Scot who runs presently to Rome for confirmation and the King presently sends after him the Bishop of Lichfield and the Prior of Lanthony to sollicite against Scot but after a long tugging and expence of all their money on both sides it was determined that a third man viz. Richard Poor should have the Bishoprick After the death of Stephen Langton Matt. Paris in An. 1228. fo 350. 355. Anâ—quit Brit. in viti Richard Maâ— Archbishop of Canterbury the Monks made choice of Walter de Hempsham to succede him at which the King then being displeased Walter hasts away to Rome as the use then was for his confirmation and the King presently sends after him as his Proctors the Bishops of Coventry and Rochester who appearing before the Pope complained grievously of the misdemeanor of the Monks in making choice of that man as being of no experience suitable to that Dignity but of mean learning one of a debauched and scandalous life having gotten several Bastards upon a Nun and for his extraction his Father had bin condemn'd and hang'd for Theft as himself had also deserv'd having bin a Ringleader amongst Rebels and Traitors But all this would not satisfie the Pope to set him aside Polychron 1.7 cap. 34. until the King ingaged the Pope should have a Disme or the Tenth part of all the moveable goods both of Clergy and Laity throughout England and Ireland which granted the election of Walter Hempsham was declared null and Richard Wethershed promoted to the place The next Successor to Richard Wethershed was Edmund between whom Antic Brit. Godw. in vita Edmundi and the Monks of Rochester a great contest happen'd about the election of one Richard Wendover to be their Bishop whereupon the Bishop goes to Rome and the Covent send their Proctors and these carrying the most money got the cause and Edmund condemn'd by the Pope in 1000. Marks The Bishoprick of Chichester being once void Matt. Paris iâ— Hen. 3. the Canons there elected one Robert Passelew to gratifie the King who had a great kindness for the man but others stemaching him means was made at Rome to have his election quashed and one Richard de la Wich to have the place and thereupon all parties run to Rome with money Bribes complaints and recriminations all which being heard and the money taken the King's man was fob'd off and Wich setled in the See The story is at large in Matthew Paris and a multitude more of like nature might here be exhibited but these shall suffice with this averrement that seldom any election went so cleverly off but something extraordinary came to the Pope besides what was certain by the first Fruits From which we proceed to payments of other natures CHAP. III. Legatine Levies THE Statute of 25 Henry 8. Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. Providing that no more summs of money shall be pay'd to the Bishop of Rome begins with recital how the subjects of this realm had for many years been greatly decayed and impoverished by intolerable exactions of great summs of money taken and claimed by the Bishop of Rome called the Pope and the See of Rome as well in Pensions Censes Peter-pence Procurations Fruits suits for Provisions and Expeditions of Bulls for Archbishopricks and Bishopricks and for Delegacies and Rescripts in Causes of Contentions and Appeals Jurisdictions Legantine Dispensations Licences Faculties Grants Relaxations Writs of perinde valere Rehabilitations Abolitions and other infinite sorts c. as the words of the Statute are I cannot now pretend to enumerate or specifie them all when the Statute declares them to be infinite and therefore we shall content our selves to point but at some of them beginning with the Legatine Levies as I may call them Vid. Matthew Westm Flor. Hist in An. 1245 1246. c. Mart. Paris Polychron c. And these were summs of money exacted and levyed upon the King's Subjects throughout the whole Kingdom by Legats and Officers for that purpose deputed by the Pope And these were called for as often as the Popes pretended a need of them for the Court of Rome did inculcate and would have the world to believe Matth. Paris An. 1226. fo 328. That being a Mother she ought to be relieved by her Children Now the first Extraordinary Contribution raised for the Pope in this Kingdom of this kind appears to have bin about the year 1183. when Pope Lucius the third having some quarrel with the Citizens of Rome Rog. Hovedeâ— P. Postenor fo 622. sent to King Henry the second postulans ab co à clericatu Angliae auxilium requiring Aid from him and his Clergy whereupon Consuluit Rex Episcopos suos Clerum Angliae de petitione Summi Pontificis Cui Episcopi Cleri consuluerunt ut ipse secundum voluntatem suam honorem faceret auxilium D. Papae tam pro seipso quam pro illis quia tolerabilius esset plus placeret eis quod D. Rex si vellet accepisset ab eis auxilii recompensationem quam si permisisset Nuncios D. Papae in Angliam venire ad capiendum de eis auxilium quia si aliter fieret posset verti in consuetudinem ad regni sui detrimentum Adquievit Rex consilio suorum fecit auxilium magnum D. Papae in auro argento The King consulted the Bishops and Clergy about the Popes request to whom the Bishops and Clergy returned That the King might if he so pleased and for his honor send aid to the Pope as well for himself as for them because it would be more tolerable and more acceptable to them for his Majesty if he pleased to take a Compensation from them for his Aid than that he should permit the Pope's Officers to come into England to receive it of them which might turn to a custom detrimental to the Kingdom To this counsel the King adher'd and sent a great Aid to the Pope in Gold and Silver as Rog. Hoveden hath at large related the Carriage of that business In which several passages are very remarkable as that the King did in matters that concern'd the Pope consult with the English Church and follow'd their advice and then the care and circumspection of the Clergy to avoid mischievous consequences for the future and that not without very good cause for the Popes were so prone to be busie and tampering in this matter of money that afterward in the time King Edward the first Papa miâ—it bullas inhibitatorias quod nulla persona Ecclesiastica daret seculari personae contributionem ullam absque licentia specialita Romana curia concessa in hac parte Henry de Knighton Coll. 2489. he prohibited the Clergy from giving any thing to the King without his leave first obtained and that under pain of the great excommunication a great presumption this but without any considerable effect to the purpose intended But notwithwanding the before mention'd caution the Popes gained
