Ecclesiastical Cases Relating to Parochial Clergy, Title page – Table of contents
Ecclesiastical Cases Relating to the DUTIES and RIGHTS OF THE Parochial Clergy, STATED and RESOLVED According to the PRINCIPLES OF Conscience and Law:
By the Right Reverend Father in GOD, EDWARD, Lord Bishop of Worcester.
LONDON, Printed by I. H. for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1698.
To the Reverend CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER.
My Brethren,
THE following Discourses do of Right belong to You; the Substance of them being contained in what I delivered to You in several Times and Places, in the Course of my Visitations: In which I endeavoured to lay open the Nature and Dignity of your Function, the Rules you are to observe in the Discharge of it, and to state and resolve the most Important Cases which Relate to your Duties and Rights, according to the Principles both of Law and Conscience. For I observed that some had spoken very well of the General Nature of the Ecclesiastical Function, without a particular Regard to the Limitations of the Exercise of it by our Laws. Others had endeavoured to give Advice and Counsel in Point of Law, who meddle not with the Obligation of Conscience. And therefore I thought it necessary to joyn both these together, that you might have a clear and distinct View of your Duties in both Respects. For in a Matter of Positive Institution, where only the General Duties are prescribed in Scripture, and the Bounds of the Exercise of them depend upon the Laws of the Land, I could not see how any Person could satisfie himself in the Discharge of his Duty, without a Regard to both. For the Care of Souls in General, is a Matter of wonderful Weight and Importance, and can never be sufficiently considered by those who are concerned in it. But no Man among us takes upon him an Indefinite Care of Souls, without Regard to Persons or Places; for that would produce Confusion and endless Scruples, and Perplexities of Conscience about the Nature and Obligation to Particular Duties,
Which cannot be prevented or removed without a right understanding the different Respect all that have taken our Holy Function upon them, do stand in both to the Church in General, and to that Particular Cure of Souls which they are admitted to. The best way I know to represent them, is to consider the Case of Dominion and Property; and how far the Vniversal Obligation of Mankind to promote each others Good, is consistent with the Care of their own and Families Welfare. Adam had in himself the Entire and Original Dominion over all those Things, which after became the Subject of particular Property; when his Posterity found it necessary to make and allow several Shares and Allotments to distinct Families, so as they were not to incroach, or break in upon one another. But the Law of Nature did not prescribe the Way and Method of Partition, but left that to Occupancy or Compact: And so the Heads of Families upon their Settlement in any Countrey, had a twofold Obligation upon them; the first was to preserve the Interest of the whole Body, to which they still were bound, and were to shew it upon such Occasions as required it. The next was to take particular Care of these Shares which belonged to themselves, so as to improve them for their Service, and to protect them from the Invasion of others. And Although this Division of Property was not made by any Antecedent Law, yet being once made, and so useful to Mankind, the Violation of it, by taking that which is anothers Right, is a manifest Violation of the Law of Nature.
I do not think, that the Distribution of Ecclesiastical Cures, for the greater Benefit of the People, is of so strict a Nature; because the Matter of Property doth not extend to this Case in such a manner. But since an Vniversal Good is carried on by such a Division far better than it could be without it, there is an Obligation lying on all Persons who regard it, to preserve that Order which conduces to so good an End. And I cannot see how any Persons can better justifie the Breach of Parochial Communion as such, than others can justifie the Altering the Bounds of Mens Rights and Properties, because they apprehend that the common Good may be best promoted by returning to the first Community of all things.
If our Blessed Saviour, or his Holy Apostles in the first founding of Churches, had determined the Number of Persons, or fixed the Bounds of Places within which those who were ordained to so holy a Function, were to take care of the Souls committed to them, there could have been no Dispute about it among those who owned their Authority. But their Business was to lay down the Qualifications of such as were fit to be imployed in it; to set before them the Nature of their Duties, and the Account they must give of the Discharge of them; and to Exhort all such as under took it to a Watchfulness, and Diligence in their Places; but they never go about to limit the Precincts, within which they were to Exercise the Duties incumbent upon them.
When Churches were first planted in several Countries, there could be no such things expected as Parochial Divisions; for these were the Consequents of the General spreading of Christianity among the People. As is evident in the best Account we have of the Settlement of the Parochial Clergy among us, after Christianity was received by the Saxons. Which was not done all at once, but by several Steps and Degrees. It cannot be denied by any, that are conversant in our Histories, that the Nation was gradually converted from Paganism by the succesful Endeavours of some Bishops and their Clergy in the several Parts of England.
