King John about an election of a Bishop of Canterbury the King electing John Grey and the Pope Stephen Langton which Stephen Langton was in right of the Pope set up against the Kings election Which case if truly weighed with discretion and due consideration it will neither tend much to disparage the King nor to advantage the Pope in point of claim The busines was briefly thus as it is recorded by feverall Authors domestick and forrain There was a controversie started between the King and the Monks Saint Austins who against the Kings right the opinion of Hubert the Archbishop did withhold the Kings Presenter out of possession of the Church of Feversham insomuch that the King was forced to make use of the posse commitatus and by force to expulse them from their unjust possession which was presently reported to his holinesse who never examining the Kings right did conceive a grudge against King John and as time and opportunity served did vent his spleen against him insomuch as he after the death of Hubert did upon his own score and both against the King the Monks of Christ Church elect Steph. Langton A man that was a great friend and familiarly entertained by the French King who was an utter enemy to King John and whom the Pope had wrought to compass a revenge against King John to prepare a numerous and powerful Army to invade England and this upon no other Quarrell but because King John had by force expulsed the said Monks from their unjust detaining possession of the Church of Feversham pretending that that force which was used for the gaining of the Kings Right was a violation of the Rights and Priviledge of the holy Church and so did make use of that liberty for a cloak of malitiousnesse and not as the Servants of God 1 Pet. 2.16 Stephen Langton And the crafty Pope having thus prepared the French King to flie into hostility against King John he thought he might with more confidence oppose the King in his election of Grey and did after a time work so with the Monkes of Christ Church that they were induced to adhere to the Popes Election of Stephen Langton This Langton saith Mathew Paris was Virum strenuum a man that could exact of the Clergy keep in awe the Laiety and encounter the King and Nobility he was a man after the Popes own heart and therefore such a man must not want a Bishoprick Yet King John did heartily enveigh against his admission and the rather because he was so great a Favorite of the French Kings who then lay at Calice ready to invade him The Pope having thus broke the Kings head by bringing these innumerate troubles and dangers upon him That he might appear to the world to be notwithstanding a Holy Father and one who minded the peace and welfare of Christian soules he gives a plaister to the wound he himself had made and steps in to mediate between the two Kings who then stood in a mutuall posture of Armes ready to expose the lives of many thousands to the hazard of the Sword in this their quarrel which quarrel being meerly fomented by the Pope and not proceeding from nationall interests which was unknown to King John For the French pretended their Invasion upon the score of Kingship and Conquest the Pope knew how to take Philip the French King off because he was meerly put on by him upon his blessing and pardon of sins and promise of the Kingdome of England if he could catch it and upon such promises of reward and such indulgences he had poysoned some of the Nobility of England who thereupon made defection and seemed to incline to the King of France his side The Pope I say stept in as a peace-maker betwixt them and sunt his Legate Pandulphus to King John who insinuating unto him the danger he then stood in and how his Kingdom stood open to a powerfull enemy then ready to invade and was like to be made a prey unto them for that the King went against his Holiness recōmendation of Langton and had violated the priviledge of the holy Church and for this many of his Subjects were in France with the French King ready to engage against him and likewise that there were many in the Host and severall of his Nobility which if it proceeded to a war would desert him and therefore his holinesse out of the love and affection he bore to the King and the tender care of his Christian sons in England came thither to entreat his Majesty which word Majesty though it was not familiarly applyed to our Kings before Hen. 8. time yet it was an antient attribute long before King John as may appear by Bracton Britton and other antient writers to be reconciled to his Holinesse and he would undertake to divert the French and restore a generall quiet and peace to his Realme of England The King warily suspecting the danger of forrain and treachery of Domestick Enemies and wisely recounting with himself the grounds he had to suspect the dangers at hand did for to avoid that mischief more then out of any fear he then stood in of the French King agree to serve the time and did admit of Langton and taking the Legate to Dover with him did there signe a Bull of submission The Golden Bull. by which Bull he acknowledged his Crown to be held of the Popes Myter promising to pay yeerly 1000 marks for England and Ireland to his Holinesse and his successours for ever which promise might have been performed as to that payment would that yeerly stipend have satisfied the Popes and have been allowed as a free donation like to the former grants of Iva offa and Ethelwolf of the yeerly Peter-pence But 't was not that he looked for The crafty Pope having thus wrought his ends against King John got double honour by his enterprise for by his peace made with King John he had utterly spoiled the ground of the French King his Quarrell his Army being raised upon the Score of the Holy Church which the Pope declaring his peace with K. John the French King Philip in great choller partly for that he was thus deluded and partly for that he had lost his Navie which the Ear I of Salisbury had set on fire in the Haven at Calice did retire he now being out of hopes by this Quarrell any further to promote his own interest in respect he found defections at home not onely the English but his own subjects not being willing to engage in a nationall quarrell against England besides the discords of England by this peace made with the Pope being reconciled all hopes of prevailing against K. John forsook him and in a discontented mind rage he retired back to Paris And thus the Pope at once fooled two Kings for the Bull of delusion which was thrown at King John did rebound into the face of King Philip the same Instrument that was
made use of to cheat King John out of his right served likewise to delude King Philip of his vain hopes which Instrument bringing so much honour and profit to the See of Rome was afterwards with great insultation and triumph glased in Gold and was called the Golden Bull and Pope Innocent the third having so good successe against these Kings he procured presently after in a Gouncell of Lâ—teran that the Popes should be declared above Kings as appears in the 14 chapter This is that Magna Charta by which his Holinesse claimes a superintendency in England who please duly to consider will find that it is a thing of scorn and mockery to Rome and of no dishonour or damage to the Crown of England For King John subscribing that Bull and making the Kingdome tributary was against the Law of the Land For the King cannot dispose of those things that are inherent in the Crown much lesse of the Crown it self to make it tributary and this Moore a great Roman Catholike confessed that unless it were by consent of the Nobles And the Commons of the Land it could not bind the successours of the King which is the true Rule of our Law and agreeable to the antient Constitutions of our Land and whereas Steph. Langton was confirmed Bishop that confirmation unlesse it had been by the Kings consent gave him no right to that place for the consent of the Monks to his election without a Conge deslier against the Kings consent who had sole right to collate to the See of Canterbury in respect that of that time the Bishops were not elegible did not at all help the matter for Stephen Langton was admitted anno 1205. and the Roll for making them elegible was not till the 17 of King John which was 12 years after his installment so that had it not been that the King consented to it and did repell his electing of Grey Langton had been an usurper notwithstanding the election of the Monks befides the Monks could not elect him nor any other without the Kings Writ of Conge Deslier This Langton as I have said before was a man so much qualified that he could not want his Holinesse favor for he was a second Hildebrand a meer State incendiary and knew how to trouble the clear waters and make them fit for his Holinesse to fish for gudgeons Pâ—â— Favors Railors And would the Doctor but conspire to plot some mischief against his mother Country no doubt he might be preferred as Allen was to the dignity of a Cardinall But I hear he is a man of another temper and therefore I much honour him and am sorry he hath betaken himself to the company of those whose respects towards him will grow cold for as he is a meek and sober man he is uselesse to his Holinesse and must never think to find any extraordinary favour or honour from him for it is a Papall maxime not to Canonize Innocents amongst Saints time hath made the Popes experienced and master builders of their Spiritual Babell they are grown Cunning architectors and know how to fit every piece serviceably in the rearing up of the Babilonish Tower The Doctour was presently discovered not to be fit for an ignation of whom it is required to be active stirring and turbulent But he would serve for a Carthusian who spend their time in more confined and retirednesse Ex quovis ligno non fit mercurius But this by the way I return to the Golden Bull. As the installing of Langton had been void notwithstanding the election had not the King consented to a new Conge Deflier so was the donation of that tribute to the Pope void and null notwithstanding the Golden Bull The Golden Bull. which Bull though it received so much honour as to be entombed in Gold and laid up for an everlasting Monument of Romes acquired wealth and dignity Yet in my judgement serves for no other use but to take up a room in the Treasury of their Superstitious Trumperies and instead of being consecrate to the memory of Pandulphus and serves to put posterity in mind of his course imployment to cheat Princes and the Popes wickedness to set him a work about unlawfull designes which when they were at chieved to their desire became of no validity and so this sacred Monument instead of Glory becomes a lasting Record of their shame and foolery I wonder in what forme this Magna Charta was enclosed when it received