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
much upon the Clergy afterward though the King and Temporal Lords oftentimes prov'd sturdy Matt. Paris fo 361 362. For Pope Gregory the ninth An. D. 1229. demanded a Tenth of the moveables both of the Lay and of the Clergy to which the Lords would not consent Nolentes Baronias vel Laicas possessiones Rom. Ecclesiae obligare but the Clergy with some grumbling pay'd it And eleven years after he demanded a fifth part of the goods of the Clergy upon which great debate was taken Matt. Paris An. 1240. fo 536. the Clergy appealing to the King that they held their Baronies of the King and could not charge them without his consent that having before given a Tenth this again of a Fifth might create a custom with divers other weighty reasons But all would not do for the King was not against it and the Archbishop for his private ends beginning to deposite all were drawn in at last to pay which occasion'd that complaint the year following Id. fo 549. That there remain'd not so much treasure in the Kingdom as had in three years bin extorted from it the vessels and ornaments of the Church excepted But notwithstanding that reluctancy Matt. Paris fo 549. 666. 701. notwithstanding that notable Remonstrance preferred in the Council of Lions An. D. 1245. from the body of the Kingdom of the heavy burdens the Nation lay under by the exactions of Rome and likewise to the Pope himself the year following Pope Innocent the fourth invented a new way to charge every Religious House to find a number of Souldiers yearly for his service and to fight for the Church militant and about the same time attempted also ut si Clericus extunc decederet intestatus ejusdem bonas in usus D. Papae converterentur that is the Pope would make himself heir or Executor to every Clark that should dye intestate and not long after it was that he received from the Clergy eleven thousand Marks as an addition to six thousand he had receiv'd the year before And then and from that time the Pope made no spare to drain and exhaust the English Clergy at his pleasure to the shameful scandal of the Holy See at that time and to the notorious ignominy poverty and contempt of this Church and the Clergy thereof Matt. Westm Flor. Hist in An. 1301. And of these times it was that Matthew Westminster makes this complaint Porro illis diebus sal terrae caput vulgi in magnum Hydropem ceciderunt quanto enim plus pecuniam humorem hauriebant tanto amplius eam sitiebant Sedit ergo in tristitia fidelium Ecclesia deducta per vocales tutores suos miserabiliter sub tributo In those dayes the Head of the people was fallen into a dropsie which the more money it suck'd in the more it thirsted after more therefore the Church of the faithful sat disconsolate being by her Governours brought under a most miserable tribute and servitude An. D. 1302. Annal. of Ireâ— in Camb. Brit. fo 163. At this time also it was that these grievous exactions reached into Ireland recorded in the Annals thereof That the Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices in England and Ireland were exacted by Pope Boniface the eight for three years as a Subsidy to the Church of Rome against the King of Arragon Neither did our Hyperborean neighbours escape Scot-free in this deluge of exaction Tho. Walsing Hist fo 48. Ypodig Neust fo 89. Flor. Hist in Ed. 1. fo 417. H. Knighton Coll. c. Pol. Vergil Fabian Speed c. Nay no less there would satisfie the Pope but the whole Kingdom for it was that Boniface the eight that then claimed the whole Realm of Scotland as part of St. Peters Patrimony against our K. Edward the first and sent his Bull of demand to the King for that purpose between whom there passed several Answers and Replies in the point and the conclusion was That the incroaching Pope was glad to sit down worsted in the cause the transactions of all which stand registred amongst the Tower Records exemplified at large to posterity by Walsingham Matthew Westminster Knighton and more briefly by others But all this while the poor Clergy languished being continually pill'd poll'd and squeezed by the unlimited avarice of this Pope and his successors emptying the Kingdom of its money and filling it with complaints the product of its poverty CHAP. IV. King John 's Pension THe troublesom raign of our King John is sufficiently related by all our Historians in whose straits the Pope appeared sometimes for him and sometimes against him but once taking him in a great exigence Jo. Serres Hist in Phil. August Matt. Paris in An 1213. fo 236. the King was wrought upon to surrender his Crown to Pandulfus the Pope's Legate and substitute laying the same with his Scepter Robe Sword and Ring the Royal Ensigns at his feet subscribing also as is said to a Charter whereby he surrendred his Kingdom to the Pope and professing that thence forward he would hold his Crown as a Feudatary to the Pope and paying an annual Pension or Tribute of 1000 marks for both his Kingdoms of England and Ireland the insolent behaviour of the Legate at this the Historians fully describe which I list not now to insist on but cannot but remember that Matt. Paris says that with this Charter and 10000 l. sterl in hand Id. fo 237. Pandulfus goes triumphing away to Rome But then when or how long after this yearly rent or tribute of 1000 marks was paid our Writers seem not to agree though all concur in the invalidity of the surrender Vid. Speed Chron. in vita Johan Rot. Parl. An. 40 Ed. 3. And at a Parliament held at Westm An. 40 Ed. 3. the Chancellour then Bishop of Ely declared to the Lords and Commons How the King understood that the Pope for the Homage that K. John did to the See of Rome for the Realms of England and Ireland and for the Tribute by him granted meant by Process to cite the King to Rome to Answer thereunto wherein the King required their advice The Bishops for themselves desired respite of Answer till the next day as also did the Peers and Commons at which time the whole Estate came together and by common consent Enacted and Declared That forasmuch as neither King John nor any other King could bring this Realm and Kingdom in such thraldom and subjection but by common assent of Parliament the which was not done And therefore that which he did was against his Oath at his Coronation besides many others causes If therefore the Pope should attempt any thing against the King by process or other matters in deed that the King with all his Subjects should with all their force and power resist the same Then for the Tribute or Pension of 1000 marks it appears to have been sometimes paid with intermissions for Pope Honorius having gratified K. Hen.
