the Case stood with them whether he had Reason to do or not I will not dispute So that manifest it is that the Bishops do not hold their Bishopricks at the King's Will and Pleasure and consequently neither their Baronies nor their Places in Parliament And I would have my Lord consider whether all the Noblemen that sit in that House by Blood and Inheritance be not in the same Condition upon the matter with the Bishops For as Bishops may commit Crimes worthy Deprivation and so consequently lose their Votes in Parliament so are there some Crimes also which Noblemen may commit God preserve them from them which may consequently void all their Rights in Parliament yea and taint their Blood too And as for the Bishops Baronies they are not at the King's Will and Pleasure neither For they hold their Baronies from the Crown indeed but by so long Prescription as will preserve them from any Disseisure at Will and Pleasure of the King So if they merit not Deprivation by Law and Justice their Baronies are safe and that by as good Right and far antienter Descent than any the antientest Nobleman of England can plead for himself For Edward the First he was a brave Prince and is of glorious Memory and respected the Dutifulness of his Clergy very Royally As for the Acts of Parliament made in his Time and the Time of his Royal Successor Edward the Third I conceive nothing can be gathered out of the Titles or Prefaces of those Acts against either the Bishops presence at or their Voting to those Laws by any Prohibition of Exclusion of them by those famous Kings For though the Statute of Carlisle 35 Edw. I. not Printed be recited in the Statute 25 Edw. III. of Provisoes and says that by the Assent of the Earls Barons and other Nobles and all the Commonalty at their Instances and Requests in the said full Parliament it was ordained c. without any mention at all of the Prelates yet it is more than probable that the Prelates were Summoned to and present at these Parliaments For first it appears expresly that the Statute of the Staple 27 Edw. III. made in the same Parliament with the Statute of Provisoes that the Prelates were Assembled and Present there And I rather think that in all these Statutes of Provisoes being professedly made against the Liberty and Jurisdiction of the Pope in those Times challenged in this Kingdom to whose Power the Bishops were then Subject they voluntarily chose to be absent rather than endanger themselves to the Pope if they Voted for such Laws or offend the King and the State if they Voted against them But these Laws were not made excluso Clero and that as long as the King pleased as this Lord affirms and this is very plain in the Statute it self of 38 Edw. III. For in the last Chapter of that Statute though the Prelates be omitted in the Preamble yet there 't is expresly said That the King the Prelates the Dukes Earls and Barons c. So here was not exclusion of the Bishops by the King but their own voluntary Absence which made those kind of Laws pass without them As for the Parliament at Carlisle I conceive the Books are misprinted and a common Errour risen by it For that Parliament was held Anno 35 Edw. I. and was the first of Provisoes and as appears in the Records the Prelates were present But in 25 Edw. I. the Parliament was Summoned to London and the Bishops called to it And there was another Summons to Salisbury in the same Roll to which the Prelates were not called But this I conceive was a Summons of the King 's Great Council only and not of a Parliament the Commons not being called any more than the Prelates Nor were there any other Summons 25 Edw. I. but these two That which his Lordship infers upon this is that therefore the Bishops are in absolute dependency upon the Crown which is manifestly untrue since they cannot be outed at Will and Pleasure but for Demerit only and that may fall upon Temporal Lords as well as Bishops And therefore neither are they at Devotion for their Votes and therefore in true Construction no Prejudice can come by them to that Honourable House And I pray God their casting out be not more prejudicial both to State and Church than I am willing to forespeak After this his Lordship tells us what he hath done in this great Argument saying I have now shewed your Lordships how hurtful to themselves and others these things which the Bill would take away have been I will only Answer some Objections which I have met withal and then crave your Pardon for troubling you so long His Lordship tells us he hath shewed how hurtful these things are both to the Bishops and others which this Bill would hew down and out of his Zeal and Love to the Church he hath gone farther than any Man in this Argument yet I conceive he hath not shewed what he thinks he hath 'T is true he hath strongly laboured it but I hope it will appear he hath not master'd it I shall now see how he Answers such Objections as his Lordship says he hath met with And the First Objection is his Lordship says 1. That they have been very Antient. 2. That they are Established by Law 3. That it may be an Infringement to the House of Peers for the House of Commons to send up a Bill to take away some of their Members To these three the Answer will be easie I know not how easie the Answer will be but these must needs be hard Times for Bishops if neither Antiquity can fence them against Novelty nor Law defend them against Violence nor fear of weakning the House of Peers preserve them against the Eagerness of the House of Commons and that in the very House of Peers it self Let us see then and consider how easie the Answer will be to these and how sufficient also To the First Antiquity is no good Plea for that which is by Experience found hurtful the longer it hath done hurt the more cause there is now to remove it that it may do no more Besides other Irregularities are as antient which have been thought fit to be redressed and this is not so antient but that it may truly be said Non fuit sic ab initio This Answer may be easie enough but sure 't is not sufficient Nor do I wonder that Antiquity is no good Plea in this Lord's account for he is such an Enemy to it that he will have his very Religion new If any thing be antient it smells of Antichrist Yea but if it be found hurtful the longer it hath done hurt the more cause to remove it That 's true if it be hurtful in and of it self so is not this If it does hurt constantly or frequently else you must cast out the Lay Lords Votes too and his Lordship 's with the
trouble the whole University and your self so often for every Boy 's business I pray be strict in these and if it be the cause you have fewer Doctors the next year the matter is not great For if there be none for a year or two there are enough already for a longer time And for my part I am as willing there should be none as to have the University disordered by them THis day I received a complaint from Oxford concerning the Restraint which I had advised should be put upon Dispensations which were then grown too common in all kinds to the great disgrace of the University But in the consideration of this Point there arose some Debate concerning the Dispensatiens de accumulandis Gradibus by reason that some were come to the University to Accumulate which dwelt in remoter parts and were now ready to do their Exercise and could not be sent back without their Degrees but it must needs tend to their great disreputation charge and prejudice In regard whereof there was earnest suit made to me by Dr. Prideaux then the Kings Professour in Divinity and by Mr. Bell Esquire-Bedell in Arts that this restraint de accumulandis Gradibus might not be suddenly put upon the University but that there might be a Day prefix'd and warning given that so no man might be taken upon the suddain As appears by Dr. Prideaux his Letter which hereafter follows In the mean time I presenty settled this Difficulty with such a moderate Restraint as in short time effected what I intended and presently took off all further muttering in the University Right Reverend Father in God ON Friday last Mr. Vice-Chancellour acquainted us amongst others with your Honours Advertisements with your Dislike of Accumulating Degrees which heretofore hath been too Customary We must all acknowledge with Thankfulness your Fatherly Care and Gods Blessing through your wisdom and vigilance in reforming many things which were out of frame For my own part I shall hold him an unworthy Member of This Place that with all readiness conforms not himself to such warrantable and fit Proposals and should be loth that any man be more forward than my self in performing all due Obedience to my Superiours But I trust your Honour will not take amiss if I interpose thus far That sufficient Notice be first given of your Pleasure in this behalf before execution be urged I speak it to this purpose Here is one Mr. Balye an able Man both for Scholarship and Means and his Majesties Chaplain who upon supposal of Accumulating as heretofore hath ever since the Act been at great charge Here and taken pains to perform his Exercise for his Degrees This was before any intimation from your Lordship of stopping Accumulating which if it presently take place his hopes travels and expences are frustrated and his return must be to his great prejudice He was a Fellow of Exeter College of good esteem There is one Mr. Hodges a Fellow of Lincoln College almost in the like case Our humble suit is that these Men thus before engaged may Pass with your Lordships Leave Others as your Wisdom shall think fit may for the present have Notice given that they expect not the like Easiness Especially the Residents Here whose negligence hath abused this Favour meant rather as I take it to Strangers of worth than to them Of This I held it my Duty to inform your Honour as desirous to stand in your favourable Opinion with others under this your Government Amongst whom I shall faithfully endeavour in Realities to express my self Exon Coll. Octob. 11. 1630. Your Lordship 's ready to be commanded John Prideaux S. in Christo. Worthy SIR I Received Letters from you this week They found me at home under some Indisposition of body by reason of a Cold caught in my Court-Attendance I thank you heartily for your Love and expression of readiness to join in the necessary upholding of Government in that famous University whose flourishing shall ever be the first and at the highest in my desires For the particular you mention de Accumulandis gradibus I am not only content but thank you for your Interposition Because as my desire is to Propose nothing but that which is Just and Honourable for that Place so I am very willing to Propose it in such manner as no man of quality may have just cause to except against In my Indisposition of which I am not yet free I must crave your pardon to be Brief and not write that over again which I have written in that Point to Mr. Vicechancellour who I think will call you and the rest of the Heads again and read my Answer which I make no doubt will settle this business Yet this I must tell you Mr. Balye howsoever you write an honest and an able Gentleman hath very far and more ways than one forgotten himself to Mr. Vicechancellour and not spared me For my part I pity his Passion and shall pass it by if Mr. Vicechancellour be satisfied And this I do for his Father's sake and in hope that he will make this his Warning else I would quickly make him know that my Proposals there are far from Tricks to catch him or any others You shall discharge your Love to his Father and your Care of him very freely if you shall chide him into better Temper The main of my Answer I hope you will expect from Mr. Vicechancellour in regard of my present Weakness And I shall end in a constant belief that for the Government of the University and all necessaries incident thereunto I shall find you very ready and real as you promise For which as I now give you thanks so of it I shall be ready to give you testimony and for it to shew you all such respects as may be due or fit from the Place I bear and with as much Favour as to any Governour in that place So I leave you to the Grace of God and shall rest Fulham-House Octob. 15. 1630. Your loving Friend GVIL London I write you this with mine own hand I pray hereafter be very careful of the Act-Questions The late Question about the Sickness though somewhat qualified from the first proposal was very unreasonable and somewhat else too His Majesty took great distast at it and commanded me to write to you about it You were at that time gone into the West and I forbare and do now only give you this private Advertisement which none knows but your self Not doubting but you will make good use of it and such as is fit IT seems there are but two rubbs appearing in this first Meeting The one about a Statute for nine years allowed it seems for men not Masters of Arts to be Bachelours in Divinity I pray search whether there be such a Statute or no. If there be not I think it fit my Order should hold If there be I will not violate it but think it very fit it
