vetus fermentum cleanse your self throughly of the old Leaven For that I take this to be the most principal old Leaven that distained and distempered the other actions of our Catholick Realm at the last change and offended the eyes of our Just God most highly that they took no sound order at all for any reasonable satisfaction in this great affair of Restitution to be made to God and his Church For which is to be noted That albeit the Times and State of England and Condition of Men and Things there considered it seemeth not possible or at leastwise not expedient that any rigorous or exact satisfaction should be required in these affairs yet that some kind of moderate temperature and composition according to some form of Justice or correspondence of Equity should be taken in the matter I would think it so absolutely necessary as no good Christian Conscience can be secure without the same And the reason hereof is for that these Goods belong first to a third Party which were the Owners and Givers and by them taken from their Children and Kindred and Inheritors for a special Ecclesiastical use to be applied to God's Service and the help of their own Souls by perpetual Prayer ordained to be made for them cannot in any Reason or Law of Justice be taken wholly from those uses and applied or permitted to be profane but only by force seeing it is directly against the intentions of the first Founders and Givers and whereof it is to be presumed they would never allow if they were alive again but rather would say of the two That their Heirs and next Kin should re-enter and possess the same rather than by violence they should be detained by other temporal Men that are meer Strangers unto them Neither is it sufficient for the security of any careful Dan's Conscience to say That the See Apostolick has tolerated with these things in Queem Mary's time for that it is well known how times and matters went then and how the See Apostolick like a Prudent and Pious Mother was content to take of her Children what she could get rather than lose all So that the Toleration then used as in truth it may be said was upon constraint and fear of farther inconveniencies to follow if the matter should have been greatly urged at that time the covetous humours of divers principal Persons in Authority being well known together with the cold Dispositions of the rest of the Realm to do that which in equity and conscience they were bound in this behalf and this appeareth by the very words themselves of the general Bull of Absolution and Toleration which Cardinal Poole of Pious Memory delivered to the Realm for this effect wherein every Man in particular notwithstanding this general plaistering up of things is most earnestly exhorted to look unto his Conscience in these affairs and to seek the security thereof by Direction of Vertuous and Learned Men. And seeing Almighty God has declared his heavy displeasure since the patching of matters at that time by the lamentable and most miserable fall both of Religion it self and of these Persons also that were most backward in this Restitution and that these corrupt affections of some worldly People may be presumed to be well purged before this day by the fire of Persecutions in these latter Years I hope verily that it may easily be brought to pass at the next Reformation That some such good and substantial order may be taken in this weighty affair as God's Justice in part may be satisfied Men's Consciences quieted their Estates at home for the time to come assured the World abroad edified and the Church of God in some proportion of equity satisfied and thereby this great Petra Scandali that hitherto has endured and the strong brasen Wall that has divided between God and us may be removed whereof I do conceive so much the more hope and confidence for that the means to perform the same seem not to me very hard but rather easie supposing the good and pious Dispositions of Minds which I suppose we shall find at that day in those to whom the matter shall appertain And therefore I shall lay down in this place the means that I have conceived for the easie performance of this point All Englishmen do know the peculiar ancient custom of letting Lands in England after the rate of old rent of Assize which by experience of many Countries I can affirm to be the most commodious honourable and profitable Custom both for Lord and Tenant that is in the World all circumstances considered as afterwards shall be shewed And no sort of People were wont to be more observant of this Custom than were Religious and Ecclesiastical Land-lords who besides that they were never wont lightly to raise their Rents did use also commonly to take very small Fines so that in very Deed if these old Rents of Assize were restored again to the Church it might be said in effect That the whole were restored and thereby a certain proportion of equity in Restitution observed and on the other side if the possessions and the fee Farm of these Lands which commonly do amount to double or triple the value of the old Rent or may be made so good be left and made secure for ever unto the present Possessors of the same as by the Prince Parliament and Pope's Authority they may be I do not see but that the Composition and Temperature would fall out well for all Parties and for all effects that can be desired For first God's Justice and the Church's Right in a certain sort should be substantially satisfied and the Possessor's Conscience assured which is the principal and then his Ecclesiastical State also would not be over weakened or abated