be grantable against the Commissioners upon the Statute of 2 H. 5. if they do not deliver the Copy of the Libel to the Party Whereto they all answered That that Statute is intended where the Ecclesiastical Judge proceeds ex Officio ore tenus Thirdly Whether it were an Offence punishable and what Punishment they deserved who framed Petitions and collected a multitude of hands thereto to prefer to the King in a publick cause as the Puritans had done with an intimation to the King That if he denied their Sute many thousands of his Subjects would be discontented Whereto all the Justices answered That it was an Offence finable at Discretion and very near to Treason and Felony in the Punishment For they tended to the raising of Sedition Rebellion and Discontent among the People To which Resolution all the Lords agreed And then many of the Lords declared That some of the Puritans had raised a false Rumor of the King how he intended to grant a Toleration to Papists Which Offence the Justices conceived to be heinously finable by the Rules of the Common Law either in the Kings Bench or by the King and his Councel or now since the Statute of 3 H. 7. in the Star-Chamber And the Lords severally declared how the King was discontented with the said false Rumor and had made but the Day before a Protestation unto them that he never intended it and that he would spend the last drop of Bloud in his Body before he would do it and prayed that before any of his Issue should maintain any other Religion than what he truly professed and maintained that God would take them out of the World I doubt not but yourself and every English Protestant will joyn with this Royal Petitioner and will heartily say Amen But you desire to know if I think the Resolution of the Judges in this case ought to deter us from humbly Petitioning his Majesty that this Parliament may effectually sit on the 26th day of January next In order to this give me leave to observe to you As it is most certain that a great Reverence is due to the Unanimous Opinion of all the Judges so there is a great difference to be put between the Authority of their Judgments when solemnly given in Cases depending before them and their sudden and extrajudicial Opinions The Case of Ship-money it self is not a better proof of this than that which you have now read as you will now see if you consider distinctly what they say to the several Questions proposed to them As to their Answer to the first Question it much concerns the Reverend Clergy to enquire whither they did not mistake in it And whether the King by his Proclamation can make new constitutions and oblige them to obedience under the Penalty of Deprivation Should it be so and should this unhappy Kingdom ever suffer under the Reign of a Popish Prince he might easily rid himself of such obstinate Hereticks and leave his Ecclesiastical Preferments open for Men of better Principles He will need only to publish a Proclamation that Spittle and Salt should be used in Baptism that Holy-water should be used and Images set up in Churches and a few more such things as these and the Business were effectually done But if you will believe my Lord Chief Justice Cook 12. Co. 19. 12. Co. 49. he will tell you that it was agreed by all the Judges upon Debate Hill 4to Jacobi that the King cannot change his Ecclesiastical Law and you may easily remember since the whole Parliament declared That he could not alter or suspend them I have the uniform Opinion of all the Judges given upon great Deliberation Co. Mag. Char. 616. Mich. 4to Jac. to justifie me if I say that our Judges here were utterly mistaken in the Answer which they gave to the second Question I will not cite the numerous subsequent Authorities since every man knows that it is the constant practice of Westminster-Hall at this Day to grant Prohibitions upon refusal to give a Copy of Articles where the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts are ex Officio You see there was a kind of ill Fate upon the Judges this day as usually there was when met in the Star-chamber and that they were very unfortunate in answering two of the three Questions proposed to them let us go on to consider what does principally concern us at present their Answer to the last Question You have just done reading it and therefore I need not repeat to you either the Doubt or the Solution of it but one may be allowed to say modestly that it was a sudden Answer 'T is possible the Lords then present were well enough inform'd when they were told that such kind of Petitioning was an Offence next to Treason and Felony but I dare be so bold as to say That at this Day not a Lawyer in England would be the wiser for such an Answer they would be confounded and not know whether it were Misprision of Treason which seems an Offence nearest to Treason or Petty-larceny which seems nearest to Felony You will be apt to tell me that I mistake my Lords the Judges and they spoke not of the nature of the crime but the manner of the Punishment but this will mend the matter but little for since the Punishments of those two Crimes are so very different you are still as much in the dark as ever what these ambiguous words mean Well but we will agree that the Crime about which the Enquiry was made was a very great one When Men arrive to such Insolence as to threaten their Prince it will be but little excuse to them to call their Menaces by the soft and gentle Name of Petitions But you would know for what and in what manner we are at present to Petition 13 Car. 2. c. 5 and I will give you a plain and infallible Rule It is the Statute 13 Car. 2. c. 5. Be it enacted c. that no person or persons whatsoever shall solicite labour or procure the getting of hands or other consent of any persons above the number of twenty or more to any Petition Complaint Remonstance Declaration or other Addresses to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament for alteration of matters established by Law in Church or State unless the matter thereof have been first consented to and ordered by three or more Justices of the County or by the major part of the Grand Jury of the County or Division of the County where the same matter shall arise at their publick Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions or if arising in London by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Council assembled and that no person or persons whatsoever shall repair to His Majesty or both or either of the Houses of Parliament upon Pretence of presenting or delivering any Petition Complaint Remonstrance or Declaration or other Addresses accompanied with excessive Number of People not at
Administration of Justice Belongeth to the Office of a King But the fullest account of it in few words is in Chancellor Fortescue Chap. XIII which Passage is quoted in Calvin's Case Coke VII Rep. Fol 5. Ad Tutelam namque Legis Subditorum ac eorum Corporum bonorum Rex hujusmodi erectus est ad hanc potestatem a populo effluxam ipse habet quo ei non licet potestate alia suo populo Dominari For such a King That is of every Political Kingdom as this is is made and ordained for the Defence or Guardianship of the Law of his Subjects and of their Bodies and Goods whereunto he receiveth power of his People so that he cannot Govern his People by any other power Corollary 1. A Bargain 's a Bargain 2. A Popish Guardian of Protestant Laws is such an Incongruity and he is as Unfit for that Office as Antichrist is to be Christ's Vicar CHAP. II. Of Prerogatives by Divine Right I. GOvernment is not matter of Revelation if it were then those Nations that wanted Scripture must have been without Government whereas Scripture it self says That Government is The Ordinance of Man and of Humane Extraction And King Charles the First says of this Government in particular That it was Moulded by the Wisdom and Experience of the People Answ to XIX Prop. II. All just Governments are highly Beneficial to Mankind and are of God the Author of all Good they are his Ordinances and Institutions Rom. 13.1 2. III. Plowing and Sowing and the whole business of preparing Bread-Corn is absolutely necessary to the subsistence of Mankind This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working Isa 28. from 23. to 29th Verse IV. Wisdom saith Counsel is mine and sound Wisdom I am Vnderstanding I have strength By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice By me Princes Rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth Prov. 8.14 V. The Prophet speaking of the Plowman saith His God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Isa 28.26 VI. Scripture neither gives nor takes away Mens Civil Rights but leaves them as it found them and as our Saviour said of himself is no Divider of Inheritances VII Civil Authority is a Civil Right VIII The Law of England gives the King his Title to the Crown For where is it said in Scripture That such a Person or Family by Name shall enjoy it And the same Law of England which has made him King has made him King according to the English Laws and not otherwise IX The King of England has no more Right to set up a French Government than the French King has to be King of England which is none at all X. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars neither makes a Caesar nor tells who Caesar is nor what belongs to him but only requires Men to be just in giving him those supposed Rights which the Laws have determined to be his XI The Scripture supposes Property when it forbids Stealing it supposes Mens Lands to be already Butted and Bounded when it forbids removing the antient Land-marks And as it is impossible for any Man to prove what Estate he has by Scripture or to find a Terrier of his Lands there so it is a vain thing to look for Statutes of Prerogative in Scripture XII If Mishpat Hamelech the manner of the King 1 Sam. 8.11 be a Statute of Prerogative and prove all those particulars to be the Right of the King then Mishpat Haccohanim the Priest's custom of Sacrilegeous Rapine Chap. 2.13 proves that to be the Right of the Priests the same wood being used in both places XIII It is the Resolution of all the Judges of England that even the known and undoubted Prerogatives of the Jewish Kings do not belong to our Kings and that it is an absurd and impudent thing to affirm they do Coke 11. Rep. p. 63. Mich. 5. Jac. Give us a King to Judge us 1 Sam. 8.5 6 20. Note upon Sunday the Tenth of November in this same Term the King upon Complaint made to him by Bancroft Archbishop of Canterbury concerning Prohibitions was informed that when Question was made of what matters the Ecclesiastical Judges have Cognizance either upon the Exposition of the Statutes concerning Tythes or any other Thing Ecclesiastical or upon the Statute 1 Eliz. concerning the High Commission or in any other Case in which there is not express Authority by Law the King himself may decide it in his Royal person and that the Judges are but the Delegates of the King and that the King may take what Causes he shall please to determine from the Determination of the Judges and may determine them himself And the Archbishop said That this was clear in Divinity That such Authority belongs to the King by the Word of God in Scripture To which it was answered by me in the presence and with the clear consent of all the Justices of England and Barons of the Exchequer That the King in his own person cannot adjudge any Case either Criminal as Treason Felony c. but this ought to be determined and adjusted in some Court of Justice according to the Law and Custom of England And always Judgments are given Ideo consideratum est per Curiam so that the Court gives the Judgment And it was greatly marvelled That the Archbishop durst inform the King that such absolute power and authority as is aforesaid belonged to the King by the Word of God CHAP. III. Of OBEDIENCE I. NO Man has any more Civil Authority than what the Law of the Land has vested in him Nor is he one of St. Paul's Higher Powers any farther or to any other purposes than the Law has impowr'd him II. An Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary power is so far from being the Ordinance of God that it is not the Ordinance of Man III. Whoever opposes an Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary Power does not oppose the Ordinance of God but the Violation of that Ordinance IV. The 13. of the Romans commands Subjection to our Temporal Governours Verse 4. because their Office and Imployment is for the publick welfare For he is the Minister of God to Thee for Good V. The 13. of the Hebrews commands Obedience to spiritual Rulers Verse 17. Because they watch for your Souls VI. But the 13. of the Hebrews did not oblige the Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Mary's Time to obey such blessed Bishops as Bonner and the Beast of Rome who were the perfect Reverse of St. Paul's Spiritual Rulers and whose practice was murthering of Souls and Bodies according to the true Character of Popery which was given it by the Bishops who compiled the Thanksgiving for the Fifth of November but Archbishop Laud was wiser than they and in his time blotted it out The Prayer formerly run thus To that end strengthen the Hands of our Gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the
of the Peace and Vnity of this Realm 3. And that such Person or Persons so to be Named Assigned Authorised and Appointed by Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority by Vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that I take it that all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was in the Crown by the Common Law of England and declared to be so by the said Act of 1 Eliz. 1. and by that Act a Power given to the Crown to assign Commissioners to exercise this Jurisdiction which was accordingly done by Queen Elizabeth and a High Commission Court was by her erected which sate and held Plea of all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James the First and King Charles the First till the 17th Year of his Reign Which leads me to consider the Statute of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. which Act recites the Title of 1 Eliz. ca. 1. and Sect. 18. of the same Act and recites further Section 2. That whereas by colour of some Words in the aforesaid Branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are authorised to execute their Commission according to the Tenor and Effect of the Kings Letters Patents and by Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and insufferable Wrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored by that Act and divers other great Mischiefs and Inconveniences have also ensued to the Kings Subjects by occasion of the said Branch and Commissions issued thereupon and the Executions thereof Therefore for the repressing and preventing of the aforesaid Abuses Mischiefs and Inconveniences in time to come by Sect. 3. the said Clause in the said Act 1 Eliz. 1. is Repealed with a Non obstante to the said Act in these Words Be it Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the aforesaid Branch Clause Article or Sentence contained in the said Act and every Word Matter and thing contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from henceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made Void for ever any thing in the said Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in Sect. 5. of the same Act it is Enacted That from and after the first of August in the said Act mentioned all such Commissions shall be void in these Words And be it further Enacted That from and after the said first Day of August no new Court shall be erected ordained or appointed within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales which shall or may have the like Power Jurisdiction or Authority as the said High Commission Court now hath or pretendeth to have but that all and every such Letters Patents Commissions and Grants made or to be made by his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and all Powers and Authorities granted or