Arts or Bachelour of Law or 〈◊〉 whom they shall meet or be in presence with And that you proceed to the punishment of all such as fail in this kind And 〈◊〉 I pray acquaint Dr. Prideaux and Dr. 〈◊〉 that I will look they shall read their several Lectures as the Statutes require And if they read treatably that their younger Auditors may observe by writing if they please one Lecture may be broken into many to their own great 〈◊〉 and the greater profit of them that hear them and a Face of the University be kept in that particular And last of all these are strictly to require you that since his Majesty hath so lately and fully exprest himself for the keeping of his Declaration in all points that you shew your self very careful in that particular and that you proceed impartially against Delinquents any way that neither one nor the other may have cause to say that you favour a Party And you have great reason to be watchful in this because you know it was objected against you at Woodstock in Dr. Potter's Case which though it appeared palpably false yet it may and ought to be a Summons to you to look warily to your self And some eye it is fit you should bear towards me even in this particular that my Government be not slandered by it Septem 23. 1631. GVIL London In this year there arose a great stir in the University by some factious men which laboured to disturb the Government both in their Sermons and in Convocation and by secret Plotings Their profest aim was to dissolve the Delegacy appointed for the ordering and settling of the Statutes and to set the Proctours in as cunning a way as they could against the Chancellor till they had almost brought all Disorder into the U niversity How far they proceeded and what issue their plots had will appear in the Acts following The Head of all these Tumultuous stirs was by violent presumptions conceived to be one whom it least became for his Coat-sake And I shall spare his name rather for his Coat than himself Right Reverend My Honourable Good Lord I Have not hitherto troubled your Lordship with Letters of Information concerning any of our University-affairs knowing into what sufficient hands you have committed the trust of them from whence I imagine you receive a weekly account But such hath been the height of our late Disorders both without and within the Pulpit that should I not some way express that I am troubled with it I might be thought a very insensible Member of this Body which you govern For these late stirs are not of an Ordinary nature but strike at the very Root of Government which now lies bleeding The Vicechancellor's d power is Questioned The Proctours that should assist him receive the Appeals of Delinquents from him The Delegates such as are rather Parties than Judges And I could wish this were all But this Gangrene will spread farther For the University by these means is likely to become the Seed-plot of Mutiners to 〈◊〉 both Church and Common-wealth with But my comfort is that the way of their own Choosing the way of Appeal which it may be at first they did not think of must at last end before his Sacred Majesty For there is nothing left but the Voice of such a Power to allay this Storm The whole University though with several affections stands now at Gaze And the end of this Business must either prove an awful peace or the letting loose of all Confusion My Duty to my King my Love to Peace and my respect to your Lordship hath commanded this Letter from me which if you please to pardon you will tread in the steps of your former goodness and oblige me to the continuance of my prayers for you whom you shall ever find Ch. Ch. Aug. 1. 1631. Your Lordships most humble and true servant Brian Duppa To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of WILLIAM SMITH Dr. of Divinity and Vicechancellor of the Vniversity of OXFORD WHereas of late the Peace of your Majesties University of Oxford hath been much disturbed through the Sedicious practices of some distemper'd Spirits who have not only in their Sermons presum'd to handle divers points of Doctrin prohibited by your Majesties strait Command but also by some not obscure passages have endeavoured to fasten the imputation of Apostacy and Back-sliding upon some Persons of Eminent quality there and elsewhere And whereas one Thomas Foord having in a late Sermon of his at S. Maries offended in that kind was thereupon by your humble Petitioner according to the Statutes of the University convented and required to exhibit a Copy of his Sermon And upon his Refusal so to do was therefore commanded to Prison He likewise contrary to his Oath disobeying that command also And Appealing from your Petitioner to the Congregation-house which by the Statutes of the University in that case of breach of Peace he might not do The Proctors notwithstanding which should have assisted your Petitioner received the Appeal and the major part of the Delegates entertained it to the wrong both of your humble Petitioner and the Government of the University and quitted the said Foord as not guilty of the Perturbation of the Peace And whereas upon this Sentence of theirs your humble Petitioner finding himself aggrieved appealed to the House of Convocation through default of Appearance of a major part of Delegates appointed thereunto your humble Petitioners Cause being there deserted and let fall is at lengh according to the Statutes of the University devolved into your sacred Majesties hands And whereas one Giles Thorne by a scandalous Sermon of his lately preached in the same Place hath likewise farther disturbed the Peace of the University and more are like to follow especially not wanting Abettors to give them encouragement unless some speedy course be taken for prevention The humble suit therefore of your Majesties poor Petitioner is that out of your special Clemency always plentifully extended towards the Church and her Seminaries your Majesty would be graciously pleased to take into your own Royal Consideration the preservation of the Peace and Tranquillity of your University and of the Authority of her Governours against the Practices of such as under the colour of Religion or Liberty oppugn both Church and Civil Government That so these Troubles of the University may have a present end by your Majesty's happy Coming so near it And your humble Petitioner shall pray c. IN Dei nomine Amen Coram vobis Notario publico publicâqu authenticâ personâ ac testibus fide dignis hic praesentibus Ego Guilielmus Smith Sacrae Theologiae Professor Vniversitatis Oxon. Vicecancellarius ac Commissarius legitimè constitutus animo Appellandi déque nullitate nullitatibus omnibus singulis infrà scriptis aequè principaliter querelandi omnibus melioribus viâ modo juris formâ quibus meliùs aut
easdem in meliorem competentiorem formam redigendo de eisdem addendo ab eisdem detrahendo de intimando easdem omnibus singulis quorum interest seu interesse poterit quovismado juxta Jurisperitorum consilium pro loco tempore congruis opportunis prout moris est juris atque styli Super quibas omnibus singulis peto à te Notario publico Instrumentum publicum sive Instrumenta publica unum sive plura mihi confici Testesque hic praesentes testimonium inde perhibere Lecta interposita fuit haec Appellatio octavo die Augusti Anno Domini 1631. Annoque regni Domini nostri Caroli Dei gratiâ Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regis Fidei Defendoris c. Septimo in Hospitio Guardiani Collegii Wadhami in Vniversitate Oxon. intra Collegium praedictum notoriè situato per venerabilem Virum Guillelmum Smith Sacrae Theologiae Professorem Collegii Wadhami praedicti Guardianum atque 〈◊〉 Oxon. Vicecancellarium qui tunc ibidem appellavit Apostolos petiit protestatus querelatus est 〈◊〉 caetera fecit exercuit in omnibus per omnia prout in hujusmodi Protocollo continetur In praesentiâ mei Notarii Publici subscripti praesentibus etiam tunc ibidem testibus subscriptis ad praemissa testificanda specialiter rogatis scil Venerabilibus Viris Guilielmo 〈◊〉 Legum Doctore Decano Ecclesiae Cathedralis Wigorn. Richardo Zouch Legum Doctore nec non Richardo Mathew Literato Ita testor Guil. Juxon Rich. Zouch Ric. Mathew Humfridus Jones Notarius Publicus Upon this Petition and Appeal his Majesty coming that year in progress to Woodstock he resolved to hear the Cause Himself and put an end to those Factious and Disorderly courses which were grown too heady for any other Hand And upon 〈◊〉 Aug. 23. his Majesty in the presence of all the Lords of his Counsel which were with him divers Heads of Colleges being also present heard at large all Complaints and Grievances on either side And concluded That both the Proctours should in the next Convocation resign their Offices and Two other of the same Colleges be put in their Places And that Thomas Ford of Magdalen-hall Giles Thorne of Baliol College and John Hodges of Exeter College should be banish'd the University And that Doctor Prideaux Rector of Exeter College and Dr. Wilkinson Principal of Magdalen should then and there receive in the presence of the King and the Lords a publick and sharp Reprehension for their misgovernment and countenancing the Factious Parties The Lord Viscount Dorchester then Principal Secretary of State was commanded to deliver this Sentence from the King which he did accordingly and gave the Reprehension as was enjoyned The King himself then publickly Declaring that Dr. Prideanx deserved to lose his Place more than any of the rest but was content to spare him partly because he had been His ancient Servant and hoped he would look better to himself for the future and partly because I intreated Favour for him As for Francis Hide who had been Proctor the former year and was as mutinous as any of the rest he was out of the University when the Summons came for their Appearance before the King and so kept himself till the Hearing was past Yet nevertheless so much appeared against him as that afterwards he was glad to come in and make his submission that he might escape so Then his Majesty commanded Secretary Dorchester to write a Letter for Him to Sign and to be sent to the University and in Convocation to require the performance of this Sentence in every particular This Letter was written and sent accordingly and the Tenor of it follows in haec verba At WOODSTOCK Aug. 23. 