Some years since there arrived in these parts a little diminutive Sir John , who had spent some time in the University , where he was a poor Scholar , and went on the Errands of several of the Gentlemen of his College ; and with the help of that and the College-Broth , made a shift to pick up a sorry Livelihood . His Father ( while he lived ) kept a blind Victualling-House , and his Mother this day is a reverend Ale-wife : And tho his Friends were poor , and could no way help him , yet he got wherewith to take his degrees of Batchelor , and afterwards of Master of Arts.

He came hither in hopes of a small Curacy under a fat Parson of our Country , who had swallowed more Livings than he could well digest ; but taking in too much Claret to help his Concoction , kicked up his heels soon after the arrival of our little Dominus vobiscum , who by that means ( in spite of the Proverb ) might have died of Hunger , had not a Gentleman of Estate and Quality not far off , took this Priest-Errant into his House , to initiate his Son in the Latin Tongue , where our Sir John performed all the spiritual Drudgeries of the Family , blessed the Meat with a singular good Grace , and had the honour of sitting at the lower end of the Table , from whence ( according to his bounden Duty ) he always very mannerly arose at the serving in of the second Course , and , with a Bow as low as to the Altar , took with him the Plate he had eat on : And in process of time skrewing himself into the good Graces of Mrs. Abigail my Lady's waiting Woman , a Match was struck up between them , and ( with the good liking of their Master and Lady ) they were coupled together ; and the first Living that fell in his Master's Gift , was ( according to the laudable Custom where the Patron had been beforehand with the Chaplain ) bestowed upon him : which ( tho a very good one , yet ) did not satisfy him , but in a short time up he comes for London , and having made an interest in some of the great ones , plies Whitehal without intermission , Sunday it self not excepted ; on which morning constantly about 10 of the Clock , he never failed ( together with a whole Herd of that Tribe , who were in town upon the like hunt ) to be at Mans Coffee-house , to smoak away the remainder of that tedious Forenoon , which others ( not so well skill'd in the new Crape-Divinity ) spent in the Church . At length his Expectations were crowned with success , and our Sir John ( having duly capacitated himself ) had another Living added to his former . On goes the Scarf , and down goes my Priest full fraught with Pride and Exultation . From henceforth his thoughts began to swell ; and being now a Buttress broader , he would be a Story or two higher : To the University he trudges , and takes his Degree of Batchelor , and now lately of Doctor in Divinity .

He had not been long returned from thence , but Mr. S. his Lady , and Mrs. Abigail ( our new Doctress ) being with others of the Neighbourhood at a Country Entertainment , Madam S. being the best Woman in the Company , and not imagining any Person there would have disputed Precedence with her , set her self by the Mistriss of the House at the upper end of the Table , so that there was no room left for Mrs. Abigail , but at one of the sides . Down she sits , but with a full Stomach , not a bit went into her mouth ; which the Mistriss of the House observing , and taking notice of , Mrs. Abigail set up a hideous Outcry that her Quality was injured , and read such a Lecture upon the Dignity of the Clergy , and especially of a Doctor in Divinity ( and consequently of his Doxy ) that the Lady was amazed , and the Company burst out into a loud Laughter . The Lady hath wit enough , and plied Mrs. Abigail with such smart Repartees , that she was put to silence ; but the Doctor being present , was so great a Coxcomb as to take up the Cudgels , and was encountred by a Gentleman of more sense than himself , who drove the business so home , that the Doctor was quite nonplust . However , this Contest spoiled the intended Mirth , to the disturbance of the whole Company ; since which Mrs. Abigail hath declined all Meetings where the Lady was to be , and intends to continue in this sullen humor till the Quality of a Doctor in Divinity's Wife is here better understood .

This is the true matter of Fact , and now give me leave to examin upon what Justice or Right the Pretensions of this Sir John and his Wife are founded .

As to the Husband , we will consider him in both his capacities , of Priest and Doctor .

As to his Priesthood , I see nothing in that which can intitle him to more than the Quality of an ordinary Gentleman ( for that , as I take it , the common Courtesy of England allows him , as well as an Attorney , or Licentiat in Physick ) and being only a Gentleman by his Profession , he is inferior to him who is a Gentleman by Birth : As ( to instance in the next degree upwards ) an Esquire by Office , as a Member of the House of Commons , a Justice of Peace , who is ( quatenus such ) inferior to an Esquire by Birth , as the eldest Son of a Baronet or Knight : And if any one born a Gentleman gives precedence to the Parish Priest , 't is more than is the Priest's due , and given of mere Courtesy ; unless the Parish Priest be a Gentleman by Birth likewise , in which case the Precedence must be ruled by the common Notion among us , that where there be two Persons of equal Birth or Quality , the Precedence ought to be given to him that hath the better Estate . And if the Gentleman Parish-Priest hath a Benefice of 200 l. per annum , and the Lay-Gentleman hath Lands of Inheritance but of 100 l. per annum , worth 20 years Purchase , the Lay-man hath doubtless the better Estate of the two ; and if he gives Precedence to the Parish-Priest , it is of courtesy , and not of due .

