so much as the least pitty The PIOVS RIGOR OF THIS SEVERITY not only PURGED the Kingdome of England of that Plague which had already crept into it BVT ALSO PREVENTED THAT IT SHOULD NO MORE CREEP INTO IT BY THE TERROR STRUCK INTO THE HERETIKES So our Nubrigensis whose words I have faithfully englished The forraign Sectaries thus severely punished were no other then professed Anabaptists and schismatickes pronounced hereticks for their obstinacy Their punishment was harsh yet deemed just and necessary in those times and it had this good issue which may induce us now to a fitting and just severity against obstinate Hereticks Schismaticks Blasphemers Anabaptists it suppressed the spreading of their pestilent Errors for the present in England and preserved it safe from their infection for the future Timely and discreet Flebotomie is ever the best cure against this Gangraene of obstinate Schisme and Heresie Only this I shall observe by the way that these Anabaptists for ought I find never pretended that the King and civill Magistrates had no power to punish them for matters of Religion as our Anabaptists and Sectaries now plead and write The sinnes of Heresy and Apostacy were so odious in this our Realm that by the very ancient common Law of England they deserved were punishable with death yea the soarest death of all others BURNING as being no lesse then High Treason against the King of heaven and Gravius est aeternam quam temporalem laedere majestatem That these were thus punishable by the very common Law of England before the Statute of 5. R. 2. Stat. 2. c. 5. surreptitiously procured without the Commons assent and repealed the next Parliament or the Statutes of 2. H. 4. c. 15. and 2. H. 5. c. 7. is apparent unto me by the Authority of our ancient Law Bookes I read in Bracton l. 3. c. 9. f. 123 124. who writ in King Henry the 3. his reigne That if a Clergy man be convicted of Apostacy he shall be for it depriued and afterwards per manum laicalem COMBVRATVR he shall be burnt by the hands of Laymen as it hapned in the Councell of Oxford under Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury to a certain Deacon who became an APOSTATE for a certain Jew who when he bad been degraded by the Bishops statim fuit JGNI TRADITUS per manum Laiâ—â—lem he was presently delivered to the fire by Lay hands And c. 23. f. 144. b. The Jewes may circumcise their owne sonns but not a man of another religion for if they do it they shall be gelt by way of punishment I read that in the Councell held at Oxford An. 1222. in the 6. year of Henry the 3. under Stephen Archibishop of Canterbury an execrable Impostor was convented before him who suffered himselfe to be wounded in his hands feet and side that by the resemblance of these bloody impressions he might perswade the people he was their Saviour who being condemned by the Councell was immured between two walls as a Monster too impious and unworthy to dye by humane hands and another who pretended her selfe to be Mary the mother of Christ and a third who pretended her self to be Mary Magdalen were immured with him Matthew Paris Matthew Parker and others write that they were crucified And Mat. Paris relates that Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne lying on his deathbed An. 50. of Henry the 3. pronounced the Pope to be an Heretick and the Friars Nunnes and Preachers also to be Hereticks for not opposing but favoring him and concluded thereupon with R m. 1. verse last qui talia agunt consentiunt DIGNI SUNT MORTE Therefore in those daies Hereticks were deemed worthy to dye as well temporally as eternally which confirmes that in his time Hereticks deserved to be put to death John Britton Bishop of Hereford Doctor both of the civil and canon Law who writ a Book of the Lawes of England then in use about the 5. year of King Edward the first by the Kings command lib. 1. cap. 9. De Arsouns or persons that were to be burned by judgement of Law informs us That such who burned houses in times of peace and were therof convicted shall be burned so as they shall be punished by the selfesame thing wherein they offend And THE SAME JUDGEMENT have Sorcerers and Sorceresses and Sodomites and MISCREANTS or HERETICKS openly attainted who are to be enquired after And this was no new Law as appears by the preamble of the King to this Booke but les leys que len ad use en nostre Royalme AVANT SES HOVRES Therefore it is cleare by this Authority that the burning of Hereticks was in use before this Kings reigne though we find few or no presidents of it and inquirable by the Justices and other temporall Officers of the King as Britton writes in this chapter but not by the Bishops and Clergy further then to Excommunicate them Andrew Horne in his Myrrour of Justices written in the end of King Edward the first or at least in King Edward the second his reigne hath these severall passages concerning Heresy and its punishment as Chap. 1. Sect. 4. p. 21 22 23. where speaking of Crimes and their Division of the Crime of Treason he writes thus Crime of Majesty or Treason is an horrible sinne done to the King and this is either to the KING CAELESTIAL or Terrestriall Against the King of heaven in three manners by HERESY Sorcery Sodomy HERESY is an evill and false beliefe arising from Error in the right Christian faith In this sinne is Sorcery and Divination which are members of heresy and arise from an evill beliefe After which he enumerates the severall sorts of Sorceries and Divinations contrary to the Law of God and the Church and to the right faith for which they are to be apprehended and removed from among the people of God that so no good Christian may be taken with their act nor partner with their sinne Chap. 2. Sect. 22. p. 141 142. he writes thus Of the Crime of Treason or Majesty there is no especiall or large Enditement but OF HERESY and Sorcery Of which if any be indited and drawn into judgment this is the Inditement pronounceable for the King by any of his people in this manner according as it is found IN THE ROLLES OF ANCIENT KINGS I say Sebourge here is defamed by good people of the THE CRIME OF HERESY for this that from an ill art and beliefe forbidden and by charmes and enchantment he took from Brightient by name on such a day c. the flower of his beare by which he lost the vent c. Or thus Molling who is here is defamed by good men that on such a day c. he renounced his baptisme and caused himselfe to be circumcised and became a Jew or Saracen or offered or sacrificed unto Mahomet in despite of God and in damnation of his soule and this sinne he did FELONIOVSLY
