I. before your lordships for making the late Book of Canons, and CHARLES putting them in execution, may be excluded from their votes in parliament. "Secondly, That all the bishops may be excluded from having any vote in that act, sent from the house of commons to your lordships, entituled, 'An Act to take away the Bishops' Votes in Parliament," &c. After this member had gone on some length in declaiming against the bishops, he was seconded by Mr. Solicitor St. John, who urged several reasons and precedents for excluding the bishops voting in the bill last mentioned. John's argu First, In regard they have no such inherent right of assisting Solicitor St. in parliament, as the lords temporal have, because they do not ment against assist there as a representative body. But this argument disables the temporal lords no less than the spiritual from sitting in parliament; for these represent no further than their own persons. Secondly, Mr. Solicitor argues the bishops have not an equal inherent right of peerage with the temporal lords, because their power is not of the same extent. For instance, they have no liberty of voting at the trial of a peer; which privilege could not be taken away by any canon, if the right of it was (as he calls it) inherent. That the bishops' peerage is entire, has been already proved, and need not be repeated. the bishops' peerage, &c. See first and second vol. Thirdly, If the bishops represented the clergy, and of this Hist. amounted to a third estate, no act of parliament could be good without their assent to disprove this, he observes, the bishops, in the first of queen Elizabeth, disagreed to the bill for establishing the Common Prayer; and yet the statute has always been reckoned binding. To this it may be answered, first, That by the custom and constitution of parliament, the lords spiritual and temporal are reckoned as one body in giving their votes; and therefore the house is always concluded by a majority, without regard to any distinction of character in the members. As to the rest of his See above argument, I shall refer the reader to what I have already in the first written. year of queen Elizabeth. Further, That the bishops are a third estate, is evident from The bishops the records of parliament: to mention some of them. one of the LAUD, three estates the 66 crown By the Parliament Roll, 1 H. IV. it appears, that king Abp. Cant, Richard II. appointed two proxies to declare his resignation of coram omnibus statubus regni ;" who these estates were appears afterward, when they were called, "Pares et proceres regni Angliæ spirituales, et temporales, et ejusdem regni communitates omnes status ejusdem regni representantes." in parliament. Rot. Parl. 1. Cotton's p. 710. 714. 3 Hen. 6. num. 19. By this authority, it is evident the bishops are not only a third estate, but peers of the realm. In the Parliament Roll, 1 R. III. it is recorded, that before his coronation certain articles were delivered to him in the name of the three estates of the realm; that is to say, in the name of the lords spiritual, the lords temporal, and the com mons. To proceed: 3 H. VI. the record mentions the three estates assembled in this present parliament; and in explaining the extent of the duke of Bedford's protectoral power, it is said, it was advised and appointed by the authority of the king, assenting the three estates of this realm: from whence it is plain, the king was not reckoned one of them. 66 year of the same The 11th H. VI. the duke of Bedford appeared in parliament, and assigned the reason of his coming, coram domino Rot. Parl. rege, et tribus statubus regni," before the king and the three estates of the realm: and in the twenty-third reign, the Parliament Record runs "Presente domino rege et tribus statubus in presenti parliamento existentibus." And in another year, "Domino rege et tribus regni statubus in 23 Hen. 6. pleno parliamento comparentibus." 6 Hen. 6. num. 24. num. 11. 28. Hen. 6. num. 9. To go back to one instance in the first year of this reign, the queen dowager in her petition mentioning an order of parliament, made 9 H. V. declares it was not only sworn by the king, but by the three estates of the kingdom of England, "C'est assavoir, les prelatz, nobles, et grands, et par les communs de mesm le royalm d'angleterre." From all these records it appears, that the three estates are fundamental to the constitution of parliaments, and that the bishops are one of them. The solicitor St. John argues, that the king may hold his parliament without calling the bishops to it: for this he cites the opinion of the judges in 7th Hen. VIII.; but this case I have considered already under that year, and therefore shall add nothing further. I. It is insisted on, Fifthly, That in the 25th Ed. I. a parlia- CHARLES ment was held at St. Edmund's Bury, excluso clero: that notwithstanding this, many good laws were made there. Rushworth's Hist. Coll. To this it is answered, First, That to argue from a single part 3. instance against customary and general practice, is no good P. 395, 396. logic; and over and above, if one of the three estates may be set aside at discretion, why not another? Secondly, The bishops in this parliament were not excluded the session by the king, and the other two estates, but by their own choice the occasion of it was a bull of Boniface VIII.; by which the clergy were forbidden giving any more subsidies. And whereas it is affirmed, many good unquestioned laws were made in that session, it is plain by the rolls, that nothing of this kind was done in that parliament, except the temporalties granting a twelfth to the king. 808. Archbishop Episcopacy. To proceed the bishops were not only struck at in their Discourse in parliamentary privilege, but in their spiritual character. To Defence of do them justice in this point and support the government of the Church, archbishop Usher published a seasonable tract to combat the "Root and Branch Bill," and prove episcopacy of The meaning of the "Root apostolical institution. A brief abstract of the main of this and Branch performance may not be unacceptable to the reader. Bill" was the abolish pacy, and the Presby To begin to make good that those whom our translation ing episcocalls elders were subordinate to the bishop, he proves that introducing those whom St. John, in the Revelations, calls the angels terian goof the Churches, were bishops both in name and authority: vernment. particularly, that St. Timothy was bishop of Ephesus; and that one of those angels St. John writes to was his successor. This he proves, first, by the list of bishops of the Church of Ephesus; and, secondly, by the testimony of St. Ignatius and others. Chalced. For the first point, it was publicly declared by Leontius, bishop of Magnesia, at the fourth general council, 'ATÒ To Concil. ἁγίου Τιμοθέου μέχρι νῦν εἰκοσίεπτα ἐπίσκοποι ἐγένοντο πάντες act. 2. ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ἐχειροτονήθησαν. “That, from Timothy, and therefore by inevitable consequence from the time of the apostles, there had been a continued succession of twenty-seven bishops, all ordained in Ephesus." That Beza, in his commentaries, confesses that Timothy had been some time the Toоors, or president of the Ephesian presbytery; that Justin Martyr calls him that presides in the LAUD, ecclesiastical assemblies Tρоɛσтe, who, by the other Fathers, Abp. Cant. is called a bishop'. That St. Timothy was ordained bishop of the Church of Ephesus, is further confirmed by the testimony Hist. Eccles. of Eusebius, and likewise by two tracts, of considerable antiquity, concerning the martyrdom of St. Timothy: one of these is anonymous, and mentioned in Photius's " Bibliotheca ;" the other is said to have been written by Polycrates, who was himself bishop of Ephesus, and born within thirty-seven years after St. John wrote the Revelations. lib. 3. cap.4. Theod. That Onesimus was bishop of Ephesus, and consequently the angel of that Church, to whom St. John wrote the Epistle in the Revelations, primate Usher proves from Ignatius. "Now Ignatius, whom Theodoret, Felix III., and Johannes Antiochenus reported to have been ordained at Antioch by St. Peter, Felix 3. in was, without all question, bishop of that see when St. John Epist. ad Zenon. Im- wrote that letter to the angel of the Church of Ephesus: for perat. Reci- St. John wrote his Revelation towards the end of Domitian's Synod. C. P. reign, as Irenæus affirms, or in the fourteenth year of Domitian's government, as Eusebius and St. Jerome relate. From this period there are but twelve years to the tenth of Trajan, when St. Ignatius was carried to Rome to suffer martyrdom, and wrote another letter to the Church at Ephesus, in which lib. 10. MS. he makes mention of Onesimus as their bishop, and puts them in mind of their duty to him." tat. in V. act. 1. tom.2. Concil. p. 222. Edit. Binii Johan. Chronic. The primate advances further, and affirms, "that St. Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna when St. John wrote to the angel of the Church of that city. Now, Irenæus, who reports this, was not only acquainted with St. Polycarp's successors in that see, but was present when that saint himself discoursed of his conversation with St. John, and related several remarkable things he had heard from those who had seen our blessed Saviour: Kai Πολύκαρπος, says Irenaeus, δὲ οὐ μόνον ὑπὸ ̓Αποστόλων μαθητευθεὶς, καὶ συναστραφεὶς, πολλοῖς τοῖς τὸν Χριστὸν ἑωρακόσιν, &c.: i. e. St. Polycarp was not only a disciple of the apostles, and conversed with many persons who had seen Jesus Christ, but was also ordained bishop of Smyrna by the apostles themIren. lib. 3. selves. This St. Polycarp I saw myself when I was young, for сар. 3. advers. Hæres. he lived to a great age before his martyrdom."" To this title Tρоεστs, lexicographers suppose that the Latin word præstes, and the English word priests are allied in etymology and signification: the bishops seem to have been always priests, but not always presbyters. I. The lord primate cites another testimony of St. Irenæus, to CHARLES prove the apostolical succession of the bishops of his time; and that they taught no other doctrine than what they received from those inspired missionaries. His words are these: "Ha- Id. ibid. bemus annumerare eos qui ab apostolis instituti sunt episcopi in Ecclesiis, et successores eorum usque ad nos; qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab his deliratur.' We can reckon those who were ordained bishops by the apostles, and carry down their successors to our own time." cap. 22. Tertullian's authority comes next. This learned Father, in his "Prescription against Heretics," writes thus: "Sicut De Prescrip. Smyrnæorum Ecclesia Polycarpum ab Johanne collocatum refert; sicut Romanorum Clementem a Petro ordinatum edit; perinde utique et cæteræ exhibent quos ab apostolis in episcopatum constitutos, apostolici seminis traduces habent.' As the records of the Church of Smyrna prove St. Polycarp their first bishop, as the register and tradition of the Church of Rome make it appear that St. Clement was ordained bishop there by St. Peter, so the rest of the Churches have authentic records to show what bishops were placed there by the apostles, to continue the succession, and propagate the faith, first delivered to the saints." --- And this may be sufficient to give the reader somewhat of an idea of the learned primate's performance. To proceed: notwithstanding the king's passing the bills for putting down the courts of Star-chamber and High Commission, signing a restraint upon the council-board, and other large concessions,-notwithstanding, I say, he had thus remarkably lessened his prerogative, the commons were preparing to entertain him at his return from Scotland with a large recital of grievances and mal-administration. This remonstrance was strongly contested in the house of commons. The debate lasted from three in the afternoon till three in the morning; and, after all this struggle, it was carried but by a few. In short, the members seemed tired, and overwatched into a compliance, which made them say the remonstrance looked like the "verdict of a starved jury." I shall mention some part of this complaint which relates to the Church. The remonstrance sets forth, that the promotion of all the mischiefs recited are, |