Henry VIII. putting laymen in Vicars' Churches. 57

on thee. All church things are, therefore, taken from thee as much as when thou wast unordained. We put a lay-clergyman-rector in thy place, as if thou wast dead in thy grave. For all that thou must serve us, at thy peril, and so must he who will have the good luck to succeed thee; for although we have disendowed thee, we have not yet disestablished the Church. And if the man will not come to this Church, to whom we will make the offer of toleration, to carry on religion in it, as a trespasser without pay, he will be under the displeasure and wrath of our servant the Bishop; for such a man "follows Christ for loaves and fishes." He ought to prove, by his working for nothing, that salvation can be got "without money and without price;" unlike the Pope's merits, indulgences, and Wolsey's good works. We send thee to our subjects throughout our Kingdom, to support thee voluntarily. We have obtained the apostolic blessing of the Bishops upon our work. We greet thee, with the presents of stamping thee a murmuring Israelite, for thy stomach, in the Church of God in our Flitcham wilderness. Farewell."

Henry VIII. handed the Vicar over to the Bishop to dispose of him, by using a little tact and civility, and by rocking him nicely and quietly to sleep in the Church cradle. The Bishops had now two sorts of Clergymen, instead of one, paying them homage, namely, the Vicars Canonically ordained by themselves, and lay-clergymen-rectors, ordained by the King. His Majesty was highly pleased to find the Bishops showing so much respect to his ordination, and so little to their own.

58

Solomon's wisdom accounted for.

When the Vicars asked food enough all cried them down, and counted "the lewd fellows of the baser sort" their superiors, who persecuted them (Acts xvii. 5). They were made, as Paul says, " the filth and offscouring of the earth" (1 Cor. iv. 13). All condemned them for complaining of their treatment, and for exposing by their appeals those in high position.

The subject for pious meditation, which crossed my soul, when thinking over these things, was the life of David. So I addressed my people, as follows, upon I Samuel xxv. 2-11: David, my brethren! cried I, Had to fight his way to a kingdom, and to hold it. So, like poor Vicars fighting for God's kingdom, he ran short of rations. He asked farmer "Nabal," a stock-breeder, for food, but he, like lay-rectors, was churlish and stubborn, and refused it. Vicars are required to be as wise and as grand as Solomon ; but it will do for an Irishman to be fighting and begging like the great and holy King David, "the man of war, and the blood-shedder," who begged bread of Nabal. Solomon had a kingdom given to him, and he had money, books, teachers, visitors, counsellors, and all materials to make him wise and clever. Without these he would have been as great a blunderer as David, his father, rising from the sheep fold to the Throne, or as the starved and grovelling Vicars. I suppose King David's appeal for bread to Nabal, the farmer and stock-breeder, was unacceptable; but the wife was right in having less pride and temper, and in being more considerate.

CHAPTER IX.

Popish Plenary indulgence granted by Bishops, in the Reformed Church, to lay Rectors, to treat poor Vicars at pleasure-Lay Rectors usurping the office of Vicars with Episcopal approval-Irish well-fed Clergymen dispensing with Ritualistic law-suits-The Consecration by God of what is used by Dissenters in His service-The poverty of Vicars profitable for Bishops, Landlords, and Tenants-The way to enjoy the Millennium.

H

ENRY VIII., as head of the Church, created a new order of clergy known as lay-rectors, ordained by the breath of his mouth. He set up these as superintending ministers over Vicars. But the Bishops took alarm at the danger of having these lay clergymen rectors acting as independent lay Archbishops over themselves, and so they cleverly assumed superiority over them, and granted them indulgence to treat the poor Vicars as they pleased. The Bishop lets no one slip without putting him in subjection under himself by friendly favours, or otherwise: so he tried his hand at giving the lay clergyman rector a charge, as follows:

"Half brother, and almost Reverend lay-ClergymanRector, we send thee these presents greeting. We give thee, who art now the holder of all that belongs to this Church, our Episcopal approval and Apostolic Benediction. Hold, therefore, the position and office of a lay-clergyman-Rector in the Church of God, committed unto thee by the ordination of the King, the

60 Bishops sanctifying the treatment of poor Vicars.

head of the Church. We bless thee as the lay-clergyman-Rector, in the possession of the consecrated Church, the religious Abbey, the sacred tithes, the dedicated Church lands, the sanctified oblations and offerings of the faithful. We preserve, for thee alone, all these sources of wealth. It is in our power to allot the Vicar a maintenance out of these tithes, and we can by law, and by Church excommunication, compel thee to give the Vicar his rights. But we grant thee: plenary indulgence, in our Reformed anti-Popish Church, to do as thou pleasest, and to have all to thyself. Eat the whole lot into thy own stomach, which has hitherto filled that of six brother friars, a vicar, and. several parish poor. We do not exhort thee in this. peculiar exceptional case, to "sell all and to give to the poor, in order to have treasure in heaven," as Christ. ordered the rich young man to do, for it is dangerous to interpret scripture too literally. The times are altered,. and tact, prudence, and judgment become us. Keep thy riches carefully, as we will dine at thy house: shortly on our Episcopal rounds.

"It suits us to exercise certain parts of the office of the Priest on some showy and honourable occasions. We charge thee, therefore, not to usurp this part of our office and work. Do everything which the Vicar does, when he is not wearing the church-garment called surplice. We are not acting as Vicars when we are not wearing our Episcopal robes, but as Government officers carrying out the law. On such occasions we make it our business to hand over holy ordained brethren to be imprisoned. When we put on our garments we pray for 'all prisoners and captives.' We

Poor Vicars virtually suspended from office. 61

put them into prison for looking at the sun rise in the East; for keeping down drunkenness by mixing water with wine to weaken it; for having bad sight by requiring candlelight; and for being cold blooded by requiring quick march in processions. Thou art free from such tortures. The Vicar, when not wearing his surplice, is a missionary clergyman for guarding sacred things and sacred people, and for reproving wrong doing; but we will ruin him if he protests against thy conduct. It is a part of his holy office to give away church money, or tithes, oblations, and offerings, which in this case are thine. Be thou an unsurplicewearing-Rector, in opposition to the Canonically ordained clergyman. If thou performest any part of the Vicar's work, which he does when he wears the surplice, thou wouldst be a lay-Bishop, and thou wouldst then hurt us. So we keep thee, on pain of persecution, debarred from this position which is allowed to the Vicar, unpaid, to save us trouble. Farewell."

Even when a Vicar wears no church garment his office is to work from house to house, and even ecclesiastically he must prepare them for Confirmation, wherever he finds them. It is no small part of a Vicar's office to protect, from unbecoming, and even from worldly treatment, all that was ever given to the Lord, whether men or things. But all church things here were given to a layman, making a clergyman of him. Among the persons and things set apart for the Lord, are baptized and confirmed people, communicants, clergymen, bishops, churches, churchyards, church vessels and goods, oblations, offerings, fruits, &c. The work of the Vicar here was thus confined to