THere is no Institution to no end; but whenever the Reason thereof ceaseth,Bishops. the Law or Institution it self doth in proportion relax its force. The end for which the Bishop-pricks were endowed with such ample Revenues, was to support the state and splendor of Barronage and Session in Parliament, wherewith the Bishops were digni­fied, as with Lay- [...]ees, the Honoraria of such their imployment. Work and Wages are relatives: If the imployment fails, so doth the reason of the reward; but by an Act of King, Lords and Commons17. Car. c. 28. 17 Car. c 28. their being Barons, Lords of Parliament is taken away, and so the reason of their greatness.

The Bishops had severall capacities, viz. Spirituall and Temporall, and severall Revenues distinguisht by the names of Spiritualties and Temporalties. The Spiritualties of a Bishop (in the words of D^r Cowell D^r Cowells Interpreter of Law-words, dedicated to the late Arch-Bishop of Can­terbury.) be these profits which he receiveth as he is a Bishop, and not as he is a Bar­ron of the Parliament. Stawnford Pl. cor. fol. 132. The Particulars of these may be the duties of his Visitation, his benefit growing from the Ordering and Instituting Priests, Prestation money, that subsidium charitativum, which upon reasonable cause he may require of his Clergy; Johan­nes Gregorius de beneficiis, cap. 6. num. 9. and the benefit of his Jurisdiction; Joachimus Stephanus de Jurisdict. lib. 4. c. 14. num. 14. for these reckneth Exactionem Cathedratici, quartam Decimarum & mortuariorum & oblationum pensitationem, celebrationem Synodi, Collationem viatici vel commeatus cum Episcopus R [...]mam Proficiscitur, Jus Hospitii, Litaniam & Processionem. There are none of these sold.

The Temporalties of Bishops in the same Doctors words, be such Revenues, Lands and Tene­ments, as Bishops have had laid to their Seas as Barons and Lords of the Parliament.

In former times when Parliaments were holden frequently almost every4. Ed. 3. c. 13.36. Ed. 3. c. 10. year, and uncertainly at severall places, as at Rutland 10. Ed. 1., Acton Burnell 11. Ed. 1., Winchester 13. Ed. 1. , Exeter 14. Ed. 1. , York, Gl [...]ster, Carlisle, and other remote parts, the Bishops and Mitred Abbots who were Lords of Parliament, could not, without their great estates of Baronies, defray the charge of so great journeys as became their dignity. The4. Institut. 35.45. Doderidge of Nobility. 61. Abbots of Leicester and Northampton being summoned as Lords of Parliament, and setting forth by Petition, that they held not per Baroniam, sed tantum in pura Eleemosyna, were discharged; but the Bishop of Winchester Crompton. 4. holding by Barony and departing from the Parliament without licence, was arraigned in the Kings Bench.

That they held their Lands as Temporall Estates, appears. Rott. Patent. 18 H. 3. m. 17. Mandatum est omnibus Episcopis, &c. Sicut Baronias suas diligant, nullo modo praesumant consilium tenere de aliquibus quae ad Coronam Regis pertinent, vel quae personam Regis, vel statum suum, vel statum concilii sui contin­gunt, scituri pro certo quod si fecerint Rex inde se capiat ad Baronias suas. The King did frequently upon their21. Ed. 3.3.5. Rep. f. 12, 13. contempts, seize the Temporalties of Bishops into his hands. In time of Vacancy, the King leaving the Spiritualties to the Ordinary, seized the Temporalties into his hands, and granted them during the vacation to whom he list; seeS^r Rob. Cot­tons Abridge­ment. Rot. Parliament. 8 H. 4. num. 91. The Temporalties of Durham granted to John of Lancaster the Kings Son, and the Temporalties of the Bishop of London farmed out, rendring to the King a Thousand pound per ann.

