LAtely when you honoured me with a visit in Canterbury, we fell upon a discourse of Cathe­drals; of which your short stay did not allow us to say enough for our mutual satisfaction. Did I want that Introduction to entertain you upon that subject, yet I could think of no fitter person, either for inge­nuity or place to deliver my thoughts unto. They are at this present renewed by a malig­nant Writer, who hath cast a ground­less In the Libel intituled, A Proposition for the safety and peace of King and Kingdom, &c. pag. 47. and undeserved Odium upon Ca­thedral-men, to work their ruine, and that of the Cathedral Churches with them. He misrepresents their Persons and their Emo­luments, depressing the Persons, and heightning the Emoluments, both unmeasurably beyond truth and reality. He Characteriseth the men low in their condi­tion and in their interests, covetous, and undeservedly re­warded. He finds fault with the King for not seizing upon the Arrears of their Fines before their admission. Saith that they got vast Emoluments, such as never were and are never like to be again: That those excessive riches were thrown upon them undeservedly, and provokes [Page 2] against them the envy of others as deserving better of the King.

If by the lowness of their condition he understands their shortness in means, and makes poverty a vice, he ought to remember that they were brought to that condition by men of his gang, who sequested them for being guilty of Loyalty to their Soveraign. And that whereas those of the Laity that were in the same guilt were admitted to compound for their Estates, Clergy­men were deprived of their Livings, and kickt out of their Houses. If their enemies be grieved at their pre­ferment, let them blame themselves for bringing them to such a low condition as made them especial objects of the Royal compassion.

If by the lowness of their condition he means that of their extraction: Let that Gentleman (if he be one) know that most of them are not inferior in bloud to them that would bring them low. By the nobleness of their spirits in the hardest tryals they have exprest that of their Birth and Education. But it is part of their calling to rejoyce in their Lowness, since it is a conformity with Christ their great Master.

As for lowness of Interests we know well enough that our old Persecutors, who are now acting under new Vizards, would have us so disinteressed in the State by our Poverty, that we should look unconcernedly upon publick actions and alterations, as having nothing to lose. But whether poor or rich, we are high in Interest for the publick prosperity, upon the account of Con­science; and have shewed so much by throwing off all other interesses for it.

Our undaunted constancy, great and long Suffer­ings, and loyal actings, cleer us of the other imputa­tion [Page 3] of being undeservedly rewarded: wherein his Ma­jesties wisdom and Equity is more taxed than we. Nei­ther can we be justly blamed as Covetous for enjoying his Royal bounty, and using the rights of our places. The most part of the Dignitaries advanced at his Ma­jesties blessed return, were persons that had lost their Estates for his glorious Fathers service: Couragious Holy men, who by their unwearied labours and the authority of their Piety, had kept the most part of the English subjects in their duty to God and the King, against the prevalency of the reigning Rebellion. Many of them had fought with their Pens against the usurping Powers, to the great danger of their lives; which to save, they lived either in exile abroad, or shifting from place to place in the three Kingdoms. If after their long tugging against the Tyranny, they were rewarded by their long desired Soveraign with some of the Churches goods, those goods were set in their proper place, and cannot but injuriously be said to be thrown upon such men undeservedly.

BUt they were vast Emoluments and excessive riches, saith the Libeller. So are all Church goods, where­soever Envy is the Controller, how little soever there be in the Receivers Books. I can give account of no other Chapter but the Metropolitical of Canterbury, of which I have the honor to be a Member. This being the first, and one of the best endowed of the Kingdom; if those first and so enviously cryed up Emoluments of twenty years in one were but reasonable at Canterbury, they could not be very Vast in other Cathedrals. Our Fines are divided equally, but that the Dean hath double the share of a Prebend. Now I can give you this true ac­count, Sir, that of the total of that great In-come of [Page 4] our first Fines (deducting the reparation of the Church and our Present to our Royal Benefactor) the share of each of the twelve Canons was about eleven hundred pounds. Such a sum was no excessive reward for long Sufferers, and constant Actors in the Kings Cause; of which the most part of our Society consisteth. I am none of the greatest losers of the Clergy: Yet I may truly say that this Proportion did hardly amount to the third part of my losses, by Sequestration and other violences of the War. Such moderate showres falling upon Lands parched with a long drought, could not drench them to an Exuberancy, to leave pools above ground. The conditio [...] of my Brethren cannot be much different from mine. We have been long learn­ing with St. Paul how to want, but have had no occasi­on as yet to learn how to abound. But the popular ru­mour that we have all the money of the Land, hath taught us another Doctrine,—est inter causas paupertatis opinio divitiarum. Certainly one of the great causes of poverty is to be esteemed rich; and another, to think our selves obliged to justify that opinion.

It is hard to say, whether the Libeller shews more injustice or ignorance, when he wisheth that we had entred the present Honours and Revenues, and left the arrears for publick accounts or good works. Were it granted that the Revenue of the Church without Fines is sufficient for us to keep Hospitality, and maintain the Quire, the Officers, the Schools, and the Alms­men of the Foundation, (of which we find it very short.) What had become of ours and all the Cathe­dral Churches, if all the Fines had been taken from them before the admission of the Canons? That of Canterbury (though much defaced by Culmer and the [Page 5] Fanatick Souldiers, and decayed by a neglect of well nigh twenty years) was more entire than most Cathe­drals in England when we came to it: Yet in the year 1664 we found that the reparations of it stood us in Twelve thousand pounds, all that expence arising out of Fines. But for the Fines, all the Cathedrals of the Kingdom by this time had been heaps of Ruines. Without the Fines these great Fabricks, the greatest of Europe cannot yet be preserved from ruin. And it is that ruin, and another following upon it of a better Church than the Material, which such men as the Li­beller aim at, when they cry out against Fines, and would have them converted to other uses. God keep the Church from such Stewards; and enrich us with a better Patrimony of the Church than this Temporal, which brings little plenty, and breeds much Envy. It is the prayer,