in the present business but impose that Form upon the people which by the learned religious Clergy-men whom the K. appointed thereunto was agreed upon and made it penal unto such as either should deprave the same or neglect to use it And thus doth Poulton no mean Lawyer understand the Statute who therfore gives no other title to it in his Abridgement published in the year 1612 than this The penalty for not using uniformity of Service and Ministration of the Sacrament So then the making of one uniform Order of celebrating divine Service was the work of the Clergy the making of the Penalties was the work of the Parliament Where let me tell you by the way that the men who were employed in this weighty business whose names deserve to be continued in perpetual memory were Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury George Day Bishop of Chichester Thomas Goodrich B. of Ely and Lord Chancellour Iohn Ship Bishop of Hereford Henry Holbârt Bishop of Lincoln Nicholâs Ridley Bishop of Rochester translated afterwards to London Thomas Thirleby B. of Westminster Doctor May Dâan of S. Pauls Dr Taylor then Dean afterwards Bp of Lincoln Dr Haines Dean of Exeter Dr Robertson afterwards Dean of Durham Dr Redman Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Dr Coke then Alâner to the King afterward Dean of Westminster and at last Bp of Ely men famous in their generations and the honour of the Age they lived in And so much for the first Liturgy of King Edwards Reign in which you see how little was done by authority or power of Parliament so little that if it had been less it had been just nothing But some exceptions being taken against the Liturgy by some of the preciser sort at home and by Calvin abroad the book was brought under a review and though it had been framed at first if the Parliament which said so erred not by the âyd of the Holy Ghost himself yet to comply with the curiosity of the Ministers and mistakes of the people rather then for any other weighty cause As the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. cap. 1. it was thought expedient by the King with the assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled that the said Order of Common Service should be faithfully and godly perused explained and made fully perfect Perused and explained by whom Why questionless by those who made it or else by those if they were not the same men who were appointed by the King to draw up and compose a Form of Ordination for the use of the Church And this Assent of theirs for it was no more was the onely part that was ever acted by the Parliament in matter of this present nature save that a Statute passed in the former Parliament 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. unto this effect that such form and manner of making and consecrating Archb. Bi-shops Priests Deacons and other Ministers of the Church which before I spake of as by sixe Prelates and sixe other men of this Realm learned in Gods lawes by the King to be appointed and assigned shall be devised to that purpose and set forth under the great Seal shall be lawfully used and exercised and none other Where note that the King onely was to nominate and appoint the men the Bishops and other learned men were to make the Book and that the Parliament in a blinde obedience or at the least upon a charitable confidence in the integrity of the men so nominated did confirm that Book before any of their Members had ever seen it though afterwards indeed in the following Parliament this Book together with the book of Common-prayer so printed and explained obtained a more formal confirmation as to the use thereof throughout the Kingdom but in no other respect for which see the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c. 1. As for the time of Qu. Elizabeth when the Common prayer book now in use being the same almost with the last of King Edward was to be brought again into the Church from whence it was cast out in Queen Maries Reign it was commited to the care of some learned men that is to say to M Whitehead once Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen Dr Parker after Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Grindal after bishop of London Dr Cox after Bishop of Ely Dr Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr May Dean of Saint Pauls Dr Bill Provost of Eaton after Dean of Westminster and Sr Tho Smith By whom being altered in some few passages which the Statute points to 1 Eliz. c. 21. it was presented to the Parliament and by the Parliament received and established without more ãâ¦ã troubling any Committee of both or âither Houses to consider of it for ought appears in their Records All that the Parliament did in it being to put it into the condition in which it stood before in King Edwards Reign partly by repealing the Repeal of King Edw. Statuteâ made in the first of Q. Mary c. 2. and partly by the adding of some farther penalties on such as did deprave the book or neglect to use it or wilfully did absent themselves from their Parish-Churches And for the Alterations made in King Iames his time bâing small in the Rubrick onely and for the additions of the Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany the Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue and the Doctrine of the Sacraments at the end of the Catechisiâe which were not in the book before they were never referred unto the Parliament but were done onely by aâthority of the Kings Commission and stand in force by vertue onely of His Proclamation which you may finde before the book the charge of buying the said book so explained and altered being laid upon the several and respective Parishes by no other Authority than that of the eightieth Canon made in Convocation Anno 1603. The like may also be affirmed of the Foâmes of prayer for the Inauguration day of our Kings and Queens the Prayer-books for the fifth of November and the fifth of August and those which have been used in all publike Fasts All which without the help of Paâliaments have been composed by the Bishops and imposed by the King Now unto this discourse of the Forms of Worship I shall subjoyn a word or two of the times of Worship that is to say the Holy dayes observed in the Church of England and so observed that they do owe that observation chiefly to the Church â power For whereas it was found in the former times that the number âf the holy dayes was grown so great that they became a burthen to the common people and a great hinderance to the thrist and manufactures of the Kingdom there was a Canon made in the Convocation An. 1536. for cutting off of many superstitious and supeâfluous Holy dayes and the reducing them into the number in which they now stând save that St Gâorge's day and Maây Magdalens day and all the Festivals of the blessed Virgin
singing-men to sing them and prescribed Vestments also to thesâsinging-men by no other power then the regal only None of the Priâsts consulted in iâ for ought yet appears The like authority was âxercised and enjoyed by the Christian Emperors not only in their calling Councels and many times assisting at them or presiding in them by themselves or their Deputies or Commissioners but also in confirming the Acts thereof He that consults the Câde and ãâã in the Civil Lawes will finde the best Princes to have been most active in things which did concern Religion in regulating matters of the Church and setting out their Imperial Edicts for suppressing of Hereticks Quid Imâeratori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to dâ in matters which concern the Church is one of the chief Brand marks which Optatus sets upon the Donatists And though some Christians of the East have in the way of scorn had the name of Melchites men of the Kings Religion as the word doth intimate bâcause they adhered unto those Doctrines which the Emperors agreeable to former Councels had confirmed and ratified yet the best was that none but Sectaries and Hereticks put that name upon them Neither the men nor the Religion was a âot the worse Nor did they only deal in matters of Exterior Order but even in Doctrinals matters intrinsecal to the Faith for which their Enoticon set out by the Emperor Zeno for setling differences in Religion may be proof sufficiânââ The like authority was exercised and