with the curiositie of the Ministers and mistakes of the People rather then for any other weighty cause As the Statute 5. 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 questionlesse 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 only part that was ever acted by the Parliament in matter of this present nature save that a Statute passed in the former Parliament 3. 4. Ed. 6. c. 12. unto this effect that such Form and manner of making and consecrating Archbishops Bishops Priests Deacons and other Ministers of the Church which before I spake of as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in Gods Lawes by the King to be appointed and assigned shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seale shall be lawfully used and exercised and none other Where note that the King only was to nominate and appoint the men the Bishops and other learned men were to make the book 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 seene it though afterwards indeed in the following Parliament this book together with the book of Common-prayer so printed and explained retained a more formall confirmation as to the use thereof throughout the kingdome but in no other respect for which see the Statute 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 1. As for the time of Q. 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 Q. Maries Reigne it was committed to the care of some learned men that is to say to Master Whitehead once Chaplain to Q. Anne Bullen Doctor Parker after Archbishop of Canterbury D. Grindall after Bishop of London D. Coxe after Bishop of Ely D. Pilkinton after Bishop of Durham D. May Deane of S. Paules D. Bill Provost of Eaton after Deane of Westminster and Sr. Tho. Smith By whom being alter'd in some few passages which the Statute points to 1 Eliz. cap. 21. It was presented to the Parliament and by the Parliament received and established without more adoe or troubling any Committee of both or either Houses to consider of it for ought appeares in their Records All that the Parliament did in it being to put it into the condition in which it stood before in King Ed. Reigne partly by repealing the Repeale of King Ed. Statutes made in the 1 of Q. Mary cap. 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 therein in King Iames his time being small and in the Rubrick only and for the additions of the Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany the Prayer for the Queen and the royall Issue and the doctrine of the Sacraments at the end of the Catechisme which were not in the book before they were never referred unto the Parliament but were done only by authority of the Kings Commission and stand in force by virtue only of his Proclamation which you may find before the book the charge of buying the said book so explained and altered being layd upon the severall and respective parishes by no other authority than that of of the eightieth Canon made in Convocation An. 1603. The like may also be affirmed of the Formes of Prayer for the Inauguration day of our Kings and Queenes the Prayer-books for the fifth of November and the fifth of August and those which have beene used in all publique Fasts All which without the help of Parliaments have been composed by the Bishops and imposed by the King Now unto this discourse of the Formes of Worship I shall subjoyn a word or two of the times of Worship that is to say the holy daies observed in the Church of England and so observed that they doe owe that observation cheifely to the Churches power For whereas it was found in the former times that the number of the holy daies was grown so great that they became a burden to the common people and a great hindrance to the thrift and manufactures of the kingdome there was a Canon made in the Convocation An. 1536 for cutting off of many superstitious and superfluous holy daies and the reducing them unto the number in which now they stand save that St. Georges day and Mary Magdalens day and all the Festivals of the blessed Virgin had their place amongst them according to which Canon there went out a Monitory from the Archibishop of Canterbury to all the Suffragans of his Province respectively to see the same observed in their severall Diocesses which is still extant on Record But being the authority of the Church was then in the wane it was thought necessary to confirm their Acts and see execution done upon it by the Kings Injunction which did accordingly come forth with this Form or preamble That the abolishing of the said holy daies was Decreed ordained and established by the kings Highnesse Authority as supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England with the common consent and assent of the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation lawfully assembled and Congregate Of which see Fox his Acts and Monuments fol. 1246.1247 Afterwards in the yeare 1541. The King perceiving with what difficulty the People were induced to leave off those holy daies to which they had been so long accustomed published his Proclamation of the twenty third of Iuly for the abolishing of such holy daies amongst other things as were prohibited before by his Injunctions both built upon the same foundation namely the resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation And so it stood untill the Reigne of King E. 6. at what time the Reformation of the publique Liturgy drew after it by consequence an alteration in the present businesse no daies being to be kept or accounted holy but those for which the Church had set apart a peculiar office and not all those neither For whereas there are severall and peculiar offices for the day of the Conversion of Saint Paul and the day of St. Barnabas the Apostles neither of these are kept as holy daies nor reckoned or esteemed as such in the Act of Parliament wherein the names and number of the holy daies is precisely specified which makes some think the Act of Parliament to have had an over-ruling
