violently urged by the Jesuits above all others excepting that Society whose rich Colleges and abundance of Treasure made it apparent quickly to the World that some were great gainers while the poor Lay-Catholicks were made great sufferers by that Recusancy Upon Campian's Execution England grew too hot for our Father Parsons and notwithstanding the mighty zeal he pretended for the Conversion of England yet he was for saving one and getting out of harms way and therefore slips away back into France under the Pretext of conferring with Doctor Allen about the Seminaries and of Printing some Books which could not be done in England and never returned hither tho' he continued Superiour of the Jesuits Mission after this But though the Kingdom was delivered from such a Firebrand yet he continued diligent beyond Seas in his Seditious Designs and was to the last a constant Enemy to his Native Countrey As he had laboured in the promoting the Popish Recufancy and getting the English Papists to be governed by the Jesuits so he now employs all his Arts and all his interest to get Seminaries erected for the supplying England from time to time with Priests to keep up that Recufancy and to prepare the Papists here to joyn with any Invasion that they abroad should procure against their own Countrey Assoon as he was got hence to Roan in France he dealt with the Duke of Guise to erect a Seminary for such a purpose in Normandy after which he goes into Spain and prevails with King Philip to encourage and erect such in Spain so that in a short time they could not only boast of their Seminaries at Rome and at Rhemes but of those at Valladolid at Sevil at St. Lucars in Spain at Lisbon in Portugal at Doway and St. Omers in Flanders in all which their Youth were educated with violent Prejudices against their own Native Countrey and their minds were formed to all the Purposes and Designs which this chief Incendiary Parsons had in his head Father Moor the Author of the History of the Mission does indeed tell us That Father Parsons was for having the Youth that were entered into these Seminaries to take an Oath about faithfully answering the End and Benefit of their Education there but says not a word of their being forced to subscribe the Infanta of Spain's Title against the True Title of the then King of Scots King James the First The Oath was this IN. N. considering with how great benefits God hath blessed me c. do promise by God's assistance to enter into Holy Orders assoon as I shall be fit for them and to return into England to Convert my Countrey-men there whenever it shall please the Superior of this House to command me But when once Father Parsons being puffed up with his Familiarity with the King and Court of Spain had devoted his Soul and Body both to the service of that aspiring Crown then he was for having the Youth in the Seminaries to subscribe to the Spanish Title which was of his own inventing to the Crown of England then he was for speaking out his design against his Native Countrey And that he dealt in such traiterous designs after his getting out of England is proved upon him by their own Writers As touching the Colleges says Clark the Priest concerning him and Pensions that are maintained and given by the Spaniard which he so often inculcateth we no whit thank him for them as things are handled and occasions thereby ministred of our greater Persecution at home by reason of Father Parson's treacherous practices thereby to promote the Spanish Title to our Country and his hateful Stratagems with such Scholars as are there brought up enforcing them to subscribe to Blanks and by publick Orations to fortifie the said wrested Title of the Infanta meaning Isabella Clara Eugenia Daughter to Philip the Second of Spain whose Right to the English Crown was maintain'd in a Book by this Parsons made but published by him under the false name of Doleman As this Priest gives us an account of the zeal of Father Parsons for the Infanta so Watson another Romish Priest helps us to another of his knavery about the same affair That Parsons earnestly moving the young Students in Spain to set their hands to a Schedule that they would accept the Lady Infanta for Queen of England after the decease of her Majesty to wit Queen Elizabeth that now is but finding them altogether unwilling to intermedle with these State-affairs belonging nothing to them and most hurtful to both their Cause and Persons used this cunning shift to draw on the innocent and simple youths to pretend forsooth to them of Valladolid that the Students in Sevil had done it already no remedy then but they must follow And that having thus craftily gotten their names he shewed them to the Students in Sevil for an example of their fact and forwardness which he required them to imitate Though these are sufficient Evidences of the use Father Parsons put the erected Seminaries to yet I cannot but add that great and wise Cardinal the Cardinal d'Ossat's account of these very Seminaries in his Letter to the King of France Henry the Fourth about the Spaniards and Father Parsons Design against England For this purpose also says he were the Colleges and Seminaries erected by the Spaniards for the English at Doway and at St. Omers wherein the young Gentlemen of the best Families in England are entertain'd thereby to oblige them and by them their Parenâ—â— and Kindred and Friends The principal care which these Colleges and Seminaries have is to catechise and bring up these young English Gentlemen in this Faith and firm Belief that the late King of Spain had and that his Children now have the true Right of Succession to the Crown of England and that this is advantageous and expedient for the Catholick Faith not only in England but where-ever Christianity is And when these young English Gentlemen have finished their Humanity-Studies and are come to such an age then to make them throughly Spaniards they are carried out of the Low-Countries into Spain where there are other Colleges for them wherein they are instructed in Philosophy and Divinity and confirmed in the same Belief and holy Faith that the Kingdom of England did belong to the late King of Spain and does now to his Children After that these young English Gentlemen have finished their courses those of them that are found to be most Hispaniolized and most couragious and firm to this Spanish Creed are sent into England to sow this Faith among them to be Spies and give advice to the Spaniards of what is doing in England and what must and ought to be done to bring England into the Spaniards hands and if need be to undergo Martyrdom as soon or rather sooner for this Spanish Faith than for the Catholick Religion In this Cardinal we find to what excellent purposes the Seminaries were erected that Father Parsons laboured
began to be Christians and to subject themselves also to this Spiritual Government and Jurisdiction of Souls and to be Sheep of these Spiritual Pastors among the rest they were admitted without detriment or diminution of their Temporal State and Government so far forth as it concerned the Temporal good of the Commonwealth which is Peace Wealth Justice and the like but yet so as they should not meddle or challenge power in the Spiritual Jurisdiction of Souls but be subject therein and leave that Government to Clergy-men and Spiritual Governors appointed by Christ and put in authority for that purpose long before Temporal Princes came to be converted as hath been declared And therefore came the distinction of Spiritual Governors and Temporal Governors of Clergy-men and Lay-men of Christian Pastors and Christian Sheep in which number of Christian Sheep and Subjects all Princes of the World are to be accounted in respect of their Souls and in all points appertaining thereunto and in respect of their Spiritual Pastors And albeit here in this life among Flesh and Blood where matters of this World and Life present are more respected commonly being present and the object to our Senses than Spiritual matters are of the life to come which are not seen but believed only though I say the external shew power and terror of Temporal Princes be much more respected reverenced and feared than is the authority of Priesthood or Jurisdiction of Spiritual Governors yet in themselves there is no comparison as by the reasons before alledged doth evidently appear but that the authority of Priesthood is much more great high and worthy and more principal and ancient in the Church of Christ for that it was before the other many Years and is over and above the other and that so far forth as St. Paul in his first Epistle and fourth Chapter to the Corinthians hath these words If you have secular Judgments among you appoint for Judges the contemptible that be in the Church of Christ for that function which yet I speak saith he to your shame for that none of the wiser sort among you do end or take up these temporal strifes but one Christian accuseth another and that before secular Tribunals even of Infidel Princes Christ himself when he was requested to judge between two Brothers in a Temporal matter he refused the same as also fled when the People would have made him a Temporal King and finally he said his Kingdom was not of this World which was not to disallow or contemn Judgment or Temporal authority of this World or that he was not in truth most lawful King also of this World being the Judge Author and Creator thereof but all this was to shew the small account he made of all this Temporal power in respect of the power Spiritual over Souls which properly he came to exercise and to plant and settle in the Church after him unto which all Kings and Emperors that would be saved should subject themselves and their Sceptres as we read that our Great Constantine before named and first Christian Emperor of the World did and after him the most renouned of the rest as Valentinian the two Theodosius's Justinian Charles the great and others in the occasions that were offered did humble themselves unto their Pastors and Governors of Christ's Church shewing themselves thereby to be the true Nurses and Foster-Fathers of Christ's Church which Isaiah the Prophet had foretold should come and succeed in Temporal Christian Kingdoms and Monarchies And yet by this did they not lose or diminish one jot of Temporal authority height or Majesty but rather did greatly confirm and increase the same for that Spiritual Pastors and Governors of Souls do teach and command all due reverence and obedience to be done in Temporal matters to Temporal Princes and do exhibit the same also themselves and do punish the contrary by Spiritual and everlasting punishments as well as by the Temporal upon such as are wicked or rebellious therein so as both these Governments joyned together in a Christian Commonwealth and one not disdaining or emulating the other but honouring rather respecting and assisting the same all goeth well both for the Temporal and everlasting felicity of all And such as do set division betwixt these two States are very Instruments of Sathan such as are the Hereticks Politicks Atheists and other seditious People of our days And for that in no other Country of the World whilest ours flourished hath there been more union love honour and respect born betwixt these two Orders of Spiritual and Temporal Men than in England as may appear even to this day by the many Temporal Honours Prerogatives and Dignities given to our Clergy in the Parliament and other Temporal affairs and that the Emulation and breach between the same enkindled and set on by the Devil and wicked Men hath been a principal cause of the ruine both to Country and both Parts that were Catholick in times past as hath been said and seen for this cause I thought it not amiss to speak somewhat more largely of the matter in this place and by this occasion having mentioned the same in divers other places of this Memorial before as a matter of no small importance to be throughly remedied and reformed at the next change if God say Amen which remedy will be if the Clergy considering their high Vocation and Estate be not proud thereof nor ambitious but endeavour to conform their lives to so great worthiness of their Profession And if Lay-men on the other side considering the very same to wit the dignity and reverence due to such as have Jurisdiction and Government over their Souls and must open and shut the Gates of Heaven unto them do not malign and envy their Estate as miserable Chore Dathan and Abiron did but do seek rather to profit themselves thereby and willingly joyn with them to the procuring their own and other Men's Salvations And this is so much as is needful to be spoken in this place of the Laity or Temporalty in general for that afterward there will be place to speak of all particularities that shall occur in the several Chapters that shall ensue CHAP. II. Of the Prince and his Council and matters belonging to them AS the Prince in every Commonwealth is the Head and Heart from whence all life and vigour principally cometh unto the same so above all other things is it of importance that he be well affected and disposed and so much the more in England above other Countries by how much greater and eminent his authority is and power with the People more than in divers other places by which means it hath come to pass that England having had more store of holy Kings in ancient times than many other Countries together came to have Religion and Piety more abundantly settled by their means than divers Realms about them and on the contrary side her Kings and Princes of later years having
so much about and of which he glories so much up and down his Writings These Seminaries were the Nurseries of the Conspiracies and Treasons which were from time to time set on foot and carried on against the Queen and Realm of England and Father Parson 's whole Life from his leaving the Mission in England appears to me to have been one continued Act of Treason against his Natural Queen and Native Country To mention some of his Treasons that are come to light he was very grateful to the Duke of Guise whom he had perswaded to set up a Seminary in France for the English that should come thither for with him he conspires against his own Queen how to depose her and set up in her room Popery and the Queen of Scots He endeavoured for this purpose as we are told to make a List of Catholicks which under the conduct of the Duke of Guise should have changed the State of the Kingdom using for it the pretence of the Title of Queen Mary of Scotland But that her Council at Paris which understood business better were so sensible of his boldness that they took from him the Queen's Cypher which he had purloyned and commanded him never more to meddle in her affairs But notwithstanding these People would not let our Father Parsons have any thing further to do in those treasons which were really carried on at that time for the Queen of Scots yet he pretended to mighty merit upon her and her Son's Account in his Letter to Father Chreyton the Jesuit telling him how many long and tedious journeys he had taken for their sakes and how much Mony he had procured for them at one time twenty four thousand Crowns from the King of Spain at another time the same summ and from Pope Gregory XIII four thousand Crowns he confesses indeed that things had not succeeded for them as he had wished but wonders that any body should make him to be an Enemy to the King of Scots who had been so very serviceable to him and his Mother I suppose Father Parsons was disgusted at this sleighting of his faithful services to the Queen of Scots by her Ministers and to be revenged of her and them betakes himself wholly into the Spanish Interest which he espoused so far as not only to sollicite and encourage their open attempts by Invasion against England but after the ill success of that to set up their sham Title to the Kingdom of England He and Cardinal Allen whom Parsons had by his Interest with the King of Spain procured to be made a Cardinal two Brethren in iniquity were mighty forward for the famous Spanish Invasion in 1588. and to make it more successful wrote in defence of it a Tract which Allen was perswaded to own though Parsons had as great if not a greater hand in it than himself In this Admonition to the Nobility and People of England the Queen's Government is called impious and unjust her self an Usurper obstinate and impentinent and it is affirmed that for this reason Pope Sixtus Quintus moved by his own and his Predecessors zeal and the vehement desire of some principal Englishmen had used great diligence with divers Princes especially with the Spanish King to use all his force that she might be turned out of her Dominions and her Adherents punished for a great many Reasons there laid together after which it proceeds thus Wherefore seeing these Offences some of them rendring her uncapable of the Kingdom others unworthy to live his Holiness by the power of God and the Apostles reneweth the Censures of Pius V. and Gregory XIII against her excommunicates and deprives her of all Royal Dignity Titles Rights and Pretences to England and Ireland declares her Illegitimate and an Usurper of the Kingdoms and absolves all her Subjects from their Obedience and Oaths of Allegiance due to her And expressly commands All under pain and penalty of God's Wrath to yield her no obedience aid or favour whatsoever but to employ all their power against her and to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces who will not hurt the Nation nor alter their Laws or Priviledges only punish the wicked Hereticks And by the same Presents it was declared not only lawful but commendable to lay hands on the said Usurper and other her Adherents for doing of which they should be well rewarded And lastly to all these Roman Assistants is liberally granted a plenary Indulgence and Remission of all their Sins But this unerring Thunderbolt as well as the Spanish Invincible Armado did very shamefully miscarry to the no small disappointment of our good Father Parsons who was not discouraged at that defeat though a worse Man than himself if any such could be would have seen the Finger of God plainly in it but labours with the King of Spain a while after for a second Invasion and after that for a third plotting and devising all ways to bring the King of Spain to it and the Papists of England both those at home and the fugitives abroad to joyn and assist the King of Spain in it but all his pains was lost about these Invasions from abroad and therefore he next sets himself to raise a Rebellion in England it self and deals with Ferdinand Earl of Derby to appear in and â—ead it which because he declined to do he was poysoned by Father Hesketh's procurement who had been sent to him by Father Parsons But failing here also of the desired success the poor Father was now at a loss what to do with this Kingdom of England and since he saw all miscarried that he had plotted against Queen Elizabeth who descended to her Grave full of years and honour his next business was to keep out King James who was a Protestant also from succeding her For this purpose he wrote his Doleman or Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England the chief design of which was to exclude the Scotch Title as well the Lady Arabella's as King James's and to set up the Spanish Infanta I know Mr. Camden will have Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield to have their shares in this Book but Cardinal d'Ossat who had far better opportunities of finding out the Author makes it to be Parson's own and in one of his Letters to the King of France gives that King an account of it wherein he gives our Jesuit the true Character he deserved of being a fellow that regarded neither truth nor reason One thing I cannot but remark here that though this Jesuit had the Impudence to meddle in these matters and to set up forged Titles against the Royal Line of Scotland yet when King James contrary to their Popish designs as well as Expectations did quietly succeed to the Crown of England he had the greater Impudence to deny his ever intending to exclude that King this is in the Preface to his Three Conversions of England added upon the news of the Queens Death and