enjoyed by Charles the Great when he attained the Western Empire as the Capitulaâs published in hiâ Name and in the names of his Successors do most clearly evidence and not much lesse enjoyed and practisâd by the Kings of England in the elder Times though more obnoxious to the power of the Pope of Rome by reason of his Apostleship if I may so call it the Christian Faith being first preached unto the English Saxons by such as he employed in that holy Work The instanceâ whereof dispersed in several places of our English Histories and other Monuments and Records which concern this Church are handsomely summed up together by Sir Edward Coke in the fift part of his Reports if I well remember but I am sure in Cawdâies Case entituled De Iure Regis Ecclesiastico And though Parsons the Iesuite in his Answer unto that Report hath took much pains to vindicate the Popes Supremacy in this Kingdome from the first planting of the Gospel among the Saxons yet all he hath effected by it proves no more thân this That the Popes by permission of some weak Princes did exercise a kinde of concurrent jurisdiction here with the Kings themselves but came not to the full and entire Supremacy till they had brought all other Kings and Princes of the Western Empire nay even the Emperors themselves under their command So that when the Supremacy was recognized by the Clergy in their Convocationâo K. H. 8. it was only the restoring of him to his proper and original power invaded by the Popes of these later Ages though possiâly the Title of Supreme Head seemed to have somewhat in it of an ãâã At which Title when the Papists generally and Calvin in his Comment on the Prophet Amos did seem to be much scandalizâd it was with much wisdome changed by Q. Elizabeth into that of Supreme Governour which is still in use And when that also would not down with some queasie stomachs the Queen her self by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign and the Clergy in their Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation about five years aâter did declare and signifie That there was no authority in sâcred matters contained under that Title but that only Prerogative which had bâen given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scriptuâes by God himself that iâ That they should rule all Estates and degrees committâd to their change by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and to restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil dâers as also to exclude thereby the Bishop of Rome from having any jurisdiction in the Realm of England Artic. 37. Lay this unto the rest before and tell me if you cân what hath been acted by the Kings of England in the Reformation of Religion but what is warranted unto them by the practise and example of the most godly Kings of Iewry seconded by the most godly Emperorâ in the Christian Church and by the usage also of their own Predecessors in this Kingdome till Papal Usurpation carried all before it And being that all the Popes pretended to in this Realm was but Usurpation it was no wrong to take that from him which he had no right to and to restore it at the last to the proper Owner Neither Prescription on the one side nor discontinuance on the other change the case at all that noted Maxim of our Lawyers that no prescriptionâindes the King or Nullum tempus occurrit Regi as their own words are being as good against the Pope as against the Subject This leads me to the second part of this Dispute the dispossessing of the Pope of that supreme Power so long enjoyed and exercised in this Realm by his Predecessors To which we say that though the pretensions of the Pope were antient yet they were not Primitive and therefore we may answer in our Saviours words Ab initio non âuit sic it was not so from the beginning For it is evident enough in the course of story that the Pope neither claimed nor exercised any such Supermacy within this Kingdome in the first Ages of this Church nor in many after till by gaining from the King the ãâã of Bishops under Henry the â the exemption of the Clergy from the Courts of Justice ânder Henry the 2. and the submission of King Iohn to the See of Rome they found themselves of strength sufficient to make good their Plea And though by the like artifices seconded by some Texts of Scripture which the ignorance of those times incouraged them to abuse as they pleased they had attained the like Supremacy in France Spain and Germany and all the Churches of the West yet his incroachmânts werâ opposed and his authority disputed upon all occasions especially aâ the light of Letters did begin to shine Insomuch as it was not only determined essentially in the Councel of Constance one of the Imperial Cities of High Germany that the Councel was above the Pope and his Authority much ãâã by the Pragmatick Sanction which thence took beginning but Gerson the learned Chancellor of Paris wrote a full discourse entituled De auferibilitate Papae âouching the totall abrogating of the Papall Office which certainly he had never done in case the Papall Office had been found âssential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ According to the Position of that learned man the greatest Princes in these times did look upon the Pope and the Papall power
to whom they had made themselves a kinde of voluntary slaves to him who justly challenged a natural dominion over them and secondly that that submission of theirs to their natural Prince is not to be considered as a new Concessiân but as the Râcognition only of a former power In the next place I do not finde it to be contraây to the usage of the primitive times I grant indeed that when the Church was under the command of the Heathen Emperorâ the Clergy did assemble in their National and Provincial Synods of their own Authority which Councels being summoned by the Metropolitans and subscribed by the Clergy were of sufficient power to binde all good Christians who lived within the Verge of their Jurisdiction They could not else assemble upon any exigence of affaiâs but by such authority But it was otherwise when the Church came under the protection of Christian Princes all Emperors and Kings from Constantine the Great till the Pope carried all before him in the darker times accompting it one of the principal flowers as indeed it was which adorned their Dâadems I am not willing to beat ân a common place But if you please to look into the Acts of ancient Councels you will finde that all the General Councels all which deserve to be so called if any of them do deserve it to have been summoned and confirmed by the Christian Emperors that the Câuncel of Arles was called and confirmed by the Emperor Constantine that of Sardis by Constans that of Lampsacus by Valentinian that of Aquiâeia by Theodosius that of Theââalânica National or Provincial all by the Emperor Gratian that when the Western Empire fell into the hands of the French the Councels of Aâon Mentâ Meldân Wormes and Colen received both life and motion ââom Charles the Great and his Successors in that Empâre it being evident in the Records of the Gallican Church that the opening and confirming of all their Councels not only under the Caroline but under the Merovignean Family was alwaies by the power sometimes with the Presidence of their Kings and Princes as you may finde in the Collections of Lindebrogius and Sirmondus the Iesuite and finally that in Spain it self though now so much obnoxious to the Papal power the two at Bracara and the ten first holden at Toledo were summoned by the Writ and Mandate of the Kings thereof Or if you be not willing to take this pains I shall put you to a shorter and an easier search referring you for your better information in this particular to the learned Sermon preached by Bishop Andrewes at Hampton Court anno 1606. touching the Right and power of calling Assemblies or the right use of the Trumpets A Sermon preached purposely at that time and place for giving satisfaction in that point to Melvin and some leading men of the Scotish Puritans who of late times had arrogated to themselves an unlimited power of calling and constituting their Assemblies without the Kings consânt and against his will As for the Vassallage which the Clergy are supposed to have drawn upon themselves by this Submission I see