an ancient and well-grounded Institution Neither need wee any better or other proofe of the inconnexion of this Vow with holy Orders then that of their owne Dominicus à Soto Non est de essentia Sacerdotis c. It is not of the essence of a Priest saith he to keepe single for that the Grecian Clergy are permitted euen by the Roman Church to continue in the estate of Marriage What can be more cleare If there were a necessarie and inseparable connexion of a vowed Continencie with holy Orders then would not neither could the Roman Church acknowledge a true Priesthood where it finds coniugall Societie Their act of allowance to the Greeke Church implyes a faire independencie of these two which some of their clamorous Clients plead to haue indiuisibly coupled So as now all the strength of this necessary Celibate is resolued into the power of a Church-Statute and of what Church but the Roman All other Churches in the World as of Armenia Grecia Syria Ethiopia Russia the Georgians c. allow the coniunction of Ministerie and Marriage and are so farre from requiring a Vow of necessarie Continencie that they rather erroniously prerequire a necessitie of Marriage in the persons to be ordained It is onely the Church of Rome the great and imperious Mistresse of the World that imposes the yoke of this Vow vpon her Vassals Imposes it but ad libitum so as her great Paramour in whose vast Bosome that whole Church lyes may dipense with it as he lists Heare that irrefutable discourse of Cardinall Caietan His wordes beare weight and are not vnworthie the eyes of my Reader Therefore saith he since the Pope may at his pleasure loose the Bond of that Statute it followes necessarily that if a Priest of the Westerne Church shall marrie by the Popes leaue without any reasonable cause that such Marriage of his is a true Marriage and the parties married are true Husband and Wife and their Issue truly legitimate although in so marrying both the parties should sinne mortally in doing this act against the Vow of Chastitie without a reasonable or at least a probable cause of their so licencing and consequently neither should the Pope himselfe bee excused from mortall sinne But if there be any reasonable cause of dispensing with this Vow of Chastitie then the partie thus marrying and dispensed with may both safely marry and liue in Marriage And hereupon it appeares That since a reasonable cause of dispensing with this Vow of Chastitie may be not onely the publike Vtilitie whether Ciuill or Ecclesiasticall but any other greater good then the obseruing of that Chastitie it iustly followes that the Pope not onely may but with a safe Conscience may dispense with a Priest of the Westerne or Romane Church that he may marry euen besides the cause of a publike benefit And therefore the determination of some hath beene too presumptuous in affirming That absolutely and without such cause the Pope cannot dispence whereas as we haue shewed the Pope may doe it without any cause though in so doing he should sinne and with any reasonable cause without sinne and in both the Matrimonie stands firme Thus he Words that need neyther Paraphrase nor Inforcement And how vsuall the practice of this Dispensation hath beene that we may not rest onely in Speculation appeares enough by the ingenuous complaint of their selected Cardinals to Paul the third Who cry downe the abuse of these ouer-frequent Grants which they would not haue yeelded but vpon publike and weightie Causes especially say they in these Times wherein the Lutherans vrge this matter with so much vehemence Neither is it long since our kind Apostate M. Carier gaue vs here in England from bigger Men then himselfe an ouerture of the likelyhood of this liberall Dispensation from his holy Father of Rome vpon the conditions of our re-subiection Would we therefore but stoope to kisse the Carbuncle of that sacred Toe our Clergy might as well consist with holy Wedlocke as the Grecian Oh the grosse mockerie of Soules not more ignorant then credulous Will his Holinesse dispense with vs for our sinne Wee can be dispensed with at home for his Dispensation It is their Sorrow that the World is growne wiser and findes Heauen no lesse neere to Douer-Cliffe then to the Seuen-Hills And ere we leaue this Point it is very considerable what may be a reasonable cause of this Dispensation For those very Iesuites which hold the power of this Vow such That the vehementest tentations and foyles of the flesh may not be relieued with an arbitrarie Matrimonie since the matter of this Vow is so important and carries so much danger in the violation as that it is not to be left to the power of a priuate Iudgement though morally certaine whether Matrimonie all things considered bee in this particular expedient for that