the summe of 3000 lb. and here by the way being upon the president of a Bishop of Norwich I crave leave before I goe to other presidents to observe this one note I doe finde that in all ages the Bishops of Norwich above all other Bishops in the Kingdome were most active and pragmaticall in advancing the ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction and persecuting the Ministers of GOD To give you one instance instead of many it was a Bishop of Norwich that was the first author of spilling the blood of the first Martyr we had here in England named William Sawtree that was burnt to death by the Writ de Heretico cumburendo mentioned in the Register in Fitz. N. B. fo 170. Where the very Name of William Sawtree is expressed in the Writ who was Parson of S. Margarets in Linne in the Diocesse of Norwich and was convicted before the Bishop for the Doctrine of CHRIST which was then counted Heresie and by him delivered over to Thomas Arundell Archbishop of Canterbury who caused him to be burnt to ashes and if the Bishops of Norwich doe thinke this any praise to them let them rejoyce in it I shall only say this for the honour of that William Sawtree and of Pembrook-Hall in Cambridge above any Colledge either in Oxford or Cambridge that Martyrum primus which was this William Sawtree Martyrum doctissimus which was Bishop Ridley and Martyrum pijssimus which was John Bradford were all of Pembrook Hall I come now to give presidents wherein the whole Convocation were attainted in a Premunire which are two The first is 7. Hen. 8. Kell Rep. fo 181. The Abbot of Winscombs case which hath beene so often cited in this House but I shall only urge it to this one point That the Convocation for meere citing ex officio Dr. Standish for maintaining the Kings Prerogative and the Lawes of the land that Priests ought to answer before temporall Judges contrary to the tenent of the Clergy and the Abbots Sermon at Paules-Crosse The whole Convocation for this very act incurr'd a Premunire by the resolution of all the Judges of England assembled together by the King for their opinions in that Case The second president is that of Cardinall Woolsey which I first cited in Doctor Cosens his Case and is full to this point it is Mich. 21. Hen. 8. B. Roy. and the maine point of the Premunire was this Quia ipse intendebat antiquissimas Ang. leges penitus subvertere enervare universumque regnum Angl. legibus Civilibus earundum legum Canonibus in perpetuum subjugare This was found against him and he was attainted in a Premunire though he had the Kings Commission for what he did and the King made meanes to the Pope to make him a Cardinall and gave way that two Crosses should be carried before him one as Cardinall and the other as Archbishop of Yorke These Leges Civiles mentioned in that Record were the Legantine Constitutions exercised by the Cardinall and all the Bishops of England in all their severall Diocesse which though it had the countenance of the Kings Commission to warrant yet that was found no excuse for so unjust an act for both Cardinall and all the Bishops of the land were adjudged to have incurr'd a Premunire and therefore all the Bishops did for their pardon of the said Premunire in their Convocation being then assembled and in time of Parliament pay the King a huge masse of money namely the Province of Canterbury paid the King 100000lb. the Province of Yorke 18840lb. and the Cardinall himselfe forfeited to the King all his goods and Chattles and all his lands and tenements as Whitehall Hampton Court Christ Colledge in Oxford c. This case doth justly agree with this Case before us for here the Convocation have made Cannons and added severe punishments to them contrary to the Kings Prerogative and the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme which I made appeare in my Argument concerning the Cannons and therefore I will not speake of them now but will give you two instances which I did not mention then The first is in the first Cannon by decreeing men to be punished in the High Commission for teaching contrary to their explanations of Royall power and propertie of goods being two things of which the interpretation doth not belong to them but to the Common Law and to the Judges which are the expounders thereof Besides they had no authority in the world to punish men in the High Commission for such things for the last Letters Pattens of the High Commission were Mich. 9. Car. in which are conteined all things wherein the Commissioners were to meddle And therefore it was impossible that these new Cannons being made not a yeare agoe should be comprehended in those Letters Pattents of which the Framers thereof could not possibly take notice unlesse they had the Spirit of prophesie which is not to be imagined and therefore it was a bold attempt upon the Kings Prerogative to order men to be punished by vertue of his Comimssion which gave them no such authority