than before and all the Writers of that Age must be corrected for representing him as a perfect Enemy of the Church To clear up this we will only give you one Instance cited from an Old Record Entituled Liber Sancti Albani Where we read this Passage of Frederick the then Abbot of St. Albans that to obstruct the March of the Conquerour he caused all the Trees round to be cut and laid them cross the ways wherewith the Conquerour being stopt in his march sent in some passion for the Abbot who under his security coming to him the Conquerour demands the Reason for the cutting down the Woods the Abbot resolutely answers him that I have done but what became me and if all the Spiritual Persons through the Kingdom had used their Endeavours against thee as they might and were in duty bound to have done Thou wouldst never have been able to have entered the Land thus far The Duke then replying Is the Spiritualty of England of such Power if I live and enjoy that which I have gotten I will make their Power less Add to this that stategem of the Kentishmen in surrounding the King and forcing him to a Composition which they did under the Conduct of Stigand their Arch-Bishop which thing ever after netled him and that he was never heartily reconciled to the Church and proved afterwards as good as his word to the Abbot oppressing the Clergy all his Reign bringing them under Knights-Service and Ordering how many Souldiers each Bishop should maintain for him and his Successors the Church as beforesaid being ever free from that bondage Let no Man then say that the Conqueror who was ever look'd upon by the Bishops as their Enemy did them any Acts of Grace or Havour by erecting each Bishoprick into a Barony which thing was ever by the Bishops look'd upon as a grievance and a more glorious piece of slavery This was in deed a shrew'd shaking to the Bishops yet still they preserv'd their Votes in all Assembliâ—s and Parliamentary Summons are ever directed Archiep. Ep. c all antient Charters and Grants subscribed after the usual Form in those times Testibus Archiep. Ep. In a Treatise Entituled The Form and Mannor of keeping Parliaments whereof it seems there are two very antient Copies the M. S. in Arch Bods the other in Sr. Rober Cottons Library the first of which was perused by Mr. Selden and he allows it to be as long standing as Edw. 3d. but the Lord Chief Justice Cooke adds near 200 years more and raises it to the Conqueror's time which the Title indeed pleads for we are here told that 40 days before Summons are to be issued out to the Archbishops Bishops and other great Clarks that held by County or Barony and that the Clergy in each Shire are to have Two Proctors representing them which in some things had more Power than the Bishops for we are there informed that the K. may hold a Parliament for the Commonalty of the Realm without Bishops Earls or Barons so they had summons though they come not but on the cottrary if the Commonalty of the Clergy and Temporalty being warned either doth not or will not come in this Case whatever the King doth with his Bishops Earls and Barons is of none effect for that to all Acts of Necessity the Commonalty of Parliament must consent i. e. the Proctors of the Clergy Knights of the Shire Citizens and Burgessâ—s for their Persons represent the Commonalty of England but the Bishops Earls and Barons represent only their own Persons There is they say another M. S. in Bibl. Cotton confirming the same and citing other large Priviledges of the Clergy I know indeed Mr. Prinne hath questioned the Authority of both these books in Bar of which I return the Authority of Cooke and Selden and particularly the first who saith in his Institutes that 26 Spiritual persons ought ex debito Justitiae to have a Writ of Summons sent them every Parliament These things premised we will now desire of the Clergies greatest adversary that he would produce instances of any solemn meetings Wittena gemots or Parliaments whereunto the Clergy were not summoned any Statutes publickly enacted during all the Christian British Saxon Danish or Norman times without their assistance and advice As for the precedent of their Exclusion under Edw. 1. at the Parliament held at St. Edmondsbury which some triumph in if there be any truth in the Narrative as hath been and is still questioned we know and can prove 't was done in a pett and transport of Royal displeasure for their too obstinate adhering to the Bishop of Rome in the Scottish quarrel and for their noncompliance with their Kings demands Who yet the very next Parliament about a year after makes an Apology for this charging all upon the Exigencies of his affairs And why should this single instance so circumstantiated be urged more against the Clergy than that other is against the Lawyers who were shut out of a Parliament under Henr. IV. where we yet find the Bishops and amongst others Thomas Arundel stoutly resisting and preserving the Clergies Temporalities