Scriptures and permitting them to bee read in the English Tongue THE second step towards the worke of Reformation and indeed one of the most especiall parts thereof was the Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue and the permitting all sorts of people to peruse the same as that which visibly did tend to the discovery of the errors and corruptions in the Church of Rome and the intolerable Pride and Tyranny of the Romane Prelates upon which grounds it had beene formerly translated into English by the hand of Wickliff and after on the spreading of Luther's Doctrine by the paines of Tyndall a stout and active man in king Henries daies but not so well befreinded as the worke deserved especially considering that it happened in such a time when many printed Pamphlets did disturbe the State and some of them of Tindals making which seemed to tend unto Sedition and the change of Government Which being remonstrated to the King he caused divers of his Bishops together with sundry of the learnedest and most eminent Divines of all the Kingdome to come before him whom he required freely and plainly to declare aswell what their opinion was of the foresaid Pamphlets as what they did thinke fit to be done concerning the Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue And they upon mature advise and deliberation unanimously condemned the aforesaid bookes of Heresie and Blasphemie no smaller crime Then for translating of the Scriptures into the English tongue they agreed all with one assent that it depended wholly on the Will and Pleasure of the Soveraign Prince who might doe therein as he conceived to be most agreeable to his occasions but that with reference to the present estate of things it was more expedient to explaine the Scripture to the people by the way of Sermons then to permit it to be read promiscuously by all sorts of men yet so that hopes were to be given unto the Laity that if they did renounce their errours and presently deliver to the hands of his Majesties Officers all such bookes and Bibles which they conceived to bee translated with great fraud and falshood as any of them had in keeping his Majesty would cause a true and catholick Translation of it to be published in convenient time for the use of his Subjects This was the summe and substance of the present Conference which you shall finde laid downe at large in the Registers of Archbishop Warham And according to this advice the King sets out a Proclamation not only prohibiting the buying reading or translating of any the aforesaid bookes but straitly charging all his Subjects which had any of the bookes of Scripture eyther of the old Testament or of the new in the English tongue to bring them in without delay But for the other part of giving hopes unto the people of a true Translation if they delivered in the false or that at least which was pretended to be false I finde no word at all in the Proclamation That was a worke reserved unto better times or left to be sollicited by the Bishops themselves and other learned men who had given the counsell by whom indeede the people were kept up in hope that all should bee accomplished unto their desires And so indeed it proved at last For in the Convocation of the yeare 1536. the authority of the Pope being abrogated and Cranmer fully setled in the See of Canterbury the Clergy did agree upon a forme of Petition to be presented to the King that he would graciously indulge unto his Subjects of the Laity the reading of the Bible in the English tongue and that a new Translation of it might be forth with made for that end and purpose According to which godly motion his Majesty did not only give order for a new Translation which afterwards he authorized to be read both in publique and private but in the interim he permitted Cromwell his Vicar-Generall to set out an Injunction for providing the whole Bible both in Latine and English after the translation then in use which was call'd commonly by the name of Matthew's Bible but was indeede no other than that of Tyndall somewhat altered to be kept in every parish Church throughout the kingdome for every one that would to repaire unto and caused this marke or character of authority to be set upon them in red Letters Set forth with the Kings most Gracious Licence which you may see in Fox his Acts Monum. p. 1248. 1363 Afterwards when the new Translation so often promised and so long expected was complete and finished printed at London by the Kings authority and countenanced by a grave and pious Preface of Archbishop Cranmer the King sets out a Proclamation dated May 6. An. 1541. Commanding all the Curates and Parishioners throughout the kingdome who were not already furnished with Bibles so authorized and translated as before is said to provide themselves before Alhallowtide next following and to cause the Bibles so provided to be placed conveniently in their severall and respective Churches straitly requiring all his Bishops and other Ordinaries to take speciall care to see his said Commands put in execution And therewithall came out Instructions from the King to be published by the Clergy in their severall parishes the better to possesse the people with the Kings good affection towards them in suffering them to have the benefit of such heavenly Treasure and to direct them in a course by which they might enjoy the same to their greater comfort the reformation of their lives and the peace and quiet of the Church Which Proclamation and Instructions are still preserved in that most admirable Treasury of Sir Robert Cotton And unto these Commands of so great a Prince both Bishops Priests and People did apply themselves with such cheerefull reverence that Bonner even that bloody butcher as he after proved caused