interdictorum absolutionis prodeat à qua constitutionis ipsorum vinculum prodiit 6. This is the first if not the onely time that to what was acted at Rome an obedience was required here as not to be dispensed with but from thence for it is undoubted this Kingdome never held it self tyed by any thing past there till received here as Eadmerus rightly observes things done there not ratified here to be of no value And when VVinchelsea 1296. would have introduced the contrary it cost him dear the Clergy forced to reject the command and the Court to quit her pretenses 7. But the dispute however the right stood grew so high the King told Anselme the Pope had not to meddle with his rights and wrote that free letter we find in Iorvalensis col 999 30. which I have likewise seen in an old hand recorded amongst divers other memorialls of the Archbishops of Canterbury though I must needs say it seems to me by Paschalis his answer repeating a good part of it not sent by those he names but former messengers In this controversy the Popes returnes were so ambiguous that he writ so differing from their relations were sent it was thought fit Anselme should himself go to Rome with whom K. Henry sent another who spake plainly his master nec pro amissione regni sui passurum se perdere investituras Ecclesiarum and though Rome were willing to comply in other particulars told Anselme denying that he could not assure him of a welcome in England who thereupon retired to Lyons where finding slender comfort from Rome he sought the King by letters and after by the means of Henry's sister made his peace at which yet he was not permitted such was his spirit to enter England denying to communicate with them had received Bishopricks from the King but by the Popes dispensation The conclusion was Paschalis taught by experience neither the Court of Rome nor th' Archbishop gained ought by this contest however he would not at first abate praedecessoris sui sententiae rigorem yet now admitted great limitations to what Vrban had establisht So as the King assenting none for the future should be invested per laicam manum which was no more but what he formerly did himself he would now cause to be performed by a Bishop the other agreed no prelats to be barr'd of promotion etiamsi hominia Regi fecerint hoc donec per omnipotentis Domini gratiam ad hoc omittendum cor regium molliatur c. which yet the King soon after on the Popes permission of them to the Dutch did threaten sine dubio se resumpturum suas investituras quia ille suas tenet in pace but for ought I find it went no farther then their swearing fealty to the King which seems to have been long continued 8. The Papacy finding by this contest the difficulty of carrying any thing here by an high hand thought of more moderate wayes for bringing the Clergy of this nation wholy to depend on Rome but that could not be without diminishing the power the Archbishop held over them and therefore must be wonne by degrees to advance which nothing could more conduce then to have a person of wisdome reside here who might direct this Church according to the Papall interest But this was thought fit to be given out before practic 't and likely to be doubly opposed for th' Archbishop well understood the admitting a Legat for that end to be in suae dignitatis praejudicium And the King suffered none to be taken for Pope but whom he approved nor any to receive so much as a Letter from Rome without acquainting him with it and held it an undoubted right of the Crown ut neminem aliquando legati officio in Anglia fungi permitteret si non ipse aliqua praecipua querela exigente quae ab Archiepâ—scopo Cantuariorum caeterisque Episcopis regni terminari non posset hoc fieri à Papa postularet c. 9. Things standing thus in the year 1100. th' Archbishop of Vienna coming into England reported himself to have the Legatine power of all Britain committed unto him which was with so much admiration of the Nation as a thing had not been heard of before that if he had any at least he thought not fit to make use of his Commission but departed a nemine pro Legato susceptus nec in aliquo Legati officio functus 10. Fourteen years after Paschalis the 2. by Letters of the 30. of March and 1. of April expostulates with the King about severall particulars of which one is his admitting neither messenger nor Letter to be received but by his leave but see the words Sedis Apostolicae nuncii vel literae praeter jussum regiae majestatis nullam in potestate tuâ susceptionem aut aditum promerentur nullus inde clamor nullum inde judicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinantur c. and the year following addrest Anselme nephew to the late Archbishop and after Abbot of St. Edmundsbury hither shewing by Letters he had committed unto his administration vices Apostolicas in Anglia This made known here though the bearer were not permitted to enter the Kingdom the Clergy and Nobility gathered in councell at London concluded th' Archbishop should go to the King in Normandy make known unto him the antient custome of the Realme and by his advice to Rome as being the person was most interessed in it ut haec nova annihilaret from whence he obtained the Letter or rather declaration to the King and Clergy the same author hath recorded So by this care the matter was again stopt 11. The King 1119. sent his Bishops to a Councell held by Calixtus the 2. at Reims at their departing gave them these instructions Not to complain of each other because himself would right each of them at home That he payed that rent his predecessors had formerly done and enjoyed likewise those priviledges had been formerly permitted them That they should salute the Pope from him hear his precepts but bring no superfluities into his Kingdome but see the words Rex Anglorum praelatis regni sui ad Synodum ire permisit sed omnino ne alicujus modi querimoniam alterutrum facerent prohibuit Dixit omni plenariam rectitudinem conquerenti faciam in terra mea redditus ab anterioribus constitutos Romanae Ecclesiae singulis annis errogo privilegia nihilominus ab antiquis temporibus pari modo mihi concessa teneo Ite dominum Papam de parte mea salutate Apostolica tantum praecepta humiliter audite sed superfluas adinventiones regne meo inferre nolite c. Certainly this prince did hold the Pope with the advice of a Councell might labour to introduce superfluous inventions which the English were not tyed to receive the disputes of his Bishops be by him ended at home without carrying
which seems to have past with the Kings concurrence 64. For to deprive VVilliam elected some whatafter Archbishop of York where he did not joyn was not so easy This man chosen 1142 by the greater part of the Chapter after five years sute in the Court of Rome St. Bernard opposing him had in the end his election annull'd by Eugenius 3. in a Councell held at Reims the Chanons of York exhorted to chuse another some of which made choice of Henry Murdack then as it seems with the Pope who coming as Archbishop into England was not suffer'd to enter on his Archbishoprick and excommunicating Hugh de Puzat a person preferr'd by VVilliam was himself by him excommunicated no intermission of divine service in the City admitted and Henry's means to gain his See was by drawing the Bishop of Duresme Carlisle the King of Scots and by the Popes advise this very Hugh by sweetnesse to his party and in the end by the Kings Son whom it seems he promised to get advanced to the Crown by the power of Rome making his peace with Stephen who soon after employed him thither on that errand And this I take to be the second English election was ever here annull'd by Papall auctority 65. Here I may observe that at first when ever the Pope made voyd an election he did not take upon him to appoint another in the place vacant but either sent to the Clergy of the same Church to chuse another as those to whom it appertained so did Eugenius 3. to York when this H. Murdack was chosen Innocentius 3. when Stephen Langton or else the Bishoprick lay vacant as London after Anselme from 1139. to 1141. But elections being with much struggling settled wholy in the Clergy and Innocentius 3. having by definitive sentence excluded the English Bishops from having any part in that of th' Archbishop of Canterbury they becoming wholy appropriated to the Chapters of Cathedralls the Pope began to creep in and ex concessa plenitudine Ecclesiasticae potestatis as he speaks without any formality of choice to confer not onely Bishopricks but other Ecclesiastick promotions within the precincts of others Dioceses and by that means to fill the fat benefices of the Nation The first Archbishop of Canterbury promoted by this absolute power of the Church of Rome seems to have been Richard 1229. non electo sed dato ad Archiepiscopatum 66. The French Agent in his Remonstrance to Innocentius 4 tus attributes the beginning of these collations to Innocent the 3d. and I have not read that either Paschalis the second Gelasius Calixtus or Innocent 2. though forced to live sometimes out of Rome did ever exercise auctority that way But I will give it in his own words Certe non multum temporis clapsum est ex quo Dominus Papa Alexander persecutionis cogente incommodo venit in Franciam confugiens ad subsidium inclytae recordationis Regis Ludovici patris Regis Philippi à quo benigne susceptus est stetit ibi diu forte vivunt aliqui qui viderunt eum ipse tamen in nullo gravavit Ecclesiam Gallicanam ut nec unam solam praebendam aut aliud beneficium ipse Papa dederit ibi sed nec aliquis praedecessor suus nec multietiam de successoribus dederunt in sua auctoritate beneficium aliquid usque ad tempora Domini Innocentii 3. qui primus assumpsit sibi jus istud in tempore suo Revera dedit multas praebendas similiter post ipsum Dominus Honorius Dominus Gregorius simili modo fecerunt sed omnes praedecessores vestri ut publice dicitur non dederunt tot beneficia ut vos solus dedistis c. 67. In what year th' Ambassador from France made this complaint is not set down But Mat. Paris in his Historia minori makes mention of it as done in or about 1252. Diebus sub eisdem Episcopo Lincolniensâ— computante compertum probatum est quod iste Papa scilicet Innocentius quartus plures redditus extortos ad suam contulit voluntatem quam omnes ejus praedecessores prout manifeste patet in lugubri querimonia quam reposuerunt Franci coram Papa pro suis intolerabilibus oppressionibus quae redacta est in scriptum Epistolae admodum prolixae quae sic incipit Dicturus quod injunctum est mihi c. quaere Epistolam c. By which it appears that great liberty the Papacy took in conferring Ecclesiastick preferments within the Dioceses of others took its rise from Pope Innocent and as it seems to me not at the very beginning of his time for 1199. Gelardus Archdeacon of St. Davids coming from Rome quia idem G. Menevensis Ecclesiae in curia Romana se dicebat electum hoc ipsum cassavit Archiepiscopus alium-sacravit canonice electum though he after bestowed on him a Church of 25. marks and this in a case the Pope had so earnestly espoused as he wrote to the Bishops of Lincoln Duresme and Ely si Archiepiscopus Cantuariae saepe dictum Gilardum consecrare differret ipsi Apostolica authoritate freti illum consecrare non differrent which yet th' Archbishop as against the English liberty did not doubt to oppose and disannul 68. But thus it continued not long for Honorius the immediate successor to Innocentius 3 us shewing such as served th' Apostolick see and resided with it were worthy congruis beneficiis honorari and were therefore possest of divers both in England and other parts which they did administer with so great care quod non minus beneficiantibus quam beneficiatis utiliter est provisum unde quia nonnunquam beneficiatis hujusmodi decedentibus beneficia quae obtinuerant inconsultis hiis ad quos eorum donatio pertinebat aliis successive collata perpetuo illis ad quos pertinent videbantur amitti propter quod etiam murmurabant plurimi alii se difficiliores ad conferendum talibus beneficia exhibebant Nos volentes super hoc congruum remedium adhibere ne cuiquam sua liberalitas sit dampnosa per quam potius meruit gratiam favorem statuimus ut clericis Ecclesiae Romanae vel aliis Ytalicis qui praebendas vel Ecclesias seu alia Ecclesiastica beneficia in Anglia obtinent vel obtinuerint à modo decedentibus Praebendâ—e vel Ecclesiae seu alia beneficia nequaquam à nobis vel alio illa vice alicui conferantur sed ad illos libere redeant ad quos illorum donatio dinoscitur pertinere c. Dat. Lateran quarto Kalend. Martii Pontificatus nostri anno quinto 69. Yet neither this nor the renewing of it by Gregory the 9. with a speciall indulgence directed venerabilibus fratribus universis Archiepiscopis Episcopis aâ— dilectis fil is Abbatibus aliis Ecclesiarum Praelatis per Angliam constitutis ut si quando ad vos literae Apostolicae pro beneficiandis
