Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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ID |
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Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A11297
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An answere to a letter cum priuilegio.
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Saint German, Christopher, 1460?-1540.
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1535
(1535)
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STC 21558.5; ESTC S100189
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35,044
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126
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emperours / kynges princes / with their people / aswell of the clergye as of the lay fee make the catholique church and the clergye but a parte of that church than may the emperoure / kynges priÌ„ces with their people expounde it But for as moche as the vnyuersall catholique / people can nat be gathered togyther to make suche exposycion / therfore it semeth that kynges princes whoÌ„ the people haue chosen agreed to be their rulers gouernours / and which haue the whole voyces of the people / maye with theire counsell spirytuall temporall make exposycyon of such scripture as is doutfull / so as they shall thynke to be the true vnderstandyng of it / and none but they / that theire subiectes be bounden euen by the lawe of god to folowe their exposycion for the goodnesse of oure lorde is suche that he wyll nat leue his people in suche doutes but that they maye haue some meanes whereby they maye come to the knowlege of the trouth so as shal be necessarye to their saluatyon if they wyll dyspose them to it / and that is by obedyence to their princes whom god hathe appoynted to haue rule ouer them / as is afore sayde And here it is to be noted / that there be two maner of powers that kynges and princes haue ouer theire subiectes The one is called / Ius regale / that is to saye a kyngely gouernaunce And he that hathe that power maye with his counsell make lawes to bynde his subiectes / and also make declaration of Scypture for the good order of his subiectes / as nede shall requyre / for appeasyng of varyance The other is called / Ius regale politicum / that is to saye a kynglye and a polytyke gouernaunce And that is the most noble power that any prince hath ouer his subiectes / and he that ruleth by that power / maye make no Lawe to bynde his subiectes without their assent / but by their assent he maye so that the lawes that he maketh be nat agaynste the lawe of God / nor the lawe of reason And this power hathe the kynges grace in this Realme where he by assente of his lordes spirytuall and temperall and of his commons gathered togyther by his commaundement in his parlyamente maye make lawes to bynde the people And of those lawê there nedeth no ê“clamation / bicause they be made by all the people / for the ê‘liament so gathered togyther / the people representeth the estate of al the people within this realme / that is to say of the whole catholyque churche therof And why shuld nat the parlyament than whiche representeth the whole catholyke churche of Englande expounde scrypture rather than the conuocacyon whiche representeth onely the state of the clergy ouer that me thiÌ„keth that no maÌ„ ought to pretende that at a generall counsell anye other shulde be iuges but kynges princes suche as they wyll appoynte vnder them to bere voyces therin seynge that they haue the power voyce of the whole people of christendom / which is the catholyque churche as is sayde before and I thynke verily that generall counsels shall do lytell good tyll christeÌ„ princes wyl knowe their owne power the auctorite that they haue receyued of god ouer his people / and that they set the clergy in such power as they ought to haue by the lawe of god without diminisshiÌ„g of it in any maner to se also that they haue no more but as shall be thoughte expedyent for the comenwelth / also for the helth of their owne soules of the people And surely it is greatly to be douted / that the power that bysshoppes of Rome haue claymed in tyme past ouer princes other bysshoppes / haue ben a great occasyon of the desolacyon of manye countreys that nowe be estemed amonge vs latyns as scismatykes desperate persones And therfore it is good that the Emperour and all christeÌ„ kynges princes the clergy also loke wel vpon the matter and to se whether the seyd countreyes were nat most