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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26737	The ancient liberty of the Britannick church, and the legitimate exemption thereof from the Roman patriarchate discoursed on four positions, and asserted / by Isaac Basier ... ; three chapters concerning the priviledges of the Britannick church, &c., selected out of a Latin manuscript, entituled, Catholico-romanus pacificus, written by F.I. Barnes ... ; translated, and published for vulgar instruction, by Ri. Watson.; De antiqua ecclesiae Britannicae libertate. English	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Barnes, John, d. 1661. Catholico-romanus pacificus. English. Selections.; Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1029; ESTC R9065	27,797	82

matter of fact whereto the Roman Bishop himself that I may speak the truth as gently as may be was at least accessory and therefore can be no competent Judge of the cause but rather if the business would bear a controversie it were to be presented to a truly Oecumenical or general free Council rightly and legitimately called Now so far is it from that the Britannick Church even refused to present her self or her cause before the Tribunal of such a Council that the Britannick Church rather holds a general Council to be above any Patriarch even the Roman himself according to that pair of Councils held at Basil and Constance This the Britannick holds together with the Gallican Church a renewing of the ancient concord with which Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as conscience permits were even at this time much to be wished it being manifest that above a thousand years since much friendship passed between the Gallican and the Britannick Church even at that time when the Britannick Church did not communicate with the Roman and certainly if both parties would mutually understand one the other without prejudice and that of the two which is in the extream would remit of its rigour that consent of the Britannick Church with the Gallican would not be so improbable as it seems at the first aspect to them that are ignorant of both or either But this onely by the way To our purpose again Wee say the Britannick Church doth so reverence the General Councils that she hath provided by a special Statute That not any one endued with spiritual jurisdiction shall declare or administer his Ecclesiastical censures or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresie but onely such as before had been determined ordered or adjudged to be heresie by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council This was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the very Catholick sense of the Britannick Church and her due esteem of General Councils which the old Parliament openly testified in the solemn Assembly of that whole Kingdome for we disdain to make mention in this place of the Cabals or Conventicles now adayes which reign in the turbulent rebellious State of that Church and Republick for those swarms of Sects are onely the Cancers and Impostemes of that lately famous Church which no more belong to the sacred body of the Britannick Church than a wenn doth to the body natural And truly if heretofore the great Mother of us all the Catholick Church seemed almost universally to be utterly swallowed by a sudden deluge of Arrianism what wonder is it if the Britannick Church but one of her daughters lye under the same fate for a time This for the first point Concerning the second it is to be very much observed That the Britannick Church at the time of her withdrawing was not truly in fact much less by right subject to the Bishop of Rome having been years before her reformation under Edward 6. altogether exempt from the Roman Patriarchate to wit by the Imperial Authority and by that of Prince Henry the eighth whom to have been impowred to do it by right appears before in the first Position But what occasion soever of the withdrawing at that time shall bee pretended it cannot prejudice the Royal Right or any way derogate from the ancient Custome of the Britannick Church Nay the British Nation could not have opposed either of the two without being hainously guilty both of Rebellion and Schism especially since that whole business of the Church's restitution was transacted with the express consent of the Britannick Clergy then Romane a Provincial Council of which alone in defect of a General was at that time the supream meerly Ecclesiastick tribunal of the Britannick Nation whereunto onely the Britannick Church ought to be or indeed could be subject because in that article of time no Council truly general sate As for that of Trent which afterward followed it was at highest onely Patriarchal to which consequently the Britannick Church before exempt by lawful authority from the Romane Patriarchate was no way subject Whereas therefore the Britannick Church can be said to have opposed it self to no lawful Ecclesiastick Authority at all which notwithstanding inseparably is of the essence of Schism certain it is that Church is no way Schismatical but on the contrary side the Britannick Church according to the singular moderation and Christian love she perpetually sheweth toward all Christians as she keeps off from her external Communion no Christian of what ever communion he be so that he hold the foundation intire but unless a most just