its Golden-outside The Golden Bull Anno 1217. sure it is was made like a Nut and did thereby Hierogliphick its short continuance for it was not long preserved it proved deaf presently after For that very year it was Sealed King John dyed and Hen. 3d his sonne succeeded him who sent Hugh Biggod a Noble man and others to the Generall Councell at Lyons in France to require that Bull to be Cancelled in respect that it passed not by consent of the Councell of the Realm which the Pope put off for that time under pretence of more weighty affairs and still keeps the same amongst his other Monumentall Trophies nor did England at any time since seek to have the Nut restoâ—ed but waves all interest to it and freely proclaims that any who please may crack it and take the Kernell for their pains By vertue of this grand Charter the Pope had in conceit under his jurisdiction the Kingdome of England but it was but in conceit for he regained no more benefits or vertuall prerogative from thence then the Turk doth who tacitely by his title of being Lord of Europe stiles himself Lord thereof Hen. 3d never paid any tribute nor acknowledged it due nor any of the three succeeding Edwards and Anno 6. R. 2. all the Kingdome willingly bound themselves by a Law to maintain the Crown of England against all Papall citation suspension excommunications and censures whatsoever which they judged free and subject to none save God The power of Magistracy being innate not affixed to England The next Argument the Papists make to prove the Popes Ecclesiastical power in England The King styled Defender of the Faith by the Pope is from Hen. 8. his accepting the style of Defender of the Faith as an honour proceeding from his Holinesse whereby they would perswade that the King is not to meddle with matters of Faith within his own Realms unlesse by deputation or consent of his Holinesse to which I answer I have proved that by the antient Lawes of the Kingdome the King is superintendent within his own Dominions as well in cases Ecclesiasticall as Civill in Scripture Kings are called Nursing Fathers of the Church Isai 49.23 and this right was in the Crown before ever Hen. 8. had it promulged by the Pope for R. 2. in a Commission granted by him used these words Nos zelo fides Catholicae cujus sumus esse volumus defensores in omnibus c. wherefore for the Pope to give this stile
it was superfluous for expressio eorum quae tacite insunt nihil operatur It doth but argue he is covetous and ambitious covetous in that he hereby makes himself master of anothers Interest and ambitious in that he would be thought the Author of Princes dignities As for King Hen. 8. his adding that stile to his other distinguishments of Dignity it did not proceed from any conceit that he could not have stiled himself so had not the Pope saluted him with that courteous appellation But only in respect it was grown into fashion to adde to their temporall Styles some denotement of their ecclesiasticall power as the Emperour of Ethiopia stiles himself the Pillar of Faith without deriving that dignity from Rome It is true the French embrace the stile of Christian and the Spaniard of Catholick King from Rome yet I suppose they might without that be so dignified As for England it is plain that her King may without any donation thereof from Rome for that it is warranted by her antient Lawes and Eleutherius called Lucius Gods Vicar the King was stiled Persona mixta cum sacerdote which was many hundred years known before Hen. 8. Ante 37. Cap. 4. and therefore sith by the antient Lawes of the Land the King is Vicarius sūmus infra Regnas He must nominate or ought to Authorise some by vertue of his power all forrain provinciall Jurisdiction being lockt up by consent of Councels within its proper provinciall precincts to appoint Bishops this antient right being grounded upon Gods Word in that I have proved that the Temporall Magistrate did elect such as should be ordained and therefore for the Doctor to deny us to be a Church because we want succession of Bishops the new ones being appointed by the Temporall Magistrate when as they wanted nothing to compleat their Order seemes to me strange and unreasonall If the Doctor when he denies our succession of Bishops No discontinuance of Succession of Bishops in England when Queen Elizabeth turned out the old ones could prove that the new ones had no Imposition of Hands by Bishops then his Argument touched us something though it be not absolute necessary that Bishops ordain Bishops Ante 33.4 chap. For what if all the Bishops should die so neer at one time that none were left ordained by them shall not the Presbytery make Bishops they have right to the Keyes which are called Claves ecclesiae non episcoporum and they are the remaining Pillars of the Church and certainly may confer the Order of Bishop upon others and that the rather because the Councells forbid Bishops of another Province to ordain in a forrain Province and though it may seeme strange to some that Ministers which are subordinate should ordain Bishops and so confer Superiour Orders it is not if rightly examined contradictory to reason For in this first ordination of Priests and Deacons they are infra ordines majores which orders are called Holy and Sacramentall and are the Highest Orders witness Pope Vrban decret dist 60. sum Sacr. Ro. Eccl. 226. as for the Order of Bishops it is no more then a Priest as to the Holy and Sacramentall Order onely more excellent in respect of the Order of Governing which is rather of Humane then Divine right Priests ordain Bishops for as it is Divine it is no more then what every Priest hath by the Sacramentall order but as it is Humane it is transcendent in relation to Discipline Ante 33.4 chap. and therefore the Presbytery may agree to ordain one over them to govern them in ecclesiasticall Rites as the people may choose a Prince to Govern in civill affairs Hence it was that the Apostles sent John to Ephesus Peter to Antioch and appointed James over the Churches at Hierusalem which before such their Consignations were but equal with the other Apostles in every respect but after that if any other of the Apostles came where they had the over-sight they were observant of them Hence was it that James was prolocutor of the Councel at Hierusalem and not Peter because James was Bishop there I may from thence infer that if Peter came to Rome for the same reason he was observant of Paul and therefore it is conceived that in case of necessity Priests may ordain Bishops for that Bishops in relation to their Jurisdiction are not a Sacramentall Order but onely as they are Priests But if this opinion be by the learned condemned I shall submit and yet with confidence affirme that we may in England claim a Church notwithstanding For when Queen Elizabeth turned out some Popish Bishops those that were put into their roomes were ordained by the remaining part of the old Bishops For all the old Bishops were not turned out then nor in Hen. 8. his time For first in Hen 8. time the controversie was about Supremacy which question the Insolencies of the Pope occasioned though I doe not justifie that Prince for all he did and being once started it gave occasion of further scrutiny into the primitive Fathers and Councels Reformation of England Infra 55.5 chap. which did so far perswade the Consciences of the then Clergy that many of them did adhere to the Prince against the Pope and by that and other after inquisitions they found they had primitive right of calling Councels and reforming things amisse in their Church without appealing to Rome and thereupon having the authority of Scriptures Councells and Fathers they restored to themselves their just rights and shook off their servile obedience to the See of Rome which the Popes continued over them by keeping them up in ignorance not allowing them their own judgements and illumination ecclesiasticall to understand the plain letter of any thing be it never so far demonstrated to the easiest capacity without his Holinesse interpretation and having thus shaken off that slavish yoke of Rome the scales of blind obedience fell from their eyes and they clearly perceived the Popes false cunning and damnable abusings of Scriptures Fathers Councels and what not thorow his unjust usurpations of universality and infallibility whereby he became a new Legislator of Divine rules of Faith which had in them too much of grosse and fleshly compositions tending meerly to enslave Christendome and to set up the Popes triple Crown for all the people to worship thereby making them forsake Christ and his Truth for the fables and traditions of that abominable Idoll And as In Hen. 8. time all the Bishops were not turned out so neither at the coming of Queen Elizabeth to the Crown but continued in their Bishopricks excercising their function ordaining others as formerly onely the Archbishop of York the Bishops of Elie Lincoln Bath Worcester and Excester were outed and the Bishops of Saint Asaph Bangor London and Chester fled the rest continued and ordained others The Queen her self being Enaugurated by Bishop Oglethorp one of Queen Maries Bishops and Bishop of Carlisle and Parker the Arch-bishop
