f Ut imprimis de meo proprio reddant Deo decimas Episcopi mei similiter faciant de suo proprio Aldermanni mei Praepositi mei of his own estate that is to say that which he held in his own hands and had not estated out to his Lords and Barons and that the Bishops did the like of that which they held in right of their Churches and his Nobles and Officers of that which they held in property as their own possessions or inheritance By which we find that Tithes were granted to the Clergy out of all the Lands in the Kingdom and the perpetual payment of them laid as a Rent-charge on the same by the bounty and munificence of the first Monarchs of this Realm before any part thereof was demised to others And if perhaps some of the great Men of the Realm had Estates in property as certainly there were but few if any which had any such Estates in the times we speak of they charged the same with Tithes by their own consent before they did transmit them to the hands of the Gentry or any who now claim to lay hold under them So then the Land being charged thus with the payment of Tithes came with this clog unto the Lords and great Men of the Realm and being so charged with Tithes by the Kings and Nobles have been transmitted and passed over from one hand to another until they came to the possession of the present owners Who whatsoever right they have to the other nine parts either of Fee-simple Lease or Copy have certainly none at all in the Tithe or tenth which is no more theirs or to be so thought of than the other nine parts are the Clergies For whether they hold their Lands at a yearly Rent or have them in fee or for term of life or in any other tenure whatsoever it be they hold them and they purchased them on this tacite condition that besides the rents and services which they pay to the Lord they are to pay unto the Clergy or unto them who do succeed in the Clergies right a tenth of all the fruits of the Earth and of the fruits of their Cattel and all creatures titheable unless some ancient custom or prescription do discharge them of it And more than so whether they hold by yearly rent or by right of purchase they hold it at less rent by far and buy it at far cheaper rates because the land it self and the stock upon it is chargeable with Tithes as before was said than they would do or could in reason think to do were the Land free from Tithes as in some places of this Realm it is To make this clearer by Example of an House in London where according to the Rent which this House is set at the Minister hath 2 s. 9 d. out of every pound in the name of a Tithe Suppose we that the rent of the House be 50 l. the Ministers due according unto that proportion comes to 6 l. 17 s. 6 d. yearly which were it not paid and to be paid by Law to the Parish-Minister there is no question to be made but that the Landlord of the House would have raised his Rent and not content himself with the 50 l. but look for 56 l. 17 s. 6 d. which is the whole Rent paid though to divers hands And if this House were to be sold at 16 years purchase the Grantee could expect no more than 800 l. because there is a Rent of 6 l. 17 s. and 6 d. reserved to the Minister by Law which is to be considered in the sale thereof whereas if no such Rent or Tithe were to issue out of it he would have as many years purchase for the sum remaining which would inhaunce the price 110 l. higher than before it was Now by this standard we may judg of the case of Lands though by reason of the difference of the Soil the well or ill husbanding of grounds and the greatness or smalness of the stock which is kept upon them it cannot be reduced to so clear a certainty But whatsoever the full Tithe of all be worth to the Minister we may undoubtedly conclude that if so much as the Tithe comes to yearly were not paid to him the Landlord would gain it in his Rent and the Grantee get it in the sale no benefit at all redounding to the Tenant by it nor any unto him that buyeth it Or if we will suppose with one of my Pamphlets and let it be supposed this once for our better proceeding that he who officiates in a Parish where Tithes are paid in kind without any subtractions hath the fift part of every landed mans Estate that is to say four pounds in every 20 l. per annum the Purchaser or Tenant be he which he will may positively build on this in his better thoughts that if four pounds in twenty were not paid to the Minister the Tenant must pay to his Landlord and the Purchaser must buy it at the same rates as he did the rest of the Land But being that neither the Tenant pays Rent for it nor the Purchaser hath it in his grant from him that selleth the Land unto him the Tithe of the increase of their Land and stock and other creatures titheable in their possession can be none of their own but must be his and only his whom the munificence of Kings and Princes confirmed by so many Laws and Statutes have conferred it on His part indeed it is not ours not the tenth part of our Estates as my Pamphlet saith and he receives it of us as a Rent or Duty transmitted to us with the Land from one hand to another not as a matter of gift or an act of courtesie If then we pay not any thing of our own to the Parish Minister which ariseth to him from the increase of Corn and Cattel and other creatures titheable by the Law of the Land I think it cannot be affirmed by discerning men who are not led aside by prejudice and prepossessions that we give any thing at all of our own unto them more than our Easter-Offering be it more or less 'T is true some Statutes have been made about the payment of personal Tithes out of the gains arising in the way of Trade and I remember Dr. Burgess writ a book about it for which he stands as highly censured by the Independent As in the book called Tithe-gatherers no Gospel-Officers as for other things by those of the Prelatical party But then I think it is as true that either those Statutes were drawn up with such reservations or men of Trades have been so backward to conform unto them that little or no benefit hath redounded by them to the Parish-Minister more than to shew the good affections which the Parliaments of those times had unto the Clergy And if we pay nothing of our own towards the maintenance of the Clergy out of the increase
these two arguments First that he blessed Abraham And secondly that he Tithed him or received Tithes of him For though in our English translation it be only said that he received Tithes of Abraham which might imply that Abraham gave them as a gift or a Free-will-offering and that Melchisedech received them in no other sense Yet in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in plain English is that he Tithed Abraham and took them of him as his due Heb. 7.6 If then our Saviour be a Priest after the order of Melchisedech as no doubt he is he must have power to Tithe the people as well as to Bless them or else he comes not home to the Type or figure Which power of Tithing of the people or receiving Tithes of them since he exerciseth not in person it seems to me to follow upon very good consequence that he hath devolved this part of his power on those whom he hath called and authorised for to bless the people Certain I am the Fathers of the Primitive times though they enjoyed not Tithes in specie by reason that the Church was then unsetled and as it were in motion to the land of rest in which condition those of Israel paid no Tithes to Levi yet they still kept their claim unto them as appears clearly out of Origen and some other Ancients And of this truth I think no question need be made amongst knowing men The only question will be this Whether the maintenance which they had till the Tithes were paid were not as chargeable to the people as the Tithes now are supposing that the Tithes were the Subjects own For my part I conceive it was the people of those pious times not thinking any thing too much to bestow on God for the incouragement of his Ministers and the reward of his Prophets They had not else sold off their Lands and Houses and brought the prices of the things which were sold and laid them at the Apostles feet as we know they did Acts 4.34 35. but that they meant that the Apostles should supply their own wants out of those oblations as well as the necessities of their poorer Brethren I trow the selling of all and trusting it to the dispensing of their Teachers was matter of more charge to such as had Lands and Houses than paying the tenth part of their House-rent or the Tithe of their Lands And when this custom was laid by as possibly it might end with the Apostles themselves the Offerings which succeeded in the place thereof and are required or injoyned by the Apostolical Canons were so great and manifold that there was nothing necessary to the life of man as Honey Milk Fowl Flesh Grapes Corn Oyl Frankincense Fruits of the season yea Strong drink and Sweet-meats which was not liberally offered on the Altars or Oblation-Tables Insomuch as the Author of the Book called the Holy Table name and thing c. according to his scornful manner saith of them that they were rather Pantaries Larders or Store-houses than so many Consecrated Altars And though he make those Canons but as so many Pot-guns yet as great Criticks as himself esteem otherwise of them as his Antagonist in that quarrel proves sufficiently And as for that particular Canon which requires these Offerings it is but an exemplification or particularizing of that which is more generally prescribed by S. Paul Gal. 6.6 where he enjoyneth him that is taught to communicate to him that teacheth him in omnibus bonis in all his goods as the Rhemists read it very rightly and not in all good things as our late translation Now this Injunction reacheth to all sorts of