directly upon themselves For it was in their own Power upon this Principle to become a House when they pleas'd and not the less so for his Grace's Delaying the Appointment of a Common Referendary But in truth since the Separation of the two Houses in their Debates the title of Prolocutor has comprehended all the Offices of the Place as the Confirmation of his Grace and the Bishops has been ever thought to Instate him in the Office and make the Lower Clergy a House to act in a due Subordination to those their Superiors And this new division of the Office is evidently fram'd to Support the notion of their being a Separate House and in a Condition to debate business of their own antecedent to this Act and the Authority of their Lordships Which being once allow'd would quickly establish them in a Co-ordinate State and open a way to any degrees of Independence they should hereafter please to insist on IV. Additional Observations touching the AUTHORITY of the SUMMONS to Convocation The Authority of Summoning appli'd both to the King and the Archbishop P. 189. The title of the Convocation of 1562. as of others since the Act of Submission runs thus Convocatio Praelatorum Cleri Cantuar. Provinciae inchoat in Domo Capitulari Ecclesiae Divi Pauli London Auctoritate Brevis Regij Reverendissimo c. in hac parte directi c. P. 1. App. The form of holding a Convocation drawn by Archbishop Parker for that of 1562. begins thus Sciendum est quòd omnes qui Auctoritate Reverendissimi Domini Archiepiscopi Cant. citantur ad comparendum coram eo in in Domo Capitulari Ecclesiae Cathedralis Divi Pauli London c. The Titles of our Convocations before and since the Reformation agree in the first Clause Convocatio Praelatorum Cleri Cantuarlensis Provinciae which shews that by our Protestant Constitution they are no less an Ecclesiastical and Provincial Synod of Bishops and their Clergy under one common head the Metropolitan of of the Province than in the times of Popery they were If therefore the Clergy as has been pleaded of late be not comprehended in that Phrase Convocationem Praelatorum Cleri in the form of Continuing they are by the same rule no Members of an English Convocation But whereas the Convocations before the Reformation are generally said in the Title to be Factae per Reverendissimum c. upon the Submission Act the Style seems to have been chang'd because the first title we have entire after that Act this I mean of 1562. makes the Convocation to be begun Auctoritate Brevis Regij Reverendissimo c. direct And yet we see that Archbishop Parker lookt upon the Convocation of that very Year to be Cited or Summon'd Auctoritate Reverendissimi c. Hereupon a question arises about the true meaning of the term Authoritas as us'd in these titles and on some other Occasions In what Sense the Bishops and Clergy are said to be Summon'd to Convocation by the King's Authority and in what by the Authority of the Archbishop The Archiepiscopal Summons Authoritative before the Act. It is agreed on all hands that before the Act of Submission an English Convocation was Summon'd by the Sole Authority of the Metropolitan Nor do we deny that Act to have been a confiderable Abridgment of the Liberties of the Church in the matter of holding Synods but only that it did not so far affect the Ecclesiastical Power as to change them into Civil Meetings i. e. Meetings Summon'd and acting in virtue of that Summons immediately upon a Civil Authority The Civil Summons an argument of the Papists against our Reformation This Civil Summons and the Authority of it has been warmly asserted by two sorts of Persons 1. By the Papists who ever since the Reformation have taken the Advantage of that Act of Submission to asperse our Protestant Synods as Civil Meetings and the Canons c. made in them as of a Secular Original 2. By some late Opposers of the Metropolitical and Episcopal Authority in Convocation One of whom forms this New and very Uncanonical Scheme of Summoning and Holding Synods upon that Expression in the Submission-Act The Authority by which the Convocation meets is now purely Royal Power of the Lower House p. 3. c. 1. The words of the Act are express in the case which shall always be assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ So that since this Statute the Archbishop's share in Convening them is not Authoritative but Ministerial And when therefore he frames his Mandate upon the King 's Writ he does it as the King's Instrument only and the proper Officer who is to execute the Royal Summons The Argument arising from hence is that his Grace has now no Authority to Convene the Body of the Clergy Again Ibid. p. 17. c. 1. 