either did or said when he was of Council for his Majesty but for Other Tenets Elsewhere and at Other times advanced by Him And therefore pray his Assistance according to his Coronation Oath and as He desired to avoid the Censures of the Church The Clergy thus proceeding the Lords and Judges of the Realm at the Instance of the House of Commons address also to the King and desire him by vertue of his Coronation Oath that He would assert his Temporal Jurisdiction and protect Standish in the Great peril in which He was against the Malice of the Clergy who evidently Objected to him the same Tenets which He had defended in Right of the King's Authority Being thus applied to on Both sides the King first consults with Dr. Veysey Dean of his Chapel and having had his Opinion orders the Justices of his Courts and his Own Council both Spiritual and Temporal with several Members of the Parliament to meet at the Black-Fryars and there to take Cognizance of the Cause between Standish and the Convocation and to hear what Standish had to say for himself in answer to the Points objected to Him The Cause is heard and in conclusion Standish is acquitted and the whole Convocation judged to have incurred a Praemunire by their Citation and Prosecution of Him Upon this the King comes himself to Baynards Castle all the Bishops and a Great Part of the Parliament with the Judges attending upon Him Being sate Woolsey as Cardinal and in high favour with the King first applies to Him in behalf of the Convocation and prays that the Cause might be Referr'd to the Judgment of the Court of Rome This was seconded by Warham Archbishop of Canterbury in the name of All the Clergy and much was Argued for and against This. At length the King deliver'd himself to this Effect to them That by the Order and Sufferance of God He was King of England and as such would maintain the Rights of his Crown and his Royal Jurisdiction in as ample a manner as any of his Progenitors had done before Him Then he commanded the Convocation to dismiss Standish which accordingly they did And were content for that time to let the Royal Supremacy get the better of the Spiritual Jurisdiction CHAP. VI. Some Rules laid down by which to judge for what Causes and at what times Synods ought or ought not to be Assembled And the Reasons suggested by the Author of the Letter c. to prove a Convocation to be at this time Necessary to be held Examined and Answer'd HItherto we have been stating the matter of Right between the King and the Convocation And if I do not very much deceive my self I have plainly made it appear against the Author of the Late Letter to a Convocation-Man that that Venerable Body have neither any Right to Meet nor Power to Act but as the King shall Graciously Allow them to do But now having Asserted this in Vindication of the Prince's Prerogative I must not forget what I have before confess'd as to this matter and see no Cause yet to Retract viz. That His Majesty both as a Christian and a King is Obliged to permit his Clergy to Sit and Act whensoever he is perswaded that the Necessities of the Church require it and it would be for the Publick Good of his People that They should do so And tho' 't is true the Law has intrusted Him with the Last Judgment of this and without which it would be impossible for him to maintain his Supremacy in this Respect yet certainly He ought to be by so much the more careful to Consider the Interest of the Publick by How much the Greater the Trust is which the Publick in Confidence of such his Care has Reposed in Him It must be confess'd indeed that our present Author has neither taken a very proper Method of communicating his Advice to the King nor done it in such a Manner as if He design'd to perswade either the King or his Ministers to pay any Great Deference to his Judgment On the contrary it appears that in all that he has said he intended rather to Reflect upon the Administration of Affairs and to raise discontents in Mens Minds against the Government than to do any Service either to Religion or the Church But however I will consider nevertheless what he has alledged to shew That our present times call for a Convocation and that the King ought not any longer to prevent their sitting The Question to be examin'd is thus proposed by Him What Occasion there is at present for a Convocation And his Answer to it is Short and Vehement full of Warmth as being I suppose design'd to Enflame That if Ever there were need of 〈◊〉 Convocation since Christianity was Establish'd in this Kingdom there is need of One Now. To clear this Point and see how well this Author makes Good so bold an Assertion I shall take this Method 1st I will lay down some General Rules by which we may the better Judge at what Times and in what Cases it may be either necessary or expedient for a Prince to call a Convocation And then proceed 2dly To Consider What this Gentleman has offer'd to prove the Necessity of a Convocation under our present Circumstances to be so exceeding Great and Urgent as He pretends it is I. That Synods may in some Cases be as Useless to the Church as in Others they are Expedient Every Man 's Own Reason will tell him And that such Times may happen in which they may be apt to prove not only Useless but Hurtful we have not only the Experience but the Complaints of the Best Men to convince us It was a severe Judgment which Gregory Nazianzen pass'd upon the Synods of his Time and is the more to be Regarded because it was the Result of a frequent Tryal and a sad Observation That He fled all such Assemblies as having never seen any One of them come to a Happy Conclusion or that did not Cause more Mischief than it Remedied Their Contention and Ambition says he is not to be Express'd And a Man may much easier fall into Sin himself by judging of Other Men than He shall be able to Reform their Crimes There is scarce any thing in Antiquity that either more Exposed our Christian Profession heretofore or may more deserve our serious Consideration at this day than the Violence the Passion the Malice the Falseness and the Oppression which Reigned in most of those Synods that were held by Constantine first and after him by the following Emperours upon the Occasion of the Arian Controversy Bitter are the Complaints which we are told that Great Emperour made of Them The Barbarians says he in his Letter to One of Them for fear of Us Worship God But we mind nothing but what tends to Hatred to Dissention in One word to the Destruction of Mankind And what little Success other Synods have oftentimes
Archbishop and Legate held a Synod at Merton upon St. Barnabas's day The Pope had the year before granted to the King the Tenths of the Clergy for three years But the Clergy tho' they Honour'd the Pope much yet resolved not to part with their Money And the Archbishop held this Synod on purpose to Oppose the payment of what he had granted Upon another Legate's being sent hither Anno 1261 several Councils were this year call'd and held in Our Country The two Archbishops Assembled their Respective Clergy at London and Beverley And Boniface held another distinct Council at Lambeth and publish'd many excellent Constitutions in it But most famous in these times as of chiefest Authority afterwards was the Council Assembled by Ottobon another Legate about the Year 1268. He had two years before at the Parliament at Northampton Assembled the Clergy who met there and with Them Excommunicated all such as should adhere to Simon Montfort and his Party And now he held this Other at London with the Clergy of the whole Kingdom and therein publish'd those Notable Constitutions we still have under his Name It was now become a matter of Custom and accounted a matter of Right for the Legates Extraordinary and the Archbishop of Canterbury as Legate of Course to Summon the Clergy to Convocations Insomuch that we do not find this Great King who otherwise was sensible enough of the Encroachments that had been made and were daily making upon the Royal Authority to have been at all Offended at it Hence Peckham the Archbishop being return'd from Rome Anno 1280 the same year held a Council at Redding and therein commanded the Constitutions of the General Council of Lyons to be observed And the next year He assembled another at Lambeth in which the Orders and Constitutions establish'd by Otho and Ottobon were Confirm'd and some Others added for the better Government of the Church About ten years after the same Peckham again held another Synod at Redding in which when the King heard that They were attempting some Orders in derogation to his Authority He sent to the Archbishop and Bishops to desist And upon his Threatnings they put a stop to their Proceedings and Brake up the Council And thus have we seen what Encroachments were made towards the End of this Period upon the Prince's Authority in the Subject before Us. There were within this Period as all along after besides these National and Provincial Councils several Episcopal or Diocesan Synods Assembled for the Affairs of that particular Diocess in which they were held and some Rules were made by Them to be observed by the Clergy of that District only Such were the Constitutions of Alexander Bishop of Coventry Anno 1237 Of Walter Bishop of Worcester made in his Synod at Worcester Anno 1240 Of Walter Bishop of Norwich made in his Synod at Norwich Munday after Michaelmas Anno 1255 Of Giles Bishop of Salisbury Anno 1256 And of which it is not necessary that I should take any particular Notice on this Occasion But tho' the Affairs of the Church were in great measure handled in these several Kinds of Ecclesiastical Synods yet this did not hinder but that still Our Kings with their Great Councils did from time to time interpose in these Matters and order many things relating to Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes When Wulstan Bishop of Worcester challenged some