1631. CHARLES R. TRusty and wellbeloved We greet you well Having at full length and with good Deliberation heard the Cause concerning the late great Disorders and Disobedience to Government in That Our University of Oxford and being moved by the greatness of the offences to Punish some persons according to their several Demerits and to Order some things for the more settled and constant Government of That our University hereafter Our Will and Pleasure is That you forthwith upon the receipt hereof call a Convocation for performing and registring these Our Sentences and Decrees as followeth And first We pronounce your Appeal to be just And return Tho. Forde of Magdelane Hall Giles Thorne of Baliol College and William Hodges of Exeter College whose Causes were likewise submitted unto Us unto your power And command you that forthwith they be all three Banish'd the University according as your Statutes in that behalf require Secondly Because the Proctours which should have been Assistants to the Vicechancellour and Helps for upholding of Authority and Government have most unworthily behaved themselves in countenancing all manner of Disobedience in receiving Appeals in case of manifest perturbation and breach of Peace and by their cunning practicing after these Appeals received especially Thorne's whose Contumacy was notorious and his Sermon base Therefore for them Our Pleasure and Command is as was yesterday delivered unto themselves that they shall presently resign their Office in Convocation according to Course as if their year had been fully expired and the two Colleges of which they are may name two others to succeed in their Office the rest of the year to be chosen and settled according to your late Statutes made in that behalf And for the Execution of this you are as we have before order'd presently to call a Convocation and publish this Our Sentence and proceed accordingly Thirdly For Francis Hyde of Christchureh and Richard Hill of Brazen Nose we require that so soon as they return to Our University you warn them to be in a readiness and give notice to your Chancellour when they are there that they may be sent for to Answer such things as are laid against them And when they are heard they shall receive such Sentence as the merits of their Cause deserve Now for the things which we think fit to settle presently in That Government they are these First VVe Command that if the Vicechancellour for the time being think fit to call for any Man's Sermon which upon his own hearing or complaint made by any other seems offensive in any kind the Party of what Degree soever he be shall deliver a true and perfect Copy to the Vicechancellour upon Oath which when he hath perused he shall Convent him if he find cause either by the Statute of Le cester as it is call'd or by the later Statute of the 〈◊〉 Doctors at the Vicechancellours choice until at this New settling of your Statutes one entire and absolute Statute be made of Both. Secondly That if the Vicechancellour find cause to Command any man to Prison the Party so Commanded and sent by a Beadle shall for so the Statutes require presently submit and go
moderation in the managing of so many troublesome businesses as have fallen in his time yet notwithstanding these and his other abilities for the discharge of that place I am resolved to name another to you both because among so many worthy and able men as are with you I would not pass by all the rest continually to overload any one And because I am very desirous to divide the Experience as well as the pains of that service among the Heads of Colleges to the end there may still be some that may be acquainted with the Burthen and weight of that Office and able the better to assist such as must newly enter upon it At this time upon very due Consideration I have thought fit to name Dr. Duppa Dean of Christ-Church to be Vice-Chancellour for this year ensuing whom I know to be a discreet able and worthy man for that place and one that will satisfie my Expectation and yours These are therefore to pray and require you to allow of this my Nomination and Choice of Dr. Duppa and to give him your best advice and assistance in all such Businesses as may concern the good Government and consequently the Honour of the University So I bid you all heartily farewel and rest To my very loving Friends the Doctours the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the University of OXFORD Fulham-House July 11.1632 Your very Loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London QVum Serenissimae Regiae Majestati visum fuerit publico Edicto cavere ne quis in religionis materiâ quicquam contra literalem Articulorum sensum pro Concione publicè definire audeat Existant tamen nonnulli qui usque quo hoc Edictum extendi debeat aut pro incomperto habeant aut se ita habere simulent Idcirco nos quibus obedientiae praestandae publicaeque pacis conservandae demandatur Munus incumbit cura quorum etiam plenisque Serenissimae Regiae Majestatis tum actis tum de hâc re consiliis Woodstochiae interesse concessum est tam crassae supinae ignorantiae ansam praescindere volentes sic pronunciamus Quod ut dissidiorum flammam circa quinque Articulos quos vocant inter Remonstrantes contra Remonstrantes contraversos in exteris Regionibus accensam vicinit ate quadam mali nostros etiam Penates jamjam corripientem huic Edicto sanciendo occasionem praebuisse optimè perspectum habemus ita tanquam praesentissimum Remedium huic incendio restringuendo ad contraversias praecipuè circa hos Articulos exortas hoc Edictum extendendum esse judicamus Quicunque igitur in his controversiis pro sententiâ suâ tuendâ publicè de industriâ tractet temerè affirmet aut pertinaciter definiat Quicunque etiam publicè pro Concione adversam opinioni suae sententiam Argumentis Consequentiis odiosè proscindat aut in adversas sententias tuentium Nomina aut famam convitiis calumniis aut aliis quovismodo grassetur eundem illum tanquam violati Regii Edicti Pacisque Publicae turbatae reum postulandum censemus Talemque esse de hac re sententiam nostram solemni hâc nominum nostrorum subscriptione publicè testatum volumus tum ut post haec quod optandum est potiore habeatur loco charitas quoe oedificat quam scientia quae inslat tum etiam nequis in posterum majorem Curiositatis suoe quam tranquillitatis publicoe rationem habendam fore aut mercedis loco ducat pacata turbare SIR YOU have done very well in Hobbes's Business and the motion made by Dr. Pink to prevent pleading of ignorance c. was in it self very good and seasonable and you did as fitly lay hold of it and draw up the Order about it as I see by the inclosed yet nevertheless there is somewhat very considerable before you publish that Order As first that there are certain Incidents to some of those Five Articles which all Men upon the hearing presume forbidden Whereas by this Order they will take themselves confined to the five express Articles only And secondly it must be very well weighed what power You or I have to interpret or make an Order upon a Declaration set forth by the Authority of the King with the consent of his Bishops and I much doubt it will not be warrantable In the mean time it will be enough against the Plea of ignorance to declare upon all occasions the Five Articles controverted by the Remonstrants are the Doctrines for a time not to be meddled with that the Factions unhappily spread amongst our Neighbours may not infect this our Church or break the Peace of it There is somewhat else considerable also which I think not very fit to write But to this if you have any exception you may return me what Answer you please Feb. 15. 〈◊〉 GVIL London S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. Upon occasion of difference between Lichfeild and Turner about their Printing there was cause given me to look into your Charters what power the University had for Printing and how many Printers were allow'd unto you Upon search I cannot find any Grant at all so that Custom is the best Warrant you have for that Privilege Your great Charter of Hen. VIII hath no mention at all of it But Cambridge which had the like Charter found that defect in it and repaired to the King again and obtained another particular Charter for Printing only which is very large and of great honour and benefit to that University Where by the way give me leave to tell you that they of Cambridge have been far more vigilant both to get and keep their Privileges than you at Oxford have been for they have gotten this and other of their Privileges confirmed by succeeding Princes and I think some of them by Act of Parliament which for Oxford hath not been done Upon consideration of this I thought it very just and equal that the two Universities should enjoy the same Privileges especially for Printing And when I had weighed all Circumstances I adventured to move his Majesty on your behalf who according to his great and princely favour to the University did most graciously grant it The motives which Iused were principally two the one that you might enjoy this privilege for Learning equally with Cambridge and the other that having many excellent Manuscripts in your Library you might in time hereby be encouraged to publish some of them in Print to the great honour of that Place this Church and Kingdom And now upon the Grant of the like Patent I doubt not but you will enter into some provident Consideration among your selves how you may set the Press going and do something worthy of this his Majesty's Favour and that the World may see it is not granted unto you for nothing This Patent I delivered according to appointment to Mr. Philip King who paid the Fees and took order for the safe carrying of it down But at
meruisti nihil invenies in Officio nostro mediocre Finge animos manuscriptos ac illos accipe Sic vovet se praestabit E. Domo nostrae Convocationis Maii 28. 1635. Sanctitati vestrae Sacratissima OXON Acad. The Repair and Beautisying of the Chappel of Saint Mary Magdalane which began the Year before I was Chancellor was compleatly finished as also another new Building of theirs towards the Waterside in this Year In this Year Smith-gate was made passable for Coaches In this Year the Thames was brought up to Oxford and made Navigable for Barges Henry Birkhead of Trinity College in Oxford was seduced by a Jesuite and in May 1635. carried to St. Omers by one who called himself by the name of Kemp a Priest of that College of St. Omers They took shipping at Dover and there they were not so much as asked their Names by any Officer nor ever tendred the Oath of Allegiance But I found means to get him back and settled him AFter my hearty Commendations c. The time of the Year puts me in mind that the Vicechancellor hath gone through a years Pains in that Government and the place being so full of trouble a Year may be thought a great space of time for any man to be exercised in it Yet considering what experience is requisite for a Governour there and in hope that the first Year's pains will make the labour of the second more easy and especially weighing with my self with what great sufficiency both for Integrity and Judgment the present Vicechancellor Dr. Pink hath carried himself in all the Businesses which concerned the Honour of that University both at Home and abroad I have thought fit to continue him another Year in the Vice-chancellorship assuring my self that he will constantly go on as he hath begun which cannot but tend to his own Credit and Reputation as well as to the good Government of the University and all those other happy Effects which attend upon a well settled Government which is so necessary every where but more especially in that Body These are therefore not only to let you know that I do hereby nominate and choose Dr. Pink to be my Vicechancellor for this Year following but also to pray and require you to allow of this my Choice and to give him all the Respects due to his Place and all other help and assistance which shall be in your Power to give and may be necessary for him to receive for his better Ease and Comfort in the Government Thus not doubting of your Readiness and willing Obedience herein I leave both him and you all to the Grace of God and rest July 10. 