subsequent minute that it was before and therefore the state of Humane affairs being every day variable and putting on a new face to morrow which they had not neither to day nor yesterday which cannot be certainly foreseen by any man or men no more then any Master of a Ship can foresee what winds will blow to morrow or next day or whether it will be serene or stormy weather whether deep or Rockey Seas Yet if no prudent Mariner will venture himself and those under his command to Sea without sufficient provision against all the contingencies which may happen and be prevented Then sure no man or men not vainly blinded with ambition will undertake to manage the Government of a Nation without sufficient means to protect themselves and Subjects from all future storms and confusions which may either arise from within the Nation or be caused from without Yet will it not follow that every day there should be new Laws made for Nihil semel perfectum inventum there is nothing which is perfect so soon as begun and many mischiefs and inconveniencies may be begun and yet be prevented before they can be brought to perfection But then it must be presupposed that there may be remedies used which must of necessity be that there be a present and coercive power in being which may suppress and dissolve those mischiefes and inconveniences by making new Laws if the old ones will not remedy them and this is no new thing but is and alwaies was in all governments that ever were whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy A Parliament is a Politick body compounded of Heterogenial or Of what parts a Parliament is compounded Inst 4. pag. 1. dissimilar parts viz. the King the Lords spiritual and temporal in one distinct house and of a house of Commons another distinct house Since there has been so much contest about the power and jurisdiction What creates the Lords house and cause of Parliament and since it being compounded of unlike parts and some of these unlike parts nay pieces of those parts have assumed the name of Parliament We will examine all the parts of it and see whether it be not all made and created by the King and into him only can be ultimately resolved he being principium caput finis of it First For the Lords spiritual they are all parts of the Lords house and sit there by succession in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcell of their Bishopricks but all Bishopricks were originally of the Kings foundation and donative per traditionem baculi viz. the crosier annuli viz. Inst 4 par 1. the ring whereby he was married to the Church King Henry the first being requested by the Bishop of Rome to make them Eligible refused it but King John by his Charter bearing date 5 Iunii an 17. granted that the Com. Lit. Sect. 648. pag. 344. Bishopricks should be Eligible so that the foundation donation and election to Bishopricks was only and immediately caused by the King and in this capacity by virtue of the Kings Writ out of the Court of Chancery does every Bishop sit as a member of the upper house of Parliament So that Inst 4 par 1. 4. the Lords spiritual did immediately hold their Bishopricks of the King and were members of the upper house only by vertue of the Kings Writ Secondly That the Lords Temporal are created immediately by the King is so manifest that I think no man will question it and that every Temporal Lord is impowred to sit as a Member of the Lords house by vertue of the Kings Writ issuable ex debito justitiae out of the Chancery See Inst 4. part pag. 1. 4. All the Judges of the Realm Barons of the Exchequers of the Coif Temporal Assistants of the Lords house the Kings learned Council and the Civilians Masters of the Chancery all called to give their assistance and attendance in the Upper house of Parliament but have no voices in Parliament How their Writs differ from the Barons see Inst 4. part page 4. In every Writ of Summons to the Bishops there is a clause requiring Spiritual Assistants or Procuratores Cleri them to summon these persons to appear personally at the Parliament which is in these words Premonientes Decanum Capitulum Ecclesiae vestrae Norwicensis ac Archidiaconos totumque Clerum vestrae Dioces quod iidem Decani Archidiaconi in propriis personis suis ad dictum Capitulum per unum idemque Clerus per duos Procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero divisim habentes praedict die loco personaliter intersint ad consciendum hiis quae tunc ibidem de communi Concilio dicti Regni nostri Divina favente clementia contigerit ordinari So that not only the Lords Spiritual and Temporal but their Assistants are only created by the Kings Writ or immediately by the Kings authority But since there is so much contest about the House of Commons and The House of Commons are not the Representatives of the Free people of the Nation men say they represent the Freeborn people of this Nation and are the Supreme Authority of the Nation We will therefore enquire into the cause and see what may be the Freeborn people and whether a House of Commons as it now stands can be their Representative and whether being their Representative they may be the Supreme Authority of this Nation First What are the People If any man had said the people of Rome or the people of Athens or the people of Carthage c. a man had understood them and only them of Rome Athens or Carthage c. who were civitate donati But in England the case is much otherwise for with us there is no civitate donatus in one more then another but all men are alike born free and so by consequence every man as a freeborn man of England has as much right to his freedom one man as another I say therefore if every man of England has not a like vote and power in electing Members for the House of Commons then cannot the House of Commons be the Representative of the Nation for Plus valet contemptus unius quâm consensus omnium But it is most manifestly evident that the House of Commons are not elected by the equal consent of the freeborn people of England for not only two parts of three have not Forty shillings a year yet are as freeborn as they who have and as liable to penalty for transgressing Laws made in Parliament as they who do elect but many men have double votes in the election in Corporations where they send Burgesses and yet have like power with the Forty-shillings-men in electing a Knight of the Shire and such a place as Rising-Chase and Old Sarum c. have a like power in this House with the County of York and the Bishoprick of Durham sends none
Temporal Dominions and therefore may punish disturbers of the peace of the Church as well as the State Yet when the Temporal Magistrate shall arrogate to himself a power which our Saviour only left to his Church and make all Ecclesiastical rights and constitutions depending and subordinate to the Civil whereby the Enemies of our Church have taxed our Religion not for Christian but Parliamentary no doubt but it is a crying sin and I wish there had never been any such thing among us 19. And as God is to be obeyed before men in all things which concern Or the Laws of Nature Faith and Religion so in the observance of the Laws of Nature is God to be obeyed before men As if a King commands me to dishonor my parents this can be but a Humane law but to honor my parents is a law which God hath written in my heart and therefore ought to be preferred If a King commands his Subjects to dishonor him or to deny obedience to him this is but a Humane law whereas by the law of Nature I ought to honor and obey my King I therefore ought not to obey such a law Amurath the Second of that name King of the Turks upon a Vow resigned his Kingdom to his son Mahomet yet upon the League made by Uladislaus King of Pole and Hungary with other Christian Princes against him he resumed his Regal authority and so kept it until his death And so might Charls the Fifth if he had pleased nor was Philip any other then an Instrument of his Fathers during his Fathers life The King makes a Law giving the succession of the Crown from the right Heir This ought not to be received for Princes inherit by a higher Law then Humane 20. The King commands a Judge to pervert Judgment the Judge Or to pervert Judgment ought to give true Judgment for all Humane Laws in peaceable times ought to be â priori and proclaimed that all men after such a time should observe them This verbal command of the King wanting this formality and it being impossible for the Judge to observe both these commands he ought notwithstanding this verbal command to give Judgment according to Law The King when there is no necessity or publick danger commands me Quaere who am no publick Executioner without any Judicial sentence to put a man to death for which he can make no compensation As Davids commanding Joab to murder Uriah although we find David only reprehended