Liberty as these Princes left their Metropolitans he would not think it I believe a sufficient Direction of their Choice because I dare say he would not find it so In the mean time what Bungling Work is this for an Old Controvertist that has encountred the Bishop of Meaux and half persuaded him to be a Protestant The Dr. indeed lets us know plainly enough what he would be at in the Positions he lays down but by the Instances he sometimes brings to back 'em one can hardly tell which side he is retain'd on CHAP. V. HItherto I have made only some General Remarks on Dr. Wake 's way of managing this Controversie and by that means shew'd the Reader how much there is in his Loose Work utterly wide of the Mark he should have aim'd at and how unfair he is in his Representations and defective in his Proofs even on those Points which are not pertinent and where Truth had been of little or no disservice to his Cause I might go on and in the same manner lay open his Fourth Chapter also which he calls a Short View of the State of our Convocation in times past * P. 147. and which is just as short a View as it is a True one it being drawn out to the length of an hundred tedious Pages in which there is scarce One I speak what I have considered that would not upon a careful Review yield a manifest Proof of his Insincerity or Ignorance So slight and partial are the accounts he there gives of the Business of Convocations and the Ends of assembling them so false are his Allegations often times and so weak the Inferences he draws from them such an Implicit Relyance has he on every Relation he meets with in any of the Monkish Chroniclers and so willing is he to think it as Exact and Full as if the Authors had written Just Histories of Ecclesiastical Affairs and not Lean Journals only so thoroughly in the dark does he appear every where to be as to all those Manuscript Papers and Records that might be of use to clear up this Controversie so base and untrue are the Aspersions he casts on some of the best Clergy-men of those times and where he can on his Whole Order so mean and fulsome is the Flattery he bestows on the Memory of some of our Worst and most Arbitrary Princes Upon all these Accounts I say and many more than these Dr. Wake has left so much room for Censure that it would be the business of one entire Book to set out the Mistakes and Prevarications of that single Chapter But in this I shall rather trust the Reader to believe as he pleases than tire him with a proof of it especially since opportunity will be given me of displaying some of them here and there under the following Heads of Matter I have mark'd out and according to the Method I have resolved to proceed in By That I am now led to consider the Exceptious of all sorts that have been taken at the Two Points asserted in the Entrance of this Work by any of those Writers who have pretended to answer the Letter to a Convocation-man We have hitherto done little more than set aside what in Dr. Wake 's Book is foreign to the Argument he treats of let us see now what there is either in That or any other Piece written on the same side that can be thought Material I shall conceal nothing that may seem in the least to affect the Truth I contend for or the Proofs which I have brought to support it In Relation to the first Point laid down we are told that the Provincial Writ by which a Convocation is Summon'd has no relation to the calling of a Parliament nor does so much as mention it †L. M. P. p. 29 30. That by such Writs the Clergy may be assembled when no Parliament is in being may meet before the Parliament and be continu'd after the Dissolution of it That as to the Clause Praemunientes in the Bishops Writ it is matter of Form only having stood there these three hundred Years without any manner of use ‖ Ibid. p. 32. and referring to a Convocation which for many Years past has had no Existence * W. p. 284. That it was first inserted upon some Particular Occasion and continu'd after the Cause was determin'd †L. M. P. p. 32. and that merely by the neglect of a Clark as my Lord of Sarum conjectures ‖ Hist. Ref. Vol. 2. p. 49. That upon the whole therefore the Time of the Convocations meeting is no ways fix'd but Precarious * L. M. P. p. 27. and it 's Iust Definition is an Occasional Assembly for such Purposes as the King shall direct when they meet as a late Little Author †Nicolson Hist. Libr. Vol. 3. p. 200. has told us out of a Great one But let the Definition come from what Hand it will I must be bold to say that it is unskilfully drawn For from the Accounts already given in these Papers it appears that the Convocation is not an Occasional but a Stated Assembly in some measure Stated as a Provincial Synod simply in it self considered much more so as a Synod attendant on a Parliament As a Provincial Council the Rules of the Church receiv'd in all Christian States and particularly in ours direct that it should be Annual As a Synod attendant on the Parliament it has the same stated times of assembling that the Parliament has And such Parliamentary Meetings of the Clergy ought the rather to be kept up because it was from These that the Disuse of yearly Provincial Councils here and elsewhere originally sprung For when through the Piety of our Saxon Ancestors the Clergy were call'd to the Great Councils of the Realm and made a constant and necessary part of them they were oblig'd so frequently to attend in that Capacity that they had neither Leisure nor Need to observe the set times of their Provincial Assemblies The Ordinary Business of These was dispatch'd at those State-meetings which were frequent and gave the Clergy the Opportunity of an easie Recourse to the Civil Power for a Confirmation of their Decrees And this by degrees brought on a discontinuance of Provincial Synods which from thence began to meet only on Great Emergencies and for Extraordinary Occasions Thus the matter stood throughout the Saxon Times and for some Reigns after the Conquest The Clergy of the whole Realm met Nationally with the Laity and did Church-business at the same Time and Place that the Great Affairs of the State were transacted Afterwards it was thought more Regular that they should attend the Parliament not in one Body but in Two Provincial Synods which would equally answer the State-Ends of assembling them and would withall be more strictly agreeable to the Canons Accordingly they have for near 400. years past constantly thus attended and are therefore in this respect as
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
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
