of conscience he who hath learned nothing is made the teacher of others and like sounding brasse and a â—inkling Cymball usurpes the office of Preaching when as he is an unprofitable â—tock and a dumbe Idoll This is it which Ecclesiastes deploringly complaines of I have seene saith he an evill under the Sunne a foole placed in high dignity and wise men sitting in low places An illiterate Bishop is a dumbe preacher It is a Prelates duty to instruct the people under him to render a people acceptable to God by opening the mystery of the Scriptures But at this day such as the people are such is the Priest as hiâ— darknes is so also is light Blush O Sidon at the Sea a Prelaâ—e may blush and grieve to rule over people not to profit them to have taken upon him the office of a Teacher and to be mute in instructing the people It is the word of the lamenting Prophet My people is become a lost flock their Pastors have seduced them they are dumbâ— dogges not able to barkeâ— They ought to drive the Wolves from the flocks but they themselves are wolves to their owne taking care neither of their owne nor theirs salvation they preciâ—itate theâ—selves with their flocks into the pit of eternall death Thus and much more he Not to mention Grostheads booke de Ignavia Praelatorum Or Halredus de Praelatorum moribus Nigellus Wireker de Abusu rerum Ecclesiae Gualther Mapes his Complaint against the Prâ—lâ—tes Ad malâ—s Pastores ad â—mpios Praelatosâ— Robert Baston de sacerdotum Luxuriis or â—ohn Purvey de obliquo cleri statu all declaiming against the Lordlinesse pompe pride wealth and vâ—â—es of Prelates the most of which bookes the Prelates have suppressed their titles onely being left upon record Nor yet to mention the passages of Robert Holkot our famous Clerke In lib. Sapientiae lect 77.163 and lect 1. in Proverbia Solomonis to like purpose Richardus Armachanus Archbishop of Armagh flourishiâ—g in the beginning of Wicklifâ— time about the yeare of Christ 1350. De Questionibus Armenorum l. 11. â— 1. determines thus That neither the Dominion nor Ministry of temporall things belongs to Ecclesiasticall dignity but rather deminishes iâ— For the Lord prohibited the Dominion of temporall things to his Apostles and Disciples saying Possesse neither gold nor moneys in your purses Mat. 10.19 If thou wilt be perfect goâ— and sell all thou hast give to the poore Now it cannot bee of Ecclesiasticall dignity which the Head of the Church hath prohibited to his members or at least would not have them to poâ—sessâ—â— Whence it appeares that the dominion or possession of temporall things doth in no wise essentially appertaine to Ecclesiasticall dignity but rather diminisheth it In the second Chapter he averres that these states and degrees of Patriâ—rch Archbishop Bishop c. were invented onely out of the devotion of men not instituted by Christ and his Apostles That no Prelate of the Church how great soever hath any greater degree of the power of order then a simple Priest In the fourth Chapter hee proves that the power of confirmation and imposition of hands that the Holy Ghost may be given thereby appertains to the jurisdiction of thâ— Presbytery Which he manifesteth by Acts 7. 14. 1 Tim. 4. and by the practice of the Primitive Church after the Apostles time In the fourth and fifth Chapters he demonstrates That Priests are called Bishops by the Apostle Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. 3. Titus 1. and Acts 20.28 Et quod ordine succedant Apostolis and that they succeed the Apostles in order In the sixth Chapter he proves That all Priests and Bishops are equall as to the power of Order And in the fourth Chapter he punctually determines That there is no distinction found in the Evangelicall or Apostolicall Scriptures betweene Bishops and simple Priests called Presbyters Whence it followâ—s Quod in omnibus est una potestas aequalis ex ordinâ— that in all of them there is one and equall power by reason of Order And that for ought he can find the Apostle Paul doth not in any of his Epistles distinguish between the Order of Presbyters that is of Apostles and Bishops That every one who hath the cure of others is a Bishop Which the name of a Bishop importeth and manifesteth For a Bishop is nothing else but a superintendent or watchman From whence it is evidentâ— that besides the power of Order hee hath nothing but a Cure Our famous English Apostle John VVicklife as Master Fox oft stiles him delivers the selfesame doctrine of the Identity of Presbyters and Bishops Dialogorum l. 4. c. 14. De Sacramento ordinis f. 124 125. Some men saith he multiply the character in Orders But I consider whether their foundation or fruit be in the Scripture But one thing I confidently averre That in the Primitive Church and in Pauls time two Orders sufficed The Presbyter and the Deacon Likewise I say that in Pauls time a Presbyter and Bishop suit idem was the same This appeares by the first of Timothy chap 3. and Tâ—tus chap. 1. And herein that profound Divine Hierome justifies the same as appeares Distinct. 74. Cap. Olim. For then was not invented that distinction of Pope and Cardinalls Patriarchs and Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons Officials and Deanes with other Officers and private Religions of which there is neither number nor Order Concerning the contentions about these things that every one of these is an Order and that in the reception thereof the grace of God and a character is imprinted with other difficulties which ours babble about it seemeâ— good to me to be silent because they neither establish nor prove what they affirme But out of the faith of Scripture it seemeâ—h to me to suffice if there be Presbyters and Deacons keeping the staâ—e and office which Christ hath imposed on them Because it seemes certaine that Caesarian Pride invented these other degrees and Orders For if they had been necessary to the Church Christ and his Apostles had not been silent in the expression of them and description of their office as those blaspheme who magnifie the Popes Laws above Christ. But a Catholicke ought to receive the office of these Clergy-men out of the Scriptures authority out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Neither ought he under paine of sinne to admit these new Caesarian inventions Thomas Waldensis Wickliffes professed Antagonist Tom. 1. l. 3. Artic. 3. c. 29.30.31 32. Tom. 2. c. 117 118. and Tom. 3. c. 60.61 62 63. brings in Wickliffâ— proving by many arguments That Bishops and Presbyters are all one and the same by divine institution and Gods Law That the Ordination of Presbyters belongs not onely to Bishops sed etiam ad simplicâ—m Sacerdotem But even to a meere Priest as well as to them That one ordained a Minister by a meere Priest alone ought not to doubt of his Priesthood or to seeke
though I thinke untrue then it is cleare that this Angel of Ephesus who lost his first love was famous and zealous Timothy not dead when this Epistle was written as Pererius and Alcazar both Jesuites with Lyra Ribera P. Halloix and others confesse And who dare be so presumptuous as to thinke Timothy a man so eminent famous zealous and so much applauded in Scripture would prove an Apostate or backeslider and lose his first love Either therefore you must deny Timothy or this Angell to be the Bishop of this Church Ninthly grant this Angell to be a Bishop yet it was onely such a Bishop as was all one and the same with Presbyters and of which there were many in one Church noâ— one over many Churches according to the holy Ghosts and the Apostles owne institution as appeares by Act. 20.17.28 Phil. 1.1 Tit. 1.5.7 compared with the 1 Pet. 5.2.3 Iam. 5.14 Act. 14.23 1 Tim. 5.17 which maketh nothing for but directly against that Episcopacy you contend for Tenthly and finally grant him such a Bishop as you would make him yet at the best he was an Apostate who had fallen from and lost his first love by being made a Lord Bp And it will be but little credit for our Prelates to found their Hierarchy upon an Apostate And if I conjecture not amisse this may bee one probable reason why so many Ministers prove turne-coates and Apostates losing their first love and zeale to God when they are made Lord Bishops because they have an Apostate Angel both for their foundation and imitation Happy man be their dole let them make the best of this Apostate I will not hinder but rather pitty them in this folly The second Allegation for the divine right of Episcopacy is that Timothy and Titus were Bishops such as our Lordly Prelates now are the one of Ephesus the other of Crete which Bishop White and others endevour to prove especially by the Post-script of the second Epistle to Timothy The second Epistle unto Timotheus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians was written from Rome when Paul was brought before Nero the second time And by this Postscript to the Epistle to Titus It was wriâ—ten to Titus ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians fâ—om Nicopolis of Macedonia which Post-scripts they say are very ancient if not Canonicall and irrefragable I shall not here enter into a large discourse to prove Timothy neither a Bishopâ— nor first nor sole nor any Bishop at all of Ephesus who as some say preached the Gospell in our Island of Britaine whiles our Prelates would creaâ—e him the Apostâ—ate Angel residing in the Church of Ephesus to whom Christ writ an Epistle by S. Iohn Rev. 2.1.2 or to disprove Titus to be Lord Bishop or rather Lord Arch-bishop of Crete which had an hundred Cities in it in Homers dayes and no lesse than 4. Arch-bishops and 21. Bishops in former times since I have sufficiently manifested this long since in The Vnbishopping of Timothy and Titus not hitherto answered And indeede were there no other Arguments but two First that though Paul in his Epistles mentions Timothy and Titus more frequently than any other persons yet we never finde him so much as once stiling them Bishops no not in the Epistles to them Secondly that Paul doth never write to them in the Ordinary stile of our Lordly Prelates which it seemes he was not then acquainted with and so not with their Office viz. To the Right Reverend Father in God Timothy Lord Bishop of Ephesus To the Most Reverend Father in God Titus Lord Arch-bishop of Crete his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all that Island which doubtlesse he would have done had they beene such Bishops as ours are and this stile had beene due or fitting for them but onely To Timothy my owne sonne or dearely beloved sonne in the faith To Titus mine owne sonne after â—he common â—aith c. these were sufficient to satisfie any indifferent man that neither of them was a Bishop or Arch-bishop of these places or at least that they were no such Lordly Prelates as ours now are who may well be ashamed of these pompous swelling Titles which no Apostle nor Apostolicall Bishop ever usurped But the onely thing I shall here insist on shall be to take away â—he grounds of this false Allegation to wit the pretended Authority and Antiquity of these two Post-scripts wiâ—h which the world hath beene much abused For their Authority It is confessed by all First that they are no part of the Text or Canonicall Scripture Secondly that they are not of infallible truth many of them being dubious others directly false as Baronius the Rhemists Estius Mr. Beza Mr. Perkins and sundry others prove Thirdly that they were not added to the Epistles Paul bâ— himself when he writ the Epistles as some have dreamed but by some third peâ—son since as the whole frame of the words running onâ—ly in the third person imports For their Antiquity when and by whom they were first added will be the sole question To cleare this doubt I shall have recourse to the Post-script of the first Epistle to Timothy which runnes thus The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea which is the chiefe City of Phrygia Pacatiana This Post-script of the first Epistle no doubt was written either before or at the same time when the Post-script of the Second Epistle was penned and that must needes be after Phrygia was commonly stiled Pacatiana since it is thus named in this Post-script Now we shall not finde Phrygia so stiled in any Authors till about 340. yeares after Christ in the reigne of Constantine the great at which time it begun to be called Pacatiana and that as some conjecture from Pacatianus who as the Code of Theodosius M. Cambden and Speede affirme was Vicegerent of Brittaine some 330. yeares aâ—ter Christ. Who it was who first annexed these Post-scripts to Pauls Epistles onely â—or the other Apostles Epistles have none will be the greatest question For resolution whereof I take it somewhat cleare that Theodoret was the man who flourished about the yâ—are of our Lord .430 For I finde these Post-scripts added to his Commentarie upon Pauls Epistles and in no other Commentator before nor in any after him till Oecumenius his Ape and transcriber who lived about the yeare 1050. Theodoret then being the first in whom Post-scripts are extant and Oecumenius his follower the next it is probable that he was the first Author of them And that which puts it out of doubt is this that Theodoret in his Preface to his Commentaries on Pauls Epistles is the first who doth modestly undertake with scriptum esse existimo onely to shew both the time when and the place from whence Paul writ his severall Epistles which Preface fully accords with the Post-scripts placed not after the text it selfe but after the end of his
Commentaries on every Epistle Since then this Preface and Post-scripts both accord and seeâ—ng there are no Post-scripts in any Ancient Latine Authors or Coppies of the new Testament nor in any Greeke ones but those who followed Theodoret and no Post-scripts added to any but Pauls Epistles on which hee onely Commented not to Peters or Iohns which he interpreted not I presume I may safely conclude that Theodoreâ— was the Originall Author of these Post-scripts But then I pray take notice of these materiall observations First that these Post-scâ—ipts were added to Pauls Epistles at least 430. yeares after Christ and not before Secondly that they are extant onely in Theodoreâ— and not found in any Commentator or ancient Coppy of the new Testament succeeding him till Oecumenius time Anno. 1050. Thirdly that these Post-scripts both in him and Oecumenius are placed not immediately after the Originall text as now they are in our Bibles and some late Commentators but after the end of their Commentaries as a part thereof and no part or appurtenance of the text it selfe Fourthly that these clauses ordained the first Bishop of the Ephesians and ordained the first Bishop of the Cretians whereon our Prelates found the Episcopacy of Timothy and Tituâ— and their owne Hierarchy too are not extant in Theodorets Post-scrips to the Epistles of Timothy and Titus which runne onely thus The second to Timothy was written from Rome when Paul was brought before Nero the Roman Emperour the second time The Epistle to Titus was written from Nicopolis his Post-scripts therefore will no wayes ayde but confound their cause since I may well argue neither Paul in his Epistles nor Theodoret in his Post-scripts terme Timothy or Titus Bishops of Ephesus or Crete therefore they were no Bishops of these places unâ—â—sse better proofe than these Epistles and Post-scripts be produced to evidence it The rare Ancient Manuscript Parchment Coppy of the Greeke Bible sent to his Majesty by Cyrillus late Patriarch of Constantinople remaining in his Majesties Library at Saint Iames supposed by some to be as Ancient as Tecla but undoubtedly one of the ancientest Copies this day extant hath no other Post-script to the first Epistle to Timothy but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No other to the second to Timothy but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 B. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not from Rome And no other Post-script to Titus but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all written in Capitals with which the Syriac Coppies accord So that all the residue is but a late spurious addition The first man I finde these additionall clauses ordained first Bishop of thâ— Ephesians and ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians extant in is Oecumenius who flourished not till the yeare 1050. being a patcher together onely of other mens Commentaries and none of the Orthodoxest writâ—rs And withall this is observable First that Oecumenius placeth these Postscripts after his Commentaries as a part of them not immediately after the Text as a Part or appendant thereof Secondly that he first cites his owne additions to these Post-scripts after his Commentaries in one distinct line and then placeth Theodorets Post-script in another different line some good distance under it in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly from Oecumenius till about 450. yeares after that those Additionall clauses are not extant in any Commentators or Translations of the Epistles into any other Language and but in few greeke Coppies and those taken out of Oecumenius Therefore doubtlesse he was the first Author of them And so they are of no great Antiquity or credit Now that you may more clearely discerne what a sandy foundation these Post-scripts are to build the weighty Hierarchy of our Lordly Prelates on give me leave to informe you of some observable particulars touching these Post-scripts upon mine owne search and observation First that Athanasius Ambrose Ierome Sedullus Chrysostome Primasius Remigâ—us Beda Rabaâ—us Maurus Haymo Hugo Cardinalis Bruno Aquinas Nicholaus de Lyra Ghorran Dionysius Carthusianus Iohn Salesbury Anselme and Peter Lombard the ancientest Commentators on the Epistles of Paul have no postscripts at all extant in them neither after the text nor after their Commentaries no nor yet Erasmus Melancton Zuinglius Zanchius Alfonsus Salmeron Benedictus Iustinianus Ambrosius Caterinus Cornelius a Lapide Claudius Espencaeus Antonius Scaynus Estius Hemingius Ioannis Arboreus Sotto Major nor any other Commentator almost whether Protestant or Papist Secondly That in sundry ancient English and Latine Manuscripts New Testaments and Bibles which I have seene in the Printed New Testament set forth in Greeke and Latine by Franciscus Xemenez in Academia Complutensi in the Bible of Isiodor Clarius Venetiis 1557. in all the Latine vulgar Bibles attributed to Saint Ierome In the New Testament set forth by Erasmus in the Latine Bible Printed at Rome by command of Pope Sixtus the fifth Anno 1592. In the New Testament comprising the Latine vulgar translation that of Guido Fabricius out of the Syriacke that of Arias Montanus and Erasmus set forth altogether by Laurentius Bierlinke Anâ—werpiae 1616. In the New Testament set forth by Miles Coverdale in Latine and English Anno. 1536. in Master Tyndalls English Bible and in the English Translation which Doctor Fulke followes in his answer to the Rhemish Testament and in many ancient Greeke Coppies there is no Postscript at all to be found Thirdly That in the Latine Bible set forth and Printed by Robert Stephen Parisiis 1532. And in the Latine Bible of Ioannis Benedictus Parisiis 1558 the Postscripts are thrust out and put into the Margin as nor worthy to stand under the Text and being of small or no account Fourthly That in the Latine Bible set forth by Robert Stephen Parisiis 1532. In the Latine and Greeke Bibles of Philip Melanctons Edition Tiguri 1543. and Basileae 1545. In Sebastian Castalio his Edition of the Bible Basileae 1551. In the Translations of the New Testament out of the Syriacke both by Guido Fabritius and Emanuell Tremelius in the Dutch Bible set forth by David Walderus Hamburgae 1596. In the Frencâ— Bible set out by the Doctors of Louvaine a Paris 1616. In the Latine Bible of Ioannis Benedictus Parisiis 1558. In the Bible translated into English by Thomas Matthew Anno. 1537. In â—he English Bible set forth by diverse excellent Learned men Printed Cum privilegio by Thomas Petit and Robert Redman London 1540. In the English Bible appointed to be read in Churches Printed at London 1568â— And in sundry other Bibles and New Testaments which I have seene these clauses Ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians and ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians are not to be found in the Postscripts to the Epistles to Timothy and Titus And indeed you shall seldome finde them in any but Master Beza and in those that
Apostles and Disciples to doe the semblance whatsoever Priest or Bishop will arrogate or presume upon him any such authority and will pretend the authority of the Gospel for his defenâ—e therein he doth nothing else but as in a manner as you would say crowne Christ againe with a crowne of thornes and traduceth and bringeth him forth againe with his Mantle of Purple upon his back to be mocked and scorned of the World as the Jewes did to their owne damnation c. The truth is that God constituted and ordained the authority of Christian Kings and Princes to be the most high and supreame above all other powers aâ—d Officers in this World in the regiment and government of their people c. But specially and principally to defend the faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintaine the true Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish abuses heresies and Idolatries and to punish with corporall payneâ— such as of malice be the occasion of the fame And finally to over-see and cause that the said Bishops and Priests doe executâ— their Pastorall office truly and faithfully and specially in those points which by Christ and his Apostles was given and committed unto them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same or cause them to redouble and supply their lacke and if they obstinately withstand their Princes kind motion and will not amend their faults then and in such case to put others in their roomes and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops and Priests to obey with all humblenesse and reverence both Kings and Princes and Governours and all their Lawes not bâ—ing contrary to the Lawes of God whatsoever they be and that not onely Propter iram but also Propter conscientiam that is to say not onely for feare of punishment but also for discharge of conscience Whereby it appeareth well that this pretended Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome is not founded upon the Gospell but it is repugnant thereto And therefore it appertaineth to Christian Kings and Princes for the discharge of their office and duty toward God to endeavour themselves to reforme and reduce the same againe unto the old limits and pristine estate of that power which was given to them by Christ and used in the Primitive Church For it is out of doubt that Christs faith was then most firme and pure and the Scriptures were then best understood and vertue did then most abound and excell and thererefore it must needs follow that the customes and ordinances then used and made be more conforme and agreeable â—nto the true doctrine of Christ and more conducing unto the edifying and benefit of the Church of Christ than any custome or lawes used and made by the Bishop of Rome or any other addicâ—ed to that See and usurped power sith that time Thus all the Prelates Clergie King and Parliament in king Henry the eighth his dayes Cuthbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresme and Iohn Stokerley Bishop of London in a certaine letter sent unto Reginald Poole Cardinall then being at Rome concerâ—ing the superiority of Bishops over other Minâ—sters resolve thus Saint Cyprian saith undoubtedly all the rest of the Apostles were the same that Peter was indued with like equality of of honour and power And Saint Ierome saith thus All the Apostles received the keyes oâ— the kingdome of Heaven and upon them as indifferently and equally is the strength of the Church grounded and established Which Saint Ierome also as well in his Comentaries upon the Epistle unto Titus as in his Epistle to Evagrius sheweth that these primacies long aâ—ter Christs assention were made by the device of men where before by the common agreement of the Clergie every one of the Churches were governed yea the Patriarchall Churches The words of Saint Ierome be these Let the Bishops understand that they be greater than other Priests rather of custome than by the vertue and verity of the Lords Ordinances And in his Epistle to Evagrius hee hath like sentence and addeth thereunto Wheresoâ—ver a Bishop either at Rome or at Eugubinis or at Constantinople c. Hee is of all one worthinesse and oâ— all one Priesthood And that one was elected which should be prâ—ferred before other it was devised to the redresse of Schismes left any one challenging too much to themselves should rent the Church of Christ. These words onely of Saint Ierome be sufficient to prove that Christ by none of these three Texts which be all that you and other doe alleage for your opinion the three texts are these Thou art Peter and upon this Rocke I will build my Church Peter I have prayed for thee that â—hy faith should not faile And thou being once converted confirme thy brothers feed my Sheepe Gave not to Peter any such superiority as the bishop of Rome by them usurpeth and that Peter nor no other of ths chiefe Apostles did vindâ—cate or challenge such primacy or superiority but utterly refused it So these two popish Prelates Why then shoulld our Bishops challenge any such primary or superiority over their fellow Ministers There is a notable Dialogue intituled A disputation betweene a Clerke and a Knight or a Souldier concerning the power committed to the Prelaâ—es of the Church and to the Princes of the Earth Written by our famous Schooleman Wilâ—iâ—m Ocham about the yeare of our Lord 1330. as Iohn Bale records printed at London in Latin by Thomas Bâ—rthlet Cum Privilegâ—o in King Henry the eight hâ—s raigne Wherein the Clerk complaining that the Church which in his age was had in great honour with Kings Princes and all Nobles was now on the contrary made a prey to them aâ—l many things being exacted fâ—om them many things given by them and that if they gave not their goods by way of subsidie or supply to theâ—r Princes they were violently tâ—ken from them that theâ—r Lawes were trampled undâ—r feet their Liberties infringed c. The Knight proves first that Clergy men can make no Lawes nor Canons touching temporall things but Princes onely because they have no Dominion of temporall things and that the Pope is chiefe Vicar not to those things which Christ now doth in glory but to imitate those things which Christ did in his state of humility here on earth because those things are necessary to us That he committed to his Vicar that power which he exercised on Earth as a mortall man not that hee received being glorifiedâ— For Christ said to Pilate that his Kâ—ngdome was not of thâ—s World and that he came not to be ministred to but to minister This testimony is so manifest that it may confound the man who resisteth it and make the stiffest â—ecke to submit And when one of the multitude spake thus to Christ Master command my brother to divide the inheritance with me he
THE ANTIPATHIE OF THE ENGLISH LORDLY PRELACIE BOTH TO REGALL MONARCHY AND CIVILL UNITY OR An Historicall collection of the severall execrable Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions State-schismes Contumacies oppressions Anti-monarchicall practices of our English Brittish French Scottish Irish Lordly Prelates against our Kings Kingdomes Laws Liberties and of the severall Warres and Civill Dissentions occasioned by them in or against our Realm in former and latter ages Together with the Judgement of our owne ancient Writers most judicious Authors touching the pretended Divine Jurisdiction the Calling Lordlinesse Temporalties Wealth Secular imployments Trayterous practises unprofitablenesse and mischievousnesse of Lordly Prelates both to King State Church with an Answer to the chiefe Objections made for the Divinity or continuance of their Lordly Function The first Part. By WILLIAM PRYNNE late and now againe an Utter-Barester of Lincolnes Inne Beware of false Prophets which come unto you in sheepes cloathing but inwardly they are ravening wolves you shall know them by their fruits Mat. 7.15 16 LONDON Printed by Authority for Michael Sparke senior An. 1641. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT NOW Through Gods sweete Providence MOST HAPPILY ASSEMBLED Right Honourable Senators IT is a received principle in Law that there are no Accessories in Treason whence to conceale a Notorious Traytor is really to be one The consideration of the Capitalnesse of such a Concealement in these proditorious times and the discharge of my bounden Duty to my Soveraigne Lord the King this Church and Kingdome of which I am a true though unworthy member and to this Honourable Court to whose impartiall Iustice next under God I owe the fruition of my present Liberty my Native Soyle and Quondam Profession of the Law hath induced me by way of Gratitude to present your Honours with this large Discovery not of one or two but of an whole Tribe and succession of notaâ—le Arch-Traytors Rebels Conspirators and desâ—erate Enemies to our Kings Kingdomes Lawes Liberties to say nothing of our Church and Religion masked under the innocent disguise of an Episcopall whiâ—e Rotchet and the specious much abused Title of The Church which our Prelates have monopolized to themselves the better to palliate their mischievous designes and boulster out their vilâ—anies when as if we beleeve either our learned Martyr Master William Tyndall or Bishop Bilson himselfe The Church is neâ—eâ— taken in the new nor old Testament for the Bishops or Priests alone but generally for the whole Congregation of the faithfull and oft times for the people alone without the Priest or Minister which is worthy your observation and will utterly subvert one principall Pillar of our Prelates suppoâ—t I could not but conjecture that this Antipathy would be very distastfull to our Lordly Prelates the Malefactors whose long-concealed Treasons Conspiracies seditious practises it lays open to your publick view and justice so that I can expect nothing but such extreame Malignity opposition and Calumnies from them and their confederates as might in some sort have deterred me from divulging it Yet wheÌ„ I considered that the detectioÌ„ of grosse Traytors Conspirators hath bin ever reputed not only an inoffensive but acceptable and meritorious service both to Kings and States in al other persons and that I have no cause to doubt but that it will receive the selfe-same benigne interpretation in me especially from your Honours by some of whose earnâ—st desires and â—peciall approbations I committed these Historicall Colections to the Presse I could not but with all alacrity proceede on in this service for the Common good to the which I have beene the more incouraged by a Divine Providence For being a Prisoner in the Tower of London stript of my Profession and all other imployments by some Prelates undemerited malice considering with my selfe how I might there passe my solitary houres in the usefullest manner for the publicke benefit of this Church and Kingdome it pleased God among other subjects to pitch my thoughts upon a Collection of the severall Treasons Rebellions Warres Seditions and Anti-monarchicall Practises of Lordly Prelats of all Countries and ages especially of our owne English Bishops which I found scattered in Histories wherupon taking my hint from the Title of a now-non-extant Booke written by one Thomas Gybson a Physitian in King Edward the 6. his dayes stiled Proditiones Praelatorum a Conquestu seene by our laborious Iohn Bale and mentioned in his Centuries which booke it seemes the Prelates since suppressed I gathered with no facil labour the most of those Materials I here present unto your Honours and Marshalled them into distinct files with an intention to make them publick so soone as a seasonable opportunity should present it selfe But the Arch Prelate of Canterbury not long after persecuting me afresh in the Starchamâ—er without any just occasion procured me there not onely to bee most inhumanely censured but likewise to be sent thence close prisoner first to Carnarvan then to Mount-Orguile Castle in the Isle of Iersie and there cloystred up so narrowly that I could neither have the use of pen inke paper writings nor Bookes to benefit my selfe or others and withall searching both my Chamber and friends houses sundry times by his Pursevants seized on all my bookes and Papers he could meete with But these Collections escaping his clutches fell into the hands of another persecuted Gentleman who without my privity carried them beyond the Seas where they were preserved till after my late returne from Exile by the justice of this Honourable House and not many moneths since when I gave them over as lost were unexpectedly returned to my hands in safety whiles the businesse of Episcopacy was in agitation before your Eminencies which speciall Providence put me in minde of that speech of Mordeâ—ay to Ester Who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdome for such a time as this and made me strongly apprehend that God had restored me to Liberty and these Collections to my hands for such a time as this which blessed be our good God we now live to see wherein our domineering Prelates lewde practises and Conspiracies against our Religion Lawes Liberties Lives Soules and Estates are not onely detected but questioned and some of the Potentest and pestilentest of them charged with no lesse than High Treason and other most grosse Misdemeanors in and by your Honorable Assembly which have rendred them so generally detestable to the whole Kingdome that divers Petitions have beene presented to your Honours both by Ministers and People out of many entire Countries for their utter extirpation which long efflagitated difficult worke which your Honours have now set upon I conceive the publishing of this Antipathy will much facilitate and advance being thus specially preserved and reserved by Gods Providence for such a time as this The principall motives which originally induced me to undertake this worke were the very same which have now perswaded me to
our Prelates are not so much the vices of their Persons as of their Function which though their many late published Pamphlets would prove to be of Divine Right yet the pernicious evill fruits thereof infallibly proclaime to be of meere humane wrong And in my weake judgement there can be no such safe short and infallible way to decide this controversie Whether Episcopacy be of Divine institution or not then to consider the fruits thereof in all ages that of our Saviour being of eternall verity Ye shall know them by their fruites Since then the fruites of our Lordly Prelates in this and in other kindes too as I could abundantly manifest have beene so desperately evill and they generally the greatest Monsters of impiety that ever pestred the world as appeares by the lives of sundry forraine and Domesticke Pontifs I may infallibly conclude their calling not to be Divine but Antichristian or meerely humane at the best and inconsistent with the safety both of our Prince Church State and by this unanswerable reason dissipate into smoake all those specious flourishes and shadowes of arguments made in their defence which I have else-where fully answered There are but two chiefe arguments of moment for the continuance of Episcopacy which sticke with any judicious men The first in point of State Polity No Lord Bishop no King The second in point of Church Polity No Bishops no peace no government and nothing but Schismes in the Church The first I trust I have abundantly cleared by this Antipathy The second God willing I intend to dissipate in an Historicall Treatise of the Schismes of our English Lordly Prelates among themselves enough to make a volume and then by a larger Remonstrance experimentally evidencing out of Ecclesiasticall Histories That Bishops have beene if not the sole yet at least the chiefe Authors of all the Schismes that ever infested and rent the Church of God And if this be made good as it easily may be against all the world the proud Hierarchy of our Lordly Prelates will fall to ground of it self without helpe of hands to pull it downe If any further alleadge If you remove away Bishops you take away government and introduce an Anarchy into the Church The answer is very easie First we shall still bee under the government of our Christian Kings the Supreame governours of our Church upon earth Secondly under the Government of our Parliaments Lawes and inferiour Magistrates who doe and will take speciall care for our Churches good reglement Thirdly under the regiment of our grave and painfull Ministers whom our Lawes stile Rectors of their severall Parishes and Rectories Fourthly under the government of an Ordinary or Extraordinarie Provinciall or Nationall Synode as there is occasion Fifthly under such a religious orderly Government as your Wisedomes upon the abolishing of Episcopacy shall please to erect among us as most consonant to the Law of God and Civill Government of our State And can any then justly complaine of a want of Government in the Church when it is but altered for the better Sixthly the primitive Church in the purest times before Bishops were instituted was governed by a common Councell of Presbyters and the reformed Churches beyond the Seas which want Bishops are so regulated at this day without any dâ—nger of an Anarchy and so may we as well as they There is nothing then remaining to uphold our Lordly Prelacie but two of their owne principall vices ambition and covetousnesse the one arising from their Lordships or Session in Parliament the other from their Lordly Seats and Revenues neither of which are of Divine Institution as themselves acknowledge If your Honourable Assembly then will but take away the Temporall Honours and Lands annexed to their Bishoprickes I dare sweare not one of all our Prelates will plead or write for Episcopacie any more Saint Paul saith He that desireth the office of a Bishop desireth a good worke and the Fathers generally make this observation on the place Episcopatus nomen est operis non honoris non Dominium sed Officium non Honos sed Onus Opus dixit non Honorem non Dignitatem Laborem non Delicias Opus per quod per humilitatem crescat non intumescat fastidio c. If then your Wisdomes will make our Bishoprickes now a Worke not an honour or gaine out lazie Prelates will of their own accords forgoe them without any more dispute To make this most apparent I shall instance only in one particular it is the generall resolution of Councels Fathers and Divines yea of the lewd Conventicle of Trent it selfe that the first and principle part of a Bishops office is diligently to preach Gods Word to the people and therefore this very Councell enjoynes all Bishops to preach the Scripture and Gods Law every Lordsday and Holiday and moreover in the Lent Advent and other Fasts quotidie vel saltem tribus in hebdomade diebus Sacras Scripturas Divinamque legem annuncient to preach every day or at least three times a weeke Now our Lordly Prelates have beene so farre from executing this principle part of their office and worke that some of them as Canterbury Yorkâ— London and Oxford did not so much as preach one Sermon in sundry yeares others of them have preached very rarely yea most of them have by themselves and their instruments written and preached against frequent preaching suppressed all week-day Lectures and Sermons on Lordsday afternoones throughout their Diocesses and Dr Pierce Bishop of Bath and Wells by name in a Letter to Canterbury thanked God that he had not left one Lecture nor afternoone Sermon in his Diocesse and suspended the Minister of Bridgwater onely for preaching a Lecture in his owne parish Church which had continued 50. years when this Bishop after much solicitation upon this Ministers promise never to preachâ— the Lecture more absolved him from his suspension hee then most blasphemously applyed Christs words used to the sicke man to this good Minister Behold thou art made whole Goe away sinne no more that is preach no more lest a worse thing come unto thee hee convented another Minister only for expounding the Catechisme on the Lordsday afternoone saying it was AS BAD as Preaching So that preaching now in this and other our Prelates judgement is both a Sinne and a bad thing carefully to be suppressed And this wee may generally observe that those who were diligent Preachers before they became Bishops being once made such became usually either Non-preaching or rare-preaching Prelates doing so much the lesse worke by how much they receive the greater wages Whence Queene Elizabeth used to say when shee made preaching Ministers Bishops that shee had made a Bishop but mar'd a preacher it being true that the Bishop of Dunkelde once answered Deane Thomas Farret when hee wished him to preach I tell thee wee Bishops were not ordained
to preach it being too meane an office for them unlesse it be sometimes at the Court or at some such solemne meeting to gaine either more honour or preferment thereby or for some such private ends not out of any great zeale of converting soules to God Since then our Bishops thus neglect nay hate condemne suppresse and persecute the good worke of Preaching wherein their office principally consists it is most apparent that the onely thing they now so zealously write stickle for is only the temporall meanes honour not the Divine spiritual worke or office of Episcopacie since these thus avocate and hinder them from preaching I presume your excellent wisedomes will deem it necessary to strip them naked of these two obstacles which cause them thus to neglect their proper worke and duty Neither would I have your Honours or any else here misconceive mee as if I advised you to deprive Ministers of all Honour and Maintenance God forbid No my hearts desire and prayer to God and your Honours shall be that every painfull preaching Minister may have all due Honourable respect and such a competent allowance as the greatnesse of his paines and charge demerit But that Archbishops Bishops Deanes and others who have no particular flocks to feed either preach not at all or very seldome should have such temporall dignities offices and excessive revenues as make them either proud luxurious ambitious idle or negligent in preaching and to forget that good worke of a Bishops office which Saint Paul speakes of I humbly conceive is neither lawfull nor expedient but such an irregularity as will be thought fit to be redressed by your Honours not only in point of Policy but of piety too In a word when I seriously consider that Christ himselfe did frequently condemne and prohibit the ambitious desire of superiority and praeheminencie in his Apostâ—es That the Apostles themselves doe the like in â—heir Epistles to others That Saint Chrysostome clearely determines That whosoever desireth primacy in Earth shall find confusion in Heaven that now among Christs servants and ministers there may be no contest for primacy or superiority That Saint Bernard when he was offred to be made Bishop of Genoa and Millaine peremptorily refused this dignity saying upon that occasion Blush O proud dust and ashes God humbles himselfe dost thou exalt thy selfe God made himselfe inferiour to men thou desirimg to domineere preferrest thy selfe before thy maker Would to God when I thinke any such thing God would vouchsafe to rebuke mee as hee did his Apostle in times past Get thee behind mee Sathan thou savourest not the things that are of God as often as I desire to rule over men so oft I contend to goe before my God and then I savour not the things which are truly of God That the eminent Father Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo and almost 300. African Bishops more in the great schisme of the Donatists were content to lay downe all their Bishoprickes for the peace and unity of the Church thinking thereby not to lose them but to commit them more safely to Gods custody and used this most golden speech An vero Redemptor c. What verily did our Redeemer descend from Heaven into humane members that wee should be his members and shall we lest his very members should be rent in pieces with a cruell division feare to descend out of our chairs We are ordained Bishops for Christian people What therefore may profit Christian people for Christian peace that let us doe with our Bishoprickes What I am I am for thee if it profit thee I am not so if it hurt thee If wee be profitable servants why do wee envie the eternall gaines of our Lord for our temporall sublimities Our Episcopall dignity will be more fruitfull to us if being laid downe it shall more unite the flocke of Christ then disperse it if retained My brethren if wee mind the Lord thiâ— higher place is the watâ—h Tower of a vinâ—dresser not the Pinacle of a proud Person If when I will retaine my Bishopricke I disperse the flocke of Christ how is the dammage of the flocke the honour of the shepherd For with what face shall wee expect the honour promised by Christ in the world to come if our honour hinder Christian unity in this present world And finally that Bishops themselves did in their very Baptisme seriously vow and promise to God To forsake the Devill and all his workes the vaine pompe and glory of this world with all the covetous desires of the same so that they would not follow nor be led by them and that Saint Bernard hereupon gives this Item to them Simundum praedicas contemnendum contemne tu prius ad ipsum efficacius alios invitabis If thou preachest the World is to be contemned do thou contemne it first and then thou shalt more effectually invite others thereto I cannot but presume our Lordly Prelates if they have any sparkes of piety or humility in them will now at last for our Churches our Kingdomes future peace security and felicity lay downe their Bishoprickes at your Honours feete or else that your Eminences will enforce them thereunto it being more equall and expedient that a few Lord Bishops should meritoriously lose their pernitious honours than our King Church State Religion Lawes Liberties Peace be perpetually indangered and imbroyled by their continuance Now the great Moderator of the Universe who hath miraculously congregated preserved directed assisted your Honourable Assembly hitherto and and wrought wondrous things by your Indefatigable industries and most prudent consultations for the honour and safety of his Majesty and his Realmes the Reformation of our Church and State the Establishment of our undermined Religion Lawes and Liberties the pacification and prevention of our much feared Warres and Invasions the relieving of our grievously oppressed ones and the exemplary punishment of our Arch-oppressours to the inefâ—able joy of all true English Scottish Irish hearts and of true Christians continue his blessed assisting presence with his Almighty protection over you multiply all his saving graces in powre forth all his blessings spirituall temporall and eternall abundantly on you and Crowne all your religious Consultations with such a successefull issue that the present times and all succeeding ages may deservedly call your Honours the raisers up of the foundations of many generations the repairers of our breaches the restorers of pathes to dwell in and the Saviours next under God and our Soveraigne of our almost ruined Church and State So prayeth your Honours redeemed Captive and eternally devoted servant WILLIAM PRYNNE TO THE READER Courteous Reader BE pleased to take notice that my primitive intention was to have presented thee with this Historicall Antipathy intirely at the same instant without fractions But the slacknesse of the Printers the importunity of some speciall friends and some publike Negotiations in present agitation which
this peece of it may seasonably promote have induced mee to divide it into two parts the first whereof thou hast here compleate the second God willing thou shalt receive with all possible expedition In the mean season I shall desire thy favourable acceptation of this moity and of a perfect Table of the severall Chapters of the whole Treatise wherein thou maist behold the latter part in Epitome till thou enjoy it in grosse A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST PART Chap. I. COntaining the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Archbishops of Canterbury against their Soveraignes Kings of England and the severall Warres Tumults and Dissentions occasioned and raised by them in or against our Realme Chap. II. Of the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions State-schismes Contempts and Disloyalties of the Archbishops of Yorke against their Soveraignes and of the Warres Tumults and Civill Dissentionâ— caused by them Chap. III. Comprising the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Disloyalties Warres Dissentions and State Schismes of the Bishops of London Winchester Durham Salisbury and Lincolne The TABLE of the Chapters of the second Part. Chap. IV. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Conâ—umacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of Ely Exeter and Hereford Chap. V. Containing the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of Chichester Carlile Chester and Norwich Chap. VI. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of S. Davids Landaffe Bangor Asaph Bath and Wels. Chap. VII Containing the severaâ—l Treasons Rebellions Seditions Schismes Contumacies Warres and disloyalties of the Bishops of France Normandy Scotland and Ireland with reference unto England Chap. VIII Containing certaine conclusions deduced from the premises with the judgements and râ—solutions of divers of our ancient Writers and Martyrs and some of our learnedest Bishops and Authors in Queene Elizabeths raigne touching the pretended Divine Iurisdiction of Bishops their Treasons Rebellions Temporalties large Possessions and the uselessenesse unprofitablenesse and mischievousnesse of Lordly Bishops and their government in our Church Chap. IX Comprising an answer to the principall Objections alleaged by the Prelates in defence of the Divine pretended institution and for the continuance of their Episcopacieâ— in our Church ERRATA PAge 11. l. 40. read The King thinking p. 73. l. 21. such l. 33. aâ—t au Royans Râ—y p. 78. l. â—0 faithfull p. â—25 l. 28. granted grâ—nted p. 132. l. 5. Edward deceasing p. 144. l. 1. Dâ—acanâ—s p. 147. l 9 Datary p. 150. â— l 8. Penry p. 152. l. 24. against p. 156. l. 16. Saxons p. 171. l. 11. Archiepiscopall l. 15 un intâ—rruptâ—d p. 176. l. 38 oppressions p 194 l. 13. undefiâ—ed p. 212. l. 14. they the. p. 220 l. 11. favour feare p. 234. l. 1. be appâ—ehended p. 2â—8 l. 18. this the p. â—3â— l. 6. dele a. p. 242. l. 1 dele andâ— l. 12. Edmond Edward pâ— 241 l 8. Bishop p. 260. l. 13. were where p. 261. l. 14. excellently learned p. â—62 l 37. ripped p. 284. l. 2â—â—â—ele in p. 277 l. 27.35 deluded deâ—ivered p. 280 l. 2. Cales l 25. forfeiting fortefying p. 281 l. 31. said laid 282 l. 23 wiâ—e wâ—â—e p 292. l. 23. greaâ—lyâ— p 295. l. 30. upon this p. 305 l. 20. left lift l. 28. or of p. 312. l. 40. everâ— even p. 315. l. 9. learned unlearned p. 318. l. 24. examination excommunication p. 323. l. â—9 Geofâ—yâ— Hugh p. 327. l. 17. gravissima l. 27. accuse accurse p. 331. l. 20. strangers p. 334. l. 4. from his p. 336. l. 29. imployed In the Margin p. â—35 l. 6. Beacon l. 8. vol. 3. p. â—51 l. 5. Bishop See THE PROLOGVE THere is nothing more frequent in these latter dayâ—s in the mouthes of our domineering Lordly Prelates than this triviall Paradox of Archbishop Bancroft which some would Originally father upon our late Soveraigne King James NO BISHOP NO KING as if Kings could neither bee nor continue Kings unlesse Prelates were suffered both to be and continue Lords and Princes Crownes irreparably lost if Bishops Miters were but once cast downe This absurd and groundlesse Assertion as it is evidently disproved by those many flourishing Kings and Kingdomes which have well subsisted withâ—ut Lord Bishops both before these Mushrome Lords Spirituall onely in Title but wholly Temporall in reality first sprouted up by insensible degrees in the Church of Christ so it is most infallibly convinced of notorious falshood by the multitude of those most execrable Treasons Treacheries Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Insurrections Seditions and Anti-Monarchiall practises of Lordly Prelates against their Soveraignes in all ages since they grew rich and potent in all Kingdomes and Churches where they have beene admitted of which there are so many presidents as would fully fraught many Folio Volumes and require another Baronius or Tostatus to digest into severall vast Tomes And I dare further adde to the immortall prayse of this loyall generation of Lordly Prelates that there is no one calling or profession of men whatsoever in the Christian World guilty of so many traiterous treacherous perfidious seditious rebellious contumacious practises and conspiracies against their lawfull Princes or that have proved such execrable firebrands of dissentions commotions bloody warres Rebellions and detestable Schismes both in Church and State as these Prelaticall Lords Yea I suppâ—se I may confidently averre without any errour or calumny that Lordly Prelates have beene the Originall Authors and contrivers of more Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Schismes Warres and Contentions in Christian Kingdomes than all other rankes and callings of men whatsoever not severally considered but united This I could at large demonstrate by an whole Volume of examples of Popes and Lordly Prelates in forraigne parts but I neede not travell abroad since we have so many presidents at home of our owne English Lordly Prelates as may abundantly suffice to illustrate this truth the chiefest whereof I have here collected and faithfully transcribed out of the Marginall Authors quoted to every of them whose very words I onely recite for the most part but where brevity or necessitie enfoâ—ce me to use my owne expressions for methâ—d or connexion sake when the Historians either somewhat vary or are over-tedious in their relations or where one Historian relates some particulars which another omits in which case I must desire the Reader to peruse all the Authors quoted to each example lest examining onely one or two of them which record but a part and not the entire relation he should either wrong himselfe or censure me of calumnie or forgerie without just cause Neither let the Reader here expect an exact enumeration of all the Treasons Conspiracies Trecheries Rebellions Seditions Conâ—umacies Warres or State-schismes that our English Prelates have beene guilty of since they became potent Lordsâ— for many of them no doubt were so secretly contrived and carryed by them that the Historians of their â—imes could have no information of them
others of them were so palliated and countenanced by their owne over-swaying greatnesse that none durst question nor record them thougâ— notoriousâ— and some of them were questionlesse concealed by our Histoâ—ians who being for the most part Monkes Priests or the Prelates owne creatures flatterers and dependants out of favour or affection did labour all they could to palliate not to record or lay open their ghostly Fathers nakednesse in this kindeâ— Neither have I collected every particular of this nature which our Historians relate buâ— onely selected such presidents as I cursorily observed in ow Annals and hastily collected for the most part long since to which I presume â—he diligent Reader may accumulate many more yet these I conceive are so many for number so prodigious for circumstance that they exceede both in multâ—tude and heinousnesse all disloyall practises of like sort acted against our English Monarches by all other their subjects of what quality soever the Nobles and others attainted formerly of Treason Rebellion and suffering for the same being for the most part but the Prelates instruments the chiefe Architects Arch-plotters and inciters of all the Conspiracies Treasons Rebellions warres and dissentions that ever hapned in our Kingdome and yet these Arch-traytors and Incendiaries commonly escaped the hand of Iustice by reason of their unholy holy Order and appeales to Rome when as their under-hand Instruments though lesse culpable received due execution If then we consider the paucity of our Arch-Prelates and Lord Bishops of England of which there is but one in each See at a time when full and sometimes none for divers yeares in times of vacancy in comparison of the numerosity of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of England on the one side and then on the other hand compare the multitude of the Prelates notorious Treasons Rebellions Seditions and Contumacies against their Kings with thosâ— of the Nobility Gentry Commons which they farre exceede in number and notorius circumstances Or if we observe with what an high hand these Prelates have acted justified defended these their villanies not onely by protecting but canonizing the Authors of them for holy Saints and Martyrs as Dunstane Becket Anselme Hugh and others onely because they were Prelates when as in truth they ought so much the rather to have branded them for notorious Traytors and Rebels execrable both to God and man we must necessarily conclude their NO BISHOP NO KING to â—e a notorious Bull and NO KING VNLESSE NO BISHOP to be a more probable and most true Position and that ouâ— English Lord Bps especially those of Canterbury Primates of all England â—nely in evill for the most part have beene the most notorious Traytors Rebels Conspirators Incendiaries Vipers Pests Grievances to the Kings and State of England of all otâ—ers and so by consequence rather of Antichristian and Diabolicall thâ—n Divine or Apostolicall instiâ—ution fit to be utterly extirpated both by King and Kingdome neither of which shall long flourish in happinesse piety or tranquillity whiles Lordly Prelates beare the sway and manage the chiefe Tempâ—rall Offices or Affaires contrary to Christs owne expresse Inhibitions Mat. 20.25 26 27 Luk 22.25.26 Act. 6.4 2 Tim. 2.4 1 Pet. 5.1 â—33 Rom. 12.7 8. 1 Johâ— 3.9 10 If any surmise I write thus sharpely onely out of malice against our Prelates I shall desire but this favour from them to suspend their censures till they have impartially surveyed the ensuing Particulars which I have sincerely related as I finde them recorded without flattery on the one hand or malignity on the other and then I doubt not but they will change their mindes and readily subscribe to my Conclusions ratified by so many ancient Presidents of old and so many visible experiments fresh before our eyes Now because the Arch-Prelates of Canterbury erected by Gregory the first his Bull then Pope of Rome which have engaged them ever since to be Popes sworne Vassals for the most part and to imitate Popes in their most execrable Treasons and Conspiracies have beene the Archest Tâ—aytors Rebels and Opposites to the Kings â—f England in all Ages I shall for Order and Honour sake begin first with their Contumacies Treacheries and Rebellious practises and that in a Chronologicall manner according to their severall Antiquities and from them I shall descend to the Arch-bishops of Yorke the greatest Arch-traytors and Rebels next to those of Canterbury and then passe to otâ—er of our Prelates in their order with as much brevity and perspicuity as the subject matter will permit me concluding with such materiall observations against our Lordly Hierarchy as shall be infallibly warranted by the ensuing Histories and with such domesticke Authorities against Episcopacy the Lordlinesse Secularity wealth and temporall imployments of our Prelates and their mischievousnesse both in Church and state as I trust will abundantly satisfie the most Episcopall men whose arguments both for the pretended Divinity and perpetuity of Episcopacy in our Church I hope I shall satisfactorily answere But not to detaine you longer with a Prologue I shall addresse my selfe to the subject matter surveying the Bishops of Canterburies actions in the first place THE ANTIPATHIE OF THE ENGLISH LORDLY PRELACIE BOTH TO REGALL MONARCHY AND CIVILL UNITY CHAP. I. Containing the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions Contumacies Disloyalties of the Arch-bishops of Canterâ—ury against their Soveraignes Kings of England the severall Warres Tumults Dissentions occasioned and raysed by them in or against our Realme with their manifold practises and attempts to undermine our Lawes IN relating these Disloyalties of our holy Arâ—h-Prelates of Canterbury I cannot sing as the Poet once did Ab Iove principium Musae Iovis omnia plena sith there is little of God in any of their actions I am now to relate unlesse I take Iove here not for the true living God but for a meere impious treacherous murthering usurping Devill incarnate who thrust his Father Saturne out of his Royall Throne and injuriously possessed hâ—mselfe of his Kingdome against all right and equity And in this sense I may truely chaunt Ab Iove principium c. since I must not onely begin but proceede and end with Devils incarnate masked under a Pâ—â—laâ—es white Rocher rather than with holy Fathers of the Church One of the first men of this stampe that encounters me in the Sea of Canterbury is Odo surnamed the Severe possessing this Ponâ—â—â—call Chaire about the yeare of our Lord 940. This pragmaticall turbulent Arch-Prelate as hee was thrice in Armes in the Field after he was made a Bishop where he â—ought like a valiant Champion so hee caused King Edwin wiâ—h whom hee had very evill agreement to bee divorced from his Queene some say for consanguinity others for other reasons Whereupon the King betaking himselfe â—o his Concubines Odo thereâ—pon suspended the King from the Church excommunicated his Concubines causing one of them whom the King unreasonably doâ—ed upon to bee fetcht out of the Court
on Saint Stephens day by William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the most part of the Nobility being present and swearing Fealty unto him as to their true and lawfull Soveraigne Howbeit there were diverse of the wiser sort of estates which regarding their former Oath to bee true unto the Empresse Maude could have beene contented that the Empresse should have governed till her Sonne had come to lawfull age notwithstanding they held their peace as yet and consented unto Stephen But the breach of their Oathes was worthily punished afterward insomuch that as well the Bishops as the other Nobles either dyed an evill death or were afflicted with divers kinds of calamities and mischances and that even here in this life Yet there were some of them namely the Bishop of Salisbury which protested that they were free from their Oath of Allegeance made to the sayd Empresse because that without the consent of the Lords of this Land she was marryed out of the Realme Whereas they tooke their Oath to receive her for Queene upon that condition That without their assent she should not marry with any person out of this Realme Moreover as some writers thinke the Bishops tooke it they should do God good service in providing for the wealth of the Realme and the advancement of the Church by their Perjurie For whereas the late deceased King Henry the first used himselfe not altogether for their purpose they thought That if they might set up and create a King chiefely by their especiall meanes and authority he would follow their counsell better and refoâ—me such things as they judged to be amisse So He. But this trecherous Act of them in dis-inheriting Maude wherein the Bishop of Wiâ—â—hester was a chiefe Actor yet afterwards joyned with Maude for a season and then fell off againe what Civill Warres Tumults Battailes evill effects and blood-shed it occasioned here in England to the prejudice of the whole Realme 〈◊〉 all our Chronicles and Historians in the life of King Stephen testifie at large Theobald Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his immediate Successour being summoned by the Pope to appeare at the Councell of Rhemes the King at the instigation of Henry Bishop of Winchester his Brother the Popes Legat and Arch-Bishops opposite prohibited him to passe beyond Sea to stay him at home But he thinking it safer to offend the King then the Pope resolved to goe and though all the Ports were stopped and layd for him yet over the Seas hee got The King thereupon seized all his goods and Temporalties and banished him the Realme he like a tall fellow thereupon interdicted the King with the whole Realme and taking advantage of the time which was very troublesome came home and lived in Norfolke till by the intercession of the Bishops he was restored to his Bishopricke After which growing into great favour with the King in a Convocation summoned at London 1152. the King would have constrained the Clergie to make Eustace his sonne King which they refusing and delaying to doe having a command from the Pope to the contrary pretending that his Father King Stephen was an Usurper and perjured Intruder the King and his sonne cauâ—ed the doores to bee shut upon the Clergie where they were assembled thinking by force and threatning to compell them thereto before they departed The greater number seemed to yeeld but the Arch-Bishop stealing secretly out of the place tooke his Barge and rowing downe the Thames got beyond Sea so that by this meanes the Synod was dissolved His goods hereupon were presently once more confiscate and his Temporalties seized into the Kings hands He thereupon troubled the Realme with Fire Sword and bloody Warres causing Henry Fitz-Empresse to invade the Land whose Title the Pope favoured of purpose to strengthen himselfe against King Lewis of France who had highly offended his Holinesse by casting his Bulls whereby he requireâ— the Fruites of Vacancies of Cathedrall Churches in France into the fire saying Hee had râ—ther the Popes Bulls should râ—st in the fire than his owne Soule shoâ—ld fry in Hell Thomas Becket succeeding Theobald by King Henry the seconds extraordinary favour though against the Canons he being both a souldier a Courtier and skilled onely in â—ecular affaires to require his Soveraignes extraordinary favour he first resigned his Bishopricke which hee had received from the Kings hands into the Popes in a secret manner receiving it backe againe as from him and then looked so narrowly into the Lands belonging to his See having great authority and some skill in the Law That under colour of defending the Rites of his Church hee tooke violently from every man what he listed and practising Treason secretly he required of the King the keeping of Rochester Castle and the custody of the Tower of London and called Roger Earle of Clare unto Westminster to doe his homage unto him for the Castle of Tunbridge which the Earle denyed through the setting on of the King so as he provoked many of all sorts of people every where with open mouth to exclaime against him and to make their complaints thicke and three-fold to the King betweene whom and the King there arose a great quarrell upon this occasion The Clergie by their flattery policy and Canons having exempâ—ed themselves from secular Jurisdiction and presuming upon Beckets power grew strangely impudent and disorderly insomuch that the Chiefe Justice declared in the Kings presence how that Clergie men had committed above an hundred murthers since his raigne wherewith the King highly offended he became somewhat too vehement in punishing them but the blame of the Kings over-much earnestnesse must lye on the Prelates inasmuch as they gave the cause thereof For whereas sacred Canons ordaine that Clerkes found guilty not onely of hainous and grievous sinnes but also of lesser should be degraded and thousands of such were then in the Church of England like inâ—umerable chaffe among a little good Corne yet very few such for many yeares had beene then deprived The Prelates forsooth while they bestirred themselves rather to uphold the liberties and dignities of Clerkes than to chastise and cut off their vices thought they did God and his Church good service in protecting from publicke Discipline such heinous offenders whom by duty of their places they ought to correct according to the Canon censure whereby they thrâ—ugh their impunity having liberty to doe what they listed had neither feare of God whose Judgement they thought to be a farre off neither of men in authority sith on the one side their Prelates neglected to reforme them and on the other side they were thus exempt by their order from secular Jurisdiction This being the state of the Church and Realme where in some were so injured without remedy and others so injurious without coertion as if neither sort were in condition of Subjects the king thereupon tooke speciall care of quickning the publicke Discipline and the rigour of ancient â—awes which thus lay
neglected and thereupon would that all such of the Clergie as were deprehâ—nded in any Robbery Murther Felony burning of houses and the like should be tryed and adjuged in his temporall Courts as Lay men were Against which the Arch-Bishops resolution was That Clergie-men so offending should be tryed onely in the Spirituall Courts and by men of their owne Coat who if they were convict should at first be onely deprived of their Oâ—fice and Benefice but if they should againe be guiltie of the like they should be adjudged at the kings pleasure In this maine controversie betweene the Crowne and the Mitre the Arch-Bishop stood so peremptory on the immunities of his Clergie and See as that he challenged from theâ— Crowne to the Kings great offence the custody of Rochester Castle and other Forts which the King for securing his State had resumed into his owne hands The King finding himselfe to be hereby but a demi-king deprived of all Soveraignty over one halfe deale of his Kingdome and perceiving Beckets stiffenesse in thus contesting with his Soveraigne to be no wayes mollifiable by whatsoever his old favours or fresh perswasions notwithstanding resolved to put nothing in execution which should not first be ratified and strengthned with the consent of his Bishops Who thereupon assembling at Westminster the King tooke both offence there at the arch-Arch-Bishops thwarting his desires and occasions to establish sundry Articles which hee called his Grandâ—athers Customes peremptorily urging Becket to yeeld thereunto without any such reservation as saving in all things his order and right of the Church wherewith hee would have limited his assent The points in those ordinances which he principally stucke at as appeares by his owne Letter to the Pope were these 1. That none should appeale to the Bishop of Rome for any cause whatsoever without the Kings license 2. That it should not be lawfull for any Arch-Bishop or Bishop to depart the Realme or repaire to the Pope upon his summons without the Kings license 3. That no Bishop should excommunicate any man holding of the King in chiefe or put any other of his Officers under interdict without the Kings license 4. That Clerkes criminous should be tryed before secular Iudges 5. That it should not be lawfull for a Bishop to punish any one for perjury or faith-breach 6. That the Laity whether the King or other should hold pleas of Churches and Tithes c. These points so neerely touched the Papall Soveraigntie and Church-liberties that the resolute Metropolitane mainely opposed his whole power against them The King being as resolute to enforce him to subscribe to them both to â—nlarge his Soveraigne authority and to exempt his estate by degrees from dependancie on any externall Government as lineally claiming from absolute Soveraigne Antecessors At last Pope Alexander very desiâ—ous to keepe the Kings love though secretly wishing well to Beckets attempts sent one Philip his Almoner to compose the controversie by whom the Pope and Cardinalls required the Arch-Bishop to promise the King to keepe his sayd Ordinances absolutely without any savings or exceptions Whereupon Becket seeing his Scrupulositie thus disapproved by his Soveraigne by all his Brethren the Biâ—hops and the Court of Rome it selfe hee rode to Woodstocke to the King and there promised that he would keepe the sayd Lawes Bâ—na fide and without male engin The King thereupon supposing now all contradictions would cease called an Assembly of the States at Claâ—endon to collect and enact those Lawes where Becket relapsing from his former promise to the King sayd He had grievously sinned in making that absolute Oath and that he would not sinne any more At which the King was so vehemently inflamed that hee threatned banishment and destruction to him and his But at last the Arch-Bishop being overcome by perswasions of divers Nobles and Bishops sware before the King Clergie and people in the word of a Priest and sincerely that he would observe the Lawes which the King intituled Avitae And all the Bishops Abbots Priors and whole Clergie with all the Earles Barons and Nobilitie did promise and sweare the â—ame faithfully and truly to observe and performe to the King and his Heires for ever But when the King not so contented would have him to subscribe and fixe his Seale to an instrument in which these Customes and Lawes were comprised as every one of the other Bishops had done bâ—fore him he once againe starting from his faith did absolutely refuse it alledging that hee did promise to doe the King some honour in word onely but not with an intent to confirme these Articles being 16. in number neither would he subscribe or seale them unlesse the Pope by his Bull did first confirme them The King hereupon sent two Embassadours to Rome to the Pope to crave his allowance of those Lawes and to pray that the Legantine power of England might bee committed to the Arch-Bishop of Yorke Becket being so farre from seeking to pacifie the Kings displeasure as dayly hee provoked him more and morâ—â— The Pope knowing the cause to bee his owne more than Beckets rejected both these suites Becket having dealt so with him beâ—ore-hand that hee would doe nothing to his prejudice and withall absolved him and the other Bishops from their Oath of Allegeance to their Prince Whereupon the King commanded Becket to bee condemned in dammages â—or a Manor which Iohn de Marshall claimed and in the Parliament of Northampton demanded an accounâ— of him of 30000. pound which came to his hand during his Chancellorship which hee excusing and refusing punctually to answer the Peeres and Bishops condemned all his movables tâ— the Kings mercy After which the Prelates â—hemselves by a joynt consent adjudged him guilty of perjury for not yeelding tempoâ—all obedience to the King according to his Oath disclaiming all obedienâ—e to him thence forward as to their Arch-Bishop Becket the next day whiles the Bishops and Peeres were consulting of some fâ—rther course with him caused to be sung before him at the Altar The Princes sit and speake against mee and the ungodly persecute me c. And forthwith taking his silver Crosier in his owne hands a thing strange and unheard of before enters armed therewith into the Kings prâ—sence though earnestly disswaded by all that wished him well Wherewith the King enraged commanded his Peeres to sit in judgement upon him as on a Traytor and perjured person and accordingly they adjudged him to be apprehended and cast in prison as such a delinquent The Earles of Cornewall and Leicester who sate as Judges citing him forthwith to heare his sentence pronounced hee immediately appealed to the See of Rome as holding them no competent Judges whâ—reupon all reviling him with the name of Traytor and perjured person he replyed That were it not for his function he would enter the Duell or Combat with them in the field to acquit himselfe from Treason and perjury and so speeding from the Court departed into Flanders disguised
under the name of Dereman in a poore Fisher-boate accompanied onely with Servitors The King thereupon seized all his Goods and Temporalties into his hands and sent Ambassadours to the Earle of Flanders the French King and the Pope praying them in no wise to suffer or softer within their dominions one that was such a notorious Traytor to him The French King thinking that this disagreement betweene the King and the Arch-Bishop would breed some stirre in England dealt with the Pope that as hee loved the Roman Church and the ayde of France so hee would support Beckets cause against the King with whom though hee had amity before yet at Beckets instigation as is probable whose whole life was nothing else but a continued act of Rebellion Treachery and Disobedience against his Soveraigne Lord he presently fell to invade the King of Englands Dominions and tooke by Assault certaine Holds of his in Normandy The Arch-Bishop also about the same time growing in great savour with the Pope whom the King by all his friends and Agents could not move to any thing against him sent out particular Excommunications against all the suffâ—agan Bishops of his Province and all such as had obeyed defended or occasioned the sayd Lawes and A vitall customes and against some of them by name which Excommunications he published at Vizely in France on Ascension day when the Church was most full of people getting into the Pulpit theâ—e and solemnely accursing them with Bell Booke and Candle threatning the like thunder-clap against his owne Royall person Whereupon the King receiving such a foile from the Pope and such an affront from the Arch-Bishop directs his Writs to the Sherifes of England commanding them to attach all such who appealed to the Court of Rome with the Fathers Mothers Brothers Sisters Nephewes and Neeces of all the Clergie that were with the Arch-Bishop and to put them under sureties as also to seize the Revenues Goods and Chattels of these Clergie-men And by other Letters to Guilbert Bishop of London he sequestred the profits and Livings which within his Diocesse did belong to any of the Clergie who were fled to Thomas and signified to his Justices by a publicke Decree that no man should bring any Letters or Commandment from Pope Alexander or Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury into England containing an Indiction of the Realme upon peril to be apprehended and punished as a Traytor to the King and an enemy to the Realm And that they should safe keepe whosoever did bring any Interdict into England till the Kings pleasure were further knowne causing all the Arch-bishops goods to be confiscated and banished out of the Realme all the arch-Arch-Bishops kindred Man Woman Child and sucking Babes forbidding hee should be any longer mentioned publikely and prayed for in the Church as Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and to vexe him the more because he knew hee was much delighted in the Monastery of Pontiniac an Abbey of Cirstercian Monkes he signified to all the Monkes of that Order in his Dominion that he would banish them every one if they would not procure the Arch-Bishop to bee thrust out of that Monastery which for feare of so great calamity to so many men of their Order was effected And because Pope Alexander Beckets surest Card was ferrited much in like sort by Fredericke Barbarossa the Emperour the King therefore determined to joyne in league with him being a prosessed enemie both to the French King and the Pope sending Ambassadors to him for that purpose which the Pope having notice of began presently to quaile promising speedily to end all Controversies betweene him and Becket to the Kings liking Whereupon at the procurement of Iohn of Oxford two Legates were sent into England to reconcile the King and Thomas but the Pope hearing when they were gone that they were resolved utterly to confound the Arch-Bishop sent Letters after them to rebate their absolute power who when they came to Thomas he absolutely refused to put their cause unto them but upon such conditions as neither they nor the King would brooke The passages betweene the King and the Pope and Becket and his Complaints to the Pope against the King too tedious to recite at large you may reade at leisure in Holinshed Vol. 3. p. 70. to 75. wherein he desires the Pope to use his rigour both against the King and the Prelates that sided with him and to constraine them to amendment After this the Pope moved the French King to mediate a Peace betweene them For which purpose both the Kings and the Arch-Bishop were brought together at Paris where suite being made to the King in his behalfe That he might returne be restored to his goods and revenues arising during his absence and likewise to the Kings favour upon his humble submission The King answered That for the rest he was contented but that he could not allow him the profits of his Arch-Bishoprick since his Banishment for that he had already given them to others yet he would give him such recompence for them as the French King or the Senate or Students of Paris should thinke meete Whereupon Becket being called for and advised by his frieuds to submit himselfe in the presence of both Kings without any more reservations he falling downe humbly upon his knees used these words My Lord and Soveraigne I doe here commit unto your owne judgement the cause and controversie betweene us so farre forth as I may saving the honour of Almighty God The King much offended with his last exception turned him about unto the French King and telling how much hee had done for the Arch-Bishop and how â—ee had used him sayd I am so well acquainted with the Trickes of this Fellow that I cannot hope for any good dealing at his hands See you not how he goeth about to delude me with this clause saving the honour of God for whatsoever shall displease him hee will by and by alleadge to be prejudiciall to the honour of Almighty God But this I will say unto you whereas there have beene Kings of England many before mee whereof some were peradventure of greater Power than I the most part farre lesse and againe many Arch-Bishops before this man holy and noâ—able men looke what duty was ever performed by the greatest Arch-Bishop that ever was to the weakest and simplest of my Predecessours let him but yeeld me that and it shall abundantly content mee Hereunto the Arch-Bishop answered cunningly and stoutly That his Predecessours who could not bring all things to passe at the first dash were content to beare with many things and that as men they fell and omitted their duty oft times that that which the Church had gotten was by the constancie of good Prelates whose example he would follow thus farre forth as though he could not augment the priviledges of the Church in his time yet he would never consent they should be diminished This answere being heard all men cryed shame of him and generally
imputed these stirres unto him and King Lewis offended with his Answere asked him Whether he thought himselfe to be greater or holyer than Saint Peter And the Peeres of both Nations accused him of arrogance as being himselfe the wilfull hinderer of his owne and the Churches Tranquillity Notwithstanding the Pope forgot not faithfull Thomas and thereâ—ore after hee had graced him with a Confirmation of all the Priviledges and Powers which any of his Predecesâ—ors in that See did enjoy to the daring and defiance as it were of the Kings utmost indignation the King sent a Letter into Germany declaring That hee would forsake Pope Alexander and joyne with the Emperour and Anti-Pope The King doubting what might become of these broyles caused his Sonne Henry to bee Crowned King in his owne life time to assure him of the Succession Afterwards comming into France againe Becket and hee were upon the point of reconciliation but the casting out some word or other as before maried all At length the King and hee were made Friends but his full restitution referred till he had behaved himselfe quietly a while at Canterbury which he promised to doe But hee was so far from performing that promise as he sent into England before him divers Excommunications which the Pope had granted out long before and committed to his discretion Amongst other the Arch-bishop of Yorke the Bishop of London and Salisbury were named in them together with so many as were doers in the Coronation of the young King which the Arch-Bishop sayd might not be performed by any but by his appointment The men thus strucken with this holy fire hasted them over into Normandy to make their complaint to the King who infinitely grieved at this kinde of dealing cursed the time that ever he had made him Arch-bishop and restored him to his place againe adding It was his chance ever to do with unthankefull men otherwise some or other would long ere this have made this proud Priest an example to all such troublesome perturbers of his Realme and State It hapned among other foure Knights to wit Reynald Fitz-Vrse Hugh de Morâ—vill William de Tracie and Richard Briton to be present at this speech of the Kings who gathered thereby they should do a deed very acceptable unto him if they killed the Arch-Bishop who in the meane time was come to Canterbury and was received there with great joy whence he went to London and so to Woodstock wher the young King lay But before he could get to the Kings presence word was brought him the Kings pleasure was hee should first goe to Canterbury and revoke those Excommunications before the King would talk with him whereupon he returned to Canterbury without seeing the King at all where the foure Knights before mentioned arrived upon Innocents day who comming to the Arch-Bishop told him the Kings pleasure was First That he should goe to his Son and reverently make offer of doing homage and fealty unto him for the Barony of his Arch-Bishoprick secondly That he should cause al the strangers he brought into the Realm with him to be sworn to his obedience thirdly That he should revok those Excommunications which he he had caused to be denounced against the Instruments of the young Kingâ— Coronation To which demands he answered That neither the King nor any other mortall man should extort from him or any of his by his consent any unjust or unreasonable Oath And as for the Bishops and others excommunicate concerning the Coronation it was indeed quoth he a thing done in my behalfe for an injury offered to my Church but it was the Act of the Pope If therefore they will sweare they shall be ready to make me amendâ— at the Popes discretion I will absolve them otherwise not And whatsoever you say it was the Kings pleasure I should take my best course for the redresse of this abuse by Ecclesiasticall authority Many other words then passed betweene them they breathing our terrible threates and he continuing still the same man without yeelding one jot At last the Knights departed giving the Monkes charge in the Kings name to see the Arch-Bishop forâ—h-comming and not to suffer him to escape away At Evening Prayer time the same day they came suddenly into the Church with their Swords drawne crying Where 's the Traytor Where 's the Traytor The Arch-Bishop who was then going up the steps towards the Quire hearing the noyse turned backe unto them and every one of the foure striking mainely at him upon the third or fourth greice of those steps he was slaine His body these Knights determined to have cast into the Sea or else to have hewen into a â—housand peeces but the Prior and Monkes doubting some such thing buried it immediately in the Under-Craft whence shortly it was taken up and layd in a most sumptuous Shrine in the East end of the Church The Pope hearing of this Massacre of this his grand Champion immediately excommunicated all that were either authors or consenters to it The King was â—aine to purge himselfe thereoâ— by Oath and yet could not be absolved before he had done certaine strange Penance as first That hee shoâ—ld pray devoutly at the Tombe of this new Martyr That hee should be whipt in the Chapter-House receiving of every Monke one Lash That he should maintaine two hundred Souldiers for the space of one yeare at Hierusalem and lastly revoke the Declaration published at Clarindon that originally gave the occasion of this Murther with other particulars recorded by Master Fox All which such were those times the King was faine to performe to such slavery were Kings and Princes then brought under the Popish Clergie who preâ—ently Canonize this Arch-Traytor for a Saint write large Volumes of his Prayses and Miracles pray unto him Morning and Evening in their solemne publike Mattins and Vespers in elegant Rymes and Poems composed by Thomas Aquinas in a more elegant style to delight and ravish the Auditors honour his Shâ—ine with infinite Oblations Pilgrimages and Gifts who was so much honoured an visited in times of Popery that whereas in the Cathedrall Church of Canterbury there were three principall Images on consecrated to Christ another to the Virgin Mary and a third to Thomas Becket their Annuall Oblations to Thomas Becket were commonly 1000. pound or moreâ— to the blessed Virgin 200. pounds but to our blessed Saviour some yeares 6. pounds 13. shillings 4. pence some yeares 3. pounds 6. shillings 8 pence and Hoc Anno Nihâ—l some yeares just nothing as Bishop Mortâ—n hath recorded out of their owne Register of Canterbury So that they preferred this Traytor and Rebell in their blinde devotion at least one thousand times more than Christ himselfe and which is yet more abominable advanced his blood above our Saviours praying even to Christ himselfe to save them noâ— by his owne but by this Arch-Rebels blood as if his owne were not sufficienâ— as these two blasphemous Verses inserted into their
Psalters evidence Tu per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit Fac nos Christe scandere quo Thomas ascendit O Christ by Thomas blood he for thee shed Make us ascend whither he ascended Had he beene quartered and then hanged up for a Traytor on some high Pinacle as he deserved I should have liked the Prayer well thinking it just that all who durst honour such a Traytor or pray unto him as a Saint deserved to have their quarters elevated as high as his But in that sense they tooke it then and many have used it since yea some at this very day It is no leâ—se than Blasphemie and High Treason against Christ himselfe Especially iâ— wee consider what they there annex to these Verses Gloria honorâ— Coronasti eum Domine R. Et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuaruâ— attributed unto Christ himselfe Heb. 2.7 8. 1 Cor. 15.27 Roger Walden Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in a full Convocation held at Pauls in London Anno Domini 1098. if Aton mistake not ordained That a solemne Commemoration should be kept on Wednesday every weeke throughout the yeare if it were possible for this Arch-Traytor Thomas in which Constitâ—tion there is this passage And although we ougâ—t to honour all and singular constituted in the heavenly Kingdomes with solicitous endeavours and to advance them with loud prayses yet wee ought to extoll with highest acclamations our mâ—st glorious Bishop and Martyr Saint Thomas both the Master and Patron of our Metropoliticall Church who is knowne to have shed his blood for the defence of the Churches libertie by whose both Merits and Passion our whole Province of Canterbury is illustrated and the universall Church adorned and it is meete to personate him with supremest prayses and to worship him with spirituall honours This Traytor shortly after became so eminent that divers Kings Embassadors Bishops and others came on Pilgrimage from â—orraine parts to visit his Tombe at Canterbury And though â—he Trayterly Prelates Monkes and Clergie thus Deified him for a Saint and Martyr as many now account him yet the Peeres and Nobles about the King gave it out in strict charge upon paine of death and confiscation of all their goods That â—o man should bee so hardy as to name Thomas Becket to be a Martyr or to preach of his Miracles And King Henry the eight after he had beene a long time Canonized for and adored as an Arch-Saint declared him in his Injuâ—ctions published Anno 1539. to have beene a Rebell and Traytor to his Prince and therefore straightly charged and commanded That from thenceforth he should not be esteemed named reputed or called a Saint but Bishop Becket That his Images and Pictures throughout the whole Realme should be plâ—ckt downeâ— and avoyded out of all Churches Chappels and other places and that the Dayes used to be Festivall in his name should bee no more observed nor the Service Offices Antiphones Collects and Prayers in his name read but rased and put out of all the Bookes upon paine of his Majesties indignation and imprisonment at his Graces pleasure After which Stephen Gardiner Bishop oâ— Wincâ—ester and Lord Châ—ncelour in Queene Maries dayes with his other fellow Bishops who were much in love with this Traytor being such themselves caused the Image of this old Romish Traytor Becket to be set up over the Mercers Chappell doore in Cheapeside in London in forme of a Bishop with a Miter and Crosier but within two dayes after his two blessing-fingers were first broken off and on the seventeenth day of February his head strucke off whereupon arose a great stirre and many suspected for doing it were committed to Prison Which being againe set up the second day of March at the suspected parties cost and strictly watched with a Guard each night for feare it should bee re-demolished on the fourteenâ—h day of the same Moneth the head of this Trayterous Beast was once more broken off but the Agent not discovered though there was a Proclamation made in London the next day That whosoever would reveale the Party though of Counsell and privity to the Act should have his Pardon and an hundred Crownes of Gold with hearty thankes So zealous were our Trayterly Biâ—hops for this their Brother Arch-Traytor whose very Crosier staffe some of late adored in the Tower and have likewise Printed his Life Hubert the 42. Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a man that swayed the Kingdome in King Richard the first his dayes and after that advanced King Iohn to the Crowne pâ—tting by Arthur Duke of Britaine right Heire to the Crowne being Sonne to Geffrey elder Brother to Iohn which occasioned many Warres and the losse of Normandy Hee finding the King not so tractable as hee supposed to his will did under-hand bolster up the Clergie to affront him in the election of the Biâ—hop of Norwich repenting more now than any thing he did in all his life thatâ— he had so advanced King Iohn to the Crowne shewing such slender respect to his Soveraigne that being prohibited by Fitz-Peter the Kings great Justiciarie and Minister in the Kings absence of Regall Command from holding a Generall Councell of his Province never used to be held but by Soveraigne permâ—ttance his pleasure scorned to take any counteâ—mand after which hee spared not to out-brave his Soveraigne himselfe For having notice the Feast of the Nativitie then approaching that the King intended with his Queene at Guilford to keepe that festivall with great Magnificence hee whose Palace ordinarily for splendour multitude of attendants and sumpâ—uous entertainments did strive with the Kings thought this a fitting time to shew forth his great State and little regard of his Princes discountenance by parallelling to the Kings his owne sumptuous preparations with rich Attires and costly Gifts for his attendants at Canterbury The King as Kings brook not to be braved by their subjects nor is it wisedome for dis-favorites to doe it moved with great indignation thought the man had too much Riches and too little discretion which seldome lodgeth in the Braine where Pride dwells in the Heart and therefore to abate somewhat the one and learne him more of the other hee kept his Easter at Canterbury at the Costs of Hubert the Râ—ch and not to spare him who spared not himselfe hee there increased that great expence with a greater of his and his Queenes solemne Crowning againe on Easter day in the Cathedrall Church where in lieu of his expence Hubert had the formall Honour to set on their Crownes but yet not the grace to sit neere the Kings heart Such being the first overtures of heart-burnings betwixt the King and his Clergie they afterwardsâ— by addiâ—ament of dayly fuelling burst forth into a more fearefull â—ame For Hubert bearing too much good will to the French King and in very deed repenting himselfe of nothing so much as for that hee had commended King Iohn to the Noblemen and
Peeâ—es of the Realme since hee proved another manner of man then hee looked to have found him the King having prepared a Royall Hoast and mighty Navie to revenge his forraine losses and wrongs on the Freâ—â—h King Hubert the Arch-Bishop who conâ—ederated with the Pope and French King against his Soveâ—aigne came with sundry others to Portesmouth to the King and â—â—â—ly forbids the King to proceed in the Voyage in trâ—th for feare hee should hinder King Philip from ayding the Pope against Otho the Emperour Whereupon the King dismâ—â—â—â—d his Forces Hubert being the instrument that so resolute Projects so inestimable Charges so necessary an Action of the Kings fell suddenly to the ground whereby besides the selfe-mischiefe which therewith fell on the King many fresh grudgings accrued unto him for suffering himselfe to bee thus violently repulsed from so behoofefull a purpose The King the next day checking himselfe for over-prizing the command of any man above the value of his Kingly Honour and Estate resolved to collect his disparkled Troupes and to put forth to Sea To which end taking order with his Nobles to follow him they gave him leave with a small company to waâ—t up and downe two dayes in expectance of their attendance till seeing them more obsequious â—o Huberâ—s command than his the Arch-Bishop also sending his inhibition after them on the Sea to stop their passage with the King hee was forced to come againe to Land The King hereupon put many of his Earles Barons Knights and Clergie-men to a grievous pecuniary Redemption for thus refusing to follow him for recovering his Inheritance The Arch Bishop though their Ring-leader might well have beene exempted from this Judgement by his passage to an higher dying the same weeke either of Griefe or of a Feaver which killed him in foure dayes But the King forthwith in person going to Canterbury seized upon all his Wealth and Possessions shewing himselfe right joyâ—ull that now hee was rid of him whom men suspected of too familiar practising with the French King saying Hee was never a King till now by reason of Huberts too presumptuous daring to crosse his Royall Resolutions as of late hee did This Hubert being Chiefe Justice and archâ—Archâ—Bishop in Richard the first his timâ— Anno 1198 the Monkes of Christsâ— Church in Canterbury exhibited this Complaint against him to Pope Innocent That their Arch-Bishop Hubert contrary to his Order and Dignity exercised the Office of High Iustice and saâ—e in Iudgement of Blood being so encumbred in Temporall matters that he could not â—ave time to discharge his Office touching Spirituall Causeâ— Whereupon the Pope sent to King Richard admonishing him not to suffer the sayd Arch Bishop to be any longer troubled with Temporall Affaires but to discharge him thereof and not to admit any Spirituall person from thenceforth unto any Temporall administration He further prohibited by vertue of their obedience all manner of Prelaâ—es and men of the Church that they should not presume rashly to take upon them any manner of Secular Function or Office Whereupon the Arch-Bishop was discharged of his Office of Chiefe Justice and Geffrey Fitz-Peter succeeded in government of the Realme in his stead Afterwards this Arch-Prelate being made Lord Chancellor of England by King Iohn Anno. 1199. and uttering some words unadvisedly that shewed how hee inwardly rejoyced at the Kings favour towards him in the gift of this Office and so gloried in the Honour whereto hee was preferred which he would never have done if he had weighed of worldly pompe as by his Profession hee ought and as one asketh the question in the same case Dic mihi nunquid Corporibus prosunt Certe nil dic Animabus Tantundem c. The Lord Bardolfe sayd unto him yet not so soâ—tly in his eare but that some over-heard it My Lord to speake and not offend you surely if you well consider the Honour and Dignity of your Calling you would not willingly yeeld to suffer this yoake of Bondage to be layd upon your shoulders For we have oftentimes heard of a Câ—ancellour made an Arch-Bishop as was Thomas Becket who upon his instalment in the Sea of Canterbury immediately resigned his Lord Chancelours Office sending his great Seale to the King then in Normandy with a Letter wherein he certified him That hee could not serve the Church and the Court both at once and that this moved him to resigne his Chancelourship as incompatible wiâ—h his Arch-Bishopricke but wee never heard of an Arch-Bishop made a Chancelour till now Such an unseemely and unlawfull thing was it then reputed for Bishops to intermeddle with Temporall Offices and Affaires which are incompatible with their Spirituall Function and are seldome managed by them but to the great oppression the ruin of the People and State Hubert being dead the Monkes of Canterbury secretly at midnight elected Reginald their Sub-prior for his Successour taking an Oath of him not to make his Election knowne to any till he came to the Popes presence whither he was advised to post with all speed The Oath hee violates as soone as ever he had crossed the Sea bearing himselfe every where as Lord Elect shewing withall the testimoniall of his Election to divers which so incensed his Brethren the Electors against him as they presently resolved to become suiters to the King â—or pardon of their fault in chusing him without his license and also that hee would permit them to make a new Election supposing the old frustrate by the Elects perjury They did so and obtained their request the rather because they made shew of readinesse in satisfying the Kings desire who wished them to elect Iohn Gray Bishop of Norwich him they sent for in all haste to Canterbuâ—y where they solâ—mnly elected him for their Arch-Bishop publishing his Election in the Church before the King and an infinite number of people placing him in the Bishops Chaire The King putting him in possession of his temporalties â—orth-with These two Elections being presented to the Pope hee adjudged them both voyd and making use of the Monkes debate â—he greater part being then at Rome some of them avouching their first Election as good others importunately seeking to have the latter confirmed he secretly practised with them and at last perswaded them to elect Stephen Langhton an English man and Cardinall of Rome of singular gifts and Learning which done the Pope with his owne hands gave him Consecration at Viturbium and well knowing how haynoâ—sly the King would take the matter he writ Letters unto him sweetned with many intreaties large praises of the new Arch-Bishop and seasoned now and then with some touches of doubtfull threatning if hee should oppose himselfe against that was then done This notwithstanding the King in great indignation as hee had just cause banished and drove out all the Monkes of Canterbury by force who were entertained in forraigne Monasteries seized upon all their goods lands and
forbad Stephen Langhton entrance into the Realme The Pope hearing this sends his Mandates unto William Bishop of London Eustace Bishop of Ely and Mauger Bishop of Worcester wherein hee willed them first to admonish and perswade the King to restore the Monkes their goods and place and to give the Arch-Bishop possession of his Temporalties by a day then if he refused so to doe to interdict the whole Realme They durst not but obey and finding the King resolute in his determination at the time appointed they published the Popes Interdiction interdicting the whole Realme And as well foreseeing the ensuing trouble to come as their present danger got them out of the Land together with Ioceline Bishop of Bath and Giles of Hereford The King immediately seized all their Goods and Temporalties into his hands and moreover banished all the friends and Kinsfolks of these Bishops that were likely to yeeld them any comfort or reliefe During the time of this Interdict all Divine Service ceased throughout the Realme Gods Service giving place to the Popes pride and malice except onely Baptisme of Children Auâ—icular Confession and the Administration of the Sacrament unto such as lay upon the point of death The Pope seeing this Curse prevailed not at the instigation of the Arch Bishop and other Prelates proceeded to a particular Excommunication of the King and not long after deprived him by a Judiciall sentence of his Crowne Kingdome and all Regall authority a thing till that time in no age ever heard of For the better executing which sentence he writes to Philip the French King to expell King Iohn out of his Kingdome promising him remission of all his sinnes and giving the Kingdome of England to him and his successors for this his good service and withall sends â—orth his Bulls to the Nobles Knights and Souldiers in divers Countries that they should signe themselves with the signe of the Crosse to cast the King of England out of his Throne and revenge the injury of the Universall Church by ayding King Philip in this Catholike Warre promising them all as large and ample indulgences in all things as those enjoyed who visited the Lords Sepulcher at Hierusalem whereupon the French King prepared a great Armie both by Sea and Land to expulse King Iohn who made himselfe so strong by Sea and Land in a short time that he had farre more Ships and Land-Souldiers than Philip which Pandolfe the Popes Legate perceiving and doubting of the successe willingly repaires into England tells King Iohn in what danger he and his whole kingdome were how much Christian blood he was like to cause to bee spiltâ— to prevent all which inconveniences hee counsels him to resigne his Crowne and Kingdome to the Pope and then to receive it from him againe which he yeelded to at last See now to what extremities this poore King was brought by these rebellious and traytorly Prelates meanes who refused to appeare before him when he sent for them his whole Land was under Interdiction and so remained for 5. whole yeares like an Heathenish Nation without the celebration of Divine Service and Sacraments Iohn himselfe was by Name Excommunicated and had so remained for divers yeares All his Subjects were released freed a Regis fidelitate subjectione from owing either fidelity or subjection to him yea they were forbidden and that under paine of Excommuniâ—ation so much as to company or converse with him either at Table or aâ— Councell or in speech and conference Further yet Iohn was deposed from his Kingdome and that judicially being in the Romane Court deprived of all right to his Kingdome and judicially condemned and that sentence of his deposition and deprivation was solemnly denounced and promulgated before the French King Clergie and people of France Neither onely was Iohn thus deposed but his Kingdome also given away by the Pope and that even to his most mortall enemie for the Pope to bring his sentence to execution writ unto Philip the French King perswading yea enjoyning him to undertake that labouâ— of dethrâ—ning Iohn actually as judicially hee was before and expelling him from the Kingdome promising him not onely remission of all his sinnes but that hee and his Heires â—hould for ever have the Kingdome of England withall the Pope writ Letters to all Nobles Souldiers and Warriors in divers Countries to signe themselves with the â—rosse and to assist Philip for the dejection of Iohn Philip was not a little glad of such an offer bâ—â— hereupon gathered Forces and all things fit for such an expedition expending in that preparation no lesse than 60. thousand pounds all these things being notified to King Iohn did not a little daunt him and though he was too insensible of the impendent calamities yet to strike a greater terrour into his amazed heart and make a more dreadfull impression in his minde of the dangers which now were ready to faâ—l on his head Pandolph was sent from the Pope unto him to negociate about the resigning of his Kingdome to which if hee would consent he should finde favour protection and deliverance at the Popes hands Pandulf by a crafty kinde of Romish Oratory at his comming to the King expressed yea painted out in most lively colours all the difficulties and dangers to which the King was subject the losse of his Crowne the losse of his honour the losse of his life that there was no other way in the world to escape them but by protection under the Popes wings Iohn seeing dangers to hang over him on every side by the French abroad by the Barons at home and being dejected and utterly dismayed and confounded with the ponderation of them resolved for saving his life to lose his liberty and honour and to save his Kingdome from his open Adversary to â—ose it and give it quite away to his secret but worst enemie that hee had and to take an Oath of sealty to the Pope recorded in Holinshed p. 178. doing herein as if one for feare of being slaine in the open field should kill himselfe in his owne chamber It was not piety but extreame misery nor devotion but feare onely and despaire that caused and even â—orced Iohn against his will being then drowned in despaire to resigne his Crowne and to make two severall grants thereof to the Pope The first Charter was made to Pandulph the Popes Legaâ—e on the 15. day of May in the 14. yeare of King Iohns raigne the Copie whereof is set downe in Matthew Paris Matthew Westminster The second Charter was made to Nicholâ—s Bishop of Tusculum the Popes Legaâ—e for the Popes use in Saint Pauls Church in London the 3. of October in the 15. yeare of King Iohn An. Dom. 1213. agreeing verbatim with the former differing onely from it in this that the first was sealed with Wax the second with Gold which severall Grants were so detestable to the whole
world that it made all men exclaime against and detest King Iohn How much the Barons disliked this Grant of King Iohn his owne words to Pope Innocentius as also the Popes answere do witnesseâ— Our Earles and Barons saith he and the Pope writes the like were devout and loving unto us till we had subjected our selves to your Dominion but since that time and specially even for so doing they all rise up against us The manifold opprobrious speeches used by the Barons against King Iohn for subjecting himselfe and his Kingdome to the Pope doe declare the same Iohn say they is no King but the shame of Kings better to be no King than such a King behold a King without a Kingdoâ—e a Lord without dominion Alas thou wretch and servant of lowest condition â—o what misery of thraldome hast thou brought thy self Thou wast a king now thou art a Cow-heard thou wast the highest now the lowest Fie on thee Iohn the last of Kings the abominaton of English Princes the confusion of English Nobility Alas England that thou art made tribuâ—ary and subject to the rule of base servants of strangers and which is most miserable subject to the servant of servants Thou Iohn whose memory will be wofull in future time thou of a most free King hast made thy selfe tributary a farmer a vassall and that to servitude it selfe this thou hast done that all might be drowned in the Hell of Romish Avarice Yea so detestable was both this Fact of Iohn and dealing of the Pope that Philip the French King though the mortall enemie of King Iohn heaâ—ing thereof even upon this very point That the Barons and State did noâ— consent to that Act did proclaime both the absolute freedome of the Kingdome of England noâ—wiâ—hstanding this grant of Iohn and declaime also against this Pope for seeking to enthrall Kingdomes unto him As the King by the Treason and trechery of these Prelates and especially of the Arch-Bishop was thus enforced most ignominiously to resigne and prostituâ—e his Crowne and Kingdome to the Pope to the losse of his Kingly honour and the hearts of all his Barons and Subjects so he was faine to receive the Arch-Bishop and restore the other Bishops Monkes and banished Rebels against him to their Bishoprickes Goods and Revenues and to give them such Dammages and Recompence as the Pope should thinke 〈◊〉 For this King Anno Domini 1213. intending a Voyagâ— into Guien his Realme standing as yet interdicted his Lords refused to goe with him unlesse the interdicting might be first released and he clearely absolved of the Popes Curse to the end that Gods wrath and the Popes being fully pacified hee might with better speede move and maintaine the Warres whereupon he was constrained to alter his purpose and comming to Winchester dispatched a messenger with letters signed with the hands of twenty foure Earles and Barons to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Lincolne and Hereford then sojourning in France requiring them with all other banished men to returne into England promising them by his Letters Patents not onely a sure Safe-conduct for their comming over but that hee would also forget all passed displeasures and frankely restore unto every man all that by his meanes had beene wrongfully taken from them and as yet by him detained Hereupon the Arch-Bishop and other Bishops with all speede came into England with the other exiles and went to Winchester where the King then remained Who hearing that the Bishops were come went forth to receive these Traytors and at his first meeting with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the King kneeled downe at his feete who should have rather kneeled to the King and asked him forgivenesse and that it would please him and the other Bishops also to provide for the miserable state of the Realme requiring of the Arch-Bishop having as then the Popes power in his hands as being his Legat to be absolved promising upon his solemne received Oath That he would before all things defend the Church and the Order of Priesthood from receiving any wrong also that he would restore the old Lawes made by the ancient Kings of England and namely those of S. Edward which were almost extinguished and forgotten and further that he would make recompence to all men whom he had by any meanes endammaged This done he was absolved by the Arch-Bishop and shortly after sent his Orators to Rome to take off the Interdict The Pope hereupon sent the Cardinall of Tusculum into England to compound the differences and dammages betweene the King and the Bishops and then to release the Interdict Who after a Convocation summoned and sundry meetings had at London Reading Wallingford and elsewhere some messages to Rome ordered the King to pay 40000. Markes dammages to these rebellious Prelates which done the Interdict was solemnly released by the Legat in the Cathedrall of Pauls in London Iune 29. 1214. after the terme of 6. yeares 3 moneths and 14. dayes that the Realme had beene shaken with that dreadfull Dart of Correction as it was then esteemed After this King Iohn raysed an Army intending to goe against those Lords who refused to follow him to Poictou But the Arch-Bishop meeting him at Northampton sought to appease himâ— but hee marching on to Notingham there with much adoe the Arch-Bishop following him and threatning to excommunicate all those that should ayde him enforced him to desist his Enterprise This done he thought all troubles at an end but the worst were yet behind For the King having wound himselfe into the Popes favour by this his Resignation and holding his Crowne from him as his Feudatarie began to curbe the Arch-Bishop and his Faction who finding the King stronger in the Popes favour than they thereupon stirred up the Barons to rebell and take Armes against the King who had lost their hearts by his Resignation In this Rebellion and Conspiracie Stephen Langthon the Arch-Bishop was the Ring-leader yea the principall Abettor Conspirer chiefe Agent and Counsellor as Matthew Paris Wendover Speed Holinshed and other our Historians testifie The Pope hereupon excommunicates the Barons and all other English or French who impugned King Iohn even in the generall Councell of Lateran then heldâ— and the Bishop of Winchester and Pandulph the Popes Legat who solemnly denounced the Popes Curse against the Barons did likewise suspend the Arch-Bishop from all his Episcopall authority who thereupon repairing to Rome for absolution was in the Councell of Lateran accused and convict of Conspiracie and Treason against the King and contempt against the Pope and Churches Censure for which the Pope resolving to depose him from his Sea and dignity by the Cardinals intercession for him hee being their brother Cardinall was intreated to deale somewhat milder but yet confirmed his suspension from his Bishopricke by publik sentence commanding by his Letters all his Suffragan Bishops to withdraw their obedience from him and for a
a Councell of the Prelates together how hee might relieve the holy Church that was made subject and thrall It was consulted that the King and all other men that were Rebels should be warned and if they would not amend then the wrecke of censures of holy Church should not sleepe The holy man Edmund assented and went to the King with the other Bishops who threatned to Excommunicate him if he would not reforme the things they demanded and put away his evill Councellors The King asked avisement and he abode but all for nought Therefore the King was spared alone and all other that were Rebells were denounced accursed But thereby would they not be amended This Arch-Prelate at last being continually vexed thwarted and disgraced both by the King the Pope his Legates and others with whom he contested taking his leave of the King departed into voluntary exile and there bewailing the misery of his Country spoyled and miserably wasted by the tyranny and strange exactions of the Pope spent the rest of his time in continuall teares and through extreame griefe sorrow and fasting fell into a Consumption and dyed being afterwards canonized for a Saint by Pope Innocent the fourth Arch-Bishop Boniface his immediate successor raised many commotions and stirs both in Church and State hee was the Kings instrument for polling of England and brought him much money he was also a great warrier better skilled in Military than Church affaires Not to mention this Arch-Prelates combat with the Prior and Monkes of Saint Bartholmewes which put the whole City of London into an uproate and made much worke both at the Kings Court and at Rome Or how he procured a Grant from the Pope to receive one whole yeares profit of all Livings and Cures that should fall voyd within his Province for 7. yeares space to the value of 10000. Markesâ— At which the King at first was sore offended I shall only reciâ—e some traytorly and Anti-monarchicall constitutions made by him his fellow Prelates in a Synod held at Westminster 1270. to the great impeachment of the Kings Prerogative and affront of his Nobles Judges and Temporall Courts of Justice First they decreed That no Arch-Bishop Bishop or inferior Prelate and Clergi-man should eiâ—her by the Kings Writ or any other Noblemans or secuâ—ar Officers warrant be called to answer before any secular Court or Judge for any cause which they there determin to be meerely Ecclesiasticall Or for any extravagances and undue proceedings in their Ecclesiasticall Courts And that no Clergie-man should presume to appeare upon such Writ or summons before any temporall Judge or Court under paine of Excommunication because no Lay power hath any authority to judge the Lords Anointed whom they ought of necessity to obey And to take away so great abuses preserve the liberties of the Church we decree and ordaine say they that the sayd Archâ—bishops Bishops and other Prelates shall not appeare though they be called summoned to do it as aforesaid Yet to preserve the Kings â—onour the greatest Prelates shall goe or write to the King and shew that they cannot obey such his Royall Mandates without the perill of their Order and the subversion of their Ecclesiasticall Liberty And if the King desist not the Bp. whom it concernes shal admonish the King the second time that he looke to the salvation of his soule and altogether desist from such Mandates And if he desist not at the denuntiation of the Bishop the Arch-Bishop or else the Bishop of London as tâ—e Deane of the Bishops calling to him two or three Bishops or more whom he shall thinke meete shall goe to the King und admonish him more seriously requiring â—im to supersediate his Mandates And if the King after such exhortations and monitions shal proceed to attachments and destresses by himselfe or others then the Sheriffes and all other Baylifes who prosecute the Bishops to attach them shall by the Diocesans of the places be driven away in forme of Law by the sentence of Excommunication and interdiction The like shall be done if the Sheriffes or Bayliffes proceed to Attachments or Distresses pretending the foresayd monitions to be made to our Lord the King as afore-sayd And if the Sheriffes or Baâ—liffes shall persevere in their obstinacie the places wherein they live and the Lands they have within the Province of Canterbury shall be interdicted by the Diâ—cesans of the places at the denuntiation of the Bishop in whose Diocesse such Distresses shall be taken And if such Attachers be Clerks Beneficed they shall be suspended from their Office and if they persevere in their malice they shall be compelled to desist and give satisfaction by substracting the profits of theâ—r benefices And if they be not Beneficed in case they be presented to any Beneâ—ice they shall not be thâ—reto admitted â—or five yeares space And the Clerkes who shall dictate write or signe such Attachments or distresses or give any counsell or advice therein shall be Canonically punished and if any Clerke be suspected of the premises â—e shall not be admitted to any Ecclesiasticall Benefice untill he shall Canonically purge himselfe thereof And if our Lord the King or any other secular power competently admonished concerning this shall not revoke such distresses or Attachments the Bishop distrained shal put under Ecclesiasticall interdict the Lands Villages Townes and Castles which the King himselfe or other secular person so distrainiâ—g shall have within his Bishopricke And if the King or any other secular power contemning such penalties shall persevere in their obstinacy then the Arch-Bishop or the Bishop of London at the denunciation of the Bishop complaining calling to him two Bishops or more whom he shall thinke meete shall repaire to the King and diligently admonish and require him to supersede from the foresaid Mandates And if our Lord the King having heard these admonitions and exhortations shall proceed to Attachments or distresses by himself or others then the other two Bishops reputing this distresse as a common injury to the Church by the authority of this present Counsell shall put under Ecclesiasticall interdict all the Demisne Lands Burroughes Castles and Townes of the King himselfe or any other great man being within the Precincts of their Diocesse And if the King or other great Man shall not within 20. dayes after revoke the said Distresses or Attacâ—ments but shall for this bandy against the Church being with Pharaoh made more obdurate amidst the strokes of punishments then the Archâ—bishop shall put his whole Diocesse under inâ—erdict The same shall be done to the Castles Lands and Burroughes of great men who have Royalties within the said Province And if any Bishop shall be found negligent or remisse in the exeâ—utions of the said penalties in such cases he shall be sharpely reprehended by the Metropolitan Afâ—er which they in the same Councell decree the like Interdicts Excommunications and Proceedings against all such who shall intrude
upon the possessions of the Church against Clerkes who receive Churches by Lay-mens power against such Judges and others who shall release excommunicate persons ouâ— of prison without the Bishops consent against Lay-men who shall apprehâ—nd Clergy-men for civill crimes against such who obtaine or grant Prohibitions to their Courts against the King or his Officers who grieve or waste Churches possessions during their vacancy against Judges and other Officers who by a Quo Warranto question the Liberties which any Church or Prelaâ—e hath long time enjoyed though without any Charter against secular Judges who shall judge any Charters made to the Church voyd for uncertaineâ—y against Lords who shall endeavor to enforce Clergy men to make suit to their secular Courts contrary to the Liberties of the Church and the like In all or most of which if the King upon notice and monition conforme not to Prelates desires and stop not all proceedings and judgements in his Courts against them his Judges and Officers shall be excommunicated and their Lands together with the Kings and the whole Province of Canterbury interdicted as aforesaidâ— This Arch-Prelate and hâ—s conâ—ederates thus trampling upon the Kings Crowne Royalties Judges Courts Nobility Subjects and the Lawes of the Kingdome the King to stop their encroachments was enforced to send forth Writs of Ad jura Regia and Prohibitions to inhibit their proceedings Wherein he thus complained We aâ—e troubled not without cause and moved while we behold those who live under our Dominion and are there honored with Benefices and Rents by reason whereof they ought to assist us in the defence and tuition of the Rights of our Royall Crowne with neckes liâ—â—ed up against us endeavouring to the uttermost of their power to impugne the said Rights to the GRIEVOVS PREIVDICE AND HVRT OF OVR ROYALL DIGNITIE AND CROWNE and in contempt of us Wherefore we who by the bond of an Oath are obliged to the unwounded Observance of the Rights of our Crowne and Dignity prohibit you that you presume not to attempâ— any thing in the promises which may any way derogate from the Right of our Crowne and Dignity and if any thing in this kind haâ—h beene unduely attempted by you that you cause it to be revoked without any delay left we proceed â—o appreheâ—d you in a grievous manner as the violaters of the Rights of our Crowne and Dignity Thâ—s Boniface at last knowing himselfe very ill beloved boâ—h of the King and of all the Commons and Clergy in generall and being commanded by the King to give over his Bishopricke he thereupon â—elled his Woods let Leases forced from his Tenants and others what moneys he could possibly and having gathered great sums one way or other carryed it all with him over Sea into Savoy where he dyed Iohn Peckam the next Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but one was created Bishop of that See by the Popes meere Authority against the Monkes and Kings consents whence in his Letters to the Pope he usually stiled himselfe his creature though he made him pay foure thousand Markes for his Creation And to â—hew himselfe his creature in good earnest he upon the Popes most insolenâ— Letter to him recorded at large by Matthâ—w Parker in his life to prohibit King Edward the first from collecting the Tenths granted to him in England by the Clergy for the recovery of the Holy Land â—rom the Sarazens which the King collected by his owne Officers and laid up in such places as he thought meet without the Popes speciall license not without great sinne agâ—inst the divine Majesty and high contempt of the Apostolicke Seaâ— went to the King immediately being then in the confines of Wales and there publikely before all his Nobles by vertue of the Popes command admonished the King First within one moneths space to restore all the Monies collected and to send it to the places formerly appointed for its custody with so great promptitude of devotion as might expiate the former blot of removing it thence Secondly that he should â—or time to come wholly desist from such attempts adding that althoâ—gh the Apostolicall clemency did yet embrace him as one of her deare Sonnes yet if he should hereafter chance to be found guilty of such offences that she neither would nor yet could substract the Rod of Correction from him left by sparing man she should consent to those Divine injuries which she corrected not Thirdly that he should neither molest nor grieve any of the Keepers or Depositaries of the said Monies upon this occasion To which insolent Demands the King gave a very mild Answer This Lordly Prelate was very stately in his gesture gate words and outward â—hew he very often opposed himselfe against King Edward the first in Parliament in right of his Church denying to grant him Tenths conâ—esting with him often about certaine Liberâ—ies pertaining to the Crowne touching Church matters Anno 1279. he held a Councell at Reading wherein he enjoyned all Priests every Lords day to excommunicate among others those who impetrated Letters or Writs from any Lay Court to hinder the proceedings of the Ecclesiastickes in Causes pertaining to them by the holy Canons He held his Prebendary of Lions in France in Commendam and would not part with it by any meanes because he looked every day to be driven out of England by the King whom he stiffely opposed and resisted to his face in many things and then he should have no othâ—r home to take to Hee promptly obeyed the Popes commands against the King not to pay him any Subsidies or give him any aide without the Popes consent and oft admonishing the King before his Nobles to obey â—he Popes Mandates in derogation of his Crowne and tending to the great oppression of his Subjects Hee called another Councell aâ— Lambeth Anno 1280. in which he went about to annihilate certaine Liberties belonging to the Crowne as the taking knowledge of the Right of Patronages and the Kings Prohibitions In placitis de catallis and such like which seemed meerely to touch the Spiritualty But the King by some in that Councell withstood the Arch-Bishop openly and with menaces stayed him from concluding any thing that might prejudice his Royall Liberties and Prerogatives After which he held another Councell at Reading Anno 1290. where he and the Bishops purposed to draw the Conusans of Advowsons and Patronages of Churches belonging time out of minde to the Kings Temporall Couâ—ts to the Ecclesiasticall Consistories utterly to cut off all the Kings Prohibitions to these Courts in suites concerning Goods Chattels and Debts so that the Ecclesiasticall Judges should not from thenceforth be prohibited to proceed on in them But the King hearing of this their designe and encroachment on his Royall Crowne prohibited them to proceed therein under paine of his indignation whereupon the Councell was dissolved and the Archâ—Bishop and other Prelates frustrated of their hopes Who yet proceeding to encroach upon the Kings