Succession of the King of Scotland to the Crown of England And as for the person says he to the English Catholicks now advanced I know most certainly that there was never any doubt or difference among you but that ever you desired his advancement above all others as the only Heir of that renowned Mother for whom your fervent zeal is known to the World and how much you have suffered by her adversaries for the same Yet do I confess that touching the disposition of the person for the place and manner of his advancement all zealous Catholicks have both wished and prayed that he might first be a Catholick and then our King this being our bounded duty to wish and his greatest good to be obtained for him And to this end and no other I assure my self hath been directed whatsoever may have been said written or done by any Catholick which with some others might breed disgust Thus the Jesuit thought to pacifie King James's Court by a piece of Impudence to be met with only in a Jesuit whoever will be at the pains to compare Parson's Doleman with this Preface cannot but declare him to be the greatest Villain that ever set Pen to Paper and to have lost all sense of Modesty Truth and Justice Amidst these his Projects for the Spanish Interest he had hopes upon the death of Cardinal Allen to be made by the Spanish Interest a Cardinal for England and there was set about in Flanders by Holt the Jesuit and Worthington a Petition to the King of Spain for that purpose subscribed by the Common Soldiers Labourers Artizans and Pensioners nay Scullions and Laundresses as well as by those of better rank and quality Upon this Father Parsons makes haste out of Spain to Rome to hinder it as the Jesuits say for him when he came thither upon a day set him he waited on the Pope and acquainted him how the City was full of the discourse of his being shortly to be made a Cardinal and that Spain and Flanders rung with it too and therefore begged of him that he would not think of making him a Cardinal who might be more serviceable in the condition he was now in to the affairs of England The Pope told him That the King of Spain had not written a syllable to him about any such thing and that he must not mind foolish Reports and bid him go and mind his studies I cannot but think that this neglect in the King of Spain lost him Father Parsons who soon after though he could not leave of plotting went on other designs four of which he seems to have had on foot together for the Exclusion of King James from the Crown of England The most improbable one was that of the Peoples rising and setting up a popular Government he had furnished them with Principles in several of his Books for this purpose In the Second and Third he dealt with the Pope either about making if his Purse and Interest were large enough his Kinsman the Duke of Parma King or in joyning with the Lady Arabella's Interest and marrying her to the Duke's Brother the Cardinal Farnese whom he had made upon the death of Cardinal Cajetan Protector of England thereby to ingratiate him with the Clergy and Laity of this Kingdom Cardinal d'Ossat gives a very large account of both these Projects in the Letter whcih I have already quoted to the King of France And in another of his Letters he gives an account of the fourth Project wherein he himself had been dealt with by Parsons then Rector of the College of Jesuits at Rome which was that the Pope the King of France and King of Spain should agree among themselves of a Successor for England that should be a Catholick and that they should joyn their Forces to settle him in the Throne of England Thus we see how Plotting and Treason was the whole business of this Jesuit's Life in which he was so notorious that Pasquin set him forth thus at Rome If there be any Man that will buy the Kingdom of England let him repair to a Merchant in a black square Cap in the City and he shall have a very good penniworth thereof While he thus filled his head with designs and hopes of a Popish Prince to be set up in England by some of these foreign Princes it was that he drew up the following Memorial for that his Prince his Directions to whom are like his other Counsels and Actions I will trouble the Reader with no more of his History As I take the Jesuits to be the very worst of Men so I think the preceeding accounts have proved Father Parsons to be the very worst of Jesuits A MEMORIAL OF THE REFORMATION of ENGLAND CONTAINING Certain Notes and Advertisements which seem might be proposed in the First Parliament and National Council of our Country after God of his mercy shall restore it to the Catholick Faith for the better Establishment and Preservation of the said Religion Gathered and set-down by R.P. 1596. THE PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR SHEWING How and why these Notes were gathered and the principal Parts to be treated THE Notes and Observations of this Memorative following were gathered and laid together in time of Persecution when there was no place to execute or put them in ure and it is no more than seventeen or eighteen Years past that the Gatherer began first to put some of them in writing and having had the experience of the Years which have ensued since and his part also in the Catholic affairs of his Country and the Practice of divers other Catholic Nations abroad he was desirous in case that himself should not live to see the desired day of the Reduction of England yet some of his Cogitations and Intentions for the publick good thereof might work some effect after his Death and that thereby other Men might be the sooner moved to enter into more mature Considerations of these and such like Points yea and also to descend unto many more particulars than here are set down For that the Gatherer's meaning was only to open the way and to insinuate certain general and principal Heads that might serve for an awaking and remembrance at that happy day of the Conversion of our Country unto such Persons as shall be then able and desirous to further the common good and to advance Almighty God's Glory with a Holy Zeal of perfect Reformation who perhaps may be so entangled with multitudes of other business and Cogitations at that time as they will not so easily enter into these except they be put in mind thereof by some such Memorials and Advertisements as here are touched And what is said in this Treatise for the Kingdom of England is meant also for Ireland so far as it may do good seeing the Author desireth as much benefit for God's Service and the good of that Nation to the one Country as to the other And for that the principal
Members and Branches whom this Memorial may concern are Three to wit the whole Body of the Realm jointly and then the Crgy and Temporalty apart Therefore the same order shall be observed for more perspecuity's sake in treating matters that are to be handled according to these three parts First of things that appertain to the whole Body of the Realm in general and then to the Clergy and Laity in particular's dividing each one of these two latter Members into his particular branches also as namely the Clergy and Spiritualty into Bishops Priests and Religious and the Laity and Temporalty into the Prince with his Council the Nobility and Commons making of every one of these chief Members their particular Chapters also apart as in Prosecution of this Treatise shall appear And to the performance of this the Author was incouraged especially by two points which for divers Years he has been perswaded in The First That God will most certainly at his time appointed restore the Realm of England to the Catholic Faith again as may appear by the evident hand he holdeth now in the work The other That England being once converted may be made the Spectacle of all the World and an Example of Perfection to all other Catholic Countries and Churches round about it if want of Zeal and good will do not hinder it in those that God shall bring to that blessed day which the Gatherer of this Memorial hopeth will not and with this hope he setteth down the Notes and Advertisements ensuing A Table of the Chapters of this MEMORIAL PART I. Touching the whole Body CHAP. I. SOme special Reasons why England above all other Realms ought to procure a perfect Reformation when time shall serve CHAP. II. What manner of Reformation is needful in England after so long a storm of Persecution which is declared by the Example of Gold coming out of the Furnace and of a Garden newly planted after the Weeds and Thorne are consumed by Fire CHAP. III. How this happy Reformation may be best procured and what Disposition of Mind is needful for it in all parts CHAP. IV. How all sorts of People to wit Catholicks Schismaticks and Hereticks may be charitably dealt withal to their most profit at the neat change of Religion CHAP. V. The forwardness that ought to be in all Men for the appeasing of God's Wrath about the rapine of Ecclesiastical Lands and Livings and with what facility and case a good Composition and reasonable Satisfaction may be agreed upon without the over-burdening of any Party and how the said Livings may be disposed of CHAP. VI. Of the many great and singular Benefits that would ensue to the Church and Realm of England by this manner of Restitution Agreement and Disposition of Ecclesiastical Livings CHAP. VII Of a Council of Reformation to be ordained by the Authority of the Prince and Parliament with consent of the See Apostolick and wherein they are principally to be occupied for the raising up of our Churches again and first of all in gathering up and profitably bestowing of these Church-Livings that shall be restored CHAP. VIII Of divers other great Points that will belong to the Council of Reformation to deal in for the bringing of our English Church to its former Perfection CHAP. IX There ensue yet more matters that appertain to the Council of Reformation for beautifying our Church above the beauty that it had before and above the rest of all Christian Churches CHAP. X. Of the Parliament of England and what were to be considered or reformed about the same both in it self and other PART II. Touching the Clergy CHAP. I. OF the Clergy in general what they are and ought to do at the next change and how soundly united with the Laity CHAP. II. Of Bishops and Bishopricks of England what is to be restored and what continued what reformed CHAP. III. Of Deans Canons Pastors Curates and the rest of the Clergy what is needful to make them flourish CHAP. IV. Of Seminaries Colledges Vniversities and Schools for restoring and increase of our Clergy CHAP. V. Of Vniversities more at large and of the Government Discipline and manner of proceeding of our English Vniversities and in what Points they do differ from other Vniversities abroad and what is to be increased added and altered or established to make them absolutely the best in the World CHAP. VI. How Offices Preferments Fellowships Scholarships and other said places were to be provided in our Vniversities to avoid infinite inconveniences and of divers other Points to this purpose CHAP. VII Of Religious Men and Women and matters appertaining unto them and their Estate and how England may be furnished with them in far better sort than any other Catholick Nation in the World PART III. Touching the Laity CHAP. I. OF the Laity and Temporalty in general and of the agreement and concurrence with the Clergy for both their good with the Difference of both their States CHAP. II. Of the Prince and his Councel and matters belonging to them for the publick benefit CHAP. III. Of the Nobility and Gentry of England and matters appertaining to their Estates for the bettering the same every way CHAP. IV. Of the Inns of Court and Studies of the Common Laws of England and of the Laws themselves what is to be considered amended or bettered in each part CHAP. V. Of the Commons of England and of matters appertaining to them how tenderly they are to be cared for cherished and maintained with divers Advertisements for their publick Commodity The FIRST PART of this MEMORIAL OF THE Reformation of England Wherein are touched Points that do belong to the whole Body of the Realm as before in the Preface has been declared and is the Ground of the other Parts that ensue CHAP. I. Some special Reasons why England above all other Realms ought to procure a perfect Reformation when time shall serve IF ever Nation under Heaven were bound to shew themselves grateful to Almighty God and to turn heartily and zealously unto him and to seek his highest glory by a perfect Reformation of their Country when his Divine Majesty shall open the way it is the English Nation for the Reasons following First For that no other Nation in the World on whom God hath laid the scourge of Heresie hath received so many helps and graces to resist the same as England hath done which is evident by the b multitudes and valour of English Martyrs by the fortitude and zeal of so many and such Confessors by their Constancy Patience and Fervour at home by the store of Seminaries abroad and by the Spirit of Priests brought up in them and many other Favours and Priviledges used towards the English Nation in these our days all which do require an extraordinary Demonstration of forwardness of English Catholicks when the time shall serve to be answerable in some sort to these extraordinary Benefits Secondly We do both see and feel the inestimable damages that ensued
to our Commonwealth and to all Christendom besides for that this perfect Reformation was not made in Queen Mary's time All wise and Godly Men attribute the loss of Religion again in our Country to this error and ingratitude towards Almighty God which that it may not happen any more Et ne postrema fiant pejora prioribus most careful diligence is to be used by all whensoever the Mercy of God shall offer occasion c the second time that the former error be well amended Thirdly It seemeth that as Almighty God in his Justice has used England for a scourge to the other Countries round about it both for the infecting them with Heresie as also by afflicting them by Sword Sedition and other Infestations so again in his mercy he meaneth to help and comfort them by means of England once reduced as may appear by that which abroad he hath begun to work in Scotland and Ireland by Executions of English Catholick Priests sent unto those Kingdoms wherefore to the end that this Holy Intention of our Saviour be not letted by us and England may be a Light and a Lantern to other Nations near unto it the Reformation must needs in reason be made first very exact and exemplar in England it self Fourthly The d Facility and Commodity that there is and will be in England to make this perfect Reformation whensoever God shall reduce that Country doth greatly conjure and oblige us to the same for we shall not find that difficulty and resistance by the grace of God in England which good Men do find in other Catholick Countries for bringing in of any Reformation that is attempted and that which the very Prophets ever found amongst the Jews and that Christ himself did find amongst the Scribes and Pharisees to wit the repugnancy of corrupt Livers and stubborn People that will contradict and resist their own benefit We are not like to find I say the infinite mercy of our Saviour be blessed for it either backward Bishops and dissolute Priests or Licentious Religious Men or Women to oppose themselves against so Holy a designment as this our Reformation is or if any one such creep in amongst the rest he would not dare to shew himself nor should he find followers all is now zeal and integrity in our new Clergy Almighty God be thanked for it and no less in our Laity and Catholick Gentlemen of England that have born the brunt of Persecution for so many Years so if we should want the effects of true and sound Reformation at the change again it would be for want of some zealous godly Men to sollicite and procure the same d For in the behalf of the Realm and Country I perswade my self most certainly that there will be no difficulty which ought to convince such as feel the Zeal of God's Glory within their breast to joyn hands together as St. Luke saith all Apostolical Men did in the Primitive Church and each to seek above other to have a part in the happy Procuration of so holy and important a Work And Lastly for our more incouragement hereunto it seemeth that the sweet and high Providence of Almighty God hath not been small in conserving and holding together a good portion of the material part of the old English Catholick Church above all other Nations that have been over-run with Heresie for that we have yet on foot many principal Monuments that are destroyed in other Countries as namely we have our Cathedral Churches and Bishopricks yet standing our Deanries Canonries Archdeaconries and other Benefices not destroyed our Colledges and Universities whole so that there wanteth nothing but a new form to give them e Life and Spirit by putting good and vertuous Men into them which is a great advantage before other Kingdoms where all is ruined and desolate and none or â—â—â—tle means left by reason of poverty to raise them up or repair them again but in many Years and with repugnance of many potent Persons for their particular Interest whereas in England there are and will be less resistance more easie and abundant means to restore and amend all that is wanting without over-burdening of any Man by the means that after shall be declared which is a very great and important point and a Token of God's sweet disposition for this effect and ought to encourage every true Catholick Man to concur the more willingly to the work and to help wherein he may to this holy and perfect Reformation that is pretended Animadversions on Chap. I. A Memorial of the Reformation c. This Memorial is a plain Instance to the World of what they have always changed the Order of the Jesuits with that they have been much greater dealers in Politicks than in Divinity and this Memorial is as clear a proof of the Jesuits being as great Bunglers at Politicks as ever any that pretended to then Notwithstanding the Author hereof was one of the most subtle Men the Jesuits ever had and not only by his being born and having lived long in his Native Country but by the Experience and Observations which his Converse and familiar access to the greatest Men in Foreign Countries did afford him might he supposed to have studied and understood the Genius and Temper of the People of England yet he appears to have been out in his measures as will be easily shewed in the following Animadversions He lays mighty stress upon some things which can no way bear it other things he takes to be most easie to his Popish Prince which reason would have told him then as Experience has told his Brethren since to be insuperable difficulties and his cruel and barbarous advices up and down the Memorial are so contrary to the temper of the honest Englishman as if the Design of the Memorial had been more to shew the Politicks and the Spirit of the Jesuit's Order than to convert England to Popery b Multitudes of Martyrs c. If the worst of Criminals must be nick-nam'd Martyrs we can then allow the Jesuit that there were some the later part of Queen Elizabeth's Reign but how to make Multitudes of them is beyond all the skill that I can obtain either from our own or their Historians It is agreed on both hands striking off such Scandalous Writers out of the rank of Historians as Sanders that for several Years in the beginning of that glorious Queen's Reign great Mildness and Clemency was used towards the Roman Catholicks and that no manner of Severity was used towards them till the Bishop of Rome by his Bull of Excommunication and Deposition of that Queen had justly incensed her and her Parliament to make several Laws against Popery and even after that most if not every one of those Roman Catholicks that suffered during her Reign suffered for Rebellion or Treason and not for Religion I will not vouch our Historians for the Truth hereof but take it in the words of their own Secular Priests who writ the Important
that there will be no difficulty Here our Jesuit was much out in his Observations which are not only contrary to the Experience of our Age but of his own as for the late Attempts to replant Popery in England I appeal to the Popish Priests employed in the Mission whether it appeared or proved to be so very easie a thing to bring Popery into the good esteem of the English Nation and for Father Parsons own Age notwithstanding the Protestant Religion had so short a time as the Reign of the Young King Edward to spread it self in yet when Queen Mary had a Mind to restore Popery she was forced upon arts much below her Station in the World to promise what she was far from performing that none of her Subjects should be forced in Conscience that she would in particular preserve to the Suffolk and Norfolk Men who had been so great instruments in her advancement to the Throne that Reformation begun in her Brother's days for which they were zealous and never make any innovation or change of the then established Reformed Religion but would content her self with the private exercise of her own Religion Such assurances do not make the Restitution of Popery even then to be so easie a thing as the Jesuit things and when the Queen broke her Faith with these Suffolk Hereticks and was for setting up Popery again with all the haste she could yet her first Parliament would not do her business for her though very dishonourable and base practices were used to make them fit for the restoring Popery effectually though in many places as an Historian of that time informs the World of the Country some were chosen by force and threats and in-other places those employed by the Court did with violence hinder the Commons from coming to chuse in others false Returns and after all some unserviceable for such violent purposes were violently turned out of the House of Commons So that that cunning Politician Gardiner was forc'd to dismiss this Parliament and by Bribes and Corruptions buy and pension another before they could get their Popery made the established Religion but with such abatements and defects in the business of Abby Lands particularly as make our Jesuit complain and be ashamed of them Did such Experience then give any grounds for our Jesuit to be so confident of the facility of bringing in Popery again This shews that a Jesuit can be very zealous both against Reason and against even his own as well as all other People's Experience God be thanked that upon a second tryal of their skill under a Popish King and managed by Jesuits too it is found that it is not only a difficult but an impossible thing to replain Popery in England e Life and Spirit by putting good and vertuous Men We should be so far from angry that we ought to thank the Jesuit for making this Reflection upon our Cathedrals and Universities Had he commended them I should have suspected them to have been such as himself was when he was turned out of his College at Oxford for Immorality Mr. Camden our famous Historian says our Jesuit was his contemporary in Oxford that he was Fellow of Baliol College and â—â—de open Profession of the Protestant Religion until he was for his loose carriage expelled with disgrace and then went over to the Papists It was great Pity therefore that when our Jesuit was in the Chapter providing that good and vertuous Men upon the re-establishment of Popery should be put into our Colleges he took no particular care for his own College Baliol that especial care might be taken there above all others that if any of those ill Men were alive then who had been so wicked as to expel out of their College the sober pious and chaste Mr. Parsons they should be removed with disgrace for an example to all other Colleges CHAP. II. What manner of Reformation is needful in England HAving spoken of a perfect Reformation if any Man would ask what manner of Reformation this is I could answer him no better to the purpose considering the present State of England under Persecution than to say That it ought to be as the Reformation or Purification of Gold is when it cometh out of the fiery Furnace to wit pure simple perfect without corruption dregs or rust for so God himself compareth his True Church and all his Elect after their probation by the Fire of Tribulation And again I may compare it to the State of a Garden which being over-grown with Weeds and Thistles the Owner thereof putteth fire to the whole and when all is consumed then beginneth he to plant chosen and sweet Herbs at his pleasure And the like is God's desire to do with this English Garden if we will cooperate with his holy designment Hereof then it followeth that the Reformation of England after this long and sharp Persecution ought to be very perfect full and compleat not respecting so much what some cold Catholicks use to do in other Countries where Spirit is decay'd and Corruption crept in as what may be done or ought to be done in England or if we will needs cast our eyes upon the Example of others let us look upon the Apostles and their Successors and upon the Primitive Church that had the force of Christ's Spirit stirring and hot in them which long continuance of time afterward did both weaken and cool and in many a one has been quite extinguished And to come to some particulars the whole World knoweth how that the 1 late Holy Council of Trent when it came to matters of Reformation of Manners it was constrained to accommodate it self in many things to the capacity of that decay'd State of Christendom which then they found and so to set down those Decrees which they might suppose would be received generally in the Church as the Physician does in tempering his Medicine according to the strong complexion and disposition of his Patient though not so effectually many times as the Disease it self in rigour would require Thâ—â— those Holy Fathers of the Council moderating many of their Decrees in this behalf of manners according to the weakness of this our Age and omitting many other points of more rigour and perfection suggested to them by divers holy and learned Men and this yet notwithstanding we set with what difficulties delays unwillingness cautels protestations restraints and exceptions this part of the Council touching Reformation has been received in divers Countries that otherwise are Catholick by reason of the general Corruption grown into Men's Lives and Customs for purging whereof even unto the quick it is supposed that God hath sent this Fire of Heresie into Christendom and is feared by many that it will never cease until all be cleansed England then having passed now this Fire ought to make Declaration by her works when time shall serve how much she hath profited by this Purgation and to receive not only the
