant onerous or prejudiciall to the King to the Lawes or to the people were reestablished as were committed Besides whereas about twenty yeares passed divers Canons Constitutions and Ordinances as well Papall as Provinciall were alleaged by him that collected an Abstract against an unlearned ministery against Dispensations for many benefices against excommunication and against Civill jurisdiction in Ecclesiasticall persons the answerer in the behalfe and maintenance of those abuses challenged the author for not having proved his intent by law in force affirming that Tit. pag. 1. 2. The answerer unto the Abstract proveth by his reasons the Papall Canon law now used to bee abolished the Canons and Lawes by him alleaged were but pretended necessary and disused lawes that they were not inspired with the life of lawes that such were fathered for lawes as bee not Lawes and that it remained by him to be discussed how many of them were to be called in truth her Majesties lawes The reason of all which his exceptions he yeeldeth to be this namely that the Author ought to have proved them not to have beene repugnant to the customes of the Realme but to have beene in use and practice before the making of the act of submission For he must prove saith the Answerer that they are not repugnant to the customes of this Realme and shew us how they have beene used and executed here before the making of the statute yea he can say that they are by law established among us Which points saith he because we learne by law quod facta non praesumantur matters in fact are not intended to be done untill they be proved so wee must still put him to his proofes and in the meane time say that he hath gaped wide to say nothing to the purpose and that in his whole booke he hath talked but not reasoned All which asseveration of this Answerer if the same be true and if this plea bee a good averment to bar the Author from having proved a learned ministerie to be commanded by the law dispensations for many benefices to be unlawfull excommunication by one alone to be forbidden and civill government to bee unlawfull in Ecclesiasticall persons then much more forcibly may this argument be retorted upon all such as claime alleage and put in ure any portion of the forraigne Canon Law For sithence it hath never yet beene proved that the forraign Canon Law used and executed at this day was accustomed and used 25. H. 8. then because wee learne by law as he saith quod facta non prae sumantur wee must still put him and his clients to their proofe and in the meane while tell them that their Advocate hath twisted for them but a bad thread when by his reason he hath untwined all their lawes and broken a sunder the bands of their government Moreover because it is not yet proved that the forraigne and Papall Canon Law is not contrariant nor repugnant to the Lawes statutes or customes of the Realme nor derogatorie to the prerogatives of the
absolutely and as really is revested in the person of the Queene as is the said spirituall authoritie Therefore as all spirituall Officers for the execution of the said spirituall power must have their authoritie derived unto them from the person of the Queene under the great Seale so likewise must all temporall officers for the execution of their temporall offices have the like commission The consequence of which enthimeme followeth not though the antecedent be true For although as well all temporall as all the said spirituall authoritie improperly so called was really and absolutely in the person of the Queene yet hereupon it followeth not that by one and the selfe same meanes alone and namely by a commission under the great Seale all temporall and the said spirituall power in every part and branch thereof should be drawne alike from the Queenes person For there be divers and sundry meanes to derive temporall authority wheras there seemeth to be but one only means to derive the said spirituall authoritie and then marke the substance of the authors argument Some temporall Officers as Stewards of Leets Constables and sundry other Officers must not draw their temporall authoritie from the Queene by a Commission under the great Seale Therefore no spirituall Officers as Archbishops Bishops Archdâ—acons and sede vacante Deanes and Chapters must draw any of their spirituall authoritie from the Queen by a Commission c. Which argument drawne from a particular affirmative unto a generall negative what weaknesse it hath every young Logician can discerne And as for Stewards of Leets though they have no Commission Though all temporall officers draw not their power from the King by the great seale yet by one meanes or other withdraw it from the King under the great Seale yet for the execution of their Stewardships they have a Commission under the Seale of the Exchequer Constables Decennary or Tythingmen and Thirdboroughs have their authorities derived unto them from the Kings person by the very originall and institution of their offices Sheriffs of Countries Coroners Escheators and Uerderors have their offices and their authorities warranted unto them by the Kings writs out of the Chancerie But it was not the minde of the Law-makers saith the Author that the Ordinaries by a commission under the great Seale should draw their said spirituall power from the Queen What the mindes of the Law-makers were touching this point it mattereth little or nothing at all Neither is it to purpose whether a commission under the great seale be necessarily required or not required by vertue of that statute 1 Eliz. c. 1. to warrant the said spirituall power unto Ordinaries Only it sufficeth that the Queen having all power improperly called spiritual invested in her Royall person and being really and actually seised of all the said supreme spirituall authoritie could not have any part of the same spirituall power drawne from her but by some one lawfull and ordinarie meanes or other For if this rule be true in every common person quod meum est sine mea voluntate à me auferri non potest how much more doth the same rule hold in the Royall prerogatives rights priviledges dignities and supremities of a King wherfore to say that all supreme and ordinarie power improperly called spirituall was really and actually inherent in the Royall person of the Queen and to say also that some of the same inferiour and ordinarie power not derived from the Queen was neverthelesse in the persons of inferiour ordinaries is as much to say that some branches of a tree may receive nourishment from elsewhere than from the root that some members of the bodie are not guided by the head and that some streames flow not from their fountaines And now to conclude this part against the Canon Law and their Offices and functions thereof I dispute thus The forraign and papall canon law with all the accessories dependances offices and functions thereof is utterly abolished out of the Realme Therefore the same law is no part of the lawes of the Realm and therefore also it is evident that there will not follow any alteration of the Lawes of the Realme by the taking of it away Which Canon Law also with other lawes and functions how easily the same without any inconveniences may bee supplied shall God willing be presently made apparant if first we shall answer to that challenge which the state of Prelacie may seeme to make for the continuance of their Lordly primacie out of the words of the great Challenge for Lordly primacy out of the great Charter answered Charter Concerning which challenge namely that by the great Charter Lordly Archiepiscopall and Episcopall primacie or jurisdiction belonging to the state of Prelacie is belonging unto them I demand unto what Church this great Charter was granted And whether it were not granted unto the Church of God in England The words of the Charter are these Concessimus Deo hâ—c praesenti Mag. Charta c. 1. Charta nostra confirmavimus pro nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit habeat omnia jura sua integra libertates suas illaesas We have granted unto God and by this our present writing have confirmed for us and for our heires for ever that the Church of England be free and that she have all her rights and liberties whole and unhurt Now by this Charter if the same bee construed aright there is provision made first that such honour and worship be yeelded by the King and his subjects his and their successors and posteritie unto God as truly and indeed belongeth unto him Secondly that not only such rights and liberties as the King and his progenitors but also that such as God had endowed the Church of England with should inviolably be preserved And in very deed to speake truly and properly such rights and liberties only are to be called the rights and liberties of the Church of England which God himselfe hath given by his Law unto his universall Church and not which the Kings of England by their Charter have bequeathed to the particular Church of England When therefore question is made that by the great Charter the Kings of England are bound to maintaine the rights and liberties of the Church of England wee are to enquire and search what rights and liberties God in his holy word hath granted unto his universall Church and so by consequence unto the Church of England one part of the Catholike Church And this questionlesse was the cause that moved the victorious Prince Henry the eight so effectually and powerfully to bend himselfe against the Popes supremacie usurped that time over the Church of England For saith the King we will with hazard of our life and losse of our Crowne uphold and defend in our Realmes whatsoever wee shall know to be the will of God The Church of God then in England not being free nay having her rights and liberties
according to the great Charter whole and unhurt but being in bondage and servitude to the Sea of Rome contrary to the Law of God the King judged it to stand highly with his honour and with his oath according to the measure of knowledge which then was given unto him to reforme redresse and amend the abuses of the same Sea If then it might please our gracious Soveraigne Lord King Iames that now is treading in the Godly steps of his renowned great Vncle to vouchsafe an abolishment of all lordly primacie executed by Archiepiscopall and Episcopall authoritie over the Ministers of Christ His Highnesse in so doing could no more rightly bee charged with the violation of the great Charter than might King Henry the eight with the banishment of the Popes supremacie or than our late Soveraigne Ladie the Queene could be justly burthened with the breach of her oath by the establishment of the Gospell Nay if the Kings of England by reason of their oath had beene so straightly tyed to the words of the great Charter that they might not in any sort have disannulled any supposed rights and liberties of the Church then used and confirmed by the great Charter unto the Church that then was supposed to be the Church of God in England then belike King Henry the eighth might be attainted to have gone against the great Charter and against his oath when by the overthrow of Abbies and Monasteries he tooke away the rights and liberties of the Abbots and Priors For by expresse words of the great Charter Abbots and Priors had as ample and as large a Patent for their rights and liberties as our Archbb. and Bishops can at this day challenge for their primacies If then the rights and liberties of the one as being against the law of God be duly and lawfully taken away notwithstanding any matter clause or sentence contained in the great Charter the other have but little reason by colour of the great Charter to stand upon their pantofles and to contend for their painted sheathes For this is a rule and maxime in all good lawes that in omni juramento semper excipitur authoritas majoris unlesse then they bee able to justifie by the holy Scriptures that such rights and liberties as they pretend for their spirituall primacie over the Ministers of Christ to be granted unto them by the great Chaâ—ter bee in deed and truth likewise confirmed unto them by the holy Law of God I suppose the Kings Highnesse as a successor to K. Henry the third and as a most just inheritour to thâ— Crown of England by the words of the great Charter and by his oath if once the same wer taken to be bound utterly to abolish all Lordly primacie as hitherto upheld and defended partly by ignorance and partly by an unreasonable and evill custome ADMONITION The use and studâ—e of the Civill Law will be utterly overthrown for the Civilians in this Realme live not by the use of the Civill law but by the Offices of the Canon Law and such things as are within the compasse thereof And if you take those offices and functions away and those matters wherein they deale in the Canon Law you must needs take away the hope of reward and by that meanes their whole studie ASSERTION This collection dependeth upon his former Reason and is borrowed to prove a necessarie continuance of Canon Law and concludeth in effect thus The taking away of the reward and maintainance of Civilians will be the overthrow of the use and studie of the civill law But the taking away of the Canon Law the offices and functions thereof and such things as are within the compasse of the same will bee the taking away of the reward and maintainance of Civilians Therefore the taking away of the Canon Law will be the overthrow of the use and studie of the Civill Law But we deny the assumption and affirme that Civilians might have The maintenance of Civilians dependeth not upon the functions of the Canon law farre better reward and maintenance than now they have if the offices and functions of the Canon Law and such things as are contained within the same were simply and absolutely taken away And further we say if there were none other use nor end of the studie of the Civill Law than hope of reward and maintenance by some office and function of the Canon Law that then Civilians should in vaine seeke for knowledge in the Civill Law because without the knowledge thereof and by the onely knowledge of such things as are within the Compasse of the Canon Law they might reape that reward and maintainance Nay sithence by experience we have known that some who never unclasped the institutions of Iustinian out of the same to learne the definition of Civill Justice have beene and yet are authorized to exercise the offices and functions of the Canon Law how should the studie of the civill law be furthered by these offices and functions when as without any knowledge of the civill law these offices and functions have beene and yet are daily undertaken and executed to the full And what man then if there were none other reward for Civilians would ten or twelve yeares together beat his braine and trouble his wits in the studie of the Civill Law when every silly Canonist might bee able and learned enough to sit in the Bishops throne and to be judge in his Consistorie Besides if the Admonitor speake sooth viz. that Civilians in this Realm live not by the use of the civill Law to what end then should he feare an overthrow of the studie thereof For if there be no use of it in this Realme for the maintenance of this life to what use then should men studie the same in this Realme As for the use of it among strangers and forraigne nations without the Realme the same as I suppose is no greater than such as 3. or 4. Civilians may be able well enough fully to deliver the law touching all matters of controversie that may grow to question during the whole space of a Kings raigne If no man lived in this Realme by the trade of brewing Beere but that all Brewers did live by the trade of Brewing Ale what should we need to feare the decay of â—eere-brewers or what use were there of them in like sort if men live only by the use offices and functions of the Canon Law and that men live not as he saith by the use of the Civill law within the Realme what folly were it to studie the one whereas without the knowledge thereof he might live by the other And therefore it seemeth that the Admonitor by his owne weapon as much as in him lay hath given the whole studie of the Civill Law a most desperate and deadly wound And to the end we may understand what reward and maintenance Civilians by the Offices and functions of the Canon do receive yearly for their service and attendance in
the Bishops and Archdeacons their Courts Wee will examine what fees Doctors of the civill law being Chancellors Commissaries or Officials have usually and ordinarily allowed unto them by their Lords and Masters Fees for probat of Testaments granting Fees for probat of testaments let to farm of administrations with their appendances of late years in some places whether in all or how many I know not have beene demised unto farm for an annuall rent out of which either a small or no portion at all have beene allowed unto the Chancellor or Officiall for his service in this behalf Whereupon as I conjecture it hath fallen out rather than that those Officers would worke keepe Courts and travaile for little or nought ther have been exacted greater fees for the dispatch of these things than by law ought to have bin paid Perquisits of courts arising upon suites commenced betweene partie and partie it must be a plentifull harvest and there must be multi amici curiae in a Bishops consistorie if ordinarily communibus annis they amount in the whole to twenty pounds by the yeare and yet these perquisits belong not wholly to the Chancellor but are to be devided between him and the Register And touching fees for excommunication and absolution fees for institution and induction licences to preach licences for Curats and Readers For testimoniall of subscription or licences to marry without banes fees for commutation of penance and fees for relaxation of sequestrations touching these manner of Fees if the same be fees no Fees due for the execution of the functions of the canon law dishonourable for a Doctor of the civill Law way warrantable how are not then such fees every way dishonourable for a Doctor of the Civill law to take either of Ministers or people There must be therefore some other hope of better reward and maintenance to incite and incourage schollars to the studie of the civill law than are these beggerly and unlawfull fees depending upon the functions and exacted by the Officers of the Canon law or els the use of the civill law as the Admonitor saith must necessarily in short time be overthrown For if Fees for probat of Testaments and granting of administrations with their appendices shall still be let to farme and if also many unlawfull fees were quite inhibited there would remaine I trow but a very poore pittance for Civilians out of the functions of the Canon law to maintain their Doctoralities withall But what better reward can there bee for Civilians than hath already beene mentioned If the Admonitor had not willingly put a hood Civilians in England live not only by the functions of Canon law wincke before his eyes he might have seene that the Civilians live not wholly and altogether by the practice of the Canon Law but partly also and that most honourably by the use of the Civill law If a Doctor of the Civill Law be judge or Advocate in the Court of Admiraltie if he be Judge or Advocate in the Prerogative Court so farre as the same Court handleth only matters of Legacies Testaments and Codicills to what use can the Canon Law serve him or what advantage can the same Law bring him in Beside to what use serveth the Canon Law unto a Doctor of the Civill Law if he shall finde favour in the Kings sight and if it please the King to make him one of the Masters of his Requests or one of the twelve Masters of his high Court of Chancery or to be the Master of his Rolls or to be his Highnesse Embassador unto forraigne Nations or to be one of his Highnes most honourable privie Councel or to be one of his principall Secretaries It followeth not therefore as the Admonitor pretendeth that either the Civilians in this Realme live not by the use of the civill law but by the offices and functions of the Canon law and such things as are within the compasse thereof or that the hope of reward and by that means the whole studie of the Civill Law must be taken away if once the Canon Law should be abolished Neither would it bee any hard matter for the King if the Civilians might find grace in his sight to appoint Courts Offices and all manner of processe and proceedings in judgement for Doctors of the Civill Law to heare and determine in the Kings name all causes being now within the compasse of any Civill or Ecclesiasticall Law within this Realme And although a little candle can give but a little light and a small Spring can send forth but a small streame yet because great fires are kindled sometimes by little sparkles and small streames meeting together may in time grow into great riveâ—s I shall desire the great Civilians with their floods and lamps of learning to help forward such a law as whereby the study of the Civill Law may be upholden the reward and maintenance of Civilians without any function from the Canon Law may be enlarged many controversies and disorders in the Church may be pacified and the Kings Prerogative Royall bee duely advanced Which things if it might please them rightly to consider then let them humbly and seriously beseech our Soveraigne Lord the King and States in Parliament to give their consents to such a Law as the project ensuing may warrant them the same not to bee dangerous to the overthrow of their civill studies The Project of an Act for the explanation and amplyfying of one branch of a Statute made in the first year of the raign of Queen ELIZABETH entituled An Act restoring to the Crowne the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and also for the declaring and reviving of a Statute made in the first year of King EDWARD the sixth entiled An Act what seales and stiles Bishops and other spirituall persons exercising jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall shall use FOrasmuch as by one branch of an Act made in the first yeare of our late Soveraign Ladie of blessed memorie Queen Elizabeth entituled an Act restoring to the Crowne the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall and abolishing all forraign power repugnant to the same it was established and enacted That such jurisdictions priviledges superiorities and preeminences Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall as by any spirituall or Ecclesiasticall power or authority hath heretofore beene or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner errors heresies schismes abuses offences contempts and enormities should for ever by authoritie of that present Parliament be united and annexed to the imperiall Crown of this Realm by means whereof it may now be made a question whether any Archbishops or other Ecclesiasticall persons having since that time used or exercised any such spirituall or Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction in their owne right or names might lawfully have done or hereafter may lawfully do the same without speciall warrant and authoritie derived