ejus successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint that the English Bishops being excommunicated by the Pope might not take an oath of obedience to his commands quia regni consuetudines impugnabat though he did never exercise any authority here but according to such stipulations contracts and agreements with our Princes as the Lawes permitted and therefore when he sent hither a Legat à Latere he was tretyd with or he cam in to the lond whon he schold have exercise of his power and how myche schold bee put in execution An aventure after he had bee reseyved he whold have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple c. as the Archbishop wrote to Hen. 5. as I have shewed numb 53. 73. Though the Lawyers of the Kingdome do constantly affirm as the Law and Custome of the Realm the Kings Courts never to have carried regard to any forraign excommunication and if any such came from Rome not to be put in execution but by allowance first had to which effect it is remembred the Bishops of London and Norwich having publish't in their Dioceses the Popes excommunication of Hugh Earl as it seems of Chester without the privity of Hen. the 2. or his Chief Iusticiar the Kings writ issued out in this manner Londoniensis Norwicensis Episcopi sint in misericordia Regis summoneantur per Ficecomites Bedellos ut sint contra Iusticias Regis ad rectum faciendum Regi Iusticiis ejus de eo quod contra statuta de Clarendone interdixerunt ex mandato Papae terram comitis Hugonis excommunicationem quam Dominus Papa in ipsum fecerat per suas parochias divulgaverunt sine licentia regis This however contracted in Hoveden 1165. and in Paris 1164. yet the difference is such as may deserve a remembrance It seems to me what our Kings claimed not to be altogether unlike the Exequatur of Naples observed to this day in that Kingdome notwithstanding all contests from Rome 74. Neither did the Crown ever relinquish this right not at the peace after Beckets death when Henry the 2. assented to quit no other then Consuetudines quae introductae sunt tempore suo which it is manifest this was not as appears by Eadmerus It is farther observable that by the common Laws that is the common Custome of this Realm the sentence of the Archbishop is valid in England and to be allowed in the Kings Courts though controuled by the Pope and to shew our Princes had no regard to anything of this nature from thence other then such a complying with a reverend Prelat as I have formerly mentioned did admit it may not here be unfitly inserted what Froissard writes of Edward the third with whom the Flemings joyned against the French upon which but I shall deliver it in his own words Adonc le Roy de Frances ' en complaignit au Pape Clement sixieme qui getta une sentence d' excommuniement si horible qu'il n' estoit nul prestre qui asast celebrer le divin service De quoy les Flamens envoyerent grande complainte au Roy d' Engleterre lequel pour les appaiser leur manda que la primiere fois qu'il rappasseroit la mer il leur ammeneroit des Prestres de son pais qui leur chanteroient la Messe vousist le Pape ou non â—ar il estoit bien privilegié de ce faire par ce moyen s' appaiserent les Flamens c. As for the priviledge here spoken of that can be no other then the obligation all Kings owe unto God for seeing his word sincerely taught them live under their protection without the disturbance of any 75. In which kind ours have been so far from yieldding obedience to the Papall attempts as Edward the first could not be induced to spare the life of one brought a Bull from the Pope might have made some disturbance but by his abjuring the Realm as his grandchild Edward the 3. did cause some to suffer for the same offence And on occasions our Kings have prohibited all entercourse with Rome denied their Bishops going thither so much as for confirmation but the Metropolitans if need were should by the Kings writ be charged to confirm them commanded their subjects not to rely on any should come from thence affirming quod in regnum nostrum nec propter negotium nostrum nec vestrum ullatenus intrabit ad terram nostram destruendam Yet notwithstanding so notorious a truth back't with so many circumstances grounded upon unquestioned monuments of antiquity hath not been received but the bare affirmation Christ by pasceoves meas intended Peter and by consequence the Pope to be the generall Pastor of the world and the meaning of those words to be that he should regio more imperare hath so far prevailed with some as to esteem the standing for the rights of the Kingdome the Laws and Customes of the Nation to be a departing from the Church Catholick and to esteem no lesse then Hereticks those who defending that which is their own from th' invasion of another will not suffer themselves to be led hood-winkt to think the preservation of their proper liberty is a leaving Christ his Church or the Catholick faith 76. I dare boldly say whoever will without partiality look back shall find the reverence yielded from this Church to Rome for more then a thousand years after Christ to have been no other then the respect of love not of duty and Popes rather to consulere then imperare their dictats to have been of the same nature the German Princes were of old auctoritatâ— suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate never requiring a necessity of obedience eo nomine that they came from Rome but for that they were just and reasonable neither did the Pope send any Agent hither to see them put in execution but th' Archbishop according to the exigent of times receiving his wholesome advises caused such as he held of them did conduce to the good of the English Church to be observed So Theodore received those of Pope Martin but did not them concerning Wilfred from Agatho When Alexander the 2. had exempted the Abbot of St. Edmunds-bury from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Norwich Lanfrank took the Act from the Abbot and Gregory the 7. is so far from using commands in the cause as he onely earnestly intreats the Archbishop he would stop the Bishop of Norwich from molesting the said Abbot yet himself as it seems did not restore the Bull of immunity to him during that Popes life but of this before In the year 1070. on the Kings desire in a Councell at Windsor Ageâ—â—icus Bishop of the South-Saxons is degraded and his Bishoprick confer'd on Stigandus Alexander the 2. not approving what had past writes
of the English Church so there is no question but it hath been ever the Tenet of it Pontificem Romanum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacrâ Scripturâ in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Which our Historians do mention as what proceeded from the constitutions of the Church and assent of Emperors not as of a thing in it self juris divini insomuch as 80. That proposition when it was propounded 1534. in Henry the 8 ths time in convocation all the Bishops without exception and of others onely one doubted and four placed all Ecclesiastick power in the Pope both the Universities and most of the Monasteries and Collegiat Churches of England approved avowed as the undoubted opinion of the Church of this Nation in all ages Neither can I see how it can be otherwise for if the Church of Canterbury were omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione if it were Mater omnium Anglicanarum Ecclesiarum suo post Deum proprio laetatur pastore that is if th' Archbishop had no mediate spirituall superior but Christ God if the power the Pope exercised over him within this Realm were voluâ—tate beneficio gained as I have shewed by little little voluntarily submitted unto it could be no other then jure humano and then it must be granted the Church of England could not hold any necessity of being in subjection to the See or Church of Rome jure divino as it is manifest they did not in that they sometimes acknowleded no Pope otherwhiles shewed an intent of departing from his union and the Bishops as well as Lay Lords advised Anselm Vrbani obedientiam abijcere subjectionis jugum excutere c. Neither could the Church of England be any way possible guilty of Schism adhering to their Ghostly Superior next and immediate under Christ Iesus As for the temporall profits the Court of Rome received hence though the denying them can be no just cause of such a spirituall imputation especially on privat men yet certainly who will examin their beginning as he shall find it to have been by the bounty or permission of our Princes so upon search he will perceive the Kingdome went no farther then the Common Law the precedent of former times and such an exigency did force them to of which therefore I shall adde a word or two CHAP. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England THe vast summes the Court of Rome did of late years upon severall occasions export out of this Kingdome mentioned in the statute of the 25. Hen. the 8. are spoken of by severall of our writers and though some have in generall expressed how much the Nation suffer'd in that kind yet none that I know in one tract did ever shew by what degrees the Papacy gained so great a revenue as the Commons in Edward the thirds dayes had cause to complain it did turn a plus grand destruction du Royaume qe toute la guerre nostre Seigneur le Roy. I have thought therefore that it will not be amisse to set down how the Pope came to have so great an influence over the treasure of the Clergy in this Land by seeking out how and when the greatest of the paiments made to him began what interruptions or oppositions were met with either at the beginning or in the continuance of them 2. The first payment that I have read of which gave the Pope an entrance as it were in to it was that bounty of our Princes known to this day by the name of Peter-Pence and this as it was given for an Almes by our Kings so was it no otherwise received by the Court of Rome Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita perperaâ—â— doloseque collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit saith Paschalis the 2. So that no question Polidore Virgil very inconsiderately termes it vectigal and others who by that gift contend the Kingdome became tributarium feudatarium S to Petro ejusque successoribus for though the word tributum may perhaps be met with in elder writers yet never did any understand the Pope by it to become a Superior Lord of the Lay fee but used the word metaphorically as we do to this day terme a constant rent a kind of tribute and to those who pay it and over whom we have in some sort a command we give the title of subjects not as being Princes over them but in that particular being under us they are for it styled our inferiors 3. What Saxon King first conferred them whether Ina as Ranulphus Cestrensis sayes report carryed or Offa as Iorvalensis I will not here enquire as not greatly materiall Polidore Virgil tells some write Ethelwolphus continued it with whom Brompton seems to concur It is true our Historians remember he caused 300. mancusas denariorum Malmsbury renders it trecentas auri marcas which was ten times the value of silver as another trecenta talenta to be carried every year from hence to Rome which could be no other then the just application of Peter-Pence for amongst sundry complaints long after from Rome we find the omission of no paiment instanced in but of that duty onely neither do the body of the Kingdome in their Remonstrance to Innocentius 4. 1246. mention any other as due from hence to Rome 4. This therefore thus confer'd by our Kings was for the generality continued to the Papacy yet to shew as it were that it proceeded only from the liberality of our Princes not without some stops Of those in the times of VVilliam the first Henry his Son I have spoke Henry the 2. during the dispute with Becket and Alexander the 3. commanded the Sheriffs through England that Denariibeati Petri colligantur serventur quousque inde Deminus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit During the Reign of Edward the 3. the Popes abiding at Avignon many of them French their partiality to that side and the many Victories obtained by th' English begat the proverb Ore est le Pape devenu Françeis Iesu devenu Angleis c. about which time our Historians observe the King gave command no Peter-Pence should be gather'd or pay'd to Rome And this restraint it seems continued all that Princes time for Richard the 2. his successor at his beginning caused Iohn Wickliffe esteemed the most knowing man of those times to consider the right of stopping them whose determination in that particular yet remains entituled Responsio Magistri Iohannis Wicliff ad dubium infrascriptum quaesitum ab eo per Dominum Regem Angliae Richardum secundum magnum Concilium anno regni sui primo then the question followes Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae
their complaints beyond Seas according to th' Assize of Clarendoun the King in nothing obliged to Rome but in the payment of Peter-pence as his father had before exprest himself 12. In November following the Pope and King had a meeting at Gisors in Normandy where Calixtus confirmed unto him the usages his father had practic 't in England and Normandy and in especiall that of sending no Legat hither but on the Princes desire Yet notwithstanding the same Pope not fully two years after addrest another Legat to these parts but he by the Kings wisdome was so diverted ut qui Legati officio fungi in tota Britannia venerat immunis ab omni officio tali via qua venerat extra Angliam à Rege missus est c. 13. But here by the way the reader may take notice these words Collata Impetrata Concessa Permissa used by our best authors in speaking of the Rights of the Crown in points of this nature do not import as if it had onely a delegatory power from the Pope by some grant of his as is fancied by those would have it so for we read of no such concessions from him unlesse that of Nicholas the 2. of which in the next But that they were continually exercised the Pope seeing either approving or at least making no such shew of his disliking them as barr'd their practice which by comparing the said authors is plain Eadmerus p. 125 53 54. speaks as if these customes were concessa fungi permissa from Rome which pag. 118 33 40. he calls antiqua Angliae consuetudo libertas Regni c. So pag. 116 22. he terms them privilegia Patri Fratri suo sibique à Romana Ecclesia jam olim collata c. about which yet it is manifest even by him the Court of Rome was ever in contest with our Kings about them who maintained them as their Royalties against it and challenged by Henry the 1. by no other title then dignitates usus consuetudines quas Pater ejus in regno habuit c. which the Pope calls honores quos antecessorum nostrorum tempore Pater tuus habuer at and affirmes to be grata in superficie interius requisita Legati vocibus exposita gravia vehementissima paruerunt so far have Popes been from conferring the least unto them see cap. 3. n. 19. 14. It is true things done by Princes as of their own Right Popes finding not means to stop would in former ages as later by priviledge continue unto them Nicholaus Papa hoc Domino meo privilegium quod ex paterno jure susceperat praebuit said th' Emperours Advocate And the same Pope finding our Kings to expresse one part of their Office to be regere populum Domini Ecclesiam ejus wrote to Edward the Confessor Vobis posteris vestris regibus Angliae committimus advocationem ejusdem loci omnium totius Angliae Ecclesiarum vice nostra cum Concilio Episcoporum Abbatum constituatis ubique quae justa sunt As a few years since the Republick of Venice not assenting to send their Patriarch to an examination at Rome according to a Decree of Clement the 8 th Paulus Quintus declared that imposterum Venetiarum Antistites Clementis decreto eximerentur so that now that State doth by an exemption what they did before as Soveraign Princes Besides Kings did many times as graunts ask those things of the Pope they well understood themselves to have power of doing without him Henry the 5 th demanded of Martin the 5. five particulars to which his Ambassadors finding him not so ready to assent told him se in mandatis habere ut coram eo profiteantur Regem in iis singulis jure suo usurum utpote quae non necessitatis sed honoris causa petat ut publicam de ea re coram universo Cardinalium coetu protestationem interponant And to the same purpose there are sundry examples yet remaining on record where the King on the petition of the Commons for redresse of some things of Ecclesiastick cognizance amisse first chuses to write to the Pope but on his delay or failing to give satisfaction doth either himself by statute redresse th' inconvenience or command the Archbishop to see it done 15. But here before I proceed any farther because it cannot be denyed in former times there was often intercourse between the Church of England and Rome and such as were sent from thence hither are by some styled Nuncii by others Legati I think it not amisse to consider what the cause was one side so much opposed the sending a Legat and the other so laboured to gain it 16. After the erection of Canterbury into an Archbishoprick the Bishops of that See were held quasi alteriâ—s orbis Papae as Vrban the 2. styled them did onely exercise vices Apostolicas in Anglia that is used the same power within this Island the Pope did in other parts the one claiming because Europe had been converted by disciples sent from Rome the other that he had sent preachers through England And is therefore called frequently in our writers princeps Episcoporum Angliae Pontifâ—x summus Patriarcha Primas and his seat Cathedra Patriarchatus Anglorum and this not in civility onely but they were as well sic habiti as nominati It is true the correspondency between it and the Roman was so great they were rather held one then two Churches yet if any question did arise the determination was in a councell or convocation here as the deposing Stygand the settling the precedency between Canterbury and York the instructions I mentioned of Hen. 1. to his Bishops the right of the Kingdome that none should be drawn out of it auctoritate Apostolica do enough assure us if recourse were had to Rome it was onely ut majori Concilio decidatur quod terminari non pâ—tuit as to the more learned divines to the elder Church of greatest note in Europe by whom these were converted and therefore more reverenced by this as that was most sollicitous of their well-doing and most respected for their wisdome All which is manifest by that humble Letter Kenulphus others of Mercia wrote about 797. to Leo the 3. wherein it plainly appears he seeks to that See for direction because the conversion of the Nation first came from thence and there resided in it men of sound learning whom he doth therefore desire as quibus à Deo merito sapientiae clavis collata est ut super hac causa which was the placing an Archiepiscopall chair at Litchfield cum sapientibus vestris quaeratis quicquid vobis videatur nobis postea rescribere dignemini By which it is clear his inquisition was as unto persons of profound literature had the key of knowledge conferred
averoient frank election de lour Prelatz solonc la ley de Dieu de seint Esglise ent ordeigne perpetuelment a durer c. and a little after d'Engleterre soleient doner Eveschez autres grantz dignites trestouz come il fait aujourdui Esglises parochiels le Pape ne se medlast de doner nul benefice deinz le Royalme tanqez deinz brief temps passe c. 59. And this to have been likewise the custome in France the complaint of the French Ambassador to Innocentius 4 tus assures us Non est multum temporis saith he quod Reges Francorum conferebant omnes Episcopatus in camera sua c. and our writers do wholy look upon the placing Lanfrank in Canterbury as the Kings act though it were not without th' advise of Alexander the 2. Neither did Anselme ever make scruple of refusing the Archbishoprick because he was not chosen by the Monks of Canterbury and in that letter of them to Paschalis the 2. 1114. though they write Raulf in praesentia gloriosi Regis Henrici electus à nobis clero populo yet whosoever will note the series of that election cannot see it to have been other then the Kings act insomuch as our writers use often no other phrase then the King gave such preferments c. And whilst things stood thus there was never any interposing from Rome no question who was lawfully chosen the Popes therefore did labour to draw this from the Princes medling with as much as was possible Some essay might be 1108. at the settling Investitures for then Anselme writ to Paschalis Rex ipse in personis eligendis nullatenus propria utitur voluntate sed religiosorum se penitus committit consilio But this as the practice proved afterwards was no more but that he would take the advise of his Bishops or other of the Clergy for as Diceto well observes our King did in such sort follow the Ecclesiastick Canons as they had a care to conserve their own rights The â—ittest way therefore for the Pope to get in was if there should happen any dissensions amongst themselves that he as a moderator a judge or an Arbitrator might step in 60. About the Conquest an opportunity was offer'd on the contentions between the two Archbishops for primacy in which Canterbury stood on the bulls true or false of former Popes that had as a great Patriarch made honourable mention of them When they were both 1071. with Alexander the 2. by his advise it was referr'd to a determination in England and accordingly 1072. Wm. the first with his Bishops made some settlement which by them of York was ever stumbled at pretending the King out of reason of State sided with Canterbury But this brake into no publick contest till 1116. Thurstan elected to York endeavored at Rome to divert the making any profession of subjection to Cant. but failing in th' attempt that Court not liking to fall into a contest it was not probable to carry resigned his Archbishoprick Spondens Regi Archâ—epiâ—copo se dum viveret non reclamaturum yet after the Clergy of York sued to the Pope for his restitution which produced that letter from Paschalis the 2. in his behalf to Hen. the 1. is in Eadmerus wherein he desires if there were any difference between the two Sees it might be discust in his presence Which was not hearkned to but Calixtus the 2. in a Councell by him held 1119. at Reimes of which before the English Bishops not arrived the Kings Agent protesting against it the Archdeacon of Cant. telling the Pope that jure he could not do it consecrated him Archbishop of York upon which Henry prohibits him all return into his dominions And in the enterview soon after at Gisors though Calixtus earnestly laboured th' admitting him to his See the King would by no means hearken to it So the Pope left the businesse as he found it and Thurstan to prove other wayes to gain th' Archbishoprick 61. Who thereupon became an actor in the peace about that time treated between England and France in which his comportments were such that proniorem ad sese recipiendum Regis animum inflexit so as upon the Popes letters he was afterwards restored ea dispositione ut nullatenus extra provinciam Eboracensem divinum officium celebraret donec Ecclesiae Cantuariensi c. satisfaceret This I take to be the first matter of Episcopacy that ever the Pope as having a power elsewhere of altering what had been here settled did meddle with in England It is true whilst they were raw in Christianity he did sometimes recommend Pastors to this Church so Vitalian did Theodore and farther shewed himself sollicitous of it by giving his fatherly instructions to the English Bishops to have a care of it so did Formosus or some other by his letters 904. upon which Edward th' elder congregated a Synod wherein five new Bishops were constituted by which an inundation of Paganisme ready to break in on the West for want of Pastors was stopt But it is apparent this was done not as having dominion over them for he so left the care of managing the matter to their discretion as he did no way interesse himself in it farther then advise 62. A meeting of English Bishops 1107. at Canterbury or as Florentius Wigorniensis stiles it a Councell restored the Abbot of Ramsey deposed 1102. jussu Apostolico or as Eadmerus juxta mandatum Domini Papae It is manifest this command from Rome to be of the same nature those I mentioned of Calvins or at the most no other then the intercession of the Patriarch of a more noble See to an inferior that by his means had been converted For his restitution after the reception of the Papall letters seems to have been a good while defer'd so that what past at Rome did not disannull his deprivation here till made good in England as at a time when nothing thence was put in execution but by the Regall approbation as the Pope himself complained to the King But after the Church of Rome with th' assistance of th' English Clergy had obtained all elections to be by the Chapters of the Cathedralls upon every Scruple she interposed herself 63. The greatest part of the Convent of London 1136. chose Anselme Abbot of St. Edmundsbury for their Bishop contrary to the Deans opinion and some few of the Chanons who appealed to Rome where th' election 1138 was disannulled the Bishoprick by the Pope recommended to Winchester his then or rather soon after Legat which so remained till 1141. This is the first example of any Bishop chosen received and in possession of a Church in this Kingdome whose election was after quash't at Rome and the sentence obeyed here as it is likewise of any Commendam on Papall command in the Church of England all
