other but in the foundation most sound most orthodox that holy man never intending such a superiority over this Church as after was claimed The Bishops of England in their condemnation of Wicliffs opinions do not at all touch upon those concerned the Popes supremacy and the Councell of Constance that did censure his affirming Non est de necessitate salutis credere Romanam Ecclesiam esse supremam inter alias Ecclesias doth it with great limitations and as but an error Error est si per Romanam Ecclesiam intelligat universalem Ecclesiam aut concilium generale aut pro quanto negaret primatum summi Pontificiis super alias Ecclesias particulares I conceive therefore the Basis of the Popes or Church of Romes authority in England to be no other then what being gained by custome was admitted with such regulations as the kingdome thought might stand with it 's own conveniency and therefore subject to those stipulations contracts with the Papacy and pragmatiques it at any time hath made or thought good to set up in opposition of extravagancies arising thence in the reformation therefore of the Church of England two things seem to be especially searcht into and a third arising from them fit to be examined 1. Whether the Kingdome of England did ever conceive any necessity jure divino of being under the Pope united to the Church and sea of Rome which drawes on the consideration how his authority hath been exercised in England under the Britons Saxons and Normans what treasure was caryed annually hence to Rome how it had been gained and how stopt 2. Whether the Prince with th' advise of his Cleargy was not ever understood to be endued with authority sufficient to cause the Church within his Dominions be by them reformed without using any act of power not legally invested in him which leads me to consider what the Royal authority in sacris is 1. In making lawes that God may be truly honoured 2 things decently performed in the Church 3. Profainesse punished questions of doubt by their Cleargy to be silenced 3. The third how our Kings did proceed especially Queen Elizabeth under whose reformation we then lived in this act of separation from the sea of Rome which carries me to shew how the Church of England was reformed by Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Elizabeth Wherein I look upon the proceedings abroad and at home against Hereticks the obligation to generall Councells and some other particulars incident to those times I do not in this at all take upon me the disputation much less the Theologicall determination of any controverted Tenet but leave that as the proper subject to Divines this being onely an historicall narration how some things came amongst us how opposed how removed by our ancestors who well understanding this Church not obliged by any forraign constitutions but as allowed by it self either finding the inconvenience in having them urged from abroad farther then their first reception heare did warrant Or that some of the Cleargy inforced opinions as articles of faith were no way to be admitted into that rank did by the same authority they were first brought in leaving the body or essence as I may say of Christian religion untouched make such a declaration in those particulars as conserved the Royall dignity in it's ancient splendour without at all invading the true legall rights of the state Ecclesiasticall yet might keep the kingdome in peace the people without distruction and the Church in Vnity CHAP. II. Of the Britans 1. I Shall not hear inquire who first planted Christian Religion amongst the Britans whether Ioseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes S. Peter or Elutherius neither of which wants an author yet I must confess it hath ever seemed to me by their alleadging the Asian formes in celebrating Easter their differing from the rites of Rome in severall particulars of which those of most note were that of Easter and baptizing after another manner then the Romans used their often journeying to Palestina that they received the first principles of Religion from Asia And if afterward Caelestinus the Pope did send according to Prosper Germanus vice sua to reclaim them from Pelagianisme certainly th' inhabitants did not look on it as an action of one had authority though he might have a fatherly care of them as of the same profession with him as a Synod in France likewise had to whom in their distress they address themselves to which Beda attributes the help they received by Germanius and Lupus 2. After this as the Britans are not read to have yeilded any subjection to the Papacy so neither is Rome noted to have taken notice of them for Gregory the great about 590. being told certain children were de Britannia insula did not know whether the Countrey were Christian or Pagan and when Augustine came hither and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome the Abbot of Bancor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree in charity to help them in word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience then this they did not know due to him whom he named to be Pope nor to be father of fathers 3. The Abbots name that gave this reply to Augustine seems to have been Dinooth and is in effect no other then what Geffry Monmouth hath remembred of him that being miro modo liber alibus artibus eruditus Augustino pâ—tenti ab episcopis Britonum subjectionem diversis monstravit argument ationibus ipsos ei nullam debere subjectionem to which I may adde by the testimony of Beda their not only denying his propositions sed neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habiturum respondebant And it appears by Gyraldus Cambrensis this distance between the two Churches continued long even till Henry the first induced their submission by force before which Episcopi Walliae à Menevensi Antistite sunt consecrati ipse similiter ab aliis tanquam suffraganeis est consecratus nulla penitus alii Ecclesiae facta professione vel subjectione the generality of which words must be construed to have reference as well to Rome as Canterbury for a little after he shewes that though Augustine called them to councell as a legat of the Apostolique sea yet returned they did proclaim they would not acknowledge him an Archbishop but did contemn both himself and what he had established 4. Neither were the Scots in this difference any whit behind the Britans as we may perceive by the letter of Laurentius Iustus and Mellitus to the Bishops and Abbots through Scotland in which they remember the strange perversenesse of one Dagamus a Scottish Bishop who upon occasion coming to them did not only abstain eating with them but would not take his meat in the
same house they abode yet they salute them with the honourable titles of their dearest lords and brethren A certain signe of a wide distance between the opinions of Rome then and now when men are taught not so much as bid them farewell do not submitunto it sure our first Bishops know no such rule who placed in their Calendar for Saints and holy men as well Hilda Aydon and Colman the opposers of Rome as Wilfred Agilbertus and others who stood for it CHAP. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with AFter the planting of Christian religion amongst the Saxons th' Archbishop of Canterbury became a person so eminent all England was reputed his Diocese in the colledge of Bishops London his Dean whose office it was to summon Councels Winchester his Chancellour Salisbury or as some Winchester his Precâ—tor or that begun the service by singing Worcester or rather Rochester his Chaplain and the other the carrier of his Crosse expected no lesse obedience from York then himself yielded to Rome voluntate beneficio it being th' opinion of the Church of England it was but equall ut ab eo loco mutuentur vivendi disciplinam à cujus fomite rapuerunt credendi slammam The dependence therefore of the Clergy in England being thus wholly upon th' Archbishop it will not be amisse to take a little view both of what esteem he was in the Church and how it came to be taken off and by degrees transferr'd to a forreign power 2. Upon the conversion of the Saxons here by the preaching of Augustine and his companions and a quiet peace settled under Theodore to whom all the English submitted Parochiall Churches by his encouragement began to be erected and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation as being the successour of Saint Peter the first bishop of the world Patriark of the West that resided in a town held to nourish the best Clerks in Christendome and the seat of the Empire insomuch as the devout Britan who seemes as I said to have received his first conversion from Asia did go to Iudea as a place of greatest sanctity so amongst the Saxons Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur But as this was of their part no other then as to a great Doctour or Prelate by whose solicitude they understood the way to heaven and to a place in which religion and piety did most flourish so th' instructions thence were not as coming from one had dominion over their faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming other then that respect is fit to be rendred from a puisne or lesse skilfull to more ancient and learned Teachers As of late times when certain divines at Frankford 1554. differed about the Common-prayer used in England Knox and Whittingham appealed to Calvin for his opinion and receiving his 200. Epistle it so wrought in the hearts of many that they were not so stout to maintain all the parts of the Book as they were then against it And Doctor Cox and some other who stood for the use of the said Book wrote unto him excusing themselves that they put order in their Church without his counsell asked Which honour they shew'd him not as esteeming him to have any auctority of Office over them but in respect of his learning and merits 3. As these therefore carried much honour and yielded great obedience to Calvin and the Church of Geneva by them then held the purest reformed Church in Christendom so it cannot be denyed but our Auncestors the Saxons attributed no lesse to the Pope and Church of Rome who yet never invaded the rights of this as contrary to the councel of Ephesus and the Canons of the Church of England but left the Government of it to the English Prelats yet giving his best advice and assistance for increasing devotion and maintenance of the Laws Ecclesiasticall amongst them in which each side placed the superiority From whence it proceeded that however the Pope was sought to from hence he rarely sent hither any Legat. In the Councell of Calcuith held about 180. years after Augustine it is observed a tempore Sancti Augustini Pontificis sacerdos Romanus nullus in Britanniam mâ—ssus est nisi nos And Eadmerus that it was inauditum in Britannia quemlibes hominum super se vices Apostolicas gerere nisi solum Archiepiscopum Cantuariae 4. But after the Pope instead of being subject began to be esteemed above th' Ecclesiastick Canons and to pretend a power of altering and dispensing with them and what past by his advise and counsell onely was said to be by his authority he did question divers particulars had been formerly undoubtedly practic 't in this Kingdom he seeing them and not shewing any dislike at it as The receiving Investitures of Churches from Princes The calling Synods The determining causes Ecclesiasticall without Appeals to Rome The transferring Bishops c. but the removing these from England unto a forraign judicature being as well in diminution of the rights of the Crown as of this Church past not with out opposition 5. For Anselm an Italian the first great promoter of the Papal authority with us pretending he ought not be barr'd of visiting the Vicar of St. Peter causa regiminis Ecclesiae was told as well by the Bishops as lay Lords That it was a thing unheard and altogether against the use of the realme for any of the great men especially himself to presume any such thing without the Kings licence who affirmed nequaquam fidem quam sibi debebat simul Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra suam voluntatem posse servare And the Archbishop persisting in his journy thither had not onely his Bishoprick seized into the Kings hand but the Pope being shew'd how his carriage was resented here did not afford him either Consilium or Auxilium but suffered him to live an exile all that Princes time without any considerable support or adjudging the cause in his favour Which makes it the more strange that having found by experience what he had heard before that it was the King not the Pope could help or hurt him this visit being so little to his advantage at his first presenting himself to Henry the first he should oppose that Prince in doing him homage and being invested by him a right continued unto that time from his Auncestors and by which himself had received the Archbishoprick from his brother and this on a suggestion that it was prohibited in a councell held at Rome in which he went so far as to tell the King quod nec pro redemptione capitis mei consentiam ei de iis quae praesens audivi in Romano Concilio prohiberi nisi ab eadem sede
