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ED

WARD I.

false witness against thy neighbour." This precept, in the first place, pronounces against giving of false testimony to K. of Eng. the damage of our neighbour; but, in a secondary sense, the text may be construed to a disallowing of undue commendation, in order to the promoting an unworthy person. Lastly, under this command, all sort of lies, but especially those which are told out of malice and mischief, are condemned. The sixth command is, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house;" or, as the Latin in the constitution runs, non concupisces rem proximi tui. By this command, we are forbidden to desire the real estate of our neighbour, and especially if he is a Christian. This exposition Linwood interprets farther, to a very clear and orthodox meaning, and affirms that we are no less barred from coveting the estates of infidels; but then he throws in this qualification, provided they have not formerly been wrongfully wrested from the Christians; for, it seems, according to him, Nullum tempus occurrit Christianis. The Linwood, seventh and last commandment of the second table is, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his." And here the coveting our neighbour's stock or personal estate, as the constitution distinguishes, is forbidden.

To these ten commandments we are to add those two, principally insisted on in the Gospel, the love of God, and of our neighbour. For the first, he may be said to love God as he ought, who obeys him more upon the motives of love than fear and as for our neighbour, every one ought to love him as himself, where the particle, as, does not so much import equality, as sincerity and resemblance, nullum simile est idem; for instance, you are to love your neighbour as yourself, that is, you are to wish him under no circumstances but what may probably turn to his advantage; you are to desire his best interest, his reformation, his progress in virtue, no less sincerely than your own. Farther, we are to love our neighbour as ourselves with respect to constancy and time; that is, in prosperity and adversity, in health and in sickness, and under all the varieties of age and condition. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves with respect to proportion and degree; that is, we are to prefer men to money, and value

1. 1. tit. 11.

483.

PECHAM, our neighbour above the considerations of interest and Abp. Cant, fortune. To proceed; this duty obliges us to prefer our neighbour's salvation to our own lives. If we fail in this mark of affection, we fall short of the extent of the precept, and do not love him as we ought to love ourselves. And, lastly, we ought to practise the duty in the most comprehensive latitude, taking the whole species into the notion, and assist every man in his necessities, as we may desire to be treated ourselves under the same condition. All this affection, all these kind offices, are contained in the precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." To proceed: six of the seven works of mercy may be learned from St. Matthew's Gospel: to feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to entertain the stranger; to clothe the naked; to visit the sick; to administer comfort to those in prison. The seventh work of mercy, or the seventh branch of charity and good nature, is to bury those who have nobody else to perform this last office of humanity to them.

The seven works of mercy.

Chap. 25.

Tobit 2.

The seven deadly sins.

Farther; the seven capital or deadly sins, are pride, envy, anger, hatred, aversion to goodness and religion, covetousness, and epicurism. To give a brief description of these vices. Pride is an overrating of one's own excellency. The product of this excess of self-love is ostentation, pretending to those good qualities and perfections which do not belong to us; contempt, misunderstandings, and such like. Envy imports an aversion for the happiness of another. Hence comes repining, detraction, animosities, prejudice in opinion, &c. Anger implies a desire of revenge, and an intention of making another smart under our passion; this quality, when it continues upon the mind, settles into hatred; from hence frequently proceed outrage in language, quarrels, murder, and such like. Acedia (for it is hard to translate it in a single word) is a strong indisposition for spiritual duties; it supposes us to have no taste for devotion, nor to take any delight in the contemplation of the divine nature; the consequence of this vice makes a man heavy and dispirited in the pursuit of his duty, and despair of overcoming the difficulties in his way. Avarice is an immoderate love of riches, and discovers itself in unlawful acquisitions. This vice makes way for a great many scandalous practices, as circumvention, theft,

Aknoia, carelessness, indifferentism.

EDWARD I.

sacrilege, simony, not to mention many other instances of meanness, cruelty, and falsehood. 6. Intemperance, or gor- K. of Eng. mandising, is an immoderate appetite in gratifying the palate. And here the excess may be divided into five branches: 1. With respect to time, when a man eats at unseasonable hours, or too often. 2. With respect to the quality; when he is too nice in the choice of his diet. 3. In the quantity; when he exceeds the due proportion, and gorges himself with eating or drinking beyond the rules of health. To load the stomach in this manner with meat or drink is the meanest sort of epicurism. It lays a weight upon the constitution, impairs the spirits, and disables the functions of life. The fourth instance of this vice is, a voracious desire, chopping too eagerly at refreshment, and indulging the keenness of the palate. It is commonly promoted by the last branch of this excess, and that is, by an over-curious and expensive preparation, done on purpose to awaken and provoke the appetite. Lastly; as for debauchery, which is frequently the effect of the intemperance last mentioned, it is too common not to be known, as well as too scandalous to dilate upon.

