them St Augustine doth name some opinions for hereticall have small affinity with Divinity and who shall read Philastrius of Heresies must needs approve Cardinall Bellarmin's censure of him that he accounts amongst them many are not properly Heresies as the word is now taken The first Councell of Constantinople held 381. expresly affirms by the name of Heretick to understand such as professing the same faith yet did make a separation from those canonicall Bishops were of their communion But the construction what opinion was hereticall did ever so far as I have observed belong to the spirituall Magistrate who after the pattern held out in holy Writ if any new erroneous opinion did peep the neighbour Bishops and Clergy taking notice of it did assemble condemn it and by their letters gave notice of what had past them to absent Churches if the case were difficult the presence of any famous Clerk was desired who for settling peace as who would not was easily drawn out of his own home so was Origen sent for into Arabia And that this form continued in condemning Heresy till Constantine seems to be very plain by the proceedings against Paulus Samosatenus and divers others remaining yet in history and the writings of the fathers But for the prosecution of an Heretick farther then to avoid him I know no example till after God having given peace to his people under Christian Emperours they finding if the Church were in trouble the State to be seldome otherwise did provide as well for the calling of Bishops to Councells that might condemn Heresies as by lawes to punish Hereticks 3. The Councell of Nice therefore having in the year 325. censured the opinions of Arius for hereticall the Emperour that had formerly granted priviledges to Christians 326 declared haereticos atque schismaticos his privilegiis alienos c. and that no man might be deceived by the ambiguity of the word Heretick Gratian and Theodosius in the year 380. did declare who onely were to be so reputed viz. all who secundum Apostolicam disciplinam evangelic amque doctrinam patris filii spiritus sancti unam deitatem sub parili majestate sub pia trinitate credamus hane legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti reliquos vero dementes vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere and the year following did not onely in Ianuary renew the said Edict but in Iuly commanded all Churches to be delivered those Bishops who held that profession nihil dissonum profana divisione facientes sed Trinitatis ordinem personarum adsertionem divinitatis ordinem c. and for the more assurance as a mark of their being orthodox did hold communion with the Catholick Bishops of any one seat there remembred as Damasus of Rome Nectarius of Constantinople Pelagius of Laodicea Diodorus of Tarsus Optimus of Antioch c. omnes autem qui abeorum quos commemoratio specialis expressit fide communionis dissentiunt ut manifestos haereticos ab ecclesits expelli Which note Iustinian likewise in the year 541. having prescribed goes farther that sacram communionem in Catholica ecclesia non percipientes à Deo amabilibus sacerdotibus haereticos juste vocamus 4. Before these lawes it is not to be wondred if every one desired to be joyned in communion with some one of those seats whose Bishops were so recommended for conserving the Apostolick faith for the sanctity of their manners and for keeping schism out of the Church which being usually joyned with sedition in the Common wealth Princes seem to have an especiall eye how it might be avoided but after these Edicts they certainly did it much more and there being in the world no Bishop more famous then the Roman nor any other named in these parts of Europe then he every one endeavoured to live united to that Church whose form the Councell of Nice 325. for before that ad Romanam ecclesiam parvus habebatur respectus as Pius secundus writes approving in distribution of the ecelesiastick government and Emperours now in point of belief the Roman Chair became so eminent as for to shew themselves orthodox many especially of the Latins did hold it enough to live in the communion of that See and the Fathers in that Age to give high expressions of being in union with it S. Ambrose shewing the devotion of his brother Satyrus in a tempest adds yet farther as a mark of it Advocavit ad se Episcopum percontatus que ex eo est utrumnam cum episcopis catholicis hoc est cum Romana ecclesia conveniret and S. Hierom a person very superlative in praising and reprehending writing about the same time to Damasus Ego nullum primum nisi Christum sequens Beatitudini tuae id est cathedrae Petri communione consocior c. and in the year 602. a certain Bishop returning out of schism spontanea voluntate did swear he in unitate sanctae ecclesiae catholicae communione Romani Pontificis per omnia permansurum c. All which in time bred an opinion that Chair could not entertain an error and the beginning of the mark absolutely inverted for those men who at first were as others sought unto because they did conserve the religion S. Peter had planted in Rome must in after-ages be onely held to maintain the same doctrine because they are in that See so that the Doctrine did not commend the person but the being in that seat and recommended from thence be it what it will it ought to be received insomuch as Cardinall Bellarmine doubts not to write Si Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare for which he was afterward forced to an Apology yet is not in my opinion so absurd as the rule left by certain religious persons 1606. to their confidents at Padoua containing ut ipsi Ecclesiae catholicae understanding the Pope omnino unanimes conformesque simus si quod oculis nostris apparet album nigrum illa esse definierit debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare c. 5. But to return whence I have a little digress't it being plain by these lawes the Emperours restrained points of Heresy to the Catholick Doctrine of the Father Son and holy Ghost the ground of the four first generall Councils and others not to be esteemed hereticks in which sense I conceive sundry of the ancients take the word as S. Hierome when he sayes all Hereticks leave God and Socrates when he agrees such as condemned Origen finding not to blame his opinion of the holy Trinity must confesse he held the right faith and Leo the first when in an epistle about 449. he exhorts the Emperour Theodosius to consider the glory of S. Peter
thought to have obliged us more then that declaration of the Bishops 1615 did the French who having meurement delibere sur la publication du concile de Trente ont unaniment recognu declarè recognoissent declarent estre obligez par leur devoir conscience a recevoir come de fait ils ont receu recoivent le dit concile promettent l'observer entant qu' ils peuvent par leurs fonctions auctorite spirituele pastorele and caused the same to be printed Yet that of Trent had never validity in France nor the other in England notwithstanding what thus past the Clergy 38. Neither was that other Councell of Lateran under Innocentius 2. ever received here though the Pope there insignem sacrorum Decretorum textum congessit yet nimis abundans per universum orbem nequitia terrigenarum corda contra ecclesiastica scita obduravit from whence it proceeded that when they were divulged they did no good quoniam à principibus optimatibus regnorum cum subjectis plebibus parvi pensa sunt Now that it was never received here appears besides this testimony in that the marriage of a professed Nun was adjudged valid contrary to the 7. Canon of it and that too after it was registred in the Canon Law which shews this Church did neither admit the Canons of forreign Councells nor the Canon Law it self to alter their ancient customes as is farther manifest by the statute of Merton cap. 9. Neither was the Councell of Sardis ever allowed in England as is manifest by what before of Appeals which yet by the Capitulars of Charls the great and Ludovicus Pius was even in that particular in France which made St. Bernard write of them in multas posse eas devenire perniciem si non summo moderamine actitentur Appellatur de toto mundo ad te id quidem c. for so the place is to be read as I have seen in two very good Mss and one late printed not as in the former editions of him as at Paris 1586. By these precedents the Reader may judge how necessary it was for the Parliament to make a distinction of Councells Now in these with sundry of as doubtfull credit being of late printed at Rome as if they were of equall value with the first I have thought fit to instance And here having made mention of receiving Councells as if that added strength unto them it will be necessary to say something of that too for the fuller clearing of this Church 39. The Apostles as they shewed a pattern for holding Councells to settle disputes amongst Christians so Paul and Silas in their travells delivering the Decrees by them ordained to be kept by severall Churches shew'd it to be reasonable such as were absent should receive what was done in any Synod before they were obliged by it and accordingly in the primitive times those were not present at the holding a synod had the results sent or brought unto them after the conclusion taken who did in their own Churches subscribe finding them just and pious what the others had in Councell agreed upon and then reposed them amongst their Records called by St Hierom Scrinia publica Ecclesiarum arcae c. So Cecilian being present at Nice brought to Carthage the Decrees there concluded who submitted unto them and S. Athanasius of that Councell sayes Huic Concilio universus orbis assensum praebuit quanquam multae habitae sunt Synodi hujus tamen omnes sunt memores tumper Dalmatiam Dardaniam aliasque insulas Siciliam c. plerique in Arabia hanc agnoverunt subscriptione approbarunt c. And of the Councell at Sardis it is recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I English thus Osius the Bishop subscribed and so did thâ— rest These things being copied out the Synodâ—n Sardis sent to those could not be present who were of the same mind wâ—th what had been determined of those subscribâ—d in the Synod and of the other Bishops these are the names 40. After which Athanasius from whom this epistle is taken adds qui igitur decretis 〈…〉 sunt isti in universum 344. Hence it grew that though some Councells had but few at the holding of them yet the subscriptions were numerous Baronius observes the 5th Councell of Carthage to have been held by 22 onely I conceive it should be 72. yet had 217. subscribers which was after the ending of it by Bishops in their own Churches when they admitted of it So the Synod of Antioch about 341. sending their conclusions to absent Churches writ unto them they did believe they would assent to what they had done et ca quae visa sunt recta roborantes cum consensu sancti Spiritus consignabitis It is of no use to dispute here whether this were an Arrian or a Catholick Councell be it either it still denotes the manner then used as doth the third Councell of Toledo held Anno 589. which speaks thus Constitutiones sanctorum conciliorum Niceni Ephesini Constantinopolitani vel Chalcedonensis quas gratissima aure audivimus consensione nostra veras esse probavimus de toto corde de tota anima de tota mento nostra subscripsimus and another held there having received with the letters of Pope Leo the 2. the sixth generall Councell invited all the Prelats of Spain ut praedicta synodalia instituta quae miserat nostri etiam vigoris manerent auctoritate suffulta omnibusque per nos sub regno Hispaniae consistentibus patescerent divulganda 41. By all this it is plain the manner of former times was to disperse the Decrees of Councells to absent Churches who by subscriptions were said to have confirmed and so far as lay in them by suffrage to have given strength to that such meetings had agreed unto And as Popes did thus confirme what other Bishops had concluded in their Synods so did they in like manner his In the year 1095. Vrban the 2. held a Councell at Clermont in Auvergne at which were present severall Prelats of Normandy who at their return brought letters from the Synod upon which VVilliam Archbishop of Roan caused the Norman Bishops to meet there who capitula Synodi quae apud Clarum-montem facta est unanimiter contemplati sunt scita quoque Apostolica confirmaverunt It is true the Pope being the Patriarch of most note in the world and of greatest dignity in the West usually the Acts of forraign Councells were directed unto him which he dispersed through Italy and other parts of Europe but his approbation was not enough to oblige other Churches till what came from him was by themselves allowed neither was this dispersing so appropriated to his Papacy as if there were never any other divulging of them the second Councell of Nice held 787 or 788 as Diâ—eto accounts was sent from Constantinople to Charls the great
on them not as to those had auctority over this Church 17. As for acts of Ecclesiastick auctority what proceeded not from the King did from th' Archbishop who was not at all commanded by any nullius unquam legati ditioni addictus but preceded them all None did were a Miter within his Province or had the Crosier carried nor layd any excommunication and when he did the Clergy of the place did teach both from the King and Archbishop not to value it on this ground that in Dioecesi Archiepiscopi Apostolicam non tenere sententiam 18. As for Councells it is certain none from Rome did till 1125. call any here if they did come to any as to Calcuith the King upon the Advise of th' Archbishop statuit diem concilii So when William the first held one at Winchester 1070. for deposing Stygand though there came to it three sent from Alexander the second yet it was held jubente presente Rege who was president of it The difference touching precedency between the Sees of Canterbury and York having been before the same Pope and by him sent back for a determination at home it is observable that in a Councell said therefore to be called â—x praecepto Alexandri Papae annuente Rege the Popes Legat subscribed the 16 th after all the English Bishops as is truly recorded in the Antiquitat Britannicae Ecclesiae p. 95 40. agreeing with a very ancient Ms. copy I have seen of the said Councell as Diceto and others do rank him after the King Canterbury and York If any shall ask whether I have met no copies in which he was placed otherwise I must confesse I have seen some books wherein he was above the English Bishops next after the Queen but they were onely late Transcripts not of any Antiquity as in a book of Crouland writ since the beginning of Henry the 7. 19. The Pope for many years now past for being a Spirituall Pastor and Patriarch of the West hath been treated with more reverence than any Bishop and for being a potent temporall Prince with more observance then meerly a Ghostly Father A grave writer notes Henry the first having gone through the troubles were on him with his brother and likewise Anselm subjugatis omnibus inimicis securus erat nec aliquem ut primìtus formidabat praeter Papam hoc non propter spiritualem sed temporalem potestatem Which as it is recorded of that Prince so no question is true of many others 20. By which we may see when Rome did in former times Apostolica authoritate praecipere it was to Bishops whom he styled his brothers no other then such fraternall commands the elder may and doth ordinarily lay upon the younger brother of whom he is sollicitous such as St. Pauls were to the Thessalonians Philemon c. No other then of late Calvins were to Knox who being chosen by certain of Franckford to be Preacher unto them their vocation he obâ—yed albeit unwillingly at the commandment of that notable servant of God Iohn Calvin c. And a little after the Lords of Scotland sending for him home did accompany their letters to him with others to Mr. Calvin craving of him that by his auctority he would command the said Iohn once again to visit them c. And truly whosoever will without partiality seriously consider the whole contexture of our Lawes and Histories weighing one circumstance with another must conclude the Popes commanding to have been volentibus not nolentibus as St. Hierom says those of a Bishop ought to be for if disliked his precepts were questioned opposed those he sent not permitted to meddle with that they came for their prohibitions that others should not neglected The English having ever esteemed the Church of Canterbury in Spiritualls that is quae sunt ordinis without any intervening superior omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione in other things as points of Government the ordering that of right and custome ever to have belonged to the King assisted with his councell of Bishops and others of the Clergy who was therefore called Vicarius Christi c. as I shall shew hereafter more at large The Church of England holding that of S â— Augustine an undoubted truth In hoc Reges sicut eis divinitus praecipitur Deo serviunt in quantum Reges sunt si in suo reg no bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae ad divinam religionem and accordingly our Kings so far as any Laws or Records of their actions are extant from Ethelbert by the Saxons to the Conquest and from the Normans to these later times have upon occasion exercised a power shewing such titles were not in vain conferred on them Neither did any decision though never so punctually had in Rome unlesse the parties agreed stint the strife till the King concurred with it as the frequent determinations on the behalf of Canterbury in point of superiority above York found in Malmsbury and others may teach us which yet never received a finall end till Edward the 3. under the great seal set a period to that long controversy 21. But after the Pope began to think or rather to say himself had onely plenitudo Ecclesiasticae potestatis that no Councell could give Laws to him but all receive strength from him and the Canonists flattery extended to declare him supra jura in â—o sufficit pro ratione voluntas his missives ran in an higher tone then formerly and his commands which were at first according to th' example of St. Paul joyned with exhortations entreaties and the like to carry Apostolica auctoritate comprimere and to th' Archbishop demurring in th' execution of them tuum candelabrum concutiemus tantam praesumptionem cum gravibus usuris exigemus and si mandatum nostrum neglexeris vel distuleris adimplere quia justum est ut ei obedientia subtrahatur qui sedi Apostolicae neglexerit obedire venerabilibus fratribus suffraganeis tuis per scripta nostra mandavimus ut tibi reverentiam non impendant Quod si c. tibi feceris exhiberi sâ—ias te tunc ab Episcopali dignitate suspensum c. phrases and manners of writing denoting much more of auctority then was used by Popes in elder times By which is manifest the point in difference between the Archbishop and the Pope to have been not the sending a Legat hither but of one with a power above him to command the English Clergy that is to remove their dependency from him to Rome as a superior over him 22. To his gaining which these usages of th' Archbishops were great stops drawing so near an equality and so pregnant testimonies of his no-divine right to meddle here not easy
liked Paschalis the 2. quarrell'd with Hen. the first that Nullus inde clamor to prevent which this visiting Rome was at the very first inserted into the oath of an Archbishop who being head of the Province all the rest might have the same dependance 55. But because this did not reach such houses and persons as were exempt from the jurisdiction of th' Ordinary acknowledging no superior but the Pope the Councell of Lateran under Innocentius 3. 1215. provided such as pertained immediately to his rule should present themselves before him for confirmation si commode potest fieri which was here misliked But this Councell speaking not home in that it tolerated the sending personas idoneas per quas diligens inquisitio super electionis processu electis possit haberi c. to make th' excuse and being it self as I shall shew hereafter not much regarded till Gregory the 9 nephew to Innocentius inserted it for the most into the Decretalls and framed as I have said an oath too for the stricter obligation unto him it was again urged by Alexander the 4. ut quilibet qui in Abbatem exemptum extunâ— eligeretur Romanam curiam adiret confirmandus benedicendus which the same author styles Statutum enorme and cruentissimum And whereas some finding the burthen of running to Rome had obtained as a priviledge from thence ut non teneantur sedem Apostolicam usque ad certa tempora visitare contra formam praestiti juramenti ex quo illud evenit inconveniens quod Apostolicae sedis dignitas rarius visitatur in derogationem reverentiae quae ab omnibus debetur eidem c. the same Pope therefore revokes all manner of such concessions to whomsoever formerly granted In which year or perhaps 1258 Simon elected Abbot of St. Edmundsbury confirmed by Alexander the 4. the 22 October is noted to have been primus exemptorum in Anglia ad curiam Romanam pro sua confirmatione vocatus 56. Yet the Court of Rome however thus earnest at first either perceiving it ill relisht abroad and that forcing sodain mutations in Religion not to be of so good consequence in her prosecution was more moderate On Roger the xxiiii Abbot of St. Albons 1263. I do not find at all prest his successor Iohn the xxv I have shew'd was the first went thither for it So likewise Philip Abbot of Westminster 1258. obtained the favour to stay at home and Richard Ware his successor fetcht his consecration first thence But after the Court was fully in possession of what turned so much to her advantage an excuse was hardlier admitted and if any did obtain the favour to stay at home he payed a good round summe for it It is remembred Michael Abbot of St. Augustins elected 1375 did give Papae Cardinalibus ut possit benedici in Anglia 183l-02 -02s-06 -06d. and accordingly some other The Papacy having by these wayes abated the power of th' Archbishop found it easy his lett removed to bring the rest of the Clergy wholy to depend upon it by raising whom it liked to oppose that Prelat who were bound to maintain the Papall auctority which supported them in what they did and wringing the Investitures so far as lay in their power out of the hands of Princes to interest the Pope and his party in severall particulars under the notion of being matters Ecclesiasticall by which he brought the elections of Bishops solely to the Convent excluding both King and others and became as Patron of most Spirituall promotions in England which forme he yet laboured in the end to break too by reducing all to his own gift For the understanding of which as not impertinent to that I treat of it will be necessary to look a little higher 57. When any place became destitute of a Bishop it is certain in the primitive Church the Lay as well as the Clergy did concur in nominating who were to succeed in the charge that he who was to have th' inspection of all might not be brought into it with the repugnancy of any And this custome was so generall as St. Cyprian and 36. Bishops more meeting in Councell about the year 255. writing to certain in Spain spake as if it did descend de divina auctoritate It is not to be doubted but this course gave sometime opportunity to ambitious and contentious spirits as St. Augustine calls them of troubling the Churches peace and therefore the Councell of Laodicea before the year 360. did appoint the elections to Priesthood not to be by multitudes and divers holy Bishops desiring peace might continue after them in their flock were carefull or ever they dyed to know the person was to succeed in their chair Severus Bishop of Mela in Africa had exprest to the Clergy onely whom he thought fit to have been admitted after him to his Episcopacy This was likely to have bred some stir in respect the people were not acquainted with it had not St. Augustine by his pains and wisdome allayed the dispute to avoid which that good man nominated one Eradius for his successor whom the people with loud acclamations approved 58. This concurrence or joyning of the Lay with the Clergy that qui praefuturus est omnibus ab omnibus eligatur as Leo speaks in choice of Bishops I do no way question to have continued in the Church till after Charles the Great in whose Capitulars we find Episcopi per electionem cleri populi eligantur and to have been sent hither by Gregory the Great who in his Epistles makes often mention of it as we do find steps of it in our own Historians Yet certainly however there might be some formalities of the people the chief of elections here ever depended on the Prince as may be gathered by that Speech of Wolstan to the Confessors tombe that he had compell'd him to take the pastorall staffe And Edward the 3. wrote to Clement the 6. Cathedrales Ecclesias progenitores nostri dudum singulis vacationibns earundem personis idoneis jure suo regio libere conferebant postmodum ad rogatum ad instantiam dictae sedis sub certis modis conditionibus concesserunt quod electiones fierent in dictis Ecclesiis per capitula earundem c. So likewise in the Parliament the 50. Ed. 3. the Commons shew the King and great men were formerly in peaceable possession of giving preferments in holy Church But I will give the words themselves because I will not erre in the Translation Le Roy les grandes feurent en peisible possession de doner les Esvesches les benefices de seint Esglise come le fest le Roy St. Edward qe dona l' Evesche de Worcestre a seint Wolston puts par devotion des Roys fust par la Courte de Rome conferme qe les Cathedralx Esglises
