12. but by matter of Record and that in regard of the Dignity of his Person Secondly Causa Necessitatis as in case to avoyd the Attainder of him that hath Right to the Crown As if the right Heir to the Crown be Attaint of High Treason yet shall the Crown descend to him and eo instanti when it happens without any other reversal the Attainder is purged as it fell out in the Case of King Henry 7. lest in the interim 1 Hen. 7. fo 4. b. there should be an Interregnum which the Law of England will not suffer any more than nature doth a Vacuum As also by vertue of this Politick Capacity though the King be within Age yet he may make Leases and Grants and the same shall be valid for otherwise his revenue would decay and the King would not be able to reward service c. Thirdly Causa Vtilitatis As when Lands and Tenements or Possessions descend from his collateral Ancestors being Subjects as suppose from the Earl of March c. to the King the King is seised or possessed of them jure Coronae in his Politick Capacity and they shall go with the Crown And in this Capacity it was that Queen Elizabeth had and injoyed all that belonged to Queen Mary though they were but Sisters of the half Blood which no others could do And as the Crown of England is Descendible to the Heirs males yet when a King dies and leaves no Son but Daughters only the Crown and Dignity Royal descends to the Kings eldest Daughter alone and to her Posterity and so it hath bin declared by a Parliament for Regnum non est divisibile Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 22. And there shall be no Possessio fratris of the Lands of the Crown for the quality of the Person doth in these and many other likes cases alter the descent So as all the Lands and Possessions whereof the King is seised or possessed jure coronae shall attend upon and follow the Crown unto whomsoever it shall Descend for the Crown and the Possessions of the same are concomitantia The naturall Body of the King being thus invested with his Politick and Royal Capacity we behold him as the Representative and Lieutenant of God Almighty who is King of Kings All Power is from God and Imperium non nisi Divino fato datur And therefore Plato did say That God did not appoint and establish men that is men of a common sort and sufficiency and purely Humane to rule and govern others cautiously to be understood but such as by some Divine touch singular vertue and gift of Heaven do excel others and therefore they are called Heroes and stand in Comparison with others as we may conceive of the Air which if we do compare with the Heavens it is a kind of Earth but if we compare it with the Earth it is then a kind of Heaven So of King's if we compare them with God Almighty they are but a kind of men but if we compare them with other men they are a kind of gods both intimated in that of the Psalmist I have said ye are gods but ye shall dye like men This Royal majesty of the King of England is replenished with plenary and undoubted Right and Authority to rule and govern all his Subjects and that in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal For this Kingdom of England is a Soveraign Empire or Monarchy consisting of one Head the Soveraign or King and of a Body Politick the People and this Body is distinguished into the Clergy and the Laity all of them intirely Subject to their Royal Head the King who as before is said is furnished and instituted with an intire Authority over every Subject of what degree or quality soever and that in all causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal For otherwise the King would be imperfect in his Authority contrary to the true notion of Soveraignty and thereby disabled to deliver Justice in all causes to all his Subjects or to punish all crimes and offences within his Dominions a consideration of high import for the necessary security both of Prince and People But notwithstanding the full and Soveraign Right of the King to rule and govern all his Subjects and that in all causes and consequently the just and necessary duty of all his Subjects to yield a full and intire Obedience to all the Kings good Laws for it is the Law that measures out and spiriteth the King's Authority as it directs and enforces the Subject's Obedience yet so it hath bin and so it is in our Antinomian times partly by the obstinacy and devotedness of some the weakness and ignorance of others and the peevishness and perversness of many that there is a multitude of natural born Subjects in this Kingdom who in defiance of the Laws both in their Opinions and Practices deny or oppose our Soveraigns Supremacy On the one hand there are the Sectaries who notwithstanding the Law is the Standard of true Allegiance make the ground the rule and measures of their Allegiance to be their own private fancies And though the Law is the bright Sun shining in the Horizon of this Kingdom by the Light whereof every one ought to guide his actions yet these men out-stare this