no fear or danger of it as long as the two Houses of Parliament are in like condition and that the Kings of England are so tender of their own Prerogative as not to suffer any one Body of the Subjects to give a Law unto the other without his consent That which is most insisted on for the proof hereof is the delegating of this power by King Henry the 8. to Sir Thomas Cromwell afterwards Earl of Essex and Lord high Chamberlain by the name of his Vicar General in Ecclesiastical matters who by that name pâesided in the Convocation anno 1536. and acted other things of like nature in the years next following And this especially his presiding in the Convocation is looked on both by Sanders and some Protestant Doctors not only as a great debasing of the English Clergie men very learned for those times but as deforme satis Spectacuâum a kânde of Monstrosity in nature But certainly those men forget though I do not think my self bound to justifie all King Harrâes actions that in the Councell of Chaâââdon the Emperor apointed certain Noble-men to âit as Judges whose names occurre in the first Action of that Councell The like we finde exemplified in the Ephesine Councell in which by the appointment of Theodâsius and Valentinian then Roman Empârours Candidianus a Count Imperiall âate as Judge oâ President who in the managing of that trust over acted any thing that Cromwell did or is objected to have been done by him as the Kings Commissioner For that he was to have the first place in those publick meetings as the Kings Commissioner or his Vicar-General which you will for I will neither trouble my self nor you with disputing Titles the very Scottish Presbyters the most rigid sticklers for their own pretended and but pretended Rights which the world affords do not stick to yeeld No vaââallage of the Clergy to be âound in this as little to be feared by their submission to the King as their Supreme Governour Thus Sir according to my promise and your expectation have I collected my Remembrances and represented them unto you in as good a fashion as my other troublesome affairs and the distractions of the time would give me leave and therein made you see ãâã my judgement fail not that neither our King or Parliaments have done more in matters which concern'd Religion and the Reformation of this Church then what hath formerly been done by the secular Powers in the best and happiest times of Christianity and consequently that the clamours of the Papists and Puritans both which have disturbed you are both false and groundlesse Which if it may be serviceable to your self or others whom the like doubts and prejudices have possessed or scrupled It is all I wish my studies and endevours aiming at no other end then to do all the service I can possibly to the Church of God to whose Graces and divine Protection you are most heartily commended in our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ By Sir Your most affectionate friend to serve you Peter Heylyn
of their money which as it doth at large appear in the Records and Acts of the Convocation so it is touched upon in a Historical way in the Antiq. Britan. Mason de Minist. Anglic. and other Authors by whom it also doth appear that what was thus concluded on by the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury was also ratified and confirmed by the Convocation of the Province of York according to the usual custom save that they did not buy their pardon at so dear a râte This was the Leading Card to the Game that followed For on this ground were built the Statutes prohibiting all Appeales to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiastical suits and controversies within the Kingdoms 24 H. 8. c 12. That for the manner of electing and conseârating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops 25 H. 8. c. 2â and the prohibiting the payment of all Impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtaining all such dispensations from the See of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25. H. 8. c. 21. Which last is built expresly upon this foundations That the King is the onely supream Head of the Church of England and was so recognized by the Prelates and Clergy representing the said Church in their Convocation And on the veây same foundation was the Statute raised 26 H. 8. c. 1. wherein the King is declared to be the supream Head of the Church of England and to have ãâ¦ã which were annexed unto that Title as by the Act it self doth at full appear Which Act being made I speak it from the Act it self onely for corroboration and confirmation of that which had been done in the Convocation did afterwards draw on the Statute for the Tenths and first fruiâs as the point incident to the Headship or supream Authority â6 H. 8. c. 3. The second step to the Ejection of the Pope was the submission of the Clergy to the said King Henry whom they had recognizanced for their supream Head And this was first concluded on in the Convocation before it was proposed or agitated in the Houses of Parliament and was commended onely to the care of the Parliament that it might have the force of a Law by a civil Sanction The whole debaâe with all the traverses and emergent difficulties which appeared therein are specified at large in the Records of ãâã Anno 1532. But being you have not opportunity to consult those Records I shall prove it by the Act of Parliament called commonly The Act of submission of the Clergy but bearing this Title in the Abridgment of the Statutes set out by Poulton That the Clerây in their Convocations shall enact no constitutions without the Kings assent In which it is premised for granted that the Clergy of the Realm of England had not onely acknowledged according to the Truth that the Convocation of the same Clergy is alwayes hath been and ought to be assembled alwayes by the Kings Writ but also submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty had prâmised in verbo Saceâdotis That they would never from henceforth presum to attempt allcadge claim or put in ure enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances provincial or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the Kings most Royal Assent may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and that his Majesty do give his most Royall Assent and Authority in that behalf Upon which ground-work of the Clergies the Parliament shortly after built this superstructure to the same effect viz. That none of the said Clergy from thenceforth should presume to attempt alleadge claâm or put inâure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons nor shall enact promulge or execute any such Canonâ Constitutions or Ordinances Provincâsâ by whatsoever name or names they may be called in their Convocations in time coming which alwayes shall be assembled by the Kings Writ unless the same Clergy may have the Kings in st Royal Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodical upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convicted to suffer imprisonment and make fine at the Kings Will 25 H. 8. c. 19. So that the statute in effect is no more then this an Act to binde the Clergy to perform their promise to keep them fast unto their word for the time to come that no new Canon should be made in the times succeeding in the favour of the Pope or by his Authority or to the diminution of the Kings Râyal Preâogative or contrary to the Iuwes and statutes of this Realm of England at many Papal Constitutions were in the former Ages Which statute I desire you to take notice of because it is the Rule and Measure of the Churches power in making Canons Constitutions or whatsoever else you shall please to call them in their Convocations The third and small Act conducing to the Popes Ejection was an Act of Parliament 28. H. 8. c. 10. entitâled An Act exâinguishing the ãâã of the Bishop of Rome By which it was enacted That if any person should extoll the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he should incur the penalty of a praeminire that every Officer both Ecclesiastical and Lay should be sworn to renounce the said Bishop and his Authority and to resist it to his power and to repute any Oath formerly taken in maintenance of the said Bishop or his Authority to be void and finally that the refusal of the said Oath