thought to have obliged us more then that declaration of the Bishops 1615 did the French who having meurement delibere sur la publication du concile de Trente ont unaniment recognu declarè recognoissent declarent estre obligez par leur devoir conscience a recevoir come de fait ils ont receu recoivent le dit concile promettent l'observer entant qu' ils peuvent par leurs fonctions auctorite spirituele pastorele and caused the same to be printed Yet that of Trent had never validity in France nor the other in England notwithstanding what thus past the Clergy 38. Neither was that other Councell of Lateran under Innocentius 2. ever received here though the Pope there insignem sacrorum Decretorum textum congessit yet nimis abundans per universum orbem nequitia terrigenarum corda contra ecclesiastica scita obduravit from whence it proceeded that when they were divulged they did no good quoniam à principibus optimatibus regnorum cum subjectis plebibus parvi pensa sunt Now that it was never received here appears besides this testimony in that the marriage of a professed Nun was adjudged valid contrary to the 7. Canon of it and that too after it was registred in the Canon Law which shews this Church did neither admit the Canons of forreign Councells nor the Canon Law it self to alter their ancient customes as is farther manifest by the statute of Merton cap. 9. Neither was the Councell of Sardis ever allowed in England as is manifest by what before of Appeals which yet by the Capitulars of Charls the great and Ludovicus Pius was even in that particular in France which made St. Bernard write of them in multas posse eas devenire perniciem si non summo moderamine actitentur Appellatur de toto mundo ad te id quidem c. for so the place is to be read as I have seen in two very good Mss and one late printed not as in the former editions of him as at Paris 1586. By these precedents the Reader may judge how necessary it was for the Parliament to make a distinction of Councells Now in these with sundry of as doubtfull credit being of late printed at Rome as if they were of equall value with the first I have thought fit to instance And here having made mention of receiving Councells as if that added strength unto them it will be necessary to say something of that too for the fuller clearing of this Church 39. The Apostles as they shewed a pattern for holding Councells to settle disputes amongst Christians so Paul and Silas in their travells delivering the Decrees by them ordained to be kept by severall Churches shew'd it to be reasonable such as were absent should receive what was done in any Synod before they were obliged by it and accordingly in the primitive times those were not present at the holding a synod had the results sent or brought unto them after the conclusion taken who did in their own Churches subscribe finding them just and pious what the others had in Councell agreed upon and then reposed them amongst their Records called by St Hierom Scrinia publica Ecclesiarum arcae c. So Cecilian being present at Nice brought to Carthage the Decrees there concluded who submitted unto them and S. Athanasius of that Councell sayes Huic Concilio universus orbis assensum praebuit quanquam multae habitae sunt Synodi hujus tamen omnes sunt memores tumper Dalmatiam Dardaniam aliasque insulas Siciliam c. plerique in Arabia hanc agnoverunt subscriptione approbarunt c. And of the Councell at Sardis it is recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I English thus Osius the Bishop subscribed and so did thâ— rest These things being copied out the Synodâ—n Sardis sent to those could not be present who were of the same mind wâ—th what had been determined of those subscribâ—d in the Synod and of the other Bishops these are the names 40. After which Athanasius from whom this epistle is taken adds qui igitur decretis 〈…〉 sunt isti in universum 344. Hence it grew that though some Councells had but few at the holding of them yet the subscriptions were numerous Baronius observes the 5th Councell of Carthage to have been held by 22 onely I conceive it should be 72. yet had 217. subscribers which was after the ending of it by Bishops in their own Churches when they admitted of it So the Synod of Antioch about 341. sending their conclusions to absent Churches writ unto them they did believe they would assent to what they had done et ca quae visa sunt recta roborantes cum consensu sancti Spiritus consignabitis It is of no use to dispute here whether this were an Arrian or a Catholick Councell be it either it still denotes the manner then used as doth the third Councell of Toledo held Anno 589. which speaks thus Constitutiones sanctorum conciliorum Niceni Ephesini Constantinopolitani vel Chalcedonensis quas gratissima aure audivimus consensione nostra veras esse probavimus de toto corde de tota anima de tota mento nostra subscripsimus and another held there having received with the letters of Pope Leo the 2. the sixth generall Councell invited all the Prelats of Spain ut praedicta synodalia instituta quae miserat nostri etiam vigoris manerent auctoritate suffulta omnibusque per nos sub regno Hispaniae consistentibus patescerent divulganda 41. By all this it is plain the manner of former times was to disperse the Decrees of Councells to absent Churches who by subscriptions were said to have confirmed and so far as lay in them by suffrage to have given strength to that such meetings had agreed unto And as Popes did thus confirme what other Bishops had concluded in their Synods so did they in like manner his In the year 1095. Vrban the 2. held a Councell at Clermont in Auvergne at which were present severall Prelats of Normandy who at their return brought letters from the Synod upon which VVilliam Archbishop of Roan caused the Norman Bishops to meet there who capitula Synodi quae apud Clarum-montem facta est unanimiter contemplati sunt scita quoque Apostolica confirmaverunt It is true the Pope being the Patriarch of most note in the world and of greatest dignity in the West usually the Acts of forraign Councells were directed unto him which he dispersed through Italy and other parts of Europe but his approbation was not enough to oblige other Churches till what came from him was by themselves allowed neither was this dispersing so appropriated to his Papacy as if there were never any other divulging of them the second Councell of Nice held 787 or 788 as Diâ—eto accounts was sent from Constantinople to Charls the great
then onely Rex Francorum and by him 792. hither where it was rejected 42. From hence it proceeded that part of the Acts of one Councell did not bind some Churches which did others as some parts of the Councell of Chalcedon and Ephesus seem not to have been received in Rome in S. Gregories time to which may be added some Canons of the 7th Councell But I believe it will be hardly shewed from the ancients that any Church neither intervening in Councell by proxy nor that did after admit of it were ever held concluded by any though never so numerous Certainly none was ever held of greater esteem amongst Catholicks then the Councel of Nice yet S. Augustine in his dispute with an Arrian confesses neither the Councell of Nice ought to prejudice the Arrian not that held at Ariminum him sed utrisque communibus testibus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet And St. Hilary comparing two Councells one of 80. Bishops which refused the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that of Nice which received it sayes si contraria invicem senserunt debemus quasi judices probare meliora so not onely taking from them all infallibility but allowing others to judge of their doings before they submitted unto their determinations And this hath been the so constant observance in all times as no age ever held the Latin obliged by the Grecian Synods which they have not received neither doth the Greek Church to this day hold themselves tyed by the determinations of Florence or to the many other of the Latin touching the procession of the holy Ghost and other points in difference