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A64857 The life of the learned and reverend Dr. Peter Heylyn chaplain to Charles I, and Charles II, monarchs of Great Britain / written by George Vernon. Vernon, George, 1637-1720. 1682 (1682) Wing V248; ESTC R24653 102,135 320

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and Unity of his Church against the Errors Schisms and Persecutions of its Enemies whether Papists Socinians or Disciplinarians His Book upon the Creed is a mixture of all these excellent Ingredients insomuch that whoever would be acquainted with the Sence of the Greek and Latine Fathers upon the Twelve Articles of our Faith as also with Positive Polemical and Philological Theology he will not find either his labour lost or his time mispended if he peruse what our learned Doctor has writ upon that Subject But neither Learning or Innocency are a sufficient safe-guard against the assaults of mischievous and malicious men many of whom combined together to render Dr. Heylyn as infamous in his Name as they had before made him improsperous in his Estate And to that purpose they used their utmost endeavours to have one of his Books burned called Respondet Petrus by an Order from Olivers Council-Table For Dr. N. Bernard Preacher of Grays-Inn putting out a Book entituled The Iudgment of the Lord Primate of Ireland c. our Reverend Doctor being therein accused for violating his Subscription and running cross to the publick Doctrine of the Church or England as also being taxed with Sophistry Shamelesness and some other things which he could not well endure either from the Dead or the Living he returned an Answer to it against which Articles were presently formed and presented to the then Council-Table and the common Rumor went that the Book was publickly burnt A fame as the Doctor says that had little truth in it though more colour for it than many other charges which had been laid upon him He was in London when he received the first notice of it and though he was persuaded by his friends to neglect the matter as that which would redound to his honour and knew very well what Sentence had been passed by Tacitus upon the Order of Senate or Roman Consul for burning the Books of Cremutius Cordus the Historian Neque aliud externi Reges aut qui eâdem saevitiâ usi sunt nisi dedecus sibi atque illis gloriam peperere i. e. they gained nothing but ignominy to themselves and glory to all those whose Books they burnt yet our Doctor was rather in that particular of Sir Iohn Falstaff's mind not liking such grinning honour and therefore rather chose to prevent the Obloquy than boast in it To which purpose he applied himself to the Lord Mayor of London and a great Man in the Council of State and receiving from them a true information of what had passed he left his Solicitude being quite freed from all fear and danger About this time it was that the King Church and Church-men were arraigned and traduced by many voluminous Writers of the Age and the Doctor being solicited to answer them by Letters Messages and several personal Addresses by men of all Orders and Dignities in the Church and of all Degrees in the Universities was at last overcome by their Importunities the irresistible Intreaties of so many Friends having something in them of Commands And the first Author whose Mistakes Falsities and Defects he examined was Mr. Thomas Fuller the Church-Historian who intermingling his History with some dangerous Positions which if reduced into practice would overthrow the Power of the Church and lay a probable Foundation for Disturbances in the Civil-State the Doctor made some Animadversions on him by way of Antidote that so if possible he might be read without danger Another was Mr. Sanderson's long History of the Life and Reign of King Charles I. whose errors being of that nature as might mis-guide the Reader in the way of Knowledg and Discourse our Doctor rectified him with some Advertisements that so he might be read with the greater profit It would swell these Papers into too great a bulk if I should give a particular account of the Contests that this Reverend man had with Mr. Harington Mr. Hickman and Mr. Baxter the last of which was so very bold as to disgorge himself upon the whole Clergy of England in his Grotian Religion which caused in our Doctor as he tells his Brethren the old Regular Clergy So great an horror and amazement that he could not tell whether or no he could give any credit to his Senses the words sounding loud in his ears and not sinking at first into his heart Neither Did Mr. Baxter arraign the whole Clergy in general but more particularly directed his Spleen against Dr. Heylyn whose name he wish'd afterwards he had spared But it was whilst he was living he has made more bold with him since he was dead and that for no other reason that I can learn but for exposing the Follies Falshoods and uncharitableness of a daring and rash Writer who never returned one word of Answer besides Railing and Reproaches unto what our Doctor Published against him And having made mention of these Authors against whom our excellent Doctor appeared in the Lists it may not perhaps be deemed unacceptable to those Readers who are either unable to buy or unwilling to read the Books written against them to transcribe some particular passages which may be a farther testification of the zeal of this great Scholar for the King and Church And