should bejudged High Treason But this was also usher'd in by the determination first and after by the practice of all the Clergy For in the year 1534 which was two yeares before the passing of this Act the King had sent this Proposition to be agitated in both Vniversities and in the greatest and most famous Monasteries of the kingdom that is to say ãâ¦ã Romans dejure competat plusquam alii cujamque Episcoâo extero By whom it was determined Negatively that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of right in the Kingdom of England than any other forreign Bishop Which being testified and returned under the hands and seales respectively the Originals whereof are still remaining in the Library of Sr Robert Cotton was a good preamble to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy assembled in their Convocation to conclude the like And so accordingly they did and made an Instrument thereof subscribed by the hands of all the Bishops and others of the Clergy and afterwards confirmed the same by their corporal Oaths The copies of which Oaths and Instrument you shal finde in Foxes Acts and Monuments Vol. 2. fol. 1203. and fol. 1210 1211. of the Edition of Iohn Day Anno 1570. And this was semblably the ground of a following statute 35 H. 8. c. 1. wherein another Oath was devised and ratified to be imposed upon the Subject for
hands was by them presented to the King by His most excellent judgment to be allowed of or condemned This book containing the chief heads of Christian Religion was forthwith printed and exposed to publike view But some things not being cleerly explicated or otherwise subject to exception he caused it to be reviewed and to that end as Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England I speak the very words of the Act of Parl. 32. H. 8. c. 26. appointed the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and also a great number of the best learned honestest and most vertuous sort of the Doctors of Divinity men of discretion judgment and good disposition to be called together to the intent that according to the very Gospel and Law of God without any partial respect or affection to the Papistical sort or any other sect or sects whatsoever they shââld declare by writing publish as well the principal Articles and points of our Faith and Belief with the Declaration true understanding anâ observation of such other expediânt points as by them with his Grace advice councel and consent shall be thought needful and expedient as also for the lawful Rights Ceremonies and observation of Gods service within this Realm This was in the year 1540. at what time the Parliament was also sitting of which the King was pleased to make this especial use That whereas the work which was in hand I use again the words of the statute required ripe and mature deliberation and was not rashly to be defined and set forth and so not fit to be restrained to the present Session an Act was passed to this effect That all Determitions Declarations Decrees Definitions and Ordinances as according to Gods Word and Christs Gospel should at any time hereafter be set forth by the said Archbishops and Bishops and Doctors in Divinity now appointed or hereafter to be appointed by his Royal Majesty or else by the whole Clergy of England in and upon the matter of Christs Religion and the Christian Faith and the lawful Rights Ceremonies and Observations of the same by his Majesties advice and confirmation under the great Seal of England shall be by all his Graces subjects fully believed obeyed observed and performed to all purposes and intents upon the paines and penalties therein to be comprized as if the same had been in ãâã and ãâ¦ã and fully made set forth declared and contained in the said Act 32. H. 8. c. 26. where note That the two House of Parliament were so far from âedling in the matter which was then in hand that they did not so much as require to see the Determinations and Decrees of those learned men whom His Majesty had then assembled before they passed the present Act to bind the Subject fully to believe observe and perform the same but left it wholly to the judgment and discretion of the King and Clergy and trusted them besides with the ordaining and inflicting of such paines and penalties on disobedient and unconformable persons as to them seemed meet This ground-work laid the work went forwards in good order and at last being brought unto as much perfection as the said Arch-Bishops Bishops and other learned men would give it without the co-operation and concurrence of the Royal assent it was presented once again to the Kings consideration who very carefully perused it and altered many things with his own hand as appeares by the book it self ââll extant in the famous Library of Sr Robert Cotton and having so altered and corrected it in some passages returned it to the Archbishop of Canterbury who bestowed some further paines upon it to the end that being to come forth in the Kings Name and by his Authority there might be nothing in the same which might be justly reprehended The business being in this forwardnesse the King declares in Parliament Anno 1544. being the 34 year of his Reign his zeal and care not onely to suppress all such Bookes and Writings as were noysome and pestilent and tended to the seducing of his subjects but also to ordain and establish a certain form of pure and sincere Teaching agreeable to Gods Word and the true Doctrine of the Catholick and Apostolick Church whereunto men may have recourse for the decision of some such controversies as have in Times past and yet do happen to arise And for a preparatory thereunto that so it might come forth with the greater credit he caused an Act to pass in Parliament for the abolishing of all Bookes and Writings comprizing any matters of Christian Religion contrary to that Doctrine which since the year 1540. is or any time during the Kings life shall be set forth by his Highnesse and for the punishment of all such and that too with most grievous ãâã which should preach teach maintain or defend any matter or thing contrary to the book of Doctrine which was then in readiness 34 35 H. 8. c. 1. Which done He canâed the said book to be imprinted in the year next following under the Title of Anecessdry Doctrine for all sorts of people prefixing a Preface thereto in his Royal Name to all his faithful and loving Subjects that they might know the better in those dangerous Times what to believe in point of Doctrine and how they were to carry and behave themselves in points of practice Which Statute as it is the greatest Evidence which those Times afford to shew that both or either of the Houses of Parliament had any thing to do in matters which concerned Religion so it entitles them to no more if at all to any thing then that thây did make way to a book of Doctrine which was before digested by the Clergy onely revised after and corrected by the Kings own hand and finally perused and perfected by the Metrâpolitan And more then so besides that being but one Swallow it can make no Summer it is acknowledged and confessed in the Act it self if Poulton understand it rightly in his Abridgment That recourse must be had to the Catholick and Apostolick Church for the decision of Controversies Which as it gives the Clergy the decisive power so it left nothing to the Houses but to assist and aid them with the Temporal Sword when the Spiritual Word could not do the deed the point thereof being blunted and the edge abated Next let us look upon the time of K. Ed. 6. and we shall finde the Articles and Doctrine of the Church excepting such as were contained in the book of Common-Prayer to be composed confirmed and setled in no other way then by the Câergy onely in their Convocation the Kings Authority co-operating and concurâing with them For in the Synod held in London Anno 1552. the Clergy did compose and agree upon a book of Articles containing the chief heads of the Christian Faith especially with reference to such points of Controversie as were in difference between the Reformators of the Church of England and the Church of Rome
