the whole Kingdom wherein all art and Rhetorick imaginable was used by suing Preaching and begging to draw people to unstring and deposite according to their respective abilities and inclinations by which means the Nation was always kept bare and poor whilst the wealth thereof was carryed away into forrain parts and mostly unto the Kings Enemies as appears by many complaints thereof for that purpose made Particularly Rot. Parl. An. 8 Ed. 3. in a Parliament held An. 8 Ed. 3. a special Petition and complaint was made by the Commons in that behalf And afterwards in several King's raigns a multitude more to the like effect as by our Parliamentary Records it doth appear which for brevities sake we here omit to specifie referring such as would receive further satisfaction therein to that excellent Abridgement of the Tower Records collected by the learned Sir Robert Cotton and lately printed Cardinal Woolsey at one time had raked up Twelve Barrels full of Gold Speed in H. 8. nu 77. and Silver to serve the Pope in his warrs c. CHAP. XII Courts COurts and Jurisdictions of the Pope both at Rome and within the Kingdom drew constantly out of the People's purses incredible Masses of money For to these Courts belonged Judges Officials Delegates Referendaries Commissaries Dataries Scribes Notaries Proctors Registers Summoners Apparitors Clarks Sollicitors and a multitude of other Officers who all by their places and practice grew rich sent great summs to their chief the Pope and help'd to beggar the people In these Courts all causes of Contentions and Instance between party and party as also ex officio were entertained and cherished And the charge and expence going this way was so much the worse in regard of the danger turmoil and vexation continually attending those that had to do in these Courts For by some other wayes men were wheadled and gull'd out of their money to their no small content but here they were squeezed racked and tortur'd as long as their purses or themselves could breath These Courts at first were pretended to be instituted for Ecclesiastical Persons and causes only But then at the instance of Ecclesiastical persons many of the Laicks were cited to Rome to make Answer concerning businesses not at all belonging to the Cognizance of that Court as matters of Inheritances Gages Pawns Contracts c. And Laicks also upon Oath or Allegation that they could not have Justice before their proper Judges were admitted and incouraged to bring their Causes to Rome or out of the King 's into the Pope's Court. And thereupon the Pope's Judges and Officers spared not to disturb all other places of Judicature in derogation of the King's authority excommunicating all that would not obey them And these Courts as they were managed became an accumulative charge and burden to the people For the right of Patronage belonging to divers Lay and Ecclesiastical persons was under Colour of Prevention or Provision by the power and authority of these Courts usurped by the Pope his Legats and Officers when Benefices were vacant and then the same usually conferred on Courtiers Favourites Italians and Strangers And these men dying either at Rome or in their way thither or thence their Benefices were conferr'd again by these Courts upon others to the great wrong of the right Patrons And then great Benefices would not he conferr'd on worthy persons or on any other unless temporary gratuities and continuing Pensions were first given and secured out of them to the Courtiers Dependants and Officers of the Pope And in granting these Benefices many Arts were used to get money under the names of Reservations Permutations Surrogations c. In these Courts also Excommunications were often denounced for trifles but not taken off without great charge Confirmations of Foundations Ecclesiastical Religious and charitable were here purchased with great summs of money When the Pope had any Aid or exhibition from the Ecclesiasticks here were contrivances that they should be sure to be repair'd again by the People All trifling frivolous causes drawn to these Courts but no dismission without good payment No Publick Penance here awarded without some private summs to be paid Licences for money to keep a feme putein Money exacted of Monks and Fryers for concubinage on presumption they had or might have quam pro quo Farming out Livings and Benefices to poor Vicars at such high rates as they were forced to get their money again of the People by Confessions Anniversaries Obits c. Burial denyed to all that died suddenly or by chance on presumption they dyed in mortal sin until here some good summ was paid With infinite other tricks and devices to draw money from the people practised by these Courts and their Officers tedious to enumerate but more intolerable to be born as may in some measure appear by the Stat. of Praemunire and Provisors Vid. Coke Plâ—cit Coren cap. 53. W. Prin Record of King John H. 3 Ed. 1. pointed at in the former discourse with the Suits Attachments and Prohibitions for suing for Lay Fees in these Courts in derogation of the Crown and impoverishing of the People exemplified by Mr. Prinne out of the Tower Records To these Courts also the Popes sometimes would be so audacious as to cite even Kings themselves as claiming Jurisdiction over them Thus Pope Boniface the eighth Matt. Wesâ—m in An. 1301.10.435 having a Controversie with our King Edw. 1. touching the Realm of Scotland which the Pope affirmed belonged to the Church of Rome wrote to the King That if he pretended any Title to the Realm of Scotland he should send his Proctors to the Court of Rome with all his evidences proofs and Instruments touching the same there to have and receive Justice in the premises At another time Pope Innocent the fourth summoned King Henry the third Westm Mâ—tt An. 1246. fo 3â—7 to appear to Answer to one of his Vassals David by name and to give him satisfaction for some wrongs as he said he had done him But in the first case the King by advice of his Lords and Barons slighted the citation and to the other nothing was return'd but scoffs and derision CHAP. XIII Contributions for the Holy Land COntributions for relief of the poor distressed Christians in the Holy Land and to carry on the War against the common Enemy of Christendom were frequently set on foot Sim. Dunelâ—â— Hist fo 249. And by that means great summs were as often drain'd out of the Kingdom but then a small or no part thereof imployed for those purposes Chron. W. Thorn Coll. 1926. Gerviâ—s Dorobern 1522. For to this end the Popes often prevailed with Princes to impose on their subjects and made them the Instruments on this pretence to hook money out of their pockets Johannes Ferentinus was sent hither from the Pope about that matter An. D. 1206. and sped so well in his negotiation and carryed such a great quantity of money away with