thereby as is evident And if it should happen out otherwise in some particular Men of special merit to wit that by this general Restitution he should be over much impoverished it would be an easie thing to help and recompense the matter otherwise as by giving him some Office or some Lease of fee Farm of other Lands that shall return wholly to the Church or the like For it is to be understood that albeit the Church do and may use this benign Compassion with such as be her Children and of particular deserts towards her for their Piety and Religion yet no reason is there but that such as be Enemies Persecutors or of notorious Impiety against her should leave the Livings which they possess of her wholly and wish more rigour of Justice than the other before named so that the Church may dispose not only of the old Rents but of Revenues also Houses Buildings and other Emoluments For better understanding whereof it is also to be noted that l as well these Lands intirely restored as the other old Rents before mentioned to the end they may be imployed to the best and greatest glory of God and publick profit of the Realm were
good birth are driven oftentimes to great extremities and to undecent shifts for their maintenance to no small inconvenience to the whole Commonwealth Wherefore it may be thought upon whether some moderation in this point were not convenient to be put whereby younger Children might have some occasion to a reasonable Portion at least of their Parents Substance whereby to maintain themselves somewhat conformable to their Birth State and Condition In foreign Catholick Countries the younger Children of Nobility and Gentry are greatly helped and advanced by the Church wherein they are preferred before others in authority and dignity if their merits of learning and vertue be equal whereby it cometh to pass that these younger Brethren giving themselves to study upon hope of these preferments do come in time to be excellent Men and of more authority and living than their Elder Brothers which is a great stay for the Nobility and no less for the defence of Catholick Religion by the union of these Noblemen of the Clergy with others of their Lineage Kindred Acquaintance and Friendship of the Temporalty and consequently the custom is to be brought into England if Noblemen's Sons would make themselves fit Wherein there will be much less difficulty than in times past when that sweet and clear manner of teaching the Latin Tongue and other Sciences shall be brought into England which is used in other places and that other hard dark and base custom of so much beating of youth be removed and taken away About Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters it is also to be considered that as many of them by all likelihood when Catholick Religion shall be restored will betake themselves to Religious and Monastical Life as in other Countries we see so shall their Parents be much eased thereby and the better able to provide for the Marriage of their other Daughters remaining in the World in which point notwithstanding seeing that the excesses of our times in giving great Dowries is grown to be at such a height that it impoverisheth oftentimes the Parents it seemeth a point worthy the consideration whether it were not expedient that the Parliament should limit the quantity of Dowries according to the State and Condition of every Man which no doubt would greatly ease the Nobility and Gentry of England and be profitable for many respects And touching the assurance of these Dowries as also for the Jointures of Lands the Laws of other Countries and ours are far different and good it were for us to take the best of them both And first for Dowries in other Countries they are more assured unto the Wife than in ours for that there the said Dowry never entreth into the Husband's Possession in propriety but only is put out to Rent and assurance given for it of which Rent only the Husband may dispose during his Wive's Life but no ways spend or diminish or impawn the Principle which seemeth a better order and more sure for the Wife than to leave all free to the Husband's Disposition as in our Country where oftentimes an unthrift matches with a rich Woman spendeth all she hath without remedy or redress The Wife also in other Countries if she has no Children may dispose of all her Dowry to good works or to any other uses that she will by her Testament in secret and sealed and not to be opened before she be dead And this may she do without obligation to leave any part to her Husband except she list which is some motive also for her Husband to use her well while she liveth upon hopes to be her Heir or Executor and if she hath Children then may she dispose only of the fifth part to good works whereof nothing is allowed by our Laws of England and it seemeth a great defect and may be considered whether it be not to be amended But on the other side touching Jointures the Condition of Women is better in England than in other places for that whether they bring Dowries or not by our Laws of England they may claim a Third of their Husband's Lands which in other Countries is not so where if they bring no Dowry they can claim no Jointure at all neither any part of their Husband's Goods except he please of his free-will to leave them any thing and if they bring Dowry then shall they have their whole Dowry again at their Husband's Death and more than this the half of all such Goods and Moveables as were gained since their Marriage by reason of the said Dowry or otherwise which is less prejudicial to the Son and