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A50760
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A general discourse of simony by Ja. Metford.
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Metford, James.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing M1938; ESTC R1780
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70,265
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175
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is made in the Pocket not in the Pate nor do they examine his Conversation but his Compensation 't is no matter if he be no able Scholar so he be an able man Nay a Child will serve the turn for the best Bishoprick in France if he send a golden Orator to procure it The Pope once told his Cardinals upon preferring a mean man if the King of England had desired his Horse to be made a Bishop he would not have refused him for the King had commended him not in a long Testimonial but in a round Summ which with them is the Total of all perfection The Centum Gravamina complains indoctis agasonibus stabulariis dantur beneficia Hostlers and Grooms were well enough letered if well enough lined Picus Count Mirandula tells Pope Leo 10th to his face and his Council in Lateran That they gave Church Livings lenonibus Catamitis to Pimps and Panders Ganymedes and what not for Money Yea the very Apostolical Legates as they fanatically Cant in the Council of Trent confess men were ordained into the Church that had nothing Canonical but their Copes and Cassocks What Nauclerus confesses of Boniface 9th time Curiam Romanam labe Simoniacâ infamem esse was true long before Gen. 49. and it may serve for their Character ever since Let the Engglish Clergy rejoyce that they live out of the reach of these Tarpeian Harpies which made our Predecessors purses tremble at every screich of the impure Bird. 3. And to buy and sell the Mansions of the holy Ghost Here the Pastors and Teachers are set over the Church by the holy Ghost the Church is the Temple of Christ and the whole matter spiritual Now in buying and selling these Gods people are bought and sold like Slaves in this profane Market The Souls of Men once valued so high as to be the purchase of our Saviours precious bloud are now sold for a sacrilegious Bribe O unheard of impudence That makes those invaluable Jewels the matter of vain Mens traffick Epiph. This was so hateful to the ancient of piety that they judg'd the very opinion of its lawfulness a haeresy Aug. ad quod vult d. de haer in principio Greg. l. 3. ep 13. passim and so doth Epiphanius St. Augustine Greg. Mag. and so de Langius and Schaffnaburgensis in their Chronicles all along Yea so hateful hath it been to the whole Christian Community that an Oath hath been administred against it for many ages And for England in particular 't is decreed in Conc. primo Oxon. under the said Archbishop Stephen Langton That all Bishops should impose an Oath on any suspected person that nec promiserit Lib. 2 tit 6. de jureju nec dederit aliquod praesentanti nec aliquam propter hoc inierit pactionem I confess this Oath is very large but it shews the piety of those times would not endure any kind of bargain about these things And so watchful was this Council over the Bishops that they decreed in Collation of a Praebend Commendum or the like the Bishop should receive nothing for Institution or Mission no nor vel chartâ super hoc faciendâ Nor might he suffer his Officials or Archdeacons to extort any thing because says the gloss 't was adjudged Simony so to do V. l. 3. tit 6. cap. Quia juxta St. Edmund goes farther with his Council and degrees nulli liceat Ecclesiam nomine dotalitatis ad aliquem transferre vel pro praesentatione alicujus personae Pecuniam vel aliquod aliud emolumentum pacto interveniente recipere c. In English thus Let it be lawful for none to transfer a Church to any man in the name of a Dowry which is commonly called Smock Simony or to receive any Money for the presentation of any person or to bargain for any other profit Which if any shall do and be convict in Law or shall confess it we decree him as well by royal as our own authority to be deprived of the Patronage of that Church for ever This Canon being the chiefest against Simoniacal Patrons is by Sharrock's Edition of the Provincial reckon'd to St. Edmund but that is a mistake for 't is plac'd upon Richard Wethershead in the old Books who was St. Edmund's Predecessor and so 't is in the Syllabus of this election and so 't is reckon'd by other good Authors and accordingly it bears date A. D. 1229 which was two years before Edmund came to the see of Canterbury And for the royal authority mentioned in it I conceive it depends upon a former Canon made under Richard Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry the 2 d in his Synod held at London A. D. 1175. Which decreed that every Patron taking reward for any presentation should lose his Patronage for ever As Hoved. notes in Vita Hen. 2 d at which decree Henry the 2 d and Richard the First were present and consented But because both these transferred and forfeited a temporal right which the Law it seems would not allow a Canon to do they both prov'd ineffectual 'T is pretty to observe what pains the Glossator on this Canon takes to explain Perpetuum to be during the life of that Patron being loath such horrid breaches of trust should be too severely punished when 't is plain that the King and Church did by that means declare the trust forfeited for ever by the abuse of it But the Canon being rejected the Lords portion is become his Daughters the Patrons children are enabled to live by Sacriledge and yet himself declared unfit to bear any Trust in the Church affairs And the very Clouds labour with the weight of Curses that hang over his head Cursed be the Deceiver saith Malachi 1.14 and he is no small one that deceives God in what is intrusted to him and Mal. 3.9 Ye are cursed with a Curse for ye have robbed me Remigius Altissiodor renders Anathema by alienatio and says Com. in Zack 14. Bibl. pa tom 1. 't is in rebut quas homines vota facientes templo affigebant a se alienas faciebant and in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put by good Authors for donarium Deo consecratum any thing devoted to God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Exitio desttinatus one devoted to perdition and both from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set apart as believing the curse of God and Man is intail'd on him that takes to himself what is devoted to God So that our Patrons Panegyrick is spoken from Mount Ebat Gen. 27.12 and by these acts as Jacob told his Mother he rather brings a curse then a blessing on his Family And this was Justin Martyr's sense of Anathema too V. quaest 121. yea their own fathers in their dedications did themselves load them that abridge or pervert their free Donations with most * Darius curse Ezra 6.1 The common form is venientibus contra haec destruentibus
