to the Canons of the Church are not only under a Duty to attend but have also a Right to meet so that as their Writs for Assembling concurrently with a Parliament are not mere Letters of Grace and Compliment but to be emitted ex debito Iustitiae and whether the Government has any thing to propose to them or no so likewise are their Assemblies at such times to be held by the same Law notwithstanding it may be pretended that there is no Occasion for them For although their Consent may not be necessary nor their Advice seem wanting yet as they are bound to wait if Either shall be ask'd So may the Clergy themselves have some Informations and Remembrances to offer and some Petitions to make concerning such things as they may be supposed to take more particular notice of or wherein they may be more peculiarly concern'd And this Liberty and Opportunity of representing what they may think necessary is to be esteemed by them as their great Parliamentary Priviledge not to be Wav'd like the Others for the better course of common Justice but to be Asserted and Confirmed for the Good of the whole Kingdom Such a Liberty therefore and Opportunity is not only provided for by Canons but secur'd I say by the Law Both by the Law of Custom which is the Law of Parliaments and by Express Statute an Act of Edward the Third appointing a Parliament and consequently * Thus the Answerer of the Nine Reasons of the House of Commons against Bishops Votes in Parliament Argued alledging That the Bishops were by the Triennial Act obliged necessarily to attend the Convocation once in Three Years And the Examination of that Answer 40. 1641. Printed by Order of a Committee of the House grants the Allegation p. 16 17. a Convocation to be held just within the Canonical distance Yearly and the present Law enjoyning That it shall be frequently held and once at least in Three Years Held I say and not only Called for that is the Right we speak of A Right that has been all along own'd by constant Practice or if perchance not exercised at some Particular time through Forgetfulness or Distraction to allow the utmost and more perhaps than can be proved yet never Purposely and if I may so speak Regularly Neglected till Now. CHAP. III. HItherto we have considered only the First of the Two Points proposed the Clergy's Right of Meeting and Sitting in Convocation as often as a New Parliament Sits We will now address our Selves to the Second which asserts their Right when Met of Treating and Deliberating about such Affairs as lie within their proper Sphere and of coming to fit Resolutions upon them without being necessitated antecedently to qualify themselves for such Acts and Debates by a License under the Broad Seal of England That this is the Original Right of all Provincial Synods incident to their nature as such claim'd and practised by them in all Ages of the Church and in all Christian Countries and in our own particularly from the time that we have any account of our Synods till towards the beginning of the Reformation is so certain as to need no Proof and Dr. Wake therefore is never more like himself that is never more Absurd than when he would insinuate the contrary * P. 48 288. The only Question is how far the Statute 25 H. VIII has restrained this Right and made a License from the Crown necessary It being there Enacted That the Clergy ne any of them should from thenceforth presume to attempt alledge claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodal or any other Canons nor should Enact Promulge or Execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by what Name or Names they may be called in their Convocations in times coming unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and License to Make Promulge and Execute the same Now that the Clergy are not by this Clause ty'd up altogether from acting Synodically is allowed generally by Those who desire most to abridge their Powers It cannot with any shew of Reason be pretended that the Convocation however under a Restraint by this Act is become such a Lifeless Body as to have neither Sense nor Motion till Animated by a second Royal Command Unquestionably and according to common Opinion and Practice they have even since this Statute in vertue of the Writ by which they Meet a Liberty of Addressing as they shall see cause either with Thanks or Requests or other proper Representations But it is presum'd also that they may go a great deal further and that there is nothing in the Clause recited which hinders them even from Devising and Framing the Draught of a Canon so it be done only in a Preparatory Way and with Submission to the Royal Enacting Authority This is what has been laid down in a late Treatise * Letter to a Convocation-Man briefly indeed but convincingly and with so much force of Reason as yet has received no Reply The Answerers of that Piece having slid over this part of it where the Act is Explained with a Seeming Neglect but with a Real Distrust of their being able to say any thing to the purpose against what is there advanc'd When they come to this Point as important as it is they dispatch it always in hast Even Dr. Wake can allow it but a flight mention or two in a Work where he finds room amply enough to discuss every thing that is not Material But he did well to tread lightly over the Ground which if he had stood never so little upon it would have gone near to have sunk under him To make this Point yet more manifest and not to leave the least pretence for a Cavil I shall here resume the Proof of it bespeaking the Candor of those Gentlemen whose studies particularly lie this way if as the general Fate is of those that Write out of their Profession I express my self now and then a little improperly So the Thing I aim at be but clearly made out though my Manner of doing it be not strictly according to Art it will not concern me I shall consider first the Occasion of the Act and then the Act it self and by a short account of the One lead the Reader into the true Sense and Meaning of the Other Henry the VIIIth enraged both at the Pope and Cardinal Wolsey for their Delusions in the Affair of the Divorce resolved with the Ruin of the Cardinal to lessen the Papal Authority And for the better effecting this Design which could not well be accomplished without striking a Terror into Those who were then but too much the Pope's Vassals the Clergy especially the Monks and Friars he involved them All in a Premunire for submitting to Wolsey's Legatine Character unauthorised by the Crown not for Procuring or making Use of Provisional Bulls as Dr. Wake in his usual Kindness to the
consider'd do yet certainly prove it not necessary in order to Petition There are many Requests of the Clergy in Convocation to Queen Elizabeth One Anno 1580 in behalf of the Archbishop then out of favour that she would be pleas'd to restore him Fuller IX Book p. 121. Another Anno 1587 about the Act said to be intended against Pluralities Full. Ibid. pag. 191. A third to the same purpose in some other Convocation of her Reign which being yet unprinted I shall insert in the Appendix * Numb IV. It is a Paper very Remarkable both for the weightiness of the Matter and closeness of the Expression and for the spirit and freedom with which it is drawn which however I propose not as a Pattern but as a Great Argument of that Liberty they thought remaining to them A fourth from the Lower to the Upper House of Convocation to be presented in their Name to the Queen for the Pardon of Lapses and Irregularities 'T is in a Cotton MS. Cleop. F. 2. f. 123. and from thence I shall Transcribe it See App. Num. V. A fifth against the Encroachments of Chancellors upon Archdeacons Ibid. p. 264. A sixth praying many Regulations in very weighty matters Ibid. There is also extant in Fuller * IX Book p. 55. See the Preface to it p. 66. of this Book a Remonstrance of the Clergy of the Lower House being a Declaration of their Judgments made indeed in the very beginning of Queen Elizabeth when this Statute was not yet revived and about Popish Tenets but which may I presume be safely imitated for the Assertion of truly Catholick Doctrines Anno 1606 A Petition from the Lower House of Convocation to King Iames against Prohibitions This too the Reader will find with the others in the Appendix †Numb VI. Nay even the Assembly of Divines it self tho' it was more strictly ty'd up by the Ordinance of Parliament ‖ See it Rushw. 3. part Vol. 2. p. 328. than ever any Convocation was by their Commission for there were Negative words in that Ordinance which impower'd 'em to Treat and Confer of such Matters and Things as should be propos'd to 'em and no other yet did not think themselves restrain'd from Petitioning and proposing several Heads of Reformation to the Parliament See 'em Ibid. p. 344. The Clergy in Convocation were not us'd only to be Petitioners themselves they were also some times address'd to in the same way by others either by their Brethren of the Establisht Clergy or by those of the Separation Of the former I have seen an Instance in Manuscript being a Petition from the London Ministers * See Cat. MSS. in Bibl. Bodl. n. 8494. The Direction of it is To the Reverend Fathers in God the Lords Bishops and the Rest of the Convocation It is said in the Manuscript to have been read and committed Febr. 10. 1580. Of the Latter several Mentions and Accounts remain tho' the Petitions themselves be lost For Example In Queen Elizabeth's time those who were then call'd the Puritans Petition'd the Convocation as appears from a Passage in one of their Books thus quoted by Bishop Bancroft * Dang Posit L. 4. c. 4. p. 140. We have sought say they to advance the Cause of God by Humble Suit to the Parliament by Supplication to your Convocation-house c. And whether it be this or some other Petition of theirs that is refer'd to in a Manuscript Justification †See Cat. MSS. in Bibl. Bodl. n. 1987. of the Mille-manus Petition to King Iames I cannot tell but these words occur in it We have often and in many Treatises declar'd our Objections against the Liturgy at large and namely in a Petition which Four Godly Grave and Learned Preachers offer'd in our Names to the Convocation-house A yet greater Liberty than any I have mention'd was taken by the Clergy in that Long Address miscalled by Fuller ‖ P. 208. the Protestation which the Lower House offered to Henry the Eighth himself after the passing of the Statute or in that other very long one to the Upper House in Queen Mary's time * Hist. Ref. part 2. B. 2. Coll. n. 16. In the first we have an Instance of very Free Convocational Representations and of yet freer Petitions in the Latter for it attempts not only Canons but Acts of Parliament and particularly prays †Art 10. that the Statute of which we have been speaking may be repealed But the Clergy no more stand in need of these Instances than they would joyn in these Designs and Petitions The Statute of Submission is none of their Grievances nor do they ask or wish a Repeal of it They desire only that it may not have an Unnatural and Illegal Construction put upon it and that they may be bound up no otherwise by it than the Submitters themselves were They know indeed that the Reflection which a Right Reverend Member of theirs once made upon this Statute was That the Extreme of raising the Ecclesiastical Power too high in the Times of Popery had now produced another of depressing it too much So seldom is the Counterpoize so justly Ballanced that Extremes are reduced to a well-tempered Mediocrity * Bishop Burnet 's Hist. Vol. 2. pp. 49 50. But as they are not sure that this is his Lordship's present Opinion so they are certain it is none of Theirs for they think their Power as Great as it need to be if it be not made less than it really is Had they lived indeed in Henry the Eighth's time they should not perhaps have humoured his Imperious Temper so far as to have made that mean Submission or tamely to have given up any one Legal Priviledge which belonged to the Body and was not inconsistent with the Good of their Country But since it was made and Enacted they know how like Good Englishmen and Good Subjects chearfully to obey it Only they can never submit to such a sense of the Submission as was never intended nor throughout that Age wherein it was made ever practised This would be a much meaner part in them than the first Act was in their Ancestors whose Religion was all Submission and Slavery and it is no wonder therefore that the Fetters prepar'd for them sat so easily upon them But in a Protestant Clergy the profess'd Assertors of the Just Freedoms and Rights of Mankind in Religious affairs and who have been more than once Instrumental in shaking off Yokes of every kind from the Necks of Englishmen such Illegal Complyances would be inexcusable In short they have and they own that they have great reason to be content with the Priviledges which the Law has clearly marked out to them and the Great Petition they have to offer is that they may be permitted to enjoy them If their Predecessors were struck with a Panick Fear at the very sound of a Premunire in a Reign when the Laity too trembled at the
Noise of Thunder from Above yet their Present Successors may not be e'er the less Dutiful tho' they are not quite so much frighted as having the happiness to live in a Time when the Priviledges and Rights of the English Subject are more clearly understood and much better secured Upon the whole then it appears That the Clergy Commoners have all along had an undoubted Right of being frequently assembled and particularly by the Law of England as often as a New Parliament is call'd That being assembled they had antiently a Right of framing Canons and doing several Synodical Acts not inconsistent with the Law of their Country without expecting the Prince's Leave for entring on such Debates or making such Decrees That the 25 H. 8. c. 19. has not in the least infringed this Right as far as the Lower Clergy are concerned in it That the Limitations there made to the Exercise of it chiefly concern the Archbishop of either Province who is now restrain'd as from calling a Convocation without the King 's Writ so from Passing or Ratifying any Canon without the Royal License and from Promulging the same by his Own Authority That the Inferior Clergy are no otherwise concerned than to take care that they give their Consent to no Canon fram'd by themselves or sent from the Upper House otherwise than with Submission to the Royal Pleasure if the King's License and Assent be not before obtained That they are left therefore intirely at their Liberty to Confer and Deliberate even about New Canons and also to Devise Frame and Offer them to the Upper House if with a Protestation annexed that they are neither intended nor desir'd to be enacted without the King's License Much more that there remains to 'em a Liberty of Petitioning either that Old Canons may be executed or New Ones made according to Law and to such Purposes as the Petitioners shall suggest or of representing their Humble Opinions concerning the Affairs of the Church and of Religion and if need be beseeching a Redress at least in General Terms This I take it is their Undoubted Priviledge and would be used by them on Great Occasions with the same Prudence and Temper that their Predecessors are known to have practised who when they met without Interruption were so cautious of giving no unnecessary Trouble either to Church or State that they were more complained of in some Reigns for sitting still than for stirring By this time the Reader sees that the Reason given for the Clergy's not Meeting because when met and formed into a Body they can do nothing is a strange one For supposing 'em to be tyed up never so strictly in their Decreâ—ing Capacity yet surely it does not follow that they can do nothing because they cannot Make or Attempt a Canon Is it nothing to speak the sense of the whole Clergy of the Kingdom in matters proper for them to intermeddle in is it nothing to Petition Advise Address Represent to give their Judgment where it may be desired or their Censure where it may be needful Is it nothing with a Dutiful and Discreet Zeal to suggest the fittest Methods of securing the Christian Faith of preventing the Revival of Old Heresies and Errors and the Growth of New Ones Is it nothing to do that which anciently when Bills began by Petition was the Great Priviledge of one Great Part of the Legislature the House of Commons I had thought that while they had this at least tho' they should have no more than this to do they had not nothing to do but rather a very Great and Necessary Work And whether such Applications are necessary should I suppose be left to the Convocation it self to determine tho' others afterwards may either second or reject these Applications who may in these Cases have the Power of Judging but not of Prejudging the Actions of a Lawful Assembly much less have they the Power of precondemning the very Being of such an Assembly because they foresee not what may be done in it In truth whatever may be pretended of the Convocations being able to do nothing yet their not being allowed to Meet is a shrewd sign that they can when met do something and that they of the Clergy who oppose their Meeting are themselves of that Opinion for were their Mouths really shut and their Hands ty'd to that Degree they are represented to be there could certainly be no Inconvenience in trusting such an Harmless Body of Men together nor would it be worth while to break through Antient and Received Practice in order to prevent their Assembling The Innovation made in these matters has begun within these Ten Years last past For tho' it has been usual to adjourn Convocations a few days after they had met and sat when there was little or no business to do yet it was never till this time known that a Convocation was adjourned before it sat that is indeed before it was a Convocation This New Practise which Dr. Wake in my Opinion by as New Law justifies we know the Date of and have reason therefore to obviate it while it is New and to take some care that it may not in a little time be able to plead a Quiet Prescription The Clergy betray their Priviledges if they lye still under the Publication of such Oppressive Schemes without as Open a Disavowal of them and without expressing their Detestation of the Meanness of the Publisher They deserve to be used as ill as their Open Adversaries or their False Friends would have them used if they can suffer their most Valuable Right to be thus torn from 'em in Print without the least struggle for it The Virgin in the Law of God was judg'd consenting to the Rape who did not cry out when Help was near and was order'd therefore to be stoned together with her Ravisher To prevent such an Imputation upon the Church and the sad Consequences of it her True Sons were they as Rash as they are represented to be would e'er this have shewed themselves against this New Advocate in a more Open Manner and in somewhat Greater Numbers than they have hitherto done and might perhaps for that End could they no otherwise be heard have interposed a Subscribed Protestation from their whole Body But if this way of gathering scattered Hands would seem disorderly and unsuitable to their Characters and prove dangerous it may be to the Persons engaging in it the more reason still have they to esteem and assert the Priviledge of being Legally assembled and put into such a condition as to be able duly and safely to make their just Complaints and represent their Grievances CHAP. IV. HAving largely shewed what the Two Great Convocation-Rights are which I proposed to Treat of and withal offered the several Chief Evidences and Proofs on which I build 'em my Method laid down leads me in the next place to consider the Exceptions of all sorts which have been made to this Claim by
