Bishop it for filthy lucre against the Law of the Land and Magna Charta against Sacred Councels Fathers and Canons and all this because 't is easie to prey upon their own poor gentle kind though so unnatural as aforesaid I wonder they are not afraid of these Curses and Anathema's if they themselves do believe the vertue of them and Excommunications thunder'd out against the Impugners of Magna Charta so often by the Bishops of old with Bell Book and Candle or do think all these Ceremonial Curses were only of force against the Impugners of the first clause of Magna Charta namely that Holy Church shall be free And do they keep two measures one to buy by and another to sell by But let Magna Charta and the Laws of the Land sleep at present I 'le only henceforth play my Canons against these Exactions turn their own Canons upon them their Canon-Law and the Civil Law and sure their Lay-Chancellors will herein stand by them to divert the shock for they are either good at skill in Civil and Canon Laws of which they are Professors or else what are they good for And can there be any fairer play than to fight a man with his own weapons that he is us'd to and has skill in if in any 'T is Argumentum ad hominem which I 'le make use of and which of all Arguments soonest stop the mouth out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee thou wicked Servant says the Parrable and then it soons follows He was speechless The Apostle Paul us'd such a stabbing Argument ad hominem Rom. 2. Thou that sayest by thine own Law Rom. 2.22 a man should not steal doest thou steal Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge I have instanced enough in the Canon-Law already but if those many already recited will not do I 'le stop their mouths for ever if Canons can do it For none are so frequently met with as Canons to this effect that Censum à Presbyteris Parochianis exigere Tyrannicum est Constitut Apostol l. 2. cap. 32. de Agapis Presbyteris ut qui laborant in verbo doctrina duplex seponatur pars in gratiam Apostolorum Domini cujus locum sustinent tanquam Conciliarii Episcoporum Ecclesia corona Let the Presbyters that labour in the Word and Doctrine have double maintainance for the sake of the Apostles of our Lord whose Successors they are mark that being the Bishops Counsellors and the Churches Crown And those Canons and Constitutions Apostolical in 8. Books are numbred amongst the Books of Canonical Scripture by John Damascen and by Eusebius as also Epiphanius lib. 1. adversus Haereses J. Damasc de orthodoxa fide of the same opinion is Proclus Patriarch of Constantinople and Oecumenius in Comment in Epist 1. ad Timoth. so also in Can. Apostol 84. Athanasius indeed allows them to be of good and wholesome use in the Church but not Canonical as composed by St. Clement the disciple and companion of the Apostles But there are so many things foisted in amongst them by the Pope who long had the keeping of them that though many good things are amongst them they are none of my Creed but good enough to shew against the Canon-Law men and to prove that Presbyters or Priests are not in the judgement of Antiquity such scums and pitiful fellows to stand with cap in hand like so many School-boys before the Bishop whilst he schools them catechises them lectures them and calls them to account from the beginning it was not so as I will shew anon they were his Fellows and Counsellors any where even in the Church The only difference was he sat uppermost but all sat not stood bare-head like so many Boys And can there be any greater cause of the contempt of the Clergy and their neglect amongst the Laity then when they see how the Bishop one of their own Cloth that should best understand their worth slights them good God! whither will not pride and oppression hurry frail man Jubemus Presbyterum tantùm docere Can. Apostol l. 3. cap. 20. baptizare benedicere populo Diaconum ministrare Episcopo Presbyteris We ordain That only the Priest or Presbyter shall preach baptize and bless the people and the Deacon although Arch-Deacon but that he was not then born nor baptized in the Church ought to wait upon the Bishop and the Priests or Presbyters Cavendum sanè est Cabil Synod 2. cap. 14. nè cùm Episcopi Parochias suas peragrant quandam damnosam c. which I 'le faithfully English thus Special care should be taken saith that learned Council lest the Bishops going to visit their Diocesses should play the Tyrants over their Inferiours or over their Fellows and Comrades not exacting money of them by strict and rigorous courses Then follows a Lecture to teach Bishops what they ought to do in their Visitations and what they ought not to do ' They ought to spend their time in inquirendis rebus emendatione dignis in praedicatione verbi Dei in lucris animarum potius quam depraedandis spoliandis hominibus scandalizandis fratribus operam dent in confirming men in reforming what is amiss in preaching the Word busying themselves in gaining Souls and not in spoiling and making a prey of men and giving offence to their Brethren Et si quando eis ad peragrandum ministerium suum à fratribus aut subditis aliquid accipiendum est hoc summoperè observare debent nè quem scandalizent aut gravent Tanta ergò in hâc