and pretending to I know not what heavenly Revelations and counterfeiting an extraordinary calling insinuated himself into the acquaintance of severall Divines that with inflamed zeal labour'd to bring in the Presbyteriall Discipline of the Church of Geneva into the Church of England amongst whom was one Wigginton a Minister and if ever any an haire-brain'd one and a contemâ—er of Magistrates Then he goes on and relates Hacketts and his Complices most horrid and ridiculous madness such as had not such a worthy Author and others related it we might now doubt of the truth of it as the next Age will probably do of our Modern Fanaticks late pranks there he relates his fearful blasphemous speeches as he expired and was turn'd off the Gallowes upon whom that pious and Learned Author gives this grave censure Ita hostis humani gencris dementat quos sanctitatem simulare ad solrietatem nolle sapere deprehendit Thus the enemy of Mankinde infatuates those whom he perceives to be counterfeitors of holiness and will not be wise with sobriety And then after a line or two upon Arthington and Coppinger two of Hacketts Complices he goes on thus Nec hii soli sed etiam alii qui receptam in Ecclesia Anglicana Doctrinam Episcoporum vocationem damnando Praesules contumeliosè calumniando hactenus frustra impugnarant Nunc pertractis in eorum partes nonullis juris Anglici peritis in corum Jurisdictionem delegatam à Regina in Ecclesiasticis causis authoritatem ut prorsus injustam linguas calamos strinxerunt declamando ubique etiam libris publicatis homines contra Regni leges in Foris Ecclesiasticis indignè opprimi Reginam ejusmodi authoritatem ex jure non posse delegare nec alios exercere delegatam Fora illa non posse a reo Jusjurandum Ex Officio exigere cum Nemo seipsum accusare teneatur Jusjurandum illud homines ad sui condemnationem cum ignominiosa confusione vel in spontaneum perjurium cum animarum exitio praecipitare Praeterea de aliis quam matrimonialibus causis non debere cognoscere ex hujusmodi Veteri Rescripto Mandamus Vice-Comiti Comitatuum nostrorum S. N. c. quod non permittat quod aliqui in Balliva sua in aliquibus locis conveniant ad aliquas Recognitiones per sacramenta sua faciendas nisi in causis Matrimonialibus Testamentariis Contra Juris Ecclesiastici Professores Regiam in Ecclesiasticis authoritatem propugnarunt utique Parlamentariâ Authoritate in Regina investitam Hanc oppugnare nihil aliud esse quam in Majestatem irruere Sacro Sanctae Praerogativae violato obsequii juramento insultare Fora Ecclesiastica de aliis quam Matrimonialibus Testamentariis posse cognoscere ex statuto Circumspecte agatis Articulis Cleri sub Edvardo Primo docuerunt Rescriptum sive legem illam prolatam suspectam esse quia temporis est incerti variae Lectionis Alibi enim legi Ad recognitiones vel sacramenta praestanda Recognitionem item facere non significare testimonium perhibere vel respondere in jure sed debitum agnoscere fateri vel placita de Catalogis vel debitis tenere Juramentum ex officio in foris illis ut in aliis ex omni memoria fuisse exactum ad simoniam adulterium alia tenebrarum opera rimanda praesertim cum Insinuatio ut loquuntur fuerit clamosa Et quamvis nemo teneatur seipsum prodere tamen per famam proditum teneri ostendere utrum possit suam innocentiam defendere seipsum purgare quandoquidem poenitentia imposita non sit poena sed medicina ad peccatores curandos alios à peccato deterrendos scandalum tollendum juxta illud in Sacris Literis Pro anima tua ne confundaris dicere verum Est enim confusio adducens peccatum confusio adducens gloriam gratiam Sed quid de hiis immoror quum dissertationes Richardi Cosini Legum Doctoris Johannis Morrisii Lanceloti Andrewes eruditae hac de re utrinque praestent Regina haud ignara suam authoritatem per Episcoporum latera in hoc negotio peti adversantium impetus tacite infregit Ecclesiasticam Jurisdictionem illaesam conservavit That is Not onely these speaking of Hackett and his Complices but others also who had hitherto though in vain impugned the received Discipline of the Church of England by condemning the calling of Bishops and contumeliously slandering the Praelates having now drawn into their party some Common-Lawyers sharpned both their Tongues and Pens against their Jurisdiction and the Authority which the Queen delegated in Ecclesiasticall Causes as altogether unjust declaiming every where even in Books published that men were unworthily oppressed in the Ecclesiasticall Courts contrary to the Lawes of the Kingdom That the Queen could not by Law delegate such kinde of Authority nor others to whom it was delegated could exercise it That these Courts could not require the Oath ex officio from the defendent party when as no man is bound to accuse himself That Oath precipitates men to condemn themselves with ignominious confusion or into wilful perjury to the destruction of their Souls Besides they ought not to hold cognizance of any other causes then Matrimoniall and Testamentary according to that old Mandate or Rescript We command our Sheriff of our Counties of S. N. c. that they suffer not any in their Balive to come together in any places to make any Recognizances upon their Oaths but in Matrimoniall and Testamentary causes On the other side the Professors of the Ecclesiasticall Lawes maintain'd the Royall Authority in Causes Ecclesiasticall as vested in the Queen by Authority of Parliament To oppose this was nothing else then to offer violence to Royall Majesty and violating the Oath of obedience to insult over the Sacred Prerogative Royall The Ecclesiasticall Courts may hold cognizance of other Causes then Matrimoniall and Testamentary by the Statute of Circumspecte agatis and Articuli Cleri in the time of Edward the first as they made it appeare That Rescript or Law which they produc'd was suspected because it was incertain for the time and is variously read Elsewhere I have read it To perform Recognisances and Oaths and to make recognition or recognizance doth not signifie to give testimony or to answer in Law but to acknowledge and confesse a debt or to hold plea of Inventaries or Debts That the Oath ex officio hath time out of mind been given in these Courts as in others to sift out Simonie Adultery and other works of darkness especially when the Insinuation as they call it becomes loude And though no man is bound to betray himself yet being betrayed by fame he is bound to shew himself whether he can defend his innocence and purge himself seeing the penance enjoyned is not a punishment but a medicine to cure sinners and to deter others from sinning and to take away scandall according to that in