before-hand led the way and that All therefore that those Princes generally did was to re-enact by the Civil what had been before enacted by the Ecclesiastical Authority and to give the Church Decisions more weight and force by inserting 'em into the Body of the Imperial Laws and annexing further Penalties to the Breach of them This is so certain and known a Truth that even at this day we can point out the several Canons upon which almost all the Civil Constitutions of those Princes were founded and in which the matter of 'em was either particularly and in Terms or at large and in general determined And if in some few Instances we should not be able to do this what wonder is it when it is considered at what a Vast Distance of Time we live from the first Rise of these things and how many Antient Church-Monuments that would have given light in these matters have in the course of so many Ages perished Iustinian in his Laws appeals frequently to the Canons and professes to follow them * Nov. 6. c. 1. Ibid. §. 8. Nov. 58. sub finem Nov. 123. c. 36. And by this Pattern the French and German Princes in after-times framed their Capitularies taking the Subjects of them from the Resolutions of antecedent Synods †Decrevimus juxta Sanctorum Canonum Regulas Caroloman in Syn. Leptin Anno 747. and even referring themselves thither for the more clear understanding of what their Law only briefly and in General delivered ‖ P. 91. A Truth so Notorious that Dr. Wake himself durst not dissemble it And it would puzzle a man therefore to shew how such Laws should any ways derogate from the Authority of Synods which they took their rise from and were made on purpose to support and confirm I must put the Doctor in mind here of a way of arguing made use of by one of his Seconds in this Controversie where he is disputing against the Universities Authority to declare Heresie there he lays down this Position That the Convocation of the University of Oxford have never forbid any Doctrine to their Scholars before that very particular Doctrine was first declared Erroneous or Heretical by some Persons who were then reputed to have Power to declare Heresie * L. M. P. p. 69. The Truth of this Assertion I at present trouble not my self with but supposing it true the Inference that arises from it has weight I own and when applied to our Present Argument is of use to inform us what Secular Decrees in Church-matters are no ways prejudicial to the Power of the Church and the Authority of Synods And this was an Head I say upon which Dr. Wake should have explained himself largely and openly if he had intended a fair state of this Controversie or had had any other New in what he wrote than merely to serve a Turn and to advance some colourable kind of Plea for a Practice which if he knew any thing of these matters he must know was indefensible and be writing all the while for his Point against his Conscience and if he knew nothing of it with what Conscience could he undertake to determine it These are words that I do not easily persuade my self to bestow on any Man but his Gross Prevarications and Disguises of Truth in Doctrines of so great moment wherein the Interests of his Order and of Religion are so nearly concerned force this hard Language from me Nor stops he at General Reflections in this case but brings them home also to our own Church and Constitution pretending in his Appendix †Num. vii to give us an Abstract of several things relating to the Church which have been done since the 25 Hen. 8. by Private Commissions or otherwise out of Convocation In which Abstract many of the Points mentioned had certainly the Authority of Convocation tho' he would fain have us believe they had not and that antecedently to the Civil Injunction Others are such Acts of Ordinary Power as by the consent of All Churches and Parties of Men every Christian Prince is confessedly intitled to and some few perhaps might be owing to the Necessity of Affairs which would not then admit of more Regular Methods and should not therefore be vouched as reasonable Precedents and setled Rules and Standards of acting in more quiet times which is manifestly Dr. Wake 's End in producing them The Reader must forgive me if I detain him so long as to run through the Particulars of this List and shew upon each of 'em how far the Ecclesiastical Power concurred and led the way to it It will be a dry unpleasing Task but is of use to clear the Orderliness of some steps taken in those times which are generally misunderstood and is necessary to wipe off the Dirt thrown by Dr. Wake on the English Reformation the Process of which I am satisfied was very Regular and Canonical in most Cases tho' in some by reason of the Loss of Records it cannot easily be proved so Of this we are in General assured by such as lived at the time when those Records were in being particularly by Sir Robert Cotton and Mr. Fuller The first in his Posthuma * P. 215. has these words If any shall object that many Laws in Henry the Eighth's time had first the Ground in Parliament it is manifested by the Dates of their Acts in Convocation that they All had in that place their first Original The Latter speaks as follows Upon serious Examination it will appear that there was nothing done in the Reformation of Religion save what was acted by the Clergy in their Convocations or Grounded on some Act of theirs precedent to it with the Advice Counsel and Consent of the Bishops and most Eminent Church-men confirmed upon the Post-fact and not otherwise according to the Usage of the best and purest Times of Christianity * Church-Hist xvi Cent. p. 188. To which I shall add the Testimony of one who must be allowed a Good Witness in this case my Lord of Sarum He assures the Bishop of Meaux in the Answer he made to his Variations that Our Parliaments and Princes have not medled in matters of Religion any other way but that they have given the Civil Sanction to the Propositions made by the Church and this is that which Christian Princes do in all Places †P. 35. And in 1604 I find a Puritan Writer making this Challenge Let them if they can shew any one Instance of any Change or Alteration either from Religion to Superstition or from Superstition to Religion to have been made in Parliament unless the same freely and at large have been first agred upon in their Synods and Convocations ‖ Assertion of True and Christian Policy P. 168. Which is no otherwise considerable I own than as it comes from the Pen of an Adversary These are General Proofs which would go a good way towards setting aside the Particulars in
For which reason and because I think the Point to be of Importance and withal related nearly to the Article we are upon I shall here produce some Passages from the Papers and Records of that time which fully clear it King Edward's Answer to the Devonshire-Mens Petition * Fox Vol. 2. p. 666. Assures 'em that for the Mass no small Study or Travel hath been spent by All the Learned Clergy therein †p. 667. b. And agen That whatsoever is contained in our Book either for Baptism Sacrament Mass Confirmation and Service in the Church is by our Parliament established by the whole Clergy agreed yea by the Bishops of the Realm devised by God's Word confirmed ‖ P. 668. a. The Council's Instructions to Dr. Hopton how to discourse the Lady Mary ⸫ Fox Vol. 2. p. 701. affirm the same thing somewhat more forcibly The first of these is Her Grace writeth that the Law made by Parliament is not worthy the Name of a Law meaning the Statute for the Communion c. You shall say thereto The Fault is great in any Subject to disallow a Law of the King a Law of the Realm by long Study free Disputation and uniform Determination of the whole Clergy consulted debated concluded But above all most Express and Full to this purpose is the Assertion in a Letter of Edw. 6. dated Iuly 23. Regni tertio and entred in the Register of Bonner * F. 219. a. it runs thus That one Uniform Order for Common-Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments hath beyn and is most Godly sette fourthe not onely by the Common Agreement and full Assent of the Nobility and Commons in the late Session of our late Parliament but also by the lyke Assent of the Bysshopps in the same Parliament and of all other 's the Learned Men of this our Realm in their Synods and Convocations Provincial I thought it worth my while to make good this Point because it has by some been much doubted and their Doubts have been countenanced by the Act 2 3 Edw. 6. c. 1. which establishes the Service-Book and wherein there is mention only of the Archbishop of Canterbury and certain of the most Learned and Discreet Bishops and other Learned Men of this Realm appointed to compile it but no Formal notice is taken of the Convocation that passed it And the Proof I have given in this single Instance will suggest to the Reader that it might be so in General and that several other Things done by this Select Committee were probably approved afterwards in Convocation tho' the Statutes and other Records of that time should seem to mention the Committee only The Convocation-Records which alone could have given us Full Light in this case are destroyed and the chief way we now have of supplying this Defect is by Parallel Instances and Probable Reasonings which Fair Men therefore will admit as good Evidence for want of better and not take advantage as Dr. Wake does from the Destruction of such Records to deny that there ever were any This is as if a Man should pretend to prove that none of the People of such or such a Parish were in the Reign of Edward the Sixth Christned because perhaps the Old Parish-Registers are lost This made way for the Act of 1548 p. 93. and 1551 p. 189. He means King Edward's two Acts of Uniformity which established the first and second Service-Book and way therefore was made for them not by this New Office of Communion but by the Service-Books themselves These I have shewn tho' the Work of a Committee yet had the Authority of Convocation inasmuch as the Convocation approved this Committee before-hand and confirmed what was done by it afterwards I have shewn it I mean of the One and the Reader therefore will easily believe that the same Steps and Measures were observed as to the Other 1549. An Order of Council forbidding Private Masses Ibid. p. 102 103. As contrary to the Statute of Uniformity and to the Determinations of the Clergy in Convocation and the Council therefore who sent this Order do afterwards in a Letter of theirs to the Lady Mary * Iune 4. 1551. call her Chaplains saying Mass a contempt not of Their but of the Ecclesiastical Orders of this Church of England †Fox Vol. 2. p. 709. The Forms of Ordination appointed by Act of Parliament ordered to be drawn up by a special Committee of Six Bishops and Six Divines to be nam'd by the King Ibid. p. 141 143. The true account of this is that the Council had already appointed this Committee at the Instance as we may from former Precedents reasonably collect of the Convocation it self then sitting and of the Members of Convocation therefore this Committee was composed according to my Lord of Sarum's account of it Some Bishops and Divines says he brought now together by a Session of Parliament were appointed to prepare a Book of Ordination * Vol. 2. p. 140. The Session was likely to end before these Forms could be prepared and the Parliament passed therefore a previous Confirmation of them as they had done in the case of the Necessary Erudition in 1540 †See Stat. 32 Hen. 8. cap. 25. Dr. Wake must have a very uncommon way of arguing if he can draw any thing to the Prejudice of the Churches Power from such Instances as these where such an Implicit Deference was paid to the Resolutions of the Clergy as to Enact 'em before the Parliament had seen 'em and indeed before they were made Dr. W. we see does in this and in every other step of this Article appeal to my L. of S.'s Book and would under the cover of his Lordship's Name put off all his Bad History and Worse Opinions It may not be amiss therefore to give him the Iudgment of this Right Reverend Prelate clearly expressed and avowed in another Piece ‖ Vind. of the Ord. of the Ch. of Engl. and with that to ballance all these Doubtful and Uncertain Authorities His Lordship speaking of the English Ordinal the Point we are upon and of the Alterations that were afterwards made in it has these words It was indeed confirmed by the Authority of Parliament and there was good reason to desire That to give it the force of a Law but the Authority of the Book and those Changes is wholly to be derived from the Convocation who only consulted about them and made them And the Parliament did take that care in the Enacting them that might shew they did only add the force of a Law to them for in passing them it was ordered that the Book of Common-Prayer and Ordination should only be read over and even that was carried upon some Debate for many as I have been told moved that the Book should be added to the Act as it was sent to the Parliament from the Convocation without ever reading it but that seemed Indecent and too Implicit to
to our purpose and ought once again to be remembred The rest of Dr. W.'s Particulars are Immaterial and need not stop us only on the Last of 'em a Line or two may be not improperly spent King Charles the First Directions concerning Preaching with respect to the Arminian Points These Directions were for the silencing both Parties and for preventing all Innovations upon the Doctrine of the Church already Established and such Directions it is not only the Christian Magistrates Priviledge but his Duty to prescribe provided always that he do it not with any such under-hand Views and Aims as my Lord of Sarum represents K. Charles the First to have had in publishing His All Divines says he were by Proclamation required not to Preach upon Those Heads but those that favour'd the New Opinions were encouraged and the others were depressed * Exposition on the XXXIX Article p. 152. I presume this is no part of the Regal Supremacy nor a Pattern fit to be imitated in succeeding Reigns especially if the case ever should be as his Lordship further informs us it was Then And unhappy Disputes continues He falling in at that time concerning the Extent of the Royal Prerogative beyond Law the Arminians having declared themselves highly for that they were as much favoured at Court as they were censured in Parliament If this were then really the case we of This Age have reason to thank Heaven for reserving us for better Times when the Interests of Prince and People are the same and it can never therefore be a recommending Qualification of a Man that he is for extending the Royal Prerogative beyond Law nor intitle him to the favour of a Court to be censured in Parliament These are the Instances in which Dr. Wake has shewn himself very willing to blast the Honour of the Reformation in order to assert an unreasonable Prerogative to the Crown for which no good Prince will thank him I have considered 'em throughout and have proved I hope that the History he brings to justifie his Principles is every whit as unjustifiable as the Principles themselves and that they deserve therefore to keep Company with one another In some of these Instances Truth was so easie to be come at that he must be thought to have missed it willingly and to have judged it pardonable to pervert History a little in order to make his Complement with the better Grace A Principle familiar to the Writers in this Controversie as I could shew by some Domestick Instances but since that is not proper shall content my self with a foreign one De Marca a Man excellently well read in this Debate and of Abilities of Mind equal to his Reading and like Dr. W. in nothing but in his Design of letting the Royal Power in upon the Church as far as he was able while he was writing his Famous Piece Baluzii Vita Petri de Marca c. in principio operis de Concordiâ Sacerd Imp. pp. 13 14. was named to the See of Thoulouse but not quickly setled there for want of his Bulls To obtain them he wrote a Letter to the Pope full of Submission and Respect and in it took occasion to compare his own advancement to the See of Tholouse with that of Exuperius formerly Bishop of that place whom he made the same with Exuperius the Spanish President on purpose that the Parallel might run the better He himself having for some time presided in Catalonia tho' he knew very well they were two different Men. When this was objected to him as an over-sight or rather as a piece of Art not very well becoming his Holy Character he laughed at the Objection and pitied the poor People that made it who were so scrupulously silly as to tye Men up to strict Truth in such cases as these and not able to distinguish between History and a Complement So that with the Writers in this Argument it has been it seems a Fashion all along to disguise Truth and the bending of matters of fact to by-purposes is a tried and approved Remedy for the Dispatch of Bulls As a Key to all the false Stories vouched by Dr. W. I have added this true one and should it happen not to be very pertinent or entertaining I have no Excuse to make to him on that head 't is but returning him a Freedom which he has often before-hand taken with his Reader I am sensible these Reflections of mine are running out into too great a Length and shall therefore only name two or three more without enlarging much upon ' em VII Dr. Wake makes no distinction between Absolute and Limited Princes but produces the Acts of the one to prove and justifie the Exercise of a like Power in the other His first Chapter is taken up in telling us what was done in relation to Ecclesiastical Synods and Affairs by the Roman and German Emperors and by other Princes of narrower Territory but not less Despotick in their Government as if what They did or had a Right to do were immediately the Right of every other Christian Prince without any regard to the Restrictions which the Power of that Prince might be under by the Constitution of his Country But now should he have told us what Acts of Absolute Authority were exercised by those Emperors in State-matters and how their Edicts had the force of Laws would this Plea justifie an English Prince in attempting the like things at home or be a Bar any ways upon the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament Indeed our Author seems sensible that these Instances are not very Conclusive where he confesses that Princes may by their own Acts Limit themselves and that such Limitations may alter the Case mightily and make that Lawful in one Country which is not so in another * P. 95. Pity it is that this Truth had not come into his Thoughts sooner than the 95 th Page of his Work it might then have prevailed with him to withdraw that huge Heap of Foreign Precedents which now take up so much room in his Work and which would have been left to sleep peaceably in his Common-place-Book without seeing the Light upon so improper an occasion For should what he has the Courage in his next Chapter to assert be true that by our own Constitution the King of England has all that Power at this day over our Convocation that EVER ANY Christian Prince had over his Synod †P. 98. yet the Power he has in this respect he derives from the Particular Rules of our Constitution not from any beyond-Sea-Customs and Usages He claims it not I suppose as Heir to the Imperial Authority of Constantine or Charles the Great but by vertue of that Prerogative which as King of England he has by the Laws of England and should the Power therefore happen to be equal here at home to what it is abroad yet there lyes no Proof from the one of these to the other Dr.
