never come empty handed and this was very frequently injoined to others in such or the like cases Now for the particulars of these Appeals I could produce a multitude of instances and Cases but designing brevity I had rather refer you to Mat. Paris and others who are not sparing therein I shall only upon this Head further note that not only many particular persons were ruin'd and undone by reason of the great expenses they were put unto upon this account at Rome but also many religious Houses and Covents became by that means so impoverished that they would certainly have been utterly broken and dissolved if some extraordinary courses had not been taken for their support as once the Abbot Par. 3 Ed. 1. m. 13. Pre Abbate Conventu de Fevâ—â—sham and Covent of Feversham being greatly indebted to Merchants Usurers and others by reason of their vast ex ences at Rome the King by his Soveraign Authority to preserve them and their House from ruine took them with all their Possessions Fulco Peyforer Hamon Doges Lands Goods and Chattles into his special protection and committed them to the management of certain persons for the discharge of their debts and their necessary support as appears by the Patent for that purpose yet to be seen but too large to be here inserted Lambert Peromb in Feversham Note it was the Monks of this Abby of Feversham that once contended in a Controversie with King John both by way of Appeal to Rome and by force of Arms against the Sheriff and the Posse Comitatus but had the ill fortune to be worsted at every turn The like Protection and Provision in the same form and for the same reason was granted and made by King Ed. 1. to the Abbots and Covents of Bordesley and Bynedon And also to the Prior and Covent of Thornholm but the custody of them their Lands and Goods were granted to other persons CHAP. VI. Dispensations DIspensations Vid. Centum gravamina Gâ—rm An. D. 1521. and Absolutions from cases reserved and Faculties were other great means of drawing vast summs of money hence to Rome And for the managing and dispencing of these the Popes had their Ministers Officers and Courts ready to make out and grant these Dispensations to such as had occasion or to whom it would be a convenience to purchase them and that in a multitude of cases As to Dispence with one man to hold two Bishopricks or a Plurality of Benefices To make Infants capable of Benefices and Offices To Legitimate Bastards To qualifie persons to marry within the degrees prohibited by the Canons or by God's Law To lay aside Habits of Professions Regular to revert to a secular State To give liberty to live without Rules Order and Discipline which had bin entered into For liberty not to keep rash or prejudicial Oaths To eat Flesh at times ordinarily forbidden To wave the performance of Vows To rescind contracts marriages and covenants And innumerable other the like cases in which exact care was taken that the party purchaser should be served to the height of his ability and the benefit of the Dispensation King Henry the third Matt. Paris in Hen. 3. swore to maintain Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta with other liberties of the People and for that had a great Subsidy given him but for money the Pope Dispenced with his Oath and then he would perform nothing Simon Montford Id. An. 1238. fo 471. Earl of Leicester marryed the Daughter of King John named Elianor who was professed in Religion at which King Henry the third and others being offended the Earl posts to Rome and there effusa promissa infinita pecunia as the Historian hath it he obtained of the Pope to give Order to his Legate Otho to give sentence for the marriage John of Gaunt Tho. Walsing in E. 3. An. 1359. Cambd. An. Eliz. fo 2. Sr. Fr. Bacon Hist Hen. 7. fo 199. by a like Dispensation marryed his Cousin Blanch. King Hen. 8. Marryed his Brothers Widdow by such a Dispensation not cheaply obtained for a noble Author sayes the Pope was very difficil in granting it not for want of power I suppose but to scrue the more money out of the Royal Purchaser It was Pope Julius the Second that gave this Dispensation But asterwards the validity of the Marriage upon such a Dispensation being questioned as being directly against the Scripture Pope Clement 7. at the instance of King Henry Hist Cont. Trid lib. 1. fâ— 68. Camb. Speed c. sent Cardinal Campeggio into England framing a Bull or Breve to dissolve the King's marriage with Queen Catharine to be published when some few proofs were passed which were made ready and to give liberty to the King to marry another But afterwards the Pope conceiving it would disgust the Emperour who was Katharines near Kinsman he sent another Nuntio to Campeggio with order to burn the Bull and to proceed slowly in the cause Resolving like his Predecessor to make the best advantages he could of the plenitude of his power But the King perceiving the juggling went another way to work and how he procured his marriage to be vacated our Histories and Records testifie Also Charls the fifth Emperour procured a marriage between Philip his Son and Mary Queen of England by a Dispensation from Pope Julius the third because they were allyed in the third degree and that Charls himself had contracted to marry her when he was under age Camb. Annal. Eliz. And after her death King Philip desirous to keep his interest in England treated seriously of a marriage with Queen Elizabeth his late wives sister with promise to obtain a special Dispensation from the Pope which the French King laboured secretly to hinder but the Queen gave him a repulse By vertue of these Dispensations it is Sr. Edw. Sâ—nds Earop Spec. 