to the voice of his Priests calling unto him in truth and sincerity yet where he is an absolute Prince he is not to be called to an account by them or the people who have submitted themselves to be governed by him but in such a case Preces lachrymae sunt arma Ecclesiae according as S. Ambrose witnesses in his Orat. contr Auxent l. 5. And this was the practice of the Priests under the Law and according to Christ's own practice whilst he was upon the earth and according to the precepts he left to his Apostles for them to walk by and according to the Rules of those Apostles prescribed to others as examples for their imitation and according to the ancient practice of the Primitive Church So that for the Pope upon any pretence to dethrone Kings is not warrantable but utterly against all truth recommended unto us by these faithful witnesses Christ Jesus our Saviour the onely Son of the ever-living God King of heaven and Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek being both King Priest and Prophet denied all Kingship in this world Joh. 1â— 36 He was by the Jews called Jesus of Nazareth king of the Iews partly in scorn partly to justifie their putting him to death pretending he wronged Cesar and hereunto forging false witnesses Luk. 23. did give him that title But Christ in this was innocent he never wronged Cesar but commanded his Tribute and those things that belonged to Cesars to be given to Cesar Matth. 22. Shall Christ Jesus a Priest a King and a Prophet give tribute to Cesar and will not the Bishop of Rome allow it Shall the Jews be so tender of Cesars right though an Heathen and but the second over them and that by Conquest that they would not spare Christ himself upon pretence that he should call himself King and will not his Holiness vouchsafe that Christian Kings and Princes may enjoy their Rights and Prerogatives He may plead for his excuse herein the Heathens Apophthegm Si jus violandum est certe regnandi causa violandum est and by that Rule adorn his own Temples if his triple Turbant be not weight enough with all the Crowns upon earth But I am sure he cannot plead any Christian practice or president either out of the Old or New Testament to warrant his action He must not think that that late invention of the Jesuites forged upon the Anvile of their own brain to please their master his Holiness to wit That after a King is excommunicated he ceases to be a King and no subjects owe obedience to such an heretical Prince will be a sufficient excuse for his dethroning any such an one Aquinas Papists Objections for the Popes power to dethrone and a Councel of Laterane have adhered to this distinction and did to justifie their opinion cite for an evidence and proof the example of Hildebrand against H. 4. To which I answer De facto ad jus non valet consequentia Aquinas was 1200 yeers after Christ and was the Popes vassal and overtaken with the errors of his time and he did not alleadge any warrant from the Scripture for this his opinion and therefore being a thing of novelty upon the Papists own rules is to be rejected As for the Councel of Laterane Councel of Laterane call'd 1215 which set Popes above Kings it was called at the beck of Innocent the third he being at that time at odds with the Emperour Otho with John King of England with Peter King of Arragon the Earl of Tholouse and divers others and at that time this Juncto consisting of eight hundred Covent-Friars and their Vicars who ought not to have sate there to please their great master overcame four hundred Bishops not with strength of Reason but Voices where he likewise was with his Court to over-awe them And therefore when any thing of Papal interest is to be passed by Councel this place is ever pitched upon as most convenient for that his Holiness is at hand either with fair means to allure or with threats to force the opposers to condescend to his desires Hence was it that in a Councel here anno 1056 Pope Nicolas the second was not afraid to broach the doctrine of Transubstantiation And here Pope Innocent the third did ratifie that doctrine And here first was hatched that other tenent of the Popes Supremacie over Councels Wherefore this being a Laterane-Decree â—it ought to be of the less credit and that the rather because the thing in question was the Popes own parâ—cular case who being at that present in open defiance against those Princes it was for flattery to the Pope and for necessity of State thereby to divert many from joyning with those Princes against his Holiness who if the differences amongst them were not appeased were like to sit too heavie upon his Holiness skirts declared that his Holiness was above kings And for this they instance the president of Hildebrand's excommunicating H. 4. and his successor Paschalis deposing him Now these things considered I leave it to the Reader whether to give credit to that Councel or the Councel of Mentz which deposed all the Clergie which joyned with Hildebrand it being an unwarrantable act in Hildebrand to oppose the Emperour and was by Sigebert called Novellum Schisma and Sigebert wrote above five hundred yeers since and therefore according to the Papists rules that which is later is less to be credited in those points wherein it differs from the ancient profession And sith there is no warrant from Scripture for the decree of this Councel or the opinion of Aquinas I hope there is no judicious Christian but will adhere to that of Mentz and not in his judgement approve of the Laterane Councel which was of more puisne time and strave in all things to please the Pope and that the rather because Otho Frisigensis lib. 6. cap. 35. and Vincentius and divers others concurred with Sigebert and the Councel of Mentz in this opinion whose resolutions in this point are grounded on Gods Word but the Decree of Laterane on mans will and therefore none may submit his judgement to be deluded with the erroneous and unwarranted decrees thereof The Jesuites therefore thinking this too weak a prop to support so weighty a Potentate as they would fain make his Holiness to be Objections out of the Old Testament answered wave their confidence in this and flee to their last refuge to wrest and abuse the Scriptures under pretence of Ecclesiastick power of interpretation and therefore they cite some presidents out of the Old Testament which they mis-apply and would fain have them mis-understood As for example They would prove by the examples of Saul Jeroboam Joash Athaliah and Ahab being put from their kingdom by the High-Priests to be a warrant for the Popes dethroning of what Prince he pleaseth to account wicked Whenas those presidents rightly understood make nothing for the Popes pretended power herein but rather
Joseph of Arimathea is not certainly known to have come whether from Rome from Paul or from Philip out of France or immediately from the East it is no great matter for by the confession of the Church of Rome we had the true faith amongst us before Eleutherius time and had Pastors then and since have continued a lawfull succession of governing Bishops Succession of Bishops in England even to the last late reverend father William of Cant. and whereas the Dr. twits against our succession of Bishops that we cannot maintain it unlesse we fetch it from Rnme I answer that we being a distinct Province the Bishop of Rome hath no power of Ordination here for by the Councell of Nice the 22. Can. a Bishop is not to ordain in anothers Diocesse Et si quis tale facere tentaverit irrita sit ejus ordinatio and though we be different of late from Rome and that it were time we had our order of Episcopacie from thence yet the late Bishops which were so different from Rome might ordain others within their own Province though Hereticks for that as I said before Haereticus est pars Ecclesiae Moreover it is decreed in the Councell of Florens that ordo imprimit characterem indelebilem therefore children baptized by an heretick are not to be rebaptized which the Councell of Trent hath decreed against the opinion of Cyprian Nam licet male utuntur potestate ministri sibi tradita prosint aliis non sibi Sicut enim per asinam Balaam loquutus est Deus ita per malos ministros Sacramenta praestat And Sum. Sacr. Rom. eccl Sect. 136. Episcopi haeretici veros ordines conferent vera praestant Sacramenta So that by the rules of the Papists themselves we notwithstanding we be hereticks or Schismaticks yet having once lawfull orders which gave an indelible character and in that a power of conferring the same upon others as long as we remain Christians and believe in the holy and blessed Trinity though we differ in other points yet we remain still members in the Catholick Church and have a power of conferring orders and I much wonder the Doctour should be so harsh against our Hierarchy unlesse he sometimes made a bait to fly at a Bishoprick and being canvassed in Peters net it stirred up some atra bilis which since would never be allayed he is so much incensed against it that he utterly denyes our succession upon the interruption of Romane Bishops in H. 8. and Queen Eliz. time for my part his allegations against it do not much trouble me nor I hope will they find entertainment with many sith they carry with them no more weight then the bare opinion of himself he positively affirming upon his own authority that our ministers are not in legal Orders insomuch that if one of our Priests came to Rome he must be ordained a new which if it be true it is contrary to the decrees of Popish Councells and will be a sufficient testimony to the world to convince them of falshood and jugling with the world that they should profess one thing and practise another to declare in Councells that a Heretick confers true and perfect orders and yet will not in their practice allow of it however for them to affirm us Hereticks is to beg the question and therefore we may safely within our own province continue a succession of Orders without any approbation of theirs at all nor is this any more then of right is due to us as may appear by the 1 Councell of Nice Provincial Ordination of Bishops 4 Can. a Bishop ought to be ordained by the severall Bishops of the Province but if they cannot conviently all meet to this purpose then three shall serve to perform the ordination which is also confirmed by the Councell of Antioch 19 Can. and the Councell of Carthage 13 Can. and it is the opinion of some learned Divines that in case of necessity the Ministers may Ordain where Bishops are wanting for that the Presbytery or Ministry have right to impose hands and the Keyes are said to be Claves ecclesiae non claves episcoporum seu presbyterorum Infra 43.5 chap. yet God be blessed England was never put to this strait we still had a continuing succession of Bishops notwithstanding the deprivation of the Popish Prelates and so according to that Canon did ordain in our own Precincts which as it is of right our due and belonging to us so it is likewise practised and hath been the antient Custom of other Provinces as wel as this as the Eastern Provinces ordain without the assistance of Rome and in these Western parts even in France and Germany and other places which right of Ordination being thus by decrees of the Generall Councels annexed to distinct Provinces I much wonder the moderate Papists of France and Germany should suffer themselves to be trampled upon by the Ignatian tribe sworn Servants to the imperious Pope who dayly exercises strange dominion over them making no other use of them then the Turk doth of his slaves to wit to do his drudgery whilst he himself reaps the fruits of their labours It argues a cowardly spirit to be afraid to right themselves herein because some of their Princes have fallen in the attempt amongst whom the 4th Henries of both Countries were sacrificed to the ambition and rapine of the encroaching Popes such horrid attempts as these should rather stir up their noble spirits to a just revenge upon the bloudied conclave for putting into act such cursed designes then through the base treachery of an ignoble nature slavishly to submit themselves to the Antichristian yoke of Rome when as if they would noblely withstand his unjust intrusions upon them they might restore to themselves a Church free from such Babylonish bondage and in some commendable measure imitate the heavenly Hierusalem which is above free and the Mother of us all For though their Consciences be not convinced of Romes Errours yet they may having distinct Provinces within themselves hold Councels ordain Bishops and performe other ecclesiastical rights and duties without being appointed thereunto from Rome or being commanded to give an account thither of their proceedings therein The Bishop of Rome being onely equal to other Sees in a Pastorall institution and lockt up within certain provinciall precincts by decrees of the primitive Councels and let them be sure of this as long as they continue themselves Saints to the Church of Rome they shall be sure to be fed with step-mothers shives whereas if th y would put their Churches under natural and proper heads of their own they might be sure to find more indulgent cherishing and tender care whereby they would in the eyes of their husband look more comely and the French Lillies would more neerly represent Christ his Spouse But I return to the Doctor The Doctor urges that our succession of Bishops in England was last for that it was interrupted by