3. by his menacing Bull to Geoffry de Lysimaco earnestly demanded by Otho his Legate all the arrears of the 1000 marks annual rent granted by his Father K. John due from the beginning of his Papacy and the King's reign who therupon paid all those arrears amounting to 10000 marks for which he desired the Popes allowance and acquittance by this Letter Claus 10 H. 3. m. 2â— doâ—so still kept upon the file Dom. Papae salutem Ad instantiam magistri O. Subdiaconi Capellani vestri viri utique prudentis merito commendabilis qui ad nos transmissus ex parte vestra requirebat à nobis instanter ea quae restare à tempore Papatus Vestri credidit de annuo censu nostro vobis debito Paternitati vestrae praesentibus intimamus quod venerabili Patri P. Norwic. Episc septem millia quadringentas tresdecem marcas dimidium de praedicto censu solvimus sicut mâ—minit ipse pariter confitetur Et ad perficiendum octo millia marcarum praedicto magistro Ottoni solvi fecimus quingentas quater viginti sex marcas dimidium Et praeterea mille marcas tibi assignari fecimus De mille vero marcis vobis satisfecerint Magister Stephanus de Eketon Magister Stephanus de Ducy nuncii nostri sicut nobis significastis Et sic de toto tempore Papatus vestri plenarie vobis est satisfactum Supplicamus igitur sanctitati vestrae quatenus nobis super hoc literas vestras patentes dignemini destinarâ— Teste meipso apud Westmonast 24. die Martii Anno regni nostri Decimo An even reckoning so far And then it appears that in the 33 year of King Hen. 3. Pope Innocent the 4th in the sixth year of his Papacy sent to the King to demand this 1000 marks due for that year An. 33 H 3. in Turri Lond. by this Instrument or Bull Innocentius Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei charissimo in Christo filio Regi Anglorum illustri salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Excellentiam tuam affectione paterna rogamus quatenus mille marcas sterlingorum quas pro anno praesenti Ecclesiae Romanae nomine Census debes dilecto filio Thesaurario Domus militiae Templi London solitae devotionis affectu nomine nostro facias assignari Dat. Lugdun 5 Kal. Augusti Pontificatus nostri sexto Dorso De censu annuo Dom. Papae debito But whether any thing or no was paid upon this demand appears not But by the Liberate Rolls it appears 31 H. 3. m. 1. that this rent due for the 31 year of K. H. 3. was then paid to the Treasurer of the Temple In the year 1276. Pope John 21. sent such another Bull or demand to K. Edw. 1. still preserv'd amongst the Tower Records whereby he demanded the arrears of this annual rent of 1000 marks for seven years then last past and also for that year but whether payment was made accordingly there remains no evidence and when or how much was afterwards paid upon this account is now uncertain But from these footsteps thereof which we find amongst our Records it may well be collected that the Popes being sensible of the defeasibleness of their Title to this Rent durst not always insist upon it but sometimes when they met with an easie King or one whose affairs required the Pope's countenance or aid then they would put on a demand of this rent with the arrears of it and many times without doubt were gratifi'd therein but then with wise and resolute Kings they had the discretion to let it alone and so by continuance of time and non-claim the rent came at last to be extinguish'd CHAP. V. Appeals APpeals to the Court of Rome was another way of drawing great summs of money out of England continually thither And these began most visibly in the time of King Stephen Gervas Dorobern coll fo 1667. according to that of Gervasius Doroberniensis Inusitatae enim erant in Anglia Appellationes usque quo Henricus extitit Wintoniensis Episcopus remembred also by Hen. Huntingdon Hen. Huntingd lib. 8. â—0 395 who tells us also the occasion related at large by Bishop Godwin in the life of Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury And then when the Popes had tasted the sweets of the gains accruing this way all incouragement was given to Appellants so that afterwards there scarcely happen'd any controversie of value but one party or other would presently Appeal to the Pope and Court of Rome for the management of which Appeals it was necessary to retain Proctors Notaries Advocates Agents Sollicitors and many other Officers who all living by the employment expected always to be well paid And in the Court of Rome were continually resident a multitude of Officers Judges Clarks Scribes Advocates Canonists Civillians Referendaries who every one must have a finger in every cause brought thither by Apppeal and be all well paid and brib'd for Bulls Breves Citations Commissions Sentences References Expeditions with innumerable sorts of Processes issuing during the depending of causes which were never speedily ended but spun out to the utmost length with all incouragement of Appellant Suitors bringing grist to the mill and as long as any money flowed to make the wheel go And as these Appeals were purchased in suits between party and party most commonly to the utter undoing of the Plaintiff or Defendant and many times of them both the Pope having the fineness when he had cracked the Nut to take the kernel to himself and to give one shell to one of them and the other to the other so oftentimes they caused a far greater mischief being made use of by haughty turbulent and undutiful subjects especially Church-men to cross and oppose their Soveraigns upon every or any pretence whatsoever Witness the Appeals of Anselme Becket the Monks of Canterbury with multitudes more