sake of a place but places for the sake of good things therefore choose from all Churches the things that are Pious Religious and Right and gather all these in one bundle and leave them with the English that they may become familiar to them It will be hard for the Agents of that Church to find out a Reason why Austin Bishop of Canterbury might make such changes in the Liturgies by gathering out of the several Rituals that were then in the World what he thouhgt fit and yet to deny the same power to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and the Bishops in King Edward's days why might not they as well as Austin the Monk compare the Rituals of the Church of Rome with other more ancient Forms and gather together what they found most Pious Religious and Right not loving things for the sake of a place whether Rome or Sarum but loving places rather for the sake of good things So that in this we have on our side the decision of a Pope who was both more learned and more pious than any of all his Successors but this is not the only particular in which they will decline to be tryed by his Iudgment And in the changes that were made iâ—… is very clear that our Reformers did noâ—… design to throw out every thing that was in the Roman Rituals right or wrong but made all the good use that was possible oâ—… the Forms that were then received in thâ—… Western Church and in this our Church followed our Saviours method who thougâ—… he had the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him and was to Antiquate the Jewisâ—… Religion and to substitute his more Divine Precepts to those of Moses Yet he did accommodate his Institutions as near aâ—… could be to the Customs of the Jews not only in lesser matters but even in those two great Sacraments by which his Church is knit together as hath been fully made out by many learned Writers If then the customs of a Religion that was ready to perish were made use of and by new and more sacred Benedictions were consecrated to higher ends Our Church shewed her Prudence and Moderation in not destroying Root and Branch but reserving such things as were good and by being cleansed from some Excrescencies might prove still of excellent use This though it has given some colour to many peevish complaints yet is that in which we have cause still to glory This care and caution does eminently appear in our Ordinal the Ceremonies which were invented by the latter Ages we laid aside the more Ancient and Apostolical are retained And for the formal words used in the Imposition of Hands though the saying Receive the Holy Ghost was a latter addition without any Ancient Authority yet because this comes nearer the practice of our Saviour it was retained as the form of giving Orders For since it is consest on all hands that the Form of Orders is in the power of the Church we had good reason to prefer that which our Blessed Saviour made use of to any other and it had been a sullen and childish peevishness to have changed this because it was used in the Church of Rome So that I cannot imagine what should move them to shew so much dislike to our Forms except it be the old Quarrel of hating them because they are better and their own are worse and so because their deeds are evil they envy and revile us In this whole matter we are willing to be tryed both by the Scriptures and the first eight Ages even of the Roman Church by the Greek Church to this day and by the Doctrine that is most commonly received even in their own Church There is but one Objection that may seem to have any force in it which can be made from the practices of the Primitive Church against the Ordinations in this Church which is that we have not the inferior degrees of Subdeacons Acolyths Exorcists Readers and Porters in our Church and indeed if the Popes Infallibility be well proved this will be of force sufficient to invalidate our Orders The case of Photius Patriarch of Contantinople is well known whom Pope Nicolaus denyed to be lawfully Ordained because he was suddenly raised up from being a Layman to be made a Patriarch and though he passed through the Ecclesiastical Degrees yet that was not thought sufficient by that Pope who certainly would have been more severe to us who have none of these Degrees among us But these Orders cannot be looked on as either of Divine or Apostolical Institution the Scripture mentions them not St. Clemens St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp say nothing of them Justin Martyr and Irenaeus are as silent about them so that till the third Century we find no footsteps of them the first mention that is made of them is in the Canons and Constitutions called Apostolical of whose Antiquity I shall now say nothing In the Canons mention is oft made of the rest of the Clergy as distinct from Bishops Priests and Deacons and particularly they mention Readers Subdeacons and Singers In the Constitutions there are Rules given about thâ—… Ordination of Subdeacons and Readers And though there is mention made of Exorcists yet it is plainly said there that they were not Ordained but were believed to have that power over Spirits by a free gift of God and that they were then Ordained when they were made Bishops and Priests Firmilian who lived in the midst of the third Century speaks of Exorcists but it does not appear from his words if they were a distinct or an inferior Order of Church-men and they may be well enough understood of such as had an extraordinary power over Spirits Yet in the beginning of the fourth Century we find in the Greek Church more inferior Orders for the Council of Laodicea reckons up Servants who it is like were Acolyths Readers Singers Exorcists Porters and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were it seems Monks or some persons that were imployed in servile works such as the diggers of Craves And by the Council of Antioch the Chorepiscopi might Ordain Subdeacons Readers and Exorcists And if the Epistle to the Church of Antioch said to be writen by Ignatius was forged in the same Century by it it appears that there were then in the Greek Church Subdeacons Readers Singers Porters and Exorcists for all these are saluted in that Epistle from which it appears that all these Orders were then in the Church of Antioch But there is no small difficulty about these Orders in the Greek Churches for in all their Rituals we find no inferior Orders but Subdeacons and Readers to whom in some Churches they have added Singers upon which it is that Morinus confidently pronounces there were never any other inferior Orders in the Greek Church but these two but it does not appear that he had considered well those Canons of Laodicea and Antioch which mention other Orders Abraham Ecchellensis
was not so much as disputed but when they grew insolent and factious it was declared by the General Council of Chalcedon that they were and ought to be subject to their Bishops and so it continues in the Greek Church to this day The same was also decreed in some Western Councils but when the Order of the Benedictines grew very considerable and many persons of Quality retired into it and it became a great piece of Religion to build and inrich Abbeys then the Founders moved their Kings to obtain Priviledges for them from their Bishops for the most ancient of these that I have met with is the Exempof the Abbey of St. Denis granted by the Bishop of Paris the next to that is the exemption of the Abbey of Corbie granted by the Bishop of Amiens which presidents were soon followed by a great many others By these Grants the Bishops did renounce their share of the Revenues of the Abbey of which according to the Ancient Division the fourth part did belong to the Bishop and for the further quiet of those Religious Houses the Bishops did exempt them from all Visitations and gave up the power they had over them wholly to the Abbot and these exemptions which at first were only for the Monasteries were afterwards extended further to all the Lands and Churches that belonged to the Abbeys of which some were exempted from the Visitations of the Arch-Deacons and the Bishops Vicars others were also exempted from the Bishops visiting in person But the Popes from the 8th Century downwards finding how much Abbeys wese enriched and it being a grateful thing in all places to favour the Monks they granted them fuller and larger Priviledges they gave many Abbots a right to a Miter and a Staff and declared them Prelates And the truth of it was the secular Clergy were for the most part both so ignorant and so corrupt that it was no wonder if all the World favoured the Monks whose vices being committed within their Cloysters were not so notorious and did not occasion so much scandal as the disorders of the Clergy did which were more publick And the very name Religious or Regular which the Monks took to themselves and the name Secular with which they loaded the Clergy did them great service for in ignorant Ages specious Titles and ill sounding Names affect the Vulgar mightily And the Monks of the Order of St. Austin being also possest of most of the Prebends from whence they were called Canons Regular those Chapterâ—… had exempted Iurisdictions given them From hence sprung all the peculiar Exemptions that are among us for in the suppressing of the Monasteries the Bishopâ—… were not fully restored to their Ancient Iurisdiction so that those Exemptionâ—… do still continue from whence the most scandalous disorders in our Clergy have risen So much are they mistaken who complain of the Episcopal Jurisdiction since the foulest Enormities among us flow from the want of it and from a Corruption brought in by the Popes which is not yet sufficiently purged out These Monasteries were so many separated and independent Congregations which did chose their own Pastors and this only difference in the point of Government is between our Modern Independents and them that these will depend on none in the rules of their Policy but upon Christ alone without acknowledging any superior Iurisdiction or Subordination and those did depend on Christ's Vicar without submitting to any other Authority But the Popes designing to subject the Episcopal Authority wholly to themselves used another Method toward that end which was to raise the Dignity of the Abbots very high and whereas by the Primitive Canons three Bishops were to concur in the Consecration of a Bishop the Popeâ—… brought in a custom of allowing two Mitered Abbots to assist a Bishop in those Consecrations which is acknowledged both by Binnius and Bellarmine And this with the Title Prelate and the use of the Miter and the Pastoral Staff raised them to an equality with the Bishops This was not all they were next brought to sit in General Councils Originally Abbots were but Laymen but now they must all be Priests yet it was never before heard of that Priests did sit in Oecumenical Councils It is true the Rural-Bishops or Chorepiscopi did subscribe the Canons of the Council of Nice and other General Councils but whatever Morinus and some others have said to prove that they were no more than Priests yet if it were not an impertinent Digression â—… think it could be easily made appear that they were Bishops so that it is most certain that no Priests did subscribe and siâ—… in General Councils for many Ages in their own Names for what they did by Proxy from their Bishops has no relation to this matter But when the Popes were setting up their Monarchy in the West they resolved to ballance the Votes of the Bishops by bringing in Abbots to vote in their General Councils who were obliged by their Interest to support the Exaltation of the Papal power and suppressing of Episcopal Iurisdiction In the first General Council that was held by Calistus the second in the Latâ—…ran Sugerius who was present says there were 300 and more Bishops but Pandulphuâ—… says there were present 997. partly Bishops partly Abbots so that above 600. of these must have been Abbots In the third Council of Lateran we hear of none but Bishops but to make amends for that the Writs that summoned the fourth Council of Lateran were sent to Abbots as well as to Bishops and a vast number of them came The Writs for the second Council of Lions were issued out not only to Abbots but to inferior Prelates by Pope Gregrory the Tenth and Aquinas and Bonaventure being then in great esteem were also called to that Council though they were only Friers But Pope Clement the Fifth took care to have a full Assembly when he called the General Council at Vienna for the Writs were not only to Patriarchs Primates Metropolitans Arch-Bishops Bishops and Abbots as had been done before but to all Priors Deans Provosts Archdeacons Archpriests and all other Prelates of Monasteries and Churches exempted and non-exempted And thus the Popes were sure to carry things in such Assembles as they pleased And it is no unpleasant thing to observe what were the Contests between the Popes and the Bishops which are plainly the same and have been managed by the same Arts and Intrigues that the Contests in Political matters between Prerogative and Privilege have been For near five Ages the matter was contested by the Prelates but the power of the Abbots and the other exemptions of the Deans and Chapters did much weaken the Bishops Authority and the Secular Princes did joyn with the Popes to bear down the Bishops who having great Revenues did generally joyn with the People for the asserting of publick Liberty But the Popes gave them up as Sacrifices to
