Fraternities and other bodies Politike and Corporate Wherefore to the end our meaning may the better be understood and that we may proceed orderly we thinke it good to examine first by how many severall wayes some oâ— these impropriations may be wholly and thoroughly reduced secondly by how many severall meanes other some in part may be brought to the use of the Ministerie To reduce some of them wholly may bee done by restitution commutation redemption and contribution And first Impropriations may be reduced to the ministery by 4 meanes that I prejudice not the Lords spirituall and Churchmen of their ancient priviledges from being placed in the first ranke reason is that they teaching the people not to possesse other mens goods wrongfully we speake first oâ— restitution to be made by them In declaration whereof we thinke it not fit in this place to shew to what end the state of the Clergie was first founded into a state of prelacie by the King Earles Barons and other great men because the same commeth afterward to be handled more at large but it shall suffice at this â—arochiall Churches to what use they were founded present for the purpose whereof we now intreat to let the reverend Bishops understand that the small Parochiall Churches were founded and endowed with glebe lands tythes and other fruits by the Lords of Manors to the end that the Lords Tenants within the same Manors should be informed of the Law of God and that hospitalities might be kept and the poore of the same parishes be relieved And besides the reverend Bishops we hope will grant that the great Cathedrall This may be proved by 15. R. 2. and 4. h. 4. c. 2. and is confessed by M Bilson in his perpet government pag. 365. 366. and Collegiate Churches were not founded by the Kings progenitors Nobles and great men of the Realme to the end that those great Churches as great Hawkes prey upon little foules with their great steeples should eat and devoure the little steeples or that with their great Quiers they should overthrow and justle downe the small pulpits And therefore we most humbly pray aide from the king for the casting of new claps to bee erected in the little pulpits that hee would be pleased to grant restitutiones in integrum to all the little Churches and that all impropriations of all Parochiall Churches and benefices now by spoliation parcell of the revenues of Archbishops Bishops Deanes Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Ecclesiasticall persons restants within those great Churches may bee wholly restored to their ancient and originall use according to the mindes and intents of the first Donors and Patrons of the same parochiall and little Churches For if as Master Bilson saith it bee true that the Lords of Villages having erected Churches and allotted out portions for divine service either by Gods or mans law by their later grants could not have the former rights unto their patronages overthrowne and if the allowance given at the first to the Minister of each Parish by the Lord of the soyle were matter enough in the judgement of Christs Church to establish the rights of patrons that they alone should present Clerkes because they alone provided for them if I say this be true then have the Ministers of those Villages and of that soyle just cause to require at the Diocesans hands a restitution of such allowances as were first given and provided for them by the patrons Especially the Diocesans by their owne act now enjoying and converting the same allowances to their own use If it be answered that this can not well and conveniently be brought to passe because the same impropriations by the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons for diverse summes of money are now lawfully demised to farme for many yeares yet to come hereunto we answer that these leases should hinder nothing at all the restitution of the right and interest in reversion or remainder of those impropriations Only if the impropriations have beene made according to the lawes of the Realm and the leases duly granted these leases for a time may hinder the incumbent Ministers from the present possession of the Tithes Fruits and glebe Land belonging to the said impropriations And yet may not the incumbent Ministers bee hindered in the meane while from receiving the rents reserved upon such Leases and which by the same Leases are now payable to the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall persons Neither after the determination of the same leases should the incumbent Ministers be any more letted to enjoy and receive the whole profits in right of their Churches than other Ministers be now letted to enjoy theirs If any shall say that many of these impropriations are annexed and appropried as Prebends for the provision of some of the Prebendaries of the same great Churches and that the same Prebendaries in the right of their Prebends bee the lawfull Rectors of the Churches appropried and have curam animarum in the same Parishes then we must instantly againe pray the King that those Prebendaries by some wholesome law may be constrained