APPELLO CAESAREM.  
OR▪ An Appeal to CAESAR: In vindication of a little Book printed some years since in the time of our troubles and entitled, A Present for Caesar.  
Both done by Tho: Bradley D. D. one of his late Majesty's Chaplains, and Rector of Castleford and Ackworth near Pontefract in Yorkshire, both in his Majesty's gift and of his special grace bestowed upon the Author, but ever since 44 (merely for his Loyalty) taken from him again by Sequestration.  
YORK, Printed by Alice Broad, 1661.   

To the Kings most Excellent Majesty Charles the second, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France & Ireland, Defender of the Faith, in all causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical and Civil within his Majesty's Dominions next under Christ Supreme Head and Governor.  
Most gracious & dread Sovereign,  
TO your sacred hand & view I humbly offer this little peiee, because your Majesty is in some sort concerned in it; I know your Majesty hath little time to read books, but there are some books which both for the usefulness of the subject & matter which they treat of, and for the smoothness of the style & language they are clothed with, are both pleasant & profitable, and so the reading of them is but a studious recreation, and such is this at least in one of these respects, and it is but a little one, it took not up above two days in the writing of it, l●sse than one hours' time in the reading of it will dispatch it, and I humbly beseech your Majesty that you would bestow upon it those few minutes, that you will be pleased to read it and that you would read it through, and that you would read it yourself, for there are some things in it which perhaps there are many that are not willing your Majesty should be acquainted with, and therefore against such I humbly beg your Majesty's protection, howsoever I shall keep myself within the bounds of truth & soberness, and if I do disserve any of them it shall be in order to the serving of your Majesty, which when I can do no way else, I shall supply with my prayers public and private for all the blessings which may make your Majesty happy both here on earth, and eternally hereafter in heaven. Amen.  
Your Majesty's most humble and loyal Subject, T. Bradley,   

Apello Caesarem: or an Appeal to Caesar in the vindication of a little book printed some years since in the time our troubles: intiuled, A Present for CAESAR.  
TRue it is there was such a little book printed some years since; which I do own, in which I find no fault but in the Title, and some complemental language here & there to mitigate the ferocity of that Tyrant with whom in it I had to do, but he was sagacious enough to discover the hook that lay hidden under that bait which then I offered him, 'tis true the Title was A present for Caesar: and we have no Caesar but the King. but surely in common prudence, thus much you will allow to policy, that he which had a Tyrant to deal withal may give him good words. neither did the giving of him a better style than he deserved make him really such as that style did import, nor conclude him that gave it him (only by way of allusion) to esteem him so. There are evidences enough to conclude the contrary in the judgement of all them that know me, for if services or sufferings, by sequestrations, plunderings, frequent imprisonments, menaces and threatenings reaching even to life itself may speak a man loyal, there are enough that speak loud enough to declare me such. For my zeal in his Majesty's Cause, and service, it is well known I forsook all to follow him through thick and thin, and did so to the very last, and being a sworn Chaplain was one of those that did help to carry the Ark before him in the time of his greatest troubles and dangers, and was afflicted in many of those things wherein he was afflicted.  
But to pass by these praevious considerations mentioned only for prevention of prejudice. I pass from the title of the book to the book itself, and of that I shall give a very brief yet a full and clear account under these two heads. 

1. By showing what the very sum, subject, & substance of that book was.  
2. What my aims, ends, & reaches were in penning it at that time.   The former of these is obvious to any man at the first view, which sees or reads it, but in the latter I was more reserved they were known only to myself, and very few more whom I acquainted with them, Dr. Healing for one which knew more of that which lay in the bottom of that design then any other, and with whom I had frequent conference about it. All these things I shall now unriddle & unfold, which done & rightly understood, then Apello Caesarem, Apello Ecclesiam, Apello Populum, Apello Omnes, I shall appeal to all the world whether that book or he that penned it, deserves that blame which some imagine, nay I shall rise so high in my vindication as not only to free it from blame, but I challenge thanks for it from all England, especially the Clergy which especially blame me for it, and if his Majesty shall be pleased to take hold of some discoveries that there I make, and which here in this vindication I must necessarily hint at, I hope his Majesty will think I do him no disservice in it neither.  
