Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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A25721
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An appendix to the queries upon the 25th of Hen. VIII, Cap. 21 containing some further considerations in behalf of the late illegally ejected officers of the Royal Hospital of St. Thomas Southwark, chiefly grounded upon certain passages in the grant of King Edward VI to the mayor and commonalty of the city of London : wherein the royal perogative as to the visitation and regulation of that and other hospitals is vindicated and asserted : and the late regulations in the time of King Charles II are more particularly consider'd and defended.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing A3576; ESTC R25889
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16,253
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17
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Bishop of Rome or such as he should delegate and appoint and thus much is certain from the nature of things themselves that wherever there is a rightful Power of Visitation there must also be a Power of Redress and Punishment and in some cases of Expulsion and Forfeiture themselves otherwise this power of Visitation were in vain It follows therefore unavoidably from both of these things taken together if the Power and Right of the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London over this Hospital and its Possessions be but as free and no more as no more is given them by this Grant of E. 6. as full whole and ample as that of any Master of the said Hospital or others formerly was and if the Pope's power in these as well as other matters being abolished is by Act of Parliament devolved upon the King that the King hath all that Power and Right of Visitation as to this particular Case over the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London by a very plain Inference from the words of K. Edward's Grant that the Pope had formerly over the Master of this Hospital or others or rather indeed a much greater because the Pope's Power was in its nature foreign in its original and root usurped and was attended with many and great Inconveniences to the King and Kingdom whereas the King's Power is natural to goverâ—â—â—â— Persons and Estates of Men within his Realm it flows from the very nature and essential Constitution of all Governments whatsoever and without it no Government can either be so strong or so lasting as it designs to be But not to insist upon Inferences though so plain so conclusive that nothing can be more there are these very words in the Grant of the said King Edward And We will and declare by these Presents that it shall be lawful for Vs Our Heirs and Successors from time to time as often as it shall seem fit and expedient to assign Our Commissioners to visit the said Hospital and House of the Poor and to do and execute all and singular such other things whatsoever as We Our Heirs and Successors shall there command to be done From which we may observe these four things First That this power reserved to the King was strictly and properly legal in it self being founded upon an express Provision in an Act of Parl. 25 H. 8. c. 21. Secondly That bating the Authority of the Act of Parliament this is a Reservation so reasonable and just that it cannot be denied to any private Donor to appoint other Visitors as there shall be occasion to visit the ordinary Feoffees entrusted by him and to see from time to time that they be diligent and faithful in the discharge of their Duty Thirdly That this is a plain and categorical Vindication of the Regulation made in this and other Houses in the time of K. Charles II. supposing that they have also this Clause of Reservation for then he was so far from straining the Prerogative and from having acted after an illegal arbitrary manner as some that are very illegal and arbitrary themselves will needs have him to have done that it is plain he had an Act of Parliament and a Royal Grant on his side and both of them implied such a Trust committed to him as it concern'd him in Conscience to look after Fourthly and lastly The Regulations made by that wise and good Prince in pursuance of this double Trust committed to him cannot be evacuated by the ordinary Trustees and much less by no power at all of which more shall be said in its due place for then this Reservation of K. Edward this power given by the Act of Parliament were both of them absurd monstrous ridiculous and vain and this concerns as well some that call themselves Governors as others that pretend to be Officers of this House In the third place K. Edward in the said Grant appropriates unites knits and incorporates to the Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London and their Successors c. the Parsonage and Church of St. Thomas Southwark From whence we may observe 1. Bating that the word Appropriation is a term particularly respecting Rectories or Parsonages as is here expressed that as to the true Propriety which the Mayor and Commonalty of the said City were by this Grant to have in either of them the Hospital and its Revenues and Demesns were as much knit united and incorporated to the said Mayor c. as the Parish Church or the Glebe Tithe Obventions Oblations c. thereunto belonging 2. That notwithstanding this knitting uniting and incorporating which are words expressive of the Union yet the King did still reserve to himself his Heirs and Successors as hath been seen an express Power of Visitation as often as it should seem fit and expedient in the same Grant so that he might lawfully have visited notwithstanding this Incorporation that is notwithstanding the Corporation to which it was annext should always remain a Body Politick or Corporate without any surrender seizure or avoidance of their Charter 3. From hence it appears that the Visitation of the Hospital and the avoidance of the Charter whether right or wrong are clearly and manifestly two distinct things that they have no necessary dependence upon or Connexion with each other and that a Visitation of the Hospital by the King is legal though the Charter be standing and in full force 4. From hence it further follows though the Charter be restored yet all those Regulations which were made by K. Charles II. by a Power derived not only from the Grant of K. Edward but from an Act of Parliament 25 H. 8. c. 21. are still binding and valid by Virtue of that Act the said Regulations as to the matter of them being supposed to be legal and that neither the Officers nor Governors that were then discarded can lawfully be restored for this were to suppose a Visitor superior to the Supreme nay that the delegated Power which is supposed to be visited for its Faults and Failures may correct and amend that Power to which it is by Law subjected it were to imply that a legal Act may be illegal and arbitrary at the same time for if it were legal why should it not be valid and what an Absurdity is it in this Case for Substitutes and vicarious Agents to correct their Principals of whom they hold and from whom all their Power and Authority is derived or would not this in its Consequence be to invert the nature and the order of Government and to bring all things into confusion if Inferiors shall at every turn correct and alter the Establishments of a Superior Power when they cannot help confessing them to be legal and when they are made to be so by the same Law of the Land by which every Man enjoys his Property and holds his Estate It remains therefore that neither the Governors nor Officers ejected by King Charles II. can