to which they have not submitted 43. But for that the Acts of Councells without temporall auctority to inforce the observance of them were no other then persuasive Princes either on the incitation of their Bishops or convinced of the justnesse and piety of what had past in those Ecclesiastick Assemblies did often by their letters exhort or by their laws command the observance of what resulted from them So Constantine after the Councell of Nice wrote that letter remains recorded in Socrates and Theodoret to some absent Churches for their admitting the resolutions of it in which he tells them he had undertook that what the Romans had already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their judgment would willingly receive And Gratian Valentinian Theodosius did in the year 381. by their rescripts establish the same Councell as Iustinian by the law before mentioned did all the fourfirst which I take to be the same St Augustin calls inserting them actis proconsularibus 44. Of later times Popes having by severall arts acquired the greatest part of Episcopall power to be devolved to them have likewise claimed it as a right belonging to the Papacy not onely to call Councels but to determine which are generall who are to vote in them and therefore though properly or dinarie none but Bishops have there say they jus suffragii yet ex privilegio consuetudine Cardinalls Abbats and Generalls of Orders are to be allowed voice and that there needs no other then the Popes confirmation in Rome to oblige all Christians to the observance of any he shall hold out for such as Pius 4 tus by his bull of the 18 Iuly 1564. declared all in the Councell of Trent juris positivi did the world from the first of May before c. And though all History agree and the very Councells themselves assure us the causing the East and West to meet in those assemblies to have been ever done by Emperours and that Princes on occasions have called the Clergy within their estates together for composing disputes in religion yet the bare affirmation without any real proof hath so far prevailed with some men as to esteem him little other then an heretick shall maintain the contrary 45. But Kings have not so easily parted with these rights for the State of France notwithstanding the many sollicitations of Popeâ— from abroad and their Clergy at home hath no hitherto been induced to approve what was determined at Trent however you shall hardly meet with any of the Roman party but he will tell you that the points of faith there agreed upon are received in France but not of manners and government which is in a kind true yet contains a notable fallacy for the Ecclesiasticks of that kingdom finding the difficulty of procuring that Councell to passe have in their provincial Synods conspiratione quadam venia in quaque Dioecesi cogendi Synodos impetrata inserted the greatest part of the doctrinall points of it into those Councells so that it is truth they are indeed there received yet not for that they were concluded upon in Trent but because Episcopall Councells have each in their Dioceses establisht what they could perswade nec regibus nec supremis Parlamentorum curiis ut Synodi istius Canones in acta sua referrent observandos publicarent Neither hath the Councell of Florence under Eugenius 4 tus or of Lateran held by Iulius the 2. and Leo the 10 been hitherto allowed by France or England where the most zealously affected to Rome as Sr Thomas Moore have maintained the superiority of a generall Councell above the Pope in opposition to either of them though that be a point rather of faith then manners Upon which grounds those Councells before spoken of did not bind here farther then what was in them hath been made good by provinciall Synods within the Nation By all which it being certain neither this Church nor Kingdom hath ever been tyed by the Acts of any forraign councell not admitted here and being perhaps a thing of some intricacy what determinations the Realm had received after the four first generall Councells her Majesty took the way of receiving them as absolutely necessary but others with such limitations as are in the statute and for the future nothing to be heresy but what should be determined to be such by the Parliament with th' assent of the Convocation CHAP. IX Of the farther proceeding of Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation 1. THings thus settled in 1º Eliz. the Parliament ended the Liturgy of the Church commonly called the book of Common prayer reformed and published the Queen following the examples of her predecessors and relying on the ancient Symbols as the doctrine of the Catholick Church gave command the Creed the Pater-noster and ten Commandements as the grounds for a Christian to believe and frame his life after should be taught her subjects and none to presume to come to the Lords table before they could perfectly say them in English 2. Hitherto to my understanding her Majesty had not done any thing not warranted by the practise of her predecessors not that could be justly interpreted a departing from the Apostolick faith or indeed from Rome it self where she kept an Agent till Paulus 4 â—s
same house they abode yet they salute them with the honourable titles of their dearest lords and brethren A certain signe of a wide distance between the opinions of Rome then and now when men are taught not so much as bid them farewell do not submitunto it sure our first Bishops know no such rule who placed in their Calendar for Saints and holy men as well Hilda Aydon and Colman the opposers of Rome as Wilfred Agilbertus and others who stood for it CHAP. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with AFter the planting of Christian religion amongst the Saxons th' Archbishop of Canterbury became a person so eminent all England was reputed his Diocese in the colledge of Bishops London his Dean whose office it was to summon Councels Winchester his Chancellour Salisbury or as some Winchester his Precâ—tor or that begun the service by singing Worcester or rather Rochester his Chaplain and the other the carrier of his Crosse expected no lesse obedience from York then himself yielded to Rome voluntate beneficio it being th' opinion of the Church of England it was but equall ut ab eo loco mutuentur vivendi disciplinam à cujus fomite rapuerunt credendi slammam The dependence therefore of the Clergy in England being thus wholly upon th' Archbishop it will not be amisse to take a little view both of what esteem he was in the Church and how it came to be taken off and by degrees transferr'd to a forreign power 2. Upon the conversion of the Saxons here by the preaching of Augustine and his companions and a quiet peace settled under Theodore to whom all the English submitted Parochiall Churches by his encouragement began to be erected and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation as being the successour of Saint Peter the first bishop of the world Patriark of the West that resided in a town held to nourish the best Clerks in Christendome and the seat of the Empire insomuch as the devout Britan who seemes as I said to have received his first conversion from Asia did go to Iudea as a place of greatest sanctity so amongst the Saxons Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur But as this was of their part no other then as to a great Doctour or Prelate by whose solicitude they understood the way to heaven and to a place in which religion and piety did most flourish so th' instructions thence were not as coming from one had dominion over their faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming other then that respect is fit to be rendred from a puisne or lesse skilfull to more ancient and learned Teachers As of late times when certain divines at Frankford 1554. differed about the Common-prayer used in England Knox and Whittingham appealed to Calvin for his opinion and receiving his 200. Epistle it so wrought in the hearts of many that they were not so stout to maintain all the parts of the Book as they were then against it And Doctor Cox and some