or repugnant to the Kings Prerogative as now a new head of the Church or to the laws of God By which means without one single voice of the Clergy all former Ecclesiasticall Lawes might be abrogated 4. An authority was allowed to the King to represse and correct all such errours Heresies abuses and enormities whatsoever they were which by any manner of spirituall Jurisdiction might lawfully be repressed c. any forreign Lawes or any thing to the Contrary notwithstanding 5. All manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall was by Parliament ackowledged to belong to the King as Head of the Church So that no Bishop had any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but by under and from the King 6. Supreme Power of dispensing with any Ecclesiastical Constitutions is ascribed to the King and Parliament as recognised Supreme Head of the Church and the Archbishop is made only the Kings Delegate So that in case he should refuse two other Bishops might be named to grant such Dispensations And after all the King and his court of Chancery are made the last Judge what things in such Dispensations are repugnant to Scriptures what not 7. Though the King did not personally himself exercise the power of the Keys yet this right he claimed that no Clergy man being a member of the English Church should exercise it in his Dominions in any cause or over any person without the leave and appointment of him the Supreme head Nor any refuse to exercise it whensoever he should require 8. It was moreover enacted that no speaking doing or holding against any spiritual Lawes made by the See of Rome which be repugnant to the Lawes of the Realme should be deemed heresies As also that whosoever should teach contrary to the determinations which since the year 1540 were or afterwards should be set forth by the King should be deemed and treated as a Heretick So that the King and Parliament are hereby constituted Judges of Heresy 9. In the dayes of King Edward the sixt an Act is made in which the King and Parliament Authorise Bishops c. by vertue of their Act to take informations concerning the not useing the Forme of Common Prayer then prescribed and to punish the same by Excommunication c. 10. There were also appointed six Prelates and six others nominated by the King by the same authority to frame a new forme of Consecration of Bishops c. 17. Hereby it is apparent that a Jurisdiction purely Spiritual was communicated to or assumed by King Henry the eighth this he further shewed by many practises For besides Jurisdiction as if he had the Key of divine knowledge given him by Christ he set forth Books of instructions in Catholick doctrine by his own authority declaring them hereticks that taught otherwise The labour indeed and we may say drudgery of composing those books as also of executing other spiritual functions was left either wholly or in part to the Clergy but when they had done he perused them and and made what additions and alterations he pleased in them and without remanding them to the Bishops caused them to be printed The Book with his Interlinings and Changes is still ex-tant 18. Indeed it was only spiritual Jurisdiction that he by his new Title of Head of the Church sought to deprive the Pope of for he feared not his pretended temporal Power which in those dayes the world was little troubled withal For he stood in need of a power to justify his Divorce and to dispense with the horrible Sacriledge designed by him He was unwilling to be looked on by his Subjects as a Heathen and a Publican and therefore to prevent this danger he devested the Pope and assumed to himself the power of Excommunication also that is not the execution of it but the disposing of of it by Delegation to the Arch-bishop who should execute it according to his will and directions only 19. A further irrefragable proofe that it was a power purely Spiritual which that King challenged by his new Title is taken from the Declaration of Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester the contriver of the Oath as we find it recorded by Calvin himself For saith he when Stephen Gardiner was upon the Kings affairs at Ratisbon he there taking occasion to expound the meaning of that Title of Supream head of the English Church given to King Henry the eighth taught that the King had such a power that he might appoint and prescribe new Ordinances of the Church even matters concerning Faith and Doctrine and abolish old As tamely that the King might forbid the marriage of Priests and might take away the use of the Chalice in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and in such things might appoint what he lâ—ft A Title thus interpreted the same Calvin vehemently inveighs against calling Gardiner and worthily an impestour and Archbishop Cranmer with his fellowes inconsiderate persons who make Kings too spirituall as if beside theirs there were no Ecclesiasticall Government and Jurisdiction 20. As for his Son King Edward the sixth the same Title with the plenitude of power was given him which he likewise as very a child as he was executed for he by his Authority made Ecclesiastical Lawes to be new reformed Church service and Administration of Sacraments to be changed and new Instructions in matter of Religion to be published quite contrary to