the present I must request you to excuse because I feare that upon the knowledge of my name so many persons as I have had occasion to taxe will thinke that I singled them out of envie and malice which I utterly deny whereas I might have insisted upon many more in the like kind offending it is indeed too true there are many more but hoping there will be a vigilant eye and prudent care carried in examining the truth of all things and that many others will send in their Advertisements to the like purpose I will proceed no further Only submitting to censure whatsoever is amisse and shall be glad if any thing here mentioned may give the least furtherance to the advancement of Gods glory Only let me adde one thing as a postscript Whereas there is a bruite and rumour spread that the Clergy is over-growne of late and as I have heard it was so told unto the King when he was last at Barwicke by Master Henderson a principall Scottish Minister and also among our owne selves many doe thinke so yet I take it under correction to be a notorious errour and fallacie Sir Francis Bacon saith in one of his Essayes That it is to be foreseene that the population of a Kingdome especially if it bee not mowne downe by Warres doe not exceed the stocke of the Kingdome which should maintaine them neither is the population to be reckoned only by number for a smaller number that spend more and earne lesse doe weare out an Estate sooner than a greater number that live lower and gather more therefore the multiplying of Nobility and other degrees of Quality in an over-proportion to the common people doth speedily bring a state to necessitie Hee doth hereby intimate not obscurely that our Nobility and Gentry is greatly overgrowne for whereas there was but some seventeene Earles and twenty sixe Barons in Hen. 8. time before the dissolution of Religious houses now there is encreased a very great number more especially since the beginning of King Iames who to reward old servants and gaine new friends and withall perhaps to weaken the power and greatnesse of the Nobility encreased their number exceedingly especially both before in the Queenes time and Hen. 8. they did rise upon the Church lands and possessions being seated for the most part upon the Abbeys and such like houses taken from Bishops and Churches Whereas if the lands and possessions of the Abbeyes had beene well imployed as was pretended and projected they would have made the Crowne richer then the Crowne of Spaine and both the Indies For the yearely Revenue of these lands comes to foure millions sterling according to the improved rents of this Age whereof if but a third or fourth part had beene annexed to the Crowne and fixed there would have beene little need to grant Subsidies Whereas being used as it happened it enriched the Crowne very little but raysed a number of petty foggers and many new Gentlemen as Raleigh speaketh And it is easie to bee observed that whereas in Queene Elizabeths time there was but two or three Knights in the Shire now there is sixtie besides many pretended Esquires and Gentlemen which as Bacon saith doe spend much and earne little living for most part above their quality and degree which they ought to keepe in all their behaviour expences apparell c. But the Clergy for number are not much above the nine thousand and two hundred Benefices that are in the whole Kingdome and out of those that are above that number the vacancies by death yearely must be supplyed as Curates Lecturers Schoole-masters which are besides those in the Universities which will not afford constantly and yearely two hundred Ministers whereas there is about sixe hundred vacancies in the yeare by death and other casualties Besides the Curates which are under superiour Ministers to assist and helpe them doe live and are maintained out of the profits of the Incumbent of the place without charge to the Common-wealth otherwise or the Parishes where they live and oft times they helpe themselves by teaching schoole But if some severe courses now voiced bee put in execution there will be such discouragement given to Schollers in the Vniversities that few will apply themselves to the ministery there may be a si quis set up in Pauls to accept Livings as was done in the beginning of the Queenes time when many popish Priests did flye the Land and the Vniversities afforded no choyce and supply But if the over-growing of the Clergy be understood of wealth and meanes I take it is easie to disprove it for it cannot appeare upon good enquirie that of all the Bishops for these last eightie yeares since the beginning of Queene Elizabeth that any almost hath left five hundred pounds yearely in land or any such considerable estate except only very few two or three perhaps or that all the Bishops being reckoned together have not left so much land as one Lawyer did to his children viz. Sir Edward Cooke who left twenty thousand pounds yearely or little lesse Serjeant Gaudy left five thousand Serjeant Crew left foure thousand and many Lawyers doe