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A62130 Synodus Anglicana, or, The constitution and proceedings of an English convocation shown from the acts and registers thereof to be agreeable to the principles of an Episcopal church. Gibson, Edmund, 1669-1748. 1672 (1672) Wing S6383; ESTC R24103 233,102 544

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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 Method of Passing Canons and Constitutions before the Statute 25. H. 8. c. 19. was the same that has ever been practis'd in Synodical Meetings viz. by the Authority of the Synod and with the Sanction of the Metropolitan and these two gave them their full Force and Effect But now they are fram'd in order to be laid before the Prince as agreed on by the Arch-bishop Bishops and Clergy and none to be of any Force Effect or Validity in Law but only such and so many of them as he by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England shall allow approve and confirm This is the Language of the Royal Licence the Necessity whereof in order to make promulge and execute Canons c. is an Abridgment of the Ecclesiastical Power in these Respects and therefore the ancient Sanction which always signify'd a final Authority could not be continu'd in any Matters which were not to be promulg'd or executed without the Allowance Approbation and Confirmation of the King by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England But all Synodical-Acts to which the Royal Licence is not necessary receive their final Authority from the Sanction of the Metropolitan i. e. they still pass in the ancient Canonical way whatever some late Writers too much bent upon the Diminution of Ecclesiastical Power may suggest to the contrary CHAP. XVII Of Proroguing and Dissolving a Convocation AS the Arch-bishop upon receiving the Royal Writ for Calling a Convocation is bound by Law and agreeably to the Deference that has been ever paid to Christian Princes to exert his Summoning Authority so is he under the same Obligation to proceed to Prorogations and Dissolutions thereof in a Canonical way when the Pleasure of the Prince shall be signify'd by Royal Writs to those Purposes For how little Truth there is in the late Notion That the Arch-bishop in those Cases acts purely in a Ministerial way may appear by a Comparison of the Methods of Executing those Commands in Parliament and Convocation The manner of the A. bishop's Proroguing and Dissolving Authoritative For the the first the Prorogation of a Parliament the King by his Letters Patents constitutes such of the Nobility as he thinks fit his Commissioners for that end Dante 's vobis tenore praesentium plenam potestatem facultatem authoritatem c. ad praesens Parliamentum nostrum nomine nostro prorogand c. In the same Stile is the Commission for Dissolving as oft as his Majesty is not present in Person A Stile that is truly and evidently Ministerial But the Writs for doing the same things in Convocation can be directed to none but the Metropolitan himself and that without any Conveyance of Authority or Order to act in his Majesty's Name or any other Direction besides the Proroguing or Dissolving it according to the accustom'd Methods of Convocation Debito modo prorogetis and Dissolvetis seu dissolvi faciatis In pursuance of which Order the Archbishop Prorogues and Dissolves either in Person or by one or more Commissioners specially constituted by his Grace for those Purposes The Archbishop's Admonitions immediately before a Proragation or Dissolution Immediately before a Prorogation or Dissolution we find the Arch-bishop as he saw occasion publickly recommending to the Bishops and Clergy the due Execution of the Ecclesiastical Laws and the Reformation of any particular Abuses and Irregularities in the Church Anno 1428. Ulteriúsque rogavit hortatus est requisivit Reverendissimus Pater Dominus praedictus praefatos Confratres suos ut in inquisitione fienda contra Lollardos Haereticos hujusmodi diligentiam interim omnimodam quam poterant adhiberent cù●… revenerint quid contra eos fecerint ipsum pleniùs certificarent specialiter de illis quorum momina sibi detecta dictis Confratribus suis prout unumquemque in Dioc. suâ concernebant in Cedulis divisis conscripta circa tres Dies antea tradidit liberavit Anno 1601. Sess 18. The Extracts out of the Upper-house Books have this Note immediately before the Dissolution Arch-bishop exhorts the Bishops to be diligent in their Charge and careful to observe the Canons in the last Convocation Anno 1586. The Lower-house Book immediately before the Dissolution Revere●dissimus Pater Dominus Cant. querelatus est de pravâ immoderatâ luxuriâ ac minus verecundo gestu ac morum intemperie nonnullorum Clericorum Provinciae Cant. ad fora loca publica concurrentium Quare monuit Decanos Archidiaconos alios jam praesentes ad quos Correctio delinquentium hujusmodi pertinet ad severè procedend puniend obnoxios culpahiles si incorrigibiles perseveraverint ad implorand auxilium opem Episcopi Diocesani vel ipsius Reverendissimi Patris vel etiam ipsius Serenissimae Dominae nostrae Reginae ne actionum morum pravitas istorum obnubilet obscuret Dectrinam Evangelii quod verbis profitentur quo pluribus perniciosum siet pessimum eorum exemplum The Writs of Prorogation and Dissolution On the Day of Prorogation or Dissolution the Royal Writ is produc'd and publickly read But that being only a Direction to the Archbishop to Prorogue or Dissolve neither of these are effected by that Publication of the Writ On the contrary the very first Writ of Prorogation we meet with Anno 1532. May 15. was read in the Morning Reverendissimus ostendebat quoddam Breve Regium sibi directum pro Prorogatione hujusmodi Convocationis Quod Breve idem Reverendissimus publicè legebat and yet the Convocation sat till Noon and after Dinner met again So also Anno 1434. March 31. The Writ of Prorogation was brought in and read and afterwards the Resolutions of the Lower-Clergy touching the Pope's Supremacy were delivered and then the Arch-bishop is said to Continue to the Day specify'd in the Writ For so is the Practice of Convocation The Pleasure of the Prince is signify'd to the Archbishop by the Writ but his Grace pursues that Royal Order by a ●ormal Declaration out of a Schedule mentioning indeed the Royal Writ but running solely in the Arch-bishop's Name and by him pronounc'd in presence of the Bishops and Clergy The Authors therefore of some late Schemes have done a manifest Injustice to the Constitution of our Protestant Church in contending against Law and Practice that the Reformation put an end to the ancient Canonical Ways of transacting Ecclesiastical Matters and introduc'd a new Model inconsistent with the Primitive Distinctions between Presbyters and Bishops and unknown before either to this or any other Episcopal Church The foregoing Chapters I hope may vindicate our Reformation from the late Aspersions of that kind as well as the Ecclesiastical Government thereof from any such Repugnancy to the Primitive Rules and may withal make it more easily understood whether they who have carry'd on those new Measures or they who have oppos'd them are the truer Friends to the Rights Liberties and Honour of our