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son_n	charles_n	earl_n	lord_n	13,770	5	4.5027	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74974	De non temerandis ecclesiis, churches not to be violated. A tract of the rights and respect due unto churches. Written to a gentleman who having an appropriate parsonage, imployed the church to prophane uses, and left the parishioners uncertainely provided of divine service, in a parish neere there adjoyning. / Written and first published thirty years since by Sir Henry Spelman knight.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Spelman, Clement, 1598-1679.	1646 (1646)	Wing S4921; Thomason E335_5; ESTC R200775	67,012	74

attainted of high Treason by Parliament and not called to answer The Judges ansvvered It was a dangerous question and they thought a Parliament would never doe it But being by the expresse command●ment of the King and they pressed by the said Earle Cromwell Earle of Essex to ansvver directly said That if he was attainted by Parliament it could not be questioned whether the Party was called to answer or not but the Party against whom this was intended said he was never questioned but that the first man that suffered by that proceeding was the said Cromvvell himselfe procured that Law of Attainting by Parliament without hearing the Party and that himselfe was the first that by that Law dyed unheard for in July following he was thereupon beheaded Next consider that King Henry the eight who ingrossed Sacriledge and retailed it to Posterity what the Pope permitted Woolsey saith Cambden H. 8. with the assent of his Parliament permits himselfe the first to catch the Pope pretends charity and good workes Colledges shall be built the later to winne the Layety in Parliament was offered with the revenue of religious houses to maintain 40 y M. Howe 's his Preface to Stowes Annals Sir Ed Cooks Jurisdiction of Courts fol. 44. Earles 60 Barons 300 Knights 40000 Souldiers and for ever ease the Subject of Taxes and Subsidies both obtained their desires in dissolving neither perform the ends promised H. 8th had first furthered Woolsey in his dissolution and thereby found the way to ruine all the rest In the z Vid. the severall Acts. 27. H. 8.31 27th year of his raign by Parliament he dissolves the lesser houses in the a H. 8. 31th the great ones in the b 37. H. 8. c. 4. 37th all the Colledges Hospitalls and Free-chappells except some few and possesseth all their lands goods and treasure For the first halfe of his Raigne while free from Sacriledge he was honoured of his Allies abroad loved of his subjects at home successefull in his actions and at peace as it were with God and Man but after his Sacriledge as in disfavour with both his Subjects Rebell first in Suffolke after in Lincolne Somerset Yorkeshire and the Northerne parts as also in Ireland such dearth of Bread and Corne in England the Grainery of Christendome that many dye starved which hath not been since the 40 of H. 3. And now like Saul forsaken of God he falls from one sinne to another Queen Katherine the Wise of his Bosome for 20 years must now be put away the marriage declared voyd and he desirous of sonnes rather then Pillars to bear his name marryes the Lady c Speed fol. 1040. Anne Bullen and by her had the Lady Elizabeth in the 27th of his Raigne a sonne borne dead to his great affliction the 19 of May 1536. The 28th of his Raigne she is beheaded and the next day he d Speed 1039. marryes the Lady Jane Seymore who being with Child by him she nature unwilling to give birth to the sonne of such a Father wants strength to bring forth the Father Commands e Speed 1040. her inseition and the Mother the 12 of Octob. dyes to give a short life to her sonne and the fixt of Ianuary in the 31th year the King weds the Lady Anne f Speed 1039. Ibid. of Cleve and in July after is divorced and in August following he marries the Lady Katherine Howard and in December in the 33 of his Raign she is attainted and dyes on the block and in July in the 35th of his Raigne he marryes the Lady Katherine Parre Here 's Wives enough to have peopled another Canaan Ibid. had he had Jacobs blessing but his three last are childlesse and the Children of the two first are by Statute declared g 28. H. 8. c. ●● illegitimate and not inheritable to the Crowne But himselfe growing aged and infirme hopelesse of more Children and not willing to venture the support of his Crowne and Family upon a single and so weake a propt as was his Sonne Prince Edward In the h 35. H. 8. c. 1. 