vacantium which not occurring of any Pope before I cannot ascribe other to have begun them then he who though in a bull dated the 5. Ianuary 4. Pontificatus he mention Fructus redditus proventus primi anni beneficiorum yet by the doubts he there resolves shews the practice of them then newly brought into the Church But whereas the writers before-named agree the English of all Nations never received in this the full extent of the Papall commands I conceive it to arise from the good Laws they made against them of which before and after 17. It is hardly credible how great a masse of treasure was by these wayes sent hence into Italy The revenues th' Italians were possest of in England 1245. are accounted not lesse then 60. thousand Marks 1252. it was thought they did amount to 70. thousand all which for the most drained thither and in the Parliament held about an hundred years after the Commons shew what went hence to the Court of Rome tourne a plus grand destruction du Royalme qe toute la guerre nostre Seigr. le Roy yet notwithstanding so many statutes as were made by that Prince for moderating the excesses in this kind the 50 th they complain I shall give it contractedly the Popes collectâ—r here held a receipt equall to a Prince or Duke sent annually to Rome from the Clergy for Procuration of Albeys Priories First-fruits c. xx thousand Marks some years more others lesse and to Cardinalls and other Clerks beneficed in England as much besides what was conveyed to English Clerks remaining there to sollicite the affairs of the Nation upon which they desire his Ma â—y no collector of the Pope may reside in England 18. But the King as it seems not greatly complying with their desires the year following they again instance that certain Cardinalls notorious enemies had procured a clause d'anteferri to certain benefices within the Provinces of Canterbury and York that the Popes Collector was as very an enemy to this State as the French themselves that his house-keeping here at the Clergies cost was not lesse then 300l. by the year that he sent annually from hence beyond Seas at one time 20 thousand marks sometimes 20. thousand pounds and what was worse espyed the secrets of the Kingdome vacations of benefices and so dayly made the certainty known to the said Court did now raise for the Pope the first-fruits of all dignities and other smaller promotions causing by oath to pay the true value of them surmounting the rate they were formerly taxed at which now in the very beginning ought to be crusht c. Vpon which considerations they desire all strangâ—rs Clerks and others excepting Knights Esquires Merchants Artificers might sodainly avoid the Kingdom no subjects without the Kings expresse licence to be Proctors Aturneys Fâ—rmors to any such Alyen under the pain after Proclamation made of life member losse of lands and goods and to be dealt with as theeves and robbers no mony during the wars to be transported out of the Kingdom by exchange or otherwise on the forfeiture of it But to this the answer onely was Setiegnent les estatutz ordonances ent faites Whereupon the next Parliament the Commons prefer'd again three Petitions touching I. The paiment of First-fruits taken come due a la chambre nostre seint Pere yet not used in the Realme before these times was contrary to former treaties with the Pope c. II. Reservations of benefiâ—es III. By that way bestowing them on Alyens who sundry times employed the profits of them towards the raunsoming or araying their friends enemies to the King Of all which they desire his Ma ty to provide remedy as also that the Petitions the two last Parliaments of which before might be consider'd and convenient remedy ordained To which the answer is Les Seig rs du grand conseil ordeigneront due remedie sur les matires comprises enâ—estes trois billes precedentes And here I take the grand Councell to be the Privy Councell not the Lords in or out of Parliament called the grand Councell for the greatnesse of the affairs fell within their cognizance and named the 5. of Hen. the 4. to consist onely of six Bishops one Duke two Earls and other in all to the number of 22. 19. What order they establisht I have not met with it is manifest not to have been such as gave the satisfaction hoped for by the Commons renewing in effect both 3 o. and 5 to Ric. 2. the same suites and the inconveniences still continuing in the year 1386 7. 10. Ric. 2. William Weld was chosen Abbot of S. Augustins in the place of Michael newly dead who troubled with a quartan ague the French and Dutch on the seas the King inhibited his going to Rome for confirmation c. He thereupon employs William Thorn from whose pen we have the relation hoping to be excused himself of the journey who shewing the sufferings of the house the miserable state he must leave it in that he would expose it irrecuperabili casui ruinae that the King had commanded his stay was in the end told by the Pope after all means he could use Rex tuus praecipit quod non veniat electus ille Ego volo quod compareat examini se subjiciat and again after yet more earnest sollicitation quia audivimus turbationem inter Regem Barones suos the fittest time to contest with a prince multa sinistra de persona electi quod cederet Romanae ecclesiae in praejudicium absque personali comparitione non intendimus ipsum confirmare ne daretur posteris in exemplum The cause hanging three years in suspense the Abbot in fine was forced to appear in Rome for his benediction and returned with it not to his house till about the end of March 1389. the 12. Ric. 2. After which the next Parliament obtained the statute of Premunire against the Popes conferring any Benefice within the said Kingdome from the 29 of Ianuary then ensuing and no person to send or bring any summons or sentence of excommunication against any for the execution of the same law on the pain of being arrested put in prison forfeiture of his lands tenements c. and incurring the pain of life member c. The intent of which law Polidor Virgil rightly interprets to have been a confining the Papall auctority within the Ocean and for the frequent exactions of Rome ut nulli mortalium deinceps liceret pro quavis causa agere apud Romanum Pontificem ut quispiam in Anglia ejus autoritate impius religionisque hostis publice declararetur neve exequi tale mandatum si quod ab illo haberet c. To which law three years after some other additions were made and none of these were ever repealed by Queen Mary who though she did admit a union with the
other but in the foundation most sound most orthodox that holy man never intending such a superiority over this Church as after was claimed The Bishops of England in their condemnation of Wicliffs opinions do not at all touch upon those concerned the Popes supremacy and the Councell of Constance that did censure his affirming Non est de necessitate salutis credere Romanam Ecclesiam esse supremam inter alias Ecclesias doth it with great limitations and as but an error Error est si per Romanam Ecclesiam intelligat universalem Ecclesiam aut concilium generale aut pro quanto negaret primatum summi Pontificiis super alias Ecclesias particulares I conceive therefore the Basis of the Popes or Church of Romes authority in England to be no other then what being gained by custome was admitted with such regulations as the kingdome thought might stand with it 's own conveniency and therefore subject to those stipulations contracts with the Papacy and pragmatiques it at any time hath made or thought good to set up in opposition of extravagancies arising thence in the reformation therefore of the Church of England two things seem to be especially searcht into and a third arising from them fit to be examined 1. Whether the Kingdome of England did ever conceive any necessity jure divino of being under the Pope united to the Church and sea of Rome which drawes on the consideration how his authority hath been exercised in England under the Britons Saxons and Normans what treasure was caryed annually hence to Rome how it had been gained and how stopt 2. Whether the Prince with th' advise of his Cleargy was not ever understood to be endued with authority sufficient to cause the Church within his Dominions be by them reformed without using any act of power not legally invested in him which leads me to consider what the Royal authority in sacris is 1. In making lawes that God may be truly honoured 2 things decently performed in the Church 3. Profainesse punished questions of doubt by their Cleargy to be silenced 3. The third how our Kings did proceed especially Queen Elizabeth under whose reformation we then lived in this act of separation from the sea of Rome which carries me to shew how the Church of England was reformed by Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Elizabeth Wherein I look upon the proceedings abroad and at home against Hereticks the obligation to generall Councells and some other particulars incident to those times I do not in this at all take upon me the disputation much less the Theologicall determination of any controverted Tenet but leave that as the proper subject to Divines this being onely an historicall narration how some things came amongst us how opposed how removed by our ancestors who well understanding this Church not obliged by any forraign constitutions but as allowed by it self either finding the inconvenience in having them urged from abroad farther then their first reception heare did warrant Or that some of the Cleargy inforced opinions as articles of faith were no way to be admitted into that rank did by the same authority they were first brought in leaving the body or essence as I may say of Christian religion untouched make such a declaration in those particulars as conserved the Royall dignity in it's ancient splendour without at all invading the true legall rights of the state Ecclesiasticall yet might keep the kingdome in peace the people without distruction and the Church in Vnity CHAP. II. Of the Britans 1. I Shall not hear inquire who first planted Christian Religion amongst the Britans whether Ioseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes S. Peter or Elutherius neither of which wants an author yet I must confess it hath ever seemed to me by their alleadging the Asian formes in celebrating Easter their differing from the rites of Rome in severall particulars of which those of most note were that of Easter and baptizing after another manner then the Romans used their often journeying to Palestina that they received the first principles of Religion from Asia And if afterward Caelestinus the Pope did send according to Prosper Germanus vice sua to reclaim them from Pelagianisme certainly th' inhabitants did not look on it as an action of one had authority though he might have a fatherly care of them as of the same profession with him as a Synod in France likewise had to whom in their distress they address themselves to which Beda attributes the help they received by Germanius and Lupus 2. After this as the Britans are not read to have yeilded any subjection to the Papacy so neither is Rome noted to have taken notice of them for Gregory the great about 590. being told certain children were de Britannia insula did not know whether the Countrey were Christian or Pagan and when Augustine came hither and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome the Abbot of Bancor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree in charity to help them in word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience then this they did not know due to him whom he named to be Pope nor to be father of fathers 3. The Abbots name that gave this reply to Augustine seems to have been Dinooth and is in effect no other then what Geffry Monmouth hath remembred of him that being miro modo liber alibus artibus eruditus Augustino pâ—tenti ab episcopis Britonum subjectionem diversis monstravit argument ationibus ipsos ei nullam debere subjectionem to which I may adde by the testimony of Beda their not only denying his propositions sed neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habiturum respondebant And it appears by Gyraldus Cambrensis this distance between the two Churches continued long even till Henry the first induced their submission by force before which Episcopi Walliae à Menevensi Antistite sunt consecrati ipse similiter ab aliis tanquam suffraganeis est consecratus nulla penitus alii Ecclesiae facta professione vel subjectione the generality of which words must be construed to have reference as well to Rome as Canterbury for a little after he shewes that though Augustine called them to councell as a legat of the Apostolique sea yet returned they did proclaim they would not acknowledge him an Archbishop but did contemn both himself and what he had established 4. Neither were the Scots in this difference any whit behind the Britans as we may perceive by the letter of Laurentius Iustus and Mellitus to the Bishops and Abbots through Scotland in which they remember the strange perversenesse of one Dagamus a Scottish Bishop who upon occasion coming to them did not only abstain eating with them but would not take his meat in the