other who stood for the use of the said Book wrote unto him excusing themselves that they put order in their Church without his counsell asked Which honour they shew'd him not as esteeming him to have any auctority of Office over them but in respect of his learning and merits 3. As these therefore carried much honour and yielded great obedience to Calvin and the Church of Geneva by them then held the purest reformed Church in Christendom so it cannot be denyed but our Auncestors the Saxons attributed no lesse to the Pope and Church of Rome who yet never invaded the rights of this as contrary to the councel of Ephesus and the Canons of the Church of England but left the Government of it to the English Prelats yet giving his best advice and assistance for increasing devotion and maintenance of the Laws Ecclesiasticall amongst them in which each side placed the superiority From whence it proceeded that however the Pope was sought to from hence he rarely sent hither any Legat. In the Councell of Calcuith held about 180. years after Augustine it is observed a tempore Sancti Augustini Pontificis sacerdos Romanus nullus in Britanniam mâ—ssus est nisi nos And Eadmerus that it was inauditum in Britannia quemlibes hominum super se vices Apostolicas gerere nisi solum Archiepiscopum Cantuariae 4. But after the Pope instead of being subject began to be esteemed above th' Ecclesiastick Canons and to pretend a power of altering and dispensing with them and what past by his advise and counsell onely was said to be by his authority he did question divers particulars had been formerly undoubtedly practic 't in this Kingdom he seeing them and not shewing any dislike at it as The receiving Investitures of Churches from Princes The calling Synods The determining causes Ecclesiasticall without Appeals to Rome The transferring Bishops c. but the removing these from England unto a forraign judicature being as well in diminution of the rights of the Crown as of this Church past not with out opposition 5. For Anselm an Italian the first great promoter of the Papal authority with us pretending he ought not be barr'd of visiting the Vicar of St. Peter causa regiminis Ecclesiae was told as well by the Bishops as lay Lords That it was a thing unheard and altogether against the use of the realme for any of the great men especially himself to presume any such thing without the Kings licence who affirmed nequaquam fidem quam sibi debebat simul Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra suam voluntatem posse servare And the Archbishop persisting in his journy thither had not onely his Bishoprick seized into the Kings hand but the Pope being shew'd how his carriage was resented here did not afford him either Consilium or Auxilium but suffered him to live an exile all that Princes time without any considerable support or adjudging the cause in his favour Which makes it the more strange that having found by experience what he had heard before that it was the King not the Pope could help or hurt him this visit being so little to his advantage at his first presenting himself to Henry the first he should oppose that Prince in doing him homage and being invested by him a right continued unto that time from his Auncestors and by which himself had received the Archbishoprick from his brother and this on a suggestion that it was prohibited in a councell held at Rome in which he went so far as to tell the King quod nec pro redemptione capitis mei consentiam ei de iis quae praesens audivi in Romano Concilio prohiberi nisi ab eadem sede
them St Augustine doth name some opinions for hereticall have small affinity with Divinity and who shall read Philastrius of Heresies must needs approve Cardinall Bellarmin's censure of him that he accounts amongst them many are not properly Heresies as the word is now taken The first Councell of Constantinople held 381. expresly affirms by the name of Heretick to understand such as professing the same faith yet did make a separation from those canonicall Bishops were of their communion But the construction what opinion was hereticall did ever so far as I have observed belong to the spirituall Magistrate who after the pattern held out in holy Writ if any new erroneous opinion did peep the neighbour Bishops and Clergy taking notice of it did assemble condemn it and by their letters gave notice of what had past them to absent Churches if the case were difficult the presence of any famous Clerk was desired who for settling peace as who would not was easily drawn out of his own home so was Origen sent for into Arabia And that this form continued in condemning Heresy till Constantine seems to be very plain by the proceedings against Paulus Samosatenus and divers others remaining yet in history and the writings of the fathers But for the prosecution of an Heretick farther then to avoid him I know no example till after God having given peace to his people under Christian Emperours they finding if the Church were in trouble the State to be seldome otherwise did provide as well for the calling of Bishops to Councells that might condemn Heresies as by lawes to punish Hereticks 3. The Councell of Nice therefore having in the year 325. censured the opinions of Arius for hereticall the Emperour that had formerly granted priviledges to Christians 326 declared haereticos atque schismaticos his privilegiis alienos c. and that no man might be deceived by the ambiguity of the word Heretick Gratian and Theodosius in the year 380. did declare who onely were to be so reputed viz. all who secundum Apostolicam disciplinam evangelic amque doctrinam patris filii spiritus sancti unam deitatem sub parili majestate sub pia trinitate credamus hane legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti reliquos vero dementes vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere and the year following did not onely in Ianuary renew the said Edict but in Iuly commanded all Churches to be delivered those Bishops who held that profession nihil dissonum profana divisione facientes sed Trinitatis ordinem personarum adsertionem divinitatis ordinem c. and for the more assurance as a mark of their being orthodox did hold communion with the Catholick Bishops of any one seat there remembred as Damasus of Rome Nectarius of Constantinople Pelagius of Laodicea Diodorus of Tarsus Optimus of Antioch c. omnes autem qui abeorum quos commemoratio specialis expressit fide communionis dissentiunt ut manifestos haereticos ab ecclesits expelli Which note Iustinian likewise in the year 541. having prescribed goes farther that sacram communionem in Catholica ecclesia non percipientes à Deo amabilibus sacerdotibus haereticos juste vocamus 4. Before these lawes it is not to be wondred if every one desired to be joyned in communion with some one of those seats whose Bishops were so recommended for conserving the Apostolick faith for the sanctity of their manners and for keeping schism out of the Church which being usually joyned with sedition in the Common wealth Princes seem to have an especiall eye how it might be avoided but after these Edicts they certainly did it much more and there being in the world no Bishop more famous then the Roman nor any other named in these parts of Europe then he every one endeavoured to live united to that Church whose form the Councell of Nice 325. for before that ad Romanam ecclesiam parvus habebatur respectus as Pius secundus writes approving in distribution of the ecelesiastick government and Emperours now in point of belief the Roman Chair became so eminent as for to shew themselves orthodox many especially of the Latins did hold it enough to live in the communion of that See and the Fathers in that Age to give high expressions of being in union with it S. Ambrose shewing the devotion of his brother Satyrus in a tempest adds yet farther as a mark of it Advocavit ad se Episcopum percontatus que ex eo est utrumnam cum episcopis catholicis hoc est cum Romana ecclesia conveniret and S. Hierom a person very superlative in praising and reprehending writing about the same time