Royalties in their Ecclesiasticall Courts Hee thereupon sent forth Writs to restraine them to this effect Rex Archiepiscopis c. The King to the arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Deanes Arch-Deacons Chancellours Praecentors Provosts Sacrists Prebends in Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches and to all other Ecclesiasticall Persons constituted in what-ever Dignity or Office as also to publike Notaries and all others greeting It behoveth us so much the more carefully to doe our endeavour and more soliciâ—ously to extend our hand to our Royall Prerogatives lest they â—hould utterly perish or by the undue Usurpations of any be in some â—ort substracted by maintaining them as farre as we lawfully may by reducing them to their due stateâ— if any of them have beene substracted and seized on as likewise by bridling the impugners oâ— our said Royall Jurisdictions and by punishing them as it is meet according to their demerits And so much the rather by how much we are knowne to be obliged to doe it by the Bond of an Oath and behold more men from day to day to impugne the same Rights to their utmost power whereas we have recovered in our Court before us by consideration of the said Courâ— our Collation to the Prebend of S. in the Church of Saint Peters in Yorke c. And now we have understood that certaine men endeavouring with all thâ—â—r might to impugne our Royall Right and forâ—saiâ— Judgement as likewise our Collation made to our said Clerke have made and procured to be made certaine Provocations Appealeâ— Indictions Inhibitions c. by the which if they should proceed our Royall Right and foresaid Judgement and the effect of our Collation should be annulled which might many wayes generate prejudice and exheredation to us and our Crowne We desiring by all meanes we may to prevenâ— such prejudice and exheredation and to restraine the unlawfull endeavours of all the impugners of the Rights of our Crowne strictly prohibite you and every of you that you doe not by pretext of any Commission made or hereafter to be made to you or any of you presume by any Authority without our advice to attempt or by others in any soâ—â— cause to be attempted any thing which may tend to the derogation of our Royall Right or annulling of the â—oresaid Judgement rightly given or the weakening of our said Collation knowing that if you shall doe otherwise we will proceed to apprehend you in a grievous manner Tanquam violatores Iuris nostri Regii as violaters of our Royall Right By these Writs the Usurpations of this Arch Prelate and the Bishops on the Kings Royall Prerogative and Courts of Justice were somewhat restrained otherwise they had in time made themselves absolute Kings and the Kings of England meere Cyphers and onely executioners of their Papall pleasures Robert Winchelsie his Successour exceedingly opposed his Soveraigne King Edward the first Who having spent an infinite summe of Money in the Warres of Scotland summonâ—d a Parliament at Barwicke wherein when the Temporalty contributed liberally toward the charge of that Warre the Clergy alledging the Canon of the late Councell of Lyons wherein it was decreed That no Clergie-man should pay any Ayde or Subsidie to any Temporall Magistrate without the Popes licence which Canon the Arch-Bishop alledged against the Subsidie granted by the Clergy two yeares before in his absence causing them then to set it downe for a Canon afterwards to be kept inviolably refused to grant the King a Subsidy without the Popes consent and would then give no Subsidy nor supply at all to the King though at the same time they readily granted three Subsidies to the Pope towards his Warres against the French The King would not take this for payment and therefore presently tooke order That all Barnes of these undutifull rebellious Clergy-men should be locked up and by Proclamation put all the Clergy from out of his protection so that hereafter it should be lawfull for any man to sue them for any Cause but they might not commence Suite against any man holding a Parliament with his Temporall Lords and Commons onely and shutting the Bishops and Clergy out of the Parliament house This constrained some of the Clergy after much contest though animated and sollicited by the Arch-Bishop still to resist to submit to the King at last and to be content to grant him such a proportion of their goods though it were the fifth part of their Revenues as he should like of onely the Arch-Bishop the Head of this â—action continued obstinate making no other answer to the King but this Under God our universall Lord we have two other Lords a Spirituall Lord the Pope and a Temporall Lord the King and though wee be to obey both yet rather the Spirituall Lord then the Temporall When therefore he saw all the rest inclining to yeeld using no other words then this Salvet unusquisque animam suam Let every man save his owne Soule as if Rebellion against his Prince were the only meanes to save his soule and pronouncing all those excommunicated that contributed any thing to the King he rose up and suddenly departed out of the Convocation House The King for this his contumacy seized all his Lands and commanded all such Debts of his as were found in the Rolls of the Exchequer to be leâ—ed with all speed on his Goods and Cattell which he seized into his hands and made shew of great displeasure Notwithstanding shortly after being to make Warre with the French King in France hee thought good before his departure to receive this Arch-Rebell to favour againe who had caused the King to be cited up to the Court of Rome and there suspended But this grace endured not long for presently upon his returne the King laid divers high Treasons to his charge as That he had dehorted his Subjects in his absence from paying their Subâ—idies That he went about to trouble the quiet state of the Realme and to defend and succour Rebellious persons That he had conspired with divers of his Nobility to deprive him of his Kingdome though the best Prince that ever England had before to commit him to perpetuall Prison and to Crowne his Sonne Edwaâ—d King in his stead and that he was the Ring-leader and Authour of this Conspiracy The Arch-Bishop noâ— able to deny these Treasons and being suspended from his Office by the Pope till he should purge himselfe of these things he fell downe on the ground at the Kings feete craving pardon of his heynous offences with teares and howling calling the King then his Lord which he never did before neither with his month nor in his Letters Thus this proud Prelate exâ—crable both to God and man who had twice a little before prohibited the King in the Popes name to make Warre with the rebellious and treacherous Scots his Enemies who had invaded his Kingdome in his absence because the Pope had taken them into his protection who had
defiled and infected the whole Priest-hood and Clergy of England with his pride exercised an unheard of Tyranny over the people being now deprehended by the King in his wickednesse terrified and dejected with the guilt of his sinne and feare of punishment lay now prostrate on the ground before the King offered him his Pall and subâ—iâ—ted his person and goods to his mercy To whom the King gave this answer I will not punish thee my selfe leâ—t I should seeme rather to have respect to my owne Revenge though most just then to thy Order And although thou art altogether unworthy of thy Order and my Grace yet I will referre the matter to thy fellow Bishops and the Pope of Rome that thou mayest be tryed by thy Peeres lest thou shouldest thinke me an unjust Judge though the Conusans of Treason the highest Crime in a Sâ—bject belongs without doubt to my Tribunall not to theirs Moreover added the King I have knowne thy hatred and malice towards me not onely in the greatest things but even in the smallest and in matters of least moment in which by thy authority thou hast over-much abused my patience depriving my Clerkes in thy visitation notwithstanding my Letters to the contrary and their just appeales both which thou hast contemned together with my Royall Authority The Arch-Bishop troubled and confounded in minde at these things craved a Blessing from the King who replyed That his Blessing would rather become him then his the Arch Bishop The King hereupon complaines of him to the Pope That he had troubled the peaceable and safe estate of the Kingdome in his absence and stirred up the Nobles to a Rebellion and Conspiracy against him c. And notwithstanding his submission cited him to appeare at Rome banished him the Realme seized upon all his goods moveable and unmoveable forbidding all his Subjects under a great paine to foster him Yet the Monkes of Canterbury secretly harboured him for a time furnished him with necessaries and conveyed him beyond the Seas Which the King afterwards understanding seized on all their Goods and Lands banished them the Monastery turning fourescore Monkes a begging forbidding any to harbour them and kept them in that miserable estate till afterwards he was pleased upon their submission to restore them After which the Bishop of Winchester interceded to the King for this Arch Traytor calling him his Lord with which the King being greatly offended put this Bishop out of his protection and confiscated his goods because he acknowledged another then the King to be his lord even such a one who being guilty of Treason manifest contempt against the King had lost the very right of a Subject in his Kingdome While the Arch-Bishop was thus in exile before any hearing of this Cause at Rome the King deceaseth who as Holinshed writes was an earnest enemie of the high and presumptuous insolencie of Priests which he judged to proceede chiefely of too much Wealth and Riches and therefore hee devised to establish the Statute of Mortmain to be a bridle to their inordinate lusts and riotous excesse which Statute they laboured to repeale and purchase out by giving large Subsidies to that end His Sonne Edward the second succeeding him out of an over-indulgent pitty calls home this Arch-Traytor by his Letter writes to the Pope to discontinue his Fathers Suite against him and to send him over with all speed to Crowne him Who glad with the newes and unable to make haste home as was requisite by reason of his crazie body sent a Commission to the King with the names of three Bishops in it giving him liberty to elect which of the three he desired to Crowne him in his behalfe who made choyse of the Bishop of Winchester who set the Crowne on his head The King upon the Arch-Bishops returne restored him all his goods and every penny received of his Temporalties during his two yeares exile a good reward for a Traytor whereby he became the richest Arch-Bishop of many before and after him He was no sooner come home but a new danger encountred him by his owne wonted boldnesse The King by the counsell of Piers Gaveston had committed the Bishop of Coventry to Ward at York A Convocation shortly after being assembled the Arch-Bishop would not suffer any matter to be debated in the House till the Bishop were set at liberty which the King was contented to beare withall at that time This Bishop saith Matthew his Successour though he were reported to be a stout Governour of the English Church and a Defender of its Rites yet he was too excessive in this and ever opposite to the King attributing that to the Pope with whom he was most strictly linked which he derogated from the King seeking not so much the Liberties of the Realme as the encrease of the Popes power and deminishing the Kings Authority that he might transferre it to the Pope He was a great enemie to Prohibitions labouring the advancement of the Ecclesiasticall Courts Jurisdiction and the eclipsing of the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kings Courts He was the Author of Articuli Cleri and Walter Raynolds his Successour procurer of the Kings answere to them in Parliament Which Articles though they bee commonly taken for a Statute yet in truth they are none but a meere Answere of the King in Parliament to Articles exhibited to him by the Clergie made by the advice of his Councell but not of the Commons and whole Parliament and a particular Grant of the King onely not of the Parliament as appeares by the severall Answeres to each of those Articles but especially to the last Finally he ever sided with the Pope for the Liberties of the Church and with the Barons also against the King He opposed himselfe against Piers Gaveston the Spensers and other Favouriâ—es and Corruptors of the young King very boldly and enforced Iohn Warren Earle of Surrey to forsweare the Company of a certaine beautifull Harlot with the love of whom hee was greatly bewitched And afterwards when notwithstanding his Oath he returned to her company and got Children upon her hee accused him to the Convocation both of Adultery and Perjury and aâ— last made him to leave her Hee excommunicated Walter Bishop of Coventry for revolâ—ing from him and the Clergie and adhering to Piers Gaveston who appealed unto the Pope and was by him absolved Which last Acts of his are commendable though they proceeded rather from the stournesse and haughtinesse of his Spirit then the Pietie of his Heart How ever his former are most execrable Walter Raynolds his next Successor advanced and preferred onely by King Edward the Second to that Sea when the King after the Barons Warres ended had done execution upon divers of the Noblâ—s that had rebâ—lled Adam Tarltâ—n Bishop of Hereford by the Kings direction in a Parliament holden at London Anno Dom. 1324. was apprehended and brought to the Baâ—â—â— to be arraigned for the like faults
of Rebellion and High Treason against his Soveraigne to wit for ayding succouring and maintaining the Morâ—imers and other Rebels who having nothing to say in defence of himselfe against the Crimes objected unto him at first disdained to make any answere at all and when he was in a manner forced thereto standing mute a long space at length hee brake out into these words and flatly told the King My Lord and King saving your Reverence I am an humble Minister and Member of the Holy Church of God and a consecrated Bishop though unworthy I neither can nor ought to answere to such high matters without the connivence and consent of my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury my direct Iudge next after the Pope and of the other Fathers the Bishops my Peeres At which saying the arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops there present rose up and interceded to the King for their Colleague and when as the King would not be entreated the whole Clergie challenged the Bishop as a Member of the Church and so exempt from the Kings Judicature as if Lay men were not Members of the Church too as well as Bishops and Priests and so by this reason exempt from Secular Jurisdiction The King forced thereunto with their Clamours though for a very Traytors rescue committed him to the Arch-Bishops custody to answere elsewhere for these Crimes But within few dayes after when the King called him againe before his presence to make answere to the matters layd against him and there arraigned him before his Royall Tribunall for his Treasons all the Bishops of England almost being then at London the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury Yorke and Dublin accompanyed with ten other Bishops and a great troupe of men hearing of Tarlâ—ons Arraignment in great haste hyed them thither and having their Crosses borne before them entred the Court by violence tooke the Prisoner from the Barre before hee had made any answere chased away the Kings Officers by force and carryed him away with them from the Barre the highest affront that ever was offered to publicke Justice in the Kingdome and that in open Parliament in case of High Treason against the King and withall they proclaimed That no man should lay violent hands on this Traytor whom they had rescued upon paine of Excommunication The King being exceedingly moved with this unparalleled insolence of the Clergie as he had reason commanded an Inquest to bee impanelled and a lawfull inquiry to bee made of the Treasons committed by him in his absence The Jury without feare of the King or any hatred of the Bishop according to the truth of the matter finding the Bishop guilty of all the Treasons and Rebellions whereof he was indicted the King hereupon banished the Bishopâ— seized upon his Temporalties Lands and Goods but the Bishop himselfe by the consent of all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops was by strong hand kept safe in the Arch-Bishop of Canterburies custodie notwithstanding his proscripâ—ion who at last reconciled this Traytor to the King So industrious have the Bishops beene not onely to plot and execute Treasons but likewise to defend and intâ—rcede for Traytors of their owne Coat to keepe them from execution and to get them againe into favour that so they might more boldly proceede on in their intended Trecheries and Rebellions being sure to escape unpunished by meanes of their fellow Bishops how ever other Traytors speede After this the King demanded Subsidies of the Clergie towards his Warres which they at first stiffely denyed to grant without the Popes Licence first obtained which the King was enforced to procure and notwithstanding it they stood off a while alledging That the Pope had of late yeares received so many Subsidies and Procurations from them that they were not able to give the King so much as one Subsidie who could readily grant the Pope so many At last upon this condition That the King should augment and confirme those Ecclesiasticall Priviledges they claymed they granted him a Subsidie and he thereupon gave the Answeres to Articuli Cleri and granted the Clergie to be free from Purveyances After this the Queene with Edward the third her Sonne went into France to make Peace betweene France and England where by the French Kings perswasions being her Brother she continued refusing to returne againe into England The King hereupon banisheth her and her Sonne great Warres and stirres arise hereupon divers of the Nobles together with the Bishops of Lincolne Hereford Dublin and Ely side with the Queene and levie a great summe of Money for her The Arch-Bishop though advanced meerely by the King who highly favoured him secretly joynes with the Queene against his Soveraigne in his greatest necessiâ—ies and sent the Queene both monies and supplies secretly yet keeping in with the King in outward shew the better to betray him and his secrets And Bishop Tarlton whom he had formerly rescued from his Arraignement and reconciled to the King became the chiefest stickler and Incendiary against his Soveraigne and the Authour of his subsequent murther The King what with warres and Papall exactions was brought to such penurie that he was forced to borrow 260. pounds even of the Popes Collectors of Peter-pence The Queenes side and Forâ—es at last prevailing against the King who was glad to lurke in Wales like a fugitive the Arch-Bishop openly revolts from him and the King by his and other the Bishops meanes being deposed in Parliament Edward the third his Sonne was unanimously elected King by all the people The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with all the Prelates here all Arch-traytors consented to the Election and the Arch-Bishop taking this Theame The voyce of the People is the voyce of God made a speech to the people exhorting them to pray to the King of Kings for the new Elected King who out of his filiall duty refused upon any termes to accept the Crowne without his Fathers consent whereupon three Bishops with others were sent to the King to Kenelworth where he was imprisoned to get his consent which being implyedly obtained the Arch-Bishop Crownes his Sonne King in his stead at Westminster the very height of Treason This Arch-Bishop much hindered the course of Prohibitions from the Kings Court to the Ecclesiasticall At last hee was commanded by the Queene to consecrate one Iames Barkely Bishop of Exeter which hee did but for his labour was so threatned taunted and reviâ—ed by the Pope who had reserved the Donation of this Bishopricke to himselfe that for very griefe hee dyed Iohn Straâ—ford his very next successour being made Bishop of Winchester by the Popes provision against King Edward the seconds liking who would have preferred Robert Baldocke his Chancellour to that See had no sooner set sooting into this Bishopricke but the King caused all his Goods to be seized and his Livings to be sequestred to his use besides he caused him to be summoned to answerâ— to severall Actions so as for feare hee was faine to hide himselfe Whereupon
Proclamation was made that no man should dare to harbour or give him entertainement by meate drinke or lodging At last after much adoe the Arch-Bishop made his peace and brought him into favour with the King who dying King Edward the third advanced him to the See of Canterbury The King going into France with a great Armie and laying claime to that Crowne committed the Government of the Realme here at home to the Arch-Bishop He besides other promises of faithfull diligence in the trust committed to him assured the King hee should want no money to expend in this exploit whereunto all kindes of people shewed themselves so willing to yeeld what helpe they possibly might as hee tooke â—pon him to discerne the King might command of them what hee liâ—t No sooner was the King over Seas but infinite summes of Money were collected with the very good liking of all the people This Money which men thought would have maintained the Warres for two or three yeares was spent in lesse than one The King wanting Money puts the Arch-Bishop in minde of his promise calling continually on him for more Monies The Arch-Bishop blames his Officers beyond the Seas for ill managing of his Treasure advising him to make peace with the French upon reasonable conditions sending him no more Money The King grew exceeding angry with the Arch-Bishop for this Motion and usage and his Souldiers calling for Mony he told them that the Arch-Bishop had beâ—rayed him to the French King who no doubt had hired him to detaine their pay in his hands and to satisfie his Souldiers needes was enforced to take up what Monies he could at hard rates from Usurers And though some excuse the Arch-Bishop in this yet others thinke him guilty of practising against the Kings further good â—ortunes in France because Pope Benedict the Twelfth was displeased much therewith as pretending it was pernicious to Christendome and thereupon put Flanders under Interdict for leaving the French King and adhering to King Edward and therefore the Arch-Bishop to please the Pope whom hee obeyed more than the King who had written a Leâ—â—er to the King and him to desist from that Warre thus thwaâ—â—ed the Kings deâ—ignes by not sending him such supplies of Money as hee promised and in moving him to peace The King taking it very hainously to be thus dealt with and that his brave beginnings and proceedings in France should bee thus crossed hereupon steps suddenly over into England and caâ—â—s the Bishop of Chichester then Lord Chancellour and the Bishop of Liâ—hâ—â—eld then Lord Treasurer prisoners into the Tower whither he intended to send the Arch-Bishop But hee having some inkling of the Kings intention got him to Canterbury and there stood upon his guard being accused by Heâ—â—y Bishop of Lincolne and Gregory Scrope then Lord chieâ—e Justice of England of Trechery and Conspiracy with the French and of High-treason the whole blame by the generall voyce of all men lying on him Sir Nicholas Cantilupus hereupon â—ollowed him to Canterbury with Iohn Faâ—ingdon a publike Notary who required him to make present payment of a great summe of Money which the King had taken up of out-landish Merchants upon the Arch-Bishops credit or else to get him over Seas immediately and yeeld his body prisoner to them till â—he debt was discharged for that the King upon his promise had undertaken hee should so doe The Arch-bishop sayd he could give no present answere but would take time to advise thereof writing divers Letters to the King not to hearken to Flatterers and those who defamed other mens actionâ— and to make choyse of better Counsellourâ— and not to disturbe the peace at home whiles he made waâ—â—es abroad After which hee called the Clergie and people into the Cathedrall Church of Canterbury and made an Oration to them taking Ecclesiastiâ—us 48.10 for his Theame He feared not any Prince neither â—oâ—ld any bring him into subjectionâ— no word could overcome â—im c. In which Sermon hee highly commended and approved Thâ—mas Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbâ—ry who with-drew himselfe wholly from all Secular Affaires and betooke himselfe onely to the Government of the Church and blamed himselfe much for that hee had left the care of the Church and wholly yea dayly iâ—ployed himselfe in the managing the Kings affaires for which he now received no other reward for his merits towards the King and Kingdome but envie and the danger of his head promising with teares that hereafter hee would be more diligent in the Government of the Church Which Sermon ended to keepe off all Royall violence from him he published certaine Articles of Excommunication after the horrid Popish manner with Tapers burning and Bells ringing In which Articles hee Excommunicated all those who disturbed the peace of the King and Kingdome all Lay-men who should lay violent hands on the Clergie or invade their Lands Houses Goods or violate the Liberties of the Church or Magna Charta or forge any crimes oâ— any one but especially every one that should draw himselfe or any Bishop of his Province into the Kings hatred or displeasure or should falsely say they were guilty of Treason or worthy of any notable or capitall punishment Having published these Articles in the Church of Canterbury hee commanded the Bishop of London and all the Suffragans of his Province to proclaime them in their Churches and Diocesse The King hearing of this strange insolencie writes to the Bishop of London acquaints him how trecheroâ—sly the Arch-Bishop had dealt with him and how by these Excommunications hee thought to shift off his calling to an account and therefore commanded him not to publish themâ— Afâ—er which the King sent Ralph Eaâ—le of Stafford with two Notaries to the Arch-bishop to summon him in the Kings Name without delay to appeareâ— before him to consult with his other Nobles and Prelates concerning the affaires of England and France The Bishop gave no other answere but this That he would deliberate upon itâ— Soone after there came certaine Messengers from the Duke of Brabant desiring to speake with the Arch-Bishop who refusing to speake with them they cited him by Writings which they hanged on the High Crosse at Canterbury to make payment of a great summe of Money which the King of England had borrowed of him The King after this sends some Letters to the Prior and Covent of Canterbury who shewing the Letters to the Arch-Bishop he on Ash-Wednesday goes up into the Pulpit in the Cathedrall Church and there calling the Clergie and people to him spake much to them concerning his fidelity and integrity in the Kings businesse after which hee commanded the Kings Letters to be read and then answered all the Crimes and Calumnies as he â—earmed them layd against him in those Letters and putting his Answere which he there uttered into Writing he published it throughout his whole Provincâ— The King hereupon makes a Reply to his Answere shewing therein how treacherously and
and delete such power given by God to the Princes of the earth whereby they might gather and get to themselves the government and rule of the world have in their Councells and Synods Provinciall made ordained and established and decreed divers ordinances and constitutions that no Lay or marryed man should or might exercise or occupie any Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall nor should be any Judge or Registerâ— in any Court commâ—nly called Ecclesiasticall Courâ— lest their â—alse and usurped power which they pretended and went about to have in Christs Church should decay waxe vile and of no reputation as by the sayd Councels and Constitutions Provinciall appeareth which standing and remaining in their effect not abolished by your Graces Lawes did seeme to appeare to make greatly for the sayd usurped power of the sayd Bishop of Rome and to be directly repugnant to your Majesties Title of supreame head of the Church and prerogative Royall your Grace being a Lay-man and albeit the sayd Decrees Ordinances and Constitutions by a Statute made the 25â— yeare of your most noble raigne be utterly abolished frustrate and of none effect yet because the contrary thereunto is not used nor put in practise by â—he Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes and other Ecclesiasticall persons who have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall but by under and from your royall Majesty it addeth or aâ— the least may give occasion to some evill disposed persoâ—s to thinke and little to regard the proceeding and censures Ecclesiasticall made by your Highnesse and your Vice-gerent Officialls Commissaries Judges and Visitatorsâ— being also Lay and married men to be of little or none effect or force whereby the people gathereth heart and presumption to doe evill and not to have such reverence to your most godly injunctions and proceedings as becommeth them But forasmuch as your Majesty is the onely and undoubtedly supreame head of the Church of England and also of Ireland to whom by Scripture all authority and power is wholly given to heare and determine all causes Ecclesiasticall and to correct all vice and sinne whatsoever and to all such persons as your Majesty shall appoint thereunto that in consideration thereof as well for the instruction of ignorant persons as also to avoyd the occaâ—ion of the opinion aforesayd and setting forth of your prerogative royall and supremacy It may therefore please your Highnesse that it may bee ordained and enacted by authority of this present Parliament that all and singular aswell Lay as those that be married now or hereafter shall be married being Doctors of the Civill Law lawfully create and made in any University which shall be made ordained constituted and deputed to bee any Chancellour Vicar Generall Commissary Officiall Scribe or Register by your Majesty or any of your Heires or Successours to anyâ— Arch-Bishop Bishop Arch-Deacon or other person whatsoever having authority under your Majesty your Heires and Successours to make any Chancellour Vicar Generall Commissary Offâ—ciall or Register may lawfâ—lly execute and exercise all mannâ—r of Jurisdiction commonly called Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and all Censures and Corrections appertaining oâ— any wise belonging unto the same albeit such person or persons be Lay married or unmarried so that they be Doctors of the Civill Law as is aforesayd any Law Constitution or Ordinance to the contrary notwiâ—hstanding By this Act it is apparent that the end of the former Constitution was trecherously to undermine and abolish the Kings Prerogative Royall in causes Ecclesiasticall and to make the Pope and our Prelates absolute Monarches and our Kings meere Cyphers to execute their Mandates when by the expresse words of this Law with that of 1. Ed. 6. c. 2.26 H. 8. c. 1.1 Eliz. c. â— 5 Eliz. c. 1.8 Eliz. c. 1. and 1. and 2. Phil. and Mâ—ry c. 8. it is most clearely resolved that our Arch-Bishops and Bishops have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall over other Ministers by any divine right as they now vainely if not trayterously pretâ—nd but by from and under our Kings in whose name and right and under whose Seale alone all their Ecclesiasticall processe ought to issue as hath beene elsewhere plentifully manifested it being no lesse than a Premunire by the Statute of 1. Edw. 6. c. 2. â—or any Bishops or Ecclesiasticall Judges to issue out processes in their owne names and under their owne Seales as now our Prelates doe This Law of Premunire was such a curbe to our usurping Prelates that this Arch Prelate Chichely in the last Synod hee held Anno. 1439. without delay or difficulty granted King Henry the sixt a Tenth and promised him large supplyes from the Clergie in all things if he would abrogate those hard Lawes of Premunire where-with the Clergie were very falsely accused and oft taken and ensuared as in unjust sâ—ares whereas in truth those Lawes were the principall safety both of King and people to preserve and free them from the unjust incroachments of Popes and Prelates upon their Liberties Lawes and Estates which made the Pope and them so frequently to sollicite their repeale And by his countenance William Lindwood collected and set out the Provinciall Constitutions of the Arch-Prelates of Canterbury in their Synods in affront of the Kings prerogative Royall and the Lawes of the Realme dedicating them to this Arch-Prelate and entreating him to put them in due Execution being neglected and quite disregarded formerly both by Prelates Judges and people as he complaines in his Epistle Dedicatory to him In briefe when in the Parliament held at London Anno 1414. under King Henry the fifth the Commons reviewed their former Petition in Parliament made to King Henry the fourth but foure yeares before to seize the Bishops and Abbots Temporalities shewing how many Earles Knights and Esquires they would maintaine The Bishops and Abbots whom it touched very neare much â—earingâ— the issueâ— determined to assay all wayes to put by and overthrow this Bill and minding rather to bow than breake they first agreed to offer the King a great summe of money to stay this new moven Demand The cause of this offer seemed to some of the wise Prelates neither decent nor convenient for they well â—oresaw and perfectly knew that if the Commons perceived that they by rewards or by offer of money would resist their request and petition that they stirred and moved with a fury would not onely raile and despise them as corrupters of Princes and enemies of the Publickeâ—Wealth but would so cry and call on the King and the â—emporall Lords that they were like to lose both worke and oyle cost and lining Wherefore they determined to cast all chances which might serve their purpose and in speciall to replenish the Kings braine with some pleasant study so as that hee should neither phantasie nor regard the serious Petition of the importunate Commons Wherefore on a day when the King was present in Parliament this Henry Chichely Arch-Bishop of Canterbury after low
in a Synod at London under him Anno Dom. 1487. certaine Preachers were sharpely reproved and threatâ—ed who in their Sermons cum plausu populari eloquentia canina latranâ— immodestius in Episcopos absentes did with popular applause aâ—d doggish eloquence barke immodestly againâ—â— Bâ—shops that were absent In the latter end of this Arch-Bishop Mortons rule one Patricke an Auguâ—â—ine Fryer had a Scholar called Ralph Wilford whom â—e in open Pulpit declaâ—ed to be the Earle of Warwicke and desired all men of helpe but the head of this sedition was Sommer topped that it could have no time to spring any higher the Master and Scholler being both apprehended imprisoned and attainâ—ed the Scholler was afterwards hanged but the Master the Grand Traytor onely condemned to perpetuall Prison For at that time writes Hall here in England so much Reverence was attributed to the Holy Orders that to a Pâ—iest although hee had committed High Treason against his Soveraigne Lord and to all other offenders in murder rape or theft which had received any of the three higher Holy Orders the life was given and the punishment of death released The chiefe cause of this favour saith he was this because Bishops of a long time did not take knowledge nor intermit themselves with the search and punishment of such heynous and detesâ—able offences by reason whereof they did not disgrade and deprive from holy Orders suâ—h Malefactors and wicked persons which without that ceremony by the Canonicall Law could not bee put to death Furthermore what should a man say it was also used that hee that could but onely reade though he understood not what he read how heynous or detestable crime soever hee had committed Treason onely excepted should likewise as affâ—nes and allies to the holy Orders be saved and committed to the Bishops prison And to the intent that if they should escape and be againe taken committing the like offence that their lives should be no more to them pardoned it was ordained that Murtheâ—ers should bee burnt on the brawne of the left hand with an hot Iron signed with this letter M and theeves in the same place with this letter T so that ifâ— they once signed with any of these markes did reiterate like crime againe they should suffer the punishments they had deserved which devise was enacted and established in Parliament in the fourth yeare of H. the 7. and taken as I conjecture from the French Nation which are wonâ— if they take any such offender to cut off one of his eares as a sure marke hereafter of hâ—s evill doing And the charge of keeping such offenders because it soundeth to spirituall Religion is committed to the Bishops and Rulers of the spiritualty with a penalty set upon them if any such Prisoner doe afterwards escape The which Act and priviledge did nourish and increase abundantly the Sect and swarme of Theeves and Murtherers for after that time there were an hundred wayes practised and invented how at one time or other to deliver or convey them out of prison by making their purgation by what sleight meanes they care not of such offences as before they were convicted and found guilty if no man be present to lay exceptions to the same For if the party offended and hurt be absent at the day of the purgation making the theefe or murtherer truely found guilty from the beginning shall be both excused and set at liberty And oftentimes the sooner because the Bishop would not lose the sum of an hundred pound for the escape of a poore Knave scant worth a dandy prat so Hall whose words I have recited to manifest what favorers and Protectors our Bishops have beene of Traytors and Malefactors in all ages especially of those of their owne Tribe who by meanes of their Orders Sanctuaries Purgations and other pretended exemptions and devises were seldome brought to execution for their most horrid Treasons which made them the more bold and insolent to commit them And for my part I deeme it true both in Law and conscience that the Patrons Receivers and Resâ—ners of Traytors and other Malefactors as our Prelates have ever beene are as bad nay worse than the Traytors and Malefactors themselves and worthy more severe punishment than they But it is time to conclude with this Arch-Bishop Henry Deane who next injoyed this See was â—ormerly made Chancellour of Ireland by King Henry the seventh where hee played the Warriour and drave Perkin Warberke thence forcing him to fly into Scotland after this being made Bishop of Bangor he had many great suites and â—ontests with divers about the Lands won or taken from his See And among other particulars pretending the Island of Seales betweene Holy-head and Anglesy to be unjustly detained from his Church by the possessers thereof they refusing to give him possession the Bishop thereupon brings a great power of armed men and a Navie thither and drives out the Inhabitants thence by force annexing it to his See This Prelate being afterward Translated to Salisbury and from thence to Canterbury the Pope sent him a Pall by Adrian of Castello Secretary to his holinesse upon the receite whereof he tooke this Solemne Oath to the Pope as his Predecessors and other Bishops formerly used yet practised in foâ—â—aine parts which made him a Traytor or halfe subject onely to his King I Henry Archbishop of Canterbury from this houre forward shall be faithfull and obedient to S. Peter and to the holy Church of Rome and to my Lord the Pope and his Successors Canonically entring I shall not be of Councell nor consent that they shall lose either life or member or shall be taken or suffer any violence or any wrong by any meanes Their Councell to me crediâ—ed by them their Messengers or Letters I shall not willingly discover to any person The Pope-dome of Rome the Rules of the Holy Fathers and the Regalities of S. Pâ—teâ— I shall helpe and retaine and defend against all men The Legate of the See Apostolicke going and comming I shall honourably entreate The Rights Honours Priviledges Authorities of the Church of Rome and of the Pope and his Successours I shall cause to be conserved defended augmented and promoted I shall not be in Councell Treaty or any Act in the which any thing shall be imagined against him or the Church of Rome their Rights States Honours or powers and if I know any such to be moved or compassed I shall resist it to my power and as soone as I can I shall advertise him or such as may give him knowledge The Rules of the Holy Fathers the Deâ—rees Ordinances Sentences Dispositions Reseâ—vations Provisions and Commandements Apostolike to my power I shall keepe and cause to be kept of others Heretickes Schismatickes and Rebels to our holy Father and his Successours I shall resist and perseâ—ute to my power I shall come to the Synod when I am called except I be letted by a Canonicall
impediment The Lights of the Apostles on this side the Alpes I shall visite personally or by my Deputy once every yeare and those beyond the Alpes once every two yeares unlesse I am there-from absolved by an Apostolicall dispensation I shall not alien or sell the possessions belonging to my Arch-Bishopricke nor give nor morgage nor infeofe any of them afresh or any wayes alien them without the Popes Counsell So God me help and the holy Evangelists This Oath every Arch-Bishop and Bishop not onely in England but likewise in Spaine France Germany and other Kingdomes used to take to the Popes unholinesse No wonder therefore if they were such Traytors Rebels and Conspirators against their Kings such sticklers â—or the Pope such Champions â—or his unjust usurpations upon thâ—ir Soveraignes Prerogatives and so forward to twhart and discover al those designes oâ— their Princes which were any wayes displeasing or disadvantagious to the Pope who as long as this Oath continued and Bishops that tooke it bore sway in our Kingdome being both Privie Counsellers of State Lord Chancellours Lord Privie Seales Lord Treasurers or other great Officers never lost his hold or usurped power among us which he still keâ—pes onely by meanes of Bishops in other Kingdomes where the Prelates yet take this Oath of Alleagiance to him But this Oath which like a mystery of Iniquity was concealed from our Princes being discovered to King Henry the eighth in the twenty fourth yeare of his raigne this wise Prince considering the disloyalâ—ty and mischiefe of it sending for the Speaker and Commons House of Parliament spake thus unto them Welbeloved Subjects We had thought the Clergie of our Realme had beene our Subjects but now We have well perceived that they be but halfe Our Subjects yea and scarce our Subjects For all the Prelates at their Consecrations take an Oath to the Pope cleane contrary to the Oath they make unto Vs with which the Pope usually dispensed but never with any Oath made to himselfe which must be observed and stand good what ever Oath else bee violated so that they seeme to be his Subjects and not ours And so delivering them the Coppy of both Oathes of this to the Pope and the other to himselfe required them to invent some order that he might not be thus deluded The discovering and opening of these Oathes which were read in Parliament both to the King and People as both Hall and Mr. Fox record was the occasion that the Pope lost all hâ—s interest and Jurisdiction here in England within short while after This Oath to the Pope being thereupon abolished and made voyd by the Statute and a new Oath to the King prescribed and ministred to the Bishops together with an Oath of Alleagiance wherein the Popes Authority stands abjured and the King acknowledged Supreame head on earth under Christ of the Church of England the forme of which Oathes are recorded in Mr. Fox Mr. Hall and the Statute of 28. Hen. 8. c. 10. The Prologue of which Act with the Oath â—herein prescribed being pertinent to our purpose I shall here recite AN ACT EXTINGVISHING the Authority of the Bishop of Rome FOrasmuch as notwithstanding the good and wholsome Lawes Ordinances and Statutes heretofore made enacted and established by the Kings Highnesse our most gracious Soveraigne Lord and by the whole consent of his High Court of Parliament for the extirpation abolition and extinguishment out of this Realme and other his graces Dominions Seigniories and Countries of the pretended power and usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome by some called the Pope used within the same or elsewhere concerning the same Realme Dominions Seigniories or Countries which did obsuscate and wrest Gods holy Word and Testament a long season from the spirituall and true meaning thereof to his worldly and carnall affections as Pompe Glory Avarice Ambition and Tyranny covering and shadowing the same with his humane and politicke Devises Traditions and inventions set forth to promote and stablish his onely Dominion both upon the soules and also the bodies and goods of all Christian people excluding Christ out of his Kingdome and rule of mans soule as much as he may and all other temporall Kings and Princes out of their Dominions which they ought to have by Gods Law upon the bodies and goods oâ— their Subjects whereby he did not onely rob the Kings Majestie being onely the supreame head of this his Realme of England immediately under God of his honour right and preheminence due unto him by the Law of God but spoyled this his Realme yearely of innumerable treasure and with the losse oâ— the same deceived the Kings loving and obedient Subjects perswading to them by his Lawes Bulls and other his deceivable meanes such dreames vanities and fantasies as by the same many of them were seduced and conveyed unto superstitious and erronious opinions so that the Kings Majestie the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons of this Realme being over-wearied and fatigated with the Experience of the infinite abominations and mischieâ—es proceeding of his impostures and craftily colouring of his deceits to the great damages of soules bodies and goods were forced of necessity for the publicke weale of this Realme to exclude that forraine pretended power jurisdiction and authority used and usurped within this Realme and to devise such remedies for their reliefe in the same as doth not onely redound to the honour of God the high praise and advancement of the Kings Majestie and oâ— his Realme but also to the great and inestimable utility of the same And notwithstanding the sayd wholsome Lawes so made and heretoâ—ore established yet it is commen to the knowledge of the Kings Highnesse and also to divers and many his loving faithfull and obedient Subjects how that divers seditious and contentious persons being Impes of the sayd Bishop of Rome and his See and in heart members of his pretended Monarchy doe in corners and else-where as they dare whisper inculke preach and perswade and from time to time instill into the eares and heads of the poore simple and unlettered people the advancement and continuance of the sayd Bishops fained and pretended authority pretending the same to have his ground and originall of Gods Law whereby the opinions of many be suspended their judgements corrupted and deceived and diversitie in opinions augmented and increased to the great displeasure of Almighty God the high discontentation of our sayd most Dread Soveraigne Lord and the interruption of the unity love Charity concord and agreement that ought to be in a Christian Region and Congregation For avoyding whereof nd repression of the follies of such seditious persons 〈◊〉 are the meanes and Authors of such inconveniences Be it enacted ordained and established by the King our Soveraigne Lord and the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same That if any person or persons
dwelling demurring inhabiting or resiant within this Realme or within any other the Kings Dominions Signiories or Countries or the Marches of the same or elsewhere within or under his obeysance and power of what Estate Dignity Preheminence Order Degree or Condition soever he or they be after the last day of July which shall be in the yeare of our Lord God 1530â— shall by Writing Cyphering Printing Preaching or Teaching Deed or Act obstinately or malicioâ—sly hold or stand with to extoll set forth maintaine or defend the Authority Jurisdiction or Power of the Bishop of Rome or of his See heretoâ—ore claimed used or usurped within this Realme or in any Dominion or Countie being of within or under the Kings power or obeysance or by any pretence obstinately or maliciously invent any thing for the extolling advancing setting forth maintenance or defence of the same or any part thereofâ— or by any pretence obstinately or maliciously attribute any manner of Jurisdiction Authority or Pâ—eheminence to the sayd See of Rome or to any Bishop of the same See for the time being within this Realme or in any of the Kings Dominions or Counties That then every such person or persons so doing or offending their ayders assistants comforters abettors procurers maintainers factors Counsellours concealors and every of them being thereof lawfully convicted according to the Lawes of this Realme for every such default and offence shall incurre and run into the dangers penalties paines and forfeiâ—ures ordained and provided by the Satute of Provision and Praeâ—â—nire made in the â—6 yeare of the Raigne of the Noble and Valiant Prince King Richard the second against such as attempt procure or make provision to the See of Rome or elsewhere for any thing or things to the derogation or contrary to the Prerogative Royall or Jurisdiction of the Crowne and Dignitie of this Realme And for stronger defence and maintenance of this Act It is ordained and enacted by authority aforesayd that all every Ecclesiastical Judge ordinary chancellour commissary official vicar-generall and other Ecclesiastical officer or minister of what dignity preheminence or Degree soever they shall be and all and every Temporall judge justiciaâ— Major bayliffe sheriffe under-sheriffe Escheater Alderman Iurat Constable Head-borough third-borough borsholder every other said officer Minister to be made created elected or admitted within this Realme or any other the Kings Dominions of what state order degree or condition soever he shall be from and after the sayd last day of July shall before he take upon him the Execution of such Office make take and receive a Corporall oath upon the Evangelists before such person or persons as have or shall have Authority to admit him That he from henceforth shall utterly renounce refuse relinquish or forsake the Bishop of Rome and his authority power and jurisdiction and that he shall never consent nor agree that the Bishop of Rome shall practise exercise or have any manner of authority jurisdiction or power within this Realme or any other the Kings Dominions but that he shall reâ—ist the same at all times to the uttermost of his power and that from henâ—eforth he shall accept repute and take the Kings Majestie to be the onely supreame head in earth of the Church of England and that to his cunning wit and uttermost of his power without guile fraud or other undue meanes he shall observe keepe maintaine and defend the whole effects and contents of all and singular Acts and Statutes made and to be made within this Realme in derogation extirpation and extinguishment of the Bishop of Rome and his authority and all other Acts and Statutes made and to be made in reformation and corroboration of the Kings power of supreame head in earth of the Church of England and this he shall doe against all manner of persons of what estate dignity degree or condition they be and in no wise doe nor attempt nor to his power suffer to be done or attempted directly or indirectly any thing or things privily or apertly to the let hinderance dammage or derogation thereof or of any part thereof by any manner of meanes or for any manner of pretence and in case any oâ—th be made or hath beene made by him to any person or persons in maintenance defence or favour of the Bishop of Rome or his authority jurisdiction or power he repute the same as vaine and adnihilate So helpe him God c. I could wiâ—h this obsolete Oath were now againe revived to hinder the further growth of Popery This forementioned Oath to the Pope usually taken by all our Prelates being one maine Pillar to support the Popes usurped Monarchy both at home and abroade and a chiefe engine to undermine the royall Prerogatives of Christian Princes and perchance the groundworke of many of our owne and forraine Prelates Treasons Treacheries Rebellions Conspiracies and contempts against their Soveraignes It will not be amisse noâ— impertinent here to inserâ— that excellent discourse which our famous Martyr Doctor Barnes hath long since made upon it in his Supplication to King Henry the 8. where he thus writes I dare boldly say that if we poore men which be now condemned for Hereticks and also for Traytors against our King had not beene the Realme of England had not stood in â—o good a condition as it is for men had beene bound still in their Conscience to obey this wretched Idoll who durst have kept this innumerable summe of money within the Realme that yearely was sucked out by this Adder if our godly learning had not instructed their Conscience Let all the Libraries be sought in England and there shall not be one Book written in 4. C. yeares and admitted by the Church of Rome and by our spiritualty found that doth teach this obedience and fidelity toward Princes and delivereth our Realme from the bondage of this wicked Sathan the Pope or else that is able to satisfie and to quieâ— any mans Conscience within this Realme and yet I dare say he is noâ— in England that can reprove our learning by the doctrine of our Master Christ or else of his holy Apostles Yea men have studyed and devised how they might bring our mighty Prince and his Noble Realme under the feete of this Devill There could be nothing handled so secretly within this Realme but if it were either pleasant or profitable to the Pope to know then were all the Bishops in England sworne to reveale thaâ— matter to him This may well be proved by their shamefull and trayterous oath that they contrary to Gods Law mans Law and order of nature have made to this false man the Pope The words of their oath written in their owne Law be theseâ— mannerâ— There hath been wondrous packing used and hath cost many a thousand mens lives ere that the spiritualty brought it to passe that all they should be sworne to the Pope and owe none obedience to any man but to him onely This
matter hath beene wondrous craftily conveyed for at the beginning the Bishops were not sworne so straitely unto the Pope as now For I doe reade in the â—ime of Gregory the third which wâ—s in the yeare of our Lord 759. how their oath was no more but to sweare for to keepe the faith of our Holy Church and to abide in the unity of the same and not to consent for any manâ— pleasure to the contrary to promise also to seeke the profits of the Church of Rome And if any Bishops did live against the old Statutes of Holy Fathers with him they should have no conversation but rather forbid it if they could or else truely to shew the Pope of it This Oath continued a great many of yeares till that a mortall hatred sprang betweene the Emperour and the Pope for confirming of Bishops then as many Bishops as were confirmed by the Pope did sweare the Oath that I have first written For this Oath that Gregory maketh mention of was not sufficientâ— because that by it the Bishops were not bound to betray their Princes not to revelaâ—e their Counsailes to the Pope The which thing the Pope must needes know or else he could not bring to passe his purpose that is to say he could not be Lord over the world and cause Emperours and Kings to fetch their confirmations of him and to kneele downe and kisse his feete The which when he had brought to passe he proceeded further adding more things to the Bishops Oathâ— to the maintaining of his worldly honour and dignity as it shall afterward appeare But first we will examine this Oath how it standeth with Gods Word and with the true obedience to our Prince I pray you tell me out of what Scripture or else out of what example of our Master Christ and his Holy Apostles you have taken this doctrine to learne to sweare to S. Peter or else to the Church of Rome or else to the Pope What neede you to sweare to S. Peter ye can neither doe him good by your fidelity noâ— yet hurt by your falshood Oathes be taken that he that the Oath is made unto might be sure of the true helpe and suâ—cour of him that sweareth against all men that could hurt him Now S. Peter hath none enemies and though he had yet is not he afraid of them neither can you helpe him nor deliver him if he had neede But the verity is that good S. Peter must here stand in the fore-front to make men afrayd with and to make men beleeve that you are his friends but God knoweth that you neither favour his person learning nor living For if S. Peters person were here with his net on his necke I thinke you would bid him walke begger if you called him not Hereticke Why doe you not sweâ—re to follow his living and to preach and teach his Doctrine but that maketh nothing for your purpose Therefore you sweare all onely â—o Saint Peters name But wherein will you be faithfull to Saint Peter to maintaine his worldly honours dignities or riches you know well he saith that he hath forsaken all these things for Christs sake and for these things I thinke he will require none Oath of you Wherefore if you will needes be faithfull and sworne unto S. Peter it must be in maintaining and in defending spirituall things as preaching of Christs Gospell purely and sincerely ministring truely after the institution of our Master Christ the blessed Sacraments of holy Church and in vertuous living giving example to the Holy Church of Christ. But now if this be your Oath truely you are perjured and worthy to weare Papers for you doe reckon your selves too high and too honourable to goe about such simple things as these be And therefore you have applyed your selves to other greater matters as to Christening of Bells to hallowing of Churches to blessing of Candles to consecrating of Holy Oyle to hallowing of Chalices vestments and Aâ—tars and to giving 40. dayes of pardon to them that receive your blessings in the streete and to some that visite Holy Saints and such like great matters which pertaine nothing to your Oath Wherefore I doe reckon that after the true forme of your Oath we have but few Bishops but that be perjured or abjured call it what you will both against God against S. Peter and against their Prince It followeth And to the Holy Church of Rome What needeth this what good can you doe to the Church of Rome or what profit is it to her that you sweare thinke you that â—he will compell you by your Oath to be true to her then must she needes sue you of perjury if you breake your Oath But marke how the Church of Rome is set in your Oath as the better person before the Pope wherefore it must needes follow that the Pope is under the Church and lesse than the Church and no head of the Church except you will make him a third person yeâ— neither pertaineth to S. Peter nor yet to holy Church but is a thing of himselfe and as your Law saith neither God nor man but middle betweene them both that is as much to say after my learning as the Devill himselfe But what meaneth it that you sweare onely to the Holy Church of Rome will you be traytors to the Holy Church of Constantinople or else to the Holy Church of England Or doe you thinke other Churches not holy tell us what you meane for it seemeth a marveilous thing and also a speciall thing that you make such an Oath all onely to the Holy Church of Rome naming none other Church Why are you not rather sworne to keep and to feede to nourish and to be true to your owne Church of the which you have taken cure and charge As S. Peter commandeth you See that you feede Christs flocke which is among you For of these you have taken your name living and dignity you are called Bishop of Winchester of London and of Lincolne and of these you are Fed but these be forgotten in your Oath and these you little regard but to maintaine the Holy Church of Rome that giveth you never a penny but robbeth all other Churches you must be â—â—raitely sworne And why Antichrist must have a cloake for his Treason For now if he be a Traytor he is to be excused Why for he is sworne to it But shall I tell you what I doe take out of it The truth is that you sweare to betray to kill and slay all members of all other Churches saving those that live after the whoredome and mischief that is used in Rome For if you should be bound to seeke out in Rome Christened men and those that doe live after the living of the holy Church I thinke you should finde but few yea and unto those you would thinke scorne to be sworne Ergo it must follow that you are sworne to the worst sort of Rome and that
unto our King and that absolution was blazen and blowne preached and taught throughout all the world and all doores and postes must bee decked with papers and bulls for your discharge But for to helpe your Prince you could never be discharged of your hereticall and trayterous Oath made unto the Pope against your Prince Here neither Peter nor Paul can helpe nor there is no key that can open that locke O Lord God how have we beene blinded thus trayterously to handle our naturall Prince But how this Caterpiller is come to be Lord and hath brought Kings under his feete I will speake God willing after this in a particular treatise It followeth and to his successors lawfully and regularly entring in After what Law I read in your owne Bookes of law after which me thinkes there be very few Bishops made wherein I finde among all other good things that he should be chaste of living meeke gentle to speake to mercifull well learned in the new and old Testament and that he should not forbid marriage nor should blame the eating of flesh and should also beleeve that all manner of sinnes as well actuall as originall be clearely forgiven in Baptisme How many of these things the Popes Holinesse is indowed withall and how many he alloweth his owne bookes and deedes will testifie Wherefore I reckon that your oath doth not meane this Law nor yet the Law that blessed Saint Paul writeth of For then I reckon that by the vertue of your Oath you have not beene bound to one Pope this 400. yeares so that it must follow that you have other Lawes than blessed S. Paul speaketh of or the Councell of Carthaginence to choose your Pope by the which as farre as men can reckon by common experience and practise be these Inprimis He that shall be able to be Pope must be a vengeable tyrant never keeping peace but alwayes warring for the defence as ye call it of S. Peters patrimony To suffer no Prince to dwell in rest by him but to snatch his possessiones to the unholy Church of Rome To set Princes together by the eares till they be both weary and then to take the matter in his hand and never to make an end till both parties hath given some possessions to his Holy Father-head to assoyle the soules that hath been slaine through his packing and he that dare most boldly and with least shame depose Princes without a cause he is best able to be Pope He that can by any traine craft or subtilty bring under him any Bishop or any spirituall person or invent any new clause in their Oath he is to be allowed afore other Moreover he that keepeth fewest women and hath most of them that you woâ— of he is holiest and apt to be head of your Church And he that can most tyrannously burne men for preaching of the Gospell and he himselfe to take no labours therein Item to burne Priests that marry wives and he himself to live in all mischiefe and whoredome yea in such abominablenesse as no man may with honesty speake you know what I meane this man I say hath a testimony afore his spiritualâ—y that he is a lawfull man to that Office Furthermore he that is a whores sonne as our Holy Father is now and can finde the meanes that 12. men will forswear themselves that he is lawfully bornâ— as this holy Clement did This is a fit Fatâ—â—â— for such children Finally he that can give most money and buy the greatest part or Cardinals of his side he is best worthy to be called Pope and to set on Peters stoole For it cannot be unknowne to you how that Thomas VVoulcy an holy pillar of your Church would have been Pope when this Clement was chosen and did offer for it a reasonable penny but Clement dashed him out of conceite with 2000â— pound more than he offered and so he was judged best worthy and entred in lawfully and regularly and unto him our Bishops be sworne and obedient And why because they will have such a head as they be members for how could else their Kingdome stand For if one should be chosen after the rule of blessed S. Paul or else after the living of these new Heretickes which be simple and poorâ— and care not for no dignities nor will never sweare nor fight and would rather marry a wife of their owne then take other mens and are alwayes studying and preaching Gods Word seeking onely the honour of God and the profit of his neighbour and will be subject and obedient in all things desiring none exception to his Prince This man I say should be unlawfull and not elegible for he were able to destroy the whole Kingdome of the Papists and not worthy to receive an Oath of my Lords the Bishops which will not gladly be prejured for such a mans sake For he were able to destroy the whole Church of Rome unto the which our Bishops have beene before sworne It followeth in your Oath I shall noâ— consent in Counsell or in deede that they should lose either life or member or that they should be taken or trapped by any evill meanes What neede you to sweare thus unto the Pope doth not the order of Charity binde you thus to use your selfe toward all men that is to say neither to hurt them nor to harme them neither to intrappe them nor betray them But all men must be betray'd and with craft and subtletie undone for the maintenance of this one person The truth is that never man spake against this Popet but you destroy him and betray'd him but this Popet hath blasphemed and betrayed all Protestants and yet you were never against him And why because you be sworne to him And you will keepe your Oath be it right or wrong But in your last Oath which hath beene newly made is added this clause that no man should lay violent hands upon them in any wise or any wrong should be done unto them by any manner of Colour This part is newly brought in siâ—â—e the flesh of the Pope hath beene so holy that no man might touch it but Harlots Christian men must patiently suffer injuries and wrongs but your head will forsweare that point and maintaine himselfe through your power against all men How neere that this is the Apostles living all Christian men can well judge It followeth in your Oath Their Councell that shall be shewed unto me either by their letters or by their messengers I shall open to no man to their hurt or damage Let Princes beware when the Pope sendeth counsâ—lls unto you for their meaning is to betray them For all the world knoweth that the Pope and you doe little regard what the beggars of the world doth handle But what Emperours Kings and Dukes doth handle â—hat must you let and destroy For that is the Counsell and you may shew it to no man No not to your King and why because you are sworne
to the Pope But what say you to your Oath made unto your Prince wherein you sweare that you shall be faithfull and true and beare unto him above all creatures love and favour to live and to dye with him and to open him all manner of Counsells that may be hurtfull unto his grace Now it is well knowne that the Pope hath done and dayly doth handle such Counsells as be against our Princes honour and conversation And yet you may neither tell it to your Prince nor let it and why because you be sworne to the Pope and forsworne to your Prince Tell me when any thing was opened unto our Prince by you that the Pope had handled in counsell against our Prince Of this thing I will take record of his Noble grace whether I say true or falseâ— and yet must I be accused of Treason And why because you are sworne to the Pope and I am true to the King It followeth I will helpe to defend and maintaine the Papistry of Rome against all men saving mine order And in your new Oath now in our days made is added The regalls of Saint Peter What and in all men be contained your Prince you must needes defend him And why because ye be sworne to the Pope and forsworne to your Prince For your Oath to your Prince is to defend him with all your wit and reason against all men now must you forsake one of them and your practise hath beene alwayes to forsake your Prince and sticke to the Pope for of your Oath made to your Prince you have been oftentimes assoiled And as your Law saith the Church of Rome is 〈◊〉 so to doe But of your Oath made unto the Pope there is no absolution neither in heaven nor earth Neither was it ever read heard nor seene that there could be any dispensation for it Let me be reported by all the Bookes that ever were written and by all the Bulls that ever were granted and by all the experience that ever was used and if I be found false let me be blamed and yet I am sure many men will reckon that I speake uncharitably but I would faine learne of all Charitable men in England with what other English words I could declare this intolerable or subtile treason thus long and shamefully used agâ—inst my Prince which is necessary to be knowne And I am compelled by violence to declare both my conâ—ession and learning in this cause For men hath not beene ashamed to report that I would which am but a wretch and poore simple wonne and not able to kill a Cat though I would doe my utteâ—most to make insurrection against my Noble and mighty Prince whom as God knoweth I doe honour worâ—hip love and favour to the uttermost power of my heart and am not satisfied because it is no more This I speake afore God Let him be mercifull unto me as it is true and if I were not so true in my heart it were not possible for me so earnestly to write against them whom I doe reckon to handle unfaithfully and untruely with their Prince yea against both Gods law and mans law The very truth is I can suffer through Gods grace all manner of wrongs injuries and slanders but to be called an hereticke against God or a Traytor against my Priâ—ce he liveth not but I will say he lyeth and will be able so to prove him if I may be reported by my workes or deedes by my conversation or living or by any thing that ever I did and I dare say as much of my self notwithstanding our Prelates slanders of me But unto my purpose the Bishops doth swear one Oath to the Pope another contrary to their Prince And yet they will be taken for good and faithfull children And I poore man must be condemned and all my workes for Heresiâ— and no man to reade them under the paine of Treason And why because I write against their perjurie toward their Prince But how commeth Saint Peter by these regales that you are sworne to defend seeing that he was never no King but a Fisher All the world knoweth that Regalia belongeth to Kings and to like power of Kings Why are you noâ— rather sworne to defend Peters net and his Fisherie the which things hee both had and used and never regalls But these things will not maintaine the holy Church of Rome and therefore yee sweare not to maintaine them But what meane you by that sentence Saving mine order why say you not saving my Kings pleasure your glosse saith you may not defend these things with weapons But oh Lord God what unshamefulnesse is this thus to delude with words all the whole world Men knoweth that when the Pope hath neede of your helpe there is no men sooner in Armes than you are if you call Armes Harneys Bylles and Glaves swords and gunnes and such other things Doe you not remember how soone the Bishop of Norwich Henry Spenser was in Armes to defend Popâ— Vrban it were but folly to recite examples In the yeare of our Lord 1164. was there a controversie betweene the Kings Grace and the Bishops of England for certaice Prerogatives belonging to the King Wherefore the King required an Oath and a confirmation of the Bishops as concerning those Articles prerogatives But answere was made of the Bishops that those prerogatives cum omnibus pravitatibus in regio scripâ—o contentis were of none effect nor strength because they did forbid to appeale to the Court of Rome unlesse the King gave licence And because that no Bishop might goe at the Popesâ— calling out of the Realme without the Kings assent And because the Clerkes should be convented in criminall causes a fore a temporall Judge And because the King would heare matters as concerning tithes and other Spirituall causes And because that it was against the See of Rome and the dignity of the same that a Bishop should be convented afore the King Briefely they would not be under the King but this addition should be set unto it Salvo honore Dei Ecclesiiae Romanae ordine nostro that is we will be under your grace saving the honour of God of the Church of Rome and of our order the cause why they did except these things was this as they themselves grant For Kings received their authorities and power of the Church but the Church receiveth her authority of Christ onely wherefore they conclude that the King cannot command over Bishops nor absolve any of them nor to judge of tithes nor of Churches neither yeâ— to forbid Bishops the handling of any spirituall cause Is not here a marveilous blindnesse and obstinacie against their Prince They will make it against Gods honour to obey their King and are not ashamed to say in the Kings face that his power is of them But I pray you whether was Kings before Bishops or Bishops before Kings you shall finde
morgage or make any feoffement or by any other meanes alienate the same without the Counsell of the Pope But I pray you tell me one thing why doe you not sweare that you shall neither buy nor yet receive any possessions to your Church nor you shall 〈◊〉 pill nor poll nor shave to encrease the possessions of yâ—â—r Church But the truth is all is fish that commeth to the net with you And if it come once within your clouches it never commeth out againe though the king and his Realme should stand in never so great need but to receive all his Land you are alwayes ready and it is not against your Oath I doe not say thus because I would ye should sell or alienate the Possessions of the Church but because I see that there is nothing maintained by them but all onely your mischievous pompe and your pride Your owne law commandeth that the fourth part of the spirituall goods should be distributed among poore men And for that cause they be called Bona pauperum but how little their part is all the world can testifie Wherefore doe you sweare not to alienate your goods without the Popes licence The Pope gave them not to you but the King and his subjects How commeth he now to be so neare of your Counsell in alienating them and the King is thrust out the which hath deserved best to be of your Counsell But doe you not remember your owne Law the which doth forbid that the Pope in any wise or for any necessity â—hould alienate the goods of the Church except it be old houses which cannot be kept without great charges This is your owne Law and against this will you sweare then must you needes be perjured for if you alienate your goods with the Popes licence then is this decree against you and curseth you Wherefore then put you this in your Oath seeing you cannot alienate your goods with his consent nor yet without it It followeth in your new Oath Decrees Ordinances Sentences Dispositions Reservations Provisions and Commandments Apostolicke with all my power I will observe and shall cause other men to observe them These things were added when this Idoll was brought so high that no man durst winch against him and when he might say doe what he would And as your Law Commandeth no man so hardy to aske him why he doth so Then began Decrees Ordinances Depositions Dispositions Reservations Provisions with like shamefulnesse for to spring and there is no remedie but they must continue And why Because you are sworne to keepe them your selfe and to compell other men also to keepe them And out of the keeping of this part of your Oath springeth forth another sentence thâ—â—â—â—â—loweth which is this All Heretickes Schismatickes and 〈◊〉 towards our sayd Lord the Pope to my power I shall prosecute and withstand This is the cause that made us poore men so great Heretickes For it can never be proved that ever wee spake against God or our King and yet we be Heretickes And why forsooth because the Bishops are sworne to the Popes Decrees the which condemneth all them for Heretickes that speaketh against his holinesse though he be as holy as my horse for he saith himselfe in his law that he needeth not to be holy himselfe but it is sufficient that he sitteth in an holy seate theâ—e be his words who doubteth but he is holy the which is exalted to so great a dignity In whom though good workes of his owne merits be wanting yet are those good workes sufficient the which were done by his predecessours upon the which text their glosse saith that if it bee openly knowne that the Pope be an Adulterer or a Murderer yet ought he not to be accused c. Now we poore men cannot suffer such mischievous voyces wherefore we must be Heretickes But why because my Lords the Bishops are sworne to persecute us but neverthelesse I trust to Gods grace and the Kings that my Lords the Bishops will not be so hard in this point of their Oath as they have beene And why because men may now come to their answere Surely there be many clauses in his last Oath added that be cleare injurie unto Pâ—inces and against Gods Law and mans Law and yet our Bishops will sweare them yea and that which is worst of all they will accuse other men of Treason and Rebellion and there is no man sworne to treason nor Rebellion but they onely Wherefore most gracious Prince with all meekenesse and lowlinesse that is due to so noble a Prince and also that doth become a true subject to doe I lowly and meekely require and desire your grace to judge betweene the Bishops and me which of us is truest and faithfullest to God and to your Grace I speake all onely of those that hath and also would now if they durst defend the Pope and his Lawes Against them I make this supplication and against them have I declared the learning and Doctrine that I have both taught and written And as for my facts and deeds what I have done against God and your grace I require them to say 〈◊〉 uttermost that they can prove or else by your graciouâ—â—â—vour I am here present and offer my selfe to prove them lyars and that under any manner of paine that your grace shall assigne and against them I have declared the learning and Doctrine of their Church and also brought examples of their facts and deedes with the which they have put their Doctrine in exercise Now if they be grieved or thinke themselves wrongfully handled of me then I require no more of your grace but indifferently and graciously to heare both them and me the which thing no doubt as your grace doth know our heavenly Father doth require of you who preserve your highnesse in all honour and dignity Amen Thus far Dr Barnes But to returne againe from these Trayterly disloyall Oathes to our Arch-Bishops William Warham the next Arch-Bishop as he received his confirmation consecration Pall together with a power Legatine from Pope Iulius by sundry Bulls against the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme and tooke the forenamed Oath to the Pope which made him no good Subject to his Prince so the Royall Pompe at his instalment and inthronization was meerely Anti-Christian The day before his comming to Canterbury went thither the Duke of Buckingham who was his Steward a goodly Office â—or the greaâ—est Peere of the Realme attended with 140. horse to see all things in a readinesse This Duke had also the Office of Chiefe Butler and being unable to execute both duties he deputed Sir George Bourchier unto the Butlership The Duke himselfe tooke great paines to see that nothing requisite for the performance of this Solemnity in the most magnificent manner might be wanting The next day being Sunday he meâ— the Arch-bishop over against S. Andrewes Church and doing low obeysance
unto himâ— went before him bareheaded to Christ Church from which Church he was attended by the Duke in like â—ort as he was thither ward The Cheere at dinner was as great as for money it might be made with severall Verses Pageants Theaters Sceans and Player-like representations in natuâ—e oâ— a Puppet-play made in puffe-past or March-pane before every Course deâ—cribed more largely by Matthew Parker fitter for a Maske than a Bishops Consecration and savoring of more than Asian Luxurie as this his Sucâ—essor confesseth Beâ—ore the first Messe the Duke himselfe came riding into the Hall upon a great Horse bare headed with his white staffe in his hanâ—â— and when the first dish was set on the Table made obey â—anâ—â—â—â—â—y bowing his body to the Arch-bishop Such Vassals did â—hoâ—e proud Popes of Canterbury make the very greatest Nobles as thus to become their Servants and waite upon their Rocheâ—s In this Arch-Bishops time there fell out great contestations and sâ—ites at Rome betweene him and the Bishops of Winchester London Lincolne Exeter and other his Suffragans touching the Iurisdictions of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury which cost much money After this he and Cardinall Wolsiâ— who by his power Legatine invaded and swallowed up all the Jurisdiction Rightes of the other Prâ—â—aâ—es and of the See of Canterbury had divers contests and bickerings Anno 1512. This Arch-Prelate by an Oration in Parliament against the French King raised up a bloody warre betweene England and France towards which two fifteenes were granted by the temporalty and two tenths by the Clergie after which Anno. 152â— When the Commons were assembled in the nether house they began to Commune of their grieâ—es wherewith the Spiritualty had before time grievously oppressed them both contrary to the Law of the Realme and contrary to all right and in speciall they were sore moved with sixe great causes The first for the excessive fines which the Ordinaries tooke for Probate of Testaments insomuch that Sir Henry Guildford Knight of the Garter and Controller of the Kings house declared in the open Parliament on his fidelity that he and others being Executors to sir William Crompton Knight payed for the Probate of his Will to the Cardinall and the Bishop of Canterbury a thousand Markes sterling After this Declaration where shewed so many extortions done by Ordinaries for Probates of Wills that it were too much to rehearse The second was the great polling and extreame exaction which the Spirituall men used in taking of Corps Presents or Mortuaries For the Children of the desunct should all dye for hunger and goe a begging rather than they would of Charity give to them the seely Cow which the dead man ought if hee had but onely one such was the Charity then The third cause was that Priests being Surveiors Stewards and Officers to Bishops Abbots and other Spirituall headsâ— had and occupied Farmes Granges and Grasing in every Country so that the poore Husband men could have nothing but of them and yet for that they should pay deerely The fourth cause was that Abbats Priors and Spirituall men kept Tan-houses and bought and fold Wooll Cloath and all manner of Merchandize as other Temporall Merchants did The fifth cause was because that Spirituall Persons promoted to great benefices and having their Livings of their Flocke were lying in the Court in Lords houses and tooke all of the parishioners and nothing spent on them at all so that for lacke of Residence both the poore of the Parish lacked refreshing and universally all the Parishioners lacked Preaching and trueâ— Instruction of Gods Word to the great perrill of their Soules The sixth cause was to see one Priest little learned to have ten or twelve Benefices and to be resident upon none and to know many well learned Scholars in the Universities which were able to preach and teach to have neither Benefice nor exhibition These things before this time might in no wise be touched nor yet talked off by any man except hee would be made an Hereticke or lose all that he had For the Bishops were Chancellors and had all the rule about the King so that no man durst once presume to attempt any thing contrary to their profit or commodity But now when God had illuminated the eyes of the King and that their subtile doings were once espied then men began charitably to desire a Reformation and so at this Parliament men began to shew their grudges Whereupon the Burgesses of the Parliament appointed â—uch as were learned in the Law being of the Commons house to draw one Bill of the Probates of Testaments another for Mortuaries and the third for Non-residence Pluralities and taking of farmeâ— by spirituall men The learned men tooke much paines and first set forth the Bill of Mortuaries which passed the Commons house and was sent up to the Lords To this Bill the Spirituall Lords made a faire face saying that surely Priests and Curats tooke more than they should and therefore it were well done to take some reasonable order thus they spake because it touched them little But within two dayes after was sent up the Bill concerning Probate of Testaments at the which the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in especiall and all other Bishops in generall both frowned and graâ—nted for that touched their profit Insomuch as D. Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester said openly in the Parliament Chamber these words My Lords you see dayly what Bills come hither from the Commons house and all is to the destruction of the Church For Gods sake see what a Realme the Kingdome of Bohemia was and when the Church went downe then fell the glory of the Kingdome now with the Commons is nothing but downe with the Church and all this me seemeth is for lacke of faith onely When these words were reported to the Commons of the nether House that the Bishop should say that all their doings were for lacke of faith they tooke the matter grievously for they imagined that the Bishop esteemed them as Heretickes and so by his slanderous words would have perswaded the Temporall Lords to have restrained their consent from the sayd two Bills which they before had passed Wherefore the Commons after long debate determined to send the Speaker of the Parliament to the Kings highnesse with a grievous complaint against the Bishop of Rochester and so on a day when the King was at leasure Thomas Audley speaker for the Commons and thirty of the chiefe of the Commons House came to the Kings presence in his Palace at Westminster which before was called Yorke-place and there very eloquently declared What a dishonour to the King and the Realme it was to say that they which were elected for the wisest men of all the Shires Cities and Boroughs within the Realme of England should be declared in so Noble and open a presence to lack faith which was equivalent to say that they were infidels and no Christians as
Mary getting the Crowne and putting by the Lady â—ane Cranmer who also aided the Duke of Northumberland with horse and men against the Queene was thereupon committed prisoner to the Tower and soone after condemned of high treason and that by an ordinary Iury for seeking thus to disinherit the Queen who pardoning all the rest that were guilty of this crime released likewise the Treason against him though shee excepted him out of her generall pardon and some other Bishops and accused him onely of heresie as those times deemed it for which hee was deprived degraded and burnt at last for a Martyr repenting of that Recantation which he had over-cowardly made before out of feare and humane frailty And here not to detract any thing from the due praise of this our glorious Martyr give mee leave onely to observe First that hee had a hand in the condemnation and execution of Lambert Frith and some other of our godly Marryrs before hee was thoroughly instructed in the points of our Religion Secondly that hee was the chiefe man in accomplishing the divorce betweene Henry the 8 and Queene Katharine which occasioned much trouble dissention warre and a furtherer of this Kings subsequent lustfull if lawfull marriages Thirdly that the Lincolne-shire rebels in the sixt Article of their grievances presented to King Henry the 8. complaine thus against this Archbishop and other Prelates That wee your true Subjects find them grieved that there be divers Bishops of England of your Graces late promotion that have subverted the faith of Christ as wee thinke which is the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Rochester the Bishop of Salisbury the Bishop of S. Daveyes and the Bishop of Develin And in speciall as we thinke the beginning of all the trouble of this Realme and the great exactions that hath beene taken of your poore Communalty have risen by the occasion of the Bishop of Lincolne by whose Officers and by other of the Lord Cromwells servants a great rumor and noyse is risen and the common voyce is that such jewels plate and other ornaments of our Parish Churches which wee occupy in the service and honour of God should be taken from us and spoyled in like manner and fashion as the houses of Religion have beene Adde to this Fourthly that though the Popes Supremacy were abolished in his time by sundry Acts of Parliament yet the Bishops of that age laboured underhand to support it what they might and were both willing to continue set it up againe as is cleare by â—1 Hâ— 8. c. 14. the two notable Statutes of 37. H. 8. c. 17. and 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. worthy consideration And likewise by M. Tindall in his obedience of a Christian man and practise of Popish Prelates by Rodoricke Mors his complaint to the Parliament c. 19 20 21. by VVilliam VVraghtons hunting and finding ouâ— of the Romish Fox among the English Bishops and his rescuing of the Fox by Henry Stalbridge his exhortatory Epistle D. Barnes his supplication to King Henry the 8. M. Fox and other Treatises written in those dayes even by Protestants which prove the Bishops of those times to be Traytors to the King close enemies to the Kings Prerogative and fast friends to the Popes unjust usâ—rpation as Bonner Stephen Gardener with other of them shewed themselves in Queene Maries daies By which it appeares that the Bishops in those times were generally disliked and complained against on all hands Fifthly that the bloody Statute of 31. H. 8. c. 14. called by some the sixe Articles by others the whip with sixe strings and by the most part the bloody statute was made and devised in this Archbishops time by the cruelty and policy of the Bishops especially of Stephen Gardener Bishop of VVinchester which Statute for the miserable and pernicious tyranny rigid execution of the same is worthy of no memory among Christian men but rather to be buried in perpetuall silence of oblivion as M. Fox determines Maâ—thew Parker indeed records that Cranmer opposed this Act at first then caused it to be moderated and at last to be repealed in King Edwards dayes but others seeme to imply that he gave consent thereto at first Sixtly that he is the onely Martyr of all the Archbishops of Canterbury none ever dying in defence of the Gospell of Christ but he alone the others making many Martyrs in all ages by their persecutions but never being any themselves Hence Matthew Parker his Successour writes thus Cranmerus fide integra non Pontificia censura in libro vitae scriptus coelestem hâ—â—reditatatem cum Christo consecutus est ut si in hominibus gloriari fas esset non ab Augustino Dunstano Elphego Anselmo Thoma Becket Edmundo reliqua pontificia â—urba sed ab hoc uno qui solus in Christi causa contra Antichristum Flammarum incredibili doloreâ— ad coelos sublaâ—us est Cantuariensis sedes nobilitata esse videatur Seventhly that as this Prelate at first was unwilling to be made a Bishop so he suffered Martyrdome onely after his deprivation and degradation from his Bishopricke not whilst hee was a Bishop Eightly that hee failed more in his Martyâ—dome by reason of his cowardly recantation than any of his fellow Martyrs and that through promises and hopes of life and restitution to his former dignity and Archbishopricke the chiefe motives inducing him to this shamefull recantation Ninthly that though he suffered Martyrdome for Religion only as a private Christian after he was put from his Bishoprick not whiles he continued Archbishop yet he was condemned as a Traytor for-high treason and that justly as he confessed whiles hee was an Archbishop for an Act done by him as an Archbishop and Counsellour of State for which he professed both his sorrow and repentance And this Archprelate and Bishop Ridley committed likewise for Treason were very importunate suitors to King Edward the 6. to tolerate the use of Masse in his Sister Maries familie pressing him with divers politicke reasons to condescend to this their importunate suite which the infant King not onely rejected with strong pious reasons but teares to these Bishops great reproach who thereupon said to M. Cheeke the Kings Tutor Ah M. Cheeke you may be glad all the dayes of your life that you may have such a Scholler for he hath more Divinâ—â—y in his little finger than all we have in all our bodies But to passe from this Martyr to Cardinall Poole his immediate successor This Archprelate though almost if not quite a Protestant in the point of justification was yet a notori-Traytor and so procliamed by King Henry the 8. who thereupon gave his Dâ—anery of Exeter to another and that noâ— without just cause for he refused to come out of Italy to the King his Soveraigne when he sent for him hee was sent twice by the Pope as his Legate both
yeare of the raigne of your the Queens Majesties most noble Father Henry the 8. or any other your most noble Progenitors before the said 20 yeare And the Popes holinesse and See Apostolicke to be restored have and enjoy such authority preheminence and jurisdiction as his Holinesse used and exercised or might lawfully have used and exercised by authority of his supremacie the said 20. yeare of the raigne of the King your Father within this your Realme of England and other your Dominions without diminution or enlargement of the same and none other and the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of the Archbishops Bishops and Ordinanaries to be in the same Staâ—e for processe of suiâ—s punishment of crimes and execution of censures of the Church with knowledge of causes belonging to the same and as large in these points as the said jurisdiction was the said 20. yeare Where observe that the Prelates usurped Jurisdiction over the Kings prerogative was much eclipsed if not quite abolished by severall statutes made in King Henry the 8. and Edward the 6. his raigne and expired together with the Popes as appeares by these words of the Clergies supplication recited in the body of this Act. Nos Episcopi Clerus c. cum omni debita humilitate reverentia exponimus Majestatibus vestris quod licet Ecclesiarum quibus in Episcopos Decanos Archidiaconos c. constituti sumus bona Iurisdictiones jura in pernicioso hujus Regni praeterito schismate DEPERDITA ET AMISSA omni studio totis nostris vâ—ribus recuperare ad pristinum ecclesiarum jus revocare juris remediis niti deberemus c. Insuper Majestatibus vestris supplicamus ut pro sua pietate efficere dignentur ut ea quae ad jurisdictionem nostram libertatem Ecclesiasticam pertinent sine quibus debitum nostri pastoralis officii curae animarum nobis commissae exercere non possumus nobis superiorum temporum injuria ablata restituantur ea nobis ecclesiis perpetuo illaesa salva permaneant ut omnes leges quae hanc nostram jurisdictionem libertatem Ecclesiasticam tollunt seu quovis modo impediunt abrogentur ad honorem dei majestatum vestrarum c. As therefore the Bishops Popes Jurisdiction were suppressed together before so it is worth the observation that they are both revived together by this Act upon the restauration of Popery And good reason for Nicholas le Maistre in his Instauration of the Ancient Principality of Bishops Dedicated to the great French Cardinall Richeleiu Printed at Paris 1633. in his Dedicatory Epistle to this Cardinall informes us That verily the Majestie of the Pontificall and Episcopall jurisdiction is so conjoyned and confederated together that the enemies cannot so guide their hands but with the same audacity wherewith they assaulted the Popes Crowne they likewise shaked the Bishops Miters and as it were with one bloody wound pierced both their sides Whence it came to passe that the atrocity of the Bishops sorrowes increased so farre that their patience sufficient to digest their owne domesticke injuries was let loose to the dangers of the chiefe Pontise the Pope and brake forth into the most sharpe indignation and hatredâ— that thence it might appeare that the glory of their owne name could never be more secure than when and where the Popes greatnesse shall be adorned with greatest honours which being violated all the splendor of the Episcopall Order must necessarily dye and grow contemptible Hence we see it comes to passe by a certaine Divine assent and Counsell that the Authority of Bishops should be expelled out of the same Provinces out of which unhappy lust had thrust out the Papall Majestie So this Author of late by which we may discerne what a neare and indissoluble connexion there is betweene the Papacy and the Prelacie and how the Pope and Prelates ever mutually strive to support and advance one anothers authority Cardinall Poole thus reviving the Popes and Prelates Jurisdiction and suppressing and eclipsing the Royall Prerogative as you have heard hereupon the Queenes name and Title formerly used in all Ecclesiasticall Processe with this clause Suprema Autoritate Regia legitime fulcitus the like was wholly omitted out of them and whereas all such processes were sealed with her seale and all Probates of Wills and Letters of Administration granted in her name and under her seale onely not the Bishops like Writs at the Common Law according to the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. the Bishops thenceforth used onely their owne seales and names excluding hers and so set themselves in her Royall Throne To effect this the Cardinall and Prelates caused Queene Mary to send Articles to the Ordinaries to be put in Execution whereof this was one that no Bishop or his Oâ—ficer or any other Person hereafter in any of their Ecclesiastical writings in proces or other extrajudiciall Acts doe use to put in this clause or sentence Regia autoritate fulcitus or doe demand any Oath touching the Primacy to which Master Fox annexeth this Marginall annotation The Kings Authority giveth place to the Popes Authority the supremacy of the King repealed and hereupon in the Queenes writ to Bonner â—or the sommoning of a Convocation her stile of Supremum caput was taken away where note good Reader writes Master Fox concerning the altering and changing of the Queenes stile the later part hereof to be leâ—t out of her Title which is Ecclesiae Anglicanae Hibernae supremum caput because in the Parliament last past the supremacy being given away from the Crowne of England to the Pope thereupon this parcell of the Title was also taken away likewise the sayd Bonner giving his Certificate upon the same left out Autoritate illustrissimae c. legitime fulcitus which parcell also in the said Parliament was reprived and taken away the same time Which notable usurpation upon the Crowne though abolished by 1. E l. c. 1.8 E l. c. 1.1 â—ac c. 25. and other Acts which revive the statute 1. E l. 6. c. 2. being nothing but the Common Law our Prelates in imitation of these and other their undutifull Popish Predecessors have not onely continued but likewise upon the now Arch-Bishop of Canterburies motion in Star-Chamber procured a Resolution and Certificate of all the Judges of England against the Laws Kings prerogative royall to justifie this their usurpation of issuing out processe under their owne names and seales and keeping Visitations and Courts in their owne names without any Patent or Commission from his Majestie to be legall as appeares by two Orders of Starre-Chamber 12. Maii and 4. Iunii 13. Caroli This Arch-prelate Cardinall having thus re-established the Popes and Prelates jurisdiction here by Act of Parliament caused divers of our Martyrs to be burnt of which his Predecessor Cranmer was one and in his Visitation at Oxford and Cambridge caused the dead
rotten Corps of learned Martin Bucer Paulus Fagius Peter Martyrs wise to be digged out of their graves and burnt to ashes for Heretiques yea the common talke was that he purposed to have taken up King Henry the 8. his body at Windsor and to have burnt it yea and King Edward the 6. his Corps too as many thought I cannot here omit what his immediate sucâ—essor Matthew Parker records of him that this Cardinall being out of hope to get the Crowne of England to himselfe to which he aspired endeavoured to transferre all his right therein to King Philip leâ—t Queene Mary dying without issue Queene Elizabeth who differed from him and the Papists in matters of Religion whose life he and they had layd in waite for keeping her in long and strict imprisonment should of right injoy it to which purpose they very secretly entred into most wicked consultations concerning this matter to this effect that Mary not onely by the Common Law should be proclaimed Queene but likewise a conquerour of the Kingdome by right of warre so as by this pretext shee might change all publike and private rights and interests and give the Kingdome to whom soever she pleased But this counâ—ell though liked of at first yet because it was doubtfull and dangerous was not long approved of Wherefore rejecting it they thought it best and most expedient for the establishment of the Popes affaires that the Lady Elizabeth should be either dispatched out of the way or married to some Noble Spaniard But God providing for her and our safety dissipated all these wicked consultations and brought them to nothing And Cardinall Poole perswading Queene Mary to joyne with King Philip her husband in a warre against the French King with whom Pope Paul the fourth had confederated against the Emperour seeking to betray the Kingdome oâ— Naples to him the Pope was â—arre exasperated hereby against the Cardinall that he revoked his power Legatine imprisoned Cardinall Moron Protector of the English at Rome and Pooles speciall friend cited Poole to appeare at Rome as suspected of Heresie and created William Peter a Franciscan to be his Legate in his place The Queene hereupon intercedes for the Cardinall who having intelligence of this matter refused to have his silver Crosse the badge of his authority carried beâ—ore him till by the intercession oâ— Ormanet the Popes Dâ—tary here in England and the Queenes mediation he was at last restored to his Office In 〈◊〉 the flames of persecution consumed 5. Bishops 2â— Divines 8. Gentlemen 84. Artificers 100. Husbandmen Servants and Labourers 26. Wives 20. Widowes 9. Virgins aâ— Boyes and 2. Infants To close up all concerning him in Holmsheds words A Trayter he lived and a Traytor he dyed the same day on which Queene Mary expired the Tydings of whose deparâ—ure strucke him quite dead being sicke before of a quartane Feaver Illud autem saith his Successour ad aternam â—mmanitatis Pontificiae memoriam infamiamque contra Polum valebit quod eo Legato ac accelerante integerrimus Doctissimusque Archiepiscopus Craâ—nerus igne crematus est quod Archiepiscopo praeterea quod legimus accidit nemini sew or none of them having zeale enough to make them Martyrs pluresque in illâ— sue legationis triennio ferro staâ—maque crudeliter mactaâ—â— sunâ— quâ—m in â—uiusquam regis eorum qui post Lucium huic insulae imperabant longissimo regno Ita Cranmerum Martyrenâ— Polum tyramâ—um â—antuaria celebrat hic plumbo depressus ille cineribus atque flamma ad coelos elatus est Matthew Parker his immediate successor though a man of better temper a learned Antiquary a frequent Preacher of Gods Word not onely in his Cathedrall at Canterbury but in sundry Parish Churches was yet over-Pontificall and Princely in his buildings feasts houshold-stuffe and apparell if not an overâ—stiffe maintainer of his Jurisdiction and Ecclesiasticall Courts which grew so odious among the people that they offered violence to the Ministers and Promoters of those Courts Anno. 1566. â—eating and vexing them with clamors and out-cryes as they went along the streetes which insolency the Queene by her opportunâ— severity repressed Two yeares afâ—er Annoâ— 1568. Câ—lemâ—n Burton Hallingham Benson and others making profession of the purer Religion more zealously than was knowne before would allow of nothing but what was taken out of the Scriptnres and out of a desire of reformation not onely openly questioned but condemned the received Discipline of the Church of England with the Church Liturgie and the very calling oâ— Bishop as favouring too much of the Popish Religion protesting in the Pulpits that it was an impious thing to hold any thing Common with the Church of Rome using all diligence to have the Church of England reformed in every point according to the Rule of the Church of Geneva These the Queene by this Arch-Bishops instigation commanded to be layd by the heeles yet it is almost incredible how upon a sudden their followers increased every where knowne by the envious name of Puritanes through a kinde of obstinate perversenesse of their owne stopping their eares against all advise so Martyn though I think rather out of solide judgement and the inconveniences they saw and found in the Lordly Prelacie in thosâ— best times which â—saith hee might seeme to be helped forward also by the sloathfull connivency of the Bishops some of whom then misliked their owne calling and government and could have beene content with its dissolution and change to a better and the secret favour of some Noble men at Court whom Martyn slaunders to have gaped after the goods of the Church when as they rather did it out of the mischiefes and dislike of the Prelaticall government In his time the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland the Lord Dacres and othersâ— Anno 1569. being pressed forward by one Nicholas Martin a Romish Priest senâ— from the Bishop of Rome to pronounce Queene Elizabeth an Hereticke and therefore to have lost all Dominion and Soveraignty raised a Rebellion in the North to set up Popery and restore the Romish Religion the 5. wounds of Christ being painted in their Banners Murrey then Regent of Scotland informed the Queene that the Bishop of Rosse then in England was the Author of that Rebellionâ— whereupon he was committed to the Bishop of London and remained his prisoner And the same yeare Pope Pius the fifth by his Bull excommunicated and deprived Queene Elizabeth from her Crowne and absolved all her Nobles Subjects and people of the Realme from their Oath of allegiance or any other duty to her which Bull Iohn Felton setting up at the Bishop of Londons Palace gate was executed for his paines yet I read of no reâ—utation of it made by this Archprelate Edmund Grindall next enjoying this See a grave and pious man and a fugitive in Queene Maries raigne stood highly in Queene Elizabethsâ—avour â—avour for a long time till by
the cunning devises of some who accused him as a favourer of the Puritans Conventicles and prophecying which he justified in a particular treatise which I have seene dedicated to the Queene and subscribed by all his suffragans hee utterly lost the same being thereupon suspended from his Bishopricke and so dyed suspended Martin records that the true cause of his suspension was for disallowing the matrimony of Julio an Italian Physitian with another mans wife therein thwarting the Earle of Leicesters pleasure In his dayes M. Iohn or rather Philip Stubs of Lincolnes Inne lost his hand for writing a booke against the Queenes intended match with the Duke of Anjou with this Title The gulfe wherein England will be swallowed up by the French marriage with which the Queene was sorely vexed and displeased Sentence was pronounced against him by vertue of a Law made in the raigne of Philip and Mary then expired and personall to them whereupon the Iudges and chiefe Lawyers were at variance concerning the force of that Statute but might prevailed therein against right And about the same time Edward Campian Ralph Sherwin Luke Kerby Alexander Briant Priests were indited condemned and executed for high Treason for plotting the ruine of the Queene and Kingdome as adhering to the Pope the Queenes enemie and comming into England to raise forces against her Iohn VVhitegift next to him in succession a stately Pontificall Bishop contested much for the authority and Lordly jurisdiction of Prelates in defence whereof hee then writ though hee durst not averre our Archbishops to be of divine institution Hee had some contestations with the Judges whom he much troubled about Prohibitions ex officio oathes and proceedings the power of the high Commission and other Exclesiasticall Courts 〈◊〉 he endeavoured to enlarge to the prejudice of the Queenes prerogative and the Subjects liberties whereupon in the Parliament Anno 1585. divers Bils and complaints were exhibited against the oath ex officio the granting of faculties by Bishops Non-residencie and other abuses which this Prelate by his power to prevent a reformationâ— crossed and frustrated to the great disturbance of the Church and State and the increase oâ— schismes and divisions in both After this Anno 1588. hee procured these reverend Ministers and Gentlemen M. Vdall M. Penry M. Cartwright King Prudlar Paine M. Knightly M. Wigstone and others to be questioned and fined in Starchamber for writing against the English Hierarchy and caused M. Penry Vdall and others against all Law and Justice to be condemned and executed for this cause whereupon the Judge before whom they were arraigned much troubled in conscience fell into desperation and died miserably These his violent proceedings stirred up VVigginton Coppinger and franticke Hacket whom the Prelates oppression made starke mad to accuse the Archbishops of Canterbury and Yorke of high Treason and to runne into extravagant actions and opinions which they afterward recanted And not these alone but others likewise opposing the government of the Church of England disallowed the calling of Bishops and got some eminent Lawyers as M. Maurice Atturney of the Court of Wards and others to write against the government of Bishops and the Oath ex ofâ—icio which troubled much the whole Church State Judges Parliament and Kingdome and fired them almost into an uproare this Archprelate straining his Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction beyond its bounds farre higher than any of his predecessors since the reformation Whereupon multitudes of bookes were written against the calling Lordlinesse and extravagances of the Prelates and their Courts some in serious others in more light and jesting manner wherewith the Prelates were much nettled and their government rendred very odious among the people which certainly had then beene subverted had not the power of this Archprelate made a privy Counsellor and of Chancellour Hatâ—on a man popishly affected as was generally then reported kept it from ruine This Archprelates traine of servants was extraordinary great to the number of above 60 menservants who were all trained up to martiaâ—â—â—â—â—ires and mustred almost every weeke his stable being stiâ—l well furnished with good store of great horses a commendable thing in a warlike Prelate though scarce allowable in a pious Apostolicall Bishop who should rather traine up schollers for the pulpit than souldiers for the field Richard Bancroft his great creature and immediate successor had many conflicts with the Judges concerning prohibitions ex officio Oathes and the power of the High Commissioners before the King and Councell to the great disquiet of the Realme and oppression of the people hee defended the Bishops Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to be jure Divino and not derived immediately by Letters Patents from the King like an ungratefull wretch contrary to the expresse Acts of 26. H. 8. c. 1.31 H. 8 c. 9 10.37 H. 8. c. 17. 1. Edw. 6. c.. 1. Eliz. c. 1.1 2. Phil. Mar. c. 8. 8. Eliz. c. 1. and the whole streame of the Fathers forraine Protestants and our English writers to the great affront of the Kings prerogative royall And if some men yet alive may be credited who accused him to the Councell of these crimes and offered to prove them hee had a hand in the compiling of Dolmans the Jesuites Booke concerning the succession of the Crowne of England the maine scope of which booke written as some say by Cardinall Allen and Fr. Ingelfield Dolmans enemies was to exclude all persons how neere soever allyed to the Crown unlesse they were Roman Catholikes contending further for the right of Isabel Infanta of Spaine and seeking to disprove King Iames his most rightfull title thereunto which Dolman with other old Priests and Jesuites hee harboured in his house where they affirme this booke was Printed and some thought hee was privie to that devillish plot of the Gunpowder-treason most of the traytors lying at Lambeth whiles they were about that hellish worke This Relation I had from others who averred it for truth and offered to prove it in his lifetime could they have beene heard And it seemes for the point of Dolmans booke and conniving at such other seditious traiterly popish pamphlets of that nature this Prelate was not altogether cleare for in the Conference at Hampton Court before King Iames when D. Reynolds moved the King that such unlawfull and seditious bookes might be suppressed at least restrained which unsetled and corrupted the minds of many young Schollers in both Universities instancing in Ficlerus a Papist De jure Magistratus in subditos for one Bancroft then Bishop of London supposing himselfe principally aimed and why should hee have such a suspition unlesse conscious of some guilt upon such a generall motion and information answered first in the Generall that there was no such licentious divulging of those Bookes as hee imagined or complained off And secondly to the particular instance of Ficlerus that he detested both the Author and applyer alike But for the first my Lord Cecill
justified the complaint true taxing also the unlimited liberty of dispersing and divulging these Popish and seditious Pamplets both in Pauls Church-yard and the Universities instancing in one then lately set forth and published namely Speculum Tragicum which both his Majesty and the Lord Henry Howard Earle of North-Hampton termed a dangerous booke both for matter and intention Yea Lewis Hughes an ancient Minister writes thus of this Arch-Prelate In the later end of Queene Elizabeths raigne when shee began to be sickly and not like to live long D. Bancroft then Bishop of London knowing that King Iames was to succeed her and fearing that his Majestie would reforme things amisse in the worship and service of God and in the government of the Church did license a booke written by a Jesuite that hee kept in his house wherein was written That it was in the Popes power as a gift appropriate to Saint Peters Chaire to depose the Kings of England and to give authority to the people to elect and set up another Fifteene hundred of those bookes were printed and dispersed and being questioned for it his answer was that hee did set the Jesuites to write one against another that hee might out of their writings picke matter against them It was thought by many hee had no good meaning in licensing and suffering so many dangerous Bookes to be dispersed So hee Which sufficiently discovers this Arch-Prelates traiterly heart to his Soveraigne his affection to the Popes supremacy and disaffection to our Religion he being a great Persecutor and Silencer of hundreds of our most conscionable preaching Ministers and if I may credit other mens reports his life was ill and his death fearfull George Abbot his successor in this See though a man of a better temper and worthy praise for his frequent preaching was yet taxed by some for being over-stately to his fellow brethren and for his overmuch delight in shooting at deere which he exercised so long till at last by the unhappy glance of his arrow hee kild his keeper instead of the Bucke hee let loose at He incurred his Majesties displeasure so farre by whose means I know nor unlesse by his successors that hee was debarred accâ—sse to the Kings Court yea suspended from his oâ—fice of Arch-Bishop for a season which was executed in the interim by Commissioners He was a means of some good mens troubles in the High Commission where he caused M. Huntly a Kentish Minister to be most unjustly fined and imprisoned for denying to preach a Visitation Sermon when hee was sicke and unable to doe it and therefore sent the Arch-deacon 20s s to procure another which was refused and which is â—arre more injuâ—ious when this poore Minister after many motions was released by the Judges of the Kings Bench by an Habeas Corpus â—rom his unjust imprisonment hee and the other Prelates caused him for this very Act of seeking his just relief in a legall way to be apprehended by their pursevant immediately after the Judges had bayled him even in the face of the Court and for this very cause deprived and degraded him in the High Commission and committed him a fresh and gave his living to his Chaplaine to the great affronâ— of justice for which act he might have smarâ—ed in a high degree had hee beene but questioned I should now descend to the present Archbishop William Laud the last of this See but that I must first ascend to Auâ—tin the first Archbishop of Canterbury whom I have purposely reserved to this place the better to parallell them together The Archbishopricke of Canterbury had its originall creation from Pope Gregory the first a very traytor to his Soveraigne Mauritius and flatterer of the usurper Phocas about the yeare of our Lord. 600. This its unhappy derivation from â—uch a trecherous and rebellious parentage hath tainted the whole line of our Canterburian Arch-Prelates and infused such an occult pernicious quality into this See as hath made it a very chaire of Pestilence which hath infected all or most of those who have sate therein and made them as great Traytors and rebels to their Soveraignes of England as their Holy Fathers of Rome have proved to their liege Lordâ— the Roman Emperours and to plague our â—and with civill dissentions warres and bloodshed almost as much as the Popes have molested Italy and Germany in this kind Augustine the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sent from Rome by Gregory the first rather to pervert that convert our Nation to the Christian faith about 600. yeares after Christ was consecrated Bishop of the English Nation for no lesse Diocesse or title would content him by Etherius Archbishop of Arelat electing Canterbury for his Archiepiscopall See After which by the assistance of King Ethelbert in the yeare 602. hee caused the Brittish Bishops and learned men to meete together in a Synode at a place called Augustines Okâ— to dispute with them concerning the observation of Easter day and the Ceremonies of Baptisme wherein they differed from the Church of Rome to whom hee would have them conforme not onely in doctrine but even in rites and ceremonies using both perswasions prayers and threatnings to bring them under his yoke and discipline But the Britains refusing to conform to his demands at this Synode Augustine not long after caused another Synode to be sommoned Whereunto 7. British Bishops and a great number of Monkes especially of the famous Monastery of Bangor repaired who inquired of an holy Anchorite living among them whether they should submit to Austins preaching and ceremonies or no who answered If hee be a man of God then obey him They replying How shall wee know him to be such a one hee subjoyned If hee be meeke and humble it is credible that he beares the yoke of Christ and will offer it to you to beare but if he bee haughty and proud hee is not of God and therefore not to be lisâ—ned to by you But how said â—hey shall wee know this Observe quoth hee how he carrieth himselfe when hee first enters into the Synode and if hee shall rise up to yâ—u know that hee is Christs servant and obey him in all things bnt if hee shall do contrary and whereas you are many shall proudly despise you do ye neglect and contemne him againe Augustine enâ—ers first into the Synode with pride and pompe with the banner of his Apostleship a silver Crosse a Letany Procession Pageants painted Images Reliques Anthems and such like rituall trifles The British Bishops approaching neare him sitting ambitiously in his chaire he did not onely not rise up to salute them but also noâ— so much as daigne to shew them any signe of love or benevolence with his countenance or gesture The Britons observing this arrogancy of the man contradicted what ever he propounded to them and whereas hee commanded them to observe the manners and customes of the Church of Rome in all things they not
onely stoutly repugned them but likewise affirmed their owne rites and ceremenies to be farre ancienter and better than those hee prescribed them which having received from their ancesters who were followers of the Apostles and having so long observed they ought not to change propter no vos dogmatistas for new dogmatists pleasures They further added that they would not account him for their Archbishop sâ—eing they had an Archbishop of their owne already resident at Leicester to whom tâ—ey ought to and would obey and that they would not subject themselves to a forraine Bishop With which answer Augustineâ—eing â—eing enraged fiercely threatned future warres and revenge of death unto them which followed soone after For Augustine requesting the Britons in this Synode that they would receive him for their Archbishop and joyne in common labour with him to preach the Gospell to the English Saxons The Britons who were driven out of their owne country by them refused to doe it adding that they had worthily hated the English and their religion which were esteemed by them but as dogs and therefore unworthily contemned This answer of the Britons Augustine gladly â—aid hold on imagining that he had gained an occasion from them whence hee might revenge their neglect and contempt of him Therefore hee greedily carries the newes of this contumely to King Ethelbert which this King not unwillingly laid hold on and thereupon instigated Edelfred King of the Northumbrians his kinsman although a Pagan against the Britons who thereupon Anno Dom. 613. comes with a numerous and almost â—tupendious army to Leicester called by the Britons Caâ—â—legan now Chester where Brochinal the Captaine of the Britans expected his comming and whether Abbot Dinoth-with a great number of Priests Hermites and Monkes â—specially such as were of Bangor monastery had fled These keeping a fast for three dayes space prayed to God to protect his people from the swords of the Barbarians The King commanded them to turne their armies first of all upon those who fought against him though not with armes yet with their prayers which was more whom Brochinal their Generall also terrified with the first comming of the enemies flying most shamefully exposed weaponlesse and naked to the swords of the enemies 50. men onely of them escaped by flight the residue to the number of 1200 were slaine with the sword of â—delfred Beda relates that Augustine taught by divine Oracle foretold this warre to the British Bishops and Clerkes in the Augustinian Councell when as it is more likely that hee having communicated counsell with King Ethelbert was not onely consâ—ious to the inferring of that warre but also the cause thereof For he was familiar with the King by whose perswasion and instigation Edelfred inflicted this calamity on the Britons And verily it is reported that Augustine in his first conference concerning these Rites when hee could not perswade them by entreaties threatned them Moreover Amandus Xierixiensis a man of the order of the Friers Minorites seemes to suffragate to this conjecture whose very words I will subjoyne VVhereas the â—ritains saith he were Catholikes the Saxons were Gentiles to convert whom S. Gregory sent Augustine and Mellitus who converted the Saxons But when as Augustine with his Apostolicall authority would perswade the Brittish Bishops and Abbots to receive him for their Legate and to preach with him to the English discord was moved for their disobedience to Saint Augustine so a warre was raised betweene the King of the Britons and the King of the Saâ—ons who now being converted would make the Britons subject to Augustine by whom writes Matthew Parker we are able to prove out of historians that Religion was overturned and rooted out or at least depraved and corrupted And this they say was predicted by Merlin in these wordsâ— Religion shall be blotted out againe and there shall be a transmutation of the chiefe Sees The dignity of London shall adorne Canterbury which was fulfilled by Augustine who caused 1200. of the Monkes of Bangor in Wales to be slaine because they obeyed him not in the councell as Alexander Essebiensis plainly teacheth It is marvellous that Merlin in one prophecie and in coherent words should thus foretell the deletion of religion the transmutation of the Principall Sees and the transferring of the dignity of London to Canterbury This slaughter of these Monkes of Bangor by Edelfred the avenger of Augustines wrath was avenged soone after by God who hated his cruelty for whiles the King hastned to â—oote out the remainder of them and burne their famous Monastery three Dukes of the Britaine 's met him slew ten thousand and sixty of his souldiers routed his whole army wounded the King himselfe and put him to a shamefull flight This was the fruit of this first Archbishop of Canterbury to raise up such a bloody warre within the bowels of our Kingdomes to the ruine of both parties and all to advance his owne jurisdiction and introduce his Roman ceremonies And verily writes Matthew Parker his successour that first contention raysed by Augustine about the introducing of Roman Rites which could not be appeased but with the overthrow and blood of the innocent Britaines ad nosâ—ra recentiora tempora cum simili pernicie coedeque Christianorum pervenit is desceuded to our latter times with the like destruction of Christians And had he lived to have seen and heard the violent actions practises of his present successor William Laud whose minâ—on D. Iohn Pocklinton in two severall pernitious Pamphlets adjudged solemnely to be burnt in both Universities by the Lords House of Parliament though licensed for the Presse by D. Bray this Canterburies owne domesticke Chaplain who by like order fron the Lords House hath publikely recanted his licensing of these Pamphlets in a Sermon at Saint Margarets in VVestminster before sundry of the Commons House hath proclaimed to the World that this present Prelate of Canterbury derived his lineall succession from this Augustine first Prelate of this See and so through his loynes from Pope Gregory the first founder of it and through his predecessours from S. Peters Chaire at Rome though I doubt Peter never sate Bishop nor ever had any chaire there I say had he but survived to have seene Bishop Lauds strange violent acts and tyrannoâ—s proceedings to advance his Archiepiscopall authority and erect Romes superstitions rites and ceremonies in the Churches of England Scotland and Ireland and that even by warre by blood shed rather than saile in his designes by cutting of Ministers Lawyers Physitians and Mechanicks eares searing their cheâ—kes slitting their noses whipping them openly through the streetes at carts tailes banishing them their Country shutting them up close Prisoners in remote Ilands where neither their kindred friends wives nor children must have any accesse to them no nor yet once set footing in those Ilands to enqâ—ire how their husbands did under paine of like imprisonment noâ— they have pen inke or
