houses; from which his lordship justly concludes, that as they were all of them, almost to a man, conformists to the church of England, they had all imaginable duty for the king and affection for the government established by law; and as for the church, the major part even of these persons would have been willing to satisfy the king; the rather, because they had no reason to think the two houses, or indeed either of them, could have been induced to pursue the contrary. How injurious then are the characters of those church historians, and others, who have represented the members of this parliament, even at their first session, as men of the new religion, or of no religion, fanatics, men deeply engaged in a design against the whole constitution in church and state!

The parliament was opened Nov. 3, with a most gracious speech from the throne, wherein his majesty declares, he would concur with them in satisfying their just grievances, leaving it with them where to begin. Only some offence was taken at stiling the Scots, Rebels, at a time when there was a pacification subsisting; upon which his majesty came to the house, and instead of softening his language, very imprudently avowed the expression, saying, he could call them neither better nor worse. The houses petitioned his majesty to appoint a fast for a divine blessing upon their counsels, which was observed Nov. 17, the reverend Mr. Marshal and Mr. Burges preached before the commons; the former on 2 Chron. xv. 2. The Lord is with you, while you are with him; if you seek him he will be found of you, but if you forsake him he will forsake you. The latter on Jer. 1. 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. The sermons were long, but delivered with a great deal of caution: the house gave them thanks. and a piece of plate for their labors. The bishops of Durham and Carlisle preached before the lords in the abbey church of Westminster; the one a courtier, and the other a favorer of the puritans. The Lord's-day following, all the members in a body received the sacrament from the hands of bishop Williams, dean of Westminster, not at the rails about the altar, but at a communion-table

placed by order of the house, in the middle of the church on that occasion.

At their first entrance upon business they appointed four grand committees; the first to receive petitions about griev ances of religion, which was afterwards subdivided into twenty or thirty; the second for the affairs of Scotland and Ireland; the third for civil grievances, as ship-money, judges, courts of justice, monopolies, &c. the fourth concerning popery, and plots relating thereunto. Among the grievances of religion, one of the first things that came before the house was, the acts and canons of the late convocation; several warm speeches were made against the compilers of them, Nov. 9, and among others lord Digby, who was as yet with the country party, stood up and said, "Does 'not every parliament-man's heart rise, to see the prelates 'usurping to themselves the grand pre-eminence of parlia'ment? the granting subsidies under the name of a be'nevolence, under no less a penalty to them that refuse it, than the loss of heaven and earth; of heaven by excom'munication, and of earth by deprivation, and this without redemption by appeal? What good man can think with patience, of such an ensnaring oath, as that which the new 'canons enjoin to be taken, by ministers, lawyers, physi'cians, and graduates in the university, where, besides the 'swearing such an impertinence, as that things necessary to 'salvation are contained in discipline; besides the swearing 'those to be of divine right, which among the learned was 'never pretended to, as the arch things in our hierarchy; 'besides the swearing not to consent to the change of that, which the state may, upon great reasons, think fit to alter; besides the bottomless perjury of an et cætera; besides all tinis, men must swear that they swear freely and voluntarily, what they are compelled to; and lastly, that they 'swear to the oath in the literal sense, whereof no two of the makers themselves that I have heard of, could ever 'agree in the understanding."*

Sir B. Rudyard, Sir J. Culpeper, Sir Edward Deering,

* Dr. Grey contrasts this speech of lord Digby's as far as it censures the convocation for taxing the clergy, with some reflections on it from Collier; who asserts, that the clergy had always the privilege of taxing their own body; that from Magna Charta to the 37th of Henry VII

Sir Harbottle Grimstone, spoke with the same warmth and satirical wit, for discharging the canons, dismounting them, and melting them down; nor did any gentleman stand up in their behalf but Mr. Holbourn, who is said to make a speech of two hours in their vindication; but his arguments made no impression on the house, for at the close of the debate a committee of twelve gentlemen, among whom were Mr. Selden, Maynard, and Coke, was appointed to search for the warrants by which the convocation was held, after the parliament broke up, and for the letters patent of the benevolence, and for such other materials as might assist the house in their next debate upon this argument, which was appointed for Dec. 14, when some of the members would have aggravated the crime of the convocation to high treason, but serjeant Maynard and Mr. Bagshaw moderated their resentments, by convincing them that they were only in a præmunire. At the close of the debate the house came to the following resolutions :

Resolved nem. contradicente, "That the clergy of England convened in any convocation or synod, or otherwise, have no power to make any constitutions, canons 'or acts whatsoever, in matters of doctrine, discipline or ' otherwise, to bind the clergy or laity of the land, without consent of parliament.

