nay a small and inconsiderable part of that House voting the Temporal Lords useless and dangerous and that how they were enabled by being assisted by the help of Cromwell the late Usurper and the Army to accomplish what they had begun and the bad consequence of all we have seen with our eyes and Bishops God be thanked restored to their undoubted Rights and Privileges and that for as much as they were equally Barons nay the Bishops had usually the first in Summons they have also equal privileges to make their Proxies in Parliament as the Temporal Barons had we confess as before for that they were Spiritual persons they were not by the Council of Clarendon to sit in Capital Causes and loss of limb but then we must know that long before this they both had and exercised this Power as may be made appear out of John Crampton's Chron. c. 24. where amongst the Laws of Athelstane we read Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei viz. saeculi debent Episcopi cum saeculi judicibus interesse judiciis and the ordering of all the Measures and Weights is there made of Episcopal cognizance the Standard being still left in the Bishops hands and out of Sir Henry Spelman's Glossary voce Comes Comes praesidebat foro comitatus non solus sed junctus Episcopo ut alter alteri auxilio esset consilio praesertim Episcopus Comiti nam in hunc illi animadvertere saepe licuit errantem cohibere so much confidence did the Antients repose in the Clergy that the guidance and overseeing of most temporal affairs was entrusted to them nay they had a check upon the Laity And thus lovingly with all sweetness and candor for 4 or 500 years during all the Saxons times and till that unhappy division by the Conquerour who defaced this beautiful and regular composure did the Church and State-Officers sit together in the morning determining Ecclesiastical affairs and in the afternoon Civil There were then no jars or clashings of jurisdictions heard of no prohihitions issuing out of one Court to obstruct the course of Justice in another thereby hampering the poor Client that he knew not which way to turn himself and I am perswaded there is no better expedient to prevent lasting vexatious suits and to relieve the oppressed than again to reconcile these two jurisdictions that according to the primitive usage as well Spiritual as Temporal Judges may be appointed in all Courts that Moses and Aaron may not interfere and quarrel but walk hand in hand Though I know this design does not rellish with many of the Long Robe yet 't is feared that attempting some such thing purchased the late Archbishop Laud no few enemies and was one especial cause of hastening his ruine yet we find Mr. Selden a Lawyer too lib. 2. de Synedriis proving that for the first 4000 years and better the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts continued united and the first distinction proceeded from Pope Nicholas Gratian. Distinct 96. c. cum ad verum and that the Clergy do not meddle personally to vote in loss of life or limb proceeds from the Canons of the antient Church which forbad their presence in cases of blood but I hope that no sober man will hence argue that they being Barons of this Realm they must lose their Priviledges which belong to the Spiritual Lords as well as to the Temporal viz. To make Proxies though in Capital Causes when by the antient Canons of the Church they are forbid to be present which they have done and still have right to doe comes next to be discoursed of And first I shall make use of Mr. Selden's authority though no friend to the Bishops for reasons he best knew of who expressly saith in his Book of the Priviledges of the Barons of England Printed 1642. that omnes Praelati Magnates c. has this Priviledge Introduct Though he says there they had lost it by the Parliament 17 Car. 1. 1641. I hope now they are restored to it again that they had before he gives you sundry instances Cap. 1. these are his words § 2. That the course of Elder time was not that Barons onely made Proxies but other men as Bishops and Parliamentary Abbots and Priors who gave their Letters usually to Parsons Prebendaries and Canonists In the Parliament of Carlisle under Edw. 1. the Bishop of Exeter sent to the Parliament Henry de Pynkney Parson of Houghton as his Proxy The Bishop of Bath and Wells sent William of Cherlton a Canon of his Church and in like sort other of the Spiritualty of that time in the beginning of the 17th year of King Richard the Second the Bishop of Norwich made Richard Corqueaux being then Deane of the Arches Thomas Hederset being Archdeacon of Sudbury and John Thorp Parson of Epingham his Proxies by the name of Procuratores sive Nuntii and in the same time the Bishop of Durham ' s Proxies were John Burton Canon of Bewdley and Master of the Rolls and John of Wendlingborough Canon of London and other like in the same time By which also that of the preamble of the Statute of Praemunire is understood where it is said that the advice of the Lords Spiritual that was present and of the Procurators of them that were absent was demanded The like under Henry the 4th and 5th are found in the Rolls and under Henr. 5. the Archbishop of York gives the Proxies to the Bishop of Durham and to two other Clerks of his Province Nay farther that the Bishops used to give their Proxies in Cases of Attainder the said Mr. Selden