OF THE ANCIENT AND PRESENT ESTATE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
[1577, Book II., Chapter 5; 1585, Book II., Chapter 1.]
There are now two provinces only in England, of which the first and
greatest is subject to the see of Canterbury, comprehending a part of
Lhoegres,[100] whole Cambria, and also Ireland, which in time past were
several, and brought into one by the archbishop of the said see, and
assistance of the pope, who, in respect of meed, did yield unto the
ambitious desires of sundry archbishops of Canterbury, as I have elsewhere
declared.[101] The second province is under the see of York. And, of
these, each hath her archbishop resident commonly within her own limits,
who hath not only the chief dealing in matters appertaining to the
hierarchy and jurisdiction of the church, but also great authority in
civil affairs touching the government of the commonwealth, so far forth as
their commissions and several circuits do extend.[102]
In old time there were three archbishops, and so many provinces in this
isle, of which one kept at London, another at York, and the third at
Caerleon upon Usk.[103] But as that of London was translated to Canterbury
by Augustine, and that of York remaineth (notwithstanding that the
greatest part of his jurisdiction is now bereft him and given to the
Scottish archbishop), so that of Caerleon is utterly extinguished, and
the government of the country united to that of Canterbury in spiritual
cases, after it was once before removed to St. David's in Wales, by David,
successor to Dubritius, and uncle to King Arthur, in the 519 of Grace, to
the end that he and his clerks might be further off from the cruelty of
the Saxons, where it remained till the time of the Bastard, and for a
season after, before it was annexed to the see of Canterbury.[104]
The Archbishop of Canterbury is commonly called the Primate of all
England; and in the coronations of the kings of this land, and all other
times wherein it shall please the prince to wear and put on his crown, his
office is to set it upon their heads. They bear also the name of their
high chaplains continually, although not a few of them have presumed (in
time past) to be their equals, and void of subjection unto them. That this
is true, it may easily appear by their own acts yet kept in record, beside
their epistles and answers written or in print, wherein they have sought
not only to match but also to mate them with great rigour and more than
open tyranny. Our adversaries will peradventure deny this absolutely, as
they do many other things apparent, though not without shameless
impudence, or at the leastwise defend it as just and not swerving from
common equity, because they imagine every archbishop to be the king's
equal in his own province. But how well their doing herein agreeth with
the saying of Peter and examples of the primitive church it may easily
appear. Some examples also of their demeanour--I mean in the time of
popery--I will not let to remember, lest they should say I speak of
malice, and without all ground of likelihood.
Of their practices with mean persons I speak not, neither will I begin at
Dunstan,[105] the author of all their pride and presumption here in
England.[106]
* * * * *
Wherefore I refer you to those reports of Anselm and Becket sufficiently
penned by other, the which Anselm also making a shew as if he had been
very unwilling to be placed in the see of Canterbury, gave this answer to
the letters of such his friends as did make request unto him to take the
charge upon him--
"_Secularia negotia nescio, quia scire nolo, eorum námque
occupationes horreo, liberum affectans animum. Voluntati sacrarum
intendo scripturarum, vos dissonantiam facitis, verendúmque est nè
aratrum sanctæ ecclesiæ, quod in Anglia duo boves validi et pari
fortitudine, ad bonum certantes, id est, rex et archiepiscopus,
debeant trahere, nunc ove vetula cum tauro indomito jugata,
distorqueatur à recto. Ego ovis vetula, qui si quietus essem, verbi
Dei lacte, et operimento lanæ, aliquibus possèm fortassis non
ingratus essè, sed si me cum hoc tauro coniungitis, videbitis pro
disparilitate trahentium, aratrum non rectè procedere_," etc.
Which is in English thus--
"Of secular affairs I have no skill, because I will not know them;
for I even abhor the troubles that rise about them, as one that
desireth to have his mind at liberty. I apply my whole endeavour to
the rule of the Scriptures; you lead me to the contrary; and it is to
be feared lest the plough of holy church, which two strong oxen of
equal force, and both like earnest to contend unto that which is good
(that is, the king and the archbishop), ought to draw, should thereby
now swerve from the right furrow, by matching of an old sheep with a
wild, untamed bull. I am that old sheep, who, if I might be quiet,
could peradventure shew myself not altogether ungrateful to some, by
feeding them with the milk of the Word of God, and covering them
with wool: but if you match me with this bull, you shall see that,
through want of equality in draught, the plough will not go to
right," etc.