on them not as to those had auctority over this Church 17. As for acts of Ecclesiastick auctority what proceeded not from the King did from th' Archbishop who was not at all commanded by any nullius unquam legati ditioni addictus but preceded them all None did were a Miter within his Province or had the Crosier carried nor layd any excommunication and when he did the Clergy of the place did teach both from the King and Archbishop not to value it on this ground that in Dioecesi Archiepiscopi Apostolicam non tenere sententiam 18. As for Councells it is certain none from Rome did till 1125. call any here if they did come to any as to Calcuith the King upon the Advise of th' Archbishop statuit diem concilii So when William the first held one at Winchester 1070. for deposing Stygand though there came to it three sent from Alexander the second yet it was held jubente presente Rege who was president of it The difference touching precedency between the Sees of Canterbury and York having been before the same Pope and by him sent back for a determination at home it is observable that in a Councell said therefore to be called â—x praecepto Alexandri Papae annuente Rege the Popes Legat subscribed the 16 th after all the English Bishops as is truly recorded in the Antiquitat Britannicae Ecclesiae p. 95 40. agreeing with a very ancient Ms. copy I have seen of the said Councell as Diceto and others do rank him after the King Canterbury and York If any shall ask whether I have met no copies in which he was placed otherwise I must confesse I have seen some books wherein he was above the English Bishops next after the Queen but they were onely late Transcripts not of any Antiquity as in a book of Crouland writ since the beginning of Henry the 7. 19. The Pope for many years now past for being a Spirituall Pastor and Patriarch of the West hath been treated with more reverence than any Bishop and for being a potent temporall Prince with more observance then meerly a Ghostly Father A grave writer notes Henry the first having gone through the troubles were on him with his brother and likewise Anselm subjugatis omnibus inimicis securus erat nec aliquem ut primìtus formidabat praeter Papam hoc non propter spiritualem sed temporalem potestatem Which as it is recorded of that Prince so no question is true of many others 20. By which we may see when Rome did in former times Apostolica authoritate praecipere it was to Bishops whom he styled his brothers no other then such fraternall commands the elder may and doth ordinarily lay upon the younger brother of whom he is sollicitous such as St. Pauls were to the Thessalonians Philemon c. No other then of late Calvins were to Knox who being chosen by certain of Franckford to be Preacher unto them their vocation he obâ—yed albeit unwillingly at the commandment of that notable servant of God Iohn Calvin c. And a little after the Lords of Scotland sending for him home did accompany their letters to him with others to Mr. Calvin craving of him that by his auctority he would command the said Iohn once again to visit them c. And truly whosoever will without partiality seriously consider the whole contexture of our Lawes and Histories weighing one circumstance with another must conclude the Popes commanding to have been volentibus not nolentibus as St. Hierom says those of a Bishop ought to be for if disliked his precepts were questioned opposed those he sent not permitted to meddle with that they came for their prohibitions that others should not neglected The English having ever esteemed the Church of Canterbury in Spiritualls that is quae sunt ordinis without any intervening superior omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione in other things as points of Government the ordering that of right and custome ever to have belonged to the King assisted with his councell of Bishops and others of the Clergy who was therefore called Vicarius Christi c. as I shall shew hereafter more at large The Church of England holding that of S â— Augustine an undoubted truth In hoc Reges sicut eis divinitus praecipitur Deo serviunt in quantum Reges sunt si in suo reg no bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae ad divinam religionem and accordingly our Kings so far as any Laws or Records of their actions are extant from Ethelbert by the Saxons to the Conquest and from the Normans to these later times have upon occasion exercised a power shewing such titles were not in vain conferred on them Neither did any decision though never so punctually had in Rome unlesse the parties agreed stint the strife till the King concurred with it as the frequent determinations on the behalf of Canterbury in point of superiority above York found in Malmsbury and others may teach us which yet never received a finall end till Edward the 3. under the great seal set a period to that long controversy 21. But after the Pope began to think or rather to say himself had onely plenitudo Ecclesiasticae potestatis that no Councell could give Laws to him but all receive strength from him and the Canonists flattery extended to declare him supra jura in â—o sufficit pro ratione voluntas his missives ran in an higher tone then formerly and his commands which were at first according to th' example of St. Paul joyned with exhortations entreaties and the like to carry Apostolica auctoritate comprimere and to th' Archbishop demurring in th' execution of them tuum candelabrum concutiemus tantam praesumptionem cum gravibus usuris exigemus and si mandatum nostrum neglexeris vel distuleris adimplere quia justum est ut ei obedientia subtrahatur qui sedi Apostolicae neglexerit obedire venerabilibus fratribus suffraganeis tuis per scripta nostra mandavimus ut tibi reverentiam non impendant Quod si c. tibi feceris exhiberi sâ—ias te tunc ab Episcopali dignitate suspensum c. phrases and manners of writing denoting much more of auctority then was used by Popes in elder times By which is manifest the point in difference between the Archbishop and the Pope to have been not the sending a Legat hither but of one with a power above him to command the English Clergy that is to remove their dependency from him to Rome as a superior over him 22. To his gaining which these usages of th' Archbishops were great stops drawing so near an equality and so pregnant testimonies of his no-divine right to meddle here not easy
to be removed unlesse some from the Pope were admitted into the Kingdome that might at least give an essay to the guiding the English Church after the papall interest but that how earnestly soever prest came to no effect till 1125. Iohannes Crâ—mensis a person well understanding as appeares by his carriage six years before at Reims the designes of Rome came to the King in Normandy where after some stay his journey hither was permitted with what qualifications I find not but coming with Letters to Canterbury at Easter performed th' Office of the day in a more eminent chair as an Archbishop for so I English loco summi Pontificis according to the phrase of those times and though a Cardinall priest used insigniis Pontisicalibus the habit of a Bishop which being an unusuall novelty past not without scandall But in a councell which he held and presided in at London the Kingdom took more offence I shall deliver it in my authors own words Totam Angliam in non modicam commovit indignationem Videres enim rem eatenus regno Anglorum inauditam Clericum scilicet Presbiterii tantum gradu perfunctum Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus totiusque regni nobilibus qui confluxerant in sublimi solio praesidere illos autem deorsum sedentes ad nutum ejus vultu auribus animum suspen sum habentes From whence we may conclude it a thing before not heard of for any Legat though a Cardinall to precede Bishops the first Councell in which they preceded Archbishops I take to have been the Councell of Vienna 1311. where th' Archbishop of York is noted to have been placed primus praecipuus post Cardinales post Trevirensem Archiepiscopum or be seated in a more eminent place over them I have shew'd they did not subscribe in English Councells above them that these mutations were scandalous to the nation 23. As this is the first Ecclesiastick Synod called and managed by any Legat from Rome so before his credentiall Letters from Honorius the 2. as well to the Lay as Clergy I have not met with the Text Pasce oves meas used to prove him the generall Pastor of all the World it is true Paschalis the 2. ten years before uses it to prove his auctority over Bishops but neither doth Anselme 1095. produce it neither doth this Cardinall at Reims 1119. mention it though either of them did alleadge as many places of Scripture as were then common to prove th' extent of his power and Petrus Blesensis that lived a little after interprets it as spoken to all Bishops and to import no other then Evangelizare a certain signe if that exposition were hatch't before it was not common which afterward approved by St. Bernard and inserted into the Canon Law by Boniface the 8. about the year 1300. is now stood upon as the Basis of papall greatnesse But to return to that we were on 24. The Archbishop sensible of these indignities proceeds not as his predecessor by joynt Councell of the Bishops Abbots and Nobility but hath himself recourse to Rome who already knew se convertere ad oratorum versutias dummodo consulat suis profectibus where the Pope which was Honorius the 2. committed unto him vices suas in Angliâ Scotiâ Apostolicae sedis Legatum constituit So that he who before was Primas Angliae Scotiae Hiberniae necne adjacentium insularum that none else gerebat vices Apostolicas in Britannia and this of his own right without any delegatory power might now doing the same be said to do it by a power derived from Rome An invention highly advantagious to the Papacy for before the King and Archbishop or rather the Archbishop by the Kings will and appointment had ever taken cognizance of all matters of Episcopacy as the erection of Bishopricks disposing and translating Bishops c. So Paschalis the 2. expostulates with Hen. the 1. that praeter auctoritatem nostram Episcoporum translationes praesumitis c. and the deposing of them to have been in a Synod Historians of all times before assure us even unto Lanfrank who attempted it upon small grounds against Wolstan As for dividing Bishopricks and erecting new where none were Theodore did five in Mercia cum consensu Regum principum without ever sending to Rome as he did others elsewhere And Henry the 1. long after placed Episcopall Chaires at Ely and Carlisle without acquainting the Popes with it It is true Anselme an Italian either not knowing the rights of the Kingdome or rather out of a desire to interest the Pope in every thing writes to him of Ely that de vestrae pendet auctoritate prudentiae to adde strength to Ecclesiastick ordinances of this nature yet it is clear by his very Letter the King Bishops and Nobility had already concluded on it with whom he had concurr'd asking Paschalis assent after the deed done which shews rather he did it in civility then of necessity ne à posteris ulla praesumptione violetur that no cavilling might arise in the future to the disturbance of an action well settled that past by so great advice as not onely the English Church but the first Bishop of the world and Patriarch of the West joyned in seeing the needfulnesse of it And it is here not unworthy the remembring that Q. Mary how much so ever addicted to Rome yet admitted the Bishops of those Sees her Father had erected during the schism as they called it to sit in Parliament before any confirmation of them by the Pope 25. Of these and the like though cases proper for the Papacy alone yet being without scruple exercised in the Church of England and no controul from Rome it would not be easy to dispossesse the Archbishop of medling with by strong hand especially on an essay made before in the case of Wilfred it being affirmed quod esset contra rationem homini jam bis à tota Anglorum Ecclesia damnato propter quaelibet Apostolica scripta communicare the way therefore of making him the Popes Legat was invented by which those particulars he did before without interruption of his own right he whom it was not easy to barre of doing them might be said to act as his agent which was about this time first committed unto him of any Archbishop of Canterbury though Baronius not finding how the very same past before fancies Theodore to have done them cui totius Angliae à Romano Pontifice veluti Apostolicae sedis Legato cura credita erat who certainly if he were his Legat was very immorigerous in the case of Wilfred But to leave that as a Chimaera not to be assented to mentioned by no ancient author it is true not long after he conferr'd the title of Legatus natus on th' Archbishop of which hereafter 26.