may be fit for a man as a singular person which is not fit for him as part of the community yet they graunt that this extreme perplexednesse and violence of carnall motions is a iust cause of dispensation What neede wee more Though some Casuists be more fauourable and graunt that in such cases wee may not onely allow but perswade Matrimonie to the perplexed Votarie As Cardinal Aeneas Syluius who was neuer lesse Pius then when he was Pius giues this heartie aduice to his friend Iohn Freiind a Roman Priest that hee should notwithstanding his Orders helpe himselfe by Marriage yet the former will serue our turne If therefore those Superiours which haue all lawfull and spirituall authoritie ouer vs shall haue thought good vpon this reasonable cause to giue a generalitie of dispensation to all such of our Clergie as shall not after all carefull and serious indeuours find themselues able to contayne allowing them by these lawfull remedies to quench those impure flames What can any Iesuite or Deuill except against this This is simply the cleere case of them whose cause I maintayne And yet further Put case this had not beene if without the thought of any Romish Dispensation the Eastern Church neuer held it needfull to require the Vow of single Life in the Ministers of the Altar they know the words of their own Glosse why should not our Church challenge the same immunitie for that from the generall consideration of Ecclesiastiques as such wee may turne our eyes to our Ecclesiastiques in speciall no Church vnder Heauen kept it selfe more free from the bondage of those tyrannous Impositions The Clergie of this Island from the beginning neuer offered any such vow the Bishops neuer required it for more if any credit be due to Histories then a thousand yeeres after Christ The great Champion of Rome Master Harding was driuen to say They did it by a Becke if not by a Dieu-gard but could neuer proue it done by either Neither is it more worth my Readers note then my
THE HONOR of the Married CLERGIE Maintayned Against the malicious Challenges of C. E. Masse-Priest OR The Apologie written some yeere since for the marriage of persons Ecclesiasticall made good against the Cauils of C. E. Pseudo-Catholik Priest In three Books By Ios Hall D. of Diuin Deane of Worcest LONDON Printed by W. S. for H. Fether. 1620. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD AND MY MOST HONORED Lord GEORGE Lord Archbishop of CANTERBVRIE Primate of all England and Metropolitan one of his Maiesties most Honourable Priuie Counsaile MOST REVEREND FATHER and no lesse honored Lord IT was my desire and hope to spend the residue of my Time and thoughts in sweete and sacred Contemplation Satan enuying me this happinesse interrupts me by the malice of an importune Aduersary Twelue yeeres agoe I wrote a little Apologeticall Letter for the Marriage of persons Ecclesiasticall and now thus late when I had almost forgot that I had written it a moodie Masse-priest drops out a tedious and virulent Refutation thorow my sides striking at the most Honourable and flourishing Clergie of the whole Christian World labouring not so much for my disgrace what would that auaile him as the dishonour and scorne of our holy Profession in the eyes of our people I could contemne it in silence if the Quarrell were only mine Now my wrong cannot bee distinguished from thousands God and his Church are ingaged in this cause which in my foile could not but sustayne losse neither may I be now silent with safetie without misconstruction Let this hand and Tongue bee no longer mine then they may serue my Master in Heauen and his Spouse on Earth That which I wrote in some three houres he hath answered in three quaternions of yeeres and what I wrote in three leaues he hath answered in no fewer Pages then 380. Should I follow him in this proportion hee might after some Centuries of yeers expect an answere in Tostatus-hydes whose first word should be Quis leget haec Or if my patience would delay my reply to the iust paces of his answere this Volume of his would perhaps bee vanished into Grossers shops for waste Paper in thuris piperisue cucullos and would no more need answere then now it deserueth one But hearing of the insultation of some Popishly affected who gloried and triumphed in this ACHILLES pro Catholicis I addressed my selfe to the Worke with no little indignation and no lesse speed That my selfe-conceited Aduersarie and his seduced abettors may see how little a well-ordered Marriage is guiltie of deadding our spirits or slacking our hands at the beginning of this Summers Progresse when it pleased his sacred Maiestie to take notice of this sorrie Libell and to question with mee concerning it I had not so much as read it ouer so newly was it come to my hands ere