The King sometimes held the Temporalties a long while in his hands, by delay of the Popes allowance of their Elections, or of the Pall, or of Consecration; sometime there were double and treble Elections and Suites thereupon in the Court of Rome, Lamberts Per­ambulation of Kent in Canter­bury and Ro­chester. 134.217.270. as upon the voidance of the See of Canterbury, upon three pretences of Reynold the Subprior, John Gray and Stephen Langton; at another time the Monks of Rochester chose one Sandford for their Bishop, the Monks of Canter­bury opposed the Election, challenging that the Pastorall Staffe or Crosier of Rochester ought of very right to be brought to their house, after the death of the Bishop, and that they ought to make the Election. The difference was once compounded by Hubert de Burgh chief Justice of England, but afterwards followed afresh at Rome three years together. The King in such ca­ses lackt a Lord in Parliament, took the Temporalties to himself, and left the Spiritualties to their proper Guardian; but Lands are no Spiritualties.

Odo Bishop of Bayeux was Earl of Kent, Osmond Bishop of Salisbury was Earl of Dorset and Seez, Cambden. 252.215. and in Scotland. 11. and Robert Steward Bishop of Cathnes was Earl of Lenox and March. When the first of these was in displeasure of the King, and priviledged as a Bishop, he was yet imprisoned as an Earl, lost all his goods, and was abjured the Realme. The BishopCambden. 744. and 820. Pudsey and Walcher were Earls of Northumberland. The Bishop of Durham 4. Instit. 218, 220. 27. H. 8. c. 24. was a Count Palatine within his Bishopprick, where he had Jura Regalia, (that is Temporall Courts, Writs, and Process in his own name, a Power to make Justices to pardon offences, and to have Royall Escheats.) The Bishop of Ely also had a Royall Franchise within the Isle of Ely. The Bishop of the Isle of4. Inst. Isle of Man. Man had neither, nor was he a Lord of Parliament. So a Bishop may be a Bishop, and no Earl or Lord partaker [Page 2]in the Sovereign or Legislative Power, and then being allowed his Spiritualties, hath all that is due to his Spirituall office.

By what divine Right or Pretence Deans and Chapters challenge so great Estates,Deans and Chapters. Non constat. Were it so that the Gospell were now first planting here as in the Indies, and a Bishop set up to advance the conversion of Infidels within such a Circuit, it might be prudentiall while there were but few Ministers,Selden of Tythes. c. 6, 7, 8. and before the distribution of his Dioces into Parishes, to associate di­vers Ministers together, who should as Itinerants travell from place to place, for the gaining and confirming of Believers, as anciently in Boothes or Tents of hurdles, occasionally set up in the fields,G.M. on Doctor Ridleys view of the civill Law. 197. Fullers Eccle­siasticall Hi­story. 7. or at cross wayes, or other publick places of resort. And in such case their maintenance being brought into a common stock, at the See or residence of their Curator or Bishop in whom they centered their correspondence, those who thus laboured in the Ministery, should out of this common stock have their portions. It is not unlike by the Trace of Antiquity but that it was so in England, when a Diocess was but as one great Parish, and Preachers sent about as Messengers. And after interior or Parochiall Churches were founded at great distance, the Pa­rish Priests had not all the Tythes to themselves, but a man might pay his Tythes to what4. Instit. 641, 642. Selden of Tythes. c. 6, 7, and 9. Dr Ridley. 153. Priest he would; and incase he neglected to pay any, the Bishop and not the particular Curate of his Precinct recovered them, the Bishops being treasurers of the Community, their making dividends or Praebenda of such common stock, to the encouragement of such Ministers as went up and down Preaching, and were not otherwise provided for, was not without Reason. Now if Deanes and Chapters be such an association as make it their businesse to supply places void of Ministers, and enlighten our dark corners, they are worthily to be encouraged; but if they claim shares or dividends out of a common stock, Lands, or Tithes, only as companions to the Bishop, or living in another Diocess, or for vain pomp and grandure, they have no interest in this Reason.

It seems that the Names, Numbers and Functions of Deans and Chapters were not alike but various, ad libitum of the founder. For as to Names, at S^t Davids Cambd. 651. they were called Canons, at Salisbury Cambd. 248. [...]rebends. As to number, at Chichester Cambd. 307. , Wells Cambd. 232. , &c. they were thirty or more; at Hereford eight and twenty;Cambd. 619. Cambd. 337. at Canterbury twelve; at Bristoll and Rochester but six. And in their Functions there will be no less difference;Cambd. 238. if besides that some of them were Elective and some Donative.Cambd. 333. And besides the differences of Names and Numbers, the meaning of Petty-Ca­nons, Petty-Prebends, Residents, and Non-residents be considered; it seems some of them were Dignitaries sine curâ, by their [...]liles of Non-residence, for whom the Church might be as little the better, as for Italians and other aliens. who had benefices here, whom the flock never saw or heard any thing of, but by their Collectors Cellerers and hard Names; the Lord Cardinall of Agrifolio, the Lord Cardinall Viverino, &c.