but was reduced back and centred again in its own proper sphear and that not by any compulsive power but as if the succeeding Pope Adrian had felt som compunction of Spirit for detaining that which of Right belonged to the Civill Magistrate he did freely and by consent of a Councell at Lateran give power to Charles the Great to appoint the Bishop of Rome and to dispose of his See Apostolick which so remained in him and his Successours for a long time and since diverse Popes of Rome by vertue hereof have been deposed as Benedict 5th by Otho the first and Leo placed in his roome and Gelasius deposed by Hen. 5. and several others which came not in in right of the Emperours as may appear by the German and Italitan Histores wherefore the pretence of some Popes Parasite that Ludovious Pius successour to Charles the Great should release this priviledge of Collation back again is vain and utterly false as is evident by these transactions of succeeding Ages The Romans bound themselves to Henry 3d the Emperour by Oath not to meddle with the appointing the Emperour which after within four years when the Emperour was absent was violated the Clergy of Rome choosing Stephen 9th anno 1057. which being but an usurpation in the Clergy so to doe the Cardinalls thought they had as much right as those Clergy-men and therefore upon the Rule that one Thief may rob another did by the assistance of Pope Nicholas 2d and Hildebrand his Cardinal Chaplain take it to themselves so that whosoever is Pope by their Election hath no right to the Chair for that the Title of the Cardinalls is surreptitious and illegall in its Commencement Et quod ab initio valet in tractu Temporis non convaliscat For the Pope being a Spiritual man ought not to plead possession when as his claim is by Intrusion and prescribe he cannot for that these Records are extant to the contrary since therefore by primitive right and by reduction after a separation thereof and that made good by Authority of Pope and Councell and after by Oath confirmed it doth belong to the Emperour of the West or the King of France to appoint the Bishop of Rome Let the present Emperour look to his Right as he will be served and let him beware of too long a discontinuance of this priviledge for should the gnawing rusty teeth of time worm-eat and rase all his Records and Testimonies that prove him a right to this Collation he shall never repair his losse when as he may be sure the Vactitan Hill shall be stored with old and new additions to the Bishop of Rome a right to appoint Germany an Emperour And as the Emperour had right to Collate to the See of Rome so likewise had he the same right to other Metropolitan Sees of Germany till over looking his Right to Rome the rest fall from him according to the Rule Dato uno absurdo mille sequuntur But I return back to England and will shew what right the Civill Magistrate hath to appoint Bishops in England without consent of the Pope By the Antient Lawes and Constitutions of this Kingdome The Kings of England appoint Bishops without the Pope the King was Patrone of all the Bishopricks in the Land for the Rule is Patronum faciunt dos edificatio fundus they were all donative and of the Kings gift Per traditionem annuli Pastoralis baculi as appears by the Law-books 7 Edw. 4. Cook 10. Report 73. and Matthew Paris History fol. 62. The King by Edward the Confessours Lawes cap. 19. is declared to be Vicarius which was long before acknowledged by Eleutherius in his Epistle before recited summus persona mixta cum sacerdote Constitutus est ut Populum dominii super omnia ecclesiastica Regat By the Judges of old it was declared that Papa non potest mutare leges Angliae none can Found or Erect a Colledge Church Abbey c. without the Kings Warrant Dyer 271. the Priviledges of the Church were growing out of the Civil Magistrates power and therefore by the Articles Super clerum made 9 Edw. 2. no suite was to be before the Bishops for any matter whatsoever but a prohibition lay and there it is expressed in what cases it shall be allowed 16 Edw. 3. Excom 4. and 2 R. 3.22 Excom by the Pope is no disability of any suit within this Kingdome which resolutions are grounded upon the Common Law of this Kingdome which Common Law is but certain reasonable Customes and usages of the Land refined by the experience of succeeding Ages and drawn into forme by Edward the Confessor which gathered it out of Divine natural and moral principles and as I said the antient reasonable usages of the precedent Ages and that the King is by antient Custome Vicarius sumus and with the advice of his nobles did appoint Bishops is proved by Eleutherius who was the first Bishop of Rome that ever had any entercourse concerning Church affaires in this Land which was onely to assist and further the Ministry but in no means to take from the King what was his right or what formerly belonged to him nor was this Antient right ever invaded till Beckets businesse that I can find 't is true that some strangers were sent hither and recommended by the Bishop of Rome to be by him preferred to English Benefices which were out of courtesie accepted but this did not prove any right of Collation in the Bishop of Rome at all nor did ever he set up his pretence to that Right till Hen. 2. time Which quarrel the advantage of the troubled times did occasion not the Justice of the Popes Cause to spur him to clear his title thereto he knew well enough that the King had the sole Power and just Title without him to set up what Bishops he pleased And whereas it may be objected that the Bishops of England are elegible it is true they are so but that was by the consent of King John for before that they were not elegible but were made elegible by a Roll 15 Jan. 17. of K. John but notwithstanding that grant is so restrained that they cannot be elected without the Kings Writ of Conge Deslier As for the Pope excommunicating the King about Beckets quarrell Tho. Becket that doth not prove the Popes power so to do For to argue de facto ad jus brings with it an absurd consequence it pleased the King to submit to it not being able to oppose the Factions then stirred up against him Infra 90. 11 chap. But it cannot from thence be evinced that the Kings voluntary submission out of policy of State doth make the Popes claim to excercise that power in anothers Province lawfull I have more at large treated of this particular businesse in the 11 chapter to which I refer you But the main businesse insisted upon by the Papists is the grand contest between Innocent the third and
third another way c. and so being meandred upon the waves of severall opinions it is by chance if any of them bottom upon mount Sion What good Christian of Apostolicall Faith looks upon Rome as she now is and hangs not his Harp upon the Willowes and with the children of Israel by the waters of Babylon sit down and weep to remember Sion Sion at unity within it self and Babylon full of strife envie Papists differ about the Keyes and debate Sanders maintains that S. Peter received both temporall and spirituall power by the Keyes not so saith another Jesuite affirming the power of the Keyes to be alia à civili potestate Baronius affirms that the Pope may positively dispose of Kingdomes Bellarmine not so but onely in ordine ad spiritualia Cauterenus saith that this power was given when Christ said to Peter Quaere Ante 2. Thou art Peter c. de sacra Christi lege lib. 3. Bellarmine de Rom. Pontif. lib. cap. 12. that it was not given untill the treble passe But of this more at large in the 9th chapter why should any be so lame as to allow to Rome this prerogative sith she cannot tell how to revive her Title to it I might instance in many more differences of this nature amongst the Papists themselves wherein they dissent one from another nor are these differences onely betwixt Cardinall and Cardinall Doctor and Doctor but the Church of Rome against the Church of Rome differing from the ancient Fathers and primitive Church nay point-blank contradicting their own modern Contestation of Popish Generall Councels as I shall shew in the ninth Chapter neither are the differences amongst them of small consequence but in the most concerning points of Religion as whether the holy Ghost proceed more principally from the Father or the Son about meritum congrui about the thing designed by the word hoc est Corpus about the conception of the Virgin and all high matters of Divinity and are not of any small importance For whereas the Doctor would perswade us fol. 236. that these are not differences in point of Faith the Church having not interposed her Decree and in the mean time without breach of Unity one Doctour may differ against another in point of Reason which is but to guide to a conclusive Faith so by the same reason no Church but is at Unity for in their Councells they may conclude points of Faith and in the intervals of Councels wrangle about the Reasons of those points and yet by the Doctors Logick are at unity because the reasonings of private men If they hold against their Decrees why doth she not punish them as Hereticks and if the points be of importance and the Church doth not interpose her Decree Infra 92.11 chap. she then suffers those contentions to be amongst her own Saints and then drawes on her a suspition of a false Church because she seeks not peace and truth to preserve the unity of spirit and bond of peace for discords are not musicall in the heavenly ear and if she be not afraid to loose a Faction by displeasing them should she interpose her Decree or else have some such like worldly end why doth she suffer those contentions daily to grow which whilst she doth not rectifie it administers just occasion to others to deny her to be a true Church in respect of her unity and they have very much reason to induce