omnem Angliam a laico duodenni vel quindecim annorum contra Dom. Papam Alexandrum B. Thomam Archiepiscopum quod eorum non recipient literas neque obedient mandatis Et si quis inveâ—tus foret literas eorum deferens traderetur Potestatibus tanquam Coronae Regis capitalis inimicus Here we see an Oath of Supremacy made so long ago by Henry the second and those who out of zeal or whatsoever motive brought over Bulls of the Popes made lyable to the charge of Treason but the Archbishop by vertue of his Legatine Power took upon him to send persons privately into England and to absolve them from this Oath as is there expressed The same year the King being in Normandy sent over these Articles to be sworn and observed by the Nobles and People of England 1. If any one be found carrying Letters from the Pope or any Mandate from the Archbishop of Canterbury containing an Interdict of Religion in England let him be taken and without delay let justice pass upon him as upon a Traytor to the King and Kingdom 2. No Clergie-man or Monk or Lay-Brother may be suffered to cross the Seas or return into England unless he have a Pass from the Kings Iustice for his going out and of the King himself for his return if any one be found doing otherwise let him be taken and imprisoned 3. No man may appeal either to the Pope or Arch-bishop and no plea shall be held of the Mandates of the Pope or Archbishop nor any of them be received by any person in England if any one be taken doing otherwise let him be imprisoned 4. No man ought to carry any Mandat either of Clergie-man or Laick to either of them on the same penalty 5. If any Bishops Clergie-men Abbots or Laicks will observe the Popes interdict let them be forthwith banished the Realm and all their Kindred and let them carry no Chattels along with them 6. That all the Goods and Chattels of those who favour the Pope or Archbishop and all their possessions of whatsoever rank order sex or condition they be be seized into the Kings hand and confiscated 7. That all Clergie-men having revenews in England be summoned through every County that they return to their places within three months or their revenues to be seized into the Kings hands 8. That Peter-pence be no longer paid to the Pope but let them be gathered and kept in the Kings Treasury and laid out according to his command 9. That the Bishops of London and Norwich be in the Kings Mercy and be summoned by Sheriffs and Bailiffs to appear before the Kings Iustices to answer for their breach of the Statutes of Clarendon in interdicting the Land and excommunicating the person of Earl Hugh by vertue of the Popes Mandat and publishing this excommunication without Licence from the Kings Iustices I hope these particulars will give full satisfaction that the Controversie between King Henry the second and Becket was not about some antient Saxon Laws but the very same principles which Gregory the seventh first openly defended of the Popes temporal Power over Princes and the total exemption of Ecclesiastical Persons from Civil Iudicatures § 14. 2. This will yet more appear if we consider that the Pleas used by Becket and his party were the very same which were used by Gregory the seventh and his Successors The beginning of the quarrel we have seen was about the total exemption of Men in any kind of Ecclesiastical Orders from civil punishments which was the known and avowed principle of Gregory the seventh and his successors and it seems by Fitz Stephen that several of the Bishops were for yielding them up to the Secular Power after deprivation and said that both Law and Reason and Scripture were for it but Becket stood to it that it was against God and the Canons and by this means the Churches Liberty would be destroyed for which in imitation of their High-Priest they were bound to lay down their lives and bravely adds that it was not greater merit of old for the Bishops to found the Church of Christ with their blood than in their times to lay down their lives for this blessed liberty of the Church and if an Angel from Heaven should perswade him to comply with the King in this matter he should be accursed By which we see what apprehension Becket had of the nature of his cause from the beginning of it for this was before the King insisted on the reviving the Antient Customs at Clarendon Where it seems Beckets heart failed him which the Monks and Baronius parallel with S. Peters denying Christ but it seems the Cock that brought him to Repentance was his Cross-bearer who told him that the Civil Authority disturbed all that wickedness raged against Christ himself that the Synagogue of Satan had profaned the Lords Sanctuary that the Princes had sat and combined together against the Lords Christ that this tempest had shaken the pillars of the Church and while the Shepherd withdrew the sheep were under the power of the Wolf A very loyal representation of the King and all that adhered to his Rights After this he spoke plainly to him and told him he had lost both his conscience and his honour in conspiring with the Devils instruments in swearing to those cursed customs which tended to the overthrow of the Churches Liberty At which he sighed deeply and immediately suspends himself from all Offices of his Function till he should be absolved by the Pope which was soon granted him The Pope writes to the King very sharply for offering to usurp the things of Iesus Christ and to oppress the poor of Christ by his Laws and Customs and threatens him to be judged in the same manner at the day of judgement and tells him of Saul and Ozias and Rehoboam and parallels his sin with theirs and bids him have a care of their punishments And was all this zeal of the Pope only for the good old Saxon Laws When the Bishop of Exeter begged the Archbishop at Northampton to have regard to his own safety and theirs too he told him he did not savour the things of God he had spoken much more pertinently according to P. W. if he had told him he did not understand the Saxon Laws When the Earl of Leicester came to him to tell him he must come and hear his sentence he told him that as much as his soul was better than his body so much more was he bound to obey God and Him than an earthly King and for his part he declared he would not submit to the Kings judgement or theirs in as much as he was their Father and that he was only under God to be judged by the Pope and so appealed to him Which being an appeal to the Pope in a Civil cause about accounts between the King and him it does plainly shew that he did not think the King had any Authority over