and punished therefore yet sure if Joab had not fulfilled Davids wicked command he had not sinned But you may object Who shall judge whether this thing commanded be repugnant to Gods Majesty Mans faith Religion or the Law of Nature the King or the Subject I say though the Subject hath not an equal right of judging with the King whether this thing should be a Law or not yet every Subject hath a Conscience as well as the King which must dictate Whether Kings divest themselves of Regality by commanding what they ought not to him whether he ought to do or not to do such a thing 21. But if the King commands things contrary to Gods Majesty and Divine Laws ought he not to be obeyed in those things which do not contradict them It is so mad and wild an objection as it is scarce worth an answering unless a man will affirm that my doing of an act which I ought not to have done does divest me of Humane nature or that a Fathers or Masters commanding his Son or Servant what he ought not doth annihilate the relations of Father and Son Master and Servant or that Humane acts may dissolve Humane relations A Prince therefore ought to be obeyed in those things which he ought to command as Prince although he command such things as he ought not 22. It may be it will be objected That Temporal punishments being Though inflicting punishment for not observance the usual concomitants for not observing Humane Laws a good and conscientious man may be punished for what he ought not to have done I say his case is the same with his Lords and Saviours and all those blessed and glorious primitive Christians and Martyrs who suffered for the testimony of a good conscience Nor hath God made Heaven so easie a prize that it should be always won easily and delicately but many times by suffering and martyrdom 23. It is the most usual thing with seditious men before they enter Whether Princes ought to be resisted where they are not to be obeyed into open sedition to prepare mens mindes with certain Cases wherein Princes commanding things derogatory to Gods Honor or the Subjects Liberty that then in the preservation of themselves and Gods honor they ought to defend themselves from the raging Tyrannie of Princes and to be sure that whatsoever they command these good men will judge contrary to Gods Honor and the Liberty of the Subject It is worth the while if a mans patience will give him leave to look back upon the thing calling it self Parliament how after they had made the King grant whatsoever they could think might be beneficial to the Subjects though I might be sworne they never intended as plainly appeared afterward the good benefit or liberty of the Subject what pious ways they invented to make themselves great and so good a Prince nothing and odious to his Subjects As the demanding of six men holding intelligence with his Subjects who had been in open hostility and rebellion against him an affront not to be endured by any King to an ordinary and Legal Trial this was not only denied but Voted a Breach of the Priviledge of Parliament whenas the Priviledge of Parliament extends not to so much as breach of the Peace much less to Treason They pretend though most falsly that in case of extreme danger and necessity the Militia is in the Parliament meaning themselves excluding the King And then create Dangers and write Letters how great Fleets of Danes Swedes Hollanders c. were seen at Sea It must be from Westminster then for there were the Letters written and the Fleets never since heard of Then permit if not command the most insufferable affronts and indignities that ever were offered to Majesty yet if the King but offers to increase his Guard this is Voted no less then a raising of War against his Parliament and Subjects whilst all the while against the Lex consuetudo Parliamenti Inst par 4. 14. without any cause moving them they maintain an illegal Rout of men for their Guard and go armed themselves Nay what needs a man instance particulars All the Kings commands in prosecution of the Laws were Voted breaches of the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties of the Subject We will therefore shew that this Assertion is not only contrary to all Faith in both Testaments but also destructive to all Humane Society 24. There is no man sure will deny but
of the Commons Lawes of this Land yet a great assertor of them and in disgrace with him would oftentimes affirm that there was no time whenever he could speak reason but the King would hear him With the reputation of these virtues he governed these Islands in greater peace then posbly in the ordinary nature of things could be expected In the 3. year of his Reign viz. Anno Dom. 1605. was a most hainous and The cause of the many Laws made against Popish Recusants vile attempt intended not only against the very Person of the King but even of his Posterity which had not advanced the designe of the conspirators and the Church and all the Nobility not of their faction with the Commons in Parliament assembled And the conspirators had proceeded so far that they had not only made provision to have effected their purpose and intended the fifth of November being the day for the convention of the Parliament after their Proroguement and therefore probably expecting not only a more then usuall convention both of the Lords and Gentry but even of the King himself to have blown up the Parliament House But the designe being as foolish as desperate was discovered the night before it should have been executed although it is thought that it was known even to the King himself and the Earl of Salisbury before as by accident and so had no other effect then what the conspirators might reasonably have expected had it succeeded viz. ruine to themselves for their faction being so very few in proportion to the rest of the Nation and without either money Forts or Army in reason they could not have done any thing considerable in order to their further designes and severe Lawes against all which might be suspected to be of their faction to prevent any such further attempts It is true where Tacitus observes that the conspiracies of Subjects where His defects and frailties they succeed not doe advance the Soveraignty and verefied in this attempt of the Gunpowder-Treason for how many Lawes were that Parliament and afterward enacted against all Popish Recusants we have before shewed yet so it happened and so usually happens when not carefully minded by Princes that another faction far more formidable both to King and Church openly pretending assistance to the King and Church in persecuting this faction secretly acquired strength to themselves in so doing Nor was this unseen by this wise King being naturally a greater enemy to the Faction persecuting the persecuted but either not having that magnanimity which is so requisite in a Soveraign or apprehending he had not means sufficient to goe through he neglected to apply such medicines as were necessary to the curing of this Gangrene so dilating it self both in Church Court and State but desiring Peace especially at home although almost upon any termes he rather sought to repell the breaking out of Puritanisme during his Reign then to eradicate it for the future Add hereunto that being excessively addicted to Hunting and not greatly loving the Common Lawes and finding it impossible to govern this Nation otherwise and minding controversies in Divinity more than the management of his temporall affaires and though free from Sacriledge and Corruption in his person yet carelesse of it in his Favourites and Countrymen and nothing so prudent a Manager of the Revenues of the Crown as his Predecessor whereby being forced to recede from many of his Regalities the Reins of Government both in Church and State became so loose that in the ordinary nature of things it was very difficult they should be reassumed by his Successor Ecclesiasticall Laws made by King Charles THere were some few Lawes made against Interludes c. on the Lords day and 10. groats penalty for offence to be levied by Justices and Constables which a man may read in the first Car. 1. 