perpetual Law of the Church I do not wrong him in representing this as the Design of that large Historical Account of the Authority of Princes over their Councils which he has given us for besides that he must either have had this design or none nothing less than this being of any service to that side of the Debate which he espouses Besides this I say the very Terms in which he expresses himself shew this to be the true and only End he aims at Tho' Pag. 34 says he the Council of Nice first and after that several other Councils provided for the constant meeting of Provincial Synods every year and these being allowed of by the Emperors and other Princes who confirmed those Canons and approved of what they had defined may seem to have put these kind of Synods at least out of their power yet even in These we find 'em still continuing to exercise their Authority and not suffering even such Councils to be held without their Leave or against their Consent To confirm which he produces two o◠three Stories which I have shewn to be utterly wide of the mark and then concludes So intirely has the assembling of these Provincial Synods been looked upon to depend on the Will and Authority of the Christian Prince * P. 36. A Conclusion that has no Premisses nor any one clear and full Instance in all his Long Beadroll of Councils to support it The Doctor had kindly prepared us in his Preface to expect Digressions but withal promised us in his nice manner that they should be rather not directly to the purpose than altogether distant from it However I find not that he has kept his word with us or that they deserve to be thus gently dealt with In the first of 'em that meets me here I have shewn nine parts in ten of it i. e. whatever he has said about General Councils to be altogether distant from the purpose and that the other poor Scantling about Provincial Synods which seems to be yet is really not to the purpose and I conclude therefore that the whole is not only not directly to the purpose but altogether distant from it The Doctor must forgive me if I tell him that these Historical Unedifying Accounts of his put me in mind of the Honest Confession of William Caxton the Chronicler the words of which will become Dr. Wake 's mouth as well every whit as they did His and I cannot help thinking that I hear him in the close of his first Chapter thus addressing himself to his Reader Yf I cowde says he have founde mee storyes I wolde have sette in it moo but the substaunce that I can fynde and knowe I have shortly sette theim in this boke prayeinge all theym that see this symple werke of myne to pardon me of my symple writynge And indeed I for my part should have been very ready so to do had it been as Harmless as it is Simple and were it not likely as Simple as it is to be produced hereafter for a Testimony against the Churches Rights if it be not now opposed and disowned For which reason how Simple soever the performance is it deserves to be examined and I go on therefore to observe IV. That Dr. Wake distinguishes not between the Powers in Fact exercised by Princes and those of Right belonging to them by vertue of their Office Good Princes have been allowed often to extend their Authority in Spirituals very far and Ill Princes have often usurped an Authority beyond what they were intitled to Dr. Wake troubles not himself with these Considerations but what ever Powers he can find any Prince whether Good or Bad to have exercised over the Church Those he proposes as Patterns which all other Princes may safely copy and as the true Bounds and Measures of the Royal Supremacy When in the Story of our Convocations some Acts of theirs come cross him that he does not like then his Maxim is That they did take upon them to do this is no proof that they had a Right to do it * P. 296. But the most Extravagant Pretentions of Princes in the Ordering Church-matters are admitted by him without any such Guard or Distinction without considering Who it was that did this or that and in what Circumstances and for what Reasons they were submitted to in the doing it Charlemagne in Germany and Recaredus in Spain ordered Ecclesiastical Affairs with a very high hand and had certainly somewhat more than their Share came to in the management of them But this was tacitly yielded to by their Bishops who saw that to whatever Degree their Power was carried it would all be employed for the Establishment of the Church and Advancement of the Christian Religion What They did therefore must not because they did it be presently presumed to be the Common Right of every Christian Ruler but oftentimes an Instance only of a Discreet Complyance in the Clergy with such Intrenchments on the Liberties of the Church as might redound to the benefit of it Good Princes who had the Hearts of their People and were known to be intirely in their Interests have been permitted to carry their Prerogative in Civil Matters to an heigth that has been withstood and retrenched in more suspected Reigns Were the Measure of our English Constitution to be taken from those Excesses of Regal Power which have been winked at sometimes when well employed what would become of the Liberty of the Subject or the Freedom of Parliaments Dr. Wake finds perhaps in the Acts of some Councils Expressions of Great Duty and Respect used to Pious Princes by their Clergy These presently he lays hold of as Authentick Synodical Decisions The Council of Tours it seems did once upon a Time tell Charles the Emperor * See p. 92. that they left their Decrees to Him to do what he pleased with them and the Council of Arles begged him if he thought fit to amend and alter them †Ibid. This is Handle enough for Dr. Wake to annex such an Altering Power to the Kingly Character and to represent the Business of Synods to be only the preparing of matter for the Royal Stamp which may be improved corrected enlarged shorten'd at the Prince's Pleasure as in p. 84 and 85. of his Honest Performance he is pleased to express himself and therein to intitle the King de Iure to a more Extravagant Authority than ever the Pope himself I believe with all his Plenitude of Power de facto exercised or claimed But surely this is a Doctrine of too great Importance to be established on so slight a bottom and of such dangerous consequence to the Church that nothing less than the Universal Practice of the Church can sufficiently authorize it The Doctor may remember when he wrote against Prayers for the Dead in a late Reign his way of arguing was that Doctrines of that weight were not to be built on the Figurative Apostrophe's and Rhetorical
only matter prepar'd for the Royal Stamp we are not at a loss to know what further he aims at This is doctrine that at a Convenient Season will serve as well for Acts of Parliament as Canons Let us hear some more of it One great Position of Dr. W. is that the Convocation cannot move a step but as they are directed by the King or debate of any thing but just what he impowers them to consider And thus far he is safe in his Assertion for unâ—itting Assemblys may be insulted at pleasure But when he tells us further that the Parliament it self is as much directed by the King in the main part of their Debates as the Convocation is †P. 289. the Comparison begins to be sawcy and may prove Dangerous He would seem to qualify it indeed by saying that the Parliament are as much though not as necessarily directed but this does not much soften the Expression for still it leaves the Parliament as much though not as necessarily Slaves in the Point of Freedom of Debate as Convocations are said to be and is I dare say such an Instance of Free Speech as was never yet practis'd towards a Parliament Another of his Maxims is that whenever a Synod meets the King may give Direction for the Choice of the Persons that are to compose it that so he may be satisfy'd that they are such whose Piety and Temper has fitted them to serve the Church and in whose Prudence and Conduct he himself may safely confide †P. 42. And then by vertue of his General Rule that gives to Our Princes all that Power which ever any Christian Prince had over their Synods he brings it home to us and says