all pestiâ—ent filth that hath infected the State and government of the Church and Common-wealth looke upon him in his dependancies and he is the man the onely man that hath raised and advanced all those that together with himselfe have beene the Authors and causers of all the ruines miseries and calamities we now groane under Who is it but he onely that hath brought the Earle of Strafford to all his great places and imployments a fit instrument and spirit to act and execute all his wicked and bloody designes in thesâ— Kingdomes Who is it but he onely that brought in Secretary Windeâ—anke into the place of Secretary and trust the very Broker and Pâ—nder to the Whore of Babylon Who is it Mr. Speaker but he onely that hath advanced all Popish Bishops I shall name some of them Bishop Manwaring the Bishop of Bathe and Wells the Bishop of Oxford and Bishop Wren the least oâ— all but the most uncleane one These are men that should have sed Christs Flocke but they are the Wolves that devoured them the Sheepe should have fed upon the Mountaines but the Mountaines have eaten up the Sheepe It was the happinesse of the Church when the zeale of Gods house did eate up the Bishops glorious and brave Martyrs that went to the stake in defence of the Protestants religion but the zeale of these Bishops have beene to eate up and persecute the Church Who is it Mr. Speaker but the great Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that hath sit at the Helme to guide and steere them to all the managing of their Projects that have beene set on foote in this Kingdome these ten yeares last past and rather than he would stand out he hath most unworthily trucked and chaffered in the meanest of them As for instance that of Tobacco wherein thousands of poore people have beene stripped and turned out of their tradeâ— for which they have served as Apprentises we all know he was the Compounder and Contractor with them for the Licences putting them to pay Fines and Fee-Farme-rents to use their Trades Certainely Mr. Speaker he might have spent his time better and more for his grace in the Pulpit then thus sharking and taking in the Tobacco shop Mr. Speaker we all know what he hath beene charged withall here in this House Crimâ—s of a dangerous consequence and of transcendent nature no lesse than the subversion of the Government of this Kingdome and the alteration of the Protestant Religion and this not upon bare information onely but much of it comes before us already upon cleare and manifest poofes and there is scarce any businesse Grievances or Complaints come before us in this place wherein we doe not finde him intermingled and as it were twisted into it like a busie and angry Waspe his sting in the taile of everything We have this day heard the report of the Conference yesterday and in it the Accusations which the Scottish Natioâ— hath charged him withall And we doe all know he is guilty of the same if not more in this Kingdome Mr. Speaker he hath beene and is the common enemie to all goodnesse and good men and it is not safe that such a viper should be neere to his Majesties person to distill his poyson into his Sacred eares nor is it safe for the Common wealth that he should sit in so eminent a place of Government being thus accused we know what we did in the Earle of Strafâ—ords case This man is the corrupt Fountaine that hath inâ—ected all the streames and till the fountaine be purged we cannot expect to have any cleare Channels I shall be bold therefore to offer my opinion and if I erre it is the errour of my judgement and not my want of zeale and affection to the publicke good I conceive it most necessary and fit that we should now take up a Resolution to doe somewhat to strike whilst the Iron is hot And goe up to the Lords in the name of the Commons of this House and in the name of the Commons of England and to accuse him of High Treason and to desire their Lordships his person may be sequestred and that in convenient time they may bring up the Charge Which soone after was accordingly executed as you have already seene By these speeches Articles of High Treason against this Arch-Prelate it is apparent that his Treasons equall if not far exceed the Treasons of any of his Predecessors in the darkest mists of Popery and that he like his Predecessor Austin hath endeavored to rayse a bloody civill warre betweene England Ireland and Scotland onely for opposing his all-subduing Archiepiscopall Jurisdiction extended by him over all his Majesties three Kingdomes and for refusing to receive those Superstitious Romish Ceremonies and Innovations which he would have violently thrust upon them yea it is evident by these Articles that he is the primum mobile whence all our late warres tumults uproares and divisions proceededâ— and the spring whence all our insupportable grievances both in our Church and State have originally flowed And so by his owne late published maxime A schisme must needes be theirs whose the cause of it is and he makes the separation that gives the first just cause thereof the blame of all these late schismes warres and intolerable grievances whether Civill or Ecclesiasticall must rest intirely on his head who as he is like to leave no heires of his body lawâ—ully begotten to inherit his vertues so it is pity he should leave any successour behinde him in his See to perpetuate his and his Predecessors Treasons with other their Archiepiscopall vices It is his owne late resolution The condition of the Church were most miserable if it should be constrained to acknowledge a Wolfe manifestly raging for her shepheard and it is likewise his observation A man may become of a Pastor a Wolfe and since Iudas changed from an Apostle to a Devill Joh 6. It is no wonder to see others change from shepheards into Wolvesâ— I doubt the Church is not empty of such changlings at this day Whether himselfe and his forementioned Predecessors have not proved such Wolves and changlings by reason of the Venome of their Archiepiscoâ—all Chaire and whether the condition of our Church were not most miserable if she should be still constrained to acknowledge these Arch-Wolves of Canterbury manifestly raging to be her Shepheards and still to maintaine an interrupted succession of them to devoure the poore sheepe of Christ both soule and body and to be perpetuall pests Traytors and incendiaries to our Church and State as their Predecessours have ever beene I shall submit to those whom it most concernes who have now sufficient power and opportunity in their hands to redresse all incumbent and prevent all future mischiefes in this kinde I could now gladly wade out of this dangerous See of Canterbury wherein I have so long roved did not the Acts of some other ancient Prelates of it next successors to Augustine
two severall Councels and thereupon thrust him from his Bishopricke which Theodore divided into foure Diocesses After ten yeares exile Egfrid dying Alfrid his Successour restored VVilfrid but five yeares after this King likwise fell out with him and forced him to Rome where though the Pope restored him yet the King would never admit him to his See during his life What the true cause of these displeasures was the Historians of those times who favoured VVilfrid are sparing to relate belike it was some notorious offences against these Kings else they would not be so unjust as without cause to keepe him from his Bishopricke and to imprison him in chaines as one of them did Some record that it was because hee favoured and aided the Rebellious Danes which is most probable Malmesbury and others out of him say it was onely the malice of Queene Ermenburga who envied him for that hee had many Abbots and Abbies under him was served with Gold and Silver plate had a great traine of followers and was very gorgeous in his Pontificall Robes and because hee would never yeeld to have his Diocesse divided into three mote Bishopricks though it were sufficient to maintaine foure Bishops beside himselfe of which there was need And some impute it to the envie and malice of Theodore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The first of these could not be the sole cause for that ended upon VVilfrids exile and the Kings death The second is as unlikely since VVilfâ—id himselfe with all the Bishops of that time and the Councell of Hertford Can. 9. Anno 677. decreed that the number of â—eleevers increasing more Bishops and Bishoprickes should bee made and erected Whereupon Acca and Boâ—win were made Bishops instead of Bosa and his Bishopricke divided into foure parts to which partition VVilfâ—id had good reason to consent it being the Kings expresse pleasure and the Councels decree to which himselfe subscribed The envie of Theodore was in likelihood a partiall but not principall cause of his first Troubles onely Hee was therefore in all likelihood an aider and assister of the Rebellious Danes and a great opposite and Rebell against these two Kings yea and against Edulfus their successour who all three successively refused to restore him notwithstanding the Popes Letters and Command which then it seemes were of little force Many Councels were assembled about this VVilfrid and the whole Church and Kingdome much disquietted and vexed with the many Schismes and contentions concerning him too tedious to relate Anno 872. Vlferus Arch-Bishop of Yorke was by his Diocesans driven out of the Countrey for what cause is not expressed and therefore likely for some notorious offence because the Monkes conceale it out of favour to him Anno 952. VVolstan Arch-Bishop of Yorke was convict of an hainous crime who forgetting that dutifull affection hee ought to beare unto Edred his King if for no other cause yet for Athelstane his Brothers sake who preferred him forgetting his Oath and Allegeance unto the same King being his naturall Prince yea forgetting that hee was either an English man or a Christian was not ashamed to revolt from King Edred and cleave to the Danes and favour them an Heathen people and such as sought not onely to destroy his Countrey but also to root out Christian Religion For which Treason and for setting up Eâ—ricâ—us King in Edreds stead though hee deserved a thousand deaths he was onely deprived committed to Prison and one yeare after enlarged again because he was a Bishop whereas for this cause as his Treason was the more hainous and execrable so hâ—s punishment should have beene the greater But hee being released upon his repentance grew so angry with himselfe that hee was thus pardoned against right and justiceâ— that vâ—tâ—m eâ—veâ—tigio exuit hee presently made away himselfe being his owne executioner Some say that hee was thus imprisoned for killing divers Citizens of Thetford in revenge of the death of one Anselme an Abbot whom they had slaine without cause belike hee was guiltie of both those crimes and punished for both in this mild manner after divers complaints Anno 975. Oswald Arch-Bishop of Yorke assisted Dunstan of Canterbâ—ry and the other Bishops to put Egelred the right Heire from the Crowne and to set up Edward an Usurper whom they crowned as more fit for their behoofe and ends Elfricke Arch-Bishop of Yorke surnamed Puttoc was reputed detestable for two barbarous Acts He caused Hardeâ—nute the Kingâ— to command the dead body of his Brother King Harold to be digged up out of his Grave after that to be beheaded and cast into the Thames as an infamous example to men And not content with this crueltie towards the dead he perswaded the same King by way of revenge on VVorcester men because they would not suffer him to hold that See in commendam with Yorke as three of his predecessours had done before him to fire that goodly Citie and seize on all the Citizens goods pretending that they had stubbornely resisted those who collected the Kings tributes And as if this were not sufficient revenge to kill all the men and waste the whole Countrey which was mostâ— cruelly executedâ— hee likewise caused this King to thrust the living Bishop of VVorceter out of his See and to bestow it on himselfe and incensed this King so farre against Earle Godwin that hee was enforced to buy his peace of the King with the gift of the richest and costliest Shippe that wee reade of in that Age. Aldredus his Successour who gat that See by Symonie and held VVorcester in commendam with it and was one of the first who distinguished the Clergie from the Laitie in their externall habits crowned Harold invading the Dignitie Royall no way due unto him After which though hee purposed â—o Crowne Edgar the right Heire King to whom he and the Nobilitie had first adhered yet like a wily Bishop siding with the strongest he altered his purpose and crowned VVilliam the Conquerour King requiring first an Oath of him to dâ—fend the Church to minister justice and te vse Englishmen as favourable as Normans This Oath it seemed to Aldred that the King had broken by laying heavie taxes on the people of which he admonished the King who was very angry at it He therefore like a couragious Prelate but like a disloyall Subject thundered out an Excommunication against him sayingâ— That now worthily he had cursed whom once unworthily hee had blessed This bold pranke being reported to the King incensed him very much at first but thinking better of it hee determined to give him good words a while and so sent some to intreat for his absolution The Messengers came too late for the Bishop being troubled much in mind after the performance of that Action and either amazed with feare of what might happen after it or overcome with griefe and repentance for what he had done never could be
merry after but dyed of griefe before they came In his time Vrsus Earle of Worceter had built a Castle at Worceter to some prejudice of the Monkes the Ditch of which Castle trenched somewhat upon the Church-yard and adjoyned too neere to the Monastery Aldred went unto the Earle and having demanded of him whether it were done by his appointment which hâ—e could not deny looking stedfastly on him used these insolent and uncharitable words Hightest thou Vrse Have thou Gods curse adding yea and mine too and the curse of all hollowed heads unlesse thou take away this Castle and know thou assuredly that thy posterity shall not inherit the Lands of Saint Mary which curse the Monkes say was shortly after accomplished Vrsus dying soone after and Roger his sonne flying the Realme Thurstan Arch-Bishop of â—orke about the yeare of our Lord 1100. contrary to the Kings expresse command and his owne faithfull Oath and promise to Henry the first received his Consecration from the Pope at the Councell of Rheemes whereupon the King banished him the Realme neither could he in five yeares space be entreated to restore him At last the Pope by his procurement writ a very sharpe Letter to the King signifying that he would Excommunicate both him and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury also if Thurstan were any longer kept from his See and some say he actually Excommunicated them both and interdicted as well the Province of Yorke as of Canterbury from the use of all manner of Sacraments and from the Baptisme of Infants Upon which the King to be out of trouble contrary to his solemne vow yeelded that he should be called home and soone after he was reconciled unto the King This Arch-Bishop Anno 1148. when as David King of Scots entred our borders and spoiled the Countrey as farre as the River of Teyse gathered together such a power as hee was able to raise on a sudden met them at Alverton slew 1200. of them after which hee cast off his Rochet and turned Monke at Pontfrast where hee dyed Henry Murdac Arch-Bishop of Yorke thrust into that See by the Pope against King Stephens good liking who commended his Kinsman William thereto refused to sweare fealtie to the King who thereupon was so displeased with him that the Townsmen of â—ork by his good liking shut Murdac out of the Citie and refused to receive him Murdac suspended them for this affront Eustace the Kings Sonne commanded Divine Service to be said notwithstanding as at other times hereupon divers tumults and seditions were raised in the Citie wherein an Arch-Deacon a great Friend of the Arch-Bishops was slaine two or three yeares these stirres continued till at last the Arch-Bishop submitted and reconciled himselfe to the King Geffrey Plantagenet Henry the second his base Sonne after the Arch-Bishopricke of Yorke had beene tenne yeares void and kept so long in the Kings hands was commended to that See by Richard the first and consecrated by the Arch-Bishop of Towers He tooke an oath to king Richard his Brother then going to the Holy Land not to set foot in England within 3. yeares space yet presently after he hied him over into England but upon his arrivall he was there arrested and imprisoned in a barbarous manner by William Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellour of England being drawne by the heeles from the very Altar of Saint Martins Church in Dover All the time of king Richard he had many contests with the Commons of Yorke who oft complained of him both to the king and Pope Richard dying king Iohn and this Bishop had many contentions one with the other Anno 1194. by the kings permission many grievous complaints were exhibited in Parliament against this Arch-Bishop for extortion and unjust vexations hee had practised but he passed so little thereof that he made no answer to their Bills Moreover in the second yeare of his raigne he commanded the Sheriffe of Yorkeshire to seize upon all thâ— Arch-Bishops goods and Lands and to returne them into the Exchequer for hindring the kings Officers in gathering a kinde of taxe throughout his Diocesse and refusing to saile into Noâ—mandy with him to make a marriage for his Neece and to conclude a league with the French king which command the Sheriffe executing the Arch-Bishop thereupon excommunicated not onely the Sheriffe that had done him this violence but all those in generall who were the Authors of the same and that had beene any meanes to stirre up the kings indignation against him The King hereupon suspends him from his Bishoprick to whom at last he was glad to pay 1000. pound for his restitution Holinshâ—â— writes that whereas this Arch-Bishop of Yorke had offended king Richard he pardoned and received him againe into favour Whereupon the Arch-Bishop waxed so proud that using the king reproachfully hee lost his Arch-Bishopricke the rule of Yorkeshire which he had in government as Sheriffe the favour of his Soveraigne and which was the greatest losse of all the love of God Anno 1207. this fire of contention raked up in ashes brake out againe King Iohn being at Winchester required such of the Nobilitie and Clergie as were there present that payment should be made unto him of the third part of all the moveable goods in England this motion no man gaine-saâ—d but Geffrey the Arch-Bishop who openly contradicted it After this whether it were he were guiltie of some greater attempt or that hee understood his Brother was grievously offended with him secretly hee avoided the Realmeâ— excommunicating before his departure such of his Jurisdiction as either had already paid or should hereafter presume to pay the said taxe whereupon hee was banished the Realme and lived five yeares in exile till his death Godfrey de Kinton his Successour though he had no bickerings with the king that I read of yet he fell out with the whole Citie of Yorke interdicting it in the beginning of Lent and not restoring it till the third of May following Iohn Roman Arch-Bishop of Yorke Anno 1294. excommunicated Anthony Beake Bishop of Durham or rather two of the Bishops servants being one of the kings Councell and at that time beyond the Seas in the kings Service Whereat the king being highly displeased the Arch-Bishop thought it best to put himselfe to his Mercie hee did so and was fain to redeeme the kings favour with 4000. Markes being fined so much by the whole Parliament for this his offence the griefe whereof strucke him into an incurable disease whereof he dyed Thomas de Corbridge his Successour Anno 1299. upon the Popes Commendatory Letters bestowed his Canons place of Yorke and Custoseship of the Parish of Saint Sepulcher on one Gilbert Segrave notwithstanding the King had formerly written earnestly to him in the behalfe of one Iohn Bush his Secretary which affront in preferring the Popes Clerke before him and his Secretary the King tooke so hainously that hee
tuum dilectum filium nostrum Stephanum insignem Regem Anglorum efficere studeas ut monitâ—s hortatu consilio tuo ipsum in benignitatem dilectionem suam suscipiat pro beati Petri nostra reverentia propensius habeat commendatum Et quia sicut veritate teste attendimus eum sine salutis sui ordinis periculo praefato filio nostro astringi non posse volumus paterno sibi tibi affectu consulumus ut vobis sufficiat veraci simplici verbo promisstonem ab eo suscipere quod laesionem vel detrimentum ei vel terrae suae non inferat Dat. ut supra Is it not strange that a peevish order of Religion devised by a man should breake the expresse Law of God who commandeth all men to honour and obey their Kings and Princes in whom some part of the power of God is manifest and laid open to us And even uuto this end the Cardinall of Hosâ—ia also wrote to the Canons of Pauls after this manner covertly incouraging them to stand to their election of the said Robert who was no more willing to give over his new Bishopricke than they carefull to offend the King but raâ—her imagined which way to keepe it still maugre his displeasure and yet not to sweare obedience unto him for all that he should be able to doe or performe unto the contrary Humilis Dei gratia Hostiensis Episcopus Londinen sis Ecclesiae canonicis spiritum consilii in Domino Sicut rationi contraria prorsus est abiicienda petitio ita in hiâ—s quae juste desiderantur effectum negare omnino non convenit Sane nuper accepimus quod Londinensis Ecclesia diu proprio destituta Pastore communi voto pari assensu cleri populi venerabilem â—ilium nostrum Robertum ejusdem Ecclesiae Archidiaconumâ—in Pastorem Episcopum animarum suarum susceperet elegerit Novimus quidem eum esse personam quam sapientia desuper ei attributa honestas conversationis morum reverentia plurimum commendabilem reddidit Inde est quod fraternitati vestroe mandando consulimus ut proposito vestro bono quod ut credimus ex Deo est ut ex literis Domini Papae cognoscetis non lente dehitum finem imponatis ne tam nobilis Ecclesia sub occasione hujusmodi spiritualium quod absit temporalium detrimentum patiatur Ipsius namque industria credimus quod antiqua religio forma disciplinae gravitas habitus in Ecclesia vestra reparari si quae fuerint ipsius contentiones ex Pastoris absentia Dei gratia cooperante eodem praesente poterint reformari Dat. c. Hereby you see how King Stephen was dealt withall And albeit that Canterbury is not openly to be touched herewith yet it is not to be doubted but he was a doer in it so farre as might tend to the maintenance of the right and prerogative of the holy Church Thus farre verbatim out of Harrison Mariaâ— Bishop of London was one of those undutifull Bishops who about the yeare of our Lord 1208. interdicted the whole Realme and excommunicated King Iohn by the Popes Commandement they all endured five yeares banishment for this their trechery and conâ—umacy together with confiscation of their goods and the King being specially incensed against this man in token of his great displeasure Anno 1211. threw downe to the ground his Castle of Stortford which William the Conqueror had given to his Church Besides he joyned in the publication of the Popes sentence for deposing the King and stirred up the French King and all other Christians to invade England in an hostile manner and to depose King Iohn from the Crowne and promised them remission of all their sinnes for this good Service After which hee voluntarily resigned his Bishoppricke Anno. 1221. Roger Niger Bishop of London excommunicated the Kings Officers Ano 1233. for that they acâ—ording to their duty had laâ—d hands upon and hindred Walter Mauclerke Bishop of Carlile to passe over the Seas he having no license to depart the Realme and riding flreight unto the Court he certified the King what hee had done and there renewed the same sentence againe the King himselfe not a little murmuring at this his insolent act as he had cause and prohibiting him to doe it the Bishops then at Court notwithstanding the inhibition excommunicated these his Officers likewise for doing their duty About the same time King Henry the third gave commandement for the appehending of Hubert de Burge Earle of Kent upon some pretence of Treason who having suddaine notice thereof at midnight fled into a Chapple in Essex belonging to the Bishop of Norwich The King hearing this was exceeding angry and fearing least he should raise some tumults in his Realme if he escaped thus sent Sir Godfrey de Cranecombâ— with 300. armed men to apprehend and bring him to the Tower of London under paine of death who hasting to the Chapple found the Earle who had some notice of their comming kneeling there upon his knees before the high Altar with a Crucifix in one hand and the Hostia in the other Godfrey and his associates entring into the Chapple commanded him in the Kings name and by his direction to come out of the Chapple and repaire to him to London which he refusing saying that hee would upon no tearmes depart from thence they taking the Crosse and Lords body out of his hands bound him in chaines carried him to the Tower and acquainted the King therewithâ— who was glad of the newes Roger hearing this and taking it to be a great infringment of the Churches liberties goeth in post hast to the King and boldly reproves him for violating the peace of the Church and threatens to excommunicate all those that apprehended him unlesse the King would immediatly restore him to the Chappell whence he was extracted and thereupon enforceth the King sore against his will to remit him o the Chappell The King hereupon commanded the Chapple to be strictly guarded by the Shrieffe of Essex till Hubert should be starved or forced out thence About a yeare or two after this Hubert being imprisoned in the Castle of the Devises within the Diocesse of Salisbury escaped and fled to the Church there his keepers missing him ranne out to seeke him with lanternes clubbes and weapons and finding him in the Church carrying the Lords crosse in his hands before the Altar they bastinadoed and dragged him thence into the Castle where they imprisoned him more strictly than before Hereupon the Bishop of Salisbury excommunicated them because they refused to bring the Earle backe againe to the Church saying they would rather the Earle should be hanged than they for suffering him to escape whereupon the Bishop of Salisbury and this Robert Niger Bishop of London with other Bishops went to the King and never left till they had by perswasions and threats against his will procured
the Earle to be sent backe to the Church Fulco Basset his next successor a man of a haughty stout spirit as he opposed the Popes exactions Rustands his Legate so he had many contâ—sts with King Hâ—nry the third and was the maine pillar of the Barons who reposed all his hope in him before such time he grew cold and remisse in standing for the publike liberties whereby hee much blemished his fame and incensed the Barons and people against him in so much that the King reviled him in these words that neither he nor any of his name were ever true unto him threatning to finde meanes to correct him for his obstinacy In the presence of some whom hee knew would tell the King of it he sticked not to use this bold and couragious speech unfitting a Pâ—elate My Bishopricke my Myter and Crosier the King and the Pope may take from me but my helmet and sword I hope they will not yet neither of these two could secure him from Gods stroke for he died of the Plague at London Anno 1258. Henry Sandwich Bishop of London tooke part with the Barons who rebelled against King Henry the third for which cause he was excommunicated by Ottobon the Popes Legate with other Bishops being the chiefe incendiaries in these warres of whom Matthew Westminster writes thus The high Priests that I say not the Pharises gathered a counsell together against the Lord and against his annoynted saying Ye see that we have profitted nothing if we let the King escape thus The Romans will come and take away our purses with the money let us therefore ordaine 24 Elders round about his Throne who excluding the Parthians Meedes Elamites and strangers of Rome and freeing Ierusalem from Egyptian bondage may governe and order all and singular the affaires of the Realme The Knights Barons and Prelates therefore meeting together at Oxford in the 42. yeare of King Henry the third his reigne the King and Edward his eldest sonne being present ordained by common consent that twelve men nominated by the King and twelve by the Barons and Prelates should governe the Realme to which order the King and his sonne for feare of perpetuall imprisonment assented all and singular the Prelates except Ethelmaâ— Bishop elect onely of Winchester the Kings brother tooke a corporall oath faithfully to observe this infidelity and a sentence of excommunication was denounced by all the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdome against the transgressors of it Moreover saith he it is not without admiration with what face these Senators that aged Bishop of Worcester and other Prelates the Fathers Iudges of mens consciences should give such free assent to take away the Kings royall power when as they had taken a corporall Oath of giving terrene honour to the said King and his Lords which they very ill observed in ordaining that they should never governeâ— but ever be governed by others After which the Lords and Knights perceiving the generall inconvenience of this Ordinance in setting up so many Kings in stead of one the Bishop of Worceter would by no means yeeld to alter it saying that this ordinance was ratefied by an Oath and that the Pope could not dispence with the Oath making conscience of this unjust Oath like Herod and of Schisme and error contrary to the Lawes and Cannons drawing many false Prophets to him to foment this his error After this the King commanded the Bishop of Hereford a great stickler against him in these rebellious courses an oppressour of his subjects apprehended imprisoned and his goods confiscatedâ— Not long after the Prelates Earles and Barons who so sediciously held their King captivated meete at London where they ordained that two Earles and one Bishop on the behalfe of the Comonalty should elect nine persons whereof three should alwayes be assisting to the King and that by the advise of those three and the other nine all things in the Kings house as well as in the Kingdome should be ordered and that the King should doe nothing without their advise at least without the consent of these three Whereupon the Earles of Lecester Worcester Glocester and the Bishop of Chechister who the day before the battell of Lewes absolved all those who fought against his Soveraigne Lord the King from all their sinnes were chosen out to be the chiefe Councellers and Captaines who eleâ—ted other nine The King for feare of perpetuall imprisonment and that they would chuse another King consented to the ordinance OMNIBVS EPISCOPIS all the Bishops Earles and Barons consenting thereunto and sealing it with their Seales The Bishops of London Winchester Worcester and other Bishops were sent to the Popes Legate Cardinall of Sabine whom they would not suffer to come into the Realme to confirme this agreement who sharply reprehended the Bishops because they consented to so great a depression of the Kings power citing them three dayes after to appeare before him at Boâ—onâ—e about the affaires of the Kingdome who neither appearing by themselves nor their Proctors the Legate thereupon suspended them excommunicated the Barons the Cinque ports the city of London and the Bishops to for hindring him from comming into England and for their default But the said Bishops and the rest not regarding this thunderbolt appealed from it to the Pope and the next generall Councell and to the Church as well Triumphant as Militant and trusting to the defence of the Martiall sword little esteemed the spirituall the Bishops presuming to be present at and to exercise divine offices notwithstanding this suspention and excommunication till Otho his comming into England who calling a Councell at Wiâ—â—minsterâ— suspended this Henry Bishop of Londonâ— Iohn Bishop of Winchester and Stephen Bishop of Chichesterâ— both from their office and Benefice who â—ostered and incouraged the part of the Kings enemies excommunicating the Bishop of Lincolne for the same cause who at last supplicated for mercy not judgement with Walter Bishop of Worcester who lying at the point of death confessed he had erred fovendâ— in fomenting and fostering the part of Simon Montford and thereupon sent Letters to the Legate desiring the benefit of absolution which he obtained and so died By which relation of Matthew Westminister seconded by the continuer of Matthew Paris and other of our Chroniclers it is most apparant that this Bishop of London and the other Prelates were the chiefe fomenters of all the warres and rebellions against the King and those that stirred up and encouraged the Barons in their unnaturall bloody wars against their Soveraigne Henry the third as Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury was the principall author and contriver of those against King Iohn Anno. 1329. 1330. Richard Wentworth Bishop of London was accused by Edmond Woodstocke Earle of Kent for conspiring with him to helpe set up a new King Edward the second after his death whom Thoraas Dunhead a Fryer affirmed for cetaine by
a spirit of divination to be alive The Bishop was permitted to goe at liberty under sureties for his good behaviour and forth comming but the Earle was condemned of high treason and beheaded though set on by the Bishop the greatest delinquent In the yeare 1378. Robert Hall and Iohn Shakell Esquires were committed Prisoners to the Tower whence they both escaped to Westminster and there kept sanctuary Sir Alane Boxhul Constable of the Towerâ— grieved not a little that these Prisoners were broken from him and sheltered in that Sanctuary taking with him Sir Ralph â—errers with other men in armour to the number of fifâ—ie and some of the Kings servants on the fifth of August entred into Westrainister Church whilst Masse was sayingâ— at which the said two Esquires were present And first laying hands upon Iohn Shakell they used the matter so that they drew him forth of the Church and led him streight to the Tower but Robert Hall drawing his short sword resisted them along time traversing twise round about the Monkes Quire so as they could doe him no hurt till they had beset him on each side and then one of them cleaft his head to the very braines and another thrust him through with a sword and so they murthered him among them and one of the Monkes who would have had them save his life Much adoe was made about this matter for this breach of the Sanctuary insomuch that the Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury and five other Bishops his Suffragans openly pronounced all them that were present at this murder accursed and likewise all such as ayded and counselled them to it chiefely the said Sir Alane and Sir Ralph The King Queene and Duke of Lancaster were yet excepted by speciall names The Bishop of London William Courtney along time after every Sunday Wednesday and Fryday pronounced this Excommunication in Pauls Church in London The Duke of Lancaster though excepted in the same yet in the behalfe of his friends was not a little offended with the Bishops doings for justifying these leude persons and making the Church a sanctuary for Rebells and Traytors and his excommunications a scourge to punish the Kings Officers for doing their duties in reapprehending these fugitives insomuch that in a Councell held at Windsore to the which the Bishop of London was called but would not come such was his pride and disdaine nor yet cease the pronouncing of the curse albeit the King had requested him by his Letters the Duke said openly That the Bishops forward dealings were not to to be borne with but saithe he if the King would command me I would gladly goe to London aud fetch this disobedient Pâ—elate in despite of those Ribauds so he then termed the Londoners which procured the Duke much evill will who caused the next Parliament hereupon to be held at Gloster Anno. 1388. King Richard the second by the advise of the Archbishop of Yorke and others retained men of warre against his faithfull and Loyall Lords who were stricken with great heavinesse at the newes The Duke of Glocester meaning to mitigate his displeasure received a solemne Oath before Robert Braybrooke Bishop of London and divers other Lords that he never imagined nor went about any thing to the Kings hinderance c. and besought this Bishop to declare his words unto the King The Bishop comming hereupon to the King made report of the Dukes protestation confirmed with his Oath in such wise that the King began to be perswaded it was true which when the Earle of Suffolke perceived he began to speake against the Duke till the Bishop bad him hold his peace and told him that it nothing became him to speake at all And when the Earle asked why so Because said the Bishop Thou wast in the last Parliament condemned for an evill person and one not worthy to live but onely it pleaseth the King to shew thee favour The King offended with the Bishops presumptuous words commanded him to depart and get him home to his Church who forthwith departed and declared to the Duke of Glocester what hee had heard and seene Hereupon the great misliking that had beene afore time betwixt the King and the Lords was now more vehemently encreased the Duke of Ireland the Earle of Suffolk the Archbishop of Yorke and the Lord chiefe Iustice Robert Trisilian still procuring stirring and confirming the Kings heavy displeasure against the Lords The yeare before this Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster giving some ill words to this Bishop the Londoners thereupon rose up in a tumultuous manner in armes purposing to kill the Duke and to burne his house at the Savoy which they furiously assaulted reversing the Dukes armes whereupon the Duke complaining to the King the Major and Aldermen of London were put out of office and others Surrogated in their places Nicholas Ridley a Martyr after his deprivation from his Bishopricke and one of the best Bishops that ever satâ— in this See in thâ— yeare 1553. being the first of Queene Maries raigne was hastily displaced deprived of the Sea of London and committed Prisoner to the Tower The cause of which extremity used towards him was for that in the time of Lady Iane he preached a Sermon at Pauls Crosse by commandement of King Edwards Councell wherein he disswaded the people for sundry causes from receiving the Lady Mary as Queene though lawfull heire to the Crowne Anno. 1558. One Robert Farrier said of the Lady Elizabeth afterwards Queene That this Gill hath beene one of the chiefe doers of this rebellion of Wiat and before all be done she and all Heretiques her partakers shall well understand it Some of them hope that she shall have the Crowne but she and they I trust that so hope shall be headlesse or be fried with fagots before she corae to it Laurence Sherieffe the Lady Elizabeth sworne servant complaining of these contumelious words to Bonner the Bishop of London and the commissioners sitting in Boners house Bonner excused Farrer saying that he meant nothing against the Lady Elizebeth and that they tooke him worse than he raeant And so Sherieffe came away and Farrer had a flap with a Foxe taile This Edmond Bonner an hypocriticall zealous Protestant at first after an Apostate whiles the Bishop of London was a most bloody persecuter and murtherer of Gods Saints all Queene Maries dayes a chiefe reviver and advancer of the Popes Supremacy which he had abjured to the great ecclipse and diminution of the prerogative royall yea a most furious Bedlamâ— and most unnaturall beast sparing none of any condition age or sexe and burning hundreds of good subjects into ashes He was a great enemie to Queene Elizabeth and the first Author of Bishops Visitation Oathes and Articles that I have met with He commanded the Scriptures written on Church walls to be blotted out as Bishop Wren and Bishop Peirce have since done in some plaees by his
used there to preach before the King and Prelates fâ—eely told him That if hee did not remove from him Peter Bishop of Winchester and Peter de Rivallis he could never be in quiet The King did hereupon a little come to himselfe and Roger Bacon a Clergie-man also of a pleasant wit did second Roberts advise telling the King that Petrae and Rupes were most dangerous things at Sea alluding to the Bishops name Petrus de Rupibus The King therefore as hee had the happinesse in his mutabilitie to change for his more securitie taking that good advise of Schollers which he would not of his Peeres summons a Parliament to be holden at VVestminster giving the World to know withall that his purpoâ—e was to amend by their advise whatsoever ought to be amended But the Barons considering that still there arrived sundry strangers men of warre with Horse and Armourâ— and not trusting the Poiâ—â—ovine faith came not but presumed to send this message to the King that if out of hand he removed not Peter Bishop of Winchester and the Poictovines out of his Courtâ— they all of them by the common consent of the Kingdome would drive him and his wicked Counsellours together out of it and consult about creating a new Soveraigne The King whom his Fathers example made more timerous could easily have beene drawne to have redeemed the love of his naturall Liege-men with the disgrace of a few strangers but the Bishop of VVinchester and his Friends infused more spirit into him Whereon to all those whom hee suspected the King sets downe a day within which they should deliver sufficient pledges to secure him of their loyalty Against that day the Lords in great numbers make repaire to London but the Earle Marshall admonished of danger by his Sister the Countesse of Cornewall â—lyes backe to VVales and chiefely for want of his presence nothing was concluded The King not long after is at Gloster with an Armie whither the Earle and his Adherents required to come refused the King therefore burnes their Mannors and gives away their inheritances to the Poictovines This Rebellion had not many great Names in it but tooke strength rather by weight then number the knowne Actors were the Earle Marshall the Lord Gilbert Basset and many of the inferiour Nobles The Bishops arts had pluckt from him the Kings brother and the two Earles of Chester and Lincolne who dishonourably sold their love for a thousand Markes and otherwise as it seemed secured the rest Neverthelesse they may well bee thought not to have borne any evill will to their now forsaken confederate the Earle Marshall who tooke himselfe to handle the common cause certainely hee handled his owne safety but ill as the event shall demonstrate The Earle hearing these things contracts strict amity with Lewelin Prince of Wales whose powers thus knit together by advantages of the Mountaines were able to counterpoise any ordinary invasion To the kings ayde Balwin de Gisnes with many Souldiers came out of Flanders The king now at Hereford in the midst of his Forces sends from thence by VVinchesters counsell the Bishop of Saint Davids to defie the Earle Marshall How farre soever the word defie extends it selfe sure it seemes that the Earle hereupon understood himselfe discharged of that obligation by which hee was tyed to the king and freed to make his defence the king notwithstanding after some small attempts and better considerations did promise and assume that by advise of counsell all that was amisse should at a day appointed bee rectified and amended About which time Hubert de Burgo having intelligence that the Bishop of VVinchester who was a Poictovine plotted his death escaped out of the Castle of Devises where hee was prisoner to a Neighbour Church but was haled from thence by the Castle-keepers The Bishop of Sarisbury in whose Diocesse it hapned caused him to be safe restored to the same place from whence by the Earle Marshall and a troope of armed men his friends hee was rescued and carryed into VVales The king at the day and place appointed holds his great Counsell or Conference with the Lords but nothing followed for the peace of the Realme it was not an ordinary passage of speech which hapned there betweene the Lords and Bishop of VVinchester For when the English Bishops and Barons humbly besought the king for the honour of Almightie God to take into grace his naturall Subjects whom without any tryall by their Peeres hee called Traytors the Bishop offended it seemes at Peeres takes the words out of the kings mouth and answers That there are no Peeres in England as in the Realme of France and that therefore the king of England by such Justiciars as himselfe pleaseth to ordaine may banish offenders out of the Realmeâ— and by judiciall processe condemne them The English Bishops relished his speech so sharply that with one voyce they threatned to excommunicate and accurse by name the kings principall wicked Councellours but VVinchester appealed Then they accursed all such as alienated the heart of the king from his Naturall Subjects and all others that perâ—urbed the peace of the Realme Matthew VVestminster writes of this Peter de la Roche that hee was more expert in Military than Scholasticall affaires That the king by his Counsell removed all English Officers out of his Court and precipitately cast away all his Counsellours as well Bishops as Earles Barons and other Nobles of his kingdome so as hee would beleeve none but this Bishop whom hee adored as his God and his Darling Peter de Rivales Whence it came to passe that expelling all Gardians of Castles almost through all Englandâ— the King committed all things under the custodie of this Peter Then this Prelate drew into his confederacie Stephen de Segrave too much an enemie both to the kingdome and Church who had given most detestable counsell formerly to Stephen the Popes Chaplaine to the inestimable dammage of the Church many wayes and Robert de Passelewe who with all his might and with effusion of no small summe of money had plotted treason and grievances at Rome against the king and kingdome This man kept the kings treasure under Peter de Rivalis and so it came to passe that the Reines of the whole kingdome were committed to Strangers and base persons others being rejected Yet Godwin for the honour of his Rochet magnifies this Prelate for his notable Wisdome so as the Counsell of England received a great wound by his death though it and the whole Realme received such prejudice by his life The Earle Marshall writes Speed encreasing in strength and hatred against such as were the kings reputed Seducers makes spoile and bootie on their possessions and after joyning with the power of Leoline Prince of Wales puts all to fire and sword as farre as Shrewesbury part whereof they burnt to Ashes and sackt the Residue The king then
King hereupon moved with pitty sends forth his Proclamations That all such as were out-lawed or proscribed should be at Glocester upon a certaine day there to be received into the Kings favour againe and to have restitution of their inheritancesâ— but least they might suspect any evill measure it was ordered that they should be in the Churches protection and come under the safe conduct of the Archbishop and the other Prelatesâ— Thither at the time and place limitted doth Hubert de Burgo Earle of Kent and lately chiefe Justicier of England repaire upon whom by mediation of the Bishop the compassionate King lookes graciously receiving him in his armesâ— with the kisse of peace In like sort was the Lord Gilbert Basset and all others of that fellowship received into favour their severall livings and rights fully restored and both Hubert and Basset admitted to be of his Councell Vpon this reconcilement the practise by which the late great Marshall was destroyed and his possessions dismembred came to light the coppy of the Letters which had beene sent into Ireland being by commandement of the Archbishop of Canterbury openly read in the presence of the King the Prelates Earles and Barons It moved teares in all of them the King with an Oath affirming that he knew not the Contents of the said Letters though by the urging of the Bishop of Winchester Rivallis Segrave Passeletu with other of his Councell hee had caused his Seale to be put unto them At the sound of Summons to make their severall appearances the Malefactors take Sanctuary the Bishop and Peter de Rivallis in Winchester Church Segrave in Leicester Abby Passeleiu in the new Temple and others otherwhere And some write that the King commanded Winchester utterly to depart the Court and to repaire to his Bishopricke and there to give himselfe intirely to the cure of soules If such a precept were now given by his Majesty to all our Court Prelates it would be but just In the end upon the intercession of Edraond Archbishop of Canterbury who piously endeavoured to extinguish all occasions of further dissention in the Kingdome and undertooke they should have a lawfull triall the delinquents appeared at Westminster before the King who sate in person with his Justiciers upon the Bench Peter de Rivallis was first called for the Bishop came not whom the King shot through with an angry eye saying O thou Traytor by thy wicked advise I was drawne to set my Seale to these treacherous Letters for the destruction of the Earle Marshall the contents whereof were to me unknowne and by thine and such like councell I banished my naturall Subjects and turned their rainds and hearts from me By thy bad councell and thy complices I was moved to make warre upon them to my irreparable losse and the dishonour of ray Realme In which enterprize I wasted my treasure and lost many worthy persons together with much of my royall respect therefore I exact of thee an account as well of my treasure as of the custodies of wards together with many other profits and escheats belonging to my Crowne Peter denying none of the accusations but falling to the ground thus besought him My Soveraigne Lord and King I have beene nourished by you and made rich in worldly substance confound not you owne creature but at least wise grant me a time of deliberation that I may render a competent reason for such poynts as I am charged with Thou shalt said the King be carried to the Tower of London there to deliberate till I am satisfied he was so Stepâ—en de Segrave the Lord chiefe Justice whom the King also called most wicked Traytor had time till Michaelmas to make his accounts at the Archbishops and other Bishops humble intreaty and for other matters hee shifted them of from himselfe by laying the blame upon such as were higher in place than he into whose office of chiefe Justice Hugh de Pateshull is advanced The like evasion Robert Passeleu hadâ— by leaving the fault upon Walter Bishop of Carleil who was above him in the Exchequer And thus were these civill enormities reformed not without reducing store of coyne to the King this Bishop of VVinchester being the chiefe Author of all these warres and mischiefes which thus molested King State and People at that time Anno. 1238. Otho the Popes Legate lodging at Osnie Abby some of his servants abusing the Schollers of Oxford that came thither to see him they thereupon falling together by the eares slew the Legates Cooke and hurt other of his servants reviling the Legate and stiling him a wicked wretch a Robber of England the gulfe of Roman avarice c. Hereupon the Legate fled up into the Towne for feare and sent to the King to Abindon to rescue him the next day he publikely excommunicated all who had assaulted him depriving them both from their office and benefice and pronouncing them irregular interdicted all the Churches in Oxford and suspended the Schollers from studying there the which Sentence was by this Bishop of VVinchester solemnely denounced and executed before all the Clergy and people assembled together for that purpose at S. Frideswids in Oxford and so all that Summer the Schollers were dissipated their study at Oxford was suspended At length the Abbot and Canons of Osnie and regent Masters of Oxford comming bare foote to the Legate with their heads uncovered and their upper garments put off and rent oft times humbly craved pardon of himâ— and so at last going through the midst of the Citty of London to the Bishop of Durhams house they with much adoe obtained pardon whereupon the Schollers were restored to their Study at Oxford and released from their said sentences An. 1246. The Pope writ to William Bishop of VVinchester and the Bishop of Lincolne that they should levy 6000. markes of the Cleargy to his use They thereupon began to execute this mandate of the Pope but are prohibited by the King to proceede under paine of proscription The Cleargy now interposed betweene the King Pope and terrified with both their threatsâ— were uncertaine what to doe but perceiving the Kings inconstancy and fearing least his courage failing he should at last as he often had done before yeeld to the Popeâ— many of them paying their money secretly avoided both the Kings and Popes indignation To prevent these exactions messengers were sent to the Pope from the King Peeres Prelates and Commons of England these the Pope reviles and repels as Schismaticks saying The King of England who now turnes his heeles against me and Frederizeth hath his Councell but I have mine With which scornefull words the King was so moved that he proclaimed through England That no man should pay any thing to the Pope But the Pope growing more angry hereat threatned the Prelates with all kinde of punishment that they should pay the foresaid summe to his Nuncio in the new Temple very spedily The King terrified with the
At last being parmited to departâ— he was basely and vily thrust awayâ— who rejoycing for the present that he had escaped their hands ranne away as fast as he might upon his feete though agedâ— to Walerle not daring to looke back leâ—t he should be turned into a pillar of Salt The Archbishops Officiall having received so great an injury makes a most grievous complaint to the Archbishop Boniface with sighes and teares aggravating great things with greater and grievous things with greater grievances The Archbishop hereupon moved with unexpressible anger taking with him the Bâ—shops of Chester and Heriford goeth to London where he and those two Bishops clad in their Pontificall Robes before an innumerable company of people summoned to appeare before them with the voyce of a Cryer for this purpose and granting thirtie dayes pardon to all commers at S. Mary de arcubus even horribly and solemnely excommunicated all the actors and fauters of this rash action excepting onely the King Queene and their children and Count Richard with his Countesse and children Moreover he writ to all his suffgragan Bishops by vertue of the bond of obedience whereby they stood obliged to the Church of Canterbury to doe the like in their Churches on all Lords dayes and holy dayes by his expresse command The Bishop of Winchester on the contrary speedily commanded the Deane of Seuwarke and other his subjects that they contradicting the Archbishopâ— should openly denounce to his face that this his sentence of excommunication was a meere nullity yea a vaine frivilous and wily excuse to bolster him out in his sinnes The Archbishops creatures for this injury and the scandall arising thereupon appeale to the Pope There were some who favouring neither side affirmed the Archbishop had done Winchester wrong because there was a composition formely made that notwithstanding the right of patronage yet to prevent controversies this Hospitall should be subject to the disposall of the Bishop of Winchester paying thereout three shillings by the yeare and so both of them being defamed incurred the brand of unjust violence while the citizens mindfull of the peremptorinesse which the Archbishop had shewed in his first violent comming to London of his infinite exactions of mony which he had procured of the Kings violence in his creation and of the enormious collation of his benefices did now againe revive the same On the other â—ide the royallists Poictavins gained the note of imbred treason with other reproaches as the manner is of those that brawle There were not a few citizens who hearing these things wished that these parties had dashed out one anothers braines and ripâ—â—d up one anothers bowells And as it was written Woe unto them by whom scandall commeth both parties were indangered with the great reproaches and scandalls arising hereupon Thus was the Kings party devided against the Queenes the Poictovines against the Provincials whose great possessions made them mad playing rex one with the other whiles the miserable English were asleepe as if they contested which of them having banished the Natives should deserve more excellently to rule the Kingdone but the ventilation of fame more condemned the Provinctalls because Winchester rising up against his Superiour had so proudly exceeded measure confiding on the King his brother who God knowes had created him The Archbishop Boniface raking up the fire of his conceived anger under ashes and worthily persisting in it as Eustace stirred him up more or lesse to revenge this enormious transgression goeth after this towards Oxford that summoning a Convocation of the Scollers there assembled out of divers parts of the world he mightt publish to them in order this notorious fact that so by their relations so great an offence might be made knowne to forraigne Nationsâ— Comming therefore to Oxford the morrow after S. Nicholas day before all the Clearkes and Schollers there assembled for this purpose being an innumerable multitude he openly declares before them the presumptuous temerity and temerarious presumption of the Bishop of Winchester taking boldnesse from his confidence and dependance on the King his brethren and complices and expresly published the names of the trespassers and their former sentences of excommunication which the Bishop caused to be transcribed sent to all his suffrâ—gans The Christmas following the King and Queene being at VVinchester reconciled these Prelates and tooke off these excommunications ended these contentions which much troubled both Church and Kingdome This Prelates by bribes given to the Pope obtruded a Prior on the Monkes of Winchester which caused great Schismes and distractions among them Anno. Dom. 1260. Simon Montfort Earle of Leicester Richard de Clare Earle of Gloster with sundry other Nobles adhering to them assembled at Oxford sufficiently furnished with horses and armes finally resolving in their mindes either to die for the peace of their country or to thrust out of the Realme the desturbers of the peace Whereupon the Bishop of Winchester William de Valentia and other Poicâ—ouines assembled together at the foresaid place guarded with a great troope of their souldiers and followers But because the Lordsâ— determined to bring them into question for their wicked deedes and make them take a common oath with them to observe the provisions made for the benefit of the Kingdome they discerning their forces to be weaker than the Lords and fearing to undergoe their judgement fled in the night to the Castle of Vlnesey whom the Barons pursuing caused them to yeeld up the Castle and compelled them forthwith to depart the Kingdome Ethelmar comming to the King to take his farewell of mhimâ— used these words I commend you to the Lord God to whom the King replied Et ego te Diabolo vivo and I commend thee to the living devill for deseâ—ting him in his necessities and occasioning such uproares in the Realme The Nobles fearing least the Bishop departing the Realme should resort to Rome and for a summe of mony given should procure his promotion againe and so be more powerfull to doe harmes sent foure eloquent Knights to exhibit a letter ratified with all their seales to the Pope and Cardinalls wherein were contained the wickednesses of the said Bishop and his brethren and those homicides rapines injuries and various oppressions wherewith they had afflicted and undone the people of the King darae and withall they commanded all the religious men who farmed any livings of the Romanes to detaine their rents till they should receive further order from them and pay them to such receivers as they should appoint under paine of having their houses burnt by which meanes the Kingdome was free from Romane exactors for three yeares space This Ethelmare foreseeing the danger that was like to befall him sent over his Treasure whereof hee had great store beyond the seas before his departure but much of it came shortâ— being intercepted at Dover and taken away from those to whom it was committed and distributed to foure Knights who were sent to Rome by
the King and his Barons to complaine against the blanke Bulls found in the chests of Beâ—ard de Nympha the Popes agent after his death and of the many machinations of the Romanes to disquiet the Realme Iohn Gerâ—sey next Bishop of Wâ—nchester consecrated at Rome where â—e payd 6000. markes to the Pope and so much more to his Chancellour for his consecration was a great stickler in the Barons warres against King Henry the third as appeares by the forecited passages of Matthew Westminister and was excommunicated by Octobon the Popes Legate for taking part against the King in the Barons warres and forced to goe to Rome for his absolution where he died Henry Woodlocke Bishop of Winchester made request to King Edward the first for Robert Winchelsey Archbishop of Canterbury whom the King had banished for high Treason in which request he called the Archbishop an arch-Traytor his good Lord which the King as he had cause tooke so hainously that he confiscated all his goods and renounced all protection of him Adam Tarleton or de Arleton Bishop of Winchester about the yeere 1327. was arrested and accused of high Treason for aiding the Mortimers against King Edward the second both with men and armour when he was brought to the barre to be arraigned for this Treason the Archbishops of Canterbury Yorke and Dublin with their suffragans came with their Crossesâ— and rescued him by force carrying him with them from the barre in such manner as I have formerly related more at large in the Acts of Walâ—er Rainolds pag. 55.56 Notwithstanding the indictment and accusation being found true his temporalities wereseized into the Kings hands untill such time as the King much deale by his imagination and devise was deposed of his Kingdome If he which had beene a traytor unto his Prince before after deserved punishment for the same would soone be intreated to joyne with other in the like attempt it is no marvell No man so forward as he in taking part with Isabell the Queene against her husband King Edward the second She wiâ—h her sonnes and army being at Oxford this good Bishop steps up into the pulpit and there taking for his Text these words My head grieved me he made a long Discourse to prove that an evill head not otherwise to be cured must be taken away applying it to the King that hee ought to be deposed A Bishoplike application Hereupon they having gotten the King into their power the Bishop fearing least if at any time recovering his liberty crowne again they might receive condigne punishment councelled the Queene to make him away good ghostly advice of a Prelate wherupon she being as ready and willing as he to have it done they writ certaine letters unto the keepers of the old King signifiing in covert termes what they desired they either not perfectly understanding their meaning or desirous of some good warrant to shew for their discharge pray them to declare in expresse words whether they would have them put the King to death or no. To which question this subtile Fox framed this answer Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonumâ—est without any point at all If you set the point betweene nolite and tâ—aere it forbiddeth if betweene nolite and bonum it â—xhorteth them to the committinng of the fact This ambiguous sentence unpointed they take for a sufficient warrant and most pittifully murthered the innocent King by thrusting an hot spit into his fundament and who then so earnest a persecuter of those murthereâ—s as this Bishop that set them a worke who when diverse of his Letters were produced and shewed to him warranting this most trayterly inhumane Act eluded and avoided them by Sophisticall interpretations and utterly denied that he was any way consenting to this hainous fact of which in truth he was the chiefe occasion How clearely he excused himselfe I â—now not But sâ—re I am he like many Arch-trayterly Prelates before himâ— who were oftner rewarded than punished for their Treasons was so farre from receiving punishment as within two moneths after he was preferred unto Hereford than to the Bishoppricke of Worceâ—er and sixe yeares after that translated to Winchester by the Popeâ— at the request of the French King whose secret friend he was which King Edward the third taking in very ill part because the French King and he were enemies detained his temporalties from him till that in Parliament at the suite of the whole Cleargie he was content to yeeld them unto him after which he became blinde in body as hee was before in minde and so died deserving to have lost his head for these his notorious Treasons and conspiracies long before he being the Archplotter of all the Treacheries against King Edward the second Anno. 10. Richard the third 1366. thirteene Lords were appointed by Parliament to have the government of the Realme under the King in diminution of his Prerogative among these Williara Edingdon Bishop of Winchester Iohn Gilbert Bishop of Hereford Lord Treasurer of England Thomas Arundle Bishop of Ely and Chancellour Nicholas Abbat of Waltham Lord Keeper of the privy Seale VVilliam Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander Archbishop of Yorke and Thomas Bishop of Exeter were chiefe and the principall contrivers of this new project which fell out to be inconvenient and pernicious both to the King and Realme the very procurers of this Act as some of the Jâ—dges afterwards resolved deserving death which resolution afterward cost some of them their livesâ— as the Stories of those times declare It seemes this Bishop made great havocke of the goods of his Church for his successor Vâ—illiam VVicham sued his Executors for dilapidations and recovered of them 1672. pound tenne shillingsâ— besides 1566. head of neate 386. Weathers 417. Ewes 3521. Lambes and 127. Swine all which stocke it seemeth belonged unto the Bishoppricke of VVinchester at that time William Wicham his next successor was a great Pluralist the yearely revenues of his spirituall promotionsâ— according as they were then rated in the Kings bookes beside his Bishoppricke amounting to 876. poundâ— thirteene shillings and foure pence besides these Ecclesiasticall preferments he held many temporall offices at the Secretariship the Keepership of the Privy Seale the Mastership of Wards the Treasurership of the Kings revenues in France and divers others Being consecrated Bishop of VVinchester in the yeare 1367. he was made soone after first Treasurer then Chancellor of England It seemes that he was a better Treasurer for himselfe than the King who though hee received hugh summes of money by the ransome of two Kings and spoile of divers large Countries abroad and by unusuall subsedyes and taxations at home much grudged at by the Commons was yet so bare as for the payment of his debts he was constrained to find new devices to raise mony whereupon a solemne complaint was framed against this Bishop for vainely wasting or falsely imbezelling the Kings
unduly and against reason by the commandement of the said Lord of VVinchester and afterward in approving of the said refusall he received the said VVoodvile and cherished him against the State and worship of the King and of the said Lord of Glocester Secondly The said Lord of Winchester without the advise and assent of the said Lord of Glocester or of the Kings Councell purposed and disposed him to set hand on the Kings person and to have removed him from Eltham the place that he was in to Windsor to the intent to put him in governance as he list Thirdly that where the said Lord of Glocester to whom of all persons thaâ— should be in the Land by the way of Nature and birth it belongeth to see the governance of the Kings person informed of the said undue purpose of the said Lord of Winchester declared in the Article next above said and in setting thereof determining to have gone to Eltham unto the King to have provided as the cause required and the said Lord of Winchester untruely and against the Kings peace to the intent to trouble the said Lord of Glocester going to the Kingâ— purposing his death in case that he had gone that way set men of armes and Archers at the end of London bridge next Southwâ—rke and in forbearing of the Kings high way let draw the chaine of the stoopes there and set up pipes and hurdles in manner and former of Bulworkes and set mâ—n in cellers and windowes with Bowes and Arrowesâ— and other weapons to the intent to bring finall destruction to the said Lord of Glocesters person as well as of those that then should come with him Fourthly The said Lord of Glocester saithâ— and affirmeth that our soveraigne Lord his Brother that was King Henry the fift told him on a time when our Soveraigne Lord being Prince was lodged in the Pallace of Westminster in the great Chamber by the noyse of a Spaniell there was on a night a man spied and taken behind a carpet of the said Chamber the which man was delivered to the Earle of Arundell to be examined upon the cause of his being there at that time the which so examined at that time confessed that he was there by the stirring and procuring of the said Lord of Winchester ordained to have slaine the said Prince there in his bed wherefore the said Earle of Arundell let sacke him forthwith and drownes him in the Thames Fiftly Our Soveraigne Lord that was King Henry the fifth said unto the said Lord of Glocester that his Father King Henry the fourth livingâ— and visited then greatly with sicknesse by the hand of God the said Lord of Winchester said unto the King Henry the fifth being then Prince that the King his Father so visited with sicknesse was not personable and therefore not disposed to come in conversation and governance of the people and for so much councelled him to take the governance and Crowne of this Land upon him Such a loyall Prelate was he To these Articles the Archbishop gave in his answer in writing too tedious to recite whereupon the Lords in Parliament tooke an Oath to be indifferent umpiers betweene the Bishop and Duke and at lastâ— with much adoe made a finall accord and decree betweene them recorded at large by Hall and Holinshed wherâ—by they both were reconciled for a season But in the yeare 1427. the Bishop passing the sea into France received the habit hat and dignity of a Cardinall with all ceremonies to it appertaining which promotion the late King right deepely piercing into the unrestrainable ambitions mind of the man which even from his youth was ever wont to checke for the highest and also right well ascertained with what intollerable pride his head should soone be swollâ—n under such a hat did therefore all his life long kepe this Prelate backe from that presumptuous estate But now the King being young and the Regent his friend hee obtained his purpose to the impoverishiâ—g of the spiritualitie of this Realme For by a Bull Legantine which he purchased from Rome he gathered so much treasure that no man in manner had money but he so that hee was called the rich Cardinall of Wincester Afterwards An. 1429. the Pope unleagated him and set another in his place to his great discontent Anno. 1441. the flames of contention brake out afresh betweene the said Duke and the Cardinall for after his former reconciliation to the Duke he and the Archbishop of Yorke Iohn Kerap ceased not to doe many things without the consent of the King or Duke being during the minority of the King Governour and Protector of the Realme whereat the Duke as good cause he had was greatly offended and there upon declared to King Henry the â—ixth in writing wherein the Cardinall and the Archbishop had offended both his Majesty and the Lawes of the Realme This complaint of the Duke was contained in twentie foure Articles which chiefely rested in that the Cardinall had from time to time through his ambitious desire to surmount all other in high degree of honor sought to enrich himself to the great and notorious hinderance of the King as in defrauding him not onely of his treasure but also in doing practising things prejudiciall to his affaires in France and namely by setting at liberty the King of Scots upon so easie conditions as the Kings Majesty greatly lost therehy as in particulars thus followethâ— and out of the Dukes owne coppie regestred by Hall and Holinshed 1. These be in part the points and Articles which I Humphrey Duke of Gloster for my truth and acquitall said late I would give in writing my right doubted Lord unto your Highnes advertising your Excellence of such things as in part have bin done in your tender age in derogation of your noble estate and hurt of both your Realmes and yet be done and used dayly 2. First the Cardinall then being Bishop of Winchester him took upon the state of Cardinall which was naied and denaied him by the King of most noble memory my Lord your Father saying that he had as lefe set his Crowne beside him as to see him weare a Cardinalls Hat he being a Cardinall for he knew full well the pride and ambition that was in his person then being but a Bishop should have so greatly extolled him into more intollerable pride when that he were a Cardinall and also he though it against his freedome of the chiefe Church of this Realme which that he worshipped as duly as ever did Prince that blessed be his soule And howbeit that my said Lord your Father would have had certaine Clarkes of this Land Cardinalls and to have no Bishopricks in England yet his intent was never to doe so great dâ—rogation to the Church of Canterbury as to make them that were his suffragans to sit above their Ordinary and Metropolitan But the cause was that in generall and in all matters which might concerne the weale
loose your Jewels in my truth and in mine acquitall as it seemes to me I may not nor ought not counsell so great an hurt to you and to all your Land 21. Item It is not unknowne to you my right doubted Lord how oftentimes I have offered my service to and for the defence of your Realme of France and Dutchy oâ— Normandy where I have beene put there from by the labour of the Lord Cardinall in preferring others after his singular affection which hath caused a great part of the said Dutchy of Normandy as well as of the Realme of France to be lost as it is well knowne and what good my right doubted Lord was lost on that army that was last sent thither which the Earle of Mortaigne your Counsell of France hath well and clearly declared to your Highnesse here before 22. Item My right doubted Lord it is not unknowneâ— that it had not beene possible to the said Cardinall to have come to his great riches but by such meanes for of his Church it might not rise and inheritance he had none Wherefore my right doubted Lord sith there is great good behoofe at this time for the weale and safegard of your Realmes the poverty necessity and indigence of your leige people in highnesse understand like it unto your noble grace to consider the said lucre of the said Cardinall and the great deceipts that you be deceived in by the labour of him and of the Archbishop as well in this your Realme as in the Realme of France and Dutchy of Normandy where neither office livelihood nor Captaine may be had withouâ— too great good given unto him whereby a great part of all the losse that is lost they have beene the causers of for who that would give most his was the prise not considering the merrits service nor sufficiency of persons Furthermore it is greatly to be considered how when the said Cardinall had forfeited all his goods because of provision as the Statute thereupon more plainely declareth by having the rule of you my right doubted Lordâ— purchased himselfe in great defraudation of your Highnesse a Charter of pardon the which good and it had beene well governed might many yeares have sustained your warres without any tâ—lage of your poore people 23. Iâ—em my redoubted Lord whereas I wrote many things for the weale of you and of your Realmesâ— peradventure some wil say and understandâ— that I would or have written by way of accusement of all your Counsell which God knoweth I doe not for your Highnesse may well see that I name them that be causâ—rs of the sâ—id inordinate rule Wherefore considering that the said Cardinall and Archbishop of Yorke are they that pretend the governance of you and of your Realmes and Lordshipsâ— please iâ— unto your Highnâ—sse of your right wisenesse to estrâ—nge them of your Counsell to that intent that men may be at their freedome to say what they thinke of truth 24. For truth I dare speake of my truth the poore dare not doe so And if the Cardinall and the Archbishop of Yorke may afterward declare themselves of that is and shall be said of them you my most doubted Lord may then restore them againe to your Counsell at your noble pleasure When the King had heard the accusations thus laid by the Duke of Glocester against the Cardinall he committed the examination thereof to his Counsell whereof the more part were spirituall persons so that what for feare and what for favour the matter was winked at and nothing said to it onely faire countenance was made to the Duke as though no malice had beene conceived against him but venome will breake out and inward grudge will soone appeare which was this yeare to all men apparant for divers secret attempts were advanced forward this season against this Noble man Humfry Duke of Glocester a farre off which in conclusion came so neare that they bereft him both of life and land For this proud covetous Prelate setting the Queene against this good Duke at a Parliament at Berry caused him there to be arrested and murthered by meanes of whose death all France was shortly after lost the Kingdome involved in a bloody civill warre I shall close up the History of this proud Prelate with old Father Latimers words concerning him in a Sermon before King Edward the sixth There was a Bishop of Winchester in King Henry the sixth dayes which King was but a child but yet were there many good Acts made in his childhood and I doe not reade that they were broken This Bishop was a great man borne and did beare such a stroake that he was able to shoulder the Lord Protector Well it chanced that the Lord Protector and he fell out and the Bishop would beare nothing at all with him but played the Sacrapha so the Regent of France was faine to be sent for from beyond the seas to set them at one and goe betweene them for the Bishop was as able and ready to buckle with the Lord Protector as hee was with him Was not this a good Prelate he should have beene at home Preaching at his Diocesse with a wannion This Protector was so noble and godly a man that he was called of every man the good Duke Humfry he kept such a house as was never since kept in England without any inhaunsing of rents I warrant you or any such matter And the Bishop for standing so stiffely by the matter and bearing up the order of our Mother the holy Church was made a Cardinall at Calis and thither the Bishop of Rome sent him a Cardinals Hat he should have had a Tiburne Tippit a halfe penny halter and all such proud Prelates These Romish Hats never brought good into England Vpon this the Bishop goeth to the Queene Katherine the Kings wife a proud woman and a stout and perswaded her that if the Duke were in such authority still and lived the people would honour him more than the King and the King should not be set by and so betweene them I cannot tell how it came to passe but at S. Edmundsberry in a Parliament the good Duke Humfry was smothered To leave this Cardinall Ste. Gardiner both Chancellor of England B. of Winchester was the chiefe author of making reviving the bloody Act intitled the 6. Articles by which many of our godly Martyrs suffered the chiefe plotter and contriver of the noble Lord Cromwells death Who could not abide the pride of the Prelates and was attainted by Parliament and never came to his answer He was a great opposer of the reformation of Religion and abuses of the Clergy both in King Henry the eights and King Edwards dayes and stirred up under hand divers Priests Abbots and Monkes to oppose the Kings Supremacie and to rayse up open rebellion in Lincolneshire in the North Cornewall and other places in maintenance of Popery for which Treasons and Rebellions Exmew Middlemore
during these fifteene dayes he could not avoid by order of vrineâ— or otherwise any thing that he received whereby his body being miserably inflamed within who had inflamed so many good Martyrs before was brought to a wretched end And thereof no doubt as most like it is came the thrusting out of his tongue from his mouth so swolne and blacke with the inflammation of his body A Spectacle worthy to be noted and beholden of such bloody burning Persecutors When Doctor Dayâ— Bishop of Chichester came to him and began to comfort him with words of Gods Promise and with the free justification in the blood of Christ our Saviour repeating the Scriptures to him Winchester hearing that What my Lord quoth he will you open that gappe now Than farewell all together To me and such other in my case you may speake it but open this window to the people than farewell all together And thus this wretch died blaspheming He that list may read more of him in Iohn Bales Scriptorum Brit. cent 8. sect 88. p. 486. c. Iohn White his successor in that See was little better and would have defaced Queene Elizabeth gladly if hee durst in his Funerall Sermon of Queene Mary whom he immoderately extolled He to obtaine this Bishoppricke promised to give the Pope 1600. l. per annum for it during his life which grosse Symony the Pope disliking and threatning to punish him for it he was forced to pay much dearer ere he could obtaine it This Bishop and others being appointed to conferre with the Protestant Ministers in the first yeare of Queene Elizabeth insteed of disputing he and Thomas Watson Bishop of Lincolne two malepate Prelates threatning to excommunicate the Queene were committed to prison and there detained and after that for refusing to take the oath of allegeance to the Queen he with thirteene Bishops more who denied to take the Oath of Supremacy which the greatest number of them had sworne unto formerly during the raigne of King Henry the eight were deprived of their Bishopprickes and others placed in their roome Iohn Bale in his Centuries gives this description of this Prelate Iohannes Whitus Wintoniensis schâ—lae olim Praeses nunc EIVS PESTILENTISSIMAE SEDIS Episcopus Antichristi Romani terrificus minister rostris unguibus in Angliae regno restituere conatur omnes ejus tyraâ—nides idolomanias faeditates omniâ— dogmata universa Principum illusor animarum carnifex duplex perjurus hypocrita ambitiosus que haereticus deum suum Mauzim mutum mortuum aridum idolum omnium perniciosissimum adversus Denm verum viuum sanctum erexit And Iohn Parkhust for his sake wrote this Disticke to England to take heede of all Prelates and not to trust them Anglia furcatis nimium ne fidito mitris Dic rogo num serus sum tibi praemonitor With this other Disticke upon the Bishop himselfe Candidus es certè nec candidus es Rogitas cur Nomine candidus es moribus at niger es I finde little recorded of any of the Bishops of this See since this dayes and what the Prelates of that See in our memories have beene as Bilson Mountague Andrewes Neale and Curle now living is sufficiently knowne For Bilson Andrewes and Neale we know they were great sticklersâ— for Episcopacy Lordly Prelacy the High Commission Inquisition and Ex Officio Oathes great enemies to Prohibitions and the Common Law and no good friends to Parliaments for Mountague and Neale they were the originall Authors and publishers of the Booke for Sports on the Dayâ— published in King Iames his name and dayes which occasioned must disorder then and more since and for the present Bishop Curle hee was the most violent enforcer of this Booke on the Cleargie of all other Bishops Peirce and Wren onely excepted and the first that ever suspended any Ministers for refusing parsonally to read it in their Churches he suspending no lesse than five eminent Ministers at St. Mary Overies in one day for refusing to publish it though not injoyned nor authorized by the King to do it whereupon other Bishops following his example and proceedings in this kinde both in their Consistories high Commissions and Visitations wherein they made it one Article of Inquiry upon oath for Churchwardens to present on whether their Minister had read to them the Declaration for Sports a suparlative and shamelesse prophanes not paraleld in any age since Adam till now Silenced Suspended persecuted excommunicated and drave out of the Realme many of our best and painfullest preaching Ministers and put both our Church and State into a miserable combustion and most sad perplexed condition making such breaches in both which will not be repaired again in many yeares O that men who professe themselves Fathers of the Church Pillers of Religion and Pastors of mens soules should be such Step-fathers to their owne Diocesse and Country such patrons of prophanesse and licenciousnesse and such desperate murtherers of poore peoples soules to vex persecute and stop their godly Ministers mouthes because they durst not out of consciens open them to seduce and spur them on to hell prophanes with a full currere I shall onely checke the impudency and shame the prophanenesse of these our monstrou Prelates with words of Cardinall Bellarmine no Puritan I am certaine touching the unlawfulnesse of Dancing and Pastimes upon Lords dayes in sundry Sermons I cannot verily good hearers saith he explicate by words with how great griefe of minde I behold in what a perverse and Diabolicall manner Holi-dayes are celebrated in this our age How farre pevish men have obscured and defiled their pious institution with their most corrupt manners may be understood by this that to strangers and those who are ignorant what manner of feasts these are from those things which they see every where to be done they may seeme to be not the feasts of God but the Festivals of the Devill and so the very Bacchanalia themselves Yea verily when I pray you are there more sinnes committed then on Holidayes When are there more sumptuous feasts kept When more lascivious songs heard When are bowling-allies Tavernes more frequented when are there more execrable kinds of Playes Fooleries and scurrilities When are there more Dances in most places to the sound of the Harpe and Lute then on these dayes But peradventure it is no evill or a small evill for men to dance with women Yea verily nothing is more pernicious If strawes can come to the fire and not be burnt than a young man may dance with women Alas what will dances and Galliards profit thee at the last when thou shalt have danced long what shalt thou gaine at lengthâ— but wearinesse of body and sicknesse of minde knowest thou not the danger of Dances How many thinkest thou have entred Virgins into dances and returned Harlots Knowest thou not what hapned to the daughter of Herodias who with her dances was the
to prophane uses because they are consecrated and dedicated to God But who knoweth not that Holidayes are after the same manner consecrated and dedicated unto God and to be spent in no other but in holy workes which of you if he should see any one enter into the Church with encredible audacity and use the consecrated vestments in steed of prophane garments Temples for a Taverne the Altar for a Table the Corporals or Alterclothes for Mappes eating in sacred Patens drinking in the Holy Chalices which of us would not tremble who would not exclaime And now we behold the most solemne the most famous the most sacred Holy-dayes dedicated to God that they might be spent in Prayers Meditations reading of holy things Hymnes and Psalmâ—s and spirituall Songs to be prophaned with sacrilegious Dances Morrisses Caperings Feasts Drinking-matches uncleannesses scurrilities and yet no man trembles no man is moved no man wonders O immortall God! What part hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse what fellowship hath light with darkenesse what agreement hath Christ with Belial what hath the merriment of the flesh to doe with the gladnesse of the spirit what the solemnities of God with the feasts of Bacchus and his crue What now those dayes wherein wee ought to please God most shall we in them more provoke him unto anger with our wickednesse on those dayes in which the spirit is to be fed and recreated in them shall we more overwhelme him with wine and uncleannesses c. What a madnesse is this what infirnall furies scare us out of our wits Thus and much more this Romish Cardinall Bellarmin to the eternall infamy of our prophane English Prelates to whom this Cardinall in point of Dancing and Pastimes especially on sacred Dayes is not onely a Puritan but a Saint And thus much for the Prelates of Winchester I shall next survey the Bishops of Durham and see whether they have been better qualified than these their Brethren Durham Kenulph the tenth Bishop of Durham Anno. 750. was taken by Edbert King of the Northumbrians belike â—or some great Treason or misdemeanour for the Monkes conceale the reason and committed prisoner to the Castle of Bebba which King commanded the Church of Saint Peter in Lindisfarne to be besieged which shewes that the Bishop and his Church stood out then in rebellion against their Soveraigne Egelricke the 16. Bishop of Durham was charged with Treason and conspiracy against William the Conqueror and that hee had disturbed the Kings peace and practised pyracie on the Seas whereupon hee was committed perpetuall prisoner to Westminster where by continuall fasting and abundance of teares washing away the guilt of his former misdeeds he wan unto â—imself such a reputation of holinesse as the place of his buriall was much frequented after his death Egelwyn his next successor in this See much opposed himselfe against William the Conqueror to whom afterward hee was in shew reconciled for a time at last the ancient hatred hee bore unto the King boyling in his stomacke hee joyned winh certaine Noble men in a flat rebellion against the Conquerour he and they alleaging at first that they feared imprisonment and hard measure but indeed proposing to apprehend and depose the King to set up an English man in his roome and commit him to perpetuall imprisonment When things succeeded not according to expectation William the Conquerour getting the victory Egelwynâ—lyes â—lyes into Scotland the King having banished him the Realme before where out of his zeale hee â—â—communicates the King and all his followers as invaders and robbers of the Church The yeare following he comes into England where hee and the Nobles combining with him with many thousands of the Laity and Clergy were faine to hide themselves in woods and secret places being unable to encounter with the Kings forces when they had done many harmes and mischiefes in divers places to the wrong of the King they came at last â—o the Isle of Ely which they fortifiedâ— and seized on as the place of their residence and refuge and oâ—t times issuing out thence much wasted and spoyled the bordering countries building a wooden Castle in the Ilandâ— wherupon the Conqueror comes with all his forces both by sea and land and besiegeth the Iland mâ—king wayes and passages over bogges and fennes formerly unpassable building a strong Castle at Wiâ—bitch Egelwyn perceiving the danger tooke ship and departed into voluntary exile committing some pyracies by the way he set his course for Colen but was forced by contrary winds to land in Scotland thence returning againe to Ely hee was at last there taken prisoner by the Conquerour and committed close prisoner to Abingdon where An. 1071. refusing to take any sustenance for meere griefe and anger he died Before his death the Conquerour having deprived him of his Bishopricke caused one Walcher to be consecrated in his place hee attending more worldly affaires than the charge of his flocke as many of our Prelates do now gave himselfe altogeher to temporall businesse wherein hee wholly occupied himselfe contra dignitatem Pontificalem writes Matthew Paris He bought of the King the Earledome of Northumberland being by this meanes both a Spiritual and a Temporall Loâ—d and ingrossing both jurisdictions into his hands and then making himselfe a secular Judge tooke upon him to sit in the Court and to determine all causes at his pleasure dealing with all very corruptly and taking that course as might be most for his owne gaine hereupon he geatly enriched his coffers but purchased to himselfe extreme hatred among the Common people whom hee much impoverished with his extortions which was his destruction in the end There was a Gentleman of great account called Leulfus who had married the Earle of Northumberlands daughâ—er that for very devotion to the end hee might live neere the Church in his latter time came to Durham to dwell he keeping company very much with the Bishop who loved him much for his wisedome equity and vertues Leofwin the Bishops Chaplain whom he trusted with all his houshold matters and Gilbert the Bishops kinsman that dealt in his Temporall affaires very corrupt men envying the credit that Leulfus had gotten with the Bishop every where opposed and traduced him and his actions both in words and deed and at last conspired to murther him which they did in a barbarous manner assaultiâ—g him in his house with armed men and murthering not onely the innocent Gentleman himselfe but also his servants and whoâ—e houshold the newes of this horrible outragious cruelty comming to the eares of the Bishop amazed him so as turning about to Leofwin hee said to him Thou hast already slaine mee with thy tongue and doubting the danger got him into his Castle and dispatched messengers to the friends and kindred of Leulfus protesting that the fact was committed without his knowledge and that hee was heartily sory for it and if any suspect him hee could be
reddy to submit himselfe to any order of Law whereby hee might cleere himselfe herewith they seemed to be satisfied and appointed to meete and conferre of the matter at a place called Goats-head The Bishop for his better safety betooke himselfe to the Church with his company at which time all the people of the province came to demand justice from the Bishop for some wrongs done them The Bishop answered them over roughly that he would doe them justice for no injury or complaint unlesse they would first give him 400l. of good mony Whereupon one of them in the name of all the rest desired leave of the Bishops that hee might conferre with the rest about this exaction that so they might give him an advised answer which granted the people consulted together without the Church concerning this businesse in meane time divers messages passed betweene the friends of Leulfus and the Bishop about this murther but the more the matter was debated being very odious in it selfe the more his friends and the people too were incensed at last it was told them that the Bishop had harboured Leofwyn and Gilbert too in his house and afforded them countenance since this murther which being once heard and â—ound true they all cryed out it was manifest that the Bishop was the Author of this fact While the company stood in a mummering doubting what to doe both concerning this money and murther too one of some speciall regard among them stepped up and used these words Short read good read slay the Bishop Hereupon without more adoe they â—anall unto the Church killed as many of the Bishops retinue as they found without doores and with horrible noyse and outcryes bid him and his company come out unto them The Bishop to make the best of a bad match and to rid himselfe from danger perswaded his kinsman Gilberâ— there present to goe out unto them if happily his death which he well deserved might satisfie their fury and purchase their safety Gilbert was content and issuing our with divers of the Bishops company were all slaine except two Englishmen servants to the Bishop the rest being Normans They not yet pacified the Bishop besought Leofwyn whose liâ—e hee knew was principally sought to goe out likewise but he utterly reâ—used The Bishop therefore going to the Church dore himselfe intreaâ—ed them not to take his life from him protesting himselfe altogetheâ— innocent of Leulfus his blood shewing them at large how inconvenient it would be to themselves and the whole Country to shed his blood an unarmed Priest and sacred consecrate Bishop their Ruler Governour Magistrate Lastly hoping that his very countenance gravity age white comely head and beard and the Majesâ—y of his person might something move them to compassion hee went out among them carrying a green branch in his hands to testifie his desire of peace when hee saw all this availed not the people running furiously upon him hee cast his gowne over his owne head and committing him selfe to their fury with innumerable wounds was pittifully massacred together with all his retinue to the number of one hundred persons only Leofwyn yet râ—mained in the Câ—urch and being often called would not come forth So they set the Church on fire hee not enduring the fire leapt out at a window and was immediately hewne in a thousand pieces This barbarous slaughter was committed May the 4. 1080. as some Historians or 1075. as others record The King hearing of this tumult sent his brother Odo Bishop of Bayon with many of his Nobles and a great army to take punishment of this murther which while they sought to revenge they brought the whole Country to desolation those that were guilty prevented the danger by â—light so as few of them were appreheâ—ded of the rest that stayd at hâ—me some weâ—e unjustly executed and the rest compelled to ransome themselves to their utter impoverishing and undoing This was the life and death of the first Lord Bishop of this See who joyned both the temporall and spirituall Juâ—isdiction and honour together in his owne person being both a Bishop and an Earle Anno 1074. during this Bishops domination Pluâ—es Episcopi Abbates many Bishops and Abbots with 3. Earles and many Souldiers conspired togeâ—her at Noâ—wich to thrust the Conquerour ouâ— of his Kingdome sending messages â—o â—he King of Denmarke for aide and confederating themselves with the Welchmen whereupon â—hey burnt and spoyled many townes and villages belonging to the Conquerour but at last they were defeated by him some of them being banished the Realme others hanged others deprived of their eyes Who these Bishops were in particular that joyned in this conspiracy and rebellion is not expressed but they were many in number whether this Bishop might not be one of the company I know not William Kairlipho Abboâ— of Saint Vincent his next successour who got so farre into the favour of King William Rufus that he made him his houshold Chaplaine and one of his Privie Councell and did what hee list under him in the yeare of our Lord 1088. joyned himselfe with Odo Bishop of Bayon and Eaâ—le of Kent Geffry Bishop of Constantia and other great men in a rebellious conspiracy against King William who much favoured and trusted him to deprive him of his Crowne as an effeminaâ—e perâ—on both in mind and countenance and of a fearefull heart who would do all things rashly both against right and justice which revolt and treachery of his the King tooke very grievously Whereupon they take up armes against the King wasting the Country in sundry parts intending to set up his Brother Robert in his place as King giving out divers words and sending abroad many Letters to incite men to take armes for this purpose The bishop of Durham held out Durham by strong hand against the King who comming thither in person with his army besieged it so as the Bishop was at length forced to surrender the City and yeeld himselfeâ— whereupoâ— hee was exiled the Land with divers of his complices and for his former preâ—â—nded friendship to the King was suffered to goe Scotfree though worthy a thousand quarterings upon â—hiâ— he presently passed over Sea into Normandy there he continued neere three yeares in a voluntary exile untill Septâ—mber 11. 1190. at what time the King comming to Durham received him into his â—ull favour and restored him to his former dignities After which hee sided with the Kinâ— against Anselme to thrust him out of his Bishopricke that himselfe might succeed him bâ—t hee failed in that projecâ— Falling againe into the Kings displeasure he was summoned to appeare before him at Glocester by a certaine day before which timâ— hee fell sicke of griefe as was â—hought when he appeared not and it was told the King heâ— was sicke he swore by S. Lukes face which was his usuall Oath he lied and did but counterfeit and hee would â—ave him fetcht with a vengeance But it appeares his excuse
the King with his determination The King thereupon seised into his hands the Bishops liberties appointed a new Chancellour new Justices and other officers of Durham Hee writ also to the Pope in favour of the Prior who delivering the Kings Letters himselfe the Pope adjudged him a sober and discreet man what ever the Bishop had reported of him and restored him to his place during the Bishops disgrace for this contempt the King tooke â—hree Mannors with the Church of Symondbury from the Bishopricke with divers Castles and Lands forfeited to him by Iohn Bayliol King of Scots and others The Bishop at last submitted himselfe and bought his peace Anno Dom. 1298. in the battell of Foukirke betweene the English and Scots this Bishop of Durham Anthony Beake led the second battell of the Englishmen conâ—isting of 39. standards who hasting forth to be the first that should give the on â—et when his men approached neere the enemies the Bishop commanded them to stay till the third battell which the King Edward the first led might approach But that valiant Knight the Lord Ralph Basset of Draiton said to him My Lord you may goe and say Masse which better becommeth you than to teach us what wee have to doe for wee will doe that which belongeth to the order and custome of warre About the yeare 1318. at the importunate suite of the Kings of England and France the Pope gave the Bishopricke of Duâ—ham unto one Lewes Beaumont a Frenchman borne and of the blood Royall there hee was lame of both his legges and so unlearned that hee could not read the Bulls and other instruments of his consecration When hee should have pronounced this word Metropoliticae not knowing what to make of it though hee had studied upon it and laboured his Lesson long before after a little pause Soyt pur dit saith he let it goe for read and so passed it over In like sort he stumbled at In aenigmate when hee had fumbled about it a while Par Saint Lewis quoth hee il n'est pas curtois qui ceste parolle ici escrit that is by Saint Lewes he is to blame that writ this word here Not without great cause therefore the Pope was somewhat strait laced in admitting him He obtained conâ—ecration so hardly as in foureteene yeares hee could scarce creepe oâ—t of debt Riding to Durham to be install'd there hee was robbed together with two Cardinals that were then in his company upon Wiglesden More neere Derlington The Captaines of this rour were named Gilbert Middleton and Walter Selby Not content to take all the treasure of the Cardinals the Bishop and their traine they carried the Bishop prisoner to Morpeth where they constrained him to pay a great ransome Gilbert Middleton was soone after taken at his owne Castle of Nitford carried to London and there drawne and hanged in the presence of the Cardinalls After this one Sir Iosceline Deinvill and his brother Robert came with a great company to divers of this B. of Durhams houses in the habits of Friers spoyled them leaving nothing but bare walls and did many other notable robberiesâ— for which they divers of their company were soone after hanged at York This B. stood very stoutly in defence of the Liberties of his See recovered divers lands taken away from Anthony Beake his predeâ—essor and procured this sentence to be given in the behalfe of his Church quod Episcâ—pus Dunelmensiâ— debet habere forisfacturas guerrarum intra libertates sicut Rex extra that the Bishop of Durham is to have the forfeitures of warre in as ample sort within his owne Liberties as the King without Iâ—mediately after this Bishops death in great hast but with no great good speed the Covent of Durâ—am proceeded unto the Election of a new Bishop the old being yet scarcely buried and they made choise of one of their owne company a Monke of Durham This election the Arch-Bishop of Yorke confirmed yea the matter grew so forward as the same Arch-bishop was content to give him consecration also All this while the Kings good will was not sought no nor which was a greater oversight as the world then went the Popes neither The King therefore not onely refused to deliver possession of the Temporalties unto this elect but also laboured the Pope ex plenitudine potestatis to conferre the Bishopricke upon a Chaplaine of his named Richard de Bury the Deane of Wells Partly to pleasure the one that requested partly to displeasure the other for not requesting he did so and commanded the Bishop of Winchester to consecrate him which being performed at Chertsey soone after Christmasse the King presently invested him in the temporalties belonging to that See Now was the Monke a Bishop without a Bishopricke having no other home he was faine to returne to his Cloyster and there for very griefe as it is supposed within a few dayes after dyed This Richard dé Bury at what time Edward of Windsor Prince of Wales fled into France with his Mother was principall receiver of the Kings Revenewes in Gascoigne Their mony failing he ayded them secretly with a great summe of that he had received for the King It had almost cost him his life he was so narrowly pursued by some of the Kings friends that got understanding of it as hee was glad to hide himselfe in a steeple in Paris the space of seven dayes The Queene we know was then contriving an open rebellion and plotting a mischeivous treason against her husband King Edward the second whom she shortly after seised upon in an hostile manner and afterwards caused to be deprived and murthered so that this Prelates furnishing of her thus with the Kings owne monies to further this her designe was high Treason at the least Not to mention how the Pope upon King Edward the third his request consecrated Thomas Hatfield his Secretary Bishop of this See without any regard or examination of his worthinesse being a man altogether illiterate and that when some of the Cardinalls tooke exceptions against him saying that he was not onely a meere lay man but a fellâ—w of light behaviour and no way fit for that place how the Pope answered that if the King of England had requested him for an Asse at that time he would not have denyed him and thereupon made this Aâ—se a Bishop Iohn Fordham Bishop of Durham Anno 1388. was by Parliament banished the Court as a pernicious instrument and corrupter of King Richard the second a Traytor a flatterer a whisperer a slanderer and wicked person Iohn Sherwood the 52 Bishop of Durham Solliciter of all King Edward the fourths causes in the Court of Rome fell off from his Masters Sonne King Edward the fifth to that bloody usurper Richard the third at whose Coronation this Bishop of Durham went on the one side of him and the Bishop of Bath on the other the Arch-bishop of Canterbury
with the rest of the Bishops and Abbots mitred and in rich Copes every one of them carrying Censers in their hands going in great solemnity before him and afterwards crowning both him and his Queene according to the custome of the Realme so officious were they to this usurper Cutbert Tonstall the 58. Bishop of Durham December 20. 1551. was committed to the Tower for his disobedience to King Edward the sixth where he continued all his Reigne The King was so farre offended with him that 7. Edward 6. the Bishopricke of Durham was dissolved by Act of Parliament and all the Lands and hereditaments thereof given to the King but he dying this Bishopricke was againe revived and erected 1. Mar. Parliament 2. cap. 3. and this Bishop thereunto restored Who in the first yeare of Queene Elizabeth for his contumacy and disobedience in maintaining the Popes Supremacie which he oppugned formerly and for refusing the oath of Supremacy which he had sworne unto in the raigne of King Henry the eight he was justly deprived and committed prisoner to Lambeth House where he dyed I finde this Tonstall highly applauded by some who lived since his dayes but M. Tyndall who knew him farre better than they writes thus of him And as for the Bishopricke of Durham to say the very truth he to wit Cardinall Wolsie could not but of good cougruity reward his old Chaplaine and one of the chiefe of all his Secretaries withall still Saturne that so seldome speaketh but walketh up and downe all day musing and imagining mischiefe a doubling hypocrite made to dissemble Which for what service done in Christs Gospell came he to the Bishopricke of Londâ—n Or what such service did he therein hee burnt the New Testament calling it Doctrinam peregrinam strange learning The story of whose buying and burning of M. Tyndals New Testaments who with the money set forth a new and better Edition is related by M. Hall at large in his Chronicle 21. H. 8. f. 186. Yea Verily looke how strange his living in whose blood that Testament was made was from the living of the Pope even so strange is that Doctrine from the Popes Law in which onely and in the Practise thereof is Tunstall learned Which also for what cause left he the Bishopricke of London Even for the same cause he tooke it after that he had long served for it covetousnesse and ambition Neither is it possible naturally pray marke this passage that there should be any good Bishop so long as the Bishoprickes be nothing save worldly Pompe and honour superfluous abundance of all manner of riches and liberty to doe what a man left unpunished things which onely the evill desire and good men abhorre For the late Bishops of this See of Durham Neale Howson their dispositions and actions against goodnesse and good men and their turbulencie both in Church and State are so well knowne to most that I neede not mention it And as for the present Bishop Dr Morton whom I honour for his learning and workes against the Papists how farre hee hath degenerated of late yeares from his Pristine zeale and hatred of Romish Superstitions and Innovations and how farre he hath ingaged himself in the late Wars and differences between England and Scotland I leave to others to determine Onely this I cannot preâ—ermit in silence that as the first Popish Innovations and superstitions which lately over-spread our whole Church had their Originall from Bishop Neale and his Chaplaine Dr. Cosens at Durham so God hath made that City and Bishopricke of Durham the onely County of England stiled by the name of a Bishoprick the seate of our late wars wherein the Scottish Armie now resides to manifest to all the world that these unhappie civill warres sprung from the Bishops since the seate of them is no where but in this Bishoprick the Scottish Generall for the most part hath kept his residence in the Bishop of Durhams own Palaces who for feare hath left them vacant and fled that Country which he hath much oppressed From Durham I proceede to Salisbury Salisbury Alstane or Adelstane Bishop of Sherburne which See was not long after translated to Salisbury turned warrior and led an Army into Kent against Ethelwolfe King oâ— that County and chased away both the King and all other that would not submit themselves to Egbert over the Thames out of their Country He fought oft against the Danes provided money and furnished out men to withstand them and tooke upon him to order all matters of the State under King Ethelwolfe When King Ethelwolfe returned from Rome Adelstane who bare no small rule in the Kingdome of the West-Saxons would not suffer him to be admitted King because he had done in certaine points contrary to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Kingdome as he conceived whereupon by this Bishops meanes Ethelbald this Kings sonne was established King in his Fathers steed and so continued till at last by agreement the Kingdome was devided betwixt them This Bishop was fervently set on covetousnesse and greatly enriched his See of Sherburne where he continued Bishop 50. yeares Roger the great rich Bishop of Salisbury advanced and specially trusted by King Henry the first for all the benefits that he and his friends received from him proved not so thankfull or faithfull to his Majestie as was to be expected For King Henry the first having lost his onely sonne and Heire apparent Prince William by mis-fortune upon the Sea and having no issue lawfully begotten to inherit the Kingdome but onely Mawd the Empresse thought good to take an Oath of all the Nobility wherein they promised to yeeld obedience to her as their Soveraigne and to none other This Oath Roger not onely tooke himselfe but likewise administred to all the other being then Chancellour of England yet notwithstanding forgetting all duties of Religion towards God of thankfulnesse towards his patron and Loyalty towards his Prince he was the first man who upon the death of the King fell to plotting for the advancement of Stephen unto the Kingdome who likewise had taken the former Oath and swore homage and fealty unto Mawde which by his perswasion he first attempted and much deale by his ungracious counsell at last obtained At the time of King Henry his death it hapned that Mawde was in Normandy with her Father wherefore Stephen Earle of Bologne taking this advantage wrought so with this Bishop and the Bishop of Winchester and they with him as they were content to set the Crowne upon his head who otherwise than by a kinde of election which they procured had no colour of right unto the same For if they regarded nearenesse of blood not onely Mawde and her sonne were nearer but Theobald also Earle of Bloyes Stephens elder brother Howbeit these Clergie men that bare all the sway in those times desirous to continue their owne greatnesse would needes make choyse
and Lincolne both detained Prisoners affirming that it was a miserable wickednesse that the king was so farre seduced by incendiaries that he should command hands to be layd on his owne people especially on his Bishops in the peace of his Court That a Celestiall injury was hereby added to the kings dishonour that under pretence of the defaults of the Bishops Churches should be spoyled of their possessions That the kings excesse against the Law of God did so farre grieve him that he would rather suffer much losse both in his body and estate than the Episcopall celsitude should be cast downe with so great indignity that he ofâ— admonishedâ— the king to amend this same who even then refused not the calling of the Councell that therefore the Arch-bishop and the rest should consult together what was needfull to be done and hee would not be wanting to the execution of their advise neither for love of the king who was his brother nor for the losse of his possessions no nor yet for the perill of his head The King not distrusting his cause sent some Earles unto the Councell demaunding why he was summoned thither The Legate answered them in briefe that he who remembred that he had subjected himselfe to the faith of Christ ought not to be angry if he were called by Christs Ministers to make satisfaction being conscious of so great guilt as these ages had never seene For it was the act of secular Gentiles to imprison Bishops and strip them of their possessions Therefore they should tell his Brother that if he would give a willing assent to his Councell he would by Gods direction give him â—uch as neither the Church of Rome nor the Court of the king of France nor Count Theobald brother to them both should contradict but ought favourably to embrace that the king for the present should doe advisedly if either he would give an account of his fact or undergoe the judgement of the Canons for he ought of duty to favour the Church by reception into whose bosome and not by a â—and of Souldiers he was promoted to the kingdome Whereupon the Earles departing returned not long afâ—er wâ—th Albin Deâ—er an experienced Lawyer Who pleaded that Roger the Bishop had many wayes inâ—ured king Stephen that he came very seldome to his Court thaâ— his men presuming on his power had raised seditions that as often in other places so of late at Oxford they had made assaults on men and that upon Earle Alans owne Nephew and upon the Servants of Henry de Lyons a man of so great Nobility so haughty a brow that he would never upon king Henries request condescend to come into England That this injury redounded to king Stephen for whose loves sake hâ—e came that so great violence was offered to him that the Bishop of Lincolne out of his inveterate hatred against Alan had by his Servants beene the Author of Sedition that the Bishop of Salisbury secretly favoured the kings enemies dissembling his double dealing in the interim till a fiâ— occasion that the king had undoubtedly discovered this by many things and by this especially that he would not suffer Roger Mortimer with the kings Souldiers which he led in great â—eare of the Bristow men so much as to stay one night at Malmesbury that it was in every mans mouth that as soone as ever the Empresse should arrive that he with his Nâ—phewes and Castles would revolt to her that Roger was thus taken not as a Bishop but as the Kings Servant who both administred his affaires and received his wages that the King had not taken away the Castles from them by violence but that both the Bishops thankefully rendered them that they might excuse the calumny of the tumult which they had raised in the Court that the King found some money in the Castles which were lawâ—ully his owne because the Bishop had collected it out of the Rents of the Royall Exchequer in the time of King Henry his Uncle and antecessor that the Bishop for feare of his offences against the King willingly parted from them as he did from his Castles of which â—he King wanted not witnesses that therefore he desired the agreements betweene him and the Bishops should remaine firme Roger on the other side alleaged that he was never a Servant to the King nor received his wages moreover some threatnings were uttered by this generous Prelate who scorned to be dejected with mis-fortunes that if he found not justice in that Councell for the things taken from him that he would complaine thereof in the audience of a greater Court. The Legate answered mildlyâ— That they ought first to inquire as of other things so of all things which are spoken against Bishops in an Ecclesiasticall Councell by way of accusation whether they be true or not rather then to pronounce sentence against men uncondemned contrary to the decrees of the Canons let the King therefore doe that is lawfull to be done in secular judgements revest the Bishop of the things taken away by the Law of the Nations disseised men shall not plead Many things being spoken on both sides after this manner the cause at the Kings request was deferred 3. dayes longer till the Archbishop of Rhoan came Who sayd he granted that Bishops might have Castles if they could prove by the Canons that by law they ought to have them Which because they could not that it was extreame dishonesty to contend against the Canons And grant saith he that they may enjoy them yet verily because it is a suspitious time all the great men according to the custome of other Nations ought to deliver up the Keyes of their Fortresses to the Kings pleasure who ought to wage warre for the peace of all men Thus all the controversie of the Bishops was weakned For either according to the Decrees of the Canons it is unjust they should have Castles or if this be tolerated by the Kings indulgence they ought to yeeld up the keyes tâ— the necessity of the time To this Albric the Kings Lawyer added that the King was informed that the Bishops threatned among themselves and provided to send some of them to Rome against him And this saith he the King commendeth to you that none of you presume to doe it for if any one against his will and the dignity of the Kingdome of England shall goe any where from England peradventure his returne shal be difficult Moreover he because he seeth himselfe grieved of his own accord appeales you to Rome After the King partly by commending partly by way of threatning had commanded these things it was understood whither it tendedâ— Wherefore they so departed that neither he would suffer the censure of the Canons nor be judged by them neither did the Bishops thinke fit to exercise it and that for a double reason Either because it would be temerarious to excommunicate the King without the Popes privity Or else because they heard and some also
saw that there were swords drawne round about them for words were no jests but there was a contention almost about life and blood Yet the Legate and Archbishop gave not over but prosecuted the tenor of their office for casting themselves humbly downe at the Kings feete in his Bedchamber they beseeched him to compassionate the Church to compassionate his owne sâ—ule and fame that he would not suffer a dissention to be made betweene the Kingdome and Priesthood He rising up courteously although he removed the envie of the things done â—rom himselfe yet he made no effectuall performance of his good promises And so this great suite wherein the Prelates presumed to convent the king himselfe before them to try his title to Castles being temporall possessions ceased and the pretended execution of their owne Canons never pressed before that I read of vanished into nothing These bickerings betweene the Bishop his Nephewes and the king to whom he owed even the Crowne he wore caused all the Bishops to fall off from him againe and joyne with Maude This their treachery to King Stephen is most fully recorded by William Malmesbury who relates that the Bishop of Winchester brother to king Stephen and the Popes Legate taking some offence against the king came to a Parley with Maude in the fields neere Winchester where Maude the Empresse swore and vowed to him that all the greatest businesses in England and especially the Donations of Bishoprickes and Abbies should be at his disposall if he with the holy Church would receive her for their Soveraigne and be continually loyall to her some of the greatest Nobles of her party making the same oath Whereupon the Bishop made no scruple to receive the Empresse as Lady of England and to sweare to her by himselfe and some others that as long as she brake not this agreement that he would be faithfull to her which done the next day she was received by the Bishop in the Cathedrall Church of Winchester with an honourable Procession the Bishop of Winchester going on her right hand and Barnard Bishop of Saint Davids on her left there were other Bishops present beside these as Alexander Bishop of Lincolne Robert of Hereford Nigellus of Ely Robert of Bath with sundry Abbotsâ— a few dayes after Theobald Arch-bishop of Canterbury came to the Empresse at Winchester being invited by the Legate but deâ—erred to sweare fealty to the Empresse without the kings privity being as hee thought a dishonour to his fame and person but after some conference had with the king by the Cardinall and most of the Prelates who intreated leave of him to yeeld to the necessity of the time they condescended to the Legates motion and fell off to the Empresse Whereupon about a fortnight after Easter Theobald Arch-bishop of Canterbury held a Councell of all the Bishops of England and of many Abbots in great state at Winchester wherein the Bishop of Winchester made this speech That by vertue of his Legatine power which he derived from the Pope he had summoned the Clergie of England to this Councell that they might consult in Common of the peace of the Country which was in great danger of Shipwrack that in the time of King Henry his Uncle England was a singular houshold of peace c. Which King some yeares before his death caused all the Bishops and Barons to sweare to the Empresse his Daughter and onely Childe that the whole kingdome of England with the Dutchy of Normandy should descend to her if he had no issue male by the Duke of Loraines daughter That dismall fortune envied his most excellent Uncle so as he dyed in Normandy without issue male Therefore because it seemed long to expect the Lady who resided in Normandy and delayd to come into England to provide for the peace of the Country my Brother was permitted to raigne And although I became a surety betweene God and him that hee should honour and exalt the holy Church maintaine good Lawes and abrogate evill yet it grieves me to remember it shames me to relate what a one he hath shewed himselfe in his kingdome how no justice hath beene exercised upon the presumptuous how all peace was presently abolished almost the same yeare the Bishops apprehended and compelled to a reddition of their possessions Abbies sold the Churches rob'd of their treasures the Counsells of wicked men heard of good men either suspended or altogether contemned You know how often I have convented him both by my selfe and by the Bishops especially in the Councell the last yeare summoned to that purpose and that I got nothing but hatred thereby Neither can it be unknowne to any who will rightly consider it that I ought to love my mortall brother but ought much more to esteeme the cause of my immortall Father Therefore because God hath exercised his judgement touching my brother that he might permit him without my knowledge to fall into the power of the Mighty left the kingdome should â—ottet if it wanted a king I have invited you all by the right of my Legation to assemble together at this place Yesterday the cause was secretly ventilated before the greater part of the Clergie of England to whose right especially it belongs both to elect and ordaine a king Therefore having first invocated as it is meete Gods assistance we have â—lected the Daughter of a peace-making king a glorioâ—s king a rich king a good king and in our time incomparable to be Queene of England and Normandy and we promise fidelity and maintenance to her When the Bishop of Winchester had thus spoken all the Bishops and Clergie present as William of Malmsbury then present at the Councell relates did either modestly give their acclamation to the sentence of Mauds election and Stephens rejection or keeping silence did not contradict it In this Councell many who tooke king Stephens part were excommunicated and by name William Martell who had intercepted some of the Legates goods aâ—ter this Councell the City of London formerly addicted to king Stephen and the greatest part of England willingly submitted to the dominion of Maude who was principally counselled by Robert her brother and by the Legate of Winchester who pretended that hee sought her welfare but within few dayes after there fell out a difference betweene the Legate and Maude which occasioned a great alteration and was the cause of many new mischiefes in Englâ—nd Whereupon the Bishop Legate departed from the Court absolved all those whom he â—ormerly excommunicated in the Councell without the consent of the Bishops raised up a complaint against the Empresse that she intended to apprehend him and made no account of any thing she had sworne to Which report was spred over all England Whereupon he stirred up the Londoners and Barons against the Empresse whom he beseiged and restored Sâ—ephen not onely to his liberty but to the Crowne In the meane time â—his Roger Bishop of Salisbury dyes of a Quarâ—aine Fever which
he fell into out of griefe of minde This Prelate was so high in king Henries favour that he denyed little or nothing to him that he demanded he gave him Lands Churches Prebends of Clarkes whole Abbies of Monkes and committed the kingdome to his trust making him Chancellor of England Roger therefore pleaded causes he moderated expences he kept the kings treasure and that without a companion and witnesse both while the king was present in England and absent in Normandy and not onely by the king but likewise by the Nobles and even by those who secretly envied his felicity and especially by the kings Servants and debtoâ—s all things almost that he could thinke of were conferred on him if any thing was contiguous to his possessions which might conduce to his utility that he either begged or bought if not he extorted it by violence he alone was in greatest honour abounding in wealth pompe â—riends authority stately houses and Castles and seemed the onely happy man on earth Yet at last in a moment fortune cruelly stung him with her Scorpions tayle so as he saw many of his friends wounded and his most familiar Souldiers beheaded before his face himselfe captivated two of his Nephewes most potent Prelates to be put to flight and taken prisoners and a third a young man whom he most loved to bee bound in chaines his Castles to be rendred up his treasures spoyled himself afterwards in a Councell torne with most foule reproaches the residue of his money and plate which he had layd upon the Altar to finish a Church to beâ— carried away against his will and which is the extremity of calamity Cum multis miser videreturâ— paucissimis miserabilis erat So much envy hatred had he contracted out of his over great power and that undeservedly with some whom he had advanced to honours So Malmesbury writes of him of whom you have heard sufficient Anno Dom. 1223. Huberâ— de Burgo Earle of Kent being taken and proclaimed a traytor escaped out of the Castle of Veâ—â— or Devises and tooke sanctuary in the next Church those who kept the Castle hearing of it sent and tooke him with those that helped him to make his escape out of the Church and imprisoned him againe in the Castle Robert Bingham the Bishop of Salisbury hereupon came to the Castle and threatned to curse them if they would not deliver the Earle restore him to sanctury againe They made answer they had rather the Earle should hang for them than they for him and so because they would not deliver him the Bishop excommunicated them and after riding to the Courâ— and taking with him the Bishop of London and other Bishops prevailed so much by complaint to the King that the Earle though a traytor was restored to the Church againe but so as the Sheriffe of the Shire had commandement to compasse the Church about with men to watch that no reliefe came unto him whereby he might bee constrained through famishment to submit himselfe but hee shortly armed was there rescued by a power of armed men who conveyed him armed and oâ— horsebacke into Wales where he joyned with other of King Henry the thirds enemies And all through the pride and practise of this Prelate to whose pretended jurisdiction even in case of Treason the King himselfe must submit William of Yorke the ninth Bishop of Salisbury about the year 1247. was a Courtier from his childhood and better seene the in Lawes of the Realme which hee chiefly studied than in the Law of God a great deale Matthew Paris reporteth that he firâ—â— brought in the custome that tenants should be suiters unto the Courts of their Landlords This Matthew Paris stiles a very bad custome in magnum subditorum damnum detrimentum superiorum parvum vel nullum emolumentum unde qui nunquam hoc fecerant mirabantur se ad hoc fuisse coactos And speaking of this Bishops death he saith This Bishop passed from these worldly cares and imployments to the dangers which secular men and Courtiers are beleeved to undergoe for their workes follow them Anno 1392. King Richard the second picked a quarrell against the Major and Sheriffes of London upon this occasion Walter Romay one of Iohn Walthams servants then Bishop of Salisbury and high Treasurer of England tooke a horseloafe from a Bakers man as hee passed by in Fleetstreet and would not deliver it againe but broke the bakers mans head when he was earnest to recover his loafe the cohabitants of the streete hereupon rose and would have had the Bishops man to prison for breaking the Kings peace but hee was rescued by his fellowes and escaped to the Bishops house in an Allie close by The people set in a rage for this rescue gathered in great multitudes about the Bishops Palace gate and would have fetched out the offender by force assaulting the house to breake it open but the Major and Sheriffes comming thither after some perswasions used appeased the people who retired quietly to their houses The Bishop being then at Windsor where the Court lay being informed of this riot tooke such indignation therewith that taking with him Thomas Arundell Archbishop of Yorke then Lord Chancellor of England he went to the King and made an hainous complaint against the Citizens for their misdemeanour whereupon the Major Sheriffes and great sort more of the Citizens were sent for to the Court and charged with divers misdemeanors notwithstanding their excuses they were all arrested and imprisoned the Major in the Castle of Windsor the rest in other places to be safely kept till the King by the advice of his Counsell should further determine what should be done with them Moreover the liberties of the City were seised into the Kings hands the authority of the Major utterly ceased and the King appointed Sir Edward Darlingrug to governe the City by the name of Lord Warding and to see that every man had justice ministred as the case required who because hee was thought to be overfavourable to the Citizens was removed and Sir Baldwin Radington put in his roome At length the King through suit and instant labour of certaine Noblemen especially of the Duke of Glocester began somewhat to relent and pacifie his rigorous displeasures against the Londoners and releasing them out of prison and confirming some of their priviledges and abrogating others hee was at last reconciled to them after they had purchased his pardon with many rich presents to him and his Queene whom they royally intertained and the payment of ten thousand pounds which they were compelled to give the King to collect of the Commons of the City not without great offence and grudging in their minds And aâ—l this came through the pride and malice of this Prelate of Salisbuâ—y whose servant had occasioned this riot and yet went Scotfree when the innocent Major and Citizens were thus rigorously dealt withall M. Fox observes truly