Lands as belonging to his See which were with-held from it by the Archbishop of Tork the Cause between them was judged by William the Conquerour in his Parliament at Pendrede the Archbishop Bishops Lords and Great Men being present This was manifestly a State Assembly and by these was the Right between the two Bishops examined and determined But more properly Ecclesiastical was the Cause which William the Second examined in his Parliament at Rockingham upon Anselm's resolving to go to Rome and to receive his Pall from thence This the King vehemently opposed and declared that the Archbishop could not both preserve his fidelity to him and pay obedience to the Pope And it is observable that the referring of this cause to the Judgment of the Parliament was at Anselm's own desire who cannot be suspected of doing any thing that he thought in the least inconsistent with the Liberties of the Church The next great Controversie that arose of this kind was in the second Year of King Henry the First about the Right of Investitures This was a point much debated in those times not only here but in most of the Countries of Europe To this the King laid a claim and accounted himself to have as good a Title to it as his Father and Brother before him had Upon this occasion the Quarrel grew so high between the King and Anselm that the latter was once more sorced to leave the Kingdom But the cause was at last brought before the Parliament and there it was by mutual Consent resolved that from thenceforth no one should be invested by the King or any other lay hand to a Bishoprick or Abbey by the delivery of the Pastoral Staff or Ring but yet upon such a promotion they should do Homage to the King for it which was the other thing that Pope Urban had before insisted upon as much as upon the point of Investitute its self This matter was scarce ended when another arose about the Marriage of the Clergy And this was in like manner ended in Parliament by the Authority as well of the King and his Lords as of the Archbishops and Bishops And an order made to prohibit all such as were in any Clerical Order to cohabit with their Wives There was yet a third great Controversie remaining concerning the Primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Subjection that was due from the Archbishop of York to him This also was brought before the King at Whitsontide and determined by him with his Bishops and Lords and the Authority of the See of Canterbury asserted by them And when some time after this Thurstine Archbishop of York refused to be concluded by this Decree he was in full Parliament obliged either to renounce his Bishoprick or to pay Obedience to the See of Canterbury No sooner was this King dead and Stephen placed in his Throne but in full Parliament he confirm'd the Liberties of the Church and made very ample Concessions to it In his Parliament at Northampton two years after he disposed of several Ecclesiastical Preferments And that this was the customary manner of those times may be gathered from the last Parliament of this King Which was call'd by him as well for the Affairs of the Kingdom as to make Provision for the Church of York then vacant by the death of St. William the late Bishop of it How far the Parliament still continued to meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs under the next King's Reign the
times they have appear'd there as Spiritual Assistants to consider consult and consent Only he affirms that they never had Voices there because they were no Lords of Parliament the force of which Argument I shall leave to the House of Commons to answer In the mean time I must observe that in the case of Bird and Smith Trin. 4. Jac. 1. upon a Deprivation made of Smith by the High Commissioners for not Conforming to the Canons of the Church the Lord Chancellour having call'd Popham Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench Coke of the Common Pleas and Fleming Lord Chief Baron to his assistance it was agreed to by all the three without any Exception That the Canons of the Church made by the Convocation and King without the Parliament shall bind in matters Ecclesiastical as well as an Act of Parliament Because the Convocation of the Clergy was once a Member of the Parliament but afterwards for Convenience separated and therefore does carry its peculiar Jurisdiction along with it in the Convocation House For which reason also a Clergy-man cannot be chosen a Member of the House of Commons nor a Lay-man of the Convocation as Coke then declared had been resolved in a Conference of the two Houses 21 Hen. 8. And as concerning the other part of my Lord Coke's Assertion that the Proctors of the Clergy never had Voices in Parliament because in the Writ of Summons it is said that they were call'd Ad consentiendum his quae tunc ibidem de communi consilio dicti regni nostri contigerit ordinari it may suffice to observe that tho' this be indeed the present Form yet when both the Clergy and Commons were first called to this great Council they were both summon'd to another purpose and in words that did expresly intitle them to act in it In the 23d Edw. 1. the first Summons for ought appears that was ever regularly issued out for them they were called Ad Tractand Ordinand Faciend nobiscum cum caeteris praelatis proceribus aliis incolis Regni nostri In the 4th Edw. 3. Ad Faciend Consentiend And this continued to be the usual Form afterwards And these are the very Words that were used in the Commons Writs in the same Parliament 4 Edward 3 And which tho' alter'd about the 26th of that King into others of greater force Ad Tractand Consulend Faciend Yet that Form lasted not very long but in the 46 of the same King it again was worded Ad Faciend Consulend and so has continued to this day And a more ancient Authority than this in my Lord Coke's Account has told us that the Clergy were call'd Ad Tractand Deliberand That their names were call'd over the beginning of every Parliament that they had a Voice in it and made a part of the Commons there But because this is a point that will best be clear'd by matter of Fact we will enquire a little what the Clergy were wont heretofore to do there For as for the Forms of Summons tho' I conceive at first they were very properly drawn and do mark out to us the undoubted Rights of those to whom they were sent as they were allow'd of in those ancient times yet how little they may signifie now the Form of our Parliamentary Writs in the Praemonentes to the Bishop does alone too evidently shew In the 6 Edw. 3. after the Archbishop of Cant. and Bishop of London had declared how that the French King designing an Expedition to the Holy Land had desired our King to go along with him and that this was the cause of calling that Parliament Sir Jeffery le Scroop added by the King's Commandment that the same was called as well to redress the Breach of the Laws and Peace as for the King 's going to the Holy Land The Bishops answer'd That it did not properly appertain to them to counsel in matters of Peace and to prescribe for the punishment of Evils And so together with the Proctors of the Clergy they went apart to consult about the Matters proposed to them In the 13th of the same King the King appointing Commissioners in his stead to begin and continue the Parliament we find the Dean of York as Treasurer standing next to the Archbishop in the Commission And in the Parliament which met the Michaelmas before it being resolved to hold another upon the Octaves of Hilary the Archbishops were order'd to summon their respective Convocations to be ready to meet with it In the 18th of the same Edw. 3. at the opening of the Parliament complaint was made that sundry of all Estates were absent whereat the King did no less muse than he was thereat offended Wherefore he charged the Archbishop for his part to punish the Defaults of the Clergy and he would do the like touching the Parliament And in the same Session the Resolution being taken that the King should end the War he was engaged in either by Battle or an Honourable Peace the King agreed And in order thereunto the Clergy of Cant. granted him a Triennial Disme and the Commons two fifteens of Counties and two Dismes of Cities and Towns It was the usual custom of the Commons in those days to begin such Bills as they thought necessary to have pass'd by Petition to the King in Parliament Thus they did in this Parliament 18 Edw. 3. which being ended the Bishops and Clergy exhibited their Petitions also being in number seven whereto the King answer'd and the same comprized in the Statute for the Clergy still extant In the Preamble of which the King takes notice of the Triennial Disme granted to him by the Prelates and Procurators of the Clergy of both Provinces In the 1 Rich. 2. we again find the Clergy petitioning in like manner And in the 21st of the same King the Commons by Sir John Bussey their Speaker pray the King that forasmuch as divers Judgments were heretofore undone for that the Clergy were not present therefore they pray'd the King that the Clergy should appoint some to be their common Proctor with sufficient Authority thereunto And the Bishops thereupon appointed Sir Thomas Piercie their Proctor to assent in the name of the Clergy And by vertue whereof when the Parliament took a new Oath to the King the Bishops and Abbots themselves took it and Sir Thomas Piercie as Proctor for the Clergy was sworn to the same And when in the same Parliament Sir John Bussey offer'd the King a Subsidy from the Commons and thereupon desired his general Pardon the Clergy gave the like power to Sir William â—e Scroop of Wilts to answer for them that they late did to Sir Thomas Piercie And when finally upon the advice of Sir John Bussey the Lords were required again to swear not to alter any thing of what was done in this Parliament not only the Bishops and Temporal Lords did so but sundry