their Princes till they forced them afterwards to seek to them for shelter from the severity of their Princes and then the Tables were turned All this was not a little set forward by the credit which the begging Friers got every where in the 13th Century for the Monks were then become as scandalous as the Secular Clergy had ever been and were generally very ignorant so that they could not serve the ends of the Papacy any more but the austere lives of the Franciscans their poverty and coarse Garments girt about with Ropes their bare Legs and seeming Humility gained them great esteem and the Zealous Dominicans whose course of life was not so severe yet were as poor and Preached much and Aquinas Scotus and Bonaventure brought in among the Friers the learning of the Schoolâ—… which was then in great esteem in the World all which concurred to dispose the People to receive them with great Veneration These were also imployed by the Popes every where and were also exempted from Episcopal Visitation and had Priviledges to build Churches and Seminaries to Preach hear Confessions and Administer the Sacraments every where and by these means the Episcopal Iurisdiction was quite overthrown and the Papacy became absolute and those Orders of Mendicant Friers were clearly a Presbytery they being a company of Priests that acknowledged no Episcopal Iurisdiction over them and their Great Chapter was their General Assembly and their Annual or Triennial Generals and Provincials who are chosen by them were like the elected Moderators of Provincial and National Assemblies In this only did that Presbytery differ from the Geneva Form that it was subject only to Christ's pretended Vicar the other claims to be only subordinate to Christ himself but both did equally rebel against their Bishops Yet the Schism of the Papacy had almost overturned all for the Bishops met in a General Council at Constance I call all those Councils General according to the style of the Church of Rome for I know there was not a Conncil truly General among them all and there they thought to retrieve their Authority and to be quit with the Popes for bringing in Abbots and other inferior Prelates they brought in Deputies from Universities to sit and judg with them and they thought they had made sure work of all by their Acts that regulated the Popes Election restrained his power subjected him to the judgment of a General Council and above all by their Act for a Decennial General Council with such provisions in it that one would think the Act for Triennial Parliaments was copyed from that Original But alas all this proved to no purpose for as Aeneas Sylvius wisely said that since all Preferments were given by the Pope and none by the Council he must certainly have the better of it at long run which as it made himself turn about so it brought off many more and at length the Pope became Master of All and at the Council of Florence the Generals of Orders were brought in to have Votes there There was another great Engine also made use of by which all the rules of the Primitive Church was overturned which was the Popes assuming a power to hear and judg all causes originally All that the Popes pretended to for many Ages was to be the highest Tribunal to which the last Appeal did lie And this was not only never yielded to by the Eastern Churches but even the African Churches though a part of the Latin Church would never submit to it and yet the receiving an Appeal had a very favourable plea that a person who had been oppressed by a faction perhaps in his own Countrey might find relief and protection elsewhere But after the 8th Century and that the forged and now universally acknowledged spurious Decretals were received they set up a new pretension of Iudging Causes Originally taking matters out of the hands of the Iudg Ordinary and bringing the Cognizance of them to Rome and setting up many reserved Cases which could only be judged by the Pope and the Canonists that were a servile sort of people who wrote chiefly for Preferment did upon all occasions find new Distinctions for enlarging the Popes power But because it was intolerable tedious and expensive to carry all such matters to Rome therefore that it might not be too heavy a burden to the World Legantine Courts were every where set up where all those Tryals were made By all these ways were the Primitive Rules broken and such a confusion was brought in upon all Ecclesiastical Offices that no Ancient Landmark or Boundary was thought so sacred that they did not either leap over or change it I will not enlarge further on this Subject and having already transgressed the bounds of a Preface I will not lay open the other Violations of the Sacred Offices at the full length but as the value of every thing is no less prejudiced by exalting it too high than by depressing it too much for a string over bended must crack So the Popes did as much wrong these Functions by exalting them out of measure as they had done by encroaching so far upon them And this was done by the Croissades Indulgences Privileged Places Iubilees and Redemptions from Purgatory with other things of that nature which the Monks and Friers did every where preach and proclaim these things did savour of Interest so palpably that it was no wonder if most people were so alienated from them that the first Reformers found all persons disposed to forsake the Communion of a Church that had so long deceived them by such gross Impostures Many had groaned long under all these Corruptions and of such the greater part received the Reformation others hoping to have got things brought about to a better pass continued still in that Communion but how little either Erasmus 〈◊〉 Câ—…ssander or many more such could prevail the event shewed for in the Council of Trent which was not obtained but after many years sute frequent Addresses not without threatnings at length extorting it how little could be carried appears even from Cardinal Pallavicini's own History two grand points upon which the Bishops that had honest designs intended to raise the Reformation of Discipline and Manners were the declaring the Episcopal Iurisdiction to be of Divine Right and that the Residence of all Ecclesiastical Incumbents was also of Divine Right but these could not be carried Lainez the General of the Jesuits and the whole Court Party appearing with great Vehemence against the first of these asserting that all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction was wholly and only in the Pope And from this one thing it may appear how little Iustice or Fair-dealing was to be expected from that Council towards those whom they called Hereticks when the Bishops themselves being Iudges in a thing in which they were also parties I mean about the Divine Right of their own Iurisdiction they could not carry it for it was never heard of before that
where 〈◊〉 was both Iudg and Party he was cast And in the other trifling Reformations that were Enacted there what care was taken by Distinctions and Reservations chiefly that grand and General one of Saving the Dignity of the Apostolical See to leave a door open by which those very Corruptions which they seemed to condemn and cast out might be again taken up as most of them have been since So that the issue of that Assembly was to establish the Papal Authority to cut off all possible hopes of abating an ace of the errors of that Church when all controverted points were turned to Articles of Faith and the contrary Opinions condemned by Anathematisms to disover how in possible it is to get the Abuses of that Church effectually Reformed and in fine to cure all people of their expectations of any great good from such meetings for the future and this has since appeared very visibly For as it is not to be expected that the Popes should call any General Councils ex motu proprio so no Christian Princes have thought iâ—… worth the while to solicite that Court for a new Council And thus I have hinted at several particulars from which it may appear how much the Church of Rome has confounded those holy Functions how she has robbed some of them of the power and Iurisdiction which they have from Christ and has put a power in the hands of others which they never had from Christ. And if the vigour of Ecclesiastical Discipline is not set up among us as it ought to be we owe it for the greatest part to those Corruptions which they brought in and being once received are not easily to be rooted out of the minds of the people But to a great many all that can be said of the disorders that have been brought in or kept up in that Church by the Popes will seem sleight and of no force for they will plainly tell us that they do not all believe the Pope is Infallible but are satisfied there are many things done by him that are amiss and need to be amended they only adhere to the Catholick Church to whose definitions and decrees they submit and resign themselves and yet no body writes more sharply against the Reformation and the Protestant Churches than these men do charging them with Heresie and Schism and every thing that is hateful to mankind This way of writing was begun in the Sorbon and never more pompously than at this time by the Writers of the Port Royal and has been taken up here by some whom their adversaries call Blackloists who speak almost with equal indignation of the Court of Rome and the Reformation This I know works great effects on some and has a very specious appearance therefore I hope the Reader will pardon me if I hold him yet a little longer in the Preface to unmask this pretension of some which otherwise may impose upon him I shall then make it appear that the maintainers of these principle must either be men of no conscience at all and sucâ—… as stick not at mocking both God and man at perjury and the foulest kind of equivoâ—…tion or if they be true to these principles they must on many occasions do the samâ—… things for which they condemn us an count us Hereticks and Schismaticks An this I shall instance in three things whicâ—… are of the greatest consequence to a Church namely Doctrine Worship and Government For the first of these When the Poâ—… makes a decision in any controverted poinâ—… if I do not think him infallible I retaiâ—… still my own freedom to judge as I am con vinced and so I may perchance be of another mind but if the Pope will have 〈◊〉 Churchmen or all Bishops as was lateâ—… done in the case of the Five Proposition of Jansenius to condemn the contrary opinions or subscribe Formularies about iâ—… they must either do what is commanded and so act against their conscience â—… quivocate and be perjured or if they do it not they must be proceeded against first for contempt and contumacy and next for Heresie and then they shall be Hereticks as well as we are And if in one point a man reserves his private sentiments notwithstanding the Popes decision why not in a great many and if it be no fault to have different opinions then since a mans actions must be governed by his persuasions it will be no fault to maintain and teach them if they be of great importance at least it is a great sin to renounce and deny them Therefore if Pope Leo the X. was not