them thereunto as I shall shew anon in the nineth Chapter I am loath to rifle into this matter could I otherwise avoid it Sanctity of life no mark of the Church of Rome's truth I desire rather to lay open the errors of the Chair then to tax the persons possessing that Seat I would reprove the Heresie of Rome but not the Bishop I doe not maligne a Papist but only Popery And now that I must goe about to lay open the fulnesse of these men otherwise the Doctor will take it for granted that I subscribe to that mark of of Romes truth that she hath none but godly and sanctified Pastors it goes against my nature If I seem satyricall blame the Doctor who provoked me hereunto by this false position of his and by an unworthy upbrading of the Crown of England by his cutting Crosse capers upon the dust of one of our Royall Monarchs whereas he is forbid to speak evill of dignities Judge 8. the Prophets boldly reproved Princes 2 Kings 58. but it was to reclaim their Vices not to traduce their persons they may be reproved being alive when as by that means amendment may be wrought upon them or else by vexation they will be grieved Against Ruling Princes but these ends cannot be in any reproving of a person that is Dead Saint Paul withstood Peter to his face but backbiting defileth a mans own soul Eccles 21.28 yet the Doctor not caring for to follow these Presidents takes a liberty to himself to rake in the quiet Urn of a deceased Prince and with insultation to inscribe a new Epitaph Here lies no King The Doctor his injury to Henry 8. Kings being called Gods but such an one as the Poets fain Jupiter who was transformed into a Beast for the Love of Women which unworthy act of the Doctors gives me occasion to say of him as Saint Jude saith of false Prophets As beasts without reason they speak evill of these things they know not It is reported that when Silla set one on work to kill Marius when the Vassall came to put into execution that bloody command he beheld such Majesty in his face that his conscience presently was prict with the horrour of the act his heart failed him his flesh trembled and his hand knew not how to mannage that black instrument which should have pierced that noble Cask and let his Royall liquor to the ground And no lesse Majesty as our Stories mention dwelt in the Princely countenance of our noble Henry so that should the Doctor have appeared before him as a traducer of his worthy and noblenesse with one majestick frown he would have sent his Satyricall spirit to the infernall shades to study invectives Principem populi non maledices was Moses precept Exod. 22. and Saint Paul appears of that rule Acts 23.5 and by the 74 Cann of the Apostles a severe censure was to be against any that should be called Contumeliosus in Magistratum So that the Doctors reviling of Hen. 8. is on his part inexcusable now let me examine whether I may not incur the same censure by setting forth the Errours of the Romane Bishops and I conceive under favour I may not 1. Because I doe it not out of any malignity towards their persons but their Profession of Vice under the hood of godlinesse and infallibility 2. Because whilst she perswaded others of the truth of her Church for the mark of sanctity of life and yet her Bishop the visible Head of that Church is evill they hereby
the standard of the cross and an army of horsmen in glittering armor appeared whose harness did dazle the eyes and whose number struck terror into the hearts of the adverse party But here in England they could do no such feats It may be that where people give up themselves to believe in them deceivable wonders their priests as having a power from Hildebrand Gregory the sixth Silvester and the old Magician Popes may do strange wonders as the Doctor confesses folio 253. wonders may be done by the power of Antichrist but certainly such cannot before the eys of true believers in Christ shew any wonders at all And here I desire to remember a story of a Vestal Nun in Spaine which was cryed up for miracles insomuch that when the late King of England King Charles was there he was over-intreated by the Infanta to go to see her it was reported to the King that sometimes she would be lifted up in the aire and be as fresh as a Rose though she was furrowed with age The King came with the Infanta to her but she could not do any one feat before the King though she could never have shewen her miracles in a better time The King was of too strong a faith for her spirit to work upon and therefore could she shew none then crede quod habes habes All the answer I can give to the supposed mark of miracles is that no good Catholique can well deny to credit them for if he believe the Church of Rome to be the only Catholique Church and the Pope the head of the universal Church and sticks to believe these stories strives at a gnat and swallows a Camel let him never leap at blocks and stumble at strawes Yet lest the Doctor should think that I have given up my self to hardness of heart because I am so hard of belief in this point I will shew him my reasons for it I know many of her miracles are false and the Church of Rome hand over head has recorded the false ones with the true ones and as the proverb is We know not how to believe a lyar when he speaks truth The Doctor confesses fol. 253. that all her miracles are not true and if she have Cataloguised the false ones together with the true ones we know not how to distinguish them if I had not the Doctors own confession that some are false yet I should not seem rash to any indifferent man in that I taxe the Church of Rome of false miracles for that her teachery and cozenage in this point hath been detected in this particular it being but held forth to the blind people that they being struck into admiration of their wonderful power might with fear and reverence become devotaries to their miraculous instruments offering freely to those Antique Gods by which cheat the Clergy obtained no small riches Infra 13. ch 113. For proof hereof be pleased to take a veiw of her miraculous images here and hereafter in the chappel of Radcaeus There is a marble Image at the Castle of Saint Angelo in Rome Images to delude the people which when Gregory came in procession with the painted image of the Virgin Mary which he carryed in procession that marble image bowed it self to the image of the Virgin in the presence of the people sung out a loud Allelujah regina caeli letare and thereupon S. Infra 113.13 chap. Gregory made the prayer Ora pro nobis Deum allelujah c. For my part I believe this for belike that image was made like to the image of Saint Grimbald in the Abby of Boxley in Kent which was fastened to a pillar by a private pin and a man stood privately behind the pillar and by plucking out of the pin it might be lifted up by a boy which posture they exercised to any that freely offered and if one came niggardly offering it was immoveable by which trick the people were made believe when the Image would yeeld to be taken up that their sins was pardoned by reason of satisfaction made by their offering There was another Image in the said Abbey which is more neerly comparative with the marble Image of Saint Angelo which was made of such curious contrivings that by certaine wyers a man standing within it might make it frown simile bow nod the head c. by which postures those which came to offer knew when they had made satisfaction for their sin by the pleasantness and acceptance of that carved god or if they were penurious and sparing in their offerings that nimble contrivance of foolery gave them some denotement of his displeasure and the priests were ready to interpret heavy judgements to befall them or by the similes of that image which onely a golden Wyer procured to assure them of Gods mercy towards them and that God signified that to them by his Saint there standing by which Cheat they got no little advantage The like cheating and Idolatry was exercised by means of a Rood at Ashhyrst in Kent and in several other places of this Kingdom of England By which it is evident that the use of Images was not as the Doctor would perswade us onely to put us in mind of the things by them represented but rather to perswade the people they were the very immediat instruments of God to signifie his will unto us did thereby perswade the people into adoration of them And yet lest the Doctor 's Arguments for their retaining in the Church might seem with some to be unanswerable by me should I pass this point so slightly and overly condemning the use of them because they were abused and lest I should run into an errour with those which upon that score cry down Bishops which if as they ought to be are both a shelter and ornament to the Church and in my poor judgement they may as well deny the Apostleship because there was a Judas amongst them I will not therefore from the abuse of any thing utterly condemn all use thereof It rests therefore to examine how far the use of them may be lawful The Science of Painting and Carving is an Art profitable for mans life and is the gift of God Images how far lawful It is profitable to the memorial of things done and to that purpose have the Pictures and Monuments of Noble-men been used through all ages being a grateful memory of those they represent And this Art and Curiosity of Workmanship being an adorning and graceful beautifying of any buildings the Temples in old time were made sumptuous therewith which by the Heathen Persecutors were as the Psalmist witnesses broke down with axes and hammers by the enemies of the Church Yet that amongst those curious Pieces there were any representations of the Godhead it doth not appear but rather the contrary For it is impossible for humane flesh to draw any thing that shall represent God by any corporeal or finite image who is
