Of all Livings throughout the Kingdom none suffered so much in the general alienation of Church revenues as those in Cities and great Towns; for scarce any of these were without one or more Monasteries, the Monks whereof supplying the cure of those Livings, had only a small stipend for their pains. Hence these Livings are the most provided for of any in England, two or three of them being often united together to make up about £30 a year for an Incumbent, whose poverty neither allows him to buy books to increase his stock of learning, nor to live with a dignity suitable to his character, not to do that good or speak with that authority in his parish which a better income would enable him to do, and generally speaking worthless Livings will be filled with worthless Clergymen. This hath proved as much to the disservice of the Crown as of the Church. For these great Towns being sorrily supplied with Ministers, and being many of them thronged with Calvinists that came out of the Low countries, Germany and other foreign countries and settled there for the sake of trade, the Puritan party in the reigns of K. James and K. Charles took care to send Lecturers thither (to whom they gave large stipends) to propagate Sedition and disaffection to the Church and Crown among the inhabitants of those great Towns, which by that means generally sided with the Parliament against the King in the rebellion of 1641, and by their wealth contributed greatly to the neine of His Majesties affairs. Had these Towns been duly supplied with a learned and well affected Clergy, the rebellion would probably have been prevented or the event of the war have proved more favourable to the royal cause. There are few things would be more serviceable to the interests both of the Church and Crown than a proper endowment of the Livings in such great Towns and Cities: and if any forfeited houses therein, or forfeited lands and tythes of lands adjoining thereto were applied thereto, the benefit to both would be great, and the Clergy in such Cities would by their interests as well as principle be obliged to support the Crown from which they desire such benefactions.