to Damasus Ego nullum primum nisi Christum sequens Beatitudini tuae id est cathedrae Petri communione consocior c. and in the year 602. a certain Bishop returning out of schism spontanea voluntate did swear he in unitate sanctae ecclesiae catholicae communione Romani Pontificis per omnia permansurum c. All which in time bred an opinion that Chair could not entertain an error and the beginning of the mark absolutely inverted for those men who at first were as others sought unto because they did conserve the religion S. Peter had planted in Rome must in after-ages be onely held to maintain the same doctrine because they are in that See so that the Doctrine did not commend the person but the being in that seat and recommended from thence be it what it will it ought to be received insomuch as Cardinall Bellarmine doubts not to write Si Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare for which he was afterward forced to an Apology yet is not in my opinion so absurd as the rule left by certain religious persons 1606. to their confidents at Padoua containing ut ipsi Ecclesiae catholicae understanding the Pope omnino unanimes conformesque simus si quod oculis nostris apparet album nigrum illa esse definierit debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare c. 5. But to return whence I have a little digress't it being plain by these lawes the Emperours restrained points of Heresy to the Catholick Doctrine of the Father Son and holy Ghost the ground of the four first generall Councils and others not to be esteemed hereticks in which sense I conceive sundry of the ancients take the word as S. Hierome when he sayes all Hereticks leave God and Socrates when he agrees such as condemned Origen finding not to blame his opinion of the holy Trinity must confesse he held the right faith and Leo the first when in an epistle about 449. he exhorts the Emperour Theodosius to consider the glory of S. Peter
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be
England ever saw a Privy Councellor He having sometimes sought that dignity in Henry the 5 ths time upon the news the Archbishop of Cant. gave the King notice of it in a letter yet extant which did so affect that Prince as he was sometimes heard to say that he had as lieve set his crown beside him as see him wear a Cardinals hat But he being soon after taken away and the honour conferr'd on this Prelate in Iune 1426. by Martin the 5. at his coming into England the Lords of his Maties Councell caused him to make a Protestation for his comportment in the future and the 8th of Hen. the 6. it was agreed by the Lords in Parliament he should be on the Kings part required to attend his Maties Counsells sub protestatione tamen subsequente quod quotiens aliqua materiae causae vel negotia ipsum Dominum Regem aut regna seu dominia sua ex parte una ac sedem Apostolicam ex parte altera concernentia hujus concilii regiis communicanda tractanda fuerint idem Cardinalis se ab hujusmodi consilio absentet communicationi earundem causarum materiarum negotiorum non intersit quovis modo c. and yet his former engagement made to the Councell to be firme and inviolable Upon which the said Cardinall the 18. of December 8. H. 6. Ann. 1429. after his thanks to the King and Lords and his admitting the said Protestations tanquam rationi consonas was received for one of the Councell But I return to that I was treating of 39. The truth of this barring Appeals is so constantly averr'd by all the ancient monuments of this Nation as one not finding how to deny it falls upon another way that if the right of Appeals were abrogated it concludes not the See of Rome had no jurisdiction over this Church except one should be so senselesse as to imagine the Prefect of the Pretorian Court were not subject to th' Emperors auctority because it was not lawfull full to appeal from them according to the Law in the Digests To which I answer that if it be granted which is very disputable this Law is to be extended to th' Emperor yet it proceeded from himself who might limit his own power but he is desired to consider this canon of Appeals did not from any Pope for the Africans did and the Church of England doth maintain it as an inherent right of their own to give Laws in that particular and ever had strong contests with the Papacy about it which held it an honour not to be parted with and they opposing him in it must of necessity have held that superintendency he exercised over them not to be jure divino for then no man could have exempted himself from having recourse unto him In France there are severall Courts of Parliament from which no Appeal lies who receiving that priviledge from the King it cannot be said to be in diminution of his Royalty because that they have he gave but if ever any of them should claim this as of their own right denying the King to have at any time a power of intermedling with them I shall leave the objector to draw what consequence he will from it for my part I can no other but that they esteemed themselves very little his subjects 40. The reader will pardon this digression which I have the longerstood upon to give him the more full satisfaction how Appeals were first brought in and how pursued I shall now in what manner the Legat and Archbishop prosecuted theirs who being both before Lucius the 2. 1144. the Bishop of Winchester was dismist his legatine commission and the Pope finding with how great difficulty the Ecclesiastick affairs of this Kingdome could be managed by any Legat without the Archbishop of Canterbury thought of a very subtile invention to conserve his own auctority and not have any crossing with that Prelat which was to create him and his successors Legatinati by which such things as he did before and had a face of enterfeering with the Papal plenitude and were not so easy to devest th' Archbishop of exercising he might be said to do by a Legatine power of which it was not long before the Pope made use as is to be seen in his Decretalls where Alexander the 3. resolves he could not hear jure metropolitico matters Episcopall that came not unto him per appellationem that is in a legall way but jure Legationis he might such as were brought unto him onely per quaerimoniam an invention often practic 't afterward and highly advantagious to the Court of Rome as what made Bishops but his Deputies 41. The Antiquitates Britannicae Eccles. and from him Harpsfield speak as if this honour were first bestowed on Theobald which it seems to me could not be till the taking it away from Winchester by Lucius the 3. after the death of Innocentius 2. Diceto sayes Caelestinus 3. about some ten years after Lucius bestowed on Hubert plenitudinem potestatis in officio Legationis inauditam à seculis I confesse I do not well understand in what it did consist that had not been formerly heard of to whom the Pope had committed Vices suas in Anglia Scotia but it fully proyes that power derived from Rome was then looked on as a thing newly crept in But whosoever did first confer it the matter is not great certain it is by it the Papall auctority was not a little in time increas't there being none of the Clergy almost to question ought-came from Rome the Archbishop on whom the rest depended himself operating but as a Delegate from thence 42. To which purpose it may not unfitly be observed that when the Papacy did first attempt the exempting some great monasteries from the jurisdiction of their Ordinary it was salva primatis reverentia or as Malmsbury explains it Archiepiscopi tantum nutum in legitimis spectaturus But however thus carefully penned not to thwart with th' Archbishop being brought hither was taken away by Lanfrank not permitted to be made use of the Abbot finding no other way to regain it but multorum preces Yet afterward the Pope without scruple exempted them not onely from their Diocesan but even such as were under th' Archbishops nose with all pertaining to them were taken out of his own jurisdiction and he who at first preserved others rights had those houses now at an easy rate removed from his own A fact of infinite advantage to the Papacy by which it had persons of learning in all parts who depending wholy on it defended what was done to be by one had a power of doing it and he who at first did solely agere vices Apostolicas in Anglia was under no Legat permitted no Bul from Rome to be made use of in England but by his approbation was so far now from taking them away