this clause or words non obstante was first invented and used in the Court of Rome whereupon Marsil Petav. pronounces a dreadful Vae against that Court for introducing this clause of non obstante as being a bad president and mischievous to all the People of Christendom for when the Temporal Princes perceived the Pope to dispence with his own Canons they made no scruple to imitate him and dispence with their Penal Laws and Statutes Vid. le Case de Penal stat in Coke 7. Rep. and hereupon one Canonist said thus Dispensatio est vulnus quod vulnerat jus commune and another thus That all abuses would be reform'd if these two words viz. non obstante did not hinder And Matt. Paris reciting several Decrees made in the Council of Lions beneficial to the Church Mat. Paris in An. 1245. says thus Sed omnia haec alia per hoc repagulum non obstante infirmantur But now to return We have seen how by several steps and gradations it was after the Norman Conquest that the Court of Rome usurp'd upon the Crown of England in four main points of Jurisdiction under four of our Kings not immediately succeeding for of King Will. Rufus the Pope could gain nothing viz. 1. Upon the Conquerour by sending Legats or Commissioners to hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes and other purposes 2. Upon King Hen. 1. the Donation and Investiture of Bishopricks and other Benefices 3. Upon King Stephen in drawing of Appeals to the Court of Rome 4. Upon King Hen. 2. in the exemption of Clerks from the secular Power all rivetted and clinch'd by the new Decrees and Canons which were continually multiplyed and obtruded here and all this notwithstanding the generous resistances which at several times were made to all Neither would all this satisfie till an entire surrender of the Crown it self was obtain'd from King John re-granted him again to hold in Fee-Farm and Vassallage of the Court of Rome For it was both before in and after this King's time that by the boldness and activity of strangers and treachery or pusillanimity of subjects co-operating with the weaknesses and necessities of Princes the Papacy arrived to that height as to domineer in a most intolerable way both over the Purse the Conscience the Regality and all the most weighty concernments of the Nation Now to redress all this some unequal resistances were at divers times made Vid. Mat. Paris in H. 3. in toto King Hen. 3. was totally born down and his Kingdom and subjects reduced to utter poverty and slavery by this usurpation After him comes the noble King Edw. 1. who truly may be stiled Vindex Libertatis Anglicanae at his Father's death he was abroad in the Holy Land but no sooner return'd and Crown'd and finding his Kingdom in such a bad plight his first work was to put some stop to the career of Papal incroachments For the Pope having then summoned a General Council he would not suffer his Bishops to repair to it till he took a solemn Oath of them for their Loyalty and good abearing Then the Pope forbidding the King to War against Scotland he slights his prohibition and proceeds The Pope demands the First Fruits of Ecclesiastical Livings but the King forbids the payment thereof to him The Pope sends forth a general Bull prohibiting the Clergy to pay Subsidies to Temporal Princes whereupon a Tenth being granted to the King in Parliament the Clergy refused to pay it but the King seiseth their Temporalties for the Contempt and obtained payment notwithstanding the Pope's Buâ— After this he made the Statute of Mortâ—â—ain that the Church might not grow monstrous in temporal possessions In his time one of his subjects brougth in a Bull of Excommunication against another and the King Commanded he should be executed as a Traitor according to the ancient law but the Chancellor and Treasurer on their knees begged that he should be only banished He caused Laws to be made against bringing in of Bulls of Provision and Breves of Citation and made the first Statute against Provisors His Successor King Edw. 2. being but a weak Prince suffered the Pope to grow upon him but then the Peers and People withstood him all they could and when that unhappy King was to be depos'd amongst the Articles fram'd against him one of the most hainous was That he had given allowance to the Pope's Bulls After him King Ed. 3. a magnanimous Prince couragiously resisted the Pope's incroachments and caused the Statutes against Provisors to be severely put in execution and the Bishops of Winchester and Ely and Abbot of Waltham convicted and punished for their high contempts Yet during the nonage of King Rich. 2. the Pope's Bulls Stat. 16 R. 2. ca. 5. Breves and Legats became very busie and daring again whereof the People became so sensible and impatient that upon their special prayer the Stat. 16. R. 2. of Praemunire was enacted more severe and penal than all the former Statutes against Provisors and yet against this King as against King Ed. 2. it was objected at the time of his depose that he had allowed the Pope's Bulls to the enthralling of the Crown After this comes a weak King Hen. 6. and then another attempt was made if possible to revive the usurped Jurisdiction for the commons denying the King money when he was in great wants the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops offered the King a large supply if that he would consent that all the Laws against Provisors and especially that of 16 Ric. 2. might be repealed but the Duke of Glocester who before had burnt the Pope's Letters caused this motion to be rejected so that all those Laws by especial providence have stood in force untill this day All which with the Resolutions and Judicial Judgements before specified founded upon the ancient and good Laws of the Land have enabled our Kings at all times since to vindicate the just Rights of their Crown But King Hen. 8. designing a further Reformation which could not be effected whilest the Pope's authority had any life in England took this course First he writes to the Universities the Great Monasteries and Churches in his Kingdom and in particular May 18. 1534. to the University of Oxford requiring them as men of vertue In Archivis Oxon. ad An. 1534. Antiq. Eccl. Brit. fo 384. 37. Integrity and profound Learning diligently to examine discuss and resolve a certain Question of no small import viz. An Romanus Episcopus habeat majorem aliquam jurisdictionem sibi collatam in Sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alius quivis externus Episcopus and to return their Opinion in Writing under their common seal according to the meer and sincere truth thereof To which after mature deliberation and examination not only of the places of the Holy Scriptures but of the best Interpreters of the same for many days they returned Answer Jun. 27. 1534.