pretended or mentioned to be granted thereby And all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by virtue or Colour thereof shall be utterly void and of none effect By which Act then the Power of Exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commissioners under the Broad-Seal is so taken away that it provides no such Power shall ever for the future be Delegated by the Crown to any Person or Persons whatsoever Let us then in the last place consider Whether the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12 hath restored this Power or not And for this I take it that it is not restored by the said Act or any Clause in it and to make this evident I shall first set down the whole Act and then consider it in the several Branches of it that relate to this Matter The Act is Entituled An Act for Explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the 17th Year of the Late King Charles Entituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of Statute in Primo Elizabethae câ—ncerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical The Act it self runs thus Whereas in an Act of Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Late King Charles Intituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of a Stature primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical It is amongst other things Enacted that no Arch-bishop Bisâ—â—p or Vicar-General nor any Chancellor nor Commissary of any Arch-Bishop Bishop or Vicar-General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister of Justice nor any other Person or Persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction by any Grant Lisence or Commission of the Kings Majesty His Heirs or Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the First Day of August which then should be in the Year of our Lord God 1641. Award Impose or Inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other Corporal Punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanor Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction 2. Whereupon some Doubt hath been made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceeding in Causes Ecclesiastital were taken away whereby the ordinary Course of Justice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath been obstructed 3. Be it therefore Declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Arch-Bishops Bishops or any other Person or Persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction may proceed determine Sentence execute and exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and all Censures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before any making of the Act before recited in all Causes and Matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this Realm in as ample Manner and Form as they did and might lawfully have done before making of the said Act. Sect. 2. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the afore recited Act of Decimo Septimo Car. and all the Matters and Clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such like Court by Commission shall be and is thereby repealed to dlintents and purposes whatsoever
given to his Declaration and to what he hath since the Emission of it repeated both in his Speech to Mr. Penn and in his Letter to Mr. Alsop And to omit many other Instances of his kindness and Benignity to the Fanaticks whom he now so much hugs and caresseth it may not be amiss to remember them and all other Protestants of that barbarous and illegal Commission issued forth by the Council of Scotland while he as the late King 's High Commissioner had the Management of the Affairs of that Kingdom by which every Military Officer that had command over twelve Men was impower'd to impannel Juries Try Condemn and cause to be put to Death not only those who should be found to disclaim the King's Authority but such as should refuse to acknowledge the King 's new modelled Supremacy over that Church in the pursuance and Execution of which Commission some were Shot to Death others were Hang'd or Drowned and this not only during the Continuance of the Reign of his late Majesty but for above a Year and a half after the present King came to the Crown But what need is there of insisting upon such little Particulars wherein he was at all times ready to express his Malice to Protestants seeing we have not only Dr. Oates's Testimony and that of divers others but most Authentick Proofs from Mr. Coleman's Letters of his having been in a Conspiracy several Years for the Subversion of our Religion upon the meritorious and sanctified Motive of extirpating the Northern Heresie Of which beside all the Evidence that four Successive Parliaments arrived at I know several who since the Duke of York ascended the Throne have had it confirmed unto them by divers Foreign Papists that were less reserved or more ingenuous than many of that Communion use to be To question the Existence of that Plot and his present Majesties having been Accessary unto and in the Head of it argues a strange Effrontery and Impudence through casting an Aspersion of Weakness Folly and Injustice not only upon those Three Parliaments that seem'd to have retained some Zeal for English Liberties but by fastening the same Imputations upon the Long Parliament which had shewed it self at all times more Obsequious to the Will of the Court than was either for their own Honor or the Safety and Interest of the Kingdom and who had expressed a Veneration for the Royal Family that approached too much upon a degree of Idolatry Whosoever considers that Train of Counsels wherein the King was many Years engaged and whereof we felt the woful Effects in the Burning of London the frequent Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments the widening and exasperating Differences among Protestants the stirring up and provoking Civil Magistrates and Ecclesiastical Courts to persecute Dissenters and the maintaining Correspondencies with the Pope and Catholick Princes abroad to the dishonor of the Nation and danger of our Laws and Religion cannot avoid being apprehensive what we are now to look for at his Hands nor can be escape thinking that he esteems his Advancement to the Crown both a Reward from Heaven for what he hath done and plotted against these three Kingdoms and an Opportunity and Advantage administred to him for the Perfecting and Accomplishment of all those Designs with which he hath been so long Bigg and in Travel for the Destruction of our Religion the Subversion of our Laws and the Re-establishment of Popery in these Dominions The Conduct and Guidance under which His Majesty hath put himself and the fiery Temper of that Order to whose Government he hath resigned his Conscience may greatly add to our Fears and give us all the Jealousie and Dread that we are capable of being impressed with in reference to Matters to come that there is nothing which can be Fatal to our Religion or Persons that we may not expect the being called to conflict with and suffer For tho most of the Popish Ecclesiasticks especially the Regulars bear an inveterate Malice to Protestants and hold themselves under indispensible Obligations of eradicating whatsoever their Church stiles Heresie and have accordingly been always forward to stir up and provoke Rulers to the use and Application of Force for the Destruction of Protestants as a Company of perverse and obstinate Hereticks adjudged and condemned to the Stake and Gibbet by the infallible Chair yet of all Men in the Communion of the Romish Church and of their Religious Orders the Jesuits are they who do most hate us and whose Counsels have been most Sanguinary and always tending to influence those Monarchs whose Consciences they have had the guiding and conducting of to the utmost Cruelties and Barbarities towards us What our Brethren have had measured out to them in France through Father de la Chaise's Influence upon that King and through the bewitching Power and Domination he hath over him in the quality of his Confessor and as