approve that of the Dissenters in separating from their Communion â—… we do confess they had some reason in the bottom for it and that the Ceremonies which they have refused to submit to are the Remains of Popery which we could rather wish might have been entirely abolished In this unhappy Schism which has so long time rent the Church of England we look upon it that both Parties have been equally defective in their Charity On the one side the Dissenters ought by no means to have separated themselves for the Form of Ecclesiastical Government nor for Ceremonies which do not at all concern the Fundamentals of Religion On the other side The Bishops should have had a greater Condescension to the Weakness of their Brethren And without doubt they would have â—… in a manner more agreeable to the Spirit of the Gospel if instead of treating them with so much rigour as they did they had left them the Liberty of serving God according to their Conscience till it should have pleased him to re-unite All under the same Discipline However the Conformity of Opinion between the Dissenters and Us ought to have prejudiced Us in their favour had we been capable of Partiality on this occasion There is also another thing which might have disposed us to judge less favourably of the Bishops than of them and that is the Yoke which they have imposed upon the French Ministers by óbliging them to receive a second Ordination before they could be permitted to Exercise their Ministry in the Church of England as if the Ordination they had received in France had not been sufficient But we must do Justice to all the World and bear Witness to the Truth We have already said and we must again repeat it It seems to us that on this last Occasion the Bishops have discharged their Duty and are most worthy of Praise whereas the Dissenters on the contrary are extreamly to be blamed And we will presently offer our Reasons wherefore we judge so of the one and of the other In the mean time most dear Brethren give us leave freely to tell you That if our Brethren the Dissenters of England who have Addressed to the King are to be blamed as we verily believe they are you certainly are much more to be condemned The Hardships under which they had lived for many years without Churches without Pastors without Assemblies made them think the Liberty of Conscience which was offered to them a great Ease Their Spirits soured and prejudiced by the ill Treatments they had received from the Church of England had not freedom enough to let them see that the Present which was made them was Empoison'd And therefore upon the sudden they received it with joy and thought themselves obliged to testifie their Acknowledgment of it But for you who never had any part in the Divisions of the Church of England and who by consequence were in a state to judge more soundly of things How is it that you should not have perceived the Poison that was hid under the Liberty of Conscience offered to them Or if you did not perceive it of your selves how is it that the Generous Refusal of the Bishops tho' at the peril of their Liberty and Estates to publish the Declaration in their Diocesses should not at least have open'd your eyes How have those Venerable Prelates now highly justified themselves from the Reproach that was laid upon them of being Popishly affected and of persecuting the Dissenters only but of a secret Hatred to the Reformation How well have they made it appear that these were only Calumnies invented by their Enemies to render them odious to the Protestants and that their hearts were truly fixed to the Reformed Religion and animated with a Zeal worthy Primitive Bishops Could you see those faithful Servants of God disobey the Order of their Soveraign expose themselves thereby to his Disgrace suffer Imprisonment and prepare themselves to suffer any thing rather than betray their Consciences and their Religion without admiring their Constancy and being touched with their Examples But above all could you resolve by your Conduct to condemn that of those generous Confessors Is this the Acknowledgment which you ought to have made to them for that Charity with which they had received and comforted you in your Exile Is this to Answer the Glorious Quality of Confessors of which you so much vaunt your selves Is this the Act of Faithful Ministers of Christ Give us leave to tell you most dear Brethren your Proceedings in this Affair appear so very strange to us that we cannot imagine how you were capable of so doing It seems to us to have even effaced all the Glory you had attained by your Sufferings to Reproach your Ministry and to be unworthy of True and Reformed Christians This is no rash judgment which we pass and to convince you that it is not we beseech you only to examine these things with us without Prejudice and Interest The Declaration of which we speak is designed for two purposes The one the re-establishment of Popery The other the extinction of the Reformed Religion in England The former of these designs appears openly in it The second is more concealed 't is a Mystery of Iniquity covered over with a specious appearance and of which the trace must be concealed till the time of manifestation comes We will say nothing of a third Design which is Of the Oppression of the Liberties of England for the Establishment of an absolute Authority but shall leave it to the Politicians to make their Reflexions upon it As for us if we sometimes touch upon it it shall be only with reference to Religion We will apply our selves