as we suppose considering that they are already limited and confined as no Antient Canon or Spiritual Laws are in force that are either contrary to the Laws Statutes or Customes of this Realm or tend to the Dammage or Hurt of our Prerogative Royal. For the Grievances apprehended in the Commission First a Soveraign King being Mixta Persona and having Authority as well in Causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal it was with great Wisdom ordained Matters of the Church being many ways impugned and the Censures of it grown into contempt That there should be a Commission consisting as well of Temporal as Ecclesiastical Persons who might have power for one Offence at one time and by one sentence to inflict as there should be cause both Spiritual and Temporal punishment but as to the Inquiry by Juries it hath not for many Years been practised And we are content that hereafter it be omitted in our Commission And concerning Appeals the use hath always been to exclude them in Commissions of this nature And yet if any of our Subjects shall be justly grieved with any Sentence given by our Commissioners we shall be content as we find just cause to grant unto them a Commission of Review Also for the Execution of divers Statutes aimed at in your Grievances although it hath been from time to time committed in some sort unto our Commissioners And that every such Commission hath been still penned by the Attorney-General with the Advice of the chief Temporal Judges yet we are well pleased and will give commandment accordingly that our Temporal and Ecclesiastical Judges assisted with our Learned Council shall confer together concerning the Exceptions by you taken to the end that hereafter our said Commissioners may have no further power to intermeddle with the Execution of any part of the said Statutes then it shall be found fit for our Service necessary for the suppressing of Popery and Schism and no ways repugnant to the Laws and Pollices of this our Realm But for making any Innovations in the forms and proceedings heretofore used by our said Commissioners we know no cause to depart therein from the Examples of our Progenitors nor from that which the Laws of this our Kingdom hath Approved And touching Fees since it is a Court by Statute erected and no Fees in the Statute expressed it was very fit That the Commissioners should have Authority to limit and Appoint to every Officer his Reasonable Fees And we will commend the further care thereof to some Principal person of our Commissioner to take a view of them and as to reform what they find amiss so to Establish such as shall be Moderate and Reasonable touching the Grievances found in the Execution of the Commission We know that there is no Commission nor Court either of Ecclesiastical or Temporal Jurisdiction but may be subject more or less to Abuse in the execution of their Authority Nevertheless it is Our part to have our Ear open to receive Complaints of that kind especially from our Parliament when we shall find them to be just And therefore our purpose is to see such Reformation made of all Abuses made in the execution of the said Commission as may best procure the ease of Our Subject from charge of Vexation And such punishment to be inflicted upon any Pursivants or other inferior Ministers which shall be Offenders as may repress such Misdemeanors in time to come Sure if this Record be considered there is ground enough to justifie that the Spiritual Courts cannot be holden but by the Kings Commission Therefore I need say no more the Case being plain the Law was so to this Year of 1610. which I set down the rather because a use will be made of it by and by But in King Charles the First 's time the Bishops cast about them how to get rid of these Shackles And therefore in Bishop Laud's time the point about Holding Courts in their own Names without the Kings Commission was by him stated and in the Star-Chamber where he ruled the Rost got the Judges there tho' it was but an extra Judicial Judgment to declare in their favour which was easie enough to be done when both the Judges and His Grace were resolved upon the point for those very Judges most of them were the same that gave their Judgment about the Shipp-Money And we know what became of that Judgment and them And for your Prelate he met with his due at Tower-Hill after but before his Lordship had finished his Ministry so prevalent he was that I am told he got a Proclamation to publish the Extra judicial Opinion which made a great noise in the World for Noyse and Decency was all along the Cheat that was put upon the People in those Days by that Prelate and his Gang. But I think no Man will say that that Extra Judicial Opinion is either equal with the Statute Law or with the Judgement of Parliament therefore I shall say no more but proceed After that Extra Judical Opinion of the Judges and by means of the long Intervals of Parliament the Spiritual Courts as well as the Star-Chamber were Lords Paramont and so great that they became a most Heavy Burden to the people of all sorts therefore before the Troubles began the Parliament in 16 Car. primi made an Act to take away the Power that was given by the Statute of 1 Eliz. for the Granting any Commissions at all by which means they well knew that no Courts could be held at all And therefore an Act passed to Repeal that Branch of the Statute of 1 Eliz. which was only one Clause about the granting Commissions as by the Act of Car. primi appears and all Spiritual Courts were utterly Abolished by that Act The Title of the Act runs thus VIZ. A Repeal of the Brauch of a Statute primo Elizabethe concerning Commissions for Causes Ecclesiastical VVhereas in the Parliament holden in the first Year of the Reign of the late Queen Elizabeth 16 Car. c. 11. late Queen of England there