re discretio tenenda est ut verbi Dei praedicator sumptus ubi proprli desunt à fratribus accipiat item fratres illius potentiâ non graventur exemplo Apostoli Pauli qui nè quem gravaret arte manibus victum quaerebat And if for the work of the Ministery somewhat be to be received either of their Brethren or else of their Inferiours yet let them look to 't that they neither burthen any man nor give offence Such prudence therefore is to be used in this affair that as on the one hand a Preacher of God's Word may recieve somewhat of his Brethren to bear his charges when he has mark that no proper maintenance and Revenue of his own so also his Brethren ought not to be burthen'd with his Mightiship In imitation of the Apostle Paul who chose rather to get his living with his hands and Trade then to be burthensom or chargeable to any Get living with their hands there 's no need of that blessed be God for the munificence and legal provision is enough enough if avarice can possibly have enough to glut men without being burthensom to poor Priests and Vicars Indeed if these Bishops and Arch-deacons were as poor as St. Paul and should come a begging our charity as he did hard-hearted would that man be that would not open his purse for his relief though his Family fasted for
were the 12th part of Israel Except this be proved a Parity of maintainance cannot hence be argued by paying the Tenth or Tithes unless a Parity of numbers of the Clergy of England bore the like proportion to England that the Tribe of Levi did to Israel that is a 12th part And therefore it is an Idle Dream and a Bug-Bear to call detaining of Tithes Sacriledge except it can be prov'd that God or Christ or the Apostles ever took or commanded to be taken the Tenth to Gospel-Ministers as God expresly commanded the Tythes of all Israel to the Levites That bear no proportion in number to the Tribe of Levi nor are the Tenth part nor scarce the hundreth part of most Parishes and yet shall lick up the whole Tenth part of the Parish But though detaining of Tythes from Ministers is not Sacriledge yet detaining of Tithes from Ministers is as great a Sin as and no greater sin than detaining Tithes from Impropriators namely as other frauds and wrongs A transgression of the Laws of the Land Which the wily Priests never cared to trust to if they could help it nor to be beholden to though to the Law of the Land alone and Acts of Parliament they are beholden for any Tithes or portion of Tithes that they do enjoy and therefore they secure their Tithes with this same frightful word Sacriledge and also Jure Divino A Vicar has not the great Tithes no nor a poor man has not the great Mannors and Lordships that others have but the poor and poor Vicars have all that is their due and allowed them as their Propriety and let them be thankful to God and the Laws for that though not so great as other men's and perhaps neither do they deserve so much as other men howsoever it is their Lot and therefore poor Vicar Sorte tuâ contentus abi though I wish thee well and more For it is not Sacriledge for a Gentleman to have the great Tithes or Abbey-Lands disposed of by Acts of Parliament if he honestly purchas'd them of the Crown But 't is Robbery at least in heart for thee poor Vicar thus to covet thy Neighbours Goods thy Neighbours great Tithes that never never no not in the days of Popery never were thine nor thy Predecessors but belong'd to the said Abbots and Nun's from whom by the Law of the Land they as being got by a Cheat Escheated to the King and never were God's Propriety or Gods Purchase for if this could be prov'd All the Kings and Parliaments in the World cannot take them away and Alienate them But fair and softly Though the said Whores Extortioners Usurers and Murderers c. being deluded and Cheated with an Imaginary Purgatory and Paradise over the Gates whereof the Pope writes in Capital Letters This House is to be Let Enquire of St. Peter's Successor for the Key The silly Purchasers like those of old that bartred their Silver-Spoons Bodkins and Tankards for the Publique-Faith were Fob'd of their Moneys Goods and Lands Nay Deat 23.18 though the Moneys and Lands be tendred to God and by deed of Gift fairly engros'd Sealed and deliver'd in the presence of Witnesses and super altare too as Bishop Andrews notably observes who can prove that God Accepts this Tender and strikes up the Bargain because there ought to go always two Words to a bargain namely as both buyer and seller can agree And when and where did God say that he Accepted these cheating Purchases these fruits of Sin for Deodates Nay I know that God has said to the contrary that he will not accept of any such Gift Offering Bargain or Sale in Deut. 23.18 Thou shalt not bring the Hire of a Whore or the Price of a Dogg into the House of the Lord thy God for any vow for even both these are an abomination unto the Lord thy God It was Politickly done tho' to fence in the Abbey-Lands with a Jure Divino and yet even in the days of Popery The noyse the wyly Priests made eccho'd by the silly Priests Sacriledge Sacriledge did not Affright our Kings and Parliaments from making many Statutes of Mortmayn to stop the Current of this Cheating Deluge of Charity to the