chiefly to the two other Designs which they proposed to themselves who made that Declaration It cannot be deny'd but that by this Declaration there is a Liberty of Conscience granted differently to the Papists and to the Dissenters â—… comprehends both the one and the other under the Name of Nonconformists And we may with confidence affirm That they were the Papists especially whom the King had in his eye when he gave this Declaration And howsoever he may pretend to have been touched with the Oppressions which the Dissenters had suffered yet that his principal design was to re-establish Popery Behold here already a very great evil and such as all true Protestants are obliged with their â—… most power to oppose What shall we see Popery that abominable Religion that prodigioâ—â— heap of Filthiness and Impurity re-establish itself with all it honours in Kingdoms from which the Reformation had happily banished it And shall there be found in those Kingdoms Protestant who not only stand still without making any opposition to it but e'en favour its re-establishment and openly give it their Approbation Who could have thought that the Dissenters of England â—… who have always testified so great an aversion to the Roman Religion and who have no other pretence to separate
Account of it who said That he had not heard of it any other way and was so fully convinced that the Nuion had cause given them to be jealous that he himself set forward the Act and the rather because he saw that the E. of S. did not much like it The Parliament as long as it was known that the Religion was safe in the King 's Negative had not taken any great Care of its own Constitution but it seemed the best Expedient that could be found for laying the Jealousies of his Late Majesty and the Apprehensions of the Successor to take so much Care of the Two Houses that so the Dangers with which Men were then allarm'd might seem the less formidable upon so effectual a Security And thus all the stir that he keeps with Perjury and Imposture ought to make no other impression but the wantonness of his own temper that meddles so boldly with things of which he knew so little the true Secret. For here was a Law passed of which all made great use that opposed the Bill of Exclusion to demonstrate to the Nation that there could be no danger of Popery even under a Prince of that Religion but as he would turn the matter it amounts to this That that Law might be of good use in that Season to lay the Jealousies of the Nation till there were a Prince on the Throne of that Communion and then when the turn is served it must be thrown away to open the only door that is now shut upon the Re-establishment of that Religion This is but one hint among a great many more of the state of Affairs at the time that this Act of the TEST was made to shew that the Evidence given by the Witnesses had no other share in that matter but that it gave rise to the other Discoveries and a fair opportunity to those who knew the Secret of the late Kings Religion and the Negotiation at Dover to provide such an effectual Security as might both save the Crown and secure the Religion and this I am sure some of the Bishops knew who to their Honour were faithful to both The Third Reason he gives for Repealing the Act is the Incompetent Authority of those who Enacted it for it was of an Ecclesiastical nature and here he stretches out his Wings to a top-flight and charges it with nothing less than the Deposing of Christ from his Throne the disowning neglecting and assronting his Commission to his Catholick Church and entrenching upon this Sacred Prerogative of his holy Catholick Church and then that he might have occasion to seed his Spleen with railing at the whole Order he makes a ridiculous Objection of the Bishops being present in the House of Lords that he might shew his respect to them by telling in a Parenthesis That to their shame they had consented to it But has this Scaramuchio no Shame left him Did the Parliament pretend by this Act to make any Decision in those two points of Transubstantiation and Idolatry Had not the Convocation desined them both for above an Age before In the 28th Article of our Church these words are to be found Transabstantiation or the change of the substance of bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthrows the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions and for the Idolatry of the Church of Rome that was also declared very expresly in the same Body of Articles since in the Article 35. the Homilies are declared To contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine necessary for those times and upon that it is judged that they should be read in the Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the people And the second of these which is against the Peril of Idolatry aggravates the Idolatry of that Church in so many particulars and with such severe expressions that those who at first made those Articles and all those who do now sign them or oblige others to sign them must either believe the Church of Rome to be guilty of Idolatry or that the Church of England is the Impudentest Society that ever assumed the name of a Church if she proposes such Homilies to the People in which this Charge is given so home and yet does not believe it her self A man must be of Bay's pitch to rise up to this degree of Impudence Upon the whole matter then these points had been already determined and were a part of our Doctrines enacted by Law all that the Parliament did was