of the same he woll that this Bill as to th' Imposicion that shuld bate the Secular Prests of this Roialme not benefic'd as Stipendiaries and Chauntrie Prests be committed to the Archbishops and Bishops in the Convocations of the Clergies of this Roialme because it toucheth the Immunitie and Libertie of the Chirche the which the King intendeth to keep without hurte or Prejudice in all wyse And as touching the Pardon conteyned in this Bill in case the Nobles of the said Prests be graunted to him in the said Convocacions then the King woll that the said Pardon stond in his vertue and strength without fyne or fee payeing therefore by auctorite of this present Parliament And when in the same Session the Commons petition'd for the Perpetual Imprisonment of Felonious Clarks they were thus answer'd Forasmuche as the matter conteyned in this Petition perteineth to Spiritueltie the King woll that th' Archbishops and the Bishops of this Roialme set suche due Remedye thereynne as shall seeme to theire wisedom covenable and sufficient therefore hereafter and that the Chirche have its freedomes and Libertees n. 22. 45. E. III. n. 47. The Commons ask that the Statutes of the Priests by Assent of the Clergy may be observ'd †Abr. of Rec. p. 114. Again 50. E. III. n. 46. They desire que nul Estatute ne Ordenance soit faite ne grante au Petition du Clergie si ne soit per assent de Voz Commenes ne que vous dites Communes ne soient obligez per nulles constitutions quils font pur lour avantage sanz assent de voz dites Commenes The Reason of which Request follows Car eux ne veullent estre obligez a nul de voz Estatutz ne Ordinances faitz sanz lour assent i. e. to none made to their Hurt and Detriment pur avantage de Gens Layes In the Kings answer the Truth of what is here asserted is not deny'd but the Request and the Imputation being too general it was order'd Soit ceste matiere declaree en special The Protestation of the Clergy against the Statute of Provisors †13. R. II. n. 18. runs That they assent to no Act made in that or any other Parliament in restrictionem Potestatis Apostolicae aut in subversionem enervationem seu derogationem Ecclesiasticae Libertatis Nay even as low as the Year 1529 or 30 I find 'em asserting their suppos'd Priviledges in this respect and complaining of some Statutes †For an account of which See Hist. of Ref. Vol. 1. p. 82. which pass'd in that Parliament to their Prejudice ad quae facienda nec consenserunt per se nec per Procuratores suos neque super eïsdem consulti fuerunt 'T is in a Petition yet unprinted and which I shall therefore from a Cotton-Manuscript transcribe into the Appendix †See N. XV. And some things have been reckon'd to be so properly of Ecclesiastical Cognizance that even in Acts of Parliament made since the Reformation concerning them the Previous Resolution or Concurrence of the Clergy in Convococation has been expresly taken notice of Thus 5 and 6 E. VI. c. 12. The Learned Clergy of the Realm are said to have determin'd Priests Marriages to be most Lawful by the Law of God in their Convocation as well by their Common Assent as by the Subscription of their hands And 1 Eliz. c. 1. allow'd not the High Commissioners to order determin or adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresy but only such as have heretofore been determin'd order'd or adjudg'd to be Heresy by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same was declared Heresy by the express and Plain Words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such as shall hereafter be order'd judg'd or determin'd to be Heresy by the High Court of Parliament of this Realm with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation And so in several other Statates Beyond all this their Consent in Parliament has also by way of Condescension been sometimes ask'd and admitted even in matters where they were not particularly interested For 9. H. V. the whole Body of the Clergy under the Style of Proelati Clerus concurr'd to the Ratification of a League by Parliament wherein it is said how the King Tres Status regni viz. Praelatos Clerum Nobiles Magnates nec non Communitates dicti regni ad Palatium suum Westminster ad majorem firmitatem robur pacis praedictae nec non propter alias causas suum statum regnum regni utilitatem concernentes juxta morem consuetudinem ejusdem fecerat convocari Coram quibus tribus Statibus idem Serenissimus dominus Rex c. made this Treaty be read and They confirm'd it n. 15. And the very same Method I doubt not was practis'd 35. E. III. when according to Walsingham's account in Parliamento Londoniis proponebatur cunctis Regni Statibus Concordia inter Reges Stabilita placuitque * Yp. Neustr ad ann 1361. cunctis dictam concordiam recipere tenere * Yp. Neustr ad ann 1361. 6. H. VI. n. 27. When it was Enacted that no Man should contract or marry himself to any Queen of England without the King's leave the Record says that the Bishops and Clergy agree to it as far forth as the same swerveth not from the Law of God and of the Church and so as the same importeth no Deadly Sin * Abr. of Rec. p. 589. In all the Judgments of the Parliament 21. R. II. the Name and Assent of the Proctors of the Clergy is particularly alledg'd †Abr. of Rec. p. 381. to countenance as the Historian of our Reformation supposes ‖ Part 2. p. 49. the Acts of that Meeting wherein the whole Proceeding of a former Parliament was annull'd and to give a Collateral Assent and Authority to them as another Writer * L. M. P. p. 32. not much amiss I think distinguishes And thus far I can agree with Both but when his Lordship further adds that this is the only time that they are mention'd as bearing a share in the Legislative Power I must beg leave to believe the Records before him One of which the Instrument of Succession in H. IV th's time has been already produc'd †P. 61 62. and his Lordship upon a view of the Words cannot I dare say doubt whether the Clergy were in that Instance allow'd a share in the Legislative Power for the Succession is said to be settled not only with their Consent but by their Authority Such have the Instances been in which they either claim'd or were indulg'd a consenting Voice and for the sake of which as it should seem their Summons ad consentiendum issu'd out all along even after their Compleat Separation Not that the same Reasons still continue though the same Summons does for
setling the Point between us But here he is as reserv'd as one would wish for from the beginning to the end of his Crude Work there is not a single Instance of this kind made out or so much as pretended †Except the Trite Instance of Exclus◠Clero Nay to see the fate of misapply'd Reading even of those twelve insignificant Instances which he has produc'd no less than eight are evidently mistaken as to the Dates either of the Parliaments or Convocations mention'd in them The Reader will rather take my word for it than allow me the liberty of interrupting the Course of my Argument so far as to prove it And I shall proceed therefore to consider and remove the several Objections that lie also against the second Point advanc'd in these Papers that the Clergy when met have a Right of Treating and Debating freely about such matters as lie within their proper Sphaere and even of coming to fit Resolutions upon them without being necessitated antecedently to gratify themselves for such Acts or Debates by a License under the Broad Seal of England CHAP. VIII IT had been argu'd from the General Nature of such Assemblys as these we are treating of that Freedom of Debate was their undoubted Right and Priviledge incident to them as such and inseparable from ' em To this I find these several Answers return'd Dr. W. assures us that the Debates of the most General and Famous Councils have been under as great Restraint as he supposes the Convocation to be †P. 288. L. M. P. adds that Poyning's Law has ty'd up even a Parliament in Ireland as strictly †P. 44. and the Author of the Postscript ⸪ At the end of a Book entituled An Essay concerning the Power of the Magistrate 8◠1697. fetches a third Instance from Scotland where the Three Estates he says can debate of nothing but what the Lords of the Articles have beforehand agreed on ‖ P. 198. As to the first of these supposing Dr. W's Allegation true yet he has been told that there is no arguing from the Powers claim'd or exercis'd by Emperors in those Great and Extraordinary Assemblys to what is fit to be done in lesser and stated ones and why such Inferences do not hold some Reasons have been given him which I need not now repeat But in truth he mistakes or misrepresents the Practise of the Emperors even in these General and Famous Councils which I have shewn him p. 125 6. went no further than to require a preference to that Particular Business for the Dispatch of which they were Summon'd not to exclude their debating on any thing but what the Emperor propos'd to them And of this the Canons of those Councils are an Evidence beyond Dispute which both as to Matter and Form took their Rise from the several Synods they were made in without any Imperial Leave or Direction for the framing them With what Face then can Dr. W. vouch the Practise of these Councils as Precedents for that Degree of restraint he would have laid on an English Convocation With what Truth or Conscience can he affirm that they acted intirely according to the Prescription of the Emperors †P. 288. and deliberated on nothing but what they were directed or allowed he means expresly and particularly allow'd by the Prince to deliberate on †P. 48. Whatever our Author may think of such Doctrine Now or whatever he may Hope from it sure I am that had he liv'd and utter'd it while those Holy Synods were in being it would not have been two or three Years afterwards before he had repented of it But Old Councils are Dead and Gone and any thing it seems may be said of them Let him not depend too much upon that for they have Friends still in the World that may happen yet before he dies to meet together and ask him a few Questions A living Synod may sometime or other think it for its Interest and find it in its Power to vindicate the Honor and Authority of the Dead ones Well if Old Councils cannot afford a Precedent Modern Parliaments shall Poyning's Law therefore is urg'd which provides that All such Bills as shall be offer'd to the Parliament of Ireland shall be transmitted hither under the Great Seal of that Kindom and having receiv'd approbation here shall be sent back under the Great Seal of England to be preferr'd to the Parliament of Ireland †L. M. P. p 44. But what have we to do with Instances fetch'd from Conquered Countrys who must receive what Terms the Victor pleases and be glad of any We live among another People always Jealous of their Libertys and careful to preserve them in a Land where slavery either in Church or State though sometimes planted could never thrive And those Fetters therefore which might perhaps justly be laid on an Irish Parliament may not fit an English Convocation so well which is therefore free because it is an English one But after all how far does this Law of Poynings reach Our Lawyer tells us that it leaves not the Parliament at Liberty to propose what Laws they please that the Irish look upon it as Conclusive upon their Debates and are satisfy'd and again that we have here an Instance of a Parliament without Liberty of Debate But this is too gross an Imposition upon the Credulity of his Readers few of which are so ignorant as not to be aware that Poyning's Law layes a restraint only on the Enacting Power of their Parliament but not on the Debates of it which notwithstanding this Act are left as free as ever They can still Treat and Conferr about all Matters and Causes that are of Parliamentary Cognizance they can Petition Represent and Protest Nay they can propose what Heads of Bills they please to be transmitted hither and sent back thither in Form of which we have had very late and frequent Experience And how therefore the Abridgment of the Convocations Liberty of Debate can be pretended to be justify'd by this Irish Precedent is I confess past my English Understanding For as I take it the Convocation desires no other Powers and Priviledges but just what this Parliament claims and practises and pleads only that the 25 H. VIII may not be extended to such a Rigorous and Unjustifiable Sense as will lay greater restraints upon Them than Poyning's Laws does upon Those of Ireland But our Letter-writer himself is sensible that this Instance is not to the purpose for at the close of it his Conscience gives a little and he is forc'd to confess that the Irish Parliament are not under an Universal Restraint nor wholly mute till the King gives them Power to Debate and Act †P. 44. Are they not Why then was it generally said that they were a Parliament without a Liberty of Debate or of proposing what Laws they please in the very next Lines to these where it is all unsaid
inchoatâ in Sacello Regio apud Whitehall prope Westminster W. Saye and from thence adjourn'd back again to Pauls and afterwards to Lambeth and continu'd sitting there till Feb. 11 th which was two Months after the Parliament was dissolv'd †Parl. dissolv'd Dec. 9. Journal Nor was the Synod even then dissolv'd but prorogu'd only to the 10 th of October All our Writers my Lord of Sarum not excepted have confounded Two things here that are very distinct the Convocation of this Year and the Legatin Synod For the Former of these no License was granted or necessary but it issu'd purely in relation to the Latter wherein the Clergy of both Provinces were to meet Nâ—tionally by a Legatine Authority For the Exercise of this Authority the Cardinal had before hand been impower'd by Letters Patents of Decem. 10. 1554. But this License being too General and expressing matters of Iurisdiction and Dispensation only it was thought fit to add another for the more ample Declaration of those Letters Patents as the Words of it are and therein to specify the Power of holding Synods and framing Constitutions Legatine and to indemnify the Clergy particularly for meeting and acting under that Authority This says the Bishop was thought safe on both sides both for Preserving the Rights of the Crown and securing the Clergy from being afterwards brought within the Statute of Premunire as they had been upon their acknowledging Cardinal Wolsey's Legatine Authority †Vol. 2. p. 324. For the Old Laws against Provisions which brought the Clergy then under a Premunire were still in force This was the Reason of the second License which could have no manner of regard to the 25 H. VIII for that Act was Then repeal'd I shall give the Reader in the Appendix †Nu XVI this License at large as it is found in Pole's Register * Fol. 7. where and it seems in the Patent Rolls †Rot. Pat. 1. part 310. Reg. says Hist. Ref. ibid. also it is still preserv'd The Observation naturally arising from hence is That if any other License of this Nature had from the Time of these Legatin Synods down to that of Iames the I. been granted it would also either in the Rolls or Registers be found But none such that I can hear of appearing there we have all the Reason in the World to conclude that none issu'd In which Opinion we shall be further confirm'd if we take a view of the Convocations in Q. Elizabeths Reign The first met Ian. 24. 