people to the poor as well as to the rich as it appears plainly by a passage in S. Cyprians works where he upbraids a wealthy Widow for coming empty-handed and without her Offering to the Altar of God and eating of that part of the Sacrifice which the poor had offered Locuples dives in dominicum sine sacrificio venis partem sacrificii quod pauper obtulit sumis Cyp. de piet Eleemos To the improvement of the maintenance of him that teacheth not only the rich men were to offer out of their abundance but the poor Woman also was to bring her Mite They had not else come home to S. Pauls commandment which reacheth unto all sorts of people without any exception to every one according to that measure of fortune which God hath given him Which clearly sheweth that though the payment of Tithes fall heavier upon Landed men than possibly it might do in the Primitive times before the Church was in a condition to demand her rights yet speaking generally of the people of a Church or Parish the charge was greater to them then than it hath been since the greatest numbers of the people being freed from Tithes because they have no Lands from whence Tithes are payable who could not be discharged from the communication of their goods and substance without a manifest neglect of S. Pauls Injunction More than this yet besides what was communicated in a private way for the encouragement and support of him that taught which we may well conceive to be no small matter The publick Offerings of the people were of so great confequence as did not only serve to maintain the Bishop according to his place and calling and to provide also for the Priests or Ministers which served under him but also to relieve the Poor and repair their Churches Beda in histor Eccles l. 1. And therefore certainly the faithful of those times were generally at more charge to maintain their Ministry than the Subject is with us in England the greatest part of which by far pay no Tithes at all to the Parish-Minister and no man any thing at all towards the maintenance of the Bishop as in former days Follow we our design through several Countries and we shall find the Clergy of most parts in Christendom either more plentifully endowed or else maintained with greater charge unto the Subject than the Clergy of the Church of England In France the Author of the Cabinet computes the Tithes and temporal Revenues of the Clergy besides provisions of all sorts to 80 millions of Crowns but his accompt is disallowed by all knowing men Bodin reporteth from the mouth of Monsieur d'Alemant one of the Presidents of Accompts in Paris that they amount to 12 millions and 300000 of their Livres which is 1230000 l. of our English money and he himself conceives that they possess seven parts of twelve of the whole Revenues of that Kingdom The book inscribed Comment d'Estat gives a lower estimate and reckoning that there are in France 200 millions of Arpens which is a measure somewhat bigger than our Acre assigneth 47 millions which is neer a fourth part of the whole to the Gallican Clergy But which of these soever it be we think fit to stand to it is resolved by them all that
had any thing to do in the Land at all For as I am informed by Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Littletons Tenures lib. 1. cap. 9. Sect. 73. fol. 58. It appeareth by the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings and especially of King Alfred that the first King of this Realm had all the lands of England in Demesne and les grands manours royalties they reserved to themselves and with the remnant they for the defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such jurisdiction as the Court Baron now hath So he the professed Champion of the Common Laws And at this time it was when all the Lands in England were the Kings Demesne that Ethelwolph the second Monarch of the Saxon race his father Egbert being the first which brought the former Heptarchie under one sole Prince conferred the Tithes of all the Kingdom upon the Church by his royal Charter Of which thus Ingulph Abbot of Crowland an old Saxon Writer a Anno 855. Rex Ethelwulfus omnium Praelatorum Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis Provinciis totius Angliae praeerant gratuito Consensu tunc primo cum decimis terrarum bonorum aliorum sive catallorum universam dotavit Ecclesiam per suum Regium Chirographum Ingulph Anno 855. which was the 18. of his Reign King Ethelwulph with the consent of his Prelates and Princes which ruled in England under him in their several Provinces did first enrich the Church of England with the Tithes of all his Lands and Goods by his Charter Royal. Ethelward an old Saxon and of the blood Royal doth express it thus b Decimavit de omni possessione sua in partem Domini in universo regimine Principatus sui sic constituit Ethelward He gave the Tithe of his possessions for the Lords own portion and ordered it to be so in all the parts of the Kingdom under his command Florence of Worcester in these words c Aethelwulphus Rex decimam totius Regni sui partem ab omni Regali servitio tributo liberavit in sempiterno Graphio in Cruce Christi pro Redemptione Animae suae Praedecessorum suorum uni trino Deo immolavit Florent Wigorn. King Ethelwolfe for the Redemption of his own soul and the souls of his Predecessors discharged the tenth part of his Realm of all Tributes and Services due unto the Crown and by his perpetual Charter signed with the sign of the Cross offered it to the three-one God Roger of Hovenden hath it in the self same words and Huntingdon more briefly thus d Totam terram suam propter amorem Dei Redemptionem ad opes Ecclesiarum decimavit Henr. Huntingd. That for the love of God and the redemption of his soul he tithed his whole Dominions to the use of the Church But what need search be made into so many Authors when the Charter it self is extant in old Abbot Ingulph and in Matthew of Westminster and in the Leiger Book of the Abbey of Abingdon which Charter being offered by the King on the Altar at Winchester in the presence of his Barons was received by the Bishops and by them sent to be published in all the Churches of their several Diocesses a clause being added by the King saith the Book of Abingdon That whosoever added to the gift e Qui augere voluerit nostram donationem augeat omnipotens Deus dies ejus prosperos siquis vero mutare vel minuere praesumpserit noscat se ad Tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione emendaverit God would please to prosper and increase his days but that if any did presume to diminish the same he should be called to an account for it at Christs Judgment-seat unless he made amends by full satisfaction In which as in some other of the former passages as there is somewhat savouring of the errour of those darker times touching the merit of good works yet the authorities are strong and most convincing for confirmation of the point which we have in hand Now that the King charged all the Lands of the Kingdom with the payment of Tithes and not that only which he held in his own possession is evident both by that which was said before from Sir Edward Coke and by the several passages of the former Authors For if all the Lands in the Kingdom were the Kings Demesnes and the King conferred the Tithes of all his Lands on the Church of God it must follow thereupon that all the Lands of the Realm were charged with Tithes before they were distributed amongst the Barons for defence of the Kingdom And that the Lands of the whole Realm were thus charged with Tithes as well that which was parted in the hands of Tenants as that which was in the occupancy of the King himself the words before alledged do most plainly evidence where it is said that he gave the tenth of all his Lands as Ingulph the Tithe of his whole Land as Henry of Huntingdon the tenth part of his whole Kingdom as in Florence of Worcester the tenth part of the Lands throughout the Kingdom in the Charter it self And finally in the Book of Abingdon the Charter is ushered in with this following Title viz. Quomodo Ethelwolfus Rex dedit decimam partem regni sui Ecclesiis that is to say how Ethelwolf gave unto the Church the tenth part of his Kingdom This makes it evident that the King did not only give de facto the Tithe or the tenth part of his whole Realm to the use of the Clergy but that he had a right and a power to do it as being not only the Lord Paramount but the Proprietary of the whole Lands the Lords and great Men of the Realm not having then a property or estates of permanency but as accomptants to the King whose the whole land was And though it seems by Ingulph their consents were asked and that they gave a free consent to the Kings Donation yet was this but a matter of Form and not simply necessary their approbation and consent being only asked either because the King was not willing to do any thing to the disherison of his Crown without the liking and consent of the Peers or that having their consent and approbation they should be barred from pleading any Tenant-right and be obliged to stand in maintenance and defence thereof against all pretenders And this appears yet further by a Law of King Athelstanes made in the year 930 about which time not only the Prelates of the Church as formerly but the great Men of the Realm began to be setled in Estates of permanency and to claim a property in those Lands which they held of the Crown and claiming so begun it seems to make bold to subduct their Tithes For remedy whereof the King made this Law commanding all his Ministers throughout the Kingdom that in the first place they should pay the Tithes