that the Choice of the Persons composing our Convocation is thus determin'd by the King 's Writ †P. 103. which implys that his Writ might determin the Choice otherwise that he might order more or fewer to be sent up or New ones to be return'd in the Room of those whose Temper he shall not approve of and whose Prudence and Conduct he cannot safely confide in And if he can deal thus with our Convocation-Writs and Members what hinders but he that may deal thus also with those of Parliament for his Writs alike determin the Choice as to Both these Meetings and then there 's an End of our Constitution whenever a Prince arises that has any Ill Designs upon it The laying aside of Convocations is thus justify'd by Dr. W. in divers parts of his Book * Pp. 107.227 250. c. that the Great and almost Onely Use that has been made of them was to raise Money and that Use therefore being now out of Doors there is no need of regularly assembling them Let us apply this to Parliaments and suppose that the King's Revenue was so setled and the Publick Debts so far discharged that there was no occasion for them to sit for the giving of Money would there be no occasion therefore for their sitting at all in order to assist the Crown with their Counsels or to redress Grievances This is unavoidably the Consequence of Dr. Wake 's way of arguing and he seems not to be asham'd of it for p. 207. he thus accounts for the Rise and Birth of Parliaments as now setled They were to meet he says when requir'd and that as often as the Prince wanted Money or expected a Supply from them Can a Man talk at this rate and pretend to be an Englishman Or can true Englishmen stand by and hear him talk thus without resenting the Indignity The Clergy therefore are not the only Persons concern'd in this Dispute the Laiety too have their share in it For besides that if Slavery be once establisht in the Church it will quickly spread it self into the State Dr. Wake 's Principles we see are such as have an Immediate Tendency toward subverting Liberty in General and would if pursu'd through their just Consequences give the Prerogative as high an Ascendant over Parliaments as Convocations And when such things are said therefore not the Men of the Church only but every Freeborn subject of England ought to take the Alarm for their Birthright is endanger'd The very best Construction that has been put upon Dr. W's Attempt by Candid Readers is that it was an Endeavor to advance the Prerogative of the Prince in Church-matters as high and to depress the Interest of the Subject Spiritual as low as ever he could with any Colour of Truth But surely this it self is no very creditable account of it Those Casuists that have taken pains to instruct men how near they may possibly come to a sin without actually sinning have not been reckon'd the honestest part of their Profession And those Divines who read Lessons to Princes how to strain their Ecclesiastical Power to the utmost without exceeding it and oppress their Clergy legally are not surely the best Men of their Order They are Church Empsons and Dudleys and usually find the fate of such Wretched Instruments to be detested by the One side and at last abandoned by the Other Were all that Dr. W. says strictly true and justifiable yet whether the laboring the point so heartily as he does and shewing himself so willing to prove the Church to have no Rights and Priviledges be a very Decent Part in a Clergyman I leave his Friends to consider The World I fear is so ill natur'd as to believe that seldom any Man is over busy in lessening the Publick Interests of that Body to which he belongs who does not hope to find his Private Account in it But when all a Man advances is not only ill design'd but ill-grounded and his Principles are as False as they are Scandalous as I have evidently prov'd his to be there are no Names and Censures too bad to be bestowed on such Writers and their Writings Will it be said in his Excuse that he wrote his Book in the Dark without a Competent Skill in the subject of it and that his Mistakes therefore are the Effects of Pure Ignorance allowing it how came he then to write at all in a Matter that he was not and could not but know that he was not Master of How came he to express himself so peremptorily in such Tender Points wherein the Great Priviledges of his Church and the Chief Interests of his Order are concern'd Was there less of Wisdom or Honesty in endeavoring to write down these without being sure that he had good grounds for it In truth though the best thing that can be said for Dr. W. is that he wrote at this rate because he knew no better yet I fear that even this it self cannot be justly pleaded For as little as he knows of these matters he seems to have known yet more than he was willing to own and enough to have kept him from engaging on that side of the Question he has done if some very Powerful Motive had not come in
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
some Late Writers pretending to answer the Letter to a Convocation Man particularly by the Author of a Letter to a Member of Parliament and by Dr. Wake in his Book intitled The Authority of Christian Princes over their Ecclesiastical Synods asserted c. This Book being written by a Person of some Station in the Church and as is pretended under the Cover of a Great Authority deserves to be examined with a more than ordinary care which accordingly I have resolved to bestow upon it Dr. Wake indeed has a Peculiar Talent at enlarging on a Controversie the shortest Point when it comes under his Fruitful Pen immediately improves into a Volume I shall not so far follow his Example as to trace all he has said step by step and Page by Page and take every Opportunity that he has given me of laying open his misapplied Reading and mistaken Reasonings That would be an Endless Task which I have no leisure for neither does the Cause require it nor would the Reader bear it I shall endeavour therefore as much as I am able to shorten this Debate and in order to it shall first of all make some General Reflections upon his way of managing it wherein I shall shew how very little there is in his Tedious Work that really concerns the Point disputed and how much of it is written against no body and for no End in the World that I can see but the Pleasure of Emptying his Common-Place-Book I may very aptly apply to him what Bishop Andrews said of a much Greater Adversary Etsi nobis lis nulla de Regiâ in Ecclesiasticis Potestate tamen exorari non potest Tortus quin in Campum exeat istius Controversiae ubi quaestio nobis nulla de eâ re ostendat tamen nobis Testes minimè necessarios Explicare scilicet voluit Opes suas ostendere quae habebat in Adversariis suis. Habebat autem ad hanc rem nonnulla si incidisset alicubi Iam quia non incidit occasionem arripit non valdè idoneam ea quoquo modo proferendi Vult enim Lectorem videre quà m Cupressum pingat eleganter * Tortura Torti p. 169 I shall not I hope be thought impertinent in displaying these Impertinences of his which I shall do in as narrow a compass and under as few Heads of Observation as the variety of the matter will admit of And I. I observe that Dr. Wake has put himself to a great deal of needless pains to prove a Point which he might if he pleased have taken for granted that every Christian Prince and Ours in particular has an Ecclesiastical Supremacy