cum populi multitudine copiosa ac omnibus adhuc in eodem Parliamento personalit ' existent ' votis Regiis unanimiter consentientibus praeceptum decret ' fuit quod Monasterium Sancti Edmundi c. sit ab omni jurisdictione episcopor ' com' illius ex tunc imperpet ' funditus liberum exemptum c. Illustris rex Hardicanutus pred' regis Canuti filius haeres success ac sui patris vestigior ' devotus imitator c. cum laude favore Aegelnod ' Dorobornensis nunc Cantuariensis Alfrici Eborac ' episcopor ' aliorumque episcopor ' suffragan ' nec non cunctorum regni mei mandanorum principum descriptum constituit roboravitque praeceptum were Acts of Parliament Ibidem Rex Eldredus convocavit Magnatos Episcopos Proceres Optimates ad tractandum de publicis negotiis regni And this was a Parliament Inst 4. p. 3. But none of these you will say have the obligation of Laws upon us Well let us see those Acts of Parliament which have and what is the difference By the way no Acts of Parliament are now nor these 400 years have had the force of Statute-Laws in England but those made in Henry the Third's time and since And what was the first and great Act of Magna charta but Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Magna Charta an Act of Parliament Ireland c. We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole rights and liberties inviolable We have granted also and given to all the Freemen of our Realm for us and our heirs for ever those Liberties underwritten to have and to hold to them and their heirs of us and our heirs for ever Note this great Charter which made the Church and Nota bene Kingdom of England the most free in the world was a free and voluntary act of an English Monarch in Parliament And all that violation and destruction of all those happy Grants and Concessions both in Church and State have been made by a cursed conspiracie of a factious and seditious company of men falsly and most injuriously arrogating to themselves the name of Parliament without and against the Kings good mind and pleasure Charta Foresta was Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Normandy and of Guyen c. We will that all Forests which King Henry our Grandfather afforested shall be viewed by good and lawful men c. Statutum Hiberniae was nothing else but Henry by the grace of God King of England c. To his trusty and welbeloved Gerard son of Maurice Justicer of Ireland greeting Commanding him to cause the Customs recited in the Act and used in England to be proclaimed and streightly kept and observed in Ireland Statutum de Anno Bissextili was The King unto the Justices of the An. 21. H. 3. Bench greeting c. The Statute intituled Assisa panis cervisiae was An. 51. H. 3. The King to all to whom these presents shall come greeting We have seen certain Ordinances c. Stat. de Scaccario The King commandeth that all manner of Bailiffs Sheriffs An. 51. H. 3. and other Officers as well Justices of Chester c. Statutes made in the Parliament at Marleborough wherein the King An. 52. H. 3. made these Acts Ordinances and Statutes underwritten which he willeth to be observed for ever firmly and inviolably of all his Subjects as well high as low Statute of Westminster the first were the Acts of Edward the son of An. 3. Ed. 1. Henry c. by his Council and the assent of Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and all the Commonalty of the Realm c. the King ordained and established these Acts underwritten which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole Realm First the King willeth and commandeth that the peace of Holy Church and of the Land be well kept and maintained in all points and that common right be done to all as well poor as rich without respect of persons c. Statutes made at Gloucester where our Soveraign Lord the King for An. 6. Ed. 1. the amendment of the Land and for the relief of his people c. hath provided and established these Laws underwritten willing and commanding that from henceforth they be firmly observed within the Realm Statute of Rutland hath no other title then The King to his Treasurer An. 10. Ed. 1. and Barons of the Exchequer and to his Chamberlains greeting c. Articuli super Chartas were Grants in Parliament made by the King An. 20. Ed. 1. at the request of the Prelates Earls and Barons assembled in Parliament Note the Commons are not so much as named in these Acts of Parliament The Statute of Quo Warranto made at Gloucester and Statute de Protectionibus An. 30. Ed. 1. An. 33. Ed. 1. made at Westminster the King only speaks Stat. de conjunctim Feoffatis The King unto all to whom these c. An. 34. Ed. 1. greeting And after the recital of the things contained in the Act it is said In witness of which thing we have caused these our Letters Patents I my self being Witness at Westminster Statute of Amortising of Land made by Ed. 1. only the King speaketh Ordinatio pro statu Hiberniae made 17 Ed. 1. the King speaketh by the assent of his Council Statute Ne Rector prosternat arbores in coemiterio only the King speaketh and neither Council nor Parliament mentioned An. 35 Ed. 1. Statute for Knights hath no other title then Our Lord the King hath An. 1. Ed. 2. granted c. And Stat. de frangentibus prisonam 1 Ed. 2. hath nothing to create it a Law but The King willeth and commandeth and neither Parliament nor Council named in either of them Articuli Cleri made at Lincoln the King and his Council are named An. 9. Ed. 2. The Statute of York was made by the King by the assent of the Prelates An. 12. Ed. 2. Earls Barons and Commonalty there assembled So that in these three Kings reign although the King did enact them in Parliament yet the manner was different almost in all In Ed. 3. his time was the form of enacting Laws truly defined and An. 1. Ed. 3. much used by him and the subsequent Kings At the Parliament holden at Westminster King Edward at the request of the Commonalty and by their Petition made before him and his Council in the Parliament and by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other great men assembled at that Parliament hath granted c. In the next Parliament holden at Northampton the Laws are made by An. 2. Ed. 3. him and by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other great
their submission to the Church of Rome But on the contrary when Austin first arrived in England he stayed in the Island of Thanet until he knew the Kings pleasure and offered not to preach in Kent until he had the Kings licence to preach throughout his Dominions c. Neither was there any Appellant from the Conversion of the English he says to Rome until Wilfrid Archbishop of York who notwithstanding pag. 60. that he gained Sentence upon Sentence at Rome in his favor and notwithstanding that the Pope did send express Nuntio's into England on purpose to see the Sentence executed yet could he not obtain his restitution or benefit of his Sentence for six years during the reigns of Egbert and Alfred his son yea Alfred told the Popes Nuntio's expresly That he honored Spelm. concil an 705. them as his Parents for their grave lives and honorable aspects but he could not give any assent to their Legation because it was against reason that a person twice condemned by the whole Council of the English should be restored upon the Popes Letter And after he says That after Alfred and pag. 62. Theodore were both dead Theodore was the Archbishop of York that opposed Wilfrids Donation from the Pope and continued it so long as he lived we find the Sentence of the Pope and Wilfrids Restitution still opposed by the surviving Bishops in Alfreds Sons reign c. Neither were there any Appeals to Rome from that time until after the Conquest in the reign of Henry the First by Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury 8. See Comment Lit. sect 648. pag. 344. where it appears by our All Bishopricks were of the Kings foundation originally and donative books and divers Acts of Parliament that at first all the Bishopricks in England were of the Kings foundation and Donative per traditionem baculi id est the Crosier which was the Pastoral staff annuli the ring whereby he was married to the Church King Henry the First being requested by the Bishop of Rome to make them elective refused it But King John by his Charter bearing date quinto Junii anno decimo septimo When they became eligible and by what power granted that the Bishopricks should be eligible So that all Bishopricks were not only at first of the Kings foundation and Donative but afterwards became eligible from no other cause but the Kings Charter 9. That the sacred character of Priesthood does not free men from The Kings of England before the Couquest did exercise their Regal power over all persons in all cases the subjection due to the Laws of their Prince and Country is not only evident by many examples in Sacred Writ and by almost infinite precepts and examples of Gospel and holy Martyrs in primitive times but also by a concurrent consent of all Histories where Christianity hath been planted And that these powers have been justly exercised by the Kings of England before the Conquest among the many Laws of Ina Withred Alfred Edward Athelstan Edmund Edgar Athelred Canutus and Edward take these of Canutus Si quis sacra tenens pejerasse convictus fuerit ei manus praeciditor ni dimidiatam Lambert Saxon laws lex 33. f. 113. sui capitis astimationem domino atque episcopo dependerit neque vero deinceps qui juret dignus putandus est nisi quidem Deo cumulatè satisfecerit atque ab ejusmodi in posterum nefario scelere abstinendi fidejussores admoverit If any in Holy orders be convict of Perjury let him be branded on the hand unless he shall pay to the King and Bishop half the price of his head Neither shall he afterward be esteemed worthy to take an Oath unless he shall have abundantly satisfied God and shall have given Sureties that afterward he shall abstain from such wickedness Si quis eorum qui arae deservierint alicui mortem obtulerit omni cum divini lex 36. 114. tum humani juris patrocinio excludatur nisi quidem cum exilio cumulatè id sceleris compensarit atque caesi etiam cognatis satisfecerit aut saltem una cum hominibus qui jurent idoneis omnem criminis suspicionem diluerit Hanc vero quae Deo hominibus debetur compensationem intra ter denos idque cum fortunarum suarum omnium discrimine dies aggreditor If any one who serves at the Altar shall kill any man let him be excluded from the protection of Divine and Humane laws unless with his banishment he may abundantly satisfie that wickedness and shall also give satisfaction to the kindred of him who is killed or at least together with sufficient men who shall give Law-gager their oaths shall wash away all suspition of the crime And let him go in hand to make this compensation which is due to God and men within thirty days and that upon the forfeiture of all his fortunes Si eorum qui arae deservierint aliquis hominem occiderit aut insigne aliquod lex 38. ibid. perpetrarit flagitium gradu honore dispoliatus proinde atque ei Papa circumscripserit habitandi locum exulato ac cumulatè compensato Sin is crimen fuerit inficiatus excusatio tripla esto Atque in hanc quae Deo hominibus debetur compensationem intra ter denos aggrediatur dies ab omni legis commoditate destitutus habetor If any one who serves at the Altar shall kill a man or commit any foul offence despoiled of his honor let him be banished the place of his habitation and make abundant satisfaction yea though the Pope make it void But if he deny the crime let his excuse be threefold and if within thirty days he does not endeavor to give this satisfaction which is due to God and man let him be outlawed Si quis sacris inauguratus rei capitalis obnoxius extiterit comprehenditor lex 40. 115. atque ut tandem episcopo criminis admissi poenas dependat asservator If any one in Holy orders be guilty of any capital crime let him be apprehended and fafely kept until he be punished by the Bishop for the crime committed Si quis sacrum ordinem atque vivendi formulam commutarit pro ipsa lex 46. 116. ordinis dignitate sive capitis aestimatione mulcta legis violatae poena sive rebus suis omnibus compensato If any one shall change his holy order and form of living for the dignity of the order or price of the head let him be fined for punishment of the violation of the Law or forfeit all he hath But how far this good Prince was from having any spight to Holy Orders or men separated to the Worship of God and Service at the Holy Altar he does enact Siquis sacris initiatus incoláve in iis quae ad fortunas Law 37. fol. 114. vitamve ejus spectarint decipiatur tum ei rex ni is aliunde habuerit loco Patroni cognatorum esto Fraudator
It was afterwards in open Parliament by grievous complaint of all the St. 25. Ed. 3. Commons of this Realm shewed that the grievances and mischiefs aforesaid did daily abound to the great damage and destruction of this Realm more then ever before viz. that of late the Bishop of Rome by procurement of Clerks and otherwise had reserved and did reserve daily to his collation generally and especially as well Archbishopricks Abbeys and Priories as all other dignities and other benefices of England which were of the Advowry of people of the holy Church and gave the same to Aliens as well as to Citizens and taketh of all such benefices the first fruits and many other profits and a great part of the treasure of this Realm was carried away and dispended out of the Realm by the Purchasers of such graces and also by such privy reservations many Clerks advanced by the true Patrons which peaceably holden their advancements by long time were suddenly put out Wherefore the said Commons did pray the said Soveraign the King that since the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm was such that upon mischiefs and damages which hapned to this Realm he ought and was bound of the accord of his people therefore to provide remedy and Law c. The said King Ed. 3. seeing the mischiefs and damage aforesaid c. and forasmuch as he was bound by his Oath to see the same to be kept as a Law of this Realm though that by sufferance and negligence it had been sithence attempted to the contrary also having regard to the grievous complaints made to him by his people in divers his Parliaments holden heretofore willing to ordain remedy for the great damage and mischiefs which had hapned and daily did happen to the Church of England by the said cause by the assent of all the great men and the commonalty of the said Realm to the honor of God and profit of the said Church of England and of his Realm did order and establish that the free election of all Archbishops Bishops and all other dignities and benefices electory in England should hold from henceforth in the manner as they were granted by the Kings progenitors and founded by the ancestors of other Lords and that all Prelates and other people of the holy Church which had Advowsons of any benefices of the Kings gift or of any of his progenitors or of other Lords and Donors to do divine service and other charges thereof ordained should have their collations and presentments freely as they were enfeoffed by their donors and in case that reservation collation or provision be made by the Court of Rome of any Archbishoprick Bishoprick Dignity or other Benefice in disturbance of the election collation or presentments aforesaid That at the time of the avoidance that such reservations collations and provisions ought to take effect the said Ed. 3. and his heirs should have and enjoy for the same time collations to the Archbishopricks and other dignities elective which is of his Avowry such as his Progenitors had before that free election was granted since that the elections were first granted by the Kings progenitors upon a certain form and condition as to demand license of the King to chuse and after the election to have his Royal assent and not in other manner which condition not kept the King ought by reason to resort to his first nature Upon complaint made by the great men and commons it was assented St. 27 Ed. 3. and accorded by the King great men and commons aforesaid that all the people of the Kings Allegiance of what condition that they be which shall draw any out of the Realm in plea whereof the conusance pertaineth to the Kings Court or of things whereof Judgement were given in the Kings Court or which did sue in any other Court to defeat or impeach the Judgments given in the Kings Court should incur the danger of a Premunire Made to confirm the Acts made the 25. and 27. years of the said Kings Reign but those that made those good Laws against such capital offenders St. 28 Ed. 3. Cap. 1. 2. 3. 4. were cursed defamed and reproved by such as maintained the usurped jurisdiction of the Church of Rome against which an especial Act of Parliament was made by the King and his whole Realm prohibiting thereby such defamations and reproofs In the Reign of Richard the second Against an Incumbent of the Church of England another sueth a provision 12 Rich. 2. tit Jurisdict 18. in the Court of Rome and there pursueth until he recovereth the Church against the Incumbent and afterward brought an action of account against him as receiver of divers sums of money which in troath were the oblations and offerings which the Incumbent had received and the whole Court was of opinion against the Plaintiff and thereupon he became nonsuit It is declared by that Parliament that the Crown of England hath been St. 16 R. 2. Cap. 5. so free at all times that it hath been in subjection to no Realm but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the same Crown be to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his will to the perpetual destruction of the King his Soveraignty Crown and Regality and of all his Realm And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be declared against the Kings Crown and his Regality used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors In the Reign of H. 4. H. 4. fol. 9 It is resolved that the Popes Collector though he hath the Popes Bull to that purpose hath no jurisdiction within this Realm and there the Archbishops and Bishops c. of this Realm are called the Kings spiritual Judges By the ancient Laws Ecclesiastical of this Realm no man could be convicted of Heresie being high-Treason against the Almighty but by the Archbishop Fitz. nat B. 269. Candries Case and all the Clergy of that Province and after abjured thereupon and after that newly convicted and condemned by the Clergy of that Province in the general councel of the convocation but the St. of 2 H. 4. Ca. 15. doth give the Bishop of the Dioces power to condemn a Heretick and that before that Statute he could not be committed to the secular power to be burnt until he had once abjured and was again relapsed to thar or some other Heresie whereby it appeareth that the King by the consent of Parliament directed the proceedings in the Court Ecclesiastical in case of Heresie and other matters more Spiritual Well but suppose the King did so it proves nothing for it is but matter of Fact But it does not appear neither that this direction of the King by consent of Parliament did direct the proceedings in the
with the Opinion of Learned men That the marriage with his Brothers wife was contrary to the Law of God and void The King not expecting the Popes sentence anno 1533. marries his beloved Anne but such love is usually too hot to hold for about two years after he cut off her head yet the King did not wholly renounce the Papacy but still expecting the Popes sentence The Pope for the reasons aforesaid not desiring to end the business The slow proceedings of the Pope but to expect advantage from time reduces the matter into several points or heads which he would have particularly disputed and at the time of the Kings marriage with Anne was not got further then the article of Attentates in which the Pope gave sentence against the King that it was not lawful for him to put away his wife by his own authority without the Ecclesiastical Judge For which cause the King in the beginning of 1534. denied the Pope his obedience commanding his Subjects not to pay any money to Rome nor to pay the ordinary Peter-pence This infinitely troubled the Court of Rome and they daily consulted of a remedy Some thought to proceed against the King with censures and to interdict all Christian nations all commerce with England But the moderate counsel pleased best to temporise with him and to mediate a composition by the French King K. Francis accepted the charge and sent the Bishop of Paris to Rome to negotiate a Pacification with the Pope where they still proceeded in the cause gently and with resolution not to come to censures if the Emperor did not proceed first or at the same time with his forces They had divided the cause into twenty three articles and then they handled whether Prince Arthur had had carnal conjunction with Queen Katherine in this they spent time till Midlent was past when the 19. of March news came that a Libel was published in England against the Pope and the whole Court of Rome and besides a Comedy had been made in presence of the King and Court to the great disgrace and shame of the Pope and every Cardinal in particular For which cause all being inflamed with choler ran headlong to give sentence which was pronounced in the Consistory the 24. of the same month That the marriage between Henry and Katherine was good that he was bound to take her to wife and that in case he did not he should be excommunicated But the Pope was soon displeased with this precipitation For six days His rash censure repented of after the French Kings letters came That the King was content to accept the sentence concerning Attentates and to render obedience upon condition that the Cardinals whom he mistrusted should not meddle in the business and that persons not suspected should be sent to Cambray to take information â—and and the King had sent his Proctors before to assist in the Cause at Rome Wherefore the Pope went about to devise some pretence to suspend the precipitate sentence and again to set the cause on its feet But the King so soon as he had seen it said It was no matter for the Utterly loses the obedience of England Pope should be Bishop of Rome and himself sole Lord of his Kingdom And that he would do according to the antient manner of the Eastern church not leaving to be a good Christian nor suffering the Lutheran Heresie or any other to be brought into his Kingdom From that time forward Henry the Eighth of a zealous Assertor of the No anger lost between the King Pope Papacy both by pen and purse became the first and greatest Opposer of it of all the Western Christian Princes for the Eastern Christian Princes except sometimes the Emperors of Greece and the Kings of Holy Land did seldom or never submit to the Papacy in her Spirituals yet did he afterwards seed to be reconciled to the Pope even by means of his Nephew Charls the Fifth Nor were the Popes much behind hand with him For besides Clement's petty Excommunication Paul the Third Anno 1538. thundred out such a terrible Excommunication against him as the like was never heard of which deprived him of his kingdom and his adherents of whatsoever they possessed commanding his Subjects to deny him obedience and Strangers to have no commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against and persecute both him and his followers granting them their states and goods for their prey and their persons for slaves But the Popes anger ended in words whereas the Kings deeds took place against the Pope But what there was in all the Kings reign which might be called Reformation What was the Kings Reformation I do not understand For whatsoever the King took from the Pope except Peter-pence he ascribed to himself If the Pope would be Head of the Catholique Church the King would be Head of the Church of England If the Pope challenged Annates and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy the King would do no less If the Pope did give Abbots and Priors power being Ecclesiastical persons to make divers Impropriations to their benefit the King will take a power to take them all away and convert them into Lay-fees and incorporate them so into particular mens estates that they shall never return to the Church more Nor had he any love or desire of Reformation of the Church but only to the Church-lands for all the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of the Church of Rome was continued and that with such bloody cruelty that a Stranger going over Smithfield one day and seeing two men there executed one for denying the Kings Headship of the Church and another for subscribing to the Six Articles cryed out Bone Deus quomodo hic agunt vivi hic suspenduntur Papistae ibi comburuntur Antipapistae And so zealous did he continue herein that Pope Paul the Third after he had fulminated so dreadfully against him Hist Conc-Trid fol. 90 proposed him for an Example to be imitated by Charls the Fifth Although such was the temper of this Prince that he never spared man The exclusion of the Papai jurisdiction was an act of the King Kingdom and Church of England in his rage woman in his lust nor any thing which might be called sacred in his avarice yet so absolute was he that his Divorce was attested by both the Universities at home besides that at Paris abroad his freeing himself and the Nation from the jurisdiction of the Pope was not only assented to by a Synod and Convocation of all the Clergy of England but the English and Irish Nobility did make their submissions by an Indenture to Sir Anthony Sellinger then chief Governor of Ireland wherein they did acknowledge King Henry to be their lawful Soveraign and confessed the Kings Supremacy Bram. Vind. of the Church of England p. 43. in all causes and utterly renounced the Pope But Divorce banishing the Papal authority
Dissolution of Abbies and all were easily passed and assented to in Parliament But whatsoever the King were otherwise yet sure the Popes passion The Pope was more unjust in his censures then the King was in excluding the Papal jurisdiction against him carried them to greater extravagancies and exorbitancies then were on his part against them For suppose that the Pope had de facto the Investitures of Bishops Peter-pence Annates and First-fruits paid them and did exercise a jurisdiction over all the Church and Clergy yet no question all these things were by the grants and permission of precedent Kings and if Kings may grant and permit these things then what hinders but that they may recall them for Cujus est velle ejus est nolle Besides we have already shewed that although there were not that bitter personal spite between the Kings of England and and the Popes formerly as was between Henry 8. and Clement 7. and Paul 3. yet did many of them ascribe as little to the Pope as Henry did But for a Pope to deprive a Christian Prince of his kingdom over whom he had no manner of right his Adherents of whatsoever they possessed to command his Subjects to deny their obedience to their Soveraign and Strangers not to have any commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against him and his followers granting them their estates and goods for a prey and their persons for slaves is so unlike to the example and precept of S. Peter whom they pretend to succeed who not only suffered death under Temporal power but inspired by God does command so expresly obedience to Kings not as subordinate to himself 1 Pet. 2. 13. but as supreme And of our Saviour himself who both suffered himself under Temporal power and paid tribute to Caesar and took not away but fulfilled the Moral Law which commands obedience to Princes and Higher powers and whose kingdom was not of this world that sure no Turk or Infidel was so much an enemy to Christians or indeed rather to mankind as to have desired it The state of the Church and of the Ecclesiastical Laws made by Edward the sixth THe time of this Kings reign being a Child and therefore woful and of his Father were perillous days The Father in his Laws scarce ever took advice but from his passion lust or avarice the Son although a Prince of infinite hope and goodness yet wanting the authority and reputation requisite in a Soveraign was either not able to restrain or else perswaded it was beneficial to give reins to a company of Sacrilegious Harpies and Courtiers to make a total prey not only upon all Colledges Free-Chappels Chantries and all their Lands except them of the Universities and some few other which by the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. cap. 14. were given to Camb. pref Eliz. Reg. Life of Ed. 6. the King upon specious pretences but the Lands of the Bishops generally became a prey unto them So much worse is it for every thing to be lawful then that any thing should be Law It was enacted That if any man spake irreverently or contemptuously An. 1. Ed. 6. c. 6. of the Sacrament of the Altar he should be imprisoned and fined at the Kings will and pleasure and that Justices of Peace might enquire of offenders Yet should not the person offending be arraigned or tryed unless the Bishop of the Diocese or his Chancellor or Deputy learned were required to be at the Quarter-Sessions to which purpose a new Writ was made Rex c. Episc L. salutem Praecipimus tibi quod tu Cancellarius tuus vel alius deputatus tuus sufficienter eruditus sitis cum Justiciariis nostris ad pacem in com nostro B. conservand assignat apud D. tali die ad sessionem nostram tunc ibidem tenend ad dand consilium advisament eisdem Justitiariis nostris ad pacem super arraiment deliberationem offendet contra Formam statuti concernend sacrosanctum Sacramentum Altaris And by this Satute it was Enacted that the Sacrament should be delivered to the people under both Kindes viz. of Bread and Wine From thenceforth no Conge deslier shall be granted nor any Election An. 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 2. shall be made of any Archbishop or Bishop by the Dean and Chapter but when any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick shall be voided the King by his Letters Patents may confer the same to any person whom he shall think meet c All summons citations and other proces Ecclesiastical shall be made in the name and with the stile of the King as in the Writs of the common Law and the test thereof shall be in the name of the Archbishop or Bishop c. All persons that have the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall have in their Seals of Office the Kings Arms with certain characters under them for the knowledge of their dioces but the Archbishop of Canterbury shall use his own Seal and his own name in all faculties and dispensations A man speaking against the Kings Headship of the Church shall being An. 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 12. thereof attaint or convict forfeit all his Goods and Chattels to the King and suffer imprisonment during the Kings will and pleasure for the first offence and for the second offence forfeit to the King the whole issues and profits of all his Lands and all his Goods and Chattels and suffer perpetual imprisonment and for the third offence shall be adjudged a Traytor and suffer death and forfeit all his Goods and Chattels Lands and Tenements as in cases of High Treason And it shall be deemed Treason for any by Printing Writing or Deed to affirm the King not to be Head of the Church An Act for uniformity of Service and administration of Sacraments being An. 2 3 Ed. 6 Cap. 1. before divers and different viz. of Sarum of York of Bangor and of Lincoln and divers and sundry forms and fashions were used in Cathedrals and parish-Parish-Churches of England and Wales as well concerning Mattens or Morning Prayer and the Evening Song as also concerning the holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of the Sacraments of the Church The Statute does inflict upon every Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should say or sing the said Common Prayer mentioned in the said Book Entituled the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England and shall refuse it or use any other form or shall Preach Declare or speak any thing in derogation of the said Book or any thing contained therein and be thereof lawfully convict by a Jury of twelve men or by confession shall forfeit to the King for the first offence the profit of all his Spiritual benefices and promotions arising in a whole year and