〈◊〉 that the House of Austria for some reasons of State marry all amongst themselves so continuing all of the same family or as limbs of the same body Whereby Philip the second of Spain might have called the Archduke Albert both Brother Cousin Nephew and Son for he was so either by blood or affinity being Uncle to himself Cousin-german to his Father Husband to his Sister and Father to his Wife And it so hapned that by reason of the multitude of Canons as were put forth by divers Popes of restrictions and limitations very few Princely Families in Europe could at any time intermarry without Dispensations from such or such a Canon and then let the Pope alone for setting his own rates and prices upon his own Instruments As great summs of money came thus to the Popes upon their Dispensations in point of marriage So frequently they made their advantages by dispensing with promises Vows and Oaths How King Henry the third obtained a Dispensation about Magna-Charta we have touched before And that power claimed and exercised by the Popes made
excepting those that were Conventual and thereupon Summons was given to all the said Priors to appear on the Octaves of St. Hillary at Westminster and to bring with them all their Charters and Evidences whereby the King and his Council might be satisfied whether they had been Priories Conventual time out of mind or not But notwithstanding this Act and that the former seisures had been made upon this ground that by transportation of the revenues belonging to these English Cells to those Houses in France whereunto many of them belonged and were subordinate the King's Enemies at such times as he had warrs with the French were assisted in the Parl. held at Leic. An. 2 Henry the fifth it being considered that though a final peace might afterwards be made between England and France yet the carrying over such great summs of money yearly to those forraign Monasteries would be much prejudicial to this Kingdom and the People thereof there was an Act then made that all the possessions in England belonging to the said Priories-Alien should thenceforth remain to the King his Heirs and Successors for ever excepting such whereof special declaration was then made to the Contrary Rot. Parl. 2 Hen. 5. nu 9. Al intent sayes the Act que divine Services en les lieux avantdictz purront pluis duement estre fait per genti Anglois en temps avenir que n'ount este fait devant cest heurs en icelles per gents Francois c. intimating the mis-imployment of the same And so from thenceforth our Kings disposed of these Priories-Alien and all their revenues arising hence in such manner as they thought most conducible to the good and ease of themselves and the People Which Act of State proved a Praeludium to the dissolution which befel the intire English Monasteries in the raign of King Henry the eighth CHAP. XVIII Knights Templars and Hospitallers THE Orders of the Knights Templars and Hospitallers were also possessed of large revenues and lands here a great part of the profits whereof was transported away and spent out of the Kingdom For the Original Rule and nature of these Orders several have collected and exhibited them particularly Mr. Dugdale W. Dâ—gd Hist of Warw. fo 704 An. 1 Ed. 2. to whom those that would be satisfied therein are referred For our purpose let it be sufficient to note That in the year 1307. by the King 's special command Hen. d'Knighton coll 2531 and a Bull from the Pope the Templars were generally throughout the Kingdom laid hold on and cast into prison and all their possessions seised into the King's hands Th. Walsingh Hist fo 73. An. D. 1311. The crimes objected against them were very hainous contain'd in divers Articles but whether true or false we will not now examine And it was not long after that the whole Order was condemned and suppress'd in a General Council at Vienna under Pope Clement the fifth and their possessions given to the Knights Hospitallers who injoyed the same here till the 32. year of King Hen. Stat. 32 H. 8â— cap. 24. 8. when an Act of Parliament was made reciting That divers of the King's subjects called Knights of St. John of Jerusalem abiding beyond the Sea receiving yearly out of this Realm great summs of money have unnaturally and contrary to the duty of their allegiances substained and maintained the usurped power and authority of the Bishop of Rome lately used and practised within this Realm he the said Bishop being common Enemy to the King our Soveraign Lord and this his Realm and considering that it were better that the possessions in this Realm belonging to such as adhered to the Bishop of Rome should be imploy'd and spent within this Realm for the defence of the same than converted to and amongst such unnatural subjects c. It was enacted That the said Corporation of Knights Hospitallers within his Majesties Dominions should be utterly dissolved and that the King his Heirs c. should have all their Mannors Lands c. And so the Kingdom was freed of that mischief which their transporting