suppose the next thing too that Bishops are in the same manner there for their successors in the Land and Honour that pertaine to their places as the Earles and Barons are for their successors in their owne Lands and Honours For is there no difference betweene Successors that usually have no naturall legitimate relation to the present Bishops in any degree of consanguinity or affinity and those of Earles and Barons which are their proper heires at Law and may claime and must enjoy the same Honour which their Ancestors have held before them if not tainted in bloud No difference betweene those that can no more bee denyed place in Parliament without confusion of all than the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome and the government thereof can be turned up by the Roots and those who first crept in by favour to serve a Conquerors turne by taking off their dependance upon the Pope and fastening it upon himselfe and can derive no higher for sitting as now they doe in the House of Peeres than an Act of Parliament if so high and therefore by another Act of Parliament may be discharged Now where the difference of the Title is so great between a Bishop and an Earle or Temporall Baron both to their Lands and Honours and Votes in Parliament I much feare that the Nobility and Temporall Lords will hardly in their House allow this doctrine which yet is fitter for them to consider of than for me to confute and therefore I leave it only with this that if the Lords shall find cause to reject this position as heterodox and deny the Bishops to be in Parliament for their successors in Lands and Honours in the same manner or upon as good and immoveable title as the Nobility be for theirs then the Reason of the House of Commons doth stand yet good as to Earles and Barons and it is no way fit that Bishops should have the same Legislative power over the Honours inheritances persons and liberties of Earles and Barons as these have or ought to have over those of Bishops As for Bishops holding their Lands in Fee simple I can say little to it because my skill is very simple in Tenures Only I have beene told that Fee-simple Littletons Instit l. 1. c. 1. 5. 1. Cokus in Little ibid. Sect. 5. is called in Latine foedum simplex idem est quod haereditas legitima vel hareditas pura So that to speak properly Every man that hath a lawfull estate in Fee-simple hath it either by descent or purchase neither of which wayes for ought I know can the Bishop derive his Title But perhaps in some sense wherewith I am not acquainted the Bishops may bee said to hold in Fee-simple as the word may be taken in a larger and lesse proper acception Viz. Because he holdeth Lands in fee in right of his Church but this is not properly Fee-simple because he holds them not in his owne right and the right he hath in them dyes with him as to his heires But I have heard that ordinarily he that is seized of any Lands in Fee in right of his Church his tenure is either that which the Lawyers call Tenure per divine service when the Lands are given upon condition that the Donee performe some divine Service certaine expressed in the Gift or the Lands to revert or else it is * Littl. Institut li. 2. cap. 6. en Frank annoigne when Lands are freely given without any divine service certaine to be performed for them And further albeit the Bishops are usually said to hold of the King per Baroniam yet this haply may be meant rather of the Honour affixed to their place which works it up to a Dignitie than of the Lands pertaining to them which they also hold in Frank almoigne as well as the inferiour Clergy Sir Henry Spel. Not. in Concil v rolam sub Ossa Hereupon it is that in our Municipall Lawes our Bishops for that they enjoy their meanes and maintenance by the bounty and Almes of Kings are called Barones Regis Eleemosynarij The Kings Lords Almesmen or Barons of the Kings Almoignry as the Almesmen at WINDSOR are called The Kings poore Knights and the Reason is rendred out of Ranulphus de Glanvill that famous Iudge in Henry the second his time quia eorum Baroniae sunt de Eleemosyna Domini Regis Antecessorum ejus De Legib. Angl. l. 7. ca. 1. in Calic Because their BARONIES are of the Almes of the KING and his Ancestors Which being so my conceit is that what Reason so ever they have on their side yet at this time especially this free and high language that they holding their Lands in Fee-simple may with as good Reason Vote in the Honours inheritance persons and liberties of others as others may and doe in theirs might have well beene forborne without prejudice to their Cause For if Almesmen bee admitted to Vote in Parliament it will bee their wisedome I take it not to bee so much elated as to enter into termes of comparison with the highest not excepting their Benefactors or Founders themselves even in one of the highest points of honour and power 2. ANSWER to the fifth REASON Many Peeres have beene created for their lives only and the Earle of Surrey for the life of his Father who yet voted in this House EXAMEN But have any except Bishops beene created Peeres for life or otherwise that were not men of great estates and inheritance or at least of extraordinary birth and sufficiency Of such eminency were the Earles of Surrey But when you mention an Earle of Surrey whom do you meane Is it intended of the Noble Family of the Howards descended from the Mowbrayes If of these you will hardly finde any such that being an honour not so frequently communicated in former times Indeed I I find it mentioned that Iohn Lord Mowbray Sonne of Iohn Grand-child to Thomas Duke of Norfolke was by King Henry the sixth in the life time of his Father created Earle of Surrey and was after his Fathers death Duke of Norfolke but that he was a Peere of Parliament for or in the life of his Father I finde not And I have beene told by a Noble branch of that Renowned stemme and now a Peere that there was no Earle of Surrey made a Lord of Parliament upon such termes But whether so or so it matters not much this being but one single instance And how ever you may perhaps instance when you please in others not so highly descended who have had the honour to Vote as Peeres in Parliament yet they were such whose interests in the publike and share in posterity must needs weigh downe any of those that the House of Commons desire to have removed out of the Lords House For however diverse of them bee well lined with wealth yet the House of Commons are in Parliament to looke upon them as the Lawes doe to wit as upon Almesmen that are but
Parliament since the first entrance upon a Reformation in this Kingdome It is true that in the Reigne of King Henry the eight one Cranmer was active in the cause of God against those sixe bloudy Articles which cost so many their lives But of all the Hierarchie not one was found to joyne with him but all opposed and he alone for three dayes together was faine to stand to it and at length by the malice practice and potency of the Prelates hee was overcome and the cause carryed against him Acts and Monuments par 2. page 1037. edit 1610. This was in the yeare 1540. When about foure or five yeares after Cranmer in two severall Parliaments used his best endeavours to get that bloudy Law repealed and had before hand as he thought drawne over to his side the Bishops of Worcester Chichester and Rochester who promised to assist the cause in Parliament yet when it came to the tryall all the Bishops forsooke him and the cause againe In so much as the King himselfe and the Nobility stood to him so farre as to give way to a moderating of the former Law when the Bishops would not abate the least part of the rigour thereof Antiq. Britanni in Cranmero In King Edward the sixth his Reigne it is true a blessed Reformation was happily begun but by whom By the Bishops No verily Cranmer only excepted For he and the Protector were the men that advised the King and went through with the worke As for the great Bishops Gardiner of Winchester and Tonstall of Duresme Bonner and others they served to fill prisons and diverse ran away And in all Letters of the Lords for more particular Reformation it was onely Canterburie and the Nobilitie that did promote the businesse See Acts and Monuments in King Edward the sixth But in Queene Maries dayes who but Bishops for the Masse and all the grosse body of Popery both in Convocation and Parliament Cranmer and the rest of the Orthodox Bishops were soone persecuted and at length committed to the fire while the Popish Prelates being restored to their places spared no diligence to promote Popish Idolatry throughout the Kingdome and that by their Votes in Parliament whereby they might more plentifully shed bloud by a Law When GOD delivered this Kingdome from those Marian flames and set up blessed Queene Elizabeth it cannot be denyed but that in the Bill for restoring all ancient Jurisdictions to the Crown and for reestablishment of Religion and ejection of Popery the Lords Spirituall are named in the Act because the bill being carryed by the greater number of Votes the dissenting party which was the lesse are included in the rest and it becomes the Act of all in common repute and esteeme of Law But little thankes to the Bishops for any of