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It is convenient to desire Princes, and other Lords which follow the Court, that have, or would have Churches ordered in their Houses, to take their Ministers from Churches duly reform'd, and where there are more than one, with sufficient assurance of their lawful vocation, and by leave of the Col∣logues or Synods; the which shall first sign the Confession of
Faith of the Churches of this Kingdom, and the Ecclesiastical Discipline. And to the end the Preaching of the Gospel might have the greater Success, they shall also be desired each of them to erect in their Families a Consistory, com∣pos'd of the Minister, and of the godliest and best approved persons of the Family, which shall be elected Elders and Deacons, to a competent number; by which Consistory, the Scandals and Vices of the said Family shall be suppress'd, and the Order of the common Discipline of the Churches maintain'd. Moreover, the said Ministers shall attend the Provincial Synods as oft as they can possible; to this end, notice shall be given to the Church which shall assemble the Synod, to call them unto it; But especially the said Mini∣sters, or part of them, as they shall be deputed by the rest, shall not fail appearing at National Synods, and shall come also accompanied with the Elders, who may inform the said Synod of their Life and Conversation: And when they shall meet several of them together, none of them must pretend preheminence or lordship over the others, according to the Article of Discipline. And when the said Lords and Princes shall reside in their Houses, or other Places, where there is a Church establish'd, the better to prevent Divisions, they shall be humbly desir'd that the Church of their Family may join with that of the Place, to make but one Church, as shall be agreed upon by a friendly Conference of the Ministers of both parts, to do what shall be most expedient.
In the Year of our Lord 506. * 1.1 the Council of Agde in Languedoc, made a Decree, which in some sort refers to this Settlement; for it suffers those, who for the con∣venience of their Family, desires to have an Oratory, or as they speak now-a-days, a Chappel in the Country,
besides the common Places of assembling; it permits them there to serve God, except it be on principal Feast-days, for on this occasion it enjoins them to come to their Pa∣rishes, excommunicating the Church-men that shall serve in those Oratories, if they attempt any thing against this Decree, * 1.2 unless it be by the order or permission of the Bishop, in whose Diocess the Chappel is. Thence is it that Pope Leo the IVth forbids Laymen to establish a Priest in any Church whatever, without consent of the Bishops. The Council of Meaux, in the Year 845. Ex∣horts Princes and Lords to order it so, that the Priests which serve in their Chappels, should be ready to hinder and banish from their Houses all manner of Vice, and be careful to instruct the Domesticks, because Parish-Priests, and Bishops, and Ministers, are to do so unto the poorest and meanest of the People. Agabard, Bishop of Lyons, in the same Century, complains in a Book he writ of the Law of Priesthood; he complains, I say, * 1.3 of the abuse which reigns amongst great Lords in regard of their Priests and Chaplains, and of the little esteem they made of them, requiring of them services altogether unworthy the Degree they were to hold; And because these Priests dwelt in the Houses of Persons of Quality, they were called their Priests, * 1.4 and 'twas said the Priest of such a Lord; the which Pope Nicholas the Ist could not suffer, as appears by the Chronicle of Hugh of Flavigny, con∣tained in the 1st Volume of the Library of Father Labbe, imprinted at Paris, Ann. 1657. there is in the 6th Tome of the Councils, divers Canons of a Synod, which as some think, was assembled at Pavia, in the Year 850. in the 18th of which, the Priests, whereof we speak, are cal∣led Acephales; * 1.5 and those which have them in their Fa∣milies, are warn'd not to entertain any but such as have been examin'd by the Bishops. Pope Ʋrban the IId, in
the 9th Canon of the Council which he held at Melphes, * 1.6 in the Year 1090. says near hand the same thing, and makes such another Decree.
Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. Can. 21. p. 165.
Collect. Rom. part 2. c. 41. p. 132.
Tom. 1, p. 134, 135, Paris. 1666.
Pag. 121.
Pag. 444.
Tom. 7. Conc. p. 504.