doubts of their being as lawfull Archbishops as Augustine was Giraldus Cambrensis and Hoveden agree the Bishops of St. Davids in Wales did use the Pall till Samson about the time of the Saxons flying from an infection carryed it with him yet neither of them report him to have fetch 't it from Rome nor after the wanting it did the rest of the Bishops there either refuse his consecration deny obedience to the See or make profession to any other before Henry the first induced them by force But to come to the Saxons after Paulinus there are five in the Catalogue of York expressely said to have wanted it amongst which Wilfred that ruled all the North as his Bishoprick yet are reputed both Archbishops and Saints and of others in that series it will not be easy to prove they ever used it Albertus the 8. Bishop about 767. had it not till the seventh year accepti Episcopatus nor Adilbaldus or Ethelbaldus the 14. Anno 895. till the fourth year postquam acceper at Episcopatum An undoubted argument that Canon of Pelagius recorded both by Ivo and Gratian that no Metropolitane should defer above three months sending for it to Rome was never received in this Church Gregory the great sayes it ought not to be given nisi fortiter postulanti and the same Father with a Councell at Rome Anno 595. decreed pro pallio omnino aliquid dare prohibeo So that in those times the one side perhaps did not much urge the taking of it nor the other greatly seek after a thing brought small advantage and was so far to be fetch 't 48. But after the Court of Rome began to raise to it self a revenue from other Churches this Pallium that was no other then a distinctive ornament not to be payed for began to be set at so immense a rate that Canutus going to Rome 1031. did mediate with Iohn the 19 that it might be more easy to his prelats in which though he had a favourable answer yet in Hen. the 1. his time it was so much th' Archbishop of York could not pay the money without an heavy debt Mat. Paris doth intimate as if Walter Gray translated from Worcester to that See 1215 had not his Pall at lesse then ten thousand pounds accepto pallio saith he Episcopus memoratus rediit in Angliam obligatus in curia Romana de decem millibus librarum estirlingorum which was about the silver of 30000l. now Coin being then after the rate of 20d. the ounce But after times according to the Bishop of Landaffe reduced it to the certainty that each Bishop payed 5000. duckets for it every one of the value of 4s. 6d. our money which yet I do not see how to make agree with the Antiquit. Brit. Ecclesiae that speakes onely of 900. aureos ducatos payed by Cranmer 49. But to omit the gain came by the garment that certainly was a means of drawing a great obligation from all Archbishops to the Papacy for about 1002. a new oath de fidelitate canonica obedientia was devised to be tender'd every Archbishop at the reception of it For the more full understanding of which we are to know VVilliam the first after he had settled the Kingdome in quiet wholy possest of it would not in any kind acknowledge a farther obedience to Rome then his predecessors had but maintained the rights of the Kingdome in every thing against the liking of that Court in many particulars barring all men for taking any for Pope but whom he designed insomuch as after Gregory the 7. 1084. till 1095. about 11. years there was no Pope acknowledged in England denying any to receive letters from thence but acquainting him with them and many more of which elsewhere all which being exercised by him were never questioned during his time nor while Lanfrank lived after him though he hath been ever reputed an holy man But Anselme succeeding in his seat great contentions arose between him and VVilliam the second The King with the Nobility pressing him as the usage of the Realme not to depend on Rome as of necessity he on the other side deciating all such customes to be contrary to Divinity right c. chose rather to live an exile all that Kings time then any way submit to those customes had been practis't never disputed or questioned by any Archbishop here before 50. But that Prince being soon after taken away and Paschalis the 2. succeeding almost at the same time considering as it seems by what weak bands forraign Bishops were tyed to the Papacy how easy it was for them to fall from it that Gregory the 7 th was not satisfied even with Lanfranks carriage in Episcopali honore positus who restrained his obedience to canonum praecepta that Anselme alone had opposed the whole body of the Kingdome that every Prelat might be neither of his temper or opinions framed an oath the effect of which you may see in Diceto Ann. 1191. in Mat. Paris and others the full which every Archbishop at the reception of the Pall was to render At the tendring this one in Sicily made a scruple of taking it as that Nec ab Apostolis post Dominum nec in conciliis inveniri posse statutum the like did some in Polonia to whom the Pope answers as in cap. significasti objurgatorily quasi Romanae Ecclesiae legem concilia ulla praefixerint And going on with the designe whereas at the assuming of this Pall by Anselme 1095. it was no otherwise then thus Pallium super altare delatum ab Anselmo assumptum est atque ab omnibus pro reverentia Sancti Petri suppliciter deosculatum c. at the taking of it by Raulf 1115. his immediate successor we find it with this addition Sicque delatum super Altare salvatoris pallium est à Pontifice inde susceptum facta prius de fidelitate canonica obedientia professione Deiâ—de pro reverentia beati Petri ab omnibus deosculatur c. Which profession being never met with as made by any Archbishop of Cant. before but frequently after by such as were his near successors as Tho. Becket Baldwine c. we must conclude him to have been the first from whom it hath ever been required I know Bellarmine interprets a Bishops returning out of schisme 602. and voluntarily by oath promising to live in communion with the Pope to be a swearing of obedience to that chair but certain there is a difference between obeying and living in communion of which see cap. 7. n. 4. between an oath inforced and one voluntarily taken After this as wayes to augment the Court many priviledges were annexed to it as that none before his receiving that ornament might convocate councells make Chrisme dedicate Churches ordain Clerks consecrateâ—Bishops that being Pontificalis officii plenitudo
averoient frank election de lour Prelatz solonc la ley de Dieu de seint Esglise ent ordeigne perpetuelment a durer c. and a little after d'Engleterre soleient doner Eveschez autres grantz dignites trestouz come il fait aujourdui Esglises parochiels le Pape ne se medlast de doner nul benefice deinz le Royalme tanqez deinz brief temps passe c. 59. And this to have been likewise the custome in France the complaint of the French Ambassador to Innocentius 4 tus assures us Non est multum temporis saith he quod Reges Francorum conferebant omnes Episcopatus in camera sua c. and our writers do wholy look upon the placing Lanfrank in Canterbury as the Kings act though it were not without th' advise of Alexander the 2. Neither did Anselme ever make scruple of refusing the Archbishoprick because he was not chosen by the Monks of Canterbury and in that letter of them to Paschalis the 2. 