In relation whereunto allow me briefly to intimate , that neither the prejudices , which many have Entertained against the said Bishop , upon motives especially that have been meerly Political ; nor the good Opinion which hath been commonly harbour'd of his Metropolitan ; ought in the least either to divert you , from taking those proceedings into your Consideration ; or to Influence your Debates and Resolves , when they come before you . Seeing whatsoever he be in other respects , who is the Originial Usurper and Introducer of a new and unknown Jurisdiction ; or of whatsoever reputation , the first Sufferer thro' the Exertion and Execution of it , may have been vulgarly accounted : Yet the Constitution is equally Invaded by the former , as if it had been done by a Person of worse Fame : and thro' the example of the Exercise of an Illegal and Arbitrary Power upon the Latter , others upon whose good Names no Slanderous Tongues have dared to fasten ; will be render'd obnoxious to the mischievous and fatal Consequences of it . Nor is it very surprizing , and much less ought it to be thought Impossible , that he who in all those proceedings took upon him to be the alone and sole Judge , and to have been singly Cloathed with the Right of Judicature , should either thro' some defects in himself , especially in Relation to a matter for which neither his Education , nor his former Studies had well adapted him ; or by reason of ill qualities in those that Influenced him ; be misled and carried to Supplant and shake our Constitution ; when one that was usually an Assessor unto and with him , tho' not a Judge , hath in a matter within his own Province , and which he was thought to have perfectly Studied , and to have been therein exactly and distinguishingly Conversant , so criminally miscarried and prevaricated , as in the opinion of our best and most Orthodox Divines , to have Paraphrazed and Smugled away the Doctrine of the Church of England , under a pretence of Paraphrasing and Expounding the 39 Articles .

And it may still give you the less astonishment , to have it suggested , that the Arch Bishop of Canterbury , hath Challenged and exercised a Jurisdiction over a Suffragan Bishop , which neither our own Laws , or Customs , nor the Canons of General or Provincial Councils , do allow unto him ; if you do but vouchsafe to observe , to what measure and degree , he hath been endeavouring to Extend his Authority over the Lower House of Convocation , even to the Robbing them of the Right of Adjourning themselves ; the depriving them whereof makes them cease to be either a distinct House , or a Legal Assembly ; and rendreth them meet to be only accounted the Tools and Journymen of those of the Superiour Order . Seeing he that can pretend to stretch his Jurisdiction thus arbitrarily , and to those unheard of Limits , over all the Representatives of the whole Clergy of his Province legally called and Assembled , as to make their Meeting and Sitting insignificent , as well as precarious , and that for no other reason hitherto known , but their appearing Concerned to Assert and Vindicate the Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion , and the Established Articles of the Church of England , and to Mark out and Brand those who do either more hiddenly betray , or avouedly oppose them ; which being lawful for our Universities in their respective Convocation Houses to do , is undubitably both a proper work for , and an indispensable , Duty incumbent upon the Clergy of a whole Province , when Assembled , as they now are , to Employ themselves about : I say , that he , who either from his own Inclination , or thro' the Impressions made upon him by others , can be hurried into the usurpation of this Illegimate and pernicious Jurisdiction , over the greatest Body of our Church Legally Convened , may very well be Supposed , both capable and forward to exceed the bounds of Law , in his prosecution of , and his Judicial Sentence upon a particular Bishop ; especially One against whom his Grace , as well as several more of the Episcopal Order , were sufficiently provoked , by reason that in his Voting in the House of Lords , he seldom Chimed in with them in those things , wherein they thought their being in one Tune , and there upholding the Proverbial weight by falling into the same Scale , was to be held , not only for an Indication , but a Badge , of their Loyalty to his Majesty , and of what they have been used to stile their Zeal against Popery . Nor is it meerly to prepare you to entertain with the less prepossession , what I am about to say concerning the Proceedings of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury against the Bishop of St. David's , that I have intimated unto you this new and unpresidented behaviour of his Grace towards the Lower House of Convocation ; but that which I do hereby further aim at , is the awakning you as a Member of the House of Commons , to think of what dangerous Consequence the Connivance at this , may be to the whole Constitution of the Government ; and what encouragement it may give elsewhere , to Encroachments and Invasions upon the Rights of other Legal Assemblies . For if I do not greatly mistake , it carrieth the shape and beareth the face of an Offence , which I shall not venture to Name , but for which your Honourable House may possibly find such a Title , as some of our great and presuming Clergy-men have been made to suffer under and upon heretofore .