excommunicated or damned who differ in some things from the doctrine of the Pope who appeal from his decrees and hinder the execution of the ordinances of him or his Legates Although the Sesession of the Church King and Kingdom of England The reformation of King 1 d. was not Schismatical from the Papacy were an Act of Schism yet being done in the Reign of H. 8. one of the greatest favorers of the Papacy that ever was King of England and to his death as great an assertor of the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of it and in such a state independent from the Church of Rome was the Church and Kingdom at the time of Edwards Reformation whatsoever therefore his Reformation was yet could it not be Schismatical Whatever the Romanists pretend to unity and peace in their Church yet The rites and ceremonies of Edwards reformation were more uniform then before it is most manifest that in the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales in several places were used divers forms of Prayer commonly called the Service of the Church viz. that of Sarum of York of Bangor and Lincoln but also of late divers and sundry forms and fashions were used in the Cathedral and Parishes Church of England and Wales as well concerning the mattens or morning prayer and evening song as also concerning the holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of other Sacraments of See preamble to the Statute of 2 3. Ed. 6. Cap. 1. That the Scriptures Lords Prayer and Creed should be read in the English tongue is no new thing in England the Church whereas the service enjoyned in the Reign of Ed. 6 was uniform in all places of England and Wales as well in Parish Churches as Cathedrals In the Reign of King Ethelbald in the year of our Saviors incarnation 748. in a convocation held in the Prouince of Canterbury Cuthbert the Archbishop of his Clergy did Enact that the sacred Scriptures should be read in their monasteries the Lords Prayer and Creed taught in the English tongue Speed in the Reign of Ethelbald para 4. page 343. and how much it was against the Word of God and the custom of the ancient Church to use a tongue unknown to the people in common prayer and administration of Sacraments see the conference at Westminster an primo Eliz. which were never yet answered that I know of If any thing Heretical had been contained in the common Prayer administration Edwards reformation was not Heretical of Sacraments c. made in the Reign of Ed. 6. it would have been sufficiently shot at having so many adversaries at home and abroad but no such crime was ever that I ever heard of imputed to it if there be let the adversaries of it yet shew it affirmanti incumbit probatio If then not onely the Kings and supreme powers always under the old Covenant King Edwards Reformation was warrant-able materially and formally had this right of invoking the high Priest and other Priests and if God always punished the Kings of Judah and Israel for suffering the people to commit Idolatry and if God himself so often commends the zeal and reformation of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah Asa Josiah c. and if ever since Christianity the Bishops by that Divine Canon to Timothy have always had in 1 Tim. cap 2. their particular Churches right of composing publick Liturgies and in national Synods a right of composing publick and national Liturgies And the Liturgy of Edward being composed and received by the Bishops of the Church of England to that end convened and assembly by the King this Liturgy being neither schismattical nor containing any thing heretical is both for matter and form warrantable Object If the Sacriledge and extention of the civil Jurisdiction in giving the civil Magistrate licence to take cognizance of the publique Liturgy and administration of the Sacraments be objected The answer is easie Let the Courtiers and Parliament answer for it the Church was patient not agent in them The Church of Rome having robbed the poor laity of one half of the institution of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and kept the people in such The King and Church had great reason to make Reformation in Religion stupid ignorance that in the publick worship and service of God they should neither use their reason nor understanding by imposing it upon them in an unknown tongue as if in the publick worship and service of God he were not to be served by intellectual and rational creatures and had filled the Mass with more prayers to the Virgin Mary and Saints which could no ways relieve them and so at best super fluous and vain there was great reason in the King and Church to a make a reformation of the Religion and publick Worship and Service of God Of Queen Maries Ecclesiastical Laws Although King Ed. were a Prince of transcendent Vertue and Learning far above his years yet doubtless his youth was not onely much abused in his Reign where a man might have seen all the woes pronounced by God upon that Nation where the King is a childe or where a company of men in Parliament arrogate to themselves the Politick capacity of a King abstracted from his person but also at his very death caused not without suspicion of poyson was he deluded upon specious pretences by his whole Councel but principally by the Duke of Northumberland to make way for the Lady Jane Gray in the time of his sickness married to his fourth son Guilford Dudley to declare the said Lady Jane the rightful heir and successor to the English Monarchy to the manifest wrong and injury not onely of Queen Mary and Elizabeth afterward Queens of England but also of Mary Queen of Scots heir to Margaret the eldest daughter of Henry the seventh whereas the Lady Janes Title was descended from Mary the younger daughter of H. 7. yet it so pleased God that this unjust Will should onely bring destruction both to the Lady Jane and her husband whereas the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth and the Posterity of Mary Queen of Scots did all succeed and enjoy the possession of the English Diadem of which they were debarred by this Will of King Edward That the Title of Head of the Church was continued by Queen Mary appears by the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster the fifth of October in the first year of her Reign in the first and second session of it where she is stiled our Gracious Soveraign Lady Mary by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland but in the second Parliament of her Reign being holden at Westminster the second of April the first year of her Reign the Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland is not mentioned Declares
28. H. 8. 7. for the establishment of the succession of the Imperiall Crown of this Realm that concerneth a Prohibition to marry within the Degrees expressed in the said Act. Stat. 31 H. 8. 9. authorising the King to make Bishops by his Letters Patents Stat. 32 H. 8. 38. concerning precontracts of Marriages and touching degrees of consanguinity Stat. 35 H. 8. 3. for ratification of the Kings Stile The corporall oath made in the Stat. of 35 H. 8. 1. that every Subject of this Realm should be bound to take against the power authority and jurisdiction of the See of Rome Stat. 37 H. 8. 17. That the Doctors of the Civill Law which were married might exercise Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction So much of that Statute of the first Ed. 6. 1. as contains certain Provisions Pains Penalties and Forfeitures for and against such as should by open preachings expresse words sayings writing printing overt-deed or act affirme or set forth That the King of this Realm for the time being is not or ought not to be the supreme head in earth of the Churches of England and Ireland nor of any of them or that the Bishop of Rome or any other person or persons other than the K. of England for the time being is or ought to be supreme head of the same Churches or any of them as in the said Act more at large may appear It is enacted that these clauses and other of the foresaid Act concerning the Supremacy and all and every branch article words and sentence in the same sounding or tending to the Derogation of the supremacy of the Popes Holiness or the See of Rome and all pains penalties and forfeitures made against them that should by any means set forth or extol the said Supremacy should from thenceforth be utterly void It did moreover generally repeal all clauses sentences and articles of every other Statute made since the 20 H. 8. against the supreme authority of the Popes Holiness or See Apostolick of Rome The Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons professing themselves reduced and received by their Majesties intercession to the unity of Christs Church and obedience of the Apostolick See of Rome and the Pope governing the same did make humble suite to their Majesties to be Intercessors that by authority of the Popes Holiness and by the ministration of Cardinall Poole by dispensation tolleration or permission respectively as the case shall require be abolished these Articles following and generally all others when any occasion shall so require may be provided for and confirmed 1. That all Bishopricks Cathedrall Churches Hospitalls Colledges Schooles and other such foundations now continuing made by authority of Parl. or otherwise established according to the order of the Lawes of this Realm since the Schisme may be confirmed and continue for ever 2. That Marriages made infragradus Prohibitos consanguinitatis affinitatis cognationis spiritualis or what might be made void propter impedimentum Publicae honestatis justitiae or for any cause prohibited by the Canons only may be confirmed and children born of those Marriages declared legitimate so as those Marriages were made according to the Lawes of the Realm for the time being and be not directly against the Lawes of God nor in such case as the See Apostolick hath not used to dispence withall 3. That institution of Benefices and other promotions Ecclesiasticall and dispensations made according to the form of the Act of Parliament may likewise be confirmed 4. That all Judiciall Processes made before any Ordinaries of this Realm or before any Delegates upon any Appeals according to the order of the Lawes of this Realm may likewise be ratified and confirmed 5. That the Lands and Goods of Bishopricks Monasteries Chanteries c. dispersed abroad to sundry persons by gift exchange purchase c. according to the Lawes of the Land for the time being shall so continue It was enacted that the title of supreme head of the Church never was nor could be attributed to by any King or Governor It was enacted that all Bulls Dispensations and Priviledges obtained before the 20 year of H. 8. or any time since of the See of Rome and not containing matter prejudiciall to the Imperiall Crown or Lawes of this Realm should be put in execution This Statute did restore the Pope and Apostolick See together with the Jurisdiction the Bishops had in the Realm to all the Authority they had before the 20 of H. 8. It is a very remarkable thing that this Statute does affirme that nothing done or moved in this Statute should be prejudicall to the Liberties of the Crown before the 20 of H. 8. and that the Statute of 24 H. 8. 12. and the Statute of 25 H. 8. cap. 20. which takes away all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction from the Pope and vests it in the King should be but declaratory of the ancient and common Law of this Land See Coke de jure Regis Ecclesiastico 28. a. b. 31. one of these must necessarily be false Thus did Queen Mary restore by Parl all the Papall Jurisdiction which Description of Queen Mary was exercised before the 20 of Henry the 8. and would have restored all the Abbey and Chantery Lands taken away by her Father and Brother had it been in her power but many alienations descents and purchases having been made of them she was not able to performe it being a Princess no doubt wondrous free from sacriledge zealous and constant in her Religion mercifull when her Religion was not concerned and just Her mercy appears in her not only pardoning all the Councell who had subscribed to her disinheriting but it was thought she would not have taken away the life of the Lady Jane although guilty of so high a crime as having actually invaded the Crown if the Duke of Suffolk her Father formerly pardoned by the Queens meer grace had not most unjustly and unthankfully excited her Subjects against her which together with Wiats Rebellion for her own security did necessitate her for her own security to execute her Her justice appears in this the Lord Sturton having been at variance with one Hargill and his Son Gentlemen knocked the poor Gentlemen on the head and after cut their throats and buried their bodies in a Pit 15. foot deep hoping this villainy would never come to light or if it did he assured himself of the Queens favour being zealously addicted to the Popish Religion which did him not good for the Queen abhorred and rejected all mention of Pardon for him only he had this grace that the other Murderers were hanged in a hempen but he in a silken halter Ecclesiasticall Lawes made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth IT is declared that in the Reign of H. 8. divers good Lawes and Statutes Anno 1. Eliz. cap. 1. were made as well for the utter extinguishing of all usurped and forrein Powers and Authorities of this Realm and other her dominions and Countries as also for the restoring and
Democracy of Sedition and the causes of it Of the Fathers Husbands Masters and Ecclesiastical Power The Third Book treats of Subjection Succession and the Municipal Laws of this Nation The Fourth Book treats of Justice Obedience Judgment and Equity The Fifth Book treats of the first Planting of Christianity under the British and Saxon Kings and of the Freedom of the British and English Churches before the Conquest and how far the Kings of England had exercised their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and how both British and Saxon Kings had been Nursing-Fathers to the Church of Christ and how far since the Conquest the Kings of England had exercised their Jurisdiction in the Assertion of their Regal Power in defence of the Church until Henry the 8th and of the Reformation made by Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Queen Elizabeth and of the Ecclesiastical Laws made by them Queen Mary King James and King Charls A more particular Survey of the Contents of the First Book Chap. I. THe First Chapter not onely treats of those Rights which must necessarily precede all Humane and Ecclesiastical Laws but also of those Rights which are created by Humane Laws Chap. II. Treats of Divine Humane Ecclesiastical and Despotical Laws and from whence they are derived Chap. III. Shews what Virtue is and the causes of all Theological Moral Humane Prudential and Personal Virtues Chap. IV. Treats of Particular Moral Virtues and Chap. V. Proves them to be commanded by God in the old and New Testament Chap. VI. Demonstrates the Obligation of Divine and Humane Laws upon the Persons and Consciences of Men. Chap. VII Is of Promises Vows Leagues Pacts or Contracts and Gifts and from whence Men become obliged to them and does demonstrate that it is impossible that any Law or Legislative Right can arise from the Pacts or Contracts of Men which concludes the First Book DEFINITIONS JUs is a Right Due or Property in God principally and absolutely or in some Jus quid Man or Men by some Divine or Humane Law excluding all others but him or them from whom it is derived First All Right is either Jus Divinum or Naturale and this Right is The Specifications of it onely primely and absolutely in God and incommunicable to any Creature Or Secondly Jus Humanum is a Right which Men have from the Law of Nature Or Thirdly Jus Ecclesiasticum a Right by which the Tribe of Levi did under the Old Law exercise their Priestly Office and Function and a Right by which Bishops Priests and Deacons among Christians do execute their Office and Functions Or Fourthly Jus Legale a Right which all Subjects have in their Estates and Goods And this Right is either Jus Proprietatis or Jus Usufructuarium 2. Nature is either that eternal Being which ever was in God which Men What is Nature call Natura Naturans Or that first Being which is in any Creature superior to the Will of any Creature and created onely by God and this Nature Men call Natura Naturaliter the depraved sinful Nature of Man was not originally created by God but afterward made by Man 3. Jus Naturae Naturantis is that Right which must necessarily precede What is Jus Naturae Naturantis What is Jus Naturae Naturaliter and create Lex Naturae 4. Jus Naturae Naturaliter is that Right which is created by the Law of Nature but because this Right is proper to Man onely we will call this Right a Humane Right As also that Power which is created by the Law of Nature although it be Natural Naturaliter yet being proper to Man we call it Humane Power 5. A Law is the declared Will of him who by right commands forbids or What is a Law permits athing together with a penalty annext for not observance Lex dicitur à ligando quia obligat says Isidore rightly Etymologie of Lex Common Notions or Axioms 1. ALL Right which any Man or company of Men have is derived either from the Law of Nature or some Divine Positive Law declared in the Scriptures or from some Humane Law or particular Custom which is always presumed to be created or permitted by Humane Laws 2. Humane Laws and Customs refer to some particular place or Countrey as they are permitted or imposed by the supream Power of that place or Countrey viz. By them who have right to impose or permit them 3. The Laws of Nature oblige all Men of all conditions alike without exception and are eternal and immutable by Man and are and always were connatural with all Men. 4. No Being can precede or be superior to the cause of its Being 5. All Causes are superior and precede their Effects THE FIRST BOOK CHAP. I. De Juribus 1. LEx Humana lata has by the second Notion no being Jus Humanum Legislativum is not from any Humane Law but as it is caused or created by him who has the Jus Legislativum Lex Humana lata therefore cannot by the Fifth Notion create Jus Legislativum 2. If Jus Humanum Legislativum were from Jus Humanum Legislativum is not created by Divine positive institution Divine positive institution then by the Fifth Notion must the Scriptures precede all Legislative Right but this is evidently repugnant not only to the Scriptures themselves who testifie not only the Right which Fathers and Husband have over their Children and Kings over their Subjects long before God revealed them by Moses but also this Lawgiving Right is in every place of the world whether the Scriptures be received or beleeved or not It is evident therefore that this Law-giving Right is not created from Gods positive Laws in the Scriptures 3. Jus Humanum Legislativum is not by the first Proposition from Jus Humanum Legislativum is from the Law of nature immediately any Humane Law by the second Proposition Jus Humanum Legislativum is not from Divine positive Laws Therefore by the first Notion Jus Humanum Legislativum is from the Law of Nature 4. By the third Notion the Laws of Nature are and alwaies were connatural Jus Ecclesiasticum is not from the Law of nature with Men but the Right which God gave the Priests under the old Law and to Bishops Priests and Deacons under the new Law hapned long since Men were borne in the world and therefore the Ecclesiastical Right of Bishops and Priests is not from the Law of Nature 5. If Humane Laws could create the Right of Ecclesiasticks then by Nor from any humane law the 2. Notion he who may by right create Humane laws might also create this Ecclesiastical right But this is evidently false for all Kings Fathers and Husbands have a right of creating Humane laws but none have the right of creating the Ghostly right by which Ecclesiasticks exercise their function or office This right therefore is not created by any Humane law 6. By the 4. Propos Ecclesiastical right is not from the
least Liberty and that which in other men is termed Anger in them is called Pride and Tyranny Besides in private men it is enough that they themselves do well but Princes must have a care that neither they nor their Ministers do ill 6. Tibi soli peccavi says the Psalmist Psal 50. Humane Laws are the The Supreme power is not obliged by his own Laws organs or instruments of the Power that governeth they cannot therefore extend themselves to bind him from whom they are derived for Omnis potentia activa est principium transmutandi aliud Besides the Prince may free other men from the obligation of the Laws and therefore much more himself And if Supreme Princes were obliged by their own Laws then were Humane Laws as well as the Laws of Nature eternal and immutable which is absurd nor could Humane Laws protect Subjects when any thing happens which comes to pass every day that was not foreseen at the making of the Laws Humane Laws are made to oblige and preserve the governed necessitate coactionis but they cannot have any obligation upon Lawgiver who is the Supreme power unless a man will grant that an Effect may be prime and superior to the Cause Nor were ever other Governments subject to their own Laws No man hath any thing proper against the Supreme power 7. No Subject hath any Property except Ecclesiasticks but by the Laws of his Country But by the precedent Proposition no Supreme Prince can be obliged by his own Laws and therefore no Subject can have property against him If any Subject had property against the Supreme power then could not the Supreme power impose a Forfeiture of Goods in case of Praemunire Attaint Conviction of Treason or Felony But the Consequence is false and therefore the Antecedent is false That any man hath any property against the Supreme power Besides there could no Fine nor Fine and Recovery be levied or suffered if he in Reversion or Remainder had property against the Supreme power Nor could an Act of Parliament enable Tenant for life to make sale of his Estate It is remarkable that the Children of Israel should not be content to Annot. have God to reign over them immediately who did himself give them Laws being enquired of by the High-Priest Samuel might well say therefore unto them Ye shall cry in that day because of your King which not ye shall choose but which ye shall have chosen you and the Lord shall not hear you in that day 1 Sam. 8. 18. For Gods ways and actions are always perfect whereas by the reason of humane frailty the best mans actions are subject to imperfections But if it seems grievous to any man that he holds his goods at the will of another let him consider that God since Adam did never give any Nation but only the Children of Israel Property but always used the mediation of his Vicegerents And since Property must be derived from some Humane act for the Law of Nature gives none but to Supreme Princes and therefore the possessions of Kings are called Sacra patrimonia because Kings have no Superior but God Almighty Proedium Domini Regis est directum dominium cujus nullus Author est nisi Deus How Sir Ed. Co. Com. on Lit. p. 1. 6. much better is it for Subjects to hold of one Man then of many For nothing can be objected against one but will have more force against many And let any man shew me in these last five hundred years any Subjects estate taken from him without due and legal proceeding by the act of any of the Kings of England and I will shew him five hundred who not being liable to any punishment by Law have been ruined themselves and their families in seven years and that for observing the Laws and against the will of the King Obj. But many Actions have been brought against the King which if no Annot. 2. man hath Property against him may seem inconsistent Answ But the question here is not what the King may do but what he hath done Not what the King may declare Law but what he hath already declared Law 8. Majesty is from the Law of Nature immediately but the power Power of Magistrates from him of Magistrates is not so but mediately that is from him who hath the Supreme power Magistracie is the instrument or organ by which Majesty is conveyed to every place whither its own power is extended And as Majesty is restrained to the Laws of Nature and is accountable to God for all the omissions and transgressions of them so Magistrates are restrained to Humane Laws and ought to give an account of their actions to him that hath the Supreme power And as no man can offer violence or contempt to Humane Majesty but it is a contempt and violence to the Majesty of Heaven so no man can offer violence to or contemn Magistrates but it is done to Humane Majesty from whence their authority is derived Wherefore Subjects must submit to Governors who are sent by Kings 1 Pet. 2. 14. By this Proposition it is evident that although Supreme power cannot Annot. be divided yet the exercise of it may For where a King is an Enfant he cannot exercise his power who can neither act any thing nor expres what he would have done nay it is impossible for the best and wisest King that ever was to exercise his power every where for one body can be but in one place at once though the power thereof may be diffused every where as the light and influence of the Sun is diffused every where although the body of it can be but in one place And the exercise of power by Magistrates is like Gods governing the world by natural causes who being the first Mover of all things produceth natural effects by the order of second causes Jethro his counsel to Moses therefore is to be taken Thou wilt surely weare away both thou and this people that is with thee for this thing is too heavy for thee thou art not able to perform it thy self alone Exod. 18. 18. 9. Quando lex aliquid alicui concedit concedere videtur id sine quo res The Right of calling Assemblies belongs to Christian Kings ipsa esse non potest where any Law Divine or Humane does give any thing it gives all the means by which this otherwise could not be had And that God by the Law of Nature has given Kings a power to protect their Subjects we have sufficiently demonstrated but it is impossible Princes should protect and govern their Subjects if they might not rule their actions Now all actions and motions are either regular or irregular All regular motions and actions may be reduced to one certain beginning where the beginning is not one and certain there they may be called commotions or confusions rather then motions or regular actions But all Assemblies are motions and therefore they
unto thee only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses Whosoever he be that does rebel against thy commandment and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him he shall be put to death Jos 1. 16 17 18. 13. Anarchy is like a vacuum in Nature so abhorrent that the World The state of Man out of power is Tyranny will rather return into Chaos then suffer it And therefore Cicero lib. 3. de legibus says truly Sine imperio neque domus ulla nec civitas nec gens nec hominum universum genus stare nec ipse denique mundus potest 'T is no wonder therefore if seditious men when they have put themselves out of power are glad to submit to Tyranny rather then be overwhelmed with the Chaos and confusion of Anarchy Yet it is said Judg. 17. 6. 21. 25. In those days there was no King in Annot. Israel but every man did what was right in his own eyes So it may seem that men may subsist in an Anarchy It is true indeed there was no man that was King in those days in Israel nor was there then that absolute necessity of one for God had given them Property and did govern the Israelites and they did enquire judgment of God who did answer cap. 20. 18. And men did in those dayes commerce and exchange one with another which is evident by Micha's contracting with her Levite-Priest for ten shekels of silver by the year a suit of apparel and his victual ch 17. 10. 14. Princes do transgress their power when they command any Wherein Princes do transgress their power thing contrary to what God hath commanded or derogatory to the worship and service of God when they make unjust War when they pronounce Judgment not according to the declared and known Laws but punish either by passion or to please factious men as in the Earl of Straffords Case or pass sentence against one unheard as in Cromwell Earl of Essex his Case I say not punish upon passion or to please men For as the state of Annot. affairs may be stated Princes may punish though not in a Judicial manner as when Subjects are in Arms against their Soveraign Nor do I think that any uninterested Casuist will deny that Henry the Third of France did justly put Henry Duke of Guise to death though not judicially the Duke having taken Arms against him and made him flie out of Paris fomented seditions against him and taken pensions of the King of Spain to maintain war in France and become so popular as the King had no means to proceed legally against him 15. * How careful Princes ought to be in commanding or making of Laws The perfection of Government consists first and chiefly that the Governor have a perfect and indubitable Title against which no just exception can be taken Secondly that the Governor makes it his chiefest care that the Religion or Worship and Service of God be duly administred And thirdly that he does endeavor by known and established Laws to administer Judgment and Justice indifferently to his Subjects with careful moderation of the severity of the Laws whereas men by no fault of theirs incur the severity of them And lastly by all just and due means to endeavor the preservation of his Subjects from the oppression and violence of Foreiners and to maintain Peace and Commerce with his neighboring Nations Such was our Government before our unhappy differences and such by Gods grace do I hope to see it again 16. It were a fine may-game to be a King if Kings might make their How careful Princes ought to be in commanding or making Laws Will the rule of their actions It is true indeed God hath not in all things commanded Kings what Laws they shall govern their Subjects by yet this natural law are all Princes obliged to that their Laws by which they govern do more relate to the good of their Subjects in general then their own particular interest And no question but a King commits a more grievous sin doing any unjust thing to any of his Subjects then if another had done it in regard of the relations which are between them as a Fathers doing an unjust thing to his Child is a greater sin then if another had done it by how much by the Law of Nature he ought to have done well to his Child rather then another Princes therefore by the Law of Nature in governing ought to have more respect to the general good of their Subjects then their own particular interest Yet is Magnificence a Royal virtue and therefore ought not the Revenues of the Crown to be parted with by which it should be maintained Nor would it conduce to the benefit of the Subjects in general to make the Revenues of the Crown poor Where Majesty grows contemptible the exercise of Regal power is never permanent Princes therefore ought to have a great care that by their vices prodigality of the Revenues of the Crown remiss governing or by so giving it over to others that they so much neglect it in themselves as to make themselves vile and contemptible 17. Though God hath not commanded Kings in all things what are Princes ought not to be obeyed when they command in derogation of Gods Majesty 1 Sam. 12. 14. vers 25. the Laws by which they shall govern and therefore divers Kings govern their Subjects by several Laws as their Subjects differ in nature and manners Yet hath he forbidden all Kings to make Laws derogatory to his Divine Majesty Samuel therefore threatens Saul as well as the Israelites that if he or they disobey God and do wickedly they shall perish both they and their King And it was to Saul that God said that Rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft and stubborness as the wickedness of idolatry Nor was the sin of the Israelites in committing idolatry under the Kings of Judah and Israel the less though the King commanded it Nor did God scarce 1 Sam. 15. 23. ever shew a greater miracle then in delivering the Three Children and Daniel disobeying the Kings wicked commandment Princes therefore ought not to be obeyed in commanding things derogatory to the Majesty of God 18. Nor ought Princes to be obeyed when they command any thing Or contrary to Religion contrary to Religion for The kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof is first to be sought But the kingdom of Heaven is only to be sought by Faith and Religion Daniel therefore sinned not when he obeyed not Darius in praying to God Nor do all our Parliamentary Laws add any thing to the obligation of mens worship and service of God in the Unity and Form of the Church of England for men were as much obliged in Conscience before such Laws as after Not but that Kings ought to have as great or greater care of preserving unity and peace in Gods Church as in their
Essex and Edmund Earl of March the true and undoubted Heir of the Crown of England both condemned unheard and without tryal in Parliament when as he might have instanced twenty Sir Thomas Seimer Admiral of England and Brother to the Protector Anno 1549. the third year of Edward the Sixth was condemned to death unheard by a Law in Parliament Henry the Third after all the Acts of Grace of Magna Charta Charta de Foresta c. instead of means Good Governors are the Preservers or enlargers of the Government Parliaments have ever been the bane of the greatness of the English Monarchy given him by Parliament for the recovery of his right of the Dutchy of Normandy usurped and taken by the French King from his Father King John and the Dutchy of Guienne and Earldom of March the year before usurped and taken from him by the French King had all the exercise of Regal Government taken from him and given to the Twelve Peers by the * Insanum Parliamentum Mad Parliament whereof ensued the Barons Wars to the destruction and confusion of so many English-men as nothing but a Parliament could have done Henry the Fourth in the first year of his usurped Reign had the Crown entailed upon him and his Heirs in Parliament from whence ensued all the Wars of the Houses of York and Lancaster At a Parliament holden Anne Dom. 1470. begun at Westminster 26 November the Crowns of England and France were entailed upon Henry the Sixth and the Heirs male of his body lawfully begotten and for want of such Heirs unto George Duke of Clarence being the yonger Brother of Edward the Fourth the undoubted Heir of the Crown of England whereby a double injustice was done first to Henry the Sixth excluding his Heirs general then to Edward the Fourth to prefer his yonger Brother Clarence before him in case of want of Heirs male to Henry the Sixth See the Factious Conspiracy of the Commons together with the consequence against the Duke of Suffolk Speeds History Henry 6. p. 675. Para. 47 48. The Parliament in the First of Richard the Third his Reign though a bloody Usurper presented a Bill for the entailing the Crown upon his Heirs Ann. 1 Hen. 7. Nor was the Act of Parliament less injurious which entailed the Crown upon Henry the Seventh and the Heirs of his body he having no colour of title to it but in right of his Wife and because he suspected his title and reigned in his own right to the wrong of his Wife and after her decease to the wrong of his Son Henry the Eighth in the eleventh year of his Reign he got an Act of Parliament to pass which should protect all Subjects who should assist the King be he so by right or not for the time being So that other offences should be punished but he that perpetrates the highest villany by invading a Crown should be protected by Law Henry the Eight by authority of Parliament an 1533. Bastardized Queen Mary and so soon as he had cut off Anne Bullens head by authority of Parliament Bastardized Queen Elizabeth smally to his credit one would think Add hereunto the ridiculous yet cruel Act of Hen. 8 his Headship of the Church So that a stranger being one day in Smithfield and seeing one burnt for denying the Six Articles and another hanged for denying his Headship cried out Bone Deus quo modo hic agunt vivi hic comburuntur Papistae ibi suspenduntur Antipapistae The bloody Laws passed in Parliament in prosecution of the Six Articles in the time of Henry the 8. and the bloody Parliamentary Laws for Religion in Queen Mary's reign c. and all those Sacrilegious Acts made in the reigns of Hen. 8. and Ed. 6. and sure no man can imagine such horrid acts could be perpetrated but by Parliaments Nor have the General Assemblies in France who were wont to be assembled once or twice a year demeaned themselves much better then the Parliaments in England but in stead of providing good Laws fell into such Factions and used such affronts to the Regal power that Lewis the Eleventh a most subtile and cunning Prince was wont to say It was time to put the French Kings horce de page out of their minority and from being Pages any more and so he did And since his time they have been rarely convented in France For since the General Assembly at Bloys anno 1587. by Henry the Third where the famous Duke of Guise was killed there hath been but one anno 1614. in the fourth year of the reign of Lewis the Thirteenth and that succeeded so ilfavoredly that there is no probability of ever being another 4. Besides the general and particular Customs and Acts of Parliament there are almost infinite Corporations Colledges and Companies who have divers and sundry priviledges which are granted by the Kings Letters Patents and are observed as Laws and to all intents and purposes have the effect of Laws 5. But in all Maritime cases the Kings of England being Soveraigns of the Narrow Seas whatsoever Grotius says to the contrary and all actions done upon a Navigable river are judged by the course of Civil law and so the Probate of Wills and Letters of Administration are determinable by the Civil law Judge Jenkins a learned Gentleman and a stout Champion for the Laws of this Nation in the first page of his Lex terrae divides the Laws of this Nation into three grounds or species viz. 1. The Customs 2. Acts of Parliaments and 3. Judicial Records and that the two latter are declarations of the former touching Royal government so that he makes Custom to be the ground of Royal government and Acts of Parliament to have but a declaratory power of the Common Law touching Royal government and Judicial Records to be equivalent to Acts of Parliament In all which he is most manifestly mistaken For first there are an exceeding many Acts of Parliament which have no manner of dependence or affinity with the Common-Law and so cannot be declarations of it nay there are many Acts of Parliament which are so far from being declarations of the Common-Law that they do annihilate it and create other things in lieu thereof as the Statute of West 2. cap. 1. called the Statute de donis conditionalibus annihilated all the Conditional estates in Fee at Common-Law and created estates in Tail in lieu thereof At Common-Law no Lands or Tenemers were deviseable by Will but the Acts of 32 34 H. 8. create a power of devising Lands and Tenements in Fee by Will and Tenants at Common-Law might choose whether they would attorn to any Grant of the Lord but now the Lords Grant is good without it by 27 H. 8. cap. 10. Sir Ed. Coke com on Lit. sect 574. says Stat. 32. H. 8. takes away the reason of the Common-Law so that that cannot be a declaration of what it takes away the reason It were tedious