his happie returne bee it spoken to the only glorie of him that inabled me I had not only finished this Answere but twice written it ouer with my owne hand and yet made this but the recreation of the weightier businesses of my Calling which now did more then ordinarily vrge me It was my purpose to haue answered as beseemeth the person à quo not ad quem mildely according to my knowne disposition but vpon better deliberation I found the insolencie of my Refuter such that I could not fauour him and not bee cruell to my cause If therefore for many it is his owne art and word railatiue Pages hee receiue from my vnwilling and enforced Pen now and then though not a Relatiue to such an Antecedent yet perhaps some drop of sharper Vineger then my Inke vseth to bee tempered withall hee may forgiue mee and must thanke himselfe What needed this cause so furious an Inuectiue As if the Kingdome of Heauen and all Religion consisted in nothing but Mayden-head or Marriage Cardinall Bellarmine when hee speakes of the Greeke Church wherein a marryed Clergie is both allowed and required shuts vp moderately That if this were all the difference betwixt them and the Romane Church they should soone bee at peace If my Refuter had so thought this had not beene his first Controuersie Both estates meete in Heauen Iohn the Virgin rests in the bosome of marryed Abraham This inordinate heate therefore of prosecution rises from faction not from holy Zeale Hence it was that my Aduersary cunningly singled out this point from many others ranged in my poore Discourses as that wherein by Bishop Iewels confession hee might promise to himselfe the likeliest aduantage of Antiquitie and how gloriously doth he vaunt himselfe in the oftentation of Fathers and Councels which vaine flourish how little it auayles him the processe shall shew where it shall appeare vpon what grounds no small piece of Antiquitie was partiall to Virginitie and ouer-harsh to Marriage as Beatus Rhenanus a learned and ingenuous Papist confesseth But this wee may boldly say that if those holy men had out-liued the bloudie Times and scene the fearefull inconueniences which would after a settled peace insue vpon the ambition or constraint of a denyed Continency they had doubtlesse changed their note and with the moderate and wisest spirits of the later times pleaded for that libertie which the Reformed Church now enioyeth The vniuersall concession whereof after the priuate Suffrages of worthy Authours came to a publike treaty in the Romane Church amids the throng of their late Tridentine Councell and it is worth the while to obserue on what grounds it receiued a repulse If Priests should be allowed Marriage say those wily Italians it would follow that they would cast their affections on their Wiues and Children and consequently on their Families Countries whereupon would cease that strait dependance which the Clergy hath vpon the See Apostolike In so much as to grant their Marriages were as much as to destroy the Hierarchie of the Church and to reduce the Pope within the meere bounds of the Romane Bishopricke This was the plea of the Clergie their thriftie Laitie together with them enemies to the blessing or as they construe it the curse of fruitfulnesse are wont to plead Troppo teste our Gregorie Martin of old computes the preiudiciall increase that might arise from these Marriages to the Commonwealth It is not Religion but wit that now lyes in our way Fond men that dare thus offer to controll the wisdome of their Maker and will be tying the GOD of Heauen to their rules of state As it is no Church in the whole World except the Romane stands vpon this restraint whereof the consequences haue beene so notoriously shamefull that wee might well hope experience would haue wrought if not redresse of their courses yet silence of ours And surely if this man had not presumed that by reason of the long discontinuance of Popery time had worne out of mens mindes the memory of their odious filthinesses he durst not thus boldly haue pleaded for their abominable Celibate The question