written of the common law is reported hath beene in times passed presented and punished in leets and law-dayes in divers parts of the Realme by the name of Letherwhyte which is as the booke saith an ancient Saxon terme And the Lord of the Leet where it hath beene presented hath ever had a fine for the same offence By the statute of those that be borne beyond the seas it appeareth that the King hath cognizance 25. Ed 3. of some bastardy And now in most cases of bastardie if not in all by the statute of Eliz. the reputed father of a bastard borne is lyable to be punished at the discretion of the justices of peace Touching perjurie if a man lose his action by a false verdict in plea Perjurie if punishable temporally in some cases why not in all of land he shall have an attaint in the Kings Court to punish the perjurie and to reforme the falsitie And by divers statutes it appeareth that the Kings temporall Officers may punish perjurie committed in the Kings temporall Courts And though it be true that such perjury as hath risen upon causes reputed spirituall have beene in times past punished only by Ecclesiastical power and censures of the Church yet hereupon it followeth not that the perjurie it selfe is a meere spirituall and not a temporall crime or matter or that the same might not to be civily punished By a statute of Westminster 25. Edw. 3. it was accorded that the Vsurie King and his heires shall have the cognizance of the usurers dead and that the Ordinaries have cognizance of usurers on life to make compulsion by censures of the Church for sinne and to make restitution of the usuries taken against the lawes of holy Church And by another statute it is provided that usuries shall not turne against any being â—0 h. 3. â— 5. within age after the time of the death of his Ancestor untill his full age But the usurie with the principall debt which was before the death of his ancestor did remaine and turne against the heire And because all usurie being forbidden by the law of God is sinne and detestable it was enacted that all usurie lone and forbearing of money c. giving dayes c. shall be punished according to the forme of that Act. And that every such offender shall also bee punished and corrected according to the Ecclesiasticall lawes before that time made against usurie By all which statutes it seemeth that the cognizance and reformation of usurie by the lawes of the Realme pertaineth onely to the King unlesse the King by his Law permit the Church to correct the same by the censures of the Church as a sin committed against the holy law of God Touching heresies and schismes albeit the Bishops by their Episcopall and ordinarie spirituall power grounded upon Canon law or an evill custome have used by definitive sentence pronounced in their Consistories to condemn men for heretikes and schismatikes and heresies schismes are punishable by the kings laws afterward being condemned to deliver them to the secular power to suffer the paines of death as though the king being custos utriusque tabulae had not power by his kingly office to inquire of heresie to condemn an heretike and to put him to death unlesse he were first condemned and delivered into his hands by their spirituall power although this hath been I say the use in England yet by the statutes of Richard the second and Henry the fifth it was lawfull for the Kings Judges and Justices to enquire of heresies and Lollards in Leets Sheriffs 25. h. 5. c. 14. turnes and in Law dayes and also in Sessions of the peace Yea the King by the common law of the Realme revived by an act of Parliament which before the Statute of Henry the fourth was altered may pardon a man condemned for heresie yea and if it should come to passe that any heresies or schismes should arise in the Church of England the king by the Lawes of the Realme and by his Supreme and 1 Eliz c. 1. Soveraigne power with his parliament may correct redresse and reforme all such defaults and enormities Yea further the king and his 1 Eliz. c. 1. parliament with consent of the Clergie in their Convocation hath power to determine what is heresie and what is not heresie If then it might please the king to have it enacted by parliament that they which opiniatively and obstinately hold defend and publish any opinions which according to an Act of Parliament already made have beene or may be ordered or adjudged to bee heresies should bee heretikes If it please the King heretikes may be adjudged felons and heresies felonies and felons and their heresies to be felonies and that the same heretiks and felons for the same their heresies and felonies being arraigned convicted and adjudged by the course of the common law as other felons are should for the same their heresies and felonies suffer the paines of death there is no doubt but the King by vertue of his Soveraigne and Regall Lawes might powerfully enough reforme heresies without any such ceremoniall forme papall observance or superstitious solemnitie as by the order of the Canon Law pretended to bee still in force have beene accustomed And as these offences before mentioned bee punishable partly by temporall and partly by Ecclesiasticall authoritie so drunkennesse absence from divine service and prayer fighting quarrelling and brawling in Church and Churchyard defamatorie words and libels violent laying on oâ— hands upon a Clarke c. may not onely bee handled and punished in a court ecclesiasticall but they may also be handled and punished by the King in his temporall courts By all which it is evident that the Clergie hath had the correction of these crimes rather by a The cognizance of all crimes as well as of some crimes â—â— the law of God belong to the King custome and by sufferance of Princes than for that they be meere spirituall or that they had authoritie by the immediate law of God And if all these as well as some of these crimes by sufferance of Princes and by a custome may be handled and punished spiritually then also if it please the King may all these as well as some of these crimes without a custome be handled and punished temporally For by custome and sufferance only some of these crimes be exempted from the cognizance of the King and therefore by the immediate law of God the cognizance as well of all as of some oâ— these crimes properly appertaineth unto the King And then the judgement of those men who defend judgements of adulterie slander c. to be more temporall and by the temporall Magistrate only to be dealt in seemeth every way to be a sincere and sound judgment Howbeit they doe not hereby intend that the party offending in any of these things and by the Kings law punishable should therefore wholly bee exempted and freed
lawes doe uphold the state and authoritie of the Convocation house for the examination of all causes Matters of religion not concluded in parliament before the same bee consulted of in convocation of Religion surely it cannot be truly averred that it is necessarie for Evangelicall Bishops to be members of the Parliamenthouse lest controversie of Religion should bee handled and discussed without them For how should any matter of religion bee concluded without them in Parliament when first of all the same is to be argued among themselves in convocation Or let them hardly if they can shew any one instance of any change or alteration either from religion to superstition or from superstition to religion to have beene made in Parliament unlesse the same freely and at large have beene first agreed upon in their Synodes and Convocations And what booteth it then to have a double or treble consultation and consent of Archbishops and Bishops in parliament Is the holy cause of God any whit bettered by their Bishops riding from Pauls to Westminster Or can it receive any more strength by their walking from Westminster Church to Westminster palace Nay it hath beene often times so farre from being promoted by their bishops as not only in their convocations but also in the Queenes parliaments the same thing hath beene shamefully intreated and taken the foyle as may witnesle the bill for the better observation of the Sabboth 27. Eliz. which being passed by both houses of parliament was notwithstanding gainesaid and withstood by none so much as by certaine Evangelicall bishops and which as there all men generally conceived was only stayed from being made a law by the Queene upon their counsell and perswasion ADMONITION Pag. â—8 It hath beene alwayes daugerous to picke quarrels against lawes setled ASSERTION And is it not morbus haereditarius in Prelates to pick quarrels against reformation of errours For even this did Stephen Gardener Stephen Gardeners argument and the adâ—onitors argument in effect one reason against the Lord Protector That in no case saith Stephen Gardener is to be attempted of the Lord Protector which may bring both danger to him and trouble to the whole Realme But innovation of Religion from that state wherein K. Henry left it may be and is like to be dangerous to the Lord Protector and to baeed troubles to the whole Realme Therefore innovation of Religion from the state that K. Henry left it is in no wise to be attempted And even of this stamp and of this streyne is the argument of pickking quarrels against laws setled for thus in effect he argueth That Discipline in no case is to bee brought into the Church by the King and Parliament which may be dangerous to lawes setled But to bring into the Church the Apostolicall discipline may be dangerous to lawes setled Therefore the Apostolicall Discipline in no case is to be brought into the Church by the King and Parliament But forasmuch as that noble and religious Lord Protector notwithstanding Stephen Gardeners sophistry continued constant and couragious in the abolishment of popery and superstition which king Henry left and did without dangerous alteration of laws then setled innovate religion How much more now may the Kings Majestie the Lords and Commons in Parliament attempt with effect an innovation of that state of Ecclesiasticall government wherein the Queene left the Church And if it cannot be denyed but it had beene far more dangerous for the Realm and for the Lord Protector not to have setled the holy doctrine of the everlasting Gospell by Lesse danger to reforme the Church â—y nâ—w lawes than to câ—ntinue corruption by old laws new lawes than to have maintained and continued antichristianitie by old lawes how should it be lesse danger for the king in these dayes to continue corruptions in the Church by toleration of old lawes than to have the same corruptions reformed by establishment of new lawes But unto whom or unto what hath it beene dangerous to pick quarrells against lawes setled Wha hath it beene dangerous to lawes setled No. For how should lawes setled be indangered by quarrelers sithence quarrellers are evermore in danger of lawes setled Or hath it beene alwayes dangerous for a king for a State for a people or for a Countrey to pick quarrels against lawes setled No. For what man is he or what face carrieth he that dare upbraid a countrey a people a State or a King minding to unsettle evill lawes and evill customes to be quarrellers against lawes setled Let it then only be dangerous for private persons upon private male-contentment to pick quarrels against good lawes well and rightly setled and let it not be hurtfull or dangerous for supreme Kings powers and principalities by publike edicts to alter evill lawes evilly setled For to what other end should evill lawes evilly setled be continued but to continue evill And what a thing were that This argument then for lawes setled being the sophisme of that Fox Stephen Gardener is but a quarrelsome and wrangling argument ADMONITION If this government whereof they speake be as they say necessary Pag. 78. in all places then must they have of necessitie in every particular parish one Pastor a company of Seniors and a Deacon or two at the least and all those to be found of the parish because they must leave their occupations to attend upon the matters of the Church But there are a number of Parishes in England not able to finde one tolerable Minister much lesse to finde such a company ASSERTION This argument seemeth to be drawne from kitchin profit and is but a bugbegger to scarre covetous men from submitting their necks unto the yoke of that holy discipline which our Saviour Christ hath prescribed and which the Admonitor himselfe confesseth to have beene practised by the Apostles and primitive Church And yet because this argument seemeth to lay a very heavie burden on mens shoulders such as is impossible to be borne it is an argument worthy That seniours and Deacons should bee found at the charge of the Parish is absurd to be examined though in it self the same be very untrue and absurd For who did ever fancy that a Pastor a company of Seniours and a Deacon or two at the least should be men of occupations or that they should be all found of the parish because they must leave their occupations to attend upon the matters of the Church Why there be many hundreds of parishes in England wherein there dwelleth not one man of an occupation And what reason then or what likelyhood of reason was there to father such an absurd necessitie upon the Church As for the necessitie of having one Pastour in every partilar parish and of his finding by the parish because it is his duety to attend upon reading exhortation and doctrine although he bee no man of occupation this I say is agreeable and consonant to the government of the Church practised by
was common and did continue in the old Churches Besides this inconvenience saith he caused Princes and Bishops so much to intermeddle in this matter Frow whence it necessarily againe followeth that by the holy Scriptures and law of God Princes and Bishops did not entermeddle with that matter atal For had it been simply lawfull for them to have dealt in those causes by the word of God then aswell before schisme discord and dissention as afterward yea rather much more before than afterward For then by their owne right might Princes and Bishops have prevented Bishops nâ—eddle not with election of Pastors by the holy Scriptures all occasion of schism and contention and have so preserved the Church that no tumult or disorder should once have beene raised or begun therein Againe if by the law of God Princes and Bishops had medled in these matters and had not intermedled by humane device then lawfully by their authoritie alone might they have chosen Pastors Elders and Deacons in the old Churches which thing in this place by necessary inference he denieth For schisme saith he caused them to intermeddle So as by his confession they were but intermedlers and entercommoners by reason of schisme and not commoners and medlers by vertue of Gods word And yet now a dayes our reverend Bishops in this case are no more intercommoners with Princes and with the people they ate no more entermedlers as in old times they were but they have now so far incroached upon the prerogatives of the prince and privileges of the people that neither prince nor people have any commons in the election of Pastors Elders and Deacons with them at all Besides if schism and contention among the people Bishops â—n croach upon the â—ighâ— oâ— pâ—â—â—ce and people were the reason why Bishops first entermedled in the choice of Pastours we now having no schisme nor contention about the choice of Pastours by the people and so the cause of ceasing why should not the effect likewise cease But this effect is therefore still to bee continued because otherwise the cause would a new sprout out and spring up againe Nay rather inasmuch as for these many yeares we have had schism discord and dissention because the bishops wholly and altogether have medled in the choise of pastours and have thrust upon the people whatsoever pastours please not the people but pleased themselves and have not suffered the people to meddle no not so much as once to intermeddle in these matters in as much I say as these things be so it seemeth most expedient requisite and necessary for the appeasing and pacifying of this discord and the taking away of this schism to have the manner of election which was in the old Churches restored to the people and this wherein the bishops have intermedled without authoritie from the word to be abolished that so againe the cause of scbism and strife which is now among us ceasing the effect might likewise cease After I had ended this tract in this manner touching this point there came into mine hands a booke intituled The perpetuall government of Christs Church written by Thomas Bilson Warden of Winchester Colledge in the fifteenth chapter of which booke is handled this question viz. to whom the election of Bishops and Presbyters doth rightly belong and whetherby Gods law the people must elect their pastours or no. In which chapter also the matter of schism strife and contention is handled The finall scope and conclusion whereof is as the proposition importeth twofold First concerning Bishops then concerning Pastours The quarrell taken against Bishops doth not so much touch saith hee the office and functions of Bishops as it doth the Princes prerogative When you rather thinke the Prince may not name her Bishops without the consent and election of the people you impugne not us but directly call the Princes fact and her lawes in question As touching this point of the proposition because the people by any law or custome never challenged any right or interest in the choise of the Kings bishops wee have nothing The King only hath power without the people to nominate his Kingly Bb. to meddle or to make about the choise of any of the Kings Bishops Nay we confesse as his highnesse progenitors Kings of England have beene the Soveraigne Donours Founders Lords and Avowes of all the Bishopricks in England without aid of the people that so likewise it is a right and interest invested into his Imperiall crowne that he only his heires and successors without consent of the people ought to have the free nomination appointment collation investiture confirmation of all the Bishops from time to time to be planted in any of those Bishoprickes yea and wee say further that the King alone hath not power onely to nominate collate and confirm but also to translate yea and if it please him to depose all his Kingly Bishops without any consent of his people at all For say we ejus est destruere cujus est construere ejus est tollere cujus est condere Neither will we dislike but rather content our selves that our late Queens Bishops if they shall finde favour in the Kings eyes should be also the Kings Bishops conditionally they submit themselves to the lawes and prerogatives of the Kings Crowne content themselves with the only name of Kingly and Princely Bishops and not challenge any more unto themselves the sole titles of Godly and Christian Bishops as though without injurie to the law of â—od and Gospell of our Saviour Christ they could not bee dispossessed of their Lordly Bishopricks And therefore our most humble prayer to the King is that his Majestie would bee pleased that such his Kingly Bishops may not henceforth over crow and justle out Gods Bishops nor have any primacie over Gods Bishops And withall that the King himselfe would vouchsafe to hearken to the doctrine of such as are indeed Gods Bishops rather than to the Counsell of those who lately were the Queenes bishops As touching the second part viz. whether the people by Gods M. Bilson confirmeth the peoples election of their pastor p. 339. law must elect their Pastours or no Master Bilson by reasons and proofes brought for the first use of it rather confirmeth than impugneth the same For saith hee Well may the peoples interest stand upon the grounds of reason and nature and bee derived from the rules of Christian equitie and societie That each Church and people stand free by Gods law to admit maintaine or obey no maâ— as their Pastour without their liking unlesse by law custome or consent they have restrained themselves Then the people had as much right to choose their 360 Pastour as the Clergie that had more skill to judge that the Apostles left elections indifferent to the people and Clergie at Jerusalem That the Apostles in the Acts when they willed the Church at Jerusalem to choose the seven did not make any remembrance or
distinction of the seaventie Disciples from the rest And lastly against the cursing and fighting of the late Bishops of Rome till excluding both 359. Prince and people from yeelding his consent or making their request they had reduced the election wholly to the clergie hee telleth them by 339. their leave it was not so from the beginning From all which sayings of Master Bilson I conclude thus Whatsoever is right lawfull and free by the law of God whatsoever standeth upon the grounds of reason and nature whatsoever is derived from christian equitie and societie whatsoever is from the beginning and was left by the Apostles to the church at Ierusalem â—he same ought still to remain and must be kept inviolable in the church But the peoples interest to choose their Pastor is right is lawfull is free by the law of God standeth upon the grounds of reason and nature is derived from Christian equitie and societie is from the beginning and was left by the Apostles to the Church at Ierusalem Therefore the pe oples interest to choose their Pastour ought still to remaine and must be kept inviolable in the Church The whole proposition and every part thereof together with the assumpt and every part thereof is drawne from M. Bilsons owne confession Only to the proposition hee hath annexed certaine conditions or exceptions viz. Vnlesse by law custome or consent the people have restrained themselves or transferred or altered their right or else by their default or abuse the canons councels superiour powers princely or publike lawes have abridged altered or abrogated the same Now then it remaineth to know whether any consent default abuse custome canons councels superiour powers publike or princely edicts may be a good and sure warrant to abridge transferre or abrogate the peoples interest from having to do in the choice of their Pastours Our Saviour Christ when he came in the flesh he came to reforme the abuse crept in of the Law and to improve the corruptions of doctrine taught by the Scribes Pharisees and Doctors of the Law but hee tooke not away any least tittle of the Law ne abolish any jot of true and sound doctrine in the Church The Gospell teacheth us to order our judgements aright to bridle the unrulinesse of our affections and to moderate our inordinate appetities But yet doth not the same command us to empty our soules of all judgement to bury our affections in our bellies and to become as dead as stones without all Canons and Councels c may bridle disoâ—dered elections but not disannul elections of the people altogether sense or appetite In like sort we grant that custome consent Canons Councels Superiour powers publike and princely lawes may reâ—orme reprove restraine direct moderate and bridle the disordered unrulinesse and contentious brawlings of the people in and about their elections yea and we grant further that they may alter abridge or enlarge the forme and manner of elections All this we grant but that Christian Kings or any superiour powers may take this right into their owne hands as hee saith from the people or that the people by any law custome consent canon or councell may transferre or abolite their right fâ—eedome and interest given and deduced unto them â—y these rules and by these grounds I doe not yet perceive any good ground oâ— reason for the same For in so doing how should the holy wisedome and providence of God who hath imprinted in our nature these rules and these grounds this equitie and this freedome be so holily regarded and so highly reverenced as it ought to be For hath he made us freemen and can we without contempt of this grace become bondmen And albeit in some cases that may be well said quod volenti non fit injuria and that quilibet potest recedere a suo jure yet the cases must be such as a mans willingnesse and reâ—dinesse to forgoe his right be not tyed to him with so strong a band as is the band of the grounds of reason and nature of the rules of Christian equitie and of the freedome of the law of God It is free I grant for a man to eate or not to eate to drinke or not to drinke but for a man not to eate at all or not to drinke at all and so with hunger and thurst to sterve himselfe is not free and in this case volenti fiâ— injuria Every man that hath a wife that hath sonnes and daughters that hath men-servants and maid servants as by the very instinct of nature and by the equity of the Law of Christ he hath freedome to provide for them so must he carefully use this his freedome And therefore hee may not wholly and altogether put â—rom himselfe and expose at hap hazard the provision education instruction dieting apparelling and lodging of his wife his sonnes his daughters and his servants unto strangers neither may husbands fathers nor masters give their consent to the making of any law or the bringing in of any custome whereby their freedomes should be restrained adnihiled or made void in this behalfe For by thus violating the rules and grounds and by thus treading as it were under foot the equitie of Christ and the freedome they have by the law of God should they not most profainely and impiously despite God and as it were overturne the whole order he hath set in nature And if the people may not cast off these rules and these grounds this equitie and this freedome in things appertaining to the frail bodily transitorie and earthly life how much lesse may they cast them off or set little by them in things appertaining to the salvation of their soules and to a durable spirituall everlasting and heavenly life But the peoples right to choose their Bishops did never depend Objection that the peoples right did never depend upon thâ— expresse commandement of God upon the expresse commandement of God neither can the people challenge by Gods law the right to choose their Bishops I meane saith he no such thing is expressed and contained in the Scriptures What then if it doe depend or bee contained under the generall grounds and rules of reason nature christian equitie christian societie principles of humane fellowships the law of God the practice of the Apostles and that which was from the beginning Is it not sufficient Though it be not expressed in these termes viz. That the people must choose or that the people have right to choose their bishops it is not expressed and contained in the Scriptures that every man must choose his owne wife or that every woman must choose her owne husband And yet by the doctrine expressed or contained in the Scriptures is it true that no man hath right either to choose an other mans wife or to choose an other womans husband And that every man hath right to choose his owne wife and everie woman right to choose her owne husband Againe it is not expressed