then onely Rex Francorum and by him 792. hither where it was rejected 42. From hence it proceeded that part of the Acts of one Councell did not bind some Churches which did others as some parts of the Councell of Chalcedon and Ephesus seem not to have been received in Rome in S. Gregories time to which may be added some Canons of the 7th Councell But I believe it will be hardly shewed from the ancients that any Church neither intervening in Councell by proxy nor that did after admit of it were ever held concluded by any though never so numerous Certainly none was ever held of greater esteem amongst Catholicks then the Councel of Nice yet S. Augustine in his dispute with an Arrian confesses neither the Councell of Nice ought to prejudice the Arrian not that held at Ariminum him sed utrisque communibus testibus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet And St. Hilary comparing two Councells one of 80. Bishops which refused the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that of Nice which received it sayes si contraria invicem senserunt debemus quasi judices probare meliora so not onely taking from them all infallibility but allowing others to judge of their doings before they submitted unto their determinations And this hath been the so constant observance in all times as no age ever held the Latin obliged by the Grecian Synods which they have not received neither doth the Greek Church to this day hold themselves tyed by the determinations of Florence or to the many other of the Latin touching the procession of the holy Ghost and other points in difference to which they have not submitted 43. But for that the Acts of Councells without temporall auctority to inforce the observance of them were no other then persuasive Princes either on the incitation of their Bishops or convinced of the justnesse and piety of what had past in those Ecclesiastick Assemblies did often by their letters exhort or by their laws command the observance of what resulted from them So Constantine after the Councell of Nice wrote that letter remains recorded in Socrates and Theodoret to some absent Churches for their admitting the resolutions of it in which he tells them he had undertook that what the Romans had already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their judgment would willingly receive And Gratian Valentinian Theodosius did in the year 381. by their rescripts establish the same Councell as Iustinian by the law before mentioned did all the fourfirst which I take to be the same St Augustin calls inserting them actis proconsularibus 44. Of later times Popes having by severall arts acquired the greatest part of Episcopall power to be devolved to them have likewise claimed it as a right belonging to the Papacy not onely to call Councels but to determine which are generall who are to vote in them and therefore though properly or dinarie none but Bishops have there say they jus suffragii yet ex privilegio consuetudine Cardinalls Abbats and Generalls of Orders are to be allowed voice and that there needs no other then the Popes confirmation in Rome to oblige all Christians to the observance of any he shall hold out for such as Pius 4 tus by his bull of the 18 Iuly 1564. declared all in the Councell of Trent juris positivi did the world from the first of May before c. And though all History agree and the very Councells themselves assure us the causing the East and West to meet in those assemblies to have been ever done by Emperours and that Princes on occasions have called the Clergy within their estates together for composing disputes in religion yet the bare affirmation without any real proof hath so far prevailed with some men as to esteem him little other then an heretick shall maintain the contrary 45. But Kings have not so easily parted with these rights for the State of France notwithstanding the many sollicitations of Popeâ— from abroad and their Clergy at home hath no hitherto been induced to approve what was determined at Trent however you shall hardly meet with any of the Roman party but he will tell you that the points of faith there agreed upon are received in France but not of manners and government which is in a kind true yet contains a notable fallacy for the Ecclesiasticks of that kingdom finding the difficulty of procuring that Councell to passe have in their provincial Synods conspiratione quadam venia in quaque Dioecesi cogendi Synodos impetrata inserted the greatest part of the doctrinall points of it into those Councells so that it is truth they are indeed there received yet not for that they were concluded upon in Trent but because Episcopall Councells have each in their Dioceses establisht what they could perswade nec regibus nec supremis Parlamentorum curiis ut Synodi istius Canones in acta sua referrent observandos publicarent Neither hath the Councell of Florence under Eugenius 4 tus or of Lateran held by Iulius the 2. and Leo the 10 been hitherto allowed by France or England where the most zealously affected to Rome as Sr Thomas Moore have maintained the superiority of a generall Councell above the Pope in opposition to either of them though that be a point rather of faith then manners Upon which grounds those Councells before spoken of did not bind here farther then what was in them hath been made good by provinciall Synods within the Nation By all which it being certain neither this Church nor Kingdom hath ever been tyed by the Acts of any forraign councell not admitted here and being perhaps a thing of some intricacy what determinations the Realm had received after the four first generall Councells her Majesty took the way of receiving them as absolutely necessary but others with such limitations as are in the statute and for the future nothing to be heresy but what should be determined to be such by the Parliament with th' assent of the Convocation CHAP. IX Of the farther proceeding of Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation 1. THings thus settled in 1º Eliz. the Parliament ended the Liturgy of the Church commonly called the book of Common prayer reformed and published the Queen following the examples of her predecessors and relying on the ancient Symbols as the doctrine of the Catholick Church gave command the Creed the Pater-noster and ten Commandements as the grounds for a Christian to believe and frame his life after should be taught her subjects and none to presume to come to the Lords table before they could perfectly say them in English 2. Hitherto to my understanding her Majesty had not done any thing not warranted by the practise of her predecessors not that could be justly interpreted a departing from the Apostolick faith or indeed from Rome it self where she kept an Agent till Paulus 4 â—s
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be
same house they abode yet they salute them with the honourable titles of their dearest lords and brethren A certain signe of a wide distance between the opinions of Rome then and now when men are taught not so much as bid them farewell do not submitunto it sure our first Bishops know no such rule who placed in their Calendar for Saints and holy men as well Hilda Aydon and Colman the opposers of Rome as Wilfred Agilbertus and others who stood for it CHAP. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with AFter the planting of Christian religion amongst the Saxons th' Archbishop of Canterbury became a person so eminent all England was reputed his Diocese in the colledge of Bishops London his Dean whose office it was to summon Councels Winchester his Chancellour Salisbury or as some Winchester his Precâ—tor or that begun the service by singing Worcester or rather Rochester his Chaplain and the other the carrier of his Crosse expected no lesse obedience from York then himself yielded to Rome voluntate beneficio it being th' opinion of the Church of England it was but equall ut ab eo loco mutuentur vivendi disciplinam à cujus fomite rapuerunt credendi slammam The dependence therefore of the Clergy in England being thus wholly upon th' Archbishop it will not be amisse to take a little view both of what esteem he was in the Church and how it came to be taken off and by degrees transferr'd to a forreign power 2. Upon the conversion of the Saxons here by the preaching of Augustine and his companions and a quiet peace settled under Theodore to whom all the English submitted Parochiall Churches by his encouragement began to be erected and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation as being the successour of Saint Peter the first bishop of the world Patriark of the West that resided in a town held to nourish the best Clerks in Christendome and the seat of the Empire insomuch as the devout Britan who seemes as I said to have received his first conversion from Asia did go to Iudea as a place of greatest sanctity so amongst the Saxons Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur But as this was of their part no other then as to a great Doctour or Prelate by whose solicitude they understood the way to heaven and to a place in which religion and piety did most flourish so th' instructions thence were not as coming from one had dominion over their faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming other then that respect is fit to be rendred from a puisne or lesse skilfull to more ancient and learned Teachers As of late times when certain divines at Frankford 1554. differed about the Common-prayer used in England Knox and Whittingham appealed to Calvin for his opinion and receiving his 200. Epistle it so wrought in the hearts of many that they were not so stout to maintain all the parts of the Book as they were then against it And Doctor Cox and some other who stood for the use of the said Book wrote unto him excusing themselves that they put order in their Church without his counsell asked Which honour they shew'd him not as esteeming him to have any auctority of Office over them but in respect of his learning and merits 3. As these therefore carried much honour and yielded great obedience to Calvin and the Church of Geneva by them then held the purest reformed Church in Christendom so it cannot be denyed but our Auncestors the Saxons attributed no lesse to the Pope and Church of Rome who yet never invaded the rights of this as contrary to the councel of Ephesus and the Canons of the Church of England but left the Government of it to the English Prelats yet giving his best advice and assistance for increasing devotion and maintenance of the Laws Ecclesiasticall amongst them in which each side placed the superiority From whence it proceeded that however the Pope was sought to from hence he rarely sent hither any Legat. In the Councell of Calcuith held about 180. years after Augustine it is observed a tempore Sancti Augustini Pontificis sacerdos Romanus nullus in Britanniam mâ—ssus est nisi nos And Eadmerus that it was inauditum in Britannia quemlibes hominum super se vices Apostolicas gerere nisi solum Archiepiscopum Cantuariae 4. But after the Pope instead of being subject began to be esteemed above th' Ecclesiastick Canons and to pretend a power of altering and dispensing with them and what past by his advise and counsell onely was said to be by his authority he did question divers particulars had been formerly undoubtedly practic 't in this Kingdom he seeing them and not shewing any dislike at it as The receiving Investitures of Churches from Princes The calling Synods The determining causes Ecclesiasticall without Appeals to Rome The transferring Bishops c. but the removing these from England unto a forraign judicature being as well in diminution of the rights of the Crown as of this Church past not with out opposition 5. For Anselm an Italian the first great promoter of the Papal authority with us pretending he ought not be barr'd of visiting the Vicar of St. Peter causa regiminis Ecclesiae was told as well by the Bishops as lay Lords That it was a thing unheard and altogether against the use of the realme for any of the great men especially himself to presume any such thing without the Kings licence who affirmed nequaquam fidem quam sibi debebat simul Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra suam voluntatem posse servare And the Archbishop persisting in his journy thither had not onely his Bishoprick seized into the Kings hand but the Pope being shew'd how his carriage was resented here did not afford him either Consilium or Auxilium but suffered him to live an exile all that Princes time without any considerable support or adjudging the cause in his favour Which makes it the more strange that having found by experience what he had heard before that it was the King not the Pope could help or hurt him this visit being so little to his advantage at his first presenting himself to Henry the first he should oppose that Prince in doing him homage and being invested by him a right continued unto that time from his Auncestors and by which himself had received the Archbishoprick from his brother and this on a suggestion that it was prohibited in a councell held at Rome in which he went so far as to tell the King quod nec pro redemptione capitis mei consentiam ei de iis quae praesens audivi in Romano Concilio prohiberi nisi ab eadem sede
to be removed unlesse some from the Pope were admitted into the Kingdome that might at least give an essay to the guiding the English Church after the papall interest but that how earnestly soever prest came to no effect till 1125. Iohannes Crâ—mensis a person well understanding as appeares by his carriage six years before at Reims the designes of Rome came to the King in Normandy where after some stay his journey hither was permitted with what qualifications I find not but coming with Letters to Canterbury at Easter performed th' Office of the day in a more eminent chair as an Archbishop for so I English loco summi Pontificis according to the phrase of those times and though a Cardinall priest used insigniis Pontisicalibus the habit of a Bishop which being an unusuall novelty past not without scandall But in a councell which he held and presided in at London the Kingdom took more offence I shall deliver it in my authors own words Totam Angliam in non modicam commovit indignationem Videres enim rem eatenus regno Anglorum inauditam Clericum scilicet Presbiterii tantum gradu perfunctum Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus totiusque regni nobilibus qui confluxerant in sublimi solio praesidere illos autem deorsum sedentes ad nutum ejus vultu auribus animum suspen sum habentes From whence we may conclude it a thing before not heard of for any Legat though a Cardinall to precede Bishops the first Councell in which they preceded Archbishops I take to have been the Councell of Vienna 1311. where th' Archbishop of York is noted to have been placed primus praecipuus post Cardinales post Trevirensem Archiepiscopum or be seated in a more eminent place over them I have shew'd they did not subscribe in English Councells above them that these mutations were scandalous to the nation 23. As this is the first Ecclesiastick Synod called and managed by any Legat from Rome so before his credentiall Letters from Honorius the 2. as well to the Lay as Clergy I have not met with the Text Pasce oves meas used to prove him the generall Pastor of all the World it is true Paschalis the 2. ten years before uses it to prove his auctority over Bishops but neither doth Anselme 1095. produce it neither doth this Cardinall at Reims 1119. mention it though either of them did alleadge as many places of Scripture as were then common to prove th' extent of his power and Petrus Blesensis that lived a little after interprets it as spoken to all Bishops and to import no other then Evangelizare a certain signe if that exposition were hatch't before it was not common which afterward approved by St. Bernard and inserted into the Canon Law by Boniface the 8. about the year 1300. is now stood upon as the Basis of papall greatnesse But to return to that we were on 24. The Archbishop sensible of these indignities proceeds not as his predecessor by joynt Councell of the Bishops Abbots and Nobility but hath himself recourse to Rome who already knew se convertere ad oratorum versutias dummodo consulat suis profectibus where the Pope which was Honorius the 2. committed unto him vices suas in Angliâ Scotiâ Apostolicae sedis Legatum constituit So that he who before was Primas Angliae Scotiae Hiberniae necne adjacentium insularum that none else gerebat vices Apostolicas in Britannia and this of his own right without any delegatory power might now doing the same be said to do it by a power derived from Rome An invention highly advantagious to the Papacy for before the King and Archbishop or rather the Archbishop by the Kings will and appointment had ever taken cognizance of all matters of Episcopacy as the erection of Bishopricks disposing and translating Bishops c. So Paschalis the 2. expostulates with Hen. the 1. that praeter auctoritatem nostram Episcoporum translationes praesumitis c. and the deposing of them to have been in a Synod Historians of all times before assure us even unto Lanfrank who attempted it upon small grounds against Wolstan As for dividing Bishopricks and erecting new where none were Theodore did five in Mercia cum consensu Regum principum without ever sending to Rome as he did others elsewhere And Henry the 1. long after placed Episcopall Chaires at Ely and Carlisle without acquainting the Popes with it It is true Anselme an Italian either not knowing the rights of the Kingdome or rather out of a desire to interest the Pope in every thing writes to him of Ely that de vestrae pendet auctoritate prudentiae to adde strength to Ecclesiastick ordinances of this nature yet it is clear by his very Letter the King Bishops and Nobility had already concluded on it with whom he had concurr'd asking Paschalis assent after the deed done which shews rather he did it in civility then of necessity ne à posteris ulla praesumptione violetur that no cavilling might arise in the future to the disturbance of an action well settled that past by so great advice as not onely the English Church but the first Bishop of the world and Patriarch of the West joyned in seeing the needfulnesse of it And it is here not unworthy the remembring that Q. Mary how much so ever addicted to Rome yet admitted the Bishops of those Sees her Father had erected during the schism as they called it to sit in Parliament before any confirmation of them by the Pope 25. Of these and the like though cases proper for the Papacy alone yet being without scruple exercised in the Church of England and no controul from Rome it would not be easy to dispossesse the Archbishop of medling with by strong hand especially on an essay made before in the case of Wilfred it being affirmed quod esset contra rationem homini jam bis à tota Anglorum Ecclesia damnato propter quaelibet Apostolica scripta communicare the way therefore of making him the Popes Legat was invented by which those particulars he did before without interruption of his own right he whom it was not easy to barre of doing them might be said to act as his agent which was about this time first committed unto him of any Archbishop of Canterbury though Baronius not finding how the very same past before fancies Theodore to have done them cui totius Angliae à Romano Pontifice veluti Apostolicae sedis Legato cura credita erat who certainly if he were his Legat was very immorigerous in the case of Wilfred But to leave that as a Chimaera not to be assented to mentioned by no ancient author it is true not long after he conferr'd the title of Legatus natus on th' Archbishop of which hereafter 26.
