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cause_n	henry_n	king_n	pope_n	2,794	5	6.8846	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43611	The black non-conformist, discover'd in more naked truth proving, that excommunication, confirmation, the two great Episcopal appurtenances & diocesan bishops, are not (as now in use) of divine, but human make and shape, and that not only some lay-men, but all the keen-cringing clergy are non-conformists ... : also a libel, and answer (thereunto) fitted to every man's case (be it what it will) that is cited to ecclesiastical courts, whose shallow foundation is unbared, and a true table of ecclesiastical court fees, as it was return'd into the star-chamber, Anno Domini 1630, by the ecclesiastical fellows themselves, and compar'd with the statutes : also concerning the unlawfulness of granting licences to marry, Quakers-marriages, folly, as well as other evil consequences of that new law-maxim, viz. that no non-conformists ought to be jury-men : shewing also, that, religion, religion, that should have been the world's great blessing, is become the plague of mankind, and the curse of Christendom ... / by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1797; ESTC R22899	136,499	106

I were in place where I might properly discuss the point but I have learnt to obey and to mind only mine own business CHAP. V. I Have heard some Lawyers say that all Laws of man which are contrary to Gods Laws are void ipso facto as soon as made But what 's that to this affair But there are worse consequences of an Excommunication amongst us than Imprisonment or the Fees or rather Fines severer consequences than what attends the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo for if I mistake not an Excommunicate Person and signified under the Bishops Seal to be such shall not sue at Law for his Debts Lands nor Estate nor make a Will to dispose of the same or if he do the Spiritual-Courts will not prove it nay some would have it that they shall not give their Suffrages and Votes in the choice of Parliament-men nor be suffered to Trade nor to Buy or Sell nay in Popish Times and Countries none may buy any thing of any Excommunicate person Rev. 13.16 17. in pain of being also Excommunicate neither give nor sell them meat nor drink For which cause it was that Jane Shore was starv'd and dyed in Shore-ditch no body durst relieve her because she was Excommunicated And most of the Rebellions in the Reign of Henry VIII was because the Pope by his Bull of Excommunication dated Decemb 7. Anno Domini 1538. had deprived the King of his Kingdom and had absolved his Subjects from their Obedience Hard is the case both of Kings and People when they lie at the mercy of the Clergy except they will be content to be Gospel-Ministers and Servants of Christ and his People and not Lords to tyrannize and domineer over God's Heritage such Pride so contrary to the Gospel will have a Fall nay 1 Pet. 5.3 Isa 26.11 it has had a Fall yet some Men will never take warning nor believe in God but trust to broken Cisterns and their own Subtleties which are Foolishness with God I think every Man that has Liberties or Properties to lose and the poorest Man in England has Liberty to lose though he have no Freehold I say it is of Concernment to all Men to look about them and have a care God knows whose turn it may be next For my part I had rather anger the Great Turk than a peevish proud Surrogate Register or Summer And indeed my private Concerns was the first occasion to tell you true of making me look and pry into their nasty privy ways Extortions Oppressions under which His Majesties Subjects poor Widows and Orphans groan remediless to this day notwithstanding so many Acts of Parliament for their Relief Does not the Statute of 31 Edw. 3 4. tell us That the Ministers of Bishops and other Ordinaries of Holy-Church take of the People grievous and outrageous Fines where note by the way that by outrageous Fines is meant by the Statute unjust Fees for the Probate of Testaments c. And the Statute of 3 Hen. 5 8. begins thus Whereas the Commons of the Realm have oftentimes mark that in divers Parliaments mark that complained of that that divers Ordinaries do take for the Probate of a Testament c. against Right and Law c. therefore that Statute reduc'd them to Two shillings six-pence or Five shillings at the most A likely matter that Spiritual Men can be held bound by a Statute that could bind and loose all the Commons and Nobles too at their pleasure A Statute Law bind them No no no more than Samson's Wit hs or New Cords could hand-cuff the Gyant