Third within less then three years after the death of S. Gregory did assume the title of Universal Bishop and Head of the Church but rather by the donation of Phocas who had no more right to give it then the Parliament had to give Henry the Eighth the Head of the Church of England nor had Phocas any colour of title to the Empire and have continued it ever since 4. S. Gregory in his 76. Epistle to the Emperor Maurice says Nunquid Neither S. Gregory nor his predecessors did claim superiority over Temporal Princes ego in hac re piissime Domine propriam causam defendo Do I herein defend mine own cause O gracious Lord And Dominus meus fuisti quando adhuc Dominus omnium non eras ecce per me servum ultimum suum vestrum respondebit Christus You were then my Lord when you were not Lord of all viz. the Empire behold Christ himself shall answer by me who am his and your meanest servant And when the Emperor Maurice had made a law That no Soldier should turn Monk until his warfare were ended Gâ—eg ad Manâ— Aug. lib 3. eâ— 61. Gregory disliked the law and gave the Emperor this sense of it Ego quidem missioni subjectus eandem legem per diversas terrarum partes transmitto quia lex ipsa omnipotenti Dec minime concordat ecce per suggestionis meae paginam dominis nunciavi utrobique ergo quae debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quid sensi minime tacui I being subject to your command have transmitted your Law to be published through divers parts 〈◊〉 2. ep 61. of the world And because the Law it self is not pleasing to Almighty God I have represented my opinion thereof to my Lords whereforee I have performed my duty on both sides in yielding obedience to the Emperor and not concealing what I thought for God And Boniface the First sent an humble supplication to Honorius desiring him by his authority to provide some remedy against the ambitious contention of the Clergy concerning the Bishoprick of Rome The Emperor Honorius at his request established Dist 92. cap. Eccle. cap. Victor a law That none should be made Bishop of Rome through ambition charging all Ecclesiastical Ministers to cease from ambition appointing moreover that if two were elected neither of them should be taken but the election to proceed further to another to be chosen by a full consent of voices as it is expressed dist 79. cap. Si duo If then S. Gregory himself were so zealous an opposer of Universal Bishop and Head of the Church and to that purpose introduced that sentence of Servus servorum Dei to deter all subsequent Bishops of Rome from such arrogance And if S. Gregory did acknowledge himself so humble a Subject to Maurice and that Boniface the First did petition Honorius by his authority to provide against the irregularities in the very election of the Bishop of Rome there was no such thing in these days as Cardinals and the Election of the Pope in the Conclave then sure in the days of S. Gregory and before neither did the Popes assume this title of Head of the Church nor a power of disposing and transferring Kingdoms at their pleasure But affirmanti incumbit probatio and let any man that affirms either prove either 5. That above one half of what is now called Britain did retain the Though S. Cregory were the first yet was he not the onely Converter of the English Saxons Christian faith notwithstanding the persecution of the Saxons is sufficiently evident if we consider Scotland and Wales which always retained Christianity since it was first planted Nor were the very Saxons themselves utterly destitute of Christianity For Berta the wife of Ethelbert King of Kent and daughter to the French King was tolerated to observe the rites of Christian religion with Bishop Luidhard and this was before that S. Gregory was excited or inspired to undertake to preach to the English Saxons It is true that Ethelbert after his own conversion did endeavor to Seld. Anae Anglo Brit. lib. 2. cap. 2. pag. 62. have planted the Christian faith both in the Kingdoms of Northumberland and the East-Angles with fair hopes of good success for a season but it took not effect for within a short time both Kings and Kingdoms forsook their Religion and apostated from Christ The Kingdoms of the West-Saxons and of the South-Saxons under Kingils their King who did unite the Heptarchy into a Monarchy were converted by the preaching Speed in the Kings of the West-Saxons an 611. Beda lib. 3. cap. 4 5. Idem lib. 3. cap 21. Speed in the Kings of the East-Angles an 636. of Berinus an Italian by the perswasions of Oswald King of Northumberland Oswald King of Northumberland was baptized in Scotland and Religion luckily planted in that Kingdom by Aidan a Scotish Bishop Penda King of Mercia was converted and Christened by Finanus Successor of Aidan by means of a Marriage with a Christian Princess of the Royal family of Northumberland Sigibert King of the East-Angles in whose days and by whose means Religion took root among the East-Saxons was converted and Christened in France 6. No sooner was the name of Christ preached but the English presently The zeal of our Ancestors upon their conversion with such fervent devotion and zeale consecrated themselves unto Christ that they took incredible pains in propagating Christianity in celebrating Divine service performing all functions and duties of piety building Churches and endowing them with rich livings so that there was not another Region in Christendom that could make reckoning of more Monasteries richly endowed yea and divers Kings there were that preferred a religious and Monastical life before their Crown and Kingdom So that many holy men also this Land brought forth which for their firm profession of Christian Religion constant perseverance therein and sincere piety were canonized Saints that it gave place to no Christian Province in this behalf And like as Britain was called by Porphyry a plenteous province of Tyrants so England may be truly named a most fruitful Island of Saints Camb. Brit tit Angl. Sax. 7. The Bishop of Derry in his book of the Just vindication of the Church The Popes universal power was not received under the English Saxon Kings before the Conquest of England pag. 57. does affirm that not any of the petite Saxon Kings or their Subjects though some of them indebted to S. Gregory for their Conversion and all of them much weakened by their sevenfold division for at first there was of seven Kings but only one who was a Christian namely the King of Kent neither was it any of his progeny who afterward did unite the Heptarchy into a Monarchy much less that any of the succeeding Kings of England or of Great Britain did ever make any solemn formal or obliging acknowledgment of
vero Regi prout ipsa feret facti ratio satisfacito aut graves sceleris admissi poenas rex ipse repetito Christiana siquidem fide imbuti regis est Deo illatas graviter pro facti ratione ulcisci injurias If any one entred into Holy Orders or one living with him be imposed upon or cheated in those things which belong to his estate or life then let the King himself unless he can procure it otherwise be to him in place of Patron and Kindred but the Cheator shall make the King satisfaction according to the valure of the fact or the King himself shall take great punishment of the wickedness committed for it is the part of a King endued with Christian religion severely to punish injuries according to the quality of the deed offered to God 10. For the proving of this Sir Edward Coke in the Proeme to the The antient Common-law did not admit of Appeals to Rome in cases Spiritual sixth Part of his Reports cites an Act of Parliament made 10 H. 2. an 1164. where it was enacted As concerning Appellations if any shall arise from the Archdeacon they must proceed to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and if the Archbishop do fail in doing Justice it must lastly come to the King that by his precept the controversie may be ended in the Archbishops Court so that there ought not to be any proceeding further without the assent of the King And that this among many other might not taste of innovation the Record saith This recognition or record was made of a certain part of the customs and liberties of the Predecessors of the King to wit of Henry his Grandfather and of other Kings which ought to be observed in the Kingdom and held of all for the dissentions and discords often arising between the Clergy and our Soveraign Lord the Kings Justicers and the Peers of the Realm And all the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Clergy with the Earls Barons and all the Nobles c. have sworne and assuredly promised in the word of mouth in one consent to keep and observe the said recognition toward the King and his heirs in good sooth without evil meaning for ever 11. The Revenue of Danegelt was first enacted because of Pyrates The Kings before the Conquest by their own authority did impose Taxes upon Church-lands For infesting the Country they did persist as much as they could to the devastation of it And to repress their insolence the yearly return of Danegelt was enacted viz. Twelve pence for every Hide of all the Country Mr. Selden in lib. 2. cap. 4. Analecton Anglobritannicon fol. 77. makes a Hide of land to be as much as could be tilled by one plough in a year Mr. Lambert in the Laws of King Edward fol. 128. makes a Hide to be one hundred acres of land to maintain them who should resist the irruption of the Pyrates when they met them But from the Danegelt every Church should be free and quiet and all land which was in the dominion of the Church wheresoever it lay paying nothing at all in such redemption for men did more confide in the prayers of the Church then in the defence of arms But if Lex vult non supervacaneum then is it clear that the Church-lands were liable to be taxed by the King for it had been a supervacaneous thing to have excepted the lands of the Church in this Law if the lands of the Church had not been liable to have been taxed at all And to manifest more clearly that the exemption of Church-land from Taxes was a meer concession of our Kings take the Stat. of Ethelulph the successor of Egbert written Analect Angl. lib. 2. cap. 4. pag. 77. with his own hand Our Lord reigning for ever Whilst that we see perillous times in our days the fire of war the taking away of our goods together with the cruel depredations of our destroying enemies and barbarous Pagan nations do lie upon us the multiplied tribulations do afflict us even to utter destruction Wherefore I Ethelulph King of the West-Saxons with the councel of the Bishops and my Princes giving wholsom councel and the only remedy have consented I have determined that every portion given to the holy Church whether of either Sex serving God or to miserable Lay-men always the tenth Mansion where it is least or the tenth part of all Goods be made for ever free that it be safe and defended from all secular services yea from the Kings greater or lesser tributes or the taxations which we call Winterden and that it be free of all things for the forgiveness of our souls and sins to serve God alone without Expedition building of Bridge and fortifying of Castle 12. If King Ethelbert were obliged to S. Gregory for the Conversion At what time the Pope first usurped jurisdiction over the Crown of England of the English Saxons to the Faith Prince Edgar Athelin was smally beholding to Pope Alexander 2. For Edgar being Grandson to Edmund Ironside and the undoubted Heir to the English Monarchy after the death of Edward the Confessor Alexander not only allows the Conquerors pretensions to the Crown of England but interdicts all those who should Speed fol. 405. par 27. See the effects of the Popes curse Speed fol. 415. par 2. oppose him So that though Harold were an Usurper yet was his Holiness his Interdiction as much against the undoubted Title of Edgar as against Harold Nor were all titles of rights and interests of the English Monarchy ever perfect and compleat from that time until they were all united and perfected in King James 13. How far the Britanick Churches were from any dependence upon At what time the first contest hapned between the King Pope about the investiture of Bishops the Church of Rome we have already shewed And so free were the Churches of England under the Saxon Kings before the Conquest that before the Appeal of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury to Pope Paschal 2. scarce any Appeal was ever made to Rome but that of Wilfreds which was overruled by the King and Church So that for near a thousand years after the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith although by means of S. Eleutherius and Gregory the Great we do not find any thing which may prove the superiority of the Roman Church over either the Britanick or English And how strange a thing the investiture of the English Bishops by the Pope was to the King and Kingdom of England appears by the Letter of Paschal to Anselm in answer to Anselm's Significasti Reges De Elect. Pet. cap. 4. Regni Majores admiratione promotos c. You have signified to me that Kings and Nobles were moved with admiration that the Pall was offered to you by our Ministers upon condition that you should take an Oath which they brought you written from us And the King not only opposed
this Popes Letter but pleaded the Fundamental Laws and Customs of the Land Consuetudo regni mei est à patre meo instituta ut nullius praeter licentiam Regis appelletur Papae qui consuetudines regni mei tollit potestatem quoque coronam Regis violat It is a Custom of my Kingdom instituted by my Father that no man may appeal to the Pope without the Kings licence He that takes away the Customs of my Kingdom doth violate the Power and Crown of the King And these Laws were no other then the Laws of the Confessor viz. the old Saxon Laws but also in the execution of these things the Bishops of England adhered to the King and Laws and denied their suffrage to their Primate as you may read in the Bishop of Derry's Vindication of the Church of England p. 63 64. 14. After pag. 65. he instances out of Sir Hen Spelman conc an 78. Legations as rare as Appeals before the Conquest that Gregory Bishop of Ostium the Popes Legate did confess that he was the first Roman Priest that was sent into these parts of Britain from the time of Austin and that those Legates were no other then ordinary Messengers or Ambassadors sent from one Neighbour to another Such a thing as Legantine Court or a Nuntio's Court was not known in the British world and long after 15. See Speed in the Life of Stephen para 4. where Stephen having The Pope and all the English Hierarchy conspire with Stephen against Maud the undoubted Heir of Henry the first entred his Government in the year of our Lord 1135. the 2. of December and was crowned at Westminster the 26. of the same moneth being S Stephen's day by William Corbel the Archbishop of Canterbury who with the rest of the Bishops doing him homage and knowing now he would yield to any conditions for performance whereof his brother the Bishop of Winchester did there engage himself for a Pledge they all took their Oath of Allegiance conditionally traiterously I might say to obey him as their King so long as he should preserve their Liberties and the vigor of Discipline And that the Lay-Barons made use also of this policy appeareth by Robert Earl of Gloucester who sware to be true Liegeman to the King as long as the King would preserve to him his dignity and keep all covenants c. And having buried the body of Henry the First he went to Oxford where he acknowledged he attained the Crown by Election only and that the Pope Innocentius confirmed the same 16. The next contest which after Anselm happened between the King The second contest between the King and Pope and from what cause and the Pope was caused by Tho. Becket Archbishop of Canterbury For Stephen the Usurper having made a Law whereby the Temporal Judges might not meddle with Ecclesiastical persons Henry the Second upon many disorders committed by the Clergy did repeal this Law and restored the antient Laws of this Realm commonly called Avitae leges whereby the persons of Priests were not exempted from being judged by the Temporal Judges And though the Archbishop sware to observe the Laws restored by the King yet was he absolved by Pope Alexander 3. Nor could the Archbishop ever after be brought to conform to the Laws called Avitae leges which was the cause of his assassination and of great trouble to the King and Realm And whether this man did deserve to be canonized for his stubborn disobedience to the Laws of his Country which no ways concerned Faith but only Civil and Temporal obedience and those not new neither but a restitution of the antient Laws let any man judge 17. The first occasion of the quarrel between King John and Innocent The quarrel between King John and the Pope the Third was Hubert the Archbishop of Canterbury being dead the Monks of S. Augustine in that City elected without any licence of the King one Rainold and took an oath of him to go to Rome and take his investiture from the Pope The King incensed hereat caused John Gray to be chosen and desired the Pope to ratifie this last choice The Pope notwithstanding confirms the former The King hereupon grows angry and divers of the Monks against their own act refuse to accept him The Pope although Rainold were chosen by the Monks and confirmed by the Pope adviseth the Monks to choose Stephen Langton the Monks do so the King is highly exasperated and forbids all Appeals to Rome and did alleadge that he had Bishops Prelates Nobles and Magistrates of his own who could according to the Laws of the Land decide and determine all Controversies which should arise in Church or Commonweal The Pope insisted upon the election of the Cardinal Stephen Langton was Cardinal of Chirsogone and required the King not only to give him the quiet possession of the See but also to recall all such Monks as were exiled and to restore them to their Goods which were seised on by the King for the last choice and for default to interdict him and the whole Realm The King is so far from obeying that he seised upon the Lands and Goods of those Bishops to whom the Pope had forsooth given the power of Interdiction The Pope constant in his resolutions by Pandulphus and Durant interdicts the King and Kingdom and gives it the French King King John driven into a great strait gives his Crown and Kingdom to the Pope he good man had before given it to the French King Philip the second sirnamed Augustus and his son Lewis had gotten such footing in England that he would not be gotten out The Pope interdicts both father and son but his curses took not such place that they would give over what they had gotten by the first grant nor did these troubles end until the English Nation uniting themselves under Henry 3. did by plain force drive Lewis out of England to such an insufferable height was the Papacy grown in those days 18. Although the stubborn Barons made Henry 3. swear to observe The Bishops in H. 2 his reign conspire against him the Ordinances made in the Mad Parliament at Oxford and the Archbishop of Canterbury and nine other Bishops did denounce a Curse against all those who either by direction arms or otherwise should withstand the Ordinance of the Twelve Peers which gave the exercise of all Regality to them yet did the Pope absolve him from it very easily Addit Matth. Paris 990. 19. How zealous the most noble Prince Edward the first was in the Contests between the Pope and Ed. 2. cause of Christianity and how observant of the Papal power is evident by his victorious Voyage into Holy Land But he afterwards became hated by the Churchmen both in respect of the Statute of Mortmain made in the fourth year of his Reign and also because that by the advice of William Marchyan his chiefest Treasurer he seised into his hands the
Tribute or of St. Peter Cap. 20. Who shall deny the peny of St. Peter the peny let him pay by the Justice of the Church and thirty pence forfeiture and if he will be impleaded concerning it by the Justice of the King let him forfeit to the Bishop thirty pence and forty shillings to the King Of Religion and the publick Peace 51. First of all we Ordain above all things That one God be worshipped all over our Kingdom and the one Faith of Christ be always kept inviolate c. The Laws are Translated out of the Original set forth by Mr. Abraham Whelock in his Appendix to the History of Bede from page 150. to 107. Sir Ed. Coke in Caudrys Case cites a quare Impedit 7 Ed. 3. tit 19. where it is agreed that no man can make an appropriation of any Church having cure of souls being a thing Ecclesiastical and to be made by some person Ecclesiastical but he that hath Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but William the first of himself without any other as King of England made appropriation of Churches with cure to Ecclesiastical persons wherefore it does follow he had Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Here is nothing but argumentum à facto ad jus and a man may as well infer that Saul Jeroboam and Azariah did offer sacrifice and burn incense and therefore they had Sacerdotal power in them or that King John did give the Crown and received it again from him and therefore the Crown of England is holden of the Pope Ecclesiastical Laws made by Henry the first Who began to Reign in the year of Christ 1100. THese at last are the happy joys of the long wished for peace and liberty Proem by which the glorious Cesar Henry doth shine forth to his whole kingdom in Divine and Secular Laws written Institutes and Exhibitions of good Works Moderate Just Valiant Prudent whom God may make to command with happy auspices and healthful prosperity of body and minde with his famous wife Maud the second and their children for ever and the everlasting peace of this Nation His Epistle to all his Leigmen 1. Henry by the Grace of God King of Englishmen to all Barons and his Leigmen French English health Know that I by Gods mercy and the Common Counsel and consent of the Barons of the Kingdom of England am Crowned King of the Kingdom aforesaid and because the Kingdom was oppressed by unjust exactions I in respect of God and the love which I have towards you all first of all make the Church of God free so that I will neither sell nor let to farm nor after the death of an Archbishop or Bishop or Abbot will take any thing of the Demesns of the Church or her men until the successor be come in c. Of the propriety of Causes Cap. 5. In all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular legally and in order to be handled some are Accusers some Defenders some are Witnesses some are Judges In every discussion of honesty fitting men are to be joyned together and that without any exaction until the quality of the Causes and the intention of the Accused the manner of Witnesses and election of Judges be weighed with upright scrutiny Let there be no foreign Judgements nor celebrated by their improper Judge in place or time nor in a doubtful case or the party accused being absent the sentence being pronounced notandum that for all if the accused had competent warning and lawful leave of answering and defending he be not denied or impleaded or outlawed or circumvented by some stealth or judged by deceit If he be satisfied in the Witnesses Judges and Persons If he consent to the Judges or hurt or contradict It is not altogether so in Ecclesiastical business as Secular in Secular business after that any is called shall come and begin to plead in the Court it is not lawful to go back before the Cause be determined although they shall agree but in Ecclesiastical business it is lawful to go back in the Cause aforesaid If a man suspect a Judge or think himself oppressed surely Judges ought not to be so nisi quos impetitus Elegerit Neither may any one be heard or give judgement before that they be chosen and he who refuses to consent to the elected let no man communicate with him until he obey but if in judgement there arises dissention among the parties of which a strife comes forth let the sentence of the more prevail It is Enacted in the Cause of Faith or of any Ecclestastical Order he ought to judge who neither takes reward nor is of another Law and will do nothing without an accuser For God and our Lord Jesus Christ did know Judas to be a Thief but because he was not accused therefore he was not rejected and whatsoever he acted among the Apostles for the dignity of his Office remained firm As also Clerks ought not to receive Laiks Accusers so ought not Laicks to receive Clerks to be Accusers of Clerks in their Accusations and Informations and Witnesses ought to be legitimate and present without any infamy or suspition or manifest spot because they cannot rightly accuse Priests who cannot be Priests nor of their Order nor is it needful to Judge a man before he hath had lawful Accusers present and accepts a place of defence to wash out his crimes And it is our pleasure as often as many crimes are objected to Clerks by Accusers and they cannot make good one of the first of which they are accused they shall not be admitted to the rest And a Bishop shall not be condemned unless by seventy two Witnesses nor the Archbishop be judged of any A Presbyter-Cardinal Note the preheminence of a Bishop in England at this time above a Cardinal shall not be condemned unless by forty four Witnesses a Deacon-Cardinal shall not be condemned unless by twenty six Witnesses nor a Sub-Deacon under seven nor let the greater despair for the force of the lesser men and there always the Cause may be Pleaded where the Crime is admitted If a man stricken will he may plead his cause before his Judge and if he will not before his Judge he may hold his peace and as for men stricken as often as they desire respit let it be granted And every man which objects a crime let him write that he will prove it and if before he be changed he will not follow he is convinced no crime is to be accounted But if he will prosecute if he shall not prove what he objects let him undergo the penalty which he brought the Apostle says Against a Presbyter a writing is not to be received without two or three approved witnesses how much more against Bishops if these things be observed of Presbyters and other faithful men If any one will accuse any of the Clerks in an accusation of Fornication according to the precept of St. Paul two or three testimonies are required from him but if he
Item Whereas Commissions be newly made to divers Justices that 6. they shall make enquiries upon Judges of the holy Church whether they made just proces or excessive in Causes Testimentary or other which notoriously pertaineth to the cognizance of holy Church the said Justices have enquired and caused to be Indicted Judges of the holy Church in blemishing of the Franchise of the holy Church That such Commissions be repealed and from henceforth defended saving the Article in Eyre such as ought to be No Scire facias shall be awarded against a Clerk for Tythes Item Whereas Writs of Scire facias have been granted to warn Prelates 7. Religious and other Clerks to answer Dismes in our Chancery and to shew if they have any thing or can any thing say wherefore such Dismes ought not to be restored to the said Demandants and to answer as well to us as to the party to such Dismes That such Writs from henceforth be not granted and that the proces hanging upon such Writs be annulled and repealed and that the parties be dismissed from the Secular Judges of such manner of Pleas saving to us our right such as we and our ancestors have had and were wont to have of reason In witness whereof at the request of the said Prelates to these present Letters we have set our Seal Dated at London this 8th of July the year of our Reign of England 18. of France the 5th In the Reign of Ed. 3. 16 Ed. 3. tit Excom 4. An Excommunication by the Archbishop albeit it be disannulled by the Pope or his Legats is to be allowed neither ought the Judges to give any allowance of any such sentence of the Pope or his Legat. It is often resolved that all the Bishopricks within England were founded In the Reign of Ed. 3. by the Kings Progenitors and therefore the Advousons of them all belong to the King and at first they were Donative and if that any incumbent of any Church with cure die if the Patron present not within six moneths the Bishop of that Dioces ought to collate to the end the Cure may not be destitute of a Pastor if he be negligent by the space of six moneths the Metropolitan of that Dioces shall confer one to that Church and if he also leave the Church destitute by the space of six moneths then the common Law gives to the King as Supream within his own Kingdom and not to the Bishop of Rome power to provide a competent Pastor for that Church The King may not onely exempt any Ecclesiastical person from the Jurisdiction 17 Ed. 3. 23. of the Ordinary but may grant him Episcopal Jurisdiction And thus it appears there the King had done of antient time to the Arch-Deacon of Richmond This resolution is not grounded upon any Custom or Law but onely upon a particular fact of a King à facto ad jus non valet argumentum All Religious or Ecclesiastical Houses whereof the King was Founder are by the King exempt from Ordinary Jurisdiction and onely visitable and 20 E. 3. Excom 9. 19. Ed. 3. corrigible by the Kings Ecclesiastical Commission This resolution too is onely grounded upon matter of Fact and what man will warrant all the Facts of Kings not to be repugnant to the Laws of God and man Yet shall not these men in other things of much less moment allow the Kings Proclamations to be Legal nor any thing less then the Commons Law or Acts of Parliament The Abbot of Bury was exempted from Episcopal jurisdiction by the Kings Charter This is nothing neither but matter of Fact 20 Ed. 3. tit Excom 6. The King presenteth to a Benefice and his presentee was disturbed by one who had obtained Bulls from Rome for which offence he was condemned 21 Ed. 3. 40. fol. 40. to perpetual imprisonment c. Tythes arising out of any parish the King shall have for that he having the Supream Ecclesiastical jurisdiction is bound to provide a sufficient Pastor 22 Ed. 3. l. 1. Ass pl. 75. that shall have the cure of souls of that place which is not within any parish And by the common Laws of England it is evident that no man unless he be Ecclesiastical or have Ecclesiastical jurisdiction can have inheritance of Tithes The King shall present to his free chappels in default of the Dean by 27 Ed. 3. fol. 84. lapsin respect of his supream Ecclesiastical jurisdiction And Fitz Herbert saith that the King in that case does present by laps as Ordinary Fitz nat Br. 34. Au Excommunication under the Popes Bull is of no force to disable any man within England and no suit for any cause though spiritually rising in 30 Ed. 3. lib. Ass pl. 19 c. this Realm ought to be determined in the court of Rome In an Attachment upon a Prohibition the Popes Bull of Excommunication of the plaintiff was adjudged insufficient 21 Ed. 3. tit Excom 6. 33 Ed. 3. tit Agel de Roy. 38 Ass pl. 20. Reges sacro Oleo uncti sunt Spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces A Prior which is the Kings Debtor and ought to have Tithes of another spiritual person may chuse either to sue for substraction of his Tithes in the Ecclesiastical court or in the Exchequer Fitz Herbert in his N. B. fol. 30. holceth that before the St. 18 Ed. 3. Cap. 7. the right of Tithes were determinable at the temporal courts at the election of the party And the courts of divers Manors of the Kings and other Lords in antient times had the probate of last Wills and Testaments and it appeareth by 11 H. 7. fol. 12. That the probate of Wills and Testaments did not appertain to the Ecclesiastical courts but that of late time they were determinable there The King by his Charter did translate Canons secular into regular and 38 Lib. Ass pl. 22. 46 Ed. 3. Proem 6. religious persons Nicholas Moris elected Abbot of Waltham which was exempt from ordinary Jurisdiction sent to Rome to be confirmed by the Pope who not having regard to the said Election gave to the said Nicholas the said Abby with all the said Spiritualities and Temporalities the Bull was adjudged against the Laws of England and the Abbot for obtaining the same was fallen into the Kings mercy whereupon all his Possessions were seised into the Kings hands Where the Abbot of Westminster had a Prior and Covent who were Regular 49 Ed. 3. lib. ass pl. 8. and mort in Law yet the King by his Charter did divide that Corporation and made the Prior and Covent a distinct and capable body to sue and be sued by themselves It was Enacted by the whole Parliament That as well they who obtained St. de 25 Ed. 3. de Provisoribus provisions from Rome as they that put them in execution should be out of the Kings Protection and that a man might do with them as enemies to the King c.