and that the Clergy are not by a Divine Right intitled to transact Church-affairs in Synods as they please and as often as they please without any regard to the Civil Christian Power that they live under Many of those numerous Instances he has produced of Princes intermedling with Church-matters here at home or abroad are designed only to assert this Great Truth which however is a Point that he needed not to have laboured so heartily because no Church of England man ever denied it not the Man he writes against I am sure who says only and what he says I shall not fear to say after him that the Civil and Spiritual Powers are distinct in their End and Nature Lett. to a Conv. Man pp. 17 18. and therefore ought to be so in their Exercise too The One relates to the Peace Order Health and Prosperity of the Man in this Life as a Sociable Creature the other concerns his Eternal State and his Thoughts Words and Actions preparative thereto The first is common to all Societies whether Pagan or Christian the Latter can rightly be exercised among Christians only and among them not as inclosed within any Civil State or Community but as Members of a Spiritual Society of which Iesus Christ is the Head who has also given out Laws and appointed a standing Succession of Officers under himself for the Government of this Society And these Ministers of his did actually govern it by these Powers committed to them from him for near 300 years before any Government was Christian. From whence says he it follows that such Spiritual Iurisdiction cannot be in its nature necessarily dependent on the Temporal for then it could never have been lawfully exercised till Kings States and Potentates became Christian. And agen in another place This Power having been claimed and exercised by the Apostles and their Successors without any Regard nay in Opposition to the Heathen Temporal Authority is therefore we say not necessarily in its own nature dependent on such Authority †P. 19 20. Than which Reasoning nothing certainly can be more just nor could that Writer have expressed himself with more Caution and Guard upon so nice an Occasion Dr. Wake seems here to have apprehended him as if he had affirm'd that Princes have nothing to do in Church-matters the Management of which lyes without their Sphere and no ways depends on Their Authority But no Man living could have struck this sense out of his words that was not either very Blind or very willing for some small End or other to misunderstand him Cannot this mighty Controvertist distinguish between Denying the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Power to be necessarily dependent on the Temporal and affirming it to be necessarily independent upon it Does he not see a difference between saying that the Church may subsist without the State and that the State has nothing to do in the Government of the Church If he does not he ought to forbear tampering in Disputes of this kind till his Judgment is better and his Head clearer But if seeing this difference he yet resolved to take no notice of it either because he had made Collections some time of his Life about the Supremacy and was resolved to take this Opportunity of giving himself the Credit of them or because he saw it would be of use to him to have the Writer he appears against represented under as Invidious Colours and his Opinions loaded with as much weight as was possible if this were the Case it must be allowed him that there was some little Art tho' I think no very great share of Honesty in his Management 'T is true the Letter to a Convocation-man immediately after the last words I transcribed from it adds And if we should say further that this Society has an Inherent and Unalterable Right to the Exercise of this Power it would be no more than what every Sect or Party among us claims and practises c. But Dr. Wake could not with any colour lay hold of this Passage as asserting the Independency of the Church on the State for besides that it is only a way of arguing drawn from other Mens Principles it is a few Lines afterwards expresly retracted and qualifyed But this says he is what at the present we neither do nor need say Notwithstanding which Dr.
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
Canons of the most General Councils have been confirmed by the Civil Power and confirmed at the Instance and Petition of the Synods themselves * P. 80. And from hence he infers therefore that their Definitions are no farther Obligatory than as they are ratified by the Civil Authority †P. 79. And this Point he is so sure of that he conceives it to be allowed on all hands whereas I on the contrary conceive that it is allowed on no hands and is a Conclusion I am-sure that neither agrees with the Principles of our Church nor can ever be drawn from the Premisses on which he pretends to establish it If this Doctrine be good then is that of our Twentieth Article stark naught which determines that the Church hath Power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and Authority in Matters of Faith But how has she Power and Authority to this purpose if her Synodical Decisions are in no case farther Obligatory than as they are ratified by the Civil Authority The Magistrate at this rate will have Power but the Church her self can have none For she speaks only by her Synods in matters of this nature and if therefore her Synodical Decrees have not any Authority of their own till confirmed by the Prince then under an Heathen or Heretical Prince the Church has not I say any Authority tho' the Article expresly says that she has It is very observable that Dr. Wake has not in either of his Books mentioned this Article which yet surely in a Controversie of this nature deserved to have been taken notice of Such an Omission could not be by chance and we must believe therefore that he is of the Opinion of those Back-friends of ours in Charles the First 's time who would allow the former part of the Article no more Authority than Dr. Wake allows to the Church but said it was deceitfully inserted by Archbishop Laud and wanting in the Original He might be ashamed to take up with this Reproach after that Solemn Appeal which the Archbishop in his Speech in the Star-chamber * Anno 1637. See Heylin 's Life of Laud p. 339. made to the Records of Convocation for the disproof of it If he have any Suspicions still left in this matter my Lord of Sarum in his Late Exposition †P. 26. will clear them In the mean time let me put him in mind of the Fate of Dr. Mocket's Book de Doctrinâ Politeiâ Ecclesiae Anglicanae ‖ In 4 to London 1617. which tho' writ by Archbishop Abbot's direction yet was Burned publickly and that chiefly on the account of this very Omission if Dr. Heylin's History ⸫ Life of Laud p. 76 may be relyed on But how comes he to dream it to be allowed on all Hands that Synodical Definitions are no farther Obligatory than they are ratified by the Civil Power What Church upon Earth ever determined or allowed this Doctrine Because the Fathers of many Synods desir'd the Prince under whose Direction they met to inforce their Decrees by Civil Sanctions and Penalties does it follow that therefore these Decrees without the Addition of the Civil Sanction would have had no Authority no Force to oblige the Consciences of Christians Does the Subsequent Authority destroy the force of the precedent one Is the one of these