that is so long as and no longer than he list Therefore the Statute of 21 Hen. 8 5. complains and complains and tells how often these Ecclesiastical Men had baffled the Statute enumerating and particularly naming the two former Statutes here now recited and reduces then for the Probate and Inventory Sometimes to 6 d. sometimes to 2 s. 6 d. at most but 5 s. as I have more particularly given you a Table of Fees in my Vindication of the Naked Truth The Second Part And all this in pain of 10 l. one Moyety to the King and the other to the Party grieved together c. Then you 'll say Why do they still take 20 s. 30 s. 40 s. and sometimes 50 s. for a Probate sometimes much more I answer Because they are Impudent as their Predecessors are complain'd of Statute after Statute Parliament after Parliament and to little purpose Go bind Samson but you had best have a care you come not within his Clutches Go and complain against them To whom you 'll say perhaps write Naked Truths against them that at length our Superiors may hear the Complaints of the Widow and the Orphans opprest grievously by their Extortions in Probates c. Does not God Almighty say concerning the crying Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah Gen. 18.20 21. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will hear Well then publish their known Extortions as the said Statutes already mentioned confesses that the Commons did grievously complain of the Extortions and Oppressions of the Spiritual Court And will not this way do Write against them and Print against their impudent sinning in defiance of the Statutes the Laws and Justice of the Realm And what then Will that do Yes that will do one thing namely undo the Author I 'll assure you expert● crede Roberto I am in a fair way to it if Actions brought by my great Bishop in Common-Law Courts and in Ecclesiastical Courts and Citation upon Citation in Arches in Delegates if all these and Power into the bargain will not sink one Poor Man sure then there 's more than humane help and more than a humane hand in it But you may well say Godly Bishops should not be angry and touchy nor enrag'd at nor become an Enemy an open Enemy against any Man for telling the Naked Truth of the Vileness and Extortions of their Ministers and Vnder-Officers against the known Laws of the Land but love and cherish such and if they will be angry they should vend their spleen against the said wickednesses of their Vnder-Officers and correct and amend and take shame to themselves and shew signs of Repentance But I am not bound to answer this Objection only it brings to my mind the temper and opinion the King and Parliament were of concerning the Bishops and their Visitations some years after the Pope's Supremacy and Prelacy was cut down in the beginning of the Reformation in H. VIII's time expressed by the coupling together of two words in 35 H. 8.21 namely Visit or Vex as if they were Synonyma's or the one explanatory of the other Visit or Vex good The King and Parliament had a good opinion of the Bishops Visitations in the

nothing but never suffered any man to be delivered from Satan or absolv'd but he made him then pay for his Journey thither by Excommunication before ever he would suffer them to return by Absolution and as bad as trading goes for the Naked-Truth has almost quite spoil'd it yet it is to this day absolutely the best Trade I was going to say but that 's a lie but it is still the most gainful Trade in Europe for you run no hazard but of the first waftage to Satan and even then also if ever they be suffered to return they pay sauce they pay for all at last besides a man runs no great hazard in stock for a small stock will set a man up a little Wax and Paper and Pen and Ink except the place might cost somewhat at the entrance and admittance for a Garsome or Fine but however the Trade begins to brisk up again and sometimes they shall make you of one particular Soul especially if it be a Churchwarden's Soul ten or twenty waftages and for every waftage seven or eight pound if it be a weighty and rich Soul and long upon the Road or Voyage for they go both by Land and Water and of a poor Soul and quick passage perhaps not above ten Groats or such a matter I am sure I am within a shilling under or over if it be a poor Churchwardens Soul and sometimes thirteen shillings and four pence and sometimes I may well say a Guiney Well! 