The second Instance is in the Cannons which they made for the payment of the Benevolence of the 6. Subsedies which they ordered Clergy men to pay upon the severest censures of the Church as suspension deprivation excommunication c. with this clause added omni appellatione semota that is without any manner of appeale to be allowed which is a flat deniall of the Kings Subjects to have the benefit of Law for in their owne Law appeales are to be allowed from the Ordinaries Court to the Metropolitan from the Metropolitan to the Pope and such authority in appeales as the Pope had is now given to the King and his Judges Deligats by the Statutes of 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12.25 Hen. 8. cap. 19. But in this case all appeales to the King are denied and his Subjects must not only be excommunicated but deprived of their free holds and denied all benefit of appeale to helpe them which is a high point of Usurpation upon the Crowne and the Lawes of the land and an exercising of an Arbitrary power of their owne above and against Law The Second ground of Law 2 Ground why the Clergy in the Convocation have incurr'd a Premunire is this If the King by his Commission gives power to spirituall Judges to doe such and such acts qualified by a proviso to be done in such and such a manner and with such restrictions and limitations as are contained in that proviso and those Judges will by colour of such Commission doe acts contrary to such provisoes and limitations they do hereby incurre a Premunire As for example the King by his Letters Pattents appoints one to be a Bishop and limits the Deane and Chapter to Chuse and the Arch-bishop to consecrate him within 12. dayes and they do contrary to this limitation they do hereby incur a Premunire as may appeare by the Stat. of 25. Hen. 8.
places cannot be heard or scarcely seene whereupon I conclude this second ground of Law that because the Clergy have done so directly against their Commission from the King they have thereby incurred a Premunire The third Ground of Law wherewith I will conclude the third part of my division is this 3 Ground The Common Law of England which as King James saith is in its own principalls the justest Law in the world should not in our case be just the Clergy themselvs being Judges if they of the Convocation should not incurre a Premunire As it is a rule in Art Contrariorum contrariaest ratio in respect of the Subject so there is another rule in Art Contrariorum eadem est ratio in respect of the Analogy and proportion for doe but observe what they doe against us in the Provinc Constitut cap. de sententia excom which is good Law with the Clergy you shall find these words Excommunicantur omnes illi qui literas impetrant à quacunque curia laicali ad impediend processum Ecclesiast Judicum in causis qua per sacros Canones ad forum Eccles pertinent Nay so high they go in their advancement of their Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction that in the said Constitutions capite de panis it doth appeare that if the King do by writ or other command call a Bishop to answer in his temporall Court and the Sheriff◠execute those writs by distresse or attachment c. The King indeed is in point of good manners admonished by them 1 2 3. according to forme but if he will not then desist but in sua duritia perseverare for such rebellious words they have the King his Officers and Ministers his Mannors Castles Cities Burrows c. are hereby exposed to excommunication and interdiction which how terrible it was to the Kingdome of England may appeare in the example of King Iohn who was excommunicated and his Kingdome interdicted by his owne Bishops all the Church doores in the Realme locked up and marriages christnings and burialls denied to all his people To apply this to our case If the King and his people are thus used by the Clergy for the maintenance of their own Lawes as to exclude them from Heaven from the Church and from Salvation for so are excommunicated persons tanquam Ethnici publicani it is then most just for the King to exclude the Clergy from the protection and benefit of his Laws when they so incroach and intrench upon them according to that ancient rule of Law Frustra legis auxilium invocat qui in legem committit And so Mr. SPEAKER I have done with the third and maine part of my Diuision and come to the fourth and last which is the answer of Objections mooved principally by three learned Civilians for so I must account them Doct. Cowell in his Interpreter verbo praemunire a booke suppressed by Parliament and King Iames Proclamation but of late reprinted Doct. Cosins Deane of the Arches in the time of Queene Elizabeth in his Apology for Ecclesiasticall proceedings and Doct. Ridley vicar generall in the time of King Iames in his view of the Civill and Cannon Laws The Objections are six Fourth part ob 1 The first Objection is this the Law of England sayth Civilians doth