prevent any farther suspicion of my meaning I do declare I am for no other Church than that Church of England which is established by Law among us But it must be allowed to those who plead for seeing Visions that sometimes they may dream Dreams Having therefore cut off so much impertinency I shall reduce the matter yet to a narrower compass by casting by the large account he gives of the several Books written by himself in all which tedious Discourse the wisest thing he saith is That Books relating to personal things are scarce ever so long-lived as a yearly â—lmanack and serve only to increase the uncharitableness and injustice of the present Age in which men will be sure to censure all Books and Persons and are indifferent whether they condemn the Plaintiff or Defendant or both I shall not therefore feed so bad a humour by medling with any personal Disputes but come now to the main things which deserve any farther discussion in the passages between the Person of Honour and Mr. Cressy CHAP. II. Of the Charge of Fanaticism and Mystical Divinity § 1. ANd the first thing is about the Charge of Fanaticism which gave the Title to that Book of Mr. Cressy ' s upon which the Person of Honour bestows his Animadversions This Mr. Cressy said he would begin with and particularly that part of my Book which concerns the life and prayer of Contemplation commended and practised only in the Catholick Church it being a State he saith which from the Infancy of the Church hath been esteemed the nearest approaching to that of Glorified Saints and this is that from whence I took an occasion to vilifie him but adds that he is very well content to receive his proportion of scorn with such companions as Thaulerus Suso Rusbrochius Blosius c. But to the end I may not boast he saith of the Novelty of my invention and profanely employed wit he doth assure me that he heard the same way much better acted a long time since but the Actor was obliged to make a Recantation Sermon for it I thank Mr. Cressy for more of his Charity still in that he parallels the representing the Fanaticism of their Church with the histrionical representing the life of our Saviour and his Attâ—ndants it seems there is no great difference to be made between the Reverence due to the Founders of their Monastick Orders and to the Son of God himself I do assure him if I had no better opinion of our Blessed Saviour as to his Wisdom and all manner of Excellencies than as yet I see ground to have of the Founders of their Orders I should be far from that esteem I now have of the Christian Religion but however the Person of Honour hath better informed Mr. Cressy ' s memory viz. That the Recantation Sermon was made upon the account of State-matters and therefore Mr. Cressy very wisely passeth it over in his Epistle Apologetical To this the Person of Honour adds That Mr. Cressy had no such reason to be enraged at me for this Charge since the provocation was given me by my Adversary by whom the beginning of so many Sects Fanaticisms was laid to the charge of the Church of England which unseasonable and untrue reproach made it necessary for me to answer and refell that calumny and as reasonable to let them know that their own Church is much more lyable to that accusation than the other and why this provocation should be so innocent an assault for the one and the defence by the other should prove so heinous an offence will require an impartial Judge to determine To this Mr. Cressy thus answers That my Adversary chanced unhappily though innocently to let drop out of his pen one line or two which has undone us all I know no design of undoing them that any of us have had unless it be as some men think they are undone when they are kept from doing mischief but I hope we may have leave to take care of our own preservation and of that Religion we ought to value above our lives but suppose it were so whom may they thank for it him that gave the provocation or him that did but his duty in Defence of his Church and Religion But come come Mr. Cressy let us not flatter our selves it is not the Fly upon the Wheel that raises the Dust we Writers of Controversies are no great Doers or Undoers of publick business But Mr. Cressy denyes that my Adversary did lay the imputation on the Church of England and craves leave with all due respect to tell the Person of Honour that it was a great mistake in him to say so Of that we may judge by the very words produced by Mr. Cressy viz. Whether the judgement of King Henry viz. in forbidding the Bible to be read in English ought not to have been followed in after-times let the dire effects of so many new Sects and Fanaticisms as have risen in England from the reading of the Scripture bear witness In which words the rise of Sects and Fanaticisms is plainly imputed to the reading the Scripture the reading of the Scripture in English is an effect of the Reformation of the Church of England for