that this unjust oppression of the Londoners was a great preparative to King Richards deposing and lost him the hearts of his true subjects This proud Prelate when hee died by King Richards appointment had the honour to have his body interred among the Kings at Westminster Richard Milford B. of this Diocesse about the yeare 1388. was by an order of the Barons made in Parliament imprisoned a long time in the Castle of Bristoll as a pernicious whisperer flatterer evill counseller and Traytor to King Richard the second and the State yet afterwards being inlarged he was advanced by this King continued one of his evill counsellors and instruments William Ayscoth Bishop of Salisbury Confessor to King Henry the 6. by his oppressions and ill dealings so farre discontented his Tenants â—nd the people that in the yeare 1450. Iune 29. when that notable Rebell Iack Cade was set up against his Soveraigne some tenants of the Bishops and others came to Edendon where hee was then saying Masse drew him from the Altar in his Albe with his stole about his necke to the top of an hill not farre off and there as hee kneeled on his knees praying they cleft his head spoyled him to the skinne and renting his bloody shirt into a number of peeces tooke every man a ragge to keepe it for a monument of their worthy exploit A barbarous murther yet occasioned by his owne ill carriage violence oppressions and for consenting to the giving up of the Dutchy of Anjou and Mayne into the hands of the French King as some report since this mans murther I find little or nothing recorded of any Bishops of this See Wherefore I shall now steare my course towards Lincolne Diocesse Lincolne ANNO 573. Aldred Bishop of Leicester afterwards translated to Lincolne was deprived of his Bishopricke for his seditious misdemeanors it is very like hee sided with the cruell Pagan Danes though his crimes be not expressed in particular Eadnoth Bishop of this See turned warriour and was slaine by the Danes in battle in the yeare 1016â— Vlfe a man very learned in the yeare 1052. together with Robert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and William Bishop of London who had given King Edward the Confessor wicked counsell against the English were banished into Normandy their native Country for this offence vix evadentes hardly escaping with their lives they having beene instruments to cause the King to infringe his good Lawes and not to administer right iustice which he promised to reforme upon these Prelates dimission who miscounselled him This Bishop among the rest going to the Councell of Vercels to complaine to the Pope of his wrongfull banishment so farre forth bewrayed his owne weakenesse and insufficiency as the Pope was determined to have displaced him from his Bishopricke untill with gifts and golden eloquence he perswaded him to winke at his imperfections Alexander Bishop of Lincolne Anno 1070. opposed William the Conquerour who appointed how many souldiers every Bishopricke and Abby that held of him by Barony should finde in time of warre from which they were formerly freed hereupon he and Stigand Arch-Bishop of Canterbury fled into Scotland where they kept themselves close for a time being banished by the Conqueror and at last ioyned with the Scots against him Egelwin Bishop of Durham being an exile at the same time having onely the zeale of God excommunicated all the invaders of the Church and ravishers of Ecclesiasticall things This Alexander is omitted by Godwin in his Catalogue of the Bishops of this see and it seemes hee was deprived among other Bishops in the Councel of Winchester Anno 1070. for opposing the Conquerour Remigius who translated his see from Dorchester to Lincolne and built the Cathedrall there to whose consecration by the Kings command all the Bishops of England were summoned himselfe dying two dayes before the time appointed for its consecration was impeached of high treason against King William Rufus but his servant purging his master by the iudgement of an hot iron or Ordalium then in use restored him to the Kings favour and wiped off this blot to his pontificall honour as Huntindon writes He was preferred first to this Bishopricke by William the Conquerour for divers good services done unto him for which he long before promised him a Bishopricke in England The consideration of this gift comming to the Popes eare he would needs adiudge it Simony and as a symonist actually deprived him of his Bishopricke but at the request of Lanfranke Arch-bishop of Canterbury hee restored him to his Ring and Crosier againe The Arch-bishop of Yorke labored to hinder the translation of his See to Lincoln laying challenge to the iurisdiction of that County as antiently belonging to his Archbishoprick wherupon the Bishop was forced to crave in aid of the King to make good the Title and his successor Robert Bloet was glad to give William Rufus 5000 pound to cleare the Title that the Arch-bishop of Yorke layd unto the iurisdiction of this See and County which was reputed Symony in the King but iustice in the Bishop Alexander nephew to Roger the great rich Bishop of Salisbury consecrated Bishop of Lincolne Iuly 22. An. 1123. placed his chiefe delight in building of Castles wherein hee imitated his unkle Roger hereupon hee built a stately Castle at Banbury another at Newarke a third at Sleford which saith Nubrigensis did ill beseem a Bishops honesty much lesse his function These Castles were such eye-sores to King Stephen as they provoked him to picke a quarrell with the Bishop to clap him up in prison together with his uncle Roger of Salisbury and to bereave them at once both of their munition and treasure of which they had heaped up great store For King Stephen fearing that this great rich Prelate and his uncle of Salisbury who had built two strong Castles the one at Salisbury the other at the Devises would side with Maud the Empresse against him sends for both these Bishops and demands those Castles of them which they refusing to deliver up to his possession the King thereupon claps them up in prison besiegeth their Castles which their Creatures held out and kept by force against him til at the last with much a do he possessed himselfe of them in such manner as is before more largely related in the story of Roger of Salisbury The King not long after releasing this Bishop he and some others secretly conspired against him procured Maud the Empresse to come over with an army with whom he joyned And by this and the other confederates assistance Stephen was afterwards taken prisoner deprived of his Crowne in a Synod at Winchâ—ster Maud received and acknowledged as Queene by the Prelates and Kingdome till Stephen being againe released by the Bishops practises and putting Maud to the worst after many battels and great effusion of English Christian Blood occasioned onely by the
Prelates practises Stephen and Maud came to a mutuall agreement Of which you may read more largely in Roger of Salisbury The See of Lincolne continuing voyd almost seven yeeres after the death of Robert de Chisney Geoffry Plantagenet Archdeacon of Lincolne base sonne to King Henry the second was elected Bishop thereto who contenting himselfe with the large revenues of the Bishopricke never sought consecration well knowing that he might so fleece the sheepe though he listed not to take the charge of feeding the sheepe Seven yeeres he reaped the fruits of that See by colour of his election and then by the Popes commandement to Richard Archbishop of Canterbury to compell Geoffry either to resigne his â—ishopricke or immediately to enter into orders and to take the office of a Bishop on him he resigned all his interest in the same the copy of which resignation you may read in Roger Hoveden After which he turned Couttier for eight yeeres space and at last returning to the Church againe became Archbishop of Yorkeâ— How he carried himselfe in that See I have before in part expressed page 185 186. and now shall give you some further account tâ—ough somewhat out of course out of Roger Hoveden and others He was no sooner setled in Yorke but there fell out a great contestation betweene him and Henry deane of Yorke and Buchard the Treasurer whom he excommunicated for refusing to give over singing and to begin their Service afresh upon his entering into thâ— Church whereby the Church that day ceased from Divine Service This difference being composed Buchard and Geoffry soone after fell ouâ— againe whereupon Geâ—ffry excommunicating him the second time he goes to the Pope for absolution and so farre prevailed with the Pope that he would neither confirme Geoffries election nor suffer him to be consecrated And withall the Pope exempted Hugh Bishop of Durham from making any profession of subjection to Geoffry elect of Yorke during his life though he were consecrated because he hâ—d formerly once made his profession to the Church of Yorke and to S. William the Archbishop of Yorke and to his successors Queene Elenor K. Richards mother hereupon passeth from Messana through Rome to intreat and humbly beseech the Pope in the Kings behalfe to confirme his brothers election to Yorke and either to consecrate him Archbishop thereof by himselfe or some other which the Pope doing Geoffry shortly after cites Hugh Bishop of Durham peremptorly to appeare before him at a Synod in the Cathedrall Church at Yorke thereto professe his obedience to him which he endeavoured to substract and to exempt himselfe by all meanes from his jurisdiction Hugh refuseth to come thither or to make his profession or obedience to him being as he said not bound by Law to doe it and thereupon appeales the first second and third time to the Pope and submits his cause to him The Archbishop hearing of it in great fury excommunicates him notwithstanding this appeale threatning to compell him to make profession and obedience by Ecclesiasticall censures notwithstanding this appeale The Bishop of Durham on the other side would not obey the 〈◊〉 but in contempt thereof boldly celebrated and caused to be celebrated Divine offices as before The Archbishop hereupon overturnes all the Altars where the Bishop of Durham had celebrated and breakes the Chalices within his Diocesse wherein any other had celebrâ—ted in the Bishops presence and held his brother Iohn Earle of Morton for an excommunicate person because he had eaâ—en with the Bishop of Duâ—ham after that sentence and would not communicate with him untill he gave him satisfaction and came to be absolved When the Bishop of Durham saw that many refused to speake eate or drinke with him he sent messengers to the Pope who relating to him first in secret then before all the Cardinals how indiscreetly and Archbishop had excommunicated him slighting his appeale the Pope and all the Cardinals adjudged that sentence a meere nullity and that it ought not to be observed and thereupon the Pope writ a letter to the Bishops of Lincolne Rochester and others to declare this sentence of excommunication voyd in their Churches by vertue of the Popes Apostolicall authority and to command the people to communicate with the Bishop of Durham notwithstanding it as they did before and to declare that the Bishop for the injuries done unto him by the Archbishop in overturning the Altars and breaking the Chalices should be exempted from all subjection to him during life Whereupon these Bishops and delegates met at Northampton and after much debate departed without any final agreement In Lent following this Archbishop being summoned to appeare at London by the Kings Justices came to Westminster with his Crosse carried before him whereupon the Bishop of London and the other Prelates prohibited him to presume to carry his Crosse within the Province of Canturbury who contemptuously answered them that he would not let it downâ— for them yet by the advice of his followers he hid it from the face of the people left a tumult should arise among the Clergy The Bishop of London accounting him excommunicate for this transgression suspended the new Temple where the Archbishop lodged both from Divine Service and the tolling and ringing of Bels so as he was forced to goe out of the City After this the Archbishop levied a great Army fortified Doncastre and would have besieged Thifehill Castle belonging to Earle Morton which Hugh Bardalfe and William Stâ—â—ville refusing to doe he departed with his men in a 〈◊〉 from them calling them traitors to the King and Kingdome Soone after the Deanery of Yorke being voyd the Archbishop first gave the Deanery to Simon Apull and after that to one Philip whom the King recommended The Canons of Yorke pretending the right of electing the Deane to appertaine to them elected Apul against the Bishops will The Archbishop hereupon appeales to Rome the Canons notwithstanding proceed in their election of Apul the Archbishops messengers and Apul meeting with the King in Germany in their passage towards Rome he inhibited all their appeales to Rome saying that if any attempted the contrary he should not returne into the Realme againe In the meane time the Canons of Yorke suspended the Cathedrall Church from all their accustomed Divine service and their Bels likewise from their usuall office of ringing for which the whole City was in an uproare they likewise uncloathed their Altars locked up the Archbishops stall in the Quire barred up the doore by which he used to enter into the Church out of his Pallace and Chappell and did many other things in contempt of him which the Archbishop hearing of being ready to take ship to passe the seas returned to the Church admonishing and commanding the Ministers of this Church to minister therein after the ancient manner who contemning his admonition and precept left the Church voyd and destitute of Divine service Hereupon shortly after the Archbishop by
the advice of his wisest friends puts new Ministers and Officers into the Cathedrall Church which he found voyd to officiate there which they did till the Canons and Chaplaines were restored againe thereto by lay power and violence he likewise excommunicates foure of the chiefe officers of the Church for suspending it who thereupon complaine to the King and appeale to Rome where the Pope hearing both parties setled the Deanery upon Simon Apul for that time saving the rights of the Archbishop and Chapter thereto for the future which he left undecided As soone as ever the Deane was thus setled and invested by a golden ring he and the Chapter defame and accuse the Archbishop alleaging that he was a violent spoyler of his owne and other mens Clerkes a wicked extortioner that he brake open Church doores by violence and force of armes symoniacally divided and reteyned Ecclesiasticall benefices gave no respect to appeales that vilipending all his Episcopall office he was 〈◊〉 to hauking hunting and other military cares for which things they intended to depose him especially those whoÌ„ he himselfe had advanced to great honours and enriched with great wealth and revences in the Church of Yorke beyond that he ought Of such the Lord saith I have nourished and exalted children but they have rebelled against me Let them therefore beware lest with Iudas the traytor they be condemned in Hell Hereupon the Pope writ to Hugh Bishop of Lincolne and his cojudges that if any would accuse the Archbishop of these things they should diligently heare what both sides propounded and certifie him the truth in writing under their Seales And if no accuser appeared and there were a publique fame of them that then the Archbishop should be enjoyned to make his purgation with three Bishops and three Abbots The Archbishop had appealed before the citation of the Judges and had taken his journey to prosecute his appeale but being hindred by the Kings prohibition and the distemper of the ayre he appeared not at Rome on the day prefixed nor yet at a further day given him whereupon he was suspended from all his Episcopall administration Soone after this Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury comes to Nottingham to King Richard the first causing his Crosse to be carried before him Geoffry of Yorke carried not his Crosse but complained to the King of Canturbury for carrying his Crosse up in the Province of Yorke which when the Archbishop had heard and seen that Gefâ—ry carried no crosse before him at all he answered I carry my Crosse throughout all England ought to beare it as Primate of all England but thou bearest not thy Crosse and perchance thou oughtest not to carry it And therefore things standing thuâ— I appeale to my Lord the Pope After this Geffrey bought the Sherivalty of Yorkshire of the King for 3000. markes and an 100. markes annuall rent and within few moneths after the King calling a Counsell all the Laymen and Clergy that would had the liberty to complaine against this Archbishop who made many complaints of his rapines and unjust exactions to which he gave no answer Not long after King Richard being to be crowned a new at Winchester commanded this Archbishop of Yorke not to come to his Coronation the next day with his Crosse borne up before him lest peradventure some tumult might arise betweenâ— him and the Archbishop of Canterbury Whereupon being thus prohibited to beare his crosse he refused to be present at the Kings Coronation Some three weekes after the King being at Waltham Geoffry comeâ— to him with his crosse carried before him of which Canterbury complained very much to the King who answered that this controversie belonged not to him but to the Pope to decide and the next day the King made a finall accord betweene William Longchamp Bishop of Ely and Geoffry touching all controversies about his apprehension and injuries susteined at Dover upon his arivall Ely with an hundred Priests more swearing that hee neither commanded nor willed that Geoffry should be apprehended in such sort Not long after the King being in France the Canons of Yorke complained to Hubert of Canterbury against Geoffry their Archbishop who thereupon sends commissioners to Yorke to heare and determine their complaints these imprison the Archbishops men accused of robery so that the Archbishop could not bâ—yle them restore the Canons to the Church and induct them into their stals out of which thâ—â— were expelled and because the Archbishop appeared not beforâ— them upon summons seised on all his lands except the mannor of Ripun where he resided and sequestred his Shrievalty of Yorkeshire into the hands of others About the same time the Canons of Yorke excommunicated formerly by the Bishop procure an absolution from the Pope which was published openly in the Church and they therupon were restored The Archbishop appeales hereupon and going over to Normandy to the King for 2000. markes procures a restitution of all his Lands and goods formerly sequestred and seised and a precept to put the Deane and Canons out of their new gaind possession Not long after the Pope sends Commissioners to York to enquire of the Bishops excesses whereof the Canons accused him mentioned at large in Pope Caelestines letter and commission recorded by Hoveden The Deane comming to Yorke from Rome while the commissioners were there some of the Archbishops creatures meeting him perswaded him not to goe to the mother Church which hee not yeelding to they laid violent hands on him for which the commissioners excommunicated them whereupon he went to the Church where the canons joyfully received him The Bishop notwithstanding expulseth him and the Canons againe who thereupon procure a letter from Pope Coelestine to the Deane of Lincolne and others to inquire of their dammages and to cause the Bishop to satisfie them to the full without any appeale whereupon they proved their dammages before them to amount to one thousand markes Soone after the Bishop of Whiterne the Archbishops Suffragan and Officiall comes to Yorke against the time of receiving the Lords Supper to consecrate chrisme and oyle as he had accustomed The Deane and chapter of Yorke would not receive him whereupon he went to Suelle and there consecrated chrisme and oyle and delivered them to the Archbishops Officials to distribute them throughout the Churches of the Archbishopicke Geoffry de Muschamp Archdeacon of Cliveland received the chrisme and oyle but presently cast them into a dunghill and the other Canons of S. Peters would receive none of him but sent to Hugh Bishop of Lincolne to receive oyle and chrisme from him whereupon Peter Archdeacon of Lincolne the Archbishops brother prohibited the Bishop to give them any oyle or chrisme from him upon which he appealed to Rome thereabout The Archbishop the same time who had offended the King his brother was reconciled to him and received into his favour with a kisse of peace whereupon he grew so excessively proud that he exasperated the King himselfe with
life This Prelate dying when he was brought to Lincolne to be interred Iohn King of England and William King of Scots were met there with an infinite company of Nobility of both Realmes The two Kings for the great reverence they bare to his holinesse who yet gave no â—everence at all to Kings as you have formerly heard would needs set their shoulders to the beare and helped to carry his course from the gates of the City untill it came to the Church doore where the Prelates themselves received and carried it into the Quire and buâ—yed him in the body of the East end of the Church ABOVE THE HIGH ALTAR which therefore stood not close to the East wall in those times but some good distance from it neere the Altar of Saint Iohn Hugh Walis or de Wils his next successour in this See but one Anno 1209. notwithstanding King Iohn refused to receive Stephen Langhton that arch-traytor for Archbishop of Canterbury and commanded this Bishop to repaire to the Archbishop of Rhoan for consecration from him and not to receive it from Langhton in contempt of this his Soveraignes command got him to Langhton and received consecration from him whereupon the King seised on all his temporalties and kept him fasting from them foure yeeres and then restored them After this he joyned both with the Barons and Lewis the French King who came to conquer the Realme against his naturall Soveraigne For which treasons he was onely excommunicated by the Pope and not absolved till he had paid the Pope one thousand marks and a hundred markes to his Legate Divers other of our Prelates were fined for the same cause and that so deepely as they were compelled to sell all they had to purchase the Kings favour Anno Dom. 1252. King Henry the third in a Parliament held at London getting a grant from the Pope of the tenths due to the Church to be received of him for three yeeres towards the charges of his journey into the holy Land to rescue it from the Saracens demanded these tenths of the spiritualtie But the Bishops and especially Robert Grosâ—head Bishop of Linâ—olne utterly refused to be contributary to this grant They alledged sundry reasons for their excuse as the poverty of the English Church being already made bare with continuall exactions and oppressions but chiefly they excused themselves by the absence of the Archbishops of Canterbury and Yorke of whom the one was beyond the Sea and the other at home in the North parts All the other Bishops were there except Hereâ—ord and Chester who was sicke and therefore without the consent of those that were absent and namely their Primate of Canterbury they could not conclude any generall poynt touching the Kings demand And although the King fretted and stormed against them yet could he not bring them to his purpose so as the Parliament was for that time dissolved Yet before their departure from London the King communed with them apart to see if he could get some money towards his charges but they had tuned their strings all after one notâ— discording all from his Tenor so that not a penny could be got of them wherefore he tooke high displeasure against them reviling them in most reproachfull manneâ— and amongst other he reviled his halfe brother the elect of Winchester taxing him of great unthankfulnesse who also among the residue stood against him Anno 1257. they denyed the King a Subsidie againe there being saith Holinshed a great untoward disposition in the Subjects of that time for the helping of their King with a necessary ayd of money towards such great charges as he had bin by divers wayes occasioned to be at Befoâ—e this Anno 1250. this Bishop excommunicated a Priest for incontinency who continuing for some daies without seeking to be reconciled the Bishop sent to the Sheriffe of Rutland within whose Bayliwicke the Priest dwelt to apprehend him as a disodient and rebellious person who not executing the Bishops commandement the Bishop thereupon excommunicates the Sheriffe whereof the King being informed tooke displeasure and sending to the Pope procured an inhibition that no Archbishop or Bishop should compell any Officer of the King to follow any suit before them for those things that appertaine to the Kings jurisdiction or give sentence against them for the same This Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne Anno 1246. upon the suggestion of the Friers Predicants and Minorites raged more then was meet or expedient against those of his Dâ—ocesse making strict inquisition in his Bishopricke by his Archdeacons and Deanes concerning the chastity and manners as well of Noble as ignoble upon oath to the enormious hurt and scandall of the reputations of many Which had never beene accustomed to be done before The King hearing the grievous complaints of his people against these Innovations did thereupon by the advice of his Counsell and Courts of Justice send a Writ to the Sheriffe of Hertford in these words Henry by the grace of God King of England c. We command thee that as thou lovest thy selfe and all things that are thine that thou from henceforth suffer not any Laymen of â—hy Baylywicke to assemble together in any place at the will of the Bishop of Lincolne or of his Archdeacons Officials or rurall Deanes to make any acknowledgments or attestations upon their oath unlesse in cases of Matrimony and testament And the very next yeere following in pursurance thereof the King by Parliament enacted and commanded these things ensuing to be inviolably observed That if any Lay men were convented before an Ecclesiasticall Iudge for breach of faith and perjury that they shouâ—d be prohibited by the King And that the Ecclesiasticall Iudge should be prohibited to hold plea of all causes against Laymen unlesse they were of Matrimony and Testament All which Matthew Paris precisely relates Which prohibition and statute nullified the constitution of Oâ—ho and hindered this Bishops innovation whereupon that insolent traytorly Martiall Archbishop of Canterbury Boniface better skilled in affaires of a Campe then of the Church Anno 1256. but nine yeeres after this prohibition and forenamed statute published this peremptory audacious constitution in affront of them both Statuimus quod Laici ubi de subditorum pecâ—â—tis excessibus corrigendis per Praelatos Ecclesiasticos judices inquiritur ad praestandum de veritate dicenda juramentum per excommunicationis sententias si opus fuâ—rit compellantur impedientes verò ne hujusmodi juramentum praestetur for the Judges with many otheâ—s then generally oppugned and hindred the ushering in of this Innovation per interdicti excommunicationis sententiam arceantâ—â— To evacuate which exorbitant illegall constitution meant onely of witnesses not of Churchwardens Sidemen or Stangers oathes as the Glosse of Lindwood who records it resolves in expresse termes trenching both upon the peoples liberties and the Courts of Justice too the Judges frequently granted out sundry
generall prohibitions to all or most of the Sheriffes of England as is evident by the Râ—gister of Writs Fitz herberts natura Brevium Rastall and others commanding the Sheriffe to inhibite Bishops and their Officers to cite Laymen before them to take an oath in any case whatsoever except of Matrimony or Testament only and not to suffer the people to appeare before them to take such oathes The continuer of Matthew Paris his History of England p. 966 967. writes of this Bishop of Lincolne That Simon Earle of Leicester who most opposed Henry the third and warred against him adhered to him and delivered his children to him to be educated That by his counsell tractabat ardua tentabat dubia finivit inchoata ea maximè per quae meritum sibi succrescere aestimabat And this Bishop is said to have enjoyned the Earle in remisâ—ion of his sinnes that he should undertake this cause of the Barons against the King for which he contended even unto death affirming that the peace of the Church of England could not be established but by the materiall Sword and that all who died for it should be crowned with martyrdome And some say that this Bishop laying his hand sometimes on the head of this Earles â—ldest sonne said unto him Oh my deere sonne both thâ—u and thy father shall both die in one day and with one kind of death yet for justice and vâ—rity Such an animater was he both of rebellion and warres Henry Lexinton the next Bishop of this See Anno 1257. offered some kind of hard measure unto the University of Oxford by infringing certaine liberties thâ—t of old belonged unto it For redresse hereof they were forced to make their complaint unto the King lying then at S. Albons and sent nine Masters of Art to the Court for that purpose Matthew Paris a Monkâ— of S. Albons was present at the delivery of the petition and as himselfe writeth was bold to sâ—ep unto the King using these speeches to him in private I beseech your Grace even for Gods sake to have compassion upon the Church now tottering and in great danger of utter subversion The Vniversity of Paris the nurse of â—o many excellent and famous Prâ—lates is now greatly troubled If the Vniversity of Oxford be disquieted and moleâ—ted also especially at this time being the second Vniversity of Christendome and even another foundation of the Church it is much to be feared leaâ—â— it cause a generall confusion and uâ—â—â—r ruine of the whole Church God forbid said the King that that should happen especially in my time I will endeavour to prevent it I doubt not he was as good as his word for I finde no more mention of any further stirres This I have thought good the rather to set downe to shew what was the reputation of our University of Oxford in those daies and what indignities this Bishop offered to it to cause a publike combustion Henry Burwash the 15. Bishop of Lincolne though advanced to that See by King Edward the second his speciall favour within two yeeres after his consecration for some contempts and misdemeanors he fell so faire into the Kings displeasure that his temporalties were seized upon into the Kings hands for two yeeres space Anno 1324. they were restored to him againe and he to the Kings favour but the grudge thereof so stâ—cke in his stomacke as the Queene rising against her husband seeking to depose him as afterward shee did no man was so forward to take her part no man was so eager against the King his undoubted true and naturall Prince as this Bishop Thomas Walfingham writes that almost all the Prelates joyned with the Queene against the King precipuè c. but especially the Bishop of Lincolne Hâ—reford Dublin and Ely who raised a great Army for herâ— others and principally the Archbishop oâ— Canterbury â—urnished her with money and when the Queene had taken the King prisoner Anno 1327. keeping her Châ—istmas aâ— Walâ—ingford the Archbishop of Canterbury and Yâ—rke the Bishop of Winchâ—ster whom she mâ—de Lord Treâ—surer the Biâ—hâ—p of Norwich her Lord Chaâ—cellour this good Bishop of Lincolne the Bishops of Ely Coventry and other Prelates kâ—pt their Christmas with her with great honour joy and triumph whence comming to Westminster prâ—sently after Twelftide they assembled in Parliament deposed the King from his Crowne and elected his sonne in his steed to which election the Archbishop of Canterbury there present consented ET OMNES PRAELATI and all the Prelates the Archbishop making an oration to them to confirme and justifie this election taking for his text Vox Populi vox Dei Such good Subjects were all the Archbishops and Bishops at that time and this Prelate one of the ringleaders who not content thus to spoyle his Soveraigne of his Crown Kingdome and life too not long after making a new Paâ—ke at Tyinghurst he inclosed in the same ground belonging to divers poore men his tenants for which he had many a bitter curse of them whereupon it is reported that after his death he appeared to one of his Gentlemen in the likenesse of a Keeper with a Bow and Arrowes in his hand a horne by his side and a greene jerkin on his backe telling him that for the injurious enclosing of that Parke he was appointed to the keeping of the same there to be tormented till it were disparked againe desiring him to intreat the Canons of Lincolne his brethren that this wrong done by him by their good meanes might be righted who upon this information sent one William Batchellour of their Company to see it utterly disparked which was effected Anno 1351. the Univeâ—sity of Oxford presented unto Iohn Synwall Bishop of Lincolne unto whose jurisdiction Oxford then appertained one William Palmarin for theiâ— Chancellour and prayed him to admit him The Bishop I know not for what cause delayed hâ—s admission from time to time and enforced the University to complaine of this hard dealing unto the Archbishop He presently set downe a day wherein he enjoyned the Bishop to admit this Chancellour or else to render a reason of his refusall At the time appointed the Proctours of the University were ready together with this William Palmorie to demand admission And when the Bishop of Lincolne came not trusting belike to this priviledge procured from Rome to exempâ— himsâ—lfe his authority and jurisdiction the Archbishop causes his Chancellour Iohn Carâ—ton Deane of Wels to admit him writ to the Uniuersity to receive him and cited the Bishop to answer before him for his contempt He appealed to the Pope would not come and for his contumacy was convicted Much money was spent in this suite afterwards at Rome The event was that the Archbishop prevailed and the others priviledge was by speciall order of the Pope revoked who also granted unto the University at the same time that the Chancellour hereafter should onely be elected by the
and concluded there was no such meaning couched in it as was suggested but the quite contrary namely That he could not be an absolute King unlesse the Bishops who had still beene Rebellious dâ—sloyall and opposite to their Soveraignes so farre as to uncrowne or make them no Kings in a manner were suppressed which was all I intended in this passage as is evident by its opposition to their no Bishop no King by the speech of King John who hearing of Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury his death sayd I was never a King till now by reason of Huberts presumptuous daring to crosse and frustrate his royall resolutions from whence I borrowed this mis-interpreted clause by Mr William Tyndals passages here cited to the same effâ—ct Part. 2. p. 366.369 which I alluded to and by the whole scope of the Antipathy to this effect By this malicious false suggestion with others of like nature heretofore the sole cause of al my former sufferings the world may easily judge what malicious calumniators what impudent false informers our Lordly Prelates are and how much I have beene beholding to them for their malicious mis-interpretations of my words and misrepresentations of my sincere intentions to his Majestie whom they ever laboured to incense against me by these most sinister meanes and not content therewith since his Majestie hath beene satisfied touching this fore-cited passage some of them have not spared to report abroade to others That there were such passages in my Prologue for which my life might be questioned and I beleeve it true were they to be both my accusers and Iudges but blessed be God this ever hath beene and shall be my consolation that they can onely slander not convict me of any disloyalty or misdemeanor And if they will still calumniate me for well doing as hitherto they have done that golden Apothegme of Alexander the great will be a sufficienâ— Antidote against the poyson of their tongues and pens Regium est malè audire cùm benè facias Now lest they should chance to slander me for any false quotations by reason of the variety of the Impressions and Pages of some of our Historians I have frequently quoted to prevent this inconvenience I shall advertise them and thee kind Reader what Editions I have used Malmesbury Huntindon and Hoveden here quoted were Printed at Francfort by Wichâ—lus Anno 1601. Matthew Paris Tiguri 1589. Matthew Westm. Londini 1570. Walsingham Londini 1574. by Iohn Day Speed London 1623. Holinshed the last Edition Of Godwins Catalogue of Bishops there are two Editions the first Printed by Geoâ—ge Bishop 1600. the latter with a Discouâ—se of the Conversion of Britaine and some Additions Printed for Thomas Adams London 1615. both these Editions I have quoted for the most part promiscuously and sometimes with distinction if the pages vary in one Edition peruse the other and these Editions of the Historians which I follow and then every page and quotation will prove true and punctuall if examined And now Reader having given thee this advertisement I shall desire God to Sanctifie this Treatise to thy private information and the publick Reformation of all corruption in our Church Farewell A COMPLEATE TABLE OF THE SEVERALL CHAPTERS of this Second Part of the Antipathy which may serve in steede of an Index Chap. IV. COmprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies Disloyalties c. of the Bishops of Ely Exeter Worcester and Hereford Chap. V. Containing the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies Disloyalties c. of the Bishops of Chichester Carlile Norwich Chester Coventry and Lichfield Chap. VI. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies Disloyalties c. of the Bishops of Rochester S. Davids Landaffe Bangor Asaph Bath and Wels with a short touch of the Bishop of Oxford Bristow Peterborough and Glocester and of our Bishops in generall Chap. VII Containing the severall Treasons Rebellions Seditions Schismes Contumacies Warres and disloyalties of the Bishops of France Normandy Scotland and Ireland in reference to our Kingdome and Kings of England Chap. VIII Containing certaine Conclusions deduced from the Premises with the judgements and resolutions of divers of our ancient Writers Martyrs and some of our learnedest Bishops and Authors in Queene Elizabeths Reigne touching the pretended Divine Institution and Iurisdiction of Bishops their Treasons Rebellions Temporalties large possessions intermedling with secular affaires the taking away of their Temporalties not to be sacriledge and the uselessenesse unprofitablenesse and mischievousnesse of Lordly Bishops and their government in our Church Chap. IX Comprising an answere to the principall Objections alleaged by the Prelates in defence of the pretended divine Institution and for the continuance of their Episcopacy in our Church Kind Reader I pray correct these subsequent Errors which have escaped the Presse in some Coppies in my absence ERRATA IN the booke p. 200. l. 18. or read for p. 203. l. 12. insolently 207. l. 2. him to â— him To. p. 235. l. 12. mony p. 238. Manwaring p. 242. l. 2. than l. 6. henries Stephens p. 250 l. 10. forced p. 251. l. 36.11000 p. 255. l. 1â— Eiicâ—rent p. 322. l. 2. not p. 328. l. 1. after averre p. 322. l. 34. Churches Churchmen p. 342. l 7. our your p. 356. l. 10. Cefenas p. 393. l. 11. It is p. 404. l. 11. and destruction p. 405. l. 18. that p. 411. l. 8. perceive p. 417. l. 19â— Fisher Fish p. 419. l. 11. be both p. 424 l. 3. dele in p. 430. l. 21. can cannot l. 22. In Master p. 434. l. 23. fol. l. 24.32.22 l. 37. or spirituall p. 435. l. 6. dele greate p. 446. l. 5. Pastures p. 440. l. 3. he thus writes And l. 10. where which p. 453. l. 5. understand l. 15. Erasmus p. 481. l. 31. Angelorum l. 33. this booke p. 482. l. 16. never ever l. 31. of and. p. 484. l. 32. men p. 486. l. 6. by Paul p. 490. l. 27. deny deem l. 35. it them p. 499. l. 23. habetur p. 501. l. 13. dele together p. 503. l. 11. dele other p. 510. l. 6. dele ad l. 31. whole In the Margin p. 208. l. 2. Fordham p. 357. Ioan Baleus Scrip. Brit. Cent. 3. c. 61. omitted p. 253.254 are omitted p. 365. l. 9 Common Canon p. 487. l. 2. Timotheum l. 5. Romanorum p. 499 l. 12. H. 8. p. 500 l. 14. Finan p. 513. l. 25. Ingulph THE SECOND PART OF THE Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy both to Regall Monarchy and civill Vnitie CHAP. IV. Conteining the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and disloyalties of the Bishops of Ely Exeter Worcester and Hereford THe Bishopricke of Ely was first erected by the pride of Richard Abbot of Ely who in respect of his great wealth disdained to live under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincolne to whose Diocesse Cambridge-shire at that time appertained But hee had reasonable pretences or his ambition He caused the King to be told that the Diocesse of Lincolne was
too large for one mans government that Ely were a fit place for an Episcopall See c. These Reasons amplified with golden Rhetoricke so perswaded the King as he not onely consented himselfe that this Monastery should be converted into a Cathedrall Church and the Abbot made a Bishop but also procured the Pope to confirme and allow of the same but Richard dying before his enstalement Henry the first Anno 1109. appointed this Bishopricke unto one Hervaeus that had beene Bishop of Bangor and agreeing ill with the Welchmen was faine to leave his Bishoppricke therâ— and seeke abroad for somewhat elsewhere Nigellus the second Bishop of this See by reason of his imployment in matters of State and Councell could not attend his Pastorall charge and therefore committed the managing and government of his Bishoppricke unto one Ranulphus sometime a Monke of Glastonbury that had new cast away his Cowle a covetous and wicked man King Stephen and he had many bickerings and as Matthew Paris writes hee banished him the Realme he was Nephew to Roger Bishop of Salisbury from whom in ejus pernâ—â—iem traxerat incâ—ntiuum he had drawne an incentive to his distruction but of him and his contests with this King you may read more in Roger of Salisbury his Vncle. This See continuing void five yeares without a Bishop after Nigellus death Geoffery Rydell Anno. 1174. succeeded him a very lofty and high minded man called commonly The Proud Bishop of Ely King Richard the first and he accorded so ill that he dying intestate and leaving in his coffers great store of ready money namely 3060. markes of silver and 205. pound of gold the King confiscated and converted it to his owne use William Longchamp next Bishop of this See being made Lord Chancellour of England chiefe Justice of the South part of England Protector of the Realmeby Richard the first when he went his voyage to the Holy-land set the whole Kingdome in a combustion through his strang insolence oppression pride violence For having all temporall and spirituall Jurisdiction in his hands the Pope making him his Legate here in England at the Kings request which cost him a thousand pounds in money to the great offence of the King infatuated with too much prosperity and the brightnesse of his owne good fortune he began presently to play both King and Priest nay Pope in the Realme and to doe many things not onely untowardly and undiscreetly but very arrogantly and insolenâ—ly savoring aswell of inconscionable covetousnesse and cruelty as lacke of wisedome and policy in so great a government requisite He calling a Convocation by vertue of his power Legantine at the intreaty of Hugh Novant Bishop of Chester displaced the Monkes of Coventree and put in secular Priests in their roomes Officers appointed by the King himselfe he discharged and removed putting others in their steeds He utterly rejected his fellow Justices whom the King joyned with him in Commission for government of the Realme refusing to heare their Counsell or to be advised by them Hee kept a guard of Flemmings and French about him At his Table all Noblemens children did serve and waite upon him Iohn the Kings brother and afterward King himselfe hee sought to keepe under and disgrace by all meanes possible opposing him all hee could that he might put him from the Crowne He tyrannized exceedingly over the Nobility and Commons whom he grieved with intollerable exactions oppressions extraordinary outward pomp and intollerable behaviour He was extreame burthensome one way or other to all the Cathedrall Churches of England His Offices were such prolling companions bearing themselves bold upon their Masters absolute authority as there was no sort of peaple whom they grieved not by some kinde of extortion all the wealth of the Kingdome came into their hands insomuch that scarce any ordinary person had left him a silver belt to gird him withall any woman any brooch or bracelet or any gentleman a ring to weare upon his finger Hee purchased every where apase bestowed all Temporall and Ecclesiasticall Offices and places that fell where he pleased Hee never rode with lesse than 1500. horse and commanded all the Nobility and Gentry when he went abroad to attend him lodging for the most part at some Monastery or other to their great expence having both Regall and Papall authority in his hands hee most arrogantly domineered both over the Cleargy and Layety and as it is written of a certaine man That he used both hands for a right hand so likewise hee for the more easie effecting of his designes as our Lordly Prelates doe now used both his powers one to assist the other for to compell and curbe potent Laymen if peradventure he could doe lesse than he desired by his secular power he supplied what was wanting with the censures of his Apostolicall power But if perchance any Clergy man resisted his will him without doubt alledging the Canons for himselfe in vaine he oppressed and curbed by his secular power There was no man who might hide himselfe from his heate when as he might justly feare both the rod of his Secular and the sword of his spirituall jurisdiction to be inflicted on him and no Ecclesiasticall Person could by any meanes or authority be able to defend himselfe against his royall preheminence Finally glorying of his immense power that the Metropolitane Churches which as yet did seeme to contemne his excellency might have experience of his authority he went in a terrible manner to both And first of all to Yorke to the Bishop elect whereof hee was most maliciously dispitefull And sending before him a mandate to the Clergy of the said Church that they should meete him in a solemne manner as the Legate of the Aposticke See when as they had thought to appeale against him he regarded not the appeale made to the higher power but gave the appellants their choyce that they should either fulfill his commands or be committed to prison as guilty of high Treasonâ— Being therefore thus affrighted they obeyed and not daring so much as to mutter any further against him as to one triumphing they with a counterfeit sorrow bestowed as much honor glory on him as he would himself The chiefe Chanter of that Church had gone out of the way a little before that he might not see that which he could not behold without torment of mind which the Bishop undestanding raging against this absent person as a rebell with an implacable motion by his own Sergeants spoiled him of all his goods Having preyed upon the Archbishoppricke and pursed all up into his Treasury this famous tryumpher departed And not long after he triumphed in like manner over those of Canterbury when as no man now durst to resist him Having therefore both Metropolitane Sees thus prostrate to him he used both as he pleased In a word the Lay-men in England at that time writes Neubrigensis found
they should presently depart the Realme that all their Lands and goods should be confiscated which was done and they all put out of the Kings protection The Bishops and Abbots hereupon stood on their guard sending the King word that they would not depart out of their Bishopprickes and Monasteries unlesse they were thrust out perforce whereupon all their possessions barnes corne and goods were seized on by the Kinâ—s Officers and the Parents of those Bishops who interdicted the Realme apprehended spoiled of all their goods and thrust into prison In the yeare 1266. whiles King Henry the third besieged Kenelworth Castle some rebells whom the King had disinherited entred the Isle of Ely and wasted the Country thereabouts Whereupon Hugh Balsam about whose election there was great contention comming to the King to complaine being then Bishop of this See was unworthily received ei casus iste apluribus imputatur This accident being imputed unto him by many hee being suspected to favour and side with these Rebells In William Kilkenny his next predecessors time there was a great suit betweene this Bishop and the Abbot of Ramsey about the Fennes and the bounding of them which Fennes having beene formerly unhabitable and unpassable by men beasts or cartsâ— overgrowne with Reeds and inhabited onely by birds that I say not devills about that time were miraculously converted into delectable meadowes and arable ground Et quae ibidem pars â—egetes vel faena non producit gladiolum cespites alia ignis pabula cohabitantibus utilia germinando abundanter subministrat Vnde lis gravis contentio de terminâ—s locorum talium terrarum inter eos qui ab initio Mariscum inhabitabant exorta lites praelta suscitabat writes Matthew Paris and among others betweene the Bishop of Ely and this Abbot of Ramâ—ey King Edward the third was so highly offended with the Monks election of this Bishop Balseam contrary to his direction that he caused the woods of the Bishoprick to be cut downe and sold the Parkes to be spoiled the Ponds to be fished and wasted and havocke to be made of all things whereupon the Bishop got him over sea to Rome to seeke reliefe against whom Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury to gratifie the King writ divers Letters to his friends of Rome and set up one Adam de Marisco to be a counterfeiter to the Pope against him In this Bishops time the King standing in neede of money the Prelates granted him 42. thousand markes to the great hurt and irreparable damnage of the Church and Kingdome upon condition that the King should speedily redresse the oppressures of the Church and reduce it to the State of due libertie whereupon the Bishops framed about fiftie Articles and put them in writing that being read before the King Nobles and Prelates they might be confirmed in due time which Articles writes my author were like to those which Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury the Martyr contended for and became a glorious conquerour and therefore directly against the Kings Prerogative and the Lawes of the Realme Thomas Lilde Bishop of Ely a furious and undiscreet Prelate in King Edward the third his dayes had many quarrels with the Lady Blanch Lake a neere Kinswoman of the Kings about certaine bounds of Lands and trespasses in burning of a house by the Bishops command or privityâ— belonging to this Lady who recovered 900. pound dammages against him which he was inforced to pay downe presently After this he had divers contestations with the King himselfe one about Robert Stretton Bishop of Lichfield he reprehending the King for making him a Bishop which the King tooke so tenderly that he commanded him in great displeasure to avoid his presence Another about his suits with the forenamed Lady and some harsh speeches used by him of the King concerning themâ— for which words and other matters the King accused him to the Parliament then assembled and there testifying these obiected wrongs upon his Honour the Bishop thereupon was condemned and this punishment laid upon him that hereafter he should never presume to come in the Kings presence Which History William Harrison thus relates and others quoted in the Margin There was sometime a grievous contention betweene Thomas Lilde Bishop of Ely and the King of England about the yeare of grace 1355. which I will here deliver out of an old Record because the matter is so partially penned by some of the brethren of that house in favour of the Bishop and for that I was also abused with the same in the entrance thereof at the first into my Chronologie The blacke Prince favouring one Robert Stratton his Chaplaine a man unlearnedâ— and not worthy the name of a Clearke the matter went on so farre that what for love and somewhat else of a Canon of Lichfield he was chosen Bishop of that See Hereupon the Pope understanding what he was by his Nuncio here in England stayed his consecration by his letters for a time and in the meane season committed his examination to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rochester who felt and delt so favourably with him in golden reasoning that his worthinesse was commended to the Popes Holinesse and to Rome he goes Being come to Rome the Pope himselfe opposed him and after secret conference utterly disableth his Election till he had proved by substantiall Argument and of great weight before him also that he was not so lightly to be reiected Which kinde of reasoning so well pleased his Holinesse that ex mera plenitudine potestatis he was made capable of the Benefice and so turneth into England when he came home this Bishop being in the Kings presence told him how he had done he wist not what in preferring so unmeete a man unto so high a calling with which speech the King was offendedâ— that he commanded him out of hand to avoid out of his presence In like sort the Lady Wake then Dutchesse of Lancaster standing by and hearing the King her cozen to gather upon the Bishop so roundly and thereto bearing an old grudge against him for some other matter doth presently picke a quarrell against him about certaine Lands then in his possession which he defended and in the end obtained against her by Plea and course of Law yet long also afore hapned in a part of her house for which she accused the Bishop and in the end by verdict of twelve men found that he was privy unto the fact of his men in the said fact wherefore he was condemned in 900 pound damages which he paid every penny Neverthelesse being sore grieved that she had as he said wrested out such a verdict against him and therein packed up a Quest at his owne choyce he taketh his horse goeth to the Court and there complaineth to the King of his great iniury received at her hands but in the delivery of his tale his speech was soblockiâ—h termes so evill favoredly
though maliciously placed that the King tooke yet more offence with him than before insomuch that he led him with him into the Parliament house for then was that Court holden and there before the Lords accused him of no small misdemeanor towards his person by his rude and threatning speeches but the Bishop eagerly denieth the Kings Obiections which he still avoucheth upon his Honour and in the end confirmes his Allegations by Witnesses whereupon he was banished from the Kings presence during his naturall life by verdict of that House In the meane time the Dutchesse hearing what was done beginneth anew to be dealing with him and in a brabling fray betweene their servants one of her men were slaine for which the Bishop was called before the Magistrate as chiefe accessary unto the fact but he fearing the sequell of his third cause by his successe had in the two first hideth himselfe after he had sold all his moveables and committed his money unto his trusty friends and being found guilty by the Inquest the King seizeth upon his possessions and calleth up the Bishop to answer unto the trespasse To be short upon safe conduct the Bishop commeth to the Kings presence where he denieâ—h that he was accessary to the fact either before at orafter the deede committed and thereupon craveth to be tried by his Peeres But this Petition is in vaine for sentence passeth against him also by the Kings owne mouth whereupon hee craveth helpe of the Archbishop of Canterbury and priviledges of the Church hoping by such meanes to be solemnly rescued But they fearing the Kings displeasure who bare small favour to the Cleargie of his time gave over to use any such meanes but rather willed him to submit himselfe to the Kings mercy which he refused standing upon his innocencie from the first unto the last Finally growing into chollor that the malice of a woman should so prevaile against him hee writeth to Rome requiring that his Case might be heard there as a place wherein greater Justice saith he is to be looked for than is to be found in England upon the perusall of these his Letters also his accusers were called thither but for so much as they appeared not at their peremptory times they were excommunicated Such of them also as died before their reconciliations were taken out of the Church-yards and buried in the Fields and Dunghills Vnde timor turba saith my Note in Anglia For the King inhibited the bringing in and receipt of all Processes Bulls and whatsoever instruments should come from Rome Such also as adventured contrary to this Prohibition to bring them in were either dismembred of some joynt or hanged by the neckes which rage so incensed the Pope that hee wrote in very vehement manner to the King of England threatning farre greater curses except hee did the sooner stay the fury of the Lady reconcile himselfe unto the Bishop and finally make him amends for all his losses sustained in these bâ—oyles Long it was yeâ— that the King would be brought to peace neverthelesse in the end he wrote to Rome about a reconciliation to be had betweene them but yeâ— all things were concluded God himselfe did end the quarrell by taking away the Bishop Anno 1388. the Nobles being assembled at Westminster said to King Richard the second that for his honour and the weale of the Kingdome it behoved that Traytors Whisperers Flatterers Malefactorsâ— Backbitersâ— and unprofitable persons should be banished out of his Palace and company and others substituted in their places who knew were willing to serve him more honourably faithfully which when the King had granted Licet merens they determined that Alexander Nevell Archbishop of Yorkeâ— Iohn Fordham then Bishop of Durham and afterwards of this See of Ely Thomas Rushoke the Kings Confessor Bishop of Chichester who being conscious to himselfe fled away and hid in Yorkeshire Richard Clifford Nicholas Lake Deane of the Kings Chappell all Clergy men whose words did many things in the Court should be removed all these they sent to divers prisons to be strictly gardedâ— till they should come to their answers the next Parliament Nicholas West Bishop of Ely in Henry the eigâ—h his dayes who kept daily an hundred servants in his house to attend him and gave them great wages fell into the Kings displeasure for some matters concerning his first marriage who for griefe thereof fell sicke and died Thomas Thirlby was advanced by Queene Mary not onely to the Bishoppricke of Ely but also made of her privy Councell After her death for resisting obstinatly the reformation intended by our gracious Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth hee was committed to the Tower and displaced from his Bishoppricke by Parliamentâ— Having endured a time of imprisonment neither very sharpe nor very long his friends easily obtained license for him and the late Secretary Roxall to live in the Archbishops house where they had also the company of Bishop Tunstall till such time he died To these I might adde Bishop Buckeridge Bishop White and Bishop Wren late Prelates of this Sea who occasioned much mischiefe and distraction in our Church and State but I shall referre them to another placeâ— and passe on to the Prelates of Exeter Exeter About the yeare 1257. Walter Bronscome 12. B of Exeter had a Fryer to his Chaplaine and Confessor which died in his house of Bishops Clift and should have beene buried at the Parish Church of Farringdon because the said house was and is in that Parish but because the Parish Church was somewhat farre off the wayes fouleâ— the weather rainy or for some other causes the Bishop commanded the corps to be carried to the Parish Church of Sowton then called Clift Fomeson which is very neere and bordereth upon the Bishops Lordship the two Parishes there being devided by a little Lake called Clift At this time one Fomeson a Gentleman was Lord and Patron of Clift Fomeson and he being advertized of such a buriall towards his Parish and a leach way to be made over his Land without his leave or consent requited therein calleth his Tenants together goeth to the bridge over the Lake betweene the Bishops Land and his there meeteth the Bishops men bringing the said corpsâ— and forbiddeth them to come over the water The Bishops men nothing regarding this Prohibition doe presse forwards to come over the water and the others doe withstand so long that in the end my Lords Fryer is fallen into the water The Bishop taketh this matter in such griefe that a holy Fryer a religious man his own Chaplaine and Confessor should so unreverently be cast into the water that he falleth out with the Gentleman and upon what occasion I know not he sueth him in the Law and so vexeth and tormenteth him that in the end he was faine to yeeld himselfe to the Bishops devotion and seeke all the wayes he could to curry the Bishops good will
which hee could not obtaine untill for redemption he had given and surrendred up his Patronage of Sowton with a peece of Land all which the said Bishop annexeth to his now Lordship Thus by policy he purchaseth the Mannor of Bishops-Clift by a devise gaineth Cornish-wood and by power wresteth the patronagne uf Sowton from the true owner to the great vexation and disturbance of the Country Petâ—r Quiuill his next successor had great contests with the Citizens of Exeter in so much that in his time 1285. Walter Liâ—hlade the first Chaunter was slaine in a morning as hee came from the morning Service then called the Mattens which was wont to be said shortly after midnight upon which occasion the King came unto this city and kept his Christmas in the same and thereupon a compoâ—ition was made betweene the Bishop and the City for inclosing of the Church-yard and building of certaine gates there as appeareth by the said composition bearing date in festo Annunciationis beatae Mariae 1286. The King at the suit of the Earle of Hereford who at his being here way lodged in the house of the Gray-Fryers which then was neere the house of S. Nicholas obtained of the Bishop that they should be removed from thence to a more wholesome place without South-gate whereof after the Kings departure grew some controversie because the Bishop refused to performe his promise made to the King being disswaded by Peter Kenefield a Dominicane or a Blacke-Fryer and confessor unto the said Bishop for he envying the good successe of the Franciscans adviseth the Bishop that in no wise he would permit them to enjoy the place which they had gotten foâ— saith he as under colour of simplicity they creepe into the hearts of the people and hinder us poore Preachers from our gaines and livings so be ye sure that if they put foote within your Liberties they will in time finde meanes to be exempted from out of your Liberty and jurisdiction The Bishop being soone disswaded utterly forbiddeth them to build or to doe any thing within his See or Liberty About two yeares after the Bishop kept a great feast upon the Sunday next before S. Francis day and among others was present with him one Walter Wilborne one of the Kings chiefe Justices of the Bench who was present when the Bishop at the request of the King made promise to further and helpe the Franciscans He now in their behalfe did put the Bishop in minde thereof and requested him to have consideration both of his owne promise and their distresse The Bishop misliking this motion waxed angry and did not onely deny to yeeld thereuntoâ— but wished himselfe to be choked what day soever he did consent unto it It fortuned that the same weeke and upon the day of S. Frances Eve The Bishop tooke a certaine Sirope to drinke and in too hastily swallowing thereof his breath was stopped so as hee forthwith died The Franciscans hearing thereof made no little adoe about this matter but blazed it abroad that S. Francis wrought this miracle upon the Bishop â—â—cause he was so hard against them Anno. 1326. Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exeter to whom King Edward the second left the charge of the city of London was assaulted by the people at the North-doore of Pauls Church who threw him downe and drew him most outragiously into Cheape-side where they proclaimed him an open Traytor a Seducer of the Kingâ— and a destroyer and subverter of their Liberties the putting off his Aketon or coate of defence with the rest of his garments they shore his head from his shoulders with the heads of two of his servants The Bishops head was set on a pole for a spectacleâ— that the remembrance of his death and the cause thereof might continue his body was buried in an old Church yard of theâ— Pied Fryers without any manner of Exequies or Funerall service done for him Belike he was a wicked instrument that hee became so odious to the people who thus cruelly handled him Symon Mephara Archbishop of Canterbury began his Metropoliticall Visitation in the yeare 1332. and comming to Exeter Iohn Grandison Bishop of that See either scorning or fearing his jurisdiction appealed against it to the Pope and when the ArchBishop came to visite his Diocesse hee resisted him and kept him from entring into it with a Military band of Souldiers and when as the Archbishop resolved to encounter him and his forces in the field with armes and raised an army in Wiltshire for that purpose the King being there with acquainted recalled him by his royall Letters so as he returned shamefully and ignominiously out of that Diocesse without visiting it and falling sicke for griefe of this his repulse he died at Macfield in his returne thence of a deadly feaver This Bishop built a faire house at Bishops Taington which he left full furnished unto his successors and did impropriate unto the same the Parsonage of Radway to the end as he setteth downe in his Testament ut haberent Episcopilocum ubi caput suum reclinarent si forte in manuÌ„ regis eorum temporalia caperentur Presuming no doubt that many of them would prove contemptuous to their Soveraignes and have their temporalties seised for it Thomas Brentingham the 18th Bishop of Exetâ—r at the Parliament holden at Westminester in the tenth yeare of King Edward the second was chosen to be one of the twelve Peeres for the government of the Realme under the King In this mans time Anno. 1388. William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury intending to keepe a Metropoliticall Visitation in his Province and having formerly visited the Diocesse of Rochester Chichester Worcester Bath and Wells without any resistance or contradiction came into the Diocesse of Exeter and having begun his Visitation there oft times proroged the same from day to day and from place to place and suspended the Jurisdiction of the Bishop and other Prelates in that Diocesse during his Metropoliticall Visitation Herupon the Bishop of Exâ—ter commanded all within his Diocesse that they should not obey the Archbishop in his Visitation and that they should receive their Institutions Collations and Admissions to Benefices Commissions of Administrations Confirmations of Elections Conusances and Decisions of all causes Corrections of crimes and ordinary rights from no other but himselfe and his Officers excommunicating all who diâ—obeyed this his Edict The Archbishop abolished and repealed this Prohibitory and Mandatory Edict of his by a contrary one and made void his sentence of Excommunication After which he appealed foure severall times to the Pope and fixed his appeale in writing on the doores of the Cathedrall Church of Exeter The Archbishop rejected and refuted them all and proceeded in his Visitation notwithstanding citing the Bishop himselfe by divers Edicts to answer to certaine Articles objected to him in his Visitation But some of the Bishops adherents caught Peter Hill the Archbishops Somner in
a Towne called Tapsham and punishing him grieviously compelled him to eate with his teeth and swallow downe a Parchment Citation wax and allâ— written and sealed with the Archbishops sealâ— which he carried in his bosome wherewith to cite the Bishop Of which misdemeanor the Archbishop complaining to the King hee commanded William Courtney Earle of Devonshire to curbe these Rebells and to apprehend and carry them to the Archbishop who enjoyned them pennance and withall removed William Byd a Dr. of Law and Advocate of the Court of Arches from his Order and place because hee had given counsell to the Bishop of Exeter against the dignity of the See of Canterbury and thereupon prescribed a set forme of Oath to all the Advocates of that Court not to give any advice to any person against that See The Bishop of Exeter after much contention finding the Archbishop too potent for him and that his appeales were like to succeede but ill by reason the King favoured the Archbishop submitted himselfe to the Archbishops Iurisdiction and craved pardon for what was past In Edmund Lacyes time the 21. Bishop of this See there arose great contentions betweene him and the city for Liberties which by arbitrement were compounded After which Anno. 1451. King Henry the sixth came in progresse to the city of Exeter where after great entertainment there was a Sessions kept before the Duke of Sommerset and certaine men condemned to die for Treason and had judgement to be executed to death Edmond Lacy and his Clergy understanding hereof with open mouthâ— complained to the King that he caused a Sessions to be kept within his Sanctuary contrary to the priviledge of his Church and that therefore all their doings being done against Law were of no effect And notwithstanding the King and his Councell had discoursed to them the just and orderly proceeding the hainousnesse of the offences and of the offenders and the necessitie of their condigne punishment yet all could not availe for holy Church for neither holy Church nor the Sanctuary might be prophaned as they said with the deciding of temporall matters whereupon the King in the end yeelding to their exclaimes released a coupple of arrant Trayâ—ors reversed all his former lawfull proceedings and so departed and returned to London his Lawes and Justice being thus captivated to this Prelates will and trayterly encrochments upon his Prerogative so farre as even to exempe and rescuee notorious condemned Traytors from his Justice and condemnation even after judgement of death pronounced against them George Nevill the 23. Bishop of Exeter afterwards Archbishop of Yorke March the 4. 1460. after a solemne procession preached at Pauls Crosse where hee tooke upon him by manifold evidence to prove the Title of Prince Edward afterwards Edward the fourth to the Crowne to be just and lawfull answering all objeâ—tions that might be made to the contrary whereupon the â—aid Prince accompanied with the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and a great number of the common people rode the same day to Westminister Hall and there by the consent approbation of them all tooke possession of the Kingdome against King Henry the sixth who made him Bishop See more of him in Yorke part 1. p. 196.197 The Rebellion in Cornewall and Devonshire in Edward the sixe his raigne was imputed to Iohn Voysey Bishop of Exeter and other Priests who thereupon resigned his Bishoppricke into King Edwards hands having much wasted and impoverished it before Godwin writes of him That hee was Lord President of Wales and had the government of the Kings onely daughter the Lady Mary who afterwards proved a bloody persecuter by the Prelates cruell instigation tutership and evill counsell when she came to the Crowne Of all the Bishops of the Land he was accounted the best Courtier being better liked for his Courtly behaviour than his learning which in the end turned not so much to his credit as to the utter ruine and spoyle of the Churâ—h For of 22. Lordships and Mannors which his Predecessors had left unto him of a goodly yearely revenew he left but three and them also leased out and where hee found thirteene houses well furnished too much for one Prelate he left onely one house bare and without furniture and yet charged with sundry fees and anuities So as by these meanes this Bishopprickeâ— which sometime was counted one of the best is now become in temporall lands one of the meanest Iames Turbevill the 32. Bishop of this See was deprived in the first yeare of Queene Elizabeh for denying the Queenes Supremacy and refusing to take the Oaâ—h of Allegiance William Cotton the 37th Bishop of Exeter was a great persecuter and silencer of godly Ministers in his Diocesse and so was Bishop Cary after him for a season but at last both of them being mollified with gifts and gratuities became more milde selling that liberty of preaching for money which they formerly restrained gratis of purpose to advance this sale to an higher price so as may apply that of Bernard to them Episcopi hujus temporis Christi approbria sputa flagella claues lancem crucem mortem haec omnia in fornace avaritiae conflant profligant in acquisitionem turpis quaestus Et praecium vniversitatis suo marsupio includere festinant hoc solo sanâ— a Iuda Ischariota differentes quod ille horura omnium denariorum emolumentum denariorum numero coâ—pensavit isti voraâ—iori ingluvie lucrorum infinitas exigunt â—pâ—cunias his insatiabili desiderio inhiant pro his ne amittant timent cura amittunt dolent Animarum nec casus reputatur nec salus For the present Bishop of this See a man formerly much honored and deservedly respected both for his Writing and Preaching before he became a Bishop he hath much degenerated and lost himselfe of late not onely by his too much worldlinesse but by his over-confident defence of Episcopacy to be Iure Divino in some late Bookes he hath published and that upon such weake sandy grounds as vanish into smoake when seriously examined I read that Osbertus the second and William Warewest the third Bishop of this See became blinde in their latter dayes I wish this reverent Prelate may not doe the like who doth already Caecutire through the splendor of that Episcopall Lordly pompe and honour which some feare hath dazled his eye-sight I come now to Worceter The Bishops of Worceter Dunstan the sixteenth Bishop of Worceter afterwards of Canterbury put King Edgar to seven yeares penance for ravishing Wildfrid and kept him some twelve or fourteene yeares from the Crowne Which fact of Dunstans Mr. Fox thus expresseth you heard before how King Edgar is noted in all Stories to be an incontinent liver in deflouring Maids and Virgins three notoriously are expressed in Authors to wit Vlstride or Vlfride the second was the Dukes maide at Andever neere to Winchester the third
like the Ninivites they replied neither of these shall be because neither shall they repent neither shall God have mercy on them And I demanding when remission of so great calamities might be expected To this they answered concerning this it shall be so as in case of a greene tree if it be cut in the midest and the part 〈◊〉 off be carried farre from the Trunke when that without any helpe shall be reannexed to the Trunke and begin to flourish and bring forth fruit then a remission of such evills may be hoped for The truth of which prophesie writes Matthew Wstminster the English soone after had experience of in this that England became the habitation of strangers and the dominion of forreiners for a little after no English man was either a Duke Bishop or Abbot upon the comming in of the Conqueror neither was there any hope of ending this misery The Conqueror comming to the Crown had some contests with this Bishop whom he would have removed from his Bishoppricke for insufficiency in point of learning but being found more able than he was reputed he held his Bishoppricke and recovered some Lands from the Archbishop of Yorke taken by the Archbishops from this See which some three or foure Archbishops before had held in Commendam with Yorke The Cathedrall of Worceter being stately built a new from the ground in his time the Monkes thereupon forsaking their old habitation built by Oswald which they pulled downe betooke themselves to this new stately building Which Wulstan seeing burst out into teares and being demanded a reason thereof by some that told him he had rather cause to rejoyce our predecessors saith he whose Monuments wee deface rather I doubt to set up the banners of our vaine-glory than to glorifie God they indeede quoth he were not acquainted with such stately buildings but every place was a Church sufficient for them to offer themselves a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto God we contrariwise are double diligent in laying heapes of stones so to frame a materiall Temple but are too too negligent in setting forward the building of that lively Temple the Church oâ— God In King William Rufus time this Bishop arming such an number of people as the city of Worceter could afford caused to sally out and set upon Roger Earle of Mountgomery and others who attempted to take it whom they discomfited killing and taking a number of them prisoners Maugere the 36. Bishop of Worceter was one of those foure Bishops who Anno. 1208. upon the Popes command excommunicated King Iohn and put the whole Kingdome under interdict whereupon his goods and temporalities were seised and he inforced to flie the Realme dying at last in exile at Pontiniac in â—rance during the time of this interdict the King writes Matthew Parts had most wicked Councellors Qui Regi in omnibns placere cupientes cousiliura non pro ratione sed pro voluntare dederunt who dâ—sirous to please the King in all things gave counsell not according to reason but will among these he reckons up Tres Episcopi curiales three Court Bishops to wit Philip Bishop of Durham Peter Bishop of Wincester and Iohn Bishop of Norwhich Walter de Cantelupo the 40. Bishop of Worceter as he stoutly opposed the Popes exactions in England so in the yeare 1264. he tooke great paines to worke a peace betweene the King and the Barons in whose behalfe when he had offered the King conditions as he thought most reasonable which might not be accepted he addicted himselfe unto their party exhorted them to fight valiantly in the cause and promised heaven very confidently to them that should die in defence of the same For this he was after justly excommunicated by the Popes Legate and being sicke unto death repenting much this fault of disobedience unto his Prince he humbly craved and received absolution from that excommunication whereupon ensued bloody warres and rapines soâ— as Matthew Paris writes Nec Episcopi nec ahbates nec ulli religiosi de villa in villam progredâ— potuerunt quin à vespilionibus praedaâ—ontur And concludes this yeare thus Transâ—it annus iste frugifer benè temperatus sanusâ— sed in cunctis eventibus Angliae dispendiosus propter bellum commune propter rerum coramunium privatarum flebilem direptionem Most of the succeeding Bishops of Worceter as Adam de Orleton that Arch-traytor and such like were translated to other Sees where I shall meete with them and therefore pretermiting them here I passe to those of Hereford The Bishops of Hereford Iune 16. An. 1056. Griffin King of Wales having overthrowne the forces of the Engishmen about two miles from Hereford immediatly assaulting the city tooke it slew Leovegar the Bishop and seven of the Canons there who denied him entrance into the Church and held it against him spoiled it of all the reliques and ornaments that were portable and lastly fired both Church City and all This See continued voyd foure yeares after the death of Leofuegar after which Walter Chaplaine to Queene Edith was consecrate at Rome by the Pope in the yeare 1060. his end was much more unhappy than his Predecessors He chanced to fall in love with a certaine comely woman that he met in the street A long time he contended with this vile and unseemely affection and he thought hee had quenched the same when a small occasion renewed it to his destruction having certaine linnen to cut out this woman was commended to him for a very cunning Seamster He sent for her and his old flame of filthy desire easily kindling by this little sparke he found errands to send his men out of the way while he set upon her first with words and they not prevailing by force she resisted what shee might but finding him too strong for her thrust her Sheeres into his belly and gave him his deaths wound The King being desirous it should be esteemed false forbid the report of it by a Proclamation which afterwards came to be Chronicled Raynelmus the 30 Bishop of this Diocesse received that Bishoppricke at the hands of King Henry the first who bestowed it freely on him and was invested into it as the manner of those times was by the delivery of the Ring and the Crosier Anselme then Archbishop refused to consecrate him and divers others who received their investitures in this manner from the King he was so farre from importuning him in this matter as being now perswaded this his election to be insufficient he renounced the same delivering againe unto the Kings hands the Ring Crosier that he had received Herewith the King was so offended as he had cause that presently he banished him the Realme after much ado betweene the King and Anselme a reconciliation was wrought and this man consecrated Gyles de Bruse the 30. Bishop of Hereford in the Barons warres was a great stickler wjth them against
King Iohn and at last was glad to flie the Realme with other Prelates the King seising on his and their goods and banishing him the Kingdome Peter de Egueblancke the 42. Bishop of that See Cujus Memoria sulphureum faetorem exhalat ac deterrimum writes Matthew Paris An. 1255. put King Henry the 3. upon a strange and intolerable kinde of exaction such and so great as even beggered all the Clergie of that time he got certaine authenticke seales of the Bishops of England wherwith he sealed Indentures Instruments and Writings wherin was expressed that he had received divers summes of money for dispatch of businesses for them and their Churches of this or that Marchant of Florence or Spaine whereby they stood bound for payment thereof by the same Instruments and Writings so made by him their agent in their name This shift was devised by the said Bishop with license of the King and Pope into whose eares he distilled this poysonous councell the maner whereof Matthew Paris relates at large These debts being afterwards demanded the Prelates denied them to be true and said there was a greater occasion for them to suffer Martyrdome in this cause than of that of Thomas Becket of Canterbury whereupon the Bishops of London and Worceter protested they would rather lose their lives and Bishopprickes than consent to such an injury servitude and oppression Haec alta detestabilia à sulphurto fonte Romanae Ecclesiae proh pudor imo proh dolor tunc temporis emanarunt Writes Matthew Paris of this and such like cheating projects to get mony An. 1263. the Barons arrested this Bishop who plotted much mischiefe against them in his owne Cathedrall Church seised upon his goods devided his Treasure unto their souldiers before his face imprisoned him a long time in the Castle of Ordley as a meere pest and Traytor both to Church and State He was accursed of so many for his strange Oppressions Treacheriesâ— and Extravagances that it was impossible many calamities should not light upon him Long before his captivity his face was horribly deformed with a kind of Leprosie Morphea or Polypus which could by no meanes be cured till his dying day this disease made him hide his head so that none within his Diocesse knew where he lurked Some reported that he went to Mount Pessula to be cured of this his infirmity Tot in caput suum congessit imprecationes multipliciter à Doraino meruit flagellari ad sui ut sperandum est correctionem Writes Matthew Paris who further addes Episcopus Herefordensis turpissimo morbo videliceâ— Morphea Domino percutiente merito deâ—ormatur qui totum Regnum Angliae PRODITIOSE damnificauit About the yeare of our Lord 1256. the Archbishop of Burdeaux being old and decrepit began to be deadly sicke and being thought to be dead who was but halfe alive this Bishop of Hereford who most earnestly gaped after this Archbishoppricke thinking to obtaine itâ— procured the Kings Letters who was very favourable to him because hee was his Tax-gatherer and went with them beyond the Seas but when the truth appeared that the Archbiâ—hop was still aliveâ— hee lost both his journey labour travell and expenses and received many scoffes as one Mr. Lambin did in the like case of whom these two Verses were composed Aere dato multo nondum pastore sepultâ— Lambiâ— ad optatum Lambinus Pontificatura He to reimburse his expences not regarding the publike good but his owne privaâ—e benefit by license from the King and Pope collected a tith for himselfe in the borders of Irelandâ— and the places adjoyning which amounted to no small quantitie of money this he reputed the price of his paines and the reward of his treason and he caused it to be so strictly exactedâ— that shame prohibites the relation of the manner of the extortion And because fraud is not accustomed to want feare meticulosus armatus armatus vallatus incessit being fearefull he went armed and being armed hee went with a guard about him Adara de Orleton the 46. Bishop of Hereford was a notable wicked Traytor and Rebell against his Soveraigne King Edward the second who advanced him and was the chiefe cause both of his deprivation and murther Of whom you may read more at large in Winchester p. 265.266 Iohn Bruton or Briton was the 43. Bishop of Hereford on him the King bestowed the keeping of his wardrobes which he held long time with great honour as his Regester saith A wonderfull preferment that Bishops should be preferred from the Pulpit to the custody of Wardrobesâ— but such was the time neverthelesse his humble custody of that charge is more solemnely remembred then any good Sermon that ever he made which function peradventure hee committed to his Suffragane sith Bishops in those dayes had so much businesse at Court that they could not attend to Doctrine and Exhortation This Bishop was Doctor of both Lawes and very well seene in the common Lawes of the Land and writ a great volume De juribus Anglicanis yet extant but that he ever Preached or writ any thing of or had any skill at all in the Law of God I finde nothing at all in story Iohn Trevenant the 51. Bishop of Hereford sided with King Henry the 4th against Richard the second who advanced him and was sent to Rome to informe the Pope what good Title King Henry the 4th had unto the Crowne of England which he usurped So the Bishop of Duresme was then sent unto France the Bishop of Saint Asaph to Spaine the Bishop of Bangor to Germany armed with all â—orts of instructions for the justification of their new advanced King his Title too and usurpation of the Crowne So ready have Prelates beene not onely to act but to justifie defendâ— and boulster out Treasons and Rebellions of the highest nature with the depositions and murthers of their lawfull Princesâ— Anno. 1499. this Bishop of Hereford had a chiefe hand in deposing King Richard the second and was the second commissioner sent from the States in Parliament named in the Instrument wherein they declare his voluntary resignation and he with the Archbishop of Yorke made report to the Parliamentâ— of the Kings voluntary resignation of his Crowne and Kingdome the instrument whereof subscribed in their presence was delivered unto Thomas Arundels hands then Archbishop of Canterbury an Arch-traytor as I have formerly manifested The most of the succeeding Bishops of this See were translated to other bishopprickes where you may meete with them who were most obnoxious onely I observe that in the generall pardon of 22. H. 8. c. 15. the Bishop of Hereford then Charles Booth is specially excepted out of the pardon of the Premunire It seemes his crime was very great And for the present Bishop of Hereford George Cooke he stands now impeached by the Commons in Parliament for the late Canons Oath and benevolence in the pretended Synod
in which he had a finger which proceeding of our Prelates may justly induce us to passe the same censure on them now as famous Henry Bullenger did of old on the Bishops then in his Booke De Episcoporum Functione Iurisdicâ—ione Tiguri 1538. â— 112.113.143.1150.159 to 163. and 172. and as Mr. Calvin after him did in his notable Booke De Necessitate Reformandae Ecclesiae Edi. 1543 p. p. 24.25.26.104.105.106 to which I shall referre the reader As for Dr. Manwaring who had some relation to this church we all know that he received a Censure in the Parliament House 3. Caroli for two seditious Sermons Preached at the Court before his Maiestie and then published in Print by the now Archbishop of Canterburies meanes wherein he indeavoured to undermine the Subjects liberties and the proprietie of their goods â—etled in them by our Lawes by false divinityâ— and to give the King an absolute power against Law to impose what taxes he pleased and to take away such a proportion of goods and treasure from his people as himselfe should thinke meete upon any occasion For which Sermons though he were censured by both Houses to be never more capable of any future preferment in Church or Common-wealth yet immediatly after the dissolution of the Parliament he was by Canterburies meanes in affront of that Sentenceâ— advanced first to a great living granted formerly to another then to a Deanery and soone after to the Bishopricke of St. Davids where he so demeaned himselfe in advancing of superstition prophanesse and idolatry that now he dares not shew his face in Parliament and lies lurking in obscure Places and Ale hoâ—ses as some report fearing a deprivation from this usurpedâ— dignityâ— given him in contempt of his former sentence in Parliament And thus much for the Bishops of these Sees I now proceede to others CHAP. V. Containing the Treasons Conspiracies Contumacies and disloyalties of the Bishops of Chichester Carlile Norwich Chester Coventry and Litchfield NOt to mention how Agilricke Bishop of the South-Saxons with divers other Bishops and Abots were deprived by William the Conqueror Anno 1076. 〈…〉 in the Councels of Winchester and Windsor and after that committed to perpetuall Prison upon suspition of Treason and Rebellion against the Conqueror to deprive him of the Crown Ralph the third Bishop of Chichester a man of high Stature and no lesse high of mindâ— stood very stoutly in defence of Bishop Anselme in so much that when King William Rufus threatned him for the same he offered him his Ring and Crosier saying It should better become him to loose his placeâ— than his duety to the Archbishop whom he could never be induced to forsake untill he seemed to forsake his owne cause by flying the Country After this when King Henry the first was content to dispense with the marriage of Priests to which Anselme was an heavy enemy notwithstanding the Canons lately made in the Councell of London to the contrary the Priests granting him an yearely summe of money to defend them against Anselme this Bishop resisted the collection of that money in his Diocesse calling it the tribute of Fornication and when notwithstanding his resistance it was payd he interdicted his owne Diocesse commanding the Church doores to be every where stopped up with thornes The King whether not vouchsafing to contend with him or taking his well meaning in good part was not onely content to pardon this his contemptuous disobedience but also bestowed the money so gathered in his Diocesse upon him saving It was a poore Bishoppricke and needed such helpes This Bishop went every yeare thrice about his Diocesse Causa praedicandi onely to Preach the Gospell to the people exacting nothing from his Provincialls by his Episcopall power but receiving onely what they willingly presented to him as a free gift rebuking those who offended which was the sole kind of Visitation in those dayes without any such Visitation Articles Procurations presentments Fees c as are this day practised imposed exacted both against Law and Canon too Hilary the fifth Bishop of this See though hee was content absolutely to allow of the Declaration after published at Claridon without mention of that odious clause saluo ordine suo being shreudly baited of his brethren for his labour yet afterwards hee had some contests with the King and sought to impeach his prerogative royall as appearâ—s by this notable passage of the Author of the Holy Table name and Thing p. 30.31 Sure I am that according to this advice of Eleutheâ—ius the Danishâ— and first Norman Kings have governed their Churches and Churchmen by Capitulaâ—s and mixed Digests composed as it were of Common and Canon Law and promulged with the advice of the Counsell of the King as wâ—e may see in those particulars set forth by Mr. Lambard Mr. Selden Dr. Powell and others And I doe not beleeve there can be shewed any Ecclesiasticall Canons for the government of the Church of England untill long after the conquest which were not either originally promulgedâ— or afterwards approved and allowed by either the Monarch or some King of the Heptarchy sitting and directing in the Nationall or Provinciall Synod For all the Collections that Lindwood Comments upon are as Theophrastus speakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rough and rugged mony of a more fresh later coyning and yet in those usurping times I have seene a Transcript of a Record An. 1157.3o. Henry the 2. wherein when the Bishop of Chichister opposed some late Canons against the Kings exemption of the Abby of Battells from the Episcopall Jurisdiction it is said That the King being angry and much moved therewith should reply Tu pro Papae authoritate ab hominibus concessa contra dignitatum Regalium authoritates mihi à Deo concessas calliditate arguta niti praecogitas Doe you Sir goe about by subtilties of wit to oppose the Popes authority which is but the favour or connivence of men against the authority of my Regall Dignities being the Charters and Donations of God himselfe and thereupon requires Reason and Justice against the Bishop for this soule insolencie A good evidence that the Canon Law had little esteeme or foâ—ce among us in that age and not long after it was prohibited by speciall Writ to be read among us as appeares by the Writ of 19. Hen. 3. directed to the Major and Sheriefes of London commanding them Quod per totara Civitatem London Clamari faciant firmiter prohiberi ne aliquis Scolas regens de Legibus in eadem Civitate de caetero ibidem Leges doceat Decembrisâ— This was five yeares after the Decretalls published and it seemes most probable that these Leges were Canon Lawes perhaps mixt as usually they were in the profession also with the Imperialls for both of them were it seemes studied here under Henry the third by the Clergy more â—han any other part of
learning and therefore were forbidden as being bâ—th in regard of their owne authority against the supreme majestie and independency of the Crown of England And before this in King 〈◊〉 reigne in that great controversie in the Synod of Winchester touching the Castles of Newarke Salesâ—ury and the Vies the King denied utterly Censuram Canonum pati that is to have it determined by themâ— whether or noâ— the two Bishops Roger of Salisbury and Alexander of Lincolne might lawfully kepe their Castles that they had fortified But while the rest of the Bishops stood so much upon their Canons and even in the face of majestie profest a rebellion the King and the Lay subjects it seemes grew so exasperated against them that by publike command for the preservation of the Liberty of the Crowne and Laity they were forbidden to be of any more use in the Kingdome for so perhaps is that to be understood in Iohn of Chartres where he sayes that Tempore Regis Stephani a regno jussae sunt Leges Romanae quas in Brittanniam domus venerabilis Patris Tâ—eobaldi Briâ—tanniarum Primatis asciverat Ne quis etiam libros retineret edicto Regio prohibitum est The Canon Law made by Popes and Prelates being inconsistent with the Kings Supremacy and Subjects Liberty Stephen Berksteed the 14th Bishop of Chichester Anno. 1265. was excommunicated by Oâ—tobon the Popes Legate for rebelling and taking part with the Barons against King Henry the third who thereupon repaired to Rome for absolution Iohn de Langhton the 16th Bishop of Chichister Anno. 1315. excommunicated Warren Earle of Kent for adultery whereupon the Earle came unto him with armed men making some shew to lay violent hands upon him unlesse he would absolve him The Bishops men perceiving it by their Masters command set upon them and put both the Earle and his men in prison whereupon ensued great combustions Thomas Rushocke the 20th Bishop of Chichester a lewde pernicious Prelate Anno. 1388. was driven away from the Court by the Barons as a Traytor for his ill Councells to Richard the second his Lands and goods confiscated he banished and deprived of his Bishoppricke by Act of Parliament himself had suffered as a Traytor but that his guiltinesse made him flie before he could be apprehended Adam Molins the 31. Bishop of that See falling at variance with Richard Duke of Yorke was slaine at Portsmouth by certaine Marriners Iune 9. 1449. Richard Sampson the 37th of Chichester Anno 21. Hen. 8. was committed to the Tâ—â—â—â—â—r for relieving certaine Trayterous persons who denied the Kings Supremacy George Day the 21. Bishop of this See October 10. 1551. was deprived from his Bishoppricke for denying the Kings Supremacy and maintaining the Popes and other misdemeanours but was afterwards restored by Queene Mary at whose Coronation hee preached Iohn Christopherson the 40. Bishop of this Diocesse was deprived by Act of Parliament in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths happy reigne for denying her supremacy and refusing to take the oath of alegiance To passe by the subsequent Bishops of this See Richard Mountague the last Bishop thereof but one was the principall abetter and reviver of those late Arminian and Popish Doctrines Ceremonies Innovations which for sundry yeares have disquietedâ— both our Church and State and that not onely in his Booke intituled Appello Caesarem published in the yeare 1625. complained against in three severall Parliaments and called in by his Majesties speciall Proclamation as a Booke that opened the way to those Schismes and Divisions which have since ensued in our Church though for this very Bookeâ— he was advanced to this See by the practise and confederacy of some swaying Prelates and in his Gagge but likewise in his Visitation Articles his Antidiatribae his Aparatus ad Historiam Ecclesâ—asticam and other Workes as you may reaâ— more largely in Mr. Bayly his Canterburians seâ—fe-Conviction the last Edition which Bookes of his have given great scandall to our Church much advantage to our Popish Adversaries and much distractedâ— not onely our Church but State for which no doubt hee should have received his just demerits in the high Court of Parliament had not hee died suddenly out of feare being sent for to answer his old and new offences upon some fresh complaints to ease the Parliament and prevent a censure Of his successor in this See I neede say nothing hee is so well knowne wherefore I shall next visit Carlile Diocesse and give you but a touch of some speciall Acts of the Bishops of that See The Bishops of Carlile Walter Malclerke in the yeare 1223. was consecrated unto the Bishoppricke of Carlile which hee acknowledged to have obtained by evill and corrupt meanes and therefore resigned the same moved in conscience so to doe as hee alledged Iune 29. 1246. and tooke on him the habit of a Fryer Preacher at Oxford in which he continued till his death Being Treasurer of England under King Henry the third the King upon a sudden at the instigation of Peter Bishop of Wâ—nchester not onely displaced him from that office but revoked certaine Grants made unto him heretofore charged him with the debt of 100. pound which hee acknowledged not For redresse of these wrongs as he tooke them he determined to travell to Rome but was stayed at the waters-side by the Kings Officers whom Roger Bishop of London excommunicated for the same and riding presently to Worceter where the Court lay renewed that Excommunication in the Kings presenceâ— How he thrived with these businesses afterward I find not But likely enough it is that these troubles rather made him weary of the world than any such scruple induce him to leave his Bishoppricke Sylvester de Everdon the 5th Bishop of this See was elected in the yeare â—â—46 but not consecrated till February 5th 1247. because he refused to accept of the election alledging his owne unworthinesse but at last upon better deliberation yeelded he was one of them that joyned with Boniface the Archbishop and Ethelmaâ—re the Elect of Winchester in their request to the King that remembring his promise often made hereafter he would not impeach the Libertie of Elections by interposing his armed requests c. The King acknowledged hee had indeede offended that way and that especially quoth he in making meanes for you your selves that thererefore of all other should least find fault with it To this man particularly hee used these words I remember how I exalted thee Sylvester of Carlile unto a Bishoppricke having hankered a long time about the Chancery and being a petty Chaplaine to my Chaplaines preferring thee before many grave and reverend Divines c. His conclusion was that if they would give over their places which they had obtained by so undue meanes he would hereafter forbeare to commend any so unworthy This was the yeare 1253. The yeare following
May the 13th This Bishop riding a horse somewhat too lusty for him was cast and so brused with the fall as he died by and by to wit May 13â— 1254. Thomas Merkes the Fiftenth Bishop of this See amongst many unworthy preferred to Bishopprickes in those dayes was undoubtedly a man well-deserving that honour for he was both learned and wise but principally to be commended first for his constant and unmoveable fidelity unto his Patrone and preferrer King Richard then for his excellent courage in professing the same when he might safely yea and honestly also have concealed his affection Some other there were of the Nobility that remembring their duety and allegiance when all the world bâ—sâ—de forsoke this unfortunate Prince followed him with their best assistance even till the time of his captivity This man nothing regarding the danger might ensue not onely refused to forsake him when he had forsaken himselfe but defended him and his cause the best he could when he might well perceive his endeavour might hurt himseâ—fe much without any possibility of helping the other when the furious and unstable multitude not contented that King Richard had resigned his Crowne to save the head that wore it and their darling Henry the fourth seated himselfe in his royall throne importuned the Parliament assembled to proceed yet farther against him desiring no doubt that to make all sure his life might be taken from him This worthy and memorable Prelate stepping forth doubted not to tell them that there was none amongst them meete to give judgement upon so noble a Prince as King Richard wasâ— whom they had taken for their Soveraigne and Leige Lord by the space of twentie two yeares and more And proceeding further I assure you quoth he I report his words as I find them in our Chronicles there is not so ranke a Trayter nor so arrant a theefe nor yet so cruell a murtherer apprehended or detained in prison for his offence but he shall be brought before the justice to heare Judgment and will you proceed to the judgment of an annointed King hearing neither his answere nor excuse I say and will avow that the Duke of Lancaster whom ye call king hath more trespassed to King Richard and his Realme the King Richard hath done either to him or us for it is manifest and well knowne that the Duke was banished the Realme by King Richard and his Councell and by the judgement of his owne Fatherâ— for the space of tenne yeares for what cause ye remember well enoughâ— This notwithstanding without Licence of King Richard he is returned againe into the Realme and that is worse hath taken upon him the name title and preheminence of King and therefore I say that you have done manifest wrong to proceede against King Richard in any sort without calling him openly to his answer and defence This Speech scarcely ended he was attâ—ched by the Earle Marshall and for a time committed to ward in the Abbey of St. Albanes Continuing yet his loyall affection unto his distressed Master soone afâ—er his inlargement he trayterously joyned with the Hollands and others in a conspiracy against King Henry the 4th which being bewrayed to the destruction of all the rest he onely was pardoned peradventure in regard of his calling for it had seldome or never been seene hitherto that any Bishop was put to death by order of Law peradventure in some kind of favour and admiration of his faithfull constancy for vertue will be honoured even of her enemies peradventure also to this end that by forcing him to live miserably they might lay a punishment upon him more grevious than death which they well saw he despised The Pope who seldome denied the King any request that hee might afford good cheepe was easily intreated to translate forsooth this good Bishop from the See of Carlile that yeelded him honourable maintenance unto Samos in Greece whereof he knew he should never receive one penny profit he was so happy as neither to take benefit of the gift of his enemy nor to be hurt by the masked malice of his counterfeit friend disdaining as it were to take his life by his gift that tooke away from his Master both life and Kingdome hee died shortly after his deliverance so deluding also the mockery of his Translation whereby things so falling out he was nothing damnified Hall reports that hee died for feare more than sicknesse as one rather desirous to die by deaths dart than the temporall Sword which this his Treason deserved being a great blemish to his former fidelity Owen Oglethorpe the 31. B. of this See was deprived with divers other Bishops for withstanding Q. Eliza. proceedings and refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance in the yeare 1559. Of other Bishops of this See since his dayes I find little mention most of them being translated to other Sees I shall therefore proceede to the Bishops of Norwich The Bishops of Norwich Iohn de Gray the fifth Bishop of Norwich if we beleeve Matthew Paris was one of those three Court Bishops who were consiliarios iniquissimos most wicked counsellors to King Iohn during the time of the inderdict of the Realme who desiring to please the King in all things consilium non pro ratione sed pro voluntate dederunt gave the King counsell not according to Reason but Will and thereby wrought much trouble both to the King and Kingdome Pandulphus the next Bishop of this See consecrated by the Pope at Rome Anno. 1222. was the Popes Legate and the chiefe instument who perswaded King Iohn most ignominiously and shamefully to resigne up his Crowne and Kingdome to the Pope to become his Vassall to his eternall infamy and to submit himselfe to Sâ—ephen Langhton and those other Trayterly Prelates who intardicted the Realme excommunicated this King published the Popes deprivation of him from his Crowne and instigated the French King to invade the Realme of England and usurpe the Crowne which the Pope had conferred on him upon King Iohns deprivation from it of which you may read more at large before in Stephen Langhton Archbishop of Canterbury p. 33. to 41. Onely let me informe you that during the time of this inderdict aboue six yeares space all Ecclesiasticall Sacraments ceased in England except Confession and the viaticum in extreame necessity and the Baptisme of Infants so as the bodyes of dead men were carried out of Townes and Villages and burried like dogges in Highwayes and Ditches without prayers and the ministry of Priests as Matthew Paris and others testifie Such was the Prelates piety and charity About the yeare of our Lord 1271. In the time of Roger de Skerwing 12. Bishop of Norwich there was raysed a dangerous sedition betweene the Citizens of Norwich and the Monkes of the Cathedrall Church the History whereof is briefely this At a Faire that was kept before the gates of the Priory there hapned
hee is Antichrist for he does contrary to the Commandements of Jesus that bade Peter forgive to his brother seventy times seventy Si peccaverit in me frater meus quotiens dimittam ei Septies c Christus non dieo tibi septiâ—s sed septuagesies sepcies Which Walter Brute another martyr in that time thus seconds Againe Christ saith You have heard that it is said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth but I say unto you see that you resist not evill But if any man shall strike you upon the right cheeke give him the other too and to him that will strive with thee for thy caate in judgement let him have thy cloake also and whosoever shall constraine thee one mile goe with him also two other Hee that asketh of thee give him and he that will borrow of thee turne not thy self from him By these things it may plainely appeare how that Christ the King of peace the Saviour of mankind who came to save and not to destroy who gave a Law of Charity to be observed of his faithfull people hath taught us not to be angry not to hate our enemies nor to render evill for evill nor to resist evill For all these things doe foster and nourish peace and charity and doe proceede and come forth of charity and when they be not kept charity is loosed and peace is broken But the Bishop of Rome approveth and alloweth warres and slaughters of men in warre as well against our enemies that is the Infidells as also against the Christians for temporall goods Now these things are quite contrary to Christs Doctrine and to charity and to peace c. And indeede if wee consider Pope Vrbanes Commission and priviledges granted to this martiall Prelate against Clement the Antipope and his complices wee shall see how farre the Popes practises are opposite to Christs practiâ—e and precepts and what mercifull peaceable men Lordly prelates are I shall give you a taste hereof out of Walsingham In the yeare of our Lord 1382. Henry Spencer Bishop of Norwich received Bulls from the Pope his Lord directed to him to signe with the Crosse all those who were willing to goe with him into France to the distruction of the Antipope who called himselfe Clement and to sanctifie a warre against all who adhered to him Which Bulls because they conferred great power to him hee caused to be published in Parliament and sent abroad Coppies of them round about into every place which he caused to be fixed on the doores of Churches and Monasteries in open view These Bulls relate at large the injuries that Clement the Antipope and the Cardinalls confederating with him had offered to Vrban and that Pope Vrban being unable without great offence of Christ and remorse of conscience any longer to endure so many great excesses thought meet to rise up against those wicked ones in the power of the most high and proceeding judicicially against them by a definitive sentence denounced and declared them to be scismatickes and conspirators against the Pope and blasphemers and that they should be punished like Hereticks and persons guilty of high Treason and did thereupon excommunicate and accurse them and withall deprived them from all their Benefices and Oâ—fices whatsoever making them uncapable to retaine or receive them or any other both for the present and future withall he degraded all the Noblâ—s and Knights who adhered to him from all their honours dignities and Knightships decreed all their goods moveables and immoveables rights and jurisdictions to be confiscated and their persons to be detestable and so to be esteemed and exposed them to be apprehended by all Christians and so apprehended to be kept in such sort that they should not escape and either be sent immediatly to the said Pope or else detained close prisoners in safe custody till hee should give further order therein Moreover he excommunicated all those who should either beleeve receive defend or favour any of them so as they should not be absolved from this sentence without his privity unlesse it were at the very point of death hee further decreed that whosoever should wittingly presume to admit any of them to Ecclesiasticall buriall should be subject to the sentence of Excommunication from which he should not be absolved unlesse at the very point of death except O barbarous cruelty they would first with their owne hands digge them out of their graves Et procul eâ—â—ecrent ab Ecclesiastica sepultura corpora eorundem and cast out their bodies far from the Church-yard or Ecclesiasticall burying place Moreover he inhibited all Christians wittingly to harbour any of them or to presume to bring sendâ— or suffer to be brought or sent any corne wine fleshâ— clothes woodâ— victuals or any other thing profitable for their use to any place where any of them should dwell or abide if it lay in their power to prohibit it he commanded likewise that no man should presume in any wise to hinder the apprehention and detention of the said Antipope and his adherents and their transmission to him and commanded every man to be assisting to their apprehention And if any did contrary to the premises or wittingly name believe in or preach Clement to be Pope if he were a single person he should be excommunicated if a Commonwealth or Corporation they should be interdicted and their cities and Lands deprived of all commerce with other cities places and countries and that the cities themselves should be deprived of their pontificall dignity and that none but the Pope himselfe should have power to absolve them from this interdict or excommunication unlesse it were at the very point of death hee further granted to all persons truely penitent and confest who would fight against the said Antipope and his confederates in their proper persons or by others for one whole yeares space from the day this Bishop of Norwhich should appoint either continually or by times if they were lawfully hindred to all as well Clergy men as Lay men who should follow the standard of the Church and likewise to all such that should contribute towards the expences of this warre according to their ability either to the Bishop or to his Deputy or should hire fit souldiers to warre and continue with him for the said space the same indulgence that was usually granted to those who went to aide the holy Land Moreover this Pope grants these Priviledges to this his Generall the Bishop of Norwich for the better promoting of this warre First that the said Bishop might execute capitall punishments against the Antipope his adherers factors and councellours in any place with strong hand Item that hee should have power to publish processe against the Antipope and his adherents and any other to be fulminated out by the said Lord the Pope himselfe against themâ— and every of them Item that he should have power summarily and plainely to enquire of all and singular Schismaticks and to
edendis by meanes whereof some Ministers were enforced to depart this Realme into Holland and other parts beyond Sea viz. the said Mr. William Bridge Mr. Jeremy Burrowes Mr. Allenâ— Mr. John Ward and others of Norwich to remove into other more peaceable Diocesses as namely Mr. Edmund Calamy Mr. Broome Mr. Beard and others and some of them so prosâ—cuted as hath bin suspected to be the cause of their deaths as namely Mr. Thâ—mas Scot and others the terror of which proceedings hath caused other Ministers to leave their Cures and goe away viz. Mr. William Kirington M. Thomas Warren Mr. John Allen and others if a stranger preached at the Cure of such person suspended the Church-wardens permitting such person so to preach were enjoyned pennance and otherwise troubled as namely the Church-wardens of Snaile-well and the stranger for preaching was also therefore molested viz. Mr. Ash Mr. Eades Mr. Manning and other Ministers XIV That during the time hee was Bishop of the said See of Norwich he did unlawfully compell the inhabitants of the severall parishes within that Dioâ—esse to raise the floors of the Chancells of their respective Churches to raile in their Communion Tables to remove the Pewes and Seats and to make other alterations in the respective Churches in the doing whereof the said Inhabitanâ—s were put to great excessive and unnecessary charges and expences amounting in the whole to the summe of five thousand pounds and upwards which said charges and expences hee did by unlawfull meanes and courses enforce the said Inhabitants to undergoe And such of the said Inhabitants as did not obey the same hee did vex trouble and molest by presentments Citations Excommunications tedious and frequent Journeyes and by attendances at the Court of his Chancellor and other his Officialls viz. the Church-wardens of Lin Ipswich S. Edmunds Bury and others XV. That for not comming up to the Raile to receive the holy Communion kneeling there before the Table Altarwise for not standing up at the Gospell and for not observing and performing of his unlawfull Innovations and Injunctions many other of his Majesties subjects viz. Peter Fisher Samuel Duncon Iames Percivall John Armiger Thomas King and others have beene by him his Chancellors Visitors Commissaries and Officialls by his command and Injunctions much molested disquieted and vexed in their estates and consciences by Citations to the Courts long attendance there Dismission Fees Excommunications Penances and other Censures XVI That by reason of the rigorous prosecutions and dealings in the last precedent Articles mentioned and by reason of the continuall superstitious bowing to and afore the Table set Altarwise the suspending silencing driving away of the painfull preaching Ministers the suppressing and forbidding of Sermons and Prayer the putting downe of Lecturer the suppressing meanes of knowledge and salvation and introducing ignorance Superstition and prophanenesse many of his Majesties subjects to the number of three thousand many of which used trades of Spinning Wâ—aving Knitting and making of Cloth and Stuffe Stockings and other manufactures of Woolls that is to say Daniel Sunning Michael Metcalfe John Berant Nicholas Metcalfe John Derant Busby widdow Mapes Richard Cocke John Dicks Francis Lawes John Senty and many others some of them setting an hundred poore people on worke have removed themselves their families and estates into Holland and other parts beyond the Seas and there set up and taught the Natives there the said manufactures to the great hinderance of trade in this kingdome to the impoverishing and bringing to extreame want very many who were by those parties formerly set on worke to the great prejudice of his Majestie and his people XVII That he the said Bishop finding the people to distaste his innovations hath often in publike and private speeches declared in the said yeare 1636. That what he did in the same was by his Majesties command whereby hee contrary to the duty of his place which he held under his Majestie being Deane of his Majesties Royall Chappell and contrary to the duty of a good and loyall subject endeavoured to free himselfe of blame and to raise an ill opinion of his Royall Majestie in the hearts of his loving subjects XVIII That hee the said Matthew Wren being Bishop of Norwich in the said yeare 1636. in the Tower Church in Ipswich and other places did in his owne person use superstitious and idolatrous actions and gestures in the administration of the Lords Supper consecrating the bread and wine standing at the West-side of the Table with his face to the East and â—is backe towards the people elevating the Bread and Wine to be seene over his shoulders bowing low either to oâ— before themâ— when he after the Elevation and Consecration had set them downe on the Table XIX That he the more to manifest his Popish affection in the said yeare 1636. caused a Crucifix that is to say the figure of Christ upon the Crosse to be engraven upon the Episcopall Seale besides the Armes of the See XX. That he hath chosen and imployed such men to be his Commissioners Rurall Deanes and to be his household Chaplaines whom he knew to be and stand affected to his innovated courses and to popish superstition and to be erroneous and unsound in judgement and practise as namely M. Iohn Novel M. Eâ—mond Mapleâ—ofâ— M. Iohn Dunkin M. Boâ—ek M. Dun and others XXI That he hath very much oppressed divers Patrons of Churches by admitting without any colour of title his owne Chaplaines and others whom he affected into Livings which became void within his Diocesâ— unjustly enforcing the true and right Patrons to long and chargeable suits to evict such Incumbents and to recover their owne right some of which he did against his Priestly word given to the said Patrons or their friends in verbo Sacâ—rdotis not to doe the same This he did in the case of one M. Rivet XXII That he and others in the yeare 1635 sould granted away the profits of his Primary Visitation for five hundred pounds over and above the charges of the Visitationâ— and for the better benefit of the Farmer sâ—t forth a booke in the yeare 1636 intituled Articles to be inquired of within the Dioces of Norwich in the first Visitation of Mathew Lord Bishop of Norwich consisting of 139 Articles and wherein are contained the number of eight hundred ninety seven questions according to all which the Churchwardens were inforced to present upon paine of perjury And some Churchwardens that is to say Robert Langly Charles Newton Richard Hart William Bull and Zephany Ford and others not making presentments accordingly were cited molested and troubled and injoyned pennanceâ— notwithstanding many of the said Articles were ridiculous and impossible XXIII That the Churchwardens and other men sworne at the Visitation were inforced to have their presentments written by Clarkes specially appointed by such as bought the said Visitationâ— to whom they paid excessive summes of money for the same some two and twenty shillings as
Bishops of Chester after him till towards the later end of King Henry the eight his reigne who erected a new Bishops See at Chester distinct from that of Coventry and Leichfield and subjected it to the province of Yorke by Act of Parliament to wit 33. Hen. 8. c. 30. Iohn Byrd the first Bishop of this new erected See was deprived in Queene Maries dayes for being married Cutbert Scot the third Bishop of this Diocesse in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths dayes was displaced and for his disobedience committed to the Fleet whence escaping he fled into Loraine and there died To passe by the other Prelates of this See I shall give you onely a touch of Iohn Brigdman the present Bishop of it This man in his wives life time seemed to be a favowrer of godly Ministers but since her decease he hath turned a prosecutor if not a persecutor of them â—uspending and driving many of them out of his Diocesse especially in Lancashire amidst the Papists where was greatesâ— neede of them to pleasure the now Archbishop of Canterbury whose great creature and intelligencer he hath been of late yeares he caused divers of the city of Chester to be Pursevanted Articled against in the High Commission Court at Yorke and there fined censured and almost ruined in their estates onely for visiting Mr. Prynne at Chester in his passage to Carnarvan whose Pictures he caused to be publickly defaced and the frames of them to be openly burnt at the high Crosse in Chester before the Major and his brethren in a most disgracefull manner and caused divers of Chester to make a publike impious Recantation both in the Cathedrall Church and Towne Hall at Chester onely for visiting Mr. Prynne at his being there with the license of his Keepers who had no warrant nor authority to keepe any from him in all which proceedings as appeares by his owne letters this Bishop was both the Informer Accuser Director and Judge in some sort To comply with the times he erected divers stone Altars in his Diocesse one in the Cathedrall at Chester used in times of Popery which hee caused to be digged up out of the ground where it was formerly buried which Altar since this Parliament for feare of questioning he hath caused to be taken downe and re-enterred He ordered all the Ministers in Chester not onely to read prayers but likewise to preaâ—h in their Hoods and Surplesses for which there is neither Law nor Canon but his Lordly pleasure he commanded all Sermons there to end before nine of the clock in the morning because the Major Alderman should dance attendance on his Highnesse at the Cathedrall to which end he emplored the ayde of the Archbishop of Yorke causing some to be troubled for not comming to the Cathedrall after they had beene at their owne parish Churches Hee was a great stickler in the late warre against the Scots a vehement presser of the loane on the Clergy to maintaine it threatning to impose armes on those who refused it He greatly promoted the new Canons and late c. Oathâ— which he both tooke and enforced eagerly on his Clergy He hath divers great impropriations of good value where he alloweth little or no maintenance at all to finde either a reading Curate or Preaching Minister he hath caused divers to be excommunicated and vexed in his Consistory for going to heare Sermons abroad when they had none at home If any desire to know more of his Episcopall vertues I shall referre them to a Booke intituled A New Discovery of the Prelates Tyranny and to the Petitions of the inhabitants of Cheshire Chester Lancashire Wiggon and others already exhibited or ready to be preferred to the High Court of Parliament against him and so passe to the Bishops of Coventry and Lichfield out of which this Bishoppricke of Chester was derived The Bishops of Coventry and Lichfield Of the first Bishops of this See there is little extant in our stories but onely their names with the time of their Conâ—ecrations and deathes and the Acts of some others of them I have formerly related in Chester so as I shall be very briefe in those who remaine Roger de Clinton the 36. Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield about the yeare 1147â— tooke upon him the Crosse went to Ierusalem to fight against the Saracens and died at Antioch Aprill 16. 1148. Richard Peche sonne unto Rober Peche Archdeaâ—on of Coventry in the yeare 1162. succeeded him in this Bishoppricke of this Archdeacon and Bishop perchance it was that I reade this merry passage in Giraldus Cambrensis in Camdens Brittannia p. 604. who relates it out of him It hapned that a certaine Iew travelling towards Shrewsbury with the Archdeacon of Malpas in Cheshire whose surname was Peche that is Sinne and a Deane named Devill when he heard by chance the Archdeacon telling that his Archdeaconry began at a place called Ill-street and reached as far as to Malpas towards Chester he considering and understanding with all as well the Archdeacons surname as the Deanes came out with this merry and pleasant conceit would it not be a wonder quotâ— he and my fortune very good if ever I get safe againe out of this country where Sinne is the Archdeacon and the Divell is the Deane where the entry into the Archdeaconry is Ill-streete and the going forth of it Malpas Geoffery Blithe Bishop of this See Anno Dom. 1523. was attached for high Treason And to mention no more Robert Wright the present Bishop of this Diocesse set up a goodly Crucifix in a frame with the pictures of men and women devoutly praying to it in the Cathedrall at Litchfield over the Altar there for oppoâ—ing whereof he caused the Lady Davis to be laid in â—edlam promoted the late Innovations and had a great hand â—n composing and imposing the lateâ— Canons Oath Benevolence and Lone for which he stands now impeached by the Commons in Parliament to whose Censure I remit him CHAP. VI. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of Rochester St. Davids Landaffe Bangor Asaph Bath and Wells With a short touch of the Bishops of Oxford Bristol Peterburgh and Glocester Rochester PVTTA the sixth Bishop of Rochester waxing weary of his Bishopricke was halfe determined to leave it when Edilred King of Mercia upon some displeasure conceived against him burning his Church and City resolved and setled him in that determination So hee went into Mercia where he accepted the Charge of a Parish Church under Saxulf Bishop there mending his living by teaching a singing Schoole for he was a great and cunning Musitian In that kinde of life hee spent the rest of his time and could never abide to heare of returning to his Bishopricke Malmesbury gives this verdict of him Quantum idoneus otiâ— Eccleâ—iastico tantâ—m hebes segnis forensi negotio Anno 983.