As to the first then of these 2 heads, The very sum and substance of the book lies in these 2 proposals, and those two concerning only Churchmen & Church livings all which at that time were in the hands and possession of the intruding Clergy which had invaded and usurped upon the Church as their Patron had done upon the civil State. concerning them therefore I made these two proposals.  
1. First, I did propose that all those that did possess sequestered livings, and had peaceably enjoyed them two years or above might be required to pay their first-fruits, the Tyrant having set forth a cruel Proclamation, that we should never return to our livings more, nor exercise our Ministerial Function elsewhere.  
2. My second proposal was this, I did propose that they and all others which should hereafter be preferred to Ecclesiastical dignities or promotions might pay their first-fruits according to the statute of the 26 of Henry the eighth whereby it is required that they should pay them in according to the full value of such dignities, benefices, and promotions, and not as they stand partially rated in the King's book by an ancient inquiry made above 100 years since which gives them not in to the 5, 6, nor scarce to the 8 part of the true value throughout the land, this done, I did demonstrate what a great improvement this would make of the first-fruit Office, for the first-fruits being thus improved the tenths likewise must improve proportionably, according to which the tenths would come to near as much as the first-fruits now come to, and the first-fruits to 6 or 8 times as much as they now are. This is the very sum and substance of that little piece for which I am blamed, all the rest is but as the mantling to the arms, or filling to the limbs, or comment upon the Text showing the equity, legality, reasonableness, & seasonableness of such a proposal at that time.  
But there was much more lay at the bottom which was not obvious to every eye, neither was it my desire that he should know them, therefore in the next place I will show what were my ends, aims, and reaches in those proposals, and they were these.  
1. The first was (clear contrary to the apprehensions of those that charge me in this matter) the very preservation of Tithes, Churches, Colleges, all which were now in a tottering condition, dangerously shaken, undermined, and near unto ruin. for,  
1. That grand Impostor had proposed in the House that they would consider of some way whereby a Ministry might be maintained in England without paying of tithes.  
2. Most of the Counties in England had petitioned against the payment of them.  
3. The people did generally deny the payment of them, insomuch as one of the Judges returning homeward from his Circuit told me that in that circuit they had near 100 Causes came before them in the ease of nonpayment of Tithes.  
4. Cromwel's countrymen, Jones and Vavasor powel had begun an experiment tending hereunto in Wales, by gathering all the Tithes & Church-profit● into a common treasury, that is to say their own purses & their adherents, and instead of a standing Clergy to set up an itinerant Ministry.  
5. That mushrum Parliament called together by Cromwel's Writ, or Letters, wherein Rowse was the Speaker had made a praevious Act in order to this design, whereby they made the Ministry useless throughout the Land, for as for preaching they tolerated a liberty to preach who would, for the Sacrament of Baptism, that there was no need of that till children were come to 14 or 15 years of age, and then they might make a Minister among themselves to do that office, for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, that was in a manner clear banished out of the Church, for marrying that was committed to the Justices of peace, for burying let one pit another, the dead bury the dead, not so much as the Register book but it was taken out of our hands, and the Parish was to choose a Register to keep it, so the Ministry was made useless throughout the land, and what was this but a praevious Act proceeding from anabaptistical principles in order to that sacrilegious and wicked design of overthrowing the whole body of Tithes, the Churches ancient patrimony, and with it the Ministry itself, (for the perpetuity whereof they were first ordained) together with the Schools of the prophets, the Churches wherein God was worshipped, and all that was sacred, if I at such a time as this stepped in to stay & to support the shaking pillars of them all, by intitleing those that were the actors in this tragedy to a considerable revenue out of them, that for the preservation of their own interest they might protect and uphold the whole bulk and body, out of which it did arise, forgive me this wrong, and who would think much in such a dangerous storm to throw out some of the wares & fraught to preserve the Ship and lading, and there are now living many (than Parliament men) to whom I had distributed some of those books which confess that my proposals therein were just and legal, equal, reasonable & rational, and that they did sway much with them in voting for the tithes, and yet for all this when it came to the vote, it was carried but by one voice for the Church, for the House was equally divided, and it stood merely and only upon speaker Lenthall's voice whether tithes, or no tithes, and to his honour let me remember it in this great business (for other matters if he did amiss let him answer for himself) he cast it for the Church. Now in this point of time when the Church and Church affairs, Tithes, Colleges, and all lay at stake, tottering as it were upon the point of a needle, if I came in, and east in but one grain, or scruple to cast it the right way, will my brethren of the Church charge me & say I did them wrong, no I was their benefactor, I did them all good service, and I deserve thanks at their hands. this was my first aim and I carried it with success.  
