by their Proxies the next authority I shall make use of is a Parliament Roll it self of that year as I find it in Sir Robert Cotton's Collections intituled as followeth Placita Coronae coram Domino Rege in Parliamento suo apud Wegmonast diae Lunae proximae post Festum Exaltationis Sanctae Crucis Anno regni Regis Ric. 2. Post Conquestum 21. The Roll it self you may see in the Tower among the Records there kept It is of an Impeachment of the Earl of Arundel and Warr. c. for Treason c. the Articles were exhibited against him by several Lords as Edward Earl of Rutland Thomas Earl of Kent John Earl of Huntington c. which the said Lords were ready to prove the Crimes objected and demanded the Prisoner to be brought to the Bar which the Lord Nevil then Constable of the Tower did and the aforesaid Lords in their own Persons appeared also His Articles being read the Earl of Lancaster Lord Steward of England by the King's commandment and assent of the Lords declares the whole matter And thereupon the said Earl's answer to the Articles was demanded who pleaded two Pardons and prayeth they may be allowed but they were not whereupon Sir Walter Clopton Lord Chief Justice demands of him what he had farther to say for that if nothing more to say the Law would adjudge him guilty And the said Earl not pleading any thing else the Lords Appellants in their proper persons require that Judgment may be given against the said Earl as Convict of the Treason aforesaid Whereupon the Lord Steward of England by the assent of the King Bishops and Lords adjudged the said Earl Guilty and Convict of all the Articles aforesaid and thereby a Traitor to the King and Realm and that he should be therefore Hanged Drawn and Quartered and forfeit all his Lands in fee c. though the Punishment in regard he was of Noble Blood was changed and he was ordered to be Beheaded which was done by the Lieutenant of the Tower and this is a short account of that Trial for Blood in Parliament Where 't is plain and evident that the Bishops were there present for 't is said that the said Earl was adjudged Guilty and Convict by the assent of the King Bishops and Lords Q. E. D. Next we will produce another Instance and Precedent of the Condemnation of Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury who was accused by the Commons in full Parliament die loco praedictis where we find the Commons by their Speaker Sir John Bussy Petitioning the K. in manner following For that divers Judgments were heretofore undone for that the Clergy were not present the Commons prayed the King that the Clergy would appoint some to be their common Proctor with sufficient authority thereunto Whereupon the Clergy appoint Thomas de la Percy by their Instrument their Proctor who together with the King and the said Lords adjudged him the said Archbishop guilty of Treason and himself a Traitor The Crimes objected to him was his traiterous obtaining a Commission from the King whereby the Kings Royal Power was encroached his Subjects put to death without Royal Assent c. for all which he was found guilty as aforesaid What I observe in brief is this from this Trial. 1. That there had been divers Errors in Judgment which Judgments were in Law void for that the Bishops were not present 2. That hereupon the Commons Petitioned the King that the Bishops would appoint their Proxy and which accordingly they did Thomas de la Percy 3. He was Condemned by the said Court wherein sate Percy accordingly 4. That the said Bishops did not Vote there personally for that the Arch-bishop their Primate was Arraigned and it might not be seemly for them so to do And here we have the Case adjudged Judgments in Parliament Revers'd for that the Bishops were not Present by themselves or Proxys the Commons Petitioning the King that they would make Proxys a Judgment obtained for that the Bishops had made their Proxys Q. E. D. And if any be not satisfied they may see the Roll of Parliament as before among the Records in the Tower to which they are Referred Furthermore to make another discovery of the Inconstancy of the said Mr. Selden I find him in his Titles of Honour in the latter end of his Book Confessing that Thomas Becket Arch-bishop of Canterbury was Condemned by the Bishop of Winchester in Case of High Treason Vid. Titles of Honour And if any person would but a little reflect upon the Reason why the Bishops have not sometimes Voted in Cases of Blood but by their Proxies viz. Their respect they had to the Canons of the Primitive Church which might give them umbrage for their so doing And together with this what hath been said before of their being frequently appointed by the King and acting as Lord Chief Justices of England any person of an ordinary Capacity may guess at the Reason of their forbearing to Judge in Matters of Blood for the Reason aforesaid and their ready and chearfull compliance with their Princes Command when by the Law of this Land they were enabled so to do and which is a sufficient Supersedeas to the former Canon of the Church Another Precedent we have of the Bishops Personally sitting in Parliament held at Westminster on Monday next after the Feast of All Saints in the 3d of Hen. 5. wherein Henry Bishop of Winton was Chancellour wherein was Tryed Richard Earl of Cambridge and others for Treason for having Levyed men against