may be supposed partiall and interessed Yet even in the subject matter of these Memoranda he is not unversed if not more particularly yet as comprehended in that generality of Learning and Knowledge whereto he hath from his younger yeares been habituated to at the feet of such a States-man as was his most accomplished Father and such Instructors as he by his especial and most discerning choice appointed him and all this perfected up by most advantagious acquisition by travel and residence in forraign parts amongst those who are justly ranked in the number of the most Civil Learned and Wise in Europe and so consequently in the Universe and so need not mine or others instruction herein more then others not professed Lawyers But all that is comprised in this Model both in the Memoranda's and the Notes somewhat grounded upon some yeares experience I have had and tending as before at least in my well-meaning opinion to the publick good solely is so most humbly offered to consideration if by those in Authority it be thought fit He is I conceive very fit to further and advance this both in consideration of his abilities and his being impowred as others of his noble rank and quality in the Supreme Judicatory of this Kingdom and by his own Genius and propensity willing and desirous to effect any thing ayming that way as less cannot be expected from the Son of such a Father and Husband of such a wife his most noble and most vertuous Lady a pair in respect of the mutual parity of their most intense conjugal affection and parentizing love to Loyalty Justice and Honour hereditary vertues flowing in their veines from their most Noble Loyally Gloriously Acting and Suffering Parents not easily parallel'd and therefore I have not so much Dedicated this to him as supplicated his effectual adminicular hand hereto Upon the whole matter as touching my self this Modell as also if not more especially the Notes subjoyn'd I having had no small share of Sufferings in the time of exilement of Monarch and Monarchy and so consequently of joy and gladness in the happy Restauration of both in my due gratitude and obligation both by tie of natural duty and of God and Mans Laws have made it part of my study to endeavour to contribute my well-meaning mite to the publick good and the prevention of such miseries for the future as too lately we have had too sad experience of Instances might be given of many that have published their endeavours heretofore to such publick ends which have not proved ineffectual and more especially Mr. Spencer touching the State of Ireland in Queen Elizabeths time If in any measure never so remote they may any whit help to attain to that end they aime at I shall be glad of it and with that true candour submissively offering them alwayes protesting as I now do that if there be any thing herein contrary to Gods word directly or indirectly or to His Majesties Prerogative or the known Laws of the Land Ecclesiastical or Temporal or the politick Government either in Church or State or which may give just offence I do hereby absolutely retract it as no wayes by me intended or thought of wishing this small taste may stir up others more able to make a further and better progress in this kind Anno 13. CAROLI II. Regis An Act for explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the seventeenth year of the late King Charles entituled An Act for repeal of a branch of a Statute primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical WHereas in an Act of Parliament made in the seventéenth year of the late King Charles entituled An Act for repeal of a branch of a Statute primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical it is amongst other things enacted That no Archbishop Bishop nor Vicar General nor any Chancellor nor Commissary of any Archbishop Bishop or Vicar General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iudge Officer or Minister of Iustice nor any other person or persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Iurisdiction by any Grant License or Commission of the Kings Majesty his Heirs or Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the first day of August which then shall be in the year of our Lord God One thousand six hundred for y one award impose or inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other corporal punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanour Crime Offence matter or thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognisance or Iurisdiction whereupon some doubt hath béen made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and Procéedings in Causes Ecclesiastical were taken away whereby the ordinary course of Iustice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath béen obstructed Be it therefore declared and Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Archbishops Bishops or any other person or persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them exercising Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction may procéed determine sentence execute and exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and all Censures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before the making of the Act before recited in all causes and matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this Realm in as ample manner and form as they did and might lawfully have done before the making of the said Act. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that the afore recited Act of decimo septimo Caroli and all the matters and clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new erection of some such like Court by Commission shall be and is hereby repealed to all intents and purposes whatsoever Any thing clause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided alwayes and it is hereby enacted That neither this Act nor any thing herein contained shall extend or be constâ—ued to revive or give force to the said branch of the said Statute made in the said first year of the Reign of the said late Quéen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act of Parliament made in the said seventéenth year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said branch of the said Statute made in the said first year of the Reign of the said Quéen Elizabeth shall stand and be repealed in such sort as if this Act had never been made Provided also and it is hereby further enacted that it shall not be lawful for any Archbishop Bishop Vicar General Chancellor
Commissary or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iudge Officer or Minister or any other person having or exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction to tender or administer unto any person whatsoever the Oath usually called the Oath Ex officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendered or administred may be charged or compelled to confesse or accuse or to purge him or her self of any criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be lyable to any censure or punishment any thing in this Statute or any other Law Custom or Vsage heretofore to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding Provided alwayes that this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Archbishop Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Iudge Officer or other person or persons aforesaid any power or authority to exercise execute inflict or determine any Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred thirty and nine nor to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters and affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the year One thousand six hundred and forty nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly confirmed allowed or enacted by Parliament or by the established Laws of the Land as they stood in the year of the Lord One thousand six hundred thirty and nine The Contents of the Chapters Chap. I. THe endeavours of the Innovators to change the course of Ecclesiastical proceedings That stupendious Fanatick Hackett his fearful end Mr. Cambdens judgment touching the Innovators Their perseverance in their design of Innovation in King James his time and afterwards The pretended taking away the Coercive power from the Ecclesiastical Courts how gained what use was made of it by the Innovators and how they boasted of their benefit by it Two passages in the Long Parliament touching two Inconformists Page 1. Chap. II. The two Proviso's in the late Act that takes away the doubt touching Coercive power in Ecclesiastical Courts Dr. Cosens Apologie for sundry proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical That groundless Opinion That a several Royal assent to the executing of every particular Canon is required is confuted The validity of the Ecelesiastical Laws The clamours of Inconformists Innovators and Fanaticks against the putting of Ecclesiastical Laws in execution though the Ecclesiastical Officers and Ministers are by Act of Parliament severely commanded to do it p. 10. Chap. III. The Heads of the several Chapters in that Apologie of Doctor Cosens Part 1. p. 27. Chap. IV. By the late Act the manner of proceeding in Ecclesiastical Courts is not altered but left as it was A summary relation of what Dr. Cosens in his Apologie hath asserted and made good by Gods Word the practice of the Primitive Christians the opinion of the Fathers the Laws Canon and Civil and the Laws of the Land allowing and warranting them The like practice at Common Law and at Geneva and other places pretending strict Reformation p. 24. Chap. V. That it is consonant to Gods Word to give such an Oath Ex officio or otherwise p. 28. Chap. VI. That the opinion and practice of the Primitive Christians and the Fathers of the Church was to administer such Oath Ex officio or upon Accusation and for Purgation Canonical with the practice at Geneva p. 33. Chap. VII That the like practice touching these Oaths is and was in all Forreign Christian Nations and other Nations not Christian guided onely by the Light of Nature p. 37. Chap. VIII That by the known Laws of this Land the Ecclesiastical Judges were so warranted and commanded to give that Oath according to the Canon and Ecclesiastical Laws p. 39. Chap. IX That Oaths administred to parties touching matters damageable criminal and penal to themselves are urged and required by Temporal Courts and by the Laws of the Realm p. 41. Chap. X. The inconveniences and hurt that probably may follow by the forbidding the ministring of an Oath Ex officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendered or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or her self of any criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be lyable to any censure or punishment Praise of the Civil Laws Civilians first and last and greatest Sufferers Amity 'twixt both Robes His Majesties and the Lord Chancellors savours to Civilians TOUCHING The OATH EX OFFICIO AND CANONICAL PURGATION CHAP. I. The endeavours of the Innovators to change the course of Ecclesiasticall proceedings That stupendious Fanatick Hackett his fearful end Mr. Cambdens judgement touching the Innovators Their perseverance in their design of Innovation in King James his time and afterwards