But to come more directly and particularly to the Case of the Bishop of St. David's , of which you have required me to Give you my Sentiments and Opinion ; in the performing thereof I am bound to tell you , that as it Brancheth it self into two different Heads , namely the Excluding him totally and finally ab Officio , and the Depriving him thereupon , and consequently thereunto a Beneficio ; so I must add , that if I be not greatly mistaken , the whole Proceeding in reference to both , hath been Coram non Judicce . For as none can Legally be a Judge in any Case whatsoever , save he who is Vested with a Jurisdiction , in Reference to that Case ; so every Legal Jurisdiction , must be founded in , and Warranted by a Legal Authority , which both Cloatheth him with a Right and Power of Judicature , and fixeth and limiteth the Bounds according to which he is to Exercise it . Upon which permit me to say , that as it is to Claim what the Law hath not given , for any Single and Individual Metropolitan alone to assume the Shutting out and Debarring a Suffragan Bishop ab Officio , and that thro' a Defectiveness , Insufficiency , and Incompetency in his Authority , his attempting to do it , becomes Illegal , and his pretending to have done it , is rendred Invalid ; so for any Arch Bishop to offer to Depose a Bishop , or for any Bishop to take upon him to Depose any of the Inferiour Clergy a Beneficio , otherwise than by the Verdict of a Jury on a Trial in our Courts of Common Law , is directly repugnant to the received and known Laws of the Land , and is an open Invasion upon the Right and Property of the Subject .

Sir , I do readily acknowledge , that there belongeth to an Arch Bishop , not only a Priority with respect to his Comprovincials but likewise a kind of Superiority over them , which being implied in his very Stile and Title , the Suffragants of his Province , do before their Consecration , promise Reverence and Obedience unto him ; but we are not from that to inferr his having an Arbitrarious and despoticale Power over them , or that he hath a Right and Jurisdiction , of proceeding against them in any other way , than according to the known Laws , and in the Methods and Forms , by which former Metropolitans , have Regulated themselves , in the Exercise of their Archipiscopal Authority . However by reason and in the virtue of the foremention'd Superiority , there do appertain to all Arch Bishops some Priviledges and Prerogatives , within their several and Respective provinces , which none of their Suffragans are admitted directly , and upon the alone account of their Characters , to lay claim unto : As the Confirming the Election of Bishops ; the Presiding in Convocations and Synods ; and the Visiting the Diocesses of their Comprovincials ; for the refusing to submit whereunto , we found that heretofore the Bishops of Exeter and Salisbury were Censured by Arch Bishop Courtney .

Nor can I deny , but that Bishops have sometimes been , and may again be guilty of such Offences , Misdemeanours and Crimes , as that it will be needful they should be Ecclesiastically rebuked and chastised , and that it may come to be the indispensable Duty of their Metropolitan , to proceed Judicially against them ; provided always that he do it in the way and method , that the Laws of the Land do allow , and in which the Discipline of the Christian Church hath been Executed .

And here I am oblig'd to tell you , that the greatest loss and defect which the Church of England continueth under since the Reformation , is that we have not by Statutes and Acts of Parliament , so clearly and sufficiently provided for the Cognizance and Judicature of diverse Ecclesiastical Cases , and for Animadversion upon Spiritual Offences , and for the Deciding and Adjudging of and concerning them , as could be wished , and seems to be expedient . For as I take it to be uncontroulably true , that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , was by the Common Law lodged anciently in the Crown , and that all Bishops and Spiritual Persons , derived their Jurisdiction from thence ; so the whole that was done at the Reformation , in reference to the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Authority and Discipline , was the Rescuing and Vindicating of the State and Church from Papal Invasions and Usurpations , and the Restoring to the Crown , the Ancient Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual , and the Abolishing of all Foreign Jurisdiction repugnant to the same ; but without fully and distinctly providing and enacting , how the said restored Jurisdiction , should come to be Executed , in all those Cases , that might arise , and come to be emergent . And by what appears , all the Statutes which have been made since , in reference to matters , which fall within the circle of Ecclesiastical Animadversion and Authority , do stand chiefly , if not only , circumscribed and confined to Causes that are Testamentary , Matrimonial , or about Tythes .

