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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39172	A Caveat for the Protestant clergy, or, A true account of the sufferings of the English clergy upon restitution of popery in the days of Queen Mary	Y. E.	1671 (1671)	Wing E45; ESTC R19703	7,731	23

and twenty one Divines were put to death in those days But the particular usage of the Clergy is not so related in any Chronicles I have yet seen It was Dedicated to K. Philip and Q. Mary and all the Estates in Parliament as in a Defence of the Married Clergy whose Author I know not my Book being imperfect and because I think it may be somewhat new unto you as it was to me I designed the sum of it for the Subject of this Letter There were twelve or sixteen thousand Clergy-men turned out in those days at one time and reduced to great poverty this was done and executed to the uttermost and against all Justice upon a number of them even after the charge of the Cure served the Tenths and Subsidy paid N.B. In this relation I generally retain the Language and even the Orthography oftentimes of my Author and they at the point of receiving that which was before laboured for and deserved all was snatch'd out of their mouths by preventions Some were deprived and never convict no never call'd Some call'd that were fast lockt in Prison and yet nevertheless deprived immediately Some deprived without the case of Marriage after Orders Some induced to resign upon promise of Pension and the promise never performed Some so deprived that they were spoiled of their wages for which they had served the last half year before and not ten days before the receipt sequestred from it Some prevented from the half years receipt after charges of Tenths and Subsidy paid and yet not deprived till sir weeks after Nay they stood chargeable in Law for their first Fruits notwithstanding their deprivation Nor were they only divorced from their Livings But the Orders of Bonner are extant whereby they were appointed to bring their Wives within a Fortnight Acts Monuments p. 1334. that they might likewise be divorced from them The Queens Articles sent into every Diocess with Letters writ unto the several respective Bishops were of the same import though in some things better qualifyed than those that were to put them in execution would have regard unto But 't is no nnusual thing in so great revolutions for the Instruments to exceed their Commission and to comply more with their private instructions or intentions than the publick Declarations of their Prince Whatsoever there is of mitigation in them was not taken notice of but such rigour practised as I relate The Articles relating to this Subject were That every Bishop and his Officers Dr. Heylin's History of the Reformation Ann. Reg. Mar. 1. 1553 and all others having Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction proceeding summarily and with all celerity and speed may and shall deprive or declare deprived and remove according to their learning and discretion all such persons from their Benifices and Ecclesiastical Promotions who contrary to the state of their Order and the laudible custom of the Church have married and used Women as their Wives or otherwise notably and slanderously disordered or abused themselves Sequestring also during the said Process the Fruits and Profits of the said Benesices and Ecclosiastical promotions That the said Bishop and other Persons aforesaid do use more lenity and clemency with such as have married whose Wives be dead than with others whose Women do yet remain alive And likewise such Priests as with the consent of their Wives or Women openly in the presence of the Bishop do profess to abstain to be used more favourable In which case after Pennauce effectually done the Bishop according to his discretion and wisdom may upon just considevation receive and admit them again to their former administrations so it be not in the same place appointing them such a portion to live upon to be paid out of their Benifice whereof they be deprived by the discretion of the said Bishop or his Officer as he shall think may be spared of the same Benifice That every Bishop and other Person aforesaid do fore-see that they suffer not any Religious Man having solentnly professed Chastity to continue with his Woman or Wife but that all such persons after Deprivation of their Benefice or Ecclesiastical Promotion be also divorced from his said Woman and due punnishment otherwise taken for the Offence therein In these Articles 't is to be observed that the Queen seems more inclined to call the Wives of the Married Clergy rather Women than any other name and matters were so ordered that not only the Regular Clergy which do vow Chastitie but the Seculars who promise at their Ordination only castitatem colere docere which was the old Form and obligeth them directly no more to refrain Marriage than to teach others so to do were divorced from their Wives and