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cause_n	church_n	ecclesiastical_a	supreme_a	1,721	5	8.3896	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45227	A seasonable vindication of the supream authority and jurisdiction of Christian kings, lords, parliaments, as well over the possessions as persons of delinquent prelates and churchmen, or, An antient disputation of the famous Bohemian martyr John Hus, in justification of John Wickliffs 17 article proving by 43 arguments taken out of fathers, canonists, school-men, the supream authority and jurisidiction of princes, parliaments, temporal lords, and other lay-men, who have endowed the church with temporalities, to take away and alien the temporal lands and possessions of delinquent bishops, abbots and church-men, by way of medicine or punishment, without any sacrilege, impiety or injustice : transcribed out of the printed works of Iohn Hus, and Mr. Iohn Fox his acts and monuments printed London 1641, vol. I, p. 585, &c : with an additional appendix thereunto of proofs and domestick presidents in all ages, usefull for present and future times / by William Prynne ...; Determinatio de ablatione temporalium a clericis. English	Hus, Jan, 1369?-1415.; Foxe, John, 1516-1587. Actes and monuments.; Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1660 (1660)	Wing H3802; ESTC R8509	98,591	126

of Iohn King first Bishop there was kept vacant ten years An. 1568. after Henry Curwin the second Bishop it was kept void twenty one years together An. 1592. after Iohn Vnderhill the third Bishop it continued void 11. years so little want was there of a Bishop in that poor See An. 1559. the new created Bishoprick of Gloucester after Iames Brooks the third Bishop his death was kept vacant three years An. 1578. as long after Edmond Cheyney An. 1538. the new erected Bishoprick of Bristoll after Paul Bresh the first Bishop was kept vacant four years An. 1578. three years after Richard Cheyney which See continued void otherwise than by Commendam thirty one years together An. 1593. it continued vacant ten years together So little need was there of a Bishop in this See An. 1397. the Bishoprick of St. Davids after Iohn Gilberts death was vacant four years An. 1592. after Marmaduke Middleton almost two years An. 1133. the Bishoprick of Landaffe upon Vrbans decease was kept void six years An. 1183. after Nicholas ap Georgant five years An. 1240. after Elias de Raynor above four years An. 1287 after VVilliam de Brews nine years An. 1213. the Bishoprick of Bangor after Robert of Shrewstury was kept vacant two years An. 1374. as long after Iohn Gilbert An. 1378. after Iohn Swassham twenty years An. 1266. after Amanus the first Bishop of Rangor that See was vacant two years An. 1313. after Lew●lin six years An. 1406 after Iohn Trevour five years An. 1439. after Robert five years An. 1017. after Aldbanus of Durham that See continued void above three years An. 1096. as long after VVilliam Carlapho An. 1140. after Geoffry Rusus above five years An. 1207. after Philip of Poytiers above ten years An. 1226. above two years the King threatning the Covent that they should have no Bishop in seven years An. 1237. after Richard P●ore two years till Ethelmate his half Brother whom he commended to the Monks election should be of age An 1505. after William Severus two years An. 1587. after Richard Barnes almost two years An. 1577. the Bishoprick of Chester was kept vacant two years If then all our Bishopricks in several ages to omit the long vacancies of later times have been thus kept void 2,3,4,5 6,7,8,10,15,20 30. years or more together at divers times to omit all annual vacancies without any prejudice to the Church or State and with very great benefit to the Kings of England who enjoyed the Temporalties in the mean time then certainly Diocaesan Bishops are no such necessary Creatures of divine institution in the Church of Christ as some esteem them but that they may be spared and their Lands Temporalties sold or leased as well as thus seised by our Kings without Sacriledge or Injustice when as no Parish Churches can spare or want their Parochial Ministers who are of Gods institution above six months at most After which if the Patron present not in the interim an able and sufficient Clerk the Ordinary by the Canon Common-law may collate and sequester the profits in the mean time only to defray the officiating of the Cure which must be at no time intermitted or neglected because of Divine institution and so absolutely necessary both for the Peoples instruction and salvation which these long vacancies prove Diocaesan Bishops are not 4ly That as our Bishops Abbots Priors did originally for some hundreds of years receive their actual Investitures into their Churches Temporalties from the King alone per Annulum Baculum by a Ring and Pastoral staff delivered to them in nature of a Livery and seilin extorted from our Kings by the violence and tyranny of Pope Vrban and Pascal the 2. and Treason of Archbishop Anselme against the Right of the Crown and Custom of the Realm so they did likewise hold all their Baronies and Temporalties from swear Fealty and do Liege Homage to our Kings for the same as their Supream Liege Lords like other Barons and were as far forth responsible for them to the Kings Iustices and Ministers as Lay-Barons and Tenants were which they all acknowledged in their Recognition to King Henry the second in the Council of Clarindon as our Histories assure us and were lyable to forfeit them for their Treasons Rebellions Disloyalties and Contempts against the King and his Crown as well as Lay-men our Kings being alike Soveraign Lords and Kings to them as well as other Subjects and Tenauts and that Iure Domini as their Supreme Landlords and Patrons from by and under whom alone they held their Temporalties 5ly That the Kings of England as Supream Heads and Governours under Christ of the Church of England have in all ages enjoyed and exercised a Soveraign Power and Jurisdiction over all Archbishops Bishops Deans Chapters Abbots Priors and other Ecclesiastical Persons in all Causes whatsoever as well as over their Temporal Subjects to visit reform order correct restrain amend punish all their Errors Heresies Offences Contempts Enormities Treasons Rebellions against their Persons Crowns Dignities and Royal Authority punishable by any Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Temporal Authority or Iurisdiction and to punish their Persons by imprisonments banishments death scisure sequestration confiscation of their Temporalties Bishoppricks real and personal Goods and Estates as is enacted by the several Statutes against Provisors and the express Statutes of 25 H. 8. c. 19 21. 