that Reformation which was then restored We finde the Bishops of Winchester Litchfeild Chester Carlile and Lincolne appearing in open defence of Popery while that Parliament was sitting Act and Monuments par 2. page 1619. edit 1610. But these were not all that stood for that cause Witnesse the deprivation of Heath Arch-Bishop of Yorke Tunstall Bishop of Durham White of Winchester Thyrlby of Ely Watson of Lincolne Baines of Coventry and Litchfeild Bourne of Bath and Wells Christopherson of Chichester Oglethorp of Carlile Scot of Chester Morgan of Saint Davids beside Bonner imprisoned Pates of Worcester Goldwel of Saint Asaph in exile for the same Pseudo-Catholike cause None of all which can with any probability of reason bee imagined to have Voted for the restoring of the Truth they being by vertue of that Statute deprived for opposing the Truth And albeit I know nothing but by heare-say of the generall carriage of Bishops in Parliaments sithence and so doe not charge them yet how often they have with-stood bills against Non-residency * In 31. Elizabeth a Bill against Non-residents passed the House of Commons being in the other House greatly approved of much spoken for by many of the Temporall LORDS yet through the earnest labouring of the Bishops it could have 10 passage there Another Bill for reforming Ecclesiasticall Courts in King James his time passed till it fell among the Bishops and there was stayed Pluralities and other evils and defects in the Reformation of Religion and of their Courts the world hath beene sufficiently informed insomuch as the House of Commons hath already declared and resolved at a Generall Committee of the whole House Iune eleventh 1641. That the Bishops have beene found by long experience to bee great hinderances of a perfect Reformation and of the growth of Religion En majus bonum Ecclesiae produced by the Vote of Bishops in Parliaments And as their voting in Parliament in matters of Religion is ad detrimentum potius quam ad utilitatem Ecclesiae so it cannot bee imagined how their Votes there in Civilibus should conduce more ad majus bonum Ecclesiae Except the wilfull and incorrigible continuing in a course forraine and contrary to their proper Calling and such as being duely performed is a very great hinderance to the exercise of their Ministeriall Function as hath beene before declared can redound to the greater good of the Church which they seldome looke after unlesse to receive the profits of it and to plague those who are profitable in it that themselves may more splendidly and securely in Parliament and every where else Lord it over the whole heritage of God 3. ANSVVER to the first REASON The Apostles unnecessarily put themselves to more hinderances to worke for their livelihood Acts 20.24 1 Thessalo 2.9 2 Thess 3.8 EXAMEN Vnnecessarily Boldly spoken and were I sure that one of my fellowes or equalls had written it I should without breach of good manners pronounce it saucinesse little short of blasphemie Was it not necessary that the Apostles should have a livelihood And was the procuring of it by labouring with their hands although I know none but one after CHRISTS Ascension that was put unto it to avoyd the oppression of poore converts or to prevent scandall among either poore or rich converted or unconverted an unnecessary thing This may bee a straine of Policie passable enough among Spirituall Lords of Parliament but was never knowne to bee good Divinity among such as desire to approve themselves unto GOD. I have bin taught that Necessarium is put sometimes pro utili pro congruo convenienti as well as pro naturali seu debito or pro violento sua coacto And I have learned among the Schoole-men that there is a necessitie not only absolutè simplicite sic dicta but also ex suppositione conditione when a thing not simply necessary in it selfe becomes such in regard either of end meanes circumstances or otherwise When Saint Iohn 1 Epist 2.27 tells the Christians yee need not that any man teach you was his writing to them to instruct them further unnecessary When Saint Pauls abiding in the flesh was more needfull
yet both Church and Kingdome binde them to give themselves in all other particulars wholly to the Calling study and exercise of the Ministery which they have received in the Lord Collos 4 17 that they may fulfill it III. REAS. of the House of Commons BEcause Councels and Canons in severall ages do forbid them to meddle with Secular Affaires I. ANSVVER To this 3. Reason a five fold Answere is directed Councels and Canons against Bishops Votes in Parliament were never in use in this Kingdome and therefore they are abolished by the Statute of 25. Hen. 8. II. ANSVVER So are they by the same Statute because the Lords have declared that the Bishops vote hereby the Lawes and Statutes of this Realm and all Canons that crosse with those are there abolished III. ANSVVER So are they by the same Statute as thwarting the Kings Prerogative to call Bishops by summons to vote in Parliament IV. ANSVVER So are they by the Vote of the House of Commons 21. Maii 1641. because they are not confirmed by the Act of Parliament EXAMEN I put all these Answers together because they will not need distinct Examinations they being much what coincident at least in the maine scope which is to keepe this third Reason out of the Court as being no sufficient evidence in Law to eject the Defendants out of their holds in Parliament against some of their desires It is acknowledged that no Councels or Canons not confirmed by Parliament have here in England any power to bind the subjects either of the Clergie or of the Laitie as hath been clearly Resolved upon the Question this Parliament in both houses But whether the House of Commons referre to any Canons so confirmed I may not take upon mee to affirme or deny because they have beene pleased to forbeare to cite those to which they doe referre Nor can it bee I thinke denyed that any Canons were in use within forty yeares before the Statute of 25. Hen. 8.19 to which I conceive the Answerer hath relation against Bishops votes in Parliament and so Bishops bee shot free from such Canons if urged against them in that capacity as binding Lawes But what neede the Answerer to have taken all this paines of multiplying of Answeres to shew that no Councels or Canons not ratified by Parliaments bee binding to Bishops in this or any case whatsoever For where hath the House of Commons so urged them Surely not here They have not vouched them as Lawes to thrust the Bishops out of the House of Peeres as sitting there against the Lawes already in being but as rationall Arguments and prudentiall Grounds to induce the Parliament to use their Legislative power to abrogate the Lawes if any be for their sitting there seeing that many godly Bishops in former Ages have made divers religious and wholesome Constitutions and Provisions against such exorbitant usurpations of the Clergie For however those Canons bee not formally obligatory here yet are they really worthy the Consideration of those who have a power to reduce Bishops by a binding Law to that which heretofore so many learned and pious men of their owne Coat and Calling have pronounced and decreed to be just and necessarie Further than this the House of Commons bee not engaged And who knows not that the Bishops and their Officers have and still doe urge divers Canons of forraigne Councels and domestique too that never were confirmed by Parliament upon both Clergie and Laitie when such Canons make for the Bishops or their Officers And these must take effect like the Laws of the Medes and Persians And yet now when they see such Canons turned upon themselves although not as Lawes but as rationall arguments only how witty they be in putting off all by the Statute of 25. Hen. 8. which makes nothing at all against the House of Commons or this Reason produced by them And what offence or incongruity was it in the House of Commons to urge Canons and Councels against the Bishops in this particular when no Divine that ever complained of such usurpations of the Clergie hath held it incongruous to presse the very same against them I will not trouble my selfe or others with many instances that alone shall suffice which hath beene before * Exam. of the first Answe to the first Reason alledged out of Matthew Parker Archbishop of Canterburie That Prelate taxing the excessive exorbitances and scandalous courses of the Clergie in the reigne of Richard 1. was not affraid to give this as the chiefe if not the only reason of all that prodigious breaking out Quod contra Orthodoxorum Patrum decreta c. that contrary to the decrees of the Orthodoxe Fathers the Clergie did too much intermeddle in worldly businesses If then so great a Prelate did well in laying this home to the charge of the Clergie that their not regarding the Decrees and Canons of former Councels was the maine cause of all the evills committed by them it cannot unbecome the House of Commons assembled in Parliament and passing a Bill against Bishops Votes in Parliament to produce and use the Canons and Councels of Bishops themselves against such courses held on and maintained by our Bishops against the judgement and solemne determinations of their owne