The pretended taking away the coercive power from the Ecclesiasticall Courts how gained what use was made of it by the Innovators and how they boasted of their benefit by it Two passages in the Long-Parliament touching two Inconformists FOR many years together now last past some men have very earnestly endeavoured to have taken away or at leastwise have much alter'd the proceedings in the Ecclesiacal Courts of this Kingdom used according to His Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws touching the Administration of the Oath ex officio and at the instance or promotion of a party accusing or stirring up the Judges Office to any party accus'd or call'd or enquired after by the Judge Ecclesiasticall ex officio or otherwise whereby as they phrase it he must confess or accuse himself and so render himself liable to penalty or censure In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth they prosecuted it vehemently if not violently and as before that time some Anabaptists in Germany had done the like in such Cases Of their practises that way here that most Faithful Learned and Grave Historion of ours Mr. Cambden gives us an account in his Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth printed at Leyden in the Low-Countries 1625. It is in the year 1590. After he hath there given a Relation of that stupendious and blasphemous Fanatick Hackett of his beginning how illiterate insolent fierce and revengeful he was that meeting one that had been his School-Master an ingenuous person under a colour of embracing him bit off his Nose and the poor miserable deformed man beseeching him to give it him again that whilst it was green and fresh he might sow it again to his face he would not do it but like a dogge swallowed it down and so averse was he to all piety that that heavenly Doctrine he had heard in Sermons he made sport with it with his pot-Companions on the Ale-benches Afterwards when he had prodigally wasted his Estate which he had got with a Widow whom he had marryed on a sudain he claps on the vizard of most specious sanctity is wholly taken up in hearing Sermons reading the Scriptures
others were these A grave and able Civilian and then a Member of the House of Commons was accused by an Inconformist that he had excommunicated him for not kneeling at the Communion when he received I was present and saw and heard it and to my best remembrance it was for not kneeling at the Communion at least it was for not performing some other Ceremony so that as to this matter 't is all one The Civilian being called up to a Committee of the Lords then in the Long Parliament out of the House of Commons to answer it By his Counsel he desir'd time to send into the Countrey where it was pretended to be done to know whether he had done any such thing it being impossible for him to remember every particular that he had done in his Jurisdiction and that particular he said he did not remember He had time given and informed himself thereof and at the next appointed time of his appearance by his Counsel pleaded that he had done no such thing as he was accused of The Accuser said then it was done by his Deputy or Surrogate That was denyed too Then he said he was sure it was done by the Spiritual Court and so it was but not by any Spiritual Court where that Civilian had to do Then the Civilian pleaded that if he had done that whereof he was accused he doubted not but he could have justified it but since it appears that he was unjustly accus'd and reap'd some discredit by being thus question'd and had been put to trouble and charge thereabouts he desired reparation and charges which by many of the Lords was yielded to yet by the major part it was carried that he ought not to have it and the reason was rendred because it would deter others from complaining Si satis est accusasse quis erit innocens Nay how far may it tend to the ruine of some if some men be maliciously set upon them to multiply accusations against them The other was Another Inconformist complaining of his being question'd in the Ecclesiastical Courts for his Inconformity In defence it was alledged against him and proved that he had said He would as soon bow at the name of Judas as at the Name of JESUS and I diligently enquir'd but never heard he was punish'd for it But would there had been no more then these though these are too much Would some had not gloried had not triumphed in their shame Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos CHAP. II. The two Proviso's in the late Act that takes away the doubt touching Coercive power in Ecclesiastical Courts Dr. Cosens Apology for sundry proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical That groundless Opinion That a several Royal assent to the executing of every particular Canon is requir'd is confuted The validity of the Ecclesiastical Laws The clamours of Inconformists Innovators and Fanaticks against the putting of Ecclesiastical Laws in execution though the Ecclesiastical Officers and Ministers are by Act of Parliament severely commanded to do it BY the late Act before mentioned where the Doubt so it is called there about the Coercive power in Ecclesiastical Courts is clear'd and taken away One Proviso is That that Act nor any thing therein conteined shall extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Archbishop or Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge c. any power or authority to exercise c. If any be peccant that way it ought to be amended Another Proviso forbids any Archbishop Bishop c. to tender or administer unto any person the Oath usually called the Oath Ex officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendred or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or her self of any criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be lyable to any censure or punishment This being now forbidden by Act of Parliament every Subject ought to give obedience therein But some now