it is the Church of England as reformed that is only the subject of the dispute And therefore I appeal to any indifferent person whether the Reformed Church of England doth not in their Opinion bear the blame of all the Sects and Fanaticisms But this is too plain a thing to be insisted upon No saith Mr. Cressy the very naming of Fanaticism and England in the same line was provocation enough for me who seemed with an impatient longing to have watched for such an advantageous opportunity to empty my voluminous store of Collections How strangely may some be deceived by an overweening imagination I was so far from having a Voluminous store of Collections that I never thought of the Subject till it came in my way to answer it and then I remembred some things I had read to that purpose which put me upon a farther search into the history of those things And since Mr. Cressy will have it out this is the true account of the birth of that terrible Mormo that hath brought so many reproaches and execrations upon me § 2. There are two parts of this Charge of Fanaticism which Mr. Cressy thinks himself particularly concerned in and which I shall therefore handle distinctly the one concerns Mystical Divinity and the other the honour of S. Benedict and his Rule and Order these two Mr. Cressy sets himself with all his force to defend and I hope before I have done to make Mr. Cressy repent the heat he hath shewed about them I begin with that concerning Mystical Divinity of which Mr. Cressy still speaks with the greatest Veneration imaginable he had before called it The practice of Christian Vertues and Piety in the greatest perfection this life
precarious Princes and in a much more proper sense than the Popes use that Title The Servants of Servants Supposing then the Legislative and Civil Power to be equal since the Reformation and before our work is to compare the other circumstances together and if it appear that the Plea of Conscience and Religion did equally hold then and notwithstanding that the penalties were as great upon the same or far less occasions I hope our Laws will at least appear as just and reasonable as those were § 4. To make this out I must give an account of the State of those times and the Reasons and Occasions which moved the Law-makers to enact those Poenal Statutes in which I shall shew these two things 1. That they began upon a controversie of Religion and that the Poenal Laws were made against those persons who pleaded Religion 2. That the Reasons and Occasions of the Poenal Laws since the Reformation were at least as great as those 1. That the antient Poenal Laws were made upon a Controversie of Religion And to give a clear account of the Rise and occasion of them I must begin from the Norman Conquest for then those Foundations were laid of all the following controversies which happened between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power On the behalf of the Ecclesiastical Power was the plea of Conscience and Religion on the behalf of the Civil Power nothing but the just Rights of Princes and the necessary preservation of their own and the publick safety And this Controversie between the Two Powers was managed with so much zeal and such pretences of Conscience on the behalf of the Ecclesiastical Power that the Civil Power notwithstanding the courage of some Princes and the resolution of Parliaments had much ado to stand its ground or to be able to preserve it self from the encroachments and Usurpations of the other So that to see Princes give any Countenance to the same pretences would be almost as strange as to see them turn Common-wealths-men I know there were good Laws frequently made to strengthen the Civil Power but the very frequency of them shewed how ineffectual they were For what need many Laws to the same purpose if the first had any force at all and the multiplication of Laws for the same thing is a certain sign of defect in the Government To undeceive therefore all those who judge of the State of Affairs by the Book of Statutes I shall deduce the History of this great Controversie between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power in England so far as to shew the necessity there was found of putting an issue to it by casting out the Popes pretended Power and Iurisdiction in this Nation The two first who began this Dispute were both men of great Spirits and resolute in their undertakings I mean william the Conqueror and Gregory the seventh who was the first Pope that durst speak out and he very freely declares his mind about the subjection of the Civil Power to the Ecclesiastical and the exemption of all Ecclesiastical Persons and Things from the Civil Power In his Epistle to Herimanus Bishop of Metz about the excommunication of Henry the fourth and absolving his Subjects from their Allegiance he thus expresses himself Shall not that power which was first found out by men who knew not God be subject to that which God himself hath appointed for his own honor in the World and the head of which is the Son of God Who knows not that Kings and Dukes had their beginnings from men who gained their Authority over their equals by blind ambition and intolerable presumption by rapines and murders by perfidiousness and all manner of wickedness Is not this a very pretty account of the Original of Civil Power by the Head of the Church But this is not all for he adds While Princes make Gods Priests to be subject to them to whom may we better compare them than to him who is the Head over all the Sons of Pride who tempted the Son of God with promising him all the Kingdoms of the World if he would fall down and worship him This is better and better it seems it is as bad as the sin of Lucifer for Princes not to be subject