To return to th' Archbishop who came home with this Legatine power 1127. crowns the King at Windsor and in May following holds a Councell at Westminster cui praesedit ipse sicut Apostolicae sedis legatus which is the first Councell any Archbishop is noted to have held as a Papall Legat and during his life which was seven years England did not see any other 27. After his death the See of Canterbury lay two years vacant so a fit time for the Pope to look this way especially K. Stephen making it part of his title that he was confirmed by him in his Kingdome therefore 1138. Innocentius the second sent hither Albericus Bishop of Hostia the second stranger I find exercising the Legatine auctority in England yet he was not at first received for one but vix tandem pro reverentiâ— Domini Papae He indeed went farther then ever any had for he not onely called the Clergy Apostolica auctoritate as our Historians terme it to a Synod I confesse he avoyds the word in his letters of summons styling it colloquium perhaps not to enter into dispute with the King who then took himself to be the onely caller of them and the allower of what they did but did farther command the Prior and Convent of Canterbury c. to chuse such an Archbishop cui sacrorum canonum auctoritas in nullo valcat obviare cui comprovinciales Episcopi pariter debeant assentire cui Dominus Rex nec possit nec debet assensum suum juste denegare but farther not at all intromitting himself And in the Councell he held amongst other particulars he ordained that if any injured an Ecclesiastick person Nisi tertio admonitus satisfecerit anathemate feriatur neque quisquam ei praeter Romanum Pontificem nisi mortis urgente periculo modum poenitentiae finalis injungat This is the first that by Canon ought done in England was referr'd to Rome as having a greater power then the English Bishops to absolve of the Laws of Hen. the 1. I shall speak hereafter But whether it were not here much regarded or th' excesses used by King Stephen against certain Bishops and the prohibiting a Councell held 〈◊〉 Winchester to send to Rome as against the dignity of the realm or that he freed of imprisonment desired to make so potent a party as the Clergy then was more of his side I cannot say but assuredly it was again renewed in a Councell at London about some four years after 28. The same Pope 1139. conferr'd upon Henry K. Stephens Brother and the potent Bishop of Winchester this Legatine power which was by him publish't in a Councell at Winchester where his faculties wâ—re read bearing date the 1. March and being as well Angliae Dominus by reason of the power he held wiâ—h Stephen as Apostolicae sedis Legatus he called thither th' Archbishop that had then some contest with the Monks of St. Augustines whom the Pope generally favour'd against him referr'd to his decision from Rome so that he caused both parties the second time to appear there before him 1143. as Legat and by compromise ended the businesse Yet this calling of the Archbishop unto him was not taken well and the same year 1143. he did by Apostolick command restore Ieremy removed by Theobald notwithstanding his appeal to Rome to be Prior of Canterbury which restitution the said Prior did not think fit to stand by but for avoiding trouble took an 100. marks to pay his debts and placed himself in St. Augustines By these carriages there grew great distasts between these two great Prelats the one as Archbishop prohibited Winchester all Ecclesiastick functions however the Popes Legat and both apply themselves to the Pope from whence our Historians do fetch the use of Appeals to Rome as indeed there could not well be any cause of them before for as the one case is the first ever any Archbishop was called out of his Diocese to make answer to any Legat as his Superior so I believe it will be hard to give an example of ought done by th' Archbishop in his own Bishoprick till now alter'd by a forreign auctority And here having mentioned the introducing of Appeals the reader will give me leave to digresse a little both to shew what is meant by them and the manner of prosecution of them and then to return and observe the event of the Archbishops and Legats in the Court of Rome 29. It cannot be denyed the word Appeal to have been used in former times with reference to the Papacy Cum praesul sedem Apostolicam appellasset sayes Malmsbury of VVilfred and a Councell held in Italy concerning him Apostolicam sedem de suâ causâ appellans and of some others Yet nothing is more certain then those in whose time this was did not at all hold the Pope to have any power of righting him other then by intercession not as a superior Court by sentencing in his favour to undo what had past Theodore without whose assent the King could not have deprived him of his seat for when the Popes Letters were brought hither for his restitution Egfrid with th' advise of his Bishops not onely refused but clapt VVilfred in prison and after his death the Pope sending others vita graves aspectu honorabiles Alfrith though he received the men with great reverence yet would by no means admit the restauration they came about but affirmed it against reason to do it he having been twice condemned proper quaelibet Apostolica scripta And as this was in a time when Christianity most flourished in this Nation having in generall fortissimos Christianosque Reges so of the Kings that did it of Egfrid Beda left that he was piissimus Deo dilectissimus neither can he find any other thing to blame in Alfrith worthily and the Bishops that did concur in the action were holy men well seen in divine and secular learning so that it is not imaginable any thing past them not warranted by the Doctrine and rules of this Church 30. For the understanding of which we are to know the word Appeal is taken severall wayes sometimes to accuse sometimes for referring our selves to some one for his judgment such was that of VVilfreds appealing to Rome as to a great spirituall Doctor and Church whose judgment was very venerable in the World as of late Iohn Calvins and the Church of Geneva was to them of Scotland and Frankford c. another way we take it for removing a cause from an inferior to a superior Court or Iudge that hath power of disannulling whatsoever the former did and this is that our Historians affirm not to have been in use till after 1140. It is certain long after VVilfred the Bishops and Nobility did assure Anselme that for any of the great ones especially him to have
from the bearers as private Clerks by deputation from thence did sit his superiors in determining differences between him and others who by strength were taken from his jurisdiction 43. After which Popes having gained an entrance found means to reduce the grant of Legatus natus to no more then stood with their own liking by inventing a new sort of Legat styled Legatus à latere by reason of his near dependance on the Popes person who employed in matters of concernment at his being here the power of the former slept which distinction of Legats seems to me to have had its birth after 1180. first applyed by any of our writers to Iohannes Anagninus Cardinalis 1189. by Hoveden which style yet others who then lived do not give him Of this Legat it is that Henry Chichley in a letter yet extant under his own hand wrote to Henry the 5. that Be inspection of Lawes and Chronicles was there never no Legat à latere sent in to no lond and specially in to your rengme of Yngland witoute great and notable cause And thei whan thei came after thei had done her legacie abiden but litul wyle not over a yer and summe a quarter or ij monthes as the nedes requeryd And yet over that he was tretyd with or he cam in to the lond whon he schold have exercise of his power and how myche schold bee put in execution An aventure after hee had bee reseyved hee would have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple as indeed if he stayed long he sometimes gained the censure of being occultus inimicus regni but this was not till the Popes had brought th' Archbishops much under by laying a necessity on them of receiving the Pall from Rome and at the taking of it of making profession de fidelitate canonica obedientia that is had obliged them by Oath to defend regalia Sancti Petri. Of which because I find th' introducing not much touched by our writers a great means to advance this forraign power it will not be amisse to say somewhat and first of the Pall. 44. The Pallium from whence our English word Pall was a garment with which the Professors of Arts as Grammar Rhetorick Musick might cloath themselves as it seems to me by Tertullian they did yet was held most proper for such as professed Philosophy And therefore when a begging fellow came to a noble Roman palliatus crinitus being asked what he was the man half angry replyed he was a Philosopher mirari cur quaerendum putasset quod videret to which the Gentleman returned Barbam Pallium Philosophum nondum video From whence I gather it was for the most peculiar to them So Eusebius shewes on Heraclas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking the habit of a Philosopher notwithstanding his being a Christian retained it and lib. 8. cap. 21. at the martyrdom of Porphyrius a disciple of Pamphilus he describes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a short cloak or Pall covering the shoulders 45. But it seems the primitive Christians in wearing of it did attribute some Sanctity to the garment for grande pallii beneficium est saith Tertullian sub cujus recogitatu impii mores vel erubescunt whereupon the Councell of Gangra not an 100. years after pronounced him Anathema used the Pallium quasi per hoc habere se justitiam credens c. Now from the danger of superstition of the one side and the being especially worne by Philosophers of the other I am apt to think it became in the end proper onely to some Bishops who might challenge it as learned Philosophers yet not at all likely to attribute more to the Robe then reasonable and in time either by collation of Emperors or otherwise appropriated to some particular Churches who having that mark were after the seats of Archbishops for the most part For though Alcuinus be of opinion the Pall is nothing but a distinction between an Archbishop and his suffraganes yet underfavour I conceive that must be taken of th' acception of the word in the time he lived not as used in St. Gregories dayes who gives Augustine at the bestowing the Pall upon him the title of Archbishop no more then he doth Syagrius Bishop of Austun in Burgundy which Town notwithstanding that guift by St. Gregory was never reputed to have other then an Episcopall chair and suffragan to the Archbishop of Lions to this day So that certainly at first all that had the Pall were not eo nomine Archbishops to whom it became especially proper after the Emperor relinquisht it to the Popes disposing who at first no question had a good part in the conferring of it himself 46. The deed is yet extant by which Valentinian bestowed it on the Church of Ravenna about the year 430. I know some who find not how to deny it hold this an honourable vestment such as Emperors themselves wore which opinion Baronius justly confutes and rather thinks it forged yet he citing out of Liberatus that Anthemius expell'd the Church of Constantinople Pallium quod habuit imperatoribus reddidit discessit gives no glosse how he could return to the Emperor his Pall and depart if he had nothing to do with it and it is manifest in Gregory the greats dayes that Church did not onely prescribe for the use of the Pall but for doing it contrary to the will and opinion of that Father And the same Doctor elsewhere saith he had dealt apud piissimos dominos the Emperors to send him Anastasius concesso usu Pallii and afterward being desired by Brunichilda to grant it to Syagrius of whom before he shews his readinesse propter quod serenissimi Domini Imperatoris prona voluntas est concedi haec omnino desider at So that certainly at the beginning if Princes did not bestow it yet it was not done against their wills which after-times did in Europe solely appropriate to the Pope who yet gave it not against their liking as Lucius the 2. sending it to the Bishop of Winchester who yet never made use of it teacheth us 47. But what this Pall imported or what the receiver had of advantage by it writers I think do not alwayes agree Isidorus Pelusiota who writ about the year 430 is of opinion the Bishop as a type of Christ wears that cloak of wool to shew himself imitator of the great shepheard that will bear the strayed sheep on his shoulders St. Gregory sayes it signifies humility justice c. I have shew'd before Alcuinus his opinion of it But what soever signification it was at first thought to carry certainly the necessity of fetching it from Rome was not so urgent as in these later the Papall interest made it esteemed We do not read that ever Laurentius or Mellitus received thence the Pall yet no man
averoient frank election de lour Prelatz solonc la ley de Dieu de seint Esglise ent ordeigne perpetuelment a durer c. and a little after d'Engleterre soleient doner Eveschez autres grantz dignites trestouz come il fait aujourdui Esglises parochiels le Pape ne se medlast de doner nul benefice deinz le Royalme tanqez deinz brief temps passe c. 59. And this to have been likewise the custome in France the complaint of the French Ambassador to Innocentius 4 tus assures us Non est multum temporis saith he quod Reges Francorum conferebant omnes Episcopatus in camera sua c. and our writers do wholy look upon the placing Lanfrank in Canterbury as the Kings act though it were not without th' advise of Alexander the 2. Neither did Anselme ever make scruple of refusing the Archbishoprick because he was not chosen by the Monks of Canterbury and in that letter of them to Paschalis the 2. 1114. though they write Raulf in praesentia gloriosi Regis Henrici electus à nobis clero populo yet whosoever will note the series of that election cannot see it to have been other then the Kings act insomuch as our writers use often no other phrase then the King gave such preferments c. And whilst things stood thus there was never any interposing from Rome no question who was lawfully chosen the Popes therefore did labour to draw this from the Princes medling with as much as was possible Some essay might be 1108. at the settling Investitures for then Anselme writ to Paschalis Rex ipse in personis eligendis nullatenus propria utitur voluntate sed religiosorum se penitus committit consilio But this as the practice proved afterwards was no more but that he would take the advise of his Bishops or other of the Clergy for as Diceto well observes our King did in such sort follow the Ecclesiastick Canons as they had a care to conserve their own rights The â—ittest way therefore for the Pope to get in was if there should happen any dissensions amongst themselves that he as a moderator a judge or an Arbitrator might step in 60. About the Conquest an opportunity was offer'd on the contentions between the two Archbishops for primacy in which Canterbury stood on the bulls true or false of former Popes that had as a great Patriarch made honourable mention of them When they were both 1071. with Alexander the 2. by his advise it was referr'd to a determination in England and accordingly 1072. Wm. the first with his Bishops made some settlement which by them of York was ever stumbled at pretending the King out of reason of State sided with Canterbury But this brake into no publick contest till 1116. Thurstan elected to York endeavored at Rome to divert the making any profession of subjection to Cant. but failing in th' attempt that Court not liking to fall into a contest it was not probable to carry resigned his Archbishoprick Spondens Regi Archâ—epiâ—copo se dum viveret non reclamaturum yet after the Clergy of York sued to the Pope for his restitution which produced that letter from Paschalis the 2. in his behalf to Hen. the 1. is in Eadmerus wherein he desires if there were any difference between the two Sees it might be discust in his presence Which was not hearkned to but Calixtus the 2. in a Councell by him held 1119. at Reimes of which before the English Bishops not arrived the Kings Agent protesting against it the Archdeacon of Cant. telling the Pope that jure he could not do it consecrated him Archbishop of York upon which Henry prohibits him all return into his dominions And in the enterview soon after at Gisors though Calixtus earnestly laboured th' admitting him to his See the King would by no means hearken to it So the Pope left the businesse as he found it and Thurstan to prove other wayes to gain th' Archbishoprick 61. Who thereupon became an actor in the peace about that time treated between England and France in which his comportments were such that proniorem ad sese recipiendum Regis animum inflexit so as upon the Popes letters he was afterwards restored ea dispositione ut nullatenus extra provinciam Eboracensem divinum officium celebraret donec Ecclesiae Cantuariensi c. satisfaceret This I take to be the first matter of Episcopacy that ever the Pope as having a power elsewhere of altering what had been here settled did meddle with in England It is true whilst they were raw in Christianity he did sometimes recommend Pastors to this Church so Vitalian did Theodore and farther shewed himself sollicitous of it by giving his fatherly instructions to the English Bishops to have a care of it so did Formosus or some other by his letters 904. upon which Edward th' elder congregated a Synod wherein five new Bishops were constituted by which an inundation of Paganisme ready to break in on the West for want of Pastors was stopt But it is apparent this was done not as having dominion over them for he so left the care of managing the matter to their discretion as he did no way interesse himself in it farther then advise 62. A meeting of English Bishops 1107. at Canterbury or as Florentius Wigorniensis stiles it a Councell restored the Abbot of Ramsey deposed 1102. jussu Apostolico or as Eadmerus juxta mandatum Domini Papae It is manifest this command from Rome to be of the same nature those I mentioned of Calvins or at the most no other then the intercession of the Patriarch of a more noble See to an inferior that by his means had been converted For his restitution after the reception of the Papall letters seems to have been a good while defer'd so that what past at Rome did not disannull his deprivation here till made good in England as at a time when nothing thence was put in execution but by the Regall approbation as the Pope himself complained to the King But after the Church of Rome with th' assistance of th' English Clergy had obtained all elections to be by the Chapters of the Cathedralls upon every Scruple she interposed herself 63. The greatest part of the Convent of London 1136. chose Anselme Abbot of St. Edmundsbury for their Bishop contrary to the Deans opinion and some few of the Chanons who appealed to Rome where th' election 1138 was disannulled the Bishoprick by the Pope recommended to Winchester his then or rather soon after Legat which so remained till 1141. This is the first example of any Bishop chosen received and in possession of a Church in this Kingdome whose election was after quash't at Rome and the sentence obeyed here as it is likewise of any Commendam on Papall command in the Church of England all