Sun and giddily run some of them after the Ignis fatuus of a pretended Light within them some after the false fires of a misguided zeal too many after the Boutfeaus or male-content Incendiaries and some after the very fumes of Hypochondriacal fits mistaken for visions and Revelations On the other hand there are the Devoto's of Rome who in contempt of the King's Laws and Authority make the rules and measures of their Allegiance to be the will and pleasure of a Forrainer As the Sectaries set up a Pope in every man's Conscience whilst they invest it with a power to control the Decrees of Princes and new Lights for themselves to live and walk by these contrarily put out their own Eyes and give themselves up to be led by an infallible Head as they think to whom whilst they yield a blind Obedience they cannot see to be good Subjects These men of both sorts strike at our Supremacy the very foundation and heart-string of Government and by whom the very Sinews of Soveraignty are cut asunder when either upon the suggestions of fanatical delusions or the imperious awes of an extraneous Power the King 's natural Subjects shall audaciously lift up their Hands and Heels against him My Province at this time to wave all disputes shall only be to make some discovery of those Foundations of Law Right and Authority whereon our King's Supremacy is built by the Legal and unquestionable Historical Evidences and Manifesto's of the same and whilst I keep close there I shall be sure to be on a safe bottom I shall not pretend to wade into the vast Ocean of the King's Prerogative in all its extensions but shall confine my self to the affair
of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters without professing yet a stature to reach the top of this sublime or the bottom of this profound concern In the first place then we are to know that the King 's just and lawful Authority in Ecclesiastical matters is in part declared by a statute made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth Stat. 1 Eliz. Ca. 1. Non novam introduxit sed antiquam declaravit Coke 5. Rep. Cawdrys Case fo 8. And it was one of the Resolutions of the Judges in Cawdry's Case That the said Act of the First year of the Queen concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not a Statute introductory of a new Law but Declaratory of the Old But for our purpose it will be sufficient to transcribe the Preamble of the Act which runs thus Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithful and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled that where in time of the raign of your most dear Father of worthy memory King Henry 8. divers good Laws and Statutes were made as well for the better extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forrain powers and authorities out of this your Realm and other your Highness Dominions and Countrys as also for the * Nota. restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdictions authorities Superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging by reason whereof we your most humble and obedient Subjects from the 25. year of the raign of your said dear Father were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intolerable charges before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forrain power and authoritie as before that was usurped until such time as all the said good laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second years of the raigns of the late King Philip and Queen Mary your Highness Sister Intituled An Act repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick of Rome since the 20th year of King Henry 8. and also for the establishment of all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the Laity were all clearly repealed and made void as by the same Act of repeal more at large appears By reason of which Act of repeal your said humble Subjects were est-soons brought again under an usurped forrain power and authority and yet do remain in that bondage to the intolerable charges of your loving Subjects if some redress by the Authority of this your High Court of Parliament with the assent of your Highness be not had and provided May it therefore please your Highness for the repressing of the said usurped forrain power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this your Realm that it may be Enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament c. And then it proceeds to Repeal the said Act of Philip and Mary and revives the former Statutes of King Hen. 8. and King Edw. 6. abolisheth all usurped forrain powers and authorities and restoreth and uniteth all Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorites and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical to the Imperial Crown of this Realm This Statute doing Right to the Queen and her Successors ever since as in Temporal Causes the Kings of England by the mouths of their Judges in the Courts of Justice have judged and determined the