Besides some of the Chapters were anciently Seculars and some Regulars; the Seculars were Presbyters, and as such by their Preaching and conversation, might aid the Bishop in the cure of souls; but Regulars, (viz.) Moncks, were lockt up in Cloysters, and seldome or never went abroad.4. Inst. 222. Camb. 741.161. Fuller. How could such an Institution of a Chapter of Moncks contribute to the oversight of the Dioces? Yet Prior and Covent of Monckes were the Chapters at Ely, Durham, Winchester, Worcester, Carlisle, &c. and these Chapters were dissolved with other Monesteryes, and their Lands vested in the King, who keeping part of the Lands, or converting them to other uses, Erected Deanes and Prebends of a fewer number in their places, and in the New Sees of Che­ster, Glocester, Peterborrough, &c. What have these New Chapters to do more then the Moncks? in some things not so much. For the Moncks could by Election fill up void Seates in the Covent, and choose their Bishop and Prior, but many of these can neither choose Bishop or Deane, the New Elections having advisedly made them1 Inst. 95. Davis Reports 45. Donative, at the Kings pleasure, and under his im­mediate Rule and Order, exempt from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop, who could neither de­prive nor visit them.

Some Bishoppricks had no Chapters particularly, the Bishop of Meath Cambd. in Ireland 95. in Ireland, the Bishop there acts by the Counsel and Advice of the Clergy of his Diocesse. The BishopBritania 755. of the Isle of Man, seems to have had no Chapter, for he was anciently chosen by the Moncks of Fournesse in Lancashire. On the other side, as these Bishops had no Chapter, some had two,Leonards Rep. 235. Dier. 58, 283, 12. Rep. 71. as Coventry and Litchfield. The Bishop of Dublin had sometime two Chapters, viz. Christchurch and S^t Pa­trick's, in one Town. A Diocesse of one single County, hath sometimes had two Chapters, as Bath and Wells, Waterford and Lismoore; whenas the Bishop of Lincolne, before the late Erecti­ons of Oxford and Peterborrough, had but one Chapter for his Dioces of eight Counties, and part of more.

Upon this whole matter, if some of them had special Functions which others had not, if some of them were uncapable by their Order of Overseeing the Dioces, if Jus Divinum sail in the necessity of their Constitution, and if some Diocesses have none, they may be look't upon as vo­luntary Institutions of several times, and in several manners, that might have been or not been at all. And it will follow, that there was no Moral everlasting Obligation of continuing Bishops, Deanes and Chapters, just in this or that fashion or altitude: witnesse the Judgment of the late Primate of Armagh, Former A­lienations. in his Sheet lately Printed of the Reduction of Episcopacy.

The Lands of Bishops and their Chapters, were not more sacred than the Tithes of Preaching [Page 3]Ministers, but such Tithes by their own old Law have been alien'd: witnesseCambden 161, 162. Selden of Tithes. 3845 Vica­redges in England, whose Incumbents had nothing but the Minutae Decimae and altarage, or some Arbitrary Salaries, when the Gleab and greater Tithes were appropriate to Bishops and their Chapters, and in some places to Nunneryes, (though Nunnes were uncapable of the Ministry.) In other places, to houses of Moncks, who seldome or never went without the walls of their Cloysters and Sanctuaries, who possessed not the Tithes as any part of the Evangelical Clergy or Priesthood. In other places, to the maintaining Souldiers in the Warres: witnesse the Gleabs, Tithes, and Exemptions granted to Orders of Knights employed in the holy Warre: witnesse also hundreds of Vicaredges, whose Curates very well know, that the Bishops, Deanes and Chapters took the Tithes of their Parishes, but came not at the people. And no doubt, but if Tithes might be thus aliened, much more might Lands. Bishops, Deanes and Chapters, might and anciently did alien their Lands themselves, as well as any other Corporations: witnesse Dorset House, Essex House, Arundell House, Yorke House, Lincolnes Inne, and many other great Houses about London, formerly belonging to the Bishops of Salisbury, Bath and Wells, Carlisle, Norwich, and Chichester, &c. And witnesse the Mannours of Sherborne and Kirton, as by M^r Fullers Histories of Abbyes 270. and his 17 Century 27.