Resolved, "That the several constitutions and canons 'ecclesiastical, treated upon by the archbishops of Canter

there is no parliamentary confirmation of subsidies given by the clergy; and that in 1585, there is an instance of the convocation granting and levying a subsidy or benevolence by synodical authority. The credit of Mr. Neal's history, in this point, is no further concerned than as he faithfully represents lord Digby's speech. This Dr.Grey does not dispute. Yet it may be proper to observe, that a great lawyer says, "that the grants of the clergy were illegal and not binding, unless they were confirmed in parliament:" and that lord Clarendon, speaking of this convocation giving subsidies out of parliament, censures it as doing that "which it certainly might not do." The last subsidies granted by the clergy were those confirmed by the statute 15 Car. I. cap. 10. Since which this practice of granting ecclesiastical subsidies has given way to another method of taxation, comprehending the clergy as well as the laity; and in recompense for it, the beneficed clergy are allowed to vote for knights of the shire. Collier's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 795. Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 311, Svo. 1778; and lord Clarendon's Hist. vol. i. p. 148.

Ed.

bury and York, presidents of the convocations for their ' respective provinces, and the rest of the bishops and cler"gy of those provinces, and agreed upon with the king's majesty's licence, in their several synods begun at Lon'don and York, 1640, do not bind the clergy or laity of 'the land, or either of them.

Resolved, "That the several constitutions and canons 'made and agreed to in the convocations or synods above'mentioned, do contain in them many matters contrary to 'the king's prerogative, to the fundamental laws and stat'utes of this realm, to the rights of parliament, to the prop'erty and liberty of the subject, and matters tending to se'dition, and of dangerous consequence.

Resolved, "That the several grants of benevolences or 'contributions, granted to his most excellent majesty by 'the clergy of the provinces of Canterbury and York, in the several convocations or synods holden at London and York, in the year 1640, are contrary to the laws, and 'ought not to bind the clergy."

If the first of these resolutions be agreeable to law, I apprehend there were then no canons subsisting, for those of 1603 were not brought into parliament, but, being made in a parliamentary convocation, were ratified by the king un der the great seal and so became binding on the clergy, according to the statute of the 25th of King Henry VIII. In the Saxon times all ecclesiastical laws and constitutions were confirmed by the peers, and by the representatives of the people ;* but those great councils, to which

*This Dr. Grey controverts, and says, "I should be glad to know what authority he has for this assertion." It is not for the editor to give the authority when Mr. Neal has not himself referred to it; but he can supply the want of it by an authority, which, if Dr. Grey were living, would command his respect: viz. that of Dr. Burn, who tells us, that “even in the Saxon times, if the subject of any laws was for 'the outward peace and temporal government of the church, such laws were properly ordained by the king and his great council of clergy and laity intermixed, as our acts of parliament are still made. But if there was any doctrine to be tried, or any exercise of pure disci'pline to be reformed, then the clergy of the great council departed into a separate synod, and there acted as the proper judges. Only when they had thus provided for the state of religion, they brought their ca. nons from the synod to the great council, to be ratified by the king, ' with the advice of his great men, and so made the constitutions of the VOL. II. 48

our parliaments succeed, being made up of laics and ecclesiastics, were afterwards separated, and then the clergy did their business by themselves, and enacted laws without confirmation of king or parliament, during the reign of popery, till the act of the submission of the clergy to King Henry VIII. so that the claim of making canons without the sanction of parliament, seemed to stand upon no other foundation than the usurped power of the pope; nor did the parliaments of those times yield up their right, for in the 51st of Edward III. the commons passed a bill, that no act or ordinance should be made for the future upon the petition of the clergy, without the consent of the commons; and that the said commons should not be bound for the future by any constitutions of the clergy, to which they had not given their consent in parliament. But the bill being dropt, things went on upon the former foot till the reign of King Henry VIII. when the pope's usurped power being abolished, both parliament and clergy agreed (by the act of submission) that no canons should be binding without the royal assent; and that the clergy in convocation should not so much as consult about any, without the king's special licence; but serjeant Maynard delivered it as his opinion in the house, that it did not follow, that because the clergy might not make canons without the king's licence, that therefore they might make them and bind them on the clergy by his licence alone; for this were to take away the ancient rights of parliament before the pope's 'church to be laws of the realm. And the Norman Revolution made no change in this respect." This author further says, "that the convocation tax did always pass both houses of parliament; since it could 'not bind as a law, till it had the consent of the legislature." Judge Foster, in his examination of bishop Gibson's codex, appeals to the Jaws of Ethelbert and Withred, kings of Kent, and of Ina of Wessex; to the laws of Alfred, Edward the elder, Athelstan, Edmund, Edgar, and Canute, as proofs that the ecclesiastical and civil concerns of the kingdom. were not, in the times of the Saxons, under the care of two separate legislatures, and subject to different administrations; but blended together, and directed by one and the same legislature, the GREAT COUNCILS (or, in modern stile, the parliaments) of the respective kingdoms, during the heptarchy, and of the united kingdom afterwards. Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, vol. ii. p. 22, 26. 8vo. An Examination of the Scheme of Church Power laid down in the Codex, p. 126,&c. Ed.

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* Fuller's Appeal, p. 42.