hujusmodi de caetero emanarunt ad provisionem ipsorum inviti non teneamur nisi de hac indul gentia plenam fecerint mentionem Dat. Lateran 15. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno 4 to c. could quiet the English or keep them from that confederation in Mat. Paris 1231. beginning Tali Episcopo tali capitulo Vniversitas eorum qui magis volunt mori quam à Romanis confundi c. Which the Popes by wisdome and joyning the Regall auctority with their spirituall sound means to bring to nought and pursuing the Papall interest without regarding what had past from them gave the Kingdome occasion 1241. to observe that in onely three years Otho had remained Legat here he bestowed more then 300. spirituall promotions ad fuam vel Papae voluntatem the Pope having contracted as the report went with the Romans to confer to none but their Children and Allies the rich benefices here especially of Religious houses as those perhaps he had most power over and to that effect had writ to the Bishops of Canterbury and Salisbury ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent So that in the Councell at Lions 1245. they complain of these exorbitances and shew the revenues the Italians received in England not to be lesse then 60 thousand marks of which more hereafter and in the year following 1246. reiterated their griefs to Innocentius 4 tus quod Italicus Italico succedit Which yet was with little successe for the Popes having as we have heard first settled all elections in the Ecclesiasticks and after upon severall occasions on the submitting of the English to his desires bestowed the benefices in this and other Kingdomes on his dependents Iohn the 22. or as some seem to think Clement the 5. his immediate predecessor endeavored the breaking of elections by Cathedralls and Convents reserving the free donation of all preferments to himself alone 70. From whence proceeded the reiterated complaints â— against Papall Provisions in the Parliaments of Edward the 3. and Ric. the 2. for this Kingdome never received his attempts in that kind to which purpose the History of Iohn Devenish is remarkable The Abbot of St. Augustines dying 1346. the 20. Ed. 3. the Convent by the Kings leave chose VVm. Kenington but Clement the 6. by Provision bestowed the Abbacy on Iohn Devenish whom the King did not approve of yet came thither armed with Papall auctority The Prior and Convent upon command absolutely denyed him entrance ingressum monasterii in capite denegando who thereupon returned to Avignon The businesse lying two years in agitation the King in the end for avoyding expences and other inconveniences ex abundanti concessit ut si idem Iohannes posset obtinere à summo Pontifice quod posset mutare stylum suae creationis â—ive provisionis scilicet non promoveri Abbatia praedicta ratione donationâ—s vel provisionis Apostolicae sed ratione electionis capituli hujus loci illa vice annueret suis temporalibus gaudere permitteret sed quidem hujusmodi causa coram ipso summo Pontifice proposita concludendo dixit se malle cedere Pontificio quam suum decretum taliter revocare c. Which so afflicted the poor man as the grief killed him on St. Iohn Baptists Eve 1348. without ever entring the Abby and the dispute still continuing the Pope 1349. wrote to the King Ne Rex impediret aut impediri permitteret promotos à curia per bullas acceptare beneficia sibi taliter incumbentia To which his Mary answer'd Quod Rex bene acceptaret provisos clericos qui esseâ—t bonae conditionis qui digni essent promoveri alios non 71. But the year following 1350. the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons meeting in Parliament complain with great resentment of these Papall grants shewing the Court of Rome had reserved to it self both the collation of Abbeys Priories c. as of late in generall all the dignities of England and Prebends in Cathedrall Churches c. Upon which the statute of Provisors was in that Parliament enacted which was the leader to those other statutes 27 and 38. Ed. 3. The 48. Ed. 3. 1374. the treaty between Ed. the 3. and Gregory the XI was concluded after two years agitation wherein it was expressely agreed quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur c. Notwithstanding which the Commons the next Parliament prefer'd a petition shewing all the benefices of England would not suffice the Cardinalls then in being the Pope having by the addition of XII new ones raised the number to XXX which was usually not above XII in all and therefore they desire it may be ordained and proclaimed that neither the Pope nor Cardinalls have any Procurator or Collector in England sur peine de vie de membre c. Yet the inconveniences still continuing 3. Ric. 2. produced that statute is in the print I shall not here repeat otherwise then that the Commons in the Roll seem to lay the beginning of these excesses no higher then Clement the 5. 72. By these arts degrees and accessions the Church of Rome grew by little and little to that immensenesse of opinion and power it had in our nation which might in some measure whilst it was exercised by connivence onely upon the good correspondency the Papacy held with our Kings and Church be tolerated and the Kingdome at any time by good Lawes redresse the inconveniences it susteined But that which hath made the disputes never to be ended the parties not to be reconciled is an affirmation that Christ commanding Peter to feed his sheep did with that give him so absolute a power in the Church and derived the like to his successors Bishops of Rome as without his assent no particular Church or Kingdome could reform it self and for that he as a Bishop cannot be denied to have as much power as others from Christ and may therefore in some sense be said to be Christs Vicar to appropriate it onely to the Pope and draw thence a conclusion that jure divino he might and did command in all particulars Vice Christi And though no other Church in the Christian World doth agree with the Roman in this interpretation though Historians of unquestioned sincerity have as we have in some measure heard in their own ages deliver'd when and how these additions crept in and by what oppositions gained that our Princes have with th' advise of the Lay and Clergy ever here moderated th' exorbitances of the Papacy in some particular or other and likewise reformed this Church though the stipulations between our Kings and Rome have not been perpetuall but temporary not absolute but conditionall as is to be seen in that past between Alexander the 3. and Hen. the 2. viz. juravit quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis
to the King this cause seemed to him non ad plenum tractata ideoque sicut in canonibus cautum est in pristinum locum debere restitui judicavimus Deinde causam ejus juxta censuram canonicae traditionis diligenter retractandam definiendam praedicto fratri nostro Archiepiscopo Lanfranco commisimus It is certain however some writers might upon this or for â— other causes think his degradation to have been non canonice those times did not interpret this though writ with so great earnestnesse for other then advise or intercession not as of a person had an absolute power of commanding in the businesse for we never read of any proceedings upon it not Lanfrank at all ever to meddle in the case that he ever esteemed Stigand a lawfull Bishop Epist. 27 28. who in the year 1075. being in a Councell at London according to the Decrees of it removed his Episcopall Chair from Selsey to Chichester of which he died Bishop 1087. without being at all for what appears questioned or disturbed after the first grant of it Divers examples of the like nature occur too long to be repeated where the King or his chief Iustice prohibit the Papall precepts from being put in execution and it is agreed by Lawyers that not the command but the constant obedience is it which denotes a right of commanding and in cases of this nature prohibentis potior est condito one example in the negative when the thing is stood upon being of more weight then twenty by compliance in the affirmative 77. It is probable neither the King nor the Bishops would introduce any new matter of great concernment into this Church without the privity of so great a Doctor Patriarch of a See from which their auncestors had received the first principles of Christian Religion but it is manifest what past if he were acquainted with it was by their own auctority not his When Off a intended the erecting of Litchfield into an Archbishoprick he did it by a Councell at Calcuith Lambertus as what he approved not producing crebra sedis Apostolicae vetera nova edicta against it yet the thing proceeded Lucius the 2 went so far in his intentions to raise Winchester to an Archiepiscopall Chair as he sent the pall to the Bishop yet it being not approved here as the event shews that Town never yet had the honour Henry the first having in his Lawes appointed how a Bishop Presbyter Monk Deacon c. should suffer committing homicide concludes Si quis ordinatum occidat velproximum suum exeat de patria sua Romam adeat Papam consilium ejus faciat de adulterio vel fornicatione vel Nunnae concubitu similiter poeniteat Where it is observable the King ordains the Penance permits the delinquents peregrination to Rome to receive from the Pope as from a great Doctor of the Church spirituall counsell which else he was not admitted to seek for peregrina judicia modis omnibus submovemus and again ibi semper causa agatur ubi crimen admittitur 78. VVilliam the first who began his expedition against Harald by the counsell of Alexander the 2. and received a banner from him minding the deposition of th' Archbishop of Canterbury procured the Pope to send certain Ecclesiasticks hither to joyn in the action as likewise soon after for determining the question of precedency between Canterbury and York upon which there grew an opinion Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem à nullo hominum nisi à solo Papa judicari posse vel damnari nec ab aliquo cogi pro quavis calumnia cuâ—quam eo excepto contra suum velle respondere This no doubt was promoted by th' Archbishops as what exempted them from all home jurisdiction the Bishops in generall did after think in some sort to introduce and thereupon put in this petition in Parliament 18. Ed. 3. qe pleise a Roy en maintenance del estat de seint Esglise graunter ordeiner en cest Parlement qe nul Ercevesque ou Evesque â—oit desormez arreynez ne empesâ—hez devaunt ses Iusticos en cause criminele par quecunque voye de si come sur tiele cause nulle alme ne les poet juger si noun le Pape seulement But to this the answer is no other then Il est avis qe en cause de crime nul Ercevesque ou Evesque soit empesche devant les Iustices si le Roy ne le commande especialment tant qe autre remedie soit ordeinez which he did likewise confirm by Charter there registred and as Walsingham hath truly recorded 79. This opinion though new to the English questionlesse incouraged Anselme to oppose the King in many particulars and Popes to go farther as to claim Princes should not confer Investitures nor define matters of Episcopacy c. then to bestow preferments within this Kingdome at first by consent and with the limitation no Italian to succeed another then to reserve to themselves the collation of all benefices of which before To conclude this whosoever will without prejudice weigh the reformation of England by Hen. the 8. Edward the 6. and more especially Queen Elizabeth in the point of supremacy must grant these Princes did not assume to themselves any thing but such particulars as the Court of Rome had in a long series of time incroached in on the Crown and English Church If at any time our auncestors styled the Pope Princeps Episcoporum it was in no other sense then they did St. Peter Princeps Apostolorum by which what principality they intended him we cannot better understand then by the Saxon who renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostola the Elder of the Apostles If they called him successor or Vicarius Petâ—i they were not alone appropriated to him for Petrus Blesensis and others give the Bishop of York the same titles and the Bish. of Bath who had a Church dedicated to St. Peter he bids remember quia Petri Vicarius estis So did they likewise in some sense call Kings Christs Vicars as well as Bishops If at any time they gave the Pope the title of head of the Church it was as being the first Bishop he was held to be as St. Bernard tells us in beneficam causam as they termed Oxford the fountain and mother of our Christian faith I cannot therefore but with a late writer that sayes England had a known subjection to Rome acknowledged even by our Laws ever from the conversion of our Country under St. Gregory had expressed in what particulars that subjection did consist what those Laws are and where to be found The truth is as there is no doubt our Auncestors in former times would not have joyned with the Synod of Gap in causing so disputable ambiguous a question as that the Pope is Antichrist to have been taught as the faith
of the English Church so there is no question but it hath been ever the Tenet of it Pontificem Romanum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacrâ Scripturâ in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Which our Historians do mention as what proceeded from the constitutions of the Church and assent of Emperors not as of a thing in it self juris divini insomuch as 80. That proposition when it was propounded 1534. in Henry the 8 ths time in convocation all the Bishops without exception and of others onely one doubted and four placed all Ecclesiastick power in the Pope both the Universities and most of the Monasteries and Collegiat Churches of England approved avowed as the undoubted opinion of the Church of this Nation in all ages Neither can I see how it can be otherwise for if the Church of Canterbury were omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione if it were Mater omnium Anglicanarum Ecclesiarum suo post Deum proprio laetatur pastore that is if th' Archbishop had no mediate spirituall superior but Christ God if the power the Pope exercised over him within this Realm were voluâ—tate beneficio gained as I have shewed by little little voluntarily submitted unto it could be no other then jure humano and then it must be granted the Church of England could not hold any necessity of being in subjection to the See or Church of Rome jure divino as it is manifest they did not in that they sometimes acknowleded no Pope otherwhiles shewed an intent of departing from his union and the Bishops as well as Lay Lords advised Anselm Vrbani obedientiam abijcere subjectionis jugum excutere c. Neither could the Church of England be any way possible guilty of Schism adhering to their Ghostly Superior next and immediate under Christ Iesus As for the temporall profits the Court of Rome received hence though the denying them can be no just cause of such a spirituall imputation especially on privat men yet certainly who will examin their beginning as he shall find it to have been by the bounty or permission of our Princes so upon search he will perceive the Kingdome went no farther then the Common Law the precedent of former times and such an exigency did force them to of which therefore I shall adde a word or two CHAP. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England THe vast summes the Court of Rome did of late years upon severall occasions export out of this Kingdome mentioned in the statute of the 25. Hen. the 8. are spoken of by severall of our writers and though some have in generall expressed how much the Nation suffer'd in that kind yet none that I know in one tract did ever shew by what degrees the Papacy gained so great a revenue as the Commons in Edward the thirds dayes had cause to complain it did turn a plus grand destruction du Royaume qe toute la guerre nostre Seigneur le Roy. I have thought therefore that it will not be amisse to set down how the Pope came to have so great an influence over the treasure of the Clergy in this Land by seeking out how and when the greatest of the paiments made to him began what interruptions or oppositions were met with either at the beginning or in the continuance of them 2. The first payment that I have read of which gave the Pope an entrance as it were in to it was that bounty of our Princes known to this day by the name of Peter-Pence and this as it was given for an Almes by our Kings so was it no otherwise received by the Court of Rome Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita perperaâ—â— doloseque collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit saith Paschalis the 2. So that no question Polidore Virgil very inconsiderately termes it vectigal and others who by that gift contend the Kingdome became tributarium feudatarium S to Petro ejusque successoribus for though the word tributum may perhaps be met with in elder writers yet never did any understand the Pope by it to become a Superior Lord of the Lay fee but used the word metaphorically as we do to this day terme a constant rent a kind of tribute and to those who pay it and over whom we have in some sort a command we give the title of subjects not as being Princes over them but in that particular being under us they are for it styled our inferiors 3. What Saxon King first conferred them whether Ina as Ranulphus Cestrensis sayes report carryed or Offa as Iorvalensis I will not here enquire as not greatly materiall Polidore Virgil tells some write Ethelwolphus continued it with whom Brompton seems to concur It is true our Historians remember he caused 300. mancusas denariorum Malmsbury renders it trecentas auri marcas which was ten times the value of silver as another trecenta talenta to be carried every year from hence to Rome which could be no other then the just application of Peter-Pence for amongst sundry complaints long after from Rome we find the omission of no paiment instanced in but of that duty onely neither do the body of the Kingdome in their Remonstrance to Innocentius 4. 1246. mention any other as due from hence to Rome 4. This therefore thus confer'd by our Kings was for the generality continued to the Papacy yet to shew as it were that it proceeded only from the liberality of our Princes not without some stops Of those in the times of VVilliam the first Henry his Son I have spoke Henry the 2. during the dispute with Becket and Alexander the 3. commanded the Sheriffs through England that Denariibeati Petri colligantur serventur quousque inde Deminus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit During the Reign of Edward the 3. the Popes abiding at Avignon many of them French their partiality to that side and the many Victories obtained by th' English begat the proverb Ore est le Pape devenu Françeis Iesu devenu Angleis c. about which time our Historians observe the King gave command no Peter-Pence should be gather'd or pay'd to Rome And this restraint it seems continued all that Princes time for Richard the 2. his successor at his beginning caused Iohn Wickliffe esteemed the most knowing man of those times to consider the right of stopping them whose determination in that particular yet remains entituled Responsio Magistri Iohannis Wicliff ad dubium infrascriptum quaesitum ab eo per Dominum Regem Angliae Richardum secundum magnum Concilium anno regni sui primo then the question followes Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae
possit legitime imminente necessitate suae defensionis thesaurum Regnidetinere ne deferatur ad exteros etiam Domino Papa sub poena censurarum virtute obedientiae hoc petente relicto viris peritis quid dici debet in ista materia secundum jus canonâ—cum secundum jus Angliae velcivile solum restat suadere partem affirmativam dubii secundum principia legis Christi then shews those paiments being no other then Almes the Kingdome was not obliged to continue them longer then stood with its own convenience and not to its detriment or ruine agreeing therein with that of Divines extra casus necessitatis superfluitatis Eleemosyna non est in praecepto 5. But in the Parliament held the same year the question was concluded for there this petition being prefer'd que y puisse estre declaree en cest present Parlement si la charge de la denir Seint Pierre appelle Rome peny seraleve des dites Commes paye al Collector nostre Seint Perele Pape ou noun the answer was soit fait come devant ad este usee By which the use of them being again returned did so remain till Henry the 8 ths time For though in a councell held at London 1408 it was treated de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis yet that it past farther then words I have not observed But King Henry 1533 4 took them so absolutely away as though Queen Mary repealed that Act and Paulus Quartus dealt earnestly with her Agents in Rome for restoring the use of them yet I cannot find they were ever gather'd and sent thither during her time but where some Monasteries did answer them to the Pope and did therefore collect the taxe that in processe of time became as by custome pay'd to that house which being after derived to the Crown and from thence by grant to others with as ample profits as the Religious persons did possesse them I conceive they are to this day pay'd as an appendant to the said Mannors by the name of Smoak-mony 6. Before I passe from this one thing is not to be omitted that however the Pope had this as a due and for that end his Collector did abide in England yet he might not raise the auncient accustomed proportion of the Taxe nor in any kind alter the manner of taking it for when Rigandus from the Pope endeavored that he was streightly prohibited by Edward the 2. The Act it self is printed As for the value these Peter-Pence did amount to I have seen in an old MS. belonging to the Church of Chichester a Bull said to be of Gregory 5 ths that did proportion them after this manner Episcop Episcop  l. s. d.  l. s. d. Cant. 07 18 00 Exoniensis 09 05 00 London 10 10 00 Wigorniensis 10 05 00 Roffensis 05 10 00 Herefordens 06 00 00 Norwicensis 21 00 00 Bathon 12 00 00 Eliensis 05 00 00 Sarisbur 17 00 00 Lincolniensis 42 00 00 Coventrensis 10 00 00 Cicestrensis 08 00 00 Eborac 11 10 00 Winton 17 06 08     Dat. apud Vrbem Veterem x. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno secundo But this could not be the Bull of Gregory the 5. who dyed about 997. before Ely was erected or Episcopall chaires placed in Lincoln or Norwich 7. The last article in the oath prescribed the Clergy from the Pope of obedience to him was not any way to alienate the possessions of their houses inconsulto Romano Pontifice Whether this clause were inserted when 1115 it was first required of Raulf th' Archbishop of Cant. I have not been able to certify my self and am apt to believe it was not for though we find it in Math. Paris when it was first imposed on Abbots and Bishops yet that was after the Court of Rome had tasted the sweetnesse of taxing other Churches neither is it in any of those conditions mentioned by Diceto But when ever it came in it implying a right of alienating the possessions of Religious houses and Churches with the Papall licence bred an opinion that without his assent there could be no good sale made of their estates by any temporall or spirituall power whatsoever though with their own concurrence and the Court of Rome grew to maintain That being a Mother she ought to be relieved by her Children Gelasius the second in his distresse 1118 is said to have desired à Normannica Ecclesia subsidium orationum magis pecuniarum yet certainly the Norman Church did not then at all condescend to any for the French Agent in the Lugubri querimonia of which before mentions him amongst divers others who expell'd Italy fled into France for succour yet non in aliquo gravaverunt Ecclesiam Gallicanam nec dando beneficta nec petendo subsidium pecuniae vel armorum sed spiritualibus armis scilicet lacrymis orationibus quae sunt arma ministrorum Christi maluerunt esse contenti c. So that certainly if any collection were made for Gelasius it was so private publick notice was not taken of it 8. The first extraordinary contribution raised by allowance for the Popes use in this Kingdome I take not to have been before 1183. when Lucius 3 us at odds with the Citizens of Rome not any ways able to resist their fury sent to Henry the 2. postulans ab eo à clericatu Angliae auxilium The thing was taken into consideration and for the precedent it was not thought fit any thing should be given as from the Clergy but that they might raise a supply amongst themselves for the King without permitting a forraign Agent to intermeddle and his Majesty might with that relieve the Pope as he should see occasion But take in the Historian his own words Consuluit Rex Episcopos suos clerum Angliae de petitione summi Pontificis cui Episcopus Clerus consuluerunt ut ipse secundum voluntatem suam honorem faceret auxilium Domino Papae tam pro se quam illis quia tolerabilius esset plus placeret eis quod Dominus Rex si vellet accepisset ab eis recompensationem auxilii illius quam si permisisset nuncios Domini Papae in Angliam venire ad capiendum de iis auxilium quia si aliter fiereâ— posset verti in consuetudinem ad detrimentum regni Adquâ—â—vit Rex consilio corum fecit auxilium magnum Domino Papae in auro argento The judicious reader may observe hence things very remarkable as that the King did in points concerned the Pope consult with the English Church and followed their advise the great care the Clergy took to avoid any sinister consequence in future and therefore did themselves give to the Prince as to whom it was due from them and not to the Pope who by custome might come to claim it as indeed he
Ancestours he could not doubt but he might deal in causing all others be they Clerks or other that offend to suffer condigne punishment 2. For the better understanding how far the ecclesiastick rule of our Princes did extend we are to know they were never doubted to have the same within their dominions Constantine had in the Empire and our Bishops to have that St. Peter had in the Church Ego Constantini vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus said King Edgar to his Clergy in that his speech so recommended to posterity And therefore as after the Christian magistrate began to have government affairs of most concernment in the Church as is said had their dependance on the Emperour the greatest Synods called by him and the holy men of those times did not doubt the continuing to him the title of Pontifex maximus as Baronius notes sine ulla Christianitatis labe and as Constantine did esteem the Ecclesiasticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them for things within but himself for matters without by God appointed a Bishop so the same King Edgar no lesse to be remembred by the English then Charls the Great by the French was solicitous of the Church of his Kingdome veluti Domini sedulus Agricola and Pastorum Pastor was reputed and writ himself the Vicar of Christ and by his laws and Canons assured the world he did not in vain assume those titles and yet sine ulla Christianitatis labe so far as antiquity ever noted 3. What particulars those were the Emperours did hold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be without the Church belonging as I may say to their Episcopacy nothing can better teach us then their commands yet remaining in the laws they publisht as in Cod. Theodos. de feriis de nuptiis c. de fide catholica de Episcopis eccleis Clericis de Monachis de Haereticis de Apostatis de religione de episcopali judicio c. Cod. Iust. lib. 1. Tit. 1 2 3 4 5. passim in eo and in the Novells Novel 6. Quomodo oporteat episcopos caeteros clericos ad ordinationes perduci Novel 137. de ordinatione Episcoporum Clericorum The prefaces to which two laws are remarkable the first shewing the Priestly office is Divinis ministrare and the Princely maximam habere sollicitudinem circa vera D. idogmata circa sacerdotum honestatem c. the other beginning thus Si civibus leges quarum potestatem nobis Deus pro sua in homines benignitate credidit firm as ab omnibus custodiri ad obedientium securitatem studemus quanto plus studii adhibere debemus circa sacrorum Canonum divinarum legum custodiam And accordingly Novel 123. in 43 chapters he did establish many particulars pertaining to the government of the Church and Church-men and Novel 131. not only appointed the observance of the four first generall Councels but decrees the place or precedency of the Pope of Rome and Archbishop of Constantinople should be according to their definitions above all other seats and how far the Dioceses of some Chairs by him newly erected should extend besides other points in severall chapters to the number of 15 treating of particulars solely held now of ecclesiastick cognizance as did likewise Charls the Great and Ludovicus Pius in their capitulars in very many places But with these I have not took upon me farther here to meddle then by naming some to shew they having been practis'd by Emperours the Kings of England endowed from above with the same auctority in ecclesiasticis might very lawfully within their dominions exercise the like the question therefore will be what they did understand their power in the Church to be and accordingly how far they did extend it in use 4. As for the first nothing can speak more clear then what themselves publisht on mature and sad deliberation yet remaining in their laws in which we find the Regall office thus described Rex quia vicarius sammi Regis est ad hoc est constitutus ut regnum terrenum populum Domini super omnia sanctam veneretur ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis dâ—fendat and a little after Debet Rex Deum timere super omnia diligere mandata ejus per totum regnum suum servare debet etiam sanctam ecclesiam regni sui cum omni integritate libertate juxta constitutiones patrum praedecessorum servare fovere manutenere regere contra inimicos defendere ita ut Deus prae caeteris honoretur prae oculis semper habeatur c. Canutus Nobis omni ope atque opera enitendum erit qua potissimum ratione ea exquiramus consilia quae ad Reipublicae pertinent utilitatem pietatem confirment Christianam atque omnem funditus injustitiam evertant c. Iorvalensis renders it quomodo possit recta Christianitas propensius erigi Ina In magna servorum Dei frequentia religiose stud bam tum animorum nostrorum saluti tum communi regni nostri conservationi which Iorvalensis reads sollicitus de salute animarum nostrarum de statu regni shewing the care both of his subjects souls and bodies however after a differing way did in some measure pertain unto him 5. Neither did these expressions passe only from the worst of our Kings but from Ina Rex maxime pius as Baronius stiles him from Canutus who not only himself 1031. went in devotion to Rome but was acknowledged erga ecclesias atque Dei servos benignissimus largitor Edward the Confessour a canonized Saint famous for being the best Kings and holyest men who did not only leave us in their laws the Kings part but what they conceived likewise the Bishops was viz. to be Dei praecones divini juris interpretes that they were rerum divinarum commoda praedicare palam that for and to the people they should vigilare excubare proclamare c. as those that contra spirituales nequitias debent populo praevidere by letting them know qui Dei praeceptis obedire neglâ—xerit hic cum ipso Deo commune non habeat And this is that sword of St. Peter mentioned by King Edgar which when the holy Bishops of the primitive times did only put in execution they neither found Princes backward in supporting their designes nor people refractory to their exhortations Thus we see as they declared the office of a King they were not silent in that of a Bishop shewing how either laboured in his way the reducing people to piety and a vertuous life the one by making good laws for compelling the wicked the other by giving such instructions as convinced the inward man 6. So that we often meet with the Prince extending his commands to the same things the Priest did his persuasions as I. In point of Sacraments That children should
which is printed but th' English were to be such as should be agreed to praelatis accitis de mandato auctoritate praedicti invictissimi Angliae Regis whose determinations were to be consensu ejusde invictissimi Angliae Regis But where my Lord Herbert conceivs this to have been the first taste our King took in governing the Clergy I can no way be of his opinion for without peradventure the Cardinall neither did nor durst have moved one step in making the Ecclesiasticks lesse depend on the Papacy then the Common law or custome of the realm warranted knowing he must without that back have lost not onely Clement the 7. but all Popes and the Court of Rome which must and had been his support on the declining favour of so heady and dangerous a Prince as Henry the 8 th had he not cast off both the Cardinall and his obedience to that See almost together But how much he had the Clergy before this under his government the History of Richard Hunne is witnesse sufficient and the rights the Conquerour and his successours were ever in contest with the Papacy about and maintained as the laws customs of the Realm enough shew they did not command th' Ecclesiasticks here according to the will of any forraign potentate nor were meer lookers on whilst another govern'd the English Church some of which I shall therefore here set down I. They admitted none to be taken for Pope but by the Kings appointment II. None to receive letters from him without shewing them to the King who caused all words prejudiciall to him or his crown to be renounced by the bringers or receivers of them III. Permitted no councels but by their liking to assemble which gained the name of convocations as that alwayes hath been and ought to be assembled by the Kings writ IV. Caused some to sit in them might supervise the actions and legato ex parte Regis regni inhiberent ne ibi contra Regiam coronam dignitatem aliquid statuere attentaret and when any did otherwise he was forced to retract that he had done as did Peckham or were in paucis servatae as those of Boniface V. Suffered no Synodicall deree to be of force but by their allowance and confirmation Rex auditis concilii gestis consensum praebuit auctoritate regia potestate concessit confirmavit statuta concilii à Gulielmo Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo sanctae Romanae ecclesiae legato apud Westmonasterium celebratt In hoc concilio ademendationem ecclesiae Anglicanae assensu Domini Regis primorum omnium regni haec subscripta promulgata sunt capitula c. VI. Permitted no Bishop to excommunicate or inflict any ecclesiastick censure on any Baron or Officer nisi ejus praecepto VII Caused the Bishops appear in their Courts to give account why they excommunicated the subject VIII Caused such as were imprisoned after fourty dayes standing excommunicate to be freed by writ without th' assent of the Prelat or satisfaction giving the King and his Iudges communicating with them tam in divinis quam profanis and commanding none to shun them though by the Ordinary denounced excommunicate IX Suffered no Legat enter England but with their leave of which before X. Determined matters of Episcopacy inconsulto Romano Pontifice XI Permitted no Appeal to Rome of which before XII Bestowed Bishopricks on such as they liked and translated Bishops from one See to another XIII Erected new Bishopricks so did Hen. the 1. 1109. Ely taking it out of Lincolne Carlisle 1133. out of York or rather Duresme but of this before XIV Commanded by writ their Bishops to residency XV. Commanded their Bishops by reason of Schism vacancie of the Popedome c. not to seek confirmation from Rome but the Metropolitan to be charged by the Kings writ to bestow it on the elected XVI Placed by a lay hand Clerks in Prebendary or Parochiall Churches Ordinariis penitus irrequisitis And it is not here unworthy the remembring that VV m Lyndwood a very learned Canonist who writ about an 100. yeares before Henry the 8 ths difference with Clement the 7. finding the Crown in possession of this particular not agreeing with the rules of the Canon law is so perplext as in the end he finds no way to make the act valid but that he doth it by Papall priviledge For if by prescription Episcopo sâ—iente tolerante it could not be good for though the King might confer the temporalls of the Church non tamen potest dare jure suo potestatem circa spiritualia viz. circa ea quae pertinent ad regimen ecclesiasticum ministrationem sacramentorum sacramentalium nec non circa ecclesiasticae jurisdictionis exercitium hujusmodi quae jure spiritualia sunt nec in hoc casu potest sibi prodesse praescriptio etiam longissimi temporis quia talia spiritualia non possunt per regem possideri per consequens nec ut transeant sub sua potestate possunt praescribi nec consuetudine introduci c. In which he will havean hard contest with divers French and Italians who maintain Che tutte le raggioni che si possono acquistare per dispensa del Papa si possono acquistar anco per consuetudine la quale sopravenga contraria alla legge that a prince may prescribe for such acts as he can acquire by the Popes dispensation XVII Prohibited the Lay yielding obedience or answering by Oath to their Ecclesiastick superiour inquiring de peccatis subditorum which I take to have been in cases not properly of their cognizance not of witnesses either in causes Matrimoniall or Testamentary XVIII I shall conclude these particulars with one observation in Mat. Paris where the Ecclesiasticks having enumerated severall cases in which they held themselves hardly dealt with adde That in all of them if the spirituall Iudge proceeded contrary to the Kings prohibition he was attached appearing before the Iustices constrained to produce his proceedings that they might determine to which court the cause belonged and if found to pertain to the secular the spirituall Iudges were blamed and on confession they had proceeded after the prohibition were amerced but denying it were compell'd to make it good by the testimony of two vile Varlets but refusing such purgation were imprisoned till by oath they freed themselves to the Iustices that being cleared even by the Lay they had no satisfaction for their expence and trouble By which by the way it is manifest how much the Kings Courts had the superintendency over the Ecclesiastick 18. These and many other particulars of the like nature daily exercised notwithstanding the clamour of some Ecclesiasticks more affecting their own party then the rights of the Crown make there can be no scruple but the English did ever understand the
outward policy of this Church or government of it in foro exteriori to have much depended on the King and therefore the writs for summoning Parliaments expresse the cause of his calling them to be pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis nos statum defensionem regni nostri Angliae ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus or as our Bishops have sometimes exprest it in the Rolls of Parliament à l' onour reverence de Dieu de seinte esglise al salvation amendement de son roialme c. Likewise the Commons that their gift of the 9th sheaf c. to Edw. the 3. to have been for his defence of the Kingdome de seinte esglise d' Engleterre Rot. Parliament 15. Ed. 3. n. 25. According to which our Kings joyned both together professing their care for amending the Church to be equall with that of the Commonwealth Item fait assavoir que nostre tressoveraigne seign r le Roy eiantz grande volunte desir de l'estate de son esglise de son Royalme en les choses ou mesteir est d' amendement al honor de Dieu pur la pees la commune profit de seinte esglise d' Engleterre come de tout son Royalme d' el ' advis assent des seig rs esperituells c. ad fait c. In pursuance of which interest residing in the Crown the Lords and Commons under Rich. the 2. fearing the opinions called Lollardy might prevail petierunt à Rege de istis remedium apponi ne forte archa totius fidei ecclesiae talibus impulsionibus in illius temporibus pro defectu gubernaculi irremediabiliter quateretur Upon whose desires he commanded th' Archbishop of Cant. and his other Bishops ut officium suum singuli iâ— suis dioe cesibus secundum jura canonica acrius ferventius exercerent delinquentes castigarent librosque eorum Anglicos plenius examinarent errata exterminarent populumque in unitatem fidei orthodoxae reducere studerent ecclesiamque urticis vepribus destoratam liliis rosis ornarent c. After which the said authour records a Commission by which his Majesty as Defender of the Catholick Faith did impower certain to seize upon hereticall books and bring them before his councell and such as after proclamation shall be found to hold such opinions being called and examined before two Commissioners who were of the Clergy and lawfully convicted thereof to be by his Majesties ministers committed to the next prison Fourteen years after which the Commons shew Hen. the 4th the Parliament might be compared to a Masse in which th' Archbishop of Cant. began th' office reading th' Epistle and expounding the Gospel which it seems they took to be the part of the Ecclesiastick as did the Saxons before à la mesne qe feust la sacrifice d' estre offeriz à Dieux pur touz Christiens le Roy mesmes à cest Parlement pour accomplir cellemesne plusieurs foitz avoit declarez pleinement a toutz ses lieges coment sa volunte feust qe la foy de seint esglise feust governez en maniere come il ' ad este en temps de ses nobles progenitors come il est affirme par seint esglise par les seints Doctours par seint Escriture c. and a little after shewing they the Commons were onely to say Deo gratias which they were obliged to do for three reasons the second of which is pur câ—o qe la ou la Foy de seint esglise par malvaise doctrine feust en point d' avoir este anientz en grand subversion du Roy du Royalme mesme nostre Seig r le Roy ent ad fait ordeignez bon joust remede en destruction de tiel doctrine de la sect d' ycel peront ilz sont ensement tenuz de dire cel parole Deo gratias By all these it must be granted they did hold the chief care of the English Church to have depended in the outward policy of it on the prince or else that they did speak and do very unadyisedly in attributing so much unto his care of it and providing that he might be supplyed to defend it without at all mentioning any other to whose care it belonged 19. Neither did these expressions and petitions passe the Commons onely or the Clergy over-ruled by the numbers of the temporality but the Bishops by themselves acknowledged how much it stood in his M tios care to provide against any novelties creeping into the English Church and that it might enjoy the rights and liberties belonging to it and therefore when the said doctrine of Lollardy continued encreasing they in the names Praelatorum cleri regni Angliae petition Henry the 4 th Quatenus inclitissimorum progenitorum antecessorum vestrorum laudabilia vestigia graciose considerantes dignetur vestra regia celsitudo pro conservatione dictae Ecclesiae Anglicanae ad Dei laudem vestrique meritum totius regni praedicti prosperitatem honorem pro hujusmodi dissentionibus divisionibus dampnis periculis evit indis super novitatibus excessibus praedictis in praesenti Parliamento providere de remedio opportuno c. Did not these then hold it the office of the King as that his progenitors had ever done to provide no dissensions scandalls divisions might arise in the Church the Catholick faith might be truely conserved and susteined and what other did any of our Princes ever challenge or assume 20. When the Clergy likewise went at any time beyond their bounds or were negligent performers of their duties the subject upon all occasions had recourse unto his M ty as to whose care the seeing what was amiss redrest did especially belong as when th' Ecclesiastick Courts were grievous for the fees or their pecuniary pennances too heavy when they were opprest by Papall provisions of which before when through the absence of their Curat they were not so well taught c. when the frequency of the writ de excommunicato capiendo made it burthensome when men were cited by them on causes neither Matrimoniall nor Testamentary and appearing were not allowed a copy of the libell against them In which case the Kings answer is not unworthy the repeating shewing clearly he directed how they should proceed le Roy voet que a quel heure la copie de le libel est grantable par la ley q'â—l soit grauntè liverè a la partie sanz dâ—fficulee It is true Kings would refer matters of that nature to their Bishops unto whose care under them it did especially belong so Richard the 2. being petitioned in point of Residency answered Il appartient aux offices des Evesques le Roy voet qu' ils facent lour office devoirs c. His successor being again prest in the same kind gives his command thus Facent les