commonly leave one thousand and five hundred pounds yearely that are of ordinary practise not of the principall Councell to the King nor great Serjeants or Judges many of whom have raised up great Families of Nobility and Gentry whereas very few of the Bishops have beene able to leave their sonnes such estates as to raise them to Knighthood one Bishop Sands in Queene Elizabeths time left his sonnes of good estate but hee was a Gentleman well descended and what other meanes and helpes he had I know not but the Queene did favour his sonnes being worthy men And some other Bishops at this day and formerly have had rich friends by whom they have gained the greatest part of their wealth and not by their preferments in the Church And for the ordinary Clergy I doe not know any man in the Diocesse that is able to leave one hundred pounds nor scarce fiftie pounds to his children in land excepting Doctor Clerke who having beene the Kings Chaplain twenty yeares hath perhaps gotten something and he that cannot leave fortie pounds or fiftie pounds in land at his death is not to be regarded as a rich man whereas there are many Attorneyes besides Lawyers that have one hundred pounds yearely I am sure there dye every yeare many Ministers very poore and leave their children meanly provided for in regard all the better sort live and continue long at the Universities before they be preferred and married and dye before they can gather any wealth or estate And of these examples it is easie to produce an hundred for one that leaves any thing of moment FINIS
had consulted with his Bishops about that complaint whom hee found willing and ready to second him in it but as subita evacutio was periculosa so subita mutatio therefore this matter was not for a present resolution because to appoint to every parish a sufficient Minister were impossible the Universities would not afford them Againe hee had found already that he had more learned men in his Realme then he had sufficient maintenance for so that maintenance must first be provided and then the other to be required What the King saith that the Universities will not afford store of learned Preachers to supply every parish throughout the Kingdome is true if a view and consideration be taken of their numbers for both Universities will not afford constantly every yeare 200. Preachers though perhaps at this instant they would afford 100. a piece because there bee many there that would gladly bee gone if they had Benefices whereas of nine thousand parishes and 200. in all there dyes five or six hundred Ministers every yeare so that there should be to supply the vacancies that happen by death every yeare so many ready Preachers if the Colledges could afford them but seeing the Universities cannot afford so many the supply of the rest 300. at least yearly must come from Curates Schoole-masters and such as teach children in the houses of Knights and Gentlemen whom they commonly reward with some Benefice in their gift and donation But further in that Conference of Hampton Court Doctor Bilson then Bishop of Winchester made knowne to the King that then insufficiencie of the Clergie be it as it was at that time came not by the Bishops defaults but partly by Lay-Patrons who did present very meane men to their Cures whereof in himselfe he shewed an instance how that since his being Bishop of Winchester very few Masters of Art were presented to good Benefices partly by the law of the Land which admitteth of very meane and tolerable sufficiency in any Clerkes so that if the Bishop should not admit them then presently a Quare impedit is sent out against him And certainly it cannot bee denyed but that man Patrons are very much to bee blamed for as the excellent Bishop Iewel complained in his time in a Sermon before the Queenes Majesty that if the Patron were no better then a Gentleman they seldome suffer a Benefice to passe but either for the Lease or for ready money I wish it were made by Law to be felony to take either Lease of the tithes or ready money for a Living Mr. George Catesby Gentleman that wants neither wit nor learning and one that will talke zealously for Religion yet he sold most shamefully a very good Parsonage viz. Acton worth 240 pounds yearely first to one Master Carjer then to one Master Parker two scandalous Ministers for many disorders so that Master Catesby was the true cause of that scandall and mischiefe that did arise to the Church thereby and now the same Living is upon sale againe the third time the old incumbent being hurt and sickly But when Benefices are exposed to sale the choyce of a Minister can never be good for Chapmen that buy in this kind are commonly obnoxious men or none of the best sort Master Perkins that man of God in his Sermon of the duties and dignity of the ministery giveth three reasons of the rarenesse and scarcenesse of good Ministers 1. The contempt and disgrace of their Calling by wicked and worldly men 2. The difficulty of discharging the duties of their Calling 3. The third is more peculiar