2. My second end that I aimed at was this, wherein I cannot so well justify my self as in the former, because there was something of revenge in it, which (though I were never so great a sufferer, and many more with me) yet I should not have thought on, but this it was in a word, truly to punish the usurping and intruding Clergy which by the power of their Committie of plundered Ministers above, and their Country Committees here below subservient to them, and the authority of one person more (whom I will not name) invaded our livings, cast all the Orthodox Clergy out of the Churches, and put themselves into the possession of them from Dan to Beershebae throughout the land. Upon which by the help of their army they entered with such cruelty that they seized upon all, Goods in the house, Corn on the ground, Crop in the Barns, imprisoning the Husbands, throwing out the Wives & children into the streets without all mercy, not one in ten of them ever allowing them any fifths, or any other help out of them notwithstanding a colourable Act made to that purpose. So then distingue tempora distinguish but the times, do but consider in whose possession the Church was when I promoted that design, and made those proposals, and you will soon free me from any intention of evil to the Orthodox Church or Churchmen in whose behalf I writ it, but for these cruel, usurping & intruding Harpeys, God forgive me my revengeful thoughts against them, I did not care what burden I laid upon them  
3. My third end in those proposals, was the ease of the country & Commons of England in respect of their contributions, taxes & assessments, by taking off from them and laying a great part of their burden upon those unto whom more properly it did belong, the Church and Churchmen, whose war this most properly was, and in whose quarrel it was begun, and this is expressed in terminis in that book, for which they so much blame me, but let them and all others look back to the beginning of these wars and troubles, the cause, the quarrel, the incendiaries and promoters of it, and will it not fall upon the turbulent discontented Churchmen, and where were the coals of it first kindled, was it not in the Pulpit, the rigid Presbiterian Pulpit, witness that text in Judges the 5 th'. so frequently preached and printed on, and agreed on in Zion College by a certain number of them there met together that it should be so. Curse ye Meroz, curse him bitterly, because he came not forth to help the Lord, to help the Lord, against the mighty, and although they did since that some of them salve the matter by declaring against the murder of the late King, and since that by declaring for his Majesty that now is, yet these plasters are to narrow to heal that head which before they had so sore broken, they have great cause to be humbled under the sense of those grievious things which have fallen out as the consequence of their desperate beginnings, though they intended them not, their doctrines, and practices were then pestilential, turbulent, & seditious, and from their Spawn have risen since all those seditious Sects of Independents, Anabaptists, Quakers, etc. which now like locusts coming out of the bottomless pit cover the face of the earth, and have filled every corner of this land to the greivious corruption of the truth, and interruption of the peace both of the Church and Kingdom. If then they were the principal is the quarrel, the chiefest causers & beginners of the war, and now had their desires in sharing the Bishops and the Chapters lands among them for augmentations, and in putting themselves into the possession of the best livings in the land, and the revenue of the Church; was it unreasonable that I should move that they should bear the greatest burden of them for the ease of others that were not so much concerned in the quarrel, but would willingly be at peace in the land, this was my third end and aim in those proposals.  
4. In my fourth end & aim in those proposals I had respect unto his Majesty that now is, and then was our most gracious King and Sovereign, and to the augmentation of his Majesty's revenue: For I did assure myself his Majesty would return to his Crown and Kingdom with that honour which to our unspeakable joy our eyes have seen, I did persuade myself that he would not himself take the advantage of this discovery, but if it were done to his hand by another, than he might, either with honour and justice enough continue it (as now the Excile) and so it would be a fair augmentation to his Majesty's revenue, or if not, that his Majesty might restore it to the Church again, and so gain unto himself the glory of his bounty, and engage all Churchmen throughout the land the faster and closer to him, from whose gift and bounty, they should receive so great a benefit:  
Obj: Oh but it will be objected, how shall we know you had any such intentions toward his Majesty, and not rather toward the Usurper then in power?  