priÌ„cypally estemed as heretykes scysmatykê bycause they weÌ„t fro the obedieÌ„ce of Rome / thaÌ„ for any other cause whether ther was such dilygence charitie mekenesse shewed to haue theÌ„ reformed as ought to haue ben shewed or that they were extremely or happely / maliciously haÌ„dled by excomunycatyons interdictions as men vnworthy the confort of christê passioÌ„ that so wold fall fro the obedieÌ„ce of the heed of Christes church And yet vndoutedly the saluatyon or dampnatioÌ„ of christeÌ„ men staÌ„deth nat in that poynte / whether Rome be the hed of christes church or nat And I meane all this that I haue said of the Grecyans / of the SuriaÌ„s of the Iacobytê / of the Nestorians wherof gret ê‘te be now in Percye which is heed enemy to the cursed turkê Of the armins The georgiaÌ„s that be gret archers and very apte meÌ„ to the warre Of the Abasynes otherwyse called Indyans of the Maronytê of these Maronytes Bernard deane of the church of magunce in his boke of his iorney to HierusaleÌ„ / writeth that the seyd Maronytê about v. C. yeres were heretykê seperated fro the coÌ„pany of faythfull people but at the last he sayth / that through the inspiracyoÌ„ of god / they turned to their owne hertes confessiÌ„g that they had erred were noÌ„bred agayne in the obediens of the church of Rome returned to the vnite of the catholyke fayth that thervpon though all the bysshops of the Est ê‘tes the chefe prelates of other nacions vse no ringê miters ne bishops staues yet saith he that these Maronites vse theÌ„ al as we do iÌ„ their diuyne seruyces ministration of the sacramentes And thus were they seyth he reformed but yet it may be douted whether they were natte reformed to more pride than they had before and I beseche oure lorde that all christen princes through the inspyration of god may encourage theÌ„ selfe to bringe all the seyde people and vs also to the verye true obedyence of Christ of his lawes / to a true vnderstandyng / and a deuoute folowynge of his scrypture all worldly pompe pride / desyre of worldly honoure / specyally in the clergy / whiche ought to be the lyghte leders of the laye people / vtterly dispysed and set a parte asmoch as in them is than I dout nat but that gret charytie grace shal shortly after appere amoÌ„g the people And than forthermore if a man be in doute vpon any thynge concernynge scrypture as is sayde before / and he hathe no counsell to instructe hym therin / or els if there be counsell / the counsell varyeth amonge them selfe as is said before And princes haue no tyme yet to determyne the mater ThaÌ„ it is good that he so beyng in dout lyfte vp his herte to god / and aske counsell of him and if he do so /
is the supreme heed vpon erth vnder god / and that is true that he is vnder god And yet in that it saythe / that the kynge is supreme heedde vnder god / is nat Christ excluded for god is Christ and Christ is god / and the whole Trinitie is in Christe And so he that is vnder god / is vnder christ so Christe is God / and so God and Christ is all one But if the ê‘liameÌ„t had recognised the kyng to be supreme heed vpon erthe vnder god / of the churchc of Englande / but nat vnder Christe than had they erred in dede / no man had ben bounden to haue taken the kyng vnder that maner as supreme heed c. But here it is nothing so And I dare wel afferme that it was neuer the inteÌ„t of the ê‘liameÌ„t / to make any distynctyon or dyuersytie betwyxt god christ ne to exclude Christe fro the heedshyp of the church if the ê‘liameÌ„t had sayde expressely that the kyng was supreme heed c. vnder god and Christ / than noman wold haue taken any exception to it And statute is nowe of the same effecte and syth it is now a lawe of the realme / it must be iudged accordynge to the groundes and rules of the lawe of the realme / and vndoutedly they wyll iuge the statute to be of such effecte as I haue sayde before that that was the very meanyng of the makers therof / for the wordes therof proue suffycyently that it was so though they do so / yet is that iugement no thynge agaynst saynte Paule for with that it standeth verye well / that Christ is the heed of the churche / that god is also the heed of Christ / as saynte Paule sayth ¶ Also whan Rome was made heed of all other churches / as Platyne sayth it was yet it is vncertayne what princes were warned to be at that counsell / what nat And if any Prince or Countrey were nat warned to be there / than that couÌ„sell bounde nat that priÌ„ce / and no man can iuge for certayne that the kynge of