26 H. 8. c. 1 3. 27 H. 8. c. 10. 28 H. 6. c. 7. 10. 31 H. 8. c. 14. 32 H. 8. c. 22 24 26. 33 H. 8. c. 29. 34 35 H. 8. c. 17 19. 37 H. 8. c. 17. 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 8 Eliz. c. 1. 13 Eliz. c. 12. and other Acts The several Writs De Excommunicato capiendo De Excommunicato deliberando De Cautions admittenda Quare impedit Quare incumbravit Quare non admisit Quod Episcopus admittat Ne admittas Ne exeas Reguum Vi Iacca removenda and especially by the several Writs of Prohibition and ad Iura Regia and Capias pro contemptu wherewith our Records and Law-books are full fraught I shall only recite some memorable Presidents of our Kings and Parliaments proceedings against our Archbps. Bishops in seising their temporalties confiscating their Estates banishing them the Realm suspending from and depriving them of their Bishopricks yea in imprisoning executing their Persons for their rebellions Treasons Conspiracies Contempts against them and their Royal Prerogatives in former ages worthy their and our most serious consideration and remembrance To begin with our Archbishops about the year of Christ 765. Offa King of Mercians being highly offended with Iambertus or Lambert as some stile him Archbishop of Canterbury for his oppositions against him seised and took away all his Temporalties within his Kingdom detaining some of them to himself and giving the rest of them to his Souldiers and Courtiers and moreover by the Popes consent erected a new

quibusvis Apostolicis ac in provincialibus synodalibus conciliis editis specialibus vel generalibus constitutionibus caeterisque contrariis quibuscunque Admonemus tamen cum divisio Episcopatuum erectio Cathedralium Ecclesiarum sint de majoribus cansis quae summo Pontifici sunt reservatae recurrendum esse ad suam Sanctitatem ab ea suppliciter postulandum ut haec confirmare seu de novo facere dignetur Et licet omnes res mobiles Ecclesiarum indistinctè iis qui eos tenent relaxaverimus eos tamen admonitos esse volumus ut ante oculos habente divini judicii severitatem contra Balthasarem Regem Babilonis qui vasa saera non àse sed à Patre è templo ablata in prophano usus convertit ea propriis Ecclesiis si extant vel aliis restituant Hortante etiam per viscera misericordiae Iesu Christi obsestantes cos omnes quos haec res tangit ut salutis suae non omnino immemores hoc saltem efficiciant ut ex bonis Ecclesiasticis maxime iis quae ratione personatunm vicariatuum populi ministrorum sustentationi fuerint specialiter destinata seu aliis Cathedralibus aliis quae nunc extant inferioribus Ecclesus curam animarum exercentibus ita provideatur et earum pastores personae et vicarii commodè et honestè juxta corum qualitatem et statum sustentari possint et curam animarum laudabiliter exercere et onera incumbentia congruè supportare Datum Lambeth prope Loudinum Wintonien Diocess Anno Nativitatis Domini Millessimo quingentesimo quinquagesimo quarto Nono Cal. Ianuarii Pontif. Sanctissimi in Christo patris et Domini nostri Domini Iulii divina providentia Papae tertii Anno quinto Reginaldus Cardinalis Polus Legatus We the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled rendering most humble thanks to your Majesties by whose intercession and means we have obtained the said Dispensations of the Popes holyness by the most reverend Father in God his Legate most humbly beseecheth the same that it may be ordained as followeth And therefore be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament that all and singular Articles and Clauses contained in the said Dispensation as well touching the establishment of Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches as also the confirmation of mariages in degrees prohibited by the Canons of the Church the legitimation of Children and the ratification of Process and of Sentences in matters Ecclesiastical touching the invalidity of them for want of Jurisdiction and the institutions and destitutions of and in Benefices and Promotions ecclesiastical dispensations and graces given by such order as the publick Laws of the Realm then approved and all other things before contained in the said Letters of dispensation shall remain and be reputed and taken to all intents and constructions in the Laws of this Realm lawfull good and effectual to be alleged and pleaded in all Courts ecclesiastical and temporal for good and sufficient matter either for the Plaintiff or Defendant without any allegation or objection to be made against the validity of them by pretence of any general Councel Canon or Decree to the contrary made or to be made in that behalf And whereas divers and sundry late Monasteries Priories Commandries and late Nunneries Deaneries Prebends Colleges Hospitals Houses of Fryers Chauntries and other religious ecclesiastical Houses and places and the Manors Graunges Messuages Lands Tenements Rectories Tithes Pentious Portions Vicarages Churches Chapels Advowsons Nominations Patronages Annuities Rents Reversions Services and other Possessions and Hereditaments to the late Monasteries Priors Nunneries Commaundries Deaneries Chauntries Prebends Houses of Fryers Colleges Hospitals and other religious and ecclesiastical Houses and Places and to sundry Archbishopricks and Bishopricks within this Realm late appertaining and belonging came as well to the hands and possession of the said King of famous memory Henry the 8. father unto your Majesty our said Soveraign Lady by dissolution gift grant