As followeth in the process of his letters. The said Thomas Becket was so
proud that he wrote to King Henry the Second, as to his lord, to his king,
and to his son, offering him his counsel, his reverence, and due
correction, etc. Others in like sort have protested that they owed nothing
to the kings of this land, but their council only, reserving all obedience
unto the see of Rome, whereby we may easily see the pride and ambition of
the clergy in the blind time of ignorance.[107]
And as the old cock of Canterbury did crow in this behalf, so the young
cockerels of other sees did imitate his demeanour, as may be seen by this
one example also in King Stephen's time, worthy to be remembered; unto
whom the Bishop of London would not so much as swear to be true subject:
wherein also he was maintained by the pope.[108]
* * * * *
Thus we see that kings were to rule no further than it pleased the pope to
like of; neither to challenge more obedience of their subjects than stood
also with their good will and pleasure. He wrote in like sort unto Queen
Maud about the same matter, making her "Samson's calf"[109] (the better to
bring his purpose to pass).[110]
* * * * *
Is it not strange that a peevish order of religion (devised by man) should
break the express law of God, who commandeth all men to honour and obey
their kings and princes, in whom some part of the power of God is manifest
and laid open unto us? And even unto this end the cardinal of Hostia[111]
also wrote to the canons of Paul's after this manner, covertly encouraging
them to stand to their election of the said Robert, who was no more
willing to give over his new bishopric than they careful to offend the
king, but rather imagined which way to keep it still, maugre his
displeasure, and yet not to swear obedience unto him for all that he
should be able to do or perform unto the contrary.[112]
* * * * *
Hereby you see how King Stephen was dealt withal. And albeit the
Archbishop of Canterbury is not openly to be touched herewith, yet it is
not to be doubted but he was a doer in it, so far as might tend to the
maintenance of the right and prerogative of holy church. And even no less
unquietness had another of our princes with Thomas of Arundel,[113] who
fled to Rome for fear of his head, and caused the pope to write an
ambitious and contumelious letter unto his sovereign about his
restitution. But when (by the king's letters yet extant, and beginning
thus: "_Thomas proditionis non expers nostræ regiæ majestati insidias
fabricavit_") the pope understood the bottom of the matter, he was
contented that Thomas should be deprived, and another archbishop chosen in
his stead.
Neither did this pride stay at archbishops and bishops, but descended
lower, even to the rake-hells of the clergy and puddles of all
ungodliness. For, beside the injury received of their superiors, how was
King John dealt withal by the vile Cistertians at Lincoln in the second of
his reign? Certes when he had (upon just occasion) conceived some grudge
against them for their ambitious demeanour, and upon denial to pay such
sums of money as were allotted unto them, he had caused seizure to be made
of such horses, swine, neat, and other things of theirs as were maintained
in his forests, they denounced him as fast amongst themselves with bell,
book, and candle,[114] to be accursed and excommunicated. Thereunto they
so handled the matter with the pope and their friends that the king was
fain to yield to their good graces, insomuch that a meeting for
pacification was appointed between them at Lincoln, by means of the
present Archbishop of Canterbury, who went off between him and the
Cistertian commissioners before the matter could be finished. In the end
the king himself came also unto the said commissioners as they sat in
their chapterhouse, and there with tears fell down at their feet, craving
pardon for his trespasses against them, and heartily requiring that they
would (from henceforth) commend him and his realm in their prayers unto
the protection of the Almighty, and receive him into their fraternity,
promising moreover full satisfaction of their damages sustained, and to
build an house of their order in whatsoever place of England it should
please them to assign. And this he confirmed by charter bearing date the
seven-and-twentieth of November, after the Scottish king was returned into
Scotland,[115] and departed from the king. Whereby (and by other the
like, as between John Stratford[116] and Edward the Third, etc.) a man may
easily conceive how proud the clergymen have been in former times, as
wholly presuming upon the primacy of their pope. More matter could I
allege of these and the like broils, not to be found among our common
historiographers. Howbeit, reserving the same unto places more convenient,
I will cease to speak of them at this time, and go forward with such other
things as my purpose is to speak of. At the first, therefore, there was
like and equal authority in both our archbishops, but as he of Canterbury
hath long since obtained the prerogative above York (although I say not
without great trouble, suit, some bloodshed, and contention), so the
Archbishop of York is nevertheless written Primate of England, as one
contenting himself with a piece of a title at the least, when all could
not be gotten. And as he of Canterbury crowneth the king, so this of York
doth the like to the queen, whose perpetual chaplain he is, and hath been
from time to time, since the determination of this controversy, as writers
do report. The first also hath under his jurisdiction to the number of
one-and-twenty inferior bishops; the other hath only four, by reason that
the churches of Scotland are now removed from his obedience unto an
archbishop of their own, whereby the greatness and circuit of the
jurisdiction of York is not a little diminished. In like sort, each of
these seven-and-twenty sees have their cathedral churches, wherein the
deans (a calling not known in England before the Conquest) do bear the
chief rule, being men especially chosen to that vocation, both for their
learning and godliness, so near as can be possible. These cathedral
churches have in like manner other dignities and canonries still remaining
unto them, as heretofore under the popish regiment. Howbeit those that are
chosen to the same are no idle and unprofitable persons (as in times past
they have been when most of these livings were either furnished with
strangers, especially out of Italy, boys, or such idiots as had least
skill of all in discharging of those functions whereunto they were called
by virtue of these stipends), but such as by preaching and teaching can
and do learnedly set forth the glory of God, and further the overthrow of
anti-Christ to the uttermost of their powers.