1558 9. and were so far from being Commission'd to Treat that they had not so much as any General Directions from the President to proceed upon Business †See Fuller C. H. p. 54. Act. MSS. for when he enquir'd an Clerus Inferioris Domùs aliquid excogitavit qùod voluerunt exponere illo die the Prolocutor and the Rest made answer se nescire ob quam causam quibus de rebus tracta turi sunt I mention this particular to shew that it was Customary for the Convocation to be directed to the subject of their Debates by the Crown even when the 25 H. VIII lay under a Repeal as it now did and such Directions therefore given at other Times when the Statute was in force must not be supposed to spring from this Act so much as from the King 's known Prerogative by which he ever propos'd both to Parliaments and Convocations at their first opening the Reasons which He on his Part * Super praemissis aliis quae ibidem ex parte nostrâ clariùs exponentur are the Words of every Convocation-Writ had to assemble them But this only by the bye The Protestant Convocations held after this Statute was reviv'd are a plain proof of the Truth of that Exposition I have given of it For in a Directory of Archbishop Cranmer's prescribing the Method of opening them though every step that is at such times to be taken be minutely set down and the summ of whatever the Archbishop or any other is on that occasion to do or say be distinctly mention'd yet of his producing a Commission to Treat not a word is said as 't is natural to think there would have been had such a Commission been practis'd I shall give the Reader a Copy of this Directory among the other Papers †See Append N. XVII because if the Discontinuance of Convocations prevails such Lights as these may in some time be necessary We are hastning on I find into so Thorough an Ignorance of these matters that it may for ought I know within a while be urg'd as a Reason for not holding a Convocation that we do not understand the Manner of holding it I am sure this is as good a Reason as any that has been yet given for it I call this Paper Archbishop Parker's because by the Company I find it in I have reason to conclude it so to be However it was certainly drawn up since the Reformation either in King Edwards or in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign for there is no mention in it of the Mass or of Abbats and Priors and it is of use therefore to prove the Practise of those Protestant Conocations which we are enquiring after But this is only a General Proof More Particular and Express to our Purpose is the Synod of 1562. where Matters of Great Moment were transacted the Articles of the Church and the Catechism review'd and several Canons relating to Discipline fram'd though some of these were not at that time publish'd And the Debates on these occasions were all enter'd upon and manag'd without any Commission from the Queen as is manifest beyond a Doubt from the Acts of that Synod of which I have seen an Exact and Entire Copy written in an Hand of the Time and taken from the Registers of that Convocation soon after it saâ— These Acts are very Particular and Minute in giving an account of the Proceedings of every Day and do orderly specify all the Publick Instrustruments that any way concern the Synod But as to a Commission to Treat they are perfectly silent The Reader who has any Curiosity this way will not be displeas'd I suppose if I produce some Passages from thence that shew plainly how they were employ'd Ian. 16. The Archbishop himself said Prayers reading the Litany cum Collectis assuetis ac Oratione in Synodo Provinciali dicenda noviter ut adparuit editâ Which new Collect I take to be that in the Convocation Office which begins Domine Deus Pater Luminum c. and in it they beseech God ut Gratiâ Tuâ caelitùs adjuti ea omnia investigare meditari tractare discernere valeamus quae Honorem Tuum Gloriam promoveant in Ecclesiae cedant profectum I can scarce believe that they would have chosen to address themselves to God in such a Form of Words as this had they thought that they were under an utter Incapacity of
are us'd only pro Honore Regio etiamsi ad id de Iure teneatur But I pay too great a Regard to his trifling Remarks in pursuing them thus minutely and go on therefore to remove the rest of the Exceptions taken at our way of expounding the Statute In my account of the Practise of Convocations since the 25 H. VIII I slipp'd over some Requests of the Lower House of Convocation to the Upper a few years after this Act pass'd and promis'd to make a distinct Head of them which I shall now therefore consider and explain It is objected against that sense I have given of the Statute that the Clergy of those times did themselves understand it otherwise for in a Petition put up by them to the Bishops 1 o E. VI. they recite some part of the Submission-Act and of the 27 H. VIII that confirms it and then desire that being presently assembled in Convocation by auctority of the King 's Writ the King's Majestys License in Writing may for them be obtain'd and granted according to the Effect of the said Statues auctorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon Pain and Peril premis'd This indeed seems Material and for this Reason I suppose Dr. W. takes no notice of it But L. M. P. insists upon it and styles it an Authentick Exposition of that statute which without any other Evidence is sufficient to shew that it was the Intention of that Act that the Treating and Resolving as well as the Meeting of a Convocation should depend upon the Mere Good-will of the Prince †Pp. 39 40 The Reader may observe how wondrous kind this Gentleman can be to the Clergy upon occasion and what a profound respect he has for their Opinion when it is for his Turn He allows a Petition of the Lower House of Convocation to be an Authentick Exposition of an Act of Parliament an Honor which the most solemn Decisions of both Houses would not much less do the Petitions and Requests of any one deserve and least of all the particular Requests we are at present concerned with For It is probable that the Petition it self is not Authentick and then the Exposition it gives to be sure cannot be so There are two Papers printed by my Lord of Sarum †2. Vol. Coll of Rec. n. 16 17. which he calls Petitions of the Lower House of Convocation 1 o E. VI. to the Upper The Former of these †N. 16. is not a single Petition but four several Requests or rather the Minutes of four joyn'd together with a certain Query annex'd in the Close of them Of these the First relates to the Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws appointed by Act of Parliament to be made in H. the VIII th's time The Second is a Proposal for adjoyning the Lower House of Convocation to that of Parliament The Third concerns the Committee for reforming the Offices The Fourth is about the Statute of First fruits and Tenths The Query added is Whether the Clergy of the Convocation may liberally speak their mind without danger of Statute or Law The Latter is a Petition in form from the Lower Clergy to the Bishops enforcing the second of those Requests put up in the former Paper and praying a License in Writing in the Terms already recited †P. 399. Now this last Paper I say seems never to have been approv'd or presented by the Lower Clergy and I say it upon these Grounds 1. Because the short Acts of this Convocation preserv'd in the Book call'd Synodalia †In Bennet Coll. Library short as they are ‖ These Acts short as they are give an account of the Business that was done and the Motions that wee made every single Day that the Convocation sat from Nov. 5 to Decem. 1â— except in the 4th Session only which was Nov. 25. where my Transcript of the Acts is a Blank And there is but this One Day therefore in which it can be suppos'd that this Petition might have been drawn and presented do yet I find mention the first Paper and the four several Articles of it ⸪ Sess. 3.22 Nov. Istâ die convenientibus in inferiori Domo concordatum suit ut Dominus Prolocutor nomine totius Domûs referal R mo subsequentes Petitiones Viz. 1 o. Quòd provideatur ut Ecclesiasticae Leges Examinentur Promulgentur juxta statutum Parliamenti editum 35 H. VIII 2. Item ut pro nonnullis urgentibus causis Convocatio hujus Cleri si fieri possit assumatur cooptetur in Inferiorem Domum Parliamenti sicut ab antiquo fieri consuevit 3. Item ut Opera Episcoporum Alicrum c. as before p. 181. 4. Item ut Rigor statuti de Primitiis Domino nostro Regi solvendis aliquantisper in certis urgentibus Clausulis moderetur reformetur si commodè fieri possit in the Order they there lie but give not the least Hint of this Second nor does Archbishop Parker in Antiquitates Britannicae where he speaks ⸪ P. 339. largely of matters agitated in this Convocation say a syllable of it On the Contrary both He and Bishop Burnet give us some Particulars that do not seem very consistent with the supposal of such a Petition Bishop Burnet's words are That the Act which repeal'd the Statute of the six Articles was occasion'd by a Speech that Archbishop Cranmer had in Convocation in which he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves much to the study of Scripture and to consider seriously what needed Reformation c. upon which some intimated to him that as long as these Six Articles stood in force it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council upon which they order'd this Act of Repeal †Hist. Ref. Vol. 2. p. 40 his Lordship means agreed that the Repeal of this Statute should be propos'd in Parliament Thus his Lordship out of Archbishop Parker's Papers and thus the Archbishop himself out of the Records of Convocation * Ex Archivis he himself says In Synodo Cranmerus Archiepiscopus habità oratione de religione ex verbo Christi institutâ— populo tradendâ c. consulendum duxit Sed Legum adhuc de Sex Articulis Henrico Rege regante latarum severitas plerosque terruit quò minûs suas de Religione resormandà Sententias libere dicerent Itaque impetravit à Rege Cranmerus ut interim dum illae Leges Parliamento abrogentur Praelatis de Religione in Synodo disserentibus atroces illae rigidaeque paenae laxarentur Quod concâ—ssum est A clear account is given here of the Clergys fears in relation to the Statute of the six Articles and of their care to screen themselves from the sad Penaltys of it but not a word of any Apprehensions they were under in reference to the Submission-Act And with these
relates altogether to Canons already made many of which were solely from the Pope and many more from the Archbishop without the Royal Assent and the Clergy pray therefore that These may be Reviewed and their Authority Suspended during that Review Accordingly the Authority of all the Old Canons was suspended or rather Abrogated by this Act as appears plainly from the Proviso * Which Dr. Wake in his pretended Recital of the Act N. 4. of his Appendix has suppressed very disingenuously considering of how great Significancy this Proviso is to lead us into the true Sense of the Word Attempt in the Body of the Act. at the End of it for their being in force till such a Review and from the Express words of a Later Act 37 H. 8. c. 17. †Which says That All the Decrees Ordinances and Constitutions of the whole Canon Law by a Statute made in the 25 th of your most noble Reign be utterly abolish'd frustrate and of none effect And this Abrogation of the Old Canons was performed purely by those Words in the Enacting part of the Statute that they shall not from henceforth Attempt Alledge Claim or put in Ure All which words therefore the Parliament used Evidently of Canons already made and must for that reason have understood the word Attempt in the very sense that I have given it for putting a thing upon Tryal or proving the force of it No Restraint therefore is laid upon the Clergy in their Legislative Capacity by the word Attempt in their Promise How far the following Words of it that they will not Enact Promulge or Execute any new Canons unless the King 's most Royal Assent and License may to them be had to Make Promulge and Execute the same may be supposed to restrain them in that respect is to be the subject of our next Enquiry The word Make here in the Condition of the Promise must have the same Sense as the word Enact in the Promise it self to which it plainly answers and refers They will not Enact Promulge or Execute any New Canons unless they may have the King's Assent to Make i. e. to Enact Promulge and Execute the same This is what the Phrase it self in Propriety of Speech implies For to Make a Canon is the same as Canonem Condere to constitute it and give it force And so Testamentum Condere to make a Will signifies not merely to prepare the Draught of it but to make it with the Legal Forms and Circumstances requisite that is to Sign Seal and Publish it But which puts this matter quite out of dispute the Word is in this very sense employed in Two several places of the Act it self and can there be strain'd to no other For in the Entrance of the second Clause there is mention of such Canons Constitutions Ordinances as heretofore have been made by the Clergy of this Realm and in the Last Proviso of Canons already made which be not contrariant to the Laws Canons heretofore made and Canons already made must I think be such as have been solemnly passed and Enacted and not mere Draughts of 'em lying ready to be pass'd And to make a Canon therefore does in the sense of the Statute signify to Enact it and not merely to draw it up and to form it And this Way of Explaining the Act by it self in the Use of the Present Phrase is I conceive much more Authentick and Proper than that which the Author of a Letter to a Member of Parliament * P. 26. makes use of who wisely sends us to Tully and to Mr. Hooker for an account of it Were not this Gentleman of the Law driven to very hard shifts he would never go to a Classick Author or a Book of Divinity for the Sense of an Act of Parliament To clear this Point yet further if there were any Room for it or any Need of it I might appeal to the several Forms of Submission which preceded this that the Act recites and were agreed to by the Clergy but not accepted by the King Copies of which written in the very Hand of the time are still preserved And in every One of them but the First their Promise stands formally divided in the same manner as I also have distinguished it into Two several Branches or Articles See Appendix N. III. One relating to Church Laws that had been as they there speak already made the Other to such as were to be made hereafter And of these last much the same words are there used as in the Form recited by the Statute They promising That they will from thenceforth forbear to Enact Promulge or put in Execution any such Constitution or Ordinance to be by them made in time coming unless his Highness by his Royal Assent shall License them to Make Promulge and Execute such Constitutions and the same so made shall approve by his Highnesses Authority But as to the Former Article about Canons already made none of their first Submissions were it seems thought full enough and they were obliged therefore to draw up a New one wherein they promised not to Attempt Alledge Claim on put in Ure the Ecclesiastical Laws then in force but so long only as till the King by his Commissioners should have reviewed digested approved and Authorised them It has happened odly enough that Those Forms of Submission that were not accepted are still in being whereas That which past has for ought I can find perish'd * Unless preserv'd in my Lord Longvil 's Library in the Printed Catalogue of which I find this Title Instrumentum super Submissione Cleri corà m Domino Rege quoad celebrationem Conciliorum Provincialium Vol. XII f. 63. Lib. XXV f. 141. But I have not had the Opportunity of examining this Paper For the Recital of it in the Act of Parliament is not as I conceive Literal but Imperfect and somewhat Confused mixing together all those Terms which the Clergy us'd in relation either to Canons made or to be made and which in all their other Forms of Submission stand apart and in Distinct Clauses for it is not conceivable that their Last Form of Submission in which they were call'd upon to explain themselves yet further than they had done should be less Methodical and Distinct †Archbishop Laud says out of the MSS Acts that it was divided into Three Articles which were Proposed and Voted severally Try and Troub p. 82. And if so the Recital of the Submission in that Act cannot be Literal For there is no Distinction of Articles in it than any of the Former The Words then of the Clergy's Submission which are in the Preamble of the Act and have hitherto been the Subject of our enquiry plainly amount to no more than this Either 10 that they will not as Private Persons look upon or make Use of any Canons as obliging but such only as upon a Review shall have the stamp of Royal Authority given