12. twenty nine Abbots and Priors for so many then were Lords of Parliament It is declared That where by divers sundry old authentique Histories and Chronicles it was manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and has been so accounted in the world governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and Royal estate of the Imperial crown of the same unto whom a Body Politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of Spirituality and Temporality been bound and ought to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience He being also institute and furnished by the goodness of God with plenary whole and entire power preheminence authority prerogative and jurisdiction to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk resiants or subjects within this his Realm in all causes matters debates and contentions happening to occur insurge or begin within the limits thereof without restraint or provocation to any Forein Princes or Potentates in the world The body Spiritual whereof having power when any cause of Law Divine happened to come in question or of Spiritual Learning that it was declared interpreted and shewed by that part of the said body Politique called the Spiritual body then being usually called the English Church which always hath been reputed and also found of that sort that both for knowledge integrity and sufficiency of number it has been always thought and was also at that houre sufficient and meet of it self without the intermedling of any exterior person or persons to declare and determine all such doubts and to administer all such offices and duties as to the the rooms Spiritual did appertain For the due administration whereof and to keep them from corruption and sinister affection the Kings noble Progenitors and Antecessors of the Nobles of this Realm have sufficiently endowed the said Church both with honor and possessions And the Laws Temporal for trial of Property of Lands and Goods and for the conservation of the people of this Realm in unity and peace without rapine and spoil was and yet is administred adjudged and executed by sundry Judges and Ministers of the other part of the said Body Politique called the Temporalty And both their Authorities and Jurisdictions do conjoin together in the due administration of Justice the one to help the other This Statute does moreover affirm that Ed. 1. Ed. 3. Rich. 2. H. 4. and other Kings did make divers Laws Ordinances Statutes c. for the entire and sure conservation of the prerogatives liberties and preheminences of the said Imperial Crown and of the Jurisdictions Spiritual and Temporal of the same to keep it from the annoyance as well from the See of Rome as from other Forein Potentates and does make all Causes determinable by any Spiritual jurisdiction to be adjudged within the Kings authority All First-fruits and all contributions to the See of Rome by any Bishop St. 25. H. 8 cap. 20. were forbidden upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods and cattals for ever and all the Temporal lands and possessions of every Archbishoprick or Bishoprick during the time that he or they who offend contrary to the said Act shall possess and enjoy the said Archbishoprick or Bishoprick And that if any presented to the See of Rome by the King to a Bishoprick and he be there delayed he may be consecrated by an Archbishop in England and that an Archbishop presented to the See of Rome to be there consecrated and there letted may be consecrated by two Bishops of England And because the Pope hereof informed did not redress and reform the said exactions nor give answer to the Kings mind therefore the said Statute did prohibit any man to be presented to the See of Rome for the dignity of an Archbishop or Bishop or that any Annates or First-fruits be paid to the Bishop of Rome and that upon the avoidance of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick the King his heirs and successors may grant to the Prior and Covent or Dean and Chapiter of the Cathedral Churches or Monasteries where the See of such Archbishoprick or Bishoprick shall happen to be void a Licence under the Great seal as of old time hath been accustomed to proceed to Election of an Archbishop or Bishop of the See so being void with a Letter missive containing the name of the person which they shall elect and choose and for default of such Election the King by his Letters Patents may nominate an Archbishop or Bishop and that every Archbishop Bishop to whose hands any such presentment or nomination shall be directed shall with speed invest and consecrate the person nominated and presented by the King his heirs and successors And if any Archbishop or Bishop Prior and Covent Dean and Chapiter shall for the space of twenty days next after such Licence or Nomination come to their hands neglect or shall execute any Censures Excommunications Interdictions c. contrary to the execution of any thing contained in this Act that then they incur the penalty of a Praemunire An act concerning the exoneration of the Kings subjects from exactions St. 25. H. 8. cap. 21. and impositions before that time paid to the See of Rome and for having Licences and Dispensations within this Realm without suing further for the same The King shall be reputed Supreme Head of the Church of England St. 26. H. 8. cap. 1. and have authority to reform and redress all Errors Heresies and abuses in the same Every Archbishop and Bishop disposed to have a Suffragan may elect 26 H. 8. c. 14. discreet Spiritual persons being learned and of good conversation and present them under their seals to the King making humble request to his Majesty to give to one of the two such title name stile and dignity of Bishop of such of the Sees as the King shall think fit and that every such person to whom the King shall give any such stile and title of the Sees abovenamed viz. the Towns of Thetford Ipswich Colchester Dover Gilford Southampton Taunton Shaftsbury Molton Marlborough Bedford Leicester Glocester Shrewsbury Bristow Penrith Bridgwater Nottingham Grantham Hull Huntington Cambridge and the Towns of Perth and Barwick S. Germans in Cornwal and the Isle of Wight shall be called Bishop Suffragan of the same See whereunto he shall be named and that every Archbishop and Bishop for their own peculiar Diocese may and shall give to every such Bishop Suffragan such Commissions as have been accustomed for Suffragans heretofore to have or else such Commissions as by them shall be thought requisite reasonable and convenient And that no Suffragan shall use any ordinary jurisdiction or Episcopal power otherwise nor longer time then shall be limited by such Commission upon pain of the penalties mentioned in the Statute of Provisions made the 16. of Rich. 2. The King shall have authority to name Thirty two persons sixteen
after them Gunthramn Clowis Carloman and Pepin at Masscon first and second at Chalons That which is called Francia and that which is in Vernis Twenty of them at least in France In Spain by ten several Kings in two Councels at Braccara and in ten at Tolledo by the space of three hundred years together And how under what terms Peruse the Councel themselves their very acts spake Ex praecepto Imperio Jussu Sanctione Nutu Decreto Ex evocatione Dispositione Regis One saith Potestas permissa est nobis another facultas data est nobis a third Injunctu est nobis á rege and this for about eight hundred years after Christ Then arose another Empire here in the West under Charls the Great and he called six several Councils at Frankfort Arles Tours Chalons Mentz and Rhemes And what says he in them In that at Rhemes In conventu mere priscorum Imperatorum congregato à piissimo Domino nostro Carolo That he called that Convention by no other right then as the manner of the antient Emperors had been to do After him Ludovicus Pius Lotharius Ludovicus Balbus Carolus Calvus Carolus Crassus and Arnulphus at the several Councils of Aken Mentz Melden Wormes Colen and Tribur and so held it nine hundred years after Christ for about that year a year or two over or under was holden the Council at Tribur in Germany by the Emperors decree and himself President in it Nor are the Kings of England less absolute then either Emperors Kings of Spain or France And see B. Bramhalls Just Vindication of the Church of England cap. 7. how the Emperors Kings of France Spain and Portugal have by their own authority convened National and Provincial Councils which have not only determined without the Papal authority but very often in contradiction to it Nor are either the English or British Churches or ever were less free then the Gallicane the liberties whereof in the Chapter aforesaid are set down viz. 1. The Pope cannot command or ordain any thing directly or indirectly concerning any Temporal affairs within the Dominions of the King of France 2. The Spiritual authority and power of the Pope is not absolute in The priviledges of the Gallican Church France but limited and restrained to the canons and rules of the antient Councils of the Church and received in that Kingdom 3. No command whatsoever of the Pope can free the French Clergy from their obligation to obey the commands of their Soveraign 4. The most Christian King hath had power at all times according to the occurrence and exigence of affairs to assemble or cause to be assembled Synods Provincial or National and therein to treat not only of such things as concern the conservation of the Civil estate but also of such things as concern Ecclesiastical order and discipline in his own dominions and therein to make Rules Chapters Laws Ordinances and Pragmatique Sanctions in his own name and by his own authority Many of which have been received among the Decrees of the Catholique Church and some of them approved by General Councils 5. The Pope cannot send a Legate à latere into France with power to reform judge collate dispence or do such things accustomed to be specified in the autoritative Bull of his Legation except it be upon the desire or with the approbation of the most Christian King Neither can the said Legate execute his charge until he hath promised to the King in writing under his oath upon his holy Orders not to make use of his Legantine power in the Kings dominions longer then it shall please the King and that so soon as he shall be admonished of the Kings pleasure to forbid it he shall give it over And that whilst he doth use it shall be exercised conformable to the Kings will without attempting any thing to the prejudice of the Decrees of General Councils or the Liberties and Priviledges of the Gallicane Church and the Universities of France 6. The Commissions and Bulls of the Popes Legate are to be seen examined and approved by the Court of Parliament and to be registred and published with such cautions and modifications as that Court shall judge expedient for the good of the Kingdom and to be executed according to the said cautions and not otherwise 7. The Prelates of the French Church although commanded by the Pope for what cause soever it be may not depart out of the Kingdom without the Kings commandment or licence 8. The Pope cannot by himself or his delegates judge any thing which concerns the state preheminence or priviledges of the Crown of France nor any thing pertaining to it nor can there be any question or process about the state or pretensions of the King but in his Courts 9. Papal Bulls Citations Excommunications c. are not to be executed in France without the Kings command or permission and after permission only by the authority of the King and not by authority of the Pope to shun mixture and confusion of Jurisdictions 10. Neither the King nor his Realm nor his Officers can be excommunicated or interdicted by the Pope nor his Subjects absolved from their Oath of Allegiance 11. The Pope cannot impose Pensions in France upon any Benefices having cure of souls nor upon any others but according to the canons according to the express condition of resignation or ad redimendum vexationem 12. All Bulls and Missives which come from Rome to France are to be seen and visited to try if there be nothing in them prejudicial in any manner to the estate and liberties of the Church of France or to the Royal authority 13. It is lawful to appeal from the Pope to a future Council 14. Ecclefiastical persons may be convented judged and sentenced before a Secular Judge for the first grievous or enormous crime or for lesser offences after a Relapse which renders them incorrigible in the eye of the Law 15. All places of France are obliged to swear fealty to the King and to receive from him investitures for their fees and manors 16. The Courts of Parliament in case of Appeals as from abuse have right and power to declare null void and to revoke the Popes Bull and Excommunications and to forbid the execution of them when they are found contrary to Sacred Decrees the liberty of the French Church or the Prerogative Royal. 17. General Councils are above the Pope and may depose him and put another in his place and take cognisance of Appeals from the Pope 18. All Bishops have their power immediately from Christ not from the Pope and are equally successors of S. Peter and of the other Apostles and Vicars of Christ 19. Provisions Reservations Expective graces c. have no place in France 20. The Pope cannot exempt any Church Monastery or Ecclesiastical body from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary nor erect Bishopricks into Archbishopricks nor unite them nor divide them without the Kings licence 21. All those are not Hereticks
she was rather carefull to conserve peace at home then to maintain it abroad and was more mindfull of the present age then of posterity and sure that King that succeeded her might justly expect to finde a hard taske so to Govern as to preserve the love and obedience shee had for besides her prudence and frugality in Government and expences she was single had not any kindred in the Nation which were any charge to her whereas the King succeeding not only having a Queen but also Posterity must multiply expence whereby hee shall lose the affections of his Subjects from whom it must be raised or abate of the magnificennce which is necessary for the reputation and Regality and which every Monarch ought especially to be carefull of for Where Majesty or Power is contemptible the exercise of them is never permanent Ecclesiasticall Lawes made by King James THis Statute doth Enact That all Statutes made by Queene Elizabeth Anno 1. Jac. cap. 4. against all Jesuites Priests and Seminaries made in the Church of Rome and all those Statutes made against all manner of Recusants be put in due and exact execution Every Recusant that shall conforme himselfe to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church of England and repaire to Church and continue there during the time of divine Service and Sermon according to the true intent of the statute in that case made in the time of Queen Elizabeth shall be discharged from all penalties of Recusancy so long as he continues in such obedience and conformity The heir of any Recusant who is no Recusant shall not incur any penalty for the Recusancy of his ancestor if at the death of any Recusant the heire of the Recusant be a Recusant and after become conformable to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church and take the oath of Supremacy made in the first yeere of Q. Eliz before the Archbishop or Bishop of the Diocess then every such heir shall be discharged of all penalty hapning in respect of the Recusancy of his Ancestor If the Heire of any Recusant bee within the age of sixteene yeeres at the death of his Ancestor and after become or bee a Recusant that then hee shall not bee discharged from the penalty of Recusancy untill hee submit to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church and take the said oath of Supremacy in manner and form expressed 23 Eliz. cap. 1. Where any seisure shall be had of the 2 parts of any Lands or Tenements c. for the not payment of the 20. l. due and payable for each moneth according to the Statute in that case lately made * in such case two third parts shall goe to the payment of the said twenty pound a moneth the third part shall not be extended by the King nor forfeited by the Recusant where any seisure hath beene made by the King and the debt or duty by reason of Recusancy not paid then the King may continue the seisure untill the residue of the debt be fully satisfied and discharged The King and his Heirs shall not seize nor extend any third part descending to any such heirs or any part thereof either by reason of the Recusancy of such heir or the Recusancy of his Ancestor Every person under the Kings obedience which at any time after the end of the session of that Parliament shall send any childe or other person under his Government into any parts beyond the Seas out of the Kings obedience to be resident in any Colledg or house of any popish Order or Profession whatsoever or repair to the same to be instructed in the popish Religion or in any sort to professe the same shall for every such offence forfeit to the King the summe of one hundred pounds and every person so passing or sent beyond the Seas in respect of himselfe or her selfe only and not in respect of his or her posterity be made incapable to inherit or purchase in any of the Kings Dominions If any person borne in any of the Kings Dominions at the making of this Act were in any such house or Colledg to be instructed in the popish Religion and should not return into some of his Majesties Dominions within one yeere next after the session of that Parliament and submit himself as is aforesaid shall be in respect of himselfe only and not in respect of his heirs and posterity utterly uncapable of inheriting or purchasing within any of the Kings Dominions Provided that if any such person shall afterward become obedient and conformable to the lawes and ordinances of the Church of England and repaire to Church according to the true intent of the said statutes and ordinances and continue so to doe that then every such person shall be discharged of such disability No woman nor any childe under the age of twenty one yeeres except Saylors and Ship-boyes or the Apprentice or Factor of some Merchant in trade of Merchandize shall be permitted to passe over the Seas without License from the King or six or more of the privy Councell under their hands upon paine that the officers of the Port that willfully or negligently did suffer any such to passe and did not enter the names of such passengers so licensed shall forfeit their office and all their goods and chattels and that every owner of any ship or vessell that shall willfully carry over seas any such person without license shall forfeit his ship or vessell and all the tackle and every Mr. or Mariner of or in any such ship offending as aforesaid shall forfeit all their goods and suffer imprisonment by the space of 12 moneths without baile or mainprize No person shall keepe any Schoole or be a Schoole-master out of any of the Universities or Colledges of this Realme except it bee in some publick or free Grammer-Schoole or in some such Noblemans or Noblewomans Gentlemans or Gentlewomans house as are not Recusants or where the said same Schoole-Master shall not be licensed by the Archbishop Bishop or Guardian of the Spiritualties of that Diocesse upon paine that as well the schoole-master as the party that entertains him shall forfeit for every day so offending the sum of forty shillings the one halfe to the King the other to him who shall sue for the same in any of the Kings Courts of Record in Westminster by Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information in which no Essoine Protection or wager of Law shall be allowed Because some popishly affected did repaire to Church monethly whereby Stat. Anno. 3. Jac. cap. 4. they did evade the penalties imposed by precedent Parliaments as is alledged It was therefore Enacted That if any Recusant so conformed shall not once a yeere at least after the Session of Parliament receive the Sacrament in the Church of that parish where he or she usually abides or if there be no Church then in the Church next adjoyning shall forfeit for the first yeere the summe of twenty pounds for the second yeere
his tail for his Second Ground is That the nature of Man reacheth not to the perfection of Government But what does our Author here mean by Freemen if by Freemen he understands men free to do what they list then our Author leaves them as he found them and has done nothing at all but if these Freemen be subject to their Trustee so far as he apprehends it fit and necessary for the good of the Commonwealth then I believe we shall finde them as very slaves as any our Author Ground 9. makes So that after all this ado our Author has made a multitude of slaves or he has made nothing at all And thus hath our Author endeavored to shew why men desire to live in Community viz. By having nothing common at all The Eighth GROUND Of the Authority given to an Absolute Governor and of Vnder-sorts of Government Author NOw comes our Author with a dog in a line his Absolute Governor tyed up to certain Laws and Limits which he has no right to transgress Observ What is this our Authors Absolute Governor Why the Roman Dictator was worth ten of this for he had power of life and death of disposing of all Offices at his own will and pleasure without the controlment of any either Senate or People Consul or Tribune and this power to continue during the exigence and danger of the Commonwealth Yet so far was the Dictator from being an absolute Governor that he was the while but a Minister of the Peoples which was plain in Fabius Maximus for Plutar. in vita Fabii Liv. lib. 22. though he were chosen Dictator yet during the danger of the Common-wealth the People made Minutius equal to him And so was the Athenian Archon who though chosen for Ten years and called a Judge and chiefest of power in the Commonwealth yet as Bodin observes cap. 8. fol. 80. de repub was not the Majesty of the Commonwealth in him but he a Provider and Procurator of the People and was bound to give an account of his Government And the reason why the Dictator and Archon were not absolute Governors is plain because this power was not immediately in them from God but delegate and constituted from another And any power that makes any thing may alter it for Unumquodque dissolvi potest eo ligamine quo ligatum est Well but let us see what manner of beast our Authors Absolute Governor is Why our Author tells you he is an Absolute Governor but restrained and tied up to certain Laws and Limits Which is a contradiction and impossible for in being absolute he is freed from all Laws and Limitations And now I will tell our Author that if his absolute Governor be tied up to any humane Limits or Laws he has so little power that it is impossible for him to protect and defend his rational people For suppose the Laws he is restrained to be as many as are contained in the body of the Civil Law our Statutes and all the Acts and Ordinances made since 1641. and twenty times more yet would not this be sufficient for an absolute Governor For all these are finite and mens actions are infinite and therefore Enemies may find out such ways to invade this free people as this absolute Governor cannot find in his Laws where he has power to oppose them and so this rational freeborn people must be left destitute if any Enemy may be found who can outwit them and find a way to oppress them out of the Laws and Limits which they have given their absolute Governor And who will desire any greater advantage against another then to have him look always one way or what Enemy desires more against another then against such a one whose absolute Governor is tied up to certain Instructions and those known to themselves And Laws are things which must be in esse And how can any man tell to day what may happen to morrow but Princes must to morrow and next day and every day steer their course according as the wind and storms shoals and deeps c. represent themselves which no man can possibly foresee Well let us see what the restriction of any one thing in the Supream Prince may bring upon himself and Subjects Let us look upon a King of England after the Act of Parliament De tallagio non concedendo an Act of Parliament is the Act of the King in Parliament As when the Lords and Commons present any Bill to the King and he passes it this is an Act of Parliament which is no more a Law of the Lords and Commons then the Laws passed at the Petition or Rogation of Coelius Cassius Sempronius c. were the Laws of Coelius Cassius and Sempronius And let every King expect that whatsoever the Subject can get of the King by hook or crook he will hold that as fast as the King shall any flower he leaves in his Crown Well then if Edward the First will not pass this Law he gets not a groat of his Subjects in England towards the relief of his oppressed Subjects of Aquitain in France which Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon this Statute observes Well then the Scots in the year One thousand six hundred and forty having-transgressed all Laws of God and Humanity as well as the Borders and Bounds of their own Countrey raise Arms the second time and make an invasion upon us and seise upon Berwick and Newcastle but though the Kings hands were tyed up yet the Divine Vengeance of Heaven shall overtake them and their Countrey by a hand they could so little fear as I believe few of them knew whether there were any such or no. And now oh you who have not forced all mankinde from Humane brests come and stand amazed with horror for the most deplorable condition of the most Pious the most Religious the most Just the most Chaste Vertuous and Serenest Prince that ever swayed the English Scepter and not to be parallel'd by any Countrey whatsoever The Scots having invaded this Nation to treat with them a second time was too too much an indignity for their Natural Soveraign besides it was an affront not to be endured by the Englishmen That their Countrey must be made a prey to such Locusts and Caterpillers whensoever they will pretend grievance in Kirk and Discipline To restrain them by force it could not be without raising money By this Statute the King they say can raise none but by Parliament and to call a Parliament in this mad conjuncture of times was judged by himself and Council to be a means to increase the power of the Scots by the Parliaments joyning with them to the endangering himself and his Posterity Well then what is to be done what stand still and look on while these hungry Vermine devour and make a prey of his afflicted Subjects No the King to make his goodness appear above his own danger calls a Parliament where not deceived in his
expectation the Scots and they are Simeon and Levi straight sworn Brethren and the first thing agreed between them was That Humane Blood must be offered up to them a preparative to a greater Draught nor must Strafford suffer by an ordinary way of Judicature by his Peers but that the King may be involved in the same Crime with themselves he must die by Act of Parliament and then having made the King to divest himself of all possible power to defend himself when ever they will strike him they give the Scots Three hundred thousand pounds to be exported out of the Kingdom because they had made a prey and devoured the goods of their fellow Subjects in the four Northern Counties which forsooth these good Saints call Brotherly Assistance See oh see here O my Countrymen the Assertors and Avengers of the Honor of the English Nation These are the Noble Patriots of their Priviledges I am sure not of your Liberties These are the glorious Reformers of our Church and State These are they who in order to so many Protestations Declarations Swearings and forswearings have made Charls a more glorious King then any of his Predecessors more feared abroad and more renowned at home And now tell me whether you had not better at first have given your pence and your two pences then paid your pounds and forty shillings since you knew not for what Nor was our case much unlike the case of the Constantinopolitans who alleaging Poverty and Priviledge in opposition to their Safety and Defence became a prey to the Turks 1453. their most merciless enemies who put them all to the sword the Turks themselves wondering there should be so much wealth in the World as was found in the sacking of this one City The Ninth GROUND Of Slavery and the lawfulness of it Author HEre our Author tells us We must first look into the notion of Slavery which signifies a Subjection to command in all things and that meerly for the Masters profit Well I will not quarrel with our Author about the notion of Slavery but tell him he mistakes it in all his specifications of it For his first It is he says clearly against nature for a man to submit his will so far as to renounce his eternal bliss Observ This is out of his notion and is so monstruous as it is not imaginable any man should do it but Witches and any man may chuse whether he will do it or not for no mans will can be compelled Author The like he conceives of Subjection to be killed or maimed causelesly nay or to be so penuriously abused as to have no content in life and the reason he gives is It is evidently against the inclination of nature to consent to the loss either of life or the profit of life which is either to be well in this world or the next And therefore it cannot be conformable to nature to renounce either so then a man must not by our Authors rule renounce any depraved affection or appetition in him if it conduces to his profit in this life especially the quiet in this world being the means to gain bliss in the other Observ And so our Author hath shut out of doors all suffering for the testimony of a good Conscience because the quiet of this world is the means to gain bliss in the other Author Nor does it scare our Author he says to cast his eyes upon so many holy men and women as have put themselves voluntarily upon penurious and painful lives because they enjoy the fruit of contemplation and sweetness of Conscience in expecting a great reward for what they did But for a man to renounce the content of this who either thinks not of another or at least hopes nothing out of his resignation this must of necessity be extreamly irrational and against nature Observ Why if our Author had learned thus much out of the Poet Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore Horace Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae He needed not to have thought it so irrational for if the love of Vertue will not make men do their duties the fear of stripes and halters must or our Author will not get Paper to write his Grounds of Obedience and Government upon Our Authors next specification is no more then every servant ought to do Now let us see what servitus or mancipium or servitude is and who are properly Slaves or as we use to term them Vilains Slaves happen Bodin says to be so five ways Either by birth as the Bodln cap. 5. lib. 1. de Repub posterity of the Parents who are so or accidentally as prisoners taken in war or thirdly those who for some offence or debt are condemned to slavery either for years or life fourthly they who voluntarily make themselves so and fifthly those that are sold by Theeves and Pirates are for the price paid slaves to the buyers But whether this last be truly accounted slavery is disputable that is Whether such buyers may use them as slaves or no. See more hereafter Cap. Domestical Power Now Slaves have nothing properly but whatsoever they get is their Lords who may sell them or give them away at their pleasure and have power of life and death over them Here in England the Lords power over their Vilains was restrained neither might the Lord maim his Vilain for though the Vilain could not recover any damage against his Lord yet after Attainder the Lord was finable to the King See Litt. 194. And the Neife who is the Vilains Wife or Daughter might have an appeal of Rape against her Lord Litt. 190. But this not being a condition for any one who bears the Image of God upon him God did restrain it Levit. 25. 39. to them who were not Israelites or Proselytes onely Wherefore I conceive that neither Mahometans Jews or Christians all acknowledging the Moral Law do not make Slaves of any who are of their Faith and Religion from this ground neither do I understand how the use of Vilains used with us heretofore can be justified if they were Christians for no question Christianity makes not men in a worse condition in this world then if they had been Jews or Turks What difference the Romans made between Slaves and Libertines and what Manumission is and how many ways Slaves become free read Bodin de Repub. cap. 5. lib. 1. And of Manumission or Enfranchising of Villains read Littleton and Com. of Sir Edward Coke thereon Cap. Villenage Author And now our Author tells you how a Nation may enslave it self by its too much wit and most prudently and wisely takes care that it be not our case And so goes on very prettily in Questions and Answers as Whether any Nation be by nature born to slavery of Joseph and the Nation of Egypt of a Nation and Nature and how like Nation sounds to Nature Gens to Natura and at last concludes Out of this Conclusion it is is easily
to the prejudice and dishonor of it for sure no man can imagine that because a Man is a King that therefore he should divest himself of Nature and neglect to use some means to get an Estate for his Posterity where there is none provided If it be objected that the Crown descends to the Heir not to the posterity if more then one I answer That no Crown but hath many Offices and Dignities appertaining to it which descend to the Heir he probably will not reject his own flesh and blood to advance strangers whereas in an Elective Kingdom it cannot be hoped for 10. The Government in Britain and England untill 1641. was Monarchy The Government of Britain was ever Monarchy Hereditary before 1641. hereditary If you believe Mr. Selden in the First Book cap. 1. of his Analecton Anglo-Britanicon he will tell you upon the Faith of Jeoffrey of Monmouth the stem and progeny of Brutus the Nephew of Aeneas and give you a series of the Government of his posterity to Cassivellanus King of the Trinobantes when Cesar first made his invasion here and cap. 5. from Cassivellanus Essex and Middlesex to King Lucius Now I trowe our Author for the honor and reverence of the Apostolick sea will not deny Lucius to be a King and the first Christian King of the Britaines who and whose subjects were baptised Plat. in vit S. Eleutherii p. 21. about anno 176. by Fugatius and Damianus sent to this end by Pope Eleutherius And see Tacitus Lips pag. 457. in vita Agricolae Ii Britanni scilicet his atque talibus invicem instincti Voadicâ generis regii faemina duce neque enim sexum in imperjis discernunt sumsere universi bellum c. with these and the like speeches inciting one another by common consent they resolve to armes under the conduct of Voadica a Lady of the blood royal for in matter of governing in cheif they make no distinction of sex It is not my purpose here to relate a series and Catalogue of all the Brittish Kings to the Saxon Monarchs nor of the Saxon to the Dane and Norman I deny that in any of these times there was any other Government but Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy never nor was ever any of those Kings chosen by the people Here by the way though I affirm the Government of England and Brittaine to be Monarchy yet I do not affirm that part of this Island which is called England was governed by one Monarch only till King Athestan reduced it about the yeare 938 nor the whole Island under one King before it was united under James anno 1602. And this Monarch not a thing in abeiance an aiery title but an absolute free and independent Monarchy Stat. 24. H. 8. cap. 12. It is resolved and declared that by sundry and old antick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realme of England is an Empire and so has been accepted in the world Publick Notaries made by the Emperor claimed de Jure to exercise their office here in England but were prohibited because it was against the dignity of a supream King see Sir Ed. Coke Instit 4. fo 342. Omnis sub rege ipse sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo And ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub hominibus sed sub Deo And Rex autem qui vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc constitutus ut regnum terrenum populum domini super omnia sanctum veneretur ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis defendat maleficos ab ea evellat destruat penitus disperdat ibid Now would I fain know what higher power can any man upon earth claim then is here by the Law acknowledged to be in the Kings of England Nor hath any Subject any property in his estate but what he claims from the King for all Lands and Tenements in England in the hands of Subjects are holden mediately or immediately of the King Sir Ed. Co. Com. on Lit. fol. 1. Inst part 4. pag. 363 364. Nor have the Lords and Commons a concurring power with the King in making Statute-Laws for the King makes the Law the Lords and Commons consent Co. Lit. 159. b. And what concurring power of Lords and Commons is there in Magna Charta but only Henry by the grace of God King of England c. We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever c. And Charta de Foresta hath nothing which makes it a Law but Edward by the grace of God c. We will that all Forests c. Stat. Hiberniae made at Westminster 9 Feb. ann 14 H. 3. Henry c. commands that the Customs recited in that Statute and used in the Realm of England be proclaimed in Ireland and straightly kept and observed there And Stat. de Anno Bissextili made at Westm. ann 21 H. 3. ann 1236. is The King unto his Justices of the Bench greeting The Statute entituled Assisa panis cerviciae is made by the King The Statute de Scaccario is nothing but what the King commandeth And so let any man peruse all the antient Statutes of this Realm and he shall not find any so much as Consent of the Lords and Commons named in the making of them though it may be it was implied Nor had the Lords and Commons in the Parliament Anno 1641. any more power de jure then their Predecessors had before them And therefore the Common-Law and Statute-Law of this Realm were nothing but the declared Will of the King Nor hath any City or Borough c. any Priviledge but what they claim and hold immediately from the Kings Grant Customs I take to be those Usages which the Kings have permitted Sir Ed. Co. comment on Littleton 113 to divers of their Subjects in several places of this Realm time out of mind distinct and not the same with the Common Law And herein they differ from Prescription because this refers to the person that to the place so Prescription is what such an individual Man and his ancestors have done in such a place and Custom is what divers Men at once have used in such a City Borough Mannor or Village Add hereunto the Militia of the Kingdom the Mint the power of making War or Peace which were always in the King and for the manageing of which he hath usually taken the Results of his Ordinary Council and who will deny the Kings of England to have been Absolute Soveraigns What the Government since 1641. hath been I cannot tell nor do I care If you believe the Instrument it will tell you It is in One Person and the Freeborn People of this Nation so in Two and divided But who are the Freeborn People of this Nation Every man hath as much right to this Freedom as another here is no Vassalage no Civitate donatus in
derived from this begging the question is false Indeed Mr. Hobbs is no question a man of most exquisite parts and learning and possibly might have a peaceable intention in making the Civitas the Judge of all matters of faith as well as manners But sure many things in his generation of it can never consist as his making Jus and Lex contrary one to another his making the Legislator to depend upon the Citizen for without his consent and proper pact either express or understood the Legislative right can be conferred upon none And yet he says Wherefore doest Cap. 12. art 3. thou call him Tyrant whom God hath made King His making the Civitas to receive all power from the pacts and wills of men and making the Civitas Head of the Church and Judge of Faith makes the power of the Church and all Faith to be a thing invented and to receive their beginnings from the wills and pacts of men then which what can be more destructive to Faith and Religion But for our Author Tho. White Gent. he is not worthy the name of a learned rational nor honest man 13. Slaves are born or made so Slaves born are the children of such Slaves as were so Slaves made so happen two ways For being condemned for some crime committed against some humane Law and therefore by the Condemned persons Law condemned to it Where the Law condemns it is the will of the Supreme power which condemns and therefore not the will of the Slave that makes it so I deny therefore that where the Law does not make Slavery any man can make himself a slave to another nor can any man use another as a Slave where he is not made so by Law Or else Slaves are Prisoners taken in War There is no man will affirm Prisoners by War the taking of another man prisoner gives the taker a power over the others life for then all men falling into the hands of Thieves and Pirates the Thieves and Pirates have a power over their lives and so commit no murder in putting them to death But Slaves from being made Prisoners is when there is competition between two Supreme powers and they give their Subjects power over all their Enemies which they shall take Prisoners It is not therefore the taking of another Prisoner which gives a man power over anothers life but a precedent humane Law which gives this power over those Enemies which any Subject shall take Prisoner and sure no man was ever taken Prisoner by an act of his will It is false therefore that Bodin says That a man may make himself a Slave of his own accord lib. 1. c. 5. p. 31. de repub a man may as well offer violence or kill himself and that a man bought for a price of Thieves and Pirates is a Slave to the Buyer for he is not made so by any humane law Nor can any act of force ever give another any power nor can any continuance of time make any thing good which originally was not so and therefore if all commands were originally from force as he affirms then are no commands now any better and so no difference Pag. 46. de rep between the commands of Thieves and Pirates and of Fathers and Kings Although a man lawfully taken prisoner by another be in his power Slavery moderated so as it is in the Takers power to have taken away his life and so an act of grace in granting it yet the Law which originally gave this power may moderate it as here in England the Law hath restrained the Lord from killing or maiming his Vilain Slaves have nothing proper against their Master 14. Apprentices are when the Father or Mother do oblige a Child Apprentices for such a term to serve such a Master and this act is binding because by the Law of Nature the Father hath an absolute power over his Children But because of the impotencie of Children who cannot by reason of their youth and want of art and experience do any thing which may at first compensate their diet and clothes if the poverty or negligence of parents be such that they cannot or will not procure a Master for their Children and where Children are Orphans they may be bound and compelled to serve Apprentiships in such manner as is prescribed by the publique humane Laws of the place 15. Neither naturalis nor delegata potestas can be communicated nor What power is alienable aliened But acquisita potestas as the power of Masters over their servants and slaves may be sold aliened or otherwise given away And therefore Guardian in Chivalry may give or sell to another the Guardianship of his Ward but Guardian in Socage cannot for his is delegata potestas 16. The Master of every family deriving his power from the humane The Masters power restrained to humane laws Caveat laws of every place his power is restrained to the laws of that place therefore ought he not to command his servant any thing which is against the laws of the place When I say by humane laws such a thing is to be done or not done I always except those laws which God did give to the Israelites and peculiar only to them when he pleased immediately to reign over them which laws did supply those humane laws by which his Vicegerents do procure peace among us CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiastical power THat there is a GOD who is the Author of all good past present By the light of nature God is to be worshiped and to come and that He is to be worshiped and adored not only for the present past and future blessings in this world but also in hope of eternal happiness in the world to come is so naturally ingraffed into the minds of all men that not scarce one man compos mentis in an That there is a God and this God to be worshiped and served is innate in the minds of all men Plato Euthyphro requires as the first axiom of all virtue age did ever deny it It is no wonder therefore if men attaining to such a height of impiety as to sell their inheritance in Heaven unjustly to purchase possessions upon Earth do always make the specious pretences of Religion and Reformation as the easiest way to work upon the giddy and inconstant multitude carried hither and thither with every wind of doctrine the Exordium of all their Enterprises for Quoties vis fallere plebem Finge Deum 2. But how they should worship him aright from the imperfect use of The difficulty of pleasing God from the light of nature their reason prejudiced by their appetitions and affections is not to be imagined For to worship and serve God not according to the will and pleasure of God is superstition and not to worship God is atheism It is therefore an impossible thing without the special assistance of Gods grace that men should not fall either into superstition