the King and procured Edmund Earl of March as Heir to Rich. 2. to take upon him to be King of England and had Proclaimed him such in Wales and set one Thomas Trompington an Ideot and Scotchman to Personate Rich. 2. where the said Earl and others his adherents in that Action were Tryed and found Guilty the Lords Spiritual in Parliament being Present c. See the Records in the Tower Parl. 3. H. 5. p. 2. M. 4. Many other Precedents of a later Date and Time might be here Ex superabundanti added but I shall referr them for the matter of another Chapter they being all of them taken out of the Journals of the Lords House beginning in 32 Hen. 8. and ending 29. Eliz. 2. I might have enlarged in these which I have taken out of the Tower but I have purposely forborn to do it for that I find Mr. Selden himself in the days of 1642. granting me the Matter of Fact as clear and evident from the Ancient Records in the Tower of the Spiritual Lords Priviledges in this Matter And will now proceed to another Argument that the Bishops have Right to sit in all Cases as well Capital as Civil For that 4. they are undoubted Peers of the Realm which also I find Mr. Selden himself granting in his Priviledges of the Barronage of England p. 192. For there he saith Though some have doubted we know whom he means
Dor. l. 2. p. 43. Then for Geneva it self who is so much a stranger to that Reformation as to be ignorant what a stroke Calvin and others had upon the Senate or grand Counsel which gave occasion to that complaint of some that they had expelled One Bishop and admitted many If remote Countries be to be regarded amongst the Abissines the Clergy is Paramount in Affairs of all natures and we read in Damianus a Goes of Zaga Zaba an Ethiopian Bishop Viceroy of Bagana sent Embassadour to the King of Portugal Dress Orat. In Muscovy their supreme Convention which those Inhabitants call Zabore consists of the great Duke Twenty Ecclesiasticks and as many Nobles the common People being wholly excluded and when they are met together the Patriarch and Ecclesiasticks are always first Consulted and first deliver their Opinion I shall conclude this Paragraph onely reminding that neither the Pagans nor Mahometans are so inhumane or irreligious or discourteous to their Priests as to deny them this Liberty For that Tully acquaints us that it was the appointment of the Gods that the Roman Pontifices should not only take care of their Religion but further Sumnis Reipub. praeesse voluerunt Orat. pro. dom sua Nay at this very day the Barbarous Turks never exclude their Mufti but allow him free entrance and Vote into all their Divans and Counsels yea the great Sultan himself so Honours the Mufti that as often as he comes into his Presence he rises from his Seat and according to their mode putting his hand to his breast bows his head in token of reverence and Honour which he shews not to any other Subject and will hardly vouchsafe the like honours to the mightiest Monarch upon Earth CHAP. V. Englands more particular Respect and Kindness to the Clergy I Might here be very large should I but give the World a brief account of the Honour which our Saxon Kings had for their Clergy neither was this a matter onely precarious and by the Courtesie as we say of England Sed ipsis confirmatum legibus Spelm. Concil Ep. ad Regem The Person who Ministred at the Altar was esteemed equal in all things in censu pariter Capitis to the Lord of the Mannour or any Knight Leg. Aethel c. ult de Wirgildis The Abbot was esteemed no less than a greater Thane which now we call a Baron of the Kingdom The Bishop of no inferiour Rank than the Count or Earl Qui integro fruebantur comitatu The Arch Bishop equal to any Duke who might happen to be set over and have the Rule of many Countries for that saith the Learned Spelman in these times our Kings gave always the greatest respect and honour to their Clergy for that in their keeping were the Keys of Learning and Knowledge the Seculars in the mean time addicting themselves most what to the Wars so that in those times it came to pass that the Priests mouth was the Oracle of our Common People no less than of the King and Commonwealth for that they had ever the first Place in our Commitia's and Assemblies no less than in the Kings Courts of Justice and Law Tribunals in the Kings Palace with the Nobles of his Kingdom in the Counties with the Comittees and Justices of the Counties in the Sheriffs Courts turno Vicecomites together with the Sheriffs the Bishops had their Adsessors yea in the Hundred Courts they or their Ministers sate together with the Lord of the Hundred so that one sword was ever helpfull to the other in the Administration of Justice and nothing of moment was done in these Courts of Judgment but by their advice and assistance Spelm. l. prius citat The practice of the Kingdom ran parallel with the Law for in all Antient Charters and Laws which heretofore were passed and made by signing their names cum signo crucis the Spiritual Lords ever preceeded the Temporal In a donation of Ethelbert A. D. 605. to the Monastery of St. Peter in Canterbury the first witness subscribing it is Austin the Bishop and after him several Dukes and Earls Monast Angl. Spelm. Conc. passim In a Charter of King Inas Ann. Dom. 725. To the Monastery of Glassenbury after the Bishops Boorthwald