to reside and to incumb upon their said Prebends and Parochiall Churches and that by continuall preaching of wholesome doctrine they may endeavour to cure the soules of the people over whom by the order of those great Churches they be set and over whom they have taken charge And withall that they may no more be suffered to ly and to live idely in their Cloysters in their caves and in their dens sometimes at Worcester sometimes at Hereford sometimes a Gloucester sometimes at Salisburie sometimes at Westminster sometimes at Southwell sometimes at Windsore sometimes at Pauls sometimes at Oxford and sometimes at Cambridge When in the meane while both seldome and very slenderly they feed other sheep whose fleeces they take in and about London Winchester Tukesbury Reading and other places of the Countrey Besides wee pray that these prebends after the determination of Leases now in being may never any more bee let to farme so that the fruits thereof may serve for those Prebendaries or other succeeding Ministers to make Hospitalities Almes and other works of Charitie If it be alledged that the king now having first fruits Tenths and Subsidies out of the impropriations of those great Churches as being all comprised under a grosse summe of the Tenths payable for the whole revenues of the same Churches should lose the first fruits Tenths and Subsidies of the same impropriations if hereafter they become either donative or presentative to this the answer is readily made viz that Tenths first fruits and subsidies might as well be paid then as now And that the King might then aswell have right to the donation of the benefice disappropried as the Bishop now hath the gift of the prebend appropried In the next ranke cometh commutation to be spoken of Wherein because the impropriations of Parochiall Churches appertaining now to the King Nobles Commons Colledges Schooles Bodies
not be removed Wherefore if our continued Prelaticall discipline whereby the liberty of the Church is taken away by publike authority of the King and States might be discontinued and libertie granted to the Church to use the Apostolicall discipline either our Admonitorie Protestants must yeeld stoop and obey or els be found to be a way ward a contentious and a â—romple generation And if these two former kinds of our people which the land being divided into five parts make three at the least shall every way bee supporters of unitie and conformitie to the Gospell and no way disturbers of the peace liberty and tranquillitie of the Church what overthrow or what dammage may the Gospell sustaine by the other parts Yea though they should unite linke and confederate themselves in one For are they not weaker in power poorer in purse and of farre lesse reputation than the former And yet neverthelesse these parts are at such deadly feud one against the other and at such an irreconcileable enmitie betweene themselves that the case standeth now betweene them as sometimes it stood with Caesar and Pompey not whether of them should raigne but whether of them should live And how then can these parts thus divided possibly agree together against the other parts so surely combined Besides the first sort of these two sorts whom it pleaseth our Protestants Puritane protestants can never overthrow the Gospell the Admonishers for difference sake to dubb with the Knights Hood of Precisians or precise and puritane Protestants Why They are the onely and principall spokes-men and petitioners for the Apostolicall Discipline required to bee planted Nay these men out of the holy Scriptures so resolutely are perswaded of the truth of God conteyned therein as without which they know perfectly that the doctrine of the Gospell can never powerfully florish or be entertained with so high a Majestie in the hearts of men as it ought to be The Gospel hath overthrown the papist therfore hee can never overthrow the Gospel And as for the other sort the Papists I meane alas that poore ratt what overthrow can he worke to the Gospell whose bane the Gospell hath wrought so long since Alas this faint ghost is so farre spent his disease growne so desperate and his sicknesse now at such an hay-now-hay as all the phisicke of all the Phisitions in the world can not recover his health or once take away his head-ach This silly snake then having hissed out all his sting spit out all his venome and ungorged himselfe of all his poyson how can his skin or how should his taile anoy the Gospell If therefore it might please the Admonishers upon a revew of our State our countrey and our people to cast such men as be open enemies to the Gospell into squadrons causing them to march ranck by ranck and troop by troop and delivering unto the King a muster roule of all the names qualities and conditions of the principall popish recusants within the Realme for none but such only can be suspected openly to band themselves against the Gospell it is not to be doubted but the least part of all the other foure parts would be as great in number as these And what then should the King and State feare the multitudes of Recusants when one standing on the Kings side should be able to withstand ten and ten an hundred and hundred a thousand and a thousand ten thousand papists King Asa 2 Chron. 