what the foregoing Head though his Father had decreed to be Christian Doctrine And the reason was the same because new Sacriledge was to be committed by the Protectour for which he was loath to be excommunicated 21. His elder sister succeeding repealed and renounced this Jurisdiction and restored it to the Church But her younger sister repealed her repealings and took it again when it was in as high language yea higher confer'd on her by Parliament And there was a greater necessity for it than her Brother had For her Mothers Marriage was declared Null by the Pope and consequently her right to the Crown 22. And that this was the design intention of the Parliament in the first year of her Raign when they renewed the Title of her Supremacy in Church matters though they blushed to call a Woman Head of the Church may sufficiently be collected from a Speech yet extant and made in that Parliament upon that occasion by the then Lord Chancelour Nicholas Heath For arguing very strongly against the said Title and the Authority imported by it he takes it for granted that by giving the Queen such a Title they must forsake and fly from the Sea of Rome the inconveniencies of which he desires may be better considered In the next place he recommends to their Advice what this Supremacy is For sayes he if it consist in Temporal Government what further Authority can this House give her then she hath already by right of Inheritance and by the appointment of God without their Gift c. But if the Supremacy doth consist in
with the Titles of impious seditious infamous to Popes ruinous to States c. 96. Yea moreover within these six Moneths a certain Priest of the Hermitage of Caen called Fossart a known Emissary of that society having in his publick acts for a degree in that University advanced this proposition That the Pope has a Soveraign Authority in Temporals as well as Spirituals and that he has power to depose and constitute Kings though to evade a censure he Interpreted his Assertion saying that he understood that power of the Pope to extend only to Tyrants notwithstanding by a Decree of the whole faculty of that University both his proposition and exposition of it was censured to be impious pernicious seditious and in all regards to be detested and as such it was by them condemned And the same Fossart being after this imprisoned was sentenced by the presidial Court of Justice in Caen publickly and bare-headed to acknowledge that the said propositions were false contrary to the holy Decrees of Councels to the fundamental lawes of that Kingdom and to the liberties and rights of the Gallican Church 97. Such is the judgment of the Ecclesiasticks and State of France of this Article of Faith from which was issued rivers of blood during the Ligue there As zealous against the Temporall power of Popes has the State of Venice shewed it self And if other Catholick Kingdomes have not done the like it is because they have not had such dismal occasions and provocations to declare their minds In Spain indeed the Schools are connived at to preserve it from extinguishing because by its assistance a great part of Navarre has been annexed to that crown and some hopes of England too gave it credit there But yet when the Court of Rome would interpose in temporal matters there without the Kings liking he is as boldly resisted as in any other Catholick Kingdome besides 98. And as for the Church and State of England I mean even in former times when Catholick Religion most flourished here and when Church-Men had the greatest power what sign can be shewed that the foresaid Decree and the new article of Faith was admitted either in Parliaments or Synods Yea so far were they from acknowledging the Popes deposing power or Supremacy in Temporals that Statutes were then made and the penalty no less then a Praemunire against any that without the Kings licence should make any Appeals to Rome Or submit to a Legats Jurisdiction Or upon the Popes Summons go out of the Kingdom or receive any Mandats or Briefs from Rome Or sue in a forrain Realm for any thing for which the Kings Courts took Cognisance Or for impeaching a judgment given in the Kings Courts Or for purchasing Bulls from Rome for presentments to Churches anâ—iently sued for in the Kings Courts in the time of all his Progenitors And it is very observable that in the Act where the last Ordinances were made we find this expression To this all the Bishops present and all the procuratours of the absent unanimously assented protesting against the Popes translating some Bishops out of the Realm and from one Bishoprick to another And moreover the ground of their rejecting the Popes usurpations in temporal matters is there thus expressed For that the Crown of England is free and hath been free from earthly subjection at all times being immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalities of the same and not subject to the Pope 99. All these lawes and many other of the like kind all the Kings Catholick Subjects knew and willingly submitted to without any prejudice to their beliefe that the Pope was the supreme pastour of Gods Church in spiritualibus And all these Lawes are still in force and the penalty of them no less then a premuniâ—e Our De-fide-men are not much concern'd in all this but sure persons