having the Direction of his Conscience may very well alarm and inform us what we ought to expect from His Majesty of Great Britain who hath surrendered his Conscience to the Guidance of Father Peters a Person of the same Order and of the like mischievous and bloody Disposition that the former is 'T is well observed by the Author of the Reasons against Repealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the Test that Cardinal Howard's being of such a meek and gentle Temper that is able to withstand the Malignity of his Religion and to preserve him from concurring in those mischievous Counsels which his Purple might seem to oblige him unto is the reason of his being shut out from Acquaintance with and Interest in the English Affairs transacted at Rome and that whatsoever his Majesty hath to do in that Court is managed by his Ambassador under the sole Direction of the Jesuits So that it is not without cause that the Jesuit of Liege in his intercepted and lately printed Letter tells a Brother of the Order what a wonderful Veneration the King hath for the Society and with what profound Submission he receives those Reverend Fathers and hearkens to whatsoever they represent Nor is His Majesty's being under the Influence of the Jesuits through having one of them for his Confessor and several of them for his Chief Counsellors and principal Confidents the only thing in this Matter that awakens our Fear in what we are to expect from his armed Power excited and stir'd up by that fiery Tribe but there is another Ground why we ought more especially to dread him and that is his being entred and enrolled into the Order and become a Member of the Society whereby he is brought into a greater Subjection and Dependence upon them and stands bound by Ties and Engagements of being obedient to the Commands of the General of the Jesuits and that not only in Spirituals but in whatsoever they shall pretend to be subservient to the Exaltation of the Church and for upholding the Glory of the Tripple Crown This
be miserably diminish'd sooner than we are aware But there remains yet another part of our Message which we have to impart to you on the behalf of your People They find in an antient Statute and it has been done in fact not long ago That if the King through any Evil Counsel or foolish Contumacy or out of Scorn or some singular petulant Will of his own or by any other irregular Means shall alienate himself from his People and shall refuse to be govern'd and guided by the Laws of the Realm and the Statutes and laudable Ordinances thereof together with the wholsom Advice of the Lords and great Men of his Realm but persisting head-strong in his own hare-brain'd Counsels shall petulantly prosecute his own singular humour That then it shall be lawful for them with the common assent and consent of the People of the Realm to depose that same King from his Regal Throne and to set up some other of the Royal Blood in his room H. Knight Coll. 2681. No Man can imagine that the Lords and Commons in Parliament would have sent the King such a Message and have quoted to him an old Statute for deposing Kings that would not govern according to Law if the People of England had then apprehended that an Obedience without reserve was due to the King or if there had not been such a Statute in being And though the Record of that Excellent Law be lost as the Records of almost all our Antient Laws are yet is the Testimony of so credible an Historian who lived when these things were transacted sufficient to inform us that such a Law was then known and in being and consequently that the Terms of English Allegiance according to the Constitution of our Government are different from what some Modern Authors would persuade us they are This Difference betwixt the said King and his Parliament ended amicably betwixt them in the punishment of many Evil Counsellors by whom the King had been influenced to commit many Irregularities in Government But the Discontents of the People grew higher by his After-management of Affairs and ended in the Deposition of that King and setting up of another who was not the next Heir in Lineal Succession The Articles against King Richard the Second may be read at large in H. Knighton Collect. 2746 2747 c. and are yet extant upon Record An Abridgment of them is in Cotton's Records pag. 386 387 388. out of whom I observe these few there being in all Thirty three The First was His wasting and bestowing the Lands of the Crown upon unworthy Persons and overcharging the Commons with Exactions And that whereas certain Lords Spiritual and Temporal were assign'd in Parliament to intend the Government of the Kingdom the King by a Conventicle of his own Accomplices endeavoured to impeach them of High-Treason Another was For that the King by undue means procured divers Justices to speak against the Law to the destruction of the Duke of Glocester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick at Shrewsbury Another For that the King against his own Promise and Pardon at a solemn Procession apprehended the Duke of Glocester and sent him to Calice there to be choaked and murthered beheading the Earl of Arundel and banishing the Earl of Warwick and the Lord Cobham Another For that the King's Retinue and a Rout gathered by him out of Cheshire committed divers Murders Rapes and other Felonies and refused to pay for their Victuals Another For that the Crown of England being freed from the Pope and all other Foreign Power the King notwithstanding procured the Pope's Excommunication on such as should break the Ordinances of the last Parliament in derogation of the Crown Statutes and Laws of the Realm Another That he made Men Sheriffs who were not named to him by the Great Officers the Justices and others of his Council and who were unfit contrary to the Laws of the Realm and in manifest breach of his Oath Another For that he did not repay to his Subjects the Debts that he had borrowed of them Another For that the King refused to execute the Laws saying That the Laws were in his Mouth and Breast and that himself alone could make and alter the Laws Another For causing Sheriffs to continue in Office above a Year contrary to the tenor of a Statute-Law thereby incurring notorious Perjury Another For that the said King procured Knights of the Shires to be returned to serve his own Will Another For that many Justices for their good Counsel given to the King were with evil Countenance and Threats rewarded Another For that the King passing into Ireland had carried with him without the Consent of the Estates of the Realm the Treasure Reliques and other Jewels of the Realm which were used safely to be kept in the King 's own Coffers from all hazard And for that the said King cancelled and razed sundry Records Another For that the said King appear'd by his Letters to the Pope to Foreign Princes and to his Subjects so variable so dissembling and so unfaithful and inconstant that no Man could trust him that knew him insomuch that he was a Scandal both to himself and the Kingdom Another That the King would commonly say amongst the Nobles that all Subjects Lives Lands and Goods were in his hands without any forfeiture which is altogether contrary to the Laws and Vsages of the Realm Another For that he suffered his Subjects to be condemned by Martial-Law contrary to his Oath and the Laws of the Realm Another For that whereas the Subjects of England are sufficiently bound to the King by their Allegiance yet the said King compell'd them to take new Oaths These Articles with some others not altogether of so general a concern being considered and the King himself confessing his Defects the same seemed sufficient to the whole Estates for the King's Deposition and he was depos'd accordingly The Substance and Drift of all is That our Kings were antiently liable to and might lawfully be deposed for Oppression and Tyranny for Insufficiency to govern c. in and by the great Council of the Nation without any breach of the old Oath of Fealty because to say