1114. though they write Raulf in praesentia gloriosi Regis Henrici electus à nobis clero populo yet whosoever will note the series of that election cannot see it to have been other then the Kings act insomuch as our writers use often no other phrase then the King gave such preferments c. And whilst things stood thus there was never any interposing from Rome no question who was lawfully chosen the Popes therefore did labour to draw this from the Princes medling with as much as was possible Some essay might be 1108. at the settling Investitures for then Anselme writ to Paschalis Rex ipse in personis eligendis nullatenus propria utitur voluntate sed religiosorum se penitus committit consilio But this as the practice proved afterwards was no more but that he would take the advise of his Bishops or other of the Clergy for as Diceto well observes our King did in such sort follow the Ecclesiastick Canons as they had a care to conserve their own rights The â—ittest way therefore for the Pope to get in was if there should happen any dissensions amongst themselves that he as a moderator a judge or an Arbitrator might step in 60. About the Conquest an opportunity was offer'd on the contentions between the two Archbishops for primacy in which Canterbury stood on the bulls true or false of former Popes that had as a great Patriarch made honourable mention of them When they were both 1071. with Alexander the 2. by his advise it was referr'd to a determination in England and accordingly 1072. Wm. the first with his Bishops made some settlement which by them of York was ever stumbled at pretending the King out of reason of State sided with Canterbury But this brake into no publick contest till 1116. Thurstan elected to York endeavored at Rome to divert the making any profession of subjection to Cant. but failing in th' attempt that Court not liking to fall into a contest it was not probable to carry resigned his Archbishoprick Spondens Regi Archâ—epiâ—copo se dum viveret non reclamaturum yet after the Clergy of York sued to the Pope for his restitution which produced that letter from Paschalis the 2. in his behalf to Hen. the 1. is in Eadmerus wherein he desires if there were any difference between the two Sees it might be discust in his presence Which was not hearkned to but Calixtus the 2. in a Councell by him held 1119. at Reimes of which before the English Bishops not arrived the Kings Agent protesting against it the Archdeacon of Cant. telling the Pope that jure he could not do it consecrated him Archbishop of York upon which Henry prohibits him all return into his dominions And in the enterview soon after at Gisors though Calixtus earnestly laboured th' admitting him to his See the King would by no means hearken to it So the Pope left the businesse as he found it and Thurstan to prove other wayes to gain th' Archbishoprick 61. Who thereupon became an actor in the peace about that time treated between England and France in which his comportments were such that proniorem ad sese recipiendum Regis animum inflexit so as upon the Popes letters he was afterwards restored ea dispositione ut nullatenus extra provinciam Eboracensem divinum officium celebraret donec Ecclesiae Cantuariensi c. satisfaceret This I take to be the first matter of Episcopacy that ever the Pope as having a power elsewhere of altering what had been here settled did meddle with in England It is true whilst they were raw in Christianity he did sometimes recommend Pastors to this Church so Vitalian did Theodore and farther shewed himself sollicitous of it by giving his fatherly instructions to the English Bishops to have a care of it so did Formosus or some other by his letters 904. upon which Edward th' elder congregated a Synod wherein five new Bishops were constituted by which an inundation of Paganisme ready to break in on the West for want of Pastors was stopt But it is apparent this was done not as having dominion over them for he so left the care of managing the matter to their discretion as he did no way interesse himself in it farther then advise 62. A meeting of English Bishops 1107. at Canterbury or as Florentius Wigorniensis stiles it a Councell restored the Abbot of Ramsey deposed 1102. jussu Apostolico or as Eadmerus juxta mandatum Domini Papae It is manifest this command from Rome to be of the same nature those I mentioned of Calvins or at the most no other then the intercession of the Patriarch of a more noble See to an inferior that by his means had been converted For his restitution after the reception of the Papall letters seems to have been a good while defer'd so that what past at Rome did not disannull his deprivation here till made good in England as at a time when nothing thence was put in execution but by the Regall approbation as the Pope himself complained to the King But after the Church of Rome with th' assistance of th' English Clergy had obtained all elections to be by the Chapters of the Cathedralls upon every Scruple she interposed herself 63. The greatest part of the Convent of London 1136. chose Anselme Abbot of St. Edmundsbury for their Bishop contrary to the Deans opinion and some few of the Chanons who appealed to Rome where th' election 1138 was disannulled the Bishoprick by the Pope recommended to Winchester his then or rather soon after Legat which so remained till 1141. This is the first example of any Bishop chosen received and in possession of a Church in this Kingdome whose election was after quash't at Rome and the sentence obeyed here as it is likewise of any Commendam on Papall command in the Church of England all
Ancestours he could not doubt but he might deal in causing all others be they Clerks or other that offend to suffer condigne punishment 2. For the better understanding how far the ecclesiastick rule of our Princes did extend we are to know they were never doubted to have the same within their dominions Constantine had in the Empire and our Bishops to have that St. Peter had in the Church Ego Constantini vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus said King Edgar to his Clergy in that his speech so recommended to posterity And therefore as after the Christian magistrate began to have government affairs of most concernment in the Church as is said had their dependance on the Emperour the greatest Synods called by him and the holy men of those times did not doubt the continuing to him the title of Pontifex maximus as Baronius notes sine ulla Christianitatis labe and as Constantine did esteem the Ecclesiasticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them for things within but himself for matters without by God appointed a Bishop so the same King Edgar no lesse to be remembred by the English then Charls the Great by the French was solicitous of the Church of his Kingdome veluti Domini sedulus Agricola and Pastorum Pastor was reputed and writ himself the Vicar of Christ and by his laws and Canons assured the world he did not in vain assume those titles and yet sine ulla Christianitatis labe so far as antiquity ever noted 3. What particulars those were the Emperours did hold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be without the Church belonging as I may say to their Episcopacy nothing can better teach us then their commands yet remaining in the laws they publisht as in Cod. Theodos. de feriis de nuptiis c. de fide catholica de Episcopis eccleis Clericis de Monachis de Haereticis de Apostatis de religione de episcopali judicio c. Cod. Iust. lib. 1. Tit. 1 2 3 4 5. passim in eo and in the Novells Novel 6. Quomodo oporteat episcopos caeteros clericos ad ordinationes perduci Novel 137. de ordinatione Episcoporum Clericorum The prefaces to which two laws are remarkable the first shewing the Priestly office is Divinis ministrare and the Princely maximam habere sollicitudinem circa vera D. idogmata circa sacerdotum honestatem c. the other beginning thus Si civibus leges quarum potestatem nobis Deus pro sua in homines benignitate credidit firm as ab omnibus custodiri ad obedientium securitatem studemus quanto plus studii adhibere debemus circa sacrorum Canonum divinarum legum custodiam And accordingly Novel 123. in 43 chapters he did establish many particulars pertaining to the government of the Church and Church-men and Novel 131. not only appointed the observance of the four first generall Councels but decrees the place or precedency of the Pope of Rome and Archbishop of Constantinople should be according to their definitions above all