same house they abode yet they salute them with the honourable titles of their dearest lords and brethren A certain signe of a wide distance between the opinions of Rome then and now when men are taught not so much as bid them farewell do not submitunto it sure our first Bishops know no such rule who placed in their Calendar for Saints and holy men as well Hilda Aydon and Colman the opposers of Rome as Wilfred Agilbertus and others who stood for it CHAP. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with AFter the planting of Christian religion amongst the Saxons th' Archbishop of Canterbury became a person so eminent all England was reputed his Diocese in the colledge of Bishops London his Dean whose office it was to summon Councels Winchester his Chancellour Salisbury or as some Winchester his Precâ—tor or that begun the service by singing Worcester or rather Rochester his Chaplain and the other the carrier of his Crosse expected no lesse obedience from York then himself yielded to Rome voluntate beneficio it being th' opinion of the Church of England it was but equall ut ab eo loco mutuentur vivendi disciplinam à cujus fomite rapuerunt credendi slammam The dependence therefore of the Clergy in England being thus wholly upon th' Archbishop it will not be amisse to take a little view both of what esteem he was in the Church and how it came to be taken off and by degrees transferr'd to a forreign power 2. Upon the conversion of the Saxons here by the preaching of Augustine and his companions and a quiet peace settled under Theodore to whom all the English submitted Parochiall Churches by his encouragement began to be erected and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation as being the successour of Saint Peter the first bishop of the world Patriark of the West that resided in a town held to nourish the best Clerks in Christendome and the seat of the Empire insomuch as the devout Britan who seemes as I said to have received his first conversion from Asia did go to Iudea as a place of greatest sanctity so amongst the Saxons Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur But as this was of their part no other then as to a great Doctour or Prelate by whose solicitude they understood the way to heaven and to a place in which religion and piety did most flourish so th' instructions thence were not as coming from one had dominion over their faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming other then that respect is fit to be rendred from a puisne or lesse skilfull to more ancient and learned Teachers As of late times when certain divines at Frankford 1554. differed about the Common-prayer used in England Knox and Whittingham appealed to Calvin for his opinion and receiving his 200. Epistle it so wrought in the hearts of many that they were not so stout to maintain all the parts of the Book as they were then against it And Doctor Cox and some other who stood for the use of the said Book wrote unto him excusing themselves that they put order in their Church without his counsell asked Which honour they shew'd him not as esteeming him to have any auctority of Office over them but in respect of his learning and merits 3. As these therefore carried much honour and yielded great obedience to Calvin and the Church of Geneva by them then held the purest reformed Church in Christendom so it cannot be denyed but our Auncestors the Saxons attributed no lesse to the Pope and Church of Rome who yet never invaded the rights of this as contrary to the councel of Ephesus and the Canons of the Church of England but left the Government of it to the English Prelats yet giving his best advice and assistance for increasing devotion and maintenance of the Laws Ecclesiasticall amongst them in which each side placed the superiority From whence it proceeded that however the Pope was sought to from hence he rarely sent hither any Legat. In the Councell of Calcuith held about 180. years after Augustine it is observed a tempore Sancti Augustini Pontificis sacerdos Romanus nullus in Britanniam mâ—ssus est nisi nos And Eadmerus that it was inauditum in Britannia quemlibes hominum super se vices Apostolicas gerere nisi solum Archiepiscopum Cantuariae 4. But after the Pope instead of being subject began to be esteemed above th' Ecclesiastick Canons and to pretend a power of altering and dispensing with them and what past by his advise and counsell onely was said to be by his authority he did question divers particulars had been formerly undoubtedly practic 't in this Kingdom he seeing them and not shewing any dislike at it as The receiving Investitures of Churches from Princes The calling Synods The determining causes Ecclesiasticall without Appeals to Rome The transferring Bishops c. but the removing these from England unto a forraign judicature being as well in diminution of the rights of the Crown as of this Church past not with out opposition 5. For Anselm an Italian the first great promoter of the Papal authority with us pretending he ought not be barr'd of visiting the Vicar of St. Peter causa regiminis Ecclesiae was told as well by the Bishops as lay Lords That it was a thing unheard and altogether against the use of the realme for any of the great men especially himself to presume any such thing without the Kings licence who affirmed nequaquam fidem quam sibi debebat simul Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra suam voluntatem posse servare And the Archbishop persisting in his journy thither had not onely his Bishoprick seized into the Kings hand but the Pope being shew'd how his carriage was resented here did not afford him either Consilium or Auxilium but suffered him to live an exile all that Princes time without any considerable support or adjudging the cause in his favour Which makes it the more strange that having found by experience what he had heard before that it was the King not the Pope could help or hurt him this visit being so little to his advantage at his first presenting himself to Henry the first he should oppose that Prince in doing him homage and being invested by him a right continued unto that time from his Auncestors and by which himself had received the Archbishoprick from his brother and this on a suggestion that it was prohibited in a councell held at Rome in which he went so far as to tell the King quod nec pro redemptione capitis mei consentiam ei de iis quae praesens audivi in Romano Concilio prohiberi nisi ab eadem sede
To return to th' Archbishop who came home with this Legatine power 1127. crowns the King at Windsor and in May following holds a Councell at Westminster cui praesedit ipse sicut Apostolicae sedis legatus which is the first Councell any Archbishop is noted to have held as a Papall Legat and during his life which was seven years England did not see any other 27. After his death the See of Canterbury lay two years vacant so a fit time for the Pope to look this way especially K. Stephen making it part of his title that he was confirmed by him in his Kingdome therefore 1138. Innocentius the second sent hither Albericus Bishop of Hostia the second stranger I find exercising the Legatine auctority in England yet he was not at first received for one but vix tandem pro reverentiâ— Domini Papae He indeed went farther then ever any had for he not onely called the Clergy Apostolica auctoritate as our Historians terme it to a Synod I confesse he avoyds the word in his letters of summons styling it colloquium perhaps not to enter into dispute with the King who then took himself to be the onely caller of them and the allower of what they did but did farther command the Prior and Convent of Canterbury c. to chuse such an Archbishop cui sacrorum canonum auctoritas in nullo valcat obviare cui comprovinciales Episcopi pariter debeant assentire cui Dominus Rex nec possit nec debet assensum suum juste denegare but farther not at all intromitting himself And in the Councell he held amongst other particulars he ordained that if any injured an Ecclesiastick person Nisi tertio admonitus satisfecerit anathemate feriatur neque quisquam ei praeter Romanum Pontificem nisi mortis urgente periculo modum poenitentiae finalis injungat This is the first that by Canon ought done in England was referr'd to Rome as having a greater power then the English Bishops to absolve of the Laws of Hen. the 1. I shall speak hereafter But whether it were not here much regarded or th' excesses used by King Stephen against certain Bishops and the prohibiting a Councell held 〈◊〉 Winchester to send to Rome as against the dignity of the realm or that he freed of imprisonment desired to make so potent a party as the Clergy then was more of his side I cannot say but assuredly it was again renewed in a Councell at London about some four years after 28. The same Pope 1139. conferr'd upon Henry K. Stephens Brother and the potent Bishop of Winchester this Legatine power which was by him publish't in a Councell at Winchester where his faculties wâ—re read bearing date the 1. March and being as well Angliae Dominus by reason of the power he held wiâ—h Stephen as Apostolicae sedis Legatus he called thither th' Archbishop that had then some contest with the Monks of St. Augustines whom the Pope generally favour'd against him referr'd to his decision from Rome so that he caused both parties the second time to appear there before him 1143. as Legat and by compromise ended the businesse Yet this calling of the Archbishop unto him was not taken well and the same year 1143. he did by Apostolick command restore Ieremy removed by Theobald notwithstanding his appeal to Rome to be Prior of Canterbury which restitution the said Prior did not think fit to stand by but for avoiding trouble took an 100. marks to pay his debts and placed himself in St. Augustines By these carriages there grew great distasts between these two great Prelats the one as Archbishop prohibited Winchester all Ecclesiastick functions however the Popes Legat and both apply themselves to the Pope from whence our Historians do fetch the use of Appeals to Rome as indeed there could not well be any cause of them before for as the one case is the first ever any Archbishop was called out of his Diocese to make answer to any Legat as his Superior so I believe it will be hard to give an example of ought done by th' Archbishop in his own Bishoprick till now alter'd by a forreign auctority And here having mentioned the introducing of Appeals the reader will give me leave to digresse a little both to shew what is meant by them and the manner of prosecution of them and then to return and observe the event of the Archbishops and Legats in the Court of Rome 29. It cannot be denyed the word Appeal to have been used in former times with reference to the Papacy Cum praesul sedem Apostolicam appellasset sayes Malmsbury of VVilfred and a Councell held in Italy concerning him Apostolicam sedem de suâ causâ appellans and of some others Yet nothing is more certain then those in whose time this was did not at all hold the Pope to have any power of righting him other then by intercession not as a superior Court by sentencing in his favour to undo what had past Theodore without whose assent the King could not have deprived him of his seat for when the Popes Letters were brought hither for his restitution Egfrid with th' advise of his Bishops not onely refused but clapt VVilfred in prison and after his death the Pope sending others vita graves aspectu honorabiles Alfrith though he received the men with great reverence yet would by no means admit the restauration they came about but affirmed it against reason to do it he having been twice condemned proper quaelibet Apostolica scripta And as this was in a time when Christianity most flourished in this Nation having in generall fortissimos Christianosque Reges so of the Kings that did it of Egfrid Beda left that he was piissimus Deo dilectissimus neither can he find any other thing to blame in Alfrith worthily and the Bishops that did concur in the action were holy men well seen in divine and secular learning so that it is not imaginable any thing past them not warranted by the Doctrine and rules of this Church 30. For the understanding of which we are to know the word Appeal is taken severall wayes sometimes to accuse sometimes for referring our selves to some one for his judgment such was that of VVilfreds appealing to Rome as to a great spirituall Doctor and Church whose judgment was very venerable in the World as of late Iohn Calvins and the Church of Geneva was to them of Scotland and Frankford c. another way we take it for removing a cause from an inferior to a superior Court or Iudge that hath power of disannulling whatsoever the former did and this is that our Historians affirm not to have been in use till after 1140. It is certain long after VVilfred the Bishops and Nobility did assure Anselme that for any of the great ones especially him to have
hujusmodi de caetero emanarunt ad provisionem ipsorum inviti non teneamur nisi de hac indul gentia plenam fecerint mentionem Dat. Lateran 15. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno 4 to c. could quiet the English or keep them from that confederation in Mat. Paris 1231. beginning Tali Episcopo tali capitulo Vniversitas eorum qui magis volunt mori quam à Romanis confundi c. Which the Popes by wisdome and joyning the Regall auctority with their spirituall sound means to bring to nought and pursuing the Papall interest without regarding what had past from them gave the Kingdome occasion 1241. to observe that in onely three years Otho had remained Legat here he bestowed more then 300. spirituall promotions ad fuam vel Papae voluntatem the Pope having contracted as the report went with the Romans to confer to none but their Children and Allies the rich benefices here especially of Religious houses as those perhaps he had most power over and to that effect had writ to the Bishops of Canterbury and Salisbury ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent So that in the Councell at Lions 1245. they complain of these exorbitances and shew the revenues the Italians received in England not to be lesse then 60 thousand marks of which more hereafter and in the year following 1246. reiterated their griefs to Innocentius 4 tus quod Italicus Italico succedit Which yet was with little successe for the Popes having as we have heard first settled all elections in the Ecclesiasticks and after upon severall occasions on the submitting of the English to his desires bestowed the benefices in this and other Kingdomes on his dependents Iohn the 22. or as some seem to think Clement the 5. his immediate predecessor endeavored the breaking of elections by Cathedralls and Convents reserving the free donation of all preferments to himself alone 70. From whence proceeded the reiterated complaints â— against Papall Provisions in the Parliaments of Edward the 3. and Ric. the 2. for this Kingdome never received his attempts in that kind to which purpose the History of Iohn Devenish is remarkable The Abbot of St. Augustines dying 1346. the 20. Ed. 3. the Convent by the Kings leave chose VVm. Kenington but Clement the 6. by Provision bestowed the Abbacy on Iohn Devenish whom the King did not approve of yet came thither armed with Papall auctority The Prior and Convent upon command absolutely denyed him entrance ingressum monasterii in capite denegando who thereupon returned to Avignon The businesse lying two years in agitation the King in the end for avoyding expences and other inconveniences ex abundanti concessit ut si idem Iohannes posset obtinere à summo Pontifice quod posset mutare stylum suae creationis â—ive provisionis scilicet non promoveri Abbatia praedicta ratione donationâ—s vel provisionis Apostolicae sed ratione electionis capituli hujus loci illa vice annueret suis temporalibus gaudere permitteret sed quidem hujusmodi causa coram ipso summo Pontifice proposita concludendo dixit se malle cedere Pontificio quam suum decretum taliter revocare c. Which so afflicted the poor man as the grief killed him on St. Iohn Baptists Eve 1348. without ever entring the Abby and the dispute still continuing the Pope 1349. wrote to the King Ne Rex impediret aut impediri permitteret promotos à curia per bullas acceptare beneficia sibi taliter incumbentia To which his Mary answer'd Quod Rex bene acceptaret provisos clericos qui esseâ—t bonae conditionis qui digni essent promoveri alios non 71. But the year following 1350. the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons meeting in Parliament complain with great resentment of these Papall grants shewing the Court of Rome had reserved to it self both the collation of Abbeys Priories c. as of late in generall all the dignities of England and Prebends in Cathedrall Churches c. Upon which the statute of Provisors was in that Parliament enacted which was the leader to those other statutes 27 and 38. Ed. 3. The 48. Ed. 3. 