same by the Temporal Laws of England So in all Ecclesiastical and spiritual Causes as Blasphemy Ecclesiastical Causes Stat. de circumsuecte agatis 13 Edw. 1. Articuli Cleri 9 Edw. 2. Fitzh Nat. Bre. 41 42 43 c. Apostasie from Christianity Heresie Schisme Ordering Admissions and Institution of Clarks Celebration of Divine service Rites of Matrimony Divorces Bastardy Substraction and Right of Tiths Oblations Obventions Dilapidations Reparation of Churches Probate of Wills and Testaments Administrations and Accounts upon the same Simony Fornication Incest Adulteries Sollicitation of Chastity Appeals in Ecclesiastical causes Commutation of Penance Pensions Procurations c. the Conusans of all which belongs not to the Common Law but the determination and decision of the same hath been by Ecclesiastical Judges according to the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this his Realm And although the said Stat. 1 Eliz. declares how and by whom the King may appoint the same to be done yet as is intimated before the King by Law may do the same although that Statute had not bin made And hence it was that Stephen Gardiner the noted Bishop of Winchester Significantiori vocabulo competentem Principi jure Divino poâ—estâ—tem exprâ—mi clarius voluâ—runt in his Oration De vera Obedientia once said That by the Parliaments stiling of King Hen. 8. Head of the Church it was no new invented matter wrought only their mind was to have the power pertaining to a Prince by God's law to be more clearly expressed by this Emphatical compellation And certainly this was the ground of that answer which King James gave to the Non-conforming Divines at the conference at Hampton Court upon the seven and thirtieth Article of the Church of England the said Divines urging that these words in the Article viz. Confer at Hamp Court fo 37. The Bishop of Rome hath no Authority in this land were not sufficient unless it was added nor ought to have To which the King being somewhat moved roundly replyed What speak you of the Pope's authority here Habemus jure quod habemus and therefore in as much as it is said He hath not it is plain and certain enough that he ought not to have Nor is this Authority united to the Crown of England only but of right also to all other Christian Crowns and accordingly avowed by all other Christian Princes And to this purpose I could multiply the Suffrages of many antient Fathers and Doctors of the Church but my aim being rather at matter of fact I will forbear the particularizing the explicite Judgements and Declarations of those Devout and just men who were as careful in its degree and proportion to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's as to God the things that are God's But for the matter of practice And in the first place here I cannot but take notice That in the first Ages of Christianity Religion did not only subsist but spread by immediate influence from Heaven only but when by vertue of the same influence it had once prevailed and triumphed over all oppositions of Pagan superstition and persecution and subdued the Emperours themselves and became the Imperial Religion then Ecclesiastical Authority assumed and fixed it self in its natural and proper place and the excercise of its Jurisdiction and what that was I shall shew also was restored to the Imperial Diadem and Constantine was no sooner setled in his Imperial Throne but he took the settlement of all Ecclesiastical
Romanum Episcopum majorem aliquam Jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis Externum Episcopum Conformable to which was also the Resolution of all the English Clergy Upon which and presently after King Hen. 8. was by Parliament agnized Supream Head of the Church in these his Dominions Stat 26 Hen. 8 cap. 1. whereby it was also Enacted and Declared That the King his Heirs and Successors Kings of England should have and enjoy united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this his Realm as well the Title and Stile thereof as all Honours Dignities Jurisdictions c. to the said Dignity of Supream Head of the Church of England belonging or appertaining with full power and authority to visit redress reform order correct restrain and amend all errours heresies abuses c. which Act Io. Hâ—rb Hist of Hen. 8 fo 380. though much to the support of the Regal Authority seem'd not suddenly to be approv'd by the King nor before he had consulted with his Council who shewed him many precedents of Kings of England that had used this power and with his Bishops who having fully discussed the point in their Convocations Declared That the Pope had no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom warranted by Gods word suitable to what was Declared by the Universities Colledges and Religious Houses with learned men of all sorts maintaining it necessary that such a power should be extant in the Realm for the Peace good Order and Government of the same the Reasons and Arguments of all which were couched