Hereticks and Apostates to be burnt the rather because the Bishops power is abolished cortrary to the opinion of 27. P. 8. 14. delivered when those Lawes were in force and of Sir Edward Cooke in his third Institutes p. 40. That at this day no person can be indicted or impeached for Heresie before any temporall Iudge or other that hath temporall Iurisdiction as upon the perusall of the Statutes of 5. R. 2. c. 5. 2. H. 4. c. 15. 2. H. 5. c. 7. 25. H. 8. c. 14. 2. Phil. and Mary c. 6. appeareth For these Acts being repealed as he there grants the old common Law of England is thereby revived as to Hereticks and Apostates and so at this day any person may be indicted impeached condemned before the temporall Iudges of the Kings Courts for apparent reall Heresie contrary to the Word of God and 4. first Generall Councels in such sort as they were and might be before these Statutes 4ly That since the repeale of these Statutes no man upon a bare conviction of Heresie before the Ordinary or Commissary justly may or ought to be put to death or burnt by the Writ De Haeretico comburendo unlesse he were likewise first legally indicted and convicted by a Iury in the Kings Courts as all other capitall Malefactors Felons and Traytors are My reasons are Fâ—â—st because it is directly contrary to Magna Charta c. 29. the Petition of Right 5. E. 3. c. 9. 25. E 3. c. 4. and other forecited Statutes of Edward the 3d. and contrary to the right order of Iustice good equity and the Lawes of the Realme as is resolved in the Stat. of 25. H. 8 c. 14. 2ly Because the Sheriffe could not execute any man by vertue of this Writ or without it before the Statute of 2. H. 4. c. 5. nor after it without this Writ unlesse he were actually present at the sentence as is resolved 2. Mariae Brooke Heresie 1. Therefore this Statute and all others in pursuance of it being totally repealed this Writ and the proceedings on it upon a bare sentence of the Ordinary is as I humbly conceive meerely void in Law and contrary to Magna Charta And therefore it is considerable whether the resolution of the Iudges in Legates case forecited be not erronious though seconded by Sir Edward Cooke For though the Ordinary of every Diocesse both before and after these Acts might convict any person for Heresie and excommunicate or degrade him by the common Law yet the Sheriffe could not execute him by any such convictions either without or by vertue of a Writ De Haeretico comburendo but by power of those Acts now all repealed as is resolved by 25. H. 8. c. 1. 4 Yet that an Hereticke or Blasphemer convicted and condemned of Heresie or notorious Blasphemy by a whole Nationall Synod or Convocation may by Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament without any previous Indictment be lawfully executed by a Writ De Heretico comburendo even at this day seemes probable to me since it was usual before any Statute made by the connivance of the common Law 5ly That an Hereticke and Apostate legally indicted and convicted in the Kings Courts before the Iudges for Heresie or Apostacy and adjudged to be burnt may at this day by the common Law be executed without such a Writ by vertue of the judgement only by the Sheriffe who is an Officer to the Court as well as other Felons may be and are usually executed in other cases without a Writ And if the Parliament will be pleased by a Law to declare what are Heresies in particular and what Heretickes and Apostates in speciall shall be indicted and proceeded against at the common Law as they did heretofore in case of Treasons by the Stat. of 25. E. 3. c. 2. there will be as great benefit and no more danger of Tyranny or Persecution in permitting commanding the Iudges to proceed against Hereticks and Apostates who are Traytors unto God and Religion according to the ancient Rules of the common Law then there now is in their proceedings against Traytors to the King and Kingdome upon the Statute of 25. E. 3. c. 2. a very good president as I humbly conceive for framing a new capitall Law against Heresies and Blasphemies Now the reasons which confirme me in this opinion That all Heresies Blasphemies Schismes Apostacies Idolatries are triable and punishable in a criminall or Capitall manner only by an indictment and legall Tryall at the common Law but not upon any sentence given by the Clergy in Convocation or the Bishops in their Consistories are these First because the Priests under the Law were neither appointed to condemne nor execute such unlesse upon extraordinary occasions in default of the Majestrat but only the Majestrates and people as Deut. 13. with other precepts and precedents forecited manifest especially Iob. 31. 26. 27. 28. If I behold the Sunne when it shined or the Moone walking in brightnesse or my heart hath beene secretly enticed to worship them or my mouth hath kissed my hand this also were an iniquity TO BE PVNISHED BY THE IVDGE for I should have denyed the God that is above Secondly Because all such under the Gospell since Christs time were anciently punished with imprisonment confiscation of goods disinherison banishment death only by the civill Lawes Edicts of Godly Emperours Kings and civill Majestrates and by their sentences and Iudgements in pursuance of them as is apparant by the premised and subsequent Lawes and Histories No Prelats Councells Synods anciently having power to passe any such civill corporall or capitall sentence against them but the civill Iudges and Majestrate only Hence Lucas Tudensis about 350. yeares since writing of the Albigenses reputed for Hereticks records that a judice Regionis capti sunt Et ut digni erant flaminum ignibus traditi confessing it to be the civill Magistrates duty both to restraine and punish them concluding thus Regum Principum est hoc ministerium scilicet fidei rebelles occidere per se vel per ministros suos Quod nisi sollicite fecerint rationem reddent Domino de his quae eorum dissimulatione vel negligentia ab impijs perpetrantur Remunerabuntur autem si illorum ministeriocultus fidei conservetur Hence Iulius Firmicus writes thus to the Emperors Constans and Constantius vobis sacratissimi Imperatores ad vindicandam puniendam Idololatriam necessitas imperatur hoc vobis Dei summi lege praecipitur 3ly Because all the godly Councells Bishops Fathers in former ages yea Popes themselves have written to and importuned Godly Emperors Kings Magistrates to apprehend suppresse punish Hereticks Schismaticks Blasphemers and Apostates informing them it was their duty to do it to which all Orthodox Protestant Churches Writers at this day subscribe yea and the Papists too From whence Paeraeus Dr. Willet Bishop Davenant and generally all Protestant Divines thus argue against the Popish Prelates and Clergie who will not