Pius the Second so spake this Id Populus curet I referred the chayre to the man not to the speech In the meane time C. E. is not so good a Groome to the Chayre as Gregorie of Valence who attributes infallibility to a Popes sentence though it be sine curâ studio My second wrong is the superlatiue lashing so hee calls it of other Popes learning in comparison of this I cry him mercie I did not know what sinne it was to commend a Popes learning That is not it I confesse that carries away the Crownes and the Keyes But the comparison offended Perhaps C. E. hath knowne that chayre more learnedly furnished It may bee he thinkes of Boniface the Ninth called before Peter de Thomacellis a Neapolitan who could neyther write nor sing hardly vnderstanding the propositions of the Aduocates in the Consistorie insomuch as in his time Inscitia ferè venalis facta fuit in ipsâ curiâ Ignorance was growne valuable Or it may be he thinks of those ancient ferule-fingred Boy-Popes one of the Benedicts a graue Father of ten yeeres old or Iohn the Thirteenth an aged Stripling of nineteene Or perhaps hee alludes to those learned times within my compasse which were acknowledged in the Councell of Rhemes where when offer was made of requiring the Popes iudgement it was publiquely replied that besides the exposednesse of that Citie to sale Romae iam nullum ferè esse qui literas didicerit There was scarce a man at Rome that could spell his Letters Heu quà m perfatuae sunt tibi Roma togae If I should here adde out of Alphonsus de Castro that some Popes were such great Clerkes vt Grammaticam penitùs ignorent That they had no skill in Grammer C. E. would tell mee that my Booke is not of a corrected edition though it was printed at Coleine Such bran hath bin cast out in their later sifting and shifting of Authors SECT XXIIII IN the authoritie it selfe his Cauils are childish Where Pius said Sacerdotibus magnâ ratione sublatas nuptias maiore restituendas videri My first fault is that I turne Sacerdotes The Clergie instead of Priests which word is of a larger extent including also Bishops The silly man sees not that I translated it to his aduātage against my owne For euery Sacerdos is Clericus not euery Clericus Sacerdos Very frequently are Bishops comprehended vnder the name of Sacerdotes as well as of Clerus and no lesse vsually vnder the name of Clerici the superior Orders are not comprehended Hee is not worthy to write himselfe Priest that vnderstands his Orders no better My second error is That I turned the last Clause of the Sentence Is to bee restored whereas the words are Restituendas videri Here could be no fraud whiles I set the Latin words in the Margine The Man thinks of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or his Videtur quod sic probatur quod non but if his Grammar had not been ill learned he had known that Videri doth not alwayes signifie a doubtfull probabilitie but sometimes a certayne euidence as Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis and Qui videbantur columnae Or if his Logike had fully taught him the Distinctions of Sunt and Videntur this quarrell had beene spared This Seeming was Beeing Or if this lawlesse Lurker had euer had any taste of the Ciuill or Canon Law hee might haue beene able to construe that Maxime Quod quis per alium facit per se facere videtur and that iudged Case Qui nomen debitoris legatum viuens exegerit legatum ademisse videtur In this stile spake this learned Pope which my vnlearned Aduersarie cannot reach vnto For if Pius or Syluius may haue leaue to Comment vpon himselfe when the Question was of suffecting Amadeus Duke of Sauoy a married man in the roome of Eugenius Ex quo constat saith he c. It is apparant that not onely hee which hath beene married but hee that is married may bee assumed to the Popedome and a little after Fortasse peius non esset c. And perhaps it were not worse if more Priests had wiues for many would be saued in a married Priesthood which now in a single Priesthood are damned hee saith directly Damnantur They are damned not They seeme to bee damned And therefore to preuent this reall damnation Marriage is really to bee restored to them not that it should onely seeme to bee restored To conclude take Videri for bare Seeming surely it must be construed Videtur mihi I Pope PIVS thinke or iudge that it were fit that Priests should haue the liberty of marriage restored againe to them which together with sublatas implyeth that in former times Priests were married and as the case now standeth ought againe so to be Which is the very state of this question which we auouch And in his Epistle to Iohn Freûnd Credimus te non insulso vti consilio I thinke it is no ill counsell for thee since thou canst not contayne to seeke for a Wife although that should haue beene thought of before thou didst enter into holy Orders but we are not all Gods that wee can fore-see future things since it is comne to this that thou canst not resist the Law of thy Flesh it is better for thee to marry then to burne Thus he For which aduice doubtlesse hee found good cause in his owne experience who hauing beene imployed formerly in this Iland of ours left two Bastards behind him the one begotten of an English woman the other of a Scottish The one wherof he commends to his Father Syluius a Citizen of Syenna the other he confesses to his friend P. de Noxeto But this indeed was before his Priesthood Afterwards it is strange what he confesses of himselfe in his 