1635. Your very loving Friend and Chancellor W. CANT ANother Business there is which I think may be very well worthy your Consideration and if you do not give it remedy as I think it abundantly deserves I do not know who either can or will I have often wondred why so many good Scholars came from Winchester to New College and yet so few of them afterwards prove eminent Men And while I lived in Oxford I thought upon divers things that might be causes of it and I believe true ones but I have lately heard of another which I think hath done and doth the College a great deal of harm in the Breeding of their Young men When they come from Winchester they are to be Probationers two Years and then Fellows A man would think those two Years and some Years after should be allowed to Logick Philosophy Mathematicks and the like Grounds of Learning the better to enable them to study Divinity with Judgment But I am of late accidentally come to know that when the Probationers stand for their Fellowships and are to be examined how they have profited One chief thing in which they are examined is how diligently they have read Calvin's Institutions and are more strictly held to it how they have profited in that than almost in any kind of Learning besides I do not deny but that Calvin's Institutions may profitably be read and as one of their first Books for Divinity when they are well grounded in other Learning but to begin with it so soon I am afraid doth not only hinder them from all grounds of Judicious Learning but also too much possess their Judgments before they are able to judge and makes many of them humerous in if not against the Church For so many of them have proved in this latter Age since my own memory in that University Your Lordship is Visitor there and I think you cannot do a better Deed than to advise on a way how to break this Business with the Warden who is a learned and discreet Man and then think upon some 〈◊〉 for it For I am verily perswaded it doth that College a great deal of harm I do not hold it fit that your Lordship should fall upon this Business too suddainly When the Warden comes next to the Election may be a sit time nor would I have You let it be known that you have received this Information from me but sure I am 't is true and needs a Remedy February 2. 1635. W. CANT S. in Christo QVod ad honorem Dei Academiae Vtilitatem cedat 〈◊〉 vobis à Rege pientissimo Literarum Patrono Munificentissimo Literas Patentes In eis facile est legere quali gratiâ quanto favore Vos studia vestra amplectitur Regum optimus Privilegia enim hoe Literae continent non solum vetera confirmata sed etiam illa ampliata ubi obscura vel dubia fuerunt explicata ac etiam multa nova de quibus antehac ne cogitavit quidem Academia Ad firmitatem harum libertatum quod attinet summa uti spero fide Jurisperitorum Scientiâ quorum Consilio in hoc negotio usi sumus eas septas munitas satis esse confidimus Nec defuit illis frequentior monitio ut cautè circumspectè describerentur omnia ne oppidani aliive si qui Privilegiis vestris inimiciores sint facilè possint arripere informandi ansam Majorem à me Curam expectare non potuit Academia nisi talium legum Municipalium peritia imbutus fuissem ut ipse manu mea Patentes hasce delineare delineatas examinare de earum Perfectione judicare propriâ Minervâ potuissem Sumptus vestros expensasque circa hanc rem majores esse quam spectavi audio spero tamen non cum Privilegiis hisce comparandas Sed meae nec potestatis nec Officii est vel Salaria seu Feoda Jarisperitorum vel Sigillationis summam juribus aut consuetudini affixam moderari Hoc unum adjiciam pro amore quo vos vestraque amplector ipse non ficta scribo sumptum horum onera in me jampridem suscepissem nisi alia vobis ibidem satis nota tenuiores proventus meos plus satis exhausissent Superest ut Regi
Chancellour of this University whereby it is manifest that these Laws and Ordinances are so established and ratified both by Sovereign and Subalternal Authority Temporal and Spiritual that nothing further can be required but your ready acceptance and obedience whereof I make no doubt For to do you right you have already shewed so effectual Conformity and at this present express such alacrity and forwardness that I rather see cause to commend and encourage you than to exhort and stir you up or any way to importune you by any further Speech yet because there is generally in Man's nature a secret curiosity and prejudice against all things that appear extraodinary and new especially when they impose any Duty and require obedience at their hands I must crave leave in discharge of my own Duty to satisfie those which hereafter may be inquisitive into these Proceedings to insist a little upon those principal Respects which demonstrate the full Authorization and absolute necessity of submission to these Laws That which Commands in chief and which no reason can withstand is his Majesty's Sovereign Power by which these Statutes as you see are both enacted and confirmed Him we all acknowlege to be our supream Governour both of Church and Commonwealth over all Causes and Persons and to his Supremacy and Allegiance we are all obliged by Oath This then we must build upon as an Axiom and fundamental Rule of Government That all our Laws and Statutes are the King's Laws and that none can be enacted changed or abrogated without him so all Courts of Law or Equity are properly the King's Courts all Justice therein administred be it Civil or Martial is the King's Justice and no Pardon or Grace proceeds from any but from the King And as of Justice so is he the Source of Honour all Dignities all Degrees all Titles Arms and Orders come orignally from the King as Branches from the Root And not only particular Men and Families but all Corporations Societies nay Counties Provinces and depending Kingdoms have all Corporations Societies nay Counties Provinces and depending Kingdoms have all their Jurisdictions and Governments established by him and by him for publick good to be changed or dissolved So his Power reacheth to Foreign Plantations where he may erect Principalities and make Laws for their good Government which no man may disobey And as in the temporal so in the State Ecclesiastical his Regal Power by ancient Right extendeth to the erection of Bishopricks Deanries and Cathedral Churches and to settle Orders for Government in all Churches by the advice of his own 〈◊〉 without any Concurrence of Forreign Usurping Power But for Universities and Colleges they are the Rights of Kings in a most peculiar manner For all their Establishments Endowments Priviledges and Orders by which they subsist and are maintained are derived from Regal Power And as it is your greatest Honour so it is your greatest Safety That now this Body of your Laws as well as your Priviledges and Immunities are established ratified and confirmed by the King And more I shall not need to say in this Point In the next place you may consider for your incouragement to receive this great Favour and Benefit from his Majesty with ready and thankful Minds that your Chancellor's worthy Care had a chief operation in advancing this great work whose nearness to his Majesty in a place of that Eminency and sincere Conformity to his Orders and Commands and most watchful Care over that part of the Government which is committed to his Trust inableth him to support and may give you confidence to obey that which his Majesty recommendeth by so good a Hand specially in Matters concerning the good Government of the Church or of the Schools In the Church whereof he is Primate and Metropolitan his Power is very large and his extraordinary endeavours in it deserve at least to be well understood In former times when Church-men 〈◊〉 Rule the greatest Prelates gave the first way to alienate Church Livings Whereas this worthy Prelate maketh it his chief work to recover to the Church for the furtherance of God's Service what may be now restored And what therein he hath effected under his Majesty's gracious and powerful Order not England alone but Scotland and Ireland can abundantly witness Again what help and relief he procureth dayly for Ministers oppressed by rich incroaching Neighbours or Patrons what Collections and Contributions he obtaineth to re-edify to repair and adorn Churches and what great Structures are now in Hand and much advanced by his Judgment Care and Zeal in our most famous Monuments dedicated to God's service we may behold with Joy and future Ages will 〈◊〉 to his Majesty's eternal Glory by whose Power and Order all is performed and to the Honour of our Country and for encouragement and example of those that shall succeed who will acknowledge with us that this Man is indeed as he is by his just stile a most Reverend and Beneficial Father of the Church And for this University what better Evidence can be desired of his singular Love and Beneficence than first that stately Building whereby he hath made himself another Founder of that College which bred him to this height of worth And secondly those many rare and exquisite Manuscripts and Authors wherewith he hath replenished your renowned publick Library And if you add hereunto his constant Care to maintain you in all your Rights and Priviledges and to assist you in your Preferments And finally in collecting this great Volume of Ordinances for the present and further Government of this famous University You have Monuments sufficient to eternize among you and all men his memory and desert And this work is that which now remaineth in the third place to be further stood upon For 't is not as some may think either a Rhapsody of overworn and unuseful Ordinances nor yet an imposition of Novel Constitutions to serve the present Times But our Royal Justinian by the Labour and Direction of this prudent person hath collected into a Pandect or Corpus juris Academici all the ancient approved Statutes which in former times were scattered and so neglected And tho many great Prelates have heretofore undertaken this Work yet it ever miscarried till the piercing Judgment and undefatigible Industry of this man took it in hand and happily as now you see hath put you into possession of it whereof the use can hardly be valued For by these Rules You that are Governors may know what to command and those that are under you may know how to obey and all may understand how to order their Behaviour and their Studies whereby they may become most profitable Members in the Church and Common-wealth which is the main cause why his Majesty requireth them so strictly to be obeyed For let me speak freely out of that true affection which I bear to you all Deceive not your selves with a vain opinion that Kings and Princes give great Donations Priviledges and
utmost of his weak power defend the same with his Pen or Blood And therefore he humbly beseecheth your Grace that if above and besides what is established any thing be thought fit to be practis'd your Grace would vouchsafe either to order and command him to do it or else be pleased to leave him to that Liberty which our Religious King and Orthodox Church have allowed him so should he pray for your long Life and happy Government in the Church And to all this I gave the Vice-chancellor this Answer following I Thank you for your discreet handling of Proctor Corbet And first for the thing it self I have received his Petition and will not give him any Command either to do or desist or to appoint any Substitute but leave him and let him do as it shall please God and himself And secondly for the manner of this his Refusal I must tell you that it is all one in substance with the Petition which Mr. Channell himself delivered me about a Twelve Month since and that since your late being with me I have received an Answer not much in effect differing from this Petition from two or three Refractories in different Parts and now your Predecessor tells me that he being lately in his Visitation of his Peculiars belonging to his Deanery had the same Answer given him That they looked for a Command By all which put together I see the Faction have informed themselves and are agreed to make this Answer To call for a Command which from me they shall never have till I may be warranted my self by publick Authority But we find that besides Articles and Canons and Rubricks c. the Church of Christ had ever certain Customs which prevailed in her Practice and had no Canon for them and if all such may be kickt out you may bid farewel to all Decency and Order In the mean time I will acquaint His Majesty with this Distemper growing that the Blame may not be cast upon me THere is an Abuse hath continued long and is I think very fit to be Remedied It is that when divers publick Lectures are at the same Hour in the University One Bell if I mistake not hath been used to toll to all of them by which means the Auditors to all Lectures take occasion to repair to the Schools and when they come there perhaps but one Lecturer reads and then they cannot find their way back to their several Colleges but spend their time as they should not To prevent this I pray communicate with the Heads and make an Order That a distinct Bell be tolled to every Lecture that so the Auditors may know for what Lecture it is and apply themselves accordingly And I think 't is very fit that the Professor intending to Read that Day should give warning to the Clark for the tolling of his Bell. Lambeth October 5. 