granting that all authority of jurisdiction spirituall is derived from the King as supreme head of the Church of England although that title by that name be not now assumed in the stile Imperiall and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within this Realme be kept by no other authoritie either forreine or within this Realme but by authority of the kings most excellent majestie as is averred in the sayd Preamble of King Edwards statute yet this if rightly understood would never hurt the Bishops or advantage you But my reason is because that whensoever the king grants out his Conge d' peslier for the election of a Bishop and afterwards doth passe his royall assent to the said election send his Mandate to the Metropolitan for consecration of the party which is so elected he doth withall conferre upon him a power to exercise that jurisdiction which by his consecration done by the kings especiall Mandate he hath atteined to And this may also serve for answere to your other cavill but that Bishops may not hold their courts or visitations without letters Patents from the king For were there such a law as there is no such yet were the Prelates safe enough from your Praemunire because the Royall assent to the election and Mandat for the consecration passing by broad seale as the custome is inable them once consecrated to exercise what ever jurisdiction is by the Canon incident to Episcopall power No neede of speciall letters Parents for every Act of jurisdiction as you idly dreame No more than if a man being made a Iustice of the Peace under the broad seale of England and having tooke his oath as the law requires should neede for every speciall Act some speciall warrant or any other kinde of warrant than what was given him in the generall when first made a Iustice And yet I trow the King is the immediate fountaine also of all temporall power and no man dare execute authority but from and by him Touching his Majesties supremacie more than in answere to your clamours I shall say nothing at this present as neither of this place nor purpose It is an Argument of great weight fit rather for a speciall treatise than an occasionall replication Only I will be bold to tell you that if the kings supremacy were not more truely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation as the Canon hath it defended by my Lords the Bishops than by such as you it would be at a losse ere long and setled on the vestrie wherein you preside For wot you what King Iames replied on the like occasion When Dr. Reynolds in the Conference at Hampton Court came in unseasonably once or twice with the Kings Supremacie Dr. Reynolds quoth the King you have often spoken for my supremacie and it is well But know you any here or any elsewhere who like of the present Government Ecclesiasticall that finde fault or dislike with my supremacie And shortly after putting his hand unto his hat his Matie sayd My Lords the Bishops I may thanke you that these men doe thus pleade for my Supremacie They thinke they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto it as if you or some that adhere unto you were not well affected towards it But if once you were out and they in place I know what would become of my supremacie No Bishop no King as before I sayd How like you this Mass Burton is not this your case Mutato nomine de ie fabula narratur You plead indeed for the Kings supremacie but intend your owne The next great crime you have to charge upon the Bishops is that they doe oppresse the kings Leige people against law and conscience How so Because as you informe us Prohibitions are not got so easily from the Courts of Iustice as they have beene formerly and being gotten finde not such entertainement and obedience as before they did This you conceive to be their fault and charge them that by stopping the ordinary course of law the Kings people are cut off from the benefit of the Kings good lawes so as it is become very geason and a rare matter to obteine a Prohibition against their illegall practises in vexing and oppressing the kings good subjects Nay they are growne so formidable of late as if they were some new generation of Giants that the very motion of a Prohibition against a Prelate or their proceedings in the high Commission makes the Courts of Iustice startle so as good causes are lost and Innocents condemned because none dare pleade and judge their cause according to the Kings Lawes whereby wee ought all to be governed p. 69.70 My Masters of the Law and my Lords the Iudges will conne you little thankes for so soule a slander greater then which cannot be laid on the profession or the Courts of Iustice What none dare pleade nor none dare judge according to the Lawes So you say indeed And more then so in your addresse unto the Iudges What meane's say you that difficulty of obtaining prohibitions now adayes whereby the Kings innocent Subjects you are an innocent indeed God helpe you should be relieved against their unjust molestations and oppressions in the Ecclesiastical Courts and high Commission What meaneth that consternation of spirit among Lawyers that few or none can be found to pleade a cause be it never so just against an oppressing Prelate and are either menaced or imprisoned if they doe p. 29. Hoc est quod palles Is this the thing that so offends you that prohibitions are restrained or not sent out so frequently from the Courts of Law as of late they were to the diminishing if not annulling the authority of the Court Christian I trow you are the onely Clergie-man that complaines of this Or if there be more such they be such as you who onely make a property of the civill Courts by them to scape their censures in the Ecclesiasticall Were you so innocent as you would have us thinke you rather should rejoyce for the Churches sake that Prohibitions flie not out so thicke as they have done formely to the great oppression of the Clergie in their suites and businesses especially in those which did concerne the Patrimony of the Church their tithes And if my Lords the Iudges are with more difficulty mooved to send abroad their Prohibitions then were their predecessours in the place before them it is a pregnant evidence of their great love to justice Nor can it but be counted an honour to them to leave every Court to that which is proper to it and for the which it was established And God forbid the Church should aske or doe any thing that should incroach upon them or invade any of their rights What doth this greeve your conscience also Good Sir consider with your selfe what mischiefes Clergie-men were put to when they could scarce commence a suite but prohibitione cautio est a Prohibition was sent out to stop the course of his proceedings