Heir than the other of England but yet which of them be absolutely better may be a matter perhaps disputable And thus much for Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children It shall not be amiss to pass to their Servants whom also they ought to have in place of Children and to comfort defend and cherish the desiring to see them wealthy and well able to live according to the ancient Love and Charity of English Land-Lords towards Vassals Subjects and Tenants which Love and tender care having been greatly broken and diminished in these later years by the impiety avarice riotousness and other disorders brought in by Heresie is to be restored again by Catholick Religion and Land-lords are to be taught to make such account of their Tenants as of them by whom they live and also by the Sweat of their Brows do suck and draw out of the Earth Commodities whereby Noblemen and Gentlemen are maintained at ease And for that many Landlords of these times have begun to raise their Rents and to impeach that old and most laudable tenure of England of old Rent of Assize it is to be understood that no one thing among the Customs of England seemeth to divers Men that have seen also other Countries of more importance to be kept observed and to be brought back again to the old use than this manner of letting and setting Lands for term of Life after the rates of the old Rents and that no one thing in times past hath been a greater ground of abundance and felicity in our Commonwealth both to Nobility and Commonalty than this honourable custom of Leasing their Lands for that it is generally profitable both to the Landlord and Tenant and Commonwealth in particular to the Landlord for that he setting down his Houshold and framing his Expences according to the rate of his old Rent which is certain may easily still be before hand and hold himself in abundance with the extraordinary incomes that shall enter by Leases Fines and other such casualties and in like manner the charges of Subsidies Tenths Loanes and other publick Impositions laid upon him by Parliament or other means they are ever according to his Rents in the Queen's Book which are far less and more easie than if he were charged according to the Portion of rack Rents To the Tenant also this way of taking Leases after the rate of old Rent is very
commodious for that albeit he pay sometimes a good fine at his first entrance yet liveth he at an easie Rent afterwards and leaveth a certain and sure provision for his Children and commonly the Father payeth the Fine of his Son so as the Son entreth without any burthen at the beginning And if one Landlord take great Fines which also were to be moderated yet another will come of a better Conscience who will take less and so the Tenant liveth always in hope and if the worst happen he is sure to be preferred ever before others paying as another Man doth which is a great preferment and very honourable also to the Landlord to have Families continue in his Lands for divers Ages whereby they are more knit unto him in hearty good will and true Allegiance and being wealthy their Riches are his at commandment both for his own service and his Prince which is not so where Tenants are rackt and changed often and made so poor both in love and substance as they are neither willing nor able to do any thing at all for their Landlords when need requireth To the Commonwealth this manner of tenure is wonderful beneficial for that by this means the Lands come to be well manured tilled plowed planted fertile and abundant For that every Tenant holdeth the same as good as for his own Lands and knoweth that neither he nor his Posterity shall be deprived thereof where on the contrary side in divers Countries for that Lands are let only from year to year or for very few years together and that all Rents are raised and rackt to the uttermost it is pitiful to see how bare and needy common Husbandmen be and how miserably the whole Land lyeth open and naked without Hedge Ditch or Tree every Man only endeavouring to draw out the heart and substance thereof for the small time he hath to use it being well assured that if he should manure or cherish the same another would give more and take it from him the year following where they neither love the Lands nor the Landlords but only follow their present Commodity and both the Commonwealth the Prince the Landlords and themselves receive great damage thereby as hath been declared Wherefore it may be considered both by the Prince and Parliament whether it were not good that so honourable ancient and so profitable a custom of letting Lands after the old Rents be restored to our Country again and that all rackt Rents be brought back to the old proportion or somewhat near the same with some reasonable recompence to the Landlord by way of Fine and that from henceforward no Man may raise his yearly Rents but with a certain moderation to be limited which thing no doubt would wonderfully concern the Wealth ease and contentment of all the Realm for that every Realm is so much the better and more prosperous by how much the more indifferently the substance thereof is divided into the hands of many according to each Man's Estate and Condition and not as in some Countries where one sort of Men are very rich and the other sort extream poor the one sort of Lords having all in their own hands the other sort seeming to be Bond-men and meer Servants having only to eat that which the other sort giveth them from day to day whereby it cometh also to pass that little good can be done with them in matters of