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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	king_n	power_n	2,049	5	5.0457	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27511	A short vievv of the prælaticall Church of England wherein is set forth the horrible abuses in discipline and government, layd open in tenne sections by way of quære and petition, the severall heads whereof are set downe in the next page : whereunto is added a short draught of church-government.	Bernard, Richard, 1568-1641.; Bernard, John.	1641 (1641)	Wing B2032; ESTC R45	18,506	43

The Consistory in Pauls The High Commission Court With the swarmes of Attendance on these Courts as Advocates Registers Doctours Proctours Pursevants Messengers and apparitours With all other belonging to them all which come to many hundreds QVAERE WHither all or any of these be of divine institution Whither the words of Christ forbidding to be gracious Lords extend not to these Mat. 20 25 26. Luke 22.25 26. Mar. 10 42 43 44 45. Whether any spirituall function ordained by Christ standeth in need of so great a Prelate and so great a dependance to discharge the duties thereof Whither this greatnesse hath any time beene the support of goodnesse and of good men in their places or rather hath not from this greatnesse risen great troubles as at this day and much persecution almost ever since the beginning of reformation The humble Petition THat the immeasurable greatnesse of these gracious Lords might be abated and the number of those their dependents lessened That they might be made to shew themselves Arch-teachers of Christs Gospel and to attend vnto some particular flocke to feed them That they might not be of Princes counsell for commonly God leaveth such to become ill States men because they doe contrary to Christs bidding It shall not bee so with you Mat. 20.26 Luk. 21.25 Mar. 10.42 And for that they neglect the sacred calling of the Ministery which is to be of Christs heavenly Counsell to give attendance vnto temporall affaires and to be of Earthly Kings counsell II. There be twenty foure Bishops Diocesan Lord Bishops They are seated in severall places throughout the Kingdome Of these three are under Yorke Carleile Durham and Chester All the rest are vnder Canterbury Dependents on these Their traine of Domesticke Servants Their Chapleines Their Officers concerning their temporalities Their 24 Courts And hereto belonging 26 Chancellours with wayters on them 24 Registers with their men 24 Gentlemen Apparitours 48 Proctours if but two to a Court 120 apparitours at least more then a good many QVAERE WHither these Diocesan Bishops be jure divino and have warrant from Scripture Whither St. Peters speech reacheth not to them that they should not Lord it over Gods heritage by over ruling it 1 Pet. 5.3 Whither we cannot be as well without them as all other reformed Churches or whither we will condemne those Churches for casting them out or not receiving them in Whether this be not a mocke to say no Bishop no King seeing they also say no Ceremony no Bishop therefore no Ceremony no King what a weake standing bring they a King unto But a King is Gods ordinance not so they and in Denmark hath beene a King and no Bishops this 100 yeares Whither Bishops wanting in Diocesses upon vacancy some 10 some 20 yeares as some have beene may not be so for more yeares and so for ever And if they may be wanting in a Diocesse why not in a Province and so why not every where Whither may not our King as lawfully cast them out as did the King of Denmark his Grandfather Whither by their authority have they advanced true religiō or upheld meere formes of it shewes habites gestures and Ceremoniall observances rather then the power of godlinesse What wickednesse and vanity is suppressed by him nay what errour what vice Idolatry and prophainnesse groweth not under them What one made better by them in the wayes of God What one brought to a pious reformation by their Citations Excommunications and imposed penancies The humble Petition THat they be seated in Pastorall charges every one over a particular flocke as at first all Bishops were there to preach and teach the people and so their many dependents might be taken away That their Chancellours be removed from them and their over swaying masterfulnesse in their Courts bee taken downe and cut off That they their Officers and their Courts may bee brought vnder some such authority as may rule over them question them and duely censure them when there is just cause and not suffer them to be like Kings free without command or any power of censure at all over them Is it fit they should judge all and be free from the Iudgement of any 3. There be threescore Archds. vnder these Bishops Dependents on these They have threescore Courts to which doe belong Commissaries Officials Surrogates 60 Registers with their servants 120 Proctours if but two to every Court 200 Apparitours at least The whole number appertaining to Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons with the many peculiars are judged to bee no fewer then ten thousand persons which need yearely two hundred thousand pounds to maintaine them all the greater and inefriour ones reckoning but 20 l. a man when many have 100 l a yeare some 200 l. others more QVAERE Whither these swarmes of Waspes be of necessary vse in the spirituall Kingdome of Christ Whether their Courts be reformative or deformative Whether there is any likelyhood that their grosse abbuses of Gods Ordinances in sending out excommunications and their commuting of penance c. can please God to bring an holy reformarion Whether it can be probably imagined that those Courts can reforme others who in themselves are so corrupt and mercenary and will employ such base and lewd companions in a spirituall businesse as be the Apparitors whom either they cannot or will not reforme Whether their Courts being taken away as in all other reformed Churches their want should be bewailed and their setting vp againe be desired Whether the masse of mony which is spent by these so many thousands might not well be spared and farre better employed The humble Petition THat these Courts be not longer permitted to take in so many thousand presentments every halfe yeare onely to make such gaine of the people as they doe for they reforme no mens persons but plague their purses That some other way might be considered of agreeable to Gods Word and the godly practise of other Churches for suppression of vice and the maintenance of vertue in every Parish That their lewd Apparitours so many and so many be not long suffred That in their Courts their proceedings may be open to the hearing of all and that they lap not vp businesses in secret as their manner is to shut their Consistory doore where they doe as they please with delinquents That they delay not men in their Courts forcing and vexing poore men to come very often before they can bee dismissed a grievous vexation to needy labouring men SECTION III. Of the meanes to support their Prelaticall greatnesse These have their Lordly Pallaces and great houses They have their Ecclesiasticall dignities and Spirituall Offices and what doe thereto belong They have their Baronries and the ample revenues thereof Viis modis such is their Income as it cannot but amount to an hundred besides their adherents which in all amounts to foure hundred thousand pounds or thereabouts and 40 thousand pounds per annum if not more so much their greatnesse