to dispute but to disobey the Kings commands Now Sir I pray you what are you or by what spirit are you guided that you should finde your selfe agreeved at unlimited power which some of better understanding then your selfe have given to Kings or thinke it any Innovation in point of doctrine in case the doctrine of obedience to our superiours bee pressed more home of late then it hath beene formerly Surely you have lately studied Buchannan dejure regni or the vindiciae writ by Beza under the name of Iunius Brutus or else perhaps you went no further then Paraeus where the inferiour Magistrates or Calvin where the three estates have an authority to controule and correct the King And should the King be limited within those narrow bounds which you would prescribe him had you power he would in little time be like the antient Kings of Sparta in which the Ephori or the now Duke of Venice in which the Senate beare the greatest stroke himselfe meane time being a bare sound and an emptie name Stet magni nominis umbra in the Poets language Already you have layd such grounds by which each private man may not alone dispute but disobey the Kings commandements For if the Subject shall conceive that the Kings command is contrary to Gods word though indeede it be not or to the fundamentall lawes of state although hee cannot tell which be fundamentall or if he finde no precedent of the like commands in holy Scripture which you have made to be the onely rule of conscience in all these cases it is lawfull not to yeeld obedience Your selfe have given us one case in your Margin pag. 77. we will put the other Your reprehension is of those that so advance mans ordinances and commandements as though they be contrary to Gods Law and the fundamentall lawes of state yet presse men to obedience to them your instance is of one which was shrewdly threatned how true that is we meane to tell the world hereafter for refusing to doe that which was not agreeable to the word of God viz. for refusing to read the booke of sports as you declare it in the Margin pag. 26. whether you referre us So then the case is this The King permits his people honest recreations on the Lords day according as had beene accustomed till you and your accomplices had cryed it downe with order to the Bishops to see his declaration published in the Churches of their severall diocesses respectively This publication you conceive to bee repugnant to Gods word though none but a few factious spirits ever so conceived it and that your doctrine of the Sabbath be contrary to all antiquity and moderne Churches and therefore by your rule they doe very well that refuse to publish it It 's true indeed in things that are directly contrary to the law of God such as carry in them a plaine and manifest impietie there is no question to be made but it is better to obey God then man But when the matter chiefly resteth either in misapplying or misunderstanding the word of God a fault too incideÌ„t to ignorant unstable men to none more then to your disciples their teachers too or that the word of God be made a property like the Pharisees Corban to justifie your disobedience unto Kings and Princes your rule is then as false as your action faulty So for your second limitation that 's but little better and leaves a starting hole to malicious persons from whence to worke on the affections of the common people For put the case the King in necessary and emergent causes touching the safety of his empire demand the present ayde of all his subjects and any Tribunitian spirit should informe them that this demand is contrary unto the fundamentall lawes of state according to your rule the subject is not bound to obey the king nay he might refuse it although the busines doth concerne especially his owne preservation But your third limitation that of conscience is the worst of all For where you make the word of God to be the onely rule of conscience you doe thereby conclude expressely that neither Ecclesiasticall or Civill ordinances doe binde the conscience and therein overthrow the Apostles doctrine who would have Every soule be subject to the higher powers not for wrath onely but for conscience sake So that in case the king command us any thing for which we finde not some plaine precept or particular warrant in the word of God as if the King command all Lecturers to read the service of the Church in their â—oodes and surplices before their Lectures such his command is plainely against conscience at least the Lecturers are not bound in conscience to submit unto it because there is no speciall precept for it in holy Scripture And certainely this plea of conscience is the most dangerous buckler against authoritie which in these latter ages hath beene taken up So dangerous that were the plea allowed and all the judgements of the king in banco permitted to bee scanned and traversed in this Court of Conscience there were a present end of all obedience Si ubi jubeantur quaerere singulis liceat peunte obsequio imperium etiam intercidit as he in Tacitus If every man had leave to cast in his