from the King and his Laws to the Pope as in all our Histories most frequently occurr All which tended only to carry huge sums to Rome and to bring thence no less mischiefs to the King and Kingdom And besides this multitudes of Appeals were founded upon the Elections of Bishops Abbots Priors Deans c. for it was very rare to have all parties acquiesce in an Election but Incapacity Simony Surprize or some irregularity would be pretended and then presently an Appeal must be made to Rome and there generally the cause determined for that party which brought the most money Venalesque manus ibi fas ubi plurima merces Acts Mon. fo 259. As once John Hereford was elected Abbot of St. Alban's Monastery but upon some dis-satisfaction taken thereat Reynold the Physician and Nicholas a Monk were instantly posted away with a huge bag of Money to Rome whereby the Election was confirm'd upon these terms That the new Abbot should swear every third year by himself or some other to visit the Limina Apostolorum in Rome with a subintelligitur that he should
Statutes and Priviledges was vacated and overthrown and his own revenues established upon the ruins of the Nation Dispensing with any thing nay every thing by which he might gain any thing as may be read at large in that notable Historian to whom for brevities sake we referr those that would receive further satisfaction therein and pass on to the CHAP. VII Indulgences Pardons INdulgences and Pardons shall in the next place be remembred as most powerful devices to draw money to Rome And because the import of these generally hath not been so well apprehended we will take liberty to make a little enquiry into the nature and vertue of them In the Primitive Times when the Christians had committed any hainous offence as for example either in denying their Faith or sacrificing to Idols for fear of persecution the parties offending were injoyned some severe and long Penance and the rigour of this the Bishops and Pastors had power if they saw cause to mitigate at their discretion which mitigation or relaxation of Punishment was called Indulgence or Pardon And this derived from St. Paul who released the incestuous Corinthian from the bond of Excommunication upon his humiliation and serious repentance And this manner of Indulgence was ancient and continued long in the Primitive Church But the Indulgence in the Roman Church is of another nature for seeing that Sin as they say deserveth as well some Temporal punishment as Eternal Damnation their Indulgence is a supposed Absolution from the guilt of Temporal punishment Vid. Pol. Vergil de invent rerum lib. 8. cap. 1. which punishment is inflicted they say in Purgatory and all this as they further add by the application of the merits of Jesus Christ and his Saints by the medium and method of the Church and these merits are termed Thesaurus Ecclesiae The Treasure of the Church and appliable to the souls of the dead burning in Purgatory to work out their Temporal punishment And this is the notion of Indulgence in the Roman Church if I mistake not for it is a Doctrine as difficult to understand as to maintain But this is certain that these modern new coin'd Indulgences differ infinitely from that of the Primitive Times for those which were first used for mitigation of Penance or Punishment are now reduced to be in stead of real private satisfactions and that which was formerly left to the discretion of every Bishop in his own Diocess to dispence in that manner with summum jus is now solely transferred to the Power and authority of the Pope and that not only from Penances and Punishments in this life but also from imprisonment pains and tortures in Purgatory for many thousands of years As whosoever in the state of Grace shall say seven prayers before the Crucifix Horae beaâ—ae Mar. Virg. secundum usum Sarum and seven Pater nosters and seven Ave Marys shall obtain Six and Fifty Thousand years of pardon fourteen thousand granted by St. Gregory fourteen thousand by Nicholas the First and eight and twenty thousand by Sixtus the 4th Bulâ—a Pli Quarti Dat. Rom. 1564. And amongst the Articles framed at the Council of Trent to be owned super forma juramenti professionis fidei this is one That the power of Indulgences was left by Christ in the Church and that the use thereof is most wholesom for Christs people For the Antiquity Authority and validity of these Indulgences as now practised let those maintain if they can whom it most concerns and who get by them for my business now is not to dispute only I cannot forbear to tell you what a learned Romanist says of them Cunerus Declam Dolendum mirandum c. It is to be lamented and admired how Catholicks write of Indulgences so timorously so coldly so diversly so doubtfully as if they were so far fetch'd or so uncertainly framed that they could hardly be proved We will therefore only take notice of their efficacy to draw money out of the Peoples purses our present purpose and for their power of drawing Souls out of Purgatory we leave it to another opportunity For the purpose of drawing money from the people there could not have been a more neat contrivance Rivet and therefore by one they have not improperly been called Emulgences Romarorum loculos impraegnare Mat. Paris Hen. 3. and by the Romanists themselves in their truest signification The Treasury of the Church For seeing the Pope was become the sole dispencer and disposer of them when he had occasion or a mind to amass moneys it was a ready and sure way upon pretence of Wars against the Turks or of Wars against Hereticks or Wars against the Emperour