consent thereto or confirmation thereof The Popes indeed about the latter end of the Saxon times began to degenerate in Manners and aim at high things in all the Western world but his Pride was checked here even as as we shewed before it was in other places for when that Insolent Pope Hildebrand who first presumed to depose an Emperour took the boldness to require Fealty of King William the Conqueror he answered him in this manner Fealty I neither have acknowledged nor will I do it because neither did I promise it nor do I find that my Predecessors ever did it to your Predecessors as appears by the Conqueror's Letter still extant And when by Policy and evil Arts he had made some encroachments here yet still his Power was esteemed no other than a Temporal Power permitted by the favour of our Kings not due by any Original Right Hence the Historian saith That King Henry the First having subdued all his Enemies feared none but the Pope and that not for his Spiritual but his Temporal Power And an Old Record affirms that King Henry the Second smartly asked the Bishop of Chichester How he durst argue for the Pope ' s Authority which was granted by Men against his Royal Power derived from God The turbulent and seditious Attempts of T. Becket and his faction about that time to subject the English Clergy to the Pope's Vniversal Supremacy are sufficiently known but if our Ancestors whom you call Roman Catholicks had been of your Opinion in this great Article of Faith they would not have made so stout an Opposition against the Pope's Supremacy as they did It being apparent that the whole body of the Nation then looked on it as an Encroachment and an Vsurpation for in the famous Statutes of Clarendon they condemn it Decreeing among other things That all the Clergy should bonâ fide swear to the King and none should Appeal but unto the Archbishop or from him finally to the King without particular License And to restrain his medling here the Kings of England declared they had a Right to forbid the Pope's Legates from entring into this Land and often did prohibite them even Qu. Mary her self exercising this Power yea it was adjudged in a Parliament 25 Ed. 3. To be Treason to bring in the Pope's Bulls here without the Kings consent Stat. de Provisor though the sending these be an Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction but it is plain they would not allow the Pope in those days to exercise Spiritual Jurisdiction here without the King's leave for his very Excommunicating certain English Bishops in a Parliament 16 of Rich. 2. is declared to tend To the open disherison of the Crown and the destruction of the King his Law and all his Realms and a little after it is affirmed there that the Popes attempts be clearly against the Kings Crown and Regality used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors finally therefore they all promise to stand with the King against all such Encroachments with their very lives And if you be well versed as becometh English-men in the Histories and Statutes of your own Country you must needs know that the Authority which the Pope once exercised here was gotten by taking advantages of the necessities of our Kings and the divisions among the People And in those Times which are accounted most Popish it was checked by Laws complained of in Parliament and thought an Oppression by the wisest and greatest Subjects so that the most Noble Hen. de Lacy Earl of Lincoln in his dying Speech to his Son in Law Thomas Earl of Lancaster said among other things That the Church of England heretofore Honourable and Free was now enslaved by Romish Oppressions charging him to stand up like a man for the Honour of God and the Church and the Redemption of his Country And the same Author tells us that it was debated in a Council at London An. 1408. Whether all Payments and Obedience to the Pope should not be taken away Which shews they thought it in the power of this Nation to take away his Authority here when they pleased And they retained it not as being necessarily or originally due to him but only in respect of his being a Bishop of an Ancient Apostolical Seat as is evident from those Instructions which King Henry the Fifth gave to his Embassadors sent to Pope Martin the Fifth bidding them if they perceived any delay in their affair to tell the Pope That their Master the King if he yielded not to his Demands would use his own power in these Particulars for he did not apply himself to Rome out of necessity but for Respect sake And therefore when this permissive Authority grew uneasie to those who had endured it for some time it was rejected much more Legally than ever it was introduced viz. by the Regal Power with the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament And this is to be noted the Clergy and Laity of this Parliament did hold most of the Opinions of the Roman Church in other things and yet consented to the abolishing the Pope's Vsurped Power over England as believing it to be an unjust Encroachment And Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester a great Persecutor of the Protestants did then make a learned Oration De verâ obedientiâ shewing that the King was by Right and by God's Law the Supream Head of this Church of England And now that I may not only confute a false Opinion but establish the true let me intreat you impartially to consider that as it appears the Pope is not Dejure supream Head of this Church of England so it is as evident that the King of England is the Supream Head of the Churches in his own Dominions For indeed all Christian Princes are or ought to be so in their own Dominions whence it was that Constantine the Great did retain the Title of Pontifex Maximus without any blot to his Christianity saith Baronius And the highest Appeals in all Controversies Ecclesiastical even in matters of Faith were made to him though he used the assistance and Counsel of his Bishops for determining them And it is evident that he and his Successors as Cusanus before confesseth did call and Preside in all General Councils and ratified their Decrees which were no Laws till they were stamped with the Imperial Authority yea the Imperial Code sufficiently witnesses that the Emperour 's made Laws concerning Religion the whole Third book of Justinian's Basilicks being nothing else but Imperial Constitutions de Episcopis Clericis Sacris They also erected Patriarchates and gave them supream Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over such Provinces as they pleased as at Justinianopolis in Daeia and at Ravenna in Italy it self which had no dependence on Rome till the time of Constantinus Pogon And all Ecclesiastical affairs depended on the Emperors saith Socrates so that Pope Anastasius calls the
Emperor Anastasius The Vicar of God by the Divine command presiding over the Earth An Authority like this also was exercised by the Western Emperors of the French Line being stayled The Rulers of the True Religion a Title given to Charles the Great and to Ludovicus by two several Councils which they had called and the present French Kings do claim the Supremacy over the French Churches as may be seen in â—â—ohellus and P. Pithâ—us cited before Sect. 5. One of the French Writers telling us it is the Opinion of his Nation that Le Royiassisté de son Conseil d'estate est â—â—â—es Diâ—â— Chief Terrieâ— de l'Eglise de son Royanme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pape And it may be proved concerning other Christian Princes that they allow not the Pope to impose his Decrees on their Kingdoms nor to exercise any Jurisdiction among them but by their special License and consent and prohibite his exercising any power over their Subjects when they please And why may not the King of England being a free and absolute Monarch be allowed as great a Priviledge in his own Dominions Do you not tell us that Pope Eleutherius called King Lucius by the Title of Vicar of Christ and doth not King Edgar call himself Christs Vicar and none taxed this Title then Did not the Saxon Kings preside in all National Councils and make Laws for Religion by the advice of their own Bishops by their own Authority Did they not erect new Sees for Bishops and change them as they saw fit Did they not invest all Bishops by delivering the Ring and Pastoral Staff And the same power was still exercised by K. William the Conqueror for all things both Divine and Humane depended on his Order saith an Old Historian And when the Pope began to encroach upon the King's Supremacy here in England he was generally opposed as we noted before And in the aforesaid Parliament of Richard the Second the Nation declared That they would not endure that the Crown of England should be submitted to the Pope and the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him defeated and avoided at his pleasure for Bracton our most famous Lawyer affirms that The Kings of England have no Supream on earth but God And accordingly the Kings and Parliaments of this Nation made Laws in reference to Religion as they saw expedient and among the rest they enacted many Laws in a direct opposition to the Pope's Spiritual as well as Temporal Jurisdiction declaring thereby that they esteemed him no Head of this Church but an ambitious and dangerous Encroacher upon the Rights of the Crown as you will find by perusal of those several Statutes cited in the Margin By which Laws long since enacted it is declared to be Treason to receive or harbour any Agents or Emissaries from Rome against the King's Proclamations and without his special License Upon all which Considerations the Judges have declared that the Act of Parliament for Restoring the Supremacy over the Church unto the Crown was not the introducing a New Law but a declaration of the Old For it was many hundred years before that King Henry the Second did declare That be would account it high Treason in any man that should affirm the Pope's Authority was above his And before that Anselm was told That it was impossible for him to keep the Faith which he owed to the King and to pay