35 year of his Raign he intailes the Crowne upon his Children after his death they all successively sway his Scepter and all dye Childlesse and his Family is extinct and like Herostratus his name not mentioned but with his Crimes His Crowne happily descends to the issue of his eldest Sister and a Forraign Nation like Cyrus his fill his Throne Among the many great and active men ayding H. 8. in his dissolution of Monasteries receiving great reward out of his Churchspoyle Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke was the cheife he had four wives his first the daughter of Nevile Marqueste Mounteagle who dyed without issue By His second wife he had one Daughter marryed to Stanly Lord Mountague but dyed without issue His third wife was Mary Queen Dowager of France and Sister to Henry 8th by her he had one sonne Henry and two Daughters Francis and Elianor His sonne was created Earle of Lincolne but dyed a Child his Daughter Francis marryed Gray Marquesse Dorset and after Duke of Suffolke who had one sonne Henry who dyed young Jane Gray his eldest Daughter marryed to i Speed 1111. Holl. 1099. Guilford Dudley and was with him Beheaded about 5 Mary Katharine his second Daughter was marryed to Edward Lord Seymore Eldest Sonne to the Duke of Somerset Mary his third Daughter marryed to Martin Keyes and dyed without Issue k God f. 244. Ellenor second Daughter to Charles Brandon marryed to Clifford Earle of Cumberland a gallant Family lately extinct The Queen Dowager dying Charles Brandon Marryed the Daughter and Heire of the Lord Willoughby of Eresby who inriched him with two sonnes Henry and Charles but the Duke dying about the 36. of H. 8. left his Title and Estate to his sonne Henry who enjoyed it untill 5. E. 6. then dying of the Sweating sicknesse left them to his brother l Holl. f. 1066. God f. 244 Speed 1100. Charles who only lived to be his brothers Heire and Duke of Suffolke and the same day and of the same Disease which his brother dyed and with him the Title Name and Family of Brandon The Statute of H. 8. c. 13. gives the Monastery of Sibeton in Suffolke to the Duke of Norfolke and the Chauntry of Cobham in Kent to the Lord Cobham since which time how heavy the hand of Justice hath fallen upon these Noble Families informe thy selfe from our Annalls Consider next the Duke of Somerset Protector to Edward the sixth Godwin in his Annalls saith m Godwin fo 252. He was a just and pious man a zealous Reformer of Religion a faithfull preserver of the King and Common-wealth save that with the common Error of the time his hands were deep in sacriledge In the first yeare of n Stat. 1. E. 6. c. 14. Edward the 6th he procured the Dissolution of some Chantryes Free-Chappells and Hospitalls

stood who dyes beast like not speaking a word Mills saith the Arrow glanced from the Deare Speed and Matthew Paris from a Tree and killed the King but both agree his death to be as his Fathers by accident He dead his followers as did his Father's leave his body and fled his Funeralls are as his Fathers interrupted for his r Mat. Par. ib. Speed 449. Corps were laid in a Colyers Court drawne by one silly leane Beast saith the Book in his passage the Cart brake in foule and filthy wayes leaving his body a miserable spectacle pittifully goared and filthily bemired so as his Father he passeth not quietly to his Grave yet at last he is brought bleeding to Winchester and there buryed unlamented Speed saith his Å¿ Speed ibid. bones were after taken up and laid in a Coffer with Canutus his bones but there they rest not for in December 1642. Winchester being entered by the Parliament forces the Organes Windows and Chests wherein the bones of many our ancient Kings were preserved were by the fury of the souldiers broken and among others his and as his Fathers scattered upon the face of the Earth as not worthy buriall And this was the third of the Conquerours Issue that was murdered in the New Forrest where the Doggs licked the blood of Naboth there they must licke the blood of Ahab where the sacriledge was committed must be the place of the punishment Hugh Earle of Shrewsbery 11th Wil. Rusin commanding against the Welchmen in Anglesey kenneled his Doggs in the Church of S. Frydance where in the morning they were found madd the Earle shortly after fighting with the enemy was with an Arrow shot t Holl. 23. dead in the eye the rest of his body being strangely armed Henry the first the Conquerours fourth Sonne is his brothers Successor he had severall Children whereof his eldest William with his brother Richard and Sister Mary in a calme day are u M. Pa f 69. Speed 459. Holl. 41. drowned by the English shore himselfe eating Lampreis dies on a surfet and being opened the stinck of his body and braines * M Par. 73. Speed 467. poyson his Physitions one other of his Daughters mournes her virginity in a Nunnery and dyes Childlesse and in the next Generation is his name forgot Plantaginet takes the Crowne It is observable that the Conqueror all his Sonnes and all their Sonnes dyed untimely deaths unlesse thou reckonest the Lamprey Surfet of H. 2. to be naturall what the x Fol. 20. in margine