be Summon'd to the Convocation as often as the Other Estates are to the Parliament But as Our Kings have often been wont to hold Convocaons when there were no Parliaments sitting so in this very Age we know the Convocation was continued after the Parliament was dissolved and our most Eminent in the Law declared that it might lawfully be so How long our Archbishops went on by their Own Authority to call these Convocations I am not able precisely to determine But as it is observed by One who has been very Curious in these Remarks of Simon Langham first That He summon'd such Synods partly at the desire and command of the King and partly without the King's Letters at his own pleasure and of Thomas Arundell after That the Convocation of 1408 as almost all the Others of His Time were called by the sole Letters and Command of the Archbishop tho' nevertheless He sometimes held Them at the desire of the King and by vertue of his Letters for the Publick Affairs of the Realm So it is plain that not only in these times the King did often send his Orders to the Archbishop for this purpose but that from the very time of Edward the First He had been constantly used so to do And it is no improbable con 〈…〉 ure of our Church-Historian that about the End of Arundell's time the King began wholly to Assume this Power and that from thenceforth no Convocations were call'd but at his Command That this was the Case in Henry the Eighth's time the Act of his 25th Year Chapt. 19. tells us And whosoever shall weigh the Introduction of that Statute will see cause to conclude from the Wording of it that so it had been for some considerable time before And now having thus prepared the way for a Right understanding of the nature of the Convocation as it was first setled in the beginning of this Period and has from thence been derived down to Us Let us go on to take a brief View of the chiefest of those Meetings of which any Account remains to Us and from thence we shall be able more clearly to discover the Nature of them and what dependence of Right they ought to have upon the Royal Authority No sooner was Winchelsea made Archbishop of Canterbury but He presently turn'd his Mind to the Reformation of his Court of Arches and for the better accomplishing thereof call'd a Provincial Synod in which He publish'd those Orders for the Regulation of it which still Remain to us under his Name The next year after the same Archbishop held Another Synod and therein agreed that a Sentence of Excommunication should be publish'd against all such as should Infringe the Liberties granted by the King in his Great Charter and Charter of the Forest and that the Copies of Them order'd by the King and Parliament to be sent to Every Cathedral Church should according to their Command be publickly Read to the People Assembled there There were some other things done in this Convocation for the better securing of the Privileges of the Church and an Order publish'd by the Archbishop throughout his Province to make known to the Clergy what had been Resolved by Them What was design'd to have been done in the Convocation again called the year following is not known All that we are told of it is That two Fryars appear'd there in behalf of the King to shew that notwithstanding the Pope's Prohibition the Clergy might lawfully grant a Subsidy to the King to help Him in his Wars Which being done they laid a Command upon the Clergy under pain of Imprisonment not to publish any Sentence of Excommunication either against the King or against any that put Themselves under his Protection and thereupon the Synod immediately broke up For the better understanding of which we must know that the Archbishop had procured a Bull from Rome to forbid the Clergy to grant the King any farther assistance without his leave first had for the doing of it The King hereupon put the Clergy out of his protection And then the Clergy granted him a fifth part of their Goods only the Archbishop Himself stood out and had his Goods Confiscated But so ill were the Circumstances of the King at that time that he thought it not safe to Contest it with Him but in a little time return'd again to Peace with the Archbishop and restored his Goods to Him But this Reconciliation lasted not long the King seeming rather to have waited for an Opportunity of doing him a mischief without hurting himself than to have truly forgiven him And therefore being now in better Circumstances with the Pope He accused the Archbishop of having been the chief Fomenter of all the late Troubles he had met with from his Barons and forced him to go to Rome to answer for it And when in the last year of his Reign He held his Parliament at Carlisle An. 1308 He caused an Inhibition to be Put upon William de Testa a new Legate sent to get up more Money here and a Restraint to be laid upon such Monks as had Lands in England but whose capital Houses were in other Kingdoms So earnestly did this King labour to recover his Authority from those intollerable Usur pations that had been made upon it No sooner was King Edward the Second His Son Crown'd but He gave the Archbishop now Return'd from Rome to understand that He would not suffer his Realm to be obliged either by the Decrees of the General Council of Lyons abroad or by the Constitutions of Otho and Ottobon at home against his Consent And therefore that he should not deprive any of his Chaplains of their Benefices on any pretence of Pluralities or Non-Residence But still the Pope's Authority both in assembling and managing of our Convocations nevertheless prevailed An eminent instance of which we have in the Convocation held the year after and from whence we may collect how they were order'd about this time The Pope having resolved to suppress the order of the Knights-Templers summons a general Council to mâ—et at Vienne To this he invites or rather commands our Archbishops and Bishops to come And that they might be the better prepared for what they were to do there he requires the Archbishop of Canterbury to assemble a Provincial Synod and therein to deliberate about the affairs of the Knights-Templers and to dispose the way for their more essectual Condemnation at the general Council The Archbishop having received this order from the Pope immediately sends his Writ to the Bishop of London requiring him to call the Bishops and Clergy to a Convocation The Bishop of London sends abroad his Summons accordingly And when they met the usual Preliminaries being over the Pope's Bulls were in the first place read next the Bishop of London's Certificate to shew what he had done in obedience both to the Pope's and
himself acknowledges And I am sure whenever the King shall think fit to let them Meet He will send Them his Licence to Act too If they accept his Licence and proceed to Act by vertue of it this will afford us a new Argument to prove that we are not mistaken in the Sense we give of this Statute If not we shall then in all probability be set Right in it and upon a Judicial determination which this Author tells us was wanting in Cokes Report be satisfied what Skill this positive Man has in Interpreting of Acts of Parliament And whether tho' there be No Sense yet there may not be Good Law on the side of the King's Prerogative And now I may venture to say we have seen the utmost of what this Author can do As for what he next catches at That my Lord Coke affirms that the King had heretofore a Right to send Commissioners to sit with the Clergy in Convocation tho' Quo jure he says it do's not Appear And therefore it must be supposed that the Clergy had a Right to debate of what they pleased because else it would have been needless to send a Commissioner to Watch them I must needs say I do not see by what Rules of Reason any such Consequence will follow from it Unless we should suppose that because Men are limited to Act by certain Rules therefore there is no danger of their transgressing of Them The ancient Emperours we are well assured tied up their Councils to very Strict Rules Yet so dull were They that for that very Reason they sent Commissioners to sit with their Bishops that so they might take Care to keep them within bounds and see that they acted according to the Rules they had prescribed to Them 'T is true the Clergy in those days did take the Liberty to transact many things in their Convocations without any particular Licence from the King to warrant Them so to do And this rendred the presence of such Commissioners more necessary heretofore than it is Now. But that they did take upon them to do this is no proof that they had a Right to do it any more than their attempts in many other instances prove that they ought to have enjoy'd all those priviledges by which it is on all hands allow'd that they did oftentimes notoriously Usurp upon the Royal Authority There is yet a little spiteful Suggestion for I cannot call it an Argument drawn from Magna Charta and the King's Coronation-Oath But these things will then be fit to be Consider'd when He shall first have proved the Church to have such a Right as he supposes but has not yet offer'd one tolerable proof of unless we should take a Confident Assertion for proof in which it must be confess'd he has not been Wanting In the mean time whilst the Church is deprived of no Liberty that either the Laws have given it or it ought of Right to enjoy the King may keep his Coronation-Oath and Magna Charta be as sacredly observed as any One could Wish it should be tho' the Clergy be not allow'd all that unreasonable Liberty which some Men plead for on their Behalf but which neither the Clergy nor Convocation have Themselves ever pretended to But whatever Restraints may be pretended to be laid upon the Convocation by this Act with regard to the making of Laws and Constitutions For Laws this Author will have the Convocation to make as well as the Parliament yet the Exercise of their Jurisdiction as they