absurd But if Solomon his offering a peace-offering for the people and his blessing the people be objected I answer it does signifie no more then a fathers blessing his children and praying to God that they may live peaceably But none of the Kings did ever offer a sin-offering or burn incense to the Lord without reprehension by God Out of this it is evident that God never forsook men before they Annot. 2 first did forsake him Adam did first eat the forbidden fruit before God drove him out of Paradise and cursed Mankind and the ground for his sake Then mankind sinned malitiously before God brought the general Cataclysme upon them and they made a wicked conspiracy before God confounded them at Babel but none were more malitiously stubborn than the Jewes who when they were enjoyned to observe the Ceremonial Law scarce ever observed it but went a whoring after the Gods of the Nations Moab Ammon Ashteroh c. yet since our Saviour hath fulfilled it never did men so superstituously observe any thing as they have done it And now Oh that I could more then powre forth all Jeremies lamentations in commiseration of thee O my Mother Church and Native Country much more deserving it then the Jewes in the Babilonish Captivity for Jeremiah foresaw their return and restitution whereas I cannot hope but that Christianity it self is in the very wayne here among us For not only Bishops and Priests are therefore hated because they are Christs Ministers and Puppets Mountebankes and Tryers set up in the place of them and not only all the carved works in the houses of God in despite of God are beaten down with Axes and Hammers and the houses themselves destroyed and made stables for horses but all the solemn days kept in commemoration and gratitude for our Saviours Nativity Passion Resurrection Ascention c. in despite of Christianity decryed as superstitious c. Sure as glorious Christian Churches as ever were in England have been in Africa c where were it not for some poore Christian slaves there is not so much as any footsteps of Christianity left The Contents of the Third Book THe First Chap. contains the causes of Subjection of Subjects to Supream Powers of Subjection of Children to Parents of Servants to Masters as also to them who have oversight over us in the Lord. The Second Chap. treats of succession of Princes in Hereditary Monarchies and discovers the fiction of the Salique Law in France and that it was a meer invention to exclude the just title of the Kings of England and has been ill observed by the French themselves when it did not conduce to their advantage The Third Chap. treats of the Municipal Laws of my dear and native Country before they became invaded and subverted by those men who in so many several shapes since 1640. have arrogated to themselves the name of Parliament THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Of Subjection 1. IT is observed by a Writer that our Saviour Introduction in communicating the Cup to his Disciples as if he had foreseen that it would be detained from the Laity gave it in these words Drink ye all of it whereas in partaking of the Bread he said only take eat c. I am sure it is well worth the observation that the Holy Ghost as foreseeing the great abuses which should happen in the world by the specious pretences of Religion Conscience the Power of the People or Parliaments c. commands Subjection to Higher Powers not in certain cases but absolutely and not certain persons but every Soul is to be Subject to the Higher Rom. 13. 1. Powers 2. I say Supream or Regal Power being from God immediately by Subjection due by the Law of Nature to Soveraigns the Law of Nature it does necessarily follow that subjection of Subjects to their Soveraign is due by the Law of Nature nor can the relations be dissolved but by God himself I may I think without any affectation affirm that the Judges in Calvins case were as learned and upright as ever any before or since let us therefore see their resolutions 3. Those learned and upright Judges resolve tit Ligeance Ligeance What is Ligeance is a true and faithfull Obedience of the Subject due to his Soveraign This Ligeance and Obedience is an incident inseparable to every Subject for as soon as he is born he owes by birthright Ligeance and Obedience to his Soveraign Ligeantia est vinculum fidei quasi essentia Legis and a little after page 5. Ligeance does not begin by the Oath of the Leete For many men owe true Ligeance who were never sworn in the Leete Where note it is false if not Treasonable in Mr. Hobbs who affirms that the Knowledg Note of the Legislator does depend upon the Citizen For every man is as much a subject before he hath taken the Oath of Aligeance as after And see whatsoever is due by the constitution of man may be Pag. 25. tit 5. altered but natural Ligeance of the Subject to his Soveraign cannot be altered ergo natural Ligeance or Obedience to the Soveraign is not due by the Law or constitution of man And again whatsoever is due by the Law of Nature cannot be altered but Ligeance and Obedience of the Subject to the Soveraign is due by the Law of Nature ergo it cannot be altered Et qui abjurat regnum amittit regnum sed non regem amittit patriam sed non patrem Pag. 9. patriae 4. Ligeantia ac quisita or Denization is threefold First absolute to them Ligeantia acquisita Pag. 5. 6. and their heirs Secondly limited as when the King does grant Letters of Denization to an Alien and the Heirs Males of his body or for life The third is when the King by Conquest conquers another Kingdom or part of it the Antenati Postnati are Denizens of the Kingdom or Dominion so conquered Yet sure under correction the Postnati are not only Denizens but Natural Subjects For Power and Subjection being by the Law of Nature all men born in the Dominion of any Soveraign are his Natural Subjects and with this does Sir Ed. Coke agree If a man come into England and have issue two Sons these two Sons are Indigend Subjects born because they Com. Lit. pag. 88. are borne within the Realm that is in the Dominion of the King but if any be borne out of the Realm that is out of the Dominion of the King although of Natural Subjects to the King they are alienigena They therefore who are Postnati in the exercise of the Kings power by Conquest are his natural Subjects 5. Local Ligeance is when any Subject of France is in England or any English in France c. so long as he is in the power of the King he is de Local Ligeance tit 3. pag. 6. facto his Leigeman Therefore a Frenchman being in England joyned with divers Subjects of this
Realm in Treason against the King and Queen and the indictment concluded contra ligeantiae suae debitum For he owed the King a Local Obedience but if he have issue here that issue is a Natural born Subject and it is not caelum nec solum neither clymate nor soyle but Ligeantia which makes a natural Subject and therefore if Enemies possess any fort c. the issue borne there is no Subject of the Kings by as much reason those Subjects borne after Conquest by any King of England are his Natural Subjects 6. Legal Ligeance is when at suit of the King the Subject takes the Oath of Ligeance to the King which is You shall sweare that from this day â—igeantia Leâ—â—â—â—s tit 4. â—â—g 6. 7. forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soveraign the Lord King Charles his Heirs and truth and faith shall beare of life and member and Terrene honor and you shall neither know nor heare of any ill or damage intended unto him that you shall not defend so help you Almighty God The substance and effect hereof is due by the Law of Nature ex institutione natura the form and addition of the Oath is ex previsione hominis In this Oath five things are observed 1. For the time it is indefinite and without limit from this day forward Five observable things in the Oath of Ligeance 2. Two excellent things are required that is to be true and faithful 3. To whom To our Soveraign Lord the King and his heirs 4. In what manner And faith and troth shall bear c. of life and member that is until the letting out of the last drop of our dearest blood 5. Where and in what places ought these things to be done In all places whatsoever for You shall neither know nor hear of any ill or damage c. that you shall not defend c. So as Natural Ligeance is not circumscribed within any place 7. Subjection as well as Regality being by the Law of Nature Quae The consequent upon Subjects endeavoring to dissolve their subjection Deus conjunxit nemo separet And let no man or men ever think to mend what God hath made For besides the innocent blood which will be shed besides the rapine plunder sacrilegious profaning of all sacred things in the mending if God in his judgments doth permit seditious men to prosper in their wickedness so as they suppose they have attained their Ends yet their Ends never end in peace among themselves For abstracting from the general fear common to them all of the right Heirs recovering his right it cannot be expected that all Competitors will be pleased some will think others too great none will think themselves great enough They themselves have made a president to evade all subjection and obedience to Laws and Government by pretending Liberty and Reformation So that after so much bloodshed what can be expected but the shedding of more without ever hoping to have an end Well therefore says Sir Edward Coke Inst 3. p. 36. Peruse over all our Books Records and Histories and you shall find a principle in Law a rule in Reason and a trial in Experience That Treason does ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attaineth to the desired end two incidents inseparable thereunto And therefore let all men abandon it as the most poisonous bait of the Devil of Hell and follow the precept of holy Scripture Fear God honor the King and meddle not with the seditious But it may be objected That though Subjects Allegiance be natural Object 1 or due by the Law of Nature yet since there cannot be any visible power under Heaven which can judge between an Usurper and rightful Prince what rule have Subjects to direct them to whom they owe their subjection or obedience Sol. It is true there is no visible Power under Heaven which can judge between an Usurper and rightful Prince but the Consciences of men Yet being natural a man may as well ask how a man shall know whether every Being be of less excellency then the Cause of its being or that things equal to a third are equal to one another I am confident that where the confusion was not made by Popular rage and usurpation since the begining of the world God did scarce ever leave men so destitute but they were morally certain to whom they did owe their Topical and Natural obedience But if Regal power be the Ordinance of God and Primogeniture be Object 2 preferred by the Law of Nature then can there be but one rightful King in all the world and he the first-born from Adam which no man can believe Answ I answer That though Primogeniture be preferred by the Law of Nature and immutable by the will of Man yet is not God subject thereunto but before the Flood he rejected Cain though the first-born of Adam and made him a Vagabond and none of the Patriarchs So in the first age after the Flood God subjected Canaan although the son of Ham Japhets elder brother to Japhet And so did God prefer Jacob before Esau and Gen. 9. 27. Ephraim before Manasses and Solomon before Adonijah Yet where and when God did not reveal himself to Man otherwise was ever Primogeniture preferred Nor can it in reason be expected that God should be so cruel a Taskmaster to require subjection upon penalty of Damnation if it were not evident to whom this subjection were due It is sufficient that Subjects pay their obedience to him against whose title no just or superior title can be taken Yet is not this subjection always to be understood of active subjection For no man is bound Government being intended for mans preservation not destruction actually so to submit to rightful Governors that he be morally certain of destruction therefore Yet ought every man rather to suffer death then actually to renounce or resist rightful Governors to whom by the Law of Nature they owe obedience Quaere 8. But suppose there be such a succession from an Usurper that not only the Heir to the Usurper but all men in his Government were born Subjects to him and his Ancestors from whom he is descended as in the time of Henry 6. when all men were born either in subjection to him his Father or Grandfather who had no colour or title to the Crown whether in such case may Subjects so born assist such a Prince against the right Heir I say I pray God avert the like from ever being again in the English Nation 'T is true the right Heir hath a just title of war against such a Prince but whether Subjects so born their being so born being no act of their will but was caused by a higher cause viz. the will of God may actually assist him to whom they were so born in subjection against him who hath the superior title I leave to God and mens consciences 9. But this Quaere can only
in the regencie of the Queen mothers Blanch the mother of St. Lewis of Francis the second Charles the ninth Lewis the thirteenth and Lewis the fourteenth 20. Neither have the French better observed the other part of the It has been ill observed by the French Salique Law for the descending of the Crown to the heirs male for Pepin having put King Childerick into a Monastery had not any colour of title but as he was chosen by the Parliament of Paris so that it seems the Parliament of Paris may do what the King and general Assembly cannot and alter the most fundamental constitutions of France which forsooth at other times are immutable and Hugh Capet to make his title good against Charles of Lorrain the right Masculine heire of Pepin did derive his pedigree from one of the daughters of Charlemain son of Pepin Nor could Lewis the ninth a most religious Prince be resolved in conscience till he was satisfied that by his Grandmothers side he was descended from the right heirs of Charles of Lorrain But I wonder with what face these Frenchmen can urge the Salique Law against others and yet practise the contrary themselves For Charles the eight having married Anne the Dutchess of Brittain and by that title possessed the Dutchy by whom he had Claude married to Francis the first who had issue Henry the second who had issue Francis the second Charles the ninth Henry the third and Hercules Elizabeth married to Philip the second of Spain and Margaret married to Henry the fourth Now Francis Charles Henry and Hercules dying without issue legitimate I would know how against the Salique Law Charles and his posterity should have a title to Britain and yet King Philip and his posterity be debarred of it by vertue of this pretended Salique Law CHAP. III. Of the Municipal Laws of England before 1640. 1. TEmporal or Secular Laws are made to preserve men so long as Of Temporal Laws and incidently of the Municipal Laws of this Nation they live in this world in unity and peace one with another and these do not bind in conscience only but injoyn corporal and pecuniary mulcts for not observance or transgressing them The Municipal Laws of this Kingdom are either the Common Law which are general usages of that long continuance that they have quite lost their prime institution That they were not brought in by the Conqueror is most evident Common Law or Generall usage for the Conqueror swore to observe the good approved and antient Laws of this Kingdom and that the Subjects might the better observe Proem 8. part of Sir Ed. Cokes Reports their duty and the Conquerors Oath he caused twelve the most discreet and wise men in every shire throughout all England to be sworn before himself that without swerving either ad dextram or ad sinistram they should declare the integrity of their Laws without concealing adding or in any sort varying from the truth and Aldreb the Archbishop that crowned him and Hugh the Bishop of London by the Kings commandement wrote that which the Jurats had delivered and these by Publick Proclamation he declared to be authentick and under grievous punishment to be inviolably observed And that 441 years before the incarnation of Christ Mulumutius of Preface 3. report some called Dunvallo M. of some Dovebant did write two Books of the Laws of the Britans the one called Statuta Municipalia and the other Leges judiciariae which is as much as to say the Statute-Law and Common-Law And 356 years before our Saviour Mercia Proba Queen and wife of King Gwintclin wrote a book of the Laws of England in the British tongue calling it Marchenleg King Alfred or King Alured King of the West-Saxons 871 years after Christ wrote a book of the Laws of England calling the same Breviarum quoddam quod composuit ex diversis legibus Trojanorum Graecorum Britanorum Saxonum Danorum In the year after our Saviour 653. Sigabert or Sigisbert Orientalium Anglorum Rex wrote a book calling it Legum instituta King Edward of that name the third before the Conquest ex immensa legum congerie quas Britanni Romani Angli condiderunt optima quaeque selegit ac in unam coegit quam vocari voluit Communem legem But whether these latter were the Laws which are now used in England under correction may be question made because the Authorities cited are from such obscure and uncertain Authors that no great credit is to be given to them nor are those Books except Alfreds and Edwards which are obsolete and out of use with us and so have been these 600 years any where to be found whereby it may appear that they have any affinity with the Common-Law But it does most certainly appear out of most authentical Records that time out of mind before the Conquest there had been Sheriffs for the Writ of Assise and every other Original Writ to whom they were directed except to the Coroner in special cases who stands in place of the Sheriff and for Trials by the Oath of Twelve men and that the Writs of Assise and other Original Writs were retornable into the Kings Courts and that there had been a Court of Chancery for all Original Writs to issue out and none other and that those Mannors that were in the hands of S. Edward the Confessor are to this day called Ancient Demesne All which does more copiously and fully appear in this Proeme to the Third Part of the Reports And that the Chancery Kings Bench Common Pleas the Exchequer be all the Kings Courts and have been time out of memory of man so as no Proem Rep. 8. man knows which of them is antientest Afterward in the Proeme to the Ninth Part of his Reports out of the Mirror of Justices which treats how the Land was governed almost twelve hundred years since having spoken of the Courts of Parliament Chancery Kings Bench Common Pleas and the Exchequer he descends to the Justiciarii Itinerantes or Justices in Eire The Kings do right to all men by their Justices Commissioners itinerant assigned to have Conusance Justices Itinerant sec 6. of all Pleas. In aid of such Eires the Sheriffs Turns and View of Frankpledges are necessary c. Then he treateth of the Sheriffs Turn That the Sheriffs of antient Sheriffs Turn sec 7. Ordinance do hold general Assemblies twice a year in every Hundred whither all the Freeholders within the Hundred are bound to come by the service of their Feifs or Fees that is to say once after Michaelmas and another time after Easter c. Leets or Courts of View of Frankpledge are Assemblies ordained Leets or view of Frank-pledge sec 8. once a year not only of Freeholders but of all in the Hundred as well Denizens as others except Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors and all Religious people and Clerks Earls Barons Knights Married women Persons dumb and deaf diseased Bastards and Lepers and
those that are Deciners elswhere to enquire of the offences personal and of all the circumstances of offences done in those Hundreds of the wrong done by the Kings or Queens ministers and of the wrong done to the King and the Commonalty But this ought not to be done by Bondmen or Women but by the Oath of Twelve Freemen The County-Court which the Sheriffs hold from moneth to moneth County-court sec 9. or from five weeks to five weeks according to the greatness or largeness of the County Of Court-Barons and Hundred Courts Court-Baron c. sec 10. The other mean Courts are the Courts of every Lord of the Fee c. Pipowders sec 11. Courts of Pipowders And that from day to day speedy Justice be done to Strangers in Fairs and Markets as of Pipowders according to the Law of Merchants Court of Admiralty The King hath soveraign jurisdiction upon Admiralty sec 12. the Sea Courts of the Forrest The Kings Ministers of his Forrests have Courts-Forest see 13. power by authority of their office to swear men without the Kings Writ for safeguard of the peace and the Kings right and the common good c. He treats of the Professors of the Law as Counters who are Serjeants and Pleaders Of Attornies Of Ministers of Justice as Viscounts Coroners Escheators Bailiffs of Hundreds c. And also by the antient Kings Coroners were ordained in every County and Sheriffs to keep the Peace when the Earls were absent from their charges and Bailiff in lieu of the Hundredors c. Of the Prerogatives of the King as of Deodands Alienation to Aliens Teeasure found Wreck Waif Estray Chattels of Felons and Fugitives Honors Hundreds Soakes Gaoles Forrests chief Cities chief Ports of the Sea great Manors These held the first Kings as their right and of the residue of the Land did enfeoff the Earls Barons Knights Serjeants and others to hold of the King by Services provided and ordained for defence of the Realm It was ordained that the Knights Fee should come to the eldest by succession of heritage and that Socage Fee should be partable between the Male-children and that the Liege-Lords should have the Marriage He treateth in the first Chapter of Crimes and their divisions of the crime of Majesty of Fausonnery of Treason of Burning of Homicide of Felony of Burglary of Rape c. In the second of Actions of Judges of Actors c. In the third of Exceptions dilatory and peremptory that is Pleas to the Writ and in Bar c. of Trial by Juries and by Battel of Attaints of Challenges of Fines c. In the fourth of Judgments and therein of Jurisdiction of Process in criminal causes and in Actions real personal and mixt So as in this Mirror you may perfectly and truly discern the whole Body of the Common Laws of England Thus far Sir Edward Coke Mr. Lambert in his unfolding the difficult things and words in his translation of the Saxon Laws says King Alured when he had made a League with Guthrun the Dane having followed the most prudent counsel given by Jethro to Moses first divided England in Satrapias Centurias Decurias He called Satrapiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to divide He called Centuriam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Decuriam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a company of Ten men and by those names they are called to this day And that no man might be ignorant the Decuria did consist of Ten men whereof all of them were pledges that every one should be forth-coming to any Action in Law and if any one did any damage the other were bound to make it good and from hence the other nine were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Free-pledges we in the Pleas of Courts call them Francos plegios The tenth man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called the Decurio or Tithingman by which name he is most known to the Eastern English at this day Others call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the first or chief Surety or Pledge The Kentish men call him Borsholder corruptly for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the first Surety Centuria or a Hundred was made up of ten Decuria's as one Hundred is made up of ten times ten This viz. Hundred the men beyond Trent called by another name not unknown to the common people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wapentac Alured then further ordained That every man of free condition should be enrolled in some Hundred and be conjoined into some Ten-men company That of lesser businesses the Decurions or Court-Leet might judge and if any weightier matter were it should be deferred to the Hundred or County-Court Lastly that the Alderman and Sheriff I take it he calls them Senator Praepositus should compound the most difficult Suits and of greatest moment in that frequent Convention from all parts of the Shire or County And what the manner of judging was King Etheldred in the fourth Chapter of his Laws which he enacted in a full Senate or Parliament at Vanatnigum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Woodstock expounds almost in these very words In all and every Hundred let there be Assemblies and that Twelve elderly men of free condition together with the Sheriff Praeposito be sworne that they will not condemn the Innocent or absolve the Guilty So that Mr. Lambert seems to be of opinion that the Common-Law had its origination from King Alured or Alfred who was King of all England and a most victorious pious prudent and glorious Monarch about the year of our Lord 890. And from a most deplorable condition by reason of the Danish invasion and robbery reduced it to a most quiet calm and laid that foundation upon which the body of the Common-Law is since builded But whosoever was the first Founder and Establisher of them certain it is they were antient and Laws which better suit to the nature and disposition of English-men then any other that are or ever were in the world would do 2. As those general Usages or Customs which are generally observed Particular Usages are called the Common-Law so there are almost infinite particular Usages Prescriptions and Customs in several parts of this Nation which are observed as Laws by the Inhabitants of those places and to all intents and purposes have the effect of Laws 3. Statute-Laws are Acts of Parliament which are neither general Statute-Law nor particular Customs but are Laws made by the Kings of this Land in Parliament upon sundry and diverse occasions according to the then occasions as they represented themselves For although all innovations are dangerous and therefore if it were possible no doubt it were best that humane Laws as the Laws of Nature might be immutable and eternal but as God hath created all things transitory and nothing in this world the same the next
at all So that it may be rather termed a Representative of the Free Corporations then a Representative of the Freeborn people of England The House of Commons therefore cannot be a Representative of the Freeborn people of England But suppose them the Representatives of the Freeborn people of this Nor the Supreme Authority of the Nation Nation yet cannot they be the Supreme Authority of it for no power can act beyond the power of its being I say therefore that no Representative can be supreme or superior to the cause of its being The House of Commons therefore cannot be granting it the Representative of the Freeborn people of this Nation the Supreme Authority of the Nation But if the house of Commons be not sent by the people and their Representatives Who creates them and by what right do they make a house of Commons Before we answer this Quaere wee will see of what sorts of men a house Of what sorts of men the house of Commons is compounded of Commons is compounded A house of Commons is compounded of three sorts of men viz. Knights of Counties Citizens sent by Cities and Burgesses of Corporations Barons of the Cinque Ports are the same thing differently expressed with Burgesses of Corporations Now that all Cities Burroughs Corporations and Cinque Ports are not so jure naturali nor by any inherent birthright but from their Charter which is nothing else but the Kings grant is so manifest that I think no man in his wits will deny But all Cities and Corporations are not alike in priviledges but more or less as they are impowred by their Charter or Grant of the King Some Corporations have Liberties Priviledges and are impowred to send Burgesses others have Liberties and Priviledges but not qualified to send Burgesses nay some Cities have Liberties and Priviledges but not endewed with this right of having Representative in the house of Commons as the Cities of Durham and Ely And as neither Cities nor Burroughs are endewed with these their Liberties What creates the house of Commons and Priviledges by any inherent birthright so neither are the Counties nor Inhabitants endewed with any right of sending Knights of their Counties by any inherent birthright for then had all the Counties a like right one as another and all the Inhabitans a like vote and they mighr create representatives as often as they should see occasion But all these are most evidently false for we have shewed before that not only the division of this Nation into Counties was an act of the Kings but all Counties are not alike endewed with this Priviledge some Counties in Wales sending but one and the County of Durham none at all Nor have all men a like vote in electing and yet as much subject to Laws made in Parliament as other men but men only who have 40 s. yearly freehold rent nor can these 40 s. a year men when they will send their representatives What then does impower these to send representatives Why let Sir Ed. Coke say Inst 4. p. 1. Knights of Shires Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Burroughs are respectively elected by the Counties Cities and Burroughs by force of the Kings Writ So that the Kings Writ is the first and efficient cause of the pag. 28. house of Commons as well of the Knights as Citizens and Burgesses the Commons cannot begin nor be dissolved without the King in person or representation If then Rebellion be as the sin of Witchcraft as the Holy Ghost saies Annot. and if crimen lesae Majestatis be the highest crime and impiety as all Lawyers hold and if Gratitude be one the chief of all Moral virtues as all men hold for si ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris no man who is an ingrateful man but has rendred himself as if he had committed all manner of wickedness How impious then is it for men only from the Kings grace endewed with this high favor to convert it in opposition and derogation of that power and person from whence they originally received it But they say if the Commons did it then was it done by the people and so just and not to be questioned as if the people were not a thing to be governed and all as much subject to the King and Laws as every one or that a thing just or unjust in it self were more just or unjust because more or fewer did it Will any man say the crucifying of our Saviour was therefore just because many of the Jews did it or that a rout or riot is therefore lawful because done by many men or that it is not paricide or regicide if many Sons and Subjects kill their Parents and King As all the Members of both houses are created by the King so cannot The Parliament cannot begin but by the King these Members be formed into a body but by the King either by his Royal presence or representation By representation two waies either by a Guardian of England by Letters Patents under the great Seal when the King is in remotis out of the Realm or by Commission under the great Seal of Inst 4. p. 6. England to certain Lords of Parliament representing the person of the King he being within the Realm in respect of some infirmity This House is so far from being the Supreme Authority of the Nation The Jurisdiction of the Commons House that they are not a Court of Judicature nor can impose an Oath or take any mans Examination Yet Sir Ed. Coke says Inst 4. 28. that the House of Commons is to many purposes a distinct Court because he says they cannot be prorogued or adjourned but by its self yet gives no more It is true indeed that to many purposes among themselves they do judge their Members and Elections and have a Committee for Religion but these things are more of custom whether good or bad I cannot tell then of any original right that I know or ever heard of And Sir Ed. Coke Inst 4. 11. says They being the general Inquisitors of the Realm have principal care in the beginning of Parliaments to appoint Committees of Grievances both in Church and Commonwealth of Courts of Justice of Priviledges and of Advancement of Trade They have been wont too ever since the Statute de Tallagie non concedendo of course to grant the King Aids in extraordinary cases The House of Peers assisted as aforesaid are the Supreme Court of The Jurisdiction of the House of Lords Judicature in this Nation not only to judge whether matters presented to them by the Commons be fit or requisite for the King to pass into Laws as Monsieur Bodin well observes who disputes this better then any of our English Lawyers that I know of has done but also of Writs of Error and of matters of Fact either not determinable in other Courts or else when though they are determinable in other Courts yet in regard of nicety or
men and all the Commonalty assembled in Parliament Statutes made at Westminster were enacted by the King his Prelates An. 4. Ed. 3. Earls Barons and other of the same Parliament at the request of the Commons Statutes made at Westminster The King by the assent of the Prelates An. 5. Ed. 3. Earls Barons and other great men of the Realm at the request of his people granted and established c. Statutes made at York were enacted by the King in Parliament upon An. 9. Ed. 3. the Petition of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses Statute of Money made at York was enacted by the King with the An. 9. Ed. 3. assent of the Prelates Earls and Barons and the Commons not so much as named Statutes made at Westminster were made and established by the King An. 10. Ed. 3. with the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other Nobles of this Realm and at the request of the Knights and Commons Statutes of Purveyors made at Westminster were enacted by the King An. 10. Ed. 3. with the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and also at the request of the Knights of the Shires and the Commons by their petitions put in the said Parliament Statutes made at Westminster were to the honor of God and of Holy An. 14 Ed. 3. Church by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other assembled at Parliament And see almost all the Acts of Parliament in Ed. 3. his time after in Rich. 2. Hen. 4. Hen. 5. Hen. 6. Ed. 4. Rich. 3. the King always made the Law and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal did assent at the instance request or petition of the Commons or by the King with the assent of the Lords and Commons which was not or but rarely used unless in Rich. 2. his time In Hen. 7. his time the Commons got to have their assent as well as the Lords in passing Laws And this manner of passing Laws continued generally until Edward the Sixth's time where they were sometime made by the King with the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament and sometime by the Parliament But the form of enacting Laws by the King and the Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament was seldom or never used before Queen Maries time So that it is as clear as the Sun at noon-day That a King of England Sessions of Parliaments do not derogate from Regal Power by the ancient usages of this Nation is as free and absolute in the Session of Parliament as out And the Act of a King in Parliament is the free and voluntary Act of an absolute Monarch for the Act of the King in Parliament passed by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the Petition of the Commons is not less the act of the King because it is so passed unless a man will deny that my Will being a faculty of my Soul cannot imperate an act if it takes information from my Understanding or Reason Reason and Understanding being in proportion to the Will as Counsel is to a Law King Charles of Sacred memory commends to his Son the then Prince of Wales in his last Letter and Admonition to him though for his own particular he had little Reason God knows so to do the frequent use of Parliaments as the best means by which Laws may be received of the Subjects and diffused to all parts of the Nation and to hold a right understanding between the King and his Subjects But as nullum medicamentum est idem omnibus nay the same Medicine at one time may kill the same person which at another time may cure him And that thing which at one time may be a very probable reason of an action at another time may be none at all or quite contrary to Reason So in Reasons of State that may be a very probable reason at one time which may be none at all or perhaps destructive at another time As Henry the Third had great Reason of State to form a House of Commons and endue it with large priviledges to secure himself against a stubborn and rebellious Nobility But King Charles had not the same Reason of State to indulge the House of Commons contriving the destruction of himself the Church and Nobility Laws and Liberties of this Nation Edward the First had great Reason of State to call a Parliament and to pass the Act De Tallagio non concedendo for otherwise as the state of affairs then stood he could neither get money to assist his Friend and Ally the Earl of Flanders nor relieve his distressed Subjects in Aquitaine oppressed by the French King which Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon this Statute observes but King Charles had not the same Reason of State to call the Parliament in 1640. who instead of assisting their natural Sovereign against a Rebellious Rabble of Mungrel Hebrides and Lysisks give them Three hundred thousand pounds to be exported out of the Kingdom for their Brotherly assistance Edward the First had great Reason of State to pass the Statute of Mortmaine when as men were so superstitiously given that no man thought he could merit Heaven if he gave nothing to the Church whereby such large Revenues accrued to the Church that the third part of the Revenues of the Nation was in Church-mens hands who pretending exemption from the Temporal Power if some remedy were not taken the King would probably be left destitute of means to protect himself and his Subjects yet is there not now that Reason of State when in a Sacrilegious age all the Patrimony of the Church goes to wrack and ruine and men of Badges of Sacriledge make marks of Saintship It were endless to enumerate how Reasons of State vary with the times It must suffice that there be means always in the Supream Power to remedy and cure the maladies and mischiefs of State as they arise and represent themselves Yet it is a remarkable thing That they who oblige Kings and Supream Powers to their own Laws will never be obliged by either their own or any Laws of God if ever the Supremacy comes to be vested in them and let any man shew me in Five hundred years one time wherein the Kings of England did alter the Laws out of Parliament and I will shew him an hundred times in seven years where men arrogating to themselves the name of Parliament have altered the Laws without the King They who oblige Supream Powers to Humane Laws the Conditions must oblige God too to such things as is contained in those Laws and Conditions or else it is impossible for Powers to protect their Subjects But Corruptio optimi est pessima there were never so vile things done as have been by Parliaments or by men calling themselves so Sir Edward Inst 4. page 37 38. Coke being always mightily in love with Parliaments gives instances but in two viz. Thomas Cromwel Earl of
