191. The Canons made in the Convocation of 1597. bear this Title Capitula sive Constitutiones Ecclesiasticae per Archiepiscopum Episcopos reliquum Clerum Cant. Provinciae in Synodo c. congregatos tractatae ac posteà per ipsam Regiam Majestatem approbatae confirmatae utrique Provinciae tam Cant. quam Ebor. ut diligentiùs observentur eà dem Regiâ Authoritate sub Magno Sigillo Angliae promulgatae †Sparrow p. 243. L. M. P. has been guilty of a piece of slight of hand in producing this Title for he has remov'd the Comma which should be after the word Tractatae backward to Provinciae omitting the Words between those Two that so tractatae may seem to belong to the Sentence which follows it and the Reader be by that means led into a belief that the Original Treating it self was as much from Royal Condescension and Grace as the Passing and Promulging afterwards I need not say how absurd this is and how contrary to the Rules of common Construction and common Sense It is true and Truth being the only thing I seek I shall not conceal it that in the Manuscript Collections of a Learned Man who liv'd before the Convocation-Registers were burnt I have seen a Memor in these following Terms Lib. Convocat ab anno 1584. usque c. 1597. Fol. 195. The Queens Letters Patents to confirm the Canons a Recital of the Writ of their Desire the Canons Confirmation and a Command to have them observ'd in both Provinces Which shews indeed that the Synod in 1597 desir'd and had leave for the Canons they pass'd and implys further that both their Request and the Answer to it were very probably in writing since it could not else have been recited in the Ratification of them But what this Leave was ask'd and given for whether only for the passing these Canons or even for the Previous Treating about them appears not from this Memorandum and must otherwise therefore be determin'd Our Publick Records will not ease us of this Doubt among which I am told this Instrument is not now to be found and the only way therefore we have left of clearing it is by a Recourse to the Title of the Canons which if it may be depended on evidently shews that their Desire was for Leave not to Treat but to Enact only And how Authentick and Significant the Titles of Canons are to this purpose our Adversarys in the next Instance will tell us for they produce †Appeal p. 24. L. M. P. p. 37. the Title of those in 1603. as a manifest Proof that that Synod had a Commission to treat We allow it had and it is the first Synod that ever had one from the 25 H. VIII down to that time L. M. P. indeed has found out one somewhat Elder for he tells us that a Proclamation on came out 5. March 1. Iac. 1. for the Authorizing of the Book of Common Prayer c. which recites that the King had issu'd out a Commission to the Archbishop and others according to the Form which the Laws of the Realm in the like Case prescribe to be us'd to make an Explanation of the Common Prayer c. So that in those days says he this Independent Freedom of Debate was not esteemed amongst the Libertys of the Church †P. 41. But had that Writer seen the Commission it self and not guess'd at the Contents of it from a Recital in a Proclamation he would have known that it was directed not to the Clergy in Convocation for they met not till some Months after the Date of it but to the High Commissioners in Causes Ecclesiastical authorizing the Alterations they had made in the Common-Prayer-Book by vertue of a Proviso in the Act of Uniformity 1 â— Eliz. How is this to his purpose or what possible use can he make of it It is indeed to my purpose to observe from hence how high the Prerogative then ran and what Unreasonable Powers were claim'd by it The Book of Common-Prayer was establisht by an Act of the 1 st of the Queen in which it was provided that if there should happen any Contempt or Irreverence to be used in the Ceremonys or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders appointed in that Book the Queens Majesty might by the Advice of her Commissioners or of the Metropolitan ordain and publish such further Ceremonys or Rites as might be most for the advancement of God's Glory the Edifying of his Church and the due Reverence of Christ's Holy Mysteries and Sacraments * Cap. 2. In vertue of this Proviso King Iames in his first Year gives Directions to the Archbishop and the rest of the High-Commissioners to review the Common-Prayer-Book and they accordingly made several Material Alterations and Enlargements of it in the Office of Private Baptism and in several other Rubricks and Passages added five or six new Prayers and Thanksgivings and all that part of the Catechism which contains the Doctrine of the Sacraments Which last Additions would not I conceive have been in the least warranted by that Proviso had the Powers there specify'd extended to the Queens Hâ—irs and Successors but as they were lodg'd peresonally in the Queen there could I presume be no Colour for K. Iames's exercising them in vertue of it The Drawer up of the Commission was aware of this and supplys therefore what was wanting in this Provisional Clause by some General Words and by a Recourse to that Inexhaustible source of Power the King 's supreme Authority and Prerogative Royall which it seems was at that time conceiv'd to extend so far as to enable the Crown to make Alterations of Great Importance in a Book establish'd by Act of Parliament to authorize the Book thus alter'd and to forbid the Use of the Other I question whether such a Proceeding would now be thought Legal but then it went down quietly and in vertue of it the Common Prayer-Book so alter'd stood in force from the 1 st of K. Iames till the 14 C. II. when upon a new Review it was again confirm'd by Parliament I shall place this Commission in the Appendix †N. XVIII that the Reader may have an Instance what the Doctrine of that time was concerning the Extent of the Prerogative in Church Matters and from thence cease to wonder that a Formal Commission to treat c. should be first granted to the Convocation a few Months afterwards I say first granted for there is no Suspicion of any preceding License of this kind but in 1597. only and that rises no higher than a Suspicion there being stronger Probabilitys against it than for it And thus I hope I have effectually remov'd Dr. W's Argument about the sense of the Act taken from the Constant Practise of All Convocations ever since the framing it which he appeals to so frequently and with so much Calmness and Security that one less acquainted with him than I am
For which reason and because I think the Point to be of Importance and withal related nearly to the Article we are upon I shall here produce some Passages from the Papers and Records of that time which fully clear it King Edward's Answer to the Devonshire-Mens Petition * Fox Vol. 2. p. 666. Assures 'em that for the Mass no small Study or Travel hath been spent by All the Learned Clergy therein †p. 667. b. And agen That whatsoever is contained in our Book either for Baptism Sacrament Mass Confirmation and Service in the Church is by our Parliament established by the whole Clergy agreed yea by the Bishops of the Realm devised by God's Word confirmed ‖ P. 668. a. The Council's Instructions to Dr. Hopton how to discourse the Lady Mary ⸫ Fox Vol. 2. p. 701. affirm the same thing somewhat more forcibly The first of these is Her Grace writeth that the Law made by Parliament is not worthy the Name of a Law meaning the Statute for the Communion c. You shall say thereto The Fault is great in any Subject to disallow a Law of the King a Law of the Realm by long Study free Disputation and uniform Determination of the whole Clergy consulted debated concluded But above all most Express and Full to this purpose is the Assertion in a Letter of Edw. 6. dated Iuly 23. Regni tertio and entred in the Register of Bonner * F. 219. a. it runs thus That one Uniform Order for Common-Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments hath beyn and is most Godly sette fourthe not onely by the Common Agreement and full Assent of the Nobility and Commons in the late Session of our late Parliament but also by the lyke Assent of the Bysshopps in the same Parliament and of all other 's the Learned Men of this our Realm in their Synods and Convocations Provincial I thought it worth my while to make good this Point because it has by some been much doubted and their Doubts have been countenanced by the Act 2 3 Edw. 6. c. 1. which establishes the Service-Book and wherein there is mention only of the Archbishop of Canterbury and certain of the most Learned and Discreet Bishops and other Learned Men of this Realm appointed to compile it but no Formal notice is taken of the Convocation that passed it And the Proof I have given in this single Instance will suggest to the Reader that it might be so in General and that several other Things done by this Select Committee were probably approved afterwards in Convocation tho' the Statutes and other Records of that time should seem to mention the Committee only The Convocation-Records which alone could have given us Full Light in this case are destroyed and the chief way we now have of supplying this Defect is by Parallel Instances and Probable Reasonings which Fair Men therefore will admit as good Evidence for want of better and not take advantage as Dr. Wake does from the Destruction of such Records to deny that there ever were any This is as if a Man should pretend to prove that none of the People of such or such a Parish were in the Reign of Edward the Sixth Christned because perhaps the Old Parish-Registers are lost This made way for the Act of 1548 p. 93. and 1551 p. 189. He means King Edward's two Acts of Uniformity which established the first and second Service-Book and way therefore was made for them not by this New Office of Communion but by the Service-Books themselves These I have shewn tho' the Work of a Committee yet had the Authority of Convocation inasmuch as the Convocation approved this Committee before-hand and confirmed what was done by it afterwards I have shewn it I mean of the One and the Reader therefore will easily believe that the same Steps and Measures were observed as to the Other 1549. An Order of Council forbidding Private Masses Ibid. p. 102 103. As contrary to the Statute of Uniformity and to the Determinations of the Clergy in Convocation and the Council therefore who sent this Order do afterwards in a Letter of theirs to the Lady Mary * Iune 4. 1551. call her Chaplains saying Mass a contempt not of Their but of the Ecclesiastical Orders of this Church of England †Fox Vol. 2. p. 709. The Forms of Ordination appointed by Act of Parliament ordered to be drawn up by a special Committee of Six Bishops and Six Divines to be nam'd by the King Ibid. p. 141 143. The true account of this is that the Council had already appointed this Committee at the Instance as we may from former Precedents reasonably collect of the Convocation it self then sitting and of the Members of Convocation therefore this Committee was composed according to my Lord of Sarum's account of it Some Bishops and Divines says he brought now together by a Session of Parliament were appointed to prepare a Book of Ordination * Vol. 2. p. 140. The Session was likely to end before these Forms could be prepared and the Parliament passed therefore a previous Confirmation of them as they had done in the case of the Necessary Erudition in 1540 †See Stat. 32 Hen. 8. cap. 25. Dr. Wake must have a very uncommon way of arguing if he can draw any thing to the Prejudice of the Churches Power from such Instances as these where such an Implicit Deference was paid to the Resolutions of the Clergy as to Enact 'em before the Parliament had seen 'em and indeed before they were made Dr. W. we see does in this and in every other step of this Article appeal to my L. of S.'s Book and would under the cover of his Lordship's Name put off all his Bad History and Worse Opinions It may not be amiss therefore to give him the Iudgment of this Right Reverend Prelate clearly expressed and avowed in another Piece ‖ Vind. of the Ord. of the Ch. of Engl. and with that to ballance all these Doubtful and Uncertain Authorities His Lordship speaking of the English Ordinal the Point we are upon and of the Alterations that were afterwards made in it has these words It was indeed confirmed by the Authority of Parliament and there was good reason to desire That to give it the force of a Law but the Authority of the Book and those Changes is wholly to be derived from the Convocation who only consulted about them and made them And the Parliament did take that care in the Enacting them that might shew they did only add the force of a Law to them for in passing them it was ordered that the Book of Common-Prayer and Ordination should only be read over and even that was carried upon some Debate for many as I have been told moved that the Book should be added to the Act as it was sent to the Parliament from the Convocation without ever reading it but that seemed Indecent and too Implicit to