the Decrees of the Provincial he was to appeal to the General Council within a yeer And by the Council of Antioch can 13. if any thing of controversie did arise in any Province and the Metropolitane could not in his Provincial Synod decide the matter the Metropolitane might call upon his neighbour-Provinces for assistance in Council a shame therefore for the Church of Rome to affirm that no Council is of validity without the Pope which canon of the Popes to that purpose is contrary to the practice and doctrine of the Primitive Church Ante Chap. 10. and therefore to be rejected By the ninth canon of the Councel of Antioch the Metropolitane of every Province has the Government of that Province assigned to him By all and every of which canons it is plain that one Bishop should not intermeddle in the Diocess of another Ante Ch. 2 nor one Metropolitane in the Province of another for that every Metropolitane has the government of his own distinct Province committed to him that he may call a council within his own Province and if there the matter in question cannot be determined may desire the assistance of his neighbour-Provincials which makes by that means a general Council by calling in the neighbour-Provincials as the cause shall require and this is declared by these Councils for to be lawful so to do without any reservation to the See of Rome as if without her Provincial this might not be done who by the sixth canon of the first Council of Nice is but equal with Alexandria and Alexandria Antioch Rome and other Provinces have like priviledges reserved to them by the express words of that canon This was the practice of the primitive Churches England equal with Rome and when those constitutions were made and long before was England a province and had her Metropolitane who after King Lucius conversion did publikely exercise the Jurisdiction of a Metropolitane which was 120 yeers before that Council of Nice and by the words of that canon the several Provincials then in being having equal Jurisdiction reserved to them England may by vertue hereof claim equality with the Church of Rome the same Authority making them equal in power and jurisdiction nor had she so much as primacie of Order till the ensuing Council of Constantinople can 2. gave it her onely for honour to the city of Rome and no other respect Nor doth it appear that England had any Suffragan in that Council so that had it not in after-times been confirmed by other Councils England had not been hereunto bound Which council of Constantinople was not called till 26 yeers after the council of Nice So that for the Doctor to alleadge against us as he doth positively in his book fol. 221. that we cannot call a Council seems something strange to me to proceed from a Doctor for it is an argument that he is ignorant of those canons or else if he have read them those copies he has perused are of Rhemish print and much vary from the Originals However I must needs wonder at his harsh censure against his native country and his quondam-mother-Church that he should deny her that priviledge and jurisdiction which is not due to her alone but common to all Provincials which by the authority of Councels and by the practice of the Primitive and by the ensamples of later ages have and do call Provincial Councils within their respective territories and precincts and do there decree Rules of faith to be observed of all within the Province as may appear by these ensuing presidents There was a Provincial Council called at Ancyra in Galitia of eighteen Bishops Provincials called of old and that other of Neocaesaria of fourteen Bishops before any General Council and after the General Council of Nice were held several Provincial Councils in the East as that Council of Grangene of sixteen Bishops that of Antioch of thirty Bishops of several Provinces in the East in which respect it rather deserves the name of a General Council then a Provincial Synod Likewise the Council of Laodicea of several Provinces of Asia Councils held without the Bishop of Rome and this without the Bishop of Rome for he was not to govern the Asian churches but the Bishops of Asia and Alexandria the Churches in Egypt and the Bishop of Pontus them in Pontus according to the Council of Constant can 2. Hereupon likewise the African Province held several Councils under Theodosius the third without any dependencie upon Rome which upon the authority of the Primitive Churches and Councils hath been continued down to these days not onely in those of the Eastern Asian and African Provinces but in other of the Western European Provinces it being a Right equally due to every Province and therefore I need not travel so far for Presidents I might have saved labour and answered the Doctor with presidents neerer home and have instanced in France those of Arles Tours Tholouse c. which Genebrard in his Chronicle lib. 4. anno 814. calls Concilia reformatoria and in Germany those of Worms Mentz Brixia Frankfort Noremberg and Ratisbone And in Spain those of Toledo and one of Sardis called by Osius Bishop of Corduba a little afore the Council of Nice And in England the Councils of London Winchester Gloucester and many and several even to this day the Pope never intermedling in any of them but in most of the afore-mentioned Provincial Councils was opposed and declared upon several questions started that he ought not to intermeddle Provincial Councels not to appeal to the Bishop of Rome nor any Appeals ought from those Provincials to be made unto him it being against the priviledges of the several Provincials to allow of Appeals to him And as it was their ancient Right Ante Ch. 2. so was it maintained by the Princes of later times who like careful nursing fathers would not suffer their Provincial Rights to be invaded by the ambitious and covetous incroaching Popes of Rome Hereupon Ludovicus Pius the Emperour did by publike Edict prohibit all exactions of the Popes which Ludovicus perceiving they began to grow proud upon the freedom and donation his predecessor Charles the Great had bestowed upon them did hereby shew unto the world that the clemencie and indulgencie of the Imperial Crown should not be an occasion to make other Princes suffer in their Ecclesiastical Rights by the Popes of Rome under colour of shelter from the Emperour to invade them in their said Ecclesiastical priviledges belonging to any Provinces within their proper dominions and therefore by publike Edict did the said Emperour prohibit all exactions of the Popes Court within his Realm The like was done in France by Philip the fair prohibiting all Appeals to Rome 1246. and that was confirmed by Charles the 5 and 6. punishing some as traitors for appealing And in the Reign of Charles the 7. was set forth a Decree against the annates reservations
expectations and other proceedings of the Popes of Rome's pretensed Jurisdiction And 't was thought by many that H. 4. would have revived this which many conceive did given occasion to shorten his days And as these Provincials were free and immune without appealing to the See of Rome so had England the same priviledge and jurisdiction nor did she ever in any businesses appeal to Rome she being a distinct Province of old and declared by the Bishop of Rome Eleutherius that the King is Vicarius summus infra Regna might call Councils and by the ensuing Liberties granted to Provincials by the first Councils might make Rules of Faith to which the people by the Princes consent were bound and this to be without appealing to the See of Rome and never before Becket's business Becket's câ—se ante Chap. 4. of which I have already spoken in the fourth Chapter did the Pope intermeddle here Besides that business of Becket was betwixt the King and his own Clergie about a Law made at Clerudun by which Law Ecclesiastical persons were not to be freed by Church-priviledge from murder and one Brock a Monk after committing a murder was by contrivance of Becket and others delivered from publike Justice whereupon the variance began and the Pope excommunicating the King the King was forced through necessity of State at that time to submit yet nevertheless in the Articles made between the King and Pope Alexander at that time it was conditioned amongst other things that the King should suffer the people of England to appeal to Rome as appears by the Annals of those days which is an argument it was not before due to the See of Rome And indeed that it was not due is a truth so manifest and a right and jurisdiction belonging to every Province so unquestionably that I will forbear to insist any further upon this particular and submit to the Reader whether upon what I have here fairly laid down we in England may not call a Council without appealing to the See of Rome For as for that concession of H. 2. it was afterwards declared void it being a thing not properly lying within his conusance compass or capacity to grant being a right inherent in his Provincials and those bare Articles forced through necessity of State from the King could no ways oblige the successors in the See of Canterbury and York but that still notwithstanding there may be Provincial Synods in England for reformation of Schism or reconcilement of Controversies as occasion shall require and that without any allowance or approbation of the Pope of Rome For to argue a claim to the Pope to require Appeals from hence by reason of the Articles between H. 2. and Pope Alexander and that the Provinces of Canterbury and York should be thereby bound is no more reasonable then if the Emperour should condition with a Bishop of Canterbury that the Bishops of Rome should appeal to them which I believe his Holiness would not think should bind him or his successor And for that there was no right to be proved before those Articles I say the case is equally just and therefore as the Bishop of Rome for shame must not claim it from this argument of H. 2. so may we in no other respect grant it but that we as I said before may still without his allowance call Provincial Councils for deciding controversies and correction of Schism and Disorders in our Church I must confess that the Doctor has justly reproved some dissentions and varieties of Opinions amongst us in England Sects in England But that excuse he made for the differences which are amongst the Papists salvs up our sore as well as theirs For as the Doctor fol. 236. says They are but Reasonings of private men and the Church not having interposed her Decree may not be properly said differences of our Church or distracted contradictions in our Articles of Faith For should our Church convene a Synod she would either reconcile the differences or condemn them as Hereticks which dissent from her and after that sentence pronounced they are no more of our Church though they may be said to be in our Church according to that of S. John 1 Joh. 2.19 Si ex nob is essent permanserint nobiscum And let me not appear partial in this point to pass it over barely thus without shewing the reasons the Church of England doth not reform these differences sith before in this Treatise Chap. 5. I have taxed the Church of Rome of errour of negligence in this particular The Church of Rome at present is in so flourishing a condition that nothing can stop her unless the private interest of her Pope hinder her to reform the differences that are in her own Church She may convene a Council without any opposition But such is the distressed condition of the Church of England that on a sudden her â—lilies were over-topped with weeds the Sectaries which fed upon wilde olives gave thereof unto the giddy multitude who were presently like cursed children of old Adam tempted to eat that forbidden fruit and having Liberty promised to be masters and lords of the whole Vintage they claim bargain with the