forelaid Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation or Restraint but to embrace also and to put it in ure where occasion and place is offered such other points of Reformation as tend to the perfect restitution of Ecclesiastical Discipline that were in use in the ancient Christian Church though afterward decayed for want of Spirit and not urged now again nor commanded for the Council of Trent for the causes before by me alledged for better Declaration whereof we may consider that the Council of Trent touching Reformation of Manners had to repair an old ancient House whereof many parts were sore weakened by Corruptions and some perished but yet the whole could not be changed nor built anew but necessarily the reparation must be made according to the State and Condition of the other parts that yet remained and so those good Fathers could not frame all points to their own likeing nor yet according to the Rules of perfect Ecclesiastical Architecture But now in England no doubt but that the State of things will be far otherwise whensoever the change of Religion shall happen For then it will be lawful for a good Catholick Prince that God shall send and 2 for a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure to begin of new and to build from the very foundation the external face of our Catholick Church and to follow the Model which themselves will chuse and if that will be a good and perfect Model it will endure at least for a time and be a pattern of true Christianity to the rest of the World but if it be but ordinary and of the meaner sort at the beginning it will quickly slide back to the old Corruptions wherein it was before and so the benefit of this Probation and Tribulation will soon be lost both before God and Men which Jesus forbid for that it is and will be the greatest Crown that ever England hath had since her first Conversion to the Christian Faith and according to this account must our purpose be of Reformation whensoever God shall restore us to Liberty and Peace lest we lose in Peace that which we gained in War as Eusebius Caesariensis saith that some did in antient Persecutions and it ought to be a warning to us to take heed by their Examples And this is so much as in this behalf seemeth needful to be remembred Animadversions on Chap. II. 1 THE late Council of Trent The Jesuit in the former Chapter was complaining of the coldness and imperfect Reformation of Queen Mary's Reign and here he is as severe upon the Council of Trent it self which notwithstanding its being directed and assisted by the Holy Ghost as this Jesuit as well as the rest of their Writers will have it to be when they are engaged in Controversie against the Reformed and notwithstanding the Infallible Vicar at Rome presided in it by his Legates and did from time to time influence and direct all its Consultations and Determinations yet was so base and cowardly according to our fierce Jesuit as to truckle to the humours of the Age and make a very lame and imperfect Reformation out of compliance with the lukewarmness and iniquity of that Age. But the rest of the World were not of our Jesuit's Mind but did easily see that no Temporal Prince could submit to that Council which by the bye was nothing but a meer Western Conventicle of Italian Bishops and the Pope's own Creatures who had sworn to be true and faithful to him and to preserve to him those which he and they call the Rights and Honours of S. Peter before ever they came within the Walls of that assembly without wrong to himself and to his People However our Jesuit is for having his Popish Prince in England to receive the Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation and Restraint though the Prince that does it makes himself feudatory to the Popes and leaves his Country to their disposal when they think fit to have it escheat to them this no body can doubt of it that will but examine what that Council at Trent hath determined about the Matter of Duels in any Princes Countries and this without Question is one of the Reasons why the Gallican Church could not then nor can be to this day perswaded to admit the Council of Trent entirely but refuse it as to the Canons about Discipline which encroach upon the Prince's Right and the Churches Authority By what I can observe from our Jesuit he is for overdoing the whole World and while he brands others with the name of Cold Catholicks would I suppose have a Council of Jesuits to reform their Church and then I am sure it will be done to purpose 2 For a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure Here is an Instance of a fatal mistake in our Jesuit's Politicks and Foresight The Papists in England by God's Permission have had a Popish Prince and a Prince governed by Jesuits too and as zealous as our Jesuit himself could either imagine or wish him to be and yet after all he was not able to get a well affected Parliament that is a Parliament that would have settled Popery effectually among us That Prince came to the Crown with greater advantages than one of his Perswasion could well have been supposed to have done he was no sooner fixt in his Throne than he had the good success to break and suppress two very dangerous Rebellions and appeared to the World to have the love of all his Subjects who gratified him in his first Parliament with every thing that they could either with Honour or Conscience give But when tempted I am afraid by the reading of this Jesuit's Memorial and by the strange success against the two Insurrections he began to pull off the Vizard and was for breaking in upon the National Protestant security by keeping up a standing Army with a great many Popish unqualified Officers and thought it would prove 〈◊〉 easie matter to bring in his Popery we see how miserably he was out in his Measures that very Parliament that had been so kind as to settle a greater Revenue upon him than ever King of England had by six hundred thousand Pounds a Year as I have been informed for some Years and to give him great Supplies and to Voâ—â— him more and that did stand by him with their Fortuneâ— and Lives were yet for standing by their Religion and their Laws and were neither so tame nor foolish as to be either complemented or hector'd out of either of them This dissolved that Parliament and shewed how graâ—â—ful a Popish Prince could be to the best and kindest Parliament And when this Parliament was dissolved and Popery made every day larger steps than before and the whole Constitution was laid to sleep in favour of Fanatiâ— and Papists did he or time procure a more kind or well affected Parliament Indeed all the care imaginable
withal by the better sort of Catholicks to wit 4 weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks and Hereticks that have been Enemies to both these sorts there is to be used true Love Piety and Christian Charity with the Prudence and Direction that is also convenient And for the first since they are our Brethren we ought to have sincere Compassion of their weakness and fall animating them hereby to rise and stand hereafter And unto the second for that by God's Grace they may be our Brethren we must use all Charity in like manner seeking their true and sincere Conversion with that Caution notwithstanding that is expedient for theirs and the publick good of all which I shall lay down some particular Notes in the Chapter following though it must be the Direction of Almighty God and Unction of the Holy Ghost which must guide our Prince Parliament and Magistrates and namely our Bishops in this point of dealing with Hereticks which will be a point of great moment and wherein will consist much for the True Reformation which we seek and for the assurance of Religion and wherein it is thought the error of Queen Mary's time was as pernicious as in any other thing whatsoever and therefore the more carefully to be remedied now Animadversions on Chap. III. 3 THE true Reconciliation of the Realm unto God and to his Church There is not only here but in several other places an appearance of Zeal for Piety and the Honour of God in this Jesuit but that it is no more than a bare appearance without any thing of the substance of Godliness will be more plain to him that will read the Memorial throughout this is not my conjecture but of several Writers of their own Church of Rome who look upon the Jesuits generally as the greatest dissemblers and hypocrites upon the face of the Earth that the obtaining more Wealth to their Order and Gain is all the Godliness that they have and therefore when they meet with a Jesuit talking about Piety or the Glory of God they treat him with Derision as knowing that True Religion is the least part of that Society's business and that the Piety they make shew of in their Writings is only for a cover to their politick designs and like true Pharisees to devour and eat up silly Recusants Estates and to ruine others to make their Society rich and splendid Thus in Queen Elizabeth's time our Jesuit himself that talks so gravely sometimes in this Memorial of the Glory of God and Reconciliation with God was one of those that made such a pudder about restoreing their Catholick Religion and rooting Heresie out of England whereas their true business was to betray their Country to the Spaniards to plot with them as it was always this traiterous Jesuit's practice to invade our Nation and thereby to obtain as they did from the Spanish King Gifts and Benevolences to their Order and Seminaries erected and endowed for them This was the Jesuit's true aim which without some face of Zeal for God and pretence of Piety could not be so easily compassed it is that wise and great Man the Cardinal d'Ossat's Observation of Parsons in that Letter from Rome wherein he gave the King of France an account of Parsons's Book about Succession That Parsons was so passionately concerned in it for the Spanish Interest that he made no conscience of contradicting himself grossly in it nor had any regard to Truth and Reason I think this ought to be a key to us to open the Jesuit's meaning when he talks of the true Reconciliation of the Realm to God I question not but the whole Reconciliation he drives at is that we might all turn true Papists and all Papists would fairly give up their Abby-Lands to their Council of Reformation which he sets up in his VII th Chapter 4 Weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks How any Catholicks should be Schismaticks is worth our time to understand to do which we must go back to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when the Papists notwithstanding the Alteration in Religion made by that excellent Queen and her Parliament in the beginning of it went to Church to conform themselves to put it in the words of one of their own Writers a Romish Priest to the State as they did in King Edward the Sixth's time keeping privately to themselves the exercise of their own Religion This Practice of the Roman Catholicks continued for several Years here my Lord Chief Justice Coke says upon his own knowledge for ten or a dozen Years and had I suppose continued on had not the upstart Faction of the Jesuits set themselves with all their might and their Interest to break it off They were aware that such Conformity of their Roman Catholick Friends would in a few Years have left not one Papist in England and indeed it was morally impossible that it should have happened otherways since we need not doubt but that the great Truth and the Light the Doctrine and the Liturgy of the Church of England so exactly conformable to the Word of God and to the purest times of the Primitive Church would by God's Blessing have shined into their Hearts have enlightned them and made them become true Church of England Christians by renouncing all those Reliques of Popery which they fostered privately in their breasts And therefore the Jesuits and their Friends by the Interest they had in the Council of Trent got a little Cabal of that Council a dozen of Bishops and others out of which number Pate the Bishop of Worcester the only English Popish Bishop in that Council was left out though of all Men the fittest to have been consulted in this matter favourers of their Society to 〈◊〉 up Reasons why the Catholicks of England ought not and must not under pain of Schism and Damnation go to the Protestant Churches there in which they load our Church with many calumnies our Rites are made to be most wicked and accursed all which though these Twelve Caballers knew in their own Consciences to be as false as Hell yet to affright their People from our Churches they were forc'd to paint our Church as deformed as their own Church by her Idolatrous Rites and Superstitious Practices is However all this and the Pope's Rescripts to the same purpose would not hinder many Catholicks from going to Church and their defence was that this Decree as well as the Pope's Rescripts were surreptitiously gotten that both Pope and Councel were imposed upon and therefore they would not run themselves into needless danger these are the Men whom our Jesuit here does call Schismaticks CHAP. IV. How all sorts of People to wit Catholicks Schismaticks and Hereticks may be dealt withal at the next change of Religion AFter Union and good Disposition of Mind in all and a hearty Reconciliation of Almighty God will be necessary a sweet pious and
vetus fermentum cleanse your self throughly of the old Leaven For that I take this to be the most principal old Leaven that distained and distempered the other actions of our Catholick Realm at the last change and offended the eyes of our Just God most highly that they took no sound order at all for any reasonable satisfaction in this great affair of Restitution to be made to God and his Church For which is to be noted That albeit the Times and State of England and Condition of Men and Things there considered it seemeth not possible or at leastwise not expedient that any rigorous or exact satisfaction should be required in these affairs yet that some kind of moderate temperature and composition according to some form of Justice or correspondence of Equity should be taken in the matter I would think it so absolutely necessary as no good Christian Conscience can be secure without the same And the reason hereof is for that these Goods belong first to a third Party which were the Owners and Givers and by them taken from their Children and Kindred and Inheritors for a special Ecclesiastical use to be applied to God's Service and the help of their own Souls by perpetual Prayer ordained to be made for them cannot in any Reason or Law of Justice be taken wholly from those uses and applied or permitted to be profane but only by force seeing it is directly against the intentions of the first Founders and Givers and whereof it is to be presumed they would never allow if they were alive again but rather would say of the two That their Heirs and next Kin should re-enter and possess the same rather than by violence they should be detained by other temporal Men that are meer Strangers unto them Neither is it sufficient for the security of any careful Dan's Conscience to say That the See Apostolick has tolerated with these things in Queem Mary's time for that it is well known how times and matters went then and how the See Apostolick like a Prudent and Pious Mother was content to take of her Children what she could get rather than lose all So that the Toleration then used as in truth it may be said was upon constraint and fear of farther inconveniencies to follow if the matter should have been greatly urged at that time the covetous humours of divers principal Persons in Authority being well known together with the cold Dispositions of the rest of the Realm to do that which in equity and conscience they were bound in this behalf and this appeareth by the very words themselves of the general Bull of Absolution and Toleration which Cardinal Poole of Pious Memory delivered to the Realm for this effect wherein every Man in particular notwithstanding this general plaistering up of things is most earnestly exhorted to look unto his Conscience in these affairs and to seek the security thereof by Direction of Vertuous and Learned Men. And seeing Almighty God has declared his heavy displeasure since the patching of matters at that time by the lamentable and most miserable fall both of Religion it self and of these Persons also that were most backward in this Restitution and that these corrupt affections of some worldly People may be presumed to be well purged before this day by the fire of Persecutions in these latter Years I hope verily that it may easily be brought to pass at the next Reformation That some such good and substantial order may be taken in this weighty affair as God's Justice in part may be satisfied Men's Consciences quieted their Estates at home for the time to come assured the World abroad edified and the Church of God in some proportion of equity satisfied and thereby this great Petra Scandali that hitherto has endured and the strong brasen Wall that has divided between God and us may be removed whereof I do conceive so much the more hope and confidence for that the means to perform the same seem not to me very hard but rather easie supposing the good and pious Dispositions of Minds which I suppose we shall find at that day in those to whom the matter shall appertain And therefore I shall lay down in this place the means that I have conceived for the easie performance of this point All Englishmen do know the peculiar ancient custom of letting Lands in England after the rate of old rent of Assize which by experience of many Countries I can affirm to be the most commodious honourable and profitable Custom both for Lord and Tenant that is in the World all circumstances considered as afterwards shall be shewed And no sort of People were wont to be more observant of this Custom than were Religious and Ecclesiastical Land-lords who besides that they were never wont lightly to raise their Rents did use also commonly to take very small Fines so that in very Deed if these old Rents of Assize were restored again to the Church it might be said in effect That the whole were restored and thereby a certain proportion of equity in Restitution observed and on the other side if the possessions and the fee Farm of these Lands which commonly do amount to double or triple the value of the old Rent or may be made so good be left and made secure for ever unto the present Possessors of the same as by the Prince Parliament and Pope's Authority they may be I do not see but that the Composition and Temperature would fall out well for all Parties and for all effects that can be desired For first God's Justice and the Church's Right in a certain sort should be substantially satisfied and the Possessor's Conscience assured which is the principal and then his Ecclesiastical State also would not be over weakened or abated thereby as is evident And if it should happen out otherwise in some particular Men of special merit to wit that by this general Restitution he should be over much impoverished it would be an easie thing to help and recompense the matter otherwise as by giving him some Office or some Lease of fee Farm of other Lands that shall return wholly to the Church or the like For it is to be understood that albeit the Church do and may use this benign Compassion with such as be her Children and of particular deserts towards her for their Piety and Religion yet no reason is there but that such as be Enemies Persecutors or of notorious Impiety against her should leave the Livings which they possess of her wholly and wish more rigour of Justice than the other before named so that the Church may dispose not only of the old Rents but of Revenues also Houses Buildings and other Emoluments For better understanding whereof it is also to be noted that l as well these Lands intirely restored as the other old Rents before mentioned to the end they may be imployed to the best and greatest glory of God and publick profit of the Realm were