averoient frank election de lour Prelatz solonc la ley de Dieu de seint Esglise ent ordeigne perpetuelment a durer c. and a little after d'Engleterre soleient doner Eveschez autres grantz dignites trestouz come il fait aujourdui Esglises parochiels le Pape ne se medlast de doner nul benefice deinz le Royalme tanqez deinz brief temps passe c. 59. And this to have been likewise the custome in France the complaint of the French Ambassador to Innocentius 4 tus assures us Non est multum temporis saith he quod Reges Francorum conferebant omnes Episcopatus in camera sua c. and our writers do wholy look upon the placing Lanfrank in Canterbury as the Kings act though it were not without th' advise of Alexander the 2. Neither did Anselme ever make scruple of refusing the Archbishoprick because he was not chosen by the Monks of Canterbury and in that letter of them to Paschalis the 2. 1114. though they write Raulf in praesentia gloriosi Regis Henrici electus à nobis clero populo yet whosoever will note the series of that election cannot see it to have been other then the Kings act insomuch as our writers use often no other phrase then the King gave such preferments c. And whilst things stood thus there was never any interposing from Rome no question who was lawfully chosen the Popes therefore did labour to draw this from the Princes medling with as much as was possible Some essay might be 1108. at the settling Investitures for then Anselme writ to Paschalis Rex ipse in personis eligendis nullatenus propria utitur voluntate sed religiosorum se penitus committit consilio But this as the practice proved afterwards was no more but that he would take the advise of his Bishops or other of the Clergy for as Diceto well observes our King did in such sort follow the Ecclesiastick Canons as they had a care to conserve their own rights The â—ittest way therefore for the Pope to get in was if there should happen any dissensions amongst themselves that he as a moderator a judge or an Arbitrator might step in 60. About the Conquest an opportunity was offer'd on the contentions between the two Archbishops for primacy in which Canterbury stood on the bulls true or false of former Popes that had as a great Patriarch made honourable mention of them When they were both 1071. with Alexander the 2. by his advise it was referr'd to a determination in England and accordingly 1072. Wm. the first with his Bishops made some settlement which by them of York was ever stumbled at pretending the King out of reason of State sided with Canterbury But this brake into no publick contest till 1116. Thurstan elected to York endeavored at Rome to divert the making any profession of subjection to Cant. but failing in th' attempt that Court not liking to fall into a contest it was not probable to carry resigned his Archbishoprick Spondens Regi Archâ—epiâ—copo se dum viveret non reclamaturum yet after the Clergy of York sued to the Pope for his restitution which produced that letter from Paschalis the 2. in his behalf to Hen. the 1. is in Eadmerus wherein he desires if there were any difference between the two Sees it might be discust in his presence Which was not hearkned to but Calixtus the 2. in a Councell by him held 1119. at Reimes of which before the English Bishops not arrived the Kings Agent protesting against it the Archdeacon of Cant. telling the Pope that jure he could not do it consecrated him Archbishop of York upon which Henry prohibits him all return into his dominions And in the enterview soon after at Gisors though Calixtus earnestly laboured th' admitting him to his See the King would by no means hearken to it So the Pope left the businesse as he found it and Thurstan to prove other wayes to gain th' Archbishoprick 61. Who thereupon became an actor in the peace about that time treated between England and France in which his comportments were such that proniorem ad sese recipiendum Regis animum inflexit so as upon the Popes letters he was afterwards restored ea dispositione ut nullatenus extra provinciam Eboracensem divinum officium celebraret donec Ecclesiae Cantuariensi c. satisfaceret This I take to be the first matter of Episcopacy that ever the Pope as having a power elsewhere of altering what had been here settled did meddle with in England It is true whilst they were raw in Christianity he did sometimes recommend Pastors to this Church so Vitalian did Theodore and farther shewed himself sollicitous of it by giving his fatherly instructions to the English Bishops to have a care of it so did Formosus or some other by his letters 904. upon which Edward th' elder congregated a Synod wherein five new Bishops were constituted by which an inundation of Paganisme ready to break in on the West for want of Pastors was stopt But it is apparent this was done not as having dominion over them for he so left the care of managing the matter to their discretion as he did no way interesse himself in it farther then advise 62. A meeting of English Bishops 1107. at Canterbury or as Florentius Wigorniensis stiles it a Councell restored the Abbot of Ramsey deposed 1102. jussu Apostolico or as Eadmerus juxta mandatum Domini Papae It is manifest this command from Rome to be of the same nature those I mentioned of Calvins or at the most no other then the intercession of the Patriarch of a more noble See to an inferior that by his means had been converted For his restitution after the reception of the Papall letters seems to have been a good while defer'd so that what past at Rome did not disannull his deprivation here till made good in England as at a time when nothing thence was put in execution but by the Regall approbation as the Pope himself complained to the King But after the Church of Rome with th' assistance of th' English Clergy had obtained all elections to be by the Chapters of the Cathedralls upon every Scruple she interposed herself 63. The greatest part of the Convent of London 1136. chose Anselme Abbot of St. Edmundsbury for their Bishop contrary to the Deans opinion and some few of the Chanons who appealed to Rome where th' election 1138 was disannulled the Bishoprick by the Pope recommended to Winchester his then or rather soon after Legat which so remained till 1141. This is the first example of any Bishop chosen received and in possession of a Church in this Kingdome whose election was after quash't at Rome and the sentence obeyed here as it is likewise of any Commendam on Papall command in the Church of England all
to the King this cause seemed to him non ad plenum tractata ideoque sicut in canonibus cautum est in pristinum locum debere restitui judicavimus Deinde causam ejus juxta censuram canonicae traditionis diligenter retractandam definiendam praedicto fratri nostro Archiepiscopo Lanfranco commisimus It is certain however some writers might upon this or for â— other causes think his degradation to have been non canonice those times did not interpret this though writ with so great earnestnesse for other then advise or intercession not as of a person had an absolute power of commanding in the businesse for we never read of any proceedings upon it not Lanfrank at all ever to meddle in the case that he ever esteemed Stigand a lawfull Bishop Epist. 27 28. who in the year 1075. being in a Councell at London according to the Decrees of it removed his Episcopall Chair from Selsey to Chichester of which he died Bishop 1087. without being at all for what appears questioned or disturbed after the first grant of it Divers examples of the like nature occur too long to be repeated where the King or his chief Iustice prohibit the Papall precepts from being put in execution and it is agreed by Lawyers that not the command but the constant obedience is it which denotes a right of commanding and in cases of this nature prohibentis potior est condito one example in the negative when the thing is stood upon being of more weight then twenty by compliance in the affirmative 77. It is probable neither the King nor the Bishops would introduce any new matter of great concernment into this Church without the privity of so great a Doctor Patriarch of a See from which their auncestors had received the first principles of Christian Religion but it is manifest what past if he were acquainted with it was by their own auctority not his When Off a intended the erecting of Litchfield into an Archbishoprick he did it by a Councell at Calcuith Lambertus as what he approved not producing crebra sedis Apostolicae vetera nova edicta against it yet the thing proceeded Lucius the 2 went so far in his intentions to raise Winchester to an Archiepiscopall Chair as he sent the pall to the Bishop yet it being not approved here as the event shews that Town never yet had the honour Henry the first having in his Lawes appointed how a Bishop Presbyter Monk Deacon c. should suffer committing homicide concludes Si quis ordinatum occidat velproximum suum exeat de patria sua Romam adeat Papam consilium ejus faciat de adulterio vel fornicatione vel Nunnae concubitu similiter poeniteat Where it is observable the King ordains the Penance permits the delinquents peregrination to Rome to receive from the Pope as from a great Doctor of the Church spirituall counsell which else he was not admitted to seek for peregrina judicia modis omnibus submovemus and again ibi semper causa agatur ubi crimen admittitur 78. VVilliam the first who began his expedition against Harald by the counsell of Alexander the 2. and received a banner from him minding the deposition of th' Archbishop of Canterbury procured the Pope to send certain Ecclesiasticks hither to joyn in the action as likewise soon after for determining the question of precedency between Canterbury and York upon which there grew an opinion Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem à nullo hominum nisi à solo Papa judicari posse vel damnari nec ab aliquo cogi pro quavis calumnia cuâ—quam eo excepto contra suum velle respondere This no doubt was promoted by th' Archbishops as what exempted them from all home jurisdiction the Bishops in generall did after think in some sort to introduce and thereupon put in this petition in Parliament 18. Ed. 3. qe pleise a Roy en maintenance del estat de seint Esglise graunter ordeiner en cest Parlement qe nul Ercevesque ou Evesque â—oit desormez arreynez ne empesâ—hez devaunt ses Iusticos en cause criminele par quecunque voye de si come sur tiele cause nulle alme ne les poet juger si noun le Pape seulement But to this the answer is no other then Il est avis qe en cause de crime nul Ercevesque ou Evesque soit empesche devant les Iustices si le Roy ne le commande especialment tant qe autre remedie soit ordeinez which he did likewise confirm by Charter there registred and as Walsingham hath truly recorded 79. This opinion though new to the English questionlesse incouraged Anselme to oppose the King in many particulars and Popes to go farther as to claim Princes should not confer Investitures nor define matters of Episcopacy c. then to bestow preferments within this Kingdome at first by consent and with the limitation no Italian to succeed another then to reserve to themselves the collation of all benefices of which before To conclude this whosoever will without prejudice weigh the reformation of England by Hen. the 8. Edward the 6. and more especially Queen Elizabeth in the point of supremacy must grant these Princes did not assume to themselves any thing but such particulars as the Court of Rome had in a long series of time incroached in on the Crown and English Church If at any time our auncestors styled the Pope Princeps Episcoporum it was in no other sense then they did St. Peter Princeps Apostolorum by which what principality they intended him we cannot better understand then by the Saxon who renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostola the Elder of the Apostles If they called him successor or Vicarius Petâ—i they were not alone appropriated to him for Petrus Blesensis and others give the Bishop of York the same titles and the Bish. of Bath who had a Church dedicated to St. Peter he bids remember quia Petri Vicarius estis So did they likewise in some sense call Kings Christs Vicars as well as Bishops If at any time they gave the Pope the title of head of the Church it was as being the first Bishop he was held to be as St. Bernard tells us in beneficam causam as they termed Oxford the fountain and mother of our Christian faith I cannot therefore but with a late writer that sayes England had a known subjection to Rome acknowledged even by our Laws ever from the conversion of our Country under St. Gregory had expressed in what particulars that subjection did consist what those Laws are and where to be found The truth is as there is no doubt our Auncestors in former times would not have joyned with the Synod of Gap in causing so disputable ambiguous a question as that the Pope is Antichrist to have been taught as the faith