so much money yearly out of it had occasioned Queen Mary a Princess more zealous than wise or politick made some attempt to restore the Convents dissolved by her Father Sand. de Schism lib. 2. fo 30â— and Brother particularly re-instating the Benedictines at Westminster The Carthusians at Shone The Brigetteans at Sion The Dominicans at Smithfield in London A sort of Franciscans heretofore zealous for the legality of her Mother's marriage at Greenwich And the Hospitallers of St. John's of Jerusalem in Clarkenwell But her example was not followed by any of the Nobility or others who had incorporated any of the Abby Lands into their estates but the Queen restored only what remained in the Crown un-aliened from the same But yet such a beginning of hers gave a shrewd alarme to all the rest that they should be attaqued in convenient time with some Acts of resumption which would compel them to refund and that the rather because Cardinal Pool in that Act in this Queen's raign to secure the Abby Lands to the then Owners without a formal passing whereof to quiet at present so many persons concerned Popery would not so easily have bin restored at that time would not absolve their consciences from restitution but only made as it were a temporary palliate cure the Church of Rome but suspending that power which in due time was to be put in execution But for our Hospitallers as I said before they were with some others restored and placed in their shatter'd mansion in Clarkenwell Stow. Survey fo 483. Sir Thomas Tresham being made the Prior of the Order But the short raign of that Queen prevented further restitutions And Queen Elizabeth coming to the Crown permitted all things to remain for some time as she found them so that at her first Parliament she sent writs to the Lo. Prior Tresham and Abbot Fecknam to appear as Barons therein but they were scarce warm in their Seats but they with all the rest of the late restored Orders were once again dissolved and the Kingdom 's fears of refunding and resumption for that time cured with addition of hope never to be so frighted again As Allies and Successors to these Knights Templars and Hospitallers it will not be amiss something to note of the Knights of Malta How they were first expulsed out of the Holy Land and then out of Rhodes by the Turks how afterwards they seated at Nice and Syracuse successively and at last setled in the Island Malta where now they are we referr those that would be satisfied therein to the Historians and Travellers that have taken notice of them Gro. Sandies Trav. lib. 4. fo 229. Travels of Jo. Ray. fo 303. But we are informed by our late Travellers That now in the City of Valetta in Malta they have Alberges Halls or Seminaries of the eight several Nations of the Order
would not touch one of such a Character made him a Cardinal but the policy fail'd and it rather hastned his death for by that time his Hat was come to Callis his Head was struck off at Tower-Hill Reginald Pool Regin Pool An. D. 1536. Sleidan Câ—m Charls 5. Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal being beyond the Seas about the beginning of the Reformation wrote a Book for the Pope's Supremacy against the King and therein incited the Emperour preparing against the Turk to bend his forces against his natural Soveraign and native Country-men as being worse than Turks This Book writ by a natural born subject of the King of England was then adjudged a sufficient overt act within the Stat. 25. Edward the third De proditionibus and therefore High Treason Cook Pl. Coron fo 14. Brook Treason Tit. 24. Antiq. Brit. in vita Poli. and Pool attainted thereupon But he keeping out of the reach of Justice after the death of P. Paul the third was just upon point of being elected Pope but his own stupidity Act. Mon. fo 1774. with the imputation of incontinency slurr'd him of the dignity In the raign of Queen Mary over he comes and what he did both to the Living and Dead our Historians abundantly testifie and that the next day after the Queen dyed Cardinal Pool Et sic exit Papismus in Anglia Peter Petow Peter Petow Cambd. Britt in Warw. made Cardinal and Legaâ— Ã Latere by P. Paul the third in time of Queen Mary was coming over in pursuance of his Legatine power But the wary Queen suspecting he might act something derogatory to her regality forbad his entrance which the Cardinal took so to heart that he dyed presently after Allen Will. Allen. the last Cardinal Englishman in the raign of Queen Elizabeth appears a Herald before the Spanish Armado in 88. and by a Book dispersed over England stirs up the Nobles Sp. fo 1177. B. Carlton Remembr 141. and People to joyn with the Spaniard in execution of the Pope's sentence of deposition of the Queen But all coming to nothing our Cardinal dyed an exile at Rome An. D. 1594. Godw. in vita Bishop Godwin takes farewel of him with this character He was last of our England Cardinals in time and worst in wickedness deserving not to be reckon'd amongst Englishmen as like another Herostratus to get himself a name endeavoring to fire the English Church without envy be it spoke the noblest in the world so that his memory deserves oblivion Et sic exit Cardinalismus Several others are reckon'd in the Cataeogues of England Cardinals but because it is doubtful whether some of them were English and