As Matth. Westminster and others report King Ethelrede beâ—ieged Godwin the 27. Bishop of Rochester in his owne City a long time and being warned by Saint Dunstane he should take heed least he provoked against him Saint Andrew Patron of that Church yet he would not depart thence till he had wrung from the Bishop 100. l. Dunstan wondring thereat sent this message to the King Because thou hast preferred silver before God mony before an Apostle and covetousnesse before me violent mischiefes shall come upon thee which the Lord hath spoken Yet for all this he continued his siege and would not depart thence without the Bishops submission and unlesse he would likewise pay him an hundred pounds Gilbert de Glanuyll was consecrated Bishop of this See Septem 29. 1185. Betweene this man â—nd his Monkes of Roâ—hester was long and continuall debate by occasion whereof he tooke away from them all their moveable goods all the ornaments of their Church their writings and evidences yea and a great part of their Lands Possessions and Priviledges wanting mony to follow their suits against him they were forced to coyne the silver of Saint Paulines shryne into mony These controversies were ended no otherwise then by his death which happened Iune 24. 1214. But their hatred against him was so farre from dying with him as they would afford him no manner of obsequies but buried him most obscurely or rather basely without either ringing singing or any other manner of solemnity Laurentius de Sancto Martino the 41. Bishop of this See got a dispensatâ—on from the Pope to hold all his forâ—er â—iâ—â—ings in â—ommendam with this Bishopricke And yet alledging that his Bishoprickeâ— was the poorest of Eâ—gland much meaner then Carlile and therefore his living yet unable to maintaine the poâ—t of a Bishop he never ceased till he had extorted from the Clergy of his Dioâ—es a grant of a fâ—ft part of all their Spirituall livings for five yeares and appropriated unto his See for ever the Parsonage of â—riendsbury â—oniface the Archbishop of Canterbury used this man hardly invading his possessions and violenâ—ly taking from him without all right divers things of old belonging â—o his Bishopricke Hee complained unto the King â—nto whose Qâ—eene Boniface was Uncle The King answered him in plaine 〈◊〉 â—e â—new â—e should offend his wife much if â—e should become a flickler betweene them wishing him to seeke some other remedy and if by importunity he inforced him to interpose his authority he should doe him more hurt then good which Matth. â—aris thus expresseth Diebus sab â—isdem Aâ—chiâ—piscopus Cantuariensis Boniâ—acius Ecclesiam Roffensem prâ—grâ—vâ—nâ— ejusque invadens possessiones tâ—ntam de facto suo â—oâ—am incurriâ— vitupeâ—i uâ— Ecclesia câ—â—â—â— esse debet defensâ—v per eum dicatur vâ—xari Episâ—opus autem Roffensis cum Domino Regi â—uâ—us â—ltori lachrymabiliâ—â—r super tanta injuria conquerereâ—ur Rex demisso vulturâ— spondit Non possum eum â—â—ectere ad juâ—titiam vel humilitatem â—e ipsum tam generosum genus suum â—à m magnificâ—m praecipue Reginam offenâ—aâ— vel contristem Hereupon he sought unto the Pope but he was so neere a neighboâ—r to the Dâ—ke of Savâ—y the Archbishops Brother as perceiving quickly little good was to be done there he was faine to take patience for an amends and so sit him downe yet at last he obtained a citation from the Pope against the Archbishop which Matthew Paris thus expresseth Interim Episcopus Roffensis qui intâ—llerabilâ—s ab Archiâ—piscopo Cantuarienâ—i injurias sustinuerat querimonias lachâ—yâ—abiles coram tota curia Romana reposuit repositas continuâ—vit Cumque causa sua cond gâ—am expostulâ—ssâ—t ultionem culpa enim gravis extitit post multâ—s admonitiones tandem ad Regem factas qui dicto Archiepiscopo cornua praestitit auâ—aciâ—â— delinquendi merâ—itidem Archiepiscopus citari ut peâ—sonaliter â—ompareret coram Papa de â—ibi â—bâ—iciendis responsurusâ— de illatis injuriis damnis sâ—tisfactâ—râ—s Iohn Fisher the 65. Bishop of Rochester was grievously questioned in Parliament in King Henry 8. his dayes by the house of Commons for saying that all their doings were for lack of faith Of which you may see more in Canterbury Part. 1. p. 12â— 126 after which he gave credit and countenance to the forgâ—d visions and Revelations of â—lizabeth Barton tending to the reproach perill and destruction of the Kings person honour fame and dignity for whicsh he with others was afterwards condemned of high treason and executedâ— Not long after this Bishop for denying to acknowledge the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiasticall matters was arraigned and condemned for high Treason and executed on Tower Hill Iune 22. 1535. being made Cardinall about a month before His head was set on London Bridge and his body buried in Churchyardâ— He was a great perâ—ecutor of Gods faithfull ministers servants Gospell and had this deserved reward of his disloyalty both to God and his Soveraigne Not to mention all the late Bishops of this See many of whom were notorious in their generations Doctor Bols the last but one was a very active talkative man in the high Commission till he wearied most of his Colleagues there who commanded him to his Bishoprick where he was very iâ—dustrious in setting up popish ceremonies Innovations and in promoting the Booke of â—ports in the Lords day breathing out nothing but threats and suspensions against those ministers who out of conscience refused to publish â—t in proper person in their Churches whom he intending to suspend and silence in his visitation it pleased God as he was riding towards it to silence them that himselfe was suddenly surprised with a dead palsie which made him speechles for a long season by means whereof the ministers escaped for that season and he never able to recover his priâ—tine health dyed no â—ong after leaving a successor behind him who followeth his foot-steps had a vote in compiling of the New Canons and Oath which he inforced and hath beene a great fomenter of the late Scotish warres and differences being now one of those Prelates impeached in Parliament by the Commons But of those Prelates enough I must now turne about my rudder and take a short survey of our Wâ—lch Bishops beginning with those of Saint Davids once the Metropoliâ—anes of all that Country and of some of our English Bishops too Saint Davids GVido de Mona the 62 Bishop of Saint Davids appointed Treasurer by Richard the 2. in the 21. yeare of his raigne revolting to Henry the fourth from his old Master was made his Treasurer likewise in the 4. yeare of his raigne but continued fo a very short time This Bishop saith Walsingham while he lived was a cause of much mischiefe to the Realme as others of his successors have beene whom I pretermit Landaffe OVdotius the third Bishop of Landaffe Anno 560. assembled a Synod of
a great part of his Clergy and three Abbots and in full Synod excommunicated his Soveraigne Mouâ—ice King of Glamorgan for â—laying Cynetu and breaking the Covâ—nant which he had made in his presence upon the Altar of Peter the Apostâ—e and of Saint Dubricius and Telianus and then layed their Crosses to the earth and likewise intermitted Baptisme throughout his Country 〈◊〉 Communio Christiaâ—a and the Christian Communalty accursed the King and his progeny the Synod confirming it and saying Let his dayes be few and leâ— his childâ—en be Orphâ—nâ—s and his wife a wâ—ddow Whereupon the King with all his Country remained for two yeares space more under the said excommunication after which this King unable any longer to sustaine such a long lasting great excommunication seeing the perdition of his owne soule and damnation of his kingdome went to Landaffe and craved pardon of Saint Oudotius and powring out teares with his head bowed downe in the presence of three Abbots this Bishop imposed the yoake of pennance upon him according to the quality and quantity of his offence commending to him that hee should three manner of wayes amend his fault with God and the Church of Landaffe to wit with fasting Prayer and Almes whereupon this King for the redemption of his owne Soule and for the Soule of Synetu gave foure Villages to the Church of Landâ—ffe the names whereof are mentioned in that Synod Not long after another Synod was assembled by the same Bishop for the pennance and absolution of King Morâ—ant who slew Frioc his Vncle contrary to his oath they two having solemnely vowed that if one them should either kill or deceive the other that he would not redeeme himselfe either with Lands or money but would relinquish his Kingdome spenâ— his whole life in pilgrimage This K. confessing his fault before the Bishop and his Synod and craving pardon both for his perjury and Homicideâ— the whole Synod decreed least the Kingdome should be destitute of a King and of the pâ—otecting buckler of their naturall Lord that he should redeeme his Pilgrimage and â—xpiâ—te his homicide and perjury with fastings prayers and Almes which he swearing to doe they injoyned pennance to him according to his offence and his quality greatnesse and power whereupon he was restored to Christian Communion of which hee was formerly deprived by the Bishâ—p and gave three Churches with other particulars to the Church of Lâ—ndâ—ffe After this a third Synod was held under the same Bishop at Landâ—ffâ— wherein Guidneth who slew his brother Mercâ—ion in a contestation for the kingdome was excommunicated by this Bishop Synod with crosses laid downe to the ground and Cymbals overturnedâ— under which excommunication he remained three whole yeares without any Communion of Christians Afâ—er three yeares expired he asked pardon of the Bishâ—â— who granting him remission sent him in Pilgrimage to the Archbishop of Dole in Britany where he promised to continue a yeares space in exile but returning thence within the yeare this Bishop refused to absolve him and put him under the first excommunication because he performed not his first penance But this Bishop dying within a yeare after and Berthguin succeeding him king Morcant and Guadnorâ—h with many elders went to Landaffe and requested this new Bishop with one mouâ—h seeing â—he crosses yet laid downe upon the ground together with the reliques and Cymbals that he would absolve Guâ—dnorth from his excommunication by lifting up the Crosâ—es and Saints reliques from the earth After which Guednorth promising yet more to amend his life with fasting prayer and Almes and shedding teares with great devotion was thereupon absolved by the Bishop who enjoyned him plenary penance according to the manner of his fault he afterwards mindfull of the divine saying as water extinguisheth fire so alms doth sinne gave three Manors with all their liberties appurtenances to the Church of Landaffe By this kind of indirect meanes this Church got so much lands that had it now but the tenth part thereof Godwin assures us it would be one of the wealthiest Churches in Christendome Tâ—udâ—ur King of Brechiniauâ— or Brecknâ—ck sonne of Rese slew Elgistill another King of that Country treacherously after â— league solemnly sworne betweene themâ— not to lye in waite one for another and to maintaine a firme peace without deceit hereupon Gurcan the tenth Bishop of Landaffe with his Cleargy excommunicated him for his perjury and murther by uncovering the Altars of God casting the crosses and reliques to the ground and depriving him of all Christian communion whereupon Teâ—dur unable to undergoe this malediction and rigour of justice with a contrite heart and teares powred out craved pardon and submitted himselfe to the penance imposed on him according to his quality and greatnesse recompencing his wickednesse with Almes prayer and fasting and for his absolution he gave this Bishop Lan. Michâ—â—l with all its lands libâ—rties and Commons King Cloâ—ri and Lâ—ndguallaun made a solemne league before Berthgwin the 14. Bishop of Landaffe and sware to mainâ—aine fiâ—me peace betweene them in all things wâ—thout fraud or dammâ—ge And if either of them violated it he was to leave his kingdome and to goe on Pâ—lgrimage all his lifeâ— neither should he redeeme himselfe nor his kingdome with gold nor silver Aâ—ter which King Clotri breaking the league slew the other treacherously committing both homicide and pâ—rjury Which â—his Bâ—shop hearing of assembled a Synode of his Clergy at Landaffâ— and in a full Synod excommunicated the King with alâ— his progeny and kingdome by uncovering Gods Altars and casting downe the crosses to the earth and left the Country without Bâ—ptisme and the communion Whereupon the K. unable to endure so great an excommunication with great devotion submitted himselfe to the Bishop left his Kingdome went on Pilgrimage into forraigne parts from whence returning into his Countâ—y after a long â—pace by â—he intercession of King Morcant he obtained absolution from the Bishop to whose enjoyned penance he submitted thereupon he gave Helic with other lands to the Bâ—shop and his successors in the Church of Landaffe In this Bâ—shops time Gurcan the sonne of Guinâ—n kept his owne Stepmother for which the Bishop excommunicated him in such manner aâ— he did Cloâ—ri and upon his penance and absolution the Bishop wrâ—sted from him a peâ—â—e of land called Marchinis In the dayes of Cercenhir the 18. Bishâ—p of Landâ—ffâ— Houel King of Glevissig contrary to his solemne oath circumvented and slew Gallun the sonne of Cidrich whereupon the Bâ—shop summoning a Synode excommunicated him in such sort as the former Kings were almost a yeares space at which time hee coming bare foot to the Bishop implored absolution with many teares which he obtaining after publike pennance enjoyned gave three Mannors to the Bishop and his Church After which this Bishop excommunicated Coubius for murthering Câ—mauc contrary to his solemne oath and that in a publike
Synode who upon his pennance and absolution gave Guliple to his Church Aquod the sonne of â—ouâ—f falling out with this Bishop drave him and his men into the Church of Landaffe For which hee was excommunicated by him and to bee absolved was glad to give Pennoun with the Church of Lantilâ—l and certaine other Lands Loumarch the sonne of Carguocaun was excommunicated by Gulfridus the 20 Bishop of this See in a full Synod for violating certaine priviledges and invading the goods of his Church but upon his humble submission on his knees to the Bishop with many teares and his offer to acknowledge his offence and to suffer any punishment the Bishop would impose upon him The Bishop upon restitution of all the goods he had taken and the gift of Treficarn pont absolved him Assac the sonne of Mâ—rchiud having treacherously slaine one Gulayguni being excommunicated for it by this Bishop gave Segan to his Church to expiate the murther and for the soule of the slaine Sâ—â—lferth Hegoi and Arguistil the sonnes of Belli fell at variance in words with Nudd the 21 Bishop of this See and proceeding at last from words to blowes committed divers outrages upon his Land and Family but quickly remembring themselves fearing excommunication they asked pardon and submitted themselves to pennance After which performed they gave unto the Church for further confirmation of their unfeigned repentance the territory of Iulius and Aaron King Brochvaile the sonne of Mouric and his Family fell at variance with Civeilliauc the 22 Bishop of Landaffe and his Family to whom they offered some injury wherewith the Bishop being moved assembled all his Clergy together even to the inferiour degrees intending to excommunicate Brochvaile and all his family as forfeited to him and execrable to God before all the people in a full Synod for this injury which Brochvaile hearing of sought for pardon and remission which he could not obtaine from the Bishop upon any termes unlesse he would suffer a Canonicall judgement The cause being discussed the Bishop was adjudged to receive from him an Image of his face both in length and breadth in pure gold and that amends should be made by him to the condigne honour of his Family and Nobility of his parentageâ— which sentence Borchvaile was forced to redeeme by giving the Towne of Tref-Peren with six other pieces of Land to the Bishop and his Church One Pater being the 25 Bishop of this See Anno 955. A certaine Country fellow meeting a Deacon with a sword by his side asked him what a Coward should doe with Weapons and striving to take away the sword cut the Deacons finger whereupon the Deacon killed him and when he had done tooke Sanctuary in the Church of Saint Iarman and Saint Febrie Thereby sixe of King Gurialls houshould although there wanted not many that sought to defend the man in regard of the place he was slaine even at the very Altar of the Church These sixe men were delivered at the City of Gwentonia now Caerwent into the hands of Pater the Bishop who kept them in straight prison sixe moneths and then forced them to give all their Lands and Livings to Landaffe besides seven pound of silver to the Church which they had polluted Mouric King of Glamorgan was excommunicated by Ioseph the 28 Bishop of this Diocesse for putting out the eyes of Etgum in a time of truce to have his absolution he gave to the Bishop Paniprise Another time he was faine to give Gulich Fabrus and foure pound of silver unto the Bishop beside other great gifts to the Canons upon this occasion Hee had broken the Sanctuary of the Church of Landaffe by taking away thence violently the wife of his enemy and hurting some of the Bishops servants For so doing he was publiquely excommunicated by the Bishop in a Synod and by these gifts made way to obtaine his absolution Caratuc one of his company in the last recited action was forced to give Henriu in Wencia Riugallan the sonne of Rum being excommunicate for an assault made upon the Bishop and his men gave Riu Drein and the third part of the Wood of Yuisperthan to be absolved Cutguallam the sonne of Guriat strooke one in the Consistory in the presence of Ioseph the Bishop who kept him the said Catguallam in prison till he had made amends for that fault by giving the Church of Saint Brides Calgucam the King of Morganuc and his family was solemnly excommunicated by Herewald the 29 Bishop of Landaffe in a Synod of all his Clergy who thereupon cast downe all the Crosses and Reliques to the ground overturned their Bells and stopped up all the doores of the Churches with thornes so as they continued for a long time without divine service and pastors day and night the King and his Family in the meane time being sequestred from the society of all the faithfull and all because one of the Kings followers being drunke had laid violent hands upon Bathutis the Bishops Physitian and Kinsman on Christmas day Anno 1056. Whereupon the King though innocent upon his submission to the Bishop to obtaine his absolution was enfâ—rced to give Henringumna in the presence of all the Clergy people to this Bishop and his successors free from all secular regal services After which one Gistni excommunicated for a rape committed by a Nephew and follower of his upon a Virgin whom he tooke violently out of the Church of Landaffe was forced to give Milne to the Bishop and his Successors to obtaine absolution By these instances wee may partly discerne by what undue meanes Bishops at first obtained their large Temporalties and Revenues even by enforcing Kings and great persons to buy out and expiate their offences by endowing their Sees with Lands and Manors without which they could not purchase their absolution and we likewise learn hence that Bishops in those dayes excommunicated none but in a Synod with the suffrage of all their Clergy Edmund de Bromfeild the 48. Bishop of Landaffe for procuring and bringing in the Popes Bulls of Provision to make him Abbot of Bury contrary to his owne expresse Oath and the Statutes of the Realme was for this his contempt and disobedience committed to the Tower by King Richard the second where he lay prisoner a long time neither durst the Pope yeeld him any assistance to justifie his owne Bull. The late Bishops of this See as Feild and others have beene so notoriously peccant that I need not mention them wherefore I shall passe on to the Bishops of Bangor Bishops of Bangor MAuritius the third Bishop of Bangor most undutifully refused a long time to doe homage to the King of England for his Bishopricke held of him but at last was perswaded to doe it Robert of Shrewsbury joyning with Leolin Prince of Wales against King Iohn his Soveraigne was taken prisoner by the
King in his owne Cathedrall Church and ransomed for 200. hawkes after this dying he was buried not in the Church-yard but in the market place of Shrewsbury by his owne appointment Richard the 10. Bishop of Bangor excommunicated David ap Lhewelin Prince of Wales for that contrary to his Oâ—th he took his Brother Gryffith prisoner who was content upon the Bishops word to goe to his Brother and when he saw that course would not reforme him he never lin complaining first to the King of England then to the Pope that he so incensed them as the one excommunicated him the other made warre upon him untill he delivered his said Brother into the Kings hands who caused him to be kept in the Tower of London till he endeavoring there to escape by misfortune brake his necke The Prince hereupon so wasted the Bishopricke that in the yeare 1248. this Bishop and the Bishop of Saint Asaph were forced to beg their bread Whereupon this Bishop came to the Abbot of Saint Albanes desiring that the Bosome of Mercy might be opened unto his poverty and he abiding there untill his Bishopricke wasted and spoiled with continuall warre should recover some better estate might together with his Chaplaine there breath and rest themselves from those calamities wherewith they had beene long afflicted in like sort as heretofore the Bishop of Hereford had done who was honorably entertained there almost the space of twenty yeares Richard Young the 22. Bishop of Bangor for some contempt and disobedience against the King and confederating as is likely with that Rebell Owen Glendor was imprisoned two or three yeares till the Pope Anno 1404. translated him to Rochester by his Bull. Lewis the 23. Bishop of Bangor Anno. 1408. joyned with the Earle of Northumberland the Lord Bardolfe and others in open Rebellion against King Henry the fourth The Earle was slaine in battell in the field the Lord Bardolfe mortally wounded and their heads set upon London Bridge The Bishop was likewise taken prisoner in the battell but obtained pardon from the King because he had no Armes upon him when he was taken though the incendiary of the other two and as great a Traytor as they but the Abbot of Hayles was hanged because hee had borne Armes in that Rebellion So happy are Traytorly and Rebellious Bishops as to scape scot free in their Treasons and Rebellions when all other sorts of men have execution done upon them Arthur Bulkly Bishop of Bangor and Iohn Lewis Vicar of Llain-geynwina were attainted in a Praemunire at the prosecution of William Whorewood the Kings Attorney for suing for the right of Patronage and Tithes of the said Church and for severall summes of money due on bond for Tithes in this Bishops Ecclesiasticall Court which had no cognisance of them being temporall and belonging only to the Kings Civill Courts to the derogation of the imperiall Jurisdiction of the King and his Crowne and subversion of the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme And hereupon judgement was given against them according to the Statute This Bishop sold away five faire Bells out of the Steeple of his Cathedrall Church which maâ—d the Musicke there Should I rip up the scandalous lives and Actions of some of the late Pilates of this See one of whom published The Practise of Piety which some say he never writ though neither he nor any of his successors did ever much practice it in their lives or should I recite the vile complaints of late against one of them in 2 or 3 late Parliaments I should be over tedious and pollute my paper with such beastly actions as would cause chast eyes to blush and turne their aspect from them Wherefore I shall passe them over in silence he being gone to answer them before the supreame tribunall informing you only that he imposed Armies upon his Clergy and provided an Armory for them to be kept in within his Cathedrall at Bangoâ— And so I post on to Assaph Diocesse Saint Assaph IOhn Trevaur Bishop of Saint Assaph pronounced the sentence for deposing King Richard the second in which instrument he is first named as appeares by this ensuing Copy of it In the Name of God Amen We Iohn Bishop of Saint Assaph chosen and deputed speciall Commissaries by the three states of this present Parliament representing the whole body of the Realme for all such mattersâ— by the said estates to us committed Wee understanding and considering the manifold crimes hurts and harmes done by Richard King of England and misgovernance of the same by a long time to the great decay of the said Land and utter ruine of the same shortly to have beene had not the speciall grace of our God thereto put the sooner remedy And also further more adverting that the said King Richard by acknowledging his owne insufficiency hath of his owne meere voluntaâ—y and free will renounced and given over the rule and governance of this Land with all rights and hâ—nours unto the same belonging and utterly for his merits hath judged himselfe not unworthily to be deposed of all Kingly Majesty and Estate Royall We the Premisses well considering by good and diligent deliberation by the power name and authority to us as aforesaid committed pronounce decerâ—e and declare the same King Richard before this to have beene and so to be unprofitable uâ—aâ—le unsuffiâ—ient and unworâ—hy of the Rule and Government of the foresaid Realmes and Lorâ—ships and of all rights and other the appurtenances thereto belonging And fâ—r the same causes wee deâ—rive him of all Kingly dignity and worshâ—p and of all Kingly worship in himselfe And we depose him by our sentence definitive forbidding expresly to all Archbishops and Bishops and all other Prelates Dukes Marquesses Earles Barons and Knights and all other men of the foresaid Kingdome and Lordships Subjects and Leiges whatsoever they be that none of them from this day forward to the foresaid Richard as King and Lord of the foresaid Realmes and Lordships be neither obedient nor attendant Immediatly as this sentence was in this wise passed and that by reason thereof the Realme stood voyd without head or governour for the same The Duke of Lancaster rising from the place where before hee sate and standing where all the house might behold him laid claime to the Crowne to which the Lords assented After which the Archbishop of Canterbury Arundel having notice of the minds of the Lords stood up and asked of the Commons if they would assent to the Lords which in their minds thought the claime of the Duke made to be rightfull and necessary for the wealth of the Realme and them all Whereto the Commons with one voyce cryed Yea yea yea After which answer the said Archbishop going to the Duke and kneeling downe before him on his knees addressed to him all his purpose in a few words which ended he rose and taking the Duke by the right hand
Impeachment against him reported to the Commons House and now ready for a transmission to the Lords by perusall whereof you may in part discerne what a good Prelate and carefull Bishop he hath been or rather a Wolfe in a Bishops Rochet Articles of Accusation and impeachment by the Commons House of Parliament against William Pierce Doctor of Divinity and Bishop of Bath and Wells THat he hath by his owne arbitrary power against Law since he was Bishop of Bath and Wells being about ten yeares space of purpose to keep the people in ignorance and hinder the Salvation of their Soules which hee should promote in and about the yeares of our Lord 1633.1634.1635 and since suppressed all Lectures within his Diocesse both in Market Townes end elsewhere aswell those that the ministers kept in their severall Câ—res as others that were maintained by severall yearely stipends given by the Founders out of their piety and devotion for such good uses or by the volentary assistance of neighbour ministers some of which Lectures had continued for 50.40.30 and 20. yeares without interruption and were countenanced by his predecessors who used to preach at some of them in their turnes That insteade of incouraging he hath suspended excommunicated and otherwise vexed the sayd Lecturers glorying in his so doing and thanking God that he had not a Lecture left in his Diocesse the very name whereof he sayd hee disliked and affirmed unto Master Cunnant a minister who desired the continuance oâ— a Lecture that he would not leave one within his Diocesse the Bishop alleadging that though there was neede of preaching in the infancy of the Church in the Apostles time yet now there was no such need and thereupon required the said minister upon his Canonicall obedience not to preach and in like manner he dealt with many other Godly Ministers within his Diocesse And in particular hee suspended Master Devenish the Minister of Bridgewater for preaching a Lecture in his owne Church on the market day there which Lecture had continued from Queene Elizabeths time till then and refused to absolve him till he had promised never to preach it more upon which promise the said Bishop absolved him with this admonition of our Saviour most prophanely applyed Goe thy way sin no more lâ—st a worse thing happen to thee And not content to put downe Lectures in his owne Diocesse he hath endeavoured the suppression of them in others by conventing some ministers of his Diocesâ—e before him as namely one Master Cunnant and Mr. Stricklaâ—d and threatâ—ing to suspend them for preaching their turnes at Lectures in other Diocesses neere them That in opposition to preaching and the Spiritâ—all good oâ— the peoples Soules he hath in and about the years aforesaid most impiously and against Law put downe all afternoone Sermons on â—he Lords day throughout his Diocesse and charged the Ministers both publikely in his visitations privatly noâ— to preach at all on the Lords day on the afternoon upon any occasion under paine of suspension after which charge he suspended one Mr. Cornish a Minister only for preaching a funâ—rall Sermon on a Lords day Evening That divers godly Ministers of his Diocesse being restrained from preaching did thereupon take great paines to Catechisâ—â— the people in the principles of Religion on the Lords day in the afternoone in larging themselves upon the questions and answers of the Catechisme in the Common prayer Booke for the peoples better instruction using some short prayers before or after that exercise of which the sayd Bishop having intelligence in and about the yeares aforesayd convented the sayd ministers before him reproving them sharpely for the same threatnâ—ng to punish them if they persisted in that way which he sayd was a Catechising Sermon-wise and AS BAD as if they preached charging them that they should aske no questions nor receive any other answeres from the people but such as were contained in the Catechisme in the Service booke which some not observing were convented thereupon before thâ— sayd Bishâ—p and punished as namely Master Barret Rector of Barmicke who was enjoyned penancâ— for transgressing the Bishopâ— sayd orderâ— and likewise Humphry Blake Church-warden of Bridgâ—water was enjoyned penance by the Bishop for not presenting Master Devenish Minister there for that he expounded upon the Church Catechisme on the Lords day in the afternoonâ— and made a short prayer before he began the same â— the Bishop alleaging that it was against his order and command as is above sayd That he hath in the yeares aforesayd both by precept and example most prophanely opposed the due sanctification of the Lords day by approving and allowing of prophane Wakes and Revels on that day contrary to the Lawes and Statuâ—es of this Realme for which purpose he Commanded afternoone-Service on the Lords day not to be long that so the people might not be hindred from their Recreations pressed and injoyned al the Ministers in his Diocesse in their proper persons to read the book of sports in their severall Parish Churches in the midst of divine Service at morning prayer on the Lords day contrary to the words and purport of the sayd booke which some ministers as Master Hâ—mphry Chambers and Master Thomas refusing to doe he thereupon suspended them both from their office and Benefice and kept them excommunicated for divers yeares notwithstanding the sayd booke was by the Bishops Order published in their Churches by others he convented the minister of Beerecrockeham before him for having two Sermons on the sayd Parish Revell day alleaging that it was a hinderance to the sayd Revell and to the utterance of the Church Ale provided to be spent on that day He convented and punished one Master Thomas Elford a Minister for preaching at the Parish of Mountague upon the Revell day upon the Prophet Ioels exhortation mourningâ— charging him that not onely his Sermon but his very Text wasâ— scandalous to the Revell and gave offeâ—ce to the meeting And for the same reason the sayd Bishop commanded the Church-wardeâ—â— of the Parish of Barecomâ—e to bloâ— out of the Church wall this Text of Scripture therein written taken out of Esay 58.13.14 If thou turne away thy â—ooâ— from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my Holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the Holy of the Lord Honourable and shalâ— honour him not doing thy owne wayes nor finding thine own pleasâ—reâ— nor speaking thine owne words then shalt thou delight thy selfe in the Lordâ— and I will â—ause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feede thâ—e with the heritage of Jacob thy Father for the mâ—â—th of the Lord hath spoken it And he likewise cauâ—ed this clause in Doctor Bisse his monument in that Church formerly Pastor there to be rased out He was an enemy to heeathenish Revels To conntenance which Revels the sayd Bishop in opposition â—o the orders of the Judges of Assiâ—e and Justices of
Peace of Somerset-shire for the suppressing of Sports and Revels and their Petition to the King to that purpose did call before him divers Ministers of his Diocesse and presented unto them a writing in approbation and commendations of the sayd sports and Revells whereunto many of the sayd Ministers subscribed their names by the Bishops perswasions which writing the sayd Bishop sent up to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who after the receipt thereof suppressed the Justices Petition And shortly after the book for sports and Revels on the Lords day was published That he hath within the yeares forementioned both by his example and command contrary to the Lawes of the Land introduced into all or most Churches in his Diocesse sundry Innovations in the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church and other new inventions of his owne tending to Popery and Superstition as namely setting up of Altars and injoyning the seates about them to be taken away saying none shall sit equall with or above God Almighty bowing and cringing to the Altars and reading the second and third service at the Altar and enjoyned the strict observation of them under the heaviest Censures of the Church in so much that the Communion Table of Stretton in his Diocesse which he had caused to be rayled in Altarwise being â—rought downe againe to its former place and not turned to the East thereupon no Communion was there permitted to the Parishioners on Palme-Sunday and Easter day 1637. the Minister having received an Order from the sayd Bishop not to administer the Communion untill the Table was againe set up Altarwise and caused divers to be punished for not standing up at the Gospell and Gloria Patri And he hath likewise forced divers Parishes as Taunton Shepton Mallet and others to their intollerable cost to set up Organs where there were none at all or not a long time before causing the Church-wardens to levy money towards the buying of them upon the Parishioners against their wills and punishing them in his Ecclesiasticall Court that would not pay towards them and that he hath put the Country of Sommerset to excessive expences by reason of such Innovations as aforesayd That he hath within the time fore-specified contrary to Law vexed and molested in his Ecclesiasticall Courts divers of the Clergie and Laity of his Diocesse for triviall and small matters excommunicated and vexed divers Church-wardens for not rayling in the Communion Table and placing it Altarwise against the East wall of the Chancell and by name the Church-wardens of Beckington whom he not onely excommunicated but likewise caused them and others to be unjustly indicted at the open Assizes held in the Country in Lent 1636. as for a Ryot in hindring the removing of the Table in that Church putting the sayd Parish to the expence of 180â— pounds or more and not absolving the Churchwardens from their excommunication till they had done such open and ignominious penance as the sayd Bishop enjoyned them in three eminenâ— Parish Churches within his Diocesse as likewise at the Market Crosse at Wells The performance of which pennance wrought so farre upon Iames Wheeler one of the sayd Church-wardens that thereupon he fell into a Consumption through griefe and so dyed saying often before his death that the performance of the sayd penance being so ignominious and against his Conscience was the cause of his death and by his vexatious suits in his Ecclesiasticall Courts hee hath raised his Registers office in former Bishops time not worth above â—0 pound per annum to the value of 3. or 400. pounds or more by the yeare That the sayd Bishop hath within the forenamed yeares unduely and against Law pressed the Oathes Ex officio upon divers inhabitants of Wells without complaint or accusation and likewise the Oath of Deanes Rurall with other unlawfull Oathes both upon the Clergy and Laity within his Diocesse and other places and suspended and excommunicated divers of them that refused to take the sayd Oathes and that not onely in his Consistory Court but in his owne private Chambeâ— there being none but a Register with him That he hath in or about the times fore-recited for his owne Lucre and gaine extorted divers summes of money against Law as of one Fort one of the Churchwardens of South-Pederton 20. pound And also of one Mr. Franklyn the sum of 3. pound besides the sum of 10. pounds given in Fees and rewards to the Bishops servants for instituting him into the Parsonage of Standerweeke And hath likewise in the yeares aforesayd and in the yeare 1639. exacted the sum of 6. shillings 8. pence or more of divers Church-wardens and Parishes within his Diocesse and namely of the Church-wardens of Dunkerton onely for not ringring the Bells when he passed through the bounds of their seveall Parishes in his Visitation though privately without giving them any notice of his comming that way One Long his Surrogate openly averring in Court that by the 16. Decreâ—all they might justly take 10. pound for this offence That he hath within the years forenamed against Law deâ—erred and denyed Institutions upon presentations to Benefices practising in the interim under hand to conferre the same upon his Sonne Servants or other dependants and to deprive the Patrons of their Rights and hath even by force against all Law and equity conâ—erred some of the Benefices upon his Sonne Servants and dependants viz. upon his Sonne the Parsonage of Buckland and endeavoured by the like forâ—e to confer the Parsonage of Standerweeke upon his sayd son and other Parsonages upon his Servants and allyes did against Law and by force confer the Vicaâ—idge of Hynstridge upon his servant Flamsteed That he hath in or about the foresayd yeares tampered with witnesses examined by and before him upon Oath to make them testifie untruths and hath falsified their depositions setting down his owne words and what he would have them depose insâ—eede of what they testified as namely in the Case of the Church-wardens of Beckington and in that of Mr. Ieanes Minister of Beercrocombe That hee is a Common vexer persecuter and molester of worthy and painefull Ministers and a countenancer of those who are negligent scandalous and prophane as namely he hath within the yeares fore-mentioned vexed and persecuted Mr. Chambers Mr. Thomas Mr. Croake Mr. Newton Mr. Barnard Mr. Cunnant Mr. Roswell with many other godly and painefull Ministers of the Diocesse countenanced his Chaplaine Mr. Eglesfield â—awler Mr. Long with other very vitious Ministers and Mr. Huish and others superstitiously affected That the said Bishop contrary to Law did in the yeare 1640. severely exact and impose upon divers of the Clergie within his Diocesse the new Oath perscribed by the sixth Canon of the late pretended Synod and caused and enforced them to take the sayd illegall Oath himselfe kissing the Seale of the Commission which authorized him to exact the sayd Oath of his Clergie and kneeling downe upon his knees tooke the sayd
Oath first and then administred it to others saying that he was glad in his heart that this Oath was imposed upon all the Clergie of England for now the true Children of the Church would bee knowne from the spurious and bastards And further hee hath deâ—yed to conferre Orders upon such who refused to take the said Oath as namely upon one Mr. Gibbonâ— And hath enforced the sayd Oath upon divers he hath ordained Ministers since the making thereof That the sayd Bishop hath beene a great fomentor and incourager of the late divisions and wars betweene the Kingdomes of England and Scotland conventing and urging the Clergie of his Diocesse in the yeares of our Lord 1638. 1639. to contribute a liberall benevolence towards the maintenance of the sayd wars using this speech as one motive to induce them to this contribution that it was Bellum Episcopale and saying that what ever cause the King had expressed in hiâ— Declaration yet in truth this war was for Vs meaning Vs the Bishops And whereas some of the Clergie denyed the payment of so large a Benevolenceâ—s â—s the sayd Bishop demanded in regard of their poverty and because they were still in their first fruites when they were free from Subsidies the sayd Bishop threatned by his power to put more Armes and horses upon them saying that if they would not serve the King with their purses they should serve him with their Armes And thereupon compelled them to pay the summes he demaunded of them against all Law as namely Mr. Roswell Mr. Ioanes Mr. Abbot and others And not contented herewith the sayd Bishop pretending that there were divers poore Vicars and Ministers in his Diocesse that were noâ— able to pay the Benevolence â—o as hee could not raise the summe he expected thereupon directed his Letters to divers of his wealthier Cleâ—gie causing some of them to pay a second contribution 13. That the sayd Bishop not content with this first Benevolence hath since that in the yeare of our Lord 1642. compelled divers of his Clergie to pay all or part of the sixe illegall subsidies or Benevolences imposed by the late pretended Synod without confirmation of Parliament threatning to excommunicaâ—e and deprive them ipsoâ— facto who fayled paymenâ— of it at the dayes prefixed by the Synod and sent out a processe to Master Newton Minister of Tauâ—ton even whiles the sayd Townâ— was much visited by the Pestilence long before the sayd Subsidy or Benevolence was due to enjoyne him to pay it punctually at the day or else he would inflict on him the penalties prescribed by this Synod and used these speeches that if they did not pay the sayd Subsidie or Benevolence they should be ground to powder And the sayd Commons by proâ—estaâ—ion sâ—â—ing to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other accusation or impeachment against the sayd Bishop And also of replying to the answeres that he the sayd Bishop shall make unto the sayd Articles or to any of them and of offering proofes also of the premisses or any of them or any other impeachment or accusation that shall be exhibited by them as the cause shall according to the course of Parliaments require doe pray that the sayd Bishop may be put to answere to all and every tâ—e premisses And that such proceedings examinations tryalls and judgements may be upon every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice By these Articles of impeachment you may easily discover what a prophane impious turbulent Prelate this Bishop is even such a one whom no age I thinke in many particulars is able to parallell whose prodigiously prophane speeches and actions proclaime to all the world that our present Prelates impieties have made them fit for judgement yea to be castout and trampled under feere of men as the very excrements and off-scouring of all things I have now runne through all our ancient Bishoprickes with that of Chester lately revived and given you a briefe account of the extravagant actions of some of those Lordly Prelates who possessed them I shall now in the close of this Chapter give you but a touch of some of the late Bishops of Oxford Bristoll Peterborough and Glocester which Bishopricks were erected out of dissolved Monasteries by King Henry the eight towards the end of his Reigne and so conclude Oxford TO passe by the first Bishops of this See none of the best there have beene three successions of Bishops in Oxford since I left the University Houson Corbet and Bancroft all of them Patriots of Innovations Erronious Popish Arminian Doctrines superstitious Ceremonies prophane Sports Revels and Bacchanals on the Lords day scandalous in their lives notoriously given to the flesh enemies to frequent preaching and the true Practise of Piety Of the two first of them I have given a touch in Durham and Norwich page 519. to which I shall referre you and for the last of them a Non-preaching Prelate who for ought I can learne never preached above one or two Sermons if so many all his life time he had a finger in the late Canons Oath lone in pressing whereof he was not negligent and had not death arrested him with the other two I doubt not but the Parliament had bin troubled with many complaints against them all which now being buryed together with them I will not revive Bristoll THE Bishopricke of Bristoll was first possessed by Paul Bush who was deprived in Queen Maries dayes for being married Iohn Holy-man a Papist succeeded him after whose death the See continued voyd some foure yeares Anno 1562. Richard Cheyny Bishop of Glocester and Iohn Bullingham his successor held Bristoll in Commendam so as it stood void oâ— a Bishop otherwise than as it was held by Commendamâ— one and thirty yeares Richard Fletcher next enjoyed it till he was translated to Worcester Anno. 1593. After which it stood vacant ten yeares to 1603. and then Iohn Thorneborough Bishop of Limbrick in Ireland and Commendatory Deane of York was translated to it This Bishop and some of his successors had great contests with the Major Aldermen and Citizens of Bâ—istoll whom he would force to come every Lords day morning and solemne Holiday to the Cathedrall Sermon to dance attendance and doe their homage to their Lordships which they for some yeares refused till at last after sundry complaints to the King and Councel the Bishops and they according the Major and Citizens yeelded to come to the Colledge now and then on solemne days if the weather were faire and sometimes in the Sommer season Robert Wright one of the late Bishops of this See had a great contestation with the Deane and Chapter of Bristoll and Master George Salterne Steward of the City for opposing him in setting up Images in the Cathedrall and other Churches which gave great offence to the people he was a great Innovator and maintainer of Superstitious Ceremonies at Bristoll to humor
Vortigerne but to King Powes named Beuly whose successors in tâ—at part of Wales issued from this Herdsmans race Our learned Martyr Doctor Barnes reciting this story and Legend out of Petrus de Natalibus concludes thus I thinke no man will binde me to prove this thing of the Calfe a lye and yet it must be preached and taught in each Church it must be written in holy Saints lives and he â—ust be a Saint that did it and why because hee deposed a King and set in a Neaâ—esherd Odo Bishop of Bayeux was at first in great estimation with his Brother William the Conquerour and bare great rule under him till at last for envy that Lanfranke was preferred before him he conspired against him who understanding thereof committed him to Prison where he remained till the said Prince then lying on his death bed released and restored him to his former liberty When the King was dead William Rufus took him backe into England supposing no lesse than to have had a speciall friend and a trusty Counsellour of him in all his affaires But ere long after his comming thither he fell againe into the same offence of ingratitude whereof he became culpable in the Conquerours dayes For perceiving that Lanfranke Arch Bishop of Canterbury was so highly esteemed with the King that he could beare no rule and partly suspecting that Lanfrancke had beene chiefe cause of his former imprisonment he suffered Duke Robert to bereave his Brother King William Rufus of the dominion of England all he might and conspired with the rest against his Nephew and thereupon writ sundry Letters unto Duke Robert counselling him to come over with an army in all hâ—ste to take the rule upon him which by his practise should easily be compassed Duke Robert thus animated pawnes the County of Constance to his younger Brother Henry for a great summe of gold and therewith returned answer to the said Bishop that he should provide and looke for him upon the South coast of England at a certaâ—ne â—ime appointed Hereupon Odo fortified the Castle of Rochester and began to make sore warres against â—he Kings friends in Kent and procured his other complices also to doe the like in other parts of the Realme And first on the West part of England Geoffrey Bishop of Constans with his Nephew Robert de Mowbray Earle of Northumberland setting forth from Bristow tooke and sacked Bath and Beâ—kley with a great part of Wiltshire and brought the spoile to Bristow where they fortified the Castle for their greater safety Robert de Bygod over-rode and robbed all the Countries about Norwich and Hugh de Grandwesuit spoyled and wasted all the Counâ—ries abouâ— Leicester And Robert Mountgomery Earle of Shrewâ—bury with William Bishop of Durham and others wasted the Country with fire and sword killing and taking great numbers of people where they came Afterwards comming to Worcester they assaulted the City and burnt the Suburbs But Bishop Wolstan being in the Towne encouraged the Citizens to resist who by his exhortation sallying out of the City when the enemies waxed negligent they slew and tooke above 5000. men of them in one day Archbishop Lanfranke in the meanâ— time whilst the Realme was thus troubled by Odoes meanes on each side writeth to and admonisheth all the Kings friends to make themselves ready to defend their Prince And when they were assembled with their forces he counselled the King to march into the â—ield speedily with them to represse his enemies The King following his counsell commanding first all unjust Imposts Taxes and Tallages to be laid downe and promising to restore such favourable Lawes as the people should dâ—sire to ingratiate himseâ—fe with hâ—s Subjects marcheth with a mighty army into Kent where the sedition beganâ— takes Tunbridge and Horne-Castle and afterward bâ—seigeth Bishop Odo in the Pemseyâ— which the Bâ—shop had strongly fortified Robert landing with a great Army in England during this siege Odo through want of victuall was glad to submit himselfe and promised to cause the Castle of Rochesteâ— to be delivered but at his comming thiâ—her they within the City suffred him to enter and straightwayes laid him fast in Pâ—â—son Some judge that this was done under a colour by his owne consent But the King besieging the City they within were glad â—o deliver iâ— up into his handâ— Thus lost Bâ—shop Odo all his Livings and dignities in England and so returned into Norâ—andy where under Duke Robert he had the chiefe government of the Country committed to him Anno Dom. 1196. Earle Iohn King Richard the first his Brother with his forces riding forth into the Country about Beauvois made havocke in robbing and spoyling all aâ—ore him Anon as Phillip the Bishop of Beauvois a man more given to the Campe then to the Church had knowledge hereof thinking them to be a meeâ—e prize for him with Sir William de Merlow and his Sonne and a great number of other valiant men of warre came forth into the fields and encounâ—ring with the enemies fought very stoutly But yet in the end the Bishop the Arch-deacon and all the chiefe Captaines were taken the residue slaine and chased After this Earle Iohn and Marchades presented the two Prelates with great triumph unto King Richard earely in the morning lying yet in his bed as those that were knowne to be his great enemies saying to him in French Rise Richard rise we have gotten the great Chantor of Beauvois and a good Quire man as we take it to answer him in the same note and here we deliver them unto you to use at your discretion The King seeing them smiled and was very glad for the taking of this Bishop for that he had ever found him his great adversary And therefore being thus taken fighting in the field with armour on his backe thought he might be bold in temporall wise to chastise him sith he not regarding his calling practised to molest him with temporall weapons Whereupon he committed him to close Prison all armed as he was It chanced soone after that two of his Chaplaines came unto the King to Roven where this Bishop was detained beseeching the King of License to attend upon their Master now in captivity unto whom as it is of some reported the King made this answer I am câ—ntent to make you Iudgeâ— in the cause betwixt me and your Master as for the evills which he hath either done or else gone about to doe unto me let the same be forgotten This is true that I being taken as I returned from my journey made into the holy Land and delivered into the Emperours hands was in respect of my Kingly state used according thereunto very friendly and honorably till your Master comming thither for what purpose he himselfe best knoweth had long conference with the Emperour After which I for my part in the next morning tasted the fruite of their over-nights talke being then loaden with as many Irons as a good Asse
might not very easily have borne Iudge you therefore what manner of imprisonment your Master deserved at my hands that procured such ease for me at the Emperours hands These two Chaplaines had their mouthes stopped with these words thus by the King uttered and so departed their wayes The Bishop being still detained in Prison procured suite to be made to the Pope for his deliverance writing a Letter to the Pope against the King for this hard usage recorded by Hoveden whereupon the Pope writ a Letter to the King in his behalfe to importune his release But the Pope being truely informed of the matter and wisely considering that the King had not taken the Bishop Preaching but fighting and kept him prisoner rather as a rough enemy then as a peaceable Prelate would not be earnest with the King for his deliverance but rather reproved the Bishop In that hee had preferred secular warfare before the spirituall and had taken upon him the use of a Speare insteed of a Crosier an Helmet insteed of a Miter an Herbergean instead of a white Rocket a Targeâ— for a Stoale and an iron Sword in lieu of the spirituall Sword and therefore he reâ—used to use any Commandment to King Ricâ—ard for the setting oâ— him at Liberty But yet he promised to doe what he could by way of intreating that he might be released It is reported by some Writers that the Pope at first not understanding the truth of the whole circumstance should send to King Richard commanding him by force of the Canons of the Church to deliver his Sonnes the Bishop and Archdeacon out of their captivity To whom the King sent their Armour with this message written in Latine Vide an tunica filii tui siâ— an non that is See whether these are the garments of thy Sonnes or not alluding to the saying of those that carryed Iosephs coaâ—e to Iacob Which when the Pope saw he said Nay by Saint Peter it is neither the apparell of my Sonnes nor yet of my Brethren but rather they are the vestures of the children of Mars and so he left them still to be ransomed at the Kings pleasure The Bishop thus seeing no hope to be delivered without some agreement had betwixt the two Kings became now through irkesomnesse of his bonds an earnest mediator for peace whereas he had beene before an extreame stirrer up of warre Such a Schoolemaster is imprisonment and plucker downe of lofty courages But not prevailing he plots how to make an escape When Queene Elionorâ—ing â—ing Richards Mother came to Rhoane she sent for this Bishops keepâ—rs to permi the Bishop to câ—me to her lodging to spâ—ake with her which although it were dangerous yet they unwillâ—ng to resist the Queenes suiâ—e peâ—mitâ—ed him to goe out of the Towe gaâ—es feâ—â—eâ—ed with themselves accompanying him As they passed bâ— a Church the Bishop ran to the doore thâ—ugh 〈◊〉 as well as he couâ—d and laying hold on the Ring of the Churâ—hâ— cryed out with a loud voâ—ce saying I demand the peace of God and the Church At which speech his Keepers much troubled laid hands on him pulâ—ed him from the Church doore and brought him backe agaâ—ne to the Tower where they kept him more stricktly then before Which â—he King hearing of sent him to Chine to be kept close Prisoner After this he offered King Richard 10000 markes for his enlargement which he refused But Kâ—ng Iohn comming to the Crown at the Popes request relâ—ased hâ—m â—or 2000. He taking a solemne Oath before the Cardinall and other Ecclesiastickes that he would never all his life after beare armes against Christians as he had causeâ— now noâ— to doe About the same time Walter Arch bishop of Roven at the instigation of the French King puâ— all the Country of Normandy under senâ—ence of inâ—erdiction because King Richard had begun to sort â—he a Caâ—â—le at Lisse Dandely upon a peece of ground which the Archbishop câ—aimâ—d to appertaine unto hiâ— See The Archbishop would â—y no meaneâ— release the interdict So as the bodies â—f dead men lay unbuâ—yed through all the Villages and streetes of tâ—e Câ—ties of Normandy Hereupon the King much troubled at the Aâ—chbâ—shops dealing whom he had advanced and much imployed sâ—nds â—o Rome to the Pope to heare the cause betweene them The matter being brought before the Pope he perceiving the intent of King Richard was not otherwise grounded upon anâ— covetous purpose to defraud the Church oâ— her right but oneâ—y to buâ—ld a fortresse in such place as was moâ—t expedient for defence of the Country about to preserve it from invasion of the enemies counselled the Archbishop noâ— to sâ—and against the King in it but to exchange with him for some other Lands which was done and the interdiction by the Pope released This Archbishop was a great warriour bore great sway in England during King Richards absence and captivity and troubled the Realme very much with taxes and warres Before I come to the Prelates of Scotland I shall insert one story of a Patriarch of Hierusalem who affronted our King Henry the second to his face in a shamefull manner The story is this Heraclius Patriarch of Ierusalem came into England in the thirtyeth yeare of King Henry the second and made busy request to him against the Saracens proffering him the keyes of Ierusalem and of our Lords grave with Letters of Pope Lucius the third charging him that he should take upon him the Kingdome of Ierusalem with the royall Standard of the Kingdome as due unto him and likewise make a royall voyage thither in proper person with an army for the security thereof and to have minde of the Oath that he before time had made The King deferred his answer and Baldwin the Arch bishop Preached and exhorted men to take the Crosse by whose meanes many there were that avowed that journey The King at last by the advise of his whole Councell and Parliament gave this answer that he might not leave his Land without keeping nor yet leave it to the prey and robbery of the French men but he would give largely of his owne to such as would take upon them that voyage With this answer Heraâ—lius was discontented and said we seeke a man and not money well neere every Christian Region sendeth to us money but no Land sendeth to us a Prince But the King laid for him such excuses that the Patriarch departed from him discontented and comfortlesse Whereof the King being advertised entending somewhat to recomfort hâ—m with pleasant words followed him to the Sea side But the more the King thought to satisfie him with his faire speech the more the Patriarch was discontented in so much that at last he said unto him Hitherto thou hast raigned gloriously but hereafter thou shalt be forsaken of him that thou at this time forsakest thinke on him what he hath given to thee and what thou hast yeelded to him againe How first thou wert false to
the King of France and after slew Thomas Becket and last of all thou forsakest the Protection of Christs Faith The King was mooved with these wordâ— and sayd unto the Patriarch Though all the men of the Land were one body and spake with one mouth they durst not speake â—o me such words No wonder said the Patriarch for they love thine and not thee That is to meane they love thy goods temporall and feare the losse of promotion but they love not thy soule And when he had so said he offered his head to the King saying Doe by me right as thou didst by Thomas Becket for I had rather be slaine of thee then of the Sarasens for thou art worse then any Sarasen and they follow a prey and not a man But the King kept his patience and said I may not wend out of my Land for my owne Sonnes will arise against me when I am absent No wonder said the Patriarch for of the devill they came and to the devill they shall and so departed from the King in great ire So rudely have Prelates dealt with the greatest Princes as thus both in words and deeds to revile and contemne them as if they were their slaves to be at their command though with the hazard of their lives Crownes and Kingdomes upon every humour I now passe on to the Scottish Prelates The Bishops of Scotlands acts in this kinde TO passe from Normandy to Scotland before I enter into a Relation of any of the Scotish Prelates actions I shall inform you what Holinshed writes of King Davids erection of Bishoprickes in Scotland and his endowing of them with large temporall possessions This Church in the originall plantation of the Gospell having beene governed onely by Presbyters and wanting Bishops for some hundred of yeares following herein the custome of the Primitive Church as Iohn Fordon Iohn Major Bishop Vsher and Spelman testifie David King of Scots erected foure Bishoprickes within this Realme Rosse Brochin Dunkeld and Dublaine indowing them with rich Rents faire Lands and sundry right commodious possessions Moreover he translated the Bishops See of Murthlake unto Aberden for sundry advised considerations augmenting it with certaine revenues as he thought expedient He was admonished as the report goeth in his sleepe that he should build an Abbey for a religious Order to live in together Whereupon he sent for workemen into France and Flanders and set them in hand to build this Abbey of Canons regular as he was admonished dedicating it in the honour of a Crosse whereunto he bare speciall devotion for that very strangely it slipped into his hands on a time as he was pursuing and following of a Hart in the Chase But enough of these Monkish devises Many prudent men blame greatly the unmeasurable liberality of King David which he used towards the Church in diminishing so hugely the revenues of the Crowne being the cause that many Noble Princes his Successors have come to their finall ends for that they have beene constrained through want of treasure to maintaine their royall estates to procure the fall of sundry great Houses to possesse their Lands and livings also to raise payments and exactions of the Common people to the utter impoverishment of the Realme And sometime they have beene constrained to invade England by warres as desperate men not caring what came of their lives Other whiles they have beene enforced to stampe naughty money to the great prejudice of the Common wealth All which mischiefes have followed since the time that the Church hath beene thus enriched and the Crowne impoverished Therefore King Iames the first when he came to King Davids Sepulcher at Dunfirmling he said that he was a sore Saint for the Crowne Meaning that he left the Church over-rich and the Crowne too poore For he tooke from the Crowne as Iohn Major writeth in his Chronicles 60000. pound Scotish of yearely revenues Wherewith he endowed those Abbyes But if King David had considered how to nourish true Religion he had neither endowed Churches with such riches nor built them with such royalty for the superfluous possessions of the Church as they are now used are not onely occasion to evill Prelates to live in most insolent pompe and corrupt life but an assured Net to draw gold and silver out of Realmes Thus Holinshed of the Bishops and Bishoprickes of Scotland in generall In a Convocation at Fairefax under King Gregory Anno 875. It was decreed by the Bishops of Scotland that Ordinaries and Bishops should have authority to order all men both publike and private yea Kings themselves as well for the keeping of Faith given as to constraine them to confirme the same and to punish such as should be found in the contrary This was a high straine of insolency and treachery against the Prerogative of the King and Nobles priviledges whom these Prelates endeavoured to enthrall to their Lordly pleasures and perchance it was in affront of King Davids Law who ordained Anno 860. but 15. yeares before that Priests should attend their Cures and not intermeddle with secular businesses or keepe Horses Haukes or Hounds A very good Law had it beene as well executed Anno 1294. the Scots conspiring together against their Soveraigne Lord and King Iohn Bailiol rose up in armes against him and inclosing him in a Castle they elected to themselves twelve Peeres after the manner of France whereof the foure first were Bishops by whose will and direction all the affaires of the Kingdome should be managed And this was done in despite to disgrace the King of England who set the said Iohn over them against their wils Whereupon the King of England brought an Army towards Scotland in Lent following to represse the rash arrogancy and presumption of the Scotsâ— against their owne Father and King and miserably wasted the Country over-running it quite and making both them and their King whom he tooke Prisoner to doe homage and sweare fealâ—y and give pledges to him as Walsingham reciâ—es more at large Among these Bishops it seemes that the Bishop of â—lascow was one of the chiefe opposites against the King of Scotland and England for Anno 1298. I finde this Bishop one of the chiefe Captaines of the Rebellious Scots and leading an Army in the field which being disbanded for feare of the English forces upon promise of pardon this Bishop Ne proditionis notam incurreret lest he should incurre the brand of treason rendred himselfe to Earle Warren sent into Scotland with an Army who committed him prisoner to the Castle of Rokâ—burrow for a Rebell where he was detained William of Neubery records Thaâ— David King of Scots was divinely chastised by one Wimundus an English man of obscure parents made Bishop of the Scottish Islands who waxing proud of his Bishopricke began to attempt great matters Not content with the dignity of his Episcopall Office he did now in
his mind walke in great and wonderfull matters above himselfe having a mouth speaking great things with a most vaine heart In conclusion gathering together Poore and bold men noâ— fearing the judgement of verity he gave out himselfe to be the Sonne of Count Murrey spoyled of the inheritance of his Fathers by the King of Scots that he had an intention noâ— onely to prosecute his right but likewise â—o revenge his wrongs that he desired to have them the Consorts both of his danger and fortuneâ— that iâ— was a businesse verily of some labour and danger but of great reputation and much emolument All of them therefore being animated by and sworne to his words he began cruelly to play Rex through the Neighbour Islands and he was now like Nemroth A mighty hunter before the Lord disdaining according to the duty of his Episcopall Office to be a Fisher of Men like Peter his Millitary troopes encreasing dayly amongst whom he being taller than the rest almost by the head and shoulders like a great Generall inflamed the mindes of all the rest He made excursions into the Provinces of Scotland exterminating all things with rapines and murthers and when as a royall Army was sent against him retyring himselfe into remote Forrests or â—lying backe into the Ocean he eluded all their warlike preparations and the Army retyring hee brake out againe out of his lurking places to infest the Provinces When therefore he prospered in all things and became now terrible even to the King himselfe a certaine Bishop a most simple man miâ—aculously repressed his violence for a time to whom when he denouncing warre threatned utter devastation unlesse he would pay him a tribute He answered The will of the Lord be done for by my example never shall any Bishop be made the tributary to another Bishop Therefore having exhorted his people he meetes him comming with fury onely greater than he in Faith but farre unlike him in other things and for the encouragement of his Souldiers he himselfe giving the first stroke of the battle casting a small Axe at him by Gods good pleasure prostrated the enemy marching in the front With whose fall the people being encouraged rannâ— violently upon the Robbers and slaying a great part of them compelled the most fierce captaine unmanfully to fly This hee himselfe was wont afterwards to relate among his friends with mirth as glorying That onely God could over come him by the Faith of a simple Bishop After this resuming his Forces he wasted the Iâ—lands and Provinces of Scotland as at first Whereupon the King was compelled to appease this Robber to which end using better counsell than formerly he â—esolved to deale wisely with a proud and craâ—ty enemy with whom he could not deale valiantly Therefore granting to him a certaine Province with the monastery of Fornace he suspended his excursions for a time But when as he gloriously passed through the subdued Province like a King with a powerfull army and became exceeding troublesome to the Monastery it selfe of which he had beene a Monke by the consent of the Nobles who hated either his power or his insolence some Inhabitants of the said Province laid waite for him and having gotten a convenient time when as hee followed the multitude he had sent before him to his lodging with a slow pace and a small guard they apprehending him bound him and put out both his eyes because both were wicked and cutting off the cause of a virulent race they gelt him writes my Author for the peace of the Kingdome of Scotland not for the Kingdome of Heaven This Bishop thus emasculated afterwards came to Belleland and there continued quiet many yeares till his death Yet he is reported then to have said that if he had the eye but of a Sparrow his Enemyes should no way insult off their Acts against him So Neubrigensâ—s If all our Lordly Bishops were gelt like this for the peace of the Kingdome both of Scotland and England that we might be no more troubled with this their Lordly virulent generation in â—uture ages I presume it would be as great a blessing as could befall both Kingdomes and Churches About the yeare 1230. the men of Cathnes sore offended with their Bishop named Adam for that upon refusall to pay their Tithes he had accursed and excommunicated them fel upon him within his owne house And first scourging him with Rods at length set fire upon him and burnt him within his owne kitchin Which Act being reported to the Scoâ—tish King Alexander as then sojourning at Edenburgh he hasted forth with all speed to punish the offenders not ceasing till he had taken 400â— of themâ— all which number he caused to be hanged and for that he would have no succession to come of such a wicked seed he appointed all their Sons to lose their stones The place where they were so gelded is called even to this day the Stony-hill The Eaâ—le of Cathnes for that he neither succoured the Bishop in time of need nor yet sought to punish the offenders that did this cruell deed was deprived of his Earledome and the Lands belonging to the same The Pope highly commended King Alexander for this punishment taken of them that had so cruelly murthered their Bishop Thus was one small cruelty occasioned by this Bishops covetousnesse and perversenesse punished with a farre greater yea such a one as is hardly parralleld in story and that by the instigation of the Prelates and Pope who applauded this barbarous cruelty Had all Lordly Traytorly Rebellious and Seditious Prelates beene thus gelded that no succession mighâ— spring from their wicked seed to infest both Chuâ—ch and State it had beene a more profitable and commendable action than the gelding of these poore Laymen King Iames the fourth Anno 1504. when he had formerly ministred justice so amongst his Subjects that they lived in great peace and quietnesse William Elfinstone Bishop of Aberdene one of his Counsell devised wayes to win the King great profit and gaine by calling his Barons and all those that held any Lands within this Realme to shew their evidences by way of recognition and if they had not sufficient writings to shew warrantablâ— by the antecedent Lawes of the Kingdome the Lands should remaine at the Kings pleasure But when the King perceived his people to grudge herewith and not without caâ—se as with a thing devised to disquiet his people and the whole Country of his owne courteous nature he easily agreed with the possessors of such Lands For the which he purchased great love amongst his people and the Bishop the deviser of this Ordinance wanne passing great hatred and malice Anno. 1521. A Parliament was summoned to be kept at Edenburgh the 26. of Ianuary and a generall Sommons of forâ—eiture proclaimed at the Market Crosse in Edenburgh wherein divers were sommoned to make their appearance in the said Parliament to be tryed
for sundry great offences by them committed Whereupon Gawin Dowglasse Bishop of Dunkeld hearing of this Proclamation though not named in it conscious to himselfe of great offences fled into England and remained aâ— London in the Savoy where he dyed Anno 1569. There was a great rebellion in the North by the Earles of Westmorland and Northumberland and others Murray then Regent of Scotland informed Queene Elizabeth that the Bishop of Rosse then in England was the Authour of that Rebellion whereupon he was committed to the Bishop of London to remaine his Prisoner As the Archbishops of Canterbury Primates of all England have beene the greatest Traytors and Incendiaries of all other our Prelates so have the Bishops and Archbishops of Saint Andrewes Primates of all Scotland beene the like in that Realme of which I shall give you a taste In the yeare of our Lord 1180. Richard Bishop of Saint Andrews deceasing there arose a great Schisme about the election of a new Bishop for the canons of the Church of S. Andrews elected Iohn Scot for their Bishop and William King of Scots made choyce of Hugh his Chaplaine and caused him to be consecrated by the Bishops of his Kingdome notwithstanding the said Iohns appeale to the Pope Whereupon Pope Alexander sent Alexis a sub-Deacon of the Church of Rome into Scotland to heare and determine the controversie betweene these two competitors Who after a long debate finding that the said Iohn was Canonically elected and that Hugh after the appeale to the Pope was violently intruded by the King into the Bishopricke of Saint Andrewes immediately deposed him from his Bishopricke and by his authority imposed perpetuall silence on him confirmed the election of Iohn and caused him to be consecrated Bishop of Saint Andrewes by the Bishops of Scotland the King neither prohibiting nor contradicting it yea permitting it by the Counsell of the Bishops of his Realme But immediately after his consecration the King prohibited him to stay within his kingdome and Hugh carryed himselfe as Bishop no lesse than he did before his deprivation and taking with him the Episcopall Chaplet Staffe and Ring with other things he unlawfully detaining them and beginning his journey towards Rome departed And because he would not restore the things he carryed away Allexis excommunicated him interdicted his Bishopricke and the Pope confirmed that sentence Hereupon the Pope writes three Letters one to the Bishops Abbots and Prelates of all Scotland the Prior of Saint Andrewes and the Clergy and people of that Diocesse honourably to receive Iohn as their Bishop within 8 dayes after the receipt of this Letter and to submit unto him as their Bishop and putting on the spirit of fortitude to labour wisely and manfully for the preservation of Ecclesiasticall Justice and to endeavour to appease the Kings displeasure But if the King were averse or inclining to the Counsell of wicked men then they ought to obey God and the holy Church of Rome more than men otherwise he must and would ratifie the sentence which Hugh Bishop of Durham had pronounced against the contumacious and rebellious Another Letter to all the Bishops and Prelates of Scotland to denounce Hugh excommunicated and to avoyd his company as an excommunicate Person till he restored to Iohn the goods of the Church he had taken away and given him competent satisfaction for the things he had destroyed Moreover the Pope granted to Roger Arch-bishop of Yorke a power Legatine in Scotland and commanded him that he together wiâ—h Hugh Bishop of Durham should denounce a â—entence of excommunication against the King of Scotland and interdict his Kingdome unlesse he would permit the said Iohn to hold his Bishopricke in peace and give security to him to keepe the peace And the same Pope strictly commanded Iohn by vertue of his canonicall obedience that neither act of love nor feare oâ— any man nor through any mans suggestion or will he should rashly presume to relinquish the Church of Saint Andrewes to which he was consecrated and in which he was confirmed by Apostolicall authority nor presume to receive another Bishopricke adding that if he should attempt it he would take away both Bishopricks from him without exception After which Pope Alexander writ a Letter to King William himselfe enjoyning him thereby within twenty dayes after the receipt thereof to give peace and security to the Bishop and to receive him unto his favour so that he ought not to doubt the Kings indignation Alioquin noveritis c. Else he should know that he had commanded Roger Archbishop of Yorke Legate of the Apostolicke See in Scotland to put his Kingdome under interdict and to excommunicate his person notwithstanding any appeale And that he should know for certaine that if he persisted in his violence as he had formerly laboured that his kingdome might have liberty so he would thenceforth doe his endeavour Vt in pristinam subjectionem revertatur that it should revert unto its Priestine subjection He meant I take it not to himselfe but to England But the King obeying in nothing his Apostolicall mandates expelled Iohn Bishop of Saint Andrewes and Matthew Bishop of Aberden his Uncle oâ—t of his kingdome Whereupon Roger Arch-bishop of Yorke Hugh Bishop of Durham and Alexis prosecuting the Popes command Pronounced a Sentence of Excommunication against the Kings person and a sentence of Interdict against his Kingdome And Iohn on the other side fulminated a sentence of excommunication against Richard de Mâ—rtue Constable of Scotland and other of the Kings familiars who disturbed the peace betweene the King and him And Roger of Yorke and Hugh of Durham likewise enjoyned the Prior of Saint Andrewes and all Ecclesiasticall persons within the Diocesse to come to Iohn their Bishop and yeeld due subjection to him else they would pronounce a sentence of suspention against them as contumacious and rebellious And when as certaine Ecclesiastickes of the Diocesse for feare of the said suspension came to the said Iohn the King cast them all out of his kingdome with their children and kindred and with their very sucking children yet lying in their swathing cloutes and hanging on their Mothers brests Whose miserable proscription and exile the foresaid Roger of Yorke and Hugh of Durham beholding Reiterated their former excommunication and interdiction Commanding all Bishops Abbots Priors and Ecclesiasticall persons firmely and unmoveably to observe the same and very warily to shunne the King himselfe as an excommunicate Person Not long after Roger of Yorke fell sicke and dyed which the King of Scotâ— hearing rejoyced exceedingly thereat And taking advise with the Bishops Earles and other wise men of his kingdome he sent Ioceline Bishop of Glascow Arnulfe Abbot of Melros and others to Pope Lucius to absolve him from the foresaid Excommunication and interdict and if they might by any meanes to procure Iohn to be deprived By whose solicitation the Pope released the Excommunication and interdict as appeares by his Letter
to the King recorded at large by Hoveden After which the Pope sent one Rolland Elect Bishop of Dole into Scotland to make peace betweene the King and Iohn who after long debate made this accord that Hugh should abjure the Bishopricke of Saint Andreweâ— and that Iohn should also release all his claimes thereto and in leiu thereof should have the Bishopricke of Dunkelden and all the rents he had before the election and the Chancery of the King and forty markes rent out of the Bishopricke of Saint Andrewes But Hugh when the King required him to renounce his Bishopricke answered That he would rather receive his judgement in the Court of Rome than thus abjure his Bishopricke to which he had beene consecrated And forthwith he reproved the Letters which Iohn had impetrated from Rome against him of falsehood and appealed to the Pope Whereupon Rolland not able to proceed certified the Pope at large of the agreement and proceedings After this Iohn and Hugh appearing before the Pope and Cardinals at Velletris their cause was fully heard and debated in their audience whereupon by the common Counsell of his Brethren he deprived both of them and caused them to resigne the Bishoprick into his hands freely and absolutely And within â—ew dayes after by the advise of all the Cardinalls the Pope restored and confirmed the Bishopricke of Saint Andrewes to Hugh and gave the Bishopricke of Dunkelden with what ever the King formerly offered to Iohn Both the Bishops returning home received these severall Bishoprickes but because the King would not restore to Iohn the things taken from him he questioned Hugh againe for the Bishopricke of Saint Andrewes For which purpose he went to Rome where he procured Hugh to be deposed though but newly setled there before and brought with him five severall Letters from Pope Clement touching this businesse The first to Iocelin Bishop of Glascow Matthew Bishop of Aberden and others declaring the deposition of Hugh and absolving all within his Diocesse from his subjection and obedience and enjoyning them to elect Iohn and receive him for their Bishop The second to William King of Scots to receive Iohn into favour to remove Hugh and invest Iohn in this Bishopricke The third to Henry the second King of England beseeching admonishing and enjoyning him as he tendred the remission of his sinnes and out of his reverence of Saint Peter and him diligently to admonish and perswade the King of Scots Et si necesse fuerit districtione regali qua ei praemines concessa tuae regiae celsitudini potestate compellas c. And if need were To compell him by his royall distresse whereby he was above him and by the power granted to his royall Highnesse to lay aside all his rancor against this Bishop conceived by the malice of some whisperers and removing all excuses to pardon him and to permit him quietly to enjoy the Diocesse of Saint Andrewes without any further trouble or suite seeing he was ready and prepared to be obedient to the King in all things The fourth to all the Clergy and of the Diocesse of Saint Andrewes enjoyning them humbly and devoutly to receive Iohn as their proper Father and Pastor and fromthenceforth to give all due reverence and obedience to his wholesome admonitions and mandates wiâ—hout any diâ—â—imulation declaring all elections of any other to the Bishopricke voyd and threatning to put all the Diocesse under interdict if they presumed to conspire against Iohn untill they should acknowledge their offence and submit unto him The fifth to three Scottish Bishops and sundry Abbots reciting how great persecutions calamities and pressures the Church of Saint Andrewes had suffered under the shadow of the Kings indignation and what great dangers and labours Iohn had sustained â—or the preservation of the liberties of the Church committed to him confirmed by two Popes his predecessours and requiring them after the receipt of this Letter to meete together like wise and provident men and to goe to the Kings presence and diligently to admonish and induce him to remit the rancor of his indignation against the said Bishop and not to contemne the Church of Rome herein but without delay wholesomely to obey and humbly to submit to her and to their admonitions as it was agreeable to his Kingly glory and salvation and quietly to permit the Bishop to enjoy the Bishopricke of Saint Andrewes And that iâ— which God forbid he should resist these Apostolicall monitions to the perill of his owne salvation then they should promulgate an iâ—terdict against his highnesse Kingdome his Person and all his Favorites and Abettors within twenty dayes notwithstanding any appeale by his Apostolicall authority And â—hould strike those with the like sentence who were obedient to Hugh and fomented him in his obstinacy seeing the See Apostolicke had perpetually removed from Saint Andrewes and excommunicated him and should publickely pronounce them to be excommunicated as long as they did thus and should be carefully avoyded by others untill they should returne to the Churches obedience and demaund the benefit of absolution from Iohn as their Bishop Enjoyning them farther to purifie and sanctifie according to the custome of the Church all the Altars and Chalices in which Hugh had celebrated during his excommunication and to suspend all the Clerkes of Saint Andrewes both from their office and benefice and knit them fast in the bond of excommunication who should be contumacious and rebellious against Iohn untill they submitted to him The King hearing these things being at last overcome by the perswasion and intreaty of his friends received Ioâ—n into his favour and granted him peaceably to enjoy the Bâ—shopricke of Dunkelden and all the Rents he formerly had before his consecration upon condition that Iohn should quite claime from all suite the Bishopricke of Saint Andrewes which notwithstanding the Popes Letters wherewith he was furnished he was content to doe and to submit to the Kings mercy knowing That a morsell of bread is better with joy than an house full of sacrifice with contention Hugh being degraded from Saint Andrewes and excommunicated goes to Rome and giving caution to stand to the judgement of the Church he was mercifully absolved by the Pope and within few dayes after dyed at Rome of the plague with most of his family Whereupon the King of Scotland gave the Bishoprick of Saint Andrews to Roger the Earle of Leicestors Sonne then his Chancellour Iohn being present and not contradicting it The same yeare 1188. King William sent Messengers to Pope Clement and obtained of him Letters of Protection in this forme touching the exemption of the Churches of his Kingdome Clemens Episcopus servus servorum Dei charissimo in Christo filio Willielmo illustri Scotorum Regi salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Cum universi Christi jugo subjecti ad sedem Apostolicam patrocinium invenire debeant favorem illos tamen specialius convâ—nit munimâ—ne protectionis confoveri quorum fidem ac
devotionem in pluribus est experta ut ad ipsius electionis favorem tanto amplius provocetur ejus reverentiae devotiori affectione subdantur quanto benevolentiae ipsius gratiae pignus se noverint certius assecutos Eâ— propter O charissime in Christo fili reverentiam ac devotionem quam ad Romanam te habuisse a longis retro temporibus Ecclesiam novimus attendentes praesentis scripti pagina duximus statuendum ut Scoticana Ecclesia Apostolicae sedi cujus filia specialis existit nullo mediante debeat subjacere In qua hae sedes Episcopales esse noscuntur Ecclesiae videlicet S. Andreae Glascuensis Dunkeldensis Dumblinensis Brehinensis Aberdonensis Moraviensis Rosensensis Katinensis nemini liceat nisi Romano Pontifici vel legato ab ipsius latere destinato in regnum Scotiae interdicti vel excommunicationis sententiam promulgare si promulgata fuerit decernimus non valere adjicimus ut nulli de caetero qui de regno Scoâ—iae non fuerit nisi quem Apostolica sedes propter hoc de corpore suo specialiter destinaverit licitum sit in eo ligationis officium exercere Prohibemus autem ut controversiae quae fuerint in regno illo de possessionibus ejus exortae ad examen extra regnum positorum judicum non trabantur nisi ad Romanam Ecclesiam fuerit appellatum Si qua vero scripta contra hujus libertatis statuta apparuerint impetrata vel in posterum istius concessionis mentione non habita contigerit impetrari nullum tibi vel ipsi regno circa hujus praerogativae concessionem praejudicium genereturâ— praeterea libertates immunitates tibi vel eidem regno vel Ecclesiis in eo constitutis a praedecessoribus nostris Romanis pontificibus indultas hactenus observatas ratas habemus illibatas futuris temporibus statuimus permanere Nulli ergo hominum liceat paginam nostrae constitutionis prohibitionis infringere vel ei aliquatenus contraire Si quis autem hoc attentare praesumpserit indignationem omnipotentis Dei beatorum Petri Pauli Apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum Datum Laterani tertia Idus Martii pontificatus nostri anno primo Not long after the same King procured the same Letter verbatim from Pope Coelestine in the first yeare of his Papacy But to returne to our Bishops of this See In the yeare of Grace 1306. Robert de Bruse invader of anothers kingdome and a paricide like Adonias caused himselfe to be Crowned King of Scotland in the Abbey of Schone after the manner of his Country by the Bishops of Saint Andrewes and Glascow the Abbot of Schone and other conspirators contrary to the Oath they and he had taken to King Edward the first Which was the occasion of a bloody warre as you may read more at large in our Historians Anno 1445. The Earle of Dowglas who ruled wholly about King Iames the second set the Earle of Crawford against the Bishop of Saint Andrewes called Iames Kenedy Sisters sonne to King Iames the first who tooke a great prey out of the Bishops Lands in Fiffe Whereupon the Earle of Crawford on the one part and the Earle of Huntly with the Ogilinde on the other met at Arbroth in set battle where the Earle of Crawford and 600. more on both sides were slaine King Iames the second Anno 1454. by the advise of this Bishop dispatched out of the way such as he any wayes mistrusted of which number was the Dowglasses whose puissance and authority not without cause he evermore suspected he turned the Earle of Angus and divers of the Dowglasses blood that were of their faction from them and made them to revolt from the other confederates so as in the end he had them all at his pleasureâ— Anno 1462. All things at that season were ordered by the advice and Counsell of this Bishop who governed the Realme of Scotland as well during the minority of Iames the third as also in the dayes of his Father King Iames the second And was the occasion of many tumults and warres therein The Scotsâ—eeking â—eeking meanes to rid thâ—mselves from subjection of the Bishop of Yorke who was anciently the Metropolitane of Scotland did in the yeare of Christ 1474. obtaine of the Pope that they might have a Metropolitane See within themselves by reason of the continuall warres which were betweene the two Nations during which they could neither use appellations to their Metropolitane nor have other Bishops consecraâ—ed Whereupon the Pope erected the Church of Saint Andrewes into an Arch-Bishopricke in the time of King Iames the third touching which thus writeth Lesleus li. 8. p. 317. Hoc anno which was the yeare of Christ 1474 Patricius Grahamus sedis Andreapolitanae Ecclesiae Episcopus crebris literis ac nuntiis a Papa efflagitavit ut Metropolitana potestas in divi Andreae civitate figeretur iniquum esse enim contendit ut Scoti ab Eboracensi Episcopo tanquam primate penderent cum propter crebra bella quibus se Scoti Angli mutuo lacessunt Scotis ad illum non pateretur tutus accessus nec liberum jus praesertim in appellationibus Annuit summus Pontifex ut Andreapolitano deinceps Episcopo potestas Metropolitana incumbat dies indulto Pontifici promulgandi mense Septembri dicta est atque maxima populi nobiliumque laetitia celebrata Episcopi reliqui Grahami odio flagrantes illius authoritatem repudiant Regisque animum ingenti pecunia which was as other Authours say eleven thousand Markes occupant ne Grahami partibus studeret Interea praesules Romam mittunt qui sui defensionem contra Grahamum suscipiunt But in the end they did not prevaile Graham was made Arch bishop Patricke Graham being Bishop of Saint Andrewes and the first Archbishop of that See was after his advancement to that title deprived in this sort In the yeare of Christ 1477â— Pope Xistus the fourth of that name sent a Legate called Husman into Scotland which should displace this Patricke the Archbishop of Saint Andrewes condemned by the sentence of the Pope and the Cardinals for an Heretique Schismaticke Simonicke Whereupon he was deprived of all Ecclesiasticall dignity and commanded to perpetuall Prison In whose place was William Schewes chosen to whose custody and disposition this Patricke was committed after which Graham being removed for his safe imprisonment first to Saint Colmes Isle then to Dumfermling and lastly to Lochelevine there in the end he dyed and was buryed in Saint Sarffis or Servimanus Isle in Lochelevine after that he had beene three yeares Arch Bishop William Schewes being created Archbishop of Saint Andrewes in the yeare of Christ 1478. as some have or 1479â— as others have it in the Holy-Rood House in Edenburgh in the presence of King Iames and many of the Nobility received the Pall as the ensigne of his Metropolitane power being declared Legate and
Primate of Scoâ—land at what time he was not withstood by any of the oâ—her Bishops who being estranged from shewing any favour to Graham did often inâ—ringe his authority and in the end expelled the same Graham from his Archiepiscopall See After which in the yeare of Christ 1482. This Archbishop Schewes fled into his owne Country and after at the request of the King resigned his Archbishopricke contenting himselfe with the Bishopricke of Murry Andrew Steward Uncle to King Iames the third was upon the resignation of William Schews made Archbishop of Saint Andrewes after which in the yeare of Christ 1484. the King sent this Archbishop Embassadour to Rome for the obtaining of certaine priviledges which he brought to effect In the yeare of Christ 1491. in the time of King Iames the fourth about the third yeare of his Raigne was great contention betweene the Archbishops of Saint Andrewes and Glascow touching both their Authoritiesâ— Which when it had drawne many of the Nobility into divers factions it was ceased by the King for a certaine time untill all doubt thereof might be taken away by deciding the same by the Canon Law before Ecclesiasticall Judges Then in the yeare of Christ 1507. being about the nineteenth yeare of Iames the fourth the Bishop of Saint Andrewes with the Earle of Arrane were sent Embassadors into France Alexander Steward Bastard Sonne to King Iames the fourth was made Archbishop of Saint Andrewes in the yeare of Christ 1510. About the 22. yeare of the Raigne of the same Iames the fourth This man having long studyed with Erasmus in Germany and in the Low Countries was advanced to this See of the Arch bishopricke when he was yet in Flaunders who having intelligence thereof by his friends came forthwith into Scotland where he was joyfully received by the King the Nobility and his kindred He was slaine together with his Father King Iames the fourth and a Scottish Bishop more at Ploden field in the yeare of Christ 1513. The Cardinall of Scotland promised the Scots Heaven for the destruction of Englandâ— Perhaps they might obtaine it by their deaths but they got no more English earth then would interre their slaine bodies After which Iohn Hepburne Prior of Saint Andrewes strongly besieged the Castle of Saint Andrewes and forced the same to be yeelded unto him the cause of whiâ—h besiege grew that Hepburne being chosen Bishop of Saint Andrewes by his Canons of that Church whereunto the whole Nobility were helpers was hindered to possesse that Archbishopricke by such stipendary people of Gawine Dowglasse as kept the Castle whereupon the Queene and the Earle of Angus after that they understood how the Castle was by force come into the hands of Hepburne did take in evill part that he who was so troublesome unto them should ascend to so high a dignity and that Gâ—wine Dowglasse so deerely to them beloved and to whom they had given that Bishopricke should be helplesse of the recovery thereof Whereupon the Queene and the Duke of Albany diligently laboured by Embassadours sent to Rome that a third person sith Gawin Dowglasse could not obtaine it might be advanced thereunto which third man was Andrew Forman Bishop of Murry further requiring therewithall that he might be Abbot of Dumfermling and Aberbroth which in the end with much intreaty they obtained of the Pope Andrew Forman Bishop of Murry was at Edenburgh by the Popes Bulls on the eighth of the Kalends of Ianuary in the yeare of Christ 1515. being about the second yeare of the Raigne of Iames the fifth declared Archbishop of Saint Andrewes and Abbot of Dumfermeling and Aberbroth Whereupon the Prior of Sainâ— Andrewes before named still contending that he was Archbishop both in respect of the election of the Coven and the consent of the Nobility did labour all he could against Forman appealing him to Rome for which cause he with the Lord Hales and other his friends come to Edenburgh to defend the matter at what time the Lord Hume Chamberlaine of Scotland and such others as openly assisted Forman did oppose themselves against the Prior which Nobility because they were great in the Court did the more molest and hinder Hepburne shortly after by publike Edict and Proclamation of the King banishing the Prior and his followers proclaiming them Rebels and putting them to the home Hepburne being stricken with the sharpenesse of that Precept did privily depart the Towne and the Prior went to Rome hoping by the Popes authority to wrest from Forman the Archbishopricke which he could not obtaine by violence But how he sped at Rome I doe not know for I onely finde this that in the yeare following being the yeare of Christ 1516. about the third yeare of the same Iames the fifth that the Governour perceiving that all these contentions hatreds and divisions of the Nobility did arise by these bralls which were betweene Forman and Hepburne for the See of Saint Andrewes to the great diâ—quieting of the Realme by such part-takings as chanced thereabouts among the Lords desired to cure this grievous wound made in the Common-wealth Wherefore he perswaded Andrew Forman that he should resigne all his Ecclesiasticall Benefices into his hands in an open assembly at Edenburgh for by that meanes the Governour thought that he might pacifie the minds of the Nobility and utterly rout out those branches of dissention Whereupon there was a day appointed to the Nobility to assemble at what time Andrew Forman freely resigned to the Governour the Duke of Albanie all his Ecclesiasticall promotions to be disposed at the Dukes pleasure In consideration thereof the Duke bestowed the Archbishopricke of Saint Andrewes and the Abbey of Dumfermling upon the same Andrew Forman and gave the Bishopricke of Murry to Iames Hepburne greatly favoured of the Earle Bothwell and the Competitor of Forman being thereunto substitute by Iohn Hepburne Pâ—ior of Saint Andrewes in the place of the said Iohn to whom moreover the Duke appointed a yeerely pension of 1000. markes to be paid by the same Forman out of the Abbey of Dumfermling After which about sixe yeares or somewhat leâ—â—e this Forman departed this Life being in the yeare of Christ 1522. and the ninth yeare of King Iames the fifth to whom succeeded Iames Beton Iames Beton Archbishop of Glascow was Chancellor in the yeare of Christ 1513. being the first yeare of King Iames the fifth This man being of great wisedome was appointed amongst others to assist the Queene in the government of the Realme whereunto she was for a time advanced but the woman not induring to be directed by others taking quarrell against the Bishop did immediately after the marriage performed the sixth of August in the yeare of Christ 1514. betweene her and Archibald Dowglasse Earle of Angus which this Bishop incountred as much as he could take the great Sealâ— from the said Bishop of Glascow at Saint Iohns Towne whereupon the Bishop
colour or fraud that I have formerly erred in this that I thought the government of the Church to be like the regiment of terrene Kingdomes expresly against the precept of Christ our Lord and that the Monarchy whereby the Church is governed did not rest in the person of Christ our Saviour alone as it doth in truth but likewise in the Ministers who yet are nothing else but vassalls and Clarks under Christ Et aequales inter se and equall among themselves c. Lastly I confesse that the Office of a Bishop as now it is used and claimed omni authoritate verbi Dei destituitur solo politico hominum commento fundatur is destitute 〈◊〉 all authority from Gods Word and founded onely upon the politicke device of men out of which the Primacy of the Pope or Antichrist hath sprung Et merito damnandum est and it is deservedly to be condemned because the assembly of the Presbytery who have the power of Iurisdiction and Inspection both in Visitations and in Ordinations performeth all these things with greater authority piety and zeale than any one Bishop whose care for the most part is intent not upon God or their function but the world which he principally ordereth Consider after what sort it hath beene usurped these 506. yeares last past with how great cruelty and tyranny they have exercised it and thou shalt finde that it hath beene the Principall Originall of suppressing the Word of God in every kingdome which will evidently appeare to any one who shall survey the Ecclesiasticall History This Arch-Prelate held correspondency with our English Bishops from whom asking leave of the generall Assembly to goe into England about his Civill affaires onely as he pretented he received his consecration to this Arch-bishopricke in a secret manner Anno. 1589. and then returned into Scotland where he durst nor exercise his Archiepiscopall authority openly for a space King Iames after he was made Archbishop brought him from Saint Andrewes to Edenburgh that he might preach there openly in the great Church the King himselfe accompanying him with his Guard to secure him from the people brought him into the Church sending halfe of his Guard to convey the Bishop to the Pulpit doore which Master Iohn Cooper one of the ordinary Ministers of Edinburgh had prepossessed who standing up to say prayer and preach assoone as he perceived the King in his seate the King perceiving it sayd Master Iohn Cooper I will not have you preach this day I command you to goe downe out of the Pulpit and let the Bishop of Saint Andrewes come up and preach to me to the which the ordinary Minister replyed Please your Majesty this is the day appointed to me to preach and if it were your Majesties pleasure I would faine supply the place my selfe But the King replyed againe I will not heare you at this time I command you to goe downe and let Master Patricke Adamson come up and Preach this day and beside the King had remembred that he should not have stiled him a Bishop by reason there were so strait Acts against them Then Master John Cooper sayd I shall obey Sir and came downe from the Pulpit yet the rest of the Ministers that were there sitting with him at the entry of the Pulpit did not open the doore to the Bishop while the King commanded him and then so soone as the Bishop was entred into the Pulpit and began with low becke to doe reverence to the King and to other inferiour Magistrates the whole people rose out of their places with a great out-cry and lamentation and ranne out of the Church especially the women and when the Guard thought to have kept them in they ran over the Guard and Master Iohn Cooper going also out of the Church went to Mr. Robert Bruce his house the women all going with him and many men and there heard his Sermon which he should have Preached in the Church the fearefull noyse yet continuing in the Church many running out of the Church and some comming in againe to see whereto the matter would returne made the King to cry out and say What a devill ayles the people that they may not heare a man Preach but cry what he would cry for the space of a long time not any audience could be given so with what feare the Bishop Preacht that day and with how little audience they can best tell that considered the matter rightly alwayes the King set the Bishop in the midst of the Guard and so tooke him downe to the Abbey with him but so soone as he came to Saint Andrewes againe the Presbytery entred in Proces against him for taking upon him to be a Bishop which they proved by many reasons but chiefely for that the King called him so and albeit they had many hinderances and the King caused a great delay to be made devising meanes to save him from excommunication yet in the end he was excommunicated by the Provinciall Assembly albeit by the Kings earnest dealing his excommunication was not published in all Churches as it should have beene upon some promises which he made and yet never performed them This Arch-bishop by the instigation of our English Prelates writ and Preached in defence of Episcopacy as he afterwards confessed in the Synod of Fiffe where he retracted this his Doctrine as erronious and being put from his Bishopricke excommunicated and hated of the people who put him to the horne for his debts he fell into a great sicknesse called a Dogges appetite and wanting meate to satisfie his hunger he was in manner starved to death confessing in his sickenesse that his sentence of excommunication was justly pronounced and desired the Assembly to release him from it for Christs sake whereupon he was afterwards absolved after his forementioned recantation After this the very calling of Bishops having beene condemned and abjured in the Assembly at Dundy as unlawfull Anno. 1580. the Church of Scotland upon this Adamsons death continued free from the government and tyranny of Bishops till King Iames was possessed of the Crowne of England and some yeares after at which time some ambitious Scottish Ministers stealing secretly into England procured themselves to be consecrated Bishops by our English Prelates and by certaine insensible degrees by the helpe of our English Bishops by perjury forgery and other indirect meanes with much difficulty and opposition set up Episcopacy againe in the Church of Scotland to the great disturbance of that Church and State whereupon after the assembly at Glascow An. 1610. where Episcopacy was againe revived by admitting Ministers to have Vote in Parliament though with many a limitation which they afterwards frustrated and eluded by degrees one Gladstaine was ordained Arch-bishop of Saint Andrewes who is credibly reported to have made a solemne recantation at his death for his acceptance of such an unlawfull office which recantation was suppressed After him one Sprotswood succeeded a very vicious false and crafty
Machiavilian who confederating with Laud now Arch-bishop of Canterbury by his meanes procured himselfe to be made Chancellor of Scotland who by reason of this great temporall office was the better able to introduce all Canterburies Innovations into that Church with more facility This Arch-Prelate with the other Prelates of Scotland conâ—ederating with Canterbury who had usurped a kinde of generall and Papall Superintendency over all his Majesties three Kingdomes in the yeare 1636. framed a booke of Canons and Constitutions for the government of â—he Scotland tending to the utter subversion of the established Discipline of that Church and opening a doore for many doctrinall and disciplinary errours and Innovations And to prevent all obloquy against them they enjoyne none to speake either against these Canons or the booke of Common prayer which was to be set forth under heavie censures The next yeare following in Iune 1637. the sayd Arch-bishop and Bishops by Canterburies direction caused a New booke of Common prayer to be Prinâ—ed for the use of the Church of Scotland which was appointed by his Majesties letters to be received as the onely forme of Gods Worship whereunto all subjects of that Realme civill or Ecclesiasticall ought to conforme and the contraveners to be condignely punished To set on this designe the better every Minister was by Proclamation enjoyned and some charged with letters of horning to buy two of the sayd Bookes for the use of the Parish and to scare all men from opposing it Canterbury in the very same month of June caused Doctor Bastwicke Mr. Burton and Mr. Prynne to be severely censured in the Starchamber for opposing his Innovations here in England which hee then intended to introduce into the Church of Scotland and to be set in the Pillory at Westminster where all oâ— them had their eares close cut off one of them his cheekes â—eared this barbarous execution finished even before their wounds were cured he then sent them away close Prisoners to three remote Castles Dr. Bastwick to Lanceston Castle in Coâ—newall Mr. Burton to Lancaster and Mr. Prynne to Carnarvan Castle in North-Wales where they were shut up close Prisoners so that neither their Wives Children nor any of their friends could have accesse to speake with them nor they so much as enjoy the liberty of Pen Inke or Paper to write for necessaries or the liberty of any licensed Books except the Bible and some few other Bookes for private devotion And not content herewith by an extrajudiciall order oâ— the Lords he soone after caused them to be conveyed close Prisoners into the Isle of Iersie Garnsey and Silly there to be close imprisoned in three Castles giving strict order that no man should be admitted to speake with them there nor Dr. Bastwickes and Mr. Burtons wives permitted so much as once to come into the Islands where they were and that all letters to them should be intercepted and no pen inke or Paper allowed them to write upon any occasion This transcendent new kinde of Prelaticall tyranny wherewith Canterbury imagined to terrifie and appale the Scots comming to their eares wrought quite contrary effects stirring them up with greater animosity to resist the Prelates encroachments both upon their consciences Lawes liberties and established Discipline Whereupon when the Bishop of Edenburgh accompanied with the two Arch-bishops and some other Prelates of Scotland began the use of their new service booke in the chiefe Church of Edenburgh the 23. of Iuly next after this sentence and execution the most part of the people much discontented with such a great and sudden alteration as imported a change both of the externall forme and nature of the former publicke worâ—hip did at one instant rise and hinder the new Service calling it superstitious and Idolatrous and the same was also stopped in another Church of Edenburgh where it was to be reade by the Bishop of Arguile This notwithstanding the Prelates procured by Act of Councell the paine of death without all favour or mercy to be denounced against all those who should any wayes raiâ—e or speake against the Bishops or any of the inferior Clergie or against the service Booke They discharged the ministers and Readers of Edenburgh who refused the Book their wonted service and interdicted the publicke Evening and Morning Prayer reading of Scriptures singing of Psalmes for a long time still pressing the buying and practising of the sayd booke by all Ministers which mooved the Ministers first to petition and next many of the Nobility Gentry Burgesses and Ministers to meete and to supplicate the Lords of the Privie Counsell against the sayd Bookes of Canons and Common Prayers and the illegall way of introducing the same till at last the Bishops violence and practises forced the whole kingdome into a combustion against them and caused them in their generall assembly at Edâ—nburgh Anno 1639. not onely to abjure but to extirpate Episcopacy and banish all their Bishops as Incendiaries out of their Realme except the Bishops of Dunkeld and of Orcanies who recanted and abjured their Episcopacy Canterbury and the Prelates of Scotland and England storming at these proceedings take occasion from thence to raise up a civill warre betweene England Ireland and Scotland thinking to restore Episcopacy againe in that Kingdome by force of Armes And when as this warre was happily pacified and all differences fully accorded Canterbury with his agents caused the former pacification â—o be annulled new Armes to be raised and a fresh warre to be undertaken to the unsupportable expence and great danger of all his Majesties three Kingdomes which by the Prelates practises are at this day still enforced to maintaine three Armies in the field and had the Prelates buâ— their wish we had long ere this embrued our hands deepely in one anothers blood and made our Kingdomes so many Aceldamaes to maintaine their Antichristian pompe and Lordlinesse But blessed and for ever honoured and praysed be our gracious God who hath miraculously continued and preserved our peace in the midst of war and â—rustrated the designes of our blood-thirsty Prelates turning their Bellum Episcopale as themselves termed it into a warre not for but against themselves to a probable extirpation of them for ever out of all three Kingdomes which have a long time groaned under their tyranny England and Ireland now desiring and petitioning earnestly to the Parliament to be eased of their inâ—olerable yoake of bondage as Scotland hath already exonerated themselves thereof Now to manifest that this present warre Originally sprung from the Scottish Prelates and from Canterbury the very fountaine of all late mischiefes in all three Kingdomes I shall neede no further evidence than the charge of the Scottish Commissioners against Canterbury presented to our present Parliament the Coppie whereof though already in Print I shall here insert as pertinent to my intenâ—â—d Theame The Charge of the Scottish Commissioners against the Prelate of Canterbury NOvations in Religion which are Universally acknowledged
And as if this had not been sufficient he procured sixe Subsidies to be lifted of the Clergy under paine of deprivation to all that should refuse And which is yet worse and above which Malice it selfe cannot ascend by his meanes a Prayer is framed Printed and sent through all the Paroches of England to be said in all Churches in time of Divine Service next after the Prayer for the Queene and Royall Progeny against our Nation by name of Trayterous Subjects having cast off all obedience to our annoynted Soveraigne and comming in a rebellious manner to invade England that shame may cover our faces as Enemies to God and the King Whosoever shall impartially examine what hath proceeded from himselfe in these two Bookes of Canons and Common Prayer what Doctrine hath beene published and Printed these yeares by-past in England by his Disciples and Emissaries what grosse Popery in the most materiall points we have found and are ready to shew in the posthume writings of the Prelate of Edenburgh and Dumblane his owne creatures his neerest familiars and most willing instruments to advance his counsels and projects â—all perceive that his intentions were deepe and large against all the reformed Kirkes and Reformation of Religion which in his Majesties dominions wes panting and by this time had rendred up the Ghost if God had not in a wonderfull way of mercy prevented us And that if the Pope himselfe had beene in his place he could not have beene more Popish nor could he more zealously have negotiated for Rome against the Reformed Kirkes to reduce them to the Heresies in Doctrine the Superstitions and Idolatry in worship and the Tyranny in Government whâ—ch are in that See and for which the Reformed Kirkes did separate from it and come furth of Babell From him certainely hath issued all this deluge which almost haâ—h overturned all We are therefore confident that your Lordships will by your meanes deale effectually wiâ—h the Parliament that this great firebrand be presently removed from his Majesties presence and that he may be put to tryall and put to his deserved censure according to the Lawes of the Kingdome which fall be good service to God honour to the King and Parliament terrour to the wicked and comfort to all good men and to us in speciall who by his meanes principally have beene put to so many and grievous afflictions wherein we had perished if God had not beene with us We doe indeed confesse that the Prelates of England have beene of very different humours some of them of a more hot and others of them men of a more moderate temper some of them more and some of them lesse inclinable to Popery yet what knowne truth and constant experience hath made undenyable we must at this opportunity professe that from the first time of Reformation of the Kirke of Scotland not onely after the comming of King Iames of happy memory into England but before the Prelates of England have beene by all meanes uncessantly working the overthrow of our discipline and government And it hath come to passe of late that the Prelates of England having prevailed and brought us to subjection in the point of Governement and finding their long waited for opportunity and a rare congruity of many spirits and powers ready to cooperate for their ends have made a strong assault upon the whole externall worship and doctrine of our Kirke By which their doing they did not aime to make us conforme to England but to make Scotland first whose weakâ—nesse in râ—sisting they had before experienced in the Novations of government and of some poynts of Worship and thereafter England conforme to Rome even in these matters wherein England had separated from Rome ever since the time of Reformation And evill therefore which hath issued not so much from the personall disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate quality and nature of their office and Prelaticall Hierarchy which did bring furth the Pope in ancient times and never ceaseth till it bringeth furth Popish Doctrine and worship where it is once rooâ—ed and the Principles thereof fomented and constantly followed And from that antipathy and inconsistency of the two formes of Ecclesiasticall Government which they conceived and not without cause that one Island united also under one head and Monarch wes noâ— able to beare the one being the same in all the parts and powers which it wes in the times of Popery and now is in the Roman Church The other being the forme of Government received maintained and practised by all the Reformed Kirks wherein by their owne testimonies and confessions the Kirke of Scotland had amongst them no small eminency This also we represent to your Lordships most serious consideration that not onely the firebrands may be removed but that the fire may be provided against that there be no more combustion after this I shall close up all touching the Prelates of Scotland with the late Act of their generall Assembly at Edenburgh for their utter extirpation out of that Church and the Recantation and abjuration of two of their late Bishops to wit the Bishop of Dunkelden and of the Orcanies The Generall Act for abolishing of Episcopacy and all Innovationâ— lately intended in the Church of Scotland THe Kings Majesty having graciously declared that it is his Royall will and pleasure that all questions about Religion and matters Ecclesiasticall be determined by Assemblies of the Kirke having also by publique Proclamation indicted this frâ—e National Assembly for setling the present distraction of this Kirke and for establishing a perfect peace against such divisions and disorders as hath beene sore displeasing to his Majesty and grievous to all his good Subjects and now his Majesâ—ies Commissioner Iohn Earle of Traquaire instructed and authorized with a full Commission being present and sitting in this Assembly now fully conveened and orderly constitute in all the members thereof according to the Order of this Kirke having at large declared his Majesties good will to the reformed Religion and his Royall care and tender affection to this Kirke where his Majesty had both his birth and Baptisme his great displeasure at the manifold distractions and division of this Kirk and Kingdome and his desires to have all our wounds perfectly cured with a free and fatherly hand And although in the way approved by the Kirke tryall hath beene taken in former assemblies before from the Kirke Registers to our full satisfaction yet the Commissioners grace making particular enquiry from the members of the Assembly now solemnely conveened concerning the reall and true causes of so many and great evills at this time past had so fore troubled the peace of this Kirke and Kingdome it was presented to his Majesties Commissioner by this Assembly that beside many other the maine and most materiall causes was First the pressing of this Kirke by the Prelates with a Service Booke or Booke of Common Prayer without direction or
