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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	knight_n	sir_n	viscount_n	16,070	5	12.0091	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61451	An apology for the ancient right and power of the bishops to sit and vote in parliaments ... with an answer to the reasons maintained by Dr. Burgesse and many others against the votes of bishops : a determination at Cambridge of the learned and reverend Dr. Davenant, B. of Salisbury, Englished : the speech in Parliament made by Dr. Williams, L. Archbishop of York, in defence of the bishops : two speeches spoken in the House of Lords by the Lord Viscount Newarke, 1641.	Stephens, Jeremiah, 1591-1665.; Davenant, John, ca. 1572-1641.; Williams, John, 1582-1650.; Newark, David Leslie, Baron, d. 1682.	1660 (1660)	Wing S5446; ESTC R18087	87,157	146

thither out of England there being then no Universities neither Paris nor Padua nor Oxon nor Cambridge Only Rome was the principal place for Learning in these Western parts and therefore our Saxon Kings built the Colledge there for English Scholars and purchased Lands in Italy for the maintenance thereof and also gave the Peter-pence for their better allowance and encouragement which as Mr. Fuller accounteth in his late History was the sum of seven thousand and Five hundred pounds The Peter-pence was given not as a Tribute to the Pope as our Common-Chronicles do grant it and Polydor Virgilius and Baronius but as a stipend to maintain the English Colledge As Spelman sheweth clearly upon the word Denarius St. Petri which Doctor Burgesse might have observed better and not have yeilded it to the Tribute paid to the Pope as he doth grant it pag. 18. of his Reply King Henry the eighth and those about him had forgotten the true use of them and therefore in the Tempest of his Indignation swept them away among other superstitious things in a Statute but it might have been justly continued for the first intention and purpose to educate learned men beyond Seas to learn the Civil and Common Law and forraign languages also matters of State who upon their return home after some seven or eight years would deserve best to be preferred to publick places in Church or State The Kings of England well knowing the necessity of such learned men did anciently and of late send some choice Scholars out of either Universities to forraign Countries as Cambden observeth speaking of Sir Thomas Smith Anno 1577. Annis maturior selectus ut in Italiam Regiis impensis mitteretur ad nostra enim tempora nonnulli adolescentes optimae spei ex utraque Academia ad uberiorem ingenii cultum Regum sumptibus in exteris Regionibus alebantur So was Cardinal Pool in his younger years sent abroad by Henry the eighth Sir William Paget Sir Thomas Smith Sir William Peters and Sir Iohn Mason these two having been fellows of All-Souls Colledge in Oxon but being further bred abroad in forraign Countries they gained great experience and wisdome and were made either principal Officers or Secretaries of State at their return home and were principal men about the King for Counsel and disputes of businesse and guided the Kings Counsels in affairs of most importance Education in our own Universities at home is not sufficient to enable men for all publick places and offices under a King It is well known that learned young men of the best sort in the Universities being sent abroad to travail when they come home are commonly men of far better abilities then such as have only stayed at home as of late years Sir Edwin Sandys Sir Isaac Wake Sir Iohn Digby Sir Clement Edmond and Dr. Bryan Duppa now Bishop of Salisbury both these having been fellows of All-Souls Colledge and Docter Duppa specially chosen to be the Princes Tutor having been bred a Civilian in his Colledge and eminent besides for all polite Literature and proctor of the University and afterwards travailing into France and Spain upon his return home it was not long before King Charles took special notice and made choice of him for the instruction of his three Sons who are now the most accomplished Princes in Christendome notwithstanding the late disturbance and Rebellion of these present times and are likely to prove the most renowned when the present troubles shall be composed Education goes beyond nature as Aristotle sheweth 1. Ethic. Good instruction and learned Education doth add those perfections which cannot be obtained with ordinary helps and by such men as know only their own native Country and Climat The opposition that some men make against the Votes and presence of the Bishops in Parliaments and other places of Office and imployment under the King doth arise from that false principle that jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and civil ought to be distinct and separate both for persons and their imployments Which is already here confuted it being one grand error of Calvin and Beza with divers others that follow them too closely in all opinions as if they had been men free from error Our Bishops in ancient times were most part Lawyers learned in the Civil and Canon Laws and thereby also knowing much in the Canon Law and therefore they were the chiefest Judges of the Land in all Courts of Justice as Spelman sheweth in his learned Glossary for 200 years after the Conquest reckoning the Catalogue of the great Lord cheif Justices being most part men of the Church pag. 409. 