one grand objection against punishing Hereticks and Blasphemers with death because God himself wil punish them if they repent not and we must wholy leave them to his judgement Fourthly that the best and speedyest course to remove Gods judgements brought upon a Nation for Idolatry Apostacy Heresie or Blasphemy is for the temporal Magistrates to execute speedy and exemplary capital punishments on those who are notoriously guilty of them and that fasting and prayer without such exemplary executions upon the most eminent Malefactors in this kind wil never pacify Gods wrath nor remove his judgements inflicted for these sins Fifthly that the executing of capital punishments upon such is an argument of true zeal to GOD And therefore it seems strange to me that those in this age who pretend themselvs the only Saints Zealots faithful ones paramount all others by head and shouldiers in grace and piety should be so voyd of Christian zeal for God as to plead preach write and print against the corporal and capital Punishment or Apostates Idolaters Hereticks and Blasphemers by temporal Magistrates and for a free Toleration of all Sects Heresies and Religions whatsoever under the pretence of Liberâ—â—y of Conscience Certainly this extream want of holy zeal for God against Apostates Idolaters Hereticks Blasphemers and pleading for their impunity at least with capital Censures argues them to be no real Saints because they have no true love to nor zeal for God which would make them as forward to thrust their Javelins or the sword of Justice through the Bowels of such transcendent offendors as Phineas was to thrust his Javelin through Zimri and Cozbi without any question or dispute Sixthly that the exemplary capital punishing of such is so far from being a persecution of the Saints or against the Clemency of God under the Law or Gospel that it is a most acceptable service to God and procures a special Blessing upon the persons and posterities of those who are most zealous and active in this service as appears by this example of Phineas registred for his eternal honor and our future imitation and encouragement in this kind The third Example is JOSH. 22. 10. to 34. Where we read that when the Children of Ruben Gad and the half Tribe of Manasseh had but built an Altar at the side of Iordan the children of Israel no sooner heard thereof but the whole Congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh to go up to war against them to destroy them and the Cities wherein they dwelt as guilty of Idolatry Apostacy and False Worship apprehending the very building of this Altar to be a trespass committed against the God of Israel to turn them away from following the Lord that they might rebel against him and that it would prove like the sin of Peor and bring Gods wrath on the whole Congregation of Israel and not on themselves alone when as in truth they built it only for a memorâ—â—l but not to rebel against turn from the Lord or to be an Altar for burnt oâ—â—â—â—â—gs for meat offrings or for sacrifices like as the Altar of the Lord their God which was before the Tabernacle From which history I collect First that the whole Congregation of Israel when they were most sincere and best affected towards God deemed this supposed guilt of Apostacy Idolatry and Schism in these two Tribes and an half by building this New Altar a just ground of making a publick war against them to destroy both them and their Country for this crime though they were their dear brethren who assisted them to conquer the Land of Canaan by vertue of Gods Command forecited DEUT. 13. 11. to 17. Secondly that the Apostacy Idolatry and obstinate Schism of a few wil draw down Gods Judgements upon a whole Nation and Kingdom in case they tolerate or connive at them and do not speedily cut them off by the sword of Justice Thirdly that in such a case there is no way to prevent Gods wrath on all but to cut off the Malefactors by speedy execution of corporal punishments and death upon them The fourth Example is recorded in the 1 KING 18. 40. c. 19. 1 2. Where Elijah commands all the people after he had convinced them by a miracle from heaven that the Lord was God â—o apprehend the Prophets of Baal and not let one of them escape whereupon they took them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and SLEW THEM there with the sword upon which â—ezeâ—el threatned to make his life as one of them By this it is apparent First that this holy zealous Prophet and all the people were of opinion That false Prophets and Idolaters ought by the Law of God to be put to death without any mercy and that Gods Judgement of drought then upon the whole Kingdom could not be removed before their execution as the History there manifests Secondly that the execution of those Idolatrous false Prophets was so necessary that rather then they should want capital punishment the Prophet Elijah himself would be their executioner His zeal then should shame our lukewarmnesse now The fifth President is in JUDGES 6.30 Then Ioash said unto all that stood against him Wil ye plead for Baal Wil ye save him he that wil plead for him LET HIM BE PVT TO DEATH whiles it is yet morning Compared with the second of KINGS 10. 18. to 29. Where Iehu by Proclamation having gathered all Baals Priests and worshippers into his temple appointed foursoore men without and said if any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape he that letteth him go his life shal be for the life of him And he said to the guard to the Captains go in SLAT THEM let none come forth and they smote them with the edge of the sword and the guard and the Captains cast them out and went to the City of the house of Baal and they brought forth the Images out of the house of Baal and burnt them and they brake down the Image of Baal and the house of Baal and made it a draught house unto this day so Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel Here the supream temporal Magistrate puts all the Idolatrous Priests and worshippers of Baal throughout the whole Kingdom to death at once without mercy for which God himself commends him saying That he had done wel in executing that which was right in his eys And by this means he destroyed Baal out of Israel to his eternal honor The sixth Example is thus recorded in the 2 KING 11. 17 18. and in the 2 CHRO 23. 16 17. And Jehoiada made a Covenant between him and between all the people and between the King that they should be the Lords people And all the people of the Land went into the house of Baal and brake it down his Alars and his Images brake they in peeces throughly and SLEW Mattan the Priest of Baal before the