which these Church-robbers gaped after who so they might spare their own Purses were content to spoil their God to relieve their King Certainly if envy it self could have found the least colour of Law to deny them this privilege it had never been reserved for this last and our most unhappy age Many times have they been struck at many great blows have they received as at Clarendon under Henr. II. where their wings were indeed much clipt yet their privilege of sitting and voting in Parliament is left entire to to them for that the words are Episcopi intersint Curiae Domini Regis cum Baronibus quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel mortem and though they never voted of late in Capital Causes yet that they however made their Proxies I hope shall be made appear by what follows together with their forbearing to vote in Capital Causes and the reason of it shall be farther discoursed of CHAP. VII The Estate of the Bishops and Clergy from the Conquest as to their Voting in Capital Causes in Parliament till the times of King Henr. VIII VVE have before intimated the common usages and rights of the Bishops to sit and vote in Parliaments in all antient times and that as Peers and Barons of the Realm we now aver they have a Power to sit and vote in all as well Criminal as otherwise either by themselves or Proxies lawfully constituted which is a privilege of the Peerage and therefore belongs to the Bishops as such 't is very well known what Mr. Selden hath wrote in his Book of The Privileges of the Peerage of England that the Bishops was debarred of their privileges by an Act of Parliament 17 Car. I. Ann. 1641. and that he was a great notorious stickler in it but 't is as notorious that not long after we find the Commons
his time that had better been laid out in painfull Preaching to his flock Whereas we all know that Preaching is but a very small part of the Ministers Calling yet of late times it hath been made by some to swallow up the rest of the Ministers Duties as necessary and Essential to his Callings as that can be and have observed also that some Ministers themselves otherwise good men have been a wanting to themselves and the Church in complying too much with a sort of men amongst us whose interest it is to draw all Causes into their own Courts for the support of their own Grandeur and Faculty whereas otherwise those Suites and Causes might perhaps with little or no charge have been more speedily yea and satisfactorily determined Our last instance shall be in Gregory the Great de Cur. Past with who some close the good Popes whom we find complaining that Sub colore Episcopatus ad seculum retractus sum in quo tantis terrae curis inserrio quantis me in vita laic a nequaquam deseruisse reminiscor He was never in all his Life time so encumbred with Worldly business as after he came to be a Bishop but he afterwards adds that Et si cogamur terrenis negotiis intendere mens tamen nostra saeculari varietate non delectatur sed tota in unum currit atque confluit finem Though he was forced to do this for the good of his People yet he took no Pleasure in it and his mind was taken up with better things for all agree that these must not be undertaken out of love to them but Christian Charity and Compassion to the oppressed Aug. de Civ Dei l. 19. c. 19. Now these Imployments were conferred upon those Father 's not as Bishops but as Subjects more Eminently qualified than others both by their Prudence Experience and Integrity as well as Humane Learning But Three there are in which they did Principally engage and which may seem most agreeable to their Coat First To be in the Commission of Peace and to speak Impartially Who fitter for such a Work than they whose business and Calling it is to reconcile those that are at variance And this was the design of the Ancients though at first it began in a way of Charity yet being found profitable it was upon mature Deliberation by the Christian Emperors confirmed particularly by Constantine Zozom lib. 1. c. 9. who leaves it free to any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Valens and Valentinian enlarged it and intrusted them with the Rates of Commodities Sold in the Market Cod. l. 1. de Aud. Ep. tit 7. Their Jurisdiction I confess hath been in several ages various sometimes more sometimes less as the Emperors were more or less favourable to the Church whoever kept the Soveraignty in their own hands Constantine was the first that passed the Royal Grant in favour of the Clergy permitting the Cognizance of all Civil matters even between Laymen to the Episcopal Tribunal if either party did require it though the other denyed his consent and their appeal was to be obeyed by the Magistrates whenever made though the action was already commenced in another Court. Arcadius and Honorius did a little retrench this unlimitted power yet still allowing it by the joint consent of both parties and making the Bishops as it were Referees l. si quis ex