Author notes of Nabuc and H. 8. is also true of William the Conqueror for in the 68. after his destroying St Peters Church at Yorke which was in his second yeare his Name is extinct and his Kingdome is devolved to another Nation y Speed f. 46. that the Norman time held 69 year Plantaginet takes his Crowne upon search I feare thou shalt find very few Families among the many thousands in England who enjoy their Sacrilegious possessions of Abbies and Impropriations beyond the 68 yeare and very many that hold them not halfe the time and none almost but with some notable misfortune I cannot omit the Sacriledge and punishment of King John who in the 17th yeare of his Raigne among other Churches rifled the Abbies of z Hol. 194. Par. f. 287. Peterborough and Croyland and after attempts to carry his sacrilegious wealth from Lynne to Lincolne but passing the Washes the Earth in the midst of the waters opens her mouth as for Korah and his company and at once swallowes up both Carts Carriage and Horses all his Treasure all his Regalities all his Churchspoyle and all the Church-spoylers not one a Matt. Par fo 287. nec pes unas evasit qui regicasam nuntiaret escapes to bring the King word the King himselfe passes the Washe at another place and lodges that night in Swinsteed Abbey where the newes and sicknesse whereof he dyed together met him some say he was poysoned by a Munke of Swinsteed William b Math Par. fo 687. Marshall Earle of Pembrooke the great Protecter both of King and Kingdome having in the Irish warre forceably taken from the Bishop of Furnes two Mannors belonging to his Church was by him much solicited to restore them but the Earle refusing was by the Bishop excommunicate and so dying was buried in the Temple Church at London The Bishop sues to the King to returne the Lands the King requires the Bishop to absolve the Earle and both King and Bishop goes to the Earles grave where the Bishop in the Kings presence used these words Oh William which lyes here snared in the bonds of Excommunication if what thou hast injuriously taken from my Church be with cempetent satisfaction restored either by the King thy heires or friend I then absolve thee otherwise I ratifie my sentence Vt tuis semper peccatis involutus in inferno maneas condemnatus The King blames the Bishops rigour and perswades the Sonnes to a restitution but the Eldest William answered He did not beleeve his Father to have got them unjustly because possessions got in Warre becomes a lawfull inheritance and therefore if the doting old Bishop hath judged falsely upon his owne head be the curse my Father dyed seized of them and I lawfull inherit them nor will I lessen my estate Which the Bishop hearing was more grieved at the sonnes contumacy then the Fathers injury and going to the King told him Sir what I have said stands immutable the punishment of Malefactors is from the Lord. And the curse written in the Psalmes will fall heavy upon Earle William in the next Generation shall his name be forgot and his sonnes shall not share the blessing of increase and multiply and some of them shall dye miserable deaths and the inheritance of all be dispersed and scattered and all this my Lord O King you shall see even in your dayes With what spirit the Bishop spake it doe thou judge for in the space of 25 yeares all the five Sonnes of the Earle successively according to their Birth inherits his Earldome and Lands and all dye Childlesse the name and Family is extinct and the Lands scattered and dispersed and that nothing might faile of what the Bishop foretold c Matth. Par. 400. 403. Richard his second sonne is sore wounded and taken Prisoner in Ireland and there dyes of his hurts d Matt. Par. f. 565. Aune Dom. 1241. Gilbert the third sonne justing at Hertford breaks the Reynes of his Bridle and falling from his Horse one foot hangs in the stirrop and he thereby dragged about the field till rent and torne and so by a miserable death satisfied the Curse But these examples are at too great a distance and not to be discerned but through the perspective of Antient History I will therefore come nigher and view Cardinall Woolsey who from a m ane and obscure root grew to over shaddow all the