merchandizers of holy wares and presently cry down the ancient Husbandmen of the Vineyard Which strange and unheard-of change struck such amazement in the hearts of the people and caused such struglings in nature to digest this new-tempered Potion she was to drink that the whole body of the Land was severed so that till this fit of her sickness be over her ancient Husbandmen cannot nay must not enter into the Vineyard to prune and dress her and to cut off those extravagant branches which like ill weeds have thriven fast and make the whole Plantation seem out of order Let us therefore pray the Lord of the Vineyard that he would restore her Husbandmen unto her that he would repair her walls which are troden down and make up her hedge that she may no longer be eaten up that in stead of these wilâ—e grapes she may bring forth fruits meet for her Lord and Master and that he would strengthen their hearts in this day of visitation and give them patience to undergo the Cross that 's laid upon them and no doubt but in due time he will give her joy for heaviness and turn the hearts of her persecutors to support with the right hand whom they have buffered with the left This is the Lords doing thus to visit her and would it please him to say to the destroying Angel It is enough would he in mercy turn to his Vineyard and have pity on her would he please to restore her beauty that she might rejoyce in her salvation and and that the world might no longer laugh to see Christs disciples weep Joh. 16.20 Then I dare on her behalf promise she would not be slack to reform the enormities committed against Christ and his Truth And as in the mean time she may not justly
be taxed for negligence herein so neither hath she heretofore been careless in this point It is true according to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.19 that there must be heresies that they which are approved might be known But she was never wanting friendly to admonish and with motherly reasons to perswade her Christian sons to obedience as witnesseth the several publike Conserences had at Hampton and elsewhere which was all that of her self she was able to do Bishops cannot reform without approhation from the Parliament She may decree things in her Convocation and Church-assemblies but they are no binding Rules by the Laws of the Land without the approbation of the Civil power and therefore is it ordinarily that the Convocation sits when there is a Parliament that if there be any new Rules of Faith to be declared they may receive the approbation and allowance of the Temporal Magistrate by force whereof they become obligatory to the people As for the Bishops their sitting in Parliament they do not sit there as Bishops to judge but as Barons they judge as Bishops they onely advise left any Moral Law be made repugnant to Gods Word and so likewise the Judges sit in Parliament to advise lest any new Law be made either in it self irregular or contradictory to the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom but neither the Bishops as Bishops or the Judges sit in Parliament as Judges to decree and vote in the legislation of any new Rule Whereas in old Presidents it is said By assent of the King Bishops siâ— as Barons not as Bishops in Parliament by the advice of the Lords spiritual and temporal c. it is not hereby to be understood that as Spiritual Lords they judged in the making of the Municipal Law onely they were named before the Temporal Lords for that they were the greater number and all Barons or Peers were alike The Bishops Abbots and Priors which had Baronies annexed to them were far exceeding the number of the Temporal Lords as may appear by ancient Rolls there were 27 Abbots and 2 Priors which had Baronies annexed to their Spiritualties by vertue whereof both they and the Bishops which likewise had Baronies annexed to their Sees sate on Parliament in a distinct capacity from the Spiritualty as to the matter of Judicature Now that they were the greater number appears by this The Abbots Priors and Bishops which held by Barony were fifty and there were but few Noble-men of the Laity there were none or few Earls but of the Blood Royal Noble-men in England and therefore to this day they are termed by the Kings Writs Consanguinei nostri in after-time they were made more common insomuch that whereas Alfred had divided the Kingdom into Shires and committed the Government of every Shire and appointed a Lieutenant to every Shire to govern it and to rule and controul the outrageous subjects at home as well as to defend it from forraign enemies That Officer in after-times became a Count and the country over which he was appointed Governour was called a County which since was changed the King taking from the Earl or Count that power he not liking that this power should remain main in one hereditary and which had it not immediately from himself And because the Earl to whom such charge was committed was not so ready to be corrected if he did amiss and that the administration of justice might immediately proceed from the King himself it was therefore taken from the Earl and given to one yeerly appointed thereto who because he did execute that power which the Earl formerly had is called Vice-comes quia vicem Comit is suppleat Mirror cap. 1. sect 3. By which it appears that there were not many Peers of the Laytie And as for any other degrees of Nobility as Duke Marquess Nobility in England or Viscount they were but puisne names of titular dignity and doth not make them Peers or Judges of Parliament unless they have Baronies annexed to them as it is resolved by the Law of England 14 H. 4.7 and therefore in Parliament all Peers votes are equal without distinction of their titular dignities For as for the name Duke there was none in England after the Conquest before the Black Prince Edward son of Rich. 2. nor any Marquess before Robert Earl of Oxford was made Marquess of Dublin by R. 2. nor any Viscount before John de bello monte was made Viscount Bellamont or Beaumont by H. 6. By which it is manifest that the Nobility was but few in ancient time and therefore the Lords Spiritual being the greater number of Peers are named before the Lords Temporal not that they either have any superiority in Judicature or that they sit there as Judges in their Spiritual capacity as may likewise appear by Roll of Parliament 18 H. 3. m. 17. The Bishops sitting in a Convocation at Gloucester were inhibited to meddle of the Temporal state of the King or his Nobles c. upon pain of having their Baronies confiscate for they had distinct capacities as they are Bishops they were not to meddle with Temporal affairs wherefore were they inhibited in that Assembly at Gloucester which was meerly of spiritual men to proceed in matters temporal and as they are Barons and therefore sit in Parliament they may not there judge of things spiritual all transactions of that nature being to receive debate in the Convocation of the Clergie Wherefore it may not be laid to the charge of the Bishops that they sitting in Parliament did not reform the Schisms in the Church for that they were not proper Judges thereof as they sate in Parliament but onely when they sate in the Convocation which Convocation was prevented to be convened according to the old Rules and Customs of this Nation by the popular sort which then not knowing what they would have at all adventure cried down Episcopacie and having pulled down that stately glorious fabrick all that ever the then-busie Reformers could frame out of the timber of the old building was but to patch and cobble up a Presbyterian cottage and that so weakly joynted and set together that it was judged by the most of them that it could not stand above three yeers A pitiful change It is an evil bird defiles its own nest and must our English Sion which was the glory of this Land and the envie of other Nations be made a scorn unto her enemies by her own adopted sons If children live honestly says Solomon Ecclus 22. they shall put away the shame of their parents but if they be proud with haughtiness and foolishness they defile the nobility of their own kindred Wherefore I humbly beg of the chief Governours and Rulers of the people to reflect upon their mother-Church and to consider her in her sufferings to pray for her and to endeavour her peace Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love her And to put to their helping
after Christ and hereupon he has quite spoyled the Doctor for by this means he has hudwinkt his marks of Romes truth to wit Antiquity Universality Unity in Doctrine c. But my Cardinal thinks to salve up this errour by another trick and that almost as gross as this onely this reflects upon the Divinity that upon the Apostles personally He takes upon him to make known to us what was the secret opinion of Peter and Paul c. which have suffered for Religion to wit that they suffered because they wanted power to resist not that it was the will of God they should do so and so he makes the blessed Apostles and holy Martyrs dissemblers speaking one thing and thinking another For saith he as soon as a Prince begins to appear heretical ipso facto though Excommunication be not denounced he shall be put from his Kingdom for as Fame so Heresie gathers strength by going forward Which Axiome of his is verified in this for that since he wrote Bellarmine plows with his heifer and perswades the same Doctrine So that hereby S. Paul is accused of dissimulation That he should bid the Romanes obey for fashion-sake to please the times and so he makes the blessed Apostle an object of scorn not pity That he should be a time-server and yet play his cards so badly that he could not humour Domitius Nero better Is it likely that the Apostles would have commanded others to pray for them if they would have taken their blood if they could Unless these Cardinals would have them like the Presbyters of England who prayed for King Charles whilst their Armies kept him in prison or like Charles the fifth who commanded prayers to be made for Clement the seventh his deliverance and suffered his own Bands to confine him Is it likely S. Peter preaching the Word would bid them submit which Word he said should endure for ever 1 Pet. 1.25 even that Word which was preached amongst them if he knew that it was lawful for them to resist if they had power This were to ascribe want of faith to Peter that God would never deliver his Church out of the hands of Persecutors but suffer her to be always under Tyrants or else that Peter taught one thing and thought another And why should both Peter and Paul press this duty of obedience and submission and that not for wrath but for conscience sake were it lawful to resist This affertion of the Cardinal is therefore gross and impious It is plain by the Scripture