lost and swallowed up in the other At this rate what will become of Excommunication when confirmed as it is here with us by a Civil Penalty Has the Church Sentence in this case no Authority because the Writ de Excommunicat◠capiendo is linked to it and issues out upon it Such arguing would have become a Disciple of Erastus much better than a Son of the Church of England But he will tell me Canons lose no Authority in this case which they ever had because indeed they never had any the Great Priviledge of the Church being only to prepare Draughts of Canons and Dead Matter as it were for the Royal Stamp afterwards to put Life into But if so How shall we account for the Acts of Church-power exercised by Synods from the first Planting of the Christian Religion till the Empire turned Christian It is plain that the Governours of the Church for three hundred years before the Civil Power came in to assist them met in Synods and made Laws which were universally submitted to not only as Councils or Advices proceeding from Men whose Character was had in great Reverence but as the Commands of Lawful Superiors towards their Spiritual Subjects and as such they were understood to oblige the Consciences of all good Christians in those Ages And if they had such an Authority before Constantine's time how came they to want it afterwards As the Church could get no New Power by coming under the Protection of the State so how does it appear that she lost any Old one The Emperors indeed by turning Christians gained something to wit an Interest in the management of Ecclesiastical Affairs but their Gains were not built on the Church-Governours Losses the Power that by this means accrued to 'em was Accumulative not Privative i. e. it gave them some Authority which they had not but it took not that away which the Spiritual Pastors and Governours had A Distinction that I am not afraid to make use of notwithstanding the Quarter it comes from If Dr. Wake therefore denies the Definitions of Synods held under the Civil Power to have any other Authority than what they derive from that Power he by consequence denies that the Anti◠Nicene Fathers assembled in Synod had any Right to prescribe Rules to those Christians that lived within the District over which they presided or that those Christians were bound to obey 'em He affirms in effect the several Canons that these Assemblies passed the Censures that they pronounced all the Acts of Synodical Authority which they exercised to be in themselves Null and Void and mere Usurpations upon the Liberty of Christians And whether he will take up with these Scandalous Notions or not we shall see when he blesses the World with his Next Performance Sure I am that without 'em his Scheme cannot be consistent and of a piece Agen Dr. Wake is also very faulty on this Head when in order to depress the Power of the Church he promiscuosly enumerates all the Laws framed by Princes about Ecclesiastical Affairs without informing us which of those Laws only traced the steps of precedent Canons and which of them proposed New Matter of Obedience beside or contrary to those Canons which would in this case have been a very Material and Pertinent Distinction He is full of the Edicts relating to Church-matters that are to be met with in the Code of Theodosius the Code and Novels of Iustinian c. * P. 11. But it would have been very honest of him here to have told us as the Truth is that there were scarce any of these Edicts to which some Canon had not
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
that known Preface to King Ina's Laws which says they were made in the Rude but Faithful Translation of Iorvallensis exhortatione doctrinâ Ceonredi Patris mei Heddae Episcopi mei Erkenwoldi Episcopi mei omnium Senatorum meorum seniorum sapientum Regni mei multâque Congregatione Servorum Dei †X. Scrip. p. 761. That the Servi Dei here mentioned were Clergy bears no doubt and that the Words are further to be understood chiefly of the Inferior Orders of the Clergy appears both from their Numbers for the West-Saxon Bishops and Abbats were but few and from the like use of the Phrase in other places for instance in the Council of Cloveshoe A. C. 824. another mixt Assembly the Dei Servi then present are thus in the next words explained Presbyteri Diaâ—oni Plurimi Monachi ** Ibid. p. 335. And in a Charter of Milred Bishop of Worster A. D. 774. he makes his grant cum Licentiâ Servorum Dei qui sub meo regimine Dei Providentiâ constituuntur Monast. Vol. 1. p. 122. i. e. of all the Clergy of his Diocese And when therefore Athelstan's Laws are said to be drawn up at one of these State-Meetings ‖ For thus we read a◠〈◊〉 close of it Totum hoc 〈◊〉 Magnâ Synodo apud 〈◊〉 Arch. Wlâ—inus interâ—uitâ— omnes Optimates S. p. 〈◊〉 tes quos Adelstanus rex potuit congregare Iorv. p. 84â— Consilio Wolfelini Archiepiscopi mei omnium Episcoporum Dei Ministrorum †Ibid. p. 841. those Ministri Dei also are to have the same Interpretation Something of this Dr. W. seems to have been aware of and therefore slid over these three Instances in hast as it were and touch'd them tenderly His account of the first is That Ina made his Laws with the consent of his Bishops and all his Aldermen * P. 171. of the last That Athelstan publish'd his Ecclesiastical Laws with the Council of his Bishops †P. 162. and as to the third he tells us There was such a Council at Cloveshoe Anno 824. (⸪) P. 172. and that 's all Very succinct indeed especially coming from the Pen of so prolix and tedious a Writer who fails not to tire us with Circumstantial Accounts of things when they are unenlightning But here a punctual Relation might have open'd Eyes and made Discoveries and in such Cases Dr. W's communicative Temper always fails him I shall supply his Defects as to one of these Instances a little further than I have done by transcribing a Passage or two from an old Charter granted to the Church of Worster and enter'd in the Register of it There this Meeting at Cloveshoe Anno 824. is called Pontificale Sinodale Conciliabulum at which the King the Bishops Abbats Universi Mercensium Principes multi Sapientissimi viri were present Statut a est autem atque decret a ab Archiepiscopo um ab omni Sanctâ Sinodo illâ consentienti ut Episcopus qui Monasterium Agellum cum libris haberet cum juramento Dei Servorum Presbiterorum Diaconorum plutimorum Monachorum sibi in propriam possessionem terram illam cum adjuratione adjur asset aret c. Quaproptersiquis c. contra Decreta Sanctorum Canonum sciat se facere quia Sancti Canones decernunt quicquid Sancta Synodus Universalis cum Catholico Archiepiscopo suo adjudicaverit nullo modo fractum vel irritum esse faciendum The Charter is subscribed by the King Bishops Abbats and great Men of the Laiety and then comes this Note in Saxon thus Translated by Dugdale * Monast. vol. 1. p. 125 Eidem Iuramento apud Westmonasterium praestito aderant 50 Sacrifici †The Saxons is Masse-preosta i. e. Missales Presbyteri in both places 10 Diaconi ex omnibus aliis Presbyteris 160. And after that this other Haec sunt Sacrificorum nomina qui Iuramento illi astiterunt idem praestiterunt which is follow'd by the Subscription of 3 Abbats 47 Presbyters and 6 Deacons The Book which furnishes us with this Instrument is a venerable Monument of Antiquity reposited in the Cotton Library †Tiberius A. 13. it was written about the Conquest that is