2. An English Metropolitan Presiding over a Synod c. call'd together not any way by his but purely by Royal Authority And in another place Ibid. p. 20. c. 2. The Convocation Subsists by the King 's Writ Let the most virulent Adversary of this Protestant Church frame if he can a description of its Synodical Meetings that shall be a deeper Reproach to our happy Reformation Against the first sort of Adversaries the Papists and Protestants one would think should be as easily answer'd a full Vindication of our Reform'd Church has been built upon the Genuine meaning of the Act of Submission interpreted according to the true intent thereof and the antecedent and subsequent Practice with other Circumstances all which we have been forc'd more particularly to Urge and enforce of late to defend the honour of our Constitution against the Second sort of Adversaries also As The intent of the Statute no more than to restrain the Archbishop from exerting his Authority without the Royal License That the Crown did not want the Assistance of any Act to have a Convocation at pleasure because the Right of enjoyning the Archbishop to Summon it in due form as our Princes saw Occasion was always thought a Power Inherent in the Crown and was all along practis'd in England both before and since the Reformation and is indeed a Right belonging to Christian Princes in general But till the Act of Submission the Archbishop also had a Power of Summoning Convocations according to the Exigencies of the Church without the permission or direction of the Royal Writ And King Henry VIII apprehending that the Archbishop Bishops and Clergy in Convocation might protest against or obstruct his Measures of Reformation got a sufficient Security against that danger by making himself in virtue of that Act the Sole Judge when a Convocation should be Summon'd As the King neither gain'd nor wanted more than this so nothing was taken from the Archbishop but the ancient Right of Exerting his Summoning Authority AT PLEASURE the Authority it self remaining Entire and as full and effectual as ever when that Restraint is taken off The Power
the known Rules of a Provincial Synod viz. to be summon'd before their Metropolitan and to the Place he should think fit to appoint and in the manner that was usual in all other Convocations For the Archbishop had a Right to call a Convocation at pleasure till the Statute 25 H. 8. c. 19. absolutely restrained him from doing it unless empower'd by the King 's Writ Which effected this Alteration in the Summons that whereas before it was issu'd sometimes upon the Pleasure of the Prince signified to the Archbishop and sometimes upon the Archbishop's alone the Authority of the Summons in both resting equally in his Grace Now he is restrain'd from the Exercise of that Authority till he receive leave or direction from the Prince The Summons upon that intimation of the Royal Pleasure being still issued in his Grace's Name and under the Archiepiscopal Seal that is remaining as properly Authoritative as before * See this point proved more largely in Right of the Archbishop 9 c. II. For whereas in the late comparisons of a Convocation and Parliament the parallel lies between the Archbishop in the first and the Lord Chancellor in the second the share they have in the Summoning these two Bodies is very different The Warrant to the Lord Chancellor who acts Ministerially The Lord Chancellor or Keeper receives a Warrant from the King whereby his Majesty signifies his Resolution to call a Parliament In which case divers and sundry Writs are to be directed forth under our Great Seal of England c. Wherefore we Will and Command you forthwith upon the receipt hereof and by Warrant of the same to cause such and so many Writs to be made and sealed under our Great Seal for the accomplishment of the same as in like cases hath been heretofore used and accustom'd c. What the King in this case requires of the Lord Chancellor is in a way purely Ministerial his Lordship being commanded to act only in his Majesties Name and under his Seal i. e. solely by his Authority while the Archbishop is only Licens'd or Directed to Exert a Power and Authority which belongs to him as well in the common Right of a Metropolitan as by the antient Laws and Customs of this Realm In virtue whereof he directs his Mandate to the Bishop of London whose Office it is as his Grace's Dean of the Province to Execute that Mandate and whose part therefore in the calling a Convocation answers to that of the Lord Chancellor in the Summons of a Parliament Both of them Act Ministerially in the Name and by the Authority the one of his Civil and the other of his Ecclesiastical Superior The Writ for a Parliament issu'd in the King's Name by the Lord Chancellor summons the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Personally to attend his Majesty on a certain day at Westminster Vobis in side legiantia quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungendo Mandamus quod consideratis Dicto die loco personaliter intersitis nobiscum And another also in his Majesty's Name to the Sheriff of each County commands him to take care that the Knights Citizens and Burgesses duly Elected pay their Attendance to the King at the same Place But the Archbishop in his Mandate executed by the Bishop of London first reciting the Royal Writ to shew that the Restraint of the Statute is taken off Summons the Bishops