These churches are called cathedral, because the bishops dwell or lie near
unto the same, as bound to keep continual residence within their
jurisdictions for the better oversight and governance of the same, the
word being derived _a cathedra_--that is to say, a chair or seat where he
resteth, and for the most part abideth. At the first there was but one
church in every jurisdiction, whereinto no man entered to pray but with
some oblation or other toward the maintenance of the pastor. For as it was
reputed an infamy to pass by any of them without visitation, so it was no
less reproach to appear empty before the Lord. And for this occasion also
they were builded very huge and great; for otherwise they were not capable
to such multitudes as came daily unto them to hear the Word and receive
the sacraments.
But as the number of Christians increased, so first monasteries, then
finally parish churches, were builded in every jurisdiction: from whence I
take our deanery churches to have their original (now called "mother
churches," and their incumbents, archpriests), the rest being added since
the Conquest, either by the lords of every town, or zealous men, loth to
travel far, and willing to have some ease by building them near hand. Unto
these deanery churches also the clergy in old time of the same deanery
were appointed to repair at sundry seasons, there to receive wholesome
ordinances, and to consult upon the necessary affairs of the whole
jurisdiction if necessity so required; and some image hereof is yet to be
seen in the north parts. But as the number of churches increased, so the
repair of the faithful unto the cathedrals did diminish; whereby they now
become, especially in their nether parts, rather markets and shops for
merchandise than solemn places of prayer, whereunto they were first
erected. Moreover, in the said cathedral churches upon Sundays and
festival days the canons do make certain ordinary sermons by course,
whereunto great numbers of all estates do orderly resort; and upon the
working days, thrice in the week, one of the said canons (or some other in
his stead) doth read and expound some piece of holy Scripture, whereunto
the people do very reverently repair. The bishops themselves in like sort
are not idle in their callings; for, being now exempt from court and
council, which is one (and a no small) piece of their felicity (although
Richard Archbishop of Canterbury thought otherwise, as yet appeareth by
his letters to Pope Alexander, Epistola 44, Petri Blesensis, where he
saith, because the clergy of his time were somewhat narrowly looked unto,
"_Supra dorsum ecclesiæ fabricant peccatores_," etc.), they so apply their
minds to the setting forth of the Word that there are very few of them
which do not every Sunday or oftener resort to some place or other within
their jurisdictions where they expound the Scriptures with much gravity
and skill, and yet not without the great misliking and contempt of such as
hate the Word. Of their manifold translations from one see to another I
will say nothing, which is not now done for the benefit of the flock as
the preferment of the party favoured and advantage unto the prince, a
matter in time past much doubted of--to wit, whether a bishop or pastor
might be translated from one see to another, and left undecided till
prescription by royal authority made it good. For, among princes, a thing
once done is well done, and to be done oftentimes, though no warrant be to
be found therefore.
They have under them also their archdeacons, some one, divers two, and
many four or more, as their circuits are in quantity, which archdeacons
are termed in law the bishops' eyes; and these (beside their ordinary
courts, which are holden within so many or more of their several
deaneries by themselves or their officials once in a month at the least)
do keep yearly two visitations or synods (as the bishop doth in every
third year, wherein he confirmeth some children, though most care but a
little for that ceremony), in which they make diligent inquisition and
search, as well for the doctrine and behaviour of the ministers as the
orderly dealing of the parishioners in resorting to their parish churches
and conformity unto religion. They punish also with great severity all
such trespassers, either in person or by the purse (where permutation of
penance is thought more grievous to the offender), as are presented unto
them; or, if the cause be of the more weight, as in cases of heresy,
pertinacy, contempt, and such like, they refer them either to the bishop
of the diocese, or his chancellor, or else to sundry grave persons set in
authority, by virtue of an high commission directed unto them from the
prince to that end, who in very courteous manner do see the offenders
gently reformed or else severely punished if necessity so enforce.