the first relating to the King shall be about the Coronation it being a piece of new State-Doctrine that the Coronation of the King should depend upon the consent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament For in the Form and Manner of the Coronation of King Edward VI. described in the Catalogue of Honour set forth by Thomas Mills of Canterbury Anno Dom. 1610 we find it thus The King being carried by certain Noble Courtiers in another Chair unto the four sides of the Stage was by the Archbishop of Canterbury declared to the people standing round about both by Gods and mans Laws to be the Right and Lawful King of England France and Ireland and proclaimed that day to be Crowned Consecrated and Anointed unto whom he demanded Whether they would Obey and Serve or not By whom it was again with a loud cry answered God save the King and ever live his Majesty The same we have in substance both in fewer words in the Coronation of King Iames where it is said The King was shewed to the people and that they were required to make acknowledgment of their Allegiance to his Majesty by the Archbishop which they did with Acclamations But assuredly says Dr. Heylyn the difference is exceeding vast between Obeying and Consenting between the peoples acknowledging their Allegiance and promising to Obey and Serve their Lawful Sovereign and giving their Consent to his Coronation as if it could not be performed without it This makes the King to be either made or unmade by his people according to the Maxim of Buchanan Populo jus est imperium cui velit deferat than which passage there is nothing in all his Books more pestilent or seditious Neither is another Position any less
his Age by which means he obtained a Dispensation notwithstanding any Local Statutes to the contrary that he should not be compelled to enter into Holy Orders till he was Twenty four years of Age according to the time appointed both in the Canons of the Church and the Statutes of the Realm And such were his fears to enter upon the Study as well as undertake the profession of Divinity that it was not without great Reluctance and Difficulty on his own part as well as many weighty Arguments and Persuasions of a very Learned and Reverend person Mr. Buckner that he applied himself unto Theology Thus Moses pleaded his Inability and notwithstanding the express command of the Almighty refused to be sent upon the Divine Embassie persevering in his unseasonable modesty till God threatned him with his Anger as he had before encouraged him with his promises But as the difficulties in Divinity made Mr. Heylyn for some time to desist so the sweetness and amabilities of that Study allured him to undertake the Profession And therefore he received the Orders of Deacon and Priest but at distant times in St. Aldates Church in Oxon from the Right Reverend Bishop Howson And when he was Ordained Priest he Preach'd the Ordination Sermon upon those words of our Blessed Saviour to St. Peter Luke 22. 32. And when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren What course and method he observed in his Theological Studies he tells of with his own Pen When I began my Studies in Divinity I thought no course so proper and expedient for me as the way commended by King Iames which was that young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators making them the grounds of their Study and opened at the charges of Bishop Montague though not then a Bishop For though I had a good respect to the memory of Luther and the name of Calvin as those whose Writings had awakened all these parts of Europe out of the ignorance and superstition in which they suffered yet I always took them to be men men as obnoxious unto Error as subject to humane Frailty and as indulgent too unto their own Opinions as any others whatsoever The little knowledge I had gained in the course of Stories had pre-acquainted me with the Fiery Spirit of the one and the Busie Humor of the other thought thereupon unfit by Arch-Bishop Cranmer and others the chief Agents in the Reformation of this Church to be employed as Instruments in that weighty Business Nor was I ignorant how much they differed fsom us in their Doctrinals and Forms of Government And I was apt enough to think that they were no fit Guides to direct my Judgment in order to the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church of England to the establishing whereof they were held unuseful and who both by their Practices and Positions had declared themselves Friends to neither The Geography was in less than three years Re-printed and in this second Edition Enlarged and again Presented by him to the Prince of Wales and by him received with most affectionate Commendations of the Author But it met with a far different entertainment from K. Iames. For the Book being put into the hands of that learned Monarch by Dr. Young Dean of Winton who thereby designed nothing else but the highest kindness to Mr. Heylyn the King at first expressed the great Value he had for the Author but unfortunately falling on a passage wherein Mr. Heylyn gave Precedency to the French King and called France the more Famous Kingdom King Iames became very much offended and ordered the Lord Keeper that the Book should be call'd in The good Dean gave notice to Mr. Heylyn of his Majesties Displeasure advising him to repair to Court and to make use of the Princes Patronage as the best lenitive to