Obedience to the Pope contrary to his Royal Pleasure Which methinks may fitly admonish you who do own the Pope's Supremacy over England and yet glory much in your Loyalty to the King to enquire how these two can stand together Our Saviour saith No mancan serve two Masters Matth. vi 24. however not two Supream Lords neither can there be two highest Powers in one Kingdom nor can any Subjects obey both since they will sometimes command contrary things 'T is true if the Roman Bishop would profess to our King as his Predecessor Leo the Fourth did to Lotharius of France Concerning your Capitulars or Imperial Precepts we through the assistance of Christ promise as much as we are able to keep and conserve the same for ever If he would acknowledge himself subject to our King in his Dominions as his Predecessors were to the Emperours of Old if he behaved himself toward his Majesty as S. Gregory did to Mauritius who calls that Emperour his Lord and himself his Servant declaring that He was subject to the Emperours Commands and accordingly had done his duty in publishing a Law which the Emperour ordered him to promulge though for his own part he thought it not agreeable to the Laws of God If the present Popes claimed no more than a Primacy of order and precedency among other Bishops then the case might easily be determined But you know of later times the pretences of Rome are much higher for she challenges a Supremacy over all Christian Princes a power to depose them an Authority to abrogate or dispense with their Laws and absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance a Priviledge to be appealed unto as to the last and highest Tribunal on Earth so that Clement the Fifth is recorded in the Acts of the Council of Vienna to have said That all the Right of Kings depended on him alone and Boniface the Eighth owned himself not only Lord of France but of all the World for So great was the Impudence of this Boniface saith the French Chronologer that he presumed to affirm the Kingdom of France was a Fee of the Papal Majesty And as to this Kingdom Pope Innocent the Fourth saith That the King of England was his Vassal and his Slave and they esteem England also a Fee of the Papacy and so is Ireland too it seems Whereupon the Pope hath dared to nominate a King of Ireland and hath given away the Kingdom of England to those who attempted to conquer it he hath condemned our Laws and absolved the Subjects of England from their Allegiance upon which many of your Party have entred into Conspiracies and Rebellion So that now it appears the Pope claims an Absolute Supremacy over our King and his Realms and how he can be a good Subject of the King of England who professes Obedience to this Forreign Princely Prelate is very hard to be understood if you believe this claim and own the Pope to be above the King you must then obey him even when his Orders contradict those of your lawful Sovereign and so you are the Pope's Subjects not the King 's nor can his Majesty have any security of your Allegiance any longer than he pleases the Roman Bishop so that he Reigns over you at the Pope's mercy I know many of you English Catholicks have so Loyal an affection for the King that your Church-men are forced to invent many plausible pretences to perswade you that the Supremacy claimed by the Pope
doth not entrench upon the King's Supremacy telling you that you need not obey the Pope if he commanded you to fight against your King wherein they put a fallacy upon you for they know the Pope can Excommunicate and depose him even for a very small matter say your Canonists and then he is no longer Your King They pretend further this Supremacy over Kings in Temporals is not the Doctrine of your Church but only of some Jesuites upon whom they lay all those foul Doctrines of Deposing and murthering Kings so wickedly maintained by divers eminent Writers of your Church But this is a delusion also for when or where did the Pope or the Heads of the Roman Church condemn these Opinions or suppress these Seditious Books nay on the contrary the Books are approved and the Authors preferred at Rome even when France condemns them And those honest and loyal secular English Priests that have ventured to write against this usurped Power of the Popes over Kings in Temporals though they held his Supremacy here in Spirituals have been persecuted almost to death by the Roman Bishop they have been suspended and their Books condemned and their persons so odiously represented that no English Catholicks durst harbour them witness the learned F. Preston under the name of Roger Widrington in King James's days with his fellow-Priests and Peter Walsh Author of the Letter to the Catholicks who is at this day a great Sufferer by the Pope's means meerly for writing that you of the Roman Church ought to be Loyal to the King in all matters of Temporal cognizance a clear evidence that whatever your Church may pretend they will not endure that any of you Catholicks shall hold the King's power to be above the Pope's in any thing and