't is true , nor do I pretend to deny it , that by an Act of the 1. Eliz . there was a Power given to the Crown for the appointing Commissioners to exercise the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , and that in pursuance and by Vertue thereof , a High Commission Court was by that Queen Set up and Erected , in and by which , all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical , were heard and decided untill the 17. Ch. 1. But suffer me withall to add , that by a Statute made and Enacted in that Year , The said Court , was not only totally and finally Abolished , and the Clause of the Act. 1 Eliz . upon which it had been founded and Established , was Repealed , Annulled , Revoked , Annihilated , and utterly made void for ever , but that it was also in the same Statute further provided and Ennacted , that no such Court should be again Erected , Ordained , or Appointed ; and that no such Power , Jurisdiction , or Authority , as that Court had , or pretended to have , should ever for the future be Granted or Delegated by the Crown to any person or persons whatsoever .

Andwhereas it may be said , that there was an Act made in the 13. Ch. 2. for explanation of a Clause contained in the Act of the 17. Ch. 1. about the Repeal of a Branch in the Statute primo Elizabetha concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical ; permit me to tell you , that the whole thereby ordained and declared , is only that nothing in the Act of the 17. Ch. 1. shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from Arch-Bishops , Bishops , or any other Person or Persons exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction ; but that they may exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , in all Causes and Matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , according to the King's Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws , used and practised in this Realm , as they did and might Lawfully have done before the making of the said Act of the 17. Ch. 1. And withall further providing by the same Statute , that the said Act of the 13. Ch. 2. or any thing therein contained , shall not Extend , nor be constru'd to extend , to give unto any Arch-Bishop , Bishop , &c. any Power or Authority to Exercise , Execute , Inflict , or Determine any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , Censure , or Correction , which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639.

But being notwithstanding of the foremention'd Act , left altogether in the dark , both with respect to the Extent of the Power and Jurisdiction which belonged to Arch-Bishops and Bishops , and with reference to the Ways , Forms , and Methods , in and according to which they did , or were to Execute their Ecclesiastical Authority before the Year 1639. the only mean therefore , so far as I know , that remaineth whereby we must seek to be enlightned and informed in this matter , is to have recourse to the Statute of the 25. Hen . 8. cap . 19. Where after a Power given to the King to constitute a Commission of Thirty two Persons , who should Search , Order and Determine such a Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Law , as should be laid before the King in Parliament for Approbation , there is a Proviso added , that untill that was done , which hath never been , All Canons , Constitutions , Ordinances , and Synodals Provincial already made , and not contrariant to the Laws , Statutes , and Customs of this Realm , nor to the damage or hurt of the King's Prerogative Royal , should be used and executed as heretofore .

So that in order to the being convinced of the Illegality , and Arbitrariness of the Arch-Bishop of Caterbury's assuming to himself the sole and alone Jurisdiction and Authority , of Deposing and Secluding the Bishop of St. David's ab Officio , we need only under the shelter and warranty of the aforesaid Proviso , to consider and examine whether such a Power be allowed unto him , either by the Canons of the Universal Church , or by the Constitutions , Ordinances and Practices of our own . And here I do presume to tell you with more positiveness , and with a greater air of assurance , than I dare have the confidence of pretending unto , and using in Questions which are doubtful and problematical , that all Councils both General and Provincial , and likewise the Universal Practise of the Church of England , are directly inconsistent with , and repugnant to the Claim and Exercise of such a Jurisdiction . Nor hath any Single Metropolitan , unless one branded in History for Tyranny and Usurpation , ever had the effrontery to challeng the having a Power vested in him by Ecclesiastical Canons , for Depriving , by his own alone Jurisdiction , a Suffragan and Comprovincial ab Officio . Neither is there any one thing whatsoever , wherein the Testimonies of all Ecclesiastical and Historical Writers do more symphonize and agree , than that primitively and in the best Ages , no Bishop could , or used to be deposed from his Office , or degraded from his Rank and Station in the Episcopal Dignity and Order , save by the sentence of his Metropolitan , acting in conjunction and concert therein with all the Bishops of his Province . And an Arch-Bishop having no more Power vested in him by his Consecration , for the Deposing of a Bishop , than the rest of his suffragans have , and the Episcopal right of doing it , being Originally seated in each of them , as well as in him , it was therefore Primitively provided and ordained , that it should always be executed Synodically by the Metropolitan in conjunction with his Comprovincials . Nor hath any one Canon of the Church , or even Law of the State , ever appropriated this Juridical and Executory Power to a single Metropolitan . Yea in after Ages , when thro' the Ambition of some who had been elevated and exalted to Metropolitical Honour and Authority , and thro' the pusillanimity , sycophancy , and servileness of too many called and dignified to be Bishops , the original Ecclesiastical Government came to be broken in upon and alter'd , and the first Rules that had been Established for the exercise of Discipline in the Church , grew less attended unto , and became gradually Related ; yet even then , no one and alone Metropolitan , presumed to take upon him the Right and Power of Deposing a Comprovincial , without a considerable number of Suffragan Bishops joined with him , both in the whole Juridical procedure , and in the Authoritative pronouncing of Sentence , and that not meerly as his Assessors , but as being themselves vested with Jurisdiction . Nor is it unworthy of remark , that when fewer ( than all the Bishops of a Province Synodically assembled with their Metropolitan ) as most usually Twelve , and at the least Seaven , as Peter de Marca observeth , were admitted to be a sufficient Number for Deposing a Bishop , yet nimia necessitas was in those cases made the common plea and excuse for it , as may be seen in the African Canon .