very remarkable those words Attempt Alledge Claim and put in Ure are not recited A sure sign that the Attorney-Generals of those times 〈◊〉 those Times had Attorney-Generals that had both Skill and Will enough to carry the King's Prerogative as high as it would bear did not think that they could colourably be made use of to this purpose or that the Clergy were debarr'd by this Act from attempting New Canons to be made hereafter but such Old ones only as had been long ago pass'd and publish'd Dr. Wake therefore is Disingenuous in the Highest Degree where †Append. Num. V. p. 371. he pretends to Print this very Commission and when he comes to the Act of Parliament which it recites does not transcribe the Act as it is there recited which is in part only but refers us to his Extract of it Num. IV. and assures us that it is recited in the Commission as in the Extract Verbatim tho' the most Material words in his Extract and such as would be most Conclusive upon the Clergy's Convocational Acts and Debates if they really belong'd to 'em are as I have shewn designedly omitted in that Recital Such poor shifts is he forc'd to to maintain a Bad Cause which however even by these Ill Arts cannot be maintain'd The Proof drawn from these Commissions is farther confirm'd by a Proclamation of K. Charles the First in Iune 1644 * See it Biblioth Reg. pag. 331. which forbids the Assembly of Divines to Meet and Act upon these and these Accounts only Because by the Laws of the Kingdom no Synod or Convocation of the Clergy ought to be called and assembled within this Realm but by Authority of the King 's Writ and no Constitution or Ordinance Provincial or Synodal or any other Canons may be Made Enacted Promulg'd or Executed it says not Attempted Alledg'd Claim'd or puâ— in Ure which were words known to belong to Canons already made Unless with the King 's Royal Assent and License first obtain'd upon pain of every one of the Clergy's doing contrary and being thereof convict to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the King's Will as by the Statute of the 25 H. 8. declaring and enacting the same it doth and may appear Let me add to all these the Authority of the Convocation it self which set out the Institution of a Christian Man a few years after they had submitted In the Dedication of that Book the Prelates address the King after this manner Without your Majesty's Power and License we acknowledg and confess that we have none Authority either to assemble together for any pretence or purpose or to publish any thing that might by us be agreed on or compil'd Which words evidently imply a power of agreeing upon and compiling tho' they deny that of publishing any Determination or Doctrine It were endless after this to argue from the silence of the Authors of those times for then I must vouch All of them Only the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum being a Book of Great Note which was drawn up by Commissioners appointed by the King and where no Occasion is neglected of setting out and magnifying the Royal Power it may be worth our while to observe that there is not however in all that Book as far as I can find one Expression that implies the Composers of it to have thought that the Clergy's Synodical Debates lay under any Restraint from the Crown which is a very strong Presumption that they did not think the Clergy to lye under any The Reader will forgive me for laying together this Great Heap of Authorities if he either considers of how great Importance it is to my Cause that the sense I have given of the Act should be fully clear'd or how necessary Dr. Wake has made such a Collection by affirming that this sense of it was never allowâ—d of or for ought he knows so much as heard of I repeat his very words till the Gentleman against whom he writes enlighten'd the world with it P. 289. The Accounts I have given do I hope both sufficiently expose the Rashness and Vanity of this Assertion and also sufficiently prove the Truth and Justness of that Exposition To return to it therefore The Statute as far as it relates to the Power of the Clergy in Convocation plainly implies no more than that Canons should not from thenceforth pass and become Obligatory without the King's Leave and Authority given in that behalf without his Leâ—ve which was requisite to their Passing and his Authority which was afterwards to ratifie and give 'em force And to understand the words of the Law otherwise is as has appear'd to understand them against all Propriety and the Rules of Construction and which is still more unreasonable to do this in Materiâ minùs favorabili and where Ordinary Liberty is abridg'd and lastly which is intolerable where so grievous a Penalty as that of a Praemunire is to follow The 25 of H. 8. then has not in the least alter'd the Law of Convocations in relation to any of the Powers or Priviledges of the Inferior Clergy They can still freely Consult and Debate Petition or Represent propose the Matter or Form of New Canons and consider about the Inforcing or Abrogating old ones in a word act in all Instances and to all Degrees as they could before the passing of that Statute Indeed my Lord Archbishop's hands are ty'd by it for he cannot now call a Convocation without the King 's Writ which before this Act he might and in Elder Times frequently did He cannot now Enact and Constitute any thing by his own Authority as in Imitation of the Papal Power in Councils and of the Royal Power in Parliaments it was usual for him to do He must before he passes any Act of the Two Houses have the King's Assent to it and after it is pass'd there must be the King's License also to Promulge and Execute it In these several Respects the Metropolitan's Authority is considerably lessen'd by this Act the Exercise of which is now chiefly seen in Moderating the Debates of the Synod and giving his Vote last upon any Question propos'd there as Dr. Cousins Dean of the Arches to his Grace that then was does in his Tables express it * Ejus est moderari Synodum ultimò Suffragium ferre Tab. 3. But the Powers and Priviledges of All the other Members of Convocation continue whole and entire to 'em notwithstanding this Statute and were so understood to continue for a long time after it pass'd the Methods of proceeding in Convocation continuing the same for near Threescore and ten years after the Act as they had been before it the Clergy going on still to propose deliberate and resolve as they had been us'd to do without Qualifying themselves for it by any Precedent License under the Broad Seal the King the Parliament and People of the Realm allowing 'em so to do without opposing this Method as Illegal
others and there was no change made in a Tittle by Parliament So that they only Enacted by a Law what the Convocation had done * Pp. 74 75. And agen As it were a Great Scandal on the first General Councils to say that they had no Authority for what they did but what they derived from the Civil Power so is it no less unjust to say because the Parliaments impowered †Here I must beg leave to say that his Lordship's Expression is not Exact The Parliament did not impower but approve of them some Persons to draw Forms for the more pure Administration of the Sacraments and Enacted that these only should be lawfully used in this Realm which is the Civil Sanction that therefore these Persons had no other Authority for what they did Was it ever heard of that the Civil Sanction which only makes any Constitution to have the force of a Law gives it another Authority than a Civil one The Prelates and other Divines that compiled our Forms of Ordination did it by vertue of the Authority they had from Christ as Pastors of his Church which did impower them to teach the People the pure Word of God and to administer the Sacraments and perform all other Holy Functions according to the Scripture the Practice of the Primitive Church and the Rules of Expediency and Reason and this they ought to have done tho' the Civil Power had opposed it in which case their Duty had been to have submitted to whatever Severities and Persecutions they might have been put to for the Name of Christ or the Truth of his Gospel But on the other hand when it pleased God to turn the Hearts of those which had the Chief Power to set forward this good Work then they did as they ought with all thankfulness acknowledge so great a Blessing and accept and improve the Authority of the Civil Power for adding the Sanction of a Law to the Reformation in all the Parts and Branches of it So by the Authority they derived from Christ and the Warrant they had from Scripture and the Primitive Church these Prelates and Divines made those Alterations and Changes in the Ordinal and the King and the Parliament who are vested with the Supreme Legislative Power added their Authority to them to make them obligatory on the Subjects * Pp. 53 54. I have produced these Passages at length not so much for any Light they give to the Particular we are now concerned in the Authority of the English Ordinal as for the General Use they may be of in setling the Dispute between Dr. W. and the Church about the Distinction of the Two Powers Ecclesiastical and Civil and the Obligations we are under to the Decisions of the one antecedently to the Sanctions of the other I subscribe to his Lordship's state of it and think nothing can be said more justly and truly 1552. The Observation of Holy-Days ordered by Act of Parliament Ibid. pag. 191. This Act traced the Steps of the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book relating to Holy-Days and ordered none to be kept Holy but what had before-hand been so ordered to be kept by the Clergy in Convocations only it added New Penalties 1553. A New Catechism by the King's Order required to be taught by Schoolmasters Ibid. p. 219. This Catechism was published with the Articles of 1552. and had I suppose the very same Convocational Authority which those had It was compiled indeed by Poynet but is said in the King's Patent annexed to have been afterwards perused and allowed by the Bishops and other Learned Men by which we are to understand either the Convocation it self or a Grand Committee appointed by it and upon which its Power was devolved That the whole Convocation have been by these or such like Terms about this time often expressed the Instances given in the Margent * The Six Articles in the Act 31 H. 8. c. 14. are said to be agreed to by the Archbishops Bishops and other Learned Men of the Clergy who a little before are styl'd a Synod or Convocation In the Articles of 1536. See 'em in Bishop Burn. Vol. 1. Coll. of Rec. p. 305. the Convocation is expressed by the Bishops and others the most Discreet and Learned Men of the Clergy The Articles of 1552. are in the Title said to be such de quibus in Synodo Londinensi inter Episcopos alios Eruditos viros convenerat And iâ— will scarce I think bear a Reasonable Doubt whether these Articles passed the Convocation Finally The Act about Holidays as 't is called is in the Canon it self See it in Sparrow p. 167. said to be decreed by the King with the Common Assent and Consent of the Clergy in Convocation assembled But in the King's Letter to Bonner about it the words are By the Assents and Consents of all you Bishops and others Notable Personages of the Clergy of this our Realm in full Convocation and Assembly had for that purpose will evince And that this Catechism was generally understood to have the Authority of Convocation is plain even from the Exception made to it by Dr. Weston †For that said he there is a Book of late set forth called the Catechism bearing the Name of this Honourable Synod and yet put forth without your Consents as I have learned c. â—ox Vol. 2. p. 19. in the first Synod of Queen Mary but plainer still from Philpot's Reply to that Exception which discovers also to us somewhat of the Manner by which the Convocation came to be Intitled not to this Catechism alone but to several other Pieces that seem to carry the Name of a Committee only upon them His words are that This House of Convocation had granted the Authority to make Ecclesiastical Laws unto certain Persons to be appointed by the King's Majesty and whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws They or the most part of them did set forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided it might be well said to be done in the Synod of London although such as be of this House now had no notice thereof before the Promulgation And in this Point be thought the setter forth thereof nothing to have slandered the House since they had our Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as They thought convenient and necessary * â—bid p. â—0 The Knowledge of the Time and Circumstances of appointing this Committee we have lost together with the Acts themselves however plain it is from this Assertion of Mr. Philpot made in open Convocation that such a Committee there was named by the Crown at the Instance of the whole Clergy and that this Catechism among other things passed them and had on that account as He judged the Authority of Convocation It is left to the Reader by whom in this caâ—e he will be guided the Churches Martyr or her Betrayer And here the Instance of the Catechismus ad Parochos is very pat
in Two Words have been dispatched by saying That the Clergy have certainly a Right of Meeting and Sitting in Convocation thus often because thus often they have for some hundred years met and sat And this is a plain short Answer which is capable of no Evasion Dr. Wake however has made some small Effort towards Eluding it and what he offers to this purpose shall in the next place be consider'd We find him Pp. 106 107 140 141 c. thus distinguishing That the Clergy have no Right to Meet and Sit but only to be Summon'd as often as a Parliament That having indeed for some hundreds of years been Summon'd always with the Parliament it may be question'd * P. 229. whether they have not he means it is not to be question'd but that they have now a Right to such a concurrent Summons but it is certain they have a Right to nothing besides and it were no Great Matter whether They had a Right to that or no †P. 107. This is Dr. Wake 's New Scheme for laying aside the Clergy's Parliamentary Meetings first and their Parliamentary Summons afterwards A very Honest Design if it could be effected and very fit to be first recommended to the world by the Pen of a Clergy-man God be thanked his Abilities are not Equal to his Good-will in the Case nor the Colours by him put upon this matter such as will ever tempt a wise Ministry to execute what he has Projected In answer to this New Distinction I desire to be satisfy'd why if Custom gives the Convocation a Right to be Summon'd as often as the Parliament meets and sits it does not give 'em a Right to Meet and Sit too since it is certain that they have the very same Custom to plead for the One as for the Other Time out of mind the Custom has been that whenever the Parliament has met the Convocation should not only be Summon'd but meet too and accordingly for some Ages now it has met with it and been open'd in Form by the Archbishop or in the Vacancy of his See by some Bishop Commission'd from the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Divine Service has been said a Sermon preach'd and a Prolocutor chosen There are Instances indeed when they have gone no further than this and done no other Business but it was when they had no other Business to do for they were always put into a Posture of doing it and into a Capacity of making such Motions and Requests as they should judge proper for the Good of the Church or the Redress of Grievances Till late years it was never known that Convocations should meet purely in order to be adjourn'd that the Members of the Lower house should attend only to be told when they should attend next without being allowâ—d to offer their Advices or Complaints or even to put themselves into a Condition of offering them This Custom we know is but nine years old whereas the contrary Custom is as old as these Assemblies themselves are and if Custom be the Law of Convocations as Dr. Wake allows * P. 298.105 it to be he will be pleas'd to tell us how this Establish'd Custom can be broke in upon and set aside without a Breach of the Law and whether the Clergy's not being suffer'd to meet and form themselves into a Body according to the Intent of their Summons be not upon Dr. Wake 's Principles as plain a Violation of their