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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B25323	The assurance of abby and other church-lands in England to the possessors, cleared from the doubts and arguments raised about the danger of resumption in answer to a letter of a person of quality / by Nathaniel Johnston ...	Johnston, Nathaniel, 1627-1705.; Coventry, William, Sir, 1628?-1686.	1687 (1687)	Wing J872	65,925	215

THE ASSURANCE OF ABBY AND OTHER Church-Lands IN ENGLAND To the POSSESSORS Cleared from the DOUBTS and ARGUMENTS Raised about the Danger of RESUMPTION In Answer to a Letter of a Person of Quality By Nathaniel Johnston Dr. of Physic Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London Publisht by His Majesty's Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel An● are to be sold at his Printing-house on the Di●ch-side in Black-Fryers 1687. THE PREFACE FEars and Jealousies are of all other Passions the most difficult to be subdued and where they are personated only for accomplishing some Sinister end they are not to be removed by Arguments Since they who are once Possessed with them never yield till they despair of attaining or effecting the ends they aim at All that I can hope to perform by this Treatise is to give satisfaction to those who are scrupulous in good earnest and by the perusing of Partial Authors dread the loss of their Church-lands and the diminishing their Estates thereby To such only I direct this Discourse and can further tell them that their Fears are wholly Groundless since His Majesty by His Special Command appointed the Author to compose this for the Quieting the minds of His Interessed Subjects Publishing to them the Full Assurance of their Possessions by the Canon Civil and Municipal Laws which to all considerate Persons it is hoped will be sufficient satisfaction I must own the Subject is of that moment that it deserved to have been Treated of by an abler Pen and one better skilled in the Laws But I have endeavored with a sincerity becoming one that hates Imposing to clear both matter of Law and Fact. THE TABLE Sect. 1. THe Arguments against the Alienation of Church-Lands pag. 4. Sect. 2. What kind of Alienations have been allowed by the Canons and Constitutions of the Church p. 14. Sect. 3. Several instances of Alienations of Ecclesiastical Revenues from the Churches or Religious Houses they were at their first Dedication conferred on in ancient times p. 22. Sect. 4. Several Instances of particular Alienations of Church-Lands more modern in England p. 32. Sect. 5. Instances of Alienations of Church-Lands in Foreign Coantreys in the Roman Catholic Communion p. 53. Sect. 6. Concerning the Alienations of Church-Lands in Germany and the Establishment of a Tolleration of Religion there by the Treaties of Munster and Osnaburgh p. 64. Sect. 7. Whether Cardinal Pool's confirmation of Church Lands to the Possessors was delusory or not p. 90. Sect. 8 Cardinal Pool's confirmation of Abby-Lands to the present Possessors and the Act thereupon p. 131. Sect. 9. The Exceptions against this Assurance of Abby-Lands to the Possessors That it was not confirmed by Pope Paul IV. fully answered p. 170. Sect. 10. The Application of what hath been offered towards the Assurance of Abby-Lands to the present Possessors p. 193. The Assurance of Abby-Lands IN ENGLAND Cleared from the doubts and Arguments raised about the danger of Resumption In Answer to a Letter of a Person of Quality SIR The occasion of the treating of the security of Abby Lands YOU have obliged me very much in the Present you made me of the late Treatise intitled How the Members of the Church of England ought to behave themselves under a Roman Catholic King And have greatly pleased me in the remarks you have made upon it which in the General are favorable enough in that you say it deserves consideration as much as any Book writ on that Subject since the Kings Succeeding to the Crown and that either directly or by consequence you think as much is said as the matter will bear and you wish it were so considered as it ought to be for you verily believe that the want of weighing the Reas●ns there laid down hath occasioned most of those non-compliances with the Kings desires which have been so fatal to some and may yet be to more that will not see how much it is the Interest of all Subjects to endeavor with great obedie●ce to comport themselves to their Sovereign in all the Duties of Allegiance and to one another as fellow-Subjects that thereby the Civil Harmony amongst themselves may produce those effects so wise a King and so sedulous for his Peoples happiness studies to accomplish You tell me that a further satisfaction in some particulars you think requisite and since the Author is unknown to you and having some confidence I will deal candidly with you you desire my Judgment in some scruples In obedience to which I here send you my thoughts and shall not insert your Letter entire but in parcels for the advantage of fitting my Answer more satisfactorily to your Objections which as they are such as may shock some deserve a serious