or any neighbor Prince or State with whom the Pope was at odds to send out and proclaim Marts and Sales for these Indulgences upon terms that those who would disburse any summs of money for the purposes aforesaid as the occasion was they should have Pardons and Indulgences for numbers of years proportionable to the summs they could or would deposite Hen. de Knighton Coll. 2671. Nam aliter non absolvebantur nisi tribuerent secundum posse suum facultatem suam For people could not be absolv'd except they did disburse as much as their abilities would afford as Hen. de Knighton deals plainly in the case And then for the poor and indigent truly they deserve our pitty when the Taxa Camerae Apostolicae deals thus plainly with them Taxa Cam. Apost Impress Paris Nota diligenter quod hujusmodi gratiae non conceduntur pauperibus quia non habent ergo non possunt consolari Note diligently that such graces are not granted to the poor because they have not wherewithal they cannot be comforted A very sad Case Now for those people that were conscious and certain they were guilty of many sins and perswaded they should lye frying in Purgatory many thousands of years to purge themselves and make them fit for Heaven who would not presently unstring and give even almost all they were worth for such advantages and to be freed from those bitterly represented pains and torments Then to assure people they were not cheated in these penny-worths and bargains the Mysterie of the Pope's Triple Crown was sufficient for anciently if not still the word Mysterium Mysterium was engraven thereon to denote and signifie the Rule and Authority the Pope bears in Heaven in Earth and in Purgatory And so these Indulgences and Pardons were trucked for and bought up at any rates untill people began a little to consider and look about them and to observe upon what terms and for what purposes these Indulgences were sent abroad wherein no distinction of persons or sins was made which reasonably might have been expected from Christ's Vicar that whosoever performed some religious rites and paid certain summs of money should have all their sins forgiven whatever they were so that all men who would come to the price
the whole Kingdom wherein all art and Rhetorick imaginable was used by suing Preaching and begging to draw people to unstring and deposite according to their respective abilities and inclinations by which means the Nation was always kept bare and poor whilst the wealth thereof was carryed away into forrain parts and mostly unto the Kings Enemies as appears by many complaints thereof for that purpose made Particularly Rot. Parl. An. 8 Ed. 3. in a Parliament held An. 8 Ed. 3. a special Petition and complaint was made by the Commons in that behalf And afterwards in several King's raigns a multitude more to the like effect as by our Parliamentary Records it doth appear which for brevities sake we here omit to specifie referring such as would receive further satisfaction therein to that excellent Abridgement of the Tower Records collected by the learned Sir Robert Cotton and lately printed Cardinal Woolsey at one time had raked up Twelve Barrels full of Gold Speed in H. 8. nu 77. and Silver to serve the Pope in his warrs c. CHAP. XII Courts COurts and Jurisdictions of the Pope both at Rome and within the Kingdom drew constantly out of the People's purses incredible Masses of money For to these Courts belonged Judges Officials Delegates Referendaries Commissaries Dataries Scribes Notaries Proctors Registers Summoners Apparitors Clarks Sollicitors and a multitude of other Officers who all by their places and practice grew rich sent great summs to their chief the Pope and help'd to beggar the people In these Courts all causes of Contentions and Instance between party and party as also ex officio were entertained and cherished And the charge and expence going this way was so much the worse in regard of the danger turmoil and vexation continually attending those that had to do in these Courts For by some other wayes men were wheadled and gull'd out of their money to their no small content but here they were squeezed racked and tortur'd as long as their purses or themselves could breath These Courts at first were pretended to be instituted for Ecclesiastical Persons and causes only But then at the instance of Ecclesiastical persons many of the Laicks were cited to Rome to make Answer concerning businesses not at all belonging to the Cognizance of that Court as matters of Inheritances Gages Pawns Contracts c. And Laicks also upon Oath or Allegation that they could not have Justice before their proper Judges were admitted and incouraged to bring their Causes to Rome or out of the King 's into the Pope's Court. And thereupon the Pope's Judges and Officers spared not to disturb all other places of Judicature in derogation of the King's authority excommunicating all that would not obey them And these Courts as they were managed became an accumulative charge and burden to the people For the right of Patronage belonging to divers Lay and Ecclesiastical persons was under Colour of Prevention or Provision by the power and authority of these Courts usurped by the Pope his Legats and Officers when Benefices were vacant and then the same usually conferred on Courtiers Favourites Italians and Strangers And these men dying either at Rome or in their way thither or thence their Benefices were conferr'd again by these Courts upon others to the great wrong of the right Patrons And then great Benefices would not he conferr'd on worthy persons or on any other unless temporary