other seats and how far the Dioceses of some Chairs by him newly erected should extend besides other points in severall chapters to the number of 15 treating of particulars solely held now of ecclesiastick cognizance as did likewise Charls the Great and Ludovicus Pius in their capitulars in very many places But with these I have not took upon me farther here to meddle then by naming some to shew they having been practis'd by Emperours the Kings of England endowed from above with the same auctority in ecclesiasticis might very lawfully within their dominions exercise the like the question therefore will be what they did understand their power in the Church to be and accordingly how far they did extend it in use 4. As for the first nothing can speak more clear then what themselves publisht on mature and sad deliberation yet remaining in their laws in which we find the Regall office thus described Rex quia vicarius sammi Regis est ad hoc est constitutus ut regnum terrenum populum Domini super omnia sanctam veneretur ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis dâ—fendat and a little after Debet Rex Deum timere super omnia diligere mandata ejus per totum regnum suum servare debet etiam sanctam ecclesiam regni sui cum omni integritate libertate juxta constitutiones patrum praedecessorum servare fovere manutenere regere contra inimicos defendere ita ut Deus prae caeteris honoretur prae oculis semper habeatur c. Canutus Nobis omni ope atque opera enitendum erit qua potissimum ratione ea exquiramus consilia quae ad Reipublicae pertinent utilitatem pietatem confirment Christianam atque omnem funditus injustitiam evertant c. Iorvalensis renders it quomodo possit recta Christianitas propensius erigi Ina In magna servorum Dei frequentia religiose stud bam tum animorum nostrorum saluti tum communi regni nostri conservationi which Iorvalensis reads sollicitus de salute animarum nostrarum de statu regni shewing the care both of his subjects souls and bodies however after a differing way did in some measure pertain unto him 5. Neither did these expressions passe only from the worst of our Kings but from Ina Rex maxime pius as Baronius stiles him from Canutus who not only himself 1031. went in devotion to Rome but was acknowledged erga ecclesias atque Dei servos benignissimus largitor Edward the Confessour a canonized Saint famous for being the best Kings and holyest men who did not only leave us in their laws the Kings part but what they conceived likewise the Bishops was viz. to be Dei praecones divini juris interpretes that they were rerum divinarum commoda praedicare palam that for and to the people they should vigilare excubare proclamare c. as those that contra spirituales nequitias debent populo praevidere by letting them know qui Dei praeceptis obedire neglâ—xerit hic cum ipso Deo commune non habeat And this is that sword of St. Peter mentioned by King Edgar which when the holy Bishops of the primitive times did only put in execution they neither found Princes backward in supporting their designes nor people refractory to their exhortations Thus we see as they declared the office of a King they were not silent in that of a Bishop shewing how either laboured in his way the reducing people to piety and a vertuous life the one by making good laws for compelling the wicked the other by giving such instructions as convinced the inward man 6. So that we often meet with the Prince extending his commands to the same things the Priest did his persuasions as I. In point of Sacraments That children should
with our auncestors better called Rights I hold impossible the foundation or ground upon which they are built being that power the divine wisdome hath invested the secular Magistrate with for preservation of his Church and people in peace against all emergencies from whomsoever proceeding as the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury writ to Thomas Becket 1167. Rex à Domino constitutus paci providet subjectorum per omnia ut hanc conservet Ecclesiis commissis sibi populis dignitates Regibus ante se debitas exhibitas sibi vult exhiberi And this issuing from so great auctority as in effect the body of all the Clergy of the realm cannot be imagined to be other then the constant opinion of th' English Church In what these Rights have been put in practise in opposition to Rome of which I now treat may in some sort be told but to say these they are and no other is that I mean cannot be So that we may say the affirmative these they are but not the negative others they are not Therefore Eadmerus will have it of the Conquerour that Cuncta divina simul humana ejus nutum expectabant that is in foro exteriori insomuch as when the Clergy 1530. gave the King the title of Head of the Church they intended no other then their fore-fathers when they called him the Defender Patron governor Tutor of it 15. Which the French do attribute to their Kings with more hard expressions Ce que monstre says one que les evesques de ce temps la estimerent le Roy assistè de son conseil d' estat estre apres Dieu Chef terrien de l' Esglise de son Royaume non pas le Pape in the negative Which another explains thus Ce n'est point pour cela que je vueille dire ce que aucuns ount trop indistinctement proferè que les dits Roys Princes Souveraignes soient en leurs estats privativement à tous autres Chefs uniques absolus de l' Esglise de tous les minister d' icelle car pour lereguard de ce que concerne le maniement des choses purement sacrees come l' administration de la parole de Dieu des Sacrements la puissance de lier ou delier voire de regler en particulier le dedans de chacune Esglise la sur-intendance en appartient aux Evesques autres Chefs de la Hierarchie Ecclesiastique a chascun selon leur rang degrâ— Then shewing by a comparison that as the head-Architect leaves to his inferior Agents the use of such instruments as are proper for their undertakings so il n' appartient poynt au Roy de manier les choses sacrees ny supporter comme l' on dit l' arche d' alliance ils doivent laisser cela a ceux de la vocation mais ils peuvent voire soâ—â— tenuz devant Dieu veiller sans cesse avoir l' oeil ouvert a ce que ceux de cest ordre profession principale aussi bien que ceux des autres moindres apportent enloyaute sain conscience tout soin diligence purete sincerite au maniement des charges a eux commises conformement a leur loix regles canons lesquels au cas qu' ils serroient negligez â—ffacez par la rouille de l' antiquite ou que par la malice des hommes il fust besoign d' enfaire des noveaux ils sont tenu user de leur puissance pourn y sapporter des remedes soit par leur Ordonances pragmatiques soit par leurs jugements arrests executions d' iceux e'est ce qu'en France nos predecesseurs ont tousjours appelle la police exterieure sur l' Esglise de la quelle les Empereurs Roys Princes on t use jouy sans contredit tant que l' esglise s'est conservee en sapurete qu' aucuns d' icelle ne se sont ingerez sortants de leurs bornes l. miles d' usurper les functions Royales Insomuch as Benigne Miletot doth not onely affirm their Kings to be Chess Protecteurs Conservateurs de leur esglise Gallicane but pag. 657. recites a speech of th' Archbishop of Vienna made to Henry the 4. 