others whether ever Cardinals and little memorable left of most of them these already mentioned shall suffice to testifie that the Italian promotions were generally more fatal than fortunate to our Countrymen and that the pains and cost was not recompensed by the acquist And so we pass from these highest dignities on Earth to such coelestial Honour as was and is to be purchased in the Church of Rome CHAP. XX. Canonizations c. CAnonization and Sainting of Men Women and Boyes was another way whereby great summs were often brought unto the Popes And that was when any person lived more austerely or devoutly than ordinary or being fam'd for any miracles pretended to have been done by him in his life time or by his Reliques or at his Tomb after his death or that he dyed for or in defence of the truth or the Church's cause Then if his Surviving friends or relations made application to the Pope upon payment of good summs according to the abilities and qualities of the persons solliciting for sentences fees Orders references and others things requisite in such case the party by a kind of Apotheosis was made a Saint and a place assign'd him in the Calender Of this extraction were the famous St. Cuthbert St. Guthlac St. Dunstan St. William St. Swithun St. Tibba St. Thomas of Canterbury St. Thomas of Lancaster St. Winisniâ—d St. Hugh and infinite more who for money had their names put into the rolls of Glory and their fames and merit celebrated and supplicated here on Earth I find that great endeavours were used to have Robert Grosthead the renowned Bishop of Lincoln sainted and particularly King Edward the first laboured it by an express unto the Pope for that purpose Rot. Rom. An. 34 Ed. 1. but nothing could prevail in regard he had so signalized himself against the corruptions of the Church and times then when as Becket Anselme Hugh of Lincoln and multitudes more were Canonized for money or something they had done signally and meritorious for the Papacy But this King had better success in his sollicitation to the Pope for the Cononization of Thomas de Cantelupe Bishop of Hereford then deceased famed for a multitude of miracles as was suggested Tho. Walsing in Ed. 1. fo 11. Thomas Walsingham abounds in the celebration of him and his miracles Mart. Westm in Ed. 1. but more modestly than the Monk of Westminster who ascribes to him no less then 163 miracles and others many more too many in all conscience to be believed or here remembred in particular But of such esteem it seems he was Godw. in vita ejus that this King Edward the first to obtain the benefit of his Prayers and intercession in Heaven for himself and his Realm according to the perswasion prevailing in those ignorant times sent his Letter of request to Pope John 22. to have him a Canonized Saint to which the Pope after some dealing withal for that purpose was at last wrought But for the King's Letter being still preserv'd amongst our Records and which we conceive may be acceptable to some to peruse we will take the liberty to transcribe Sanctissimo in Christo Patri Domino Divina Providentia Sacrosanctae Romanae ac universalis Ecclesâ—ae Summo Pontifici Claus 33 Ed. 1. m. 3. dorso De translatione S. Thomae de Hereford Edwardus eadem gratia Rex Angliae c. devota pedum oscula beatorum Pium justum esse censetur ut sicut gloriosus Deus in Sanctis suis in Majestate mirabilis Ministros fideles suos magnificat altis decorat honoribus coelestis efficit beatitudinis possessores in coelis Sic Sacrosancta Romana Ecelesia vestigia ipsius prosequens eos ad quorum memorias ipse Deus suae virtutis potentiam manifestat signa ac prodigia faciens pro eisdem digno venerationis offlcio laudari glorificari studiis sollicitis honorari efficiat in terris ut per hot fides catholica roboretur idem altissimus qui laudabilis est in saecula glorificetuâ— amplius laudetur ac ex hoc salutis nostre causam miserecordius miseribilius operari dignetur Cum itaque Thomas dictus de Cantilupo Ecclesiae Herefordensis Antistes qui nobili
purpose we must know that after the Power of the Bishops of Rome came to some consistency in the world and the Pope began to look upon himself as a spiritual Prince or Monarch he presently began to attempt to give Laws to Nations and People as a badge of his Soveraignty but then well knowing That ubi non est condendi authoritas ibi non est parendi necessitas he would not impose those Laws at first peremptorily upon all People but offered them timide and precario and in such places where he presumed they would find the freest reception and in order to this at first he caused certain Rules to be collected for the Order and Government of the Clergy only which he called Decreta and not Laws or Statuta and these Decrees as they were called were first published in the year 1150 in the raign of our King Stephen and whereas Sr. Edward Coke Sr Ed. Coke Pref. aâ— 8. Relat. in the Preface to the eighth Report sayes that Roger Bacon the learned Fryer saith in his Book de impedimentis Sapientiae That King Stephen forbad by publick edict that no man should retain the Laws of Italy then brought into England we may with some assurance intend it of these Decrees about that time compil'd and publish'd And these were received Keilways Rep. 7 Hen. 8. fo 184. and observed by the Clergy of the Western Churches only for those