not impute Premunire to any spirituall Judge dealing in a temporall matter but onely prohibition answ To this I answer that it is a fallacy ex ignoratione Elenchi as Logitians call it that is a meere mistake of the Question for the difference in our Law is this where the spirituall Court hath jurisdiction and where not as for example The spirituall Court hath jurisdiction of Tithes and yet if it hold plea de grossis arboribus that is of Timber-trees above 20. yeares growth contrary to the Stat. of silva caedua 45. Edw. 3. cap. 3. there a prohibition onely doth lye because the Court hath jurisdiction of Tythes but when the spirituall Court hath no jurisdiction at all as in debt trespasse c. there a premunire doth lye So is Dr. and St. which I quoted before and 24. Hen. 8. B. Prem 16. and divers other authorities in Law ob 2 It is said by the Civilians that Curia Romana aut alibi mentioned in the Statutes of Premunires which I cited before must not be meant of any Courts here in England but of the Popes Courts which he kept sometimes at Rome sometimes at Avignion in France and sometimes at Bonony in Italy and therefore must be ment of those Courts which the Pope kept beyond Sea and not at Rome answ It is a vain Objection for alibi doth not referre to the place but to the Court for whersoever the Pope is let him be at Rome at Avignion at Bonony or in England c. There is Curia Romana whersoever he is and therfore alibi must needs be ment of some other Ecclesiasticall Court then the Popes Court and so is it expounded in old N. B. fol. 152. 5. Edw. 4. fol. 6. and divers other books of Law and therefore in some of the Records which I cited before the word alibi is thus interpreted In Curia Romana aut aliqua alia Curia Christianitatis and that is certainly the meaning of the word alibi as may appeare by the pleading in the old booke of Entries 430. Praedict I. R. machinans Dominum Regem nunc coronam dignitatem suam exhaeredare cognitionem quae ad curiam Domini Regis pertinet ad aliud examen trahere for that indeed was the only mischief to draw the Kings Subjects for temporall matters to a tryall in the Ecclesiasticall Courts of which they had no cognizance ob 3 The spirituall Courts should in this case say they bee worse then an inferiour Court Baron for there no Premunire doth lye if the Lord doth hold plea of actions above 40s. answ This is another fallacy which Logicians call petitio principij a begging of the question for old Nat. B. fo 153. is to the contrary 2. Besides if the Law were otherwise yet a Court Baron is a Court of Common Law and antient and the spirituall Court is a Court of the Cannon Law and not antient ob 4 The Ecclesiasticall Courts say they are now become the Kings Courts by the Statute of 1o. Eliz. Cap. 1. as other Courts in Westminster Hall and therfore the King cannot have a Premunire against himselfe answ I deny this For they are the Kings Courts now no more then they were before for the Stat. of 1o. Eliz. did not give the King any new power but only restored the old which hee had before and this answer did Chancellour Audley give to Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who made this objection telling him withall that the Premunire was a Rod that the Common Law had to keepe the Bishops in awe and to reduce them to good order otherwise men would have no quiet for them They cannot now make this Objection because they keepe
in exhaeredationis Coronae nostrae periculum manifestum which is in sence and meaning though not so strong and significant as praemonere facias For the expounders of the Civill and Cannon Lawes confound both words according to the Proverbe premoniti sunt premuniti But this Writ of praemu is better understood by the Statutes on which the same is founded viz. 25. Edw. 3. c. 22. 27. Edw. 3. cap. 1. de provisoribus 16 Rich. 2. cap. 5. which Statutes were made for the correction of the incroachment of the Pope and his Clergy upon the Crown and Laws of England Upon all which Statutes and bookes of Law I thus define a praemu A praemu Definition is a defence of the Crown and Laws of the Land from the tyrrany and oppression of spirituall Jurisdiction either forraine in the Pope taken away by the Stat. of 1. Eliz. or at home by the Clergy in the Ecclesiasticall Courts wherby is incurred this penalty of being put out of the Kings Protection losse of lands and goods and perpetuall imprisonment This may seeme a sharpe and severe punishment to be inflicted on Clergy men but when the reasons and grounds of Law are considered and how the Kings of England were necessitated to it the sharpnes of the punishment will not seem strange to any which is the second head of my division and which I now come unto 2. Concerning the originall cause and ground of the praemu it ariseth from the opposition and Antipathy betwixt the Common and the Cannon Law or the Law of God and the Law of the Pope the Common Law being derived