Church almost ready to drown the Common-wealth And yet like Pharaoh's Lean-kine the greedy-Priests that had Eat up the Fat of the Land look'd as Hungry and Sharp as if they had really kept and observ'd their Vow of Poverty and yet were the richest Cormorants in the Land which Vow notwithstanding some think they kept as well as their Vow of Chastity And yet they were the Archest Fellows in nature at a Wench Insomuch as one of their own Popes and the Learnedest of them all Aeneas Sylvius used to say that Marriage of Priests had Ruin'd many But a Single Life had Damn'd many more For which Causes amongst other the King and Parliament made those Nunneries those Abbey-Lands a just forfeiture to the Crown And though the said old Charm Jure Divino and Sacriledge Sacriledge have lost their wonted vigour as being now disoover'd to be meer Stalking-Horses under whose shaddow crafty Men catch their Prey yet still it is in use amongst us Protestants on many such Accounts And does feats still amongst the simple and unwary Nay some of the Learned whether affectedly and colourably only or no or that Interest the great Sollicitor and best Advocate but the worst Judge bribes their Judgments I cannot tell but sure I am many of them seem to pin their Faith upon it Thus a Learned Bishop of our own in his Book of the Collection of the Canons A.S. Bishop o Norwich quotes another Learned Bishop deceased In his Title-Page concerning the form of Consecration of a Church or Chappel c. In these very words namely Bishop Andrews Notes upon the Liturgy It is not to be forgotten though It be forgotten that whoever gave any Lands or Endowments to the Service of God gave it in a formal Writing as now-adays betwixt Man and Man Sealed and Witnessed and the Tender of the Gift was super altare by the Donor on his Knees And why And why why a Deed in Writing Sealed and Witnessed and Delivered And why had not God the keeping of it then So he had as near as they could come to him super altare where they suppos'd he stood Metamorphos'd from a Wafer and Transubst antiated Inclosed also in the Pix Or else I guess the Bargain and Sale had been as effectual to all Intents and Purposes though the said formal Writing had been Seal'd and deliver'd in the Belfrey the Body of the Church or in the Church-Yard or Moot-Hall But why I wonder is not all this Ceremony to be forgotten now that the days of Transubstantiation are at an End with English Bishops And why must this formal Story be filed up amongst the Memorandums of those odd Reliques and Canons And together also with the form of Consecrating a Church or Chappel and of the place of
recover them till he pay for them again In Portugal I have known in their Visitations the Bishops make every Parish-priest pay for a License to keep a Concubine And if a Man be old c. and have no Stomaeh to a Wench yet still he must pay a Millroy or two for a License So that now they proverbially say Visitationes morum are become Visitationes nummorum St. Paul indeed went to visit the Brethren and to see how they do but these go to visit their Brethren and to see how their Pockets do And all they have to say for themselves is It us'd to be so in Popish times and formerly practic'd by others that were no Papists But the Civil-laws also provide against such foppish Pleas. Error Justinian Inst l. 2. tit 6. falsae causae usucapionem non parit nam usucapio non competit istis qui mala fide possident And many such Laws can I cite if I list and if I did not think I have done their business already If Statute-Law Common-Law Civil-Law or their Masterpiece the Canon-Law Reason Equity Justice or Conscience nay humane Nature and Compassion to their own kind will work upon them in despight of their Interest and Money Money And I hope all these Laws of God and Man Reason Honesty and good Conscience will over-vote their Interest and Money and Money and that they will ask God forgiveness and that every Offender of them from the highest to the lowest will make restitution or at least say with repenting Job Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my Mouth Once have I spoken but I will not answer Yea twice but I will proceed no further Thus they will do if this work kindly as it is intended upon their Consciences but if instead thereof being gawl'd they do nothing but kick and wince and instead of thanking me for my great pains here frankly bestowed upon them for their cure in much Charity shall rather joyn their Heads together first to find who I am that thus is kindly liberal to them and then secondly get a Club of Criticks and cunning Lawyers to lie at catch for every Expression here to improve it that is to mis-improve it to Revenge then I shall be forry that I have vouchsaft so much pains and care towards them to so little Fruit and Reformation and so little thanks from them from whom it is most especially due That in their Visitations at least may cease that Dialect better becoming the Mouths of Hectors and Padders than Registers and Secretaries of Holy Bishops namely Come Clergy-man deliver your Purse your Purse for Visitations Synodals shewing of Holy-Orders and Procurations Archdeacons have all good fat Corps so they call the Lands and Tenements a kind of Glebe