Solv: If I do not demonstrate it, let me be severely censured & interpreted at the worst you can imagine. For which purpose, First it is notoriously known I did ever with great constancy and confidence from time to time assert the certainty of his Majesty's return, and the necessity of it, and our certain misery & bondage till it was so, that it would be done by Parliament, not by tumult, that our distractions & miseries would be such that rather than it should not be so we should all beg on our knees that it might be so, & this not lately when things began to look this way, but 7, 8, 9, years ago. To this I can call to witness men of great account both friends and enemies to his Majesty's return, ear witnesses of it. In the first rank let me mention the Noble Thomas Stoner of Stoner Esquire in Oxfordshire, at whose Table I spoke these words in the presence and hearing of some persons of Honour, and others of lower rank, one of which answered me at that instant, that he durst not hear what I said without accusing me, I call to witness the Gentlemen of the ancient Family of the Warcupps of the Manor of English in the same County, and amongst them one Robert Warcup Esq Lieutenant Colonel of the County under Mr. James Whitlock, but who was in effect Coll: and much more, for he was the very right hand of the Lord Whitlock and of his Uncle Lenthall surnamed the Speaker, and a man of a vast power and authority in those parts, he knows well I did always confidently assure him of his Majesty's return, and that all their transactions would come under the examination of that power which now they did despise & oppose, & therefore that he should carry wisely & warily, with all equity and moderation, as one that was sure to give an account, and he took my counsel. Of the adverse part I'll reckon but one, and that is one Henry Gooding a buffle-headed Baker in Henly upon Thames, who from carrying the Baker's basket was exalted to a Justiceship of the peace, as a man fit to be an instrument of mischief, and subservient to such a Governor & Government as we were under, who by abusing his trust & power, and by cozening the Country, especially the King's friends, instead of bread filled his basket with money, and with it buying a Manor near Hyworth in Wiltshire, and having married his Maid there lives now, & sits as securely as if he were as good a subject as any of us all. I mention none but such as are living, and of such I could mention many more which know and can testify, and will if called, that not only now at the last but ever since his Majesty's exile, I did constantly & confidently assert his return with Honour and Applause, the very desire and expectation of the body of his people, in which case it were strangely irrational that I should disoblige his Majesty by doing him any disservice either this or any other way: No in the mean time it was my aim to serve him, and to settle 100000 pounds a year to his hand, augmentation to his Majesty's revenue, as due to him as any penny he doth receive upon any occasion whatsoever. And though I have not done it to his hand, yet I have given his Majesty, or the Parliament, or the great Officers of his Treasury and Revenue light enough how to do it when they will, and for that purpose I wish my Lord Chancellor with the Master of the Rolls would look over that Act of the 26 of Henry the 8. Cap: 4. repealed the 1 of Queen Mary, revived again by Queen Elizabeth, wherein they shall find that they are required from time to time to send forh Commissions and Commissioners to make inquiry either by Oath, or by any other ways and means which they can in their discretion devise to find out the true value of all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Dignities and Promotions, that so the first-fruits and Tenths may be paid in and received accordingly, that his Majesty receive no damage.  
And I would but ask, what is the meaning of that fourth and last Bond which we give into the first-fruit-Office, at our entrance upon our Ecclesiastical promotions, called the Melius inquirendum, the condition whereof runs thus.  
The condition of this present Obligation is such that if the Rectory of A. in the county of B. shall be hereafter proved to be of more yearly value then 20l. as it now stands rated in the King's book, then if T. B. incumbent there shall within one month after Certificate of due proof thereof had, and made, and given in unto him,) answer his Majesty accordingly, than this present Obligation to be void and of none effect, or else to stand, and remain in full force and virtue.  