Infallible Luther was no Heretick though condemned by him especially a great many of the Articles for which he was condemned having never been decided by any of their pretended General Councils nor do these men think that the present practice of the Church is a forcible Argument for those of the Port-Royal have both complained of it and studied to change it in the matter of Pennance and Absolution so that it will not be easie nay not possible for them to prove that Luther was a Heretick since he was never condemned by any Infallible power Therefore it is not the Authority of the condemnation but the merit of the cause that makes one a Heretiâ—…k which is what we plead for From which it is evident that let the Pope decree what he will all of that Communion must either acquiesce in it or they shall become Hereticks This to such as believe the Pope is Infallible is no matter of difficulty for if I be once perswaded of that all his decisions do captivate my reason but if I am not I must either subdue my Conscience to my Interest or be that Monster which is called an Heretick It is true both Civil and Ecclesiastical Government punishes all obstinate and refractory persons who stand out against publick conclusions but still the Subject if these Laws be Injust has a clear Conscience amidst his sufferings therefore this is not parallel to their Doctrine who make all that comply not with their decisions Hereticks which is a matter of great guilt before God Let them give an Argument that will make a Protestant a Heretick which will not infer the same against a Jansenist And if they go to the merits of the cause it is a tryal we have never declined So till these men learn to trie all their reasonings together there is no great account to be made of them The second particular in which I shall shew the fallaciousness of these mens Reasonings is in the matter of Divine Worship which of how great consequence it is needs not be made out it must be a sin of a high nature either to prophane the name of God by any piece of Worship which I judg sinful or to use any Devotions about which I am not at all or at least not fully perswaded Now the whole Worship of their Church coming Originally and onely from the Popes who have given
Divines made those Alterations and Changes in the Ordinal and the King and the Parliament who are vested with the Supream Legislative Power added their Authority to them to make them Obligatory on the Subjects Which is all that is imported by the word Lawful in the Act of Parliament the ordinary use whereof among Lawyers is A thing according to Law The â—…th Argument against the Validity of our Priestly Orders is That we have them from those that are not Bishops which carries him to the next Conclusion that our Bishops are not Bishops But before I follow him to that I must desire you would consider with how much disingenuity this Paper is framed that would impose on the easy Reader the belief of our first Reformers not being true Bishops when the Writer cannot but know that Arch Bishop Cranmer was a Bishop as truly Consecrated and Invested as any of the Roman Church were and was confirmed by the Pope who sent him the Pall and to satisfy you that they knew him to be such they degraded him with the usuall Ceremonies before his Martyrdom So that he being the Fountain of our Clergy that succeeded him and being truly Consecrated himself all those he Ordained are by the doctrine of the Church of Rome Bishops or Priests since Orders according to their Doctrine leave an Indelible Character which can never be taken away So that by their Principles no following sentence could deprive him of the power of Ordaining It is true there were many disorderly practices of some Popes in the latter Ages in annulling Orders and re-ordaining those ordained by others for Pope Urban the second appointed those who were ordained Simoniacally to be re-ordained And Stephen the 4th in a Synod Decreed that all the Ordinations his predecessor Pope Constantine had made were null and void because he from a Layman was chosen a Pope and though he passed through the Intermedial degrees of Priest and Deacon yet he stopt not so long in them as was appointy by the Canons and upon the same account it was also judged that Photius the Learned Patriarch of Constantinople who in six days went through all the Ecclesiastical Decrees from a Layman to a Patriarch had no power of Ordaining lawfully and all the Orders he gave were annulled by Pope Nicolaus And to mention no more the Orders given by Pope Formosus were annulled by his Successor Pope Stephen the 6th upon the pretence of some Crimes and Irregularities with which he was charged these practices as they gave great Scandal so they gave occasion to much disputing about the Legality and Canonicalness of these proceedings for the Canonists and Schoolmen being generally very ignorant and prepossessed with an opinion of the Popes Infallibility studied to flatter the Court of Rome all that was possible Yet on the other hand there was so much to be said against these proceedings that as appears by Petrus Damiani Auxilius and other Writers of that time there was great perplexity and many different Opinions about them But the ignorance and passion of those Ages appears evidently in this particular for there is nothing more manifest than that the Ancient Church was of another opinion and as in the debate between Pope Stephen and Saint Cyprian about the re-baptizing of Heretiques the constant opinion and practice of the following Ages was against re-baptizing such as were baptized by those Heretiques who retained the essentials of Baptism So by the same parity of reason and upon the same Arguments they held the Ordinations of Heretiques valid that retained the essentials of Ordination In the case of Heretiques we have these Instances Faelix was consecrated Bishop of Rome by the Arians in the room of Liberius whose banishment they had procured and yet he was acknowledged a righteous Pope and his Ordinations were accounted valid In the General Council of Ephesus the Priests of the Messalian Heresie were appointed to be received into the Church and continue Priests upon renouncing their Heresie The same was also granted to Nestorians Pelagians Eutychians Monothelites and divers other Heretiques as Morinus proves at length And at this day though the Greek Church is condemned by the Roman as Heretical in the point of the Procession of the Holy Ghost yet they are received according to their Orders into their Communion when they renounce their Heresie And their great Vasques says that all the Schoolmen and Summists agree that an heretical Excommunicate or suspended Bishop has still the power of giving Orders for which he cites many Schoolmen and he likewise proves that a Bishop after degradation retains the same power And the case of Schismaticks is no less clear for to wave the Decision of the Council of Nice which seems somewhat dubious in the case of the Novatian Ordinations we find frequently in St. Austins Treatises and Conferences with the Donatists that they offered to them if they would return to the Unity of the Church to receive them according to their Orders So that they did not think Schism did take away the power of giving Orders And in the case of that long and scandalous Schism of the Papacy for fifty years together when the one sat at Rome and the other at Avignon though beside their Schism Depositions Excommunications and Censures of all sorts passed on both sides by each of those Popes against the other and it must be confessed that one of them was the Schismatick and by consequence the Censures fell justly on him Yet both their Ordinations were held valid and when the matter was setled at the Council of Constance the Ordinations on no side were annulled or renewed And though Petrus de Lunay who was called Benedict the 13th refused to submit to them and lay down his pretensions as the others did yet when they gave sentence against him there is not a word in it of annulling Orders given by him From all which it follows that neither the pretence of Heresie Schism nor Censures will according to the practice either of the Primitive Church or of the Church of Rome even in these latter Ages be of any force to invalidate our Orders Which was well seen by Morinus and though he does not write upon this head with so much ingenuity as he does on other points yet he lays this down as a Maxim That all the Ordinations of a Heretiques and Schismatiques made according the forms of the Church and where the Heretiques that gave them were also rightly Ordained according to the forms of the Church are valid as to their Substance and are not to be repeated though they be unlawful and both he that gave and he that received them sinned grievously nor is it in any case lawful for a Catholick to receive Orders from Heretiques or Schismatiques Therefore in those Ordinations if all other things be done according to the form of the Church and only the Crime of Heresie be charged on the Orders given the substance of
Pool to have been a righteous Arch-Bishop and so confesses Catholick Ordination and Jurisdiction to be lawful valid and good which was necessary by the Laws of England as appears from her Mandate in which she supplies any Defects they might have been under Now all the Authority the Queen had flowed from the Parliament which annexed all Jurisdiction Spiritual or Temporal over the Ecclesiastical State of this Realm to the Crown by which they made her Pope So that by the very words of the Act Matthew Parker had his Jurisdiction from the Queen and she hers from the Parliament Therefore the Protestant Priests and Bishops are only Parliamentary Priests and Bishops and are not from Christ and his Church but from their Kings Queen and Parliaments Here is such a heap of things so unjustly and weakly said that it must needs grieve all honest men to see a company of Priests going up and down the Kingdom studying to abuse weak and unlearned persons with such disingenuous Stories or Writings Which I hope will appear more fully if you consider the following particulars First It is certain that King and Parliament have the Supream Legislative Authority in this Realm and this they have from the Laws of God Nature and Society confirmed by the Gospel which commands us to be subject to the Higher Powers Therefore whatever they Enact that is within the Limits of their Jurisdiction is Law and if it be not sinful is to be obeyed if it be sinful it is to be submitted to For instance if they set up a false Religion by Law it does not make it a true Religion but adds the sanction of Law and is the civil Warrant and Security for the Subject therefore the Civil Power cannot change the nature of things to make Good Evil or Evil Good but only gives Authority and Security and in this they are restrained in things Civil as well as Spiritual for if they make unjust Laws in Civil things the case is the same with their unjust Laws about Spirituals Therefore it is to be concluded as the Fundamental Maxim of Civil Government that whatever may be done lawfully and without Sin ought to be done when the Supream Civil Authority commands it and that the Subjects ought to obey Secondly Whosoever is empowered by the King and Parliament to execute this their Supream Authority has a full Right and Title to apply that Power so given or committed to him having the execution of that Law put in his hands and if any shall without their Warrant or Authority from them usurp or assume any sort of Power or Jurisdiction within this Kingdom they are Intruders and Usurpers and the success they have in it does no more justifie that Force than a Robber's does his Title to Goods unjustly taken And although some weak Princes in hard times did yield it up to the Pope yet both the Clergy themselves and the Parliaments did often assert their own Authority which was most eminently done by King Edward the First and King Edward the Third So that the Popes power here had no just Title but was a violent Invasion for that they neither had it from Christ nor Saint Peter nor by any Decree of General Councils and that for 800 years after Christ it was never allowed them that they never had it in the Eastern Churches and that what they had in the Western Churches was only extorted by force and fraud from the Princes and