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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56177	A legal resolution of two important quæres of general present concernment Clearly demonstrating from our statute, common and canon laws, the bounden duty of ministers, & vicars of parish-churches, to administer the sacraments, as well as preach to their parishioners; with the legal remedies to reclaim them from, or punish and remove them for their wilfull obstinacy in denying the sacraments to them. By William Prynne Esq; a bencher of Lincolns Inne; to whom these quæres were newly propounded by some clients.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing P3995; ESTC R219602	25,257	35

upon the Stat. of West 2. 13 E. 1. c. 41. as Fitzh. Natt Brev. f. 209 L. 5. E. 3. 25. b. Register f. 238. Fit ●essavit 12 18 24. 12 H. 4. 24. 45 E. 3. 10. Ploud f. 58. Cook 4. Rep. f. 118. 11. Rep. f. 63. 2. Instit. f. 460. more then intimate if not fully resolve These legal remedies if pursued in a just and Christian way may through Gods blessing reduce many refractory Parochical Ministers and Vicars to the due administration of the Sacraments to their Parishioners which too many of them have of late totally divers in a deplorable measure cast off restore the comfortable frequent enjoyment of them to those Parishioners who have a long time earnestly thirsted after them and prevent the Anabaptistical Jesuitical design of g John Canne with his Fraternity and others of late yeers crept into Parochial Cures of purpose to subvert them with all other Parochial Congregations and all Patrons rights to present unto them a design most eagerly prosecuted publikely allowed and much advanced of late yeers by unchristian and illegal practices gilded over with religious pretences this is the Opinion and Judgement in answer to your Case and Quaeres of your Friend and Counsellor Will Prynne Lincolns Inne 20 Junii 1656. AN APPENDIX OUr Vicars and Ministers refusal to administer the Sacraments to their Parishioners is in truth an actual penal suspension and excommunication of them and their Infants from the Lords Supper and Baptism without any precedent citation articles legal proceeding hearing or sentence denounced against them in any Ecclesiastical Classis or Judicature against all rules of Religion Conscience Law Justice and the express Letter of Magna Charta c. 29. Wherefore as King Edw. 1 2 3. did issue forth several Writs and Mandates to their Bishops and Clergy * not to convent question censure excommunicate any of their Officers or Subjects within their Dominions for discharging their Duties duly obeying their Mandates and to absolve all those they had excommunited upon this account and likewise issue out Writs to their Sheriffs De promulgantibus sententiam excommunicationis in Ministros Regis capiendis imprisonandis for obeying their commands So by like Justice Reason may Writs be issued to all those Vicars and Ministers who deny the Sacraments to their Parishioners without any legal cause or sentence of suspension or excommunication first denounced against them commanding them peremptorily to admit them to and administer the Sacraments duly to them yea Writs to the Sheriffs to attach and imprison them in case of their wilful neglect or contempt herein Claus. 12. E. 2. m. 20. The Archbishop of York and his Ministers oppressed vexed the people of his Diocess in his Courts and Visitations by malicious citations for pretended adulteries and other Ecclesiastical crimes before they were publickly defamed of or presented for them and for which they could not aid themselves by the Kings prohibition they having legal conns●●s of these crimes upon Petition to the King and his Counsel against these malicious citations by the people there issued a special Writ to the Bishop reciting and prohibiting such citations and proceedings for the future De oppressionibus populo per citationes non inferendis By like reason and equity may special Writs now be granted to Ministers not to oppress vex injure their Parishioners especially such as are neither scandalous ignorant nor actually excommunicated by depriving them of the Sacraments at due and accustomed seasons far worse then those malicious citations which were but Ecclesiastical process when as these amount at least to Ecclesiastical censures suspensions excommunications from the Sacraments that for sundry months may yeers of many whole Cities and Parishes without any legal accusation conviction hearing In times of popery if any religious person or Monk professed departed from his house and wandred abroad in the Country against the rules of his Religion or Order upon a certificate thereof in Chancery by the Abbot there issued a Writ de * Apostata capiendo of which I finde * many presidents in our Records for the Sheriffs to apprehend and deliver him to his Abbot or his Attorney to be chastised according to the rules of his Order And if any Priests wore long hair against the Canons and rules of their Order in the Kings Court where the Ordinaries had no power to reform them the King himself granted a special Writ and commission to certain persons giving them plenam potestatem scindendi capillos Clericorum qui sunt in Hospitio no●●ro familia nostra longos crines habentium capillos nutrientium c. Pat. 21. H. 3. dor 3. By the like and better reason then may special Writs be issued to reduce Ministers off●ending in and apostatizing from the very essential duties of their function not in circumstantials only as these in former times to the due execution of the duties of their function and administration of the Sacraments to their Parishioners according to the rules of their Order the Statutes of the Realm the Doctrine custom of the Church of England so much now slighted contemned by them to Gods dishonor the vilipending of their Ministery function yea the Sacraments themselves and their peoples grief offence and spiritual prejudice who may doubtless have a * special action at law against them on the Stat. of 1 Ed. 6. 1 Eliz. c. 2. for their relief herein The Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper are bequeathed by Christ to all visible Members of every visible Church as visible who are known to their Ministers not to the elect invisible regenerated Members only infallibly a known to God alone but not to any mortals Every Member of a visible Church hath an equal right to and b in all Sacraments Ordinances Priviledges of the visible Church as he is a Member of it by vertue of his Membership as c all Freemen of England have an equal interest in all the Laws Rights Liberties Franchises of the Realm of England as they are native Freemen of the Body politick of England As therefore no English Freeman may or can by Law be debarred from the use and benefit of the common Laws Liberties and Franchises of England or any pretended or real crimes but by and upon a legal conviction and judgement according to the Laws of England so no member of the Church of England of ripe Yeers and in his right Senses may or can be debarred from the Lords Table or any other publick Ordinances Priviledges of the Church of England for any pretended scandal but by a judicial legal sentence of Excommunication whereby he is actually suspended or cut off from being a Member of the Church for the present his very Membership whiles he is a Member entituling him of Right to whatever Ordinances any other Members enjoy and to participate with them therein It is therefore as great as high an Injury Injustice

Panormitan in Rubrica de Parrochiis Petrus Rebuffus de Collationibus p. 655 Willielmus Lyndewoode Provinc Constit l. 3. Tit. de Parrochiis Duarenus de Beneficiis Disputat Anniversaria l. 1. c. 26. Franciscus Zerula Praxis Episcopalis pars 1. Tit. Parochia Goffriàus Abbas Tit. Parrochi● with sundry others define a Parish to be Locus in quo degit populus certis finibus limitatus et alicui Ecclesiae Deputatus And a Parish Church to be Ecclesia quae habet Parochiam ad ejus curam deputatam ad quam convenit populus * Ad Recipienda Sacramenta et ad audienda sacra et verbum Dei et rudimenta fidei diebus sacris Which Dr. Iohn Cowel in his Interpreter and Iohn Minshaw in his Guide unto Tongues in the word Parish thus second English A Parish in our Common Law is the particular charge of a Secular Priest and then subjoyn A Parochial Church is that which is instituted for the saying of Divine Service and Ministring of the holy Sacraments to the people dwelling within such a compass of ground near unto it With them accords the Book of Mich. 34 E 1. Fitz. Quare Impedit 187. where they prove a Church to be no Chapel but a Parish Church because it had Sepulture Baptism and Sacraments administred in it And the Statute of 32 H. 8. c. 32. For the Church of Whitegate to be made a Parish of it self and no part of the parish of Over proves it to be a Parish Church antiently from this very reason Because the Inhabitants and Tenants within such places and precincts time out of mind came and resorted to the said Parish-Church of Whitegate within which times they have continually received Sacraments and Sacramentals at and in the said Church and have continually used to marry bury and Christen within the same And the Statute of 32 H. 8. c. 44. reduced the Town of Royston belonging to 5 remote parish-Churches to one Parish Church new built i nt because it was over-painfull especially to the impotent sickly and aged Inhabitants to travel to those Churches so remote or any of them to hear their divine Service and they could not have the Sacraments and Sacramentals to be ministred to them according to the laudable custom of holy Church to their great perils and jeopardies through the remoteness of these Churches and absence of their Parsons and Curates in such cases of necessity when their presence o the comfort and consoliation of their Parishioners is most requisite and ●ehovefull So that Parish Churches so stiled because originally built by the Patrons and Parishioners for their ease use benefit and the use of and ast; seats in them are still in the Patron Parish who repair them were originally built and ast; consecrated as well for the Administration of Sacraments in them by their Parish Priests Parsons and Vicars as for Divine Service Prayers and Preaching Of which the people cannot be deprived without their great disconsolation perils and jeopardies as this Paliament and Statute resolve to which the Statute of 1 Jacobi ch. 30. For errecting a New Church in Melcombe Regis to be the Parish Church of Radipol c might be added to the like effect This will be most apparent and irrefragable by considering the Office and Duty of every Parish-Priest Parson and Vicar and why he is stiled Par●chial he his stiled a Parish-Priest or Minister as Duarenus and others forecited resolve because he is specially obliged to preach administer the Sacraments and perform all other duties belonging to a Minister to all and every Inhabitant of that Parish to whose Church he is presented instituted inducted and not to any others but only voluntarily when he pleaseth being married and espoused to that peculiar parish whence he is stiled * Parochus and the people Parochia by the Canonists and Lawyer a Angelus de Clavasio and b Franciscus Zerula thus describe the Office of a Parish-Priest or Vicar Parochi officium est Primo praedicare Pueros rudimenta fidei et obedientian docere Vim et usum Sacramentorum exarare populo oves sass agnoscere et bono exemplo pascere Sacramenta administrare c. c Rebuffus thus seconds them Ecclesia Parochialis dicitur Beneficium saeculare et cum administratione Quia Curatus tenetur ministrare Sacramenta Ecclesiastica c. aliaque opera Parochianos tangentia facere tenetur And he is called an d Incumbent both by the Common and Canon Law from the word Incumbo because he ought diligently and wholly to apply him self to discharge these his Pastoral duties him●elf 1 Tim. 4. 15 16. Acts 6. 4. This duty of administring the Sacraments as well as preaching is so inseparably annexed to every Parochial Minister Vicar and Incumbent that e Jacobus de Graffiis f Jo. Andreas and other Casuists question whether Parochus potest assumere alium Sacerdotem in adjutorem pro administranda Eucharistia vel in officio praedicandi vel aliis Resolving affirmatively that he may only for a season when himself by reason of sickness or multitude of the Communicants or other necessary occasions is unable to discharge those duties in person quia tunc necessitas legem non habet Non tamen possit per viam delegationis generalis committere alicui omnem suam curam quia videretur se exonerare Cum tamen debeat per se exercere With these Canonists the book of the consecration of our English Ministers the Homilies touching the Use and Administration of the Sacraments The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments with the Rubricks therein the Articles of the Church of England Artic. 23 26. confirmed by several Protestant Parliaments the English * Injunctions of H. 8 Qu. Eliz. Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum in King Edward the 6. his reign and the Canons of K●ng James and the Convocation under him Can. 20 21 22 23. fully accord injoyning all Parsons Vicars Incumbents whatsoever to administer Baptism and the Eucharist to their Parishioners at least * thrice every year in person which they used to administer ever● Lords day to the people in the primitive Church as I have elsewhere prov'd at large as well as to preach Catechise and read Divine service to them Memorable is that passage in that Pathetical exhortation prescribed by the Church of England in the B●ok of Common Prayer to be used by all Ministers when they shall see the people negligent to come to the ho●y Communion viz. when God calleth you be you not ashamed to say I will not come c. I for my part am here pesent and according to mine office I bid you in the name of God I call you in Christs behalf I exhort you as you love your own Salvation that ye will be partakers of this holy communion c. And whereas you offend God so sore in refusing this

monstrous Impostures Hypocritical Delusions yea grosse Absurdities execrable to God and all honest Christian men enabling Ministers to receive the whole Tithes Dues of their Parishioners yet exempting them from the moity at least of their Pastoral Duties to which the Laws of God and the Land oblige them We lately decryed it as an impious Solecism excuse in our old lazy non-preaching Parsons and Vicars that they alleged they were instituted only to read common P●ayers Homilies and administer the Sacraments but not to preach to their Parishioners In the Bishop of * Dunkelden and other Lordly Prelats that they were ordained Bishops only to govern the Church confirm and ordain Ministers but not to preach or administer the Sacraments And shall we now after all our late pretences of Reforming their abuses and declamations against their Idlenesse admit our New Parochial Incumbents to plead they are only half-Ministers bound solely to preach but not to Baptise administer the Lords Supper Catechise visit the sick Marry Bury as all their Predecessors did If any Gentlemans hired Shepherd should neglect to fold his Sheep or look them out when stray'd and then plead he was only bound by his office to feed keep them in their pasture Or if his hired Cook should tell him that as his Cook he is bound only to boyl but not to rost his meat or bake his Venison or should his Laundress affirm she was hired only to m●ke his Bed and sweep his Chamber but not to wash his Linnen or starch his bands or cuffs Or his Groom maintain he was by his place obliged only to dress his horses give them hay but not to water or carry them their provender would not all deride these their absurd irrational allegations and their Master cudgell them to the performance of all the parts of their respective duties or else turn them presently out of Service And will God or men then indure that their Ministers of the Gospel especially when pretending extraordinary eminency Diligence and Saintship above other of their Brethren should thus juggle with them to their faces as openly to affirm they took the ●ole cure of their souls only to reap all their Dues Tithes and to feed them with Gods word in the Pulpit of which the * unconverted unbaptized heathens are capable as well as Christians but not with Christs Sacramental body or bloud at the Lords Table whereto professed Christians only have a right 1 Cor. 10. 16. to 20. c. 11. 22. to the end To instruct their aged but not baptize their Infant or catechize their younger Parishioners Yea that they took upon them their Pastoral Cure only to shear their fleeces but not to own them as any part of their Church or ●lock or discharge the duty of a Pastor towards them unlesse they will unmodel themselves from a Parochial Church into a private Congregational conventicle Those who have hearts of * Adamant or faces of Brasse Publikely to make such an untheological irrational illegal unministerial Plea as this so diametrically contrary to the very essence of their Pastoral Function duty and to their painfull Predecessors practices in all ages Churches to our blessed * Saviours own prastice precepts and his description of a true and good Shepard John 10 yea to the definition of a true * visible Church wherein the word of God is truly preeched and the Sacraments duly administred may justly fear they are no true Shepards but rather theeves robbers hirelings because they withhold from their flocks the Sacrament of their Spiritual Regeneration yea the Body Bloud Cup of our Lord Jesus Christ the g chief Shepard of the Sheep who bequeathed it to them as their chiefest Legacy at his death though themselves stile and confesse them to be the very * seals of the Covenant of Grace which they hold forth unto them only as a Blank without a Seal refusing to set these Seals unto it when importuned by their people upon any terms but conformity to their own new Church-wayes thereby making the very * Sacrament of Christian love and union a meer Seminary of Schism contention division separation And because they entred not by the door into the Sheepfold that is by any legal form of admission to their whole pastoral cure but climbed up some other new way only to preach unto their people rather as to a company of unconverted Heathens than a Christian Church till new minted into a segregated Congregation collected out of sundry Parishes though never so remote but not to give the Sacraments to them upon any terms h which they ought to do yet not to leave their preaching undone which though it be the first and chiefest part of their Ministry yet it is not the quarter part of their Pastoral function as Scriptures and our Laws resolve If A. object that he hires another to baptize and give the Lords Supper sometimes to his Parishioners though he do it not himself his judgement and conscience being to the contrary I Answer 1. This is a clear confession that it is a part of his own duty else why should he hire another to discharge it in his stead 2. This proves the former Objection that he was admitted only to preach a meer fiction 3. If he refuse to do it himself out of conscience as a thing utterly unlawfull in his Iudgement for him to administer unto his Parishioners whilest in a Parochial way with what conscience can he hire another to do that in his behalf and right which himself holds sinfull unlawfull for himself to do Doubtlesse a sincere purely tender conscience will never hire or authorize any other to discharge that office for him which himself holds utterly unlawfull unevangelicall nor dare accept or retain a Parochial Cure upon any terms to gain the fleece so long as he disclaims the constitution as Antichristian and the flock as none of his Pasture sheep 4ly Such a poor tender conscience would rather resign its Parochial charge to avoid all appearance of evill of scandal and still the checks arising in it that grieve the Spirits wound the consciences or disquiet the Peace of the generality of his Parishioners by the personal neglect of his duty in not communicating with them at the Font and Lords Table as his real flock or as one speritual bread and body with them as he ought to do 1. Cor. 10. 16 17. and that only upon this ground because they will not conform to the new Independent Guarb against our Lawes for which they can produce no text no colour of Authority from scripture Antiquity or reason to warrant the seclusion of any from the Sacraments that are under their Parochial cure 5ly The discharge of this part of his duty by such a person or in such a manner as gives no satisfaction to our Lawes nor his parishioners is no Satisfactory plea before Gods or mans tribunal since he can no more conscientiously