in a Book of the King 's about that time published De vera differentiae Regiae Ecclesiasticae potestatis whence also the Learned Bishop Andrews in his Tortura Torti seems to have drawn diver assertions of the Regal Authority to which the Reader is referred A practice this I mean of consulting the Clergy and the Learned in a case of so great an import agreeable to former Presidents Tho. Walsing in An 1408. fo 420. as I find in Tho. Walsingham In concilio cleri celebrato Londoniis assistentibus Doctoribus Vniversitatum Cantabrigiae Oxoniae tractatum est de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis And as King Hen. 2. Rog. Hoveden in Hen. 2. pa. prior professed he would proceed in the great cause depending between him and his Archbishop Becket Now when King Hen. 8. was by Parliament agnized Supream Head of the Church within his own Dominions and by him for the reasons aforesaid owned and accepted what they meant by this may well enough be collected from the premises and from that notable Oration of Stephen Gardiner of True Obedience before mentioned which Title he neither took nor the Parliament gave in other sence than the French have always attributed it to their Princes and what the Royal Ancestors of King Hen. 8. Spelm. Conc. 437. Seld. ad Eadm 1â—5 â—â—g Edvard c. himself assumed under the Homonymous names of Tutors Protectors Governours Domini Christi Vicarii Agricolae c. and the like And this is the Supremacy which the Kings of England have always claimed and exercised within their own Dominions with the temporary obstructions above mentioned that is in Soveraign way to Rule and Govern all their Subjects of what degree and quality soever to call their own Clergy and Church-men together and with their advice to see the Church reformed and by Act of Parliament to have all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored and united to the Crown as in the First year of Q. Eliz. was done inlarged on before And here it will not be unnecessary to observe and know how that Restitution was resented by the Queen's Subjects at that time And for that observe and observable it was the general complyance and complacence of the People in it as also that from the First until the Eleventh year of that Queen's raign Cokâ— 5 Rep. de ure Reg. Eâ—câ—esiastico fo 35. no person of what perswasion of Christian Religion soever at any time refused to come to the Publick Divine Service celebrated in the Church of England and established by publick Authority within this Realm until the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus in the Eleventh year of her Majesties Raign came out against her whereby he deprived her of all her Right Authority Dignity and Priviledge in or unto these her Realms and Dominions and absolved all her Subjects of their Allegiance After this Bull it was that those who regarded the Pope's power or threats more than their Prince's just Authority or their own Allegiance refused to come to Church and from that occasion first acquired the stile of Recusants Vid. Camb. Annal. This gave rise also to a multitude of treasonable practices and conspiracies against the Queens life taken up also against King James Vid. Arth. Crohagans case in Crook 1. Rep. continued against our late Soveraign King Charls the First and still fermenting to break forth upon all opportunities to promote the Catholick cause and all abetted by the traitorous Doctrine of King-killing justified and proclaimed to the World by Bellarmin Co licenzâ— con priviâ—egio Baronius Mariana Emanuel Sa Allen Creswell and others both Natives and Strangers the consequence whereof was this That though Treason was always in the intention yet God be praised nothing hath yet been brought to Execution but the Traitors In this affair St. Jo. Davys D sc of Ireland fo 242. I find a memorable Observation of a grave Statesman That in the Indentures of submission of the Irish to King Hen. 8. all the Irish Lords did acknowledge him to be their Soveraign Lord and King and owned his Supremacy in all causes utterly renouncing the Pope's Jurisdiction most worthy of note says he in that when the Irish had once resolved to obey the King they made no scruple to renounce the Pope Besides these which have been experienc'd in our own Country infinite have been the mischiefs occasion'd in the World upon this score of Supremacy and Dominion and that by the mighty strugling and bickerings that have been maintained between the Papacy and the Princes of the Earth about the gaining and keeping this Power Besides the general Observations that a great means of the growth of the Turkish Empire to it s now formidable stature hath been the Wars and disturbances wrought upon this ground amongst the Christians themselves Also the decay and corruption of sincere piety and devotion by the turning the current of Religion out of its pure primitive channel into the sink of disputes and controversies about the Rights and Bounds of Dominion when Christ himself hath told us That his Kingdom is not of this world This caused Divine Religion to degenerate into Humane Policy and upon this it was that Machiavel too truly observed Mach. Disc on Tit. Liv. lib. 1. cap. 12. That there was now here less Piety