nothing of the nature of our Constitution express and positive Laws warranted such Proceedings And therefore the Frame of our Government being the same still and the Terms of our Allegiance being the same now that they were then without any new Obligations superinduced by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy a King of England may legally at this day for sufficient cause be deposed by the Lords and Commons assembled in a Great Council of the Kingdom without any breach of the present Oaths of Supremacy or Allegiance Quod erat demonstrandum MANTISSA WHen Stephen was King of England whom the People had chosen rather than submit to Mawd tho the Great Men of the Realm had sworn Fealty to her in her Father's life-time Henry Duke of Anjou Son of the said Mawd afterwards King Henry the Second invaded the Kingdom An. Dom. 1153 which was towards the latter-end of King Stephen's Reign and Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury endeavoured to mediate a Peace betwixt them speaking frequently with the King in private and sending many Messages to the Duke and Henry Bishop of Winchester took pains likewise to make them Friends Factum est autem ut mense Novembris in fine mensis EX PRAECEPTO REGIS ET DUCIS Collect. pag. 1374 1375. convenirent apud Wintoniam Praesules Principes Regni ut ipsi jam initae paci praeberent assensum unanimiter juramenti Sacramento confirmarent i.e. It came to pass that in the Month of November towards the latter end of the Month at the summons of the King and of the Duke the Prelats and Great Men of the Kingdom were assembled at Winchester that they also might assent to the Peace that was concluded and unanimously swear to observe it In that Parliament the Duke was declared King Stephen's adopted Son and Heir of the Kingdom and the King to retain the Government during his Life I observe only upon this Authority That there being a Controversy betwixt the King and the Duke which could no otherwise be determined and settled but in a Parliament the Summons of this Parliament were issued in the Names of both Parties concerned Quisquis habet aures ad audiendum audiat FINIS
The Pope published a Bull in print against the restoring of Abby-Lands which Dr. Burnet affirms also Ap. Fol. 403. It is notoriously false they both asserting the contrary Dr. Burnet's Words in that very place are these The Pope in plain terms refused to ratifie what the Cardinal had done and soon after set out a severe Bull cursing and condemning all that held any Church Lands Seventhly and lastly The succeeding Popes have been clearly of this opinion Pope Pius the Fourth who immediately succeeded this Paul confirm'd the Counoil of Trent and therein damned all the detainers of Church-Lands and tho he was much importuned to confirm some Alienations made by the King of France to pay the debts of the Crown yet he absolutely refused it F. Pauls H. C. Trent 713. Pope Innocent the Tenth first protested against the Alienations of Church Lands in Germany that were made at the great Treaty of Munster and Osnaburg A. D. 1648. and when that would not do by his Bull Nov. 26. in the very same Year damns all those that should dare to retain the Church-Lands and declares the Treaty void Infirmnentum pacis c. Innocentii 10 me declaratio nullitatis Artic. c. and all their late Popes in the Bulla caenae do very solemnly Damn and Excommunicate all who usurp any Jurisdiction Fruits Revenues and Emoluments belonging to any Ecclesiastical person upon account of any Churches Monasteries or other Ecclesiastical Benefices or who upon any occasion or cause Sequester the said Revenues without the Express leave of the Bishop of Rome or others having lawful power to do it c. And tho upon Geod-Friday there is published a general Absolution yet out of that are expresly excluded all those who possess any Church Lands or Goods who are still left under the sentence of Excommunication Toleti Instr Sacerd. and his Explicatio casuum in Bulla caenae Dni reserva From which consideration it 's evident that it never was the design of the Pope to confirm the English Church Lands to the Lay-possessors but that he always urg'd the necessity of restoring of them to religious uses in order to which the papists prevailed to have the statute of Mortmain repealed for 20 Years In Queen Elizabeth's Reign the factious party that was manag'd wholy by Romish â—missaries demanded to have Abbtes and such Religious Houses restored for their Vse and A. D. 1585. in their petition to the Faâ—hament they set it down as a 〈◊〉 Doctrine that things once dedicated to Sacred Vses ought so to remain by the Word of God for ever and ought not to be converted to any private Vse Bishop Bancrofts Sermon at p. c. A. D. 1588. p. 25. And that the Church of Rome is still gaping after these Lands is evident from many of their late Books as the Religion of M. Luther lately printed at Oxford p. 15. The Monks wrote Anathema upon the Registers and Donations belonging to Monasteries the weight and essect of which curses are both felt and dreaded to this day To this End the Monastiâ—â—â— Anglicanum is so diligently preserved in the Vatican and other Libraries in the popish Countries and especially this appears from the obstinate refusal of this present Pope to confirm these Alienations tho it be a matter so much controverted and which would be of that vast Use towards promoting their Religion in this Kingdom If therefore the Bishops of Rome did never confirm these Alienations of Church-Lands but earnestly and strictly required their Restitution if they have declared in their Authentick Canons that they have no power to do it and both they and the last general Council pronounce an heavy Curse and Anathema against all such as detain them Then let every one that possesseth these Lands and yet own either of these Foreign Jurisdictions consider that here is nothing left to excuse him from Sacriledge and therefore with his Estate he must derive a curse to his posterity There is scarcely any Papist but that is forward to accuse King Henry the 8th of Sacriledge and yet never reflects upon himself who quietly possesseth the Fruits of it without Restitution either let them not accuse him or else restore themselves Now whatever opinions the papists may have of these things in the time of health yet I must desire to remember what the Jesuits proposed to Cardinal Pool in Doctor Pary's Days Viz. That if he would encourage them in England they did not doubt but that by dealing with the Consciences of those who were dying they should soon recover the greatest part of the Goods of the Church Dr. Burnet's Hist Vol. 2. p. 328. Not to mention that whensoever the Regulars shall grow numerous in England and by consequence burthensome to the few Nobility and Gentry of that perswasion they will find it necessary for them to consent to a Restitution of their Lands that they may share the burthen among others For so vast are the Burthens and Payments that that Religion brings with it that it will be found at length an advantagious Bargain to part with all the Church Lands to indemnifie the rest And I am confident that the Gentry of England that are Papists have found greater Burthens and Payments since their Religion hath been allow'd than ever they did for the many years it was forbid and this charge must daily encrease so long as their Clergy daily grows more numerous and their few Converts are most of them of the meanest Rank and such as want to be provided for And that 's no easie matter to force Converts may appear from that Excellent Observation of the great Emperour Charles the Fifth who told Queen Mary That by endeavouring to compel others to his own Relegion he had tired and spent himself in vain and purchas'd nothing by it but his own dishonour Card. Pool in Heylin's Hist Ref. p. 217. And to conclude this Discourse had the Act of Pope Julius the Third by his Legate Cardinal Pool in confirming of the Alienation of Church Lands in England been as valid as is by some pretended yet what shall secure us from an Act of Resumption That very Pope after that pretended Grant to Cardinal Pool published a Bull in which he Excommunicated all that kept Abby-Lands or Church Lands Burnet's Hist Vol. 2. p. 3â—9 by which all former Grants had there been any were cancell'd His Successor Pope Paul the Fourth retrieved all the Goods and Ecclesiastical Revenues that had been alienated from the Church since the time of Julius the Second and the chief Reasons that are given why the Popes may not still proceed to an Act of Resumption of these Lands in England amount only to this That they may stay for a fair opportunity when it may be done without disturbing the peace of the Kingdom From all which it 's evident that the detaining of Abby-Lands and other Church-Lands from the Monks and Friars is altogether inconsistent with the Doctrine and Principles of the Romish Religion The King's