then meet and convenient that the Bishops with the other Ministers and some of the chiefe of the people should give the partie ordained a testimoniall under their hands or under some authenticall seale to certifie the Kings Officer of the execution of his writt and that the Patron also should present the same person to the Kings officer humbly praying the same officer by authoritie to be derived from the King to cause him by some other writt to be confirmed and really inducted into the possession of the same Church and into the Mansion-house glebe-land and other profits Ecclesiasticall to the same appertaining Oh! but this were a strange kinde of innovation and a dangerous To execute the premisses no dangerous atâ—eÌ„pt attempt to alter lawes setled especially in a setled estate of the Church Well well let my Lords of the Clergie sing this song and pipe this melodie at their pleasure How be it forasmuch as this platforme in some part thereof hath already been agreed upon by divers CoÌ„mittees in Parliament in other some part thereof by laws already setled ought to have been practised and that in other some part therof is an advancemeÌ„t of the Kings authoritie which last part also is lively pourtracted out unto us by presidents from the Archb. B. themselves we shall through the grace of God and favor of the King be able well enough quite and cleane to wipe away all the spots of this calumniation And first touching the intimation and supplication to be made unto the King that his Highnes would Petition and intimatioÌ„â—o the King agreeable to lawes setled be pleased to command every Minister to be presented by the Patrone ordained by the Bishop and Ministers and elected by the people and that the King being certified by them of the execution of his writt should upon their Testimoniall by another publike writt cause the Clerke ordained to be confirmed admitted and inducted to the reall possession of the temporalities of the benifice This manner I say of intimation petition testimoniall and admittance in substance and effect differeth but little from the forme of the petition â—â— H. 8. c. nomination election investiture confirmation and consecration of the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realme For whensoever the Church of Canterburie Winton or other Bishops Sea becommeth destitute of a Pastor doth not the Deane and Chapiter of the same Sea intimate unto the King their want of a Bishop and doth not the same Deane and Chapiter humbly supplicate his Majesties favour and licence to elect another and doth not the King upon their supplication by Letters Patents under his great Seale favourably grant their petition willing them ut talem eligant in Episcopum Pastorem qui Deo devotus Ecclesia suae necessarius nobisque regno nostro utilis fidelis existat And with the same Letters Patents doth not the King send a letter missive containing the name and commendation of the person to be elected After the election finished doth not the Deane and Chapiter intimate the same also unto the King and humbly againe pray the King to yeeld his Royall assent to the Lord elected Whereupon doth not the King againe direct his Letters Patents of warrant to the Archbishop or some other whom the King shall appoint to performe all things which accustomably are to be done appertaining to his confirmation and consecration according to the lawes and statutes of his Realme of England Lastly the consecration and confirmation being finished and the Bishop having done his homage and sworne fealtie is not the Kings writt out of the Chancery directed to the Escheator to restore unto him the temporalities of the same Bishopricke Yea and may not the Bishop also if it please him procure another writt out of the Chancery directed to his Tenants commanding them to atturne and to take him for their Lord Now then in this platforme whereof mention hath been made touching the placing of a Parochiall Pastor any Parochiall Church with cure of soules being void when it is craved that the people of the same parish might intimate their want unto the Kings officer and that the same officer might command the Patron to present the Ministers to ordaine and the people according to the Kings lawes to assent unto and approve the Clerk what other intent or meaning have wee then that the King hath as ample and as lawfull a power The King hath as large a power to command a Minister to be elected and ordained as a Bishop to be chosen and consecrated to command a Minister to be presented ordained and elected to be a Pastor in a parochiall Church as he hath to command a Bishop to be elected confirmed and consecrated to an Episcopall sea And are we not then merveilously giddy-headed new fangled and strange innovators Againe when wee desire that the King at the humble suite of the Ministers the Patron and the people would be pleased to confirme and admit the Patrones Clerke in and to the temporalities of a Benefice what other thing is required but that the possession of no Church should be delivered unto any Minister without the Kings publike writt And would not this breed a perillous sturre garboyle discord and contention when the Archdeacons pretie signet as Dagon falling downe before the Arke should give place bow downe and doe reverence unto the Kings of England seale at armes The Prophets ought to be tried by the prophets Oh! but in this platforme there be other dangerous innovations and alterations not to be attempted Yea And what then be they The Admonitor himselfe in his admonition holdeth Yea Master Bilson and all other supporters of the Hierarchie defended That the Clergie ought to judge of the Clergie and that the Prophets ought to be tryed examined ordained only by the Prophets and that the â—piâ—its of the Prophets are subject to the spirits of the Prophets Wherein the coÌ„sisteth the disagreemeÌ„t variance between us them touching the ordination of a Prophet by Prophets or a Minister by Ministers certes to my understaÌ„ding there is no other matter of dissonancie in this case but even alonely this viz. That he by these words the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets intendeth Corinth that the Spirits of many Prophets touching their triall examination and ordination are subject to the spirit of one Prophet and that therefore one Prophet by his owne spirit may trie examine and ordaine many Prophets Whereas on the other side we affirme that one Prophet according to this rule of our holy faith Whether the spirits of many Prophets subject to one or of one â—o many is to speake and the other Prophets are to judge and that no one Prophet may tâ—ie examine or ordaine many Prophets Because from this place we gather that the spirits of many Prophets in the ordinary course of the ministerie of the Word were never subjected in this case to the
Cecill TO the end I may enforme your Lordship of my dealing in this Parliament-time against the undue claimed superiority of the Bishops over their inferior brethren Thus it was Because I was in the Parliament time in the 25. yeare of King Henry the eight In which time First all the Clergie aswell Bishops as others made an humble submission to King Henry the Eighth acknowledging his Supremacie and detesting the usurpation of the Bishops of Romes authoritie Vpon which submssion of the Clergie the King gave unto the said Bishops the same ample rule that before they had under the Pope over their inferiour brethren saving that the same rule was abridged by stature by this parenthesis following that is to say without offending the prerogative Royall of the Crowne of England and the lawes and customes of the Realme In the later end of the Statute it was added that whosoever offendeth in any one part of that statute and their Aydors Counsellors and Abbettors they did all fall into the penalty of the premunire And after I had recited this statute in the Parliament house I declared that in King Henry the Eight dayes after this There was no Bishop that did practise superio rity over their inferior brethren And in King Edwards dayes the said Bishops obtained a statute whereby they were authorized to keepe their Courts in the Kings name the which statute was repealed in Queene Maries dayes and was not received in her Majesties time that now is whereupon it was doubtfull to me by what authority the Bishops do keepe their Courts now in their owne names because it is against the Prerogative Royall of the Crowne of England that any should keepe a Court without sufficient warrant from the Crowne Whereupon I was answered that the Bishops doe keepe their Courts now by prescriptions and it is true that the Bishop may prescribe that King Henry the 8. gave them authority by the statute of 25. of his raigne to have authority and rule over their inferior brethren as ample as they had in the Popes time But this was no speciall warrant for them to keepe their Courts by and that in their owne names And yet they have none other warrant to keep their Courts as they doe now in their owne names to my knowledge And this was the cause that made them obtaine a statute in King Edwards dayes to keepe their Courts by in the Kings name Now it is a strange allegation that the Bishops should claime authority at this present to keep their Courts in their own names as they do by prescription because the statute of 25. doth restraine them generally from offending of the Prerogative Royall of the Crowne of England and the Lawes and customes of the Realme And no man may justly keepe a Court without a speciall warrant from the Crowne of England as is aforesaid And the generall liberty given by King H. the 8. to the Bishops to rule and governe as they did in the Popes time is no sufficient warrant to the Bishops to keep their owne Courts in their own names by prescription as I take it And therefore the Bishops had done wisely if they had sought a warrant by statute to keepe their Courts in the Queenes name as the Bb. did in K. Edwards dayes In which time Arch. Cranmer did cause Peter Martir and Bucer to come over into this Realme to be placed in the two Vniversities for the better instruction of the Vniversities in the word of God And B. Cranmer did humbly prefer these learned men without any challenge to himselfe of any superior rule in this behalfe over his inferiour brethren And the time hath bin that no man could carry away any grant from the Crowne of England by generall words but that hee must have speciall words to carry the same by Therefore how the B. are warranted to carry away the keeping of their Courts in their owne names by prescription it passeth my understanding Moreover where as your Lordship said unto mee that the Bishops have forsaken their claime of superiority over their inferior brethren lately to bee by Gods ordinance and that now they doe only claime superiority from her Majesties supreme government If this be true then is it requisite and necessary that my L. of Canterbury that now is do recant and retract his saying in his book of the great volume against Cartwright where he saith in plaine words by the name of D. Whitgift that the superiority of B. is Gods owne institution Which saying doth impugne her Majesties supreme government directly and therefore it is to bee retracted plainly and truly For Christ plainly and truly confesseth Ioh. 18. 36. That his Kingdome was not of this world And therefore he gave no worldly rule or preheminence to his Apostles but the heavenly rule which was to preach the Gospell saying Ite praedicate in omnem mundum qnicunque crediderit baptizatus fuerâ—t salvus erit qui non crediderit condemnabitur Goe and preach in all the world whosoever shall beleeve be baptized shall bee saved but he that will not beleeve shall be condemned Mark 16. 15. But the Bishops do cry out saying that Cartwright and his fellows would have no government c. So belike the B. care for no government but for worldly and forcible government over their brethren the which Christ never gave to his Disciples nor Apostles but made them subject to the rule of Princes who ought not to be resisted saving that they might answer unto Princes that they must rather obey God than men Acts 5. 29. and yet in no wise to resist the Prince but to take up the Crosse and follow Christ FINIS
AN ASSERTION FOR True and Christian CHURCH-POLICIE Wherein Certain Politike Objections made against the planting of PASTOURS and Elders in every Congregation are sufficiently ANSWERED And Wherein also sundry projects are set downe how the Discipline by Pastors and Elders may be planted without any derogation to the Kings Royall Prerogative any indignity to the three Estates in Parliament or any greater alteration of the laudable Lawes Statutes or Customes of the Realme than may well bee made without damage to the people IN DOMINO CONFIDO London Printed 1642. To the Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in High COURT of Parliament Right HONOURABLE c. THe Ensuing Treatise which I am bold to present to Your wisedomes view containes principall politicall reasons grounded upon the Lawes of this Kingdom for the removing of the present Hierarchie and planting of a Governement by Pastors and Elders The appellation of Lay Elders hath beene very displeasing to many whereas the Elder intended to be planted is not lay but in regard of the service wherein hee is to bee imployed Ecclesiasticall The Author was an elaborate Student in the civill Law and a professor of it He was esteemed learned by the best of that profession as also by Divines and common Lawyers learned Sir Edward Cook late Chiefe Justice of the Kings Bench Sir Christopher Yelverton late Judge of the Common Pleas Sir Henry Finch late the Kings Serjeant at Law and others have given testimony of him The Treatise is an answer to diverse passages in a Book written by D. Whitgift late Archb. of Canterbury intituled An admonition to the Parliament The Author as I doubt not but will appeare to your Wisedomes hath written with the spirit of meekenesse and humility submitting all to the judgement of an High Court of Parliament hee disputes with the Great Bishop in a Scholasticall way without one syllable of reviling or bitter language which he ever detested Hee discovers the foundation of the Hierarchie to be totally illegall and to bee abolished by the abolition of the Papall Canon Law which appeares to be abolished by the statute of 25. of Henry 8. cap. 9. The truth whereof being discovered by the Authors means to the said learned Judge Sir Edward Cooke hee did most ingenuously acknowledge and did avow he never understood the statute so well before yet affirmed he thought he had read the said statute an hundred times May it please you in your wisedomes to commend the Treatise to bee viewed by the learned Gent. of the long Robe whose awfull judgments I shall ever honour Most true it is I dare averre there is little written in this Kingdome tending to the removall of the Episcopacie from Legall and Politicall arguments but the Author hath the arrowes in his quiver I say not that others have borrowed light from his Candle Right Honourable and Right worthy I shall humbly take further boldnes humbly presuming upon your Honourable favours if this poore model find acceptance in your sight to present you with a new impression of an abstract written in time of famous Queene Elizabeth a Book well knowne to learned King Iames by the same Author whose memory I am bound by nature to Honour Give mee leave onely now to make knowne unto you the Title and severall Treatises contained in it It is intituled An abstract of certaine Laws Canons and Constitutions Synodall and Provinciall in force within the Queenes dominions and for the most part unknowne to the subject It containeth these principall Treatises 1. That a learned Ministery is commanded by Law 2. That Pluralities are forbidden by Law 3. That it is unlawfull to make a Minister without a title 4. That it is unlawfull for a Clerk to have civill authority This abstract was seemingly answered by the rayling stile of a then Doctor Cozens but by a further incounter and the counterpoyson yet extant written by the same Author he departed the Field with Honour such was the opinion of many learned among others of the foresaid Reverend Judge Sir Henry Yelverton This treatise was never questioned nor quarreld for ought I ever heard Yet was the Author well knowne to many of the Bishops You may happily in your Wisdomes conceive some things might have beene omitted as not wholly incident to the time and some abbreviated in regard of the shortnesse of your time and of the high affaires now in hand But may it please you being about so to doe I found the light must have bin much Eclipsed and the truth obscured I am over bold most humbly to commend the defence of what he writes grounded upon the laws of the Kingdome to your most Honourable protection It shall be enough for me to attend among the meanest of your servants having heretofore had the happinesse to have bin a member though unworthy of the Honourable House of Commons Presenting your honours and your grave wisdomes with my heartiest prayers and humblest service In most humble manner I intreate your pardon of and for The Contents THe defenders of the Hierarchy confesse their government is not apostolicall pag. 2. The bringing in of the discipline desired causeth no alteration of temporall laws nor the officers of a kingdom 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 No feare that prophane men will overthrow the Gospell if the forme of Church government be altered 10. The description of lukewarme professors that will be of that religion the King will be of 11. The Puritan protestants can never overthrow the Gospell 13. Neither can the Papist because he is overthrown by the Gospel 13 The planting of an Apostolicall government will draw no alteration of the Lawes of the Realme 14. The whole Papal Law is totally abolished by the statute of the 25 of Henry 8. c. 19. of the submission of the Clergie as appeares by the body of the statute and the proviso from the 15. to the 20. Canon and civill Lawes no part of the Lawes of the Realme but by sufferance 15 An imbasement for Civillians to have preferment by the offices of the Canon Law that ought not to be used 17 18 19. Whence it followeth that the papall Canon Law being abolished the papall offices and functions of Archbishops and Bishops are also abolished being grounded upon the same Law 20 Power properly and improperly called spirituall 20 21 Bishops remaine ordinary by custome provinciall Canons and statute Law though papall lawes be abolished 21 The King though Supreame governour of the Church cannot give Archbishops and Bishops spirituall power properly called spirituall that power must be derived from the Scripture 20. The Bishops did use a plenary power devised and promulged new Canons without the Queenes assent 23 All the Bishops together can make no new Law and yet every Bishop doth make many lawes 24 All temporall officers do draw their power from the King one way or other 25 The Charter of England confirmeth not the power of Archbishops or Bishops because their power appeares not by the
expresly uttered by him let such one understand that this charge is but a meere and needlesse cavill For sithence both here and throughout his booke his intent was to dispute for the governement already received against the governement which is required to bee planted in the Church And for so much also as none other governement is required to bee planted but that only Government which was practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church it must necessarily follow that the arrowes which he shot against the government required to bee planted were shot only against the governement which was practised by the Apostles and the Primitive Church And therefore there can be no just charge of any falsification used in the gathering of his arguments Against which I argue as â—olloweth Whatsoever will draw with iâ— no alterations of the state of Governement and but few or small alterations of the lawes the same may rather bring the end that is desired viz. a godly peace and Christian unitie both in Church and Common weale than the overthrow of the Gospell among us But the planting of the government practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church will draw with it no alteration of the state of government and but few or small alterations of the lawes Therefore the planting of the Government practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church may rather bring the end that is desired viz a godly peace and Christian unitie both in Church and Common weale than the overthrow of the Gospell among us The truth of which argument will then appeare when the Admonitors argument shall be convinced of errour for the disproofe of the one is the proofe of the other and if his fall then cannot this but follow And touching the invaliditie of the first proposition of his second Sillogisme we affirme that the alterations of the state of government and of the Lawes bee they never so many and never so great can never bring any overthrow of the Gospell if the same alterations be made for the planting of the Gospell For the lawes once altered can overthrow nought because they are then no more lawes And to say that the Gospell once planted by authoritie of new lawes can be overthrowne by the same lawes is more absurd For the new lawes give life to the entertaining of the Gospell by means wherof the Gospell can not discontinue so long as those lawes continue And hereupon also it followeth that no alteration of lawes for sweeping and cleansing of the Church for casting and whipping buyers and sellers and choppers of Churches out of the Church can overthrow the Gospell For if all drosse filth and corruption be cast out if all lets and impediments be done away it cannot be but that the Gospell must needs have a freer and larger passage as whereunto a wider doore can not bee but opened for the bringing in of a more plentifull harvest And if the Church be beautifull as Tyrsa and Sol. song 6. 3 4 comely as Ierusalem if she looke as the morning If she be faire as the Moone pure as the Sunne and terrible as an army then is she set as a seale on the Lords heart and as a signet upon his arme and then shall the coales of his jealousie be as fiery coales and as a vehement slame that much water shall never quench it nor any floods ever drowne it But if he should rather meane that the alterations of the state of governement should be so many and so great as that thereupon he did strongly imagine evidently to see the overthrow of the Gospell then we say that no state of government can ever undergo either many or few either small or great alterations unlesse by alteration of lawes made by the same state of Government the same state of government be altered Now then if our politike state of government whereof hee must needs speake for otherwise his speech were to no purpose to amend and reforme abuses in it selfe may justly put it selfe under the yoke of a new law as it hath done and daily doth unto many new lawes and so in this respect after a sort in some part alter it selfe for every reformation is a kinde of alteration without any dammage hazard or prejudice to it self if I say this may well be so what a silly skare-crow is there here brought into the field to fray our politike state of governement for attempting a reformation in the Church Belike he knew some to faine that our state of governement must necessarily fancy whatsoever they fancy And namely that a reformation of the Church cannot but inferre a desolation of the State or that the State cannot be well ordered except it suffer the Church to be disordered or that the Church could not be faire well favoured and in good plight but the state of our Countrey people and common weale must be foule ill favoured and out of heart or lastly that the State cannot launce binde draw and heale up the sores wounds and contagions of the Church but it must withall fester infect and poison it selfe All which how unsavorie and voide of all sense it is I leave to the judgement both of the state and of the Church For who seeth not but that the state of politike government may wholly alter the state of Church government and not so much as alter one least jot of the politike state of government it selfe Besides since our state of politike government hath in our dayes and before our eyes repealed very many old lawes and disavowed sundry ancient customes to entertaine and harbour the Gospell must our state of politike government no sooner now attempt to repaire certaine breaches made into the vineyard but it must streight wayes roote up that which it hath planted and pull downe that which it hath builded Hee that diggeth about and dungeth hee that spreadeth and pruneth the rootes and branches of a Tree doth hee not rather quicken than kill the roote And doth hee not rather cause the boughes to sprought than the body to wither Can seven times trying and fining of Gold breed a canker in Gold or may a River bee dreined drie by one who shutteth not but openeth the Springs The bodie of a corpulent and diseased man the more it is purged the more full of health it is and of better constitution And how then can it be concluded that the Gospell the life and soule of the Church can languish and give up the ghost when the Church for the better preservation of her health shall receive by some new and wholesome law some new and wholesome purgative receite Moreover forsomuch as here is mention made how the publishers of this Booke did consider on the one part of things that were required to bee redressed and on the other side of things required to bee planted together with the state of our Countrey People and Common weale it is plaine that their resolution was rather still to continue things amisse in the Church unredressed