of Mascon in the name of his Dean and Chapter acknowledged the King of France might do though many Councils had condemned it and many Kings and Princes had renounced that Right And in particular Frederick 2d to Pope Innoc. 4th and our Edw. 1. to the Dean and Chapter of Burdeaux c. yet they never required any Rents after the Incumbent was invested And if there be any one instance of it it was esteemed a violent Usurpation Only Popes have pretended right to it and thence as the best evidence these parts have believed it lawful So easily can the Waters of Seine Thames and Tyber mix when profit perswades otherwise it had sunk with other Papal tyrannies over this Church and State in the reign of Henry 8th who too readily adopted the Papal oppressions into his own family even to the continuing scandalous Impropriations against the common sense of Mankind but the utter ruine of his Name and Family Greg. of Haymbourgh a German Lawyer Greg. Haymb conf Primat Pap. in the time of the Council of Basil makes sad complaints how much Rome had surcharged Bishopricks and Livings with Annates and other Simoniacal Exactions Great struggling there was in the Council of Constance to have laid these burdens aside Sess 40. but it could not be done till the 21 Session of the Council of Basil and there the Fathers condemned all Annates First-fruits Money for Ordinations Institutions Installations c. forbidding any thing to be exacted in the Court of Rome or elsewhere for any promotion in the Church whatsoever And from thence it was received into the Pragmatick Sanction And an Ordinance at Orleans was made against it in the second Article of which all Annates c. are forbidden but the Capitolian Geese charm all France again so that Jan. 10 1562 the King recalls the Ordinance and the great Leviathan is let loose to sport himself in the great Ocean of that Nations treasure But for England 60000 Marcarum puri reditus Matth. Par. in vit Hen. 3. It represented to Pope Innocent the Fourth the insatiable Covetousness of that See that it drain'd more Money yearly from hence than the Kings whole Revenue amounted to Yet the exaction is continued though condemn'd by all sound Divines for Simony in the Popes Yea though the Cardinals themselves elected to that purpose assure Pope Paul the third that it was utterly unlawful Conc. delect Card. An. 1538. quod extat in Tom. Conc. after they were sworn to give him sound and sincere advice And how weakly 't is excus'd by the flattering Canonists that strive to harden mens consciences into Impenitency by disguising their Guilt may be seen elsewhere yet our zealous covetousness swallowed it without asking any Question for Conscience sake But so as to declare it a Revenue or Tax to support the Crown which though it be very unequal to charge one sort of men and Lands more than all the rest and not abating them a Peny in any other Tax or Subsidy for it and therefore must needs lie heavy and be thought a severe dealing towards a Church that vies Piety and Loyalty with any other in the world yet will it not be Simony We shall now consider what actions are unlawful and 1. T is unlawful to attempt to obtain any spiritual promotion by Money or any other corrupt consideration This was Simon Magus crime he shewed Studiosam voluntatem an earnest desire but failed in his purpose This the Casuists call mental or intentional Simony It seems by Hughes the Law lays hold of these attempts for says he Simony is so odious in the eye of the Law Hughs Pars Law c. 18. that the Church being void if a man seeks for money to be presented although afterwards the Patron present him gratis it was Lord chief Baron Tanfield's opinion in his argument in Calvin and Kitchin 's Case in the Exchequer that for the Simoniacal attempt only he is disabled to take the same Benefice 'T is the intention St. Peter so severely sentenced charging him Act. 8.21 That his heart was not right in the sight of God And again repent therefore if peradventure the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Yet this thought could make none guilty in foro humano without some overt act to discover it And thus go the Decretals If he be detected I. q. 1. quodvis praemium obtulisse ex eodem tempore noverit se esse anathematis opprobrio condemnatum He was anathematized for offering a gift And Gratian affirms from Greg. Nazian Qui studet donum Dei pretio mercari c. if he cast about to do it 't is a Capital crime and Simoniacal heresy Christ whipt the Buyers and Sellers for offering to sale and cheapening And Gregory tells Siagrius Qui ultro ambit vel importunè se ingerit est procul dubio repellendus for says he men should not enter the Church suffragio venditorum but judicio Dei not by the Mercenary Votes of Men but by the judgment of God which appears only when mens judgments are not corrupted with testations 2. 'T is an unlawful promotion by Simoniacal means though the Incumbent be not privy to it no nor Patron neither For he is as the Canons distinguish Simoniacè promotus though he be not Simoniacus In conscience he hath no call from God C. 17. Num. 16. and in Law the Benefice is void yet here as Navar observes the Incumbent falls not under Excommunication It was never thought fit men should be promoted in the Church by sin though none of their own Degg shews in a case of Bath and Potter 17 Jac. in the King's Bench that neither Patron nor Incumbent were Privees yet the Church was void by Simony 3. To contract with a Father or any other for a Living in consideration of a marriage assoon as it shall fall void is unlawful That this is Simony by the Canon is proved before Nulli liceat Ecclesiam nomine dotalitatis ad aliquem transferre And the Act 31 Eliz. 6. comprises it in those geral words If any Person for any profit directly or indirectly shall present c. A benefit it is for it goes in lieu of a Portion in whole or part And under favour 't is beneath the gravity and learning of a Judge to say the Covenant is good if the words in consideration of a Marriage be not there for that were to submit honesty to subtilty and to make the best Laws a tye to none but Fools and to trammel Justice with Letters and Syllables Yea t is to make Justice punish words rather than things since the fact will be declared innocent if it be not ill worded The Crime is in truth that the Patron robs the Church for his Childs portion and chuses to be sacrilegious rather than his Daughter shall want a Husband If the Incumbent will appeal to his own conscience he might as well have paid 200 l. for it unless