1374. the treaty between Ed. the 3. and Gregory the XI was concluded after two years agitation wherein it was expressely agreed quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur c. Notwithstanding which the Commons the next Parliament prefer'd a petition shewing all the benefices of England would not suffice the Cardinalls then in being the Pope having by the addition of XII new ones raised the number to XXX which was usually not above XII in all and therefore they desire it may be ordained and proclaimed that neither the Pope nor Cardinalls have any Procurator or Collector in England sur peine de vie de membre c. Yet the inconveniences still continuing 3. Ric. 2. produced that statute is in the print I shall not here repeat otherwise then that the Commons in the Roll seem to lay the beginning of these excesses no higher then Clement the 5. 72. By these arts degrees and accessions the Church of Rome grew by little and little to that immensenesse of opinion and power it had in our nation which might in some measure whilst it was exercised by connivence onely upon the good correspondency the Papacy held with our Kings and Church be tolerated and the Kingdome at any time by good Lawes redresse the inconveniences it susteined But that which hath made the disputes never to be ended the parties not to be reconciled is an affirmation that Christ commanding Peter to feed his sheep did with that give him so absolute a power in the Church and derived the like to his successors Bishops of Rome as without his assent no particular Church or Kingdome could reform it self and for that he as a Bishop cannot be denied to have as much power as others from Christ and may therefore in some sense be said to be Christs Vicar to appropriate it onely to the Pope and draw thence a conclusion that jure divino he might and did command in all particulars Vice Christi And though no other Church in the Christian World doth agree with the Roman in this interpretation though Historians of unquestioned sincerity have as we have in some measure heard in their own ages deliver'd when and how these additions crept in and by what oppositions gained that our Princes have with th' advise of the Lay and Clergy ever here moderated th' exorbitances of the Papacy in some particular or other and likewise reformed this Church though the stipulations between our Kings and Rome have not been perpetuall but temporary not absolute but conditionall as is to be seen in that past between Alexander the 3. and Hen. the 2. viz. juravit quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis
possit legitime imminente necessitate suae defensionis thesaurum Regnidetinere ne deferatur ad exteros etiam Domino Papa sub poena censurarum virtute obedientiae hoc petente relicto viris peritis quid dici debet in ista materia secundum jus canonâ—cum secundum jus Angliae velcivile solum restat suadere partem affirmativam dubii secundum principia legis Christi then shews those paiments being no other then Almes the Kingdome was not obliged to continue them longer then stood with its own convenience and not to its detriment or ruine agreeing therein with that of Divines extra casus necessitatis superfluitatis Eleemosyna non est in praecepto 5. But in the Parliament held the same year the question was concluded for there this petition being prefer'd que y puisse estre declaree en cest present Parlement si la charge de la denir Seint Pierre appelle Rome peny seraleve des dites Commes paye al Collector nostre Seint Perele Pape ou noun the answer was soit fait come devant ad este usee By which the use of them being again returned did so remain till Henry the 8 ths time For though in a councell held at London 1408 it was treated de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis yet that it past farther then words I have not observed But King Henry 1533 4 took them so absolutely away as though Queen Mary repealed that Act and Paulus Quartus dealt earnestly with her Agents in Rome for restoring the use of them yet I cannot find they were ever gather'd and sent thither during her time but where some Monasteries did answer them to the Pope and did therefore collect the taxe that in processe of time became as by custome pay'd to that house which being after derived to the Crown and from thence by grant to others with as ample profits as the Religious persons did possesse them I conceive they are to this day pay'd as an appendant to the said Mannors by the name of Smoak-mony 6. Before I passe from this one thing is not to be omitted that however the Pope had this as a due and for that end his Collector did abide in England yet he might not raise the auncient accustomed proportion of the Taxe nor in any kind alter the manner of taking it for when Rigandus from the Pope endeavored that he was streightly prohibited by Edward the 2. The Act it self is printed As for the value these Peter-Pence did amount to I have seen in an old MS. belonging to the Church of Chichester a Bull said to be of Gregory 5 ths that did proportion them after this manner Episcop Episcop  l. s. d.  l. s. d. Cant. 07 18 00 Exoniensis 09 05 00 London 10 10 00 Wigorniensis 10 05 00 Roffensis 05 10 00 Herefordens 06 00 00 Norwicensis 21 00 00 Bathon 12 00 00 Eliensis 05 00 00 Sarisbur 17 00 00 Lincolniensis 42 00 00 Coventrensis 10 00 00 Cicestrensis 08 00 00 Eborac 11 10 00 Winton 17 06 08     Dat. apud Vrbem Veterem x. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno secundo But this could not be the Bull of Gregory the 5. who dyed about 997. before Ely was erected or Episcopall chaires placed in Lincoln or Norwich 7. The last article in the oath prescribed the Clergy from the Pope of obedience to him was not any way to alienate the possessions of their houses inconsulto Romano Pontifice Whether this clause were inserted when 1115 it was first required of Raulf th' Archbishop of Cant. I have not been able to certify my self and am apt to believe it was not for though we find it in Math. Paris when it was first imposed on Abbots and Bishops yet that was after the Court of Rome had tasted the sweetnesse of taxing other Churches neither is it in any of those conditions mentioned by Diceto But when ever it came in it implying a right of alienating the possessions of Religious houses and Churches with the Papall licence bred an opinion that without his assent there could be no good sale made of their estates by any temporall or spirituall power whatsoever though with their own concurrence and the Court of Rome grew to maintain That being a Mother she ought to be relieved by her Children Gelasius the second in his distresse 1118 is said to have desired à Normannica Ecclesia subsidium orationum magis pecuniarum yet certainly the Norman Church did not then at all condescend to any for the French Agent in the Lugubri querimonia of which before mentions him amongst divers others who expell'd Italy fled into France for succour yet non in aliquo gravaverunt Ecclesiam Gallicanam nec dando beneficta nec petendo subsidium pecuniae vel armorum sed spiritualibus armis scilicet lacrymis orationibus quae sunt arma ministrorum Christi maluerunt esse contenti c. So that certainly if any collection were made for Gelasius it was so private publick notice was not taken of it 8. The first extraordinary contribution raised by allowance for the Popes use in this Kingdome I take not to have been before 1183. when Lucius 3 us at odds with the Citizens of Rome not any ways able to resist their fury sent to Henry the 2. postulans ab eo à clericatu Angliae auxilium The thing was taken into consideration and for the precedent it was not thought fit any thing should be given as from the Clergy but that they might raise a supply amongst themselves for the King without permitting a forraign Agent to intermeddle and his Majesty might with that relieve the Pope as he should see occasion But take in the Historian his own words Consuluit Rex Episcopos suos clerum Angliae de petitione summi Pontificis cui Episcopus Clerus consuluerunt ut ipse secundum voluntatem suam honorem faceret auxilium Domino Papae tam pro se quam illis quia tolerabilius esset plus placeret eis quod Dominus Rex si vellet accepisset ab eis recompensationem auxilii illius quam si permisisset nuncios Domini Papae in Angliam venire ad capiendum de iis auxilium quia si aliter fiereâ— posset verti in consuetudinem ad detrimentum regni Adquâ—â—vit Rex consilio corum fecit auxilium magnum Domino Papae in auro argento The judicious reader may observe hence things very remarkable as that the King did in points concerned the Pope consult with the English Church and followed their advise the great care the Clergy took to avoid any sinister consequence in future and therefore did themselves give to the Prince as to whom it was due from them and not to the Pope who by custome might come to claim it as indeed he
thought to have obliged us more then that declaration of the Bishops 1615 did the French who having meurement delibere sur la publication du concile de Trente ont unaniment recognu declarè recognoissent declarent estre obligez par leur devoir conscience a recevoir come de fait ils ont receu recoivent le dit concile promettent l'observer entant qu' ils peuvent par leurs fonctions auctorite spirituele pastorele and caused the same to be printed Yet that of Trent had never validity in France nor the other in England notwithstanding what thus past the Clergy 38. Neither was that other Councell of Lateran under Innocentius 2. ever received here though the Pope there insignem sacrorum Decretorum textum congessit yet nimis abundans per universum orbem nequitia terrigenarum corda contra ecclesiastica scita obduravit from whence it proceeded that when they were divulged they did no good quoniam à principibus optimatibus regnorum cum subjectis plebibus parvi pensa sunt Now that it was never received here appears besides this testimony in that the marriage of a professed Nun was adjudged valid contrary to the 7. Canon of it and that too after it was registred in the Canon Law which shews this Church did neither admit the Canons of forreign Councells nor the Canon Law it self to alter their ancient customes as is farther manifest by the statute of Merton cap. 9. Neither was the Councell of Sardis ever allowed in England as is manifest by what before of Appeals which yet by the Capitulars of Charls the great and Ludovicus Pius was even in that particular in France which made St. Bernard write of them in multas posse eas devenire perniciem si non summo moderamine actitentur Appellatur de toto mundo ad te id quidem c. for so the place is to be read as I have seen in two very good Mss and one late printed not as in the former editions of him as at Paris 1586. By these precedents the Reader may judge how necessary it was for the Parliament to make a distinction of Councells Now in these with sundry of as doubtfull credit being of late printed at Rome as if they were of equall value with the first I have thought fit to instance And here having made mention of receiving Councells as if that added strength unto them it will be necessary to say something of that too for the fuller clearing of this Church 39. The Apostles as they shewed a pattern for holding Councells to settle disputes amongst Christians so Paul and Silas in their travells delivering the Decrees by them ordained to be kept by severall Churches shew'd it to be reasonable such as were absent should receive what was done in any Synod before they