of such a nature in his Reign by Lanfranke the Archâ—B of Canterbury who had the greatest credit and autority with him as cannot be parallell'd by the like don or permitted in any State and impossible to be don or permitted in any State that was in any degree subject to the Pope which was the Canonization of a Saint There being at that time very great fame of Aldelmus who first brought in the composition of Latine verse into England and besides his eminent Piety had so great a faculty in singing that by the music of his voice he wrought wonderful effects upon the barbarous and savage humor of that People insomuch as when they were in great multitudes engag'd in a rude or licentious action he would put him self in their way and sing which made them all stand still to listen and he so captivated them by the melody that he diverted them from their purpose and by degrees got so much credit with them that he reduc'd them to more civility and instructed them in the duties of Religion into which tho they had bin baptiz'd they had made little enquiry He lived a little before the time of Edward the Confessor and the general testimony of the Sanctity of his Life and some miracles wrought by him which it may be were principally the effects of his Music being reported and believ'd by Lanfrank Edicto sancivit ut per totam deinde Angliam Adelmus inter eos qui civibus coelestibus ascripti erant honoraretur coleretur as by the authors neerest that time is remembred and at large related by Harps-Field in his Ecclesiastical History of England without any disapprobation Nor is it probable that Lanfrank who was an Italian born and bred in Lombardly and of great reputation for learning and piety would have assum'd that autority if he had believ'd that he had intrenched upon the Province of the Bishop of Rome The truth is Canonizations in that age were not the chargeable commodities they have since grown to be since the Pope hath engross'd the disposal of them to himself and it is very probable that the Primitive Saints whose memories are preserv'd in the Martyrologies very erroneously were by the joint acknowledgment of the upon the notorious sanctity of their lives and of their deaths not by any solemn declaration of any particular autority of Rome otherwise we should find the Records of old Canonizations there as well as we do of so many new But of so many of this Nation who suffer'd in the ten first persecutions under the Roman Governors more then of any other especially if St. Vrsula and her Eleven thousand Virgins be reckon'd into the number there is no other Record but of the daies assign'd for their Festivities And in their whole Bullarium which for these latter hundred years so much abounds in Canonizations the first that is extant is of Vldricke Bishop of Ausburg by Iohn the Fifteenth Anno Nine hundred ninety three in a very different form and much different circumstances from those which are now used Finally if the Popes inhibition or interposition could have bin of any moment in that time of William the Conqueror he would have bin sure to have heard of it when he seiz'd upon the Plate and Jewels of all the Monasteries and laid other great impositions upon the Clergy which they had not bin accustom'd to and of which they would have complain'd if they had known whither to have addressed their complaints The two next Kings who succeeded him and reigned long for Henry the First reigned no less then five and thirty years wore not their Crowns so fast on their heads in respect of the juster title in their Brother Robert as prudently to provoke more enemies then they had and therefore they kept very fair quarter with Paschal who was Pope likewise many years and were content to look on unconcern'd in the fierce quarrels between the Emperour and him for he was very powerful in France tho not in Italy And Anselme the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had great contests with them both upon the priviledges of the Clergy and had fled to Paschal to engage him in his quarrel yet the Pope pretended to no jurisdiction in the point but courteously interceded so far with Henry the First on the behalf of Anselme that he made his peace with the King but when he afterwards desir'd to send a Legate into England the King by the advice of the Bishops and Nobles positively refus'd to admit him And whosoever takes a view of the constitution of Christendom as far as had reference to Europe at that time how far the greatest Kingdoms and Principalities which do now controul and regulate that ambition were from any degree of strength and power that Italy was then crumbled into more distinct Governments then it is at present that France that is now intire was then under the command of very many Soveraign Princes and the Crown it self so far from any notable superiority that the King himself was somtimes excommunicated by his own Bishops and Clergy without and against the Popes direction and somtimes excommunicated and the Kingdom interdicted by the Pope even whilst he resided