excommunication put a bar opens her Catholick bosome and draws forth her holy breasts to any genuine Nursling of the Catholick Church so as well in Faith as the internal Communion of Charity as likewise in the external Communion of the Catholick Hierarchy and Liturgy yea and Ceremonies also she yet cherisheth and professeth an undivided peace and consent with the Catholick Church from which the Britannick Church never did nor ever will separate her self as being alwaies most tenacious of the whole truly Catholick foundation For one thing it is on the hinge of which just distinction is the whole state of this great controversie turned one thing I say it is to separate her self from the Catholick or Universal Church and to form to her self a Congregation or Religion apart different from the Catholick Church as in times past the Donatists did another not to communicate in all with some one particular Church as for instance the Latine or rather to abstain from the external worship which is used by some persons in some places under an express Protestation for thence is sprung the modest and innocent title of Protestants under Protestation I say so soon as the occasion of scandal should be taken away of reconciliation and under a vow not so much out of any absolute necessity as for publick peace and Catholick unity's sake of returning to the Communion of that particular Church from which that the Protestants were estranged yea in the latter age violently driven away by thunder and sword and fire is better known out of history than to want any proof or further amplification It appears therefore out of the Premises that the Britannick Church constituted in this as I may say her passive state of separation from the communion of the Bishop of Rome is wholly free from all blemish of Schism by reason that the Bishop of Rome himself first of all interrupted Christian communion with the Britannick Church and yet further inderdicteth the Britannick Church his communion and in that again the Pope extolleth himself above a General Council lawfully called unto which the Britannick Church hath ever attributed the decisive judgement while in his Bull of the Lords Supper he forbids an appeal from himself to a general Council To

erected Iustiniana prima to a new Patriarchate and indulged unto the same they are the words of his eleventh Novel the highest Priesthood the highest authority and ordained that that should have the place not onely Vicegerency but place of the Apostolical See so as it should be saith Nicephorus a Free Church and Head unto it self with full power c. what could be said more amply what more magnificently of Rome her self so likewise by the same Imperial Authority the very same Emperour Iustinian Novel 131. ch 1. restored the African Diocess to its Ancient Patriarchal Prerogative which the invasion of the Vandals had interrupted And so by his Imperial writ did hee constitute the Bishop of Carthage absolute Primate of whole Africk Lastly This is the very thing which in the last age the Emperour of Britain King Henry the eighth by the like right imitated in his Diocess viz. not by erecting it anew which yet in the case of Iustiniana prima Iustinian did but onely restoring the same Britannick Diocess unto the Ancient Liberty it enjoyed in the Primitive times of the Ancient Oecumenick Councils viz. the Nicene Constantinopolitane and Ephesine concerning which more hereafter And thus much more than needs of our first Position because that is as it were the foundation laid for the rest that follow The Second Position 1 The Britannick Church 2 as being alway placed without the Suburbicaries of the Italick Diocess 3 in the time of the Nicene Council was in no case subject to the Romane Patriarchate but enjoyed a Patriarchate of its own as to the substance of the thing so as did the other Churches placed in the rest of the free Diocesses The Structure or Proof TO the first wee must observe that the Britannick Diocess was one of the thirteen into which according to the computation of some the whole Roman Empire but the very Praefecture of Rome it self was anciently distributed We must also observe that the Britannick Diocess had been one of the six Diocesses of the Western Empire among which it appears to have excelled out of Tacitus Spartian and the other more famous Roman Historians To the second wee must mark that by the Nicene Council every Province had its Metropolitick bounds set Certain it is I say that therein were fixed the Ecclesiastick limits to the three chief Metropolitanes that is to the Roman Alexandrian and Antiochian the right alwaies of the other Provinces being preserved which were no way subject to these Metropolitanes It matters not whether wee call them Patriarchs or Primates the Origin of which terms as the amplitude of their office wee owe rather to the following ages whether wee call them Exarchs as the Council of Chalcedon Can. 9. or arch-Arch-Bishops as Iustinian promiscuously or Metropolitans or onely Bishops as this very Nicen Council all is one so long as it effectually appears That by Patriarchs wee understand them to whose both ordination and jurisdiction the Provinces of intire Dioceses were attributed and who had the hearing and judging of all Ecclesiastick causes in the last reference so that according to Iustinian the Emperour yea according to the very Oecumenick Council of Chalcedon from