States of Europe and that they had no Law for it in England are things so certain that for proof of this I shall refer my self to the Writers of their own Church De Marca Launoy and Balusius with many others And at this very day the Pope has neither more nor less power in the other Kingdoms of Europe than the Connivence of Princes or the Laws give him Therefore the Pope had no power in England but what was unjustly usurped from the King and Parliament Thirdly When the Supream Authority the King and Parliament have long endured an Encroachment upon them that gives no just Title to it nor hinders them from asserting their own Rights when they find a fit opportunity for it and neither devests them of their Authority nor the Subjects of their due Rights and Freedoms Therefore the Government of the Kingdom and all the exercise of coercive Jurisdiction being inseparably annexed to the Supream Authority it was incumbent on them to shake off all Forrein Jurisdict they should have done it sooner but could never do it too soon Fourthly The King and Parliament asserting their Authority in this Particular and condemning the Popes Usurpations they might commit the execution of it to whom they would Therefore they putting it into the Queens hands and her Successors she had a good Right to exercise it having a Law for it This then being annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm by the Supream Authority of King and Parliament the King hath the power of exercising it fully and only in his hands and is to be obeyed in all his Injunctions that are not sinful by the Laws of the Supream Authority in this Kingdom which comes from God and is confirmed by the Gospel Fifthly Though the power of the Ministers of the Gospel comes only from Christ yet the exercise of that Power and this or that person being put in this or that Living or Preferment and having the right to the Tythes and all the Jurisdiction of the Spiritual and Prerogative Courts being things not appointed in the Gospel the King having the Supremacy over the Ecclesiastical State does not exceed his Limits when he reserves to himself such power that no person shall be vested with the Legal Authority for those things but by his knowledg or upon his Order It is true he cannot make a man a Bishop or a Priest nor can he take away Orders for if Bishops should Ordain or Consecrate without or against his pleasure he may proceed against both the Ordainers and Ordained and can hinder their exercising any Function in his Dominions by Banishing or Imprisoning them but â—…he cannot destroy or annul their Orders So that the power of Ordination comes from Christ and has a Spiritual Effect whatever opposition the King may make but the exercise of that power must be had from him If the King commands an Heretick or a Scandalous person to be Elected or Ordained Churchmen may well demur and offer their reasons why they cannot give Obedience not for the want of Authority in the King but because the matter is Morally evil As they must also do if the King should command them to commit Theft or Murther So that 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
fulfilled which was the rule of the Primitive Church Absolution was granted immediatly upon Conâ—…ession without more ado as Arnaud has fully discovered to the world Certainly every body that considers these things must discern what merchandise the Roman Clergy have made of the power of the Keys to make themselves Masters of all mens secrets and of their Consciences then was the necessity of secret Confession set up tho there be nothing in Scripture that favours it any places that look that way being only meant of Confessing our Faults to those against whom they are Committed or of a publick Confession in the Cases of publick Offences Nor can it be pretended with any Colour of truth or reason that the Primitive Church did set up or Authorise Confession in any other way than as our Church does recommending it only as an excellent mean towards the quieting the Conscience and the avoiding of all Scruple and Doubtfulness Penitence is also a mean for humbling the sinner more for possessing him with deeper apprehensions of the guilt and evil of sin and of the Iustice of God and for ingaging him to more diligence and watchfulness for the future and by these Rules all the Primitive Discipline was contrived and managed that it might be a wholsome Medicine for the reforming the World and every honest Priest ought to consider these as the end he must drive at in all his dealings with Penitents and for this end the Absolution is to be withheld till it appears that the person is truely penitent and that both for the Priests sake that he may not give the Comforts of the Gospel nor make use of his Ministerial power of loosing sins without good grounds and also for the sinners sake that he may be kept under the fear of the wrath of God and be excluded from the comfortable Priviledges of the Christian Church till he had given some convincing proofs that he is a penitent indeed For if he be freed from these fears by a hasty absolution it is very like he will be slight in his Repentance There must be also some proportion between the penance and the sin committed such as fasting for sins of Intemperance bodily severities for Inordinate pleasures Alms-giving for sins of Covetousness great and frequent Devotions for sins of Omission that so the penance may prove Medicinal indeed for purging out the ill humours and recovering the sinner and to make the sin more Odious to him Therefore such slight penances as saying the Penitential Psalms and abstaining from some meats with other trifling things of that Nature are a betraying the power of the Keys which was given for Edification and not for Destruction and tend to an exposing of Religion and the Priestly Function to Contempt These practices are common and avowed in that Church and by these and such like have the Iesuites got all the world to make their Confessions to them of which such discoveries have been made by the Writers of the Port-Royal that we need say nothing but only look on with Astonishment and see the Impudent partiality of the Court of Rome and how obstinately they are resolved to reform nothing For tho the practice of the whole Church in all the Councils that were held for many ages be clearly of the side of the Iansenists yet they must be condemned their Books censured and the practices of the Iesuites encouraged and supported After all this of what Undanted Consciences must they be who charge our Church as opening a Sanctuary for Vice and Impurity because we retain not the necessity of secret Confession and Absolution Which whatever they may prove if well managed are according the practices of that Church and the Casuistical Divinity that is in greatest Credit there and by which their Priests are directed Engines for beating down all Religion and common Honesty But our Church owns still the power of the Keys which is not only Doctrinal when the Mercies of God are declared or his Iudgments denounced but is also Authoritative and Ministerial by which all Christians are either admitted to or rejected from the Priviledges of Church-Communion and their sins are bound or loosed With this we assert the Pastors of the Church are Vested For the Rites of our Ordinations we still retain those which are mentioned in the Scriptures which are Imposition of Hands and Prayer As for the forms of Prayer the Catholick Church never agreed on any nor decreed what were to be used Every Church had their own forms And though the Church of Rome did unmercifully enough impose divers things on the Greek Churches and because they would not yield to her Tyranny she left them to be a Prey to the Turk and did not interpose her Authority with the Princes of the West over whom she was then Absolute to arm them for the assistance and defence of the Greeks yet amidst all this desire of Rule they were never so unreasonable as to impose their Liturgies Rituals or Missals on them but in these they left them to their own Forms and so continue to do to this day Anciently they had no more Iurisdiction over the British Churches than over the Greek Churches So that by the division of Provinces confirmed by General Councils and by a particular decree of the Council of Ephesus no new Authority over any other Churches was to be assumed by any See but all were to be determined by the former practices and customs of the Church It is certain that before that time the Bishops of Rome had no Patriarchal Iurisdiction in Britain so that if the Decrees of General Councils will bind them they ought not to claim any Authority over us But if the Popes build new Pretentions on Austin the Monk's being sent hither by Pope Gregory the Great We are ready to refer this matter to his decision and will stand to his award for he being consulted by Austin about some particulars one of these was Since there is one Faith how comes it that the Customs of the Churches are so different and that one form of Missals is in the Roman Church and another is in the Churches of the Gaules or of France From this Question it appears that even France which was undoubtedly within the Patriarchat of Rome had Forms different from those used in Rome But let us now hear what Answer is given by Pope Gregory which may be reasonably believed ex Cathedra and so of great Authority with all who acknowledg the Infallibility of that See You know the custom of the Church of Rome in which you were educated but my opinion is that whatever you find either in the Holy Roman the Gallican or any other Church that may be more pleasing to Almighty God you shall diligently choose out that and infuse in the English Church which is yet but young in the Faith by careful Instruction what you can gather from many Churches for we ought not to love things for the
his Party yet he did overthrow all those Arguments against it that are brought in this Paper and shew'd they were of no force This Writing of his has not been yet Printed but I have perused it in the Manuscript Yet that this may not seem to be a declining of the task you have invited me to and because the Books I have mentioned are not perhaps in your hands I shall say as much in answer to it as I hope may fully satisfy you or any impartial Reader The Substance of the first argument to prove that our Ministers are not Priests is That by the form of our Ordination the Power of Consecrating the Sacrament of Christs most holy body and blood is not given the words only importing a Power to dispense the Sacraments which any Deacon may do Therefore the power of consecrating or making Christ's Body and Blood present being essential to the Priesthood and our form not expressing it and by consequence not giving it it wants one essential requisite to the Priesthood and therefore those that are ordained by it are not true Priests To which I answer 1. If our Form be the same in which Christ ordained his Apostles we may be very well satisfied that it is good and sufficient Now when our Saviour Ordained them S. Iohn tells us that he said Receive the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted to them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained this being that Mission which he gave them as the preceding words do clearly import As the Father hath sent me so send I you we can think no Form so good and so full as that he made use of It is true we do not judg any Form so essential as to annul all Ordinations that have been made by any other for then we should condemn both the Ordinations of the Primitive Churches and of the Eastern Churches at this day And this is the reason why even according to the ancient and most generally received Maxims of the Schools Orders can be no Sacrament tho in the general sense of the word Sacrament it being no term used in Scripture but brought into the Church we shall not much dispute against its being called so for by their Doctrin both Matter and Form of the Sacrament must be instituted by Christ and are not in the power of the Church Now they cannot but acknowledg that the Form of giving Orders in their Church was not instituted by Christ nor received in the Church for divers Ages which made Pope Innocent say that the Forms of Ordination were ordered and invented by the Church and were therefore to be observed otherwise it