92. Epistle Mihi herclè parum meriti est in castitate I cannot boast of any merit in my chastity for to tell the truth Magis me Venus fugitat quà m ego illam horreo Venus doth rather flie from mee then I abhorre it It was not therefore out of speculation but sense not out of seeming but certaintie that Syluius passes his Restituendas videri So now to shut vp this point the blessed Apostle Saint Paul and in his Attendance Panormitan Gratian and Pius in their cleere suffrages for vs are fully acquitted from the vaine cauils of my Detector and God is on my side the Church of Rome on his Let Sinceritie iudge which Scale of the Ballance is heauier SECT XXV FRom the lawfulnesse of our Marriages I descended to the Antiquitie where my Refuter takes an ignorant exception I said Some things haue nothing to plead for them but Time Age hath been an old refuge for falshood Then I lay for my foundation Tertullians Rule That which is first is truest My Detector finds here a flat contradiction and cryes out Doe these men wake or sleepe when they write There are none
that bookish eye witnesse the next passage which if his Superiors could haue had the leysure to haue viewed they had blushed at their Champion This charge of GREGORY I said was according to that rule of Clerks cited from ISIDORE and renewed in the Councel of Mentz but by our iuggling Aduersaries clipped in the recitall Here the man cryes out as before of forgerie so now of ignorance telling his Readers that I haue only taken this vpon trust from anothers note-booke Reader by this iudge of the spirit of my Detractor It is true Isidore wrote no Booke of this title But in the second Booke of his Ecclesiasticall Offices he makes the title of his second Chapter De Regulis Clericorum Of the Rules of Clerks From this Chapter I cite a confessed passage and am thus censured whereas the Councell of Mentz cites it by this very stile Sicut in Regulâ Clericorum dictum est As it is said in the Rule of Clerks Is it simplicitie that he knowes not this title of Isidore or maliciousnesse that hee conceales it One of them is vnauoidable It is cleere then to his shame if hee haue any that the testimonie is aright cited and is it lesse cleere that it is maymed and cut off by the hammes in their Moguntine Councell Compare the places the fraud shall be manifest That Councell in the tenth Chapter professes to transcribe verbatim the words of Isidore in the fore-cited Tract and where Isidore saith Castimoniam inuiolati 2corporis perpetuò conseruare studcant aut certè vnius matrimony vinculo foederentur Let them liue chaste or marry but one Their good Clerks haue vtterly left out the latter clause and make Isidore charge his Clerks with perpetuall continency Let them liue chaste He that denyes this let him deny that there is a Sunne in the heauen or light in that Sunne what need I say more Let the Books speake Here my Refuter doth so shuffle cut that any man may see hee speaks against his owne heart for to omit his strayned misse-interpretation of Isidore since wee now contend not of the sense but of the citation how poorely doth hee salue vp the credit of his Moguntine Fathers whiles he saith ISIDORE spake in generall the Fathers in that Councell more strictly when he that hath but one halfe of an eye may see that both speake in one latitude of the same persons Those Fathers giuing the same title to that Chapter and professing to follow the Letters and Syllables of Isidore both name onely Clericos in that rule without distinction Away then with this gracelesse facing of wilfull frauds in your faithlesse Secretaries which haue also fetcht two Canons out of Carthage to Wormes and learne to bee ashamed of your grosse falsifications and iniurious expurgations else doubtlesse the World will be ashamed of you SECT II. I Did but name Huldericus his Epistle in mine as a witnesse not as the foundation of my cause my Refuter spends but one and thirtie whole Pages vpon him How else should he haue made a Volume In all this what sayes hee Little in many words and the same words thrice ouer for fayling And first hee wonders at my extreme prodigalitie of credit and fearednesse of conscience in citing an Epistle so conuicted by Bellarmine Baronius Eckius Faber Fitz-Simons the Iesuite and others Why doth he not wonder that the Moone will keepe her pace in the skie whiles so many Dogs barke at her below When these Proctors of Rome haue said their worst there is more true authoritie in the very face of this Letter and better Arguments in the body of it then in an hundred Decretal Epistles which he adoreth Let the World wonder rather at his shamelesnesse who relating the occasion of this fable as he termes it faynes it to be only a Lutheran fiction to couer their incestuous marriages whereas