Sir , as the brevity , to which in a Letter I am obliged to confine my self , will not allow me to call over , and to give the Detale of the Canons , either of General , or of Provincial Councils , made and Decreed to the purpose I have mention'd , and much less to produce and repeat the Testimonies , of Theological , Ecclesiastical , and Historical writers , who do all concurr in Declaring what I have asserted ; so I may very well reckon my self discharged from that undertaking , by referring you to the sincere and impartial account given thereof , in Letter to a Peer , concerning the Power of Metropolitans over their Comprovincial Bishops . Which tho' snarled at in the Postscript to the Summary View &c. Yet I will be bold to say is so far from being Answer'd , that whosoever compareth the one Discourse with the tother will find reason to think the Cause pleaded for in the former , to be much strengthned , instead of being any ways weakened by the impertinent Reflections , and the imperfect and prevaricating Reply of the latter . For as they are but a very few Citations and Authorities , out of many , that he at all pretendeth to give any Answer unto ; so the Answers he vouchsafeth to give unto those , do either betray gross Ignorance accompanied with a strange superciliousness , which do not unfrequently meet and centre in one and the same Person ; or else they proclaim it to be his belief , that because the Ghurch of England is Subject to no forreign Juridisction , she is therefore acquitted from observing those Rules , which all the Christian Churches of the World , have in the best and purest times Guided themselves by , in the Exercise of Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Discipline . And should it be allowed him , that the Canons vulgarily stiled Apostolical , were not the Constitutions and Ordinances of those , whose venerable Names they bear ; yet this doth neither Impeach their being very Ancient ; nor infringe their competency and validity , for conveying unto us the Regulations and Measures by which the Church was govern'd in the most primitive and uncorrupt Ages . And should we also Grant , that some Councils and Synods whose Canons are quoted in the Letter to a Peer , have grosly Erred in diverse Articles of the Christian Faith ; yet that doth not unqualify and disable them from handing down to us matters of Fact , and from transmitting unto us a true and faithful account of the Disciplinary Laws , which were then Universally owned and observed . And the most material Exceptions made by the Author of the View against the Letter , being advanced and built upon , those weak and foolish pretences , doth both shew their insignificancy with respect to the End for which they were brought , and discovereth the folly of him , who could insist upon such Triffles that are wholly alien to the Controversy .