gratuities and continuing Pensions were first given and secured out of them to the Courtiers Dependants and Officers of the Pope And in granting these Benefices many Arts were used to get money under the names of Reservations Permutations Surrogations c. In these Courts also Excommunications were often denounced for trifles but not taken off without great charge Confirmations of Foundations Ecclesiastical Religious and charitable were here purchased with great summs of money When the Pope had any Aid or exhibition from the Ecclesiasticks here were contrivances that they should be sure to be repair'd again by the People All trifling frivolous causes drawn to these Courts but no dismission without good payment No Publick Penance here awarded without some private summs to be paid Licences for money to keep a feme putein Money exacted of Monks and Fryers for concubinage on presumption they had or might have quam pro quo Farming out Livings and Benefices to poor Vicars at such high rates as they were forced to get their money again of the People by Confessions Anniversaries Obits c. Burial denyed to all that died suddenly or by chance on presumption they dyed in mortal sin until here some good summ was paid With infinite other tricks and devices to draw money from the people practised by these Courts and their Officers tedious to enumerate but more intolerable to be born as may in some measure appear by the Stat. of Praemunire and Provisors Vid. Coke Plâ—cit Coren cap. 53. W. Prin Record of King John H. 3 Ed. 1. pointed at in the former discourse with the Suits Attachments and Prohibitions for suing for Lay Fees in these Courts in derogation of the Crown and impoverishing of the People exemplified by Mr. Prinne out of the Tower Records To these Courts also the Popes sometimes would be so audacious as to cite even Kings themselves as claiming Jurisdiction over them Thus Pope Boniface the eighth Matt. Wesâ—m in An. 1301.10.435 having a Controversie with our King Edw. 1. touching the Realm of Scotland which the Pope affirmed belonged to the Church of Rome wrote to the King That if he pretended any Title to the Realm of Scotland he should send his Proctors to the Court of Rome with all his evidences proofs and Instruments touching the same there to have and receive Justice in the premises At another time Pope Innocent the fourth summoned King Henry the third Westm Mâ—tt An. 1246. fo 3â—7 to appear to Answer to one of his Vassals David by name and to give him satisfaction for some wrongs as he said he had done him But in the first case the King by advice of his Lords and Barons slighted the citation and to the other nothing was return'd but scoffs and derision CHAP. XIII Contributions for the Holy Land COntributions for relief of the poor distressed Christians in the Holy Land and to carry on the War against the common Enemy of Christendom were frequently set on foot Sim. Dunelâ—â— Hist fo 249. And by that means great summs were as often drain'd out of the Kingdom but then a small or no part thereof imployed for those purposes Chron. W. Thorn Coll. 1926. Gerviâ—s Dorobern 1522. For to this end the Popes often prevailed with Princes to impose on their subjects and made them the Instruments on this pretence to hook money out of their pockets Johannes Ferentinus was sent hither from the Pope about that matter An. D. 1206. and sped so well in his negotiation and carryed such a great quantity of money away with
would not touch one of such a Character made him a Cardinal but the policy fail'd and it rather hastned his death for by that time his Hat was come to Callis his Head was struck off at Tower-Hill Reginald Pool Regin Pool An. D. 1536. Sleidan Câ—m Charls 5. Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal being beyond the Seas about the beginning of the Reformation wrote a Book for the Pope's Supremacy against the King and therein incited the Emperour preparing against the Turk to bend his forces against his natural Soveraign and native Country-men as being worse than Turks This Book writ by a natural born subject of the King of England was then adjudged a sufficient overt act within the Stat. 25. Edward the third De proditionibus and therefore High Treason Cook Pl. Coron fo 14. Brook Treason Tit. 24. Antiq. Brit. in vita Poli. and Pool attainted thereupon But he keeping out of the reach of Justice after the death of P. Paul the third was just upon point of being elected Pope but his own stupidity Act. Mon. fo 1774. with the imputation of incontinency slurr'd him of the dignity In the raign of Queen Mary over he comes and what he did both to the Living and Dead our Historians abundantly testifie and that the next day after the Queen dyed Cardinal Pool Et sic exit Papismus in Anglia Peter Petow Peter Petow Cambd. Britt in Warw. made Cardinal and Legaâ— Ã Latere by P. Paul the third in time of Queen Mary was coming over in pursuance of his Legatine power But the wary Queen suspecting he might act something derogatory to her regality forbad his entrance which the Cardinal took so to heart that he dyed presently after Allen Will. Allen. the last Cardinal Englishman in the raign of Queen Elizabeth appears a Herald before the Spanish Armado in 88. and by a Book dispersed over England stirs up the Nobles Sp. fo 1177. B. Carlton Remembr 141. and People to joyn with the Spaniard in execution of the Pope's sentence of deposition of the Queen But all coming to nothing our Cardinal dyed an exile at Rome An. D. 1594. Godw. in vita Bishop Godwin takes farewel of him with this character He was last of our England