from the one and the Cannon Law from the other which makes the opposition as great as betwixt CHRIST and Antichrist which hath in all ages as I could shew you caused a hatred of our Law and of the professours therof from the Clergy and professours of the Cannon Law And that this may not seeme strange I will very briefly in honour to the Common Law prove and maintaine that it is derived from the Law of GOD and is the nearest unto it of any Law in the world which King James hath largely prooved in a Parliament Speech of his 1607. but yet I will give 2 or 3. instances more It is thus said by Priset chiefe Justice of the Common-pleas 34 H. 6. f. 40. ley denglitre est foundu sur le ley de dieu which being translated out of our Law-French into better English is thus the Law of England is founded upon the Law of God Ley de tre ley de dieu sont 7. H. 8.191 Kell tout un per Fineux chiefe Justice of England that is the Law of God and the Law of the Land are all one Pollard to the same purpose But it will be said 12. H. 8 f. 2 that this was onely the opinion of Lawyers and every one will be ready to commend his own profession and therfore I shall go much higher In the yeare of CHRIST about 169. Lucius a King of England was the first Christian King and the first annointed in all the world and presently after he was converted to the Faith sought how to governe his people by good Lawes and finding that the Romane Lawes were then the most famous in all the world sent by his Letter to Elutherius then Bishop of Rome for a coppy of those Lawes that godly Bishop for so the Bishops of Rome then were and long after wrote an answer of his Letter to this effect Petistis à nobis leges Romanas vobis transmitti c. leges Romanas reprobare possumus legem Dei nequaquam c. Habetis penes vos in regno utramque paginam ex illis sume legem per illam rege vestrum Brittanniae Regnum vicarius enim Dei estis in regno c. as may appeare more at large in the Lawes of St. Ed. cap. 17. compiled by Lambert where the letters are set downe at large and therfore King James had good cause to say That the Lawes of England were framed as neare as could be to the Judiciall Lawes of Moses And this affinity which our Law hath to the Law of GOD hath beene the cause as I conceive of that contention betwixt our Law and the Canon Law which hath beene like to that of Hagar contending with her Mistris and hath received divers times the same doome Cast out the bond-woman and her sonne as I could proove by many presidents which for brevity I omit And as the contention and opposition increased so did the punishment as may appeare in these foure particulars The first punishment upon the Clergy was prohibition onely The second was a prohibition with a pain The third was by fine and imprisonment The fourth and last when none of the rest would do good was by a Premunire and there it ended 1. For the first It is observable that the first newes of the Canon Law here in England was Anno 1150. xvj Steph. Reg. compiled by Gratian and called the Popes Decrees but came to us here in England by a wile under another name called Rogationes and intreated to be received of us under the pretext of Holinesse because of the fasting and Ember-dayes tending to fasting and prayer which those Lawes seemingly contained and hence the Ember before Whit-suntide is called the Rogation weeke from that name But King Stephen finding them pernicious to the native Laws of England gave them this welcome and entertainment for faith Roger Bacon Rex Stephanus allatis legibus Italiae meaning the Cannon Lawes publico edicto prohibuit ne ab aliquo retinerentur 2. When this prohibition would doe no good but other Cannon Lawes were thrust upon us in the time of Hen. 2. as the Decretall Epistles under Pope Gregory the ninth from which that flaming Law of burning Hereticks was first hatched a sharper punishment was devised by Hen. 3.19 of his raigne against the Civill and Cannon Laws prohibiting the use of them here in England under a severe pain as Laws that were derogatory to the supreame Majesty and independancy of the Crowne of England 3. After these Decretals the Extravigants of Boneface the 8th were brought into this Kingdome which were so injurious to the Soveraignty of Kings that whosoever shall but reade one of those Lawes called unam Sanctam will say that either a King of England must lay downe his Crowne or quite abandon those Lawes Whereupon Edw. 1. taking care to preserve the Crowne and the liberties of his people did in the third and sixt yeare of his Raigne issue out divers Inquisitions to enquire of the Jurisdiction of the Clergy Fitz. N. B. 40. which at that time was limited chiefly to matters of Matrimony and Testament untill the Stat. of 13. Edw. 1. called Circumspectè agatis inlarged their power and Jurisdiction in many more particulars One of those Inquisitions Ao. 6. Edw. 1. I will only mention instead of many which was taken at