are a Court properly so called is certainly left free and intire to them This He takes for Granted and never so much as attempts a Proof of it And therefore there is no more for me here to do after what I have already said as to this matter If the Case be so as it is here supposed If neither the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes nor the Laws of the Realm nor the Custom of Convocations which like that of the Parliament is I conceive the Law of Convotion have restrained the Clergy as to these Matters I am sure I shall be far from desiring to lay any Restraint upon them I shall conclude this whole Chapter with a Relation which I meet with in One of our Ancient Reports and which being added to what I have before observed may contribute a little to the better understanding of the power of the Convocation in the Particular we are now upon In the 4. H. 8. An Act of Parliament was made to deny the benefit of the Clergy to certain Malefaâ—â—ors therein mentioned The Clergy being angry at this as intrenching too much on the Rights of the Church for the Church in those Days was always wont to be very tender of her Rights whether they were for the publick Good or no About three years after the Parliament then sitting the Abbot of Winchomb in a Publick Sermon at Pauls Cross not only Preach'd against the said Act and all Those who had Consented to the Passing of it but farther Affirm'd that All Clerks who have once been admitted into any Holy Orders whether Greater or Lesser were from thenceforth Exempt from all temporal Punishment before any Temporal Judge for any Criminal Cause whatsoever The Lords Temporal and Commons being alarum'd at this Petition the King that he would order this Point to be publickly argued by Divines and Canonists on both sides And thereupon a Certain Day was appointed by the King for that purpose at the Black-Fryars London Among the Council for the King was Doctor Henry Standish a Learned Man and Guardian of the Mendicant Fryars in London The Cause was handled and many Members of both Houses were present And in the Opinion of all who heard it Dr. Standish had so much the Better of the Council that argued for the Clergy that it was moved to the Bishops that they should Oblige the Abbot Publickly to Recant his Assertions At Michaelmas following the Clergy sitting in Convocation cited Dr. Standish to appear before them to answer to such Articles as should there be Exhibited against Him He appeared as he was order'd and four Articles were first proposed by the Archbishop to Him and being afterwards encreased to six were deliver'd to Him in Writing All tending to the purport of what he had before Asserted in defence of the King's Authority And he was Required upon a Certain Day to Answer to Them It seems to assert the King's Authority over the Clergy was accounted in those days to be no less than Heresie and perhaps may still be thought by some Men to come near to it Doctor Standish easily perceived what the Convocation drove at And being sensible that He should not be Able to withstand their Malice and Authority put Himself under the King's Protection and referr'd his Cause to Him The Clergy being a little surprised at this protest to the King that their Process against Him was not for any thing he
claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons Nor shall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinance Provincial by whatsoever Name or Names they may be called in their Convocations in Time Coming which alway shall be Assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodal upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing contrary to this and being thereof convict to suffer Imprisonment and to make fine at the King 's Will. Provided alway that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in Execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocations of the Clergy which shall be Contrariant or Repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm any thing contained in this Act to the contrary hereof notwithstanding V. The Commission sent by King Charles Ist. to the Convocation of 1640. 1. CHarles by the Grace of God c. To all whom these Presents shall come Greeting Whereas in and by One Act of Parliament made at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of King Henry VIIIth reciting that whereas the King 's Humble and Obedient Subjects the Clergy c. Reciting all verbatim as in the Extract Numb iv And lastly it is provided by the said Act that such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial which then were already made and which then were not Contrariant or Repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the Damage or hurt of the King 's Prerogative-Royal should then still be used and executed as they were before the making of the said Act until such time as they should be view'd search'd or otherwise Order'd and Determin'd by the Persons mention'd in the said Act or the more Part of them according to the Tenour Form and Effect of the said Act as by the said Act amongst divers other things more fully and at large it doth and may Appear 2. Know ye that we for divers urgent and weighty Causes and Considerations us thereunto especially moving of Our especial Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion have by Vertue of our Prerogative Royal and Supreme Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical given and granted and by these Presents do Give and Grant full free and lawful Liberty Licence Power and Authority unto the most Reverend Father in God William Lord Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan President of this present Convocation for the Province of Canterbury during this Present Parliament now assembled and to the Rest of the Bishops of the same Province and all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-deacons Chapters and Colleges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province That they the said Lord Archbishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and the Rest of the Bishops and other the said Clergy of this present Convocation within the said Province of Canterbury or the greater Number of them whereof the said President of the said Convocation to be always One Shall and may from Time to Time during the present Parliament Propose Conferr Treat Debate Consider Consult and Agree upon the Exposition or Alteration of any Canon or Canons now in force and of and upon any such Other New Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they the said Lord Bishop President of the said Convocation and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergy of the same Province or the Greater Number of them whereof of the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation to be One shall think necessary fit and convenient for the Honour and Service of Almighty God the Good and Quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof to be from Time to Time observ'd perform'd fulfill'd and kept as well by the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops and their Successors and the rest of the whole Clergy of the said Province of Canterbury in their several Callings Offices Functions Ministries Degrees and Administrations as also by all and every Dean of the Arches and other Judges of the said Bishops Courts Guardians of Spiritualties Chancellors Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Commissaries Officials Registers and all and every Other Ecclesiastical Officers and their Inferiour Ministers whatsoever of the same Province of Canterbury in their and every of their distinct Courts and in the Order and Manner of their and every of their Proceedings and by all other Persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being Members of the Church it may concern them And further to conferr debate treat consider consult and agree of and upon such other Points Matters Causes and Things as We from Time to Time shall deliver or cause to be deliver'd unto the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation under our Sign-manual or Privy-Signet to be debated consider'd consulted and concluded upon the said Statute or any Other Statutes Act of Parliament Proclamation Provision or Restraint heretofore had made provided or set forth or any other Cause Matter or thing whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. And we do also by these Presents give and grant unto the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and to the Rest of the Bishops of the said Province of Canterbury and unto all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-deacons Chapters and Colleges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province full free and lawful Liberty Licence Power and Authority that They the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergy of the same Province or the greater Number of them whereof the said President of the said Convocation to be One all and every the said Canons Orders Ordinances Constitutions Matters Causes and things so by them from Time to Time conferr'd treated debated consider'd consulted and agreed upon shall and may set down in Writing in such Form as heretofore hath been accustom'd and the same so set down in writing to exhibit and deliver or cause to be exhibited and delivered unto Us to the End that we upon mature Consideration by Us to be taken thereupon may Allow Approve Confirm and Ratifie or otherwise Disallow Anhillate and make void such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of them so to be by force of these presents consider'd consulted and Agreed upon as we shall think fit requisite and convenient 4. Provided always that the said Canons Orders Ordinances Constitutions Matters and Things or Any of them so to be consider'd consulted and agreed upon as aforesaid be not contrary or repugnant to the Liturgy establish'd or the Rubricks in it or the xxxix Articles or any Doctrine Orders and Ceremonies
