Head the Pope Again of the Supremacy of a General Council over particular Churches and so over this of England thus Bishop Bramhal Reply to Chalced. p. 293. upon the words in the Oath and that no Forreign Prelate hath c. A General Council which is no standing Court but an aggregate body composed partly of our selves i. e. of the Prelates of the Church of England is neither included here nor intended General Councils then it seems of which the English Prelates are a part have a Jurisdiction over a particular Church not subordinate to the Secular Governors thereof And if a General Council be once thus admitted I see not how the Head thereof will be totally excluded nor yet inferior Synods Thirdly There is a Supremacy in Spiritual matters Decisions and Decrees I mean as to an independance on the Secular Power for the exercising their office and enacting or divulging of such Decrees belonging to the Metropolitans and their Provincial Synods in all National or Provincial Churches if the First and Second Thesis above stand good § 186 To require therefore upon Oath an utter renouncing of any such Forreign That the renouncing such Supremacy was required of those Bishops or also Domestick Clergy-Supremacy is not lawful But such was required of these Bishops as appears 1. by the express words of the Oath and 2. by the giving of all such Jurisdiction Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as by Any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power i. e. Forreign or Domestick had thitherto been lawfully used over the Ecclesiastical State of this Realm to the Queen at the same time that this Oath was made See before § 70. And 3. by the practice of these times suitable Neither here are those Pleas good that one may take away a just authority from him who hath exercised an unjust for will Secular Princes admit this Rule concerning themselves Or that any small part of the Church Catholick if declining to joyn with the whole is not obliged to the Constitutions of the whole Or not later ages to the Constitutions of the former Or that no particular Church is tyed to the Constitutions of Superior Councils past or present in matter of Church Government or Discipline but only in matters of Faith Or See Church Gâ—v par 1. sect 38.40.59 2. Par. §. 63. 3. Par. §. 27. n. 2. that the Church of England hath not given her consent to such former Constitutions concerning such Church-Government as well as other Churches All which have been discussed in their places Now if these Bishops were thus unjustly ejected for refusing to take an unlawful Oath it follows Sac. Clerg §. that the Bishops succeeding them were unjustly introduced and consequently their Synodal Acts illegal and void § 187 To prevent which inference I find this pleaded by Dr. Fern Examin Champ. 2. c. p. 84. That so many of Queen Mary's Bishops could not be ejected on any other grouÌ„d so as to reader the Protestant Bishops a major part That had none of these Bishops been removed yet the Queens Reforming-Bishops in Synod would have made a major part For saith he α there were six Bishops remaining of King Edward 's and besides there were many Bishopricks actually void at Queen Mary's death which Bishopricks being supplyed by Queen Elizabeth there was no fear that the Popish Bishops who were very suddenly reduced to Nine by death or by quitting the Land should make the major part had the business of Reformation been put at first to a Synodical Vote Thus He. To which it is added by others β That no new Bishops had been elected into the vacant Bishopricks yet if so many only of these Queen Mary's Bishops should have been displaced as came into the Bishopricks of King Edward's former Protestant Bishops unjustly cast out the six remaining Bishops of King Edward with Landaff joyned to them would have out-numbred the remainder of Queen Mary's Bishops § 188 Reply to α But to these 't is easily replyed To α That 1. First it hath been shewed already That some of these six Bishops could not lawfully now act because justly removed from their Bishopricks in Queen Mary's days of the Suffragan Bishops See before §. 54. c. more by and by Secondly That Queen Elizabeth could not justly and legally supply the then vacant Bishopricks with any persons but such as the major part of her present Clergy which surely were Catholicks and would have admitted no other did first approve of consecrate and confirm Of which see what is said before in the Third Thesis and in the Church-Canons there-cited To which I will add the testimony of Mr. Thorndike Right of the Church 5. c. p. 248. c. The fourth Canon saith he of the Council of Nice requireth that all Bishops be ordained by a Council of the Bishops of the Province sifieri potest Which Council because it cannot always be had therefore it is provided there that two or three may do the work the rest consenting and authorizing the proceeding And this is that which the ordinance of the Apostles hath provided to keep the visible Communion of the whole Church in unity But when among the Bishops of any Province part consent to Ordination part not the unity of the Church cannot be preserved unless the consent of the whole follow the consent of the greater part And therefore it seemeth that there can no valid ordination be made where the greater number of the Bishops of the Province dissent Which is confirmed by the Ordination of Novatianus for Bishop of Rome Which tho done by three Bishops yet was the Foundation of that great Schisme because Cornelius was ordained on the other side by Sixteen Thus Mr. Thorndike § 189 To β. To β. 1. First that those may be lawful Bishops who come into the places of other Bishops whilst living if the other be justly ejected as King Edward's Bishops were Secondly That of the fifteen Catholick Bishops there were only four that came into the place of any Protestant Bishop living when he was first elected thereto namely Heath Bourne Christophorson See before §. 54. and Turbervile into the place of Holgate Barlow Scory and Coverdale For all of the rest Bonner Pate White Goldwell Watson Poole Scot Bayne Oglethorp Thirlby Tonstal succeeded either Catholick Bishops or Protestant Bishops deceased And those four Protestant Bishops were all married persons and so excluded by the Canon and three of them Holgate Barlow Coverdale married Monks But of the fifteen Catholick Bishops there were only two that came into the place of any Protestant Bishop when living which Protestant Bishop had not first entred into the place of a Catholick Bishop when living For Coverdale and Scory Protestants came into the Catholicks Day 's and Voicy's Bishopricks in King Edward's time whilst they living The truth of these things you may see in Godwins Catalogue of Bishops CHAP. XII The Canonical Defects of King Edward's and Queen Elizabeth's new Bishops §
belonged to the Church Mulctative power is understood either as it is with coaction or as it is referred to Spiritual censures As it standeth in Spiritual censures it is the right of the Church and was practiced by the Church when without Christian Magistrate and since But coactive Jurisdiction was always ways understood to belong to the Civil Magistrate whether Christian or Heathen And by this power saith he c. 4 p. 39. without coaction the Church was called Faith was planted Devils were subdued the Nations were taken out of the power of darkness the World reduced to the obedience of Christ by this power without coactive Jurisdiction the Church was governed for Three Hundred years together But if it be inquired what was done when the Emperors were Christian and when their coactive power came in The Emperors saith he p. 178. never took upon them by their authority to define matters of Faith and Religion that they left to the Church But when the Church had defined such truths against Hereticks and had deposed such Hereticks then the Emperors concurring with the Church by their Imperial Constitutions did by their coactive power give strength to the Canons of the Church But then what if the Emperors being Christian should take upon them by their authority to define matters of Faith or should use their coactive power against the Canons of the Church Take the answer of another reformed Writer Mr. Thorndike Right of Church 4. c. p. 234. The power of the Church is so absolute saith he and depending on God alone that if a Sovereign professing Christianity should forbid the Profession of that Faith or the exercise of those Ordinances which God hath required to be served with or even the exercise of that Ecclesiastical power which shall be necessary to preserve the Unity of the Church it must needs be necessary for those that are trusted with the power of the Church not only to disobey the Commands of the Sovereign but to use that power which their quality in the Society of the Church gives them to provide for the subsistence thereof without the assistance of Secular powers A thing manifestly supposed by all the Bishops of the ancient Church in all those actions wherein they refused to obey their Emperors seduced by Hereticks and to suffer their Churches to be regulated by them to the prejudice of Christianity Which actions whosoever justifies not he will lay the Church open to ruine whensoever the Sovereign power is seduced by Hereticks And such a difference falling out i. e between Prince and Clergy in Church matters as that to particular persons it cannot be clear who is in the right It will be requisite saith he for Christians in a doubtful case at their utmost perils to adhere to the Guides of the Church against their lawful Sovereigns tho to no other effect than to suffer if the Prince impose it for the exercise of their Christianity and the maintenance of the Society of the Church in Unity tho contrary to the Sovereigns commmands Thus Mr. Thorndike in Right of the Church 4. chap. And like things he saith in his Epilog of the Church of Engl. See there 1. l. 9. c. the Contents whereof touching this Subject he hath briefly expressed thus That that power which was in Churches under the Apostles can never be in any Christian Sovereign That the Interest of Secular power in determining matters of Faith presupposeth the Society of the Church and the Act of it That the Church is the chief Teacher of Christianity thro Christendome as the Sovereign is of civil Peace thro his Dominions And there he giveth reasons why the Church is to decide matters of Faith rather than the State supposing neither to be infallible And see 1. l. 20. c. p. 158. Where he saith That He who disturbs the Communion of the Church remains punishable by the Secular power to inflict Temporal Penalties not absolutely because it is Christian but upon supposition that this Temporal power maintaineth the true Church And afterward That the Secular power is not able of it self to do any of those Acts which the Church i. e those who are qualified by and for the Church are qualified by vertue of their Commission from Christ to do without committing the Sin of Sacriledge in seizing into its own hands the powers which by Gods Act are constituted and therefore consecrated and dedicated to his own Service not supposing the free Act of the Church without fraud and violence to the doing of it i. e. joyned to the Secular power doing such Act. Now amongst the Acts and Powers belonging to the Church which he calls a Corporation by divine right and appointment he names these l. 1. c. 16. p. 116. The power of making Laws within themselves of Electing Church Governors of which see 3. l. 32. c. p. 398 and of excommunicating and 3. l. 32. c. p 385 the power to determine all matters the determination whereof is requisite to maintain the communion of Christians in the Service of God and the power to oblige Christians to stand to that determination under pain of forfeiting that Communion the power of holding Assemblies of which he speaketh thus 1. l. 8. c. p. 54. I that pretend the Church to be a Corporation Founded by God upon a Priviledge of holding visible Assemblies for the common Service of God notwithstanding any Secular force prohibiting the same must needs maintain by consequence that the Church hath power in it self to hold all such Assemblies as shall be requisite to maintain the common Service of God and the Unity in it and the order of all Assemblies that exercise it Thus Mr. Thorndike Discourse of Episcopacy and Presbytery p. 19. And thus Dr Fern of the power of Judicature belonging to the Clergy It is confessed saith he on both sides that the power of Ordination and of Judicature so far as the Keys left by Christ in his Church do extend is of divine Institution and that this power must be exercised or administred in the Church by some either Bishops or Presbyters is also confessed to be of divine right Therefore surely no Secular Prince can justly prohibit within his dominions the exercise of such Judicature nor prohibiting is to be obeyed and Christ's substitutes herein being denyed the assistance of the Civil power are to proceed without it To these I will add what Dr. Taylor hath delivered on the same Subject in Episcopacy asserted and this the rather because this Treatise was published by the Command of so understanding a Prince He after that p. 263. he hath laid this ground for the security of Secular Princes That since that Christ hath professed that his Kingdom is not of this world that Government which he hath constituted de novo doth no way make any intrenchment on the Royalty hath these passages P. 237. he saith That those things which Christianity as it prescinds from the interest of the Republick hath introduced all