3 Car. 1. There had never in any time been before this Kings Reign so long Peace The state of the Church State in the beginning of K. Charles his Reign viz. for neer 80 years in this Nation as in the beginning of his Reign but neither doth peace make mens minds peaceable nor were things otherwise well disposed for the continuance of it for not only the zealous and obsequious duty which the Subjects paid to the Royall name in the person of Queen Elizabeth was quite dead and almost forgotten the great wisedome and learning of his Father not to be hoped for in the tender years of the Son the Exchequer without money and yet the King engaged in a Warre against the Spaniard for recovery of the Palatinate but the Puritan Faction which Queen Elizabeth desired so much to suppresse and so much hated by his Father was grown so farre up in Church State and Court that in all they were far more numerous both in England and Scotland and all forein Plantations then all his other Subjects Nor was the condition of Ireland better for not only the Protestant party were jarring among themselves but the Popish intent upon their destruction which after they did execute in a terrible manner To these may be added the government both in Church and State so neglected that the exercise of any Lawes to reduce them to conformity would be imputed to have been Innovations and Tyranny The Kings Councell either uncapable of giving counsell or not faithfull to their Prince Nor was there any thing left to oppose all these growing calamities but the hopefull virtues of a young Prince unacquainted in Temporall affaires and a stranger to all worldly calamities which are of no more power to protect him against seditious and rebellious Subjects then the Lawes of God and all which may be called sacred will retain men in obedience where they are not restrained by a present coercive power But these stormes which after brought this Saintlike Prince and this wofull Church State to so lamentable a condition as they lately lay under did not breake out in the very beginning of his Reign but in all three Nations did gather into such black clouds in all his reigne that almost at once breaking forth in such a terrible Tempest as upon the matter it so overwhelmed King Church and Government that there was scarce any footsteps of them left I had here designed to have inserted a short History of the chiefe occurrences of his Reigne and by what degrees this saint-like Prince became a victim to the rage and lust of his seditious subjects and have the papers now by me but in regard it must needs rub soares which may rather in their tendernesse anger then ease them and also because the History of his life hath been by others more fully written but most of all because it is his Majesties pleasure to have the memory of things rather buried in oblivion then renued I shall forbeare and doe no more then give the description of him and shew the consequence of his calamities The Description of King
of the Antiquity of things having discoursed of the Creation of the World and Man and given a conjectural opinion of the state of Man before they had language houses or art enough to clothe themselves and having in the next Chap. discoursed of the fabulous Egyptian Gods and in the 3. of the site of Egypt and wonders of Nile and in the 4. of the causes of the inundation of it in the first Chap. of the second Part he descends to his History and gives a narrative of the original Government of the Egyptians under the Gods Heroes and Elective Kings for 18000. years together and after the Gods reigned Menas and that his progeny in fifty two Kings reigned 1400. years and did nothing memorable And then Busiris and eight of his posterity reigned the last of which was called also Busiris who built the great City called of the Egyptians The City of the Sun and of the Grecians Thebes not only the most stately in Buildings and adorned with all the Rarities of Nature of all the Cities of Egypt but of the whole world After him was Osymandrus and the eighth of his progeny from him Uchoreus who built the City Memphis And the twelfth of his offspring after him was Myris and Sesostres the seventh of his linage was King c. In the first Chap. of the second Book he treats of Ninus as the first King of the Assyrians and of Aricus King of the Arabians contemporary with him and of Barzanes King of the Armenians and of Farnus King of the Medians and in Chap. 2. of Zoroaster King of the Bactrians c. In the 3. Book treating of the Ethiopians beyond Lybia he speaks of the strange manner of the death of the Ethiopian Kings until that Ergamenis King of the Ethiopians in the time of Ptolomy the Second addicted to Philosophy and the Greek learning first despised that manner of dying which was this The Priests which offered sacrifice in Meroe and these were of greatest authority when it seemed good to them would tell the King that he must die for so the Oracle of the Gods commanded and that it was not meet that the will of the Gods should be contemned for the will of a mortal man and they add other reasons by which from an old observed custom they perswade the King to a voluntary death and all the antient Kings obeyed the Priests of their own accord not compelled by arms or force but overcome by superstition In lib. 3. cap. 4. he makes four kinds of Libyans to inhabit the midland coasts about Cyrene and Cirtes whereof they who dwell to the South are called Nasamones others sited at the West Anochitae others are called Marmaridae which inhabit between Egypt and Cyrene and part of the Sea-coast the fourth kind excelling in multitude of men are called Maiae The two latter obey Kings the third are under no Kings but always intent upon robbery they know no justice yet a little after he says they every year swore the people subject to them to obey their Prince He speaks not of the Government of the fourth but of the Amazons which in old time governed Libya Let us see the most ancient Government of Nations out of other From Egialus came the Egialian Region which was after called Apia Authors Scaliger out of Africanus and Eusebius in the year of the Julian period 2625. which was in the yeare of the world 1750. makes Egialus King of the Sicyonians not an hundred years after the Flood who reigned 52 years after him Europs 45 years after him Telchin 20 years after him Apis 25 years after him Thelxion 52 years after him Aegyrus 34 years after him Thurimachus 45 years c. Aventinus makes Tuisco the son of Noah who sent by his Father 131 years after the flood came into Europe with 20 Captains and reigned as King of the Germans 176 years and that Ingaevon Germanicè Ingaab as some say others Inwohner the brother of Mannus reigned after him 45 years After him Istaevon the son of Ingaevon whose wife Freia the Venus of the Germans gave the name Frey tag or Friday reigned 50 years After him succeeded Hermion or Horman the son of Istaevon who reigned 63 years To him succeeded Marsus the son of Hermion who reigned 46 years c. Inachus in the year of the world 2094. was King of the Argives who reigned 50 years Phorone his son succeeded in his stead who reigned 60 years Apis the grandchild of Phorone succeeded and reigned 35 years Argus Apis his son succeeded his father and reigned 70 years Criasus his son succeeded him and reigned 54 years c. Nay the very Athenians beginning at Cecrops for 867 years were governed by hereditary Monarchs before there were any footsteps of the Democracy or Archon Nor can any man shew unless where God was pleased peculiarly to reign or in the Lacedemonian Duarchy who were governed by two Kings descended from Eurysthenes and his brother Proclis who ruled in Lacedemon from about the year of the world 2848. until both lines became extinct almost together about the year of the world 3730. for above 3000 years after the Creation any other Government but Monarchy Hereditary nor any of them made from any Pacts or Contracts of Men. What therefore men feign to be originally in the People was truly in Kings and Justin says truly Principio Rerum Gentium Nationumque imperium penes Reges erat It was then a Golden Age not when Men lived in a promiscuous Herd or Rout as these Men and Poets feign but when Men content with their Government of Kings enjoyed peace and plenty in security And it is Mens wrangling about they know not what and not content with Regal Government that hath made such an Iron Age in the world If a man looks into Persia India Ethiopia and other parts of the world where Subjects content with those Governors which God hath given them continue in obedience thereunto he shall find them not only live securely but abound in all plenty and riches and yet may be said to enjoy a Golden Age and contract the Iron Age to those wrangling Europeans who not content with Gods Ordinance make to themselves an Iron Age and without end miserable by being always obnoxious to Confusions and Civil wars It is neither an Article of Faith nor can there be one instance given Annot. 1 out of sacred or prophane History that ever Supreme or Regal Power was ever made from the Pacts or Contracts of Men or consent of Families I do not therefore understand what should move Men against the constant practice of the world in all ages to require this for a principle which being vaine and superstitious all that can be deduced from thence cannot be better or amount higher Ob. But God and Nature never made the same thing of different species Annot. 2 and if all power in Government be from God how then came Government to be of different species viz.