to the Pope and it is like the Devils tempting Christ to offer to make Priests subject to the Civil Power Who doubts saith he that Christs Priests are to be accounted the Fathers and Masters of Kings aud Princes and all the faithful Now saith he is it not a lamentable madness if the Son should offer to make the Father subject to him but one of his Successors did not think so that set up Henry the fifth against his own Father or the Scholar his Master or to think to bind him on earth by whom he expects to be loosed in Heaven These were the Demonstrations of that Age and the main supports of the Cause and in his Epistle to William King of England he tells him that God had appointed two kinds of Government for mankind the Apostolical and Regal that is much that the same Government should come only from the sins of men and yet be from the appointment of God but we are to consider he writ this to a King whom he hoped to perswade and therefore would not tell him the worst of his thoughts about the beginnings of Civil Power but saith he these two powers like the Sun and Moon have that inequality by the Christian Religion that the Royal Power next under God is to be under the care and management of the Apostolical And since the Apostolical See is to give an account to God of the miscarriages of Princes his wisdom ought to consider whether he ought not without farther delay take an Oath of Fealty to him For no less than that would content him but William was not so meek a Prince to be easily brought to this as Robert of Sicily Richard of Capua Bertram of Provence Rodulphus and several others were whose Oaths of Fealty to him are extant in the Collection or Register of his Epistles But William gives him a resolute answer which is extant among the Epistles of Lanfranc that for the Oath of Fealty he had not done it neither would he because he never promised it neither did he find that ever his predecessors had done it to Gregories predecessors The Pope storms at this and writes a chiding Letter to Lanfranc Arch-bishop of Canterbury who like a better subject to the Pope than to the King writes an humble excuse for himself to the Pope and tells him he had done his endeavour to perswade the King but could not prevail with him And Cardinal Baronius saith the Pope took it very ill at his hands considering the kindness he had received from the Papal See For Alexander the second favoured his cause against Harold and sent him a consecrated Banner and if we may believe Henricus de Silgrave the Pope gave him his title
would resume his too and it is evident he did so for Matth. Paris and Westminster say expresly that the King invested the next Archbishop of Canterbury with a staff and a ring after the ancient custom which was after the Lateran Council wherein the Pope again revoked the Emperours priviledge about investitures which he saith is contrary to the Holy Ghost and the Canonical Institution But where was the Holy Ghost then when he granted this priviledge After this the Pope complains of the King for retaining the other ancient Rights of hindering Appeals to Rome and not receiving Legats but at last Pope Calixtus yielded to the King the enjoyment of the Customs which his Father had in England and Normandy Was not this Pope very kind to the King who so patiently yielded to those customs which his Predecessors had condemned as contrary to Religion and making Christs death to no purpose The same Callisâ—us 2. in the Council of Lateran A. D. MCXXII put an end to the Controversie of investitures in the Roman Empire yielding to the Emperour the right of Investitures so it were performed without Simony and by a Scepter and not by a staff and a Ring because forsooth if it had been done by a ring it made it a kind of marriage and so made a spiritual Adultery between the Bishop and his Church as the former Popes very learnedly proved in their Epistles against Investitures § 7. This Controversie being at an end the Popes bethought themselves of a more subtle way of effecting their design which was by engaging the Bishops by oaths of Fidelity and obedience to themselves as well as taking away their homages and Fealty to Princes that so with less noise and more security they might compass the design of Ecclesiastical Liberty or rather slavery to the Pope Gregory 7. Urban 2. and Paschal 2. did all forbid Clargy-men to give any homage to Princes as Petrus de Marca proves from the Authentick acts of their several Councils instead of which they required an Oath of Fealty to themselves For it was not a bare oath of Canonical obedience which the Popes required but as much an oath of Fealty and Allegiance as ever Princes require from their other Subjects which will be made appear by comparing the oaths together The most ancient form of Allegiance I meet with is that prescribed in the Capitular of Charles the Great which is contained in very few words Promitto ego partibus Domini mei Caroli Regis filiorum ejus quia fidelis sum ero diebus vitae meae sine fraude vel malo ingenio as it is in the old Edition of the Constitutions but in the latter out of Sirmondus his Copy it is somewhat larger Promitto ego quod ab isto die in antea fidelis sum Domino Carolo piissimo Imperatori pura mente absque fraude malo ingenio de meâ parte ad suam partem ad honorem regni sui sicut per drictam debet esse homo Domino suo The ancient Form used in this Nation ran thus Tu jurabis quod ab ista die in antea eris fidelis legalis Domino nostro Regi suis haeredibus fidelitatem legalitatem ei portabis de vitâ de membro de terreno honore quod tu eorum malum aut damnum nec noveris nec audiveris quod non defendes pro posse tuo ita te Deus adjuvet Now let us compare these with the Oath made to the Pope I shall take that