upon the Universities abroad was demanded by the Parliament from the Clergy at home because it was said that the Cardinal and some other chief amongst them were thro their falshood and dissimulation the cause of this Forreign Expence Which Summe they resolutely refusing to contribute the whole Clergy are sued by the King and condemned by the Kings Bench in a Premunire also for receiving and acknowledging the Cardinals Power Legantine exercised by him ignorantly or presumptuously without the Kings consent and allowance first obtained The Clergy thus become liable at the Kings pleasure to the Imprisonment of their Persons and confiscation of their Estates assemble themselves in the House of Convocation offer to pay for their Ransome the demanded 100000 l. § 20 But the King having now no hopes of obtaining a Licence for his Divorce from the Pope who at this time stood much in awe of the Emperor victorious in Italy and a near Kinsman and Favourer of Queen Katherine that the Popes Decrees might be of no force against him negociates also by his Agents with the Clergy whilst in these fears to give him the Title of Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters within his Dominions making account that this obtained he had the assent of his own Clergy at his beck for the nulling of his former Marriage Therefore in the drawing up of the Clergy's Petition to the King for release of the Premunire it was signified from the Court cujus consilii Cranmerus Cromwellus clam authores fuisse existimabantur saith the Author Antiq. Brittanic p. 325. that a Title should be prefixed wherein they should stile the King ecclesiae cleri Anglicani Protector supremum Caput or else the Petition would not be accepted To which with some difficulty they agreed so as qualifying it with this Clause Quantum per legem Christi licet But the King again excepting at this limitation as unworthy the Clergy who either did or ought to know and definitively instruct others what Christs Law did or did not allow at last upon renewed threats this Clause also was procured to be omitted See Antiquit. Brittannic p. 326. Sed Regi saith that Author displicuit ancipitem dubiamque mitigationem moderationem verborum a cleri sui Synodo quae de Christi lege aut certa fuit aut certa esse debuit tam frigide proferri Itaque Cromwellum ad Synodum iterum mandans eam aut tolli voluit aut clerum incursas Sanctionum paenas pati Omnium igitur ex sententiis Rex sine ambiguitate ullâ ecclesiae Angliae supremum caput declaratus est But yet this was not done till after the Clergy who much alledged that the King or some of his Successors might upon this Title ruine the Church of England in their ordering Spiritual matters without or against the Clergy thereof had obtained a voluntary promise from him to this effect That he would never by vertue of that Grant assume to himself any more power over the Clergy than all others the Kings of England had assumed nor that he would do any thing without them in altering ordering or judging in any Spiritual matters See Bishop Fisher's Life published by Dr. Bayly And this was the first Act of the Clergy which being so understood as excluding all authority of the Western Patriarch over the Church of England and transferring such authority for the future to the King is contrary to the Fourth Thesis because some such authority was conferred on this Patriarch by Superior Councils And which Act was so passed by them that as Dr. Hammond acknowledged of Schism 7. c. it is easy to believe See Church Gov. 1. Part §. 4. and §. 20. that nothing but the apprehensions of dangers which hung over them by a Premunire incurred by them could probably have inclined them to it § 22 After the conceding of this Title of Supremacy to the King and exclusion of the Pope's Authority out of his Dominions and the voiding of all appeals made hence unto him and after the Kings Marriage to Anne Bullen also but before the publication thereof Cranmer being now chosen Arch-Bishop of Canterbury upon the death of Warham a Favourer of the Queen Katherine's Cause Summons her to appear before him and some other Bishops and Commissioners and upon her neglect solemnly dissolveth the Kings former Marriage with her and divorceth him from her § 23 But the Kings ends thus obtained yet things rested not here And how far only at the first they seem to have allowed it But whereas formerly till the Twenty fifth year of Henry the Eighth the Synods of the Clergy saith Dr. Heylin § 1. p 7. after called by the Kings Writ acted absolutely in their Convocations of their own authority the Kings or Parliaments assent or ratification neither concurring nor required and whereas by this sole authority which they had in themselves they made Canons declared Heresies convicted and censured persons suspected of Heresy c Now they having declared the King supream Head of the Church instead of the Pope the Western Patriarch it seemed reasonable therefore that no Acts of the Church should stand good without the concurrence of the Head And conducing much to this end as I learn from the forenamed Dr was a Petition or Remonstrance exhibited to the King by the House of Commons after the Ice was broken A. 1532. See Fullâ—rs Appeal of Injur'd Innocence Pa. 2. p. 65. In which saith he they desiring that the Convocation should be brought down to the same level with the Houses of Parliament and that their Acts and Constitutions should not bind their Subjects as before in their Goods and Possessions until they were confirmed and ratified by the Regal power they shewed themselves aggrieved that the Clergy of this Realm should act authoritatively and supreamly in the Convocation and they in Parliament do nothing but as it was confirmed and ratified by Royal assent An Answer unto which Remonstrance saith he was drawn up by Dr. Gardiner then newly made Bishop of Winchester and being allowed of by both Houses of Convocation was by them presented to the King But the King not satisfied with this Answer resolved to bring them to his bent and therefore on the Tenth of May sent a Paper to them by Dr. Foxe after Bishop of Hereford in which it was peremptorily required that no Constitution or Ordinance shall be hereafter by the Clergy Enacted promulged or put in execution unless the Kings Highness do approve the same and his advice and favour be also interponed for the execution c. Whereupon on the Fifteenth of the same Month they made their absolute submission So He. And thus the next step therefore of this Reformation was that the King so requiring it they bound themselves by a Synodical Act for the time to come not to assemble themselves at all without the Kings Writ and when assembled not to enact promulge or execute any Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provincial or
prejudicial to the Temporal and Civil Rights and Emoluments and Priviledges of the Prince and of his Subjects that the Mitre might not encroach upon the Crown both which have their certain limits of Jurisdiction and may do wrong one to the other Such authority as this then in Church-matters you may find exercised by former Princes of England or perhaps some other power used by them against the Church and defended by the common Lawyers of those days more than is justifiable But on the other side I think you will not find either assumed by the Prince or allowed to him by any Statutes before the times of Henry the Eighth such Powers in Ecclesiastical matters as some of these following Namely A Power to correct and reform all Errors and Heresies in Religion by such persons as the Prince shall appoint to judge thereof half of them being Laicks repealing also the former course of tryal of them by the ordinary Church-Magistrates as you may see below § 39. A Power to make and reverse Ecclesiastical Laws alter the Church Liturgies publick Forms of administring the Sacraments Ordinals c without the consent of the major part of the Clergy or any lawful Church Authority A Power to hinder and prohibits the Clergy that they may correct or reform any such Heresies or may make or publish any such Ecclesiastical Decrees or Laws within the Kings Dominions without his consent thereto first obtained Without his Consent not to examine whether such their Constitutions might be any way prejudicial to the State Temporal for this were but meet and just but whether such be agreeable or repugnant to Gods Word and dangerous to the Peoples Salvation and Spiritual State A Power thus in all Causes Ecclesiastical Licences Faculties Dispensations to be the final Judge by himself or by his Court of Chancery or by some other Deputies whom he pleaseth to choose to whom Appeal may be made concerning what is agreeable or what repugnant to the Holy Scripture A Power to restrain all Forreign Appeals and Censures from thence not only in all Cases mixt with the Interests of the Temporal Government but also in all matters meerly Spiritual and of Ecclesiastical Cognizance A Power to prohibit or reverse any Ecclesiastical Constitutions of Councils Patriarchal or General tho in things wherein Temporal Regalities or Prerogatives or the Temporal safety and peace of the people is not concerned but as I said upon pretence of their being conceived to contain something repugnant to Gods Law A Power to hinder that no Ecclesiastical Governors may call any Synod or Assembly within his Dominions nor exercise in foro externo any Ecclesiastical Censures without his consent A Power to command such persons to be induced and instituted in Ecclesiastical Benefices and Dignities whom the lawful Ecclesiastical Power refuseth as Unorthodox or Uncanonical See Schism Guardâ—d p. 61.161 Vindic. p. 268. Lastly A Coactive Power in foro externo so far extended as that it leaves for the Clergy as independently belonging to them only an Internal Power or Jurisdiction in the Court of Conscience or an Habitual Power of Preaching Administring the Sacraments exercising the power of the Keys in foro conscientiae ordaining and degrading Ecclesiasticks but without any Liberty actually or lawfully to exercise the same in any Princes Dominions if he denyeth it without any Power allowed to the Clergy to summon Offenders in foro externo and to punish them with the Spiritual Sword either for their convicted crimes or for non-appearance and this whether Secular Princes either favour or oppose without any Power to call or keep any publick Assemblies for publick Worship for decision of Controversies in Religion for making Church Laws i. e such as prejudice no Temporal Rights and publishing and imposing the same Determinations and Canons upon Ecclesiastical Censures upon the Church's Subjects in the several Dominions of Princes whether they consent or resist Without any Power of their electing and ordaining future Clergy in the several Dominions of Princes Christian as well as others whenever these Princes shall propose or assent to the admission of no such persons as they I mean the lawful Church Authority shall judge Orthodox and capable Such Powers are not mentioned at least clearly by Bishop Bramhal to belong to the Clergy but seem to be swallowed in the Coactive Power of the Prince Such Powers were in the possession of the Church independently on Princes for the first Three Hundred Years Such Powers being translated to the Secular Governors when Christian do arm them when Christians Heretical to change and overturn the Church in their Dominions as they please whilst the Clergy ought not to contradict Such Powers are said to belong to the Prince since the Reformation and indeed without these the Reformation could not well have been effected and I think are given to them in the fore-quoted Statutes If these Powers are said not to belong to these Princes let them name which of these are not But Lastly such Powers cannot be shewed to have been given or been due to our Kings by the former Laws unless we will believe that the Laws of the Land then contradicted that Obedience which those Princes yielded to the Church or that those Princes even when most fallen out with the Church would voluntarily forego so many of their rights Thus much to the first Defence used by Bishop Bramh. §. 35. n. 3. That Henry the Eighth's Statutes were only declarative of the former Laws For the second thing said by him That King Henry the Eighth by these Statutes claimed only an External Coactive Power in Causes Ecclesiastical in foro contentioso if by External Coactive Power he meaneth the exercising of all those Powers which I have but now named with Coaction and the Material Sword then the Secular Prince seems to assume and exercise several of those Powers which are only the Churches rights But if by Coactive Power he meaneth only the Kings calling of the Clergy together to consult of Church Affairs and his assisting with the Secular Sword their Constitutions and Decrees and making their Laws his own by Temporal Mulcts and Penalties and compelling particular Clergy as well as Laity to do that which the Church declares to be their duty compelling I say with outward force for herein the Bishop seemeth to place the Kings Power in Spiritual matters See Schism Guarded p. 93. How can the Pope saith he pretend to any Coactive power in England where the Power of the Militia and all Coactive force is legally invested in the King And p. 92. The Primitive Fathers did assemble Synods and make Canons c But they had no Coactive Power to compel any man against his Will the uttermost they could do was to separate him from their Communion And p. 166 Who can summon another mans Subjects to appear where they please and imprison and punish them for not appearing without his leave Likewise p. 168. and compare them with his former
the Kings learned Council the which they should command in his Majesties behalf to be thenceforth observed of every person to whom they did appertain within their sundry Circuits These Injuctions as we find in the Kings Preface to them are directed to both Clergy and Laity for the suppression of Idolatry and Superstition and the extirpation of enormities and abuses by the King supreme authority assisted by the advice of his most dear Vncle the Duke of Somerset and the esidue of his most honorable Council And of the same universal Visitation made by the Kings appointment thus speak the Antiquit. Britann p. Paulo post omnes Papales caremoniae Missationes Exequiae Sanctorum invocationes mortuorum expiationes precationumque formulae è templis christianorum caetu sublatae atque deletae sunt Ad hanc rem a Rege visitatio totius regni generalis decernitur datique cum amplissimis mandatis certi Visitatores qui singulas Dioceses lustrarent And in this Visitation beside the general Injunctions for the whole estate of the Realm saith Mr. Fox Ibid. there were shops only which were by the Commissioners committed to the said Bishops with charge to be inviolably observed upon pain of the Kings Majesty's displeasure First That they should see and cause all the Kings Injunctions theretofore given or after to be given from time to time thro their Diocess faithfully to be observed Moreover that they should not at any time or place preach or set forth unto the people any Doctrine contrary to the effect and intent set forth in the Kings Highnesse's Homilies which Homilies are the stating of several Doctrinals in Religion neither yet should give Licence to preach to any but to such as they should know for at least assuredly trust would do the same of whom if any offended herein that they should inhibit and punish him and revoke their Licence § 109 Thus much at large out of Mr. Fox touching the first proceedings of the King and his Council in the Reformation In the prohibition of Preaching till he had setled Religion before the calling of any Parliament or Synod But to prosecute this matter a little further after the enjoyning the Doctrine of the Homilies and other matters the King finding much reluctance and opposition to them in many also of this Ministery licenced by their Ordinaries or rather in the Ordinaries also themselves He in the beginning of the second year of his Reign by his Proclamation February the Sixth inhibited any to preach except he were licenced under the Seal either of the Lord Protector or of Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury About this time he restrained likewise the Bishops themselves thought too actively busy in several places of their Diocesses how doth this agree with Mr. Fox his dumb Prelates See before § 107. to preach only in their own Cathedrals a thing saith Winchester writing to the Protector the like whereof hath not been known in any time Fox p. 1224 Some seven Months after neither finding those licenced by the Protector and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury conformable to the Doctrines prescribed By a Proclamation put forth Sept. 23 he inhibited the whole Clergy thro the Kingdome as well saith the Proclamation the said Preachers before licensed as all others whosoever they be to preach in open audience in the Pulpit or otherwise the reason there given because those licenced had abused the said authority of Preaching and had behaved themselves irreverently and without good order in the said preaching contrary to such good instructions as were given unto them the time of silence there prescribed because that his Majesty minded to see very shortly one uniform order throughout this his Realm and to put an end to all Controversies in Religion for which cause at that time certain Bishops and notable learned men by his Highness's command were congregated therefore he inhibited them until the said order shall be set forth which should shew them what Doctrine they were to preach § 110 The defence made by the Protestant Divines concerning K. Edw. Proceedings in matters of Religion composed by some such Bishops and other Learned as were elected to this by the Prince See the Proclamation in Fuller p. 388. Lib. 7. And thus much of the first beginnings and manner of King Edward the Sixth's Reformation In defence of which I find these things said by Dr Fern Consider of Reform 2. c. 9. § c. Dr. Hammond Schism 7 c. 14. § and other 1. That these Injunctions and the like of the King and Council were not set forth α but by the advice and consent of the Metropolitan the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the authority of which Metropolitant much is to be attributed See Cart. Apost 34. and Concil Nicaen 4. c. and of β other Bishops and learned men first consulted with 2. That γ these Injunctions were not set forth as a Body of Doctrine which was an Act of the Synod held in the fifth year of King Edward's Reign but were Provisional only for the publick exercise of Religion and Worship δ which was necessary to be provided for in present Dr. Fern p. 74 75. 3. ζ That they extended only to some evident points the abolishing of Image-worship the restoring of the Liturgy in a known Tongue and Communion in both kinds and the abolishing of Romish Masses ε in which things was the main of King Edward's Reformation p. 71 ζ and that in them the King restored only what was established and used in the ancient Church viz. Divine Service in a known tongue Communion in both kinds without Image-worship p. 76. 4. η That the Kings Injunctions were generally received and put in practice by the Bishops in their several Diocesses as is avouched expresly in the charge given in against Gardiner Bishop of Winchester p. 77. Fox p. 1219 where it is said ' That they were of all men of all sorts obediently received and reverently observed and executed save only of the Bishop of Winchester θ At least that the Kings Injunctions were consented and submitted to by the much major part of Bishops the Bishops imprisoned or ejected being a much smaller number compared with the rest Dr. Hammond p. 147. κ And then that it can make no real difference whether the Reformation begin from a vote of Bishops in Synod and so proceeding to the Prince be by him received and established or take beginning from the Piety of the Prince moved by advice of faithful Bishops and so proceeding to the whole body of the Clergy be by them generally received and put in practice according to the command of the Sovereign authority Dr. Fern p. 80.79 5. μ That at least in the fifth year of King Edward it must be granted that an Ecclesiastical Synod acknowledged the truth and lawfulness of the former Injunctions constituting the same things in a body of forty two Articles of Religion which Articles were shortly after published by the Kings authority with this Title prefixed