special matter they cannot well discern or judge I have therefore been particular herein as well to shew into what cause Annot. not only both Houses conjunctly but every particular Member in either have a right of being as also since Non datur progressus ad infinitum the Parliament being a body compounded of heterogenial or dissimilar parts if they sever or divide into what Subjects may ultimately with good conscience resolve their faith and obedience And no question it is better any thing should be Law then that every thing should be lawful And that is the greatest slavery where Subjects know not where to pay their obedience and from whence to expect protection but where different Factions shall with equal right or injury impose their lusts and wills for Laws to their Fellow-subjects The Jurisdiction of Parliament is so transcendent that it maketh inlargeth The Jurisdiction of Parliament diminisheth abrogateth repealeth and reviveth Laws Statutes Acts and Ordinances concerning matters Ecclesiastical Capital Criminal Common Civil Martial Maritime and the rest It may make Daughters and Heirs apparent of a man or woman during the life of the Ancestor Com. Lit. 110. adjudge an Infant or Minor of full age attaint a man of Treason after his death it may Bastard a Child that is Legitimate it may make a Bastard Inst 2 par 36. Legitimate A Parliament was called before the Conquest Michael Sinoth Michael By what other names called Gemote Ealsa Witenage Mote that is to say the Great Court or Meeting of the King and of the Wise men sometime of the King with the Council of his Bishops Nobles and wisest of his people The French call it Les estates and L'assemble des estates the Parliaments in France are no other Inst par 1. 110. a. then our Courts of Kings-Bench Common-Pleas Exchequer and Chancery in England The Germans call it a Dyet And Inst 4. p. 2. it was antiently called Witenage mote Conventus sapientum Commune concilium regni Generale concilium regni Concilium regni Assisa generalis Tully calls it Consessum Senatorum à considendo c. Object But it may be it will be objected That though the King be principium caput finis Parliamenti and that every Member as well as both Houses have their original right and sitting there from him and that though Laws of right ought to pass in Parliament at the rogation request or petition of the Commons by the counsel and advice of the Lords yet the Kings of the Nation have long since divested themselves of this power and have granted the Lords and Commons a concurring power in the making of Laws or by custom and usage it hath been so time out of mind and so ought to be observed as a Law To the first I say Kings reign by a higher then any humane law and Ans 1 therefore no act of any King can divest himself or successor of any attribute due to him or his successor And if Kings actions did oblige themselves or successors then were this Crown not free but subject to the Pope because King John made it so But I deny the assertion for it is false that ever any King of this Realm did ever grant the Parliament or either House a concurring power of making Laws with him For the second No usage prescription or custom can take place Ans 2 where there are records or proofs to the contrary Whether we cannot give proofs enough to the contrary judge good Reader David's calling all the Lords of Israel the Lords of the Tribes the Lords of the Companies that ministred to the King by course the Captains over thousands and over hundreds and the Lords that had the oversight over all the substance and possession of David and of his sons with the Chamberlains and all the mighty and all the valiant and all the active men unto Jerusalem to consult concerning the building of God a house 1 Chron. 28. 1 2. was a Parliament So was that Convention of Solomon's Inst 4 par 3. Ibid. 2 Chron. 2. and that Convention of the Israelites Judg. 20. 11. Ego Inas Dei gratia Westsaxonum rex exhortatione doctrina Cenredes patris mei Heddes episcopi mei Erkenwaldes episcopi mei òmnium Aldremannorum meorum Seniorum sapientum regni mei multaque congregatione servorum Dei sollicitus de salute animarum nostrarum statu regni mei constitui rectum conjugium recta judicia pro stabilitate confirmatione populi mei benigna sedulitate celebrari nullo Aldremanno vel alicui de toto regimine nostro conscripta liceat abolere judicia was an Act of Parliament Proem par 9. Reports Edwardus rex admonuit omnes sapientes suos qui fuerint Exoniae ut investigarent simul quaererent quomodo pax eorum melior esse possit quà m ante fuit was an Act of Parliament by Edward King Alfreds son Ibidem Haec sunt instituta quae Edgarus rex consilio sapientum suorum instituit were Acts of Parliament Ibidem Hoc est consilium quod Etheldredus rex omnes sapientes sui condixere ad emendationem pacis omni populis apud Woodstock Haec sunt verba pacis prolocutionis quae Etheldredus rex omnes sapientes ejus cum exercitu firmaverunt qui cum Anulano Justino Guemundo Stigrani filio venit Et haec instituerunt Etheldredus rex Sapientes ejus apud Habam were Acts of Ibidem Parliament Edmundus rex congregavit magnam Synodum Divini ordinis Seculi apud Londonum civitatem in Sancto Pasch solenni hae sunt institutiones quas Ed. rex episcopi sui cum sapientibus suis instituerunt apud Culinconam c. paulo post Ego Edmundus rex mando praecipio omni populo senior ' junior ' qui in regione mea sunt qui investigans investigari cum sapientibus Clericis Laicis were Acts of Parliament Ibidem Haec sunt statuta Canuti regis Anglorum Danorum Norvegar ' venerando sapientum ejus consilio ad laudem gloriam Dei sui regalitatem commune commodum habita in Sancto Natali Domini apud Wintoniam c. were Acts passed in Parliament Ibidem Rex Canutus an regni sui 5. per 130 annos ante copilationem decretorum quae an Dom. 1150. fuer ' copilat ' anno 7 pontificatus Papae Eugenii tertii ante copilation ' aliorum Canon ' quorumcunque cunctos reg ' sui praelat ' proceresque ac magnates ad suum convocans Parliam ' in suo publico Parliam ' persistentibus personaliter in eodem Wulstano Adelnodo archiepisc ' Ailwino episc ' Elmehamense aliis episcopis ipsorum suffragan ' septem Ducibus cum tot Comitibus nec non diversorum monaster ' nonnullis Abbatibus cum quamplurimis gregariis milit ' ac
to instance the Acts of Parliament which give one Jointenant a power to compell the others to sue a Writ of Partition which was denied at Common-Law and right of Entry where they were put to their Cui in vita c. It may suffice that in no Kings reign there have not been Acts of Parliament which have been so far from making declarations of the Common-Law that they have made manifest alterations in it And as the Common-Law hath no force nor reason against an Act of Parliament so hath no particular Custom any force or reason against it for no man can prescribe against an Act of Parliament and all Lands in Gavel-kind were particular Customs but taken away by Act of Parliament And many Acts of Parliament have not declared the Succession of the English Diadem according to the usual custom thereof but made manifest alteration thereof as in the Succession of Hen. 4. 5. 6. Rich. 3. Hen. 7. 