scruple the balance of authority would be soone weighed downe Yet since you are so much agreived at the unlimited power which some gives to Kings will you be pleased to know that Kings doe hold their crownes by no other Tenure than Dei gratia and that what ever power they have they have from God by whom Kings reigne and Princes decree justice So say the Constitutions ascribed to Clements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Irenaeus also an antient father Cujus jussu homines nascuntur ejus jussu reges constituuntur And Porphyrie remembreth it amongst the Tenets of the Essees a Iewish Sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no man ever did beare rule but by Gods appointment Holding then what they have from God whose deputies they are and of whose power they are partakers how and by whom doe you conceive they should be limited doubtlesse you meane to say by the lawes of the Land But then if question be demanded who first made those lawes you must needes answere also the kings themselves So that in case the kings in some particulars had not prescribed limits unto themselves and bound their owne hands as it were to enlarge the peoples neither the people nor any lawes by them enacted could have done it Besides the law of Monarchie is founded on the Law of nature not on positive lawes and positive lawes I trow are of no such efficacie as to annihilate any thing which hath its being and originall in the law of nature Hence is it that all soveraigne Princes in themselves are above the lawes as Princes are considered in abstracto and extent of power and how farre that extent will
the act it selfe to be invested in the Queene the said Episcopall authority remaining as it did and standing on the selfe same grounds as it had done formerly Which said the last part of the Argument touching the oath of supremacie taken and to be taken by every Bishop that 's already answered in the Premisses the said oath being onely framed for the abolishment of all forreine and extraordinary power not for the altering of the ordinary and domesticall jurisdiction if I so may call it in this Church established I hope the Prelates are now out of danger of the Premunire which you threatned them though you not out of danger of the Locrian law And if K. Edward the 6. helpe you not I know no remedie but that according to your owne conditions the executioner may be sent for to doe his office Now for K. Edward the 6. the case stood thus King Edward being a Minor about nine yeares old at his first comming to the crowne there was much heaving at the Church by some great men which were about him who purposed to inrich themselves with the spoyles thereof For the effecting of which purpose it was thought expedient to lessen the authoritie of those Bishops which were then in place and make all those that were to come the more obnoxious to the Court upon this ground there passed a statute 1 0 of this King consisting of two principall branches whereof the first tooke off all manner of elections and writs of Conge d'peslier formerly in use the other did if not take off yet very much abate the edge of Ecclesiasticall censures In the first branch it was enacted that from thenceforth no writ of Conge d' peslier be granted nor election of any Archbishop or Bishop by Deane and Chapter made but that the king may by his letters Patents at all times when any Arch-bishopricke or Bishopricke is voyde conferre the same on any whom the king shall thinke meete The second clause concerned the manner of proceeding from that time to be used in spirituall courts viz. that all summons Citations and other processe Ecclesiasticall in all suites and causes of instance and all causes of correction and all causes of bastardie or bigamie or de jure patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of administrations of persons deceased c. be made with in the name and with the stile of the king as it is in writs Originall or Iudiciall at the Common Law c. As also that no manner of person or persons who hath the exercise of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction use other seale of jurisdiction but wherein his majesties Armes bee ingraven c. on penaltie of running in his Majesties displeasure and indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure The reason of this order is thus delivered in the Preamble To the second branch viz. because that all authoritie of jurisdiction spirituall and temporall is derived and deducted from the kings Majestie as supreame head of these Churches and Realmes of England and Ireland c. and that all Courts Ecclesiasticall within the said two realmes bee kept by no other power or authoritie either forreine or within the Realme but by the authoritie of the kings most excellent Majestie Which Act with every branch and clause thereof was afterwards repealed 1 of Queene Marie cap. 2. and hath stood so repealed to this very time For howsoever you pretend and all your fellow libellers insist upon it that the said statute was revived in the first yeare of K. Iames of blessed memorie and therefore that you are yet safe from the Locrian law yet this pretence will little helpe you That their assertion or pretences if examined rightly will proove to be a very poore surmise invented onely by such boutefeus as you and your Accomplices to draw the Prelates into obloquy with the common people and make your Proselytes beleeve that they usurpe a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie it being positively delivered by my Lords the Iudges with an unanimous consent and so declared by my Lords chiefe Iustices in the Starre-chamber the 14 of May now last past that the sayd Act of Repeale 1 of Queene Mary doth still stand in force as unto that particular statute by you so much pressed your desperate clamours unto the contrary notwithstanding Nor doth there want good reason why the said