Altar A memorable example of zeal and reformation after their solemn Covenant And should not we be as zealous after our Covenant against Idolatrous Priests False Prophets Hereticks Apostates Blasphemers as they were against the Priests of Baal The seventh President is enrolled in the 2 CHRON. 15. 9 to 17. where godly King Asa having gathered all Juda and Benjamin and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh and out of Simeon to Jerusalem in the fifteenth year of his reign they all entred into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel SHOVLD BE PVT TO DEATH WHETHER SMAL OR GREAT MAN OR WOMAN And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice and with shoutings and with trumpets and with cornets And all Judah rejoyced at the Oath for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire and he was found of them and the Lord gave them rest round about And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the King he removed her from being Queen because she had made an Idol in a grove and Asa cut down her Idol and stamped it and burnt it at the brook Kidron Whence we shal observe First that this godly King and all his people bound themselves by a solemn Oath and Covenant much like to ours TO PUT ALL Idolaters Apostates Hereticks and Blasphemers and whosoever would not seek the Lord of what quality or sort soever TO DEATH Secondly that this Oath and Covenant was so wel pleasing to God and agreeable to his Law that whereas immediately before their entring into it here was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countries and Nation was destroyed of Nation and City of City as they are now among us for God did vex them with all adversity Vor. 5 6. Yet no sooner was this Oath and Covenant taken but the Lord was found of them and gave them rest round about Verse 15. as no doubt he would do to us were we as zealous against Apostates Idolaters Hereticks Blasphemers against God and the sacred Trinity as they and would put the Ringleaders of such to death whether smal or great whether man or woman as they did Thirdly that Asa did depose his own Queen mother from being Queen for her Idolatry and cut down and burnt her Idol and her grove A memorable example both of zeal and justice to shame the luke warmness the partiality of our times which have connived at and countenanced Queen mother and Queen daughter too in their Idolatries yea erected publick Groâ—es and Chappels for their Idols and Idol-worship Eightly to these I might accumulate EXOD. 23. 23 24. 32. 33 c. 34. 12 13 4 15. NUM 21. 2 3. c. 31. 8. 17. DEUT. 7. 2 3 4 5. c. 12. 2 3. JOSM 23. 5. to 14. JUDG 2. 2. Where God commanded Moses Ioshua and the Israelites his own people when he should deliver the Hittites Gergasites Amarites Canaanites Perâ—zites Hivites Iebusites and Midianites into their hands to smite utterly destroy and slay them with the sword and to make no Covenant with them nor shew mercy unto them and to destroy break down and burn their Altars Groves Images and to make no marriages with their sons or daughters least they should turn them away from following him to serve other gods and so should the anger of the Lord be kindled against them and destroy them sodainly Whereupon they did utterly destroy all the Idolatrous Inhabitants of the Cities they took with the edge of the sword without sparing any but Rahab and her family JOSH. 6. 21 22 24. c. 8. 20. to 30. c. 9. 24 26. c. 10. 1. 10. to the end specially v. 40. c. 11 12. NUM 21. 2 3. c. 31. 16. 17. 2 CHRON. 31. 1 2. as the Lord commanded them From all which Precepts and Presidents as also from JOH 31. 26 27 28. EXOD. 22. 20. He that sacrificeth unto any other god save unto the Lord only HE SHAL BE VTTERLY DESTROYED that is by the Magistrates and people or in their default by God himself it is undeniable that godly Kings and Magistrates under the Law were by Gods own special command to punish obstinate Idolaters Apostates False Prophets and Teachers who seduced or endeavored to seduce the people from the ways truth and true worship of God were they Jews or Gentiles Israelites or Heathens with death and capital punishments to prevent or remove Gods wrath procure his favor and blessing and keep others from pollution and seduction to the ruine of their souls Secondly That they had power to punish Blasphemy and Blasphemers of God even with death by an express Commission from God himself is as clear as the Noonday Sun by these ensuing Texts LEVIT 24. 10. to 17. and the Israâ—litish womans sonne blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed and they brought him unto Moses and put him in Ward that the mind of the Lord might be shewed them And the Lord spake unto Moses saying bring forth him that hath cursed without the Camp and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head and let all the Congregation STONE HIM And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel saying whosoever shal curse his God shal bear his sin And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord SHAL SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH and ALL THE CONGREGATION SHAL CERTAINLY STONE HIM as wel the stranger as he that is born in the Land WHEN HE BLASPHEMETH THE NAME OF THE LORD SHAL BE PUT TO DEATH A most punctuall Law extending to all blasphemers of God and his name be they Natives or Forraigners of what sex or quality soever coupled in the next Verse with this penal Statute Ver. 17. AND HE THAT KILLETH ANY MAN SHAL BE PVT TO DEATH so that those who at this day question or deny the Magistrates power to put Blasphemers or gross Hereticks who deny Christs Divinity c. whose very assentions are direct blasphemies to death may upon the self-same grounds and with equal reason deny the Magistrates power to put Murtherers to death the one Law being as moral as perpetual as the other Yea the equity of that other Law EXOD. 21. 17. and LEVIT 20. 9. Every one that curseth his father and mother shal SVRELY BE PVT TO DEATH his blood shal be upon him must hold more strongly of him that shal curse and blaspheme his heavenly then his earthy Father in as much as the one is infinitly greater and more to be reverenced feared honored obeyed then the other This Law was so obligatory and Authentick among the Israelites even in the reign of King Ahab and Jezebel that the Nobles and Elders upon Jezebels Letter and the witnesses testimony suborned by her condemned Naboth for that he did blalpheme God