consensu de Aud. Episcop and their decision to be binding and final without appeal This Law was after ratified by Theodosius and Justinian l. Episc c. eod Nay this latter Emperor Justinian reposed so much confidence in them that he made them Overseers of the Secular Judges Novel Const 56. This then has been the practise of that pure and Primitive Age and the greatest Enemies the Church had could never deny but that the Bishops have had their Tribunals for above these 1300 years Erected by Constantine confirmed by Arcadius and Honorius Theodosius and Valentinian c. Only some Curiously mince the matter and allow them power to hear Causes and to become Referees and Umpires by the consent of both Parties but yet they will not hear talk of any Coercive Jurisdiction though as eminent Civil Lawyers as any are Attribute it to them and particularly Accursius interprets Audientia Episcopalis a term frequent in the Code by Jurisdictio and Constantine forbad expresly the greatest Prince in the Empire to revoke what once the Bishops had Decreed Euseb Vit. Const l. 4. c. 27. In process of time the Magistrates having encroached upon and almost outed the Clergy Charlemaine revives that good old Law of Constantine confirming the same Jurisdiction to all Bishops repeating the Charter word for word Car. Mag. in Capit. l. 6. c. 28. What the practise was in our own Country of England shall God willing be made out in what follows wherein I doubt not but to give abundant satisfaction of the Factum that the Clergy were employed as much as the Laity in the Decision of Secular Causes so far as we have good Authority and Record in the times of the Saxons and so downwards till our late and unhappy Divisions 1640 c. which God grant may be ever buryed in Oblivion and that we may never live to see the same again Secondly To be of the Privy Council where frequently Cases of Consciences relating to State-matters may arise As suppose there be a Consultation about a War or Marriage the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness thereof must be judged in foro Conscientiae and so is the proper Subject of a Divine or Clergyman and perhaps the thing will not bear so much delay as to Summons Prelates together for Advice nor Reason of State to be so much published for want of such Knowing and Religious Counsellours Princes may often be entangled in unjust Massacres and rash Wars and Innocent Blood be spilt which otherwise might have been prevented And for prevention whereof the Godly Prudent Princes both of our own and other Nations have ever admitted some spiritual Persons to their Counsel Tables and Closet Debates To the good advice of Bishop Fox of Winchester we owe the Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland for the other Privy Counsellors advising King Henry the 7th to Marry the Eldest of his Daughters to France the more Noble and Rich Kingdom the old and wise Bishop adviseth his Majesty the contrary at which the King seeming somewhat surpriz'd the Bishop gave him this as the reason of his Opinion that by Marrying the Elder to Scotland that Kingdom would be brought to England and old Enmities reconciled and for ever buryed Whereas on the contrary England being under France we should have here been ruled by a French Liuetenant of Deputy which the English he doubted would hardly brook and perhaps our Government and Laws by reason of their unagreeableness to the French might have been attempted to have been changed into those of France which the English man his Opinion was would hardly bear Whereas those of
THE HONOURS OF THE Lords Spiritual Asserted And THEIR PRIVILEDGES To VOTE in CAPITAL CASES IN PARLIAMENT Maintained by Reason and Precedents Collected out of the RECORDS of the TOWER And the Journals of the HOUSE of LORDS Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Peace be within thy Walls and prosperity within thy Palaces Psal 122. ver 6 7. LONDON Printed by Tho. Braddyll and are to be Sold by Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-yard 1679. TO THE READER T IS not unknown to any in our English Israel that there are yet here amongst us some Remainders of the Men of 42. and that the Disease it self sticks as close to Them and particularly to some eminent Parts of the Nation where they skul and for the present where they make their Refuge for in the Countries they are more easily discovered as the Leprosie did under the Law to the very Walls of the House and it seems to be as hardly removed as that Levitical Distemper which some Naturalists and Physitians say cannot be done but only by Blood and that is the thing which their fingers itch to be at again Witness their late Rebellious Commotions in Scotland which had they taken effect there would not have been wanting these who would have justified them Nay I speak what I know and have heard did excuse them as a poor People Opprest and You know Oppression makes a Wise man Mad especially at this time of the year the Season