annex'd for ever to their Archdeaconries they need not pinch the poor Parson that every body pinches Pharaoh's Lean-kine indeed did eat up the Fat ones but for the Fat ones to devour the Lean is a Prodigy not to be dreamt of or imagin'd Visitations made by Bishops and Archdeacons have for their Warrant as some alledge the Practice and Example of St. Paul and Barnabas Acts 15.36 42. Acts 15. who went to visit the Brethren in every City where they had Preached the Word of the Lord and to see how they do And Paul went through Syria and Silicia confirming mark that the Churches So that the work of a Visitation was to confirm or strengthen the Converts by preaching again the Word of the Lord to them Not by a perfunctory-mumbling over a few canting Words over Childrens heads as Popish-Bishops do mimically in pretence of imitating St. Paul who went to confirm men to the Faith whereby no flesh alive can possibly be enlightened instructed or confirmed or strengthened in the Faith Nor did St. Paul send his Sumner before him commanding the Disciples or Brethren to come and meet him at such a great Town where there is a great Church and a great Tavern and be sure to bring their Purses with them too or if they could not both come that then of the two they should be sure to send their Purses however by some Neighbour though they could not come in person that so the Attonement and Peace might the better be made If Cross-grain will not come then let him stay Let him but send his Purse still keep away 'T is an unpardonable sin to come to a Visitation and forget your Purse nay or to bring it empty You may with empty Purse part with your Letters of Ordination Institution Induction c. but there is no redeeming them without Money never Man yet in all my Intelligence found any other Redeemer of them save Money Money And yet the first Archbishop Rog. Hoveden Annal pars post 807. in his first Visitation after the Conquest namely Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury in the Council of London Anno 1200. did ordain that no Procurations or other Money Toll or Exactions should be paid in Visitations in these very Words Prohibemus né subditos suos Talliis exactionibus Episcopi gravare presumant Cùm cnim dicit Apostolus non debent Filii Thesaurizare Parentibus sed Parentes Filiis multò longè a pietate paterna videtur si praepositi subditis suis graves existant quos in cunctis necessitatibus Pastoris more debent fovere Archidiaconi aut sui Decani nullas exactiones vel Tallias in Presbyteros seu Clericos exercere praesumant c. He that likes may read more of these Decrees two and twenty years after namely Spelman Concil Tom. 2. p. 156 220 221 265 380 381 48 489 576. 1222. Council Oxford by Stephen Langeton Archbishop of Canterbury and four years after confirmed by Otho the Popes Legate Concilio Londini Anno 1226. and by Othobon the Popes Legate and the Council under him Anno 1248. and before that by the Diocesan Synod held at Salisbury Anno 1217. Is it not strange that a Bishop and a poor Bishop too should call a Synod to cry down these oppressions and yet it was done in the year aforesaid by Robert Poor Bp. of Sarum And An. 1287. by Peter Quivil Bp. of Exeter And by Walter Raynolds Archbp. of Canterbury and Conc. Lond. in the Reign of K. Edward II. And by John Stratford Archbp. of Canterbury An. 1342. De visitatione procuratione Archidiuconorum aliorum ordinariorum But all the Visitations of old made by Bishops or Archdeacons were Ecclesiastim like that of St. Paul's and Barnabas For to send out Citations to Ministers Church-wardens and Sinners and little Children to come to be Confirm'd c. at such a great Town They rather go to visit the Bishop than the Bishop to visit his Brethren as St. Paul did Ecclesiastim from Church to Church Thus Topsy Turvy can Visitations now become as if the Minister that is enjoyn'd to visit the Sick in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book should send out his Apparitor and
command the Sick person to come and visit him or at least give him a meeting at such a Church and such a Tavern and then he shall hear what Prayers he will say over him St. James says Jam. 1.27 pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the Fatherless and Widdows c. What to do To pill them and poll them No surely that would not be a very pure Religion except of such a pure Religion as is made up of pure Money the Fatherless I suppose like not the visits of such kind of Fathers they had rather they would keep away and not help to make them poorer and add Affliction to the Afflicted of such Visiters better have their Room than their Company Is this your Kindness to your Friends when you come to visit them Hah Indeed I find that Allowance is taken care for in Visitations of old but what Not Money but Food and Drink such as the poor Vicar and his Family makes shift with but never never any Money in ancient time For which let him that lists consult Wil. Lindewood in his Provincial Constit l. 3. de Censubus Procurationibus f. 159 160. Johannes de Aten in his Glosses on Otho's and Othobon's Constitutions f. 43 89. Angelus de Clavasio in his Summa Angelica Tit. Visitatio also Gratian. Distinct 42. cap. non opertet Also Concil Lateran