their owne Cardinall Aeneas Syluius almost two hundred yeeres agoe mentions it and reports the argument of it whereas it is yet extant as Illyricus in the Libraries of Germany whereas Hedio found an ancient Copie of it in Holland and our Iohn Bale Archbishop Parker B. Iewell Io. Foxe had a Copie of it remarkeable for reuerend Antiquitie in aged Parchment here in England which I hope to haue the meanes to produce Whereas lastly the very stile importeth age As well may hee question all the Records of their Vatican all report of Histories all Histories of Times He that would doubt whether such an Epistle were written may as well doubt whether Pope Zachary wrote to B. Boniface in Germany a direction when to eate Bacon may doubt whether Paul the fift wrote to his English Catholikes to perswade them not to sweare they would be good Subiects may doubt whether Spider-catcher corner-creeper C.E. Pseudo-Catholike Priest wrote a scurrilous Letter of aboue two quire of Paper in a twelue-yeers-answer to three leaues of I.H. It is not more sure that there is a Rome or that Gregory and Nicholas sate there then that such an Epistle was written thither aboue seuen hundred yeeres agoe It was extant of old before euer those Lutheran quarrels were hatched Let him therefore goe fish for Frogs in the Pond of his Gregory whiles hee deriues thence the vaine pleas of improbabilitie If there were differences in relating the circumstances of that storie as I know none must it needs thereupon bee false Which of their Histories is not lyable to varietie of report To begin with the first The succession of Linus and Cletus and Clemens is diuersly reported is there no truth in it To end with the last The Title of Paul the Fift to the Chane of Peter in the lawfulnesse of his Election is diuersly reported hath he therefore no true clayme to his Seate But who euer placed Gregories Pond in Sicilie This is one of the fittens of his Fitz-Simons If other Authours haue mentioned this narration then all the strength of this Historie lyeth not on Huldericke If none besides him his words vary not These are but Trickes to out-â—ace Truth The Epistle in spight of Contradiction is so ancient and what câ— wee then for names Whether â— were Saint Vdalrike or Hulderick or Volusianus we labour not much 〈◊〉 it bee the taske of idle Criticksâ— dispute who was Hecubaâ—s Mother and what was her age No lesse vain is my Refuter that spends many waste words about his Saint Vâ—â—rick in shewing the difference of time betwixt him and Pope Nicâ—las The one dying Anno 869. â— other being horne 890. and prouing out of his obscure Sorbonist Mâ—nchiacenus that there were fiue Bishops of Auspurge betwixt the times of the one and the other whereby a simple Reader might easily bee deluded and drawne to thinke there is nothing but impossibilitie and vntruth in our reportâ— whereas there is nothing in all this peremptorie and colourable flourish of his but meere â—ogging or misprision For both Illyricus apart and the Centurists
Emperour his peruerting of the Lawes both of God and Men his false doctrines sacriledges periuries lyes murders by him suborned and commended his tyrannie his setting of discord betwixt Brethren Friends Cousins It followes Inter coniuges diuortia facit suauis homo sacerdotes qui vxores habent legitimos sacrificos esse pernegat interim tamen scortatores adulteros incestuosos aris admouet c. He causes diuorces betwixt Man and Wife The fine man denyes those Priests which haue lawfull wiues to be Priests at all in the meane time he admits to the Altar whore-mongers adulterers incestuous persons c. Nos ergo We therefore by the authoritie of Almightie God pronounce him deposed from his Popedome Thus Auentine specifies the Decree which alone without Commentarie without inforcement answeres all the friuolous exceptions of my wordy Aduersarie So as now to returne his Epilogue hee hath sent backe my ten pretended lyes with the vnreasonable and inuerted vsurie of well-neere an hundred Pauperis est numerare SECT IX FRom forraine parts I returne at last to our owne so I feare hath C. E. done long since lurking somewhere in England for no good These Fugitiues loue not home more then their home hath cause to hate them His Cauils of the wondrous contradiction betwixt my Margin and my Text are too childish to bee honored with an answere My Text was The bickerings of our English Clergie with their DVNSTANS about this time are memorable My Margin cites Henry of Huntingdon affirming Anselme to bee the first that forbad marriage Betwixt these two saith my Refuter was an hundred yeeres difference I grant it But had my words beene thus if my Detector were not disposed to seeke a knot in a Rush hee had easily noted that in a generall suruay of all Ages