their Souls by reason of their continual labour ignorance rudeness and extream poverty From which misery God hath hitherto delivered the Commonalty of England by reason of this kind of Tenures Leases Bargains and Copy-holds by which most of the common People are able to maintain themselves decently and bring up their Children in Civility and will be able to do the same still and much better if the former custom be brought back again continued and established And for that I take this point to be a great and substantial foundation of the publick and particular weal of our Country I have been the longer in treating thereof And now therefore to make an end having spoken of the Nobility and Gentry both in their own Persons as also of their Housholds Servants Children Wives and Tenants there seemeth little remaining to be added except I should say That whereas the English Nobility seemeth in other things to be the most prosperous in the World in one thing only which concerneth them most of all which is the safety of their lives they are thought to be most unfortunate miserable and subject to injuries of any other Estate of Men that live for that upon any least suspicion or displeasure of the Prince or every of their Enemies they may be brought in danger and made away as we have seen that the greatest Men commonly of our Realm have been and few eminent Men above the rest as Dukes have dyed in their Beds and no marvel for that the Kingdom being but little and the sway of a Duke great among the People especially when there is but one or few of that Title and the way to cut them off so easie as to put him upon a Quest of his Peers whether they be Friends or Enemies and that in one day only he shall be tryed and the most of that time spent by the Princes learned Council in amplifying and exaggerating Enemies or suspicions of Enemies against him and no Lawyer or Attorney given or allowed to defend or speak for him which should be granted if the matter concerned but ten Shillings of Lands or Goods only These things I say being so which to Strangers seem wonderful and almost incredible no marvel though our Nobility be cut off many times upon small occasions and that their Estates by others be judged very slippery and miserable for remedy whereof some are of Opinion That for avoiding of jealousie in the Prince and Commonwealth against great and powerful Men it were a good means to have many equal in the self same degree as for example many Dukes Marquises as there are of Earls For that hereby every one would come to be less respected and to be of less power with the People for the Dignity would be divided amongst many and consequently less eminent in one And if any one should go about to be insolent the other would be able to repress him and we see that in old time it was so in England Another means will be that all such Dignities Prerogatives publick Emoluments Offices and Preferments as are to be in the Countries where these great Men dwell should depend on the Prince immediately and not of them and that some other Men also of Dignity that are made and set up by the Prince and depend only of him as namely Bishops should have sway with them and Commission in all matters belonging to the publick and when any poor Man were injured by a great he might be heard easily and remedied and so taken into the Prince's peculiar Protection as he durst
heavy over us For we read that God never ceased to beat and whip King Pharaoh until he had restored unto Abraham his Wife again and that 's a common Maxim among Divines Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Secondly It would follow by this Restitution and temperate Composition That such as remain with the Possession of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings in the manner aforesaid might hold them securely they and their Heirs without scruple or danger to God or the World which by no other means it seemeth can be assured them either in respect of the one or the other For in respect of God and their Conscience I have already said that 't is very hard to see how they may be assured any other ways For as for the See Apostolick though it may in certain cases dispose of Livings left to the Church from one use to another yet to the end their disposition may be available and the Possessor's Conscience free there are required many Conditions and Circumstances which will hardly be found or verified in our case of England For first the Disposition of Christ's Vicar must be free without all constraint fear or respect of avoiding greater inconveniences and then the commutation ought to be with consent of Parties interessed or that have claim if there be any as here are many to wit all Religious Orders and other Ecclesiastical People besides the Successors and Kindred of them that gave the Lands which would hardly agree to let the said Livings to be utterly alienated as they are Moreover the Commutation to be good in Conscience ought to be to so good an use or better for the time present and glory of God than was the first Institution of the Givers and Founders and which of themselves might be presumed if they were alive again and saw the circumstances of our Times that they would allow or not mislike of the same All which is so far off from our English case as all Men of judgment do easily see In respect of the World also and of temporal Justice there is no great security to the Possessors of these Lands without some such sound Order and Agreement as this is for that ever there will be murmuring and pushing at them and their Children and as Religious