Neal - Houston-Packer Collection BX9333 .N4 1754

Chap. III. The HIS T 0 R Y of the PuRITANS. 93 the new incumbent to hold his living only during pleafure; the · par-K. Charles I. liament being willing t~ leave op~n a. door, at the conclufion ~f a peace, ~, for refl:oring fuch royal1fis as were d1fplaced meerly for adhermg to the king, without prejudice to the prefent polfdfor. On~ cannot anfwer. for particulars under fuch uncommon difl:radions and vwlence of par~Ies; but the orders were, in my opinion, not only reafonable but expedient, for the !upport of the caufe in which the parliament was engaged. The committees for the alfociated counties acted, I apprehend, no Suit~ CBr. longer than the year I 644. The !ail: warrant of ejeClment mentioned b)t P· 119. Dr. Na!Jim, bearing date March I7· I644·5· in which time affairs were brought to fuch a !ettlement in tbofe parts, that the royalifl:s could give them no difiurbance. The alfociated counties, fays Mr. Fuller, e!caped the befi of all parts in this civil war r the !moak thereof only offending them, while the fire was felt in other places. The chief ejectments by .the commifiioners in other parts of England, were in the years · I 644, 1645· and till the change of government in the year I 649. when the covcnant itfelf was fet afide, and changed into an ENGAGEMENT to the new common-wealth. 'Tis hard to compute the number of clergymen that might lofe their Numbers e•– lrvings by the feveral committees during the war, nor is it of any greadetled. importance, for the law is the fame whether more or fewer fuffer by it; and the not putting it in execution might be owing to want of power or opportunity. Dr. Na/fon fays, that in five of the afiociated counties one hundred fifty-fix clergymen were ejected in !~ttle more than a year; namely; in Norfolk fifty-one, Suffolk thirty-feven, Cambridgejhire thirty·one, EJ/ex twenty-one; Linco/njhire fix teen; and if we allow a proportionable number for the other two, the whole will amount.to two hundred and eighteen; and if i1r feven counties there were two hundred and eighteen fufferers, the fifty ·· two counties of England, by a like proportion, will produce upwards of fixteen hundred. Dr. Walker has fallacioufly encreafed the number of fuffering clergymen to eight thoufand, even though the lift at the end of his book m3kes out little more than a fifth part. Among his cathedral clergy he reckons up feveral prebends and canonries, in which he fuppofes fufferers without any evidence, Of this fort Dr. Calamy has reckoned Ch. and di f. above two hundred. If one clergyman was polfefied of three or- four fenters cor;;~ dignities there appear to be as many fufferers. The like is obfervable in pared, P· sz•.. the cafe of pluralifis ;- for example, Richard Stuart, L. L D. is fet down as a fufferer in the deanry of St. Paul's, as prebendary of St. Paneras, and refidentiary ; in the deanry and prebend of the third ftall in Wqlminfler ; in the deanry of the royal chapel; in the provofHhip of Ea~on college, and prebe.nd of Northalton in the church of Salisbury; aJ.] . wb1ch preferments he enJoyed, or was entitled to together, and his name ns ,

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