Beside this, in many of our archdeaconries, we have an exercise lately
begun which for the most part is called a _prophecy_[117] or _conference_,
and erected only for the examination or trial of the diligence of the
clergy in their study of holy Scriptures. Howbeit, such is the thirsty
desire of the people in these days to hear the Word of God that they also
have as it were with zealous violence intruded themselves among them (but
as hearers only) to come by more knowledge through their presence at the
same. Herein also (for the most part) two of the younger sort of ministers
do expound each after other some piece of the Scriptures ordinarily
appointed unto them in their courses (wherein they orderly go through with
some one of the Evangelists, or of the Epistles, as it pleaseth the whole
assembly to choose at the first in every of these conferences); and when
they have spent an hour or a little more between them, then cometh one of
the better learned sort, who, being a graduate for the most part, or known
to be a preacher sufficiently authorised and of a sound judgment,
supplieth the room of a moderator, making first a brief rehearsal of their
discourses, and then adding what him thinketh good of his own knowledge,
whereby two hours are thus commonly spent at this most profitable meeting.
When all is done, if the first speakers have shewed any piece of
diligence, they are commended for their travel, and encouraged to go
forward. If they have been found to be slack, or not sound in delivery of
their doctrine, their negligence and error is openly reproved before all
their brethren, who go aside of purpose from the laity after the exercise
ended to judge of these matters, and consult of the next speakers and
quantity of the text to be handled in that place. The laity never speak,
of course (except some vain and busy head will now and then intrude
themselves with offence), but are only hearers; and, as it is used in some
places weekly, in other once in fourteen days, in divers monthly, and
elsewhere twice in a year, so is it a notable spur unto all the ministers
thereby to apply their books, which otherwise (as in times past) would
give themselves to hawking, hunting, tables, cards, dice, tippling at the
alehouse, shooting of matches, and other like vanities, nothing
commendable in such as should be godly and zealous stewards of the good
gifts of God, faithful distributors of his Word unto the people, and
diligent pastors according to their calling.
But alas! as Sathan, the author of all mischief, hath in sundry manners
heretofore hindered the erection and maintenance of many good things, so
in this he hath stirred up adversaries of late unto this most profitable
exercise, who, not regarding the commodity that riseth thereby so well to
the hearers as speakers, but either stumbling (I cannot tell how) at words
and terms, or at the leastwise not liking to hear of the reprehension of
vice, or peradventure taking a misliking at the slender demeanours of such
negligent ministers as now and then in their course do occupy the rooms,
have either by their own practice, their sinister information, or
suggestions made upon surmises unto other, procured the suppression of
these conferences, condemning them as hurtful, pernicious, and daily
breeders of no small hurt and inconvenience.[118] But hereof let God be
judge, unto the cause belongeth.
Our elders or ministers and deacons (for subdeacons and the other inferior
orders sometime used in popish church we have not) are made according to a
certain form of consecration concluded upon in the time of King Edward the
Sixth by the clergy of England, and soon after confirmed by the three
estates of the realm in the high court of parliament. And out of the first
sort--that is to say, of such as are called to the ministry (without
respect whether they be married or not)--are bishops, deans, archdeacons,
and such as have the higher places in the hierarchy of the church elected;
and these also, as all the rest, at the first coming unto any spiritual
promotion do yield unto the prince the entire tax of that their living for
one whole year, if it amount in value unto ten pounds and upwards, and
this under the name and title of first fruits.[119]
With us also it is permitted that a sufficient man may (by dispensation
from the prince[120]) hold two livings, not distant either from other
above thirty miles; whereby it cometh to pass that, as her Majesty doth
reap some commodity by the faculty, so that the unition of two in one man
doth bring oftentimes more benefit to one of them in a month (I mean for
doctrine) than they have had before peradventure in many years.
Many exclaim against such faculties,[121] as if there were more good
preachers that want maintenance than livings to maintain them. Indeed when
a living is void there are so many suitors for it that a man would think
the report to be true, and most certain; but when it cometh to the trial
(who are sufficient and who not, who are staid men in conversation,
judgment, and learning), of that great number you shall hardly find one or
two such as they ought to be, and yet none more earnest to make suit, to
promise largely, bear a better shew, or find fault with the stage of
things than they. Nevertheless I do not think that their exclamations, if
they were wisely handled, are altogether grounded upon rumours or
ambitious minds, if you respect the state of the thing itself, and not the
necessity growing through want of able men to furnish out all the cures in
England, which both our universities are never able to perform. For if you
observe what numbers of preachers Cambridge[122] and Oxford do yearly
send forth, and how many new compositions are made in the Court of First
Fruits by the deaths of the last incumbents, you shall soon see a
difference. Wherefore, if in country towns and cities, yea even in London
itself, four or five of the little churches were brought into one, the
inconvenience would in great part be redressed and amended.