1638. W. Cant. ON Wednesday the 10th of October the Vice-chancellor and the Vniversity entred upon the use of their New Convocation-House without any other Solemnity than a solemn Speech of Benefrom the Vice-chancellor On the same Day the Examinations of 〈◊〉 for Degrees began to be put in Execution according to the Statutes WHen the Proctor saw that your Grace would not command 〈◊〉 Conformity in Gesture at the beginning of Term he requested me to require it pretending that my Predecessor had done so before me I refusing he then proffered to conform of his own accord but he either did it not at all or did it so poorly that it was scarce observable by them that were present The Vice-chancellor could not observe it by reason of his Officiating at the Communion Howsoever this is gained upon him That either he did conform and cannot deny it to the Faction Or else that he is a gross Dissembler to the Vice-chancellor and the Authority born there SIR I AM informed by the Dean of Christ-Church of a shameful Non-Residence practised by two Christ-Church Men under the pretence of University Privilege whereas such a foul Abuse is no way to be endured one of them is Mr. Vereir he had a Living given him by the University in Worceslershire 12 Years since And he hath ever since as I am informed lived in the University and spent that sacred Revenue most prophanely The other is one Mr. Little and he hath had two Vicarages in Yorkshire these 7 Years and hath performed no Church-Duty upon either of them but only that he makes a merry Journey once a Year into those Parts and then returns again and wastes the rest of his time in Oxford under pretence of Suits But it is no way probable that both these Vicarages should be litigious 7 Years together And howsoever it will be a great Scandal and Dishonour to the University to have such shameful things as these countenanced under the Name of Privilege I have written to the Dean to lead the way to you and expel them out of Christ-Church if they have any Footing there and therefore I do hereby Pray and Require You to proceed to Bannition against them in the University if they do not presently repair to their Livings and reside there of which I shall expect an Account from you And hereupon I writ to my Lords of York and Worcester to call these two Men to reside upon their several Benefices The like Course shall you take with one Woodruff I shall speak first with Dr. Baylie about him for the Monition was given him in his time Lambeth Octob. 18. 1638. W. Cant. SIR I Have written to my Lords the Arch-bishop of York and Bishop of Worcester to call Vereir and Little to Residence and if the one have prevented that Call and the other mean to do it 't is well For I am resolved and so you may signifie to the Heads at your next Meeting 〈◊〉 purge the University of all Non-Residents which have not express Letter of Statute to relieve them and bind my hands And as for the Statute of the Realm which had a great deal of Reason upon which to ground it self when 't was made but God be thanked by the Learnedness of the Age hath little now as I may not violate it so neither will I suffer unworthy pretences to abuse both the Church and it if it lye in my Power to apply a Remedy to so gross an Abuse And I pray let the Heads know that I would not have endured so gross Non-Residence as I find Mr. Vereir and Mr. Little guilty of to shelter it self in that University had I sooner known of it than now I came to do by a mere Accident Lambeth Octob. 31. 1638. W. Cant. SIR IN this Case of Non-Residence I pray require all the Heads of Colleges and Halls to bring you in a Note of all Beneficed Men which live under their Government At what distance their Benefice is from the University the value in the King's Books and otherwise
Houses most of them poor mean Persons seven or eight in all here a Pistol and there a Sword rusty and elsewhere a Birding-Piece so we are safe enough from them God keep us from the Scots In that View I found two Convicted One here below East-Gate a sorry labouring Mason The other one Mr. Hunt by the Castle a Stranger staying here only a while in a House of his own till he can find some Brewer to take it being fit for that purpose and standing void November ult 1640. Ch. Potter I Thank you for your Pains in your Search for Arms among Recusants and am glad you find all so safe and them so unfurnish'd As for Mr. Hunt if he be a Stranger the sooner the Town is rid of him the better For the Confirmation of your Endowments upon your Professors and Orators you shall do well when the great Businesses are more over for till then it will not be intended to move for Confirmation in Parliament And in the mean time it may be very for you fit to prepare a Bill by some good Council which may contain them all in one if it may be It is true you write that most Colleges have upon Christmas-day a Sermon and a Communion in their private Chapels and by that means cannot come to the publick Sermon of the University at Christ-Church And whereas you write farther that some have wished that in regard of this the Morning Sermon for the University might be put off to the Afternoon as it is upon Easter-day for the like occasion I for my part think the motion very good it being a day of Solemn Observation Yet I would have it proposed to the Heads and then that which you shall do by publick Consent shall very well satisfie me Lambeth Dec. 4. 1640. W. Cant. MR. Wilkinson complained in Parliament against the Vice-Chancellor for Censuring of his Sermon The Vice-Chancellor according to the Command of the Committee for Religion in the House of Commons sent up the Copy of Wilkinson's Sermon and his Exceptions against it upon Tuesday December 8th the time appointed for the Committee But the Carrier's late coming in hindred the delivery for that time but it was deliver'd the next Morning by Dr. Baylie W. Cant. WHereas upon Enquiry made by Dr. Frewen late Vice-Chancellor of Oxford in two several Assemblies of the Heads of Houses there none of them could inform him of any University-Man whom he knew or probably suspected to be a Papist or Popishly affected Notwithstanding which Care of the Governors and clearness of the Vniversity it could not be avoided but some Persons suggestions should be put up to the High Court of Parliament as if Mass were ordinarily said in the University and frequented by Vniversity-Men without any Controll of the Governors there We therefore the present Vice-Chancellor and the Heads of Houses for the better clearing of our University from such foul Imputations have thought fit under our Hands to testifie That we are so far from conniving at the Celebration of Mass here or knowing of any such Matter that we neither know nor can probably suspect any Member of our University to be a Papist or Popishly addicted In witness whereof we have Subscribed Decem. 4. 1640. Christo. Potter Vice-Chancel Oxon. Nat. Brent Praefect Coll. Mert. Ro. Kettle President of Trin. Coll. Jo. Prideaux Rector Coll. Oxon S. T. P. Regius Jo. Wilkinson Aul. Magd. Princ. Samuel Radclif Coll. AEr Nas. Princ. Jo. Tolson Coll. Oriel Praepos Paul Hood Rector Coll. Lincoln A. Frewen Pres. Coll. Magd. Rich. Baylie Praesid S. John Tho. Clayton Coll. Pembr Magr. Med. Prof. Reg. Tho. Lawrence Magist. Coll. Bal. Fran. Mansel Coll. Jesu Princ. Tho Walker Universit Mr. Gilbert Sheldon Ward of All-Souls Coll. Daniel Escott Ward of Wadh. Coll. Guil. Strode Eccl. Christ. Subdec Adam Airay Princip of Edmond-Hall Ro. Newlin Praes Coll. Corp. Christ. Rich. Zouch Aul. All. Princip Philip. Parsons Aul. Cervin Princip John Saunders Aul. Mur. Princ. Degory Wheare Princ. Glouc. Hall P. Allibond Proct. Sen. N. Greaves Proct. Jun. The other Headsof Houses were not in Town when this was Subscribed MY Present Condition is not unknown to the whole World yet by few pitied or deplored The righteous God best knows the Justice of my sufferings on whom both in life and death I will ever depend the last of which shall be unto me most welcome in that my life is now burdensome unto me my mind attended with variety of sad and grievous thoughts my soul continually vexed with anxieties and troubles groaning under the burden of a displeased Parliament my name aspersed and grosly abused by the multiplicity of Libellous Pamphlets and my self debarred from wonted access to the best of Princes and it is Vox Populi that I am Popishly affected How earnest I have been in my Disputations Exhortations and otherwise to quench such sparks lest they should become Coals I hope after my death you will all acknowledge yet in the midst of all my afflictions there is nothing more hath so nearly touched me as the remembrance of your free and joyful acceptance of me to be your Chancellor and that I am now shut up from being able to doe you that Service which you might justly expect from me When I first received this honour I intended to have carried it with me to my Grave neither were my hopes any less since the Parliament called by his Majesties Royal Command committed me to this Royal Prison But sith by reason of matters of greater consequence yet in hand the Parliament is pleased to procrastinate my Tryal I doe hereby as thankfully resign my Office of being Chancellor as ever I received that Dignity entreating you to Elect some Honourable Person who upon all occasions may be ready to serve you and I beseech God send you such an one as may do all things for his glory and the furtherance of your most famous Vniversity This is the continual Prayer of Tower June 28. 1641. Your dejected Friend and Chancellor Being the last time I shall write so W. Cant. FINIS AN ANSWER TO THE SPEECH OF The Right HONOURABLE WILLIAM Lord Viscount Say and Seal c. SPOKEN IN PARLIAMENT Upon the BILL about BISHOPS POWER in CIVIL AFFAIRS AND COURTS of JUDICATURE Anno 1641. By the Most Reverend WILLIAM LAUD Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Then Prisoner in the TOWER Non apposui ultimam manum W. CANT Arch-Bishop LAVD's ANSWER TO THE Lord SAY's SPEECH Against the BISHOPS THIS Speech is said to have done the Bishops their Calling and their present Cause a great deal of harm among the Gentry and divers sober-minded Men and therefore I did much wonder that so many learned Bishops present in the House to hear it should not some of them being free and among their Books so soon as it was printed give it Answer and stop the venom which it spits from poysoning so many at least as it 's said to