desire to Understand than the Laws and Antiquities of the Country in which I live but especially of the Church in which I minister And I am not a little pleas'd to see that there are at this time so many Persons of Excellent Parts no less addicted to these Researches and much better Able to pursue them than I am It may possibly be some provocation to One or Other of These to give us a more perfect Account of the present Subject to see how little is here done in it The Argument certainly deserves Consideration and I heartily wish it a better Hand and a better Head too than any that has yet appear'd upon it In the following Treatise having first stated the Subject I was to go upon and settled the Method I thought most proper to be observed in the prosecution of it I in the next place go on to lay the Foundation of what I had to say with Reference to our own Laws and Constitutions upon the Practice and Opinions of the Antient Church and of all the Christian Countries round about us for above 800 years after Christ. I consider'd that the Church of England beyond most Churches in the World has a peculiar Veneration for the Discipline as well as Doctrine of the Primitive Church And I thought it would be no small Evidence of my good Intentions towards it upon this Occasion to shew that I pretended to nothing in behalf of our own Kings but what the Bishops and Clergy from the fourth Century downwards had readily allow'd to their Emperours And what all Other Christian Princes continued to Enjoy till the Papal Authority prevail'd over Them and deprived them of that Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters which They originally had and to which the Reformation has again so justly restored them And now having laid so good a Foundation I thought I might proceed the more freely to Enquire into the Case of our own Country and see what Authority the King of England has over his Convocations and by what Law or Custom he enjoys that Authority In this I was forc'd to confine myself within the time of the Reformation because it was about the Beginning of that that Our Kings were restored to their Supremacy in this as well as in other matters or at least had their Authority more solemnly recognized by the Clergy and established by the Parliament than ever it had been before But lest such a Supremacy as this should seem to depend rather upon the Authority of an Act of Parliament than to be derived from that Original Power in Ecclesiastical Causes which belongs to all Christian Princes and to Ours as well as to any and which was Exercised by them many Ages before any Statute was made to intitle them thereunto Having shewn what the Law as to these matters now is I thought it might not be amiss to enlarge my Enquiry and to see how the Case has stood in this particular from the first Conversion of the Saxons to the time wherein I began my former Disquisition And upon search I found and I think have plainly made it appear that the Authority I here assert to the King is no other than what our most antient Princes till about 1100 years after Christ continued to exercise and even then claim'd a Right too when they were not any longer permitted to excercise it If in pursuing of this Enquiry through so many past Ages I have sometimes taken the liberty to fill up those Vacancies which through the want of Materials proper for such an Undertaking often fall in my way with Reflections a little foreign to my proper Business I hope it will not be taken for any great Offence in a Work of this Nature especially considering that my very Digressions are rather not directly to the purpose of my present Subject than altogether distant from it As for the remainder of my discourse which is spent in Answering the Letter to a Convocation-man I shall only say thus much that I have not designedly either over-look'd any of its Arguments or made an imperfect much less a false Representation of them I have examined every thing that seem'd considerable enough to be taken notice of and I hope have fully answered what I have examined I am not aware that in doing of this I have given my Adversary any hard Treatment tho' I cannot but say He has taken care oftentimes to deserve it But I thought it unreasonable to be guilty of that my self which I look'd upon to have been a fault in Him 'T is true I have all along spoken my mind with great freedom and where I sound any thing amiss have not stuck to own it tho'it seemed to reflect upon those of my own Order Till Clergy-men cease to be Men they will be guilty not only of Follies and Imprudencies but of Sins too as well as others and to what purpose should I dissemble that which whether it be confess'd or not all the World knows to be but too True Were our Faults so private that to allow of them were to publish them I am sure no One should be more careful to hide them than I would be But I cannot conceive it to be either for the Credit or Interest of the Church to dissemble those Vices which those who Commit them take no Care to Conceal If any one should be so unreasonable as to take occasion from hence to think hardly of our Profession or to be scandalized at our Religion for the Faults of those who minister in It I would only desire them to consider that we live in an unhappy Age and make up a large Number of Men and it can hardly be thought but that where so many thousands wait at the Altar some there should be who are much fitter to be cast out of the Church than to officiate in it In the mean time God be thanked Many there are who are as Eminent for their Piety as some others are Notorious for their Irregularities and this Advantage they ought to have to recommend our Religion beyond what the others should have to defame it that these live agreeably to the Rules of their Holy Profession whereas the others must be confess'd to have scandalously departed from them To conclude the following Treatise as it was truly intended for the Service of the Church of England so I hope it may be of some Use to many in it At least it will satisfie Those who have taken Offence at the Letter here examined that it speaks not the Sense of All if of any of our Clergy And shew that many there be who no less disapprove the Assertions of this Author than they are justly offended at his Bold and Scandalous Reflections THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE Design of the following Treatise with a short Account of the Method that is proposed to be observed in the Prosecution of it The Order of the Questions proposed in the Letter to a Convocation man changed and an Enquiry design'd to
be first made Whether the Convocation has a Right to Meet and Act as often as the Parliament does § 1. The Method which this Author has taken to vindicate this supposed Right of the Convocation censured § 2. The Design of the following Treatise laid out § 3. CHAP. II. The first General Point proposed and the Method laid down for the handling of it In pursuance whereof a general Enquiry is first made What Power Christian Princes have always been allowed to exercise over their Ecclesiastical Synods or Convocations with respect both to the sitting of them to the managing of them when sat and to the Confirming or Annulling of their Acts after The first General Question proposed and the Method laid down for a full Resolution of it § 1. That Christian Princes have Authority over Ecclesiastical Persons and in Ecclesiastical Causes § 2. And that Particularly with reference to their Synods and Convocations § 3. Which I. Cannot meet without their Permission or against their Consent § 4. That the eight first General Councils were all call'd by the Emperors Authority § 5. So were all the lesser Synods held under the Roman Emperors § 6. The Gothish Princes in the Empire kept their Synods to the same Rule § 7. So did the Princes of the several Kingdoms which rose up out of the Ruins of it Of Spain § 8. Portugal § 9. Burgundy § 10. Germany § 11. France § 12. The Bishops and Clergy never opposed this or made any Complaints against it § 13. 1 Christian Princes have often call'd such Councils by their own Authority without the Advice of their Clergy and refus'd to do it when the Bishops have desir'd it § 14. Who 2 Being so refused have never pretended to meet in Council against their Will or asserted any Right so to do § 15. 3 No not in Provincial Councils for which they seem'd to have some Right on their side § 16. 4 That the Prince has a Right to determine the Time and Place of their meeting § 17. 5 And may direct what Persons shall be allow'd to come to them § 18. The first Point summ'd up § 19. II. Of the Princes Authority over Ecclesiastical Synods when they are met § 20. 1. He has a Right to prescribe to them What they shall debate about § 21. The Ground of this ibid. The several Methods that have been taken by them to do this § 22. The Practice of the Church in Confirmation hereof In the Roman Empire § 23. In other places § 24. 2. To determine in what Manner and Order they shall proceed in their Debates § 25. The Practice of the Roman Emperors in confirmation hereof § 26. 