and Clergy of his Province to appear before himself in his Provincial Convocation at St. Pauls Quod iidem Episcopi Decani Archidiaconi caeteri Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Praelati c. compareant coram nobis aut nostro in hac parte locum tenente sive Commissario in Domo Capitulari Ecclesiae Cathedralis Divi Pauli London The Returns to Parliament to the King The Sheriff of each County is directed in the Royal Writ to make a due Return of his Election to the King in his Court of Chancery Et Electionem tuam in pleno Comitatu tuo factam distinctè apertè sub sigillo tuo sigillis eorum qui Electioni illi interfuerint nobis in Cancellariâ nostrâ ad diem locum in Brevi Contentum certifices indilatè In Convocation to the Archbishop By the Archbishop's Mandate the Bishop of each Diocese to whom the immediate Execution thereof belongs is directed to make the Return to his Grace or his Commissary Et praeterea vobis ut supra injungimus quòd omnibus singulis Coepiscopis Suffraganeis Provinciae nostrae Cant. injungatis injungi faciatis ut singuli eorum sigillatim de facto suo quatenus pertinet ad eosdem Nos seu locum-tenentem sive Commissarium unum vel plures dictis die horâ loco per literas eorum Patentes Nomina Cognomina omnium singulorum per eos respectivè Citatorum continentes distinctè certificent apertè These Returns are ultimately deposited in their proper Offices the Parliamentary in his Majesties Court of Chancery and those to Convocation in the Register of the See of Canterbury That is the due Execution of each being immediately certified to the Person from whom the Command comes and in whose Power it is to punish the default the Testimonies of that Execution rest and stop at the Authority The Summons not less Ecclesiastical for its being enjoined by the Prince from whence the Summons in both cases immediately flow'd Thus far to the Honour of our Reform'd Church nothing appears in the manner of an English Convocation but what is truly Ecclesiastical or in other Words suitable to the Constitution and Government of an Episcopal Church as well as the Degrees and Order of the Members whereof it consists Bating I mean that one Restraint which the Statute has laid upon the Archbishop from calling a Convocation at pleasure as the antient Metropolitans and our own here in England before that Statute had a right to do For as to the Archbishop's exercising his Summoning Authority at the Command of the King this is so far from changing our Convocations into Civil Meetings that 't is no more than an obedience which has been ever paid to Christian Princes by the Governours of National Churches planted and establish'd under their Influence and Protection Nor in our own did the Archbishop's calling his Clergy upon the King 's Writ or without it ever make the least Alteration in the stated Ecclesiastical Methods of Summoning All these God be thank'd are still pretty entire and I hope safe enough against the Endeavours of some restless Men who would perswade us that they are pleading the Cause of the Church in doing all they possibly can to make her a meer Creature of the State The Clergy not Summon'd in the same manner from the beginning This has ever been the Method of Summoning a Convocation but as to the Members summon'd the Cathedral and Diocesan Clergy were not from the beginning represented as now they are by Persons of
of Laws or Customs that appear'd to be burthensome or inconvenient Anno 1428. The last day of Convocation Dominus ex assensu Confratrum suorum ad Petitionem Cleri poenam in Constitutione propter excessiva Stipendia Capellanorum tam contra dantes quam recipientes latam pro parte dantium suspendit usque ad proximam Convocationem ipsos hujusmodi poenâ minimè involutos fore decrevit Anno 1529. Sess 91. Prolocutor intrans c. perijt quòd praesentati ad Ecclesiastica Beneficia non arctentar per Diecesanos scripto aliquo obligatorio aut poenâ temporali obligari ad Resi ientiam Anno 1541. Sess 20. Clerus exposuit Peâ—…ionem de Conjugies sactis in Bethlem abolendis Anno 1555. Sess 3. The Clergy grant a Subsidy illie expoluit Clerus tres Petitiones primùm quòd omnes Beneficati qui spe Remissionis primorum fructuum ex communi rumore Sacerdotia assecuti sunt non obligentur rependere duplos c. 2 do ut possint Diplomata Apostolica pro Sacerdotiis retinend assequi postremò quòd Statutum tollatur pro Decimis solvendis c. quòd Decimarum Causae emergentes coram Ordinatio examinentur decidantur 4. About Festivals 4. For the appointment of new Festivals or improving the Services of the old Anno 1434. Oct. 9. Dominus ex consensu Confratrum suorum ad Petitionem Cleri ordain'd that St. Frideswide's Day cum novem lectionibus aliis quae ad hujusmodi Festum cum Regimine Chori secundum usum Sarum pertinent per totam Provinciam suam perpetuò celebraretur Anno 1444. Oct. 24. Magister Willelmus Byconil Offic. Curiae Cant. totius Cleri Praelocutor Supplicabat Domino ex parte Cleri ut dies Translationis S. Edwardi c. sub duplici Festo per suam Provinciam solempnizari