Not by Commission from one Person (as is commonly supposed) but several Bishops came from several Places, and applied themselves to this Excellent Work, and God gave them considerable Success in it. Thus Bizinus did great Service among the West Saxons; and Felix the Burgundian among the East-Saxons; and the Northern Bishops in the Midland-Parts, as well as Augustin and his Companions in the Kingdom of Kent. And in these Midland-parts, as Christianity increased, so the Bishops Sees were multiplied (Five out of One) and placed in the most convenient Distances for the further inlarging and establishing Christianity among the People. The Bishops were Resident in their own Sees, and had their Clergy then about them, whom they sent abroad, as they saw cause, to those Places where they had the fairest Hopes of Success. And according thereto they either continued or removed them, having yet no fixed Cures or Titles. All the first Titles were no other than being entred in the Bishops Register, as of his Clergy, from which Relation none could discharge himself, without the Bishop's Consent. But as yet the Clergy had no Titles to any particular Places, there being no fixed Bounds of Parishes, wherein any Persons were obliged to be Resident for the better Discharge of their Duties. This State of an Vnfixed and Itinerant Clergy was soon found to be very inconvenient; and therefore all Incouragement was given, where Christianity most prevailed, for the building Churches at a convenient Distance from the Cathedral, and setling a Number of Presbyters together there, which were after called Collegiate-Churches; and the Great and Devout Men of that Time gave them Liberal Endowments that they might the better attend the Service of God there, and in the Countrey about them.
But after that the several Parts grew to be more populous, and Lords of Manors, for the Conveniency of themselves and their Tenants, were willing to erect Churches within their Precincts, Laws were then made, that they might detain one Share of the Tithes for the Supply of this New Church; the other two remaining due to the Mother Church. And I can find nothing like any Allowance for the Lords of Manors to appropriate the other Two Parts as they thought fit. For those Manors themselves were but Parcels of larger Parishes; and the Tithes were due from those Estates, which were no part of their Manors, and therefore they had nothing to do with them.
But after the Norman Invasion, the poor Parochial Clergy being Saxons, and the Nobility and Bishops Normans, they regarded not how much they reduced the Inferiour Clergy, to enrich the Monasteries belonging to the Normans, either at home or abroad. And this I take to be the true Reason of the Multitude of Appropriations of Two Thirds of the Tithes in the Norman Times, and too often with the Consent of the Bishops, who ought to have shewed more Regard to the Interest of the Parochial Clergy than they generally did.Pag. 277, &c.
But of this I have discoursed more at large in one of the following Cases.
In the latter end of the Saxon Times, if we believe those called the Confessors Laws, after all the Danish Devastations, there were Three or Four Churches where there had been but One before. By which it appears that the Parochial Clergy were Numerous before the Conquest. And within this Diocess, in Two Deanaries of it, there are to be found in Doomsday-Book above Twenty Parish-Churches: In the Deanary of Warwick, Ten; and in the Deanary of Kingstone, Fifteen: But of the former Seven were Appropriated in the Norman Times; and of the latter, Ten; by which we may see to how low a Condition they then brought the Parochial Clergy. One Church in the former Deanary I find built in that time, and that was at Exhal; which was before a Chapel to Salford, but was erected in the time of H. 1. by the Lord of the Manor and Freeholders, who gave the Glebe and Tithes, as appears by the Confirmation of Simon Bishop of Worcester. Many other Parochial Churches, I doubt not, were built and endowed after the same manner, although the Records of them are lost. And as Churches were new erected, the Parochial Bounds were fixed, that the People might certainly know whither they were to resort for Divine Worship, who were bound to attend them as part of their Charge, from whose Hands they were to receive the Holy Sacraments, and whose Advice and Counsel they were to take in Matters which related to the Salvation of their Souls. Now here lies the main Difficulty with some People; they cannot think that Parochial Bounds are to determine them in what concerns the Good of their Souls; but if they can edifie more by the Parts and Gifts of another, they conclude, that it is their Duty to forsake their own Minister, and go to such a one as they like. I meddle not with extraordinary Occasions of Absence, nor with the Case of Scandalous Incumbents, because it is the Peoples Fault if they be not prosecuted, and the Place supplied by better Men. But the Case, as it ought to be put, is, how far a Regard is to be shewed to a Constitution so much for the General Good, as that of Parochial Communion is. We do not say, That Mens Consciences are bound by Perambulations, or that it is a Sin at any time to go to another Parish; but we say, That a constant fixed Parochial Communion, tends more to preserve the Honour of God, and the Religion Established among us, to promote Peace and Vnity among Neighbours, and to prevent the Mischief of Separation. And what advances so good Ends, is certainly the best Means of Edification: Which lies not in moving the Fansie, or warming the Passions, but in what brings Men to a due Temper of Mind, and a holy, peaceable, and unblameable Conversation. And as to these Excellent Ends, it is not only your Duty with great Zeal and Diligence to perswade your People to them; but to go before them your selves in the Practice of them. For they will never have any hearty Regard or Esteem for what any one says, if they find him to contradict it in the Course of his Life. Suppose it be the Peoples Fault to shew so little Regard to your Profession; yet you are bound to consider how far you may have given too much Occasion for it, and their Fault can be no Excuse for you, if any of your own were the true Occasion of theirs.