Boswell serviteur to the said Sir George Montâ—rieff The Bishop of Orkneyes Recantation TO all and sundry whom it concernes to whose knowledge these presents shall come especially to the Reverent and Honorable Members of the future Assembly to be holden at Edenburgh the 12. day of August 1639. I Master George Gryame sometime pretended Bishop of Orkney being sorry and grieved at my heart that I should ever for my worldly respect imbraced the Order of Episcopacy the same having no warrant from the Word of God and being such an Order as hath had sensibly many fearefull and evill consequences in many parts of Christendome and particularly within the Kirke of Scotland as by dolefull and deplorable experience this day is manifest to have disclaimed like as I by the tenour hereof doe altogether disclaime and abjure all Episcopall power and Jurisdiction with the whole corruptions thereof condemned by lawfull Assemblies within the said Kirke of Scotland in regard the same is such an Order as is also abjured within the said Kirke by vertue of that Nationall Oath which was made in the yeare 1580 and 1581. Promising and swearing by the great name of the Lord our God that I shall never while I live directly nor undirectly exercise any such power within the Kirke neither yet shall I ever approve or allow the same not so much as in my private or publike discourse But on the contrary shall stand and adhere to all the Acts and Constitutions of the late Assembly holden at Glascow the 21. of November last by-past in Anno 1638 And shall concurre to the uttermost of my power sincerely and faithfully as occasion shall offer in executing the said Acts and in advancing the worke of Reformation within this Land to the glory of God the peace of the Country and the comfort and contentment of all good Christians as God shall be my helpe In testimony of the which premises I have subscribed these presents with my hand in Bricknes in Straines the second of February Anno Dom. 1639. Before these witnesses Master â—â—â—ter Stewart Minister at Souâ— randsley Master Iames Cheynie Minister at Buckwall Master Robert Peeâ—sone Minister at Firsâ— and Master Patricke Gryame Minister aâ— Holme My Sonne Before I passe to the Irish Prelates I shall close up this of the Scottish Prelates with this merry story out of the Booke of Martyrs Not long after the burning of David Stratton and Master Gurlay in the dayes of David Beaton Bishop and Cardinall of Saint Andrewes and George Treâ—chton Bishop of Dunkelden a Canon of Sainâ— Colmes Inche and Vicar of Delene called Deane Thomas Forret Preached every Sunday to his Parishioners out of the Epistle or Gospell as it fell for the time which then was a great novelty in Scotland to see any man Preach except a blacke Fryer or a gray Fryer and therefoâ—e â—he Fryers envyed him and accused him to the Bishop of Dunkelden in whose Diocesse he remained as an Heretique and one that shewed the mysteries of the Scriptuâ—es to â—he vulgar people in English to make the Clergy detestable in the sight of the people The Bishop of Dunkelden moved by the Fryers instigation called the said Deane Tâ—omas and said to him My Joy Deane Thomas I love you well and â—herefore I must give you my counsell how you shall rule and guide your selfe To whom Thomas said I thanke your Lordship heartily Then the Bishop began his Counsell on this manner My Joy Deane Thomas I am enformed that you Preach â—he Epistle or Gospell every Sunday to your Parishioners and that you take not the Cow nor the uppermost cloath from your Parishioners which thing is very prejudiciall to the Church men and therefore my Joy Deane Thomas I would you tooke your Cow and your uppermost cloath as other Church men doe or else it is too much to Preach every Sunday for in so doing you may make the people thinke that we should Preach likewise But it is enough for you when you find any good Epistle or any good Gospel that setteth forth the Liberty of the holy Church to Preach that and let the rest be Thomas answered my Lord I thinke that none of my Parishioners will complaine that I take not the Cow nor the uppermost cloath but will gladly give me the same together with any other thing that they have and I will give and communicate with them any thing that I have and so my Lord we agree right well and there is no discord among us And where your Lordship saith It is too much to preach every Sunday indeede I thinke it is too little and also would wish that your lordship did the like Nay nay Dean Thomas saith my Lord let that be for we are not ordained to preach Then sayd Thomas where your Lordship biddeth me preach when I finde any good Epistle or any good Gospell truely my Lord I have read the New Testament and the old and all the Epistles and Gospells and among them all I could never finde any evill Epistle or any evill Gospell but if your Lordship will shew me the good Epistle and the good Gospell and the evill Epistle and the evill Gospell then I shall preach the good and omit the evill Then spake my Lord stoutly and sayd I thanke God that I never knew what the old and New Testament was and of these words rose a Proverbe which is common in Scotland ye are like the Bishop of Dunkeldenâ— that knew neither new nor old Law therefore Deane Thomas I will know nothing but my Portuise and my Pontificall Goe your way and let be all these fantasies for if you persevere in thesâ— erronious opinions ye will repeâ—t it when you may not mend itâ— Thomas sayd I trust my cause be just in the presence of God and therefore I passe not much what doth follow thereupon and so my Lord and he departed at that time And soone after a Summons was directed from the Cardinall of Saint Andrewes and the sayd Bishop of Dunkelden upon the sayd Deane Thomas Forret upon two blacke Fryers called Fryer Iohn Kelow and another called Benarage and upon one Priest of Striveling called Duncane Sympson and one Gentleman called Robert Foster in Striveling with other three or foure with them of the towne of Striveling who at the day of their appearance after their summoning were condemned to the death without any place for recantation because as was alleadged they were Heresiarches or chiefe Heretiques and reachers of heresies and especially because many of them were at the bridall and marriage of a Priest who was Vicar of Twybody beside Stâ—iveling and did eate flesh in Lent at the sayd Bridall and so they were all together burnt upon the Castle hill at Edenburgh where they that were first bound to the stake godly and marvellously did comfort them which came behind This Bishop of Dunkeld and David Beton Arch-bishop of Saint Andrewes were very great persecutors of the true professors of
the Gospell whom they burnt and put to death the story of whose persecutions he that list may reade in Master Fox his Actâ— and Monuments Edit ult vol. 2. p. 605. to 626. to which I shall referre the Reader And thus much briefely touching the disloyall seditioâ—s and Schismaticall acts of the Scottish Prelates I now proceed to those of Ireland in whom I shall be briefe The Irish Bishops IN the yeare of Grace 1197. Hamo de Waâ—is with the other Gardians of Ireland and Earle Iohns men offered some injury to Iohn Cumin Arch-bishop of Dublin whereupon the Archbishop willing rather to be banished then to suffer such great injuries to himselfe and his Church to goe unpunished excommunicated the foresayd presumers and passed a sentence of interdict against his Arch-bishopricke and departed commanding the Crosses and images of the Cathedâ—all Church to bee taken downe and hedged about with thornes that so those malefactors might be terrified and recalled from their will of preying upon the goods of the Church But they still persisting in their maligne purpose there happened a miracle not heaâ—d of in our times There was a Crucifix in the Cathedrall Church of Dublin wherein the image of Christ was more exactly carved than in all others in Ireland or elsewhere which they had in most veneration This Image being layd prostrate on the ground and hedged about with thornes on the sixt weeke fell into a trance and his face I doubt if true by the Arch-bishops or Priests Legerdemaine appeared overspread with a vehement rednesse as if it had beene in a fiery furnace and a great sweate issued out of its face and little drops fell down from its eyes as if it wept and on the sixth houre of that day blood and water issued out of its left side and on the right side of its brest which the ministers of that Church diligently gathering up sent an Ambassie after their Arch-bishop Iohn Câ—min commanding him to certifie the Pope the event hereof under the Testimony and Seales of venerable men Yet the other Bishops of Ireland albeit they had often read En tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardeâ— notwithstanding passed by the dammages and injuries which the servants of Iohn Earle of Morton had done to their fellow Bishop with closed eyes and become like rammes not having hornes they retired from the face of the pursuer But Iohn Bishop of Dublin being in Exile came to Richard the first King of England and Iohn Earle of Morton his brother but could have no justice nor restitution of the things taken from him It seemes his cause therefore was not good After which hee continued long in England leaving both his Churâ—h and Diocesse still under interdiction and the others under the sentence of Excommunication O what impiety and malice is there in Prelates who for a meere supposed injury from one or two will interdict an whole Kingdome or Diocesâ—e and wil rob God of his publicke service as they account it and meâ—s soules of all spirituall food and exercises of Religion to wrecke their malice upon an enemie or two But this hath beene their common Atheisticall practise God and men mâ—st suffer in the highest degree rather than they lose their wills or the smallest punctilio of their usurped Antichristian honour Anno. 1212. this Arch-bishop dying Henry Condies succeeded him who was called Scorch Villeyn by occasion of a certaine treacherous act of his for one day calling his Tenants before him to answere by what tenure they held of him those Tenants shewing him their Deedes and Charters he commanded their Deedes and Charters to be burned of purpose to disinherit them of their rights for which most unjust act the Freeholders ever called him Henry Scorch-Villein he was Justice of Ireland and built Dublin Castle buâ— of his preaching to build men up in grace I finde not one syllable Anno 1313. Fryer Roland Ioce Primate of Armach arrived at the Isle of Houth the morrow after the Annunciation of the bleâ—sed Virgin Mary and rising in the night by stealth tooke up his Crosier and advanced it as â—arre as the Priory of Gâ—ace Dieu whom there encountred certaine of the Arch bishop of Dublins servants Iohn Leekes was then Arch-bishop of this See debasing and putting downe that Crosier and the Primate himselfe oâ— Armach they chased with disgrace and confusion out of Lemâ—ter Anno. 1324. Alexander de Bickner Arch-bishop of Dublin being in England joyned with thâ— Arch-bishops and Bishops of England in rescuing Adam de Arlton Bishop of Hereford even when he was openly arraigned for high Treason against King Edward the second at the Parliament barre the highest affront that ever I read offered to publicke Justice the story whereof is formerly recited at large p. 54.55 Annoâ— 1326. he sided with the Queene and other Prelates against King Edward the second his Soveraigne to his deposall and destruction in which he was very active Anno. 1331. on the vigill of Saint Marke the Evangelist the O-Tothely came to Tavelagh and robbed this Alexander Arch-bishop of Dublin tooke away three hundred sheepe and slew Bichard White and other men of his company the retinue of the Lord Archbishop of Dublin were by a traine or ambush slaine by David O-Tothill in Culiagh Anno. 1337. whiles Iohn Charlton was Lord Justice and held a Parliament at Dublin Doctor David O-Hirraghey Arch-bishop of Armach being called to the Parliament made his provision for house-keeping in the Monastery of Saint Mary neere unto Dublin but because he would have had his Crosier carried before him he was impeached by Alexander Arch-bishop of Dublin and his Clerkes and permit him they would not Anno. 1379. The Arch-bishop of Casselâ— in Ireland came from Rome sent thither for certaine urgent causes bringing backe with him a great power of binding and loosing from the Pope when he came to London preaching to the People he denounced the King of Francâ— and as many as adhered to the Anti-Pope to be involved in the sentence of Excommunication affirming that even now it would be an acceptable time to England as well in the cause of the King of England as of the Pope to invade the Kingdome of France especially since it was probable that a King Excommunicated would not have any confidence of resisting Thus this Messenger of Peace proves a publicke Herald to proclaime warre The King of France on the other side makes Proclamation through all his Kingdome that none should obey Pope Vrban and if any did â—ee should be beheaded and all his goods should be confiscated to the Kings use after which the confederates of Pope Clement and Vrban meeting in the field above 5000. were slaine on Clements part in one battle with Bernard Decksale their Generall and many more afterwards Anno. 1420. there was a Parliament held at Dublin at which time Richard O-Hedian Bishop of
Cassell was accused by Iohn Gese Bishop of Lismore and Waterford upon 30. Articles layd to his charge After all that he charged him that he made very much of the Irish and loved none of the English that he bestowed no benefice upon any English man and gave order likewise unto other Bishops that they should not conferre the least living thaâ— was â—pon them That he counterfeited the King of Englands seale and the Kings Letters Patents that he went about to make himselfe king of Mounster also that he tooke a Ring away from the Image of Saint Patricke which the Earle of Desmund had offered and bestowed it upon an Harlot of his beside many other enormities which he exhibited in writing And the Lords and Commons were much troubled betweene these twaine Now in the same Parliament there was debate betweene Adam Pay Bishop of Clon and another Prelate â—or that he sayd Adam went about to unite the others Church unto his but the other would not and so they were â—ent and referred unto the Court of Rome and this Parliament lasted 18. dayes Annoâ— 1532. Iohn Allen Arch-bishop of Dublin Chaplaine to Cardinal Wolsie and his Creature put the Earle of Kildare to great trouble wrongfully to take away his life and that out of affection to his Lord and Master the Cardinall This Arch-bishop Anno. 22. H. 8â— was specially and by name excepted out of the Kings generall pardon of the Premunire and other offences granted to all the Clergie that yeare as appeares by the Act it selâ—e 22. H. 8. c. 15. No doubt it was because the King tooke speciall notice of some great injuries and mis-demeanors by him committed which he meant to question him for After this meaning to sayle into England Anno. 1534. and that secretly lurkingâ— as Tartajus Thomas Fitzgerald and others apprehended and haled him out of his Bed brought him naked in his â—hirt bare footed and bare headed to their Captaine whom when the Archbishop espied incontinently hee kneeled and with a pitifull countenance and lamentable voyce he besought him for the love of God not to remember former injuries but to weigh his present calamity and what malice so ever he bare his person yet to respect his calling and vocation in that his enemy was a Christian and he among Christians an Arch-bishop As he spake thus bequeathing his soule to God his body to his enemies mercâ— Thomas Stibon without compassion and withall inflamed wiâ—h desire of revenge turned his horse aside saying in Irish Away with the Churle meaning the Arch-bishop should be detained as Prisonerâ— But the Caitifes present misâ—onstring his words murthered the Arch-bishop without further delay brained and hackt him in gobbets his blood withall crying to God for revenge the place ever since hath beene hedged and imbarred on every side ungrowne and unfrequented for the deâ—estation of the fact rough and â—igorous Justice deadly hatred of the Giraldins for his Masters Wolsies sake and his owne as he had much crossed and bridled them in their governments promoted their accusations and forged a Letter against them to their prejudice and danger as was likely was the cause of his ruine Anno. 1567. Marice a runne gate Priest going to Rome was consecrated Arch-bishop of Cashell by the Pope arriving in Ireland he made challenge to the same See which being denyed to him by the Arch-bishop placed there by the Queene the sayd supposed Bishop sudainely with an Irish scaine wounded the Bishop and put him in danger of his life Annoâ— 1579. The Lord chiefe Justice of Ireland upon suspition of Treason committed the Chauncellor of Liviricke to Prison for which he was indicted and found guilty and the Bishop likewise upon the same suâ—pition was committed Prisoner to his owne houâ—e Anno. 1600. The Rebells of Mounster by their Agents a certaine Spaniard elect Arch-bishop of Dublin the Bishop of Clonfort the Bishop of Killaloe and Archer a Jesuite had obtained at lengâ—h with praying intreating and earnest beseeching at the King of Spaines hands that succour should be sent into Mounster to the Rebels under the conduct of Don Iohn D' Aquila upon assured hope conceived that all Mounster would shortly revolt and the titular Earle of Desmond and Florenâ— Mac-Carti joyne great aydes unto them but Sir George Carew the Lord President of Mounster had providently before intercepted them and sent them over into England Whereupon D' Aquila arrived at Kinsale in Mounster with two thousand Spaniards old Souldiers and certaine Irish Fugitives the last day of October and straight wayes having published a writing wherein he gloriously stiled himselfe with this Title Master Generall and Captaine of the Catholike King in the warre of God for holding and keeping the faith in Ireland endeavoureth to make the world beleeve that Queene Elizabeth by the definitive sentences of the Pope was deprived of her Kingdomes and her Subjects absolved and freed from their Oath of Allegiance and that he and his men were come to deliver them out of the Devills clawes and the English tyranny And verily with thâ— goodly pretence he drew a number of lewd and wicked persons to band and side with him through these Prelates meanes I have now given a short account of some of â—he Irish Prelates disloyall and seditious Actions in â—ormer ages which I shall close up with the accusations and proceedings against some of them within the limits of this last yeare On the fourth of March last the whole house of Commons in Ireland sent up these Articles of High Treason against Iohn Bramham Bishop of Derry and others to the Upper House of Parliament there which I finde Printed with Captaine Audâ—ey Mermin his speech who presented them at the time of their transmission Articles of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in the Parliament Assembled against Sir Richard Bolton Knight Lord Chancellour of Ireland Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord Chiefe Iustice of the Common Pleas and Sir George Ratcliffe Knight in maintenance of the accusation whereby they and every of them stand charged with High Treason FIrst that they the sayd Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry c. intending the destruction of the Common-wealth of this Realme have trayterously confederated and conspired together to subvert the fundamentall Laws and government of this Kingdome and in pursuance thereof they and every of them have trayterously contrived introduced and exercised an arbitrary and tyrannicall government against Law throughout this Kingdome by the countenance and assistance of Tâ—omas Earle of Strafford then chiefe Governour of this Kingdome That they and every of them the sayd Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry c. have trayterously assumed to themselves and every of them regall power over the goods persons Lands and liberties of his Majesties subjects of this Realme and likewise have maliciously perfidiously and trayterously given declared pronounced and published many false unjust and erronious opinions Judgements Senâ—ences and Decrees in extra
as they were given by Superstition and used to Idolatry so now they are taken by oppression and applyed to riotousnesse They have also constantly practised and suffered the buying and selling of the Sacraments which is an heavie burden And where the poore have not to pay the Minister and Clerks Fees they will not marry them nor suffer their dead to be buried In the High Commission Court against all Law and equity they sit as Judges in their owne cause and take cognizance of the highest and smallest matters going therein without controll Hence In the sayd Court they usurpe with an high hand the judicature of Civill causes impose Fines beyond all bounds and imprison at their pleasure whereby many have beene utterly undone They proceede in the sayd Court by way of most cruell and lawlesse inquisition not onely into mens actions and words but reaching even to their very thoughts in imposing the most unlawfull Oath Ex Officio to force to accuse not onely others but likewise their owne selves contrary to Law and the very Maximes of Nature And if any refuse to take this Oath then are they imprisoned and fined beyond measure to the ruine of all that fall under the waight of their indignation Divers of the Prelates did joyntly frame and wickedly contrive with the Earle of Strafford that most Lawlesse and scandalous Oath imposed upon the Scottish-Brittish among us who were Protestants for receiving all commands indefinitely And some of the Prelates were the occasion that women and maides should be forced thereunto Hence Commissions issuing to all places for the exacting of it they were prosecuted with so much rigour that very many as if they had beene Traytors in the highest degree were searched for apprehended examined reviled threatned imprisoned fettered by threes and foures in Iron yoakes some in chaines carried up to Dublin in Starchamber fined in thousands beyond ability and condemned to perpetuall imprisonment divers poore women but two dayes before delivery of Children were apprehended threatned and terrified others of them 2. or 3. dayes afâ—er Child-birth so narrowly searched â—or that they were faine to fly out of all harbour into Woodâ— Mountaines Caves and Cornefields and manâ— daâ—es and nights together absent themselves to the impairing of the healâ—h of very many and death of divers and losse of their goods which the enemie at their pleasure made havocke of These with many more unexpressible have beene the woefull effects of the Oath drawne up by advice of the Prelates and so unjustly prest by authority of the Earle of Strafford The Prelates with their Faction have been injurious not onely to the Spirituall but also to the temporall estates of most men for under colour of Church-lands they have injuriously seized into their hands much of the best Lands in every County so that there is scarce a gentleman of any worth whom they have not bereaved of some part of his inheâ—itance fewdaring to oppose their unjust demands and if any did none were able to maintaine their just Titles against their power and oppression By these wayes have they ruinated and undone many families destroyed and cast away thousands of Soules and moreover in their owne persons have beene a scandall to the Gospell and a stumbling blocke even unto the Common enemy by their sweating cursing drunkennesse Sabbath-breaking c. having such servants usually in their families as are the most prophane in the Kingdome â—ew others countenanced by them but such And if any seeme to be of an holy life he is scorned and persecuted by them Thus they publishing and proclaiming themselves children of Ishmael and Esau we most humbly beseech you as the true sons of Israel to take order with them as God shall direct whom we shall ever pray to be ayding and assisting unto you in this great and glorious worke of Reformation And thus much in briefe for the Norman Scottish and Irish Prelates which I thought convenient to annex to our English being all Birds of the same feather that I say not Wolves of the same litter CHAP. VIII Containing certaine Conclusions deduced from the Premises with the judgements and resolutions of divers of our ancient Writers and Martyrs and some of our learnedst Bishops and Authors in Queen Elizabeths raigne touching the pretended divine Iurisdiction of Bishops their Treasons Rebellions Temporalities large possessions and the uselesnesse unprofitablenesse and mischeivousnesse of Lorldy Bishops and their government in our Church YOu have now seen a large black Catalogue of the Treasons Rebellions Conspiracies seditions contumacies State-schismes Wars Vproares and Antimonarchicall practises of our Prelates against their Soveraignes with their severall stratagems to undermine the Lawes and liberties of the Subjects and worke the ruâ—ine and disturbance of our State in all ages give me leave now in the close of this Relation to draw some usefull undeniable conâ—lusions from the premises worthy his Majesties and the Parliaments most serious considerations The first is this That our lordly Prelates in all ages since they became such have been the greatest Rebels Traytors Conspirators and Opposites to our Princes the chiefest Incendiaries and firebrands of all Warres Seditions State-schismes and disturbanceâ— which have infested our Realmâ— and the archest tyrants oppressors of the people and invaders of our Lawes and Liberties of all other Callings and Professions of men severally or joyntly considered Secondly That the Prelates Lordly jurisdiction over their fellow-brethren contrary to Christs institution the greatnesse of their wealth and temporall possessions their admission to temporall Offices of greatest authority and trust their sitting as Peeres in Parliament and Judges in some tempoâ—all Courts their residence in or about the Court and advancement to be Counsellors of State their neare relation toâ— and privy intelligence with the Pope whose sworne vassals they were of old the Antichristianity of their calling which depends wholly upon the selfe-same grounds and principles as the Romish Heirarchy doth and the secret curse of God upon those Princes and Kingdomes who have erected supported and countenanced these Antichristian Lords and imployed them in the greatest State-offices against the expresse inhibition of Christ wiâ—h the pride avarice malice and ambition which insepâ—rably accompany their Lordly Chaires of pestilence are the cheife grounds of our Prelates forementioned Treasons and extravagances and that as long as they and these grounds continue we must ever expect the selfesame examples fruits and effects from this generation of Vipers what politick courses soever shall be excogitated to prevent them Thirdly That our English Lordly Prelacy stands in direct opposition to Regall Monarchy and civill Vnity and that our Prelates Maxime No Bishop no King is a false and idle Paradox refuted by the premised histories and the experience of all ages Fourthly That the calling of Lordly Prelates is neither Divine nor Apostolicall but rather Antichristian and Diabolicall as these fruits thereof demonstrate And to speak ingenuously the first thing that caused me to suspect our
Prelates calling not to be divine and thereupon induced me to search into the bottome of it as farre as my poore abilities and leasure would permit till I found it to be so iâ—deed was the pravity of their actions and enormities of their lives In which if I have erred it is in following my Saviours infallible rule Matth. 7.15 to 20. Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening wolves ye shall know them by their â—ruits A good tree cannot bring forth evill fruit neither can a corrupt trâ—e bring forth good fruit wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them Fifthly That it can neither be safe for King nor State to tolerate Lordly Prelates or to admit them to manage the chiefe Offices Councels and affaires of the Kingdome to which thâ—ir consultations and imployments for the most part have â—vâ—r proved pernicious as ancient and present experience abundantly testifie And that the readiest way to provide for our Kingdoms and Churches future security and tranquillity will be utterly to suppresse and remove them from all such offices and consultations Sixthly That those who have beene so perfidious and rebellious to our Kings and Kingdome will hardly prove faithfull and trusty in matters of Religion in which they have extraordinarily prevaricated in all ages and not a little of late yeares as is too manifest by sundry evidences and complaints in Parliament And here give me leave to recommend â—nâ— serious consideration to you how dangerous it is to intrust our Religion in the Prelates hands grounded upon these words of our famous Occham Who writing against the Popâ—s Monarchy alleadgeth this reason among others against it that there is greater danger of poysoning â—he people and whole Church by one supreame head then by many We know all the Bishops of England are to be consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being and are subject to him as Primate and Metropolitan of all Eâ—gland taking an Oath of Canonicall obedience to him so as they all in a manner depend on him Againe we know that no Minister can be ordained or admitted to Preach or instituted to any living as an Incumbent or Curate but by these Bishops who take upon them to visitâ— silence and suspend them at their pleasure yea and to dispose of most Patrons benefices to whom they please as we see by late wofull experience Suppose then which I trust shall never happen that any to whom the Crowne of England shall descend should be ill affected to our Religion if he should make choice of such an Archbishop and he of other inferiour Prelates sutable to his disaffectiâ—on who must ordaine all other Bishops Ministers and may suspend and silence them or deny to admit those that are Orthodox at his pleasure how easily might our Church and Religion by one over-potent Arch-bishop or Prelate backed by his Soveraigne be undermined suppressed and eradicated in a short space Whereas if this jurisdiction were devested from the Bishops which are but 26. and depend on one Arch-Prelate and setled in the Ministers which are many and more independent on the Prince then they our Religion would be farre more secure and the Ministers and people lesse subject to be infected with Romish Innovations which one Archbishop of Canterbury is now able sodainly to poyson our Church and people with Seventhly That these Bishops were the chiefe instruments to introduce advance and support the Popes Antichristian authority usurped jurisdiction and erronious doctrines among us and to revive them again when diminished or extinguished the Pope and popery still raigning among us till the Prelates attainted by King Henry the eight in a Praemunire were inforced sore against their wils to renounce the Popes authority to acknowledg him the supreame head on earth of our English Church and by speciall Letters patents and Acts of Parliament to confesse all their Episcopall jurisdiction to be derived not from God or the Pope but ONELY from by and under him their Soveraigne And I dare further averre for ratification of this Conclusion that the Prelates of Italy Germany France Spaine Hungary and Poland are the maine pillars which support the Popes Monarchy false Doctrines Ceremonies and Superstitions in those Countries and Kingdomes which would soone turne Protestants were but the Bishops suppressed and their great temporall revenues taken away the enjoyment of which Antichristian dignities and possessions engageth them to maintaine and uphold the Pope and popery against their consciences The truth of which will appeare by most of the transmarine reformed Churches who could never utterly abandon the Pope with his Doctrines and superstitions till they had extirpated their Lordly Bishops â— That as long as our Lordly Prelates continue there will not onely be a possibility but a probability of bringing in popery and the Pope againe among us since their Lordly Hierarchy is supported onely by popish Doctrines Canons Ceremonies and Principles which they are engaged to maintaine to preserve their tottering thrones from ruine How farre the Pope his Doctrines and Superstitions had of late in a little time serued themselves into our Church almost to the utter ruine of our Religion and of the Ministers and professors of it persecuted and driven out into forraine Countryes and that onely by the Bishops and their instruments machinations is so well knowne to all and so abundantly discovered to and by this present Parliament that I need not relate itâ— Onely this I dare say that if ever they get head and life among us againe as they did in Queene Maries dayes and that principally by the Prelates meanes it will be by our Lordly Bishops activity who if once totally suppressed both Pope and papists would utterly despaire of ever reducing England to their vassallage Eighthly That Bishops have done a world of mischiefe to our Kings and Kingdomes as appeares by all the premises but little or no good that I can read off And as for the diligent preaching of Gods word and publishing Christs true Religion the chiefe and almost onely duty of Bishops from Augustine the first Archbishop of Canterbury and first introducer of the Popes authority errours and superstitions among usâ— till Cranmers time which is above 800 yeares I thinke there was not one Archbishop guilty of it The like I may say of other Seas and I presume I may justifie that some two poor Country Curats or Lecturers in our dayes have converted more soules to God by their diligent zealous preaching then all the Archbâ—shops of Canterbury put together most of whom I read to have been Rebels Traytors State-officers persecutors of Religion but very few of them soule-converting Preachers Why then should â—hese Popes of another World as the Pope of Rome once stiled them be still tolerated when they have done so much mischiefe and so little good to our State and Church Ninthly That the endowing of the Prelates with great Temporall
revenews was the very bane and poyson of Religion and one principall cause of the Bishops rebellions Treasons and exorbitances forementioned And therefore they may both with good conscience and reason be substracted from them and put to better usâ—s and they like other Ministers be confined to one compâ—tent living with cure there conâ—â—antly to reside and instruct the people like Bishops in the primitive times Tenthly That our Lorâ—ly Prelates will be still undermining the Lawesâ— and libâ—râ—ies of â—he Subjects his Majesties royall pâ—erogâ—tive his Eccleâ—â—asticall and temporall jurisdiction and vexing his Subjectâ— in their Courts till both their usurpâ—d Authoritiesâ— and Consistories be better regulated or totally abolished Eleventhly That the very Spirit of insolency contumacy tâ—eachery sedition rebellion ambition pride covetousnesse vaineglory malice hypocrisie tyranny and oppression is almost inseparably united to the Chaires of Lordly Prelates since they infect almost all who once sit in them and either infuse these vices into them or augment them in them none growing better men but most farre worse by their Sees Twelfthly that the government of our Church in common by a Presbytery or Synod of Ministersâ— or any other way used in the primitive Church and other refoâ—med Churches can no way be so pernicious or inconvenient to our Kings and Kingdomes as the Government by Lordly Prelates is and hath been Our Prelates chiefe objection in point of Monarchy against a Presbyteriall or Synodall government is that if this forme should be introduced the King and Nobles must submit therâ—to and be liable to their excommunications But this is a foolish Bugbear which recoyles and lights heavily on their owne heads For the Archbishops and Bishops of England and those of forraine Countrys too have many times not onely excommunicated their Soveraignes but also interdicted their Kingdomes enjoyned hard penances to them absolved their Subjects from their allegiance and oathes armed their people and strangers against them and deprived them of their Crownes offering them more and greater affronts and requiring more submission from them then all other their Subjects whatsoever Did ever any Presbytery doe the like or take so much upon them or did they ever deal so with their Princes as our Prelates did with King Iohn or with Edward and Richard the second If yea then prove it If no then this is no solid objection but a malicious suggestion against the Presbyteriall and Synodall Government In a word I would demand this question of the Objectors whether Kings and great men when they scandalously offend be subject to the censures of Excommunication by the law of God If so then why may not the Presbytery and Synode of Ministers anathematize them as well as Lord Bishops and Popes If not then there is no feare of such a censure to which they are not liable by Gods Law or mans These twelve conclusions are sufficiently warranted by the premises yet for the Readers better satisfaction I shall back them with some passages and Authorities of our owne approved ancient and Moderne Writers Martyrs Prelates and Authors of speciall note and so conclude Caelius Sedulius Scotus one of the ancientest of our owne Writers flourishing about the yeare of our Lord 390. determines thus of the parity of Bishops and Presbyters by divine right against our Lordly Prelates doctrine in these dayes in his Exposition on Titus Chap. 1. For a Bâ—shop must be blamelesse c. He calleth him a Bishop whom before he named a Presbyter Before by the Devils instinct parties were made in Religion and it was said among the people I am of Paul but I am of Apollo and I am of Cephas the Churches were governed with the common Councel of the Presbyters But after that every one thought those whom he baptised to be hiâ—â— not Christs it was decreed throughout the World that one chosen 〈◊〉 of the Presbyters should be set over the rest to whom all the care of the Church should appertaine and that the seeds of schismes should be taken away In the Acts of the Apostlâ—s it is written thaâ— when the Apostle Paulâ— came to Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of that Church unto whom among other things he spake thus Take heed to your selves and to all the flocke over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his owne blood And here observe more diligently how that he calling the Elders of but one City Ephesus doth afterwards stile them Bishops These things I have alleadged that we mâ—ght shew how that among the Ancâ—â—â—ts fuisse Presbyteros quos Episcopos Prâ—sbyters to hâ—ve been THE SAME THAT BISHOPS WERE But by little and little that the seeds of dissention might be utterly extïrpated the whole cure was traâ—sferred to one And on the 1 Timothy 5. â—â— It is demanded writes he why Paul here makes no mention of Presbyters but onely of Bishops and Deacons Sed etiam ipsos in Episcoporum nomine comprehendit But truely he also comprehâ—ndeth thâ—m in â—he name of Bishops To him I might annex our famous Gildas in his Acris Correptio Cleri Angliae our Venerable Beda in Acta Apostolorum cap. 20. Tom. 5. Col. 657. and Alcuinus de Dâ—vinis Officijs cap. 35.36 Epistola 108. ad Sparatum and Comment in Evang. Ioannis l. 5. to 25. Col. 547 548 549. Who maintaine the selfe same Doctrine of the Parity of Bishops and Presbyters declaime much against the pride Lordlinâ—sse ambition domineering power and other vices of Prelates and conclude that a Biâ—hopricke is Nomen Operis non honoris A name of Labour not of honour A worke not a dignity A toyle not a delâ—ght But I rather passe to Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury a man without exception and the greatest Scholler in his age who neare 600 yeares since in his Enarration on the Epistle to the Phillippians cap. 1. vers 1. resolves thus With the Bishops that is with the Presbyters and Deacâ—ns for he hath put Bishops for Elders after his custome For there were not many Bâ—shops in one City neither would he intermit Presbyters that he mâ—ght descâ—nd to Deacons But he declares the dignity and excellency of the Presbyters whilâ—s he manifests the same men who are Presbyters to be Bishops But that AFTERWARD one was elected who might be preferred before the rest it was done to prevent schisme leâ—t every one drawing to himselfe the Gospell of Christ should divide it Constat ergo Apostolica institutione omnes Presbyteros esse Episcopos It is therefore MANIFEST BY APOSTOLICALL INSTITVTION THAT ALL PRESBYTERS ARE BISHOPS albeit NOW those greater ones have obtained that Title For a Bâ—shop is called an Overseer and every Presbyter ought to attend the cure over the flock committed to him In his Commentary on the first Chapter of Titus v. 5 7. he hath the selfesame words that Hierom and Sedulius used before him concluding from Acts 20.17 28.
and Phil. 1.1 Apud veteres cosdem fuisse Presbyteros quos Episcopos That AMONG THE ANCIENTS PRESBYTERS WERE THE VERY SAME THAT BISHOPS WERE and that the Churches were then governed by a common Councell of the Presbyters As therefore Presbyters know that they out of the custome of the Church are subject to him who shall be set over them so Bishops must know SE MAGIS CONSVETVDINE Quà m DISPOSITIONIS DOMINICAE VERITATE PRESBYTERIS ESSE MAJORES ET IN COMMVNE DEBERE ECCLESIAM REGERE that they by CVSTOME rather then by truth of Divine Disposition are greater then Presbyters and OVGHT TO RVLE THE CHVRCH IN COMMON with them From which pregnant Authority even of an old Archbishop of Canterbury I observe First That by Apostolicall institution Bishops and Presbyters are both one and the same and originally continued so for a season Secondly That the imparity now between them â—s onely by custome not by divine institution and crept in by little and little by degrees after the Apostles time Thirdly That every Presbyter is still truely and properly a Bishop over his owne flock Fourthly That the Church of God at first was governed onely by a common Councell or Synode of Presbyters not by Bishops Fifthly That Presbyters even at this day not onely may but ought to governe the Church in common with the Bishops as they did both in Ignatius Tertullians Cyprians and Irenaeus time as others have proved at large See the Answer to Bishop Hals Remonstrance Sect. 8 9. Sixthly That Bishops were first elected created and instituted by the Presbyters therefore by their owne maxime Ordinans est major ordinato are greater and better then Bishops the rather because Presbyters Quatenus such are of Divinâ— and Bishops quatenus Bishops but of humane institution and Presbyters as such by Anselmes owne resolution in his Commentary on 1 Tim. 4.14 may of right ordaine Elders as well as Bishops Neither is Anselme singular in his opinion in avouching the parity and identity of Presbyters and Bishops since Athanasius Ambrose Hierome Chrysostome Theodoret Primasius Remigius Rabanus Maurus Haymâ— Theophylact Bruno in their Commentaries on Phil. 1.1 Acts 20.17 28. 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1.5 7. and on Ephes. 4.11 12. with sundry other Fathers delivered the same opinion in their writings before his time A truth so cleare that learned Cassander though a Papist confesseth Convenit autem inter OMNES olim Apostolicorum aetate INTER EPISCOPOS ET PRESBYTEROS DISCRIMEN NVLLVM FVISSE SED POSTMODVM ordinis servandi schâ—smatis vitandi causa Episcopum Presbyteris fuisse praepositum cui soli Chyrotomiâ— id est ordinandi potestas servata sit That then this truth which is granted on all hands by ALL both Theologues and Canonists among the Papists should now be questioned nay contradicted and and damned for Heresie by our Prelates seemes strange and monstrous unto me But to proceed on in our owne Writers In the Canons of Aelfrick to Wulfinus a Bishop about the yeare of Christ 990. Sect. 17. There is no more difference between a Masse-priest and a Bishop then that a Bishop is constituted to confer Orders and to visit or oversee and to take care of those things which belong to God which should be committed to too great a multitude if every Presbyter should doe it For both VNVM TENENT EVNDEMQVE ORDINEM have one and the selfesame Order although that part of the Bishop be the worthier And in certaine old Saxon Chapters of incertaine Edition about the same time Know that your degree is next to ours penè CONIVNCTVM esse and to be almost the same or conjoyned to it For as Bishops supply the place of Apostles in the Church so doe Presbyters of the other Disciples of the Lord whence we ought to be mindfull of so great a dignity John Salisbury our famous Country-man flourishing about the yeare of Christ 1140. De Nugis Curialium li. 8. c. 17. and 23. writes thus of the pride and sedition of Bishops Thou must admire to see the various houshold-stuffe and riches as they say of Croesus among them that preach poore Christ They live of the Gospell without preaching the Gospell and it is well if they live onely so as they doe not also ryot They so gape after gaine that they contemne the things that are Jesus Christs and are neither worthy the honour nor name either of a Pastor or hireling They dâ—â— that which makes them to be feared of all to bee beloved of none they preacâ— peace yet make division they shew and counterfeit humility that they may challenge pride In fulnesse they dispute of fastings and what they build up with words they pull downe with deeds The workes they doe beare witnesse of them you may know them by their fruits It is not sufficient for them to sheare and devoure the flocke by liberty of a divine Law unlesse they also implore the ayde of secular Lawes and being made Officers to Princeâ— they feare not to commit those things which any other Publican would easily be ashamed of In the meane time they are servants to pleasure or avarice and those who have chosen and admitted them to their custody they spoyle and oppresse and desire the death of those whom they ought to foster both in flesh and spirit Truly they beare in mind â—hat of the Prophet Behold I have set thee over the Nations and over Kingdomes to pull up and to destroy to pull downe and to scatter c. Nor they doe not onely contend but fight for a Bishoprick The Ancients heretofore were dragged against their wils to a Bishoprick and went willingly to Martyrdome they feared the chiefe Chaire worse then a prison or crosse But now the Prelates spâ—â—ke quite contrary we will not say they be Martyrs but the glory of our Sees we will not give to another Yet there is something in which they seeme to imitate the constancy of Martyrs to wit if they are to contest for a Bishoprick It is reported by some and it is true that ambitious men have sometimes yea often contended for the Bishopricke of Rome and not without brotherly blood hath the High Priest entred into the holy of holies This verily is to succeed Romulus in paricide not Peter in feeding the flock committed to him More then civill Warres are againe stirred up betweene Caesar and Pompey and whatsoever was presumed whaâ—ever was impiously done at Philippi Lucade Murina in Aegypt or in Spaine a prelaticall Warre accomplisheth Doe they therefore procure the effusion of Christian blood that it may be lawfull for them above other men according to their pastorall duty to lay down their lives for the Flock Doe they therefore pull down the Churches prophane holy things that there may be some thing for them to build up and sanctifie Perchance they dash Nations one against another disquiet Kingdomes violently take away the goods of
Ordination elsewhere if he rightly discharge his ministeriall office That a bare Priest may supply the place of a Bishop in conferring Orders c. And Thomas Walsinghâ—m with others testifie That in his time one Lollard that was a Priest did commonly ordaine and create another And oâ—â—er that every Priest had as great power to conferre the Sacraments of the Church as the Bishops had In a word Wickliffe affirmed That there were twelve Disciples of Antichrist which plot against the Church of Christ to wit Popes Cardinalâ— Patriarchsâ— Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons Officials Deanes Monks Canons Friers Pardoners All these twelve writes he Et specialiter Praelagi Caesarij and specially Caesarean Prelates are the maniâ—est Disciples of Antâ—christ Because they take away the liberty of Chriâ—t and burthen and hinder the holy Church that the Law of the Gospell should not have free passage as in former times it had So that he dâ—emed the calling of Bishops Antichristian And as for their Temporalties and sâ—cular offices He positâ—vely maintained That Popes Cardinals Bishops and other Priests might not civiliter dominari rule like Temporall Lords or beare any civill office without mortall sinne That it is a sinne to endow them with temporall possessions That no Prelates ought to have any Prison to punish or restraine offendors nor yet to purchase large temporall possessions or riches And that no King ought to impose any secular office upon any Bishop or Curate For then both the King and Clerke should be Proditor Iesu Christi a betrayer of Jesus Christ. Which he manifests at large Dialog l. 4. c. 15 16 17 18.26 27. Where he proves That the temporall Lords have grievously sinned in endowing the Bishops and Church with large temporall possessions That warres and contention have risen thence that this endowment hath reversed Christs Ordination and procreated Antichrist to the manifold deturbation of Christs Spouse Whence Chronicles note that in the dotation of the Church an Angels voyce was then heard in the ayre This day is poyson powred into the whole Church of God And from Constantines time who thus endowed the Churches the Roman Empire and secular Dominion in it hath still decreased Therefore if Kings would preserve their Dominions intire and not have them diabolically torne if they would reforme and preserve the peace of the Church and keepe their Subjects â—oyall and not have them Rebels Let them study to reforme the Church according to Christs Ordinanceâ— under whose government it will be most prosperously regulated anâ— all warres symony with other mischâ—ifes will cease Concluding that it is not onely lawfull for them to take away these temporalities from the Church which abuseth them but that they ought to doe it under paine of eternall damnation in Hell seeing they ought to repent of this their folly and to satisfie for the same wherewith they have defiled the Church of Christ. Finally hee stiles the Bishops lesser Antichrists who following the great Antichrist forsake and banish the office of Preaching which Christ hath designed to them and bring in thâ— office of spoyling those that are under them feeding upon the sheep of Christ. William Swinderby a Martyr under Richard the sâ—cond had thiâ— Article objeâ—â—ed to him that hee held That all Priests are of like power in all â—hings notwithstanding that some of them in this World are of higher and greater honour degree or preheminence And concerning the wealth possessions and Lordships of Prelates he thus affirmed before the Bishops who convented and examined him As anenâ—t the taking away of temporalities I say that it is lawfull for Kings Princes Dukes and Lords of the World to taâ—â— away from Popes Cardinals fro Bishops and Prelates possessions of the Church their temporalities and their almes they have given them upon condition they should serve God the better when they verily seen that their giving and their taking beene contrary to the Law of God to Christs living and his Apostles and namely in that they take upon them that shoulden be next followers of Christ and his Apostles in poorenesse and meeknesse to be secular Lords against tâ—e teaching of Christ and Saint Peter Luke 22 Reges gentium Et 1. Pet. 5. Neque Dominantes in Cleâ—â— and namely when such temporalities makes â—hem the more proud both in heart and array then they shoulden been else more in strife and debate against peace and charity and in â—vill ensample to the world more to be occupied in worldly businesse Omnem solicitudinem pro ijcientâ—s in â—um and drawes them from the service of God from edifying of Christs Church in impoverishing and in making lesse the state and power of Kings Princes Dukes and Lords that God hath set them in in wrongfull oppression of Commons for unmightfulnesse of Realmes For Paul saith to men of the Church whose lore Prelates shoulden soâ—veraignely follow Habentes victum vestitum hiiâ— contenti simus If men speaken of wordly power and Lordships and worships with other vices that raigne therein what Priest that insues and has most hereof in what degree so he be he is most Antichrist of all the Priests that been in earth This hee thus â—urther backes and seconds Truely me seemeth that all Christian men and namely Priests shoulden take keepe that their doing were according with the Law of God either the old Law either the new The Priests of the old Law weren forbidden to have Lordships among their Brethren for God said that he would be their part and their heritage And Christ that was the highest Priest of the new Testament forsook worldly Lordship and was here in forme of a servant and forbade his Priests such Lordships and said Reges gâ—ntium dominantur eorum c. Vos autem non sic that is The Kings of the Heathen beare dominion and rule c. But you â—hall not doe so And as Saint Peter saith Neque dominantes in clero c. Not bearing rule and dominion of the clergy c. So it seemeth me that it is against both Lawes of God that they have such Lordships and that their title to such Lordships is not full good And so it seemeth me that if they have been thereto of evill living it is no greâ—â— perill to take away from them such Lordships but rather needfull if the taking away were in charity and not for singular covetousnesse ne wrathâ— And I suppose that if Friers that been bound to their founders to live in poverty would breake their rule and take worldly Lordships might not men lawfully take from them such Lordships and make them to live in pâ—verty as their rule would And forsooth it seemeâ—h me that Priests oughten all so well to keep Christs rule as Friers owen to keepe the rulâ— of their founder Ieremy witnesseth how God commendeth Rechabs Children for that they would not break their Faders bidding in drinking of Wine And yet Ieremy proffered them wine to drink And so
of the foresaid temporalities without any charge to the Realmâ— whereunto the King the Lords and thâ— Commons are to be invited For otherwise there seemeth to hang over our heads a great and marvellous alteration of this Relme unlesse the same be put in execution And if the secular Priests and fained religious which be Simoniacks and Hereticks which faine themselves to say Masse and yet say none at all according to the Canons which to their purpose they bring and alledge 1. q. 3. Audivimus Cap. Pudenda Cap. Schisma by which Chapter such Priests and religious doe not make the Sacrament of the Altar that then all Christians especially all the founders of such Abbies and endowers of Bishopricks Priories and Chaunteâ—ies ought to amend this fault and treason committed against their Predecessors by taking from them such secular dominions which are the maintenance of all their sinnes And also that Christian Lords and Princes are bound to take away from the Clergy such secular Dominion as nousâ—eth and nourisheth them in Hereâ—ies and ought to reduce them unto the simple and poore life of Christ Jesus and his Apostles And further that all Christian Princes if they will amend the malediction and blasphemy of the name of God ought to take away their temporalities from that shaven generation which most of all doth nourish them in such malediction And so in like wise the fat tithes from Churches appropriate to rich Monks and other religious fained by manifest lying and other unlawfull meanes likewise ought to debarre their gold to the proud Priest of Rome which doth poyson all Christendome with Simony and Heresie Further that it is a great abhomination that Bishops Monks and other Prelates be so great Lords in this World whereas Christ with his Apostles and Disciples never tooke upon them secular dominion neither did they appropriate unto them Churches as these men doe but lead a poore life and gave a good testimony of their Priesthood And therefore all Christians ought to the uttermost of their power and strength to sweare that they will reduce such shavelings to the humility and poverty of Christ and his Apostles and whosoever doth not thus consenteth to their Heresie Also that these two Chapters of the immunity of Churches are to be condemned that is Cap. Non minus Cap. Adversus Because they doe decree that temporall Lords may neither require tallages nor tenths by any ecclesiasticall persons He writes much more to the same effect The noble Martyr Sir Iohn Old Castle Lord Cobham professed That the will of God is That Priests being secluded from all worldlinesse should conforme themselves utterly to the examples of Christ and his Apostles be evermore occupied in Preaching and teaching the Scriptures purely and giving wholesome examples of good living to others being more modest loving gentle and lowly in spirit then any other sorts of people Where doe ye finde said hee to the Prelates in all Gods Law that ye should thus sit in judgement of any Christian man or yet give sentence of any other man unto death as ye doe herâ— dayly No ground have ye in all the Scriptures so Lordly to take it upon you but in Annas and Caiphas which sate thus upon Christ and upon his Apostles after his ascension Of them onely havâ— yâ— taken it to judge Christs members as ye doe and neither of Peter nor Iohn Since the venomâ— of Iuâ—as was shed into the Church Yee never followed Christ nor yet stood in the perfection of Gods Law â—y venome I meane your possessions and Lordships For then cryed an Angell in the ayre as your owne Chronicles mention Woe woe woe This day is venome shed into the Church of God Before that time all the Bishops of Rome were Martyrs in a manner and since that time we reade of very few But indeed one hath put downe another one hath cursed another â—nâ— hath poysoned another one hath slaine another and done much more mischiefe besides as all Chronicles tell And let all men consider this well that Christ was meeke and mercifull the Pope and his Prelates is proud and a Tyrant Christ was poore and forgave the Pope is rich and a malicious manslayer as his dayly acts do prove him Rome is the very nest of Antichrist and out of that nest cometh all the Disciples of him of whom Archbishops Bishopâ— Prelates Priests and Monks be the body members and these pild Friers the tayle Though Priests and Deâ—cons for preaching Gods word ministring the Sacraments with provision for the poore be grounded on Gods Law yet have these Sects no manner of ground thereof Hee that followeth Peter most nighest in pure living is next unto him in succession But your Lordly Order esteemed not greatly the behaviour of poore Peter what ever ye prate of him Pierce Plowman an anciâ—nt â—nglish Poet writes to the same effect If Knighthood and kinduite and commons by conscience Together love lelly leeveth it well ye Bishops The Lordship of Lands for ever â—all ye lese And live as Levitici as our Lord ye teacheth Deut. 8. Numb 5. per primitias Decimas c. And the Author of the same Treatise in his Plowmans complaint of the abuses of the World writes thus against the Lordlinesse and wealth of Bâ—shops and Priests Lord thou saydst Kings of the Heathen men be Lords â—ver their subjects â—nd they that usen their power be clepen well doers But Lord thou saydst it should not bee so among thy servants but he that were most should be as a servant And Lord thy Priests in the old Law had no Lordship among their brethren but houses and pastures for their beasts but Lord our Priests now have great Lordships â—nd put their brethrâ—n in greater thraldome than Lewdmen that be Lords Thus in meeknesse forsaken The deed shâ—weth well of thâ—se Masters that they desiren more maistery for their owne worship then for profit of the pâ—ople For whâ—n they be Masters they nâ— preâ—cheâ— not so often as they did before And gif they preachen commonly it is before rich men there as they mowen beare worship and also profit of their preaching But bâ—fore poore men they preachen but seldome when they bâ— Masters and so by their workes we may seene that they are but false glossers O Lord deliver the sheepe out of the ward of these Shepheards and these hired men that stondâ—n more to keep their riches that they robben of thy sheep than they stonden in keeping of thy sheep And Lord geve our King and his Lords heart to defenden thy true shepheards and sheep from out of the Wolves mouthes and grace to know thee that art the true Christ the Sonne of the heavenly Father from the Antichrist that is the Son of perdition c. Sir Geoffry Chaucer our renowned Poet writâ—s much the same effect The Emperour gaâ—e the Poet sometime So high Lordship him about That at last the sely Kyme
date Anno á Pâ—latij nostri fractione consortiumque nostrorum substractione 1351. Which if ye count from the Passion of the Lord reacheth well to the time of Wickliffe 1385. which was above six yeares before the examination of this Walter Brute There is also another Epistle of Luciâ—er Prince oâ— darknesse ad Praelatos mentioned in the Epistle of the Schoole of Prague to the Vniversity of Oxford set forth by Huldericus Huttenus about the yeare of our Lord as is there dated 1370. Which seemeth to be written before this Epistle Also Vincentius in Speculo Hâ—stor lib. 25. Cap. 89. inferreth like mention of a Letter of the Fiends infernall to the Clergymen as in a vision represented before foure Hundred yeares In which the Devils gave thankes to the spirituall men for that by their silence and not preaching the Gospell they send infinite soules to Hell c. Divers other Letters also of like device have been written and also recorded in Authors Whereunto may be added that one Iacobus Carthusiensis writing to the Bishop of Wâ—rmacâ— alleageth out of the Prophecy of Hildegardâ—â— in these words Therefore saith he the Devill may say of you Priests in himselfe The meates of banqueting dishes and feasts of all kind of pleasure I finde in these men Yea also mine eyes mine eares my belly and all my â—â—ines be full of their frothing and my breasts be full stuffed with their riches c. Furthermorâ— saith he they labour every day to rise up higher with Lucifer but every day they fâ—ll with him more deepâ—ly Hereunto also appertaineth a story written and commonly found in many old written Bookes In the yeare of our Lord 1228. at Paris in a Synod of the Clergy there was one appointed to make a Sermon Who being much carefull in his minde and solicitous what to say the Devill came to him and asking him why he was so carefull for his matter what he should Preach to the Clergy Say thus quoth he The Princes of Hell salute you O yee Princes of the Church and gladly give you thanks because through your default and negligence it commeth to passe that all soules goe downe to Hell Adding moreover that he was also enforced by the Commandement of God to declare the same Yea and that a certaine token moreover was given to the said Clarke for a signe whereby the Synod might evidently see that he did not lye Ex Catal. Illyr Fol. 546. Aâ—exander Fabritius a Popish English writer flourishing about the yeare 1420. in his Destructorium vitâ—rum part 6. cap. 79. prosecutes the same argument thus Who are more horribly inthralled to the Devils servitude then those who are constituted in the sublimity of honour Ecclesiasticall men ought to be the light of the Woâ—ld yet where is more abundant darknesse of vices where more abundant gaping after earthly things then in moderne Prelates who are fatted in both powers as well temporall as spirituall where is greater Pompe in all appendicles Yea and that so much that having left the poverty of the Primitive Church they are now rather to be tearmed Princes of Provinces then Pastors of Soules In part 5. â— 4. hee addes These negligent Prelates though they be remisse in correcting delinquents against God yet about their owne proper and personall injury or derogation of their proper honour they are found most sharpe and rigid and willing to remit nothing unpunished but if any thing be done touching injury offered to God or touching the diminution of divine honour there are they most remisse and take no care at all Chrysostome speakes well against these A Bishop saith he if he receive not due honour from a Presbyter is angry and troubled But if a Bishop behold a Presbyter negligent of his duty to the Church or finning in any other wise against God he is neither angry nor heares it because all are solicitous of their owne honour but have no care at all of Gods honour And part 6. cap. 26. A Bishopricke is a Title of Worke not of Honour whence a Bishop is called as it were an Overseer and one taking the care of his flocke and seeing such intention is a good worke it appeares the Apostles words speaking thus are true Hee that desires a Bishoprick desires a good worke But from hence it followeth not that this desire or the worke of the desire is good as ambitious men commonly object desiring to be pompously exalted in worldly dignity and it rather followeth the thiefe who would steale a good Cap desires a good thing therefore his desire unto this is good but the contrary rather followeth for he who desires the state of a Pastorall office ambitiously by this disables himselfe to take it witnesse Saint Gregory And it is found in Cap. 8. qu. 1. As the place of government saith he is to be denyed to those who desire it so it is to be offered to those who flie from it Many Bishops enter not into the sheepfold by the doore which is Christ but by the Devill who is a lyer and if man placed by God in Paradice could not there stand long by himselfe but fell grievously what wonder is it if our moderne Pastors placed in the Church not by God but Symoniacally by the Devill fall horribly So this English Author though a Papist About the yeare 1457. Reynold Peacocke Bishop of Chichester Preached at Pauls Crosse That the Office of a Christian Prelate cheifly above all other things is to preach the word of God That the riches of Bishops by inheritance are the goods of the poore That spirituall persons by Gods Law ought to have no temporall possessions And moreover hee writ a Booke DE MINISTRORVM AEQVALITATE wherein he maintained Wickliffs opinion of the Equality of Ministers and Bishops For which and other Articles he was accused and convicted of Heresie forced to abjure at Pauls Crosse had his Bookes burnt by his brethren the Prelates and was then imprisoned in his owne house during life So dangerous is it even for Bishops themselves to write or preach any thing against the wealth pompe pride and jurisdiction of their ambitious Lordly brethren Anno 1537. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Edward Archbishop of Yorke Iohn bishop of London Cuthbert bishop of Durham Stephen bishop of Winchester Robert bishop of Carleile Iohn bishop of Exeter Iohn bishop of Lincolne Iohn bishop of Bath Rowland bishop of Coventry and Lichfeild Thomas bishop of Ely Nicholas bishop of Salisbury Iohn bishop of Bangor Edward bishop of Hereford Hugh bishop of Worcester Iohn bishop of Rochester Richard bishop of Chichester William bishop of Norwich William bishop of St. Davids Robert bishop of Assaph Robert bishop of Landaffe Richard Wolman Archdeacon of Sudbury William Knight Arch-Deacon of Richmond Iohn Bell Arch-Deacon of Glocester Edmond Bonner Arch-Deacon of Leicester William Skip Arch-Deacon of Dorcet Nicholas Heath Arch-Deacon of Stafford Cuthbert Marshall Arch-Deacon of Nottingham Richard Curren Arch Deacon of
Oxford William Cliffe Geoffry Dowes Robert Oking Ralph Bradford Richard Smith Simon Mathew Iohn Pryn William Buckmaster William May Nicholas Wotton Richard Cox Iohn Edmunds Thomas Robertson Iohn Baker Thomas Barret Iohn Hase Iohn Tyson Doctors and Professors in Divinity and of the civill and Canon Law with the whole Convocation House and Clergy of Enland in their Booke intituled The Institution of a Christian man dedicated by them to King Henry the eight Printed Cum Privilegio subscribed with all their names and ratified by the Statute of 32. Henry the eight cap. 26. chap. Of the Sacrament of Order fol. 48. c. And King Henry 8. himselfe in his Booke inscribed A necessary erudition for any Christian man published with the advise and approbation of all the Prelates Clergy of England in their Convocation and of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and nether House of Parliament with the Kings owne royall Epistle to all his loving Subjects before it Anno 1545. by vertue of the Satute of 32 Henry the eight c. 26. Chap. of the Sacrament of Order Doe all thus joyntly determine of the calling jurisdiction Lordlinesse and secular imployments of Bishops The truth is that in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinctions in Orders but onely of Deacons and Ministers and of Priests or Bishopâ— And of these two Orders onely that is to say Priests and Deacons Scripture maketh expresse mention and how they were conferred of the Apostles by Prayer and imposition of their hands And to these two the Primitive Church did add and conjoyne certaine other inferior and lower degrees And as concerning the office and duty of the said Ecclesiasticall Ministers the same consisteth in true preaching and teaching the word of God unto the people iâ— dispensing and ministring the Sacraments of Christ in consecratingâ— and offering the blessed body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar in loosing and assoyling from sinne such persons as be sorry and truely penitent for the same and excommunicating such as bâ— guilty in manifest crimes and will not be reformed otherwise and finally in praying for the whole Church of Christâ— and specially for the flocke committed unto them And although the office and ministry of Priests and Bishops stand câ—iefly in these things before rehearsed yeâ— neither they nor any of them may exercise and execute any of the same offices but with such sort and such limitation as the Ordinances and Lawes of every Christian Realme doe permit and â—uffer It is out of all doubt that there is no mention made neither in Scripture neither in the writings of any authentical Doctâ—r or Author of the Church being within the time of the â—postles that Christ did ever make or institute any distinction or difference to be in the preheminence of power order or jurisdiction between the Apostleâ— themselves or between the Bishops themselves but that they were all â—quall in power authorâ—ty and jurisdâ—ctâ—on And that there is now and since the time of the Apostles any such diversity or difference among the Bishops It was devised by the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church for the conservation of good order and unity of the Catholique Church and that either by the consent and authority or else at least by the permâ—ssion and suffâ—rance of the Prâ—nces and civill powers for the time ruling For the said Fathers considering the great and infinite multitude of Christian men so lâ—rgely encreased through the world and taking examples of the Old Testamâ—nt thought it expedient to make an order of degrees to be among Bishops and spirituall Governours of the Church and so ordained some to be Patriarks some to be Metropolitansâ— some to be Archbishops some to be Bishops and to them did limit severally not onâ—ly their certaine Diocesse and Provinces wherein they should exercise their power and not exceed the same but also certaine bounds and limits of their jurisdiction and power c. And lest peradventure it might be thought to some persons that such authorities powers and jurisdictions as Patriarks Primates Archbishops and Metropolitans now have or heretofore at any time have had justy and lawfully over any other Bishops were given them by God in holy Scripture We think it expedient and necessary that all men should be advertised and taught that all such lawfull powers and authority of one Bishop over another were and be given to them by the consent ordinance positive lawes of men only and not by any ordinance of God in holy Scripture and all other power and authority which any Bishop hath used or exercised over another which hath not been given to him by such consent and ordinance of men as is aforesaid is in very deed no lawful power but plaine usurpation and tyranny And therefore whereas the Bishop of Rome hath heretofore claimed and usurped to be head and governour over all Priests and Bishops of the holy catholique Church of Christ by the lawes of God It is evident that the same power is utterly fained and untrue VVee thinke it convenient that all Bishops and Pastors shall instruct and teach the people committed to their spirituall charge that Christ did by expresse words prohibit that none of his Apostles nor any of their successors should under the pretence of authority of the sword that is to say the authority of Kings or any civill power in this world yea or any authority to make Lawes or Ordinances in causes appertaining â—â—to civill powers If any Bishop of what estate or dignity soâ—ver he be be he Bishop of Rome or of any other City Province or Diocesse doe presume to take upon him authority or jurisdiction in causes of matters which appertaine unto Kings and the civill powâ—rs and â—heir Courts and will maintaine or thinke that he may so doe by the authority of Christ and his Gospel although the Kings and Princes would not permit and suffer him so to doe no doubt that Bishop is not worthy to be called a Bishop but rather a Tyrant and a usurper of other mens rights contrary to the Lawes of God and is worthy to be reputed none otherwise than he that goeth about to subvert the Kingdome of Christ for the Kingdome of Christ in his Church is spirituall and not a carnall kingdome of the world that is to say the very Kingdome that Christ by himselfe or by his Apostles and Disciples sought here in this world was to bring all Nations from the carnall kingdome of the Prince of darknesse unto the light of his spirituall Kingdome and so himselfe raigne in the hearts of the people by grace faith hope and charity And therefore sith Christ did never seeke nor exercise any worldly kingdome or dominion in this world but rather refusing and flying the same did leave the said worldly governance of kingdomes Realmes and Nations to be governed by Princes and Potentates in like manner as he did finde them and commanded also his
wicked Doctrine at Oxford were brought into judgement before the King and the Bishops of the kingdome who being devious from the catholique Faith and overcome in tryall Facies cauteriata notabiles cunctis exposuit qui expulsi sunt aregno they were stigmatized in the face which made them notable to all and then banished out of the kingdome VVhat this pravum dogma or wicked opinion was for which these men were thus stigmatized and exiled I finde not specified in Paris and Walsingham but Iohn Bale out of Guâ—do Perpinâ—anus de Haeresibus relates that those men were certaine Waldenses who taught That the Church of Rome was the whore of Babylon and the barren Fig-tree whom Christ himselfe had long agoe accursed and moreover said Non obediendum esse Papâ— ET EPISCOPIS Ordinesque Characteres esse magnae bestiae That men are not to obey the Pope AND BISHOPS and that Orders to wit Popish Orders are the characters of the great beast Had these Waldenses lived in our dayes they should not have beene branded onely in the face by our Lordly Prelates procurement but set â—n the Pillory and had both their eares cut off then banished into forraigne Islands and there been shut up close prisoners so strictly that neither their wives children friends should have any accesse unto them nor they enjoy so much as the use of bookes Pen Inke or Paper onely for opposing Episcopacy as we know some others have lately been for this very cause Expertus loquor So dangerous so fatall is it for any to oppose our Lordly Prelacy as these men did in their generation though â—hey smarted for it Yet this could not deterre our most learned â— Gualter Mapes Archdeacon of Oxford flourishing in king Iohns raigne about the yeare of our Lord 1210. from following their footsteps who in his Satyrs doubted not to stile Prelates Animalia bruta stercora Bruit beasts and dung and in his books Ad impios Praelatâ—s and Ad malos Pastores complaines that Alegis doctoribus Lex evacuatur Dilatatur impii regnum Pharaonis comparing the Bishops to wicked Pharaoh for their tyranny and oppression But of him before This Doctrine of his and other our Martyrs was this seconded by Sir Iohn Borthwike knight martyred in Scotland Anno 1540. as appeares by his answers in the sixth and seventh Articles objected against him by the Prelates The sixth Article Agreeable to the ancient Errors of Iohn Wickliffe and Iohn Hus Arch-Heretiques condemned in the Councell of Constance hee hath affirmed and preached That the Clergy ought not to possesse or have any temporall possessions neither to have any jurisdiction or authoritie in temporalties even over their owne subjects but that all things ought to bee taken from them as it is at this present in England Borthwicke The Lord in the eighteenth Chapter of the Booke of Numbers said thus unto Aaron Thou shalt possesse nothing in their Land neither shalt thou have any portion amongst them I am thy portion and inheritance amongst the Children of Israel for unto the sonnes of Levi I have given all the Tithes of Israel that they should possesse them for their Ministry which they doe execute in the Tabernacle of the Congregation Albeit I doe not doubt but that the Order of the Levites and of the Clergy is farre different and variable For the administration of their sacred and holy things after their death passed unto their posterity as it were by right of inheritance which happeneth not unto the posterity of our Clergy in these dayes Furthermore if any heritage be provided or gotten for them I doe not gainâ—-say but that they shall possesse it but still I doe affirme That all temporall jurisdiction should be taken from them For when as twice there arose a contention amongst the Disciples which of them should be thought the greatest Christ answered The kings of Nations have dominion over them and such which have power over them are called beneficiall you shall not doe so for hee which is greatest amongst you shall be made equall unto the youngest or least and hee which is the Prince or Ruler amongst you shall be made equall unto him that doth minister minding thereby and willing utterly to debarre the Ministers of his Word from all terrene and civill dominion and Empire For by these points he doth not onely declare that the office of a Pastor is distinct and divided from the office of a Prince and Ruler but they are in effect so much different and separate that they cannot agree or ioyne together in one man Neither is it to be thought that Christ did set or ordaine an harder Law then hee himselfe did take upon him For so much as in the twelfth of Luke certaine of the company said unto him Master command my brother that he divide his inheritance with mee Hee answered Man who made me a Judge or a divider amongst you Wee see therefore that Christ even simply did reiect and refuse the office of a Judge the which thing hee would not have done if it had beene agreeable unto his office or duty The like thing also hee did in the eighth Chapter of Iohn when as hee refused to give iudgement upon the woman taken in adultery which was brought before himâ— Whereas they doe alleage â—hat Moses did supply both offices at once I answer that it was done by a rare miracle Furthermore that it continued but for a time untill things were brought unto a better state besides that there was a certaine forme and rule prescribed him of the Lord then tooke hee upon him the civill governance and the Priesthood he was commanded to resigne unto his bâ—other and that not without good cause for it is against nature that one man should suffice both charges wherefore it was diligently fore-seene and provided for in all ages Neither was there any Bishop so long as any true face or shew of the Church did continue who once thought to usurpe the right and title of the sword whereupon in the time of Saint Ambrose this proverbe tooke his originall That Emperours did rather wish or desire the office of Priesthood then Priests any Empire For it was all mens opinions at that time that sumptuous palaces did pertaine unto Emperours and Churches unto Priests Saint Bernard also writeth many things which are agreeable unto this our opinion as is this his saying Peter could not give that which hee had not but hee gave unto his succesâ—ours that which hee had that is to say carefulnesse over the Congregation for when as the Lord and Master saith That he is not constituted or ordained Judge betweene two the servant or Disciple ought not to take it scornfully if that he may not judge all men And lest that hee might seeme in that place to speake of the spirituall judgement hee straightway annexeth therefore saith hee your power and authority shall be in offence and transgression not in possessions For
purely â—hat they see no contrary ensample in thee to whatsoever thoâ— teachest them in Christ that thoâ— put no stumbling blocke before them to make them â—aile while they be yet young and weake in the faith But that thou abstaine as Paul teacheth 1 Thes. 5. Ab omni specie mala from all tâ—at might seeme evill or whereof a man might â—urmise amisse and that thou so love them that whatsoever gift of God in them is thou thinke the same theirs and their food and for their sakes given unto thee as the â—ruth is and that all their infirmitâ—es be thine and that thou feele them and that with all thy power to helpe to amend them and cease not to cry to God for them neither day nor night and that thou let nothing be found in thee that any man may rebuke but whatsoever thou teachest them that be thou and that thou be not a Wolfe in a Lambes skin as our Holy Father the Pope is which commeth unto us in a name of hypocrisie and in the Title of cursed Cham oâ— Ham calling himselfe Servâ—s servoâ—um the Servant of all â—ervants and is yet found tyrannus â—yrannorum of all tyrants the most cruell This is to receive young Children in Christs name and to receive young Children in Christs name is to beare rule in the Kingdome of Christ. Thuâ— ye see that Christs Kingdome is altogether spirituall and the bearing of rule in it is cleare contrary unto the bearing of rule temporally Wherefore none that beâ—reth rulâ— in it may have any tempâ—rall jurisdiction or minister any temporall Office that requireth violence to compell withall Thus and â—arre more Mr. Tyndall All whose passages are very remarkable and worthy serious consideration Iohn Friâ—h our learned English Martyr in his Answere to the Prefacâ— of Mr. Moores Book pag. 116 writes thus of Bishops anâ— their great possessions This Canker then began to spread in the Congregation and did full sore annoy the body insomuch that within foure hundred yeares there were very many Sects scattered in every coast Notwithstanding there were faithfull Fathers that diligently subdued them with the sword of Gods Word But surely since Silvester received such possessions hath the Canker so crept in the Church that it hath almost left never a sound member And as Cistercensis writeth in the eighth booke that day that hee received revenues was a voyce heard in the ayre crying over the Court which sayd This day is venome shed into the Church of God Before that time there was no Bishop greedy to take a Cure For it is no honour and profit as it is now but onely a carefull charge which was like to cost him his life at one time or other And therefore no man would take it but he that bare such a love and zeale to God and his â—locke that hee could be content to shed his blood for them But after that it was made so honourable and profitable they that were worst both in learning and living most laboured for it For they that were vertuous would not entangle themselves with the vaine pride of this world and weare three Crownes of gold where Christ did weare one of thorne And in conclusion it came so farreâ— that whosoever would give most money for it or best could flatter the Prince which he knew well all good men to abhorre had the preheminence and got the best Bishopricke and then instead of Gods Word they published their owne Commandements and made Lawes to have all under them and made men beleeve they could not erre whatsoever they did or sayd and even as in the Roomes stead of Moses Aaron Eliazer Iosue Caleb and other Faithful folk came Herod Annas Caiphas Pilate and Iudas which put Christ to deathâ— So now in the stead of Christ Peter Paul Iames and Iohn and the faithfull followers of Christ we have the Pope Cardinalls Arch-Bishops Bishops and proud Prelates with their Proctorsâ— the malicious Ministers of their Master the Devill which notwithstanding transformâ—â— themselves into a likenesse as though they were the Ministers of righteousnesse whose end shall bee according to their workes So that the body is cankered long agone and now are left but certaine small members which God of his puissant power hath reseâ—ved uncorruptedâ— and because they see that they cannot be cankered as their owne â—lesh is for pure anger they buâ—â—e themâ— lest if they continued there might seeme some deformity in their owne cankered carkasses by the comparing of these whole members to their scabbed body Our godly Martyr D. Barnes in his Articles pag. 210 211 212 213. writes thus of Bishops I will never beleeve nor yet I can never beleeve that one man may be by the Law of God a Bishop of two or three Cities yea of an whole Country for it is contrary to Saint Paul which saith I have left thee behind to set in every City a Bishop And if you find in one place of Scripture that they be called Episcopi you shall find in divers other places that they be called Presbyteri I was brought before my Lord Cardinall into his Gallery and there he read all my Articles till he came to this and there he stopped and said that this touched him and therefore he asked mee if I thought it wrong that one Bishop should have so many Citties underneath him unto whom I answered that I could no farther goe than to Saint Pauls text which set in every City a Bishop Then asked hee mee if I thought it now unright seeing the Ordinance of the Church that one Bishop should have so many Cities I answered that I knew none Ordinance of the Church as concerning this thing but Saint Pauls saying onely neverthelesse I did see a contrary custome and practice in the world but I know not the Originall thereof Then said hee that in the Apostles â—ime there were divers Citieâ— some seven miles some sixe mileâ— long and over them was there set but one Bishop and of their Suburbes also So likewise now â— bishop hath but one City to his Cathedrall Church and the country about is as Suburbs unto it Mee thought this was farre fetched but I durst not deny it because it was great Authority and of so holy a Father and of so great a Divine But this date I say thaâ— his Hollinesse could never prove it by Scripture nor yet by any authority of Doctors not yet by any practice of the Apostles and yet it must be trâ—e because a pillar of the Church hath spoken itâ— But let us see what the Doctors say to my Article Athanasius doth declare this text of the Apostle I have left thee behind c. Hee would not commit unto one Bishop a whole Isle but hee did enjoyne thâ—t every Cityâ— should have his proper Pastor supposing that by this meanes they should more diligently oversee
the cause that they do not execute this their office Other becaâ—se they cannot or because they have so much worldly businesse that they will not apply â—hemselves to performe both Or else they be afraid to speâ—ke the truth lest they should displease men whom Paul reproveth saying If I should please men I should not be the servant of Christ. Also the Prophet saith God breaketh the bones of them which study to please menâ— they be confounded because the Lord 〈◊〉 thâ—m Our Bishops love so well their great dominionsâ— whereby they maintaine their Lordly honour thâ—t they will â—ot displeâ—se men with preâ—ching the â—ruth lest they should â—hâ—n loose their great poâ—â—essions and consequently their Lordly glory But surely as long as they possesse their great Dominions so long they will continue and maintaine their pride And so long as they continue in pride so long they shall not receive the holy Ghost which shall reach them to speake the truth For upon whom shall my spirit rest saith the Prophet Esay but upon the mâ—â—ke and lowly and upon him which feareth my sayings Also the Prophet saith God resâ—steth the proud and unto the mâ—â—ke and lowly hâ—e givâ—th â—is grace Wherefore so long as the Bishops contiâ—â—e in this worldly wealth and honour so long will they 〈◊〉 their duâ—y and office but raâ—her persâ—cute the word of Goâ— which declareth and sheweth what is their office â—nd their duty And so long as they do not eâ—ercise their offâ—â—e â—nd vocâ—â—ion but â—o peâ—secuâ—e â—he Word and such as sincâ—â—ely pâ—each the same so long shall sinne incrâ—ase For if the eye be wicked all the body shall be â—ull of darknesse For even as at such time when the Bishop of Rome was first endowed with great possessions a voice was heard saying Now venome and poyson is cast and shed forth into the Church of God In like wise no doubt most godly Governour semblable voyce and saying may be verified in and upon all the Church of England sith your Bishops were endowed with so great possessions and Lordly Dominions No doubt gracious Lord so long as great Lordly Dominions worldly honours and wealth be annexed and knit to the vocation and offices of Bishops and other pastours these mischiefes and inconveniences shall ever ensue and follow First the most proud and ambitious the most covetous and wicked which other by mony friendships or flattery can obtaine the benefice will labour with all studie and policie to get the benefice onely for the worldly honour and not for the zeale and love which he should have to instruct and teach the people committed to his cure and charge And for the Profit which belongeth and appertaineth to the same benefice they will dissemble humility and despection of all worldly profits and pleasures so colourably and subtilly that it shall be very hard for your Majesty or any other having authority to give benefices to perceive them And when they have obtained the benefice then every Christian man shall well perceive that he hath not entred in by the doore that is for the zeale and love to do and execute the office but hath climed up and ascended by another way that is for the lucre and honour annexed to the office And then certainly whosoever ascendeth and entereth in by another way cannot be but a theefe by day and by night whose study and labour must be to steale kill and destroy as Christ whose words must ever be true saith The theefe commeth not but to steale to kill and to destroy So that so long as so much worldly profit and honour belongeth to the benefice so long will hee that for want and lacke of learning cannot doe the office and also the most covetous and proud will labour to have thâ—â—â—fice whereby the people committed to his cure shall not onâ—â— be untaught and not learned in Gods Word but also all they which can preach and teach Gods Word and love the same by such a worldly wolfe shall be extremely persecnted and tormented For hee cannot but steale kill and destroy and utterly abhorre and hate the godly as Christ saith If you were of the world the world would love his owne But because you be not of the world but I have chosen you from the world therefore the world doth hate you No doubt a man shall much rather upon thornes gather grapes and upon brambles and bryers gather figges than of such greedy theeves to have any Christian religion either set forth preached or stablished Wherefore most redoubted Prince seeing that their great possessions riches wordly offices cures and businesse be the impediment and let that they do not execute their vocation and office which is so godly profitable necessary for this your Commonwealth You being our Soveraigne Lord and King whom God hath called to governe this your Realme and to redresse the enormities and abuses of the same by all justice and equity are bounden to take away from Bishops and other spirituall shepheards such superfluity of possessions and riches and other secular cures businesse and worldly offices which be the cause of much sinne in them and no lesse occasion whereby they be letted to execute their office to the great losse and hindrance of much faith vertue and goodnesse which might be administred to your subjects through the true preaching of Gods Word And that done then circumspectly to take heed that none be admitted to be Pastours but such as can preach and have preached sincerely Gods Word And all such as will not to remove them from their cures This godly order observed in the election of spirituall Pastours the pestilent poyson removed and taken away from their vocation faith shall increase and sinne shall decrease true obedience shall be observed with all humility to your Majesty and to the higher powers by your grace appointed in office civill quietnesse rest and peace shall be established God shall be feared honoured and loved which is the effect of all Christian living O Lord save our most Soveraigne Lord King Henry the eight and grant that hee may once throughly feele and perceive what miserable calamity sorrow and wretchednesse we suffer now in these dayes abroad in the Country by these unlearned Popish and most cruell tyrants even the very enemies of Christs Crosse whose paine shall be without end when wee shall live in joy for ever Grant yet once againe I say good Lord and most mercifull Father through thy Sonne Jesus Christ that when his Grace shall know and perceive by thy gift and goodnesse their most detestable wayes in misusing thy heritage that hee will earnestly go about to see a redresse among them and to the penitent and contrite in heart to shew his accustomed goodnesse and to the other his justice according to Saint Pauls Doctrine and his Graces Lawes And most dread Soveraigne with all humility and humblenesse of heart I beseech your grace according to your accustomed goodnesse
to take this my rude Supplication to the best as a fruit of my obedience wherein I have not dissembled but have opened fully unto your Grace the ground and very bottome of my heart not of any grudge evill will or malice that I beare to any spirituall Shepheard God I take to record but onely for the glory of God the honour of your Grace and the wealth and profit of your most naturall and loving subjects Thus this namelesse Supplicant Our learned Martyr Iohn Lambert alias Nicholson Anno 1538. in his answer to his 9. and 22. Articles thus determins of the parity and identity of Bishops and Ministers As touching Priesthood in the Primitive Church when vertue bare as ancient Doctors do deeme and Scripture in mine opinion recordeth the same most roome there were no more officers in the Church of God than Bishops and Deacons that is to say Ministers as witnesseth besides Scripture full apertly Ierome in his Commentaries upon the Epistles of Paul whereas he saith That those whom we call Priests were all one and none other but Bishops and the Bishops none other but Priests men ancient both in age and learning so neere as could be chosen Neither were they instituted and chosen as they be now adayes with small regard of a Bishop or his officer onely opposing them if they can construe a Collect but they were chosen not onely by the Bishop but also with the consent of the people among whom they should have their living as sheweth Saint Cyprian And the people as hee saith ought to have power to chuse Priests that bee men of good learning of good and honest report But alacke for pity such elections are now banished and new fashions brought in which if wee should conferre with the forme of the election shewed of Christ by his Apostle Paul wee should find no small diversity but all turned upside downe In the 2â— where you demand Whether I beleeve that it is lawfull for all Priests freely to preach the Word of God or no and that in all places at all seasons and to all persons to whom they shall please although they be not sent I say that Priests are called in Scripture by two distinct words that is to wit Presbyteri and Sacerdotes The first is to say ancient men Seniors and Elders and by that word or vocable are the secular Judges or such like head officers sometimes also signified as wee read in Daniel of these that defamed and wrongfully accused Susanna but this is seldome and nothing so customeablely as those be called Presbyteri which are set to be Prelates in the Church to guide the same by the word of God and his blessed Doctrine that is the rod of direction and the foundation of Christs faith And Priests thus called Presbyteri in the Primitive Church what time weâ—e but few traditions and ordinances to let us from the straight trade or institution made by Christ and his Apostles WERE THE SAME AND NONE OTHER BUT BISHOPS as I have shewed you in the first part of mine answer by authority of Saint Hierome and Paul recordeth the same right evidently and Tit. 1. in this forme I left thee Titus said blessed Paul behind mee in Crete that thou shouldest correct or set in a due order such things as lacke or be not else perfectly framed and that thou shouldest set Priests in every Towne like as I did appoint thee such as are without reproach or blamelesse the husband of one wife having faithfull children not subject to the vice of riot or that hee be not unruly for so ought a Bishop to be c. These are not my words but of Saint Paul in the Epistle to Titus where you may see that a Priest called Presbyter should be that same that a Bishop whom he requireth a little after to be able by wholsome Doctrine of Gods Scripture to exhort the good to follow the same doctrine and those that shall speake against it to reprove them thereby And marke you how hee would have a Bishop otherwise called an ancient man and a Priest to make exhortation by holy Scripture and thereby to reprove them that shall speake against the truth not to condemne them by might or authority only or else by traditions of men made in generall Councels And as many as are these wise Priests which are called commonly Presbyteri otherwise Bishops such as in the Church are set to take cure of soules and to be spirituall Pastors ought to Preach freely the Word of God in all places and times convenient and to whomsoever it shall please them if they suppose and see that their preaching should edifie and profit And whereas you adde this particle though they were not sent I say that all such are chosen to be Preachers and therefore sent for of this speaketh S. Gregory in his Pastorals in this wiseâ— Praedicationis quippe officium suscepit quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit c. So hee who much condemned Ex Officio Oathes and proceedings the Canon Law and inequality of Bishops and Ministers as contrary to Christs institution who made all his Apostles of equall authority in his answers to the 29.30.41 and 43. Articles too large and too common to transcribe The booke intituled The Image of a very Christian Bishop and of a counterfeit Bishop written printed cum privilegio regali in Henry the eight his raigne though by the Bishops practice called in by this Kings injunctions An. 1539. with sundry other orthodoxe bookes determins thus both of the Bishops callings and practices in those times The booke being very rare I shall transcribe more of it than otherwise I would doe Over and besides this the Ministers of the Word of God are principally bound hereunto that they shall more sharpely rebuke the Bishops and the Primates of the Church than the worldly Princes and Rulers and that for many causes first because that Ecclesiasticall highnesse and dignity as it is now is not of God for God doth not acknowledge not elect this disguised and painted deceitfull people and these childish and in a manner counterfeit and Nicholaicall Bishops forasmuch as they do neither teach noâ— yet do execute any point belonging to the office of a Bishop Secondly these shadows of Bishops have not beene constituted by men but they have exalted their owne selves and they have catched unto themselves Empire Dominion and Lordships against both God and men against reason common sense or judgement after the nature and property of Tyrants which doe rule onely by the wrath and great indignation of God The Temporall or Worldly Governours and Officers are constituted by the gracious favour and mercifull ordinance of God to the chastisement and punishment of evill men and to the protection defence and maintenance of good men Besides this the worldly Governours although they do injury and wrong never so much and do unjustly and wickedly yet for
all that they doe but onely hurt the temporall goods and the body But these great estates and Prelates of the Church if they be not good and vertuous and do not promote and â—eâ— forwards the course of the word of God unfainedly and with their hearts they are meere wolves and most cruell murderers of soules And it is much like in evill and wicked Bishops as if Satan having a Miter on his head and rings on his fingers did â—iâ— in a chaire and did rule the people Wherefore even the Bishops also which doe not teach the pure Word of God are no lesse to be eschewed than the Devill himselfe For wheresoever the Word of God is not there without doubt is nothing else but humane errour meere doctrine of Devills and butchery and slaughter of soules for the consciences or soules without the Word of God can neither live noâ— bee delivered from the Devill But here I know well enough they will object and say that it is jeopardy lest sedition might be raysed up against those Bishops and Prelates of the Church Loe I make answer Shall the Word of God I beseech you for this your fained objection be neglected and shall therefore the whole people perish And is it I pray you right and convenient that all soules should perpetually perish and be slaine that the temporall and most vaine pompe of such men might be preserved and maintained and might endure and continue in her peace and quietnesse Nay it were better for spirituall harmes are most to be weighed that sixe hundred times all the Bishops should perish for ever in their pride and dignity and that all the Churches collegiate and al Monasteries were plucked up by the rootes were overthrowne and utterly destroyed so it were done by the authority of the higher powers thâ—n that one soule should perish Because I will not in the meane season say that infinite soules yea that all soules shall perish for any thing that such as they doe I pray you tell me what profit commeth of many of the Bishops that now are or wherefore serve they but onely to live in voluptuousnesse and pleasures and to play the rioters and wantons of other mens labour and sweat and in the meane season with much grievoâ—s threatnings and with dreadfull feares to condemne to hisse out to cast out and to warre against the Word of God Good men they take exceeding great thought and care for themselves and with marvellous great unquietnesse of minde feare and dread seditions in the temporall common-wealth but as for the death of soules being thereof all carelesse and without any manner of feaâ—e or unquietnesse of minde they doe neglect and passe nothing upon it I beseech thee good Reader are not these goodly wise and exceeding bold and manly heardsmen of the Church If they did receive the Word of God and of truth and did principally search for the life and safeguard of soules then the Godâ— as the Apostle saith of patience and of Comfort and hope would be with them that they should not neede to feare any seditions or risings of the people which is but their crafty cloaked excuse to blind the eyes of the Princes But in as much as they like deafe Serpents stopping their eares will not heare the Word of God but such is their fury and madnesse doe rage against it with excommunications cursings imprisonments with the sword and finally with fire I beseech you what other thing doe they as concerning their part with this their extreame woodnesse then which God defend even willingly provoke that there should rise up a very great sedition and that some certaine tempest and storme should violently and suddenly come upon them which should rid them at once out of the world And surely if any such thing did chance unto them yet were they nought else but to be laughed and scorned as Wisedome saith in Proverbs 1. Because I have called and you have refused to come I have stretched forth my hand and there was none of you that would looke to me and you have despised all my counsell and have set at nought my rebukings I also will laugh in your destruction and I will mocke and scorne when that thing which you did feare shall be chanced and come unto you The Word of God doth not stirre or raise up seditions and strifes but the stubborne aud obstinate disobedience of them which doe rage against it is the cause that trouble and sedition is stirred up among the people and that then by such seditions that thing should happen unto them which they had deserved through their owne unbeleefe and frowardnesse and wicked blindnesse for whosoever receiveth the Word of God that man raiseth up no manner of seditions at all albeit that he doth no longer feare those vaine â—ugges neither doth worship those Episcopall Puppets now since that he doth know the Word of God and because that men doe not feare and reverence their vaine imaginations as heretofore they have done that same is the thing if I be not beguiled which they doe call seditions and this is the thing that those persons doe so greatly feare which have hitherto suffered themselves to be worshipped and feared like Gods as though they had beene true Bishops or true Hearâ—smen of the Church After which he addes S. Peâ—er saith of these The Lord knoweth how to keepe the unrighteous persons unto to the day of judgement for to be punished Namely such as following the flesh doe walke in the concupiscence and lust of uncleannesse and doe despise the Governors and Rulers being presumpâ—uous stubborne and which doe noâ— feare to raise and speake evill words on them which are in high authority Our delicate Bishops doe â—ot beleeve that this was spoken of them But I beseech thee good Readâ—r marke here how well the words of Peter doe agree with Paul when he describeth their filthy and uncleane life For where he saith presumptious stubborne there are scantly any men to whom those words doe sooner agree For it is they which of all men doe most set by themselves insomuch that they doe despise all worldly Rulers and Officers and whatsoever other person is of high dignity and authority in the world in comparison of themselves and doe also rayle upon them and speake opprobrious words against them For the Pope hath many yeares agoe taken this monstrous tyrannie unto himselfe that hee hath not beene afraid to tread Kings and Princes under his feete to depose them to excommunicate them to curse them unto the 4.5 and 6. Generation and after their owne pleasure to exercise all things which any manner of way whatsoever it may belong and helpe unto extreame and wonderfull tyranny none otherwise than if the Princes and Governours were Swine or else Dogges notwithstanding that the Scripture willeth all men to â—e subject and obedient unto the Princes and Governours of the publicke peace and
he went sometime on his feete and preached the Gospell all abroad he could play the Apostle but such a poore and lewd person as he was could never have played the royall and Princely Bishop after this fashion Let no man thinke it is to be sayd or done against the heads and governours of Christs Church whatsoever is sayd or done against these sloathfull idle and sluggish beasts given all to the belly For they are not Bishops but plaine Idols and dumbe Images idle Puppets visurs blockes shadowes disguised game players which doe not so much as know what this word Episcopus that is to say Bishop doth signifie so farre off they be from knowing what is the Office or duty of a Bishop Wilt thouâ— that I tell thee at one word what they are Wolves they are tyrants traytors manquellers monsters of the world burdens of the earth the Apostles of Antichrist graven and made to corrupt and destroy the Gospell And to utter at once what I thinke Loe I will here play the Bedell or common Cryer Be it knowne to all men that the Bishops of Rome with their clients Bishops which doe now exercise tyranny upon so many Cities in most ample and large dominion are not Bishops by the Ordination of God but by Errour and by â—he seduction of the Devill and by the traditions of men wherefore without doubt they are the messengers and Vicars of Satan If I doe not shew and prove this by so evident testimonies that mine enemies shall be constrained to confesse this verity and that even themselves so that they doe meanely repent and waxe wise cannot deny it then let them be Bishops then let me be thought to doe injury unto them First Paul writeth unto Titus That he should constitute and ordaine Presbyters in every Towne Here I suppose that no man can deny that all one thing is signified by this word Preshyter and by this word Episcopus in Saint Pauls writings for as much as he doth bid Titus that he should in every City constitute Presbyters And because a Bishop ought to be unreproveable therefore he calleth him Presbyterum It is evident therefore what Paul doth signifie and meane by this word Episcopus Bishop that is to say A man excellently good and vertuous of ripe age which also hath a chaste wife and children obedient in the feare of the Lord. And the Apostle will that he should have the oversight and government of the Congregation in the Ministery of the Word and the Administration of the Sacraments All men whosoever they be which by all honest and lawfull meanes doe spend and bestow their goods honour blood and life to the end that these Bishoprickes so pompous and Courtly so farre unlike and contrary to all the office and duty of an Apostle namely to the ministration of the Word and that all this devillish Kingdome of the Bishop of Rome may be overthrowne and destroyed or if they cannot in very deede destroy itâ— doe cry against it doe dispraise and condemne it and doe avoyde it as abhominationâ— all those persons that so doe are the sonnes of God and true Christian men fighting and helping the Faith of the Gospell in spirituall barraile against the gates of Hell Contrariwise whosoever doe favour the Kingdome of the Popes Bishops so wicked and that so tyrannous and devillish cruelty and doe willingly and gladly submit themselves and obey unto it those persons are the ministers of the Devill fighting as enemies against the Words the Lawes and Ordinances of God This sentence of mine nay rather of Gods Judgement I prove with strong effectuall arguments in this wise The Apostle Paul commandeth Titus That he should Ordaine and constitute a Bishop in every City such one as was the husband of one wife a man vertuous and unreproveable c. This is the Word this is the will and sentence of God Against this sayd Will of God these men doe now strive which have taken quite away all true Bishops ouâ— of all Cities and insteed of true Bishops have constituted shops or worke-houses of most cold Ceremonies Monasteries and Churches Collegiate and have brought in themselves in their steed that by this meanes they might be made Bishops or Over-seers of many Cities and also of many Provinces Now the sentence of Paul or rather the Words of the Holy Ghost doth continue firme stable and not able to be moved or stirred of the gates of hell and doth stand as stiffe as a brasen wall which saith plainely and evidently That in every City there ought to be constituted and Ordained one Bishop and these then shal be every one of them of equal power with the other For Paul speaketh plainly of every City he giveth to every Bishop full power authority in his own City Go to therforenow ye worldly Bishops Why doe ye not here rise Why do ye not boldly manfully resist Why do ye not break forth all of you together Here you have to doe not with me but with the Apostle Paul Here you resist that I may say with the holy Martyr Stephen not me but the Holy Ghost which likewise againe of his part doth mightily resist you â—oe to then what will you say here I beseech you Will you all hold your peace and say nothing at all Loe your sentence is given and pronounced against you you have the matter judged that is to wit that unto all Christian men it belongeth of their part with the Word of God againe to destroy to plucke up by the rootes and utterly to extinct both you and your Kingdome which you doe tyrannously exercise to extinct and destroy the Gospell you have heard now that they be in the indignation of God whosoever favoureth you and on the otherside that they are in the favour of God whosoever overthroweth and destroyeth you But I will not in any wise these words which I doe speake of the destruction and utter subversion of the Kingdome of false Bishops so to be understood or taken as though it ought to be done with the hand or with sword or with violence or bodily invasion of them for with this destruction of the men we shall be nothing further in this so great a matter that is to wit Gods cause or businesse But as Daniel prophecied in the 8. chapter The Kingdome of Antichrist is to be broken all to peeces without any hand of man Saint Peters words you are a regall Priesthood and a Priestly Kingdome are meant of Spirituall Bishops who are all the Preachers of the Word of God in Cities Townes and Villages although they doe neither buy Pall nor Gowne nor yet any other Garment of those bawdes the Romanists the Corporall Bishops are you which bearing â—orked Miters on your heads under the apparell of Aaron doe in very deede play the very Tyrants and are fellowes unto Nero and Caligula riding upon fat and well fed Palâ—ries and sleeke Mules and