than to plant the things required to be planted And alas what a resolution was that among pillars and Fathers for so they will bee counted of the Church Especially when as the things required to be redressed were required to bee redressed at the hands of the whole state of governement that is at the hands of the Queene the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in open Parliament assembled And could any dammage I pray you have ensued to the state of Government to the state of the Queene to the state of our Countrey People Common weale and Lawes or to the state of the Gospell if things amisse in the Church had beene redressed and things wanting in the Church had beene planted by so high and supreme a power I trow not Nay seeing our Countrey People and Commmon weale not only once and twice and thrice but many times have humbly and earnestly prayed and solicited in open Parliament a redresse of things amisse in the Church is it not most evident that things were not considered aright but amisse by these Fathers of the Church And that the considerers by keeping things unplanted rather aymed at their owne profit honour and dignitie than that our Countrey People and Common weale should fare the better by having things amisse to bee redressed The considerers then being them selves parties yea and such parties as by whom things were carried amisse in the Church and whose defects only were required to be redressed no marvell I say if they used all kinde of artificiall advisement and consideration to keepe things still unplanted by the planting whereof their owne unfatherly miscariages must have beene reformed On the other side if things required to be planted might indeed be once planted howsoever happily our former Church officers might bee somewhat male-contented and discouraged to have their superfluities pared and the edge of their swords abated yet is there no least cause at all for our Countrey people and Common weale to feare any trouble or hurly burly among us For if the hand of God be in Judah so that he give the people one heart to doe the commandement 2 Chron. 30 12. of the King and of the Rulers according to the word of the Lord and if the King the Nobles and Commons shall condescend and agree in one and if their voices shall be all but as the voice of one man to allow and approve that which doth touch and concerne them all then shall neither the Nobles have any occasion to disdaine the Commons nor the Commons any reason to envie the Nobles Much lesse can the Nobles be at variance with the Nobles nor the Commons be at defiance with the Commons For they bee all of them so prudent and so provident as that they will not bite one another lest they should be devoured one of the other And in deed why should any of our Clergie-Masters be so void of judgement as to deny the Nobles and Commons after foure and forty yeares experience of a most prosperous peace waiting upon the Gospell to be now growne so uncircumspect and simple witted as that a reformation of disorders to be made by their consents in others should bring forth a confusion in themselves What will they bicker one with the other will they beate and buffet one another when there is no cause of disagreement or variance betweene them For they shall be sure to lose neither libertie nor dignitie they shall endanger neither honour nor profit Our Nobles shall be tres-noble still they shall be Princes and Captaines over our people They shall be Deputies and Presidents in our publike Weale They shall be Peeres and Ancients of the Kingdome their Priviledges Prerogatives Preeminences stiles ensignes and titles of prowesle and honour shall not be raced defaced or diminished But they shall as they may and ought remaine and continue whole and inviolable both to them and their posterities throughout their generations Our Judges Justices and Lawyers shall have and enjoy their authorities credits and reputations as in ancient times They shall be recorders of our Cities Townes and Boroughs They shall be Stewards of Kings Leets and Lawdayes Our Knights Esquires and Gentlemen shall still bee Burgesses in Parliaments and Conservators of the Kings peace they shall bee Assistants to examine and represse thefts rapines murders robberies riots routs and such like insolencies yea they shall be our Spokes-men and our Dayes-men to arbitrate and compose striffes and debates betweene neighbour and neighbour Our common people they without disturbance shall quietly and peacably retaine and injoy as in former ages their immunities franchises and liberties as well abroad as at home as well in their houses as in their fields They shall possesse their tenancies without ejection they shall bee inheritors without expulsion as well to the lawes liberties and customes as to the lands and possessions of their Ancestors They shall not bee compelled to goe to warfare upon their owne costs they shall not be tryed arraigned or condemned by forraign power or by forraigne Lawes There shall no husbandry no clothing no handicraft no mariner no marchandise no lawes of the Land no manner of good learning whatsoever in Schoole Colledge or Vniversitie be decreased or laid aside Wherefore the Admonitor toying neversomuch howsoever hee hath made his flourish and cast about with his May bees his I feare his pray God his yfes and his andes howsoever I say it pleased him to trifle with these gew gawes yet shall none ever be able to prove by any proofes drawne from the holy Scripture or humane reason that any hinderance indignitie or incumbrance can ever betide our Nobles our Commons the state of our Countrey People Lawes or Common-Weale if the state of Church-governement were translated from Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons Chancellours Commissaries and Officials which are officers in the house of God only according to the commandements and traditions of men unto the government practised by the Apostles and primitive Church which they cannot deny but must confesse to have been according to the holy pleasure of God Nay our Nobles and our Commons are most assured to bee so farr from being endammaged or dosing ought hereby as hereby they shall purchase that unto themselves which never yet any oppugner of so good and holy a cause could attaine unto Namely they shall seale up unto their owne soules infallible testimones of good and sincere consciences testimonies I say of their fidelities unto God testimonies of their allegiance unto him by whom they have beene redeemed and testimonies of love and compassion unto the whole Church of God Nay further our Commons shall be so farre from bringing a-dammage upon themselves as they shall marvellously benefit the mselves First by purchasing unto themselves a large immunitie from many foule and great grievances and exactions of money imposed and levied upon them by Officers and Deputies of Arehbishops Bishops Archdeacons c. Secondly by having the Lord Christ whose cause
not be removed Wherefore if our continued Prelaticall discipline whereby the liberty of the Church is taken away by publike authority of the King and States might be discontinued and libertie granted to the Church to use the Apostolicall discipline either our Admonitorie Protestants must yeeld stoop and obey or els be found to be a way ward a contentious and a â—romple generation And if these two former kinds of our people which the land being divided into five parts make three at the least shall every way bee supporters of unitie and conformitie to the Gospell and no way disturbers of the peace liberty and tranquillitie of the Church what overthrow or what dammage may the Gospell sustaine by the other parts Yea though they should unite linke and confederate themselves in one For are they not weaker in power poorer in purse and of farre lesse reputation than the former And yet neverthelesse these parts are at such deadly feud one against the other and at such an irreconcileable enmitie betweene themselves that the case standeth now betweene them as sometimes it stood with Caesar and Pompey not whether of them should raigne but whether of them should live And how then can these parts thus divided possibly agree together against the other parts so surely combined Besides the first sort of these two sorts whom it pleaseth our Protestants Puritane protestants can never overthrow the Gospell the Admonishers for difference sake to dubb with the Knights Hood of Precisians or precise and puritane Protestants Why They are the onely and principall spokes-men and petitioners for the Apostolicall Discipline required to bee planted Nay these men out of the holy Scriptures so resolutely are perswaded of the truth of God conteyned therein as without which they know perfectly that the doctrine of the Gospell can never powerfully florish or be entertained with so high a Majestie in the hearts of men as it ought to be The Gospel hath overthrown the papist therfore hee can never overthrow the Gospel And as for the other sort the Papists I meane alas that poore ratt what overthrow can he worke to the Gospell whose bane the Gospell hath wrought so long since Alas this faint ghost is so farre spent his disease growne so desperate and his sicknesse now at such an hay-now-hay as all the phisicke of all the Phisitions in the world can not recover his health or once take away his head-ach This silly snake then having hissed out all his sting spit out all his venome and ungorged himselfe of all his poyson how can his skin or how should his taile anoy the Gospell If therefore it might please the Admonishers upon a revew of our State our countrey and our people to cast such men as be open enemies to the Gospell into squadrons causing them to march ranck by ranck and troop by troop and delivering unto the King a muster roule of all the names qualities and conditions of the principall popish recusants within the Realme for none but such only can be suspected openly to band themselves against the Gospell it is not to be doubted but the least part of all the other foure parts would be as great in number as these And what then should the King and State feare the multitudes of Recusants when one standing on the Kings side should be able to withstand ten and ten an hundred and hundred a thousand and a thousand ten thousand papists King Asa 2 Chron. 14. crying unto the Lord his God that it was nothing with him to help with many or with no power and resting upon the Lord overcame ten hundred thousand and three hundred chariots of the Ethiopians and Labimes For the eyes of the Lord behold all the earth to shew himselfe strong with them that are of a perfect heart toward him And when King Joash remembred not the kindenesse which 2 Chron. â—4 Iehoiada the Priest had done unto him but slew Zechariah his sonne the Lord delivered the King and a very great Armie into the hands of a small company of the host of the King of Aram who gave sentence against the King slew all the Princes of Iudah from among the people and caried the spoyle of them unto Damascus And thus much concerning the Admonitors proposition viz. Whatsoever will draw with it many and great alterations of the state of Government and of the lawes the same may bring rather the overthrow of the Gospell than the end that is desired All which speech of his I affirme to bee but a vaine and trifling riddle as the whole strength whereof resteth only upon a may bee Whereunto if I should onely have spoken thus and no more viz. that many and great alterations c. might rather not bring an overthow of the Gospell c. I suppose and that upon good ground that such may might not bee might every way be as forcible to disprove the one as his may bee can any way be pregnant to prove the other And touching his assumption viz. but the planting of the government practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church will draw with it many and great alterations of the state of government and of the Lawes If in this place hee understood the state of Church governement and of the Lawes Ecclesiasticall now in use then is the proposition true And yet notwithstanding wee avow the Gospell to bee so farre from incurring any overthrow by such an alteration as thereby it is certaine that the same shall more and more flourish and bee perpetually established by reason that this alteration should be made from that which by long experience is known to be corrupt unto that which is knowne by the holy Scriptures to be pure and sincere From a government I say and Lawes authorized by tradition and commandements of man alone to a policie and lawes founded and descended by and from God himselfe But if the Admonitor by the assumption meant to informe us that the planting of the Apostolicall government will draw with it many and great alterations of the temporall state of government and of the temporall lawes statutes or customes of the Kingdome then as before The planting of the Apostolicall government will draw no alteration of the Laws of the realme with it to his first so now also to his second I answer negatively and affirme that the planting of the said Apostolicall government will not draw with it any the least alteration of any part of that temporall state of government nor almost of any one common statute or customary law of the Land which may not rather be altered than retained For this platforme of government we are able by the helpe of God to defend the same generally and for the most part to bee most agreeable and correspondent to the nature qualitie disposition and estate of our Countrey People Common weale and Lawes as in our particular answers to his particular reasons shall more at large appeare In all new and
immediately from your highnesse by and under your Highnesse letters patents And whereas also by a statute made in the first yeare of King Edward the sixth entituled an Act what seales and stile Bishops or other spirituall persons shall use it was ordained that all and singular Archbishops and Bishops and others exercising Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction should in their processe use the Kings name and stile and not their owne and also that their Seales should be graved with the Kings arms And forasmuch also as it must be highly derogatorie to the imperiall Crowne of this your Highnesse Realme that any cause whatsoever Ecclesiasticall or temporall within these your Highnesse Dominions should bee heard or adjudged without warrant or commission from your Highnesse your heires and successors or not in the name stile and dignity of your Highnesse your heires and successors or that any seals should be annexed to any promise but onely your Kingly seale and armes May it therefore please the King at the humble supplication of his Commons to have it enacted That the foresaid branch of the foresaid Act made in the first yeare of Queene Elizabeth her raigne and every part thereof may still remaine and for ever bee in force And to theend the true intent and meaning of the said statute made in the first year of K. Edw. the sixth may be declared and revived that likewise by the authoritie aforesaid it may be ordained and enacted that all and singular Ecclesiasticall Courts and Consistories belonging to any Archbishops Bishops Suffraganes College Deane and Chapter Prebendarie or to any Ecclesiasticall person or persons whatsoever and which have heretofore beene commonly called reputed taken or knowne to be Courts or Consistories for causes of instance or wherein any suite complaint or action betweene partie and partie for any matter or cause wherein judgement of law civill or Canon hath beene or is required shall and may for ever hereafter be reputed taken and adjudged to be Courts and judgement seates meerely Civill secular and temporall and not henceforth Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall and as of right belonging and appertaining to the Royall Crowne and dignitie of our Soveraigne Lord King James that now is his heires and successors for ever And that all causes of instance and controversies betweene partie and partie at this day determinable in any of the said Courts heretofore taken and reputed Ecclesiasticall shall for ever hereafter bee taken reputed and adjudged to be causes meerly Civill secular and temporall as in truth they ought to bee and of right are belonging and appertaining to the jurisdiction of the Imperiall crown of this Realme And further that your Highnesse Leige people may bee the better kept in awe by some authorized to bee your Highnesse Officers and Ministers to execute justice in your Highnes name and under your Highnesse stile and title of King of England Scotland France and Ireland defender of the Faith c. in the said Courts and Consistories and in the said causes and controversies Be it therefore enacted by the authorities aforesaid That all the right title and interest of in and to the said Courts and Consistories and in and to the causes and controversies aforesaid by any power jurisdiction or authoritie heretofore reputed Ecclesiasticall but by this Act adjudged civill secular and temporall shall for ever hereafter actually and really be invested and appropried in and to the Royall person of our Soveraigne Lord the King that now is his heires and successors Kings and Queenes of this Realme And that it shall and may be lawfull to and for our said Soveraigne Lord and King his heires and successors in all and every Shire and Shires Diocesse and Diocesses within his Highnesse Dominions and Countries by his and their letters patents under the great Seale of England from time to time and at all times to nominate and appoint one or moe able and sufficient Doctor or Doctors learned in the Civill Law to bee his and their civill secular and temporall Officer and Officers Minister and Ministers of justice in the same civill secular and temporall Courts and Consistories which in and over his and their royall name stile and dignitie shall as Judge and Judges doe performe and execute all and every such act and acts thing and things whatsoever in and about the execution of justice and equitie in those Courts according to the course and order of the civill Law or the Ecclesiasticall canons and constitutions of the Realme as heretofore hath beene used and accustomed to bee done by for or in the name of any Archbishops Bishops Colledge Cathedrall Church Deane Archdeacon Prebendary or any other Ecclesiasticall person or persons whatsoever And that all and every such civill secular and temporall Officer and Officers Minister and Ministers Judge and Judges in his and their processe shall use one manner of Seal only and none other having graved decently therin your Kingly armes with certaine characters for the knowledge of the Diocesse or Shire And further be it enacted c. That it shall and may be lawfull by the authoritie aforesaid for our said Soveraigne Lord the King his heires and successors from time to time and at all times to nominate and appoint by his and their Highnesse Letters Patents under the great Seale of England for every Shire and Shires Diocesse and Diocesses within his or their highnesse Dominions one or more able and sufficient persons learned in the Civill Law to be his and their Notarie and Notaries Register and Registers by him and themselves or by his or their lawfull Deputie or Deputies to doe performe and execute all and every such act and acts thing and things as heretofore â—â— the Courts and Consistories Ecclesiasticall aforesaid hath beene and â—ow are incident and appertaining to the office of any Register or Notarie And further at the humble suit of the Commons c. it may please the King to have it enacted that all and singular matters of Wills and Testaments with all and every their appendices that all and singular matters of Spousals and Marriages with their accessories that all and singular matters of defamation heretofore determinable in the Ecclesiasticall Courts and if there bee any other causes of the like meere civill nature shall bee heard examined and determined by the said civill and secular Officers and Iudges in the said civill and secular Courts according to the due course of the civill Law or statutes of the Realme in that behalfe provided And that all matters of Tythes Dilapidations repayre of Churches and if there bee any other of like nature with their accessories and appendices shall be heard examined and determined by the said civill and secular Officers and Judges in the said Civill and Secular Courts according to the Kings Ecclesiasticall Lawes Statutes and customes of the Realme in that behalfe heretofore used or hereafter by the King and Parliament to be established And at the humble suite of the Commons may it please the King to