much upon the Clergy afterward though the King and Temporal Lords oftentimes prov'd sturdy Matt. Paris fo 361 362. For Pope Gregory the ninth An. D. 1229. demanded a Tenth of the moveables both of the Lay and of the Clergy to which the Lords would not consent Nolentes Baronias vel Laicas possessiones Rom. Ecclesiae obligare but the Clergy with some grumbling pay'd it And eleven years after he demanded a fifth part of the goods of the Clergy upon which great debate was taken Matt. Paris An. 1240. fo 536. the Clergy appealing to the King that they held their Baronies of the King and could not charge them without his consent that having before given a Tenth this again of a Fifth might create a custom with divers other weighty reasons But all would not do for the King was not against it and the Archbishop for his private ends beginning to deposite all were drawn in at last to pay which occasion'd that complaint the year following Id. fo 549. That there remain'd not so much treasure in the Kingdom as had in three years bin extorted from it the vessels and ornaments of the Church excepted But notwithstanding that reluctancy Matt. Paris fo 549. 666. 701. notwithstanding that notable Remonstrance preferred in the Council of Lions An. D. 1245. from the body of the Kingdom of the heavy burdens the Nation lay under by the exactions of Rome and likewise to the Pope himself the year following Pope Innocent the fourth invented a new way to charge every Religious House to find a number of Souldiers yearly for his service and to fight for the Church militant and about the same time attempted also ut si Clericus extunc decederet intestatus ejusdem bonas in usus D. Papae converterentur that is the Pope would make himself heir or Executor to every Clark that should dye intestate and not long after it was that he received from the Clergy eleven thousand Marks as an addition to six thousand he had receiv'd the year before And then and from that time the Pope made no spare to drain and exhaust the English Clergy at his pleasure to the shameful scandal of the Holy See at that time and to the notorious ignominy poverty and contempt of this Church and the Clergy thereof Matt. Westm Flor. Hist in An. 1301. And of these times it was that Matthew Westminster makes this complaint Porro illis diebus sal terrae caput vulgi in magnum Hydropem ceciderunt quanto enim plus pecuniam humorem hauriebant tanto amplius eam sitiebant Sedit ergo in tristitia fidelium Ecclesia deducta per vocales tutores suos miserabiliter sub tributo In those dayes the Head of the people was fallen into a dropsie which the more money it suck'd in the more it thirsted after more therefore the Church of the faithful sat disconsolate being by her Governours brought under a most miserable tribute and servitude An. D. 1302. Annal. of Ireâ— in Camb. Brit. fo 163. At this time also it was that these grievous exactions reached into Ireland recorded in the Annals thereof That the Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices in England and Ireland were exacted by Pope Boniface the eight for three years as a Subsidy to the Church of Rome against the King of Arragon Neither did our Hyperborean neighbours escape Scot-free in this deluge of exaction Tho. Walsing Hist fo 48. Ypodig Neust fo 89. Flor. Hist in Ed. 1. fo 417. H. Knighton Coll. c. Pol. Vergil Fabian Speed c. Nay no less there would satisfie the Pope but the whole Kingdom for it was that Boniface the eight that then claimed the whole Realm of Scotland as part of St. Peters Patrimony against our K. Edward the first and sent his Bull of demand to the King for that purpose between whom there passed several Answers and Replies in the point and the conclusion was That the incroaching Pope was glad to sit down worsted in the cause the transactions of all which stand registred amongst the Tower Records exemplified at large to posterity by Walsingham Matthew Westminster Knighton and more briefly by others But all this while the poor Clergy languished being continually pill'd poll'd and squeezed by the unlimited avarice of this Pope and his successors emptying the Kingdom of its money and filling it with complaints the product of its poverty CHAP. IV. King John 's Pension THe troublesom raign of our King John is sufficiently related by all our Historians in whose straits the Pope appeared sometimes for him and sometimes against him but once taking him in a great exigence Jo. Serres Hist in Phil. August Matt. Paris in An 1213. fo 236. the King was wrought upon to surrender his Crown to Pandulfus the Pope's Legate and substitute laying the same with his Scepter Robe Sword and Ring the Royal Ensigns at his feet subscribing also as is said to a Charter whereby he surrendred his Kingdom to the Pope and professing that thence forward he would hold his Crown as a Feudatary to the Pope and paying an annual Pension or Tribute of 1000 marks for both his Kingdoms of England and Ireland the insolent behaviour of the Legate at this the Historians fully describe which I list not now to insist on but cannot but remember that Matt. Paris says that with this Charter and 10000 l. sterl in hand Id. fo 237. Pandulfus goes triumphing away to Rome But then when or how long after this yearly rent or tribute of 1000 marks was paid our Writers seem not to agree though all concur in the invalidity of the surrender Vid. Speed Chron. in vita Johan Rot. Parl. An. 40 Ed. 3. And at a Parliament held at Westm An. 40 Ed. 3. the Chancellour then Bishop of Ely declared to the Lords and Commons How the King understood that the Pope for the Homage that K. John did to the See of Rome for the Realms of England and Ireland and for the Tribute by him granted meant by Process to cite the King to Rome to Answer thereunto wherein the King required their advice The Bishops for themselves desired respite of Answer till the next day as also did the Peers and Commons at which time the whole Estate came together and by common consent Enacted and Declared That forasmuch as neither King John nor any other King could bring this Realm and Kingdom in such thraldom and subjection but by common assent of Parliament the which was not done And therefore that which he did was against his Oath at his Coronation besides many others causes If therefore the Pope should attempt any thing against the King by process or other matters in deed that the King with all his Subjects should with all their force and power resist the same Then for the Tribute or Pension of 1000 marks it appears to have been sometimes paid with intermissions for Pope Honorius having gratified K. Hen.