form which is published out of the Vatican MS. by Odoricus Raynaldus which was taken by Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury Ego Edmundus c. ab hac hora in antea fidelis obediens ero S. Petro S. R. E. D. Papae Gregerio suisque successoribus canonicè intrantibus Nonero in facto neque in consilio aut consensio ut vitam perdant aut membrum aut capiantur malâ captione Consilium vero quod mihi credituri sunt per se aut per nuntios suos sive per liter as ad corum damnum mesciente nemini pandam Papatum Romanum Regalia Sancti Petri aajutor eis ero ad retinendum defendendum salvo meo ordine contra omnem hominem c. This is enough to shew that if the other were properly Oaths of Allegiance to Princes this is so to the Pope and thereby they are bound to the very same obedience to the Pope as their Soveraign as anymen are to their own Princes For here is no exception at all of the Rights of Princes and the duty they owe to them not the least notice being taken of them as though they did owe them any allegiance which we plainly see was never intended should be paid by those who first imposed this Oath That Learned Gentleman Sir Roger Twisden supposes this oath to have been framed by Paschal 2. and it is certain that Rodulphus being made Archbishop of Canterbury in his time is the first we read among us that took an oath of Fidelity to the Pope with that of Canonical obedience after whose time we frequently meet with it but not before but in truth it is the very same oath only applying it to Church-men which Richard of Capua took by way of Fealty to Gregory 7. as may appear to any one that compares them together where there are the same expressions word for word by which we may see the strictest allegiance to the Pope is understood by it without the least reservation of any other Princes Rights And considering the doctrine and design of the first imposers of it it cannot be questioned but their intention was hereby to exempt the takers of it from all Allegiance to any other than the Pope But lest this design should be too easily suspected at first it went only along with the Pall to Archbishops then it came to Bishops shops and at last as the Gloss upon the Canon Law tells us to all that receive any dignity consecration or confirmation from the Pope and now the oath in the Pontifical is much larger than it was and by it the takers are bound to observe and defend the Papal reservations Provisions and mandates and to persecute to the utmost of their Power all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to the Pope Much kindness then is to be expected from all who are sworn to persecution and much allegiance to Princes from those who own the Pope to be their Soveraign in as express terms as any Subjects can do their Princes and so Cassander takes notice that several passages in this Oath relate to meer civil obedience which we owe to Princes and not to the Pope and for what relates to the Papacy if by it be understood the Papal Tyranny as no doubt it is be utterly condemns it as an unlawful oath and I extreamly wonder at those who make
Archbishop as he very punctually tells the Pope how he saluted him at first bare-headed and ran into his embraces how he bare his rebukes patiently and held his Stirrup at his getting upon his Horse if he had but trampled on the Kings Neck too he had been equal to the Pope himself and it might have raised some jealouâ—ie between them But for all this reconciliation Becket supposing himself the Conquerour resolved not to abate one jot of his rigour against those who had sworn to the ancient Customs and therefore procures power from the Pope to excommunicate the Bishops that had done it and to return to their excommunication those already absolved and to absolve none without taking an oath to stand to the Popes command This the Kings Officers upon his return into England told him was against the Customs of the Realm but they promised they should take an oath to obey the Law salvo honore Regni Becket at first said it was not in his Power to rescind the Popes sentence which he knew to be false for the Pope had given him power to do it and he immediately adds that he could absolve the Bishops of London and Salisbury if they took the common oath which was in the Cotton M S. se juri parituros but it is interlined se vestro mandato parituros as the Vatican Copy in Baronius hath it But the Archbishop of York told the other Bishops that the taking such an oath without the Kings consent was against the Kings Honour and the Customs of the Realm And it is observeable that the same time he was so zealous for the Bishops taking this oath to the Pope he peremptorily refused suffering those of his retinue though required to do it by the Kings Officers to take an oath of Allegiance to the King to stand by him against all persons nec vos excipientes nec alium saith he to the Pope neither excepting you nor any other as the Cotton M S. hath it very plainly but Baronius hath Printed it Nos whether agreeably to the Vatican M S. I know not but I am sure not to Beckets sense for he gives this reason of his refusing it lest by that example the Clergy of the Kingdom should be drawn to such an oath which would be much to the prejudice of the Apostolical See for by this means the Popes Authority would be discarded or very much abated in England Judge now Reader whether Becket did not remain firm to the Gregorian principles to the last and whether the immediate motive of his death did not arise from them for upon the oath required of the Bishops they with the Archbishop of York went over to the King in Normandy upon the hearing of which complaint the King spake those hasty words from whence those four Persons took the occasion to go over to