Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	archbishop_n	bishop_n	york_n	3,248	5	9.6221	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64570	A speech of VVilliam Thomas, esqvire in Parliament in May 1641 being a short view and examination of the actions of bishops in Parliament from Anno Dom. 1116 to this present of 1641 in the severall reignes of 23 kings and queens of this kingdome of England, &c. : in all and each of their times it is made to appeare they have been most obnoxious to prince and people and therefore that it is not fit or convenient that they should continue members of that honourable House in which they have beene so disloyally and traiterously affected to regality and no lesse mischievous and pernicious to church and commonwealth.	Thomas, William, Sir, d. 1653?	1641 (1641)	Wing T985; ESTC R8551	19,310	28

by learned Fathers and Divines by Synods and generall Councels but by great Lords and Barons yea by the whole Peerage of these Kingdomes of England and France Peter Lord Primandy and Barree who writ the French Academy and dedicated the same to Henry the 3. King of France and Poland in that booke and chapter of the causes that bred change saith that Bishops and Prelates neglecting their charge to bestow their times in worldly affaires grew to misliking and contempt have procured great offences and marvellous trouble which may more easily be lamented then taken away or reformed being such abuses as have taken deepe root And what he affirmeth did the Peeres of France unitely deliver That Bishops should follow Saint Peters steps to winne soules and not to meddle with wars and murder of mens bodies But to come neere and to speake of this Kingdome of England let us heare what the English Lords did declare we read that they did decree in the time and reigne of King John that Bishops should not intermeddle in civill affaires or rule as Princes over their Vas●alls and the reason is ●enderd for Peter say they received no power but onely in matters pertaining to the Church and further enlarging themselves use these words It appertaines not to Bishops to deale in secular affaires since Peter onely received of our Saviour a power in matters Ecclesiastic all what say they hath the Prelats to entermeddle with wars such are Constantines successors not Peters whom as they represent not in good actions so neither doe they in authority Fie on such Rascal Ribaulds the words in Paris are Marcidi Ribaldi how unlike are they to Peter that usurpe Peters place But this point of intermedling in secular affaires though I have often digressed and intermingled with the former parts is proved in its proper place to bee unlawfull viz. in that part that treateth therof craving pardon for this deviation I will pursue the present argument the obnoxiousnesse of their sitting in Parliament and come to the points I intended to insist on viz. the entrance of Bishops into the Parliament house and by what meanes they came there and continued That they have sate there from the first Parliament to this is not denied But as we are not now to consider an suerunt but an profuerunt so are we not to debate and discusse an factum but an sieri debuit for it was the argument of a Pagan viz. Symmachus to the Emperor Theodosius recorded by Saint Amb. servanda est tot saeculis fides nostra sequendi sunt majores nostri qui secuti sunt faelicitur suos Our religion which hath continued so many yeares is still to be retained and our ancestors are to bee followed by us who happily traced the steps of their forefathers but with Tertullian nullam v●lo con●uetudinem defendas if good no matter how short since if bad the longer the worse Antiquity without truth as saith Cyprian is but ancient error The first Parliament as I reade began 1116. or thereabouts and in the sixteeneth or seventeenth yeare of King Henry the first who being an usurper brought in by the Bishops to the disherison of Robert his elder brother admitted the said Bishops to be members of the said high Court partly ingratefulnesse but rather for that he durst not doe otherwise for was not Ralfe the then Archbishop of Canterbury so proud and insolent a Prelate that was read of him that when Roger Bishop of Salsbury was to celebrate the Kings Coronation by reason of the palsie of the Archbishop this ●holerick outdaring Prelate could hardly be intreated by the Lords to withhold his hands from striking the Crowne from the Kings head Of such spirits were these spirirituall Prelates and the jealousie to lose their pompous preheminence of honors yet had he no other reason for this his sau●ines and bold attempt but for that Roger did not this by his appointment At the same time T●ursto● was Archbishop of Yorke who though a