was sufficient in giving Orders to say Be thou a Bishop or be thou a Priest therefore though we do not annul Orders given by any other Form yet we have all reason to conclude that used by our Saviour to be not only sufficient but absolutely the best and fittest It is without all colour of reason that the writers of that Church will have the words our Saviour pronounced after he had instituted the Eucharist This do in remembrance of me to be the form by which he ordained them Priests for This do must relate to the whole action of the Sacrament the Receiving and Eating as well as the Blessing and Consecrating therefore these words are only a Command to the Church to continue the use of the Holy Sacrament in Remembrance of Christ. Nor do those of the Church of Rome think these were the words by which Christ ordained them Priests otherwise they would use them and think them sufficient but they use them not but instead of them say Receive thou Power to offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass both for the Living and the Dead 2. If this be ane essential defect in our Ordination then there were no true Priests in the Primitive Church for divers Ages and there are no true Priests at this day in the Greek Church and yet neither of these can be acknowledged by the Church of Rome for if they annul the Ordinations of the Primitive Church they likewise annul their own which are derived from them They do also own the Orders of the Greek Church to be valid as appears by their receiving them into their Communion at the Council of Florence and by their practice ever since which Morinus hath in the first part of his Work so fully proved from the decrees of Popes and Councils that the thing can no more be doubted and at this day there are Greek Churches at Rome maintain'd at the Popes charge in which Orders are given according to the Greek Pontificals as he informs us That in the Primitive Forms there were no express words of giving power to consecrate the Sacrament I appeal to the Collection of the most Antient Forms of Ordination that Morinus a Priest of that Church and a Penitentiary in great esteem at Rome has made where it will be found that for many Ages this power was not given expresly or in so many words The most ancient Rubrick about this is in the 4th Council of Carthage if those Canons be genuine When a Priest is ordained the Bishop blessing him and laying his hand on his head all the Priests that are present shall likewise lay their hands on his head about the Bishops hand Where we see that the Imposition of hands and the Bishop's blessing was all the matter and form of these Orders Denis called the Areopagite tells us that the Priest that was to be Ordained kneeled before the Bishop who laid his hand on his head and did Consecrate him with a holy Prayer and then marked him with the sign of the Cross and the Bishop and the rest of the Clergy that were present gave him the Kiss of Peace Here we find nothing but imposition of Hands and Prayer Now there being no general Liturgies nor Ordinals then in the World but every Countrey or perhaps every Diocess having their own Forms it was never defined in what form of words this Prayer and Benediction should be used but was left indifferent so the substance of the Blessing were preserved It is true the Author of those Constitutions that are ascribed to the Apostles sets down the Prayer of Ordination for which he vouches Saint Iohn Author which is That the Priest might be filled with the spirit of Grace and Wisdom to help and govern the Flocks with a pure heart that he might meekly teach the people being full of healing Operations and instructive Discourses and might serve God sincerely with a pure mind and willing soul and might through Christ perfect the sacred Services for the people in which there is nothing that gives in express words the power of Consecration In the most ancient Ritual that Morinus could find which belonged to the Church of Poictiers and has been composed about the middle of the 6th Century there is no mention in the
added for the more Solemnity but are not of the essence of Ordination according to what is now most generally received even in their own Church And Vasques does set down this very Objection against the form of their Episcopal Ordination as not sufficient because it does not specify the Episcopal power to which he answers that though the words express it not yet the other circumstances that accompany them do it sufficiently by which it appears that this Argument is as strong against their Ordination as ours and that they must make use of the same Answers that we give to it Fourthly The ancient Forms of Consecrating Bishops differing so much one from another and indeed agreeing in nothing but in an Imposition of hands with a convenient Prayer it has been already made out that there is no particular Form so necessary that the want of it annuls Orders and that the Church has often changed the words of these Prayers upon several occasions and it was ever thought that if the words do sufficiently express the mind of the Church there was no more scruple to be made of the validity of the Orders so given for if the Episcopal Character were begotten by any of those Rites which the Church of Rome has added of late such as the Chrism the giving the Gospels the Ring the Staff or any other set down in the Pontifical then there were no true Bishops in the Church for many Ages In the most Ancient Latin Ritual now to be found there is nothing in the Consecration of a Bishop but the Prayer which is now marked for the Anthem after the Consecration in the Pontifical In a Ritual believed to be 800 year old the anointing is first to be found but there is no other Rite with it in another Ritual somwhat later than the former the giving the Ring and the Staff were used which at first were the Civil Ceremonies of Investiture and in the Greek Church none of those Rites were ever used they having only an Imposition of hands and saying with it The Divine Grace that heals the things that are weakâ—… and perfects the things that imperfect promotes this very Reverend Priest to be 〈◊〉 Bishop Let us therefore pray that the grace of the Holy Ghost may come upon him then all that are assisting say thrice Kyrie Eleison Then the Consecratoâ—… lays the Gospels on the head and neck of him that is Consecrated having before Signed his head thrice with the sign of the Cross and all the other Bishopâ—… touch the Gospels and there is a Prayer said And thus it is clear that if those Rites in the Pontifical be essential to Episcopal Orders neither the Primitive Church nor the Greek Churches gave them truly which are things they cannot admit Therefore it is most disingâ—…nuously done of them to insinuate 〈◊〉 unlearned persons that our Orders anâ—… not good when in their Conscienceâ—… they know that they have all those Requisites in them which by the Principleâ—… of the most Learned men of their owâ—… Church are essentially and absolutely necessary to make them good and valid But I go next to see what Ingenuity there is in the Objections which he sets down in our Name against the former Arguments There is nothing in which any man that writes of Controversie shews his candor and fair dealing more than in proposing the Arguments of the adverse party with their full and just weight in them And it is a piece of Justice and Moral honesty to which men are obliged for to pretend that one brings what may be objected against his Opinion and then not to set down any strong and material Arguments but on the contrary to bring some trifling and ridiculous things that no Learned persons did ever make use of is to Lye and really I cannot think the Writer of this Paper has common honesty in him that will pretend to set down our Objections and yet passes them over every one Our Arguments are drawn 1. From Christ's own practices 2. From the practice of the Apostles and the Primitive Church 3. From the practice of the Greek Church at this day 4. From the Doctrine and the practice of the Church of Rome These are the Arguments on which our Cause does rest and upon these Authorities we are ready to put the thing to an Issue But he was wiser than to mention any of those for he knew he could not get ofâ—… them so well and therefore that he might deceive those that are ready to take any thing off his hands upon trust he brings Objections which he knows none of us will make To the first I need say nothing having I presume said enough already to shew that both our Priestly and Episcopal Orders are good and valid But his second is such a piece of foâ—… dealing that really he deserves to be very sharply reproved for it In it he makes us object That though the form of our Ordination since King Edward the 6th his days till his Majesties happy Restauration was invalid yet that is sâ—…lved by the Parliament that now sits that appointed the words of Ordination to be Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office of a Priest or for the office of a Bishop And having set up this Man of Straw he runs unmercifully at him he stabs him in at the heart he shoots him through the head and then to make sure work of him he cuts him all to pieces that he shall never live nor speak again and all this out of pure Chivalry to shew his valour He tells us the Salve is worse than the Sore that by the change the Form used before is confessed to be invalid else why did they change it He tells us Secondly By this we acknowledg all our Bishops and Priests till that time to be null Thirdly That they not being true Bishops cannot Ordain validly for no man can give what he has not And fourthly The power that Act gives is only from the Parliament and not from Christ and this destroys our Orders Root and Branch So there is an end of us we are all killed upon the spot never to live more Yet there is no harm done nor blood spilt all is safe and sound But to satisfie any person whom such a scruple may trouble Let it be considered First That we pretend not that there is any greater validity in our Orders since the last Act of Uniformity than was before for those words that are added are not essential to the Ordination but only further and clearer Explanations of what was clear enough by the other parts of these Offices before Therefore there is no change made of any thing that was essential to our Ordinations an Explanation is not a change for did the Fathers of the Councils of Nice and Constantinople change or annul the Faith and Creeds that the Church used before when they added Explanations to the Creed Therefore the adding of some explanatory words for cutting off