of the Common Law before the Kings Judges and Justices of the Kings bench and Common pleas By a Statute of 32. H. 8. c 7. it is cleare that all tyths oblations c. and other Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall profits by the lawes and statutes of the Realme may be made temporall as being admitted to be abide and goe to and in temporall hands lay-uses and profits From the reason of which statute it is cleare that those lawes likewise may be reckoned amongst us for temporall lawes which by the lawes and statutes of the Realme may be executed by temporall and lay persons and which are conversant about temporal and lay causes If then the execution of the Lawes touching these matters may lawfully remaine and abide in the hands of Doctors of the Civill Law being temporall and lay persons as alreadie under the Bishops they doe it cannot be denied but that the Kings Judges and Justices of both benches may bee as competible Judges to put in execution the lawes concerning these matters as Doctors of the Civill Law or other lay men be But the causes are not reputed and called temporall and lay causes amongst us What for that if in their owne nature simply considered these causes be merely lay and temporall causes such causes I meane as whereof the King a lay civill and temporall Magistrate by his lay civill and temporall Magistracie derived unto him immediately from the holy law of God may and ought to take cognizance and thereupon either in his owne Royall person or by the person of any of his inferiour Officers may give absolute and peremptorie judgement If I say these things be so what booteth it or what wisedome is it to contend that these causes and matters have been and are still adjudged to be therefore Ecclesiasticall and no temporall causes because through an abusive speech or through a vaine and evill custome they have beene so led and accompted in times past And what if it hath pleased the Kings Progenitors by sufferance to tolerate the executions of such Lawes as concerne these things to bee in the hands and power of Ecclesiasticall persons yet hereupon it followeth not that in very deede and truth the Magistracie of the said Ecclesiasticall persons was an Ecclesiasticall Magistracie or that they were Ecclesiasticall Magistrates but their Magistracie was and remained still a temporall magistracie and they were and abode temporall Magistrates For not more can the qualitie of the person alter the nature of the cause than can the qualitie of the cause alter the nature of the person And if it be true that matters determinable in times past by a Magistracie abusively called Ecclesiasticall be notwithstanding properly temporall matters and that the same Magistracie also be a temporall and no spirituall Magistracie what a childish and poore conceit is it to challenge and threp upon the temporall Magistrate that he hath none or very few temporall lawes touching those matters and that therefore the people should not solicit an alteration of abuses in Church government left for want of temporall lawes the people should bee without Ecclesiasticall discipline It will be no small matter saith he to apply these things to the temporall law yea and so say I to But what of that The question is not how hardly these things may be applyed to the temporall law but how small a matter it were to apply the temporall law unto these things For it is not said in any law that casus ex juribus but it is said in all lawes that ex casibus jura nascuntur The temporall law may easily be applyed to causes now reputed Ecclesiasticall And indeed the Phisition applyeth not the disease to his Phisick but he prepareth his phificke for the disease The husband-man he measureth not his ground by the seed but his seed by the ground The Draper he meateth not his yard by the cloth but his cloth by the yard If in like manner the temporall lawes and the grounds and rules thereof were applyed to these matters of tythes marriages c. whereof he speaketh what more alteration could there bee of the temporall law by such an application then there is an alteration of the plummet by laying it to the stone or than there is an alteration of the rule or yard by laying them to the timber and cloth Besides he that rightly and after an exact and equall proportion can apply one rule or maxime of the temporall law to many more cases than whereupon it hath beene usually in former times applyed hee may rather bee reputed an additioner than an alterer of the Law But how may the temporall Law be applyed to those matters how even so and so as followeth By the statute of 32. H. 8. c. 7. it is declared that tythes oblations how tythes may bee recovered in the Kings temporall Courts c. and other Ecclesiasticall or spirituall profits c. being lay mens hands to lay uses be no more Ecclesiasticall but temporall goods and profits and that if any person were diseased deforced wronged or otherwise kept or put from his lawfull inheritance estate seisin c. of in or to the same by any person claiming or pretending to have interest or title in or to the same that then in all and every such case the person so disseised deforced or wrongfully kept from his right or possession shall and may have his remedie in the Kings tempoâ—al Courts as the case shall require for the recoverie of such inheritance by writ originall c. to be devised and granted out of the Kings Court of Chancery in like maner c. It is there likewise provided that that Act shall not extend nor be expounded to give any remedie cause of action or suite in the Courts temporall against any person which shall refuse to set out his tythes or which shall detaine c. his tythes and offerings But that in all such cases the partie c. having cause to demand or have the same tythes shall have his action for the same in the Ecclesiasticall Courts according to the ordinance in the first part of that act mentioned and none otherwise Now then sithence every person whether he be lay or Ecclesiasticall having right to demand tythes and offerings hath the partie from whom those tythes be due bound and obliged unto him and sithence also the partie not dividing yeelding or paying his tythes doth actually and really detaine the same and thereby doth unjustly wrong the partie to whom they be due contrary to justice and the Kings lawes sithence I say these things be so what alteration or disadvantage could befall or ensue to the Common Law or the Professors thereof if so be it might please the King with his Parliament to have the last part of this Act so to be explained extended and enlarged as that the same might give remedy in the Kings temporall Courts by writ originall to be devised and granted out of the Chancerie against
presently the parish Church of Hadenham only excepted was adjudged to be void and utterly repealed and adnulled for ever And therefore I leave it to the inquisition of our Soveraigne Lord the King whether the impropriation of the parish Church of Belgrave in the Countie of Leicâ—ster whereunto two Chappels are annexed and other Churches appropried to the Bishop of Liecester since the statutes of Richard the second and Henry the fourth bee the lawfull or unlawfull possession and heritage of the same Bishop yea or no And if it bee lawfully appropried and so a lawfull possession and heritage then I leave it againe to the inquisition of the King what summe of money out of the fruits of the same Church ought yearely to bee distributed to the poore parochians what the endowment of a Uicar canonically to be instituted and inducted in the same Church should bee what house is appointed for the same Vicar to keepe his hospitalitie in and whether any Vicar for the space of these many yeares passed hath beene canonically instituted and inducted in the same Church to possesse that endowment to inhabit that same house and to inform that people For if by the appropriation it self or by the abuse thereof the poore parochians have beene defrauded of their yearely distribution or if no Vicars have beene Canonically instituted and inducted in the same or if being inducted they have their endowments so small or so covetously kept back from them as that they cannot sufficiently maintaine themselves much lesse keepe hospitalitie then as the Admonitor confesseth there must needs be a lamentable abuse of impropriations and that therefore it is greatly to be wished that by some good statute it might be remedied And as those Churches which are unlawfully appropried are not the lawfull possession and heritage of the proprietaries so on the other side we affirme that those impropriations which were made and reformed according to the statutes of Ric. 2. and Hen. 4. may well stand as mens lawfull possessions and heritages even with those things which are required to be planted and brought into the Church whatsoever the Admonitor hath written to the contrary For we doe not hold that maintenance must only and necessarily be provided for every Minister by the paiment of tyths oblations and other ecclesiastical profits belonging to Churches appropried or disappropried For there being no direct proof to be made out of the law of God that Ministers of the Gospell must only live upon tythes the King and parliament may well and competently enough appoint convenable endowments for every Minister without disapproprying of any Church appropried And therefore little cause had the Admonitor to insinuate the ruine of impropriations upon the bringing in the discipline of our Saviour Christ because the same may be well planted and yet to other not unplanted But what need we to argue against his insinuation considerâ—ng hee himselfe before he came to the end of this page by his owne idisclaime contradicted his insinuation For if the forme of finding Ministers by tythes must with the canon law as he saith be abolished and if there must be some other order for this devised because this may seeme papisticall and antichristian what should any man feare the taking away of those lawes whereby impropriations do stand For if such as heretofore have spoken or written against them because as he insinuateth the forme of finding Ministers by tythes seemed to be unlawfully taken away and as he would also insinuate by their judgement ought againe to bee restored and not to stand any longer as mens lawfull possessions and heritages How I say doth it follow that they which desire impropriations to be restored to their pristinate state should withall enquire to have the finding of Ministers by Tythes to bee abolished It seemeth therefore that the Admonitor so hee might bee talking passed but a little what hee talked For what a double talke is here or to what purpose was this talke Was it because some men doe thinke that the Ministers ought not to receive tythes for their reliefe and paines in the Ministerie Why then let all men know that we disclaime such some mens opinions For we account all things pertaining to this life directly or by consequence not commanded nor prohibited by the holy and sacred Scriptures to be things indifferent and that therefore we may use them or not use them as the commoditie or incommoditie of the Church shall require And therefore as we doe not affirme that the maintenance of the Ministers must onely and necessarily bee levied out of tythes oblations and such like so also wee doe not deny but that the tenth part of the increase of all our goods by the authoritie of the King and his lawes may be alloted for their possession and heritage especially in our countrey the same manner of payment being so ancient and so agreeable to the manners usages and disposition of our state and people Nay since the payment of tythes for service accomplished in the spirituall Sanctuarie is correspendent in the nature thereof to the equitie of the Law of Moses for the Levites attendance about the earthly Tabernacle and since also wee bee bound by the commandement of the Apostle to make him that teacheth us in the word to be partaker of all our goods I see not so Jewish and popish ceremonie and superstition be avoided but that this duetie may as Christianly be performed by the payment of the tenth part of the increase of our corne hay wooll lambe c. as by the eight twelfth twentieth or any other part of our money and coine By payment also of which tithes the Ministers at every season with every kinde of necessarie provision towards hospitalitie might throughly be furnished which many times they shall want by reason of mens backwardnesse when collections of monie are to be made But to speake no more of this matter of tithes we will return to the objection made against the Apostolicall government drawn from taking away impropriations And herein we will not handle whether the lawes whereby impropriations do stand as mens lawfull possession and heritage must as hee saith bee taken away but whether impropriations now divided from the Ministerie and dispersed into many severall mens hands and imployed to many uses in the Common weal may not in tract of time by some wholesome law be reduced either wholly or in part to be the only lawfull possessions and inheritances for the Ministers of the Gospell yea and that without any prejudice or dammage unto Prince or people It is evident in the eyes of all that the Churches now appropried doe stand and remaine as the lawfull possessions and inheritances either of the King or of the Nobles or of the Knights Equires Gentlemen and other temporall persons or of Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons Deanes Prebendaries and other Ecclesiasticall persons or of the Vniversities of the Colledges in the Vniversities of Collegiate and Cathedrall Churches of Schools Hospitals
Fraternities and other bodies Politike and Corporate Wherefore to the end our meaning may the better be understood and that we may proceed orderly we thinke it good to examine first by how many severall wayes some oâ— these impropriations may be wholly and thoroughly reduced secondly by how many severall meanes other some in part may be brought to the use of the Ministerie To reduce some of them wholly may bee done by restitution commutation redemption and contribution And first Impropriations may be reduced to the ministery by 4 meanes that I prejudice not the Lords spirituall and Churchmen of their ancient priviledges from being placed in the first ranke reason is that they teaching the people not to possesse other mens goods wrongfully we speake first oâ— restitution to be made by them In declaration whereof we thinke it not fit in this place to shew to what end the state of the Clergie was first founded into a state of prelacie by the King Earles Barons and other great men because the same commeth afterward to be handled more at large but it shall suffice at this â—arochiall Churches to what use they were founded present for the purpose whereof we now intreat to let the reverend Bishops understand that the small Parochiall Churches were founded and endowed with glebe lands tythes and other fruits by the Lords of Manors to the end that the Lords Tenants within the same Manors should be informed of the Law of God and that hospitalities might be kept and the poore of the same parishes be relieved And besides the reverend Bishops we hope will grant that the great Cathedrall This may be proved by 15. R. 2. and 4. h. 4. c. 2. and is confessed by M Bilson in his perpet government pag. 365. 366. and Collegiate Churches were not founded by the Kings progenitors Nobles and great men of the Realme to the end that those great Churches as great Hawkes prey upon little foules with their great steeples should eat and devoure the little steeples or that with their great Quiers they should overthrow and justle downe the small pulpits And therefore we most humbly pray aide from the king for the casting of new claps to bee erected in the little pulpits that hee would be pleased to grant restitutiones in integrum to all the little Churches and that all impropriations of all Parochiall Churches and benefices now by spoliation parcell of the revenues of Archbishops Bishops Deanes Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Ecclesiasticall persons restants within those great Churches may bee wholly restored to their ancient and originall use according to the mindes and intents of the first Donors and Patrons of the same parochiall and little Churches For if as Master Bilson saith it bee true that the Lords of Villages having erected Churches and allotted out portions for divine service either by Gods or mans law by their later grants could not have the former rights unto their patronages overthrowne and if the allowance given at the first to the Minister of each Parish by the Lord of the soyle were matter enough in the judgement of Christs Church to establish the rights of patrons that they alone should present Clerkes because they alone provided for them if I say this be true then have the Ministers of those Villages and of that soyle just cause to require at the Diocesans hands a restitution of such allowances as were first given and provided for them by the patrons Especially the Diocesans by their owne act now enjoying and converting the same allowances to their own use If it be answered that this can not well and conveniently be brought to passe because the same impropriations by the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons for diverse summes of money are now lawfully demised to farme for many yeares yet to come hereunto we answer that these leases should hinder nothing at all the restitution of the right and interest in reversion or remainder of those impropriations Only if the impropriations have beene made according to the lawes of the Realm and the leases duly granted these leases for a time may hinder the incumbent Ministers from the present possession of the Tithes Fruits and glebe Land belonging to the said impropriations And yet may not the incumbent Ministers bee hindered in the meane while from receiving the rents reserved upon such Leases and which by the same Leases are now payable to the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons Neither after the determination of the same leases should the incumbent Ministers be any more letted to enjoy and receive the whole profits in right of their Churches than other Ministers be now letted to enjoy theirs If any shall say that many of these impropriations are annexed and appropried as Prebends for the provision of some of the Prebendaries of the same great Churches and that the same Prebendaries in the right of their Prebends bee the lawfull Rectors of the Churches appropried and have curam animarum in the same Parishes then we must instantly againe pray the King that those Prebendaries by some wholesome law may be constrained to reside and to incumb upon their said Prebends and Parochiall Churches and that by continuall preaching of wholesome doctrine they may endeavour to cure the soules of the people over whom by the order of those great Churches they be set and over whom they have taken charge And withall that they may no more be suffered to ly and to live idely in their Cloysters in their caves and in their dens sometimes at Worcester sometimes at Hereford sometimes a Gloucester sometimes at Salisburie sometimes at Westminster sometimes at Southwell sometimes at Windsore sometimes at Pauls sometimes at Oxford and sometimes at Cambridge When in the meane while both seldome and very slenderly they feed other sheep whose fleeces they take in and about London Winchester Tukesbury Reading and other places of the Countrey Besides wee pray that these prebends after the determination of Leases now in being may never any more bee let to farme so that the fruits thereof may serve for those Prebendaries or other succeeding Ministers to make Hospitalities Almes and other works of Charitie If it be alledged that the king now having first fruits Tenths and Subsidies out of the impropriations of those great Churches as being all comprised under a grosse summe of the Tenths payable for the whole revenues of the same Churches should lose the first fruits Tenths and Subsidies of the same impropriations if hereafter they become either donative or presentative to this the answer is readily made viz that Tenths first fruits and subsidies might as well be paid then as now And that the King might then aswell have right to the donation of the benefice disappropried as the Bishop now hath the gift of the prebend appropried In the next ranke cometh commutation to be spoken of Wherein because the impropriations of Parochiall Churches appertaining now to the King Nobles Commons Colledges Schooles Bodies
politike c. were at the first appropried only by the discretion of the Diocesans Predecessors to the reverend Bishops that now are unto Abbots Priors Nuns Friars c. and because the successors of those Diocesans be bound in the same band of iniquitie with their predecessors unlesse by all good meanes they labour that things may be brought to their first and pristinate state it seemeth equall and just that this commutation should likewise proceed and be drawne from the Diocesans and great Churches before specified The reasons whereof may be such as follow The Lands and possessions given by the Kings progenitors the Earls Barons and other great men of the Realme to Bishoprickes were not given as Master Bilson affirmeth to unburden the people Perpetuall power pag. 367. 25 Ed. 3. statutes for provisours Bishopricks founded to some sumptuous uses of the support and charges of their Bishops but they were given as the Law of our Land teacheth us first to informe the people in the Law of God in those Churches Secondly to keepe Hospitalities almes and other workes of charitie And thirdly for the soules of the founders their heires and of all Christians Now then if some of these conditions be such as for the impietie thereof ought not to be performed and if other some also being good and godly be not performed and so the things are to returne to their first nature as in the same statute is alledged then is it reason that the King and Nobles who are the just inheritours and successors to those who were first Donours and founders of those Churches should have as free a disposition and donation of those lands and possessions now as his and their progenitors and ancesters ever had And seeing it is maniâ—est that the lands and possessions of Archbishops Bishops Deanes and Chapters doe not for the most part now a dayes serve for those good uses for the which they were first granted namely to informe the people in the Law of God to keepe hospitalities almes and other workes of charitie but partly for the use of chaunting and singing in the quires and partly to vaine idle superfluous and pompous uses the king can not doe a better and more charitable deed than to convert a parcell of the same lands and possessions thus by defect of the conditions not performed returning to their first nature to and for the necessarie and perpetuall provision of learned able and preaching Ministers to be planted in parochiall Churches now destitute of sufficient pastors for want of sufficient maintenance nay sithence Archbishoprickes Bishoprikes and other prelacies by the very expresse letter of the statute are said to be founded to superstitious uses viz. for the soules of the founders their heires and of all â—hristian the same reason led King Henry the eight his Nobles and Parliaments to dissolve Abbeys and Monasteries and the same reason also which moved King Edward the sixth with his Nobles and Parliament to dissolve Colledges free Chappels and Chauntries the same reason may be a sufficient reason to perswade our Soveraigne Lord King IAMES that now is with his Nobles and Parliament to dissolve Archbishoprickes Bishoprickes Deanries c. First to the end these Prelacies and Dignities may never in any succeeding ages serve to any such superstitious uses as whereunto they were first erected Secondly that the King having them all in his owne hands and free disposition may be the only founder and donor of so many new Bishoprickes as might please him to erect and endow with such liberall and convenable endowments as might serve for learned Evangelicall Bishops to enforme the people in the holy Evangell of Christ to keepe hospitalities almes and to doe other workes of charitie rather than to bee expended as now for a great part they are upon the keeping of great horses caroches and troupes of serving idlers The commutation then whereof we speake and which wee most humbly commend to the consideration of the King is viz. That parcell of the temporall Lands and possessions of Archbishops and Bishops together with all the lands and possessions serving to the maintenance of idle Ministers and idle Songsters in Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches the Collegiate Churches of Eaton and Winchester and the Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches in Oxford and Cambridge excepted by an equall and reasonable proportion may be made with such impropriations as belong to the King the Nobles Commons Colledges Hospitals Schooles c. Provided as before hath beene said that there may be a liberall and convenable endowment for the learned Bishops or Pastors to be continued and placed in all the chiefe and principall towns and cities of the Realm And that the impropriations of Parochiall Churches may for ever be livings for the Ministers of the same Churches And therefore in the just defence of the innocencie of all such as require a godly and religious reâ—ormation we say that they ought not to have beene traduced before the king as robbers and ransackers of the Church And that some of the plotters for the Prelacie more honestly might have imploied both their Latine and their labour than lately they did When by drawing Letters as they pretended congratulatorie to the King only in the name of Preaching Ministers they procured notwithstanding ignorant and unpreaching Ministers to joyne in the action and to affixe their hands and names That such letters have beene made and signed is sufficiently to be proved but whether they have beene presented to the Kings hands is not yet knowne Only if they shall hereafter come then may they be knowne by these words Nos Concionatores c ab omni domestica capacitate eorum qui praetextu religionis ecclesiae insidiantur My Lord the King is wise 2 Sam. 14. 24. according to the wisedome of an Angell of God to understand all things whereof he is informed The third means to reduce impropriations unto the possession of Publike redemption of impropriations the Ministerie is by way of publike redemption or purchase For the accomplishment whereof it is necessarie that not only a common treasure be provided but also that the price of improptiations by a publike consent be valued at a reasonable rate to make which rate will bee a matter of small weight whether they bee valued to bee bought and sold at their old and ancient or at their new and improved rents To provide a common treasure though to some it may seeme a matter intricate and troublesome yet seeing the same possibly and conveniently may be done there is no cause that men should faint before thy fight or be at an end before they begin It is written that the cause when king Solomon raised the tribute to wit was to build the house of the Lord his own house and Millo and the wall of Ierusalem After 1 Kin. 9. 15 that wicked Athaliah and her children had broken up the house of God and had bestowed all the things that were dedicate for