Rights as it would be not to Summon them Queen Elizabeth one would think was under these Apprehensions for she suffer'd a Popish Convocation to sit and act together with her first Parliament at a Time when she was taking all manner of Legal Steps and Means to expel Popery and to introduce the Reformation which she would never I presume have done had she thought her Power extended so far over the Convocation as to adjourn them before a Prolocutor was chosen * There was indeed a Singularity practis'd at the Enâ—â—ance of this Convocation which I remember no Instance of in any other It was open'd without any Sermon The reason of which is thus given in the Acts Sess. 2. Episcopus London Commissarius evocatâ Domo Inferiori exposuit eis Causam Convocationis quod non futura sit concio pro more quia Sedes Episcopalis destituta existit quia Consiliarii Regis it should be Reginae in mandatis dederunt ne Conciones in Eâdem Ecclesiâ fierent donec de Beneplacito Reginae constaret The first of these Reasons is no reason but the last is sufficient according to the Doctrine of Those Times when our Princes in Vertue of their Supremacy were thought to have a Power of silencing any or even all the Pulpits of England at once which both King Edward and Queen Mary are said to have practis'd But that Doctrine being now out of Doors the Practise founded upon it can be no Warrantable Precedent for our Times Even the Acts themselves that give us an account of this Omission affirm the Custom and say the Sermon was a thing de more And if she did not think she had such a Power it would make one apt to believe that she had it not for whatever else has been said of her I never heard it laid to her Charge that she was ignorant of the Extent of her Prerogative or us'd it too tenderly 'T is true my Lord of Sarum informs us that left the Clergy might set out Orders in Opposition to what the Queen was about to do she sent and requir'd them under the Pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons †Vol. 2. p. 327. His Lordship gives us no Authority for this Particular and I must beg leave therefore to suspect the Exactness of it because the submission-Submission-Act and that which confirm'd it were repeal'd in Queen Mary's time and as yet unreviv'd and the Queen could have no Pretence from any other Acts than these to threaten them with a Praemunire if they proceeded to make Canons However allowing this account of the Queen's Message to be just we may observe that tho' she prohibited 'em to make Canons yet she did not forbid them to Sit and Act in Inferior Instances because she thought it their Priviledge so to do and accordingly this very Convocation did business drawing up their Judgment upon five Important Points in five Articles by way of Protest to be deliver'd not to the Queen as his Lordship thinks * Ibid. but to the Keeper of the Great Seal and to the Lords of Parliament And this they did for the Disburthening of their Consciences †Ad exonerationem conscientiarum suarum as the Acts speak and were allow'd to do it without Check or Disturbance And if the Priviledges of a Popish Convocation were thus tenderly preserv'd to them by a Queen averse to their Principles we may be sure that the Protestant Clergy afterwards had not less Liberty or Worse
again What means this Absurd Writer to place his Inconsistencies so near one another that one Glance of the Eye discovers them Even Dr. W. is in this respect a more Modest and Wary Manager for His Contradictions usually keep their Distance and may lie hid therefore if the Reader do not think it worth his while as few Readers do perhaps to carry the several parts of his Book in their mind and compare them one with another Besides if the Irish Parliament is not under an Universal Restraint what have we to do with it here where we are enquiring after Instances to countenance the laying such an Universal Restraint on the Convocation in England If this be not a Parallel of a Restraint in the same Degree it is no parallel at all there is no doubt but such meetings may be restrain'd how far is the Question Were Precedents Proofs of the Reasonableness of such and such ways of acting yet those Precedents must be exact and full or they prove nothing Ay but the same Power that disabled them so far might have put them under an entire disability It might so if they were a Province won to the Crown by its Sword for it might have allow'd them no Parliament at all but if it allow'd them any Freedom of Debate could not have been deny'd them without which in the Apprehensions of Us Englishmen there can be no Parliament 'T is true the French use the word otherwise for with Them it signifies an Assembly to which the King's Edicts are sent to be verify'd But we are not yet acquainted with this Sense of the Word and I hope never shall We took the Term from them heretofore when it signify'd something else and we have taken care to preserve its Original Meaning Dr. W. indeed bids far for introducing the French sense of the Word for he tells us roundly That the English Parliament are P. 289. in the main parts of their Debates as much though not as necessarily directed by the King in what he would have them consult about as the Convocation it self And how far the Convocation is in his Opinion to be directed by the King his Book informs us This is harsh Doctrine to suppose any restraint upon the Parliaments Freedom of Debate and may happen not to go down easily with Those that are concern'd in it But he thinks he has soften'd it by saying that the Parliament are in their Debates as much though not as necessarily directed as the Convocation What the meaning of that senseless Distinction is I cannot see or how it does him any service Should we allow him that his Doctrine curbs the Parliaments Freedom of Debate as much though not as necessarily as it does that of Convocation would such an allowance mend the matter or screen him a whit the more from the Just Resentments of Those who will no more bear being told that they are as much than that they are as necessarily directed in their Debates as the Convocation is if indeed the Convocation can debate of nothing till they are qualify'd for it under the Broad Seal of England I am mistaken if this be not to wound the Libertys of Parliament through those of Convocation The Instance of the Lords of the Articles in Scotland is as little to the purpose They were a Previous Committee compos'd of some Members of the Estates of Parliament thro' which every Act was to pass before it could come before the States themselves But they were no bar upon the Debates of Parliament where any Subject might be started and discuss'd any Requests or Proposals to the Prince might be drawn whether these Lords had made way for such Considerations or no. However the check which this gave to the Parliament in their Legigislative Capacity was thought a Badge of slavery by the Scotch and therefore towards the beginning of this Revolution when the Chains were knock'd off every where from his Majesty's Subjects this Committee was abolish'd And had the English Clergy then lain under any undue Restraint They too might have hop'd for a Relief from it assoon as any men since none had been more Instrumental than They in promoting the Common Deliverance They might have expected a legal Relaxation of the Rigor of any Law that lay hard upon them but instead of this their only Request is that an Act made in Abridgment of their Priviledges may not be constru'd to an Illegal and Oppressive Sense that they may enjoy their Old Rights which they stand possess'd of by Law and that no New Encroachments may take place upon them Which is so very Modest a Plea as may be made by any Body of Men even without Merit on their â—â—de and cannot when understood be deny'd them without Injustice and therefore I am confident when it is understood will not be deny'd them Having taken off this General Colour drawn from the Authority exercis'd over such Meetings as these in other Times and Countrys I go on now to what has been objected more particularly and closely And the first Exception of Weight that lies against the Claim made is That the Perpetual Practise of Convocations ever since the 25 H. VIII runs otherwise and this indeed were it true would be a strong one And if General Assertions without Proofs would have made it true Dr. W. had done it for he has over and over †Pref. p. II. pp. 26 40 43 109 113 115 116 c. 293. L. M. P. p. 40 43 3â— affirm'd this to be the case with as much assurance as if he had perus'd the Journals of every Convocation since that Act and seen the King's several Commissions enter'd there By that time he is got to the second Page of his Preface we have him affirming that the Sense of the Act given is repugnant to the Constant Practise of our Convocations ever since the time of H. VIII This is certain he says nor does he Himself against whom he writes deny it Indeed 't is just as certain as it is that that Writer yields it who says only in answer to a Question there put whether the Convocation may conferr without a License that the Common receiv'd Opinion is in the Negative †P. 40. But not a word has he there or any where else about the Practise consequent upon that Act and he speaks only of the Opinion at present receiv'd without entring into the Judgment of Elder times So that Dr. W. represents his Adversarys Positions just as honestly as he argues against them Indeed should that Author have allow'd the stream either of Practise or Opinion to have been always contrary to his sense of the Act he had been as Dr. W. now is under a Gross Mistake for it is certain that both General Opinion and Practise were on his side for many Years after the Act pass'd Upon a strict Enquiry into the matter I find no Instance of a Commission to treat that is not Threescore and ten Years younger
need of this Protestation which was made to guard against the Penaltys of the Acts 25. and 27. H. VIII and has therefore we see a plain reference to them The Convocation in which Alesius the Scot disputed with so much applause sat the Year after this Anno 1537 †Ant. Brit. p. 331. Fox Vol. 2. p. 504. though my Lord of Sarum †Vol. 1. p. 214. I find out of a laudable Eagerness to record the Honors done to his Countrymen has plac'd this Dispute a Year earlier than it hapned Cromwell open'd the Meeting with a Speech where he tells them that they are call'd to determin certain Controversys in Religion which at this time be moved concerning the Christian Religion and Faith not only in this Realm but also in all Nations thorough the World For the King studieth Night and Day to set a Quietness in the Church and he cannot rest till all such Controversys be fully debated and ended through the Determination of You and of his Whole Parliament For he will suffer no Common Alteration but by the Consent of You and of his Whole Parliament And he desireth You for Christ's sake that All Malice Obstinacy and Carnal Respect set apart ye will friendly and lovingly dispute among your selves of the Controversys mov'd in the Church c. These Fox tells us were the very words of his Speech and that as soon as it was ended the Bishops rose up altogether giving thanks unto the King's Majesty not only for his Great Zeal towards the Church of Christ but also for his Godly Exhortation worthy so Christian a Prince and then immediately they went to Disputation We may observe here that neither Cromwell in his Speech to the Convocation nor the Prelates in their Answer mention any Commission to Treat though it had been a Proper Head to have been enlarg'd on in both Cases and could not well have escap'd the Clergy when returning Thanks to the King for his Goodness to them had any such Commission then issu'd But that it did not and that the Clergy were then under no Apprehensions that their liberty of Debating on what Subjects and even of coming to what Conclusions they pleas'd was abridg'd by the late Act the Preface to the Institution of a Christian Man a Book which pass'd this Convocation evidently shews I have transcrib'd the Passage already from thence †See P. 97. and shall here therefore only referr the Reader to it No the Practise then and long afterwards was only for the President of the Synod to declare to 'em by word of Mouth * Thus in the Convocation of Jan. 1. 1557 The Acts say that Card. Pool Causas hujus Synodi Verbo tenùs proposuit And so divers times before and after 1541. Ian. 20. Reverendissimus exposuit iis ex parte Regis qùod intentio ejus erat qùod ipsi inter se deliberarent de Reformandis Errotibus conficerent Leges de Simoniâ vitandâ c. 1547. 1. E. VI. Nov. 5. Rev mus exposuit iâ—s fuisse c. de mandato Regio Procerum qùod Praelati Clerus inter se conâ—â—lerent de verâ— Christi Religione probè instituendâ With this agrees an Old Directory of Cranmer's for the first Day of the Convocation 7 E. VI. May 1. 1552. §. 6. The Clergy of the Inferior House to be called up to the Chapitor his Grace to declare the Cause of this Convocation and to appoint them to Elect c. 1555. 22. Oct. Episcopus London summariè compendiosè Causam Synodi vocatae exposuit Ian. 13. 1562. Arch. Cant. brevem quandem Orationem Eloquentiae plenam habuit ad Patres Clerum perquam inter alia opportunitatem reformandarum rerum in Eccl. Anglic. jam oblatam esse aperuit ac Propensos animos tam illustrissimae Dominae Nostrae Reginae quà m aliorum Magnatum hujus regni ad hujusmodi Reformationem habendam declaravit I have laid these Instances together that we may see clearly what the Custom then was and how a Message from the King by the President supply'd the place of a Commission under the Broad Seal which was afterwards practis'd Heylin and Fuller have translated some of these Passages in their Historys but so loosly as to accommodate them to the Current Doctrine and Practise of their time when a License to Treat was held necessary Which I mention to warn the Reader not to receive their Versions as Literal For it is plain they saw no other Acts of Convocation than those from whence these Transcripts were taken the King's Pleasure for what Ends he had call'd them together and what Business he would have them proceed upon And this Verbal Intimation was all the Previous Leave that was either ask'd or given in That or several other succeeding Reigns The only Instance in H. the VIII 's time that seems to contradict this is the Divorce of Anne of Cleve in 1540 mention'd by L. M. P. * P. 40. which he says the Clergy could not take cognizance of till the King's Commission impower'd them to debate and consider it And in their Iudgment therefore they recite that Commission at large and by vertue of it declare c. They do so and there were Two very good Reasons for it arising from the Matter about which they were to give their Judgment and from the Manner also in which they were to handle it As to the first of these the attempting any thing by Word or Deed against this Marriage of the King with Anne of Cleve was High-Treason or at leastâ— Misprision of Treason by the Laws of the Realm as the Clause of Pardon in the Act †32. H. 8. c. 25. for dissolving this Marriage evidently shews And the Clergy therefore had reason to desire a Commission from the Crown to screen them from these Penealtys But further such a Commission was necessary not only for their security in a point of this Importance but in order to their very Assembling For which has not been hitherto observ'd this Cause was adjudg'd not in a Convocation properly so call'd that is in a Provincial Synod but in a National Assembly of the whole Clergy of either Province the King issuing out his Letters Commissional under the Great Seal as the Sentence * See it Bishop Burnet Vol. 1. Col. of Rec. p. 197. speaks to the Two Archbishops All the Bishops Deans Archdeacons and Clergy of England and commanding them in Universalem Synodum convenire to debate and determin this matter The Lords and Commons then sitting had petition'd the King to referr it to his Clergy with a design of grounding an Act of Parliament on Their Determination The Business requir'd Haste †The Commission was seal'd the 6 th of July the Clergy met by Vertue of it the 7th The Cause was heard Iudgment given and Letters Testimonial of that Iudgment drawn up and sign'd by all the Clergy on the 9th such Dispatch