to this age of the New Testament viz. Want of maintenance and preferment for men that labour in the Calling and that in these times under the Gospell when it deserves best to bee rewarded Certainly it were a worthy Christian policy to propound good preferments to this Calling that thereby men of the worthiest gifts might be wonne to it and the want thereof is the cause why so many young men of especiall parts and greatest hope runne to other vocations and especially to the Law wherein at this day the greatest part of the finest wits of the Kingdome are imployed And why but because they have all the meanes to rise whereas the Ministery for the most part yeeldeth nothing but a plaine way to beggery This is a great blemish in our Church and surely I wish the Papists those children of this world were not wiser in their kind in this point then the Church of God The reformation hereof is a worke worthy of the labour of a Prince and people and speciall care is to be had in it else it will not bee reformed for doubtlesse had not God himselfe in the Old Testament taken such streight order for the Livings of the Levites they had beene put to no lesse extremities then is the Ministery of this Age. Thus master Perkins and much more he hath touching this and the former reasons in the same Treatise whereto I referre It is not to be forgotten what was the sinne of Ierobeam that made Israel to sinne hee made Priests of the basest of the people and this hee did 2 Chron. 13.9 because he robbed sacrilegiously the Priests and Levites of all the Cities which they had in his Kingdome of the ten Tribes and those Cities were many more then there are Bishopricks in England And also he freed the people from the payment of tithes to the Levites which is the secret thing which our common Freeholders and Grand-Iury-men doe so much ayme at if Bishops and their Courts were overthrowne so that of necessity he must make base Priests for his base gods And so if tithes were taken away here then would quickly follow Ierobeams Priesthood base contemptible poore and illiterate for what man of good quality or ability will bring up his sonne to the Ministery when he shall be sure to be nayled fast to one place and live there only upon a stipend Invitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit A beggars brat taken from the bridge where he sits a begging if he knew the inconvenience had cause to refuse it But I greatly hope and trust that God will so direct and blesse the supreme Court of Iustice that they will be ready to command double Honour to be given to the labouring Clergy as Saint Paul requireth and make the Calling honourable and respected according to the true esteeme that it ought to have God said anciently Levit. 21.8 Thou shalt sanctifie the Priest and hee shall be holy to thee 1. Thou shalt reverently esteeme him as an holy person Calvin saith upon the place Quo melius commendet sacri officii reverentiam admonet ad totius populi salutem spectare Ego inquit sum Deus qui ves sanctifico Illis autem verbis significat gratiam adoptionis qua selecti erant in peculium in sacerdotio fundatam esse And now perhaps you will expect to know from whom this commeth which for
A CERTIFICATE FROM NORTHAMPTON-SHIRE 1. Of the Pluralities 2. Defect of Maintenance 3. Of not Preaching 4. Of scandalous Ministers As there is an Order lately printed and published concerning Ministers by a Committee of the high Court of Parliament Wherein every Ingenuous person is desired to be very active to improve the present opportunitie by giuing true information of all the Parishes in their severall Counties LONDON Printed for William Sheares 1641. A CERTIFICATE from Northampton-shire 1. Touching Pluralities 2. Defect of maintenance 3. Of not Preaching 4. Of scandalous Ministers For Northampton-shire THis is to certifie that for pluralities there is not in the whole Shire above sixteene or twentie the number of Benefices being 326. as they are reckoned by Cambden and Speed And it is conceived by some of good judgement that these few pluralities doe nothing so much hinder the preaching of the Gospell and discharge of their duties in severall kindes as doe the poore and scandalous livings in the Countrey which I thinke in number are about one halfe almost one hundred and fiftie Sir Francis Bacon in his considerations for Pluralities saith that in case the number of able Ministers were sufficient and the value of the Benefices were sufficient then Pluralities were in no sort tolerable but take wee heed that we desire not contraries for to desire that every Parish should be furnished with a sufficient Preacher and to desire that pluralities be forthwith taken away is to desire things contrary considering de facto there are not sufficient Preachers for every parish whereto adde that there is not sufficient maintenance in many parishes to maintaine a Preacher which makes the impossibility so much the greater Let me adde hereunto one passage of the same Author For my owne opinion I must confesse let mee speake