't is no laughing matter Gentlemen Proximus ardet it may be your own turns in good time there 's no body has cause to laugh that I know but the Pope and such as he first constituted Sumners Apparitor's Surrogates c. they indeed may well laugh they win There are two Books of Naked-Truth I ought to tell the Reader the third Part and fourth Part that are father'd upon me but they are spurious and unlike me or my style which is uniform at worst and some say so singular that I need not put my name thereunto 't is self-evident I never writ more Naked-Truths than This and the Second Part of Naked-Truth and the Vindication thereof against Fullwood Nor had I writ this but upon the said occasion nor troubled my self or the World with my Notions if I had not been troubled in their Spiritual-Courts for I love my retiredness having been cloy'd with the Flourish and Grandeur of the World before I chose to settle my self in an obscure and dormant Function in being a Priest In which silence I had for ever as my desire was lain hid but Providence will have it otherwise Yet after two or three experiments I think men are mad possest or bewitch'd to trouble me or trouble themselves with me incessantly to instigate and provoke a man that studies to be quiet if the Devil did not owe them a shame The Reader cannot reasonably expect that accuracy of method or spruce style in so hasty a Birth Conceiv'd and Digested long ago but writ every word in that Weeks stay I made at London in the throng of other businesses and far from my Study my Notes and my Books But he that will please to read St. Augustine in his 16th Sermon upon Gods Word in St. Matthew and in his first Book of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount and Athanasius Chrysostome and Theophylact and they will find that my Comment here upon Matt. 18.17 is not Heterodox nor Singular I have but one thing more to beg of the Courteous Reader viz. his Pardon for several escapes lapses and tautologies not to be avoided but by writing it over again But I have no leisure and less disposition to give it a second draught Let it go rough as it runs blunt and unhewn 't is natural and mine own But neither I nor the Reader will repent our cost and pains if this do but help to blunt that keen and fiery edg of Excommunication that has set all Societies in Christendom together by the ears and has been the great if not only bane of Charity the sole Test and Truth of any Religion The two most Learned Pen's Sir Thomas Moor and Erasmus Contemporaries and great Cronies together are both my Warrant and Authority as well as President for this Jocular way of writing on a weighty subject which is nauseous if it be affected and not free and natural But if it be genuine it is the most profitable way of writing upon a grave subject because pleasant For the most tough and sinewy Arguments are then most effectual when made pliable to the capacity and finely fitted to the head which the said two great names 't is rare two in one Age had got the knack of nor were any of their time more belov'd by some or more hated by others The former hated even to death The latter to damnation or rather Excommunication by the Pope and Fryars and yet for his great Learning pleasant and facetious way of Writing Canoniz'd by others for a Saint so that setting one against the other 't is fancied that he is neither in Heaven nor Hell but betwixt both in a Limbus of his own However the Town of his Nativity Roterdam as the seven Islands-Mediterranean contended for the Honour of being the Birth-place of Homer in eternal memory of his Immortal Name have set up his Effigies in Brass in their chief Church as I am informed styling him for their own Honour as well as his Erasmus Roterdamus But no man ever yet writ so well since the Christian World was and is so divided into factions as to get every bodies good word no not our blessed Jesus himself some said true of him as Peter Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God and others lyed and said Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil And it will always be so with the best of men some shall not love him so well but others shall hate him as much either through their Native Virulency Malignity and ill Humor or else in envy of his Fame Learning Parts or Prosperity will endeavour to blacken him and do him mischief And these Delinquents the Fools and the Knaves are by far the major part of the World and therefore 't is reputation enough and to be sure the most lasting and the way to be everlasting if men be but acceptable to the few honest and wise who shall eternize the memory for fools bolts are not sooner shot than vanisht and the envy of knaves expires and ceases and is buried with and in the Grave of the Worthy Besides Truth is always prevalent and strongest at long run if it be not smother'd by an Inquisition or a Jayl the Popish methods of old but uot practicable now people are generally unhoodwinkt And yet I deny not but the World I mean the vulgar are not guided by Reason Truth or solid Judgment but by Interest Fancy Opinion and Superstition yet they are glad always at long run for their own sakes to