surrender attainder or otherwise as also to the hands and possession of divers and sundry other persons and bodies politick and corporate by sundry means conveyances and assurances according to the order of the Lawes and Statutes of this Realm And where also divers Manors Lands Tenements and Hereditaments parcel of the possessions of Archbishoprick and Bishopricks and many and sundry late Deaneries Colleges Chauntries Rectories Prebends free Chapels Guyldes and Fraternityes Manors Houses Graunges Lands Tenements Rents Services and other Ecclesiastical Possessions Hereditaments Goods and Cattels to the said Archbishopricks Bishopricks Deaneries Colleges Chauntries free Chapels Rectories Guyldes and Fraternityes late appertaining and belonging or appointing to and for the finding of Priests Obyttes Lyghts or other like purpose came as well to the hands and possession of the late noble King Edward the sixth Brother unto your Majesty Soveraign Lady by vertue of an Act of Parliament therof made or otherwise as also the hands and possessions of divers sundry other persons and bodies politick and corporate by sundry means conveyances and assurances according to the order of the Laws of this Realm a great number of which said late Monasteries Priories Nunneries Commaundries Deaneries Colleges Hospitals Prebends Chauntries free Chapels Guyldes and Fraternities and the Manors Granges Messuages Lauds Tenements Rents Reversions Services Tithes Pentions Portions Vicarages Churches Chapels Advowsons Nominations Patronages Annuities and Hereditaments Goods and Cattels to the said Monasterie● Nunneries Commaundries Deaneries Colleges Hospitals Chauntries free Chapels Guyldes Fraternities and other Ecclesiastical Houses Archbishopricks and Bishopricks belonging as well for great sums of mony as for other good and reasonable causes and considerations have been conveyed and assured to diverse the Subjects and bodies politick of this Realm aswell by the said King Henry the eight the said King Edward the sixth and by your Highnesse our Soveraign Lady and joyntly by both your Majesties as also by diverse the Owners of the said Ecclesiastical possessions which said conveyances and assurances by their sundry Letters Patents and other writings more plainly do and may appear Forasmuch as the said most reveverend Father hath also by the said Dispensations removed and taken away all matter of impeachment trouble and danger which by occasion of any general Councel Canon or Decree Ecclesiastical might touch and disquiet the possessions of such Goods moveables lands tenements possessions and hereditaments as were of late belonging to any of the said Archbishopricks Bishopricks Monasteries Priories Nunneries Commaundries Deaneries Houses of Fryers or other religious Houses or Places of what nature name kind or quality soever they be of Yet for that the Title of all lands possessions and hereditaments in this your Majesties Realm Dominions is grounded in the laws statutes and customs of the same and by your high jurisdiction authority royal and crown imperial and in your Courts only to be impleaded ordered tryed and adjudged and none

preserve Your Sacred Person in perfect health and safety to reign over them in all Prosperity Tranquillity Felicity and Glory till extreme old age and no other casualty shall translate You from a temporal to an eternal Crown in the Highest Heavens Which bath been is and alwayes shall be the daily Prayer of From my Study in Lincolns Inne Novem. 24. 1660. Your Majesties dutifull and Loyal Subjects WILLIAM PRYNNE An Antient Plea in Justification of the late taking away and Sales of Cathedral-lands c. IN the year of our Lord 1378. Iohn Wickliffe in the University of Oxford in his Sermons and Writings publikely asserted That the Lords temporal may lawfully and meritoriously take away their Temporalties from the Church-men offending habitually That if any temporal Lord do know the Church so offending he is bound under pain of damnation to take the Temporalties from the same That it is lawfull for Kings in causes licensed by the Law to take away the Temporalties from the Spiritualty sinning habitualiter that is which continue in the customs of sin and will not amend That whether they be temporal Lords or any other men whatsoever they be which have endowed the Church with Temporalties it is lawfull for them to take away the same Temporalties as it were by way of medicine to avoid sin notwithstanding any Excommunication or other Ecclesiastical Censure for so much as they are not given but under a conditon The Bishops of England conceiving their Great Lordly Minors and Temporalties to be much endangered by these Positions of Wickliff drew up these and other Positions of his into Articles of complaint against him and sent them diligently to Pope Gregory the XI at Rome with other Articles of a diffrent nature to the Number of 18. where they were condemned for heretical and erroneous by 23. Cardinals Hereupon Pope Gregory sent his Bulls to the Chancellor Universitie of Oxford King Richard the 2d and the Archbp. of Cant. to apprehend imprison and persecute Wickliff who was thereupon summoned to appear before a certain Convocation of Bishops at the Archbishops Palace in Lambeth where he justified these Positions by reason Scripture Canon and Civil Law After Wickliffe death 45 Articles being exhibited against him in the Council of Constance and these 3. amongst the rest That to enrich the Clergy was against the rule of Christ. That the Pope with all his Clergy having those possessions as they have be hereticks in so having and the secular powers in so suffring them do not well That the Emperor and secular Lords be seduced which so enrich the Church with ample possessions Thereupon Iohn Hus a most learned pious Bohemian Divine particularly justified these Positions of his amongst others against the censure of the Pope and Council of Constance before the whole Universitie of Prague in Charls Colledge in a particular Treatise De ablatione bonorum temporalium a Clericis delinquentibus printed at large in his Works in Latine Novemb. 