of the English Church so there is no question but it hath been ever the Tenet of it Pontificem Romanum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacrâ Scripturâ in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Which our Historians do mention as what proceeded from the constitutions of the Church and assent of Emperors not as of a thing in it self juris divini insomuch as 80. That proposition when it was propounded 1534. in Henry the 8 ths time in convocation all the Bishops without exception and of others onely one doubted and four placed all Ecclesiastick power in the Pope both the Universities and most of the Monasteries and Collegiat Churches of England approved avowed as the undoubted opinion of the Church of this Nation in all ages Neither can I see how it can be otherwise for if the Church of Canterbury were omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione if it were Mater omnium Anglicanarum Ecclesiarum suo post Deum proprio laetatur pastore that is if th' Archbishop had no mediate spirituall superior but Christ God if the power the Pope exercised over him within this Realm were voluâ—tate beneficio gained as I have shewed by little little voluntarily submitted unto it could be no other then jure humano and then it must be granted the Church of England could not hold any necessity of being in subjection to the See or Church of Rome jure divino as it is manifest they did not in that they sometimes acknowleded no Pope otherwhiles shewed an intent of departing from his union and the Bishops as well as Lay Lords advised Anselm Vrbani obedientiam abijcere subjectionis jugum excutere c. Neither could the Church of England be any way possible guilty of Schism adhering to their Ghostly Superior next and immediate under Christ Iesus As for the temporall profits the Court of Rome received hence though the denying them can be no just cause of such a spirituall imputation especially on privat men yet certainly who will examin their beginning as he shall find it to have been by the bounty or permission of our Princes so upon search he will perceive the Kingdome went no farther then the Common Law the precedent of former times and such an exigency did force them to of which therefore I shall adde a word or two CHAP. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England THe vast summes the Court of Rome did of late years upon severall occasions export out of this Kingdome mentioned in the statute of the 25. Hen. the 8. are spoken of by severall of our writers and though some have in generall expressed how much the Nation suffer'd in that kind yet none that I know in one tract did ever shew by what degrees the Papacy gained so great a revenue as the Commons in Edward the thirds dayes had cause to complain it did turn a plus grand destruction du Royaume qe toute la guerre nostre Seigneur le Roy. I have thought therefore that it will not be amisse to set down how the Pope came to have so great an influence over the treasure of the Clergy in this Land by seeking out how and when the greatest of the paiments made to him began what interruptions or oppositions were met with either at the beginning or in the continuance of them 2. The first payment that I have read of which gave the Pope an entrance as it were in to it was that bounty of our Princes known to this day by the name of Peter-Pence and this as it was given for an Almes by our Kings so was it no otherwise received by the Court of Rome Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita perperaâ—â— doloseque collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit saith Paschalis the 2. So that no question Polidore Virgil very inconsiderately termes it vectigal and others who by that gift contend the Kingdome became tributarium feudatarium S to Petro ejusque successoribus for though the word tributum may perhaps be met with in elder writers yet never did any understand the Pope by it to become a Superior Lord of the Lay fee but used the word metaphorically as we do to this day terme a constant rent a kind of tribute and to those who pay it and over whom we have in some sort a command we give the title of subjects not as being Princes over them but in that particular being under us they are for it styled our inferiors 3. What Saxon King first conferred them whether Ina as Ranulphus Cestrensis sayes report carryed or Offa as Iorvalensis I will not here enquire as not greatly materiall Polidore Virgil tells some write Ethelwolphus continued it with whom Brompton seems to concur It is true our Historians remember he caused 300. mancusas denariorum Malmsbury renders it trecentas auri marcas which was ten times the value of silver as another trecenta talenta to be carried every year from hence to Rome which could be no other then the just application of Peter-Pence for amongst sundry complaints long after from Rome we find the omission of no paiment instanced in but of that duty onely neither do the body of the Kingdome in their Remonstrance to Innocentius 4. 1246. mention any other as due from hence to Rome 4. This therefore thus confer'd by our Kings was for the generality continued to the Papacy yet to shew as it were that it proceeded only from the liberality of our Princes not without some stops Of those in the times of VVilliam the first Henry his Son I have spoke Henry the 2. during the dispute with Becket and Alexander the 3. commanded the Sheriffs through England that Denariibeati Petri colligantur serventur quousque inde Deminus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit During the Reign of Edward the 3. the Popes abiding at Avignon many of them French their partiality to that side and the many Victories obtained by th' English begat the proverb Ore est le Pape devenu Françeis Iesu devenu Angleis c. about which time our Historians observe the King gave command no Peter-Pence should be gather'd or pay'd to Rome And this restraint it seems continued all that Princes time for Richard the 2. his successor at his beginning caused Iohn Wickliffe esteemed the most knowing man of those times to consider the right of stopping them whose determination in that particular yet remains entituled Responsio Magistri Iohannis Wicliff ad dubium infrascriptum quaesitum ab eo per Dominum Regem Angliae Richardum secundum magnum Concilium anno regni sui primo then the question followes Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae
Ordinaires lour office devoirs per cause qe les pluralites q' ont este grantees devant ces heures sont ount este la greindre cause de l' absence des tiels curats y plest au Roy nostre Seigr. de l' advis assent des Seig rs en Parlement esâ—rire par ses honourables lettres a nostre seint pier le Pape de revoker repeller toutes les pluralites generalement qe d' es ore en avant nulle pluralite soit graunte a ascuny en temps a venir But the Pope it seems giving no satisfaction in the particular the 11. Hen. 4. the Commons again petition That the riches of the kingdome being in the hands of Church-men those livings upon which the incumbent of common right ought to reside half of the true value should remain to himself but the other to the King To which the answer is Geste matiere appertient a seinte Esglise quant a la residence remede ent fust purveuz en la darrain Convocation Yet this matter of non-residence still molesting the Commonwealth 3. Hen. 6. the King tells them by th' advise of the Lords of Parliament He had delivered their bill to my Lord of Canterbury charging him to pourvey of remedy for his Province and semblably shall write to the Church of York for that Province By which we may see the King Archbishop and Convocation did conceive themselves to have a power of redressing things in this Church which yet in civility they thought â—it first to acquaint the Pope with as a spirituall Doctor or Patriarch however of great esteem yet not endued with a power of commanding in this Church otherwise then the lawes of the Kingdome the contracts with the Papacy did bear 21. Now it cannot be doubted that all these petitions of the Commons and sundry more which may be produced had been by them vainly prefer'd had they not taken the King to have been vested with a power of redressing things blameable in the government of the Church But when we say the Prince as the principall without whom nothing is done may be rightly termed Head in the act of reformation our meaning is not that he will deal in points of Ecclesiastick cognizance without the advise of his Bishops and other learned of the Clergy we know in things proper Iosuah is to take counsell of Eleazer and the Kings of this nation have ever done so 22. When Edgar intended the advancing Christi gloriam he chose him three Bishops to be his patres spirituales and consiliarios But to speak of later times when the Commons endeavoured a reformation of some things in the Church Hen. the 8 th would not answer their desires till he had first acquainted the Spirituality When he intended to publish a book of the principall articles and points of our faith with the declaration of other expedient points and also for the lawfull rites and ceremonies to be observed within this realme he ordained it to be by th' Archbishops and sundry Bishops of both Provinces and also a great number of the best learned honestest and most vertuous sort of Doctors of Divinity men of discretion judgement and good disposition c. And Edward the sixth minding a farther reformation of some usages in the administration of the Eucharist he caused it to be made by the most grave and learned of his realm for that purpose by his directions assembled at Windfor who afterwards for taking away divers and sundry differing forms and fashions had formerly been used in sundry Churches of England and Wales appoynted th' Archbishop of Canterbury and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops and other learned men of the realm to consider of the premises who by the ayd of the Holy Ghost with one uniform agreement concluded on and set forth the book of Common prayer c. Upon which the two houses of Parliament considering as well the most godly travell of the Kings highnesse in gathering and collecting the said Archbishops Bishops and learned men together as c. do give to his Highnesse most hearty and lowly thanks c. So that it is apparent the King in composing this book did not assume to himself or the Parliament attribute unto him any other then assembling of the Bishops and other learned men together to take their consultations 23. And they observing the great diversity in saying and singing in severall Churches the difficulty of finding what was proper for each day apt to breed confusion reduced the publick service of the Church to one form more facile and of better edification following therein the examples of divers holy Bishops and others for if Guarinus Abbot of St Albans in the Office used in his Church about 1190 might superflua resecare to reduce the prayers there to one form if Agobardus in France might amputare superflua vel levia c. if Osmund Bishop of Salisbury in England quoniam singulae fere Dioeceses in statis precariis horis dicendis variabant ad hanc varietatem tollendam ut quasi absolutum quoddam precandi quo omnes uti possent exemplar exstaret eas in eum fere ordinem commodam rationem quam hodie omnes prope Angliae Cambriae Hiberniae viz. the Course of Salisbury Ecclesiae sequuntur magno prudenti rerum ex sacris scripturis probatis Ecclesiae historiis delectu distribuit digessit if these I say might do it on their own motion there is no question such of the Clergy as were appointed by the King might on his desire take it into consideration and remove matters offensive or lesse to edification 24. Neither did Queen Elizabeth at the beginning of her reign alter some passages in it but by the opinions of Divines eruditis moderatis to whom was added a learned Knight Sr Thomas Smith to whose care the supervising of it had by the house of Commons been committed the second of Edward the sixth and therefore knew better then any other to give an account of that book Nor did her self or the house of Lords use differing wayes when the Commons at other times have sought some change in the Ecclesiastick government as the 23. and 27. of her reign where though the Lord Treasurer made a short beginning yet he left the satisfactory answers to be given them by th' Archbishop of York Insomuch as we may safely conclude when the Clergy in Convocation styled Henry the 8th Ecclesiae Anglicanae protectorem unicum supremum dominum quantum per Christi leges licet supremum caput they added nothing new unto him but a title for he and his successors after it did never exercise any auctority in causes Ecclesiastick not warranted by the practise of former Kings of the nation By all which the second question remains sufficiently proved that our Kings were originally endued with