kind was done Nor is the Usual Account of this Action of the Cardinal 's worse than the Reason given for it for he is made to dissolve the Convocation because as Archbishop of York he had no place there But I hope as Bishop of Bath and Wells * He took Durham and quitted B and W. while this Convocation was sitting but the Exact Date of this Change I have not consider'd or Abbat of St. Albans he had and might therefore in either of these Qualitys have been present in the Convocation of Cant. if that had been all he aim'd at But it was neither suitable to his Character nor agreed well with his Temper or his Business to appear among the Clergy any otherwise than as a Legate As such he took place of Warham and presided over the Debates of the whole Body and had an opportunity by that means of poysing the Refractory Part of the Clergy in Warham's District with Those of his Own Province who would be more complying Common Justice oblig'd me to say thus much in behalf of that Great Minister who had Real Faults enough not to be loaded with Untrue Ones Dr. W. had much Nearer Obligations to have done this who has eat the Bread of Wolsey to use an Homely but Authoriz'd Phrase near Half his Life and now owes his Comfortable Summer-Retreat to that Cardinal's Bounty But I find the Premunire that transferr'd all the Cardinal's Estate to the Crown has transferr'd all the Doctor 's Gratitude thither too and with reason for the Cardinal is Dead long ago but Crowns are Immortal He has His reason and I have mine which is to do right to any injur'd Person let his Character be what it will and not to fall in with a Calumny knowingly let it be never so Popular and Fashionable They that defend the Dead cannot be suppos'd guilty of Flattery or Design and with either of these I thank God there is not a Line in this Work that can reproach me I have now offer'd all I think necessary either to assert explain or justify that Double Right of the Clergy which I at the Entrance of these Papers propos'd to maintain their Right of Meeting at set times and Acting within such a Determin'd Compass as I have mark'd out There is behind still a Second Consideration which relates to the Need that the Church has of such Meetings and which according to the Method laid down I should now enter upon But this Book has grown too much under my hands to allow room for any New Matter here and all therefore that I shall say of it is that if the Church has a Clear Right to such Meetings which by this time I hope is past a Doubt she has for that very Reason a Need of them because her Right has been publickly question'd and actually suspended for a Time And she has Need therefore to exert it that she may be sure to preserve it Upon this Foot I shall leave the Point of Expedience at present not without Intentions of returning to it and giving the Reader as full and particular a View of the Debate on This side also if it shall appear that what has been already said has not had its Due Effect on Those whose Eyes the Author of these Papers is particularly concern'd to open and whose backwardness to keep the Church in possession of her Greatest Priviledge he cannot but impute chiefly to a mistaken Opinion they are in that she has really no such Priviledge to claim And that Mistake therefore being clear'd up he hopes and believes that they will be as ready to assert her Just Rights and Espouse her True Interests as any Men. These are his present Apprehensions and Wishes in which he shall be very sorry to find himself deceiv'd but if so it happen has determin'd not to stop here but proceed on to such further Enquirys and Considerations as he shall judge proper to promote the End that he aims at the great Importance and Reasonableness of which he is so fully satisfy'd of that he shall think no Sacrifice whether of his Time his Ease or his Fortune too dear to be bestow'd upon it He is sure that he has the Perpetual Practise of the Church of Christ and the Law of his Country on his side and he is conscious of no other Aims in what he has undertaken than those of promoting the Honor of God and his Religion and supporting our Constitution and these Assurances and Views will he trusts carry him on to the End of his Work through whatever Difficultys and Discouragements If he succeeds in his Design he shall think that he has not liv'd in vain if he fails yet he will satisfy himself in having honestly attempted it and done what in him lay to preserve to the Body he is of the poor Remains of their Ancient Legal Rights and Priviledges for he could not stand by and see the Great Rights of his Church ready to â—ink without endeavoring to save them The Events of things are not in our Disposal it becomes private Men to do their Duty without having a Demonstration that it shall be successful And should it be determin'd to lay this Part of Our Constitution asleep yet he is not without hopes that the Truths deliver'd in this Book for Truths they are may in some Favourable Juncture contribute to awaken it With this single Prospect he would have undertaken the Work had all others fail'd him and in despair of being listned to by the Present Age would have wrote and appeal'd to Posterity At the worst what he has here offer'd and shall further offer if it have no other Effect will yet be serviceable as a Testimony against Dr. Wake 's Book and the Pernicious Principles of it it will let our Successors see that his Doctrine whatever Boasts or Pretences it might make was not the Doctrine of the Church and the Age in which he liv'd but was disown'd and detested as soon as wrote and that the Establishment of the Practise which he pleads for if it must be Establisht was not owning any ways to the Silence of those who were concern'd to oppose it Especially if so it fall out that They of the Clergy who are not of Dr. Wake 's Mind and in his Measures shall upon this occasion take some way of owning publickly to the World their Dislike of them this will justify the Body from having any Hand in stifling and betraying their Own Priviledges and will remove the Guilt of any Present or Future Innovation from Them at whose Door soever it lays it I have done with the Argument of Dr. Wake 's Book and have now only a short Address to make to the Writer of it whom towards the latter End of it I find thus expressing himself This says he brings us to the true way of deciding the point here before us If by the Laws and Usages of this Kingdom the Convocation has a Right to Sit and Act
docto pio fideli in Prolocutorem suum assumendo consultantes unanimiter consentiant eligant sicque electum ipsi R mo in eâdem domo Capitulari prox insequente Sessione debitâ cum solennitate praesentent His dictis descendunt omnes in inferiorem domum ad effectum praedictum Forma Eligendi Praesentandi Prolocutorem SOlet observari ut postquam ingressi fuerint Inferiorem Domum in sedibus se decenter collocent si aliqui ex iis sint Consiliarii sive Sacellanâ— Regiae Majestatis ut hi superiores sedes occupent atque inde unus ex iis propter dignitatem Reverentiam seu in eorum absentiâ Decanus Ecclesiae Cath. Divi Pauli London sive Archidiac Lond. Presidentis officio in hujusmodi Electione fungatur Atque ut ad hoc â—iâ—e procedatur primùm jubebit nomina omnium citatorum qui tunc interesse tenentur à dictae inferioris Domûs recitari praeconizari Notatisque absentibus alloquatur praesentes atque eorum sententiam de idoneo procuratore eligendo sciscitetur Et postquam de eo convenerint quod semper quasi statim absque ullo negotio perfici solebat mox conveniant inter se de duobus Eminentioris Ordinis qui dictum electum R mo D o. Cant. in die statuto debitâ cum Reverentiâ Solennitate praesentent Quorum alter sicut cum dies advenerit ipsum Prolocutorem cum Latinâ doctâ oratione praesentare tenetur sic etiam idem praesentatus habitu Doctoratûs indutus consimilem Orationem ad dictum R mum Patrem ac Praelatos caeteros praesentes habere debet Quibus finitis praefatus R mus Oratione Latinâ tam Electores quam Presentatorem Praesentatum pro suâ gratiâ collaudare ac demùm ipsam Electionem suâ Arch. authoritate expresse confirmare approbare non dedignabitur Et statim idem R mus Anglicè si placeat exponere solet ulteriâ—s beneplaeitum suum hortando Clerum ut de rebus communibus quae Reformatione indigeant consultent referant die statuto Ac ad hunc modum de Sessione in Sessionem continuabitur Convocatio quam diu expedire videbitur ac donec de eâdem dissolvendâ Breve Regium eidem R mo praesentetur Et sciendum est quòd quotiescunque Prolocutor ad praesentiam R mi causâ Convocationis ac Tempore Sessionis â—ccesserit utatur habitu praedicto ac Ianitor sive Virgifer dictae Inferioris Domûs ipsum reverenter antecedat Ejusdem Prolocutoris est etiam monere omnes ne discedant à Civitate London absque Licentiâ R mi Quodque statutis diebus tempestive veniant ad Conv. Quodque salaria Clericorum tam superioris quam Inferioris Domûs Ianitoris Inferioris Domûs juxta â—â—tiquam taxationem quatenus eorum quemlibet â—â—ncernit fideliter persolvant Synodalia fol 3. XVIII JAMES by the Grace of God See p. 385. c. To the most reverend Father in God our right trusty and well beloved Counsellor Iohn Archbishop of Canterbury of all England Primate and Metropolitan the reverend Fathers in God our trusty and well beloved Richard Bishop of London Anthony Bishop of Chichester and to the rest of our Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical Greeting Whereas all such Jurisdictions Rights Priviledges Superiorities and Prehemynences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority have heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction as well of the same as of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of Virtue and the conservation of the Peace and Unity of this our Realm of England are for ever by authority of Parliament of this our Realm united and annexed unto the Imperial Crown of the same And whereas also by Act of Parliament it is provided and enacted that whensoever we shall see cause to take further Order for or concerning any Ornament Right or Ceremony appointed or prescribed in the Book commonly called the Book of Common Prayer Administration of the Sacraments and other Rights and Ceremonies of the Church of England and our Pleasure known therein either to our Commissioners so authorized under the great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical or to the Metropolitan of this our Realm of England that then further Order should be therein taken accordingly We therefore understanding that there were in the said Book certain things which might require some Declaration and enlargement by way of Explanation and in that respect having required you our Metropolitan and you the Bishops of London and Chichester and some others of our Commissioners authorized under our great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical according to the Intent and meaning of the said Statute and of some other Statutes also and by our Supream Authority and prerogative Royal to take some care and pains therein have sithence received from you the said particular things in the said Book declared and enlarged by way of Explanation made by you our Metropolitan and the rest of our said Commissioners in manner and form following Then come several Alterations in the Calendar Rubricks and Offices of Private Baptism and Confirmation an Addition about the Sacraments at the Close of the Catechism A Prayer for the Royal Family and six new Forms of Thanksgiving for Rain Fair Weather c. and after these inserted at length it follows All which particular points and things in the said Book thus by you declared and enlarged by way of Exposition and Explanation Forasmuch as we having maturely considered of them do hold them to be very agreeable to our own several Directions upon Conference with you and others and that they are in no part repugnant to the Word of God nor contrary to any thing that is already contained in that Book nor to any of our Laws or Statutes made for Allowance or Confirmation of the same We by virtue of the said Statutes and by our supream Authority and Prerogative Royal do fully approve allow and ratify All and every one of the said Declarations and Enlargements by way of Explanation Willing and requiring and withal Authorizing you the Archbishop of Canterbury that forthwith you do Command our Printer Robert Barker newly to Print the said Common Book with all the said Declarations and Enlargements by way of Exposition and Explanation above mentioned And that you take such Order not only in your own Province but likewise in our Name with the Archbishop of York for his Province that every Parish may provide for themselves the said Book so Printed and Explained to be only used by the Minister of every such Parish in the Celebration of Divine Service and Administration of the Sacraments and duely by him to â—e observed according to Law in all the other parts with the Rites and Ceremonies