Power in Ecclesiastical Matters truly stated HIS present Majesty having erected an High-Commission Court to enquire of and make redress in Ecclesiastical Matters c. Q. Whether such a Commission as the Law now stands be good or not And I hold that the Commission is not good And to maintain my Opinion herein I shall in the first place briefly consider what Power the Crown of England had in Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Matters for I take them to be synonymous Terms before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And Secondly I shall particularly consider the Act of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And Thirdly I shall consider 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. And by that time I have fully considered these three Acts of Parliament it will plainly appear that the Crown of England hath now no Power to erect such a Court. I must confess and do agree That by the Common Law all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was lodged in the Crown and the Bishops and all Spiritual Persons derived their Jurisdiction from thence And I cannot find that there were any Attempts by the Clergy to divest the Crown of it till William the First 's Time and his Successors down to King John the Pope obtained four Points of Jurisdiction First Sending of Legates into England Secondly Drawing of Appeals to the Court of Rome Thirdly Donation of Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Benefices And Fourthly Exemption of Clerks from the Secular Power Which four Points were gained within the space of an hundred and odd Years but with all the Opposition imaginable of the Kings and their People and the Kingdom never came to be absolutely inslaved to the Church of Rome till King John's Time and then both King and People were and so continued to be in a great measure in Henry the Third's Time and so would in all likelihood have continued had not wise Edward the First opposed the Pope's Usurpation and made the Statute of Mortmain But that which chiefly brake the Neck of this was That after the Pope and Clergy had endeavoured in Edward the Second's Time and in the beginning of Edward the Third to usurp again Edward the Third did resist the Usurpation and made the Statutes of Provisors 25 Ed. 3. and 27 Ed. 3. And Richard the Second backed those Acts with 16 Rich. 2. ca. 5. and kept the Power in the Crown by them Laws which being interrupted by Queen Mary a bloody Bigot of the Church of Rome during her Reign there was an Act made in 1 Eliz-ca 1. which is Intituled Keeble's Stat. An Act to restore to the Crown the ancient Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolishing all foreign Powers repugnant to the same From which Title I collect three things First That the Crown had anciently a Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Secondly That that Jurisdiction had for some time been at least suspended and the Crown had not exercised it Thirdly That this Law did not introduce a new Jurisdiction but restored the old but with restoring the old Jurisdiction to the Crown gave a Power of delegating the Exercise of it And as a Consequence from the whole that all Jurisdiction that is lodged in the Crown is subject nevertheless to the Legislative Power in the Kingdom I shall now consider what Power this Act of 1 Eliz. 1. declares to have been anciently in the Crown and that appears from Sect. 16 17 18. of the same Act. Section 16. Abolisheth all Foreign Authority in Cases Spiritual and Temporal in these VVords And to the intent that all the Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm or any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries 2 May it please Your Highness that it may be further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last Day of this Session of Fâ—â—liament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm or within any other Your Majesties Dominions or Countries that now be or hereafter shall be but from thenceforth the same shall be clearly Abolished out of this Realm and all other Your Highness's Dominions for ever any Statute Ordinance Custom Constitutions or any other Matter or Cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And after the said Act hath abolished all Foreign Authority in the very next Section Sect. 17. It annexeth all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown in these VVords And that also it may likewise please your Heghness That it may be Established and Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminencies Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the Visitation of the Ecclesiastical State and Persons and for Reformation Order and Correction of the same and of all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities shall for ever by Authority of this present Parliament be Vnited and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm From these VVords That such Jurisdiction c. as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had then-to-fore been exercised or used were annexed to the Crown I observe That the Four things aforesaid wherein the Pope had incroached were all restored to the Crown and likewise all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that had been exercised or used in this Kingdom and did thereby become absolutely vested in the Crown Then Section 18. Gives a Power to the Crown to assign Commissioners to excrcise this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in these VVords And that Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm shall have full Power and Authority by Virtue of this Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to Assign Name and Authorize when and as often as Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as shall pleass Your Highness your Heirs or Successors such Person or Persons being natural born Subjects to Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors as Your Majesty Your Heirs or Successors shall think meet to Exercise Vse Occupy and Execute under Your Highness Your Heirs and Succâ—ssors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminencies in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within these Your Realms of England and Ireland or any other Your Highness's Dominions and Countries 2. and to visit Reform Redress Order Correct and Amend all such Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses Offences Contempts and Enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction can or may lawfully be Reformed Ordered Redressed Corrected Restrained and Amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the Increase of Vertue and the Conservation