and strict the Union of the Parish of St. Thomas Southwark may be thought to be by the words of the Grant to the Mayor and Commonalty or to the Corporation of the City of London yet it is not altogether so close as that of the Hospital in which notwithstanding the King hath expresly reserved to himself a Power of Visitation that of the Hospital is an immediate Union that of the Parish is only a Secundary and derived from it and this is the meaning of the word Appropriation King Edward saith That as Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland be does appropriate unite knit and incorporate the Parsonage and Church of St. Thomas Southwark c. to the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London Now the meaning of an Appropriation in the Ecclesiastical Law was laying a Parsonage or Rectory and its Endowments to a Religious House so as the said House became the Parson and received the Profits and Emoluments arising from the same Sometimes this Church was supply'd by one constant and ordinary residing Curate and this was for the most part the rise of Vicarages endowed sometimes the Monks took their courses among themselves and then the whole Profits went into the Dividend and were either equally or by certain and stated Proportions distributed among them in this manner was the Parsonage or Rectory before the Dissolution of Religious Houses appropriated to the Hospital of St. Thomas Southwark and to the Master and others in Possession of the same the Church being situate within the Site and the whole Parish contain'd within the Close thereof as is expresly affirmed in the Grant it self and Stow somewhere saith That none were anciently Inhabitants of the said Parish but such as had a dependence upon the Religious House adjoining When therefore it is said that the Parish is appropriate c. to the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London It is meant that it is annexed and incorporated in the same manner that it was formerly to the Hospital adjoining or it is annex'd not immediately but by the Mediation and Intervention of that Hospital to which it was formerly appropriated and united so that the Union of the Hospital was immediate to the Corporation of London that of the Church only Secondary and derivative from it and therefore if the King hath reserved a Power of Visitation in the Hospital it self he is much more supposed to do the same in the Parish or indeed they are both of them unavoidably supposed together by reason of their Appropriation Incorporation and Union to each other Fourthly When the late King James presented by his Commissioners under the Great Seal to the Parish of St. Thomas Southwark it was upon a Vacancy by Death and it was at a time when Judgment was entred against the City Charter by which means it was in Fact discorporated whatever it were de jure and that Judgment was de jure valid though in Fact it might be erroneous and unlawful for the Reason that hath already been assigned so that now there was no other legal Patron but the King the Power of Presentation by the Discorporation of the City returning naturally to the King from whence it came and besides that he hath always a perpetual Right of Presenting if he pleaseth by virtue of his perpetual Power of Visitation which implies it it was in this Case necessary that he should present unless he would suffer the Church to be wholly Vacant and even then the Vacancy would have created a Lapse that would have given him a Right after a certain time though he had had none before It is not to be questioned therefore upon all these Considerations but what he did was legal and that as such his Presentation ought to stand even after the City Charter is restored much after the same manner that a Guardian may Present in the Minority of his Pupil and that Presentation shall stand when his Pupil comes to Age and so may the Guardian of the Spiritualities do many things in the Vacancy of a See which shall be and are of course good to all Intents and Purposes of Law when the Bishop is Enthronized and the See is full VII And Lastly King Edward says And moreover of Our ample and free Grace We will and by these Presents do grant that of the Issues Rents and Revenues of the said Premises the said Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the said City of London and their Successors yearly from time to time for ever shall find support and maintain not only two fit and convenient Ministers to celebrate Divine Services and to administer the Sacraments and Sacramentals as well to the Poor and Officers and Ministers of the said Hospital and Horse of the Poor as to the Parishioners of the said Parish of St. Thomas in Southwark aforesaid but also two Women or Sisters c. Now here there are two Questions that offer themselves to be asked First what is meant by two sit and convenient Ministers And this Question is capable of a twofold Reply 1. By Fit and Convenient is not meant great Clerks but honest Men in holy Orders tolerably qualified for their Employments 2. When we reflect upon the Words Fit and Convenient we must consider who it is that speaks it is King Edward VI. who gives grants orders and enjoins every thing in these his Letters Patents by virtue of that Authority which he had as the Supreme Head on Earth of the Churches of England and Ireland Fit and Convenient must therefore be understood with relation to the Establishment of the Church of England as it was then setled and constituted by the Laws of this Land in opposition to Popery on the one hand and to an unnatural Schism and Separation on the other though the latter of these were hardly known in the time of Edward VI but began more powerfully to shew it self in Queen Elizabeth's Days The King was not the Supreme Head and Defender of a Popish Church in the Sense that his Father King Henry VIII was after he had taken the Supremacy upon himself the Supremacy being then translated to another Person without abandoning the gross Idolatry and Superstition of the Church of Rome nor was he the Head of Schism and Disorder which would have implied him to be Felo de se an Enemy to himself and to his own Imperial Dignity and Crown but he was the Head the Defender the Patron and Protector of that orderly and primitive Establishment which was and is the only true Fence and Bulwark against both of these and which by giving to Caesar and to God their due is a common Friend to Religion and to Empire and at the same time that it lays the surest Foundations for the Peace and Happiness of this World chalks out the surest Way to the Peace of the next By Fit and Convenient therefore is meant as one plain Sense of the Words a true and hearty Conformist to the