And, to say truth, one most commonly of those small livings is of so
little value that it is not able to maintain a mean scholar, much less a
learned man, as not being above ten, twelve, sixteen, seventeen, twenty,
or thirty pounds at the most, toward their charges, which now (more than
before time) do go out of the same. I say more than before, because every
small trifle, nobleman's request, or courtesy craved by the bishop, doth
impose and command a twentieth part, a three score part, or twopence in
the pound, etc., out of the livings, which hitherto hath not been usually
granted, but by the consent of a synod, wherein things were decided
according to equity, and the poorer sort considered of, which now are
equally burdened.
We pay also the tenths of our livings to the prince yearly, according to
such valuation of each of them as hath been lately made: which
nevertheless in time past were not annual, but voluntary, and paid at
request of king or pope.[123]
* * * * *
But to return to our tenths, a payment first as devised by the pope, and
afterward taken up as by the prescription of the king, whereunto we may
join also our first fruits, which is one whole year's commodity of our
living, due at our entrance into the same, the tenths abated unto the
prince's coffers, and paid commonly in two years. For the receipt also of
these two payments an especial office or court is erected, which beareth
name of First Fruits and Tenths, whereunto, if the party to be preferred
do not make his dutiful repair by an appointed time after possession
taken, there to compound for the payment of his said fruits, he incurreth
the danger of a great penalty, limited by a certain statute provided in
that behalf against such as do intrude into the ecclesiastical function
and refuse to pay the accustomed duties belonging to the same.
They pay likewise subsidies with the temporalty, but in such sort that if
these pay after four shillings for land, the clergy contribute commonly
after six shillings of the pound, so that of a benefice of twenty pounds
by the year the incumbent thinketh himself well acquitted if, all ordinary
payments being discharged, he may reserve thirteen pounds six shillings
eightpence towards his own sustentation or maintenance of his family.
Seldom also are they without the compass of a subsidy; for if they be one
year clear from this payment (a thing not often seen of late years), they
are like in the next to hear of another grant: so that I say again they
are seldom without the limit of a subsidy. Herein also they somewhat find
themselves grieved that the laity may at every taxation help themselves,
and so they do, through consideration had of their decay and hindrance,
and yet their impoverishment cannot but touch also the parson or vicar,
unto whom such liberty is denied, as is daily to be seen in their accounts
and tithings.
Some of them also, after the marriages of their children, will have their
proportions qualified, or by friendship get themselves quite out of the
book. But what stand I upon these things, who have rather to complain of
the injury offered by some of our neighbours of the laity, which daily
endeavour to bring us also within the compass of their fifteens or taxes
for their own ease, whereas the tax of the whole realm, which is commonly
greater in the champagne than woodland soil, amounteth only to 37,930
pounds ninepence halfpenny, is a burden easy enough to be borne upon so
many shoulders, without the help of the clergy, whose tenths and subsidies
make up commonly a double, if not treble sum unto their aforesaid
payments? Sometimes also we are threatened with a _Melius inquirendum_, as
if our livings were not racked high enough already. But if a man should
seek out where all those church lands which in time past did contribute
unto the old sum required or to be made up, no doubt no small number of
the laity of all states should be contributors also with us, the prince
not defrauded of her expectation and right. We are also charged with
armour and munitions from thirty pounds upwards, a thing more needful than
divers other charges imposed upon us are convenient, by which and other
burdens our ease groweth to be more heavy by a great deal (notwithstanding
our immunity from temporal services) than that of the laity, and, for
aught that I see, not likely to be diminished, as if the church were now
become the ass whereon every market man is to ride and cast his wallet.
The other payments due unto the archbishop and bishop at their several
visitations (of which the first is double to the latter), and such also as
the archdeacon receive that his synods, etc., remain still as they did
without any alteration. Only this I think he added within memory of man,
that at the coming of every prince his appointed officers do commonly
visit the whole realm under the form of an ecclesiastical inquisition, in
which the clergy do usually pay double fees, as unto the archbishop.