them which being agreed on by the Clârgie and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his royal asâent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25 of K. H. 8 and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supream authority in Ecclesiastical causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for himself his heirs and lawfull successours straightly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjâcts diligântly to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they do or may concern all or any of them No running to the Parliament to confirm these Canons nor any question made till this present by temperate and knowing men that there wanted any act for their confirmation which the law could give them 7. An Answer to the main Objections of either Party BUt against this all which hath been said before it will be objected âhat being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more authority and jurisdiction nisi a Parliamentis derivatum but that which is conâerred upon them by the power of Parliamânts as both Sanders and Schultingius do expresly say whatsoever they shall do oâ conclude upon either in Convocation or in more private conferences may be called Pârliâmenâarian also And this last calumny they build on the sevâral Stâtutes 24. H 8. c. 12. touching the manner of eâecting and consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops that of the 1 E. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what seaâs they shaâl uâe thâse of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. 5 6. E. 6. âor authorizing of the book of Ordination But chââfly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in coâsâcrating any Arch Bishop or Bishop within this Reaâm âo give a general answer to each several cavil you may please to know that the Bishops as they now stand in the Church of England derive their calling together with their authority and power in Spiritual matâers from no other hands then those of Christ and his Apostles their Temporal honors and posââââions from the bounty and affection onely of our Kings Princes their Ecclesiastical juriâdiction in caâses Matrimonial Testamentary and the like for which no action lieth at the common Law from continuall usage and prescription and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm and ãâã more unto the Parliament than all sort of subjects do besidâs whose fortunes and estates have been occasionally and collaterally confirmed in Parliament And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon that of the 24 H. 8. doâh only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and conâecrated without recourse to Rome for a conâirmation which formerly had put the Prâlates to great charge and trouble but for the form and maâner of their consecration the Staâuâe leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was perfoââed and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were lawfully and Canonically ordained and consâcrated the Bishops of that time not onâly being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawfull and Canonical Bishops but called on to assist at the consecration of such other Bishops Carâinal Pool himself for one as were promoted in her Reign whereof see Masons book de Minist. Ang. l. c. ãâã Next for the Statute 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer as it relates to their Canonâcal Consecrations it was repeaeld to Târminis in the first of Queene Maries Reigne and never stood in âorce nor practise to this day That of the authorizing of the booke of Ordination in two severall Parliaments of that King the one a parte ante and the other a parte post as before I told you mâght indeed seeme somewhat to the purpose if any thing were wanâing in it which had beene used iâ the formula's of the Primitive times or if the book had beân composed in Paâliament or by Parliament men or otherwise received more authority from them then that iâ might be lawfully used and exercâsed thâoughouâ the Kingdome But it is plâin that none of these things were oâjected ãâã Queen Maries dayââ when the Pâpists stood mâst upon their points ãâã Ordinal being not âaâled in because it had too much of the Parliament buâ becauâe it had too lâttle of the Pope and reâshâd too strongly of the Pâimitive piety And for the Sâatute oâ 8 of Qu. Elizâbeth which is chiefly stood on all that was done therein was no more then thiâ and on this occasion A question had been mâde by captiouâ and unquiet men and amongst the rest by Doctor Bânner sometimes Bishop of London whether the Bishops of those times were lawâully ordained or not the reason of the doubâ being this which I marvell Mason did not sâe because the âook of Ordination which was annulled and abâogated in the ãâã of Queen Mary had not been yet restored and revived by any legal Act oâ Qu. Elizabeths time which Cauâe being brought before the Pârliamenâ in the 8 year of her Reign thâPârliâment took notice first that their not restoring of thaâ booke ãâ¦ã foâmer power in terâs significant and expresse was but ãâ¦ã and then declare that by the Stature 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been ãâã to the book of Common-prâyer and Administration of the Sacramânss as a member of it at least as an Appââdant to it and therefore by the Staâuâe 1 Eliz. c. â was restored again together with the sâid booâ ãâã Common-prayer intentionally at the least if not in Terminis But ãâ¦ã words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubâs they therefore did revive now and did accordingly enact That whatsoâveâ had been done by vertue of that Ordination should be good in Law ãâ¦ã the total of the Statute and this shews rather in my judgement thaâ the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them then that they were conceived to have had too much And so I come to your laât Objection which concerns the Parliament whose entertaining all occasions to manifest their power in Ecclesiasticall matââââ doth seeme to you to make that groundlesse slânder of the Pâpists the more fair and plaâsible 'T is true indeed that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times have been âeen very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs as well Ecclesiastical as Civil into their own hands And some there are who being they cannot hope to have their fancies authorized in a regular way do put them upon such designs as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments nor the authority of the King nor with the priviledges of the Clergy nor to say truth with
unto their Rights as any of their Sees were ruined by the barbarous Nations and consequently his consent not necessary to a Reformation beyond the bounds of his own Patriarchate under that pretence Let us next see what power he can lay claim unto as the Apostle in particular of the English Nation Which memorable title I shall never grudge him I know well not only that the wife of Ethelbert King of Kent a Christian and a daughter of France had both her Chappel and her Chappellane in the Palace Royal before the first preaching of Austin the Monk but that the Britains living intermixt with the Saxons for so long a time may be supposed in probability and reason to have gained some of them to the Faith But let the Pope enjoy this honour let Gregory the Great be the Apostle of the English Saxons by whom that Augustine was sent hither yet this enâiâuleth his Successors to no higher Prerogatives then the Lords own Apostles did think fit to claim in Countreys which they had converted For neither were the English Saxons Baptized in the name of the Pope they had been then Gregoriani and not Christiani or looked upon him as the Lord of this part of Gods ãâ¦ã S. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles did disclaim the one S. Peter the Apostle of the Iewes did disswade the other The Anglican Church was absolute and Independent from the first beginning not tyed so much as to the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome it being left by Gregory to the discretion of Augustine out of the Rites and Rubricks of such Churches as he met with in his journey hither these of Italie and France he means to constitute a form of worship for the Church of England And for a further proof hereof he that consults the Saxon Councels collected by that learned and indâstriouâ Gentleman Sir H Spelman will finde how little there was in them of a Papall influence from the first planting of the Gospel to the Norman Conquest If we look lower we shall finde that the Popes Legat a Latere whensoever sent durst not set foot on English ground till he was licensed and indemnified by the Kings Authority but all Apâeals in case of grievance were to be made by a Decree of Henry the 2. from the Archdeacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Metropolitaâ Et si Archiepiscopus defecerit in justitia exhibenda ad Dominum Regem deveniendum est postremo and last of all from the Metropolitan to the King himself no Appeal hence unto the Pope as in other places that the Clergy of this land had a self-authority of treating and concluding in any businesse which concerned their own peace and happinesse without resorting âo the Pope for a confirmation Out of which Canons and Determinations made amongst our sâlveâ Lindwood composed his Provincial though framed according to the method of the Roman Dâcretal to be the standing body of ouâCommon-Law that on the other side neither the Canons of that Church or Decretals of the Popes were câncluding here but either by a voluntary submission of some âââning and ambitiouâ Pââlates or as they were received Synodically by the English Cleâgy of which the conââitutions made by Oâhe and Othebân Legâts a lâtere from the Pope may be proof sufficient aâd finally that Ansââm the Aâchbishâp of Canterbury was welcomed by Pope Vâban the 2. to the Councel of Bâri in Apulia tanquam alterius orbis Papa as in William of Malmesbury tanquam Patriarcham Apostolicum as Iohn Capgrave hath it as the Pope Patriarch and Apostolick Pâââor of another World Divisos orbe Britaââos as you know who said Which tiâles questionlesse the Pope would nâver have conâââred upon him had he not been as âbsolute and supreme in his own jurisdiction succeeding in the Patriarchal Rights of the British Diocesse as the Pope was within the Churches âubject unto his Auââority And this perhâps might be the reason why Innocent the 2. bestowâd on Theobald the third from Ansâlm and on his Suâcessoâs in that Sâe the Title of Legati nâti that they might seem to act rather in the time to come as Servants and Ministers to the Pope then as the Primatesând chief Pastors of the Church of England And by all this it may appear that the Popes Apostleship was never looked on here as a matter of so great concernment that the Church might not lawfully proceed to a Râformation without his allowance and consent Were that plea good the Germans might not lawfully have reformed themselves without the allowance of the English it being evident in story that not only Boniface Archbishop of Menâz called generally the Apostle of Germany was an Engglish man but that Willibald the first Bishop of Eystel Willibadâhe first Bishop of Bremen Willibrod the first Bishop of Vtreoht Swibert the first Bishop of Virââem and the fiâst converterâ of those parts were of England also men instigated to this great work all except the first not so much by the Popeâ zeal as their own great piety By this that hath been said it is clear enough that the Church of England at the time of the Reformation was not indeed a Member of the Church of Rome under the Pope aâ the chief Pastor and Supreme Head of the Church of CHRIST but a Fellow-member with it of that Body Mystical whereof CHRIST only is the Head part of that ââock whereof he only iâ the Shephârd a sister Church to that of Rome though with relation to the time of her last conversion but a younger Sister And if a Fellow-member and a Sister-Church she might make use of that authority which naturally and originally was vested in her to reform her self without the leave of the particular Church of Rome or any other whatsoever of the Sister-Churches The Church is likened to a City in the Book of God a City at unity in it self as the Psalmist cals it and as a City it consisteth of many houses and in each house a several and particular Family Suppose this City visiâed with some general sicknesse may noâ each family take care to preserve it self advise with the Physitian and apply the Remedy without consulting with the rest Or if consulting with the rest must they needs ask leave also of the Maior or principal Magistrate take counsel with no other Doctors and follow no other course of Physick then such as he commends unto them or imposeth on them Or must the lesser languish irremediably under the calamity because the greater and more potent Families do not like the cure Assuredly it was not so in the primitive times wheâ it was held a commendable and lawfull thing for National and particular Churches to reform such errors and corruptions as they found amongst them nor in the Church of Iudah nâither when the Idolatries of their Nâighbours had got ground upon them Though Israâl transgressâ ãâã not Judah sin saith the Prophet Hosea chap. 4. Yet Israel
but two Priests appeared at all and those as Legatâ from the Pope not authorised to represent the Italian Churches so that of 318 Bishops which were there assembled there were but twelve in all besides the Lâgats of the Pâpe for the Western Churches too great a disproporâion to entitle it ãâã the name of General And yet this was more General then the rest that followed there being no Bishops of the Wâst at all in the second and third but the Popes themselves and in the 4 none but the Legats of the Pâpe to supply his place So that âhese ãâã were called General not that they were so in themsâlves but that there was a greaâeâ câncâurse to them frâm the nââghbouring Provinces then was oâ had bâen to somâ oââers on the like occasions Which if it be enough to ãâã a General ãâã I sâe no ãâ¦ã callâd so too summoned in the case of ãâ¦ã the Patriarch at that time of that âamous City For the condemning of whose Heresie there conveenâd not the Bishops of that Province only but the Paâriaâch oâHiârusâlem the Bishâp of Caesarea in Palestine Bâzra in Arabia Tarsus in Ciliââa Caesarea in Cappadocia of Iconium in Lyâaâniâ oâNeo-Caesareâ in Pontus besides many others from all places of the ãâã rank and quâlity but of lesser fame not âo say any thing ãâã Dionysius Pâtriarch of Alexandâia ãâã buâ not ãâã in regard of sicknesse which dâfâct he recompensâd ãâ¦ã and intârcourse or of Dionâsius Pope oâRome so ãâã by the Puritan or ãâ¦ã that he could not shine So that if the present of two of the fouâ Patâiarchs and the inviâing of the others with the Bishops of so many distant Nâtions as were there assembled âuffice to make a General Councel the Councel of Antioch might as well havâ the name of General as almost any of the rest which are so entituled But laying by thâse thoughts as too strong of thâParadox and looking on a General Councel in the common notiân âor an Assembly of the Prelates of the East and West âo which the four Patriarchs are invited and from which no Bishop is excluded that comes commissionated and instructed to atâând the ãâã I cannot think them of such coâsequence to the Church of God but that it may proceed without them to a Reformation For certainly that saying of S. Auguâtine in his 4. Book against the two Epistles of the Pelagians cap. 12. is âxceeding true Paucas fuisse haereses ad quas superandas necessarium fuerit Concilium plenarium occidentis orientis that very few Heresies have been crushed in such General Câuncels And so far we may say with the learned Cardinal that for seven Heresies suppressed in seven General Councelâ though by hiâ leave the seventh did not so much suppress as advance an Heresie an hundred have been quashed in National and Provincial Synods whether confirmed or not confirmed by the Pâpes authority we regard not here Some instances hereâf in the Synods of Aquileia Carthage Gangra Milevis we have seen before and might adde many others now did we think it necessary The Church had been in ill condition if it had been otherwise especially under the power of Heathen Emperors when such a confluence of the Prelates from all parts of the world would have been construed a Conspiracie against the State and drawn destruction on the Church and the Persons both Or granting that they might assemble without any such danger yet being great bodies moving slâwly and not without long time and many difficulties and disputes to be rightly constituted the Church would suffer more under such delay by the spreading of Heresie then receive benefit