also for the lawfull Rites Ceremonies and observation of Gods service within this Realme This was in the yeare 1540. at what time the Parliament was also sitting of which the King was pleased to make this especiall use that whereas the worke which was in hand I use againe 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 Determinations Declarations Decrees Definitions and Ordinances as according to God's Word and Christs Gospell 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 Royall Majesty or else by the whole Clergy of England in and upon the Matter of Christ's Religion and the Christian Faith and the lawfull Rites Ceremonies and observations of the same by his Majesties advice and confirmation under the Great Seale of England shall be by all his Graces Subjects fully beleeved obeyed observed and performed to all purposes and intents upon the paines and penalties therein to be comprized as if the same had beene in expresse words and sentences plainly and fully made set forth declared and conteined in the said Act. 32. of H. 8. c 26. Where note that the two houses of Parliament were so farre from medling 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 binde the subject fully to beleeve observe and performe the same but left it wholly to the judgement 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 meete This ground worke laid the worke went forwards in good order and at last being brought unto as much perfection as the said Archbishops Bishops and other learned men could give it without the cooperation and concurrence of the Royall assent it was presented once againe to the King's consideration who very carefully perused it and alterd many things with his owne hand as appeareth by the booke it selfe still extant in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton and having so altered and corrected it in some passages returned it to the Arcbishop 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 should be nothing in the same which might be justly reprehended The businesse being in this forwardnesse the King declares in Parliament An. 1544. being the 34 yeare of his Reigne his zeale and care not only to suppresse all such bookes and writings as were noysom and pestilent and tended to the seducing of his subjects but also to ordaine and establish a certaine forme 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 yet doe happen to arise And for a preparatory thereunto that so it might come forth with the greater credit he caused an Act to passe in Parliament for the abolishing of all bookes and writings comprizing any matters of Christian Religion contrary to that doctrine which since the yeare 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 paines which should preach teach mainteine or defend any matter or thing contrary to the booke of Doctrine which was then in readinesse 34.35 H. 8. c. 1. Which done he caused the said booke to be imprinted in the yeare next following under the Title of A necessary Doctrine for all sorts of people prefixing a Preface thereto in his owne Royall name to all his faithfull and loving Subjects that they might know the better in those dangerous times what to beleeve in point of Doctrine and how they were to carry and behave themselves in point 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 doe in matters which concern'd Religion so it entitles them to no more if at all to any thing then that they did make way to a booke of doctrine which was before digested by the Clergy only revised after and corrected by the Kings owne hand and finally perused and perfected by the Metropolitan And more than so besides that being but one swallowe it can make no summer it is acknowledged and confessed in the Act it selfe if Poulton understand it rightly in his Abridgement 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 ayde them with the Temporall sword when the Spirituall Word could not doe the deede the point thereof being blunted and the edge abated Next let us looke upon the time of king Ed. 6. and we shall find the Articles and Doctrine of the Church excepting such as were conteined in the booke of Common-Prayer to be composed confirmed and setled in no other way than by the Clergy only in their Convocation the kings authority cooperating and concurring with them For in the Synod held in London An. 1552. The Clergy did compose and agree upon a booke of Articles conteining the chiefe heads of the Christian Faith especially with referrence to such points of Controversie as were in difference betweene the Reformators of the Church of England and the Church of Rome and other opponents whatsoever which after were approved and published by the Kings authority They were in number 41 and were published by this following Title that is to say Articuli de quibus in Synodo London An. 1552. ad tollendum opinionum dissentionem et consensum verae Religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios Eruditos viros convenerat Regia Authoritate in lucem Editi And it is worth our observation that though the Parliament was held at the very time and that the Parliament passed severall Acts which concerned Church-matters as viz. An Act for uniformity of Divine Service and for the confirmation of the booke of Ordination 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 1. An Act declaring which daies only shall be kept for holy-dayes and which for fasting dayes c. 3. An Act against striking or drawing weapon either in the Church or Church-yard c. 4. and finally another Act for the legitimating of the marriages of Priests and Ministers c. 12. yet neither in this Parliament nor in that which followed is there so much as the least syllable which reflects this way or medleth any