the Patriarchal sentence out of Council was allowed no regular appeal Wee call with the Lawyers those Suburbicary Provinces which were concluded in one Diocese the Law term because of the manifest coextension of both being translated from the Republick to the Church Thirdly Let us grant which yet is undetermined that the Roman Patriarch had obtained an extraordinary or Patriarchal Jurisdiction over all the Provinces of the Italick Diocese as his Suburbicaries and that they were those ten in number viz. the three Islands of Sicilie Corsica and Sardinia and the seven other placed on the Continent Which ten Provinces some do assign to the same Diocese induced by that ancient Observation from which it appears that the Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction of the Dioceses both for the beauty and benefit of order and unity as also to insinuate a mutual harmony which ought as much as may be to be cherished between the Church and Republick in a certain accurate imitation was so coextended with and adjusted to the temporal Regiment of the secular Vicars that the Ecclesiastick Patriarchates or Primacies were not enlarged farther than the temporal Jurisdiction of the Vicars that is to the limits of those Dioceses the Cities whereof in which resided the Vicars were Metropolies where was fixed the Praetory it self which was the highest Tribunal of all causes and all appeals likewise in the Provinces subject thereunto The very same government of the Church was retained for the conservation of Ecclesiastick Unity unto which was had special regard by that singular and excellent subordination of the lesser Clerks to their Bishops in every City of the Bishops unto their Metropolitanes in every Province and of the Metropolitanes to their Patriarchs in every Diocese But in case either of Heresie or Schism the Church was succoured by Councils either Provincial which were rightly called by the Metropolitane or Patriarchal which by the Patriarch or lastly general which by the Emperour himself Now as this premised general coextension of the Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction with the Civil Government appears by comparing the second Canon of the Constantinopolitan Council with the very Code of the Provinces so that particular definition of the Italick Diocese may bee fetcht out of Ruffinus the best Interpreter of that very sixth Nicene Canon who expresly mentions the Suburbicaries in that place where he professedly interprets the said Canon who being both an Italian and near the age of the Nicene Council was able clearly to distinguish the proper limits as then fixed of the Italick Patriarchate Howsoever it is evident to any man that even in this sense from the Jurisdiction of all those ten Italick Provinces as Penitus loto divisos orbe Britannos From the whole world the Britains were divided To the fourth viz. That in the time of the Nicene Council the Britannick Diocese was subject neither to the Roman Patriarchate as some of yesterday grosly suppose nor yet to any forein Jurisdiction shall presently appear when wee shall shew That the Britannick Churches enjoyed their own Primate or Patriarch That being all matter of fact is to be fetched out of the Britannick history it self which is written by Venerable Bede the chief Historiographer of the said Britain and a Catholick Priest too In him therefore wee may read the huge difference of the Britannick Church howsoever most Catholick in other things from that I say not with the same Bede contrariety to the Roman Church both in the different observation of Easter wherein the Britains following the use of Anatolius the Constantinopolitane Patriarch and not that of the Bishop of Rome conformed themselves to the Eastern not Western Churches as also in the different administration of holy Baptism and in many other things witness Augustin himself who

was Legate of Gregory the Roman Bishop The same also appears out of the constancy of the Britains in their rejection of the said Augustin whom although sent Express by the Roman Pontifie that hee might preside over the Britains yet saith Bede All the Britain Bishops refused to acknowledge him for their Arch-Bishop as who had an Arch-Bishop of their own whosoever hee then was whom it would not bee hard to know from the prerogatives of his Metropoly and priviledge of his seat in Councils As for the state of the Britannick Churches and their partition it will bee worth our pains to search it in the undoubted Records of the British Antiquity From the very time therefore of Constantine the Great and so of the Nicene Council all Britany was in times past canton'd into three onely Provinces over which were after the Romane manner in temporal affairs three Romane Proconsuls or Praesidents as likewise in spiritual there praesided as many Arch-Bishops commonly called Metropolitans from their Metropolies or principal Cities wherein were resident both the secular and sacred Provost or Metropolitane The first of these three Provinces was called Maxima Caesariensis the Greatest Caesarian or inverted if either way to be Englished the Metropolitan whereof was the Bishop of York The second was called Britannia primo the first Britain the Metropolitane of which was the Bishop of London The third was Britannia secunda the second Britain called the Legionary Metropoly and thereof the Is●ane Bishop or Bishop of Ca●ruske in the