Canterbury and there after expostulations about this matter they did most inhumanely Butcher him as he was going to Vespers in the Church upon which Ioh. Sarisburiensis who was his Secretary and present at his murder saith that he dyed an Assertor of the Churches Liberty and for defending the Law of God against the abuses of ancient Tyrants But what need we mention his judgement when the Pope in his Bull of Canonization and the Roman Church in his Office do say that he dyed for the Cause of Christ And what can be more plain from hence than that to this day all those who acknowledge him to be a Saint and a Martâ—r cannot with any consistency to themselves reject those principles for which he suffered any more than they can reasonably be supposed to reject the Republican principles who cry up the Regicides for Saints and Martyrs But this is a subject lately undertaken by another hand and therefore I forbear any farther prosecution of it § 16. After Beckets death the Royal Power lost ground considerably for to avoid the interdict and excommunication threatned the Kingdom the King by his Ambassadours and the Bishops by their messengers did swear in the Court of Rome that they would stand to the Popes judgement for among the terms of the Kings reconciliation by the Popes Legats this was one of the chief that he should utterly disclaim the wicked Statutes of Clarendon and all the evil customs which in his dayes were brought into the Church and if there were any evil before they should be moderated according to the Popes command and by the advice of Religious Persons Thus after so many years contest were the Rights of the Crown and the Customs of his predecessours given up by this great Prince so true was that saying of Becket that their Church had thriven by opposition to Princes And if Petrus Blesensis may be believed this King stooped so low upon the Rebellion of his Son as to acknowledge his Kingdom to be Feudatary to the Pope The Authority of which Epistle is made use of not only by Baronius but by Bellarmin and others to prove that the King of England is Feudatary to the Pope or that he holds his Crown of him upon paying certain acknowledgments which it is hardly possible to conceive a Prince that understood and valued his own Rights so well as Henry the second did should ever be brought so low to confess without the least ground for it For when it was challenged by Gregory the seventh it was utterly denyed by William the Conquerour and never that we find so much as challenged afterwards of any lawful Prince by way of Fee before his time but only in regard of the Popes temporal Power over all Princes Although a late French Monk who published Lanfranc's Epistles wonders it should be denyed because of the Tribute anciently paid to Rome viz. of the Peter-pence which were not so called because paid to S. Peters pretended Successours but because payable on S. Peters day as appears by the Law of Canutus to that Purpose and were only Eleemosynary for the sustenance of poor Scholars at Rome as the late publisher of Petrus Blesensis confesses who withal adds that Henry the second denyed their payment but was perswaded to it again by Petrus Blesensis and him he acknowledges to have been the Writer of the foregoing Epistle And we must consider that he was alwayes a secret Friend of Becket and his Cause in the whole quarrel and being imployed by the King in his straits to write to the Pope to excommunicate his Son he knowing very well the prevalent arguments in the Court of Rome might strain a complement in the behalf of his Master to the Pope for which he had little cause to thank him although it may be Petrus Blesensis expressed his own mind whether it were the Kings or no. And we have no ground that I can find to imagin this to have been the Kings mind in the least for upon his submission a Clause was inseâ—ted that he was no longer to own the Pope
favour from the Bishops because its constitution is so repugnant to that of the Religious Orders which place their greatest perfection in those Solemn Vows which the Oratorians make nothing of And thus we have brought the pretence of Divine Inspiration so far that we have seen those things despised and rejected by it in the Roman Church wherein the perfection of the Monastick State was placed by the first Founders of it which is certainly sufficient to discover that this pretence must be counterfeit in some or other of these and according to Cardinal Bona's Rule in such cases we have reason enough from hence to suspect them all CHAP. IV. Of the Conversion of England and the difference between the Brittish and Saxon Christians § 1. MR. Cressy in the heat of his Zeal for the honour of S. Benedict would make the Vindication of him to be not barely the duty of those of his own Order but the common concernment of the whole Nation and I cannot blame him considering the weakness of his Cause that he calls in so many to his assistance He had a mind to engage the whole Western Patriarchate against me but being somewhat fearful lest that should not obey his Command and rise like one man for the honor of the Founder of his Order he summons the Arrierban of the English Nation as most especially concerned in the quarrel If Mr. Cressy's Rhetorick had been equal to his passion and if his own rage could have enflamed a Nation what cause should I have had to repent the attempt of Eclipsing the glory of his Order by charging Fanaticism on the Founder of it But he comforts himself with the hopes that scarce any one hereafter will be willing to imitate my malignant ingratitude Malignant ingratitude Meâ—hinks it sounds very well especially in the same Chapter wherein he calls me Theological Scarron a man of poysonous hatred not only against