Doctrine mentioned above before § 45. § 114 To δ. To δ. That if there was then a present necessity of providing for the publick exercise of Religion and Worship so this being a matter of the greatest moment there was also a necessity that the judgment of the National Synod and not only of the Kings private Council should be had therein lest by remedying such things hastily they should be remedied amiss 1. That it is most probable had the Clergy been generally consulted-with herein they would have discovered no such necessity because the same Clergy but a year ago in Henry the Eighth's time at least for a major part of them saw no necessity of charging the Church's Service as appeareth in the first second fifth sixth of the Six Articles ratified as by the King so by Synod And this their judgment not likely to be mistaken because the judgment of the whole Catholick Church for near a 1000 years had been the same using the same publick exercise of Worship which King Edward found in this Church of England See Church Govern 4. Part and therefore some of King Edward's Bishops saw a necessity of leaving their Bishopricks rather than to admit any change thereof § 115 To ε. That the sew things here mentioned are not the only considerable things that passed in King Edward's Reformation To ε. as will be seen by and by and as is manifest in Queen Elizabeth's and the modern Reformation which our Writers contend scarce in any thing to differ from King Edward's But if it be meant that those matters were the main of his Reformation in the beginning of his Reign the Doctrines of the Homilies then also imposed contradict this and the Articles to Winchester before § 108. But now to come to what is said of the points here mentioned § 116 To ζ. 1. That first where a pretension is that the things by the King enjoyned are things evident ζ. and established in the ancient Church the Clergy also ought to be Judge of this especially when the contrary was said in King Henry's days whether evident whether primitive because to judge whether primitive requires much learning and is indeed the chief means by which Controversies are decided namely this the examining how former Church hath interpreted the Scriptures which Scriptures all sides draw to their own sense § 117 But secondly it is denyed 2. that all the Reformation made in the publick Service was established in the ancient Church and affirmed that the Reformation proceeded also further in these points than is here mentioned Thus much is granted to remove here that ambiguity and deceit which lies in Universals That Images and so the veneration or worship of them were very seldome if at all used in the Christian Church for some of the first Centuries That the publick Communion was then most commonly if not always administred in both kinds unto the people That the Divine Service which then as now was celebrated usually in the Latine or Greek Tongue was much better in those days than now understood of the common people Likewise it is granted That the having the Liturgy or Divine Service or the Holy Scriprures in a known tongue is not prohibited nor the using of Images enjoyned nor the Priests administring and the Peoples receiving the Communion in both kinds if the Supreme Church Governors so think fit declared unlawful by any Canon of any Council § 118 But the Reformation of King Edward in these things went further For it translated not simply the former Divine Service into a known Tongue a thing which might easily have been done for Mr. Fox himself hath done so much see p. 1272. in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign to expose it to laughter and lay open its Errors and Superstitions but changed and altered it of which is made no mention in ζ taking away the Sacrifice of the Mass See Stat. 1. Edw. 6.14 c. Aâ—d Articles sent to Winchester and declaring such thing unbeneficial and vain either pro vivis or defunctis Contrary to the tenent and practice of the Primitive Church which in such sense offered it as is shewed elsewhere in the discourse of the Eucharist and in Chur. Govern 4. Part and Contrary to the declared judgment of the English Clergy but a few years before as appears in the fifth of the Six Articles and declared likewise the Mass-book to have many Superstitions in it and to be full of abuses contrary to the long approbation of the whole Church Catholick in the publick use thereof from age to age without any considerable difference Again his Reformation held no consideration sufficient to deny the Cup to the Communicants contrary not only to the definition of a former Superior Council that of Constance and the declared opinion of the English Clergy in the second of the Six Articles but contrary to the tenent and practice of the Primitive times who sometimes in private Communions administred it only in one kind as is shewed in the discourse of Communion in one kind It took away all private Masses as holding it unlawful for the Priest to celebrate and communicate alone contrary to the ancient practice of the quotidian Christian Sacrifice whether any of the people communicating or no offered unto God for the impetration of his mercies upon the Church and contrary to the declared judgment of the English Clergy in the fifth of the Six Articles In which single communicating of the Priest casually happening if there be any fault made it is to be laid not on the Priests performance of this dayly Service but on the people's indevotion and neglect to accompany him in that holy Banquet Whereas the Church that useth such private Masles wisheth that the Priest might never communicate alone but if this sometimes happen which is not the Priests fault the Church doth not therefore command this Sacrifice of the Eucharist to be omitted quod Sacrificium a publico Ecclesiae ministro non pro se tantum sed pro omnibus fidelibus qui ad Christi corpus pertinent celebratur See Conc. Trid. 22. Sess 6. cap. This loss is a worse thing than the other indecency Lastly It held the veneration of Images or Saints Reliques unlawful contrary to the definition of a former General Council the second Nicene which Council also justifies it by Antiquity Now King Edward's Reformation proceeeding thus far you see interests it self not only in matter of Practice but Doctrine And indeed there could be no such necessity pretended of reforming the publick Service in such a manner had they not judged the former frame thereof to be grounded on some erroneous opinions But had the Reformation only translated the former Church Liturgies and Scriptures into a known Tongue administred Communion in both kinds thought fit not to use Images changed something of practice only without any decession from the Church's Doctrines 't is probable the Church-Governors would have been facile to licence these
where they could be secure of no breach in greater matters § 119 To η. Where concerniâ—g the Clergy's concurrence and consent to the Kings Reformations To η. That the words urged out of the charge against Winchester prove not the Clergy's reception of or submission to all the Kings Injunctions touching the Reformation but only to the first Injunctions That whether they be extended to the first or to all they must be understood in some such sense as this That at that time when this charge against Winchester was drawn there were as yet none other known to the Council that did by open Protestation and Letters as it follows in that charge shew a wilful disobedience thereto c. Or else the verity of them will not consist with the story of those times which often signify a great opposition and averseness in many of the Clergy besides Winchester to the Kings proceedings in the alteration of Religion so far as that many were silenced suspended imprisoned ejected out of their Spiritual Preferments for this cause § 120 For evidencing which see first in Fox p. 1192. Bishop Bonner's protestation concerning these first Injunctions and Homilies when they were tendered unto him by the Commissioners which protestation was so far from being interpreted an obedient reception or reverent observance of them that for it he was sent to the Fleet. And what was done by Gardiner and Bonner leading Bishops that it was done also by many others I pray you review Mr. Fox's words before recited § 107 That for the most part the Bishops of Churches and Diocesses were changed which you may compare with what is said before § 107. of the many new Bishops made by King Edward That Learned Men were sent for out of forreign Countries surely not because the Leaders of the Universities were not so well studied see their Disputations but because not so conformable to the new prescriptions That of the old Bishops some were committed to one ward some to another where he names Bonner Gardiner Tonstal but might have mentioned also Heath Day Vesy that we know of And to the same purpose much-what speaketh Godwin p. 223. A. D. 1548 who after having commended Day and Tonstal for very learned Pre lates saith That the drift of the punishments of such men when in Henry's time they were accounted the chief Lights of our Church he conceives to have been that the rest of that Order might by their Example be admonished without dissimulation either to resign their Bishopricks to others that were thought by the present times more worthy or be induced by this terror to conform themselves to the present Reformation of the Church according to the prescript of the Laws in that behalf lately enacted i. e by Parliament Thus he But that the imprisonment of these or of some other Clergy as also that the dissent of many others to the Kings Injunctions who were not as yet imprisoned for it preceded the confirmation of these Injunctions by any Act of Parliament or Convocation appears from the very Act it self 2. Edw. 6.1 c. Where the Parliament desires of the King That all persons that have offended in the Premises i. e in refusing the Form of Common-Prayer or at least of the Mass Fox p. 1184 imposed by the King before this Act other than such person or persons as now be and remain saith the Act in the ward of the Tower of London or in the Fleet may be pardoned thereof Some Clergy therefore were imprisoned for this cause before this Act and more also had offended in this matter than those who were imprisoned whose pardon here was begged by the Parliament § 121 Which reluctance of the Clergy may be seen also in what Mr. Fox relateth p. 1184 who after he hath first told us how a new Form of Communion was agreed on by certain learned men appointed by the King which Form you must know was not allowed or seen by the first Parliament of King Edward which Parliament appointed Communion in both kinds indeed but this might have been observed without altering or adding one Syllable to the Mass and enjoined by the Council to be duly executed both by the Bishops and their subordinate Clergy thus complains Nevertheless saith he as at no time any thing can be so well done of the godly but that the wicked will find some means to deface the same so likewise at this present thro the perverse obstinacy and dissembling frowardness of many inferiour Priests and Ministers of Cathedral and other Churches of this Realm there did arise a marvellous Schism and variety of fashions in celebrating the Common Service and administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church For some zealously allowing the Kings proceedings did gladly follow the order thereof and others though not so willingly admitting them did yet dissemblingly and patchingly use some part of them but many carelesly contemning all would still exercise their old wonted Popery i. e in other language would still retain the former solemn Church Service Thus He. Now this variety of fashions only mentioned by Fox if you desire more particularly to know we find a more punctual relation thereof in Parsons 3. Convers of England 2. Part 12. Chapter What a Babylonical confusion saith he in the two first years of the Kings Reign ensued upon these innovations in all Churches is wonderful to recount For some Priests said the Latine Mass some the English Communion some both some neither some half of the one half of the other This was very ordinary to say the Introitus Confiteor in English and then the Collects and some other parts in Latine after that again the Epistles and Gospels in English and then the Canon of the Mass in Latine and lastly the Benediction and last Gospel in English But that which was of more importance and impiety some did consecrate Bread and Wine others did not but would tell the people before-hand That they would not consecrate but restore them their Bread and Wine back again as they received it from them only adding to it the Church's benediction And those that did consecrate did consecrate in divers forms some aloud some in secret some in one form of words some in another And after Consecration some held up the Host to be adored after the old fashion and some did not and of those that were present some did kneel down and adore others did shut their eyes others turn away their faces others run out of the Church crving Idolatry Hitherto Parsons View also Dr. Heylin's Hist. of Reform p. 63.74 concerning this-matter Whereby we see how averse and unsatisfied divers of the Clergy were with the Kings alterations § 122 And this not only before his new Liturgy is said to be confirmed by Act of Parliament and Convocation but after also For afterward we find the King and his Council in their Letter to the Bishop of London Fox p. 1186. complaining That it