And therefore to superceed at present the further Chastising of that puny and Scurrilous , tho' daring and assuming Writer , I shall here subjoyn a further Evidence , of the Consent and Practise of the whole ancient Church , as to the method and manner of Deposing a Bishop , which tho' mention'd in the Letter to a Peer , yet the Author of the View thought it his interest to take no Notice of it ; namely that Gregory the 9th . commonly called Hildebrand , who Sate in the Roman Chair since the tenth Century , and stands Recorded in all Histories as an Usurper and Tyrant in Church and State , was the first Bishop either in that See or in the Christian World , who assumed the Right of Deposing a Bishop by his own single Authority , and not Synodically . Nor will it hereafter appear for the Credit of the present Arch Bishop of Canterbury , that he should have singled out that Pope , as his Patern and President to Imitate , rather than to follow the example , not only of ancient and late Metropolitans , but of the very Popes who preceeded the forementioned Gregory . And should his Grace persevere in claming this Jurisdiction over his Comprovincials , which he hath Exerted in the Deposition of the Bishop of St. David's , I would hope that neither the House of Lords , nor the House of Commons , will long continue silently and tamely to connive at it . Least that the acknowledging one at home to be vested with this Authority , prove in the Issue and consequence of it , as pernicious and fatal to Church and State , as our having formerly permitted some abroad to bring in Usurpations upon us , is known to have been . For as I cannot prevail upon my self to approve the Stile given him in the House of Peers , by one who was his Assessor in the proceedings against the Bishop of St. David's , of his being Legatus Natus , that importing a foreign Dependence , and an Authority derived from abroad ; so I would be loath to see him own'd to be lawfully possess'd of the Power and Authority , which he hath both Challenged and Executed , in Deposing a Comprovincial by vertue of a Jurisdictive Right originally Stated in himself . Seeing in my Opinion , it is much more dangerous to have a Pope so near us as Lambeth , than it would be to have One at Rome which is further off . Whereunto permit me to add , that the Challenging a Jurisdiction of Deposing a Bishop , otherwise than Synodically , hath been at all times , and every where , look 't upon , as a matter of that pernicious consequence to the Church , that not only the Council of Trent , ( tho' the Popes Vassals , and said to have the Holy Ghost , for the Guiding of them in their Decrees , sent from Rome in a Cloak-bagg ) endeavour'd to provide against it in three several Canons , as was observed by the Author of the Letter to the Peer ; but that when the late Cardinal Richluie , upon a suspicion that some Bishops were imbarking in Treasonable Practices , had obtained a special Commission from Pope Urban the 8th . for to Empower two or three Bishops with a Jurisdiction of Deposing them , and which the said Cardinal got to be accordingly Executed ; how that the French Clergy Remonstrated against it , as a Violation of the Gallican Liberties , and a Subversion of the ancient Canons , which Prohibit the Deposing a Bishop , unless by and with his Comprovincials Synodically Assembled . And the whole which I find pleaded in the Justification of their Deposition , is that it was done for the preservation and Safety of the Crown . The serity whereof , as it could in that French Instance , by the Laws of France , and the ordinary Methods , in which Justice is there Administred , have been otherwaies provided for ; so there was nothing in the Case of the Bishop of St. David's , which bore the least Alliance or affinity that Crime , upon which he could be supposed to have demerited , the being so Illegally , and Arbitrarily dealt with , as he was .

But that I may conclude this Head , give me leave to assure you , that the Universal and Uniform method of proceeding here in England in the Deposition of a Bishop from his Office and Order , hath been to have it alwaies brought before , and transacted either in the high Commission Court ; or in a Convocation , in which all the Comprovincials of the Diocess being Assembled , did Sit and Act Juridically . So that Arch-Bishop Lawd , who knew the Extent of the Metropolitical Power , as well as any before him , or since ever did , and who had as much Courage , as any Man whosoever , to Exert , it yet when the Bishop of Lincoln was to be proceeded against , had the Cause brought into the High Commission Court , and when he found it needful that the Bishop of Glocester should be Ecclesiastically Arraigned and Judged , he brought him before the Convocation , where he was judicially Convicted and Sentenced . For as was Declared in a Council held at London Ann. 1175 that the reason why Councils are Conven'd is , that they who have the chief Pastoral Care , may punish Offences and Crimes upon advice given by Common Consent . So Dr. Burnet posiitvely asserts in his Hist . Refor . Vol. 2. Cap. p. 391. that no Bishop can be Deposed or Thrust from his Order , unless it be done by a Synod of Bishops . But how far he may therein differ from the Judgment of the present Bishop of Salisbury , I do leave others to inquire . Tho' I cannot forbear observing , how greatly the foremention'd Dr. and the said Bishop , are of contrary Sentements to one an other in a very considerable and momentous Cause . Namely that whereas the Doctor was the Declaiming Satyrist and the Theological Inveigher against the French King , because of his having Ordained , that Children should in their Minority , be forced and taken away from their Protestant Parents , in order to be Popishly Educated ; yet the Bishop of Salisbury doth avow himself the Advocate and Partizan for the Introduction and passing of a B●ll in the House of Lords , to Authorize the forcing and snatching away of Infants from a Father , because of his being a Roman Catholick , that they may be Bred in the Reformed Religion . ' Tho the chief motive unto it , is thought by some to be his gratifing of the Mother , in the having Converted of whom , he seems to value and put an estimate upon himself , notwithstanding that there are those who believe , he will rather gain Infamy , than Reputation by it . And seeing all People , who are Morally and Conscientiously honest and Sincere , as I doubt not but that many Mahometan's as well as Papists , often are , do equally Believe themselves in the right , whatsoever their Religion be ; and therefore that the Orthodoxy of the Church of England , compared with the Heterodoxy of those of the Papal , and particularly of them of the French Communion , doth not make the proceeding in that manner , more Legetimate and defensible in us , than it is lawful and Justifiable in them , whom the foremention'd Doctor , hath upon that account so serverely Censured and Condemned ; I am therefore the more surprized , to find that a Practice in France , so justly stigmatized by the Doctor for Anti-Christian , Inhumane and Barbarous , should be proposed , pursued , and Vindicated by the Bishop of Salisbury as a Gospel Method , of bringing into , and of Breeding Members in the Faith and Worship of the Church of England . For as the Forming Proselites in that manner , is altogether inconsistent with the Christian Doctrine , and repugnant to the ways and means directed and prescribed by our Lord Jesus for the Gaining of Converts ; so it is no less in us than it was in the French a breaking in upon and a violation of the Laws of Nature , and a subversion of the ground of the most unalterable Relation , and original Society , only with this aggravation of dishonour and Guilt on our part more than on theirs , that it is the doing that which our Church Condemneth , and which theirs doth not . Nor can I think that to be a laudable way of making Protestants of any Reformed Felowship whatsoever , which hath been the Method practiced in the Forming Mammalucks and Janizaries .