the occasions of Cavilling is neither a change nor an annulling our former Orders Secondly The change of the Form of Consecration does not infer an annulling of Orders given another way for then all the Ordinations used in the Primitive Church are annulled by the Roman Church at this day since the forms of Ordination used by them now were not used in the former Ages and the Forms used in the former ages are not looked on by them now to be the Forms of Consecration but are only made parts of the Office and used as Collects or Anthems and yet here is a real change which by their own Principles cannot infer a nullity of Orders given before the Change made Thirdly If the addition of a few explanatory words invalidates former Orders then the adding many new Rites which were neither used by Christ nor his Apostles nor the Primitive nor Eastern Churches will much more invalidate former Orders especially when these are believed to be so essential as that they confer the power of consecrating Christ's Body and Blood and of offering Sacrifices and were for divers Ages universally looked on in that Church to be the Matter and Form of Orders as was already observed of the Rite of giving the Sacred Vessels with the words joyned to it which Pope Eugenius in express words calls the matter of Priestly Orders and the words joyned to them the Form in his Decree for the Armenians in the Council of Florence and even the Form he mentions is also altered now for the celebrating Masses are not in the Form he mentions but are now added to that part of the Office in the Roman Church Let the Pontifical be considered in the Ordination of Priests we find the Priestly Vestiments given both the Stole and the Casula then their hands are anointed then the Vessels of the Sacrament are delivered to them with words pronounced in every of those Rites besides many other lesser Rites that are in the Rubrick In the Consecration of a Bishop his head is Anointed then his hands then his Pastoral Staff is blessed and put in his hands next the Ring is blessed and put on his singer then the Gospels are put in his hands then the Mitre is blessed and put on his head next the Gloves are blessed and put on his hands and then they seâ—… him on his Throne Besides many lesser Rites to be seen in the Rubrick Now with what face can they pretend that our adding a few explanatory words can infer the annulling all Orders given before that addition when they have added so many material Ceremonies in which they place great significancy and vertue Is not this to swallow a Camel and to strain at a Gnat and to object to us a Mote in our eye when there is a Beam in their own eye Fourthly This Addition was indeed confirmed by the authority of Parliament and there was good reason to desire that to give it the force of a Law but the authority of these changes is wholly to be derived from the Convocation who only consulted about them and made them and the Parliament did take that care in the Enacting them that might shew they did only add the force of a Law to them for in passing them it was Ordered that the Book of Common-Prayer and Ordination should only be read over and even that was carried upon some debate for many as I have been told moved that the Book should be added to the Act as it was sent to the Parliament from the Convocation without ever reading it but that seemed indecent and too implicite to others and there was no change made in a Tittle by the Parliament So that they only Enacted by a Law what the Convocation had done As for what he adds that the Book of Ordination is not to found in every Edition of the Common-Prayer-Book with his gloss upon it that most think the Bishops for shame suppress it Really the Writer of this Paper must pardon me to say it seems he has no shame that can set down in writing such a disingenious Allegation Pray who are these most that think so Most in our Language stands for the greater part now how many can he find that agree with him in this Gloss I doubt very few for I am sure not all his own Party and not one of ours So that upon a Calculation those Most think will be found to be no more but himself and a very few ignorant persons on whom he has imposed this conceit Every body knows that when a Book is once printed by publick Authority and universally sold in the Shops those in Authority cannot out of shame study to suppress it But the use of the Book of Ordination not being so universal as are the other Offices of the Church the Stationers and Printers who do chiefly consider their Interest in the ready sale and vent of Books do not print so many of them as of the other there being at least 500 that use the Common-Prayer for one that needs the other and a Common-Prayer-Book without it will sell cheaper than with it therefore a great many Copies have it not This is not as Most think but as every body knows the true reason why in many Copies of the Common-Prayer-Book the Ordinal is wanting Let him name one Bishop that would not permit it to be dispersed abroad or let him be looked on as a bold and impudent Slanderer Thus far I have followed this Paper in the two first Conclusions and now I come to the Third which is That Protestant Ministers and Bishops have no power to Preach c. from Christ but only from the Parliament And this he proves because they have no more power than the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker had from whom all Jurisdiction was derived to the rest Now he had no power from Christ for first They that Consecrated him had no such Jurisdiction being no actual Bishops two of them were only Elect and not actual Bishops and a third only a quondam Bishop but had no actual Jurisdiction and a fourth was a Suffragan Bishop to Canterbury who had no Jurisdiction but what he had from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury much less Authority to give him Jurisdiction over himself and all the other Bishops of the Land because none can give what he has not This I must confess is such a piece that no man can read it but he must conclude the Writer of it has no sort of Ecclesiastical Learning or else has very little Moral honesty I need not tell him that Matthew Parker was not the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he knows Arch-Bishop Cranmer was both a Protestant and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury but this may be easily passed over there being more material Errors in this period And First Does he believe himself when he says that none can instal 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 Popes Suffragans as Hodgskins was Canterburiâ—… So that if inferiors cannot invest one with a superior Jurisdiction then the Popes can have none legally since they have theirs from the Cardinals that are inferior in Jurisdiction This also holds in all the Patriarchal Consecrations For Instance when Iohn commonly called Chrysostome a Priest of Antioch was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople and Consecrated by the Bishops of that Province according to the Canons if there be any force in this Argument it will annul his Orders as well as Arch-Bishop Parker's for the Writer must needs see the case is parallel Secondly Or if he insists upon their being Elect to others Sees and that one of them had no See at all Let me ask him if when St. Athanase was banished out of Alexandria and others thrust in his place or when Liberius was banished out of Rome and Felix whom they acknowledg a righteous Bishop put in his place they had ordained Priests and Bishops had these Orders been null because they were violently thrust out of their Sees Certainly Persecution and Violence rather makes the glory of Ecclesiastical Functions shine more brightly but cannot be imagined to strip them of their Character and to disable them for exercising the Offices of their function Thirdly There are two things to be considered in the consecration of a Primate the one is the giving him the Order of a Bishop the other is the investing him with the Jurisdiction of a Metropolitan for the former all Bishops are equal in Order none has more or less than another therefore any Bishop duly Consecrated how mean soever his Diocess be is no less a Bishop than the greatest the Bishop of Man is a Bishop as well as the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury so that the Consecrators of Matthew Parker being Bishops by their Order they had sufficient power and authority to Consecrate him By which it appears there can be no question made of his being truly a Bishop And as for his Jurisdiction Two things are also to be considered the one is The Jurisdiction annexed to that See The other is his being rightly cloathed and invested with it For the former it cannot be denied but the Jurisdiction of Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs has no Divine Institution for all that any Bishop has by divine Institution is to seed the flock of his own Diocess but the Canons and practice of the Church and the Civil Laws have introduced a further Jurisdiction over the Bishops of a District or Province this did rise by Custom upon the division of the Provinces of the Roman Empire and was settled over the World before any general Council did meet to make Decrees about it And therefore the Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon only approved what they found practised and confirmed some new Divisions of Provinces that were made by the Emperors and so the Kings in the Western Church did first give those Preheminences to some Towns and Sees for the original Dignity of Sees rose out of the Dignity of the Towns which appears clearly in all the Patriarchats chiefly in that of Rome and Constantinople This is a thing so fully inquired into by many but chiefly by the most Learned Petrus de Marca Arch-Bishop of Paris that I need say no more of it And the Dignity of the See of Canterbury was from King Ethelbert who first Erected that See It is true the Popes did afterwards usurp a new Jurisdiction over all Churches they took upon them to Judg of the Dignity of all Sees to send the Pall to have reserved Cases to grant Exemptions to the Regulars with many other Encroachments on the Episcopal Jurisdiction which has been very fully inquired into not only by Protestant Writers but by many of the Roman Communion chiefly those of the Gallicane Church and many of the Bishops at the Council of Trent studied to recover their Liberties that were troden under foot by the Court of Rome but the Intrigues and cunning of that Court were too hard for them The other thing in Episcopal Institution is the Installing or Inthroning the Metropolitan that this was always done by the Bishops of the Province is a thing so clear in Antiquity that I am sure no man ever questioned it Was not the famous Decision of the Council of Ephesus in the case of the Cypriotic Bishops a full proof of this when upon the pretension of the Patriarch of Antioch the thing was examined and it was found that he had never used to Ordain Bishops there and therefore the Rites of the Bishop of Constantia the Metropolitan were confirmed to him by that General Council nor can one Instance be shewed in the first three Ages of a Metropolitan coming to be Ordained by a Patriarch as was afterwards for Orders sake appointed And this appears more evidently by a Canon of the Council of Orleans where it was decreed That in the Ordination of Metropolitans the Ancient Custom should be renewed which was generally neglected and lost that a Metropolitan being Elected by the Bishops of the Province with the Clergy and the People should be Ordained by all the Bishops of the Province met together This was Anno 538. By which we see they thought not of any Bull or Confirmation from Rome but that Bishops though subject to the Metropolitan's Jurisdiction might Ordain him It is true afterwards the Patriarchs chose the Metropolitans but the Patriarchs were either chosen or at least confirmed by the Emperor and though they sent Circulatory Letters to the Pope and the other Patriarchs to confirm their Elections which the Bishops of Rome did likewise to them this was only for keeping up the Unity of the Church and for a more friendly and brotherly Correspondence but was not of necessity or as an homage which they owed the Pope much less did they delay their Consecrations till they obtained his Mandate or abstain from any Act of Jurisdiction till they had his Confirmation as is now appointed by the Pontifical till they get the Pall. I have not given you the trouble of enlarging on many Proofs for making these things out for they are so clear and uncontested that I am confident no man is so disingenuous as to deny them under his hand whatever some may whisper among illiterate persons who cannot contradict them And though there has been so much already written to make those particulars out that more needs not and indeed cannot be said yet if these things be questioned by any body I shall make them out fully And now I come to his Second Argument which is That Matthew Parker and all the other Protestant Bishops since his days had his power of Jurisdiction only from the Queen as appears by the Queens Letters Patents and the Form of his Ordination which was done upon the Queens Mandate without any Bull from the Pope in which she acknowledges Cardinal