never come empty handed and this was very frequently injoined to others in such or the like cases Now for the particulars of these Appeals I could produce a multitude of instances and Cases but designing brevity I had rather refer you to Mat. Paris and others who are not sparing therein I shall only upon this Head further note that not only many particular persons were ruin'd and undone by reason of the great expenses they were put unto upon this account at Rome but also many religious Houses and Covents became by that means so impoverished that they would certainly have been utterly broken and dissolved if some extraordinary courses had not been taken for their support as once the Abbot Par. 3 Ed. 1. m. 13. Pre Abbate Conventu de Fevâ—â—sham and Covent of Feversham being greatly indebted to Merchants Usurers and others by reason of their vast ex ences at Rome the King by his Soveraign Authority to preserve them and their House from ruine took them with all their Possessions Fulco Peyforer Hamon Doges Lands Goods and Chattles into his special protection and committed them to the management of certain persons for the discharge of their debts and their necessary support as appears by the Patent for that purpose yet to be seen but too large to be here inserted Lambert Peromb in Feversham Note it was the Monks of this Abby of Feversham that once contended in a Controversie with King John both by way of Appeal to Rome and by force of Arms against the Sheriff and the Posse Comitatus but had the ill fortune to be worsted at every turn The like Protection and Provision in the same form and for the same reason was granted and made by King Ed. 1. to the Abbots and Covents of Bordesley and Bynedon And also to the Prior and Covent of Thornholm but the custody of them their Lands and Goods were granted to other persons CHAP. VI. Dispensations DIspensations Vid. Centum gravamina Gâ—rm An. D. 1521. and Absolutions from cases reserved and Faculties were other great means of drawing vast summs of money hence to Rome And for the managing and dispencing of these the Popes had their Ministers Officers and Courts ready to make out and grant these Dispensations to such as had occasion or to whom it would be a convenience to purchase them and that in a multitude of cases As to Dispence with one man to hold two Bishopricks or a Plurality of Benefices To make Infants capable of Benefices and Offices To Legitimate Bastards To qualifie persons to marry within the degrees prohibited by the Canons or by God's Law To lay aside Habits of Professions Regular to revert to a secular State To give liberty to live without Rules Order and Discipline which had bin entered into For liberty not to keep rash or prejudicial Oaths To eat Flesh at times ordinarily forbidden To wave the performance of Vows To rescind contracts marriages and covenants And innumerable other the like cases in which exact care was taken that the party purchaser should be served to the height of his ability and the benefit of the Dispensation King Henry the third Matt. Paris in Hen. 3. swore to maintain Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta with other liberties of the People and for that had a great Subsidy given him but for money the Pope Dispenced with his Oath and then he would perform nothing Simon Montford Id. An. 1238. fo 471. Earl of Leicester marryed the Daughter of King John named Elianor who was professed in Religion at which King Henry the third and others being offended the Earl posts to Rome and there effusa promissa infinita pecunia as the Historian hath it he obtained of the Pope to give Order to his Legate Otho to give sentence for the marriage John of Gaunt Tho. Walsing in E. 3. An. 1359. Cambd. An. Eliz. fo 2. Sr. Fr. Bacon Hist Hen. 7. fo 199. by a like Dispensation marryed his Cousin Blanch. King Hen. 8. Marryed his Brothers Widdow by such a Dispensation not cheaply obtained for a noble Author sayes the Pope was very difficil in granting it not for want of power I suppose but to scrue the more money out of the Royal Purchaser It was Pope Julius the Second that gave this Dispensation But asterwards the validity of the Marriage upon such a Dispensation being questioned as being directly against the Scripture Pope Clement 7. at the instance of King Henry Hist Cont. Trid lib. 1. fâ— 68. Camb. Speed c. sent Cardinal Campeggio into England framing a Bull or Breve to dissolve the King's marriage with Queen Catharine to be published when some few proofs were passed which were made ready and to give liberty to the King to marry another But afterwards the Pope conceiving it would disgust the Emperour who was Katharines near Kinsman he sent another Nuntio to Campeggio with order to burn the Bull and to proceed slowly in the cause Resolving like his Predecessor to make the best advantages he could of the plenitude of his power But the King perceiving the juggling went another way to work and how he procured his marriage to be vacated our Histories and Records testifie Also Charls the fifth Emperour procured a marriage between Philip his Son and Mary Queen of England by a Dispensation from Pope Julius the third because they were allyed in the third degree and that Charls himself had contracted to marry her when he was under age Camb. Annal. Eliz. And after her death King Philip desirous to keep his interest in England treated seriously of a marriage with Queen Elizabeth his late wives sister with promise to obtain a special Dispensation from the Pope which the French King laboured secretly to hinder but the Queen gave him a repulse By vertue of these Dispensations it is Sr. Edw. Sâ—nds Earop Spec. 〈◊〉 that the House of Austria for some reasons of State marry all amongst themselves so continuing all of the same family or as limbs of the same body Whereby Philip the second of Spain might have called the Archduke Albert both Brother Cousin Nephew and Son for he was so either by blood or affinity being Uncle to himself Cousin-german to his Father Husband to his Sister and Father to his Wife And it so hapned that by reason of the multitude of Canons as were put forth by divers Popes of restrictions and limitations very few Princely Families in Europe could at any time intermarry without Dispensations from such or such a Canon and then let the Pope alone for setting his own rates and prices upon his own Instruments As great summs of money came thus to the Popes upon their Dispensations in point of marriage So frequently they made their advantages by dispensing with promises Vows and Oaths How King Henry the third obtained a Dispensation about Magna-Charta we have touched before And that power claimed and exercised by the Popes made
injoined such penances as made to the prejudice of the sinners purse but their own profit Of the Exorbitances of these cloister'd Monks and Fryers many examples might be produced as of their Ribauldry Lechery Quarelling Fighting Idleness Cheating Thieving Debauchery Gluttony c. all maintain'd by the People's money but we will here content our selves with one instance only Cook 4 Insti c. 11. fo 112. King Edward the first about the latter end of his raign having collected a vast summ of money to carry on his warr against the Scots and layd it up in his Treasury at Westminster his Treasury was broken up in the night and one hundred thousand pounds in money besides Plate and Jewels stol'n out of it by the Abbot and Monks of Westminster and their confederates whereof eight and forty Monks with the Abbot were apprehended and sent Prisoners to the Tower and by Inquisition and examination of witnesses it appeared that divers of the Monks and other persons in the night time were seen often passing to and fro the Kings treasury Pat. 31 Ed. 1. m. 23. dors De inquirend de thesaurar Regis fracto and the Abby carrying bundles in their arms and laps and that they conveyed away by water great hampers that were very heavy and some part of the King's Plate and Jewels were found and seised in London and other places upon which the Monks were long detained in prison till afterwards released by the King 's special command when he repaired to Westminster to give thanks to God for his Victories over the Scots Matthew Westminster Matt. Westm An. 1303. a Monk of that Abby minceth this story of the Robbery of the Kings Treasury in favour of the Monks and sayes that only Ten of them were imprisoned when it appears by the Record that 48 of them Cook ut Supra with the Abbot were imprisoned and Indited for it And upon this occasion it was that the Court of Exchequer sometimes called the Novel Exchequer was new built Chanterys Free-Chappels and Colledges as they were instituted and employed spent and exhausted huge summs of money and revenues the purposes of which expence will appear in the brief description of the nature of those Foundations A Chantery so called à Cantando was a Chappel commonly annexed to some Parochial Chantery Collegiate or Chathedral Church endowed with Lands or some other yearly revenues for the maintenance of one or more Priests daily to sing Masse Vid. Stat. 37 H. 8. ca. 4. 