and Clergy representing the said Church in their Convocation And on the very same foundation was the Statute raised 26. H. 8. c. 1. where in the King is declared to be the supreme head of the Church of England to have all honors Preeminencies which were annexed unto that Title as by the Act it selfe doth at full appeare which Act being made I speake it from the Act it selfe only for corroboration and confirmation of that which had beene done in the Convocation did afterwards draw on the Statute for the Tenths and First-fruits as the point incident to the Headship or supreme authority 26. H. 8 c. 3. The second step to the Ejection of the Pope was the submission of the Clergy to the said K. Henry whom they had recognized for their supreme Head And this was first concluded on in the Convocation before it was proposed or agitated in the houses of Parliament and was commended only to the care of the Parliament that it might have the force of a Law by a civill Sanction The whole debate with all the traverses and emergent difficulties which appeared therein are specified at large in the Records of Convocation Anno 1532. But being you have not oportunity to consult those Records I shall prove it by the Act of Parliament called commonly the Act of the submission of the Clergy but bearing this Title in the Abridgement of the Statutes set out by Poulton That the Clergy 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 only acknowledg'd according to the Truth that the Convocation of the same Clergy is alwaies hath beene and ought to be assembled alwaies by the Kings Writ but also submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty had promised in verbo Sacerdotii That they would never from henceforth presume to attempt alleage claime or put in ure enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provinciall or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation unlesse the Kings most Royall assent may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and that his Majestie doe give his most royall Assent and Authority in that behalfe Upon which ground worke 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 alleage claime or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provinciall or Synodals or any other Canons nor shall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provinciall by whatsoever name or names they may be called in their Convocations in time comming which alwaies shall be assembled by the kings Writ unlesse the same Clergy may have the kings most royall Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provinciall or Synodicall upon paine of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convict to suffer imprisonment and make fine at the kings will 25. H. 8. c. 19. So that the Statute in effect is no more than this an Act to bind the Clergy to performe their promise to keepe them fast unto their word for the time to come that no new Canon should bee made in the times succeeding in favour of the Pope or by his authority or to the diminution of the Kings Royall Prerogative or contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme of England as many Papall 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 finall Act conducing to the Popes Ejection was an Act of Parliament 28. H. 8. c. 10. Entituled an Act extinguishing the Authority 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 incurre the penalty of a Praemunire that every Officer both Ecclesiasticall and Lay should be sworne 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 refusall of the said Oath should be judged high Treason But this was also usherd in by the Determination first and after by the Practice of all the Clergie For in the yeare 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 Kingdome that is to say An aliquid authoritatis in hoc regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plus quam alii cuicunque Episcopo extero By whom it was determined Negatively that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of right in the kingdome of England than any other forraigne Bishop Which being testified and returned under their hands and seales respectively the Originals whereof are still remayning in the Library of Sir 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 Clergie and afterwards confirmed the same by their corporall Oathes The copies of which Oathes and Instrument you shall finde in Foxes Acts and Monuments vol. 2. fol. 1203. and fol. 1210. 1211. of the Edition of Iohn Day An. 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 the more cleare asserting of the Kings Supremacy and the utter exclusion of the Popes for ever which Statutes though they were all repealed by one Act of Parliament 1. 2. of Phil. Mary c. 8. yet they were brought in force againe 1. Eliz. c. 1. save that the name of Supreme Head was changed unto that of the Supreme Governour and certaine clauses altered in the Oath of Supremacy Where by the way you must take notice that the Statutes which concerne the Kings Supremacy are not introductory of any new Right that was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old as our best Lawyers tell us and the Statute of the 26. of H. 8. c. 1. doth clearly intimate So that in the Ejection of the Pope of Rome which was the first and greatest step towards the worke of Reformation the Parliament did nothing for ought yet appeares but what was done before in the Convocation and did no more than fortifie the results of Holy Church by the Addition and Corroboration of the Secular Power 2. Of the Translation of the