410 c. and so pag. 131. Fungebantur antique cancellariatus dignitate viri tantum Ecclesiastici Episcopi qui praeterea Curam gerebant Regiae cap●llae repositaque illic Monumenta Rotulos Recorda vocant sacra custodia tuebantur c. And so also Lord Cook sheweth 1. Instit. lib. 3. pag. 304. B. In ancient time the Lord Chancellour and Treasurer were most part men of the Church yet were they expert and learned in the Laws of the Realm as for example in the time of the Conquerour Egelricus Episcopus Cicestrousis viz. Antiquissimus in legibus sapientissimus Nigellus Episcopus Eliensis Hen. 1. The saurarius in temporibus suis incomparabilem habuit Scacarii scientiam de eadem scripsit optime Henricus Cant. Episcopus H. Dunelm Episcopus Willielmus Episcopus Eliensis G. Roffensis Episcopus Martinus de Pateshall Clericus Decanus divi Pauli London constitutus fuit capitalis Iusticiarius de Banco c. Willielmus de Raleash Clericus Iusticiarius Domini Regi● Iohannes Episcopus Caliolensis temp H. 3. Robertus Passelew Episcopus Cicestrensis temp H. 3. Robertus de Lexinton Clericus constitutus sapitalis Iusticiarius de Banco Iohannes Briton Episcopus Hereford Henricus de Stanton Clericus constitutus fuit capitalis Iustic ad placita With many others So also Selden affirmeth in his Notes upon Fleta Sir Iohn Eliott in his Speech in Parliament confesseth that there are among our Bishops whose profession I honour saith he such as are fit to be made example for all ages who shine in vertue and are firm for our Religion c. as Rushworth relateth in his Collections pag. 661. If Bishops be so eminent that they shine in vertue certainly they are fit men to be present in Parliaments for Parliaments ought to consist of such men as shine in vertue as are firm for Religion A Learned Knight and Courtier writing an answer to Sir Anth. Welden his Pamphlet entituled the Court and Character of King Iames pag. 178. where he speaketh of the preferment of Doctor Williams to be Lord Keeper of the great Seal sheweth That former ages held it more consonant to reason to trust the Conscience of the Clergy with the case of the Lay-men they best knowing a case of Conscience And anciently the civil Law was always judged by the Ministers of the Church and

the Chancery and Courts of Equity in charge of a Divine Minister So ran that Channel till Sir Francis Bacons Father had it from a Bishop and now a Bishop had it again from Bacon And had King Iames lived to have effected his desires the Clergy had fixed firm footing in Courts of Judicature out of the road of Common Law and this was the true cause of Williams Invitation thither To prevent many Complaints and Mischiefs there can be no better way then to follow the Example of Gods own chosen people of Israel where the chief fathers of the priests and Levites were Judges in all Courts both high and low sitting together with some chief men of the other Tribes of the Laity as they are now called And though our Law be otherwise of late years and the jurisdiction of Courts divided yet it was not so anciently and the King may put some of the Clergy in some places and Courts at least of Equity as King Iames did design if he had lived longer and that without any prejudice to the Law or Courts of Justice CHAP. IV. Concerning the Honour and Dignity of the Bishops in the time of the Saxons and so continued to these times FOr the Dignity Order and Estimation of the Clergy they were from the beginning reckoned and accounted equal with the best as appears by the Laws of divers Kings as first of the first Christian King Ethelbert who in his Laws doth provide in the first place for their rights and priviledges and what Satisfaction shall be made for any wrong done to the Church or Bishops or Clergy Quicunque res Dei vel Ecclesiae abstulerit duodecima componat solutione Episcopi res undecima solutione Sacerdotis res nona solutione Diaconi res sexta solutione Clerici res trina solutione Pax Ecclesiae Violata duplici emendetur solutione Volens scilicet tuitionem eis quos quorum doctrinam susceperat praestare saith Bede These being the first Laws of our first Christian King of the Saxons they ought to be reverenced for their Antiquity piety and Christian Justice in rendering to every man his own due though some men talk not only of taking away superfluities but of cutting