of honour and loyalty and such as have Estates in the Kingdom are very deeply interested 100. And now let any English Catholick judge what reception such a decree or Article of Faith would have had in England in those most Catholick times if they had been proposed Those that were so jealous of the least deminution of the Kings temporal power in matters of the smallest consequence and that imposed the greatest penalty but death upon transgressours that is upon all Factours for the gaining to the Court of Rome any illegal temporal Authority with what indignation would they have heard only the mentioning of the reception of such a Decree And yet those Lawes were made not long after that Councel had been assembled whereby it is apparent that they were ignorant of it Those that would not suffer the least flower of this imperial Crown to be ravished from it would they admit a power and forraign Jurisdiction to take the Crown it self from the Kings head and afterward the head it self from his Shoulders 101. It is true the teaching of such an Artiâ—le of faith brings very great temporal commodities to those few that have the cruelty to their Country to become the preachers and Apostles of it great favour and power they gain thereby abroad and therefore they will take it kindly at the hands of English Catholicks if for a mere Secular advantage of theirs they will be content to Sacrifice their own Estates Honours Families and lives as traytors to the lawâ—s and withall bring an unavoydable scandal to Catholick Religion besides But truly this is too dear a rate to be paid for such a commodity 102. A man would think that such Apostles should be content yea and by their own Doctâ—ine of probability should be obliged to grant this Doctrine of the Popes deposing power to be somewhat less then an Article of Faith The opposition of the whole State Ecclesiasticks of France against their single forces surely may be available to make it pass at least for a probable Opinion But this they must not allow because if it be not an Article of Faith unless infidelity to Princes be de fide it signifies juâ—t nothing neither can it have any effect at all For certainly no Law nor justice wil permit that an Authority only probable and therefore questionable can dispossess Kings of their right to a Supremacy in temporals in which they are actually instated So that such an Authority can only have force to dispossess Princes already dispossessed 103. However they would esteem themselves much bound to any other learned Catholicks among us if they would condescend to grant that it is only probable that it is a point of faith and decree of a General Councel But in vain will they expect such a compliance For by granting only so much it will necessarily follow 1. That all the so rigorous censures given of it by the Parliaments and Vniversities of France have been most temerarious and damnable For what can be more horrible then to call a Doctrine impious seditious detestable c. which probably is a
the only supream Governour of this Realme and of all other his Highnesse Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporall And that no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Iurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spirituall within this Realme And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forraign Iurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities And doe promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness his heirs and lawful Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Pre-eminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his hâ—irs and Successours or united and annexed to the imperial Crown of this Realme So help me God and by the Contents of this book 11. The tenor of the Oath of Allegiance is this viz. I A. B. do truely and sincerely acknowledge professe testify and declare in my conscience before God and the World that our Soveraign Lord King CHARLES is lawful and rightful King of this Realme and of all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries and that the Pope neither of himself nor by any authority of the Church or Sèe of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any Power or Authority to depose the King or to dispose any of his Majesties Kingdomes or Dominions or to authorise any forreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and Obedience to his Majesty or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear Armes to raise tumults or to offer any violence or hurt to his Majesties Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his Majesties Dominions Also I do swear from my heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or sâ—ntence of Excommunication or Deâ—rivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successours or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his Sèe against the said King his Heirs or Successours or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will hear faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Hâ—irs and Successours and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shal be made against his or their Persons their Crown or dignity by reason or Colour of any such sentence or declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesties Heirs and Successours