Statute of K. Edward was at first repealed or why the said Repeale should bee still in force For being it was enacted in that Statute that from thenceforth all Ecclesiasticall processe should bee made in the kings name and stile not onely in all suites or causes of instance bastardy bigamie Probates of Testaments c. which have much in them of a civill or a mixt nature at the lest but in all causes of correction also it came to passe that excommunication and other censures of the Church which are spirituall meerely in no sort civill were therby either quite abolished or of none effect And it continued so all King Edwards reigne to the no small increase of vice because it nourished a presumption of impunitie in the vicious person This Father Latimer complaineth of in his sermon preached before that King at Westminster Anno 1550. thus Lecherie is used throughout England and such Lechery as is used in none other place of the world And yet it is made a matter of sport a matter of nothing a laughing matter and a trifle not to be passed on nor reformed c. Well I trust it will one day be amended c. And here I will make a suite to your highnesse to restore unto the Church the discipline of Christ in excommunicating such as be notable offenders nor never devise any other way For no man is able to devise any better way than that God hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation till they bee confounded Therefore restore Christs discipline for excommunication And that shall be a meane both to pacifie Gods wrath and indignation and also that lesse abomination shall be used than in times past hath beene and is at this day I speake this of a Conscience and I meane to move it of a will to your Grace and your Realme Bring into the Church of England open discipline of Excommunication that open sinnes may be stricken withall So farre Father Latimer What thinke you sir of this See you not reason for it now why your sayd Statute was repealed and why the sayd repeale should continue still Put all that hath beene sayd together and I can see no hopes you have to scape the penaltie of the Law by your selfe proposed but that you cry peccavi and repent your follies So farre in answere to your Cavils for Arguments I cannot call them I have beene bold to justifie the proceedings of the Bishops in their Courts Episcopall wherein there is not any thing that they usurpe upon the King or that authoritie which is inseparably annexed to the Regall diademe For
admitted The high Commissioners neither parties in the cause nor Adversaries to the Person of the Appellant The Bishops no usurpers of the Jurisdiction belonging to the King The Oath of Supremacie not derogatorie to Episcopall power Objections against the Oath Ex Officio with an answere to them Other objections against the Proceedings in the high-Commission answered Of giving forth a Copie of ones Sermon upon Oath Sedition how it may be punishable in the High Commission Archbishop Whitgifts name abused and his words mis-reported by H. B. HItherto Mass Burton wee have laid you open by the way of an Historicall narration though all Historicall narrations be offensive to you for the sake of one and consequently spake only of you in the third Person as hic et ille But being now employed in the Examiners Office I must deale with you as if Coram in the second Person which I perswade my self will better sort with your ambition the second Person if you remember so much of your Accidens being more worthy then the third And first I would faine know what mooved you to appeale unto His Majestie at your first conventing before you had just grievance or an unjust sentence Your conscience sure accused you and pronounced you guiltie and told you what you should expect in a legall triall and on the other side your presumption flattered you that being an Old Courtier though worn out of favour you might have some friend there to promote your suite Sir you forget it seemes what is related in the conference at Hampion Court in the self same case My L. of London moved his M tie that then was K. James of B. memory that Pulpits might not be made Pasquils Pray sir mark this well wherin every humorous or discontented fellow might traduce his Superiors This the King very gratiously accepted exceedingly reproving that as a lewd custom threatning that if he should but heare of such a one in a Pulpit He would make him an example this is just your case And that if any thing were amisse in the Church Officers not to make the Pulpit a place of personall reproofe but to let His Majestie heare of it yet by degrees First let complaint be made unto the Ordinarie of the place from him to goe to the Archbishop from him to the Lords of the Counsell and from them if in all these places no remedie is found to his own self which Caveat His Majestie put in for that the Bp. of London had told him that if he left himself open to admit of all complaints neither His Majestie should ever be quiet nor his under Officers regarded seeing that now already no fault can be censured but presently the delinquent threatneth a complaint to the King Here is a long gradation and that after censure but you will venter on the King per saltem not by faire degrees and that not only before censure but before any grievance to be complained of The King would quickly have his hands full were that course allowed of and wee must needs conceive him God as well by nature as resemblance it being impossible he should have any spare time left either to eare sleepe or refresh his Spirits or whatsoever other businesse doth concern this life or shew him mortall But wee must needs conceive there was some speciall reason in it which might induce you to cry out before you were hurt more then the matter of the Articles which were read vnto you or your own guiltie conscience which had precondemned you Yes sure for you except against as well the