Entertainment that follows P. 84. He proposes this Question Whether the Prince should be allow'd a Power to alter or improve what a Synod has defin'd to add to or take from it and thus he resolves it Sure I am that this Princes have done and so I think they have Authority to do For since the Legislative Power is lodg'd in their hands so that they may make what Laws or Constitutions they think fit for the Church as well as the State since a Synod in matters relating to Discipline is but a kind of Council to them in Ecclesiastical Affairs whose Advice having taken they may still act as they think fit seeing lastly a Canon drawn up by a Synod is but as it were Matter prepar'd for the Royal Stamp the last forming of which as well as enforcing whereof must be left to the Princes Iudgment I cannot see why the Supreme Magistrate who confessedly has a Power to confirm or reject their Decrees may not also make such other Use of them as he pleases and correct improve or otherwise alter their Resolutions according to his Own Liking before he gives his Authoty to them †P. 85. He is speaking here I confess of the Power of the Prince at large without pointing his words particularly on England but since he asserts this Power to every Prince and does not except Ours it is manifest he means him as much as if he had particularly mention'd him And this he himself is not shy of owning for before the End of this Chapter he in plain terms tells us that by Our Own Constitution the King of England has all that Power over Our Convocation that ever any Christian Prince had over his Synods †P. 98. And goes on afterwards ⸪ P. 136. to shew that H. the VIII did this very thing in 1536 correcting and amending with his Own Hand the Articles of Religion then drawn up before they were publish'd He does not indeed expresly Iustify this Act of H. the VIII but which is all one he mentions it without a word to shew that he disapprov'd it I will be bold to say that were this single Doctrine true the Late King might have gone a great way toward subverting our Religion without breaking in upon the Constitution or doing any thing Illegal He might have assembled the Clergy and commanded their Iudgment upon such and such Points and then alter'd their Resolutions to his Own Liking and so have set up Rank Popery under the Countenance of a Protestant Convocation Especially if he had call'd this other Principle of Dr. W's into his Aid Some of our Princes he says have not only prescrib'd to our Convocations what they should go about but have actually drawn up before hand what they thought Convenient to have established and have requir'd them to approve of it without submitting it to their Iudgments whether they approv'd of it or not ‖ P. 110. Which Fact also he gives us as a Right without insinuating the least Dislike of it And a very Convenient Right it is for Princes that meditate New Schemes of Church Government Twelve Years ago enforc'd by the Pen of a Parker or a Cartwright it might have done great Service it would have helpt on all the Pious Designs then upon the Anvil and if the Asserter of it had not been a Bishop to be sure it would have made him one Can such Doctrines ever be Serviceable I say not Grateful to This Government which would have ruin'd our Establish'd Religion under the Former But his Conclusions are not worse than his way of coming at them which is in this and in every case first by shewing what has been practis'd by the Emperors and other Absolute Princes and by asserting the same Power to belong to Our King as a King not by vertue of the particular Laws and Usages of this Realm but by the Right of Sovereignty in general †See Appeal p. 111.112 upon which he expresly owns himself to found the Authority of our Princes in Matters Ecclesiastical †See Appeal p. 111.112 and says therefore as we have heard that they have the same Power over Our Convocations that ever any Christian Prince had over his Synods And accordingly makes it the whole Business of his second Chapter that is of a Fourth part of his Book to set out the Powers exercis'd by Absolute Princes and particularly by the Roman Emperors over their Synods in order to warrant the Use of like Powers here at home I know not how this Doctrine may relish now but in the 7th * Mr. Nicholson See Hist. Libr. part 3. p. 177. according to his Exactness in Dates places this 3 io Iacobi whereas the Book it self was not set out till two Years afterwards as if he had seen any Edition of it he might from the Date of the Preface have known But he unluckily met with a false Print to this purpose in the Posthumous part of Spelman 's Glossary in Voce Tenura and he is always an Implicit Transcriber Year of King James the I. as high as Prerogative then ran it did not I am sure go down well with the Parliament for then Dr. Cowel's Interpreter was censur'd by the Two Houses as asserting several Points to the overthrow and destruction of Parliaments ond of the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom And One of the Articles charg'd upon him to this purpose by the Commons in their Complaint to the Lords was as Mr. Petyt †Miscell Parl. p. 66. says out of the Journal this that follows 4thly The Doctor draws his Arguments from the Imperial Laws of the Roman Emperors an argument which may be urg'd with as great reason and with as great Authority for the reduction of the State of the Clergy of England to the Polity and Laws in the Time of those Emperors as also to make the Laws and Customs of Rome and Constantinople to be binding and obligatory to the Citys of London and York The issue of which Complaint was that the Author for these his Outlandish Politicks was taken into Custody and his Book condemn'd to the Flames Nor could the Dedication of it to his then Grace of Canterbury save it who did not think himself concern'd to countenance whatever Doctrine any Indiscreet Writer should take the Liberty to ascribe to him He that thinks a Prince Absolute in Spirituals thinks him no doubt as Absolute in Temporals and will when a Proper time shall come not stick to say so Dr. W. has given some significant Hints that way in the words already produc'd from him for what else can he mean by the Legislative Powers being lodg'd in the Princes hands so that he may make what Laws he pleases for the Church as well as the State if we consider him to speak as he does of the Prince exclusively to the Three Estates of the Realm And when he adds therefore a few Lines afterwards that a Canon is
Confirmation However that may be sure we are That the Convocation of the Clergy have as has been said already for above 150 Years in every Instance except that of Forty and the Synods Legatin Met and Rose within a day of the Parliament And if Custom therefore be the Law of Convocations as it is of Parliaments and we have Dr. Wake 's Word for it that it is †Pp. 105 â—98 then is it Law that the Convocation should meet Only and Always in time of Parliament The Learned Mr. Cambden knew no better whose Words are Synodus quae Convocatio Cleri dicitur semper simul cum Parliamento habetur ‖ Britannia in Cap. de Tribunalibus Thus stood Britannia Then though a late Paultry Compiler of the New State of England will have it that it is an Assembly which now and then Meets and that in time of Parliament * Miege 's New State of England Part. III. p. 64. Thanks to Dr. Wake for furnishing him with the occasion for such a Definition which I trust however that the Doctor and all his Friends shall not in the Event be able to prove a True One not even by that only Argument which can ever possibly prove it so Future practice The very Warrant to the Keeper of the Great Seal for issuing out Writs for a Parliament is a standing Testimony against these new Notions It ran thus in Iames the First 's time and I suppose runs so still Whereas we are resolved to have a Parliament at c. These are to Will and Require you forthwith upon Receipt hereof to Issue forth our Writs of Summons to all the Peers of our Kingdom and also all other Usual Writs for the Electing of such Knights Citizens and Burgâ—sses as are to Serve therein and withall to Issue out all Usual Writs for the Summoning of the Clergy of both Provinces in their Houses of Convocation And this shall be your Warrant so to do * Hâ—câ—er's Life of Bishop Williams p. 173. So that the Writs for the Convocation are it seems as Usual as those for the Commons and the One Assembly therefore is as Customary as the Other My Lord of Sarum seems to have had no other thoughts where in the Entrance of his History of our Reformed Synods for such every History of our Reformation is or should be he lays it down That with the Writs for a Parliament there went out always a Summons to the Two Archbishops for calling a Convocation of their Provinces †Hist. Ref. I. Vol. p. 20. Always i e. long before the times of H. VIII of which his Lordship is Writing I doubt not but his Lordship's Meaning then was That these Writs went out to Purpose and had their due and full Effect for the Distinction which some State-Logicians since have Coin'd ‖ Dr. W. p. 106 107 14â— 141. between a Right of being Summoned and a Right of Mâ—â—â—ing in Virtue of that Summons was not then Invented But I presume too far in venturing to guess at his Lordship's Thoughts when his Words are such as may indifferently serve either Hypothesis and can therefore I must confess be a good Authority for neither Let us have Recourse therefore to Those who are more determined in their Expressions Archbishop Cranmer in that Speech by which he opened the first Convocation under E. 6. affirms it to be * MS. Acta Synodi incoeptae Nov. 5. An. 1547. De more regni Angliae primo quoque anno regni cujuslibet Regis citare Parliamentum nec non Convocare Synodum Episcoporum Cleri sicque fieri in praesenti de Mandato Regis He speaks of a Custom only in the First Year of every Reign because That was the Present Case whereas Cardinal Pool at a Synod held in the latter end of Queen Mary enlarges the Assertion and says †Act. MS. Syn. coeptae Ian. 21. 