as Judicial The end of the Fourth Book The Contents of the Fifth Book HAving before treated of the Causes of all Regal and Ecclesiastical power and having in the last Chapter of the Third Book treated of the Laws and Civil Government of this Nation being the exercise of Regal power in reference to the publick preservation of Peace and Society in it In this First Chap. we shall treat how far Ecclesiastical power has been exercised in this Nation and by whom Whether originally the Britanick and English-Saxon Churches were free or subject to the Papal power quoad exercitium And whether as well before the Conquest as after the Kings of this Nation were not Nursing Fathers to the Church of Christ And whether always before the Conquest the Royal Government did not extend as well to the Persons as Possessions of Ecclesiastical persons And whether all Bishopricks were not originally of the Kings foundation In the reciting the Ecclesiastical Laws made by the Kings and Queens of this Realm we shall observe three periods viz. The Ecclesiastical Laws made by the Kings of England before the Conquest The Laws made by the Conqueror and subsequent Kings until Henry the Eighth And lastly the Laws made by him and the Kings and Queens after him until the end of King Charls his Reign Note good Reader that in the reciting of these Laws I do not affirm that these Laws made by the Kings of this Realm did never incroach upon that Ghostly power which our Saviour by Divine positive institution left only to his Church and therefore make no construction upon them but only when they are recited and objected as Authorities against that Power My designe is to shew having already demonstrated that by the Law of Nature the persons of all Subjects born in the dominion of rightful Kings are their natural Subjects which is an indelible character and can never be washed out and therefore Subjects being Ecclesiastical persons cannot free them from it And that all priviledges and endowments which Ecclesiastical persons enjoy besides their ghostly power is created by the King That the exercise of the Kings power over the persons and possessions of Ecclesiasticks as also Laws made by them for the order and preservation of the extern peace of the Church is no new thing as hath been by some objected THE FIFTH BOOK CHAP. I. How far the Kings Popes and Bishops of England have exercised their Spiritual Jurisdiction in England before Henry the Eighth IT cannot sure be reasonably denied Apology by any man but that Ignorance is the mother of all Error nor is any man better in any kind whatsoever for being innurtured or ignorant We daily see no where more feuds If learning or knowledge were the cause of dissentions or distractions how then comes it to pass that all dissentions are determined by learned and knowing men or else they would be endless and dissentions then among ignorant and mean men which were there not Laws to decide their difference would be endless and Mankind left in a worse condition then any other creatures Nor is Education and Learning any cause of the dissentions and debates which arise among learned and better educated men but some internal cause proceeding from pride or some other appetitions or affection in them And though Education and Learning does not totally alter mens natures from bad to good yet does it soften mens manners and makes them not to be so bruitish as those who are destitute of Learning and Civil breeding For Didicisse fideliter Artes Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros It is true indeed that in that state in which God hath placed all men here they do not see all things truly but men are and always were and will be subject to humane error and frailty and in many things notwithstanding all the arts and helps which can be devised men will never be reconciled But that men should therefore condemn all Science and Learning is like to a man that if he sees and hears not all things distinctly and clearly although it may be he sees and hears well enough to do things which are necessary for his conservation that therefore he will put out his eyes and have his ears always stopped Nor shall ever ignorance of any mans duty totally excuse him for his not observance of Laws be they Divine or Humane Nor shall the blind belief of Subjects in their Superiors whether Ecclesiastical or Temporal ever totally excuse them from those things which are due and they believe that they owe to God I am not so very a Hobbian as to believe that it is impossible for Supreme powers to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature nor yet so very a Papalian as to think that the Pope is infallible Especially since it is evident that Aarons joining with the people in their idolatry did not excuse Exod. 32. the Israelites of old nor did the command of both King and Priests ever under the Old Law excuse the subject Israelites from Gods judgments upon them for their idolatry Nor is this very opinion of them in the Church of Rome of the Popes infallibility believed by themselves however urged against others who are not of her communion For then were not only General Councils supervacaneous and useless things but also there could be no difference among them which is superior a Pope or General Council Nor do they less deny it in their practice then their opinion For when Sixtus Quintus had excommunicated 9 Sept. 1585. the King of Navar and Prince of Conde and as he affirmed made them uncapable of succession to the French Monarchy yet were most part of the French troubled at it doubting the Priviledges of the Gallic Church would be trodden under foot which they needed not have doubted or feared if they had believed the Pope to have been infallible and all the Parliament of Paris who were all of the Church of Rome desired the King Henry the Third to have the Bull torne in pieces as you may read Davila 575. And the Parliaments of Chalons and Tours did not only decree the Bull of Gregory 14. to the Prelates and Catholiques of the Kings party under pain of Excommunication of being deprived of their Dignities and Benefices and of being used as Hereticks and Sectaries that within a certain time they should withdraw themselves from those places that yielded obedience to Henry of Bourbon and from the union and fellowship of his Faction to be publikely burnt but it was so far rejected and scorned by the very Prelates and all other Catholiques of the Kings party that it did extreamly confirm them all in the Kings obedience being before unsetled and inclining to the Cardinal of Bourbons faction as you may read more at large in the Twelfth book of Davila's History But it may be they will say That this was not in matter of Faith and that the Popes infallibility is affixed to Faith
Plate Jewels and Treasure of the Churches and Religious Houses within the Realm and compelled the Clergy to give him the one half of one years value of all their Ecclesiastical promotions and dignities But such was the felicity of this Prince that neither Pope nor Clergy durst openly oppugne him but in the 27. year of his Reign at the request of Boniface 8. says Martin he set John Baliol adjudged by Edward before King of Scotland at liberty And having conquered Scotland in the 33. year of his Reign Robert Bruce procured an Instrument from the Pope that the Kingdom of Scotland was holden of the Church of Rome and therefore required the King to desist from the prosecution of his Wars there But how little King Edward regarded this Instrument and what answer he returned to the Pope you may read in our English Chronicles nor do I finde that ever more prosecution was made by the Pope in this Kings life-time 20. From this time until Henry the Eighth the Kings of England and In the reign of Hen. 4. the Popes kept so good correspondence that they never went so far as Excommunication or Interdiction on the Popes part and how far the Kings did restrain the Popes jurisdiction in their several reigns after the Conquest shall be shewed in Chap. 3. Yet I cannot pass over one thing of the whole Hierarchy of the Church of England except only the Bishop of Carlisle who all factiously and traiterously conspired or adhered to Henry the Fourth his unjust Usurpation and Deposition of their Soveraign Richard the Second CHAP. II. Of Ecclesiastical Laws made by the Saxon and Danish Kings before the Conquest I Inas by Gods gift King of the West-Saxons by the advice and instruction Inas began to reign in the year of Christ 712 died 727. of Cenredes my Father and Heddes my Bishop and Eorkenwoldes my Bishop and with all my * Counsellors Earls Ealdermen and them of best birth of the Wisest of my people and eke in a great Assembly of Gods Servants did religiously study as well for the health of my soul as for the common profit of our Kingdom that right Laws of Marriage and just Judgment be firmly established through every folk and that hereafter it shall not be lawful for any Ealderman or any under our rule to make void these our Dooms or Judgments Cap. 1. Of the Rule of Gods Servants First we command that Gods Servants have a right rule of living After that we command all folk to observe these Laws and Dooms or Judgments Cap. 2. Of Children A Child shall be baptized within thirty days after it be born if that be not done let thirty shillings be forfeited If that it die before it be baptized he shall forfeit all he hath Cap. 3. Of working upon Sunday If a Slave work on Sunday by his Masters command let him be free and the Master shall pay thirty shillings But if the Servant did his work without command of his Master beat his hide or make him to fear a hide-beating If a Free servant do any work without his Masters bidding let him forfeit his freedom or sixty shillings and a Priest double so much Cap. 4. Of First-fruits First-fruits shall be paid upon the Mass of S. Martin he who shall not then pay them shall forfeit forty shillings and pay twelvefold the value of the fruits Cap. 5. Of Church-Priviledge or Sanctuary If any man guilty of death flee to the Church let his life be spared and let right be done to him And if any man deserving stripes implores help of the Church let him be remitted his stripes Cap. 6. Of Fighting If a man strike in the Kings house he shall forfeit all he hath and let it depend upon the Kings judgment whether he shall lose his life If one strike in a * Cathedral Church Minster he shall pay one hundred and twenty shillings c. Cap. 62. Of First fruits Every man shall pay First-fruits for the Roof and Hearth where he shall be upon the day of the birth of our Saviour Cap. 75. Of the killing of Godfather or Godson If any one shall slay his Godson or his Godfather he shall compensate so much to his next of kin as the compensation due to his Lord had been And this payment to the value of him which is killed shall be increased or lessened accordingly as the payment to the Lord for the Servant killed should have been performed If it be the Kings Godson which is killed he shall satisfie the King and his kindred but if the next of kin kills him he shall pay to the Godfather so much as should have been paid to the Lord for the slaughter of his Servant If he be a Bishops son he shall pay half so much Ecclesiastical Laws made by King Alfred or Alured who began to reign in the Year 871. The Preface GOD did speak these words to Moses and thus said I am the Lord thy God I led thee out of Egypt land and of the house of bondage Thou shalt not choose other Gods before me Do not take my Name in idleness for I will not hold him innocent who on idleness taketh my Name Remember thou keep holy the Seventh day Do thy work on six days and on the Seventh rest thou and thy son and thy daughter thy servant and handmaid and thy work-cattel and the stranger that is within thy door For on six days Christ made heaven and earth sea and all things thereon were created by him and rested on the Seventh day and therefore the Lord hallowed it Honor thy Father and thy Mother whom the Lord gave thee that thou maist live long on earth Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not commit adultery Nor report false witness of thy neighbor nor covet thou thy neighbors inheritance without right Nor work golden gods or silver Thou shalt constitute these Judgments If a man buy a Christian man he shall serve six years the seventh let him be free without cost With the same vestment he came in with the same let him go out if he have a wife let her go out with him if his Lord gave him his wife she and her * * Children bearns are the Lords But if the servant shall say I will not part from my Lord nor from my wife nor from my children nor from my work then let his Lord bring him to the door of the Temple and there let him bore his ear with an eal for a sign that ever after he is his servant If any man sell his daughter for an handmaid he shall not use her as an handmaid he shall use her courteously neither shall he sell her to other folk and if she be negligent let him be pacified let him set her free to stranger folk if he ally her to his son in marriage let him give a garment the reward of her modesty and endow
an Englishman or thus deny it let him take eleven and he be the twelfth c. Of Homicides by men Ordained Cap. 73. If a Bishop kill a man let it be recorded and let him repent twelve years seven years in bread and water and five let him fast three days in a week and on others let him use common sustenance If a Priest kill a man or a Monk let him lose his Order and repent ten years six in bread and water and four let him fast three days in a week on others let him use his meat If a Presbyter wound a man let him fast one hundred day If a Deacon kill a man let him be degraded and repent seven years four in bread and water and three let him fast three days in a week upon other let him use common meat If a Clerk shall kill a man let him repent six years four in bread and water two years three days in the week If a Laick kill a man let him repent five years three in bread and water and two years let him fast three days in the week If a man kill a man in Orders or his neighbor let him depart out of his Countrey and go to Rome and make the Pope and his Councel let him in like maner repent of Adultery or Fornication or lying with a Nun. These Laws are likewise set out by Mr. Abraham Whelock in the Appendix to his History of Bede Sir Ed. Coke Candrys Case says Henry the first did Ordain Anno 16. Regni sui as well in regard of his Ecclesiastical as Regal power that whensoever the Abbot of Reading shall die that all the Possessions do remain entire and free But how this should make any thing for the Kings Ecclesiastical Right in all Cases I do not understand for this Ordinance was onely concerning the Possessions of the Abbey and it is no Question but all the Bishopricks as well as Abbeys were originally of the Kings foundation and it appears by the Margent that the King was the particular Founder of this Abby what then hinders but that the King might dispose of the Revenues as he should think fit without having any Ghostly power in him Ecclesiastical Laws made by Henry the third Magna Charta FIrst we have granted to God and by this our present Chapter have confirmed Cap. 1. for us and our heirs for ever that the Church of England shall be free and shall enjoy all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable Reserves to all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Templars Hospitalers Cap. 38. According to Sir Edward Coke Inst 2. yet the Statute-book in large divides this Act but into thirty seven Chapters and all persons Ecclesiastical all their free Liberties which they have had in time passed and all these Customs and Liberties aforesaid which we have granted to be holden within this Realm as much as appertains to us and our heirs we shall observe And all men as well Spiritual as Temporal as much as in them is shall observe the fame against all persons likewise And for this our Gift and Grant of these Liberties and of other contained in our Charter of Liberties of our Forest Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons Knights Freeholders and other our Subjects have given to us the fifteenth part of their moveables and we have granted to them on the other part that neither we nor our heirs shall procure or do any thing whereby the Liberty in this Charter contained shall be infringed or broken And if any thing be procured by any person contrary to the premisses it shall be of no force nor effect In the Reign of Hen. 3. Cawdries Case 3 H. 3. tit Proh 13. 4 H. 3. c. In all the time of Henry 3. and his Progenitors Kings of England and ever since if any man did sue afore any Judge Ecclesiastical within the Realm for any thing whereof that Court by allowance and custom had not any lawful cognisance the King did ever by his Writ under the Great Seal prohibit them to proceed Answ It is true indeed that not only Probate of Testaments but Cognisance of Tythes Granting of Letters of Administration Mortuaries Pensions Reparation of Churches do not belong to Ecclesiastical cognisance by any Divine positive institution but by allowance and custom of England And if all Customs suppose some Grant originally from Supreme humane Powers then what hinders but that the King might prohibit any Judge Ecclesiastical within the Realm for any thing whereof that Court by allowance and custom had not lawful conusance for Cujus est velle ejus est nolle And if the suggestion made to the Plea King whereupon the Prohibition was grounded were after found untrue then the King by his Writ of Consultation under the Great Seal did allow and permit them to proceed Also in all the Reign of H. 3. and his Progenitors Kings of England if any Issue were joyned upon Loyalty of Marriage General Bastardy or such like the King did ever write to the Bishop of the Diocese as Mediate Officer and Minister of his Court to certifie the Loyalty of the Marriage Bastardy or such like All which prove that those Courts were under the Kings jurisdiction and commandment It is true that not only all Courts and planting of Christianity were originally by the Kings command or permission but the persons of all men within the Realm are in his power And Marriage and Bastardy being so essential and whereupon the strength of mens estates and inheritances do depend what hinders the King to write to the Bishop to certifie the Loyalty of the Marriage And if it pleases him to do it as his mediate officer who shall contradict is Well let it be granted the Kings of England in cases of Bastardy and Loyal Matrimony have written to the Bishop of the Diocese as his mediate officer yet it will not follow that the Bishop is the Kings mediate officer in all things and cases which relate to his Episcopal function and jurisdiction Ecclesiastical Laws made by Edward the First THe King willeth that the peace of the holy Church be maintained in Stat. West an 3. Ed. 1. 1275. all points and that Religious Houses shall not be overcharged nor any Purveyance be made of any Prelate without the owners consent They who shall offend and be thereof attainted shall be committed to the Kings prison and after shall make fine and be punished according to the quantity and manner of the trespass and after as the King in his Court shall think fit c. It is provided also That when any Clerk is taken for guilty of felony Cap. 1. and is demanded by the Ordinary he shall be delivered to him according to the priviledge of the holy Church on such peril as belongeth to it after the custom aforetimes used And the King admonisheth the Prelates and enjoineth them upon the faith that they ow to him and for the common profit and
peace of the Realm that they which be indicted of such offences by solemn Inquest of lawful men in the Kings Court in no manner shall be delivered without due purgation so that the King shall not need to proide any other remedy therein The Statute of Circumspectè agatis made 13 Ed. 1. 1285. Certain Cases wherein the Kings Prohibition doth not lie Cap. 1. The King to his Judges sendeth greeting Use your selves circumspectly in all matters concerning the Bishop of Norwich and his Clergy not punishing them if they hold plea in Court Christian of such things as be meerly Spiritual that is to wit of Penance injoined by Prelates for deadly sin of Fornication Avowtry and such like for the which sometimes corporal penance and sometime pecuniary is enjoined specially if a Freeman be convict of such things As also Prelates do punish for leaving the Church-yard unclosed or for that the Church is uncovered or not conveniently decked in which cases none other penance can be enjoined but pecuniary Item If a Parson demand of his Parishioners Oblations or Tithes due and accustomed or if any Parson do sue against another Parson for Tithes greater or smaller so that the fourth part of the value of the benefits be not demanded Item If a Parson demand Mortuaries in places where a Mortuary hath been used to be given Item If a Prelate of a Church or a Patron demand of a Parson a Pension due to him All such demands are to be made in a Spiritual Court And for laying violent hands on a Clerk and in case of Defamation it hath been granted already that it shall be tryed in a Spiritual Court when money is not demanded but a thing done for punishment of sin and likewise for the breaking of an Oath In all cases afore-rehearsed the Spiritual Judge shall have power to take knowledge notwithstanding the Kings Prohibition Statutum de asportatis Religiosorum made Anno 35. Ed. 1. 1307. Cap. 1 Of late it came to the knowledge of our Lord the King by the grievous complaint of the Honorable persons Lords and other Noblemen of his Realm That whereas Monasteries Priories and other Religious Houses were founded to the honor and glory of God and the advancement of the Holy Church by the King and his Progenitors and by the said Noblemen and their Ancestors and a very great portion of Lands and Tenements have been given by them to the said Monasteries Priories and Houses and the Religious men serving God in them to the intent that Clerks and Laymen might be admitted in such Monasteries Priories and Religious Houses according to their sufficient ability and that sick and feeble men might be maintained Hospitality Alms-giving and other charitable deeds might be done and that in them prayers might be said for the souls of the said Founders and their heirs The Abbots Priors and Governors of the said Houses and certain Aliens their Superiors as the Abbots and Priors of Cistercienses and Promonstratenses and of the Order of S. Augustine and S. Benedict and many more of other Religion and Order have at their own pleasures set divers insupportable tallages payments and impositions uyon every of the said Monasteries and Houses in subjection unto them in England Ireland Scotland and Wales without the privity of our Lord the King and his Nobility contrary to the laws and customs of the said Realm and thereby the number of the said Religious persons and other servants in the said Houses and Religious places being oppressed by such tallages payments and impositions the service of God is diminished Alms be not given to the poor the sick and feeble the healths of the living and the souls of the dead be miserably defrauded Hospitality almsgiving and other godly deeds do cease And so that which in times past was charitably given to godly uses and to the increase of the service of God is now converted to an evil end by permission whereof there grows great scandal to the people and infinite losses and disheritances are like to ensue to the Founders of the said Houses and their Heirs unless speedy and sufficient remedy be provided to redress so many and grievous detriments Wherefore our Lord the King considering that it would be very prejudicial to him and his people if he should any longer suffer so great losses and injuries to be winked at And therefore being willing to maintain and defend the Monasteries Priories and other Religious houses erected in his Kingdom and in all Lands subject to his dominion and from henceforth to provide sufficient remedy to reform such oppressions as he is bound By the counsel of his Earls Barons Great men and other Nobles of his Kingdom in his Parliament holden at Westminster in the 35. year of his reign hath ordained and enacted Religious persons shall send nothing to their Superiors beyond the Sea Cap. 2 That no Abbot Prior Master Warden or any other Religious person of whatsoever condition state or religion he be being under the Kings power or jurisdiction shall by himself or by merchants or others secretly or openly by any device or means carry or send or by any other means cause to be sent any Tax imposed by the Abbots Priors Masters or Wardens of Religious houses their Superiors or assessed amongst themselves out of the kingdom and his dominion under the name of a rent tallage or any kind of imposition or otherwise by way of exchange mutual sale or other contract however it may be termed Neither shall depart into any other country for visitation or upon any other colour by that means to carry the goods of their Monasteries and Houses out of the Kingdom and Dominion aforesaid And if any will presume to offend this present Statute he shall be grievously punished according to the quality of his offence and according to his contempt of the Kings prohibition No Impositions shall be taxed by Priors Aliens Moreover our Lord the King doth inhibit all and singular Abbots Priors Masters and Governors of Religious houses and places being Aliens to whose authority subjection and obedience the Houses of the same Orders in his kingdom and domion be subject that they do not at any time hereafter impose or by any means assess any tallages payments charges or other burdens whatsoever upon the Monasseries Priories or other Religious houses in subjection to them as is aforesaid and that upon pain of all they have or may forfeit By whom the Common Seal of an Abbey shall be kept and how used And further our Lord the King hath ordained and established that the Abbots of the Orders of Cisterciensis and Promonstratensis and other Religious Orders whose Seal hath heretofore been used to remain only in the custody of the Abbot and not of the Covent shall hereafter have a Common Seal and that shall remain in the custody of the Prior of the Monastery or House and four of the most worthy and discreet men of the Covent of the same House to
be laid up in safe keeping under the Private Seal of the Abbot of the same House So that the Abbot or Prior which does govern the House shall be able of himself to establish nothing though heretofore it hath been otherwise used And if it fortune hereafter that writings of Obligations Donations Purchases Sales Alienations or of any other Contracts be sealed with any other Seal then such a Common Seal kept as is aforesaid they shall be adjudged void and of no force in Law But it is not the meaning of our Lord the King to exclude the Abbots Priors and other Religious Aliens by the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid from executing the office of Visitation in his Kingdom and Dominion but they may visit at their pleasures by themselves or others the Monasteries and other places in his Kingdom and Dominion in subjection to them according to the duty of their office in these things only that belong to Regular observation and the discipline of their Order Provided that they which shall execute this office of Visitation shall carry or cause to be carried out of his Kingdom or Dominion none of the goods or things of such Monasteries Priors and Houses saving only their reasonable and competent charges Stat. Ne Rector prosternat arbores in Caemiterio made 35 Ed. 1. Anno Dom. 1307. In what cases and by whom Trees may be felled in a Churchyard Because we do understand that controversies do ofttimes grow between Parsons of Churches and their Parishioners touching Trees growing in the Church-yard both of them pretending that they do belong unto themselves We have thought good rather to decide this controversie by writing then by Statute Forasmuch as a Church-yard that is dedicated is the soil of a Church and whatsoever is planted belongs to the soil it must needs follow that those Trees which be growing in the Church-yard are to be reckoned amongst the goods of the Church the which Laymen have no authority to dispose but as the holy Scripture does testifie the charge of them is committed only to Priests to be disposed of And yet seeing those Trees be often planted to defend the force of the wind from hurting of the Church We do prohibit the Parsons of the Church that they do not presume to fell them down unadvisedly but when the Chancel of the church does want necessary reparations Neither shall they be converted In the Reign of Edward the First A Bull of Excommunication brought by one Subject against another 30 E. 3. li. Ass Pl. 19 c. was adjudged by the Common law Treason against the King his crown and dignity Edw. 1. seised the lands of the Archbishop of York because he refused Par. 2. 19. E. 1. Quare non admisit to admit his Clerk but pleaded that the Bishop of Rome long time before provided to the said Church The King and his Council did not receive the constitution of the Bishop Para. 3. Stat. de Biga 4 Ed. 1. of Rome at Lions which excluded men twice married or Bigami from all priviledges of Clergy It was declared that the holy Church of England was founded in the Stat. 25 Ed. 1. Carlisle state of Prelacy within this Realm of England by the King and his progenitors And that the Bishop of Rome usurping the seigniory of such Benefices c. that the said oppressions grievances and damages in this Realm from thenceforth shall not be suffered Articuli Cleri made at Lincoln Anno 9 E. 2. Anno Dom. 1315. The King to all whom c. sendeth greeting Understand ye that whereas of late in times of our Progenitors sometimes Kings of England in divers their Parliaments and likewise after that we had undertaken the governance of the Realm in our Parliaments many Articles containing divers grievances committed against the Church of England the Prelates and Clergy were propounded by the Prelates and Clerks of our Realm and further great instance was made that convenient remedy might be provided therein And of late in our Parliament holden at Lincoln the ninth year of our reign we caused the Articles underwritten with certain Answers made to some of them heretofore to be rehearsed before our Council and made certain Answers to be corrected and to the residue of the Articles underwritten Answers were made by us and our Council of which said Articles with the Answers of the same the tenors here ensue No Prohibition shall be granted where Tithes be demanded but where Cap. 1 money for them First whereas Laymen do purchase Prohibitions generally upon Tithes Obventions Oblations Mortuaries Redemption of penance violent laying hands on Clerks or Coverts and in cases of Defamation in which cases Spiritual penance ought to be injoined The King doth answer to this Article That in Tithes Oblations Obventions Mortuaries when they are propounded under these names the Kings prohibition shall hold no place although for the long withholding of the same the money may be esteemed at a sum certain But if a Clerk or a Religious man do fell his Tithes being gathered in his barn or otherwhere to any man for money if the money be not demanded before a Spiritual Judge the Kings Prohibition shall lie for by the sale the spiritual goods are made temporal and the Tithes are turned into chattels Regist fol. 34. 39. v. N. B. f. 3032. Fitz. N. B. fo 40 c. Rast pla fo 484 c. Debate upon the right of Tithes exceeding the fourth part Enjoining Cap. 2 Penance corporal or pecuniary Also if debate do arise upon the right of Tithes having his original from the right of Patronage and the quantity of the same Tithes do come unto the fourth part of the goods of the Church the Kings Prohibition shall hold place if the case come before a Judge Spiritual Also if a Prelate enjoin a penance pecuniary to a man for his offence and if it be demanded the Kings Prohibition shall hold place But if Prelates enjoin a penance corporal and they which be so punished will redeem upon their own accord such penances by money if money be demanded before a Judge Spiritual the Kings prohibition shall hold no place Laying violent hands upon a Clerk Excommunication for Cap. 3 Penance corporal Moreover if any lay violent hands upon a Clerk the amends for the Peace broken shall be before the King And for the Excommunication before a Prelate that Penance corporal may be enjoined which if the offender will redeem of his own good will by giving money to the Prelate or to the party grieved it shall be required before the Prelate and the Kings Prohibition shall not lie Prelates may correct for Defamation In Defamations also Prelates shall correct in manner aforesaid the Kings Prohibition notwithstanding first enjoining a penance corporal which if the offender will redeem the Prelate may freely receive the money though the Kings Prohibition be granted No Prohibition where the Tithe is demanded of a new Mill. Also
Court in the conusance of Heresie but onely for the punishment of Heresie adjudged in the Ecclesiastical Court and all men know that it is the Temporal not Ecclesiastical power although it may be executed or pronounced by Ecclesiastical persons that punisheth men for Spiritual Crimes The Pope cannot alter the Laws of England The Judges say that the Statutes which restrain the Popes provisions 11 H. 4. 37. 11 H. 4. fol. 69. 76. to the Benefices of the Advowsons of Spiritual men were made for that the Spiritual durst not in their just Cause say against the Popes provisions so as those Statutes were made in affirmance of the common Law Excommunication made by the Pope is of no force in England and the same being certified by the Pope into any Court in England ought not to 14 H. 4. fol. 14 c. be allowed neither is any Certificate of any Excommunication available in Law but that which is made by some Bishop in England for the Bishops are by the common Laws the immediate Officers and Ministers of Justice to the Kings Court in Causes Ecclesiastical If any Bishop do Excommunicate any person for a cause that belongeth 14 H. 4. 14. not to him the King may write to the Bishop and command him to assoyl and absolve the party If any person of Religion obtain of the Bishop of Rome to be exempt St. 2. H. 4. Cap. 3. from obedience regular or ordinary he is in case of a Premunire which is an offence as hath been said contra Regem coronam dignitatem ejus Upon complaint of the Commons of the horrible mischiefs and damnable customs which there were introduced by the Church of Rome that no St 6. H. 4. Cap. 1. person Abbot or other should have any provisions of Archbishoprick or Bishoprick which should be void till he had compounded with the Popes Chamber to pay great and excessive sums of money as well for the first fruites of the same Archbishoprick or Bishoprick as for the other less services in the said Court and that the said sums or greater part thereof be paid beforehand which sums passed the double or treble of that that was accustomed of old time to be paid c. It was therefore Enacted That they and every of them that did pay greater sums then had of old time been accustomed to be paid into the said Chamber should incur the forfeiture of as much as they may forfeit to the King No person Religious or Secular of what estate or condition that he St 7. H. 4. Cap. 6. were by colour of any Bulls containing Priviledges to be discharged of Tythes appertaining to Parish-Churches Prebends Hospitals Vicaredges Purchased before the first year of King R. 2. or after not executed should put in execution anysuch Bills so Purchased or any such Bulls to be Purchased in time to come upon pain of a Premunire In the Reign of Hen. 5. In an Act of Parliament made in the third year of Henry 5. it is Declared 〈…〉 H. 5. â—â—â— 4. â— That whereas in the time of H. 4. father to the said King the seventh year of his Reign to eschew many discords and debates and divers other mischiefs which were like to arise and happen because of many provisions then made or to be made by the Pope and also of licence thereupon granted by the said King among other things it was Ordained and Established That no such Licence or Pardon so granted before the same Ordinance or afterwards to be granted shall be available to any Benefice full of any Incumbent at the day of the date of such Licence or Pardon granted Nevertheless divers persons having provisions of the Pope of divers Benefices in England and elsewhere and Licenses Royal to execute the same Provisions have by colour of the same Provisions Licenses and acceptations of the said Benefices subtilly excluded divers persons of their Benefies in which they had been incumbents by a long season of the collation of the very Patrons Spiritual to whom duely made to their intent to the final destruction and enervation of the Estates of the same Incumbents The King willing to avoid such mischiefs hath Ordained and Established That all the Incumbents of every benefice of Holy Church of the Patronage Collation or presentation of Spiritual Patrons may quietly and peaceably enjoy their said Benefices without being inquieted molested or any way grieved by any colour of such provisions licencies and acceptations and that all licences and pardons upon and by such provisions made in any manner should be void and of no valour and if any feel himself grieved molested or inquieted in any wise from henceforth by any by colour of such provisions licenses pardons or acceptations that the same molesters grievers or inquesters and every of them have and incur the pains and punishments contained in the Statutes of Provisors before that time H. 4. St. 2 H. 5. Cap. 7. Lollardy Was made for extirpation of Heresie and Lollardy whereby full power and authority was given to the Justices of Peace and Justices of Assize to enquire of those that hold Errors Heresies or Lollardry and of their maintainers c. and that the Sheriff or other Officer c. may Arrest and apprehend them A man should undertake a very hard task that goes about to maintain that all Humane Laws did never transgress their limits nor encroach upon things that were not properly in their conusance and this Law ill suits with the temper of these times The King by consent of Parliament giveth power to Ordinaries to enquire St. 2 H. 5. Cap. 1. of the Foundation Erection and Governance of Hospitals other then such as be of the Kings Foundation and thereupon to make correction and reformation according to the Ecclesiastical Law nor could any other Power grant such Ordinances In the Reign of Henry the sixth 8 H. 6. fol. 3. Excommunication made and certified by the Pope is of no force to disable any man within England and this is by the ancient Common Laws before any Statute was made concerning forein Jurisdiction The King onely may grant or licence to Found a Spiritual Corporation 9 H. 6. fol. 16. The Pope wrote Letters in derogation of the King and his Regality 1 H. 6. fol. 1â— and the Church-men durst not speak against them but Humfrey Duke of Glocester for their safe keeping put them into the fire In the Reign of Edward the fourth The Pope in the Reign of King Ed. 4. granted to the Prior of St. Johns H. 7. f. 20. to have Sanctuary within his Priory and this was pleaded and claimed by the Prior but it was resolved by the Judges that the Pope had no power to grant any Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore by Judgement of Law it ought to be disallowed There it appeareth that the opinion of the Kings Bench had been oftentimes Ed. 4. 3. that if one Spirital
person sueth another Spiritual person in the Court of Rome for a matter Spiritual where he may have remedy before his Ordinary that is of the Bishop of the Diocess within the Realm Quia trahit ipsum in placitum extra regnum incurreth the danger of a Premunire a hainous offence being contra Legiantiae suae debitum in contemptum Domini Regis contra coronam dignitatem suam In the Kings Court of Record where Felonies are determined the Bishop or his Deputy ought to give his attendance to the end that if any man 9 Ed. 4. 28. that is Indicted or Arraigned for Felony do demand the benefit of his Clergy that the Ordinary may inform the Court of his sufficiency or insufficiency that is whether he can read as a Clerk or not whereof notwithstanding the Ordinary is not to judge but a Minister to the Kings Court and the Judges of that Court are to judge of the sufficiency or insufficiency of the party whatsoever the Ordinary do inform them and upon due examination of the party may give judgement above the Ordinaries information For the Kings Judges are Judges of the Cause whether the Ordinary be a Judge of Legit or non Legit matters not much for if he be Judge or Minister no doubt but he is the Kings Judge or Minister And I my self have seen Chief Justice Littleton overrule the Ordinary in the Case of one Brudbank after the Ordinaries Deputy had pronounced legit ut Clericus and give sentence of death upon him for his non legit and he was hanged The Popes Excommunication is of no force within the Kingdom of England 12 Ed. 4. f. 46. In the Reign of King Ed. 4. a Legat came from the Pope to Callis to have come into England but the King and his Councel would not let him come into England until he had taken an Oath that he should attempt nothing against the King or his Crown And so the like was done to another of the Popes Legates And this is so reported 1 H. 7. fol. 10. In the Reign of Richard the third It is resolved by the Judges that a Judgement of Excommunication in the Church of Rome shall not prejudice any man within England at the Common Law In the Reign of Henry the seventh 1 H. 7. fol. 10. The Pope had Excommunicated all persons whatsoever who had bought Alume of the Florentines and it was resolved by all the Judges that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to be put in execution within the Realm of England It was enacted ordained and established by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in the said Parliament assembled That it be lawful to all Archbishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries having Episcopal jurisdiction to punish chastise such Priests Clerks and Religious men being within the bounds of their jurisdiction as shall be committed afore them by examination and lawful proof requisite by the Law of the Church of Advoutry Fornication Incest or any other fleshly incontinency by committing them to ward or prison there to abide in ward until such time as shall be thought to their discretions convenient for the quality and quantity of their trespass And that none of the Archbishops Bishops or Ordinaries aforesaid be thereof chargeable of to or upon any action of false or wrongful Imprisonment but that they be utterly discharged thereof in any of the cases aforesaid by vertue of this Act. The King is a mixt person because he hath Ecclesiastical and Temporal 10 H. 7. 18. jurisdiction By the Ecclesiastical Laws allowed within this Realm a Priest cannot 11 H. 7. 12. have two Benefices nor a Bastard can have a Priest But the King may by his Ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction dispence with both these because they be mala prohibita but not mala per se How far Henry the Eighth exercised his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction IT was enacted That if any person or persons at any time after the St. 21. H. 8. 13. first of April 1530. contrary to the Act should procure and obtain at the Court of Rome or elswhere any Licence or Licences Union Toleration or Dispensation to receive or take any more Benefices with cure then was limited by the said Act or else at any time after the said day should put in execution any such Licence Toleration or Dispensation before that time obtained contrary to the said Act That then every such person or persons so after the said day suing for himself or receiving or taking such Benefice by force of such Licence or Licences Union Toleration or Dispensation that is to say the same person or persons only and no other should for every such default incur the danger pain and penalty of Twenty pounds sterling and should also lose the whole profits of every such Benefice or Benefices as he receives or takes by force of any such Licence or Licences Union Toleration or Dispensation And that if any person or persons did procure or obtain at the Court of Rome or elswhere any manner of Licence or Dispensation to be nonresident at their Dignities Prebends or Benefices contrary to the said Act that then every such person putting in execution any such Dispensation or Licence for himself from the said first of April 1530. should run and incur the penalty damage and pain of Twenty pounds sterling for every time so doing to be forfeited and recovered and yet such Licence or Dispensation so procured or to be put in execution to be void and of none effect It was enacted That no person from thenceforth cited or summoned 23 H. 8. cap. 9. or otherwise called to appear by himself or herself or by any Procurator before any Ordinary Archdeacon Commissary Official or any other Judge Spiritual out of the Diocese or peculiar Jurisdiction where the person which shall be cited summoned or otherwise as is abovesaid called shall be inhabiting and dwelling at the time of awarding or going forth of the same citation or summons Except it be for in or upon any of the cases or causes hereafter written viz. for any Spiritual offence or cause committed or done or omitted forstowed or neglected to be done contrary to right and duty by the Bishop Archdeacon Commissary Official or other person having Spiritual jurisdiction or being a Spiritual Judge or by any other person or persons within the Diocese or other Jurisdiction whereunto he or she shall be cited or otherwise lawfully called to appear and answer And that every Spiritual Judge offending contrary to the purport of this Act shall forfeit Ten shillings sterling the one half to the King the other half to any person that will sue for the same in any of the Kings Courts in which action no protection shall be allowed nor Wager of Law or Essoine be admitted In which Sir E. Coke Cawdries case says there were twenty four Bishops Stat. 24. H. 8. cap.