heavy over us For we read that God never ceased to beat and whip King Pharaoh until he had restored unto Abraham his Wife again and that 's a common Maxim among Divines Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Secondly It would follow by this Restitution and temperate Composition That such as remain with the Possession of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings in the manner aforesaid might hold them securely they and their Heirs without scruple or danger to God or the World which by no other means it seemeth can be assured them either in respect of the one or the other For in respect of God and their Conscience I have already said that 't is very hard to see how they may be assured any other ways For as for the See Apostolick though it may in certain cases dispose of Livings left to the Church from one use to another yet to the end their disposition may be available and the Possessor's Conscience free there are required many Conditions and Circumstances which will hardly be found or verified in our case of England For first the Disposition of Christ's Vicar must be free without all constraint fear or respect of avoiding greater inconveniences and then the commutation ought to be with consent of Parties interessed or that have claim if there be any as here are many to wit all Religious Orders and other Ecclesiastical People besides the Successors and Kindred of them that gave the Lands which would hardly agree to let the said Livings to be utterly alienated as they are Moreover the Commutation to be good in Conscience ought to be to so good an use or better for the time present and glory of God than was the first Institution of the Givers and Founders and which of themselves might be presumed if they were alive again and saw the circumstances of our Times that they would allow or not mislike of the same All which is so far off from our English case as all Men of judgment do easily see In respect of the World also and of temporal Justice there is no great security to the Possessors of these Lands without some such sound Order and Agreement as this is for that ever there will be murmuring and pushing at them and their Children and as Religious Orders shall come to grow and wax strong in England again they will have a saying to their old Tenants Invaders or Detainers of their Lands one way or other and it would be a ground of infinite suits and troubles and as the Prince should be affected for the present or interessed in the matter one way or other so would he favour or disfavour all which would be matter of great inconveniences and wholly cut off by this other way Thirdly It would follow by this manner of Restitution that the Church of England would be furnished again quickly to wit within the space of five or six Years which might be the time allowed for the aforesaid Council of Reformation to dispose of things of more variety of Religious Orders Houses Abbys Nunneries Hospitals Seminaries and other like Monuments of Piety and to the purpose for the present good of our whole Realm than ever it was before the Desolation thereof so as the words of St. Paul in a certain sense would be verified Vbi abundavit delictum ibi superabundavit gratia I say of more variety of Religious Monuments and more to the purpose for the present good of England for that they would not be so great perhaps nor so Majestical nor yet so rich nor would be needful for the beginning but rather in place of so great Houses and those for the most part of one or two or three Orders and those also contemplative that attended principally to their own Spiritual good and for that purpose were builded ordinarily in places remote from Conversation of People there might be planted now both of these and other Orders according to the Condition of those Times lesser Houses with smaller Rents and numbers of People but with more perfection of Reformation Edification and help to the gaining of Souls than before and these Houses might be most multiplied that should be seen to be most profitable to this effect And in this manner might England in small space become again the most excellent and best furnished Country in the World for variety and perfection of Religious Houses and other like Works and Monuments of Piety Fourthly would follow of this Restitution the Stay Pillar and Foundation of all other good Works to be done and of the whole external reparation of our English Church which may be made or much holpen by this common Purse and without this will hardly or never be done For that the necessity will be infinite and Reparations wonderfully great that will be needful after so long a Tempest Storm and Shipwrack Catholicks will be poor for divers Years and the Works will be many great and costly that must be done as namely The variety of Monasteries and Religious before-mentioned both for Men and Women repairing enlarging and multiplying of Churches increasing of poor Benefices restoring of Hospitals provision of free Schools erection of Seminaries both for the Youth of our Nation as also for others round about us infected of whose reduction we must also have care The founding of publick Lectors in our Universities and assisting many particular Colleges that lack Maintenance and Rent and a thousand particular wants needs and necessities more than are and will appear in the beginning for the new setting up of our Catholick Church again for which if we have not some such common Purse as this is the matter will go very slowly forwards and the Reformation never such as it ought to be Wherefore this point of restoring Abby-Lands with the moderation which I have said is to be holpen set forward and urged most earnestly by all such as have God's Zeal in them and desire a good Reformation in England And whosoever should be contrary or backward in this matter either for his own interest or for his Friends or of vain fear policy coldness or lack of fervour he were not to be heard seeing the reason alledged for it together with the facility to compass and perform the same are so notorious and evident and therefore not only the principal Persons of the Realm who may farther or hinder the same were to be disposed and dealt withal before hand but even the Prince and Catholick King that God shall give us and his Holiness also were to be prevented in this point as the most principal and important for all our work And of the Prince it were to be wished that he would promise or vow to Almighty God by way of Oblation That if he give him good success in the establishing of his Crown and the Catholick Religion he will for his part restore in the manner before mentioned all that he shall find invaded or retained by the Crown thereby to give example and
to furnish all places with particular Curates and Pastors which may be by God's grace and good diligence of this Council in erecting and furnishing Seminaries within the space of some five or six years that is before this Council shall resign over their authority And in the mean space the best means of supplying the common Spiritual needs of England would be perhaps that no Priests besides Bishops Deans Archdeacons and the like that are needful for the Government of the rest should have any particular assignation or interest in any Benefice but only a sufficient Pension allowed him by the Council of Reformation or Bishop of the Diocess for his convenient maintenance and his Commission to Preach Teach hear Confessions and all other Exercises of Priestly Function And when the Council of Reformation were to leave their charge then might they take a view of all the Priests in their times or before and according to each Man's talent and good account given of himself in this time of tryal to place them in Benefices But yet with this express Proviso and Condition That they may be removed again from the same Benefices to a worse or to none at all if they give not Satisfaction in their Function which only Bridle may chance to do more good than all the Laws and Exhortations in the World and it would be good sometimes to put it in Execution to promote some in higher Benefices and thrust down others to lower by way of Visitation when cause is offered And one thing before all others will be of very great moment for this Council to put in practice which is That presently at the beginning they do publish an Edict or Proclamation with all severity commanding under pain of great Punishment That no Religious or Ecclesiastical Person whatsoever do enter into the Realm without presenting himself before the Council within so many days after his entrance and there to shew the cause why he cometh and the Licence and Authority by which he cometh and to stand to the Determination of the Council for his aboad or departure again for if this be not done and observed with all rigour many scandalous light and inconstant People partly upon novelty and partly upon hope to gain will repair presently to England and do great hurt by their Example And when this Door is once stopped it will be easie for this Council to write to all the Heads of Religious Orders that are in other Countries to send them such a number of exemplar and reformed Men or Women to begin to plant the said Religious in England as shall be thought expedient and be demanded And for that Religious Orders have been more defac'd dishonoured and persecuted in our Realm than in any Christian Country in the World perhaps it would be convenient to make such an amends and recompence as is not besides in any other Kingdom to wit that all the approved Religious Orders that are in the Church of God should be called into England and placed joyntly in the City of London for that at least it is to be presumed that this City would be capable of all and from thence they might be derived afterwards by little and little into other places of the Realm as Commodities were offered and as Men's Devotions should require and as they should be proved to be most agreeable and profitable to the State of our Country but altogether to be in London and that in the perfection of their first Institution would be a most excellent thing and a priviledge above all other Kingdoms in the World where all Religious Orders are not seen together and much less in the perfection of their first institute and observance which ought to be the Condition of admitting any Order into England now at our next Reformation be they Men or Women to the end that the greater Glory of God be procured in all things And for more easie effectuating of this there may be taken order that Religious Men and Women be called and admitted only from the Parts and Countries for beginning this great work of England where it is known that their Order is reformed and hath some that observe the first perfection of their Rule and in our days divers Countries have And with this one Observation only about Religious Orders and People England would be the most eminent Country of Christendom as hath been said In the beginning of Religious Houses in England care may be had that such be builded and most multiplied as be most needful and profitable for the time present and do apply their labours to action and to the help also of others and that before all the rest Seminaries and Colleges be built and put in order for the more ease of our Clergy And as for old and ancient Religious that appertain most to Contemplation though also they be not to be omitted yet when in every Shire there were one of a sort planted for a beginning and indowed with sufficient Rent for a competent number that would observe their first institution it were no evil entrance for that quickly the Devotion of Good People would increase the same and so would England come in small time to be furnished with more variety of Monasteries and Religious Monuments and of much more edification than when it flourished most Nunneries also for refuge of Virgins and of the devoutest sort of Womenkind were to be set up and the most of Observant Orders and of most edification were first to be planted for example and encouragement of others It were also to be considered whether some new Military Order of Knights were to be erected in our Realm for exercise and help of our young Gentlemen and Nobility as in other Countries we see it And as for England in times past it had only the Order of St. John of Malta wherein now perhaps there may be some difficulties at first for that we have no Knights left of our Nation in that Order to train the rest and to begin it only with strangers may seem hard And secondly For that albeit their institute be good and holy to fight against the Turk and other Infidels yet is Malta far off and these Ages have brought forth many more Infidels and Enemies near home to wit Hereticks and thereby the binding of young Gentlemen which live abroad in the World in Wealth Liberty Ease and Conversation also with Women to perpetual Chastity by Vow as Knights of Malta be without giving them the means and helps that other Religious Men have to keep the same which are Disciplines and restraint from Company and the like has also his difficulties as both reason and experience doth teach us and the examples of some other Countries do prove as namely of Spain where for avoiding of difficulties they have procured Dispensation from the Pope that the Knights of the Military Order of St. James Alcantara Calatrava and the like may Marry Wherefore some are of Opinion That it were good
pious Men may have Commission to consult what were to be redressed about the common Laws either for learning teaching or practice of the same to the end the Prince and Parliament might afterwards determine thereof And the like about our Colleges Halls and manner of reading both of Philosophy and Divinity Physick Civil and Common Laws and other Sciences in the Universities And amongst other Points to consider whether a Third University were not necessary in the North parts of England as at Durham Richmond New-Castle or the like place in these quarters for the better polishing of those parts towards Scotland and planting learned Men in the same seeing they have need and that the other two Universities which we have already are both of them far towards the South and many of the North parts cannot so conveniently send their Children unto them And divers other Countries have three Universities within much less circuit than these three would be A like Consideration also might be whether it were not expedient to have a third Archbishoprick in England for example at Bristol or thereabouts which might have for his Suffragant Bishopricks those of the West Country and more parts of Wales that lye near about And hereby might the Archbishoprick of Canterbury's charge and labour be eased much and the Metropolitan Visitations from three Years to three Years more commodiously performed and yet sufficient priviledges and preeminence left to the said Archbishop and Primate of Canterbury according to the ancient dignity of the said Church In like manner it may be put in Deliberation whether the number of Bishops in some part of the Realm were not to be increased for the better governing of the Clergy or at leastwise that their circuits were better divided some of them being at the present very ample and laboursome as Lincoln York and some other and in some other places perhaps the Livings of some other Bishopricks were to be augmented for better maintaining of the Dignity though ordinarily this is the least want of our Bishops in our Realm and the authority of the Place is better maintained by opinion of Gravity Learning Wisdom and Holiness than by much abundance of Riches CHAP. IX There ensue more matters that appertain to the Council of Reformation THough I have touched divers points yet follow there more belonging to this Council among which one very special is as hath been signified before the particular care that ought to be had of erecting of Seminaries at the very beginning for the encrease of the Clergy and this in every Bishoprick according to the Order of the Council of Trent And before that Men be interessed in the Livings either of Bishopricks or Benefices all the Ecclesiastical Livings of the Realm might be searched what each one might contribute to the erections and maintenance of these Seminaries which may be at such an easie rate as none had need to feel it and yet may the Furniture for Education of English youth be such by these means as no Realm in the World will have the like and all these Seminaries may be divided into two or three parts according to the number of the Universities or Archbishopricks and every University have one great Seminary wherein only the course of Divinity and Philosophy may be read and in the other abroad that are subordinate to these may be read Grammar Humanity and Rhetorick alone and as the Scholars shall grow fit they may be transferred to the great Seminaries of the Universities The like care must be had for well ordering of Grammar-Schools what Books are to be read and what manner of Masters are to be allowed as also for other Schools for Children Writing Reading and casting of Accounts by Arithmetick which greatly doth awaken and sharpen the wits of young Children and make them the more able Men for their Commonwealth if it be taught with care and good order as in other Countries it is where Children are wont to be examined in publick and made to Compose Divide and Multiply numbers upon the suddain and without Book and rewards proposed to them that do best And in all Schools must there be particular order also for teaching of the Christian Doctrine and divers proofs appointed for the same Publick and private Libraries must be searched and Examined for Books as also all Book-binders Stationers and Booksellers Shops and not only heretical Books and Pamphlets but also prophane vain lascivious and other such hurtful and dangerous Poysons are utterly to be removed burnt suppressed and severe order and punishment appointed for such as shall conceal these kind of Writings and like order set down for printing of good things for the time to come It would be of great importance that in every City or great Shire Town there should be set up a certain poor Man's Bank or Treasury that might be answerable to that which is called Monte della Pieta in great Cities of Italy to wit where poor Men might either freely or with very little interest have Mony upon Sureties and not to be forced to take it up at intolerable Usury as oftentimes it happeneth to the utter undoing and general hurt of the Commonwealth and for maintenance of these Banks some Rents or Stocks of Mony were to be assigned by the Council of Reformation out of the common Purse at the beginning and afterwards divers good People at their deaths would leave more and Preachers were to be put in mind to remember the matter in Pulpits and Curates and Confessors in all good occasions either of Testaments when they are made or of cases of Restitution when they should fall out and other such occasions The like good use were to be brought in that Ghostly Fathers in hearing Confessions and otherwise should admonish their Spiritual Children among other works of Piety to visit Hospitals and sick People as also publick Prisons and enjoin it some times for Penance and part of Satisfaction especially to principal People whose Example would do much good to others and by the Fact to themselves And to the end there should not be so much repugnance therein as commonly is wont to be in delicate Persons the Hospitals were to be kept fine cleanly and handsome and publick Prisons were to be inlarged with Courts and open Halls for People to visit them by day and relieve them with their Alms though by night they were kept more strait And above all other things convenient place is to be made in all Prisons to say and hear Mass and for Spiritual Men to make Exhortations to the Prisoners seeing that besides the chastisements of their Bodies the salvation of their Souls is also to be sought and oftentimes they are in better disposition to hear good Council and profit themselves thereby standing in the Prison than when they were abroad And for this effect only that is to say for looking to Prisoners and procuring the comfort relief and instruction of such as be in necessity therein divers