sixe of them to be chayned in severall places of Saint Paul's Church in London for all that were so well inclined to resort unto for their edification and instruction the booke being very chargeable because very large and therefore called commonly for distinctions sake The Bible of the greater Volume Thus have we seene the Scriptures faithfully Translated into the English Tongue the Bible publickly set up in all parish-churches that ev'ry one wch would might peruse the same and leave permitted to all people to buy them for their private uses and reade them to themselves or before their families and all this brought about by no other meanes than by the Kings authority only grounded on the advice and judgement of the Convocation But long it was not I confesse before the Parliament put in for a share and claimed some interest in the worke but whether for the better or the worse I leave you to judge For in the yeare 1542 the King being then in agitation of a league with Charles the Emperour he caused a complaint to be made unto him in his Court of Parliament That
the liberty granted to the people in having in their hands the bookes of the old and new Testament had beene much abused by many false glosses and interpretations which were made upon them tending to the seducing of the people especially of the younger sort and the raysing of sedition within the Realme And thereupon it was enacted by the authority of the Parliament on whom he was content to cast the envy of an Act so contrary to his former gracious Proclamations that all manner of bookes of the old and new Testament of the crafty false and untrue Translation of Tyndall be forthwith abolished and forbidden to be used and kept As also that all other Bibles not being of Tyndalls translation in which were found any Preambles or Annotations other than the quotations or Summaries of the Chapters should be purged of the said Preambles and Annotations eyther by cutting them out or blotting them in such wise that they might not be perceived or read And finally that the Bible be not read openly in any Church but by the leave of the King or of the Ordinary of the place nor privately by any Women Artificers Prentices Iourneymen Husbandmen Labourers or by any of the servants of Yeomen or under with severall paines to those who should doe the contrary This is the substance of the Statute of the 34. 35. H. 8. cap. 1. which though it shewes that there was somewhat done in Parliament in a matter which concern'd Religion which howsoever if you marke it was rather the adding of the penalties than giving any resolution or decision of the points in Question yet I presume the Papists will not use this for an Argument that we have eyther a Parliament-Religion or a Parliament-Gospell or that we stand indebted to the Parliament for the use of the Scriptures in the English Tongue which is so principall a part of the Reformation Nor did the Parliament speede so prosperously in the undertakiug which the wise King permitted them to have an hand in for the foresaid ends or found so generall an obedience in it from the common people as would have beene expected in these times on the like occasion but that the King was faine to quicken and give life to the Acts thereof by his Proclamatiom An. 1546. which you shall find in Fox his booke fol. 1427. To drive this nayle a little farther The terror of this Statute dying with H. 8. or being repealed by that of K. E. 6. 1 E. 6. c. 12. the Bible was againe made publique and not only suffered to be read by particular persons either privately or in the Church but ordered to be read over yearely in the Congregation as a part of the Liturgy or divine Service which how farre it relates to the Court of Parliament we shall see anon But for the publishing thereof in print for the use of the people for the comfort and edification of private persons that was done only by the King at least in his name and by his authority And so it also stood in Q. Elizabeths time the Translation of the Bible being againe reviewed by some of the most learned Bishops appointed thereunto by the Queenes Commission from whence it had the name of the Bishops-Bible and upon that Review reprinted by her sole Commandement and by her sole authority left free and open to the use of her well affected and Religious Subjects Nor did the Parliament doe any thing in all her Reigne with reference to the Scriptures in the English tongue otherwise than as the reading of them in that tongue in the Congregation is to be reckoned for a part of the English Liturgy whereof more hereafter In the translation of them into Welch or British somewhat indeed was done which doth looke this way It being ordered in the Parliament 5. Eliz. c. 28. That the B. B. of Hereford St. Davids Bangor Landaffe and St. Asaph Should take care amongst them for translating the whole Bible with the booke of Common Prayer into the Welch or British tongue on paine of forfeiting 40 a peece in default hereof And to encourage them thereunto it was enacted that one booke of either sort being so translated and imprinted should be provided and bought for every Cathedrall Church as also for all parish Churches and Chappells of ease where the said tongue is commonly used the Ministers to pay the one halfe of the price and the parishioners the other But then you must observe withall that it had beene before determined in the Convocation of the selfe same yeare An. 1562. That the Common-prayer of the Church ought to be celebrated in a tongue which was understood by the people as you may see in the booke of Articles of Religion Art 24. which came out that yeare and consequently as well in the Welch or British as in any other And for the new Translation of K. Iames his time to shew that