I know it will be objected , That the Function of these Priests is sacred ; That they are bred up in the Schools of the Prophets , where they attain to the understanding and interpreting of the Holy Scriptures ; That they are God's Ambassadors , and conversant all their Life-times about the Mysteries of Religion : All which eminently distinguishes them , and sets them in a Rank superior to that of other men .

But I cannot understand how these things can help them in the point we are upon , which concerns a Temporal Right . Was not Christ's and his Apostles Priesthood and Function as sacred as theirs ? And yet he disclaimed ( for them as well as himself ) all Temporal Superiority .

For their Education , It is not apparent that it is founded upon no design but what is common to other men , to feed and clothe them , and answer the common necessities of Life . Shew me a Father whose main and ultimat end in sending his Son to this School of the Prophets in order to the Priesthood , was any other than to put him into a way to get his Livelihood . And can those be any longer called the Schools of the Prophets , which are turned into such Sinks of all Lewdness and Debauchery ; insomuch that the Gentry of England begin to bethink themselves of Academies and other ways of Education for their Sons , to avoid a place where only Poverty , and the want of opportunity to be vicious can secure from Vice ? And how comes the Gift of understanding and interpreting the Scriptures to be found there more than in other places , when we see that those who come from these Schools of the Prophets disagree so much in their Sentiments , that by their different Expositions and Interpretations of Scripture , turning and winding it like a Nose of Wax , they have set themselves and the whole Kingdom together by the ears ? Which makes it evident that no man who comes from thence is to be relied on as an infallible Interpreter ; and without Infallibility all the Interpreters in Europe of the doubtful places of Scripture are not worth a straw , seeing they may as soon be in the wrong as in the right : and that some of 'em must be in the wrong , we all know ; but whether any of them be in the right , God knows .

As for the Ambassage they value themselves upon , should some great Prince send to a neighbouring State or Community , a pair of Ambassadors , who should both have the same Instructions , but differed from each other in the meaning of them , so that one of them required one thing , and the other the quite contrary ; I think no great heed ought to be given to either of them .

And as to the Mysteries of Religion , I confess they have made Christianity it self a Mystery , which in all the Fundamentals of it is in the Scriptures made plain and easy to an ordinary Understanding . But the Lawyers do wisely to interpret our Law in barbarous French , that no English-man but themselves may understand it .

't is true , when Popery obtained among us , the case was not the same as now : For the Veneration then shewed to the Priest ( admitting the then received Belief ) was grounded upon great reason : for what could I think too much for him who with four words could make me a God and a Saviour , that could pen him up in a Box , and eat him at his pleasure , and when that is done could with the same words make me another as good as the former ; that could forgive me all my Sins , and if perchance I had not before my death scoured my Kettle so clean as I should have done , so that I had the ill luck to drop into Purgatory , could sing me out again , and by that means place me in a Station of eternal Bliss ? How would I crouch and cringe , kneel to and adore him who could do all this ?

These were great things , and yet no more than a Priest of the Church of Rome pretends to do . But alas , with us a Priest can do none of these Feats , but is despoiled of all these spiritual Plumes , and left as bare as the Bird in the Fable ; not a Jack in a Box admitted among us , nor the Priest's Absolution valued at a rush of late , unless at the Gallows ; Purgatory hissed off the Stage , and reckoned at the worst to be but some blind Ale-house between Heaven and Hell : And tho there is a Form of Absolution , as full as any in the Popish Books , placed in a Corner of our Common-Prayer Book , at the end of the Visitation of the Sick , to serve a turn , if occasion be ( which I never think on , but it puts me in mind of Littleton's Chapter of Continual Claim ) yet no Priest with us durst have the impudence at this time of day to affirm in his Pulpit , or any other publick place , that he hath power to forgive Sins , lest the People should throw stones at him .

I doubt not but some ( if they saw this Paper ) would tell me that I have debased my Lords the Bishops . No such matter : They hold their Rank and Quality by their Baronages settled by the Law of the Land , and take their Places accordingly , and not by their Priesthood , and therefore are not within my aim or intention . But under that Degree there is no Law with us which gives precedence to a Clergyman , however dignified or distinguished , above him that is born a Gentleman : and a Clergy-man , under the degree of a Bishop , hath no more reason to pretend to any Place or Precedence , because 't is possible he may come to be a Bishop , than a young sucking Barister hath to take place of his Betters , because 't is possible he may come to be Lord Chancellor .