Domine instead of Ora pro nobis and the like to these And of this sort were the Injunctions which came out in some yeares succeeding for the taking away of Images and Reliques with all the Ornaments of the same and all the Monuments and writings of fained Miracles and for restraint of offering or setting up lights in any Church but only to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar in which he was directed chiefly by Archbishop Cranmer as also those for eating of white-meates in the time of Lent the abolishing the fast on St. Marks day and the ridiculous but superstitious sports accustomably used on the dayes of Saint Clement St. Catherine and St. Nicholas All which and more was done in the said Kings Reigne without help of Parliament For which I shall refer you to the Acts Mon. fol. 1385. 1425. 1441. The like may also be affirmed of the Injunctions published in the name of K. Ed. 6. An. 1547. and printed also then for the use of the Subjects and of the severall Letters missive which went forth in his name prohibiting the bearing of Candles on Candlemas day of Ashes in Lent and of Palmes on Palm-Sunday for the taking down of all the Images throughout the kingdom for administring the Communion in both kinds dated March 13. 1548. for abrogating of private Masses Iun. 24. 1549. for bringing in all Missals Graduals Processionals Legends and Ordinals about the latter end of December of the same yeare for taking down of Altars and setting up Tables instead thereof An. 1550. and the like to these All which particulars you have in Foxes book of Acts Mon. in King Edwards life which whether they were done of the Kings meer motion or by advice of his Counsell or by consultation with his Bishops for there is little left upon Record of the Convocations of that time more than the Articles of the yeare 1552 certain I am that there was nothing done nor yet pretended to be done in all these particulars by the authority of Parliament Thus also in Q. Elizabeths time before the new Bishops were well setled and the Queen assured of the affections of her Clergy she went that way to work in the Reformation which not only her two Predecessors but all the godly Kings and Princes in the Iewish State and many of the Christian Emperours in the Primitive times had done before her in the well ordering of the Church and People committed to their care and government by Almighty God And to that end she published her Injunctions An. 1559. A book of Orders An. 1561. Another of Advertisements An. 1562. all tending unto Reformation unto the building up of the new Ierusalem with the advise no doubt of some godly Prelates as were then about her But past all doubt without the least concurrence of her Court of Parliament But when the times were better setled and the first difficulties of her Reigne passed over she left Church-work to the disposing of Church-men who by their place and calling were most proper for it And they being met in Convocation and thereto authorized as the Lawe required did make and publish severall books of Canons as viz. 1571. An. 1584. An. 1597. Which being confirmed by the Queene under the broad Seale of England were in force of Lawes to all intents and purposes which they were first made but being confirmed without those formall words Her Heires and Successors are not binding now but expired together with the Queene No Act of Parliament required to confirm them then nor never required ever since on the like occasion A fuller evidence whereof we cannot have then in the Canons of the yeare 1603. being the first yeare of King Iames made by the Clergy only in the Convocation and confirmed only by the King For though the old Canons were in force which had been made before the Submission of the Clergy as before I shewed you which served in all these wavering and unsetled times for the perpetuall standing rule of the Churches Government yet many new emergent Cases did require new Rules and whilest there is a possibility of mali mores there will be a necessity of bonae Leges Now in the Confirmation of these Canons we shall find it thus That the Clergy being met in their Convocation according to the Tenour and effect of his Majesties Writ his Majesty was pleased by virtue of his Prerogative Royall and Supreme authority in Causes Ecclesiasticall to give and grant unto them by his Letters Patents dated Apr. 12. Iun. 25. full free and lawfull liberty licence power and authority to confer treate debate consider consult and agree upon such Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they should think necessary fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty God the good and quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof from time to time c. to be kept by all persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being members of the Church it may concern them which being agreed on by the Clergy and by them presented to the King humbly requiring him to give his Royall assent unto them according to the Statute made in the 25. of K. H. 8. and by his Majesties Prerogative and Supreme authority in Ecclesiasticall Causes to ratifie and confirm the same his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents for Himselfe his Heires and lawfull Successours straitly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjects diligently to observe execute and keep the same in all points wherein they doe 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 Lawe could give them But against this and all which hath been said before it will be objected That being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian and have no more authority and jurisdiction nisi a Parliamentis derivatam but that which is conferred upon them by the power of Parliaments as both Sanders and Schultingius doe expresly say whatsoever they shall doe or conclude upon either in Convocation or in private Conferences may be called Parliamentarian also And this last calumny they build on the severall Statutes 24. H. 8. c. 12. touching the manner of electing and Consecrating Archbishops and Bishops that of the 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen and what Seales they shall use those of the 3 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. and 5 6 Ed. 6. for authorising of the book of Ordination But chiefly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in consecrating any Archbishop or Bishop within this Realm To give a generall answer to each severall cavill 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