I remember that not many months since, a Praebend in a Cathedral Church put in to be a Residentiary among the rest, it was answered him, he could not except he had at least 100l. a year in benificiis, he told them he had so, but it was replied to him that 100l. a year then when that Statute was made was now 300l. a year at least, & therefore he could not be admitted unless he had 300l a year at least, and so was set by: I leave▪ the application of this, or the conclusion to be deduced from it▪ for surely if this, Plea be good in the case of a Subject, it must needs be good much more in the behalf of the King on whose part all Statutes are to be interpreted, in favorem & in meliorem partem.  
And now after all this I do not persuade nor advise his Majesty to take the advantage of this discovery to himself, yet though he do not so, there is this advantage in it that his Majesty shall know what is his due, and what he may do when he will, and others shall know how much they are obliged unto his Majesty for his indulgence in forbearing it which hitherto have received the benefit of it in silence without acknowledgement.  
But certainly it deserves acknowledgement, and although his Majesty do not take it, as by Law he may, yet if they should at this exigent offer it up to him as a freewill offering, as at first the Church did to Henry the 8. when that Act was made, I think that therein they should but do his Majesty right, and themselves no wrong. I am sure his Majesty begun to them first, he hath given them a freewill offering, such a one as the Church yet never saw, nor I hope never shall, (I mean the cathedrals,) in the renewing of Leases taking of fines, gathering of arrears, all these of 20 years' growth now in this one years' harvest to be reaped and gathered in, which brings in such incredible sums of money into some private and particular purses, that it is beyond belief to relate. But if the late Parliament (to whose prudence his Majesty referred the consideration of these things,) had so carried between his Majesty and the Church, as that all these arrears and fines upon renewing of Leases, especially of the Vacancies might have been gathered into a treasury, afterwards to have been disposed of, and distributed as his Majesty with advice of the Churchmen in wisdom and Justice should have thought fit, & the Churches and Church-Dignities might have been filled as at other times, so as to take the profits ensuing, only remitting to the persons so preferred their first-fruits, it would have brought into that treasury above a Million of money, & the Churchmen put into such a condition as they would have been very well satisfied with, and thankful for.  
Whereas now neither his Majesty, nor Community, nor the late suffering Clergy banished out of those Churches, (most of them deceased) nor theirs, have any benefit out of them at all, but all is engrossed into the hands of a few Cathedrall-men, a Bishop, a Dean, and 2 or 3 Cardinal Praebendaries, which call themselves Residentiaries, for as for the rest of the Chapter though resident as well as they, and by their instistutions have Stallum in Choro locum, & vocem in Capitulo, yet as to the Dividends they are all set by as secluded Members, in the Church of York are 36 Praebends, & there are but 3 of all these that share in the dividend of those vast revenues: and those Residentiaries (methinks very improperly so called,) for of all other they are the greatest non-resident, for while they are Residentiaries in those cathedrals where the harvest lies, there are few of them but have 3.4.5. or more other Dignities or Ecclesiastical pomotions elsewhere which call for their residence & presence, and complain for the want of it. And if there were but an inquiry made into the several cathedrals in the Land for Pluralists, and non-resident, what strange Smect ymniusses should we find amongst them, Men of as many Names and Titles as the beast in the Revelations had heads, that we cannot tell how to write to them, nor of them, to give them their due Styles but with an etc. I read in the Counsel of Trent of a Bishop there called Quinque Ecclesiensis, but amongst these you shall find many that surpass him, by almost double the number, for instance do but look upon that Chapel at Windsor, for that is the style of it, the free Chapel of St. George, and there you shall see how Windsor, and Worcester, and Gloucester, and Eaton-Colledge, and the City and the Country, Deaneries, and Praebends and Parsonages, and Viccaragies, and Donatives, and all meet together in a little room, and so in other places.  
