what by few, were all changed into painful doers of that which every good Christian man ought either only or chiefly to do, and to be found therein doing when that great and glorious judge of all men's both deeds and words shall appear? In the meanwhile, be it one that hath this charge, or be they many that be his assistants, let there be careful provision that justice may be administered, and in this shall our God be glorified more than by such contentious disputes.

which our

XV. Of which nature that also is, wherein bishops aré, Concerning over and besides all this, accused "to have much more ex- the civil power and cessive power than the ancient, inasmuch as unto their eccle- authority siastical authority, the civil magistrate for the better repress- bishops ing of such as contemn ecclesiastical censures, hath for divers have. ages annexed civil. The crime of bishops herein is divided into these two several branches-the one, that in causes ecclesiastical they strike with the sword of secular punishments; the other, that offices are granted them, by virtue whereof they meddle with civil affairs. Touching the one, it reacheth no farther than only unto restraint of liberty by imprisonment (which yet is not done but by the laws of the land, and by virtue of authority derived from the prince). A thing which being allowable in priests amongst the Jews, must needs have received some strange alteration in nature since, if it be now so pernicious and venomous to be coupled with á spiritual vocation in any man which beareth office in the church of Christ. Shemaiah writing to the college of priests Jer. which were in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the principal of xxix. 26. them, told them they were appointed of God, "that they might be officers in the house of the Lord, for every man which raved, and did make himself a prophet," to the end that they might, by the force of this their authority, "put such in prison, and in the stocks." His malice is reproved, for that he provoketh them to shew their power against the innocent. But surely, when any man justly punishable had been brought before them, it could be no unjust thing for them even in such sort then to have punished. As for offices, by virtue whereof bishops have to deal in civil affairs, we must consider that civil affairs are of divers kinds; and as they be not all fit for ecclesiastical persons to meddle with, so neither is it necessary, nor at this day haply convenient, that from meddling with any such thing at all they all should without exception be secluded. I will therefore set down some few causes,

wherein it cannot but clearly appear unto reasonable men, that civil and ecclesiastical functions may be lawfully united in one and the same person.

First, therefore, in case a Christian society be planted amongst their professed enemies, or by toleration do live under some certain state whereinto they are not incorporated, whom shall we judge the meetest men to have the hearing and determining of such mere civil controversies as are every day wont to grow between man and man? Such being the state of the church of Corinth, the apostle giveth them this 1 Cor. vi. direction, "Dare any of you, having business against another, be judged by the unjust, and not under saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? If the world then shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge the angels? how much more things that appertain to this life? If then ye have judgment of things pertaining to this life, set up them which are least esteemed in the church. I speak it to your shame; is it so, that there is not a wise man amongst you? no, not one that can judge between his brethren, but a brother goeth to law with a brother, and that under the infidels? Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another; why rather suffer ye not wrong, why rather sustain ye not harm?" In which speech there are these degrees; better to suffer and to put up injuries, than to contend; better to end contention by arbitrement, than by judgment; better by judgment before the wisest of their own, than before the simpler; better before the simplest of their own, than the wisest of them without: so that if judgment of secular affairs should be committed unto wise men, unto men of chiefest credit and account amongst them, when the pastors of their souls are such, who more fit to be also their judges for the ending of strifes? The wisest in things Divine, may be also in things human the most skilful. At leastwise they are by likelihood commonly more able to know right from wrong, than the common unlettered sort. And what St. Augustine did hereby gather, his own words do sufficiently shew. "I call God to witness upon my soul (saith he), that according to the order which is kept in wellordered monasteries, I could wish to have every day my hours of labouring with my hands, my hours of reading, and of praying, rather than to endure these most tumultuous perplexities

Vide Bar

nab. Bris

son. antiq.

Jur. lib.

xl. c. 16.

Aug. de oper. Mo

nach. c.29.

of other men's causes, which I am forced to bear while I travel in secular businesses, either by judging to discuss them, or to cut them off by entreaty : unto which toils that apostle, who himself sustained them not, for any thing we read, hath notwithstanding tied us not of his own accord, but being thereunto directed by that Spirit which speaks in him. His own apostleship, which drew him to travel up and down, suffered him not to be any where settled to this purpose; wherefore the wise, faithful, and holy men which were seated here and there, and not them which travelled up and down to preach, he made examiners of such businesses. Whereupon of him it is no where written, that he had leisure to attend these things, from which we cannot excuse ourselves although we be simple because even such he requireth, if wise men cannot be had, rather than that the affairs of Christians should be brought into public judgment. Howbeit, not without comfort in our Lord are these travels undertaken by us, for the hope's sake of eternal life, to the end that with patience we may reap the fruit." So far is St. Augustine from thinking it unlawful for pastors in such sort to judge civil causes, that he plainly collecteth out of the apostle's words, a necessity to undertake that duty; yea, himself he comforteth with the hope of a blessed reward, in lieu of travail that they sustained.