1557. Quòd cum de antiquo more Rex Angliae ob aliquot arduas Causas Praelatos hujus Regni ad Concilium sive Parliamentum suum adesse jubet propter Regis Securitatem Regni Statum Concilia Auxilia sua impâ—nsuros Ita Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis Episcopos suos Suffraganeos Praelatos c. ad Sacrum Concilium evocare assolet de iisdem Causis tractaturos auxilia sua consimili modo daturos And to the same purpose the Good Martyr Archdeacon Philpott a Member of Convocation and well skill'd in the Rights of it He in his Supplication to the King Queen and Parliament complains That where there was by the Queen's Highness a Parliament called and after the Old Custom a Convocation of the Clergy ‖ Fox Vol. III. p. 587. Nor did those Lords of the Council who disputed other Points with him deny this but agreed in Terms That the Convocation-House was called by One Writ of Summons of the Parliament of an Old ⸪ Ibid. p. 552. Custom I lay no great weight upon their Opinion because it was casually given and by Persons who though of the King 's Privy Council yet might perhaps be as Ill inform'd of these Matters as Meaner Men For a Seat at that Honourable Board does not necessarily imply a thorough knowledge of this part of our Constitution I mention their Opinion only to meet with Dr. Wake who has produced it on the other side with as much Gravity and Deference as if it were a Resolution of the Twelve Judges Assembled * P. 251. He had been Reading I suppose in that Notable Book of the Law The Attorney's Academy where he found it thus formally vouch'd †P. 221. And he thought he might safely Write after so Worthy a Pattern To make amends for this slight Authority I shall produce another of somewhat more force even the Judgment of a whole Synod in Queen Mary's time who introduce their Petition about the Confirmation of Abby Lands to the Patentees with this Preamble ‖ 1.2 P. M. c. 8. Nos Episcopi Clerus Cant. Prov. in hâc Synodo more nostro solito dum Regni Parliamentum celebratur congregati Where we see they lay claim to an Old Immemorial Custom not only of being Called by the King 's Writ together with every Parliament but of Meeting also upon that Call by the same Custom For unluckily it happens to spoil Dr. Wake 's New Scheme that they place the Usage in their being more solito Congregati not Convocati or Summoniti as the Word should have been to make Their Assertion consistent with His. But alas they knew nothing of this new Doctrine and their Expressions therefore are not so contrived as to favour it They were then Assembled in a Synod and Acting as a Synod when they drew up this Petition And 't is of a Custom therefore of so Assembling and Acting that they speak and not of being only Summoned Nor was this the Sense of the Clergy alone but of an Whole Parliament
given to 'em from the Persons they represented These ran always in the same Terms with the Writs of Summons and varyed according to them so that when the One was ad tractandum ordinandum faciendum or ad faciendum consentiendum or ad consentiendum only so was the Other These Instruments they exhibited the first day of the Session or at least of their Appearance there and Memorandum's of them were enter'd together with the other Proxies by the Clerk of the Parliament This was the Method in which the Praemunientes was Executed upon the Inferior Clergy and obey'd by them a Method not practis'd once or twice upon an Exigence only as our Adversaries ignorantly talk but for two hundred years and upwards at least after the first framing it Several times it was inserted in the Latter Years of Edward the First as the Writs Printed by Pryn and Dugdale shew and sometimes when they take no notice of it * For instance the Writ for the Parliament in Quindena Purific 33 E. 1. is Printed in Dugdale p. 45. without the Praemunientes whereas both That and the Writ of Prorogation certainly had it as appears from a Certificatorium relating to the one and a Procuratorium to the other both enter'd in a Register of Henry the Prior of Canterbury And I have seen either the Certificatories or Letters of Proxy that were drawn up by some Capitular Body or other in relation to every one of these Meetings Three or four of these for the Convent of Bathe Pryn †Parl. Wr. Vol. 1. Pp. 116 117 118. has given us as Rarities and indeed they are All that I have seen Printed any where for That which he mentions out of Selden is a Deputation for an Abbat only However in the Old Chapter-Books they are very commonly to be met with and from thence therefore I shall take the Forms of some Few ‖ See Append Numb XI and the Dates of as many more as will be requisite to continue the Succession of them down to Henry the Eighth's Reign All Edward the First 's time I have said that this Clause had its due effect the Clergy by vertue of it resorting from Both Provinces to Parliament Of this the Evidence is very Full and Convincing in relation to his Last Parliament at Carlisle the Records of which Ryley has Printed at length in his Placita Parliamentaria and amongst them the Names of all those Proctors that appear'd for every Capitular Body and for the Clergy of Each Diocese of the Kingdom 'T is the only thing of the kind that is extant or perhaps preserv'd and the Book where it lyes is in the Hands of Few but the Professors of the Law for which reason I shall place a Specimen of it in the Appendix * See Num. XII Nor did any Change happen in this respect all Edward the Second's time Indeed the Weakness of that Prince who was given up to his Favourites and his Pleasures and the Ascendant which Archbishop Winchelsey had over him after his Return from Exile encourag'd the Clergy to slacken a little in their Obedience to this Clause at the Beginning of his Reign and once or twice under Archbishop Reynolds they attempted to free themselves wholly from the Authority of a Lay-Summons But they could not bring it to pass and after a short struggle therefore soon returnâ—d to their Duty and made their Representatives regularly according to the Tenor of it throughout all the Latter part of his Reign It will be at least a curious if not an useful piece of knowledge to give our selves some Account of the Steps taken by the Lower Clergy to get rid of the Praemunientes and of the little Varieties made use of in convening them at this Critical Time In the first and third years of this Prince when it went out it was comply'd with * Vide Procuratoria data 3. Apr. 1307. 25. Apr. 1309. in Registro Henrici Prioris but the Clergy afterwards fell off so that in his fifth year he found himself oblig'd to insert a Clause of a different nature into the two Archbishops Writs * See the Form in Dugd. Summoit Pp. 77 78. ordering them to bring the Clergy not of their several Dioceses only but Provinces to Parliament And here for ought I can find the Foundation was laid for that Practice of a Double Summons of the Clergy both by the Provincial and Bishop's Writ which grew afterwards the setled Course and does even to this day with some small Variety as to the Form obtain Two years afterwards a New Attempt was made by the Crown to bring Each Province apart before the King's Commissioners out of Parliament time but by Writs in a Parliamentary Form to the several Suffragan Bishops and by others to the two Archbishops †See Append Numb XIII ordering them to convene their Clergy Provincially at two different Times and Places therein mention Prout in proximo Parliamento nostro apud Westminster habito tam per Clerum quam per Communitatem regni nostri extitit concordatum †This refers to the Parliament in Quindenâ Paschae Dugd. p. 95. which was Summon'd with the Praemunientes and that Clause was as appears by these words obey'd The Direction of it was Venire faciatis coram dictis fidelibus nostris Suffraganeos vestros Decanos Priores Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Archidiaconos Abbates Exemptos non Exemptos Provinciae vestrae in propriis personis Capitula etiam per unum Clerum per duos Procuratores ad tractandum consentiendum unà Vobiscum c. And because the Exempt Abbats might be backward in obeying the Archbishop's Mandate They too had the same Writ sent 'em as the Suffragans had the Clause Praemunientes only excepted Had this Method succeeded it would have brought the Clergy more effectually and in fuller Numbers to Parliament than the Praemunitory Clause did When met therefore they took the Alarm and remonstrated against it as a Novelty never before practis'd in formâ quâ nunc scribitur They complain also of the Total Insertion of the King 's Writ into the Archbishop's Mandate as tending to a manifest Subversion of their Priviledges and desire a Revocation of it and that they may be resummon'd in a Regular Manner by the Archbishop without any Interposition of the Civil Authority which was granted The Remonstrance * See it Append Numb XIV is set down in an Old Cotton-Manuscript †Faustin A. 5. but with a false Date for it is there supposed to be made at a Convocation in 1322 to which it no ways belongs The Alteration this produc'd was that the next year of this Prince's reign but the same of our Lord the Archbishop had two several Writs directed to him when the Parliament was Summon'd the One as he was Bishop of the Diocese with the Usual Clause for the Lower Clergy the other ‖ See it
their Iurisdiction and the Commons by their Money Bills so that the being Member Part or Parcel of Parliament does not necessarily imply the very same Parliamentary Interests and Powers And the Clergy therefore though no part of the Civil Legislature nor concern'd directly in the great Affairs of State transacted in Parliament may yet in other Respects and to other Purposes be properly reputed and styl'd a Member of Parliament And accordingly I have shewn that they have been thus esteem'd and spoken of from the time of their separation downwards and even by Henry the VIII himself many Years after their submission to him One instance of this kind has been given already †P. 59. from a Proclamation in the 35 th of his Reign and because the way of Wording these State-Papers is a matter of great Weight and Importance I shall here add another from an Original Direction of the same Prince to his Judges then about to go their Summer Circuit It begins thus By the KING Henry R. Cleop. E. 6. fol. 214. TRusty and Right Well-beloved We grete you well And whereas heretofore as ye know both upon most just and vertuouse Fundations grownded upon the Lawes of Almighty God and Holly Scripture and allso by the deliberate Advice Consultation Consent and Agreement as well of the Bishops and Clergie as by the Nobles and Commons Temporall of this our Realme assembled in our High Courte of Parliament and by Auctorite of the same the Abuses of the Bishop of Rome his Auctoritie and Jurisdiction of long tyme usurped against Us have been not only utterly Extirped Abolish'd and Secluded but also the same Our Nobles and Commons both of the Clergie and Temporaltie by another several Acte and upon like fundation for the publique Weal of this our Realme have united knytte and annexed to Us and the Corone Imperiall of this Our Realme the Title Dignite and Stile of Supreme Hed in Erthe immediately under God of the Church of England as undoubtedly evermore we have been Which things also the said Bishops and Clergy particularly in their Convocations have wholly and entirely consented recogniz'd ratify'd confermed and approved autentiquely in Writing Sign'd June 25. And that this Doctrine was still good and the Language much the same as low as the Restauration of C. the II. the Office then set out for the 5 th of November shews where mention is made of the Nobility Clergy and Commons of this Realm then assembled in Parliament †Prayer the 2 d. For to say that by the Clergy of this Realm my Lords the Bishops only are intended were so absurd a Gloss that even Dr. Wake 's Pen would I believe be asham'd of it And if they were then rightly said to be assembled in Parliament they may as rightly be said to be so assembled still and if assembled in Parliament why not a Member of Parliament to those Intents and Purposes I mean for which they are assembled in it Dr. Wake will be pleas'd to answer this Question at his Leisure and withal to inform us among his late Meditations on the Day †Serm. on the 5 th of Nov. 1699. this had not been a proper one His Function may be some excuse for his being a stranger to the Language of the Statute Book or of our Manuscript Records but not to have so much Law as even his Common Prayer-Book would have furnish'd him with is let me tell him inexcusable Dr. Wake 's Foundation therefore failing the Inference he builds upon it falls accourse and the Argument will now run quite the other way that because the Clergy are a Part or Member of Parliament in a qualify'd Sense therefore they ought