the Translation of Scripture is no worke of Parliament as it was principally occasioned by some passages in the Conference at Hampton Court without recourse unto the Parliament so was it done only by such men as the King appointed and by his authority alone imprinted published and imposed care being taken by the Canon of the yeare 1603. That one of them should be provided for each severall Church at the charge of the Parish No flying in this case to an Act of Parliament either to authorize the doing of it or to impose it being done 3. Of the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine NExt let us look upon the method used in former times in the reforming of the Church whether in points of Doctrine or in formes of Worship and we shall find it still the same The Clergy did the worke as to them seemed best never advising with the Parliament but upon the post fact and in most cases not at all And first for Doctrinals there was but little done in king Henries time but that which was acted by the Clergie only in their Convocations and so commended to the people by the Kings sole authority the matter never being brought within the cognizance of the two Houses of Parliament For in the yeare 1536 being the yeare in which the Popes authoritie was for ever banished there were some Articles agreed on in the Convocation and represented to the King under the hands of all the Bishops Abbats Priors and inferiour Clergy usually called unto those meetings the Originall whereof being in Sir Robert Cottons Library I have often seene which being approved of by the King were forthwith published under the Title of Articles devised by the Kings Highnesse to stable Christian quietnesse and unity amongst the people In which it is to be observed first that those Articles make mention of 3 Sacraments only that is to say of Baptisme Penance and the Sacrament of the Altar And secondly that in the declaration of the Doctrine of Iustification Images honouring of the Saints departed as also concerning many
and Clergy representing the said Church in their Convocation And on the very same foundation was the Statute raised 26. H. 8. c. 1. where in the King is declared to be the supreme head of the Church of England to have all honors Preeminencies which were annexed unto that Title as by the Act it selfe doth at full appeare which Act being made I speake it from the Act it selfe only for corroboration and confirmation of that which had beene done in the Convocation did afterwards draw on the Statute for the Tenths and First-fruits as the point incident to the Headship or supreme authority 26. H. 8 c. 3. The second step to the Ejection of the Pope was the submission of the Clergy to the said K. Henry whom they had recognized for their supreme Head And this was first concluded on in the Convocation before it was proposed or agitated in the houses of Parliament and was commended only to the care of the Parliament that it might have the force of a Law by a civill Sanction The whole debate with all the traverses and emergent difficulties which appeared therein are specified at large in the Records of Convocation Anno 1532. But being you have not oportunity to consult those Records I shall prove it by the Act of Parliament called commonly the Act of the submission of the Clergy but bearing this Title in the Abridgement of the Statutes set out by Poulton That the Clergy in their Convocations shall enact no Constitutions without the Kings assent In which it is premised for granted that the Clergy of the Realm of England had not only acknowledg'd according to the Truth that the Convocation of the same Clergy is alwaies hath beene and ought to be assembled alwaies by the Kings Writ but also submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty had promised in verbo Sacerdotii That they would never from henceforth presume to attempt alleage claime or put in ure enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provinciall or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation unlesse the Kings most Royall assent may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and that his Majestie doe give his most royall Assent and Authority in that behalfe Upon which ground worke of the Clergies the Parliament shortly after built this superstructure to the same effect viz. That none of the said Clergy from thenceforth should presume to attempt alleage claime or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provinciall or Synodals or any other Canons nor shall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provinciall by whatsoever name or names they may be called in their Convocations in time comming which alwaies shall be assembled by the kings Writ unlesse the same Clergy may have the kings most royall Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provinciall or Synodicall upon paine of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convict to suffer imprisonment and make fine at the kings will 25. H. 8. c. 19. So that the Statute in effect is no more than this an Act to bind the Clergy to performe their promise to keepe them fast unto their word for the time to come that no new Canon should bee made in the times succeeding in favour of the Pope or by his authority or to the diminution of the Kings Royall Prerogative or contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme of England as many Papall Constitutions were in the former Ages which Statute I desire you to take notice of because it is the rule and measure of the Churches power in making Canons Constitutions or whatsoever else you shall please to call them in their Convocations The third and finall Act conducing to the Popes Ejection was an Act of Parliament 28. H. 8. c. 10. Entituled an Act extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome By which it was Enacted That if any person should extoll the authority of the Bishop of Rome he should incurre the penalty of a Praemunire that every Officer both Ecclesiasticall and Lay should be sworne to renounce the said Bishop and his authority and to resist it to his power and to repute any Oath formerly taken in maintenance of the said Bishop or his authority to be void and finally that the refusall of the said Oath should be judged high Treason But this was also usherd in by the Determination first and after by the Practice of all the Clergie For in the yeare 1534 which was two yeares before the passing of this Act the King had sent this Proposition to be agitated in both Vniversities and in the greatest and most famous Monasteries of the Kingdome that is to say An aliquid authoritatis in hoc regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plus quam alii cuicunque Episcopo extero By whom it was determined Negatively that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of right in the kingdome of England than any other forraigne Bishop Which being testified and returned under their hands and seales respectively the Originals whereof are still remayning in the Library of Sir Robert Cotton was a good preamble to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy assembled in their Convocation to conclude the like And so accordingly they did and made an Instrument thereof subscribed by the hands of all the Bishops and others of the Clergie and afterwards confirmed the same by their corporall Oathes The copies of which Oathes and Instrument you shall finde in Foxes Acts and Monuments vol. 2. fol. 1203. and fol. 1210. 1211. of the Edition of Iohn Day An. 1570. And this was semblably the ground of a following Statute 35. H. 8. c. 1. Wherein another Oath was devised and ratified to be imposed upon the Subject for the more cleare asserting of the Kings Supremacy and the utter exclusion of the Popes for ever which Statutes though they were all repealed by one Act of Parliament 1. 2. of Phil. Mary c. 8. yet they were brought in force againe 1. Eliz. c. 1. save that the name of Supreme Head was changed unto that of the Supreme Governour and certaine clauses altered in the Oath of Supremacy Where by the way you must take notice that the Statutes which concerne the Kings Supremacy are not introductory of any new Right that was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old as our best Lawyers tell us and the Statute of the 26. of H. 8. c. 1. doth clearly intimate So that in the Ejection of the Pope of Rome which was the first and greatest step towards the worke of Reformation the Parliament did nothing for ought yet appeares but what was done before in the Convocation and did no more than fortifie the results of Holy Church by the Addition and Corroboration of the Secular Power 2. Of the Translation of the
Parliaments Power In Lawes for RELIGION OR AN ANSVVERE To that old and groundles Calumny of the Papists nick-naming the Religion of the Church of England by the name of a Parliamentary RELIGION Sent to a freind who was troubled at it and earnestly desired satisfaction in it OXFORD Printed by HENRY HALL Printer to the UNIVERSITIE 1645. The Preface SYR AT my being with you last you seemed to bee much scandalized for the Church of England You told me you were well assured that her Doctrine was most true and orthodox her Government conform to the word of God and the best Ages of the Church her Liturgy an Extract of the Primitive Formes Nothing in all the whole composure but what did tend to edification and increase of Piety But that you were not satisfied in the waies and meanes by which this Church proceeded in her Reformation That you had heard it oft objected by some Partisans of the Church of Rome that our Religion was meere Parliamentarian or as Doctor Harding said long since That we had a Parliament-Religion a Parliament-Faith and a Parliament-Gospell to which Sanders and some others added That we had none but Parliament Bishops and a Parliament-Clergy That you were apt enough to think the Papists made not all this noise without some ground for it in regard you see the Parliaments in these latter times so bent to catch at all occasions whereby to manifest their power in Ecclesiasticall matters And finally that you were heartily ashamed that being so often choaked with these objections you neither knew how to traverse the Inditement or plead not guilty to the Bill This was the sum of your Discourse and upon this you did desire me to be think my selfe of some fit plaister for this sore to satisfie you if I could of your doubts and jealousies assuring me that your desires proceeded not from curiositie or an itch of knowledg or out of any disaffection to the high Court of Parliament but meerly from an honest zeale to the Church of England whose credit and renown you did far prefer before your life or whatsoever else could be deere unto you adding withall That if I would take paines for your satisfaction and help you out of those perplexities which you were involved in I should not only doe good service to the Church it selfe but to many a wavering Member of it whom these objections mainly stagger in their Resolution In fine that you desired to be informed how far the Parliaments of England have been interessed in the former times in matters which concern Religion and God's publique worship what ground there is for all this clamour of the Papists and whether the two Houses or eyther of them have exercised of old any such authority in things of Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall nature as they now pretend to VVhich though it be a dangerous and invidious Subject as the times