was an Act made and Established Intituled An Act Restoring to the Crown the Antient Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and Abolishing all Forreign Power Repugnant to the same In which Act amongst other things there is contained one Clause Branch Article or Sentence whereby it was Enacted to this effect Namely That the said late Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm should have full Power and Authority by vertue of that Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to Assign Name and Authorize when and as often as her Highness her Heirs or Successours should think meet and Convenient and for such and so long time as should please her Highness her Heirs or Successors such Person or Persons being Natural Born Subjects to her Highness her Heirs or Successors as her Majesty her Heirs or Successors should think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under her
Objections which I have met with in this Affair the First is this That the King permits it and if any wrong be done by the Spiritual Courts it is to him and what hath any private person to do to concern himself therein In that the King may pass it by 't is true but wrong may be done by these Courts to the Subject as well as to the King and there may be Damage to a single Person by these Courts by being Excommunicated which cannot be to the King and whoever suffers under that Burden hath cause enough to complain and seek their Remedy tho' the King think fit to forgive the wrong done to himself The other Objection is That the Course of the Ecclesiastical Courts hath been such time out of mind and no hurt comes to the Subject by their Courts whether it be done by Commission or not To which I Answer That I never yet heard of any Good ever did come from those Courts but many have been ruined and undone by them And in the next place for their Custome time out of mind there is no such thing if Custome should prevail against Law which it cannot be for the longest time they can bring for this Custome is but 1610 at the furthest time and there are some persons yet living can remember that time But I believe it will be hard for them to prove that they exercised Ecclesiastical Power by their own Authority in any time in the Reign of King James However if they do they cannot make it a Law for an evil Custom against Law never yet made a Law and for them to say Custome will carry it the Highway-Man may as well plead the same for Robbery and say Oh Sir I have been accustomed to Rob tho' there be a Law against it There is another Objection which carries as little weight as the rest and that is the Opinion of the Judges in the Star-Chamber which ought to have the Answer that before is given that it was an Extra-Judicial Opinion and given at such a time and by the same Judges that over-ruled the Plea of the Lord Hollis and Elliot which was many Years after reversed in Parliament Therefore to Sum up all the case lies thus before the 20 of H. the 8. The Spiritual Jurisdiction and all the proceedings in England by the Ecclesiastical Courts was by from and under the power and authority of the See of Rome and by there Cannon Law afterwards to the end of his Reign all that power was invested wholly in the King and no authority belonged to them in any matters whatever but what must be derived by from and under him King Edward the 6. of Famous memory did by his honest and wise Councel not only approve of what was dune in the Church affairs in H. the 8ths time but goes on furder and takes away the very form and mould of the Spiritual Courts by making a Law that those Courts should not so much as beheld in their one name but in the name of the King and all there Citations and Prosses whatever was to be in the Kings name as in Judicial proceeding at Law and the Bishops name of the Diosess to be at the bottom as test to the writ and not as Lord Paramount the Kings authority and by this Kings Law they were not to use any Seal to the Court but with the Kings Arms in Graven so it rested in his time Queen Mary she came in Popishly affected and by the help of Cardinal Poole Legate from Rome prevails with her for the good of her Soul and Honour to the unholy Church of Rome to pass an Act called an Act of repeal to take away all those Laws that abridged the Power and Supremacy of the See of Rome sence the 20 year of H. the 8. And as some will have it this Law of Edward the 6. must be meant to be one of those but what reason can be in Law given is not yet known for it is not perticularly Repealed as other Laws are in that Statute of Repeal and then in the next place being not so perticularly it is believed it could not be Repealed by that Act of Repeal because that in the very same Act it doth set fourth perticularly all other Acts intended to be repealed and not that Then Queen Elizabeth in her first year Repealed the Act of Repeal made in Queen Mary's days and restores all again as was in Henry the 8ths time and Edward the 6. And declared particularly that all manner of Ecclesiastical power must be from and under her and by her Authority and none else and more particularly to shew all the Church power was then lost without new power given by that Act a Clause is incerted in the said Act that She and her Successors shall give command under the great Seal of England to such commmissions as she pleased from time to time to hold Court Ecclesiastical and not otherwise To the same effect it is again declared by the Statute made the 8th of her Reign And it is most certain that by Vertue of the Clause in that Statute Primo Eliz. That gives power of granting Commissions to hold Spiritual Courts they did Act and without it neither Queen or King could grant such Commissions nor they hold any Courts without such Commissions Thus then it continued all the time of