disloyall and perjured man by breach of his oath to the King yet was hee highly favoured and countenanced by the Pope and put into that See by him in dispite of the said King And as hee so the rest of the Bishops not lesse guilty nor much lesse potent were likewise admitted members of that high Court and to speake plainly how could he spare their being in that house who were to justifie his title to the Crowne Now passe we to King Stephen another usurper nephew to the former King Henry him though he had an elder brother and before them both the title of Anjou by his wife Maud the Empresse as also of his son Henry to precede the Bishops did advance to the Royal Throne no lesse persidiously then traiterously having formerly sworne to Maud the Empresse We are also to understand that the Bishop of Winchester was his brother a very potent man in the State and it is worthy our noting that the Bishops did endeavour to salve their disloyalty and perjury by bringing in the Salicke Law to this Kingdome traiterously avowing that it was basenes for so many and so great Peers to be subject to a woman Nay it seemeth the Bishops did not intend to be true subjects to him though a brave and worthy Prince had his title to the Crowne been as good as the Prelates at his election did declare for read we not that the Bishops of Salisbury Lincolne Ely and others did fortifie Castles against him and advanced to him in armed and warlicke manner nay did not his brother the Bishop of Winchester forsake him and in a Synod of Clergie accursed all those that withstood the Empresse Maud blessing all that assisted her Surely this curse ought to have fallen on himself and the Archbishop who did trouble the Realm with fire and sword Sure as these were too great to bee put out of Parliament so were they very dangerous therein Vnto Stephen succeed Henry 2. In this time Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury what his demeanour toward his Soveraigne was and what mischiefe was by him occasioned to the Kingdome would take too much time to declare and though some Papists that adore him for a Saint will say he resisted on just cause yet I will deliver what I read and render him with the Chronicles an Arch-traytor and tell you that the Doctors in Paris did debate whether he were damned for his disloyalty Rogerus the Norman avowing that he deserved death and damnation for his contumacie toward the King the Minister of God From him I passe to his sonne Richard the first who had two brothers that were Bishops the one of Duresme the other of Lincolne and after Archbishop of Yorke and going to the holy Land appointed for Governour of the Kingdome William Longchampe chiefe Iusticiar and Lord Chancellour of England and Papall Legat. This Viceroy or rather King for so

Paris calles him Rex Sacerdos had joyned with him Hugh Bishop of Duresme for the parts beyond Humber This Kingly Bishop as Authors deliver did use incredible insolence and intollerable tyranny and commit a most sacrilegious and barbarous out-rage upon the person of Ieffery Archbishop of Yorke and naturall brother to K. R. the first for which afterwards being taken in a Curtesans apparrell and attire velut delicata muliercula hee was banished the Realme Now as it was very difficult to turne such Papall Bishops and Regulos out of Parliament so certainly such Lord Bishops did there worke no little mischiefe to Regall power the subjects liberties and the weale publick Certainly this was not the duty and office of a Bishop surely the Silke and Scarlet Robes of Princes and Iusticiars were as undecent for these Bishops as was the coat of Iron of the Bishop of Beavois taken prisoner by this King which hee sent to the Pope with a vide an tunica silii tui sit an non to which hee made answer That he was not his sonne nor the sonne of the Church For hee had put off the peaceable Prelate and put on the warlicke Souldier tooke a Shield in stead of a Cope a Sword for a stole a Curac● for an Albe a Helm●● for a Miter a Lance for a Bishops staffe perverting the order and course of things Thus we see that a Bishop must destroy mens lives either as a Iusticiar in Court or as a Souldier in Camp Qui si non aliqua nocuisset mortuus est they will doe any thing but what they ought to doe Feed the Flocke they desire rather to sit in Parliament then stand in a pulpit accounting preaching according to B. Iuel so far below their greatnesse as indeed it is above their goodnesse We neither deny or reject Episcopacy or Church government it selfe but the corruptions thereof and we say that the Bishops who stiffely maintained those corruptions have inforced this our distaste When Iacob was forced to depart from Laban for ill usage I conceive that the breach