had their place amongst them according to which Canân there went out a Mânitory from the Aâchbp of Caâterbury to all the Suffragâns of hiâ Pâovince ãâ¦ã which is still extant on Record But being the authority of the Church was then in the wane it was thought necessary to confirm their Acts and see execution done upon it by the Kings Injunction which did accordinâly come forth with this Form or preamble That the abolishing of the said holy dayes was decreed ordained and established by the Kings Highness Authority as supâeam Head in earth of the Church of England with the common consent and assent of the Prelates and Clergy of this âis Realm in Convâcation lawfully assembled and congregate Of which see Foxe his Acts and Mânuments fol. 1246 1247. Afterwards in the year 1541 the King perceiving with what difficulty the people were induced to leave off those Holy days to which they had been so long acâustomed published his Proclamation of the twenty third of Iuly for the abolishing of such Holy days amongst other things as were prohibited before by his Injunctions both built upon the same foundation namely the resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation And so it stood until the Reign of King E. 6. at which time the Reformation of the publick Liturgie drew after it by consequence an alteration in the present businesse no days being to be kept or accounted holy but those for which the Church had set apart a peculiar office and not all those neither For whereas there are several and peculiar offices for the day of the Conversion of Saint Paul and the day of Saint Barnabas the Apostles neither of these are kept as holy days nor reckoned or esteemed as such in the Act of Parliament wherein the names and number of the holy days is precisely specified which makes some think the Act of Parliament to have had an over-ruling power on the Common prayer Book but it is not so there being a specification of the holy days in the book it self with this direction These to be âbsârved for Holâ days and nonâ other in which the Feasts of the Conversion of St Paul and the Apostle Barnabas are omittâd plainly and upon which specification the Stat. 5 6 Ed. 6. cap. 3. which concerns the holy days seems most expresly to be built And for the Offâces on thoâe days in the Common-prayer Booke you may pleaâe to know that every holy day consisteth of two special parts that is to say râst or cessatiân from bodily labour and celebration of Diâine or Relâgious duâies and that the dayâs before remembred aâe so far kept holy as to have sâill their proper and peculiar Offâces which is observed in all the Cathedrals of this Kingdome and the Chappels Royall where the Service is read every day and in most Parish Churches also as oft as either of them falls upon a Sunday though the people be not in those days injoined to rest from bodily labour no more then on the Coronation day or the fiâth of November which yet are reckoned by the people for a kind of holy days Put all which hath been said together and the âumme is this That the proceedings of this Church in the Reformation were not meerly Regall as it is objected by some Puritans much lesâe that they were Parliamentarian in so great a woâk as the Papists falsly charge upon us the Parliaments for the most part doing liâtle in it but that they were directed in a justifiable way the work being done Synodically by the Clergy onely according to the usage of the Primiâiveâimes the King concurring with them and corroborating what they had âesolved on either by his own single Act in his letters Paâent Proclamations and Iâjunctions or by some publick Act of State as in ãâã and by Acts of Parliament 6. Of the power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the directing of the people in the publick Duties of Religion WE are now come to the last part of this design unto the power of making Canons in which the Parliament of England have had lesse to do then in either of the other which are gone before Concerning which I must dâsire you to remember that the Clergie who had power before to make such Canons and Constitutâons in their Convocation as to them seemed meet promised the King in verbo Sacerdâtij not to Enact or Exâcute any new Caâons but by his Majesties Royal Assent and by his authority first obtained in thaâ behalf which is thus briâfly touched upon in the Ant. Brit. in the lâfe of William Marham Arch Bp of Canterbury Clerââ in verbo Sacerdotij fidem Regidâdit ne ullaâ deinceps in Synodo ferrent Ecclesâasticas leges nisi eâ Synodas authâritate Râgia conâ gregata et constitutiones in Synodis publicataâ eadem auââoritate ratae essent Upon which ground I doubt not but I might securely raise this proposition That whatsoâver the Clergy did or might do lawfully before the act of Submission in their Convocation of their own power without the Kings authority and consent concurring the same they can and may do still since the act of their Submission the Kings authoââty and consent co-operating with them in their counsels and giving confirmation to their Constitutions as was said before Further iâ doth appear by the aforesaid Act. 25. H. 8. c. 19. âhat all such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Prouincial as were made beâore the said Submission which be not contrary or repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customes of this Realm nor to the damage or hurt of the Kiâgs Prerogative Royal were to be used and executed as in former times And by the Statute 26. H. 8. c. 1. of the Kings Suprâmacy that according to the Recognition made in Convocation ouâ said Soveraign Lord his heirs and succesâors Kings of this Realm shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit repress reform order correct c. all such Errours heresies abuses offences contempâs and enormities whatsoever they be c. as may be most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of virââe in Christs Religion and for the peace unity and tranquillity of this Realm and the confirmation of the same So that you see these several ways of ordering matters for the Publick weal and governance of the Church First by such ancient Canons and Constitutions as being made in former times are still in force Secondly by such nâw Canons as are or shall be made in Convocation with and by the Kings Consenâ And Thirdly by the authority of the Soveraign Prince according to the Precedentâ laid down in the book ãâ¦ã and the best agâs of the Church Concerning which you must remember what was said before viz. That the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy are Declaratory of an old power onely not Introdâctory of a new which said we shall the better see whether the Parliament have had any thing
them which being agreed on by the Clârgie and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his royal asâent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25 of K. H. 8 and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supream authority in Ecclesiastical causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for himself his heirs and lawfull successours straightly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjâcts diligântly to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they do 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 law could give them 7. An Answer to the main Objections of either Party BUt against this all which hath been said before it will be objected âhat being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more authority and jurisdiction nisi a Parliamentis derivatum but that which is conâerred upon them by the power of Parliamânts as both Sanders and Schultingius do expresly say whatsoever they shall do oâ conclude upon either in Convocation or in more private conferences may be called Pârliâmenâarian also And this last calumny they build on the sevâral Stâtutes 24. H 8. c. 12. touching the manner of eâecting and consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops that of the 1 E. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what seaâs they shaâl uâe thâse of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. 5 6. E. 6. âor authorizing of the book of Ordination But chââfly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in coâsâcrating any Arch Bishop or Bishop within this Reaâm âo give a general answer to each several cavil 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 power in Spiritual matâers from no other hands then those of Christ and his Apostles their Temporal honors and posââââions from the bounty and affection onely of our Kings Princes their Ecclesiastical juriâdiction in caâses Matrimonial Testamentary and the like for which no action lieth at the common Law from continuall usage and prescription and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm and ãâã more unto the Parliament than all sort of subjects do besidâs whose fortunes and estates have been occasionally and collaterally confirmed in Parliament And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon that of the 24 H. 8. doâh only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and conâecrated without recourse to Rome for a conâirmation which formerly had put the Prâlates to great charge and trouble but for the form and maâner of their consecration the Staâuâe leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was perfoââed and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were lawfully and Canonically ordained and consâcrated the Bishops of that time not onâly being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawfull and Canonical Bishops but called on to assist at the consecration of such other Bishops Carâinal Pool himself for one as were promoted in her Reign whereof see Masons book de Minist. Ang. l. c. ãâã Next for the Statute 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer as it relates to their Canonâcal Consecrations it was repeaeld to Târminis in the first of Queene Maries Reigne and never stood in âorce nor practise to this day That of the authorizing of the booke of Ordination in two severall Parliaments of that King the one a parte ante and the other a parte post as before I told you mâght indeed seeme somewhat to the purpose if any thing were wanâing in it which had beene used iâ the formula's of the Primitive times or if the book had beân composed in Paâliament or by Parliament men or otherwise received more authority from them then that iâ might be lawfully used and exercâsed thâoughouâ the Kingdome But it is plâin that none of these things were oâjected ãâã Queen Maries dayââ when the Pâpists stood mâst upon their points ãâã Ordinal being