Predecessors in the Prelacy in all the Churches of Christ As for the Declaration of the Lords that the Bishops Vote in Parliament by the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme I meddle not with it because as I am ignorant of the Lawes and Statutes by which they vote so am I not acquainted with what the Lords have declared thereupon Only I have heard that divers Abbots voted as anciently in Parliament as Bishops yet are taken away Yea this Answerer hath informed mee Answer to Reason 7. that anciently the Bishops were assisted in Parliament with a double number of Mitred Abbots and Priors But Sir Edward Cooke could find no more in the Parliament Rolles but twenty seven Abbots and two Priors Commentary on Littleton Institutes Sec. 138. Nor doe I know the difference of the Tenures of the one or of the other or why in regard of originall right Bishops should rather vote in Parliament than Abbots and Priors so long as those Orders continued in being That great Master of Law before named tels us that both Abbots and Bishops were called to Parliament by the Kings Writ else they came not there Ibid. although they held of the King Per Baroniam Witnesse the Abbot of the Monasterie of Feversham founded by King Stephen who albeit hee held by Barony yet for that hee was not called by Writ hee never sate in Parliament And perhaps it is not simply a Barony that gives all the Bishops a right to fit there for I have read somewhere that all the Bishops of King Henry 8. his foundation have not Baronies annexed to them Yet they are called by Writ and vote as Peeres in Parliament But bee their right what it will I
in regard of the Philippians for their furtherance and joy of faith Philip. 2. Shall any man be so hardy as to avouch his abode in the flesh to be unnecessary which yet was not simply necessary in it selfe or unto him So circumstances of time place and person may make that necessary in some places at some times and among some persons which yet of it selfe is not so Thus was it in some of those particulars which are called these necessary things Acts 15.28 yet were it no small presumption for any man to call those things in reference to that very Text without some distinction expressed unnecessary So it is here When Saint Paul saith these hands have ministred unto my necessities Acts 20.34 shal any man say that ministration was unnecessary If it bee said it was so in regard of his right to maintenance it is true but when it is pronounced without such limitation it is a contradicting and thwarting of the Apostles expression as if hee wanted skill or care to expresse himselfe as became him and a misleading of an uncautious Reader to swallow downe an errour inferred from it For what is hence intended to bee inferred but this That as the Apostles did unnecessarily labour with their hands when they might have avoided it So Bishops may according to that example vote in Parliament although the thing bee found unnecessary to a Bishop Now this is a corrupt-inference from ambiguous premisses and the ambiguity lies in the word unnecessarily for if the word bee spoken absolutely and without all limitation it is absolutely false if a limitation bee intended it ought to have been expressed and then any intelligent Reader would soone have beene led to consider and compare that act of the Apostle with the present unnecessarinesse of Bishops votes in Parliaments and thereby have beene enabled to discover the weaknesse and unsufficiency of this unnecessary impertinent Answere because hee would easily have found great and wide differences betweene those two cases 1. Working for a livelihood is a matter of necessity when it cannot otherwise bee so well obtained without oppression or scandall which was the Apostles case But Bishops voting in Parliament when no necessity at all either of maintenance or scandall can bee feared is a worke of supererrogation and an unnecessary sinfull neglect of their owne Function 2. The Apostles working with his hands might better consist with the exercise of his Ministeriall Office Mat 10.19 20 Ioh. 16.13 14 because hee had his furniture thereunto by divine inspiration Gal. 1.11 12. whereas all men now must continually and industriously apply themselves to their Bookes and Meditations to make them workemen that need not to bee ashamed 1 Tim. 4.13 2 Tim. 2.15 3. The Apostles working with his hands was but for a season while the present necessity lasted but the Bishops would willingly Vote in Parliament to the end of the world although there bee no necessity of it at all but great inconvenience and scandall accruing to the Church thereby and a Bil transmitted by the honourable House of Commons to the Lords against it as many wayes inconvenient and intolerable It were easie to adde more differences but these may suffice So also may that which hath beene already said 1 Thes 2.9 2 Thes 3.8 for the clearing of those other two Texts that remaine 4. ANSVVER to the first REASON What hinderance can it be to their Calling that once in three yeares when they must necessarily attend the Convocation they divide some part of that short time to the attendance of Parliament EXAMEN This is not an Answer but a Question and such as if the first Answer bee true little needed But that which hath beene said in examination of that first Answere may also suffice to satisfie this Interrogation The hinderance lyes not so much in the expence of a short space spent in the Parliament House as in the long time requisite to fit a Bishop for such multiplicity of weighty businesses as are proper for a Parliament except hee thinke it enough to vote Bils by rote according to the impetuousnesse of his friends or the loudnesse of the cryes made for or against them Besides Times and other Circumstances may and often do so alter the State of the same matters that if even the ablest and most vigilant Satesman bee not more aware Bils may be offered which are perhaps most plausible in present appearance and might bee very profitable too at some other season that would prove most pernicious in the issue if now they were suffered to passe Now he that hath not his eyes in his head or his head not constantly at worke even out of Parliament to observe and ponder the severall changes and windings of affairs and seasons can never bee a judicious Peere in Parliament but at his best an Emperick who when his totall is cast up is ever found more hurtfull than profitable yea a very pest to the publike unlesse laying all other businesse aside hee double his industry to make future recompence for his present insufficiency and by his diligence to supply the defects of his former education as to this Calling he having been first intended and moulded for another profession And if Bishops take this course 1 Chro. 12.32 to become like the children of Issachar men that have understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to doe and to enable themselves for Parliaments indeed it is easie to conclude what hinderance this not onely may bee but cannot but bee to their Ministeriall Function For if the Levite take upon him Issachars Office and fall to tampering so high in Temporalls Gen. 49.14 hee will soone prove an Issachar in Spirituals and become couchant betweene his two burthens Againe I hope it will very shortly appeare that it will be farre from being necessary for Bishops once in three yeares to attend the Convocation as the frame of both yet standeth among us Our Convocation is but a meere shadow a plaine mockery Synods were ordained for more use and activity than to patter over a latine Let any upon Wednesdays and Fridays and to give so many Subsidies as it pleaseth his Grace to propound to the engaged and enthralled Clergy or to passe a few illegall seditious Anti-parliamentary Canons first cast in the mould of some brain sick Incendiary that would needs be the Dominus fac totum and the head of a pragmaticall Papisticall Atheisticall Sanction And if Synods were as I trust they wil bee restored to their pristine course and extent agreeable to the Word without which better we never saw Convocation more as I hope wee shall not there would be so much worke to doe in them as would even tire out the most indefatigable spirits of the ablest men to consider of errours in doctrine which daily creepe in to corrupt the truth of explanations of Doctrine already established when perverse men make use of the generality or ambiguity of