and Fordred occur Waldhere Ethelherd Ummin and Winchelin the greatest Peers in the Nation putting their Names Not long after in a Grant of King Offus to the Abby of Worcester Ann. Dom. 708. Brotdran Berthand Eadbald and Eadbald two Princes and two Dukes follows the Bishops And at the same Kings Consecration at St. Albans Ann. 793. No less than 10 Dukes besides other Nobles give place to the Prelates And to make an end in a Charter of King Edward the Confessor to the Monastery of Winchester immediately after the King subscribed Plegmund and Frithestan the Bishops being followed by Ethelward the Kings Brother Aethelstan Aelfweard the Kings two Sons Oredluf Orced Brorhâ—â—â—f and Heerferth Dukes many more of this nature might be produced out of the same Authors and others as standing monuments of the Clergies Reputation and the Reverence our Religious Ancestors bare to their Functions particularly the third Charter of King Edward the Confessor of the Foundation of the Abby of Westminster where more particularly we find Osberne and Peter two of the said Kings Chaplains signing the Charter before several of the Earls And furthermore here is Statute Law in the Case that this usage may not be thought to proceed meerly from the Curtesie of England 't is confirm'd by the Statute of the 31 Hen. 8. c. 10. Wherein all degrees and offices are placed in Assemblies and Conferences and there the Arch Bishop of Canterbury as primus Par regni the first Peer of the Kingdom is ranked before all the Nobility and Seated at the Kings right hand next and immediately after the Royal Blood and the Vicegerent and the rest of the Bishops follow him in their due precedency according to the Dignities and Aunciencies of their respective Sees See farther the Statute of 8. of Eliz. c. 1. where in that Statute they are called an high and one of the greatest Estates of the Kingdom nor were they ever excluded from the greatest Employments of Honours and Trust in the Kingdom and to evidence that this is not spoke without Book we will subjoin a Catalogue of Churchmen Collected out of Godwin Malmesbury Spelman Dugdale and others c. that have born all at least the most honourable Offices of State and how ever bespatter'd by some discharged them with much integrity and repute England owing more of its happiness to men of this Calling than any other though it cannot be denyed but some miscarriages might be here and there found and yet as few as can be expected in such a Multitude and if a man were disposed to find fault he might without much pains takeing two for one in Critically examining any other Profession Let us begin then with Englands Metropolitan to whom this Primacy justly appertains and
than before and all the Writers of that Age must be corrected for representing him as a perfect Enemy of the Church To clear up this we will only give you one Instance cited from an Old Record Entituled Liber Sancti Albani Where we read this Passage of Frederick the then Abbot of St. Albans that to obstruct the March of the Conquerour he caused all the Trees round to be cut and laid them cross the ways wherewith the Conquerour being stopt in his march sent in some passion for the Abbot who under his security coming to him the Conquerour demands the Reason for the cutting down the Woods the Abbot resolutely answers him that I have done but what became me and if all the Spiritual Persons through the Kingdom had used their Endeavours against thee as they might and were in duty bound to have done Thou wouldst never have been able to have entered the Land thus far The Duke then replying Is the Spiritualty of England of such Power if I live and enjoy that which I have gotten I will make their Power less Add to this that stategem of the Kentishmen in surrounding the King and forcing him to a Composition which they did under the Conduct of Stigand their Arch-Bishop which thing ever after netled him and that he was never heartily reconciled to the Church and proved afterwards as good as his word to the Abbot oppressing the Clergy all his Reign bringing them under Knights-Service and Ordering how many Souldiers each Bishop should maintain for him and his Successors the Church as beforesaid being ever free from that bondage Let no Man then say that the Conqueror who was ever look'd upon by the Bishops as their Enemy did them any Acts of Grace or Havour by erecting each Bishoprick into a Barony which thing was ever by the Bishops look'd upon as a grievance and a more glorious piece of slavery This was in deed a shrew'd shaking to the Bishops yet still they preserv'd their Votes in all Assembliâ—s and Parliamentary Summons are ever directed Archiep. Ep. c all antient Charters and Grants subscribed after the usual Form in those times Testibus Archiep. Ep. In a Treatise Entituled The Form and Mannor of keeping Parliaments whereof it seems there are two very antient Copies the M. S. in Arch Bods the other in Sr. Rober Cottons Library the first of which was perused by Mr. Selden and he allows it to be as long standing as Edw. 3d. but the Lord Chief Justice Cooke adds near 200 years more and raises it to the Conqueror's time which the Title indeed pleads for we are here told that 40 days before Summons are to be issued out to the Archbishops Bishops and other great Clarks that held by County or Barony and