that this duty of submission to the Civil power was a precept enjoyned by God not proceeding from any fear the production of a base nature And whenas Paul and Peter did practise and recommend this duty to others it was to give a testimony of their faith in Jesus who as he had laid down his life for them who wanted no power to have withstood the Jews he might have commanded legions of Angels to have come and rescued him out of their hands in obedience to the will of the Father so they as obedient sons of Christ Jesus whom he had in his blood adopted would according to his precepts and example lay down their lives for the testimony of the Gospel Solomon forbade that any should curse the King secretly in his conscience which sure he never would have done if it had been lawful having power to cast him off Saint Jude calls them filthy dreamers that speak evil of Government and despise such as be in Authority I wonder what he would think of those two Cardinals were he alive who would have the Pope drive Kings out of their Kingdomes if he can There are some Roman Catholicks who being with Agrippa half perswaded to be Christians and being touched in Conscience decline these gross absudities of Allen and Bellarmine as being pernitious and tending to the injury of Christ and his A postles and the holy Scripture and in that injurious to the holy Ghost Scripture being nothing else but the dictates of that holy Spirit But yet for all that they are so bewitched to the Roman Faith out of a blind conceit of its Antiquity and therefore of its truth that they will not leave her but strive to justifie her in all things and to excuse this point for that it is a point controverted by some of their owne Church and not yet decreed by any publique Councel nor ever must it be decided may the Pope chuse Besides should it be referred to a Councel there is no credit to be given to the result of that Councel for that none must sit there but such as first must swear to maintain the Pope in the very point to be controverted and so it would be coram non judice or if it should be decreed against his holiness yet by the prerogatives Spiritual of his late Laterane and Trent-assemblies he might notwithstanding repeal that Decree or chuse to obey it for that he is by them declared to be above Councels And till this be rectified this error can receive no reformation from a Councel nor can any satisfaction from thence redound to clear the scruples of any mans conscience in this particular In the mean time Popery is like the Religion of the Pharisees Councels declare one thing de fide the Pope is found contrary de facto so that as our Saviour said of the Pharisees Matth. 23.3 so say I of these Roman Catholicks All that such a Councel should so decree observe and keep but after their works do not for they say and do not The last shift that the Jesuites have to maintain this point of Papal prerogative is The Pope 〈◊〉 a temporal Prince that the Pope is more then the Apostles having acquired a Principality on earth and so by Jus belli he may pull downe one Prince and set up another for say they the Apostles had no charge but onely to preach the Gospel but his holiness the Pope has other fish to fry then what Saint Peter left him he is a temporal Prince he weares a triple Crown he disposes of Kingdomes Crowns Emperours Grants Dispensations sends Indulgences receives Appeals answers Ambassadours takes Homages releases Oaths dissolves Leagues interposes in the Election of Princes has an Emperour to hold his stirrop bring up his first dish a King to serve him at Dinner and many a glorious matter more which Saint Peter never dreamed on so that for him to depose Kings he being more then ever Peter was is no such a strange thing To which I answer 'T is strange so great a Potentate should be thrust up into so little a Corner of the Earth as the Territories of the Papacie are and yet that his Jurisdiction over other Princes should be of such vast latitude I perswade my self that as our Saviour said a Prophet is nothing worth in his owne Country so the Popes power is made more glorious afar off then it is in Italy taken to be whence it is that
thereof as may be proved by these examples Pope Agatho who when Constantine Pogonot the Emperour called a Councel Consiant Pogonot ante writ that he had sent his fellow-servants to his most excellent Lord according to the most holy Decree of his Princely Majestie and the duty he owed him After that Leo the fourth shewed to the Emperour Ludovicus the second that if he had not dealt justly with them over whom he was placed whatsoever was amiss he would amend at the discretion of his Excellency And some other Presidents of this nature I have shewed in the fourth and tenth Chapters Thus you see in all Ages Ante ch 10 and ch 4. the Popes acknowledged themselves obedient and subject to the Emperours till that fire-brand of dissention Haldebrand ante Hildebrand or Gregory the seventh opposed Henry the fourth which by the Fathers of those days was called Novellum Schisma Neither did it pass unpunished he being afterwards thrust from the Popedom and himself confessing at his death the unjustness of his proceedings as I have formerly touched in the sixth Chapter And as Hildebrand escaped not the divine hand of Vengeance so did none after him attempt the like but it was punished either in themselves or their immediate successor Pope Innocent the third did excommunicate Frederic the second but the Bishops of Germany denyed to obey the Bull insomuch that one Eberhardus Archbishop of Saltzburg did condemn that proceeding of Pope Innocent against Frederic and likewise disapproved of what his Predecessor Pope Celestine the fourth had done to Henry the sixth uncle to Frederic basely and unworthily crowning him with his foot and what Pope Alexander the third most insolently and antichristianly did to Frederic the first treading upon his neck and calls them worse then if Luther or Calvin had been to have spoken their epithets in a full Councel all agreed to withstand the Pope in those his unjust proceedings The French and Spaniards oppose the Pope Nor were the Germanes sole opposers of his Holiness in this point as may appear by the practices both of the French and Spaniard The French as I have formerly expressed in the eleventh Chapter And anno 1600. the whole body of the Sorbonne and the University of Paris did condemn this tenent as Schismatical and pernicious And the Spaniards his dearly beloved Catholike darlings did in a Councel at Toledo oppose his Holiness in this point as may appear by the six Councels of Toledo can 18. Testamus coram Deo omni ordine angelorum c. We protest before God and his angels that no man ought to intend or enterprise the destruction of the King they having formerly by the fourth Councel of Toledo and can 75. established an Oath of Allegiance indispensable which was done anno 633. and was revived by the sixth Councel and since observed and kept even to this day the Pope having no right or usage to dispose of that Crown England not under the Pope And as of right this is due to other Princes especially may England claim this immunity she having had Kings to govern her before ever there were Bishops of Rome Nor can Rome lay any title to dispose of her Crown she having still continued a succession of Princes without any appointment by the Pope and having an ancient Law to establish them in her Throne without any appealing to his Holiness And should any under pretence of Religion as Allen did go about to betray the Magistracie of his native Country into the hands of a forraign power he becomes a sinner against the God of Nature rebelling against his own native Country to which he stands inseparably engaged to reverence obey and love and such his Treason is not any jot extenuated for that it has the cloak of Religion for no man must do evil that good may come thereon unless he think with the A theist that in nomine Domini begins all mischief Wherefore how Allen would answer his Treason before the court of Heaven he being naturally bound to his King and Country and not against that tye to confederate with strangers to make it a prey as he confessed to persons he did Quod lib. S. Art 7. page 247. let God and his Truth witness Alas it was not the Popes Bull could excuse that the Pope cannot dispense with inseparable duties especially when the interest of Kings is concerned he has no Commission but one of the Popes forging to dethrone Kings or to disengage Subjects from their stipulation of obedience Peters authority He as he pretends to be Peters successor is to use the Spiritual sword the Word he is to make intercessions and prayers he is not in that capacity to use the material Sword Peter had command to put up his sword he might not use it though in defence of Christ his Master his office was to perswade not to compel his commission was to feed not to kill to obey not to rule Christ commanded his Apostles to wash one anothers feet Peter was not to tread upon Kings necks nor was any to kiss his toe Peter would not suffer Cornelius to fall down at his feet and worship him but took him up and said Stand up for even I my self am a man And now that the Pope should cause all these things to be done under pretence of power derived from him seems to me a meer Solcecism and a knot so inexplicable that let the whole tribe of Ignatius Loyala study till their brains resolve to jelly they shall never produce a convincing reason for it And it is an arrant shame for Princes in the mean time thus to be troden by Romes Crows which like Aesop's Chough being made fine with others feathers moveat Cornicula risum It is brave pastime for the Grand Seignior to see his Holiness with borrowed feathers mount above the Eagle whilst other Princes like little birds onely stare with wonder to behold such a monstrous Owl abroad at noon-day neither offering to beat her back to her Ivie-bush nor to take from her their own proper plumes by which means they make the Pope an object of admiration and glory themselves of scorn and misery And whilst they suffer him to trample upon any one particular Prince they consent to their own ruines whenas they ought to make it their own case in general and every one ought to consider it as a wound in his own side in particular which whilst it is suffered and not remedied it grows to gangrene the very body of Kingship and all Temporal Magistracie Be wise therefore O ye kings and learn ye that be judges of the earth CHAP. XV. That Christ is spiritually eaten and drunken by the faithful and worthy Receiver That Christs calling the bread and wine his flesh and blood was a figurative speech That the outward elements are not changed and That the doctrine of Transubstantiation is utterly against the truth of the Catholike faith THe Doctor in