in France and in Councils assembled by them there as in the Council of Clermont that Spain that is now under one Monarch was then divided into the several Kingdoms of Castile Arragon Valentia Catalonia Navarr and Leon when the Moors were possess'd of a greater part of the whole then all the other Christian Kings the whole Kingdom of Granada with the greatest part of Andoluzia and Estremadura and a great part of Portugal being then under the Dominion of those Infidels that Genmany was under as many Soveraign Princes as it had names of Cities and Provinces and that England which hath now Scotland and Ireland annex'd to it was then besides the unsettlement of the English Provinces upon the contests in the Norman Family without any pretence to the Dominion of Wales at least without any advantage by it I say whosoever considers this will not wonder at the starts made by many Popes in that Age into a kind of power and autority in many Kingdoms that they had not before and which was then still interrupted and contradicted and that when Alexander the Third came to be Pope who reigned about twenty years he proceeded so imperiously with our Henry the Second upon the death of Thomas Beckett even in a time when there was so great a Schism in the Church that Victor the Fifth was chosen by a contrary party and by a Council called at Pavia by the Emperour there own'd and declar'd to be Canonically chosen and Alexander to be no Pope who thereupon fled into France so that if our King Henry the Second had not found such a condescention to be very suitable to his affairs both in England and in France it is probable he would have declin'd so unjust and unreasonable an imposition I am afraid of giving
according to his own discretion In the last place he hath very much obliged his Soveraign in telling him so plainly why he hath compared him to Leviathan because he hath raised him to the same greatness and given him the same power which Leviathan is described to have in the 41 Chapter of Iob There is nothing on Earth to be compared with him he is made so as not to be afraid be seeth every high thing to be below him and is King of all the children of pride Job 41. 33 34. And if he had provided as well to secure his high station as he hath for the abatement of the pride of the Subject whom he hath sufficiently humbled he might more glory in his work but the truth is he hath left him in so weak a posture to defend himself that he hath reason to be afraid of every man and the remedies he prescribes afterwards to keep his prodigious power from dissolution are as false and irrational as any other advice in his Institution as will appear hereafter The Survey of Chapter 29. MR. Hobbes takes so much delight in reiterating the many ill things he hath said for fear they do not make impression deep enough in the minds of men that I may be pardon'd if I repete again somtimes what hath bin formerly said as this Chapter consisting most of the same pernicious doctrines which he declar'd before tho in an other dress obliges me to make new or other reflexions upon what was I think sufficiently answer'd before and it may be repete what I have said before He is so jealous that the strength of a better composition of Soveraignty may be superior and be preferr'd before that of his institution that be devises all the way he can to render it more obnoxious to dissolution and like a Mountebank Physician accuses it of diseases which it hath not that he may apply Remedies which would be sure to bring those or worse diseases and would weaken the strongest parts and support of it under pretence of curing its defects So in the first place he finds fault pag. 167. that a man to obtain a Kingdom is sometimes content wâ—th lâ—ss power then to the peace and defence of the Common-wealth is necessarily required that is that he will observe the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom which by long experience have bin found necessary for the Peace and defence of it And to this he imputes the insolence of Thomas Beckett Arch-Bishop of Canterbury pag. 168. who was supported against Harry the Second by the Pope the Subjection of Ecclesiastics to the Common-wealth having he saies bin dispensed with by William the Conquerour at his reception when he took an Oath not to infringe the liberty of the Church And this extravagant power of the Pope he imputes to the Universities and the doctrine taught by them which reproch to the Universities being in a Paragraph of his next Chapter I chuse to join in the answer with the case of Thomas Beckett and Henry the Second Mr. Hobbes hath so great a prejudice to the reading Histories as if they were all enemies to his Government that he will not take the pains carefully to peruse those from which he expects to draw some advantage to himself presuming that men will not believe that a man who so warily weighs all he saies in the balance of reason will ever venture to alledg any matter of fact that he is not very sure of But if he had vouchsafed to look over the Records