repugning as they might well against the late spoyl of the Church-goods taken away only by commandment of the higher powers without any law or order of Justice and without request or consent of them to whom they did belong And Calvin in a Letter to Arch-Bishop Cranmer written about An. Dom. 1551. giving a reason why the English Church was so ill stored with good Pastors hath these words Vnum apertum obstaculnm esse intelligo quod praedae expositi sunt Ecclesiae reditus So early you see even together with the first dawning of the Reformation began that Sacriledge to be committed on some Bishopricks which our days have seen accomplished on the rest Lay menders of Religion ordinarily terminating in these two things the advancing of their carnal Liberty and temporal Estates § 140 In defacing of Images By vertue of such Supremacy He caused to be removed out of Churches and to be defaced and destroyed all Images of Saints Concerning which Reformation his Council writes to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in this stile We have thought good to signify unto you that his Highnesse's pleasure with the advice and consent of us the Lord Protector and the rest of the Council is that immediately upon the sight hereof you shall give order that all the Images remaining in any Church within your Diocess be taken away and also by your Letters shall signify unto the rest of the Bishops within your Province this his Highnesse's pleasure c. Fox p. 1183. See likewise Stat. 3. and 4. Edw. 6.10 c. This he did when as the second Nicene Council not only had allowed but recommended the use of them But he proceeded also further than this and declared the worshiping and veneration of any such Images or Relicks to be repugnant to Gods word and unlawful superstitious idolatrous See the 22 of the 42 Articles and Article to Winchester 11 and the Doctrine of his Homilies § 141 By vertue of such Supremacy He imposed An. Dom. 1547 a Book of Homilies not approved by any Synod before nor after till 1552 if then in which Book were stated several Controversies of Divinity See Article 11 of the 42 referring to these Homilies for the stating of Justification ex solâ fide the King forbidding the Clergy to preach any Doctrine repugnant to the same Homilies under pain of being silenced or otherwise punished § 142 â—â—injoyning administration of the Communion in both â—inds See before § 108. Winchester Articles 15. Fox p. 1255. By vertue of such Supremacy He laid a command upon the Clergy to administer the Communion to the people in both kinds Stat. 1. Ed. 6.1 c. Coâ—cil Constant 13. sess See before §. 118. contrary to the Injunction of the Council of Constance and without any preceding confutation of a National Synod and notwithstanding the former late decree concerning the non-necessity thereof by the same National Synod in Henry the Eighth's days in the second of the Six Articles § 143 In suppressieg the former Church Liungies Ordiaals and other Rituals By vertue of such Supremacy He caused to be removed and suppressed the former Church Liturgies and Rituals for the publick Prayers for the celebration of the Communion and other Sacraments for the Ordinations of the Clergy See Fox p. 1211. The King saith he with the body and state of the Privy Council then being directed out his Letters of request and strait commandment to the Bishops in their Diocess to cause and warn all Parsons Curates c. to bring in and deliver up all Antiphoners Missals Grailes Processionals Manuals Legends Pies Ordinals and all other Books of Service the having whereof might be any let to the Service now set forth in English charging also and commanding all such as should be found disobedient in this behalf to be committed unto ward Saying in the Articles sent to Winchester That the Mass was full of abuses Fox p. 1235. and had very few things of Christ's institution besides the Epistle Gospel and the Lord's Prayer and the words of the Lord's Supper that the rest for the more part were invented and devised by Bishops of Rome and by other men of the same sort i. e. by Ecclesiastical Constitution and therefore were justly taken away by the Statutes and Laws of this Realm this being the perswasion of those times That the King as Supreme might change as to him seemed good any thing established only by humane tho it were Church authority And see Stat. 3 4. Edw. 6.10 c. Whereas the King hath of late set forth and established an uniform Order of Common-Prayer and whereas in the former Service-Books are things corrupt untrue vain and superstitious Be it enacted by the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled that all Missals Ordinals c. heretofore used for Service of the Church shall be utterly abolished extinguished c. § 144 And injetting uâ— new Forms of celebrating the Communion But you must observe that all was not done at once or at the first but by certain steps and degrees For Example The Form of administring the Communion suffered three Alterations or Reformations one after another the later still departing further from the ancient Form used in the Church than the former First the King assembled certain Bishops and others at Windsor in the first year of his Reign such as he pleased to appoint to compile a new Form of celebrating the Communion according to the Rule saith Fox p. 1184 of the Scriptures of God and first usage of the Primitive Church Yet the Bishops at this time so ordered and moderated the matter which perhaps may be the reason of those words in Fox see before § 125. See Heylin Hist. of K. Edw. p. 57. That the Protector at Windsor in the zealous defence of Gods truth opposed the Bishops that the whole office of the Mass should proceed as formerly in the Latine even to the very end of the Canon and the receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest himself Which done the Priest is appointed to begin the exhortation in English We be come together at this time Dearly Beloved c. as it is in the present English Liturgy After which follows also the disswasion of great offenders impenitent from receiving the General Confession and Absolution the Prayer We presume not c. and so the administration of the Eucharist to the people in both kinds The words of the Rubrick in that first Order of the Communion reprinted at London 61 are these The time of the Communion of the people shall be immediately after that the Priest shall have received the Sacrament without the varying of any other Rite or Ceremony in the Mass until other order shall be provided But as heretofore usually the Priest hath done with the Sacrament of the Body to prepare bless and consecrate so much as will serve the people so it shall yet continue still after the same manner
and form save that he shall bless and consecrate the biggest Chalice or some fair and convenient Cup or Cups full of Wine with some water put unto it and that day not drink it up all himself but taking one only sup or draught leave the rest upon the Altar covered and thus exhort the people Dearly beloved c. Thus the Rubrick And this Form as Mr. Fox goes on exhabited unto the King was by his Majesty's Council particularly sent to every Bishop of the Realm requiring and commanding them by their Letters on the Kings Majesty's behalf that they should forthwith have diligent respect to the due execution thereof c. In which Letter the motive urged by the Council why this new Form was drawn up and imposed is That the Statute of the former Parliament ordering that the Sacrament should be distributed unto the people in both kinds might be well executed in such sort as is agreeable with the word of God as if for the distribution of the Sacrament in both kinds there was any need of altering or superadding any thing to the Mass when as with that same Form of the Mass it was in the publick Communions for many Centuries only so distributed and when as that same Form of the Mass is urged by Protestants as contrary to communicating the people only in one kind but the true cause of altering it I shall shew you by and by Now this new Form was thus imposed by the King and his Council before allowed by any Synod of the Clergy or Act of Parliament which were procured afterward in the second Parliament of King Edward Meanwhile such alterations in King Edward's time about the Doctrine and the Administration of this Sacrament as they were uncanonical so they were in this respect also very hurtful in that they occasioned in the ignorant especially much profaneness and irreverence toward the Blessed Sacrament in those days as you may partly also gather from an Act 1. Edw. 6.1 c. made against such irreverent speaking against it For whereas the Sacrament was according to ancient custome delivered to each Communicant in a small round Wafer hence they gave it the name of Round-Robin And because the parts thereof that were reserved to be carried to the sick were hanged up over the Altar in a Pix or Box they named it Jack in a Box and instead of the Sacrament of the Altar called it the Sacrament of the Halter See Heylin's Hist of Reform 49.63 Such profaneness followed the remedy of what they called Superstition § 145 Secondly 2. Of Ordination See 3 4. Edw. 6.10 c. Having likewise condemned amongst other superstitious Books the former Church-form of Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Priests the King caused a new Form to be prescribed upon this pretence in the Act of Parliament That so concord and unity might be had within his Majesty's dominions in these Ordinations But could not this have been done without innovation by strictly confining all to the use of the former Church form or if these were various to some one of them Stat. 3 4. Edw. 6.12 c. Now for the compiling of this new Form the Parliament orders That such as by fix Prelates See before §. 42. and six others to be appointed by the King or by the major part of them should be devised for that purpose and set forth under the great Seal should by vertue of their Act without obtaining or requiring any ratification thereof from any Synod be lawfully used and none other any law or prescription to the contrary thereof notwithstanding In which new Form amongst other things which were in the former now cast out this is one to the great contradiction of all Antiquity The Bishops conferring on the ordained Presbyters potestatem offerendi sacrificium propriè dictum verè propitiatorium see in what sense understood and explained by the Church in Discourse of the Eucharist § 251. c Deo Missasque celcbrandi tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis Quod omnem superat impietatem saith Mason de Minist p. 242. 17. c. And this is another The Oath of Submission of the Ordained or Consecrated to the Supremacy of the Patriarch instead of which is prescribed another Oath to the Supremacy of the Temporal Prince From which Regal Supremacy also we find Cranmer after fifteen years governing the Province of Canterbury receiving at the coming in of a new Sovereign a new Licence of ordaining Bishops and Priests therein durante Beneplacito Regis The Form as Sanders p. 170. hath set it down runs thus Quandoquidem omnis jurisdicendi authoritas atque etiam jurisdictio omnimoda tam illa quae ecclesiastica dicitur quam seecularis a Regia petestate velut a supremo capite manta c. Ad ordinandum igitur quoscunque intra Diaecesim tuam Cantuariensem ad omnes etiam sacros Presbyteratus ordines promovendum per praesentes ad nostrum beneplacitum duraturos tibi damus potestatem And some such thing is intimated by Mr. Prin unbishoping of Timothy p. 80. I must inform our Bishops saith he for their Learning that all the Bishops in King Edward the Sixth's time had special clauses in their Letters Patents authorizing them to ordain Ministers and Deacons as Bishop Poynet's Scory's Coverdale's Patents 5. Edw. 6. pars 1. testify at large and there is no wonder in this if you recall to mind Arch-Bishop Cranmer's Answers to the Queries made concerning these matters recited before § 105. n. 3. Which Patents if they imply such a Supremacy Ecclesiastical in the Prince as that he may if he please prohibit any Ecclesiastical person at all from ordaining Ministers in his dominions are contrary to the first Thesis above § 2. But yet this new Ordinal was not so well purified from former Superstitions See in Fox p. 1366. the Kings and Earl of War wick's Letters but that some who were presented to Bishopricks were stumbled therewith and the Kings dispensation was obtained in order to the consecrating of Bishop Hooper for his not observing of some things therein and particularly for his not taking the new Oath either that of obedience to the Arch-Bishop or that of the Kings Supremacy which perhaps he lately seasoned abroad with Calvin's Doctrine See before §. 37 could not so easily digest § 146 Thirdly 3◠of Common Prayer Not long after the production of the new Form in administring the Communion in the second year of his Reign he caused it to be reviewed and also then to be drawn up a new Form of Common Prayer for Mattins and Evensong and the Administration of the other Sacraments of the Church if I may use the phrase of the Act 2. Edw. 6.1 c. which Form composed by seven Bishops and seven other learned men of the Clergy chosen by the King yet one of them Day Bishop of Chicester after it was done refused to subscribe it who was afterward also turned out of his
Sacrifice being thus dis-avowed by King Edward's Reformation and no benefit acknowledged of this high Service save to the Communicants in their receiving it and in the Priests distributing of it to the people in the next place the Priest was prohibited the celebration thereof whensoever there were no other Communicants besides himself Tho this communicating of the Priest alone is no designed but a casual thing as hath been said and can only be charged upon the peoples neglect and fault who having the same need thereof and benefit thereby as the Priest might being many at least by turns accompany him in the dayly breaking of that celestial Bread if it were so hainous a thing for him to feed thereon alone rather than that this the most honorable part of the divine Service should be discontinued in the Church See before §. 