deemed to have made a solemn profession of Chastitie according to those Verses Ordo Sacer vestis professio Religionis Quae sit facta palam factunt solemnia vota The Marryed Clergy were in all places represented as Lewd Fellows Nay it came to that pass immediately as that they were imputed such an unworthy sort of Men that they ought not to be said Ave unto in salutation not fit to come to their Tables or Presence for disteining their Holiness and mystical vows of Chastity Whereas in truth the Secular Priests of the English Church were never under any such Vow nor did our Pontifical oblige them to any such thing as Dr. Redman attested in the Convocation-house professing they were not bound by reason of any Vow which in as far as his Conscience was the Priests in this Church of England do not make But all Pleas were rejected it was in vain for them to say they did nothing but what was warranted by the Laws of the Land the Convocation or Scripture and Fathers they were condemned for breach of Vows as if they had been Ordained by Romish Poutifical and not that of England The Popish Clergy told them that upon the repealing of the Laws in being the old Laws and Canons did ipso facto take place and oblige though there was no express Statute for it and though the Queens Commission was that they should proceed according to Learning and Discretion in this weighty matter and that they should not put any other Canons and Constitutions of the Church in exercise than such as might stand with the Law of the Realm Yet for all this grave and gracious Advertisement divers of the Officials proceeded so far against Learning discretion and Laws of the Realm in most places so that the poor Subjects and Oratours were far otherwise used than one would have imagined considering the trust committed to them In truth it appears that all Pleas were invalid against the Arbitrary proceedings of those times and whatever was alledged out of the Laws and Constitutions of England though never so old and made in the times of Popery and who is safe if such a defence be invalid were defeated by this general assertion of Dr. Martin and others that no Laws bind

against the Church but are ipso jure ipso facto unlawful void and of none effect That a particular Church a little Member of the whole cannot derogate the universal Law of the Church They proceeded so far as to tell Men that the Acts of K. Edward VI. did not take away the penalty of the Canon Laws and interpreted that Act of Q. Mary which barely repealed the Statutes of K. Edward as it had annulled the Marriages of Priests Nay though there were a Statute in force then made tricesimo secundo of Henry the Eighth that no Reservation or Prohibition Gods Law except shall trouble or impeach any Marriage without the said Levitical Degrees and that all such be lawful persons to contract which be not prohibited by Gods Law to marry Yet did they proceed to annull the Marriages and argued that the Priests could take no advantages of the Law any longer than it continued and that the ancient Laws of the Church were never extinguished but only for a time shadowed and brought asleep It was further argued by the married Clergy thus But to return again to Dr. Martins assertion wherein he defineth that the Church-Canons be ready watching straightways to fall into mens necks upon repeal of such Statutes as kept them back which he doth so boldly that belike the wise and well learned Commissaries in diverse places without further advisement taketh upon them wonderous stoutly to separate not only Regulars but Seculars too against their wills and consents Vpon which their doings I would ask them a question How they can glose the words of K. Henries Statute in the XXVII year of his Reign where it is plainly decreed in Law that all manner of Licenses Dispensations and Faculties obtained of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in matters not repugnant or contrary to the holy Scriptures and Laws of God shall stand in full Authority and strength without any revocation or repeal hereafter to be had of any such Licence And I know diverse married Priests which have such Dispensations some corroborated by the Kings Broad Seal and some by the said Arch-Bishops Seal I would fain learn how they understand these weighty Laws of the Realm Belike as they have proceeded in Deprivations of many Men never called or cited never convict nor confessed and some called on one day and slat deprived on the next day not examining whether he were Secular or Regular married before Orders or after without all manner of inquisition So belike they desire to proceed in Separations against both God's Law and their own And as for the Laws of the Realm they make but washway of them so little compting of them that if a Lord should see his Tenants in his Court-Baron so little regard the by-Laws of his Courts he would think them not unworthy to loose their Copies To this the only answer I can find is The