Now to all that I have said concerning the procedure against the Bishop of St. David's , let me finally add , that as their would have been no need for the Erection of a High Commission Court primo Eliz . had such an Authority and Jurisdiction , as were lately Exercised , been thought originally and rightfully Seated in a Single Metropolitan ; seeing it would at no Time have been a matter of great difficulty , to get such Exclesiastical persons placed in the Arch-Episcopal Sees , as would have no less answer'd the designs of those on the Throne , than that Court , upon whatsoever prospect Established , was made Instrumental in doing ; so both the Credit and the Settlement of Bishops in their Function and Order , are left very precarious , if the Power of Deposing them , shall be held Vested in a single Metropolitan ; in that it is not impossible , but that he who sometimes is so , may have his little Piques and Revenges , and withal be none of the wisest or discreetest men it the world .

And with this I shut up what I had to lay before you concerning the first Head and particular , which was that of Deposing the Bishop of St. David's ab Officio , the whole proceeding wherein , and Transaction whereof , will I hope hereby appear to have been Coram●non Judice . And as to the 2d . Particular , which is his being thereupon Turn'd out of his Temporalities , and from his Right of Sitting in the House of Lords , whereunto he had a Title per Servitium Baroniae . I will not make any further Entrance upon it at present , save only to tell you , that as all the Clergy , both Higher , and Lower , have the same Legal Right unto , and an Equal Security by our Laws in their Temporalities , which they of the Laity have in theirs ; with this only difference , that whereas the Estates of the latter may be Hereditary , and usually are so ; those of the former , thro' being meerly Ecclesiastical Provisions , Setled upon them in way of Recompence and Reward for the exercise and discharge of their Spiritual Offices and Functions , are therefore only Temporary , and during the Lives of those Endowed in and possessed of them . Accordingly we have it expresly Enacted Ano . 14 Edwardi . cap . 6. for the protecting the Clergy , from Incourring any Prejudice for not doing whatsoever they are bid to do , that for the future we Will and Grant for Us and our Heirs that from thenceforth We , nor our Heirs shall not Take , nor Cause to be Taken into our Hands the Temporalities of Arch-Bishops , Bishops , nor other People of Holy Church of what Estate or Condition they be , without a just and True Cause according to the Law of the Land and Judgment thereupon Given . So that as no Laick can be disseized and dispossessed of his Freehold or Inheritance , unless upon a Trial at Common Law , and by the Verdict of a Jury ; no more can the Temporalities of any of the Clergy , be Seized by our Kings , or by any of their Ministers , without a previous Legal Process in the Courts of Civil Judicature , for some Offence , Contempt , or Crime , for which by Law on the Verdict of a Jury , they are made liable to Seizure . But instead of pursusing this matter now any further , I must begg the liberty of adjourning what I have to Represent on that Head , until I do my self the honour of writing to you again , and of giving you a further Testimony how much I am