incompetencie of the Judges as the illegall manner of proceedings in the high Commission The Judges you except against excepting those honorable Nobles Judges Counsellers of state which are seldome there as parties in the cause and adversaries to your person for the causes sake p. 6. parties because you have traduced them for Innovators and Adversaries for the reasons which hereafter follow Suppose them parties and what then Then by the Lawes of God and nature as also by the Common Canon and Civill Lawes they are prohibited from being Judges This is the first Crutch your Appeale halts with and this will faile you For howsoever it be true in ordinary course that no man can be Judge in his own cause there where the cause concernes himself in his own particular yet it is otherwise in a body aggregate or a publick person Suppose in time of Parliament a man should taxe that great assembly with some grievous crime should the whole body be disabled from proceeding with him Or that a man should raise some odious scandall on my Lords the Judges should he escape unpunished because there is none else to judge him Or that some sawcie fellow behaves himself audaciously and Contra bonos more 's before the Justices on the bench at their Quarter Sessions should not the Bench have power to bind him to his good behaviour Or that a man within the Liberties of London should say a fig for my Lord Major might not my Lord Major clap him in the Counter And yet the Parliament and the Judges and the Justices and the Lord Major of London are asmuch parties in these cases as the Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors and the rest of the High Commission are by you said and only said to be in the other For that they are not parties wee shall see anon when wee shall come to cleere them of those imputations which in a furious zeal you have laid upon them That which you next attempt is to prove them Adversaries and Adversaries to your person for the causes sake Good Sir what see you in your self that you should think such great and eminent men should beare malice to you Tullie a wiser man then you and a better Orator as I take it and in more credit with the common people though you grieve to heare it might have taught you better Non video nec in vita nec in gratia nec in hac mea mediocritate quid despicere possit Antonius Was it not you sweet Sir that did Protest thus roundly of my LL. the Bishops I speake not this God is my witnesse out of any base envy to their Lordly honor and pompe which is so far beneath my envy Poore soul are those great persons and their honors beneath your envie and is your person a fit marke for theirs Diogenes and your self two magnanimious Cynicks You know the story wel enough and can best applie it Calco Platonis fastum sed mafore fastu Yea but they are the Adversaries of your person for the causes sake Say then the Adversaries of the cause let your person goe as a contemptible thing that provokes no Adversary Yet wee will take you with us to avoid exceptions and see what proofe you have to make them Adversaries to your person for the causes sake And first they are your Adversaries because the Adversaries of those trueths by you delivered in
Declarations and the former practise and thereunto the increase of the Plague imputed His Majesties Chappell paralleld with Nebuchadnezars golden Image and Julian the Apostates Altar H. B. incourageth disobedient persons and makes an odious supposition about setting up Masse in the Kings Chappell FRom your restraint and curtailling of the Kings authoritie proceed wee to your censure of His Actions and Declarations which wee have separated from the other because in this wee have some intermixture of your invectives against the Bishops your scandalous clamours against whom in reference to their place and persons are to follow next And first wee will begin with the Petition of Right as having some resemblance to the former point on which you please to play the Commentator and spoile a good text with a factious glosse It pleased His Majestie being Petitioned amongst other things in Parliament 1628 that no Free-man and not a Free Subject as you phrase it should be imprisoned or detained without cause shewed and being brought to answere by due course of Law to passe His Royall assent to the said Petition What Comment do you make thereon That no man is to be imprisoned if hee offer bayle p. 52. You do indeed resolve it so in your own case too and fall exceeding fowle on His Sacred Majestie because your Comment or Interpretation could not be allowed of Now your case was thus During that Session you had printed a seditious Pamphlet as all yours are entituled Babell no Bethel tending to incense the Commons against the King for which being called before the High Commission order was made for your commitment And when you offered bayle it was refused you say by my Lord of London that then was affirming that the King had given expresse charge that no bayle should be taken for you That thereupon you claimed the right and Privilege of a Subject according to the Petition of Right but notwithstanding your said claime were sent to Prison and there kept Twelve dayes and after brought into the High Commission This is the case as you relate it p. 52. and 53. And hereupon you do referre it unto the consideration of the sagest whether that which he fathered on the King were not a most dangerous and seditious speech tending to possesse the by-standers and consequently all the people of the land with a sinister opinion of the Kings Justice and Constancy in keeping His solemne Covenant made with His people as in that Petition of Right And you have noted it in the margin p. 53. for a most impious and disgracefull speech to bring the people into an hard conceit of His Majestie who but a little before had signed the Petition of Right This is yet pressed againe both in the same and