118 contrary to the former universal practice of Christianity and also the late judgment under Henry the Eighth of the English Clergy It was ordered therefore that all those called private Masses should be suppressed add that on the Litany-days Wednesdays and Frydays and all other solemn days of worship when there was none disposed to communicate with the Priest he after the Litany ended should put upon him a plain Albe or Surplice with a Cope and say all things at the Altar appointed to be said at the Celebration of the Lord's Supper See K. Edw. first Common-Prayer Book Rubifol 133. until after the Offertory and then letting alone the foresaid Celebration add one or two of the Collects which are annexed to the Communion and then turning him to the people shall let them depart with the accustomed Blessing § 153 And thus first began the Christian Sacrifice See the first Com. Prayer Book of Ed. 6. fol. 133. that never ceased formerly in the Church every day or at least on all solemn days to be offered by certain degrees to be omitted in this purified Church the practice thereof decreasing from once a day to once a week from once a week to once a month from this to once a year and of late in many Churches not to be had at all Tho they who in these days of King Edward made the first breach upon the Church's former practice as it were foreseeing this evil endeavoured in some part to remedy or prevent it by enjoyning That in all Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where they suppose that there should be still dayly Communion See King Edward 's first Common-Prayer-Book Fol. 113 compared with Fol. 123. there should always in them some communicate with the Priest that ministreth And that in parish-Parish-Churches whereas the Parishioners of every Parish were ordered in such a course as they were wont to find the holy Loaf formerly now to offer every Sunday at the time of the offertory the just valor and price of the holy Loaf with all such money and other things as were wont to be offered with the same out of which the Pastors were to provide sufficient Bread and Wine for the weekly Communion In these parish-Parish-Churches I say it was enjoyned that some one at the least for one besides the Priest was as yet sufficient of that house in the Parish to which by course it appertained to offer for the charges of the Communion should on that Sunday receive the Holy Communion with the Priest Which saith the Book may be better done for that they know before when their course cometh and may therefore dispose themselves to the worthy receiving of the Sacrament And by this means the Minister having always some to communicate with him may accordingly solemnize so high and holy mysteries with all the suffrages and due order appointed for the same But in the second reformed Book these Orders are relaxed the weekly offering by turns for the charges of the Communion now remitted the Celebration of the Lord's Supper or Communion required in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches every Sunday and that in Parish-Churches it should be celebrated at least three times in a year and that it should be celebrated in no place at no time unless there be three to communicate besides him that officeates By which when none or only fewer than three offered to communicate with the Priest he was necessitated to omit this Service as well in Cathedral as Parish-Churches notwithstanding any Injunction of frequentation But the first Innovators might have prudently discerned that when as the Celebration of this Service thus would depend only on the peoples devotion either a reception of the mysteries by the Priest alone must some times be permitted or this Sacrifice many times omitted There are two Injunctions indeed wherein these Reformers seem to have endeavoured to some degree the preservation of the former Devotion of the Clergy in Prayer and Communion The one See the Rub. after the Communion this forementioned That in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where be many Priests and Deacons they-should all receive the Communion with the Minister every Sunday at the least except they i. e. some not all of them had a reasonable cause to the contrary See the Pâ—â—face to the Com. Prayer Book The other this for saying their office dayly as formerly That all Priests and Deacons shall be bound to say dayly the Morning and Evening Prayer yet how short this in respect of the office they quitted either openly in the Parish Church or Chappel if at home and not being otherwise reasonably letted or privately except they be let by Preaching studying of Divinity or some other urgent cause But here also the two exceptive Clauses annext Except they have a reasonable cause to the contrary in the former and Except they be let by Preaching studying of Divinity or some other urgent cause in the latter have rendered these Injunctions as to the general without vigour and effect or practice in this Church Which the Prudence of those who contrived the Scotch Liturgy well observing thought fit thus to qualify the latter Exception See the Preface to the Scotch Liturgy Of which Cause say they if it be frequently pretended they are to make the Bishop of the Diocess or the Arch-Bishop of the Province the Judge and Allower § 154 Aad Invocation of Saiats expunged out of the Litanies Besides the Sacrifice of the Mass thus removed out of the second new Form of the Communion the Invocation and Suffrages of the Saints were also expunged out of the publick Litanies When-as even in the first English Litany put out under King Edward after O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity c. have mercy upon us it followed thus Holy Virgin Mary Mother of God our Saviour Jesus Christ Pray for us All holy Angels and Arch-Angels and all holy orders of blessed Spirits pray for us All holy Patriarchs and Prophets Apostlet Martyrs Confessors and Virgins and all the blessed company of Heaven Pray for us Likewise in the Parliament-Act 3 4. Edw. 6.10 c. it is commanded That in
the Primers the sentences of Invocation or Prayer to Saints be blotted and clearly put out of the same And this contrary to the former universal practice of the Catholick Church See Chur. Govern 4. Par. 98. § § 155 Aâ—d the necessity of Sacerdotal Coâ—fession relaxed Besides this in the same new Form is remitted the necessity of Sacerdotal Confession and the performing of such penitence and humiliation as the Priest shall judge meet and the receiving of his absolution and reconciliation for those who are conscious to themselves of mortal sins or grievous crimes before they may presume to approach to Gods Altar and to the holy Communion of Christs body and blood contrary to the former decrees of superior Councils and practice of the Church Catholick Instead whereof it is only here ordered That if any be an open and notorious evil liver so that the Congregation by him is offended or have done any wrong to his Neighbors the Curate shall not admit him to the Communion before his giving satisfaction of his repentance to the Congregation and at least declaring his full purpose to recompence the party wronged And before the Communion Fol. 123. a general exhortation made That if any be a blasphemer adulterer or be in malice or envy or any other grievous crime he should not come to that holy Table except he be truly sorry therefore and earnestly-minded to leave the same vices and do trust himself to be reconciled to Almighty God and in charity with all the world This is said indeed in the second Exhortation Fol. 124. If there be any whose Conscience is troubled or grieved in any thing lacking comfort or counsel let him come to me or to some other discreet and learned Priest taught in the Law of God and confess and open his sin and grief secretly that he may receive such ghostly counsel advice and comfort that his conscience may be relieved and that of us as of the Ministers of God and of the Church he may receive comfort and absolution to the satisfaction of his mind and avoiding of all scruple and doubtsulness But the words following viz. Requiring such as shall be satisfied with a general Confession not to be offended with them that do use to their further satisfying the auricular and secret Confession to the Priest nor those also which think needful or convenient for the quietness of their consciences particularly to open their sins to the Priest to be offended with them that are satisfied with their humble confession to God and the general confession to the Church I say these words which are omitted in the second reformed Common-Prayer-Book I suppose as speaking too favourably of the use of Auricular Confession do argue that thenceforth no necessity of Sacerdotal Confession was imposed upon any for any crime Likewise in the Visitation of the Sick it is said Here shall the sick person make a special confession if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter which is also retained in the second Form of Common-Prayer But here such Confession is commanded only hypothetically not if he have committed but if his Conscience be troubled with any weighty matter which he hath committed Which unfortunate If as experience hath shewed quickly ruined the practice of Sacerdotal Confession § 156 And indeed with your leave to digress a little when grievous sins are committed this If might well have been spared For 1. every one that hath committed such sin as is supposed to have put him out of the State of Grace and out of his Baptismal Regeneration for which only the Church requires Sacerdotal Confession either hath or ought to have and probably would have if the Clergy taught him so his Conscience troubled till he hath obtained a new reconciliation to God by those whom God hath appointed to do this office for him 2. But if his private repentance when this is done proportionably to his offence is sufficient for his reconciliation yet what grievous sinner after much repentance ought not still to be troubled concerning the unworthines of it till he hath consulted in such an hazard his spiritual Father much more knowing therein than himself And then if all such ought to be troubled all ought to confess Indeed le ts trouble of mind is many times a sign of less penitence and of such high offenders those have most need of the Priest's cure who are least troubled And those who are least troubled ought to be so much the more troubled that they are so little troubled and ought to go to the Priest and confess such sin that he may excite them to greater trouble and sorrow for it and may put them to some pain in searching their wound to the bottome that so it may be more capable of cure And on the other side those who in and after long penitence and even from all their life are much troubled for such their crimes are likely to be the best penitents and consequently to have least need of Sacerdotal Confession for the examining of their repentance which examination and not consolation I imagine is the chief end and design of the Reformed's prescribing such Confession to those who are troubled 3. But then add to this that when once such Sacerdotal Confession for great sinners is commanded by the Church i. e. by a lawful superior Council to be observed as necessary jure divino or by divine Institution Now it comes to pass that tho such Confession were supposed not necessary to be observed or practised from any such divine institution yet after decreed by such a Council as who have authority to impose it also upon several other motives from which they think it the most beneficial and the securest course for such sinners so to do it becomes necessary to be practised and observed as the Church's constitution even by those who think it not necessary jure divino 4. But yet further were not such Church-constitution in this respect obliging yet when as a thing is so far disputable and doubtful whether jure divino as that such a judgment as this of a superiour Council hath declared it so and whenas on the otherside we our selves grant thus much that such thing if not necessary is very beneficial and may upon this title be lawfully enjoyned by the Church's Superiors reason will dictate here that it is the most prudent way both for the Subjects of a particular Church to observe it and for the Superiors of such Church to enjoyn it upon pain of incurring their censures to be observed But now to return to our business CHAP. X. Of the Second Change of the Publick Liturgy in his time § 157 Ia setting forth a second Form of Common Prayer than which the first was in many things much more moderate THus much concerning the Reformation made in the first new Form of the Publick Service under King Edward to say nothing here of the first additions to the Mass made
at Windsor much more temperate and less varying from the former Service than the present is as ordinarily things do not on a suddain move from one extreme to another In which Book also it is to be noted that many of the alterations which were made were only omissions As of the Sacrifice of the Mass of Invocation of Saints of Auricular Confession of Elevation of the Eucharist Adoration being not-prohabited c. without tying any to professing his faith to be contrary to such things as were omitted which I impute to the wariness and moderation of some of the Composers who retained a different perswasion from the rest See before § 127. And again that in it were many former usages of the Church still retained which gave great offence to the forreign Reformers and to other Precisians here who had been nursed abroad under their Discipline Amongst which usages retained may be numbred these At the Communion in the Prayer for the estate of the Church Catholick a solemn Commemoration of the Saints and other faithful departed Fol. 128. which was thought fit by the late Composers of the Scotch Liturgy to be restored again in part into the same Prayer where is made a distinct and different Commemoration of other faithful deceased and of the Saints deceased Prayer for the dead and that in the same manner as formerly See Burial of the dead Fol 28. as supposing some of them in a state purgative or betterable by such Prayers See before § 147. Exorcisme I command thee unclean Spirit that thou depart c. Fol. 2. and anction of Infants in Baptisme Fol. 4. Sanctifying or Benediction of the Water in the Font before it be used in Baptisme Fol. 8. resumed by the Scotch Liturgy Extrcam Vnction also still retained Consecrating only so much Bread and Wine as shall suffice for the persons appointed to receive the Holy Communion And mingling Water with the Wine Fol. 126. Reservation of the Sacrament after publick Communion to be carried home to the sick if there be any that day to be communicated which reservation were it made for some longer time I see not how this difference can alter the lawfulness thereof Visit Sick fol. 22. The quotidian Celebration of the Eucharist in all Cathedral and Collegiate Churrches as yet practiced tho not enjoined Fol. 21. See Ruhr Fol. 123. The Altars still left in the same Position and with the same furniture as formerly The Communion-bread made in the same Figure as formerly only to be somewhat thicker and without any print upon them The same Holy Vestments Albes Copes still retained The Oblation made after Consecration before receiving spoken of before And chiefly the retaining still in the Consecration and other passages of the Communion all those former expressions of the Mass which imply whether by Trans or Con-substantiation a corporal presence For such presence was not a thing declared against till the Fifth year of King Edw. in Art 28. and then declared against upon this Philosophical reason because ejusdem hominis corpus in multis locis simul esse non potest But this part against real or corporal Presence with its reason was afterward thought fit to be cast out of this Article when they were reviewed by Queen Elizabeth 's Synod 1562. The Obligation of Henry the Eighth's Six Articles being voided all persons in this point were then left as it were to their own opinion amongst whom as some were Zuinglians so a major part seem to have been in the former days of King Edward either of the Roman or Lutheran perswasion Neither is there any mention concerning the manner of Christs Presence in the Eucharist in the Articles proposed to Winchester or in any other of the Kings Injunctions and therefore Bonner and Gardiner when forced to preach in publick to the great offence of some of their Auditors made this the chief subject of their Sermons and many in the publick Disputations had in Oxford and Cambridge about this matter freely and ex animo maintained such corporal Presence See before § 107. And Cranmer himself also for a long time was a Lutheran in his opinion till at last he was otherwise perswaded by Ridley Fox p. 1115. and p. 1703. Neither was there such agreement between Ridley and Peter Martyr at first but that the one in the Oxford Disputations held a change after Consecration in the substance of the Bread and Wine which the other denyed in Cambridge Fox p. 1255. § 158 Thus stood things somewhat moderated in the first Form In which second Book are rectified and removed many thing which gave offence in the former against which therefore were made many complaints Calvin writ to the Protector soon after it was set forth where he incites him to a new Reformation thereof and after having found fault with Prayer for the Dead he goes on Sunt alia non perinde damnanda fortasse sed tamen ejusmodi ut excusari non possint Illa omnia abscindi semel praestiterit ut nihil in Ecclesiâ Dei usurpetur quod non ipsius verbo conforme sit ad Ecclesiae aedificationem pertineat ita verò tolerandi sunt infirmi ut ad meliora promoveantur After this about 1551. Epistle p. 135. he writ thus to Arch-Bishop Cranmer Sic correctae sunt externae superstitiones ut residui maneant innumeri surculi qui assiduè pullulent Imò ex corruptelis Papatus audio relictam esse congeriem quae non obscuret modò sed propemodum obruat purum genuinum Dei cultum Writ likewise to Bucer then a Teacher of the reformed Religion in Cambridge that he should solicite this matter telling him that he was censured for too much moderation and might thus free himself from such an aspersion Epistle p. 107. Dominum Protectorem ut volebas conatus sum hortari ut stagitabat praesens rerum status tuum quoque erit modis omnibus instare praesertim verbo ut ritus qui superstitionis aliquid redolent tollant ur e medio Hoc tibi nominatim commendo 〈◊〉 te invidiâ liberes quâ te falso gravar◠apud multos non ignoras nam modiis consiliis te vel authorem vel approbatorem semper inscribunt Scio hanc quorundam animis suspicionem altius infixam asse quam ut eam revellere facile sit eciamfi nihil omittas Bucer thus excited by Calvin and also requested by Cranmer having the Book translated in to Latine An. 1551. writes a censure thereof wherein he desireth the alteration or omission of many things even to the disallowing of the use of the Surplice and of such other vestments as are there appointed of saying of the second Service at the Altar of the Presbyter's taking the bread in his hand and the using of the sign of the Cross in the Consecration besides greater matters of praying for the dead c. Yet of several of those things which he would have to