3. To sit with them and to preside over them So the Emperors did § 27. And so did the Princes who succeeded them in their several States § 28 c. How far the Prince thus presiding may act synodically with his Clergy § 31. III. Of the Authority of the Prince over these Conventions after they have ended what was to be done by them § 32. The Clergy cannot regularly break up their Synod without his leave § 33. Their Acts are of no Authority till confirm'd by him § 34. How far the Prince is at liberty to examine their Determinations to confirm annul or amend them § 35. What Power he has over their Judgments § 36. What over their Constitutions § 37. The whâ—lâ— applied to our own Case § 38. CHAP. III. Of the Authority which our own Kings have over their Convocations with respect both to their Meeting and Acting first and to the Confirming or Annulling their Acts after That our Princes ought of Right to have the same Authority over their Convocations as any other Princes have before been shewn to have § 1. I. That the Convocation cannot meet without the King 's Writ to empower them so to do § 2. The Judges Opinion to this purpose ibid. The Parliaments and Convocations § 3. The King has a Right to name the Time and Place of their Meeting § 4. As also to appoint what Persons shall come to it § 5. Being summon'd it lies in his Breast whether they shall sit or no. § 6. II. That being Met they have no Power to Act but by the King's Permission § 7. This also confirm'd by the Opinion of the Judges agreeably to the Act of the 25 Hen. 8. And farther proved from the Tenour of the Convocation-Writ § 8. The Form of which is the same now that antiently it was wont to be § 9. As also from the Commissions wont to be sent to them for that purpose § 10. Several Instances of which are offer'd § 11. From the judgment of the Convocation in the 1. Edw. VI. § 12. Of the Power of our Kings to sit with or to send Commissioners to their Convocations § 13. Whether the Convocation as a Court may proceed to judge any Cause without the King's Licence § 14. The Convocation did antiently judge of Heresie § 15. How it judged § 16. It is most probable that it cannot judg any person without the King's Leave § 17. It is certain the King may in a particular Case prohibit them so to do § 18. And Suspend or Annul their Sentence ib. III. Of the Authority which our Kings have over their Convocations after they have done what they were called for They cannot break up without the King's Licence § 19. His Authority requisite to confirm their Acts. § 20. How far and in what Cases He is empower'd to Confirm them ibid. The King has power not only to Review their Acts himself but to submit them to the Judgment of his Council § 21. The Practice of this proved to § 24. Whether he may Alter and Correct their Definitions ibid. From the whole an Answer is distinctly given to the first Question proposed § 25. CHAP. IV. In which the State of the Convocation is Historically deduced from the First Conversion of the Saxons to our own Times The Occasion of this Enquiry and the Method proposed to be observed in it § 1. 1. Period How the Affairs of the Church were transacted from the first Conversion of the Saxons to the Time of the Norman Conquest The Clergy summoned to Convocation after Two very different Manners By the Parliament Writ § 2. By the Provincial Writ § 3. The Foundation of this laid in these first times wherein the Clergy were members of the Civil Councils as well as of Ecclesiastical Synods § 4. Of the Nature of our Great Councils in these times and how Ecclesiastical Affairs were transacted in them § 5. Shewn from the like Councils in France Under Pepin § 6. Under Charles the Emperor § 7. Their manner of Debating § 8. Their Politie clear'd § 9. The Nature of our own Great Councils stated upon this Foundation § 10 11 12 Of the Ecclesiastical Synods of these Times Of what Persons they consisted By what Authority they were held § 13. A particular View taken of the principal
that judges him Whether he is to be judged by the Votes of the two Houses or whehe is to be judged by the upper House alone and the lower to stand in the nature of Prosecutors against him Or lastly Whether the Archbishop alone does properly judge and the rest concurr as Assistants to him and assent to what he does In answer to which Enquiry if I may be allow'd to offer my own Conjecture I do conceive that in such cases as these it is not so much the Convocation that judges as the Archbishop in Convocation For besides that it was never known that the inferiour Clergy were allow'd a Jurisdiction in such cases nor is there any reason why they should have it here First The very words of the Writ upon which Sautrey was burnt seem to speak in such a manner of his Conviction in Convocation as shew the power of Judicature to have been eminently in the Archbishop and that the rest were only of Council to him and consented to what he did Cum venerabilis Pater Thomas Archiepiscopus Cant. totius Angliae Primas Apostolicae sedis legatus de Consensu Assensu ac Consilio Episcoporum confratrum Suffraganeorum suorum necnon totius Cleri provinciae suae in Concilio suo Provinciali congregati per suam sententiam definitivam Haereticum manifestum pronunciavit declaravit c. Nor can this be sufficiently accounted for by looking upon the Archbishop as President of the Convocation and so acting as Speaker in it When the Lord Keeper in the House of Lords or the Lord High Steward in the Commission for Tryal of a Peer determine or give Sentence in any civil or criminal Cause we do not find it said That they with the Counsel and Assent of the Lords pronounce or award so or so but they deliver the Sentence of the Lords and declare that this or that is their Judgment And the same ought to have been the case here supposing that the Convocation or even the upper House had equally judged with the Archbishop The Writ must have run in the Name of the whole Body Whereas the Archbishop and Bishops with the rest of the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury in Convocation assembled have by their definitive Sentence pronounced c. Nor can any good reason I believe be given why the Writ did not run in this manner but because the Archbishop even in Convocation still retain'd the power of Judicature which I shall presently shew was peculiar to him and by vertue thereof judged of him And this will yet more clearly appear Secondly From the acts of the Convocation under K. Henry the Fifth Anno 1413 and the Process made against the Lord Cobham therein For first Upon several Provocations given and Affronts put upon the Clergy by the Lollards and that at the very time that the Convocation was sitting The Archbishop was required in behalf of the whole Clergy that he would vouchsafe to proceed against the Lord Cobham upon and concerning the Premises In pursuance of this request the Archbishop with a great part of the Convocation apply to the King for leave to proceed against him both because he was a Person in great credit with his Majesty and to be consider'd upon the account of his Own Honour and Quality Having obtain'd leave of the King to proceed against him it is said all along that my Lord of Canterbury summon'd him to appear before him in Convocation That when the Summons could no otherwise be executed upon him he orderâ—d it to be fix'd upon the doors of the Church of Rochester That upon the eleventh of September the day appointed for his appearance the Archbishop excommunicated him and after a farther process at last came to a final Sentence against him 'T is true tho' this process began in Convocation yet it was carry'd on and ended out of it But withal it is plain that tho' the Convocation was risen yet still the Archbishop continued the same process that began in it He sate in the Chapter House of St. Paul's he took the Bishops of London and Winchester first and then to them added the Bishop of Bangor for his Assistants Besides these a great number of the inferiour Clergy was present And when at last the Lord Cobham was brought before him the Archbishop took notice to him how he had been discover'd and accused in Convocation i. e. had been accused to himself in Convocation when they first desired him to proceed against him To all which let me add the Preamble to the Sentence which the Archbishop at last pass'd upon him and which shews that both in and out of Convocation the judgment of this matter lay before him We Thomas by Divine Permission c. in a certain Cause or Matter of Heretical Pravity of and concerning divers Articles upon which Sir John Oldcastle Knight Lord Cobham was accused before Us in the last Convocation of the Clergy of our Province of Cant. c. Nor let any one think that in asserting such an Authority to the Archbishop in these matters any injury is done to his Suffragan Bishops but rather were it otherwise the Convocation must apparently have encroach'd upon that eminent power of judging which the Archbishop heretofore had For tho' since the Statute of the 23 of Henry the Eighth the power of the Archbishop is very much restrain'd and he cannot now call whatever causes he pleases to his own judgment but only under the Limitations provided in that Act and therefore since that time the right of judging in this case would in the first instance have belonged to the Bishop of Rochester and to the Archbishop no otherwise than either by way of Appeal or upon some negligence or defect in the Diocesan to judge of it yet before that Statute the Archbishop had a power to call any cause immediately before himself and when therefore in his Syned he did do so we ought not to question but that it was he who properly speaking did judge and that the rest of the Bishops were only his Assistants in it I conclude then that tho' the person in such a case were try'd in Convocation yet precisely speaking it was the part of the lower House to discover and accuse of the Bishops to counsel and assist but of the Archbishop to hear and judge But still the main question remains to be consider'd namely Whether the Convocation howsoever it be that it judges may proceed in these cases without the King's leave or whether his Commission be necessary to justifie them in it That they are not restrained by vertue of that Statute which has so much retrench'd their power in other respects is confidently affirm'd Nor shall I deny but that the intention of that Act seems rather to restrain them from making any New Canons or Constitutions than from judging in causes Ecclesiastical according to the Canons already made That they had heretofore a power to judge