Societies and Confraternities are seen to be instituted in other Countries where Charity doth flourish and ought to be also in ours and the publick Prisons for this respect of the Shires were to be put in principal Towns and Cities where these Societies might be erected and an extract or summary of all the charitable works accustomed to be done in other great Cities by the Confraternities and other ways as namely in Rome Naples Milan Madrid and Seville were to be had and considered by our Council of Reformation and put in ure as much as might be conveniently in England A general Story of all the most notable things that have hapned in this time of Persecution were to be gathered and the matter to be commended to Men of Ability Zeal and Judgment for doing the same And when time shall serve to procure of the See Apostolick That due honour may be done to our Martyrs and Churches Chapels and other memories built in the place where they suffered and namely at Tyburn where perhaps some Religious House of the third Order of St. Francis called Capuchins or some other such of Edification and Example for the People would be erected as a near Pilgrimage or place of Devotion for the City of London and others to repair unto Before this Council make an end of their Office or resign the same which as before has been signified may be after some competent number of Years when they shall have settled and also secured the state of Catholick Religion and employed the Lands and Rents committed to their charge and this were to be done with the greatest expedition that might be it would be very much necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the conservation of that which they have planted For that during the time of their authority perhaps it would be best to spare the name of Inquisition at the first beginning in so new and green a State of Religion as ours must needs be after so many Years of Heresie Atheism and other Dissolutions may chance offend and exasperate more than do good but afterwards it will be necessary to bring it in either by that or some other name as shall be thought most convenient for the time for that without this care all will slide down and fall again What form and manner of Inquisition to bring in whether that of Spain whose rigour is misliked by some or that which is used in divers parts of Italy whose coldness is reprehended by more or that of Rome it self which seemeth to take a kind of middle way between both is not so easie to determine but the time it self will speak when the day shall come and perhaps some mixture of all will not be amiss for England and as for divers points of the diligent and exact manner of proceeding in Spain they are so necessary as without them no matter of moment can be expected and some high Council of Delegates from his Holiness in this affair must reside in the Court to direct and to give heart and authority to the other Commissioners abroad as in Spain is used or else all will languish Their Separations of their Prisons also from concourse of People that may do hurt to the Prisoners is absolutely necessary as in like manner is some sharp execution of Justice upon the obstinate and remediless Albeit all manner of sweet and effectual means are to be tryed first to inform and instruct the Parties by Conference of the Learned and by the Labour and Industry of Pious and Diligent Men for which effect some particular method and order is to be set down and observed and more attention is to be had to this for that it is the gain of their Souls than to the execution only of punishment assigned by Ecclesiastical Canons though this also is to be done and that with resolution as before hath been said when the former sweet means by no way will take place And finally this Council of Reformation is to leave the Church of England and temporal state so far forth as appertaineth to Religion as a Garden newly planted with all kind and variety of sweet Herbs Flowers Trees and Seeds and fortified as a strong Castle with all necessary defence for continuance and preservation of the same so as England may be a spectacle for the rest of the Christian World round about it And Almighty God glorified according to the infinite multitude of dishonours done unto him in these late Years And for better confirmation of all points needful to Religion it would be necessary that either presently at the beginning or soon after some National Council of the English Clergy should be gathered and holden and to consider in particular what points of Reformation the Council of Trent hath set down and to give order how they may be put in execution with all perfection And finally besides these points touched by me for the Council of Reformation and this National Synod to look upon many more will offer themselves when the time shall come no less necessary and important perhaps than these which their charity and wisdom and quality of their Office will bind them to deal in for God's Service and the publick weal And I have only noted these thereby to stir up their memory to think of the rest CHAP. X. Of the Parliament of England and what were to be considered or reformed about the same or by the same FOR that the English Parliament by old received custom of the Realm is the Fountain as it were of all publick Laws and settled Orders within the Land one principal care is to be had that this high Court and Tribunal be well reformed and established at the beginning for a performance whereof certain Men may be authorized by the Prince and Body of the Kingdom to consider of the points that appertain to this effect and among other of these following First of the number and quality of these that must enter and have Voice in the two Houses And for the higher House seeing that Voices in old time put also divers Abbots as the World knoweth it may be considered whether now when we are not like to have Abbots quickly of such greatness and authority in the Commonwealth as the old were it were not reason to make some recompence by admitting some other principal Men of these Orders that had interest in times past as for example some Provincials or Visitors of St. Benet's Order seeing that the said Order and others that had only Abbots in England are now reformed in other Countries and have therein Generals Provincials and Visitors above their Abbots and with the same Reformation it will be convenient perhaps to admit them now into our Country when they shall be restored and not in all points as they were before Secondly about the Lower House it may be thought on whether the number of Burgesses were not to be restrained to greater Towns
Times Men Matters and Occasions may chance to fall out very like or the same in England whensoever it shall be reduced to the Catholick Faith again great and special care is to be had lest semblable effect should also follow to the universal prejudice of the common cause wherefore this ought to serve as a preparative both for our Prince and People to put on the same pious and generous mind that Constantine the Great did to bear patiently with the infirmities of Men and remedy all matters the best he may and the People but especially Priests to beware of like deceit of the Devil and amongst other things if perchance in time of Persecution cause has been given or taken of offence or disgust between any person whatsoever that have laboured in God's Service and do tend all to one end to procure effectually now that it be altogether cut off and put in oblivion and this especially amongst the Clergy and by their means amongst others and if there should be any unquiet or troublesome Spirit found that under any pretence would sow or reap or maintain divisions that the Holy Apostles Counsel be followed with him which is to note and eschew him to the end that all may join chearfully and zealously to the setting up of this great and important work of Reformation And so much for Concord But as concerning example of good Life and to be Lanterns of the World I hope in Jesus there will be no great need at that day nor for that day now to call much upon our Clergy or at leastwise for some years after our Reduction they having received so abundant grace of Almighty God in this time of Persecution and so excellent a kind of Holy Education in our Seminaries as never perhaps any Clergy had in the World which Benefit of God ever ought to be a Spur unto them to be answerable to the same in their lives and works and to fear the most terrible sentence of St. Paul to the Hebrews about the hard and miserable case of such as after much and special grace received slide back again to their everlasting and most intolerable Damnation A blessed Servant of God in these our days cried out in a certain Memorial of his to the Council of Trent about matters of Reformation saying Take from us once if it be possible the shame and reproach of Israel which is the Evil and Idle Life of Clergy-men which cry ought ever to found in the Ears of our Clergy also for a watch-word and jointly to remember the Admonition of St. Paul no less necessary than this for them that are to labour in God's Vineyard which was That having meat and competent maintenance they should seek no farther but be content to labour willingly and liberally for so worthy a Master as is to pay them above all expectation or desire in the next Life Which Admonition is most important for moderating our appetites and avoiding of ambition greediness and contention when the day shall come though in England there will not want to give contentment also with abundance in temporal matters to all godly Men that shall labour there if his Divine Majesty vouchsafe to restore the same from his Enemies hands so as my hope is that our Clergy in every degree from the highest to the lowest will endeavour at that day to conform themselves to all rules of Reason Piety and Religion and to hearken gladly to any good Counsel or remembrance of Order and Discipline that shall be offered for theirs and the common good and with that I may presume to set down the Notes that hereafter do ensue CHAP. II. Of Bishops and Bishopricks in England BIshops and Prelates be Heads of the Clergy and if all ought to be Light and Salt how much more they that must lighten and season not only the Temporalty and Laity but all the rest of their own Order also who according to the example given them by their Prelate are wont to proceed And on the other side the best means for a Bishop to do much good in his Diocess is to have good Priests about him for that a Prelate without good Priests to help him is a Bird without Feathers to fly and to have good Priests he must make good Priests both by his Life Doctrine and other good means and especially by Seminaries for that Figs grow not on Thorns as our Saviour says and to have so great a Treasure it must cost both Labour Industry and Mony The Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops in England is commonly more than in divers other Countries and more respected and their ordinary inquiry upon dishonesty of Life or suspicion thereof is peculiar to England alone and of very great importance for holding Men in fear of carnal sins and for this cause to be continued and increased And albeit in some other Counties simple Fornication be not so much punished or pursued and inquired upon and that the Stews also be permitted for avoiding of greater inconveniences in respect of the different natures and complexions of the People yet by experience we do find that the same necessity of liberty is not in England and consequently in no wife to be brought in again for that it is an occasion of fall and of grievous temptations to many that otherwise would not have them That English Custom also of often Visitations by the Bishop and by his Councellors Officials and other Ministers and Probats of Testament to be made before them and the use of often administring the Sacrament of Confirmation to Children is very laudable and to be honoured and any other thing that may belong to the authority credit or good estimation of the Bishop or of his Function and Office and if for a time after the next change some hand were given to Bishops also in Temporal affairs as to be principal in all publick Commissions within the Shire it would greatly authorise Religion and assure the Country much more to the Prince It will appertain to the Council of Reformation to consider of the Revenues of each Bishoprick and where there wanteth sufficient to bear out decently that State then to add so much as shall be necessary yet are Bishops to be admonished saith Mr. John Avila that Christ willeth them to be Lights of the World and Salt of the Earth by their fervour of Religion Prudence and Vertues and not by abundance of great Riches and Pomp and he alledgeth a Canon of the first Council of Carthage which saith thus Episcopus habeat vilem supellectilem mensam victum pauperem dignitatis suae authoritatem fidei vitae meritis quaerat And upon this he addeth That much more hurt hath come to the Church of God by overmuch Wealth of Bishops than by their Poverty albeit he wisheth notwithstanding that they have sufficient with Moderation And he beseecheth the Council of Trent that as well of Bishops Livings as of Deanries Archdeaconries Rich
none at all if he deserveth it And that the Condition also be put by the Prince and Pope in providing of Bishopricks to wit that when ever the Prince or Archbishops shall require Visitors of His Holiness to visit any Bishop or Archbishop and shall find just cause to deprive him or put him down to a lower Bishoprick that it shall be lawful and that each Prelate may enter with this express Condition as also Deans Archdeacons Canons and the rest And that sometimes it be put in Execution for that this will be a continual Bridle and Spur to them when they know they have no certainty or perpetuity and as to the good it will be an occasion of perpetual promotion so to the other it will be a motive to look about them Order must be given by the Bishops for often meeting of the Clergy in Provincial Synods or otherwise to confer their doubts and to take light and incouragement the one of the other And for the better keeping of Unity both in Mind and Spirit and Actions and the old Canons Customs and old Ecclesiastical Ordinances of our English Church are to be brought in ure again as much as may be and as they serve profitably to our Times Whether it be convenient to have a Third Archbishop in England and some Bishopricks increased enlarged diminished or divided I have put it in Consideration before the Council of Reformation and so have no more to note in particular about this Chapter of Bishops but only to refer my self to that which in general the Holy Council of Trent has ordained about Reformation of Bishops which I do suppose ever as a Foundation to all that here or elsewhere is added for England alone at its next change to Catholick Religion CHAP. III. Of Deans Canons Pastors Curates and the rest of the Clergy AFter Bishops do follow the other inferiour Order of the Clergy to which may be apply'd so much of that which I have spoken before in the Chapter of Bishops as doth concern them And furthermore you may add the Advertisement and Ordinations of the Holy late Council of Trent about Reformation of Priests which were convenient should be put in Execution in England above all other Catholick Countries with Zeal and Devotion and what else I can remember that is particular to our Country or not touched by the said Council I shall endeavour to suggest in this place All Men will confess that Deans and Canons and other Ministers of Cathedral Churches at their first Institution and many years after did live in common and did eat together in one Hall or Refectory and that their Life and manner of Discipline was a community of one good and well ordered College as we read of those that lived under St. Augustin as their Bishop in the City of Hippo in Africa and of those that long after lived under St. Dominick as their Prior in the City of Osma in Spain and for this effect were the Closes or Cloisters built in every Cathedral Church for Canons to live together under one Lock and Discipline as hath been said and for this cause were they called Regular and the very name of Canon signifieth a Rule and in divers places yet of other Countries the same is observed though not with so great Exaction as from the beginning it was But now in England it might be restored to the first perfection again so as our Canons might live in common and be Exemplar Men of Life And if there should be any difficulty to obtain this of all yet at leastwise that no Man live abroad or alone but by particular leave and Dispensation And that such as will live in Community may have some priviledges above the rest and that ordinarily of these Men may be chosen Deans Archdeacons Heads of Colleges Bishops and other Dignities so as to live Exemplarly may have some priviledge and enlargement above the rest for which cause also it would be good that some ordinary degrees and steps were known in the Commonwealth for Ecclesiastical Men to ascend and to go up by And first Seminaries and ordinary Colleges in the Universities and from thence to be Heads of Houses and Fellows of the exempted and priviledged Colleges of which I shall speak more in the Chapter following concerning Universities and from those to be Canons in the Cathedral Churches and after to pass to other Dignities Prelacies and Bishopricks Among which Degrees of Promotion no one is more fit to try Men and to make them sufficient for higher places than Canonneries if they were used to this effect and Men ordinarily taken from thence to other preferments and this according to their Merits only and behaviour in the same and not for favour kindred and other respects And still the most virtuous wise and orderly is to be preferred and especially those that are pious and Men of Alms though they were somewhat inferiour to the rest and that no troublesome unquiet idle vain heady proud or dissolute Men should be preferred though he were never so qualified otherwise but rather know certainly he should be put back from that place and with that express Condition to take his Canonry or other Dignity when he entereth as before hath been noted I have suggested before in the Chapter belonging to the Council of Reformation how that the scarcity of good and able English Priests being so great as it is like to be at the next change when so many places will be to fill as the greatness of such a Kingdom requireth the first care must be in all reason and good Law of prudence to furnish Bishopricks Deanries Archdeaconries and some such other principal charges of Jurisdiction and Government where only the English Men will be able to discharge the Office by reason of the Language and not Strangers But yet where no convenient provision can be made of the English Nation there to help our selves rather with some discreet and vertuous Men of other Countries for a time and those to be chosen and sent us only upon our Petition by zealous and good Bishops abroad than to leave the People wholly unfurnished namely for saying of Mass singing in the Quire of Cathedral Churches and Collegial and other such like Priestly Functions as by Men of other Languages may be performed with Condition that this shall be used only for a space until our Clergy shall be increased and no propriety of Benefices to be given to them but only competent Pensions and Allowance during their aboad in England which may be so long as they behave themselves well and give Edification to the People I have spoken also of English Preachers to be sent over the Realm alloting to every Bishop so many as may be had for that purpose and that he divide them as he shall think most needful and that for some few years at least it would be more commodious for the Publick and more liberty for the Preachers and Priests
those times And at these meetings Priests may be examined of these and like points and take direction of their Superiours and propose their doubts or difficulties which they have found in the course begun of setting up Religion and gaining of Souls And there might be ordained Sermons Conferences and Exhortations to be made at these meetings and certain learned Men appointed to examine and resolve their doubts which would be a great light and incouragement for them all to go forward in this Holy Work And this is so much as at this time cometh to my Mind about these matters needful to be remembred except I should add That the form of Apparel of our new English Clergy is to be reduced also to the measure and proportion of that Perfection and Edification which we desire to see in our Priests at the next change and that both vanity and novelty be avoided then and above all lightness and dissolution for which effect perhaps the best means will be to bring in use again as near as may be the old grave custom and fashion of Apparel that our Clergy-men used in ancient times whereof such as at that day shall be appointed to consult and treat of this matter will better be able to set down the particulars CHAP. IV. Of Seminaries Colleges Vniversities and Schools AS concerning Seminaries and Colleges for Institution and Increase of our Clergy-men at the beginning of the next change and how they ought to be erected in every Diocess or Bishoprick founded and provided for by Contribution of Ecclesiastical Benefices established with good Laws and necessary Priviledges provided of good Governors divided into divers Members or Parts according to the number of our Universities in England and that the lesser Seminaries abroad be subordinate to the greater of the said Universities and how that none commonly should be admitted to Priesthood but such as have been brought up and given good proof of themselves in these Seminaries or other Colleges of like Discipline Of all these points I say there hath been sufficiently spoken before in divers Chapters of this Memorial which need not be repeated in this place only I add that these great Seminaries which in the First Chapter of the Second Part of this Memorial I said were to be erected in the University for Heads of the other that were to be subject unto them abroad in every Diocess may serve also for that effect which Mr. John Avila required in the former Chapter which is for these to enter and be proved for a time who pretend to be Priests and that before they take Holy Orders they do dispose themselves duly by making the Spiritual Exercises and using of other means whereby to know and consider well what they take in hand and that such as be of best wits be applied to preaching and those of meaner to hear Confessions and those of Prudence Activity and sound approved Vertue to be imployed in Government and thus much of Seminaries of our own Country But now for help of other Countries also we ought to have some special care considering the Benefit that we have received by Seminaries to procure their Conversion so much as lies in us by the same means and for this purpose it would be a work of great Piety and Edification and partly also due that we should erect in our Country and namely in London where most concourse of Merchant Stangers are some number of Seminaries for the help of our Neighbours oppressed or infected with Heresie as namely Denmark divers parts near to us of Germany Poland Gothland Sweedland Scotland Muscovy and the Isles of Zeland from all which places store of youth might be had by reason of the concourse and Contraction of Merchants that daily come to London from those parts And by the Industry of some good Catholick Men that may be found or made in the said Countries by such zealous English Priests of our own as would be willing to employ themselves in this work and go thither also if need be among which most gladly the Writer of this Memorial would offer himself for one And so procuring and setting a certain sure manner of correspondence from these Kingdoms for their youth to come to us and putting in Spirit to them when they be with us together with learning for aiding of their Countries the like effect would follow in the end which we have seen and proved in England And Almighty God would be greatly glorified thereby and we should revive again the old glorious Piety and Zeal of our Ancestors the Saxons who after their own Conversion were Converters almost of all Nations round about them and this for this matter As for the Universities it is well known that they are the Fountains of all good Learning Policy and Government in the Commonwealth and therefore to be favoured nourished increased and those also which England hath are the most fair and best furnished for the material part which is for the number of Colleges and manner of Building Foundations and Commodities of Rents that be to be seen in all Christendom as they can testifie who have seen the one and the other though in other Countries also there be many goodly Universities in like manner which in the formal and more essential part do greatly exceed ours to wit in their good order of Discipline Number Quality Variety and Diligence of Readers abundance of Students and the like all which points also might be brought easily into ours and so make them absolutely the best of Europe and to be frequented also by multitudes of foreign Scholars seeing that maintenance is better cheap with us than any where else And this would be a point of much honour to our Nation And to bring all this to pass the first thing must be that large and ample Commission be given by the Prince and Parliament and confirmed also by the Pope to certain Men of Experience Learning and Wisdom for that purpose to see what is convenient to be ordained for those effects and times and for reducing of our Universities to the best utility of our Commonwealth having yet respect so far forth as no great inconvenience do ensue thereof to the old ancient Statutes Customs and Orders of the said Universities and Colleges and especially that the Founders be not deprived of any substantial part of their Holy Intentions And for that he that writeth this Memorial hath seen and informed himself of the chiefest Universities that be in Christendom and has had experience also of our own the principal parts he hath noted and seen to be worthy to be considered for the reforming or bettering of our English Universities are these which ensue First That the exceeding great multitude of Oaths which are wont to be given to them that take degree of School in our Universities be moderated or taken away for the easing of Men's Consciences and that some few principal and substantial Points only be given by