insulting and upbraiding the Ecclesiastical Courts that all this while they have oppressed the Subject with that proceeding which the Parliament hath taken away renewing the old cry in Queen Elizabeths time and ever since against such proceedings which never till now I alwayes except what was done in the late times of usurped government were legally prohibited Though I am far from questioning the reasons whereupon that Act passed but do humbly submit to it both in word and practice yet I hope it will be allowed to make some defence against such persons as so tax such proceedings before the passing of this Act. And herein I shall follow that most able Civilian Richard Cosin Doctor of the Laws and Dean of the Arches in that his Apology for sundry proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical c. Mr. Cambden as before mentions him with honour as surely he well deserv'd and that work of his if nothing else evinces it Mr. Swinburn in that Work of his of Last Wills and Testaments printed at London for the Company of Stationers 1611. in the first part sect 6. numb 8. fol. 17. writes thus of him and of that Work of his that Apology I find saith he written by that learned and no less religious man Doctor Cosins as I take it in that worthy Work entituled An Apology for sundry proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical c. and so he goes on Upon this subject he hath written so fully that I believe little can be added to it and if any should go about it excepting such additions as well may be added by reason of some emergencies since the time he wrote and some other additions and explications not derogatory from him they would be forced very much to plough with his Heyfer which would but look too much like a Plagiary I could wish the book were reprinted and haply it will be so which may serve for Topicks to this subject For as all the Poets after Homer are said to drink of his Fountain according to that picture or statue of his that denotes as much with that Inscription Ridet anhelantem post se vestigia turbam Even so must I conceive all do from Doctor Cosin that shall write upon this subject I was upon Epitomizing that Apology of his and had made some progress therein but upon second thoughts desisted thinking it better to refer the Reader to him rather then to adventure to abbreviate him and thereby perhaps wrong him an offence that too many Epitomizers are guilty of therefore I say I shall onely make use of some Notes as confessed arrows out of his quiver and sippe of some others elsewhere and point the Reader to his full stream where any that list may drink their fill Upon these words in the late Act Provided that this Act. nor any thing therein contained shall extend or be construed to extend or give unto any Archbishop Bishop c. any power or authority to exercise or execute c. any jurisdiction which they
Ecclesiastical or Civil within this Realm be not derived or claimed from the Crown as to the execution of it at least then the former objection were of force but another Act of Parliament 8 Eliz. c. 1. shews the contrary sufficiently where all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is acknowledged United to the Crown as there fully and that very clause 1 Eliz. 1. together with His Majesties Letters Patents directed forth for confirming Archbishops and Bishops is brought in the preamble thereof as a strong proof without scruple or ambiguity that the authority and jurisdiction by the Clergy executed is thereby given them from Her Majesty This also were there nothing else were sufficient to entitle them the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws as well as other Laws are called the Kings Majesties Laws But they are up and down in the Acts of Parliament called the Kings and the Queens Ecclesiastical Laws 1 Eliz. c. 2. 5 Eliz. c. 25. 25 H. 8.27 c. and even by the Note-gatherer that great oppugner against whom the Doctor writeth they are called the Ecclesiastical Laws of England And in this late Act above mentioned they are called the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws Yet for executing of these Laws by the Ecclesiastical Judges what out-cries were made against them especially in the beginning of the late Long Panliament by His late Majesty of blessed memory called the Black Parliament Summa imis miscendo and what favours were then afforded to those Boutefeu's as we have since had sad experience of them God grant we may be cafeful of them for the future I am unwilling to recite Ecclesiastical Judges are not onely tyed by their offices and * Canon 117. Canon Constitut 1604. Oaths but at least in some particulars for which they have though most unjustly been much clamour'd against are most severely by Act of Parliament charged to see the execution of if not of others too yet of one especial Ecclesiastical Law for their care wherein some of them have been well-nigh ruined that is that according to that Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. For uniformity of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments every person should diligently and faithfully resort to their Parish Church or Chappel where Common prayer and such Services of God shall be used upon every Sunday and other dayes ordeined and used to be kept as Holy-dayes and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of Common prayer Preaching or other Service of God to be used and ministred c. Then follows thus And for due execution hereof the Queens most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in this present Parliament assembled doth in Gods name earnestly require and charge all the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the utmost of their knowledge that the due and true execution hereof may be had throughout their Dioceses and charges as they will answer before God for such evils and plagues wherewith Almighty God may justly punish his people for neglecting this good and