Sometimes the Kings have Resumed Lands from the Church, or Religious Houses so called; as when the Abbesse and NunnesCambden 362. of Barkley were with Child, their Nunnery was dissolved by Edward the Confessor, their Personal faults punished in their order, and their Lands conferr'd upon a Lay Earl; when the same King had given the County ofCambden 526. Rutland to S^t Peters Westmin­ster, his Successor resumed it. In Edward the Seconds time, the Lands of the2. Inst. 432. Templars were bestowed upon the Hospitallers; in Hen. 5. time, the Estates of Priors Aliens, some of which were before frequently seized upon, were all vested in the King. In Hen. 8. time, Cardinal Woolsey, by licence of the King and Pope,Camden 163. supprest fourty small Monasteries to lay their Lands to his two Colledges in Oxford and Ipswich. The Stat. 27. Hen. 8. cap. 28. gave the Lands of 375 Religious Houses, not worth 200^lb per annum, to the King; shortly after, he obtained all the Abbeys and Priories, and with them the Lands of the Chapters of divers Bishopricks, consisting of Prior and Covent. The Satutes 37. Hen. 8. cap. 4. and 1 Edw. 6. cap. 14. gave the King the Lands of all Chanteries, Free-Chappels, and Colledges, whereof there were great numbers, as at Plymton, Kirton and S^t Mary Ottery Cambden 101.203, 206. in Devon, S^t Marie's and S^t Chad's inDambden 596. Shrewsbury, Resembling some Deanes and Chapters. These would call their Possessions as sacred and Inviolable as others. Besides the dissolutions of Chapters, and of Deanes and Prebends, a Bishoprick also, hath been dissolved by Act of Parliament, and the Lands vested in the Crown. See Rastall, Title Durham.

After all these suppressions, when at Queen Maries coming in, the See of Rome was again em­braced,Common Peace. and the Queen had voluntarily restored some of these Lands, not a foot was taken from the Lords or Commons, but all their Possessions, notwithstanding the Objections of Schisme and Sacriledge, established. And which is very remarkable, the Convocation of the Clergy in the first and second of Philip and Mary, present them a Supplication in Latin, Printed at large,1 & 2 P. & M. c. 8. in the Stat. cap. 8. Premising, That though they ought to labour all that might be for the Recovery and Revocation of all Rights of the Church, lost in the Pernicious Schisme, yet having maturely deliberated, they do ingenuously Confesse, that they see the Revocation to be difficult and Quasi impossible, for the ma­ny and almost inextricable Contracts and Dispositions thereof had, and that if it should be attempted, the quiet and Tranquility of the Kingdom might be easily disturbed, and the unity of the Catholick Church would with difficulty attain its Progresse and End. Therefore preferring the Publick good and quiet, and the saving of souls, before worldly wealth, and private advantage, and not seeking their own, but the things of Jesus Christ, they supplicate their Majesty's in their Names, to intercede with Cardinal Poole, then Legate, from the Pope, Utin hijs bonis Ecclesiasticis elargiendis & relaxandis, Publi­cum bonum Privato ante ponere velit. Whereunto as they give their own consents, so they pray that he will not be hard or strict.

The Cardinal (by a Dispensation Printed in the same Statute) doth remit and release them to all Persons to whose hands they are come, (Licet indebitè,) Willing and Decreeing, that the Possessors should not, in respect thereof, be molested upon any Decretalls, General or Provincial Coun­cils, &c. and that no Censure or Pain should be inflicted on them, for the detaining or not restoring there­of; and the Statute Ordaines, that whosoever should inquiet or molest any of the Possessors, contra­ry to the meaning of the Act, should incurre the Paines of Premunire. This Supplication, Dispensa­tion and Act, may be instances of Moderation and Judgment in the Clergy, Resolution and Wis­dome in a Parliament, which would not destroy a Family for the holyest Fryer in a Province. Whatever inconsideration or thirst, may otherwise warpe the Ingenuities of such as are led by their private Benefits, to regain what others have thought best to quit, and what fruits of con­tent Charity and good will, the Experiment will afford them, time will shew.