being a little Hot. I must confess I am no stranger to the Men or their ways having been for many Years last past a strict Observer of them though I thank God I have always and do still from my Heart Abhor and Detest any Confarreation with them or any the least Approbation of their Actings or Principles for I have discovered so much of ill Nature Censoriousness Covetuousness Self-seeking and want of Charity in this sort of Men that it did always give me a great suspition that their Cause was Evil especially reflecting upon the Means which they made use of to carry on their pretended Reformation viz. The throwing down of Episcopacy a Government of Gods Church as Antient in this Nation as Christianity it self the takeing away and Abolishing the best of Liturgies either Ancient or Modern a justified taking up of Arms against their Native Soveraign the Lords Annointed to whom and to whose Ancestors they and their Fore-fathers had Sworn Allegiance the Plundering and Devesting of the Kings most faithfull Subjects of their Goods Estates and for their dutiful adherence to the best of Kings who ever raign'd in this our Isle And lastly the embrewing their Violent Rebellious and Wicked hands in His most Sacred Blood a course which the Moral Heathen would Blash to take to save his Country ready to be Lost and Ruined and yet these men in a Bad Cause to pretend Conscience and Religion which hereto fore Conquered the Heathen World not by resisting though they were able and wanted not Numbers to do it but by their Sufferings for these Men I say to pretend Conscience and Religion Clament Melicerta Perisse Frontem de rebus These are the Men I Confess against whom the following Discourse is aim'd For I very well know that it lies not in the Power or Wit of these though they gladly would and do flatter themselves perhaps in this their Folly that they may be able to Cajole any Persons of Loyal Hearts or Principles to take part with or appear against the Bishops in the present Controversie No Gentlemen believe it you smell too strong and you are too well known and I can never believe the contrary till I see you perswade them to carry in once more their Plate to Guild-Hall for the Carrying on Your Vnholy Cause or to shut up their Shops as you know who did heretofore and go with you to Releive Glocester Atqui parvas spes habet Troja si tales habet And so I Refer the Reader to the Perusal of the Book THE HONOURS AND RIGHTS OF THE CLERGY ASSERTED And PRIVILEDGES of the BISHOPS To VOTE in Capital CASES in Parliament VINDICATED c. CHAP. I. The Honour of the Priesthood asserted by the Law of Nature and Levitical Law the Immumunities thereof under Primitive Christianity The returns of Gratitude to God for the Blessings and Labours of the Ministers thereof in the Reformation of the Church in the last and present Age wherein we Live together with some close Reflections thereupon REligion a thing so Excellent that to be careless in it or neglectful of it is accounted a great disreputation and shame to any Party or Person hath ever had since there were Professors of it and that is so long as there have been men in the World a select number of Persons who have been the Ministers of it These men dureing the first times and the Administration of the Law of Nature were the First Born and they both Princes and Priests too so that the Administration of Justice and the Performance of Religious Worship we find then to have been linked together in one and the same Person Adam Seth Enoch and Noah and other the Antediluvian Patriarchs were in their Order and Succession both Kings and Priests also as any person may be satisfied if he will peruse those Writers of the Jewish Antiquities Philo and Josephus Afterwards when the Law was given by positive Precepts to the Sons of men one of the Twelve Tribes viz. that of Levi had the Priesthood annexed to it together with other great Immunities Honours and Priviledges and in the division of the Land of Canaan if Mr. Seldens Authority may sway any Rev. Hist Tithes c. 2. they of Levi had near three times the Annual Revenue of the largest among them they had their Places and Voices in their Sanhedrims and Councils yea and Cognizance of Capital Causes also as we may find largely proved by the Learned Spelman in his History of Sacriledge What sense the very Heathens themselves had of the Honours of their Priesthood it would be very tedious to relate The Priesthood was not esteemed any shame to him that bore the Scepter and wore the Crown In Egypt as Sr. John Marsham in his Cronic Canon well observes those Ancient Kings after the Flood Thoth or Mercurius Tosorthrus or Aesculapius Suphis the Builder of the greatest of the Pyramids were Kings and Divines too See him at large c. ad Sec. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay in the first Ages of the World the Legislative and Executive Power went along with the Priesthood Melchizedeck Abraham and Jacob after the Flood as well as the Antediluvian Patriarchs were as well Executors as makers of Laws Let us peruse the Holy Records and we find David a King and a Prophet his Son Solomon the wisest of mortal men stileing himself by the name of the Preacher and valuing himself more upon that name then upon the score of his