now are yet for your sake and for the truths and for the honour also of Parliaments which seeme to suffer much in the accusation I shall undertake it Premising first that I intend not to say any thing to the point of Right whether or not the Parliament may lawfully meddle in such matters as concern Religion but shall apply my selfe only unto matters of fact as they relate unto the Reformation here by Lawe established And for my method in this businesse I will begin with the Ejection of the Pope and his authority descending next to the Translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue and the Reformation of the Church in Doctrinals and Formes of Worship and so proceed unto the power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the direction of the people in all such particulars as doe concern them in the exercise of their Religion And in the canvasing of these points I shall make it good that till these busie and unfortunate dayes in which every man intrudeth on the Preistly function the Parliaments did not any thing at all either in matters Doctrinal or in making Canons or in translating of the Scriptures and that concerning Formes of Worship they did nothing neyther but strengthen and establish what was done before in the Clergy-way by adding the Secular authority to the Constitutions of the Church according to the usage of the best and happiest times of Christianity PARLIAMENTS POWER in Lawes for Religion 1. Of the Ejection of the Pope AND first beginning with the Ejection of the Pope and his authority that led the way unto the Reformation of Religion which did after follow It was first voted and decreed in the Convocation before ever it became the subject of an Act of Parliament For in the yeare 1530. 22o H. 8. the Clergy being caught in a Premunire were willing to redeeme their danger by a summe of money and to that end the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury bestowed upon the king the summe of 100000 pounds to be paid by equall portions in the five yeares following But the king would not so be satisfied unlesse they would acknowledge him for the supreme head on Earth of the Church of England which though it was hard meate and would not easily downe amongst them yet it passed at last For being throughly debated in a Synodicall way both in the upper and lower houses of Convocation they did in fine agree upon this expression Cujus Ecclesiae sc. Anglicanae singularem Protectorem unicum et supremum Dominum et quantum per Christi leges licet supremum Caput ipsius Majestatem recognoscimus To this they all assented and subscribed their hands and afterwards incorporated it into the publique Act or Instrument which was presented to the King in the name of his Clergy for the redeeming of their error and the graunt of their money which as it doth at large appeare in the Records and Acts of the Convocation so is it touched upon in an Historicall way in the Antiq. Britan Mason de Minist. Anglic. and some other Authors by whom it also doth appeare that what was thus concluded on by the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury was also ratified and confirmed by the Convocation for the Province of Yorke according to the usuall custom save that they did not buy their Pardon at so deare a rate This was the leading Card to the game which followed For on this ground were built the Statutes prohibiting all Appeales to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiasticall suites and controversies within the Kingdome 24. H. 8. c. 12. That for the manner of Electing and Consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops 25. H. 8. c. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtayning all such Dispensations from the See of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25. H. 8. c 21. which last is built expresly upon this foundation That the King is the only supreme Head of the Church of England and was so recognized by the Prelates
thing at all with the booke of Articles Where by the way if you behold the lawfullnesse of Priests Marriages as a matter Doctrinall or thinke we owe that Point of Doctrine and the indulgence granted to the Clergy in it to the care and goodnesse of the Parliament you may please to know that the point had beene before determined in the Convocation and stands determined by and for the Clergy in the 31. of those Articles and that the Parliament looked not on it as a point of Doctrine but as it was a matter practicall conducing to the benefit and improvement of the Common-wealth Or if it did yet was the Statute built on no other ground-worke than the resolution of the Clergy the Marriage of Priests being before determined to be most lawfull I use the very words of the Act it selfe and according to the word of God by the learned Clergy of this Realm in their Convocations as well by the common assent as by subscription of their hands 5.6 Ed 6. c. 12. And for the time of Q. Elizabeth it is most manifest that they had no other body of Doctrine in the first part of her Reigne then only the said Articles of K. Edward's booke and that which was delivered in the booke of Homilies of the said kings time in which the Parliament had as little to doe as you have seene they had in the booke of Articles But in the Convocation of the yeare 1562. being the fifth of the Queenes Reigne the Bishops and Clergy taking into consideration the said booke of Articles and altering what they thought most fitting to make it more conducible to the use of the Church and the edification of the people presented it unto the Queene who caused it to be published with this name and Title viz. Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London An. 1562. for the avoiding of diversitie of opinions and for establishing of consent touching true Religion put forth by the Queenes authority Of any thing done or pretended to be done by the power of Parliament either in the way of approbation or of confirmation not one word occurres either in any of the printed bookes or their publique Registers At last indeed in the thirteenth of the said Queenes Reigne which was eight yeares full after the passing of those Articles comes out a Statute for the redressing of disorders in the Ministers of holy Church In which it was enacted That all such as were ordeined Priests or Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments after any other forme than that appointed to be used in the Church of England all such as were to be ordeined or permitted to preach or to be instituted into any Benefice with cure of Soules should publiquely subscribe to the said Articles and testifie their assent unto them which shewes if you observe it well that though the Parliament did well allow of and approve the said booke of Articles yet the said booke owes neither confirmation nor authority to the Act of Parliament So that the wonder is the greater that that most insolent scoffe which is put upon us by the Church of Rome in calling our Religion by the name Parliamentaria Religio should passe so long without controle unlesse perhaps it was in reference to our Formes of worship of which I am to speake in the next place But first we must make answere unto some objections which are made against us both from Law and practise For Practise first it is alleaged by some out of Bishop Iewell in his answere to the cavill of Dr. Harding to be no strange matter to see Ecclesiasticall causes debated in Parliament and that it is apparent by the Lawes of K. Inas K. Alfred K. Edward c. That our godly forefathers the Princes and Peeres of this Realme never vouchsafed to treate of matters touching the common State before all controversies of Religion and Causes Ecclesiasticall had beene concluded Def. of the Apol. pt. 6. c. 2. 1. But the answere unto this is easy For first if our Religion may be called Parliamentarian because it hath received confirmation and debate in Parliament then the Religion of our Forefathers even Papistry it selfe concerning which so many Acts of Parliament were made in K. Henry 8. and Q. Maries time must be called Parliamentarian also And Secondly it is most certaine that in the Parliaments or Common Councels call them which you will both of King Inas time and the rest of the Saxon Kings which Bishop Iewell speakes of not only Bishops Abbats and the higher part of the Clergy but the whole body of the Clergy generally had their votes and suffrages eyther in person or by Proxy Concerning which take this for the leading Case That in the Parliament or Common Councell in K. Ethelbert's time who first of all the Saxon Kings received the Gospell the Clergy were convened in as full a manner as the Lay subjects of that Prince Convocato coÌ„muni Concilio tam Cleri quà m Populi saith Sr. H. Spelman in his Collection of the Councels An. 605. p. 118. And for the Parliament of King Ina which leades the way in Bishop Iewell it was saith the same Sr. H. Spelman p. 630. Commune Concilium Episcoporum Procerum Comitum necnon omnium Sapientum Seniorum populorumque totius Regni where doubtlesse Sapientes and Seniores and you know what Seniores signifieth in the Ecclesiasticall notion must be some body else then those which after are expressed by the name of Populi which shewes the falshood and absurdity of the collection made by Master Prynne that in the epistle to his booke against Doctor Cousins viz. That the Parliament as it is now constituted hath an ancient genuine just and lawfull Prerogative to establish true Religion in our Church and to abolish and suppresse all false new and counterfeit doctrines whatsoever unlesse he meanes upon the post-fact after the Church hath done her part in determining whâ—t was true what false what new what ancient and finally what Doctrines might be counted counterfeit and what sincere And as for Law 't is true indeed that by the Statute 1 Eliz. cap. 1. The Court of Parliament hath pawer to determine and judge of Heresie which at first sight seemes somewhat strange but on the second view you will easily finde that this relates only to new and emergent Heresies not formerly declared for such in any of the first foure Generall Councells nor in any other Generall Councell adjudging by expresse words of holy Scripture as also that in such new Heresies the following words restraine this power to the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation as being best able to instruct the Parliament what they are to doe and where they are to make use of the secular sword for cutting off a desperat Heretick from the Church of CHRIST or rather from the body of all Christian people 4. Of the Formes
Domine instead of Ora pro nobis and the like to these And of this sort were the Injunctions which came out in some yeares succeeding for the taking away of Images and Reliques with all the Ornaments of the same and all the Monuments and writings of fained Miracles and for restraint of offering or setting up lights in any Church but only to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar in which he was directed chiefly by Archbishop Cranmer as also those for eating of white-meates in the time of Lent the abolishing the fast on St. Marks day and the ridiculous but superstitious sports accustomably used on the dayes of Saint Clement St. Catherine and St. Nicholas All which and more was done in the said Kings Reigne without help of Parliament For which I shall refer you to the Acts Mon. fol. 1385. 1425. 