Aldham in the County of Essex and Everert of the said Parish Widdow Et Objicimus Articulamur ut supra 8. Item Objicimus Articulamur quod praemissa fuerunt sunt vera publica notoria manifesta pariter famosa ac de super eisdem laboravit in Praesenti laborat publica vox fama unde firma fide de jure in hac parte requisita petit pars ista proponens jus justitiam sibi fieri Ministrari cum effectu nec non prefatum Edmundum Hickeringill pro tanto suae temeritatis excessu in delictis criminibus suis praedictis Canonice corrigi puniri a dicta sua Rectoria omnium Sanctorum in Villa Colcestria praedicta per triennium juxta Canones Constitutionis praedictꝰ suspendi ac pro sic suspenso denunciari declarari doctumque Edmundum Hickeringill in expensis Legitimis ex parte per partem Thomae Doughty in hujnsmodi causa factꝰ faciendum eidemque se ad omnia singula promissa probanda sed quatenus probaverit in premissis catenus obtineat in petitis officium Domini Judicantis humiliter implorando To which Libel at my second appearance before them in Doctors-Commons of which this is the News November 12. 1681. I gave in over and above the Protestations to be seen in my first Printed News from Doctors-Commons This following Answer CHAP. VII ALLEGATIONS humbly propounded in the Court vulgarly called the Arches held in Doctors Commons London in further Protestation Plea and Answer to certain Articles in a Libel against Mr. Edmund Hickeringill Clerk Defendant Exhibited before Sir Robert Wiseman there upon a Citation at the Promotion of Thomas Doughty Gent. alias at the Promotion of Henry Bishop of London Novemb. 21. 1681. THIS Defendant saving to himself all Advantages and Benefit of Exceptions already made by Protestation against the Proceedings of this Court by reason of the Statute 1 Edw. 6.2 against all Process Ecclesiastical wherein the Name and Style and Seal of the King is not inserted which with the Penalties at the Peril of the Transgressors thereof is now in force as this Defendant is informed by his Councel learned in the Law notwithstanding some Opinion given to the contrary during the Awe and Terror of the High-Commission-Court now blessed be God abolished Saving also the benefit of such other Statutes and Reasons by this Defendant formerly alledged in the said Protestation All which being saved to this Defendant he further Protesteth and saith First That under Favor of this Court and with submission to better Judgments this Defendant humbly conceives that there is a Statute made in 16 Car. 1.11 whereby not only that branch of 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed But also It is further Enacted by the said Statute That no Archbishop Bishop Archdeacon Commissary Official Statute print c. shall inflict any Pain Penalty c. for any Misdemeanors or Contempt c. in pain of One hundred pounds and Costs and Damages to the Party grieved Upon which it is acknowledged by 13 Car. 2.12 that doubt did arise whether by 17 Car. 1. and yet there never was any Statute made in that 17 Year All Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not thereby suspended which doubts whether well-grounded this Defendant does not take upon him to determine but rather thinks that Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as to purely Spirituals and purely Spiritual Weapons is not thereby taken away nor should the Weapons of their Warfare be Carnal but Spiritual But this Defendant humbly conceives That the said Statute comes fully home to this his present Case in the said Articles and is without doubt The last Article of the said Libel threatning this Defendant with no small Pain and Penalty but no less than that of being suspended for Three Years from his Rectory of All-Saints in Colchester in that County of Essex And also to pay money for Costs Both which are great Pains and Penalties though not so bad as corporal Punishment yet they are Punishments not Spiritual but Temporal Pains and Penalties All which that Statute takes right and good reason from their Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical or Spiritual as well as Corporal punishments As ill becoming Church-men that never learn'd this of their Saviour Nor as this Defendant is informed by his Councel learned in the Law is this Statute of 16 Car. 1.11 repealed