prevent the rankling of this wound lest it festered and became incurable But he rather chose to abide at Oxon acquainting the Lord Danvers with the business and requesting his Advice and Intercession and sending afterward an Apology and Explanation of his meaning to Doctor Young the substance of which was That some crimes are of a nature so unjustifiable that they are improved by an Apology yet considering the purpose he had in those places which gave offence to his Sacred Majesty he was unwilling that his Innocence should be condemn'd for want of an Advocate The burthen under which he suffered was rather a mistake than a crime and that mistake not his own but the Printers For if in the first line of page 441. was be read instead of is the sense runs as he design'd it And this appears from the words immediately following for by them may be gathered the sense of this corrected reading When Edward the Third quartered the Arms of France and England he gave Precedency to the French first because France was the greater and more famous Kingdom Secondly That the French c. These Reasons are to be referr'd to the time of that King by whom those Arms were first quartered with the Arms of England and who desired by this honor done unto their Arms to gain upon the good opinion of that Nation for the Crown and Love whereof he was a Suitor For at this time besides that it may seem ridiculous to use a Verb of the present Tense in a matter done so long ago that Reason is not of the least force or consequence the French having so long since forgot the Rights of England and our late Princes claiming nothing but the Title only The place and passage so corrected I hope says Mr. Heylyn I may without detraction from the Glory of this Nation affirm That France was at this time the more famous Kingdom Our English Swords for more than half the time since the Norman Conquest had been turned against our own Bosoms and the Wars we then made except some fortunate Excursions of King Edward the First in France and King Richard in the Holy Land in my conceit were fuller of Pity than of Honor. For what was our Kingdom under the Reign of Edward the Second Henry the Third Iohn Stephen and Rufus but a publick Theatre on which the Tragedies of Blood and civil Dissentions had been continually acted On the other side the French had exercised their Arms with Credit and Renown both in Syria Palestine and Egypt and had much added to the Glory of their Name and Nation by Conquering the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily and driving the English themselves out of all France Guyen only excepted If we look higher we shall find France to be the first Seat of the Western Empire and the Forces of it to be known and felt by the Saracens in Spain the Saxons in Germany and the Lombards
practicable in any well-governed Commonwealth unless it be in the old Vtopia the new Atlantis or the last discovered Oceana For how can men possibly live in peace as Brethren where there is no Law to limit their desires or direct their actions Take away Law and every man will be a Law unto himself and do whatsoever seems best in his own eyes without controul then Lust will be a Law for one Fellony for another Perjury shall be held no Crime nor shall any Treason or Rebellion receive their punishments for where there is no Law there can be no Transgression and where there is no Transgression there can be no punishment punishments being only due for the breach of Laws Thus is it also in the Worship of God which by the Hedg of Ceremonies is preserved from lying open to all prophaneness and by Set-Forms be they as indifferent as they will is kept from breaking out into open confusion St. Paul tells us that God is the God of Order not of Confusion in the Churches If therefore we desire to avoid Confusion let us keep some Order and if we would keep Order we must have some Forms it being impossible that men should live in peace as Brethren in the house of God where we do not find both David has told us in the Psalms that Ierusalem is like a City which is at Vnity with it self And in Ierusalem there were not only solemn Sacrifices Set-Forms of Blessing and some significant Ceremonies prescribed by God but Musical Instruments and Singers and Linnen Vestures for those Singers and certain Hymns and several Times and Places for them ordained by David Had every Ward in that City and every Street in that Ward and every Family in that Street and perhaps every Person in that Family used his own way in Worshiping the Lord his God Ierusalem could not long have kept the name of a City much less the honor of being that City which was at Vnity in it self When therefore the Apostle gives us this good counsel that we endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace he seems to intimate that there can be no Vnity where there is no Peace and that Peace cannot be preserved without some Bond. If you destroy all Ceremonies and subvert all Forms you must break the Bond and if the Bond be broken you must break the Peace and if you break the Peace what becomes of the Vnity So that it is but the dream of a dry Summer as the saying is to think that without Law or Forms or Ceremonies men may live peaceably together as becomes Brethren though they profess one Faith acknowledg one Lord receive one Baptism and be Sons of one Father which is in Heaven Having thus surveyed some particulars pertaining to