to Assemble with it However since that Expression is invidious and liable to be misconstru'd I willingly wave it and content my self to say that though the Clergy are now no Member or Estate of Parliament as they once were not the Third as Dr. W. ignorantly talks †P. 151. but the First Estate of it yet are they still an Estate of the Realm necessarily attendant on the Parliament and have attended as such whenever a new Parliament was called from the time that they left off to be an Estate of Parliament till within a few Years past with few Exceptions to the contrary and with none from the Reign of Henry the VII to that of his present Majesty And this prescription of some hundred Years has given them an undoubted Right of being summon'd and sitting as often as a Parliament is summon'd and sits though they are not a Member or Estate of Parliament No more than this need be said to remove the Objection But I design not barely to answer Dr. Wake but moreover to give the Reader every where as Comprehensive a View of the Subject in Debate as the short compass of this Work will allow of and shall take occasion therefore from hence to deduce an Account of the Interest which the Lower Clergy have had all along in these State Meetings 'T is a point that well deserves our Reflections and Dr. Wake therefore according to his instructive way has said nothing of it No body had gone before him and common plac'd our Historians and Manuscript Authorities to his hand on this Argument and he never ventures to break the way or to give us any part of Learning but what has born the test of Time and is warranted by at least an hundred Years usage A compleat State of this point is not to be expected in a Digression all I can do here is to lay before the Reader some of the most Material Passages to this purpose that have occurr'd to me in our Histories and Records and to add here and there a few cursory Remarks upon them which will throw some small Light into things as we pass and may suggest matter of juster and sounder Reflections to others who shall write after me on this Argument The Proofs taken singly may few of them perhaps seem full and convincing however when united I perswade my self they will carry such an evidence in them as is not easily to be withstood The Saxon times are overspread with Darkness and yet Light enough is still left us to discover that the Inferior Clergy as well as Laâ—eâ—y were then oftentimes call'd to the Great Councils of the Realm Much has been Written on this Point as to the Laiety but I do not remember that I have met any where an account of the Lower Clergys Interest in those Meetings and therefore I shall produce some Proofs of it here without entring into the Civil part of the Dispute any further than may be of use to give Light to the Ecclesiastical and to clear the Ancient Rights and Priviledges of the Commons Spiritual which I am satisfy'd ran even all along with those of the Commons Temporal and proportionably grew declin'd or reviv'd with them The first Instance I shall take notice of to this purpose is
here laid down is no new Scheme of mine contriv'd to serve a Turn but what has in the main been long ago asserted by the Learned Mr. Sheringham in his Book of the Supremacy In the Saxon Times says he Laws were commonly made by the Approbation and Consent of the Nobles Archbishops and Bishops in a Publick Synod or Parliament sometimes the Queen was present sometimes the Inferior Clergy and sometimes also the Commons but that hapned very seldom †P. 52. Which coming from the Pen of one of known skill in our English Antiquities and in a Treatise not at all design'd to assert the Liberty of the Subject does on both these accounts carry a particular weight with it and will with those who have a due regard for that excellent Writer be a strong presumption of the truth of all I have offer'd on this Argument Another clear proof of the Lower Clergys assisting frequently at those Great Councils may be drawn from the Subscriptions of Charters where we frequently meet with Capellani and Presbyteri and sometimes with simple Deacons among the other Witnesses One instance or two have been given already to which these following ones may be added A Charter of King Ethelred (⸪) So it should be though the MS. by the mistake of the Scribe puts Edgar instead of Ethelred to the Church of Pauls Ann. 867. is subscrib'd by several Ministri Abbates Presbyteri intermingled †Lib. MS. Paul Eccl. notat B. f. 20. a. In another of the same Prince to the same Church after the Bishops Duces Satrapae two Presbyters and a Deacon follow * Ib. fol. 21. The Saxon Chronicle affords us one of these Instruments with all the subscriptions at length which belong'd to the Church of Peterborough and was fram'd A. D. 664. and to this also Eoppa Presbyter and Wilfridus Presbyter are Witnesses †P. 37. But the two Charters of King Edgar to the Monasteries of Westminster and Ramsey are in this respect most observable To the first after the King his Sons 14 Bishops and 11 Abbats 9 Presbyters subscribe and the last of these thus Writes Ego Oswardus Presbyter cum supradictis cum aliis 107 Presbyteris infractores hujus firmitatis excommunicavi Nine Duces follow and after them this Note Ad ultimum itaque unà cum Rege Filiis ejus nos omnes Confratres Coepiscopi cum totâ hâc populosâ sanctâ Synodo ejusdem loci omnes futuros Abbates c. contestamur Quatenus c. Quod si aliquis praesumpserit illum sicut Violatorem atque Transgressorem hujus Nostri Decreti imò Apostolici ante summum judicem cùm venerit saeculum judicare per ignem responsurum super hâc re invitamus †Cartularium Caenobii Westm. in tit Sulcardus Bibl. Cot. Faustina A. 3. fol 11. That to the Monastery of Ramsey is sign'd by fix Presbyters and the last of the six adds also Ego Aethelsi Presbyter cum supradictis aliis quamplurimis Presbyteris infractores hujus firmitatis excommunicavi It pass'd in a mixt Council of those times cùm in Natali Dominico as the Charter speaks omnes Majores totius regni mei tam Ecclesiasticae Personae quam Saeculares ad Curiam meam celebrandae mecum festivitatis gratiâ convenissent The Alii Quamplurimi Presbyteri are also mention'd once again in the Body of it and in the Close this Passage occurs Post hujus itaque Privilegii donationem excommunicaverunt omnes Episcopi Abbates Presbyteri qui in plurimâ numerositate eodem die affuerunt eos qui hoc institutum in fringerent c. †Monast. vol. 1. pp. 235 236. To which I shall add a like Passage from the Confessor's Priviledge to the Church of Westminster Post hanc Donationem excommunicaverunt omnes Episcopi Abbates totius Angliae Monachi ac Clerici eos qui hoc constitutum infringerent ‖ Ibid. p. 61 I could multiply Instances of this kind but I forbear because these I think are sufficient to shew that the Inferior Clergy were an usual Part of the great Saxon Councils since their Names are often either added to or mention'd in those Charters which pass'd in such Councils and which were not otherwise held Valid and Binding as appears by a remarkable Instance breifly set down in the Evidentiae Cantuarienses * X. Script p. 2218. but more largely explain'd by the Monasticon †Egbertus Athelwolf filius ejus dederunt Ecclesiae Christi c. quod Manerium priùs eïdem Ecclesiae dedit Baldredus Rex Sed quia non fuit de consensu Magnatum regni donum id non potuit valere Et ideò isto anno in Concilio apud Kingstone celebrato ab Archiepiscopo â—eolnotho restauratum est Ecclesiae antedictae Vol. 1. p. 20. out of another Writer And if in the Subscriptions to many other such Priviledges and Muniments we find none of the Clergy under Abbats that is not to be wonder'd at since the Members only of highest Rank and Dignity were us'd to sign though all consented as we have already * See p. 32. of this Book heard from Ingulphus and may from the following Passages in some of the Conquerors Charters further learn One of them made in the 15 th Year of his Reign thus concludes Convenientibus in unum cunctis Patriae Primatibus in Nativitate domini c. Scripta est haec Charta auctorisata ab Excellentioribus Regni Personis Testificata Confirmata Corroborata * Sulcardus f. 42. In another of the Year 1075 pass'd in an Universal Synod as the word there is the Conqueror decrees Communi Consensu maximè Episcoporum Abbatum aliorum in signium nostrorum Procerum (⸪) Ib. fol. 39. And in a third granted A. D. 1077. the subscriptions are but few However the Members composing that Synod where it pass'd the Charter it self tells us were Numerous and all these are said Hanc eandem Chartam cooperante sibi in omnibus Divin â Pietate honorific è perficientes complevisse Quorum igitur Memoriam Nomina singulatim exprimere huic Paginulae longum fastidiosum videtur exprimere †Ibid. p. 38. So that tho' the Subscriptions of Charters inform us clearly who were Members of those great Councils yet do they not shew us also who were not since Multitudes were Present at such Meetings who yet did not Subscribe It is not however improbable that under the Title of Ministri some of the Inferior Clergy might often be comprehended especially when these Ministri sign'd as they sometimes did in great Numbers and so as to bear no Proportion to the other Ranks of Witnesses either of the Clergy or Laiety †Thus a Charter granted to the Monastery of Abingdon is attested by 60 Ministri 7 Duces and 8 Bishops Monast. v. 1. p. 103. This will seem a
see an Instance of such a License practised and we may observe therefore how nearly he traces the Synodical Form in the third Position where the Quae decernenda censuerit is plainly taken from the Decernendum censemus we meet with in the Canons of 1597 and which I have already observ'd to be the highest Expression of Authority us'd by That P. 388. or any other of our Synods that treated without a Commission Dr. Zouch rely'd implicitly on Cousins's Tables and from them thus interpolated transcrib'd these Positions Verbatim into his Descriptio Iuris Iudicii Ecclesiastici and therefore this is no new Authority The Resolutions of the Iudges 8 vo Iac. in my Lord Cokes XII th Report have somewhat more of Authority in them But these also are calculated to the Course that had been taken 1 o. Iacobi and which perhaps my Lord Coke himself might have directed neither do they oppose the Interpretation that has been given of the Statute if we look narrowly into them they are to this purpose 1. A Convocation cannot Assemble without the Assent of the King 2. After their Assembly they cannot confer to constitute any Canons without License from the King 3. When upon conference they conclude any Canons yet they cannot execute them without the Royal Assent It is not said here that they cannot confer about Canons which the Tables grosly affirm and Dr. W by placing the Comma between Confer and Constitute †See p. 108. would â—ain insinuate but only that they cannot confer to constitute which is very true if the meaning of the words be that they cannot so confer as to constitute and that this sense was intended by the Judges appears from their Third Resolution where the Phrase is thus vary'd When upon Conference they conclude I submit to their Opinion that the Convocation cannot confer to constitute that is as they explain themselves upon Conference conclude Canons and I infer from hence that neither the Submission-Act nor the License in 1603. can fairly be extended to a further sense and that this is the utmost Râ—straint which the Clergy now lie under Dr. W. seems to have been sensible of this and has produc'd these Resolutions therefore not at once but by Piece-meal craftily dividing the second from the third and placing them at a convenient distance †See p. 108 129. that we might not have the Opportunity of explaining the One by the Other L. M. P. has dealt more fairly and aboveboard for he has cited all Three of them together †P. 38. though at the Evident Hazard of their appearing by that means to be nothing to his purpose And to give a further strength to these Decisions he adds That Godolphin cites and admits them in his Repâ—rtorium Canonicum a Book which Dr. W. having mention'd with the utmost Contempt ‖ P. 275. 