and diforderly collections, and he himself foon faw, that, notwithstanding the affurance and the virulence with which it was writ, he had made many great mistakes in it; fo, to prevent a discovery from other hands, he corrected his book in many important matters; yet he left a great deal to those who answered him, and did it with fuch a fuperiority of argument and of knowledge in these matters, that his infolence in defpifing these answers was as extraordinary, as the parties adhering to him after fuch manifeft difcoveries. Dr. Kennet laid him fo open, not only in many particulars, but in a thread of ignorance that ran through his whole book, that, if he had not had a measure of confidence peculiar to himfelf, he must have been much humbled under it. The clergy hoped to recover many loft privileges by the help of his performances; they fancied they had a right to be a part of the parliament, fo they looked on him as their champion, and on moft of the bithops as the betrayers of the rights of the Church: This was encouraged by the new miniftry; they were displeased with the bishops for adhering to the old miniftry; and they hoped, by the terror of a convocation, to have forced them to apply to them for fhelter. The Jacobites intended to put us all in fuch a flame, as they hoped. would diforder the government. The things the convocation pretended to, were firft, that they had a right to fit, whenfoever the parliament fate; fo that they could not be prorogued, but when the two houfes were prorogued; Next they advanced, that they had no need of a licence to enter upon debates, and to prepare matters, though it was confelfed, that the practice for an hundred years was againft them; but they thought the convocation lay under no farther reftraint, than that the parliament was under; and, as they could pass no act without the royal affent, fo they confeffed that they could not enact or publish a canon without the king's licence. Anciently the clergy granted their own subfidies apart; but, ever fince the reformation, the grant of the convocation was not thought good, till it was ratified in parliament; but the rule of fubfidies being fo high on the clergy, they had fubmitted to be taxed by the house of commons ever fince the year 1665, though no memorials were left to inform us, how that matter was confented to fo generally, that no oppofition of any fort was made to it; the giving of money being yielded up, which was the chief bufinels of convocations, they had after that nothing to do; fo they fat only for form's fake, and were adjourned of courfe; nor did they ever pretend, notwithstanding all the danger that religion was in during the former reigns, to fit and act as a fynod; but now this was demanded as a right, and they complained of their being fo often prorogued, as a violation of their conftitution, for which all the bishops, but more particularly the archbishop of Canterbury, was cried out on; they faid, that he and the bishops looked fo much to their own interefts, that they forgot the interefts of the Church, or rather betrayed them: The greater part of the clergy were in no good temper; they hated the toleration, and were heavily charged with the taxes, which made them very uneafy; and this difpofed them to be foon inflamed by thofe, who were seeking out all poffible methods to disorder our affairs: They hoped to have engaged them against the fupremacy, and reckoned, that, in the feeble state to which the government was now brought, they might hope either to wreft it quite from the crown, and then it would fall into the management of the house of commons; or, if the king should proceed against them according to the ftatute, and fue them in a premunire, this might unite the clergy into fuch an oppofition to the government, as would probably throw us into great convulfions: But many afpiring men among them, had no other defign, but to force themselves into preferment, by the oppofition they made. In the writ that the bishops had, fummoning them to parliament, the claufe, known by the first word of it, Præmunientes, was ftill continued: At first, by virtue of it, the inferior clergy were required to come to parliament, and to confent to the aids there given: But, after the archbishops had the provincial writ, for a convocation of the province, the other was no more executed, though it was ftill kept in the writ, and there did not appear the least shadow of any use that had been made of it, for fome hundreds of years; yet now fome bishops were prevailed on, to execute this clause, and to fummon the clergy by virtue of it (b). The convocation was opened (b) In the bishops writ of fummons to parliament, there is a claufe ordering them to fummon to parliament the dean, chapter, archdeacons, and clergy of their refpective diocefes. As this claufe, called the Premunientes claufe, was fometimes omitted in the parliamentary writs, Dr. Hody fixes the conftant ufage of it from the 28th year of Ed. III. 1353 The bishops, abbots, and priors, to whom particular writs are directed, are fummoned cum prædictis prælatis magnatibus et proceribus fupradictis negotiis tractaturi, veftrumque confilium impenfuri.' In the first writ now extant, in which the inferior clergy were fummoned, the 23d of Ed. I. they were opened with speeches, full of sharp reflections on the bishops, which they paffed over, being unwilling to begin a difpute. were fummoned ad tractandum, ordinandum et facien• dum nobiscum, &c.' which is the fame ftile that was used in the writs directed at the fame time to the temporal lords. In the 24th of Ed. I. they are fummoned ad ordinandum de quantitate et modo fubfidii.' In the writ of the 28th of Ed. I. it is, ad faciendum et confen⚫tiendum hiis quæ tunc de com* muni confilio (favente Domino) ordinari contigerit.' This form continued to the 20th of Ed. II. and after that to the 10th of Ed. III. The 20th of Ed. II. it begun to be ad con⚫ fentiendum hiis quæ tunc, &c.' Afterwards to the 5th of Rich.II. it was fometimes ad facien⚫ dum et confentiendum;' fometimes, but more often, ad con⚫ fentiendum' only. From the laft parliament of that year down to these times, it has all along continued fo. The claufe now is always in these words: Præ⚫ monentes