St. 27 H. 8. cap. 15. Spiritual and sixteen Temporal to examine the Laws and Constitutions heretofore made according to the Statute of 25 H. 8. 9. But no Laws or Constitutions shall be made without the Kings assent nor contrary to the Kings Prerogative or the Laws of the Land If any person shall extoll the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he shall 28 H. 8. c. 10. incur the penalty of a Praemunire provided Anno 16 Ric. 2. Every Ecclesiastical and Lay-Officer shall be sworne to renounce the said Bishop and his Authority and to resist it to his power and to repute any Oath taken in maintenance of the said Bishop or his Authority to be void And the refusing of the said Oath to be Treason Makes all Bulls and Dispensations from the Bishop or See of Rome to 28 H. 8. c. 16. any of the Subject of this Realm void The King may nominate such number of Bishops Sees for Bishops 31 H. 8. c. 9. Cathedral Churches and endow them with such possessions as he will 1. If any person by word writing printing ciphering or otherwise do preach teach dispute or hold opinion That in the blessed Sacrament 31 H. 8. c. 14. called the Statute of the Six Articles of the Altar under form of bread and wine after the consecration thereof there is not really the natural body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or that after the said consecration there remains any substance of bread or wine or any other substance but the substance of Christ God and man Or that in the flesh under the form of bread is not the very blood of Christ Or that with the blood under the form of wine is not the very flesh of Christ as well apart as though they were both together Or affirm the said Sacrament to be of other substance then is aforesaid Or deprave the said blessed Sacrament Then he shall be adjudged a Heretick and suffer death by burning and shall forfeit to the King all his lands tenements hereditaments goods and chattels as in case of High Treason 2. Or if any person preach in any Sermon or Collation openly made or teach in any Common School or Congregation or obstinately affirm or defend That the Communion of the blessed Sacrament in both kinds is necessary for the health of mans soul or ought to be administred in both kinds Or that it is necessary to be received by any person other then by Priests being at Mass and consecrating the same 3. Or that any man after the Order of Priesthood received may marry or contract matrimony 4. Or that any man or woman which advisedly hath vowed or professed or should vow or profess chastity or widowhood may marry or contract marriage 5. Or that Private Masses be not lawful or not laudable or should not be used or be not agreeable to the Laws of God 6. Or that Auricular confession is not expedient and necessary to be used in the Church of God He shall be adjudged suffer death and forfeit lands and goods as a Felon If any Priest or other man or woman which advisedly hath vowed chastity or widowhood do actually marry or contract matrimony with another Or any man which is or hath been a Priest do carnally use any woman to whom he is or hath been married or with whom he hath contracted matrimony or openly be conversant or familiar with any such woman both man and woman shall be adjudged Felons Commissions shall be awarded to the Bishop of the Diocese his Chancellor Commissary and others to enquire of the Heresies Felonies and offences aforesaid And also Justices of Peace in their Sessions and every Steward Under-Steward and Deputy of Steward in their Leets or Law-day by the oath of twelve men have authority to enquire of the Heresies Felonies and offences aforesaid See the 7. Chap. of B. Bramhalls Just Vindication of the Church of England where he endeavours to shew that not only the Emperor the King of France nay and the King of Spain have in effect done the same things with Henry the Eighth upon occasion or at least plead for it although for their interests they have not continued the exercise of their Jurisdiction as the Kings of England have done A short view or reflexion upon Henry the Eight and his Reformation How zealous a Defender of the Pope and See of Rome Henry the Eight K. H. 8. a zealous defender of the Pope and Papacy was in the beginning of his Reign is evident by his book written against Martin Luther For not being born Henry the seventh's eldest son his Father being a wondtrful frugal Prince and observing good natural parts in him bred him up in literature and destinated him to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury as being the cheapest and highest preferment he could give him But his elder brother being dead and after him his father The King esteeming it a great honor to imploy himself in so famous a controversie as was then maintained by the Wits of Christendom in defence and opposition of the Church of Rome wrote a book of the Seven Sacraments defending also the Papacy and oppugned the Doctrine of Luther This thing was so grateful to the Pope that Leo 10. honored him with the Title of Defender of the Faith But after he had been married to his brothers wife above twenty years and inflamed with lustful affection to Anne Bullein a Paragon and Minion From what cause the King became estranged from the Pope of the Court he became he said troubled in conscience for having married his brothers wife and therefore desired that the Pope would examine the case and satisfie his scruple of conscience It is a very remarkable thing that this ungodly Dispensation of Julius 2. for H. 8. his marrying with his brothers wife should be the cause of the King and Kingdoms defection from the Papacy under Clement 7. The Pope to satisfie the King gave the Cardinals Wolsey and Campeius a power Legatine to hear and determine the validity or invalidity of the marriage but the Queen refusing to submit to their determination appealed from them to the Pope The Pope had now a Wolf by the ears whom he could neither keep nor well let go For in pronouncing the marriage void he feared to incense Charls the Fifth being Nephew to Queen Katherine and the most potent Prince in Christendom and in confirming it he feared to lose Henry the then most beloved Son of the Church and great Defender of the Papacy not only in writing but also in joining with and assisting the French King Francis the First for freeing him from captivity being a prisoner under Charls The Pope therefore desires the advantage of time and proceeds slowly towards a determination The King as impatient in his desires expects a sentence from the Pope which not being to be had he procures Instruments from the Universities of Cambridge Oxford and Paris together
suffet imprisonment for six moneths without bail or mainprize And for the second offence shall suffer a years imprisonment and be deprived of all his spiritual promotions and for the third offence shall suffer imprisonment during life It was Enacted that the Justices of Oyer and Terminer and Justices of Assize should have power and authority in the open and general Sessions to hear and determin the offences committed against this Act yet so that every Archbishop and Bishop had liberty to joyn and associate himself to the said Justices of Oyer and Terminer or to the Justices of Assize All books called Antiphoners Missals Grails Portuasses Primers in Latine An. 3. 4. Ed. 6. Cap. 10. or in English and other books used for service in the Church saving such as are set forth by the Kings Authority shall be clearly abolished All Images graven painted or carved taken out of any Church or Chappel and the aforesaid books shall be defaced or openly burnt Such form and manner of making and consecrating of Archbishops and Anno 3 4. Ed. 6. Cap. 12. Bishops Priests and Deacons and other Ministers of the Church as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in the Law of God by the King to be appointed and assigned or by most of the number of them shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal before the first of April next coming shall be lawfully exercised and used and none other An Act for uniformity of Prayer and administration of the Sacraments An. 5. 6. Ed. 6. Cap. 1. in the English Tongue and that every person upon every Sunday and Holiday having no lawful cause to be absent do resort to his Parish-Church and they which refuse are to be punished by the censure of the Church and that all persons who shall be at any other common prayer or Sacraments shall for the first offence suffer Imprisonment for six moneths without bail or mainprise for the second Imprisonment during a whole year and for the third Imprisonment during life All the Sundays of the year the Feast of our Lord Jesus his Circumcision of the Epiphany of the Purification of the blessed Virgin of St. Matthew An. 5. 6. Ed. 6. Cap. 2. the Apostle of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin of St. Mark the Evangelist of St. Philip and Jacob the Apostles of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist of St. Peter the Apostle of St. James the Apostle of St. Barthelomew the Apostle of St. Matthew the Apostle of St. Michael the Archangel of St. Luke the Evangelist of St. Simon and Jude the Apostles of All Saints of St. Andrew the Apostle of St. Thomas the Apostle of the Nativity of our Lord of St. Stephen the Martyr of St. John the Evangelist of the holy Innocents Munday and Tuesday in Easter-week Munday and Tuesday in Whitson-week are to be observed and kept for Holy days and none other And that every even or day next going before any of the aforesaid days of the Feasts of the Nativity of our Lord of Easter of the Ascension of our Lord Pentecost of the Purification of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin of all Saints and of all the Feasts of the Apostles other then the Feasts of St. John the Evangelist and Philip and Jacob shall be kept for fasting days and none other Archbishops Bishops in their Dioces and all other having Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction may enquire of every person offending in the premises and punish every offender by censures of the Church and enjoyn him such penance as by the spiritual Judge shall be thought meet This Statute does not abrogate abstinence from flesh in Lent and Fridays and Saturdays or any day appointed to be kept by vertue of an Act made the second and third Ed. 6. Cap. 19. When any Holy day happens on the Munday the fast of that day shall be kept upon the Saturday immediately before and not upon the Sunday A view of the Reformation of Ed. 6. and of the lawfulness of it That the Book of commom Prayer Administration of the Sacraments The Reformation made by Ed. 6. was not meerly a civil sanction and other rites and ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England was framed and composed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops of the Land assembled to that purpose by the King is clearly expressed in the Preface to the Act of the 2. 3. Ed. 6. Cap. 1. The right that Christian Kings have to call and assemble Synods It is no new thing for Kings to assemble the Bishops and Church to redress and reform errors Councels and Convocations for the redress and reformation of errors and corruptions in the Church is properly the subject of another Treatise but that the Kings and supream Powers before Christianity under the old Law from Moses to Maccabees did always use it and that the first great Nicene Councel the second general Councel at Constantinople the third at Ephesus the fourth at Calcedon the fifth at Constantinople the sixth at Constantinople the seventh at Ephesus were all called by Christian Emperors is manifested by the Bishop of Winchester Andrews in the Sermon of the Right and Power of calling Assemblies nor were the general Councels convoked by Emperors but the Emperors and Kings did convoke and assemble Provincial and National Assemblies and Synods He shews that the Bishop of Syracuse in Sicily and Restitutus Bishop of London in Britain were summoned to a Synod in France by the Emperor Constantine ' Writ onely this was in the beginning of his Reign in the latter end of it in the thirtieth year of his Reign and the year before his death he called the Councel at Tyre and from thence removed it to Jerusalem and from thence called them to appear before himself at Constantinople After him Constans called one at Sardis Valentinian at Lampsacus Theodosius at Aquileia Gratian at Thessalonica Nay when the Emperors were professed Arrians even then did the Bishops acknowledge their power to call Councels came to them being called sued to them that they might be called came to them as Hosius to that of Arimine Liberius to that of Sirmium and that of Seleucia sued for them as Liberius to Constantius as Leo to Theodosius for the second Ephesine Councel Innocentius to Arcadius and sometime they sped as Leo and sometime not as Liberius and Innocentius and yet when they sped not they held themselves quiet and never presumed to draw themselves together of their own heads After the Empire fell in pieces and the Western Empire fell into the hands of Kings in Italy Theodoric called one at Rome Alaric at Agatha In France Clowis the first Christian King there called one at Orleans Childebert at Auvern Theodebert called another at Orleans and Cherebert at Toures And
uniting to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdiction Authorities Superiorities and Preheminencies to the same of right belonging and appertaining By reason whereof her most humble Subjects from the time of the 25 H. 8. were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and vexations before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such foreign Power and Authority as before that was usurped * And to the The Statute of 1 2 Ph. Ma. cap. 8. which restored to the Pope all which this Stat. takes away declares that nothing was done prejudiciall to the Crown in so doing intent that all usurped power Spirituall and Temporall might for ever be extinguished and never be used or obeyed in this Realm or any other her Majesties Dominions It was therefore by the Authority of that Parliament enacted That no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spirituall or Temporall should at any time after the last day of that Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall within this Realm or within any other the Queens Dominions or Countries that then were or hereafter should be but from henceforth the same should be clearly abolished out of this Realm and all other her Dominions for ever And it was then also established and enacted That such Jurisdiction Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall as by any Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner of errors heresies schismes abuses offences contempts and enormities should for ever by authority of that Parliament be united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And that the Queen her Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to assigne name and authorize when and as often as the Queen her Heirs and Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as should please the Queen her heirs and successors such person or persons being naturall born Subjects to the Queen her heirs or successors as the said Queen her heirs or successors should think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under the said Queen her heirs and successors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within these Realms of England or Ireland or any other her Dominions and Countries and to visite reform redress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schismes abuses contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner spirituall or ecclesiasticall Power Authority or Jurisdiction could or might lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the encrease of virtue and conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm And that such person or persons so to be named assigned authorized and appointed by the said Queen her heirs and successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act and of the Letters Patents under the said Queen her heirs and successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the tenor and effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding This Statute doth create the oath of Supremacy to be taken by all men who hold any Office or take from the Queen her heirs and successors any Fees or Wages within this Realm or other her Highnes Realms or Domiminions the form and tenor of it is I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Queens Highness is the only supreme Governor of this Realm and all other her Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall and that no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realm and therefore I doe utterly renounce and forsake all forrein Jurisdiction Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queens Majesty her Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm So help me God and the contents of this Book If any person dwelling or inhabiting within this Realm or any other of the Queens should within 30. dayes after the determination of the Session of that Parliament by Writing Printing Teaching c. maintain any forrein Power or Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall or shall advisedly put in use any such forrein Power or Jurisdiction within any of her Highness Dominions he and his Aiders Abettors Counsellors c. shall forfeit to the Queen her Heirs and Successors all his goods and chattels as well reall as personall If any person so convict be not worth in Goods and Chattels the summe of 20 s. every such person upon conviction over and besides the forfeiture of his Goods and Chattels shall suffer imprisonment by the space of a whole year without Bail or Mainprise And that all and every the Benefices Prebends and other Ecclesiasticall promotions and dignities of every person spirituall so offending and being attaint shall be utterly void and the Patron and Donor may present as if the Incumbent were actually dead For the second offence the party offending shall incur the danger of a Premunire For the third offence after conviction and Attainder the party offending shall suffer death and forfeiture of all his Goods as in case of High Treason The offender must bee impeached for preaching teaching or speaking any thing against the Premisses within a yeere after such preaching teaching or speaking and if any person shall be imprisoned for preaching teaching or speaking against this Statute and if be not indicted within the space of one half yeer next after his offence that he be discharged and set at liberty No matter of Religion or cause Ecclesiasticall made by this Parliament shall be judged Error Heresie Schism or schismaticall opinion Such Persons as shall bee authorized by Letters Patents under the Broad-seale of England shall have jurisdiction power or authority spirituall to visite reform order or correct any errors heresies schisms abuses or enormities But by virtue of this Act they have not authority to determine or adjudge any thing to bee heresy but only such as heretofore have beene determined by Canonicall-Scripture or the 4 first generall Councells or any
School-master presuming to teach any thing contrary to this Act and being thereof lawfully convict shall be disabled to be a Teacher of Youth and shall suffer imprisonment without Bayl ot Mainprise for the space of a year No Ordinary or their Ministers shall take any thing for the allowance of any Schoole-master All offences aforesaid and all offences against the first Eliz. 1. 5 Eliz. 1. 13 Eliz. 2. c. are inquirable into by the Justices of peace and other Justices named in the said Act within a year and day after such offences committed Justices of Oyer and Terminer of Assiize of Goale-delivery in their limits Justices of Peace in their Quarter-sessions have power to hear and determine the offences aforesaid except Treason and Misprision of Treason Every person guilty of any offence against this Statute other then Treason Misprision of Treason which shall before he be indicted or at his Arraignment before Judgement submit and conform himself before the Bishop of the Diocess where he shall be resident and before the Justice of Peace where he shall be arraigned or tried having not before made like submission shall upon his recognition of such submission in open Assises or Sessions in the County where such person shall be resident be discharged of all the said offences The forfeitures of the moneys limited by this Act shall be divided into three equall parts whereof one third part to the Queen to her use another for the relief of the poor in the Parish where such offence is committed to be delivered by warrant of the principle Officers in the receipt of the Exchequer without further warrant from her Majesty the other third part to such person as will sue for the same in any court of Record in which no Essoin or Protection or Wager of Law shall be allowed He that shall forfeit such summes as are specified in this Act and be not able or shall not pay the same within 3. moneths after Judgement shall be committed to prison and there remain untill he have paid the said summes or conform himself to goe to Church He that usually on Sunday shall have in his house the Divine Service as it is established and be thereat usually present and not obstinately refuse to come to Church and shall at least four times in the year be present at the Divine Service in his Parish Church or in some open Church or Chappell of ease shall incur no damage nor danger by this Act. Every Grant Conveyance Bond Judgement and Execution of covetous purpose to defraud the Queen or any other person shall be holden utterly void Tryall of a Peer for any Treason or misprision of Treason by this Act shall be by his Peers This Act nor any thing contained therein is said not to extend to take away any or abridge the authority or jurisdiction of the Ecclesiasticall Censures for any cause or matter but that Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Ecclesiasticall Judges may do and proceed as before the making of it All Jesuits made within or without the Realm since the Nativity of St. Stat. 27 Eliz. cap. 2. John the Baptist in the first year of the Queen shall within 40. dayes next after the Session of Parliament if they be not wind-bound depart out of England and other the Queens Dominions If any Jesuit Seminary Priest or other such Priest Deacon or Religious or Ecclesiasticall person whatsoever born within the Dominions of the Queen and made since the feast of the Nativity of St. John in the first year of the Queen or hereafter to be made by any Authority from the Church of Rome shall after the said forty dayes after the Session of Parliament other then in such speciall cases as in this Act is expressed be found in any of the Queens Dominions every such person shall be adjudged a Traitor All they which shall receive any such Jesuit or Priest after such time shall be adjudged a felon without benefit of Clergy If Any Subject of England then being or after shall be of or brought up in any Colledge of Jesuits or seminaries already erected or to be erected out of the Realm shall not within six moneths next after Proclamation in that behalf made in London under the broad Seal return into this Realm and within two dayes after before the Bishop of the Diocesse or two Justices of the peace of the County where he shall arrive submit himself to her Majesty and her Lawes and take the Oath set forth in the first year of her Reign That then every such person which shall otherwise return shall be taken and deemed as a Traitor Whosoever shall any wayes send relief to any Jesuit or seminary beyond the seas or give any maintenance to any Colledge of Jesuits or Seminaries shall incur the danger of a Premunire None during the Queens life shall send his or her Child or other person except Merchants or such only who serve in their Trade as Merchants or Mariners beyond the Seas without the Queens speciall licence or under four of the Councells hands upon the penalty of one hundred pounds Every offence committed against this Act may be heard and determined as well in the Kings Bench as also in any County within this Realm or any of the Queens Dominions where the offence shall be committed or where the offendor shall be apprehended This Act shall not extend to any Jesuit c. before mentioned as shall within the said 40. dayes or within 40. daies after he come into the Realm submit himself to some Arch-bishop or Bishop of this Realm or to some Justice of Peace within the County where he shall arrive and doe thereupon truly and sincerely before the Arch-bishop Bishop or Justice of Peace take the said Oath set forth the first of Eliz. and under his hand confesse afterward to continue in due obedience to the Queens Lawes made or to be made in causes of Religion Peers shall be tried by their Peers for any offence made Treason Felony or Premunire by this Act. Any person being a Subject of this Realm which shall after the said 40. daies know any such Jesuit or Priest c. and shall not discover the same to some Justice of Peace or Higher Officer within 12. dayes every such person shall be fined and imprisoned according to the Queens pleasure and every such Justice of Peace or higher Officer which shall not discover the same within 28. dayes to some of the Queens Councell or to the President or Vice-president of the Queens Councell established in the North or Marches of Wales then he or they so offending shall forfeit 200 Markes Such of the Privy Councell President or Vice-president abovesaid to whom such information shall be made shall thereupon deliver a note in writing subscribed by his own hand to the party by whom he shall receive such information testifying that such information was made to him All such Oaths Bonds and Submissions as shall be made by force of
this Act shall be certified into the Chancery by such Parties before whom the same shall be made within three moneths after such submission upon pain of forfeiture of 100 l. for every such offence to the Queen If any person so submitting himself shall within 10. years after come within 10. miles of the place where her Majesty shall be without speciall licence had from her Majesty under her hand that then such person to have no benefit of such submission Enacts That every Feofment Gift Grant Conveyance Alienation Estate Stat. 29 Eliz. cap. 6. Lease Encumbrance Limitation of use of or out of any Lands Tenements Hereditaments whatsoever had or made since the beginning of the Queens Reign or after by any person who had not repaired or shall not repair to some Church Chappel or usuall place of Common-prayer or which is or shall be revokable at the pleasure of such offendor or in any wise directly or indirectly intended or meant to or for the behoofe or disposition of such offendor or in consideration whereby his Family may be maintained shall be deemed and taken for utterly void c. Every conviction heretofore recorded for any offence before mentioned not already estreated or certified into the Queens Court of Exchequer shall from the Justices before whom the record of such conviction shall be remaining be estreated and certified into the Exchequer before the end of the next Easter Term in such convenient certainty for the time and other circumstances as the Court may thereupon award out processe for seisure of the Lands and Goods of every such offendor as hath not paid their forfeitures according to Statutes in such case provided And every conviction hereafter for any offence before mentioned shall be in the Court called the Kings Bench or at the Assises or generall Goal-delivery and not elsewhere and shall from the Justices before whom the Record of such conviction shall remain be estreated and certified into the Exchequer before the end of the Term next ensuing after every such conviction in such convenient certainty as is aforesaid Every offendor in not repairing to Divine Service and hath been heretofore convict and not made his submission and been conformable according to the true intent of this Statute shall without other indictment or conviction pay into the receipt of the Exchequer all such summes of money as according to the rate of twenty pounds for every moneth since the same conviction in manner following viz. one Moity before the end of Trinity Term the other Moity before the end of Hilary Term or at such other times as the Lord Treasurer Chancellor and Chief Baron or any two of them shall by composition upon good security be limitted before the end of the said Trinity Term if any such composition shall happen to be And shall also in every Easter and Michaelmas Term untill such time as the same person do make such submission pay into the Exchequer 20 l. for every moneth which shall incur in all that mean time For default of Payment of the said 20 l. a moneth in every Easter and Michaelmas Term after such conviction the Queen by processe out of the said Exchequer may take seize and enjoy all the Goods and two parts as well of all the Lands and Tenements c. of such offendor as of all other Lands and Tenements liable to such seisure by the true intent of this Act leaving only a third part for the reliefe of the offender his Wife Children and Family For the more speedy conviction of such offendor the Indictment shall be sufficient although it be not mentioned that the offendor was or is inhabiting within the Realm of England or any other of the Queens Dominions But if it shall happen that any such offendor were not within any of the Queens Dominions that in such case the party shall be relieved by plea to be put in in that behalf and not otherwise And upon Indictment a Proclamation shall be made the same Assises or Goal-delivery that the party indicted shall yeeld his body to the Sheriff and if at next Assises or Goal-delivery the said party shall not make appearance of Record that then such default shall be deemed a sufficient conviction in Law If any such offendor shall make submission and become conformable according to the form of the Statute made in the 23 of Eliz. or shall fortune to die that then no forfeiture of 20 l. a moneth nor seisure of Lands from and after such submission and conformity or death and full satisfaction of all arrearages of 20 l. monethly before such seisure due or payable shall ensue or be continued against such offendor so long as he shall continue in coming to divine Service according to the intent of the Statute The Lord Treasurer of England Chancellor and chief Baron or any two of them may assigne and dispose of the full third part of the twenty pounds for every moneth paid into the receipt of the Exchequer towards the relief of the Poor of Houses of correction and of impotent and maimed Souldiers This Act or any thing contained in it doth not in any wise extend to make void or impeach any Grant or Lease made bonâ fide without fraud or covin and not revocable at the will and pleasure of the offendor This Act or any thing contained therein shall not in any wise be construed to continue any seisure of any Lands or Tenements of such offendor in her Majesties hands after the said offendors death which Lands or Tenements he shall have or be seised of only for term of life or in right of his wife For the preventing of such great inconveniences and perils as may happen Stat. Anno 35 Eliz. cap. D. and grow by the wicked practices of seditious Sectaries and disloyall persons it was enacted That every person above sixteen years of age that shall obstinately refuse to come to Divine Service established by Law and shall forbear the same by the space of a moneth without lawfull excuse or shall at any time after fourty dayes after the Session of that Parliament by word or writing advisedly goe about to move or perswade any of the Queens Subjects or any other within her Realms or Dominions to deny or withstand her Majesties power or authority in causes Ecclesiasticall united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm or shall advisedly perswade any person to forbear coming to Church to hear Divine Service established or to come to or be present at any unlawfull Assemblies Conventicles c. upon pretence of Religion contrary to the established Lawes Or if any person shall obstinately refuse to repair to some usuall place of Common-prayer and shall forbear to hear Divine Service by the space of a moneth or shall after fourty daies willingly joyn in any such Assemblies Conventicles c. under colour of exercising Religion contrary to the Laws of this Realm That every person so offending and being thereof lawfully
with the sword all stubborn and evill doores But whatsoever the Queene or Church did declare the Lawyers would The Lawyers exception of the Statute of 1 Fliz. cap. 1. not lose so much Grist as this Stat. of the first of Eliz. brought to their Mill and therefore the fourth conclusion in the 3 part Institutes 43 is That when an Act of Parliament is made concerning things meerly spirituall as Heresie c. yet the Act being part of the Lawes of the Land the same shall be construed and interpreted by the Judges of the Common-Law who usually confer with those that are learned in that profession so that all Spirituall jurisdiction doth utterly vanish whensoever the Temporall power shall doe any thing in derogation of it and in truth ever since the Statute of the first of Elizabeth all cognizance not only of Heresie c. but the cognizance of the worship and service of God and administration of Sacraments have upon the matter beene determined at quarter-Sessions and assizes and since ths uniting of all forraigne jurisdiction in the Crowne many places in England that were not in ordinary Episcopall jurisdiction and immediatly under the Pope are become out of all cure of Soules and for ought can be known are not any part of any Christian Church If the Queen be supreme Governor in all Spirituall cases under Christ then are not Bishops and Priests immediately Christs Ministers but the Queens Nay then may she ordain confirm and consecrate the Sacraments which the Church of England Art 37. King James Spot Hist anno 7 Regni doth deny The preamble of the first of Eliz. cap. 1. Is a supplication of the Lords Obsecrable things in the 1. 2. chap. 1 Eliz. Spirituall and Temporall and Commons that those things therein might be passed into a Law whereas the Lords Spirituall a a Camb. Eliz. Reg. 16. being nine nor were there then fourteene alive and all who were present not only stiffly opposed it but were all of them deprived because they would not conform thereunto and take the Oath of Supremacy made by that Act. In the 2. chap. Pag. 36. 1 Eliz. there is a very strange clause viz. The Queenes Majesty the Lords Temporall and Commons assembled doe in Gods name earnestly require and charge all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries that they endeavor themselves to the utmost of their knowledge that the due execution of that Law may be had throughout their Diocesses and Charges as they will answere before God for such evills and Plagues wherewith God may justly punish his people for neglecting this good and wholsom Law and yet the Temporall powers by this very Law have power to heare and determine all things in it as well as the Spirituall whereas Praeces lachrima sunt arma Ecclesiae all alwaies the Church formerly did supplicate protection from the temporall powers The Queene did not make an alteration and change in the Religion and By what degrees Religion was charged Service of God on a suddain but by degrees for for a whole moneth or more after the death of Queene Mary the Roman Religion continued in the same state it did before upon the twenty seventh of December leave was granted to have the Epistles Gospells ten Commandements the Lords Prayer Creede and Letany in the English tongue The two and twentieth of March when the Nobles and Commons were met in Parliament the entire use of the Lords Supper viz. in both kindes was allowed and the Law made to that intent in Edward the sixts dayes revived and put in new force The twenty fourth of June the Sacrifice of Masse was abolished and the Liturgy in the English Tongue established by Parliament In July the Oath of Supremacy was propounded to the Bishops and others and in Aug. Images were removed out of Churches and broken ot burnt Cambd. Eliza Reg. 39. From the first of Eliz. untill the eleventh yeere of her Reigne no person How the Laws made for conformity to the Service of the Church were observed of what perswasion soever at any time refused to come to the publique Divine Service celebrated in the Church of England being so evidently grounded upon the sacred and infallible word of God that the Bishop of Winchester in his answere to Tortus page 42 is not afraid to affirme positively that the Pope Paulus quartus which is misprinted for it should have been Pius quartus if the Queene would have acknowledged his authority would have been so kinde as to have established all the Rites and Ceremonies now used in the Church untill the Bull published against the Queene by Pius the Fift whereby he excommunicated her and deprived her of her Kingdome and forbad all her Subjects upon like penalties to be so hardy as to obey her Admonitions Lawes or Commandements and did absolve all men who had upon any occasion taken their oath to her of all fealty and service due unto her by reason of her Government which Bull produced no other effect then the severe Statute made the thirteenth yeere of the Queene against all men who should endeavor to put it or any such in ure or execution or should receive or take any absolution or reconciliation from the Church of Rome But afterward these Parliament Laws for the conforming to Divine Service established became as much disobeyed by another generation of men called Puritans and therefore the Statute of the thirty fift of Elizabeth cap. 1. was made expresly against them yet would they never be restrained untill they upon pretence of Reformation brought a desolation upon both Church and State Shee was truly pious who daily as soone as she rose set a part some time Of the virtues of Queen Eliz. for the worship and service of God afterwards at set houres retired her selfe into her private Closet frequented the Chappell duly upon Sundaies and holydaies nor was there ever any Prince that with greater devotion was present at divine Service In black aray and after the manner of the former ages she heard attentively Lenten Sermons although she would often say what she had read of Hen. 3. her predecessor That she had rather devoutly speak to God in Prayer then hear others discourse eloquently of God in their Sermons and of the Cross the blessed Virgin and of the Saints shee thought reverently nor did shee ever speake of them without a certain reverence nor patiently heare others speake of them without the like * to these may justly Camb. Eliz. Reg. 14. be added a wisdome and prudence in Government so far above her sex that certainly shee in that kinde is not to be parallell'd by any of her masculine predecessors and these vertues were crowned with that felicity that all along her long Reigne shee was most passionately and obsequiously hononred by her Subjects a rare thing among Islanders and not to be found in any time before her in any of her Predecessors Yet sure