up both root and branches O Tempora O Mores And afterwards about the time of King VVithred there were laws made Quomodo damna injuriae sacris ordinibus illata sunt compensanda And often elsewhere in the Councils many Laws do ordain what satisfaction shall be given to the Church and Bishops for several offences committed for then the Bishops had a great part in all fines and shared in forfeitures and penalties with the King Furthermore for point of Honour and Dignity it appears by the Laws of King Athelstan that every Archbishop was equal to a Duke of a Province Every Bishop to an Earl and so esteemed in their valuations Vide K. Athelstani Regis apud Lambardum p. 71. Concil Britannica pag. 405. cap. 13. de Weregeldis 1. capitum aestimationibus The Title of Baron was not then known or used among the Saxons but they called the Nobility Thanes Vid. K. Inae pag. 187. Sect. 9. and the Bishops were equal or rather superiour to the Thanus Major and the priest to the Thanus minor The Bishop and Earl are valued at eight thousand Theynses Messe-Theynes and Worald-Theynes id est Presbyteri secularis Thani jusjur andum in Anglorum lege reputatur aeque sacrum cùm Sacerdos Thani rectitudine dignus est The Priest was then accounted equal to a Knight or Lord of the Town and was commonly styled by the name of Sir as a Knight was though now it be derided and out of use Out of these Laws and some others doth the learned Antiquary who is so well versed in the Antiquities and Monuments of our Laws and Kingdome fully set down the ancient dignity and order of the Clergy Magno sane in honore fuit Universus clerus cum apud Populum Proceres tum apud ipsos Reges Angliae Saxonicos nec precaria hoc quidem concessione sed ipsis confirmatum legibus Sacerdos ad altare Celebrans minori Thano i. e. Villae Domino atque militi aequiparabatur in censu capitis pariter aestimatus pariterque alias honorandus quia Thani rectitudine dignus est Inquit Lex Abbas sine C●nobiarcha inter Thanos majores quos Barones Regis appellarunt posteri primicerius fuit Episcopus similiter inter Comites ipsos majores qui integro fruebantur comitatu juribusque Comitivis Archiepiscopus Duci satratrapae amplissimae Provinciae pluribus gaudenti comitatibus praeficiebatur Vt caeteri omnes Ecclesiastici comparibus suis omnibus secularibus Amplectebantur Reges universum clerum laeta fronte ex eo semper sibi legebant primos a consisiis primos ad officia Reipublicae obeunda Quippe sub his seculis apud ipsos solum erat literarum clavis scientiae dum militiae prorsus indulgerent laici factumque est interea ut os sacerdotis oraculum esset plebis Episcopi oraculum Regis Reipu● Primi igi●ur sedebant in omnibus Regni comitiis tribunalibus Episcopi in Regali quidem palatio cum Regni magnatibus in comitatu una cum comite Iusticiaerio comitatus in Turno Vicecomitis cum Vice●omite in Hundredo cum Domino Hundredi sic ut in promovenda justitia usquequaque gladius gladium adjuvaret nihil inconsulto sacerdote qui velut saburra in navi fuit ageretur Mutavit priscam hanc consuetudinem Gulielmus primus c. After the Conquest William the first divided the Ecclesiastical Courts from the secular not with a purpose to diminish the Ecclesiastical authority Imo jurej●rando confirmavit leges sanctae matris Ecclesiae quoniam per cam Rex Regnum solidum habent subsistendi firmamentum Yet the Bishops and Clergy do not now expect or desire to enjoy their ancient splendor amplitude and dignities seeing the greatnesse of their Revenue which should uphold the dignity is long since taken away So that well might Bishop Latimer in his Sermon before King Edward say We of the Clergy have had too much but that is taken away and now we have too little For there was no lesse in the whole taken away from them then many hundred thousands sterling too incredible to be here briefly expressed I will only mention one for example the Arch-bishoprick of York from which was taken 72. mannors and Lordships at one instant by one of the last statutes of Hen. 8. and the like happened to Canterbury London Lincoln and all the rest which me thinks should be enough to satisfie that men should not go about to strip them of these poor pittances that are left unto them being but small fragments in comparison of their ancient patrimony which the liberality and piety of the primitive times ha● conferred on them when Charity