Hereby then, and by those already remembered, it is found that the Church
of England is no less commodious to the prince's coffers than the state of
the laity, if it do not far exceed the same, since their payments are
certain, continual, and seldom abated, howsoever they gather up their own
duties with grudging, murmuring, suit, and slanderous speeches of the
payers, or have their livings otherwise hardly valued unto the uttermost
farthing, or shrewdly cancelled by the covetousness of the patrons, of
whom some do bestow advowsons of benefices upon their bakers, butlers,
cooks, good archers, falconers, and horsekeepers,[124] instead of other
recompense, for their long and faithful service, which they employ
afterward unto the most advantage.[125]
Certes here they resemble the pope very much; for, as he sendeth out his
idols, so do they their parasites, pages, chamberlains, stewards, grooms,
and lackeys; and yet these be the men that first exclaim of the
insufficiency of the ministers, as hoping thereby in due time to get also
their glebes and grounds into their hands.[126] In times past bishoprics
went almost after the same manner under the lay princes, and then under
the pope, so that he which helped a clerk unto a see was sure to have a
present or purse fine, if not an annual pension, besides that which went
to the pope's coffers, and was thought to be very good merchandise.
To proceed therefore with the rest, I think it good also to remember that
the names usually given unto such as feed the flock remain in like sort as
in times past, so that these words, _parson_, _vicar_, _curate_, and such,
are not yet abolished more than the canon law itself, which is daily
pleaded, as I have said elsewhere, although the statutes of the realm have
greatly infringed the large scope and brought the exercise of the same
into some narrower limits. There is nothing read in our churches but the
canonical Scriptures, whereby it cometh to pass that the Psalter is said
over once in thirty days, the New Testament four times, and the Old
Testament once in the year. And hereunto, if the curate be adjudged by the
bishop or his deputies sufficiently instructed in the holy Scriptures, and
therewithal able to teach, he permitteth him to make some exposition or
exhortation in his parish unto amendment of life. And for so much as our
churches and universities have been so spoiled in time of error, as there
cannot yet be had such number of able pastors as may suffice for every
parish to have one, there are (beside four sermons appointed by public
order in the year) certain sermons or homilies (devised by sundry learned
men, confirmed for sound doctrine by consent of the divines, and public
authority of the prince), and those appointed to be read by the curates of
mean understanding (which homilies do comprehend the principal parts of
Christian doctrine, as of original sin, of justification by faith, of
charity, and such like) upon the Sabbath days unto the congregation. And,
after a certain number of psalms read, which are limited according to the
dates of the month, for morning and evening prayer we have two lessons,
whereof the first is taken out of the Old Testament, the second out of the
New; and of these latter, that in the morning is out of the Gospels, the
other in the afternoon out of some one of the Epistles. After morning
prayer also, we have the Litany and suffrages, an invocation in mine
opinion not devised without the great assistance of the Spirit of God,
although many curious mind-sick persons utterly condemn it as
superstitious, and savouring of conjuration and sorcery.
This being done, we proceed unto the communion, if any communicants be to
receive the Eucharist; if not, we read the Decalogue, Epistle, and Gospel,
with the Nicene Creed (of some in derision called the "dry communion"),
and then proceed unto an homily or sermon, which hath a psalm before and
after it, and finally unto the baptism of such infants as on every Sabbath
day (if occasion so require) are brought unto the churches; and thus is
the forenoon bestowed. In the afternoon likewise we meet again, and, after
the psalms and lessons ended, we have commonly a sermon, or at the
leastwise our youth catechised by the space of an hour. And thus do we
spend the Sabbath day in good and godly exercises, all done in our vulgar
tongue, that each one present may hear and understand the same, which also
in cathedral and collegiate churches is so ordered that the psalms only
are sung by note, the rest being read (as in common parish churches) by
the minister with a loud voice, saving that in the administration of the
communion the choir singeth the answers, the creed, and sundry other
things appointed, but in so plain, I say, and distinct manner that each
one present may understand what they sing, every word having but one note,
though the whole harmony consist of many parts, and those very cunningly
set by the skilful in that science.
Certes this translation of the service of the church into the vulgar
tongue hath not a little offended the pope almost in every age, as a thing
very often attempted by divers princes, but never generally obtained, for
fear lest the consenting thereunto might breed the overthrow (as it would
indeed) of all his religion and hierarchy; nevertheless, in some places
where the kings and princes dwelled not under his nose, it was performed
maugre his resistance. Wratislaus, Duke of Bohemia, would long since have
done the like also in his kingdom; but, not daring to venture so far
without the consent of the pope, he wrote unto him thereof, and received
his answer inhibitory unto all his proceeding in the same.
* * * * *
I would set down two or three more of the like instruments passed from
that see unto the like end, but this shall suffice, being less common than
the other, which are to be had more plentifully.