nor whether any reason it should be repealed this Defendant thinks it not proper for him to determine but humbly thinks that it is impossible that the repealing the 17 Car. 1. should repeal 16 Car. 1. But doubts not but it is available to him to defend him from the force of the said Article and to keep his said Rectory Tythes and Profits from the reach of this Spiritual Court. Besides The said Article threatning to suspend this Defendant from his Rectory for Three Years and the said Rectory being this Defendants Freehold the validity of this Defendants Title thereunto ought not to be tried in any Ecclesiastical Court but in the Courts of our Lord the King as in the Statute of Provisors 16 Rich. 2.5 For the Plenarty of a Benefice or whether a Benefice be full shall not be tried in the Ecclesiastical Court or Court Christian says the Lord Cook but in the Kings Courts as in the other Statute of Provisors 25 Edw. 3. 9 Edw. 1.2 18 Edw. 3.5 16 Car. 1.11 And in cause of disturbance as this is concerning the Right of Tythes pertaining to a Rectory when it is deraigned then shall the Plea pass in Court Christian as far forth as and no further at their peril then it is deraigned in the Kings Courts as in the said 9 Edw. 1.2 18 Edw. 3.5 28 Edw. 3.3 A Jury not an Official or Commissary Bishop nor Archdeacon shall determine Mens Freeholds such are all Rectories and Vicaridges Secondly In the said Process or Citation the ground or leading Process to the after-proceedings against this Defendant in the said Court the said Defendant is cited to answer certain Articles at the Promotion of Thomas Doughty Gent. But such Articles at the said Doughty's Promotion are not deliver'd to this Defendant nor were exhibited against him at his first appearance upon the said Citation as is provided by 2 Hen. 5.3 nor such Libel or Declaration answerable to the Process charged upon this Defendant to this day and therefore he ought by the said Statute to be dismist with Costs But instead thereof another Libel was deliver'd to this Defendant wherein Henry Bishop of London is Promoter Richard Nucourt the Proctor in presence of this Defendant blotted out for the Ink was not dry when the Libel was deliver'd Thomas Doughty the aforesaid Promoter and in his Room very sawcily and no doubt without the said Bishops privity being absent inserted Henry Bishop of London as Promoter nor will the said Bishop have very much cause to thank him for the Place or Preferment it being much below the

look't ugly and deform'd ever since to all Christendom that have but eyes of Reason or Religion or any heart of a man in them to see with pity the Butcheries of that cruel man of sin surrounded and upheld by Curses Excommunications Absolutions Inquisitions Writs and Goals St. Peter indeed was put into a Goal but he got out without paying any Fee and never help't any man to a Goal by cursing him or help't the Goaler to his Fees much less Gregory Of old the Heathens Persecuted the Christians now Christians in name I mean Persecute Christians more cruelly than those under Mahomet and the Great Turk Oh the Impudence as well as the Villany and Bloody Hypocrisie of such Religion 't was this Blood-red Religion that made the Indian Heaven to forswear because he heard the Spaniards were there Gore-blood Religion thus Confounds The Naked Truth with Blood and Wounds Conniving at known Whores and Whoremasters Atheists Infidels Debauchees Drunkards Cursers Swearers and Blasphemers I wonder who ever saw a Whore or Whoremaster call'd to Doctors-Commons or other Court-Ecclesiastical and do Penance in a White-Sheet since the Restauration of his Gracious Majesty I never did they find fairer Quarter Spiritual-Courts are no Bawdy-Courts I would have you know But does any man speak against their Fees or bring down the Fee of a Marriage from 15 s. to poor 5 s. or dare speak against Illegal Ceremonies bowing and ducking and cringing to the East to the Altar towards the lighted Candles Where is the Villain stop his Mouth Gagg him Pillory him Crop him Curse him Excommunicate him Gaol him nay Man-catch him Indict him Sue him Vex him Plague the Tom-Tell-Truth nay hang him if possible What should he do in a Church where a Tory-Teague newly Converted thereunto Fait and Trot Joy shall have fairer Quarter But is there any Christianity Law Equity Reason or Conscience for such Methods or to damn a man by Proxy or Deputy Gaol a man by Proxy feed the Flock by Proxy well let men do to themselves what they do to others and feed themselves too only by Proxy and Deputy and see if in a little while they do not look as lean and cadaverous