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
at his Ordination the Minister formally covenanteth and voweth by Gods grace to performe Which being so there can no scruple remaine in any impartiall man but that the second Reason of the House of Commons is true solid and concluding against the Bishops Votes in Parliament quod erat demonstrandum 2. ANS to the second REASON The Bishop hopes they will give themselves wholely to that and not to any other Trade or Vocation EXAMEN And hope so hee cannot if Bishops may still vote in Parliament Because they cannot doe that with profit or safety to the Common wealth without giving their mindes not to some one other single trade or vocation only but to every trade and course of life so farre as to make them complete Satesmen as hath beene shewed before For what Trade or Vocation is there to be found which sometime or other makes not businesse for the Parliament And how shall hee give a Vote in it with judgement that hath not a good insight into all the Mysteries of it If it should as possibly it may bee objected that by this strict rule many of the Nobility should bee excluded I answere that if they bee not throughly qualified and furnished for that worke the more the pity because the more the Common wealth suffers by their insufficiency Howbeit the ingenuousnesse of their nature and education will make them lesse forward in speaking and more diligent in hearing their ancients and men of more gravitie and experience Nor is it fit that for such insufficiencies they should be turned out but rather remaine there as in a Schoole as wee see some of the sonnes of the Noblemen doe to traine them up to doe service there to the King and Kingdome it being an honour to which they were borne whereas Bishops sit there but Precario and are out of their Callings all the while But is that all that the Bishop hopes namely that the persons to bee ordained will not take another Trade or Vocation upon them Then belike if a Minister doe not professe the Trade of a Taylor hee may yet spend part of his time in Tayloring Hee may sometimes give himself to Brewing so he set not up a Brewhouse c. But surely our Law is so strict in such cases that it forbids Ministers to have so much as a Brew-house or Tan-house although managed by others further than for the necessaries of house keeping nor otherwise to take to Farme or Lease any Lands or Tenements albeit the same bee occupied by some other persons if it bee to the Ministers use 21. Hen. 8 13. And why so Is it because the Lawes doe envie the wealth of Spirituall persons That were an uncharitable surmise The end was that Ministers might have no occasions of a vocation from their Studies and Ministeriall Function but have more opportunity to bestow themselves wholely thereupon according to what they promised and undertooke at their Ordination for the more quiet and vertuous increase and maintenance of Divine Service and preaching and teaching of the Word of God c. as the entrance into that Statute doth expresse it So then if we consider Bishops according to what the Common wealth expecteth from them in her Lawes as well as what the Church bindeth them unto in their Ordination as Ministers of the Church of England they may not regularly give themselves not onely wholly to any Trade but not at all to any imployment but the Ministery and to that which is necessarily required to fit them for it and support them in it 3. ANS to the second REASON Wholely in a Morall and not in a Mathematicall sense that will admit no Latitude els there might the same exception bee taken against their just care of provision for their houshold affaires EXAMEN If they by their Ordination bee bounded Morally the House of Commons will never I presume trouble themselves about the Mathematicality of the Vow Nor will I be so bold to say of this distinction of the words of the Exhortation in question as the Author of the Holy Table Name and Thing doth of a like subtile interpretation of a Rubrick newly minted by his Antagonist praying him to remember Page 54. that the Rubrick was written for the use of the English not of the Gypsies or Egyptians Yet this I suppose I may freely and truly say that neither Learned and Pious Martin Bucer nor the plaine meaning Church of England which borrowed that Exhortation from Bucer ever so much as dreamt of the Mathematickes or of that distinction here given in those words of the Exhortation but meant honestly and plainly to let all Ministers know that without distinctions or tricks they are to bind themselves wholly and absolutely Mathematically aswell as Morally to that Vocation of the Ministery further than the necessity of livelyhood enforceth them to spend some time to supply the wants and necessary occasions of them and theirs And to this I may I hope without offence make bold to adde because I have learnt it from the same Author of the Holy Table c. page 52. as hee out of Aristotle Anal. Post Lib. 1. Cap. 