Let me give you an instance fresh in memory, I knew a man to whom (not many months since) his Majesty (being made acquainted with his sufferings and services,) had given the best Praebend in the Church of York, it passed the Signet and privy Seal, the fees of both were paid, it was carried to the Great Seal, and money laid down there in pledge for the charge of it, yet after all this came a Courtier, makes friends to his Majesty for the same thing, and carries it for another that had but six Dignities & Ecclesiastical promotions before: I confess he was a Worthy Person, a great sufferer, and one that deserved a better Dignity than that, and I believe might have had it as easily as he had that (if his friend had laid out his interests for it) and I wish he had. Yet let me do his Majesty this right too, although he had signed the Warrant for it, yet when they brought their Bill, his Majesty remembered he had passed it to another, and refused to sign it, a signal evidence of his incomparable Goodness and justice, but the Praegrantee understanding that they had prevailed with one of the greatest Subjects in the Kingdom to appear for them (so far as to write his Letter to Secretary Morrice to withdraw a Caveat which was entered in the Signet Office to prevent Competitors) well knew it was no contesting in such a case, and so was content to sit down and let it pass: well let this go for a digression. In all this I would not be so interpreted as if I did utterly condemn all Pluralities in persons rightly qualifyed for them, nor nonresidence neither upon occasion, there may be necessity for it, but that which is to be disliked in them both is, that they are so common and ordinary, privilegia sunt paucorum, privileges belong but to few, and those the choicest of men, and as a very learned and judicious Divine writ to me once in the resolution of a case of conscience which I offered him. We do in nothing more juggle with our own consciences, then in allowing ourselves too much liberty in things that are not absolutley unlawful. It was the Reverend Dr. Sanderson, now Bishop of Lincoln, in the resolution of this very case of Nonresidency, occasioned by an invitation from the right honourable Nicholas Lord Viscount Castleton, (Father to the Noble Lord George now living,) to leave my Parsonage in Yorkshire, and to come and live with his Lordship in his house, which I did civilly excuse, my conscience not allowing my constant absence from my charge at that distance. And there is another thing that makes these Pluralities so unreasonable, and that is the insatiablenes of greedy men in those accumulations, that heap up mountain upon mountain, Pelion upon Ossa Dignity upon Dignity without either end or measure as long as money or means, or interest, or friends will last to procure them, when as (God knows) there are many hundreds of learned, Loyal, honest, Orthodox, suffering, sequestered Ministers unprovided for, unrestored to their livings, which to this day want bread for them and theirs. And so are like to do, for what with that indulgent Declaration of his Majesty tollerating so many irregularities in Church-ministrations, & so much abused, and what with that late Act (pretended to be made for the restoring of sequestered Ministers, but intended doubtless by some of the contrivers of it for the clear contrary, to keep us out while we are out, and to confirm those in that are in the possession of them, there they are still, and there they will be, for first it puts us upon impossibilities in order to our restoring of getting five or more Justices together, which I am sure I could not do with the expense of above twenty pound, and the riding, and s●nding too & fro of above three hudred miles, and yet at four meetings could never get above three Justices together, which for want of a full Quorum could not act, & then if we cannot overcome these difficulties, and that within a time limited, it seems to praeclude from us all other remedy of Law or otherwise for our relief, as in the eleventh page of it, and what a strange toleration is this that being in possession, there they shall be, and keep it though without institution, and orderly induction, by this means the Church is to this day full of those notorious, seditious, schismatical and violent intruders, which began all these troubles at the first, and cast the Orthodox Clergy out, and now they stand upon better terms then ever they did, neither is there yet any one Bishop in the Kingdom that hath visited his Diocese to take cognisance of these things, either by himself or by his Commissioners, nor when they do, do I see what power they have yet to purge the Church of them, or to restrain them: this not only is a grievous oppression (for the present) to the suffering and sequestered Ministers, the most of them very aged men, grown old in suffering, and a great advantage to those factious and seditious Usurpers to confirm the people in those seditious and Haereticall principles which before they had infused into them, but there is a greater mischief than this, the consequent of it, and that is this: That whereas his Majesty hath graciously promised that there shall be a Synod called, these Heterodoxe men (with which the Church is now filled) shall be able to over-vote the Orthodox Clergy three to one in the choice of our Representatives. The cure of all these things with the prevention of greater evils (which these things (if not cured) may introduce,) we must leave to the Wisdom and Justice of the Parliament at hand, and of the higher powers, it was enough for me to hint at them, and that I have done impartially, yet without any malignity to either party, Praelaticall or Presbiterian, though an enemy to the abuses in both, yet myself a friend to both, who will ever style myself An obedient Son of the Church, and an Episcopal-Presbiterian: Tho: Bradley.  
FINIS.