the terms wherein they bee couched to countenance their fancies and fanaticke opinions of preparing platforme of Discipline agreeable to the will of God and usefull for his people of censuring such as bee too great for lesser Assemblies and of Appeales from inferiour Synods to that higher Judicatorie Then would godly and conscientious Bishops finde so much to doe in Convocations or Synods as would leave them little leasure for attendance in Parliaments where the Peeres doe or should sit every day or they have little reason to Vote in those Bills and Causes there agitated when they have not heard the debates and soone let them see that all the time they could redeeme although they sate every day and sate out the day would bee much too little maturely to discusse and deliberately to determine all businesses of Synods Ergo it must needs bee a very great hinderance to the proper worke of their Calling when once in three yeares they must necessarily attend the Convocation reformed and restored to the truly Primitive nature and use if they divide any part of that short time to the attendance of Parliament Thus farre the Examination of all the Answers to the first Reason which being the Principall I have beene the longer in it aswell for the asserting of the Reason it selfe as for examining the strength of the Answers that would but cannot enervate or abate the vigour of it II. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause they doe vow and undertake it at their Ordination when they enter into holy Orders that they will give themselves wholely to that Vocation I. ANSVVER This Vow and undertaking in Ministers Ordination is quite mistaken The words are in the Bishops Exhortation not in the Ministers Answer To this a three fold Answer is given EXAMEN Mistaken and quite mistaken Why so Because the words are in the Bishops Exhortation not in the Ministers Answer But where hath the House of Commons yet said that the words are in the Ministers Answer Surely not in their second Reason against which this Answer is directed Therefore this branch of the Answer to that Reason might have well beene spared The words are confessed by the Answerer to bee used at the Ministers Ordination This is enough to justifie the House of Commons and their Reason And what though it bee spoken by the Bishop not by the Minister at that time this doth not disprove his Vow Little children utter no words in Baptisme yet doe they not enter into a Vow when the Minister declareth upon what terms they be admitted and the whole action is managed by others The Bishop speakes these words at the Ordination of Ministers We have a good hope that you have well weighed and pondered these things with your selves long before this time and that you have clearely determined by Gods Grace to give your selves wholly to this Vocation whereunto it hath pleased God to call you so that as much as lyeth in you you apply your selves wholly to this one thing and draw all your cares and studies this way and to this end All this the Ministers heare when they enter into holy Orders The Bishop takes it for granted that they have done all this that they have fully resolved and decreed it as the Latine hath it long before and that by invocating of Gods Grace for performance which decree before-hand with invocation supposed and consent at present to bee admitted into Holy Orders upon this condition by their silence witnessed makes it to amount materially if not formally quoad omnia to a Vow that is to such an obligation as engageth them to undertake and make good what in this Reason is affirmed of them For I have learned so much out of Calvin the Civilian that sometimes Votum ponitur pro consensu and no man denies silence in such an action Lexic Incid to bee consent And more than this the House of Commons say not for they speake not of a formall Vow vocally pronounced by the Minister in that action Howbeit if I may utter my private opinion freely of this point without prejudice to the House of Commons and without engaging them further than themselves intended I humbly conceive that the Church of England in her fifth Question propounded by the Bishop in the ordering of Ministers doth fully intend as much as is contained in those words of the Exhortation before rehearsed and to that Question the Minister positively answereth I will endeavour my selfe so to doe the Lord being my helper Ergo hee formally voweth at his Ordination what is contained in the Second Reason of the House of Commons To cleare this I shall first set downe the words of the Question Will you bee diligent in prayers and in reading of the holy Scriptures and in such studies as helpe to the knowledge of the same laying aside the Study of the World and the Flesh To this the party to bee ordained answereth I Will endeavour my selfe so to doe the Lord being my helper Next I must pray the Readers to consider that the surest exposition of these words must needs bee found in that Booke from whence the words were taken and set into the Booke of Ordination more briefly than in the Originall they bee expressed All the learned know that Bucer was the chief man who at the request of Cranmer censured the first Publike Leiturgie of Edward 6. whereupon it was reduced to a better forme In that first Booke there was no forme of Ordination prescribed but in the 5. 6. Edward 6. it was added This Exhortation and the Questions and Answers to them in our present Booke of Ordination were not borrowed as some suggest out of the Romane Pontificall but were Verbatim taken out of that grave and learned Treatise of Bucer entituled De Ordinat Legitima Ministrorum Eccles Cap. ult extant in his Script Anglican Ergo the full meaning and latitude of this Question must bee taken thence Now the Question is there propounded thus Tempus omne quod vobis a sacris Ministeriis publicis privatis ac necessaria frugali corporis cura superfuerit id omne precibus lectione Divinarum Scripturarum iisque studiis quae cognitionem Scripturarum docendi facultatem adjuvant ornant rejectis a vobis cunctis mundi carnis studiis negotiis feriis ludicris impendetis The Answere Impendemus juvante nos Domino So then the full latitude of the Question which is contracted in the booke of Ordination extends to a solemne vow and undertaking on the Ministers part when hee enters into Holy Orders to bestow all his time either in the exercise of his Office or fitting himselfe further for it and to lay aside not onely the vanities and pomps of this wicked world as hee vowed to doe in Baptisme but all secular businesses and imployments necessary provision for himselfe and family which God himselfe imposeth upon all excepted And all this in his solemne Answere made to the Bishop
and to see more of this may consult Lancelott Perusin Institut Iur. Can. Lib. 1. Tit. 5. De Episcopis summo Pontif. Cap. Ad hos in the addition of Io. Bapt. where it is said in multiplicibus casibus Archiepiscopus in subditos Episcopos ordinariam habet jurisdictionem ut in C. pastoralis de offi ordin Sylvest ponit duodecim And if these be not enow hee may also see Hostiensis sum li. 1. de offic ordin where there be more cases even eighteene in number expressed in certaine verses which are there likewise interpreted by the same Author of those summes Henricus de Segusio Officium varium forus appellatio crimen Peccans non parens res consultatio deses Praesul Canonici tumidi sententia nequam Visitat indulget Custos quia Papa dat usus Permutat socijs suspectum cumque remittit Casibus his Primas * Subjectos forsan subjectio Prasules arcet I forbeare to mention our owne Lindwood and many moe These may suffice to shew in how many things Bishops have dependance upon and may be obnoxious to their Metropolitan and how many wayes the Arch-Bishop can meet with them if they go not his way in all things that he is set upon And were it true that there is no dependency upon nor obedience due to the Arch-bishop but in Appeales and Visitations as it is a truth that these have in themselves no reference to Votes in Parliament yet who knowes not what influence an active and pragmaticall Arch-bishop hath into the Votes of all his Suffragans whom hee can pleasure or displease as he listeth as they Vote with him or dissent from him after intimation or insinuation of his mind in private to them Indeed if we could imagine Bishops and Arch-Bishops to be so complete in sincerity and sanctitie as their high Calling bespeakes them there were little strength in this Reason of the House of Commons But as the Prelates bee men and not free from that which is humane so the House of Commons conceived it not undecent or uncharitable to insinuate something more than is plainely expressed to such an Honourable and Intelligent Assembly of Lords which reason as it is hath force enough in it to weigh with rationall men however for the reverence they bare to the Ministeriall function the House held it fitter to leave somewhat to be tacitely understood than to speake all out that is couched under it 2. ANSWER to the fourth REASON This Argument reacheth not the two Arch-Bishops discharged in the Rubricke from this Oath and therefore is no reason for the passing of this Bill EXAMEN No Reason I am sure it reacheth twentie foure Bishops home enough although two Arch-Bishops should slip Collar which one of them cannot and I thinke the other shall not And the Answerer may bee pleased to remember that the House of Commons brought up Reasons Why Bishops ought not to Vote in Parliament It cannot be denyed but that in the maine body of their Reasons they included Arch-Bishops too And it is true this argument reacheth not to them What then did the House undertake to strike home even unto Arch-bishops in every one of their Reasons Where doth that appeare It is enough that they have sufficiently done it in all the rest foregoing If the Answerer thinke otherwise hee shall be sure to meet with more Arguments against them in the Reasons following Here indeed he hath sufficiently confuted this fourth Reason as to Arch-bishops but it was not their good happe to get ought by the bargaine because the House of Commons thought not fit to include them within the compasse of the Argument which is bent directly against Bishops onely and it is the unhappinesse of the Answerer to goe without his Trophee even where he made himselfe sure of the Victory for he hath fought with a shadow 5. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause they are but for their lives and therefore are not fit to have Legislative power over the honours inheritances persons and liberties of others I. ANSVVER Bishops are not for their lives onely To this Reason a 5. fold Answer is shaped but for their successors also in the Land and Honour that pertaine to their places as the Earles and Barons also are for their successors in their owne Lands and honours And holding their Lands in fee simple may with as good Reason Vote in the Honours inheritance persons and liberties of others as others may and doe in theirs EXAMEN When the House of Commons saith that Bishops are but for their lives I conceive the House to meane that Bishops have no right to place in Parliament but what dies with them as to their heires without hope that their sonnes shall after succeed them in that dignity by vertue of their birth-right or of the fathers sitting in Parliament before them And that therefore In the fourth of his Reigne Case of Tenures 35. a. Bishops being at first but casually mounted to that height and extent of power by William the Conqueror the more to endeere and oblige them upon all occasions to serve him and his successors in Parliament they cannot rationally and according to the principles of Policy and State be hoped to be so carefull and resolute in disposing of their Votes and in maintaining the priviledge and honour of Parliaments as Temporall Lords may well be presumed and expected to bee For these being by birth-right and the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Lords of Parliament and one of the Estates of the Kingdome without whom a Law regularly cannot palse they will bee more active and zealous for the good of their posterity that are sure to succeed them in the same place and Honour and to share in the benefit of the prudent and faithfull dispose of their present suffrage But now the Answerer denying the Bishops to bee for their lives only and affirming them to be for their successors also c. waives the sense and intention of the House of Commons and diverts his Reader from the strength of their Argument For hee tells us that Bishops are for their successors as a kinde of Corporation in Law It is true that a Bishop is a Corporation to some uses but that he is so in respect of his place and Vote in Parliament the Answerer hath yet neither made nor offered any proofe at all The Bishop is called thither by Writ to counsell the King upon presumption of his personall sufficiency and fidelity but ubi gentium doth it appeare that by vertue of the fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome the Bishops must needs sit there as a Corporation without which the Lords House cannot be full Is it not only from Grace that Bishops were first allowed place there And if so they are not immoveable out of their places and therefore they do not necessarily take up those places for their successors But suppose they sit there for their successors yet will it bee very hard to
for their owne lives and surely I beleeve it will be very hard for the Answerer to give so much as any one instance of an Almesman that hath beene allowed to Vote in Parliament Not that my purpose is hereby to disparage any of that Order in reference to their function or present honours but only to speake of them as the Law it selfe doth meerely and only for bolting out of the strength of this branch of the Answer to the Reasons of the House of Commons against the continuance of the Bishops place and Votes as Peeres in Parliament 3. ANSVVER to the fifth REASON The Knights Citizens and Burgesses are chosen for one Parliament only and yet use their Legislative power Nor will their being elected difference their Cause for the Lords use that power in a greater eminence who are not elected EXAMEN The Knights Citizens and Burgesses sit not there as single men but as the representative body of all the Commons of England each of them give their Votes with reference to all those from whom they are sent Besides they are by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome to be there qua tales however the Election of the particular persons bee arbitrary and contingent And although those very persons may never perhaps serve again yet the right and inheritance of the Commons of England whence every member of that House deriveth never dyes so long as the Kingdome lives Therefore who ever for the time hath the honour to bee a Member of that society Voteth in right of the Kingdome not of a particular man As for the LORDS although they neither bee elected nor doe Vote for any but for themselves and their owne posterity yet they have this priviledge from an higher Originall than the Bishops can prove themselves to be descended from namely as wee said before not precario from Grace and favour but from the fundamentall Lawes and Constitutions of the Kingdome Besides their bloud breeding interest in the publike and care for their posteritie borne to so high places must needs assure us more of their wise carefull and zealous managing of their Votes in Parliament than can by any prudentiall or morall grounds be hoped from the Prelates 4. ANSWER to the fifth REASON A Burgesse that hath a Freehold but for terme of life only may Vote and assent to a Law in Parliament EXAMEN Cokus in Littâ— Instit Sect. 133. The Free hold of a Burgesse is not by the tenure of Frank almoigne of which the present debate is for no Lay-man can hold any Land in that tenure Hee is therefore in that regard somewhat more capable But however this may bee yet that which was but a little before said to the next precedent Answer will serve here also A Burgesse doth not Vote in the House of Commons as a Free-Holder although haply none but Free-Holders or Free-men be eligible but as a person chosen by and for a Burrough which hath right to send Burgesses to Parliament and being there he Votes by the fundamentall Laws of the Realme Therefore it is not materiall whether his Free-hold bee for life or for longer time When Bishops shew the like warrant and Commission or the like fundamentall constitutions of the Kingdome for their Voting in Parliament then this Answer may be welcome to the House of Commons 5. ANS to the fifth REASON No such exception was ever heard of in the Diets of Germany the Corteses of Spaine or the three Estates of France where the Prelates Vote in all these points with the Nobility and the Commons EXAMEN What exception hath beene taken to Bishops in other Kingdomes is unknowne to me and perhaps to the Answerer also Unlesse he have seene all the Records and Journals of all those Kingdomes Nor doe I believe that the House of Commons had any Reference to other Nations nor doe intend to bee presidented by them As if because Bishops have this priviledge elsewhere therefore this must bee a Reason sufficient for the continuing their possession of it here Nay every Nation hath its proper Lawes and Customes and though it be no shame to borrow any thing that is better than our owne for the publike Weale yet it is no Answer to a Reason drawne from experienced inconveniency at home to say that this Reason was never heard of in forraigne States But yet I thinke if the matter were throughly examined it will appeare that in those Kingdomes Bishops have a kind of Soveraignty over their severall Territories and are Temporall Governours as well as spirituall Pastors And by the fundamentall Constitutions of those several Empires or Kingdomes those Bishops doe make one of the Estates of the Kingdome without which a Law cannot passe Sure I am it is so in Germany and I beleeve so or the rest although with some difference for they may make a third Estate and yet not bee secular or soveraigne Governors over their severall Ditions Now all know that it is farre otherwise with the Bishops of England and therefore this plea will not be of any force to breake the strength of this Reason of the House of Commons till the Prelates can translate our Lawes and Government into that of those Kingdomes from whence these presidents are impertinently borrowed 6. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause of Bishops dependency and expectancy of Translations to places of greater profit I. ANSVVER This Argument supposeth all Kings and all Bishops to be very faulty if they take the tune of their Votes in Parliament from these dependencies and expectances EXAMEN This Argument taxeth not Kings but medles only with Bishops It is true Kings bring them in and can be wise enough to serve themselves if they meet with men that will put themselves to sale for preferment And to speake plainely the receding from the ancient way of Electing Bishops by the Church is no small occasion and meanes to byas them and to engage them still to goe that way which they perceive him that hath the power of electing and of advancing them higher to bee inclined so that if a King should desire to draw them into a wrong course they scarce know how to deny him nor would many of them sticke much at it for they being men and sometimes none of the best are not onely subject to like temptations and failings that others be but more ready and officious to serve turnes than many times Princes do require And although the House of Commons doe not alwayes take the tune of Bishops Votes in every Parliament from these dependances and expectances yet when they see how much Bishops that have but meane Bishopricks doe continually labour to obtaine greater and to get up higher and then compare these ambitious practices with the tunes of their Votes in most things which concern the more perfect Reformation of Religion and the Clergy and the promoting of the power of Godlinesse c. they cannot but find to their griefe that Bishops Votes in Parliament