Chapterhouse appears to have been the Place of Reception for the Convocation Clergy * See Wals. Hist. Angl. ad ann 1421. and in the 4 H. V. the Rolls say Le Chanceleur per commandment du Roy assigna a les ditz Chivalers Citizeins Burgeoises une Maison appellee le Froitour dedeinz L'abbee de Westminster a tenir en yâ—elle leur Counseilles Assemblees and in the 6 H. VI. it is said to be the place where the Commons ordinarily sat ‖ The Roll goes further and says Eorum Domus Communis antiquitùs usitata in a Manuscript of Mr. Petyt printed by Bishop Burnet †Hist. Ref. Vol. 1. Coll. of Rec. p. 100. But though the Place of their Meeting puzzles him yet the Time it seems does not for as to That he informs us that the Clergy who met by vertue of the Convocation-Writ in Parliament time came together heretofore on some Other Day than that on which the Parliament began †P. 224. He knows not it seems that they have done so a late too and that the Custom for an Age and half was for them to assemble the Day after the Parliament This Usage began in the time of H. the VIII th and was then often practis'd but not regularly fix'd till toward the latter End of his Reign from which time to the late Revolution it held and from thence the Parliament and Convocation-Writs have Summon'd to the very same day which has joyn'd these two Bodys yet more closely than formerly in their Summons though their Assemblys at the same time are more than ever divided My Lord of Sarum therefore had not well consider'd this matter when he said that it was the Custom of all H. the VIII's Reign for the Convocation to meet two or three days after the Parliament †Vol. 1. p. 213. For besides that it sometimes met before it for instance in 1511 2. the Convocation came together Feb. 2. * Registr Hadr. de Castello the Parliament not till Feb. 4. †Dâ—gd Summ. 3 H. 8 th the very Instance upon which his Lordship produces this Observation destroys it for the Convocation of 1536. began Iune 9 th the Parliament Iune the 8 th And indeed near half the Convocations in that Princes time met as they did till the present Reign nicely the day after the Parliament as will appear by particularly comparing the Dates of both of them Parliament Met 1514 5 Feb. 5. Dugd. Sum. 1515 Nov. 12. Ibid. 1536 Iune 8. Ibid. 1540 Apr. 12. Bp. Burnet V. 1. p. 274. 1544 5 Ian. 30. Dugd. 1545 Nov. 23. Ibid. 1546 7 Ian. 14. Ibid. Convocation Met Feb. 6. Registr Warham Nov. 13. Registr Hadr. de Cast. Iune 9. Ibid. Apr. 13. Registr Cranmer Ian. 31. Ibid. Nov. 24. Ibid. Ian. 15. Ibid. And the same Distance of Time was often also observ'd both in Proroguing and Dissolving that Princes Convocations and Parliaments As to the Authority by which the Clergy were conven'd Dr. W. affords us as little light in That Point too as in any of the former He recites the Opinion of some who think that after the statute of Premunire in 1393. our Archbishops left off to summon Convocations by their Own Authority and call'd them only at the King's Command †Pp. 240 241. but in this account he says he is not altogether satisfied Had he any manner of Knowledge of these things he would not be at all satisfy'd with it For as in Fact it is certain that the Archbishop after this time summon'd Convocations frequently by his Own Authority so it is clear in point of Law that he had as much Right to do it after the Statute of Premunire as before it there being no Clause or Word in that Act that can be suppos'd to restrain His Power in this particular Indeed had the Archbishop whenever he call'd a Convocation without the King 's Writ done it by a Legatin Authority as Dr. W. represents him to have done * P. 241 199. there would have been some Ground to think that the Premunire Act might have laid a Restraint upon him But this is another of Dr. W's mistakes for the Archbishop needed no Help from his Legatin Character to convene the Clergy of his Province which he was sufficiently impower'd to do as Metropolitan by the Old Canons of the Church receiv'd and allow'd in this Kingdom And accordingly by this Metropolitical Power the Archbishops all along call'd Provincial Councils before any of them were the Popes Legates which from St. Austin down to Theobald say some * Ant. Brit. p. 127. to William de Corboyl say others †Gervasii Act Pont Cant. X Script col 1663. none of them were He indeed by vertue of his New Character summon'd the Archbishop of York and all the Clergy of that Province ⸪ Ibid. Continuator Florentii Wig. ad ann 1127. to his Councils and One of his Successors ‖ Hubert who is suppos'd by some to have got the Title of Legatus natus for ever annex'd to his See did Iure Legationis visit York Province †Hoveden ad ann 1195. And in order to these Extraprovincial Acts of Jurisdiction the Legatine Authority was indeed needful For tho' it had been solemnly determin'd in favour of Lanfrank by the Great Council of the Kingdom ⸫ Diceto de Archi. Cant. p. 685. that the See of York should be subject to that of Cant. and the Archbishop of the One obey the Conciliary summons of the other yet was not this Decision long observ'd the Archbishop of York soon finding means to get rid of it and to assert the Independency of his See But as to the Ordinary Acts of Metropolitical Power One of which was the calling of the Clergy of his Province together at Times prescrib'd by the Canons the Archbishop had no more want of a Legatine Character to qualify him for the Exercise of them than a Private Bishop had or now has for summoning a Diocesan Synod nor was it as the Law then stood any more an Encroachment upon the Royal Authority Dr. W. therefore is not very kind to the Memory of our Archbishops nor a Friend to the Antient Libertys of this Church when he asserts that all those Synods which the Metropolitan call'd without a Writ from the King were Legatine and upon that notion dates the Disuse of them at least as to their frequency from the Statute of Premunire which did no ways and could no ways affect them For after this Statute most of Arundel's Synods met by the Archbishop's Writ only as Dr. W. †P. 280. himself tells us from Harpsfield and might have told us yet more authentickly from that Archbishop's Register yet remaining This account of Harpsfield puts him upon fixing on a New Aera and now therefore he will have it that about the End of Arundel's time the King began wholly to assume this Power and this he
kind was done Nor is the Usual Account of this Action of the Cardinal 's worse than the Reason given for it for he is made to dissolve the Convocation because as Archbishop of York he had no place there But I hope as Bishop of Bath and Wells * He took Durham and quitted B and W. while this Convocation was sitting but the Exact Date of this Change I have not consider'd or Abbat of St. Albans he had and might therefore in either of these Qualitys have been present in the Convocation of Cant. if that had been all he aim'd at But it was neither suitable to his Character nor agreed well with his Temper or his Business to appear among the Clergy any otherwise than as a Legate As such he took place of Warham and presided over the Debates of the whole Body and had an opportunity by that means of poysing the Refractory Part of the Clergy in Warham's District with Those of his Own Province who would be more complying Common Justice oblig'd me to say thus much in behalf of that Great Minister who had Real Faults enough not to be loaded with Untrue Ones Dr. W. had much Nearer Obligations to have done this who has eat the Bread of Wolsey to use an Homely but Authoriz'd Phrase near Half his Life and now owes his Comfortable Summer-Retreat to that Cardinal's Bounty But I find the Premunire that transferr'd all the Cardinal's Estate to the Crown has transferr'd all the Doctor 's Gratitude thither too and with reason for the Cardinal is Dead long ago but Crowns are Immortal He has His reason and I have mine which is to do right to any injur'd Person let his Character be what it will and not to fall in with a Calumny knowingly let it be never so Popular and Fashionable They that defend the Dead cannot be suppos'd guilty of Flattery or Design and with either of these I thank God there is not a Line in this Work that can reproach me I have now offer'd all I think necessary either to assert explain or justify that Double Right of the Clergy which I at the Entrance of these Papers propos'd to maintain their Right of Meeting at set times and Acting within such a Determin'd Compass as I have mark'd out There is behind still a Second Consideration which relates to the Need that the Church has of such Meetings and which according to the Method laid down I should now enter upon But this Book has grown too much under my hands to allow room for any New Matter here and all therefore that I shall say of it is that if the Church has a Clear Right to such Meetings which by this time I hope is past a Doubt she has for that very Reason a Need of them because her Right has been publickly question'd and actually suspended for a Time And she has Need therefore to exert it that she may be sure to preserve it Upon this Foot I shall leave the Point of Expedience at present not without Intentions of returning to it and giving the Reader as full and particular a View of the Debate on This side also if it shall appear that what has been already said has not had its Due Effect on Those whose Eyes the Author of these Papers is particularly concern'd to open and whose backwardness to keep the Church in possession of her Greatest Priviledge he cannot but impute chiefly to a mistaken Opinion they are in that she has really no such Priviledge to claim And that Mistake therefore being clear'd up he hopes and believes that they will be as ready to assert her Just Rights and Espouse her True Interests as any Men. These are his present Apprehensions and Wishes in which he shall be very sorry to find himself deceiv'd but if so it happen has determin'd not to stop here but proceed on to such further Enquirys and Considerations as he shall judge proper to promote the End that he aims at the great Importance and Reasonableness of which he is so fully satisfy'd of that he shall think no Sacrifice whether of his Time his Ease or his Fortune too dear to be bestow'd upon it He is sure that he has the Perpetual Practise of the Church of Christ and the Law of his Country on his side and he is conscious of no other Aims in what he has undertaken than those of promoting the Honor of God and his Religion and supporting our Constitution and these Assurances and Views will he trusts carry him on to the End of his Work through whatever Difficultys and Discouragements If he succeeds in his Design he shall think that he has not liv'd in vain if he fails yet he will satisfy himself in having honestly attempted it and done what in him lay to preserve to the Body he is of the poor Remains of their Ancient Legal Rights and Priviledges for he could not stand by and see the Great Rights of his Church ready to â—ink without endeavoring to save them The Events of things are not in our Disposal it becomes private Men to do their Duty without having a Demonstration that it shall be successful And should it be determin'd to lay this Part of Our Constitution asleep yet he is not without hopes that the Truths deliver'd in this Book for Truths they are may in some Favourable Juncture contribute to awaken it With this single Prospect he would have undertaken the Work had all others fail'd him and in despair of being listned to by the Present Age would have wrote and appeal'd to Posterity At the worst what he has here offer'd and shall further offer if it have no other Effect will yet be serviceable as a Testimony against Dr. Wake 's Book and the Pernicious Principles of it it will let our Successors see that his Doctrine whatever Boasts or Pretences it might make was not the Doctrine of the Church and the Age in which he liv'd but was disown'd and detested as soon as wrote and that the Establishment of the Practise which he pleads for if it must be Establisht was not owning any ways to the Silence of those who were concern'd to oppose it Especially if so it fall out that They of the Clergy who are not of Dr. Wake 's Mind and in his Measures shall upon this occasion take some way of owning publickly to the World their Dislike of them this will justify the Body from having any Hand in stifling and betraying their Own Priviledges and will remove the Guilt of any Present or Future Innovation from Them at whose Door soever it lays it I have done with the Argument of Dr. Wake 's Book and have now only a short Address to make to the Writer of it whom towards the latter End of it I find thus expressing himself This says he brings us to the true way of deciding the point here before us If by the Laws and Usages of this Kingdom the Convocation has a Right to Sit and Act
willing to spend some time in Prayer before we begin I am Sir Your Affectionate Brother and Servant in the Lord W. F. III. See p. 87. 1. ANd as concerning the requiring of your Highnesses Royal Assent to the Authorising of such Laws as have been by Our Predecessors or shall be made by Us in such Points and Articles as we have by God Authority to rule and order by Provisions and Laws We knowing Your Highnesses Wisdom Vertue and Learning nothing doubt but the same perceiveth how the granting thereunto dependeth not upon our Will and Liberty and that We your most humble Subjects may not submit the Execution of our Charges and Duty certainly prescrib'd by God to Your Highnesses Assent although in very deed the same is most worthy for Your most Princely and Excellent Vertues not only to give your Royal Assent but also to Devise and Command what we should for good Order and Manner provide in the Church Nevertheless considering we may not so in such sort restrain the doing of our Office in the feeding and ruling Christ's People Your Graces Subjects We most humbly desire your Grace as as the same hath done heretofore so from henceforth to shew Your Graces Mind and Opinion to us what Your Highnesses Wisdom shall think Convenient which We shall most gladly hear and follow if it shall please God to imspire us so to do with all submission and Humility beseeching the same following the steps of Your most Noble Progenitors and conformable to Your own Acts to maintain and defend such Laws and Ordinances as We according to our Calling and by the Authority of God shall for his Honor make to the Edification of Vertue and Maintaining Christ's Faith whereof Your Highness is Defender in Name and hath been hitherto in Deed a Special Protector Bibl. Cotton Cleop. F. 1. fol. 96. II. Forasmuch as the Answer lately made by Your Clergy unto Your Honorable Commons for their satisfaction in their Bill of Complaint put up unto Your Highness doth not please nor satisfy Your Highness in some Points concerning Your Own particular Interest specially in that Point which concerneth Laws either Now to be by Us made or else Old to be by Us reform'd for Your Highnesses better Contentation in that behalf We Your said most Humble Chaplains do now more especially answer unto those Points as followeth 1. As touching New Laws to be by us Hereafter made we say that the Laws and Declarations of Christ's Holy Church throughout all Christian Realms receiv'd and us'd been clear and manifest that the Prelates of the same Church have a special Jurisdiction and Judicial Power to Rule and Govern in Faith and Good Manners necessary to the Souls health the Flocks unto their Care committed and that they have Authority to meet and ordain Rules and Laws tending to that purpose which Rules and Laws hath and doth take effect in binding all Christian People as of theymself so that before God there needeth not of necessity any Temporal Power or Consent to concur with the same by the Way of Authority Item they say that this Power and Authority in making Laws in matters concerning the Faith and Good Manners necessary to the Soul's health all Christian Princes hath hitherto reckon'd themselves bound to suffer the Prelates to use within their Realms and have not claimed of the same Prelates that they should from time to time require their Consent or License by the way of Authority more in