Oath and the rest commanded under pain of Temporal Punishments The reading of Sciences in particular Colleges doth greatly hurt and hinder the publick profit of Students in their Learning for neither so learned and substantial Readers can be had in private Colleges as were necessary to be publick Masters nor can the number of Schools be so great and chosen in every particular College or Hall as were convenient to furnish a course of any Science with reputation and profit whereof also ensueth that neither the Master nor his Scholars are able or much animated to go forward in the same For remedy of this the use of most Universities in foreign Countries is very good which is to have publick Lectures only in publick Schools that are fair and largely builded for the purpose and in them to have chosen publick Readers of great sufficiency for all Universities and that their wages be such and so honourable as they might well be able to live upon them without seeking of other shifts and that in no particular College there should be publick Lectures permitted except it were in time of Vacations or of some particular things that are not read in the publick Schools as of some points of Mathematicks the Languages or the like but rather that all Students of every College should be bound to hear their ordinary courses of Arts Sciences and Faculties in the common Schools or else not to have Licence to proceed or take Degree within the University and that in place of private Readers in particular Houses there should be appointed repetitors in every College whose Office should be to hear the daily Repetitions of such Lectures as are read in the publick Schools and to moderate and proceed in all Conferences and Disputations about the same and by experience it is found that this manner of study doth profit more in few Years than any other in many The ordinary wages of a publick Reader ought to be such as will move the principal part of learned Men to sue and stand for the same and to persevere in it when they have it At least some few Lectures ought to have this commodity annexed unto it though others may be of far less value to the end that upon hope to come at length to these greater Lectures by degrees learned Men be content to pass with the other of less moment for a time It might be considered whether it should not be good to have concurrence in every principal Lecture that is read in the common Schools as divers foreign Universities have to wit that two learned Men should read jointly Divinity and the like in Law and Physick in different Schools at the self same hour and upon the self same matter and subject so that Scholars be left free to go to which of the two they shall like best for by this means the two Concurrents will try who shall read best and have the most hearers And as for the number of Lectures that are to be read every Year or Quarter by the publick Master they may be set down and the portion of wages that answer them to every Lecture and how many Lectures soever the said Master shall fail to read by himself or by a sufficient substitute to be allowed by the University so much of his wages is to be deducted presently every Month or Quarter without all Remission and to be bestowed upon poor Scholars or other good uses as shall be most expedient And this is the only way to make publick Readers diligent and careful Touching the number of Lectures to be read publickly in best Universities they are these First For Divinity there can be no less than four at the least which are two in School-Doctrine one of the Scriptures and one of the Moral part alone commonly called Cases of Conscience In the Civil Law three are the least to wit one of the Institutes another of the Digests and a third of the Codex And in like manner in Physick one at least must be of the Speculative part and another of the Practical besides two other at certain seasons to wit of the Herbal and Anatomy All which Lectures are either wanting or very weak in our English Universities at this day And besides this since Heresie came in we have had no Lectures at all of Canon-Law which are to be reduced again though it may be put in Consultation whether it shall be needful to make it a distinct Science and Faculty from the Civil Law in England as it is in other Countries for Men may study it alone and take degree therein apart or rather that both the Civil and Canon-Law be made but one Faculty for that the Realm of England being not governed by the Civil Law as other Realms about us be there is very little use thereof but only in the Admiral 's Court and in some other few cases And whatsoever besides is decided by none of these two Laws in England but is commonly done by Rules of the Canon-Law as in the Court of Arches and in all other particular Courts and Tribunals of Bishops Commissaries Officials and the like so as these two Faculties may easily be joined in one in our Universities and be learned by the self same Men for the use of England And to the end that such as do study these two Faculties be better founded and furnished with variety of learning for Argument and Reason than commonly they are wont in some other places where Men study the Common Law alone without the help and furniture of all other Sciences It shall be good perhaps that such as mean to take degree in this Science of the Canons be not only bound first to have studied Humanity and Rhetorick but also their course of Logick and Philosophy as well as those that are to study the Faculties of Divinity and Physick and that no Man be permitted to take degree in these two Laws without having passed first his foresaid course of Philosophy and by this means the time and labour of study in these three principal Faculties of Divinity Laws and Physick will be equal Lectures also of lower Sciences must be provided for in the publick Schools with publick and sufficient Stipends as namely three Masters for the course of Philosophy one of Logick another of the Natural part and the third of Metaphysick and these three to go on successively every one reading out the whole course of the forenamed three Sciences so as every year they may begin one course of Logick for the whole University and another end with the Metaphysicks The Mathematicks also must have one Lecture if not more than one as also the Hebrew and Greek Tongues And to the end Scholars may not want to be hearers of these Lectures wherein sometimes there is difficulty the matter may be so tempered as those of the second and third Year of Philosophy may be bound to hear the parts necessary for them of Mathematick Sciences and those
a storm of injustice and iniquity by how much the more all parts and joints of equity both towards God and Man have been wrested and wronged therein by Hereticks and Atheists And first of all are to be redressed the open wrongs which have been done to our Catholicks for their Faith and Religion whether it were by shew or colour of Laws or by manifest Tyranny And secondly are to be remedied the known publick oppression of the common People by some that have been in authority as namely incroachments upon their Lands Tenements or the like as also the corrupt manner of proceeding of certain Quests and Juries both in matters of Life and Lands that in later days by the infection of Heresie have been accustomed to apply themselves to the favour of Magistrates in authority without regard of Right or Conscience One thing also in particular for very honour of our Realm and saving the Lives and Souls of infinite Men is greatly wished might be recommended to his Majesty and effectually redressed which is the multitude of Thieves that rob and steal upon the High-ways in England more than likely in any other Country of the World they being also oftentimes of no base Condition or Quality that do it but rather Gentlemen or wealthy Men's Sons moved thereunto not so much of poverty and necessity as of light estimation of the fault and hope of Pardon from the Prince whereby it cometh to pass that albeit the English Nation as by experience is found he not so much inclined to steal in secret as some other Nations are and that more are put to Death in England for punishment of that Fact than in many other Nations together yet is this enormity of robbing upon the High-ways much more frequent and notorious in England than any where else in Christendom which is a great infamy to our Government and hurt to the Common-wealth For remedy though divers means may be suggested whereof I shall have occasion to speak in the two Chapters following yet one principle is thought to be if it were once known that the Prince would hardly or never dispense or give pardon in that offence but upon great rare and extraordinary occasion For albeit many obtain not this pardon yet the very hope thereof encourageth others to attempt the Fact And we see that in some Countries and especially in Spain above all other that I have seen though the Realm be much bigger and have many more fit places to commit such offences than ours yet very rarely it is heard that publick robberies are committed upon the High-ways though in private and secretly is no Country perhaps more which principally is attributed unto the certain and constant publick Justice that is done upon them without remission that commit the Fact if they be found and to the great diligence used for finding them out by the particular pursuit of a certain Company and Confraternity of Men appointed for the purpose and peculiarly dedicated to this work named the Holy Brotherhood which is endued with many priviledges and sufficient authority for the same The which thing is wished also might be brought into England and made subordinate to the new Religious Order of Knights to be instituted both for the defence of Sea and Land which I have spoken of in the First Part of this Memorial And albeit the strictness of the Prince be necessary in giving Pardons for cutting off all hopes to the Malefactors yet were it to be wished that the rigour of our Temporal Laws for putting Men to death for theft of so small quantity or value as is accustomed in England were much moderated and some lesser bodily punishments invented for that purpose as also that some means of moderation wherein the manner of quick dispatch of Men's lives by Juries impanelled in haste and forced to give Verdict of Life and Death upon the suddain without allowing space either for them to inform themselves or for the accused to think duly upon his defence or to help himself by any Proctor Attorney contrary witness or other such aides as both reason and other Country Laws and equity it self seemeth to allow whereof I shall speak more when I shall come to speak of our Common-Laws of England in the Fourth Chapter of this Part. And for that it will not be enough to plant only Religion Justice and other such parts of a true Christian Commonwealth but also it will be needful to uphold maintain and defend the same It must appertain also unto a Catholick Prince whom God shall bless with the Crown of England to shew himself a continual Watch-man over the same and with his vigilance provide for the perpetuation thereof and first of all to assure the Succession of the Crown by good provision of Laws which Hereticks of later years have so much confounded and made so uncertain and in such manner must be link the state of Catholick Religion and Succession together as the one may depend and be the assurance of the other Moreover his Majesty must see due execution from time to time done of such good Laws and Ordinances as to these and like purposes by himself and the Realm shall be at the beginning determined and set down for which effect it seemeth that the custom of some other wise Catholick Princes of foreign Countries is much to be commended who do use both ordinarily and at other times unexpected to send Visitors to divers parts of their Realms as namely to Universities and to all Courts of Law and Justice and other places where any great abuse and excess may be committed touching the Prince's Service or other State of the Commonwealth which Visitors being Men of great integrity skill and wisdom and furnished with sufficient Authority and Commission to fear no Man do return back true Information of that which is well or amiss to the Prince and his Council who after diligent view and deliberation do cause the same to be published and all Parties to be punished or rewarded according to their merits which is a great Bridle to hold things in order Furthermore for that it is of great moment for the Prince to know and be truly informed of the quality and merit of such of his Subjects as he is to prefer to Offices and charge in the Common-wealth either Spiritual or Temporal it were necessary his Majesty from time to time as for Example from three years to three years or the like according as some other godly Princes also use should cause certain Lists and Catalogues to be given him of Men's names by divers secret ways and by Persons of credit discretion and good Consciences touching all such Subjects in every Country Province Universities Cathedral Churches Houses of Law and particular Colleges as for their learning wisdom and other good qualities were fittest to be imployed and preferred by his Majesty and that these Lists and Memoires should be often viewed by the Prince himself and by his Council
and be registred in some Book by some Men of Confidence about his Majesty free from all suspicion of Interest or Corruption and appointed only to attend unto this affair and to take the Memoires that shall be sent from all places which Memoires Lists and Catalogues might be renewed from time to time as before hath been mentioned and hereby would come to pass that the Prince by tract of time should come to be perfectly informed of the merits and abilities of all his principal Subjects and therefore again would ensue that worthy Men without seeking and labouring for it as commonly they are more modest than others should be sought out and preferred and that ambitious and unworthy which ordinarily are the most importunate suiters should be restrained and put back to the comfort of all good Men and to the inestimable benefit of the Commonwealth and singular help of God and the Prince's Service And as this would be one great means to advance worthy Men so is there another of no less importance or piety for the amending of such as run awry which easily might be performed by a careful Catholick Prince to the great benefit of many and to his own singular commodity both with God and Man And this is that some special good Man about his Majesty which is discreet pious and learned as for example his Confessor or the like should be appointed to take the Relations and Informations which do come and would come in such a case of principal Men's behaviour through his Realm both Ecclesiastical and Temporal especially of such as are in Government and Authority and that when any evil fame or report should come of any Man 's bad proceeding or notorious negligence in his duty or manner of life and were confirmed by many ways for light of credit he ought not to be considering the natural inclination of Men to speak rather evil than good of such especially as are in authority then should this person confer the same with his Majesty and by his Licence though as of himself by the way of Friendship admonish the said Party of the opinion and report that is of him to the end he might look about him and amend that which were amiss before the Prince should be forced to take knowledge thereof or put his hand in the matter And I am of opinion That this only Art of Brotherly Correction which is commanded straitly by God to all Men but especially to Governors and such as have care over others though little used now in the World if this one means I say were brought into England among other good Orders now at the beginning and put some times in Execution by our Catholick Prince's commandment it would remedy more evils and procure him more hearty good-will with the People and merit with Almighty God than any thing else that could be devised for this purpose Many other such-like things might be here suggested for the happy day that we expect when God shall please to send us this Catholick Prince but that both these and all other points besides that are treated in this Memorial if any shall be judged worthy of Observation will appertain principally unto him as the head of all to see them set forward established and preserved I shall descend to no more particulars in this place but remit me to that which in other Chapters also is recorded recommending the whole to his Majesty's Protection and zealous furtherance so far forth as they shall be found to tend to the greater glory of God and advancement of the Weal publick And for that divers good Books and notable Discourses are abroad also in Print about this Subject and do lay before good Princes Eyes many excellent points for their better help light and direction in Government I do remit my self also in many points and among other to a notable Treatise come forth this very year in the Spanish Tongue written by a grave and learned Man of the Society of Jesus named Father Ribadeneira the Title whereof is Of the Religion and Vertues that a Christian Prince ought to have for the well governing and preservation of his Estates which in my Opinion is a right excellent piece of work and worthy to be read by all good Princes for that it will put them in mind of many rare and necessary points fit to be remembred embraced and put in execution and whatsoever Prince would read it diligently or appoint every day at his best leasure but some little part thereof to be read unto him with attention and he would continue this Exercise with desire to please God to discharge his Conscience and to govern well his Commonwealth he would hardly do amiss in my Opinion and should have need of little other Counsel for taking the right way in all his occasions purposes and affairs CHAP. III. Of the Nobility and Gentry of England and matters appertaining to their Estate BY the Nobility of England we do understand according to the fashion of other Countries not only Noblemen of Title but Gentlemen Esquires Knights and other degrees that be above Yeomen Husbandmen and the Commonalty In which inferiour sort of Nobility beneath Barons I mean of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen there is not that distinction observed betwixt their degrees in foreign Countries as is in ours and I take ours to be far better and the more laudable Order This Nobility then and Gentry being the chief Members of our Realm are carefully to be preserved by our Catholick Prince in their ancient honours dignities priviledges and whatsoever injury or disestimation hath been laid upon them these later years by some base Heretical Persons in authority it is to be removed and particular inquiry made by Commissioners appointed by the Parliament for this purpose wherein and in what points the Nobility of England have been injured dishonoured or oppressed in these later years of Heresie to the end that supplication may be made to the Catholick Prince for remedy thereof And as the ancient Nobility of England in times past came to that dignity in the Commonwealth and to their credit and estimation both with Prince and People first for their Piety and Zeal in Christian Religion and secondly for their Fidelity and Valour in Service of their Prince and Country so their Heirs and Posterity must conserve the same by the self-same means And first of all it will behove them greatly to take it for a point of chief honour greatness and Nobility at this next Conversion of our Realm to shew their eminent zeal in furthering Religion and the Reformation before-mentioned in all they can both by their authority credit power and zeal and edifying also other Men by their Example of Life as by frequenting the Holy Sacraments in their own Persons publickly and often and by joyning chearfully and piously as their fore-Fathers were wont to do with the Clergy and other good Men to further the advancement of God's cause in all points and