forraigners The Bishops fretted but durst not complaine When the King saw their timorousnes and the whole Kingdome heightned up to such a degre of discontent that they threatned to cast off their obedience to the King if he tooke not order to case them The letters Articles are set downe at large in Math. Paris in Hen. 3. pag 927. c. edit Lond. Anno. 1571. a Parliament was called the King the Nobility Prelates Commons all complained of the unsupportablenesse of the burden drew up their greivances into seaven severall Articles foure letters were conceived and sent with these greivances to the Pope one from the Bishops a second from the Abbots a third from the Nobility and Commons and the fourth from the King himselfe but to little purpose The Pope still went on although sometimes more favourably and other times more violently as the times would suffer No marvell then if Bishops and Abbots in Parliament were so willing to be over-borne by the votes of the temporall Lords in passing the Statute of Provisors of benefices in 25. Edw. 3. and against suitors to the Popes Consistory and receiving of Citations from Rome in 38. Ed. 3 And against the farming of any Benefices enjoyed by Aliens by the Popes Collation or conveing of mony to them 3. Ric. 2 3. And against Going out of the Realme to procure a Benefice in this Realme in 12 Ric. 2.15 And for confirmation of the Statute de provisoribus among the Statutes called Other Statutes made at Westminster in 13. Ric. 2. ca. 2. The like may be said of the Statute of Provision in 2. Hen 4.4 of first fruites to Rome more than usuall 6 H. 4.1 Of moneys carryed to Rome and confirmation of all Statutes against Provisors c. 9. Hen. 4 8. To say nothing of that famous Statute in 26. Hen. 8.21 which gave the Pope a deeper wound than all the Acts that had been before Now alas poore Bishops that they were so over-voted that they could not hinder such Lawes as those made in their favour and for the rescuing of them from the Italian horse-leeches No doubt the Bishops laboured stoutly to withstand these Acts and therefore no marvaile that they be so carefully instanced in or pointed unto by the Answerer to shew how easily Bishops may bee over-voted in Parliament and how soon emergent exorbitancies of their Iurisdiction may be there curbed redressed Or rather indeed to shew how unable Bishops bee to withstand the passing of a bill which they desire with all their hearts may bee enacted or which they know the King wil have to be enacted But otherwise I cannot understand his reason in vouching of them unlesse he meant to make his Readers some mirth See now how hee winds up this long Answere ANSVVER So as this Argument doth not so much hurt the votes as it quells the courage of the Bishops who may justly feare by this and the next Argument that the taking away of their Votes is but a kind of fore-runner to the abolishing of their Iurisdiction EXAMEN Indeed if we take the scantling of the hurt done to their Votes by the instances produced in this Answer the hurt is so little that the adventure will not bee great if they meet with other Bills in Parliament of like nature wherin the Temporall Lords shall happen to over-vote them In those Statutes before mentioned I doe not finde the Clergy so much as named It is probable they durst not appeare for those Acts for feare of the Pope but rather suffered them to passe by the Temporall votes that they might the better excuse it at Rome and enjoy the benefit with more security at home when the Temporalty alone were so ready to doe it to their hands Iust so it was in Henry the thirds time when the Pope had compelled the Bishops to ratifie all the Grants of payments to Rome made by K. Iohn whereby the Bishops were so cast betweene the mil-stones as to be ready to be ground to powder yet durst not appeare against their oppressor they Good men were forced by the King and Parliament much against their wills Si placet to be rescued out of his hands without any labour of their owne when first the King professed se contra infirmos illos et timidos Episcopos pro Regni libertate staturum Antiq. Britan. in Bonif. nec censum deinceps ullum Romanae curiae praestiturum And afterward when the whole Parliament ordered the Bishops and Abbots to write to his Holinesse that which with all their hearts they would if they durst have done of themselves for obtaining ease of the burthens that lay upon them as hath been touched before So that now this Argument doth little quell their courage if they meet with no greater discouragements than by the answerer hath been set forth Rather the Answere teacheth them the way how to prevaile by being overcome and to bring about their owne ends and yet sit still or seeme to be the greatest opposers of that which in secret they most desire and underhand doe most labour for But truly it is to me no lesse than a riddle that there should be any just cause of feare unlesse unto them who are apt to feare wher no feare is that there is any thing in this Argument tending to the Abolishing of Episcopal Iurisdiction when the Reason expresly supposeth no more but a Bill to passe for the Regulation of their power upon any emergent inconvenience by it Verily there is more cause of feare on the other side that if the mention of a bill for regulating the power of Bishops shall be interpreted a plot to ruine their Iurisdiction which now is so exorbitant their Case comes very neere to that of old Rome Liv. Hist Dec. 1. which as Livy observes could noe longer stand under the vices committed in it nor endure the remedies applied to it 8. REASON of the House of Commons Because the whole number of them is interessed to maintaine the jurisdiction of Bishops which hath beene found so greivous to the three Kingdomes that Scotland hath utterly abolished it multitudes in England and Ireland have petitioned against it ANSVVER This Argument is not against the Votes of Bishops but against Episcopacy it selfe which must bee removed because Scotland hath done so and some in England and Ireland would have it so And yet peradventure ten times as great a somme as these desire the contrary Against this a 2 fold Answer is offered EXAMEN This Argument is expresly against their votes for maintaining their Iurisdiction to which by their Order they are all bound as all other societies bee to maintaine their Priviledges and it is not bent against Episcopacy it selfe And yet this suggestion is a witty invention both to winde out of the strength of this Reason and to cast a blurre upon it at the farewell The House of Commons could not but see even an impossibility of reforming by bill the
excesses and intolerable exorbitancies of the present tyranny of many Bishops who dishonestly cal it by the honest name of Iurisdiction so long as the Bishops be suffered to vote in Parliament For the Bishops bee themselves the greatest Offenders therin either acting in it or else as Galba wittingly permitting those to usurpe whom they ought to bridle or willingly ignorant of what they ought to know Therefore it was desired that their Votes in Parliament might be taken away to make passage for another Bill that might regulate their Iurisdiction as in the former Reason was plainely intimated But the Answerer was willing to slide over that which was the life of the present Reason viz. the engagement of Bishops to maintaine their jurisdiction id est as now it standeth and Lap-wing like to carry his Readers from the nest to gaize upon the destruction of Episcopacy it selfe which on my conscience was not then intended by the House of Commons had that first Bill been quietly yeelded by the Bishops in the House of Peeres Nor did the House of Commons I presume by the instance of Scotland and of those in England and Ireland intend in this Reason a purpose of Abolition of the Calling but onely made use of it as an Argument a majore ad minus to this effect That if the Iurisdiction of Bishops as now they terme it be found so greivous that in Scotland they would endure Episcopacy it selfe no longer and many in England and Ireland have petitioned for the abolishing of it in these other Kingdomes it cannot be thought unreasonable and immodest for the House of Commons to passe a Bill for a lesser matter to witt for taking away the Votes of Bishops in Parliament without which there is