making of such Laws than they do claim that they the said Prelates should from time to time require their Consents autorysable in the giving of Holy Orders to any of their Subjects or in the exercising any other Spiritual Act depending upon their Spiritual Jurisdiction the Authority whereof immediately proceedeth from God and from no Power or Consent Authorisable of any Secular Prince except it be that Consent that is taken of the Princes own submission to the Faith Catholique made not only by their Noble Progenitors when they first admitted Christ's Faith and the Laws of the Holy Church within their Realms but also by themselves first Generally at their Baptism and after more specially and most Commonly by their Corporal Oaths at their Coronation We say also that this Power of making Laws aforesaid is right well founded in many Places of Holy Scripture now so much the less necessary here to be rehears'd for as much as that matter is at large set out in a Book now by Us put up unto Your Highness and Your Highness your self in your Own Book most excellently Written against M. Luther for the defence of the Catholick Faith and Christ's Church doth not only knowledge and confess but also with most Vehement and Inexpugnable Reasons and Authoritys doth defend the same Which Your Highnesses Book we reckon that of Your Honor You cannot and of Your Goodness You will not revoke Yet these Considerations notwithstanding We your most humble Chaplains and Bedesmen considering Your High Wisdom Great Learning and Unfeign'd Goodness towards Us and the Church and having special Trust in the same and not minding to fall into Contentions or Disputations with your Highness in any Manner of Matter what we may do We be contented to make Promise unto Your Highness That in all such Acts Laws and Ordinances as upon Your Lay Subjects We by the reason of our Spiritual Jurisdiction and Judicial Power shall hereafter make we shall not Publish nor put them forth except first we require Your Highness to give your Consent and Authority unto them and so shall from Time to Time suspend all such our Acts Ordinances and Laws hereafter to be made unto such Time as Your Highness by Your Consent and Authority shall have authoris'd the same except they be such as shall concern the maintenance of the Faith and Good Manners in Christ's Church and such as shall be for the Reformation and Correction of sin after the Commandments of Allmighty God according to such Laws of the Church and laudable Customs as hath been heretofore made and hitherto receiv'd and us'd within Your Realm In which Points our Trust is and in most humble manner we desire Your Grace that it may so be that upon the Refusal of Your Consent which We presume that we need not fear but yet if any such thing should fall Your Highness will be then contented we may exercise our Jurisdiction as far as it shall be thought necessary unto us for the maintenance of Christ's Faith and for the Reformation of Sin according to our Offices and the Vocations that God hath call'd us unto As for the Second Part concerning Laws that in Time past hath been made by us or by our Predecessors contrary to the Laws of this Your Realm and to your Prerogative as it is pretended to this Point We Your Highnesses most humble Chaplains answer and say that such our Laws by our Predecessors within this Realm made as contain any matter contrary to your Laws or
acceptable but we do also by these our Letters Patents signifie unto all our Loving Subjects as well Spiritual as Temporal that we are pleasid and contentid that they shall make Suits and Requests to our said Derest Cosyn and his Officers and Ministers to obtayne such Grace Faculties and Dispensations as they shall have need of and the same so obteyned to use and putte in Execution according to the Nature and Qualitie thereof Wherefore we Will and Command all and singular our Subjects to receive honor and obeye the said Auctoritie in such Cases of Spiritual Jurisdiction for the Reformation of their Sowles as in the Time of the said 20 th Yere of the Reign of our said Father King Henry the Eight was or with his Consent might have byn used and executed in this Realme In witnesse whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents Witnesse our selves at Westminster the 10 th day of Nov. in the 1 st and 2 d. Years of our Reigns Know ye for that so much the said most Reverend Father earnestly desiring that his Labor and Travaile may take fruit to the Honor of God and the Welth of our Subjects hath now callid a Synode of the Clergy of this Realme of England to appear before him at our Palace at Westminster We to avoid all Daunger Dowte and Ambiguitye which might arise in that case by reason of any Lawes Statutes Customs or Prerogatives of Us or this our Realm of England and for the more Ample Declaration of our said Letters Patents have granted declared and signified and by these Letters Patents do grant declare and signifie that our Will and Pleasure and Consent is that as well the said most Reverend Father Card. Pole Legat de Latere of the Pope's Holynesse and the See Apostolike may freely without lett of Us or daunger of any our said Laws Statuts Customs or Prerogatives caule and celebrate the said Synode or any other Synode hereafter at his Will and Pleasure and in the same Statute Ordeyne and Decree any holesome Canons for the good lief and order of the Clergy of this our Realme of England or of any other of our Realmes and Dominions and do any other thing for the better executing of their Office and Duitye as also the said Clergye may appear and be present at the said Synode or any other and consent to fulfill and obeye all such Canons as shall be ordeyned in the same or in any of them without Lette or Impediment of Us and without incurring any Daunger or Penalty or Forfeiture of any of our Lawes or Statutes any Act Ordinance or other matter contrary to the same notwithstanding And hereunto we have given our full Power and Auctoritie by these Presents In Witnesse whereof we have causid these our Letters to be made Patents Witnesse our selves at Westminster 2 Nov. in the 2 d. and 3 d. Years of our Reigne Registr Pole fol. 7. XVII Forma sive Descriptio Convocationis cilebrandae prâ—ut ab antiquo observari decernitur SCiendum est quod omnes qui citantur Auctoritate D ni R mi. Arch. Cant. ad comparend ' coram eo in domo Capitulari Ecclae Cath. Divi Pauli London See p. 376. 12 o die Jan. * It appears from hence that this Directory was fram'd immediately before the Conv. of 1562. which meâ— Ian. 12. prox tenentur prefixo tempore interesse atque in Ecclesiâ Cath. praestolari adventum dicti R mi. Qui ex more paùlo post 8vam ante meridiem illius diei solet cum celebri comitatu apud portam Thamisis vocatam Paul's Wharf in terram descendere atque exinde praeeuntibus Advocatis Procuratoribus Curiae Cant. certisque R mi. Generosis ac Virgifero Convocationis ad Ecclesâ—am Cath. Divi Pauli London rectà tendere atque in Chorum ibidem ingredi Ubi postquam in stallo Decani collocatus suerit ac preces dixerit tam ipse quam reliqui Episcopi praesentes â—abitu Convocationis togati ex utróque Chori Latere in suis stallis sese constituunt Et mox incipiunt preces quibus S. Sancti gratia invocatur ac mox Concio subsequitur Ac tempore Offertorii tam dictus R mus quam caeteri suffraganei Episcopo rem divinam celebranti ordine progredientes oblationem offerre ex more debent Peractâ in hunc morem re divina solet doctus aliquis ex Caetu Convocationis sive Superioris sive Inferioris domûs ad hoc selectus è Suggestu in medio Chori Concionem ad Clerum ibidem congregatum Latinè proferre Quà absolutà R mus statim se conâ—ert in Dom. Capitularem dictae Ecclesiae sequentibus Episcopis toto Clero Quibus ingressis ac seclusis Extraneis R mo ac caeteris suis Cöepis in suis sedibus ordine consedentibus ac reliquo Clero circumstante R mus Dominus Episc. London mandatum sibi à d to R mo ad Convocationem hujusmodi submonend ' alià s directum unà cum debito Certificatorio super executione ejusdem introducere ac debitâ cum reverentiâ— eâ—dem R mo patri praesentare tradere tenetur Quo quidem Certificatorio perlecto statim porrigitur eidem R mo Schedula de scripta per quam pronuntiat omnes ad eosdem diem horam locum non comparentes contumaces reservando paenam eorum contumaciae in aliquem diem competent pro bene placito ipsius R mi. Praemissis sic Expeditis dictus R mus ad Episcopos Clerum tùnc praesentes Anglicè sive Latinè Causam sui adventûs ac dictae Convocationis Inchoatae exponit Quódque ex Laudabili Antiquâ ordinatione eadem Convocatio in duo Membra dividitur nempe in Superiorem atque Inferiorem Domum Unde R mus caeteri Coëpiscopi Superiorem Domum efficiunt Inferior verò Domus ex Decanis Ecclesiar ' Cath. Archidiaconis Collegiorum Magistris Capitulorum Cath. Ecclesiarum nec non Cleri cujuscunque Dioceseos Procuratoribus constat Et quoniam si in rerum tractandarum serie unusquisque ex inferiori domo suam ipse sententiam quoties visum esset diceret aut si omnes aut plures simul loquerentur pareret confusionem igitur semper hactenùs observatum fuit ut Unus aliquis Doctus Disertus ex gremio dictae Inferioris Domûs in eorum omnium Locum ad hoc munus assumatur ut is intellectis scrutatis caeterorum omnium Votis tanquam Unum Eorum omnium Os Organum loquatur consonam eorum sententiam eïdem R mo cum ad hoc rogatus seu missus fuerit caeteris silentibus fideliter referat Qui ex hoc munere Referendarius sive Prolocutor communiter denominatur Cujus eligendi Libera facultas semper penes dictam Inferiorem Domum remanet Unde ipse R mus solet eosdem ex inferiori domo monere atque hortari ut statim se conferant in dictam Inferiorem Domum ibique de Viro
than the Statute it self The several Convocations in the 12 last years of H. the VIII those of E. the VI th of Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth all for ought I can find acted without any such Commission or License in writing and the first time we meet with it on Record is in 1603 when King Iames's first Synod met to settle the Discipline of the Church in that Body of Canons which at present obtains Nor is there any Opinion I believe for the Necessity of such a License elder than this Practise at least I have not had the good fortune ever to meet with any though I have diligently sought for it 'T is true the Registers of most Convocations summon'd since this Statute were lost in the Fire of London however large Extracts out of several of them are preserv'd and compleat Transcripts of some and in none of these is there the least Footstep of any License under the Broad Seal to be seen but very plain Intimations to the contrary as I shall now by some Remarkable Passages taken from thence and from other Books and Papers of good Authority shew And if I am somewhat Larger in my Recitals of this kind than is absolutely necessary the Reader I hope will easily forgive me What does not directly tend to establish my Assertion will serve at least to give some small Light into the Methods of Proceeding usual in Convocation which the Author of the Letter to a Convocation-man rightly observes to be little known or minded And Dr. Wake who smiles at his Remark is himself a most Contemptible Instance of the Truth of it since he has ventur'd to write a Book about the Customs and Priviledges of Convocations without having perus'd the Acts of almost any One English Synod and has from the beginning to the end of his wretched Performance prov'd nothing effectually but his own profound Ignorance of the Subject he is engag'd in I shall take the Rise of my Enquirys from the Convocation which sat upon a Prorogation Nov. V. 1532. before which the Submission of the Clergy was made to the King but not yet Enacted so that though it oblig'd them not Then as a Law yet it bound them as a Promise by the Terms of which if a Commission to Treat had been then held necessary we may be sure they would not so soon after the making that Promise have treated without one And yet I find no Hint of a Commission in a Diary of that Meeting where a great many things of much less moment are set down and where it being the first time the Clergy met after they submitted had any such thing been practised we should without fail have heard of it Sess. 11. Martii 26. 1533. this Note is inserted Tunc vertebatur in dubium an liceret disputare in Negotio Regio eò quòd Negotium pendet coram summo Pontifice indecisum Which Doubt the President remov'd by producing the Apostolick Brief that gave leave cuilibet Opiniones suas dicere Dominus Praesidens instanter rogavit omnes ut diligenter inquirerent de ista quaestione referrent quid sentirent See Ant. Brit. ad ann where the very same account is given of Stokesly ' s producing a License from the Pope but no hint of any from the King They had no doubts it seems about the Lawfulness of Treating without a Royal License which had they had it would have been mention'd here together with the Papal Leave and we may fairly therefore presume they had none In the Convocation begun Iune 9. 1536. the first in which Cromwel sat as Vice-gerent * The Bishop of Sarum tells us that Cromwell came hither as the King's Vicar-General but he was not yet Vicegerent For he sate next the Archbishop but when he had that Dignity he sat above him Nor do I find him styl'd in any Writing Vicegerent for sometime after this though my Lord Herbert says he was made Vicegerent the 18th of July this Year the same day on which the Parliament was Dissolv'd Vol. 1. p. 213. In which Paragraph there are great Marks of Haste For the Acts of this Convocation expresly call Cromwell Vicegerent as well as Vicar-General and shew that he both took place of the Archbishop and sign'd before him as he does in two Papers that passed this very Convocation and which together with the Subscriptions his Lordship has given us Vol. 1. Coll. of Rec. p. 157. p. 315. The Words of the Acts are Magister Willielmus Petre allegavit quòd ubi haec Synodus convocata â—it auctoritate illustrissimi Principis dictus Princeps Supremum Locum in dictâ Convocatione tenere debeat ac eo absente honorandus Magister Tho. Cromwell Vicarius Generalis ad Causas Ecclesiasticas ejus Vicemgerens locum ejus occupare debeat ideò petiit pradictum locum sibi assignari Ac ibidem praesentavit Literas Commissionales dicti Domini sui sigillo Principis ad Causas Ecclesiasticas sigillatas Quibus perlectis Reverendissimus assignavit sibi Locum juxta se i. e. the Place next above himself which he demanded Nor does my Lord Herbert say that Cromwell was made Vicegerent July 18th this Year but July 9th see Hist. p. 466. which is a manifest Misprint for June 9th the very day on which this Convocatâ—on was open'd and on which I suppose his Patent bore date Indeed I question whether the Powers of Vicar-General and Vicegerent were different and conveyed as my Lord of Sarum thinks by different Patents for I have seen no Good Ground any where for such a Distinction In the Collection of Records at the End of the second Part p. 303. the Bishop has given us what he calls Cromwell 's Commission to be Lord Vicegerent in all Ecclesiastical Causes But his Lordship had not time to peruse it for upon reading it he would have found that it was only the Draught of a Commission to certain Persons deputed by Cromwell to execute the Vicegerents Power in several parts of the Kingdom One of those Subordinate or Subaltern Commissions which had respect to a Superior one as his Lordship upon another occasion Vol. 2. p. 347. very properly distinguishes we are told Comparuit Dominus Prolocutor unà cum Clero exhibuit Librum sub Protestatione continentem mala Dogmata per Concionatores intra Prov. Cant. publicè praedicata This List is Printed by Fuller †P. 208. and in it the Clergy by way of Preface to their Articles Protest That they neither in Word Deed or otherwise directly or indirectly intend any thing to speak attempt or do which in any manner of wise may be displeasant unto the King's Highness c. and that they sincerely addict themselves to Almighty God his Laws and unto their said Soverign Lord the King their Supreme Head in Earth and his Laws Statutes Provisions and Ordinances made here within his Graces Realms Had any General Commission been granted them there had been no