't is much that one who comes after him on the same side should urge as good Authority The Dr. pitty poor Godolphin for depending on Sir E. Coke in a matter of Antiquity the Letter-writer brings this very Godolphin to confirm St. E. Coke's Opinion in a Point of Law so little are they ageeed upon the Character and Credit of their Witnesses Poor as he is Dr. W. it seems has a Friend yet poorer than He who would not else have vouchsafed to borrow from him But why Poor Godolphin he was as rich in Learning as his little Gleanings could make him a Collector and a Scribler and how then comes Dr. W. to despise him Methinks We second-hand Writers should learn to speak more respectfully of one another because if We our selves do not it is probable no body else will Let Godolphin's Character be what it will Dr. Wake could not have taken a more unlucky occasion of undervaluing him than he at present makes use of If I stop a little to state the Case between them I hope I shall have the Pardon of my Reader Godolphin had said that Church Gemot denoted antiently what we call a Convocation and vouch'd Sir Edward Coke for it the Letter to a Convotion-Man had asserted the same thing though without citing any Authority Dr. W. who is deeply learn'd in these Researches insults them all Three upon this suppos'd mistake and with a scornful Air tells his Adversary I am confident be will be hard put to it to bring us any Author elder than Sir E. Coke from whom as Poor Godolphin first so as he now taken it at all adventures †P. 275. What Authority that Gentleman had or had not in his View I cannot say for That I am sure would be to speak at all Adventures since He himself vouches none But that there is an Authority for this Elder than Sir E. Coke's and that Dr. W's Confidence therefore misled him when he pretended to be sure there was none I can safely affirm For the Learned Sir H. Spelman has said this very thing and repeated it at least four several times * In the words Gemotum Haligemot and Chirchgemot and not there only but again in his Reliquiae too where he has translated the passage in H. the I's Laws into English thus And whomsoever the Church-Synod shall find at Variance let them either make an accord between them in Love or sequester them by their Sentence of Excommunication p. 54. in the 1 st that is the most Authentick part of his Glossary which came out in 1626. many Years before the IV th Book of Institutes appear'd abroad in the World From Him my Lord Coke probably had it for he quotes I find the very same Passage for it out of the Laws of H. the I. †Quoscunque Chirchgemot discordantes inveniâ—t vel Amore congreget vel sequestret Judicio c. 7. where Sir Henry's Transcript read Cyricgemot instead of Scyresmot as Wheelock afterwards from the Exchequer Manuscript it self Printed it ‖ P. 180. This seems to be the Correcter Reading however I dare not determine it so to be because Sir H. Spelman I find had the perusal of two other Manuscripts beside that of the Exchequer and Wheelock's Edition whether rightly Copied in this Instance or no yet is in several other respects faulty particularly in the very next words to those Sir H. quotes there is a manifest mistake for instead of Debet utem Scyresmot Burgemotis Hundreda vel Wapentachia duodecies in anno Congregari Sex diebus anted submotum which in the Margin is Summonitionem we ought to read Debet autem Scyresmot Burgmot â—is Hundreda Wapentachia duodecies c. 7 diebus anteâ summoniri as the Passage is read in the Laws of E. the Confessor †Pp. 147.148 from whence these of H. the I. were taken But which soever of these be the true reading we have Sir H. Spelman's word for it that Chirchgemot is a good Saxon word and did in that Language signify a Synod or Convocation Had he not known it
as this Gentleman affirms let those Laws be produc'd and those Usages made out and I submit †Pp. 285 286. I agree with him that this is the true way of deciding the Point before us and have accordingly taken this way and no other to decide it I have produc'd the Laws and Usages of this Kingdom that make out both these Rights so incontestably and clearly I think as to leave no Room for a Cavil and I call upon Doctor Wake therefore to Submit or to shew wherein I have mistook or mis-represented those Laws and Usages Let him not think to evade the Force of what has been said by Loose and General Reflections by once again amusing us with Heaps of Foreign Precedents and long Historical Tales nothing to the Purpose in a word by drawing fresh supplys from that Everlasting Magazine of Insignificant Authoritys his common-place-Common-place-Book All this Shew of Reading and God knows it is but a Shew will be of no manner of weight with Discerning Judges the short Point between Him and Me is as He himself acknowledges how our Own Constitution stands and what are the Particulars Laws and Usages of this Kingdom By these I affirm and have proved That the Convocation has a Right not only to be Summon'd but to Meet with every New Parliament and to be open'd in Due Form by Divine Service and a Sermon That the Clergy of the Lower House when thus met have a Right of filling the Chair of it with a Prolocutor and of being put into a Condition of doing Business That if they have any Requests any Motions to make to my Lords the Bishops the King or his Great Council for the Good of Religion or the Redress of Church-Grievances they have a Right to make them to enter into what Debates and come to what Resolutions they shall think fit within their Proper Sphere without being oblig'd to Qualify themselves for such Debates or Resolutions by a Royal License which is necessary to no Synodical Act previous to that of Making or Enacting a Canon That in these Respects and to these Purposes the Convocation is still a Parliamentary Body and an Essential Part of our Constituon callâ—d both by the Clause in the Bishop's Summons and by Writs directed to the Archbishop of either Province which Clause and which Writs whenever a New Parliament is to meet can no more by the Rules of our Constitution be omitted than the Writs for any of the Lords or Commons can In short that the King has not only a Right of thus calling the Clergy to attend but the Clergy also have a Right of attending and the Lords and Commons a Right of being attended by them This is the Doctrine briefly laid down in that Letter which first gave rise to this Debate and in these Papers more fully explain'd and prov'd If Dr. Wake can shew wherein any part of it disagrees with the Laws and Usages of this Kingdom let him do it if he cannot as I am certain he cannot he is oblig'd by his Own Proposal to Submit that is to own himself utterly mistaken throughout this Dispute and publickly to retract his Illegal and Slavish Opinions APPENDIX I. EDvardus dei gratia Rex Angliae See p. 20. Franciae Dominus Hiberniae Uenerabili in Christo Patri Radulfo eadem gratia Bath Well Episcopo salutem Cum pridem in Parliamento nostro apud Westm. in quindena Paschae convocato quaedam Legibus Consuetudinibus regni nostri Angliae expresse contratia Regiae Dignitati nostrae nedum vaâ—de prejudicialia sed probrosa fuissent nimis importune petita quae nisi per modum statuti tunc permisissemus consignari dictum Parliamentum fuisset sine omni Expeditione in Discordia dissolutum sic Guerrae nostrae Franciae Scotiae quas de Consilio vestro ut scitis principaliter assumpsimus fuissent quod absit verisimiliter in ruina Nos ad evitanda tanta pericula praemissis protestationibus de revocando cum possemus provide quae sic a nobis quasi invitis extorta fuerint illa sigillo nostro sigillari permiserimus ista vice postmodum ea de Consilio Assensu Comitum Baronum ac aliorum Peritorum ex Causis Legitimis quia defecit Consensus noster declaravimus esse nulla nec nomen vel vim habere debere statuti Ac jam accepimus quod Uenerabilis Pater Arch. Cant. unum Concilium Provinciale in crastino S ti Lucae proxime futuro apud London convocare mandavit in quo Uos caeteros Praelatos Cant. Prov. contra Nos concitare aliqua nobis praejudicialia circa roboratinem dicti pretensi statuti in Enervationem Depressionem Diminutionem Iurisdictionis Iurium Prerogativarum nostrarum regalium nec non circa Processum inter Nos Praedictum Archiepiscopum super quibusdam ex parte nostra eidem Arch o oppositis pendentem statuere declarare super hiâ—s Censuras Graves intenditis promulgare Nos volentes tanto Prejudicio ut convenit obviare Uobis districte prohibemus ne quicquam quod in Derogationem seu Diminutionem Regiae Dignitatis Potestatis jurium Coronae nostrorum seu Legum Consuetudinum dicti regni nostri aut in Prejudictum Processus memorati vel etiam in roborationem dicti pretensi statuti vel alias in contumeliam nostri nominis honoris aut in gravamen vel dispendium Consâ—liariorum vel Obsequialium nostrorum cedere poterunt in dicto Concilio vel alibi proponatis statuatis aut aliqualiter attemptetis aut attemptari faciatis Scituri quod si secus feceritis ad Uos ut Inimicum nostrum nostrorum Uiolatorem Iurium gravius quo licite poterimus capiemus Teste Rege apud Westmonast 1. Oct. regni 15. II. For Mr. Sanders Minister of the Gospel at Oxford Reverend Sir Newbury June 7. 98. I Had a Letter last week by the Direction of the Committee of Ministers and Gentlemen Sept. 26. appointed at London for setling a Correspondence of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Congregations throughout this Kingdom for the advancement of the Interest of Religion and Reformation of Ministers with the Articles there agreed upon in order thereunto and a desire to communicate them speedily to the Brethren in these Parts that if possible a General Meeting might be had this Summer in London Pursuant hereunto it is desir'd that You would not fail to come your self and bring with you one prudent Person of your Congregation chosen for that End according to the Method resolv'd on in London to meet several of the Brethren and the Members of the Respective Congregations here at Newbury the 22 Instant to consider of the said Proposals which shall be laid before you and the proper Method to obtain so desirable an End You are desir'd to be here on Tuesday in the Evening that we may enter on our Work on Wednesday Morning resolving God
and moderate their Debates either in Person or by his Deputies as he saw occasion After the Fathers had come to Resolutions and framed their Canons it was of vast Importance to 'em to have the Secular Power ratifie what they had agreed on They could Authoritatively declare what was the General Sense of the Church on such and such Articles but to procure that these Decisions should be generally received and obeyed in all Christian Countries could no ways be so effectually brought about as by Civil Sanctions and Penalties On all these accounts and many more it was highly reasonable and just nay necessary almost that the Imperial Power should exert it self in Appointing the Meetings and Governing the Debates and Confirming the Acts of General Councils But was there the same Reason and Necessity for its interposing as particularly in Provincial Synods also which were Ordinary Meetings of perpetual and standing Use in the Church not Numerous or Composed of Equals but of Persons living at no Great Distance from one another and all Subordinate to one Ecclesiastical Superior Dr. Wake knows in his Conscience that these Circumstances make a Wide Difference between them and if so why does he amuse us with Large Accounts of what Emperors have done and been allowed to do in relation to those Great and Extraordinary Meetings the Custom of which makes neither for nor against the Rule that was to be observed in these Ordinary Stated ones To what purpose was it for him nauseously to transcribe Labbée for fifty Pages together upon a Common-place which has been so often and so thoroughly exhausted by the Writers of the Last Age and which besides is of no manner of use towards determining the present Dispute Does he think to cover the want of proper and apposite matter by such loose and General Reflections as these Does he hope to make his Readers lose sight of the Point they are in quest of in that Mist of Impertinent Quotations with which he surrounds ' em The Learned Mr. Hill had rightly observed that what Dr. Wake produces * P. 10. from Socrates †Hist. Eccl. Praef. l. iv