other Royal Titles and in the fullness of time Jesus Christ himself the King of Kings the Eternal Son of God and Original of all Power thought it not below him telling us expresly Luke 4. 18. That he was sent into the World on no other end than to Preach the Gospel True it is his Kingdom was not of this World and he never went about to dipossess either the Roman or Jewish Governours in Judaea neither did his Disciples ever go about to do any thing like it yet when the Empire became Christians the Prudent Piety of the first and most Christian Emperors for the better Encouragement of Religion and Learning conferred large Immunities and Exemptions upon Church-men freeing them from Subsidies Impositions and sundry services wherewith other of their Subjects were burdened Eusebius and Zozomen record several Priviledges granted by Constantine That those who Minister in Holy Religion be wholly free and exempt from all publick Burthens And some have very well observed that during the continuance of the gift of Tongues extraordinary Learning and other Miraculous effusions of Gods Holy Spirit upon the Primitive Church there were no need of the Piety and Charity which subsequent Christian Emperors bestowed upon the Church the Apostles had no need to study for their Preaching and therefore had leisure enough to fish and make Tents for a livelihood whereas ours are forced to pore upon Books to Meditate Write and all hardly sufficient to search out the deep Mysteries which cost Them no Pains the Spirit supplying the place of all Therefore to make amends for all these extraordinary qualifications and abundant measure of Spiritual Graces wherewith they were furnished above us it hath pleased the Lord of the Harvest in these latter days to raise up Christian Magistrates to assist and encourage his Labourers and appoint them a more setled and plentifull allowance yea and honour also and power together with it for that Wisdom without these is commonly contemned Who ever was chosen a Magistrate in our Neighbour State of Holland or here at home who had not Riches and therefore Honour to support them Wisdom in the esteem of the Vulgar is always thought to be accompanied with Riches and Power So that the pretences of those men who for a Cloak to their Innovations and Sacriledges vainly vaunt that all things should be brought back to the Primitive Purity and the Clergy also to the Apostles Poverty seem to argue thus much that they are no farther true Gospel Ministers and the Successors of the Apostles than they are able to work Miracles and that they though not enabled to it by any Education may be required to work in any of those Callings of which the Apostles were whose Successors they pretend to be We read in Lud. Vives in his Commentary upon St. Aust de Civitate Dei That the Priests of Ceres no other than the Mendicants amongst them of Rome were to renounce the World and Riches and Honour too and therefore that on the day of their Initiation they were to put on a Coat which they never left off till such time as it was so ragged that it would no longer hang to their backs certainly if Spiritual Persons were left to some mens allowance this would be their Portion from them to be clad with Poverty Contempt and Rags and their Callings as well as their Necessities would constrain them to Fast and Pray I know some men particularly Luther amongst our Reformers have sleighted Honours and that Portion due to their Callings out of sincere Principles and a good meaning who have yet lived to Repent their Error though not able to redress it when they have seen how much the Church has thereby suffered and Religion been damnified Witness Luther Epist p. 131. Ego per meo stipendio annuo tantum novem antiquas Sexagenas habeo praeter has ne obolus quidem mihi aut fratribus è Civitate accedit A great and noble reward for such matchless deserts and if so happy an Instrument of Europes Reformation so valiant a Champion who singly opposed the United Power of Rome and Hell What may the Clergy of our days expect viz. To be devested of their Revenues Honours and Immunities because they are the Successors of their Forefathers the Bishops and Reformers in Queen Marys days some of the Principal whereof were publickly Burnt as Martyrs for that Religion which God be thanked maugre the Monstrous ingratitude of some we yet through the Blessing of God enjoy by the Pains and Labours of their Worthy Successors Who are the Persons who have to the Eternal Shame and Infamy of Rome laid open the Vileness Wickedness and Immorality as well as the false Doctrines Idolatries and Superstitions of that Church Who are they who have been the Watchmen upon the Wall