8. which being unjust and the cause not depending upon Humane laws ought not to be obeyed Nor secondly is that a less error that Judicial Records are equivalent to Acts of Parliament for they are so far from being equal to Acts of Parliament that in truth they are no Laws but Inferences and Conclusions which are deduced from Laws For there is not any Judicial Record which is not unjust if it cannot truly and ultimately be resolved in some general or particular Custom Act of the Parliament or grant of the King So that Acts of Parliament the Common Law Particular Customs and Prescriptions and Royal Grants are as Axioms Postulata or Principles in Arts or Sciences and Judicial Records Reported Cases and Yearsbooks are Inferences Conclusions or Sciences deduced from Acts of Parliament the Common Law and particular Customs of this Land or Concessions of the King Touching Royal Government Royal Government being the ordinance of God and from the Law of Nature is paramount to all Humane laws and the prime and efficient cause of them they cannot therefore declare the cause so as to create any obligation of what they are but the effects and from whence derived We have thus far treated of the means by which the Kings of this Nation have until 1640. governed and preserved their Subjects internally But because it is the office of Kings to preserve their Subjects as well from foreign force as internal broil there is yet something wanting of which we have not treated viz. The power of making War and Peace and maintaining Alliance and Traffique Of these in regard they refer to Foreign powers and jurisdictions and are not subject to the Laws of the Nation we shall forbear to treat only affirming that it is necessary that at all times this power must be so vested in the King that at all times he may have the aids and assistance of his Subjects in prosecution of the Ends aforesaid The end of the Third Book The Contents of the Fourth Book HAving thus far treated of all created Rights and the causes of all Laws and created Powers and Vertues and these being previous and necessary to all Justice and Obedience We in this Book descend to treat of Justice in the first Chap. as the most eminent and noble of all Humane vertues it being that which not only conserves private Families but all Nations and Kingdoms in unity peace and society and demonstrate it neither to be in Geometrical proportion as Plato would nor Arithmetical proportion as Zenophon held nor in Harmonical proportion as Bodin taught Nor is that corrective and distributive Justice which Aristotle affirmed to be in Arithmetical and in Geometrical proportion The Second Chap. treats of Obedience and shews how that it necessarily proceeds and yet is different from Justice The Third Chap. treats of Judgment and shews how it differs from Law and Justice The Fourth Chap. treats of Equity and shews how it differs from Judgment and how necessary Courts of Equity as well as Judicature are THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Of Justice 1. JUstitia est habitus animi communi utilitate Cicero's definition of Justice servata suum cuique tribuens Societatem conjunctionis Humanae munifice atque aequè tuens Justice is a habit of the Minde common utility being conserved giving to every one their right and bountifully and equally Cicero lib. 1. de legibus defending the Society of Mankinde Et Justitia est quae suum cuique distribuit Justice is that which does distribute to every man what is his right Where he says That Justitia est obtemperatio scriptis legibus we will shew that is not properly Justice but Obedience onely 2. Justice is the upright doing of an act conserving Society in that Quid sit Justitia formality as it is commanded or permitted by him who by right may command or permit it Justice is the doing of a just action the doing of a just action is the upright doing of any act as it is commanded or permitted by him who by right may command or permit it preserving Peace and Society I say Justice must have these two properties viz. upright doing that is abstraction from all affections of love hate or self-interest and the Law or Command of him who by right may command or permit such an act Other actions proceeding from Wisdom Reason Experiment or Discourse c. are prudent profitable c. but none are just or honest actions which cannot be truly and ultimately resolved into the Law or Command of him who by right may command or permit such an act So Quotuplex that Justice is twofold either commanded or permitted 3. Injustice is the abuse or falsifying the Law or Command of him What is Injustice who by right commands to the hurt or prejudice of another As a Law preceding and Integrity are inseparable incidents to Justice so Hypocracy seeming just and yet abusing or falsifying a Law and the damage of another or more are incidents inseparable to injustice 4. Let us see who may by right command and who are obliged to do God commands by highest right in conformity to their Laws and Commands I say God by highest right ought to command all the created things in Heaven and Earth and all Creatures are chiefly and absolutely obliged to do whatsoever he commands without any reasoning or disputing why he so commands For the earth is Psal 24. 1. Job 41. 11. Psal 50. 12. the Lords and all that therein is the compass of the World and all that dwell therein And whatsoever is under the whole Heaven is Gods and the World is mine and the fulness thereof All Gods commands therefore have a like and equal influence upon all his Creatures all Creatures as compared to him are alike vile and between him and them is no proportion To abuse then or falsifie any Law of God or Nature to the hurt or prejudice of another is a sin of injustice in all Gods Creatures and
Dissolution of Abbies and all were easily passed and assented to in Parliament But whatsoever the King were otherwise yet sure the Popes passion The Pope was more unjust in his censures then the King was in excluding the Papal jurisdiction against him carried them to greater extravagancies and exorbitancies then were on his part against them For suppose that the Pope had de facto the Investitures of Bishops Peter-pence Annates and First-fruits paid them and did exercise a jurisdiction over all the Church and Clergy yet no question all these things were by the grants and permission of precedent Kings and if Kings may grant and permit these things then what hinders but that they may recall them for Cujus est velle ejus est nolle Besides we have already shewed that although there were not that bitter personal spite between the Kings of England and and the Popes formerly as was between Henry 8. and Clement 7. and Paul 3. yet did many of them ascribe as little to the Pope as Henry did But for a Pope to deprive a Christian Prince of his kingdom over whom he had no manner of right his Adherents of whatsoever they possessed to command his Subjects to deny their obedience to their Soveraign and Strangers not to have any commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against him and his followers granting them their estates and goods for a prey and their persons for slaves is so unlike to the example and precept of S. Peter whom they pretend to succeed who not only suffered death under Temporal power but inspired by God does command so expresly obedience to Kings not as subordinate to himself 1 Pet. 2. 