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You must not dispute in termes of Geometry with those that verse not in Geometry otherwise you will shew your selfe but a foule and sophisticall disputant as that Author hath it But let the distinction bee as it will thus much is clearely gotten by it that the Answerer hereby yeeldeth that Morally Bishops cannot vote in Parliament without crossing the expectation of and condition propounded by the Church in admitting them to Holy Orders and that they vote there and imploy themselves in secular affaires Mathematically only Surely if their voting there for that wee know is the thing to bee asserted by him in his Answers because that is it which is opposed in the Reasons of the House of Commons consist not with the Rules of Morality it is no great credit for them to retaine that honour nor will it at length bring in much comfort to them when they must yeeld up their accounts to God that they were never forbidden it according to the strict Lawes of the Mathematickes although indeed Morally they were bound from it And what must they needs bee debarred from the just care of provision of their houshold affaires if denyed votes in Parliament and liberty unto secular imployments to enable them so to vote Nay God himselfe not only allowes but imposeth upon all men a care of their family-businesse and government Prov. 27.23 and he that is negligent herein is pronounced worse than an Infidell 1 Tim. 5.8 God hath not divided this from any Calling in ordinary course And what hee hath joyned no man may separate Therefore both the Church in her Ordination as appeared by the larger expression thereof before out of Bucer and the Kingdome in her Lawes as is also manifest in the Statute before alledged excepteth this care of provision for their housholds when
AN HUMBLE EXAMINATION OF A PRINTED ABSTRACT OF The Answers to Nine Reasons of the House of Commons AGAINST The Votes of Bishops in Parliament Printed by order of a Committee of the Honourable House of Commons now Assembled in Parliament LONDON Printed for P. Stephens and C. Meredith 1641. AN HUMBLE EXAMINATION OF A Printed ABSTRACT of the ANSVVERS given to Nine REASONS of the HOUSE of COMMONS Against the Votes of Bishops in Parliament I. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause it is a very great hinderance to the exercise of their Ministeriall Function To this Reason a foure-fold Answer is sent abroad ANSVVER 1. Is is not so much hinderance as their convening to Generall Councels Synods Convocations Assemblies Classes and the like in all the Churches Reformed or otherwise EXAMEN Convening to Generall Councels Synodes c. when need requireth is a proper part of their Ecclesiasticall Office and so cannot rightly be termed any hinderance to their Ministeriall Function at all For then although they be enforced to be absent from their particular Congregations they doe still move within their owne proper Orbe for the more publike Service of the Church and so they may with more reason expect a blessing on it But when they Vote in Parliament as Peeres in Civill and Secular Affaires touching Trade Merchandize and other particulars of State policy they be Eccentrick and out of their owne Sphere and Calling This therefore must needs be not only some hinderance but a very great hinderance to the exercise of their Ministeriall Function because to qualifie them to give such Votes with judgement they must necessarily bestow themselves most if not altogether upon the study of and searching into all those Secular matters which in Parliaments be or may be debated and voted and in the inquiry into all those principles and deepe mysteries of State wherein all that vote in the House of Peeres ought above all others to be most conversant which cannot ordinarily bee attained without spending most of their time and study thereupon Si enim velit Episcopus ut caelesti pariter terreno Regi placeat ad utrumque se officium dividere certe Rex caelestis qui sibi vult ex toto corde tota anima tota virtute serviri ministerium divinum non approbat non diligit non acceptat Nam nec terreni Principis ratiocinia quisquam dimidius sufficienter administrat Matth. Parker Antiq. Britanni in Huberto ex Wil. Nubrig as a learned Archbishop of Canterbury out of another grave Author hath observed And sithence to be able to give a Vote in the Lords House of Parliament judiciously and for the benefit of the publike requires such constant industry daily observation and no small experience of all kindes of secular affaires with their severall casuall turnings and vicissitudes I cannot see how Bishops voting in that House can avoid one of these three evils either they must give their votes ignorantly and ignorance usually runs wrong or corruptly to serve other mens turnes be they right or wrong or els they must necessarily bend most part of their lives to secular studies and imployments to which they were never bred from which their Ministeriall Function should exclude them and for which many godly Bishops and others beside sundry Councels in all ages have condemned them many of those Ancients having alledged that Scripture in 2 Tim. 2.4 Nemo militans Deo implicat se negotiis secularibus c. to this very purpose For more expedition I shall only name some of those Authors and Councels Cyprian Epist 66. juxta Pamel Can. 6. Apost apud Zonaram Concil Carthag 4. Can. 16. Concil Chalced. Oecum Sess 15. Can. 3. August Epist 110. Greg. Magn. Dial. lib 1. Praefat. Excerpt Egberti Can. 16. Can. 57. Concil Calchuth Can. 10. Anselm in Concil Westm ut videre est in Gulielm Malmsb. de Gestis Pontif. l. 1. Mat. Par. Hist Angl. in the Cases of Walter B. of Durham in time of Will the Conq. and of Hubert Archb. of Cant. in Ric. 1. Yea we shall find this sharply