that have ever since the Reformation Beaten and Foiled them in their Assaults upon our Church Was not the Walls thereof Watered and as it were Cemented with the Blood of Cranmer Latimer Ridley Hooper and others the Supestructure raised by Jewel Reynolds and others Sed me reprimo And yet now those days through Mercy are over Must their Successors still be wounded by the hands of their pretended Friends and receive such hard measure from their Pretended Well-wishers This strikes to the very Heart Scilicet Hoc Ithacus velit magno Mercentur Atridae CHAP. II. The Clergy under the Law and Gospel also have ingaged in Secular Causes and the State very happy in this their Administration in the Primitive times of the Gospel proved from the Examples of St. Ambrose St. Austine c. WE all know it was a Political Maxim mentioned by Josephus as derived from Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. in vit Mos The King must ever take the advice of the Priest Moses himself was a Priest as well as a Ruler and he appointed Priests dureing the Levitical Administration to be Overseers of all things Judges of Controversies and Punishment of Malefactors Joseph lib. 2. cont App. who saw the precept reduced to practice tells us the thing in fact was so Who hath not heard that Ely and Samuel the Lords Priests were at the same time Civil Judges in Israel Chytraeus makes three Consistories amongst the Jews of all which the Priests were the Principal and Essential Members 1. A Triumvirat in every City wherein many matters and lighter Trespasses was decided these Grotius calls Pedaneos Judices 2 The little Sanhedrim Consisting of 23 wherein Capital Causes were determined in the Gate of every City 3. The Council of State or grand Senate of 70 Elders which some make to consist of 71 taking in Moses others in 72. Six out of each Tribe the High Priest being commonly of the Number Now that the Priests and Levites were part of this great Sanhedrim Causabon will bear me out who makes it appear out of their best Authors quod hujus Concilii ea fuit institutio ut si fieri possit e
nay a small and inconsiderable part of that House voting the Temporal Lords useless and dangerous and that how they were enabled by being assisted by the help of Cromwell the late Usurper and the Army to accomplish what they had begun and the bad consequence of all we have seen with our eyes and Bishops God be thanked restored to their undoubted Rights and Privileges and that for as much as they were equally Barons nay the Bishops had usually the first in Summons they have also equal privileges to make their Proxies in Parliament as the Temporal Barons had we confess as before for that they were Spiritual persons they were not by the Council of Clarendon to sit in Capital Causes and loss of limb but then we must know that long before this they both had and exercised this Power as may be made appear out of John Crampton's Chron. c. 24. where amongst the Laws of Athelstane we read Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei viz. saeculi debent Episcopi cum saeculi judicibus interesse judiciis and the ordering of all the Measures and Weights is there made of Episcopal cognizance the Standard being still left in the Bishops hands and out of Sir Henry Spelman's Glossary voce Comes Comes praesidebat foro comitatus non solus sed junctus Episcopo ut alter alteri auxilio esset consilio praesertim Episcopus Comiti nam in hunc illi animadvertere saepe licuit errantem cohibere so much confidence did the Antients repose in the Clergy that the guidance and overseeing of most temporal affairs was entrusted to them nay they had a check upon the Laity And thus lovingly with all sweetness and candor for 4 or 500 years during all the Saxons times and till that unhappy division by the Conquerour who defaced this beautiful and regular composure did the Church and State-Officers sit together in the morning determining Ecclesiastical affairs and in the afternoon Civil There were then no jars or clashings of jurisdictions heard of no prohihitions issuing out of one Court to obstruct the course of Justice in another thereby hampering the poor Client that he knew not which way to turn himself and I am perswaded there is no better expedient to prevent lasting vexatious suits and to relieve the oppressed than again to reconcile these two jurisdictions that according to the primitive usage as well Spiritual as Temporal Judges may be appointed in all Courts that Moses and Aaron may not interfere and quarrel but walk hand in hand Though I know this design does not rellish with many of the Long Robe yet 't is feared that attempting some such thing purchased the late Archbishop Laud no few enemies and was one especial cause of hastening his ruine yet we find Mr. Selden a Lawyer too lib. 2. de Synedriis proving that for the first 4000 years and better the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts continued united and the first distinction proceeded