AN APOLOGY FOR The Ancient Right and Power OF THE BISHOPS To SIT and VOTE IN PARLIAMENTS As the first and principal of the three Estates of the KINGDOME As Lord Coke sheweth 3. Institut C. 1. and other both learned LAVVYERS and ANTIQUARIES as Camden Spelman Selden and many others WITH An Answer to the Reasons maintained by Dr. Burgesse and many others against the Votes of BISHOPS A Determination at Cambridge of the Learned and Reverend Dr. DAVENANT B. of Salisbury Englished The Speech in Parliament made by Dr. WILLIAMS L. Archbishop of York in defence of the BISHOPS Two SPEECHES spoken in the House of Lords by the Lord Viscount NEWARKE 1641. London Printed by W. Godbid for Richard Thrale at the Crosse-Keyes at St. Paul's gate entring into Cheape-side 1660. To the READER DOctor Williams Lord Arch-bishop of York made an accurate Speech in Parliament to defend the rights of the Bishops and the learned Bishop Hall made an abstract of his reasons against which Doctor Burgesse published an Examination wherein there is little material if once the principal doubt be cleared whether Bishops had anciently Votes in Parliament and were Barons or that which is equal or superiour unto Barons being accounted Thanes in the times of the Saxons before the Conquest which I hope is so fully cleared in this following discourse as there will be little question remaining Though Parliaments began as our Histories shew long after the Conquest in this manner as now they are held yet they had Assemblies Gemots of the Estates and principal nobility whereof the Bishops and Clergy were alwayes an eminent party according to the Laws and Custome of those times and equivalent in authority to our Parliament They had several Gemots as the first was Wittena-gemott idem apud Anglo-saxones fuit quod apud nos hodie Parliamentum parumque a Folkmotto differebat nisi quod hoc annuum esset è certis plerumque causis illud ex arduis contingentibus legum condendarum gratia ad arbitrium principis indictum In Folckmotto semel quotannis sub initio Calendarum Maii tanquamin a●nuo Parliamento convenere Regni principes tam Episcopi quàm Magistratus liberique homines Iurantur laici omnes coram Episcopis in mutuum faedus in fidelitatem in jura Regni conservanda Consulitur de communi salute de pace de bello de utilitate publica promovenda c. Sciregemott si pluries opus non esset bis solummodo in anno indicebatur Aderat provinciae Comes aderat Episcopus aderant Magnates omnes Comitatenses Episcopus jura divina enuntiabat vindicabat Comes secularia alter alteri auxilio De causis hîc cognitum est tam criminalibus quam civilibus sed jurisdictiones postea separabat Gulielmus primus videtur hoc idem fuisse quod olim Turnum dicemus Vicecomitis non minus quam hodie nunc dicitur bis in anno tenebatur aderant que omnes unà comitatus magnates Te●iti● liberi Many other Gemots and Meetings they had but in all these publick Gemots the Clergy were principal members as appears by the laws of King Edgar Cap. 5. Gemottis adsunto locii Episcopus Aldermannus ho● est Comes doceatque alter jus divinum alter jus saeculare Thus the learned Glossary sheweth out of whom it was necessary to shew the several assemblies then in use that we need not contend about the French word Parliament which came in use about the time of Hen. 3. But whatsoever their Assemblies were the Bishops were alwayes principal members thereof and though once in 25. Edward 1. there is mention of a Parliament at St. Edmunebury whereby the Clergy were excluded for denying of money which they refused to grant by reason of a prohibition from Pope Boniface in regard of many Levies latel yraised upon the state Ecclesiastical As of later times there was a Parliament once held without Lawyers in 6. Hen. 4. at Coventry as both our Histories do testifie and also the Kings Writ directed to the Sheriff whereof the words are Nolu●us autem quod in seu aliquis alius vicecomes Regni nostri praedicti aut Apprenticius aut alius homo ad legem aliqualiter sit electus Vnde Parliamentum illud laicorum dicebatur indoctorum quo jugulum Ecclesiae atroci●s petebatur as alearned Author saith Yet I hope notwithstanding the inconsiderate zeal of this Examiner our Histories shall never be blemished with such a reproach as to report the loss or defect in Parliament of either learned Clergy or Lawyers to direct and assist in whatsoever matters are proper to their faculties and the publick welfare of the Kingdome The most Accurate History of the ancient City and famous Cathedral of Canterbury being an exact Description of all the Rarities in that City Suburbs and Cathedral together with the Lives of all the Arch bishops of that See Illustrated with divers Maps and Rig●res Published by Will. Somner Author of the late Saxon Dictionary 4to And is to be sold by Richard Thrale at the Crosse-Keyes at Paul's gate entring into Cheape-side The Contents of the several Chapters CHAPTER I. COncerning Government Ecclesiastical and Civil in the state of nature from Adam till Moses which was about 2500 years the same person was both chief Magistrate and also Priest unto God CHAP. II. The government of the Church and State of Israel by Moses and Aaron and their Successors until Christ about 1500 years That there was not then two several Iurisdictions the one Ecclesiastical the other Civil CHAP. III. Concerning the Union of the Courts of