one pronounced the blessing word by word till the three verses were ended And the people answered not after every verse but they made it in the Sanctuary one blessing And when they had finished all the people answered Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel for ever and ever Id. Ibid. By which we may preceive most clearly first that the Priests were tyed precisely to a form of blessing prescribed by the Lord himself And secondly that to this form of blessing thus prescribed by God the Church did after add of her own Authority not only several external and significant rites but a whole clause to be subjoyned by the people after the Priest had done his part Now as the Priests were limited by Almighty God unto a set and prescribed form wherewith they were to bless the people in the Name of God So did he also set a form unto the People in which they were to pay their Tithes and First-fruits to the Lord their God towards the maintenance of the Priests First for the form used at the oblation of the First-fruits it was this that followeth the words being spoke unto the Priest I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the Countrey which the Lord sware unto our Fathers to give us Which said and the Oblation being placed by the Priest before the Altar the party which brought it was to say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous And the Egyptians evil intreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage And when we cryed unto the Lord God of our Fathers the Lord beard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labour and our oppression And the Lord brought us forth of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an out-stretched arm and with great terribleness and with signs and with wonders And he hath brought us into this place and hath given us this Land even a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey And now behold I have brought the First-fruits of the Land which thou O Lord hast given unto me Then for the tendry of the Tithe of the third year which only was payable to the Priest those of the other two years being due to the Levites in the Countrey it was to be brought unto Hierusalem and tendred in these following words viz. I have brought away the hallowed thing out of mine House and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the Stranger to the Fatherless and to the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my journeying neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead but I have bearkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest to our Fathers a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey Of this see Deut. 26. from the 1 verse to the 16. Led by these precedents and guided by the Wisdom of the Spirit of God the Church in the succeeding times prescribed a set form to be used in burning their leaven which after they had searched for with such care and diligence that a Mouse-hole was not left unransacked they threw it in the fire with this solemn form of execration viz. Let all that Leaven or whatsoever leavened thing is in my power whether it were seen of me or not seen whether cleansed by me or not cleansed let all that be scattered destroyed and accounted of as the dust of the Earth A prescribed form they also had in a constant practice for the confession of their sins to the Throne of God The ground thereof they took indeed from the holy Scripture where the Lord God commanded saying And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their Transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the Goat c. Lev. 16.21 Ask Lyra what kind of Confession is there meant and he will tell you that it was a general Confession of the peoples sins made by the mouth of the Priest for and in their names sicut facimus in Confessione in principio Missae as we the Priests are wont to make in the beginning of the Mass The Learned Morney comes more home and informs us thus Lyr. in Levit. cap. 18.21 Confessio olim in sacrificio solennis Ejus praeterquam in lege vestigia in Prophetis formulam habemus In ipsis Judaeorum libris verba tanquam concepta extant quae sacerdos pronunciare solitus Of old they had a solemn or set manner of Confession Mornaeus de Missal 1. cap. 5. whereof besides those footsteps of it which are remaining in the Law the form is extant in the Prophets And in the Jewish Liturgy the express words are to be seen which were pronounced by the Priest Now if we ask of Paulus Phagius than whom none more acquainted with the Jewish Liturgies what the precise form was which the Priest did use he will thus inform us Forma confessionis qua tum usus est summus Pontifex secundum Hebraeorum relationem haec fuit c. The form saith he used then by the High Priest in Confessing the peoples sins as the Hebrew Doctors have recorded was as followeth P. Phagius in Chaldaea Paraphr in cap. 16. Levit. O Lord thy People of the House of Israel have sinned they have done wickedly they have grievously transgressed before thee O Lord make Atonement now for the Sins and for the Iniquities and for the Trespasses that thy People the House of Israel have sinned and unrighteously done and trespassed before thee as it is written in the Law of Moses thy Servant that in this day he shall make Atonement for you This for the people on the Scape-goat And there were two other Confessions made by the Priest also as the Rabbins testifie one for himself Maymoni apud Aynsw in cap. 16. Levit. the other for himself with the other Priests both on the Bullock of the Sin-offering mentioned v. 6. each of which also had their certain and prescribed forms For when he offered the Bullock for a Sin-offering for himself he said O Lord I have sinned and done wickedly and have grievously transgressed I beseech thee now O Lord be merciful unto those sins and iniquities and grievous transgressions wherein I have sinned P. Phagius loco supr citato done wickedly and transgressed against thee And when he offered for himself and the rest of the Priests then he used these words saying
Congregation are now more sensibly apparent than ever formerly Other absurdities or inconveniences in this kind I could produce but that these few may serve as a taste for the rest and I am loath to go beyond the compass of a Letter although I cannot but be fearful that I have passed the bounds thereof already However I was willing rather to trespass somewhat on good manners than to be wanting in the least degree to your desire Beseeching you as favourably to accept those Considerations as they are chearfully and faithfully digested by me in obedience to the intimation of your Lordships pleasure which in all matters tending to the Churches service carrieth the force of a Command upon all the studies and endeavours of MY LORD Your Lordships most Humble Servant THE UNDECEIVING OF THE PEOPLE In the point of TITHES Wherein is shewed I. That never any Clergy in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England II. That there is no Subject in the Realm of England who giveth any thing of his own towards the maintenance of his Parish-Minister but his Easter-Offering III. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended By PETER HEYLYN D. D. 1 COR. IX 7. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges Who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flocks LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. TO THE READER THE Lands of Bishops and Cathedrals being put to sale there remaineth nothing to support a sinking Ministry but Parochial Tithes and upon these the eyes of Avarice and Rapine were so strongly fixt that all endeavours to preserve them were almost grown desperate The Horseleach and her Daughters in the book of Proverbs are always on the craving hand nothing but Give Give to be heard amongst them Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo in the Poets lauguage When they have once tasted the sweets of blood they never lose their hold till full and when full not satisfied The Prey when brought within the view must be hunted close And to this end the Anabaptists on the one side and the Adjutators on the other so bestirred themselves that Petitions against Tithes were hammered in all parts of the Kingdom the Parliament continually vexed with their importunities the vulgar Landholders fool'd into an opinion that they should have those Tithes themselves which before they paid unto the Clergy the common Tradesman and Artificer which had none to pay opening as wide as any of the rest to make up the Cry In this Conjuncture of Affairs Anno 1648. I published a short and plain Discourse entituled The Undeceiving of the People in the point of Tithes under the name of Ph. Treleinie the letters of my own name being transposed into that in the way of Anagram For though I was then sequestred from my Church-preferments in a condition rather of paying than receiving Tithes and consequently could have no Self-ends in it as the case then stood yet I was fearful lest the work of avowed for mine should be neglected as the product of corrupted Interests of one that wholly advocated for his own concernments What benefit redounded by it unto some what satisfaction unto others I had rather thou shouldst hear elsewhere than expect from me All I shall add now is but this that I hope it will not be less profitable unto them that read it nor read by any with more prejudice and disaffection now I acknowledg it for my own than when it came before them in a borrowed name and so fare thee well The Undeceiving of the People In the Point of TITHES AMongst those popular deceits which have been set abroad of late to abuse the people there is not any one which hath been cherished with more endearments than a persuasion put into them of not paying Tithes Partly because it carrieth no small shew of profit with it but principally as it seems