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 £6,000 [= £25,000 _now_]: of which by the late _Act for abolishing Tenures in capite_ [1660], was lost about £2,000 yearly. Out of this revenue, a yearly pension of £800 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 £340 yearly is paid to several officers of the County Palatine of Durham. The Assizes and Sessions, also, are duly kept in the Bishop's House, at the sole charges of the Bishop. Also the several expenses for keeping in repair certain banks of rivers in that Bishopric, and of several Houses belonging to the Bishopric. Moreover, the yearly Tenths, public taxes, the charges of going to and waiting at Parliament, being deducted; there will remain, in ordinary years, to the Bishop to keep hospitality, which must be great, and to provide for those of his family, but about £1,500 [= £4,500 _now_] yearly. The like might be said of some other principal Bishoprics. The great diminution of the revenues of the Clergy, and the little care of augmenting and defending the patrimony of the Church, is the great reproach and shame of the English Reformation; and will, one day, prove the ruin of Church and State. "It is the last trick," saith St. GREGORY, "that the Devil hath in this world. When he cannot bring the Word and Sacraments into disgrace by errors and heresies; he invents this project, to bring the Clergy into contempt and low esteem." As it is now in England, where they are accounted by many, the Dross and Refuse of the nation. Men think it a stain to their blood to place their sons in that function; and women are ashamed to marry with any of them. It hath been observed, even by strangers, that the iniquity of the present Times in England is such, that the English Clergy are not only hated by the Romanists on the one side, and maligned by the Presbyterians on the other...; but also that, of all the Christian Clergy of Europe, whether Romish, Lutheran, or Calvinistic, none are so little _respected, beloved, obeyed_, or _rewarded_, as the present pious, learned, loyal Clergy of England; even by those who have always professed themselves of that Communion. THE GROUNDS & OCCASIONS OF THE CONTEMPT OF THE CLERGY AND RELIGION Enquired into. _In a_ LETTER _written to_ R.L. LONDON, Printed by W. GODBID for N. BROOKE at the _Angel_ in Cornhill. 1670. This work is dated August 8, 1670. ANTHONY A. WOOD in his _Life_ (_Ath. Oxon._ I. lxx. Ed. 1813), gives the following account of our Author. _February_ 9 [1672] A.W. went to London, and the next day he was kindly receiv'd by Sir LIOLIN JENKYNS, in his apartment in Exeter house in the Strand, within the city of Westminster.