were obliged by it and accordingly in the primitive times those were not present at the holding a synod had the results sent or brought unto them after the conclusion taken who did in their own Churches subscribe finding them just and pious what the others had in Councell agreed upon and then reposed them amongst their Records called by St Hierom Scrinia publica Ecclesiarum arcae c. So Cecilian being present at Nice brought to Carthage the Decrees there concluded who submitted unto them and S. Athanasius of that Councell sayes Huic Concilio universus orbis assensum praebuit quanquam multae habitae sunt Synodi hujus tamen omnes sunt memores tumper Dalmatiam Dardaniam aliasque insulas Siciliam c. plerique in Arabia hanc agnoverunt subscriptione approbarunt c. And of the Councell at Sardis it is recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I English thus Osius the Bishop subscribed and so did thâ— rest These things being copied out the Synodâ—n Sardis sent to those could not be present who were of the same mind wâ—th what had been determined of those subscribâ—d in the Synod and of the other Bishops these are the names 40. After which Athanasius from whom this epistle is taken adds qui igitur decretis 〈…〉 sunt isti in universum 344. Hence it grew that though some Councells had but few at the holding of them yet the subscriptions were numerous Baronius observes the 5th Councell of Carthage to have been held by 22 onely I conceive it should be 72. yet had 217. subscribers which was after the ending of it by Bishops in their own Churches when they admitted of it So the Synod of Antioch about 341. sending their conclusions to absent Churches writ unto them they did believe they would assent to what they had done et ca quae visa sunt recta roborantes cum consensu sancti Spiritus consignabitis It is of no use to dispute here whether this were an Arrian or a Catholick Councell be it either it still denotes the manner then used as doth the third Councell of Toledo held Anno 589. which speaks thus Constitutiones sanctorum conciliorum Niceni Ephesini Constantinopolitani vel Chalcedonensis quas gratissima aure audivimus consensione nostra veras esse probavimus de toto corde de tota anima de tota mento nostra subscripsimus and another held there having received with the letters of Pope Leo the 2. the sixth generall Councell invited all the Prelats of Spain ut praedicta synodalia instituta quae miserat nostri etiam vigoris manerent auctoritate suffulta omnibusque per nos sub regno Hispaniae consistentibus patescerent divulganda 41. By all this it is plain the manner of former times was to disperse the Decrees of Councells to absent Churches who by subscriptions were said to have confirmed and so far as lay in them by suffrage to have given strength to that such meetings had agreed unto And as Popes did thus confirme what other Bishops had concluded in their Synods so did they in like manner his In the year 1095. Vrban the 2. held a Councell at Clermont in Auvergne at which were present severall Prelats of Normandy who at their return brought letters from the Synod upon which VVilliam Archbishop of Roan caused the Norman Bishops to meet there who capitula Synodi quae apud Clarum-montem facta est unanimiter contemplati sunt scita quoque Apostolica confirmaverunt It is true the Pope being the Patriarch of most note in the world and of greatest dignity in the West usually the Acts of forraign Councells were directed unto him which he dispersed through Italy and other parts of Europe but his approbation was not enough to oblige other Churches till what came from him was by themselves allowed neither was this dispersing so appropriated to his Papacy as if there were never any other divulging of them the second Councell of Nice held 787 or 788 as Diâ—eto accounts was sent from Constantinople to Charls the great
then onely Rex Francorum and by him 792. hither where it was rejected 42. From hence it proceeded that part of the Acts of one Councell did not bind some Churches which did others as some parts of the Councell of Chalcedon and Ephesus seem not to have been received in Rome in S. Gregories time to which may be added some Canons of the 7th Councell But I believe it will be hardly shewed from the ancients that any Church neither intervening in Councell by proxy nor that did after admit of it were ever held concluded by any though never so numerous Certainly none was ever held of greater esteem amongst Catholicks then the Councel of Nice yet S. Augustine in his dispute with an Arrian confesses neither the Councell of Nice ought to prejudice the Arrian not that held at Ariminum him sed utrisque communibus testibus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet And St. Hilary comparing two Councells one of 80. Bishops which refused the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that of Nice which received it sayes si contraria invicem senserunt debemus quasi judices probare meliora so not onely taking from them all infallibility but allowing others to judge of their doings before they submitted unto their determinations And this hath been the so constant observance in all times as no age ever held the Latin obliged by the Grecian Synods which they have not received neither doth the Greek Church to this day hold themselves tyed by the determinations of Florence or to the many other of the Latin touching the procession of the holy Ghost and other points in difference to which they have not submitted 43. But for that the Acts of Councells without temporall auctority to inforce the observance of them were no other then persuasive Princes either on the incitation of their Bishops or convinced of the justnesse and piety of what had past in those Ecclesiastick Assemblies did often by their letters exhort or by their laws command the observance of what resulted from them So Constantine after the Councell of Nice wrote that letter remains recorded in Socrates and Theodoret to some absent Churches for their admitting the resolutions of it in which he tells them he had undertook that what the Romans had already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their judgment would willingly receive And Gratian Valentinian Theodosius did in the year 381. by their rescripts establish the same Councell as Iustinian by the law before mentioned did all the fourfirst which I take to be the same St Augustin calls inserting them actis proconsularibus 44. Of later times Popes having by severall arts acquired the greatest part of Episcopall power to be devolved to them have likewise claimed it as a right belonging to the Papacy not onely to call Councels but to determine which are generall who are to vote in them and therefore though properly or dinarie none but Bishops have there say they jus suffragii yet ex privilegio consuetudine Cardinalls Abbats and Generalls of Orders are to be allowed voice and that there needs no other then the Popes confirmation in Rome to oblige all Christians to the observance of any he shall hold out for such as Pius 4 tus by his bull of the 18 Iuly 1564. declared all in the Councell of Trent juris positivi did the world from the first of May before c. And though all History agree and the very Councells themselves assure us the causing the East and West to meet in those assemblies to have been ever done by Emperours and that Princes on occasions have called the Clergy within their estates together for composing disputes in religion yet the bare affirmation without any real proof hath so far prevailed with some men as to esteem him little other then an heretick shall maintain the contrary 45. But Kings have not so easily parted with these rights for the State of France notwithstanding the many sollicitations of Popeâ— from abroad and their Clergy at home hath no hitherto been induced to approve what was determined at Trent however you shall hardly meet with any of the Roman party but he will tell you that the points of faith there agreed upon are received in France but not of manners and government which is in a kind true yet contains a notable fallacy for the Ecclesiasticks of that kingdom finding the difficulty of procuring that Councell to passe have in their provincial Synods conspiratione quadam venia in quaque Dioecesi cogendi Synodos impetrata inserted the greatest part of the doctrinall points of it into those Councells so that it is truth they are indeed there received yet not for that they were concluded upon in Trent but because Episcopall Councells have each in their Dioceses establisht what they could perswade nec regibus nec supremis Parlamentorum curiis ut Synodi istius Canones in acta sua referrent observandos publicarent Neither hath the Councell of Florence under Eugenius 4 tus or of Lateran held by Iulius the 2. and Leo the 10 been hitherto allowed by France or England where the most zealously affected to Rome as Sr Thomas Moore have maintained the superiority of a generall Councell above the Pope in opposition to either of them though that be a point rather of faith then manners Upon which grounds those Councells before spoken of did not bind here farther then what was in them hath been made good by provinciall Synods within the Nation By all which it being certain neither this Church nor Kingdom hath ever been tyed by the Acts of any forraign councell not admitted here and being perhaps a thing of some intricacy what determinations the Realm had received after the four first generall Councells her Majesty took the way of receiving them as absolutely necessary but others with such limitations as are in the statute and for the future nothing to be heresy but what should be determined to be such by the Parliament with th' assent of the Convocation CHAP. IX Of the farther proceeding of Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation 1. THings thus settled in 1º Eliz. the Parliament ended the Liturgy of the Church commonly called the book of Common prayer reformed and published the Queen following the examples of her predecessors and relying on the ancient Symbols as the doctrine of the Catholick Church gave command the Creed the Pater-noster and ten Commandements as the grounds for a Christian to believe and frame his life after should be taught her subjects and none to presume to come to the Lords table before they could perfectly say them in English 2. Hitherto to my understanding her Majesty had not done any thing not warranted by the practise of her predecessors not that could be justly interpreted a departing from the Apostolick faith or indeed from Rome it self where she kept an Agent till Paulus 4 â—s
during the Parliament commanded him to relinquish the title of Ambassadour and not to stir out of Rome So that if there were any departure it must needs be the Pope made it not the English who was so incensed he would not at first acknowledge her Queen nor after permit any from her in the quality of Ambassador to reside with him though she had not done any thing but according to the ancient rights of the Kingdom and the usages of former Princes But suppose which will never be proved her Matie to have gone farther then was fit for a Christian Prince in settling Religion certainly she had just cause to conceive she might do it having so many precedents of her ancestors in the case Yet Paulus 4 tus breaks off all entercourse some of his party first would not Crown her then spake of excommunicating of her indignities no Prince but must be sensible of 3. Yet it seems the first heat past the Queens moderation was better received at Rome then at home where the Pope however a violent heady man considering no doubt his own loss in breaking off all commerce with so potent a Kingdom began to hearken to terms of accommodation and was content things should stand as they are the Queen acknowledging his primacy and the reformation from him But his death ensuing the 18 August 1559. left the designe to be prosecuted by his successor Pius 4 tus who by letters sent by Vincentius Parpalia a person of great experience employed by Cardinall Poole in his former negotiations and of late in that hither of the 5th of May 1560. directed charisimae in Christo filiae Elizabethae Reginae Angliae did assure her omnia de nobis tibi polliceare quae non modo ad animae tuae salutem conservandam sed etiam ad dignitatem regiam stabiliendam confirmandam pro authoritate pro loco acmunere quod nobis a Deo commissum fuit a nobis desiderares c. Upon this and their relations who then lived and had part in the action the English affirm Pius 4 tus would have confirmed the liturgy of the Church of England and indeed how can any imagine other for doubtlesse nothing could have been more to her dishonour then so suddainly to have changed what she had with so great consideration establisht and the Pope assuring her she might promise her self from him all he could do I know not what lesse or other he could expect she would ask But where Sr Edward Cook in his charge at Norwich as it is now printed sayes this offer came from Pius 5 tuâ— I conceive it a mistake and should have been Pius 4 tus as in another place he names Clement the 9. who yet never was for Clement the 8. and the rest of the narration there not to be without absurdities and to be one of those deserves the authors censure when he says there is no one period in the whole expressed in the sort and sense that he delivered it for certainly Pius 5 tus from his coming to the Popedome 1566 rather sought by raising against her forraign power abroad and domestick commotions at home to force her to his obedience then by such civil ways as we now speak of to allure her though the thing it self is no question true how ever the person that offer'd it be mistaken in some circumstances 4. They that make a difficulty in believing this object it to have been first divulged 1606. 