about the Emperor's interposing in the Greatest Councils was of no weight in the present Argument where we are enquiring what the Usage and Rights of the Church are not in the Greater but Lesser Synods which go by quite another Rule and are much more exempt from the Interposition of the Civil Authority Dr. Wake makes a Scornful mention of this Distinction in the Preface to his Appeal * P. xxi without vouchsafing to give any Reply to it which was discreetly done for it would not admit of any The Distinction is just and well applyed and had it been considered by Dr. Wake when he wrote must have prevailed with him to withdraw above half the History that his first Chapter is filled with and have made that part of his Work look no more Learned than it really is Socrates might well say that the Greatest Synods were held always at the Emperor's Direction but he knew the Lesser were not and therefore omitted the mention of them And the same Caution is observed in one of our XXXIX Articles †Art 21. where it is affirmed indeed that General Councils may not be gather'd upon any Occasion in any Circumstances without the Commandment and Will of Princes But of Provincial Councils nothing is said However the Churches Caution in Wording her Decision is not greater than Dr. Wake 's in citing it who has thoughout his first Book made as I remember but one slight and General mention ‖ P. 10. of this Article without producing the words of it which he knew would go near to suggest a Distinction that it was not to his purpose to have observed Indeed the Canons of 1640 seem and only seem to go further for in truth they do not Art 1. They affirm that the Power of calling both National and Provincial Councils is the true Right of all Christian Kings within their own Realms and Territories but say not that this is the Right of Kings alone so that no other Person or Persons can in any Circumstances whatever claim or use it on the contrary they plainly teach that where the Prince is not Christian the Prelates of the Church may rightfully use this Power so it be with Submission to the Civil Penalties and Punishments that may attend 'em on that account and they intimate the Case to be the same under a Christian Persecuting Prince tho' it was not so Decent openly to express it The Canon and the Article therefore are perfectly consistent and both are drawn up with that Moderation and Guard as to give the Prince what is His Due and yet not to deprive the Church of what may be Hers but to leave the way open to the Exercise of the same Power that she claimed and practised before Princes came in to the Faith if there should ever be the fame Occasion for it which I hope there never will And this Canon too was not it seems thought worthy to accompany Dr. Wake 's Other Collections where Foreign and far fetched Authorities take up his Pen so much that he had not room to consider what had been said here at Home upon the Subject no not in a Work written on purpose to clear and to assert the Doctrine of the Church of England But we are not to wonder at it for the same Happy Talent of Mind which makes a Man abound in what is Trivial makes him Defective also in what is Material All that Dr. Wake can say for his way of arguing is that he has in it traced the Steps of some of our Greatest Writers who treating of the Supremacy derive the Proofs of it from the same Sources he has done and frequently give Instances of the Powers exercised by Princes over the Greatest and most General Assemblies as appears from that Collection of Authorities which he has made in his Appeal But this will not justifie him for those Writers whose Pattern he pretends to follow had to do with such Adversaries as quite shut out the Civil Power from interposing in Church-matters Most of 'em being engag'd either against the professed Defenders of the Papacy as Iewel Bilson Nowell Mason c. or against those of the Rigid Presbyterial way as Whitgift Hooker Bancroft Bramhall c. were In Opposition to these therefore it was proper to shew how far the Practice of the first Christian Emperors was consistent with such Principles And whether their Instances to this purpose were taken from the Greater or Lesser Church-meetings from Provincial or General Councils it was all one to the point in hand and made equally against Those whose Doctrine they were to disprove Not so in Dr. Wake 's Case who when he wrote his First Book had no such Adversary to deal with but One who argued altogether upon the Bottom of a Civil Right and drew his Plea purely from our
Domestick Constitution and the approved Laws and Usages of the Realm When Dr. Wake therefore by the Authorities produced in his Last Piece would excuse the Doctrine laid down in his former he deals unfairly with us for those Authorities justifie only that part of his Doctrine which was foreign to the Argument they being Declarations chiefly of the General Rights and Interests of Supreme Christian Powers in Ecclesiastical Affairs without entring into the Various Restrictions of that Right which the Spiritual Subjects may in several Places be intitled to by the Concessions of Princes and States and by their particular Priviledges and Immunities and without considering nicely Where that Supremacy may in different respects be said to be lodg'd and Who therefore must be taken in as Sharers in several Acts and Branches of it Which Considerations nevertheless are necessary to determine the just Extents of our Princes Rights in this Case and the Measure of our Obedience as will hereafter in Due Place more clearly appear In these Opinions our Old Writers had an Eye to the Act and Oath of Supremacy to maintain which was the business of that Age in which they wrote and their words therefore must be understood as that Oath is drawn up Negatively not Positively that is as denying the Usurpations in Ecclesiastical Matters that have been made or attempted from without upon the Crown of England not as setling the exact Boundaries and Limits of that Supremacy within in relation either to those who are to govern or those who are to be governed by it which is a Controversie that there has hitherto been but little said of and indeed but little Occasion to consider and which could not therefore be setled and determined by such Writers as lived and died before it was started Dr. Wake 's Cloud of Witnesses therefore which he produces in his Appeal are very properly such for they serve only to darken and confound the Point we are in pursuit of not at all to clear it They are such a Nubes Testium as we had in the Late Reign for Transubstantiation and other Romish Articles where the Old Fathers were vouched by whole-sale for a Doctrine that came not upon the Stage till they were gone off it And much the same Usage have the Fathers of our own Church had from the Pen of this Appellant who has cited 'em if pertinently to Points that perhaps they never heard of and to purposes that to be sure they never dreamt of and to which had those Excellent Persons foreseen that their words would have been stretched they would certainly have renounced such Consequences or rather have prevented 'em by expressing themselves more warily They were to plead for the Supremacy of Princes against Those who were for allowing them no manner of Interest in Church-matters and what wonder is it if in the warmth of this Dispute they should as the Fate is in All Controversies have sometimes a little over-thought or over-expressed themselves and have laid down such Positions as tho' of sound Sense when opposed to the Principles of those against whom they contended yet when applyed in other Cases and Circumstances then out of their Thoughts and the Debate might need some little softning Their Great Concern was to secure the Royal Prerogative and when that was done they thought their own Rights and Priviledges would be secure under the Shadow of it These they were then in a full Uninterrupted Possession of without apprehensions that a Time might come when they should be put to prove their Title to 'em and when that Power which they so warmly and with reason pleaded for should be turn'd upon them and made use of against the Maintainers of it Much less did they suspect that ever any pretended Son of the Church of England would amass together all the Highest Assertions of the Regal Supremacy scattered up and down in their Writings in order to furnish out a Plea for suppressing the Liberties of that Church and on purpose to prove that Convocations were what the Letter to a Member of Parliament sawcily says * P. 26. Bishops are the Creatures of the Crown which therefore as it created so it may annihilate at its pleasure Such kind of Books indeed were written Twelve Years ago by some False Members of our Communion to make way for those Ill Designs that were then on foot but to the Eternal Infamy of the Writers of them who thought to find their particular account in the General Ruin of that Church and Constitution to which they belonged but were God be thanked every way defeated in Their Expectations There is not 't is true so much Hazard now as there was then in exalting the Regal Power when we live under a Prince who is too Just and too Clear sighted to be flattered into a Misuse of his Authority However no Thanks are due for this to the Flatterers who have markt out the Arbitrary Scheme and it is no fault of theirs if it be not afterwards followed My Indignation at such Unworthy and Mean Attempts has carried me away into Considerations not so proper for this place and led me a little from a strict pursuit of my Argument I left it where I was shewing how weak Dr. Wake 's way of reasoning is from the Powers exercised by Princes over the Greatest Synods to their interposing equally in the Less He himself seems to be sensible of it and therefore to prevent this Long Chapter of his being One Entire Impertinence has sprinkled up and down in it a few Instances of the Authority of Princes over their Provincial Synods which being the only Instances there that any ways affect our Argument I shall not think much to consider ' em And in order to it I observe III. That in those Few Historical Facts which seem apposite and proper he either manifestly mistakes National for Provincial Synods or Extraordinary Assemblies for Ordinary and stated ones or conceals some Circumstances relating to the Story of those Meetings which when known give an Easie Account how the Royal Power came so particularly to interpose in ' em Several of the Synods which he calls Provincial were undoubtedly not so Others which were yet were called by Princes upon Extraordinary Emergences and do no ways prejudice the Right which the Church then had of assembling ordinarily at set times without a Lay Summons For whâ—n Princes admitted the Canon of the Nicene Council to take place in their Kingdoms and allowed the Synods of every Province to meet twice a Year in vertue of it they did not by that preclude themselves from calling those Synods together at other times when the Circumstances of the Church or State should require them They parted with no Power that they had to Convene such Assemblies but only gave a Liberty to the Clergy of the Province to meet at appointed Times whether they had a Royal Command for it or no. Besides had Dr. Wake intended a fair state of this