subjects of England eminent for Wit as Learning great in the esteeme and favour of his Prince laden with home and Forraigne dignities full of wealth as yeares in briefe he was while free from Sacriledge the great and successefull Counsellor of his Prince and indeed the Catalogue of humane blessings but about the 17th yeare of Henry the 8th Woolsey by consent and licence of the King and Pope Clement the 7th e Holl. f. 891. Stow. Good f. 67. dissolves forty small Monasteries in England to erect two Colledges the one in Oxford the other in Ipswich thou and I may think this a work of Piety to destroy the poor Idolatrous Cells of lasie and ignorant Monkes to erect stately Cottages for learned and industrious Divines this God must accept and prosper both the Act and Acter No thou art deceived he that would not that thou shouldest doe evill that good may come thereof will not accept an offering commenced by Sacriledge in the ruine of 40 Religious Houses Woolsey layes the foundation of his Colledges but never sets up their Gates About three yeares after the King possesseth his Pallace at f Good f. 104. Holl. 909. Westminster Whitehall the Great Seale is taken from him his great wealth seised and himselfe confined to a poore house at Assure where he remained a time saith g God f. 106. Godwin without necessaries driven to borrow furniture for his house money for his expences so as in his speech to the judges he complained that he was driven as it were to begge his bread from doore to doore 21. Hen. 8. he is convicted in a Premunire all his Lands and Estate seised by the h Holl. 909. Good f. 67. Good 108. King his Colledge at Ipswich destroyed before built that at Oxford receives some indowment and a new name from the King but is never to be finished In the 22. H. 8. at his Castle at Caywood he is by the Earle of i Holl. 915. Northumberland arrested of High Treason and fent towards London at Lecester the Lievtenant of the Tower met him at whose sight he was much affrighted and to prevent a publique and ignominious death which he feared he gave himselfe saith k Mart. 304.306 Martin a Purge * Hist Pont. Rom. Card. f. 1408. Venenum recepisse say they that write the lives of the Popes Cardinalls whereof he dyed and was obscurely buried in Lecester Abby without other memory then his Sacriledge The Cardinall in dissolving his forty Monasteries had used the help of five men besides Cromwell whereof two afterwards l Good f 67. fought a Duell in which one is slaine and the survivor hanged for the murther so each dyed guilty of his own and the others blood a third becomes Judas-like his own executioner for throwing himselfe into a well he is there drowned the fourth a great Richman to whom nothing is so terrible as poverty lives to begge his bread from doore to doore the fift a Bishop cruelly murthered in Ireland by m Stow. abridg f. 498. Thomas Fitz. Garret sonne to the Earle of Kildare I might here remember how Tope Clement the 7th after his voluntary consent to destroy poore Religious Houses is himselfe forced out of his n Speed fol. 996. Hist Pont. Rom. Card. stately Pallace at Rome and being besieged at his Castle of St Angelo is there constrained to eate Asses Flesh and taking such conditions as a Victorious Enemy would give is driven to plunder his own Church to pay his Enemies Army and at last dyes wretchedly of a miserable disease but this is Forraign and I tyed to home examples Thomas Lord Audley received the first fruits of H. 8 his Sacriledge for in the 24th of his Raigne the King dissolved by what meanes I finde not the Priory of Christ Church in London and gave saith o Stow. 24. H. 8. Stow the Church Plate Lands to Sir Thomas Audley who upon the dissolution of Monasteries got that of S. James in little Walden in Essex and made it both his Seate and Place of his Barony and after left it to Margaret his Daughter and Heire first married to Henry Dudley Sonne to the Duke of Northumberland slaine at St Quintynes and dyed without Issue and after she was second Wife to Thomas Duke of Norfolke who had issue Thomas Howard created Lord Walden being his Grandfathers Title and to credit his Mothers Inheritance upon the Scite of the Monastery he began a goodly p Audly Inne Structure but attended with the fate of sacrilegious foundations for that much impaires him and he never perfects that he met also with other misfortunes which betiding so Noble a Family and not yet published to the World are fitter for thy inquiry then my Penn. Cardinall Woolsey being dead his servant Cromwell succeeds him in his Court Favour and Fate as their birthes were alike obsure their rise alike eminent so alike miserable were their downefall wonder not at the first part of their fortune but contemplate the later Policy in Kings preferres able men to high places and honour for authority power and esteeme of the Persons advantages their actions of which wise Princes reap the Harvest the Actors get but gleanings while the King makes Cromwell a Baron his Seeretary Lord Privy Seale his Vicegerent in Ecclesiasticis he doth but faciliate his owne great work of dissolving q Speed 10.6 Monasteries a businesse wherein Cromwell was too much versed and unhappily too successefull Report spake him a great Stickler for the Protestant Religion and that although the Gospell had lost a Pillar in Queene Anne Bullen yet was another raised in r Speed 1016.92 Cromwell for he had caused the Bible to be read the Creed Pater Noster and Ten Commandements to be