Tract or County of Monmouth That was the state of this Metropoly from Lucius unto King Arthur in whose time the Metropolitical dignity was transferred to the Bishop of St. Davids to whom were subject as Suffragans the Welch Bishops until in the time of Henry the first or as some will have it Henry the third the same Metropolitane was reduced under the obedience of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Now whatsoever either in the Provinces themselves or Churches was afterward irregularly parjeted from abroad that cannot prejudice the Imperial authority to which belongs as we have before shewed both to dispense the external Government of the Church and to establish the jurisdictions which it limits Much less can a Usurpation advanced by force or fraud derogate from the Oecumenick decrees of the Ancient Fathers or frustrate so many most grave Canons venerable for their age published thereupon such as is the premised 6th Canon of the Nicene Council for the Ancient Prerogatives and the second Canon of the Constantinopolitan by which is charged That no Bishop approach any Churches situate without his bounds which most grave Canon I wish the Bishop of Rome had religiously observed the Peace of the Church had been better assured the Council goes on commanding that all bee kept according to what was defined at Nice And that these may not seem too remote from our Britain the Canon concludes in a general Sanction That all things ought to be done according to that custome of the Fathers in force But that such had been the custome of the Britains as to have all weighty affairs Synodically disputed within themselves appears out of Bede Moreover to have been in use that the Bishops of that Nation were consecrated by one Bishop Baronius himself somewhere observes At that time truly so beautiful was the state of affairs in Britain until some ages after the Council of Nice Augustin the Monk was sent by Gregory who what hee could not by right first by fraud then by the armed assistance of Ethelbert and his new-converted Anglo-Saxons indeavoured to force the Catholick Bishops of Britain to acknowledge and receive him for their Arch-Bishop but they couragiously replied That they could not abandon their ancient Priviledges and subject themselves to the mandates of strangers That any other custome had been in the sacred Government of the British Church no man can ever evince out of genuine Antiquity And so much concerning the second Position The third Position bearing proportion to the second The Britannick Church was 1 with very good right 2 restored by her Soveraign to her Ancient Ecclesiastical Liberty 3 and that according to the Rule of the Ancient Catholick Canons by which was confirmed for the future the intire Liberty of the Churches TO the first whatsoever the Rebels at this day on either side falsely alledge to the contrary it appears out of very many Histories and the Authentick Chronicles that the Kingdome of England hath been an Empire and so accounted in the world which was governed by one supream Head or King both in Spirituals and Temporals and that wholly independent of any forein Prince or Supremacy whatsoever on earth This is the very marrow expressed from the formal words of a statute at large set out to this purpose by the Assembly of Parliament that is of the whole Kingdome in the 24th year of King Henry the eighth chap. 12. At which time the three Estates of England to wit the Clergy Nobility and Commons willing to recall the Ancient Rights of the Kingdome taken away rather by force and power than any Rule of the Canons decreed to have controversies ended within the bounds of the Kingdome without any appeal to foreiners which indeed is one principal prerogative of a Patriarchal Jurisdiction But upon this whole Britannick affair the thing most worthy our observation is That this decree for the liberty of the Britannick Churches was not introductive of a new Law as in spight to the Kings of Britain new upstarts calumniate who are either ignorant of or opposite to the Britannick priviledge but the said decree was onely declarative of an Ancient Custome which had constantly prevailed in England eight hundred years since and so many ages before yea and was intirely renewed as often as occasion required Concerning this most just assertion wee attest the ample Margin filled with a long train of the Ancient Britannick Statutes which the ingenuous Reader may be pleased at leisure to view and consider Whence by induction of parts will appear that this was no new enterprize nor a single irregular act of Henry the eighth alone but that long before the time of Henry the eighth this had been the ancient Supremacy of all the Kings of England over all persons and in all causes whatsoever so well Ecclesiastick as Temporal Wee proceed to the second and prove the Ancient state of the Church to have been such out of the undoubted Monuments of the Britannick Church where first wee may collect out of the fore-cited Venerable Bede as also Henry of Huntington no less than the rest That Augustine the Monk stirred up Ethelbert King of Kent against the Bishops of the Britains because they in behalf of the Ancient Britannick Liberty denied to subject themselves and their Churches unto the Roman Legate Yet further Huntington adds that neither the Britains nor Scots that is the Irish would therefore communicate with the English and