Imprimatur Anto. Saunders Rmo in Christo Patri ac D no D no Gilberto Archi-Episc Cantuar. à sac Dom. Septemb. 24. Ex Aed Lambeth The Romish Horseleech OR AN Impartial ACCOUNT OF THE Intolerable CHARGE OF POPERY TO THIS NATION In an Historical Remembrance of some of those Prodigious summs of money heretofore extorted from all degrees during the exercise of the Papal power here To which is Annexed an Essay of the Supremacy of the King of England Quantas divitias comparavit nobis haec fabula Christi Verè enim hortus deliciarum Papis fuit tum Anglia puteus inexhaustus Innocent 4. Pap. London Printed by R.W. for Ralph Smith at the Sign of the Bible in the Piazza of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1674. TO HIS Honoured Friend A.B. SIR WHen you and my self in an exercise of Friendship and Conversation which I always have esteemed no small felicity of my life have frequently within a few years last past entertained our selves in taking together some view of our present Times and sometimes again making a retrospect to the Times of our Fore-fathers in this Kingdom not forgetting also that sometimes by way of prospect we have made no less than a kind of Prophets of our selves in guessing at what might hereafter come to pass amongst us for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Him the best Prophet we confess That well of future things can guess But for what is past we have made some remarks upon those vicissitudes and changes which we and our Ancestors have seen in this Kingdom And particularly noting the different state and posture of the same we concluded that the alteration and change must needs have been very great as to the most important concerns of the Nation since the Power and Jurisdiction of the Popes of Rome was here exauctorated Upon which as I remember we wished some particular account of the State and habit of our Body Politick when the Influences from Rome were praedominant over it and that as well in reference to our Head the King's Majesty as also to the Members the People wherein we desired seriously to know whether the Pope's Power was prejudicial to them or either of them In which matter that I might give some satisfaction to you and my self also I set my self to methodize such notes and instances as formerly had occurred to me First Touching the Property of the People and how that was invaded by the Romish Practices And then touching the Supremacy of the Royal Majesty of the King of England and how that was Eclipsed by the interposition of the Papal Power And now I have put these Collections together you see what they amount unto I confess the Subjects are transcendant and vast and not to be measured with my line The trivial Controversies amongst Neighbours about Meum and Tuum frequently puzzle the gravest Judges but for the Fundamental Arcana imperii he that shall endeavour to poise them shall sooner discover the weakness of his own Arm than their weight I have known the united strenghts of Parliaments put to puffing and blowing when they have lifted at them But as the Divines say of the Holy Scriptures though they contain many Mysteries and things hard to be understood yet there is plainly and clearly deliver'd in them so much as is sufficient to make men good Christians So in the Doctrine of the King's Supremacy though we cannot reach its utmost import there is yet so much of it clearly discoverable as is sufficient to make all Englishmen good Subjects And as to that I have entituled my Discourse an Essay only not pretending to say all that the subject affords and have travelled no farther therein than our Laws Statutes Authorities and Records have lead me and I hope that thereby I have produced Demonstration sufficient that our Soveraign is invested with a most just Authority over all his Subjects and in all Causes within his Dominions and then seeing that Veritas est index sui obliqui it follows by all the rules of consequence that the Pope's Usurpations were most unjust For that other concern relating to the People's Property I took that task at first to have been much the easier of the two that is that it would not have been very hard to have comprehended and given some reasonable estimate of those summs which heretofore went out of England to the Popes and Court of Rome But after a little dealing therein I strangely found the account to swell beyond all bounds and soon experienced the difficulty to lye as much in the mutiplicity in this as in the intireness in the other This Grievance was and could be adequately known only to our Ancestors who felt it but the smart is not as yet quite worn off of their Posterity and therefore what is offered in this affair I have thought fit to stile a