afterwards with your rings onely and your Gloves and your silver Sheephooke if God be pleased you doe play the Bishops And here againe I guesse what they will object For all that say they oftentimes many Saints have beene Bishops not onely of one City but of many Cities I make answere As many as have beene â—oly Bishops in very deede and called Pastours by the calling of God all those for the most part were the Bishops of one City alone as Cyprian Hilary Ambrose Augustine Ireneus and these observed the tradition of the Apostles it is found in deede in Hisâ—oriographers that there have beene certaine such was holy Boniface and such also Tite unto Paul which did after their own judgement constitute other Bishops in the Cities as Titus did but yet wâ—re they not therefore the Bishops of many Cities and albeit that such manner of example could be shewed of the Saints shall the examples of holy men be prejudiciall to the Word of God Is not God greater than all Saints how oftentimes doe we finde that holy men have sinned erred God saved Daniel in a Dungeon of Lyons and he saved Ananias Azarias and Misael in the flaming Furnance of Babylon Is the hand or power of God now shortned and minished Is it any doubt but that be might preserve and keepe his elect and chosen persons if it should happen them by any meanes to be seduced and led out of the right way as Christ prophecied even in the middest of mens Ordinations and traditions and of the errours of the Devill we ought not to put confidence in any ensample deed or word of Saints but our Consciences ought to leane and to be grounded onely upon the Word of God which onely is he as Paul saith that cannot lye But let us furthermore heare Paul what he saith of this Ordinance of God for in this wise Luke writeth of him in the 20. Chap. of the Acts And sending messengers from Miletum to Ephesus he sent for Priests of the Church which when they were come to him he sayd unto them Take heede to your selves and to all the flocke in which the holy Ghost hath set or ordained you Bishops to governe the Church of God which he hath purchased and gotten with his owne blood Goe to now is here any new thing Is Paul a foole and doth he not know what he doth Ephesus was but one City alone and Paul calleth openly all the Priests or Elders by one common name Episcopos Bishops But peradventure Paul had not read those bookes and those Apologies wretchedly patched together of Papists nor the holy Decretals For how would he have bin bold else to make many Bishops overseers to one City to call al the Priests of one City Bishops in as much as they were not all Princes neither kept a gard of men and goodly Palfries but were certaine rascall persons and of the most abject and vile sort of men after the worldly estimation For Paul peradventure was ignorant of that which is growne in use now in our time that no man can be a great Bishop in very deed unlesse he doe as the Poet saith keepe an hundred Horses in goodly stables unlesse he have a gorgeous house full of royall Pompe unlesse he have many royall titles of Lordships For this alone is sufficient now in our time to that that Knights and Princes be they never so much unlearned and foolish yea and though their minds other whiles doe stand nothing towards it may by the commendations of their parents and kinsfolkes and otherwhiles by gifts and rewards be suddainely made Bishops But in good sadnesse thou seest plainly that the Apostle Paul doth call these onely Bishops which doe Preach the Gospell unto the people and doe minister unto them the Sacraments as now in our time be the Parish Priests and the Preachers Wherefore I doe not doubt but these although they doe Preach the Gospell but to very little Villages and Granges and if they be the faithfull and true ministers of the Word I doe not doubt I say that they have by good right the Title and name of a Bishop Contrariwise those valiant horsemen aâ—d tyrannous Bishops have no point of the Office of a Bishop saving onely those bare goodly titles and certaine disguised apparell in like manner as those Bishops which are painted on a Wall have indeed the shape and likenesse of Bishops but they are without life and speech For even such dead and idle stockes and blockes are the Popes Bishops in every point albeit that then they are evermore strong and quick when they doe exercise tyrannous cruelty against the very Pastours which doe busily governe Cities in the ministration of the Word of God and by more than devillish tyranny doe forbid them holy Wedlocke and to the open slander of the Church doe winke at the keeping of Whores doe blaspheme the Gospell doe extinct the Word of God and under the pretence and colour of vertue and godlinesse doe with incredible woodnesse exercise continually extreame tyranny upon the silly poore people By the reason whereof we doe see in the Courts and Palaces of some Bishops likewise as in the fountaine of all vice and mischiefe in the Court of Rome not so much as one crum not so much as the least shadow to bee found of Christian manners we see also all the Cities of Priests and namely those Noble â—eates of Priests to be nothing else but schooles of uncleanelinesse and bodily plesures Ware-houses of vices so much that in comparison of their houses the Courts of their secular Princes may be accounted Monasteries and holy schooles of vertue and godlinesse yea and Sodome and Gomorrah in comparison of them may seeme temperate measurable and thrifty For out of their Courts or houses commeth forth neither the Gospell nor any other holy Doctrine but onely Citations Excommunications Exactions Interdictions Citations I say in very deed peremptory that is to say slayers both of goods and of soules For such as the Bishops are themselves such also is their Doctrin And though thou do never so much cloath an Asse with a Lyons skin yet he continueth still an Asse and an Ape is still an Ape although he be clad in purple Besides this S. Paul writeth to the Philippians in this wise Paul and Timothy the Servants of Iesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Iesu which are in the City of Philippi and to the Bishops also and the Deacons c. Loâ— Philippi was but onely one City and yet S. Paul saluteth all them that beleeveth together with the Bishopsâ— undoubtedly the Bishops whom he meaneth there were the Priests likewise as he was wont to constitute and ordaine in all the other Cities This is now the third place of Paul in which wee doe see what God and the holy Ghost hath constituted and ordained that is to wit that they
men are scantly saved at the last which with couragious faith continually wrestling and fighting with their flesh and the Devill do live in a good and a vertuous kind of life why dost thou then hope in vaine â—hat thou shalt be saved among so many jeâ—pardies among so many voluptuous plaasures What doth it profit saith Christ himselfe if hee do possesse all the World and all the Kingdomes and do cast away his owne soule But whereof or which way will some say should Kings Princes Earles Barons Knights briefely all the Nobles of the world provide for their younger children if these Bishopricks if those Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches were not And therein first we may openly see the exceedinge foolishnesse and blindnesse of all Christendome which hitherto have bought commonly of the Romanists the Benefices and Prebends founded by themselves with the blood of their Children Loe here I doe speake unto thee whosoever thou art who dost wittingly so cast away thy children If any Ploughman or Smith did wound or kill thy Sonne or did defile thy daughter or thy Sister thou wouldst for anger goe about to doe the uttermost mischiefe that thou couldst to overthrow and destroy even whole Cities whole Provinces for the revenging thereof would seeme but a small matter unto thee thou wouldst thinke in thy minde it to be so high and so hainous an offence that was done unto thee but I beseech thee here open the eyes of thy minde and looke whether there can be a more sure Homicide and murtherer of thy children any more grievous and more cruell enemie unto them than thou art thine owne selfe advancing and promoting them to a Bishopricke or thrusting them downe into such a Church as they doe call it for thou makest thy sonne a Bishop which state as it is now far away from the ministration of the word and from all godlinesse thou knowest undoubtedly to be a devillish state in which thy sonne can in no wise be saved Sith it is so that thou dost know this tell me I beseech thee whether thou dost not more sore rage and use more cruelty against him than if thou cut him into gobbets and didst throw his flesh unto dogs to be devoured if thy sonne through his owne mis-understanding ignorance or error had stumbled and falne into such a certaine kind and manner of living thou oughtst with all diligence and with all thy power to labour and goe about if there were any wisedome or any point of a Christian mind in thee to rid him out of it although thou hadst but onely one loafe of bread to live on thy selfe whereof thou shouldst be faine to give him the one halfe but here I beseech thee looke upon thy selfe somewhat more neere and more narrowly whosoever thou art which dost cast downe thy children headlong into these kindes and manners of living and consider what manner of father thou art onely to keepe thy Dominion and thy riches upright and from decay onely lest thy gold and silver should be diminished if it were divided among many heires thou dost thrust downe willingly cast headlong thy Sons and kinsmen into the deep dungeon of hell neither doth it move or stirre thee any whit to see thine owne blood supped and swallowed up in the throate of the Devill and perpetually to perish so that thou be not compelled to diminish or debate any thing of thy superfluity or any parcell of thy pompe and royalty Lo this most ungracious opinion this custome is crept in and used in many places that as oftentimes as any great mans Sonne being meete rather for any other thing than for a Bishopricke is chosen and â—lected Bishop or is brought into the Temple then with solemne pompe and a solemne company set in their array are madde cries and loud shouts as it were in a triumph then all the Halls and Courts doe sound and ring with the noise of trumps with trumpets with â—â—breâ—sâ— then are in every place lighted tapers and torches then that solemne Song Te Dewn laudamus is thundered out so that these triumphs do plainly represent unto us the image of those foolish Kings of Israel which did burne up their sonnes and daughâ—ers for a Sacrifice in the honour of the Idol Moloâ—â— and with the divers loud sounds of trumps did bring to passe that the lamentable crying ouâ— and wayling of them that were in the midst of the fire could not be heard The author of this booke hath many such like passages against Bishops And as for Cathedrall Churches hee stiles them Stewes and the Gates of hell a certaine unsatiable bottomlesse whirle poole which swallowes up the riches of Kings of Princes of Dukes of Earles of the Common people and of all the world But I passe from this old Treatise About the same time there was a Treatise expressing the causes of the Divisions betweene the Spiritualty and the Temporalty Printed Londini in aedibus Thomâ— Bartheleti prope aquagium sitis sub intersignio Lucretiae Romanae excus Cum Privilegio I shall transcribe no passages out of this Treatise but onely the Table of the Chapters at the end thereof wherein the causes of the division betweene the Spiritualty and the Temporalty are summarily expressed Chap. 1. That the Division among spirituall men themselves hath beene one cause of the Division that is now betweene the spiritualty and temporalty in this Realme Chap. 2. That the omitting of divers good lawes with certain defalts disorders in men of the Church which among others be recited and declared by John Gerson have been another occasion of this division Among these he numbers the neglect of these two Canons That Bishops should have poore apparell lodging and table and should not strive for transitory things And the Clerkes shall not take upon them the acts or procurations of spirituall men Chap. 3. That certaine Lawes made by the Church wherein it is recited Quod Laici sunt Clericis infesti That is to say That Lay men be cruell to Clerkes hath beene another cause of this division Chap. 4. That the extreme Lawes made by the Church for laying violent hands upon Clerkes have beene another cause of this Division Chap. 5. That the disordering of the generall sentence of excommunication hath beene another occasion of the said division which saith hee will never be appeâ—sed till the heads spirituall will reforme themselves and shew a fatherly affection to the people and not extend the sentence oâ— the Church upon so light causes and upon such partiality as they have done in times past Chap. 6. That another occasion of this division hath partly risen by temporall men through disordering of their Chaplaines and Chauntry Priests Chap. 7. That suits taken in the Spirituall Courts Ex officio have beene another occasion of this Division which suits together with Oathes Ex officio whereby a man shall be condemned and not know the names of them that be causes
thereof he termes a sore law and much declaimes against them Chap. 8. Though after the determination of Doctors a man is not an hereticke for that onely that hee erreth but for that hee opinatively defendeth his errour and that neverthelesse the spiritualty as a common voyce goeth among the people have in time past punished many for heresie upon light causes and offences whereupon many people have grudged and that grudge hath beene another occasion of this Division Chap. 9. That the partiality that hath beene shewed upon suits taken in the Spirituall Court by spirituall men hath beene another cause of this Division Chap. 10. That the extreme and covetous demeanour of some Curates with their Parishioners hath beene another cause of this Division Chap. 11. That the granting of pardons for money as it were to some Charitable use that hath not after followed hath raised another grudge among the people which hath beene another occasion of this Division Chap. 12. That making of Lawes by the Church which they had no authority to make hath beene another occasion of this Division In which Chapter he cites divers Lawes made by the Clergie and executed contrary to the Lawes of the Realme touching Tythes of wood exemption of Clerkes from secular jurisdiction and the like which lawes while spirituall men sticke fast to and stifly maintaine temporall men by reason of common use and custome that they have seene to the contrary have resisted them whereupon have risen great strife and variances and expences in the spirituall Law Chap. 13. The lacke of good visitations hath beene another occasion of this Division wherein hee shewes that Bishops keepe their visitations onely to gaine money and procurations not to refraine vices Chap. 14. That the great multitude of Licenses and dispensations made by the spiritualty for money upon light suggestions hath beene another cause of this division Chap. 15. That the great laxenesse and worldly pleasures of religious persons whereby the people hath beene greatly offended hath beene another occasion of this Division Chap. 16. Then for a conclusion of this Treatise it is somewhat touched how good it is to have a zeale of Soules and how perilous it is to do any thing whereby they might be hurt And that if zeale of Soules pitty good doctrine and devout prayer were abundantly in this world mist specially in Prelates and spirituall Rulers that then a new light of grace and tractability would shortly shew and shine among the people The summe of the whole Treatise is to prove that the Bishops and Prelates are the authors of much division trouble and dissention both in Church and State and that by their Episcopall practises and unjust usurpations lawes and proceedings William Wraughton who wrote about the same time In his Rescuing of the Romish Fox Dedicated to King Henry the 8. writes thus Wee have put downe some of your orders of the world there remaine yet two orders of the world in England That is the order of pompous and Popish bishops and Gray Fryers Which if they were put downe as well as the other put downe before I reckon that there should be no Kingdome wherein Christ should more raigne than in England And there hee proves at large the Canon Law to be the Popes law and that as long as the Bishops maintaine it in England they maintaine the Pope in his soveraignty and Legislative power in England and that the reading of this Law makes men papists Roderickâ—â—ors sometimes a Gray Fryer in his Complaint to the Parliament house of England about the 37. yeare of King Henry the eight Chap. 23 24. writes thus of our Prelates No doubt one Bishop one Deane one Colledge or House of Canons hath ever done more mischiefe against Gods Word and sought more the hinderance of the same than tenne houses of Monkes Fryers Canons or Nunnes The Kings Grace began well to weed the Garden of England but yet hath he lest standing the more pitty the most fowlest and stinking weedes which had most need to be first plucked up by the rootes that is to say the pricking thistles and stinging nettles which still standing what helpeth the deposing of the petty members of the Pope and to leave his whole body behind which are the pompous Bishops Canons oâ— Colledges Deanes and such other Surely it helpeth as much as to say I will goe kill all the Foxes in Saint Iohns wood because I would have no more Foxes breed in England Which well pondered wee may say and lye not that the Pope remaineth wholly still in England save onely that his name is banished For why his body which be Bishops and oâ—her shavellings doâ—h not onely remaine but also his tayle which be his filâ—hy Traditions wicked Lawes and beggerly ceremonies as Saint Paul calleth them yea and the whole body of his pestiferous Canon Law according to which judgement is given throughout the Realmeâ— So that we be still in Egâ—pt and remain in capâ—ivity most grievously laden by observing and walking in his most â—ilhy drosse aforesaid which is a mistie and endlesse maze And so long as yee walke in those wicked lawes of Antichrist the Pope and maintaine his Knights the Bishops in such inordinate riches and unlawfull authority so long say I yee shall never baniâ—â— that monstrous beast the Pope out of Englandâ— yea and it shall be a meanes in processe of time to bring us into temporall bondage also againe to have him raigne as he hatâ— done like a God and that know our forked caps right well which thing maketh â—hem so boldly and shamelesly to right in their gods quarrell against Christ and his Word c. The Bishops by their subtilâ—es and most crafty wiles make the people to abhorâ—e the name of the Pope of Rome for a face and compell them to walke in all his wicked lawes and the Word of God which wee say we have received is not nor cannot be suffered to be preached aâ—â—â—aught purely and sincerely without mixing it with their invâ—nted traditions and service Wherefore to open the conclusion oâ— this little lamentation â—f â—ee will banish for ever the Antichrist the Pope out of this Realme yee must fell downe to the ground those rotten poasts the Bishops which be clouds withouâ— moystureâ— and utterly abandon all and every of his ungodly Lawes traditions and ceremonies Now will I speake no further against the particular Pope for as much as every Bishop is now a Pope and yee may plainly see by all the premises that the proud Prelates the Bishops I meane be very Antichrists as is their Father of Rome So he and much more Henry Stalbridge in his Exhoâ—tatory Epistle to his deerly beloved Country of England against the pompous Popish Bishops thereof as yet the true members of their filthy Father the great Antichrist of Rome Printed at Basill in King Henry the eighth his dayes thus seconds him I say yet once againe and that in the seale of the
overseer or Superintendent whose office was in the Primitive Church purely to instruct the multitude in the wayes of God and to see that they were not beastly ignorant in the holy Scripture as the most part of them are now adayes Presbyter is as much to say as a Senior or Elder whose office was also in godly Doctrine and examples of living to guide the Christian Congregation and to suffer no manner of superstition of Jew nor Gentile to raigne among them And these two offices were alone in those dayes and commonly executed of one severall person They which were thus appointed to these spirituall offices did nothing else but preach and teach the Gospell having assistants unto them inferiour officers called Deacons Act. 6. 1 Cor. 1. Rom. 3. No godly man can despise these offices neither yet condemne those that truly execute them not onely are they worthy to have a competent living 1 Cor. 9. but also double honour after the doctrine of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 5. But from inordinate excesse of riches ought they of all men to be sequestred considering that the most wicked nature of Mammon is alwayes to corrupt yea the very Elect if God were not the more mercifull Matth. 6. which might be an admonition to our Lordly Bishops when they be in their worldly pompe that they are not Gods servants beleeved they his sayings as they do nothing lesse Master Fishâ—â— in his Supplication of Beggers thus complaines to King Henry the Eight of the inconveniency of the Prelates greatnesse and sway both to himselfe and his subjects worthy his Majesties most serious consideration Oh the grievous shipwâ—acke of the Common-wealth which in ancient time before the comming of these ravenous wolves were so prosperous c. What remedy Make Lawes against them I am in doubt whether yee be able Are they not stronger in your owne Parliament house than your selfe what a number of Bishops Abbots and Priors are Lords of your Parliament Are not all the learned men of your Realme in see with them to speake in the Parliament house for them against your Crowne dignity and Common-wealth of your Realme a few of your owne learned Counsell onely excepted What Law can be made against them that they may be availeable Who is hee though hee be grieved never so sore that for the murther of his ancester ravishment of his wife of his daughter robbery trespasse maihme debt or any other offence dare lay it to their charge by way of Action and if hee doe then is he by and by by their wilinesse accused of heresie yea they will so handle him ere hee passe that except he will beare a faggot at their pleasure he shall be excommunicated and then be all his Actions dashed So captive are your Lawes unto them that no man whom they list to excommunicate may be admitted to sue any action in any of your Courts If any man in your Sessions dare be so hardy to indite a Priest of any such crime hee hath ere the yeare goe about such a yoake of heresie layd in his necke that it makâ—th him wish he had not done it Your Grace may see what a worke there is in London how the Bâ—shop rageth for indiâ—ing certaine Curates of extortion and incontinency the last yeare in the Ward-mote Quest. Had not Richard Hunne Commenced action of Premunire against a Priest hee had yet beene aliveâ— and no hereticke aâ— all but an honest man And â—his is by reason that the chiefe instrument of your Law yea the chiefe of your Counsell and hee which hath your sword in his hand to whom also all the other instruments are obedient is alwaies a spirituall man which hath ever such an inordinate love unto his owne kingdome that hee will maintaine that though all the temporall Kingdomes and Common-wealths of the world should therefore utterly be undone After which he sâ—â—wes the intolerable exactiâ—ns of the Prelates on the people and how much wealth and money they extort from their postâ—rity You have heard now the opinion of our Martyrs Prelates and godly Writers touching Episcopacie Lordly Prelates their trayterly practises Tâ—mporalties and perniciousnesse to our Church and State both before and in K. Henry the eighth his raigne in the very inâ—ancie of reformation many then desiring and earnestly writing for their utter exterpation as most pernicious instruments of mischiefe both to King Church and Kingdome I shall now proceed to give you some briefe account what hath beene â—hough of these particulars by our Writers and Martyrs in King Edward the sixth Queene Maries and Queene Elizabeths subsequent raignes Learned Martyn Bucer Professor of Divinity in the University oâ— Cambridge in King Edward the sixth his raigneâ— in his booke De Regno Christi dedicated to this King and Devi usu sancti Ministerii determines thus of Lordly Prelates and their temporall offices First I doubt not Most noble King that your Majesty discernes that this reformation of Christs Kingdome which wee require yea which the salvation oâ— us all requires Ab Episcopis nullo modo expectandum is by no meanes to be exspected from the Bishops since there are so few among them even in this Kings raigne when they were best which is worthy noting which do clearly know the power of this Kingdome and the proper offices thereof yea most of them by all meanes they may and dare do either oppugne it deferre or hinder it and thereupon hee adviseth the King not to make use of Doctors Bishops who had the greatest Titles and largest revenues in this reformation but of other godly Ministers and Lay-men wherein the knowledge and zeale of God did most abound to choose them for his Counsellours in this great worke who bâ— knew the power of Christ Kingdome and desired with all their hearts that it might prevaile and raign first in themselves then in all others And because writes he it is the duty of Bishop to govern the Churches not by their owne sole pleasure but with â—he counsell of Presbiters and Ministry of Deacons there will be a nececessity as al the offices of Churches are now dissipated and perverted to adjoyne to every one of the Bishops though never so approved a councell of Presbyters and ministry of Deacons who also ought to be most holily examined and tryed whether they have received of the Lord both ability and will to be assistant to their Bishop in the administration and procuration of the Churches the Presbyters in councell and assistance the Deacons in observance and ministration c. But now there are some of the Bishops whose service your sacred Majesty useth in the administration of the Kingdome But sith nothing in this world is commended to the care of men by the most high which ought more solicitously religiously to be looked to and managed then the procuration of religion that is of the eternall salvation oâ— the elect of God summum
est nefas it is the highest impiety to preferre any other Businesse before this care or for any cause whatsoever to hinder them so as their ministeries be lesse â—ully adhibited to their Churches Moses was most amply endued with the spirit of God and excelled with incredible wisedome and he altogether burned with a most ardent study of planting and preserving the true religion yet seeing hee ought to governe the whole Common-wealth of Iâ—rael hee by Gods command set Aaron his brother with his sonnes over matters of religion that they might WHOLY bestow themselves in them The Maccabees truly joyned the Civill administration to the Ecclesiasticall but with what successe their histories testifie wherefore it is to be wished that Bishops according to Gods Law religionibuâ— solis vacent procurandis should onely addict themselves to matters of Religion and lay aside all other businesses from them though beneficiall to mankind and leave them to those who should wholly bestow themselves on them being chosen thereto by God There is no office that requires more study and care â—han the procuration of soules Satan knowing this very well hath brought to passe that Bishops and chiefe Ecclesiasticall Prelates should be sent for by Kings Emperours unto their Courts to manage publike affaires both of warre and peâ—ce Hence these mischiefes have ensued first a neglect of the whole sacred ministry the corruption of doctrine the destruction of discipline After as soone as Prelates began to usurpe the place of Lords they challenged their luxury pomp to themselves to which end since the wealth of Princâ—s was requisite that which they ought to bestow out of their Ecclesiasticall revenues upon the faithfull Ministers of Churches upon Schooles upon the poore of Christ all these things being taken from them by horrible sacriledge they spent them upon riot and princely pompe And when as the goods of the Church were not sufficient to maintaine this luxury and pompe they flattered away and begged and by various frauds tooke from Kings goodly rich poâ—sessions and great Lordships by which accessions their luxury and pride was thenceforth not onely fostered and sustained but likewise infinitely increased which afterwards so farre prevailed that the spoyles of single Churches would not suffice each of them but they brought the matter to this passe that one at this day may fleece or spoyle three or foure Bishoprickes Abbies and other Prelacies and such a multitude of parish Churches as is horrible to name for they say there is one lately dead in this Kingdome who fleaed above 20. Parishes So Bucer who held Bishops Ministers to be all one and that the power of ordination resting originally in Christ derivatively in the whole Church and ministerially onely in Bishops and Presbyters as servants to the Church belonged as well to Presbyters as to Bishops with whom Peter Martyr his fellow Regius professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford fully concurâ—es in his Commonplaces printed at London cum privilegio Ann. 1576. Class 4. Loc. 1. Sect. 23. p. 849. to which I shall referre you for brevity sake To these I might adde The image of both Pastors written by Huldricke Zwinglius translated into English by Iohn Veron dedicated to the Duke of Somerset Lord Protector and Printed at London Cum privilegio An. 1550. Wherein he proves the parity and identity of Bishops and Presbyters condemnes the Lordly and secâ—lar dominion Wealth Pompe Pride Tyranny Nonpreach and rare preaching of Prelates and manifests Lord Bishops as then they stood and now to be false Pastors and meer papall and antichristian officers not warranted by Gods word but because Zwinglius was a forraigner I shall passe it by without transcribing any passage thereof Mr. Iohn Hooper both a Bishop and martyr of our Church a great opposer of Ceremonies Episcopall Rochets and Vestments in which hee would not bâ— consecrated writes thus of the secular imployments wealth and calling of Bishops For the space of 400. yeares after Christ the Bishops applyed all their wit only to their owne vocation to the glory of God and the honour of the Realmes they dwelt in though they had not so much upon their heads as our Bishops have yet had they more within their heads as the Scripture and Histories testifie For they applyed all the wit they had unto the vocation and ministry of the Church whereunto they were called But our Bishops have so much wit that they can rule and serve as they say in both States in the Church and also in the Civill policie when one of them is more then any man is able to satisfie let him doe alwayes his best diligence If hee be so necessary for the Court that in Civill causes he cannot be spared let him use that vocation and spare the other It is not possible hee should doe both well It is a great oversight in Princes thus to charge them with two burthens the Primitive Church had no such Bishops as wee they had such Bishops as did preach many godly Sermons in lesse time than our Bishops horses be a bridling Their house was a Schoole or treasure house of Gods Ministers if it be so now let every man judge The Magistrates that suffer the abuse of these goods be culpable of the â—ault if the fourth part of the Bishopricke remained to the Bishop it were sufficient the third part to Schoolemasters the second to poore and souldiers were better bestowed If any be offended with me for this my saying he loveth not his owne soules health nor Gods Laws nor mans out of which I am alwayes ready to prove the thing I have said to be true Further I speake of love not of hatred And in his Apologie hee saith It is both against Gods Laws mans that Bishops and clergie men should be judges over any subjects within this Realme for it is no part of their office they can do no more but preach Gods Word and minister Gods Sacraments and excommunicate such as Godâ— Lawes do pronounce to be excommunicated who would put a sword into a madmans hand And in his exposition on Psal. 23.1580 f. 40. Although Bishops saith hee in the raigne of Constantine the Great obtained that among Bishops some should be called Archbishops and Metropolitans c. Yet this preheminencie was at the pleasure discretion of Princes not alwaies tyed to one sorâ— of Prelates as the impiety of our time beleeveth as we may see in the Councell of Calcedon Africke So that it is manifest that this Superior preheminency is not of Divine but of humane right instituted out of civill policie So Hooper The Booke of ordination of Ministers and Consecraation of Bishops compiled by the Bishops in King Edwards dayes ratified by two Acts of Parliament and subscribed to by all our Ministers hath this notable passage and charge against the Lordlinesse and secular imployments of Prelates and Ministers
prescribing all Bishops when they ordaine Ministers Archbishops or Bishops to use this exhortation to them Have alwayes printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge for they be the sheepe of Christ which hee bought with his death and for whom he shed his bloodâ— the Church and Congregation whom you must serve is his spouse and body And if it shall chance the same Church or any member thereof to take any hurt or hinderance by reason of your negligence yee know the greatnesse of the fault and also of the horrible punishment which will ensue Whereâ—ore consider with your selves the end of your Ministry towards the children of God towards the spouse and body of Christ and see that you never cease your labour your care and diligence untill you have done all that lyeth in you according to your bounden duty to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your charge unto â—hat ripenesse or perfectnesse of age in Christ that there be no place left among them either for errour in religion or for vitiousnesse of life And what Prelate or Minister hath done this And for this selfe same cause yee see how yee ought to forsake and seâ— aside as much as you may all worldly cares and studies Wee have good hope that you have well weighed and pondered these things with your selves long before this time and that you have cleerly determined by Gods grace to give your selves wholly to this vocation whereunto it hath pleased God to call you see â—hat as much as lyeth in you you apply your selves whoâ—ly to this one thing and draw all your care and study this way to this end And that you will continually pray for the heavenly assistance of the Holy Ghost that by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures you may so waxe riper and stronger in your Ministry And â—hat this your promise shall more move you to doe your dâ—ties yee shall answer plainly to these things which we in the name of the Congregation shall demand of you touching the same Will you give your faithfull diligence alwayes to â—inister the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realme hath received the same according to the Commandements of God so that yoâ— may teach the people committed to your cure and charge with all diligence to keepe and observe the same I will so doe by the helpe of God Will you be diligent in Prayers and in reading of the holy Scriptures and in such studies as helpe to the knowledge of the same laying aside the study of the World and the Flesh I will endeavour my selfe so to doe the Lord being my helper And at the consecration of every Archbishop and Bishop this charge by the direction of the said booke is given to him Bee thou to thy flocke a sheepheard not a wolfe feed them but devoure them not And it is worthy observation that the same Chapters and Epistles are read at the ordination of Ministers and consecration of Bishops which proves their office and function both one and the same by divine institution The third part of the Homily of the perill of Idolatry ratified by the 35. Article of our Church subscribed unto by all our Prelates and Ministers published in King Edwardâ—he â—he 6. his dayes and reprinted by King Iames his speciall command determines thus against the Courtship and secular imployment of Prelates That Bishops in the Primitive Church did most diligently and sincerely teach and preach for they were then preaching Bishops and more often seene in Pulpits than in Princes Palaces more often occupied in his Legacie who said Goe yee unto the whole world and preach the Gospell unto all men than in Ambassages and affaires of Princes of this world And in the 5. and 6. part of the Homily against wilfull rebellion and the second part of the Homily for Whitsunday notably paints forth at large the treasons conspiracies practises aud rebellions of Popes and our Prelates against the Emperours and our Kings in former ages which hee that will may there read at his leasure being too common and large to recite M. Hugh Latimer who gave over his Bishopricke out of conscience in K. Henâ—y the 8. his raigne and never resumed it againe skipping for joy hâ—e was rid of that heavie burthen In his Sermon of the Plough preached thus God saith by the Prophet Ieremy Maledictus qui facit opus Dei fraudulenter guilefully and deceitfully some bookes have negligenter negligently or slackly How many such Prelates how many such Bishops Lord for thy mercy are there now in England And what shall wee in this case do shall wee company with them O Lord for thy mercy shall we not company with them O Lord whither shall wee flee from them But cursed be hee that doth the worke of the Lord negligently or guilefully A sore word for them that are negligent in discharging their office ill Yee that be Prelates looke well to your office for right Prelating is busie labouring and not Lording therefore preach and teach and let your plough be doing Ye Lords I say that live like loyterers looke well to your office the Plough is your office and charge if yee live idle and loyter you doe not your duty c. They have to say for themselves long customes ceremonies and authority placing in Parliament many things more And I fear mee this Land is not ripe to be ploughed for as the saying is it lacketh withering This Land lacketh withering at least it is not for mee to plough For what shall I looke for among thornes but pricking and scratching What among stones but stumbling what I had almost said among Scorpions but stinging But thus much I dare say that since Lording and loytering hath come up preaching hath gone downe contrary to the Apostles times for they preached and Lorded not and now they Lord and preach not for they that bee Lords will ill goe to the Plough it is no meete oâ—fice to them it is not seeming for their estate Thus came up Lording loyterers thus crept up unpreaching Pâ—elates for how many unlearned Prelates have wee now at this day And no marvell for if the ploughmen that now be were made Lords they would cleane give over ploughing they would leave their labour and fall to Lording outright and let the plough stand then both ploughs not walking nothing should be in the Common-wealth but hunger For ever since the Prelates were made Lords and Nobles their plough standeth there is no worke done the people starve they hawke they hunt they card they dice they pastime in their Prelacies with gallant Gentlemen with their dauncing Minions and with their fresh companions so that ploughing is set aside and by their Lording and loytering preaching and ploughing is cleane gone And thus if the ploughmen in the Country were as negligent
day f. 284. But it is a thing to be lamented that the Prelates and other spirituall persons will not attend upon their Offices they will not be amongst their flockes but rather will run hither and thither here and there where they are not called and in the meane season leave them at adventure of whom they take their living yea and furthermore some will rather be Clerkes of Kitchins or take other offices upon them besides that which they have already but with what conscience these same doe so I cannot tell I feare they shall not be able to make answeâ—e at the last day for their follies as concerning that matter for this office is such a heavie and mighty office that it requireth a whole man yea and let every Curate or Parson keepe his Cure to wâ—ich God hath appointed him and let him doe the â—est that he can yet I tell you he cannot chuse but the Devill will have some for he sleepeth not he goeth about day night to seek whom he may devoure Therforâ— it is neede for every Godly Minister to abide by his sheepe seeing that the Wolfe is so neere and to keepe them and witâ—stand the Wolfe Indeed there be some ministers here in England which doe no good at al and therefore it were better for them to leave their benefices and give roome unto others Finally in his Sermon Preached before the Convocation Iune 9. in the 28. of Henry 8. he thus speaketh to the Clergie of England and Lordly Prelates touching the utilitie of their Councels and assemblies for the Churches good The end of your Convocation shall shew what ye have done the fruite that shall come of your consultation shal shew what generation ye be of For what have ye done hitherto I pray you these 7. yeares more What have ye engendred What have yee brought â—orth What fruite is come of your long and great assembly what one thing that the people of England hath beene the better of an haire Or you your selves either accepted before God or better discharged toward the people committed unto your cure Or that the people is better learned and taught now then they were in time past to whether of these ought we to attribute it to your industry or to the providence of God and the foreseeing of the Kings Grace Ought we to thanke you or the Kings highnesse whether stirred other first you the King that ye might preach or he you by his Letters that ye should preach oftner Is it unknowne thinke you how both ye and your Curates were in manner by violence enforced to let bookes to be made not by you but by prophane and lay persons to let them I say be sold abroad and read for the instruction of the people I am bold with you but I speake Latine and not English to the Clergie noâ— to the Laity I speake to you being preâ—ent and not behind your backes God is my witnesse I speake whatsoever is spoken of the good will that I beare you God is my witnesse which knoweth my heart and compelleâ—h me to say that I say Now I pray you in God his name what did you so great Fathers so many so long a season so oft assembled together what went you about what would ye have brought to passe two things taken away the one that ye which I heard burned a dead man the other that ye which I leâ—t went about to burne one being alive Him because he did I cannot tell how in his Testament withstand your profit in other points as I have heard a very good man reported to â—e of an honest life while he lived full of good workes both good to the Clergie and also to the Laity this other which truely never hurt any of you ye would have â—aked in the Coales because he would not subsâ—ribe to cerâ—aine Articles that tooke away the Supremacie of the King Take away these two Noble Acts and there is nothing else left that ye went about that I know saving that I now remember that somewhat ye attempted against Erasmus albeit as yet nothing is come to light Ye have oft sit in consultation but what have ye done ye have had many things in deliberation but what one put forth whereby either Christ is more glorified or else Christs people made more holy I appeale to your owne conscience How chanceth this How came this thus Because there were no Children of light no Children of God among you which setting the world at nought would studie to illustrate the glory of God and thereby shew themselves Children of light So this godly Martyr who hath sundry such like passage in his Sermons In the Conference Anno. 1555. betweene our Religious Martyr Iohn Bradford and Doctor Harpesfield Arch Deacon of London Master Bradford complaines that the Pillars of the Church were persecuters of the Church and tells him you shall noâ—â—â—nde in all the Scripture this your essentiall part of succession of Bishops whereupon Harpesfield sayd Tell me were not the Apostles Bishops To which Bradford replyed No except you will make a new definition of a Bishop that is give him no certaine place Harpesfield Indeede the Apostles Office was not the Bishops office for it was universall but yet Christ instituted Bishops in his Church as Paul saith he hath given Pastors Prophets c. So that I trow it be proved by the Scriptures the succession of Bishops to be an essentiall point Brad. The Ministry of Gods Word and Ministers be an essentiall point But to translate this to the Bishops and their succession is a plaine subtilty And therefore that it may be plaine I will aske you a question Tell me WHETHER THAT THE SCRIPTVRE KNEW ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEENE BISHOPS AND MINISTERS which ye called Priests Harps No. So that by the joynt confession of Papists and Protestants in Queene Maries time Bishops and Ministers by the Scripture are both one Brad. Well then goe on forwards and let us see what ye shall get now by the succession of Bishops that is of Ministers which can be understood of such Bishops as minister not but Lord it Lord Bishops than are none of Christs institution nor of the Apostles succession Master Fox his Acts and Monuments of our Martyrs Lond. 1610. p. 1796. I finde this Dialogue betweene Dr. Iohn Baker Collins his Chaplaine and Edmund Allin a Martyr Baker I heard say that you spake against Priests and Bishops Allin I speake for them for now they have so much living and especially Bishops Arch-deacons and Deanes that they neither can nor will teach Gods Word If they had a hundred pounds a peece then would they apply their study now they cannot for other affaires Collins who will then set his children to schoole Allin Where there is now one set to schoole for that end there would be 40. because that one Bishops living divided into 30. or 40 parts would finde so many as well learned men
taxe them for not intermeddling with temporall affaires and studie to call them backe from divine things to which they ought with all their might to apply themselves He further addes out of Roger Hoveden and others that the Pope enjoyned Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury without delay to lay downe all his Temporall Offices as being contrary to the Canons â—o enjoy them and against his honour and dignity and further diligently admonished King Richard the 1. with a â—atherly admonition that as he tendred the Salvation of his soule he should not permit the sayd Arch-bishop any longer to enjoy his secular office under him and that he would neither admit him nor any other Bishop or Clerke to any other secular administration and hee likewise commanded all Prelates of Churches by vertue of their Canonicall Obedience Ne ipsi ausu temerario seculares administrationes susciperent that they should not rashly attempt the managing of any worldly imployments because being intangled in secular affaires they could nor sufficiently attend their Ecclesiasticall cures seeing the wise man saith Pluribus intentus minor est ad singula sensus And hence Roger de Hoveden thus exclaimes against Huberâ— for resuming his temporall offices againe after he had seeminglâ— informed the King that he would give them over seeing â—hâ— charge of his Church as he sayd was worke enough â—or one man whereunto onely he would gladly dedicate himselfe O inâ—â—licem Praesulem licet saepius legisset Neminem posse doubus Deminis se ruire aut enim umun odio habebit alterum diliget auâ— unumsustinebit alterum contemnet praeelegit tamen officium sacerdotale postpâ—nere quam regi terreno non adhaerere siâ— accepta regnâ— regiminis potestate officii administrationem ecclesiasâ—ici cui professionis voto ast rictus fuerat parvi pendens pro castris Regis Angliae stare non recusavit So this Historian Thus this Bishop Thomas Beacon a Prebend of Canterbury and a fugitive â—or Religion in Queene Maries dayes in his Catechisme in the first volume of his workes Printed at London Cum privilegio Anno 1560. Dedicated to both Archbishops and all the Bishops of England Fâ—â— 499.500 And in his Supplication written in Queene Maries time Vol. 3. fol. 14. â—â— 23. resolves thus of the parity of Bishops and Ministers and the Antichristianity cruelty wealth and secular imployments of our Lordly Prelates Father What difference is there betweene a Bishop and Spirituall Minister or Presbyter Sonne None at all their Office is the same their authority and power is One therefore S. Paul calls Spirituall Ministers sometimes Bishops sometimes Presbyters sometimes Pastors sometimes Doctors c. Father What is a Bishop in English Sonne A Watchman or superintendent as Paul saith to the Presbyters or Bishops of Ephesus Acts 20.28 c. Then hee addes that the first and principall point of a Bishops Spirituall Ministers Office is to teach and preach the Word of God And concludes that such a Bishop as either doth not or cannot preach is a Nicholas Bishop an Idoll and indeed no better than a painted Bishop on a Wall yea he is as the Prophet saith a dumbe dogge and as our Saviour Christ saith unsavory salt worth nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foote of men Woe be to such Rulers that set such Idols and white daubed walls over the â—â—ocke of Christ whom hee hath purchased with his precious blood Horrible and great is their great damnation Our Saviour Christ saith to his Disciples As my Father sent me so send I you Now who knoweth not that Christ was sent of his Father to preach the Gospell If they preach not the case of many of our Lord Prelates it is an evident token that Christ sent them noâ— but Antichrist and the Devill After which he thus proceedes in his supplication Thou callest thy selfe a jealous God why then dost thou suffer thy people thy Congregation thy flocke thine heritage to be thus seduced and led away from thee unto all kinde of spirituall fornication and abominable whoredome by that Antichrist of Rome that great Baal that stout Nemroth that false Prophet that beast that whore of Babylon that sonne of perdition and by his abhominable adherents Cardinalls Arch-bishops Bishops Suffragans Arch-deacons Deanes Provosts Prebendaries Commissaries Parsons Vicars Purgatorie-rakers Priests Monkes Fryers Channons Nunnes Anckers Ancâ—eresses Pardoners Proctors Scribes Officialls Somners c. with all the â—able of beastly hypocrites that have received the beasts Marke which doe nothing else than seeke how they may establish their Anâ—ichristian Kingdome by suppressing thy holy Word and leading the people into all kinde of blindnesse errours and lyes c. But now the Shepheards yea rather the Wolves which are burst into thy sheepefold and with violence have unjustly thrust out the faithfull and fatherly Pastors out of their cures are Lordly cruell bloodthirsty malicious and spitefull against thy sheepe They are such Wolves as spare not the flocke but scatter and destroy the flocke They are theeves robbers murtherers and soule slayers They feede themselves with the fattest and cloath themselves with the finest wooll but thy flocke they nourish not The foode wherewith they Pasture thy sheepe is the drowsie dreames and idle imaginations of Antichrist In steede of the preaching of thy lively Word they feede thy flocke with Latine mumblings with dumbe Images with Heathenish Ceremonies with vaine sightes and such other apish â—oyes In steede of the ministration of the holy and blessed Communion they feede thy sheepe with vile stincking abominable devillish blasphemous and Idolatrous Masses And unto these unwholesome pestilent and poysonfull Pasturs they drive the sheepe will they nill they and if any of thy flocke refuse to come and to taste of those their pestilent poysons and poysons full of Pestilences him they accite to appeare before the great Wolfe whose face is like unto the face of a she Beare that is robbed of her young ones whose eyes continually burne with the unquenchable flames of the deadly Cockatrice whose teeth are like to the venemous tushes of the ramping Lyon whose mouth is full of cursed speaking and bitternes whose tongue speaketh extreame blasphemies against thee and thy holy Anoynted whose lippes are full of deadly poyson whose throate is an open Sepulcher whose breath foameth and bloweth out threatning and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord whose heart without ceasing imagineth wickednesse whose hands have a delight to be embrued with the blood of the Saints whose feete are swift to shed blood whose whole man both body and soule goe alwayes up and downe musing of mischiefe This Wolfe O Lord is so arrogant haughty and proud seeing the government of the whole Realme is committed unto him that he hath cast away all feare of thee He maketh boast of his owne wit learning and policy his wayes are alway filthy thy judgements are farre out of his sight hee
defieth all his enemies For he saith in his heart Tush I shall neâ—er be cast downe there shall no harme happen unto me He sitteth lurking like a Lyon in his den that he may privily murther the innocent and sucke his blood When such O Lord God as will not obey their Popish and devillish proceedings are brought before that grievous Wolfe they are miserably taunted mocked scorned blasphemed as thy deerely beloved sonne was in Bishop Caiphas house and afterward cruelly committed to prison to the Tower to the Fleete to the Marshalseys to the Kings Bench to the Counters to Lollardes Tower to Newgate c. where they are kept as sheepe in a pinfold appointed to be slaine And as this cruell and bloody Wolfe dealeth with the poore Lambes even so doe the residue of that lecherous litter He with all other of that Wolvish kind hunger and thirst nothing so greatly as the devouring of the bodies and the sucking of the blood of thy poore and innocent Lambes Ah Lord God under that most wicked Queene Iezabel were not the Prophets more cruelly handled than thy faithfull Ministers be now for as in the days of the wicked Queen Iezabel the Priests of Baal were had in great honour were chiefest and of highest authority about the Queen none bearing so much rule in the Court as they none having so much reverence done unto them as they had even so now is it with the idolatrous Priests of England they alone be chiefest and of much estimation with the Queene They alone â—uffle and raigne they alone beare the swing in the Court they alone have all things going forward as they desire they alone be capped kneeled and crowched to they alone have the keyes of the English Kingdome hanging at their girdles whatsoever they binde or loose whispering and trayterously conspiring among themselves that same is both bound and loosed in the starre Chamber in Westminster-Hall in the Parliament house yea in the Queenes privie Chamber and throughout the Realme of England The very Nobility of England are in a manner brought to such slavery that they dare not displease the least of these spitefull spirituall limmes of Antichrist It is writ that certaine men gave their judgements what thing was most mighty and strongest upon earth The first sayd wine is a strong thing The second sayd the King is strongest The third sayd women yet have more strength but above all things the truth beareth away the victory But we may now say unto such an height is the tyranny of the Spirituall Sorcerers growne that Priests in England are mightier than either Wine King Queene Lords Women and all that is there besides But how agreeth this with the example of Christ which fled away when the people would have made him a King or a temporall governour Christ refused to meddle with any worldly matters as the History of dividing the inheritance betweene the two brethren doth declare Christ willed his Disciples to refuse all worldly dominion and temporall rule When they strove among them who of them should be taken for the greatest Christ sayd unto them The Kings of the Gentiles reigne over them and they that beare rule over them are called gracious Lords but ye shall not be so for he that is greatest among you shall be as the least and he that is chiefe shall be as the minister Christ sent not his Disciples to be Lords of the Councell Lords of the Parliament Lord President Lord Chauncellour Lord Bishop Lord Suffragan Lord Deane Master Queenes Amner Mr. Comptroller Mr. Steward Mr. Receiver Sr. Iohn Massemonger c. but to be Ministers and disposers of the Mysteries of God to be Preachers of the Gospell to bee labourers in the Lords harvest to be Pastors and feeders of the Lords flock to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world to be an example to the faithfull in word and conversation in love in spirit in faith and in purenesse to feede Christs flocke so much as lyeth in their power taking the oversight of them not as though they were compelled but willingly not for the desire of filthy lucre but of a good minde not as though they were Lordâ— over the Parishes but that they be an ensample to the flocke that when the chiefe shepheard shall appeare they may receive an uncorruptible crowne of glory But these things O Lord have they all forgotten These ambitious Antichrists are so drowned in vaine glory and in the desire of filthy lucre and worldly promotions that they neither regard God nor the higher powers that they neither esteeme their office nor any one point of godlinesse honesty that they neither think upon the dreadfull day of judgement nor yet remember themselves to be mortall Their whole study in the time of this their Luciferâ— like pride is nothing else but to suppresse thy holy truth and to advance and set up their Antichristan Kingdome that they as Gods may sit alone in the Consciences of men But O Lord God though thou sufferest these Priests of Baal for our unthankefulnesse a while to prosper to raigne to ruleâ— to ruffle to flourish to triumph and to tread downe thy holy Word under their â—eete yet are we certaine that thou wilt at the last arise defend thine owne cause against these Antichrists bring thine enemies unto confusion and set thy people after they have unfainedly repented in a quiet and blessed State So he and blessed be God that he after and we now live to see this verified in part Miles Coverdale once Bishop of Exeter in King Edward the sixth his reigne being deprived of it in Queene Maries would not returne thereto againe in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths raigne but led a private life in London where he writ a booke intituled an Apologie in defence of the Church of England Printed at London 1564. wherein he writes thus of Bishops intermedling with secular affaires and of their Treasons against our Kings by the Popes instigation The Old Canons of the Apostles command that Bishop to be removed from his Office which will both supply the place of a civill Magistrate and also of an Ecclesiasticall person These men for all that both doe and will needes serve both places Nay rather the one office which they ought chiefely to execute they once touch not and yet no body commandeth them to be displaced c. And as â—oâ—uâ— we of all others most justly have left him For our Kings yea even they which with greatest reverence did follow and obey the authority and faith of the Bishops of Rome have long since found and felt well enough the yoake and tyranny of the Popes Kingdome For the Bishops of Rome took the Crowne off from the head of our King Henry the second and compelled him to put aside all Majesty and like a meere private man to come unto their Legate with great submission and humility so as all his Subjects
from his legall tryall in open Court and to send him away uncondemned unlesse he likewise conspired with Queene Izabel against King Richard the second That I may in the interim omit the furies and bitter concertations of others with their Princes So he Wil. Alley Bishop of Exeter in his poore mans library par 1. Miscellanea Praelect 3. p. 95.96 Printed Cum Privilegio Iames Pilkington Bishop of Durham in his Treatise of burning of the Pauls Church and in his exposition on Agge ch 1. v. 1 2.3.4.9â—12.13 c. 2. v. 1.2.3.4.9.10 and on Abdyas v. 7.8 and Mr. Alexander Nowel Deane of Pauls in his Reproofe of Dormans proofe London 1565. f 43.44.45 Conclude that Bishops and Presbyters by Gods Word are one and the same citing S. Hieromes words on Titus 1. and to Euagrius and declaime much against the Pompe wealth and secular imployments of Bishops their words for brevity I shall pretermit Mr. Elmer afterwards Bishop of London in his Harborow for faithfull subjects Printed at Strasborough writes thus against Bishops Civill Authority Lordlinesse and wealth Christ saith Luke 12. Who made me a Iudge betweene you as though hee would say it belongeth not to my Office to determine matters of Policy and inheritance that belongeth to the Civill Magistrate If he had thought it had beene within the Compasse of his function why and with what Conscience refused he to set them at one who were at strife and to put that out of doubt which was in suite If he might doe it and would not he lacked Charity and did not his duety If it belonged not to him how belongeth it to any of his Disciples or Successours had he not as large a Commission as he gave or could he give that he had not But he knowing his Office as the Prophet Esay had foretold to preach the Gospell would doe nothing without warrant And therefore being asked if he were a King answered simply and by a plaine negative My Kingdome is not of this world If his Kingdome was not here neither the ordering of Policies yea when they would have taken him up to have made him a King as one that refused that belonged not to him he conveyed himselfe from among them If imperiall jurisdiction belonged to him why refused he his calling If it did not where had Paul Peter or any other any authority to meddle with that which he refused seeing he saith As my Father sent me so send I you In another place Christ knowing the bounds of his calling would not meddle with externe policy Hence Bishops me thinkes by his example should not give themselves too much the bridle and too large a scope to meddle too farre with matters of policy If these two Offices I meane Ecclesiasticall and Civill be so jumbled in both functions there can be no quiet or well ordered Common-wealth Christ saith to his Disciples Princes of the Nations doe beare rule like Lords it shall not be so with you It falleth not into an Apostles or Church-mans Office to meddle with such matters For none going to warre intangleth himselfe with the affaires of this life it is enough for them to attend upon one Office to attend as sole Priests nor as errant Bayliffes And elsewhere in that Booke he proceeds thus Come off ye Bishops away with your superfluities yeeld up your thousands be content with hundreds as they be in other reformed Churches where there be as great learned men as you are LET YOUR PORTION BE PRIEST-LIKE NOT PRINCE-LIKE Let the Queene have the rest of your temporalties to maintaine warres and to build Schooles throughout the Realme that every Parish Church may have its Preacher every City her superintendent to live not pompously which will never be unlesse your Lands be disposed and bestowed upon many which now feede and fat but one Remember that Abimelech when David in his banishment would have dined with him kept such Hospitality that he had no bread to give him but the Shew-bread Where was all his Superfluity to keepe your pretended hospitality for that is the cause that you alleadge you must have thousand thousands as though you were commanded to keepe Hospitality rather with a thousand than with an hundred Remember the Apostles were so poore that when the lame man who lay at the Temple gate called beautifulâ— asked an Almes of Peter and Iohn as they went about to goe into the Temple Peter answered him in this manner Silver and gold have I none and Paul was so far from having Lordships that his owne hands ministred oft times to his necessities If the Apostles of our Saviour had so small possessions and revenues why should our Prelats who boast themselves to be their proper Successours enjoy or covet so great when as Paul enjoynes them if they have but food and rayment therewith to be content godlinesse alone with contentment being great gaine and a sufficient portion Nicholas Bullingham after Bishop of Lincolne in his Printed Letter to Master Bull Decemb. 5. 1564. writes thus from Embden where he arrived after many stormes Would God Master Bull that all the Prelates of England had beene with me when we fell to cutting of Cables riding at Anchor in the raging Seas There would have beene tearing of square Caps renting of Rotchets defying of Bishoprickes despising of pompe promising of new life crying for mercy O what a Tragedy would there have beene Well well though now they walke dry shod in their Palaces there is a God that will try them and all his people by fire or by water unlesse we heartily repent Grace to repent grant us O Lord without delay Amen Amen Iohn Bridges Deane of Salisbury afterwards Bishop of Oxford and a great stickler for Episcopacy in his Booke entituled The Supremacy of Christian Princes â—ver all persons throughout their Dominions in all cases so well Ecclesiasticall at Temporall Printed at London 1573. p. 359. to 364â— writes thus of the parity and identity of Bishops and Presbyters and of clearing Aeriaus from Heresie in this pointâ— First that Aerius said there was no difference betweene a Priest Bishop and ye aske Mr. Stapleton how say we to him Whatsoever we say to him we have first to say to you that saving the reverence of your Priesthood there is no difference betweene you and a lyer to object Aerius herein to us whereas ye know well enough our Church doth acknowledge in the ministry a differenâ—e of Deacon and Elder from a Bishop although not according to your Popish Orders For as neither Epiphanius nor yet Augustine quoted by you speaketh there of any sacrificing Priest so he never knew any such Pontificall Prelates as your Popish Church breedeth and yet of those that were even then in Epiphanius time and of their difference from the Elders or Priests if yee know not how it came Hierome that lived in the same age will tell you or if ye have not
read him your owne Canons will tell ye what he saith Idem est ergo Presbyter qui Episcopus antequam Diaboli studia c. An Elder or Priest therefore is the same that a Bishop and before that the studies of the Devill were made in Religion and that the people sayd I hold of Paul I of Apollo I of Cephas the Churches were governed by the Common Councell of the Elders but after that every one did account those to be his and not to be Christs whom hee had baptized in all the world it was decreed that one of the Elders being chosen should be placed above the rest to whom all the care or charge of the Churches should belong and the seede of Schismes be taken away And a little after Sicut ergo Presbyteri as therefore the Elders know that they by the custome of the Church are subject to him that is set over them so let the Bishops know that they more by custome than by the truth of the Lords dispensation are greater than the Elders This was the judgement of the ancient Fathers and yet were they no Arians nor Aerians therefore Yea Peâ—er Lombard the master of the sentences citing also Isidorus to witnesse saith Apud veteres idem Episcopi Presbyteri fuerunt Among the the Ancient Fathers Bishops and Elders were all one And againe alleadging the Apostle S. Paul he saith Qualis autem c. But what manner an Elâ—er ought to be chosen the Apostle writing to Timothy declareth where by the name of Bishop he signifieth an Elder and a non after Cumque omnes and when all of them he meaneth his false seven orders are spirituall and holy yet the Canons account onely two Orders to be excelling holy that is to say Deaconship and Eldership Because the primitive Church is read to have these alone and we have the Apostles Commandement of these alone for the Apostles in every City ordained Bishop and Elders Neither the Master onely writeth thus but almost all your Schoolemen yea though they be themselves of the contrary opinion yet they write this was the ancient opinion And so Durandus though he make a difference betweene the power of Jurisdiction and the power of order yet he sheweth that both the Scripture and S. Hierome maketh no difference but onely the custome and institution of the Church The Apostle saith he writing to the Philippians cap. 1. saith with the Bishops and the Deacons by them understanding the Elders sith in one City as in Philippos many Bishops ougâ—t not to be Againe Act. 2. he saith Looke to your selves and to all the flocke in which the Holy â—host hath placed you to be Bishops And he spoke unto them of the onely City of Ephesus But this appeareth more expressely to Titus the 1. Where he saith For this cause I have left thee at Crete that thou shouldst correct those things that want and ordaine Elders throughout the Cities even as I have appointed to thee if any be blamelesse the husband of one wife And straight he setteth under it a Bishop must me blamelesse and whom before he named an Elder hee calleth now a Bishop and in the 4. of the 1. to Timothy Despise not saith he the grace of God which is given to thee through the imposition of the hands of an Elder that is to say of a Bishop S. Paul called himselfe an Elder when he was the Bishop that ordained him Thus farre and more at large Durandus concluding at length Sic Ergo Thus therefore saith S. Hierome that a Bishop and an Elder olim fuerunt synonyma c. were in the old time diverse names betokening one thing indifferently and also of one administration because the Churches were ruled by the Commune Counsell of the Priests But for the remedy of a Schisme lest each one dâ—awing the Church after him should breake her it was ordained that one should be above the rest Et quoad nomen c. And so farre forth as stretcheth to the name that he onely should be called Bishop and that so farre as stretcheth to the administration of some Sacraments Sacramentals they should be reserved to him by the custome and constitution of the Church And this would Hierome expressely 93. Dist. cap. legimus in Esa super Epistolam ad Tit. recitatur Dist. 93. cap. Olim Presbyteri c. Consuetudo aut institutio Ecclesiae potest dare Iurisdictionem sed non potestatem ordinis aut consecrationis quare c. He therefore that counteth this erronious or perrilous let him impute this to Hierome out of whose saying in the fore alleadged Chapter Legimus in Esa the foresayd authorities are taken Where also he putteth an example That is of a Bishop in respect of Priests as of an Arch-Deacon in respect of Deacons unlesse the Deacons chuse one among themselves whom they call Arch-deacon c. In the end Durandus reconciling Hierome saith and the authorities alleadged by Hierome withstand it not because according to the name and the truth of the thing every Bishop is an Elder and on the other part so farre as stretcheth to the name every Elder having cure may be called a Bishop as Super-attendent on other although the consecration of a Bishop or the chiefe Priest be larger than of a simple Priest or Elder but peradventure in the Primitive Church they made not such force in the difference of names as they do now And therefore they called a Bishop every â—ne that had a cure Thus writeth Durandus of the ancient Fathers opinions And will you count him or them Aerianâ— too And this also doth your Institution in Colonie Councell confesse Non est tamen putandum Wee must not for all this tâ—inke that hee ordained Bishops another order from Priests for in the primitive Church Bishops and Priests were all one The which the Epistles of Peter and Paul the Apostles Saint Hierome also and almost all the ancient Ecclesiasticall Writers do witnesse And chiefly that place of the first Epistle of Saint Peter the fift Chapter is evident to declare this For when Peter had said the Elders that are among you I also an Elder with you beseech which am also a witnesse of the passions of Christ and partaker of the Glory to come that shall be revealed He joyned under it feed or guide the flocke of Christ that is among you and oversee it not by compulsion but willingly according to God wherein it is spoken more expressly in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Super-attendent from whence also the name of Bishop is drawne Wherefore Priesthood is esteemed the highest order in the Church In the meane time no body is ignorant that this order is distinguished againe by a certaine order of offices and dignities Thus do your Scholemen and Divines wiâ—nesse First that in the substance order or character as they terme it there is no difference betweene a Priest and a
Bishop Secondly that the difference is but of Accidents and Circumstances as degrees of dignity jurisdiction honour c. Thirdly that in the Primitive Church this difference was not knowne but they were meerely all one and the same Fourthly that this difference was taken up by custome consent and ordinance of the universall Church when it once began to be dispersed in all the World Fifthly that it was done for the avoiding of factions and sects that grew in the time of the Ministers equality even anon after the Primitive Church And some of them in the Apostles time But quite conâ—rary to this judgment of your Divines are all your Canonists your Divines make seven orders Et in hoc saith Angelus de Clavisio concordam communiter Theol. On this the Divines agree commonly but the Canonists hold that there are nine orders according to nine Hierarchies that is to wit the first notch or Psalmist and the order of a Bishop that the first notch is an order the text is in C. cuâ— contingit ibi do Anto. Canonistae de aeta quali or similiter quod Episcopatus est ordo quod imprimatur character judicio meo facit inconvincibiliter teâ—t in C. i. de ordinatis ab Episcopo c. And so according to the Canonists there shall be nine Orders Great adoe your Schoolemen Canonists make about this insomuch that Aerius heresie will draw very neere to one of you light on which side it shall But your selfe may hold on both sides M. Stapleton being both a Batchelor in the one and a student in the other But as for your Popish Clergy there is indeed little difference in this point or none which barrell is better herring Bishop oâ— Priest both starke nought or rather neither of them either true Priest or Bishop by Saint Pauls description Afâ—er this p. 926.929 He writes thus concerning Bishops intermedling with temporall affaires You say M. Sanders the temporall Kingdome and the heavenly did indeed once jaâ—â—e but now they agree the heavenly and the earthly Kingdomeâ— are conjoyned together Agreement is a good hearing M. Sanders but what meane you by this conjunction that the one is become the other and not still distinguished from it or that your Pope may be King and his Bishops Princes of both nay M. Sanders you finde not that agreement and conjunction For Christ hath put such a barre between them that his spiritual Ministers cannot have earthly Kingdomes nor that earthly Kings should in the estate of their earthly Kingdomes become subject in such wise to his spirituall Ministers otherwise than to yeeld their obedience to their spirituall ministry representing the power and mercy of God unto them c. The objection you made was this Whether Bishops and Pastors of the sheepe of Christ may rule temporall Kingdomes you answer properly and of it selfe in no wise but as those Kingdomes do subject themselves to the Christian faith This is a proper elusion M. Sanders thinke you to escape thus is it all one to subject their Kingdomes to the Christian faith and to subject their Kingdomes to the Bishops Good right it is that the faith should beare the chiefe rule But the objection was Whether the Bishops should or no and therefore this distinction serveth not For Christ simply without this or that respect debarreth all his spiritual ministers from ruling of temporall Kingdomes Who knoweth not that properly and of their owne nature temporall Kingdomes should not be ruled of spirituall Pastors but of Temporall Kings None is so simple to move such a fond objection but the objection is Whether the one be coincident to the other whether a Bishop to whom properly by his Bishoply office a Kingdome belongeth nor may take upon him the government of a Kingdome that properly by his Kingly office belongeth to a King this is the question And you say properly he cannot I say much lesse unproperly but properly or unproperly Christ hath cleane debarred it â—vos autem non sic But you shall not do so These words strick dead M Sanders therefore your â—nproper distinctions may goe pike him Page 931â— he writes that the deposings of Princes have not come so much by the violence of their unnaturall Subjects as by the practises of the Popish Bishops as the ensamples of King Iohn in England of Childericke in France the Henries and other in Germany and in other Countries do testifie yet were these dealings of those Bishops not allowable but detestable yea though it were granted that those Princes had deserved them and broken their faith and promâ—se which if it were a good faith and promise was no doubt an evill breach of it and God will take the vengeance of it it belongeth not to the people nor to the Bishops Vengeance is mine saith God and I will render it He saith not my Bishop shall but I will render it He addes p. 980 981.1026 Christs Kingdome is spirituall and not earthly and his Ministers may not exercise in secular causes an earthly Kings authority M. Saunders pretendeth this is to promote the Church of Christ but such promotion confounds devotion and hath poysoned the Church of God as they say a voyce was heard what time Constantine although falsely is supposed to have endowed the Church with such royall honour Hodie venenum intravit in Ecclesiam This day entred poyson into the Church But Christ hath flatly forbidden it and told his Disciples when they asked such promotion that they knew not what they asked But afterward they knew and found the saying of Christ to be true that their promotion lay in their affliction and not in their Kingly honour c. And this your owne glosse out of your owne Pope Gregory might have taught you Sicut â—isit me Pater id est ad passiones c. As my Father sent mee that is to say to troubles and afflictions so send I you to suffer persecution not to raigne like Kings and rule Kingdomes And therefore sith this sentence of Christ is true that he sent them as hee was sent and he was not sent in his humane nature to depose Kings nor to dispose of their Kingdomes nor to governe them Therefore his Disciples were not sent thereto But the Pope saith he was sent thereto and takes it upon him therefore he is neither minister of Christ nor successor of his Disciples but his Disciple that hath offered him worldly Kingdomes if hee would fall downe and worship himâ— as he hath done and sâ— hath gotten his Kingdomes c. Hofmeister one of your stoutest Champions hath these words Truly those things that have beene spoken and heard from the beginning of this Gospell do enough declare the Kingdome of Christ not to be of this world neither that hee would raigne temporally in the world sith hee taketh not souldiers that can oppugne others but Fishermen readier to suffer than to
strike And so in this place with most manifest words Christ declaâ—eth that hee came not for this purpose to take upon him the office of a Magistrate but rather that hee might raigne in our hearts so that it might be our hap to come to the â—ternall goods whatsoever happened of our temporall goods Therefore when hee was interrupted of a certaine Jew that hee would helpe him in recovering his inheritance hee answered Man who hath made mee a judge or divider over you As though he should say hath not this world Judges that may decide so base controversies it is not appointed unto mee that this or that man should waxe rich by inheritance but that all men should come to the inheritance of life immortall But in these words Christ would be token many things to wit that he which hath an Apostolicall office ought not to be wrapped with prophane and filthy affaires for so the Apostle saith otherwhere No man going warfare under God entangleth himselfe with worldly businesse And the Apostles say all at once It is not meete for us to leave the Word of God and attend on the Tables Christ also by this reproving would declare that this doctrine taketh not away the Magistrates offices but rather confirmeth them Whereupon hee saith also elsewhere Render to Cesar that that is Cesars And when his Disciples strived for preheminencie he said The Kings of the Nations governe them and so forth Whereby he declared that neither hee himselfe nor his ought as they call them to be secular Judges neither did hee by this refusing abolish the order of the Magistrate but much more as we have said confirme it Thus farre your owne Doctor Hofmeister against you that the intent of Christ refusing to be a Judge herein was chiefely against such usurpation of worldly Magistracie as the Pope and his Prelates too exercise Pag. 1095. he concludes that a Bishop may in some cases lawfully excommunicate a wicked Prince But who denieth this M. Sanders that a godly Bishop may upon great and urgent occasion if it shall be necessary to edifie Gods Church and there be no other remedy to flee to this last censure of excommunication against a wicked King The Bishops need not therefore calumniate Presbyteries upon pretence that they hold it lawfull to excommunicate Kings since they themselves averre that Bishops may lawfully doe it and de facto have sundry times put it in practise both at home and abroad So Bishop Bridges Our laborious Historian M. Iohn Fox in his Acts and Monuments highly applauded by the whole Convocation in their Canons 1571. and enjoyned to be had in every Cathedrall and Collegiate Church and in every Archbishops Bishops Deanes Arch-Deacons and Canons residentiaries house for their servants and strangers to read in doth every where discoâ—er condemne the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Warres Wealth pride calling and secular imployments of our Bishops of which hee writes thus in particular p. 1381. This hath bin one great abuse in England these many yeares that such offices as beene of most importance and weight have commonly beene committed to Bishops and other spirituall men whereby three devilliâ—h mischiefes and inconveniences have hapned in this Realme to the great dishonour of God and utter neglecting of the flocke of Christ the which three be these First they have had small leasure to attend to their pastorall cures which hereby have beene utterly neglected and left undone Secondly it hath also puft up many Bishops and other spirituall persons into such haughtinesse and pride that they have thought no Noble man of the Realme worthy to be their equall or fellow Thirdly where they by this meanes knew the very secrets of Princes they being in such high offices have caused the same to be knowne in Rome afore the King could accomplish and bring his intents to passe in England By â—his meanes hath the Papacy bâ—ene so maintained and things ordered after theiâ— wills and pleasures that much mischiefe haâ—h happened in this Realme and others sometimes to the destruction of Princes and sometimes to the utter undoing of many Common-wealths So he Who page 216.358.359.360.414.430.432.434.439.517 518.599.625.961.972.1009.1016.1463.1856 of the said Acts and Monuments London 1610. writes often in the magent That Bishops and Presbyters are all one and the same and that there was no difference betweene them in the Primitive times which was the common received opinion of our Martyrs yea of our learned D. Humfrey Regius professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford Puritanopap Confut. ad Rat. 3. p. 262.265 and of D. William Fulke against Bristow Motive 40. against Gregory Martyn p 172. and confuration of the Rhemish Testament Notes on Titus 1. sect 2. and on Philip. I. sect 1. Iohn Iuell the incomparable Bishop of Salisbury in his defence of the Apology of the Church of England Part. 2. cap. 3. disp 5. p. 98 99 100 101. writes thus of the equality of Bishops and Ministers Saint Ierome saith All Bishops wheresoever they be be they at Rome be they at Eugubiuâ— be they at Constantinople be they at Rhegium be all of like preheminence and of like Priesthood And as Cyprian saith There is but one Bishopricke and a peece thereof is perfectly wholly holden of every particular Bishop What Saint Ierome meant hereby Erasmus a man of great learning and judgement expoundeth thus Ierome seemeth to match all Bishops together as if they were all equally the Apostles successors and hee thinketh not any Bishop to be lesse than other for that hee is poorer or greater than other for that hee is richer for hee makes the Bishop of Eugubium a poore towne equall with the Bishop of Rome And farther hee thinketh that a Bishop is no better than any Priest saving that the Bishop hath authority to order Ministers Hereto M. Harding answereth thus Erasmus saith within five lines following that the Meâ—ropolitan hath a certaine dignity and jurisdiction above other Bishops take the one saith hee with the other I am contented M. Harding Erasmus saith The Metropolitan had a dignity above other Bishops but hee saith noâ— the Bishop of Rome had jurisdiction over all Bishops throughout the World In Saint Hieromes time there were Meâ—ropolitans Archbishops Archdeacons and others But Christ appointed not these distinctions of orders from the beginning These names are not found in all the Scriptures This is the thing that we deâ—end S. Ierome saith Let Bishops understand whereunto wee adde further Let the Bishops of Rome themselves undestand that they are in authority over Priests more by custome than by order of Gods truth These be Hieromes words truly translated what he meant thereby I leave to the judgement of the Reader Erasmus likewise saith in the selfe same place above alleaged Whereas Saint Ierome yeeldeth lesse dignity and authority unto Bishops than nowadayes they seeme to have wee must understand he spake of that time wherein he lived
If hee had seene our Bishops that now bee hee would have said otherwise For now the Pope claimeth a power above all the powers in heaven and earth as it is written in the Councell of Lateran Againe â—rasmus in another place speaking hereof saith thus This holy man Saint Ierome saith plainly and freely and as hee thinketh that the Bishop of Rome is above other Bishops not by Bishoprickeâ— but onely by riches By riches onely M. Harding Erasmus saith the Pope is above other Bishops By riches onely hee saith not by right of Gods word not by vertue not by learning not by diligence in preaching but onely by riches Now it may please you to follow your owne rule and to lay the one saying to the other But Saint Ieromes words are plaine of themselves and have no need of other expositor Thus he writeth What doth a Bishop saving onely the ordering of Ministers but a Priest may do the same Neither may wee thinke that the Chuâ—ch of Rome is oneâ— and the Church of all the world beside is another France England Affrica Persia Levante India and all barbarous Nations worship one Christ and keepe one rule of the truth If wee seeke for Authority the whole world is greater than the City of Rome Wheresoever there be a Bishop be it at Euguâ—ium be it at Rome be it at Constantinople be it at Rhegium Be it at Alexandria be it at Tanais they are all of one worthinesse they are all of one Bishopricke The power of riches and the basenesse of poverty maketh not a Bishop either higher or lower for they are all the Apostles successors What bring you mee the custome of Rome being but one City Here M. Harding findeth great fault for that I have translated these words Of one Bishopricke and not as hee would have it Of one Priesthood God woâ— a very simple quarrell Let him take whether he liketh best if either other of these words shall serve his turne Erasmus saith Bishop Pâ—iest and Presbyter at that time were all tâ—ree all one But Mâ— Harding saith The Primates had Authority over other inâ—eriour Bishops I graunt they had so Howbeit they had it by agreement and custome but neither by Christ nor by Peter nor Paul nor by any right of Gods Word Saintâ— Ierome saith Let Bishops understand that they are above Priests rather of Custome than of any truth or right of Christs institution and that they ought to rule the Church altogether And againe Therefore a Priest and a Bishop are both one thing and before that by the inflaming of the Devill parts were taken in Religion and these words were uttered among the people I hold of Paul I hold of Apollo I hold of Peter the Churches were governed by the common advice of the Priests Saint Augustine saith The office of a Biâ—hop is above the office of a Priest not by the authority of the Scripâ—ures but after the names of honour which the custome of the Church hath now obtained So part 2. cap. 9. Divis. 1. p. 196 He brings in M. Harding the Papist writing thus Even so they which denyed the distinction of a Bishop and a Priest were condemned of heresie as we find in Saint Augustine in the Booke and Chapter aforesaid And in Epiphanius Lib. 3. cap. 75. In the Councell of Constance the same is to be found To whom he answers in the Margent Vntâ—uth for hereby both Saint Paul and Saint Ierome and other good men are condemned of Heresie And p. 202. He gives this further answer But what meant M. Harding here to come in with the difference betweene Priests and Bishops thinkes hee that Priests and Bishops hold onely by Tradition or is it so horrible an heresie as hee maketh it to say that by the Scriptures of God a Bishop and a Priest are all one or knoweth hee how farre and unto whom he reacheth the name of an Hereticke Verily Chrysostome saith Betweene a Bishop and a Priest in a manner there is no difference Saint Hierome saith somewhat in rougher sort I heare say there is one become so peevish that hee setteth Deacons before Priests that is to say before Bishops Whereas the Apostle plainly teacheth us that Priests and Bishops he all one Saint Augustine saith What is a Bishop but the first Priest that is to say the highest Priest So saith Saint Ambrose There is but one consâ—cration of a Priest and Bishop for both of them are Priests but the Bishop is the first In his Sermon upon Haggai 1 p. 176. he writes thus against the temporall possessions and secular Offices of Clergy men When Constantinus the Emperour endowed the Church with lands and possessions they say there was a voyce of Angels heard in the ayre saying This day poyson is powred into the Church If there were poyson powred into Church then I doubt there was nover Treacle powred into it since This wee see that from that time shee hath done worse and worse Augustine findeth fault with the multitude of Ceremonies and saith the Church in â—his time was in worse case by mans devises than was the Church of the Iewes Bernard said There is no part sound in the Clergie And againe They which chuse tâ—e first places in the Church are chiefest in persecuting Christ. And againe they be not Teachers but deceivers they are not feeders but beguilers they be not Prelates but Pilates Which hee thus further prosecutes in his Sermon on Matthew 9. p. 198. And what shall I speake of Bishops Their cloven Miter signifieth perfect knowledge of the new Testament and the old their Crosiers Staffe signifieth diligence in attending the flocke of Christ their purple Bootes and Sandals signifie that they should ever be booted and ready to goe abroad through thicke and thinne to teach the Gospell and thereto they applyed the words of the Prophet How beautifull are the feete of them which bring glad tydings of peace which bring glad tydings of good things But alas in what kind of things do they beare themselves for Bishops These mysticall titles and shewes are not enough to â—eâ—ch in the Lords Harvest they are garments more meete â—or Players than for good Labourers Saint Bernard writes thus to Eugenius the Bishop of Rome who sometime had beene his Scholler Thou which art the shepheard â—ettest up and downe shining in gold and gorgeously attired but what get thy sheepe If I durst speake it these things are not the fodder for Christs sheepe but for devils Whatsoever apparell they have upon them unlesse they will fall to worke Christ will not know them for labourers How then can the Bishop of Rome be taken for the chiefe Pastor of Christ which these 900. yeares hath not opened his mouth to feed the flocke These 900. yeares I say since Gregory the first of that name it can hardly be found that ever any Bishop of Rome was seene in a Pulpit One of
his owne prayers unto God and private reading of those sundry confessions that were offered him c. Pag. 543. he thus proceeds Had you beene in the Primitive Church of Christ you would have gallantly disdained these other examples of Christian Kings and Countries converted and instructed by Merchants somtimes by women most times by the single perswasion of one man without all legall meanes or judiciall proceedingâ— the poore soules of very zeale imbracing the Word of life when it was first offered them and neglecting your number of voyces consent of Priestâ— and competent Courts as frivilous excâ—ptions against God and dangerous lets to their Salvationâ— Frumentius a Christian Child taken prisoner in India the farther and brought at length by Gods good Providence to beare some sway in the Realme in the non-age of the King carefully sought for such as were Christians among the Roman Merchants and gave them most free power to have assemblies in every place yeelding them whatsoever was requisite and exhorting them in sundry places to use the Christian prayers And within short time he built a Church and brought it to passe that some of the Indians were instructed in the faith and joyned with them The King of Iberia neere Pontus when he saw his wiâ—e restored to health by the prayers of a Christian Captive and himselfe delivered out of the suddaine danger that he was in onely by thinking and calling on Christ whom the Captive woman named so often to his wife sent for the woman and desired to learne the manner of her Religion and promised after that never to worship any other God but Christ The Captive woman taught him as much as a woman might and admonished him to build a Church and described the forme how it must be done whereupon the King calling the people of the whole Nation together told what had befallen the Queene and him and taught them the faith and became as it were the Apostle of this Nation though he were not yet baptized The examples of England France and other Countries are innumerable where Kings and Common wealths at the preaching of one man have submitted themselves to the faith of Christ without Councels or any Synodall or judiciall proceedings And therefore each Prince and people without these meanes have lawfull power to serve God and Christ his Sonne notwithstanding twenty Bishops as in our case or if you will twenty thousand Bishops should take exceptions to the Gospell of truth which is nothing else but to waxe mad against God by pretence of humane reason and order By all which it is evident that Parliaments may not onely be held and determine Secular matters but likewise Ecclesiasticall and Religious without the presence of Bishops which is no wayes necessary if expedient Touching the parity of Bishops Presbyters by Divine institution their difference only by custom he determins thus The title and authorithy of arch-Arch-Bishops and Patriarkes was not ordained by the Commandment of Christ or his Apostles but the Bishops long after when the Church began to be troubled with dissentions were content to lincke themselves together and in every Province to suffer one whom they preferred for the worthines of his City and called their Metropolitane that is Bishop of the chiefe or mother City to have this prerogative in all doubts of Doctrine and Discipline to assemble the rest of his brethren or consult them absent by Letters and see that observed which the most part of them determined Before there began Schismes in Religion the Churches saith S. Hierome were governed by the Common Councill of the Seniors And therefore let the Bishops understand that they be greater than Ministers or Elders rather by custome than by any truth of the Lords appointment and that they ought to governe the Church in Common and in his Epistle to Evagrius having fully proved by the Scriptures that the Apostles called themselves but Presbyters Elders or Seniors he addeth That after their times one was chosen in every Church and preferred before the rest to have the dignity of a Bishop this was provided for a remedie against Schismes lest every man drawing some unto him should rent the Church of Christ in peeces For what doth a Bishop except ordering of others which an Elder may not doe And lest you should thinke he speaketh not as well of the chiefe as of the meaner Bishops he compareth three of the greatest Patriarkes with three of the poorest Bishops he could name A Bishop of what place soever he be either of Rome or of Eugubium or of Constantinople or of Rhegium or of Alexandria or of Tajus hath the same merit and the same function or Priesthood abundance of riches or basenesse of poâ—erty doth not make a Bishop higher or lower for they all be successours to the Apostles So that the Bishop of Rome by Commission from Christ and succession from the Apostles is no higher than the meanest Bishop in world The Superiority which he and others had as Metropolitanes in their owne Provinces came by custome as the great Councell of Nice witnesseth not by Christs institution Let the old use continue in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria be chiefe over all those places for so much as the Bishop of Rome hath the like custome Likewise at Antioch and in other Provinces let the Churches keepe theer Prerogatives The generall Councell of Ephesus confesseth the same It seemeth good to this sacred and Oecumenicall Synod to conserve to every Province their right priviledges whole and untouched which they have had of old according to the custome that now long hath prevailed Next their authority was subject not onely to the discretion and moderation of their brethren assembled in Councell but also to the Lawes and Edicts of Christian Princes to be granted extended limited and ordered as they say cause For example the first Councell of Constantinople advanced the Bishop of that City to be the next Patriarch to the Bishop of Rome which before he was not And the Councell of Chalcedon made him equall in Ecclesiasticall honours with the Bishop of Rome and assigned him a larger Province than before he had So Iustinian gave to the City in Africa that he called after his owne name the See of an Archbishop Touching Bishops secular Jurisdiction imprisonment and temporall affaires he writes thus Bishops be no governours of Countries Princes be that is Bishops beare not the sword to reward and revenge Princes doe Bishops have no power to command and punish Princes have This appeareth by the Words of our Saviour expressely forbidding his Apostles to be Rulers of Nations and leaving it to Princes The Kings of Nations rule over their people and they that be great ones exercise authority with you it shall not be so that is you shall neither beare rule nor exercise authority over
your brethren Phi. the Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they over-rule their Subjects with injustice and violence you shall not doe so Theo. So your new Translation over-ruleth the Word howbeit Christ in that place doth not traduce the power of Princes as unjust or outragious but distinguisheth the calling of his Apostles froÌ„ the manner of regiment which God hath allowed the magistrate Christ saith not Princes be Tyrants you shall deale more curteously than they doe but he saith Princes be Lords and Rulers over their people by Gods Ordinance you shall not be so Againe the Word which Saint Luke hath is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any composition They be Lords and Masters and S. Paul confesseth of himselfe and other Apostles Not that we be Lords or Masters of your faith yea the compound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is with power and force to rule men whether they will or no not with wrong and injury to oppresse them and therefore the conclusion is inevitable that Princes may lawfully compell and punish their Subjects which Bishops may not This distinction betweene them is evident by their severall commissions which God hath signed The Prince not the Priest beareth the sword Ergo the Prince not the Priest is Gods Minister to revenge malefactors Peter himselfe was sharpely rebuked by Christ for using the sword and in Peter all Pastors and Bishops are straitely charged not to meddle with it All that take the sword shall perish with the sword And of all men a Bishop must be no striker for if he that should feed his Masters Houshold fall to striking he shall have his portion with hypocrites The servants of God must be gentle towards all instructing those that resist with mildnesse not compelling any with sharpenesse Their function is limited to the preaching of the Word and dispensing the Sacraments which have no kinde of compulsion in them but invite men onely by sober perswasions to beleeve and imbrace the promises of God To conclude Pastors may teach exhort and reprove not force command or revenge onely Princes be governours that is publicke Magistrates to prescribe by their Lawes and punish with the sword such as resist them within their dominions which Bishops may not doe which he thus further prosecutes The watch-men and Shepheards that serve Christ in his Church have their kinde of regiment distinct from the temporall power and State but that regiment of theirs is by counsell and perswasion not by terrour or compulsion and reacheth neither to the goods nor the bodies of any men much lesse to the crownes and lives of Princes c. Princes may force their Subjects by the temporall sword which they beare Bishops may not force their flock with any corporall or externall violence Chrysostome largely debateth and fully concludeth this matter with us If any sheepe saith he goe out of the right way and leaving the plentifull Pastures graze on barren and steepe places the Sheepeheard somewhat exalteth his voyce to reduce the dispersed stragling sheepe and to compell them to the â—locke But if any man wander from the right path of the Christian faith the Pastour must use great paines care and patience Neque enim vis illi inferenda neque terrore ille cogendus â—erum suadendus tantum ut de integro ad veritatem redeat For hee may not be forced nor constrained with terrour but onely perswaded to returne to the truth And againe A Bishop cannot â—ure men with such authority as a sheepheard doth his sheepe for a sheepeheard â—ath his choyce to binde his sheepe to dyet them to seare them and cut themâ— but in the other case the facility of the cure consisteth not in him that giveth but onely in him that taketh the medicine This that admirable teacher perceiving sayd to the Corinthians not that we have any dominion over you under the name of Faith but that we are helpers of your joy For of all men Christian Bishops may least correct the faults of men by force Iudges that are without the Church when they take any transgressing the Lawes they shew themselves to be endued with great authority and power and compell them in spite of their hearts to change their manners But here in the Church we may not offâ—r any violence but onely perswade We have not so great authority given us by the Lawes as to represse offendours and if it were lawfull for us so to doe we have no use of any such violent power for that Christ crowneth them which abstaine from sinne not of a forced but of a willing minde and purpose Hilary teacheth the same Lesson If this violence were used for the true faith the Doctrine of Bishops would be against it God needeth no forced service he requireth no conâ—trained confession I cannot receive any man but him that is willing I cannot give â—are but to him that intreateth I cannot signe any but him that gladly professeth Origen agreeth with them both See the wisedome of the holy Ghost because that other faults are judged by the Lawes of Princes and it seemed superfluous now to prohibite those things by Gods Law which are sufficiently revenged by mans he repeateth those and none else as fit for religion of which mans Law saith nothing whereby it appeareth that the Iudges of this world doe meddle with the greatest part of Gods Law For al the crimes which God would have revenged he would have them revenged not by the â—pp Râ—lers of the Church but by the Iudges of the world and that Paul knowing rightly calleth the Prince Gods minister and judge of him that doth evill Phi. Bishops may not offer force with their owne hands but they may command others to doe it for them Theoph. A grosse shift As though Temporall Princes or Judges did execute malefactours with their owne hands Bishops by vertue of their vocation cannot claime the sword and consequently they cannot command or authorize any man to take the goods or touch the bodies of Christians oâ— Infidels which being a cleere conclusion it is most evident they can much lesse licence you to take the Crownes and take the lives of Princes to whom God hath delivered the sword to judge the earth and made them servants onely to himselfe since all other soules must be subject to them by the tenor of his owne prescription and their first erection as the Scripture witnesseth And touching Bishops having Conusans in their courts of Tythes c. he writes thus For Tythes Testameâ—ts Administrations Servitude Legitimations and such like you went beyond your bounds when you restrained them to your Courts and withouâ— Caesar made Lawes for things that belonged unto Caesar. The goods Lands Livings States and Families of Lay men and Clerkes are Caesars charge not yours and therefore your decrees judgements and executions in those cases if you claime them from Christ as things spiritâ—all not from
Caesar as matters committed of trust to you by Christian Princes are nothing else but open and wifâ—ull invasions of other mens rights you changing the names and calling those things Spirituall and Ecâ—lesiasticall which indeede be civill and temporall and shouldering Priâ—ces from their cushins who first suffered Bishops to sir judges in those causes of Honour to their Persons and favour to their sunctions which on your part is but a bad requitall of their Princely graces and benefits He addes S. Paul expressely writeth of the Prince that He beareth the sword not without cause and is Gods minister to revenge him that doth evill And our Saviour severely forbiddeth Peâ—er and the rest of the Apostles to meddle with the sword All that take the sword shall perish by the sword and to them all you know that Kings of Nations raigne â—ver themâ— and they that be great exercise authority with you it shall not be so The sword is but the signe of publicke and Princely power and where the thing is not lawfull the signe is unlawfull Since then the Lord interdicteth his Apostles and messengers all Princely power it is evident the sword which is â—ut a signe thâ—reof is likewise interdicted them Thus much Bernard sticketh not to tell Pope Eugenius to his face It is the Lords voice in the Gospell Kings of Nations are Lords over them and they that have power over them are called gratious and the Lord inferreth you shall not be so It is a cleare case the Apostles are forbidden dominion Gâ— thou then saith Bernard to the Pope and usurpe if thou dâ—re either an Apostleship if thou be a Prince or dominion if thou be Apostolike Thou art expresly forbidden one of them If thou wilt have both thou shalt lose both The patterne of an Apostle is this Dominion is interdicted service is enjoyned Gird thy selfe with thy sword the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God And this Pope Nicholas fairely confesseth The Church of God hath no sword but the spirituall wherewith she quickneth shee killeth not Your owne Law saith It is easily proved of Bishops and other Clergy mâ—n whatsoever that they may not either by their owne authority or by the authority of the Bishop of Româ— take weapon in hand and excercise the materiall sword and addeth his reason For every man besides him and his authority which hath lawfull â—â—wer and which as the Apostle saith beareth the sword not without cause to whom every soule ought to be subject every man I say that without his authority taketh the sword shall perish with the sword He that beareth the sword may lawfully put malefactors to death and wage warre with his enemies when need so requireth which Bishops may not doe The weapons of our warfare are not carnall saith Saint Paul Quid Episcopis cum bello what have Bishops to doe with battle saith Athanasius and Aâ—brose Pugnâ—re non debâ—o I ought not to fight If they may not fight much lesse kill if they may do neither they cannot beare the sword which is appointed by God and received of men to do both The words of our Saviour are cleare with us for the negative My Kingdome saith hee is not of this World if then your Priests Prelates and Popes will be the servants of Christ they must challenge no worldly Kingdome as from him or in his name The servant is not above his Master If the master with his owne mouth have denyed it the servants may not affirme it or usurpe it The souldiers of Christ must not intangle themselves with secular affaires much lesse make themselves Lords and Judge of earâ—hly matters which office properly belongeth to the sword and must be sustained of all those that beare the sword The Popes themselves beâ—ore their power and pride grew so great were of this opinion with us Thus and much more Bishop Bilson to the same effect Not to trouble you with more quotations of this nature which are infinite I shall conclude onely with two more auâ—horities of men of greatest eminence and learning in our Church in Queene Elizabeths later dayes The first of them is Dr. Whitakers Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge he in his Booke Contra Duâ—eum l. 6. sect 19. Controvers 4. De Ecclesiae regimine Quest. 1. c. 1. sect 1. 2. c. 2. sect 16. Quest. 4. c. 3. sect 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. De notis Ecclesiae qu. 5. c. 6. p 509 and Contr. 2. Concil qu. 3. c. 2. p. 586 587. reciting Saint Ieromes words at large on Titus 1. and to Euagrius concludes with him That in former times Bishops and Presbyters were all one and the same that every where a Presbyter was the same that a Bishop is that ALL Churches were not under the Government of one man but were governed by the Common Counsell of their Presbyters Ecclesiae inquit Jeronymus gubernabantur c. id est VBIQVE OMNES fuit hiâ— MOS Ecclesiarum gubernandarum That this custome was not changed by the Apostles sed POST Ecclesie judicto That Bishops are greater now than Ministers not by divine institution but custome and that humano non divino jure totum â—oc discrimen constat the whole difference betweene them is by humane not by divine Law or right That by ancient and divine right a Presbyter was lesse than a Bishop NIHILO in nothing After which he proceeds thus If the Apostles had changed that order as Sanders pretendeth what had it profited Hierome with so great diligence to have collected testimonies out of the Apostles whereby to shew that they were sometimes the same It might easily come into his memory that this order was changed by the Apostles themselves after the Church was disturbed and torne with discords But wherfore then saith Hierom Before it was said I am of Paul c. the Church was Governed by the Common Councell of Presbyters c. I answer this might deceive Sanders Hierome onely alluded to the place of the Apostle that hee might shew that schismes were the cause of changing this order as hee saith elsewhere that this was done to remedy schismes But this remedy was almost worse than the disease For as at first one Presbyter was set above the rest and made a Bishop so afterwards one Bishop was preferred before the rest and so this custome brought forth the Pope with his Monarchy by little and little and brought it into the Church Ierome so openly oppugneth the Pontificall Hierarchy that the Papists know not what to determine or answere concerning Hierome Michael Medina doubts not to affirme that Ierome was an Hereticke in this kinde and that he held the very same opinion that Aerius did verily Hierome was of the same opinion with Aerius whereby we may the lesse regard that Aerius is so often objected to us AB INSULSIS HOMINIBUS
by foolish men If Aerius was an Hereticke in this thing he had Ierome a companion of his Heresie and not onely him but also many other Ancient Fathers both Greeke and Latine as Medina confesseth Alphonsus de Castro saith that the Church was sarre enough off from the minde of Hierome and a certaine man hath written in the Margin that Ieromes opinion is to be dissembled not to be urged Pighius writes that Ierome is involved in such difficulties out of which he could not winde himselfe and that he fell into perplexed absurdities no wayes cohearing and fighting among themselves It is no wonder if they speake evill of us who thus petulantly insult over Ierome Marianus Victorius endeavours to excuse Ierome and writes that he speakes not of Bishops and Presbyters but oâ— Bishops onely and that verily all these are equall and that many did ill interpret Hierome otherwise But Ierome most manifestly compares Presbyters with Bishops and that Marianus had most easily seene unlesse he had beene miserably blinde yet at length by the opinion of Marianus all Bishops are equall Turrianus otherwise and more acutely answers Hieronymum non dicere Presbyterum idem sed eundem esse cum Episcopo What knots doth this Jesuiâ—e here seeke in a Rush If a Presbyter be the same that a Bishop is and the Bishop the same that a Presbyter is what at last good Jesuite canst thou thinke to be between a Presbyter and a Bishop Thus verily our adversaries yea Bpp finde not how they may defend themselves from this sentence of Hierome and truely all of them sticke in the same mire albeiâ— some of them are more foulely plunged than others The matter now returnes to Bellarmine as to the Triary he most confidently pronounceth that Ierome differeth as much from Aerius as a Catholick from an Hereticke I most firmely averre the contrary that their opinions concerâ—ing this thing can by no meanes be disjoyned nor distinguished Aerius thought that a Presbyter differed not â—rom a Bishop by Divine right and authority Hierome contends this very thing and defends it by the same testimonies of Scriptures as Aerius doth Now quam inepte pueriliter how foolishly and childishly Epiphanius answereth to those testimonies all may perceive For he saith that the Apostle was wont to write thus because that at that time there were not any Presbyters in many Câ—urches by reason of the paucity of Presbyters I admire so great a Theologue who tooke upon him to refute all Heretickes saw not how shamefully he was mistaken For what was theâ—â— at that time greater plenty of Bishops than of Presbyters that whereas there were many Bishops in one City yet there were no presbyters there The notable absurdiâ—y of this anâ—were Bellarmine himselfe acknowledged And yet this is that Epiphanius who first of all proscribed Aerius as an Hereticke absque Synodi aut Ecclesiae judicio without the judgement of a Synod or of the Church But what saith Bellarmine he propoundeth a double difference betweene Aerius and Hierom. The first is that Ierom writes everywhere That a Bishop is greater than a Presbyter as to the power of Order I answere that it is most false Hierome never writ so neither doth he by any meanes acknowledg a Bishop to be greater than a Preâ—byter unlesse it be by custome which he distinguisheth from divine disposition And if there were so great a difference wherefore doth Ierome that he may revok Deacons to modesty reduce them into order affirme that Presbyters are Bishops Whence doth he admonish that this contention taken up against Presbyters belongs to B ps themselves seeing Presbyters by the first institution of this order and Ministry are B ps Now if there were the greatest difference between these in the power of order had not Ierome bin very sottish in his argument Now whereas he saith What doth a B p except ordination which a Presbyter may not do He speaks of the custome of those times that not even the when by the custome of the Church a Bishop was greater then a Presbyter could a Bishop doe more then a Presbyter in any thing except in ordination yea elsewhere Hierom himselfe attributes ordination to Presbyters And indeed so he doth for in Zoph 1. 2. Tom. 5. pag. 218. D. he writes thus Sacerdotes c That Priests who baptize and consecrate the Lords Supper which is the greater MANVS IMPONVNT LEVITAS ET ALIOS CONSTITVVNT SACERDOTES lay on hands ordaine Levites and other Priests which is in truth but the lesse The second is that although Ierome doth not acknowledge any difference jure divino betweene the jurisdiction of a Bishop and Presbyter yet he grants that this was lawfully introduced by the Apostles and that necessarily to avoyd Schismes I answere first that Bellarmin hath resolved out of the opinion of Ierome that there is no difference in the Jurisdiction of a Bishop and Presbyter whence it is manifest what Ierome thought of the Jurisdiction and Primacy of the Pope For seeing the Primacy of the Pope consists in Jurisdiction Ierome thinks that Iure Divino the Jurisdiction of a Bishop is not greater than that of a Presbyter it followes from Ieromes opinion that the Papacy and Prelacy Divino mullo juâ—â— nitatur rests upon no divine Law Secondly â—â—llarmine fights with himselfe and makes Ierome to speake contradictions For if Ierome thought that jurisdiction of a Bishop not to be Iuris Divini how theâ— was that difference introduced by the Apostles or how could Ierome prove out of the Apostles writings that there was not any difference betweene them Certainely that which the Apostles instituted and introduced hath the force of divine right Finally this profound Doctor in his adâ—0 â—0 Rationem Campiani p. 51. concludes thus of Aeriusâ—is â—is opinion And â—ruely if to condemne prayers for the deadâ— Et Episcopo Presbyteros aequare sit hâ—â—reticum NIHIL CATHOLICVM ESSE POTEST and â—o equall Presbyters to a Bishop he Heretiâ—all nothing can be Catholike Thus this great Doctor William Whitaker with whom his Coaetaneans Doctor Willet in his Synopsiâ— Papismi Controversie Generall 5. part 2. in the Appendix p. 272. to 284. in the last Edition and Master William Perkins in his Reformed Catholicke Cont. 18. c. 21. concurre I wonder therefore with what impudency and shamelesse brow Bishop Hall and others dare condemne the defenders of the identity and Parity of Presbyters and Bishops by Divine right for Aerian Heretickes Schismatickes Novillers and oppugners of the received Doctrine of the Church of England when as the learnedest Prelates Martyrs and writers of our Church as appeares by the premises have proâ—essedly justified this opinon as Apostolicall Orthodox Ancient and Catholike warranted by the unanimous consent both of Scriptures and Fathers â—s will further appearâ— by the next Authority with which I shall conclude And that is our incomparably learned Doctor Iohn Rainolds once professor of Divinity