little or no hope that the Bishops will ever suffer an other Bill to bee enacted for the thorough Reformation and regulating of their Iurisdiction so as to give ease of the many Greivances that still ly upon the subjects of both Kingdomes of England and Ireland and to satisfie the Petitioners with Reason worthy of such a Parliament at such a time of generall discontent cheifly caused by the usurpations of sundry Bishops and of their domineering party What is in the Answer with shew of modesty said that peradventure ten times as many desire the continuance of Episcopacy as there be Petitioners against it It might peradventure be so before the Bishops procured that first bill grounded upon these Reasons to be rejected above and before the world was made acquainted with that Abstract of the Answers given to them But I dare say that now without all peradventure if we may judge of mens desires by their expressions there is scarce one of ten who before were for Episcopacy reformed but are now against it the reason is because they see there is no hope that ever the Bishops will cheerfully yeeld to a perfect Reformation of themselves and their Order and that if hereafter the Prelates should happen against their will to bee over ruled in it such a forced Reformation will never doe good nor secure the Kingdome against the Evills too long sustained under them if the Calling it selfe be continued And verily no one thing hath more alienated exasperated the hearts of all sorts than the apprehended insufficiencies of these printed Answers to the Reasons of the House of Commons So that if Episcopacy happen to miscarry I am perswaded the Bishops will find Cause to ascribe the opening of so speedy a way to their destruction not to any thing so much as to the unhappy Answers given to these Reasons of the House of Commons if those Answers offered to the House of Lords were no other or better than they are presented to publike view in that more unhappy Abstract most unhappily printed 2. ANSVVER to the eighth REASON There wil be found Peeres enough in the Vpper House to reforme any thing amisse in the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction although the 26. Prelates should bee so wicked as to oppose it As there were found Peeres enough in that Noble House to curb the Court of Rome and the Revenues of the Cardinals under Edw. 3. To meet with the Provisors under Rich. 2. To put all the Clergie into a Premunire under Hen. 8. And to reforme the Religion 1 Eliz. notwithstanding the opposition of all the Bishops EXAMEN Mark here his Plea in Barre against the Bill There were Peeres enough to curb the Court of Rome in Edw. 3. and Rich. 2. when none were more glad of the curbing of that Court than our Bishops themselves Ergo there will ever be found Peeres enough to reforme the Bishops jurisdiction I will not say of this putting our Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction and the Court of Rome so neere together Pares cum parihas facillime congregantur But it will perhaps make sport to some to finde them in this Abstract so close one by another yet can it not secure wise men that because the Peeres curbed the Pope Ergo there will ever be enough to curb our Bishops unlesse the Bishops will yeeld themselves to hold of the Pope or to be of the same stamp and resolve to rise and fall with him As for those Cole-worts in Edw. 3. and Rich. 2. now a second time heated I referre the Reader who desires a fresh taste of them to the Examination of the former Answer In the case of Premunire in Hen. 8. who knowes not that if any such had passed in Parliament the Clergie were not so much overborn by the Nobility as overawed by that stern and stout King with whom the proudest Prelate durst not to contest But when wil it be proved that this passed in Parliament Surely Holinshed others tell me that the Bishops were called into the Kings Bench about it but before their day of appearance there was a Convocation wherein it was concluded that the Clergie of the Province of Canterbury should offer 100000. pound for composition which was accepted and a pardon promised to passe in Parliament to free them of the Premunire So in 7. Hen. 8. the Convocation incurred a Premunire for citing one Standish to appeare before the Convocation when they had not jurisdiction which yet was compounded and no Act of Parliament passed on it Nor needed there an Act for it for the Bishops themselves confessed the thing and so it could not come to a contest in the Parliament This is all that I know of this matter And if the case be thus this instance is not to the purpose But the last is of all other the most impertinent and scandalous Impertinent because all the world knowes that the Reformation of Religion was the designe of the Queene whom the Prelates might not crosse such as did thwart were duely rewarded for their paines as hath beene formerly touched Therefore untill it can bee found that the Bishops were over Voted in a Cause wherein the PRINCE went with them or expected their assistance to Vote for him the force of
the Reason is not abated Next what a scandall to Bishops is it that even since the Reformation begun in Edward the sixth his time the Bishops all the Bishops should oppose the restauration thereof in the beginning of Queene ELIZABETH after an interruption of scarce five yeares and an halfe Surely if Bishops can so farre degenerate in so short a time they are hardly to bee trusted with Voting in Parliament for any long continuance especially in an age of such a postatising of the most and warping of the best IX REASON of the House of Commons BEcause Bishops being Lords of Parliament it setteth too great a distance betweene them and the rest of their Brethren in the Ministery which occasioneth pride in them discontent in others and disquiet in the Church ANSVVER This is an Argument from Morall Philosophy which affords no Demonstrations All are not proud that Vote in Parliament nor discontented which are not so imployed This Argument fights onely against their Title of being LORDS which is not the Question at this time And were those Brethren so wise and well affected as they might be they would rejoyce rather that some of their owne profession are advanced to those places wherein they may bee capable upon all occasions of doing good offices to them and to this whole Church EXAMEN The first note is but a peece of mirth which is but little Demonstration of any great Morality in a Cause so serious If all bee not proud that vote in Parliament they have the more cause to be thankfull to God that keepes them humble in so great a temptation Yet usually all be not humble who say they are not proud Proud men of all others will be least knowne of Pride The Reason doth not say that all are proud who Vote but only that such high dignity not meet for them occasioneth pride and I hope it will not bee denyed by a Bishop to be a rule of Divinity as well as of Morall Philosophy that apparent and experienced occasions of sinne must bee avoyded as well as the sinne it selfe Besides this Answerer takes no notice of the maine basis of the Argument which is that this setteth too great a distance betweene the Bishops and the rest of their Brethren And to say truth there was no great Reason why hee should considering the Principles of Prelates which will never suffer them to subscribe to the truth of such a Proposition They never thinke the distance to be too great betweene themselves and the inferiour Clergie And the neerer to parity the neerer to Heresie Yet because this is an opinion not very fit to bee spoken out it was good policy to passe over this branch in silence and it were superfluous to labour in the asserting of that which the Answer doth not gain-say And though all bee not discontented that are not so imployed for some of them are Chaplaines Dependants Expectors Pretenders to the like places and so cannot but rejoyce to see them on Cock-Horse who will they hope one day give them the hand to lift them up behind them Yet there bee many moe who have more cause of just discontent at the infinite clation intolerable pride and boundlesse passions of some of the Bishops who looking up to their owne Lordly Titles doe take it for a part of their honour to looke downe upon their poore brethren with so much superciliousnesse as if they were not brethren but servants yea slaves ad servitutem natos Tiberius Tacit as Hee said of his subiugated fellow Senators of Rome Before this Lording in Parliament came up the old Rule among Bishops was Con. Carthag 4. ca. 34. Episcopus in quolibet loco sedens stare Presbyterum non patiatur But that Canon is now 1240. yeares old and so may well be forgotten Now it is well if he may after long atttendance bee admitted into the presence of a Bishop where he must stand bare headed while the Bishop sits or perhaps lyes along in State And whereas before they were not ashamed to call and honour them as Brethren now they have other names for them Dunce Asse Foole Iack Rogue Scotish spirited rascall any thing that a tongue set on fire of Hell can belch out Lo here the goodly fruit of Episcopacie advanced to the heigth of Peerage in Parliament and wel were it for many of them and their poore Clergie