not âaâled in because it had too much of the Parliament buâ becauâe it had too lâttle of the Pope and reâshâd too strongly of the Pâimitive piety And for the Sâatute oâ 8 of Qu. Elizâbeth which is chiefly stood on all that was done therein was no more then thiâ and on this occasion A question had been mâde by captiouâ and unquiet men and amongst the rest by Doctor Bânner sometimes Bishop of London whether the Bishops of those times were lawâully ordained or not the reason of the doubâ being this which I marvell Mason did not sâe because the âook of Ordination which was annulled and abâogated in the ãâã of Queen Mary had not been yet restored and revived by any legal Act oâ Qu. Elizabeths time which Cauâe being brought before the Pârliamenâ in the 8 year of her Reign thâPârliâment took notice first that their not restoring of thaâ booke ãâ¦ã foâmer power in terâs significant and expresse was but ãâ¦ã and then declare that by the Stature 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been ãâã to the book of Common-prâyer and Administration of the Sacramânss as a member of it at least as an Appââdant to it and therefore by the Staâuâe 1 Eliz. c. â was restored again together with the sâid booâ ãâã Common-prayer intentionally at the least if not in Terminis But ãâ¦ã words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubâs they therefore did revive now and did accordingly enact That whatsoâveâ had been done by vertue of that Ordination should be good in Law ãâ¦ã the total of the Statute and this shews rather in my judgement thaâ the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them then that they were conceived to have had too much And so I come to your laât Objection which concerns the Parliament whose entertaining all occasions to manifest their power in Ecclesiasticall matââââ doth seeme to you to make that groundlesse slânder of the Pâpists the more fair and plaâsible 'T is true indeed that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times have been âeen very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil into their own hands And some there are who being they cannot hope to have their fancies authorized in a regular way do put them upon such designs as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments nor the authority of the King nor with the priviledges of the Clergy nor to say truth with
singing-men to sing them and prescribed Vestments also to thesâsinging-men by no other power then the regal only None of the Priâsts consulted in iâ for ought yet appears The like authority was âxercised and enjoyed by the Christian Emperors not only in their calling Councels and many times assisting at them or presiding in them by themselves or their Deputies or Commissioners but also in confirming the Acts thereof He that consults the Câde and ãâã in the Civil Lawes will finde the best Princes to have been most active in things which did concern Religion in regulating matters of the Church and setting out their Imperial Edicts for suppressing of Hereticks Quid Imâeratori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to dâ in matters which concern the Church is one of the chief Brand marks which Optatus sets upon the Donatists And though some Christians of the East have in the way of scorn had the name of Melchites men of the Kings Religion as the word doth intimate bâcause they adhered unto those Doctrines which the Emperors agreeable to former Councels had confirmed and ratified yet the best was that none but Sectaries and Hereticks put that name upon them Neither the men nor the Religion was a âot the worse Nor did they only deal in matters of Exterior Order but even in Doctrinals matters intrinsecal to the Faith for which their Enoticon set out by the Emperor Zeno for setling differences in Religion may be proof sufficiânââ The like authority was exercised and enjoyed by Charles the Great when he attained the Western Empire as the Capitulaâs published in hiâ Name and in the names of his Successors do most clearly evidence and not much lesse enjoyed and practisâd by the Kings of England in the elder Times though more obnoxious to the power of the Pope of Rome by reason of his Apostleship if I may so call it the Christian Faith being first preached unto the English Saxons by such as he employed in that holy Work The instanceâ whereof dispersed in several places of our English Histories and other Monuments and Records which concern this Church are handsomely summed up together by Sir Edward Coke in the fift part of his Reports if I well remember but I am sure in Cawdâies Case entituled De Iure Regis Ecclesiastico And though Parsons the Iesuite in his Answer unto that Report hath took much pains to vindicate the Popes Supremacy in this Kingdome from the first planting of the Gospel among the Saxons yet all he hath effected by it proves no more thân this That the Popes by permission of some weak Princes did exercise a kinde of concurrent jurisdiction here with the Kings themselves but came not to the full and entire Supremacy till they had brought all other Kings and Princes of the Western Empire nay even the Emperors themselves under their command So that when the Supremacy was recognized by the Clergy in their Convocationâo K. H. 8. it was only the restoring of him to his proper and original power