13. but as supreme And of our Saviour himself who both suffered himself under Temporal power and paid tribute to Caesar and took not away but fulfilled the Moral Law which commands obedience to Princes and Higher powers and whose kingdom was not of this world that sure no Turk or Infidel was so much an enemy to Christians or indeed rather to mankind as to have desired it The state of the Church and of the Ecclesiastical Laws made by Edward the sixth THe time of this Kings reign being a Child and therefore woful and of his Father were perillous days The Father in his Laws scarce ever took advice but from his passion lust or avarice the Son although a Prince of infinite hope and goodness yet wanting the authority and reputation requisite in a Soveraign was either not able to restrain or else perswaded it was beneficial to give reins to a company of Sacrilegious Harpies and Courtiers to make a total prey not only upon all Colledges Free-Chappels Chantries and all their Lands except them of the Universities and some few other which by the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. cap. 14. were given to Camb. pref Eliz. Reg. Life of Ed. 6. the King upon specious pretences but the Lands of the Bishops generally became a prey unto them So much worse is it for every thing to be lawful then that any thing should be Law It was enacted That if any man spake irreverently or contemptuously An. 1. Ed. 6. c. 6. of the Sacrament of the Altar he should be imprisoned and fined at the Kings will and pleasure and that Justices of Peace might enquire of offenders Yet should not the person offending be arraigned or tryed unless the Bishop of the Diocese or his Chancellor or Deputy learned were required to be at the Quarter-Sessions to which purpose a new Writ was made Rex c. Episc L. salutem Praecipimus tibi quod tu Cancellarius tuus vel alius deputatus tuus sufficienter eruditus sitis cum Justiciariis nostris ad pacem in com nostro B. conservand assignat apud D. tali die ad sessionem nostram tunc ibidem tenend ad dand consilium advisament eisdem Justitiariis nostris ad pacem super arraiment deliberationem offendet contra Formam statuti concernend sacrosanctum Sacramentum Altaris And by this Satute it was Enacted that the Sacrament should be delivered to the people under both Kindes viz. of Bread and Wine From thenceforth no Conge deslier shall be granted nor any Election An. 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 2. shall be made of any Archbishop or Bishop by the Dean and Chapter but when any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick shall be voided the King by his Letters Patents may confer the same to any person whom he shall think meet c All summons citations and other proces Ecclesiastical shall be made in the name and with the stile of the King as in the Writs of the common Law and the test thereof shall be in the name of the Archbishop or Bishop c. All persons that have the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall have in their Seals of Office the Kings Arms with certain characters under them for the knowledge of their dioces but the Archbishop of Canterbury shall use his own Seal and his own name in all faculties and dispensations A man speaking against the Kings Headship of the Church shall being An. 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 12. thereof attaint or convict forfeit all his Goods and Chattels to the King and suffer imprisonment during the Kings will and pleasure for the first offence and for the second offence forfeit to the King the whole issues and profits of all his Lands and all his Goods and Chattels and suffer perpetual imprisonment and for the third offence shall be adjudged a Traytor and suffer death and forfeit all his Goods and Chattels Lands and Tenements as in cases of High Treason And it shall be deemed Treason for any by Printing Writing or Deed to affirm the King not to be Head of the Church An Act for uniformity of Service and administration of Sacraments being An. 2 3 Ed. 6 Cap. 1. before divers and different viz. of Sarum of York of Bangor and of Lincoln and divers and sundry forms and fashions were used in Cathedrals and Parish-Churches of England and Wales as well concerning Mattens or Morning Prayer and the Evening Song as also concerning the holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of the Sacraments of the Church The Statute does inflict upon every Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should say or sing the said Common Prayer mentioned in the said Book Entituled the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England and shall refuse it or use any other form or shall Preach Declare or speak any thing in derogation of the said Book or any thing contained therein and be thereof lawfully convict by a Jury of twelve men or by confession shall forfeit to the King for the first offence the profit of all his Spiritual benefices and promotions arising in a whole year and
uniting to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdiction Authorities Superiorities and Preheminencies to the same of right belonging and appertaining By reason whereof her most humble Subjects from the time of the 25 H. 8. were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and vexations before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such foreign Power and Authority as before that was usurped * And to the The Statute of 1 2 Ph. Ma. cap. 8. which restored to the Pope all which this Stat. takes away declares that nothing was done prejudiciall to the Crown in so doing intent that all usurped power Spirituall and Temporall might for ever be extinguished and never be used or obeyed in this Realm or any other her Majesties Dominions It was therefore by the Authority of that Parliament enacted That no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spirituall or Temporall should at any time after the last day of that Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall within this Realm or within any other the Queens Dominions or Countries that then were or hereafter should be but from henceforth the same should be clearly abolished out of this Realm and all other her Dominions for ever And it was then also established and enacted That such Jurisdiction Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall as by any Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner of errors heresies schismes abuses offences contempts and enormities should for ever by authority of that Parliament be united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And that the Queen her Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to assigne name and authorize when and as often as the Queen her Heirs and Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as should please the Queen her heirs and successors such person or persons being naturall born Subjects to the Queen her heirs or successors as the said Queen her heirs or successors should think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under the said Queen her heirs and successors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within these Realms of England or Ireland or any other her Dominions and Countries and to visite reform redress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schismes abuses contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner spirituall or ecclesiasticall Power Authority or Jurisdiction could or might lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the encrease of virtue and conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm And that such person or persons so to be named assigned authorized and appointed by the said Queen her heirs and successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act and of the Letters Patents under the said Queen her heirs and successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the tenor and effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding This Statute doth create the oath of Supremacy to be taken by all men who hold any Office or take from the Queen her heirs and successors any Fees or Wages within this Realm or other her Highnes Realms or Domiminions the form and tenor of it is I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Queens Highness is the only supreme Governor of this Realm and all other her Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall and that no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realm and therefore I doe utterly renounce and forsake all forrein Jurisdiction Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queens Majesty her Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm So help me God and the contents of this Book If any person dwelling or inhabiting within this Realm or any other of