only to take these out of a great many more that by this Test it might appear whether they who came into either House were of that Religion or not and now let our Reasoner try what he can make out of this or how he can justifie the Scandal that he so boldly throws upon his Order As if they had as much in them lay destroyed the very being of a Christian Church and had profanely pawned the Bishop to the Lord and betrayed the Rights of the Church of England as by Law established in particular as well as of the Church Catholick in general p. 8 9. All this shews to whom he hath pawned both the Bishop and the Lord and something else too which is both Conscience and Honour is he has any lest When one reflects on two of the Bishops that were of that Venerable Body while this Act passed whose Memory will be blessed in the present and following Ages those two great and good men that filled the Sees of Chester and Oxford he must conclude that as the World was not worthy of them so certainly their Sees were not worthy of them since they have been plagued with such Successors that because Bays delights in Figures taken from the Roman Empire I must tell him that since Commodus succeeded to Marcus Aurelius I do not find a more incongruous Succession in History With what sensible regret must those who were so often edified with the Gravity the Piety the Generosity and Charity of the late Bishop of Oxford look on when they see such a Harleguin in his room His Fourth Reason is taken from the uncertainty and falshood of the matters contained in the Declaration itself pag. 9. For our Comedian maintains his Character still and scorns to speak of Establish'd Laws with any Decency here he puts in a Paragraph as was formerly marked which belonged to his Second Reason but it seems some of those to whom he has pawn'd himself thought he had not said enough on that head and therefore to save blottings he put it in here After that he tells the Gentry That Transubstantiation was a Notion belonging to the Schoolmen and Metaphysicians And that he may bespeak their Favour he tells them in very soft words That their Learning was more polite and practicable in the Civil Affairs of Human Life to understand the
Religion Rev. 13. 1 15 16. This Character they will make good to the very end of their Reign as they have fulfill'd it from the beginning They cannot alter their nature no more than the Ethiopean change his skin or the Leopard his spots It ever was since the rise of the Beast and it ever will be till its fall a bloody Church which can bear no contradiction to her Doctrine and Orders but will endeavour to root out all those that oppose her from the face of the Earth Witness the Barbarous Crusado's against the poor Albigenses in France in one of which alone Bellarmine himself saith not without Triumph there were killed no less than an hundred thousand Witness the horrible Butcheries committed in France in England and in the Low-countries in the Age before us and in Poland the Vallies of Piedmont and in Ireland in this Age upon those who had no other fault but this that they made the Holy Scriptures and the Roman Church the Rule of their Faith. IX But it you be ignorant of what hath been done and is doing abroad yet I hope you observe what they do here at home What do you think of the Declaration which was very lately imposed to be read in all our Churches Which when several Bishops and their Clergy most humbly represented they could not in Conscience publish to the People in time of Divine service this would not excuse them their Petition was receiv'd with indignation and look'd upon as a Libel the Bishops were prosecuted for it and Inquiry is now ordered to be made after those who did not read it as well as those that did that they may be punished by the High Commissioners Call you this Liberty of Conscience Or do you imagine you shall never have any thing imposed upon you to be read in your Congregations which you cannot comply withall Consider I beseech you what will become of you when that time shall come What 's the meaning of this that ever they are look'd upon as Offenders for following their Conscience whose Services have been acknowledged to be so great that they should never be forgotten It ought to teach Dissenters what they are to expect hereafter when they have served them so far by taking off the Tests and the Penal Laws as to enable them with safety to remember all their former pretended transgressions Let them assure themselves the services of the Church of England are not now more certainly forgotten than the Sins of Dissenters will hereafter when they have got power to punish them be most certainly remembred Be not drawn in then by deceitful words to help forward your own destruction If you will not be assistant to it they cannot do it alone and it will be very strange if you be perswaded to lend them your help when the deceit is so apparent For what are all the present pleas for Liberty but so many infamous Libels upon the Roman Church which denies all Men this Liberty While they declaim so loudly against Persecution they most notoriously reproach Popery which subsists by nothing but deceit and cruelty And who can think that they would suffer their Church to be so exposed and reviled as it is by such discourses but with a design to cheat heedless people into its obedience For this end they can hear it proved nay prove it themselves to be an Antichristian Church when they prove it is against Christianity nay against the Law of Nature and Common Reason