of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie But that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should Rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers So that there is nothing of the Spiritual much less of the Papal and Tyrannical Power given to the King by the Law Fourthly From the power given to the Queen to Authorize such persons as she shall think fit to exercise that Jurisdiction he infers they may be either Clergymen Lawyers Merchants or Coblers since the Statute requires no more but that they be born Subjects of the Realm But this is as well grounded as all the rest for though that Statute does not name the qualification of the persons yet the other Statutes that Enacted the Book of Common-Prayer and the Ordinal do fully specifie what sort of persons these must be and it is not necessary that all things be in every Statute Fifthly He in the end of this Paper pretends that the reason why this present Parliament altered the Ancient Forms was because they were null and invalid The weakness and injustice of which was before shewed so that nothing needs to be repeated And in fine it has been also proved that as both the Greek and Latin Churches have made many alterations in their Rituals so the Church of England which made these Alterations had as good an Authority to do it by as they had To which I shall only add the words of the Council of Trent concerning the power of the Church for making such Changes when they give the reason for taking away the Chalice The Church has power in the Sacraments retaining the substance of them to change or appoint such things which she shall judg more expedient both for the profit of the Receivers and for the Reverence due to the Sacraments according to the variety of things times and places Where by their own confession it is acknowledged the Church may make alterations in the Sacraments So that it is a strange confidence in them to charge on us an annulling of former Orders because of a small addition of a few explanatory words And so much for his Paper Now having sufficiently answered every thing in it I hope I may be allowed to draw a few conclusions in opposition to his And First We having true Priests and true Bishops are a true Church since we believe all that Christ and his Apostles delivered to the World Secondly We being thus a part of the Catholick Church every one that lives according to the Doctrine professed a mong us mayand shall be saved Thirdly We do truly eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood having the Blessed Sacrament administred among us according to our Saviour's Institution Fourthly We have as much power to Consecrate the Holy Sacrament as any that were Ordained in the Church for near a thousand years together Fifthly We have the Ministerial power of giving Absolution and the Ministry of Reconciliation and of forgiving Sins given us by our Orders Sixthly All men may and ought to joyn with us in the profession of the Faith we believe and in the use of the Sacraments we administer which are still preserved among us according to Christ's Institution and that whosoever repents and believes the Gospel shall be Saved Seventhly All and every of the Arguments he has used are found to be weak and frivolous and to have no force in them And thus far I have complied with your desires of answering the Paper you sent me in as short and clear terms as I could But I must add that this ransacking of Records about a succession of Orders though it adds much to the lustre and beauty of the Church yet is not a thing incumbent on every body to look much into nor indeed possible for any to be satisfied about for a great many Ages all those Instruments are lost So that how Ordinations were made in the Primitive Church we cannot certainly know it is a piece of History and very hard to be perfectly known Therefore it cannot be a fit Study for any much less for one that has not much leisure The condition of Christians were very hard if private persons must certainly know how all Ministers have been Ordained since the Apostles days for if we will raise scruples in this matter it is impossible to satisfie them unless the Authentick Registers of all the ages of the Church could be shewed which is impossible for tho we were satisfied that all the Priests of this Age were duly Ordained yet if we be not as sure that all who Ordained them had Orders rightly given them and so upward till the days of the Apostles the doubt will still remain Therefore it is an unjust and unreasonable thing to raise difficulties in this matter And indeed if we go to such nice scruples with it there is one thing in the Church of Rome that gives a much juster ground these than any thing that can be pretended in ours does which is the Doctrine of the Intention of the Minister being necessary to make a Sacrament Secret Intentions are only known to God and not possible to be known by any man Therefore since they make Orders a Sacrament there remains still ground to entertain a scruple whether Orders be truly given And this cannever becleared since none can know other mens thought or intentions Therefore the pursuing nice scruples about this cannot be a thing indispensably necessary otherwise all people must be per plext with endless disquiet and doubtings But the true touchstone of a Church must be the Purity of her Doctrine and the Conformity of her Faith with that which Christ and his Apostles taught In this the Scriptures are clear and plain to every one that will read and consider them sincerely and without prejudice which that you may do and by these may be led and guided into all Truth shall be my constant prayer to God for you AN APPENDIX About the forms of Ordaining Priests and Bishops in the Latin Church BEcause the decision of all the questions that can be made by those of the Church of Rome about the validity of our Orders must be taken from the Ancient Forms of Ordination as hath been fully made out in the foregoing Papers therefore I hope it will not be unpleasant to the Reader to see what the Forms of Ordinations were in the Latin Church for many Ages which he will more clearly understand when he sees them at their full Length then he can do by any Quotations out of them Morinus has published sixteen of the most Ancient Latin Rituals he could find composed from the end of the Fifth Century at which time he judges the most
Ancient of them was written till within those last Four hundred years so that he gives us a clear view of the Ordinations of seven succeeding Ages of the Western Church His Book is scarce to be had and therefore I shall draw out of it what relates to the Ordination of Priests and Bishops Only as he has Printed these Forms Strictly as the Manuscripts were written without altering some things that are manifestly the Faults of the Transcribers so I shall set them down exactly as He has published them with the Emendations on the Margin from other Manuscripts and adde a Translation of them in English But I shall begin with the three first Canons of the Fourth Council of Carthage in which we have the fullest and earliest Account of the Ordidinations of Bishops and Priests in the Latin Church and from the Simplicity of these and the many pompous Rites that are added in the latter Rituals the Reader will both perceive how the Spirit of Superstition grew from Age to Age and will be able to judge whether the Church of England or the Church of Rome comes nearest the most Primitive Forms These I set down according to the MSS. published by Morinus and Collationed on the Margin with a MSS. belonging to the Church of Salisbury that is judged to be six hundred year old and also with that Published by Labbée in the Tomes of the Councils Sacrarum Ordinationum Ritus Ex Concilio Carthaginensi quarto depromptus CANON I. QUI Episcopus Ordinandus est antea examinetur si natura sit prudens si docibilis si moribus temperatus si vita castâ—…s si sobrius si semper suis negotiis cavens si humilis si affabilis si misericors si literatus si in lege domini instructus si in scripturam sensibus caâ—…tus si in dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis exercitatus ante omnia si fidei documenta verbis simplicibus asserat id est Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum unum Deum esse confirmans totamque Trinitatis Deitatem coessentialem consubstantialem coaeternalem coomnipotentem praedicans si singularem quamque in Trinitate personam plenum deum totas tres personas Unum deum Si incarnationem divinam non in Patre neque in Spiritu Sancto factam sed in Filio tantum credat ut qui erat in Divinitate Dei Patris ipse fieret in homine hominis Matris filius Deus verus ex Patre homo verus ex Matre carnem ex matris visceribus habens animam humanam rationalem simâ—…l in eo ambae naturae id est Deus Homo una persona unus filius unus Christus unus Dominus Creator omnium quae sunt autor Dominus Rector cum Patre Spiritu Sancto omnium creaturaram Qui passus sit vera carnis Passione mortuus vera corporis sui morte resurrexit vera carnis suae resurrectinoe vera animae resumptione in qua veniet judicarâ—… vivos mortuos Quaerendum etiam ab eo si Novi Veteris Testamenti id est leges Prophetarum Apostolorum unum eundemque credat autorem evâ—…m Si Diabolus non per conditionem sed per Arbitrium sit malus Quaerendum etiam ab eo si credat hujus quam gestamus non alterius carnis resurrectionem Si credat judicium futurum recepturoâ—… singulos pro his quae in carne gesserunt vel poenas vel gloriam Si nuptias non improbat si secunda Matrimonia non damnet si carnium perâ—…eptionem non culpet si poenitentibus reconciliatis communicet si in Baptismo omnia peccata id est tam illud originale contractum quam illa quae voluntate admissa sunt dimittantur si extra Ecclesiam Catholicam nullus salvetur Cum in his omnibus examinatus inventus fuerit plene instructus tunc cum consensu Clericorum Laicorum conventu totius provinciae Episcoporum maximéque Metropolitani vel Authoritate vel praesentia ordinetur Episcopus Suscepto in Nomini Christi Episcopatu non suae delectationi nec suis motibus sed his Patrum definitionibus acquiescat In cujus Ordinatione etiam aetas requiritur quam Sancti Patres in praeeligendis Episcopis constituerunt Dehinc disponitur qualiter Ecclesiastica Officia Ordinantur CAN. II. EPiscopus cum Ordinatur duo Episcopi ponant teneant Evangeliorum Codicem supra Caput cervicem ejus uno super eum sundente benedictionem reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant CAN. III. PResbyter cum Ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneat In English thus CAN. I. LET Him that is to be Ordained a Bishop be first Examined if he be naturally prudent and teachable if in his Manners he be temperate if chast in his life if sober if he looks to his own Affairs be humble affable merciful and learned if he be instructed in the Law of the Lord and skilful in the sense of the Scriptures and acquainted with Ecclesiastical Doctrines and above all things if he assert the Articles of Faith in simple Words that is to say affirms that the Father Son and Holy Ghost are one God and teaches that the whole Deity of the Trinity is Coessential Consubstantial Coaeternal and Coomnipotent and that every Person of the Trinity is fully God and all the Three Persons are one God If He believes that the Holy Incarnation was neither of the Father nor the Holy Ghost but of the Son only that He who was the Son of God the Father by the Godhead becoming a Man was the Son of his Mother very God of His Father and very Man of His Mother who had Flesh of the Bowels of His Mother and a human reasonable Soul And both Natures God and Man were in Him one Person one Son one Christ one Lord the Creator of all things that are and the Author Lord and Governour of all Creatures with the Father and the Holy Ghost Who suffered a true Passion in His Flesh and was dead by a true death of His Body and rose again with a true Resurrection of His Flesh and a true Re-assumption of His Soul in which He shall come to judge the quick and the dead It must likewise be asked if He believes that one and the same God was the Author of the Old and New Testament of the Books of the Law the Prophets and the Apostles If the Devil be not wicked by his will and not by his Nature And if he believes the Resurrection of this Flesh which we now carry and not of any other and the Judgment to come and that every one shall receive either punishment