onely from his Presbytership See Fox p. 1604. and not his Episcopacy For saith he We do not acknowledge you for a Bishop Which had he understood quoad Excercitium and not also quoad Characterem then neither so ought he to have acknowledged him for or degraded him as a Presbyter he being quoad excercitium no more the one then the other Now the reason why he acknowledged him no Bishop quoad Characterem was I conceive upon supposition that Ridley was not ordained by the old Form because much offence being taken at that old Form we may conjecture by the reason given in the Preface of the Statute recited before § 42. that also before the new set-form established there were in Ordinations some varyings from the old The same you may see in Fox concerning Hooper made Priest by the old Form Bishop by the new and therefore degraded in Queen Mary's days only as a Priest Again Mr. Bradford made Priest by the new Form and therefore in his condemnation not degraded at all but treated as a meer Laick In these days likewise Bishop Bonner writ a Book call'd A profitable and necessary Doctrine c. wherein he contendeth See F. a S. Clara Eâ—chirid p. 93. that the new devised Ordination of Ministers was unsufficient and void because no authority at all was given them to offer in the Mass the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ but both the Ordainer and Ordained despised and impugned not onely the Oblation or Sacrifice of the Mass but also the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar Lastly 't is probable that Mason and others Art of Edw. 6.28 Art to whom this dispensation could not be unknown and was so serviceable for this Controversy would not have left it unmentioned could they have made any such construction thereof as Bishop Bramhal doth 2. In general those who are truly ordained yet if in an Heretical or Schismatical Church their true Orders as to the exercise of them are unlawful and so unless a Church be first cleared from Heresy and Schisme these Orders are not rightly employed in it And those also who receive the Sacraments from their Ministery do tho truly yet fruitlesly receive them I mean so many as by their obstinacy or ignorance culpable are guilty of the same Heresy or Schisme because these do not receive with the Sacrament gratiam sanctificationis or charitatem or jus ad regnum caelorum thro such their sin without which Charity any other fruition of the Sacrament is nothing worth Of which thus St. Austine De Baptis 7. l. 52. c. against the Donatists concerning their Priests giving and others receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme from them Habent potestatem dandi baptismum quamquam inutiliter habeant accipitur ab eis etiam cum inutile est accipientibus quod ut fiat utile ab haeresi vel schismate recedendum est 54. c. Infructuose atque inutiliter tradunt baptismum tales talibus in eo quod regnum Dei non possidebunt Haereticis correctis baptisma non incipit adesse quod deerat sed prodesse quod inerat And thus the Schools Haereticus i. e. manifeste ab ecclesiâ praecisus excommunicatus c. non amittit potestatem conferendi Sacramentum sed licentiam utendi hâc potestate ideo quidem confert sed tamen peccat conferendo similiter ille qui ab eo accipit Sacramentum sic non percipit rem Sacramenti i e. gratiam sanctificationis nisi forte per ignorantiam excusetur Si sunt manifeste ab ecclesiâ praecisi ex hoc ipso quod aliquis accipit Sacramenta ab eis peccat per hoc impeditur ne effectum Sacramenti consequatur Thus Aquinas p. 3.64 q 9.a. And then what great difference in the giver of such Sacraments not to have true Orders and not to have the power to use them Or in the receiver of the Sacraments not to have true Sacracraments and not to be benefited by them Excepting only such who living in such a separate Society are by their invincible ignorance excused from fault to whom it is granted that such Sacraments are effectual When they return to the unity of the Church indeed then his true Orders formerly received become to the one usable and the true Sacraments formerly received to the other profitable But this is in effect all one as if then the one first de novo received Orders § 193 3. and the other the Sacraments Whether their Ordination unlawful according to the Church Câ—â—â—â— 3. But again tho I do not here state the question Whether they had such due Ordination and Ordainers as to be truly and essentially Bishops Yet their Introduction and Ordination if valid seems several ways uncanonical and unlawful Because they came many of them into the places of others unjustly expelled 2. Because neither the major part nor any save one of the former incumbent Bishops consented to their Election or Ordination See Thes 3. §. 6.7 which consent is a thing most necessary for preservation of the Church both in true Doctrine and in Unity Of which you have heard but now Mr. Thorndike's Testimony Who in the same place applying his Doctrine to this very fact goeth on thus Now it is manifest that the Ordinations by which that Order of Bishops is propagated in England at and since the Reformation were not made by consent of the greater part of Bishops of each Province but against their mind tho they made no contrary Ordinations And by the same means it is manifest that all those Ecclesiastical Laws by which the Reformation was established in England i. e. by these new Bishops were not made by a consent capable to oblige the Church if we set aside the Secular power that gave force unto that which was done by the Bishops contrary to that rule wherein the unity of the Church consisteth But in other parts the Reformation was so far from being done by Bishops and Presbyters or any consent which was able to conclude the Church by the Constitution of the Church that the very Order of Bishops is laid aside and forgot if not worse i. e. detested among them Upon which precedent it sounds plausibly with the greatest part among us that the unity of the whole being thus dissolved by the Reformation i. e. by the Reformers either being against Bishops or being Bishops made against the consent of the former Bishops the unity of the Reformation cannot be preserved but by dissolving the Order of Bishops among us The like he saith before p. 248. If the Clergy of that time i. e. in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth 's Reformation had been supported in that power which by the premises set down and justified in his Book is challenged on behalf of the Clergy this Reformation could not have been brought to pass 3. Because to prevent all division and faction as likewise to
appoint a certain place and bounds for the exercise of his Jurisdiction no Bishop by the Church-Canon can be made without the consent of his Superior the Metropolitan nor Metropolitan without the consent of the Patriarch See Chur. Gov. 1. par 9. §. who is to ordain or confirm the Metropolitans under his Patriarch-ship either by imposition of hands himself or by appointing his Ordainers at which time his Bull for authorizing the Ordainers was used to be read and by Mission of the Pall See Conc. Nic. 4. c. Can. Apost 34. Council Chalced. 27. c. and 16. Act. 8. General Council 10. c. confessed by Protestants by Dr. Field 5. l. 31. c. p. 518. and 37. c. p. 551. Without the Patriarch's assent none of the Metropolitan's subject unto them might be ordained What they bring proves nothing that we ever doubted of For we know the Bishop of Rome had the right of Confirming the Metropolitans within the Precincts of his own Patriarch-ship By Bishop Bramhal Vindic. 9. c. p. 297. What power the Metropolitan had over the Bishops of his own Province the same had a Patriarch over the Metropolitans c. Wherein then consisted Patriarchal Authority In ordaining their Metropolitans or confirming them in imposing of hands or giving the Pall c. And indeed what defence can the Church have from frequent Schisme if two or three or a few Bishops dissenting from the whole may not only make other persons of the like inclinations Bishops to govern the people with them but also may make new Metropolitans to preside over themselves But Arch-Bishop Parker was thus ordained by two Bishops of the same Province without and against the consent of the Patriarch and of the Arch-Bishops Vice-gerent side vacante the Bishop of London and of the other Metropolitan the Arch-Bishop of York Neither did he receive any Spiritual Jurisdiction at all from any Ecclesiastical Superior but meerly that which the Queen a Lay-person by these men her Delegates in this imployment did undertake according to the warrant of the Statute 1. Eliz. 1. contrary to the First and Third Thesis above to confer upon him Which Delegates of her's were none of them at that time possessed of any Diocess Barlow and Scory being then only Bishops Elect of Chicester and Hereford and Coverdale never admitted or elected to any and Hoskins a Suffragan nor had they had Diocesses could have had any larger jurisdiction save only within these at least being single Bishops could have no Metropolitical Jurisdiction which yet they conferred on Parker not on their own surely but on the Queens score And then might not she at pleasure take away and strip Parker again of all that Jurisdiction which he held only on her gift See above the First and Third Thes 4. Of their four Bishops that undertook to ordain Parker three Barlow Coverdale and Scory were upon several accounts justly before deprived or their Bishopricks and as for the fourth Hoskins the Suffragan See before §. 58.189.190 these had their office formerly taken away and never after restored Neither their authority standing good See before §. 190. is one or two Bishops a competent number for Ordination 5. The Form of the Ordination of these new Bishops as it was made in Edward the Sixth's time so it was revoked by Synod in Queen Mary's days and by no Synod afterward restored before their Ordination Revoked also by an Act of Parliament in Queen Mary's days and not by any Act restored 1. Mar. 2. c. till long after the Ordination of Queen Elizabeth's first Bishops viz. in 8. Eliz. 1. Upon Bonner's urging hereupon that the Queens were no legal Bishops § 194 And for such considerations as these it seems it was that the Queen in her Mandate to Coverdale Scory Where Concerning the Queen as Supreme in Ecclesiasticals her dispensing with the former Ecclesiastical Laws for their Ordination c. for the Ordination of her new Arch-Bishop Parker c. was glad out of her Spiritual Supremacy and Universal jurisdiction which the Parliament had either given or recognized to belong to her and had enacted also That Her Majesty might assign name and authorize any person being natural born Subjects to her Highness to exercise all manner of Spiritual Jurisdiction of which Jurisdiction one Act is that of Ordaining See 1. Eliz. 1. to dispense and give them leave to dispense to themselves with all former Church-laws which should be transgrest in the electing consecrating and investing of this Bishop The words in her Letters Patents to them are these Mandantes quatenus vos eundem in Archiepiscopum pastorem ecclesiae praedictae confirmare consecrare c. velitis Supplentes nihilominus Supremâ authoritate nostrâ regiâ si quid in vobis aut vestrum aliquo conditione statu aut facultate vestris ad praemissa perficienda desit eorum quae per leges ecclesiasticas in hac parte requiruntur aut necessaria sunt temporis ratione rerum necessitate id postulante Which Dispensation some would restrain only to these Ordainers their using of the new Ordinal before it was licensed again by a new Parliament after the repeal thereof by Parliament in Queen Mary's day Bish Bram. Consecrat of Protestant Bishop◠4. c. P. 94. But this was a scruple started afterward by Bishop Bonner and not now dreamt on Nor did the new Ordinal want sufficient Lay-licence having the Queens nor had the Parliament been defective in re-licensing it for which see ibid. Bishop Bramh. p. 96 nor are those words in the Dispensation Si quid in vobis conditione statu c rerum necessitate id postulante applicable to it And these are the words in the Instrument of Arch-Bishop Parker's Confirmation Nos c praedictam electionem Matthaei Parker in Archiepiscopum c Supremâ authoritate regiâ nobis in hac parte commissâ confirmamus Supplentes ex supremâ authoritate regiâ nobis delegatâ quicquid in nobis aut aliquo nostrum c. And notwithstanding this regal Dispensation yet afterward Divers questions to give you it in the words of the Statute 8. Eliz. 1. c. by overmuch boldness of speech and talk amongst many common sort of people being unlearned growing upon the making and consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops within this Realm whether the same were and be duly and orderly done according to the Law or not give me leave here to suppose that these scrupulous people meant according to the Ecclesiastical Law for what doth the observing of the Civil Law concern them in the ordaining of their Spiritual Governors which is much tending to the slander of all the State of the Clergy being one of the greatest States of this Realm It is answered to them in the same Statute thus That the Queens Majesty in her Letters Patents c had not only used such words as were accustomed to be used by King Henry and Edward but also had put in those Letters divers