within 250 Years of the Date of this Council whose constituent parts it thus reckons up and the Account therefore it gives is as Authentick as it is Considerable which are two reasons why Dr. W. should pass it by unobserv'd The only instance of this kind I think which he has prevail'd with himself to mention at length is the Council of Becanceld in 694. where together with the Duces Satrapae Abbates Abbatissae there met also Presbyters and Deacons who are said in unum glomerati de statu Ecclesiarum Dei pariter tractare and accordingly in the Subscriptions of that Council yet remaining there are the Names of 8 Presbyters * Spelm. Conc. v. 1. p. 19â— to be seen This is so clear a proof of what I am contending for that allowing the matter of Fact true there is no evading it Dr. W. therefore would fain if he could have the Account thought Fabulous if says he the Relation be true it was indeed an Assembly of an Extraordinary Composition (a) P. 171. But if he suspected it not to be true he would have done well to acquaint us with some of the Grounds of his Suspicions all which he has discretly kept to himself And indeed I cannot imagin what Ground there can be to suspect the Truth of it There are no Marks of Imposture in it nothing that disagrees with the Story or manners of that time Sir H. Spelman printed it from five good Manuscripts and one of them near as Old as the Saxon Age. In the Ancient Saxon Chronicle there is at the Year 694. a very large and particular account of this Council and least the Dr. should startle at the Abbesses being found in such Company they are expresly mention'd also by that Chronicle as present Nor can this be matter of surprize to any one in the least acquainted with the State of those times when it was not unusual for Women to assist at their Synods and great Councils witness the Synod of Nidde * Eddius in Vitâ Wilfredi c. 58. and that of Streanshealeh mention'd by Dr. W. †P. 166. as held in the Monastery of Hilda and in which though he does not mention it she her self sat Argu'd and Voted ‖ See Eddi c. 10. and Beda Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 25. Ingulphus who understood the manner of these Saxon Assemblys somewhat better than Dr. W. does did not suspect a Charter pass'd in one of them because he found several Abbesses subscribing their Names to it (⸪) P. 17. And there is reason to beâ—lieve that this Practice was not confin'd to the times before the Conquest but continu'd long after it if at least an expression
the Archdeacon's Jurisdiction must be somewhat older than the Council of Clarendon from some Trite Passages in those Constitutions so notoriously known that they have not escap'd even Dr. W's Enquirys †See p. 125 But if he must needs have produc'd a Proof of this lower than the Conquest why was not the Council of London under H. the I. thought of where it was decreed * Eadmer Hist. Nor. L. 4. p. 95. that the Archdeacons should take an Oath about the Execution of the Canons then made not to connive at the Breach of them for Money but severely to punish Offenders This would have carry'd his Proof between 30 and 40 Years higher than the Council of Clarendon and would have shew'd his Reader that he did not upon such Heads as these content himself barely to transcribe those who had transcrib'd others but convers'd with Original Authors To make all he says on this occasion of a Piece he further adds That we should not have known that the Bishops and Archdeacons were forbidden by the Conqueror to mix Iurisdiction with the Earl c. in the Hundred or Shiregemots but for an Inspeximus 1. R. 2. m. 12. n. 5 †P. 72. Not have known it Why there are divers Authentick Manuscript Copys or Accounts of it yet in being writ long before the time he talks of Particularly one enter'd in the Register of Winchelsey †Fol. 1. where the Clergy in their Roll of Grievances recite it Sir R. Twysden saw another of the Hand of E. the I. ⸪ Hist. Vind. p. 99. Dugdale in the Instruments relating to Pauls * Aâ—p p. 196. has Printed a third of the same Age And a much Ancienter Copy than any of these is to be found in one of the Old Books of that Church ‖ Lib. B. versùs finem writ about the Reign of R. I. between which and that of R. II. there is allmost 200 Years distance as my Almanack tells me Mr. Archdeacon might have modestly said indeed that He himself had not known of this Charter without that Inspeximus and some People would be apt to add nor with it neither if he had been to fetch his Intelligence from the Records of the Tower With which had he been acquainted he would have known that this Inspeximus was of the 2 d. not of the 1 st Year of R. II. as he imagines This I am sensible is a Digression but I shall make no Apology for it either to Mr. Nicholson or the Reader The One of these I hope will overlook it if he does not like it and the other may censure it in what manner he pleases Having shewn that there was by our Original Constitution a difference between the Greater and Lesser Councils of the Realm in the Saxon times and this Distinction being yet more Evident in the Latter Ages from the middle of E. the I. downwards as our Records preserv'd pretty well throughout this space of time abundantly testify We cannot doubt but that the same Distinction is applicable also to the Intermediate Period and that the Conqueror and his nearest Successors had also their Magna Concilia call'd afterwards Full Parliaments to which the Summons of their Subjects both of the Clergy and Laiety was more General and the Resort more Numerous than to their Ordinary Courts and Councils which were held de more for the dispatch of common Business and at stated Times And in such Extraordinary Meetings it is that we must chiefly expect to hear of the Inferior Clergys appearance Accordingly in one of them held in the 11 th Year of William the I. we find that a Charter then granted to the Monastery of Westminster is subscribed by Archiepiscopi Episcopi Comites alii Seniores c. multis praeterea Illustrium Virorum Personis Regni Principibus diversi Ordinis omissis qui similiter suae Confirmationi piissimo affectu Testes Fautores fuerunt Hii etiam illo tempore à Regiâ Poâ—estate è diversis Provinciis Urbibus ad Universalem Synodum pro causis cujuslibet Sanctae Ecclesiae audiendis tractandis ad praescriptum celeberrimum Canobium quod Westmonasteriense dicitur convocati * Spelm. Conc. Vol. 2. p. 14. It is plain this was a mixt Meeting of the Temporalty and Spiritualty such as were in use among the Saxons Who were there on the Lay part it is not my Business to enquire however They who restrain the words most as to Them yet allow that they must be understood to take in Deans Archdeacons and other Dignify'd Persons of the Clergy †Dr. Brady Introd p. 302. This was an Extraordinary Assembly the Conqueror is known also to have had his more Ordinary Courts which were held every Year at the Three Great Festivals and at which he appear'd Crown'd and Rob'd in great State and Splendor And of what Persons These were compos'd we learn from the Saxon Annals where they are thus reckon'd up Archbishops Bishops and Abbots Earls Thanes and Knights * P. 190. i. e. all who held by Knight-service And among These that several of the Lower Clergy had place appears from the Survey of Doomsday upon which we are told there were found in England 60215 Knights Fees and of these the Religious