wholsome Law Who would think had we not sadly felt their designs that the great Magnifiers of Parliaments for which I discommend them not so they keep within due compass would have been so bitter against those that acted but according to these strict Parliamentary charges CHAP. III. The Heads of the several Chapters in that Apologie of Doctor Cosens Part 1. C. 1 THe particular distribution of causes proved to be of Ecclesiastical cognizance besides Testamentary and Matrimonial With a discourse of C. 2 Bishops Certificates against persons excommunicated being a special point of their voluntary Jurisdiction where there is no party that prosecuteth C. 3 That matters in the former Chapter adjoyned to Testamentary and Matrimonial causes though properly they be not of Testament or Matrimony are of Ecclesiastical cognizance and how far C. 4 General proofs out of Statutes that sundry other causes besides Testamentary and Matrimonial are of Ecclesiastical cognizance C. 5 That Suits for Tithes of Benefices upon voidance or spoliation likewise that Suits for Tithes Oblations Mortuaries and Pensions Procurations c. are of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is proved by Statutes especially C. 6 That Suits for right of Tithes belong to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and how far is shewed out of the books and Reports of the Common Law so of places of Burial and Church-yards and of Pensions Mortuaries Oblations c. C. 7 Of right to have a Curate and of Contributions to Reparations and to other things required in Churches C. 8 Proofs in general that sundry crimes and offences are punishable by Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and namely Idolatry Heresie Perjury or Laesio fidei and how far the last of these is there to be corrected also of disturbance of Divine Service or not frequenting of it and neglect of the Sacraments C. 9 That Simony Usury Defamation or Slander beating of a Clerk Sacrilege Brawling or Fighting in Church or Church-yard Dilapidations or waste of an Ecclesiastical Living and all Incontinency are punishable by Ecclesiastical authority and how far C. 10 Several other matters reckoned in this tenth Chapter as ordeining of real Compositions and disannulling of them suspension ab ingressu Ecclesiae c. Interdiction of a Church Sequestration Excommunication Parish-Clerks fees Goods due to a Church deteined Blasphemy Idolatry Apostasie from Christianity violation and prophanation of the Sabbath Subornation of Perjury Attestation of a womans chastity Drunkenness filthy speech violation of a Sequestration or Induction hindering and disturbance to carry away Tithes enjoyning of Penance corporal contempt of obeying the Decrees of the Ecclesiastical Judge Fees due in Ecclesiastical Courts Curates and Clerks wages Forgery in an Ecclesiastical matter as of Letters Testimonial of Orders of Institution burying of excommunicate persons communicating with excommunicate persons frequenters of Conventicles digging up of Corps buried and generally for any matter Ecclesiastical indefinitely by the Articuls cleri may be cited All these are of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and proofs that any Subjeet Lay or other may be cited in any cause Ecclesiastical C. 11 That Lay-men may be cited and urged to take Oaths in other causes then Testamentary and Matrimonial C. 12 The grounds of the opinions to the contrary examined and confuted C. 13 That judgment of Heresie still remaineth at the Common Law in Judges Ecclesiastical and that the Proviso touching Heresie in the Statute 1 Eliz. 1. is onely spoken of Ecclesiastical Commissioners thereby authorized C. 14 That by the Statute Her Majesty may commit authority and they may take and use for Ecclesiastical causes Attachments Imprisonments and Fines Herein he writes also how the Law was at that time C. 15 That an Ecclesiastical person may be deprived of his Benefice without indictment or prosecution of party C. 16 That after forty dayes an excommunicate person may be otherwise punished then upon the Writ De Excommunicato capiendo and that the said Writ may and ought to be awarded
Scripture Be not confounded in speaking truth for thy souls sake for there is a confusion that brings sin and there is a confusion that brings glory and grace But what do I dwelling upon these things when the Learned discourses hereupon on both sides are extant of Richard Cosin Doctor of the Lawes and John Morris and Lancelot Andrewes The Queen not ignorant that Her Authority was in this business struck at through the sides of the Bishops tacitely crush'd the violence of the Adversaries and conserv'd the Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction inviolate Thus in a few words he summes up part of the marrow of these Learned dissertations and gives his sound judgement thereupon But still they went on in their design in which I believe they will ever be found immoveable We have had sufficient experience that way at what they aime and that there is no hope of bending without breaking too In their admonition to the Parliament in that Queens Reign they tell us to this effect at least that if they cannot have what they desire by fair meanes they will have it by a way shall make our hearts ake and I think they have indifferently well made their words good Yet blessed be God we are delivered again from them God give us care to beware of them and not to fall again into their snares by those blessed Titles of Mercy and Moderation heavenly good surely if rightly applied Let us but contemplate our fresh miseries and the murther of our blessed King and Martyr King Charles the First and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is well to be hoped 't will prove as much or more effectual then the Pages Memento to Philip of Macedon in another case These men for they were all of the same Leaven still persisted in their design all along the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and