expresly saith in the place forecited and also what sort of persons they used to make their Proxies he there likewise tells you adding withal this unhandsom reflexion That the Lords Spiritual had so much mistaken of late the Laws of the Kingdom and the Original of their own Honours by endeavouring to enlarge the Kingdom of Antichrist that they had now he means A. D. 42 lost both Priviledge and Vote in Parliament All sharp Reply to which I shall purposely forbear And secondly proceed to shew you express Precedents wherein they have Voted either Personally or by Proxies in Capital Causes and here I will produce Mr. Selden himself the Bishops adversary become their advocate who saith expressly p. 125. lib. cit That though in the Case of Appeal of Treason in a Parliament of the 11 of Richard the Second commenced by Thomas Duke of Gloucester and others against Alexander Archbishop of York Robert de Vere c. they absented themselves I mean the whole Spiritualty in that Parliament and would make no Proxy in their room for that time yet afterwards they agreed to do it in Cases of Judgments of Death Rot Parl. 2. Henr. 4. Rot. Parl. 2. Henr. 5. But he there saith that the first use of such Proxies was 21 Ric. 2. so that we have him confessing the Bishops sitting in cases of blood
than before and all the Writers of that Age must be corrected for representing him as a perfect Enemy of the Church To clear up this we will only give you one Instance cited from an Old Record Entituled Liber Sancti Albani Where we read this Passage of Frederick the then Abbot of St. Albans that to obstruct the March of the Conquerour he caused all the Trees round to be cut and laid them cross the ways wherewith the Conquerour being stopt in his march sent in some passion for the Abbot who under his security coming to him the Conquerour demands the Reason for the cutting down the Woods the Abbot resolutely answers him that I have done but what became me and if all the Spiritual Persons through the Kingdom had used their Endeavours against thee as they might and were in duty bound to have done Thou wouldst never have been able to have entered the Land thus far The Duke then replying Is the Spiritualty of England of such Power if I live and enjoy that which I have gotten I will make their Power less Add to this that stategem of the Kentishmen in surrounding the King and forcing him to a Composition which they did under the Conduct of Stigand their Arch-Bishop which thing ever after netled him and that he was never heartily reconciled to the Church and proved afterwards as good as his word to the Abbot oppressing the Clergy all his Reign bringing them under Knights-Service and Ordering how many Souldiers each Bishop should maintain for him and his Successors the Church as beforesaid being ever free from that bondage Let no Man then say that the Conqueror who was ever look'd upon by the Bishops as their Enemy did them any Acts of Grace or Havour by erecting each Bishoprick into a Barony which thing was ever by the Bishops look'd upon as a grievance and a more glorious piece of slavery This was in deed a shrew'd shaking to the Bishops yet still they preserv'd their Votes in all Assembliâ—s and Parliamentary Summons are ever directed Archiep. Ep. c all antient Charters and Grants subscribed after the usual Form in those times Testibus Archiep. Ep. In a Treatise Entituled The Form and Mannor of keeping Parliaments whereof it seems there are two very antient Copies the M. S. in Arch Bods the other in Sr. Rober Cottons Library the first of which was perused by Mr. Selden and he allows it to be as long standing as Edw. 3d. but the Lord Chief Justice Cooke adds near 200 years more and raises it to the Conqueror's time which the Title indeed pleads for we are here told that 40 days before Summons are to be issued out to the Archbishops Bishops and other great Clarks that held by County or Barony and that the Clergy in each Shire are to have Two Proctors representing them which in some things had more Power than the Bishops for we are there informed that the K. may hold a Parliament for the Commonalty of the Realm without Bishops Earls or Barons so they had summons though they come not but on the cottrary if the Commonalty of the Clergy and Temporalty being warned either doth not or will not come in this Case whatever the King doth with his Bishops Earls and Barons is of none effect for that to all Acts of Necessity the Commonalty of Parliament must consent i. e. the Proctors of the Clergy Knights of the Shire Citizens and Burgessâ—s for their Persons represent the Commonalty of England but the Bishops Earls and Barons represent only their own Persons There is they say another M. S. in Bibl. Cotton confirming the same and citing other large Priviledges of the Clergy I know indeed Mr. Prinne hath questioned the Authority of both these books in Bar of which I return the Authority of Cooke and Selden and particularly the first who saith in his Institutes that 26 Spiritual persons ought ex debito Justitiae to have a Writ of Summons sent them every Parliament These things premised we will now desire of the Clergies greatest adversary that he would produce instances of any solemn meetings Wittena gemots or Parliaments whereunto the Clergy were not summoned any Statutes publickly enacted during all the Christian British Saxon Danish