condemned by popish Prelates themselves Corp. Iur. Can. dist 88. And Othobone the Popes Legate here in Hen. 3. his time censured it and provided against it as vitium horrendum Const Legat. cap. Cum honest But I leave them See also Tindall in his Tract of Obedience of a Christian B. Hooper on 8. Command B. Latymer Sermon called the Plough B. Iewel defence of Apol. par 5. chap. 4. divis 2. Mat. Parker Archb. of Cant. Antiquit. Brit. in Huberto where he is very large sharp and solid in this point Take a passage or two because his Booke is not in every hand Neque enim si verum judicare volumus in Republica Christiana quicquam sani atque integri seculum illud Richardi primi tulit Fictaque adumbrata Religionis specie proposita totus Clerus in sceleribus muneribus honoribus rapinis neglecto penitus verbo impune volutabat Hujus mali origo ab hoc profluxit quod contra Orthodoxorum Patrum decreta Clerus nimium mundanis se negotiis immiscuit Then hee goes on to shew a fearefull example of Gods vengeance upon one of them who had beene advanced to a very high Office in the State which Relation he thus closeth up Cujus generis exempla idcirco proferenda sunt ut deterreatur a vectigalibus Regiis Civilibus publicisque occupationibus Clerus Evangelio propagando praecipue studeat ac incumbat And how ever hee after takes notice of somewhat which happened in the beginning of Henry 3. wherein he seemes to preferre the fidelity of the Clergy to that of the Laity in administring of Civill Offices yet he doth it not as allowing the Clergie to be so imployed but rather as secretly taxing the Nobility of that time for being so unfaithfull to the King and Kingdome which surely is no warrant for the Clergie to step out of their own Calling It is true that anciently Bishops have beene allowed to intermeddle in some Civil affairs at sometimes Constantine made a law to that purpose in case of voluntary appeals from civil Iudicatories Sozom. li. 1. cap. 9. And Valens added to it in cases of Hospitals and Schooles Hist. Counc of Trent Yet the mischiefs of such intermedling were soone felt and groaned under Hence Honorius and Arcadius made a Law against it and Valentinian afterwards put it in execution even in Rome it selfe So did other Emperours as appeares by the Corps of the Civil Law in many places Indeed some succeeding Emperours gave relaxations and inlarged the power and preheminence of Bishops so farre that at length there was no reducing them to their ancient limits till that once glorious Scepter was become so inglorious as to be wholly at the devotion command and dispose of the Mitre to the perpetual ignominie and irreparable undoing of that puissant Empire And whereas some urge that Statute De Provisoribus
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
and their ambitious practices elsewhere do too often consort and come too neere a perfect harmony and that therefore there is little cause to pronounce them faultlesse But wherein lyes the pith of this Answer or how takes it off the strength of the Reason Must the Reason needs be false because it supposeth that not which is impossible but which in Civility is not fit to be spoken out in plaine language The Answerer himselfe doth not deny the thing to be possible therefore hee doth not Answer or overthrow the Reason but only elude it by starting up a Captious supposition which he thinkes none will dare to owne The Reason then is never the worse for this evasion Let us try his next 2. ANSWER to the fixth REASON This may bee said of all the Kings great Officers of all the Noble Members of both Houses who may bee conceived as well as Bishops to have their expectances and consequently to bee deprived by this Reason of Voting in Parliament EXAMEN Yet this answereth not the Argument but only endeavours to render it odious to those that were to be Iudges of it and so to doe what may be to bring a prejudice upon it It is not I confesse impossible that the Nobility should be liable to the same temptation Laudabilis enim vena suam servit originem fideliter posteris tradit quae in se gloriosae transmissione promenuit Cassiodor yet it is not probable they should so soone be borne downe before it For first their Estates generally are better and so they have not that need to snatch at such beggars baits Next their bloud and Honour mounteth their minds higher and fixeth their eyes on more Noble prize not without disdaine to stoop at flyes Lastly their large share in the Publike and the strong desire they have to lay a foundation for future glory to themselves and happinesse to their posterity will make them scorne such poore and base mercinarinesse unworthy of men borne to honour and striving to purchase more by generous wayes not by the sale of Noblenesse and conscience Nobiles praemium haud pradam petunt 3. ANSWER to the sixth REASON This Argument reacheth not at the two Archbishops and so falls short of the Votes which are to be taken away by this Bill EXAMEN If it had appeared that this particular Reason was intended against the Arch-Bishops The Answer had beene pertinent But seeing the House had no meaning to reach so farre at every blow but contented it selfe that onely some of the Reasons came home to both of them also that which was said before in examining the last Answer to the fourth Reason is abundantly sufficient to hold up the reputation of this Argument