14. crying unto the Lord his God that it was nothing with him to help with many or with no power and resting upon the Lord overcame ten hundred thousand and three hundred chariots of the Ethiopians and Labimes For the eyes of the Lord behold all the earth to shew himselfe strong with them that are of a perfect heart toward him And when King Joash remembred not the kindenesse which 2 Chron. â—4 Iehoiada the Priest had done unto him but slew Zechariah his sonne the Lord delivered the King and a very great Armie into the hands of a small company of the host of the King of Aram who gave sentence against the King slew all the Princes of Iudah from among the people and caried the spoyle of them unto Damascus And thus much concerning the Admonitors proposition viz. Whatsoever will draw with it many and great alterations of the state of Government and of the lawes the same may bring rather the overthrow of the Gospell than the end that is desired All which speech of his I affirme to bee but a vaine and trifling riddle as the whole strength whereof resteth only upon a may bee Whereunto if I should onely have spoken thus and no more viz. that many and great alterations c. might rather not bring an overthow of the Gospell c. I suppose and that upon good ground that such may might not bee might every way be as forcible to disprove the one as his may bee can any way be pregnant to prove the other And touching his assumption viz. but the planting of the government practised by the Apostles and Primitive Church will draw with it many and great alterations of the state of government and of the Lawes If in this place hee understood the state of Church governement and of the Lawes Ecclesiasticall now in use then is the proposition true And yet notwithstanding wee avow the Gospell to bee so farre from incurring any overthrow by such an alteration as thereby it is certaine that the same shall more and more flourish and bee perpetually established by reason that this alteration should be made from that which by long experience is known to be corrupt unto that which is knowne by the holy Scriptures to be pure and sincere From a government I say and Lawes authorized by tradition and commandements of man alone to a policie and lawes founded and descended by and from God himselfe But if the Admonitor by the assumption meant to informe us that the planting of the Apostolicall government will draw with it many and great alterations of the temporall state of government and of the temporall lawes statutes or customes of the Kingdome then as before The planting of the Apostolicall government will draw no alteration of the Laws of the realme with it to his first so now also to his second I answer negatively and affirme that the planting of the said Apostolicall government will not draw with it any the least alteration of any part of that temporall state of government nor almost of any one common statute or customary law of the Land which may not rather be altered than retained For this platforme of government we are able by the helpe of God to defend the same generally and for the most part to bee most agreeable and correspondent to the nature qualitie disposition and estate of our Countrey People Common weale and Lawes as in our particular answers to his particular reasons shall more at large appeare In all new and
any person detaining his tithes and offerings the Hospitall of S. Leonards in Yorke of the Kings foundation and Patronage endowed of a thrave â—ospital of S. Leonard 1 2. h. 6. c 2 of Corne to bee taken yearely of every plough earing within the Counties of Yorke Comberland Westmerland and Lancaster having no sufficient or convenable remedie at the Common Law against such as with-held the same thraves it was ordained by the King in Parliament that the Master of the said Hospital and his successors might have action by writ or plaints of debt or detaine at their pleasure against all and every of them that detained the same thraves for to recover the same thraves with their dammages And by the Statute of 32. H. 8. c. 4. it is enacted That the Parsons and Curates of five Parish Churches whereinto the Towne of Royson did extend it self and every of them and the successors of every of them shall have their remedie by authoritie of that act to sue demand ask and recover in the kings Court of Chancerie the tythes of corn hay wooll lamb and calfe subtracted or denyed to be paid by any person or persons Againe Vicars Parsons or improprietaries do impleade any man in the Ecclesiasticall Court for tythes of wood being of the age of twenty years or above for tyth-hay out of a medow for the which time out of mind and memorie of man there hath only some Meade-silver beene paid or if a debate hang in a spirituall Court for the right of tythes having his originall from the right of Patronage and the quantity of the same tythes do passe the fourth part of the value of