the phrase About that time admits much latitude and wil easily stretch without any strayne to one whole Centurie of yeeres Had the Quotation beene as he pleadeth this answere were sufficient But my words need no such reconciliation I stand to the censure and disclaime the mercy of any Reader For that citation of Anselme hath plaine reference to the following words Our Histories testifie how late how repiningly our Clergie stooped vnder this yoke it is for this that my Margin points to Henry Huntingdon and Fabian reporting Anselme the first man that prohibited these marriages What contradiction now can his acutenesse detect in these two The English Clergie had bickerings with their Dunstans and stooped late and repiningly to this yoke vnder Anselme See Reader and admire the equal Truth and Logique of a Catholique Priest and iudge how well hee bestoweth his Pages SECT X. IT is true Dunstan was the man who first with his other two Cousins and Partners in Canonization opposed any appendance of the married Clergie He wrought it with good K. Edgar by dreames and visions and miracles He who when the Deuill came to tempt him to lust caught him by the Nose with an hot paire of Tongs and made him rore out for mercy supposed that euery Clergie man had the same Irons in the fire and therefore blew the Coles to that good King of the dislike of these Clericall marriages and with the same breath inkindled the zeale of Monkerie The Church wherein I am now interessed and wherein I doe by the prouidence of God and the bounty of my gracious Master succeede their Saint Oswalds Priors yeelds me sufficient records hereof which because they are both worthy of publike light and giue no smal light to the businesse in hand I haue thought good here to insert Nomina Fundatorum Ecclesiae Wigorniensis Tempore Ethelredi Regis c. constituta est sedes Episcopalis Wigorn Bosel Episcopus primus Septimus decimus Sanctus Oswaldus tempore cuius Edgarus Rex dedit Mediante verò Beato Oswaldo à Clericis in Monachos translata est sedes Pontificalis honoris Then followes the Charter of King Edgar founding the Monkes with this Title Carta Regis EADGARI de OSWALDES LAW ALTITONANTIS Dei largifluâ Clementiâ qui est Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium Ego EADGARVS Anglorum Basileus omnium Regum Insularum Oceani quae Britanniam circumiacent cunctarumque Nationum quae infra eam includuntur Imperator Dominus gratias ago ipsi Deo Omnipotenti Regi meo qui meum Imperium sic ampliauit exaltauit super regnum Patrum meorum Quapropter ego Christi gloriam laudem in regno meo exaltare eius seruitium amplificare deuotus disposui per meos fideles fautores DVNSTANVM videlicet Archiepiscopum ATHELWOLDVM ac OSWALDVM Episcopos quos mihi Patres spirituales consiliarios elegi magna ex parte secundum quod disposui perfeci Et ipsis supradictis meis cooperatoribus strenuè annitentibus iam XL. VII Monasteria cum Monachis Sanctimonialibus constitui si Christus vitam mihi tam diu concesserit vsque ad quinquagessimum remissionis numerum meae deuotae Deo munificentiae oblationem protendere decreui Vnde nunc in praesenti Monasterium quod praedictus reuerendus Episcopus OSWALDVS in sede Episcopali Wereceastre in honorem Sanctae Dei genitricis MARIae amplificauit eliminatis Clericorum nenijs spurcis lasciuijs religiosis Dei seruis Monachis meo consensu fauore suffultus locauit Ego ipsis Monasticae religionis viris Regali authoritate confirmo consilio astipulatione Principum Optimatum meorum corroboro consigno ita vt iam amplius non sit fas neque ius Clericis reclamandi quicquam ind◠quippe qui magis elegerunt cum sui ordinis periculo Ecclesiastici beneficij dispendi suis vxoribus adhaerere quà m Deo castè canonicè seruire Et ideo cuncta quae illi de Ecclesia possederant cum ipsâ Ecclesiâ siue Ecclesiastica siue Secularia tam mobilia quà m immobilia ipsis Dei seruis Monachis ab hac die perpetualiter Regiae munificentiae iure deinceps possidenda trado consigno ita firmiter vt nulli Principum nec etiam vlli Episcopo succedenti fas sit aut licitum quicquam inde subtrahere aut peruadere aut ab eorum potestate surripere in Clericorum ius iterum traducere quamdiu fides Christiana in Angliâ perdurauerit Sed dimidium Centuriatum c. In the end dated thus Facta sunt haec Anno Dominicae Natiuitatis D. CCCC.LXIIII Indictione VIII Regni EADGARI Anglorum Regis 6. in Regia vrbe quae ab incolis Glouceastre nominatur in Natale Domini In English thus BY the bountifull mercie of Almightie GOD◠which is King of Kings and Lord of Lords I Edgar King of England and of all the Kings of the Ilands of the Ocean lying about Britanie and of all the Nations that are included within it Emperour and Lord doe giue thankes to Almightie God my King which hath inlarged my Empire and