from Pope Nicholas Gratian. Distinct 96. c. cum ad verum and that the Clergy do not meddle personally to vote in loss of life or limb proceeds from the Canons of the antient Church which forbad their presence in cases of blood but I hope that no sober man will hence argue that they being Barons of this Realm they must lose their Priviledges which belong to the Spiritual Lords as well as to the Temporal viz. To make Proxies though in Capital Causes when by the antient Canons of the Church they are forbid to be present which they have done and still have right to doe comes next to be discoursed of And first I shall make use of Mr. Selden's authority though no friend to the Bishops for reasons he best knew of who expressly saith in his Book of the Priviledges of the Barons of England Printed 1642. that omnes Praelati Magnates c. has this Priviledge Introduct Though he says there they had lost it by the Parliament 17 Car. 1. 1641. I hope now they are restored to it again that they had before he gives you sundry instances Cap. 1. these are his words § 2. That the course of Elder time was not that Barons onely made Proxies but other men as Bishops and Parliamentary Abbots and Priors who gave their Letters usually to Parsons Prebendaries and Canonists In the Parliament of Carlisle under Edw. 1. the Bishop of Exeter sent to the Parliament Henry de Pynkney Parson of Houghton as his Proxy The Bishop of Bath and Wells sent William of Cherlton a Canon of his Church and in like sort other of the Spiritualty of that time in the beginning of the 17th year of King Richard the Second the Bishop of Norwich made Richard Corqueaux being then Deane of the Arches Thomas Hederset being Archdeacon of Sudbury and John Thorp Parson of Epingham his Proxies by the name of Procuratores sive Nuntii and in the same time the Bishop of Durham ' s Proxies were John Burton Canon of Bewdley and Master of the Rolls and John of Wendlingborough Canon of London and other like in the same time By which also that of the preamble of the Statute of Praemunire is understood where it is said that the advice of the Lords Spiritual that was present and of the Procurators of them that were absent was demanded The like under Henry the 4th and 5th are found in the Rolls and under Henr. 5. the Archbishop of York gives the Proxies to the Bishop of Durham and to two other Clerks of his Province Nay farther that the Bishops used to give their Proxies in Cases of Attainder the said Mr. Selden expresly saith in the place forecited and also what sort of persons they used to make their Proxies he there likewise tells you adding withal this unhandsom reflexion That the Lords Spiritual had so much mistaken of late the Laws of the Kingdom and the Original of their own Honours by endeavouring to enlarge the Kingdom of Antichrist that they had now he means A. D. 42 lost both Priviledge and Vote in Parliament All sharp Reply to which I shall purposely forbear And secondly proceed to shew you express Precedents wherein they have Voted either Personally or by Proxies in Capital Causes and here I will produce Mr. Selden himself the Bishops adversary become their advocate who saith expressly p. 125. lib. cit That though in the Case of Appeal of Treason in a Parliament of the 11 of Richard the Second commenced by Thomas Duke of Gloucester and others against Alexander Archbishop of York Robert de Vere c. they absented themselves I mean the whole Spiritualty in that Parliament and would make no Proxy in their room for that time yet afterwards they agreed to do it in Cases of Judgments of Death Rot Parl. 2. Henr. 4. Rot. Parl. 2. Henr. 5. But he there saith that the first use of such Proxies was 21 Ric. 2. so that we have him confessing the Bishops sitting in cases of blood
sit at the Helm and are much better able to determine than my self But the consequences of that opinion seem directly to aim at the Leveling of Sovereignty and making it accountable to the other two in their esteem Coordinate Estates Now by restoring the Spiritualty the only true third Estate to its due Rights and antient Priviledges for that it is the true third Estate the Lord Chief Justice Cook saith in the Fourth of his Institutes and the Act of Parliament of the 8 of Eliz. c. 1. speaks to the same thing this may be the most ready and most natural expedient to remove that destructive and dangerous opinion out of the minds of an unlearned and fickle multitude So may the Crown be safe and the Mitre no longer trampled on Et quae Deus olim conjunxit nemo hoc sequiori saeculo seperet Faxit hoc Deus qui solus potis est CHAP. VIII Precedents of the Bishops Sitting and Voting in Capital Causes from the Reign of of King Hen. 8. till the 29th of Eliz. I shall begin with the Attainder of Cromwel Earl of Essex who was attainted in Parliament for Treason c. the Articles are every extant and may be seen the first reading of his Bill as I find it in the Journal of the Lords House was upon the 