1558. pt 1 c. For the most part translated into English by Mr. Iohn Fox in his Acts and Monuments London 1641. Vol. 1. p. 595. Which Book all Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons and Canons Residentiaries were bound to have in their Cathedrals Halls and Great Chambers that it might be publikely read by their Servants and Strangers by the Canons made in the Provincial Synod of London Anno 1571. p. 5 6 7. whereby this Doctrine of Wickliff and Hus is not only tolerated but justified by them as orthodox and no wayes sacrilegious or heterodox as some now repute it The second Disputation in the Vniversity of Prague upon the seventeenth Article of John Wickliffe most fruitfull to be read proving by 25 Reasons out of the Scriptures How that Princes and Lords Temporal have lawfull Authority and Iurisdiction over the Spiritualty Churche men both in taking from them their Temporalties and correcting their Doings and Deserts TO the honour of almighty God and of our Lord Jesus Christ both for the trying out of truth and the profit of holy mother the Church according to the congregation of our University of Prage which avoiding alwaies to do that which shall be prejudicial to the truth hath deferred to give their consent unto the condemnation of the forty five Articles wishing even unto this present sufficient probation to be given of the condemnation of the said Articles and particularly of every one of them Whereupon the said University doth alwaies require due proof of the same forsomuch as Pope Damasus in his canon distinction sixtie eight chapter Chorepiscopi saith thus That it is necessarie that whatsoever thing standeth not by due reason should be rooted out Whereby it appeareth that the condemnation of the five and forty Articles if it stand not with proof and sufficient demonstration for every Article is necessary to be rooted out But if any man will object and say that to require a reason of every thing is to derogate from Gods divine power Unto this answer Master William doth answer himself in his Philosophy the first book almost at the end where he intreating of the place in the second Chapter of Genesis God made man of the slime of the earth c. hath these words For in what point say we are we contrary to the holy Scriptures if we seek by reason to declare wherefore any thing is done which is said in the Scriptures to be done For if that a wise man should say that a thing is done and do not declare how it is done and another man speaketh the very self-same thing and declareth how it is done what contrariety is there But for so much as they themselves know not the force of nature to the intent that they might have all men partakers with them of their ignorance they would have no man to inquire it out But they would have us beleeve as ignorant people neither to seek any reason of our beleef that the prophecie might be fulfilled Such as the people is such shall be the priest But we truly do say that in all things a reason is to be sought if it may by any means be found But if that any man do stay at any thing which the Scriptures doth affirm let him commit the same unto Faith and unto the Holy Ghost For Moses saith If the lamb cannot be eaten let it not be by and by consumed in the fire but let him first call his neighbour which dwelleth next house unto him and if they also be not sufficient to eat the lamb then let it be turned in the fire So likewise when as we goe about to seek any thing as touching the Godhead and that we be not able of our selves to comprehend the same let us call our neighbour which dwelleth next house unto us that is to say let us seek out such a one as dwelleth in the same Catholick faith with us and if then neither we neither yet he be able to comprehend the same

whom Christ answered Have ye not read what David did when he was hungry and ●●ose that were with him how he entred into the house of the Lord and did eat the shew bread which it was not lawfull for him neither for them that were with him to eat but only for the Priests This story is written in the first Book of the Kings and 21. chapter And the commandement in the 12. chapter of Deuteronomy Whereby it appeareth that it is lawfull in time of necessity to use any thing be it never so much consecrate Otherwise children by giving their moveables to the consecration of any Temple should not be bound to help their parents which is contrary and against the Gospel of St. Matthew in the 16. chapt whereas our Saviour sharply rebuked the Pharisees that for their own traditions they did transgresse the commandement of God Item Titus and Vespasian secular Princes had power given them of God twenty four years after the Lords ascension to take away the Temporalities from the Priests which had offended against the Lords holy one and thereby also bereft them of their lives and it seemeth unto many they did and might worthily do the same according to Gods good will and pleasure Then forsomuch as our Priests in these daies may transgresse and offend as much and rather more against the Lords anointed it followeth that by the pleasure of God the secular Lords may likewise punish them for their offence Our Saviour being King of kings and high Bishop with his Disciples did give tribute unto Caesar as it appeareth in the 17. chapt of St. Matthews Gospel and commanded the Scribes and Pharisees to give the like unto Caesar St. Matthew 22. Whereby he gave example unto all Priests that would come after him to render tribute unto their Kings whereupon blessed St. Ambrose in his 4. book upon these words in the 5. of St. Luke Cast cu● your nets writeth thus There is another kind of fishing amongst the Apostles after which manner the Lord commanded Peter only to fish saying Cast out thy hook and that fish which cometh first up take him And then unto the purpose he saith It is truly a great and spiritual document whereby all Christian men are taught that they ought to be subject unto the higher powers and that no man ought to think that the Lawe of a King here on earth are to be broken For if the Son of