Again, even where whole Christian kingdoms are, how troublesome were it for universities, and other great collegiate societies, erected to serve as nurseries unto the church of Christ, if every thing which civilly doth concern them were to be carried from their own peculiar governors, because for the most part they are (as fittest it is they should be) persons of ecclesiastical calling? It was by the wisdom of our famous predecessors foreseen how unfit this would be, and hereupon provided by grant of special charters, that it might be, as now it is in the universities; where their vicechancellors, being for the most part professors of divinity, are nevertheless civil judges over them in the most of their ordinary causes.

And to go yet some degrees farther, a thing impossible it is not, neither altogether unusual for some who are of royal blood to be consecrated unto the ministry of Jesus Christ, and so to be the nurses of God's church, not only as the pro

phet did foretell, but also as the apostle St. Paul was. Now in case the crown should by this means descend unto such persons, perhaps when they are the very last, or perhaps the very best of their race, so that a greater benefit they are not able to bestow upon a kingdom, than by accepting their right therein; shall the sanctity of their order deprive them of that honour whereunto they have by right blood? Or shall it be a bar to shut out the public good that may grow by their virtuous regiment? If not, then must they cast off the office which they received by Divine imposition of hands; or, if they carry a more religious opinion concerning that heavenly function, it followeth, that being invested as well with the other, they remain God's lawful anointed both ways. With men of skill and mature judgment there is of this so little doubt, that concerning such as at this day are under the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves, being both archbishops and princes of the empire; yea, such as live within the pope's own civil territories, there is no cause why any should deny to yield them civil obedience in any thing which they command, not repugnant to Christian piety; yea, even that civility, for such as are under them, not to obey them, were the part of seditious persons: howbeit, for persons ecclesiastical thus to exercise civil dominion of their own, is more than when they only sustain some public office, or deal in some business civil, being thereunto even by supreme authority required. As nature doth not any thing in vain, so neither grace. Wherefore, if it please God to bless some principal attendants on his own sanctuary, and to endue them with extraordinary parts of excellency, some in one kind some in another, surely a great derogation it were to the very honour of him who bestowed so precious graces, except they on whom he hath bestowed them should accordingly be employed, that the fruit of those heavenly gifts might extend itself unto the body of the commonwealth wherein they live; which being of purpose instituted (for so all commonwealths are) to the end that all might enjoy whatsoever good it pleaseth the Almighty to endue each one with, must needs suffer loss, when it hath not the gain which eminent civil ability in ecclesiastical persons is now and then found apt to afford. Shall we then discommend the people of Milan for using Ambrose their bishop as an ambassador about their

public and politic affairs; the Jews for electing their priests sometimes to be leaders in war; David for making the highpriest his chiefest counsellor of state: finally, all Christian kings and princes which have appointed unto like services, bishops or other of the clergy under them? No, they have done in this respect that which most sincere and religious wisdom alloweth. Neither is it allowable only, when either a kind of necessity doth cast civil offices upon them, or when they are thereunto preferred in regard of some extraordinary fitness; but farther also, when there are even of right annexed unto some of their places or of course imposed upon certain of their persons, functions of dignity and account in the commonwealth; albeit no other consideration be had therein save this, that their credit and countenance may by such means be augmented. A thing, if ever to be respected, surely most of all now, when God himself is for his own sake generally no where honoured, religion almost no where, no where religiously adored, the ministry of the word and sacraments of Christ, a very cause of disgrace in the eyes both of high and low, where it hath not somewhat besides itself to be countenanced with. For unto this very pass are things come, that the glory of God is constrained even to stand upon borrowed credit, which yet were somewhat the more tolerable, if there were not that dissuade to lend it him. No practice so vile, but pretended holiness is made sometimes a cloak to hide it.

The French king Philip Valois, in his time made an ordinance, that all prelates and bishops should be clean excluded from parliaments, where the affairs of the kingdom were handled; pretending that a king, with good conscience, cannot draw pastors, having cure of souls, from so weighty a business, to trouble their heads with consultations of state. But irreligious intents are not able to hide themselves, no, not when holiness is made their cloak. This is plain and simple truth, that the councils of wicked men hate always the presence of them whose virtue, though it should not be able to prevail against their purposes, would, notwithstanding, be unto their minds a secret controversy; and therefore, till either by one shift or another they can bring all things to their own hands alone, they are not secure. Ordinances holier and better there stand as yet in force by the grace of Almighty God, and the works of his providence amongst us.