1 Ed. 6. ca. 14. for the souls of the Donors or Founders and such others as they did appoint Now the exact number of all these in England cannot be known for they were very numerous but if at Mathematician measured Hercules by his foot a probable conjecture may be made of them from those which were founded in the Chathedral of St. Paul in London for in the second year of King Ed. the sixth a certificate was returned by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to the King's Commissioners affirming that they had seven and forty Chanterys in that Church according to which proportion there was certainly a vast revenue swallowed up by them throughout the whole Kingdom For there was not a Cathedral or Collegiate Church in England but some number of Chanterys were founded in them and in many Parochial Churches also And if the modell of the Country Churches be observed very often some additional building or excrescence appears differing from the old or first Fabrick erected and used for these Chanterys And that the nature and use of these may be the better apprehended we will here specifie the Foundation and Ordination of one of them viz. Thomas de Pakinton in the year 1348. W. Duadale Amiq. Warw. in Chelmscote An. 22. Edward the third founded a Chantery at Chelmescote in Warwickshire and setled Lands and Tenements of a good value to maintain four Priests to sing Mass for his Lord the Earl of Warwick his Countess Children and Ancestors as also for himself his Parents Kinsfolks and their posterity and for the Souls of all faithful people deceased in manner following viz. Two of them which were to inhabite near the Chappel at Chelmscote every day to sing the Mattens of the day and of the blessed Lady with all Canonical hours distinctly and openly and to sing Mass daily viz. one of them every Sonday and on the great Festivals and on Monday the Mass of the holy Trinity Tuesday of St. Thomas the Martyr on Wednesday of St. Katherine and St. Margaret Thursday of Corpus Christi Friday of the holy Cross and Saturday of the Annunciation of our Lady The other Priest to celebrate every day the Mass of Requiem for the Souls of all faithful departed this life and in every Mass to say 7 Collects one of the celebration of the Mass the second for him the said Thomas de Pukinton viz. Deus qui Caritatis c. the third also for him after his death Deus cujus misericordiae c. the fourth of St. Thomas the Martyr the fifth of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin the sixth for the Souls of the deceased beginning with Inclina the seventh the general Collect which beginneth Sanctissima Dei genetrix Maria especially naming therein the said Earl his Countess and Children and him the said Thomas de Pakinton and all his kindred and upon all Holy dayes to say a Placebo and Dirige with special commendation of the Souls of the Persons before spoken of and the souls of all the faithful deceased Likewise he ordained that the other two Priests should live together near the Church and be daily present therein at Mattens and all other Canonical hours to joyn with the other Priests except just cause and hinderance happened and daily sing Mass at the Altar near his Fathers grave And that all these Priests before their admission to these Chanterys should take their corporal Oaths to observe all the Orders to their utmost power And this Ordination containing several other particulars was confirm'd by the Canons of Kenilworth Rectors of the Church by John de Chelmescote Vicar the Earl of Warwick and Bishop of Worcester Free-Chappels were such as were founded Free-Chappels and endowed and had no relation unto or dependance on a Mother-Church saving only the right of Sepulture and these were greater than Chanterys having greater Revenues and more room for Priests and more Priests for that room to fing Mass and pray for the souls of the Founders and others according to the institution Colledges were Foundations of like nature Colledges and though fewer in number yet were richer than both the former amongst which the Colledge of Fotheringhay Speed Catal. in Northampt. in Northamptonshire was yearly valued at four hundred nineteen pounds eleven shillings ten pence half-penny For the Offices and imployments of the Priests in these and the Free-Chappels maintained they were much of the nature of Chanterys of
12. but by matter of Record and that in regard of the Dignity of his Person Secondly Causa Necessitatis as in case to avoyd the Attainder of him that hath Right to the Crown As if the right Heir to the Crown be Attaint of High Treason yet shall the Crown descend to him and eo instanti when it happens without any other reversal the Attainder is purged as it fell out in the Case of King Henry 7. lest in the interim 1 Hen. 7. fo 4. b. there should be an Interregnum which the Law of England will not suffer any more than nature doth a Vacuum As also by vertue of this Politick Capacity though the King be within Age yet he may make Leases and Grants and the same shall be valid for otherwise his revenue would decay and the King would not be able to reward service c. Thirdly Causa Vtilitatis As when Lands and Tenements or Possessions descend from his collateral Ancestors being Subjects as suppose from the Earl of March c. to the King the King is seised or possessed of them jure Coronae in his Politick Capacity and they shall go with the Crown And in this Capacity it was that Queen Elizabeth had and injoyed all that belonged to Queen Mary though they were but Sisters of the half Blood which no others could do And as the Crown of England is Descendible to the Heirs males yet when a King dies and leaves no Son but Daughters only the Crown and Dignity Royal descends to the Kings eldest Daughter alone and to her Posterity and so it hath bin declared by a Parliament for Regnum non est divisibile Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 22. And there shall be no Possessio fratris of the Lands of the Crown for the quality of the Person doth in these and many other likes cases alter the descent So as all the Lands and Possessions whereof the King is seised or possessed jure coronae shall attend upon and follow the Crown unto whomsoever it shall Descend for the Crown and the Possessions of the same are concomitantia The naturall Body of the King being thus invested with his Politick and Royal Capacity we behold him as the Representative and Lieutenant of God Almighty who is King of Kings All Power is from God and Imperium non nisi Divino fato datur And therefore Plato did say That God did not appoint and establish men that is men of a common sort and sufficiency and purely Humane to rule and govern others cautiously to be understood but such as by some Divine touch singular vertue and gift of Heaven do excel others and therefore they are called Heroes and stand in Comparison with others as we may conceive of the Air which if we do compare with the Heavens it is a kind of Earth but if we compare it with the