as the poor starv'd Flock that is fed by Proxy and rul'd by Proxy and Deputies and under Officers Chancellors Officials Surrogates Registers and Apparitors Shall Wolves in Sheeps-cloathing that have Nayls and Teeth and Fangs behold the Print govern the Sheep of Christ that neither knows them nor are known by them jealous and zealous far more for the breach of a Ceremony Human Laws their own profit and honour at ten thousand times more than Adulterers Blasphemers c. breaker of Laws Divine and dishonourers of the Almighty God oh the abominable Hypocrisie of such Religion Worms-meat Acts 12.23 shall know that God will not be mocked The CONCLUSION THus you see my gentle Readers what an Example the Ecclesiastical-men have made of me in plaguing me in their Spiritual-Courts as you have heard and at the Assizes and Ctown-Office and in the name of our Good and Gracious King too for Barretry Barretry And will not this be a terror to all English-men for the future for ever writing or speaking any more Naked-Truths against them and their Extortions and Illegal and unconscionable Fees in the Courts of Conscience or Courts-Christian in Probates of Wills Letters of Administrations Ordinations Institutions Inductions and Sequestrations Licences Indulgences and Dispensations Absolutions Suspensions and Excommunications Synodals Procurations and Visitations c. There were more old Naked-Truths to the same purpose made against them for the like Crimes namely the said Statutes as 31 Edw. 3.5 3 Hen. 5.1 and 21 Hen. 8.5 c. And why did they not fret and gnash their Teeth as well also against those Naked-Truths They durst not but they dare and do to this day live in defiance of the said Naked-Truths and Statutes the more bold and overbold they you 'l say but they cannot for fear of a Praemunire call a Statute and Parliament-men to account before them coram nobis as formerly into the Star-Chamber and High-Commission-Court no not now Dat Deus immiti cornua curti bovi Curst Cows have short Horns saith the Proverb But foenum in cornu still I had need be shie of them For besides the said Promotion of the said Henry Bishop of London against me in the Arches and Barretry in the Kings-Bench in both which they have hitherto no cause to glory or rejoice praised be Almighty God for his help and assistance There is Still another Vexation and Law-Suit brought against me and in the Kings-Bench too and at the Suit of the said Henry Bishop of London upon the Statute Scandalum Magnatum 2 Rich. 2.5 Help me still good God! when shall we have done Burthen upon Burthen Suit upon Suit Vexation upon Vexations Canons upon Canons Burthens and Canons enow one would think almost to sink a stout Frigat or Bluffe Man of War Indeed that Statute was made when Popish Prelacy was in its Splendor and Meridian they even made what Laws they lift yet the House of Commons have attempted at it more than once and our blessed Saviour absolutely condemns all Clergy-Domineering one over another that whatever the Princes of the Gentiles do in exercising Lordship and Dominion over one another yet his Clergy shou'd not do so 't is a shame especially for Apostolical men and such as pretend to be the Successors of the Apostles that they should not be as ambitious also to succeed them in their Christian humility and Brotherly kindness And I have read somewhere I think in Cook 's Institutes That all Laws of men are ipso facto null and void if contrary to the Laws of Christ And this Scandal forsooth must be sworn too by the said little Vicar Harris an incomparable person that not being able to defeat me of my ancient Rights and Profits of my said Parish of St. Buttolphs in Colchester which have been enjoyed by me above 20 years and by my Predecessors Rectors of All-Saints about Sixscore years before even since the dissolution of Monasteries yet the said Henry Bishop of London granted the said Harris a Sequestration of them but in vain yet some hope 't is not in vain to bring the said Action of Scandalum Magnatum against me and the said Harris has sworn it already and the said Bishop has declar'd against me accordingly That I should say the said Bishop was ignorant and impudent and had a hand in the Plot and that I thereby meant that the said Bishop had a hand in the Popish Plot or to that effect I have heard that the said Bishop has of all Bishops been accounted without reflection the Protestant Bishop with an Emphasis But that ever any Man should imagine that he was Popishly affected much less that ever he had a hand in the Popish Plot many People say also there is no such Plot never never sure yet came into any