a conducible means to make the Clergy more obnoxious to them and to stand more at their devotion than they have done formerly Upon these hopes it hath been the endeavours of some leading men to represent it to the rest as a Publick grievane that the Clergy being but an handful of men in comparison of all the rest of the Kingdom should go away with the tenth or as some say the sixth part of the fruits of the earth and that the Minister sitting still in his contemplations should live upon the sweat of other mens brows and taking pains amongst the people but one day in seven should have the tenth part of their Estates allotted to them for their maintenance And 't is no marvail if some few on these mis-persuasions have importuned the High Court of Parliament from time to time with troublesome and clamorous Petitions to redress this wrong and put them up also in the name of whole Counties although the generality of those Counties had no hand therein to add the greater credit and authority to them In which design although they have prevailed no further on the two Houses of Parliament than to be sent away with this general promise As in the answer to those those of Hartford Kent c. That in due time their Petitions should be taken into consideration and that it was the pleasure of the several and respective Houses that in the mean season they should take care that Tithes be duly paid accordin to Law yet they which have espoused the quarrel will not so be satisfied For when it pleased the Lords and Commons to set out an Ordinance bearing date Novemb. 8. 1644. for the true payment of Tithes and other duties according to the Laws and customs of this Realm there came out presently a Pamphlet entituled The Dismounting of the Ordinance for Tithes followed and backed by many a scandalous Paper of the self-same strain And when it seemed good to the said Lords and Commons on the precipitancy of some of the Clergy under Sequestration to set out their Additional Ordinance of the ninth of August Anno 1647. it was encountred presently with a scurrilous Pamphlet entituled A Preparation for a day of Thanksgiving to the Parliament for their late Ordinance for Tithes newly mounted and well charged with treble damages for the people 's not giving the Tenth part of their Fstates to the Clergy or Impropriators And this according to the style of those Petitions is said to be the Result of the Parliaments Friends in Hartfordshire though I am verily persuaded that few if any of the Gentry and men of quality in the Country were acquainted with it But be it the result of few or many of the Parliaments Friends though I conceive they are but back-friends to the
was one hundred in the total Out of the residue being 5900 bushels the first Tithe payable to the Levites which lived dispersed and intermingled in the rest of the Tribes came to 590 bushels and of the residue being 5310 bushels 531 were paid for the second Tithe unto the Priests which ministred before the Lord in his holy Temple yet so that such as would decline the trouble of carrying it in kind unto Hierusalem might pay the price thereof in money according to the estimate which the Priests made of it To which a fift part being added as in other cases did so improve this Tithe to the Priests advantage as that which being paid in kind was but ten in the hundred being thus altered into money made no less than twelve Now lay these several sums together and of 6000 bushels as before was said there will accrew 1121 to the Priest and Levite and but 4779 to the Lord or Tenant By which accompt the Priests and Levites in the tithing of 6000 bushels received twice as much within a little as is possessed or claimed by the English Clergy even where the Tithes are best paid without any exemptions which are so frequent in this Kingdom But then perhaps it will be said that the Levites made up one of the twelve Tribes of Israel and having no inheritance amongst the rest but the Tithes and Offerings besides the 48 Cities before mentioned were to be settled in way of maintenance correspondent unto that proportion But so they say it is not in the case of the English Clergy who are so far from being one of twelve or thirteen at most that they are hardly one for an hundred or as a late Pamphlet doth infer not one for five hundred Who on this supposition Tithe-gatherers no Gospel-Ministers that there are 500 Men and Women in a Country Parish the Lands whereof are worth 2000 l. per annum and that the Minister goeth away with 400 l. a year of the said two thousand concludeth that he hath as much for his own particular as any Sixscore of the Parish supposing them to be all poor or all rich alike and then cries out against it as the greatest Cheat and Robbery that was ever practised But the answer unto this is easie I would there were no greater difficulties to perplex the Church First for the Tribe of Levi it is plain and evident that though it pass commonly by the name of a Tribe yet was it none of the twelve Tribes of Israel the House of Joseph being sub-divided into two whole Tribes those namely of Ephraim and Manasses which made up the Twelve And secondly it is as evident that it fell so short of the proportion of the other Tribes as not to make a Sixtieth part of the House of Jacob. For in the general muster which was made of the other Tribes of men of 20 years and upwards such only as were fit for arms and such publick services the number of them came unto 635500 fighting men to which if we should add all those which were under 20 years and unfit for service the number would at least be doubled But the Levites being all reckoned from a month old and above their number was but 22000 in all of which see Numb 1.46 3.39 which came not to so many by 273. as the only First-born of the other Tribes And therefore when the Lord took the Levites for the First-born of Israel the odd 273 were redeemed according to the Law at five Shekels a man and the money which amounted to 1365 Shekels was given to Aaron and his Sons Numb 7.47 48. Which ground so laid according to the holy Scriptures let us next take a view of the English Clergy and allowing but one for every Parish there must be 9725. according to the number of the parish Churches or say ten thousand in the total the residue being made up of Curates officiating in the Chappels of Ease throughout the Kingdom and reckoning in all their Male-children from a month old and upwards the number must be more than trebled For although many of the dignified and beneficed Clergy do lead single lives yet that defect is liberally supplied by such Married Curates as do officiate under them in their several Churches And then as to the disproportion which is said to be between the Clergy and the rest of the people one to five hundred at the least the computation is ill grounded the collection worse For first the computation ought not to be made between the Minister and all the rest of the Parish Men Women and Children Masters and Dames Men-servants and Maid-servants and the Stranger which is within the gates but between him and such whose Estates are Titheable and they in most Parishes are the smallest number For setting by all Children which live under their Parents Servants Apprentices Artificers Day-labourers and Poor indigent people none of all which have any interest in the Tithable Lands The number of the residue will be found so small that probably the Minister may make one of the ten and so possess no more than his own share comes to And then how miserably weak is the Collection which is made from thence that this one man should have as much as any Sixscore of the rest of the Parish supposing that the Parish did contain 500 persons or that his having of so much were a Cheat and Robbery And as for that objection which I find much stood on that the Levites had no other Inheritance but the Tithes and Offerings Numb 18.23 whereas the English Clergy are permitted to purchase Lands and to Inherit such as descend unto them the Answer is so easie it will make it self For let the Tithes enjoyed by the English Clergy descend from them to their Posterity from one Generation to another as did the Tithes and Offerings on the Tribe of Levi And I persuade my self that none of them will be busied about Purchasing Lands or be an eye-sore to the people in having more to live on than their Tithes and Offerings Till that be done excuse them if they do provide for their Wives and Children according to the Laws both of God and Nature And so much for the Parallel in point of maintenance between the Clergy of this Church and the Tribe of Levi. Proceed we next unto the Ministers of the Gospel at the first Plantation during the lives of the Apostles and the times next following and we shall find that though they did not actually receive Tithes of the people yet they still kept on foot their right and in the mean time till they could enjoy them in a peaceable way were so provided for of all kind of necessaries that there was nothing wanting to their contentation First that they kept on foot their Right and thought that Tithes belonged as properly to the Evangelical Priesthood as unto the Legal seems evident unto me by S. Pauls discourse who proves Melchisedechs Priesthood by