Ordinaires lour office devoirs per cause qe les pluralites q' ont este grantees devant ces heures sont ount este la greindre cause de l' absence des tiels curats y plest au Roy nostre Seigr. de l' advis assent des Seig rs en Parlement esâ—rire par ses honourables lettres a nostre seint pier le Pape de revoker repeller toutes les pluralites generalement qe d' es ore en avant nulle pluralite soit graunte a ascuny en temps a venir But the Pope it seems giving no satisfaction in the particular the 11. Hen. 4. the Commons again petition That the riches of the kingdome being in the hands of Church-men those livings upon which the incumbent of common right ought to reside half of the true value should remain to himself but the other to the King To which the answer is Geste matiere appertient a seinte Esglise quant a la residence remede ent fust purveuz en la darrain Convocation Yet this matter of non-residence still molesting the Commonwealth 3. Hen. 6. the King tells them by th' advise of the Lords of Parliament He had delivered their bill to my Lord of Canterbury charging him to pourvey of remedy for his Province and semblably shall write to the Church of York for that Province By which we may see the King Archbishop and Convocation did conceive themselves to have a power of redressing things in this Church which yet in civility they thought â—it first to acquaint the Pope with as a spirituall Doctor or Patriarch however of great esteem yet not endued with a power of commanding in this Church otherwise then the lawes of the Kingdome the contracts with the Papacy did bear 21. Now it cannot be doubted that all these petitions of the Commons and sundry more which may be produced had been by them vainly prefer'd had they not taken the King to have been vested with a power of redressing things blameable in the government of the Church But when we say the Prince as the principall without whom nothing is done may be rightly termed Head in the act of reformation our meaning is not that he will deal in points of Ecclesiastick cognizance without the advise of his Bishops and other learned of the Clergy we know in things proper Iosuah is to take counsell of Eleazer and the Kings of this nation have ever done so 22. When Edgar intended the advancing Christi gloriam he chose him three Bishops to be his patres spirituales and consiliarios But to speak of later times when the Commons endeavoured a reformation of some things in the Church Hen. the 8 th would not answer their desires till he had first acquainted the Spirituality When he intended to publish a book of the principall articles and points of our faith with the declaration of other expedient points and also for the lawfull rites and ceremonies to be observed within this realme he ordained it to be by th' Archbishops and sundry Bishops of both Provinces and also a great number of the best learned honestest and most vertuous sort of Doctors of Divinity men of discretion judgement and good disposition c. And Edward the sixth minding a farther reformation of some usages in the administration of the Eucharist he caused it to be made by the most grave and learned of his realm for that purpose by his directions assembled at Windfor who afterwards for taking away divers and sundry differing forms and fashions had formerly been used in sundry Churches of England and Wales appoynted th' Archbishop of Canterbury and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops and other learned men of the realm to consider of the premises who by the ayd of the Holy Ghost with one uniform agreement concluded on and set forth the book of Common prayer c. Upon which the two houses of Parliament considering as well the most godly travell of the Kings highnesse in gathering and collecting the said Archbishops Bishops and learned men together as c. do give to his Highnesse most hearty and lowly thanks c. So that it is apparent the King in composing this book did not assume to himself or the Parliament attribute unto him any other then assembling of the Bishops and other learned men together to take their consultations 23. And they observing the great diversity in saying and singing in severall Churches the difficulty of finding what was proper for each day apt to breed confusion reduced the publick service of the Church to one form more facile and of better edification following therein the examples of divers holy Bishops and others for if Guarinus Abbot of St Albans in the Office used in his Church about 1190 might superflua resecare to reduce the prayers there to one form if Agobardus in France might amputare superflua vel levia c. if Osmund Bishop of Salisbury in England quoniam singulae fere Dioeceses in statis precariis horis dicendis variabant ad hanc varietatem tollendam ut quasi absolutum quoddam precandi quo omnes uti possent exemplar exstaret eas in eum fere ordinem commodam rationem quam hodie omnes prope Angliae Cambriae Hiberniae viz. the Course of Salisbury Ecclesiae sequuntur magno prudenti rerum ex sacris scripturis probatis Ecclesiae historiis delectu distribuit digessit if these I say might do it on their own motion there is no question such of the Clergy as were appointed by the King might on his desire take it into consideration and remove matters offensive or lesse to edification 24. Neither did Queen Elizabeth at the beginning of her reign alter some passages in it but by the opinions of Divines eruditis moderatis to whom was added a learned Knight Sr Thomas Smith to whose care the supervising of it had by the house of Commons been committed the second of Edward the sixth and therefore knew better then any other to give an account of that book Nor did her self or the house of Lords use differing wayes when the Commons at other times have sought some change in the Ecclesiastick government as the 23. and 27. of her reign where though the Lord Treasurer made a short beginning yet he left the satisfactory answers to be given them by th' Archbishop of York Insomuch as we may safely conclude when the Clergy in Convocation styled Henry the 8th Ecclesiae Anglicanae protectorem unicum supremum dominum quantum per Christi leges licet supremum caput they added nothing new unto him but a title for he and his successors after it did never exercise any auctority in causes Ecclesiastick not warranted by the practise of former Kings of the nation By all which the second question remains sufficiently proved that our Kings were originally endued with
all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury both to the Pope and Becket enough assure us how undoubted it was in those dayes that our Kings following the advise of the English Church did proceed on safe grounds for their justification in such quarrells 6. Neither was the opinion returned by these Divines so differing from the writings of other learned men as might make them any way guilty of schism Gerson speaking of the severall degrees of Divine truths places for the first such as are expresse in Scripture secondly those that are by evident consequence deduced from thence thirdly such as being delivered by Christ have been by the constant tradition of the Church derived to us of which he holds this proposition Vniversalis Ecclesia Pontifici Romano subjecta sit and adds non enim posset evidenter aut per consequentiam pure de fide ex legibus primi generis humana deductione fulciri c. and Contarenus in a small tract de potestate Pontificis of that question sayes An Auctoritas illa potestas qua Pontifex maximus fungitur sit ei consensu quodam hominis tributa an potius divinitus tradita qua de re hisce temporibus maximos tumultus excitatos esse perspicimus nec etiam veriti sint viri in omni disciplinarum genere celebres ac in Christianae Theologiae studio illustres in magno hominum conventu asserere hoc jus Pontificis humanume esse then adds that he ab horum hominum sententia maxime dissentire ac prope compertum habere divinitus concessum esse Pontifici jus illud c. So that this learned Cardinall was not altogether resolved in the point but as a disputable question had it prope compertum The truth of which I leave him to dispute with the Orientall Christians It is manifest Francis the first was of the contrary judgement and our Countryman Stapleton delivers it as a Catholick tenet of former times undoubtedly agreeing with that of the English Church non divino sed humano jure positivis ecclesiae decretis primatum Romani Pontificis niti c. 7. But I return to our King who now fortifyed by the opinion of the Universities publick disputations in the convocation and severall precedents of former Princes his predecessors in his rights whereas the Parliament before in some particulars restrained the profits of Rome as in the payments of Annates Peter-pence making Appeals to it whose beginnings with us I have formerly noted did the 26. Hen. 8. 1533 declare his Maty his heirs and successors Kings of this realm shall have full power auctority from tyme to tyme to visit represse redresse c. all such errors heresies abuses c. which by any manner spirituall authority or jurisdiction may be lawfully reformed repressed ordered redressed c. This the Court of Rome interpreted a falling off from the Church and the English no other then a declaration of that right had ever resided in the Crown and which I believe it will be a difficult task to disprove them in 8. For those two articles Paulus 3. accuses the King of as Hereticall and schismaticall viz. quod Romanus Pontifex caput ecclesiae Christi vicarius non erat quod ipse in Anglica ecclesia supremum caput existebat c. for the first I never heard it affirmed by the King in that generality the words import for the Pope is a temporall prince as well as a spirituall father and so far as I know he never denyed him to be the head of the Church of his own dominions nor of France and Spain c. if those Kingdomes will admit him to so great a preeminence the thing he onely stood upon is that he was not so instituted by Christ Universall Bishop and had alone from him such an omnipotency of power as made him absolute Monarch in effect of the universall Church and was so in England For his being vicar of Christ in that sense other Bishops may be said to be his vicegerents as before I do not see how it can be well denyed him but that this Vicarship did import the giving him that power he did then exercise here is what the Church of England hath ever constantly denied As for the Kings being Head of Church I have before shewed he neither took it nor the Parliament gave it in other sense then the French have alwayes attributed it to their Princes neither for ought I find was it so much sought by King Henry as prest on him by the Clergy of which the Bishop of Rochester was one that subscribâ—d to it and his Ancestors did the same things before he did after under the names of Protectors Tutors Christi vicarii Domini Agricolae c. 9. For the other particulars mentioned in the Bull as his beheading the Bishop or Cardinall of Rochester the burning of Beckets bones the taking the treasure and ornaments at his Shrine to which may be added the suppressing and converting into Lay hands the Monasteries of the Kingdome I shall not say much having not taken on me to defend that Princes actions Yet for the taking off the head of Rochester if he were convict of treason I must give the answer of Edward the 3. to the Clergy in that kind en droict de Clerks convictz de treason purceo qe le Roy toutz ses progenitors ount este seisis tut temps de faire jugement execution de Clercz convictz de treson devers le Roy sa Royale Mageste come de droict de la corone si est avis au Roy qe la ley en tien cas ne se poet changer and then he cannot be said to have dyed other wise then by law As for the goods and ornaments of Churches by him layd hold on it is certain his predecessors in their extremities had shew'd him the way as the Conquerour who took all the ready money was found in Religious houses Richard the first who took all to the very Chalices of Churches and yet th' Archbishop afterwards regio munimine septus universos monachorum to wit of Christ Church redditus oblationes tumbae beati martyris Thomae fecit saisiari in manu Regis and Edward the first 1296 fecit omnia regni monasteria perscrutari pecuniam inventam Londonias apportari fecitque lanas corias arrestari c. And in those dayes Bishops did tell Kings The saurus ecclesiae vester est nec absque vestra conscientia debuit amoveri to which the King verum est The saurus noster est ad defensionem terrae contra hostes peregrinos c. And perhaps it would be no hard labour to shew all Princes not onely here but elsewhere to have had how justly I will not determine a like persuasion And he then being excommunicated by Paulus 3. for maintaining what the Crown had ever been in
possession of can no way be said to have departed from the Church but the Pope to have injuriously proceeded against him who maintained onely the just rights and liberties of his kingdome according to his coronation oath 10. And this is the case and fully answers so far as it appears to me whatsoever can be objected against the reformation begun by him or made more perfect by Edward the 6. for the manner of doing it viz. that they as supreme Princes of this Kingdome had a right to call together their own Clergy and with their advise to see the Church reformed by them And if otherwise I should desire to know how the Masse without any intermission was restored by Queen Mary for it is manifest she returned the use of it immediately after her brothers death yet Cardinall Pool reconciled not this Kingdome to Rome till the 30th of November above a year after and then too on such conditions onely as the Parliament approved during which space she as Queen gave directions to the Ordinaries how they should carry themselves in severall particulars which as it is probable she did by th' advice of her Bishops so there is no reason to condemn the like proceedings in Edward the 6. 11. I have before shewed how far the royal power went in compiling the book of Common prayer for a Catechism published by the same Prince it being composed by a learned person presented to his Maty and by him committed to the scrutiny of certain Bishops and other learned men quorum judicium sayes his Maty magnam apud nos authoritatem habet after their allowance it was by him recommended to be publickly taught in Schools Likewise the Articles for taking away diversity of opinions in points of religion were agreed upon in a Synod at London by the Bishops and other learned men Regia authoritate in lucem editi The King in framing them taking no farther on himself then he had in the book of Common prayer And Queen Mary though she quitted the title of head of the Church which yet she did not so suddenly as Saunders intimates did in effect as much So that hitherto there is no way of fixing any schism on the English Church for neglect of obedience it having been eversubject to the Archbishop of Canterbury and others its lawfull superiors restoring to him the ancient right belonged to his chair of being their spirituall pastor next and immediately under Christ Iesus But the Kingdome being re-united to the See of Rome by Queen Mary though what I have said doth in a good part free it of schism yet in respect the reformation I onely took upon me to defend was made by Queen Elizabeth and continued since it will be necessary to make some more particular mention how it did passe CHAP. VII How the reformation was made under Queen Elizabeth 1. ELizabeth the daughter of Henry the 8th by Queen Anne Bolen being received by all the estates of the Kingdome assembled in Parliament and proclaimed Queen caused her sisters Ambassador Sr Edward Kerne then residing at Rome to give an account of this her being called to the Crown to Paulus 4 tus the Pope who being in union with France and out with the house of Austria then strictly joyned with England and both at odds with the French told him either perswaded by them or upon his own heady disposition England was a Fee of the Church of Rome That she could not succeed as illegitimate That he could not go against the declarations of Clement the 7. and Paulus 3 ius That her assuming the name and government without him was so great an audacity she deserved not to be hearkned to But he being willing to proceed paternally if she would renounce her pretensions and freely remit her self to his arbitrement he would do what lay in his power with the dignity of the Apostolick See A strange reply to a civil message were it not derived to us by an unquestionable hand and that it came from Paulus 4 ius to whom it was not an unusuall saying that hee would have no Prince his compagnion but all subjects under hys foot Upon this unwillingnesse to acknowledge her Queen at Rome th' Archbishop of York who had before affirmed no man could doubt of the justnesse of her title and the rest of the Bishops refused to Crown her As for that some write it was because they had evident probabilities she intended eyther not to take or not to keep the oath was then to be administred unto her especially in the particular of not maintaining holy Churches lawes in respect she had shewed an aversenesse to some ceremonies as commanding the Bish of Carlile not to elevate the consecrated Host. who stoutly refused her and out of fear she would refuse in the time of her sacre the solemn divine ceremony of Vnction these are certainly without any colour and framed since For as for the last the ceremony of anointing she had it performed as had King Iames who succeeded her who would not have his Queen crowned in Scotland without it For the other it is altogether improbable that he to whom the command was by her given would of all the rest have assented to crown her had he conceived that a cause why it might have been denied neither indeed did she alter any thing materiall in the service of the Church till after the conference at Westminister 1559. the 31. March and the Parliament ended 2. To passe therefore by these as excuses found out after the deed done the true reason being no question something came from the Pope in pursuance of that answer he had given her Agent the Queen seeing she could expect nothing from the Papacy laboured to make all safe at home or to use her own phrase to take care of her own house and therefore as she had reason desired to be assured of her subjects fidelity by propounding an oath to certain of them which is seldome a tie to other then honest minds But the way mens minds distracted in points of religion the law of Henry the 8. extinguishing the auctority of the Bishop of Rome being very severe for securing himself in bringing such as did but extoll the said auctority for the first offence within the compass of a praemunire and that refused to take it of treason was not easy to be pitcht upon besides styling the King head of the Church which many made a scruple at to which effect a bill being presented to the house of Commons the 9. of February after many arguments had upon it the 13. of February upon the second reading it was absolutely dasht and upon great consideration taken the 14. Febr. a Committee appointed to draw a new Bill in which an especiall care was taken for restoring onely the ancient jurisdiction of the Crown and the Queen neither styled supreme Head nor the penalty of refusing the Oath other