Earth it is then a kind of Heaven So of King's if we compare them with God Almighty they are but a kind of men but if we compare them with other men they are a kind of gods both intimated in that of the Psalmist I have said ye are gods but ye shall dye like men This Royal majesty of the King of England is replenished with plenary and undoubted Right and Authority to rule and govern all his Subjects and that in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal For this Kingdom of England is a Soveraign Empire or Monarchy consisting of one Head the Soveraign or King and of a Body Politick the People and this Body is distinguished into the Clergy and the Laity all of them intirely Subject to their Royal Head the King who as before is said is furnished and instituted with an intire Authority over every Subject of what degree or quality soever and that in all causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal For otherwise the King would be imperfect in his Authority contrary to the true notion of Soveraignty and thereby disabled to deliver Justice in all causes to all his Subjects or to punish all crimes and offences within his Dominions a consideration of high import for the necessary security both of Prince and People But notwithstanding the full and Soveraign Right of the King to rule and govern all his Subjects and that in all causes and consequently the just and necessary duty of all his Subjects to yield a full and intire Obedience to all the Kings good Laws for it is the Law that measures out and spiriteth the King's Authority as it directs and enforces the Subject's Obedience yet so it hath bin and so it is in our Antinomian times partly by the obstinacy and devotedness of some the weakness and ignorance of others and the peevishness and perversness of many that there is a multitude of natural born Subjects in this Kingdom who in defiance of the Laws both in their Opinions and Practices deny or oppose our Soveraigns Supremacy On the one hand there are the Sectaries who notwithstanding the Law is the Standard of true Allegiance make the ground the rule and measures of their Allegiance to be their own private fancies And though the Law is the bright Sun shining in the Horizon of this Kingdom by the Light whereof every one ought to guide his actions yet these men out-stare this Sun and giddily run some of them after the Ignis fatuus of a pretended Light within them some after the false fires of a misguided zeal too many after the Boutfeaus or male-content Incendiaries and some after the very fumes of Hypochondriacal fits mistaken for visions and Revelations On the other hand there are the Devoto's of Rome who in contempt of the King's Laws and Authority make the rules and measures of their Allegiance to be the will and pleasure of a Forrainer As the Sectaries set up a Pope in every man's Conscience whilst they invest it with a power to control the Decrees of Princes and new Lights for themselves to live and walk by these contrarily put out their own Eyes and give themselves up to be led by an infallible Head as they think to whom whilst they yield a blind Obedience they cannot see to be good Subjects These men of both sorts strike at our Supremacy the very foundation and heart-string of Government and by whom the very Sinews of Soveraignty are cut asunder when either upon the suggestions of fanatical delusions or the imperious awes of an extraneous Power the King 's natural Subjects shall audaciously lift up their Hands and Heels against him My Province at this time to wave all disputes shall only be to make some discovery of those Foundations of Law Right and Authority whereon our King's Supremacy is built by the Legal and unquestionable Historical Evidences and Manifesto's of the same and whilst I keep close there I shall be sure to be on a safe bottom I shall not pretend to wade into the vast Ocean of the King's Prerogative in all its extensions but shall confine my self to the affair
of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters without professing yet a stature to reach the top of this sublime or the bottom of this profound concern In the first place then we are to know that the King 's just and lawful Authority in Ecclesiastical matters is in part declared by a statute made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth Stat. 1 Eliz. Ca. 1. Non novam introduxit sed antiquam declaravit Coke 5. Rep. Cawdrys Case fo 8. And it was one of the Resolutions of the Judges in Cawdry's Case That the said Act of the First year of the Queen concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not a Statute introductory of a new Law but Declaratory of the Old But for our purpose it will be sufficient to transcribe the Preamble of the Act which runs thus Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithful and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled that where in time of the raign of your most dear Father of worthy memory King Henry 8. divers good Laws and Statutes were made as well for the better extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forrain powers and authorities out of this your Realm and other your Highness Dominions and Countrys as also for the * Nota. restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdictions authorities Superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging by reason whereof we your most humble and obedient Subjects from the 25. year of the raign of your said dear Father were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intolerable charges before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forrain power and authoritie as before that was usurped 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 raigns of the late King Philip and Queen Mary your Highness Sister Intituled An Act repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick of Rome since the 20th year of King Henry 8. and also for the establishment of all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the Laity were all clearly repealed and made void as by the same Act of repeal more at large appears By reason of which Act of repeal your said humble Subjects were est-soons brought again under an usurped forrain power and authority and yet do remain in that bondage to the intolerable charges of your loving Subjects if some redress by the Authority of this your High Court of Parliament with the assent of your Highness be not had and provided May it therefore please your Highness for the repressing of the said usurped forrain power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this your Realm that it may be Enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament c. And then it proceeds to Repeal the said Act of Philip and Mary and revives the former Statutes of King Hen. 8. and King Edw. 6. abolisheth all usurped forrain powers and authorities and restoreth and uniteth all Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorites and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical to the Imperial Crown of this Realm This Statute doing Right to the Queen and her Successors ever since as in Temporal Causes the Kings of England by the mouths of their Judges in the Courts of Justice have judged and determined the same by the Temporal Laws of England So in all Ecclesiastical and spiritual Causes as Blasphemy Ecclesiastical Causes Stat. de circumsuecte agatis 13 Edw. 1. Articuli Cleri 9 Edw. 2. Fitzh Nat. Bre. 41 42 43 c. Apostasie from Christianity Heresie Schisme Ordering Admissions and Institution of Clarks Celebration of Divine service Rites of Matrimony Divorces Bastardy Substraction and Right of Tiths Oblations Obventions Dilapidations Reparation of Churches Probate of Wills and Testaments Administrations and Accounts upon the same Simony Fornication Incest Adulteries Sollicitation of Chastity Appeals in Ecclesiastical causes Commutation of Penance Pensions Procurations c. the Conusans of all which belongs not to the Common Law but the determination and decision of the same hath been by Ecclesiastical