of our grounds and stock as I have plainly proved we do not and that no benefit come unto them from the gains of Trading as I think there comes not if those small vailes and casualties which redound unto him from Marriages Churchings and the like occasions be given unto him for some special service which he doth perform and not for his administration of the Word and Sacraments I hope my second Proposition hath been proved sufficiently namely that there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance of his Parish-Minister but his Easter-Offering If so as so it is for certain there hath been little ground for so great a clamour as hath been lately raised about this particular less reason to subduct or to change that maintenance which the piety of our Kings have given and the indulgence of succeeding Princes have confirmed in Parliament without any charge unto the Subject Which change though possibly some specious colours may be put unto it will neither be really beneficial to the Clergy or Laity And that conducts me on to my last Proposition viz. III. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended This is a double Proposition and therefore must be looked on in its several parts first in relation to the Clergy whose ease is very much pretended and next in reference to the Occupant whose profit only is intended in the change desired It is pretended for the Clergy to be a very difficult thing to know the dues demandable of their several Parishes that it maketh them too much given unto worldly things As in the Kentish Petition other projects of that kind by looking after the inning and threshing out of their Corn and doth occasion many scandalous and vexatious Suits betwixt them and their Neighbours all which they think will be avoided in case the Ministers were reduced to some annual stipend And to this end it is propounded by the Army in their late Proposals that the unequal troublesome and contentious way of Ministers maintenance by Tithes may be considered of in Parliament and a remedy applied unto it But under favour of the Army and of all those who have contrived the late Petitions to that purpose I cannot see but that the way of maintenance by annual stipends will be as troublesome unequal and contentious too as that of Tithes by Law established especially if those annual stipends be raised according to the platform which is now in hand For as far as I am able to judg by that which I have seen and heard from the chief Contrivers the design is this A valuation to be made of every Benefice over all the Kingdom according to the worth thereof one year with another a yearly sum according to that valuation to be raised upon the lands of every Parish which now stand chargeable with Tithes the money so assessed and levied to be brought into one common Treasury in each several County and committed to the hands of special Trustees hereunto appointed and finally that those Trustees do issue out each half year such allowances to the Ministers of the several Parishes respect being had unto the deserts of the person and the charge of his family as they think fittest yet so that the Impropriators be first fully satisfied according to the estimate of their Tithes and Glebe This is the substance of the project And if the moneys be assessed in the way proposed only upon the landed men whether Lords or Tenants and not upon Artificers Handicrafts and men of mysterious Trades who receive equal benefit by the Ministers labours the way of maintenance by stipends will be as unequal altogether as by that of Tithes And if it be but as unequal I am sure it will be far more troublesome For now the Minister or Incumbent hath no more to do but to see his Corn brought in and housed being to be cut and cocked to his hand both by Law and Custom and being brought in either to spend it in his House or sell the residue thereof to buy other provisions Which if he think too great an avocation from his studies he may put over to his Wife or some trusty servant as Gentlemen of greater fortunes do unto their Bailiffs And I my self know divers Clergy-men of good note and quality to whom the taking up of Tithes brings no greater trouble than once a month to look over the accompts of their servants besides that many of them keeping no more in their hands than what will serve for the necessary expence of Houshold let out the rest unto some Neighbour at a yearly rent But when the Tithes are turned to money and that the Minister hath neither Corn nor Hay nor any other provision for expence of Houshold but what he buyeth by the penny what an unreasonable trouble must it needs prove to him to trudge from one Market to another for every bit of bread he eats and every handful of Malt which he is to spend And if Corn happen to be dear as it is at this present one quarter of a years provisions bought at the price of the Market may eat out his whole years allowance Besides I would fain learn for I know not yet whether the valuation be to be made yearly and to hold no longer than that year or being once agreed on to endure for ever If it be made from year to year either the Minister must be at a certain trouble in driving a new bargain every year with each several and respective Occupant within the Parish or at a greater trouble in attending the Trustees of the County till they have list and leisure to conclude it for him But if the valuation once made be to hold for ever which is I think the true intent of the design I would fain know in case the price of all Commodities should rise as much by the end of the next hundred years as it hath done in the last and so the next hundreds after that how scant a pittance the poor Minister will have in time for the subsistence of himself and his Family-charge For since the 26. of King Henry VIII when a survey was taken of all the spiritual promotions in this Kingdom and the clear yearly value of each returned into the Court of the Exchequer the prices of Commodities have been so inhanced that had not Benefices been improved proportionably but held unto the valuation which is there recorded the Ministery in general had been so poor so utterly unable to have gone to the price of the Markets that many must have digged or begged for an hungry livelyhood And yet we do not see an end of the mischief neither for when the Tithes are changed to a sum of money and the money brought into a common bank or Treasury the Minister will be sure to
bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended which is the third and last of my Propositions and is I hope sufficiently and fully proved or at the least made probable if not demonstrative I have said nothing in this Tract of the right of Tithes or on what motive or considerations of preceding claim the Kings of England did confer them upon the Clergy Contenting my self at this time with the matter of fact as namely that they were setled on the Church by the Kings of this Realm before they granted out Estates to the Lords and Gentry and that the Land thus charged with the payment of Tithes they passed from one man to another Ante Concilium Lateranense bene toterant Laici decimas sibi in feudum retinere vel aliis quibuscunque Ecclesiis dare Lindw in Provinc cap. de decimis until it came unto the hands of the present Occupant which cuts off all that claim or title which the mispersuaded subject can pretend unto them I know it cannot be denied but that notwithstanding the said Grants and Charters of those ancient Kings many of the great men of the Realm and some also of the inferiour Gentry possessed of Manours before the Lateran Council did either keep their Tithes in their own hands or make Infeodations of them to Religious houses or give them to such Priests or Parishes as they best affected But after the decree of Pope Innocent the third which you may find at large in Sir Edw. Cokes Comment upon Magna Charta and other old Statutes of this Realm in the Chapter of Tithes had been confirmed in that Council Anno 1215 and incorporated into the Canons and conclusions of it the payment of them to the Minister or Parochial Priest came to be setled universally over all the Kingdom save that the Templars the Hospitalers and Monks of Cisteaux held their ancient priviledges of being excepted for those Lands which they held in Occupancy from this general rule Nor have I said any thing of Impropriations partly because I am persuaded that the Lords and Gentry who have their Votes or Friends in Parliament will look well enough to the saving of their own stakes but principally because coming from the same original grant from the King to the Subjects and by them setled upon Monasteries and Religious houses they fell in the ruine of those houses to the Crown again as of due right the Tithes should do if they be taken from the Clergy and by the Crown were alienated in due form of Law and came by many mean conveyances to the present Owners Onely I shall desire that the Lords and Commons would take a special care of the Churches Patrimony for fear lest that the prevalency of this evil humour which gapes so greedily after the Clergies Tithes do in the end devour theirs also And it concerns them also in relation to their right of Patronage which if this plot go on will be utterly lost and Churches will no longer be presentative at the choice of the Patron but either made Elective at the will of the People or else Collated by the Trustees of the several Counties succeeding as they do in the power of Bishops as now Committee-men dispose of the preferments of the Sequestred Clergy If either by their power and wisdom or by the Arguments and Reasons which are here produced the peoples eyes are opened to discern the truth and that they be deceived no longer by this popular errour it is all I aim at who have no other ends herein but only to undeceive them in this point of Tithes which hath been represented to them as a publick grievance conducing manifestly to the diminution of theâ—â— gain and profit If notwithstanding all this care for their information they will run headlong in the ways of spoil and sacrilege and shut their eyes against the light of the truth shine it never so brightly let them take heed they fall not into that â—â—â—â—tuation which