he saith Authoritate Rex propriâ resecare potest superstitiones quas sacerdotes ipsi tolerant but he saith not quas sacerdotes ipsi docent nen esse superstitiones Again p. 364. he speaks thus of a thing done In Israele praecipuae in re religionis partes penes Regem extiterunt vel uno hoc argumento quod per sacrae historiae seriem totam mutato novi regis animo mutata semper est facies religionis Nec Pontifices unquam vel praestare poterant ut fieret mutatio in melius vel ne fieret in pejus impedire And p. 368. Passim per fastos sacros quod in religione fit a rege fieri diserte dicitur Regis factum esse Pontificis haud unquam nisi ex Regis mandato But I hope he will not hence infer that summa religionis is not penes Pontifices if the Prince apostatizeth from the true Religion or that the Church Governors may do nothing contra Regis mandatum nor may oppose him and teach the people contrary to his Reformations where they judge that he reformeth not aright what did the Church-Governors for the first 300 years Especially since p. 377. which I desire you much to mark he alloweth such Ecclesiastical Primacy as the good Kings of Israel used not to all but only to Christian Princes and to Christian Princes not all but only those not heretical and I suppose he would say also not schismatical for if the Prince were heretical or schismatical he well saw the mischief of such a power so he saith there Interim autem sit vel infidelis Princeps sit vel haereticus Oretur pro eo non minus quam pro Nebuchadonozar nemo vitae ejus insidietur non magis quam Ahasueri Fidem penes semet habeant Christiani subditi coram Deo caeteris in rebus pietatem colant Non ergo id agitur ut ecclesiae persecutores ecclesiae gubernatores habeantur c. And something toward this saith Mr. Mason de Minist 3. l. 5. c. if I rightly understand him Regibus qui vel non sunt christiani vel si christiani non tamen orthodoxi vel si orthodoxi non tamen sancti primatus competit quidem sed secundum quid i. e. quoad authoritatem non quoad rectum plenum usum authoritatis quoad officium non quoad illustrem executionem officii none such therefore may execute any Ecclesiastical Primateship unless the Author seek for some refuge in the Epithets rectus plenus illustris And the same saith Bishop Bicson When the Magistrate doth not regard but rather afflict the Church as in times of infidelity and heresy who shall then assemble the Pastors of any Province to determine matters of doubt or danger To which question he answers The Metropolitan Now if no Prince heretical tho Christian hath any Primacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs before we yield such Primacy to a Prince we must know whether he be not heretical and who can so rightly judge of this as the Church or Clergy And then will not the Church and is it not right to judge him such when he opposeth her present or former definitions in matters of Faith See Church Govern 3. Part § 42. And what just Supremacy then for matter of Doctrine is left here to the Prince but an authorizing by his coactive power the Church's decrees Which Regal Supremacy all sides allow But as I said this is contrary to what Bishop Andrews saith elsewhere that the Princes Supremacy may oppose the Clergy when they do i. e. when he thinks they do recedere de viâ non docere juxta legem Dei c. § 203 The fourth Author I shall produce is Mr. Thorndike who writing very rationally and resolutely in vindication of the Church's authority Of Mr. Thorndike as using his Pen against modern Sectarists yet takes care also to save the Phaenomena of the Reformation He therefore in his Right of the Church 5. c. p. 248. after he had with much freedome shewed That the Succession of the Clergy in such a Government as that the visible Communion of the whole Church might be perpetually kept in unity See before §. 188. was a Law ordained by the Apostles and That the Reformation made in England had plainly violated this Law in that the new Bishops that were introduced were made without and against the consent of the former some of his words are cited before § 200. taketh this course to solve this difficulty and to preserve the English Reformation notwithstanding this from being unlawful or schismatical To come then saith he to the great difficulty proposed it is to be acknowledged that the power of the Church in the persons of them to whom it is derived by continual Succession is a Law ordained by the Apostles for the unity of the Church c. But withal it is to be acknowledged that there are abundance of other Laws given the Church by our Lord and his Apostles whether they concern matters of Faith or matter of Works c. which proceeding from the same if not a greater power than the Succession of the Church are to be retained all and every one of them with the same religion and conscience as the succession of the Church Again I have shewed indeed that the secular power is bound to protect the Ecclesiastical in their determining all things which are not otherwise determined by our Lord and his Apostles and to give force and effect to the acts of the same But in matters already determined by our Lord and his Apostles as Laws given to the Church if by injury of time the practice become contrary to the Law the Sovereign power being bound to protect Christianity is bound to employ it self in giving strength first to that which is ordained by our Lord and his Apostles By consequence if those with whom the power of the Church is trusted shall hinder the restoring of such Laws the Sovereign power may and ought by way of penalty to such persons to suppress their power that so it may be committed to such as are willing to submit to the superior Ordinance of our Lord and his Apostles Here Mr. Thorndike holds that the Secular power may restore any law which Christ or his Apostles have ordained not only against a major part but all the Clergy and Governors of the Church and may for a penalty of their opposing it suppress their power and commit it to others tho they also be established by another Law Apostolical Which was the thing I undertook to shew you § 204 But to say something to this discourse of his What reasonable man is there hearing this that will not presently ask Who shall judge whether that be indeed a Law ordained by our Lord or his Apostles which the Prince would introduce or restore and the succession of the Clergy doth oppose Which Clergy sure will never confess such to be a law of our Lord but always will
of Catholic Unity but instead of these we are told of a Western Patriarch one who pleads the Prescription of some Years for his Autority and thinks himself hardly dealt with pag. 214. that because He claims more then his due that which is his due should be denyed him Hence it seems to be that He is so wary in giving us his own Opinions that He disputes so much and affirms so little that he bounds all his Positions with so many limitations that they seem contriv'd on purpose for subterfuges and that He very cautiously ventures not any farther then He thinks tho' falsly the Autority of our Writers will bear him out Hence those Concessions which will perhaps by that Party be judg'd over-liberall § 117 That Images and so the veneration or worship of them were very seldom if at all us'd in the Primitive Church That the publick Communion was then most commonly if not allways administred in both kinds unto the People That the Divine Service which then as now was celebrated usually in the Latin or Greek Tongue was much better in those days then now understood of the Common people That the having the Liturgy or Divine Service or the Holy Scriptures in a known tongue is not prohibited nor the using of Images enjoyn'd nor the Priest's administring and the people's receiving the Communion in both kinds if the Supreme Church-Governours so think fit and we say they ill discharge the Office of Church-Governours who do not think fit our Saviours Institution should be observ'd declar'd unlawful by any Canon of any Council Ancient Council he means for latter Councils have declar'd these unlawful These are large grants from a Romanist and which give a great shock to their so much magnified pretence of Universal Tradition Had this Author liv'd in those Ages when the Secular Prince countenanc'd the beginnings of Reformation He would have scarce lost any thing for his too rigorous adhaesion to the C. of Rome For he thinks it probable that had the Reformation only translated the former Church Liturgies and Scriptures into a known tongue § 118 administred Communion in both kinds thought fit not to use Images changed something of practise only without any decession from the Churches Doctrines the Church-Governours would have been facile to license these Where by the way it seems something unintelligible how they should change practice without decession from Doctrines if Doctrines enjoyn'd such Practices pag. 2. §. 2. and if according to him Errours in practice allways presuppose some Errour in matter of Faith But at least we may expect He would have outwardly complied since he notes That some outward compliance at the first pag. 140. §. 123. of those Bishops who made an open Opposition afterward might be upon a fair Pretence because the first Acts of the Reformation might not be so insupportable as the latter Where it is worth our Observing that the very first Act which gave life to the Reformation was shaking off all manner of Obedience to the See of Rome then which I believe his Holiness contrary to this Author's Sentiments thinks no Act more unsupportable These things consider'd We could not have had a more easie Adversary then this Gentleman and the Church has less reason to fear his open Opposition then had he still continued in her bosom For it seems not to be his Province to publish what is Material against us but to publish Much. But God be thanked our Religion is not establish'd upon so weak a basis as to be overthrown by a few Theses unprov'd and falsly applied Nor is it any wonder if that arguer doth not convince who uses for Principles Conclusions drawn from Praemisses which the world never saw and then assumes such things as every one acquainted with History is able to contradict Certainly his University-Readers will not be very fond of the Conclusion of that Syllogism whose Major is a petitio principii Minor a down-right fals-hood in matter of fact They no doubt are surpriz'd to find Consequents come before their Antecedents and Church-Government part the 5th to have stept into the World somewhat immaturely methinks before the other four But the Lawfulness of the English Reformation was to be examin'd and it would have took up too much time to shew why he impos'd upon us such a Test It might therefore be thought seasonable enough to examin the Truth of his Theses when he shall be pleas'd to communicate to us whence they are inferr'd In the meanwhile it may not be unuseful to consider what disservice he had done to our Cause had his success aequal'd the boldness of his attempt After all his Theses and their Applications his Correspondent Alpha's and Beta's his perplex'd Paragraphs his intricate Paratheses and his taedious Citations what Doctrine of the Church of Rome has he establish'd or what principle of Ours has he disprov'd Should we grant that the Clergy only have power in Controversies of Religion that the Secular Prince has no Autority to reform Errours in the Church that our Princes did wrongfully usurp such an Autority and that our Reformation was not the act of the Clergy will it hence follow which yet is to be prov'd by this Author e're he can perswade us to entertain any favourable Opinion of Popery That the second Commandment ought to be expung'd out of the Decalogue that Idolatry is no Sin or worshipping of Images no Idolatry that Transubstantiation is to be believ'd in despight of Sense Reason Scripture and Antiquity the Service of God to be administred in an unknown tongue as it were in mere contradiction to Saint Paul and the Communion to be celebrated in one kind notwithstanding our Saviours Drink ye all of this It is indeed our happiness that the Reformation was carried on by the joynt concurrence of the Civil and Ecclesiastical power that We are united together by common Rules for Government and Worship agree'd on by the Bishops and Presbyters in Convocation and made Laws to us by the Autority of the Sovereign We are allways ready to prove that the Church of England being a National Church and not Subject to any forreign Jurisdiction ow'd no Obedience to the Bishop or Church of Rome therefore might without their leave reform her self and that accordingly our Religion is establish'd by such Laws as want no autority either Civil or Ecclesiastical which they ought to have This is a Plea which we shall be allways prepar'd to justifie and a Blessing for which we thank God and for the continuance of which we shall never cease to pray But now had those which we esteem corruptions of the Roman Church never been cast out or were they reestablish'd which God in his mercy forbid by as good autority as that by which they are now abolish'd Yet even then we could not submit to such Determinations and being concluded by an antecedent Obligation to God durst not obey even lawful autority commanding unlawful things He
The Act here descanted upon expir'd with King Henry and it will be time enough to consider it when it is reviv'd again If Prohibition of appeals to Rome and making the King the last Appellee be an Act of the Reformation § 33 it has been prov'd that King Henry the 2d and all his Bishops except Becket were Reformers § 34 Some Acts of Parliament are cited in the 34th Paragraph which were repeal'd by King Edward and yet make up part of that accumulative charge which is laid on the Reformation Even the Six Articles are urg'd which drain'd the blood of so many Reformers But the Protestants in justifying the King's Supremacy must allow their own Condemnation if teaching any thing contrary to the six Articles c. That is all those who own an Autority must justify the abuse of it They who obey the just Commands of their Prince must obey him when he commands what is unjust Father Walsh acknowledges I suppose the Pope's Supremacy but he thinks himself severely dealt with when he is censur'd for not being a Rebel Having quoted several Acts he comes to reflect upon them a little viz. for six Pages First he copes with Arch Bishop Bramhal but I should be unjust to that Prelate's memory if in so unequal an engagement I should think he wanted my Assistance What is said by the Bishop is not said only but demonstrated This Author has urg'd nothing against him but what he might have fetch'd from the Bishop's own Confutation of Serjeant The Question here discust has already been debated in the a p. 20. Animadversions and if the Reader desires to be farther satisfied I cannot more oblige him then by sending him to the Most Reverend and Learned Author He will find there a just and solid Vindication of a Noble Cause which suffers when it falls into weak management and is made part of an Occasional Pamphlet Having catechiz'd the Bishop he next canvaseth that Statute of much concernment that the King shall have power from time to time to Visit Repress and Reform all such Errors and Heresies as by any manner of Spiritual Autority lawfully may be Reform'd But this Act will be without the reach of our Author's cavils if it be observ'd That the Power by which the King Visits and Reforms is not Spiritual but Political That a Power is not given him to declare Errors but to repress them that the determination of Heresie is by Act of Parliament limited to the Autority of Scriptures 4 first General Councils and assent of the Clergy in their Convocation that the King hath not all the Power given him which by any manner of Spiritual Autority may be lawfully exercis'd for he has not the power of the Keys but a power given him to reform all Heresies by Civil Authority which the Church can do by her Spiritual That it is impossible it should be prov'd that this power of Visiting and Reforming is a necessary Invasion of the Office of Spiritual Pastors because when the Prince doth it by them commanding them to do the Work and exacting of them a discharge of their duty He doth this without Usurping their Office and yet doth it by a power distinct from and independent on their's And lastly that the Prince is oblig'd to take care that all Acts of reforming be executed by their proper Ministers because else he transgresses the Power prescrib'd in this Statute so to reform Errors as may be most to the pleasure of Almighty God The Application is obvious and will satisfie the Reader that our Author must part with a whole Paragraph if He will as he pretends §. 