God did pay tribute who art thou so great a man that thinkest thou oughtest not to pay tribute He payed tribute which had no possessions and thou which daily seekest after the lucre of the world why doest thou not acknowledge the obedience and duty of the world Why doest thou through the arrogancy of thy mind exalt thy self above the world when at through thine own miserable covetousnesse thou art subject unto the world Thus writeth St. Ambrose and it is put in the 11. caus qu. 1. Magnum quidem He also writeth upon these words in Luke 20. Shew me a penny whose Image hath it if Christ had not the Image of Caesar why did he pay any tribute He gave it not of his own but rendred unto the world that which was the worlds and if thou wilt not be in danger of Caesar possesse not those things which are the worlds for if thou hast riches thou art in danger of Caesar. Wherefore if thou wilt owe nothing unto any earthly King forsake all those things and follow Christ. If then all Ecclesiastical Ministers having riches ought to be under the subjection of Kings and give unto them tribute it followeth that Kings may lawfully by the authority which is given them take away their temporalities from them Hereupon St. Paul acknowledging himself to be under the Jurisdiction of the Emperor appealed unto Caesar as it appeareth Acts 25. I stand saith he at Caesars Judgement seat there I ought to be judged Whereupon in the 8. Distinction chapter Quo jure St. Ambrose allegeth that all things are lawfull unto the Emperor and all things under his power For the Confirmation whereof it is said Daniel 2. chapter The God of heaven hath given unto thee a Kingdom Strength Empire and Glory and all places wherein the children of men do dwell and hath given into thy power the beasts of the field and fowles of the air and set all things under thy subjection Also in the 11. question and 1 he saith if the Emperor require tribute we do not deny that the Lands of the Church shall pay tribute if the Emperor have need of our lands he hath power to challenge them let him take them if he will I do not give them unto the Emperor neither do I deny them This writeth St. Ambrose expresly declaring that the secular Lord hath power at his pleasure to take away the Lands of the Church and so consequently the secular Lords have power at their own pleasures to take away the Temporal goods from the Ecclesiastical Ministers when they do offend Item St. Augustine writeth If thou saiest what have we to do with the Emperor But now as I said we speak of mans Law The Apostles would be obedient unto Kings and honour them saying Reverence your Kings and do not say what have I to do with the King What hast thou then to do with possessions By the Kings Law thy possessions are possessed Thou hast said what have I to do with the King but do not say what have thy possessions to do with the King For then hast thou renounced the Laws of men whereby thou diddest possesse thy Lands Thus writeth St. Augustine in his 8. distinction by whose words it is manifest that the King hath power over the Church goods and consequently may take them away from the Clergy transgressing or offending Item in his three and thirtieth Epistle unto Boniface he saith What sober man will say unto our Kings Care not you in your Kingdom by whom the Church of the Lord is maintained or by whom it is oppressed it pertaineth not unto you who will be either a religious man or who will be a Church robber Unto whom it may be thus answered Doth it not pertain unto us in our Kingdom who will either live a chast life or who will be an unchast whoremonger Behold this holy man sheweth here how that it is the duty of Kings to punish such as are robbers of Churches and consequently the proud Clergy when as they do offend Item he writeth in the 33. caus quest 7. Si de Rebus The secular Lords may lawfully take away the Temporal goods from hereticks and forsomuch it is a case greatly possible that many of the Clergy are users of Simony and thereby hereticks therefore the secular Lords may very lawfully take away their temporalities from them For what unworthy thing is it saith St. Augustine if the Catholicks do possesse according unto the will of the Lord

partaker of the sin or offence Therefore foresee unto your own soul provide for your nephews and for such as you do desire to reign after you provide for your country and with diligence provide for the correction and punishment of that sin before our Creator do stretch out his hand to strike And in his next Chapter he writeth unto the French King Whatsoever you do understand to pertain either unto the honour and glory of our God to the reverence of the Church or to the honour of the Priests that do you diligently cause to be decreed and in all points to be observed Wherefore once again we do move you that you command a Synod to be congregate and as we wrote lately unto you to cause all the carnal vices which raign amongst your Priests and all the wickednesse and Simony of your Bishops which is most hard to be condemned and reproved utterly to be banished out of your Kingdom and that you will not suffer them to possesse any more substance under your dominion then Gods commandement doth allow Behold how carefully blessed Gregory doth exhort the Queen and the King to punish the vices of the Clergy lest through their negligence they should be partakers of the same and how they ought to correct their Subjects For as it is convenient to be circumspect and carefull against the outward enemies even so likewise ought they to be against the inward enemies of the soul. And like as in just war against the outward enemies it is lawfull to take away their goods so long as they continue in their malice so also is it lawfull to take away the goods of the Clergy being the inward enemy The consequence is proved thus for so much as the domestical enemies are most hurtfull Item it is thus argued if God be the temporal Lords may meritoriously and lawfully take away the temporal goods from the Clergy if they do offend For this point let us suppose that we speak of power as the true authentike Scripture doth speak Mat 3. 