the Scripture denounceth that seeing they shall see but shall not perceive and that the stealing of this Coal from the Altars of God burn not down their Houses And so I shut up this discourse with the words of our Saviour saying that no man tasteth new wine but presently he saith that the old is better ECCLESIA VINDICATA OR THE Church of England VINDICATED PART II. Containing the Defence thereof V. In retaining the Episcopal Government AND VI. The Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons Framed and Exhibited in an HISTORY of EPISCOPACY By PETER HEYLYN D. D. HEB. XIII 17. Obedite Praepositis vestris subjacete eis Ipsi enim pervigilant quasi rationem pro Animabus vestris reddituri ut cum gaudio hoc faciant non gementes CYPRIAN Epist LXV Apostolos id est EPISCOPOS Praepositos Dominus elegit Diaconos autem post Ascensum Domini in coelos Apostoli sibi constituerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesiae Ministros LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE Quarrels and Disputes about Episcopacy had reposed a while when they broke out more dangerously than in former times In order whereunto the people must be put in fear of some dark design to bring in Popery the Bishops generally defamed as the principal Agents the regular and establisht Clergy traduc'd as the subservient Instruments do drive on the Plot Their actings in Gods publick Worship charged for Innovations their persons made the Common subjects of reproach and calumny The News from Ipswich Bastwicks Let any and the Seditious Pamphlets from Friday-street with other the like products of those times what were they but Tentamenta Bellorum Civilium preparatory Velitations to that grand encounter in which they were resolved to assault the Calling The Calling could not be attempted with more hopes of Victory than when it had received such wide wounds through the sides of those persons who principally were concerned in the safety or defence thereof The way thus opened and the Scots entring with an Army to make good the pass the Smectymnuans come upon the Stage addressing their discourse in Answer to a Book called An Humble Remonstrance to the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled Anno 1640. amongst whom they were sure beforehand of a powerful party to advance the Cause which made them far more confident of their good suocess than otherwise they had reason to expect in a time less favourable And in this Confidence they quarrelled not the Rocket or the Officers Fees the Oath ex officio the Vote in Parliament or the exorbitant jurisdiction of the High-Commission at which old Martin and his followers clamoured in Queen Elizabeths time Non gaudet tenui sanguine tanta sitis Their stomach was too great to be satisfied with so small a sacrifice as the excrescences and adjuncts of Episcopacy which seemed most offensive to their Predecessors
in his Understanding Will Affections and all his other faculties that so he may be able to understand think will and bring to pass any thing that is good according to that of St. John 15.5 Without me you can do nothing IV. Of the manner of Conversion The Grace of God is the beginning promotion and accomplishment of every thing that is good in us insomuch that the Regenerate man can neither think well nor do any thing that is good or resist any sinful Temptations without this Grace preventing co-operating and assisting and consequently all good works which any man in his life can attain unto are to be attributed and ascribed to the Grace of God But as for the manner of the co-operation of this Grace it is not to be thought to be irresistable in regard that it is said of many in the holy Scripture that they did resist the Holy Ghost as in Acts 7. and in other places V. Of the uncertainty of Perseverance They who are grafted into Christ by a lively Faith and are throughly made partakers of his quickning Spirit have a sufficiency of strength by which the Holy Ghost contributing his Assistance to them they may not only right but obtain the Victory against the Devil Sin the World and all infirmities of the flesh Most true it is that Jesus Christ is present with them by his Spirit in all their Temptations that he reacheth out his hand unto them and shews himself ready to support them if for their parts they prepare themselves to the encounter and beseech his help and are not wanting to themselves in performing their unties so that they cannot be sedoced by the cunning or taken out of the hands of Christ by the power of Satan according to that of St. John No man taketh them out of my hand c. Cap. 10. But it is first to be well weighed and proved by the holy Scripture whether by their own negligence they may not forsake those Principles of saving Grace by which they are sustained in Christ embrace the present World again Apostatize from the saving Doctrince once delivered to them suffer a Shipwrack of their Conscience and fall away from the Grace of God before we can publickly teach these doctrines with any sufficient tranquility or assurance of mind It is reported that at the end of the Conference between the Protestants and Papists in the first Convocation of Queen Maries Reign the Protestants were thought to have had the better as being more dextrous in applying and in forcing some Texts of Scripture than the others were and that thereupon they were dismissed by Weston the Prolocutor with this short come off You said he have the Word and we have the Sword His meaning was That what the Papists wanted in the strength of Argument they would make good by other ways as afterwards indeed they did by Fire and Fagot The like is said to have been done by the Contra Remonstrants who finding themselves at this Conference to have had the worst and not to have thrived much better by their Pen-comments than in that of the Tongue betook themselves to other courses vexing and molesting their Opposites in their Classes or Consistories endeavouring to silence them from Preaching in their several Churches or otherwise to bring them unto publick Censure At which Weapon the Remonstrants being as much too weak as the others were at Argument and Disputation they betook themselves unto the Patronage of John Van Olden Burnevelt a man of great Power in the Council of Estate for the Vnited Belgick Provinces by whose means they obtained an Edict from the States of Holland and West-Friezland Anno 1613. requiring and enjoying a mutual Toleration of Opinions as well on the one side as the other An Edict highly magnified by the Learned Grotius in a Book intituled Pietas Ordinum Hollandiae c. Against which some Answers were set out by Bogerman Sibrandus and some others not without some reflection on the Magistrates for their Actings in it But this indulgence though at the present it was very advantageous to the Remonstrants as the case then stood cost them dear at last For Barnevelt having some suspition that Morris of Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of all the Forces of those Vnited Provinces both by Sea and Land had a design to make himself the absolute Master of those Countreys made use of them for the uniting and encouraging of such good Patriots as durst appear in maintenance of the common liberty which Service they undertook the rather because they found that the Prince had passionately espoused the Quarrel of the Contra Remonstrants From this time forwards the Animosities began to encrease on either side and the Breach to widen not to be closed again but either by weakning the great power of the Prince or the death of Barnevelt This last the easier to be compassed as not being able by so small a Party to contend with him who had the absolute command of so many Legions For the Prince being apprehensive of the danger in which he stood and spurred on by the continual Sollicitations of the Contra Remonstrnats suddenly put himself into the Head of his Army with which he march'd from Town to Town altered the Guards changed the Officers and displaced the Magistrates where he found any whom he thought disaffected to him and having gotten Barnevelt Grotius and some other of the Heads of the Party into his power he caused them to be condemned and Barnevelt to be put to death contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Countrey and the Rules of the Union This Alteration being thus made the Contra Remonstrants thought it a high point of Wisdom to keep their Adversaries down now they had them under and to effect that by a National Council which they could not hope to compass by their own Authority To which end the States General being importuned by the Prince of Orange and his Sollicitation seconded by those of KIng James to whom the power and person of the Prince were of like Importance a National Synod was appointed to be held as Dort Anno 1618. Barnevelt being then still living To which besides the Commissioners from the Churches of their several Provinces all the Calvinian Churches in Europe those of France excepted sent their Delegates also some eminent Divines being Commissioned by King James to attend also in the Synod for th eRealm of Britain A Synod much like that of Trent in the Motives to it as also in the managing and conduct of it For as neither of them was assembled till the Sword was drawn the terrour whereof was able to effect more than all other Arguments so neither of them was concerned to confute but condemn their Opposites Secondly The Council of Trent consisted for the most part of Italian Bishops some others being added for fashion-sake and that it might the better challenge the Name of General as that of Dort consisted for the most part