law that all and every impropried Church and Churches with their glebes tythes and other fruits after the determination of the leases now in being should bee demised and set to farme onely to the incumbent Ministers of the same Churches for terme of their naturall lives if so long they did continue resiant and faithfully preach in the same Churches the doctrine of the Gospell according to the articles of Religion concerning Faith and Sacraments by publike authoritie now established in the Church of England And because by likelihood the Vicars will not be able to pay fynes or incomes unto the Colledges Hospitals and other places and because also it seemeth reasonable that the Colledges Hospitalls and other places by some other meanes should be recompenced wee leave it againe to be considered whether it were not convenient that the Vicars in consideration of non payment of fynes should yeeld in money corn or other provision to the double or treble value of the ancient and unimproved rents For men experienced in these affaires of this life know that the profits arising out of Churches appropried unto the farmours thereof are commonly six eight or ten times more worth by just estimation than are the old rents payable unto Colledges Hospitalls and other like places And thus wee see how together with the bringing in of these things which are required to bee planted in the Church impropriations may stand as mens lawfull possessions and heritages or otherwise how without damage or hurt to the King or Realme they may be converted to the use and provision of the Ministers whatsoever hath beene insinuated by the Admonitor to the contrary And yet doe I not in any of these things or of any other thing first or last spoken or to be spoken desire mine owne advice and judgement so to be respected as though I should arrogate unto my selfe more knowledge than all others which labour in the cause of reformation but onely I submit these my private meditations with their reasons to the censures of all wise godly and learned men Humbly praying them so to bestirre their owne wits and so to bestow their owne cunning and learning that a better and more easier way by their ingenuousnesse may be found out and procured to take place And in the meane season that these motions tendered to their views may not altogether be neglected but duely weyed and considered Especially for that I have not tendered any other thing to be performed by any of these meanes unto any other than such as whereunto I my selfe to my power yea and beyond my power as far as in me lyeth shall be ready to yeeld And howsoever the Bishops and other great Clergie Masters with their stately favourites may pretend some part of this device to bee an hinderance of learning and other some part not to be for the Kings profit yet to the first we answer briefly that learning is not so much furthered by a few great rewards provided for a few great learned men as it is by many good rewards appointed for many good learned men as hereafter more at large in a more convenient place is declared Touching the Kings profit we affirme that it is not only most profitable but also most honourable for the King to have a multitude of loyall vertuous and godly subjects And that such manner of subjects can by no meanes better bee procured than by a continuall preaching Ministerie of the Word to be planted in every parish of the Kings Realmes And because no man better knoweth the recyprocall duties betweene a Christian King and Christian Councellers we leave the discerning of the spirits of these profit preachers to the tryall and judgement of the most Christian King whom if hee shall finde either by flatterie to fawne upon the Kings profit or by labouring to keepe the King in a good opinion of things amisse wee most humbly beseech the King to accept them and reward them for such as could wish in their hearts the king should rather bee impoverished by having many bad and unprofitable subjects than that themselves would not be inriched by enjoying many good and profitable impropriations As for the Lawes whereby patronages do stand as mens lawfull possessions and inheritances which as the Admonitor saith must also be taken away how the same lawes may still endure or by consent of patrons bee altered without their dammage if God permit when we come to speak of the clections of Ministers wherein the reformers are charged with the burling and thrusting out of Patrons shall be declared ADMONITION The Lawes of England to this day have stood by the authoritie of the three estates which to alter now by leaving out the one may happily seeme a matter of more weight than all men doe judge it ASSERTION Not to stand upon termes with the Admonitor that the lawes usually called the common lawes of the land being meere customarie lawes did never yet stand by the authoritie of the three estates I will The bringing in of the discipline by pastours and elders is not the leaving out of parliament any one of the three estates take his meaning to bee that the statute lawes of England to this day have stood by authoritie of the three estates which to alter now by leaving out the one c. and then hereunto I answer that not any one of the three estates should be left out or barred from having authoritie in making and promulging statute lawes though the government of the Church by Pastors and Elders were brought in For we which so much cry as he saith for this manner of government to be planted are so farre from exempting or excluding any one of the three estates from their ancient power priviledge and preeminence in the making of statute lawes as that wee pronounce him to be guilty of high treason to the King and to the Realme that avoweth the contrary And we affirme directly and confesse plainly that it belongeth only wholly and altogether to the three estates as well to roote out and to pull up whatsoever government is not justifiable by the holy law of God as also to plant and to settle whatsoever discipline is warrantable by the same law And to speak as the thing is how were it possible to have the discipline by Pastors and Elders planted by authoritie of the three estates if one of the three estates should be left out or can it be imagined that any one of the three estates would ever consent to the bringing in of such a government of the Church as whereby the same governement being once brought in the same estate should ever after wards cease to be any more an estate Besides we acknowledge that all powers are of God and therefore every one of the three estetes being a power we grant that the same hath his stateship by the authoritie of God And if all the three estates be lawfull by the holy law of God how can it bee verified
spirit of one Prophet But in this platforme there is no mention made of the King if hee be patrone neither is there any institution spoken of and then how can any action of quare impedit be brought to try the right if two Patrons pretend title to the Patronage bâ—sides the Patron by this platforme must fetch his Clerks only from the Universities Schooles of learning and Nurseries of the Ministerie whereas now hee hath libertie to present any Clerke wheresoever or howsoever ordained Againe strife and contention may arise in the Presbyter between the Bishops and the Ministers themselves appointed to be examiners and ordainers which of the two Clerks nominated by the Patron is most worthy to be preferred If both the Patrons Clerks for non-abilities or criminousnes be refused who shal then nominate and to whom shall the election devolve And lastly what if the B. Presbyter shall disallow one for unabilite which indeed is notwithstanding of abilitie to teach to all these difficulties thus we answer If the Kings Majestie be Patrone to any benefice with cure of soules because we judge and confesse him to be a King endowed Touching the Kings patronage with a rare and singular spirit of zeal for the glory of our God with an excellent spirit of love for the salvation oâ— the soules of his subjects to be the Nehemiah of our age sent unto us from above for the building of the walls reedifying of the ports of the House of God which were broken down devoured we for our parts doubt nothing at all nay rather we most certainly perswade our selves his Highnesse having once beene pleaseâ— to prescribe all wholesome and commendable Lawes unto his peopâ—e will also vouchsâ—fâ— much more to prescribe lawes yea and to be a Law uâ—to himselfe And that his Majestie will set this businesse of the Lords house so neare unto his Kingly and Christian heart by the planting of able Ministers in H. de ley fidei 3 l. ex imperfecto all the Churches of his Highnes Patronage a that all other Patrons by his godly example will be excited reaâ—â—ily to walke in the Kings path to weare the Kings colours and to become the Kiâ—gs chief favourers in this so holy a worke And therefore touching the Kings Patronages cum Magistas imperatoria lâ—gibu essesâ—luta videatur we commend them wholly to the Kings most Christian care providence and fiâ—elitie The Bishops institution and writ of Quare impedit wee grant The Bb. institution may cease must cease but in place of institution the election and ordination by the Presbiterie succeedeth and the Clerke nominated by the Patron elected and ordained by the Presbyterie shall have idem jus ad Ecclesiam in Ecclesia which in former times the Clerk presented by the Patron and instituted by the bishop was wont to have If any suit in law happen for the right of Patronage between two or moe Patrons pretending title to the gift of one benefice It seemeth If suit fall out between two patrons what then may bee done that this gift might have far easier and more speedy way of triall by some other writ than â—y the writ of quare impedit for upon this writ many times by negligence or unskilfulnesse of the Atturnies it falleth out that one of the parties is driven sometimes to sit down by great losse and not to have his title tryed at all only for wanâ— of some ceremoniall form noâ— observed in the pleadings of the cause And therefore both Patrons within the time to be limited by the kings writ having nominated their Clerks to the Presbytere as hertofore they presented to the B. we leave it to be considered whether it were not meet and convenient that the Presbyterie should wholly defend â—he election and ordination of either their Clerks untill the right of patronage were finally adjuâ—geâ— before the K. Justices at the common Law upon which judgement passed they might then without scruple or impediment proceed to the full election ordination of that patrons Clerk for whom the judgment was given By which manner of tryall if the action might bee brought in the name of patron against patron the Clerkes should not only bee freed from much obloquie whereunto they are now subject by prosecution of suits at law one Clerke against another but also they should be exempted from all expence labour and turmoile with which heretofore they have incumbred themselves to the hinderance of their studies and decay of their estates by pursuing the Patrons title at their owne charge Neither might the occasion of suit about the right of patronage be any let or hinderance that the Church in the meane time should be left as a Widow destitute of an husband For any one of the Clerkes nominated by either of the patrons might be appointed by the presbyterie to preach the Word and publikely to pray untill the controversie were ended And out of the fruits also of the same Church remaining in the custodie of one of the patrons or sequestred by the king to the use of the next incumbent he might have such allowance as were requisite for the time of his continuance in that place And for the Sacraments if any were of necessitie to bee administred some other Minister neare adjoyning might be provided to administer the same as in many places it hath been and is now daily used in like cases of vacancie That the Patron should be curbed with too hard a bridle as being barred to fetch his Clerks from any other place than from the The curbing of a patron with too hard a bridle answered Vniversities or other Schools and nurceries of learning is a matter if it be well weighed of lesse importance than the Admonitor would insinuate the same to be First it is not of necessitie required that all patrons should at all times fetch all their Clerkes from those places and not from elsewhere For many times it may happen upon just cause for the benefit of the Church that a Clerk already ordained and placed in one Church may be removed from the same to another But only the meaning is according to the Lawes and canons alreadie setled that the greatest part of the patrons Clerks must of necessitie be called thence because they can not elsewhere be had Now then whereas the law intendeth every Church to be a wife and to have an husband to be a bodie and to have an head the law as a parent unto the Church hath provided untill she be widow indeed that no husband be provided for her And therefore by sundry â—â— de prebend c. tuis l. 6. de prebend fi Episcopus as well ancient Decrees as by Canons of Discipline made and published by the Bishops 1571. it is decreed and confirmed That the Bishop shall lay his hands on none or at any other time but when it shall chance some place of ministration is voide in the same Dioces
As for stipendarie Curats it is expresly against the policie of our Church that any should be ordained a Minister to serve only as an hireling From which Decrees and Canons already setled as I said before it followeth for the most part that the patrons Clerks to be ordained of necessitie must be called from the Vniversities or other places of learning For if every place of ministration be full and none must be made a Minister untill some place be void then albeit some patrons upon good causes to be allowed by publike discipline might be permitted to nominate some Clerkes already placed in administrations Yet in the end as well the patrons of those Churches from whence these are to beremoved as other patrons also many benefices at one time being void must of necessitie seek out men to be ordained which never were ordained to the ministerie before And where are these to be sought if not only at the Vniversities or other Schooles and nurseries of learning For that prophets in the ordinarie time of prophesying should bee taken from the feet of the Apothecaries Taylors Drapers Milners Mercers or Prophets in the ordinary time of prophecying to be taken out of the schooles of prophets from the butry pantry kitchen celler or stable of any Bishop Peere Knight or Gentleman and not from the feet of the prophets is a thing abominable and odious unto God and man Wherein then doth this platforme in this point of fetching Ministers only from the Vniversities or other places of learning differ from the intendment of lawes setled Or wherein can the patrons receive any detriment by such a practice Nay they are so far from receiving any prejudice hereby as indeed both they and their Clerks shall reape great commoditie by it Wherein I grant some discrepance to consist betweene the Bb. practice and this platforme For the Bb. at The difference betweene the platforme and the bishops practice one time allow a Clerk for abilitie and at another time disallow the same Clerk for nonabilitie And him whom they have ordained and adjudged to day worthy of an office they many times disordaine him tomorrow and refuse him as a person unworthy to possesse a benefice Whereas on the contrary part wee think it very absurd and unreasonable to barre any man from a benefice whom the Governours of the Church shall judge worthy to beare an office So that the patrone by this platforme shaâ—l be sure if at any time hee nominate a Clerke alreadie ordained that the same Clerke unlesse it were for Crime or some defect after happening should never be refused And if such be the lawes and liberties of the Ordinaries what alteration of the law or prejudice to the patron could it be if by a new law the King provided new meanes to put his old lawe in due execution It upon difference of judgment any variance should arise between Vpon difference of judgment about the abilitie of a Clerk what may bee done the Ministers appointed to elect and ordaine which of the patrons Clerkes were most worthy the same diversitie wee assure our selves can breed no greater inconvenience nor further danger than doth now daily fall out in the election of Schollers fellowes and heads of houses in the Vniversitiâ—s or of other Officers in Colledges Cathedrall Churches and bodies politike or corporate As those controversies therefore have beene and are appeased by the good orders and laws of those places even so might these also And therfore some good law might be made to this effect viz. If any foure of the seven did agree together upon any one â—lerke nominated by the patron that the same foure should strike the stroke and make the election good against the other three Neither doe we think it to stand with reason that the Archipresbyter or any other Minister among the seven should necessarily be of the quâ—rum For if any one of the seven should necessarily be of the quorum then having as it were a negative voice against all the rest if he should be wayward and apt A Clerk refused for nonabilitie to whom the nomination may devolve to contention he might then alwayes frustrate the election either by opposing himself to all the rest or by inclining to the lesser and worser part as lately came to passe about the election of a Scholler among great Doctors If both the Patrons Clerks should bee disabled by those unto whom the judgement of their nonabilitie did appertain we leave it to be consideâ—ed whether the right to nâ—minate elect and ordain for that time only might not hereafter devolve unto the presbyterie as in like case it hath done heretofore unto the Bishops And from that Presbyterie if the same should make default that the beâ—efice should be then in lapse unto the king Lastly touching the nonabilitie of a Clerke iâ— the Clerke whom A Clerke wronged by a refusal for nonabilitie how he may be relieved the presbyterie should refuse come from one of the Vniversities then as a Clerke before time refused for nonabilitie by the Bishops was to be tried by the Archbishop and by him to be allowâ—d or disallowed so in this case we leave it to be consideâ—ed whether it were not meet that this Clerke so refused and complaining himselfe unto the Magistrate to be wronged should have his abilitie to be again tried by that next Synod of Ministers to be congregated within that Deanry And if upon tryall made and bringing a testimoniall under some authentike seale from the Synod of his abilitie whether the Presbyterie upon a good paine within a time to be prefixed should A Clerk refused for crime to whom the nomination may devolvâ— not be constrained to ordaine and dedicate the same Clerke to the Ministerie of the same Church And as for the refusall of a Clerke by the Presbyterie upon objection of crime if the crime be so hainous as for which by the Canons of the Church hee might not bee promoted to the Ministerie then is it to be considered whether the pâ—esbyterie in this case also as in the former of nonabilitie might not nominate elect and ordaine the Clerke to that place for that time only and upon the presbyters default the lease also to be unto the king And thus have we compared the manner of Church government The benefits ensuing the platform of ordination c. required now in use touching these points with thâ—â—â—orme of Discipline which is desired to bee planted By which comparison the Kings Highnesse may very easily discerâ—e the differences betweene them to be such as whereby the Kings dignity and prerogative shall highly be advanced the Kings poore subjects both Ministers and people diverse wayes eased and unburdened and the Lawes better observed to the unspeakeable peace and tranquillity both of Church and Common-Weale The Prophets tryall of the Prophets the peoples approbation of their Pastours the Ministers entrance into their Ministery according to the Apostolicall
in knowledge and in spirituall worke-manship many Bezaliels and many Aholiabs spiritually to carve grave and imbroyder the Lords spirituall Temple The perfection therefore after which we long and the change of the Clergie whereof we intreate is but such a perfection and such a change as good meanes for the restitution of impropriations being used may easily be attained and well made For the perfection required by us to be in a Minister What perfection of a Minister is required by this platforme is none other than such as the holy Law of God and the Lawes Canons and Injunctions already setled doe require viz. that every Minister to whom cure of soules is committed with some competent knowledge according to the measure of the grace of the gift of Christ be able to teach to exhorâ— and reprove the people yea and to convince the gainesayers if any should arise among them From whence also springeth the change intended by us viz. that in the Churches of all Ministers unable to teach c. There might bee a change of Ministers able to teach c. Wherefore if the Admonitor meant otherwise then wee intend and if upon placing a learned and discreet Minister in every Parish he should not intend the change of the High â—nd Papall state of Prelacy then either is not his answer pertinent to the question or else it must necessarily follow from his intendment that the high and Papall state of Prelacy and Prelacy a learned Ministery cannot stand together the placing of a learned and discreet Minister in every Parish are like unto Coleworts planted among Vines or unto Parsly sowed among Bishoppes Weed which will never spring grow and prosper together Because the rising of such a Learned Ministery must bee the fall ruine and breake-necke of Prelacy And this followeth inevitable upon his owne reason drawne from the taking away of the great rewards of learning by the change of the Clergy For the great rewards of learning whereof he speaketh must of necessitie be the Prelacies viz. Arbishoprickes Bishoprickes Deanries Archdeaconries Prebendaries Canonries Chanterships Commendames non Residencies and Pluralities And then let us observe whether in effect he hath not reasoned thus If prelacies being the great reward of learning should nor stand and not be changed there is no man able to devise how a learned and discreet Minister may be placed in every parish but if prelacies the great rewards of learning may once be changed and not stand then were it possible to have it devised that a learned and discreet Minister might be placed in every parish And then hath he not profoundly and learnedly disputed when he hath preferred the Damsell before her Dame and the maid before her Mistresse When hee hath advanced a great deale oâ— learning in one before a great deale of learning in many and learning in some places before learning in all places lastly when by continuance and furtherance of the great rewards of learning he â—ath greatly hindered and discontinued learnednesse and greatly furthered and continued uâ— learneâ—nesse For if Prelacies were no hiâ—deranceâ— but only furtherances of discreet and learned Ministers and againe if prelacies were no furtherances but only hinderances â—f unlearned and undiscreet Ministers to be had in every parish thâ—n might the rewards of learning still remaine that men should not be diâ—couraged to send their sonnes to the studie of good learning For generally men be not so much incouraged to set their sonnes to learning where a few great rewardes Men are more encouraged to learning where many good rewards than where few great rewards are provided of learning are provided for a few men greatly learned as where many good rewards of learning are provided for many good learned mâ—n Aâ—d to speake as experience teacheth us and as the truth is what one father among twenty will dedicate his sonne to learning if men as the case now standeth under prelacie not brought up at the feet of Gamaliel but at the feet of some swash-buckâ—er not taught from any Doctors chaire but schooled upon some crafts man stooâ—e when men who can but reade and cannot preach may be Ministers and capable of the fattest benefice within a whole Countie In the Common-weale if there bee many places of honour profit and dignitie for such oâ—ly as have valiantly served the King in his wars or carefully attended upon him in the Court then will many fathers incite and incourage their sonnes to prepare and furnish themselves to the warres and to the Court But if all mens sons in the Camp and in the Court bee capable of entertainments alike if as well a labourers sonne following the Cart as a noble mans son a waiter in Court may be the Kings Lord Chamberlaine in time of peace and if as well a Carpet Knight as a valiant warriour may be Lord generall in time of warre would any father for many yeares together costly and gorgeously brave his sonne at Court or would any father adventurously and dangerously hazard his son in the field Again fathers doe not therefore send their sons to be students at the Innes of Court or to be apprentises in the City of London only in regard that they may bee all great Citizens and all great rich men and all great Lawyers and all Judges of the Land It sufficeth all parents and the purpose and intent of all parents is that their sons being such Lawyers and such Citizens as by their law and by their trades they may thrive and live Barrester-like and Lawyer-like Marchant-like and Citizen-like though they be not able to live Serjeant-like or Judge-like Alderman-like or Lord-like In like sort questionlesse would it be an excellent incouragement to many fathers to send many sons unto many Schooles and Vniversities of learning if so be there were many and good rewards rather than few and great rewards provided for many rather than for few learned men in the Church For if there be but few rewards albeit the same be great then but a few fathers among many will adventure the spending of their substance upon a vaine hope that their sons shall obtaine great rewards of learning For what father knoweth the capacitie and diligence of his so Or who can divine that his son shall be one among the number of a few men greatly learned worthy of a great reward and to live Deane-like Archdeacon-like Bishop-like or Archbishop-like Wherefore if such a change of the Clergie as whereof wee speake were made that is to say if â—n unlearned and undiscreet Ministerie were changed into a discreet and learned ministerie it is not to be doubted but a farre greater number of sons would be sent by their fathers to the studie of good learning than now there be From whence also it followeth that either Papall Prelacie is the Prelacy the bane of a learned ministerie only bane of a learned Ministerie or else that an unlearned Ministerie is the untimely fruit of