reply to especially since his Majesty is desirous his Subjects should be satisfied in this particular SECT I. The Arguments against the Alienation of Church-Lands § 1. The necessity of clearing the doubts about the security of Abby-Lands IN the First Part of the Letter you tell me that you conceive that the Author of the foresaid Discourse hath too slightly passed over the security of Abby-Lands and other Religious Possessions whereof the Roman Catholic Regulars were violently disseized in King Henry the 8th and King Edward the 6th time Whereas you Judge the consideration of the danger of their Resumption as weighty a Reason as any other why persons of Interest and Fortune oppose the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws lest by yielding a Parliamentary consent to those the Roman Catholic Religion should with greater facility be propagated which once effected you conceive great endeavours would be used to procure a Restitution of those Lands to the Religious Upon this Head you re-mind me what Sir Henry Spelman hath writ in his small but Learned Treatise De non Temerandis Ecclesiis the force of whose Arguments were such as they have prevailed with several persons to restore their Impropriations to their respective Parochial Churches Yet you own that the Subjects both Roman Catholics and Protestants seemed to entertain a firm Opinion of the Legal Security of them till (a) Part 2. fol. 297. Dr. Burnet in his History of the Reformation and the Author (b) Pr●●ted for Rich. Baldwin 1685. of a Letter to him giving him an Account of Cardinal Pool's secret Powers endeavoured to make it appear that the Pope neither did nor intended to confirm the Alienation of Abby-Lands and thereby have raised new doubts in mens minds and in this present juncture of affairs their Arguments are made great use of to afright people from yielding any compliance to the King's desire Some Canons against Alienation of Church-Revenues To enforce this you not only press me with the Decretal of (c) 12. q. 2. Non lic●at Papae Pope Symmachus inserted in the foresaid Letter but urge the Decretal Epistle of (d) Binnii Concil

persons of the Augustan Confession they only addicted to that Religion shall be deputed and so of the Catholics and if it be betwixt Catholics and Augustans then the Commissioners to be equal In the 19th Section It is ordered that in causes of Religion and in all other things where the State was divided in the points of Religion all differences and suits should be ended by Amicable Composition (k) Non attenta votorum pluralitate and not by plurality of Vote I might Transcribe the whole Treaty with some Advantage to the design of composing Mens minds not to apprehend the danger of Resumption and to shew how the Germans have accommodated Matters and live Amicably in the several professions of their Religion with great advantage as to Peace and Concord without Tests and Persecution for Religion But I dare not lengthen this Letter too much and so must refer you to the Treaty it self Concerning the Nuncios Protestation and the Popes Bull against the Treaty As to the Objection of the Nuncio's protesting and Pope Innocent the 10th's Bull against it you may easily conceive that it stood not with the Dignity Honor or Ecclesiastical Interest of his Holiness to give his open Assent to such an agreement as allowed not only such a publick exercise of a contrary Religion but spoyled the Church of such great and Opulent Arch-bishopricks as Magdeburg called the Metropolis of Germany or that of Bremen Erected into a Dukedom or of the Rich Bishopricks of Osnaburg Minden Halberstadt and Verdon together with most of the Great Monasteries and Church-lands of the North part of Germany which were swallowed up by the Reformed Princes Tacit connivance of the Pope Yet that there has been a Tacit Connivance or Confirmation of this appears in that the Pope (l) Artic. n. 122. disturbs not the same and in Anno 1657. Ten years after the said Treaty the French King in the Treaty betwixt him and Spain Styles himself a Confederate for the Maintainance of the Treaty of Munster yet neither the Pope who was Alexander the 7th Nuncio at the Treaty of Munster or his Plenipotentiary dissallowed the Title The present Duke of Bavaria (m) Castlemain pa. 248. What Catholic Princes in Germany enjoy Religious Lands as well as his Father Maximilian not only enjoys the Revenues of several Abbies but have endowed new Colleges with some of the same Lands and charged others with great Pensions and all this with the Popes positive consent The Duke of Newburg also that now is Palatin hath obtained a dispensation for what he and his Father possessed since Luthers time which belonged to the Church and the Landgrave of Hess has obtained the like However since upon the account of these Treaties That the Reformed Princes enjoy the Religious Lands notwithstanding the Popes Bull prohibiting it Therefore greater security here where confirmed by two Popes betwixt the Empire King of France and Sweden with the Concurrence of the Catholic Princes of Germany as well Ecclesiastical as Secular these