Realm Apud eund p. 219. Thus do we read that Egbert who first united the seven Kingdoms of the Saxons under the name of England did cause to be convened at London his Bishops and the Peers of the highest rank pro consilio capiendo adversus Danicos Piratas Charta Whitlafii Merciorum Regis ap Ingulf to advise upon some course against the Danish Pirates who infested the Sea coasts of England Another Parliament or Council call it which you will called at Kingsbury Anno 855. in the time of Ethelwolph the Son of Egbert pro negotiis regni to treat of the affairs of the Kingdom Chart. Bertulfi Merc. Regis ap Ingulf Ingulfi Croyland hist the Acts whereof are ratified and subscribed by the Bishops Abbots and other great men of the Realm The same King Ethelwolph in a Parliament or Assembly of his States at Winchester Anno 855. Cum consilio Episcoporum principum by the advice and counsel of the Bishops and Nobility confirmed unto the Clergy the tenth part of all mens goods and ordered that the Tithe so confirmed unto them should be free ab omnibus secularibus servitutibus from all secular services and impositions In the Reign of Edred we find this Anno 948. In Festo igitur nativitatis B. Mariae cum universi Magnates regni per Regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi Episcopi ac Abbates quam caeteri totius Regni proceres optimates Londoniis convenissent ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni Id ibid. p. 49. edit Lond. viz. That in the Feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin the great men of the Realm that is to say Archbishops Bishops Abbots Nobles Peers were summoned by the Kings Writ to appear at London to handle and conclude about the publick affairs of the Kingdom Mention of this Assembly is made again at the foundation and endowment of the Abbie of Crowland Id. p. 500. and afterwards a confirmation of the same by Edgar Anno 966. praesentibus Archiepiscopis Espiscopi Abbatibus Optimatibus Regni in the presence of the Archbishops Bishops Id. pag. 501. 502. Abbots and Peers of the Kingdom Like convention of Estates we find to have been called by Canutus after the death of Edmund Ironside for the setling of the Crown on his own head of which thus the Author Rog. Hoveden Annal. pars prior p. 250. Cujus post mortem Rex Canutus omnes Episcopos Duces necnon principes cunctosque optimates gentis Angliae Londoniae congregari jussit Where still we find the Bishops to be called to Parliament as well as the Dukes Princes and the rest of the Nobility and to be ranked and marshalled first which clearly shews that they were always reckoned for the first Estate before the greatest and most eminent of the secular Peers And so we find it also in a Charter of King Edward the Confessor the last King of the Saxon race by which he granted certain Lands and priviledges to the Church of Westminster Anno 1066. Cum consilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque Optimatum Ap. H. Spelman in Concil p. 630. with the Council and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earls and others of his Nobles And all this while the Bishops and other Prelates of the Church did hold their Lands by no other Tenure than in pura perpetua eleemosyna or Frank almoigne Cambden in Brit. as our Lawyers call it and therefore sat in Parliament in no other capacity than as spiritual persons meerly who by their extraordinary knowledg in the Word of God and in such other parts of Learning as the World then knew were thought best able to direct and advise their Princes in points of judgment In which capacity and no other the Priors of the Cathedral Churches of Canterbury Ely Winchester Coventry Bath Worcester Norwich and Durham the Deans of Exeter York Wells Salisbury and Lincoln the Official of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of the Arches the Guardian of the Spiritualties of any Bishoprick when the See was vacant Selden Titles of hon part 2. c. 5. and the Vicars general of such Bishops as were absent beyond the Seas had sometimes place and suffrage in the house of Lords in the Ages following But when the Norman Conqueror had possest the State then the case was altered the Prelates of the Church were no longer suffered to hold their Lands in Frankalmoigne as before they did or to be free from secular services and commands as before they were Although they kept their Lands yet they changed their Tenure and by the Conqueror Mat. Paris in Will 1. Auno 1.70 were ordained to hold their Lands sub militari servitute either in Capite or by Baronage or some such military hold and thereby were compâ—â—lable to aid the Kings in all times of War with Men Arms and Horses as the Lay subjects of the same Tenures were required to do Which though it were conceived to be a great Disfranchisement at the first and an heavy burden to the Prelacy yet it conduced at last to their greater honour in giving them a further Title to their place in Parliament than that which formerly they could pretend to Before they claimed a place therein ratione Officii only by reason of their Offices or spiritual Dignities but after this by reason also of those ancient Baronies which were annexed unto their Dignities Stamfords Pleas l. 3. c. 1. en respect de lour possessions l'antient Baronies annexes a lour dignities as our Lawyers have it From this time forwards we must look upon them in the House of Parliament not as Bishops only but as Peers and Barons of the Realm also and so themselves affirmed to the Temporal Lords in the Parliament holden at Northamptâ—n under Henry 2. Non sedimus hic Episcopi sed Barones nos Barones vos Barones Ap. Selden Titles of hon p. 2. c. 5. Pares hic sumus We fit not here say they as Bishops only but as Barons We are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Which last is also verified in terminis by the words of a Statute or Act of Parliament wherein the Bishops are acknowledged to be Peers of the Land Stat. 25 Edw. 3. c. 5. Now that the Bishops are a fundamental and essential part of the Parliament of England I shall endeavour to make good by two manner of proofs whereof the one shall be de jure and the other de facto And first we shall begin with the proofs de jure and therein first with that which doth occur in the Laws of King Athelstan amongst the which there is a Chapter it is Cap. 11. entituled De officio Episcopi quid pertinet ad officium ejus and therein it is thus declared Spelm. concil p. 402. Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei scilicet seculi
Courts Coke Institutes part 4 p. 45. out of the Records of Parliament and in his Margent pointing to the 13th of King Edward the third doth instruct us thus viz. Abbates Priores aliosque Praelatos quoscunque per Baroniam de Domino Rege tenentes pertinet in Parliamentis Regni quibuscunq ut pates Regni praedicti personaliter interesse ibique de Regni negotiis ac aliis tractari consuetis cum caeteris dicti Regni Paribus aliis ibidem jus interessendi habentibus consulere tractare ordinare statuere definire ac caetera facere quae Parliamenti tempore imminent facienda Which if it be the same with that which we had before differing only in some words as perhaps it is yet we have gained the Testimony of that Learned Lawyer whose judgment in this Case must be worth the having For hear him speaking in his own words and he tells us this viz. Coke Institut fol. 4. That every Lord of Parliament either Spiritual as Arch-bishops and Bishops or Temporal as Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons Peers of the Realm and Lords of Parliament ought to have several Writs of Summons where plainly these words Peers and Lords of Parliament relate as well to Spiritual as to the Temporal Lords And therefore if the Arch-bishops and the Bishops may be granted to be Lords of Parliament they must be also granted to be Peers of the Realm Now to the Testimony and Authority of particular persons we shall next add the sentence and determination of our Courts of Law in which the Bishops are declared to be Peers of the Realm and to be capable of all the priviledges which belong to the Peerage For first in the aforesaid Case of the Bishop of Winchester when he was brought upon his Trial for departing from the service of the Parliament without leave of the King and pleaded sor himself quod esset unus è Paribus Regni c. The priviledg of Barony It was supposed clearly both by Court and Council that he was a Peer that part of his defence being not gainsayed or so much as questioned So in the Year-Books of the Reign of King Edward the 3d in whose Reign the Bishop of Winchester's Case was agitated as before is said a Writ of Wards was brought by the Bishop of London and by him pleaded to an Issue and the Defendant could not be Essoyned or have day of Grace for it was said that a Bishop was a Peer of the Land haec erat causa saith the Book which reports the Case In the like Case upon an Action of Trespass against the Abbot of Abbingdon who was one of the Lords Spiritual day of Grace was denied against him because he was a Peere de la Terre So also it is said expresly that when question was made about the returning of a Knight to be of a Jury where a Bishop was Defendant in a Quare impedit the Rule of the Court was that it ought to be so because the Bishop was a Peer of the Realm And in the Judgment given against the Bishop of Norwich in the time of Richard the 2d he is in the Roll expresly allowed to be a Peer for he had taken exceptions that some things had passed against him without the Assent or knowledg of his Peers of the Realm To which Exception it was Answered that it behoved him not at all to plead that he was a Prelate for traversing such Errors and misprisions as in the quality of a Souldier who had taken wages of the King were committed by him Thus also in the Assignment of the Errors under