Judges according to the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this his Realm And although the said Stat. 1 Eliz. declares how and by whom the King may appoint the same to be done yet as is intimated before the King by Law may do the same although that Statute had not bin made And hence it was that Stephen Gardiner the noted Bishop of Winchester Significantiori vocabulo competentem Principi jure Divino poâ—estâ—tem exprâ—mi clarius voluâ—runt in his Oration De vera Obedientia once said That by the Parliaments stiling of King Hen. 8. Head of the Church it was no new invented matter wrought only their mind was to have the power pertaining to a Prince by God's law to be more clearly expressed by this Emphatical compellation And certainly this was the ground of that answer which King James gave to the Non-conforming Divines at the conference at Hampton Court upon the seven and thirtieth Article of the Church of England the said Divines urging that these words in the Article viz. Confer at Hamp Court fo 37. The Bishop of Rome hath no Authority in this land were not sufficient unless it was added nor ought to have To which the King being somewhat moved roundly replyed What speak you of the Pope's authority here Habemus jure quod habemus and therefore in as much as it is said He hath not it is plain and certain enough that he ought not to have Nor is this Authority united to the Crown of England only but of right also to all other Christian Crowns and accordingly avowed by all other Christian Princes And to this purpose I could multiply the Suffrages of many antient Fathers and Doctors of the Church but my aim being rather at matter of fact I will forbear the particularizing the explicite Judgements and Declarations of those Devout and just men who were as careful in its degree and proportion to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's as to God the things that are God's But for the matter of practice And in the first place here I cannot but take notice That in the first Ages of Christianity Religion did not only subsist but spread by immediate influence from Heaven only but when by vertue of the same influence it had once prevailed and triumphed over all oppositions of Pagan superstition and persecution and subdued the Emperours themselves and became the Imperial Religion then Ecclesiastical Authority assumed and fixed it self in its natural and proper place and the excercise of its Jurisdiction and what that was I shall shew also was restored to the Imperial Diadem and Constantine was no sooner setled in his Imperial Throne but he took the settlement of all Ecclesiastical
purpose we must know that after the Power of the Bishops of Rome came to some consistency in the world and the Pope began to look upon himself as a spiritual Prince or Monarch he presently began to attempt to give Laws to Nations and People as a badge of his Soveraignty but then well knowing That ubi non est condendi authoritas ibi non est parendi necessitas he would not impose those Laws at first peremptorily upon all People but offered them timide and precario and in such places where he presumed they would find the freest reception and in order to this at first he caused certain Rules to be collected for the Order and Government of the Clergy only which he called Decreta and not Laws or Statuta and these Decrees as they were called were first published in the year 1150 in the raign of our King Stephen and whereas Sr. Edward Coke Sr Ed. Coke Pref. aâ— 8. Relat. in the Preface to the eighth Report sayes that Roger Bacon the learned Fryer saith in his Book de impedimentis Sapientiae That King Stephen forbad by publick edict that no man should retain the Laws of Italy then brought into England we may with some assurance intend it of these Decrees about that time compil'd and publish'd And these were received Keilways Rep. 7 Hen. 8. fo 184. and observed by the Clergy of the Western Churches only for those of the Eastern Churches would never admit these Rules or Canons Afterwards the Bishops of Rome attempted to bring the Laity also under the obedience of these Canons and for that purpose they first began with Rules or Canons about abstinence and dayes of Fasting to be observed by the Laity Maâ—sil Pat. lib. Defens Pac. pa. 2. c. 23 Durard Rat. Di. l. 4. c. 6 7. as well as Clergy which at the first institution were termed by that mild word Rogationes and thence the week of Fasting before the Feast of Pentecost came to be called Rogation week in regard this time of Abstinence was at first appointed by an Ordinance called Rogatio and not Praeceptum or Statutum When the Laity had swallowed this Ordinance of Fasting then De una praesumptione ad aliam transivit Romanus Pontifex as Marsil Pata hath it that is the Bishop of Rome proceeded to make and publish several other orders by the name of Decretals and these were published about the year 1230. An. 14 Hen 3. Mat. Paris in Hen. 3. fo 417. and made or proposed to bind all the Laity as well Princes as their Subjects in several matters relating to their Civil and Temporal concerns As That no Lay-man should have the Donation of Ecclesiastical Benefices That no Lay man should marry within certain degrees out of the degrees limited by the Levitical Law That all Infants born before Espousals should after Espousals be adjudged Legitimate and capable to inherit That all Clarks should be exempt from the Secular Power and divers more such like But then we must know that these Decretals so made were not intirely and absolutely receiv'd in all parts of Christendom but only at first in the Temporal Territory of the Pope which on that account is call'd by the Canonists Patria Obedientiae but wholly rejected in England France and other Christian Countreys which thence are sometimes called Patriae consuetudinariae as resolving to adhere to their old Laws and Customs As the Canon that prohibits Donation of Benefices per Laicam manum was always disobeyed in England France the Realm of Naples and divers other Countrys The Canon to legitimate Infants born before marriage was specially rejected in England when in the Parliament held at Merton Stat. de Merton An. 20 Hen. 3. Omnes Comites Barones una voce responderunt Keilway 7 H. 8. fo 181. b. Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari quae hucusq usitatae sunt c. The Canon that exempted Clerks from the Secular Power was never observed fully in any part of Christendom Infallible arguments that these Canons received not the force of Laws from the Court of Rome as if that had power to give Laws to all Nations without their respective consents but the approbation and usage of the People received them as they pleased partially and specially as to Places Times and parts of those Canons and for the same reason that some rejected one others did more and some all of them as Bodin says Bodin de Repub lib. 1. cap. 8. That the Kings of France upon erecting of their Universities there declare in their Charters that the Profession of the Civil and Canon Laws may there be receiv'd and used according to discretion but not to bind as Laws Now when the Bishop of Rome perceived that many of his Canons were embraced in several Countreys under colour thereof he claim'd Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within those Realms with power to interpret and dispence with his own Canons and for that purpose sent his Legates about with Commissions to hear and determine causes according to those Laws which upon their first exhibition Marsil Pat. ut supr pa. 2. c. 23. as is before noted he durst not call Laws or Statuta ne committeret crimen laesae Majestatis in Principes as Marsil Patav observes who further says that these Canons inasmuch as they were made by the Pope neque sunt humanae leges neque divinae sed documenta quaedam narrationes But as is said when he perceiv'd they were allowed and used in part or in whole in divers Countreys they were revised digested and compil'd into Volumes and called Jus Canonicum and being appointed to be read and expounded