Divine Indulgence and the Priestly gifts of the Holy Ghost by the priviledg of his Vertue lest he be found unfit for his Place Item Benedictio SAnctificationum omnium Autor cujus vera Consecratio plena Benedictio est Tu Domine super hunc samulum ill quem Prebyterii honore dedicamus manum tuae Benedictionis eum insunde ut gravitate actuum censura vivendi probet se esse seniorem his institutus disciplinis quas Tito Timotheo Paulus exposuit ut in lege tua die ac nocte omnipotens meditans quod elegerit credat quod crediderit doceat quod docuerit meditetur justitiam constantiam miscricordiam fortitudinem in se ostendat exemplum probet admonitionem confirmet ut purum atque immaculatum ministerii tui domum custodiat per obsequium plebis tuae corpus sanguinem filii tui imma culata Benedictione transformet inviolabili caritate in virum perfectum in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis Christi in die justitiae aeterni judicii conscientia pura side plena Spiritu Sancto plenus persolvat Per Dominum The Benediction THou the Author of all Sanctifications whose true Consecration is a full Benediction Thou O Lord lay the hand of thy Blessing upon this thy Servant whom we have dedicated to the honor of Priesthood that by the gravity of his actions and the rule of living he may prove himself to be an Elder instructed in those Disciplines which Saint Paul delivered to Titus and Timothy that meditating in thy Law O Almighty God day and night he may believe what he reads and teach what he believes and follow what he teaches and may shew forth Righteousness Constancy Mercy and Courage in himself and approve himself a Pattern and confirm his Admonitions and may preserve the gift of thy Ministry undefiled and through the obedience of thy people may transform the Body and Blood of thy Son with an undefiled Blessing and may finish all by an inviolable Charity in a perfect man in the measure of the Statute of the fulness of Christ in the day of the justice of Eternal Judgment with a pure Conscience and a full Faith being full of the Holy Ghost The follows the Consecration of their Hands in these words Consecratio Manus COnsecrentur Manus istae sanctificentur per istam Unctionem nostram Benedictionem ut quaecunque benedixerint benedicta sint quaecunque sanctificaverint sanctificentur Per Dominum Item Alia UNgantur Manus istae de Oleo Sanctifica Chrismate Sanctificationis sicut unxit Samuel David in Regem Prophetam ita unguentur consummentur in nomine Dei Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti sacientes Imaginem Sanctae Crucis Salvatoris Domini nostri Iesu Christi qui nos à morte redemit ad regna coelorum perducit Exaudi nos Pie Pater Omnipotens Aeterne Deus praesta quod tâ—… Rogamus Orames Per Dominum In English thus LEt these hands be Consecrated and Sanctified by this Unction and our Blessing that whatsoever they Bless be Blessed and whatsoever they Sanctifie be Sanctified through our Lord. And Another LET these hands be annointed with the Sanctified Oyl and the Chrism of Sanctification as Samuel annointed David to be both King and Prophet So let them be annointed and perfected in the Name of God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost making the Image of the Holy Cross of our Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who redeemed us from Death and brings us to the Kingdome of Heaven Hear us O Holy Father Almighty and Eternal God and grant what we desire and Pray for Through our Lord. There is neither more nor less in that Ritual about the Ordination of a Priest For this last of the Annointing the Priests with Oyl it cannot be called essential to the Priesthood for the Greek Church never used it and tho Nazianzen tells us that his Father had anointed St. Basil and that himself was also Annointed yet neither the Apostolick Constitutions nor Dionystus the Areopagite nor Simeon of Thessalonica nor Cabasilas tho they have delivered to us the Rites of Ordination in the Greek Church ever mention it And it is in no Greek Ritual So that what ever places are found in any Greek Author of Annointing in Ordination must be understood Allegorically and Mystically of the effusion of the Holy Ghost So both Elias Cretensis and Nicetas the Scholiasts on Nazianzen expound his words and there are some Passages near the end of his Fourth Oration that shew these other places of his are to be understood Metaphorically This Rite is not mentioned by the Council of Carthage and it seems was not received in Spain a great while after the Age of this Ritual for Isidor tho very particular in other things as the Staff and Ring does not mention it neither when He speaks of the Ordination of Priests nor Bishops Nor do the Councils in Spain mention it and Alcuine speaks nothing of it but it was only as seems used in the Gallicane Church and the first that I find clearly mention it is Amalarius but Gildas intimates it for he speak of the benediction qua initiantur Sacerdotum manus by which the Priests hands are initiated Pope Nicolas the first expresly says that at Rome neither Priests nor Deacons were annointed His words are Praeterea sciscitaris utrum solis Presbyteris an Diaconibus debeant cum Ordinantur manus Chrismatis liquore perungi quod in Sancta hac Romana cui Deo auctore deservimus Ecclesia neutris agitur Sed quia sit à novis legis ministris actum nusquam nisi nos fallat oblivio legimus You ask me further if only the Priests or the Deacons likewise when they are Ordained should have their hands anointed with the Chrism this is done to neither of them in this Holy Roman Church where by Gods appointment we serve and if our memory fails us not we no where read that this was done by the Ministers of the new Law The Second Ritual published by the same Author is as he believes Nine hundred year Old and has been compiled for the Church of Rome being that which is commonly called Sacramentarium Gelasianum in which the Rubricks and Prayers are the same with the Former only the Annointing is not mentioned in that part of it that relates to the Ordination of Priests but the Transcriber after the Office of the Ordination of the Subdeacon adds the Rite and Collects for the Annointing the Priests which Morinus believes he did to accommodate it to the French Rites The third Ritual is as Morinus believes antienter than Eight hundred years in which the Rites and Collects are the same with the Former only the Consummation and Blessing is wanting and a new Rite is added of giving the Vestiments with these words which are in stead of the
damnum me sciente nemini pandam Papatum Romanum Regalia Sancti Petri adjutor eis ero ad retinendum defendendum salvo meo ordine contra omnem hominem Legatum Apostolicae sedis in eundo redeundo honorificè tractabo in suis necessitatibus adjuvabo Iura honores privilegia auctoritatem Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Domini nostri Papae Successorum praedictorum conservare defendere augere promovere curabo neque ero in consilio vel sacto seu tractatu in quibus contra ipsum Dominum nostrum vel eamdem Romanam ecclesiam aliqua sinistra vel praejudicialia personarum juris honoris status potestatis eorum machinentur Et si talia à quibuscunque tractari vel procurari novero impediam hoc pro posse quanto citius potero significabo eidem Domino nostro vel alteri per quem possit ad ipsius notitiam pervenire Regulas Sanctorum Patrum decreta Ordinationes seu dispositiones reservationes provisiones mandata Apostolica totis viribus observabo saciam ab aliis observari Hae-reticos Schismaticos Rebelles eidem Domino nostro vel successoribus praedictis pro posse persequar impugnabo Vocatus ad Synodum veniam nisi praepeditus suero canonica praepeditione Apostolorum limina singulis trienniis personaliter per me ipsum visitabo Domino nostro ac successoribus praesatis rationem reddam de toto meo pastorali officio ac de rebus omnibus ad meâ—… Ecclesiae statum ad Cleri populi disciplinam animarum denique quae meae fidei traditae sunt salutem quovis modo pertinentibus Et vicissim mandata Apostolica humiliter recipiam quam diligentissime exequar Quod si legitimo impedimento detentus suero praefata omnia adimplebo per certum nuntiam ad hoc speciale mandatum habentem de gremio mei Capituli aut alium in dignitate Ecclesiastica constitutum seu alias personatum habentem aut his mihi desicientibus per diaecesanum sacerdotem clero deficiente omnino per aliquem alium Presbyterum saecularem vel Regularem spectatae probitatis Religionis de supradictis omnibus plenè instructum De hujusmodi autem impedimento docebo per legitimas probationes ad sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem proponentem in Congregatione sacri Concilii per supradictum Nuntium transmittendas Possessiones vero ad mensam meam pertinentes non vendam nec donabo neque impignorabo nec de novo inâ—…eudabo vel aliquo modo alienabo etiam cum consensu Capituli Ecclesiae meae inconsulâ—…o Romano Pontifice si ad aliquam alienationem devenero paenas in quadam super hoc edita Constitutione contentas eo ipso incurrere volo IN. Elect of the Church N. from this hour forward shall be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the Apostle and the Holy Roman Church and our Lord the Pope N. and his Successors that shall enter canonically I shall be in no Council Consent or Fact that they lose life or member or be taken with any ill taking or that violent hands be any way laid on them or any injuries be done them on any pretended colour And whatever Council they shall trust me with either by themselves their Nuntio's or Letters I shall knowingly reveal to none to their hurt I shall help them to retain and defend the Roman Papacy and the Royalties of Saint Peter against all men saving my own Order I shall treat the Legate of the Apostolick See honorably both in his going and coming and shall help him in his necessities I shall take care to preserve defend increase and promote the Rights Honors Priviledges and Authority of the Holy Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors foresaid I shall neither be in Council Fact or Treaty in which any thing shall be contrived against the said our Lord or the same Roman Church or any thing that may be prejudicial to their Persons Right Honor State or Power And if I know such things to be treated or procured by any body I shall hinder it all I can and as soon as is possible shall signifie it to the said our Lord or any other by whom it may come to his knowledg The Rules of the Holy Fathers and the Decrees Orders or Appointments Reservations Provisions or Mandates Apostolical I shall observe with all my strength and make them to be observed by others and I shall according to my power persecute and oppose all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebells against the said our Lord and his Successors I shall come to a Council when called if I be not hindred by some Canonical Impediment I shall personally visit the thresholds of the Apostles every third year and shall give an account to our Lord and his said Successors of my whole pastoral charge and of all things that shall any way belong to the State of my Church and the Discipline of my Clergy and People and the salvation of the Souls committed to my trust And I shall on the other hand humbly receive and diligently execute the Apostolical Command And if I be detained by any lawful Impediment I shall perform the foresaid things by a special Messenger that shall have my particular Mandate being either of my Chapter or in some Ecclesiastical Dignity or in some Parsonage or these failing by any Priest of my Diocess or failing any of these by any Priest secular or regular of signal Probity and Religion who shall be fully instructed in all things aforesaid And I shall give lawful proofs of the foresaid Impediment which I shall send by the foresaid Messenger to the Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church that is Proponent in the Congregation of the Holy Council I shall neither sell give Mortage nor invest of new nor any way alienate the possessions that belong to my Table notwithstanding the consent of the Chapter of my Church without consulting the Pope of Rome And if I make any such Alienation I am willing to incur the penalties contained in a Constitution thereupon set forth The Inferences that may be drawn from this Oath are so obvious that I shall not trouble the Reader with any knowing that every one will easily make them FINIS See the 23. Art of our Church Hist. Interdict Venet Lib. de Fregn Comun Art 33. Act. 7. 3. Inter. Epist. 31. l. 12. Ind. 7. Can. 42. Lib. 8. cap. 21. and 23. Cap. 26. Inter Epi. Cypr. Ep. 75. Can. 64. Can. 10. Not. 18. in Can. Nic. Arab. See Nazianz Orat. in Bapt. Cyr. Pref. ad Catech. Balsam in Schol. in Con. Laod. Ant. Harmen in Con. Antioch a Ep. 24. 21. b Ep. 28. c Ep. 24. 33. 34. d Ep. 76. e Apud Eus. lib. 6. cap. 43. Grat. dist 77. cap. 1. 2. Can. 14. 62. a Can. 5. b Can. 6. c Can. 7. d Can. 8. e Can. 9. f Can. 10. Vit. Pontif in vita Silvestri Nove. 123.