against the aspersion cast upon it by this elusory Answer And yet it doth reach one of the Arch-Bishops by the Answerers good favour An Arch-Bishop of Yorke would perhaps doe somewhat in hope of a Translation to Canterbury 7. REASON of the House of Commons THe severall Bishops have of late much encroached upon the Consciences and properties of the Subject And they and their successors will bee much encouraged still to encroach and the Subject will be much discouraged from complaining against such encroachments if twentie sixe of that Order bee to bee Iudges upon these complaints The same Reason extends to their Legislative power in any Bill to passe for the reformation of their power upon any emergent inconvenience by it ANSVVER This Argument fights not against Bishops Votes in Parliament but against their Votes in Convocation where if any where they have encroached upon the Consciences and properties of the Subject Nor yet at the Vote of such Bishops there as are not guilty of this offence Nor need the subject to bee discouraged in complaining against the like grievances though 26. of that Order continue Iudges For they shall not Vote as Iudges when they are legally charged And if they should Vote what were that to the purpose when the lay Peeres are still foure to one The Bishops assisted with a double number of Mitred Abbots and Priors could not hinder the Lawes made against the Court of Rome the Alien Cardinals and Prelates the Provisors the Suitors to the Popes Consistories under Edw. 3. Rich. 2. and Hen. 4. Much more may those emergent exorbitances of the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction bee soone curbed and redressed in this inequalitie of Votes betweene the Temporall and Spirituall Lords 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 forerunner to the abolishing of their jurisdiction EXAMEN I know not the Reason but so it is that the Answerer hath here thrust together all hee had to say into one Answer although the particulars whereof it consisteth bee many and of various kindes whereas before he was pleased to branch out one Answer into many when yet most of the branches were coincident Not troubling my selfe to finde out the Mystery I shall make bold a little to change my Method also to follow him or rather to distribute his Answers for him and then to take a distinct view of the severall limbes thereof a part ANSWER This Argument fights not against Bishops Votes in Parliament but against their Votes in Convocation where if any where they have encroached upon the consciences and liberties of the Subjects EXAMEN If this Argument fights not against Bishops Votes in Parliament why then is it said in the end of this Answer that Bishops may justly feare by this and the next Argument that the taking away of their votes is but a kind of forerunner to the abolishing of their Iurisdiction For what Votes are here meant but those in Parliament and what need any feare of that here when it is confessed that this Argument fights not against Votes in Parliament But I p sse this because contradictions in such a cause and in an Answer of so much length dropping out of some mens pennes need be no matter of any admiration or of much stay upon it But what will it availe the Bishops that this Argument meets not with them in the Parliament House so long as by his owne confession although a modest if would a little modifie it it findes them out so palpably in Convocation There indeed their guilt is of a double dye for which they are now upon examination and resolution of both Houses of Parliament condemned as having voted and determined many matters contrary to the Kings Prerogative Ex Archi. Parl. to the fundamentall Lawes and Statutes of the Realme to the right of Parliaments to the propertie and libertie of the Subjects and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence And as for encroaching upon and invading the conscience let that absurd amphibolous injurious excerable Oath enjoyned in the sixth Canon of their late Holy Synode stand
for a monument to the eternall infamie of the Composers of it and factors in it Now the Bishops do or ought Nulli sacerdoti liceat Canones ignorare dist 38 cap. Nulli to know that if a Iudge be once taken tardy and guiltie of corruption and wicked judgement hee is for ever presumed to bee corrupt and therefore unmeet to bee trusted in another Court any more For it is in Maxime both in the Civill and Canon Lawes which holds in all Lawes Reg. juris 8. Semel malus semper praesumitur esse malus And this presumption is not onely praesumptio hominis or praesumptio facti but praesumptio juris too quia jus sic praesumit ex facto saith the Glosse upon that rule So that if Bishops have thus encroached upon the consciences and properties of the Subject in Convocation as t is now declared they have they are unmeet and unworthy to bee trusted any more with Votes in Parliament where they may doe as much again or more if opportunity bee offered and therefore this Reason of the House of Commons is invincible But have they not done as much in Parliament also What meant the Statute of 2. H. 4.15 against the Lollards procured by Thomas Arondel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Prelates against diverse of the Nobilitie for they are not at all mentioned in that Act What meant their struggling for the sixe Articles in 31. H. 8. 