Remembrance and indeed it ought not to be forgotten But now Sir I may possibly deliver a sound Paradox That though it is conceiv'd a very hard thing now to understand as formerly it was to endure and once thought more hard to remedy all the mischiefs which our Fore-fathers suffered from the Papal Usurpation and Tyranny yet certainly the Cure was at all times not so very difficult to have been effected the Antidote was as near as the Poyson and there never wanted a Panpharmacon which if duly applyed would at any time have removed those malignant distempers that invaded the Kingdom 's constitution And that was in a word the Execution of the good Laws It is the Honour and Excellency of the Laws of England that no man can have a wrong or damage but the Law if rightly managed will do him right Did the Papal Power usurp and incroach upâ—n the King 's Rights the inherent vertue of the Common Law declared all to be illegal and void Did the Romish Practices weaken and impoverish the People the same Law at once arraigned and damned those Novelties and grievances and hence it was that all the supervenient Statutes ran but as Declaratory of the old Law Vid. Coke 5. Râ—p Cawdrys Case The Law indeed may sometimes be laid asleep by connivance or manaâ—led by some contrivance but it is a true and good Rule Dormit aliquando jus moritur nunquam and when the Law is awakened and let loose it soon discovers and breaks all offences and offendors The incomparable Spenser in his Faery Queen sets forth one Sir Arthegal the Patron of Justice attended with Talus his Iron man the Executioner whom nothing could withstand Pardon me if I give you his description of this notable Officer Our renowned Poet relating how the Divine Astraea loathing to sojourn longer amongst wicked men retired to Heaven from whence at first she came But when she parted hence she left her Groom Faery Queen lib. 5. Canto 1. Stanz 12. An yron man which did on her attend Always to execute her stedfast doom And willed him with Arthegall to
flood of Mischiefs whereby the purity of the Church was desiled and the Common-wealth perturbed That by his Reservations Commenda's and Provisions of Benefices for such persons as sought to fleece and not to feed the flock of God he committed a sin than which none was at any time more hateful to God or destructive unto man except that of Lucifer nor ever will be but the sin of Antichrist He signified further that no man could with a good Conscience obey the mandates he had sent though they came from the highest order of Angels for they tended not to the edification but the utter ruine of the Church With much more to the like purpose At all which the Pope was so gall'd that he exclaim'd against him thus What means this old dotard this surd absurd man thus to arraign our actions By Peter and Paul I could find in my heart to make him a dreadful example to all the World Is not the King of England our Vassal and both he and his at our pleasure But some of the more temperate Cardinals endeavour'd to allay the Pope's heat telling him the Bishop had said nothing Ut enim vera fateamur vera sunt quae dicit Mat. Parisupr but what they all knew to be true and that it would not be discretion to meddle with a person of his piety worth and fame whereupon all was smother'd and no more words made on 't But for that notable Epistle it self I have been credibly told that it is inrolled in perpetuam rei memoriam in the Red Book in the King's Exchequer at Westminster with this Marginal Note Papa Antichristus And there is a very memorable Epistle of Petrus Cassiodorus a noble Italian Knight Jo. Bal. de Rom. Pont. Act. lib. 6. Acts Mon. vol. 1. fo 46◠written to the English Church about the twenty ninth year of K. Edw. 1. exhorting them to cast off the Romish yoak of Tyranny oppression and exaction formerly preserved in Manuscript in St. Albans Monastery but since made publick too large to be here inserted but most worthy to be perused The Poets also according to the scantling of the wit of those times spared not to satyrize upon these intolerable exactions of the Popes one whereof made this Distich Roma capit marcas bursas exhaurit Antiquit. Britt An. 1337. arcas Vt tibi tu parcas fuge Papas Patriarchas Rome drains all Bags all Chests and Burses Of all their Pounds and Marks If therefore you would save your Purses Fly Popes and Patriarchs Observable also is it upon these incroachments and extorsions how sometimes our Kings would despond and tamely suffer the Popes and their Legates to grow upon them and at other times rouze up themselves and give some check to their insolencies As K. Hen. 3. though a facile man yet was once so inrag'd against Rubeus that he bad him be gone out of his Kingdom in the Devil's name And as these exactions were at the height in that King's time yet his Successors did not always suffer them so to continue being forced to set some bounds to those avaricious torrents Pol. Vergil Hist in Ric 2. lib. 20. by