the Queens should within 30. dayes after the determination of the Session of that Parliament by Writing Printing Teaching c. maintain any forrein Power or Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall or shall advisedly put in use any such forrein Power or Jurisdiction within any of her Highness Dominions he and his Aiders Abettors Counsellors c. shall forfeit to the Queen her Heirs and Successors all his goods and chattels as well reall as personall If any person so convict be not worth in Goods and Chattels the summe of 20 s. every such person upon conviction over and besides the forfeiture of his Goods and Chattels shall suffer imprisonment by the space of a whole year without Bail or Mainprise And that all and every the Benefices Prebends and other Ecclesiasticall promotions and dignities of every person spirituall so offending and being attaint shall be utterly void and the Patron and Donor may present as if the Incumbent were actually dead For the second offence the party offending shall incur the danger of a Premunire For the third offence after conviction and Attainder the party offending shall suffer death and forfeiture of all his Goods as in case of High Treason The offender must bee impeached for preaching teaching or speaking any thing against the Premisses within a yeere after such preaching teaching or speaking and if any person shall be imprisoned for preaching teaching or speaking against this Statute and if be not indicted within the space of one half yeer next after his offence that he be discharged and set at liberty No matter of Religion or cause Ecclesiasticall made by this Parliament shall be judged Error Heresie Schism or schismaticall opinion Such Persons as shall bee authorized by Letters Patents under the Broad-seale of England shall have jurisdiction power or authority spirituall to visite reform order or correct any errors heresies schisms abuses or enormities But by virtue of this Act they have not authority to determine or adjudge any thing to bee heresy but only such as heretofore have beene determined by Canonicall-Scripture or the 4 first generall Councells or any
are the English and Scottish And also since the corruption of the best thing is worst it will not be amiss before we conclude this Chapter and Book to discourse this Probleme whether upon all occasions it be the only and necessary way to cure all distempers of State by a full convention in Parliament according to the usuall constitution And first we will see what may be said for it That the passing of Lawes in Parliament where the major part of the Object 1 Freeholders are represented creates and begets a right understanding between the King and his Subjects that it is not the intention of the Prince to alter the old Lawes and introduce new ones to their prejudice To this I subscribe That when Lawes are so passed it confirmes and strengthens the Prince both by the person and purse of his Subjects in any designe he shall undertake because the representatives of the Freeholders consent unto it To this I subscribe That Parliaments have been of that antiquity and the Nation so habituated to them that it will never long be governed peaceably without them To this I subscribe That the grievances of the Nation can never be so well represented and redressed as in Parliament where the major part of the Freeholders are represented To this I subscribe That men will lesse dare to abuse their Prince or Country by any sinister or indirect means when Parliaments are frequent and free To this I subscribe The frequent use of Parliaments takes away all strangenesse between the King and his Subjects and begets a confidence and right understanding between them To this I subscribe That since it is necessary that every Prince in governing must necessarily ultimately resolve his confidence into something besides the Lawes to which upon all occasions he may betake himself for the Execution and defence of himself and Subjects and this must be by a constant Army in pay of his Subjects according to the institution of the Roman Legions or out of a diffidence of his own Subjects or from some reason of state trust the protection of his Person and Lawes into the hands of Foreigners as did the Kings of Aegypt before Sclymus conquered them or as the King of France now does in the hands of Switz and Scots or he must betake himself to the protection of a mercinary Army made up of his Subjects and Foreiners as the Turks Janizaries and Spahi are or establish his security and refuge up-the affection of his subjects and intrust them with the Militia in such manner as hath beene used heretofore in England and that this agrees better with the nature and constitution of English-men then any of the other as being established as well by common-Law as many Acts of Parliament To this I subscribe To these may be added that Tacitus in the life of Agricola makes it one great cause of the Romans conquering our Ancestors That they consulted not in common Nec aliud adversus validissimas Gentes pro nobis utilius quam quod in commune non consultant Rarus ad Propulsandum commune periculum conventus It a dum singuli pugnant aniversi vincuntur Quaere Yet quaere whether Rising-Chase in Norfolke and old Sarum in Wilts where are no Inhabitants but a few meane Tenants sending twice the numbers to the Parliament with the county of Yorke and whether the County and City of Durham sending none at all and whether Cornwall's sending ten times as many as either Warwick-shire or Leicestershire and yet eyther of them bigger and far more rich Counties Or whether Cities and Boroughs not only sending a like number of Citizens and Burgesses with the County having alike Vote with them of the County be an equall representative of the Freeholders Or whether the waies used in the Elections doe not animate the Electors and those that stand in Competition against one another and that to such a height That many of the Electors and those who stand are never after reconciled Answer It is true indeed that if God had determined all things in this inferior Orbe without any variation and that this thing were alwaies to be attained only by some one means that this in governing were by councell in Parliament then could there be neither reason or discourse upon variation and alteration of things and no difference betweene the wisest of Princes and the most foolish but this is so far from truth that there is nothing sublunary not only variable but doth vary every moment neither is there any thing in Reason Physick or State alike to all men nay in all of them the same thing may be at one time good and profitable at another time bad and hurtfull What man sees not that in health nature is not repaired by any man without a proportionable measure of diet which when he is indisposed may surcharge nature to the overthrow of it in him Strong physick may be proper to a man at one time and kill him at another Parliaments although ordinarily are the Kings surest refuge yet by how much they are more excellent by so much the worse are they corrupted Times are and will be bad when they are not made so by any cause in the Prince and so bad that in such conjuncture it may prove the utmost evill if the Houses or eyther of them shall assume the title of Parliament or give head to such Factions and distempers And no question when the Scots invaded England in 1640 it was unsafe Councell that advised the King to summon a Parliament and worst of all to convene it at London as things then stood For that saying of Tacitus it is rather Rhetoricall and makes against the Antiquity of Parliaments then any way proves necessity of them upon all occasions unless he could make consulere and pugnare the same thing nor could Agricola ever have obteined such victory against our Ancestors if he had fought with no more then had councelled him Epilogue WHen I looke back and consider the unstable condition of mankinde especially among Islanders and that often times the fate of good religious and just men is in this World more calamitous then of bad and vicious men I did then conclude with my self that Religion Justice and Piety cannot of themselves procure peace and society to mankind nay what is yet more lamentable that first sublunary cause from whence all Subjects derive and expect their protection is more subject to calamity then the condition of the meanest of mortall men Let a man take a survey of all the Kings in Britain since there were any Records of time and see whether neer one halfe of them did attain a naturall death nor is this confined within the Seas which encompass our Isle or a new thing in other parts of the world for Adgenerum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Juvenal Sat. 10. Descendunt Reges I shall therefore before I conclude endeavour to shew whether any peace and happinesse may be reasonably
