The Grievances of the CHURCH of ENGLAND which are not in the Power of the GOVERNORS of it to Remedy. By a Member of the Church of England. I. THAT Deans and Chapters are under the Penalty of a Praemunire, forced to Elect Bishops whomsoever the King shall name to them by his Mandate, how unfit soever they may be for that great Office in the Church; whereby, had the late King longer continued in the Government, all the Deans and Chapters in England must either have been undone, or else contrary to their consciences and duty have Elected Papists upon the King's Command. II. That Metropolitans are under the same Penalty of Praemunire to Consecrate such Bishops to be Suffragans of their Provinces, as the King by his Mandate shall command, however unworthy they may be of the said Office, whereby often a force is put upon the said Metropolitans of Consecrating such as in their Consciences they know will be a Prejudice and Scandal to the Church, as was lately done in the Case of Cartwright Bishop of Chester, one of the greatest Instances of Wickedness and Debauchery that this Church hath had since the Reformation. III. That Bishops are forced to ordain Persons unfit to manage the Cure of Souls, the Law of the Land, which overrules them in this particular, making such mean qualifications sufficient hereto, as were only allowed of in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, which by reason of the scarcity of fit Persons to undertake Parish Cures on the terms of Reformation, then Established, many were of necessity taken into the Ministry from Shops, and other Secular Employments, who had never been put in a way of Education to qualify them for it. iv That Bishops are forced by Writs of Quare Impedit, to give Institution to any ordained Minister, that comes to them with a Presentation, how unfit soever he may appear for the charge he is to be appointed to; and so a necessity is often put upon them of Investing such with the best Preferments of the Church, that are most undeserving of them. V That the Preferments of the Church are of very different values, yet no distinction is made of the merits of men, or their degrees taken in Universities, in the disposal of them, but all are by Law equally qualified for any place they can get to be presented to; whereas if all Ecclesiastical Proferments were distributed into several Classes, according to their value, and higher qualifications required to capacitate for those that are higher in value: men would rise in the Church only according to their merit and worth, and the worst Men would not be so often found in the best Preferments. VI That whereas Patrons are only trusties for God, and the Church, to find fit Persons to present to the Bishops to supply the Vacancies of such Live as are in their Presentations, too many of them do most wickedly violate this trust, to the dishonour of God, and the great damage of the Church, by giving their said Presentations only to such as will take them on Simonaical Contracts: whereby it comes to pass, that only the worst men, such as will become guilty of so foul a Sin for the sake of Secular interest get into the best preferments, while many good and Learned men, who cannot submit their Consciences to such base and wicked means of Advancement, are forced insignificantly to wear out their time in Universities, and elsewhere, and the Church thereby become deprived of the labours of such as are best able to be serviceable therein. VII. That Papists are allowed to present to Live, who being the bitterest Enemies of our Church, make use of this trust reposed in them, to work it all the mischief they can, not only preferring the worst men they can find to be a continual scandal thereto, but also for the most part, making such Simonaical contracts with those they present, as to reserve out of all such Live Pensions for their Mass Priests to Propagate their abominable Errors and Superstitions amongst us, to the great disturbance both of Church and State. VIII. That whereas the decision of several Causes, merely Civil, are committed to Ecclesiastical Courts, they are allowed no other Sovereign Power but Excommunication only to enforce their Sentences; whereby it comes to pass, that often men are Excommunicated for Matters of Civil Right only, and sometimes on very trivial occasions, and Ministers forced to Publish such. Excommunications in their Churches, or else to be Excommunicated themselves for the omission; although sometimes they are against the best living men in their Parishes, and procured against them only through the Fraud and Practice of Proctors, Advocates, and other Officers of Ecclesiastical Courts for the sake of their own gain, the only thing these men look after. IX. That all Ecclesiastical Power is by Law in a manner invested in lay Chancellors, and Officials, and Bishops, and Arch-deacons, in whose Names they act, have nothing at all but the shadow left them, whereby those Governors of the Church are in a manner totally deprived of any Power to discharge their duties. X. That the said Bishops and Arch-deacons