by Consequence Six of the Tribe of Levi and so the High Priest might be always one and a chief in that great Court which had Cognizance of all things in that Government And their Functions as they are Ministers of the Gospel is no more inconsistent with these things than the Levitical Preisthood was For beside their Sacrificing they were to read and expound the Law as well as we the Gospel For so it is expresly set down Deut. 33. 10. They that is the Tribe of Levi shall teach Jacob thy Judgments and Israel thy Laws So that medling with Temporal Affairs was as great a Distraction to them from their Calling as from ours and as inconsistent with it and so as hurtful to their Consciences and their Credits And would God put all this upon them which this Lord thinks so unlawful for us if it were so indeed But this Lord goes yet farther and tells us that these things are such as have ever been and will ever be hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others in the times and places where they are continued Good God! what fools we poor Bishops are as were also our Predecessours for many hundred years together that neither they nor we could see and discern what was and is hurtful to our selves nor what then did or yet doth make us hurtful to others in times and places where they are continued to us And surely if my Lord means by this our medling in Civil Affairs when our Prince calls us to it as I believe he doth I doubt his Lordship is much deceived For certainly if herein the Bishops do their Duties as very many of them in several Kingdoms have plentifully done they cannot hurt themselves by it and to others and the very Publick it self it hath occasioned much good both in Church and State But now my Lord will not only tell us what these things are but he will prove it also that they are hurtful to us And these things alone says my Lord this Bill takes away that is their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs I shall insist upon this to shew First how these things hurt themselves and Secondly how they have made and ever will make them hurtful to others These things then you see which are so hurtful and dangerous to Bishops themselves and make them as hurtful to others are their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs Where First for Offices I know no Bishop since the Reformation that hath been troubled with any but only Dr. Juxon when Bishop of London was Lord High Treasurer of England for about Five Years And he was made when the King's Affairs were in a great strait and to my knowledge he carried so that if he might have been left to himself the King might have been preserved from most of those Difficulties into which he after fell for want of Money As all Kings shall be hazarded more or less in some time or other of their Reign and much the more if their Purses be empty and they forced to seek Aid from their Subjects And this as 't is every where true yet 't is most true in England As for Places in Courts of Judicature the Bishops of England have ever sat all of them in Parliament the highest Court ever since Parliaments were in England And whatsoever is now thought of them they have in their several Generations done great Services there And as I conceive it is not only fit but necessary they should have Votes in that great Court howsoever the late Act hath shut them out and that Act must in time be repealed or it shall undoubtedly be worse for this Kingdom than yet it is The Bishops sat in no other Courts but the Star Chamber and the High Commission And of these the High Commission was most proper for them to sit and see Sin punish'd For no Causes were handled there but Ecclesiastical and those such as were very heinous either for the Crime it self or the Persons which committed it being too great or too wilful to be ruled by the inferiour Jurisdictions As for the Star Chamber there were ordinarily but two Bishops present and it was fit some should be there For that Court was a mix'd Court of Law Equity Honour and Conscience and was compos'd of Persons accordingly from the very Original of that Court. For there were to be there two Judges to take care of the Laws and two Bishops to look to the Conscience and the rest Men of great Offices or Birth or both to preserve the Honour and all of them together to maintain the Equity of the Court. So here were but two Bishops employ'd and those only twice a Week in Term time As for the Council Table that was never accounted a Court yet as Matters Civil were heard and often ended there so were some Ecclesiastical too But the Bishops were little honoured with this Trouble since the Reformation For many times no Bishop was of the Council-Table and usually not above two Once in King James's time I knew Three and once Four and that was was the highest and but for a short time And certainly the fewer the better if this Lord can prove that which he says he will insist upon that those things are hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others And to do this he proceeds They themselves art hurt thereby in their Conscience and in their Credits In their Conscience by seeking and admitting things which are inconsistent with that Function and Office which God hath set them apart unto His Lordship begins with this That the Bishops are hereby hurt both in their Consciences and their Credits Two great hurts indeed if by these things they be wounded in their Consciences towards God and in their Credits before Men. But I am willing to hope these are not real but imaginary hurts and that this Lord shall not be able to prove it otherwise Yet I see he is resolved to labour it as much as he can And first he would prove that these things and not the ambitious seeking of them only but the very admitting of them though offer'd or in a manner laid upon some of them by the Supream Power are hurtful to their Consciences because they are inconsistent with the Function to which God hath set them apart But I have proved already that they are not inconsistent with that Function and so there 's an end of this Argument For Bishops without neglect of their Calling may spend those few Hours required of them in giving their assistance in and to the forenamed Civil Affairs And 't is well known that S. Augustin did both in great Perfection so high up in the Primitive Church and in that Great and Learned Age For he complains that he had nor Fore-noon nor After-noon free he was so held to it Occupationibus
Hominum by the Businesses which Men brought to him and he desires that he may ease himself in part upon him that was at his desire designed his Successor to which the People expressed their great liking by their Acclamation And these Businesses he dispatch'd with that great Dexterity to most Mens content that Men did not only bring their Secular Causes before him but were very desirous to have him determine them And S. Ambrose was in greater Employment for Secular Affairs than S. Augustin was for he was Bishop and Governour of Milan both at once and was so full of this Employment that S. Augustin being then upon the Point of his Conversion complains he could not find him at so much leisure as he would And this besides many Bishops and Clergy-Men of great Note who have been employ'd in great Embassics and great Offices under Emperors and Kings and discharged them with great Fidelity and Advantage to the Publick and without detriment to the Church And surely they would never have taken this Burthen upon them had their Conscience been hurt by it or had it been inconsistent with their Function or absolutely against the ancient Canons of the Church of which they were so conscientious and strict Observers My Lord goes on to another Argument and tells us They are separated unto a special Work and Men must take heed how they mis-employ things dedicated and set apart to the Service of God They are called to Preach the Gospel and set apart to the Work of the Ministery and the Apostle saith Who is sufficient for these things Shewing that this requireth the Whole Man and all is too little Therefore for them to seek or take other Offices which shall require and tie them to employ their Time and Studies in the Affairs of this World will draw a Guilt upon them as being inconsistent with that which God doth call them and set them apart unto This is my Lord's next Argument And truly I like the beginning of it very well and I pray God this Lord may be mindful of it when time may serve For surely Men ought to take heed how they mis-employ Things dedicated and set apart to the Service of God And therefore as Ministers must not mis-employ their Persons or their Times which are dedicated to God and his Service no more must Lay-Men take away and mis-employ the Church Revenues devoutly given dedicated and set apart to maintain and hold up the Service of God and to refresh Christ in his poor Members upon Earth And if ever a Scambling time come for the Church-Lands as these Times hereafter must I hope his Lordship will remember this Argument of his and help to hold back the Violence from committing more Sacrilege whereas too much lies heavy on the Kingdom already The rest of the Argument will abide some Examination First then most true it is that Bishops are called to Preach the Gospel and set apart to that Work but whether they be so set apart as that what Necessity soever requires it they may do nothing else but Study and Preach is no great Question For certainly they may in Times of Persecution labour many ways for their Perservation and in Times of Want for their Sustenance and at all Times if they be called to it give their best Counsel and Advice for the publick Safety of the State as well as their own Nor doth that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 2. 16. Who is sufficient for these things hinder this at all For though this great Calling and Charge requires the whole Man though all that the ablest Man can do in it be too little all things simply and exactly consider'd yet he that saith here None are sufficient for these things for so much the Question implieth saith also in the very next Chapter that God hath made him and others able Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. 3. 6. and if able then doubtless sufficient And the Greek word is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient in the one place and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made us sufficient in the other Besides it may be the sense of the Places will bear it that no Man is sufficient for the Dignity of the Office which brings with it the savour of Life or Death to all Men and yet that many Men are made sufficient by God's Grace to perform this Office that is to bring both the one and the other But howsoever be the Office as high as it is and be the Men never so sufficient yet the Function is such as cannot be daily performed by the Priest for the Preaching part nor attended by the People for their other necessary Employments of Life which made the Wisdom of God himself command a Sabbath under the Law and the Church to settle the Lord's-Day and other Holy-days under the Gospel for the Publick Service and Worship of God and the Instruction of the People I say in regard of this a Bishop or a Priest who shall be judged fit for that Publick Service may give Counsel in any Civil Affairs and take upon him if not seek any Office temporal that may help and assist him in his Calling and give him Credit and Countenance to do the more good among his People but not to the desertion of his Spiritual Work And this Lord is much deceived if he thinks all Offices do require and tie them to employ their Time and Studies in the Affairs of this World If they be such Offices as do I grant with him that to take them unless it be upon some urgent Necessity may draw a Guilt upon them But if they be such as Clergy-Men may easily execute in their empty Hours without any great hindrance to their Calling and perhaps with great Advantage to it then out of doubt it can draw no Guilt upon them which take them And this Lord in this Passage is very cunning For instead of speaking of Bishops having any thing to do in Civil Affairs he speaks of nothing but taking of Offices Now a Clergy-Man may many ways have to do in Temporal Affairs without taking any set Office upon him which shall not tie up his Time or his Studies to the Affairs of this World as it seems this Lord would persuade the the World all do Now that a Bishop or other Clergy-Man may lawfully meddle with some Temporal Affairs always provided that he entangle not himself with them for that indeed no Man doth that Wars for Christ as he ought 2 Tim. 2. 4. is I think very evident not only by that which the Priests did and might do under the Law but also by that which was done after Christ in the Apostle's time and by some of them To Study and Practise Physick is as much inconsistent with the Function of a Minister of the Gospel as to Sit Consult and give Counsel in Civil Affairs But St. Luke though an Evangelist continued his Profession as appears Colos. 4. 14. where St.