sub Innocent 3 Pap. An. 1215. cap. 33 34. Also Concil apud Castrum Gunter An. 1251. Concil Surius Con. Tom. 3. p. 746. apud Salmar An. 1253. Synod Andegavensis An. 1263. Concil Provincial apud Langres An. 1264. Concil Burdegal An. 1582 c. collected by Laurentius Bochellus Decret Eccles. Gallican lib. 5. Tit. 15. Devisitatione Procuratione personis quibus commissa est potestas visitandi Also Concil Coloniens An. 1549. Concil Trident Sess 24. de Reformatione cap. 3. Thomas Zerula in his Praxis Episcopal par 1. Tit. visitatio They all concur Vt nullus Procurationem recipiat nisi in Locis visitatis duntaxat tum Tantum victuallibus à locis quae visitantur That Meat and Drink when the Visiters are athirst or hungry shall be given them but not one Farthing of Money For says the said Council of London Anno 1200. The Children ought not to lay up for the Parents but Parents for their Children How far is it then from the Piety of Fathers if rich Prelates that ought like good Pastors to provide for the wants of their poor Flocks under them should be burthensom to their Inferiours And therefore the said John de Aton in his Gloss on that clause of Othobon's Constitution f. 89. hath these Words viz. Nos tam Ecclesiarum indemnitati quam Praelatorum saluti consultius provedentes districtius inhibemus nè quis eorum Procurationem quae ratione visitationis debeter ab Ecclesia quacunque recipiat nisi cum eidem visitationis officium impendit qui vero receperit donec restituerit ab Ingressu Ecclesiae sit suspensus By this Law then the Bishops and Archdeacons must make restitution of all the Moneys they received for Procurations or else be Suspended and not suffered to enter into the Church until they restore those ill-gotten Goods Et haec ratio fortè movet Episcopos hujus Regni qui in Visitationibus suis Procurationes ab Ecclesia communiter non exigunt quia ad singulas Ecclesias ob causam Visitationis non declinant lecet plenè personas visitent tà m Clerum quam populum ob hanc causam nunc ad unum locum nunc ad alium congruum convocando cumtamen Procurationem debeant recipere tantum modo de locis visitatis In short Visitations of old were to a good end like that of Paul and Barnabas by preaching the Word again to them to confirm them or strengthen and corroborate them in the Faith Afterwards this Godly usage became a Trade but never till there was Money to be got by it a nusance that Pride and Covetousness invented and continues in spight of the Laws and Canons of God and man For which cause the learned French Bishop Claudius Espencaeus complains in these words Comment in Epist ad Titum c. 1. Minores non tantum Episcopi sed ut Archidiaconi eorumque male officiosit absit verbo invidia nam de malis loquor Officiales Vicarii dum Diocaeses Parochias obequitant non tam facinorosos criminum reos poenis correctionibus à vitiis deterrent quo fine Peregrinationes hujusmodi olim jam fucrint jure canonico ordinatae quam pecuniâ praesenti numeratâ titulo Procurationis nè dicam fictitiae Jurisdictionis emungunt exigunt tum Clericos tum Laicos First they bring their printed Articles for the Church-wardens of every Parish to buy and though they have half a score of them which the Parish has bought ten years together yet still they must buy a new Book every year or lay down the money for it and then you may chuse whether you will take it with you or no Then also the Church-wardens must swear to keep and observe those Articles And are not all that do so forsworn Then they must give money a grant for being sworn then they must swear to Present and if they do not make a Presentment they are Excommunicated if they do put in a Presentment usually written in Court and very brief with an omnia benè for which they pay a shilling then also for putting in the Presentment a shilling more For three shillings and six pence or three shillings and eight pence a Church-warden may escape cleverly But saith the said French Bishop the Minor Bishops and Arch-deacons and their wickedly-officious pardon the Word for I speak only of the wicked Officials and Vicar-generals in their Visitations do not so much deterr men from sin by punishing the criminals as to drain their Purses by exacting ready monies of the Clergy and Laity by the name of Procurations and I know not what feigned Jurisdiction Thus the said good Bishop Espencaeus And therefore in the greatest height of Popery in England the Kings Judges and Justices in his Temporal Courts have usually decreed that Excommunicate persons shall be absolved clave errante when the Judges disallowed the cause for which a man was Excommunicated And many Actions of the Case have been brought against the Arch-deacons c. for Excommunicating men for things out of their cognizance and exceeding the limits of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions namely when they meddle with the right of Patronage exempt Churches being Lay-Fees c. and have made them pay sawce for being so sawcy and pragmatical I 'le instance in one Pat. 18 Edw. 1. m. 26. De libertatibus liberarum Capellarum Regis Rex omnibus c. salutem Inspeximus literas celebri memoriae Domini H. Regis Angliae patris nostri patentes in hec verba Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae