Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
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A42129
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The grievances of the Church of England which are not in the power of the governours of it to remedy by a member of the Church of England.
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Member of the Church of England.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing G1978; ESTC R17333
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5,260
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2
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The Grievances of the CHURCH of ENGLAND which are not in the Power of the GOVERNOURS of it to Remedy By a Member of the Church of England I. THAT Deans and Chapters are under the Penalty of a Premunire forced to Elect Bishops whomsoever the King shall name to them by his Mandate how unfit soever they may be for that great Office in the Church whereby had the late King longer continued in the Government all the Deans and Chapters in England must either have been undone or else contrary to their consciences and duty have Elected Papists upon the King's Command II. That Metropolitans are under the same Penalty of Premunire to Consecrate such Bishops to be Suffragans of their Provinces as the King by his Mandate shall command however unworthy they may be of the said Office whereby often a force is put upon the said Metropolitans of Consecrating such as in their Consciences they know will be a Prejudice and Scandal to the Church as was lately done in the Case of Cartwright Bishop of Chester one of the greatest Instances of Wickedness and Debauchery that this Church hath had since the Reformation III. That Bishops are forced to ordain Persons unfit to manage the Cure of Souls the Law of the Land which over-rules them in this particular making such mean qualifications sufficient hereto as were only allowed of in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign which by reason of the scarcity of fit Persons to undertake Parish Cures on the terms of Reformation then Established many were of necessity taken into the Ministry from Shops and other Secular Employments who had never been put in a way of Education to qualifie them for it IV. That Bishops are forced by Writs of Quare Impedit to give Institution to any ordained Minister that comes to them with a Presentation how unfit soever he may appear for the charge he is to be appointed to and so a necessity is often put upon them of Investing such with the best Preferments of the Church that are most undeserving of them V. That the Preferments of the Church are of very different values yet no distinction is made of the merits of men or their degrees taken in Universities in the disposal of them but all are by Law equally qualified for any place they can get to be presented to whereas if all Ecclesiastical Proferments were distributed into several Classes according to their value and higher qualifications required to capacitate for those that are higher in value men would rise in the Church only according to their merit and worth and the worst Men would not be so often found in the best Preferments VI. That whereas Patrons are only Trustees for God and the Church to find fit Persons to present to the Bishops to supply the Vacancies of such Livings as are in their Presentations too many of them do most wickedly violate this trust to the dishonour of God and the great damage of the Church by giving their said Presentations only to such as will take them on Simonaical Contracts whereby it comes to pass that only the worst men such as will become guilty of so foul a Sin for the sake of Secular interest get into the best preferments while many good and Learned men who cannot submit their Consciences to such base and wicked means of Advancement are forced insignificantly to wear out their time in Universities and else-where and the Church thereby become deprived of the labours of such as are best able to be serviceable therein VII That Papists are allowed to present to Livings who being the bitterest Enemies of our Church make use of this trust reposed in them to work it all the mischief they can not only preferring the worst men they can find to be a continual scandal thereto but also for the most part making such Simonaical contracts with those they present as to reserve out of all such Livings Pensions for their Mass Priests to Propagate their abominable Errours and Superstitions amongst us to the great disturbance both of Church and State. VIII That whereas the decision of several Causes meerly Civil are committed to Ecclesiastical Courts they are allowed no other Soveraign Power but Excommunication only to enforce their Sentences whereby it comes to pass that often men are Excommunicated for Matters of Civil Right only and sometimes on very trivial occasions and Ministers forced to Publish such Excommunications in their Churches or else to be Excommunicated themselves for the omission although sometimes they are against the best living men in their Parishes and procured against them only through the Fraud and Practice of Proctors Advocates and other Officers of Ecclesiastical Courts for the sake of their own gain the only thing these men look after IX That all Ecclesiastical Power is by Law in a manner invested in lay Chancellors and Officials and Bishops and Arch-deacons in whose Names they act have nothing at all but the shaddow left them whereby those Governours of the Church are in a manner totally deprived of any Power to discharge their duties X. That the said Bishops and Arch-deacons have no sufficient Power to call the said Chancellors and Officials to account for any of their irregular proceedings by reason that their Places are by Law declared Free-holds whereby it comes to pass that abundance of very illegal and oppressive acts are done in their names of which they must bear all the blame and yet have no power to remedy them XI That the said Chancellors and Officials have little or no regard to the Cannons of our Church which ought to be the only Laws of their Courts but break them as they think fit for their profit whereby abundance of very enormous Crimes go unpunished and the whole Government of the Church as far as relates to correction of Manners and the promotion of Piety and Religion is become totally insignificant XII That the said Chancellors Officials make their Places for the most part sine-Cures never or seldom attending their Courts in Person but committing them to the management of Surrogates for the most part totally ignorant of their business whereby all matters being usually expedited by the direction of Registers are too often so order'd and decreed as will best conduce to advance their own profit to the infinite oppression of his Majesties Subjects and the great Scandal of the Church XIII That Arch-deacons are permitted to live out of their Diocesses in which their Jurisdictions lye for Arch-Deacons being Oculi Episcopi to be assisting to Bishops in the Government of the Diocess ought always to be present within the Diocess to do their duties especially at Ordinations where they are chiefly concerned to examine the Manners Learning and other Qualifications requisite for those that are to be admitted into the Ministry XIV That there are in every Diocess so many Peculiars whereby it comes to pass that the Ministers of those Peculiars being exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction of the place where
they live and in a manner also from all others those to whom the said Peculiars belong seldom taking any care of them often take upon them to do very irregular and extravagant things especially in the case of Clandestine Marriages and think they have Authority so to do because they lye not within the usual methods of being called to account and punished for them XV. That Market Towns and Cities where is most need of Able Ministers are the worst provided with a maintenance for them of any places in the Nation whereby it comes to pass that those places being usually served by men unfit for the charge they there undertake ill designing men take the advantage of it and for want of able Shepherds to defend those Flocks have too successfully invaded them with their Errours to the great disturbance both of Church and State. XVI That Prescriptions modi decimandi grow too much in evry Parish whereby the maintenance of Ministers is not only endangered in a great part to be lost but also such a Bone of Contention is thereby thrown in between the Minister and his Parishioners as to make his Ministry often totally ineffectual among them Whereas were there a Register in every Diocess of all Prescriptions modi decimandi as are truly and legally such the whole of this would be prevented and Parishioners living in better correspondence with their Ministers would be better dispos'd to be directed and instructed by them in all those duties of Christianity which it is their duty and business to guide them into XVII That there is no Law to force Impropriators to allow a competency for the serving of those Cures they are to provide for but the said Impropriators receiving the whole income of the Benefice and being left at their own discretion for the providing of a Curate often either provide none at all or else such insufficient ones as the Parishioners can receive no benefit from them to the great dishonour of God the Scandal of the Church and the unspeakable damage of those People who suffer thereby XVIII That Ministers have no power to force Masters of Families to bring their Children and Servants to be Catechiz'd through want of which one of the most useful methods of Instruction becomes in a manner totally omitted in our Church XIX That Ministers are liable to have Actions brought against them at Law for refusing to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to those whom they know to be of such Scandalous Lives and Conversations as to be utterly unworthy to be admitted thereto XX. That the method of depriving Scandalous Ministers is according to Law so tedious and difficult through multitude of Appeals as in a manner to be impracticable and thereby the Church lies under the Scandal of tolerating them when it is not in her power to help it XXI That whereas Compurgation is allow'd in Law for a sufficient acquittal from some Crimes several Ministers that are guilty of them avoid the punishment by getting others as bad as themselves to be their Compurgators to acquit them of them and thereby frustrate all course of Justice against them XXII That whereas such as are designed for the Ministry ought to be bred up not only in the study of good Learning but also with their Inclinations continually framed to Piety and sober living that when they are called forth into the service of the Church they may not only have Abilities but also sincere and truly Religious purposes of Heart faithfully to discharge the Duties they undertake The Discipline of the Universities is so remiss and defective as to have no regard at all hereto as takeing no care to have the young Scholars instructed in Religion and Piety nor by no means using that caution which is sufficient to secure their Morals but permits them to a Loose Vain and Licentious kind of living allowing them to frequent Alehouses and Taverns and other places of common Debauchery which too many there accustoming themselves to cannot forsake them all their lives after whereas were it made scandalous in Universities to frequent those Houses by affixing on it the penalty of Expulsion as in reason it ought and Scholars were kept strictly to their Colledges and accustomed to Piety and Religion as well as the study of Arts and Sciences they would come from those places when called forth of them to take care of Souls so fenced by Custome and Education against all those irregular courses of living which make so many of our Clergy Scandalous as by the assistance of God's Grace they would be able to live free from them all their lives after and so become a guide to their People not only by the Doctrines that they teach them but also by the Examples which they will put them in living Soberly and Religiously among them And this is a matter of that moment as may deserve to be well considered and look'd into for if you will have the Streams clean from puddle you must be sure to make them run clear at the Fountain and therefore if ever you will throughly reform the lives of the Clergy you must be sure to begin at the Universities the Fountains from which they proceed for those corruptions of life and manners which are so much complain'd of in too many of our Clergy if inquir'd into will be all found to proceed from a Taint receiv'd in their first Education XXIII That the Universities especially Cambridge give Degrees in Divinity to such as do not perform their Excercises for them only taking Cautionary Bonds that they shall perform them afterwards which are now for the most part no otherwise discharged than by paying the forfeiture whereby the Constitution of the University being basely violated and betray'd those Degrees become prostituted for Money to Men by no means deserving of them who by this means reaping those Honours which are due only to Learning and Merit by virtue of them become often recommended to such preferments as they are by no means qualify'd for XXIV That Convocations are made totally useless they being prohibited to debate of any thing how much soever the Corruptions of the Church may require it unless the King proposeth it unto them and that under the severe penalty of a Praemunire whereby it hath come to pass that for twenty four years in the two last Reigns tho' Convocations were always called nothing was at all done in them but Clergy-men have been forc'd to take long Journeys from all parts of the Nation to meet in those Convocations with great Expence and Trouble to no end and purpose Whereas were it left to the Convocation to examine and enquire into the Corruptions of the Church from time to time as the Parliament doth into those of the State such cautions for remedy thereof might have been offered to the Royal Assent as might have prevented all that Trouble and Confusion which now the Church is fallen into for want thereof and also such Clergy-men as are of an higher Station than the ordinary Courts can well reach might in those Assemblies be call'd to censure for any Irregularities they should commit and the Peace and good Order of the Church be better preserved thereby And would it please the King's Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament that the Church may again be restor'd to the Ancient Right no better method can be propos'd to cure all its Distractions at present and keep it for the future from all those Corruptions which otherwise from time to time it must necessarily fall into And these particulars being thus carefully and impartially laid together are offered to the Consideration of the present Parliament humbly beseeching them in the name of the Clergy of this Church that since most of the things now objected to us as Defects and Corruptions among us proceed all from those above mentioned Grievances which we have no power to remedy they would rather look on them as our Infelicities than our Faults and would be pleas'd by their Wisdom to find out such Methods and enact such Laws as may enable us to redress them and then if all the Disorders now complain'd of amongst us be not totally amended we will freely confess the fault is ours Licensed April 27. 1689. Printed for R. Baldwin in the Old-Baily 1689.