Q. Eliz. and by such Commissions they acted and no other Authority was known nor from her time can they shew other Authority to impower them but on the contrary they will find themselves lessened For in King Jame's time they acted by the same Authority and in full Parliament in 1610 it was owned of all hands In King Charles the first 's time the Spiritual Courts became a Burden to the Nation so great that the people were not able to bear them although they did Act by such Commissions or at least ought so to do which appears plain by the Statute 16 Car Primi which takes away all their whole power and as a reason or means to take away their power what do the Parliament do why it is most clear both by the Title and Body of the Act they tell you they must repeal that part of the Law of Q. Eliz. that gave power to grant Commissions for them to hold Spiritual Courts Therefore the taking away and Repealing that Branch of the Statute of Eliz. that gives power to grant Commissions it was taken for grant then that they had no power at all For no more of that Statute was Repealed is evident then what related to the Comissions they did not let them loose to Act as before it was so far from that that it appears they intended not to let them Act at all neither under the King in his Name nor any otherways whatever then in this of Car. 2d The Ecclesiastical persons meant to Repeal the Act of Primo Car. But mistook the year so in truth they did nothing at all but they may be liable to be called to account for all they have acted ever since nor can they Act with safety till this Law be mended for Acts of Parliament must be punctually repealed and exactly recited or else in Law it will not do But if that had been well Repealed it is far short of giving them any power for it is only to take away the Clause that was repealed about given Commissions to hold Courts but gives them no new power at all it doth not tell them notwithstanding the Laws of H. 8. Ed. 6. The rest of the Statutes of Elizabeth and the practice in King James time that they shall hold Courts in their own Names no it is so far from that that the Act saith expresly they shall have no other power by this Act or was it intended them then what they had in 1639 now if they can shew that they had any power given them between the year 1610 to the year 1639. Then I say they are right and may go on if not I appeal to all mankind what culler or pretence these men can have to hold Courts Spiritual at all much less by their own Prerogative or in their own Names which I take to be as unlawful and as directly against the Kings Prerogative as any thing can be For that since all power Spiritual and Temporal is by Law invested in the King they may as well hold Courts again under the Popes Authority and in his Name as in their own Names and it is a wonderful thing to consider that these Churchmen who cry down all for Phanaticks and tells the World at every turn they are Sedious and Disloyal that do not obey the Kings Laws and say as they say although sometimes they say and do they know not what themselves And yet what Phanatick is there this day in England does or ever did make so bold with the Kings Prerogative as these high Churchmen who in every of their Courts as they call them and every process they make say in effect as the great Cardinal Woolsey did when in his splender and glory in England Ego Rex meos But I considering we are here discoursing of Protestant Churchmen and knowing well their very Tongues are tipped with Loyalty We must not therefore venture to say more or meddle further then to beg their Charitable opinion once to a Discenter both from their Courts and Cannons FINIS
had to make promulge or execute the same And that his Majesty do give his most Royal assent and authority in that behalf And whereas diverse Constitutions Ordinances and Canons Provincial or Synodal which heretofore have been enacted and be thought not only to be much prejudicial to the Kings Prerogative Royal and repugnant to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm but also overmuch onerous to his Higness and his Subjects The said Clergy have most humbly besought his Highness that the said Constitutions and Canons may be committed to the Examination and Iudgement of his Highness and of thirty two persons of the Kings Subjects whereof sixteen to be of the upper and nether house of Parliament of the Temporality and the other sixtéen to be of the Clergy of this Realm and all of the said thirty two persons to be chosen and appointed by his Majesty c. And then Enacts viz. Be it therefore Enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament according to the said submission and petition of the said Clergy that they nor either of them from henceforth shall presume to attempt alledge claim or put in urd any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodal or any other Canons nor shall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever name or names they may be called in their convocations in time coming which always shall be assembled by authority of the Kings Writ c. And the Penalty for doing other than this Act directs was imprisonment and Fine at the Kings will as by the Statute more at large appears So that by this Statute their whole power was now invested in the King and till new Canons were made or the old ones confirmed as the Statute directs the Clergy of England could in no sort act and from that time of the making of this Statute until this present I cannot find that ever any liberty was given or that any Canons were made or confirmed by Law other than what were judged unlawful in King Charles the First 's time and damn'd by Act of Parliament in 1640. Which you will hear more of by and by If it be thus then from 25 H. 8. I must date their downfal a most happy day