all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury both to the Pope and Becket enough assure us how undoubted it was in those dayes that our Kings following the advise of the English Church did proceed on safe grounds for their justification in such quarrells 6. Neither was the opinion returned by these Divines so differing from the writings of other learned men as might make them any way guilty of schism Gerson speaking of the severall degrees of Divine truths places for the first such as are expresse in Scripture secondly those that are by evident consequence deduced from thence thirdly such as being delivered by Christ have been by the constant tradition of the Church derived to us of which he holds this proposition Vniversalis Ecclesia Pontifici Romano subjecta sit and adds non enim posset evidenter aut per consequentiam pure de fide ex legibus primi generis humana deductione fulciri c. and Contarenus in a small tract de potestate Pontificis of that question sayes An Auctoritas illa potestas qua Pontifex maximus fungitur sit ei consensu quodam hominis tributa an potius divinitus tradita qua de re hisce temporibus maximos tumultus excitatos esse perspicimus nec etiam veriti sint viri in omni disciplinarum genere celebres ac in Christianae Theologiae studio illustres in magno hominum conventu asserere hoc jus Pontificis humanume esse then adds that he ab horum hominum sententia maxime dissentire ac prope compertum habere divinitus concessum esse Pontifici jus illud c. So that this learned Cardinall was not altogether resolved in the point but as a disputable question had it prope compertum The truth of which I leave him to dispute with the Orientall Christians It is manifest Francis the first was of the contrary judgement and our Countryman Stapleton delivers it as a Catholick tenet of former times undoubtedly agreeing with that of the English Church non divino sed humano jure positivis ecclesiae decretis primatum Romani Pontificis niti c. 7. But I return to our King who now fortifyed by the opinion of the Universities publick disputations in the convocation and severall precedents of former Princes his predecessors in his rights whereas the Parliament before in some particulars restrained the profits of Rome as in the payments of Annates Peter-pence making Appeals to it whose beginnings with us I have formerly noted did the 26. Hen. 8. 1533 declare his Maty his heirs and successors Kings of this realm shall have full power auctority from tyme to tyme to visit represse redresse c. all such errors heresies abuses c. which by any manner spirituall authority or jurisdiction may be lawfully reformed repressed ordered redressed c. This the Court of Rome interpreted a falling off from the Church and the English no other then a declaration of that right had ever resided in the Crown and which I believe it will be a difficult task to disprove them in 8. For those two articles Paulus 3. accuses the King of as Hereticall and schismaticall viz. quod Romanus Pontifex caput ecclesiae Christi vicarius non erat quod ipse in Anglica ecclesia supremum caput existebat c. for the first I never heard it affirmed by the King in that generality the words import for the Pope is a temporall prince as well as a spirituall father and so far as I know he never denyed him to be the head of the Church of his own dominions nor of France and Spain c. if those Kingdomes will admit him to so great a preeminence the thing he onely stood upon is that he was not so instituted by Christ Universall Bishop and had alone from him such an omnipotency of power as made him absolute Monarch in effect of the universall Church and was so in England For his being vicar of Christ in that sense other Bishops may be said to be his vicegerents as before I do not see how it can be well denyed him but that this Vicarship did import the giving him that power he did then exercise here is what the Church of England hath ever constantly denied As for the Kings being Head of Church I have before shewed he neither took it nor the Parliament gave it in other sense then the French have alwayes attributed it to their Princes neither for ought I find was it so much sought by King Henry as prest on him by the Clergy of which the Bishop of Rochester was one that subscribâ—d to it and his Ancestors did the same things before he did after under the names of Protectors Tutors Christi vicarii Domini Agricolae c. 9. For the other particulars mentioned in the Bull as his beheading the Bishop or Cardinall of Rochester the burning of Beckets bones the taking the treasure and ornaments at his Shrine to which may be added the suppressing and converting into Lay hands the Monasteries of the Kingdome I shall not say much having not taken on me to defend that Princes actions Yet for the taking off the head of Rochester if he were convict of treason I must give the answer of Edward the 3. to the Clergy in that kind en droict de Clerks convictz de treason purceo qe le Roy toutz ses progenitors ount este seisis tut temps de faire jugement execution de Clercz convictz de treson devers le Roy sa Royale Mageste come de droict de la corone si est avis au Roy qe la ley en tien cas ne se poet changer and then he cannot be said to have dyed other wise then by law As for the goods and ornaments of Churches by him layd hold on it is certain his predecessors in their extremities had shew'd him the way as the Conquerour who took all the ready money was found in Religious houses Richard the first who took all to the very Chalices of Churches and yet th' Archbishop afterwards regio munimine septus universos monachorum to wit of Christ Church redditus oblationes tumbae beati martyris Thomae fecit saisiari in manu Regis and Edward the first 1296 fecit omnia regni monasteria perscrutari pecuniam inventam Londonias apportari fecitque lanas corias arrestari c. And in those dayes Bishops did tell Kings The saurus ecclesiae vester est nec absque vestra conscientia debuit amoveri to which the King verum est The saurus noster est ad defensionem terrae contra hostes peregrinos c. And perhaps it would be no hard labour to shew all Princes not onely here but elsewhere to have had how justly I will not determine a like persuasion And he then being excommunicated by Paulus 3. for maintaining what the Crown had ever been in
1381. cannot deny the truth of the assertion quod panis vinum remanent post consecrationem in naturis suis adhuc servatur Laicis antiquitus servabatur And here it is not unworthy the remembring that by the law of the 6 Articles 31. Hen. 8. cap. 14. containing in effect the body of Popery no man was to dye as an Heretick but he who denyed this Tenet all others onely as felons or men endangering the peace of the Kingdome by teaching contrary to what was publickly received By which it likewise appears in fixing th' imputation of Heresy the English looked on their home Determinations not those of any forreign Church 29. But I do not take upon me to dispute matters controversall which I leave as the proper subject to Divines it shall suffice onely to remember the Church of England having with this great deliberation reformed it self in a lawfull Synod with a care as much as was possible of reducing all things to the pattern of the first and best times was interpreted by such as would have it so to depart from the Church Catholick though for the manner they did nothing but warranted by the continuall practice of their predecessors and in the things amended had antiquity to justify their actions and therefore th' Archbishop of Canterbury in a provinciall Synod begun in S. Pauls the 3 of April 1571 and all other Bishops of the same Province gave especially in charge to all preachers to chiefly take heed that they teach nothing in their preaching which they would have the people religiously to observe and believe but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the old Testament and the new and that which the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine So that nothing is farther off truth then to say such as reformed this Church made a New religion they having retained onely that which is truly old and Catholick as Articles of their faith 30. Thus was Religion reformed and thus by the Queen establisht in England without either motion or seeking any new way not practised by our Ancestors but using the same courses had been formerly traced out unto them for stopping profaneness and impiety when ever they peeped in the Church And certainly to my understanding there can be none that will with indifferency look upon those times but he must however he mislike the thing done approve the manner of doing it Yet the favorers of Rome ceased not to proclaim all had thus past to have been hereticall without instancing any particular as to say such a carriage was after the manneâ— of Hereticks ever condemned by the Catholick Church and by orthodox writers in former times or such a Tenet in your confession was held heresy from this place of Scripture anciently by such holy Fathers met in generall Councell and to raise stirs and commotions in the Commonwealth to excommunicate the Queen as flagitiorum serva free her subjects of their allegeance to give out we had a Parliament-religion Parliament-Gospell Parliament-Faith and this before ever the 39 Articles one main pillar of the English reformation were confirmed by Parliament 31. Upon the whole it is so absolutely false that the Church of England made a departure from the Church which is the ground and pillar of truth as I am perswaded it is impossible to prove she did make the separation from the Roman it self but that having declared in a lawfull Synod certain opinions held by some in her communion to be no articles of faith and according to the precedent of former times and the power God and nature had placed in her self redressed particular abuses crept into her the Pope and his adherents without ever examining what was the right of the Kingdom in such like cases that had from all antiquity done the same would needs interpret this a departing from the Church because he resolved to maintain as articles of faith thrust on others as such some ambiguous disputable questions the English did not think fit to admit into that number To make a departure from Christs Church is certainly a very hainous offence she never commanding ought but what is conformable to his will nor requiring her children to believe any thing as matter of faith but what is immediately contained in the word of God or by evident consequence drawn from it and as she excludes no Christians from being her children who by their own demerits deserve not to be out of the divine favour so in opposing those who endeavour to procure some tenets to be admitted for hers which cannot be deduced from that ground we do not depart from her but gainsay humane errours and conceipts which they would infer to be her commands who acknowledges them not But as St Augustine in a dispute with a Donatist utrum schismatici nos simus an vos non ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut judicet Ecclesiam suam so may I whether we are the schismaticks or the Church of Rome Christ himself be the Iudge But whether divided from the other being matter of fact let the histories of former times the extraordinary proceedings of the See of Rome of late against the Queen and this Commonwealth be compared and I am confident the judgment may be referr'd to any indifferent person though of that belief who made the separation and whether this Kingdom on so high provocations did any thing would not have been parallell'd by former times had they met with the like attempts 32. Neither can the Crown in this reformation be any way said to have enterprised on the papall primacy which for ought I know it might have acknowledged so far as is exprest or deduced from holy Scripture or laid down in the ancient sacred Councells or the constant writings of the orthodox primitive Fathers and yet done what it did but to have exercised that auctority alwayes resided in it for conserving the people under it in unity and peace without being destroyed by the Canons and constitutions of others not suffering a forraign power ruine them to whom it owed protection In which it did not trench upon the rights of any but conserved its own imitating therein the Imperiall edicts of severall Princes and of those were in possession of this very diadem conformable to their Coronation oath 33. And from hence may be answered that which Rome brings as her Achilles touching the succession and visibility of the Protestants Church and doctrine in all ages since Christ for if theirs have been it is impossible to say the others have not the former adding onely more articles for a Christian to believe which the latter will not embrace as needfull so that if theirs as they so much glory have had the continuance from the Apostles these needs must which onely denies some part of that they hold Protestants says Stapleton have many things lesse then Papists they have taken away many things