the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Church proeced we next to take a short view of some things delivered by this right learned man concerning the Convocation which in ancient times was part of the Parliament there being a Clause in every Letter of Summons by which the Bishops were required to attend in Parliament that they should warn the Clergy of their respective Dioceses some in their Persons and others by their Procurators to attend there also But this has be●n so long unpractis'● that we find no foot-steps of it since the Parliaments in the time of King Richard the Second It is true indeed that in the 8th year of Henry VI. there passed a Statute by which it was enacted That all the Clergy which should be called thenceforth to the Convocation by the Kings Writ together with their Servants and Families should for ever after fully use and enjoy such liberty and immunity in coming tarrying and returning as the Great men and Commonalty of the Realm of England called or to be called to the Kings Parliament have used or ought to have or enjoy Which though it makes the Convocation equal to the Parliament as to the freedom of their Persons yet cannot it from hence be reckoned or reputed for a part thereof And as it is now no part of the Parliament so neither has it any necessary dependence upon that Honourable Council and Assembly either in the Calling or Dissolving of it or in the Confirmation or Authorizing of the Acts thereof but only in the King himself and not upon the Kings sitting in the Court of Parliament but in his Palace or Court-Royal where ever it be And this appears both by the Statute made in the 26th of Henry VIII and the constant practice ever since Indeed since the 25th year of Henry VIII no Convocation is to assemble but as it is Convocated and Convened by the Kings Writ for in the Year 1532. the Clergy made their Acknowledgment and Submission in their Convocation to that mighty and great Monarch which Submission passed into a Statute the very next year following But this does not hinder but that their Acts and Constitutions ratified by Royal Assent are of force to bind the Subject to submit and conform to them For before the Statute of Proemunire and the Act for Submission Convocations made Canons that were binding altho none other than Synodical Authority did confirm the same And certainly they must have the same power when the Kings Authority signified in his Royal Assent is added to them They also gave away the money of the Clergy by whom they were chosen even as the Commons in Parliament gave the money of the Cities Towns and Countries for which they served For in chusing the Clerks for Convocation there is an Instrument drawn up and sealed by the Clergy in which they bind themselves to the Arch-Deacons of their several Dioceses upon the pain of forfeiting all their Lands and Goods Se ratum gratum acceptum habere quicquid Dicti Procuratores sui dixerint fecerint vel constituerint i. e. to allow stand and perform whatsoever their said Clerks shall say do or condescend unto on their behalf Nor is this a speculative Authority only and not reducible unto practice but precedented in Queen Elizabeths time For in the year 1585. the Convocation having given one Subsidy confirmed by Parliament and finding that they had not done sufficiently for the Queens occasions did after add a Benevolence or Aid of two shillings in the pound to be levied upon all the Clergy and to be levied by such Synodical Acts and Constitutions as they digested for that purpose without having any recourse to the Parliament for it But against these things it was objected in the Long Parliament of King Charles I That the Clergy had no power to make Canons without common consent in Parliament because in the Saxon times Laws and Constitutions Ecclesiastical had the Confirmation of Peers and sometimes of the people unto which great Councils our Parliaments do succeed Which argumeut says our Reverend Doctor if it be of force to prove that the Clergy can make no Canons without consent of
first the Clergy in all other Christian Kingdoms of these North-West Parts make the Third Estate that is to say in the German Empire as appears by Thuanus the Historian lib. 2. In France as is affirmed by Paulus Aemilius lib. 9. In Spain as testifieth Bodinus de Republ lib. 3. For which also consult the general History of Spain as in point of practice lib. 9 10 11 14. In Hungary as witnesseth Bonfinius Decl. 2. lib. 1. In Poland as is verified by Thuanus also l. 56. In Denmark as Pontanus tells us in Historia rerum Danicarum l. 7. The Swedes observing anciently the same Form and Order of Government as was used by the Danes The like we find in Cambden for the Realm of Scotland in which anciently the Lords Spiritual viz. Bishops Abbots and Priors made the Third Estate And certainly it was very strange if the Bishops and other Prelates in the Realm of England being a great and powerful Body should move in a lower Sphere in England than they do elsewhere But 2dly Not to stand only upon probable inferences we find first in History touching the Reign and Acts of Henry V. That when his Funerals were ended the Three Estates of the Realm of England did assemble together and declared his Son King Henry VI. being an Infant of eight Months old to be their Sovereign Lord as his Heir and Successor And if the Lords Spiritual did not then make the Third Estate I would fain know who