of his own Country before the time of King Henry the Eight he would have found the Universities alwaies opposed the power of the Pope and would have no dependance upon him and that the Kings alone introduc'd his autority and made it to be submitted to by their Laws Nor did the Church of England owe their large priviledges to any donation of the Popes whose jurisdiction they would never admit but to the extreme devotion and superstition of the People and the piety and bounty of the Kings which gave greater donatives and exemtions to the Church and Clergy then any other Kingdom enjoied or then the Pope gave any where Christianity in the infancy of it wrought such prodigious effects in this Island upon the barbarous affections of the Princes and People who then were the inhabitants of it that assoon as they gave any belief to the History of our Saviour they thought they could not do too much to the Persons of those who preached him and knew best what would be most acceptable to him From hence they built Churches and endow'd them liberally submitted so entirely to the Clergy whom they look'd upon as Sacred persons that they judged all differences and he was not look'd upon as a good Christian who did not entirely resign himself to their disposal they gave great exemtion to the Church and Church men and annex'd such Priviledges to both as testified the veneration they had for the Persons as well as for the Faith And when they suspected that the Licentiousness of succeeding ages might not pay the same devotion to both they did the best they could to establish it by making Laws to that purpose and obliging the several Princes to maintain and defend the rights and priviledges of the Church rights and priviledges which themselves had granted and of which the Pope knew nothing nor indeed at that time did enjoy the like himself It is true that by this means the Clergy was grown to a wonderful power over the People who look'd upon them as more then mortal men and had surely a greater autority then any Clergy in Christendom assum'd in those ages and yet it was generally greater then in other Kingdoms then it hath ever bin since Nor could it be otherwise during the Heptarchy when those little Soveraigns maintain'd their power by the autority their Clergy had with their people when they had little dependence upon the Prince But when by the courage and success of two or three couragious Princes and the distraction that had bin brought upon them by strangers the Government of the whole Island was reduced under one Soveraign the Clergy which had bin alwaies much better united then the Civil state had bin were not willing to part with any autority they had enjoied nor to be thought of less value then they had bin formerly esteemed and so grew troublesom to the Soveraign power somtimes by interrupting the progress of their Councils by delaies and somtimes by direct and positive contradictions The Princes had not the confidence then to resort to Mr. Hobbes's original institution of their right the manners of the Nation still remained fierce and barbarous and whatsoever was pliant in them was from the result of Religion which was govern'd by the Clergy They knew nothing yet of that primitive contract that introduced Soveraignty nor of that Faith that introduced subjection they thought it would not be safe for them to oppose the power of the
Sacred Clergy with a mere secular profane force and therefore thought how they might lessen and divide their own troublesome Clergy by a conjunction with some religious and Ecclesiastical combination The Bishops of Rome of that age had a very great name and autority in France where there being many Soveraign Princes then reigning together he exercis'd a notable Jurisdiction under the Style of Vicar of Christ. The Kings in England by degrees unwarily applied themselves to this spiritual Magistrate and that he might assist them to suppress a power that was inconvenient to them at home they suffer'd him to exercise an autority that proved afterwards very mischievous to themselves and for which they had never made pretence before and which was then heartily opposed by the Universities and by the whole Clergy till it was impos'd upon them by the King So that it was not the Universities and Clergy that introduc'd the Popes autority to shâ—ke and weaken that of the King but it was the King who introduc'd that power to strengthen as he thought his own howsoever it fell out And if the precedent Kings had not call'd upon the Pope and given him autority to assist them against some of their own Bishops Alexander the Third could never have pretended to exercise so wild a jurisdiction over Henry the Second nor he ever have submitted to so infamous a subordination nor could the Pope have undertaken to assist Beckett against the King if the King had not first appeal'd to him for help against Beckett For the better manifestation of that point which Mr. Hobbes his speculation and Geometry hath not yet made an enquiry into it will not be amiss to take a