possess'd 28015 the Vills 1080 and Parochial Churches 4711 †Author Eulogii MS. apud Selden Tit Hon. There is no doubt but the Priests of these Parochial Churches as well as the King's Tenants in those Towns and Burroughs were present or represented in his Curiae whenever they assembled And among Those who are term'd Religious and who had in them near half the Knights-Fees of all England there were to be sure some of the Saecular Clergy above Parish Priests and below Bishops And these too appear'd among his Tenants in chief at such Assemblys and are comprehended in that General account given of one of these Courts in a Cotton-Manuscript Convenerunt ad Regalem Curiam †An. 1072. apud Civitatem Wentanam in Paschali Solemnitate Episcopi Abbates caeteri ex Sacro Laïcali Ordine * Cleop. E. 1.7 Whether more of the Clergy than these even some who held in Frank-almoigne might not be present at that Extraordinary Convention at Sarum to which all the Terrarii or Landholders of note in England repair'd cujuscunque Foedi fuissent as M. Paris †Ad ann 1084. Cujuscunque feudi vel tenementi fuissent the Waverly-Annals †Ad ann 1086. and Huntingdon ⸪ P. 370. But he places it in the Conqueror's 19 th Year expresly speak may be worth an Enquiry In his Son H. the I's time a Parliament met at London ⸪ An. 1102 and there the Spiritualty went aside and made several Ecclesiastical Constitutions †Eadmerus p. 67. The Lower Saecular Clergy therefore were there whose consent to the framing of Canons was requisite and so Hemingford's Relation of it plainly
â—â—â—sâ—umez en le temps of E III. affere semblablement aussi bien come oâ—t fait ceux de la Province de Canterbiri c. And had therefore written to the Archbishop of York praying and requiring him in consideration of that Agreement in Parliament and according to the Custom establish'd in Edward the III's time for the Province of York to do always as that of Cant. did to take effectual Care that all his Clergy did their Duty in this respect I have enlarged my Recital of this Letter thus far because beside the main purpose for which I have vouch'd it â—t furnishes us also with the Proof of a By-point which has been before laid down in these Papers ‖ P. 46 47. that the Convocation of York was â—ook'd upon as under some kind of Obligation â—o follow the Pattern set by that of Canterbury The Protestations of the whole Clergy against Divers Bills are mention'd in the Rolls and sometimes enter'd at length a manifest Evidence that they had somthing to do in Parliament for otherwise I am sure they could have had no Pretence to Protest against what was doing there nor would the Parliament have accepted and entred such Protestations These ran indeed sometimes in the Name of the Archbishops alone but were however made on the behalf of their Suffragans also and of the whole Clergy of their Provinces as the Rolls †Rot. Parl. 13. R. 2. n. 24. expresly speak And this is in general to be observed that oftentimes in matters Parliamentary where the Bishops names only are mention'd yet it was not Their Act alone but had the Concurrence also of the Convocation Clergy Thus the Statute of the Clergy 25. E. III. * Rastall p. 93. is in the Preamble said to have taken its rise from a Petition of the Bishops but if we look into the Roll of that Parliament we shall find that the Bishops petition'd for themselves tote la Clergie And 15. E. III. n. 19. though Archbishops and Bishops only are nam'd yet in the Note of the King's answer n. 26. they are call'd Generally Petitions of the Clergy This well deserves our Notice because it gives us a true account how the Parliament Prelates came to act in Parliament for the whole State Spiritual for that being at hand always was consulted and advis'd with in every thing that related to them and the Result of those Debates was by the Lords Spiritual laid before the Parliament 21. R. II. The Clergy of both Provinces appoint a Common Lay Proctor to consent for them to some Matters done in Parliament which they could not Lawfully be present at and the Form of the Power given by Them to this purpose in writing is as follows Nos Thomas Cant. Robertus Eboracensis Archiepiscopi ac Praelati Clerus utriusque Provinciae Cant. Ebor. Jure Ecclesiarum nostrarum Temporalium earundem habentes jus interessendi in singulis Parliamentis domini nostri Regis Regni Angliae pro tempore celebrandis nec non tractandi expediendi in eïsdem Quantum ad singula in instanti Parliamento pro Statu Honore domini nostri Regis nec non Regaliae suae ac Quiete Pace Tranquillitate Regni Iudicialiter justificandâ Venerabili Viro Thomae de Percy Militi nostram plenariè committimus potestatem ita ut singula per ipsum facta in praemissis perpetuis temporibus rata habeantur * Rot. Par. n. 10. This Instrument is by order enroll'd and the Right therefore which the Prelates and Inferior Clergy there claim of being of every Parliament and acting in it is by the King and his Great Council who order'd this Enrollment admitted and affirm'd 2. H. IV. c. 15. The Statute against the Lollards sprung from a Remonstance made to the King ex parte Praelatorum Cleri Regni sui Angliae in praesenti Parliamento as the Preamble speaks and again it is said in the Body of it super quibus quidem Novitatibus Excessibus superiùs recitatis Praelati Clerus supradicti ac etiam Communitates dicti regni in eodem Parliamento existentes dicto domino Regi supplicaverunt †Constitt Provv ad finem Lynwood pp. 62 63. And at their Request the King Enacts ex assensu Magnatum aliorum Procerum ejusdem regni in dicto Parliamento existentium So that the Prelates and Barons the Commons and Lower Clergy are alike here said to be present in Parliament The Testimony of Walsingham also who liv'd at this time is considerable He appears to have been excellently well vers'd in our Records and speaks properly always though not Elegantly of the matters he relates And his Phrase where he gives an account of any Grant or Act of the Clergy in Convocation usually is Clerus in eodem Parliamento conceâ—â—it or Statuit Of which take One very remarkable Instance Anno 1391. says he Parliamentum incaeptum est intra mensem faeliciter expeditum Nempe praeter X am a Clero XV tam a Populo concessam multa alia sunt in Clero Populo ad Regis Placitum reformata praecipuâ— in Ordine Nigrorum Monachorum illic in maximo numero Regis Edicto insimul congregato Fuerant itaque ibidem etiem 60 Abbates Priores Conventuales etium 300 amplius Monachi Doctores Procuratoâ—s Statutum â—uerat etiam in eodem Parliamento ad instantiam maximè domini Regis ut asseritur per clerum ut tertium Beneficium c. It is the Convocation-Clergy and Convocation-Business that the Historian all along here speaks of and yet he speaks of the first we see as being of and of the second as done in Parliament so closely were those Two Meetings then thought to be united and ally'd And the same is Perpetually the Style †133â— Edvardus Parliamentum tenuit in quo Archiepiscopus Cant. Concilio Cleri celebrato Regi X am triennalem à Clero concedi obtinuit p. â—22 1371. In hâ—c Parliamento Cleri Synodus ab Archiepiscopo celebrata est p. â—â—3 1344. Parliamentum tenuâ—t In eo Clerus ei concessit X as triennales â—â—36 of the Author of that Excellent Book de Antiquitate Ecclesiae Britannicae than whom none understood our Constitution better or express'd himself with greater Exactness To descend to Times nearer our Own In the 21. H. VIII The Summer before the Clergys Submission a Letter was written to the Pope about the affair of the Divorce by many Members of Parliament Herbeâ—t's Hisâ— p. 334 who subscribe it under eight distinct Ranks or Classes the last of which is Milites Doctores in Parliamento Eleven of these there are and several of 'em Clergymen as particularly Wolman Sampson Gardiner Lee c. Who seem to have subscrib'd as Members of Convocation for Wolman at this time was Prolocutor †Act. MS. Conv. 1529 And I do not see how