the Church-Catholick Militant but Triâ—â—phant too than whom he does not know any Adversasary that could with all his study have shewed himself more impâ—tent in his passions and less successful in Reasoning And after such obliging Kindnesses as these had he not just reason to charge me with malignant Ingratitude Which being the utmost and most comprehensive terms of reproach put me in some â—opes that he hath brought up all that which lay so uneasie at the very bottom of his stomach And now I shall reason the case with him and in truth I do not find the charge of Ingratitude laid upon me any further than as I am a Native of England in which he saith Christianity was established by the Disciples of S. Benedict which being expressed in such large and general terms gave just occasion to the Person of Honour to tell him that Christianity was planted with us many hundred years before the birth of S. Benedict and that we may reasonably believe that it was sooner planted in Britain than it was at Rome it self since the last year of Tiberius was before S. Peters coming to Rome Therefore Mr. Cressy craves leave to explain himself by saying that he did not speak it of the planting Christianity in our Island but he saith that which he said was not by his favour that which he said for he said no such thing but that which he now tells us he meant by what he said was that England or the Countrey and Nation of the English Saxons who drove the Christian Britains out of our part of the Island was indeed converted by the â—isciples of S. Benedict and this he saith truly he must stand to Some would be glad to meet with any thing which a man of so uncertain a humour as he hath been will at last stand to but the only reason is because he must i. e. because he is a Benedictin and therefore must believe and defend any thing that makes for the credit of his 〈◊〉 It is very unhappy to Mr. Cressy that when he had Truth and Reason on his side he could not stand to it then but there are some troublesome Insects which fly up and down and make a great noise buzzing in the air and never stand to it till they at last fall into the most filthy places But since Mr. Cressy thinks this a great aggravation of my crime and is so resolved to stand to it I shall try whether he be not capable of being shocked even in this fundamental point of the honour belonging to the English Benedictin Order If then it cannot be proved either that Christianity was first brought among the English Saxons by the Benedictins or if it were that it was established in England by their means then all the reason Mr. Cressy will have left to stand to this assertion will be only because he must § 2. I begin with the first bringing of Christianity among the English Saxons and notwithstanding that the Ecclesiastical History of those times is for the most part delivered by Saxon Monks who had alwayes a kindness for the Roman Missionaries and very little for the Brittish Bishops as may be easily discerned even in Bede himself yet by laying several circumstances together we may make it appear that Augustin and his Companions were not the first who brought the knowledge of Christianity among the English Saxons The first settlement we find the Saxons made in this Nation for no account of their Religion is to be expected before was after the famous Victory of Aurelius Ambrosius wherein Hengist was defeated and afterwards his Son Occa Eosa and the rest of the Saxons in those parts submitted themselves to mercy upon which Ambrosius gave them a Countrey near Scotland and entred into a League with them which saith Matthew Westminster happened A. D. 490. wherein he followed the Brittish Historians for the Saxon generally omit any Victories of the Brittish forces and this particularly yet William of Malmsbury who relates it somewhat differently saith that Hengist sent Occa and Ebusa into the Northern parts who having conquered those which opposed them they brought the rest to a voluntary submission So that here we find the Brittains and Saxons united together so early under the Saxon Government which according to the computation of Henry of Huntingdon was but forty years from the Saxons first coming in England and that these Britains continued a long time in these Northern parts appears not only by the name of Cumberland for Camden shews that the Cumbri and Cambri were the same but from the rising of Caedwalla the Prince of the Britains in those parts against Edwin the King of the Northumbers who is said by Beda to have reigned both over the English and Britains and was killed A. D. 633. and the Britains in those parts are said to have enjoyed their liberty for forty six years viz. to the time of Beda's writing his History which was A. D. 731. and after the coming in of the Saxons 285.
than the Pope treated him as a Christian and Catholick King and as the Popes predecessours had done â—is And after the writing of that Letter and the reconciliation with his Son Radulphus de Diceto Dean of S. Pauls about that time hath an Authentick Epistle of Henry the second to the Pope wherein he acknowledges no more than the common observance which was usual with all Princes in that Age whereas Feudatary Princes write after another Form So that I cannot but think it to be a meer complement of Petrus Blesensis without the Kings knowledge or else a Clause inserted since his time by those who knew where to put in convenient passages for the advantage of the Roman See It is said by some that Henry the second A. D. 1176. did revive the Statutes of Clarendon which the Pope and Becket opposed so much in the Parliament called at Northampton It is true that Gervase of Canterbury doth say that the King did renew the Assise of Clarendon for whose execrable