marriages of the Clergy be so great offences that they cannot be forgiven by no manner of means no not by Christs Blood but only by a Separation And Dr. Martin saith furthermore that Bishops and Priests have so great deformities and skars yet remaining in their Bodies and Souls for their old Incests as he calls them that they cannot be mitigated by any gentle Medicine Christian Clemency no not purged yet nor sufficiently punished with the deprivations of all their Livings but must look for much more yet Curses Excommunications Excoriations Confiscations open Pennance yea the Devil Hell and all And Dr. Martin assures the Clergy that they were dealt with very favourably in being turned out of their Ministrations and no further Penalties inflicted on them 'T is not to be denyed but that after they were turned out of their Livings the Church did mercifully open her lap to receive them into new Benefices and Livings though they had lost their old where they had done cost But such was the Churches merciful lap in receiving her own begotten Children to ministration again that yet first they must speak their own shame in Bills of their Pennance lying against themselves most vilely shamefully disabling their credit and estimation for ever They must profess an earnest and hearty repentance of that foul sin of Unchastitie by marrying relinquish their Wives for the future and bear such a part in Procession as Jane Shore doth in the Puppet-Plays carrying Tapers in their hands I could wish all our Clergy would resor to Bartholomew Fair and behold that spectacle and judge of that happy condition into which their supinity will precipitate them Some did undergo it in the days of Q. Mary and Surely in some places the Churches mercy was so sore extended that whose Wives were two or three years past before departed yet they could not be admitted again to ministration but must do open Pennance and go before the Cross without any redemption or intreaty that could be made and the parties such as by whom the Commissaries themselves could alledge not one point of dishonesty or evil opinion in all their conversation besides forth Shall Lay-men hereafter trust well of the Churches Mercy if they come within their claws when the Clergy are thus dealt with Of whom some dissented in no Point at all from the Papists but only in this fact which the Law made them bold to adventure on Thus Sir were those Clergy-men served who before that fatal change were in as good and lawful possession of their Wives and Livings as any Subject ever shall have of any thing hereafter Nor is there any way for the present Clergy to avoid the like inveniencies should such a Revolution happen from which the greatest security we have as to humane and Political Affairs is the great Zeal which our Prince continues to shew for the Church of England and that unquestionable unshaken constancy with which His Maiesty persisted to be a Protestant during his Exile except it be confessed that they are not in Orders and that the Succession did cease in the Election of Matthew Parker to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury this is a thing the Papists do commonly say and Dr. Champney hath writ a plausible Book to prove it and if it be true that He which makes arbitrarily Bishops in Greece of Chalcedon Corinth c. hath ordained some for England and Ireland 't is eafie to judge what courses will be taken should Protestancy loose its Legal force and power Perhaps you will say that such a revolution would endanger the Layety also and bring the Crown of his Majesty into Question whether it be feudatory or no 't is true indeed that the Papists do now entitle some of their Clergy to our old Abbeys and Monasteries and in France there is a Nunnery that layes claim to Sion house and they are called the Nuns of Sion 'T is most true that the Pope doth reckon upon our Kingdom as held in Fee of the Papacy and to this purpose did Bellermine produce unto K. James other Arguments than the Donation of Constantine Bu● I am resolved not to doubt the integrity or prudence of his Majesty or our Parliament 't is not to be doubted but the intellectuals of States-men are as elivated as their condition is above others and their prospect greater into Affairs what passed in the days of Q. Elizabeth and K. James is not effaced out of our knowledge and 't is only the intent of this Letter to acquaint you with the condition of the Protestant Clergy in the days of Queen Mary Dr. Heylin hath not treated so fully of this matter as I have here and I think it would be a seasonable Work to publish Dr. Martin's Book about the proceedings against the Clergy then and the Defence of Priests Marriage which is the Book I follow and 't is a learned piece written by some eminent Man but mine is defective in the beginning and wants a sheet in the middle Nothing informs us so much as History and to be forewarned is in a manner to be fore-armed I am Your most devoted Servant Y. E. FINIS