privato nefarii vestri conventus in unum coire audeant The effects of this Decree are thus expressed by Euseb in the next Ch. Ad hunc modum occultae quasi latebrae recessus eorum qui alienam ab Ecclesia catholica doctrinam opinionem tenebant Imperatorio edicto evoluti patuerunt bestiae etiam immanes quae hujus erant impietatis authores exactae Ex illis ver◠qui essent istorum impulsu in fraudem errorem inducti alii Imperatoris minis perterriti fallaci fucata specie in ecclesiam obrepere coeperunt temporum conditioni callide dissimulanter cedentes ac quoniam lex hominum libros perscrutari jusserat tandem manifesto deprehensi fuerunt hi qui vetitas interdictas illas artes ad hommum perniciem comparatas consectati fuissent qua de re omnibus ut dicitur opibus viribusque claborant ut simulatione sibi salutem adipiscerentur Alii forte ad spem quae in deo Opt. Max. poni debet verè ex animo se transferre quos cum ecclesiarum praesides accurate internoscere studerent alteros ovium pellibus obtectos adumbrata specie se insinuare conantes procul amandarunt alteros vero qui idem integra incorrupta mente instituerent ubi temporis longinquitate explorando de illis satis exquisite periculum fecissent in multitudinem ascititiorum ascripserunt Hoc modo cum illis qui alienam ab ecclesia opinionem doctrinam sequebantur actum est alios autem qui dum in eorum dogmatum disciplina versabantur nihil concepissent impietatis sed scismaticorum culpa se temerè a communi Ecclesiae congregatione frequentia sejunxissent abiecta omni cunctatione in Ecclesiam receperynt Hi igitur gregatim tanquam ex colonia revertentes suam recuperarunt patriam Ecclesiam matrem agnoverunt A qua diu aberrantes cum gaudio laetitia ad eam redierunt membraque cōmunis corporis fuere in unum coagmentata concordiae quasi compagibus firme copulata solaque catholica Dei Ecclesia in so coalescens tum resplenduit cum nusquam Gentium vel Haereticae vel Scismaticae factionis vestigium reliquum quidem esset Cujus praeclari facinoris causam Imperatoris Deo cui solus ex omnibus Imperatoribus qui aliquando extitissent curae erat acceptam plane retulit This was the good effect of this Emperors Edict a sufficient encouragement to others to imitate his Example who likewise suppressed the seditious tumults and attempts of Hereticks by banishing them into remote parts and punished the Jews with severe corporal punishments for their attempts against Christians and Christian Religion and endeavoring to repair the Temple at Jerusalem The Sons of Constantine the great prohibited under pain of death that none should be circumcised after the maaner of the Jews The Emperors Gratianus Valentinian and Theodosius the Elder and Yonger as they expelled the Arian Bishops and Ministers out of their Churches and placed orthodox Bishops Pastors in their stead so they made Laws against them prohibiting their meetings banishing them the City and interdicting their Ministry Which Laws are recorded by Justinian Codicis lib. 1. Tit. 4. Lex 1 2. Yea the Emperors Arcadius Gratianus Valentinian Theodosius Anastatius Marcianus and Justinian made sundry Laws against the Manichees Apollinarians Novatians Eunomians Valentinians Montanists Priscillianists Marcionists Eutichians Donatists Paulians Euchratists AND OTHER HERETICKS TO THIS EFFECT That they should neither preach nor speak of their Heresies nor exercise their Ministry nor vent any thing against the orthodox truth nor keep any assemblies in Churches or private houses under pain of confiscation of the places where they assembled and they were to forfeit an hundred pounds of gold to the Emperor and fifty to the President that all their goods Liberties Offices Titles should be forfeited that they should inherit no lands nor have power of buying selling or contracting after conviction nor to make any Will or Codicil IN MORTEM QUOQUE Inquisitio TENDATUR And that they should likewise be put to death their crime being greater then treason against the Emperor That the believers receivers defendors and favourers of Hereticks be excommunicated for the same and not conforming within one years space should be accounted infamous and not be admitted to any publick offices Councels Elections nor to give testimony in any case nor have power to make a Will nor to injoy Lands as heirs and successors to any person nor have power to implead any man in any Court nor to be Advocaters or Registers That those Hereticks should injoy no Military nor Civil Office that all their Heretical Books some of their Persons to should be publickly burnt that the Manichees VLTIMO SVPPLISIO traderentur quoniam his nihil relinquendum loci est in quo ipsis etiam elementis fiat iniuria And they further Enacted That if any condemned Hereticks gathered Churches or raised any tumults to the disturbance of the publick peace Vt seditionis auctores pacisque turbatae Ecclesiae ETIAM MAIESTATIS CAPITE AC SANGVINE SINT SVPPLICIA LVITVRI They were to be punished as authors of Sedition disturbers of the publick peace and guilty of Treason with the loss of their heads and blood These several Laws are more largely recorded in Justinian Codic lib. 1. Tit. 8. De Haereticis Manichaeis Codex Theodosij lib. 16. Tit. 1. 4. The self-same Emperor together with the Emperor Constantius Enacted the like Laws and inflicted the self-same punishments upon Apostates from the Orthodox Faith to Paganism to Heresie and Judaism registred at large by Justinian Cod. lib. 1. Tit. 10. De Apostatis where you may peruse them and in Codex Theodosii lib. 16. Tit. 6 7 8. These Emperors likewise Enacted severe Laws for the suppression of Idolatry and Pagan Religion and the Emperors Constantius and Julian Enacted this capital Law PAENA CAPITIS subjugari praeeipimus eos quos operam sacrifitiis dare vel colere simulacra constiterit Codex Theodosii lib. 16. Tit. 8. lex 6. These Edicts of theirs suppressed destroyed the Eutichian Nestorian with other of these Heresies as the historians of that age relate and Leo. Epist 38. 39. to the Emperor Marcianus and Pulcheria the Empress testify and Epist 91. The good effects of these Laws that they reclaimed converted many from their Heresies and Errors and made them real converts is at large recorded by Saint Augustin in his 48. 50. Epistles this experimental good fruit of them inducing him thus to retract his former opinion against punishing Hereticks with corporal punishments Sunt duo libri mei quorum titulus est Contra partem Donati in quorum primo libro dixi non mihi placere ullius secularis potestatis impetu Scismaticis ad communionem violenter vehementerque arctari Quod verè tunc mihi non placebat quia nondum expertus eram vel quantum mali eorum