that the Clergy in each Shire are to have Two Proctors representing them which in some things had more Power than the Bishops for we are there informed that the K. may hold a Parliament for the Commonalty of the Realm without Bishops Earls or Barons so they had summons though they come not but on the cottrary if the Commonalty of the Clergy and Temporalty being warned either doth not or will not come in this Case whatever the King doth with his Bishops Earls and Barons is of none effect for that to all Acts of Necessity the Commonalty of Parliament must consent i. e. the Proctors of the Clergy Knights of the Shire Citizens and Burgessâ—s for their Persons represent the Commonalty of England but the Bishops Earls and Barons represent only their own Persons There is they say another M. S. in Bibl. Cotton confirming the same and citing other large Priviledges of the Clergy I know indeed Mr. Prinne hath questioned the Authority of both these books in Bar of which I return the Authority of Cooke and Selden and particularly the first who saith in his Institutes that 26 Spiritual persons ought ex debito Justitiae to have a Writ of Summons sent them every Parliament These things premised we will now desire of the Clergies greatest adversary that he would produce instances of any solemn meetings Wittena gemots or Parliaments whereunto the Clergy were not summoned any Statutes publickly enacted during all the Christian British Saxon Danish or Norman times without their assistance and advice As for the precedent of their Exclusion under Edw. 1. at the Parliament held at St. Edmondsbury which some triumph in if there be any truth in the Narrative as hath been and is still questioned we know and can prove 't was done in a pett and transport of Royal displeasure for their too obstinate adhering to the Bishop of Rome in the Scottish quarrel and for their noncompliance with their Kings demands Who yet the very next Parliament about a year after makes an Apology for this charging all upon the Exigencies of his affairs And why should this single instance so circumstantiated be urged more against the Clergy than that other is against the Lawyers who were shut out of a Parliament under Henr. IV. where we yet find the Bishops and amongst others Thomas Arundel stoutly resisting and preserving the Clergies Temporalities which these Church-robbers gaped after who so they might spare their own Purses were content to spoil their God to relieve their King Certainly if envy it self could have found the least colour of Law to deny them this privilege it had never been reserved for this last and our most unhappy age Many times have they been struck at many great blows have they received as at Clarendon under Henr. II. where their wings were indeed much clipt yet their privilege of sitting and voting in Parliament is left entire to to them for that the words are Episcopi intersint Curiae Domini Regis cum Baronibus quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel mortem and though they never voted of late in Capital Causes yet that they however made their Proxies I hope shall be made appear by what follows together with their forbearing to vote in Capital Causes and the reason of it shall be farther discoursed of CHAP. VII The Estate of the Bishops and Clergy from the Conquest as to their Voting in Capital Causes in Parliament till the times of King Henr. VIII VVE have before intimated the common usages and rights of the Bishops to sit and vote in Parliaments in all antient times and that as Peers and Barons of the Realm we now aver they have a Power to sit and vote in all as well Criminal as otherwise either by themselves or Proxies lawfully constituted which is a privilege of the Peerage and therefore belongs to the Bishops as such 't is very well known what Mr. Selden hath wrote in his Book of The Privileges of the Peerage of England that the Bishops was debarred of their privileges by an Act of Parliament 17 Car. I. Ann. 1641. and that he was a great notorious stickler in it but 't is as notorious that not long after we find the Commons
whether the Spiritual Barons are Peers he saith there that they are so is true and plain and the Testimonies many various as in the Bishop of Winchester ' s Case who departed from the Parliament at Salisbury about the beginning of Edw. 3. and was questioned for it afterwards in the Kings Bench he pleaded to the Declaration Quod ipse est unus e Paribus Regni Prelatus and in that short Disputation of the Case which is left in the Year Books he is supposed both by the Court and Council to be a Peer But for this if his Authority be not good the Year Books themselves may be seen Bishop of Winchesters Case Year Book 3 of Edw. 3. And Pas 3. Edw. 3. coram Rege Rot. 9. Rep. So afterwards see the Bishop of Londons Case in the Year Book 3 Edw. 3. in a Writ of Wards brought against the Bishop of London he pleaded to Issue and the Defendant could not have a day of Grace for he said as the words of the Books are That a Bishop is a Peer of the Land Haec erat causa Year Book 3 Edw. 3. fol. 186. pl. 28. And in a like Case an Action of Trespass against the Abbot of Abington who was one of the Lords Spiritual day of Grace was denyed against him because he was Peer de la terre 13 Edw. 3. Titulo Enquest So expresly upon a question of having a