so great Portions of Church-lands are enjoyed to this Day peaceably by the Reformed Princes and States notwithstanding the foresaid Protestation and Bull of the Pope so directly dissallowing thereof It is to me a very Convincing Argument that we in England have no reason to fear any Resumption of such Lands when they are so well Confirmed by Act of Parliament and have obtain'd the Confirmation of two Popes Neither is it so new a matter as some may imagin that an Act of Parliament in England hath been here Judged valid tho' it Diametrically thwarted a Canon of the Church which is evident in the Statute (n) Stat. Merton c. 9. of 20 H. 3. the words are To the Kings Writ of Bastardy whether one born before Matrimony may Inherit in like manner as he that is born after Matrimony all the Bishops answer that they would not nor could not answer to it because it was directly against the common Order of the Church See Fortescue de Legibus c. ●9 Selden Comment and Waterhouse Comment fol. 466. and 483. and all Bishops Instanted the Lords that they would consent that all such as were born after Matrimony should be Legitimate as well as they that be born within Matrimony as to the Succession of Inheritance for so much as the Church accepteth such for Legitimate And all the Earls and Barons with one voice answered That they would not change the Laws of the Realm which hitherto have been used and approved This is esteemed as good a Statute Law as any in the Printed Books or upon Record and yet it is most evident that the Church judgeth otherwise as is apparent in the (o) Decret Greg. Tit. 17. c. 1. Decree of Pope Alexander the 3d. Circa Annum 1159. 5o. H. 2. to which I refer you SECT VII Whether Cardinal Pools Confirmation of Church-lands to the Possessors was delusory or not IN the next part of your Letter you take up another of Dr. (a) Hist Reformation lib. 2. p. 298. Burnets Arguments That Cardinal Pool's Confirmation was an Artifice and the Point was carried by those who did not understand the true danger their Estates were in But considered the present Advantages they were to have from the consenting to the Act. The Reason he gives for this Assertion is because the Cardinal gave a charge to all to be afraid of the Judgment of God that fell on Balthazar for converting the Holy Vessels which had been taken by his Father and not by himself to profane uses which saith the Doctor was to pardon the thing and yet call it Sacrilege and that it was studiously designed to possess the People with an opinion of the sin of retaining Church-lands so that the Confirmation might be looked upon as an Indempnity and Permission to keep them rather than a Declaration that the Possessors had a Lawful Title This you enforce from the Authority of (b) Letter to Dr. Burnet one who assures us he had met with a Register of Cardinal Pool's Letters and among them the two Breves and the Letters that passed betwixt the Cardinal and the Bishop of Arras who was afterwards Cardinal Granvil and others that passed betwixt the said Cardinal and the Cardinal de Monte and Cardinal Morone and Soto the Emperors Confessor and some from Cardinal Pool to the Pope and to King Philip. This Gentleman having said this to gain himself credit with his Readers proceeds to prove that it was never intended to confirm the Alienation that was made of the Abby-Lands and you having made an Abbreviation of what he there lays down to make a plausible proof I shall Insert them justly But because these require distinct Answers that I may both shew the Infidelity of the Author of this Letter and the designed misapplication of the whole you must give me leave to shew first in General how the whole business was Transacted and the Reasons of the

them in mind of Balthazar and the expression in the Breve of the 4th of March 1554. Pope Julius the 3d. gave the Cardinal Power only to Agree and Transact with the Possessors of the Goods of the Church for the Rents which they had unlawfully received and for the moveable Goods which they had consumed and for freeing and discharging them for them they restoring first if that should seem expedient to him the Lands themselves that were unduly deteined by them and the Pope intended no security but on those conditions In Answer to this I shall first give you the words of the Breve (t) Letter to Dr. Burnet Ac cum possessoribus bonorum Ecclesiasticorum restitutis prius Si (u) The expression to be noted tibi expedire videatur Immobilibus per eos indebite detentis super fructibus male perceptis ac bonis mobilibus consumptis concordandi transigendi ac eos desuper liberandi ac quietandi c. Here I desire you to consider Answer Answered first as to the moveables what was to be excepted viz. Church stuff unchanged that among the movables of the Church two particulars are to be distinguished First the Vessels Consecrated to the use of the Altar such were Chalices Patens Crucifixes and such like And secondly the Rents and Profits received of the Lands Tythes or Pensions belonging to the Church Concerning the first it is that the Cardinal in his Admonition expresseth himself that