with the Opinion of Learned men That the marriage with his Brothers wife was contrary to the Law of God and void The King not expecting the Popes sentence anno 1533. marries his beloved Anne but such love is usually too hot to hold for about two years after he cut off her head yet the King did not wholly renounce the Papacy but still expecting the Popes sentence The Pope for the reasons aforesaid not desiring to end the business The slow proceedings of the Pope but to expect advantage from time reduces the matter into several points or heads which he would have particularly disputed and at the time of the Kings marriage with Anne was not got further then the article of Attentates in which the Pope gave sentence against the King that it was not lawful for him to put away his wife by his own authority without the Ecclesiastical Judge For which cause the King in the beginning of 1534. denied the Pope his obedience commanding his Subjects not to pay any money to Rome nor to pay the ordinary Peter-pence This infinitely troubled the Court of Rome and they daily consulted of a remedy Some thought to proceed against the King with censures and to interdict all Christian nations all commerce with England But the moderate counsel pleased best to temporise with him and to mediate a composition by the French King K. Francis accepted the charge and sent the Bishop of Paris to Rome to negotiate a Pacification with the Pope where they still proceeded in the cause gently and with resolution not to come to censures if the Emperor did not proceed first or at the same time with his forces They had divided the cause into twenty three articles and then they handled whether Prince Arthur had had carnal conjunction with Queen Katherine in this they spent time till Midlent was past when the 19. of March news came that a Libel was published in England against the Pope and the whole Court of Rome and besides a Comedy had been made in presence of the King and Court to the great disgrace and shame of the Pope and every Cardinal in particular For which cause all being inflamed with choler ran headlong to give sentence which was pronounced in the Consistory the 24. of the same month That the marriage between Henry and Katherine was good that he was bound to take her to wife and that in case he did not he should be excommunicated But the Pope was soon displeased with this precipitation For six days His rash censure repented of after the French Kings letters came That the King was content to accept the sentence concerning Attentates and to render obedience upon condition that the Cardinals whom he mistrusted should not meddle in the business and that persons not suspected should be sent to Cambray to take information â—and and the King had sent his Proctors before to assist in the Cause at Rome Wherefore the Pope went about to devise some pretence to suspend the precipitate sentence and again to set the cause on its feet But the King so soon as he had seen it said It was no matter for the Utterly loses the obedience of England Pope should be Bishop of Rome and himself sole Lord of his Kingdom And that he would do according to the antient manner of the Eastern church not leaving to be a good Christian nor suffering the Lutheran Heresie or any other to be brought into his Kingdom From that time forward Henry the Eighth of a zealous Assertor of the No anger lost between the King Pope Papacy both by pen and purse became the first and greatest Opposer of it of all the Western Christian Princes for the Eastern Christian Princes except sometimes the Emperors of Greece and the Kings of Holy Land did seldom or never submit to the Papacy in her Spirituals yet did he afterwards seed to be reconciled to the Pope even by means of his Nephew Charls the Fifth Nor were the Popes much behind hand with him For besides Clement's petty Excommunication Paul the Third Anno 1538. thundred out such a terrible Excommunication against him as the like was never heard of which deprived him of his kingdom and his adherents of whatsoever they possessed commanding his Subjects to deny him obedience and Strangers to have no commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against and persecute both him and his followers granting them their states and goods for their prey and their persons for slaves But the Popes anger ended in words whereas the Kings deeds took place against the Pope But what there was in all the Kings reign which might be called Reformation What was the Kings Reformation I do not understand For whatsoever the King took from the Pope except Peter-pence he ascribed to himself If the Pope would be Head of the Catholique Church the King would be Head of the Church of England If the Pope challenged Annates and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy the King would do no less If the Pope did give Abbots and Priors power being Ecclesiastical persons to make divers Impropriations to their benefit the King will take a power to take them all away and convert them into Lay-fees and incorporate them so into particular mens estates that they shall never return to the Church more Nor had he any love or desire of Reformation of the Church but only to the Church-lands for all the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of the Church of Rome was continued and that with such bloody cruelty that a Stranger going over Smithfield one day and seeing two men there executed one for denying the Kings Headship of the Church and another for subscribing to the Six Articles cryed out Bone Deus quomodo hic agunt vivi hic suspenduntur Papistae ibi comburuntur Antipapistae And so zealous did he continue herein that Pope Paul the Third after he had fulminated so dreadfully against him Hist Conc-Trid fol. 90 proposed him for an Example to be imitated by Charls the Fifth Although such was the temper of this Prince that he never spared man The exclusion of the Papai jurisdiction was an act of the King Kingdom and Church of England in his rage woman in his lust nor any thing which might be called sacred in his avarice yet so absolute was he that his Divorce was attested by both the Universities at home besides that at Paris abroad his freeing himself and the Nation from the jurisdiction of the Pope was not only assented to by a Synod and Convocation of all the Clergy of England but the English and Irish Nobility did make their submissions by an Indenture to Sir Anthony Sellinger then chief Governor of Ireland wherein they did acknowledge King Henry to be their lawful Soveraign and confessed the Kings Supremacy Bram. Vind. of the Church of England p. 43. in all causes and utterly renounced the Pope But Divorce banishing the Papal authority