in publick Schools and Universities they were commanded to be obeyed by all under pain of Excommunication with declaration of the Pope's power to interpret abrogate or dispence with them at his pleasure and thereupon the Canonists say Lib. 6. de Const cap. Licet Papa in omnibus pure positivis in quibusdam ad jus Divinum pertinentibus dispensare potest quia dicitur omnia jura habere in scrinio pectoris sui quantum ad interpretationem dispensationem In the 25th year of King Ed. 1. An Dom. 1297 Tho. Walsing Stow in hoc anno one Simon a Monk of Walden began first to read the Canon Law in the University of Cambridge and the year after it began to be read also in the University of Oxford in the Church of the Friers Praedicants and from that time got ground in England being sometimes admitted and sometimes rejected according to the Ebb or Flow of the Papal interest here but how really this Canon Law was an innovation and usurpation here it is sufficient but to peruse the Preamble to the Statute of Faculties Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. and Dispensations made in the raign of King Hen. 8. to which the Reader is referred As another Branch of the Pope's power in the matters aforesaid we may observe that
and Religion than in those that dwelt nearest to Rome the main point of Religion there practised being how to draw this Prince or that State or Territory under the Spiritual Dominion of the Pope Pâ—atin in vits Gâ—â—g 7. there esteemed the very Atlas of the World with power to depose dispose and impose in all Kingdoms as he please But for true Christianity Hosâ— in de Orâ—g Monac li. 6. ca. 66. Hospinian affirms that the name of Christian in the Italian tongue was used to note a Block-head and a Fool. Add to this the many Treasons Rebellions Perjuries Wars and Commotions raised in Christendom about this very quarrel And for this main drift of the Papacy for Dominion in all places but now mentioned it is visible that the Pope's Supremacy is the foundation that supports the whole building of that Hierarchy and therefore it hath been thought necessary by them always to lay that stone in the first place As about the year 1594. the Bishops of South Russia being under the King of Poland but of the Greek Church submiâ—ted themselves to the Bishop of Rome in the point of Jurisdiction yet not without special reservation of the Greek Religion Brierw Inquir cap. 18. fo 138. and Rites before they would acknowledge their subjection as appears by the Articles of conditions extant Whereby it is manifest that the Pope aim'd not so much to reduce those Churches to the Truth as to his own Obedience As the Emperours and our Kings John and King Hen. 8. thunder'd against only for impugning the Pope Supremacy though they held all other points of Romish Religion And as the Papacy gained in this matter in some places and in some measure so it lost much more in others by straining and aspiring to an unlimitted authority suis ipsa Roma viribis ruitâ— For when the Pope and his Clergy endeavoured the advancement of their Sâ—veraignty over the World upon this occasion any Countreys fell away not only from 〈◊〉 Dominion but also from many other corrupt Dâ—ctrines of the Church of Rome For when they perceived that the chief struggle and design was for Temporal Greatness that many conclusions tending to that end were obtruded as Articles of Faith so manifestly contrary to the Dictates of Christianity and prejudicial to the Rights of others Then both Princes and People began to look into their Title and examine their Evidences and finding them all defective and defeasible thought there was no other remedy but quite to cut off that Power that would not be confin'd whereby this Image of Papal Supremacy became broken and thrown down in many Countreys and is but in a tottering condition in several others at this day The Kings and Princes of the Earth maintaining the just Rights of their Crowns and Kingdoms against this Usurpation on these and the like grounds and reasons viz. That the Title and Power of Kings is far more ancient than this pretended Spiritual Dominion and Quod prius est tempore potius est jure and that in this sence Grace destroyeth not nature and Kings must not lose by becoming Christians That Dominion is expresly given in Scripture unto Kings and is as expresly denyed in Scripture unto the Clergy That as the Pope claimeth at best to be but the Vicar of Christ and that not as he was God it is most certain that Christ never impeach'd impair'd or impos'd upon the Temporal Right of any man the same Authority that Princes had either by the Law of Nature or of Nations before his coming the same he left untouch'd at his departure neither did any of the Apostles or Disciples after his recess ever innovate in the same That the Church in this world is not at home but in a state of perigrinancy and militancy and it is neither Reason nor Justice that strangers should either expell or domineer over the ancient Inhabitants and Melior est conditio possidentis as the Lawyers speak That the proper Rights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacra Regni Sacra sublimâ—â— and Qualities of Majesty and Soveraignty are to be both perpetual and absolute as not depending upon any other nor subject to any exception or restraint That these Rights consist in managing affairs of the highest nature which cannot be separated from the Soveraign Power for upon the guiding of them all the fortunes of a State depend That nothing is of so high a nature in a State as Religion for inasmuch as Religion commandeth the Conscience Religio à Religando and holdeth the soul in subjection if supremacy therein be acknowledged in any forrainer the very sinews as I may say of Soveraignty are cut asunder And it is the most destructive Error in Policy and Government to allow to any other a power of disposing or declaring in matters of Religion either besides above or against the Prince himself by which means any King or Prince would soon be despoil'd of his Authoriâ—y and his Subjects drawn from their due Allegiance upon pretences of Conscience and Religion But now for a Conclusion of this Discourse touching the Kings Supremacy it will be but pertinent and reasonably expected to clear one thing viz. whereas upon restitution of that Right to the Crown by the Statute made in the First year of Queen Elizabeth some were induced to conceive by the generality of the words that affirm her Majesty to be Supream Governor as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical causes as Temporal c. as if it had bin an usurping upon the Sacred function of the Church properly belonging to them in Sacred Orders To give satisfaction in this we may in the first place observe in what Sphears and in what distances all the Divines agree that Ecclesiastical Authority doth move and for our purpose at this time Bellarmine shall suffice for all Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. li. 4. c. 22. s 1. who divides Spiritual Power into that of Ordinis and that of Jurisdictionis For that of Ordinis it appears chiefly in the Administration of the Sacraments That of Jurisdiction is held to be double First Internal where the Divine or Holy man by Demonstrations Perswasions Instructions Heavenly Counsel and the like so convinceth the inward Conscience of a man as it presently resigns and yields obedience to that which is proposed as did those Three Thousand Souls Acts 2.37 41. which were converted at the Preaching of St. Peter Secondly External when Christians in foro exteriori are compelled to their duty and Obedience Now for that first power of Order and for that power of Jurisdiction Internal our Kings never claimed or pretended to claime or excercise them or either of them The example of Vzza sufficiently lessoning all persons to keep within their due and proper distances and Offices in God's service 2 Sam. 6.7 this bold person being immediately stricken by the Divine Hand for his error and for his acting an irregular part in the holy Procession of the Ark.