35. n. 4. remove the Mis-interpretation of this Act. § 36 The next Paragraph makes remarks upon a Proclamation and speech of King Henry's and some words of Cromwel which were very justifiable if it were either necessary that we must defend them or the Defence not obvious to every one who thinks His Conclusion of this Chapter amounts to no more then that Bishop Gardiner was too great a Courtier and Calvin too credulous § 37 One was gross in his sense of the Supremacy and the other zealous against it so misrepresented Which will then begin to be pertinent when it is prov'd that Gardiner was a Protestant and Calvin a son of the Church of England There is so little in this Chapter which affects the Reformation that it cannot be worth recapitulating A Reply to Chapter the 4th § 38 NOW he comes to the times of Edward the 6th Now then he first begins to remember the Title of his Book Here he finds all the Supremacy confirm'd to Edward the Sixth which was formerly conceded to Henry the 8th And yet the Reformers are accus'd of Innovation for continuing what they found establish'd by Roman-Catholics he complains of the Repeal of several Statutes made in confirmation of the Determinations of the Church § 39 But by the Church is meant the Church of Rome and it is no great Crime in a Reforming Prince that he did not think himself oblig'd to punish with Death all her Determinations These Statutes now repeal'd were reviv'd by Q. Mary and again repeal'd by Q. Elizabeth Which amounts to no more then that Q. Mary was a Roman-Catholic and Q. Elizabeth a Catholic Reformed Hence he infers by way of Corollary that the trial of Heresies and Hereticks by the Clergy according to the Determinations and Laws of Holy-Church was admitted or excluded here according as the Prince was Catholic or Reform'd This sentence carries two faces and is capable of two very different Constructions Either it may signifie that the Clergy were or were not the tryers of Heretics according as the Prince was Romanist or Reformed ‖ and then it is false Or that the Determinations of Holy Church You must understand the C. of Rome were or were not the Rule of such Trials according as the Prince was of the Roman or Reform'd Communion and then it is wonderfully impertinent § 40 This seeker goes on and finds it affirm'd in an Act of Parliament that All Jurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal is deriv'd from the King as Supreme Head of the Church and Realm of England But if he had pleas'd He might have found too that this Act is repeal'd and that therefore we are under no Obligation to defend it But if Jurisdiction be understood in the limited sense before explain'd this Act has no poison in it And so it will be understood by any one who consults the Context But this Act has been so largely and distinctly discuss'd by a Learned a Bishop Sanderson's Episcopacy not prejudicial to Regal power Casuist that a farther disquisition of it is needless The change of Election of Bishops by Conge d'eslire into Collation by Letters-Patents is a bad instance of the King's Supremacy for if such collation infers a Regal Supremacy those who have read that Bishopricks were originally Donative not Elective will be apt to conclude that the King
a Burn. V. 2. p. 81. Burnet who met with no footsteeps of it neither in Records nor Letters nor in any Book written at that time The succeeding Paragraphs of this Chapter pretend to give Us the defence made by the Protestant Divines concerning King Edward's proceedings § 110. to § 136 together with our Author 's Rational Replies But besides that from the fair dealing of this Author already detected we have no reason to expect him ingenuous in representing the Arguments of our Divines with their just weight it may be farther offer'd by way of Precaution that those excellent Divines which he refers to wanted one advantage which we of this Age have from a more complete and Authentic History of the Reformation and among other things not knowing of the b Bur. Hist V. 1. Pref. rasure of Records made in Q. Mary's Reign pleaded to those Negative Arguments which we have good reason to reject This premis'd I proceed to consider with all possible brevity his Alphabet of Arguments α Urges that these Injunctions were not set forth but by the advice and consent of the Metropolitan and β of other Bishops § 111 112 The substance of his Reply to α and β is that these Injunctions had not the Autority of the Metropolitan as such i. e. as acting with the major part of the Synod Now α β may easily rejoyn that where the matter of the Injunctions is lawful much more where it is necessary as being commanded in Scripture there the coactive Autority of the Prince is sufficiently Obligatory and that since the Office of Pastors whether in or out of Synod is directive these Injunctions proceeding from the direction of both the Metropolitans for a Bur. V. 2. p. 25. Holgate also Arch Bishop of York was a Reformer and b Ibid. other Learned Bishops were not destitute of Ecclesiastical Autority γ Saith these Injunctions were not set forth as a body of Doctrine which was the Act of the Synod in the 5th of King Edward but were provisional only for the publick exercise of Religion and Worship and Gamma is in the right of it for any thing his Replyer faith to the contrary who doth not pretend that they were A new Objection indeed is started and pretended instances given that King Edward claim'd a power for rectifying the Doctrines of his Clergy § 113 But not to trouble the Reader with examining the Instances we say that such a power might have been justly exercis'd and that a Prince requiring his Clergy to receive and teach such Doctrines as were taught by our Saviour usurps no Autority not invested in him δ Saith The publick Exercise of Religion was necessary to be provided for at present § 114 It is answer'd that the Judgment of a National Synod was necessary for such Provision For the proof of that we are refer'd to c Ch. Gov. Part. 4th a Book which no Bookseller has yet had the courage to undertake and therefore for a Reply I remit him to the Answer to it which he will find at any Shop where Church-Government Part the 4th is to be sold ζ Saith The Injunctions extend only to some evident points the abolishing of Image Worship the restoring of the Liturgy in a known tongue and Communion in both kinds and the abolishing of Romish Masses and that in the three former the King restor'd only what was establish'd in the Ancient Church § 118 It is replied that nothing is said in ξ of taking away the Mass But if the Reader be pleas'd to consult ζ he will be satisfied of our Author's modesty If ζ did not charge the Mass with Novelty it was because the Respondent had the management of the Opposition As for the other three points § 117 he confesses that the Reformation in them restor'd the practice of the Primitive Church and so kind he is that he could have pardon'd us this had we not proceeded to pronounce the contrary Doctrines unlawful A very heynous aggravation this when he himself confesses that Errâ—urs in practice do always presuppose Errors in Doctrine § 1 From which Zeta doth humbly subsume that those Church Governors who would have been facile to licence a change of their practice ought not to have been difficile in allowing us a decession from their Doctrine § 115 The Controversie betwixt out Author and ε is so trifling that it is not worth troubling the Reader with it For this reason perhaps it was that Zeta took Epsilon's place η Urges that these Injunctions were generally receiv'd and put in practice by the Bishops and θ much-what the same that they were consented to by the major part of Bishops The Answer to this consists of some Pages but what is material in it will ly in a less room It is urg'd that some were averse to the Reformation that the Compliers were guilty of dissimulation of an outward compliance whilst contrarily affected that they remain'd of the old Religion in their heart wore vizours took up a disguise and were sway'd by the fear of a new Law-giving Civil power To this η and θ will not be so rude as to rejoyn that it may perhaps be this Editor's personal Interest to prove that these Bishops complied against their Consciences and that Hypocrisie was the general principle of that party but that it is little for the honour of the Communion which he would seem to be of to urge that the whole body of it's Pastors were guilty of the highest prevarication possible with God and Man But this doth doth not at all affect our Divines who only urge that those Bishops conform'd and might in charity have hop'd that they did it Honestly but are not concern'd that this Compliance was from base and ungenerous Motives What is said here of the Liturgy shall be consider'd in λ where it ought to have been said I cannot dwell upon the History of these Paragraphs but there are in it some bold strokes worthy of our Author He blushes not to cite Parson's Conversions § 121 a book made up of lying and Treason and which might have made the Mastery in Assurance betwixt it's Author and Sanders disputable had not Posterity seen a third Person who may seem to have put an end to the quarrel In a citation from Fuller § 124 tho' he refers us to the very Page he puts upon us four Popish Bishops more then Fuller reckons Aldrich Bishop of Carlile Goodrich Bishop of Ely Chambers Bishop of Peterborough and King Bishop of Oxford Now tho' by the absolute Autority of a Church-Governor he might have impos'd these four Bishops on us Yet it seems very hard that Fuller should be commanded to satisfie us of this point who not only mentions no such Bishops but in his Marginal notes tell 's us that he thinks Oxford and Ely were at that time void We are told that Cranmer in the beginning of King Edward's days call'd a Synod § 127 wherein he endeavour'd to
our Universities against them in a point of Controversy agitated between us for an authentic proof how would He make himself merry with Us Yet we might do the one as well as he doth the other b Protest Ordin def against S.N. Tom. 4. Disc 7. p. 1006. Pamphl Bishop Bonner wrote a book wherein he contended that the new devis'd Ordination of Ministers was insufficient and void because no Autority at all was given them to offer in the Mass the body and blood of our Saviour Christ but both the Ordainer and Ordained despis'd and impugn'd not only the Oblation or Sacrifice of the Mass but also the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar A. Bp. Br. He saith We are not order'd to offer true Substantial Sacrifice Not expresly indeed No more were they themselves for 800 Years after Christ and God knows how much longer No more are the Greek Church or any other Christian Church except the Roman at this day Yet they acknowledg them to be rightly Ordain'd and admit them to exercise all the Offices of Priestly Function in Rome it self We acknowledge an Eucharistical Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving a Commemorative Sacrifice or a memorial of the Sacrifice of the Cross a Representative Sacrifice or a representation of the Passion of Christ before the Eyes of his Heavenly Father an Imperative Sacrifice or an impetration of the fruit and benefit of his Passion by way of Real prayer and lastly an Applicative Sacrifice or an application of his merits unto our Souls Let him that dare go one step farther then We do and say that it is a Suppletory Sacrifice to supply the defects of the Sacrifice of the Cross Or else let them hold their peace and speak no more against us in this point of Sacrifice for ever a Bp. Bramhal's Works Tom. 1. Disc 3. c. 9. p. 255. Pamp. Those who are truely ordain'd yet if in an Heretical or Schismatical Church their true Orders as to the Exercise of them are unlawful and so unless a Church be first clear'd from Heresy and Schism these Orders are not rightly employed in it A. Bp. Br. First I deny that the Protestant Bishops did revolt from the Catholic Church Nay they are more Catholic than the Roman-Catholics themselves Secondly I deny that the Protestant Bishops are Heretics Thirdly I deny that they are guilty of Schism Fourthly I deny that the Autority of our Protestant Bishops was ever restrain'd by the Catholic Church Fifthly No sentence whatsoever of whomsoever or of what crime soever can obliterate the Episcopal Character which is indeleble nor disable a Bishop from Ordaining so far as to make the Act invalid b Ibid. Disc 7. p. 990. Pam. Tho' I do not here state the Question Whether they had such due Ordination and Ordainers as to be truly and essentially Bishops yet their Ordination and Introduction if valid seems several ways uncanonical and unlawful A. Bp. Br. For the Canons we maintain that our form of Episcopal Ordination hath the same Essentials with the Roman but in other things of inferior allay it differeth from it The Papal Canons were never admitted for binding Laws in England farther then they were receiv'd by our selves and incorporated into our Laws but our Ordination is conformable to the Canons of the Catholic Church And for our Statutes the Parliament hath answer'd that Objection sufficiently shewing clearly that the Ordination of our first Protestant Bishops was legal and for the validity of it we crave no man's favour a Ibid. Tom. 1. Disc 5. cap. 8. p. 471. Pamph. They came many of them into the places of others unjustly expell'd A. Bp. Br. This is saying but we expect proving b Ibid. Pamph. Neither the major part nor any save one of the former incumbent Bishops consented to their Election or Ordination Dr. Bur. If Ordinations or Consecrations upon the King's Mandate be invalid which the Paper drives at then all the Ordinations of the Christian-Church are also annul'd since for many Ages they were all made upon the Mandates of Emperors and Kings By which You may see the great weakness of this Argument c Dr. Burnet's Vindic. of our Ordinations p. 09. Pamph. No Metropolitan can be made without the consent of the Patriarch but Arch-Bishop Parker was ordain'd without and against the consent of the Patriarch A. Bp. Br. The British Islands neither were nor ought to be subject to the Jurisdiction of the Roman Patriarch as I have sufficiently demonstrated a Bramhal's Works Tom. 1. Disc 2. cap. 9. p. 128. Pamph. Neither did be receive any Spiritual Jurisdiction at all from any Ecclesiastical Superior but merely that which the Queen a Lay-Person by her Delegates in this Employment did undertake to conferr upon him Dr. Bur. All Consecrations in this land are made by Bishops by the power that is inherent in them only the King gives orders for the Execution of that their power Therefore all that the Queen did in the case of Matthew Parker and the Kings do since was to command so many Bishops to exercise a power they had from Christ in such or such Instances b Vindic. of Ord. p. 89. Pamph. Which Delegates of hers were none of them at that time possest of any Diocess Barlow and Scory being then only Bishops Elect of Chichester and Hereford and Coverdale never after admitted or elected to any and Hoskins a Suffragan A. Bp. Br. The Office and Benefice of a Bishop are two distinct things Ordination is an act of the Key of Order and a Bishop uninthron'd may ordain as well as a Bishop inthron'd The Ordination of Suffragan Bishops who had no peculiar Bishopricks was always reputed as good in the Catholic Church if the Suffragan had Episcopal Ordination as the Ordination of the greatest Bishops in the world c Bramhal's Works Tom. 1. Disc 5. c. 5. p. 452. Pamph. Nor had they had Dioceses could have had any larger Jurisdiction save within these at least being single Bishops could have no Metropolitical Jurisdiction which yet they confer'd on Parker not on their own sure but on the Queen's Score Dr. Bur. Does he believe himself who says that none can Install a Bishop in a Jurisdiction above himself Pray then who invests the Popes with their Jurisdiction Do not the Cardinals do it and are not they as much the Pope's Suffragans as Hodgskins was Canterburie's so that if inferiors cannot invest one in a Superior Jurisdiction then the Popes can have none legally since they have their's from the Cardinals that are inferior in Jurisdiction There are two things to be consider'd in the Consecration of a Primate the one is giving him the Order of a Bishop the other is inverting him with the Jurisdiction of a Metropolitan For the former all Bishop are equal in Order none has more or less then another so that the Consecrators of Matthew Parker being Bishops by their