Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	great_a	year_n	12,088	5	4.6880	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65589	A defence of pluralities, or, Holding two benefices with cure of souls as now practised in the Church of England.	Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695.	1692 (1692)	Wing W1561; ESTC R8846	81,283	204

afterwards but so as to supply in some measure the necessities of every Diocess every part of it having at least some one Church within its neighbourhood to which the People might repair to pay their Devotions and receive instruction Many Canons therefore made about that time insinuate the establishment of Parochial Cures every where and the division of Diocesses into them Thus in the Constitutions of Egbert Archbishop of York the first is Vnusquisque Sacerdos Ecclesiam suam cum omni diligentiâ aedificet For in many places the Patrons endowed the Churches but built not the Edifice leaving that to be done by the Priest out of the Oblations and contribution of the Christians of the vicinage which was easily effected in those times when devotion and piety were very great in all Orders of men The second Constitution directs all Priests to sound the Bells of their Churches at the usual hours of day and night to give notice of the time of prayer and of the several Offices of Religion which were then daily performed by the Priests in publick The sixth enjoyns every Priest carefully to instruct the people committed to him in the Lord●s prayer and the Creed This Parochial division was long before introduced in France For the Laws of King Dagobert made in the year 630. direct that Si quis Presbytero vel Diacono quem Episcopus in Parochiâ ordinavit vel qualem plebs sibi recepit ad Sacerdotem injuriam ●ecerit he should be punished in such a manner In England the first Synod of Celcyth held in the year 787. commands Vt omni anno in Synodalibus conventibus ab Episcopis singularum Ecclesiarum Presbyteri qui populum erudire debent de ipsâ fide diligentissimè examinentur And the tenth Canon of the second Synod at Celcyth which was held in the year 816. appoints that at the death of a Bishop Statim per singulas Parochias in singulis quibusq Ecclesiis pulsato signo omnis famulorum Dei coetus ad Basilicam conveniat ibiq pariter triginta Psalmos pro defuncti animâ decantent In proportion to the increase of these Parochial Foundations the necessity of sending itinerant Priests through the Diocess decreased and at last wholly ceased The last mention which I find made of them is in the 9th Canon of the Synod of Clovesho now Cliff held by Archbishop Cuthbert in the year 747 in which it is decreed Vt Presbyteri per loca regiones Lai●orum quae sibi ab Episcopis Provinciae insinuata injuncta sunt Evangelicae praedicationis Officium in baptizando docendo ac visitando studeant explere Which confirms my former conjecture that before the year 800. the Parochial division of Diocesses was generally received and that the ordinary instruction of the People was then wholly left to the Parish-Priests For before this time those two reasons which chiefly discouraged the erection and endowment of Parochial Churches had been taken away Of these the first was That all the Lands Tithes Oblations and Ecclesiastical Revenues of the whole Diocess belonged to the disposition of the Bishop so that the particular endowment of any Parish Church did only add so much to the common Treasure of the Diocess This being no small cause of restraining the devotion of Lay-founders the Bishops at last condescended that the whole revenue of the endowment with all other Ecclesiastical profits which should come to the hands of the Priest officiating at such a Church should be taken from the common Treasury of the Diocess and be perpetually annexed to the Church of that Clerk who received it So that the Bishop should not any longer receive those profits nor the Incumbent expect his Salary from the Bishop This the Bishops willingly did as soon as by the erection of many Parish-Priests the necessity of maintaining so many itinerant Priests ceased and their Cathedrals were sufficiently endowed for the maintenance of themselves and their Colledge of Clergy cons●antly attending the service of the Cathedral Church Yet however they parted with the propriety and immediate dispensation of that part of the Ecclesiastical Revenues of their Diocesses they still limited and appointed the uses in which they should be imployed by the Parochial Clergy This appears from several Constitutions before cited upon other occasions and from others which may be alledged to the same purpose as the French Capitular made in the year 779 which orders cap. 7. De Decimis ut unusquisque suam decimam donet atque per jussionem Pontificis dispensentur Another Capitular directs it more expresly in these words Vt Decimae in potestate Episcopi sint qualiter à Presbyteris dispensentur The same is decreed in the Council of Worms cap. 59. and may be found in Regino L. 1. c. 42. This Priviledge of the Bishops continued in England at least until the time of King Alfred who confirmed it by a Law and appointed the Tithes delivered to the Priests to be divided into three parts Vnam partem and Ecclesiae reparationem alteram pauperibus erogandam tertiam verò Ministris Dei qui Ecclesiam ibi curant Which was consonant to the first limitation of their use made when they were first taken from the common Treasure of the Diocess save only that the Bishops had now long since remitted their fourth part which at first they did reserve The other discouragement of the Foundation of Parochial Churches was That the Incumbents of them would often either through levity or the hope of gaining other Churches better endowed or for any other reason quit their Churches and thereby defraud their Patrons of the end which they proposed in the foundation viz. the constant presence of a Priest for their instruction and the performance of Religous duties This therefore was soon remedied and the Parish Priests forbid to quit their Cures without the leave of their Diocesan as well as to accept them without their permission So the National Synod of France held in the year 744. in the presence of Boniface the Popes L●gate decreed cap. 5. De Sacerdotibus qui suos titulos absque licentia Episcopi dimittunt ut tamdiu à communione habeantur alieni quousque ad suos titulos revertantur And cap. 10. Quando Presbyteri vel Diaconi per parochias constituuntur oportet eos Episcopo suo professionem facere The first Capitular of Charles the Great made in the year 769. reneweth both these Canons Cap. 9. Nemo accipiat Ecclesiam in Parochiam sine consensu Episcopi sui nec de unâ ad aliam transeat Another Capitular commands those Clergymen to be degraded who forsook their Churches and accepted the Cure of others Presbyter vel Diaconus qui deserit Ecclesiam suam ad aliam transierit deponatur Some Capitulars and Councils apply this to the Bishops as well as the inferiour Clergy and forbid as well them to be translated from one Bishoprick