1441. The like may also be affirmed of the Injunctions published in the name of K. Ed. 6. An. 1547. and printed also then for the use of the Subjects and of the severall Letters missive which went forth in his name prohibiting the bearing of Candles on Candlemas day of Ashes in Lent and of Palmes on Palm-Sunday for the taking down of all the Images throughout the kingdom for administring the Communion in both kinds dated March 13. 1548. for abrogating of private Masses Iun. 24. 1549. for bringing in all Missals Graduals Processionals Legends and Ordinals about the latter end of December of the same yeare for taking down of Altars and setting up Tables instead thereof An. 1550. and the like to these All which particulars you have in Foxes book of Acts Mon. in King Edwards life which whether they were done of the Kings meer motion or by advice of his Counsell or by consultation with his Bishops for there is little left upon Record of the Convocations of that time more than the Articles of the yeare 1552 certain I am that there was nothing done nor yet pretended to be done in all these particulars by the authority of Parliament Thus also in Q. Elizabeths time before the new Bishops were well setled and the Queen assured of the affections of her Clergy she went that way to work in the Reformation which not only her two Predecessors but all the godly Kings and Princes in the Iewish State and many of the Christian Emperours in the Primitive times had done before her in the well ordering of the Church and People committed to their care and government by Almighty God And to that end she published her Injunctions An. 1559. A book of Orders An. 1561. Another of Advertisements An. 1562. all tending unto Reformation unto the building up of the new Ierusalem with the advise no doubt of some godly Prelates as were then about her But past all doubt without the least concurrence of her Court of Parliament But when the times were better setled and the first difficulties of her Reigne passed over she left Church-work to the disposing of Church-men who by their place and calling were most proper for it And they being met in Convocation and thereto authorized as the Lawe required did make and publish severall books of Canons as viz. 1571. An. 1584. An. 1597. Which being confirmed by the Queene under the broad Seale of England were in force of Lawes to all intents and purposes which they were first made but being confirmed without those formall words Her Heires and Successors are not binding now but expired together with the Queene No Act of Parliament required to confirm them then nor never required ever since on the like occasion A fuller evidence whereof we cannot have then in the Canons of the yeare 1603. being the first yeare of King Iames made by the Clergy only in the Convocation and confirmed only by the King For though the old Canons were in force which had been made before the Submission of the Clergy as before I shewed you which served in all these wavering and unsetled times for the perpetuall standing rule of the Churches Government yet many new emergent Cases did require new Rules and whilest there is a possibility of mali mores there will be a necessity of bonae Leges Now in the Confirmation of these Canons we shall find it thus That the Clergy being met in their Convocation according to the Tenour and effect of his Majesties Writ his Majesty was pleased by virtue of his Prerogative Royall and Supreme authority in Causes Ecclesiasticall to give and grant unto them by his Letters Patents dated Apr. 12. Iun. 25. full free and lawfull liberty licence power and authority to confer treate debate consider consult and agree upon such Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they should think necessary fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof from time to time c. to be kept by all persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being members of the Church it may concern them which being agreed on by the Clergy and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his Royall assent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25. of K. H. 8. and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supreme authority in Ecclesiasticall Causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for Himselfe his Heires and lawfull Successours straitly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjects diligently to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they doe or may concern all or any of them No running to the Parliament to confirm these Canons nor any question made till this present by temperate and knowing men that there wanted any Act for their confirmation which the Lawe could give them But against this and all which hath been said before it will be objected That being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more authority and jurisdiction nisi a Parliamentis derivatam but that which is conferred upon them by the power of Parliaments as both Sanders and Schultingius doe expresly say whatsoever they shall doe or conclude upon either in Convocation or in private Conferences may be called Parliamentarian also And this last calumny they build on the severall Statutes 24. H. 8. c. 12. touching the manner of electing and Consecrating Archbishops and Bishops that of the 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what Seales they shall use those of the 3 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. and 5 6 Ed. 6. for authorising of the book of Ordination But chiefly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in consecrating any Archbishop or Bishop within this Realm To give a generall answer to each severall cavill you may please to know that the Bishops as they now stand in the Church of England derive their Calling together with their Authority and