Iustice in the time of the Saxon Kings after they were converted to the faith The division of the Courts being brought in by William the Conqueror as appears by his Statute CHAP. IV. Concerning the Honour and Dignity of Bishops in the time of Saxons and so continued to these times CHAP. V. Concerning Barons and the title thereof and how the Bishops became Barons being no addition of honour to them but inforced upon them by the Conqueror and since continued to this day CHAP. VI. Concerning the Legislative power and Votes of the Bishops in making laws Concerning the Statute 11. H. 7. whereby Empson and Dudley proceeded and what great treasures they brought to the King Calvin and Beza at Geneva were members of their chief Council of State consisting of 60 and so may Bishops in England be members of Parliament King David appointed Priests and Levites in all Courts of Iustice. The Clergy had many priviledges as Lord Coke sheweth upon Magna Charta 2 Instit. pag. 2 3. Ambition and Coveteousness of the Presbyterians the principal cause of all our troubles CHAP. VII In the first frame of our English Common wealth the Bishops in every Diocess were the principal Iudges The Charter of William the Conqueror for dividing the Courts The Statute of Circumspecte agatis 13. Ed. 1. and Articuli Cleri 9. Ed. 2. appointing what

which is all I shall say of the duty of ministers in point of divinity Now I come to the second duty of men in holy orders in point of conveniency or policy and am clearly of opinion that even in this regard and reflexion they ought not to be debarred from modestly intermedling in secular affairs For if there be any such inconveniency it must needs arise from this that to exercise some secular jurisdiction must be evil in it self or evil to a person in holy orders Which is neither so nor so For the whole office of a subordinate civil Magistrate is most exactly described in Rom. 13. 3 4. and no man can add or detract from the same The civil power is a divine ordinance set up to be a Terror to the evil and an incouragement to good works This is the whole compass of the civil power And therefore I do here demand with that most learned Bishop Davenant that within a few dayes did sit by my side in the eleventh Question of his Determinations What is there of impiety what of unlawfulnesse what unbecoming either the holynesse or calling of a priest in terrifying the bad or comforting the good Subject in repressing of sin and punishing of sinners For this is the whole and intire Act of civil jurisdiction It is in its own nature repugnant to no person to no function to no sort or condition of men let them hold themselves never so holy never so seraphical it becomes them very well to repress sin and punish sinners that is to say to exercise in a moderate manner civil jurisdiction if the Soveraign shall require it And you shall find that this doctrine of debarring persons in holy orders from secular imployments is no doctrine of the Reformed but the Popish Church and first brought into this Kingdome by the Popes of Rome and Lambiths Lanfranc Anselme Stephen Langton and the test together with Otho and Othobon and to this only end that the man of Rome might withdraw all the Clergy of this Kingdome from their obligations to the King and Nobility who were most of them great Princes in those times and thereby might establish and create as in a great part he did regnum in regno a Kingdome of Sha●elings in the midst of this Kingdome of England And hence came those Canons of mighty consequence able to shoot up a priest at one shot into heaven as that he must not meddle with matters of blood that he must not exercise civil jurisdiction not be a Steward to a Noble man in his house and all the rest of this Palea and Garbage That is in plain English the Priest must no longer receive obligations from either King or Lords but wholly depend upon his holy Fathers the Pope of Rome and the Pope of Lambeth or at least wise pay him soundly for their Dis ensations and Absolutions when they presume to do the contrary In the mean time here is not one word or shew of Reason to inform an understanding man that persons in holy orders ought not to terrifie the bad and comfort the good to repress sin and chastise sinners which is the summa totalis of the civil Magistracy and consequently so fat forth at the least to intermeddle with secular affairs And this is all that I shall say touching the motive and ground of this Bill and that persons in holy orders ought not to be inhibited from intermedling in secular affairs either in point of divinity or in point of conveniency and policy The second point consists of the persons reflected upon in this Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all others in holy orders of which point I shall say little only finding these names hudled up in an heap made me conceive at first that