then the being excluded from such places of honour and profit as they held in the Common-wealth yet with this proviso that he who had an estate of inheritance in a temporall Office refused to take the said oath did after upon better perswasion conform himself should be restored unto the said estate and that such as should maintain or defend the auctority preeminence power or jurisdiction spirituall or ecclesiasticall of any forreign Prince Prelate Person State or Potentate whatsoever not naming the Pope as her father had done should be three times convict before he suffered the pains of death 3. This Bill which no doubt the Popes carriage drew on being expedited in the house of Commons received reformation by the Lords committed the 13. March to the Lord Marquess of Winchester Lord Treasurer the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of VVestmorland Shrewsbury Rutland Sussex Penbrook viscount Mountague Bishops Exeter Carlisle Barons Clynton Admirall Morley Rich Willoughby North no one of them then noted for Protestantisme the 18. March past the Lords none dissenting but 8. Bishops the Earl of Shrewsbury Viscount Mountague and the Abbot of VVestminster and the same day sent to the house of Commons who upon perusall found again what to amend it in so as it had not it's perfection in both Houses till Saturday the 6th of May when the Parliament ended the Monday following at which time onely Viscount Mountague the interessed Clergy opposed it By which it cannot be questioned but the generality of the Lords did interpret that law no other then as indeed it was a restoring the Crown to it 's ancient rights for if otherwise without doubt there would have been as great an opposition at least made against it as some other statutes which past that Parliament met with that the Marquess of VVinchester the Lords Morley Stafford Dudley VVharton Rich North joyned with the Earls of Shrewsbury Viscount Mountague and the Prelats to have stopt 4. But whereas some were induced to think by the generality of the words that affirm her Highness to be supreme governour as well in all spirituall or ecclesiasticall causes as temporall as if it had been an usurping upon the sacred function in the interior as I may say of the Church properly belonging to them in holy Orders her Maty the same year did declare She did not challenge any other auctority then was challenged and lately used by King Henry the 8th and Edw. 6. which is and was of ancient time due to th' imperiall crown of this Realme that is under God to have the Soveraignty and rule over all manner of persons born within these her realms c. And that to be the onely sense of the Oath she caused to be confirmed the next Parliament at which time a Synod being held for avoiding diversity of opinions and establishing of consent touching true religion c. it did expresly declare they did not give to our Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or the Sacraments But that onely prerogative is given in holy Scripture by God himself that is that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be ecclesiasticall or temporall and restrain with the civill sword the stubborn and evil-doers c. And these articles were likewise confirmed by Parliament 13. Eliz. cap. 12. so that no man can doubt this to have been other then an acknowledgement what Princes had done formerly in all ages might be justly continued not an introductory of a new law but the assertion of the old right of our Kings 5. Another matter of great weight then likewise expedited was the settling the publick service of the Church in one uniform way King Edward the 6. intending such a reformation as might serve for edification caused certain pious and learned men to meet together who as it seems taking for their pattern the practise of the primitive times casting out of the Liturgies then used such particulars as were any way offensive shew'd their scope to be what they pretended to reform not make a new Church or Service and thereupon had by the aid of the holy Ghost as the Act of Parliament speaks concluded on and publisht the book of Common prayer with a form of administration of the holy Communion commonly called the Mass. But nothing humane is perfect at first this Book some few years after received in his time alteration and the word Mass I know not why more offensive in it then the Augustane Confession expunged with some other phrases in it 6. But for the better understanding how Queen Elizabeth found this Church it will not be amiss to look a little back Henry the 8. dying in Ianuary 154 6 7 leaving the Roman Service with some alterations not greatly considerable in it the wisdome of the State however intending a farther reformation was not immediately to abolish it so as the Lords meeting in Parl nt 1547. November the 4. though they had the Mass sung in English yet the Liturgy of the Church was not common in that language till after Easter 1548. This Session continuing till December 23. restored the Communion in both kinds upon which certain learned men by appointment met at VVindsor to consider of a decent Form for the administration of it which in March his Maty gave out backt with a Proclamation so as at Easter it began without compulsion of any to be put in practise and after Easter severall parochiall Churches to celebrate divine Service in English which at VVhitsuntide was by command introduced into Paul's but hitherto no book of Common prayer extant onely the manner of administring the holy Eucharist somewhat altered 7. During this while the Archbishop of Cant. 6. Bishops 3. Deans Doctors and 3. other onely Doctors were busied in reforming the publick Liturgy of the Church Iohn Calvin of Geneva a person then of high esteem advertised of it thereupon wrote to the Duke of Somerset the 22. October 1548 giving his judgement in these words quod ad formulam precum rituum ecclesiasticorum valde probo ut certa illa extet à qua pastoribus discedere in functione sua non liceat tam ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae quam ut certius ita conslet omnium inter se ecclesiarum consensus postremo etiam ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui novationes quasdam affectant and taking notice of the form already had for celebrating the Communion adds this Audio recitari isthic in Coenae celebratione orationem pro defunctis neque vero hoc ad purgatorii Papistici approbationem referri satis sâ—io neque etiam me latet proferri posse antiquum ritum mentionis defunctorum faciendae ut eo modo communio fidelium omnium in unum corpus conjunctorum declaretur sed obstat invictum illud argumentum nempe Coenam Domini adeo sacrosanctam esse ut ullis hominum additamentis
to commutation of penance which the law allowes he that would may find them in Lyndwood lib. 3. de immunitate ecclesiae cap. Accidit and lib. 5. de poenis cap. Evenit 21. If any ask a cause why the ancient Fathers did proceed with so great lenity against blasphemous hereticks as the Arrians Nestorians c. why when the Emperour would have punisht the furious Donatists with a pecuniary mulct the holy men of those times so earnestly interceded as to procure the remission and did requite their fury with such love meeknesse as to be able to say no one of them had payed what th' imperiall edicts might challenge when of late yeares men have been brought to the fire children exposed to misery by the loss of their parents estates even by Bishops and other of the Clergy whose opinions were neither so blasphemous as the Arrians nor their comportments so inhumane as the Donatists why they preached men relapsed even to a thousand times might yet live reconciled to the Church when as now such as have renounced an opinion Rome calls heresy being after found to hold it is seculari judicio sine ulla penitus audientia relinquendus which yet is not observed if he be a Prince as was Henry the 4. or perhaps a private man out of their power 22. To these demands I can give no other answer but that their offences being against the holy Trinity the pious Bishops of those times as men who watched for soules did content themselves to denounce what was heresy but having done that finding it not received to leave the punishment to him who assures it shall go worse with Sodom and Gomorrah then those refused their instructions and under him to the Secular magistrate did likewise follow his precept in forgiving even to seventy times seven times when on the other side the opinions of these later hereticks as they call them be rather against men and their Institutes then God as that Romanum praesulem reliquis episcopis paremesse Purgatorium ignem non inventri Celebritates sanctorum rejiciendas Iejuntis ab ecclesia institutis mhil inesse meriti c. and a perswasion gained none but the Ecclesiastick can punish Heresy who judge the opposer by the law of man howbeit they style it Christian yet how it agrees with divinity Iremit to the Canonists decision In the mean time I cannot but observe Simanca finds nothing out of holy writ but onely in divine Plato lib. 10. de legibus to maintain the position that semel tantum haereticis poenitentibus parcitur c. 23. This being then the proceeding against Hereticks in generall it will be necessary to see how it was formerly in England and how the Queen found it First it will not be unfit to premise that from the Conversion of the Saxons to the year 1166. no heresy was ever known to have been in England insomuch as we may safely conclude whatever doctrine we meet with in the publick homilies of the Church or other writers of elder times must be esteemed catholick however it now stand censured but in that year about XXX Dutch came hither that detested baptisme the Eucharist c. who being convict by Scripture in an episcopall councell called by the King at Oxford were remitted to his disposition that caused them to be whipt and burnt in the face and a command given none should either receive or relieve them so that they miserably perisht which severity his Maty did not think fit afterward to extend to those were then called Publicani as I have before shew'd though there were many in his dominions 24. For the punishment of Hereticks it cannot be doubted by the common Law that is the custome of the Realm of England to have been here as in other parts of the world by consuming them by fire Balaeus from the testimony of a chronicle of London reports one of the Albigenses to have been so made away there 1210. to which the learned Camden seems to allude when he sayes more dyed in Queen Maries time then this nation had seen ex quo regnante Iohanne Christiani in Christianos apud nos flammis saevire coeperunt The same Paramo saith is made good by an epistle of Tho. Waldensis to Martin the 5. but I have not seen it I am sure in that VValdensis I use it is not found But of the truth of the thing there is no question for Bracton writes of an Apostate Deacon that in a Councell held at Oxford 1222. by Stephen Langton was first degraded and then by the Lay committed to the fire with whom for the thing agrees Fleta yet by the way where you read in him per manum comburentur clericalem it is to be Laicalem for so is Bracton out of whom he transcribed it agreeing with the continuall practise both of this and other nations for the Clergy meddles not with execution 25. In Edward the 3 ds dayes about the year 1347. Polydore Virgil testifyes two Franciscans to have been burnt quod de religione male sentirent Neither did VVilliam Sautry a relapsed priest dye by any statute-law 2. H. 4. but convicted in a provinciall councell of th' Archbishop of Cant. the writ de haeretico comburendo bearing date the 26. February was by th' advice of the Lords Temporall sent to the Major of London to cause him be executed attendentes sayes it hujusmodi haereticos sic convictos damnatos juxta legem divinam humanam canonica instituta in hac parte consuetudinaria ignis incendio comburi debere c. But where VValsingham speaks as if he dyed during the sitting of the Parliament by vertue of the law then made against hereticks the historian is without peradventure mistaken for that Parliament begun about the 20. Ianuary ended the 10. March following did expresly provide on the petition of the Commons qe touz les estatutz ordenances faitz ou affaire en cest Parliament qe sont penalz ne tiegnent lieu ne force devant le feste de Peatecoste prochin venant les queles en le mesme temps puissent estre proclamez to which the answer is le Royle voet So that certainly he could not dye by that law which was not to take effect till so long after 26. But I confesse I did a little doubt of two particulars The one whether by the common Law a Lay man could be sent to the fire for any conviction by the Ecclesiastick for all the undoubted precedents I have met with unlesse that of the Albigenses were otherwise were of some Clearks within the pale of the Church that were so punisht and Bracton and Fleta both agree Clerici Apostatae comburantur whose words being penall I conceived stricti juris not to be construed by equity But indeed Fleta elsewhere speaks more generally Christiani Apostatae detrectari debent
it omnes in Ecclesia ad divinum officium ordinati are sometimes so styled of which such as were infra subdiaconatum might retain their wives but those were in subdiaconatu or above were to quit them But the Canons yet remaining made at sundry times from Lanfrank even to Chichly by the space of more then 300 yeares enough assure us this point of Celibat was not easily imposed on the English Clergy and assures us such as laid it might take it off again 11. For Images if the Saxons had any use at all of them in their Churches for ornament for history to which end S. Gregory holds they might be permitted for memorialls of holy men departed as we have of late seen they being only thus applyed I conceive with the Bishop of Salisbury the weight of the question not so great yet it was a thing voluntary no command of the Churches injoyning it till after the Conquest And here the question is not whether Augustine might or did bring the picture of our Saviours Crosse in his banner as most Protestants yet retain it but whether he placed them in the Church with an intent to have worship of any kind attributed unto them for which purpose I confesse I have not heard of them till many yeares after for the vision of Egwinus and the Councell of London setting up of Images being made good so far as I know by no author of any antiquity I cannot but take it with Baronius for a meerfigment 12. It is certain 792 the Bishops of England declared their dissent from the second Councell of Nice in point of Images held onely 4 yeares before according to Diceto and where some interpret that they did onely condemn the worship the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by using the Latin word adorare it cannot be denyed but they did reject that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Orientall Bishops had established in which sense they used the word adorare which is often as well in holy writ as by humane authors taken for that reverence is given a creature as for the religious duty we only owe to the Divine Majesty see Gen. xxiii 7 12. Ingulphus a writer not long after Constantinopolim pervenimus ubi Alexim imper atorem ador antes c. So Arundell in his constitutions adorationem crucis gloriosae 13. To this narrative Harpsfield gives the title of commentitia insulsa fabula and thinks it not writ by Sim. Dunelmensis or Mat. VVestminster he might have added Hoveden the Ms. history of Rochester but that it was anciently inserted into them For answer to which he would be desired to produce any one old copy without it not mangled so as it doth prodere furtum by wanting it I have seen divers of Hoveden Mss. some of Math. West but never did one wherein it was not found not in the margin but in the text it self and so it is in Dunelmensis his Ms. at Bennet Colledge in Cambridge For my part I do not know how any thing we mislike in History may not after this manner be rejected if a relation gathered from monuments of an elder date which are perisht yet cited by one who lived not so long after the time he speaks of but they might well come to his hands whom we find very sincere in such citations as yet remain out of more old authors then himself ever esteemed of good credit in the Church of God and in his narration followed ad verbum by those who writing of the same matter succeeded him I confesse I say if this may be cast away as a lying foolish fable I know not what shall gain credit But what will men not lay hold on in a desperat shipwrack I remember Baronius prest with the testimony of Luitprandus in the deposition of Iohn the 12. by imperiall auctority makes no question of denying the five last chapters of his 6. book to have been written by him though never doubted for more then 600 years since he lived 14. Another Doctor I confesse seems to give a more difficult objection that Alâ—uinus who is said to have writ against the second Nioen Councell in the point of Images doth in his book de divinis officiis say prosternimur corpore ante crucem mente ante Deum veneramur crucem per quam redempti sumus c. and this from an author had written against Images he would have imply a veneration of them even in his time who opposed them by the English Church But what hath the reverence of the Crosse to do with the worship of Images It is not to be denyed but Christians in their talk and writings did extoll and magnifie the Crosse forced thereunto by the Gentiles who spake ignominiously of him that dyed upon it yet I believe it will be difficult to shew any Law or Canon before the Conquest injoyning the use much lesse that attributed any religious worship unto Images 15. It is true the Councell of Celicuith 816. did charge unicuique Episcopo ut habeat depictam in pariete oratorii aut in tabula vel etiam in altaribus quibus sanctis sint utr aque dedicata c. which was clearly for memoriall and ornament as it hath been very common in some Churches to have on the wall the Image of Queen Elizabeth and such as have built an Isle or window to have their statue or picture set up in it which in some parts perhaps remain to his present yet no man ever held any religious duty fit to be given them nor any man compell'd to set them up Now that there was no precept of the Church commanding their use I speak from the rules of Sempringham about 1148. that doubtlesse did not vary from the generall practise of Christians here yet hath this expresse statute Sculpturae vel picturae superfluae in Ecclesiis nostris seu in officinis aliquibus Monasterii ne fiant interdicimus quiâ— dum talibus intenditur utilitas bonae meditationis vel disciplina religiosae gravitatis saepe negligitur cruces tamen pictas quae sunt ligneae habemus So that it seems to me they did account all pictures so superfluous as not to have them but onely painted crosses this was one of the first foundation And in another place which I take to be somewhat after the buying of them and silk as things indifferent are alike interdicted yet a direction how to bestow any thing of that nature should be left them but see the words Nihil de serico ematur à nostris vel de nostro ad nostrorum opus vel ad aliquid religioni contrarium seculi vanitatibus amminiculum â—nec etiam ad quodlibet sacerdotale indumentum nisi constet esse necessarium Si vero datur secundum arbitrium Prioris omnium communi utilitati usui mancipetur hoc idem de Yconiis vel aliis