consequently they will not allow you to be good Subjects Now to sum up all these particulars how grievous an abuse is it for a Forreign Prelate whose Predecessors had no Authority here at all to usurp such a power over you as to impose New and inexpedient Articles upon you Why should you enslave your selves to him that cannot have so much as a Spiritual Jurisdiction here without breaking the Canons of the most famous General Councils Why may you not take the same liberty to oppose his Decrees that your Ancestors in all Ages have done they whom you account good Catholicks rejected his Doctrines sometimes despised his Bulls and Excommunications frequently and always opposed his pretended claim of a Supremacy over this Nation why should you call that an Article of Faith and account it the Principal point of Religion viz. That England ought to be subject to Rome which even in those you call Catholick Times was declared to be no less than Treason and no other than an Opinion that did destroy the Prerogative of the King the Priviledges and Liberties of this Church the freedom and quiet of all English Subjects They were Romanists in other Points who condemned Appeals to Rome and maintained that the Crown of England was in no Earthly subjection and that the King had no Supream but God only who counted all the Power which the Pope ever had here meerly permissive tolerated by this Nation so long as they pleased and such as might be curbed lessened hindred or taken away by the Supream Authority of this Nation when ever they saw expedient It was a King and Parliament of your Religion in most points that restored the King to his just Supremacy and took away the precarious or usurped and much abused Power of the Roman Bishop here they thought a Supremacy in Spirituals as to this Kingdom was more than he had any Right to but he and his Agents expect to be allowed to over-rule the Temporal Laws also methinks if you have the Nobleness and Gallantry of true English spirits your affections for the Roman Church should not rob you of your love to your Native Country nor suffer you to endure those pretences which dishonour the King and despoil him of his Ancient Rights and enslave this free Church and Nation to one that only seeks his own ends in claiming this Subjection for though the holding the Pope's Supremacy doth contribute to the support of his own Grandeur yet it doth not further any mans Salvation and it is so far from doing any good in those Nations where it is allowed him that it might be made appear the setting up and abetting this Supremacy hath occasioned the murther of many Princes stirred up the complaints of all sorts of people and filled Christendom for many Ages with Massacres Treasons War and Bloodshed which was so notorious in the German Empire that it came to be a Proverb saith Guiccardine It is the property of the Church to hate the Caesars And the mischief it hath done in England by rifling the Nations wealth before the Reformation and disturbing its Quiet since is so well remembred and so deeply resented by the generality of the people that they will never endure that heavy Yoak any more nor can they be perswaded scarce ever to esteem them Loyal Subjects or true to their Countries Interest who do not renounce this unjust and odious Jurisdiction Why therefore O my Friends will you be so imprudent to oppose the Rights and Prerogative of your Lawful Sovereign the Priviledges of that Church wherein you were born the Freedom and Interest of your beloved Country the desire of your fellow-Subjects and best Friends yea and your own liberty also Why will you oppose I say all these meerly to support an unjust and groundless Power which no Ecclesiastick ought to have any where much less in so remote and so free a Monarchy to support a Power which is inconsistent with the Security of the Crown the Peace of the Kingdom and the welfare of Private persons S. Peter never bid any to honour his Successor the Pope thus but his Opinion was that you must submit to the King as Supream 1 Pet. ii 13. and his Counsel follows thereupon viz. that you should Fear God and Honour the King ver 17. S. Paul commands Every Soul to be subject to the Higher Powers Rom. xiii 1. Neither Bishops nor Apostles themselves are excepted saith S. Chrysostome And S. Bernard tells Pope Eugenius that the Apostles were forbid to exercise Dominion Luke xxii 25 26. and therefore he adds If you would have Apostolical and Royal Power together you lose both Finally therefore it is unreasonable for the Roman Bishop to challenge such Authority here and the Laws of God and Man forbid it so that I may expect you shall be so far from receiving any Articles for the sake of this Authority that you shall not scruple to renounce the Authority it self which was so ill-gotten at first so wretchedly abused while it did obtain and so legally taken away at last and in so doing you will demonstrate your selves to be Loyal to your King Faithful to your Country Friends to your