it might have some relation to Mr. Bagshawes reading in the middle Temple which I ever esteemed to have been very inoffensively delivered by that learned Gentleman and with little discretion questioned by a great Ecclesiastick then in place For all that he said was this That when the Temporal Lords are more in voices then the Spiritual they may passe a Bill without consent of the Bishops which is an assertion so clear in reason and so often practised upon the Records and Rolls of Parliament that no man any way vers'd in either of these can make any doubt of it nor do I Though I humbly conceive no President will be ever found that the Prelates were ever excluded otherwise then by their own folly fear or headinesse For the point of being Justices of peace the Gentleman confesseth he never medled with Arch-bishops nor Bishops nor with any Clergy man made a Justice by his Majesties Commission In the Statute made 34. Ed. 3. c. 1. He finds assignees for the keeping of the Peace one Lord and with him 3. or 4. of the most valiant men of the County the troublesome times did then so require it and if God do not bless us with the riddance of these two armies the like provision will be now as necessary He finds these men included but doth not find Church-men excluded no not in the Statute 13. Rich. 2. cap. 7. that requires Justices of peace to be made of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law of the most sufficient of each County In which words the Gentleman thinks Clerks were not included and I clearly say by his favour they are not excluded Nor do the learned Sages of the Law conceive them to be excluded by that Statute If the King shall command the Lord Keeper to fill up the Commissions of each County with the most sufficient Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law shall the Lord Keeper thereupon exclude the Noble-men and the Prelates I have often in my dayes received this Command but never heard of this interpretation before this time So that I cannot conceive from what ground this general sweep-stake of Arch-bishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all others in holy orders should proceed I have heard since the beginning of my sicknesse that it hath been alledged in this House that the Clergy in the sixth of Edw. the third did disavow that the custody of the peace did belong to them at all and I beleive that such a thing is to be found amongst the Notes of the priviledges of this House But first you must remember that it was in a great storm and when the waters were much troubled and the wild people unapt to be kept in orders by Miters and Crosiersstaves But yet if that noble Lord shall be pleased to cast his eye upon the Roll it self he shall find that this poor excuse did not serve the Prelates turns Fot they were compelled with a witnesse to defend their parts of the preservation of the peace of the Kingdome as well as the Noble men and Gentry And you shall find the ordinance to this effect set down upon that Roll. I conclude therefore with that Noble Lords favour that the sweeping

as Lord Coke saith it may be done without the help of a Parliament as the King appointeth Judges and great Officers in all the Courts in Westminster-hall without consent of Parliaments The Learned Lord Herbert in his History of Hen. 8. relating some passages of the Kings Reformation of some abuses affirmeth that the first fatal blow the English Church received was when the Redress of her was referred to the House of Commons Complaint was made for probate of testaments and mortuaries of pluralities non-residence and priests that were farmers of Lands c. But the King lost or let go for the present a principal point of his Supremacy whereby he might have reformed what was fit to be done in these and many the like businesses without referring to the House of Commons and we find that they never left off reforming till they have utterly deformed all and wholly suppressed all Ecclesiastical Law Courts and Jurisdictions The King by his Supremacy might have reformed and prescribed Laws for probate of Wills non-residence pluralities and many more such matters the Concurrence of the Metropolitan had been sufficient to regulate such matters according to the Laws Ecclesiastical for there are Laws Ecclesiastical in this Kingdome as well as Temporal and as ancient and fundamental as any part of the Common Law and therefore fit to be duly kept and observed Linwood doth gloss upon the Constitutions made by the Archbishops of Canterbury which are accepted for good Laws by the Common Lawyers in Ecclesiastical matters and so there are also Constitutions for the province of York and the Northern parts all which are allowed for good Laws Ecclesiastical by those that are truely learned in the Laws Two SPEECHES spoken in the House of Lords by the Lord Viscount Newarke The first concerning the right of BISHOPS to sit and vote in Parliament May 21. 