LXXXI. The truth is that of all things hitherto mentioned the greatest is that threefold blot or blemish of notable ignorance, unconscionable absence from the cures whereof men have taken charge, and unsatiable hunting after spiritual preferments without either care or conscience of the public good. Whereof to the end that we may consider as in God’s own sight and presence with all uprightness, sincerity and truth, let us particularly weigh and examine in every of them first how far forth they are reprovable by reasons and maxims of common right; secondly whether that which our laws do permit be repugnant to those maxims, and with what equity we ought to judge of things practised in this case, neither on the one hand defending that which must be acknowledged out of square, nor on the other side condemning rashly whom we list for whatsoever we disallow.
Touching arguments therefore taken from the principles of common right to prove that ministers should be learned1, that they ought to be resident upon their livings, and that more than one only benefice or spiritual living may not be granted unto one man; the first2 because St. Paul requireth in a minister ability to teach, to convince, to distribute the word rightly, because also the Lord himself hath protested they3 shall be no priests to him which have rejected knowledge, and because4 if the blind lead the blind they must both needs fall into the pit: the second because teachers are shepherds5 whose flocks can be at no time secure from danger, they are watchmen whom the enemy doth always besiege, their labours in the Word and Sacraments admit no intermission6, their duty requireth instruction and conference with men in private7, they are the living oracles of God to whom the people must resort for counsel, they are commanded8 to be patterns of holiness, leaders9, feeders10, supervisors11 amongst their own, it should be their grief as it was the Apostle’s12 to be absent though necessarily from them over whom they have taken charge: finally the last because plurality and residence are opposite, because the placing of one clerk in two churches is a point of merchandise and filthy gain13, because no man can serve two masters14, because every one should remain in that vocation whereto he is called15; what conclude they of all this? Against ignorance, against nonresidence, and against plurality of livings is there any man so raw and dull but that the volumes which have been written both of old and of late may make him in so plentiful a cause eloquent?
For if by that which is generally just and requisite we measure what knowledge there should be in a minister of the Gospel of Christ; the arguments which light of nature offereth, the laws and statutes which scripture hath, the canons that are taken out of ancient synods, the decrees and constitutions of sincerest times, the sentences of all antiquity, and in a word even every man’s full consent and conscience is against ignorance in them that have charge and cure of souls.