Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of the abuses in England in Shakspere's youth, A.D. 1583 / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.

  • Stubbs, Philip, active 1581-1593.
Date:
1877-1882
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Phillip Stubbes's Anatomy of the abuses in England in Shakspere's youth, A.D. 1583 / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    more flocks and churches than one. If he tries to, he must be non-resident in one parish. t* Sig. L. I.] This takes away the Word preacht, which IS the Life. Ministers’ Hubstitutes arc mainly like Hogherds. 76 II. 2. Evils of Pluralism and Non-Residence. three flocks or mo at once, and to feed them wel and in due feafon, dooing the dutie of a good fliepheard in euerie refpedi:, they being diftant from him, ten, twentie, fortie, fixtie, an hundred, two hundred, or three hundred miles ? Much letie is there any man able to dif- charge the dutie of a good paftor ouer fo manie flocks, churches, and congregations fo farre diftant in place, wheras the fimpleft flocke that is, requireth a whole, and perfeft man, & not a peece of a man. Therfore I aduife al benefice mongers, that haue mo charges then one, to take heede to themfelues, and to leaue them in time, for the blood of al thofe within their cures, or charges, that die ghoftlie for want of the truth of Gods word preached vnto them, fhall be powred vpon their ^ heads, at the day of iudgement, and be required at their hands. Theod. If they haue fo many benefices a peece, and fome fo farre diftant from another, then it is not poflible that they can be refident vpon them all at once. But the matter is in difpute, whether they may not as well be ab^fent, or prefent: what is your iudgment of that ? Amphil. To doubt whether the paftor ought to be refident with his flocke, is to doubt whether the foule fliould be in the bodie, the eie in the head, or the watchman in his tower. For this I am fully perfuaded of, that as the foule is the life of the bodie, and the eie the light of the fame, fo the word of God preached is the life, and light, as well to the bodie as to the foule of man. And as neceflarie as the one is to the bodie, fo (and much more) neceflarie is the other both to foule and bodie. Now certein it is, thefe things cannot be applied without the prefence of the preacher or paftor 3 and therefore is his abfence from his flocke a dangerous and a perilous thing, and as it were a taking away of their life and light from tliem, which commeth by the preaching of Gods word vnto them. Theod. But they fay, though they be not prefent by themfelues, yet be they prefent by their fubftitutes and deputies: is not that a fufficient difcharge for them before God ? Amphil. I grant they are prefent by their deputies and fubftitutes, but if a man flioulde looke into a great fort of them, he ihould finde them fuch as are fitter to feed hogs, than chriftian foules. For as for * Orig. their their.