9. God is able even of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Whereupon it is thus argued for if God be he is omnipotent and if he so be he may give like power unto the secular Lords And so consequently they may meritoriously and lawfully use the same power But lest that any man may object that a proof made by a strange thing is not sufficient it is therefore declared how that the temporal Lords have power to take away their almes bestowed upon the Church the Church abusing the same as it shall be proved hereafter And first thus It is lawfull for Kings in cases limited by the Law to take away the movables from the Clergy when they do offend it is thus proved For the temporal Lords are most bound unto the works of greatest mercy most easie for them but in case possible it should be greater almes and easier temporal dominion to take away their almes from such as build therewithall unto eternal damnation through the abuse thereof than to give the said almes for any bodily relief Ergo the assumption is true Whereupon first this sentence of the Law of Christ in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the third Chapter is noted whereas the Apostle writeth thus When we were amongst you we declared this unto you that he that would not work should not eat Wherefore the law of nature doth license all such as have the governance of Kingdoms to correct the abuse of the temporalities which would be the chief cause of the destruction of their Kingdoms whether the temporal Lords or any other had endowed the Church with those temporalities or not It is lawfull for them in some case to take away the temporalities as it were by way of Physick to withstand sin notwithstanding any excommunication or other Ecclesiastical censures forsomuch as they are not endowed but only with condition thereunto annexed Hereby it appeareth that the condition annexed to the endowing or enriching of any Church is that God should be honored the which condition if it once fail the contrary taking place the title of the gift is lost and consequently the Lord which gave the almes ought to correct the offence Excommunication ought not to let the fulfilling of justice Secondly according to the Canon Law 16 question 7. this sentence is noted where it is thus spoken as touching the Children Nephews and the most honest of the kindred of him which hath builded or endowed the Church That it is lawfull for them to be thus circumspect that if they perceive the Priest do defraud any part of that which is bestowed they should either gently admonish or warn him or else complain of him to the Bishop that he may be corrected But if the Bishop himself attempt to do the like let them complain of him to his Metropolitane and if the Metropolitane do the like let them not defer the time to report it in the ears of the King For so saith the Canon Let them not defer to report it in the ears of the King To what end I pray you but that he should do correction neither is it to be doubted but that correction doth more appertain unto the King in this point for their goods whereof he is chief Lord by a substraction proportional according to the fault or offence Item is thus proved It is lawfull for the secular Lords by their power to do correction upon the Clergy by some kind of fearfull discipline appertaining to their secular power Ergo by like reason it is lawfull for them by their power to do such correction by all kind of fearfull discipline pertaining unto their secular power For so much then as the taking of their temporalities is a kind of fearfull discipline pertaining unto the secular power it followeth that it is lawfull for them thereby to do such correction And consequently it followeth that the truth is thus to be proved The consequence is evident and the antecedent is proved by Isidore 23. quest 5. Principes where it is thus written There should be no secular powers within the Church but only for this purpose that whatsoever thing the Priests or Ministers cannot bring to passe by preachings or teachings the secular powers may command the same by the terrour and fear of discipline For oftentimes the heavenly Kingdom is profited and bolden by the earthly Kingdom that they which are in the Church and do any thing contrary unto faith and discipline by the rigour of the Princes may be troden down and that the power of the rulers may lay that discipline upon the necks of the proud and stif-necked which the utility and profit of the Church cannot exercise or use Item all things that by power ought to work or bring to any perfect end by the reasonable measuring of the mean thereto may lawfully use by power the substraction or taking away of the excesse and the addition of the want

Evangelical Bishops from our Saviours time had no Temporal Lands or Possessions till the year of our Lord 319. when the Emperor Constantine the Great first endowed Bishops and Church-men with them as Matthew Westminster and others record though his pretended Donation of Rome and other Temporalties to Popes their successions as St. Peters Patrimonie be a mere forgery as Laurentius Vall● Dr. Crakinthor●e and others quoted by them prove at large Now Iohannis Pa●●siensis Higden Wickliffe the Lord Co●●am Purvey Iohn Frith Nauclerus Bishop Iewel Thomas Beacon and others relate That when Constantine endowed the bishops and Church with Temporal Lands and Possessions the voyce of an Angel was heard in the ayre crying Hodie venenum infunditur in Ecclesiam This day is Poyson powred into the Church of God and from that time they observe because of the great Riches and Temporalties the Church and Bishops had they were made the more Secular and had more worldly business than Spiritual devotion and more outward Pomp and Splendor than inward Holyness the Daughter riches which the Church brought ●orth devouring her Mother Which if an experimental verity as sundry of our own and foreign Writers attest as I have elsewhere proved at large then it can be no Sacriledge or Impiety but wholsom physick for the King and Temporal