the next page as also in your addresse unto the Judges as if the King had violated His solemne promise made unto the people and beare down all the rights and liberties of the Subject mentioned in the said Petition by suffering or appointing a Seditious Phamphletter to be sent to prison without bayle But tell me Sir I pray you for I know not yet how you could plead the benefit of that Petition or how it could advantage you in the smallest measure It was petitioned that no Subject being a Free-man should be committed to the prison without cause shewed and being brought to answere in due course of Law Tell me of all loves how doth this concerne you or how can you complaine of being imprisoned contrary to His Majesties answere unto that Petition the cause of your commitment being shewne unto you which was that Booke of yours formerly mentioned and you being brought to answere in the High Commission according to due forme of Law as your selfe informe us Here was no matter of complaint but that you have a mind to traduce His Majestie as if he had no care of His Oathes and promises more of which treacherous Art to amate the people wee shall see hereafter Besides Sir you may please to know that your case was not altogether such as those which were complained of in the said Petition there being alwayes a great difference made between a man committed on an Ecclesiasticall and a Civill crime And I will tell you somewhat which reflects this way It appeares in the Diarie of the Parliament 4. H. 4. what time the Statute 28. Edw. 3. mentioned in the Petition which you call of right was in force and practise how that the Commons exhibited a Petion that Lollards arrested by the Statute 2· H. 4. should be bayled and that none should arrest but the Sheriffe and other lawfull Officers and that the King did answer to it Le Roys ' advisera This I am bold to let you know take it as you please Next for His Majesties Declarations you deale with Him in them as in the Petition if not somwhat worse His Majestie finding by good tokens that some such wretched instrument as your selfe had spread a jealousie amongst the Commons in that Parliament that there was no small feare of an Innovation in Religion as also that by the intemperate handling of some unnecessary questions a faction might arise both in the Church Commonwealth thought fit to manifest himself in two Declarations Of these the first related unto the Articles of Religion in this Church established wherein His Majestie hath commanded that in those curious and unhappy differences which were then on foote no man should put his owne sense or Comment to be the meaning of the Article but take it in the literall and Grammaticall sense shutting up those disputes in Gods promises as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scriptures and the generall meaning of the Articles according to them The second did containe the causes which moved His Majestie to dissolve the Parliament Anno 1628. wherin his Majestie protesteth that he will never give way to the authorising of any thing wherby any Innnovation may steale or creepe into the Church but preserve that unitie of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queene Elizabeth So farre his Majestie And those his Majesties Declarations are by you either peevishly perverted in defence of your disobedience or factiously retorted on his Majestie as if not observed or scandalously interpreted as if intended principally to the suppression of Gods trueth I will begin first with that particular mentioned last of which you tel us plainly that Contzen the Jesuite in his Politicks prescribes this rule of silencing Controversies as an excellent way for the restoring of their Roman Catholik Religion in the Reformed Churches p. 114. As also from the Centuries that the Authors of corruptions and errours do labour to compose all differences with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or silencing of all Disputes that by such counsells the Emperor Anastasius being a favourer of the Arian heresy was moved to burie the principall heads of Controversie in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and finally that the Arian Bishops
hath declaimed against them Regâ—um est cum bene feceris male audire And it is very well observed by our incomparable Hooker to be the lot of all that deale in publicke affaires whether of Church or Commonwealth that what men list to surmise of their doings be it good or ill they must before hand patiently arme their mindes to endure Besides being placed on high as a watch-tower they know full well how many an envious eie will be cast upon them especially amongst such men as brother B. to whom great eminences are farre more dreadfull then great vices and a good name as dangerous as a bad Sinistra erga eminentes interpretatio nec minus periculum ex magna fama quam ex mala And herein they may comfort and rejoyce their hearts that whatsoever sinister and malicious censures are now passed upon them yet there will one day come a time in which all hearts shall be open all desires made knowne and when no counsels shall be hid and then the Lord shall make it knowne who were indeed on his side and who against him In the meane time suspence of censure and exercise of charity were farre more sit and seemely for a Christian man then the pursuite of those uncharitable and most impious courses whereby you goe about to bring the Church of God and the Rulers of it into discredit and contempt I know assuredly how gloriously soever you conceive of your owne deere selfe that you are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no searcher of the heart nor no discerner of the spirits And therefore I am bold to tell you what I have learned from Venerable Bede viz. ut ea facta quae dubium est quo animo fiant in meliorem partem interpretemur that all mens actions whereof we know not the intent should