Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A45195
|
The honours of the Lords spiritual asserted, and their priviledges to vote in capital cases in Parliament maintained by reason and precedents collected out of the records of the Tower, and the journals of the House of Lords.
|
Hunt, Thomas, 1627?-1688.
|
1679
(1679)
|
Wing H3755; ESTC R24392
|
40,120
|
57
|
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
his time that had better been laid out in painfull Preaching to his flock Whereas we all know that Preaching is but a very small part of the Ministers Calling yet of late times it hath been made by some to swallow up the rest of the Ministers Duties as necessary and Essential to his Callings as that can be and have observed also that some Ministers themselves otherwise good men have been a wanting to themselves and the Church in complying too much with a sort of men amongst us whose interest it is to draw all Causes into their own Courts for the support of their own Grandeur and Faculty whereas otherwise those Suites and Causes might perhaps with little or no charge have been more speedily yea and satisfactorily determined Our last instance shall be in Gregory the Great de Cur. Past with who some close the good Popes whom we find complaining that Sub colore Episcopatus ad seculum retractus sum in quo tantis terrae curis inserrio quantis me in vita laic a nequaquam deseruisse reminiscor He was never in all his Life time so encumbred with Worldly business as after he came to be a Bishop but he afterwards adds that Et si cogamur terrenis negotiis intendere mens tamen nostra saeculari varietate non delectatur sed tota in unum currit atque confluit finem Though he was forced to do this for the good of his People yet he took no Pleasure in it and his mind was taken up with better things for all agree that these must not be undertaken out of love to them but Christian Charity and Compassion to the oppressed Aug. de Civ Dei l. 19. c. 19. Now these Imployments were conferred upon those Father 's not as Bishops but as Subjects more Eminently qualified than others both by their Prudence Experience and Integrity as well as Humane Learning But Three there are in which they did Principally engage and which may seem most agreeable to their Coat First To be in the Commission of Peace and to speak Impartially Who fitter for such a Work than they whose business and Calling it is to reconcile those that are at variance And this was the design of the Ancients though at first it began in a way of Charity yet being found profitable it was upon mature Deliberation by the Christian Emperors confirmed particularly by Constantine Zozom lib. 1. c. 9. who leaves it free to any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Valens and Valentinian enlarged it and intrusted them with the Rates of Commodities Sold in the Market Cod. l. 1. de Aud. Ep. tit 7. Their Jurisdiction I confess hath been in several ages various sometimes more sometimes less as the Emperors were more or less favourable to the Church whoever kept the Soveraignty in their own hands Constantine was the first that passed the Royal Grant in favour of the Clergy permitting the Cognizance of all Civil matters even between Laymen to the Episcopal Tribunal if either party did require it though the other denyed his consent and their appeal was to be obeyed by the Magistrates whenever made though the action was already commenced in another Court. Arcadius and Honorius did a little retrench this unlimitted power yet still allowing it by the joint consent of both parties and making the Bishops as it were Referees l. si quis ex consensu de Aud. Episcop and their decision to be binding and final without appeal This Law was after ratified by Theodosius and Justinian l. Episc c. eod Nay this latter Emperor Justinian reposed so much confidence in them that he made them Overseers of the Secular Judges Novel Const 56. This then has been the practise of that pure and Primitive Age and the greatest Enemies the Church had could never deny but that the Bishops have had their Tribunals for above these 1300 years Erected by Constantine confirmed by Arcadius and Honorius Theodosius and Valentinian c. Only some Curiously mince the matter and allow them power to hear Causes and to become Referees and Umpires by the consent of both Parties but yet they will not hear talk of any Coercive Jurisdiction though as eminent Civil Lawyers as any are Attribute it to them and particularly Accursius interprets Audientia Episcopalis a term frequent in the Code by Jurisdictio and Constantine forbad expresly the greatest Prince in the Empire to revoke what once the Bishops had Decreed Euseb Vit. Const l. 4. c. 27. In process of time the Magistrates having encroached upon and almost outed the Clergy Charlemaine revives that good old Law of Constantine confirming the same Jurisdiction to all Bishops repeating the Charter word for word Car. Mag. in Capit. l. 6. c. 28. What the practise was in our own Country of England shall God willing be made out in what follows wherein I doubt not but to give abundant satisfaction of the Factum that the Clergy were employed as much as the Laity in the Decision of Secular Causes so far as we have good Authority and Record in the times of the Saxons and so downwards till our late and unhappy Divisions 1640 c. which God grant may be ever buryed in Oblivion and that we may never live to see the same again Secondly To be of the Privy Council where frequently Cases of Consciences relating to State-matters may arise As suppose there be a Consultation about a War or Marriage the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness thereof must be judged in foro Conscientiae and so is the proper Subject of a Divine or Clergyman and perhaps the thing will not bear so much delay as to Summons Prelates together for Advice nor Reason of State to be so much published for want of such Knowing and Religious Counsellours Princes may often be entangled in unjust Massacres and rash Wars and Innocent Blood be spilt which otherwise might have been prevented And for prevention whereof the Godly Prudent Princes both of our own and other Nations have ever admitted some spiritual Persons to their Counsel Tables and Closet Debates To the good advice of Bishop Fox of Winchester we owe the Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland for the other Privy Counsellors advising King Henry the 7th to Marry the Eldest of his Daughters to France the more Noble and Rich Kingdom the old and wise Bishop adviseth his Majesty the contrary at which the King seeming somewhat surpriz'd the Bishop gave him this as the reason of his Opinion that by Marrying the Elder to Scotland that Kingdom would be brought to England and old Enmities reconciled and for ever buryed Whereas on the contrary England being under France we should have here been ruled by a French Liuetenant of Deputy which the English he doubted would hardly brook and perhaps our Government and Laws by reason of their unagreeableness to the French might have been attempted to have been changed into those of France which the English man his Opinion was would hardly bear Whereas those of