to trouble any body for his opinion in Religion X. Once more then I beseech you be not deceived by good words if you love your Liberty and your Life Call to mind how our poor Brethren in France were lately deluded by the repeated Protestations which their King made he would observe the Edict of Nantes which was the foundation of their Liberty even then when he was about to overthrow it and by many assurances which were given them by those who came to torment them that the King intended to reform the Church of France as soon as he had united his Subjects What he had done already against the Court of Rome they told them was an instance of it and they should shortly see other matters Such ensraring words they heard there daily from the mouths of their armed Persecuters who were ready to fall upon them or had begun to oppress them And therefore they would be arrant fools here if they did not give good words when they have no power to hurt us But we shall be far greater fools if we believe they will keep their word when they have got that power the greatest of all fools if we give them that Power They have no other way but this to wheedle us out of our Laws and Liberties Do but surrender the one I mean our Laws they will soon take away the other our beloved Liberties Be not tempted to make such a dangerous Experiment but let the Laws stand as they are because they are against them as appears by their earnest endeavours to repeal them and be not used as tools to take them away because they have been grievous to you They never can be so again For can they who now Court you have the face to turn them again upon you after they have made all this noise for Liberty And the Church of England you may be assured will not any more trouble you but when a Protestant Prince shall come will joyn in the healing of all our breaches by removing all things out of the way which have long hindred that blessed work They cannot meet together in a body to give you this assurance how should they without the King's authority so to do but every particular person that I have discoursed withal which are not a few and you your selves would do well to ask them when you meet them profess that they see an absolute necessity of making an end of these Differences that have almost undone us and will no longer oontend to bring all men to one Uniformity but promote an Uniform Liberty Do not imagine I intend to give mere words I mean honestly such a regular Liberty as will be the beauty and honour not the blot and discredit of our Religion To such a temper the Archbishop of Canterbury with several other Bishops of his Province and their Clergy have openly declared they are willing to come And the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England have never been known to act deceitfully Our Religion will not at any time allow them to equivocate nor to give good words without a meaning much less at such a time as this when our Religion is in great danger and we have nothing to trust unto but Gods protection of sincere Persons Let Integrity and Uprightness preserve us is their constant Prayer They can hope for no help from Heaven if they should prevaricate with men God they know would desert them if they should go about to delude their Brethren
And they are not so void of common sense as to adventure to incur his most high displeasure when they have nothing to rely upon but his favour In short Trust to those who own you for their Brethren as you do them for tho' they have been angry Brethren yet there is hope of Reconciliation between such near Relations But put no Confidence in those who not only utterly disown any such Relation to you but have ever treated you with an implacable hatred as their most mortal Enemies unto whom it is impossible they should be reconciled Prov. 12. 19 20. The lips of Truth shall be established for ever but a lying Tongue is but for a moment Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are his delight Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks Dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion SInce it is universally agreed on that so great a matter as the total alienation of all the Abby-Lands c. in England can never be made legal and valid and such as vvill satisfie the reasonable doubts and scruples of a religious and conscienciousPerson except it be confirm'd by the supreme Authority in this Church its evident that the Protestants vvho assert the Church of England to be autokephalor and such as allows of no Foreign Jurisdiction or Appeals having had these Lands confirmed to them by the King as Head of the Church the Convocation as the Church representative and by the King and Parliament as the supreme Legislative Power in this Realm have these Alienations made as valid to them as any Power on Earth can make them but the Members of the Church of Rome who maintain a Foreign Superiour Jurisdiction either in a general Council or in the Bishop of Rome or both together cannot have these Alienations confirm'd to them without the consent of one or both of these Superiour Jurisdictions If therefore I shall make it appear that these Alienations in England were never confirm'd by either I do not see hovv any Roman-Catholick in England can without Sacriledge retain them and his Religion together As to the first of these since there hath been no Council from the first Alienation of Abby-Lands in England to this day that pretends to be general but that of Trent vve neeed only look into that for the satisfaction of such Roman