Henry the fifth for the Reversal of the Attainder of the Earl of Salisbury one Error is assigned that Judgment was given without the consent of the Prelates which were Peers in Parliament And although that was adjudged to be no Error yet was it clearly allowed both in the Roll and the Petitions that the Bishops were Peers Finally in the Government of the Realm of France the Bishops did not only pass in the Ranks of Peers but six of them were taken into the number of the Douze-pairs or twelve Peers of that Kingdom highly esteemed and celebrated in the times of Charlemayne that is to say the Arch-bishop and Duke of Rhemes the Bishop and Duke of Laon the Bishop and Duke of Langres the Bishop and Earl of Beuvois the Bishop and Earl of Noyon the Bishop and Earl of Chalons And therefore it may be inferred that in the Government established by the Anjovin and Norman Kings the English Bishops might be ranked with the Peers at large considering their place in Parliament and their great Revenues and the strong influence which they had on the Church and State But there is little need for Inferences and book-Cases and the Authorities of particular men to come in for Evidence when we are able to produce an Act of Parliament to make good the point For in the Statute made the 4th year of King Henry the fifth it was repeated and confirmed That no man of the Irish Nation should be chosen by Election to be an Arch-bishop Bishop Abbot or Frior nor in no other manner received or accepted to any dignity and benefice within the said Land c. The Reason of which inhibition is there said to be this viz. because being Peers of the Parliament of the said Land they brought with them to the Parliaments and Councils holden there some Irish servants whereby the privities of the Englishmen within the same Land have been and be daily discovered to the Irish people Rebels to the King to the great peril and mischief of the Kings lawful Liege people in the said Land And if the Bishops and Arch-bishops of Ireland had the name of Peers there is no question to be made but the name of Peers and the right of Peerage may properly be assumed or challenged by them Now as this Statute gives them the name of Peers so in an Act of Parliament in the 25th year of King Henry the 8th they are called the Nobles of your Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal as all your other Subjects now living c. Which Term we find again repeated by the Parliament following the Nobles Spiritual and Temporal and that twice for failing so that we find no Title given to Earls and Barons Nobles and Peers and Lords as the Statutes call them but what is given to the Bishops in our Acts of Parliament and certainly had not been given them in the stile of that Court had any question then been made of their Right of Peerage And that their calling had not raised them to a state of Nobility concerning which take this from the Lord Chief Justice Coke for our more assurance and he will tell us that the general division of persons by the Law of England is either one that is Noble and in respect of his nobility of the Lords House of Parliament or one of the Commons of the
and that the way being thus laid open it was no hard matter to make the Bishop of Carlisle obnoxious to that kind of Trial which being forsaken on all sides as the times then were he was not able to avoid Which might be also the condition of Arch-bishop Cranmer and as for Fisher Bishop of Rochester he was to deal with an impetuous and violent Prince who was resolved to put the greater disgrace upon him because he had received some greater Honours from the Pope than the condition of Affairs might be thought to bear But against all these violations of their Rights of Peerage it may be said in their behalves for the times to come that by the Statute of the 25th of King Edward the 3d which serves to this day for the standing Rule in Cases of Treason it is required that the Malefactor or the suspected person must be attainted by such men as are of his own Condition and therefore Bishops to be tryed by none but the Peers of the Land unless it be in open opposit on to this Rule of King Edward and in defiance to the fundamental Law in the Magna Charta where it is said that no man is to be Disseised of his Freehold exiled or any ways destroyed nisi per Judicium parium suorum Or per Legem Terrae but by the Judgment of his Peers and by the Law of the Land and I can find no Law of the Land which tells me that a Bishop shall be tryed by a Common Jury Finally if it be a sufficient Argument that Bishops ought not to be reckoned as Peers of the Realm because they may be tryed by a Common Jury then also at some times and in certain Cases the Temporal Lords Dukes Marquesses Earls c. must not pass for Peers because in all Appeals of Murder they are to be tryed by Common Jurors like the rest of the Subjects But secondly it is objected That since a Bishop cannot sit in Judgment on the death of a Peer nor be so much as present at the time of his Trial they are but half-Peers as it were not Peers to all intents and purposes as the others are But this incapacity is not laid upon them by the Laws of the Land or any Limitation of their powers in their Writ of Summons or any thing inhering to the Episcopal Function but only by some ancient Canons and more particularly by the fourth Canon of Toledo which whether they be now of force or not may be somewhat questioned Secondly whensoever they withdrew themselves they did it with a salvo Jure paritatis as before is shewn To which intent they did not only cause their Protestations to be filed on Record Coke Institut part 4. fol. 23. but for the most part made a Proxy to some Temporal Lords to Act in their behalf and preserve their right which though they did not in the Case we had before us yet afterwards in the 21st of King Richard the 2d and from that time forwards when they found Parliamentary Impeachments to become more frequent they observed it constantly as it continues to this day Nor were they hindred by those Canons whatsoever they were from being present at the depositions of Witnesses or taking such preparatory examinations as concern the Trial in which they might be able to direct the Court by the Rules of Conscience though they withdrew themselves at the time of the sentence That was a Trick imposed upon the Bishops by the late long Parliament when they excluded them from being members of the Committee which was appointed for taking the examinations in the business of the Earl of Strafford And this they did not in relation to those ancient Canons but upon design for fear they might discover some of those secret practices which were to be hatched and contrived against him Against which Preparations for a final Trial or taking the Examinations or hearing of depositions of Witnesses or giving counsel in such cases as they saw occasion the Council of Toledo saith not any thing which can be honestly interpreted to their disadvantage So that the Bishops Claim stands good to their right of Peerage any thing in those ancient Canons or the unjust practices of the late Long Parliament to the contrary notwithstanding To draw the business to an end what one thing is required unto the constituting of a Peer of England which is not to be found in an English Bishop if Tenure and Estate they hold their Lands per integram Baroniam as the old Lords did if Voice in Parliament they have their several Writs of Summons as the Lay-Lords have if we desire Antiquity to make good their Interesse most of them have sat longer there in their Predecessors than any of our Temporal Lords in their noblest Ancestors if point of Priviledg they have the same in all respects as the others have except it be in one particular neither clearly stated nor universally enjoyed by those who pretend most to it if Letters Patents from the King to confirm these Honours they have his Majesties Writ of Conge d'eslire his Royal Assent to the Election his Mandate under the Great Seal for their Consecration If therefore we allow the Bishops to be Lords of Parliament we must allow them also to be Peers of the Realm There being nothing which distinguisheth a Peer from from a common Person but his Voice in Parliament which was the matter to be proved A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS The Way of the Reformation of the Church of England declared and justified SECT I. I. THE Introduction shewing the Occasion Method and Design of the whole Discourse Page 1 I. Of Calling or Assembling the Convocation of the Clergy and the Authority thereof when convened together Page 2 II. Of the Ejection of the Pope and vesting the Supremacy in the Regal Crown Page 5 III. Of the Translation of the Scriptures and permitting them to be read in the English Tongue Page 7 IV. Of the Reformation of Religion in the points of Doctrine Page 10 V. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship and the times appointed thereunto Page 14 VI. Of the power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the directing of the people in the publick duties of Religion Page 18 VII An Answer to the main Objections of either Party Page 20 SECT II. I. That the Church of England did not innovate in the Ejection of the Pope and setling the Supremacy in the Regal Crown Page 23 II. That the Church of England might proceed to a Reformation without the approbation of the Pope or the Church of Rome Page 26 III. That the Church of England might lawfully proceed to a Reformation without the help of a General Council or calling in the aid of the Protestant Churches Page 30 IV. That the Church did not innovate in Translating the Scriptures and the publick Liturgy into vulgar Tongues and of the Consequents thereof to the