be interpreted to the better How much the rather should this rule be in use amongst us in points of counsell the hearts of Kings for he hath had his share in the declamation being unsearchable in themselves and unseene to us the resolutions of the Church grounded on just and weighty reasons being to be obeyed and not disputed much lesse rashly censured This counsell if it come too late to you may yet come soone enough to others and to them I leave it CHAP. V. An Answer to the quarrells of H. B. against the Bishops in reference to their Iurisdiction and Episcopall government H.B. endites the Bishops in a Premunire for exercising such a jurisdiction as is not warrantable by the Lawes The Bishops not in danger of any Statute made by King Henry the eight The true intention of the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. The Court of High-Commission in the same established The Statute 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. on what ground enacted repealed by Qu. Mary and so still continueth The use of excommunication taken away by that statute of King Edward A finall answer to the cavills about the exercise of Episcopall jurisdiction Why H. B. and the Brethren doe seeme to pleade so hard for the Kings supremacie the Bishops chalenged for oppressing the Kings leige people the Iudges for not sending out their Prohibitions to reteine them H. B. the onely Clergie man that stands for Prohibitions King Iames his order in that case The quality of their offence who are suspended by their ordinaries for not publishing the book for sports The Bishops charged with persecuting Gods faithfull Ministers and how deservedly HAving made knowne your good affections unto the calling and the persons we must now see what you have to say against the proceedings of the Bishops in their place and calling For sure you would not have it thought that you have lifted up your voyce so like a Trumpet to startle and awaken the drowzie world and that there was no cause to provoke you to it No there was cause enough you say such as no pure and pious soule could endure with patience their whole behaviour both in the consistory and the Church being so unwarrantable For in their consistory they usurpe a power peculiar to the supreme majestie and grievously oppresse the subject against law and conscience and â—n the Church they have indeavoured to erect a throne for Antichrist obtruded on it many a dangerous innovation and furiously persecuted the Lords faithfull servants for not submitting thereunâ—o Therefore no wonder to be made if being called forth by Christ who hath found you faithfull to stand in his cause and witnesse it unto the world you persecute the Prelacie with fire and halter and charge them with those usurpations oppressions innovations and persecutions which you have brought in readinesse to make good against them hoping in very little time to see their honour in the dust and the whole government of the Church committed to the holy Elders whereof you are chiefe In case you cannot prove what you undertake you are contented to submit to the old Law amongst the Locrians let the Executioner do his office I take you at your word and expect your evidence first that the Prelates have usurped a power peculiar to his sacred Majestie which is the first part of your charge How prove you that Marry say you because of sundry statutes as in King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt and Queene Elizabeths time which doe annex all Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction unto the Crowne of England so as no Prelate or other person hath any power to visit Ecclesiasticall persons c. but he must have it immediatly from the King and confirmed by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England pag. 68. So farre the tenor of the Law if you tell us true or rather if your learned Counsell rightly informed Dr. Bastwicke in it from whose mouth you tooke it Now for the practise of our Prelates you tell us that they neither have at any time nor never sought to have any the Kings Letters patents under the great Seale of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations But doe all in their owne names and under their owne Seales contrary to the Law in that behalfe pag. 69. There be your Major and your Minor The conclusion followes So as being a power not derived from the King as the immediate fountaine of it it proves to bee at least a branch of that forreine power altogether excluded in the Statute 1. Eliz. c. 1. And it is flatly against the oath of supremacie in the same statute which all Prelates take wherein they professe and promise faith and true allegiance to the Queenes highnesse her heires and lawfull successors and to their power to defend all jurisdictions priviledges c. granted to the Queenes highnesse her heires c. p. 70.71 In fine you bring them all in a premunire leave them to the learned in the law of which if you were one or that your learned Counsell might sit Iudge to decide the controversie Lord have mercy upon them For answer hereunto wee would faine know of