Orleans Artic. 35. An. 1585. and King Henry the 4th of France An. 1534. enacted these severall Laws against Swearers Blasphemers We inhibit and defend all persons of what estate quality and degree soever they be to renounce grieve dispight or blaspheame or use any other villanous and detestable speeches against the honour of God and his holy Mother upon paine to be condemned for the first offence at such a fine as the Iudge shall think fit to assesse one part whereof shall accrue to the King the other to the fabrick of the Church the third â—â— the enformer and for the second third and fourth offence â—â—â—â—â—e shal be doubled trebled and quadruplied and for the â—â—â—â— oâ—â—ence he shall be imprisoned eight houres and there be liable to all the crimes villanies and obloquies that any will cast upon him and shall make such further amends as the Iudge shall arbitrate and for the sixt offence he shall be set on the Pillory and there have his upperlip branded with an hot Iron so as his Teeth may appeare And for the 7. offence he shall be brought and set on the Pillory and there have his lower lip branded with an hot Iron And if he sweare and offend any more he shall have his Tongue cut off The Council of Lueran under Leo the ninth Sess Tit. Reformationes curia et aliorum to abolish execrable blasphemy which then out of measure prevailed to the greatest contempt of Gods name and of his Saints ordained That whosoever should openly or publikely curse God or blaspheame the name of Iesus Christ or of the Glorious Virgin with contumelious and obscene words if hee were a publike Officer or had jurisdiction he should for the first and second offence forfeit all the profits thereof for three Monthes and for the third be deprived of it If a Clergy man he was to forfeit one whole yeares profits of al his Ecclesiastical livings for his first offence For the second to be deprived of his Living if he had but one benefice of which benefice the ordinary pleased if he had more then one And for the third offence upon conviction to be deprived of al his dignities and benefices and made uncapable to retaine them But a Layman blaspheming if he be a noble man shall for the first offence pay 25. Duckets and for the second offence fifty to be bestowed on the fabrick of the chiefe Church in the City and for the third offence shall loose his Nobility If an ignoble person or plebeian he shal for the first offence be imprisoned if hee shall above twice publikely blaspheame he shall stand for an whole day together before the Dores of the principall Church with an infamous Miter on his head If he shall lapse againe into the same sinne he shall be condemned unto perpetuall prison or to the Gallies at the pleasure of the Iudge In the Court of Conscience he that is guilty of Blasphemy cannot be absolved with out Greivous penance And we further ordaine that secular Iudges who shall not as much as in them lies punish those who are convicted of Blasphemy with just punishments shall be subject to the same punishments as the Blasphemers themselves as guilty of the same sinne And all that shall heare any to blaspheame are enjoyned to informe against them by this Councells decree Hamant and Lewes as well for their execrable Blasphemies as Heresies were By the very common Law without any Statute condemned and burnt in Queene Elizabeths Raigne at Norwich and no doubt Blasphemers may be indicted and punished by the common Law with death as well as Heretickes and Apostates for opeâ— execrable blasphemy By the Statute of 21. lac â— 20. all prophane swearers and cursers shall forfeit twelve pence for every Offence and Oath to be levyed by distresse for the use of the poore and sit in Stocks for three houres if no distresse be to be had if the Offendor be above twelve yeares old and to be whipped publikely if under Too small a punishment as some conceive for so execrable a sinne By the late Articles of Warre for the conduct of our Armies under the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax All Blasphemers of the Trinity or any of the Articles of the Christian faith are to be boared through the tongue with an hot Iron and some have beene so punished in our Armies for their Blasphemies which Articles likewise punish swearing with losse of pay and the like I shall close up these Lawes with some further examples of ancient Godly politick Lawes for the punishment of Swearing and Blasphemy gathered out of divers Authors by our learned Thomas Becon printed cum privilegio at the end of his Invective against swearing King Henry the 5th made a Statute for Swearers in his owne Pallace that if he were a Dâ—ke that did sweare he should forfeit for every time 40. s. to the ayding of the poore people If he were a Lord or a Baron 20. s. If he were a Knight or an Esquire 10 s. If a peasant or meane man then to be scourged naked either with a Rod or else with a Whip King Edward made this Law that they which were proved once falsely forsworne should for ever be separated from Gods Congregation Donaldus King of Scots made this Act within his Land that all Perjurers and common swearers should have their lips seared with a burning hot Iron This Law aforesaid did Saint Lodouicke King of France enact also and put it once into prosecution at Paris upon a Citizen there for blaspheming the name of Christ unto the example of other and so caused it to bee proclaimed throughout the Realme for a generall punishment Phil. King of France whomsoever he perceived to blaspheame the name of God either in a Tavern or any where else yea although he were a great man of dignity commanded that he should be drowned And caused a strong act to be made of it a little before his death and left it unto his successors Philip Earle of Flanders made this constitution with in his Earldome in the yeare of our Lord M. l. xxiij that he that did forsweare himselfe should loose his life and goods Maximilianus the Emperor made also a decree that whosoever he were that was a common swearer should for the first time lose a marke And if hee were not content with that he should loose his head which act he and the Nobility of the Empire commanded to be published foure times in the yeare at Easter Whitsunday Assumption of our Lady as they called it and Chrâ—stmâ—s The Law of the Egyptians was that no swearing should be used among them at all except it were for a weighty cause if any were found to be perjured the same should loose his head The Law among the Sythians was that if any among them could be proved to be a notable swearer or such a one as would forsweare himselfe