in your Kingdoms as here in the Roman Empire But now we refer it even to your Majesty to judg what condition we can be in to afford you any Assistance we being not only Engaged in a War with the Turks but finding our selves at the same time unjustly and barbarously Attacked by the French contrary to and against the Faith of Treaties they then reckoning themselves secure of England And this ought not to be concealed that the greatest Injuries which have been done to our Religion have flowed from no other than the French themselves who not only esteem it lawful for them to make perfidious Leagues with the sworn Enemies of the Holy Cross tending to the destruction both of us and of the whole Christian World in order to the checking our Endeavours which were undertaken for the glory of God and to stop those Successes which it hath pleased Almighty God to give us hitherto but further have heaped one Treuchery upon another even within the Empire it self The Cities of the Empire which were Surrendred upon Articles signed by the Dauphin himself have been exhausted by excessive Impositions and after their being exhausted have been Plundred and after Plundring have been Burned and Razed The Palaces of Princes which in all times and even in the most destructive Wars have been preserved are now burnt down to the ground The Churches are Robbed and such as submitted themselves to them are in a most Barbarous manner carried away as Slaves In short It is become a Diversion to them to commit all manner of Insolences and Cruelties in many places but chiefly in Catholick Countries exceeding the Cruelties of the Turks themselves which having imposed an absolute necessity upon us to secure our selves and the holy Roman Empire by the best means we can think on and that no less against them than against the Turks we promise our selves from your Justice ready assent to this That it ought not to be imputed to us if we endeavour to procure by a just War that security to our selves which we could not hitherto obtain by so many Treaties and that in order to the obtaining thereof we take measures for our mutual Defence of Preservation with all those who are equally concerned in the same Design with us It remains that we beg of God that he would Direct all things to his glory and that he would grant your Majesty true and solid Comforts under this your great Calamity we embrace you with tender Affections of a Brother At Vienna the 9th of April 1689. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of King James and filling up the Throne Presented to King William and Queen Mary by the right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords With His Majesties most gracious Answer thereunto WHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers Imploy'd by Him did endeavour to Subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispensing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By Committing and Prosecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be Excused from concurring to the said assumed Power By 〈◊〉 and causing to be executed a Commission under the great Seal for erecting a Court called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes By Levying Mony for and to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within this Kingdom in the time of Peace whithout consent of Parliament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law By violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's-Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Tryals and particularly divers Jurors in Tryals for High-Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subjects And Excessive Fines have been Imposed And Illegal and Cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Convictions or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the said late K. James the Second having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22d Day of January in this Year 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections having been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lord's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Case have usually done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties Declare That the pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is Illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like Nature are Illegal and Pernicious That levying of Mony for or to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be with
Authorities out of this Realm as also for restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the antient Jurisdictions Authorities Superiorities and Preheminences to the same of Right belonging and appertaining by reason whereof the Subjects of this Realm were kept in good order and disburthened of divers great and intolerable Charges and Exactions until such time as all the said good Laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second Years of the Reigns of King Philip and Queen Mary were clearly repealed and made void by reason of which Act of Repeal the Subjects of England were eftsoons brought under an usurped Foreign Power and Authority and yet remained in that Bondage to their intolerable Charges and then Enacts that for the repressing of the said usurped Foreign Power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and Preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this Realm The said Act made in the first and second Years of the said late King Philip and Queen Mary except as therein is excepted be repealed void and of none effect The said Act of Primo Elizabethae proceeds First to revive by express words many Statutes that had been made in King Henry the Eighth's time and repealed in Queen Mary's and Secondly to abolish all Foreign Authority in these words viz. And to the intent that all Vsurped and Foreign Power and Authority Spiritual and Temporal may for ever be clearly extinguished and never to be used or obeyed within this Realm c. May it please your Highness that it may be Enacted That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spiritual or Temporal shall at any time after the last day of this Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Superiority Authority Preheminence or Priviledg Spiritual or Ecclesiastical within this Realm c. but the same shall be clearly abolished out of this Realm c. Any Statute Custom c. to the contrary notwithstanding Thirdly The said Act restores in the next Paragraph to the Imperial Crown of this Realm such Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorities c. Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used c. Fourthly the Act impowers the Queen to assign Commissioners to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And Fifthly For the better observation and maintenance of this Act imposes upon Ecclesiastical and Temporal Officers and Ministers c. the Oath commonly call'd the Oath of Supremacy which runs thus viz. The Oath of SUPREMACY I A. B. do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the Queen's Highness is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other her Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes as Temporal and that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my Power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminencies and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book It cannot but be obvious to every impartial Peruser of the Statute especially if he have the least knowledg of what Condition the Government of this Nation was reduced to by Papal Encroachments and Usurpations That the Makers of this Law and the Sense of this Oath was no other in general than that the People of this Realm should bear Faith and true Allegiance even in Matters relating to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and not to the Pope or any foreign pretended Jurisdiction What the several Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queen her Heirs and Successors are in particular and what the Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm are in particular is not material here to be discoursed of though the several Statutes made in King Henry the Eighth's time and King Edward the Sixth's and revived in Queen Elizabeth's will unfold many of them and clear the distinction which the OATH makes betwixt Authorities granted or belonging to the King and Authorities united and annexed to the Imperial Crown and Mr. Prynn's History of the Pope's intolerable Usurpations upon the Liberties of the Kings and Subjects of England