As for our churches themselves, bells and times of morning and evening
prayer remain as in times past, saving that all images, shrines,
tabernacles, rood-lofts, and monuments of idolatry are removed, taken
down, and defaced, only the stories in glass windows excepted, which, for
want of sufficient store of new stuff, and by reason of extreme charge
that should grow by the alteration of the same into white panes throughout
the realm, are not altogether abolished in most places at once, but by
little and little suffered to decay, that white glass may be provided and
set up in their rooms. Finally, whereas there was wont to be a great
partition between the choir and the body of the church, now it is either
very small or none at all, and (to say the truth) altogether needless,
sith the minister saith his service commonly in the body of the church,
with his face toward the people, in a little tabernacle of wainscot
provided for the purpose, by which means the ignorant do not only learn
divers of the psalms and usual prayers by heart, but also such as can read
do pray together with him, so that the whole congregation at one instant
pour out their petitions unto the living God for the whole estate of His
church in most earnest and fervent manner. Our holy and festival days are
very well reduced also unto a less number; for whereas (not long since) we
had under the pope four score and fifteen, called festival, and thirty
_profesti_, beside the Sundays, they are all brought unto seven and
twenty, and, with them, the superfluous numbers of idle wakes, guilds,
fraternities, church-ales, help-ales, and soul-ales, called also
dirge-ales, with the heathenish rioting at bride-ales, are well diminished
and laid aside. And no great matter were it if the feasts of all our
apostles, evangelists, and martyrs, with that of all saints, were brought
to the holy days that follow upon Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and
those of the Virgin Mary, with the rest, utterly removed from the
calendars, as neither necessary nor commendable in a reformed church.
The apparel in like sort of our clergymen is comely, and, in truth, more
decent than ever it was in the popish church, before the universities
bound their graduates unto a stable attire, afterward usurped also even by
the blind Sir Johns. For, if you peruse well my Chronology ensuing, you
shall find that they went either in divers colours like players, or in
garments of light hue, as yellow, red, green, etc., with their shoes
piked, their hair crisped, their girdles armed with silver, their shoes,
spurs, bridles, etc., buckled with like metal, their apparel (for the most
part) of silk, and richly furred, their caps laced and buttoned with gold,
so that to meet a priest in those days was to behold a peacock that
spreadeth his tail when he danceth before the hen,[127] which now (I say)
is well reformed. Touching hospitality, there was never any greater used
in England, sith by reason that marriage is permitted to him that will
choose that kind of life, their meat and drink is more orderly and
frugally dressed, their furniture of household more convenient and better
looked unto, and the poor oftener fed generally than heretofore they have
been, when only a few bishops and double or treble beneficed men did make
good cheer at Christmas only, or otherwise kept great houses for the
entertainment of the rich, which did often see and visit them. It is
thought much peradventure that some bishops, etc., in our time do come
short of the ancient gluttony and prodigality of their predecessors; but
to such as do consider of the curtailing of their livings, or excessive
prices whereunto things are grown, and how their course is limited by law,
and estate looked into on every side, the cause of their so doing is well
enough perceived. This also offended many, that they should, after their
deaths, leave their substances to their wives and children, whereas they
consider not that in old time such as had no lemans nor bastards[128]
(very few were there, God wot, of this sort) did leave their goods and
possessions to their brethren and kinsfolks, whereby (as I can shew by
good record) many houses of gentility have grown and been erected. If in
any age some one of them did found a college, almshouse, or school, if you
look unto these our times, you shall see no fewer deeds of charity done,
nor better grounded upon the right stub of piety than before. If you say
that their wives be fond, after the decease of their husbands, and bestow
themselves not so advisedly as their calling requireth (which, God
knoweth, these curious surveyors make small account of truth, further than
thereby to gather matter of reprehension), I beseech you then to look into
all states of the laity, and tell me whether some duchesses, countesses,
barons' or knights' wives, do not fully so often offend in the like as
they? For Eve will be Eve, though Adam would say nay. Not a few also find
fault with our threadbare gowns, as if not our patrons but our wives were
causes of our woe. But if it were known to all that I know to have been
performed of late in Essex, where a minister taking a benefice (of less
than twenty pounds in the Queen's books, so far as I remember) was
enforced to pay to his patron twenty quarters of oats, ten quarters of
wheat, and sixteen yearly of barley (which he called _hawks' meat_), and
another let the like in farm to his patron for ten pounds by the year
which is well worth forty at the least, the cause of our threadbare gowns
would easily appear: for such patrons do scrape the wool from our cloaks.