Catholicks as esteem a general Council above the Bishop of Rome And I am sure that that Council is so far from confirming these Abby-Lands to the present Possessors that it expresly denounceth them accursed that detain them Sess. 22. Decret de Ref. Cap. 11. Si quem c. If Covetousness the root of all evil shall so far possess any Person whatsoever whether of the Clergy or Laity though he be an Emperour or a King as that by force fear or frand or any art or colour whatsoever he presume to convert to his own use usurp the Jurisdiction Goods Estates Fruits Profits or Emoluments whatsoever of any Church or any Benefice Secular or Regular Hospital or Religious House or shall hinder that the profits of the said Houses be not received by those to whom they do of right belong let him lie underan Anathema till the said Jurisdiction Goods Estates Rents and Profits which he hath possessed and invaded or which have come to him any manner of way be restored to the Church and after that have Absolution from the Bishop of Rome So great a Terrour did this strike into the English Papists that were possessors of Church-Lands against whom this Anathema seems particularly directed that many of the zealous papists began to think of Restitution and Sir William Peters notwithstanding his private Bull of Absolution from Pope Julius the Fourth was so much startled at it as that the very next year he endowed eight new Fellowships in Exeter Colledge in Oxford Again the same Council Sess. 25. Decret de Ref. c. 20. Cupiens Sancta Synodus c. Decreeth and commandeth that all the Holy Canons and general Councils and Apostolick Sanctions in savour of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and against those that violate them be exactly observed by every one and doth farther admonish the Emperor Kings Princes and all Persons of vvhat estate soever that they vvould observe the Rights of the Church as the commands of God and desend them by their particular Patronage nor suffer them to be invaded by any Lords or Gentlemen whatsoever but severely punish all those vvho hinder the Liberties Immunities and Jurisdictions of the Church and that they vvould imitate those excellent Princes who by their Authority and Bounty encreased the Revenues of the Church so far were they from suffering them to be invaded and in this let every one sedulously perform his part c. And now after so full and express Declaration of the Council of Trent I do not see hovv any of those Roman Catholicks who esteem a general Council to be the supreme Authority in the Church and receive the Trent Council as such can any way excuse themselves in point of Conscience from those heavy Curses that are there denounc'd against all those that detain Church-Lands especially since the Papists themselves vehemently accuse King Henry the Eighth for sacrilegiously robbing of religious Houses and seising of their Lands a great part of which Lands are to this very day possess'd by Papists Now though there may be some Plea for the Popes Authority in the interim of a general Council and in such things vvherein they have made no determination yet in this matter there is no colour for any such pretences since the Council of Trent was actually assembled within few years after these Alienations and expresly condemned the possessors of Abby-Lands and after all this was all confirm'd and ratified by the Pope himself in his Bulla Super conf gen Concil Trid. A. D. 1564. And tho' we have here the Judgment of the infallible See as to this matter in the Confirmation of the Trent Council yet because there be some that magnifie the Popes extravagant and unlimited power over the Church and pretend that he confirm'd the Abby-Lands in England to the Lay-possessors of them I shall shew Secondly That the Pope neither hath nor pretends to any such Povver nor did ever make use of it in this matter under debate only I shall premise that whereas some part of the Canon-Law seem to allow of such particular alienations as are made by the Clerks and members of the Church with the consent of the Bishop yet such free consent was never obtained in England and as to what was done by force fraud and violence is of so little moment as to giving a legal Title that even the alienations that were made by Charles Martell who is among the Papists themselves as infamous for Sacrilege as King Henry the Eighth yet even his Acts are said to be done by a Council
of Bishops as is acknowledg'd by Dr. Johnston in his assurance of Abby-Lands p. 27. I shall proceed to shew First That the Pope hath no such power as to confirm these Alienations and this is expresly determined by the insallible Pope Damasus in the Canon-Law Caus. 12. 9. 2. c. 20. The Pope cannot alienate Lands belonging to the Church in any manner or for any necessity whatsoever both the buyer and the seller lie under an Anathema till they be restored so that any Church-man may oppose any such Alienations and again require the Lands and Profits so alienated So that here we have a full and express Determination of the infallible See. And tho' in answer to this it is urg'd by Dr. Johnston that this Canon is with small difference published by Binius in the Councils and so as to confine it to the suburbicacy Diocess of Rome yet that this Answer is wholly trivial will appear First Because if the Bishop of Rome hath no Authority to confirm such alienations in his own peculiar Diocess where he hath most power much less can he do it in the Provinces where his power is less Secondly That in all Ecclesiastical Courts of the Church of Rome it is not Binius's Edition of the Councils but Gratian's Collection of Canons that is of Authority in which Book these words are as here quoted Thirdly Since this Book of the Popes Decree hath been frequently reprinted by the Authority and Command of several Popes and constantly used in their courts this is not to be look'd upon as a Decree of Pope Damasus only but of all the succeeding Popes and in the opinion of F. Ellis Sermon before the King Decem. 