Orders shall come to grow and wax strong in England again they will have a saying to their old Tenants Invaders or Detainers of their Lands one way or other and it would be a ground of infinite suits and troubles and as the Prince should be affected for the present or interessed in the matter one way or other so would he favour or disfavour all which would be matter of great inconveniences and wholly cut off by this other way Thirdly It would follow by this manner of Restitution that the Church of England would be furnished again quickly to wit within the space of five or six Years which might be the time allowed for the aforesaid Council of Reformation to dispose of things of more variety of Religious Orders Houses Abbys Nunneries Hospitals Seminaries and other like Monuments of Piety and to the purpose for the present good of our whole Realm than ever it was before the Desolation thereof so as the words of St. Paul in a certain sense would be verified Vbi abundavit delictum ibi superabundavit gratia I say of more variety of Religious Monuments and more to the purpose for the present good of England for that they would not be so great perhaps nor so Majestical nor yet so rich nor would be needful for the beginning but rather in place of so great Houses and those for the most part of one or two or three Orders and those also contemplative that attended principally to their own Spiritual good and for that purpose were builded ordinarily in places remote from Conversation of People there might be planted now both of these and other Orders according to the Condition of those Times lesser Houses with smaller Rents and numbers of People but with more perfection of Reformation Edification and help to the gaining of Souls than before and these Houses might be most multiplied that should be seen to be most profitable to this effect And in this manner might England in small space become again the most excellent and best furnished Country in the World for variety and perfection of Religious Houses and other like Works and Monuments of Piety Fourthly would follow of this Restitution the Stay Pillar and Foundation of all other good Works to be done and of the whole external reparation of our English Church which may be made or much holpen by this common Purse and without this will hardly or never be done For that the necessity will be infinite and Reparations wonderfully great that will be needful after so long a Tempest Storm and Shipwrack Catholicks will be poor for divers Years and the Works will be many great and costly that must be done as namely The variety of Monasteries and Religious before-mentioned both for Men and Women repairing enlarging and multiplying of Churches increasing of poor Benefices restoring of Hospitals provision of free Schools erection of Seminaries both for the Youth of our Nation as also for others round about us infected of whose reduction we must also have care The founding of publick Lectors in our Universities and assisting many particular Colleges that lack Maintenance and Rent and a thousand particular wants needs and necessities more than are and will appear in the beginning for the new setting up of our Catholick Church again for which if we have not some such common Purse as this is the matter will go very slowly forwards and the Reformation never such as it ought to be Wherefore this point of restoring Abby-Lands with the moderation which I have said is to be holpen set forward and urged most earnestly by all such as have God's Zeal in them and desire a good Reformation in England And whosoever should be contrary or backward in this matter either for his own interest or for his Friends or of vain fear policy coldness or lack of fervour he were not to be heard seeing the reason alledged for it together with the facility to compass and perform the same are so notorious and evident and therefore not only the principal Persons of the Realm who may farther or hinder the same were to be disposed and dealt withal before hand but even the Prince and Catholick King that God shall give us and his Holiness also were to be prevented in this point as the most principal and important for all our work And of the Prince it were to be wished that he would promise or vow to Almighty God by way of Oblation That if he give him good success in the establishing of his Crown and the Catholick Religion he will for his part restore in the manner before mentioned all that he shall find invaded or retained by the Crown thereby to give example and
Societies and Confraternities are seen to be instituted in other Countries where Charity doth flourish and ought to be also in ours and the publick Prisons for this respect of the Shires were to be put in principal Towns and Cities where these Societies might be erected and an extract or summary of all the charitable works accustomed to be done in other great Cities by the Confraternities and other ways as namely in Rome Naples Milan Madrid and Seville were to be had and considered by our Council of Reformation and put in ure as much as might be conveniently in England A general Story of all the most notable things that have hapned in this time of Persecution were to be gathered and the matter to be commended to Men of Ability Zeal and Judgment for doing the same And when time shall serve to procure of the See Apostolick That due honour may be done to our Martyrs and Churches Chapels and other memories built in the place where they suffered and namely at Tyburn where perhaps some Religious House of the third Order of St. Francis called