only serve to fill up so great a space of Time in the Catalogue of Roman Bishops And a Writer who lived in those Times tells us The World was amazed at the Manners of the Romans It is strange saith another Historian how far in that Age they were degenerated from the Piety of the Old Popes This Age as Another speaks was especially unhappy in this that for about an hundred and fifty years there were fifty Popes wholly fallen from the Vertue of their Predecessors being disorderly and Apostatical rather than Apostolical And if our brevity would permit it we could shew out of Platina Onuphrius and Others of your own Writers that there was no Reformation in all the Ages while these New Doctrines were in coyning Now it is the Great Philosopher's observation That Wickedness is destructive of good Principles So that it is no wonder if in such Decays of Piety and such a flood of Iniquity the Roman Church did bring in many New Articles suitable to her Manners and I think when Pride Luxury and Covetousness possess the Chair we can hardly expect any other Laws but such as shall gratifie these affections And the Practices as well as the Decrees of Rome for divers of the latter Centuries have so apparently tended this way that it hath been taken notice of by all those of her own Communion whose affection hath not rob'd them of their discerning Powers yea even in Catholick Countries it hath abated much of the Reverence formerly paid to that See by reason the designs thereof are so apparently Secular tending not to the Salvation of Souls but the support of their own Grandeur Which makes me admire our English Romanists should hug their Chains and adore those who abuse their well-meaning Devotion with Articles of Faith serving rather to carry on the Designs of the Imposers than the Salvation of their over credulous Believers Methinks an easie apprehension might discover that the Roman Guides govern you by Principles that have more of Machiavel in them than of Conscience or Gospel-simplicity and a little consideration will inform you that those things which they teach you to call Religion are Arts to enslave and impoverish you and Engines to advance themselves to the highest pitch of honour and abundance S. Bernard though a great friend to the Roman Church saw this when he said At Rome all regard is given to Honour but to Holiness none at all Were this the fault of particular mens Evil management from which no Society is free it were more excusable but there are Doctrines added to the Old Catholick Faith even most of the Tenets wherein they differ from the Church of England which are plain Artifices to increase the power and wealth of Rome Doctrines for which they dispute with us upon Demetrius's Principle because thereby they have their gain Act. xix 25. And many think the Guides of your Church contend for some of these Principles not because they believe them but because it is their Interest the people should be perswaded of them which makes them secretly laugh at their Credulity who will be imposed on by them as that great Cardinal did when he gave the People who flocked about him his Benediction in these words Qui vult decipi decipiatur And it is a vile suspicion of this which we may gather from that observation of Hospinian That in Italy the name Christian is used for an Ideot or Fool But to be more particular let us look over some Instances of such New Doctrines as are taught in the Roman Church for Secular ends We begin with the Doctrine of Implicit Faith or believing as the Church believes a Doctrine unknown in S. Cyrils time who speaking to his young Christians Bids them not meerly believe the things he spoke because he affirmed them unless he did demonstrate them to be so out of the Divine Scripture And truly this Novel Doctrine may agree with Pythagoras's Ipse dixit and is a good shelter for Paganism the best Argument for which Balbus saith is this That he had received it from his Fore-fathers The Jewish Rabbins told their Disciples They must believe whatever they taught them though they should say that their right hand was their left and it was becoming enough in Apelâ—es the Heretick to charge his seduced Scholars not to examine his Principles by Reason But it is below the Honour of true Religion to desire to be taken upon Trust so that this Doctrine is a policy of your Priests to secure their evil Principles from being enquired into and a device to make you depend on them as Infallible Oracles who can by this means lead you blind-fold whither they will and impose any thing on you which serves their Interest under the pretence of true Religion 2. Auricular Confession to a Priest was voluntary of Old and only used in case of a troubled Conscience or a strong Temptation But it is now made necessary at stated times in all probability to make the Priest master of every mans Secrets to discover the least inclination of their Proselytes to leave them to keep the Laity in awe and make them venerate and depend upon their Spiritual Guide who hereby hath them at his Mercy And their Doctors do affirm that in some cases it is lawful