most men contemned and that it will be of small force to bring to effect any good amendment of life ASSERTION But who taught him to father or to fasten this untruth upon us only then this might suffice for answer that hee did never yet heare any one of our part so much as call much lesse to cry for discipline No discipline by excommunication only called for Discipline by excommunication onely no more to bee suffered by excommunication only For wee say cleane otherwise viz that the Discipline of the Church ought not to be executed as now for the most part it is by excommunication only This manner of discipline therefore by excommunication only is one of the disorders in the Church used by the reverend Bishops and which wee so much desire to bee reformed And for this cause we intreat their Lordships to forbeare the practice of that which as it seemeth they would so faine have others to mislike But happily this was not the marke whereat the Admonitor shot for Bishoply and Archdeaconly excommunication being daily used it is like that he bent his bow and aimed at that excommunication only which is pastorall and Elderly Against which forme and manner of excommunication let be so that some learned men of this age have at large declared in their workes set forth to the world that the same will be of most men contemned and that it will be of small force to bring to effect any good amendment of The writings of som learned men not sufficient to condemâ—eâ— excommunication by pastours and Elders life let this I say be granted what of all this must the Church of England therefore dislike and reject the same God forbid The whole doctrine of Faith and Sacraments we know to bee of most men contemned and to be of small force to bring most men from superstitious and popish idolatrie And how then is it possible but that the sword of this doctrine should have as little entertainement amongst most men as the doctrine He that casteth away the kernell will much more despise the shale And hee that setteth light by the sword will set lesse by the scabberd It sufficeth then that the children of the Church in England striving to enter in at the narrow gate and embracing the doctrine of the Gospell it is sufficient I say that they submit and subject their necks unto the yoke of the Gospell for what have we to doe with them that are without Doth the law of England endight condemn and judge a Spaniard resiant in Spaine The Admonitor himselfe affirmeth at the time when our Saviour Christ said dic Ecclesiae that there were many presidents as it page 134 were and governours of the Church together with the chiefe Ministers page 135 The Bb. confesseth that the Minister and Elders did governe in the primitive Church of every congregation nay further hee saith thaâ— he will not deny that the Apostles afterward and the primitive Church did practise the same These some learned men then eâ—ther must shew and prove unto us the children of God in England that this forme of governing the Church and excommunicating by many presidents and go vernours together with the chiefe Minister of every congregation was given to the Churches in the time of Christ and his Apostles but only for that time and that therefore that form is now at an end and ceased or els it must be confirmed unto us that God hath in these dayes altered and changed his mind touching England and that hee hath by some new vision or revelation commanded the Reverend Bishops in these dayes to teach the Church of England that he will not have the same manner of Government used in the Church of England because it would be of most of his Children in England The opinion of some Learned men not sufficient for the Church of England to depart from the word contemned and of small force to bring to effect any good amendment of life in them for albeit all the Learned men in the world had declared as much in their workes set forth to the world as is here spoken of what were that to the children of God in England unlesse the same Learned men had taught unto us true learning from the mouth of God How much lesse are we bound to regard what only some Learned men of this age have declared unto us the same some Learned men having no warrant out of the holy Booke of God for such their Learning For if the declaration of some Learned men of this age in their workes set forth to the world may be a sufficient warrant to draw men from the way of truth then hardly let the declaration of Doctor Harding against the true use of the Lords Supper and then let the declaration of Osorius against justification by faith and the declarations of Bellarmine against diverse Articles of our Religion and the declaration of Doctor Allen against the execution of Justice in England and the declaration of Doctor Saunders a rebellious fugitive in the defence of the Popes Bull and the declaration of G. T. for the pretended Catholikes and lastly let the declaration of the Pope and his whole Clergy excommunicating our late Soveraigne Lady the Queen deceased bee received and listned unto For who can deny but that these men were some men and that these some men were also some learned men and who then seeth not the loosenesse the vanity the trifling and the toying of this argument The Argument following which the Admonitor would seeme Page 81. to let passe drawne from experience is of like quality For though experience as hee saith teach that men of stubbornnesse will not By excommunication of Pastors and Elders moe can not bee out of communion than in communion shun the company of such as bee excommunicated and though such men of stubbornnesse must be also as he saith excommunicated for keeping of company with them yet to affirme that by meanes of Pastourly and Elderly excommunication moe will bee excommunicated as being men of stubbornesse than in communion is a very grosse and palpable errour For we hold as the truth is that the greater part of the Church cannot be excommunicated by the lesser nor that many should be excommunicated by a few nor that a few should bee excommunicated by one of the Church And if the common union must necessarily consist of all or of the most part of the faithfull then is the lesser part alwayes out of this common union For what else is excommunication but extra communionem ejectio a casting forth of one or of moe persons from the common fellowship society and company of the faithfull The greatest part whereof and not the least are accompted to be the Church and to be in communion unlesse then the whole Church or the greater part of the Church having once cast out from among them one or moe adulterers blasphemers extortioners or such like
his confident asseveration that William Sommers with divers others in Lancashire were possessed and that Master Dorrell was not an impostor The occasion of the Admonitors great commendation of a very good manner of ecclesiasticall discipline used by the high Commissioners hath necessarily drawn me to shew the differences of the disciplines used by the same To the intent the Kings Highnesse might be pleased with the advice of his Parliament to consult whether it were not more agreeable to the good lawes statutes and customes of the Realme and more convenient for the good government of the Church to have one certaine forme and rule of Ecclesiasticall discipline to be established and to be used by the high Commissioners rather than thus at randome to suffer their onely discretion to be the Mistresse of all Ecclesiasticall discipline especially sithence without any manner of appeale or supplication to be made from them unto the King they use what manner of discipline soever seemeth good in their owne eyes whether moderate or immoderate Civill or Ecclesiasticall without check or controlement Than the which there cannot seeme any thing more prejudicâ—all and burthensome unto the people ADMONITION Page 8â— Further more theâ—r whole drift as it may seeme is to bring the government of the Church to a Democracie or Aristocracie the principles and reasons whereof if they be made once by experience familiar in the minds of the common people and that they have the sense and feeling of them it is greatly to be feared that they will very easily transferre the same to the government of the common weale For by the same reasons they shall be induced to thinke that they have injurie if they have not as much to doe in civill matters as they have in matters of the Church seeing they also touch their commoditie and benefit temporally as the other doth spiritually and what hereof may follow I leave to the judgement of other ASSERTION Let it be granted that their whole drift is to bring the government Book of common prayer title communation and confirmed by 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c 1. prim Eliz. c. 2 8 Eliz c 1 Aristocracie in the Church not hurtfull to the coÌ„mon wealth of the Church to that manner of government which the learned call Aristocracie what incommoditie should the Church or common weale receive by such a government when as the same government is not only authorised by the holy law of God but also commended unto us by the desires and wishes of sundry acts of Parliaments For saith the booke of Common prayer the Discipline of the Primitive Church is greatly to bee wished Aristocracie therefore and the discipline of the Primitive Church differing but in name and not in nature it cannot be hurtfull to the common weale that the principles and reasons thereof should by experience be made familiar in the minds of the common people nay it cannot but bee beneficiall unto the common weale when the same shall understand that the best observers of the law of God and the best friends unto God and his people are to be the Officers in the house of God Neither is their whole drift to be disliked but to bee commended that labour to bring the government of the Church from a Papall Prelacie to a Christian Aristocracie the one viz. Aristocracie according to the interpritation of the name Aristocracie in the Church optimatum Praelacia pessimatum potestas thereof being optimatum potestas a power of the best observers of the law the other viz. Prelacie according to their practice being pessimatum potestas a power of the worst observers of the law the first derived from the law of God and practice of Gods people the other reduced from the lawes and customes of the Gentiles and idolatrous Priests And this of necessitie in defence of the truth the Admonitors argument forceth me to speake for by an implication of the dislike of bringing the government of the Churches by Pastours and Elders to a Democracie or Aristocracy he hath by consequence disclaimed and disavowed the government of the Church by Prelacie to be any of those two And what other government then should we thinke Prelacie to be but either Oligarchie or Tyrannie For neither Monarchie may it be neither Prelacie either Oligarchie or tyrannie Policie or politicall estate can it be and other kinde of government besides these there is not any For my part I more charitably judge of the government of the Church by prelacie than to match it with Tyrannie And although the Admonitor and the perusers and allowers of his booke were men in their generation wise yet had they well weighed the nature of the government of Oligarchie they would rather in this argument have beene silent than upon disclaime of Democracie and Aristocracie governments both of them commendable in their kind have cast the commendation of their owne government of the Church by Prelacie to so desperate an estate as is the estate of Oligarchie Wherein if any doe glory because not many of the best but some few of the wealthiest and richest sort doe governe then let him hearken and consider what long since was preached before Pope Vrban the fifth by one Nicholas Orem a man singularly commended for learning in his time Amongst all the regiments of the Gentiles Act. Mo. Nich. Orem his opinion of Oligarchie none saith he is more to be found wherein is to be seene so great and exceeding ods than in the policie of Priests Amongst whom one is drunken another is sterved amongst whom some bee so high that they exceed all Nobles and Princes of the earth some againe be so abased that they are under all rascals and such a common wealth saith he may well be called Oligarchie But Thomas Aquinas hee seemeth to set the diâ—commodities of Oligarchie a pinne higher for saith he as a Kingdome hath in it the commodities Tho. Aquin. what hee thinketh of Oligarchie Aristocracie a good regiment of all other good regiments of Aristocracie that the Noblest and chiâ—fest persons among the people be taken to Councell of policie or politicall estate where an assemblie of all estates is had and when the very best of all sorts are chosen to consult and deliberate of the publike wealâ— so doth Tyrannie containe and hath in it all incommodities and vices of all naughâ—inesse and corrupt regiments of Oligarchie it borroweth that the most wicked and corruptest men be Counsellours and that as it were a rout of Tyrants doe governe The reasons and pillars of which Oligarchie are immoderatenesse Oligarchie a corrupt regiment excessivenesse disparitie and inequalitie passing and beyond all meane and measure Now if our reverend Bishops shall shew themselvea to be male contented with mee as though out of the opinions of these learned men I woud gather that the government of the Church by Prelacie is one of he corruptest governments I am to desire them to have patience
temporally as the other doth spiritually And certes it seemeth that the Admonitor was drawne very dry of reason when hee was faine to plucke this stake from the hedge to make a fire and to kindle the wrath of the Magistrate against the forme of Discipline by Pastors and Elders For whether hee intendeth that the Pastors and Elders will think themselves to have injury if they deale not in all causes of the Common-Weale as well as in all causes of their Churches or whether hee meant that the common people wâ—ll easily transferre the government of the Common-Weale from a Kingly Monarchie to a noble Aristocracie there is neither soothnesse nor soundnesse in his meaning For sithence the Leaâ—ned Ministers against the reverend Pastors disclaime to deale in civill matters Bishops by the holy rules of our faith maintaine that it is not lawfull for a Mâ—nister of the Gospell to exercise civill Magistracy and that it is not lawfull for the man of God to bee intangled with the affaires of this life how is it probable that those Ministers will easily oppugne their owne knowledge by their owne contrary practice Or how is it probablâ— that they would overleade themselves with that burthen to ease the Church whereof they have contentedly exposed themselves into a number of reproches contempts bytings and persecutions As for that other intendment of â—he Admonitors that it is gâ—eatly to bee feared that the common people will easily transferre Monarchy unto Democracie or Aristocracy if the principles and reason thereof by experience were made familiar in their mâ—nds this reason I say might seeme to carry some shew of affrâ—ghting a Monarch if the same were insinuated unto a King whose people were never acquainted with the Principles and reasons of Democracy or Aristocracy but this feare being insinuated unto our late Soveraigne Lady the Queene whose people ever since the time they first began to be a people have had their wits long exercised The people of England have their wits exercised with the sense of Democracy Aristocracy with the sense and feeling of the reasons and principles as well of Democracy as also of Aristocracy what sense had the Admonitor to urge this feare That in the Kingdome of England the common people have already the sense and feeling of the reasons and principles of Democracy cannot be denyed For in every cause almost as well of criminall as civill justice some few only excepted to be executed in the Common-Weale by the common lawes of the Realme have they not some hand and dealing in the same by one meane or other Nay which is more have they not the sense and feeling of the making and unmaking their own laws in Parliament And is not their consultations in Parliament a meere Democritall consultation As much also there is to be avowed for the sense and feeling of the reasons and principles of Aristocracy to be already in the minds of the Peers the Nobles the Iudges and other great men of the Realme For are not the Wisest the Noblest and the chiefest taken out of these by the King to be of his Counsell and to be Iudges and Iusticers in his Courts Yea and is not their Assembly also in Parliaments a meere Aristocraticall assembly And what translation then is there greatly to be feared out of the Church to be made into the Common-Weale when the minds of all sorts of our common wealthes men be already seasoned with the things which hee feareâ—h And when the Common-Weale is already seized of the Principles and reasons which he would not have familiarly knowne unto it Wherefore that the King the Nobles and Commons may no more be feared with the strangenesse of these uncouth and unknown Greeke names of Democracy and Aristocracy written in his booke with great and Capitall Letters I have thought it my duty by these presents to informe them that the government of the Church by Pastors and elders now wanting amongst us and desired to bee brought into the Church by the Soveraigne authority of our King Nobles and Commons in Parliament for the outward forme and manner thereof is none other manner of Government nor forme of policie than such as they and their Progenitors and Ancestors for many hundred yeares together without interruption have used and enjoyed in the Common-Weale And that therefore it will be a very easie matter to transferre the same to the government of the The manner of Policie by Pastors and Elders in the Church is agreeable to the government in the common weale The government of the Church by prelacy disagreeable to the government used in the common weale Church For by the reasons and principles of their owne government in the Common-weale and by the sense and feeling thereof they may well bee induced to thinke that they have injury if they have not as much to doe in matters of the Church as they have to doe in matters of the Common-Weale seeing they touch their commoditie and benefit spiritually as the other doth temporally And withall on the other side I shall doe my best endeavour to advertise them that the government of the Church by Prelacy is such a manner of Government as was never yet in the administration of justice by any subject no not touching the outward forme thereof once admitted into any part of Common-Weale and that therefore the same if it may please the King will very easily bee sent and transmarined unto Rome whence it first came and where it had it originall and birthright And to the end that wee may clearely discerne whether the nature of the Government of the Church by Prelacy or the nature of the Government desired to be planted by Pastors and Elders be more agreeable to the nature of the policy received and used both by the Nobles and common people in the Common-Weale it is necessary that the manners and formes both of Prelaticall and Pastorall Government bee made familiar unto the minde of the Reader And because wee have already declared the manner of the election and confirmation both of a Bishop into his Episcopall See and of a Minister into his Pastorall charge what the one is by the Law already established and what the other by a Law desired to be established ought to be wee will not any more speake of their entrance into either of their places unlesse onely a little to recreate the Reader we meerely note what answer some Bishops have made when as long chasing after Bishoprickes they have chafed in their mindes for feare of losing The answer of an Italian Bishop loth to lose his Bishopricke their prey as was the answer of that Italian Bishop who being thrice demanded of the Archbishop as the manner is vis Episcopari vis Episcopari vis Episcopari and being willed by one standing by thrice againe to answer as the manner is nolo nolo nolo Hee making nâ— bones at the matter answered aloud with an The answer of an