others and there was no change made in a Tittle by Parliament So that they only Enacted by a Law what the Convocation had done * Pp. 74 75. And agen As it were a Great Scandal on the first General Councils to say that they had no Authority for what they did but what they derived from the Civil Power so is it no less unjust to say because the Parliaments impowered †Here I must beg leave to say that his Lordship's Expression is not Exact The Parliament did not impower but approve of them some Persons to draw Forms for the more pure Administration of the Sacraments and Enacted that these only should be lawfully used in this Realm which is the Civil Sanction that therefore these Persons had no other Authority for what they did Was it ever heard of that the Civil Sanction which only makes any Constitution to have the force of a Law gives it another Authority than a Civil one The Prelates and other Divines that compiled our Forms of Ordination did it by vertue of the Authority they had from Christ as Pastors of his Church which did impower them to teach the People the pure Word of God and to administer the Sacraments and perform all other Holy Functions according to the Scripture the Practice of the Primitive Church and the Rules of Expediency and Reason and this they ought to have done tho' the Civil Power had opposed it in which case their Duty had been to have submitted to whatever Severities and Persecutions they might have been put to for the Name of Christ or the Truth of his Gospel But on the other hand when it pleased God to turn the Hearts of those which had the Chief Power to set forward this good Work then they did as they ought with all thankfulness acknowledge so great a Blessing and accept and improve the Authority of the Civil Power for adding the Sanction of a Law to the Reformation in all the Parts and Branches of it So by the Authority they derived from Christ and the Warrant they had from Scripture and the Primitive Church these Prelates and Divines made those Alterations and Changes in the Ordinal and the King and the Parliament who are vested with the Supreme Legislative Power added their Authority to them to make them obligatory on the Subjects * Pp. 53 54. I have produced these Passages at length not so much for any Light they give to the Particular we are now concerned in the Authority of the English Ordinal as for the General Use they may be of in setling the Dispute between Dr. W. and the Church about the Distinction of the Two Powers Ecclesiastical and Civil and the Obligations we are under to the Decisions of the one antecedently to the Sanctions of the other I subscribe to his Lordship's state of it and think nothing can be said more justly and truly 1552. The Observation of Holy-Days ordered by Act of Parliament Ibid. pag. 191. This Act traced the Steps of the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book relating to Holy-Days and ordered none to be kept Holy but what had before-hand been so ordered to be kept by the Clergy in Convocations only it added New Penalties 1553. A New Catechism by the King's Order required to be taught by Schoolmasters Ibid. p. 219. This Catechism was published with the Articles of 1552. and had I suppose the very same Convocational Authority which those had It was compiled indeed by Poynet but is said in the King's Patent annexed to have been afterwards perused and allowed by the Bishops and other Learned Men by which we are to understand either the Convocation it self or a Grand Committee appointed by it and upon which its Power was devolved That the whole Convocation have been by these or such like Terms about this time often expressed the Instances given in the Margent * The Six Articles in the Act 31 H. 8. c. 14. are said to be agreed to by the Archbishops Bishops and other Learned Men of the Clergy who a little before are styl'd a Synod or Convocation In the Articles of 1536. See 'em in Bishop Burn. Vol. 1. Coll. of Rec. p. 305. the Convocation is expressed by the Bishops and others the most Discreet and Learned Men of the Clergy The Articles of 1552. are in the Title said to be such de quibus in Synodo Londinensi inter Episcopos alios Eruditos viros convenerat And iâ— will scarce I think bear a Reasonable Doubt whether these Articles passed the Convocation Finally The Act about Holidays as 't is called is in the Canon it self See it in Sparrow p. 167. said to be decreed by the King with the Common Assent and Consent of the Clergy in Convocation assembled But in the King's Letter to Bonner about it the words are By the Assents and Consents of all you Bishops and others Notable Personages of the Clergy of this our Realm in full Convocation and Assembly had for that purpose will evince And that this Catechism was generally understood to have the Authority of Convocation is plain even from the Exception made to it by Dr. Weston †For that said he there is a Book of late set forth called the Catechism bearing the Name of this Honourable Synod and yet put forth without your Consents as I have learned c. â—ox Vol. 2. p. 19. in the first Synod of Queen Mary but plainer still from Philpot's Reply to that Exception which discovers also to us somewhat of the Manner by which the Convocation came to be Intitled not to this Catechism alone but to several other Pieces that seem to carry the Name of a Committee only upon them His words are that This House of Convocation had granted the Authority to make Ecclesiastical Laws unto certain Persons to be appointed by the King's Majesty and whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws They or the most part of them did set forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided it might be well said to be done in the Synod of London although such as be of this House now had no notice thereof before the Promulgation And in this Point be thought the setter forth thereof nothing to have slandered the House since they had our Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as They thought convenient and necessary * â—bid p. â—0 The Knowledge of the Time and Circumstances of appointing this Committee we have lost together with the Acts themselves however plain it is from this Assertion of Mr. Philpot made in open Convocation that such a Committee there was named by the Crown at the Instance of the whole Clergy and that this Catechism among other things passed them and had on that account as He judged the Authority of Convocation It is left to the Reader by whom in this caâ—e he will be guided the Churches Martyr or her Betrayer And here the Instance of the Catechismus ad Parochos is very pat
in M. Paris may be rely'd on who tells us That in the Year 1210. venerunt ad Generalem Vocationem Regis Abbates Priores Abbatissae * P. 230. without any Intimation that the latter of these came by Proxy only and not Personally to this Meeting What is it then that makes Dr. W. think this to be an Assembly of an Extraordinary Composition it must be because he finds Presbyters and Deacons there but that this is no such Extraordinary Thing appears from the instances I have already produc'd and yet further from these that follow For In the Year 697. the constitutions of Withred were made by the Bishops caeteri Ordines Ecclesiastici illius gentis * In a Mixt Council for the Viri Militares are said to be there Spel. Conc. V. 1. p. 194. in which several of the Clergy under Abbats must be included In 747. at another Council at Cloveshoe together with the King and the Great Men of the Laiety there are said to meet Praesules Plurimi Sacerdotes Domini Minores quoque Ecclesiastici Gradùs Dignitates and these did all the lowest as well as the highest de Unitate Ecclesiae ac statu Christianae Religionis concordiâ Pacis tractandà confirmandâque pariter considere †Malsmb l. 1. p. 197. In the Legats Relation to Pope Adrian of what pass'd at the Synod of Calchyth A. C. 787. it is said That every thing was done in Concilio publico corà m Rege Aelsvaldo Archiepiscopo Eanbaldo omnibus Episcopis Abbatibus Regionis seu Senatoribus Ducibus Populo Terrae * Spelm. ibid. p. 300 And at the Close of the subscriptions we find these words Hijs quoque saluberrimis Ammonitionibus Presbyteri Diaconi Ecclesiarum Abbates Monasteriorum Iudices Optimates Nobiles unopere uno ore consentimus subscripsimus †P. 301. Which words occur also in a Charter of the Year 996 granted to the Dean of Wolverhampton in a great Council of the Realm ⸪ Monast. v. 1. p. 991. In a second Synod at Calchyth Anno 816. we find the King cum suis Principibus Ducibus Optimatibus tum undique sacri Ordinis Praesides cum Abbatibus Presbyteris Diaconibus pariter tractantes de necessarijs utilitatibus Ecclesiarum ‖ Spelm. 16. p. 328. At the Coronation of King Edgar Anno. 973. the Saxon Chronicle tells us Conrenerat Sacerdotum Caetus ingens Monachorum turba sapientumque Concilium (⸪) P. 122. By the Sapientes here mention'd the Laiety are chiefly to be understood But in other places where the lower Clergy are not distinctly nam'd the Word comprehends Them also and is design'd to express them of which that passage in Simeon Dunelmensis where he speaks of the Synod of Finchale and probably speaks out of the very Acts of that Synod is a clear Proof His words are In diebus justorum Regum Ducum bonorum atque sanctorum Episcoporum aliorumque Sapientum Monachorum scil atque Clericorum quorum prudentiâ c. ††X. Script p. 114. Lastly At the great Council of Westminster conven'd Anno 1066. by Edward the Confessor upon the Consecration and endowment of that Abby there was Generalis totius ferè Nobilitatis Angliae Conventus †Hist. Ramseyens c. 120. and on the Church part Episcopi Abbates totius Angliae Monachi Clerici †Spelm. ibid. p. 629. who went aside to excommunicate the Infringers of the Priviledges then granted These Instances are so plain as to need no Comment and to admit no fair Reply Dr. W. indeed seems to have laid in matter for an Evasion where he speaks of Ecclesiastical Synods properly so call'd at which the King and his Nobility were present insinuating that we are to distinguish these from those mixt Saxon Councils compos'd originally and equally of the Clergy and Laiety But this is an imaginary Distinction for which there is no foundation in History There were indeed in these times Ecclesiastical Synods properly so call'd without any intermixture of the Laiety but there was no Business appropriated particularly to these the most solemn Church affairs being transacted generally at the State-meetings by the Clergy then assembled who went aside and consulted among themselves and then laid the result of their Debates before the great Council of the Realm in order to be confirm'd by them And wherever therefore we find the several Orders of the Laiety present we must consider that that Assembly where they were present was a State Council though matters properly of Ecclesiastical Cognizance were transacted in it Besides several of those Councils I have instanc'd in had Civil as well as Church-affairs before them and made Laws in both equally which is a sure sign that they were not pure Ecclesiastical Synods It may perhaps further be urg'd that the Lower Clergy present at these State-Councils were no part of them but call'd only to a Synod by their Metropolitan at the same time and place that the great Council of the Realm met But they who shall thus pretend must produce some good Evidences and Authorities to support this pretence and not expect that we should take their bare word for it the common appearances of History being on the other side However allowing this Scheme true yet is it some proof of the Interest which the Inferior Clergy had in those State-meetings if they were us'd to assemble together with them though not in them this being the only Interest they at present claim Not that I believe them to have had place in all even the most ordinary and stated Assemblies but only in the Greater and more Extraordinary ones the Wittena-gemots and Mycel-Synods the Magna Concilia and Pleni Folcmoti which are plainly destinguish'd from the less Solemn and Numerous Councils and which met together only ex arduis contingentibus and legum condendarum Gratiâ as Sir H. Spelman observes †In Voce Gemotum p. 261. â— The foundation as I have said being laid thus early of that difference which afterwards more plainly appear'd between Councils and Parliaments properly so call'd which was no new Institution set up first by the Normans but the old usage of our Saxon Ancestors Time without Memory Nor do I suppose that the Clergymen of lower Rank call'd to these Full Conventions treated always as freely and acted as authoritatively as the constant and standing Members did No I take them as to this to have been much in the same case with the inferior Laiety who are said oftentimes to have been present at such great Councils and to have consented to and approv'd what was done there but not often to have deliberated or determin'd just as the Lesser Members of the German Colloquia or Synods the Patterns of our English ones are represented by Hincmar †In the passage mention'd p. 30. of â—his Book to have interpos'd in them The Doctrine