We live in an Age wherein the Conversations of the Clergy are more observed than their Doctrines. Too many are busie in finding out the Faults of the Clergy, the better to cover their own; and among such Priest craft is become the most popular Argument for their Insidelity. If they could once make it appear; that all Religion were nothing but a Cheat and Imposture of some cunning Men for their own Advantage, who believed nothing of it themselves; and that all the business of our Profession was to support such a Fraud in the World for our own Interest, they were very excusable in their most bitter Invectives against such Priest-craft. For nothing is more to be abhorred by Men of Ingenuous Minds, and Natural Probity, than to be the Instruments of Deceiving Mankind in so gross a manner. But, thanks be to God, this is very far from being the Case among us; for our Profession is built upon the Belief of God and Providence, the Difference of Good and Evil, and the Rewards and Punishments of another Life. If these things have no Foundations, we are certain that the best, and wisest, and most disinterested Men in all Ages have been in the same Fundamental Mistakes. And it is now somewhat too late for any Persons to set up for Sagacity and true Iudgment in these Matters, above all those of foregoing Ages. There is a mighty Difference between slight and superficial Reasonings, (although some may be vain enough to cry them up for Oracles) and those which are built on the Nature of Things, and have born the Test of so many Ages, and remain still in the same Degree of Firmness and Strength, notwithstanding all the Batteries of Profane and Atheistical Wits. For it cannot be denied, that such there have been in former times as well as now; but that makes more for the Advantage of Religion, that our Modern Pretenders are fain to borrow from the old Stock; and scarce any thing worth Answering hath been said by them, but hath been often said, and with more Force by their Masters. And the best Philosophers of this Age have given up the Cause of Atheism as indefensible; so that the Being of God and Providence seems to be established by a General Consent; and if any secretly be of another Mind, they think it not for their Reputation to own it.
The main Pretence now is against Revealed Religion; but without offering to shew how so great and considerable a Part of Mankind as the Christian Church hath been made up of, came to be so imposed upon, as to a Doctrine which advances Morality to the greatest Height, and gives Mankind the most assured Hopes of a Blessed Immortality, when nothing like Interest and Design as to this World, could be carried on by the First and Greatest Promoters of it.Histoire des O…ages des Scavans. But we are told in a late Complaint made abroad by a Friend of our Deists Août, 1697. p. 551.(wherein I am particularly concerned) That we make Objections for them which are most easie to answer, and pass over their most considerable Difficulties. Which is a very unjust Charge, and cannot be made good but by producing those Considerable Difficulties which we have taken no Notice of. For my part, I know of none such: and we make no Objections for them; however, we may think it our Duty to lay open the Weakness of them, when we are importuned to do it; which was my Case in the Treatise I suppose he refers to. If they keep their Considerable Difficulties to themselves. I know not how we should be able to answer them. But it is the common way in a baffled Cause still to pretend, that the main Difficulties were not produced.
But this is not a proper Occasion to insist lon…er on these Matters; my present Business is to answer the Objection which immediately regards the Clergy; and the Summ of it is, That our Profession rather hinders than confirms the Belief of Religion; because they who plead for what makes for their Interest, are always suspected to be swayed more by Interest than by Reason. To give a full and clear Answer to this, we must consider, That however Mankind are apt to be swayed by Interest, yet the Truth and Reason of Things do not at all depend upon them; for a Thing is not true or false in it self, because it makes for or against a Man; and the Measures of judging Truth and Falshood, are quite of another Nature; and so Mens Interests come not into Consideration. So that in this Case they are not to examine whose Turn is served, whether such a Thing be true or false; but whether there be sufficient Evidence to convince an impartial Mind of the Truth of it; for let the Reasons be produced by whom they please, the Grounds of Conviction are the same. If a Man in a Dispute about Surveying a piece of Land, which he claimed a Right to, should appeal to the Elements of Geometry in his Case, would the Evidence be less because he was concerned in the Land?