CHARLES IT is a thing very worthy of great consideration To thinke how the singular virtues and eminent qualities of so good and pious a Prince should come to so cruell so unfortunate an end for in him was all those amiable qualities which in another age would have rendred him reverenced and admired So singular Piety That the Portracture of King CHARLES in his sufferings will be a Character of it beyond all expression but his own so ardent a zeale in Religion that not any Regular in Religion was a more devout observer of his Order then the King was of the Rites and Liturgy of the Church So free from Simony that the suspicion of it in any man how deserving soever otherwise was sufficient bar from any advancement in the Church So just that though he every day saw the Puritan-faction budding out more formidably both in Church or State yet did he never proceede illegally or in an extrajudiciall manner against any man before the stormes of his Adversaries broke out upon him on every side So mercifull that the Scotish Lord Balmerino An. 1634. being legally convict of Treason was pardoned by him Nor was Louden proceeded against for holding correspondency with the King of France without the Kings privity and giving him the Title of Du Roy nor in all his Reigne how formidable soever the faction grew did he before the war brake out against him put any to death except one in the Lambeth conspiracy for fomenting and contriving the conspiracy against him To these may be added a profound Judgement in the affaires both of Church State how much it appeared in the former appears in the entercourse between him and Master Hinderson nor was his Pietie to his Parents lesse conspicuous being truly the principall Mourner at his Mothers funerall and chose rather to expresse the Piety hee owed to his Father in attending his dead body to his grave although contrary to the custome of his predecessors then to insist upon nicities of State So singular was his conjugall love and chastity to his Queene that a little before his death he commanded the Princesse Elizabeth his daughter to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never strayed from her and that his love should be the same to the last Jealous he was of the honour of the English Church and Nation and well understanding that where mens mindes are not well knit in Religion nothing will long keep their affections cemented He had a great desire to have finished King James his designe of uniting the Kirk of Scotland in an Uniformity with the Church of England who had made some progresse in an Assembly held at Aberdeen 1616. and afterward in another at Perth 1618. which King Charles got passed in Parliament of Scotland 1633. In him was a perpetuall love to the good and an infinite desire of doing good to all These noble vertues and graces towards God his Parents Wife and Subjects were adorned with most eminent and singular personall vertues and graces as moderation in prosperity magnanimity in adversity so wonderfull patience that after the fight of Cropredy-bridge in his march after the Earl of Essex it chanced that one of his Carriages brake in a narrow long Lane where his Majesty was to passe and gave a stop to him at a time when a great showre of rain happened to fall some of them who were neer about him offered to hew out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get some shelter in the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake the Canon upon any occasion at which some seeming to admire his patience his Majesty lifting up his hat said That as God had given him afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his afflictions So severe an observer of his words and actions that he was never observed to say any thing lightly or rashly or in his personall actions did any thing which might render his person or authority contemptible So temperate that in all his life he was never observed disorderly to exceed in eating or drinking affable yet conserving the dignity of his Majesty to all men free and open in his conversation little practicing the only lesson which Lewis the eleventh would learn his Son Charles the ninth Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare So frugall that though he had a Queen and plentifull Issue and expended much more in repairing the Navy for recovering the Soveraignty of the narrow seas then he received of his Subjects and the Exchequer left empty by his Father yet he encreased it before the first Scotish expedition to a greater mass then was ever found since it was exhausted by Henry the Eighth So elegant and pure a stile he had in writing that I expect to live to see it as much imitated by Englishmen as Caesar's was among the Romans Neither which is no lesse remarkable were any of these virtues stained with any suspected vice To the qualities of his mind were joyned Ornaments of his body every way answerable a venerable and gracious aspect yet best when he did not speak agility of members so disposed that in riding the great Horse running the ring vaulting shooting in the Crosbow Musket and sometime the great Ordinance He was thought to be the best Marksman and comliest manager of the great Horse of any man in the three Nations nor was lesse judicious in choosing a Winter Deere which is one of the hardest taskes of a Woodman then excellent in shooting a Deere Dr. Harvey Gen. Anim. exerc 64. pag. 422. propt med affirmes him to be delighted in observations the Dr. made of the causes of Generation from his dissection and Anatomies of the Deere in Hampton-Court c. but whether wanting that magnanimity of looking dangers in the face upon their first budding which is so necessary to the conservation of Regality or whether not having sufficiently understood that benefits conferred upon seditious men never begot any obligation of gratitude upon them but on the contrary they alwaies make advantage of them to get more untill not having more to expect grow jealous least their benefactors might by some means better reassume them then they extort them they hate them which usually ends in the murder of Princes but thinking to overcome his adversaries by his benefits example and clemency or to give satisfaction to all Factions of his Subjects he preferred all Factions in his Court and Councell though he excluded them out of the Church whereby he gave vent to all the Factions so as the veneration of the Royal name became every day more contemptible the Factions increased daily more formidable his counsels became distracted and betrayed and all the treasure he had gathered consumed in the first Northern expedition against the Scots where having many advantages to have subdued them he made a dishonorable peace with them io the increase of their reputation and losse of his own being destitute of treasure and
are the English and Scottish And also since the corruption of the best thing is worst it will not be amiss before we conclude this Chapter and Book to discourse this Probleme whether upon all occasions it be the only and necessary way to cure all distempers of State by a full convention in Parliament according to the usuall constitution And first we will see what may be said for it That the passing of Lawes in Parliament where the major part of the Object 1 Freeholders are represented creates and begets a right understanding between the King and his Subjects that it is not the intention of the Prince to alter the old Lawes and introduce new ones to their prejudice To this I subscribe That when Lawes are so passed it confirmes and strengthens the Prince both by the person and purse of his Subjects in any designe he shall undertake because the representatives of the Freeholders consent unto it To this I subscribe That Parliaments have been of that antiquity and the Nation so habituated to them that it will never long be governed peaceably without them To this I subscribe That the grievances of the Nation can never be so well represented and redressed as in Parliament where the major part of the Freeholders are represented To this I subscribe That men will lesse dare to abuse their Prince or Country by any sinister or indirect means when Parliaments are frequent and free To this I subscribe The frequent use of Parliaments takes away all strangenesse between the King and his Subjects and begets a confidence and right understanding between them To this I subscribe That since it is necessary that every Prince in governing must necessarily ultimately resolve his confidence into something besides the Lawes to which upon all occasions he may betake himself for the Execution and defence of himself and Subjects and this must be by a constant Army in pay of his Subjects according to the institution of the Roman Legions or out of a diffidence of his own Subjects or from some reason of state trust the protection of his Person and Lawes into the hands of Foreigners as did the Kings of Aegypt before Sclymus conquered them or as the King of France now does in the hands of Switz and Scots or he must betake himself to the protection of a mercinary Army made up of his Subjects and Foreiners as the Turks Janizaries and Spahi are or establish his security and refuge up-the affection of his subjects and intrust them with the Militia in such manner as hath beene used heretofore in England and that this agrees better with the nature and constitution of English-men then any of the other as being established as well by common-Law as many Acts of Parliament To this I subscribe To these may be added that Tacitus in the life of Agricola makes it one great cause of the Romans conquering our Ancestors That they consulted not in common Nec aliud adversus validissimas Gentes pro nobis utilius quam quod in commune non consultant Rarus ad Propulsandum commune periculum conventus It a dum singuli pugnant aniversi vincuntur Quaere Yet quaere whether Rising-Chase in Norfolke and old Sarum in Wilts where are no Inhabitants but a few meane Tenants sending twice the numbers to the Parliament with the county of Yorke and whether the County and City of Durham sending none at all and whether Cornwall's sending ten times as many as either Warwick-shire or Leicestershire and yet eyther of them bigger and far more rich Counties Or whether Cities and Boroughs not only sending a like number of Citizens and Burgesses with the County having alike Vote with them of the County be an equall representative of the Freeholders Or whether the waies used in the Elections doe not animate the Electors and those that stand in Competition against one another and that to such a height That many of the Electors and those who stand are never after reconciled Answer It is true indeed that if God had determined all things in this inferior Orbe without any variation and that this thing were alwaies to be attained only by some one means that this in governing were by councell in Parliament then could there be neither reason or discourse upon variation and alteration of things and no difference betweene the wisest of Princes and the most foolish but this is so far from truth that there is nothing sublunary not only variable but doth vary every moment neither is there any thing in Reason Physick or State alike to all men nay in all of them the same thing may be at one time good and profitable at another time bad and hurtfull What man sees not that in health nature is not repaired by any man without a proportionable measure of diet which when he is indisposed may surcharge nature to the overthrow of it in him Strong physick may be proper to a man at one time and kill him at another Parliaments although ordinarily are the Kings surest refuge yet by how much they are more excellent by so much the worse are they corrupted Times are and will be bad when they are not made so by any cause in the Prince and so bad that in such conjuncture it may prove the utmost evill if the Houses or eyther of them shall assume the title of Parliament or give head to such Factions and distempers And no question when the Scots invaded England in 1640 it was unsafe Councell that advised the King to summon a Parliament and worst of all to convene it at London as things then stood For that saying of Tacitus it is rather Rhetoricall and makes against the Antiquity of Parliaments then any way proves necessity of them upon all occasions unless he could make consulere and pugnare the same thing nor could Agricola ever have obteined such victory against our Ancestors if he had fought with no more then had councelled him Epilogue WHen I looke back and consider the unstable condition of mankinde especially among Islanders and that often times the fate of good religious and just men is in this World more calamitous then of bad and vicious men I did then conclude with my self that Religion Justice and Piety cannot of themselves procure peace and society to mankind nay what is yet more lamentable that first sublunary cause from whence all Subjects derive and expect their protection is more subject to calamity then the condition of the meanest of mortall men Let a man take a survey of all the Kings in Britain since there were any Records of time and see whether neer one halfe of them did attain a naturall death nor is this confined within the Seas which encompass our Isle or a new thing in other parts of the world for Adgenerum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Juvenal Sat. 10. Descendunt Reges I shall therefore before I conclude endeavour to shew whether any peace and happinesse may be reasonably
was I conceive that Athaliah desired to cut off all the Royal seed of the house of Judah 2 Chron. 23. And that all Usurpers do not think themselves fafe in their usurpations unless they secure themselves by attempting greater viz. in destroying all the Progeny of those men who can make a better and more superior claim then they have Where therefore Democracies and Aristocracies if such many-headed beasts by the Law of God or Nature be sufficiently qualified to be capable of this power and Elective Monarchies have been of that continuance that no superior claim can be made justly by another let them continue their possessions still for all me Yet would I not for any good in the world venture my life in any of them or judge any man to death in any of them unless it could be made appear that God or the Law of Nature did ever institute any such things or that any where in the world they were not usurped or introduced by them who had no right to do it But however it is a most unreasonable thing that their actions of Adoption and Election should be taken for precedents in rightful Hereditary Monarchies which cannot admit them without a total dissolution and do justly attribute their Governments to a higher then humane cause 21. Where in Hereditary Monarchies the whole Line is extinguished Wherein the decision is to be by Lot there the decision is to be by Lot for The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition of it is of the Lord Pro. 16. 33. But if any one gets the possession before such disposition his Title by the antecedent proposition is good enough besides we have demonstrated by para cap. 1. lib. 1. that Jus primi occupantis is good by the Law of Nature 22. If it be Misera servitus ubi Jus est vagum aut incognitum a miserable How blessed and happy men are where Supreme powers and Laws are certain servitude where the Law our Lawyers by Jus. understand Law is wandring or unknown Then by the Rule of contraries it is a happy Freedom where the Law is certain and known to which a man may safely and securely direct his actions If it be a miserable slavery where the Law is wandring and unknown how much more miserable a slavery is it where the Supreme Power is wandring and unknown What confusions murders rapine and spoil of all things sacred and civil must men necessarily fall under The woful and miserable condition of this Nation since our late Distractions hath sufficiently manifested the consequence of it If then such a condition be so miserable how happy then is that Nation where by Gods mercy men are certain who is their Prince and to whom they may securely pay their obedience and assuredly expect protection in their lives and estates If there be nothing more servile and base then to be insulted and tyrannized over by them who by no right command over us how ingenuous and virtuous is it to be subject where by all Divine and Humane laws we owe our obedience For out of the offices of commanding and obeying did never any man live and where men will not be subject to them who may by right command over them they shall be slaves either to their own ambition or to others who by no right command over them And if it be most woful and horrible by resisting Higher Powers to incur damnation Note the Apostle does not say You must Rom. 13. needs be subject to Governments and whoso resists Government shall receive to himself damnation for the Empire of Thieves Robbers and Usurpers is Government but to Higher Powers who have a right of command from God to what a condition then have men brought themselves where either they are uncertain of the Supreme Power and so are either uncertain whether in their actions they incur this dreadful sentence or else where they are certain where the Supreme Power is and yet dare not for fear of their lives actively submit to it Who is the rightful English Soveraign and to whom all Englishmen by all Laws of God and Man owe their obedience is so evident that I never heard any man deny or dispute it 23. The ratio finalis or the end for which God hath ordained Kings The end for which Regality was ordained by God is for the protection of them whom God hath committed to their charge and government not only by all just and due means to protect them from the outward violence and oppression of their outward Enemies but also in peace inwardly and by all means to suppress all faction and sedition of ambitious men who would disturb it He chose David his servant and took him Psal 78. 71 72 73. from the sheepfolds as he was following the ewes great with young he took him that he might feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance So he fed them with a faithful and true heart and ruled them with all his power And that Kings may be nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to Gods Church Isa 49. 23. And consonant to these revelations of God by these noble Prophets is the declaration of the Saintly King Edward Confessor Rex auiem qui est summi Leg. S. Edw. cap. 19. Regis Vicarius ad hoc constitutus est ut regnum populum Domini super omnia sanctam ecclesiam regat defendat ab injuriosis maleficos autem distruat 24. By this which hath been said it is evident that the power of all No power arises from Conquest Kings is alike and equal viz. Supreme and Gods Ordinance and from the Law of Nature The difference between Kings is only in the exercise of their power some being contracted into narrower terms and others of a more vast extent and dilatation Where therefore one King extends the exercise of his power into the dominion of another by conquest or otherwise no new power ariseth from hence but only an extension of the exercise of the old And so by consequence the invasion usurpation or conquest of Subjects or others who before had no Regal power cannot create any after 25. Naturalia determinantur ad maxima minima There is nothing How far and when Conquest is to be obeyed and submitted to in Nature but bath its beginning termination and ending And so Regal power hath its beginning termination and ending from the Laws of Nature and all men are to be subject to those powers wheresoever they are For no man when he comes into the power of any Prince whether he be his natural Soveraign or nor but is obliged and subject to the power of that Prince wherein he is therefore if a Frenchman goes into Spain or a Spaniard comes into England they are subject to the powers of Spain and England so long as they continue there And since it is impossible that two Supreme powers can be in one place where any one
King comes to be in the exercise of another Kings power he is subject to that King so long as he continues in the exercise or dominion of that King By more reason therefore ought the Subjects of any Prince to be in subjection to Supreme powers so long as they continue in the exercise of their power whether it were by Conquest or not Besides God hath ordained Supreme powers for mens preservation not their destruction And there must be some visible power upon earth which may put a period to and decide differences or they will be endless But there is no power under heaven but their sword that can put a period to the differences of Princes what therfore in such case the sword decides ought to be obeyed and the conquered Subjects nay Princes who come into the dominion or exercise of anothers power ought to be subject to it so long as they continue therein God therefore pronounceth Zedekiah a Rebel against Nebuchadnezzer But this reason cannot 1 Chro. 36. 13. hold for Subjects against their Soveraign where the Law may decide their Regal power cannot be transferred nor communicated by any humane or voluntary act differences and where by no Law of God or Man they are permitted to take the sword 26. Cujus est velle ejus est nolle No power less then that which made any thing can alter it But Regal power is Gods ordinance therefore nothing less then the power of God can alter transfer or communicate it Yet is the exercise of it subject to violence As Gravia sursum levia deorsum feruntur yet may a man by violence throw a stone upward and depress smoke from ascending without altering the nature of either So though Regal power cannot be transferred nor communicated by Man yet is the exercise of it not only subject to violence and usurpation but also being voluntary may be suspended by Supreme powers themselves without any diminution of the power or right of exercise of it When therefore Subjects or Enemies do unjustly invade and possess the Dominion of another this possession does not divest the right or jus ad rem of that other but only suspend the exercise of the others power or right during such usurpation So may a King by a league or peace with others by his act suspend the exercise of his power in any place unjustly usurped from him by others yet without diminution of his power or right to that place But this act cannot oblige his Successor nor himself after such term but they have a just cause of war if it be noâ— restored Having thus far treated of the efficient or final cause of Regal power it is time to descend to the Attributes of it CHAP. III. Of the Attributes of Regal power and incidently of the Power of Magistrates 1. WHo hath the Supreme power hath the sword of Justice to punish The sword of Justice is his who hath the Supreme power them who transgress Laws and endeavour to cause sedition He is the Minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Rom. 13. 4. And Gods rod in his hand Exod. 17. 9. 2. The end of all Government is either to preserve the governed inwardly The power of making War and Peace belongs to the Supreme power in peace or to defend them from the outward violence and opposition of others In vain therefore should Government be if he who hath the Supreme power may not as well defend Subjects from the violence of others outwardly as to preserve them from factions and feditions within And this power God gave to Moses Joshuah David and all the Kings of Judah nor can any King be a Supreme Prince without it nor the governed in a probable condition of hoping for preservation from it 3. Judgment is the determining of a good or bad action which cannot All Judgment is with him be in any who is subject to another What therefore could be a more subtile temptation of the Devil to our first Parents then to tell them Gen. 3. 5. that by eating the forbidden fruit they should be like to God knowing good and evil Solomon as the most requisite thing prays to God that he would give him an understanding heart that he might be able to judge between good and bad 1 King 3. 9. And The King by judgment establisheth the land Pro. 29. 4. And Give the King thy judgments O God and thy righteousness to the Kings Son that he may judge the people according to right and defend the poor Psal 72. 1 2. 4. The right of making Laws is with him The Scepter shall not depart Jus legislativum penes eum from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shilo come Gen. 49. 10. Submit your selves therefore to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme 1 Pet. 2. 12. And this is the onely visible means by which Subjects may become safe rich and happy 5. In punishment Equals cannot judge Equals much less can Inferiors That he does all things without punishment judge Superiors But a Supreme Prince cannot have an Equal much less a Superior therefore a Supreme Prince cannot be punished If a Supreme Prince might be punished for any thing he doth then cannot he do any thing but he will be liable to punishment for so doing For what property can he give to one which will not offend some other Nor did the veriest Thief or Murderer ever suffer punishment but some of his Comrades would seek revenge and if they might would punish the Lawgiver Besides who shall judge his Prince If any one then every one may Let no man therefore be hasty to go out of his sight nor stand in an evil thing for he doth whatsoever pleaseth him Where the word of a King is there is power and who shall say unto him what doest thou Eccles 8. 3 4. The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Lords Anointed 1 Sam. 24. 6. It may seem to some that this unlimited power of doing any thing Annot. with impunity will only beget a confidence in Kings of doing what they list without ever taking care of their duty in preserving their Subjects from intestine broils and factions and from the outward force and violence of their Enemies whereas more narrowly looked into no men are so subject to care and have their wills less then they For private men if they do any thing in their passion their fame and fortunes are alike neither much removed from their persons few take notice of it But they who are set in high place all men take notice of their actions In the greatest Fortune therefore is the
Queen Mary to be born in lawful Matrimony and all sentences Stat. An. Pri. Cap. 1. sess 2. Mariae of divorce to the contrary repealed particularly the sentence of Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury touching the Kings marriage with Queen Katherine and the two Acts of Parliament of the 25 H. 8. 22. 28 H. 8. 7. confirming the same A Repeal of the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. 2. made against such as speak unreverently St. An. Pri. Ma. sess 2. Cap. 2. of the body and blood of Christ and of the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. 2. touching Election of Bishops and the 2 Ed. 6. 1. concerning the uniformity of service and administration of the Sacraments and of 2 Ed. 6. 21. made to take away all positive Laws ordained against the marriage of Priests and of the 3 Ed. 6. 10. made for the abolishing of divers books and Images and of the 3 Ed. 6. 12. made for the ordering of Ecclesiastical Ministers and of the 5 Ed. 6. 1. made for the uniformity of common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments and of the 5 Ed. 6. 3. made for the keeping of Holy days and Fasting days and of the 5 Ed. 6. 12. touching the Marriage of Priests and legitimation of their children All such divine service and administration of Sacraments as were most commonly used in England in the last year of H. 8. shall be used through the Realm after the 20 day of December Anno Dom. 1553. and no other kinde of service nor administration of Sacraments It is Enacted That if any person or persons of their own power and authority after the 20. of December shall willingly and of purpose by open or St. An. 1 Mariae Sess 2. Cap. 3. overt word fact c. maliciously or contemptuously neglect vex or disturb c. any Preacher or Preachers licensed allowed or authorized to Preach by the Queens Highness or by any Archbishop or Bishop of this Realm or by any other lawful Ordinary or by either of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge or otherwise lawfully authorized by reason of his Cure or Benefice c. in any open Sermon Preaching or Collation in any Church Chappel or Churchyard c. Or if any person shall wilfully disturb c. any Parson Vicar Parish-Priest Curat or other lawful Priest saying or celebrating the Mass or other divine service sacraments or sacramentals as was commonly frequented and used in the last year of H. 8. or afterward should be allowed and set forth or authorized by the Queen Or if any person shall contemptuously unlawfully or maliciously deface spoil abuse or unreverently handle or order the most blessed comfortable and holy sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar being in any Church Chappel or other decent place or the Piece or Canapy wherein the same Sacrament is or shall be or pull down deface spoil or otherwise break any Altar or Altars or any Crucifix or Cross in any Church Chappel or Churchyard That then every such offender his ayders and abettors shall be apprehended c. by the Constable or Churchwarden of the place wherein the said offences shall be committed Which persons so apprehended c with convenient speed shall be brought and carried to any Justice of Peace within the said Shire c. where the said offence shall be committed and the said Justice of Peace upon due accusation shall forthwith commit the said person or persons to safe custody as by the discretion of the said Justice shall be thought meet and within six days next after such accusation the said Justice with other Justices of Peace in the said Shire City c. shall diligently examine the acts and offences aforesaid And if two of the said Justices of Peace shall upon examination finde the person or persons so accused guilty of any of the said offences by two sufficient witnesses or by confession the said Justices of Peace shall commit the person or persons so accused to the Gaol of the County City Burrough c. where the said offences were committed without bail or mainprize by the space of three moneths and further to the next quarter sessions to be holden in the said shire city burrough c. next after the end of the said three months which quarter sessions the party offending upon his repentance and reconciliation shall be discharged out of prison upon sufficient security for his good behaviour for one whole year but if he or they will not repent and be reconciled then to be committed again to the said Gaol there to remain until he or they shall repent and be reconciled for their offences If any person shall receive the offendor or disturbe the arrest he shall forfeit to the Queene her Heires and Successors for every such offence the summe of five pounds If any offendor bee not taken but escape hee shall forfeit to the Queene for every such escape five pounds The Justices of Peace Justices of Assize Justices of Oyer and Terminer all Mayors Bayliffs Justices of Peace within any City Borough or Town-corporate have power and authority to enquire into heare and determine the offences and misdemeanors aforesaid and to set fines and amerciaments therefore This Act doth not take away any authority jurisdiction c. of Ecclesiasticall Lawes then in force This Statute repeales all Statutes made against the Church of Rome particularly Anno 1 2 Phil. Mar. cap. 8. the Statute of 21 H. 8. 13. made against plurality of Benefices taking of Farmes by Spirituall men and non residence The Statute of 23 H. 8. 9. That no person shall be cited out of his Diocess wherein he or she dwelleth except for certain cases Stat. 24 H. 8. 12. That Appeals in such cases as had been proved in the See of Rome should not from henceforth be had nor used but within this Realm Stat. 25 H. 8. 19. entituled The submission of the Clergy to the Kings Majesty Stat. 25 H. 8. 20. concerning restraints of Payments of Primates and First-fruits of Arch-bishopricks Bishopricks to the See of Rome Stat. 25 H. 8. 21. concerning the exoneration of the Kings Subjects from exactions and impositions before that time paid to the See of Rome and for having licences and dispensations within this Realm without suing further for the same Stat. 26 H. 8. 1. concerning the Kings being supreme head of the Church and to have Authority to reform and redresse all errors heresies and abuses in the same Stat. 26 H. 8. 14. for nomination and confirmation of Suffragans within this Realm Stat. 27 H. 8. 15. whereby the King should have power to nominate 32. persons of his Clergy and Lay Fee for making Ecclesiasticall Lawes Stat. 28 H. 8. 10. Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome Stat. 28. H. 8. 16. For release of such as then had obtained pretenced licences and dispensations from the See of Rome Stat.