never move His Majesty directly or indirectly for that Honour and was surprized with it as altogether unlooked for when His Majesty's Resolution therein was made known unto him Nor ever did that Bishop take so much upon him as a Justiceship of the Peace or meddle with any Lay-Employment save what the Laws and Customs of this Realm laid upon him in the High Commission and the Star-Chamber while those Courts were in being and continued Preaching till he was Threescore and four and then was taken off by Writing of his Book against Fisher the Jesuit being then not able at those Years to continue both And soon after the World knows what trouble befel him and in time they will know why too I hope Besides the Care of Government which is another part of a Bishop's Office and a necessary one too lay heavy upon him in these Factious and broken Times especially And whatsoever this Lord thinks of it certainly though Preaching may be more necessary for the first planting of a Church yet Government is more noble and necessary too where a Church is planted as being that which must keep Preaching and all things else in order And Preaching as 't is now used hath as much need to be kept in order as any even the greatest Extravagance that I know Nor is this out of Christ's Commission Pasce Oves John 21. 15. for the feeding of his Sheep For a Shepherd must guide govern and defend his Sheep in the Pasture as well as drive them to it And he must see that their Pasture be not tainted too or else they will not thrive upon it And then he may be answerable for the Rot that falls among them The Rhetorick goes farther yet To contend for sitting at Council Tables to govern States No but yet to assist them being called by them To have States-Men instead of Church-Men No but doing the Duty of Church-Men to mingle pious Counsels with States-Mens Wisdom To sit in the highest Courts of Judicature And why not in a Kingdom where the Laws and Customs require it Not to be employed in making Laws for Civil Polities and Government And I conceive there is great Reason for this in the Kingdom of England and greater since the Reformation than before Great Reason because the Bishops of England have been accounted and truly been grave and experienced Men and far fitter to have Votes in Parliaments for the making of Laws than many young Youths which are in either House And because it is most fit in the making of Laws for a Kingdom that some Divines should have Vote and Interest to see as much as in them lies that no Law pass which may perhaps though unseen to others intrench upon Religion it self or the Church And I make no doubt but that these and the like Considerations settled it so in England where Bishops have had their Votes in Parliaments and in making Laws ever since there were Parliaments yea or any thing that resembled them in this Kingdom And for my part were I able to give no Reason at all why Bishops should have Votes in Parliament yet I should in all Humility think that there was and is still some great Reason for it since the Wisdom of the State hath successively in so many Ages thought it fit And as there is great Reason they should have Votes in making Laws so is there greater Reason for it since the Reformation than before For before that time Clergy-Men were governed by the Church Canons and Constitutions and the Common Laws of England had but little Power over them Then in the Year 1532. the Clergy submitted and an Act of Parliament was made upon it So that ever since the Clergy of England from the Highest to the Lowest are as much subject to the Temporal Laws as any other Men and therefore ought to have as free a Vote and Consent to the Laws which bind them as other Subjects have Yet so it is that all Clergy-Men are and have long since been excluded from being Members of the House of Commons and now the Bishops and their Votes by this last Act are cast out of the Lord's House By which it is at this Day come to pass that by the Justice of England as now it stands no Clergy-Man hath a Consent by himself or his Proxy to those Laws to which all of them are bound In the mean time before I pass from this Point this Lord must give me leave to put him in mind of that which was openly spoken in both Houses that the Reason why there was such a Clamour against the Bishops Votes was because all or most of them Voted for the King so that the potent Faction could not carry what they pleased especially in the Vpper House And when some saw they could not have their Will to cast out their Votes fairly the Rabble must come down again and Clamour against their Votes not without danger to some of their Persons And come they did in Multitudes But who procured their coming I know not unless it were this Lord and his Followers And notwithstanding this is as clear as the Sun and was openly spoken in the House that this was the true Cause only why they were so angry with the Bishops Votes yet this most Godly and Religious Lord pretends here a far better Cause than this namely that they may as they ought carefully attend to the Preaching of the Word and not be distracted from that great Work by being troubled with these Worldly Affairs And I make no doubt but that the same Zeal will carry the same Men to the devout taking away the Bishops and the Church Lands and perhaps the Parsons Tythes too and put them to such Stipends as they shall think fit that so they may Preach the Gospel freely and not be drawn away with these Worldly Affairs from the principal Work of that Function Well! my Lord must give me leave here to Prophesie a little and 't is but this in short Either the Bishops shall in few Years recover of this Hoarseness and have their Honour and their Votes in Parliament again or before many Years be past all Baseness Barbarity and Confusion will go near to possess both this Church and Kingdom But this Lord hath yet somewhat more to say namely that If they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments they must not be there as ignorant Men but must be knowing in Business of State and understand the Rules and Laws of Government and thereby both their Time and Studies must be necessarily diverted from that which God hath called them unto And this surely is much more Vnlawful for them to admit of than that which the Apostles rejected as a distraction unreasonable for them to be interrupted by Why but yet if they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments what then Why then they must not sit there as ignorant Men
should to the next Point And truly I find nothing new in the folding up this Conclusion but that he says he may add that Ministers are prohibited from meddling with Wordly Affairs by the Canons of Antient Councils grounded upon the Apostles Doctrine The Church is much beholding to this Lord that he will vouchsafe to name her Antient Councils He doth not use to commit this Fault often and yet lest he should sin too much in this kind he doth but tell you that he may add these but he adds them not It may be he doubts that if he should name those Canons some sufficient Answer might be given them and yet the Truth remain firm that it is not only lawful but fit and expedient in some times and cases for Bishops to intermeddle with and give Counsel in Temporal Affairs and though this Lord names none yet I will produce and examine such Canons and Antient Councils as I find and see what they say in this business The first I meet withal is But here I find my self met with and prevented too by a Book entituled Episcopacy asserted made by a Chaplain of mine Mr. Jer. Taylor who hath learnedly looked into and answered such Canons of Councils as are most quick upon Bishops or other Clergy-Men for meddling much in Temporal Affairs And therefore thither I refer the Reader being not willing to trouble him with saying over another Man's Lesson only I shall examine such Councils if any I find which my Chaplain hath not met with or omitted And the last that I meet with is the Council of Sardis which though the last is as high up in the Church as about the Year 347. And there was a Canon to restrain Prelats from their frequent resorts to the Court Yet there are many Cases left at large in which they are permitted to use their own Judgment and Freedom So that Canon seems to bring along with it rather Counsel than Command And howsoever they are well left to their Liberty as I conceive it because to frequent the Court as over-loving the place is one thing and to go thither though often when good Cause calls for them be that Cause Spiritual or Temporal is far from an Offence For if it be Spiritual they must go that 's their Office and Duty directly And I see no Reason why the Physitians should be forbid to visit the places of greatest Sickness This I am sure of Constantine the Great commanded the personal attendance of Bishops and other Clergy-Men in his Court. And if it be Temporal they may go that 's their Duty by Consequence especially if they be called For as their exemplary Piety may move much so do I not yet know any designs of State which are made the worse by Religion or any Counsels of Princes hurt by being communicated with Bishops in whom doth or should reside the Care of Religion and Religious Conversation But perchance I have known some Counsels miscarry for want of this The next is the first Council at Carthage and there the Prohibition runs thus They which are of the Clergy non accedant ad Actus seu Administrationem vel Procurationem domorum which forbids as I conceive it this only that they should not be Stewards of the Houses or Bailiffs of the Lands of great Persons And this may be both in regard of the great trouble belonging to such Places and the hazard of Scandal which might arise in case there should happen any failure in such great Accounts And in the Code of the African Councils it is thus read non sint Conductores Procuratores nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhonesto negotio victum quaerant which I think is the truer Reading And then this Council doth not fordid all meddling in in Secular Affairs but such as by their dishonest gain draw Scandal upon the Church And there is great Reason such should be forbidden them A third I meet withal and that is the Council of Eliberis about the Year of our Lord 306. where the Canon seems to be very strict against Clergy-Men's going to Markets and Fairs negotiandi causa to make profit by negotiation but require them to send their Son their Friend or their Servant to do such business for them And yet this Prohibition as strict as it seems is not absolute nor binding farther than that they shall not pursue those matters of Gain out of their own Provinces but if they will and think fit they might for all this Canon negotiate either for their necessary maintenance or improvement of their Fortunes so that they wandred not abroad out of their own Province where they serve In the mean time when all these or any other Councils are duly weighed and their meaning right taken this will be the result of all that neither Bishop nor other Clergy-Man might or may by the Canons of Holy Church ambitiously seek or voluntarily of himself assume any Secular Engagement And as they might not ambitiously seek great Temporal Employments so might they not undertake any low or base ones for sordid and covetous ends Nor might they relinquish their own Charge to spend their Strength in the assistance of a foreign one But though they might not seek or voluntarily assume Secular Employment yet they might do any lawful thing impos'd on them by their Superiours And so might the Bishop who had no Superiour in his Province if the Prince required his Service or that he thought it necessary for the present State of the Church in which he liv'd For if he might transmit his Power to those of the inferiour Clergy no doubt but he might deal himself in such Civil Affairs as are agreeable to the dignity of his Place and Calling and generally the Bishop or any other Clergy-Man may and might by the ancient Canons of the Church be employed in any Action of Piety though that Action be attended with Secular care and trouble And this is without any strain at all collected out of that great and famous Council of Chalcedon one of the four first General Councils approved of highly throughout all Christendom and with great reverence acknowledged in the Laws of this Kingdom And therefore after the Canon of that Council had laid it down in general terms that neither Bishop Clerk nor Monk should farm Grounds or immescere se mix himself as it were with such Temporal Affairs it adds some exceptions of like Nature to those by me expressed especially the last of them And some of these will expound the Canon of any Council which I have yet seen that speaks most against Clergy-Mens embarking themselves in Secular Business And therefore though this Lord would not yet I have laid before you whatsoever is come to my Knowledge out of the Antient Councils where by this last cited and great Council his Lordship may see that Bishops should meddle with and order some Temporal Affairs as Persons in that kind fitter to be trusted