As for the other capacity of our Parish-Priest , Doctor in Divinity . The Gentlemen of England ( that have any considerable Places ) do seldom or never breed up their eldest Sons to the Priesthood , but commonly send them , and sometimes one of the younger Sons too ( tho for the reason aforesaid , neither of them so much of late as formerly ) to the Universities , and from thence ( without staying there so long as to take any Degree ) to the Inns of Court , where they do or ought to betake themselves to the study of our municipal Laws ; and after 7 or 8 years are many of them called to the Bar ; some with an intent to make the Law their Profession , whereby they often double or treble their paternal Estates ; and after 20 or 25 years first admittance into their respective Societies , are chosen of the Bench ; and some of them afterwards ( by the favour of the Prince ) called to the State and Degree of Serjeant at Law , out of which number are chosen the Reverend Judges of the Realm . Others of these Inns of Court Gentlemen , after they are called to the Bar ( and many of them before ) depart into their own Countries , and by the knowledg they have acquired in the Law are rendred more serviceable to the Publick in the eminent Stations they are placed in there ; where some of them match into great and honourable Families , others of them to rich and wealthy Heiresses , and others of them to Women of considerable Fortunes in Money , sufficient ( without the aid of their own Estates ) to buy all the Substance of ten Doctors in Divinity put together . Out of these several sorts of Inns of Court Gentlemen , are for the most part chosen the Members of Parliament , High-Sheriffs , Deputy-Lieutenants , and Justices of Peace , who thus ( next under the King ) come to have the Legislative , Judicial , and Ministerial Power of the Kingdom in their hands .

But if we will find the Pedegree of our Doctor in Divinity , we must stoop somewhat lower . If there be a younger Brother of any of these Families , he is commonly bound Apprentice to some Trade , or sent to the University , which of them his Father , or ( if dead ) his other Friends think him most likely to thrive by . And here we have set our Doctor in the best Light . But it may be he is the Son of some Farmer , of some little Countrey Pedlar , of a Whitster , Farrier , Bricklayer , Plaisterer , Carpenter , or ( as in the case before us ) of an Alehouse-keeper ; none of which ever arriv'd at the Honour of being covered before the Squire ( as they call 'em in the Country ) his Landlord , Master , or Customer , whom yet the Son of one of these Poultrons ( having once got a red Hood about his Shoulders ) would dispute Precedence with .

And would it not be an agreeable sight to see this Son of Gaffer what de 'e call him , insolently step before a Person of Birth , Quality and Estate , merely because he hath attained to the Preferment of an Ape , to be clad in Scarlet , while his Father works for his Living with his Leather Apron on , or with his Frock whistling to his Team , or with his blew Apron to receive the Droppings of the Tap ( as in our case ) and his Mother sits at home mending of old Stockings . And if he were a poor Scholar , or of some Foundation in the University , what was he but a Porter or Serving-man in the first case , and an Alms boy in the other case ? For what difference is there between a Fellow or Scholar of a Foundation in a College , and another Alms-man or Alms-boy in an Hospital ? Did not the Founders endow both out of Charity ? Were they not both designed for the relief and maintenance of such as have not to live of themselves ? And yet this little Monsieur , after he hath lived some time in his College upon Charity , and passed through some pedantick Formalities , which they call Degrees , must come into the Country , and perk above him to whom perchance he hath in the College served up many a Dish of Meat , and Mess of Broth , or run on many an Errand for .

But we will suppose our Doctor a younger Son of some Gentleman of Quality , who was sent to the University at fifteen , gets to be Master of Arts at twenty two , Bachelor of Divinity at twenty nine , and Doctor at thirty three ; all which Degrees are conferred in the University , without respect to any extraordinary Merit , but as things of course . Here 's a way found out for all younger Brothers ( who are sent to the University ) to become better men at thirty three than their elder Brothers , and is a Cheat worse than that put by Rebecca upon her Husband , to deprive her eldest Son of his Birthright . And if the Gentlemen of England ( notwithstanding their Eyes are commonly thought to be pretty well cleared of the Mists of Popery , from whence this Priest-worship first took its rise ) were not still as blind as Isaac , they would discern how they are Priestridden and abused in this matter as well as in many others : for what is it to the Gentlemen of England , what a parcel of petty starch'd Fellows , the Dregs and Offals of Monkery , who live upon Chops of Mutton , do among themselves ? Or how are the Body of the English Nation concerned whether they make one another Doctors , Patriarchs or Mufti's ? Let them strut it about the Streets of Oxford and Cambridg , and look big upon the cowed Townsmen , and crow upon their own Dunghils there ; but when they come abroad among Gentlemen , let them remember the meanness either of their Birth or Education , or perhaps both , and know their distance when they meet with those who are above them in every respect .

