The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

17. THE Cardinals who were nominated and chosen by Pope Paul the III. to consider the State of the Church, gave in this Answer, That there were many things faulty in the Church, and especially in the Manners of the Bishops and inferior Clergy; that the Bishops were lazy, and did not teach the People, feed the Flock, or take care of the Vineyard; that they lived in the Courts of Princes, and were rarely resident; that there was sometimes three, and at others, four Bishoprics held in commendam by one Cardinal, which tended very much to the Damage of the Church: for those multiplied Offices (as they ⟨p. 166⟩said) were not compatible or to be held together (nor could be well managed by any one person) and that all the Cloistered Orders should be banished out of the Church. After this, there was a Council at Trent; but did the Bishops from that time begin to feed the Flock? or did they cease from their former Non-residence, or abstain from frequenting the Courts of Princes? did the Cardinals cease from multiplying Bishoprics? or was any care taken that the Church might have no damage by it? were the Conventual Orders diminished? is Religion reformed amongst them? what occasion then was there that so many Bishops should be assembled from very distant places, or should to no purpose deliberate so many years concerning the Reformation of the Church? this in truth is just as if the Pharisees should pretend to restore the Temple of God to its former Sanctity.

17. THE Cardinals who were nominated and chosen by Pope Paul the III. to consider the State of the Church, gave in this Answer, That there were many things faulty in the Church, and especially in the Manners of the Bishops and inferior Clergy; that the Bishops were lazy, and did not teach the People, feed the Flock, or take care of the Vineyard; that they lived in the Courts of Princes, and were rarely resident; that there was sometimes three, and at others, four Bishopricks held in commendam by one Cardinal, which tended very much to the Dammage of the Church: for those multiplied Offices (as they ⟨p. 166⟩said) were not compatible or to be held together (nor could be well managed by any one person) and that all the Cloystered Orders should be banished out of the Church. After this, there was a Council at Trent; but did the Bishops from that time begin to feed the Flock? or did they cease from their former Non-residence, or abstain from frequenting the Courts of Princes? did the Cardinals cease from multiplying Bishopricks? or was any care taken that the Church might have no dammage by it? were the Conventual Orders diminished? is Religion reformed amongst them? what occasion then was there that so many Bishops should be assembled from very distant places, or should to no purpose deliberate so many years concerning the Reformation of the Church? this in truth is just as if the Pharisees should pretend to restore the Temple of God to its former Sanctity.