learned in English and expounded in every Å¿ Good f. 146. Church some thought that Cromwell hoped to bury Popery in the ruines of the Abbyes and thereby give the better growth to the more pure Protestant Religion how pious soever his intents were in reforming Religion yet was not the manner of effecting them it seemes acceptable to Heaven for by Parliament in the 31 of H. 8. he perfected his Dissolutions and in April in the 32 of H. 8. he is made t Holl. 950. Earle of Essex and Lord Great Chamberlaine of England high in the Kings favour and esteeme yet instantly while sitting at the Councell-Table he is suddainly apprehended and sent to the Tower whence he comes not forth untill to his u Goodw. fol. 174. Execution for in Parliament he is presently accused of Treason and Heresie and unheard is attainted Some do observe that he x Sir Edward Cook in his Iurisdiction of Courts f. 37. saith that Sir Tho. Gaudy then a grave Judge of the Kings Bench after told him that Cromvvell was commanded to attend the Chiefe Iustices to know whether a man that was forth comming as being in Prison might be

left undissolved by H. 8. In the third yeare he permits if not procures his Brother Thomas Lord Seymore untried saith o Godwin fo 227. Goodwin to be attainted by Parliament and shortly after not unblamed signed a Warrant for his Execution whereupon his Brother lost his Head and he a friend The same yeare his zeale to Reformation addes new sacriledge to his former for he defaces some part of St Pauls p Stowes Aunalls Church converts the Charnell-house and a Chappell by it into dwelling Houses and demolishing some Monuments there he turnes out the old bones to seek new Sepulchers in the Fields next he destroyes the Steeple and part of the Church of St Johns of Jerusalem by Smithfield Ibid. and with the stone beginneth to build his house in the * Somerset House Strand but as the leprosie with the Jewes with us the curse of Sacriledge cleaves to the Consecrated stone and they become insuccessefull so as the Builder doth not finish his House nor doth his Sonne inherit it In the fifth yeare of Edward the 6th the Duke was indicted and found guilty of Felony which was saith Hollinshead upon a Statute made the third and fourth of Edward the 6th and since repealed whereby to attempt the death of a Privy Councellour is Felony Godwin saith upon the Statute of 3. H. 7. but erroniously that not extending to Barons it is observable that this Law was but the yeare before passed by himselfe and himselfe the only man that ever suffered by it The Statute being since repealed q Godwin fo 247. Godwin observes and wonders that he omitted to pray the benefit of his Booke as if Heavens would not that he that had spoyled his Church should be saved by his Clergy and it is observable that in the Raigne of Edw. 6th none of the Nobility dyes under the Rod of Justice but the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admirall all the Vncle 's the King had and their Crimes comparatively were not haynous Did these men dye the common death of all men or are they visited after the manner of all men if not beleeve they provoked the Lord and consider that if they sinned in the first prophanation thou that continuest their act can'st not be innocent Here thou mayest see God observing a Decorum in his punishment of Sacriledge the Issue of the Conqueror are strangely almost miraculously slaine in the New-Forrest where their Father committed the Sacriledge Woolsey that by the Kings licence and power had destroyed 40 Monasteries is by the Kings power ruined and at last driven to seek entertainment and an obscure grave in a Monastery his Agents that had thrust themselves into his sacrilegious imployment are themselves their owne Executioners guilty of their owne Blouds Pope Clement the 7th that willingly permitted the spoyle of 40 poore Monasteries to erect two Rich Colledges is himselfe necessitated to Plunder his owne rich Church to preserve his poore decayed Person The Lord Cromwell and Duke of Somerset commit their Sacriledge by Acts of Parliament and by Acts of Parliament they perish every one by the Sword wherewith he strikes And since in the Acts of Parliament for dissolution of Monasteries the whole Kingdome was involved either by their Personall consent as Barons or their implicite consent in the representative body in the House of Commons we have just cause to feare and pray least God still observing his order and turning our Artillery upon our selves should make use of a Parliament whereby our Fathers robbed him to destroy us their Children I have here given thee instance only of such as were the first Actors in the Violation and subversion of Monasteries least therefore thou shouldest thinke the crime and punishment endeth with them Consider with me the condition and successe both of our Common-wealth