in the University of Oxford who in his Letter to sir Francis Knoles Sept. 19. 1598. concerning some passages in Doctor Bancrofâ—s Sermon at Pauls Crosse Printed in King Iames his time and now reprinted writes thus both touching the pretended heresie of Aerius and the Divine right of Episcopacy It appeareth by the aforesayd words of Doctor Bancroft that he avoucheth the Superiority which Bishops have over the Clergie to be of Gods owne Ordinance for he improveth the impugners of it as holding with Aerius that there is no difference by the Word of God betwixt a Priest and a Bishop which he could not doe with reason unlesse he himselfe proved the Bishops superiority as established by Gods Word and he addeth that their opinion who gainsay it is Heresie whereof it ensueth he thinketh it contrary to Gods Word sith Heresie is an errour repugnant to the truth of the Word of God as according to the Scriptures our owne Church doth teach us Now the arguments which he bringeth to prove it an Heresie are partly over-weake and partly untrue Overweake that he beginneth with out of Epiphanius Uâ—true that he adjoyneth of the Generall consent of the Church For though Epiphanius doe say that Aerius his assertion is full of folly yet he disproveth not the reason which Aerius stood on out of the Scriptures nay he dealeth so in seeking to disprove it that Bellarmine the Jesuiâ—e though desirous to make the best of Epiphanius whose opinion herein he maintaineth against the Protestants yet is forced to confesse that Epiphanius his answere is not all of the wisest nor any way can fit the text As for the generall consent of the whole Church which Doctor Bancrofâ— saith condemned that opinion of Aerius for an Heresie himself for an Hereâ—ick because he persisted in it that is a large speech but what proofe hath he that the whole Church did so It appeareth he saith in Epiphanius It doth not the contrary appeareth by S. Ierome sundry others who lived some in the same time some after Epiphanius even Saint Augustine himselfe though Doctor Bancroft cite him as bearing witnesse thereof likewise I grant Saint Augustine in his booke of Heresies ascribeth this to Aerius for one that he sayd Presâ—yterum ab Episcopo nulla differentia deberi discerni but it is one thing to say there ought to be no difference betweene them which Aerius saying condemned the Churches order yea made a Schisme therein and so is censured by S. Austin counting it an heresie as Epiphanius from whom he tooke it recorded himselfe as he witnesseth not knowing how farre the name of Heresie should be stretched another thing to say that by the Word of God there is no difference betwixt them but by the order and custome of the Church which S. Austin saith in effect himselfe so farre was he from witnessing this to be Heresie by the generall consent of the whole Church which untruth how wrongfully it is fathered on him and on Epiphanius who yet are all the witnesses that Doctor Bancroft hath produced for the prooâ—e hereof or can for ought that I know it may appeare by this that our learned Country man of godly memory Bishop Iuel when Harding to convince the same opinion of heresie alleadged the same witnesses citing to the contrary Chrysostome Ierome Austin and Ambrose knit up his answere with these words All these and other Holy Fathers together with the Apostle S. Paul for thus saying by Hardings advice must be held for Heretickes And Michael Medina a man of great account in the Councell of Trent more ingenuous herein than many other Papists affirmeth not onely the former ancient writers alleadged by Bishop Iuel but also that another Ierome Theodoret Primasius Sedulius and Theophylact were of the same mind touching this matter with Aerius with whom agree likewise Oecumenius and Anselmus Arch-bishop of Canterbury and an other Anselmus and Gregory and Gratian and after them how manyâ— It being once inrolled in the Canon Law for sound and Catholike Doctrine and thereupon publickely taught by learned men All which doe beare witnesse against Doctor Bancroft of the point in question that it was not condemned for an Heresie by the generall consent of the whole Church And the rather which is observable because Isiodor Hispalensis Originum lib. 8. c. 5. and Gratian himselfe Caus. 24. qu. 3. reciting the heresie of Aerius omits his equalizing of Bishops and Presbyters out of the liâ—â— of his errours because an Orthodox truth approved by themselves and other Fathers which is worthy observation If he should reply that these latter witnesses did live a 1000. yeares after Christ and therefore touch not him who sayd it was condemned so in the time of S. Austin and of Epiphanius the most flourishing time of the Church that ever hapned since the Apostles dayes either in respect of learning or of zeale First they whom I named though living in a latter time yet are witnesses of the fâ—rmer Oecumenius the Greeke Scholiast treading in the steps of the old Greeke Fathers and the two Anselmes with Gregory and Gratian expressing S. Ieromes sentence word by word Besides that perhaps it is not very likely that Anselme of Canterbuâ—y should have bin Canonized by the Pope of Rome Worshipped for a St that the other Anselme Gregoryâ—hould â—hould have such place in the Popes Library and be esteemed of as they are that Gratians workes should be allowed so long time by so many Popes for the golden foundation of the Canon Law if they had taught that for Catholike and sound which by the generall consent of the whole Church in the most flourishing time that ever happened since the Apostles dayes was condemned for Heresie chiefely in a matter of such waight and moment to the Popes supremacyâ— which as they doe claime over all Bishops by the Ordinance of God so must they allow to Bishops over Priests by the same Ordinance as they saw at length and therefore have not onely decreed it now in the Councell of Trent but also in the new edition of their Canon Law have set downe this note that one Hughs Glosse allowed by the Arch-deacon saying that Bishops have differed from Priests alwayes as they doe now in Government and Prelateship and Offices and Sacraments but not in the name and Title of Bishop which was common to them both must be held hereafter for S. Jeromes meaning at least for the meaning of the Canon taken out of S. Ierome though his words be flat plaine against this Glosse as Bellarmine himselfe confesseth Whereto may be added that they also who have laboured about the reformation of the Church these 500. yeares have taught that all Pastours be they entituled Bishops or Priests have equall authority and power by Gods Word First the Waldenses next Marsilius Patavinus then
Wickliffe and his Scholars afterwards Husse and Hussites last of all Luther Calvin Brentius Bullinger Musculus and other who might be recâ—koned particularly in great number sith as here with us both Bishops and the Queenes proâ—essors of Divinity in our Universities and other learned men doe consent therein so in â—orraigne Nations all whom I have read treating of this matter and many more no doubt whom I have not read The siâ—ting examining of the Trent Councell hath beene undertaken by onely two which I have seene the one a Divine the other a Lawyer Kemnisius and Gentilletus they both condemne the contrary doctrine thereunto as a Trent errour the one by Scriptures and Fathers the others by the Canon Law But what doe I further speake of severall persons It is the common judgement of the reformed Churches of Helvetia Savoy France Scotland Germany Hungary Poâ—on the Low Countries and our owne witnesse the Harmony of Confessions Wherefore siâ—h Doctor Bancroft I assure my selfe will not say that all these have approved that as sound and Christian Doctrine which by the generall consent of the whole Church in a most flourishing time was condemned for Heresie I hope he will acknowledge that he was overseene in that he avouched the Superiority which Bishops have among us over the Clergie to be of Gods owne Ordinance Thus Doctor Rainoldâ— of whom you may reade more to this purpose in his Conference with Hart Aug. 1584. London 1609. p. 12â— 123.185.218.4â—1.540.541 I could recite many more of our owne writers and records to the same effect but because I have published A Catalogue of them and of such Testimonies in all ages as plainely evidence Bishops and Presbyters to be both one and the same in Iurisdiction Oâ—â—â—ce Dignity Order and Degree by Divine Law and Institution and their Disparity to be a meere humane Ordinance long after the Apostles times c. and because I have at large manifested this trâ—th in my Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus and in my Breviate of the Prelates intolerable Vsurpations both upon the Kings Prerogative Royall and the Subjects Liberties I shall for brevity sake referre you to them and proceede to answere some principall Objections in defence and maintenance of Episcopacy and then cast Anchor CHAP. IX Comprising an Answer to the Principall Objections alleadged by the Prelates in defence of the Divine pretended Institution and for the continuance of their Episcopacy in our Church HAving thus given you a taste what our owne Authors ancient and Modeâ—ne Protestants and Papists Martyrs and Prelates have formerly written touching the pretended Divine Jurisdiction the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Antimonarchicall practises Lordlinesse secular imployments courtship and great Temporall possessions of our prelates I shall onely Answere two Aâ—guments or rather bare Allegationâ— now principally insisted on for the maintenance of Episcopall Superiority by a Divine right with three more Objections for the continuance of Episcopacy still in our Church and so conclude The first Allegation for Episcopacies Divine institution is taken â—rom the Angel of the Church of Ephesus whom Bâ—shop Hall Bishop Vsher and others will neâ—dâ—s have â—o be a Bishop Superiour in Authority and Jurisdiction to other Ministers because he writes onely in the singular number to the Angel not to the Angels of that Church which say â—hey implies a Supâ—riority of one speciall Minister in that Church to whom this Epistle is principally directed over the other Presbyters not once mentioned in this Epistle To which I answere First that â—his word Angel is but a metaphoricall Title proper onely to the heavenly Spirits in strictnesse of speech and in a large sense as it signifies a Messenger or Servant it may as aptly denoâ—e a Minister or Presbyter as a Bishop The Tiâ—le therefore of it selfe as it is used by S. Iohn makes nothing â—or Episcopacy since ordinary Presbyters are in Scripture sometimes stiled Angels but Bishops distinct â—rom Presbyters are never so named there Secondly our Bishops themselves if not the whole Church of England with our late famous King Iames in the Contents annexed by them to the Bibles of the last Translation now onely used permitted in our Churches in expresse Termes expound the Angels of â—he 7. Churches to be the Ministers of them the Contents of the second Chap. of the Revelation running thus What is commanded to be written to the ANGELS that is The Ministers of the Churches of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamus Thiatyra c. had these Angels beene such as you now call Bishops you would have rendred the Contents thus What is written to the Angels that is to the Bishops of Ephesus c. But since you expound Angels thus to be the Ministers of these Churches who in vulgar appellation and acception are distinct from Bishops and as you hold inferiour to them you must now either renounce your owne and our Churches exposition or your Episcopacy For if the Angels of these Churches be the most eminent persons and rulers in them as you argue and these as the Contents testifie be not Bishops but Ministerâ— it followes infallibly that Ordinary Ministers and Presbyters are superiour to Bishops not Bishops to them And that these Angels were the Ministers of these Churâ—hes is evident by the expresse resolution of our owne learned Iames Pilkington late Bishop of Durham in his Exposition upon the Prophet Aggeus cap. 1. v. 13. London 1562. where he writes thus That more worshipfull names are given to the Preaching Minister than to any sort of men This name Angell is given to the Preachers for the heavenly comfort that they bring to man from God whose Messengers they be In the Revel of S. Iohn he writes to the 7. Angels â— to the 7. Ministers not Bishops of the 7. Congregations or Churches in Asia By this Bishops resolution then and by Pope Gregory the firsts too these seven Angels are seven Preaching Ministers not Lordly Non-Preaching Prelates And Master Fox in his Meditations on Apoc. c. 2 p. 27.28 concurres with them averriâ—g That by the seven Angels is meant either the Ministers of the seven Churches or the Churches themselves which exposition is as ancient as Aretas Primasius and Ambrosius Ansbertus who in their Commentaries on Apocalypsis write thus Septem stellae Angeli sunt septem Ecclesiarum Nec putandum est quod hoc loco Angeli singuli singulis deputentur hominibus quod incongrue ab aliquibus aestimatur sed potius Angeli Eccles. hic intelligendi sunt rectores populi qui singulis Ecclesiis praesidentes verbum vitae cunctis annunciant Nam Angeli nomen nuncius interpretatum dicitur Et Angelo Ecclesiae Ephesi scribe Darivo hic casu Angelo posuit non genitivo Ac si diceret Scribe Angelo huic Ecclesiae ut non tam Angelum Ecclesiam separatim videatur dixisse quam quis Angelus exponere
voluisset unam videlicet faciens Angeli Ecclesiaeque personam Quamviâ— enim Sacramenti dispensatione praeponatur compaginis tamen unitate connectitur Nam hanc regulam a principio servans non septem Angelis sed Septem Ecclesiis scripsisset Iohannes inquiens Septem Ecclesiis quae sunt in Asia dominus quem vidit Scribe inquit in libro quae vidisti mitte septem Ecclesiis Postea tamen Angelis jubet scribi ut ostenderet unum esse Sed etiam siqua singulis partiliter Ecclesiis praedicat universam generaliter convenâ—re docetur Ecclesiam Neque enim dicit Quid spiritus dicat Ecclesiae sed Ecclesiis Angelum ergo Ecclesiam significans duas in eo partes ostendit dum laudat increpat In consequentibus autem manifestatur non eandem increpare quam laudat sic ut Dominus in Evanglio omne praepositorum corpus unum servum dixit beatum nequam quem veniens Dominus ipse dividet non tantum servum sed partem inquit ejus cum hypocritis ponet Yea Ludovicus ab Alcasar a late Iesuite in his Commentary on the Apocalyps Antu 1614. Proem in c. 2. K 3. Notatio 1. p. 250.251 writes That Andreas Aretas Ansbertus Anselmus Pererius Victorinus Ticinius Ambrosius Haymo Beda are of this opinion Augelarum stellarum nomine designari Ecclesias ipsas That by the name of Angels the Câ—urches themselves are signified not the Lordly Prelates in them not one ancient Commentator on this that I finde and few moderne expounding these Angels to bee Bishops as our Prelates against all sense will make them yea Andreas Cesariensis Comment in Ioanâ— Apoc. c. 3. p. 8. writes Probabile fit per 7. Angelos totius universi gubernationem quae in dextera Christi sicut omnes quâ—que terrae fines sita est hoc loco significari Since â—hen by Angels is here meant either the Ministers of the Church of Ephesus or the whole Church it selfe or Christs government over the Universe as these Authors a vâ—â—re this Text makes nothing at all for our Prelates Hiâ—rarchy Thirdly it is observable that Saint Iohn neither in his Gospel nor Epistle nor in his Booke of â—he Revelation doth so much as once use the name or word Bishop but the name of Elder or Presbyter very often both in his Epistle and in the Apocalyps I then appeale to any reasonable Creature whether it is not more probable that Saint Iohn by this word Angell should rather meane the Elders or Presbyters of those Churches a Title which he gives himselfe 2 Iohn 1. 3 Iohn 1. and which Title and Office he so frequently mentions in the 4. and 5. and 7. Chapters of the Apocalyps next ensuing rather than the Lordly Bishops of those Churches superiour to Presbyters whose office for ought appeares he never knew and whose Title he never useth in his writings Fourthly it is remâ—â—keâ—ble that S. Iohn doth â—ever place the 24. Elders sitting on so many seates next unto the throne of Christ himselfe and the Angels standing further off from the Throne without the Elders If then by the Elders as is generally agreed by all be meant the Presbyters or Ministers of the Church and by Angels as you pretend be meant Bishops then the Presbyters must needes be more honourable by divine institution than Bishops because they are next to the Throne of Christ and sit on seates or chaires whiles the Angels stand about them Adde to this that these Elders are still introduced by S. Iohn in this booke Worshipping and adoring God and Christ and giving thankes honour praise and glory unto them That they onely are sayd to have Crownes of gold upon their heads the badge of Soveraignty and Superioriority and harpes 〈◊〉 Golden Vials in their hands full of Odours which are the prayers of Saints That they sing the new Song And among other passages prayse Christ for this in speciall manner Rev. 5.10 And hast made VS not Bishops unto our God KINGS and PRIESTS and we shall raigne on the Earth Thereâ—ore Presbyters doubtlesse are the chiefe and principall Ministers and Priests in the Church of Christ by divine institution and being thus made Kings and Priests and adorned with Crownes to the end that they may raigne upon the Earth no Prelates or Lord Bishops ought to rule over them or climbe Paramount them as they doe Besides these Elders noâ— Bishops informed S. Iohn himselfe and instructed him in the things hee doubted of Revel 5.4.5 c. 7.13.14.15.16 Therefore these Elders must certainely be the better the most eminâ—nt Scient men and so Paramount the angel-Angel-Bishops Fifthly though the Angel be here put in the singular number yet the Elders are still mentioned in the Plurall And as for the Church of Ephesus in those dayes it is most certaine by Acts 20.17.28 1 Tim. 5.17 That there were divers Elders of equall authority â—uling in it whom the holy Ghost expressely not onely calleth but made Bishops and Overseers of that Church both to Rule and Feede it To make therefore one speciall Bishop and Superintendent in this Church superiour to all the rest and he onely graced by the name of an Angel is but a crazie conceipt of a proud Episcopall braine contrary to apparent Texts Sixthly This Angel is not sayd to have any Jurisdiction or Superiority over other Ministers or Presbyters in the Church of Ephesus nor to be the supreame or generall Superintendent Prelate of that Church neither is there any thing spoken of him with reference to any other Minister of Ephesus What then can this poore title make for Episcopall priority and Jurisdiction The Spirit writes to the Angell of the Church of Ephesus Ergo this Angell was a Bishop and supâ—riour to all other Ministers of Ephesus is a strange non sequitur and yet this is all this â—ext affords you Seventhly Bishop Hall and other contenders for Episcopacy grant that there were divers particular Churches Congregations in and about Ephesus every one of which had its severall Minister or Presbyter to instruct them else they could prove no Episcopacy or Diocaesan superintendency from one particular Congregation This being granted by him and his party Let them then tell me seriously whether this Angell which they will not have taken collectively and Plurally for the whole Presbytery and Ministery of that Church as many ancient and moderne Commentators expound it but individually for one particular person should not rather be one particular Pastor of one of the Churches of Ephesus onely who had lost his first love and therefore was worthily reprehended then a Diocaesan Bishop or Arch-bishop of that Church to whose Jurisdiction all other Presbyters and Bishops of that Nationall Church were subordinate for which there is no ground in Scripture Eighthly our Prelates all plead very hard That Timothy was ordained the first Bishop of Ephesus and dyed Bishop of that See which if I admit
follow his Edition as Master Calvin and some few others doe in their Commentaries whereas both he and they are professed Enemies to Episcopacy and disclaime those Postscripts as false and spurious Fiâ—thly Master Beza and the â—etâ—ers forth of the Greeke Bible Printed by the Heires of Andrew Francofurti 1597. passe this sentence upon these Postscripts and this clause Ordained the first Bishops of Ephesus or of the Church of the Ephesians Non extaâ— in quibusdam vetustis Codiâ—ibus sane supposttum fuisse puâ—o And Guilielmus Estius a famous Roman Doctor in his Commentary on 2 Tim. 1.4 writes thus of the Postscript to it Graeâ—a subscriptio post finem Epistolae sic habet Scriptae Roma ad Timotheum secunda cum Paulus iterum sisteretur Caesari Neroni where he omits this addition Ephesiorum Ecclesiae primus Episcopus and then passeth this verdict upon it Sed hujusmodi Graecae subscriptiones ut incerti sunt authoris ITA NON Magnae authoritatis And Thomâ—s de vio Cajetanus Andreas Hyperius Estius with others deâ—â— the subscription to Titus That this Epistle was written from Nicopolis of Macedonia and the Century writers with others that the Second to Timothy was written from Rome aâ— Pauls second appearing before Nero a meere falshood and mistake All which considered I wonder our great learned Prelates Bâ—shop Downeham Bishop White and Bishop Hall and especially our great Antiquary Bishop Vsher should so much insist upon these spurious false postscripts and draw a maine Argument from to prove their Episcopacy of Divine Institution when Bellarmine and those Papists who write most eagerly for the Prelates Hierarchy are ashamed to produce such a false and impotent proofe for their groundlesse Episcopall jurisdiction If these Answers satisfy not this Objection from these Postscripts you may receive more full satisfaction and further Answers to it in my Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus p. 52. to 58. To which I shall remit the Reader From these two Arguments for the pretended Divine right of Episcopacy I shall next proceed to answer the most considerable reasons produced for the continuing of Lordly Prelates in our Church The first for order and moment is the Antiquity of Lordly Bishops in our Church who if we credit Bishop Hall and others are not onely of Divine institution but their Episcopall Government hath continued in this our Island ever since the first plantation of the Gospell without contradiction Therefore it will be neither decent nor expedient but dangerous and inconvenient to remove them now To this I answer first that though Bishops have been very ancient in our Church yet how ancient and what kinde of Bishops these were will be the question Metraphrastes writes that Saint Peter continued long in Britaine constituted Churches and ordained Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and then returned to Rome the 12 yeare of Nero Caesar. But as this Authour is very fabulous in other things so without doubt he is false and singular iâ— this as I could easily manifest did not Bishop Vshers siquidem Symeoni Metaphrastae credimus and Baronius his sicut in aliis multis ibi a se positis errare Metaphrastum certum est ita in his hallucinatum esse constat Iohn Speed his For a dreame we leave it c. and Francis Godwin Bishop of Landaffe in his Discourse of the first conversion of this Island of Britaine unto Christian Religion p. 3 4 5 6. where he largely and professedly proves against this Impostor That Peter was never in Britaine ease me of this Labour and sufficiently refute the vaine confidence of those who have lately produced this branded Authority to derive the Antiquity of our Lordly Prelates from the Apostles themselves as if they had first planted them in our Church That which is likewise alledged out of the Greeke Martyrologe and Dorotheus his Synopsis That Aristobulus was ordained Bishop of the Britaine 's by Paul and by him sent Bishop into England seemes to be of the same stampe with the former in Bishop Godwins judgement who rejects it as fabulous because none of our owne Authors or Histories so much as once mention his so memorable labour and martyrdome among us But grant it true yeâ— since the word Bishop is here used onely for an ordinary Minister or Preacher of the Gospell and Aristobulus sent onely to convert our Nation being Pagans had no Bishopricke or Diocesse here nor any Inferiour Presbyters under him for ought appeares over whom to play the Lord as our Lordly Prelates have this Authority will stand those in small steed who with more confidence then judgement have objected it in defence of our Lordly Bishops which by the common consent of all our Writers began not till King Lucius his raigne about the yeare of Christ 179. So that from the Preaching of the Gospell in our Island by Iacobus Zebedeus Anno Christi 41. of Simon Zelotes Anno 47. of Ioseph of Araâ—atâ—aea Anno 48. of Saint Paul Anno 60. of Philip the Apostle and his twelve associates Anno 63. till Lucius erected Bishops and Bishoprickes to wit for the space of about one hundred and forty yeares after the first Preaching of the Gospell here our Church of Britaine had no Bishops at all to governe it but onely Presbyters for ought appâ—ares by any credible Authour the Christian faith all this while continuing un-extinguished among us at Glastenbury and in some other places as our Antiquaries manifest If then that rule of Tertullian be infallible That is best and truest which is first and that of Hierome most certaine That the Church of God immediately after the Apostles times before the erection of Lord Bishops was governed by a common Councell of Presbyters not by Bishops and our Church as is probable and the Church of Scotland as some Authors write for certaine was governed in this manner by Presbyters for above an hundred yeares together it will rather follow that our Lord Bishops should now be totally suppressed and a Presbyteriall government re-erected in our Church because it is ancienter than that of Bishops and planted among us by the Apostles when our Island first received the Gospell then that the government of our Lordly Prelates should be perpetuaâ—ed among us because ancient onely yet not so old as that of Presbyters by above one hundred yeares Touching the first erection of Arch-bishops Bishops and Bishoprickes among us there is great variance obscurity and incertaineâ—y in Writers yet this is the generall verdict both of our owne and forraigne Authours That in King Lucius his time before the conversion of our Island to Christianity there were in it 28 Flamines and three Arch Flamines to whom the other Iudges of manners and Priests were subject that upon the conversion of King Lucius and his people to the Christian Faith by Fagan and Deâ—wan they by command from Pope Eleutherius with the Kings
consent placed Bishops where there were Flamines and three Archbishops where there were Arch Flamines turning the three Archâ—flamines Sees in the three chiefe Cities into Arch-bishoprickes and the 28. Flamines Sees into 28 Bishoprickes This is punctually averred for Truth by Geofry Monmoth Histor. Brit. l. 2. c. 1. Edit Ascent l. 4. c. 19. Edit Heidelb by Gildâ—s in his Booke De victoria Aurelii Ambrosii by Gervasius Tilburiensis de Otiis Imperialibus ad Othonem Imperatorem Historiolae Wintoniensis Ecclesiae Alphredus Beuer lacensis Radulphus de Diceto Bartholomaeus de Cotton Gerardus Cornubiensis Ranulphus Cestrensis the Authors of the History of Rochester of the Chronicles of Hales and Dunstaple of the Booke of Abingdon of the Geneologicall Chronicle of the Monastery of Hales and of the Abbreviated Chronicle of the Britaines Thomas Rudburne Thomas Stubs Thomas Harfield Ponticus Virunnius Polydor Virgil Martinus Polonus Pâ—olomaeus Lucensis Tuscus cited by Ioannis Leydensis in Chronico Belgico l. 2. c. 1. Ioannis Bâ—ptista Platina in vita Eleutherii Iacobus Philippus Bergomiensis Suppl Chron. l. 8. Nauclerus vol. 1. Chronograph gen 30. Vol. 2. Gen. 6. Tritemius compend l. 1. Pope Leo the ninth Epist. 4. Guilielmus Durandus Rationaleâ— l. 2. c. 1. n. 21 22. Polydorus Virgilius de Jnventâ— rerumâ— l. 4. c. 11. All quoted to my hand by that excellent learned Antiquary Bishop Vsher. De Britannicarum Ecclesiarum primordiis c. 5. p. 56 57 58 59.99.100 To whom I might adde Matthew Parker his Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. p. 7. Iohn Fâ—x his Acts and Monuments Edit ult Vol. 1. p. 138 139. Iohn Speed in his History of Great Britaine p. 132. Richard Grafton in his Chronicle part 7. p. 83. William Harrison in his Description of England l. 2. c. 1 2. With many more of our owne Writers and generally all the Canonists and Glossers on Gratian Dictinctio 80. and the Schoolemen on Peter Lombard sent l. 4. distinct 24 who concuâ—re in this opinion For in Gratian distinct 80. f. 130. I find these two decrees cited the one of Pope Lucinus with this Rubricke prefixed In what places Primates and Patriarches ought to be ordained The Cities and places wherein Primates ought to preside were not ordained by moderne times but long before the comming of Christ to whose Primates even the Gentiles did appeale for their greater businesses In those very Cities after the comming of Christ the Apostles and their Successors placed Patriarches and Primates to whom the businesses of Bishops yet saving the Apostolicall authority in all things and the greater causes after the Apostolike See are to be referred On which Iohn Thierry and others make this glosse Primates are constituted there where heretofore the proto-Flamines of the Gentiles were placed Arch-Bishops where there were Arch-Flamines Bishops where their Flamines were and this for the most part if wee may credite them was done by Saint Peters appointment The second is this Decree of Pope Clemens which warrants this glosse In those Cities wherein heretofore among the Ethnickes their chiefe Flamines and prime Doctors of the Law were placed Saint Peter commanded but God knowes when and where Primates or Patriarches of Bishops to be placed who should agitate the causes of the rest of the Bishops and the greater businesses in Faith But in those Cities in which in times past among the foresaid Ethnickes their arch-Flamines were whom yet they held to be lesse than their foresaid Primates he commanded Arch-bishops to be iustituted but in every other particular Cityâ— he commanded one sole Bishop and not many to be ordained who should onely â—btaine the name of Bishops because among the Apostles themselves there was the like institution sed unus praefuit omnibus but one had authority over the rest which is most false On which the glosse thus descants The Gentiles had three Orders of Priests to wit proto-Flamines arch-Flamines and Flamines In the place of the proto-Flamines Peter commanded Patriarches to be placed who should take conusance of the greater causes of other Bishops in the place of arch-Flamines Arch-bishops in the place of Flamines Bishops of whom there ought to be but one in every City Which Graiâ—an himselfe thus backes in his 21 Distinction There is a certaine distinction observed among Priests whence others are called simply Priests others arch-Priests others chorall Bishops others Bishops othâ—rs Arch-bishops or Metropolitanes others Primates others chiefe Priests Horum discretio a Gentibus maxime introducta est The distinction of these was principally intâ—oduced by the Gentiles who called their Flamines some simply Flamines others Arch-flamines others Proto-flamines All which Peter Lombard the Father of the Schoolemen affirming after Gratian in his lib. 4. Sentenâ—iarum Dist. 24. made this to passe as an undubitable verity among all the Canonists and Schoolemen There is onely one thing needs explanation in these Popes dâ—crees and that is what is meant by Saint Peter who is made the Author of this Institution For this we need resort no further then to the Decree of Pope Nicholas recorded by the same Gratian Distinct 22. c. Omnes f. 33. Omnes sive Patriarchae cujuslibet apicem sive Metropoleon primatus Episcopatuum cathedras vel Ecclesiarum sive cujuscunque ordinis dignitatem instituit Romana Ecclesia By which it is evident that by Saint Peter is meant the Church and Popes of Rome who stile themselves oft times Peter in their bulls and writings as well as his successors By all these Authorities compared together it is evident that our Arch-bishops and Bishops had their Originall Institution from the Church and Popes of Rome and that not out of their imitation of any divine patterne or forme of government prescribed by Christ in Scripture and setled in those primitive Churches of the Genâ—iles which the Apostles planted and to whom they directed their Epistles but out of an apish imitation of the Heathenish Hierarchicall government of the Idolatrous Proto-Flamines Arch Flamines and Flamines used among the Pagan Gentiles and Britaines before their conversion to the Christian Faith in whose very places Sees and forme of government they succeeded Eleutherâ—us instituting and ordaining that all or the most part of the Arch-Flamines which is to meane Arch-bishops and Bishops of the Pagan Law which at that day were in number three Arch Flamines and 28 Flamines should be made Arch bishops and Bishops of the Church of Christ as Grafâ—on and others write in positive termes which if it be true as this cloud of witnesses averre it will thence necessarily follow that our Archâ—bishops and Bishops are not of divine and Apostolicall but rather of Papall and Eâ—hnicall institution and a meere continuance of the Diabolicall heathenish Hierarchy exercised among the Idolatrous Priests in times of Paganisme within our Iâ—land and so by necessary consequence they and their government are rather to be utterly extirpated then perpetuated in our Christian reformed Church which ought
wholly to abandon all Reliques of Idolatry and to have no fellowship nor communion with Infidels and unbeleavers in their discipline or Church government Wherefore to avoid this dangerous rocke and necessary consequence some of our Prelates as Bishop Iuell Bishop Godwin Bishop Vsher together with Doctor Sutcliffe and that learned Knight Sir Henry Spelman reject this originall of our Archbishops Bishops and Bishoprickes as false and fabulous informing us First that Roger de Wendover Matthew Paris Matthew Westmin William of Malâ—esbury the Poet under the name of Gildas Giraldus Cambrensis and Radulphus Niger to whom I may adde William Caxton in his Chronicle part 4. in the life of King Lucie omit this figment of the Arch Flamines and Flamines which they say was first invented wiâ—hout any ground by Monuâ—etensisâ— and relate onely that Lucius erected 28 Bishops and three Arch bishops among us but record not that it was done in imitation of the Arch Flamines or Flamines or that they were substituted in their places and enjoyed their Lands and Sees as the former Historians write But this is no argument to disprove the premised Authours farre more in number since these few Historians silence of what sundry others record expressely is no conviction of their falshood seeing one may relate what another pretermits either out of brevity ignorance or negligence Wherefore in the Second place Bishop Godwin affirmes that there is nothing more absurd in this History then the imagination of â—itting the Sees of Bishops and Arch bishops according to the place and number of Flamines for sooth and arch Flamines of the Pagans A devise writes he so childish and ridiculous as I cannot but wonder that any man of learning and judgement should approve it and yet I perceive not saith he any that have gainsaid it before Master Sutcliffe but contrariwise diveâ—s both ancient and learned are to be found that have partly broached and partly applauded the same among whom he reckons up two especially Fenestella de Sacrif Rom. c. 5. and Gratian Distinct. 21. 80. To confute whose mistakes he produceth these two Reasons First That not so much as the name of proto Flamin or Arch Flamine is to be found in any authour or monument of credit before Gratians time Secondly that it is manifest that divers Cities had many Colledges of Priests and consequently many Flamines which he proves at large Therefore it is not possible that there should be any manner of proportion at all betweene our Bishops and their Flamines they having divers Flamines to almost every towne and we one Bishop not so much as for every whole shire To which Sir Henry Spelman addes in the third place That the Flamines were no other but ordinary Priests among the Romanes so called a filo quasi Filamines or a pilo quasi Pilamines that every one of them received his name from the God hee served as Flamen Dialis Flamen Martialis Flamen Quirinalis Vulcanalis Floralis Volturnalis Pomalis Furinalis Falacer Caesaris Flamen and the like That none of these had any Priestly Jurisdiction over any certaine Province or did solely administer in any one cure but that every cure or Parish had two Flamines at least set over it Neither were these subject to any superiour Flamin who from thence might be called an Arch Flamin or Proto-Flamin whose names are no where to bee found among the ancients unlesse it be in Fenestella which Author he proves to be spurious Sed toti Pontificum Collegio but to the whole Colledge of Pontifs and to the chiefe Priest that governed it not to an Arch-Flamin and though some Flamines were called greater others lesser yet this writes he was not from their power but from their Antiquity the three first being instituted by Numa and the Senators the others afterwards by the people Admit then these their reasons true that the Flamines were but ordinary Priests among the Pagans and not in nature of Arch-bishops or Bishops that they were all of equall authority and had no Jurisdiction one over another that there were many of them in every City and not one of them set over an whole City much lesse a Diocesse and that they were subject onely to the whole Colledge of Priests and not to any Arch Flamin or Proto-Flamin Iâ— our Arch-bishops and Bishops bee derived from them and successors to them in our Island as the first recited Authors affirme this quite overturnes their Archiepiscopall and Episcopall pretended Jurisdiction over other Ministers and their sole Episcopacy and Jurisdiction in or over one City and Province since the Flamines were all equall and many in each Parish and City and directly proves that there ought to be a parity betweene Arch-bishops Bishops and our Ministers now and no disparity because there was none among the Flamines that no Ministers ought to be subject to our Arch-bishops and Bishops but onely to the whole Synod or Convocation of Presbyters because the Flamines were so and that there ought to be not one sole but many Bishops of equall Authority in every City because it was so among the Flamines their Predecessorâ— yea in the first Christian Churches planted by the Apostles as appeares by Act. 14.23 c. 20.17.28 Phil. 1.1 Tit. 1.5.7 1 Tim. 5.17 Jam. 5.14 with other Texts If they be not these Arch Flamines and Flamines Successors as these last Authors testifie then I feare our Prelates can hardly derive their pedegree as high as King Lucius nor yet certainely define at what time or by whom Arch-bishops and Bishops were first erected in our Island For Bishop Godwin who rejects the conceipt of King Lucius his erecting of Arch-bishops and Bishops in steede of Arch Flamines and Flamines gives these three very probable Reasons against his erecting of three Arch-bishoprickes and 28. Bishoprickes in this Isle or any Bishoprickes at all First because he saith and proves by Histories that Lucius was never King of all Britaine but rather some petty King or King happily of some principall part thereof therefore hee could not erect Archbishoprickes and Bishoprickes throughout the Island as the recited Authors Fable Secondly because the multitude of Bishops and Bishoprickes sayd to be ordained at that time seemeth unlikely and that they had any fixed Sees For in the Councell of Arles in the yeare 325. mention is made of one Restitutus a British Bishop not intituled to any certaine See but onely called Briâ—anniarum Episcopus and even so likewise after him Fastidius is mentioned by Gennadius by the same stile which being considered saith he together with the rare and seldome mention that we finde of Brittish Bishops whose Antiquities I have hunâ—ed aâ—ter with all diligence I cannot but rest perswaded that our Brittaines had very few Bishops untill the comming over of Germanus and Lupus to suppresse the Pelagian Heresie which after they had rooted out the History of Landaff saith
they Consecrated Bishops in many places of Brittaine and over all the Brittaines dwelling on the right side of Brittaine they consecrated for Arch-bishop Saint Dubritius who was chosen for the Supreame Doctor by the King and all the Diocesse which dignity being bestowed upon him by Germanus and Lupus they with the consent of Maurice the King the Nobility Clergie and people appointed his See to be at the manner of Lantani and founded his See thereâ— This was about the yeare of Christ 430. about which time also or somewhat later Palladius did first appoint Bishops and ordaine Bishoprickes in Scotland as Buchanan hath delivered Upon these testimonies I reason thus If before these times we had so many Bishops and Bishoprickes how commeth it to passe that in no Monument whatsoever wee finde any name or mention of any Bishop of this Land saving some few that as we say had their See at London and if so many Sees had beene furnished before what occasion had Germanus and Lupus to consecrate so many Bishops and erect new Bishoprickes too as is before mentioned in the History of Landaff Thus Bishop Godwin argues against the pretended first erection of our Bishoprickes and Arch-bishoprickes most of which now extant London onely excepted were erected long after King Lucius reigne above 600. yeares after Christ and five of them in King Henry the 8. his raigne so that William of Malmesbury one of our most juditious writers and the most diligent searcher out of the Antiquities of our Bishops Sees who writ the History of our Bishopâ— and their Sees above 500. yeares since could finde no Arch-bishops See in our Island ancienter than Canterbury erected about the the yeare of Christ 600. or 602. and determines positively Ibi Prima sedes Archiepiscopi habteur qui est totius Angliae Primas Patriarcha Caeterum ubi fuerit Archi-Episcopaâ—us if there were any such tempore Britonum cognitio lâ—hat quia vetustas consumpsit nostri seculi memoriam Whence our most diligent Antiquary Sir Henry Spelman concludes thus concerning the Originall of our Arch-bishops and Bishops the certaine time of whose Primitive institution among us he cannot determine Sufficit quidem c. Truely it is sufficient that we had many Bishops here and some Metropolitans either under Lucius himselfe or soone after his age licet de ipsorum sedibus aâ—que numero lucide satis non constiterir although their Sees and number doe not plainely enough appeare So that upon the whole matter when all things are throughly scanned we can finde no undoubted Bishops at all in our British Church till Restitutus his time who was present at the Councell of Arles about the yeare of Christ 325. and hee a Bishop without any particular See or Diocesse knowne onely by the name of Britanniarum Episcopus as Godwin writes though others stile him Civitate Londinensi Restitutus Episcopus who for ought we finde had no Presbyters at all under his Jurisdiction and was no more than an ordinary Minister as the Bishops in the Apostles time were Act. 20.17.28 Phi. 1.1 Tit. 1.5.7 And so by this computation our Church after the first preaching of the Gospell among us continued without Lord Bishops and Archbishops about 280. yeares or more And if she remained and flourished without Bishops for so many yeares then why may she not without any great Soloecisme or prejudice remove and flourish without them now yea why should she not by the Objecters owne argument from antiquity now quite abandon them and set up a Presbyteriall government without any scruple since Presbyters by some hundredâ— of yeares are the ancientest and those by which our Church and the Church of Scotland were first governed for so long a space before any Lord Bishops were instituted in them Secondly grant our Bishops as ancient as King Lucius yet these ancient Bishops no doubt were farre different from ours For first I conceive it cannot be proved that they had any Diocesse Parishes or Presbyters under them for there was no division of Parishes made in England till Archbishop Theodores time who first divided the Province of Canterbury into Parishes about the yeare of Christ 670. And for ought appeares they were no more than ordinary Presbyters Secondly they had no great but very small revenues as appeares by three of the British Bishops present at the Councell of Ariminum under Constantius Anno 379. who were so poore that they were maintained at the Emperours cost inopia proprii publico usi sunt cum collatam a caeteris collationem respuissent sanctius putantes fiscum gravare quam singulos By the Bishopricke of Rochester Putta and Quichelmus the 6. and 7. Bishops of this See being forced to leave it through want and poverty and by other of our ancientest Bishops who lived commonly upon Almes or contribution and had no temporall Lands or possessions Thirdly they had no stately Palaces and Cathedralls as is evident by the first Bishops of Yorke and Lindisfarne who lived in poore Cottages and had either no Cathedralls aâ— all or some built onely of wattle or boords and covered over with reede stately stone Churches being not in use among the Britaines Scots or Irish for many hundred yeares as Bishop Vsher proves out of Beda Eccles. Hist l. 3 cap. 4.5 and S. Bernard in the life of Malachy Therefore stone Altars no doubt were not then in use when as the very walls of their Churches were but wattle or Timber Fourthly they had no stately Coaches and Palfryes as our Lord Bishops have neither were they unpreaching or rare-preaching Prelates but they went about the Country on foote from place to place as Christ and his Apostles did at first and Preached the Gospell to the people day by day Witnesse Aidan the first Bishop of Lindisfarne now Durham and a Count Palatine who purposely avoyding the Pompe and frequency of Yorke chose the little Island of Lindisfarne for his See and for 15. yeares space together travelled up and downe the Country 〈◊〉 even on foote to preach the Gospell to the people not seeking nor having any thing in this world and giving whatsoever he could get unto the poore So Paulinus the first Arch-Bishop of Yorke for 36. dayes together never rested one moment but either instructed the people by preaching that flocked continually about him or else imparted Christ unto them in Baptisme and that in the open fieldâ— and Rivers there being then no Churches built Fifthly they intermedled not with any secular affaires and when some began to tamper with them they made this Canon in the Councell of Cloueshow under Cuthbert Anno. 747. That Bishops should follow their pastorall cure with their uttermost indeavour and instruct the people with wholesome doctrine and not addict themselves to secular affaires more than to Gods sâ—rvice as most of our Lordly Prelates doe now Sixthly Bishops in those dayes were not reputed
very necessary nor usefull in the Church for after the death of Paulinus the first Bishop of Yorke that See continued voyd of a Bishop 30. yeares So after the translation of Mellitus to Canterbury Anno. 617. that See continued voyd neere 40 yeares and how these and other Bishoprickes have continued voyd in severall ages 2.3.4.6.10.15.20 and 30. yeares together without any prejudice I have elsewhere manifested more at large If then our Bishoprickes may want Bishops for so many yeares space without any inconvenience to our Church when as no Parish Church by our Common and the Canon Lawes ought to be voyd above sixe moneths at most I presume by the selfe-same reason our Church may well subsist without for all future times especially now when there are so many complaints and petitions against them and so many Bishoprickes voyde of Prelates already Finally in those primitive times Bishops were not so great but that some of them were subject unto Presbyters For our venerable Beda informes us of an Island in Ireland which in those dayes had an Abbot Presbyter for its governour to whose jurisdiction the whole Province Et etiam Episcopi sunt subjecti and even Bishops themselves were subject according to the example of the first Teacher thereof who was no Bishop but a Presbyter and a Monke So the Abbot of Glastonbury exempt from all Episcopall Jurisdiction had a kinde of superiority above the Bishop of Bath and Wells which Bishop by the Charter of King Ina was bound with his Clerkes at Wells every yeare Ipsam matrem suam Glastoniensem Ecclesiam feria secunda post ascensionem Domini cum Litania recognoscere to doe his homage to his mother Church of Glastonbury with a Letany quod si superbia inflatus distulerit and if he refused to doe it out of pride then hee was to forfeite two houses which this King gave him And in the Excerptions of Egbert Archbishop of Yorke Anno. 750. I finde these Canons of the fourth Councell of Carthage revived here among us as Ecclesiasticall Lawes That Bishops and Presbyters should have Hospitiolum a little Cottage not a Lordly Palace neare the Church That the Bishop in the Church by the consent of the Presbyters should set somewhat above them but within the house Collegam Presbyterorum se esse cognoscat should know himselfe to be the Colleague or Companion of the Presbyters That a Bishop should not ordaine Clerkes without a Councell of his Presbyters That a Bishop should heare no mans cause without the presence of his Clerkes except the cause of confession because a decree cannot be firme which shall not seeme to have the consent of many All which considered it is evident that our Bishops in those dayes had no Lordly Jurisdiction over other Ministers no such sole power of Ordination and judicature as our present Lord Bishops now claime and exercise as their peculiar right Therefore their Antiquity and Episcopacy can be no warrant at all for the lawfulnesse or continuance of our Lordly Prelacy Thirdly admit our Bishops as ancient as King Lucius dayes or there abouts yet this is no good Plea for their continuance First because our Abbots Priors Monkes could make as good if not a better prescription for themselves as our Lordly Prelates who can alleadge nothing for their continuance but what these either did or might have done when they were suppressed For first our Monkes Abbots Priors and their Abbeyes were every way as ancient if not elder then our Lordly Bishops and Bishoprickes the Monkes and Abbey of Glastonbury deriving their pedegree from Ioseph of Aramathea which Church and Abbey our writers call Prima Ecclesia fons Origo totius Religionis c. the first Church the fountaine and Originall of all our Religion And many other of our other Abbies as that of Winchester S. Albans Westminster with others being ancienter than all or most of our Bishoprickes Secondly Most of them were confirmed by more Acts of Parliament Bulls of Popes and Charters of our Kings endowed with greater priviledges than any of our Bishoprickes whatsoever as is evident by the Charters Bulls and exemptions granted to Glastonbury Saint Albans Berry Redding Westminster Saint Augustine of Canterbury Abingdon and Wâ—â—â—â—â—â—ster Thirdly many of our Abbots and Priors sometimes above an hundred were mitred had Episcopall Iurisdiction and sate in Parliament as Barons and Peers of the Realme as well as Bishops yet notwithstanding they were all suppressed by Acts of Parliament even in time of Popery though double in number to our Bishops therefore our Bishops and Bishoprickes being now found by long experience not onely unprofitable but pernitious to our Kings and State as here I have manifested and to our Church our Religion as our Booke of Martyrs largely demonstrates may lawfully be extirpated notwithstanding this Plea of Antiquity as well as they Fourthly the Bishops in other reformed Churches could and did plead as large Antiquity and prescription for their continuance as our Prelates doe yet that could not secure them from dissolution but these Churches wholly suppressed them therefore it is no good Plea for us to continue our Prelates yea in my weake judgement it is an argument not for but against our Bishops continuance that they have beene tolerated so long since evils and grievances as our Lordly Prelates have ever beene to our Church and Kingdome are so much the more speedily and carefully to be suppressed by how much the more inveterate and lasting they have beene In a word the government of our Church by a Presbytery hath beene more ancient more profitable and lesse prejudiciall to our State Kings Church than the Government of our Lordly Prelacy therefore it is most reasonable that it should be revived reestablished and the Prelacy suppressed All which I hope may suffice in Answere to the first part of this grand objection which hath stumbled many To the second branch of it touching the danger and inconvenience of this change in suppressing Episcopacy I answer First that there can bee no danger or inconvenience at all therein because the people generally most earnestly desire pray for expect it and have preferred many Petitions to the High Court of Parliament to effect it Secondly because all things are now prepared for this alteration the wickednesse misdemeanors prophanenesse superstition oppression of our present Prelates with the great troubles and combustions they have raised in our Church our State to their intolerable charge and molestation deserve and call for this alteration the present constitution of our Church State people yea our correspondency with Scotland with other reformed Churches requires it the divisions and distractions in our Church which in many wise mens apprehensions cannot be reconciled nor any unity or uniformity in Gods worship established among us without it call for it Episcopacy being now growne such a roote of bitternesse and wall of partition as there is
little hope of any unity peace or harmony in our Church if it continue Thirdly admit some petty inconveniences may arise by such an alteration and extirpation of Episcopacy yet these are nothing comparable for weight or number to those mischiefes which will certainely accrue by its continuance Since therefore of two evils the lesse is ever to be elected it will bee farre more expedient to our Church and State totally and finally to suppresse then to support our Lordly Prelacy And thus much for this Capitall Objection The second Allegation for the continuance of Episcopacy is this that if Bishops be taken away we shall have nothing but Sects Schismes and divisions in our Church and almost as many Religions as men To this I answere First that the tyranny Lordlinesse prophanenesse Superstition and Innovations of our Prelates both in Ceremones Doctrine Worship have beene the Originall Principall if not onely cause of all those Sects divisions and Separations lately sprung up in our Church for proofe of which I appeale onely to every mans conscience and experience it being a most knowne undubitable truth the removing therefore of our Bishops the cause of all our Schismes and devisions must needes be a meanes of future peace and unity not cause of Schismes or divisions in Religion as is vainely suggested Secondly Episcopacy it selfe is now a maine ground of Separation from our Church the great stumbling blocke which causeth many dayly to fall off from us and hinders others from closing with us all other grounds of Separation and division depending on or arising from Episcopacy And unlesse this be removed in my poore apprehension there can be no hopes at all of any reconciliation of those who are fallen off from us or keeping others from separation but the rent will still grow greater what ever course else be taken to effect a Union Therefore questionlesse the abolishing of Episcopacy cannot be a meanes of increasing Schismes or divisions but the best and readiest way to remedy and prevent them Thirdly Saint Ierome and others informe us that Episcopacy was first instituted to prevent and extirpate Schismes but it hath beene so farre from effecting this that it hath on the contrary occasioned all or most of those Schismes and divisions that ever happened in the Church of God since its first institution both at home and abroad as is evident by all Ecclesiasticall Histories by the severall Schismes of the Popes and other Prelates in forraigne parts of Canterbury Yorke and other Lordly Prelates at home which if God send life and opportunity I shall irrefragably manifest in a peculiar Treatise of that Subject if there be occasion It cannot be then but that their suppression should rather remedy than procure Sects and Schismes Fourthly in the reformed Churches of France and Geneva where there are no Bishops there are no Sects or Schismes at all or at least not so many as where there are Bishops And though im Germany and the Netherlands there bee many Sects yet this is not through want of Bishops but by reason of the connivance of the temporall Magistrates who permit them and wil neither suppresse them themselves nor suffer their Presbyteries to doe it out of I know not what State policy permitting all Religions and Sects Fifthly our Bishops ever since the Reformation and before have beene the greatest opposers and hinderers of the reformation of those abuses and fooleries the introducers and maintainers of those Ceremonies and Superstitions which have beene the grand occasions of Schismes and Separation How often have Pluralities Non-residence abuses of Excommunication Ex Officio Oathes and proceedings Visitation Fees and extortions abuses of Ecclesiasticall Courts and processes Selling of Orders of licenses to preach keepe Schoole and the like commutations of penance admission of prophane and scandalous persons to the Sacrament toleration of scandalous superstitious lasie non-preaching rare-preaching and insufficient Ministers Altars Images Tapers Cathedrall chaunting and musicke bowing at Altars and to the name Jesus with those Superfluous Ceremonies of the Crosse Ring Surplesse and kneeling at the Sacrament which scandalize many and may be better omitted than retained beene complained against from time to time in Parliament and elsewhere without any the least redresse or reformation and all by reason of our Prelates obstinacy who peremptorily maintaine and will not suffer them to be either amended or removed to the glory of God the honour of our Religion the satisfying of tender Consciences the peace of our Church and State and doe they not now in this present Parliament which threatens ruine to their Lordly chaires oppose with all their mightâ— the reformation of all or most of those corruptions which are the occasions of our Schismes and distractions Yea did they not in their late new Canons in affront of the whole Parliament and Kingdome not onely justifie but establish as much as in them lay and that for perpetuity all those Innovations extravagances and grievances which were chiefe occasions of our late unhappy divisions and of many thousands separations from our Church This being then an experimentall knowne â—ruth the removing of these incorrigible Prelates who will neither refoâ—me themselves nor suffer any abuses in our Church to be redressed must of necessity be the onely cure of our renâ—s and divisions for the present and the best meanes to prevent them for the future Sixthly I appeale to all indifferent men whether Schismes and diversities in matters of Religion may not be better prevented suppressed by good Lawes by godly Magistrates and Ministers specially authorized to suppresse them than by a company of corrupt Prelates and their Officers who for their owne private Lucre as experience manifests will bee content to tolerate and connive at any erronious doctrines Sects and Schismes especially Papists and Arminians the chiefe patriots and supporters of their Hierarchy but those who directly oppose their Prelacy and corruptions as â—hose they nickename Puritanes doe who shall be sure to smart and feele the Bishops severity to the uttermost how ever others scape If so then I hope there is no neede at all to continue our Lordly Prelates to suppresse these mischiefes which may be better reformed and suppressed by others than by our Bishops and their Officers I shall conclude this point with the words of learned Antonie Sadeel in his answere to Turrian the Jesuite who made the same objection for the defence and continuance of Bishops as our Prelates doe here I answere in few words That this superiour degree of Bishops is an ancienâ— but yet ONELY a humane Institution whereby the pious Ancients intended to prevent Schismes And although perchance considering those times this remedy was not unusefull yet experience hath taught us that these good Fathers while they desired to shunâ— Charybdis fell into Scylla For the ambition of Prelates which followed soone after was no lesse pernicious to the Church than those Schismes And to speake truely THIS
Privilegium meretur amittere qui abutitur potestate Now whereas some Object that if the Bishops were put out of the Upper House of Parliament the Clergie could not grant subsidies to the King I answere it is a most grosse mistake for the Clergie ever grant their subsidies in the Convocation not in the Lords house and if the Major part of the Clerkes in Convocation grant subsidies without the Bishops and then send their Bill by which they grant them to the Commons and Lords House to be confirmed as they usually doe if the Commons and Temporall Lords without the Bishops passe it this with the Kings Royall assent will binde all the Clergie and Bishops too So as their presence and votes in Parliament is no wayes necessary for the granting of Subsidies Wherefore they may be thence excluded without any prejudice to the King or Subject if not with great benefit unto both For the third clause of the Objection that the removall of them will breede a great confusion in the Common and Statute Law I answere first that the same Objection might have beene made for the continuance of the Pope and Popery yea against the severall Statutes for Creating estate Tayles levying of Fines Vses Devises Ioyntures and the like which bred greater alterations in the Common and former Statute Lawes than the removing of Bishops can doe Secondly that one Act of Parliament â—nabling certaine Commissioners to execute all those Legall Acts which Bishops usually did will prevent all this pretended confusion so that this part of the Objection is scarce worthy answere For the fourth clause that the King by his Coronation Oath is sworne to preserve to the Bishops and their Churches all their Canonicall priviledges and to protect and defend to his power the Bishops and Churches under his government I answere First that this Oath was at first cunningly devised and imposed on our Kings by our Bishops themselves out of a policy to engage our Princes to maintaine them in their usurped authority possessions and Jurisdictions which had no foundation in the Scripture and to captivate our Kings to their pleasures as the Popes by such a kind of Oath enthralled the Emperours to their Vassallage Secondly that this Oath was first invented by Popish Prelates and meant onely of them and their Popish Church and Priviledges and so cannot properly extend to our Prelates if Protestants Thirdly this Oath doth no way engage the King to defend and maintaine our Bishops if the Parliament see good cause to extirpate them For as the King and Judges who are obliged by their Oathes to maintaine and execute all the Lawes of the Realme are not bound by their Oath to continue former inconvenient Lawes from alteration or repeale or to execute them when repealed for then all ill Lawes should be unalterable and irrepealeable So the King by this his Oath is no wayes obleiged to defend protect and preserve the Bishops if there be good cause in point of piety and policy to suppresse them especially when any of them prove delinquents For as Bishops and other Subjects by their misdemeanours may put themselves out of the Kings Protection and forfeite both their goods lives and estates notwithstanding this Coronation Oath So by the same reason when Bishops and Bishoprickes by their misdemeanours prove intolerable grievances both to Church and State as now they have done they have thereby deprived themselves of the Kings Protection and deâ—ence specified in this Oathâ— and thereupon may be justly suppressed by the King and State without the least violation of this most solemne Oath as Abbots Monkes and Sanctuaries were Having thus removed all the principall Objections for the continuance of our Lordly Prelates I shall in the last place answere one Evasion whereby our present Lord Bishops thinke to shift off this Antipathy from themselves as having no relation at all to them They say that those Prelates whose Treasons Rebellions Seditions Oppressions and Antimonarchicall practises I have here collected were Popish Bishops Limbes of that body whose head they all abjure the fault of their wickednesse was in the Popery not in the Episcopacy in the men not the calling and so utterly unconcerneth them and haveth no reflection at all on them who are generally taxed for being excessive royalists and siding too much with the King and Court To this I answere first that most of all the premised rebellious disloyall seditious extravagant actions of our Bishops have proceeded from them onely as Lordly not Popish Prelates and issued from their Episcopacy not their Popery their Prelaticall functions not personall corruptions as the Histories themselves sufficiently demonstrate Secondly I answer that some of the recited Bishops were no Papists but Protestants who were no limbes of that body of Rome whose head our Bishops say they have abjured therefore it is evident that their Episcopall function not their Religion was the ground both of their disloyalties and extravagancies Thirdly I suppose our Prelates will not renounce Arch-Bishop Laud Bishop Wren Peirce Mountague and other of their fellow Bishops yet alive or lately dead as Popish Prelates and members of the Church of Rome as some account them yet their impious seditious oppressive prophane not trayterly Actions equall or exceede many of our Popish Arch-Bishops and Bishops as he that will but compare them may easily discerne It is not then the leaven of Popery but of the Lordly Prelacy it selfe which infected our Bishops and made them so treacherous and impious in all ages It is true indeed that Popery some of whose positions are treasonable and seditious and dependency upon the Pope hath made some of our Bishops more disloyall and Rebellious than otherwise they would have beene as is evident by the first proceeding of Stephen Langhton and his confederates against King Iohn but yet afterward when the Pope sided with King Iohn and Henry the third against Langton and the other Bishops who stirred up the Barons Warres these Bishops continued as trayterous and rebellious to these Kings as ever they were before whiles they adhered to the Pope and the Pope to them therefore their Hierarchy the cause of all these stirs not their Popery was the ground worke of their Treachery and enormities Now because our present Prelates boast so much of their loyalty to his Majestie whose absolute Civill Royall prerogative they have lately overmuch courted and endeavored to extend beyond due limits to the impeachment of the Lawes and Subjects hereditary liberties not out of any zeale to his Majesties service but onely to advance their owne Episcopall power and Jurisdiction and to usurpe a more than Royall or Papall authority over all his Majesties Subjects for the present and over himselfe at last I shall make bold to present them with some particular instances whereby I shall demonstrate that all or most of our present Lordly Bishops have beene more seditious contumacious disloyall and injurious to his
Majesties royall prerogative more oppressive to his Loyall Subjects and more destructive to the fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and liberties of the Subject than all other professions of men whatsoever For first they have presumed to keepe Consistories Visitations Synods and exercise all manner of Episcopall Jurisdiction in their Diocesse without his Majesties speciall Letters Patents or Commissions under the great Seale of England authorizing them to doe it contrary to the Statutes of 26. Hen. 8. c. 1.37 Hen. 8. c. 17. 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1.5 Eliz. c. 1. and 8. Eliz. c. 1. Secondly they have dared to make out all their Processes Citations Excommunications Suspensions Sentences Probates of Wills Letters of Administation Writs of Iure Patronatus accounts of Executors and the like in their owne names and Stiles and under their owne Seales alone not the Kings as if they were the onely Kings the Supreame Ecclesiasticall heads and Governours of the Church of England not his Majesty contrary to the Statutes of 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 1 Jac. c. 25. Thirdly they have presumed in Printed Bookes to justifie these proceedings to be Lawfull and not content herewith they have most audaciously caused all the Judges of England to resolve and moved his Majestie to dâ—clare and proclaime these their disloyall unjust usurpations on his Crowne to be just and legall when as I dare make good the contrary against all the Prelaâ—es and Lawyers of England and have done it in part in my Breviate of the Prelates intolerable incroachments upon the Kings Prerogative royall and the Subjects Liberties This resolution of â—he Judges against the Kings Prerogative the Prelates have caused to be â—nrolled both in the High Commission at Lambeth and Yorke and in all their Ecclesiasticall Courts throughout England in perpetuam rei memoriam the Arch-bishop of Canterbury keeping the Originall certificate of the Judges among the records of his Court as a good evidence against his Majesty and his successors Fourthly they have pillored stigmatized banished close imprisoned and cut off the eares of those who have opposed these their encroachments upon his Majesties Prerogative Royall according to their Oath and duty to deterre all others from defending his Majesties Title Fifthly they have taken upon them to make Print and publish in their owne names by their owne authorities without his Majesties or the Parliaments speciall License new Visitation Oathes Articles Injunctions Canons Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies enforced them on Ministers Church Wardens Sidemen and others and excommunicated suspended silenced fâ—ned imprisoned and persecuted his Majesties faithfull and loyalest Subjects for not submitting to them contrary to the Statutes of 25. H. 8. c. 19.21.27 H. 8. c. 15.3 Ed. 6. c. 10.11 1 Eliz. c. 2.13 Eliz. c. 12. Magna Charta c. 29. and the Petition of Right Sixthly they have presumed to grant Licenses to marry without banes and to eate flesh on fasting dayes in their owne names a Prerogative peculiar to the King alone who onely can dispense with penall Lawes and the booke of Common Prayer which enjoyne no marriages to be solemnized unlesse the Banes be first thrice asked in the Church Seventhly they have adventured to hold plea of divers cases in their Consistories of which the Conusance belongs onely to the Kings temporall Courts which the formes of Proâ—ibitions and Ad Iura Regia in the Register determine to be a dis-inheriting of the Kings Crowne and Royall dignity a contempt derogation and grievous prejudice to his Royall authority and intolerable rebellion affront disloyalty and contuâ—acy to his Soveraigne Iurisdiction Eighthly they have stopped the current of the Kings owne Prohibitions to their Ecclesiasticall spitefull Courts in cases where they have beene usually granted in former ages even in times of Popery and of the most domineering Prelates and oft questioned threatned convented the Kings Judgeâ— before the King and Lords of the Councell for granting them An insolency and affront to Soveraigne Justice which no former ages can Parallell Ninthly they have disobeyed his Majesties Prohibitions proceeded in contempt and despite of them yea they have committed divers to prison who have sued for and delivered Prohibitions in a faire dutifull manner in the High Commission Court and Articled against one Mr. Iohn Clobery in the High Commission onely for suing out of a Prohibition to that Court as if it were a Capitall oâ—fence For which contumâ—cy and Rebellion their temporalities might bee justly seised into the Kings hands and themselves attainted in a Preâ—unire Adde to this that the now Archbishop of Canterbury hath many times openly protested in Court that he would breake both the necke and backe of Prohibitions And Matthew Wren whilst Bishop of Norwich in the 14. yeare of his Mâ—jesties reigne procured his Majestie to declare under his Highnesse great Seale of England his royall pleasure That if any person within the sayd City of Norwhich should refuse to pay according to the rate of two shillings the pound in lieu of the Tithes of Houses unto the Minister of any Parish within the sayd City that the same should be heard in the Court of Chancery or in the Consistory of the Bishop of Norwich And that in such Case no Prohibition should be granted against the said Bishop of Norwich their Chancellors or Commissaries in the sayd Courts of Consistory Tenthly they hâ—ve disobeyed and contemned his Majesties just and lawfull-commands in a most pâ—remptory and insolent manner of which I shall give onely one memorable instance His Majesty about the yeare of our Lord 1629. taking notice of the Bishops Non-residence from their Bishoprickes and how they lived for the most part idlely in London hunting after new prefeâ—ments to the ill example of the inâ—erior Clâ—rgiâ— the delapidation and ruine of their mansion houses the decay of Hospitality the impairing of their woods and temporalties the increase of Popery and decrease of Religion was pleased to send a letter to Doctor Abbot then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for the redresse of the sayd inconveniences commanding him in his Royall name to enjoyne every Bishop then residing about London upon his Canonicall Obedience under paine of his Majesties displeasure forthwith to repaire to his Bishopricke and no longer to abide about London The Arch-Bishop hereupon sends his Secretary with this his Majesties Letter to the Bishops then in London and Westminster charging them upon their Canonical Obedience according to this Letter presently to depart to their several Bishoprickes His Secretary repaired with this Letter and the Arch-bishops instructions to Dr Howson the Bp of Durham lodging on Snowhill neare Sepulchers Church and required him in the Arch-bishops name by vertue of his Canonicall obedience to repaire to his Bishoprick according to his Majesties command He hereupon in a great rage giving the Secretary some harsh words told him plainly that he neither would nor could obey this mandate for he had many great
verdict upon an Indictment for the Kingâ— against Innovating Clergie men as they were bound to doe both in Law and Conscience Witnesse the Case of Master Aske late Recorder of Colchester Mr. Burroughs and the grand Jury of that Towne who were thus vexed for finding an Indictment against Parâ—on Newcoman for refusing to deliver the Sacrament to those who came not up to his new raile And no doubt the Bishops secret Commands and Instructions were the Originall cause that moved Sir Robert Berkely Knight one of the Judges of the Kings Bench at the Generall Sessions at Harâ—ford in Ianuary 7. 1638. to fine Mr. Henry Browne one of the grand Jury men at that Sessions and lay him in Irons one night onely for finding an Indictment for rayling in the Communion Table at Hartford Altar-wise which indictment he caused the said Brown openly to teare trample under his feete and one thaâ— stayed other indictments of this nature in high affront boâ—h oâ— Law and Justice onely to please the Prelaâ—es whose commands threates and persecutions have beene the Originall causes of most of the Judges irregular proceedings Fourteenthly They have not onely cited but censured some of his Majesties Officers in the High-Commission for executing his Lawes according to their Oath and duty as the Major of Arundell for punishing a drumken Minister and likewise ciâ—ed Mr. Staple a Justice of peace in Sussex into the High-Coâ—mission for giving in charge at the quarter Sessions his 〈…〉 against Innovations and deaucht Clergie men Fiftâ—â—nâ—hlyâ—â—hey have most unjustly caused some Posters to be â—â—opped afâ—â—r â—â—â—dicts â—ound for the plaintiffes and dammages given by â—he Jury upon â—ulâ— hearing for Actions justly broâ—ght agaiâ—s◠〈◊〉 of â—hâ—ir Officers for dafamations and other 〈…〉 so that the Plaintiffes could never get judgementâ— wâ—â—nesse â—he case of Master Bayton against Doctor Martyn Comâ—â—ssary of Tomes and others Sixteeâ—â—hly they haue caused some Solliciters Atturnies and Plaâ—nâ—iffes to be imprisoned untill they gave over such just actions as they had commenced and prosecuted against their Officeâ—s for Extortions Opressions and unjust Excommuniâ—ations witnesse the case of Ferdinando Adams whose Atturny Master Letchford was committed to the Kings Bench by Judge Iones and some other Judges only for bringing an Action of the Case against Dade the the Bishop of Norwich Commissary at Ipswich for Excommunicating him maliciously and unjustly because he reâ—used to blot out this Text of Scripture written over the Commissaries Court in Saint Maries Church in Ipswich It is written My house shall be called an house of Prayer of all Nations but ye have made it a den of theeves detaining him in prison till he gave over the prosecution and discontinued the suite sundry others having since beene served in this kinde by the Prelates sollicitation Seventeenthly They have beene the Originall occasions of the late unhappy warre and differences betweene Scotland and England which they stiled Bellum Episcopale the Bishops warre to which they liberally contributed themselves and enforced others to do the like when these differences were comprimised and this warre happily concluded in peace they were the chiefe Authors of the breach of the pacificaâ—ion formerly made and of a second warre to the great danger trouble and unsupportable charge oâ— his Majesties three kingdomes Eighteenthly they have beene the prime causes of all or most of the grievances pressures distractions Schismes in our Church and Common-weale and chiefe instruments of the unhappy breaches of our former Parliaments to the infinite prejudice both of King and Subject Ninteenthly when as they had caused the last Parliament but this to be dissolved to manifest their omnipotency disloyalty and tyranny they caused a new Convocation to be immediately assembled without a Parliament wherein they compiled and prescribed New Canons with an c. Oath tending highly to the derogation of his Majesties prerogative royall in Ecclesiasticall matters the subversion of the â—undamentall Lawes of the Realme and Liberties of the Subject the affront of Parliaments the suppression of all faithfull ministers and ayming onely at the perpetuating of their owne Episcopall Lordly power and Popish Innovations And as if this were not sufficient they tooke upon them to grant sundry subsidies without a Parliament for the maintenance of a new war against the Scots and enjoyned all Ministers to pay these Subsidies peremptorily at the dayes assigned by them under paine of present deprivation for the first default Omni Appellatione semota without any benefit of appeale one of the highest straines of tyranny and injustice that ever I have met with For which Canons Oath and Subsidies they now stand impeached by the whole house of Commons as delinquents in a high nature and are like ere long to receive condigne punishment Twentiethly it is very suspicious that they or some of them had a hand in the late dangerous Treason and Conspiracie since the first clause of the Oath of Seâ—recy administred to the Conspirators was To maintaine the Bishops in their functions and votes in Parliament and the Clergie would at their owne charge as Serjant Major Wallis confesseth in his examination maintaine a thousand horse to promote this Trayterous designe and have now as some report an hundred thousand pound ready for such a service In the twentieth one place they have oppressed and ruined divers of his Majesties Loyall Subjects Ministers and others both in their bodies estates credits families caused many thousands of them to forsake the Realme and to transport their families into forraine parts to the great decay of trade and impoverishing of the Realme In which they have done his Majestie great dis-service whose Honour and safety consists in the multitude and wealth of his people and his destruction in want of people In the twenty second ranke they have most undutifully and disloyally cast the odium of all their late Innovations in Religion their new Canons and tyrannicall exorbitant proceedings on his Majestie proclaiming it openly to the people that all they did was onely by his Majesties speciall direction and command of purpose to alienate the hearts of the people from his Majestie as much as in them lay In the twenty third place they and their Officers have sorely fleeced and impoverished his Majesties Subjects in such sort by exacted Fees and vexatioâ—s suites in their Visitations High-Commissions and other Ecclesiasticall Courts and by putting them to unnecessary costs for raising and rayling in Commâ—nion Tables and new adorning their Churches that they are unable to supply his Majesties and the Kingdomes necessities in that liberall proportion as they have formerly done the late Subsidies scarce amounting to halfe that summe as they did in former times Finally in their last High-Commission Paâ—ent they obtained this strange Non-obstante which robs the King of his Supremacy and the Subjects of their Lawes and Liberties namely That their Lordships in all Ecclesiasticall causes specified in that Commission might proceede in a meere arbitrary manner as
this too much both to be Traytors to your King and also to faine God to be displeased with your King for punishing of Treason Finally to make him a Saint and also that God had done miracles to the defending of his Treason How is it possible to invent a more pestilent Doctrine than this is Here is Gods Ruler despised and hereby is open Treason maintained Thinke you that God will shew miracles to fortifie these things But no doubt the Proverbe is true Such lippes such Lettuce such Saints such miracles Fifthly in persisting most peremptorily in Treasons Rebellions contests and Conspiracies against their Princes without yeelding or intermission till they had obtained their demaunds and desires of them insteed of craving pardon of them all which the premises evidence to the full in Anselme Becket Langton Stafford and others Sixthly in enforcing their Soveraignes against whom they conspired rebelled and practised divers horrid Treasons and Contumacies to submit nay seeke to them for pardon and to undergoe such sharpe censures such â—orbid infamous harsh punishments covenants and conditions as are inconsistent with Monarchy honour Soveraignty as in the case of Henry the seâ—cond King Iohn and others In these sixe respects our Lordly Bishops have transcended all other Traytors Rebels Conspirators and Seditious persons whatsoever as also in Censuring Loyalty for Heresie true Subjects to their Princes for Heretickes and Canonizing High Treason Rebellion against Emperours Kings Princes for Orthodox faith notorious Traytors and Rebels for good Christians and true beleevers as appeares in the Case of Hildebrand and his Hellish crew of Bishops who branded Henry the Emperour and those who sided with him for Heretickes and their Loyalty for Heresie in the Case of Henry the second and King Iohn in their difference with Anselme Becket and Langhton In imitation of whom our present Prelates now slander those who oppugne aâ—d withstand their encroachments upon the Kings prerogative Royall with odious termes of Puritans Novellers Seditious persons Schismatickes Rebels and brand Loyalty and true allegiance to the King with the termes of Faction Schisme Sedition Novelty and Rebellion You have seene now a large Anatomy of our Lordly Prelates desperate Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Warres disloyall oppressive practises in all ages against our Kings Kingdomes Lawes Liberties which duly pondered we may easily conclude there is little cause any longer to tolerate them in our Church or State but great ground eternally to extirpate them out of both It is storyed of the people of Biscany in Spaine That they have such a naturall enmity against Bishops that they will admit no Bishops to come among them and that when Feâ—dinand the Catholicke came in Progresse into Biscany accompanyed with the Bishop of Pampilone the people rose up in Armes drove backe the Bishop out of their Coast and gathering up all the dust they thought he or his Mule had trod on threw it into the Sea with curses and imprecations I dare not say that our people should rise up in Armes like these Biscaners and drive out our Bishops God forbid any such Tumultuous or Seditious practise but this I dare confidently averre that his Majestie and our High Court of Parliament have farre greater reason to drive and extirpate them out of our Realme and Church even with curses and execrations and to subvert their Sees in an orderly just and legall way than these Biscaners had to repulse this Bishop who entered thus into their Country onely to accompany Ferdinand in his progresse not to play the Lord Bishop among them I shall close up all with the words of Musculus a Learned forraigne Protestant Divine who after he had largely proved by Scriptures and Fathers That Bishops and Presbyters by Divine right are both one and of equall authority and that the difference betweene them was onely a humane institution to prevent Schismes concludes thus Whether oâ— no this Counsell hath profited the Church of God whereby such Bishops who should be greater than Presbyters were introduced rather our of Custome that I may use the words of Hierome than out of the truth of the Lords institution is better declared in after ages than when this custome was first brought in to which we owe all that insolency opulency and tyranny of Princely and Lordly Bishops imo omnem corruptionem Ecclesiarum Christi yea all the corruption of the Churches of Christ which if Hierome should now perceive without doubt he would acknowledge this not to be the Counsell of the Holy-Ghost to take away Schismes as was pretended but of the Devill himselfe to waste and destroy the ancient Offices of feeding the Lords â—locke by which it comes to passe that the Church hath not true Pastors Doctors Elders and Biâ—hops but Idle bellies and magnificent Princes under the vizors of these names who not onely neglect to feede the people of the Lord in proper person with wholesome and Apostolicall doctrine but also by most wicked violence take speciall care that no man else may doe it This verily was done by the Counsell of Satan that the Church in stead of Bishops should have powerfull Lords and Pâ—inces elected for the greatest part out of the Order of the Nobles and Princes of the world as they are in Germany who under-propped with their owne and their kindreds power may domineer over the flocke of Christ at their pleasâ—re And with the complaint of the Emperour Lewis the fourth and the German Princes against the Italian and German Lordly Prelates which I may justly accomodate to ours Flamines isti Babyloniae soli regnare cupiunt ferre parem nâ—n possunt non desistent donec omnia pedibus suis conculcaverint atque in Templo Dei sâ—deant extâ—llanturque supra omne id quod colitur Sub Pontificis titulo pastoris pelle lupum saevissimum nisi caeci sumus sentimus Cum nostri servi sint ipsi dominari contra jus gentium adversus leges auspicia Oracula divina Dominos sibi servire volunt Caesarem Italia Roma Christum terris exclusere illi coelum quidem permittunt inferos atque terras sibi asseruere Bernard Epist. 158. Quid spirituali gladio quid censurae Ecclesiasticae quid Christianae legi Disciplinae quid denique divino timori relinquitur si metu potentiae secularis nullus muâ—ire jam audeat contra insolentiam Praelatorum FINIS Kind Reader I shall desire thee to rectiâ—ie these Presse-Errours which in my absence in the Country hapned in many Copies in some Pages of the first and Second Part besides those forementioned after the Table of Chapters In the first Part. PAge 8. l. 6. departing p. 10. l. 5. their this p. 11. l. 28. largely latelyâ— p. 16. l. 1. delâ— as p. 24. l. 2. we â—e p. 25. l. 3. marred l 29. Kings p. 53. l. 40. dele thâ— p. 62. l. 13. and the p. 63. l. 30. still stile pâ— 64. l. 16. be he p 70. l. 3. his
Pet. 5. (r) 2 Cor. 8. (s) 1 Cor. 4. (t) Mat. 20. * Note this (v) In 6. lib. 2. dâ—sent â—â— judicata cap. pastoralis in verbâ— Homagiâ— Excuse the Bishops perjury who can * Di. 23. Qui episcopus ex concilio 4 Cartha (y) Tim. 3. Tit. 1. Who is lawfull to be Pope The Popes wickednesse described at large The Pope dotâ— practise Counsels against thâ— honorable state of Princes (z) Quest. 6. câ— Aliuâ— Hâ—re is specially to be noted the practise of Pâ—â—lates For 〈◊〉 are the doingâ— of the Holy â—â—ther of Rome that for Rebellion against Princes he would give absolution but for matter against his Popedome there was never absolution might be obtained The Popes Regals Peter was acquainted with his nets but not with Regals In verbâ—s â—â—lus 〈◊〉 These Articles be now granted and are no Heresie The Prelates cannot abide to use obedience to their Prince We have beenâ— led by blind guiders The Kings power is immediately of God 1. Pet. 2. Rom. 13. He that defendeth the Pope against his Soveraigne Lord or Lady is an unnaturall Subject Saving of Order hath two significations The Pope will hold a Councell when and where it pleaseth him Iu. 6. l. 1. de Majoritate obedientia Delecti â—iliâ— De Iureiuâ—ando c. Ego in verbo singulis The Prelates will obey the Pope but not the Prince A devilish Practise of Prelates The Bishops sweare to visit the Pope yearely The Pope taketh sure Order with his Bishops 12 Quest. 2. â— Quantu de Reditibus c. Mos est 12 Quest. 2. cap. Non liceat Papâ— In 6. Tit. 4. c. Ad Apost in verbo Coâ—tinâ—tar This is the clause that mâ—intaineth the Popes Pompe and glory and this is that that giveth him liberty to say and doe what he will Dist. 40. c. Non nos Gloâ—sâ— in verbo quis The Preachers of the Doctrine of Christ must needs be Heretickes for the sayd Doctrine is against the Pope 2 Joh. 7. they preach against the Pope therefore are Heretickes The writers Petition to the Kings Grace (a) Antiquit Eccles Brit. f. 346. to 380.436 Godwin p. 166. to 170. Holinshed p. 878.910 to 923. 31 WILLIAM WARHAM * For which Office of Execution he had an annuall Fee from the Arch-bishop worthy so great an Arch-bishop and so great a man Antiqu. Eccl. Briâ— p. 436. (b) Antiquit. Eccles. Brit. p. 350.351.352.436 (c) Holinshed p. 812. (d) Holinshed p. 911.912 Hall 22. H. 8. fol. 188.189 whose words are here but transcribed * Note the mischiefe of Prelates being great temporall Officers * What ever makes against the Bishops gaines be they never so unjust must be said to tend to the Churches destruction * A silly and false evasion of a Prelate (e) See these 2 Acts yet in force viz. 21. H. 8. c. 4.5 (f) 21. H. 8. c. 13. * It is no new thing for Priests to rayle against Parliaments for making good Lawes to order them (g) 22. H. â— c. 15. (h) See Fox Acts and Monuments p. 952. and in the pages before (i) Hâ—linsâ—ed p. 936 937. Hall An. 25. H. 8. f. 218. b. Speed p. 1029. 34 THOMAS CRANMER (k) Fox Acts and Monuments pag. 1703. (l) Antiq. Ecclâ—s Brit. p. 381. to 405. Fox Actâ— and Monuments p. 1690. to 17â—â— (m) 31. H. 8. c. 10.37 H. 8. c. 17 〈◊〉 Acts monuments p. 1074. to 1089 99â— 1000 1001. (n) Fox Acts and Monuments pag. 1698. Antiquit. Eccles. Brit. pag. 401. (o) Holinshed p. 1090.1093 (p) Crâ—mptons Jurisdic of Courts f. 12. b. (q) Holinshed p. 1091. (r) See Fox Acts and Monuments in their histories (s) Speed history p. 1033. (t) Thomas Cranmer (u) Iohn Fisher. (x) Iohn Longâ—and (s) Acts and monuments p. 1472 old edition (t) Halls Chronicle 31. H. 8. f. 234. Holinshed p. 946. Speed p. 1044 1045. (u) Acts Monuments p. â— 586 587.589.1289.1472 old edition (x) Antiq. Eccl. Brit. p. 389 390.396 (y) 32. H. 8. c. 10.35 H. 8. c. 5.6 (z) â— Antiq Eccles Brit. p. 403â— 404. â— (a) Fox Acts and Monuments vol. 3. p. 666 667. in the last edition Antiq. Eccles Brit. p. 403. (b) Holinshed p. 1089. (c) Fox Acts and monuments old Edition p. 881.884 885. Speed p. 1223. 35 CARDINAL POOLE (d) Antiq. Eccles. Brit. p. 405. to 424. Godwin p. 171 172. Speed p. 1143 1144. fol. 60 61. (f) Recorded in M. Fox Acts and monumens pag. 972. and Thomas Bacons reports of certaine men volâ— f. 266.267 The manifold ingratitude of Pâ—â—le (g) In his reports of certaine men vol. 3. f. 279 280. The madnesse of the Pope against England Reginald Pole his unnaturalnesse to the Realme of England The Pope mover of waâ—res Breakers of peace and sowers of discord are the children of the devill (h) Antâ—q Eccles. Brit. p. 408. (i) 〈…〉 (k) Antiq. Eccles. Brit. p. qua suprâ—â— (l) Godâ—â—â— pag. 124. to 129. See Speed p. 1143 1144. Martinâ— Hist p. 397 to 401. (m) 1. 2. Phil. Mary ch 8. See Holinshed p. â—1â—2 1123. The submission of the whole Realme to the Pope Schisme and disobedience against the Seâ— Apostolike 25. H. 8. c. 19.21.26 H. 8. c. 1.3.27 H. 8. c. 15.28 H. 8. c. 7.10.31 H. 8. c. 10.14.32 H. 8. c. 22 24 26.33 H. 8. c. 29.34 35. H. 8. c. 17.19.35 H. 8. c. 1.3.37 H. 8. â— 17. * More care is here taken for the Popes than Queenes supremacy * Restored here to their jurisdiction together with the Pope as members of his body * See the Brâ—viate of the Prelates Encroachments c. p. 106 107â— 114 115.125.1â—6.127.91 to 100â— * Fox Acts and monuments in the old Edition p. 684 689.924â—690 In that of 1610. p. 1294.1495 * Fox Acts and Monuments old Edition p. p. 9â—4 * Fox Acts and Monuments p. 927. * See the Hiâ—â—ory the Councill of Trent p 339. to 3â—5 Sir Iohn Davis Irish Reports f. 97.98 See the Brâ—viaâ—â— p. 91. to 100. Cooke Caâ—dries Case f. â— * See I new discovery of the Prelates tyranny p. 34. c. * Antiqu. Eccles. Brit. p. 422. Fox Acts and Monuments p. 1537. in the old Edition * Antiq. Ecclesiae Brit. p. 420.421 * Holinsâ—ed p. 1134. Antiq. Eccles. Brit. p. 422. * See Martins Chronicle p. 415.416 Gâ—dwin p. 125 126.12â— * Speedes History p. 1145. * Hollinshed p. 1165. * Speed p. 1153. Godwin p. 128. * Antiq. Eccles. Brit. p. 423. 36 MATTHEW PARKER * Antiqâ— Eccles. Brit. p. 427. c. 436.437 Martinâ— History p. 508. â—â—â— * Martiâ—s History p. 548.549.550.552 * Spâ—â—d p. 1170. to 1176. Martins Chron. p. 557. to 560. 37 EDMVND GRINDALL * Martyns History p. 662.654 655. Continuation of Holinshâ—d pag. 1322. to 1329. 38 IOHN WHITEGIFT * See Sr Gâ—orge Paul in the life of Whitegift Martyns Hist. p. 663.676.761 762.780 781 782 783. Iohn Penry his supplication to the Parliament the Petition to Qu. Elizabeth The Registerâ— The
540. â—ohn Trevaur * Wals. Hist. Angl. Anno 1399. 1404. p. 398.399.412.413 Ypodig Neustriae Anno. 1404. p. 164. Godwin Edit 2â— pag. 554. Speed Hist. pag. 758.763 Holinsh. p. 503.504.505.506.507.508 * Holinshed pag. 508. 1 Giso * Godwin Edit pag. 360 361. * Math. Paris pag. 217. Matth. West Anno 1208. Godwiâ— Edit 2. pag. 107.366 2 Joceline * Anno 1208. pag. 86 87. 3 Robert Stillington * Speeds Hist. pag. 933. Hâ—lls Chron. 2. R. 3. fol. 25. Godwin Edit 2. pag. 377 378. * Balaeus de vitis Pontificum Leo 10. Godwin Edit 2. pag. 381 382. 4 Hadrian de Castello 5 William Barlow 6 Guilbert Bourne Godwins Catalogue pag. 311. Martins History pag. 452 c. 7 William Pierce * Among these he hath suppressed the Ancient weekely Lecture at the City of Bath whither many Nobles other strangers resort especially in the spring and fall who by reason of their sicknesse both desire and neede preaching for the consolation and instruction of their soules of which now they are there deâ—titute to their great discomfort * Joh. 5.14 I dare say no Commentator whatsoever ever made so ill an application of this Text. †It appeares by Act. 20.20.31 Act. 2.46 c. 3. 4â— 5. Luk. 21.37.38 Joh. 8.22.19.47 2 Tim. 4.2 by Basil. Magnus Hexaemeron Hom. 2.7.8.9 Hom. in Psal. 114. by S. Chrysost. Hom. 10.22 and 34. in Gen. ad Pop. Antioch Hom. 19.13 5. De sacerdotio l. 6. Hom. de Lazaro by Augustine Concio 2 in Psal. 68. Tract 16.18 21. in Joan. and other Fathers that Christ his Apostles and the Fathers preached every day and forenoone and afternoone on the Lords dayâ— how dare then this Prelate thus to affront their practise * O Prophane impiety and injustice to punish Ministers for preaching Catechising and doing that which God injoynes them * An Impiety prophanenesse which no age can patterne many Ministers have beene suspended and censured for shortning the Service that they might preach the longer and yet they are commanded to curtall it by this Bishop that the people might have more time to play in Gods owne day * A pious Episcopall reason fitter for an Alewife than a Bishop an Athest than a Prelate * O blasphemy why was not the Revell rather scandalous to the text * O the desperate impieâ—y and prophanenesse of this Bishop who might as well obliterate this Scripture out of the Bible as out of the Church Wall * This speech he borrowed from Canterbury who might doe well to prove that God Almighty sits actually on the Lords Table that as well when there is no Communion there as when there is *. O monstrous superstition Sacriledge and impiety to deprive the people of the Sacrament because the Table stood not after his new fancy No age I am certaine yeelds such a president †It seemes his Lordship delighted more in piping than preaching and will have men goe merrily dancing not mourning to heaven * Bishop Hall labours to excuse it in his Answer to the Vindication p. 14.15 as if the Bishop meant it only in a lesse evill construction as referring to the Northerne rise of that quarrell not to our prosecution when as it is most clearâ— by the words and â—ircumstances that he meant quite contrary * Which some of the County conceive hee hath pursed up or discharged his owne share in this contribution therewith See 31. H. 8. c. 8.34 and 35. H. 8. c. 7. Godwins Catalogue p. 403. to 413. Godwin Cat. p. 411 412â— Robert Wright Cooke Robert Skinner * See a Looking glasse for all Lordly Prelates p. 23 24. †Of wchâ—o shed any onâ—â—rum or drop he holds is damnable and Sacrilegious See the Bistoll mens Petition to the Parliament against him where much more is expressed John Chambers Godw. Cat. Edit 2. pag. 499. * Godw. ibid. David Poole William Pâ—erceâ— Lyndsey John Godwin Cat. Edit 2. pag. 495 496. See Fox Acts and Monuments vol. 3. p. 649. to 663. Godfry Goodman Lords-day * 1 Ed. 3. c. 1. Holins p. 328.338 to 340. Walsingham Hist. Angl. p. 91.92.95.106 Speed p. 674. * Eccles. 8 11. * De consider ad Eugenium lib. 4. St. GERMAN * Polyâ—hâ—â—â— l. 5. c. 1. Ribadenâ—ira lâ—s flâ—urs des vieâ— des Saints part 2 p. 71.72 Vincentii speculum hist. l. 20. c. 11. Antâ—niâ—i chron Tit. 11. c. 18. sect 3. f. 51. b. See part 1. before p. 224. * See his supplication to King Henry the 8. p. 190. ODO Bishop of Bayeux * Wâ—llieâ—mus Malmesb. De Gestis Regum Angl. l. 4. p 120 121. Holinsherd p. 17 18 Henry Huntindon Hist. l. 7. p 372 373 c. * Rogerâ—â— de Hâ—veden Annal. pars posterior p. 768. to 778.795 Holinshed p. 150 151. Neubrig hist. l. 5. c. 22. Antiqu. â—ccles Bri. p. 140. Mat. Westm. An. 1196 p. 71. The Bishop of Beauâ—â—isâ—aken â—aken Prisonerâ— Walter Archbishop of Rhoan Normandy interdicted by the Arâ—hbishop of Râ—ven An Reg. 8. Hoveden Annal. pars posterio â— 765 76â— Matthew Paris An. 1196. p. 175. Matthew Westm An. 1196. p. 70 71. * Fabianâ— Chron. part 7. p. 353 354. c. 239. Polychron l. 7. c. 24. Matthâ—w Paris Hist. Ang. p. 137 Hoved. fol. 358. Speeds Hâ—â—t p. 52â— sect 88. a Holinshed his History of Scotland p. 183. b Scot. chron l. 3 c. 8. c De Gestis Scot. l. 2. c. 3. d De Brit. Eccle. primordiis p. 800 Concil p. 342. Holyrood house builded Liberality in King David toward the Church reproved The Church enriched and the Crowne impoverished The saying of King Iames the first A sore Saint Iohn Major 60000. pound in Lands given to the Church Superfluous possessions of the Church f Will. Harinson descrip Eng. l. 2. c. 2. p. 140. g Walsiâ—gham hist. Angl. p. 28. Annals of Ireland in Master Cambden p. 160 161. * Hist. Anglic p. 31 32 33 34 36 Wimundus Bishop of the Iles * Hist. l. 1. c. 23 24. * Holinshed Hist. of Scot. p. 196. Adam Bishop of Cathnes slaine by the people of â—hat Country Adam Bishop of Cathnes Streight execution The Stony-hill The Earle of Cathnes looseth his Lands King Alexander commended of the Popâ—â— * Holinsh. History of Scotland p. 291. Will. Elfingâ—tone Bishop of Aberdinâ— Gawin Bishop of Dunkeld * Holish History of Scotland p. 307. * Martyns History p. 552. Bishop of Rosse * Iohn Scot. Roger de Hoveden Annalium pars posterior p. 597 â—98 599â— 614 to 617 621.646 to 649. * Hâ—â—edâ—n Annalium pars posteriâ—â— p. 6512 714. Hâ—veden ibid. p. 714. Robert de Bruse * Math. Westm. An. 1306. p. 456 c. * Hâ—linshed Hist. of Scot. p. 271.276 277 279. Iames Kâ—â—edie Graham * Francis Thiâ— his continuation of Hâ—linsheds history of Scotland p. 454 455 * Hâ—linsh History of Scotland London 1585. p. 282. Mr. Cambdens Scotia p. 32 33. Thin ibidem * Hâ—lin History of Scotland p. 282 283. Leâ—â—â—us
what â—nsueth Henry Stalbridg * See the 5 6. part of the Hom. against wilfull rebellion And the 2. part of thâ— Homely on Whitsunday * Ibid. fol. 18. 22. to 31. Note * See a supplication to King Henry the 8. An. 1544. accordingly * M. Tindals practise of Prelates accordingly * Buceâ—us de Regnâ— Christi l. 2. c. 12. * Note See the Supplication to King Henry the eight An. 1544. Mr FISH Fox Acts and Monum p. 926.927 The fruits of Prelates greatnesse sitting in Parliament * Now they bring such into the High Commission there ruine them or force them to give over their actions Note the danger that accrews by making Clergy-men chiefe Temporall officers MARTYN BUCER * Lib. 2. c. 1.2.12 In his Scripoa Anglicana Basilea 1577. p. 65.69.70.71.580 * It is the Divell then not God that calls Bishops to be Courtiers and temporall officers * How Prelates came by their great Lordly possessions See his Scripta Anglicana pag. 254.255.259.291 292 293. and Comment in Matth. 16. And â—he unbishoping of Timothy and Titus p. 106 107 108. Zwinglius Bishop Hooper * Fox vol. 3. pag. 46.137 * Upon the 8. Commandement p. 78. * See Rucerus dâ— râ—gnâ— Christi l. 2. c. 12. Note The Booke of Ordination * 3 Edwâ— 6. c. 12.8 Eliz. c. 1. Canon 36. The Bishop Answer The Bishop Answer The Booke of Homilies Father Latimer * in his Sermons f. 17 18 c. Note this Note this welâ— * Fathâ—r Laâ—ymer would not have Bishops Lords of the Parliament or to sit therein Note this The Spirituall Pastors have a great charge In his Sermons fol. 10.11 Dr. Harpesfield Iohn Bradford Fox Acts Monuments v. 3. p. 293. Edmund Allâ—n This is the present objection for the continuance of Bishops Deanes and Chapters Notâ— IOHN BALE * His Image of both Churches on Apoc. 19. 20. part 3. f. 195.208 MATTHEW PARKER * Antiquit. Ecâ—l Brit. p. 139.140.141.142.143 A strange evill death of a Clergie Lord Treasurer who like Iudas Christs Treasurer and bag-bearer dyed in despaire * Lego omnia bona mâ—a Dominâ— Regi corpus sepulturâ— Animâ—m Diabolo Quâ— dictâ— expiravit c. Note See Nicholas de Clemangiis De Corrupto Ecclesia statu c. 17.18.19 an excellent Discourse against Bishops intermedling in temporall affaires and bearing civill ofâ—â—ces * Hâ—vedâ—n Aâ—â—â—l pars postâ—â—iâ—r p. 779. Speed p 550 * Annal. pars posterior p. 767.768 THOMAS BEACON Isay. 36.10 Mat. 5.13 Joh. 20.21 Wolvish Sheepheards The description of a certaine head Wolfe clathed in a Bishops rotchet A comparison betweene Queen Isabels time and ours Priests chiefe in the Country and thorow out England Awake Nobility The ambition and security of the Papists MILES COVERDALE * Godwins Cat. p. 338. JOHN PONET WALTER HADDON Bishop ALLEY Bishop PILKINGTON Mr. Nowel BISHOP ELMER Few of our Prelates would now refuse such a proffer Act. 3 â— to 7. Cor. 4.12 * 1 Tim. 6.8 NICHOLAS BULLINGHAM IOHN BRIDGES Difference betweene Priests and Bishops * Hiâ—râ—niâ—us 〈◊〉 Titum Dist. 63. Can. Oliâ— idâ—m * Lib. 4. Dist. 24.1 â— Tim. 3â— Instiâ—utiâ— dâ—ctr Christi de shâ—râ— ordinis fol. 196. * Summa Angâ—lica L. Ord. The papistâ— controversie about their holy order The Heavenly and earthly Kingdome are not 〈◊〉 joyned that the Bishops may be earthly Kings M. Sanders objetion and answer Whether a Bishop may take a Kingdome upon him pâ—operly or unproperly Deposing of Princes by the Prelates practises Heb. 10. The Churches promotion Matth. 2â— Glossa in Lyâ—â—â—â—â—â—pâ—r Iâ—h Hofmeister in Luc. 12. Why Christ took not on him the office of a Magistrate Christ abolished not the magistrates office though he himâ—elfe reâ—used it M. Iohn Fox Bishop Iuâ—l * Ad Eâ—agrium * Dâ— simplicit Prelatâ—r Eâ—asm in Schol. in Epist. ad Euagrium M. Harding Hieron iâ— Epist. ad Titum c. I. Erasm. in Schol. iâ— Epist. ad Euagr. Sub. Lâ—â—ne Sâ—ssiâ—ne 10. Erasm. in Apologia ad Pium * Hieron ad Euagrium * Erasmus adversus Albert. Pighium * Hierâ—n in Epist. ad Titum c. 1. * Hieron â—odem locâ— * August Epist. 9. * Chrys. in 1 Tim. Homili 11. Hieron ad Euagrium * Aug. in quaest Novi Vet. Testamâ— q. 101. * Amb. in 1 Tim. cap. 3. * Ioh. de Paristis cap. 22. in vira Silvestri * De câ—nsideraâ—â— ad Eug. lib. 4. â— * Aug. de Civit. Deâ— lib. 19. c. 19. * Chrysost. Hom. 43â— in opere imperfecto in Mat. * Serm. 33. in Cantica * Bern. Serm. 1. in Conv. S. Pauli * Conc. Macrâ—â—se â—itatur ab Illyr intâ—r testâ—s verit p. 121. * Chrys. in Mat. Homil. 35. * Hieron contra Lucifâ—rianos * Hieron in Sophoniam â—ap 1. * Conc. Trident. * Sub Paulo 3. Admonitio Legator * Avâ—ntinus lib. 3. de Rupertâ— * Berâ— in Cantic Serm. 33. Holcot in sapient lect 23. * Bern. in Cantiâ— Serm. 77. * Lauâ— Valla de Donat. Const. Paralipomen * Vrspergen * Bernar. de considerationâ— ad Eugenium l. 4â— (a) 8 Quast 1. Qui Episcopatum (b) August 2. qu. 7. Qui nec Aug. (c) Aug. cont Donatist lib. 6. (d) Bern. de considerat ad Eugenium lib. 3. 1â— Cor. 15. (e) Aâ— Do. 1â—9â— (f) An. 1273. In provisione Marâ—ona c. 9. (g) Extr. Qui silli sunt Legitime (h) Lâ—ges Canuti (i) Robert Keilwey his Reports f. 184. b. (k) Nostre Seigâ—iour le Roy poit assets bien tener son Parliament perlâ—y ses temporall Seigniours per ses Commons tout sans les spirituals Seigniors Carlos spiritual Signiors nont ascun place enâ—â— Parliament Chamber per Reason de lour spiritualty mes solement perâ— Reason de lour Temporall possessions c. Bishop Latymer Bishop Bilsâ—n A Parliament taking part with truth hath the warrant of God and the Magistrate Laymen may make their choice what faith they will professe The Prince is authorized from God to executâ— his Commandement The Jesuites presume that all is theirs The Prince may command for truth though the Bishops would say no. The Jesuites have neither Gods Law nor mans to make that which the Prince and the Parliament did to be void for lacke of the Bishops assents The Kings Judah did command for truth without a Counâ—â—ll * 2 Chron. 14. cap. 15. * 2 Chron. â—9â— 4 Kings 22. Christian Princes may do the likâ— * Constantine authorised Christian Religson without any Coâ—â—cell Eusâ—b de vita Constant. lib. 2. * Iustinian had no Councell for the making of his Constitutions But 6. generall Councels in 790 yeares * Soâ—ra l. 5. c. 10. Theodosius made his owne choyse what Religion he would establish Realmes have beene Christned upon the perswasions of Lay men and women †Ruff. l. â— c. 9. And never asked the Priests leave so to doâ— Soc. l. 1. c. 19. India converted by Merchants †Ruff. l. 1. c. 10. Iberia converted by a woman The Jesuites would have
beene eloquent against this King that yeelded his Realme to Christ at the direction of a seely wench Any man may serve Christ whosoever say nay * Ibid. part 2. pag. 233.234 Patriarkes not erected by Christ but by consent of Bishops * Hiero. in Epist. ad Tiâ— cap. 1. Ibid. * Hiero. ad Evag Epist. â— Ibidem * Hieroâ— Ibid. The Patriarchs grew by consent and custome †Concil Nicen. cap. 6. †Concil Ephes. 1. Decretum post quam Cypr. Episc. accessissent ad concil Patriarkes alwayes subject to Princes and their Ecclesiasticall Lawes * Concil Chalced. actiâ— 16. * Ibid. part 2 126.127 What is meant by Governour * Mat. 20. and Mark 10. Christ by that word distinguisheth the Ministers from the Magistrate Luk. 22. Publike Government is by correction and compulsion * Rom. 13. Mat. 26. 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1. Mat. 24. 2 Tim. 2. Bishops forbid to use violence 2 Tim. 3. 4. * Part. 3. p. 358. Pastors have their regiment but over the soules not over the bodies or goods of men Ibid. Part. 3. p. 529.526 The Pastor cannot force his flocke Chrysost. de â—acâ—rdâ—t l. 2. Pastors may not constraineâ— but onely perswade Bishops least of all men may corâ—eâ—t with force Compulsioâ— neithâ—r Lawfull nor expedient in Bishops †Hillar ad Const. â— 2. imperfect Bishops may not meddle with those that bâ—â—illing * Origen in â—â—p 13. Epist. ad Rom. God will not have crimes revenged by the â—ulers of the Church but by the judges of the world Bishops by vertâ—e of their calling cannot authorize violence or armes Rom. 13. †Ibid. parâ— 2. pag. 246. The goodsâ— lands livings of Clergie men be Cesars right †Ibid. part 2. p. 252.253 The sword committed to the Prince Rom. 13. His Apostles forbidden the sword Mat. 20. Mat. 26. Bernard de considerat l. 2. Dominion interdicted the Pope himselfe * Caus. 3â—3 Quaest. 2. ¶ Inter Haec * Caus. 33. Quaest. 8. ¶ De Episc. No Clergy mâ—n may use the Sword no not by the Popes authority (a) 2 Cor. 10. (b) Ad soliâ—â—râ— vitam agentes (c) Ambros. l. 5. Epist. 33. The servants of Christ may have no earthly Kingdome since their master had none (d) Iohn 8. (e) Matth. 10â— (f) Tim. 2. Dr. Whitakers Nota. †Lib. 1. c. 5. De Sacr. Hâ—m Cant. â—â—utia †In cap. de Epis. her 2. * De Hierarch 2. c. â—lt * Annot. in Epis. 85. Hâ—â—r †Lib. I. c. 22. de Ordinat Hierarch Minist Lib. 1. de Clericis â— 15. * Hartâ—5 â—5 * Epist. ad Evaâ— * Printed by it selfe London 1â—83 * In his 3. last Bookes Bishop White and Doctoâ— Hâ—ylin Doctor Iohn Raynolds * Page 2. to 9. (a) 1 Tim. 6.3 Titus 3.10 â— Pet. 1.19.21 (b) The defence of the Apolog Part. 1. 7. devision 2. answere to the Rhem. Tit. 3.10 (c) Pag. 18. (d) Tom. 1. Cant. 3. lib. 1. c. 15. Hâ—râ—sâ—â— 15. In Epist. ad Titum Epist. 85. ad Evagrium (g) â—ap 53. (h) In Argu. praefix lib. 3. (i) Epist. 19. (k) Defence of the Apolog. Part 2. c. 9. divis 1. pa. 198. (l) De Sacror Hom. Orig. consecr l. 1. c. 5. (m) 1 Tim. 3. (n) In Epist. ad Titum (o) Collect. Can. l. 7. cap. 87. (p) Polyc. lib. 2. Tit. 1.9 39. (q) Cap. legimus dist 39. cap. Olim. dist 95. (r) Author Glossae in ca. dist citat hodorieus caol in concil Basil. Duarâ—n de sacri Eccles minist lib. 1. cap. 7. Pag. 19. (t) Pag. 69. (v) Sess. 23. c. 4. Canon 6. 7. (x) Annot Marg ad cap. legimus dist 43. (y) Tom. 1. Coâ—tro 5. l. 1. c. (z) Aeneas Silvius Hist. Bâ—hem cap. 35. Pigh Hierarch Eccles. l. 2. c. 10. (a) Defens pacis Artic. 2. c. 15. (b) Thâ— Walden Doct. fidei Tom. 1. lib. 2. c. 60. Tom. 2. c. 17. (c) Aeneas Silvius loco citato (d) Adversus falso nominat ordin Epist. adver Papa Rom. (e) In Epist. ad Philip. Tit. 1. (f) Apol. Confes. Wittenh c. 2.21 (g) Decad. 5. Ser. 2. (h) Loc. Com. Tit. de minist verbi (r) Iuel loco citat Pilkington in the Treatise of burning Pauls Church (s) D. Humphrey in Camp in Dureum Jesuitam part 2. rat 3. D. Whit. ad rat Campiani Confuta Durei Jesuitae lib. 6. (t) Mr. Bradford Lâ—mbert and others Mr. Fox Acts Dr. Fulke against Briâ—â—ow motives 40. and answere to the Rhâ—mists Tit. 1.5 Part. 2. (x) Lâ—b 4. Allegation I. For the Divine right of Episcopacy (a) An humble Remonstrance p. 27. Defence of the humble Remonstrance p. 103. to 127. and in his former Bookes for Episcopacy (b) The judgement of Doctor Raiâ—olds c. more largely confirmed out of antiquity by Iames Bishop of Armagh (c) Williâ—mâ—Bishop â—Bishop of Râ—chester Seâ—m 1. at Hampton Court Sept. 21. 1606. Sir Thomas Astons brieâ—e Relation of Episcopacy Sect. 2. p. 6.7 * Angelus nomen est Officiâ— non naturae c. Aâ—geâ—us enim Graco vocabulo Lâ—tine dicitur nuntius si quaâ—â—s nomen naturae spiritus est si officium Angâ—lâ—s ex eo quod subsistit sâ—iritus est ex eo quod mittitur Angelus Remigius Explan in Epist. ad Hebâ—aeos c. 1. * 1. Cor. 11.10 Rev. 1.20 c. 2.1.8.12.18 c. 3.1.7.14 * Saepe sacram Scripturam praedicatores Ecclesiae prâ— eo quod Patris gloriam annunciant Angelor nomine solere designare hinc est quod Joannes in Apocalypsi populâ—rumâ— Moraliuml 34. in Job c. 4. (f) Lib. 1. c. 1.2.9.10 (g) In Apoc. c. 2. Bibl. Patrum Tom. 6. pars 1. p. 523. (h) Lib. 2. in Apoc. Luc. 12. Mat. 24. * See Gersomus Bucerus de Gubern Ecclesiae p. 205.393.408.419.422.433 (c) Rev. 4.10 c. 5.5.8.11.14 c. â— 11.13 c. 11.16 c. 19.4 c. 14. â— (k) Rev. 4.4 c. 5.11 c. 7.11 (l) Rev. 4.4 c. 11.16 (m) Rev. 7.11 (n) Rev. 4.10.11 c. 5.8.9 c. 11 16.17.18 Rev. 4.4.10 (p) Rev. 5.8.9 (q) Rev. 5.9 * Downham Hall Vsher and others (r) In Apoc. c. 2. Disp. 2. (s) Com. in Apoc in c. 2.3 Notatio 1. p. 251. where he cites Lyra and Ribera to this effect (t) Nâ—t in vita Polycarp c. 7. (u) Centur. Magd 1. l. 2. â— 10. col 626â— Nicâ—ph l. 3. c. 71. Vincâ—ntius spec Hist. l. 38. c. 10. Fasciculus Temporum Allegation (v) Preface to his Treatise of â—he Sabbath Answ. Mercatâ—rs Atlaâ— London 1635. p. 812. Cambdens Brit. p. 75. Speeds Historry p. 159. Operum Tom. 2. Parisis 1608. p. 645.646 Sâ—cunda ad Timotheuâ—â— scripta est Romae quando ad Neronem adductus est Romanoâ—unâ— Caesarem Epistola ad Titum Cretensis Ecclesiae scripta est Nicopolioppâ—dâ— Macedoniae Conâ— Mag. 2. â—ol 597. The judgement of Dr. Reinolds touching the originall of Episcopacy more largely confirmed out of antiquity by Iames Archbishop of Armagh p. 5. Object 1. a Episcopacy by divine right 2. part p. 110
111 113. His humble Remonstrance and defence of the humble Remonstrance p 40. b Sir Thom. Aston his remonst epistle to the Reader briefe review of Episcopacy sect 1 2 3 4. and the conclusion Answ. 1. c De Peâ—â—â— Paulo ad diem 29 Ianuarii Barâ—nius annal â—om 1. ann 61. sect 4. Henâ— Spelman Concilia p. 4 5. d De Brit. Eccle. Primâ—r c. 1. p. 7. e Annal. Eâ—cles tâ—m 1. ann 44. p. 371. Godwins discourse of the conversion of Britaine p. 3. f History l. 6. c. 9. p. 74. g See a Romanstrance against Presbytery Epi. to the Reader h See Bishop Vsâ—er de Brit. eccles primer c. 1. p. 9. and Sir Thomas Astons Epistle to the read i A discourse of the conversâ—on of Brit. c. 2. p. 8. k Bishop Vsher. de Britan. Eccles. Primor c. 1. p. 1. to 17. and p. 1072. to 1078. Godwins discourse of the Conversion of Britaine c. 1 2 3 Antiquit. Eccle. Brit. Speeds Hist. l. 6. c. 9. p. 73. â—tâ— Henr. Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. p. 1. to 16. Balaeus Cent. 1. p. 23 24. l De Praescript advers haeretic m Ad Evagrium Comment in Tit. c. 1. See cha 8. throughout n Iohn Fordon Scotch in l. 3. c. 8. Iohn Major de Gestis Scotorum l. 21. c. 3. Bishop Vsher de Brit. â—â—cle Primor p. 800 The Originall of Bishops in our Church * Some write but 25. o Part. 7. p. 83. p 2 Cor. 6 14c 15 16 17. Deut. 12.30 31 32. Jer. 10 2 3. 1 Cor. 10.19.20 21. q Defence of the Apolog. part 2. c. 4. divis 2. r A discourse of the Conversion of Brit. p. 26 27 28. s De Brit. Eccles. primor p 57 58 92 99 100. t Subversion of F. persons 3. conversions v Concilia Tom. 1. p. 13.14 x A diâ—course of the Conversion of Brit. p. 26 27 28 29 (y) Concil Tom. 1 p. 13.14 A discourse of the Conversion of Brit. p. 23.24.25 (a) See Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brit. p. 19. to 29. William Harrison Description of England l. 2. c. 1.2 Godwin Catalogue of Bishops 33. H. â— c. 31.31 H. 8. c. 8.34 35. H. c. 17. Eadmerus Hist. Noverum l. 4 p. 95.96.165.166.167.168 (b) See part 1. p. 153. (c) â—n Prologo ad l 1. De Gestiâ— Pontif. p. 195. (d) Concil Tom. 1. p. 16. (e) Spel. Concil Tom. 1. p. 24. Answ. 2. (f) Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. p. 152. (g) Sulpitius Severus Hist. Sacr. l. 2. Vssâ—rius de Brit. Eccles. Primord p. 196. (h) Godwins Caâ— p. 392.393 i See Godwin in the life of Paulinus Aâ—dan and Fian p. 435.495 Spel. Concil Tom. 1. p. 5.11 (k) De Brit. Eccl. Primordiâ—s p. 114.661.736.737.13.14 (l) Mat. 10.5 to 15 â—9 35 Mar. 6.6 Act. 20.13 Luk. 13.22 (m) Discurâ—ere per cuncta urbana rustiâ—a loca non equorum dorsâ— sed pedum incessu vectus nisi si mâ—ra forte necâ—ssitas compulissâ—t solebat Beda Eccles. Hist. l. 3. c. 5. Godwins Catalogue p. 495. (n) Godwins Catalogue Malmes de Gestis Pontif. Aâ—gl l. 3. Beda Eccles. Hist. l. 2. c. 14. (o) Spel. Concil Tom. 1. p. 246. (p) Godwins Catalogue p. 435.136 (q) A Catalogue c. p. 16.17.18 (r) Rastall Advouson 1.2 Conci Later aâ—ensâ— 2. Can. 29. Summa Angelica Beneficium 31. Summa Rosella Beneficiumâ— 1. (s) L. 3. de Gestis c. 3. Spelm Concil Tom. 1. p. 118. * Henrici Spel. Concil Tom. 1. p. 229. (t) Hen. Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. p. 261.263 (v) See Iacobus Vsserius de Brit. Eccles. Primordiis c. 2.6 8. Guilielmus Malmesb. de Antiqu. Ecclesiae Glaston Camden in Sommersetshire p. 164. c. Henrici Spelmans Concil p. 4. to 22. 228.229.427.483 to 489. See Speedâ—s Catalogue p. 1058. to 1060. (x) See the Authors in v Sir Edward Cooke his Preface to the 9. Report Mat. Westminster Mat. Paris Heveden Ingulply and Wil. Malmes sparsim Spelmanns Glossarium Concil Tom. 1. Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour and Spicilegium in Eadmerum (y) See Mr. Seldens Tit. Hon. p. 700. to 736. Henrici Spel. Concil Tom. 1.347 Glossarium Tit. Abbas Cowel Interpret Tit. Abbot (z) See Rastall Tit. Monasteries Answ. 2. Object 2. (a) See Bishop Halls 3. last Bookes the Oxford Petition Sir Tho. Astons Petition and booke Answ. 1. (b) Sublata causa tollitur effectus Kickerman (c) See all the Seperatists late Pamplets and Bookes (d) Hierome sedulius Com. in Tit. 1. with others who follow them (e) See Ioannis Marius Zabarella and Theodericus a Niem de Schismate Centur Magd. Cent. 3.5.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13 6.10 * Râ—spâ—nsiâ— ad Turriani Sophismata parâ— 2. Lâ—ctio 18. Object 3. (f) Sir Thomas Aston Briefe review of Episcopacy p. 54. to 78 (g) 8. Elâ—z câ— 1. Answ. See Part 1. p. 72 73. * De audiendo terminaâ—do contra Episâ—opum Wintonâ—en semballivos constabulariâ—s ministrâ—s suâ—â— * See Part 1. p. 73. c. Answ. 1. (g) 1â— Rich. 2. c. 1.3 R. 2. c. 1.5 R. 2. c. 1.6 R. 2. c. 1.7 R. 2. c. 1.9 R. 2. c. 1.12 R. 2. c. 1.21 R. 2. c. 1.4 H. 4. c. 1â— 2. H. 4. c. 1.4 H. 4. c. 1.7 H. 4. c. 1.9 H. 4. c. 1.13 H. 4. c. 1.3 H. 5. c. 1 2. H. 6. c. 1. h page 458. to 465. Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts fâ— 19. b. i See Hus. p. 449 460. k Fox Acts and Monuments olddest Edition p. 748.902.907.927 b. 1708. bâ— 1717. b. Martins History p. 450 to 454. Speed p. 1156. (l) Aâ—tiq Eccles. Brit. p. 299.300 Here pars 1. pag. 71.72 Crompton Iurisdiction p. 12 19. Keâ—lwayes Reports f. 184. Stamfords Plâ—â—â— f. 153. Mr. Sâ—ldens Titles of honour p. 690. to 736. (m) Henrâ—câ— Spelmani Glossarium Tit. Abbas Mr. Seldons Tit. Hon. p. 700. to 735. Cowels Interpreter Abbot (n) Antiq. Eccle. Brit. p. 299.300 See Part. 1. p 71 72.10 E. 4. F. 6. Stamford Pleeâ— â— 3 c 1â— f. 153. (o) See p. 459. â—â— 465. Br. Coâ—one 153. Walsingham Hist. Anglia An. 1.3.9.7 p. 392. Ypodigna Neustria p. 151. (p) Gratian. Caus. 11. qu. 2. (q) Bishop Iewel Reply to Harding Artic. 4. divis 53. p. 234. Object Answ. (r) See Brooke Fiâ—z herbert and Raâ—â—all Title 〈◊〉 reâ— Cookes Iâ—stitutes â— 12â— 130 Evasion (s) Bishop Hall defence of the humble Remonstrance p. 163.164.165 Answ. 1. (t) See King Iamâ—s his Proclamation for banishing Jesuites June 10. 1606. June 2. 1610. Iohn Whitâ— his Defence of the Way ch 6. and 10. (v) See parâ— 1. p. 33. to 41. (x) The Arch-Bishop in his speech in Starre-Chamber Dr. Hâ—ylin and Dâ—w in their Answers to Mr. Burâ—â—n (y) See a new Discovery of the Prelates Tyranny p. 33. to 38. (z) 2. 3. Ed. 6. c. 21.5 6. Ed. 6. c. 12. and the Rubrick before Matrimony (a) Pars 2. â—ol 36. to 66. (b) See the Articles of his Impeachment * Articles of Accusation against the Judges p. 7.8.9 Mark 11.17 Mat. 21.13 Luk 19.56 Isa. 56.7 * See the Report of the Conspiraâ—y to the house of Commons June the 17. 1641. p. 2.3 and Mr. Henry Piercies Letter p. 3. The Declaration of Colonell Goâ—ing p. 2â— â—rov 14 2â—â— * Hist. Anglia p. 694. See p. 68â— 784.905 * 25. H. 8. c. 19.21.24 H. 8. c. 12. * See Capgâ—ave Surius Ribadeneira and others de vitis Sanctorum Baronius his Martyriologe our Common Popish Primers Calenders and Almanackes * See Part. 1. p. 193. to 196. * See Aventine Annal. Bâ—iorum l. 6. 7. * Generall History of Spaine l. 22. Heylins Geogr. p. 55. * Musculus Locâ— Communes Basilâ—a 1560. p. 246. * Nota. * Nota. * Aventinus Annaliâ—â— Bâ—iâ—rum l. 7. p. 546.547.577