upon King James his coming in thinking upon that change to have wrought something extraordinary upon a Prince that had a great access of Dominion and probably at his entrance would endeavour to satisfie all or most so far as with reason it could be expected and to ingratiate himself as far as fitting with his new Subjects But it was our happiness though his trouble and vexation that he was well acquainted with the factious and seditious humours of that gang in Scotland with whom and ours here of the same mould I believe ever was and will be a correspondence and co-operation Ex viridi observantia this is too demonstrable They then set upon King Iames with their most humble Petition called The Lincoln-shire Ministers Petition perhaps denominatio à majori it was a complication of many parts there they desire favour for tender Consciences and thereupon was the Conference at Hampton-Court granted where their Reasons were as it were brayed in a Mortar and they or most of them seem'd satisfied but many of them at least soon returned to their vomit In that Petition they promise all obedience and profess they hold it contrary to Gods Word and the practice of the Primitive Christians to resist the Prince or to get Reformation by force or violence To this effect they supplicate and hold forth yet I believe it may be prov'd that some of these individual persons in that Petition adhered expresly to the late Rebels against His Majesty if they were not actually in Arms against him as most if not all of their Opinions were How they crept in or rather marched on furiously though slily in the the late Kings time till they had weav'd up their Web to their desire we have seen and sadly felt When the High-Commission and Star-Chamber were taken away a great point was gain'd To speak of nothing else but the subject upon which I am Yet by the way it is observable that many if not most moderate men are of opinion that the Government will not be well settled till both these Courts though happily in many particulars altered and regulated or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some other Courts much like them be established where extraordinary crimes and persons may be ordered and in the former the High-Commission the shifting of criminous persons from one Diocese to another may be met with It was no small part of their design to trample upon Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and to take away the coercive power and to make it precarious and ridiculous as they would interpret that Statute which if credible relations be true was but strangely got insomuch that a great leading Member in the House of Commons then in that long Parliament cryed out Digitus Dei fuit in eo that though it were not intended yet the words would bear it which he rejoyced at though many and not of the least able Lawyers in the Kingdom were not of his opinion That Coercive power for no other have the Ecclesiastick Courts except Suspension a degree below it which amounts but to a small coercion to refractory persons in regard it goes no further the secular arme cannot be called upon that that I say that coercive power is Excommunication That is the power of the Keyes how far that power may be staid retarded or forborn I intend not to dispute but that it shall be totally taken away from the Church Quasi non esset Deus in coelis that surely is not to be believed that it can be done by any power under Heaven But that taking away that coercive power from the Ecclesiastical Courts as they interpreted it and they knew they had argumentum à fortiori to maintain it did not a little further and heighten their design At the time of their raising their Militia against the late King a person of no mean quality at a great Assembly made his Harangue to the people as I heard it from a very credible person who said he was then and there present and heard it and then and there enumerated the many great blessings this Nation had received from that blessed Parliament as he call'd it That Ship-money was taken away and the Star-Chamber was taken away and the High-Commission was taken away and the Spiritual Courts too are taken away A man could not meddle with a Wench his expression was otherwise which I am not willing to mention but he must be question'd Hinc illae lacrymae Indeed that was a great Eye-sore Delinquents never love the Judges that punish them At laus summa viris displicuisse malis And this did not a little advantage the cause they had then in hand very many persons that had been justly question'd in these Courts flocking in to their colours But I take no delight to rekon up these strange passages to call them no worse which were not a few when that storm was in raising which afterwards shaked all the corners of the Land Two onely which concerned Ecclesiastical proceedings to meddle with no other of higher nature that the world rang of and I would the memory of them could be perpetually abolished I shall briefly touch which amongst
memory King Henry the eighth because that many inconveniences had chanced in this Realm by breaking and dissolving good and lawful marriages yea whereupon also sometime issue and children had followed under the colour and pretence of a former contract made with another the which contract divers times was but very slenderly proved and often but surmised by the malice of the party who desired to be dissolved from the marriage which they liked not and to be coupled with another there was an Act made that all and every such marriages as within the Church of England should be contrcted and solemnized in the face of the Church and consummate with bodily knowledge or fruit of children or child being had betwéen the parties so married should be by authority of the said Parliament déemed judged and taken to be lawful good just and indissoluble notwithstanding any precontract or precontracts of Matrimony not consummate with bodily knowledge which