in generall and of Private Families in particular before the Dissolutions and observe them after and we shall find just cause to thinke there is a cursed thing amongst us For while our Religious houses stood they imploying their Revenues according to their Donors direction opened wide their Hospitable gates to all Commers and without the charge of a Reckoning welcommed all Travailers untill the Statute of 1. Edw. 1. restrained and limited them and casting their Bread upon the Waters they releeved the Neighbouring poore without the care of the two next Justices of Peace or the curse of a Penall Law while they stood the younger Children both of Lords and Commons were provided for without the ruine of their Fathers Estate or almost a charge to their Parents and not left as now often to an unworthy necessitous and vitious course of life we had then no new Lawes the off-spring of new Vices to erect Houses of correction for lewd and r Vid. 43. Eliz c. 3. vagrant Persons to provide stock to bind poore Children Prentises or to make weekly Leavyes to maintaine the weake lame indigent and impotent People to our new charge of an Annuall Subsidie at least for these were provided for those prevented by the charity of our Religious Houses and then the Families and Estates of our Nobility and Gentry continued long through very many descents But when covetous sacriledge got the upper hand of superstitious charity and destroyed all our Monasteries all our Religious Houses the preservers of Learning both Divine and Humane by their Learned workes and laborious Manuscripts the suppressors of Vice by their strict regular and exemplar life though some nay many among them Sonnes of Ely made the offerings of the Lord to stinck before the People Then all their Houses all their Lands Appropriations Tithes and Oblations 〈…〉 Par. Churches 9232. Cam. Brit fo 162. 9284. whereof impropriate 3845. comming into the Kings hands Policy to prevent a restitution distributes them among the Layety some the King exchanges some he sells others he gives away and by this meanes like the dust flung up by Moses they presently disperse all the Kingdome over and at once becomes curses both upon the Families and Estates of the owners they often vitiously spending on their private occasions what was piously intended for publique Devotion insomuch that within Twenty yeares next after the Dissolution more of our Nobility and their Children have been attainted and dyed under the Sword of Justice then did from the Conquest to the Dissolution being almost five hundred yeares so as if thou examine the List of the Barons in the Parliament of the 27. H. 8. thou shalt find very few of them whose Sonne doth at this day inherit his Fathers Title and Estate and of these few many to whom the Kings favour hath restored what the rigorous Law of attainder took both Dignity Lands and Posterity And doublesse the Commons have drunke deep in this Cup of deadly Wine but they being more numerous and lesse eminent are not so obvious to observation Thou hast seen the insuccesse of H. 8. and his Family and mayest observe his

Rastall also termeth it a Wicked thing complaining in his time that it continued so long to the Hinderance he saith of learning the impoverishing of the Ministry and to the infamy of the Gospell and professors thereof My Lord Coke also in the second part of his Reports saith Levesque de Winchesters case fol. 44 b. that it is recorded in History that there were amongst other two grievous persecutions the one under Dioclesian the other under Julian named the Apostata for it is recorded that the a Diocles vide Euseb hist eccles lib. 7. cap. 3. Niceph. l. 7. cap. 3. one of them intending to have rooted out all the Professors and Preachers of the word of God Occidit omnes Presbyteros But this notwithstanding Religion flourished for Sanguis Martyrum est semen Ecclesiae The bloud of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church and this was a cruell and grievous persecution but the persecution under the b Juli. vide Theod. hisb lib. 3. cap 6. Niceph. lib. 10. cap. 5. other was more greivous and dangerous Quia as the History saith ipse occidit presbyterium He destroyed the very order of Preisthood For he robbed the Church and spoiled spirituall persons of their revenues and tooke all things from them whereof they should live And upon this in short time insued great ignorance of true religion and the service of God and thereby great decay of Christian profession For none will apply themselves or their sons or any other that they have in charge to the study of Divinity when after long and painefull study they shall have nothing whereupon to live Thus farre my Lord Coke I alledge these legall authorities and leave Divinity because the Approprietariet of Parsonages which sheild themselves under the target