it with reverence that all the Parliaments since the 27. and 31. of K. Henry the 8. who gave away Impropriations from the Church seeme to me to stand in some sort obnoxious and obliged to God in conscience to doe somewhat for the Church to reduce the patrimony thereof to a competency for since they have debarred Christs wife of a great part of her dowry it were reason they made her a competent joyncture To the second inquiry Touching want of maintenance or little maintenance the particulars are very many For one halfe almost are appropriate Churches and the Vicarages commonly left so small and destitute that there is no sufficient meanes left to a Minister to buy Bookes nor to keepe hospitality or live like a Minister in reasonable condition Besides the Vicarages that are poore there are many Parsonagee so abridged and spoyled under pretence of long Leases made before the Statute and also rate tithes in lieu of tithes in kinde that the livings are poore and scandalous And it is thought by some that these poore livings being so many for number doe more hinder the preaching of the Gospell then the few Pluralities because the puralists doe preach by themselves and their Curates and doe oftentimes write in defence of the truth but the Impropriators preach not at all poore Vicars preach perhaps more seldome then otherwise they would and some not at all Besides pluralities are not held successively so which is very considerable but poore Vicarages are continued without amendment As to instance in particulars 1. The Parsonage of Piddington in the Hundred of Wimmersley distant three miles from Northampton is worth almost three hundred pounds yearely which Sir Iohn Wake Knight detaines wholly in his hands enjoying both the Parsonage house all the glebe being three or foure yard land together with all the tithes whatsoever And there is not so much as a poore Curate left resident there to reade prayers or Catechise or bury the dead or any such like duty Only Sir Iohn keepes a Minister in his house at the Lodge in Sawcy Forrest whom he sends to Piddington at times There lived lately one Master Cave a very poore miserable Minister in a very poore Cottage for the space of some forty yeares and after his death some three or foure yeares agoe there was a Curate one Durham then one Langley and now one Setterford who uncertainly serve the cure in a very poore manner being not instituted nor inducted neither is there one child or servant in the parish that can say the Lords prayer of their teaching though the parish consists of another Village Hackelton adjoyning to it so that the Inhabitants are many in number Sir Iohn Wake holds the Parsonage as is reported by colour of some old Lease from S Iohns Hospitall in Northampton which Lease whether it shall expire ever or never is uncertaine to any neighbour Whatsoever his Lease or title be it is very fit he should allow 100. pounds yearely together with the dwelling house to a resident Minister with a convenient portion of the glebe land it being no lawfull Uicarage but a Church robbed by strong hand 2. The Parsonage of Hartnell not farre of is worth about 100. pounds yearely and is held by Sir Iohn Wake in the same kind the poore Minister Master Io Gittins that doth serve the Cure is so very poore and miserable that no marvell there is no preaching he hath beene there some thirty or forty yeares 3. The Parsonage of Horton distant three or foure miles from Northampton is also a poore Church not presentative of late yeares though not long since it was but being inclosed wholly in pastures and lately come into the hands of a great Nobleman the Lord Privy Seale there is a stipendiary Curate allowed at some meane rate but no man dare be bold to call it in question the neighbours being but of meane condition that dare not complaine whatsoever their losse or grievance be The Curate is one master Marten of commendable desart for ought I know and lives there by curtesie in an But the Parsonage house glebe and tithes are all lost and gone for ought I can heare 4. The Vicarage of Preston distant three miles from Northampton is worth 100. markes yearely as is reported but the dwelling house is long since pulled downe the glebe lost and the tithes all detained by the Lords of the Mannour Sir Robert Hartnell and his Father allowing some eight pounds stipend to a poore Vicar Thus it continued all Queene Elizabeths time and King Iames raigne in a very scandalous manner insomuch as master Iasper Hartnell and Sir Robert Hartnell his sonne pulled downe the body of the Church sold the Lead and the Bells and imployed it to prophane uses the Chancell also for a time was prophaned being made a Kennell for Greyhounds and the Steeple a Pigeon house As for prayers and preaching when they were disposed to have any it was performed in the Hall or Parlour the house standing neere to the Church and sometimes they frequented the Lectures at Northampton But Sir Robert Hartnell lately sold the whole estate which hee had left remaining to Sir Clement