To return to th' Archbishop who came home with this Legatine power 1127. crowns the King at Windsor and in May following holds a Councell at Westminster cui praesedit ipse sicut Apostolicae sedis legatus which is the first Councell any Archbishop is noted to have held as a Papall Legat and during his life which was seven years England did not see any other 27. After his death the See of Canterbury lay two years vacant so a fit time for the Pope to look this way especially K. Stephen making it part of his title that he was confirmed by him in his Kingdome therefore 1138. Innocentius the second sent hither Albericus Bishop of Hostia the second stranger I find exercising the Legatine auctority in England yet he was not at first received for one but vix tandem pro reverentiâ— Domini Papae He indeed went farther then ever any had for he not onely called the Clergy Apostolica auctoritate as our Historians terme it to a Synod I confesse he avoyds the word in his letters of summons styling it colloquium perhaps not to enter into dispute with the King who then took himself to be the onely caller of them and the allower of what they did but did farther command the Prior and Convent of Canterbury c. to chuse such an Archbishop cui sacrorum canonum auctoritas in nullo valcat obviare cui comprovinciales Episcopi pariter debeant assentire cui Dominus Rex nec possit nec debet assensum suum juste denegare but farther not at all intromitting himself And in the Councell he held amongst other particulars he ordained that if any injured an Ecclesiastick person Nisi tertio admonitus satisfecerit anathemate feriatur neque quisquam ei praeter Romanum Pontificem nisi mortis urgente periculo modum poenitentiae finalis injungat This is the first that by Canon ought done in England was referr'd to Rome as having a greater power then the English Bishops to absolve of the Laws of Hen. the 1. I shall speak hereafter But whether it were not here much regarded or th' excesses used by King Stephen against certain Bishops and the prohibiting a Councell held 〈◊〉 Winchester to send to Rome as against the dignity of the realm or that he freed of imprisonment desired to make so potent a party as the Clergy then was more of his side I cannot say but assuredly it was again renewed in a Councell at London about some four years after 28. The same Pope 1139. conferr'd upon Henry K. Stephens Brother and the potent Bishop of Winchester this Legatine power which was by him publish't in a Councell at Winchester where his faculties wâ—re read bearing date the 1. March and being as well Angliae Dominus by reason of the power he held wiâ—h Stephen as Apostolicae sedis Legatus he called thither th' Archbishop that had then some contest with the Monks of St. Augustines whom the Pope generally favour'd against him referr'd to his decision from Rome so that he caused both parties the second time to appear there before him 1143. as Legat and by compromise ended the businesse Yet this calling of the Archbishop unto him was not taken well and the same year 1143. he did by Apostolick command restore Ieremy removed by Theobald notwithstanding his appeal to Rome to be Prior of Canterbury which restitution the said Prior did not think fit to stand by but for avoiding trouble took an 100. marks to pay his debts and placed himself in St. Augustines By these carriages there grew great distasts between these two great Prelats the one as Archbishop prohibited Winchester all Ecclesiastick functions however the Popes Legat and both apply themselves to the Pope from whence our Historians do fetch the use of Appeals to Rome as indeed there could not well be any cause of them before for as the one case is the first ever any Archbishop was called out of his Diocese to make answer to any Legat as his Superior so I believe it will be hard to give an example of ought done by th' Archbishop in his own Bishoprick till now alter'd by a forreign auctority And here having mentioned the introducing of Appeals the reader will give me leave to digresse a little both to shew what is meant by them and the manner of prosecution of them and then to return and observe the event of the Archbishops and Legats in the Court of Rome 29. It cannot be denyed the word Appeal to have been used in former times with reference to the Papacy Cum praesul sedem Apostolicam appellasset sayes Malmsbury of VVilfred and a Councell held in Italy concerning him Apostolicam sedem de suâ causâ appellans and of some others Yet nothing is more certain then those in whose time this was did not at all hold the Pope to have any power of righting him other then by intercession not as a superior Court by sentencing in his favour to undo what had past Theodore without whose assent the King could not have deprived him of his seat for when the Popes Letters were brought hither for his restitution Egfrid with th' advise of his Bishops not onely refused but clapt VVilfred in prison and after his death the Pope sending others vita graves aspectu honorabiles Alfrith though he received the men with great reverence yet would by no means admit the restauration they came about but affirmed it against reason to do it he having been twice condemned proper quaelibet Apostolica scripta And as this was in a time when Christianity most flourished in this Nation having in generall fortissimos Christianosque Reges so of the Kings that did it of Egfrid Beda left that he was piissimus Deo dilectissimus neither can he find any other thing to blame in Alfrith worthily and the Bishops that did concur in the action were holy men well seen in divine and secular learning so that it is not imaginable any thing past them not warranted by the Doctrine and rules of this Church 30. For the understanding of which we are to know the word Appeal is taken severall wayes sometimes to accuse sometimes for referring our selves to some one for his judgment such was that of VVilfreds appealing to Rome as to a great spirituall Doctor and Church whose judgment was very venerable in the World as of late Iohn Calvins and the Church of Geneva was to them of Scotland and Frankford c. another way we take it for removing a cause from an inferior to a superior Court or Iudge that hath power of disannulling whatsoever the former did and this is that our Historians affirm not to have been in use till after 1140. It is certain long after VVilfred the Bishops and Nobility did assure Anselme that for any of the great ones especially him to have
till he had it none to be styled an Archbishop things added after mens holding a necessity of seeking it did so much contribute to the Papall advantage both in point of honour and profit For it is manifest Lanfrank Anselme and Raulf did dedicate Churches consecrate Bishops and Abbots were called Archbishops whilst they wanted it 51. Now the ice broken this Oath at first required onely of Archbishops when they took the Pall was by Gregory the 9 mutatis mutandis imposed on Abbots and Bishops About 1235. came into England occulta clausa sub bulla the like to which had not been seen was profered to Iohn 23. Abbot of St. Albans unacquainted with it when he could not ab illa obligatione resilire who is therefore noted that primo invitus dolens Romanorum jugum subiit servitutis and that prae omnibus Romanorum oppressionibus novis inauditis coepit molestari c. The thing I find of greatest exception is the obligation injoyning them to visit Rome which being in pursuance of the 26. chapter of the Councell of Lateran held onely 20. years before is censured Damnum gravamen praejudicium injuria jactura as that which alter'd the nature of the Church which had been from the foundation libera ingenua and was thus brought to serve the ends of the Court of Rome Truly after this I cannot see how there can be said to have been a free Papall Councell in Europe when such as it consists of being for the most Bishops and Abbots come with so high an obligation as an oath to defend the usages of Rome under the title of Regaliae Sancti Petri. In pursuance of which the Councell of Trent did expressely charge all Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and other who in future should meet in Provinciall Synods that veram obedientiam summo Romano Pontifici spondeant profiteantur I wish it had exprest what that had been 52. To return to that I was treating of This visiting the Roman Court however much prest on this Monastery of St. Albans yet was ever-excused till 1290. Iohn the 3. and 25. Abbot was forced to go thither for his confirmation but because the book is not printed I will give you my Auctors own words Iohannes de Berkamsted vir religiosus honestae conversationis Hic in crastino conceptionis beatae gloriosae virginis Mariae scilieet quinto idus Decembris anno Domini MCC nonagesimo per viam compromissi de gremio Ecclesiae concorditer electus ad curiam Romanam primus omnium abbatum hujus Ecclesiae pro confirmatione electionis suae obtinenda personaliter accessit ibique confirmatus est à summo Pontifice Nicholao à venerabili L. Ostiensi Episcopo Cardinali apud urbem veterem munus accepit benedictionis sic data maxima pecunia Papae Cardinalibus aliis de curia quam de mercatoribus Papae duris conditionibus ex mutuo recepit ab illa insatiabili curia â—vasit expletisque negotiis domum redire festinavit c. By which we may see who of this house went on this occasion first thither and why it was so earnestly urged from thence As for the Monastery of St. Augustins by reason of the often contentions with th' Archbishop the Monks there were much more prone to yield obedience to Rome who maintained them for the most against him then these other were yet the first of them I find to have took this oath was Roger the 2. elected Abbot 1253. For though the benediction of Robertus de Bello 1224. were at Rome where he gained th' Abbacy yet there being no mention of any oath presented to him then we must think it came in afterwards But for the fuller understanding how this visiting the Roman Church came in the Reader will give me leave a little to digresse 53. Christians in all ages have esteemed it a point of singular piety and devotion for any Ghostly Father or Doctor to have a care of those to whom they have the relation of being a Spirituall Superior either by planting Christian Religion amongst them reducing them out of error or otherwise some engagement on them Saint Paul sent for the Elders of Ephesus to come unto him at Miletus from whom they received those wholesome instructions we read in the Acts of the Apostles and according to this example there are divers exhortations in the writings and Epistles of the Fathers Before the year 517. a Councell held at Tarragona in Spain did ordain that every Bishop impletis duobus mensibus se Metropolitani sui repraesentet aspectibus ut ab illo monitis Ecclesiasticis instructus plenius quid observare debeat recognoscat quod si forte hoc implere neglexerit in Synodo increpatus à fratribus corrigatur Agreeing to which Iustinian in the year 541. did establish by Law that for the better observance of th' Ecclesiastick rules every Archbishop Patriarch and Metropolitan Sanctissimos Episcopos sub se constitutos in eadem Provincia semel aut secundo per singulos annos ad se convocare And Pope Zachary Ann. 743. in a Councell at Rome Omnes Episcopi qui hujus Apostolicae sedis ordinationi subjacebunt qui propinqui sunt annuè idibus mensis Maii sanctorum Principis Apostolorum Petri Pauli liminibus praesententur omnioccasione seposita c. After which Charls the Great did by law ordain ut unusquisque presbyter per singulos annos Episcopo suo rationem ministerii sui reddat tam de fide Catholica quam de Baptismo atque de omni or dine ministerii sui 54. About which time Boniface an Englishman the Popes Legat in Germany and Archbishop of Mentz in a Councell held in Germany the decrees whereof he sent to Cutbert then in the seat of Canterbury declaring how great the care of the Metropolitan ought to be of those under him shews how every Presbyter should once a year in Lent give an account to his Bishop who was to instruct him and with such things as he could not correct himself to acquaint th' Archbishop in a Synod Vt si Sacerdotes vel plebes à lege dei deviasse viderim corrigere non potuerim fideliter semper sedi Apostolicae vicario Sancti Petri ad emendandum indicaverim Sic enim ni fallor omnes Episcopi debent Metropolitano ipse Romano Pontifici si quid de corrigendis populis apud eos impossibile est notum facere sic alieni fient à sanguine animarum perditarum Cutbert according to this advise doth appoint the proceedings of the Bishop to be to the Archbishop in the same words he had received it from Boniface but passeth no farther to the Pope an undoubted argument it was not then usuall in England I have touched before the Conqueror did suffer no other correspondency with Rome then what he
