Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	winchester_n	2,881	5	10.8356	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65573	The civil rights and conveniences of episcopacy with the inconvenience of presbytery asserted : as it was delivered in a charge to the grand jury at the general quarter sessions held at Nottingham Apr. 22, 1661 / by Pen. Whalley.	Whalley, Penistone.	1661 (1661)	Wing W1534; ESTC R27585	9,880	15

THE Civil Rights and Conveniences OF EPISCOPACY WITH THE Inconvenience OF PRESBYTERY ASSERTED As it was delivered in a charge to the Grand Jury at the General Quarter Sessions held at Nottingham Apr. 22. 1661. By Pen. Whalley Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the said County LONDON Printed for Philemon Stephens the Yonger at the Kings Armes over against Middle Temple Gate in Fleet-street 1661. The civil Rights and Convenience of EPISCOPACIE With the inconvenience of PRESBYTERIE Asserted GENTLEMEN HAd it not been that all the several Sects of this Nation who not long since breathed nothing but fire and destruction against each other have of late been like Herod and Pilate made friends all in one day I should not have detained you with any Discourse at this time by way of Preamble but that considered with the extravagancie of some Expressions which fell of late from some persons whose Education in common reason might have entitled them to more wit against the Discipline of the Church of England I am invited nay compelled as a Sonne of the Church to say some thing in vindication of that which they commonly call the unnecessarie superfluitie but others the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Decorum of the Clergie wherein I shall prove the Rights that they have to those Eminent places of Honour which they now enjoy or may pretend to as sitting in the House of Lords c. with the Conveniencie and profit which may accrue to us Commoners by their having so I am induced the rather to it because the time is now at hand when every man possibly may hope to get a toleration or connivence for his own humor or fancie which very many now a dayes mistake for Conscience in the exercise of Religion and the way for it being thought feasible by that old one of petitioning the Parliament as it may be by some conceived Now to the end that you like your Predecessors should not be gulled in Petitioning for you know not what I will by Gods help lay down the Legalitie and Conveniene of Episcopacie with the contraries of Presbyterie for they are now like to be the only Rivals and then if you have a mind to Petition you may know what to Petition for The Rights then which the Bishops have both to their Lands and Honours are twofold by Custome or common Law and by Statute Law The Custome under which they claim is of great Antiquitie for it bears date almost with Christianitie it self In Ethelberts time the first Christian King of the Saxons you shall find a Convention at Canterbury consisting of Bishops and Lords to settle the Affairs of Church and State and that 's above a thousand years agoe and look what Priviledge they enjoyed under him they had under the respective Saxon. Kings of the Heptrarchie as soon as converted to the Christian Faith amongst whom they had the precedencie of the other Lords for the writ of Summons ran Ad Episcopos Principes Proceres optimates Regni For the Bishops Princes Peers and other good men of the Realm And afterwards when the Arms of the West Saxon Kings had so prevailed as happily to reduce England to a Monarchie The Acts of that Parliament held at Kingsbury pro negotiis Regni were confirmed by the Bishops Abbots and other great men of the Nation and this hapned Regnante Aethelwolpho filio Egberti the first Monarch of England who afterwards Anno Dom. 845. called a Parliament or Convention of Estates at Winchester and decreed Cum consilio Episcoporum principum suorum by the advice of his Bishops Princes unto the Clergie with several Temporalities and the Tyths of all mens estates and those free ad omnibus secularibus servitiis nec non regalibus tributis majoribus minoribus sive taxationibus from all secular Impositions and the Kings Taxes both great and small I chose to instance in this because you may see the right that the Church hath to Tythes and how it was the intention of the first Doners to free her from all Imposition and Taxes whatsoever which though the Clergie do not now pretend to yet more moderation may be used for the future in assessing them then formerly And this priviledge of sitting amonst the Lords they injoyed without alteration till the Conquest during which time they held their Lands pura perpetua Eleemosyna by Franck Allmoigne as the men of the Law term it But when the Norman came though under him they still injoyed their Lands yet their Tenure was altered from Franck Almoigne to be held sub militatari servitute as Matt. Paris hath it by Knights service or Baronage by which they were compellable to furnish the King towards his Wars equally with Lay Subjects of the same tenure which though at first it lookt like an encroching upon their Priviledges prov'd an advantage unto them for whereas before they sate amongst the Lords only Virtute Officii as Bishops now they had place En respectede lour possessione l'Autient Baronies annexes a lour dignitie Stamf. ple. V. 3. C. 1. as Barons and so they owned themselves at the Parliament held at Northampton in Henry the Seconds time when they said non sedemus bic Episcopi nos Barones vos Barones omnes pares hic sumus We do not sit here as Bishops we are Barons you are the rest of the Clergie were held and that justly too the first Estate of the Realm and so they continued till Henry the Thirds time in whose Reign Magna Charta was confirmed which is the first of that we call Statute Law under which we claim much of that which we pertend a propertie in and there you shall find those great Priviledges of the Church amply and fully confirmed for it runs thus First we have for us and our Heirs confirmed for ever That the Church of England shall be free and enjoy all her Rights and Liberties inviolable and it follows likewise All Acts made against this by any succeeding Parliament in time to come shall be void to all intents and purposes and this was confirmed by a solemne curse denounced on all the infringers by Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury the prime Peer of the Land And truly it would not be amiss if all the Opposers of the reflourishing of Episcopacie and others would consider whether or no those occurrences which have happened amongst us since that great violation of Magna Charta the disfranchisement of the Clergie have not rather resembled a Curse then a Blessing But to return again to the matter in hand if Magna Charta be as most of us are apt to incline to believe it is like the Lawes of the Medes and Persians unalterable as to the main it is so in every part for the Rule must hold Quicquid incorruptibile est in toto incorruptibile est in singulis partibus what 's incorruptible in the whole is likewise in every part But possibly a man may receive the