5. 1686. p. 21. what is inserted in the Canon-Law is become the Judgment of the whole-Church Fourthly It 's absolutely forbid by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth in his Bull ptefixed before the Canon-Law A. D. 1580 for any one to add or invert any thing in that Book So that according to this express Determination in the Popes own Law the Bishops of Rome have no power to confirm any such Alienations as have been made in England and agreeable to all this Pope Julius the Fourth the very Person that is pretended to have confirm'd these Alienations declar'd to our English Ambassadors that were sent upon that Errand That if he had power to grant it he would do it most readily but his Authority was not so large F. Paul's H. of Council of Trent Land. A. D. 1629. p. 392. And therefore all Confirmations from the Bishop of Rome are already prejudg'd to be invallid and of no force at all Secondly No Bishop of Rome did ever confirme them The Breve of Pope Julius the Third which gave Cardinal Pool the largest powers towards effecting this had this express limitation Salvo tamen in his quibus propter renem magnitudinem gravitatem haec Sancta sedes merito tibi videritur consulenda nostro prefatae sedis beneplacito conformatione i. e. Saving to us in these matters in which by reason of their weight and greatness this holy See may justly seem to you that of right it ought to be consulted the good pleasure and confirmation of us and of the holy See which is the true English to that Latin and that this whole Kingdom did then so understand these words is evident from the three Ambassadors that were sent to Rome the next Spring viz. Viscount Montecute Bishop of Ely and Sir Edward Carn these being one to represent every state of the Kingdom to obtain of him a Confirmation of all those Graces which Cardinal Pool had granted Burnet's H. Ref. p. 2. f. 300. So that in the esteem of the whole Nation what the Cardinal had done was not vallid without the Confirmation of the Pope himself Now this Pope Julius and the next Marcellus both dyed before there is any pretence of any Confirmation from Rome but this was at length done by Pope Paul the Fourth is pretended and for proof of it three things are alledged First The Journals of the House of Commons where are these wordes After which was read a Bill from the Popes Holiness confirming the doing of my Lord Cardinal touching the assurance of Abby-Lands c. Secondly a Bull of the same Pope to Sir Will. Peters Thirdly The Decrees of Cardinal Pool and his Life by Dudithius To all which I answer First That it s confess'd on all hands that there is no such Bull or Confirmation by Pope Paul the Fourth to be any where found in the whole World not any Copy or Transcript of it not in all the Bullaria nor our own Rolls and Records tho' it be a matter of so great moment to the Roman Catholicks of England and what cannot be produced may casily be denied Nor can it be imagin'd that a Journal of Lay-persons that were parties concerned or a private Bull to Sir Will. Peters or some hints in the Decrees and Life of the Cardinal will be of any moment in a Court at Rome whensoever a matter of that vast consequence as all the Abby-Land's in England shall come to be disputed especially if it be observed that this very Journal of the house of Commons is no publick Record but hath past through private hands hath been corrupted and defaced and that in Passages of the greatest moment as are the words of of W. Hakewell Esq in his Observation upon them 70 Years since printed A. D. 1641. And whereas the Journal's of the House of Lords are true Records and kept by their proper Officer there is not one word to be sound of any such confirmation Secondly If there ever was any such Bull it had this limitation in it that the Possessors of such Lands should bestow them all on Colleges Hospitals parochial Ministers or other such like spiritual Uses and this I prove First Because the famous Instances that are usually given of the Popes Alienations of Church Lands were only a changing them from one religious Use to another Thus when Pope Clement the Fifth A. D. 1307 supprest the Knights-Templars in this Nation and seiz'd all their Lands and Goods he gave them all to the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem and that was ratified in Parliament 17. Fdw. Second which Act sets forth That tho those Lands were escheated to the Lords of the Fee by the said Dissolution yet it was not lawful to detain them When Pope Clement the Seventh A. D. 1528 gave Cardinal Woolsey a Power to surpress several Monasteries he was to transferr all their Goods and Possessions to his Collegiate Church at Windsor and to Kings College in Cambridge and when the same Pope gave the same Cardinal many other Religious Houses it was for the endowing Christ-Church in Oxford and his College in Ipswich And to name no more when Pope Alexander the seventh A. D. 1655. suppress'd the Order of the Fratres Cruciferi he disposed of all their Houses Farms and Rights to such uses and