to England from that time and it may be said all their Canons are now out of doors or at seast very lame and if so then let the Reader judge where is their Authority for their Courts for they must and do own that it was the Canon Law they acted by and if so then sure if they have no Canons to act by or at best but doubtful Canons then I conceive they can have no power except they can find it by the Statute Law which I would be glad to see In the next place another Law is made against them in 25 H. 8. which takes away all First-fruits to the Bishop of Rome 25 H. 8. c. 20. and ordains that Elections of all Bishops shall be by the Kings Writ under a severe pain In the same year an Act is made to take away Peter-pence and Dispensations Idem cap. 21. in which Statute it is expresly declared that this Land ought not to be subject or bound to any humane Laws but such as are of their own making within this Realm The King being declared head of the Church 26 H. 8. cap. 1. it is expresly there enacted viz. Shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit repress redress reform order correct restrain all such errors heresies abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever they be which by any manner of Spiritual Authority or Iurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed repressed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended most to the pleasure of Almighty God c. This being the Case what colour can here be for any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power to any person whatever but what must be derived from and under the King and by his Authority and Commission and in his name and not in their own nor in the Bishop of Rome But because the Reader may be more fully satisfied I have here inserted the Statute made 37 H. 8. cap. 17. 37. H. 8. c. 17. Entituled viz. A Bill that the Doctors of Civil Law being married may exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction In most humble wise shew and declare unto your Highness your most faithful humble and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of this present Parliament assembled That whereas your Royal Majestie is and hath always been justly by the word of God Supreme head in the Earth in the Church of England and hath full power and authority to correct punish and repress all manner of Heresies Errors Vires Sins Abuses Idolatries Hypocrisies and Superstitions sprung and growing within the same and to exercise all other manner of Iurisdictions commonly called Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction Nevertheless the Bishop of Rome and his adherents minding utterly as much as in him lay to abolish obscure and delete such power given by God to the Princes of the Earth whereby they might gether and get to themselves the Government and rule of the world have in their Councils and Synods Provincial made ordained established and decréed diverse Ordinances and Constitutions that no Lay or married man should or might exercise or occupy any Iurisdiction Ecclesiastical nor should be any Iudge or Register in any Court commonly called Ecclestatical Court lest their false and usurped power which they pretend and went about to have in Christs Church should decay wax vile and be of no reputation as by the said Councils and Constitutions Provincial appeareth Which standing and remaining in their Effect not abolished by your Graces Laws did sound to appear to make greatly for the said usurped power of the said Bishop of Rome and to be directly replignant to your Majesty as supreme head of the Church and Prerogative Royal your Grate being a Lay man. And albeit the said Decrées Ordinances and Constitutions by a Statute made in the five and twentieth year of your most noble reign be utterly abolished frustrate and of none effect yet because the contrary thereunto is not used nor put in practice by the Arch-Bishops Bishops Arch-Deacons and other Ecclesiastical persons who have no manner of Iurisdiction Ecclesiastical but by under and from your Royal Majesty it addeth or at the least may give occasion to some evil disposed persons to think and little to regard the procéedings and censures Ecclesiastical made by your Highness and your Vicegerent Officials Commissaries Iudges and Visitators being also Lay and Married men to be of little or none effect or force whereby the people gathereth heart and presumption to do evil and not to have such reverence to your most Godly injunctions and procéedings as becometh them But forasmuch as your Majesty is the only and undoubted supreme head of the Church of England and also of Ireland to whom by Holy Scripture all authority and
power is wholly given to hear and determine all manner of causes Ecclesiastical and to correct all vice and sin whatsoever and to all such persons as your Majesty shall appoint thereunto That in consideration thereof as well for the Instruction of ignorant persons as also to avoid the occasion of the opinion aforesaid and the setting forth of your prerogative Royal and Supremacy It may therefore please your Highness that it may be ordained and enacted by the authority of this present Parliament That all and singular persons as well Lay as those that be now married or hereafter shall be married being Doctors of the Civil Law lawfully create and made in any Vniversity which shall be made ordained constituted and deputed to be any Chancellour Vicar-General Commissary Official Scribe or Register by your Majesty or any of your Heirs or Successors or by any Arch-Bishop Bishop Arch-Deacon or other person whatsoever having authority under your Majesty your Heirs and Successors to make any Chancellour Vicar-General Commissary Offical or Register may lawfully execute and exercise all manner of Iurisdiction commonly called Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and