very much of this and Ambition sticks so close to Humane Nature as that it follows it into all Professions and Estates of Men And I would to God Clergy-Men had been freer from this Fault than Histories testifie they have But this hath been but the fault of some many Reverend Bishops in all Ages have been clear of it and 't is a personal Corruption in whomsoever it is and cannot justly be charged upon the Calling as this Lord lays it Neither have the worst of them some Popes of Rome excepted been the common Incendiaries of the Christian World But Incendiaries is grown a great word of late with this Lord and some of the poor Bishops of England have been made Incendiaries too by him and his Party But might it please God to shew some token upon us for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed Psalm 86. 17. there would be a full discovery who have been the Incendiaries indeed in these Troubles of England and then I make no question but it will appear that this Lord flames as high and as dangerously as any Man living But behold saith God all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with Sparks walk in the light of your own Fire and in the Sparks which your selves have kindled This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Isai. 50. 11. Next I pray be pleased to consider how unworthily and fallaciously withal this Lord manages this Proof For all this Discourse tends to prove it unlawful for Bishops to intermeddle in Secular Affairs that so to do is hurtful to themselves in Conscience and in Credit and to others also by this their irregular Motion And this he proves by their never ceasing from Contention one with another either about the Precedency of their Sees or Churches They have indeed some and sometimes contended too eagerly for their Sees and Churches but neither all nor any that I know with a never-ceasing but the Bishop of Rome for his Supremacy And say this were so yet these Contentions were about their own proper Places not about Civil Affairs which now should lie before his Lordship in Proof and therefore was no irregular Motion of theirs in regard of the Object but only in regard of the manner Nor were they out of their Orb for this though faulty enough The like is to be said for that which follows their Excommunicating one another upon these Quarrels As for their drawing of Princes to be Parties with them thereby casting them into bloody Wars this hath seldom happened and whenever it hath happened some Church business or other hath unhappily set it on not their meddling in Temporal Affairs But whatever caused it the Crime of such misleading of Princes is very odious and as hateful to me as it can be to his Lordship But the Persons must bear their own Faults and not the Calling and sure I am this Lord would think me very wild if I should charge the antient Barons Wars in England upon his Lordship and the Honourable Barons now living But howsoever by this 't is plain that this Lord would not only have the Bishops turned out of all Civil Employments but out of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions also They must have no Power nor Superiority there neither their Sees must be laid as level as Parity can make them For all these Mischiefs came on saith he as soon as they were once advanced above their Brethren And one thing more I shall take occasion to say Here 's great Clamour made against the Bishops and their meddling in Civil Affairs but what if the Presbytery do as much or more Do they Sin too by breaking out of their Orb and neglecting the Work of the Ministery No by no means Only the Bishops are faulty For do you think that Calvin would have taken on him the Umpirage and composing of so many Civil Causes as he did order between Neighbours if so great Sin had accompanied it For he dealt in Civil Causes and had Power to inflict Civil Punishments in his Consistory For he committed divers to Prison for Dancing and those not mean ones neither and he arbitrated divers Causes and in a great Controversie between the Senate of Geneva and a Gentleman he tells one Frumentius who laboured for a Reconciliation that the Church of Geneva was not so destitute but that Fratres mei saith he huic Provinciae subeundae pares futuri essent some of his Brethren might have been fit for that Work Belike he took it ill that in such a Business though meerly Civil he and his Fellow-Ministers should be left out And for matters in the Common-wealth he had so great Power in the Senate and with the People that all things were carried as he pleased And himself brags of it that the Senate was his and the People his And to encrease his Strength and make it more formidable he brought in Fifty or more of the French his Country-men and Friends and by his solicitation made them Free Denizons of the City of which and the Troubles thence arising he gave an account to Bullinger Anno 1555. Or can you think that Beza would have taken upon him so much Secular Employment had he thought it unlawful so to do For whereas in the Form of the Civil Government of that City out of the Two hundred prime Men there was a perpetual Senate chosen of Sixty as Bodin tells us my worthy Predecessour Arch-Bishop Bancroft assures me Beza was one of these Threescore And yet what a crying Sin is it grown in a Bishop to be honoured with a Seat at the Council-Table Besides this when Geneva sent a solemn Embassie to Henry IV. of France about the razing of a Fort which was built near their City by the Duke of Savoy Beza would needs go along to commend that Spiritual Cause unto the King and how far he dealt and laid Grounds for others to deal in all such Civil Causes as were but in Ordine ad Spiritualia is manifest by himself And I am sure Laesus proximus may reach into the Cognizance of almost all Civil Causes Or can any Man imagine that so Religious a Man as Mr. Damport the late Parson of St. Stephen's in Coleman-street would have done the like to no small hindrance to Westminster-Hall had he thought that by this meddling he had hurt both his Conscience and his Credit whereas good Man he fled into New-England to preserve both Or if Mr. Alexander Henderson would have come along with the Scottish Army into England and been a Commissioner as he was in that whole Treaty wherein many of their Acts of Parliament concerning the Civil Government of that Kingdom were deliberated upon and confirm'd if he had thought his so doing inconsistent with his Calling Or that the Scots being so Religious as they then were even to the taking up of Arms against their King for Religion
defire your Lordships to give me leave to recite briefly all the Innovations charged upon us be they of less or greater Moment and as briestly to answer them And then you shall clearly see whether any cause hath been given of these unsavory Libels and withall whether there be any shew of cause to fear a change of Religion And I will take these great pretended Innovations in order as I meet with them First I begin with the News from Ipswich Where the First Innovation is that the last Years Fast was enjoyned to be without Sermons in London the Suburbs and other infected Places contrary to the Orders for other Fasts in former times Whereas Sermons are the only means to humble Men c. To this I say First That an after-Age may without Offence learn to avoid any visible Inconvenience observed in the former And there was visible Inconvenience observed in Mens former flocking to Sermons in Infected Places Secondly This was no particular Act of Prelates but the business was debated at the Council-Table being a matter of State as well as of Religion And it was concluded for no Sermons in those Infected Places upon this Reason that Infected Persons or Families known in their own Parishes might not take occasion upon those by-days to run to other Churches where they were not known as many use to do to hear some humorons Men Preach For on the Sundays when they better kept their own Churches The Danger is not so great altogether Nor Thirdly is that true that Sermons are the Only means to humble Men. For though the Preaching of God's Word where it is performed according to his Ordinance be a great means of many good Effects in the Souls of Men Yet no Sermons are the only means to humble Men. And some of their Sermons are fitter a great deal for other Operations Namely to stir up Sedition as you may see by Mr. 〈◊〉 for this his printed Libel was a Sermon first and a Libel too And 't is the best part of a Fast to abstain from such Sermons 2. The Second Innovation is That Wednesday was appointed for the Fast-day and that this was done with this Intention by the Example of this Fast without Preaching to suppress all the Wednesday Lectures in London To this I answer First That the appointing of Wednesday for the Fast-day was no Innovation For it was the day in the last Fast before this And I my self remember it so above forty years since more than once Secondly If there be any Innovation in it the Prelates named not the day my Lord Keeper I must appeal to your Lordship The day was first named by your Lordship as the usual and fittest day And yet I dare say and swear too that your Lordship had no aim to bring in Popery nor to suppress all or any the Wednesday Lectures in London Besides these Men live to see the Fast ended and no one Wednesday Lecture suppressed 3. The Third Innovation is that the Prayer for seasonable weather was purged out of this last Fast-Book which was say they one cause of Ship-wrecks and tempestuous weather To this I say First in the General this Fast-Book and all that have formerly been made have been both made and published by the command of the King in whose sole Power it is to call a Fast. And the Arch-Bishop and Bishops to whom the ordering of the Book is committed have power under the King to put in or leave out whatsoever they think fit for the present Occasion as their Predecessors have ever done before them Provided that nothing be In contrary to the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England And this may serve in the General for all Alterations in that or any other Fast-Book or Books of Devotion upon any particular Occasions which may and ought to vary with several times and we may and do and will justifie under his Majestys Power all such Alterations made therein Secondly For the particular When this last-Book was set out the weather was very seasonable And it is not the custom of the Church nor fit in it self to pray for seasonable weather when we have it but when we want it When the former Book was set out the weather was extreme ill and the Harvest in Danger Now the Harvest was in and the weather good Thirdly 〈◊〉 most inconsequent to say that the leaving that Prayer out of the Book of Devotions caused the Shipwrecks and the Tempests which followed And as bold they are with God Almighty in saying it was the cause For sure I am God never told them that was the cause And if God never revealed it they cannot come to know it yet had the Bishops been Prophets and foreseen these Accidents they would certainly have prayed against them Fourthly Had any Minister found it necessary to use this Prayer at any one time during the Fast he might with ease and without Danger have supplied that want by using that Prayer to the same purpose which is in the Ordinary Liturgy Fifthly I humbly desire your Lordships to weigh well the Consequence of this great and dangerous Innovation The Prayer for fair weather was left out of the Book for the Fast Therefore the Prelates intend to bring in Popery An excellent Consequence were there any shew of Reason in it 4 The Fourth Innovation is That there is one very useful Collect left out and a Clause omitted in another To this I answer First As before It was lawful for us to alter what we thought fit And Secondly Since that Collect made mention of Preaching and the Act of State forbad Sermons on the Fast-days in infected Places we thought it fit in pursuance of that Order to leave out that Collect. And Thirdly For the branch in the other which is the first Collect though God did deliver our 〈◊〉 out of Romish Superstition yet God be blessed for it we were never in And therefore that clause being 〈◊〉 expressed we thought fit to pass it over 5. The Fifth Innovation is That in the sixth Order for the Fast there is a passage left out concerning the abuse of Fasting in relation to Merit To this I answer That he to whom the ordering of that Book to the Press was committed did therefore leave it out because in this Age and Kingdom there is little Opinion of Meriting by Fasting Nay on the contray the Contempt and Scorn of all Fasting save what humorous Men call for of themselves is so rank that it would grieve any Christian Man to see the necessary Orders of the Church concerning Fasting both in Lent and at other set times so vilified as they are 6. The Sixth Innovation is That the Lady Elizabeth and her Princely Children are dashed that 's their phrase out of the new Collect whereas they were in 〈◊〉 Collect of the former Book For this First The Author of the News knows full well that they are left out of the