invaded by the Popes of these later Ages though possiâly the Title of Supreme Head seemed to have somewhat in it of an ãâã At which Title when the Papists generally and Calvin in his Comment on the Prophet Amos did seem to be much scandalizâd it was with much wisdome changed by Q. Elizabeth into that of Supreme Governour which is still in use And when that also would not down with some queasie stomachs the Queen her self by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign and the Clergy in their Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation about five years aâter did declare and signifie That there was no authority in sâcred matters contained under that Title but that only Prerogative which had bâen given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scriptuâes by God himself that iâ That they should rule all Estates and degrees committâd to their change by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and to restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil dâers as also to exclude thereby the Bishop of Rome from having any jurisdiction in the Realm of England Artic. 37. Lay this unto the rest before and tell me if you cân what hath been acted by the Kings of England in the Reformation of Religion but what is warranted unto them by the practise and example of the most godly Kings of Iewry seconded by the most godly Emperorâ in the Christian Church and by the usage also of their own Predecessors in this Kingdome till Papal Usurpation carried all before it And being that all the Popes pretended to in this Realm was but Usurpation it was no wrong to take that from him which he had no right to and to restore it at the last to the proper Owner Neither Prescription on the one side nor discontinuance on the other change the case at all that noted Maxim of our Lawyers that no prescriptionâindes the King or Nullum tempus occurrit Regi as their own words are being as good against the Pope as against the Subject This leads me to the second part of this Dispute the dispossessing of the Pope of that supreme Power so long enjoyed and exercised in this Realm by his Predecessors To which we say that though the pretensions of the Pope were antient yet they were not Primitive and therefore we may answer in our Saviours words Ab initio non âuit sic it was not so from the beginning For it is evident enough in the course of story that the Pope neither claimed nor exercised any such Supermacy within this Kingdome in the first Ages of this Church nor in many after till by gaining from the King the ãâã of Bishops under Henry the â the exemption of the Clergy from the Courts of Justice ânder Henry the 2. and the submission of King Iohn to the See of Rome they found themselves of strength sufficient to make good their Plea And though by the like artifices seconded by some Texts of Scripture which the ignorance of those times incouraged them to abuse as they pleased they had attained the like Supremacy in France Spain and Germany and all the Churches of the West yet his incroachmânts werâ opposed and his authority disputed upon all occasions especially aâ the light of Letters did begin to shine Insomuch as it was not only determined essentially in the Councel of Constance one of the Imperial Cities of High Germany that the Councel was above the Pope and his Authority much ãâã by the Pragmatick Sanction which thence took beginning but Gerson the learned Chancellor of Paris wrote a full discourse entituled De auferibilitate Papae âouching the totall abrogating of the Papall Office which certainly he had never done in case the Papall Office had been found âssential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ According to the Position of that learned man the greatest Princes in these times did look upon the Pope and the Papall power
from one another for which the so much celebrated Canon of the Nâcene Councel may may be proâf suââicient If not the Edicts of Iusâinian shall come in to help by which it was decreed that all Appeals in point of grievance should lie from the Bishop to the Metropolitan and from the Metropolitans unto the Primates the Patriarchs as he cals them of the several Diocessâs By which accompt it doth appear that the Patriarchâte of Rome was anâiently confined within the Praefecture of that City in which respect as the Provinces subject to the Pope were by Ruffinus called Regiones Suburbicariae or the City Provinces so was the Pope himself called Vrbicus or the City-Bishop by Optatus Aâer To prove this point more plâinly by particular instances I shall take leave to travel over the Western Diocesses to seâ what marks of Independence we can finde among them such as dissenting in opinion from the Church of Rome or adhering unto different ceremonies and formes of worship or otherwise standing in defence of their own authority And first the Diocesse of Italy though under the Popes nose as we use to say was under the command of the Archbishop of Millaine as the Primate of it which City is therefore called by Athanasius {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Metropolis or chief City oâItaly The Saturdaies fast observed at Rome and not at Millaine Quando Romae sum jejuno Sabbato quum hic sum non jejuno Sabbato as S. Ambrose hath it shewes clearly that the one had no dâpendence upon the other