1605. in which he did affirm que le Roy estcit le Coeur la Teste de l. ur corps 16. And other Headship then this I do not know to have been ever attributed to any of our Princes Certainly they did never take on them the exercise of any thing purely sacred but as supream Head Rulers or Governours under God by their Commissioners of which such as bare most sway were ever the Spirituality to visit reform redresse c. all errours Heresies schisms abuses c. And for that the rust of antiquity as that authour styles it had much over-spread the Canons of the Church to assigne sixteen of the Clergy whereof four to be Bishops and as many of the Lay of which four to be learned in the Common laws of this realme to peruse and examineth ' ecclesiasticall laws of long time here used and to gather order and compile such laws ecclesiasticall as shall be thought to his Majesty his said Counsell and them or the more part of them to be practised and set forth within this realme In pursuance of which the 11. November 5 to of Edward the 6. he nominated two Bishops two Divines two Doctours of the Law two Esquires to supervise the ecclesiastick laws of this Kingdome and to compile such a body as were fit to be put in practise within his Dominions whose intendments for it past no further were after printed by Iohn Day 1571. and are no other then what the French for the manner of doing maintain their King might do neither doth th' Inquisition of Spain publish any thing of that nature without th' allowance of their King as I shall shew hereafter 17. So that in my opinion the question cannot be whether Princes are not capable of such a Right but whether it were invested in the Crown formerly and made good by such a continued practise as might authorise ours to take that title when offered by the Clergy 1530. as well as the French Kings have without incroaching on that power th' ecclesiasticks had and by our laws ought to exercise in England Now certain our Kings did in many things go along with the French in causes ecclesiasticall Rex Anglorum exemplum accipiens ab illis Baronibus qui sua statuta sanxerunt in Francia quibus Dominus Francorum favorem jam praebuit sigillum apposuit c. Clement the 7. being held prisoner 1527. by th' Emperour the 18 th of August Cardinall Woolsy made an agreement with the French for setling â—h ' ecclesiastick government of each Kingdome during the Popes captivity For the French I shall remit the reader to the Deed
one to think and do without controule what him list was to let loose all reins of government to leave open a door for sedition to disquiet her Kingdome and the Commonwealth perhaps not to be ever in peace her Maty therefore took a middle way to agree with the primitive times and yet not let every profane humor disturb the Church by erecting a Court with power to visit reform redresse order correct and amend all such errours heresies schismes c. which by any spirituall or ecclesiasticall power authority or jurisdiction can or may lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended yet restraining them from adjudging any thing to be heresy that had not been heretofore adjudged such by the plain words of the canonicall Scriptures or by any one of the first four generall Councells or by any other generall Councell wherein the same was declared heresy by the expresse and plain words of the canonicall scripture or that should hereafter by the Parliament with the assent of the Convocation c. From whence ariseth a question of some intricacie how it came to passe those times spake with so great submission to the four first generall Councells and yet so restrained the other without expressing which they were nor any other particular concerning them For the solution of which we are to know those have been ever looked on by the Catholick Church with more reverence then any other that ever yet were held The Emperour Iustinian 541. declared which they were and that he did receive earum dogmata sicut sanctas scripturas regulas sicut leges observamus who made not the like mention of the fifth though called by him and held in his time Neither did Gregory the great who did reverence them sicut sancti Evangelii quatuor libros make the same esteem of the fifth for having made honourable mention of it in a letter to a Queen of Lombardy sent by a Bishop of Milan the Bishop gave it her not on an opinion she might be scandalized at his naming of it upon which St. Gregory sent him word he did well and in that altered his epistle And the year following viz. 596 the People of Ravenna opposing one Maximianus in being their Bishop as not of sound belief in that he did not carry so great veneration to the Councell of Chalcedon hodoth assure them of the contrary that he did receive those four Councells but makes no mention of the fifth I do not deny but the faith of the fifth and sixth were by this Church approved yet never any of them had that great reverence yielded their dictats the first four had which are therefore said to have been Synodi firmissimae by Elfrick in his Canons to VVulfin 32. But these however of this high esteem yet had not the name of generall appropriated unto them till long after for certainly that distinction was not suddenly brought into the Church at least in that sense it is now taken many Synods by our writers being styled generall to which yet th' obligation was never of that nature as if they did not or could not erre Eadmerus writes Anselm told VVilliam the 2 generale concilium Episcoporum ex quo Rex factus fuisti non fuit in Anglia celebratum and the like phrase is used very frequently for English councells not onely in him but in our other eldest and best historians as Flor. VVigorniensis Simeon Dunelmensis Huntington Gervas Dorobernensis Hoveden c. Mat. Paris speaking of a councell held at VVestminster 1175. calls it Concilium generale which in Diceto is changed to Concilium Regionale and in the margin added out of the Mss. copy sometimes belonging to St. Albans and now at Saint Iames's the best and fairest I ever saw and which I conceive Mat. Paris himself used solius Papae est concilium generale Romanae ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae est concilium universale which I know not how he will make good having the 3d and 4th Councell of Carthage and one held there 403. the Councell of Matiscon and others to contest with which being no other then particular as we now esteem them have in their acts the titles of being universall Councells So the 4th Councell of Toledo is said to have been generall as by Eymericus a Councell in Tarragona 33. Now of such as have been so called it is manifest the value set on them is altogether vanisht and was so long since Malmsbury records the Councells held by Anselm were in his time become obsoleta their credit lost and so we may say of the rest for Lyndwood is very clear no English Councells oblige this Church before 1222. Stephen Langton held one at Oxford As for those which the Popes called as Patriarchs of the West which Diceto conceives were properly generall the rite of former times was never to send hence more then four Bishops unto them which when it came in question 1179. Episcopi Angliae constanter asseruerunt quod ad generale concilium Dom. Papae quatuor Episcopi de Anglia tantum Romam mittendi sunt which is so full a testimony of his having no absolute power over our Bishops not so much as to cause them meet in councell as there cannot well be a greater and therefore when he imposed the oath of which before on them one clause was Vocatus ad Synodum veniam nisi praepeditus fuero canonica praepeditione Yet in after Ages the going thither did onely remain at the Princes pleasure who gave them auctority consentiendi si opus fuerit dissentiendi his quae juxta deliberationem dicti concilii inibi statui ordinari contigerit All which I have spoke of generall Councells that the Reader may know when he meets that phrase in any author he is not necessarily to conclude him to have conceived an obligation of following whatever they said nor that he held it to have been void of Errour for it is unquestionable they and we give the name to such Synods as were esteemed full of imperfections far from that freedome ought to be in Generall Councells to whose Canons they did not hold themselves tyed 34. But because in these cases examples of former times do more convince mens judgements then present affirmations to give some instances not of other then of such as have been lately printed and with that title at Rome as the Councell of Vienna 1311. Which by Gisburnensis who lived about that time is noted to have been nothing lesse then a free Councell the book is not printed I will give you the whole therefore as I find it in him Dominus Papa Clemens tennit concilium suum Viennae Anno Dom. Mccexi primo die mensis Octobris in quo quidem conciliotres fecit sessiones I. In prima sessione facto sermone exposuit Clero tres