the wicked and cast them into a Furnace of fire where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth till the end of the World Ergo Christian Princes and Magistrates must tolerate all Hereticks Scismaticks false Teachers Apostates Idolaters and execrable Blasphemers in the Church and not punish extirpate burne or cut them downe with the sword of Iustice till the generall day of Iudgement at the end of the World If this Argument hold good marke then the necessary absurd consequenses which will likewise follow from it First that no Traytor Murtherer Robber Theefe Sodomite nor hainous Malefactor whatsoever must be once medled with punished or put to death by the Magistrate in this world but all tollerated and let alone till the end of the World and reserved only to Gods Iudgement and eternall punishments in Hell because the Tares here are all the Children of the Devill and wicked one of whatsoever kind not Hereticks Schismaticks Apostates false Teachers and Blasphemers only as is cleare by v. 38. 39. 40. 41. And if no Tares must be pulled up no offendors whatsoever punishedby Kings and civill Majestrates till the worlds end then what will become of the Magistrates Office power of humane society it selfe of all States Republikes which cannot possibly subsist when all capitall offendors of all sorts must be left unpunished unrestiained If this bee our opposites reall position let them speak it out in plaine English and then the world will easily discover what Libertines what ill Statesmen and black Saints they are 2ly Then Parents must not correct their Children Masters their Servants Schoole-Masters their Schollers Superior military Officers or a Councell of Warre their Inferior Souldiers which I hope they doe or should do in all Armies but they must be let alone till the day of Doome or the worlds end without punishment and then what will become of all Families Schooles Armies yea what Monsters of impiety would Children Servants Souldiers prove in a very few yeares space 3ly Then it wil necessarily follow that the Objectors of the Separation have no ground at al to separate from us because some Tares grow in our Churches and we have mixt Congregations Communions the things they so much declaime against and must be really guilty of obstinate Schisme for if the Tares and Wheate must grow together till the Harvest and not be separated till the end of the world and that by the Angells then why or how can they separate themselves from our publike Congregations now because they have some Tares which grow among the wheat Yea why will they as they pretend at least suffer no Tares to grow within their separate fields Congregations here but gather and cast them quite out of their Congregations Troopes Regiments who must all consist wholy of visible Saints and Children of the Kingdome If both must and will grow together till the Harvest why do they not permit them to grow together in their Conventicles where I feare more Tâ—â—â—â— do grow and are â—own then in our publik Assemblies If they Object they â—â—st grow together in the field which Christ interprets to be the world v. 38. not in the church which is not the world I answer First that the world here is not put in opposition to the church but for it as including it for it is put for the world and field wherein there are Tares mingled with the Wheate and the Children of the wicked intermixed together with the Children of the Kingdome Now if you take the world here in opposition or contradistinction to the church then there can be nothing but Tares in it and no Wheat nor children of the Kingdome which grow only in the church not in the world as distinct from it Therefore this evasion will not avoid the objection nor justifie their separation no more then the Donatists of old as Augustine proves at large against Cresconius the Donatist out of Cyprian and others concluding thus Si videntur in Ecclesia esse zizania non tamen impediri debet aut fides aut charitas nostra ut quoniam zizania esse in ecclesia cernimus ipsi de ecclesia recedamus Nobis tantummodo laborandum est ut frumentum esse possumus ut cum caeperit frumentum dominicis horreis condi fructum pro opere nostro labore capiamus Apostolus in Epistola sua dicit In domo autem magna non solum vasa sunt aurea et argentea sed et lignea fictilia et quaedam quidem honorata quaedam inhonorata nos operam demus ut quantum possimus laboremus ut vas aureum et argenteum sumus 2ly The Church is in the field of this world and there noware have bin and ever will be in the most pure and perfectly reformed churches chaffe and Tares as well as Wheat Gotes as well as Sheepe yea more children of the wicked one then children of the Kingdome and they neither can nor shall be totally severed till the Harvest at the worlds end wherefore your separation from our parochial churches because they are mixt and are not all reall and visible Saints but have some Tares among them is point blank against your owne argument from this parable and to the text it selfe 3ly If your separation from our churches because there are Tares growing in them with the VVheat and your casting out from your separate congregations â—uch as you deeme Tares and Gotes be justifiable then the civill Majestrate may and must by the same reason punish banish root cast such out of their christian Republiks there being no ground why the Majestrate should admit such to grow together with the wheat in the field of the christian State or church when as the Ecclesiasticall Officers ought not to suffer them in their particular churches so as this Parable contradicts your owne practise of separation and this your objection from it against the civill Magistrates power 2ly To answer more particularly the Objectors may with better probability ague hence that Husbandmen must not weed their corne nor pluck up the Tares that grow together with it before the Harvest corne which would be strang new-light new doctrine to all good Husbandmen living in the country because this Husbandman bid his Servants here let the Tares alone till the Harvest least they should pluck up the wheat together with them as conclude hence that Hereticks Schismaticks Idolaters Blasphemers and the like are to be tollerated and not punished nor rooted out by the civill Magistrate but let to grow untill the end of the world when the generall Harvest comes First because the Tares here spoken off are all sorts of wicked men whatsoever and all Children of the Devill living in the world collectively considered not such or such particular pestilent Heretickes Schismaticks false Teachers Apostates or Blasphemers who are more mischievous and notoriously obnoxious then others so that the argument hence is only this All Tares and wicked men shall not be