And yet the diffârence of Divine Offices or Formes of worship is a more pregnant proof then this the Churches of Millain officiating for many ages by a Liturgie which S. Ambrose had a special hand in they of the Patriarchate of Rome following the old Roman Missals not fully finished and compleated till the time of Pope Gregory Whence the distinction of Ecclesiae Ambrosianae Ecclesiae Gregorianae extant in Bonaventure and others of the writers of the later times Crosse we the Seas unto the Diocesse of Africk governed in chief by the Pâimate or Archbishop of Carthage and there we finde S. Cyprian determining against Pope Stephen in the then controverted case of Rebaptization and calling him in his Epistle of Pompeius an obstinate and presumptuous man and a fauter of Hereticks no very great tokens of subjection if you mark it well The error of his judgement in the point debated I regard not here but I am sure that in defence of his authority and jurisdiction he was right enough and therein strongly seconded by the African Church opposing the incroachments of Zosimus Boniface and Celestine succeeding one another in the Roman Patrâarchaâe prohibiting all appeals to Rome in the Councels of Milevis and Carthage and finally âxcommunicating Lupicinus for appealing to Pope Leo the first contrary to the rites and liberties of the African Church Next for the Diocesse of Spain I look upon the Musarabick Liturgie composed by Isidore Archbishop of Sevil and universally received in all the Churches of that Continent ãâ¦ã as the Amârosian Office was in the Church of Mâllain the Roman or Gregorian Missal not being used in all this Countrey till the year 1083. At which time one Bernard a Frenchman and a great stickler in behalf of the Roman Ceremonies being made Archbishop of Toledo by practising with Alfonso the then King of Castile first introduced the Roman Missall into some of the Churches of that City and after by degrees into all the rest of those Kingdomes soon after the Chuâches of France the greatest and most noble part of the Gallick Diocesse they were originally under the authority of the Bishop of Lions as their proper Primate not owing any suiâ of sârvice to the Court of Rome but standing on their own Basis and acting all ãâ¦ã did The freedome wherewith Iâenaeuâ the renowned ãâã of that City reproved the rashnesse of Pope Victor in the Case of Easter not well becoming an inferiâr Bishop to the Supreme Pastor shewes plainly that they stood on even ground and had no advantage of each other in respect of sub supra as Logicians say notwithstanding that more powerful Principality potentior principalitas as the Latin hath it which Irenaeus did allow him over those at home But a more evident proof of this there can hardly be then those large libârties and freedomes which the Church Gallican doth at this time enjoy the remainders past all doubt of those antient rights which under their own Patriarch they were first possessed of not suffering the Decrees of the Councel of Trent that great supporter of the Popâdome to take place amongst them but as insensiâly and by the practises of some Bishopâ they were introduced cuâbing the Popes exorbitant power by the pragmatick Sanction and by the frequent Judgements and Arrests of Parliament insomuch âs a Book of Cardinal ãâã tending to the advancement of the Papall Monarchy and another writ by Becanus the Iesuiteântiâuled Controvârsia Anglicana in maintenance of the Popes supremacy weâe suppâessed and cenâuâed anno 1612. Another writ by âaspâr Schioppius to the same effect but with âar lesse modesty being at the same time burnt by the hands of the Hangman Finally for the Churches of the Diocesse of Britain those of Illyricum lying too far off to be brought in here they had their own Primate also the Archbishop of York and under him two Metropolitânâ the Bishops of London and Caer-leon And for a character of their Freedome or self subsistence they had four different customes from the Church of Rome as in the Tonsure and the keeping of the Feast of Easter wherein they followed the Tradition of the Eastern Churches So firm withall in their obedience to their own Primate the Archbishop of Caâr-leon on Vsh the only Archbishop of three which before they had that they would by no means yeeld subâection unto Augustine the Monk the first Archbishop of the English though he came armed amongst them with the Popes authority Nor would they afterwards submit unto his successors though backed by the authority of the Kings of England acknowledging no other Primate but the Bishop of St. Davids to which the Metropolitan See was then translated untill the time of Henry the 2. when the greatest part of South Wales and the City of S. Davids it self was in possession of the English These were the Patriarchs or Primates of the Western Churches and by these Primates the Church was either governed singly but withall supremely in their several Diocesses taking the word Diocese in the former notion or in conjunction each with other by their letters of advice and intercourse which they called Literas Formatas and Communicatorias You see by this that though the Pope was one of the Western Patriarchs yet was he not originally and by primitive Instiâution either the Patriarch of the West that is to say not the only one nor could pretend