the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire and oftentimes to give stout denials to unreasonable demands as the English Clergy themselves at last Lo. Herb. Hen. 8. fo 57 59. adventured to do in the years 1515. and 1518. And observable also is it that Q. Mary though most zealous for the Doctrines of the Church of Rome yet in restoring the Pope's Supremacy she and the State were very cautious like those whom others harms had made to beware and some prudent provisions were made in that behalf Stat. 1 2 Phil. mar cap. 8. Coke 3. Instit cap. 4. fo 127. neither were the Statutes of Premunire repeal'd in all her raign but the Pope's Supremacy was restor'd not simpliciter but secundum quid as bounded within some legal limitations But her raign was short and not pleasant and the Pope wanted time to work her for his purpose for having got his head in he did not doubt but by degrees to thrust in his whole body for it is ever observable that in the Papal concerns there is no moderation for they must have all or nothing let their pretences and promises at first admission be what ever they will And whatever Prince or State shall once admit of any Papal authority within their Dominions their destiny may easily be read that they and their people must for ever after be slaves or if they once begin to boggle or kick the Casuists have legitimated many ways to rid them out of the World for the advancement of the Catholick cause and the propagation of the Roman Faith Now after this imperfect Account given of the Rents and Revenues of the Popes heretofore issuing out of this Kingdom if any one shall desire to have some estimate made of the summs I must profess it beyond the reach of my Arithmetick and when I see any Accountant do it Erit mihi magnus Apollo Yet this is certain that they were very vast Otherwise there was no ground for that Complaint which was made by the Kingdom 's Representative in the raign of K. Edw. 3. Rot. Parl. 50 Ed. 3. nu 105. Mat. Paris 224. That the Pope's Collector held a receipt or audit equal to a Prince Or for that which King John wrote to the Pope in his time That this Kingdom yielded him more profits than all the other Countreys on this side the Alpes Id. 224. Or for that boast of the Pope Vere inquit Papa hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia vere puteus est inexhaustus Et ubi multa abundant de multis multa sumere licet Antiq Britt fo 178. Or for the computation made in the time of King Hen. 3. Repertus est annuus redditus Papae talis quem ne regius quidem attigit That the Pope's rents exceeded the Crown revenues Or the Remonstrance to the same purpose from the whole Kingdom to Pope Innocent the fourth in the year 1245. Matt. Paris fo 666. 698. Act. Mon. Tom. 1. exhibited by Mat. Paris Fox and others too long to be here inferred but most worthy to be read and the import thereof throughly understood Nay we may well judge the Pope's incomes to exceed all account when it appears that notwithstanding some notable provisions of State to the contrary the Pope's intradó should yet carry so huge a proportion That in the Parliament held in the twenty third year of King Hen. Io. Herb. Hist Hen. 8. fo 330. 8. it was computed that the Papacy had received out of England for the Investitures of Bishops only since the second year of King Hen. 7. not much above 40 years 160000 l. sterling an incredible sum considering the scarcity and value of silver at that time and the laws against such exportations And the sums going to Rome
into the King's hands and lost during his life And this Judgement was before any Act of Parliament made in that case Nota. And there it is said That for the like offence the Archbishop of Canterbury had bin in worse case by the Judgement of the Sages in the Law if the King had not extended favour to him Although by the Ordinance of Circumspecte agatis Coke 5 Rep. Case de jure R. Eccl. made in the thirteenth year of King Edward the first and by a general allowance and usage the Ecclesiastical Court held Plea of Tithes Oblations Obventions Mortuaries Redemption of Penance Laying of violent hands on a Clark Defamations c. yet did not the Clergy think themselves assured nor quiet from Prohibitions purchased by subjects till King Edward the second by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal Staâ— 9 Edw. 2. Artic. cler ca. 16. in and by consent of Parliament upon Petition of the Clergy had granted them Jurisdiction in those cases An Excommunication by the Archbishop Finzh Excom 4.16 Ed. 3. Broâ—k Excom pl. 5.14 H. 4. although it be dis-annulled by the Pope or Legate is to be allowed Neither may the Judges give any allowance of any such sentence of the Pope or his Legate And it hath often bin adjudg'd 30 Ed 3 Lib. Assiz pl. 19.12 Ed. 4.16 and declared That the Pope's Excommunication is of no force in England It is often Resolved in our Books that all the Bishopricks in England were founded by the King's Progenitors and the Advowsons