willing to spend some time in Prayer before we begin I am Sir Your Affectionate Brother and Servant in the Lord W. F. III. See p. 87. 1. ANd as concerning the requiring of your Highnesses Royal Assent to the Authorising of such Laws as have been by Our Predecessors or shall be made by Us in such Points and Articles as we have by God Authority to rule and order by Provisions and Laws We knowing Your Highnesses Wisdom Vertue and Learning nothing doubt but the same perceiveth how the granting thereunto dependeth not upon our Will and Liberty and that We your most humble Subjects may not submit the Execution of our Charges and Duty certainly prescrib'd by God to Your Highnesses Assent although in very deed the same is most worthy for Your most Princely and Excellent Vertues not only to give your Royal Assent but also to Devise and Command what we should for good Order and Manner provide in the Church Nevertheless considering we may not so in such sort restrain the doing of our Office in the feeding and ruling Christ's People Your Graces Subjects We most humbly desire your Grace as as the same hath done heretofore so from henceforth to shew Your Graces Mind and Opinion to us what Your Highnesses Wisdom shall think Convenient which We shall most gladly hear and follow if it shall please God to imspire us so to do with all submission and Humility beseeching the same following the steps of Your most Noble Progenitors and conformable to Your own Acts to maintain and defend such Laws and Ordinances as We according to our Calling and by the Authority of God shall for his Honor make to the Edification of Vertue and Maintaining Christ's Faith whereof Your Highness is Defender in Name and hath been hitherto in Deed a Special Protector Bibl. Cotton Cleop. F. 1. fol. 96. II. Forasmuch as the Answer lately made by Your Clergy unto Your Honorable Commons for their satisfaction in their Bill of Complaint put up unto Your Highness doth not please nor satisfy Your Highness in some Points concerning Your Own particular Interest specially in that Point which concerneth Laws either Now to be by Us made or else Old to be by Us reform'd for Your Highnesses better Contentation in that behalf We Your said most Humble Chaplains do now more especially answer unto those Points as followeth 1. As touching New Laws to be by us Hereafter made we say that the Laws and Declarations of Christ's Holy Church throughout all Christian Realms receiv'd and us'd been clear and manifest that the Prelates of the same Church have a special Jurisdiction and Judicial Power to Rule and Govern in Faith and Good Manners necessary to the Souls health the Flocks unto their Care committed and that they have Authority to meet and ordain Rules and Laws tending to that purpose which Rules and Laws hath and doth take effect in binding all Christian People as of theymself so that before God there needeth not of necessity any Temporal Power or Consent to concur with the same by the Way of Authority Item they say that this Power and Authority in making Laws in matters concerning the Faith and Good Manners necessary to the Soul's health all Christian Princes hath hitherto reckon'd themselves bound to suffer the Prelates to use within their Realms and have not claimed of the same Prelates that they should from time to time require their Consent or License by the way of Authority more in making of such Laws than they do claim that they the said Prelates should from time to time require their Consents autorysable in the giving of Holy Orders to any of their Subjects or in the exercising any other Spiritual Act depending upon their Spiritual Jurisdiction the Authority whereof immediately proceedeth from God and from no Power or Consent Authorisable of any Secular Prince except it be that Consent that is taken of the Princes own submission to the Faith Catholique made not only by their Noble Progenitors when they first admitted Christ's Faith and the Laws of the Holy Church within their Realms but also by themselves first Generally at their Baptism and after more specially and most Commonly by their Corporal Oaths at their Coronation We say also that this Power of making Laws aforesaid is right well founded in many Places of Holy Scripture now so much the less necessary here to be rehears'd for as much as that matter is at large set out in a Book now by Us put up unto Your Highness and Your Highness your self in your Own Book most excellently Written against M. Luther for the defence of the Catholick Faith and Christ's Church doth not only knowledge and confess but also with most Vehement and Inexpugnable Reasons and Authoritys doth defend the same Which Your Highnesses Book we reckon that of Your Honor You cannot and of Your Goodness You will not revoke Yet these Considerations notwithstanding We your most humble Chaplains and Bedesmen considering Your High Wisdom Great Learning and Unfeign'd Goodness towards Us and the Church and having special Trust in the same and not minding to fall into Contentions or Disputations with your Highness in any Manner of Matter what we may do We be contented to make Promise unto Your Highness That in all such Acts Laws and Ordinances as upon Your Lay Subjects We by the reason of our Spiritual Jurisdiction and Judicial Power shall hereafter make we shall not Publish nor put them forth except first we require Your Highness to give your Consent and Authority unto them and so shall from Time to Time suspend all such our Acts Ordinances and Laws hereafter to be made unto such Time as Your Highness by Your Consent and Authority shall have authoris'd the same except they be such as shall concern the maintenance of the Faith and Good Manners in Christ's Church and such as shall be for the Reformation and Correction of sin after the Commandments of Allmighty God according to such Laws of the Church and laudable Customs as hath been heretofore made and hitherto receiv'd and us'd within Your Realm In which Points our Trust is and in most humble manner we desire Your Grace that it may so be that upon the Refusal of Your Consent which We presume that we need not fear but yet if any such thing should fall Your Highness will be then contented we may exercise our Jurisdiction as far as it shall be thought necessary unto us for the maintenance of Christ's Faith and for the Reformation of Sin according to our Offices and the Vocations that God hath call'd us unto As for the Second Part concerning Laws that in Time past hath been made by us or by our Predecessors contrary to the Laws of this Your Realm and to your Prerogative as it is pretended to this Point We Your Highnesses most humble Chaplains answer and say that such our Laws by our Predecessors within this Realm made as contain any matter contrary to your Laws or
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