was when a man laid an action in an ecclesiastical court, for which he could have no remedy in any of the king's courts, that is, in the courts of common law; by reason, the ecclesiastical courts, before Henry the Eighth, were subordinate to the pope; and so it was contra coronam et dignitatem regis "; but now the ecclesiastical courts are equally subordinate to the king. Therefore, it cannot be contra coronam et dignitatem regis," and so no præmunire.

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PREROGATIVE.

1. PREROGATIVE is something that can be told what it is not something that has no name: just as you see the archbishop has his prerogative court, but we know what is done in that court so the king's prerogative is not his will, or, what divines make it, a power to do what he lists.

2. The king's prerogative, that is, the king's law. For example, if you ask whether a patron may present to a living after six months by law, I answer, No. If you ask whether the king may, I answer he may by his prerogative, that is, by the law that concerns him in that

case.

PRESBYTERY.

1. THEY that would bring in a new government, would very fain persuade us they meet it in antiquity. Thus they interpret presbyters, when they meet the word in the Fathers. Other professions likewise pretend to antiquity. The alchymist will find his art in Virgil's

aureus ramus," and he that delights in optics will find them in Tacitus. When Cæsar came into England, they would persuade us they had perspective glasses, by which he could discover what they were doing upon the land, because it is said, "positis speculis": the meaning is, his watch or his sentinel discovered this and this unto him.

2. Presbyters have the greatest power of any clergy in the world, and gull the laity most: for example, admit there be twelve laymen to six presbyters, the six shall govern the rest as they please. First, because they are constant, and the others come in like church-wardens in their turns, which is a huge advantage. Men will give way to them who have been in place before them. Next, the laymen have other professions to follow the presbyters make it their sole business; and besides too, they learn and study the art of persuading some of Geneva have confessed as much.

3. The presbyter, with his elders about him, is like a young tree fenced about with two, or three, or four stakes; the stakes defend it, and hold it up, but the tree only prospers and flourishes it may be some willow stake may bear a leaf or two, but it comes to nothing. Lay-elders are stakes, the presbyter the tree that flourishes.

4. When the queries were sent to the Assembly concerning the "jus divinum" of presbytery, their asking time to answer them, was a satire upon themselves: for if it were to be seen in the text, they might quickly turn to the place, and show us it. Their delaying to answer makes us think there's no such thing there. They do just as you have seen a fellow do at a tavern reckoning: when he should come to pay his reckoning, he puts his hands into his pockets, and keeps a grabbling, and a fumbling, and shaking, at last tells you he has left his money at home, when all the company knew at first he had no money there; for every man can quickly find his own money.

PRIESTS OF ROME.

1. THE reason of the statute against priests was this in the beginning of queen Elizabeth there was a statute made, that he that drew men from their civil obedience was a traitor. It happened this was done in privacies and confessions, when there could be no proof; therefore they made another act, that for a priest to be in England was treason, because they presumed that was his business, to fetch men off from their obedience.

2. When queen Elizabeth died, and king James came in, an Irish priest does thus express it: Elizabethâ in orcum detrusâ, successit Jacobus, alter hæreticus." You will ask why they did use such language in their church. Answer. Why does the nurse tell the child of raw head and bloody bones? To keep it in awe.

3. The queen mother and Count Rosset are to the priests and Jesuits like the honey-pot to the flies.

4. The priests of Rome aim but at two things, to get power from the king, and money from the subject.

5. When the priests come into a family, they do as a man that would set fire on a house; he does not put fire to the brick wall,

but thrusts it into the thatch. They work upon the women, and let the men alone.

PROPHECIES.

DREAMS and prophecies do thus much good; they make a man go on with boldness and courage, upon a danger or a mistress: if he obtains, he attributes much to them; if he miscarries, he thinks no more of them, or is no more thought of himself.

PROVERBS.

THE proverbs of several nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews, and the reason he gave was, because by them he knew the minds of several nations, which is a brave thing; as we count him a wise man that knows the minds and insides of men, which is done by knowing what is habitual to them. Proverbs are habitual to a nation, being transmitted from father to son.