14. first concluded in their Holy Synod in spite of CRANMERS teeth What meant their Conspiracy to pull downe Religion in 1. Mar. after it had happily in great part beene reformed in King Edward the sixth his time What need we any further proofe Habemus confitentem this Answerer himselfe hath confessed as much in the close of his Answer to the next Reason following where he roundly acknowledgeth the opposition of all the Bishops to the Reformation of Religion in 1. Eliz. But I must on to the rest of the Answer ANSWER Nor yet at the Votes of such Bishops there as are not guilty of that offence That is of passing such Canons in Convocation EXAMEN This Exception may save the Credits of those men who were present and protested legally against such illegall and wicked proceedings so as they may have peace within and without too if after by post-fact they contracted not the guilt of Accessories by administring those Canons But yet in the account of Law and in the estimate of Law-makers before whom such lewd Canons bee arraigned the Bishops doe know that it is another Maxime and Rule in Law Refertur ad universos quod publice fit per majorem partem That is justly imputed to all that was publikely done by the Major part If they who dissented not did not protest in due forme of Law or absented themselves because they disliked the businesse but had not the courage and fidelity to oppose it as became their duty they are justly involved within the number of the guilty at least so far as to be held unworthy to be any further trusted to Vote either in that place or in an higher much more because through negligence incogitancy cowardise and the like they did not their utmost to helpe the Lord against the mighty and to oppose those wicked Canons with all their might I passe on to the next branch of the Answer ANSVVER Nor need the Subject to be discouraged in complaiing against the like grievances though twentie sixe of that Order continue Iudges For they shall not Vote as Iudges in their own Cause when they are legally charged EXAMEN What encouragement shall one or some few private subjects hope to finde when the whole House of Commons by the labouring of some Prelates lesse in number than twenty sixe cannot get passage for a necessary Bill grounded upon so many solid and weighty Reasons against the Votes of Bishops in Parliament And who can be assured that hereafter they shall not vote as Iudges in their owne Cause when even now de facto they have already done it Perhaps there is a secret in that clause When they are legally charged which I cannot discover But surely I thinke the meaning of it to be that the Bill came not home to a legall charge that might exclude them from votcing in it because the House of Commons would needs be so civill towards the present Bishops as not to name them in the Bill whereby not their persons but their Order onely was charged And if this were the error upon which the first Bill miscarried the House of Commons are wise enough to make use of this close wipe of the Answerer and to finde out a way to avoyd the like fault in the next The Answerer goes on ANSVVER And if they should vote what were that to the purpose when the Lay-Peeres are still foure to one EXAMEN If the Lay-Peeres as he termeth them were tenne to one yet if but a few of those twentie sixe Bishops have a mind to be active which in their own cause is not unlikely they know wayes enough how to draw over to their party Noble and ingenuous natures apt to be more taken with reverence of their function and gravity than willing to suspect their ends or to dispute their grounds how often so ever themselves or their Ancestors have beene circumvented and misguided by them But he will give you instances to the contrary which may put all out of feare ANSVVER The Bishops assisted with a double number of Mitred Abbots and Priors could not hinder the Lawes made gainst the Cou t of Rome the Alien Cardinals and Prelates the Prov sors the Suitors to the Popes Consistory under Edw. 3. Ric. 2. and Hen. 4. much more may those emergent exorbitancies of the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction be soon curbed redressed in this inequality of votes betweene the Temporall and Spirituall Lords EXAMEN The Bishops so assisted could not hinder Nay rather they could not hinder the Lawes made against the Pope Strangers For the more the Pope encroached the more our Bishops smarted under those Vsurpations and groaned under the many continuall heavy taxes whereby all the Clergy of England were impoverished in their Estates and the Bishops much curbed in their Iurisdictions He should shew himselfe an egregious Ignaro to the Stories of those times that should require Instances hereof there being so many much elder than Edward the third Matthew Paris and sundry other Historians abound herein Therefore I will content my selfe with only one instance in the reigne of Hen 3. In his time the exactions pollings of the Clergy and Kingdome were found to be yearly 60000 Antiq Britan. ex Mat. Paris in Bonifac. Markes which at that time exceeded the Kings owne Revenues No benefice or dignity belonging to the Nobility Clergy or Gentry not many pertaining to the King himselfe could bee void but the Popes Provisors were ready to seize on it instantly for some of his Creatures Italians and other
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