if this were the worst and greatest cause of griefe and discontent administred by the Bishops to many grave Godly painefull peaceable Ministers whose heavie burdens are presented in multitudes of Petitions to the present Parliament and therefore I forbeare to relate them But where it is said that this Argument of the House of Commons fights only against their Title of Lords the Answer misreports it For it marcheth not fighteth against them as Lords of Parliament now if to be a Lord in Parliament and to Vote as Peeres there be not the same thing the Answer is worthy of Consideration otherwise it can expect no entertainment but neglect The House of Commons did purposely use this phrase here because the very Reason it selfe is grounded partly upon the Title yet so as that they consider a Bishop as a Peere admitted to Vote in Parliament These two are convertible and equipollent expressions He is a Lord of Parliament Ergo he Votes He Votes in Parliament Ergo a Lord of Parliament And this Lordship in Parliament is that which lifts him up so high above his brethren as makes him to be and they to fare the worse all dayes of his life Wherefore to conclude all such is my folly that I know not what wisedome or good affection it were for those Brethren to rejoyce much to see any of their owne Profession to bee exposed to so great temptations by being advanced to that place which is so farre from rendring them capable or apt to doe good offices to either Church or State as that it makes them more unapt unto and uncapable of doing any good at all either in Parliament Pulpit or Consistory For it puts them out of their Calling unapts them for the proper worke of it and is not seldome secretly followed by the just judgment of GOD with a spirit of coldnesse and benumdnesse of those excellent parts wherewith many of them before abounded with a spirit of giddinesse in point of judgment with a spirit of contempt of those Ordinances which formerly they prized in point of affection with a spirit of pride over their brethren in point of behaviour with a spirit of persecution of the power of godlinesse in point of jurisdiction and with a spirit of opposition to the perfect Reformation of this whole Church See the close of last precedent Answer in point of Legislative power in Parliament ERGO Bishops ought not to Vote in Parliament FINIS Pag. 2. l. 28. after acceptat there should be a short line thus as implying some words omitted which in the Author be interposed p. 4. l. 7. r. indicare p. 26. l. 5. r. avocation p. 34. l. ult r. 18. ibid. in Mar. dele 1317. r. M. 17. p. 63. l. 14. r. could p. 75. l. 25. r. nati
heare nothing from the Answerer how farre this right extended The Lords have I believe declared in this very Parliament that the Bishops have no votes in causa Sanguinis and I thinke the Bishops have found it to be so And to my ignorance it is a scruple whether they had originally any libertie of Votes in Civill and State affaires and were not restrained meerly to matters of Religion Ibid The reason of my scruple is because I finde in the same Commentaries of Sir Edward Cooke for I confesse I aspire not so high as to looke into the Rolle it selfe a transcript of an ancient Record forbidding them to intermeddle Rol. Pat. de An 18. H. 3. 1 16 17. upon paine of forfeiting their Baronies with any matters concerning the Crowne the person of the King his Estate or the State of his Councell the words are these Mandatum est omnibus Episcopis qui conventuri sunt apud Gloucestriam die Sabbati in Crastin ' Sanctae Katherinae firmiter inhibendo quod sicut Baronias suas quas de Rege tenent Vide Pol. Virg. in H. 3. â— diligunt nullo modo praesumant Concilium tenere de aliquibus quae Coronam Regis pertinent vel quae Personam Regis vel statum suum vel statum Concilii sui contingunt scituri pro certo quod si fecerint Rex inde se capiet ad Baronias suas Teste Rege apud Hereford 23. Novemb. c. This was in the 8. of Hen. 3. and in a great Councell or Parliament In Hen. 3 ad an 1234. not in a private Councell of Domesticks of his owne Court as Polydore Virgil and Matthew of Westminster would insinuate Touching the Kings Prerogative it is too sacred to be handled by common or private hands Farre be it from me to set bounds to it or to wade farre in it Only I believe that the Kings Prerogative is for the good of his people and if any person unworthy and altogether unfit and therefore uncapable should by the Prerogative Royall be called to and imployed in any place or office of trust wherein the whole Kingdome is interressed this were an abuse of the Prerogative caused by Him that did misinforme the King and there is no doubt but a just King who should be so abused would soone upon better information recall such a Grant or Writ If then the Bishops shall be found to be persons altogether unfit for such high honour and trust wherein all the Kingdome is so deeply concerned I only ask I determine not what thwarting of the Kings Prerogative it could justly bee said to bee to passe an Act with the Kings Soit fait c. unto it that no more such Writs shall henceforth issue to any Bishop of the Kingdome 5. ANS to the third REASON This Argument was in a manner deserted by Master Perpoint and confest to be but an Argumentum ad hominem EXAMEN It is very true that Noble Gentleman after he had faithfully and like himselfe discharged the trust committed to him by the House of Commons in writing hee added a few words in the close of that Conference with the Lords to this effect that how ever hee was commanded to urge this Reason taken from Councels and Canons yet the House did only borrow these Arrowes out of the Bishops own Quivers to use them as weapons against themselvs not with any purpose to bind the House of Commons or other the subjects by them This was not in any sort a desertion of the Argument but a seasonable explanation of the House of Commons in what sense they used it And were it but Argumentum ad hominem yet was it ad illos homines whome it chiefly and most neerly concerned to wit the Bishops themselvs and had force enough in my apprehension to silence them if they should offer to open their mouthes in defence of holding their places and votes in Parliament any longer For if they would but consider what so many famous Bishops and Councels have said and decreed against Clergie mens interposing in and mingling themselves with Civill and Secular affaires which yet be not of that import and consequence as these in question bee common ingenuity would make them to lay their hands upon their mouthes and leave the discussion and determination hereof to others who are not interessed in it and therfore more likely to bee lesse partiall in resolving of it IV. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause the twentie foure Bishops have a dependency upon the Archbishops and because of their Canonicall obedience to them 1. ANSVVER They have no dependency upon the Archbishops but in points of Appeale and Visitation only And owe them no obedience To this Reason a two fold Answe is framed but in these two points None at all in Parliament where they are pares their Equals And as Bracton tels us Par in Parem non habet imperium What hath Canonicall obedience to doe with a vote in Parliament declared in this Bill to be no Ecclesiasticall but a secular affaire EXAMEN The Reason consists of two branches dependency and obedience both which render Bishops unmeet to vote in Parliament For where these two relations meet make but the Archbishops of a side and it will be easie to draw the rest the same way The Answer endeavours to take off both at one pull because there is neither dependance upon nor obedience due to the Archbishops but in two points Appeales and Visitations which no way concern Parliaments or the dispose of their votes therein where they bee all Equals and where the Vote is only a Secular Act. To examine the truth of the Answere so farre as it denyes all dependency or obedience but in Appeales and Visitations were not altogether impertinent if it were a time of leasure because it is with so much confidence denyed Bee there no reserved Cases pertaining to the Metropolitane no Prerogative wills no Inhibitions that may runne and command in the Diocesans Territories and Jurisdiction save onely in Cases of Appeales and during the time of Metropoliticall Visitations Doth not the Archbishop command the severall Bishops upon divers occasions to publish divers things whether decreed in Synodes or received from supreme Authority Hath the Metropolitan no power to correct and censure the delinquencies of the Bishops of his Province and to command them by vertue of their Canonicall Obedience to be more vigilant and diligent when hee findes them slacke in their Office to enjoyne them silence and obedience if they contest and ruffle with his Grace c. to give other senses and interpretations of Rubricks and other matters contained in the Liturgie than the Bishop doth so hee expound nothing contrary to the Booke and is not the Bishop to bee concluded by it It were easie to adde many moe particulars which cannot bee reduced to Appeales or Visitations Therefore here the Answerer came short in his reckoning But hee that desires to looke abroad