short Survey of the Precedent times by which it will be evident how little influence the Popes autority had upon the Crown or Clergy or Universities of England and how little ground he hath for that fancy from whence soever he took it pag. 168. that William the Conquerour at his reception had dispens'd with the subjection of the Ecclesiastics by the Oaâ—h he took not to infringe the liberty of the Church whereas they who know any thing of that time know that the Oath he took was the same and without any alteration that all the former Kings since the Crown rested upon a single head had taken which was at his Coronation after the Bishops and the Barons had taken their Oath to be his true and faithful Subjects The Arch-Bishop who crown'd him presented that Oath to him which he was to take himself which he willingly did to defend the Holy Church of God and the Rectors of the same To govern the universal people subject to him justly To establish equal Laws and to see them justly executed Nor was he more wary in any thing then as hath bin said before that the people might imagine that he pretended any other title to the Government then by the Confessor tho it is true that he did by degrees introduce many of the Norman Customes which were found very useful or convenient and agreeable enough if not the same with what had bin formerly practis'd And the common reproch of the Laws being from time to time put into French carries no weight with it for there was before that time so rude a collection of the Laws and in Languages as foreign to that of the Nation British Saxon Danish and Latine almost as unintelligible as either of the other that if they had bin all digested into the English that was then spoken we should very little better have understood it then we do the French in which the Laws were afterwards render'd and it is no wonder since a reduction into Order was necessary that the King who was to look to the execution took care to have them in that Language which himself best understood and from whence issued no inconvenience the former remaining still in the Language in which they had bin written Before the time of William the First there was no pretence of jurisdiction from Rome over the Clergy and the Church of England tho the infant Christianity of some of the Kings and Princes had made some journies thither upon the fame of the Sanctity of many of the Bishops who had bin the most eminent Martyrs for the Christian Faith and when it may be they could with more ease and security make a journy thither then they could have don to any other Bishop of great notoriety out of their own Country for Christianity was not in those times come much neerer England then Dauphine Provence and Languedoc in France and those Provinces had left their bountiful testimonies of their devotion which grew afterwards to be exercis'd with the same piety in Pilgrimages first and then expeditions to the Holy Land without any other purpose of transferring a Superiority over the English Nation to Rome then to Ierusalem And after the arrival of Austin the Monk and his Companions who were sent by Pope Gregory and who never enjoy'd any thing in England but by the donation of the Kings the British Clergy grew so jealous of their pretences that tho the Nation was exceedingly corrupted by the person and the doctrine of Pelâ—gius which had bin spred full two hundred years before Austin came the reformation and suppression of that Heresy was much retarded by those mens extolling or mentioning the Popes autority which the Brittish Bishops were so far from acknowledging that they would neither meet with them nor submit to any thing that was propos'd by them and declar'd very much against the pride and insolence of Austin for assuming any autority and because when any of them came to him he would not so much as rise to receive them I can hardly contain my self from enlarging upon this subject at this time but that it will â—eem to many to be foreign to the argument now in debate and Mr. Hobbes hath little resignation to the autority of matter of fact by which when he is pressed he hath an answer ready that if it were so or not so it should have bin otherwise I shall therefore only restrain my discourse to the time of William the Conqueror and when I have better inform'd him of the State of the Clergy and Universities of that time I shall give him the best satisfaction I can to the instance of Thomas of Beckett in which both the Clergy and the Universities will be easily absolv'd from the guilt of adhering to the Pope When William found himself in possession of England whatever application he had formerly made to the Pope who was then in France and as some say had receiv'd from him a consecrated Banner with some other relique beside one single hair of St Peter for the better success of his expedition he was so far from discovering any notable respect towards him that he expresly forbad all his Subjects from acknowledging any man to be Pope but him whom he declar'd to be so And there was a President