all Censures and Coercions appertaining or in any wise belonging unto the same albe it such person or persons be Lay married or unmarried so that they be Doctors of the Civil Law as is aforesaid any Law Constitution or Ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding Now here it appears plain that all Authority must be derived from the King and he alone as head of this Church hath power to correct or amend Heresies and all other Misdemeanours having the sole jurisdiction in Courts Spiritual called Ecclesiastical Courts and none to be made or Synold held but by his authority and permission so that it cannot be imagined by any that the Clergy had power to make Canons either new or to go on with their old ones till another Law be made and power given them by the King as the Law directs And from this time of the making of this Law none of the Canons or pretended Canons are any more in force in England than if there never had been any such thing in the world This therefore I lay down as a sure rule that the Ecclesiastical Courts have no power but what must be given them by the Statute Law of the Land. And therefore to come nearer to the matter I shall set down what Laws have been since made in their favour and what against them Which is thus King Edward the Sixth being a Protestant and having a wise and honest Council about him foreseeing the great benefit did accrue to the Crown and whole Nation by those good Laws made in his Fathers time made a Law that takes away all scruple and doubt whatsoever about the Ecclesiastical Courts and gives them not so much as power to hold any Courts in their own name nor to use their own Seal although they were suffered to act by from and under the King according to the Laws made by his Father And it appears by the Statute Entituled viz. An Act for the Election of Bishops Which Act for the better information I have inserted at large hoping those worthy Spiritual men will vouchsafe the reading it Which is as follows Forasmuch as the Elections of Arch-Bishops and Bishops 1 Ed. 6. cap. 2. by the Deans and Chapters within the Kings Majesties Realms of England and Ireland at this present time be as well to the long delay as to the great costs and charges of such persons as the Kings Majesty giveth any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick unto And whereas the said Elections be in very déed no Elections but only by a Writ of Conge d'Eslire have colours shadows or pretences of Elections serving nevertheless to no purpose and séeming also derogatory and prejudicial to the Prerogative Royal to whom only appertaineth the Collation and gift of all Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks and Suffragan Bishops within his Highness said Realms of England and Ireland Wales and other his Dominions and Marches For a due reformation hereof Be it therefore enacted by the Kings Highness with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same That from henceforth no such Conge d'Eslire be granted nor Election of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop by the Dean and Chapter made But that the King may by his Letters Patents at all times when any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick is void confer the same to any person to whom the King shall think méet The which Collations so by the Kings Letters Patents made and delivered to the person whom the King shall confer the same Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick or to his sufficient Proctor or Attorney shall stand to all intents constructions and purposes to as much and the same effect as though Conge d'Eslire had béen given the Election duly made and the same confirmed And thereupon the said person to whom the said Arch-Bishoprick Bishoprick or Suffraganship is so conferred collated or given may be consecrated and sue his Livery or Ouster le Main and do other things as well as if the said Ceremonies and Elections had béen done and made Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that every such person to whom any collation and gift of any Arch-Bishoprick or Suffraganship shall be given or collated by the King his Heirs or Sure essors shall pay do and yield to all and every person all such fées interests and duties as of old time hath béen accustomed to be done any thing in this Act or in any other to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding And whereas the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Spiritual persons in this Realm do use to make and send out their summons citations and other processes in their own names and in such form and manner as was used in the time of the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome contrary to the form and order of the summons and process of the Common Law used in this Realm séeing that all Authority of Iurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal is derived and deducted from the Kings Majesty as supreme head of these Churches and Realms of England and Ireland and so justly acknowledged by the Clergy of the said Realms that all Courts Ecclesiastical within the said two Realms be kept by no other power or authority either foreign or within the Realm but by the authority of his most excellent Majesty Be it therefore further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all summons and citations or other Process Ecclesiastical in all suits and causes of Instance betwixt party and party and all causes of Correction and all causes of Bastardy or Bigamy or enquiry de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of Administrations of persons deceased and all Acquittances of and upon account made by the Executors Administrators or Collectors of goods of any dead person be from the first day of July next following made in the name and