all Treasons and Traiterous conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear that I from my heart abhorr detest and abjure as impious and hereticall this damnable doctrine and position That Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in my conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of this oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full authority to be lawfully ministred unto me And do renounce all Pardons and dispensations to the contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to these expresse words by me spoken and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And I do make this recognition and acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian So help me God 12. These are the formes of the two Oathes Both which if they be understood according to the proper and natural sence of the words import that there being only two kinds of Jurisdictions viz. Spirituall and Temporal both which are named here the King within his Dominions is equally the Fountain and Root of them both So that whosoever exercises any office or Magistracy either in the State or the Church does it and must acknowledge so much meerly by communication from the King or a participation of so much of his power as he is pleased to impart Upon which grounds it will follow not only that no forraign Prince Prelate c No Assembly or Councel of Bishops though never so Oecumonical hath right to any superiority or Jurisdiction within these Kingdomes but also that whatsoever any Bishop or Priest in the Kingdom c. acts in matters duties purely Spiritual as conferring Orders Ecclesiastical inflicting censures administring Sacraments c. they do all this with a direct subordination to the King as his Delegates or Substitutes insomuch as if he pleases he may himself exercise all those functions personally and may according to his pleasure suspend the execution of them in all others 13. All this plainly seems to be the true importance of the Oathes neither will any Stranger or dis-interessed person reading them frame to his mind any other meaning of them though certain it is that our four last Princes have not intended that all that took them should accowledge all this that is imported by them Neither is there at this day any Church or Assembly of Christians nor perhaps any person unlesse it be the Authour of Leviathan that taking these Oathes will or can without contradicting his belief mean all that the formes and clauses of them do directly properly and Grammatically signify as shall be Demonstrated SECT IV. Reflections upon these two Oathes in grosse 14. IT well deserves to be considered what was the occasion of framing this Oath of Supremacy by K. Henry the eighth and what power he received or at least executed by vertue of such Acts of Parliament as enjoyned the taking of it c. 15. The Title of Supream head and Governour of the Church of England was first given to King Henry the eight in a Petition addressed unto him by the Bishops obnoxious to a Praemunire for having submitted to Cardinal Wolsey's Legantine power without the Kings assent Now how far this new Ecclesiastical power of the King was intended to extend will appear by following Acts of Parliaments and by the Kings own proceedings in vertue thereof 13. It was enacted by Parliament 1. that no Canons or Constitutions could be made by the Bishops c. and by them promulgated or executed without the Kings command 2. Yea the Clergy were forced to give up also their power of executing any old Canons of the Church without the Kings consent had before 3. All former Constitutions Provincial and Synodal though hitherto inforce by the authority of the whole Church at least Westerne were committed to the abitriment of the King of sixteen Lay persons and sixteen of the Clergy appointed by the King to be approved or rejected by them according as they conceived them consistent with
Spiritual Government then it would be considered what the spiritual Government is and in what points it doth chiefly remain I find sayes he in the Gospels that when Christ gave to St. Peter the Supreme Government of the Church he said to him Tibi dabo claves Regni coelorum c. That is I will give thee the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth c. Now if you mean to give to the Queen that Authority which our Lord gave to St. Peter if you will say Nos tibi dabimus claves Regni coelorum c. We will give to your Majesty the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven I pray you shew your Commission by which you are authorised to make such a Gift Again for the same purpose Our Lord said to St. Peter Pasce c. Pasce c. Pasce c. Feed my sheep Feed my sheep Feed my lambs As likewise Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres When thou art converted confirm thy Brethren Now if you mean to say so much to the Queen let us see your Commission and withall consider whether her person being a Woman be in a capacity to receive and execute such an Authority since St. Paul forbids a Woman to teach in the Church Thus argued the said Lord Chancelour proceeding in the same manner upon other branches of spirituall Government and concludes That without a mature consideration of all these premises their honours shall never be able to shew their faces before