or Norman times without their assistance and advice As for the precedent of their Exclusion under Edw. 1. at the Parliament held at St. Edmondsbury which some triumph in if there be any truth in the Narrative as hath been and is still questioned we know and can prove 't was done in a pett and transport of Royal displeasure for their too obstinate adhering to the Bishop of Rome in the Scottish quarrel and for their noncompliance with their Kings demands Who yet the very next Parliament about a year after makes an Apology for this charging all upon the Exigencies of his affairs And why should this single instance so circumstantiated be urged more against the Clergy than that other is against the Lawyers who were shut out of a Parliament under Henr. IV. where we yet find the Bishops and amongst others Thomas Arundel stoutly resisting and preserving the Clergies Temporalities which these Church-robbers gaped after who so they might spare their own Purses were content to spoil their God to relieve their King Certainly if envy it self could have found the least colour of Law to deny them this privilege it had never been reserved for this last and our most unhappy age Many times have they been struck at many great blows have they received as at Clarendon under Henr. II. where their wings were indeed much clipt yet their privilege of sitting and voting in Parliament is left entire to to them for that the words are Episcopi intersint Curiae Domini Regis cum Baronibus quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel mortem and though they never voted of late in Capital Causes yet that they however made their Proxies I hope shall be made appear by what follows together with their forbearing to vote in Capital Causes and the reason of it shall be farther discoursed of CHAP. VII The Estate of the Bishops and Clergy from the Conquest as to their Voting in Capital Causes in Parliament till the times of King Henr. VIII VVE have before intimated the common usages and rights of the Bishops to sit and vote in Parliaments in all antient times and that as Peers and Barons of the Realm we now aver they have a Power to sit and vote in all as well Criminal as otherwise either by themselves or Proxies lawfully constituted which is a privilege of the Peerage and therefore belongs to the Bishops as such 't is very well known what Mr. Selden hath wrote in his Book of The Privileges of the Peerage of England that the Bishops was debarred of their privileges by an Act of Parliament 17 Car. I. Ann. 1641. and that he was a great notorious stickler in it but 't is as notorious that not long after we find the Commons
whether the Spiritual Barons are Peers he saith there that they are so is true and plain and the Testimonies many various as in the Bishop of Winchester ' s Case who departed from the Parliament at Salisbury about the beginning of Edw. 3. and was questioned for it afterwards in the Kings Bench he pleaded to the Declaration Quod ipse est unus e Paribus Regni Prelatus and in that short Disputation of the Case which is left in the Year Books he is supposed both by the Court and Council to be a Peer But for this if his Authority be not good the Year Books themselves may be seen Bishop of Winchesters Case Year Book 3 of Edw. 3. And Pas 3. Edw. 3. coram Rege Rot. 9. Rep. So afterwards see the Bishop of Londons Case in the Year Book 3 Edw. 3. in a Writ of Wards brought against the Bishop of London he pleaded to Issue and the Defendant could not have a day of Grace for he said as the words of the Books are That a Bishop is a Peer of the Land Haec erat causa Year Book 3 Edw. 3. fol. 186. pl. 28. And in a like Case an Action of Trespass against the Abbot of Abington who was one of the Lords Spiritual day of Grace was denyed against him because he was Peer de la terre 13 Edw. 3. Titulo Enquest So expresly upon a question of having a Knight returned into a Jury where a Bishop was Defendant the Rule of the Court was that it ought to be so because the Bishop was a Peer of the Realm Plowden Comment pl. 117. So the Judgment given against the Bishop of Norwich in the time of Rich. 2. he is in the Roll expresly allowed to be a Peer We find also Stafford Arch Bishop of Canterbury upon his being excluded the Parliament under Edw. 3 thus challenging his place Ego tanquam major par Regni post Regem vocem habens jurae Ecclesiae meae tantum vendico ideo ingressum in Parlimentum peto The same may be made out farther by an Assignment of Errors under Hen. 5. for the revearsal of the Attainder of the Earl of Salisbury one Error is Assigned that Judgment was given without the Assent of the Prelates which were Peers in Parliament which is clearly allowed in the Roll and Petition too that they were Peers So also in an Act of Parliament under the same King Staâ— 4. Hen. 5. c. 6. where the Arch-Bishops and Bishops are called Peers of the Kingdom But of the truth of this Mr. Selden himself saith That no scruple could ever be made till the unhappy Act of the 17 Car. 1641. And how that Act was procured we all know How full of tumults and uproars were those Times to how great a distress was Majesty then brought How many Repulses did it meet with Was it not Past to serve the present Interest and by what subtile contrivance was it at last carried it is very well known Have we not reckoned the Date of our late Embroilments and