But suppose we should give some grains of allowance to our Doctor in Divinity or Parish-Priest , and humour him a little ; what is that to Mrs. Abigail , who makes a Figure of no long standing ? For so lately as it King Harry the Eighth's Reign , the Wife of a Priest was Rara avis in terris , nigroque simillima cygno .

't is true Cranmer , in those days , when he was a Student at Cambridg , married an Innkeeper's Daughter there ( which gave occasion to the Papists to say he was an Hostler ) and after he was Archbishop of Ganterbury , kept her privately sometimes at Lambeth . In imitation whereof a late Archbishop kept his Wife there too , privately enough , tho not so privately as the other . But that of Cranmer was a rare instance in those times ; and when in K. Edward the Sixth's Reign the Clergy began frequently to marry , and in Q. Elizabeth's Reign continued so to do by colour of the Statutes of 2 & 3 E. 6. which permitted them to marry , and 5 & 6 E. 6. which declared their Children legitimate ( altho by the way those two Statutes were repealed by 1 Mar. and never revived till 1 Jac . 1. ) the Gentlemen of England looked on the Marriage of a Priest as so scandalous a thing , that they thought scorn to bestow their Daughters or Kinswomen upon them ; so that the Parish-Priests were fain for a long time to take up with the Daughters of the meanest of the People , my Lady's Chamber-maid being accounted a great Booty in those days . And these Ecclesiastical Doxys kept themselves a long time within the Bounds of Modesty , and imployed themselves at their Wheel or Needle , or in the getting in the Tithe-eggs , and such like , without pretending to any place or precedence , any further than before the Farmers Wives of the Parish , and not those neither , if rich and wealthy ; nor knew any thing beyond a black stuff Gown on Sundays , and a green Apron when they went abroad on working days . And when some of them , especially the Wives of those they called the dignified Clergy , grew malapert , and raised Disputes about Place , Q. Elizabeth being asked what place was due to a Clergy-man's Wife , answered truly and discreetly , Behind the door . So that in her time they were kept pretty well down , and made no such bustles as they have done since .

And tho I am not against a Priest's having a comfortable Importance as well as other men , yet 't is observable , that when towards the latter end of that Queen's Reign these she-Comforts grew proud and troublesom , the whole course of the Clergy's way of living became quite altered . For whereas before , the Clergy and their Wives were very charitable to their Neighbors , especially the Poor , whom they daily reliev'd ; when once Pride and Affectation had crept in among the Wives , which could not be supported without extraordinary expence , and a more chargeable Education than formerly was bestowed on their Offspring , which seldom failed to be numerous , the Charity of the Clergy ceased , and all was spent on themselves , their Wives and Children , and the Poor were ready to be starved : which was the occasion of making the Statute of 43 Eliz . for relief of the Poor , being the first Statute Law which was ever made of that nature and comprehension , and was not chiefly occasioned , as some think , by the dissolution of Monasteries ; for the Clergy long after that reliev'd the Poor of their Parishes and Districts to that degree , that there was no need of any such Law : And so indeed it ought to have continued ; for tho what they distributed was upon pretence of Charity , yet it was no more than what was the Poors due , the Goods of the Church being the Poors , as was expresly determin'd by the 2d Council of Ravenna , by which and several other Councils , it was provided that the Poor should be maintained by the Clergy . And there is a Canon extant , which enjoins the Clergy to set apart the third of the profits of their Benefices for the relief of the Poor . And seeing the Clergy stand so strictly upon other Canons which make for their Profit , Authority , and Advantage , 't is pity but this Canon should be put in ure , which would keep the Priests ( and consequently their Wives ) in a state of Humility more becoming the Gospel , and would be so plentiful a relief to the Poor , that there would need ( as a certain Lord Mayor expressed himself when he whipt the Beggars ) no complaining in our Streets .