of the Law may see the opinion of the great Lawyers of our owne time and Religion and what the bookes of the Law have of this matter to the end that we should not hang our consciences upon so dangerous a pinne nor put too great confidence in the equity of Lawes which we dayly see are full of imperfection often amended often altered and often repealed O how lamentable then is the case of a poore Proprietary that dying thinketh of no other account but of that touching his Lay vocation and then coming before the judgement seate of Almighty God must answere also for this c It is said in my L. Dier in the case of a common person that the service or a cure is a spirituall administration and cannot be leased and that the service is not issuing out of the parsonage but annext unto the person 36. H. 8. fol 58. b. pla 8. spirituall function First why he medled with it not being called unto it Then why * Proprietaries which have Vicars endowed thinke themselves thereby discharged but though the Vicar be the Parsons deputy to do the divine Service yet a superiour care thereof resteth still upon the Parson himselfe and the surplusage of the profits belongeth to the poore as appeateth by the whole body of Fathers Doctors Counsells c. medling with it be did not the duty that belonged unto it in seeing the Church carefully served the Minister thereof sufficiently maintained and the poore of the Parish farthfully relerved This I say is the use whereto Parsonages were given and of this use we had notice before we purchased them and therefore not only by the lawes of God and the Church but by the law of the Land and the rules of the Chancery at this day observed in other cases we ought onely to hold them to this use and no other 19. † That it is not benevolence but duty to restore Church livings It is not then a worke of bounty and benevolence to restore these appropriations to the Church but of duty and necessity so to do It is a worke of duty to give that unto God that is Gods Matt. 32.2 And it is a worke of necessity towards the obtaining remission of these sinnes For Saint Augustine saith Non remittetur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum cum restitui potest The sinne shall not be forgiven without restoring of that which is taken away if it may be restored It is duty justice and necessity to give them backe unto God For it Judae who was the first president of this sinne were a theife as the holy Ghost d Ad Macedonium Epist 54. tom 2. Joh. 12.6 termeth him for imbeasiling that which was committed unto him for the maintenance of Christ and his Disciples that is of the Church by the same reason must it also be thee-very to withold these things which were given for the maintenance of the Church and Ministers of Christ And herein it is a degree above that sinne of Judas as robbery is above theft for Iudas onely detained the money delivered unto him closely and secretly but we and our fathers have invaded Church livings and taken them as it were by assault even from the sacred body and person of the Church It is a great sinne to steale from our Neighbour much greater even sacriledge to steale from God If it were so heinous a fact in Ananias to withold part of his owne goods which he pretended he would give unto God how much more is it in us presumptuously to reave that from God that others have already dedicated and delivered unto him Salomon saith He that robbeth his Father and his Mother and saith it is no sinne Prov. 28.24 is the companion of a murtherer or him that destroieth But he that purloineth the things of God robbeth his Father and he that purloineth the things of the Church robbeth his Mother And therefore that man is a companion of the destroier The * Synod 5 Rom. 218. Episcop An. 503. Conc. Val. An. 855. ca. 9. Con. Rom. 100 Episc An. 1063. Conc. Rom. 5. Anno 1078. Conc. Palent An. 1388. Conc. Oxon. Gene Aug. Anno 1222. Fathers the Doctors many great Councells and ancient Laws of the Church command that things taken from the Church should be restored And the Church by her a A strange change h● 〈◊〉 realite gave their owne goods so abundantly to the service of God that Moses was forced torestraine them by proclamation Exod. 36. 〈◊〉 but now nothing can move us to give God that which is his already Preachers Ministers continually entreateth urgeth and requireth all men to do it They therefore that do it not they refuse to heare the Church And then our Saviour Christ by his owne mouth denounceth them b Qui sub ●omine fideli●m 〈◊〉 gunt opera infidelium Hieron ibid. to be as Heathens and Publicans that is excommunicate and prophane persons If he refuseth saith our Saviour to heare the Church also let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican Mat. 18.17 It is a fearefull thing not to heare the c We thinke the Chuch doth not command it till we