the benefice a prohibition in all these and sundry other cases doth lie and the matters are to bee tried and examined in the Kings Courts according to the course of the Common Law unlesse upon just cause there bee granted a consultation And if in these cases in maintenance of the Common Law the defendants have reliefe in the Kings Courts I thinke it more meet to leave it to the consideration rather of common than to the judgement of Canon Lawyers to determine what alteration the Common Law could sustaine in case if plaintiffes as well as some defendants might pray the Kings aide for the recoverie of tythes especially seeing at this day the manner of paying tythes in England for the most part is now limited by the common and statute lawes of the Realm and not by any forraigne canon law But there is some fact Object happily so difficile so secret and so misticall in these causes of tythes as the same cannot without a very great alteration of the Common law Answer be so much as opened before a lay judge or of the hidden knowledge whereof the Kings temporall Judges are not capable Why then let us What facts touching the upholding of tyths are examinable in the Ecclesiasticall courts see of what nature that inextricable fact may be I have perused many libels made and exhibited before the Ecclesiasticall Judges yea and I have read them over and over and yet for ground of complaint did I never perceive any other materiall and principall kinde of fact examinable in those Courts but only such as follow First that the partie agent is either Rector Vicar Proprietarie or Possessor of such a Parish-Church and of the Rectorie Vicaridge farme possession or dominion of the same and by vertue thereof hath right unto all tythes oblations c. apertaining to the same Church and growing within the same parish bounds limits or places tythable of the same Secondly that his predecessors Rectors Vicars c. time out of mind and memorie of man have quietly and peaceably received and had all and singular tythes oblations c. increasing growing and renewing within the Parish c and that they and he have beene and are in peaceable possession of having and receiving tythes oblations c. Thirdly that the partie defendant hath had and received in such a yeer c. of so many sheepe feeding and couching within the said Parish c. so many fleeces of wooll and of so many Ewes so many Lambes c. Fourthly that the defendant hath not set out yeelded or paid the tyth of the wooll and lambe and that every Tyth fleece of the said wool by commâ—n estimation is worth so much and that every tyth Lambe by common estimation is likewise worth so much c. Fifthly that the defendant is subject to the jurisdiction of that Court whereunto he is summoned Lastly that the defendant doth hetherto deny or delay to pay his tyths notwithstanding he hath beene requested thereunto These and such like are the chiefe matters of fact whereupon in the The Kings Iustices are as able to judge of exceptions against tyths as the Ecclesiasticall Iudges Ecclesiasticall Courts proofes by witnesses or records rest to be made for the recoverie of tythes And who knoweth not but that these facts upon proofes made before the Kings Justices may aswell bee decided by them as by any of the Reverend Bishops or venerable Archdeacons their Chancellors or Officials If there be any exception alleaged by the defendant as of composition prescription or priviledge the Kings Justices are as able to judge of the validitie of these as they are now able eo determine customes de modo decimandi or of the use of high wayes of making and repairing of Bridges of Commons of pasture pawnage â—estovers or such like Truth it is that of Legacies and bequests of goods the reverend Bishops by sufferance Legacies how they may be recovered at the common law of our Kings and consent of our people have accustomably used to take cognizance and to hold plea in their spirituall Courts Notwithstanding if the Legacie bee of lands where lands be divisible by Testament the judgement thereof hath beene alwayes used and holden by the Kings writ and never in any Ecclesiasticall Court Wherefore if it shall please the King to enlarge the authoritie of his Courts temporall by commanding matters of legacies and bequests of goods aswell as of lands to be heard and determined in the same it were not much to be feared but that the kings Justices the kings learned Counsell and others learned in the Law of the Realm without any alteration of the same law would speedily finde meanes to apply the grounds thereof aswell to all cases of Legacies and bequests of goods as of lands For if there be no goods divisible by will but the same are grantable and confirmable by deed of gift could not the kings Justices aswell judge of the gift and of the thing given by will as of the grant and of the thing granted by deed of gift or can they not determine of a Legacie of goods aswell as of a bequest of lands If it should come in debate before them whether the Testator at that time of making his will were of good and perfect memorie upon proofs and other