On the 15th June, during an earnest discussion relative to the abolition of cathedral chapters, Mr. William Thomas, member for Carnarvon, related to the House the history of Deans, tracing them up to the time of Augustine, who describes each as having the care of ten monks; and then he asked, "whether the office, as now it is exercised, be the same as then?" "They are deceived that urge it," the Welsh representative proceeded to say, "and they should know that this judicious House is able to discern and distinguish a counterfeit face of antiquity from the true. In vain do they, with the Gibeonites, labour to deceive us by old sacks, old shoes, old garments, old boots, and old bread that is dry and mouldy; therefore to no purpose and causelessly do they charge us to affect novelty, by our offering to take away church governors and government." He narrated stories of wicked deans; and said much about church music, as tickling the ear, without touching the heart, "whilst, as Augustine complaineth of himself, most were more moved by the sweetness of the song, than by the sense of the matter—working their bane like the deadly touch of the asps in a tickling delight—or as the soft touch of the hyena, which doth infatuate and lull asleep and then devoureth." Sir Benjamin Rudyard, who had before declared himself for Church reform, and still advocated it, offered some defence of cathedral establishments on the ground of their being conducive to the promotion of piety and learning. He deplored the selfishness which, in certain cases, led to the alienation of ecclesiastical property at the time of the Reformation; he warned his hearers against looking on Church lands with a carnal eye, and he besought them to search their hearts, that they might pursue sincere ends, without the least thought of saving their purses. Mr. Pury, alderman and member for Gloucester, produced the statutes which ordained that Deans and Canons should always reside within the cathedral's precincts, exercising the virtues of hospitality; that they should preach the Word in season and out of season, especially in the cathedral church and attend to the education of the young; and that they should have a common table in the Common Hall, where the canons, scholars, choristers, and subordinate officers should meet together. The Alderman then proceeded to observe, that not one of the statutes was kept, that the Dignitaries came once a year to receive the rents and profits of the lands, but did not distribute to the poor their proportion; that they neither mended the highways and bridges, nor kept any common table; and instead of preaching the gospel, they neglected it themselves, and did not encourage the discharge of the duty by others.[200] Throughout this debate the unpopularity at the time of that class, commonly termed the dignified clergy, appears in a very distinct and serious form. They had so completely identified themselves with the High Church party; they had become so imbued with the spirit of pride and intolerance; they had been so selfish in the exaction and enjoyment of their revenues; and they had been so unmindful of their spiritual duties, as to separate themselves from public sympathy:—a consequence which no class of religious ministers, whatever may be their legal and social position, can long afford to brave; a result which the highest privileged orders have never at last been able to face with impunity.
1641, June.
The discussion ended with a resolution that Deans and Chapters, and all Archdeacons should be utterly abolished, and that their lands should be employed for the advancement of learning and piety, competent maintenance being afforded to those who might thereby suffer loss, provided that they were not delinquents. The House further resolved, that the forfeited property should be entrusted to feoffees, that the bishops' lands should be given to the King, except advowsons and impropriations, and that competent funds should be reserved for supporting preachers in cathedrals, and for repairing the sacred edifices.
Debates by the Commons.
Proceeding with the business respecting Deans and Chapters, the committee did not drop the question of Bishops. On the 21st of June no change had come over the pleadings of the originator of the whole discussion. Dering's anti-prelatical zeal had not yet begun to wane, although he now complained of his adopted Bill as defective, and insisted on the importance of deciding on a future form of government before abandoning the present. He still alluded to existing Episcopacy in disrespectful terms, and advocated the introduction of a Presbyterian element into ecclesiastical rule. Dioceses, he said, were too large, and diocesans needed grave and able divines, assessors and assistants, amongst whom they were entitled to have the first place and to exercise the chief power. Then turning to the chairman for an illustration, the lively baronet observed: "Mr. Hyde, yourself are now in this great committee; Mr. Speaker is in the House the bishop of our congregation." "You,"—addressing himself to both gentlemen—"are in yourselves but fellow-members of the same House with us, returned hither (as we also are) to sit on these benches with us, until by our election, and by common suffrage, you are incathedrated. Then you have (and it is fit and necessary that you should have) a precedency before us and a presidency over us. Notwithstanding this, you are not diversified into a several and distinct order from us. You must not swell with that conceit. You (Mr. Chairman and Mr. Speaker) are still the same members of the same House you were, though raised to a painful and careful degree among us and above us. I do heartily wish that we had in every shire of England a bishop such and so regulated for Church government within that sphere, as Mr. Speaker is bounded in, and limited by the rules of this House."[201]
1641, June.
The comparison was as amusing as it was pertinent, and fell in with the prevalent opinion of the Puritan party, that if bishops were retained in England it must be according to a greatly reduced standard of authority and power, and one that should resemble the dimensions of the Episcopal office, as many believed it to have existed in the first and second centuries of the Christian era.
Before we terminate this chapter, another subject requires notice. The Long Parliament, at an early period, turned its attention to the character of the clergy. So many complaints were made against them, that the committee for religion, in the month of May, divided itself into sub-committees, whose business it was to investigate clerical scandals. Their proceedings have been subjected to severe criticism. It is said by Nalson, that accusations against the best ministers, by malicious persons, were invited and encouraged, and then admitted without any proof.[202] But this statement receives contradiction from the evidence which was laid before the Committees, and is still preserved; and though some portion of it might be untrustworthy, as is the case in every kind of judicial trial, other parts of it appear of a nature not to be gainsayed. In conducting these enquiries the practice was to receive written evidence, a practice borrowed from the Court of Arches, where the method of procedure is by libel and affidavit. Englishmen prefer the vivâ voce testimony of witnesses before a jury; yet there are not wanting men of judgment, in modern times, who favour a written statement of fact. At any rate, the Committees could plead precedent for the course which they pursued, and as the causes which came before them were ecclesiastical, they did but adopt the usages of ecclesiastical courts. The constitution of the tribunal, rather than the mode of trial, is open to exception. There is no vindicating the former but on the fundamental principle of all revolutions, that old authorities having become thoroughly corrupt, new ones must be constituted by the popular power—in such cases the supreme power—to meet emergencies arising out of previous derangement.
Debates by the Commons.
Cases which came under the notice of White's committee were published at a later period in his "Century of Scandalous Ministers."[203] On comparing that extraordinary volume with the proceedings of the Kent and Essex Committees, we must be struck with the large proportion in the former, not merely of allegations touching immorality, but of charges respecting the foulest and most atrocious crimes. Most of the complaints before Sir Edward Dering[204] related mainly to delinquencies of a theological, ecclesiastical, or political description; and the same may be said of the accusations brought against the Essex ministers: but on turning over White's pages we are nauseated with the filthiest accusations and the most abominable stories. If only half of them be true, he assuredly was supplied with abundant proofs of the extensive and utter degradation of the clergy. But some of the narratives seem to us so absurd as almost to defy belief; yet supposing that they are truthfully related, it is evident there existed in the parishes of England, at that time, incumbents who must be regarded as no less thoroughly mad than radically immoral.