in particular by yielding and agreeing willingly to the order that shall be taken for the moderate restitution of Ecclesiastical Lands before mentioned And this for Religion But for the other points of Chivalry and acts of Arms our Nobility is by all means to be incouraged to exercise themselves and their Children therein according to the laudable example of their Ancestors who for the same were renowned both at home and abroad And in particular it were to be wished That they should shew their valour against hereticks and Enemies of God and his Church of these our days seeing they are so many and so pernicious as well at home among us as also in divers Kingdoms round about us whereas their Ancestors to fight against Infidels less dangerous and odious to God than these Hereticks undertook long costly and perillous journeys into Asia and other Countries And for better performance hereof I mean of fighting against Hereticks it may be considered as before I have noted whether it shall not be more convenient for the exercise of our Nobility and for the better provision for their younger Sons that some new kind of Religious order of Knights were appointed in England instead of the other of St. John of Malta whose Seat and Residence is very far from England and the observance of the Rule much fallen from the first perfection and hard to be reduced or kept by younger Gentlemen that live at liberty abroad especially touching the Vow of Chastity as hath been before declared As for other private Exercises and Customs ordinarily used by the Nobility and Gentry of England wherein they do exceed much the custom of other Countries as namely in the much use of Hawking Hunting keeping of great Houses many Servants much Hospitality and the like it is to be noted that as in it self they are things honourable and fit for Nobility being used with moderation that is convenient so for many reasons they being old customs of their Ancestors are not to be disswaded nor left off but rather continued for avoiding of greater inconveniences though with such Reformation as is needful for taking away or lessening of such excesses as sometime creep in As for example that those exercises before-mentioned of Noblemen's pass-times be not hurtful either to poor Men their Neighbours or to their own Devotion and acts of Religion whereunto they are bound as of hearing of Mass Sermons and the like and that their Housekeeping be moderated from gluttony dissolution and excess of drinking and that their keeping of many Servants be limited with these Conditions first That no Man keep any more than he can well maintain of himself and that wholly giving them sufficient whereon to live without necessity to attempt any other unlawful shifts or means for their maintenance as often doth happen in such Servants as being otherwise poor do take only Livery-Coats of their Lords and Masters for to shift thereby under their countenances and authority The second Condition is That these Servants be kept from idleness with some honest exercise either of labour or recreation and that they be taught the necessary points of Catholick Religion and Christian Doctrine and that some good Books be provided for them in places where they wait wherewith to entertain themselves and be moved to vertue and diverted from sin and that some peculiar account be taken of their Christian demeanour and of their going to Confession and the like for unto all this and more too is a good Catholick Lord and Master bound concerning his Servants A third Condition of keeping Servants or rather an advice to good Lords and Masters may be that they have care to provide for their Servants according to their merit not only for the time of their present service but some stay of certain living afterwards to the end that having spent their youth in their Lord's and Master's service they fall not afterwards into misery and being forced to seek their living by unlawful and dishonest means to dishonour both their Masters and themselves wherein also may be considered that if their Lords and Masters should die without providing for them at all or recompensing their service whether it were not convenient they should have Actions by our Law against his Heirs for some honourable satisfaction as the Civil Law and Statutes of other Countries do allow And thus much for Servants For Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children it were greatly to be wished that such care were taken for their Education first in Piety and then in learning and other qualities fit for their Estate that their Prince and Commonwealth might afterwards imploy them worthily in occasions and affairs that shall be offered and not be forced to prefer other of far meaner birth for the defects and insufficiency of the Nobility And first of all to speak in order though it be not necessary for Heirs and Elder Brothers to study so much as the Younger for that they are to live on their Lands yet for sustaining the place wherein they are to live some learning is necessary but much more that they be brought up in Order and Discipline and that they be taught to know God and themselves seemeth may best be done either in the Seminaries and Convictories whereof I have spoken before or in some Colleges of the Universities when they shall be reformed and brought in order again and some part of this also may be taught at home by private Masters if their Parents be discreet and careful though this be somewhat hard and seldom taketh great effect by the overmuch indulgence of the said Parents as also by the flattery of Servants that ordinarily are wont to instil nothing but pride and vanity into their young Masters that are brought up among them so as the Education of Nobility and Gentry is much more effectual abroad than at home As for the manner of their Wardships begun in England with very good intention though different from all other Nations and of late years perverted by Heretical Governors against all equity to the Wards and Pupils both in their Livings and Educations and Match of Marriage that some good remedy and moderation may be had in this matter by dealing with the Catholick Prince which shall be as the Deputies of the Parliament shall best devise and suggest About the younger Sons of Noblemen and Gentlemen it is to be considered That the Common-Laws of England are much less favourable and beneficial unto them The Civil and Imperial observed in other Countries are such as do allow them equal Portions with their eldest Brethren of all the Goods Chattels and Lands of their Fathers which be not intailed as of all that also which has accrued or been augmented by means of the said intailed Lands or otherwise whereas the Laws commonly of England leave all to the elder Brother's disposition and pleasure if the Father chance to dye without taking particular order in the same himself whereby many younger Brethren of
good birth are driven oftentimes to great extremities and to undecent shifts for their maintenance to no small inconvenience to the whole Commonwealth Wherefore it may be thought upon whether some moderation in this point were not convenient to be put whereby younger Children might have some occasion to a reasonable Portion at least of their Parents Substance whereby to maintain themselves somewhat conformable to their Birth State and Condition In foreign Catholick Countries the younger Children of Nobility and Gentry are greatly helped and advanced by the Church wherein they are preferred before others in authority and dignity if their merits of learning and vertue be equal whereby it cometh to pass that these younger Brethren giving themselves to study upon hope of these preferments do come in time to be excellent Men and of more authority and living than their Elder Brothers which is a great stay for the Nobility and no less for the defence of Catholick Religion by the union of these Noblemen of the Clergy with others of their Lineage Kindred Acquaintance and Friendship of the Temporalty and consequently the custom is to be brought into England if Noblemen's Sons would make themselves fit Wherein there will be much less difficulty than in times past when that sweet and clear manner of teaching the Latin Tongue and other Sciences shall be brought into England which is used in other places and that other hard dark and base custom of so much beating of youth be removed and taken away About Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters it is also to be considered that as many of them by all likelihood when Catholick Religion shall be restored will betake themselves to Religious and Monastical Life as in other Countries we see so shall their Parents be much eased thereby and the better able to provide for the Marriage of their other Daughters remaining in the World in which point notwithstanding seeing that the excesses of our times in giving great Dowries is grown to be at such a height that it impoverisheth oftentimes the Parents it seemeth a point worthy the consideration whether it were not expedient that the Parliament should limit the quantity of Dowries according to the State and Condition of every Man which no doubt would greatly ease the Nobility and Gentry of England and be profitable for many respects And touching the assurance of these Dowries as also for the Jointures of Lands the Laws of other Countries and ours are far different and good it were for us to take the best of them both And first for Dowries in other Countries they are more assured unto the Wife than in ours for that there the said Dowry never entreth into the Husband's Possession in propriety but only is put out to Rent and assurance given for it of which Rent only the Husband may dispose during his Wive's Life but no ways spend or diminish or impawn the Principle which seemeth a better order and more sure for the Wife than to leave all free to the Husband's Disposition as in our Country where oftentimes an unthrift matches with a rich Woman spendeth all she hath without remedy or redress The Wife also in other Countries if she has no Children may dispose of all her Dowry to good works or to any other uses that she will by her Testament in secret and sealed and not to be opened before she be dead And this may she do without obligation to leave any part to her Husband except she list which is some motive also for her Husband to use her well while she liveth upon hopes to be her Heir or Executor and if she hath Children then may she dispose only of the fifth part to good works whereof nothing is allowed by our Laws of England and it seemeth a great defect and may be considered whether it be not to be amended But on the other side touching Jointures the Condition of Women is better in England than in other places for that whether they bring Dowries or not by our Laws of England they may claim a Third of their Husband's Lands which in other Countries is not so where if they bring no Dowry they can claim no Jointure at all neither any part of their Husband's Goods except he please of his free-will to leave them any thing and if they bring Dowry then shall they have their whole Dowry again at their Husband's Death and more than this the half of all such Goods and Moveables as were gained since their Marriage by reason of the said Dowry or otherwise which is less prejudicial to the Son and Heir than the other of England but yet which of them be absolutely better may be a matter perhaps disputable And thus much for Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children It shall not be amiss to pass to their Servants whom also they ought to have in place of Children and to comfort defend and cherish the desiring to see them wealthy and well able to live according to the ancient Love and Charity of English Land-Lords towards Vassals Subjects and Tenants which Love and tender care having been greatly broken and diminished in these later years by the impiety avarice riotousness and other disorders brought in by Heresie is to be restored again by Catholick Religion and Land-lords are to be taught to make such account of their Tenants as of them by whom they live and also by the Sweat of their Brows do suck and draw out of the Earth Commodities whereby Noblemen and Gentlemen are maintained at ease And for that many Landlords of these times have begun to raise their Rents and to impeach that old and most laudable tenure of England of old Rent of Assize it is to be understood that no one thing among the Customs of England seemeth to divers Men that have seen also other Countries of more importance to be kept observed and to be brought back again to the old use than this manner of letting and setting Lands for term of Life after the rates of the old Rents and that no one thing in times past hath been a greater ground of abundance and felicity in our Commonwealth both to Nobility and Commonalty than this honourable custom of Leasing their Lands for that it is generally profitable both to the Landlord and Tenant and Commonwealth in particular to the Landlord for that he setting down his Houshold and framing his Expences according to the rate of his old Rent which is certain may easily still be before hand and hold himself in abundance with the extraordinary incomes that shall enter by Leases Fines and other such casualties and in like manner the charges of Subsidies Tenths Loanes and other publick Impositions laid upon him by Parliament or other means they are ever according to his Rents in the Queen's Book which are far less and more easie than if he were charged according to the Portion of rack Rents To the Tenant also this way of taking Leases after the rate of old Rent is very
commodious for that albeit he pay sometimes a good fine at his first entrance yet liveth he at an easie Rent afterwards and leaveth a certain and sure provision for his Children and commonly the Father payeth the Fine of his Son so as the Son entreth without any burthen at the beginning And if one Landlord take great Fines which also were to be moderated yet another will come of a better Conscience who will take less and so the Tenant liveth always in hope and if the worst happen he is sure to be preferred ever before others paying as another Man doth which is a great preferment and very honourable also to the Landlord to have Families continue in his Lands for divers Ages whereby they are more knit unto him in hearty good will and true Allegiance and being wealthy their Riches are his at commandment both for his own service and his Prince which is not so where Tenants are rackt and changed often and made so poor both in love and substance as they are neither willing nor able to do any thing at all for their Landlords when need requireth To the Commonwealth this manner of tenure is wonderful beneficial for that by this means the Lands come to be well manured tilled plowed planted fertile and abundant For that every Tenant holdeth the same as good as for his own Lands and knoweth that neither he nor his Posterity shall be deprived thereof where on the contrary side in divers Countries for that Lands are let only from year to year or for very few years together and that all Rents are raised and rackt to the uttermost it is pitiful to see how bare and needy common Husbandmen be and how miserably the whole Land lyeth open and naked without Hedge Ditch or Tree every Man only endeavouring to draw out the heart and substance thereof for the small time he hath to use it being well assured that if he should manure or cherish the same another would give more and take it from him the year following where they neither love the Lands nor the Landlords but only follow their present Commodity and both the Commonwealth the Prince the Landlords and themselves receive great damage thereby as hath been declared Wherefore it may be considered both by the Prince and Parliament whether it were not good that so honourable ancient and so profitable a custom of letting Lands after the old Rents be restored to our Country again and that all rackt Rents be brought back to the old proportion or somewhat near the same with some reasonable recompence to the Landlord by way of Fine and that from henceforward no Man may raise his yearly Rents but with a certain moderation to be limited which thing no doubt would wonderfully concern the Wealth ease and contentment of all the Realm for that every Realm is so much the better and more prosperous by how much the more indifferently the substance thereof is divided into the hands of many according to each Man's Estate and Condition and not as in some Countries where one sort of Men are very rich and the other sort extream poor the one sort of Lords having all in their own hands the other sort seeming to be Bond-men and meer Servants having only to eat that which the other sort giveth them from day to day whereby it cometh also to pass that little good can be done with them in matters of their Souls by reason of their continual labour ignorance rudeness and extream poverty From which misery God hath hitherto delivered the Commonalty of England by reason of this kind of Tenures Leases Bargains and Copy-holds by which most of the common People are able to maintain themselves decently and bring up their Children in Civility and will be able to do the same still and much better if the former custom be brought back again continued and established And for that I take this point to be a great and substantial foundation of the publick and particular weal of our Country I have been the longer in treating thereof And now therefore to make an end having spoken of the Nobility and Gentry both in their own Persons as also of their Housholds Servants Children Wives and Tenants there seemeth little remaining to be added except I should say That whereas the English Nobility seemeth in other things to be the most prosperous in the World in one thing only which concerneth them most of all which is the safety of their lives they are thought to be most unfortunate miserable and subject to injuries of any other Estate of Men that live for that upon any least suspicion or displeasure of the Prince or every of their Enemies they may be brought in danger and made away as we have seen that the greatest Men commonly of our Realm have been and few eminent Men above the rest as Dukes have dyed in their Beds and no marvel for that the Kingdom being but little and the sway of a Duke great among the People especially when there is but one or few of that Title and the way to cut them off so easie as to put him upon a Quest of his Peers whether they be Friends or Enemies and that in one day only he shall be tryed and the most of that time spent by the Princes learned Council in amplifying and exaggerating Enemies or suspicions of Enemies against him and no Lawyer or Attorney given or allowed to defend or speak for him which should be granted if the matter concerned but ten Shillings of Lands or Goods only These things I say being so which to Strangers seem wonderful and almost incredible no marvel though our Nobility be cut off many times upon small occasions and that their Estates by others be judged very slippery and miserable for remedy whereof some are of Opinion That for avoiding of jealousie in the Prince and Commonwealth against great and powerful Men it were a good means to have many equal in the self same degree as for example many Dukes Marquises as there are of Earls For that hereby every one would come to be less respected and to be of less power with the People for the Dignity would be divided amongst many and consequently less eminent in one And if any one should go about to be insolent the other would be able to repress him and we see that in old time it was so in England Another means will be that all such Dignities Prerogatives publick Emoluments Offices and Preferments as are to be in the Countries where these great Men dwell should depend on the Prince immediately and not of them and that some other Men also of Dignity that are made and set up by the Prince and depend only of him as namely Bishops should have sway with them and Commission in all matters belonging to the publick and when any poor Man were injured by a great he might be heard easily and remedied and so taken into the Prince's peculiar Protection as he durst
may be proved against them and other such-like points all which being returned by the said Visitors and reviewed by such as the Prince and his Council shall appoint to be Overseers of the said Visitation sentence may be given and published for the honour of the good and punishment of the wicked And the punishment which is used in Spain among other things seemeth very good to wit that he that shall be found to have done evil in a higher Court or Tribunal be for penance put back to a Lower Court again as for example from London to York or the like And contrariwise he that hath done well in a Lower Court be preferred to be a Judge Councellor or of a Degree in a higher Tribunal and that ordinarily may be not promoted to a higher Court without having first passed by a lower And as for the Common Laws of England themselves though most Men I believe will be of Opinion That being settled now and having endured more than five hundred years in our Realm it were troublesome and dangerous and no way convenient to have the whole course thereof changed and no doubt but in divers points especially for brevity they may be preferred before the Civil and Imperial Laws which give more space to Suits yet can it not be denied but that it was a form of Law brought in in haste and by a Conqueror of a foreign Nation with especial eye to keep down afflict and extirpate the English People And the Normans themselves that laid these Laws upon us have long ago in their own Country forsaken them and betaken themselves to the Government of the Civil Law tempered with National Statutes whereby the residue of the Countries of France are governed And for England it is evident that divers points of our Common Law brought in by the Normans touching Life and Death which is the dearest treasure that Man hath in this World do favour much of Tyranny and seem to be against not only all Laws of other Countries but also against very Reason and Justice it self and against all Law of Nature also which Law of Nature doth permit to every Man a just and reasonable defence of Life and Innocency Neither can any Prince Country or humane power take away that defence albeit they may determine the particular manner how to make the tryal But in England it seemeth that the defence it self is taken away or at least the true liberty means and possibility thereof For how is it possible for example sake that a Man standing at the Bar for his Tryal upon Life and Death feared on the one side with terrour of that may happen unto him and on the other side astonished with the sight of such a Court and Company set against him and with the many Accusations Exaggerations and Amplifications of the Prince's Attorneys and other Officers that plead against him how is it possible I say that such a Man especially if he be bashful and unlearned in so short a time as there is allotted him for answering for his Life without help of a Lawyer Proctor or other Man that may direct counsel or assist him in such an agony how can he see all the parts or points that may be alledged for his defence being never so Innocent The Imperial Laws confirmed by Justinian and other Emperors after many hundred years of proof and received since by all Christian Nations saving ours do allow to every Man that is accused for his Life all lawful and reasonable means of defence with sufficient time and deliberation for the same and no marvel for if it be reason to give freedom of defence for any parcel of a Man's Goods and Lands impugned by another how much more reason is it the same should be given for the defence of a Man's Blood wherein goeth Goods Lands Life Honour Children Kindred and all the rest all which in England is shuffled up in haste put upon the verdict malice ignorance or little Conscience or care of twelve silly Men who presently also are forced to give verdict without time or means to inform themselves further than that which they have heard there at Bar which oftentimes is nothing but Confusion Partiality and Rhetorical amplification on the King's behalf by his Lawyers that talk for their Fees that accuse and no Man is suffered to defend instruct or speak for the accused which is the greatest injustice that can be devised and no doubt but infinite innocent Blood is shed by this means and lyeth upon the heads of our Judges Juries and Quests and upon all the Commonwealth besides Whereby for remedy of so great inconveniences both before God and Man for that all foreign Nations do cry out of this our manner of Judgment it should be good at least that before the Assizes or Arraignment be made upon Life and Death the Prisoner's Process should be made by some Men of Conscience and learning appointed for that purpose in every place where the common Gaols be and that sufficient time be allotted them to examine the matter throughly first what the Accusers and Witnesses do say and to give a Copy thereof to the Prisoner with a Lawyer or Proctor to help him and to see what he can truely answer to the same and what Exceptions he hath against the Parties his Adversaries And if his poverty be such that he cannot pay the Fees of a Lawyer or Attorney to answer for him there should be a publick Attorney appointed unto him upon the Prince his Charges as in all other Catholick Countries is used not only in matters of Life and Death but also in all other suits concerning Justice wherein all such as do give Petitions that they are poor and cannot pay Lawyer 's Fees and do prove the same they have presently both Lawyers and Attorneys appointed unto them at the King 's cost and all writing and other helps given them free from all charges for prosecuting their Justice which is no doubt a notable pious Order and ought to be brought into our Country with restoring true Religion And as on the one side Christian Charity moveth to wish that to Men accused for their lives all lawful and reasonable liberty of defence and Tryal should be given so on the other side the same charity requireth that those that shall be found culpable should without remission or hope of pardon be punished for the example of others and for avoiding the great Infamy of our Nation whereof I spoke before in the Second Chapter of this Part touching robbing upon High-ways Perhaps it would not be amiss for this purpose that some distinction of punishments should be made for that crime from some other common theft and of less offence and hurt to the Commonwealth and albeit the kind of Death upon the Wheel in France and Flanders for Murders and Thefts upon the Way do seem over rigorous and horrible and no ways to be brought into our Country yet some other less