was in Laban not in Iacob So also those that did forsake Babylon God commanding to depart from it lest they should be partakers of their punishment as they were guilty of their crimes did not occasion the schisme or breach but the sinnes of Babylon And we confesse that true it is that we refuse and forsake the present Church government but no further then it hath forsaken pure and primitive institution therefore let none say that wee are desirous of innovation for I thinke we may boldly with the forenamed reverend Bishop Iewel affirme Nos non sumus novatores From K. R. I come to K. Iohn an usurper likewise who was advanced to the Regall Throne by Archbishop Hubert and the Prelates This lewd Bishop unjustly declaring this and all other Kingdomes to bee elective and that no man hath right or fore-title to succeed another in a Kingdome but must be by the body of the Kingdome thereunto chosen with invocation of grace and guidance of Gods holy Spirit alledging further and that most plainly by example of David and Saul that whosoever in a Kingdome excelled all in valour and vertue ought to surmount all in rule and authority and therefore they had all u●an●●●●usly elected Iohn first imploring the Holy Ghosts assistance as well in regard of his merits as royall bloud And thus the Bishops blanch their disloyall assertion with sacred Writ and their lewd devised plot with the holy Ghosts assistance Hereby they rejected the just Title and hereditary succession of Arthur his elder brothers sonne And as he did this disherision unjustly and disloyally so did hee this election lewdly and fraudulently as himselfe after confessed when being demanded the reason of his so doing he replied That as Iohn by election got the Crowne so by ejection upon demerit he might lose the same which after he did endeavour to his utmost and at last effected by depriving him of life and kingdome Let me not be misconceived I know Hubert died eight or ten yeares before him but what he did begin and forward was furthered and pursued by Stephen Langton and other Bishops and Prelates too long to rehearse His other brother being Archb. of York a strange example saith Malm. to have a King ruled by two brethren of so turbulent humours Many of their treasonable acts and disloyalties I will omit and passing by as well particular Bishops and Prelates as Stephen Archdeacon of Norwich and others as also of them in the generall I will onely relate one villanous passage of traiterous disloyalty whereof as good Authours deliver the Archbishops and Prelats were principall Abetters and Conspirers The King being at Oxford the Bishops and Barons came thither with armed multitudes without number and forced him to yeeld that the government should bee swayed by twenty five selected Peeres Thus one of the greatest Soveraigns was but the six twentieth petty King in his owne dominions c. To him succeeded his sonne K. H. 3 who being at Clarkenwell in the house of the Prior of S. Iohns was told by him no lesse sawcily then disloyally if I may not say trayterously that he should be no longer King then hee did right to the Prelates Whereto hee answered What doe you meane to deprive me of my Kingdom and afterward murder me as you did my Father And indeed they performed little lesse as shall hereafter appear But now to take the particular passages in order In this Kings reigne Stephen then Archbishop of Canterbury as we read was the Ring-leader of disorders both in Church and State and no better was Peter Bishop of Winchester But not to speake of them in particular but of them all in generall and that in Parliament at Oxford thus wee read To the Parliament at Oxford saith Matth. Paris and Matth. Westm. came the seditious Earles and Barons with whom the Bishops Pontisice's ne dicam Pharisei those were his words had taken counsell against the King the Lords annointed who sternly propounded to the King sundry traiterous Articles to which they required his assent but not to reckon all the points you shall heare what the same Authours deliver of their intent I will repeat the words as I finde them These turbulent Nobles saith M. West had yet a further plot then all this which was first hatched by the disloyall Bishops which was that foure and twenty persons should there bee chosen to have the whole administration of the K. and State and yearly appointment of all great Officers reserving onely to the King the highest place at meetings Primus accubitus in caenis and salutations of honour in publicke places To which they forced him and his sonne Prince Edward to sweare for feare as mine Authour saith of perpetuall imprisonment if not worse for the traiterous Lords had by an edict threatned death to all that resisted And the perfidious