have no sufficient Power to call the said Chancellors and Officials to account for any of their irregular proceed, by reason that their Places are by Law declared Free-holds; whereby it comes to pass, that abundance of very illegal and oppressive acts are done in their names, of which they must bear all the blame, and yet have no power to remedy them. XI. That the said Chancellors and Officials have little or no regard to the Cannons of our Church, which ought to be the only Laws of their Courts, but break them as they think fit for their profit, whereby abundance of very enormous Crimes go unpunished, and the whole Government of the Church, as far as relates to correction of Manners, and the promotion of Piety and Religion, is become totally insignificant. XII. That the said Chancellors & Officials make their Places for the most part sine-Cures, never or seldom attending their Courts in Person, but committing them to the management of Surrogates, for the most part totally ignorant of their business, whereby all matters being usually expedited by the direction of Registers, are too often so ordered and decreed, as will best conduce to advance their own profit, to the infinite oppression of his Majesty's Subjects, and the great Scandal of the Church. XIII. That Arch-deacons are permitted to live out of their Dioceses in which their Jurisdictions lie; for Arch-Deacons being Oculi Episcopi, to be assisting to Bishops in the Government of the Diocese, ought always to be present within the Diocese to do their duties, especially at Ordinations, where they are chief concerned to examine the Manners, Learning, and other Qualifications requisite for those that are to be admitted into the Ministry. XIV. That there are in every Diocese so many Peculiars, whereby it comes to pass, that the Ministers of those Peculiars being exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction of the place where they live, and in a manner also from all others, (those to whom the said Peculiars belong, seldom taking any care of them) often take upon them to do very irregular and extravagant things, especially in the case of Clandestine Marriages, and think they have Authority so to do; because they lie not within the usual methods of being called to account and punished for them. XV. That Market Towns and Cities, where is most need of Able Ministers, are the worst provided with a maintenance for them, of any places in the Nation, whereby it comes to pass, that those places being usually served by men unfit for the charge they there undertake, ill designing men take the advantage of it, and for want of able Shepherds to defend those Flocks, have too successfully invaded them with their Errors, to the great disturbance both of Church and State. XVI. That Prescriptions & modi decimandi grow too much in every Parish, whereby the maintenance of Ministers is not only endangered in a great part to be lost, but also such a Bone of Contention is thereby thrown in between the Minister and his Parishioners, as to make his Ministry often totally ineffectual among them. Whereas, were there a Register in every Diocese of all Prescriptions & modi decimandi, as are truly and legally such, the whole of this would be prevented, and Parishioners living in better correspondence with their Ministers, would be better disposed to be directed and instructed by them in all those duties of Christianity, which it is their duty and business to guide them into. XVII. That there is no Law to force Impropriators to allow a competency for the serving of those Cures they are to provide for; but the said Impropriators receiving the whole income of the Benefice, and being left at their own discretion for the providing of a Curate, often either provide none at all, or else such insufficient ones as the Parishioners can receive no benefit from them, to the great dishonour of God, the Scandal of the Church, and the unspeakable damage of those People who suffer thereby. XVIII. That Ministers have no power to force Masters of Families to bring their Children and Servants to be Catechised, through want of which, one of the most useful methods of Instruction, becomes, in a manner, totally omitted in our Church. XIX. That Ministers are liable to have Actions brought against them at Law, for refusing to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to those whom they know to be of such Scandalous Lives and Conversations, as to be utterly unworthy to be admitted thereto. XX. That the method of depriving Scandalous Ministers, is according to Law so tedious and difficult, through multitude of Appeals, as in a manner to be impracticable, and thereby the Church lies under the Scandal of tolerating them, when it is not in her power to help it. XXI. That whereas Compurgation is allowed in Law for a sufficient acquittal from some Crimes, several Ministers that are guilty of them avoid the punishment, by getting others as bad as themselves to be their Compurgators, to acquit them of them, and thereby frustrate all course of Justice against them. XXII. That, whereas such as