did Secondly The Petition tendred to Richard Duke of Glocester to accept the Crown occurring in the Parliament Rolls runs in the name of the Three Estates of the Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons thereof Thirdly In the said Parliament of the said Rich. Crowned King it is said expresly That at the request and by the consent of the Three Estates of this Realm that is to say the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this Land Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same it be Pronounced Decreed and Declared That our Sovereign Lord the King was and is the very and undoubted King of this Realm of England c. Fourthly It is acknowledged in the Statute of 1. Eliz. c. 3. where the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in that Parliament Assembled being said expresly and in terminis to represent the Three Estates of this Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majesty to be their true lawful and undoubted Sovereign Liege Lady and Queen Add unto these the Testimony of Sir Edward Cooke tho a private person who in his Book of the Iurisdiction of Courts published by Order of the Long Parliament c. 1. doth expresly say That the Parliament consists of the Head and the Body that the Head is the King that the Body is the Three Estates viz. the Lords Spiritual Temporal and the Commons In which words we have not only the Opinion and Testimony of that learned Lawyer but the Authority of the Long Parliament also tho against it self I hope the perusal of these things will be no less acceptable to the sober Reader than the transcribing of them has been unto my self which I have done to the end as well of informing my Country-men about the Rights of the Crown and Privileges of the Church and Clergy as to shew that Dr. Heylyn had a zeal according unto knowledg and was not less zealous for knowledge-sake And the Doctor having thus stood up in the defence of Monarchy and Hierarchy both in their prosperous and adverse condition when the black Cloud was dispelled and a fair Sun-shine began to dawn upon these harrassed and oppressed Islands by the Return of his Sacred Majesty this excellent man having in his mind Tullies Resolution Defendi Rempub. Adolescens non deseram Senex thought it unbecoming him to desert the Church in any of its pressing needs and therefore when the door of Hope began to open he busied his active and searching mind in finding out several expedients for the restoring and securing of its Power and Privileges in future Ages against the attempts of Factious and Sacrilegious men And the first thing that he engaged in was to draw up several Papers and tender them to those Persons in Authrority who in the days of Anarchy and Oppression had given the most signal Testimonies of their Affection to the Church In which Papers he first shewed what Alterations Explanations c. were made in the Publick Liturgy in the Reigns of King Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth and King Iames that so those who were intrusted with so sacred a Depositum might be the better enabled to proceed in the Alteration and enlargement of it as they afterward did and as it now stands by Law Established in this Church Secondly Whereas in the first year of King Edward VI. it was enacted that all Arch-Bishops Bishops c. should make their Processes Writings and Instruments in the Kings name and not under their own Names which Act was afterward extended unto Ordinations as appears by the Form of a Testimonial extant in Sanders's Seditious Book De Schismate Anglicano and whereas the Act was repealed in the last year of Queen Mary and did stand so repealed all the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but was by the activity of some and the incogitancy of others revived again in the first year of King Iames but lay dorment all the Reign of that Prince and during the first ten years of King Charles I. after which it was endeavoured to be set on foot by some disturbers of the Publick Peace upon which the King having it under the hand of his Judges that the proceedings of the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. were not contrary to the Laws of the Land inserted their Judgment about it in a Proclamation for indemnifying the Bishops and the satisfying of his loving Subjects in that Point therefore Dr. Heylyn considering that what the Judges did was extrajudicial and that the Kings Proclamation expired at his Death solicited the concerns of the Church in this Affair viz. that the Act so pas●ed as before is said in the first of King Iames might be repealed that so the Bishops might proceed as formerly in the exercise of their Jurisdiction without fear or danger Thirdly Whereas in the 16. year of Charles I. there passed an Act that no Arch-Bishop Bishop c. should minister any Corporal Oath unto any Church-Warden Sideman or any other person whatsoever with many other things whereby the whole Episcopal Jurisdiction was subverted except Canonical Obedience only and all proceedings in Courts Ecclesiastical in Causes Matrimonial Testamentory c. were weakened and all Episcopal Visitations were made void as to the ordinary Punishments of Heresie Schism Non-conformity Incest Adultery and other Crimes of Ecclesiastical Cognizance therefore Dr. Heylyn stated the Case and in a Petition drawn up by him prayed that for the restoring of the Episcopal Jurisdiction the Clauses of that Act