Lords and Commons in Parliament for just causes to take away this poyson from Bishops and Cathedral Churches which hath so much poysoned corrupted them and to reduce them to the condition of the Primitive Bishops who by the Decrees of the 4th Councel of Carthage c. 14 and the Exceptions of ●g●●rt Archbishop of York Anno 750. c. 26. were only to enjoy mean Houshold-stuff course Food and HOSPITIOLVM a little Cottage near the Church not a Royal Palace or Lordly Manors which made them more Proud Lordly Secular Tyrannical Pompous Covetous than any Temporal Lords and to take precedence of them both in great Councils Parliaments and other publick Assemblies yea to intrude themselves into the greatest Temporal Offices to the great neglect of their Spiritual Functions they scorning to hold and follow the Plough of Christ after they became Lords and Barons of the Realm as Bishop Latymer proves at large in his 4th Sermon of the Plough and forgetting these Canons of the 4th Council of Carthage c. 19 20. Vt Episcopus pro rebus transitoriis non litiget provocatus Vt Episcopus nullam rei familiaris curam ad se revocet sed Lectioni et Orationi et ver●i Dei praedicationi tantummodo vacet as the primitive Bishops did which would gain our present Bishops more love respect reverence with God and all good men than all their Lordly Pomp Temporal Lands or Baronies which in all Ages have made Bishops and Cathedral-men more Secular than Spiritual more proud luxurious covetous vicious than religious or vertuous as Gregory Nazianzen Oratio 26. 35. Isiodor Pelusiota Epist. l. 2. Epist. 125. l. 3. Epist. 223. Gregorius Magnus lib. Pastoralis Curae part 2. c. 6. Moralium in Job l. 24. c. 29 30. Homil. 17. in Evangelia Gildas acris Correptio c'eri Britanniae St. Bernard Sermo 22 23 77. Cantica ad Clerum in Concilio Rhemensi de Consideratione ad Eugenium l. 1 2 3 4. Epist. 42. Henrico Senoniensium Archiepiscopo Johannis Sarisburiensis de Nugis Curialum l. 8. c. 17 23. Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bath Tractatus de constitutione Episcopi Johanni Wigorniensi Episcopo Epistola 15 18 22 25 43 64. Robertus Holcot in lib. 5. Sapientiae Lect. 77. Alexander Frabricus Destructorium Vitiorum pars 4. c. 8 14 21 22. pars 5. c. 2. pars 6. c. 2. 26 40. John Wickliff Dialogorum l. 3. c. 14 17 23. Alvarus Pelagius de plancotu Ecclesiae l. 1. Artic. 70. D. l. 2. Artic. 1. to Artic. 17. Nicholaus de Clemangis de Corrupto Ecclesiae statu c. 17 18 19. Episcopus Chemnensis Onus Ecclesiae cap. 14 to 27. Joannes Aventinus Annal. Boyorum l. 5 6 7 8. Albertus magnus in Evangelium Johannis c. 10. Picus Mirandula Oratio ad Leonem 10. Petrus de Aliaco de reformatione Ecclesiae Abbas Uspergensis Paralip p. 164. Fasciculus Rerum expetendarum p. 173. Ma●s●l Patavinus Defensoris Pacis part 2. c. 11. Theodoricus à Niem l. 3. c. 41 45. l. 2. Nemore Unionis c. 19 Guicciarden Historiae Ital. l. 6. St. Brigets Revelationes passim Petrus de Vinels Epist. l. 1. c. 35. Illi●icus Catologus Testium Veritatis Peirce Plowman his complaint of the Abuses of the World Sir Geofry Chaucer in his Ploughmans tale Lucifer Prince of Darkness his Letters to the Prelates of England written as is supposed by William Suinderby a Martyr Dr. Barnes his Supplication his Articles p. 210 to 216. and Mr. William Tyndal his obedience of a Christian man and Practise of Popish Prelates Iohn Bale de Vitis Pontificum Centuriae Scriptorum Brit. and Image of both Churches on the Apocalypse Iohn Frith a Martyr in his Answer to Mr. M●res Preface Roderick M●rs his Supplication to King Henry the 8th and Parliament c. 23 24. Another Supplication to King Henry the 8th printed 1544. The Image of a very Christian Bishop and of a counterfeit Bishop printed Cum Privilegio Regali under King Henry the 8th William Wraghton his Hunting and Rescuing of the Rhomish Fox dedicated to King Henry the 8th Henry S●albridge his Exhortatory Epistle to his True Country-men of England against the pompous Popish Bishop thereof printed in H. the 8th his reign at Basil Martin Bu●er Regins Professor of Divinity in Cambridge D● Regno Christi dedicated to King Edward the 6th l. 2. c. 1 2 12. De vi usu sancti Ministerii The Image of both Pastors printed at London Cum Privilegio 1550. Bishop Hooper on the 8th Commandement p. 78 79. Bishop Latymer his 4. Sermon of the Plough Matthew Parker or Iocelin Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brittannicae p. 139 to 144. Thomas B●acon his Reports of certain men and in his Supplication vol. 3. Bishop Iewel in his Sermon on Haggai 1. p. 176. and on Matthew 9. p. 198. All which the Studious may elsewhere peruse at leasure and sundry others joyntly attest Upon which consideration not only Wickliff and Hus but several of our Martyrs as William Suinderby Walter Bruce Iohn Purvey Sir Iohn Oldcastle Lord Cobham Sir Iohn Borthick justified the lawfullness and necessity of taking away the Bishops abused Temporalties which were such poyson to them 3ly That many of our Kings by the Laws and Customs of the Realm and by vertue of their Royal Prerogative have kept our Archbishops and Bishops Temporalties in their hands and taken the profits of them as their Demesn rents keeping their Sees when void by death translation or resignation for sundry years together as all the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors

taken away and setled in the King his Heirs and Successors And no longer since than 21 Iac. c. 30. York-house in the Strand was by special Act of Parliament by way of Exchange taken from the Archbishop of York and setled on King Iames his Heirs Successors and Assigns and after that on the Duke of Buckingham upon pretext that it was for the benefit of the Archbishops By all which Acts and Presidents it is most evident that our Kings Parliaments and Temporal Lords may not only seise sequester the Temporal Lands Goods Estates of Bishops and Church-men in cases of Delinquency and Contumacy but likewise substract alienate and sell them to supply the necessities of the King and Kingdom in times of war and extreme necessity without Sacriledge or Impiety which should cause our present Archbishops Bishops and Cathedralment to carry themselves with greater Loyalty and Dutifullnesse towards his Sacred Majesty with greater humility sobriety meeknesse and respect towards the Temporal Lords Commons and People than their Predecessors have done and make them very carefull of giving just offence or provocation to all or any of them especially at this present juncture of our Ecclesiastical and Civil Officers in so hopefull a way of future Settlement if their pride avarice ambition or indiscretion do not interrupt them 7ly That Archbishops Bishops Deans and Chapters themselves by their common consent may lawfully alienate sell and give away not only their Lands and Possession which were never solemnly consecrated but even their very consecrated Chalices Vestments and Ornaments of their Churches themselves though more peculiarly consecrated by Episcopal benedictions more immediately devoted to Gods service than their Lands and other Temporalties and that in cases of publick necessity or charity as to relieve the Poor in time of famine to redeem Captives to ransom their lawfull Kings to support their decayed Patrons and Benefactors to defend their native Country against invading Enemies or Christians against Infidels to prevent a greater mischief and for the benefit of the Church in general as sundry antient Councils and the Popish Canonists themselves have resolved Yea by the Popes consent without any of these Causes our Archbishops and Bishops might alienate sell morgage give away and dispose of the Lands belonging to their Bishopricks as the express clause in their Oath to the Pope not to do it without the Popes council and consent imports When our King Richard the first was most injuriously taken in his return from the Holy Land and for a whole year and three months space kept Prisoner by the Emperour of Germany and at last put unto a ransom of one hundred thousand pounds of Silver after the weight of Colen Anno 1093 the Kings Collectors being unable to levy so great a masse of moneys thereupon Majores quidem Ecclesiae thesauros ab antiquis congestos temporibus Ecclesiae Parochiales argenteos calices praemiserunt the Archbishops Bishops Abbots and Priors of all Conventual Churches gave the fourth part of their annual Rents and other inferiour Clergy-men the Tenth of their Tithes and the Cistercian Monks all their Wools towards his speedy ransom Yea the Chronicle of Brompton and others inform us that the Kings Collectors wanting monies after a double exaction of what they could scrape together from all parts Postrenis ut nulla vacaret occasio ad vasa sacra et utensilia Ecclesiae ventum est Ieaque per omnem Anglica regni latitudinem sacri Calices exactoribus regiis traduntur vel paulo infra pondus redimuntur Vasa etiam alia Cruces Praelatorum anu●● cum auro de Sanctorum fere●ris abra●o sunt conflaia Nec erat hoc secundum Patrum decreta illicitum cum urgen●tisimus necessiiatis ar●●enlus instaret Nec ulla erat distin●●●o in this necessity Clerici Laici secularis religiosi rustici urbani s●à omnes indifferenter juxtà substantiae suae vires vel redditum quantitatem pro redemptione Regia portionem suam solvere cogebantur Privilegia Praerogativae Iunnunitates Ecclesiarunt tunc silebant penitus et vacabant Omnis enim dignitas libertas os suam oppilabat Cisterciensis quoque ordinis Monachi qui ab omni exactione Regie hactenus immunes extiterant tantò magis tunc onerati suerant quantò minus antea publici oneris senserant gravitatem Exacti quoque conctilanam suarum ovium resignarunt And should not our Bishops and Cathedral men now for and towards his Majesties most glorious redemption and his three whole Kingdoms ransom from near twelve years exile and captivity and for the future settlement of our Churches Kingdoms in sound and lasting peace in pursuance of his Majesties most gracious Declarations and Engagements at Breda and the Generals Parliaments Engagements before his happy return into England to give competent satisfaction to Purchasers of their Lands not only part with their antient Treasures Chalices Miters Crosiers Church Ornaments Copes but likewise with their late alienated Temporalties and Revenues for competent terms of years of lives reserving the antient or an improved rent rather than violate the publick saith peace of the King Kingdom Parliament oppugn his Majesties royal Commands the Lords Commons Parliaments Souldiers and Peoples desires by unreasonable demands or indiscreet covetous and violent proceedings against Purchasors and Tenants which may indanger if not demerit the forfeiture reseisure and new sales of all their Lands and Temporal Revenues in case of obstinacy and dis-satisfaction herein The rather because our Bishops by the Laws of England before the Statute of 1. Iac. c. 3. and other restraining Acts might with the consent of their Deans and Chapters not only lawfully lease their Lands for how many years or lives they pleased but likewise alien and sell the Inheritance thereof or charge them with what Rent-charges they pleased especially by the Kings consent as the grant of a Rent-charge out of the Glebe of a Parsonage by the Patron or Ordinary in time of vacancy or of the Parson Patron and Ordinary joyntly to a Layman shall bind the Successours in perpetuity as is evident by the Statutes of 37 H. 8. c. 16. 1 Jac. c. 3. 33 H. 8. c. 31. Littleton sect 648. Cooks 1. Institutes f. 343 344 44 45. and many other Lawbooks Not to adde many Presidents to those forecited in so clear a case it is registred by Bishop Godwin of Iohn V●sly Bishop of Exeter in King Edward the 6th his Reign That of all the Bishops of the Land he was esteemed the best Courtier being better liked for his civil Behaviour than his Learning which in the end turned not so much to his credit as to the spoyle of his Church for of twenty two Lordships and Manors which his Predecessors had left unto him of a goodly yearly Revenue he left but three and them also leased out and where he found 13. Houses and Palaces too many by 12. for any one Apostolical Bishop well