But to leave this digression : When in some of the later Reigns Debauchery and Lewdness were incouraged , and made a step to Preferment , especially after the Restoration in 1660. when the Gentlemen of the Royal Party , who had strugled through their Sequestrations , Imprisonments , Decimations , &c. under the then late usurped Powers , and had notwithstanding all those Difficulties preserved their Estates entire , or not much impaired them , ran stark mad for joy , and either out of the vain hopes of Court-Preferment , or to comply with their own Inclinations , had many of them run into such a course of Extravagancy , as quickly consumed the Estates of some of them , and placed others of them in a meaner condition than they could probably have been reduced to , had their former Persecutions continued ; so that all they got by the Restoration was the honour of spending their Estates themselves : and this extravagant humour had spread it self much further , and become almost universal . And on the other hand , our Clergy rode triumphant , and heaped to themselves Benefice upon Benefice , and Preferment upon Preferment ; so that he who had either Wit , Money , or Friends , could hardly miss of making a considerable Figure in a short time : and having quite left off the sour Humour and Looks which were heretofore peculiar to the Ecclesiasticks , and were then called Gravity , and no more appeared with their Hair cropp'd above their Ears , nor with their black sattin and white-lac'd turn'd-up Caps ; but adapted themselves to the gay and frank Humour of the Times , and with the help of a Jauntee Wig , curl'd and poudered alamode , and a few Grimaces , skrewed themselves into the good Graces of the young Ladies : Then happy was he who had but 3 or 4 or 500 l. to give with his Daughter , or had reserved an Advowson among the Reliques of a broken Fortune in order to some Smock Symony , who could marry his Daughter into the Tribe of Levi . And by this means several of them have gotten into Alliances with tolerable Families , and others of them ( tho but a few ) have made a higher step .

These Madames thus disposed of , retaining a smatch of the Haughtiness of the Families from whence they are sprung , are never at rest till their Husbands commence Doctors , that they may place themselves above all other Women under the degree of a Knight's Wife ; for that is what they pretend to .

But how long hath this been their due ? They cannot claim it by Custom , or Prescription time out of mind ; for Edward the Sixth's Reign , when the Clergy were permitted to marry , is within time of memory ; and for many hundred years before there was not a married Priest in England , unless by stealth , as in the case of Cranmer . When therefore did this right of Precedence first accrue to them ? and where ? Not behind the door I hope .

If then there be no such Custom or Prescription , there must be some positive Law to give or assert this Right , or the Court of Honour must have decided it : but our Legislators had somewhat else to do than to trouble themselves with Mrs. Abigail ; nor would they in all the long Reign of Q. Elizabeth , so much as make her Marriage lawful , or her Children legitimate , by repealing the said Statute of 1 Mar. And the Court of Honour had more respect for the Gentlemen of Families and Estates , than to subject their Wives to the Daughter of a Beggar , or to Abigail the Waiting-woman , or Joan the Chamber-maid .

The Bishops are Barons of the Realm , and take their places above all of the Degree only of Temporal Barons ; and yet the Lady of a Temporal Baron , nay of a Baronet , nay more of a Knight ( altho her Husband's Dignity is not descendible to her Children ) is acknowledged by all to have precedence before the Wife of a Bishop : and one reason is , because ( as I said before of the Doctor's Wife ) a Bishop's Wife being but of later date , cannot challenge such precedence by Custom or Prescription : nor was the point ever determined for her in the Court of Honour .

't is true , about 60 years since , when no Woman under the degree of a Knight's Wife was called Madam or my Lady , there was one Pierce , Bishop of Bath and Wells ( who lived to be restored in 1660. and then betook himself only to Suppers , lest any Gentleman or Clergyman of the Country should come to dine with him ) would needs have those two Appellations given to his Wife , which some complied with , to flatter him ; others refus'd , to vex him ; while all laughed at him for expecting it .

Now if the Precedence which a Bishop hath cannot affect the Bishop's Wife , or place her in a station sutable to that of her Husband , much less can this empty Title of Doctor affect the Doctor's Wife , or place her in a higher rank than she was in before ; but she remains still the Parson's or Vicar's Wife of the Parish , and no more .

But she may ( for the most part ) thank the vain-glorious Fool her Husband for this piece of Pride and Insolence , who hath filled her Head with the airy notion of his Doctorship , and hath put her into a Garb fitter for a man's Wife of 2000 l. per annum , than for the Wife of a Parish-Priest , whose Benefices die with him : She must be arrayed ( contrary to the Modesty and Gravity of the Wives of Q. Elizabeth's Clergy ) in all the Colours of the Rainbow , with a Head as high as the late Porter at the New Exchange , with a Footboy or two at her heels , and a Coach or Calash it may be into the bargain ; but when the Parson dies , down goes all this : She then lives upon some little Pittance , or perhaps becomes that which they call a distressed Minister's Widow , and an Object of ( what she was a stranger to in her Husband's Life-time ) Charity . And this often happens where the Parson lives up to the height of his Income , and consumes it upon the Pride and Luxury of himself and his Doxy .