wild Confusions from this fatal Apocha Under what Miseries Violencies and Rapins hath not our native Country for 20 years time from hence to be reckoned with so much pitty from all true-hearted English-men long laboured and groaned and the whole Christian-world about us stood amazed and agasht All the Wealth which the Piety of our Forefathers had been so many years in heaping up all their Priviledges which their prudence had so deliberately conferred being in a few days Passion swallowed up Had those good men the then Bishops unadvisedly acted any thing against their Prince or Kingdom could no Personal-fine or punishment expiate their Crime and fault must the whole Order be raized and Episcopacy it self destroyed root and branch must so many merits of their worthy Predecessors be buryed in the grave of ungrateful Oblivion It were an easy matter to produce a large Catalogue of eminent Prelates who by their prudent advice have oftentimes prevented Bloodshed preserved Peace saved a sinking Kingdom and a dying Religion many good works have they done amongst us many Colledges and Schools erected and endowed many material Churches by their munificence and living Temples of the Holy Ghost built by their Ministry and for which of these must they now be thus dealt withal thus disfranchised That they who heretofore carried the principal stroke in all Cabinet Counsels and publick Diets are acknowledged in several recorded Statutes of this Kingdom an high and one of the greatest Estates of this Kingdom as particularly 8 Eliz. c. 1. that they are Peers of this Realm 25 Edw. 3. c. 6. before recited and 4 Henr. 5. c. 6. must now be debarred those immunities of which our Nation hath ever reaped the greatest benefit they must be curtailde in or excluded from what is their just right to Vote as Peers in the higher House of Parliament certainly 't is now high time if ever for men to relent of their merciless cruelty to to learned Industry the crafty Jesuite who is now at our Doors thinks his day is coming this will make him keep a Jubile to see England fall again by her own hands How much ground hath he got by debasing and pouring contempt on our English Clergy of all the World whom he most dreaded Let us but enquire of other Nations our Neighbours and they will tell us That the English Divine is the terrour of the Papal world aud that they have wrote more and better against Rome than all the World besides We ought not to take pleasure in upbrading an ungrateful Nation But is this the reward of their unwearied pains incessant studies early rising and late watching beating their brains wasting their bodies and contracting incurable diseases neglecting their families relations and accquaintance for the glory of God and good of their Countrey Must they onely have discouragements heaped upon them bread and water and raggs if some men had their will thought to good for them Must another Profession of which a Forreiner by way of disdain said Causidâ—â—i Angli gens indoctissima ultra Doroberniam nihil sapiunt Must they get honour riches and preferments without the regret and frowns of any nay more in 60 years last past than Divinity in 600 preceding and if the matter was not invidious I could easily make appear 't was an old saying Nulli sua pietas debet esse damnosa in earnest This is not for the honour of the Gospel neither doth it become the Reformation Of late years some of the Long Robe no well wishers to the Church whose names I forbear have started a very unhappy and destructive notion and not over beneficial to the English Scepter and there yet want not those who with much industry keep this notion up that the three Estates of this Nation consist of King Lords and Commons which how far it may countenance former actings and endanger future disturbances I humbly submit to the prudence of those who
in Church or State presently the blame must be cast upon the Clergy They must be Sacrificed to appease the many-headed Multitude their Lands Sequestred or Sold and all places of Honour and Trust interdicted them certain we are the qualifications of a Bishops Calling do not in the least incapacitate him such employments as we have been speaking of For 1. 't is required that he be Vitae Probatissimae of an upright unblameable Conversation 2. Nullius Criminis reus 3. Aetate gravis well stricken in years 4. Doctrina praestans excelling in Learning with many other of the like nature Now if these are not kept they have the more to answer for whom it concerns if they be observed will not any one who reads this conclude no Persons more fit than they for the most weighty Affairs For all Polititians make Integrity Prudence and Learning the Principal ingredients of an accomplisht Magistrate so that if Aptitude be respected we may safely affirm there are none better qualified for Counsel than the Clergy whose Education and Institution hath enabled them to look into all the Idaeas and Models of Government to search the Depths and Mysteries of Empires most of which are lockt up in strange Languages and 't is not every capacity that can gain the Key Then for true Politicks the late Florentine's Reaches let other men learn and admire there 's as much to be found in the Historical part of the Scripture as in any Books in the World so that Divines may in all probability make good Statists And is it not pitty then that