Wherefore I may well say that such a threadbare minister is either an ill
man or hath an ill patron, or both; and when such cooks and cobbling
shifters[129] shall be removed and weeded out of the ministry, I doubt not
but our patrons will prove better men, and be reformed whether they will
or not, or else the single-minded bishops shall see the living bestowed
upon such as do deserve it. When the Pragmatic Sanction took place first
in France, it was supposed that these enormities should utterly have
ceased; but when the elections of bishops came once into the hands of the
canons and spiritual men, it grew to be far worse. For they also, within a
while waxing covetous, by their own experience learned aforehand, raised
the markets, and sought after new gains by the gifts of the greatest
livings in that country, wherein (as Machiavelli writeth) are eighteen
archbishoprics, one hundred forty and five bishoprics, 740 abbeys, eleven
universities, 1,000,700 steeples (if his report be sound). Some are of the
opinion that, if sufficient men in every town might be sent for from the
universities, this mischief would soon be remedied; but I am clean of
another mind. For, when I consider whereunto the gifts of fellowships in
some places are grown, the profit that ariseth at sundry elections of
scholars out of grammar schools to the posers, schoolmasters, and
preferers of them to our universities, the gifts of a great number of
almshouses builded for the maimed and impotent soldiers by princes and
good men heretofore moved with a pitiful consideration of the poor
distressed, how rewards, pensions, and annuities also do reign in other
cases whereby the giver is brought sometimes into extreme misery, and that
not so much as the room of a common soldier is not obtained oftentimes
without a "_What will you give me?_" I am brought into such a mistrust of
the sequel of this device that I dare pronounce (almost for certain) that,
if Homer were now alive, it should be said to him:
"Tuque licet venias musis comitatus Homere,
Si nihil attuleris, ibis Homere foras!"
More I could say, and more I would say, of these and other things, were it
not that in mine own judgment I have said enough already for the
advertisement of such as be wise. Nevertheless, before I finish this
chapter, I will add a word or two (so briefly as I can) of the old estate
of cathedral churches, which I have collected together here and there
among the writers, and whereby it shall easily be seen what they were, and
how near the government of ours do in these days approach unto them; for
that there is an irreconcilable odds between them and those of the
Papists, I hope there is no learned man indeed but will acknowledge and
yield unto it.
We find therefore in the time of the primitive church that there was in
every see or jurisdiction one school at the least, whereunto such as were
catechists in Christian religion did resort. And hereof, as we may find
great testimony for Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, and Jerusalem, so no small
notice is left of the like in the inferior sort, if the names of such as
taught in them be called to mind, and the histories well read which make
report of the same. These schools were under the jurisdiction of the
bishops, and from thence did they and the rest of the elders choose out
such as were the ripest scholars, and willing to serve in the ministry,
whom they placed also in their cathedral churches, there not only to be
further instructed in the knowledge of the world, but also to inure them
to the delivery of the same unto the people in sound manner, to minister
the sacraments, to visit the sick and brethren imprisoned, and to perform
such other duties as then belonged to their charges. The bishop himself
and elders of the church were also hearers and examiners of their
doctrine; and, being in process of time found meet workmen for the Lord's
harvest, they were forthwith sent abroad (after imposition of hands and
prayer generally made for their good proceeding) to some place or other
then destitute of her pastor, and other taken from the school also placed
in their rooms. What number of such clerks belonged now and then to some
one see, the Chronology following shall easily declare; and, in like sort,
what officers, widows, and other persons were daily maintained in those
seasons by the offerings and oblations of the faithful it is incredible to
be reported, if we compare the same with the decays and oblations seen and
practised at this present. But what is that in all the world which avarice
and negligence will not corrupt and impair? And, as this is a pattern of
the estate of the cathedral churches in those times, so I wish that the
like order of government might once again be restored unto the same, which
may be done with ease, sith the schools are already builded in every
diocese, the universities, places of their preferment unto further
knowledge, and the cathedral churches great enough to receive so many as
shall come from thence to be instructed unto doctrine. But one hindrance
of this is already and more and more to be looked for (beside the plucking
and snatching commonly seen from such houses and the church), and that is,
the general contempt of the ministry, and small consideration of their
former pains taken, whereby less and less hope of competent maintenance by
preaching the word is likely to ensue. Wherefore the greatest part of the
more excellent wits choose rather to employ their studies unto physic and
the laws, utterly giving over the study of the Scriptures, for fear lest
they should in time not get their bread by the same. By this means also
the stalls in their choirs would be better filled, which now (for the most
part) are empty, and prebends should be prebends indeed, there to live
till they were preferred to some ecclesiastical function, and then other
men chosen to succeed them in their rooms, whereas now prebends are but
superfluous additiments unto former excesses, and perpetual commodities
unto the owners, which before time were but temporal (as I have said
before). But as I have good leisure to wish for these things, so it shall
be a longer time before it will be brought to pass. Nevertheless, as I
will pray for a reformation in this behold, so will I here conclude my
discourse on the estate of our churches.