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CHAP. who were the noted preachers of that time, making their sermons to consist of a parcel of fabulous legends and stories. Accordingly we are assured that it was his lordship's opinion, that "Bishops are obliged to preach by "aptly speaking, and declaring the truths of divine Scrip"ture." But be this as it will, it was certainly our Bishop's design to vindicate his brethren, the Bishops, from the clamours raised against them on account of their not preaching constantly, as they were obliged to do who had a cure of souls. This they were represented as d thinking beneath them, and a blemish to their dignity. But our Tho. Gas- Bishop shewed, that the office of a Bishop was to supercoigne,Dict.. Theol. p. i. intend or oversee those who are obliged to preach, and MS. p. perform the other offices of a cure of souls, and not to do them always himself. By which his Lordship seems to have meant, that there were many cases in which a Bishop was to be excused from preaching; as multiplicity of business, want of health, or any other lawful impediment, as attendance in Parliament, &c. which disabled him from doing it himself; in which cases he might depute this power of preaching to such priests to whom he committed the cure of souls; or might choose out fitting persons to assist him in the ministry of the word, and to preach in his stead, in such parts of his diocese, where he could not be personally present to instruct the people himself. For Ibid. p. 382. our Bishop allows, that although Bishops ought not to be hindered by preaching from the better work of their ordinary cure, which ought to be done by them, and cannot ordinarily be done by any one else, as requiring more

d Jam illud egregium et præclarissimum prædicandi officium, solis quondam pastoribus attributum, eisque maxime debitum, ita apud eos viluit, ut nihil magis in dignum, aut magis suæ dignitati erubescendum existiment. Nicol. de Clemangis de corrupt. Eccles. Stat. c. 14.

• In an ancient ordinal given us by Morinus, the offices of Priests and Bishops are thus distinguished. Sacerdotem oportet offerre et benedicere, præesse, prædicare, et baptizare. Episcopum oportet judicare, interpretari et consecrare, consummare, ordinare, offerre et baptizare. Morinus de Ordinationibus, p. ii. So that it seems, when this ordinal was drawn, viz. about the year 900, preaching was reckoned no part of the episcopal office.

II.

Council of

M.

denuntia

heath.

knowledge than inferior curates commonly have; yet every CHAP. Bishop was obliged to preach the truths of holy Scripture, and pertinently to utter and explain them; and accordingly he not only took care that such preaching should be in his diocese, but often preached himself. This Gascoigne Hist. of the represents as what people wondered at, saying, that Bi-Trent, by F. shop now preaches publicly, as if he did not use to do Paul, Dict. So. His Lordship distinguished betwixt preaching and teaching. "Preaching, he said, was a * serious declara- * Morosa “tion, plain or artificial, of a truth or truths, without any tio. Morosa "proof of it or them, by sufficient evidence or evidences; is perhaps "whereas teaching is a proving of a truth, i. e. teaching from mora, low or plain, " is a manifestation, or public declaration of the sufficient a moor or " evidence or evidences of some certain truths, when there 66 are evidences of it. By evidences, he said, he under"stood the more noted mediums or arguments, whether "they were a priori or a posteriori. By which, he said, "it appeared, that to teach is nothing else than an act by "which a man produces the knowledge of a truth in him"self or another, by the fundamentals and principles of "that knowledge: and that it is plain, that by no other mean than this now mentioned, does any one produce "the knowledge of a truth which was before unknown. "To teach therefore is such a sort of act as is now said. "And therefore if it shall happen that any preacher begin "and continue his sermon in declarations, and moreover "grounds and proves any truth declared by him, by its "foundation, or by something that is a sufficient evidence "of it, he in this respect exceeds the bounds of preaching, "and enters on the office of a teacher, and becomes a "teacher, and makes a mixture of his work, blending true “preaching and teaching together. By which, the Bishop "observed, two points might plainly enough be proved. "1. That preaching is not the most perfect act that may "be done in relation to the souls of Christians by their "Curates. 2. That to teach is an act more perfect than "to preach; because that knowledge is more perfect by "which any thing is known to be true by fundamental

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CHAP." evidences, than is the knowledge by which the same. "thing is known without them, by the sole declaration ❝of a man without any such evidences." By this, I suppose, our Bishop proved his sixth conclusion, that a more expedient work of labour may be employed on the souls of men, than is that of preaching.