To go on the seven principal virtues are, faith, hope, The seven and charity, which three, having God for their object, are virtues. principal called theological virtues. The other four, prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude, relate to ourselves and our neighbour. Prudence consists in taking true measures, and pitching upon a proper choice. Justice teacheth us to give everybody that which is their due. Temperance imports a command of appetite, and a superiority over improper satisfactions. Fortitude enables us to maintain reason and conscience, and not desert our duty upon the score of hardship. These are called the four cardinal, that is, the four principal virtues, because they are the grand rules of life, and contain a great many other precepts of morality within their general notion. But since we design this discourse chiefly for the benefit of the plainer and less knowing sort of people, we shall enlarge no farther upon these heads.

The remaining subject, in which the parish priest was to instruct the people, is the seven sacraments: these are called Sacramenta Gratia, the conveyances of grace, or the means for supernatural assistance. Their number is seven

PECHAM, in the constitution, and the power of administering them is Abp. Cant. committed to the clergy. Five of these sacraments are to 484. be received by all Christians in general; that is, baptism, confirmation, penance, the holy eucharist, and extreme unction, which last is only to be given at the point of death. However, the sick person should be assisted this way, if it may be, before he is so far spent, as to lose the use of his reason: but if he happens to be seized by a frenzy, this sacrament ought, nevertheless, to be administered to him, provided he gave any signs of a religious disposition before his mind was disturbed; under such qualifications, extreme unction is believed beneficial to the sick person (provided Si tamen sit he is predestinated), and either procures him a lucid interprædestinationis filius. val, or some spiritual advantage. The other two sacraments, are orders and matrimony. The first reaches no farther than the clergy: the latter, according to the consti

Spel. Con- tution, can be applied to none but the laity.

cil. vol. 2.

p. 332. Linwood

et 11.

These are the subjects in which the priests are enjoined lib. 1. tit. 7. to instruct their parishioners. Upon these points of faith and practice, they are bound to preach every quarter; and oftener too, if occasion should require. And as for the other times, they were left, I suppose, to the latitude of their own discretion. I have translated this article of the Lambeth Constitutions at large, to shew the prudence of the provision, and do some justice to the Church of this age. From hence the reader may easily discover, the bishops were not so forgetful of their people's interest, nor so negligent in the discharge of their office, as they are sometimes represented.

Pope Martin

notifies his

This year, Martin IV. was advanced to the papacy, and promotion to according to custom, he gives king Edward an account of the king. his promotion. In the latter end of his letter he exhorts the king to make use of his authority for the defence of justice and religion, and concludes the address with the Conventi- promise of his countenance and assistance.

ones Literæ, &c. tom. 2. p. 167.

Id. p. 169.

About this time, the king made Haginus, high priest for the Jews: his patent is for life, and runs much in the same form with that mentioned in the reign of king John.

Archbishop Pecham took a journey into the western marches, and published an excommunication against Llewelyn, prince of Wales, and his abettors. Not long after, the

WARD I.

king marching his forces into Wales, gave Llewelyn battle, EDin which that prince's army was routed, and himself slain. K. of Eng. Soon after the fight, David, his brother, was taken prisoner. The Welsh And thus the Welsh were wholly subdued, insomuch that conquered the barons of that country came to the parliament at North- again." ampton, and took the oath of fealty and homage to the king.

Antiquit.
Britan. in

tin's menac

ing letter.

Pope Martin, notwithstanding his ceremony to the king Pecham. at his coming to the chair, wrote a menacing letter about Pope Martwo years after. The occasion of it was this; pope Gregory X. had a tenth given him upon the clergy, at the council of Lyons, for the regaining the Holy Land. This contribution being collected by the king in England, the pope took it ill that the money should be lodged in any other hands excepting his own receivers', and therefore, to settle this matter to his inclination, he wrote to archbishop Pecham, commanding him to go to the king and remonstrate against his proceedings. The pope complains in his letter, that the king had taken part of the money, by force, out of the hands of his holiness's collectors. That this violence was a great sin against the divine Majesty; a publick contempt of the apostolick see, and very prejudicial to the Christian interest in the Holy Land. And after a great deal of flourish and complaint, he charges the archbishop to go in person to the king, and press him to satisfaction; acquainting him withal, that unless the money be restored A. D. 1283. within the space of a month, his highness must expect the discipline of the Church; and that his holiness will direct his censures against his person and dominions, as the nature of the fact shall require.

Antiquit.
Britan. in

Pecham. ex
Regist. ejus.

complies

mands.

The delivering this message was a nice affair: however, The king the archbishop being less afraid of the king's displeasure, with the than the pope's, went to court and discharged his commis- pope's desion. The king, notwithstanding the peremptoriness of the demands, was not willing to break with the pope, and therefore promised to restore the money within the time required; not to seize any such moneys for the future, nor put any hardship upon his holiness's receivers: for these, we are to observe, were the three points the pope positively insisted on.

Archbishop Pecham, having executed the pope's order,

Id. p. 196.

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