of the Eastern Churches would never admit these Rules or Canons Afterwards the Bishops of Rome attempted to bring the Laity also under the obedience of these Canons and for that purpose they first began with Rules or Canons about abstinence and dayes of Fasting to be observed by the Laity Maâ—sil Pat. lib. Defens Pac. pa. 2. c. 23 Durard Rat. Di. l. 4. c. 6 7. as well as Clergy which at the first institution were termed by that mild word Rogationes and thence the week of Fasting before the Feast of Pentecost came to be called Rogation week in regard this time of Abstinence was at first appointed by an Ordinance called Rogatio and not Praeceptum or Statutum When the Laity had swallowed this Ordinance of Fasting then De una praesumptione ad aliam transivit Romanus Pontifex as Marsil Pata hath it that is the Bishop of Rome proceeded to make and publish several other orders by the name of Decretals and these were published about the year 1230. An. 14 Hen 3. Mat. Paris in Hen. 3. fo 417. and made or proposed to bind all the Laity as well Princes as their Subjects in several matters relating to their Civil and Temporal concerns As That no Lay-man should have the Donation of Ecclesiastical Benefices That no Lay man should marry within certain degrees out of the degrees limited by the Levitical Law That all Infants born before Espousals should after Espousals be adjudged Legitimate and capable to inherit That all Clarks should be exempt from the Secular Power and divers more such like But then we must know that these Decretals so made were not intirely and absolutely receiv'd in all parts of Christendom but only at first in the Temporal Territory of the Pope which on that account is call'd by the Canonists Patria Obedientiae but wholly rejected in England France and other Christian Countreys which thence are sometimes called Patriae consuetudinariae as resolving to adhere to their old Laws and Customs As the Canon that prohibits Donation of Benefices per Laicam manum was always disobeyed in England France the Realm of Naples and divers other Countrys The Canon to legitimate Infants born before marriage was specially rejected in England when in the Parliament held at Merton Stat. de Merton An. 20 Hen. 3. Omnes Comites Barones una voce responderunt Keilway 7 H. 8. fo 181. b. Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari quae hucusq usitatae sunt c. The Canon that exempted Clerks from the Secular Power was never observed fully in any part of Christendom Infallible arguments that these Canons received not the force of Laws from the Court of Rome as if that had power to give Laws to all Nations without their respective consents but the approbation and usage of the People received them as they pleased partially and specially as to Places Times and parts of those Canons and for the same reason that some rejected one others did more and some all of them as Bodin says Bodin de Repub lib. 1. cap. 8. That the Kings of France upon erecting of their Universities there declare in their Charters that the Profession of the Civil and Canon Laws may there be receiv'd and used according to discretion but not to bind as Laws Now when the Bishop of Rome perceived that many of his Canons were embraced in several Countreys under colour thereof he claim'd Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within those Realms with power to interpret and dispence with his own Canons and for that purpose sent his Legates about with Commissions to hear and determine causes according to those Laws which upon their first exhibition Marsil Pat. ut supr pa. 2. c. 23. as is before noted he durst not call Laws or Statuta ne committeret crimen laesae Majestatis in Principes as Marsil Patav observes who further says that these Canons inasmuch as they were made by the Pope neque sunt humanae leges neque divinae sed documenta quaedam narrationes But as is said when he perceiv'd they were allowed and used in part or in whole in divers Countreys they were revised digested and compil'd into Volumes and called Jus Canonicum and being appointed to be read and expounded in publick Schools and Universities they were commanded to be obeyed by all under pain of Excommunication with declaration of the Pope's power to interpret abrogate or dispence with them at his pleasure and thereupon the Canonists say Lib. 6. de Const cap. Licet Papa in omnibus pure positivis in quibusdam ad jus Divinum pertinentibus dispensare potest quia dicitur omnia jura habere in scrinio pectoris sui quantum ad interpretationem dispensationem In the 25th year of King Ed. 1. An Dom. 1297 Tho. Walsing Stow in hoc anno one Simon a Monk of Walden began first to read the Canon Law in the University of Cambridge and the year after it began to be read also in the University of Oxford in the Church of the Friers Praedicants and from that time got ground in England being sometimes admitted and sometimes rejected according to the Ebb or Flow of the Papal interest here but how really this Canon Law was an innovation and usurpation here it is sufficient but to peruse the Preamble to the Statute of Faculties Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. and Dispensations made in the raign of King Hen. 8. to which the Reader is referred As another Branch of the Pope's power in the matters aforesaid we may observe that