to discover what is revealed to them in Confession especially if it concern the Roman Church And thus they have an Intelligencer in the breast of every Great man of their Communion The Exempting the Regular Clergy from their Lawful Bishops Jurisdiction which S. Bernard complains of as an unjust thing And the freeing Ecclesiasticks from their Natural Princes Authority is that the Pope may have Subjects numerous and potent to give Intelligence and abet his Interest in the bowels of all Kingdoms The Popes Supremacy Appeals to Rome the Collation of Benefices and other Preferments the Creating their Maker in the Mass with many others do all aim at the Honour of the Church of Rome and the making its most inferior Priests revered But because the Honour of the Church of Rome cannot be maintained without vast riches it is obvious to all that many of their New Doctrines and Practices have been introduced with design to fill the Churches Treasuries or if Ignorance and Superstition were the Mother of these gainful Devices it is certain Covetousness hath been an officious Nurse unto them As in the case of Purgatory and Prayers to deliver Souls from thence a Novel fancy feared and suspected at first by some but countenanced and Decreed by that Church thereby to oblige the people to give liberally for themselves or their deceased Friends to those who sell their Prayers so commonly that they occasioned that Proverb No penny no Pater Noster It is impossible to reckon the vast sums that this Opinion brings in for so many Masses Dirige's Requiems for those Trentals Obits and Anniversaries which the deluded Romanists purchase
Church there as an undue Act contrary to the Ancient Canons and all Primitive Constitutions For though saith the Historian the Bishop of Rome for the dignity of his Apostolical Seat be more venerable than other Bishops yet it is not lawful for him in any thing to transgress the Tenor of Canonical rules and as every Bishop of the Orthodox Church is the Spouse of his own See and represents the person of our Saviour so it cannot agree to any Bishop boldly to act any thing in the Diocess of another the like checks the Popes frequently received for medling in France from the Princes of that Nation About that Time also the Bishops of Italy complained of the Roman Vsurpation to the Patriarch of Constantinople as appears by Photius's Letter in answer to that complaint extant in Cardin. Baronius And there are many like Examples in the Historians of those Ages wherein this bold Jurisdiction began first to be exercisedin this Western part of Europe And to this very day the Churches of France do little value the Pope's Supremacy though in other Opinions they agree with the Roman Church as may be seen in the French Writers And it is not long since the King of France was about to take away his Nations dependence from Rome by erecting the Archbishoprick of Burges into a Patriarchate And now why should you be awed into the belief of Evil and inconvenient Doctrines by a pretended Supremacy not given by Christ not challenged by the best Popes not acknowledged by the first Christians not much regarded by some Catholick Countries Why should you be enslaved by an Authority gained by fraud and policy confirmed by force and cruelty enlarged by dividing Christian Princes by the undermining the Empire and oppressing many Ecclesiastical and Temporal persons in their just Rights Why should you fear to renounce an Usurped Jurisdiction since what is unjustly seized on at first can never be legally enjoyed nor is it confirmed by the longest prescription of Time as the Civil Law speaks I must confess I cannot see that any Christians without the Pale of his own Diocess are obliged to own him further than by the respect due to a Bishop of an Ancient Patriarchal See nor so far neither if he be not content with his own and keep not close to the Primitive Faith SECTION VI. Whether the Pope hath any Right to exercise a Jurisdiction over England BUt since my Discourse is directed particularly to the Catholicks of England it will be most considerable to enquire Whether the Roman Bishop can justly claim any Authority over them and if Prejudices were laid aside I doubt not but to make it evident that the Pope neither hath nor ought to have any Authority over this Nation For first let it be considered that Britain was the first of the Provinces which did publickly profess the Faith of Christ saith Sabellicus which is also attested by other more Ancient Writers So that it is agreed on all hands here was a true and perfect Church of Christ near five hundred years before they had any Communication with the Bishop of Rome or knew one syllable of this foundation-Article of the Modern Faith of that Church viz. of the Pope ' s Vniversal Supremacy It is also certain the Church of Britain was not subject to Rome at the time of the First General Council at Nice And in the Sixth Canon of that Council it is decreed concerning the three Patriarchs Jurisdictions That the Ancient custom should be established that Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis should be subject to the Bishop of Alexandria because the Bishop of Rome had the like Custome and likewise so it was at Antioch and in other Provinces the Priviledges should be preserved to their Churches c. Now the Ancient Custom and Priviledge of this Church of Britain then was to govern it self without subjection to any Forreign Patriarch and the Pope could not usurp any Dominion here afterwards without transgressing this Canon of the most famous General Council especially if we consider how this Canon was expounded in Ruffinus's daies viz. That Rome should have the Government of the Suburbicarian Churches And the Ancient Survey of the Imperial Provinces will tell you what the Suburbicarian Region was viz. Three Islands Sicily Sardinia and Corsica and part of Italy from the East end to the border of Tuscany Westward And this was all the Ancient extent of the Roman Bishops Jurisdiction the rest of Italy being under the Metropolis of Millain which Church of Old paid no Subjection to Rome much less could any be due to him from Britain Again in the Third General Council of Ephesus An. 431. it was decreed That in all Dioceses and Provinces it should hereafter be observed That no Bishop should henceforward lay hold of another Province which had not formerly and from the beginning been under the power of their Predecessors which Canon the Pope must break also before he can assume a power over the Church of Britain which with the Island of Cyprus and some other places was its own head as those Times phrased it and subject to no Patriarch So that when Augustine the Monk coming over to convert the Pagan Saxons required the British Bishops to profess Subjection to the See of Rome They did by virtue of these Canons refuse it telling him They had a Patriarch of their own to whom alone they were subject in Spiritual things under God and Dionothus Abbot of Bangor by divers Arguments shewed they owed no Subjection to the Roman Bishop as an Old Historian informs us And accordingly the British Bishops retained their Old Rites different from Rome and kept their Old Priviledges being consecrated by the Archbishop of S. Davids and he by his own Suffragans making no Profession of Subjection to any other Church saith their Historian which continued till the day of King Henry the First The Saxons indeed shewed more Respect to Rome because it had assisted in their Conversion hence they sometimes asked Advice of the Pope as of an Eminent neighbour Patriarch but their Bishops never professed Subjection to Rome nor did they own his Supremacy or look on him as an Infallible Judge as appears by their not obeying the Pope's Decree made in a Roman Council about restoring Wilfrid to his Archbishoprick of York An. 680. And though the Pope had confirmed and recommended the Canons of the Second Nicene Council about Images the English Church rejected and despised them writing a Book to condemn Image-worship in the name of all the Princes and Bishops of England and sending it to Charles the Great of France by the learned Alcuinus as our Histories do attest And moreover it is evident that all Ecclesiastical Laws were then made by the Saxon Kings and Bishops in their Provincial Councils by their own Authority without ever so much as acquainting the Pope therewith or desiring his
own Liberty and men of an un-inslaved Understanding SECTION VII Advice to the English Catholicks to forsake the Opinions of Rome and embrace the Religion of the Church of England TO Conclude as my pity to see you so miserably imposed on hath moved me to endeavour by these plain and Cogent Arguments to rescue you from that yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear So my desire of your perfect Freedom and my unfeigned wishes for your Temporal Spiritual and Eternal welfare do prompt me to advise you to comply with the Religion of the Church of England and this Advice is not only grounded upon the foregoing considerations but may be further pressed upon these motives 1. If you consider the excellent method of our Reformation which was so necessary at that time that for some Ages before the wisest and best men of the Roman Church had not only confessed there was great need of it but had complained for want thereof and pressed the Pope earnestly thereunto witness the Judicious Epistle of Rob. Grosthead that pious Bish of Lincoln to Pope Innocent the Fourth yet to be seen in our Historians the publick complaint of the English Church in the Council of Lyons the private Writings of John Gerson Nich. Clemangis Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope and many others And at least One Hundred Years before Luthers time a Reformation was urged for in the Pisane Council and that so strongly that before the Election of a Pope the Cardinals solemnly promised Who ever of them should be chosen Pope that he would before the dissolution of that Council Reform the Catholick Church as well in the Head as the Members And when Alexander the Fifth was chosen