whereas in the abstract it is alleaged that the Bishop by vertue of the order and forme appointed by act of Parliament bindeth the Minister as well to Minister the discipline of Christ within his cure The Minister by promise bindeth himself to minister the discipline of Christ page 55 page 60 as the doctrine and Sacraments of Christ as the Lord hath commanded c. hereunto first he answereth that these clauses doe not dispositively ordaine any thing for discipline as though the law meant by authoritie hereof to establish that the order in these things by the Realme received should bee holden as agreeable to the Word of God but must be taken enunciatively to declare and affirm that following the order by law established they should doe agreeable to Gods will But alas what repugnancie is there heard for how can the law declare and affirme that the Ministers following the order by law established shall doe agreeable to Gods will if the order in these things by the Realme received should not by the meaning of the law be Repugnance â—â— the answer to the abstract holden as agreeable to the Word of God What doth the law meane that a man can doe agreeable to Gods will in any thing which is not agreeable to his word or if the law have established an order in the discipline which is not agreeable to Gods word shall the Ministers doe agreeably to Gods will if they follow the Law For the meaning of the Law is plaine viz. that the Minister by vertue of his promise made to the Bishop shall bee no further bound to Minister any Doctrine Sacraments or Discipline received by the Realme unlesse the Realme have received the same according to the commandement of God For the Parliament having a religious consideration that the Minister of Christ must not have so much respect what the law of the Realme as what the Law of God commandeth carefully provided for his indemnitie in this behalfe Besides what a frivolous comment hath he made upon the words of the booke when he saith that these words of the Bishop do not A frivolous comment upon the words of the book of ordaining of priests c. dispositively ordaine any thing for discipline When as the question is not whether the Bb. words but whether the law and booke dispose any thing for discipline For the Bishop being but a servant to the booke and to the law and one unto whose fidelitie the execution of the law and booke is committed though he doe not by his words dispose any thing of discipline yet by his demand he sheweth unto the Minister that the office of the Ministration of Discipline within his cure and charge is committed unto him and that by his ordination his person is fully enabled as well to minister the Discipline as to preach the doctrine of Christ And hereupon also falleth to the ground his other answer as wholly impertinent to the point in question For where he saith that the Law meant not by authoritie hereof to establish that the order of these things by the Realme received should be holden as agreeable to the word of God The answer to the abstract wholly impertinent to the point in question this I say seemeth wholly impertinent to the purpose of the abstract For there is no such thing insinuated to be intended by the statute only the scope of the Authors drift in that place seemeth to be this viz. That every Minister by vertue of his promise enjoyned by act of Parliament to be made by him and by the office of ministerie taken upon him at the time of his ordination hath bound himselfe to minister the doctrine sacraments and discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded And what then if the law have not authorized disposed or established in particularitie the order The not disposing in particularity all rites and ceremonies of discipline doth not hinder the exercise of discipline by the Minister of these things or if the Scripture have not delivered every ceremonie forme or circumstance about these three things shall not the Minister therefore minister these or any of these three things at all And suppose I pray you that neither this nor any other law had in particularitie appointed the ceremonie of the Crosse the ceremonie of Godfathers or any other ceremonie in Baptisme or that the Law had not appointed the ceremonie of kneeling or any other ceremonie at the celebration of the Lords Supper should not the Minister therefore minister neither Baptisme nor the Lords Supper in the charge committed unto him yes he should And why forsooth because he hath promised so to doe and because the Lord hath commanded him so to doe Besides sithence every Minister by vertue of his promise and force of this law is bound to teach the doctrine of Christ to the people of his charge notwithstanding he be not tyed by the law of the Realme nor by the holy Scripture to any rite ceremonie or circumstance or to any exact forme or particular manner in teaching what reason can any man pretend that the not particularising of all rites ceremonies or circumstances in the Scripture or the not establishing of any order by the law of the Realme touching discipline should altogether hinder Answer to the abstract pag. 59. page 55. every Minister from the administration of all discipline in the Church For as touching the Answer that the Ministers may and doe exercise not the least parts of Discipline of declaring by Doctrine according to the word of God mens sinnes to bee Dis of declaring by doctrine is called disc erroneously bound and loosed and the censure of rebuking and reproving openly and that the discipline which the Minister is to execute reacheth no further than to teach his parish with all diligence to keepe and observe so much of the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline of Christ as appertaineth unto them as touching this answer I say it is as erroneous as the former weâ—e frivolous and impertinent For as consolation and comfort by way of exhortation so reproofe and sharpe rebuking by way of dehortation belong properly to that part of the Ministers function which concerneth the binding and loosing of sinners by doctrine and not by discipline and is but an application of the doctrine to a wounded or seared conscience He therefore that leaveth no other dissipline to be executed by the Pastour of the Church than of declaring by doctrine mens sinnes to be bound or loosed and by teaching his Parish to observe doctrine sacraments and discipline confoundeth the matters both of discipline and doctrine Againe if not any other discipline Dâ—scipline and doctrine confounded by the Answerer was meant to be attributed to every Minister than such as is declared by doctrine then these words viz. and the discipline of Christ were superfluously and idlely added by the Parliament For then had it beene sufficient for the Parliament to have enjoyned the
Bishop to demand of the Minister only this and no more viz. whether will you give all faiâ—hfull diligence to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments of Christ There is therefore some other kinde of Discipline of Christ intended by the Parliament to The Parliament intendeth some other disciplinâ—â—â—han of declaring by doctrine be attributed unto every Minister and wherewith also the law of the Realme doth enable every Minister than is this manner of discipline oâ— declaring by doctrine and teaching the people And this discipline also must needs be understood to be of the spirituall censures of the Church because Christ never instituted any other discipline And therefore because our opposites agree with us in a generalitie that the doctrine Sacraments and discipline of Christ are to be ministred as the Lord hath commanded only and none otherwise and yet neverthelesse doe dissent from us touching the persons Answer to the abstract 55 60 by whome this discipline is to be ministred because say they every particular ceremonie rite or circumstance of externall policie are not set downe in Scripture because of this their answer I say it is to be considered First unto what persons the function of the ministration of the discipline of Christ by the holy Scriptures is committed Secondly whether the same persons with their functions bee arbitrable ceremonious â—â—â—rituall or circumstantiall To what persons the discâ—pline of Christ by the Scriptures is committed and whether the persons be arbitrable or no Phil. 1. 1. Tit. 9 5 7 to bee altered and changed by authoritie of the Church as things indifferent yea or no. To the first seeing to one and the selfe same person the holy Scriptures attribute these two names Bishop and Pastor thereby signifying what are the two duties which belong to the same one person and seeing also no one person by Gods word is called a Bishop or Pastour in regard of his fellow brethren the other Bishops or Pastours but in regard of his owne flocke which hee overseeth and seeing also in well ordered Churches by the Ordinance of God certaine men of approved godlinesse 1 Tim 3 1 called according to the common name of the Hebrewes by the common name of Elders whom partly calleth Governors 1 Cor. 12 28. were joyned as Ecclesiasticall Magistrates to the Bishop Pastor or teaching Elder by whose common direction and authority Ecclesiasticall discipline was practised seeing I say these things are so we affirme that the persons to whom the ministration of the discipline of Christ rightly belongeth are the persons onely above specified and none other And further we say if any spirituall Discipline or The Discipline of Christ pâ—ophaned if the same be ministred by other persons than the holy Scriptures do appoint power which directly be longeth unto the Conscience be ministred in the Church by any other persons than by those persons onely that the same Discipline is not to bee called the Discipline but a meere prophanation of the Discipline of Christ For as it is unlawfull for any person to usurpe any part of the Bishops or Pastors office which consisteth in spirituall teaching the word and administring the Sacraments so is it also unlawfull for any person to usurpe any part of a Bishops Pastors or Elders office which consisteth in spirituall rule and government Whereupon it secondly followeth that the same persons with their functions are not arbitrable ceremoniall rituall and circumstantiall as things indifferent to bee altered by the authority of the Church but perpetuall substantiall essentiall and as it were the very maine and fundamentall pillers to uphold and stay the House of God from all spirituall sliding and falling downe And therefore from the execution of the Discipline of Christ we seclude the persons of all humane Archbishops humane Bishops Suffrafanes Arch-deacons Chancellors Commissaries Officials and all Rowland Allens because their persons together with their functions are arbitrable ceremonious rituall traditionall or circumstantiall yea and removeable at the pleasure of the King and State Neither doth this disagree from that which was erst said of a A Bishop Pastor and Elder and our Lord â— diffr Bishop or Pastor that they be all one in respect of their function For it is not said that an humane Bishop and Pastor but that a Bishop and Pastor are all one For a Bishop simply so called is not a Bishop and Pastor in respect of his fellow brethren but only in regard of his flocke which he over-seeth feedeth and ruleth But a What a Lord â— is humane Bishop is hee that is promoted unto this dignitie by man and who by mans authority taketh upon him superiority and preheminence over them which are equall unto him touching their function that intangleth himselfe with civill government and worldly affaires and whose Bishoply office consisteth not so much in the dispensation of Gods Word and Sacraments as in Lordly and Bishoply apparell Crossing with the signe of the Crosse confirmation of Children sole imposition of hands sole excommunication sole enjoyning of Articles upon the people and Clergie of his Diocesse consecration of Oratories delegation of his Episcopall authority to his Suffragane Vigar generall and principall officiall and other such humane and Bishoply functions All which are after the customes precepts and traditions of men And albeit D. O. by vertue of the Queenes congedelier were chosen by the Deane and Chapter of Lichfield in Episcopum Pastorem Ecclesiae Lichfieldensis The Lord Bishop of Lichfield is never honored with the title of being Lord Pastor Pastorall authority of a Lord Bishop and of other Pastours is equall yet is hee never intituled with the dignity of being the Lord Pastor but onely with the honour of being the Lord Bishop of Lichfield so that one and the selfe same person being a Bishop and a Pastor may bee a Lord Bishop over Pastors but not a Pastor over Pastors Whereupon it followeth that the Pastorâ—ll authority which he hath in common with his brethren the other Pastors of his Diocesse is of superiority or proheminence above theirs and that touching the function both of his and their Pastorall cure and charge there is a paritie betweene him and them by reason whereof hee can have no power over them because par in parem non habet imperium But why is it that he can not be called Pastor Pastorum Ecclesiae Lichfieldensis Lord Pastor of the Pastors of the Church of Lichfield and yet may be called Dominus Episcopus Pastorum Ecclesiae Lichfieldensis Lord Bishop of the Pastors of the Church of Lichfield Why but only for that there is custome tradition and the Law of man for his Episcopall jurisdiction and for that his pastorall function if he have any belongeth unto hâ—m in common with his brethren the other Pastors jure divino The Whether a lord Bishop minister the doctrin Sacrament discipline of Christ by vertue of his lorldly episcopall or pastorall office
Bishop then having these two severall and distinct offices imposed upon his person the one by divine the other by humane Law the one humane and Episcopall the other without pomp and pastorall there ariseth from thence this question by which of those two functions hee may lawfully I meane according to Gods Law minister the Doctrine Sacraments and censures of Christ If it bee answered that it is lawfull for him by vertue of his Pastorall office to minister the doctrine and Sacraments and by force of his humane Episcopall office to minister the censures of Christ then is not the answer fitted to the question the same being made à bene conjunctis ad male divisa For the censures of Christ as well as the doctrine of Christ being simply of divine ordinance it must follow if his Episcopall power be onely of humane right and pastorall power be onely of divine institution that the censures may bee ministred by authority derived onely from man but the doctrine and Sacraments by power derived onely from God Which commixion of divine and humane right in the execution of the ordinances of God can no manner of wayes be sound pure and sincere and therefore also can not be pleasing unto God For no more can the censures of Christ to the pleasure of God be lawfully administred by the authoritie of any one whose function is of man and not of God than could the sacrifice of God bee offered by one who was a priest of man and not of God Now that humane Episcopality or Bâ—shoppisme in the Church of England is authorized and deduced from Lordly Episcopality authorized only by the Law of the Realme the power and Law of man viz. of the King and Realme alone is evident as well by the donation and endowment of the Bishoprickes founded by the Kingly Prerogatives of the Kings of this Realme as by the erection and establishment of the new Bishopricks of Chester Gloucester Bristoll Peter borough and Oxford with their Cathedrall Churches Seas Cities meeres and bounds of those humane Bishops for the exercise of their Episcopall administration according to act of Parliament authorizing the Kings Highnesse to make Bishops by His Letters Patents Nay further that humane Episcopall Note that King Henry the eight by letters Patents made Bish therefore c. 31. H. 8. c. 9 jurisdiction within the meres and bounds of every Diocesse within England is meerely of humane and not of divine institution appeareth by that power and authority which the King hath in translating and dissolving of Bishopricks in conserving Episcopall jurisdiction sometimes to such persons as be no Bishops as did William the Conqueror when hee gave Episcopall power to the Abbot of Battaile and lastly by the very manner and forme of the nomination licence of Election and authority of investiture confirmation and consecration of Archbishops and Bishops established by the more positive Law of the Realme But if it bee answered 25. H. 8. c. 20 that the Bishop by his humane Episcopall power doth minister the Doctrine Sacraments and discipline of Christ then is the case worse with him than it was before because then not onely the Discipline of Christ but also the doctrine and Sacraments of Christ should bee ministred by that authority which is of humane institution Besides the answer should be untrue because the Bishop at the time of his consecration doth not receive any authority to preach the Word and minister the Sacraments for that authority was then committed unto him when first he was ordained to be a Presbyter But the authority which hee receiveth at the time of his consecration is to correct and punish such as bee unquiet disobedient and criminous within his Diocesse Whereby once againe is that confirmed which was erst said viz. That Episcopall power in England is not of divine but of humane institution Especially for that by the Scriptures it can not be proved that there bee two severall and distinct formes of ordinations the one called consecration proper to a Lord Bishop for the exercise of Discipline the other called ordination peculiar to a Pastor or teaching Elder for the ministration of the Word and Sacraments Whereunto lastly may bee added another maine reason that Episcopall power in If the Lord Bish have power to minister disâ—ipline by divine right then no more can he commit that his power to an other than he can commit the power which hee hath of preaching to another England to minister the Discipline can not therefore bee of divine institution because if it were of divine institution the Bishop could no more surrogate the same his Episcopall power to his Suffragane to his Vicar generall or Rouland Allen to minister the censures of Christ in his owne name than hee can depute them or any of them to minister the doctrine and Sacraments in his own name But how doth it appeare that the Vicar generall Rowland Allen or any other Presbyter did ever excommunicate by the power or in the name of the Bishop For the proofe hereof we shall not need to search any other authenticall record then the precept and the practice before intreated of For it is not said in the precept that the Presbyter being armed with authority from Christ but it is said that the Presbyter being armed with authority from the Bishop or Archdeacon shall denounce the sentence of excommunication the practice also of Doctor Hone every way confirmeth as much For therein Doctor Hone doth not challenge to be an Officer unto Christ but he saith that he is the officiall of the venerable Archdeacon of Surrey and that Master Rowland Allen Presbyter by vertue of his office doth excommunicate the parties who obeyed not his mandates who made not their appearances before him c. If it be answered that Rowland Allen though he be not an immediate officer from Christ that yet neverthelesse he is a mediate officer depuâ—ed to his office by an immediate officer unto Christ viz. the Lord Bishop or Archdeacon then wee reply and say First that the Lord Bishop and Archdeacon be neither immediate or mediâ—te Officers appointed by Christ to bee ministers of his discipline Secondly if they were immediate officers from Christ that yet they have no authority by the Law of Christ to transfer their right or any part thereof to an other person in their name or by their authoritie to excommunicate As for these words viz. In Dei nomine Amen nos Iohannes Hone or nos Roulandus Allen c. sometimes used in their scedule of excommunication it is but a prophaning of the holy name of God whereby they make themselves guilty of the taking of the glorious name of God in vaine And thus much touching both the question and answer whether the discipline of Christ may be ministred by the Bishops humane Episcopall power yea or no. But now on the other side because no divine censure can lawfully be executed in the Church by that authority
Clerke and archdeacon knowing the Church not to be vacant refuseth to execute the Bishops inductorie mandat For many times upon pretence that the Church standeth void being indeed full the Patron upon suggestion granteth a presentation and the Bishops also institution which if the Archdeacon refuse to execute then besides the discord between the Bishops and the Archdeacon for contempt of the Suites between the Bishop and the Archdeacon Bishops mandat he who pretendeth title by vacancie thinking to have right though a reall incumbent be in possession bringeth their two titles to be tried in the Ecclesiasticall Court but before the matter can be finally sentenced by that Court many foule riots â—â—ots and breaches of the Kings Peace breaches of the Kings peace and unlawfull assemblies upon entries and keeping possessions doe ensue as was well enough lately knowne in the case between Rogers and Baker for the title to the Paâ—sonage of Barby in the Countie of Northampton Howbeit let it be supposed that none of these variances in law fâ—ll out between the Bishops and the Patron between the Bishops and the Clerke between the Bishop and the Archdeacon between the Clerk and the Archdeacon and between Clerke and Clerke the exaâ—tion notwithstanding of unlawfull gaine for fees of letters of institution and fees usually payable to the Bishop his Officers as aforesaid for fees of the Archdeacons induction his Rester his Clerke and his Apparrators fees the unconscionable exaction Vnlawfull feâ—s for letters of institution c. I say of these unreasonable fees may seeme to be a conscionable motive to cause better things than these without danger to be attempted and innovated And yet these are not all the bad events that happen and fall out upon the presentation institution and induction now used But by the interest whereby the Bishop challengeth to be custos Ecclesiarum there happen as bad if not worse than these For there is no sooner a Church void but a post is sent in all haste with letters of sequestration to sequester the Vnlawfull fees foâ— letters of sequestation fruits to the use of the next incumbent Which next incumbent for the great care taken to preserve the fruits to his use before he can obtain to be put in reall possession must pay Ten Shillings or a marke or more for those letters of sequestration which as much more also for letters so called of relaxation besides Two pence Three pence or Foure pence a mile for portage to the Somner And from hence is the Patrone as I take it very much injuried For he being as it appeareth by the Statute of 25. of King Ed. 3. Lord and Avower of the benefice ought to have the custodie and possession thereof during the vacancie Besides many times wilfull Perjurie by the Clerke and robberie by the patrone perjuries are committed by the Clerke and many times sacrilegious robberies are perpetrated by the Patrone The Clerke when he sweareth that neither directly nor indirectly any compact promise bande or agreement hath been made or passed by him for him or in his name to the Patron many times forsweareth himselfe And if the Clerke be presented to a Vicarage then the Bishop Every Vicar sweareth or ought to sweare to be resident if he be faithfull to the law sweareth him to be resident upon the same Church Which oath notwithstanding is afterwards broken when as the same Vicar accepting another benefice and retaining withall the former by purchase of a dispensation betaketh himselfe to be resident upon his second Benefice and so by non-residence from his first Vicarage committeth perjurie Touching the Patrons robbery thus it is and thus many times hath it fallen Patrones robberie out The Patron when at the hands of two three or moe such perjured Clerkes he hath time out of minde possessed the mansion house or gleebe-land of the Parsonage finally in time spoiled the Church both of the house and gleebe-land the gleebe-land being often intermingled with his owne inclosed grounds he possesseth them as his owne inheritance and in steed of the Parsonage house either he buildeth another new or else hireth some cottage or farme house for the Parson and his successors to inhabite in These abuses we see are many and yet besides these continuing at this day in the goverment established there remaineth others as foule and as grosse as any of the rest which is the too too inordinate and licentious chopping and changing of Churches from Minister to Chopping of benefices despensations c. Minister for dispensations commendames perinde valeas res pluralities and Non-residencies wherein not the people to be taught but their own backs and bellies to be cloathed and fedd is wholly respected Now then that this manner of goverment wherein the afore specified the like discoÌ„modities daily fall out under colour of not diminishing the Kings Prerogative of not altering laws setled of not attempting dangerous innovations and of the preserving of the right of Patrones Bishops and Archdeacons should still be continued without any mention or Remembrance to be once had of their discontinuance especially in the time of Peace and under a Christian Magistrate and in a state as he saith reformed we humbly leave to the wise and mature deliberation of our most Christian King and State in Parliament And we most humbly beseech the King and State that indifferently freely and largely it may be argued heard and examined whether it be possible Supplication to the King and State in parliam that the tenth part of these or any other the like disorders corruptions and grievances can possibly fall out in the Church by that platforme of Discipline which is required to be planted And to the end that the Kings Majestie and the State might rightly and perfectlie be informed and resolved of those points whereof we now speake viz. of the petition ordination election prefentation and admittance of every Parochiall Pastour to any Church with cure of soules how the same may stand and not be disagreeable to Petition ordination c. of Misters or Pastors how the same may be made without Bishops or Archdeacons not disagreeable to divers lawes already setled divers lawes already setled and in force it is requisite that the substance of these things in this place be intreated of wherein against the base office and meane person of the Archdeacon we oppose the Royall office and most excellent person of the King against the immoderate office and stately person of one Lordly Bishop wee oppose the meek and temperate cariage of a Senate or Presbyterie of many wise learned and grave Ministers together with a Reverend assemblie of the Ancients and chiefe Fathers of every Church destitute of a Pastor As for the Patrons right we are so farre from diminishing any jott of the true right which by laws setled he ought to have as that he shall quietly possesse his interest and that with lesse