or if he had a sentence to reverse that also Or if you will not trouble your selfe in thinking of it will you be pleased to heare what our late Soveraigne King James hath observed therein If saith he Prohibitions should rashly and headily be granted then no man is the more secure of his owne though he hath gotten a sentence with him for as good have no law or sentence as to have no execution thereof A poore Minister with much labor and expence having exhausted his poore meanes and being forced to forbeare his studie and to become non-resident from his flocke obtaines a sentence and then when he lookes to enjoy the fruites thereof he is defrauded of all by a Prohibition And so he is tortured like Tantalus who when he hath his Apple at his mouth that he is gaping to receive it then must it be pulled from him by a Prohibition and hee not suffered to taste thereof So farre the Royall Advocate hath pleaded the poore Clergies cause And did he nothing as a Judge Yes he declared it to be his Office to make every Court containe himselfe within his own limits and thereupon admonished all other Courts that they should be carefull every of them to containe themselves within the bounds of their owne jurisdictions the Courts of Common law that they should not be so forward and prodigall in multiplying their Prohibitions But you will say perhaps that your exception lieth against the stopping of the course of Prohibitions not so much if at all in reall as in personall actions and that you are offended only because by this meanes the Kings Innocent Subjects are not relieved as you and Mr. Prynne once were from the unjust oppressions of the Courts Ecclesiasticall and High Commission Why what 's the matter There is you tell us a great persecution in the Church and many a faithfull godly Minister hath beene of late suspended from his ministery and outed of his benefice by the Prelates in the Courts aforesaid no remedy being to be had as in former times from the Common Law For as the common rumor goeth at least you make a rumour of it the course of Justice is stopped in these cases there being none dares open his mouth to pleade a cause against the Prelates So you in your addresse to my Lords the Judges p. 29. For an example of the which as well the persecution as the want of Remedie you instance in the Ministers of Surrey who are suspended of their ministerie and outed of their meanes and freeholds against all law and conscience yet are so disheartned and over-awed that they dare not contend in law against their Prelate the Lord Bishop of Winton for feare of further vexations and are out of hope of any faire hearing in an ordinary legall way p. 70. of your Pasquill What want of remedie can you or they complaine of if they have not sought it or rather if their conscience tell them and those with whom they have advised advertise them that in such cases as this is the Judges cannot by the law award a Prohibition if they should desire it Doe you conceive the case aright If not I will take leave to tell you His Maiestie having published his Declaration about lawfull pastimes on the Sunday gives order to his Bishops that publication thereof be made in all their severall diocesses respectively The Bishops hereupon appoint the Incumbent of every Church to read the booke unto the people that so the people might the better take notice of it and finding opposition to the said appointment made by some refractory persons of your owne condition presse them to the performance of it by vertue of that Canonicall obedience which by their severall oathes they were bound to yeeld unto their Ordinaries But seeing nothing but contempt and contempt upon contempt after much patience and long-suffering and expectation of conformitie to their said appointment some of the most pervers amongst them have in some places beene suspended aswell a benificio as officio for an example to the rest No man deprived or outed as you say of his meanes and livelihood that I heare of yet This is the Case Which being meerly Ecclesiasticall as unto the ground being a contempt of and against their Ordinarie and meerely Ecclesiasticall as unto the Censure which was suspension I cannot see what remedie you can find for them amongst the Lawyers but that which every man might give them good and wholsome Counsaile And call you this a persecution when a few refractarie persons are justly punished in a legall way for their disobedience For howsoever they and you pretend that the Command was contrary to the Law of God and could not be performed with a safe conscience yet this was onely a pretence their reading of the booke had the Contents thereof displeased them being no more an Argument of their approbation of any thing therein contained then when a Common Crier reades a Proclamation which perhaps he likes not It must be therefore some Association had and made amongst them to stand it out unto the last and put some baffle or affront on that authoritie which had imposed it Such also is the persecution doubtlesse which you so complaine of in the two whole Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke where in a very short space as you say there hath beene the foulest havock of Ministers and their flocks c. as ever our eyes have seene there being already as you tell us 60 Ministers suspended and betweene 60. and 80. more having had time given them till Christ-tide take head of Christmasse by all meanes by which time as you say they must either bid their good conscience fare-well or else their pretious Ministery and necessary meanes In all Queene Maries time no such havock made in so short a time oâ— the faithfull Ministers of God in any part of yea or in the whole land p. 65. The same is also told us in the Newes from Ipswich Nay more then so you tell us how one or two godly Ministers some of your Associates were threatned by Docter Corbet Chancellor of that diocesse with Pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read His Majesties Declaration about lawfull sports In this you doe as shamefully belie the Chancellor as you have done the Bishop in all the rest of whose proceedings in that diocesse I will present you with a short account that you may see how grosly you abuse the world And first you may be pleased to know that the Clergie of that Diocesse comprehending all that are in spirituall dignitie or office and all Parsons Vicars Curates and Schoole-masters taking in the Lecturers with all amount unto the number of 1500. or thereabouts So that in case there had beene 60. of that Fifteene hundred suspended by the Bishop as you say there were had this beene such a terrible persecution as you give it out for But yet it is not so as you tell us