e to the owner of
them. And since Fame consists in the Opinion of wise and good men: you
must not blame me for taking the readiest way to baffle any Attempt upon
my Reputation, by an Address to one, whom every wise and good man looks
upon, with the greatest affection and veneration.

I am, Sir,

Your most obliged, most obedient, and most humble servant,

RICHARD STEELE.

EDWARD CHAMBERLAYNE.

_The social position of the English Established Clergy, in 1669, A.D._

[_Angliae Notitia_, or the Present State of England, 1st _Ed_. 1669.]

At present, the revenues of the English Clergy are generally very small
and insufficient: above a third of the best benefices of England, having
been anciently, by the Pope's grant, appropriated to monasteries, were on
their dissolution, made _Lay fees_; besides what hath been taken by secret
and indirect means, through corrupt compositions and compacts and customs
in many other parishes. And also many estates being wholly exempt from
paying tithes, as the lands that belonged to the Cistercian Monks, and to
the Knights Templars and Hospitallers.

And those benefices that are free from these things are yet (besides
First Fruits and Tenths to the King, and Procurations to the Bishop)
taxed towards the charges of their respective parishes, and towards the
public charges of the nation, above and beyond the proportion of the
Laity.

The Bishoprics of England have been also since the latter of HENRY
VIII.'s reign, to the coming in of King JAMES, most miserably robbed and
spoiled of the greatest part of their lands and revenues. So that, at
this day [1669], a mean gentleman of L200 from land yearly, will not
change his worldly estate and condition with divers Bishops: and an
Attorney, a shopkeeper, a common artisan will hardly change theirs, with
the ordinary Pastors of the Church.

Some few Bishoprics do yet retain a competency. Amongst which, the
Bishopric of Durham is accounted one of the chief: the yearly revenues
whereof, before the late troubles [_i.e., the Civil Wars_] were above
L6,000 [= L25,000 _now_]: of which by the late _Act for abolishing Tenures
in capite_ [1660], was lost about L2,000 yearly.

Out of this revenue, a yearly pension of L800 is paid to the Crown, ever
since the reign of Queen ELIZABETH; who promised, in lieu thereof, so
much in Impropriations: which was never performed.

Above L340 yearly is paid to several officers of the County Palatine of
Du