Cardinals in time and worst in wickedness deserving not to be reckon'd amongst Englishmen as like another Herostratus to get himself a name endeavoring to fire the English Church without envy be it spoke the noblest in the world so that his memory deserves oblivion Et sic exit Cardinalismus Several others are reckon'd in the Cataeogues of England Cardinals but because it is doubtful whether some of them were English and others whether ever Cardinals and little memorable left of most of them these already mentioned shall suffice to testifie that the Italian promotions were generally more fatal than fortunate to our Countrymen and that the pains and cost was not recompensed by the acquist And so we pass from these highest dignities on Earth to such coelestial Honour as was and is to be purchased in the Church of Rome CHAP. XX. Canonizations c. CAnonization and Sainting of Men Women and Boyes was another way whereby great summs were often brought unto the Popes And that was when any person lived more austerely or devoutly than ordinary or being fam'd for any miracles pretended to have been done by him in his life time or by his Reliques or at his Tomb after his death or that he dyed for or in defence of the truth or the Church's cause Then if his Surviving friends or relations made application to the Pope upon payment of good summs according to the abilities and qualities of the persons solliciting for sentences fees Orders references and others things requisite in such case the party by a kind of Apotheosis was made a Saint and a place assign'd him in the Calender Of this extraction were the famous St. Cuthbert St. Guthlac St. Dunstan St. William St. Swithun St. Tibba St. Thomas of Canterbury St. Thomas of Lancaster St. Winisniâ—d St. Hugh and infinite more who for money had their names put into the rolls of Glory and their fames and merit celebrated and supplicated here on Earth I find that great endeavours were used to have Robert Grosthead the renowned Bishop of Lincoln sainted and particularly King Edward the first laboured it by an express unto the Pope for that purpose Rot. Rom. An. 34 Ed. 1. but nothing could prevail in regard he had so signalized himself against the corruptions of the Church and times then when as Becket Anselme Hugh of Lincoln and multitudes more were Canonized for money or something they had done signally and meritorious for the Papacy But this King had better success in his sollicitation to the Pope for the Cononization of Thomas de Cantelupe Bishop of Hereford then deceased famed for a multitude of miracles as was suggested Tho. Walsing in Ed. 1. fo 11. Thomas Walsingham abounds in the celebration of him and his miracles Mart. Westm in Ed. 1. but more modestly than the Monk of Westminster who ascribes to him no less then 163 miracles and others many more too many in all conscience to be believed or here remembred in particular But of such esteem it seems he was Godw. in vita ejus that this King Edward the first to obtain the benefit of his Prayers and intercession in Heaven for himself and his Realm according to the perswasion prevailing in those ignorant times sent his Letter of request to Pope John 22. to have him a Canonized Saint to which the Pope after some dealing withal for that purpose was at last wrought But for the King's Letter being still preserv'd amongst our Records and which we conceive may be acceptable to some to peruse we will take the liberty to transcribe Sanctissimo in Christo Patri Domino Divina Providentia Sacrosanctae Romanae ac universalis Ecclesâ—ae Summo Pontifici Claus 33 Ed. 1. m. 3. dorso De translatione S. Thomae de Hereford Edwardus eadem gratia Rex Angliae c. devota pedum oscula beatorum Pium justum esse censetur ut sicut gloriosus Deus in Sanctis suis in Majestate mirabilis Ministros fideles suos magnificat altis decorat honoribus coelestis efficit beatitudinis possessores in coelis Sic Sacrosancta Romana Ecelesia vestigia ipsius prosequens eos ad quorum memorias ipse Deus suae virtutis potentiam manifestat signa ac prodigia faciens pro eisdem digno venerationis offlcio laudari glorificari studiis sollicitis honorari efficiat in terris ut per hot fides catholica roboretur idem altissimus qui laudabilis est in saecula glorificetuâ— amplius laudetur ac ex hoc salutis nostre causam miserecordius miseribilius operari dignetur Cum itaque Thomas dictus de Cantilupo Ecclesiae Herefordensis Antistes qui nobili
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
purpose we must know that after the Power of the Bishops of Rome came to some consistency in the world and the Pope began to look upon himself as a spiritual Prince or Monarch he presently began to attempt to give Laws to Nations and People as a badge of his Soveraignty but then well knowing That ubi non est condendi authoritas ibi non est parendi necessitas he would not impose those Laws at first peremptorily upon all People but offered them timide and precario and in such places where he presumed they would find the freest reception and in order to this at first he caused certain Rules to be collected for the Order and Government of the Clergy only which he called Decreta and not Laws or Statuta and these Decrees as they were called were first published in the year 1150 in the raign of our King Stephen and whereas Sr. Edward Coke Sr Ed. Coke Pref. aâ— 8. Relat. in the Preface to the eighth Report sayes that Roger Bacon the learned Fryer saith in his Book de impedimentis Sapientiae That King Stephen forbad by publick edict that no man should retain the Laws of Italy then brought into England we