posset de Confratrum suorum consensu concedere dignaretur 5. For the Archbishops intercession with the King 5. For the Archbishop's Intercession with the King to restrain the Lay Officers from oppressing the Church or to pray their assistance in the Enforcement of Ecclesiastical Laws Anno 1394. Supplicatio Cleri directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York Chancellour of England that for the Suppression of Lollardy they will intercede with the King ut dignetur extendere cum effectu brachium suae Majestatis Anno 1463. Jul. 18. Petitum fuit per Magistrum Johannem Stocks Prolocutorem à Domino ut ipse Regiae Majestati scriberet pro liberatione certarum Personarum Ecclesiasticarum in Custodià laicali incarceratarum custoditarum ut secundum Cartam alias per Regem viris Ecclesiasticis concessam suis Ordinariis possint liberari Anno 1480. Apr. 3. A Petition presented by the Prolocutor to the Archbishop and Bishops praying them in the name of the Clergy to intercede with the King for Protection to the Church against the encroachments of Lay-Officers molesting and imprisoning the Clergy 6. For the Execution of Discipline 6. For more strict Execution of Ecclesiastical Discipline As Anno 1586. March 15. Extracts out of the Upper House Book ' The Lower House beseech the Bishops to be careful of Ordinations to restrain their Officers from Excessive Fees and that they will force every Instituted Person within a certain time to take Induction or else sequester the Profits 7. Petitions of several kinds 7. In the Year 1555. I find at the end of the Journal an Abstract of the Petitions offer'd by the Inferiour Clergy to the Upper House Item Supplication of the Lower House to the Bishops concerning Spiritual Lands in Temporal Mens hands Item for Schools and Hospitals promised in the Statute of Suppression of Colleges Item for Mortmayn Tythes Appropriations of Preachers of Books of Statutes and Jurisdiction against Hereticks of Pluralities of Seminaries of Liberties of the Church in Magna Charta of Praemunire of the Statute of Submission of the Clergy of finding great Horses of Usurers of Violence against any of the Clergy of Clarks Apparel of Priests Married of School-Masters of exempt Jurisdiction and Peculiar Places in Lay-Mens hands of the Cognition of Causes of Tythes before the Mayor of London that Places exempted may be allotted to certain Priests of Chancels decay'd of Priests Marriâ—… to be reconciled of Payment for Tythes of Religious Women Married to be Divorc'd that in Divorces innocent Women may enjoy the Lands and Goods which were theirs before the Marriage That Wardens of Churches may make their Accompts that Ecclesiastical Persons which spoiled Churches and plucked down certain Edifices may be compelled to restitution and to Build them again Petitions of the Clergy presented immediately to the Vpper House All Petitions of this nature were delivered to the Archbishop and Bishops and rested with them as those others to the King or Parliament were put into the hands of the Archbishop singly or jointly with his Suffragans that after Approbation they might by their Lordships be convey'd and solicited according to the Intent and Tenor thereof Nor do I remember to have met with any Petition in the Registers delivered separately or immediately by the Clergy themselves except that one in 1588. Sess 10. to the House of Lords The Commons had sent up a Bill for a provision of Arms c. by the Clergy it was therefore the single and immediate concern of the Lower House to prevent it in order to which they Address'd the Lords in Parliament as in a matter of Property and among the rest the Petition was directed to the Archbishop and Bishops Upon which Accounts it cannot be extended to other Cases of an Ecclesiastical Nature in all which the Bishops and their Clergy must be jointly concern'd The time of presenting such Petitions The time of the Clergy's presenting their Petions to the Upper House whether Vivâ voce or in Scriptis was usually upon Delivery of their Grant and at the end of Convocation Not any but they had the same Right to offer them any other time tho' no Supplies were given but that being the most desirable opportunity of conveying their Grievances to the King became thereupon the ordinary time of bringing in their Petitions of all other kinds CHAP. XIV The Part which the Clergy have had in Judicial Cases THE ordinary way of Trying and Convicting Hereticks and Offenders against the Canons was in the Ecclesiastical Courts of every Diocese where they proceeded according to the stated Rules of such Courts and the severe Canons and Statutes then in force But if the Bishop upon Examination did not see cause to deliver over the Party accus'd to the Secular Power either the Degree or Evidence of the Crime falling short the Suspicion was however reckon'd a sufficient Cause of Imprisonment That if he had not abjur'd in Form he might by that means be compell'd to it or if he had that he might not be trusted abroad till he had given sufficient Proofs of