decanum et capitulum ecclefiæ veftræ Cant. ac. ⚫ archidiaconos totumque clerum ⚫ veftrum diocef. quod iidem ⚫ decanus et archidiaconi in propriis perfonis fuis prædictum ⚫ capitulum per unum, idemque clerus per duos procuratores idoneos, plenam et fufficientem poteftatem ab ipfis capitulo & clero divifim habentes, prædictis die et loco perfonali⚫ter interfint ad confentiendum hiis quæ tunc ibidem de com⚫ muni confilio dicti regna noftri ⚫ divinâ favente clementia contigerit ordinari. From the 6 Dr. inferior clergy being thus fummoned to parliament, a difpute was now fet on foot, whether these Parliamentary Affemblies were all Ecclefiaflical fynods. Atterbury afferted, a convocation is an attendant upon a parliament of England. The clergy were brought to parliament by the Præmunientes claufe. But in procefs of time, by a mistake in their politicks, they were fee parated from the parliament, and yet ftill continued to attend it in two provincial affemblies or convocations: Which, as they meet for the fame purpose, and had the fame reasons of state inferted into their writs of fummons as the parliament had, fo did they keep closely to the forms, and rules, and manner of fitting and acting, practifed in parliament, and they had parliamentary wages and parliamentary privileges, and attended the parliament as one of the Three States of the realm. Thefe parliamentary convocations came in the room of provincial councils, which from the beginning of Chriftianity met twice a year, and needed no leave. He farther afferts, the clergy have not only a right to meet and fet in convocation as often as a new parliament fits, but a right alfo (when met) of treating and debating about fuch affairs as lie within their fphere, and of coming to fit refolutions about them, without being obliged antecedently to qualify themselves for fuch acts and debates by a licence under U 3 the 310 The archbishop's power of Dr. Hooper, dean of Canterbury, was chofen prolocutor, a man of learning and good conduct hitherto; he was reserved, adjourning crafty, and ambitious; his deanery had not foftened him, for he disputed. for them the broad feal of England. On the contrary, Kennet af- thought That Prefbyters are no authoritative part of Provincial Synods. That Capitular Proctors were fummoned to our convocations, not for counfel or neceffary confent in fpiritual affairs, but for fecular poffeffions and civil rights, which were often there treated of; and to fupport the government with the irreafonable aids and taxes. guishes between true Ecclefiaftical Synods, which had no authority in, or dependence on, the parliament, and Parliamen tary affemblies of the clergy. He diftin He fays, That the lower clergy for many ages did not come to provincial fynods, but for a dutiful attendance on the bishops, and offered only a fub. miffive approbation of their acts: And that their coming to parlia mentary affemblies, was to give money. And that it was by degrecs found expedient, that the fame clergy, as was fummoned to the national parliament, fhould at the fame time be fummoned to a provincial fynod or affembly, concurrent with that parliament. But this was by another wrk, befides that contained in the bishop's fummons, with the claufe Præmunientes: And even by another writ from the king. And he charges Mr. Atterbury with miferable confufion all along, as if he thought every parliamentary meeting of the clergy, to be an ecclefiaftical fynod, and every ecclefiaftical fynod, to be a parliamentary body of the clergy; than which nothing thought he deserved to be raised much higher. He was prefented on the 21ft of February, the day appointed, by Dr. Jane, dean of Gloucefter, and approved and confirmed in the ufual manner. The conftant method of adjournment had been this: The archbishop figned a schedule for that purpose, by which the upper houfe was immediately adjourned; and the schedule, being fent down to the prolocutor, did alfo adjourn the lower houfe. The clergy perceiving, that by this method the archbishop could adjourn them at pleasure, and either hinder or break off all debates, resolved to begin at difputing this point. In the next feffion there nothing more false in fact and law. He takes a great deal of pains to rectify the matter of the Præmunientes claufe: And then fays, That the English clergy, in their own parliamentary ⚫ convocations, taxed their own body, to the 15 Car. II. 1663; ⚫ when in a following feffions of ⚫ parliament in 1664, by mea⚫ fures wifely concerted between the governors of the church, and the leading members of the house of commons, the clergy were in filence to re⚫cede from the customary right of taxing themselves apart from the laity And all their ecclefiaftical benefices were to be now affeffed, (as their temporal estates were before) upon the fame foot and level ⚫ with all other English fubjects in the bills beginning in the ⚫houfe of commons.' And thus departing from their ancient practice of taxing themfelves, the end of the Præmunientes he fays was loft. Rectors and vicars being now taxed for their glebe and tithes, by the commons, have a vote in electing members: And therefore have the lefs occafion to be now reprefented by any members of theiowa body. Hody confiders a convocation either in itfelf, as it is a fynod, and called by the archbishop's mandate, or as it is a part of the parliament, and fummoned by a royal writ directed to each particular bishop. He obferves, they that are fummoned by the Præmunientes clause, have not fat in parliament for fome hundreds of years. For fome ages together, the writ has been feldom executed, or if executed, never effectually obeyed; that is, it has not been fo obeyed, as to be returned into the crownoffice, and no one, for fome ages, has been fo conftituted a proxy for any of the inferior clergy, as to be fent up on that errand. After many remarks upon the Præmunientes claufe, he concludes, that it was continued in the writs, after it became a conftant custom for the clergy to meet in a separate body by virtue of the archbifhop's mandate, that thereby our princes might affert their right of calling the clergy (if they pleafe) to parliament; which the clergy oppofed, as an invafion and inroad upon their liberties. |