That if a Canon-Law be against the Law of the Land the Bishop ought to Obey the Commandment of the King according to the Law of the Land Now these two Things being supposed and in which the Law at the present cannot be doubted to be very clear That no Acts of Convocation can be put in Execution or be promulged in Order to a Publick Observance without the King's Licence And that the King's Licence cannot give the Convocation any Authority to promulge or execute any Canons but what are Agreeable to the Laws and Customs of the Realm it must of Necessity follow 1st That the King has not only a Right to Review the Acts of Every such Convocation but ought moreover to submit Them to the Examination of his Learned Council in the Law That so he may the more securely be able to judge Whether they be Consistent with the Laws of his Realm and by Consequence capable of receiving any Enforcement from Him Forasmuch as it would be not only too Rash and Unseemly but even a Vain Thing for the King to expose his Prerogative by undertaking to give Authority to that which by being contrary to the Laws already Establish'd has such a natural defect in its Original Constitution as will not suffer it to be Capable of Any 2dly That notwithstanding the Resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation yet still the King is to remain the last Judge not only of the Lawfulness but of the Expediency too of their Constitutions and has Authority either to Ratifie or Reject Them as He with the Advice of his Council shall think Them either Usefull or Otherwise to the Church When His Majesty gave Liberty to our last Convocation to consider of the several Points which in his Commission he proposed to Them and permitted Them to draw into Forms Rules Orders Ordinances Constitutions and Canons such Matters as to Them should seem Necessary and Expedient for the Purposes which He had before proposed to Them and the same being set down in Writing from time to time to Exhibit and Deliver or to Cause to be Exhibited and Delivered to Him He thus goes on to declare what was to be done after such their Resolutions should be delivered in by Them To the End that We as Occasion shall Require may thereupon have the Advice of our Parliament and that such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things as shall be thought Requisite and Convenient by our said Parliament may be presented to us in due Form for Our Royal Assent if upon Mature Consideration thereof We shall think sit to Enact the same And from whence it appears to have been His Majesty's Intention had that Convocation proceeded to any Resolutions to have submitted the Examination of their Acts not only to his Parliament but that being done to have Reserved the final Judgment of Them to his Own Consideration And we cannot doubt but that it was upon the best Advice of his Learned Council in the Law that He so Intended But more full and express to this purpose is the Commission of King Charles the First to the Convocation of 1640 before mentioned Wherein having granted the same Liberty we here meet with to his Clergy To set down in Writing and to Exhibit or Cause to be Exhibited to Him All and Every the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things to be by Them from time to time Conferr'd Treated Debated Consider'd Consulted and Agreed upon He adds To the end that We upon mature Consideration by Us to be taken thereupon may Allow Approve Confirm and Ratifie or Otherwise Disallow Annihilate and Make Void such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of Them so to be by force of These Presents Consider'd Consulted and Agreed upon as We shall think Fit Requisite and Convenient But this is not yet all In the close of his Commission he again Reserves to Himself the same Power in these Remarkable Words Provided always and our Express Will Pleasure and Commandment is That the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of Them so to be by force of These Presents Consider'd Consulted or Agreed upon shall not be of Any Force Effect or Validity in the Law but only such and so many of Them and after such time as We by our Letters Patent under our Great Seal of England shall Allow Approve and Confirm the same These are the Limitations under which that Convocation Acted and from which these three Conclusions will Unavoidably follow 1st That the King by granting the Convocation license to consider and draw up any Canons Orders or Constitutions or to determine any Matters or Causes do's not give them any final decisive Power of Concluding those affairs but Empowers them only to deliver their Judgment to Him which He may either Approve or Reject as He shall afterwards see Cause to do 2dly That in determining concerning their Resolutions He is not obliged either to Approve and Confirm or else to Reject and Annihilate ALL that they have done but may judge distinctly of Every particular Point or Matter debated by Them and severally pass his judgment upon Them May give Force and Authority to some things and at the same time make Void and disallow of Others And this 3dly Not only upon his Own private judgment or upon the Advice of any select persons of his Clergy tho' it be a matter Ecclesiastical but with the advice of his Council who by his Command are also Empowred to judge of what the Convocation has done and whose Opinion if He approves of it He may preferr to that of his Clergy But we will go on with the History of this Convocation and see how these several Conclusions may be yet farther clear'd and confirm'd by it When by Vertue of this Commission the Convocation had drawn up such Canons and agreed upon such Orders as to them seem'd most proper to answer the Ends proposed by the King to Them We are told by His Majesty in His Declaration of June 30th following that according to His direction They had Offered and Presented the same to Him desiring Him to give His Royal Assent to what They had done Now as hereby they plainly acknowledged His Majesty to have all that Authority as to this matter which in His Commission he had pretended to so we find the King still proceeded according to the same measures he had first laid down to the Ratification of what they presented to Him For thus the Declaration goes on We having diligently with great Content and Comfort Read and Consider'd all the said Orders Ordinances and Constitutions agreed upon as is before express'd And finding the same such as We are persuaded will be very profitable not only to Our Clergy but to the whole Church of this Our Kingdom and to All the true Members
Magistrate has a Right to prescribe to Them the Matters on which they are to Debate It is one great End which the Prince proposes to himself in calling of such Assemblies to take their Advice in things pertaining to the Church For the Prince being the Guardian of That as well as of the State and concern'd to provide for the Welfare of the One no less than of the Other ought accordingly to have his Council with which to consult of the things pertaining to Both. Now as in Civil Matters he has his Ministers of State and the Council of his Great Men or People to advise Him how to manage his Secular Concerns so in those things which are of a pure Ecclesiastical Nature it has generally been the Method of Christian Princes to take the Opinion of their Bishops and Clergy either single or convened together as the Importance or Difficulty of Affairs and the Circumstances of Times have prompted them to do But then if this be the main End for which Synods are call'd it will follow that the Prince must have a Right not only by Vertue of his Supreme Authority but from the very Nature of the Thing it self to propose to Them the Subject on which they are to proceed It being absurd to imagine that either a Particular Person should be sent for or a Body of Men be convened on purpose to give the Prince their Advice and the Prince not be left to propose his Doubts to them and shew them wherein it is that He needs Or desires their Opinion Now the Direction of the Prince as to the Subject of the Synods Debates may be either General or Particular or it may be partly One and partly the Other Sometimes the Prince has only declared to his Clergy that he call'd them to deliberate at large either upon Matters of Faith or Matters of Discipline for the better demonstrating the Churches Doctrine and Consent in the One or for the better establishing the Exercise of the Other Sometimes the Occasion of their Meeting has been to examine some particular Controversie that has risen up to corrupt the Faith or to divide the Unity of the Church As was especially seen in the Cases of Arius and the other Hereticks on whose account the first General Councils of the Church were called And in Both these sometimes the Prince has limited their Business to the particular Consideration of that Matter alone for which they were assembled At other times he has added to it such other Incidental Affairs as he has thought fit to propose to them Or it may be has given them a General Liberty after having done their main Business to deliberate on any thing else that they should judge necessary for the Glory of God and the Good of the Church And as there is such a Variety in the Ends for which Christian Princes have been moved to call such Synods so may there be no less a Difference observed in the Ways which they have taken to communicate their Wills to them Sometimes both the Design and Subject of their Meeting have been fully set down in the Precepts which have been sent to the Bishops to require their coming together Sometimes only a Glance has in general been given in Those at their Business and the rest been reserved to be more fully open'd to them at their Convention And that also has been done sometimes by a Synodical Epistle or Commission sent to them sometimes by Word of mouth And that again either by the Prince himself if he has thought fit as oftentimes Princes have to sit with