Statutes Becket suffered but he doth not say that he renewed those Statutes but others which are particularly enumerated by Hoveden upon the distributing tâ—e Kingdom into six Circuits and appointing the itinerant Judges who were made to swear that they would keep themselves and make others to observe the following Assises as the Statutes were then called but they all concerned matters of Law and Civil Iustice without any mention of the other famous Statutes about Ecclesiastical matters Whereas at the same time it is said that King Henry the second granted to the Popes Legat though against the advice of his great and Wise men that Clergy-men should not be summon'd before Secular Tribunals but only in case of the Kings Forest and of Lay-fees which is directly contrary to the Statute of Clarendon but some men love to heap things together without well considering how they agree with each other and so make the King in the same page to null and establish the same Statutes But it is observable that after all this contest about the exemption of Clergy-men and the Kings readiness to yield it they were made weary of it at last themselves for as Richard Beckets successour in the See of Canterbury saith in his Letter to the three Bishops that were then three of the Kings Iustices the killing of a Clergy-man was more remisly punished than the stealing of a Sheep and therefore the Archbishop perswades them to call in the Secular Arm against Ecclesiastical Malefactors And now in his opinion the Canons and Councils are all for it and Beckets arguments are slighted and no regard had to the Cause he suffered for when he found what mischief this impunity brought upon themselves But for this giving up their Liberties the Monks revenge themselves on the memory of this Archbishop as one that yielded up those blessed priviledges which Becket had purchased with his blood Notwithstanding the sufferings the King had undergone by his opposing the Ecclesiastical encroachments we may see what apprehension after all he had of the declension of his own power and the miserable condition the Church was in by those priviledges they had obtained by that notable discourse which Gervase of Canterbury relates the King had with the Bishops in the time of Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury wherein with tears he tells them that he was a miserable man and no King or if a King he haâ— only the name and not the power of a King that the Kingdom of England was once a rich and glorious Kingdom but now a very small share of it was left to his Government And then gives a sad account of the strange degeneracy both of the Monks and Clergy and what saith he in the day of judgement shall we say to these things Besides Those of Rome see our Weakness and domineer over us they sell their Letters to us they do not seek justice but contentions they multiply appeals and draw suits to Rome and when they look only after Money they confound Truth and overthrow peace What shall we say to these things how shall we answer them at Gods dreadful Iudgement Go and advise together about some effectual course to prevent these enormities Was this spoken like a Feudatary of the Popes and not rather like a wiâ—e and pious Prince who not only saw the miseries that came upon the Kingdom and Church by these encroachments of Ecclesiastical Power but was yet willing to do his best to redress them if the great Clergy would have concurred with him in it who were a little moved for the present with the Kings Tears and pathetical speech but the impression did soon wear off from their minds and things grew worse and worse by the daily increase of the Papal Tyranny And when this great Prince was very near his end some of the Monks of Canterbury were sent over to him who had been extreamly â—roublesome to himself and the Kingdom as well as to the Archbishop by their continual Appeals to the Court of Rome and they told the King the Convent of Canterbury saluted him as their Lord I have been said the King and am and will be Your Lord Ye wicked Traytors Upon which one of the Monks very loyally cursed him and he dyed saith Gervase within seven dayes § 17. Having thus far shewed that the Controversie between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power was accounted a Cause of Religion by the managers of the Ecclesiastical Power and that so far that the great Defender of it is to this day accounted a Saint and a Martyr for suffering in it I now come to shew that the ancient panal Laws were made against that very Cause which Becket suffered for After the death of Henry the second Beckets Cause triumphed much more than it had done before for in the time of Richard the first the great affairs of the Nation were managed by the Popes Legats during the Kings absence and after his return scarce any opposition was made to the Popes Bulls which came over very frequently unless it were against one about the Canons of Lambeth wherein the King and Archbishop were forced to submit no hindrance made to Appeals and even in Normandy the Ecclesiastical Power got the better after long contests In the latter end of Richard the first the Pope began to take upon him the disposal of the best Ecclesiastical preferments in England either by translation or Provision or Collation which Fitz Stephen saith that Henry 2. told those about him after the four Courtiâ—rs were gone for England to murder Becket was the design Becket intended to carry on viz. to take away all Right of Patronage from the King and all Lay-Persons and so bring the gift of all Church-preferments to the Pope or others under him Upon the agreement of King Iohn with the Popes Legat he renounced all right of Patronage and gave it to the Pope but it is no wonder in him