of the like nature farther then is proved by the Law and the Prophets c. Yet there is one thing in my opinion very considerable what the Apostles did were such and in those places no man could deny them but these the Church of Rome holds out for confirmation of their religion are either in corners as Garnets Face in the Eare with so dark proofs as when they are looked into res tota cum contemptu dimissa est or else done in Italy or Spain where the Inquisition will suffer none but themselves to examine the fact whereas if they followed th' Apostles example they should be in England or Germany that the Protestants might say indeed a notable miracle hath been done by our Lady is manifest to all and we cannot deny it Acts iiij 16. 26. Another will have that homily at least what he takes on him to confute to contain no other then Catholick doctrine and then falls upon the Archbishop of Armach whom he conceives to have ill translated it out of the Latin in which language there is not now found any ancient copy of it insisting that though it were printed at London 1623. it was not to be heard of when he writ which was about 1631. insinuating as if more might be said if he could see the author himself For the first of these it must be said to contain Catholick Doctrine on the grounds before but if it be that the Church of Rome admits for such I am glad to understand that from him For the Primat of Ireland's translating the Latin to the disadvantage of the Romish I shall give no answer but that his English are indeed some parts of that sermon but the Latin pieces of Bertram so agreeing with them as they were undoubtedly taken out of him by which he gives a far elder testimony to that author then Oecolampadius who was no question a Catholick Doctor but being so why is he prohibited by the Roman Index why if at all permitted must it be excogitato commento For the other that it could not be had in London only eight years after it was printed I can say nothing but some men will not hear that they mislike for that Homily of which if he say any thing he speaks first set out by Iohn Day with the subscription of 15 Bishops attesting the truth of the Copy after 1623 reprinted by Henry Seal alwayes in the book of Acts and monuments c. in the life of Hen. the 8 and of late by Mr. VVhelock put into Latin and taken without any intervening transcription from the originall Saxon that he might not vary in a tittle was with his translation of it printed at Cambridge 1644. amongst divers other excellent notes of that learned man upon Beda that such as understand not the language may in that point see the doctrine of our forefathers 27. A third Doctor who cannot deny but it makes directly against Transubstantiation gives an answer I could not have expected yet in my opinion more ingenuous That it is unreasonable to produce the forcelesse auctority of these Saxon Homilies which have no warrant of truth from any other but from our selves and the margin These Homilies were never heard of but now of late amongst Protestants onely framed and printed by themselves without the warrant of any one indifferent witnesse This is I say what I could not have looked for Can any man imagine two Archbishops thirteen Bishops besides divers other personages of honour and credit could have been induced to subscribe so palpable a lye as it must be if this and the other passages by them there testified to be found in the ancient monuments of this Church were lately framed But the old books that yet remain writ above five hundred yeares since do enough vindicate the Protestants in that which I dare say no one of them who alledge it do in their hearts believe not to have been extant in them as the Archbishop first sent them to the Press 28. Of the little credit the Councell of Lateran in this point gained here I have touched before neither did Peckham's constitution sub panis specie simul dari corpus c. speak home nor was the thing ever absolutely determined with us till 1382 so that the opinion of Transubstantiation that brought so many to the stake had not with us 140 yeares prescription before Martin Luther began for in that year VVickliff having propounded quod substantia panis materialis aut vini manet post consecrationem c. the Archbishop taking it into consideration did not think fit to condemn the Tenet without farther advice with the University of Oxford where libratis singulis every saying weighed and in especiall as it seems those concerned the Eucharist he did condemn some as hereticall others as onely erroneous and farther singulos defensores eorum imposterum sententia excommunicationis innodatos fore and gave command ne quis de caetero cujuscunque status c. haereses seu errores praedictos vel corum aliquem teneat doceat praedicet seu defendat The Chancellor likewise of the Academy repeating VVickliffs opinions touching the holy communion shews they had been diligently discuss't by Doctors in Divinity and professors in the Canon Law ac tandem finaliter est compertum atque judicio omnium declaratum ipsas esse erroneas fidei orthodoxae contrarias determinationibus Ecclesiae repugnantes and then after all this search delivers the doctrine of Transubstantiation as the conclusion agreed to be held Quod per verba sacramentalia à sacerdote prolata panis vtnum in altari in verum corpus Christi sanguinem transubstantiantur seu substantialiter convertuntur sic quod post consecrationem non remanent in illo venerabili sacramento panis materialis vinum secundum suas substantias sed secundum species earundem And this I take to have been the first plenary determination of the Church of England in the case which yet how well it will be liked by such as hold the manner of conversion to be by a succession of Christs body to the substance of the bread I leave others to dispute But certainly the Archbishop not adventuring to proceed in it alone nor by his own councell by his extending what he did onely to the future both for punishment and Tenet and after long enquiry concluding the truth of it enough proves it not to have been in former times fully resolved on in this Church so that we may say of our Auncestors as the Iesuites here about some 60 yeares since did of the Fathers rem Transubstantiationis ne attigerunt And it may not here unfitly have a place that Iohn Tissington a Franciscan whom Pitseus from Baleus not Leland as he would have us think affirms to have been an assistant in this dispute at Oxford 1382 or as some
1381. cannot deny the truth of the assertion quod panis vinum remanent post consecrationem in naturis suis adhuc servatur Laicis antiquitus servabatur And here it is not unworthy the remembring that by the law of the 6 Articles 31. Hen. 8. cap. 14. containing in effect the body of Popery no man was to dye as an Heretick but he who denyed this Tenet all others onely as felons or men endangering the peace of the Kingdome by teaching contrary to what was publickly received By which it likewise appears in fixing th' imputation of Heresy the English looked on their home Determinations not those of any forreign Church 29. But I do not take upon me to dispute matters controversall which I leave as the proper subject to Divines it shall suffice onely to remember the Church of England having with this great deliberation reformed it self in a lawfull Synod with a care as much as was possible of reducing all things to the pattern of the first and best times was interpreted by such as would have it so to depart from the Church Catholick though for the manner they did nothing but warranted by the continuall practice of their predecessors and in the things amended had antiquity to justify their actions and therefore th' Archbishop of Canterbury in a provinciall Synod begun in S. Pauls the 3 of April 1571 and all other Bishops of the same Province gave especially in charge to all preachers to chiefly take heed that they teach nothing in their preaching which they would have the people religiously to observe and believe but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the old Testament and the new and that which the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine So that nothing is farther off truth then to say such as reformed this Church made a New religion they having retained onely that which is truly old and Catholick as Articles of their faith 30. Thus was Religion reformed and thus by the Queen establisht in England without either motion or seeking any new way not practised by our Ancestors but using the same courses had been formerly traced out unto them for stopping profaneness and impiety when ever they peeped in the Church And certainly to my understanding there can be none that will with indifferency look upon those times but he must however he mislike the thing done approve the manner of doing it Yet the favorers of Rome ceased not to proclaim all had thus past to have been hereticall without instancing any particular as to say such a carriage was after the manneâ— of Hereticks ever condemned by the Catholick Church and by orthodox writers in former times or such a Tenet in your confession was held heresy from this place of Scripture anciently by such holy Fathers met in generall Councell and to raise stirs and commotions in the Commonwealth to excommunicate the Queen as flagitiorum serva free her subjects of their allegeance to give out we had a Parliament-religion Parliament-Gospell Parliament-Faith and this before ever the 39 Articles one main pillar of the English reformation were confirmed by Parliament 31. Upon the whole it is so absolutely false that the Church of England made a departure from the Church which is the ground and pillar of truth as I am perswaded it is impossible to prove she did make the separation from the Roman it self but that having declared in a lawfull Synod certain opinions held by some in her communion to be no articles of faith and according to the precedent of former times and the power God and nature had placed in her self redressed particular abuses crept into her the Pope and his adherents without ever examining what was the right of the Kingdom in such like cases that had from all antiquity done the same would needs interpret this a departing from the Church because he resolved to maintain as articles of faith thrust on others as such some ambiguous disputable questions the English did not think fit to admit into that number To make a departure from Christs Church is certainly a very hainous offence she never commanding ought but what is conformable to his will nor requiring her children to believe any thing as matter of faith but what is immediately contained in the word of God or by evident consequence drawn from it and as she excludes no Christians from being her children who by their own demerits deserve not to be out of the divine favour so in opposing those who endeavour to procure some tenets to be admitted for hers which cannot be deduced from that ground we do not depart from her but gainsay humane errours and conceipts which they would infer to be her commands who acknowledges them not But as St Augustine in a dispute with a Donatist utrum schismatici nos simus an vos non ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut judicet Ecclesiam suam so may I whether we are the schismaticks or the Church of Rome Christ himself be the Iudge But whether divided from the other being matter of fact let the histories of former times the extraordinary proceedings of the See of Rome of late against the Queen and this Commonwealth be compared and I am confident the judgment may be referr'd to any indifferent person though of that belief who made the separation and whether this Kingdom on so high provocations did any thing would not have been parallell'd by former times had they met with the like attempts 32. Neither can the Crown in this reformation be any way said to have enterprised on the papall primacy which for ought I know it might have acknowledged so far as is exprest or deduced from holy Scripture or laid down in the ancient sacred Councells or the constant writings of the orthodox primitive Fathers and yet done what it did but to have exercised that auctority alwayes resided in it for conserving the people under it in unity and peace without being destroyed by the Canons and constitutions of others not suffering a forraign power ruine them to whom it owed protection In which it did not trench upon the rights of any but conserved its own imitating therein the Imperiall edicts of severall Princes and of those were in possession of this very diadem conformable to their Coronation oath 33. And from hence may be answered that which Rome brings as her Achilles touching the succession and visibility of the Protestants Church and doctrine in all ages since Christ for if theirs have been it is impossible to say the others have not the former adding onely more articles for a Christian to believe which the latter will not embrace as needfull so that if theirs as they so much glory have had the continuance from the Apostles these needs must which onely denies some part of that they hold Protestants says Stapleton have many things lesse then Papists they have taken away many things
auctority to cause the English Church be reformed by th' advice of their Bishops and other of the Clergy as agreeing with the practise of all ages For who introduced the opinion of Transubstantiation made it an article of Faith barr'd the Lay of the Cup Priests of marriage who restored the Mass in Queen Maries dayes before any reconciliation made with Rome but the Ecclesiasticks of this Kingdome under the Prince for the timebeing who commanded or connived at it CHAP. VI. How the Kings of England proceeded in their separation from Rome 1 IT being by what is already said undoubted the Clergy called together by the Prince or meeting by his allowance have ever had a power of reforming this Church commanding things juris positivi in it and likewise dispensing with them and that the statute 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12. that saith in effect as much is no other then a declaration of the Common law that is the custome of the realm the next enquiry will be for acquitting the Church of England in point of schism how this separation from Rome was made 2. Henry the 8th having long pursued a cause Matrimoniall with Clement the 7. who shewed so much complyance to determine it in his favour as he sent Cardinall Campeius hither to joyn with Wolsey the Kings creature in the businesse and upon the Emperours successe in Italy the cause after many delayes being revoked to Rome the King upon the opinions of many forreign Divines of the invalidity of his marriage with Queen Katharine caused the case to be determined by the English Church which judgement yet he would have in some measure submitted to the Court of Rome so as he might have given the persons to whom it was delegated by the Pope full information and the Cardinalls of the Imperiall faction excluded having any part in the decision But Clement hearing what had past in England with more then ordinary hast determins the cause against him which how much it would irritate any Prince of so great power and so high a spirit as our Henry I shall leave others to judge And here I might alledge many forreign examples of those who upon lesse indignities have stopt all entercourse with Rome as Lewis the 12. and Henry the 2. of France if I had undertook to write an apology for him 3. The King upon the advertisement of these proceedings by the Pope which was at the beginning of the year 1534 falls first to those courses his auncestors had formerly done when they had occasion to know how they ought to comport themselves in any thing towards Rome which was to have the advise of the English Church and thereupon wrote to the Universities great Monasteries and Churches of the Kingdome the 18. May 1534. to the University of Oxford requiring them like men of virtue and profound literature to diligently intreat examine and discusse a certain question viz. An Romanus Episcopus habeat majorem aliquam jurisdictionem sibi collatam in sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alius quivis externus Episcopus and to return their opinion in writing under their common seal according to the meer and sincere truth of the same c. To which after mature deliberation and examination not onely of the places of holy Scripture but of the best interpreters for many dayes they returned answer the 27. Iune 1534. without all peradventure according to the ancient tenet of the English Romanum Episcopum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Of this answer I have thought fit to make particular mention though assented to by all the English Clergy because Oxford hath been ever held aemula Parisiensis Ecclesiae fundamentum fountain Mere de nostre foy Chrestiene as I formerly touched whose opinion the English Church hath therefore highly esteemed and sought on all occasions of this nature of which to give some examples 4. Upon the election of Vrban the 6. France Scotland Flanders and divers other parts adhering to Clement who resided at Avignon the French King 1395. caused a meeting of the Clergy of his dominions to search whether had the better right to the Papacy whose judgment was for Clement which under the seal of the University of Paris was sent to Richard the 2. who thereupon fecit convocationem Oxoniae de peritioribus Theologis tam regentibus quam non regentibus totius regni and they on the contrary judged Vrban to have the better title whose opinion under the seal of the University of Oxford returned to the King was by him transmitted into France 1408 in Concilio Cleri celebrato Londoniis assistentibus doctoribus Vniversitatum Cantabrigiae Oxoniae tractatum est de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis about which time twelve of the University of Oxford on the Archbishops desire in the name of the rest examined the books Doctrines of Wickliffe sent their resolutions to a Synod at London in an epistle yet extant By all which it is manifest how much their opinions were esteemed in this Kingdome And I hold it undoubted a Prince following so great advise chalked out to him by the practise of his ancestors could not be guilty of so heinous a crime as schism arising onely from disobedience to any spirituall superior whatsoever Gerson sayes a private person runs into no contempt of the Keyes in divers cases by him enumerated as one dum dicit aliquis juristarum vel theologorum juxta conscientiam suam quod hujusmodi sententiae non sunt timendae vel tenendae hoc praesertim si observetur informatio seu caâ—tela debita ne sequatur scandalum pusillorum qui aestimant Papam esse unum Deum And Navar the greatest Canonist of his time qui unius doctoris eruditione ac animi pietate celebris auctoritate ductus fecerit aliquid excusatur etiamsi forte id non esset justum alii contrarium tenerent And to this purpose many more Doctors may be alleged 5. This as it was done by him so he was led unto it by the example of his predecessors as I have partly toucht before and shall therefore alledge no other but that in the disputes between Becket and Henry the 2. the Archbishop endeavouring to interesse Alexander the 3. in the difference that Prince caused it to be written unto him Si juri vestro vel honori praejudicatur in aliquo id se totius Ecclesiae regni sui consilio correcturum in proximo pollicetur and a little after Dominus Rex plurimum sibi justificare videtur cum in omnibus quae dicta sunt Ecclesiae regni sui consilio simul judicio se pariturum pollicetur And this the often repeating of it not onely in a particular letter of the Bishop of London but of