freed from corruption and in such a forme as may have no resemblance to the Romish service for by this Papists are but hardened and other fall away That no Ceremonies be ordained but what may be found to agree with all the Apostles rules made for the vse of things indifferent That the vse of them be free and not rigorously imposed nor the failing otherwise of painefull and peaceable men to conforme in some things be more severely looked after and punished more sharpely than the grosse enormities of their conformitant Priests SECTION VIII Of the Prelaticall Ministerie THe conformitant Priests so they now are called which properly belong to this Prelaticall Church and come from cursed Rome are these 1 All dumbe Ministers of which there be yet in the Land two or three thousand if not many more 2 All Pluralists of which there be very many in some Diocesses 30 in some 40. why should some have two other tot quotes when worthy men have not one 3 All Nonresidents such are commonly these Bishops which have Commendams Deanes Archdeacons Canon Residents in Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches Prebendaries some Heads of some Colledges Domesticke Chaplaines 4 All Curates which are Vnder Pluralists Vnder Nonresidents Vnder some idle Doctors and some other Parsons and Vicars Vnder Lay and impropriate Parsons the number of which are 3800 and odde in this Kingdome 5 All idle Droanes monethly and quarterly Preachers or which preach perhaps once a yeare or not at all at home though it may be now and then abroad 6 All lewd and base ministers as also the meere Worldlings and Mammonists of which sort there be no fewer than some thousands 7 All Popishly affected and all Arminians may be added to these to make vp these Locusts vnder their King Abbaddon and Apollyon QVAERE Whether these be sufferable in any reformed Church of Christ What care hath beene taken hitherto to reforme this so great wickednesse and mischiefe to Gods people How many thousands perish vnder these for lacke of knowledge are their bloud of no price with men whom Christ hath purchased with his owne blood The humble Petition THat there might be a speedy redresse concerning these so much spoken against and written against from time to time disallowed of God and all Christian Churches separated from the Church of Rome and not tollerable in Christ his Church where he raigneth by his owne word in his owne ordinances as hee hath appointed SECTION IX Of their Prelaticall Convocation I. This is a Provinciall assembly for the Province of Canterbury which consists of the Archbishop the President of all the other Bishops vnder him Deanes Archdeacons with others and of the two Ministers chosen out of every Dyocesse called the Clarkes of the Convocation to the number of 40 and odde These Clarkes should be chosen freely by the publicke consent and voice of all the Ministers in every Diocesses but the Prelates propound whom they list or like best for their purpose and to aske voyces which are given to them of many through feare so as the choise is not free as it ought to be II. That which is intended to be done there is contrived and hammered in the head of the Archbishop and some few with him to which the rest of the fearefull Bishops doe consent III. In the lower house the Priests Parsons Vicars those Clarkes sit there to gaze one on another and to tell the Clock waiting for their Lessons from their Lords the Prelates There is no freedome of voyces they dare not consult among themselves to promote the cause of Christ and to reforme abuses The better sort are the fewest and are Either overawed by the greatest Or borne downe by the worst So as they bee made to consent to the making of such Canons as they would not and these are thrust vpon us as the Constitutions of the Church of England When it s nothing so but of a strong faction of Prelates and their adherents who set them forth and obtrude them vpon us vnjustly IV. The Canons they make are many not a few of them to vphold their Prelaticall authority and vnapprovable courses many of them without warrant from holy Scripture Some of them against Scripture Some of them Superstitiously Ceremonious Some of them blind Canons as these 1. Against Popery and Superstition but they tell us not what Popery is what Superstition is 2 Against Socinianisme but without declaring what that damnable heresie is almost every one of them needeth examination and to be rectified for the peace of Gods people and the Churches edification Note moreover that in setting forth their so many Canons there be none charged against Armianisme that Semipelagian heresie None against the Prelates themselves for their innovations and exorbitancies as if they could not erre nor ever doe amisse Lastly before they breake vp they looke not to have their Canons ratified by Parliament as they ought but doe make themselves as Clergie men onely to bee the Church and not any else in the Land with them to be the Church wch should not by godly wise men be digested V. To the dissolving of this their Convocation they presume 1 To make it a Synod without a new call and Summons 2 To give great summes out of all Parsons and Vicars purses vnder the name of a benevolence and yet rate every one at a certaine summe as a subsidy and that vnder the penalty of deprivation and vtter ruine of them that doe not pay setting forth a Booke to this purpose which they will that Lay men should not see VI After some space of time 1 They collect Articles every Bishop in his Diocesse and every Archdeacon in his Archdeaconry out of those Canons which Articles they impose vpon all Church-wardens and Sidemen and by them to present vpon oath Then if any thing happen to become questionable touching the Canons or other things for and about their Church their Service and Ceremonies every Bishop in his Dyocesse doth take vpon him to give a sense and interpretation as he pleaseth on which we must rest though they be never so absurd and not take the words as they be in the Letter till there be an other Convocation to decide the question and doubt arising as they ought to doe and if men be not satisfied they labour to gaine the helpe of Royall authority by some publicke Declaration to make good what they say and doe and so lappe vp all vnder the authority of the Church QVAERE Whether such a Convocation can justly be approved Whether such Canons comming forth are to bee held the Canons of the Church of England Whether they be of all to be submitted vnto before they be confirmed by act of Parliament Why more Canons are added and not rather the other reformed Why they establish and countenance all their decrees so as if they were of an vnchangeable nature ordained without errour and necessarily vsefull ever and every where The humble Petition THat his Majestie