their Countrys should be deprived of such hopefull and eminent abilities doubtless those of the contrary Opinion do not throughly weigh the consequences of their Assertion clearly leading to disjoin the Church from being a part of the Commonwealth which for 1300 years and better have been happily united if the Bishops and other Spiritual Persons who yet by their Revenue are so considerable in the Commonwealth must no longer be lookt upon as Citizens or parts of it and eo ipso be debarred from Employments but incontinently forfeit all their Priviledges as such the consequence I presume would not be very good CHAP. III. Some Authorities from Scriptures and the Canons of the Antient Church seemingly contradicting the former position explained AND yet for all this we confess we find many good men are strongly perswaded that Ecclesiasticks ought wholly to be excluded from Civil matters An Opinion indeed much pretending to Humility and self-denyal and receiving some countenance and colour from Scriptures the practise of three first Centuries and some Canons of Counsel which must be the Subject of our next consideration The Text that is most insisted upon is 2 Tim. 2. 4. which being mistranslated by the Vulgar Latine Militans Deo begat greater prejudice in the minds of many First Then we may take notice that the Sentence is general and belongs to every calling and sort of men though in a more peculiar manner 't is referred to the Preachers of the Gospel yet none can plead exemption but others are willing to slip their necks out of the Collar and the Clergy only must be tied to it whom for the present we will grant to be principally concern'd The stress of all lies upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Theophylact expounds by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tumults and confusions of this Life Corn. a Lapide saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are such employments as concern food and rayment and instance in these agricultur mercatura artes mechanicae Now who does not readily approve of this and judge it very improper that a Preacher should be a Merchant a Plowman or a Mechanick do not both Common and Cannon Laws forbid the same Estius has much to the like purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Quae quis exercet ut habeat unde vivat and therefore quotes to this purpose a saying of Ambrose Indecorunt est homines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui militant Deo this then rather flies in the face of them that permit their Preachers to put on Blew Aprons and make them such sordid allowances that they must either work with their hands or starve seeing it is not comely that the Lords Warriours should busie themselves about inferiour matters that tend to get a livelihood and so Valla render it not negotiis but negotiationibus when our Saviour employed Fishermen to Preach his Gospel weak instruments to confound the powers of this World though he furnished them with suitable abilities that they needed not to study yet he made them leave their nets and not use them as their ordinary Profession But lastly and most satisfactorily the Apostle here makes a comparison between Prophane and Spiritual Warfare and therefore the better to understand the genuine sense we must consider what Military Discipline did require Veg. l. 2. says that by the Laws of War he must not have any private affairs committed to him nor mind his own gain Hence we read in Florus of the Romans severely proceeding against Posthumius for imploying his Soldiers to till the ground Vid. Leg. Arcad. Honorii Tit. Miles And Leo the Emperor says expresly those that are armed and maintained by the Commonwealth must only mind publick affairs and not till the ground keep Cattel or Traffick L. Mil. C. de re Militari l. 12. All avocations were inhibited and such matters as tended only to the publick good enjoyned them and why then should not the same Analogy hold here and such affairs be permitted to the Clergy as tend to the good of the Church and the Glory of their great Commander Next we are urged by the Apostles practice who were so tender of any interruption that they denied to attend upon tables and make provision for the Poor 'T is true in the infancy of the Church when the Gospel was to be published all the World over the Work great and the Labourers exceeding few the least diversion at such a time would prove a considerable hindrance and destraction to them But now when the Lord of the Harvest has encreast the number and plentifully furnished his peaceable settled Church every Village being now supplied and if the complaints of some be true the Nation so overstock'd that there 's hardly employment much less maintenance for the Multitude In this case to make no difference of times when the mercifull Providence of God hath made so vast a distinction seems little agreeable to reason But if from this occasion must be taken presently to forbid every petty interruption and disturbance how came St. Paul to contradict himself and to follow his Tent making labouring with his hands for a livelihood which must needs take up a good part of his time and hinder his Praying and Preaching Add to this that the seven Deacons appointed by the Apostles to succeed them in the care of the Collections were according to Epiphanius of the number of the 70 Disciples and