He promised to take Care of a General Reformation and that pious and Learned Men should be chosen in every Nation to treat with the Cardinals about it But after all neither he nor his Successors would ever Reform either their Doctrines or Practices being more intent upon their private advantage than the general good and more moved with Cardinal Scombergs Counsel than by all the former complaints who told the Pope That by the Reformation it would be confessed that the things provided against were deservedly reproved by the Lutherans which would be a great abetting to their whole Doctrine Hist Counc Trent l. 1. p. 83. which is to resolve to Err always rather than to be thought to have once erred and herein the Roman Church is of the same humour with those Gentiles to whom Arnobius speaks What you have once done without reason ye defend lest you should seem formerly to have been ignorant and you account it better not to be overcome than to yield to plain and confessed Truth Wherefore since Rome resolved not to Reform England having first restored her King to his Ancient and just Supremacy resolved to reform it self without the Popes leave or consent knowing full well they had Authority sufficient among themselves to order the Affairs of Religion which had been Regulated many Hundred years in this Land by the King and his own Bishops without any dependence on the Pope at all Thus the Kings of Judah reformed their Kingdoms of Old Thus the King of Spain with Leander Bishop of Sevil reformed that Kingdom from Arianism without the Pope and thus King Edgar intended to proceed in the Reformation of the English Church of Old when he told his own Clergy I have Constantines Sword in my hands and you have Peters in yours That is we need no further Authority or power to reform Than what we have within our selves The Kings of this Nation with the advice and consent of their Bishops Barons and Commons had been always wont to order Ecclesiastical affairs as they thought meet not heeding whether the Pope were pleased or displeased thereat And accordingly this happy Reformation was made by the Supreme Power of this Kingdom upon mature deliberation in a Regular Orderly and Legal way and it was managed with so much moderation and prudence that the Romanists of England said little against it but Communicated with this Church after the Reformation till the Pope for his own ends forbid them so to do but I hope his Prohibition without any just reason shall not outweigh the Supreme Authority of your own Nation with you who profess your selves to be Loyal Subjects and for the interest of England and since there was such need of Reformation such obstinacy in Rome such Authority here and so orderly proceedings in this Reformation I think all Good Christians and sober men being Natives of this Land ought to submit unto it II. You will be further perswaded hereunto by considering the Doctrine of this Church which agrees with Primitive Christianity in that it obliges you to believe nothing as of necessity to Salvation but what may be plainly proved our of Holy Scripture and for this reason you must still hold the three Creeds of the Apostles of Nice and of Saint Athanasius all which the Church of England intirely believes And he only is a Heretick which follows not this Holy Rule say the Constitutions of Theodosius and Gratian but they are Catholicks that embrace it In this Church we give as much honour to and obey more Canons of the first Four General Councils than they of Rome do we approve of that Exposition of Scripture which hath the consent of the Fathers of the first three or four Centuries yea we hold all that the Church of Rome it self held as necessary to Salvation for Five or Six hundred Years together and it is very remarkable that a Romanist may turn Protestant without adding any one Article to his Faith but a Protestant cannot turn to Rome unless he embrace many new Articles for our Doctrines are generally confessed by both sides to be true but those of the Roman Church are rejected by our Reformers as Novel Additions and such as have no good foundation in Scripture nor Genuine Antiquity And therefore the Protestant Doctrines are the surer and safer as in which both sides agree For Example we and they both hold there are two States after this life Heaven and Hell but they add a third which is Purgatory and this we deny We and they both say that sins are to be remitted by the merits of Christs death but they add the merits of the Saints and their own satisfactions with the merit of their own good works which we deny to be Expiatory or such as can merit Remission for us We hold there be two Sacraments Baptism and the Eucharist these they confess are the Chief but add Five more to which we affirm the name of Sacraments doth not properly belong We say that God alone is to be worshipped they confess he is chiefly to be worshipped but then they say the Blessed Virgin Mary Angels and Saints are to be worshipped also which Additions we deny We say Christ is our only Mediator and Advocate