either of the persons so married or both had made with any other person or persons before the time of contracting that marriage which is solemnized or consummated or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as by the same Act more plainly appear Sithence the time of the which Act although the same was godly meant the unrulinesse of men hath ungodly abused the same and divers inconveniences intolerable in manner to Christian ears and eyes followed thereupon women and men breaking their own promises and faiths made by the one unto the other so set upon sensuality and pleasure that if after the contract of Matrimony they might have whom they more favoured and destred they could be contented by lightnesse of their nature to overturn all that they had done afore and not afraid in manner even from the very Church door and Matriage feast the man to take another spouse and the espouse to take another husband more for bodily lust and carnal knowledge then for surety of faith and truth or having God in their good remembrance contemning many times also the commandment of the Ecclesiastical Iudge forbidding the parties having made the contract to attempt or do any thing in prejudice of the same Be it therefore enacted by the Kings Highnesse the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled that as concerning Precontracts the said former Statute shall from the first day of May next comming cease be repealed and of no force or effect and be reduced to the estate and order of the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm which immediately before the making of the said Estatute in this case were used in this Realm so that from the said first day of May when any cause or contract of marriage is pretended to have béen made it shall be lawful to the Kings Ecclesiastical Iudge of that place to hear and examine the said cause and having the said contract sufficiently and lawfully proved before him to give sentence for Matrimony commanding solemnization cohabitation consummation and tractation as it becometh man and wife to have with inflicting all such pains upon the disobedients and disturbers thereof as in times past before the said Statute the Kings Ecclesiastical Iudge by the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws ought and might have done if the said Statute had never béen made any clause article or sentence in the said Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Provided alwayes and be it enacted that this Act do not extend to disannul dissolve or break any marriage that hath or shall be solemnizated and consummated before the said first day of May next ensuing by title or colour of any Precontract but that they be and be déemed of like force and effect to all intents constructions and purposes as if this Act had never béen had ne made any thing in this present Act notwithstanding Provided also that this Act do not extend to make good any of the other causes so the dissolution or disannulling of Matrimony which he in the said Act spoken of and disannulled But that in all other causes and other things there mentioned the said former Act of the two and thirtieth year of the late King of famous memory do stand and remain in his full strength and power any thing in this Act notwithstanding Stat. 1 Eliz. 1. By these the inconveniency appeareth of taking away or altering an ancient long-settled Law practised long in all Christian Countries as this was which had it not been good probably the inconveniency and hurt of it had appeared in so long a time and the Law for the Oath Ex officio and Purgation is of like antiquity and practice in all Christian Countries without inconvenience or hurt thereby arising as yet that I ever could hear of therefore such Laws ought to be deeply weighed and considered of before they be repealed or altered And now that I am speaking of repealing and altering old Laws and making new I thought fit to close this Tract with some Notes of mine drawn up almost all of them in the time of the usurped Government and some after His Majesties restauration and communicated to the sight of some of Quality touching the repealing or altering of some old Laws and making new Some are already past and effected as that for the Lords the Bishops sitting again in the Lords House in Parliament and other things These I offer with all humility to be considered of if it shall by those in Authority be thought fit otherwise to be as unsaid Protesting that I retract as before any thing which is here mentioned that shall appear contrary to Gods Word His Majesties Prerogative or the Laws of the Land or the just policy and government of any of His Majesties Dominions Touching Parliaments Parliament proceedings AS a Parliament well constituted and acting regularly conduces much to the happinesse of King and Subject so any exorbitancy or deviation therein of which surely all unbiassed men cannot but confesse we have had too much sad experience in the Long Parliament works the contrary corruptio optimi pessima In the time of the Long Parliament some as it were idoliz'd it even almost to an opinion even of Infallibility of which they have made too much advantage to the misery of King and People Some advised then that that great Wheel that great Court should have had its sphere of activity it s known certain bounds publickly declared and not have been like a great River prodigiously overflowing all its banks and bounds Such a Parliament acting regularly is' t not probable the Members thereof would not so much have thirsted to lengthen much lesse to perpetuate it They were called up to consult may not he that calls his Counsellor forbear consulting him when he pleases and dismisse him Ordinance of Parliament The extent of an Ordinance of Parliament having by some been tentor'd then even almost to Infinity might it not have been precisely circumscribed and the exact definition of an Ordinance given Privileges of Parliament As