may with some assurance intend it of these Decrees about that time compil'd and publish'd And these were received Keilways Rep. 7 Hen. 8. fo 184. and observed by the Clergy of the Western Churches only for those of the Eastern Churches would never admit these Rules or Canons Afterwards the Bishops of Rome attempted to bring the Laity also under the obedience of these Canons and for that purpose they first began with Rules or Canons about abstinence and dayes of Fasting to be observed by the Laity Maâ—sil Pat. lib. Defens Pac. pa. 2. c. 23 Durard Rat. Di. l. 4. c. 6 7. as well as Clergy which at the first institution were termed by that mild word Rogationes and thence the week of Fasting before the Feast of Pentecost came to be called Rogation week in regard this time of Abstinence was at first appointed by an Ordinance called Rogatio and not Praeceptum or Statutum When the Laity had swallowed this Ordinance of Fasting then De una praesumptione ad aliam transivit Romanus Pontifex as Marsil Pata hath it that is the Bishop of Rome proceeded to make and publish several other orders by the name of Decretals and these were published about the year 1230. An. 14 Hen 3. Mat. Paris in Hen. 3. fo 417. and made or proposed to bind all the Laity as well Princes as their Subjects in several matters relating to their Civil and Temporal concerns As That no Lay-man should have the Donation of Ecclesiastical Benefices That no Lay man should marry within certain degrees out of the degrees limited by the Levitical Law That all Infants born before Espousals should after Espousals be adjudged Legitimate and capable to inherit That all Clarks should be exempt from the Secular Power and divers more such like But then we must know that these Decretals so made were not intirely and absolutely receiv'd in all parts of Christendom but only at first in the Temporal Territory of the Pope which on that account is call'd by the Canonists Patria Obedientiae but wholly rejected in England France and other Christian Countreys which thence are sometimes called Patriae consuetudinariae as resolving to adhere to their old Laws and Customs As the Canon that prohibits Donation of Benefices per Laicam manum was always disobeyed in England France the Realm of Naples and divers other Countrys The Canon to legitimate Infants born before marriage was specially rejected in England when in the Parliament held at Merton Stat. de Merton An. 20 Hen. 3. Omnes Comites Barones una voce responderunt Keilway 7 H. 8. fo 181. b. Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari quae hucusq usitatae sunt c. The Canon that exempted Clerks from the Secular Power was never observed fully in any part of Christendom Infallible arguments that these Canons received not the force of Laws from the Court of Rome as if that had power to give Laws to all Nations without their respective consents but the approbation and usage of the People received them as they pleased partially and specially as to Places Times and parts of those Canons and for the same reason that some rejected one others did more and some all of them as Bodin says Bodin de Repub lib. 1. cap. 8. That the Kings of France upon erecting of their Universities there declare in their Charters that the Profession of the Civil and Canon Laws may there be receiv'd and used according to discretion but not to bind as Laws Now when the Bishop of Rome perceived that many of his Canons were embraced in several Countreys under colour thereof he claim'd Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within those Realms with power to interpret and dispence with his own Canons and for that purpose sent his Legates about with Commissions to hear and determine causes according to those Laws which upon their first exhibition Marsil Pat. ut supr pa. 2. c. 23. as is before noted he durst not call Laws or Statuta ne committeret crimen laesae Majestatis in Principes as Marsil Patav observes who further says that these Canons inasmuch as they were made by the Pope neque sunt humanae leges neque divinae sed documenta quaedam narrationes But as is said when he perceiv'd they were allowed and used in part or in whole in divers Countreys they were revised digested and compil'd into Volumes and called Jus Canonicum and being appointed to be read and expounded in publick Schools and Universities they were commanded to be obeyed by all under pain of Excommunication with declaration of the Pope's power to interpret abrogate or dispence with them at his pleasure and thereupon the Canonists say Lib. 6. de Const cap. Licet Papa in omnibus pure positivis in quibusdam ad jus Divinum pertinentibus dispensare potest quia dicitur omnia jura habere in scrinio pectoris sui quantum ad interpretationem dispensationem In the 25th year of King Ed. 1. An Dom. 1297 Tho. Walsing Stow in hoc anno one Simon a Monk of Walden began first to read the Canon Law in the University of Cambridge and the year after it began to be read also in the University of Oxford in the Church of the Friers Praedicants and from that time got ground in England being sometimes admitted and sometimes rejected according to the Ebb or Flow of the Papal interest here but how really this Canon Law was an innovation and usurpation here it is sufficient but to peruse the Preamble to the Statute of Faculties Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. and Dispensations made in the raign of King Hen. 8. to which the Reader is referred As another Branch of the Pope's power in the matters aforesaid we may observe that
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