There hath been a little skill shewn, by superstitious men, in frighting others from intermed­ing in these Sales, by stories of misfortune and unluckinesse, in the Lay Possessors of Church-Lands. There are few Gentlemen, who know their Counties, that cannot give Instances of such Lands still remaining in the Families to which they were first given. Witnesse great E­states of such Lands in the Lord Marquesse of Hertford, of the House of Rutland, and most E­minent [Page 4]Families; and if they have known one Estate in such Lands sold, can say the like of o­ther Estates as great as they. If the Duke of Sommerset, and Marquesse of Northampton were shortly attainted, and their Monasteries of Glasconbury and Winchombe returned to the Crown On the other side, the Earl of Westmoreland, and his partakers in the North, among other things; for the restoring of such Lands, (though they escaped with their lives beyond Sea,) became, wandring Monuments of as great misery and ruine. For the better Test of so many great Estates by Instances of one sort, let the Mitred Abbots be examined, and from thence a judgment made of the rest. These were twenty six, and had no great change till of late; for by M^r Fallers History of Abbeys, it appears that divers of them remained in the Crown, viz. Crowland, Selby, S^t Maries in Yorke, &c. Others in the Private Families on which they were conferred, viz. Thor­ney in Russell, Q. of Tave­stoke. Earl of Bedford, Battell in Browne, Lord Mountague; Midleton in Tregonwell, Ram­sey in Cromwell, S^t Johns in Hales, S^t Albans in the Heirs of S^t Ralph Sadler, Waltham in the Earl of Carlisle, Heir of the Lord Denaye. And others to other uses; as S^t Bennet de Hulmo united to Norwich, Westminster to the Deane Prebend, and School there; Gloster and Peterborrough to the Bishops, (Quaere the rest.) And if five or six, out of twenty six, have in an hundred years changed their Masters, so have other Estates. And let men beware of saying, That those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell, were greater sinners then they.

If it be granted, that these Institutions of Bishops, Deanes and Chapters, were Prudentiall simply; if they have swarved from some, omitted others, and by Law been outted of more parts of their Intrustment, though their whole being were not taken away, by that Act of 1641. there was yet Reason, that they might be abated in the Exhibitions allowed them for such parts thereof, as they no longer performed. And so far there may be just ground, of otherwise disposing a considerable part of their Estates.

The Sales, besides the lesse Publique and Generall use of Bishops, and the taking away of all coercive Power from them by another Statute 17. Car. cap. 11. were brought on by other most important Reasons: The Nation groaned under vast Debts, under the burden of a Scotch Army, under a great Army of English, and supernumeraryes (more then they;) un­der the intollerable eating Moath, Free-quarter: And beside all this, a Warre in Ireland, that could not feed it self, but with Supplyes from England. All these would be Provided for, but the Taxes, which yet were greater then England ever knew before, were as nothing to discharge them.

There is no such measure of ill consequence, in the Sale of these Lands, as in keeping up two Armies, supernumeraryes, and Free-quarter, or as in continuing Sequestrations upon the Estates of such as were under hardship, or as in such Excesse burdens, as would have destroyed Pri­vate mens Estates. If ever necessity lay upon an oppressed People, of resorting to unusual waies of ease, our times have seen it: And constraint goes farre in excusing, what otherwise were not warrantable. Marriners (the Governours of a Ship) may, in extream Tempest, throw any mans goods over-board, to save the rest.

The same thing may be just or unjust, punishable or not punishable, upon Circumstances. It is the part of an Accuser, rather then a Judge, to determine of Crimes, and not to admit Ex­cuses, and Extenuations. Christ Jesus, the great Pastour and Bishop of our souls, hath taught us, that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man: The like of Laws. Da­vid and his followers, were Excused for eating the Shew-bread, in extream hunger, though before then, it were not lawfull for him, or any to eat it, but only for the Priests.

Restant Multa.