Knight returned into a Jury where a Bishop was Defendant the Rule of the Court was that it ought to be so because the Bishop was a Peer of the Realm Plowden Comment pl. 117. So the Judgment given against the Bishop of Norwich in the time of Rich. 2. he is in the Roll expresly allowed to be a Peer We find also Stafford Arch Bishop of Canterbury upon his being excluded the Parliament under Edw. 3 thus challenging his place Ego tanquam major par Regni post Regem vocem habens jurae Ecclesiae meae tantum vendico ideo ingressum in Parlimentum peto The same may be made out farther by an Assignment of Errors under Hen. 5. for the revearsal of the Attainder of the Earl of Salisbury one Error is Assigned that Judgment was given without the Assent of the Prelates which were Peers in Parliament which is clearly allowed in the Roll and Petition too that they were Peers So also in an Act of Parliament under the same King Staâ— 4. Hen. 5. c. 6. where the Arch-Bishops and Bishops are called Peers of the Kingdom But of the truth of this Mr. Selden himself saith That no scruple could ever be made till the unhappy Act of the 17 Car. 1641. And how that Act was procured we all know How full of tumults and uproars were those Times to how great a distress was Majesty then brought How many Repulses did it meet with Was it not Past to serve the present Interest and by what subtile contrivance was it at last carried it is very well known Have we not reckoned the Date of our late Embroilments and wild Confusions from this fatal Apocha Under what Miseries Violencies and Rapins hath not our native Country for 20 years time from hence to be reckoned with so much pitty from all true-hearted English-men long laboured and groaned and the whole Christian-world about us stood amazed and agasht All the Wealth which the Piety of our Forefathers had been so many years in heaping up all their Priviledges which their prudence had so deliberately conferred being in a few days Passion swallowed up Had those good men the then Bishops unadvisedly acted any thing against their Prince or Kingdom could no Personal-fine or punishment expiate their Crime and fault must the whole Order be raized and Episcopacy it self destroyed root and branch must so many merits of their worthy Predecessors be buryed in the grave of ungrateful Oblivion It were an easy matter to produce a large Catalogue of eminent Prelates who by their prudent advice have oftentimes prevented Bloodshed preserved Peace saved a sinking Kingdom and a dying Religion many good works have they done amongst us many Colledges and Schools erected and endowed many material Churches by their munificence and living Temples of the Holy Ghost built by their Ministry and for which of these must they now be thus dealt withal thus disfranchised That they who heretofore carried the principal stroke in all Cabinet Counsels and publick Diets are acknowledged in several recorded Statutes of this Kingdom an high and one of the greatest Estates of this Kingdom as particularly 8 Eliz. c. 1. that they are Peers of this Realm 25 Edw. 3. c. 6. before recited and 4 Henr. 5. c. 6. must now be debarred those immunities of which our Nation hath ever reaped the greatest benefit they must be curtailde in or excluded from what is their just right to Vote as Peers in the higher House of Parliament certainly 't is now high time if ever for men to relent of their merciless cruelty to to learned Industry the crafty Jesuite who is now at our Doors thinks his day is coming this will make him keep a Jubile to see England fall again by her own hands How much ground hath he got by debasing and pouring contempt on our English Clergy of all the World whom he most dreaded Let us but enquire of other Nations our Neighbours and they will tell us That the English Divine is the terrour of the Papal world aud that they have wrote more and better against Rome than all the World besides We ought not to take pleasure in upbrading an ungrateful Nation But is this the reward of their unwearied pains incessant studies early rising and late watching beating their brains wasting their bodies and contracting incurable diseases neglecting their families relations and accquaintance for the glory of God and good of their Countrey Must they onely have discouragements heaped upon them bread and water and raggs if some men had their will thought to good for them Must another Profession of which a Forreiner by way of disdain said Causidâ—â—i Angli gens indoctissima ultra Doroberniam nihil sapiunt Must they get honour riches and preferments without the regret and frowns of any nay more in 60 years last past than Divinity in 600 preceding and if the matter was not invidious I could easily make appear 't was an old saying Nulli sua pietas debet esse damnosa in earnest This is not for the honour of the Gospel neither doth it become the Reformation Of late years some of the Long Robe no well wishers to the Church whose names I forbear have started a very unhappy and destructive notion and not over beneficial to the English Scepter and there yet want not those who with much industry keep this notion up that the three Estates of this Nation consist of King Lords and Commons which how far it may countenance former actings and endanger future disturbances I humbly submit to the prudence of those who