by their care to suppress the same Had the same course been taken at Alexandria for suppressing Arius as was before at Antioch for condemning Paulus we never had heard newes of the Councel of Nice the calling and assembling whereof took up so long time that Arianism was diffused over all the world before the Fathers met together and could not be suppressâd though it were condemned in many ages following after The plague of Heresie and leprosie of sin would quickly over-run the whole face of the Church if capable of no other cure then a General Councel The case of Arius and the universal spreading of his Heresie compared with the quick rooting out of so many others makes this clear enough To go a little further yet we will suppose a General Councel to be the best and safest Physick that the Church can take on all occasions of Epidemical distemper but then we must suppose it at such times and in such casâs only when it may conveniently be had For where it is not to be had or not had conveniently it will either prove to be no Physick or not worth the taking But so it was that at the time of the Reformation a General Councel could not conveniently be assembled and more then so it was impossible that any such Councel should assemble I mean a General Councel rightly called and constituted according to the Rulââ laid down by our Controversors For first they say it must be called by such as have power to do it 2. That it must be intimated to all Christian Churches that so no Church nor people may plead ignorance of it 3. The Pope and the four chief Patriarchs must be present at it either in person or by Proxie And lastly that no Bishop is to be excluded if he be known to be a Bishop and not excommunicated According to which Rules it was impossible I say that any General Councel should be assembled at the time of the Reformation of the Church of England It was not then as when the greatest part of the Christian world waâ under the command of the Roman Emperors whose Edict for a Genâral Councelâighâ speedily be posted over all the Provinces The Messengers who should now be sent on such an errand unto the Countreys of the Turk the Persian the Tartarian and the great Mogul in which are many Christian Churches and more perhaps then in all the rest of the world besides would finde but sorry entertainment Nor was it then as when the four chief Patriarchs together with their Metropolitans and Suffragan Bishops were under the protection of the Christian Emperors and might without danger to themselves or unto their Churches obey the intimation and attend the service those Patriarchs with their Metropolitans and Suffragans both then and now languâshing under the tyranny and power of the Turk to whom so general a confluence of Christian Bishops must nâeds give matter of suspicion of just fears and jealousies and therefore not to be permitted as far as he can possibly hindâr it on good Reason of State For who knowes better theâ themselveâ how long and dangerous a war was raised against their Predecessors by the Western Christians for recovery of the Holy Land on a resolution taken up at the Councel of Cleâmont and that âââing war against the Turks is
the year beforâ And 't is as true that Calvin offered his assistance to Archbishop Cranmer for the reforming of this Church Si quis mei usus esset as his own words are iâ his assistance were thought nâedfull to advance the work But Cranmer knew the man and refused the offer and he did very wisely in it For seeing it impossible to unite all parties it had been an imprudent thing to have closed with any I grant indeed thât Martin Bucer and Pâter Martyr men of great learning and esteem but of different judgements were brought over hither about the beginning of the reign of K Edward 6. the one of them being placed in Oxford the other in Cambridge but they were rather entertained as private Doctors to mâderate in the Chairs of those Universities then any waies made use of in the Reformation For as the âiâst Liturgie which was the main key unto the work was framed and setled before either of them were come over so Bucer died before the compiling of the Book of Articles which was the accâmplishment thereof nor do I finde that Peter Martyr was made use of otherwise in this weighty businesse then to make thât good by disputation which by the Clergy in their Synods or Convocations was agreed upon By means whereof the Church proceeding without reference to the different interesses of the neighbouring Churches kept a conformity in all such points of Government and publâqâe order with the Church of Rome in which that Church had not forsaken the clear Tract of the primitive Times retaining not only the Episcopall Government with all the concomitants and adjuncts of it which had been utterly abolished in the Zuinglian Churches and much impaired in power and jurisdiction by the Luthârans also and keeping up a Liturgie or set form of worship according to the rites and usages of the primitive times which those of the ãâã congregââioâs would not hearken to God certainly hâd so disposed it in his heavenly wisdome that so this Church without respect unto the names and Dictateâ of particular Doctors might found its Reformation on the Prophets and Apostles only according to the Explications and Traditions of the ancient Fathers and being so founded in it self without respect to any of the differing parties might in succeeding Ages sit as Judge between thâm as being more inclinable by her constitution to mediate a peace amongst them then to espouse the quarrel of eiâher side to the Popes authority on the one side or on the other side And though Spalâto in the Book of his Retractations which he cals Consilium reâeundi objects against uâ That besides the publick Articles and confession authorised by the Churches we had embraced some Lutheran and Calvinian Fancies multa Lutheri ãâã dogâata so his own words run yet this was but the ãâã of particular men not to be charged upon the Church as maintaining either The Church is constant to her safe and her first conclusions though many private men take liberty to imbrace new Doctrines 4. That the Chârch did not innovate in translating the Scriptureâ and the publick Liturgie into vulgar tongues and of the consequents thereof in the Church of England The next thing faulted as you say in the Reformation iâ the committing so much heavenly treasure to such rotten vessels the trusting so much excellent Wine to such musty bottles I mean the versions of the Scriptures and the publick Liturgies into the usual Languages of the common people and the promiscuous liberty indulged them in it And this they charge not as an Innovation simply but as an Innovation of a dangerous consequence the sad effects whereof we now see so clearly A charge wich doth alike concern all the Prâtestant and Reformed Churches so that I should have passed it over at the present time but that it is made ourâ more specially in the application the sad effects which the enemy doth so much insult in being said to be more visible in the Church of England then in other placeâ This makes it ourâ and therefore here to be considered as the former were First then they charge it on the Church as an Innovation it being affirmed by Bellarmine in his 2. Book De verbo Dei cap. 15. whether with lesse truth or modesty it is hard to say Vniversam Ecclesiam semper his tantum linguis c. that in the Universal Church in all times foregoing the Scriptures were not commonly and publickly read in any other language but in the Hebrew Greek and Latine this is you seâ a two-edged sword and strikes not only against all Translaâiâns of the Scriptures into vulgar languages for commân use but against reading those Translationâ publickly ãâ¦ã part oâ the Liturgie in which are many things as the Cardinal telâ uâquae secreta esse debent which are not fit to be made known to the common people This is the substance of the charge and herein we joyn issuâ in the usual Form with Absque hoc sans ceo no such matter really the constant current of Antiquity doth affiâm the contrary by which it will appear most plainly that the Church did neither innovate in this act of hers nor dâviaâe therein fâom the Word of God or from the usage of the best and happiest times of the Church of CHRIST Not from the Word of God there 's no doubt of that which was committed unto writing that it âight be read and read by all that were to be directed and guided by it The Scriptures of the Old Testament fiâst writ in Hebrew the Vulgar language of that people and read unto them publickly on the Sabbath daiâs as appears clearly Act. 13. 