and Ireland together with Sir Roger Twisden's Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism will in a great measure acquaint the Curious how matters stood with us here with respect to Church-Government before the Pope had wrested the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction almost wholly out of the hands of our Kings our Parliaments and Courts of Justice In short those Jurisdictions c. are such as the Antient Laws Customs and Usages of the Realm or latter Acts of Parliament have Created Given Limited and Directed The Makers of this Law did not design to impose upon the People of England any new Terms of Allegiance but to secure the old ones exclusive of any Pretences of the Pope or See of Rome Nor are there any words in this Oath more strong more binding to Duty and Allegiance than are words which the old Oath of Fealty is conceived in which all Men were antiently obliged and may yet be required to take to the King in the Court-Leet at twelve years of Age which runs thus viz. You shall swear that from this day forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord King James and his Heirs And Faith and Truth shall bear of Life and Limb and terrene Honour And you shall not know nor hear of any ill or damage intended to him that you shall not defend So help you Almighty God This is as full and comprehensive as the Oath of Supremacy I do promise that I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the Queen's Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. So that the true sense and meaning of the Oath of Supremacy is this viz. I will be true and faithful to our Soveraign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and will to my Power assist and defend all his Rights notwithstanding any pretence made by the Pope or any other Foreign Power to exercise Jurisdiction within the Realm all which Foreign Power I utterly renounce in Matters Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal The Oath of Allegiance is appointed by the Act of 3 Jac. 1. Chap. 4. Intituled An Act for discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants It
recites the daily Experiences that many of his Majesty's Subjects that adhere in their Hearts to the Popish Religion by the Infection drawn from thence by the wicked and devillish Counsel of Jesuits Seminaries and other like Persons dangerous to the Church and State are so far perverted in the point of their Loyalties and due Allegiance to the King's Majesty and the Crown of England as they are ready to entertain and execute any Treasonable Conspiracies and Practices And for the better Trial how his Majesty's Subjects stand affected in point of their Loyalties and due Obedience Enacts that it shall be lawful for any Bishop in his Diocess or any two Justices of the Peace whereof one to be of the Quorum within the Limits of their Jurisdiction out of the Session to require any Person of the age of eighteen Years or above which shall be convict or indicted of Recusancy other than Noblemen c. or which shall not have received the Sacrament twice within the Year then next past or any Person passing in or through the Country unknown that being examined upon Oath shall confess or not deny him or her self to be a Recusant and to take the Oath therein after expressed viz. c. The Oath of Allegiance So that by the occasion of imposing the Oath and by the appointing it to be tendred only to Papists or suspected Papists it is apparent that the Design of the Law-makers was to detect such Persons as were perverted or in danger to be perverted in their Loyalty by Infection drawn from the Popish Religion The form of the Oath makes it yet more evident being wholly levell'd against any Opinion of the Lawfulness of deposing the King or practising any Treason against him upon pretence of his being excommunicated or deprived by the Pope and against any Opinion of the Pope's Power to discharge Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity to their Princes It runs thus viz. I A. B. Do truly and sincerely profess testify and declare in my Conscience before God and the World that our Soveraign Lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of all his Majesty's Dominions and Countries And that the Pope neither of himself nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any Power or Authority to depose the King or to dispose any of his Majesty's Kingdoms or Dominions or to authorize any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance or Obedience to his Majesty or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any Violence or Hurt to his Majesty's Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesty's Subjects within his Majesty's Dominions Also I do swear from my Heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successors or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs and Successors or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and traiterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear that I do from my Heart abhor and detest and abjure as impious and heretical this damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in Conscience am perswaded that neither the Pope nor any Person whatsoever hath Power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledg by good and lawful Authority to be lawfully administred unto me and I do renounce all Parsons and Dispensations to the contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledg and swear according to these express words by me spoken and according to the plain and common Sense and Vnderstanding of the same words without any Equivocation or mental Evasion or secret Reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and Acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true Faith of a Christian So help me God And the Statute of 7 Jacobi cap. 6. recites that Whereas by a Statute made in the third Year of the said King's Reign the form of an Oath to be ministred and given to certain Persons in the same Act mentioned is limited and prescribed tending only to the Declaration of such Duty as every true and well affected Subject not only by bond of Allegiance but also by the Commandment of Almighty God ought to bear to the King his Heirs and Successors Which Oath such are infected with Popish Superstition do oppugne with many false and unsound Arguments the just defence whereof the King had therefore undertaken and worthily performed to the great contentment of all his Subjects notwithstanding the Gainsayings of Contentious Adversaries And to shew how greatly the King 's Loyal Subjects do approve the said Oath they beseech his Majesty that the said Oath be administred to all his Subjects The Pope and Authority of the See of Rome run through the first Paragraph Notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication c. Governs the second Paragraph Excommunicated and deprived the Pope are the material words in the third Paragraph The fourth is added in Majorem cautelam in opposition to the Popish Doctrine of Dispensing with Oaths Absolving Subjects from their Allegiance Equivocations Mental Evasions c. So that as the Oath of Supremacy did but enforce the Antient Oath of Fealty with an acknowledgment of the Queen 's supream Authority in Ecclesiastial Causes and things as well as Temporal and a Renunciation of all Foreign Jurisdictions so the Oath of Allegiance does but enforce the same old Oath of Fealty by obliging the Subjects of England expresly to disown any lawful Authority in the Pope or See of Rome to depose invade or annoy the King his Dominions or Subjects And notwithstanding any Sentence of Excommunication Deprivation c. by the Pope c. to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King his Heirs and lawful Successors And to abjure that Position that it is lawful to depose Princes that are Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope Whatever is added is either Oath over and above what was exprest in the old Oath of Fealty is but as Explanatory of it and branching it out