vowsons of them all belong to the King and at first they were * Per traditionem annuli pastorasis baculi Donative And that if an Incumbent of any Church with cure dyes if the Patron Present not within six months the Bishop of that Diocess ought to collate that the cure be supply'd if he neglect by the space of six moneths the Metropolitan of that Diocess shall confer one unto that Church and if he also neglect six moneths then the Law gives to the King as Supreame within his own Kingdom and not to the Pope power to provide a Pastor The King may not only exempt any Ecclesiastical Person from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary but may grant unto him Episcopal Jurisdiction as it appears the King had done of antient time to the Archdeacon of Richmond 17 Ed 3.13 20 Ed. 3. And the Abbot of Bury was exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction by the King's Charter The King Presented to a Benefice 21 Ed. 3.40 and his Presentee was disturbed by one that had obtained Bulls from Rome for which offence he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment If Excommunication be the final end of any suit in the Court of Rome as indeed it is and be not allowed Fitzh Nat. Br. fo 64. f. or allowable in England as it hath often bin Declared It then follows that by the Ancient Common Law of England no suit for any cause though it be spiritual arising within this Realm may or can be determined in the Court of Rome Quia frustra expectatur eventus cujus effectus nullus sequitur At a Parliament held An. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib 25 Edward the third It was Enacted That as well they that obtained Provisions from Rome as they that put them in execution should be out of the King's Protection and that they should be dealt withal as the King's Enemies and no man so dealing with them should be impeached for the same At a Parliament held An. Stat. 16 Ric. 2. cap. 5. 16 Ric. 2. It is declar'd That the Crown of England hath bin so free at all times that it hath bin in subjection to none but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the said Crown to be submitted to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his Will And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be clearly against the King's Crown and his Regality used and approved in time of all his Progenitors in which points the said Commons professed to live and dye and to all which the Lords assented also as being thereto bound by their Allegiances It is resolved that the Pope's Collector 2 Hen. 4 fo 9. though he have the Pope's Bull for that purpose hath no Authority within this Realm And there it is said That the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realm are the King 's spiritual Judges And in another place it is said Papa non potest mutare Leges Angliae 11 Hen. 4. fo 37. Per Curiam In the raign of King Henry the sixth 1 Hen. 7. fo 10. the Pope wrote Letters in derogation of the King and his Regality and the Church-men durst not speak any thing against them But Humfrey Duke of Glocester for their safe keeping put them into the fire In the raign of King Edward the fourth 1 Hen. 7. fo 20. the Pope granted to the Prior of St. John's to have Sanctuary in his Priory and this was pleaded and claim'd by the Prior but resolved by the Judges Keilway Reports 8 H. 8. fo 191. b. That the Pope had no power to grant any Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore the same was disallowed by Judgement of Law In Brook Tit. Presentation al Esglise Bro. Present al Esglise p. 12. It is affirmed That the Pope was permitted to do certain things within this Realm by usurpation and not of right untill the Raign of King Kenry the eighth quod nota sayes the Book Stat. 24 Hen. 8. ca. 12.25 H. 8.21 And in what esteem the Pope's Authority here was in that King's time may sufficiently be collected from the Tenor and Purview of the Statutes about that affair in his raign made In the raign of King Kenry the sixth Henry Beaufort Uncle to the King being Bishop of Winchester was made Cardinal and thereupon purchased from the Pope a Bull Declaratory that he might still hold his Bishoprick yet it was held and adjudged that the See of Winchester was become void by the assumption of the Cardinalship and therefore the Cardinal fallen into a Praemunire 4 Hen. 6. in Arch. Turr. Lond. for which he was glad to purchase his pardon as by the Records of all this it doth appear It was Adjudged in the Court of Common Pleas Dier 12 Eliz. by Sir James Dyer Weston and the whole Court That a Dean or any other Ecclesiastical Person may resign as divers did to King Edward the sixth Vid. Grend ca. in Plowd Com. for that he had the Authority of the Supream Ordinary With all this may be noted also the several Statutes heretofore made against the usurpations of the Bishops of Rome in this Kingdom the principal whereof these viz. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib Stat. 27 28 Ed.