1641. MY LORDS I Shall take the boldness to speak a word or two upon this subject first as it is in it self then as it is in the consequence For the former I think he is a great stranger in Antiquity that is not well acquainted with that of their sitting here they have done thus and in this manner almost since the conquest and by the same power and the same right as the other Peers did and your Lordships now do and to be put from this their due so much their due by so many hundred years strengthened and confirmed and that without any offence nay pretence of any seems to me to be very severe if it be jus I dare boldly say it is summum That this hinders their Ecclesiasticall vocation an argument I hear much of hath in my apprehension more of shadow then substance in it● if this be a reason sure I am it might have been one six hundred years ago A Bishop my Lords is not so circumscribed within the circumference of his Diocesse that his sometimes absence can be termed no not in the most strict sense a neglect or hindrance of his duty no more then that of a Leiutenant from his County they both have their subordinate Ministers upon which their influences fall though the distance be remote Besides my Lords the lesser must yield to the greater good to make wholsome and good Laws for the happy and well regulating of Church and Common-wealth is certainly more advantagious to both then the want of the personal execution of their office and that but once in three years and then peradventure but a moneth or two can be prejudicial to either I will go no further to prove this which so long experience hath done so fully so demonstratively And now my Lords by your Lordships good leave I shall speak to the consequence as it reflects both on your Lordships and my Lords the Bishops Dangers and inconveniences are ever best prevented elonginqu● this precedent come near to your Lordships and such a one that mutato nomine de vobis Pretences are never wanting nay sometimes the greatest evils appear in the most fair and specious outsides witness the Shipmony the most abominable the most illegal thing that ever was and yet this was painted over with colour of the Law what Bench is secure if to alleage be to convince and which of your Lordships can say then he shall continue a member of this House when at one blow twenty six are cut off It then behoves the Neighbour to look about him cum proximus ardet Ucalegon And for the Bishops my Lords in what condition will you leave them The House of Commons represents the meanest person so did the Master his Slave but they have none to do so much for them and what justice can tie them to the observation of those laws to whose constitution they give no consent the wisdome of former times gave proxies unto this House meerly upon this ground that every one might have a hand in the making of that which he had an obligation to obey This House could not represent therefore proxies in room of persons were most justly allowed And now my Lords before I conclude I beseech your Lordships to cast your eyes upon the Church which I know is most dear and tender to your Lordships you will see her suffer in her most principal members and deprived of that honour which here and throughout all the Christian world ever since Christianity she constantly hath enjoyed for what Nation or Kingdome is there in whose great and publick Assemblies and that from her beginning she had not some of hers if I may not say as essential I am sure I may say as integral parts thereof And truly my Lords Christianity cannot alone boast of this or challenge it onely as hers even Heathenisme claims an equal share I never read of any of them Civil or Ba●barous that gave not thus much to their Religion so that it seems to me to have no other original to flow from no other spring than Nature her self But I have done and will trouble your Lordships no longer how it may stand with the honour and justice of this House to pass this Bill I most humbly submit unto your Lordships the most proper and only Judges of them both The Second SPEECH about the Lawfulness and Conveniency of their intermedling in Temporal Affairs MY LORDS I Shall not speak to the preamble of the Bill that Bishops and Clergy men ought not to intermeddle in temporal Affairs For truly My Lords I cannot bring it under any respect to be spoken of Ought is a word of Relation and must either refer to humane or divine Law To prove the lawfulnesse of their intermedling by the former would be to no more purpose then to labour to convince that by reason which is evident to sense It is by all acknowledged The unlawfulnesse by the latter the Bill by no means admits of for it excepts Universities and such persons as shall have honour descend upon them And your Lordships know that circumstance and chance alter not the