them or by some other Person whom he has deputed to declare his Will to them But how great a Variety soever there has been in the Methods that have been taken to lay open their Business to them this is certain that as the calling of such Assemblies has always depended upon the Consent and Authority of the Prince So when they were assembled the Subject of their Debates has been prescribed them by the same Power and they have deliberated on nothing but what they have been directed or Allow'd by the Prince to do When Constantine the first Christian Emperor being desirous to restore that Peace to the Church which the Heresie of Arius and the Difference between the Eastern and Western Churches about the time of keeping Easter had so dangerously broken assembled the First General Council of Nice Eusebius tells us that at the Opening of it He earnestly Exhorted the Bishops by their wise Resolutions to settle all things in Quiet and Unity And accordingly the Subject of their Debates turn'd upon those two Points and Constantine himself both assisted at Them and consented to what was resolved concerning Them When this did not prevail but that the Arian Faction was resolved at any rate to Ruine Athanasius and since they could not corrupt the Catholick Faith were determined at least to Overwhelm him who had been the main Supporter of it And in Order thereunto another Synod was obtain'd of the Emperor to meet at Tyre the same Constantine not only prescribed them their Business viz. to examine into the Dissensions of the Churches of Aegypt but sent Dionysius in his own stead to be present at their Assemblies and to take care that his Orders were in all things observed by them And the same was the Method which Constantius his Son observed as to these Matters As is evident from his Management of the Great Synod of Arminum in which above 400 Bishops were by his Order Assembled He commanded Them in the first place to debate the Matter of Faith then to judge the Causes of those Bishops who complain'd that they had been unjustly either deposed or banished After that to Examine the Crimes laid to the Charge of certain Others And lastly having done what he had commanded Them to do to send a certain number of their Body to Him to account to Him what had been resolved by Them But above all most plain was that Authority which the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian shew'd in this particular at the General Council of Ephesus They not only declared at large to the Fathers the Cause of their Meeting in the Letters of Summons which they sent to the several Metropolitans But when they were met together they sent a Synodical Epistle to them by Candidian and appointed him to preside over Them in their stead both to preserve a due Freedom of Voting and Debating among them and also not to suffer them to enter upon any Other Matter till they had first come to a Resolution in that for which they were called together And when Candidian reported to the Emperors that the Bishops had not stuck so closely as they Ought to their Prescription The Emperors not only severely reproved Them for their Presumption but annull'd their Acts and commanded them to have a better Regard both to the Business and Method which They had Laid before Them
It was the same Theodosius who both by the Precepts by which he Assembled the Second Council of Ephesus in the Cause of Eutyches and in his Letters to the Fathers when met restrain'd the deliberations of it to that particular busisiness and appointed Elpidius and Eulogius his Commissioners to see his Orders observed And when Valentinian and Marcian assembled the next Synod which was afterwards removed to Chalcedon they in like manner determined both what they met for and how they were to proceed in it 'T is true when those Fathers had finish'd the Business for which they met they enter'd upon several particular Debates which were not at first laid before Them But then this does but the more Evidently argue the Truth of what I am now Observing For as much as we find every new Matter prefac'd with this Declaration that they had obtained Leave of the Emperors for the Fathers to consider of it and their Orders were delivered to their Commissioners to authorize the Bishops to enter upon it But to put this Point out of all reasonable Doubt I shall need only to the Instances already alleged to add that of the Council of Constantinople held under Mena against Anthimus and Severus anno 536. In which when Anthimus was deposed by the general Consent of the Synod and the Bishops of the Patriarchate of Antioch with the Monks and Clergy desired that Severus and some Others might be Condemned They were told by Mena that nothing of that kind could be attempted without the Emperor's Consent first had for the doing of it Wherefore says He for the present we desire that we may acquaint Him with what has been demanded by you Upon this they drew up their Petitions to the Emperor that he would Authorize Mena and the Council to proceed against them as Hereticks To this Justinian consented and sent Directions accordingly to them And then the Council forthwith proceeded to take Cognizance of that Affair It would be endless for me to instance in all the other Examples that Occur to shew That it has been the General Method of Christian Princes to prescribe to their Synods what they were to debate upon and not to allow Them to meddle with any thing but what they either called them for or afterwards consented They should take Cognizance of How clearly does the same Emperor in his Epistle sent by the same Theodorus to the Second General Council of Constantinople prescribe the Particulars on which they were to Consult That they should judge of the Doctrine of the Three Persons mention'd in his Letter viz. Theodorus Theodoret and Ibas and discuss that Question which some it seems had started in favour of the first of them namely Whether an Heretick might be anathematized after he was dead And if from the Roman Empire we pass on to Other particular Kingdoms we shall find the Case to be still the same and that their Princes have taken the same Course with their Synods that the Emperors before them did with those of the Empire In France there is hardly any Synod more worthy our Regard whether we consider the Dignity or the Antiquity of it than the First Council of Orleans It was that which set a Pattern to all the following Synods of that Country And in that the Fathers expresâ—ly tell the King that they had sent him what seem'd to Them most meet to be determined concerning those Points which he had order'd them to debate upon Upon this Foundation Ludovicus Pius having resolved for the better restoring of the Ecclesiastical Discipline in France to have Four Synods held at once in it prescribed as well what they should deliberate about as at what Time and Places they should meet And Charles the Bald having Assembled the Synod of Soissons proposed not only the Subject about which they should consult but deliver'd them a draught of what he thought fit they should determine and the Synod only Approved of it 'T is true there were several other Matters transacted in that Synod but They also were done at the Command of the King as well as with the Consent of the Bishops who fat and acted from the Beginning in it That the same must have been the Method in Germany the Constant Union and Intercourse which it had with France in these Times will not suffer us to doubt When Carloman assembled the Synod at Liptines about the year 743 He tells us the End of his doing it was that They might advise him How the Law of God and the Religion of the Church which had been suffer'd to fall into such decay in the days of his Predecessors might be Restored And the same was the Design of the Emperor Arnulph in convening the Synod of Trebur Who being sent to by the Fathers from their Assembly to know what Directions He would please to give Them return'd his Commissioners with those of the Synod to tell them That they should consider what they thought was needful to be done for the Reformation of Mens Manners for the Security of the Faith and for the Preservation of the Unity of the Church As for the Kingdom of Spain the Councils of Toledo as they are the most Eminent of that Countrey so do they sufficiently shew the same Course to have obtained there that we see did prevail in all Other Parts In the Sixth we find the very Constitutions themselves in some measure drawn up by the Order of Cinthilus their King and only confirmed by the Synod In the Rest the Subject on which their Debates were to proceed is set out to Them and They accordingly Regulated their Acts by it Thus it was in the Fourth assembled by Sisinandus and the most regarded of any Synod in that Country And in the Thirteenth Egica deliver'd his Orders in Writing to the Bishops and the Bishops accordingly framed their Constitutions upon the Model that had been laid before them by that Prince And the same Method he again took with the Sixteenth Synod assembled in the same City He deliver'd a Commission to the Clergy containing a Summary of what they were to deliberate upon and agreeably thereunto they framed their Canons and Constitutions I shall conclude these Remarks with the Words of Receswinthus to the Eighth Council of Toledo when he deliver'd the like Commission to the Fathers there assembled that his Predecessors were wont to do These things says He I might have spoken to you but I have chosen rather to comprehend them in Writing earnestly Requesting this of you that what you shall find therein contain'd you â—ould carefully attend to and Examine with the utmost Diligence and whatsoever you shall think to be most pleasing to God with Relation to these Matters you would Report it to Us with your own Mouths But 2dly The Civil Magistrate has not only a Right to prescribe to His Synods the Matters on which they are to Deliberate