But we proceed farther; Suppose it be for the Interest of Religion in a Nation, for an Order of Men to be set apart on purpose to attend the Services of it; and that there should be great Incouragements for their Education; and a Maintenance set apart for their Subsistence afterwards, that they may not live in Dependance on the Humours and uncertain Fancies of the People; how can such a Constitution take off from the Credibility of that Religion which they are to support? Was it any lessening to the Authority of the Law of Moses, that the Tribe of Levi was so plentifully provided for by God's own Appointment? They were to teach the Law to the People in the Places where they were dispersed among the several Tribes: And suppose it had been then said, Why should we believe what you say, when you live by it? You have Cities, and Lands, and Tithes, and Oblations, and Dignities among you; no wonder you set up this Law as Divine and Holy; but we get nothing by it, but part with a Share of our Profits to maintain you? What then? Was the Law therefore false, and Moses an Impostor? These are hard Consequences, but they naturally follow from such a Supposition. And if such an Inference were not reasonable then, neither will it appear to be so now.
But we do not pretend that the Parochial Settlement of our Clergy is by such a Divine Law as the Levitical Priesthood was; but this we do insist upon, That the Christian Religion being owned and established in the Nation, there was a necessary Reason from the Nature of it, and the Obligation to Preserve and Support it, that there should be an Order of Men set apart for that End, that they should instruct the People in it, and perform the several Offices belonging to it; and that a sufficient Maintenance be allowed them by the Law of the Land to support them in doing their Duties. And I appeal to any Men of Sense or of common Vnderstanding, whether on Supposition that our Religion is true, these be not very just and reasonable Things? How then can that make a Religion suspected to be false, which are very reasonable, supposing it to be true? If it be true, as most certainly it is, are not they bound to maintain it to be true? And can it be the less so, because their Subsistence depends upon it? Therefore all the Impertinent Talk of our Profession being a Trade, can signifie nothing to any Men that understand the Difference between Scarron and Euclid, or the way of Burlesquing and of Demonstration.
There is still one common Prejudice to be removed, and that is, That too many of those who preach up our Religion, as true, do not live as if they believed it to be so. We are very sorry, there should be any Occasion given for such a Reproach as this; and we hope there are not so many Instances of it, as some would have it believed. Woe be to those by whom such Offences come. But supposing the Instances true, is there any Religion in the World, considering the Follies and Infirmities of Mankind, which can secure all the Professors of it from acting against the Rules of it? But if such Instances are sufficiently proved, there ought to be the greater Severity used in such Cases; because Religion it self, as well as the Honour of our Church, suffers so much by them.
But it will still be said, That these Persons are secret Infidels, and believe nothing of what they profess.
This is another Point, how far bad Lives are consistent with sound Opinions: Some that think that Men act consistently, will not allow that Bad Men can be any other than meer Infidels; but others who consider the Prevalency of Mens Lusts and Passions over their Reasons, are apt to think that they may retain their good Opinions, even when they act contrary to them: But then their Consciences fly in their Faces, and they condemn themselves for their evil Actions. And then these very Instances are an Argument against Infidelity; for we may justly presume, that they would shake off their Fears of another World, if they could. But why should some Instances of this Nature signifie more against Religion, than the many Remarkable Examples of a Godly, Righteous and Sober Life among the Clergy, to a stronger Confirmation of it? For they have had greater Occasion of searching into all the Considerable Difficulties about Religion, than others can pretend to; and I do not know any that have imployed most Time and Pains about it, but have had greater Satisfaction as to the Truth and Excellency of it.
Thus I have endeavoured to remove the most common Prejudices of our Times, against our Profession. It would now be proper for me to give some particular Directions to you, but that is so much the business of the following Discourses, that I shall refer you to them; and commend you to the Grace and Blessing of Almighty God, that you may so carefully discharge your Duties in this World, that it may advance your Happiness in another. I am
Your Affectionate Friend and Brother EDW. WIGORN. Hartlebury C. Apr. 23. 1698.
ERRATA.
PReface, pag. viii. lin. 7. read Birinus. p. xii. l. 7. r. Kington. P. 26. l. 21. after fraudes add &. p. 126. l. 11. r. Birinus. p. 129. l. 9. r. Wulstan. p. 142. l. 7. r. Flocks they go to. p. 157. l. 17. after but, insert to perswade you. p. 226. l. 5. for more r. meer. p. 236. l. 9. for Titles r. Tithes. p. 241. l. 9. r. A…b…rdus. p. 254. l. 17. r. Guthrun. p. 256. l. 17. for than r. as.
THE CONTENTS.
CASE I.
THE Bishop of Worcester's Charge to the Clergy of his Diocess, in his Primary Visitation, &c. p. 1.
II.
Of the Nature of the Trust committed to the Parochial Clergy, &c. p. 103.
III.
Of the particular Duties of the Parochial Clergy, &c. p. 175.
IV.
Of the Maintenance of the Parochial Clergy by Law, p. 229.
V.
Of the Obligation to observe the Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions, &c. p. 325.
To which is annexed a Discourse concerning Bonds of Resignation, &c.