altho' he had released indistinctly to them that possess'd them all the movable things of the Church yet he would have all admonished that they having before their Eyes the severity of Divine Judgment against Balthazar (w) Stat. 1o. 2o. Philip. Mariae c. 8. c. should restore them to their proper Churches if they were in being or else to others Now the plain meaning of this is only to admonish these who had such Vessels of Silver or Gold or other Utensils or Church-stuff as yet entire undefaced or melted down should restore them to the Churches from whence they were taken which surely was no ill Admonition since God Almighty appointed the Censors of Corah (x) Thuribula c. nam admoverunt illa coram Jehova Ideo sancta sunt Num. c. 17. V. 3. Dathan and Abiram to be made Plates of for the Altar because they were offered before the Lord and therefore were Holy. If therefore the Censors of such Sinners were holy can any imagin that the Cardinal would not Judge the Chalices c. such Secondly As to the clause of the Breve I shall presently shew how much that Power was enlarged by those that follow and even in that it is left to the Cardinals discretion to do it if he thought it expedient which by the Faculties he had after was not required of him and so he most absolutely acquitted all of them as will appear by the Dispensation it self From hence we may judge the Enviousness of the (y) Pa. 7. expressions of the Author of the Letter to Dr. Burnet that the discharging what was past The envious expressions of the Letter to Dr. Burnet might have been done by Cardinal Pool before or after Restitution as he pleased but Restitution was still to be made and he had by these Powers no Authority to confirm the Alienations that had been made by King Henry the 8th for the time to come and of that of Dr. Burnet (z) Hist Reformation 2. §. p. 298. Dr. Burnets frivulous Inference concerning the Lands in general that when Men were near Death and could no longer enjoy the Lands themselves it was not to be doubted but the Terror of Sacrilege and the Punishment due to it with the hope of that relief and comfort that Soul-Masses might b●ing them in Purgatory would prevail with many of them to make at least great if not entire Restitution or that of his (a) Letter to Dr. Burnet pa. 5. Colleagues that it was most likely that if a Priest came to tell them a frightful Story of Purgatory and did aggravate the heinousness of Sacrilege they would easily be wrought upon to take care of themselves in the next World and leave their Children to their shifts in this and that every fit of sickness or (b) Idem pa. 11. cross accident would by the Priests Rhetorick look like the beginning of the Curse which fell upon Ananias and Saphira c. Whereas I shall make it appear No reason for such scruples that Roman Catholics by the Popes Dispensation think themselves acquitted in foro conscientiae and for Protestants I think they entertain no such scruples Since all that Sir Henry (c) De non Temerandis Eccles●is Spelman hath Writ in his Book that Churches are not to be violated hath hitherto made no very great number of Converts tho' it hath been Reprinted five times But these two Gentlemen are so desirous that nothing may be restored to Religious Houses yea or to Parish Churches that they number it among the designs formed to recover (d) Letter p. 5. Concerning the Repeal of the Statute of Mortmain Abby-lands that the Statute of Mortmain was repealed for Twenty Years which Statute saith he was a restraint upon profuse endowments of Churches and the suspending of it for so long a time gave the Monks scope and Elbow room that in that time they might hope the most part of them would be restored I shall not enter upon the considerations that induced that Statute to be made the principal of which was that Lands given to Religious Houses c. were exempt from several burthens payable for the support of the Public so that the more were given the less assistance the Crown would have in Personal Service or Aids But when it is considered how vast a Portion of the Patrimony of the Church was swept away and annexed to the Crown in King Henry the 8th's and King Edward the 6th's days we are not to wonder if the Statute of Mortmain was dispensed with for such a time that the Subjects might be left at liberty to restore to Parishes or Religious Houses what they were inclined to without prohibition But as it effected no great matter and was so few Years in force it argues more spightfulness than Real sense of prejudice for any from those twin Authors once to insist upon it I now proceed to the consideration of the previous Breves which the Author (e) Pa. 9.10 of the Letter to Dr. Burnet mentions and makes his Comment upon And so boldly affirms The disingenuous that the whole Transaction was a public cheat put upon the Nation or at least on the Possessors of the Abby lands Inferences of the Author of the Letter to Dr. Burnet since it neither granted them a good Title in Law he means the Canon Law or gave any security to their Consciences in enjoying that which according to the Doctrin of the Church of