this realme that tyme beynge had suche warnynge for it was in the tyme whan there were many kynges in this realme and whiche of them were warned and whiche nat / no man can tell And if this realme were nat bounde by the seyde generall counsell to accepte Rhome as hedde of all churches bycause it had no warnynge but hath by custome assented to it / than is that custome the thynge that shuld bynde this realme to it / and nat the generall counsell / and than it is no doute if the parlyamente see a hurte folowe to the comen welthe / by that custome but that they maye yea / and are bounde of iustyce to redresse it Also / though it were admytted that this realme hadde warnynge and were therefore bounde by the seyd generall couÌ„sell as other realmes were yet for as moche as a generall councell shulde be holden at certayne tymes appoynted by the lawe to redresse wronges done to the people And it is well knowen throughe christendome that popes in tyme paste haue delayed suche generall counseyls / further than the lawe wold this many yeres Therfore if the wronges done by popes / shulde nat be reformed before a generall counsell / the people mighte be longe greued / and haue no helpe of longe tyme and there is no reason why they shuld susteyne wronge any one daye specyally by him that dyffereth the meanes whereby they might haue remedye And therefore the parlyament hath good auctoritye to remoue such wronges iÌ„ this realme and so haue all other Realmes that be in lyke maner greued as this realme was ¶ Also though it were nat the intente of the sayde Phocas to take any power fro princes / but onely to make Rome the hedde of other churches yet neuerthelesse the popes haue by occasyon therof taken great power fro princes / as whan they pretended to gyue all spirituall promocyons thorowe all christendome / and to do dyuers other thynges vnder the pretence that they were thynges mere spirituall as in the fyrst chapiter of this answere appereth And whan they pretended to make personall cytacions to whom they wolde cause them vpon payne of cursynge / to appere at Rome aswell bysshops as other / that all appelles shulde be made to Rome / fro all bysshops of crystendome / that all bisshoppes shulde be sworne to them And that they myghte prohybyt what bokes preachers they wolde by their owne auctorite And certayn it is that they optayned all these powers more thorough the sufferaunce of princes / rather than by the lawe of god Also many of the sayd pretences made by the bysshops of Rome / dyuers other nat here remembred were dyrectly agaynst the power of other bysshops / that they had receyued of the immedyate gyfte of god And bysshops coulde nat haue ben compelled to haue suffred suche vyolence if they wolde haue resysted it And therfore great defaute offence of conscyence was in them / that they wolde wylfully suffre suche wronges nat onely to their owne hurte but also in maner to a whole confoundynge of al truth / and of al good comen welth in many countreys ¶ Also / for as moche as the bysshop of Rome / natwithstandyng the seyde statutes And also natwithstandynge any other statute made in this present parlyamente shall haue as moche auctoritye in this realme as his predecessours had at the sayd couÌ„sell of Nycene no man may say that they that obserue those statutes declyne fro the vnytye of Christes churche or fro the gospel but he sey also that the sayd couÌ„sell of Nycene dyd so like wyse and that no man wyll saye as I suppose ¶ Of prayenge to sayntes and worshyppynge of them The thirde cha THis is a good prayer lord I besech the in the honour of our blessed lady of all the graces vertues that thou gauest vnto her for the which gracyous giftes I al other ar specially bouÌ„de to honour loue both the and her / that thou to thy honoure to hers graunt me that I aske if thou know it expedieÌ„t for me if nat thy wyll by done nat myne And I suppose verily that they that made the Letani entended none other wyse but that all the prayers that be made therin to our lady to other sayntes shuld be takeÌ„ as prayers vnto our lorde that he for al the graces that he gaue to them gyue vs his grace help vs in all our necessyties But no man ought to aske any peticioÌ„ of our lady as thought she of her self hath power to grauÌ„t it there be many also that wil say ferther that oure ladye of her owne power dyd neuer yet any myracle but that our lorde only of his power to shew that he had accepted approued her vertue / wherby other might be encouraged to labour to haue lyke