Capuchins or some other such of Edification and Example for the People would be erected as a near Pilgrimage or place of Devotion for the City of London and others to repair unto Before this Council make an end of their Office or resign the same which as before has been signified may be after some competent number of Years when they shall have settled and also secured the state of Catholick Religion and employed the Lands and Rents committed to their charge and this were to be done with the greatest expedition that might be it would be very much necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the conservation of that which they have planted For that during the time of their authority perhaps it would be best to spare the name of Inquisition at the first beginning in so new and green a State of Religion as ours must needs be after so many Years of Heresie Atheism and other Dissolutions may chance offend and exasperate more than do good but afterwards it will be necessary to bring it in either by that or some other name as shall be thought most convenient for the time for that without this care all will slide down and fall again What form and manner of Inquisition to bring in whether that of Spain whose rigour is misliked by some or that which is used in divers parts of Italy whose coldness is reprehended by more or that of Rome it self which seemeth to take a kind of middle way between both is not so easie to determine but the time it self will speak when the day shall come and perhaps some mixture of all will not be amiss for England and as for divers points of the diligent and exact manner of proceeding in Spain they are so necessary as without them no matter of moment can be expected and some high Council of Delegates from his Holiness in this affair must reside in the Court to direct and to give heart and authority to the other Commissioners abroad as in Spain is used or else all will languish Their Separations of their Prisons also from concourse of People that may do hurt to the Prisoners is absolutely necessary as in like manner is some sharp execution of Justice upon the obstinate and remediless Albeit all manner of sweet and effectual means are to be tryed first to inform and instruct the Parties by Conference of the Learned and by the Labour and Industry of Pious and Diligent Men for which effect some particular method and order is to be set down and observed and more attention is to be had to this for that it is the gain of their Souls than to the execution only of punishment assigned by Ecclesiastical Canons though this also is to be done and that with resolution as before hath been said when the former sweet means by no way will take place And finally this Council of Reformation is to leave the Church of England and temporal state so far forth as appertaineth to Religion as a Garden newly planted with all kind and variety of sweet Herbs Flowers Trees and Seeds and fortified as a strong Castle with all necessary defence for continuance and preservation of the same so as England may be a spectacle for the rest of the Christian World round about it And Almighty God glorified according to the infinite multitude of dishonours done unto him in these late Years And for better confirmation of all points needful to Religion it would be necessary that either presently at the beginning or soon after some National Council of the English Clergy should be gathered and holden and to consider in particular what points of Reformation the Council of Trent hath set down and to give order how they may be put in execution with all perfection And finally besides these points touched by me for the Council of Reformation and this National Synod to look upon many more will offer themselves when the time shall come no less necessary and important perhaps than these which their charity and wisdom and quality of their Office will bind them to deal in for God's Service and the publick weal And I have only noted these thereby to stir up their memory to think of the rest CHAP. X. Of the Parliament of England and what were to be considered or reformed about the same or by the same FOR that the English Parliament by old received custom of the Realm is the Fountain as it were of all publick Laws and settled Orders within the Land one principal care is to be had that this high Court and Tribunal be well reformed and established at the beginning for a performance whereof certain Men may be authorized by the Prince and Body of the Kingdom to consider of the points that appertain to this effect and among other of these following First of the number and quality of these that must enter and have Voice in the two Houses And for the higher House seeing that Voices in old time put also divers Abbots as the World knoweth it may be considered whether now when we are not like to have Abbots quickly of such greatness and authority in the Commonwealth as the old were it were not reason to make some recompence by admitting some other principal Men of these Orders that had interest in times past as for example some Provincials or Visitors of St. Benet's Order seeing that the said Order and others that had only Abbots in England are now reformed in other Countries and have therein Generals Provincials and Visitors above their Abbots and with the same Reformation it will be convenient perhaps to admit them now into our Country when they shall be restored and not in all points as they were before Secondly about the Lower House it may be thought on whether the number of Burgesses were not to be restrained to greater Towns