are designed for the Ministry, aught to be bred up not only in the study of good Learning, but also with their Inclinations continually framed to Piety and sober living; that when they are called forth into the service of the Church, they may not only have Abilities, but also sincere, and truly Religious purposes of Heart faithfully to discharge the Duties they undertake. The Discipline of the Universities is so remiss and defective, as to have no regard at all hereto, as takeing no care to have the young Scholars instructed in Religion and Piety, nor by no means using that caution which is sufficient to secure their Morals, but permits them to a Lose, Vain, and Licentious kind of living; allowing them to frequent Alehouses and Taverns, and other places of common Debauchery, which too many there accustoming themselves to, cannot forsake them all their lives after; whereas, were it made scandalous in Universities to frequent those Houses, by affixing on it the penalty of Expulsion (as in reason it ought) and Scholars were kept strictly to their Colleges, and accustomed to Piety and Religion, as well as the study of Arts and Sciences, they would come from those places, when called forth of them to take care of Souls, so fenced by Custom and Education, against all those irregular courses of living, which make so many of our Clergy Scandalous, as by the assistance of God's Grace, they would be able to live free from them all their lives after; and so become a guide to their People, not only by the Doctrines that they teach them, but also by the Examples which they will put them, in living Soberly and Religiously among them. And this is a matter of that moment as may deserve to be well considered and looked into: for if you will have the Streams clean from puddle, you must be sure to make them run clear at the Fountain; and therefore, if ever you will throughly reform the lives of the Clergy, you must be sure to begin at the Universities, the Fountains from which they proceed; for those corruptions of life and manners which are so much complained of in too many of our Clergy, if enquired into, will be all found to proceed from a Taint received in their first Education. XXIII. That the Universities, especially Cambridge, give Degrees in Divinity to such as do not perform their Exercises for them, only taking Cautionary Bonds that they shall perform them afterwards, which are now for the most part, no otherwise discharged, than by paying the forfeiture, whereby the Constitution of the University being basely violated and betrayed, those Degrees become prostituted for Money, to Men by no means deserving of them, who by this means reaping those Honours which are due only to Learning and Merit, by virtue of them become often recommended to such preferments as they are by no means qualified for. XXIV. That Convocations are made totally useless, they being prohibited to debate of any thing, how much soever the Corruptions of the Church may require it, unless the King proposeth it unto them, and that under the severe penalty of a Praemunire; whereby it hath come to pass, that for twenty four years in the two last Reigns, tho' Convocations were always called, nothing was at all done in them, but Clergymen have been forced to take long Journeys from all parts of the Nation to meet in those Convocations, with great Expense and Trouble, to no end and purpose: Whereas, were it left to the Convocation to examine and inquire into the Corruptions of the Church from time to time, as the Parliament doth into those of the State, such cautions for remedy thereof might have been offered to the Royal Assent as might have prevented all that Trouble and Confusion which now the Church is fallen into for want thereof; and also such Clergymen as are of an higher Station than the ordinary Courts can well reach, might in those Assemblies be called to censure for any Irregularities they should commit, and the Peace, and good Order of the Church be better preserved thereby. And would it please the King's Majesty, and the two Houses of Parliament, that the Church may again be restored to the Ancient Right; no better method can be proposed to cure all its Distractions at present, and keep it for the future from all those Corruptions, which otherwise from time to time it must necessarily fall into. And these particulars being thus carefully and impartially laid together, are offered to the Consideration of the present Parliament, humbly beseeching them, in the name of the Clergy of this Church, that since most of the things now objected to us, as Defects and Corruptions among us, proceed all from those above mentioned Grievances, which we have no power to remedy; they would rather look on them as our Infelicities than our Faults, and would be pleased by their Wisdom to find out such Methods, and enact such Laws as may enable us to redress them; and then, if all the Disorders now complained of amongst us, be not totally amended, we will freely confess the fault is ours. Licenced April 27. 1689. Printed for R. Baldwin, in the Old-Baily. 1689.