death as unlawfull in it self but admits it lawfull and that they may deserve it Secondly That he speaks here onely of making a Law to put false Teachers and Seducers to death in that Age which he would by no meanes then admit of not because it was unlawfull but onely inconvenient at that time because it was likely to be abused to the shedding of innocent blood Thirdly that he held it then sufficient and lawfull too for the Magistrates to banish Seducers and false Teachers though they did not put them actually to death and by consequence held it lawfull to imprison and fine them too which is lesse then banishment yea him selfe writ to Methusum very earnestly that they should not receive the Anabaptists into their City but expell them so that Luther is point blank against Master Dell in that for which he cites him and for the Magistrates suppressing banishing Hereticks Schismaticks and Seducers I shall onely adde one passage more out of Luther point-blank against Master Dels opinion and quotation * Postil Dominica 5. post Epiphaniam .44 where interpreting the Parable of the Tares he resolves That the Masters bidding the servants let them alone till the Harvest doth neither inhibit nor restraine Church-Officers or the Civill Magistrate from restraining and punishing of Hereticks and other Malefactors with Ecclesiastical and temporall punishments concluding thence in these words Reliquae deindè sunt scandalorum cohertiones poenes Magistratum familiarum Patres morum disciplinae Magistros Hic adeò nulla phohibitio in suis officiis per hoc Christi praeceptum statuitur ut sunt haec omnia cum acerimis sanctissimis mandatis à Deo sancita Custodit Magistratus non solum secundam verùm OMNIUM MAXIME PRIMAM TABULAM Idololatrias Blasphemias Execrationes Perjuria ULCISCITUR Oblatas HAERETICAS in verum Deum contumeliosas atque alias eas BLASPHEMIAS DOCENTES COERCET Praefractiores atque in errore pertexendo contumaciores cum certissimo plurimum EXITIO pro malificiis PUNIENDOS SUSCIPIT Nequè cum boc facit Zizania evellere intelligitur quia cum suo officio in eo regno non versatür ubi interdictum de evellendis Zizaniis positum est Non igitur Magistratus hujus generis vitae corporalis Officiales quùm se scandalis perturbantibus tranquilitatem severa vindicatione obviam eunt Zizania contra Christi mentem evellunt sed id praestant pro parte sua ut verum Triticum in Ecclesia à Zizaniis non prorsus opprimatur Regnum Dei in terris non penitus exolescat Master Dell therefore might in wisdome have forborne his extravagant quotation of Luther whose Works I presume he never read which he tels us not where we may find among his numerous Volumes as he should have done His next quotation is a saying of Augustine out of Polanus but Augustine is most expresse against him not onely in his forecited passages against Petilian and the Donatists but in many others mustred up by Gratian Causa 23. quest 4 5. where you may read them at large to which I shall adde this sentence in his 166. Epistle where thus he writes To whom is it said Serve the Lord with feare c. is it not to Kings But how doe Kings serve the Lord with feare unlesse it be by a religious severity in prohibiting those things which are done against the Lords commands For every one of them serves him after one manner as be is a man after another manner as he is a King For as he is a man he serves him in living faithfully but as he is a King he serves him in prescribing Lawes commanding just things and prohibiting the contrary CONVENIENTI RIGORE SANCIENDO with convenient rigor and punishments like as Hezekiah served him in destroying Idols Groves and high Places And as Josiah served him And he addes this as a Reason elswhere Rex a Regendo dicitur non autem regat QUI NON CORRIGIT If Kings then be Kings of Hereticks Schismaticks Seducers Blasphemers Idolaters or Apostates as well as of other Subjects they must not onely governe but correct and punish them too by enacting severe Lawes against them and seeing them put in execution as this Father informes us That the devout and orthodox Roman Emperours not onely made severe Lawes against the Donatists and other Hereticks and Schismaticks but likewise appointed Dulcitius an eminent Colonel and Notary to take speciall care to see them executed Unhappy Master Dell to quote such a Father out of Polanus who is so pointblank against him and refutes his whole Sermon in his Books against the Epistles of Parmenianus and Petilian the Donatist Contra Cresconium Gram. Epist 48 50 as those who will take paines to peruse them may discover I wish this learned Gentleman hereafter to peruse and read Authors well before he quotes them and not to take them upon trust with such disadvantage to his cause and reputation too His other Authority out of Master Tyndal is nothing to purpose who speaks not one word against Kings Emperours or Christian Magistrates suppressing or punishing Hereticks and reforming the Church by outward power but writes expresly for it at large in his Books Intituled THE OBEDIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN MAN and THE PRACTICE OF POPISH PRELATES where he asserts That Kings and Magistrates are in the room of God that their Lawes are Gods Lawes and that they are to punish all evill doers and any sinne that shall break out and though he blameth them for being the Popes and Bishops Hangmen in his dayes to kill whomsoever they condemned without more adoe vpon their bare commandement without any due examination of the cause Yet if upon their owne examination they shall find them to be Heretecks or false Teachers he then admits They may justly punish and put them to death without any danger exciting both Emperours and kings to reforme the Church and to shake off the Yoake both of the Pope and Prelates together with their Canons Superstitions and false Doctrines So that this holy Martyr oppugnes Master Dels opinion for which he quotes him and speaks only of forcing Infidels by the Sword of war without instruction to embrace the Christian Faith His last Authority is Vlricus Ab Hutten but where his words are recorded he makes no mention neither are they pertinent being spoken to a Councell of Priests as he confesseth not to Christian Magistrates which yet he foisteth into his English translation of his words not being in the Latin Surely as this foisting is unsufferable so I must acquaint Master Dell that this quotation was very unhappy and fatall to his cause since this very Author hath written a Book DE SCHISMATE EXTINGUENDO wherein he refutes that very opinion he would fasten on him And thus I have given you a briefe account of Master Dels great skill and learning in mistaking mis-citing perverting every Author which he cites whose