17th of June 32. Hen. 8th at which reading were present Fourteen Bishops who they were you may see in the Journal at the second reading which was the 19th of June of the said year 32. Hen. 8. were present sixteen Bishops whose Names and Sees there you may find at the third and last reading were sixteen likewise Vid. Journal ut supra the Bill it self past the Royal Assent the 24th of July following when were 14 Bishops present The next shall be the Attainder of Tho. Duke of Norf. and Henry Earl of Surry 38. H. 8. This also was an Attainder in Parliament The first reading of the Bill against these Noble Lords was on the 18th of January Anno Regis supra dicto when were present ten Bishops the second reading was the day following when were present nine Bishops The third and last reading was on the 20th of the same Moneth when were present thirteen Bishops the Bill past the Royal Assent January 27th 38. Hen. 8. the Bishops likewise then present The third instance of Hen. D. of Suffolk which indeed was an Attainder at Common Law but afterward confirm'd in Parliament A. 1 2. Phil. et Mar. at the first reading were present 12 Bishops the Bill was read 5 Jan. Anno supradicto at the 2d reading which was two days after on the 7th of January were present eleaven Bishops and on the next day the Bill had its last reading in the Lords House at which were present eleaven Bishops the Lords Spiritual were likewise present at the passing of the Bill which was on the 21 of Jan. following in each of these the Journal if consulted will satisfie any The 4th Precedent shall be in Seymore the Lord Admiral who was attainted for Treason in the 2d of Edw. 6. for that he purposed to destroy the young King and to translate the Crown unto himself for which and other Crimes objected he suffered Death on the Tower-Hill at his Attainder were Present nineteeen Bishops I might have before added the Case of the Lord Hungerfords-Attainder in Parliament who was condemned in Parliament in the 32. of Hen. the 8th at whose Tryal and Condemnation were Present no fewer than seaventeen Bishops Vid. Journal of the Lords House I will only add two more Precedents and close with them they are in the Reign of the Peaceable Queen Elizabeth in whose times if ever the Actings in Parliament were regular and orderly the first is the Case of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland for their Rebellion in the North and endeavour to bring in Popery at whose Condemnation were present thirteen Bishops Vid. Journal and lastly that of Pagets in the 29th of the said Queen at which were ten Bishops Vid. Journal as before I shall only add one thing more and that is the Protestation of the Bishops 11. R. 2 where they give the reason why they refused to be put in some Parliaments their words Quia in hoe Parliamento agitur de nonnullis materiis in quibus non licet nobis juxta sacrorum Canonum instituta quomodolibet personaliter interesse but they there add a Salvo to their right in the beginning of their Protestation Quod ad Archiepiscopum Cantuar. qui pro tempore fuerit nâ—c non caeteros suos suffraganeos Confratres Co-episcopos Abbates et Priores aliosque Praelatos quoscunque Baroniam de Domino Rege tâ—nentes in Parliamento Regis ut Pares praed personaliter interesse pertinet ibidemque de regni negotiis aliis ibi tractari consuetis cum caeteris dicti regni Paribus aliis consulere ordinare statuere desinire ac caetera facere quae Parliamenti tempore ibid. intendet facien ' c. t is true indeed that as they never intended but that the Appeals Pursuites Accusations Judgements had and rendred c. upon their voluntary absenting themselves they should be good and valid in the Law as their Protestation expresly granteth yet by the same their Protestation they reserve their right of being present c. doing every thing else which any other Peer though Temporal might do And that they did Vote in the 21st of this Kings Reign by their Proctor in the Condemnation of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Yea and upon the Commons Petition too for that many judgments had been reversed for that they were not present as is before proved and Personally also in the Condemnation of the Earl of Arandel and Wardour c. the Duke of Lancaster being then Lord High Steward Vid. Plaoit Coron c. 21 Ric. 2. in the Records in the Tower The Roll marked with the Letters F. I. It is well known that out of respect to the constitution made in the Council held at Westminster that no Clergy-man should agitare Judicium Sanguinis This Council is mentioned in R. Hovenden in H. 2. p. 30. the Clergy have some time forborn to intermeddle in such matters and on the other side 't is as notorious that many of that Order have been Lord Chief Justices of England and that none have discharged that Office better more to the Content of the King and Subject and the Benefit of the whole Commonwealth FINIS Ad. Sec. 1. * Euseb Ecc. Hist 10. c. 7. Zom l. 1. c. 9. Exerc. 13. c. 5.