F. Paul's

Hist. of the

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16. In the fifth of these conclusions, which our Bishop is said to have maintained at this time in his sermon at St. Paul's, his Lordship defends the non-residence of the Bishops on their dioceses. Of this we find very great complaints made at this time, as has been hinted already. There were two opinions of the obligation of Bishops' reCouncil of sidence, which had their several fautors. Some thought it was by the law of God, and argued thus: "That bishop"rics are founded by Christ, as ministries and works, and "so require a personal action or labour, which a man that "is absent cannot perform; that Christ, describing the qualities of a good shepherd, saith, that he giveth his "life for the flock, knoweth the sheep by their names, and "walketh before them, and feedeth them." On the other hand, the Canonists and Italian Prelates contended, that "the obligation of a Bishop to residence was by the eccle"siastical law; alleging, that anciently never any non"resident Bishop was reprehended as a transgressor of "the law of God, but of the canons only; and, that the "Church had ever held, that the Pope might dispense "with the residence of Bishops on their dioceses." This last seems to have been the prevailing opinion, as what was most agreeable to the corrupt inclinations and carnal affections of mankind. Accordingly, we are assured by the writers of these times, that it was a common thing for Of Prelates, those who were promoted to f bishoprics to enjoy them many years, without so much as going to their sees, or seeing their churches, or visiting their dioceses. Dr.

MS. cap. v.

f Multi ex eis qui pastorali apice potiuntur, perque annosa tempora positi sunt, nunquam civitates suas intraverunt, suas ecclesias viderunt, sua loca vel diocœses visitaverunt, nunquam pecorum suorum vultus agnoverunt, vocem audierunt, &c. Nicol. Clemangis de corrupto Ecclesiæ Statu, c. 17.

II.

Wiclif intimates, that here in England our Prelates were CHAP. held or detained by worldly offices from the souls that they had cure of: and elsewhere, that Prælati Cæsa- Dial. lib. iii. rei satis deserunt officium quod Christus eis instituit, et cap. 17. in alio officio secundum legem aliam exundant. Our poet Chaucer thus represents the secular canons of his time:

Thei ben curates of many tounes,

On yerth thei haven grete powere,
Thei have grete prebendis and dere,
Some two or thre, and some have mo.
A parsonage to ben playing * frere,
And yet thei serve the King & also.

And let to ferme all that fare,

To whom that wol most give therfore,
Some wollin spende, and some woll spare,
And some wol laye it up in store.

A cure of soule they care not fore,

So that they mowin money take,
Whether ther souls be † wonne or lore,
Ther profites they wol not forsake.

Some ther churchis never sie

Ne ner ‡o penie thither ysende,

Though that the pore for hungir die,

§ O penie on them will they not spende : Have thei receiving of the rente,

Theireke ner of the remenaunt.

By this it appears, that even many of the inferior Clergy of this time set very little or nothing by their cures; but, that their residing on them was just as it happened to suit

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s A great many of the Clergy in these times were the King's Counsellors, others of them were Treasurers of England, and of the Exchequer; and others of them were made Justiciaries in the King's Courts. See Matth. Paris, Hist. p. 772, 774, 802, 942, 943, 952, 977, 978, 979, &c. Ed. London, 1640.

company.

† saved or lost.

‡ one.

§ one.

I reckon.

CHAP. their worldly interest or conveniency. Whatever obligaII. tions they were under, by either their ordination vows, or their collation or institution, viz. to teach the people to whom they were ordained by word and example; to be always devoted to divine employments, and utter strangers to earthly businesses and filthy lucre; to be content with one church, namely, that to which they were ordained; to be courteous and pitiful for God's name sake, to the poor and indigent; they were all cassated and rendered. null by the dispensations which they h procured.

c. 1.

Thirty-se

ven Arti

17. On the contrary, it was Dr. Wiclif's opinion, which Of Prelates, he maintained with a good deal of zeal," that to this end " and work, viz. preaching and maintaining of the Gospel, "Christ ordained all his Apostles and Disciples, both be"fore his death and after his resurrection: that sith Pre"lates and Priests ordeyned of God, comen in the stede "of Apostles and Disciples, they ben all bounden by "Jesu Christ, God and man, to preache thus the Gospel. "That neither Prelatis, neither Preestis, neither Dekenis "shoulden have seculer officis, that is Chauncerie, Treso"rie, Privy Seal, and othire siche seculer officis in the "Chekir; neither be stiwardis of londis, ne stiwardis of "halle, ne clerkis of kichene, ne clerkis of accountis, nei"thir be occupied in ony seculer office in lordis courtis; "that most while seculer men be sufficient to do such se"culer offices. This sentence, it is said, is provid by "holi Writ in the 21st chap. of Luk, where Crist seith "thus; Take ye hede to your silf that your hertis be not "grevid with glotonie and drunkenes, and with bisinessis

cles, MS. No. 2.

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of this life. And in the second Pistil to Tymothe, the "second chapter, no man that holdith knygthood to God,

h Vis ea quæ ex divinis Scripturis intelligis, plebem cui ordinandus es, et verbis docere et exemplis ? R. Volo. Vis semper divinis negotiis esse mancipatus, et a terrenis negotiis et lucris turpibus esse alienus, quantum humana fragilitas te consenserit posse? R. Volo. Vis pauperibus, et peregrinis, omnibusque indigentibus esse, propter nomen Domini affabilis et misericors? R. Volo.-Et tunc demum in conspectu Episcopi, vel cleri, sive populi, polliceri debet— Ut ecclesia una, id est sua cui ordinatus est, contentus sit. Morinus de Sacris Ordinat. pars ii.

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