their Enemies in this matter 23. But notwithstanding all this the Lords c. proceeded to frame an Act without any distinct explication whether it was a Temporal or Spirituall Authority which they gave the Queen Or rather they framed it with such clauses as that the most obvious sence of it imported that it was an Authority purely spiritual that they invested her withall and most certain it is that if she had executed such an Authority she might have justified her so doing by that Act. 24. However after that Parliament was ended but before the first year of her Raign was expired such considerations as the Lord Chancelour had formerly in vain represented had so great an influence upon the Queen that she was obliged by an Admonition prefixed to her Injunctions to declare that which the Parliament would not that it was not her intent by vertue of that Act to challenge Authority and power of Ministry of Divine Offices in the Church but only to have Soveraignty and rule over all manner of persons born within her Realmes of what State either Ecclesiastical or Temporall soever they be Which explication of hers was confirmed four years after by Parliament yet without changing the foregoing Act or any clauses in it 25. And consequently she left ordering of matters purely Spiritual to Bishops c. Expresly renouncing it For as for the power of Excommunication having again taken it from the Pope she did not fear it from any of her Bishops 26. In the times succeeding after her what qualifications were made and declared by three Kings touching spiritual Jurisdiction shall be shewed afterward They had not any such interests nor such fears as the three foregoing Princes had and therefore look'd with a more indifferent eye upon the matter Without repealing lawes or changing the Exteriour Forme of the oath of Supremacy they esteemed it sufficient to qualifie it by moderate interpretations as shall be shewed 27. As for the other Oath of Allegiance the compiler whereof was King James the most sad and horrible occasion of it is but too well known the intention of it is obvious and the sence plain So that it did not stand in need of such a Multiplicity of Acts of Parliament with many clauses to shew the extention of it Excepting one party scarce any except against it and were it not for some few incommodious expressions and phrases nothing pertaining to the substance and design of the Oath it would freely and generally be admitted and taken notwithstanding the foresaid parties condemning it who take that advantage to decry the substance of the Oath from which they have an aversion in as much as Fidelity is promised thereby SECT V. That the Oath of Supremacy as it lies and according to the sence of the first Law giver cannot lawfully and sincerely be taken by any Christian. 28. IT is a truth from the beginning acknowledged by the Fathers of the Church that all Kings are truly Supream Governours over the persons of all their Subjects and in all causes even Ecâ—lesiastical wherein their civil authority is mixed Constitutions of Synods however they may oblige in conscience and be imposed under spirituall censures yet are not lawes in any Kingdom that is they they are not commanded nor the transgression of them punishable in external Courts by outward punishments as Attachments Imprisonment c. further then supream Civil Governours do allow 29. This is a right due to all Kings though Heathens Hereticks c So that Kings by being converted to Christianity or Catholick Religion have not any new Jurisdiction added or their former enlarged thereby They do not thereby become Pastours of Souls but sheep of lawfull pastours And it is not a new Authority but a new duty that by their conversion accrews to them obliging them to promote true Religion by the exercise of their Civil Authority and Sword And subjects are bound to acknowledge and submit to this Authority of theirs that is not alwayes to do what Princes in Ecclesiasticall matters shall command but however not to resist in case their inward Beliefs be contrary to theirs but patiently to suffer whatsoever violence shall be offerâ—d them 30. Such a submission therefore to Kingly authority may when just occasion is be lawfully required by Kings from all their Subjects yea a profession thereof by oaths But such an one was not the Oath of Supremacy when it was first contrived and imposed For there an authority in many causes purely spirituall was by our Princes challenged as hath been shewed Therefore if we consider that Oath as now imposed on Subjects infinitely differing from their Princes beliefe and Judgment both in Point of doctrine and discipline it is not imaginable how it can be taken in such a sense as was first meant by any congregations no not even by that which is of the Kings own Religion 31. The Oath consists of two parts one Affirmative and the other Negative The Affirmative clause obliges all the Kings Subjects though never so much differing in their beliefs to swear an acknowledgment that the King is the only supreme Head and Governour of his Realme as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And the Negative to deny that any forraign Prince Prelate c. hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realme and to renounce all such 32. These two Recognitions if the