liked Paschalis the 2. quarrell'd with Hen. the first that Nullus inde clamor to prevent which this visiting Rome was at the very first inserted into the oath of an Archbishop who being head of the Province all the rest might have the same dependance 55. But because this did not reach such houses and persons as were exempt from the jurisdiction of th' Ordinary acknowledging no superior but the Pope the Councell of Lateran under Innocentius 3. 1215. provided such as pertained immediately to his rule should present themselves before him for confirmation si commode potest fieri which was here misliked But this Councell speaking not home in that it tolerated the sending personas idoneas per quas diligens inquisitio super electionis processu electis possit haberi c. to make th' excuse and being it self as I shall shew hereafter not much regarded till Gregory the 9 nephew to Innocentius inserted it for the most into the Decretalls and framed as I have said an oath too for the stricter obligation unto him it was again urged by Alexander the 4. ut quilibet qui in Abbatem exemptum extunâ— eligeretur Romanam curiam adiret confirmandus benedicendus which the same author styles Statutum enorme and cruentissimum And whereas some finding the burthen of running to Rome had obtained as a priviledge from thence ut non teneantur sedem Apostolicam usque ad certa tempora visitare contra formam praestiti juramenti ex quo illud evenit inconveniens quod Apostolicae sedis dignitas rarius visitatur in derogationem reverentiae quae ab omnibus debetur eidem c. the same Pope therefore revokes all manner of such concessions to whomsoever formerly granted In which year or perhaps 1258 Simon elected Abbot of St. Edmundsbury confirmed by Alexander the 4. the 22 October is noted to have been primus exemptorum in Anglia ad curiam Romanam pro sua confirmatione vocatus 56. Yet the Court of Rome however thus earnest at first either perceiving it ill relisht abroad and that forcing sodain mutations in Religion not to be of so good consequence in her prosecution was more moderate On Roger the xxiiii Abbot of St. Albons 1263. I do not find at all prest his successor Iohn the xxv I have shew'd was the first went thither for it So likewise Philip Abbot of Westminster 1258. obtained the favour to stay at home and Richard Ware his successor fetcht his consecration first thence But after the Court was fully in possession of what turned so much to her advantage an excuse was hardlier admitted and if any did obtain the favour to stay at home he payed a good round summe for it It is remembred Michael Abbot of St. Augustins elected 1375 did give Papae Cardinalibus ut possit benedici in Anglia 183l-02 -02s-06 -06d. and accordingly some other The Papacy having by these wayes abated the power of th' Archbishop found it easy his lett removed to bring the rest of the Clergy wholy to depend upon it by raising whom it liked to oppose that Prelat who were bound to maintain the Papall auctority which supported them in what they did and wringing the Investitures so far as lay in their power out of the hands of Princes to interest the Pope and his party in severall particulars under the notion of being matters Ecclesiasticall by which he brought the elections of Bishops solely to the Convent excluding both King and others and became as Patron of most Spirituall promotions in England which forme he yet laboured in the end to break too by reducing all to his own gift For the understanding of which as not impertinent to that I treat of it will be necessary to look a little higher 57. When any place became destitute of a Bishop it is certain in the primitive Church the Lay as well as the Clergy did concur in nominating who were to succeed in the charge that he who was to have th' inspection of all might not be brought into it with the repugnancy of any And this custome was so generall as St. Cyprian and 36. Bishops more meeting in Councell about the year 255. writing to certain in Spain spake as if it did descend de divina auctoritate It is not to be doubted but this course gave sometime opportunity to ambitious and contentious spirits as St. Augustine calls them of troubling the Churches peace and therefore the Councell of Laodicea before the year 360. did appoint the elections to Priesthood not to be by multitudes and divers holy Bishops desiring peace might continue after them in their flock were carefull or ever they dyed to know the person was to succeed in their chair Severus Bishop of Mela in Africa had exprest to the Clergy onely whom he thought fit to have been admitted after him to his Episcopacy This was likely to have bred some stir in respect the people were not acquainted with it had not St. Augustine by his pains and wisdome allayed the dispute to avoid which that good man nominated one Eradius for his successor whom the people with loud acclamations approved 58. This concurrence or joyning of the Lay with the Clergy that qui praefuturus est omnibus ab omnibus eligatur as Leo speaks in choice of Bishops I do no way question to have continued in the Church till after Charles the Great in whose Capitulars we find Episcopi per electionem cleri populi eligantur and to have been sent hither by Gregory the Great who in his Epistles makes often mention of it as we do find steps of it in our own Historians Yet certainly however there might be some formalities of the people the chief of elections here ever depended on the Prince as may be gathered by that Speech of Wolstan to the Confessors tombe that he had compell'd him to take the pastorall staffe And Edward the 3. wrote to Clement the 6. Cathedrales Ecclesias progenitores nostri dudum singulis vacationibns earundem personis idoneis jure suo regio libere conferebant postmodum ad rogatum ad instantiam dictae sedis sub certis modis conditionibus concesserunt quod electiones fierent in dictis Ecclesiis per capitula earundem c. So likewise in the Parliament the 50. Ed. 3. the Commons shew the King and great men were formerly in peaceable possession of giving preferments in holy Church But I will give the words themselves because I will not erre in the Translation Le Roy les grandes feurent en peisible possession de doner les Esvesches les benefices de seint Esglise come le fest le Roy St. Edward qe dona l' Evesche de Worcestre a seint Wolston puts par devotion des Roys fust par la Courte de Rome conferme qe les Cathedralx Esglises
hujusmodi de caetero emanarunt ad provisionem ipsorum inviti non teneamur nisi de hac indul gentia plenam fecerint mentionem Dat. Lateran 15. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno 4 to c. could quiet the English or keep them from that confederation in Mat. Paris 1231. beginning Tali Episcopo tali capitulo Vniversitas eorum qui magis volunt mori quam à Romanis confundi c. Which the Popes by wisdome and joyning the Regall auctority with their spirituall sound means to bring to nought and pursuing the Papall interest without regarding what had past from them gave the Kingdome occasion 1241. to observe that in onely three years Otho had remained Legat here he bestowed more then 300. spirituall promotions ad fuam vel Papae voluntatem the Pope having contracted as the report went with the Romans to confer to none but their Children and Allies the rich benefices here especially of Religious houses as those perhaps he had most power over and to that effect had writ to the Bishops of Canterbury and Salisbury ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent So that in the Councell at Lions 1245. they complain of these exorbitances and shew the revenues the Italians received in England not to be lesse then 60 thousand marks of which more hereafter and in the year following 1246. reiterated their griefs to Innocentius 4 tus quod Italicus Italico succedit Which yet was with little successe for the Popes having as we have heard first settled all elections in the Ecclesiasticks and after upon severall occasions on the submitting of the English to his desires bestowed the benefices in this and other Kingdomes on his dependents Iohn the 22. or as some seem to think Clement the 5. his immediate predecessor endeavored the breaking of elections by Cathedralls and Convents reserving the free donation of all preferments to himself alone 70. From whence proceeded the reiterated complaints â— against Papall Provisions in the Parliaments of Edward the 3. and Ric. the 2. for this Kingdome never received his attempts in that kind to which purpose the History of Iohn Devenish is remarkable The Abbot of St. Augustines dying 1346. the 20. Ed. 3. the Convent by the Kings leave chose VVm. Kenington but Clement the 6. by Provision bestowed the Abbacy on Iohn Devenish whom the King did not approve of yet came thither armed with Papall auctority The Prior and Convent upon command absolutely denyed him entrance ingressum monasterii in capite denegando who thereupon returned to Avignon The businesse lying two years in agitation the King in the end for avoyding expences and other inconveniences ex abundanti concessit ut si idem Iohannes posset obtinere à summo Pontifice quod posset mutare stylum suae creationis â—ive provisionis scilicet non promoveri Abbatia praedicta ratione donationâ—s vel provisionis Apostolicae sed ratione electionis capituli hujus loci illa vice annueret suis temporalibus gaudere permitteret sed quidem hujusmodi causa coram ipso summo Pontifice proposita concludendo dixit se malle cedere Pontificio quam suum decretum taliter revocare c. Which so afflicted the poor man as the grief killed him on St. Iohn Baptists Eve 1348. without ever entring the Abby and the dispute still continuing the Pope 1349. wrote to the King Ne Rex impediret aut impediri permitteret promotos à curia per bullas acceptare beneficia sibi taliter incumbentia To which his Mary answer'd Quod Rex bene acceptaret provisos clericos qui esseâ—t bonae conditionis qui digni essent promoveri alios non 71. But the year following 1350. the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons meeting in Parliament complain with great resentment of these Papall grants shewing the Court of Rome had reserved to it self both the collation of Abbeys Priories c. as of late in generall all the dignities of England and Prebends in Cathedrall Churches c. Upon which the statute of Provisors was in that Parliament enacted which was the leader to those other statutes 27 and 38. Ed. 3. The 48. Ed. 3. 1374. the treaty between Ed. the 3. and Gregory the XI was concluded after two years agitation wherein it was expressely agreed quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur c. Notwithstanding which the Commons the next Parliament prefer'd a petition shewing all the benefices of England would not suffice the Cardinalls then in being the Pope having by the addition of XII new ones raised the number to XXX which was usually not above XII in all and therefore they desire it may be ordained and proclaimed that neither the Pope nor Cardinalls have any Procurator or Collector in England sur peine de vie de membre c. Yet the inconveniences still continuing 3. Ric. 2. produced that statute is in the print I shall not here repeat otherwise then that the Commons in the Roll seem to lay the beginning of these excesses no higher then Clement the 5. 72. By these arts degrees and accessions the Church of Rome grew by little and little to that immensenesse of opinion and power it had in our nation which might in some measure whilst it was exercised by connivence onely upon the good correspondency the Papacy held with our Kings and Church be tolerated and the Kingdome at any time by good Lawes redresse the inconveniences it susteined But that which hath made the disputes never to be ended the parties not to be reconciled is an affirmation that Christ commanding Peter to feed his sheep did with that give him so absolute a power in the Church and derived the like to his successors Bishops of Rome as without his assent no particular Church or Kingdome could reform it self and for that he as a Bishop cannot be denied to have as much power as others from Christ and may therefore in some sense be said to be Christs Vicar to appropriate it onely to the Pope and draw thence a conclusion that jure divino he might and did command in all particulars Vice Christi And though no other Church in the Christian World doth agree with the Roman in this interpretation though Historians of unquestioned sincerity have as we have in some measure heard in their own ages deliver'd when and how these additions crept in and by what oppositions gained that our Princes have with th' advise of the Lay and Clergy ever here moderated th' exorbitances of the Papacy in some particular or other and likewise reformed this Church though the stipulations between our Kings and Rome have not been perpetuall but temporary not absolute but conditionall as is to be seen in that past between Alexander the 3. and Hen. the 2. viz. juravit quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis
it omnes in Ecclesia ad divinum officium ordinati are sometimes so styled of which such as were infra subdiaconatum might retain their wives but those were in subdiaconatu or above were to quit them But the Canons yet remaining made at sundry times from Lanfrank even to Chichly by the space of more then 300 yeares enough assure us this point of Celibat was not easily imposed on the English Clergy and assures us such as laid it might take it off again 11. For Images if the Saxons had any use at all of them in their Churches for ornament for history to which end S. Gregory holds they might be permitted for memorialls of holy men departed as we have of late seen they being only thus applyed I conceive with the Bishop of Salisbury the weight of the question not so great yet it was a thing voluntary no command of the Churches injoyning it till after the Conquest And here the question is not whether Augustine might or did bring the picture of our Saviours Crosse in his banner as most Protestants yet retain it but whether he placed them in the Church with an intent to have worship of any kind attributed unto them for which purpose I confesse I have not heard of them till many yeares after for the vision of Egwinus and the Councell of London setting up of Images being made good so far as I know by no author of any antiquity I cannot but take it with Baronius for a meerfigment 12. It is certain 792 the Bishops of England declared their dissent from the second Councell of Nice in point of Images held onely 4 yeares before according to Diceto and where some interpret that they did onely condemn the worship the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by using the Latin word adorare it cannot be denyed but they did reject that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Orientall Bishops had established in which sense they used the word adorare which is often as well in holy writ as by humane authors taken for that reverence is given a creature as for the religious duty we only owe to the Divine Majesty see Gen. xxiii 7 12. Ingulphus a writer not long after Constantinopolim pervenimus ubi Alexim imper atorem ador antes c. So Arundell in his constitutions adorationem crucis gloriosae 13. To this narrative Harpsfield gives the title of commentitia insulsa fabula and thinks it not writ by Sim. Dunelmensis or Mat. VVestminster he might have added Hoveden the Ms. history of Rochester but that it was anciently inserted into them For answer to which he would be desired to produce any one old copy without it not mangled so as it doth prodere furtum by wanting it I have seen divers of Hoveden Mss. some of Math. West but never did one wherein it was not found not in the margin but in the text it self and so it is in Dunelmensis his Ms. at Bennet Colledge in Cambridge For my part I do not know how any thing we mislike in History may not after this manner be rejected if a relation gathered from monuments of an elder date which are perisht yet cited by one who lived not so long after the time he speaks of but they might well come to his hands whom we find very sincere in such citations as yet remain out of more old authors then himself ever esteemed of good credit in the Church of God and in his narration followed ad verbum by those who writing of the same matter succeeded him I confesse I say if this may be cast away as a lying foolish fable I know not what shall gain credit But what will men not lay hold on in a desperat shipwrack I remember Baronius prest with the testimony of Luitprandus in the deposition of Iohn the 12. by imperiall auctority makes no question of denying the five last chapters of his 6. book to have been written by him though never doubted for more then 600 years since he lived 14. Another Doctor I confesse seems to give a more difficult objection that Alâ—uinus who is said to have writ against the second Nioen Councell in the point of Images doth in his book de divinis officiis say prosternimur corpore ante crucem mente ante Deum veneramur crucem per quam redempti sumus c. and this from an author had written against Images he would have imply a veneration of them even in his time who opposed them by the English Church But what hath the reverence of the Crosse to do with the worship of Images It is not to be denyed but Christians in their talk and writings did extoll and magnifie the Crosse forced thereunto by the Gentiles who spake ignominiously of him that dyed upon it yet I believe it will be difficult to shew any Law or Canon before the Conquest injoyning the use much lesse that attributed any religious worship unto Images 15. It is true the Councell of Celicuith 816. did charge unicuique Episcopo ut habeat depictam in pariete oratorii aut in tabula vel etiam in altaribus quibus sanctis sint utr aque dedicata c. which was clearly for memoriall and ornament as it hath been very common in some Churches to have on the wall the Image of Queen Elizabeth and such as have built an Isle or window to have their statue or picture set up in it which in some parts perhaps remain to his present yet no man ever held any religious duty fit to be given them nor any man compell'd to set them up Now that there was no precept of the Church commanding their use I speak from the rules of Sempringham about 1148. that doubtlesse did not vary from the generall practise of Christians here yet hath this expresse statute Sculpturae vel picturae superfluae in Ecclesiis nostris seu in officinis aliquibus Monasterii ne fiant interdicimus quiâ— dum talibus intenditur utilitas bonae meditationis vel disciplina religiosae gravitatis saepe negligitur cruces tamen pictas quae sunt ligneae habemus So that it seems to me they did account all pictures so superfluous as not to have them but onely painted crosses this was one of the first foundation And in another place which I take to be somewhat after the buying of them and silk as things indifferent are alike interdicted yet a direction how to bestow any thing of that nature should be left them but see the words Nihil de serico ematur à nostris vel de nostro ad nostrorum opus vel ad aliquid religioni contrarium seculi vanitatibus amminiculum â—nec etiam ad quodlibet sacerdotale indumentum nisi constet esse necessarium Si vero datur secundum arbitrium Prioris omnium communi utilitati usui mancipetur hoc idem de Yconiis vel aliis
of the like nature farther then is proved by the Law and the Prophets c. Yet there is one thing in my opinion very considerable what the Apostles did were such and in those places no man could deny them but these the Church of Rome holds out for confirmation of their religion are either in corners as Garnets Face in the Eare with so dark proofs as when they are looked into res tota cum contemptu dimissa est or else done in Italy or Spain where the Inquisition will suffer none but themselves to examine the fact whereas if they followed th' Apostles example they should be in England or Germany that the Protestants might say indeed a notable miracle hath been done by our Lady is manifest to all and we cannot deny it Acts iiij 16. 26. Another will have that homily at least what he takes on him to confute to contain no other then Catholick doctrine and then falls upon the Archbishop of Armach whom he conceives to have ill translated it out of the Latin in which language there is not now found any ancient copy of it insisting that though it were printed at London 1623. it was not to be heard of when he writ which was about 1631. insinuating as if more might be said if he could see the author himself For the first of these it must be said to contain Catholick Doctrine on the grounds before but if it be that the Church of Rome admits for such I am glad to understand that from him For the Primat of Ireland's translating the Latin to the disadvantage of the Romish I shall give no answer but that his English are indeed some parts of that sermon but the Latin pieces of Bertram so agreeing with them as they were undoubtedly taken out of him by which he gives a far elder testimony to that author then Oecolampadius who was no question a Catholick Doctor but being so why is he prohibited by the Roman Index why if at all permitted must it be excogitato commento For the other that it could not be had in London only eight years after it was printed I can say nothing but some men will not hear that they mislike for that Homily of which if he say any thing he speaks first set out by Iohn Day with the subscription of 15 Bishops attesting the truth of the Copy after 1623 reprinted by Henry Seal alwayes in the book of Acts and monuments c. in the life of Hen. the 8 and of late by Mr. VVhelock put into Latin and taken without any intervening transcription from the originall Saxon that he might not vary in a tittle was with his translation of it printed at Cambridge 1644. amongst divers other excellent notes of that learned man upon Beda that such as understand not the language may in that point see the doctrine of our forefathers 27. A third Doctor who cannot deny but it makes directly against Transubstantiation gives an answer I could not have expected yet in my opinion more ingenuous That it is unreasonable to produce the forcelesse auctority of these Saxon Homilies which have no warrant of truth from any other but from our selves and the margin These Homilies were never heard of but now of late amongst Protestants onely framed and printed by themselves without the warrant of any one indifferent witnesse This is I say what I could not have looked for Can any man imagine two Archbishops thirteen Bishops besides divers other personages of honour and credit could have been induced to subscribe so palpable a lye as it must be if this and the other passages by them there testified to be found in the ancient monuments of this Church were lately framed But the old books that yet remain writ above five hundred yeares since do enough vindicate the Protestants in that which I dare say no one of them who alledge it do in their hearts believe not to have been extant in them as the Archbishop first sent them to the Press 28. Of the little credit the Councell of Lateran in this point gained here I have touched before neither did Peckham's constitution sub panis specie simul dari corpus c. speak home nor was the thing ever absolutely determined with us till 1382 so that the opinion of Transubstantiation that brought so many to the stake had not with us 140 yeares prescription before Martin Luther began for in that year VVickliff having propounded quod substantia panis materialis aut vini manet post consecrationem c. the Archbishop taking it into consideration did not think fit to condemn the Tenet without farther advice with the University of Oxford where libratis singulis every saying weighed and in especiall as it seems those concerned the Eucharist he did condemn some as hereticall others as onely erroneous and farther singulos defensores eorum imposterum sententia excommunicationis innodatos fore and gave command ne quis de caetero cujuscunque status c. haereses seu errores praedictos vel corum aliquem teneat doceat praedicet seu defendat The Chancellor likewise of the Academy repeating VVickliffs opinions touching the holy communion shews they had been diligently discuss't by Doctors in Divinity and professors in the Canon Law ac tandem finaliter est compertum atque judicio omnium declaratum ipsas esse erroneas fidei orthodoxae contrarias determinationibus Ecclesiae repugnantes and then after all this search delivers the doctrine of Transubstantiation as the conclusion agreed to be held Quod per verba sacramentalia à sacerdote prolata panis vtnum in altari in verum corpus Christi sanguinem transubstantiantur seu substantialiter convertuntur sic quod post consecrationem non remanent in illo venerabili sacramento panis materialis vinum secundum suas substantias sed secundum species earundem And this I take to have been the first plenary determination of the Church of England in the case which yet how well it will be liked by such as hold the manner of conversion to be by a succession of Christs body to the substance of the bread I leave others to dispute But certainly the Archbishop not adventuring to proceed in it alone nor by his own councell by his extending what he did onely to the future both for punishment and Tenet and after long enquiry concluding the truth of it enough proves it not to have been in former times fully resolved on in this Church so that we may say of our Auncestors as the Iesuites here about some 60 yeares since did of the Fathers rem Transubstantiationis ne attigerunt And it may not here unfitly have a place that Iohn Tissington a Franciscan whom Pitseus from Baleus not Leland as he would have us think affirms to have been an assistant in this dispute at Oxford 1382 or as some
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be