aggravation might be used with us as it is in other Countries as namely that their Bodies might be left unburied in the place of Execution for a memory and terrour unto others as in all other Christian Nations commonly is accustomed The use also of the Romans to whip certain Malefactors somewhat rigorously before their death did terrifie many at that time which otherwise would not much have esteemed hanging only and the like effect it would work also by likelihood with us if it were put in use Some other punishments also should be devised for many thefts of little quantity for saving of Man's Blood for that the custom of hanging in England for so small a sum and quantity as our Laws appoint is much reprehended in all other Nations But above all other things good and effectual means are to be sought to divert Men from these offences and to make them hate and shun them and this ought to be the greater care of a Commonwealth than to punish only such as do offend though this also ought not to be omitted and what means may be used to prevent the youth of England and avert them from this vice of stealing I have shewed by divers occasions in some Chapters before and surely it is great pity to see so many consumed by Gallowses in England more perhaps than in half Christendom besides And yet the sin not remedyed thereby for want of cutting off the root by good Education and by fear of Justice equally and constantly administred Divers other points of our Common Law might be touched wherein perhaps some Reformation or little Alteration might be used with the great good of our Commonwealth though for the whole course thereof as before I have signified being so established as it is I would not give Counsel to make great Mutation but rather endeavour to perfect that which is settled and supply the defects that may be of great inconvenience And this is all I remember to be suggested at this time about these affairs CHAP. V. Of the Commons of England and matters appertaining unto them THE Commonalty being the Body and Bulk of the Realm and those that sustain the labour of the same they are greatly to be cherished esteemed and conserved and next after the planting of true Religion and Knowledge of God great care is to be had of their enriching For that as Constantius the Emperour was wont to say The Prince's true Treasure are the Coffers of his Subjects and especially of the Commonalty who if they be poor and needy can neither pay their Landlords nor till or manure the ground nor help the Prince in his necessities And by the Commonalty I understand in this place Labouring-men Serving-men Husbandmen Yeomen Artificers Citizens and Merchants all which labour and toil to the end that others may live in rest And in England as before I have touched their Condition was wont to be more prosperous and happy than in any Country else of the World besides and may be again by the grace of God with the restoring of true Religion the loss whereof brought not only Spiritual but also Temporal misery upon our Realm First then is to be enquired upon by such Commissioners as for this purpose may be appointed what Oppressions Injuries Vexations Losses or other injuries have been laid upon the Commonalty or any part thereof by the Heretical Estate of these later Years or by bad Landlords Noble or Gentlemen of Puissance to the end it may be remedied also what Landlords principally have most raised or racked their Rents to the end they may be dealt withalâ— for some Moderation The Priviledges also both of the Commonalty in general or of any community within any Country Province or Circuit whether it be about Commons Woods Freedoms or the like that may have been broken taken away or injuriously violated may be considered restored and confirmed again And among other things necessarily to be lookt to among our Commonalty will be to reduce them again to their old simplicity both in Apparel Diet Innocency of Life and plainness of Dealing and Conversation from which Heresie hath distracted many The Distinction also peculiar unto our Country of divers States of the Commonalty as Labourers Husbandmen Yeomen Farmers and the like is to be conserved and Men are not lightly to be permitted to pass from these States to the State and Condition of a Gentleman without particular Merits to be allowed of by the Prince or by some priviledge of learning Chivalry or the like and not only by way of wealth as of late years hath been accustomed Order must be taken that the Commonalty may not be vexed with suits in Law by troublesome Men but that certain Men in every Shire as namely Justices of Peace and such-like may hear matters first and compose and take them up with the consent of both Parties or otherwise favour him that hath the most right and sheweth most modesty and desire of Peace The Law used in some foreign Countries that no Tenant may be surety for his Landlord or if he be that it be of no force in Law is very good and profitable oftentimes for both Parties The old exercise of England for Parishes to meet together upon Holy-days at the Church-houses Church-yards and other such places and there to disport themselves honestly for avoiding idleness or worse Occupations at home is not evil but to be continued avoiding only the excesses or abuses that may be therein which were not commonly accustomed to be great but the thing it self I mean that meeting and entertainment of mirth worketh divers good effects as by the want thereof in some other Countries has been noted for it holdeth the People in Contentment and maketh friendship of one Man with another and of one Parish with another and when they are joined together any good Instruction or exhortation may be made unto them if the Curate or any Spiritual Man will take the same in hand The custom also of going one Parish to another upon their Week-days with the Banner of their Saint is commendable and much more the Festival mirth wont to be used in Celebration of Corpus Christi Feast which were to be restored with all solemnity of honouring that Divine Sacrament which our Hereticks have sought so much to dishonour The means also of frequent Conversation and Contraction between the People of England by often Markets and Fairs wherein the Commodities of one Town are imparted with another is a thing more used in our Country than in any other in the World and much to be commended as also conserved and increased with immunities and priviledges for the many good effects that do result thereof The calling in of base Mony in this Queen's days and bringing all to Silver was an Act to gain to them that were Authors thereof and great incommodity it is to the Commonalty both in respect of traffick buying and selling and exchange as also of helping the
third part of the Fellows and Scholars which otherwise might be maintained more if the Head's Portion were moderate as in other places it is And the going forward in studies would be much better attended unto Wherefore this point in all reason is to be remedied and no more to be allowed to the Head during his Government than a reasonable portion for himself and for a Man or two whilest he governeth and that the same Government endure not ordinarily more than three years and that he may be elected out of any College or House of the University without prejudice of losing his place or commodity that he had before if after his Headship ended he will return to the same again And to the end he be more vigilant in his Office the order of other Countries seemeth very good that a Month before his said Office is to end there should ordinarily a Visitor be sent to examine how he and his Officers have behaved themselves and in what state they leave the Colleges and that the said Visitor should assist afterwards in the Election of a new Head and Officers to be chosen at the same time and that done might the Visitation be confirmed with such assistance as shall be appointed thereunto and so sentence be given for the praise or punishment of the said Head and the rest of the Officers for their years past With this vigilance it may be presumed that the Government of Houses would go much better especially if there were some one Man in or near each University that had eminent authority over all to determine causes and to send ordinary Visitors to every College and Hall every third year at the change of their Head-Officers as is aforesaid himself remaining high sole and perpetual Visitor of the said University during his Life It were to be wished also if it could be brought to pass that young men in the Colleges during time of their studies though they be Fellows had no Voices in setting or letting of their Lands buying or selling choosing of Officers among themselves and the like for that most certain it is both by reason and experience that these things do greatly distract the wits of young-men and especially of students and do hinder their learning and put them in continual broyls disquietness contention and dissention both amongst themselves and with their Superiors For remedy whereof it seemeth that some two or three at the most within every College of the most ancient and fittest for the purpose that have ended their studies or are very near to the same might be appointed to have a hand in the Temporalties Therefore together with the Head without troubling the rest whereunto may be joyned some wise or discreet Procurator abroad and all these might be bound not to lett or set buy or sell any great thing of importance without the consent of other two or three Heads of Religious Houses or other Colleges within the said University who might be immediate Patrons and Over-seers of this College or Hall and might be bound to come or send every quarter of the year once to view and see the accounts how they pass and at the end of each year to subscribe them with their hands and at the end of three years when the Head and other ordinary Officers of the College were to be changed for to avoid Elections it would be best no doubt for every College to choose their Head and all other principal Officers at one time together for to endure for three years as before hath been said These Patrons and Overseers after the Visitation ended by him that shall be sent by the chief Visitor be he Chancellor or Bishop that shall have this supreme authority they may I say join with the said Visitor to overlook his Visitation as also assist him in the Election of the Head and Officers that are to follow and have their Voices also in the same and this may be observed in every College over which both particular Patrons and Overseers may be appointed as hath been declared for their better Direction and Government And besides these a general Visitor may be over the whole University and be respected and obeyed by all which no doubt would be far better and more commodious than one College to depend as now they do of one Bishop as their Visitor and another of another which Bishop lying oftentimes far off cannot have so great care or knowledge of University matters as was needful and consequently of less authority with the whole For that the Bishop which is respected by one College for that he is their Visitor is nothing cared for by others over whom he hath no jurisdiction at all But by the means which I have proposed of being general Visitor and lying in or near the University he shall be respected by all and his Ordinances will be observed for that he is present to over-look the same And again if two or three Heads of Houses be appointed immediate Patrons and over-lookers of every particular College there will be much matter of Government and Authority to exercise all Heads and one College will respect another and help to hold up Discipline and good order one in the other which now is not done CHAP. VI. How Fellowships Scholarships and other such places were to be proved AS for choosing of Fellows and Scholars into every House where places are vacant and that with indifferency and good order without partiality and bribes as now is used this method following may be observed which is used also in foreign Universities When any place is void in any College it should not be provided and filled again before the end of the year in which it falleth void to wit until the next festival day of the same College and this to the end both that the College may help and better it self by the saving of the Fellowship or Scholarship for the remnant of that year as also to the end there be time to give notice abroad in the University or farther off also if need be that such and such places are void to the end that fit men may prepare themselves to oppose for the same And so when the time cometh or some three or four days before the Feast that the Head with his principal Officers as also that the Patrons before mentioned may joyn together and make publick examination of the Opponents as well for their manners as learning and this in such sort as there may be no place for corruption or partiality And then taking first a publick Oath to do uprightly according to their Consciences they may give their voices and he that hath the more part clearly of all the Electors to be accounted for lawfully chosen and none else which point only if it might be observed in our Englâ—sh Universities and the foul corruption and bribery removed that Heresie hath brought in in our days that would be sufficient to animate all the youth in England to follow
their studies with carefulness As for the ordinary Government and jurisdiction over each University it may be considered at that time what way will be best to take and the manner of other Universities in foreign Countries may be weighed by the Council of Reformation and their Commissioners as namely whether this ordinary Jurisdiction shall be only in the Chancellor as now is used in England and whether any Bishop may over-look them or the like as also whether the Offices of the Proctors and Clerks of the Market be to be committed to young Men that study as now is accustomed seeing that oftentimes it is occasion not only of distraction and loss of time unto them but also of dissolution of life and corruption of their manners by reason of the liberty that is given them thereby of conversation with loose and dissolute people Election of publick Readers and other Officers The Officers that are to be given by the University as also the publick Lectors and other such Preferments as are not so well given in other foreign Universities in my opinion as they might be where they are bestowed by the popular voices of the common Students in every Faculty who being less able to judge of the fitness of the Persons that stand for the same and more easie to be corrupted and drawn into factions mutinies and other disorders to trouble both themselves and others about such Elections and oftentimes also indanger their own Consciences in following passion in the choice made by others and therefore no doubt but the more quiet grave and sure way would be that these Elections should be made by the major part of the Heads of Houses only upon publick examination of the Persons that do stand for the Preferment and oath given by themselves to do uprightly and when it is for any publick Lecture the Doctors and Batchelors only of that Faculty might have their voices with them And for more gravity honour and renown of our Universities let it be considered whether it were not good to have more eminent and priviledged Colleges in the same for learned and grave Men only to enter as in divers Universities of Spain is used besides the ordinary Colleges we have for Students only in which no Man may study longer conveniently than the ending of his course in the Faculty he studieth and if he should he would rather be a burthen to the House and trouble to the rest which are Students than any thing else seeing he can have no exercise of learning convenient to his degree among them And for that cause the order hitherto observed is good no doubt and ought to be observed that Men that have ended their courses after some reasonable time given them also to repeat and look over the same again should depart and give place to others But yet to the end that such as would remain and go forward in studies might have commodity to do the same it would not be amiss perhaps that some such greater and more principal Colleges as are in other Universities should be erected also in ours for learned Men to enter and live therein to wit that none should be admited but such as have taken Degree of Doctor Licentiate or Batchelor of Divinity Law or Physick and that in the same Colleges there should be continual exercises of learning discipline and order together with settled maintenance fit for such Men conform to the orders of such-like Colleges as are in other Countries whose Rules and Laws might be viewed and brought into ours and out of these Colleges might be chosen both publick Readers Heads of Houses Canons Deans Chancellors Archdeacons and Bishops as also Doctors of Law for the Arches and other such Tribunals Physicians for the Court and other principal Cities of England And finally these Colleges would be as it were principal Store-houses of learned approved and eminent Men for the Prince and Commonwealth to lay hands on for all chief Functions within the Realm And albeit that by means of these principal and bigger Colleges great perfections of learning would grow quickly within the Realm both in the Faculties of Divinity Law and Physick for every one whereof there might be appointed one or more of these Colleges or at the leastwise for Law and Divinity yet moreover and besides this for better preparation to the same in other lesser Colleges divers Men are of Opinion That it would be a matter of much importance if all the Colleges of the Universities were sorted out unto the peculiar studies of these Faculties distinctly so as one Faculty only should be studied in one College and not all mixed as now in divers places as for example That some one or two Colleges among the rest were appointed out for only Lawyers and other two for Physicians and all the rest for Divines and that particular Halls and Convictories might be appointed and made subordinate unto these Colleges for Students of the same Faculties only to the end that the exercise of learning in every Faculty might be more frequented better maintained by living of many together that do profess one and the self same thing than by living straggling abroad in different Colleges as hitherto they have done where they have neither company help or comfort in their studies nor sufficient practice and exercise in the same especially Lawyers and Physicians that have solitary places in separate Colleges and by this other means should live together and profit more and be better known whereof also would ensue that all such causes of consultation as should come from abroad to be consulted either in the one or in the other of these two Faculties might be better done and with more credit and reputation in a Community of learned Men that live together than by particular Men that live asunder As for the College or Colleges of the Physicians that by this order should be established they might have their Gardens also a-part for all sort of chosen Simples from all parts of the World and some learned Men to attend only thereunto and to shew them unto Students of that Faculty and to read particular Lectures thereof at certain seasons as another might also of Anatomies apart according as before has been touched and is used in the University of Padua and some other such principal Schools beyond the Seas where this Faculty of Physick doth flourish most And if any Man would make a doubt and ask here how the Founders Wills and Intentions may be satisfied by these means in such Colleges as these Faculties of Law and Physick are to be settled in with Divines for that their meaning was to have Priests in their Colleges and Masses to be said for their Souls it may be answered That in other Colleges where all are to be Priests and Divines so many Masses may be appointed to be said every day for these Founders as they had appointed to be said in their own Colleges and as the places of Lawyers