of Superiours to put them in execution But supposing Plurality to have been against the first design of Parochial institution and endowment what wonder is it that Ecclesiastical Ordinances of humane institution should in the compass of 1100 years change and deviate from their first design when Civil Ordinances do so often change and therewith sometimes force a change of Ecclesiastical Constitutions as must necessarily happen in all mixt cases It is notorious that in the first design of Parochial Cures no Quare impedit could be brought against a Bishop that formerly the persons and goods of Clergymen were not subject to the jurisdiction or cognisance of Laymen that all Estates and Possessions granted by the Crown to Laymen were in consideration of Military or other Service to be paid by them that no Taxes could be imposed on the Clergy but by themselves in Convocation that all Tithes were given and appropriations of them made for the maintenance of Clergymen or at least for religious uses that no place was exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary by the first institution which remained intire till the end of the eleventh Age that the direction of the Kings Conscience in deciding Matters of Equity that is the execution of the Office of Chancellour belonged wholly to the Clergy In all these and many other cases which might be produced the first design is wholly changed and yet no such vehement accusation is brought against the innovations Perhaps some of these old Institutions may by the change of circumstances of times deserve to have been changed and the change to be continued For altho it be in many things a good rule to reduce matters to their first institution yet it is not always so In the first Institution all things were adapted to such circumstances of other things as then obtained and if in length of time the latter change reason will direct the former to be changed with them But it is enough to shew that derivation from the first design is not always blamable and that the charge of it lyeth equally against many other cases which yet are not blamed I need not add any more concerning this head since I have shewed that the permission of Pluralities is not contrary to the first design of the division and endowment of Parishes CHAP. III. IT remains in the third place to be manifested That the use of Pluralities as now practised is not inconvenient to the Church These inconveniencies as they are urged and exaggerated by the oppugners of Pluralities more particularly by a worthy Gentleman who calls himself the The Parsons Counsellor and by an eminent Author whose Character and Worth I reverence too much to name him in this place may be reduced to these four heads Neglect of the Cure of Souls Dilapidations Disuse of Hospitality and Alms and Scandal For the first it is affirmed That Pluralities are prejudicial to the advancement of Christian Religion that there are many Pluralists in England that hardly see either of their Livings in a Year that almost all the greatest and best Livings in the Kingdom are now held by Pluralists and served by mean Curates that hereby many poor Souls are neglected in danger to perish that in many places two great Parishes are left to the care of two Boys that came but the other day from School and perhaps fitter to be there still while the Shepherd that takes the fleece either feasts it out in his Lords family or takes his ease upon a Prebend or Deanery That it is no other than Hiring out the Sacred Trust to pitiful Mercenaries at the cheapest rate that it is a thing of high scandal for one to receive the Fees and commit the Work to the care of some inferiour or raw Practitioner that no Clergyman can with conscience expect his dues from his Parishioners that doth not perform his duty in the first place For the second it is alledged That Non-residence and Dilapidations for the most part go hand in hand that you shall seldom see a Non-resident but he is also a Dilapidator For the third it is pretended That one end of the Law of Residence 21 H. 8. was to maintain Hospitality that every Clergyman ought to remember that the poor have a share in the Tithes with him For which purpose the Decree of Pope Sylvester concerning the quadripartite and of King Alfred concerning the tripartite division of the Goods of the Church are produced That generally the best Livings of the Kingdom are served with poor Curates and no Hospitality kept In the last place it is urged That those who are guilty of such disorder have much to answer for the reproach they have brought on this Church and on the Sacred Function by their ill practises that these are things of so crying a nature that no wonder if the Wrath of God be ready to break out upon us that these are abuses that even the Church of Rome after all her impudence is ashamed of and are at this day generally discountenanced all France over that it is an inexcusable fault and a scandal that may justly make us blush that all the honest Prelates at the Council of Trent the greater and better number of the Prelates and Fathers in that Council endeavoured to suppress it that the Pope formerly gave frequent Dispensations to take Pluralities without number or measure and that thereby in this Kingdom many Bishopricks Abbies Priories c were enjoyed viz. the profits of them by Foreigners who never saw them or took any care of their duties that it is not much better now nay that the grievance is now become as great as ever and deserves a new and stricter Reformation that we are now in a far worse condition than before the making this Act 21 H. 8. for that Dispensations from Rome were costly came slowly being far to fetch that there is ten Dispensations for Pluralities now for one then and few of those dispensed with were Non-resident upon both Livings as now they be that it is scandalous for Clergymen to appear worldly minded or greedy of riches c. In these Objections the Author first mentioned hath affirmed many things which are downright false in other things hath betrayed a gross ignorance The other Author is a person of too great worth and learning to be guilty either of fraud or ignorance but only hath suffered himself to be herein transported with too much heat and zeal before he well considered the Case So that wheresoever in the following Answers I shall charge fraud or ignorance upon the Objections I desire it may be referred to the first Objector only For a general Answer to these Objections it may be observed that neither a neglect of the Cure of Souls of Charity and Hospitality nor Dilapidations nor the Scandal consequent to any of these faults are a necessary consequence of Plurality If no Clergymen possessing one Benefice were Non-resident and in that sense neglected the cure of