15. 15. 21. translated afterwards by the cost and care of Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt into the Greek tongue the most known and studied language of the Eâstern world The Nâw Testament first wâit in Grâek for the self-same reason but that St. Matthew'â Gospel iââffirmed by some learned men to have been written in thâHebrew and written to thiâ end and purpose that men might believe tâât IESVS is the CHRIST tâe Son of GOD and that believing tâey might have use in his Name Joh. 20. vers. ult. But being that all the Faithfull did not understand these Languages and that the light of hâly Scripture might not be likened to a Candlâ hidden under ââushel it waâ thought good by many âodly men in the Pâiâitive timâs to translate the same into the âanâuagâs of the Countreys in which thââ lived or of the which thââ had been Naâives In which respect S Chrysostome then banished inâo Armenia translated the New Testament and the Pâalms of David into the Language of that people S. Hierom a Pannonian born translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick tongue as Vulphilas Bishop of the Goâhes did into the Gâthick all which we finde together without fuâther search in the Bibliotheque of Sixtus Senensis a learned and ingenuâus man but a Pontifician and
so lesse partial in this cause The like done hâre in England by the care of Athelstan causing a Translation of the Saxon Tongue the like done by Methodâus the Apostle Genârâl of the Sclaves translating it into the Sclavonian for the use of those Nations not to say any thing of the Syriack Aethiopick Arabick the Peâsian and Chaldaean Versions of which the times and Authors are not so well known And what I pray you is the vulgar or old Latine Edition of late times made Authentick by the Popes of Rome but a Translation of the Scriptures out of Greek and Hebrew for the insâruction of the Roman and Italian Nations to whom the Latine at that time was the Vulgar Tongue And when that Tongue by reason of the breaking in of the barbarous Nations was worn out of knowledge I mean as to the common people did not God stir up Iames Archbishop of Genoa when the times were darkest that is to say annoâ290 or theâeabouts to give some light to them by translating the whole Bible into the Italian the modern Lanâuâge of that Countrey As he did Wiâlef not long after to translate the same into the English of those times the Saxon Tongue not being then commonly understâod a copy of whose Version in a fair Velom Manuscript I have now here by me by the gift of my noble Friend Charles Dymoke Hereditary Champion to the Kings of England So then it is no innovation to translate the Scriptures and lesse to suffer these Translations to be promiscuously read by all sorts of people the Scripture being as well MILK for Babes as strong Meat for the man of more able judgement Why else doth the Apostle note it as a commendâble thing in Timothy that he knew the Scriptures from his childhood and why else doth S. Hierom speak it to the honour of the Lady Paula that she made her maids learn somewhat daily of the holy Scriptures Why else does Chrysostome call so earnestly on all sorts of men to provide themselves of the holy Bibles {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the only Physick for the Soul as he cals it there inviting to the reading thereof not only men of learning and publick businesse but even the poor Artificer also as is acknowledged by Senensis whom before we mentioned And why else doth S. Augustine inform his Auditors that it sufficeth not to hear the Scriptures read in the Congregation unlesse they read also in their private Hoâses Assuredly if Boyes and Girles if Servants and Artificers are called upon so earnestly to consult the Scriptures tâ have them in a Tongue intelligible to them in their private Faâilies and are commended for so doing as we see they are I know no rank of men that can be excluded Let us next see whether it be an Innovation in the Church of CHRIST to have the Liâurgies or Commân-prayers of the Chuâch in the Tongue generally understood by the commân People which make the greatest number of all Church Assemblies And first we finde by the Apostle not only that the publick Prayeâs of the Church of Cârinth were celebrated in a language which they understood but that it ought to be so also in all other Churches Except saith he ye utter by the voice words easie to be understood how shall it be known what is spoken How shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Ameâto thy giving of thanks and consequently to thy Prayers also if he understand not what thou sayest 1 Cor. 14. 9. 16. What say the Papists unto this Do not both Lyra and Aquinas expresly grant in their Commentaries on this place of Scripture that the common Service of the Church in the Primitive times was in the common vulgar language Is not the like affirmed by Harding in his Answer to Bishop Iewels challenge Art 3. Sect. 28. Adding withall that it was necessary in the Primitive times that it should be so and granting that it were still better that the people had their Service in their own vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it Sect. 33. Having thus Confitentes reos we need seek no further and yet a further search will not be unprofitable And on that search it will be found that the converted Iewes did celebrate their divinâ Offices âractatus oblationes as the Father hath it most commonly in the Syriack and sometimes in the Hebrew tongue the natural âanguages of that people as is affirmed by S. Ambrâse in 1. ad Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Râtiânâle Divinorum Eckius a great stickler of the Popes affirmeth in his Common places that the Indians have their Service in the Indian tongue and that S. Hierome having translated the whole Bible into the Dâlmatick procured that the Service shâuld be celebrated in that Language also The like S. Hâerome himself in his Epistle to Heliodorus hath told us ãâã the Bessi a Sarmation people the like S. Basil in his Epistle to the Neâ caesareans assures us for the Aegyptians Libyans Palestinians Phenicians Arabians Syrians and such as dwell about the Bânks of the River Euphrates The Aethiopians had their Mâssal the Chaldeans theirs each in the language of their Countryes which they still retain So had the Mâscovites of old and all the scattered Churches of the Eastern parts which they continue to this day But nothing is more memorable in this kinde then that which Aenaeas Silvius tels of the Sclavonians who being converted to the Faith made suite unto the Pope to have the publick Service in their natural Tongue but some delay being made therein by the Pope and Cardinals a voice was heard seeming to have come from Heaven praying Omnis Spiritus laudet Dominum omnis lingua conâiteatur ei whereupon their desires were granted without more dispute Touching which Grant there is extant an Epistle from Pope Iohn the 8. to Sfentopulcher King of the Moravian Selaves anno 888. at what time both the Latine Service and the Popes authority were generally received in those parts of Europe Which Letter of Pope Iâhn the 8. together with the Story above mentioned might probably be a chief inducement to Innocent the 3. to set out a Decree in the Lateran Councel importing that in all such Cities in which there was a concourse of divers Nations and consequently of different Languages as in most Towns of Trade there doth use to be the Serviâe should be said and Sacraments administred Secundum diversitates nationum linguarum according to the difference of their Tongues and Nations And though Pope Gregory the 7. a turbulent and violent man about 200 years afâer the Concession made by Iohn the S. in his Letter to Vratislaus King of Bohemia laboured the cancelling of thât priviledge and possibly might prevail therein as the âimes then were yet the Liburnians and Dalmatians two Sclavonian Nations and bordering on Italy the Popes proper seat do still enjoy the benefit of that