46 years after the profer of it That Sr Edward Cook averr'd to have received it from the Queen her self not then alive to contradict him But for my part I confess I find no seruple in it for I have ever observed the wisdome of that Court to give what it could neither sell nor keep as Paulus 4 tus did the Kingdom of Ireland to Queen Mary admitted the five Bishopricks erected by her father approved the dissolution of the Monasteries made by him c. of which nature no question this was For the being first mentioned 46 years after that is not so long a time but many might remember and I my self have received it from such as I cannot doubt of it they having had it from persons of nigh relation unto them who were actors in the managing of the businesse Besides the thing itself was in effect printed many years before for he that made the answer to Saunders his seventh book de visibili monarchia who it seems had been very carefull to gather the beginnings of Queen Elizabeth that there might be an exact history of her tandem aliquando qui omnia act a diligenter observavit qui summis Reâ—pâ—blicae negotiis consulto interfuit relates it thus 5. That a noble-man of this Country being about the beginning of the Queens reigne at Rome Pius 4 tus asked him of her Maties casting his auctority out of England who made answer that she did it being perswaded by testimonies of Scripture and the laws of the realm nullam illius esse in terra aliena jurisdictionem Which the Pope seemed not to believe her Majesty being wise and learned but did rather think the sentence of that Court against her mothers marriage to be the true cause which he did promise not onely to retract sed inejus gratiam quaecunque possum praeterea facturum dum illa ad nostram Ecclesiam se recipiat debitum mihi primatus titulum reddat and then adds extant apud nos articuli Abbatis Sanctae salutis manu conscripti extant Cardinalis Moronae literae quibus nobilem illum vehementer hortabatur ut eam rem nervis omnibus apud reginam nostram sollicitaret Extant hodie nobilium nostrorum aliquot quibus Papa multa aureorum millia pollicitus est ut istius amicitiae atque foederis inter Romanam cathedram Elizabetham serenissimam authores essent This I have cited the more at large for that Camden seems to think what the Abbot of St. Saviour propounded was not in writing and because it being printed seven years before the Cardinall Moronas death by whose privity as Protector of the English this negotiation past without any contradiction from Rome there can no doubt be made of the truth of it And assuredly some who have conveniency and leisure may find more of it then hath been yet divulged for I no way believe the Bishop of Winchester would have been induced to write it did constare of Paulus 4 tus nor the Queen her self and divers others of those times persons of honour and worth with some of which I my self have spoken have affirmed it for an undoubted truth did not somewhat more remain or at least had formerly been then a single letter of Pius 4 tus which apparently had reference to matters then of greater privacy And here I hold it not unworthy a place that I my self talking sometime with an Italâ—an gentleman verst in publick affairs of this offer
England ever saw a Privy Councellor He having sometimes sought that dignity in Henry the 5 ths time upon the news the Archbishop of Cant. gave the King notice of it in a letter yet extant which did so affect that Prince as he was sometimes heard to say that he had as lieve set his crown beside him as see him wear a Cardinals hat But he being soon after taken away and the honour conferr'd on this Prelate in Iune 1426. by Martin the 5. at his coming into England the Lords of his Maties Councell caused him to make a Protestation for his comportment in the future and the 8th of Hen. the 6. it was agreed by the Lords in Parliament he should be on the Kings part required to attend his Maties Counsells sub protestatione tamen subsequente quod quotiens aliqua materiae causae vel negotia ipsum Dominum Regem aut regna seu dominia sua ex parte una ac sedem Apostolicam ex parte altera concernentia hujus concilii regiis communicanda tractanda fuerint idem Cardinalis se ab hujusmodi consilio absentet communicationi earundem causarum materiarum negotiorum non intersit quovis modo c. and yet his former engagement made to the Councell to be firme and inviolable Upon which the said Cardinall the 18. of December 8. H. 6. Ann. 1429. after his thanks to the King and Lords and his admitting the said Protestations tanquam rationi consonas was received for one of the Councell But I return to that I was treating of 39. The truth of this barring Appeals is so constantly averr'd by all the ancient monuments of this Nation as one not finding how to deny it falls upon another way that if the right of Appeals were abrogated it concludes not the See of Rome had no jurisdiction over this Church except one should be so senselesse as to imagine the Prefect of the Pretorian Court were not subject to th' Emperors auctority because it was not lawfull full to appeal from them according to the Law in the Digests To which I answer that if it be granted which is very disputable this Law is to be extended to th' Emperor yet it proceeded from himself who might limit his own power but he is desired to consider this canon of Appeals did not from any Pope for the Africans did and the Church of England doth maintain it as an inherent right of their own to give Laws in that particular and ever had strong contests with the Papacy about it which held it an honour not to be parted with and they opposing him in it must of necessity have held that superintendency he exercised over them not to be jure divino for then no man could have exempted himself from having recourse unto him In France there are severall Courts of Parliament from which no Appeal lies who receiving that priviledge from the King it cannot be said to be in diminution of his Royalty because that they have he gave but if ever any of them should claim this as of their own right denying the King to have at any time a power of intermedling with them I shall leave the objector to draw what consequence he will from it for my part I can no other but that they esteemed themselves very little his subjects 40. The reader will pardon this digression which I have the longerstood upon to give him the more full satisfaction how Appeals were first brought in and how pursued I shall now in what manner the Legat and Archbishop prosecuted theirs who being both before Lucius the 2. 1144. the Bishop of Winchester was dismist his legatine commission and the Pope finding with how great difficulty the Ecclesiastick affairs of this Kingdome could be managed by any Legat without the Archbishop of Canterbury thought of a very subtile invention to conserve his own auctority and not have any crossing with that Prelat which was to create him and his successors Legatinati by which such things as he did before and had a face of enterfeering with the Papal plenitude and were not so easy to devest th' Archbishop of exercising he might be said to do by a Legatine power of which it was not long before the Pope made use as is to be seen in his Decretalls where Alexander the 3. resolves he could not hear jure metropolitico matters Episcopall that came not unto him per appellationem that is in a legall way but jure Legationis he might such as were brought unto him onely per quaerimoniam an invention often practic 't afterward and highly advantagious to the Court of Rome as what made Bishops but his Deputies 41. The Antiquitates Britannicae Eccles. and from him Harpsfield speak as if this honour were first bestowed on Theobald which it seems to me could not be till the taking it away from Winchester by Lucius the 3. after the death of Innocentius 2. Diceto sayes Caelestinus 3. about some ten years after Lucius bestowed on Hubert plenitudinem potestatis in officio Legationis inauditam à seculis I confesse I do not well understand in what it did consist that had not been formerly heard of to whom the Pope had committed Vices suas in Anglia Scotia but it fully proyes that power derived from Rome was then looked on as a thing newly crept in But whosoever did first confer it the matter is not great certain it is by it the Papall auctority was not a little in time increas't there being none of the Clergy almost to question ought-came from Rome the Archbishop on whom the rest depended himself operating but as a Delegate from thence 42. To which purpose it may not unfitly be observed that when the Papacy did first attempt the exempting some great monasteries from the jurisdiction of their Ordinary it was salva primatis reverentia or as Malmsbury explains it Archiepiscopi tantum nutum in legitimis spectaturus But however thus carefully penned not to thwart with th' Archbishop being brought hither was taken away by Lanfrank not permitted to be made use of the Abbot finding no other way to regain it but multorum preces Yet afterward the Pope without scruple exempted them not onely from their Diocesan but even such as were under th' Archbishops nose with all pertaining to them were taken out of his own jurisdiction and he who at first preserved others rights had those houses now at an easy rate removed from his own A fact of infinite advantage to the Papacy by which it had persons of learning in all parts who depending wholy on it defended what was done to be by one had a power of doing it and he who at first did solely agere vices Apostolicas in Anglia was under no Legat permitted no Bul from Rome to be made use of in England but by his approbation was so far now from taking them away
from the bearers as private Clerks by deputation from thence did sit his superiors in determining differences between him and others who by strength were taken from his jurisdiction 43. After which Popes having gained an entrance found means to reduce the grant of Legatus natus to no more then stood with their own liking by inventing a new sort of Legat styled Legatus à latere by reason of his near dependance on the Popes person who employed in matters of concernment at his being here the power of the former slept which distinction of Legats seems to me to have had its birth after 1180. first applyed by any of our writers to Iohannes Anagninus Cardinalis 1189. by Hoveden which style yet others who then lived do not give him Of this Legat it is that Henry Chichley in a letter yet extant under his own hand wrote to Henry the 5. that Be inspection of Lawes and Chronicles was there never no Legat à latere sent in to no lond and specially in to your rengme of Yngland witoute great and notable cause And thei whan thei came after thei had done her legacie abiden but litul wyle not over a yer and summe a quarter or ij monthes as the nedes requeryd And yet over that he was tretyd with or he cam in to the lond whon he schold have exercise of his power and how myche schold bee put in execution An aventure after hee had bee reseyved hee would have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple as indeed if he stayed long he sometimes gained the censure of being occultus inimicus regni but this was not till the Popes had brought th' Archbishops much under by laying a necessity on them of receiving the Pall from Rome and at the taking of it of making profession de fidelitate canonica obedientia that is had obliged them by Oath to defend regalia Sancti Petri. Of which because I find th' introducing not much touched by our writers a great means to advance this forraign power it will not be amisse to say somewhat and first of the Pall. 44. The Pallium from whence our English word Pall was a garment with which the Professors of Arts as Grammar Rhetorick Musick might cloath themselves as it seems to me by Tertullian they did yet was held most proper for such as professed Philosophy And therefore when a begging fellow came to a noble Roman palliatus crinitus being asked what he was the man half angry replyed he was a Philosopher mirari cur quaerendum putasset quod videret to which the Gentleman returned Barbam Pallium Philosophum nondum video From whence I gather it was for the most peculiar to them So Eusebius shewes on Heraclas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking the habit of a Philosopher notwithstanding his being a Christian retained it and lib. 8. cap. 21. at the martyrdom of Porphyrius a disciple of Pamphilus he describes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a short cloak or Pall covering the shoulders 45. But it seems the primitive Christians in wearing of it did attribute some Sanctity to the garment for grande pallii beneficium est saith Tertullian sub cujus recogitatu impii mores vel erubescunt whereupon the Councell of Gangra not an 100. years after pronounced him Anathema used the Pallium quasi per hoc habere se justitiam credens c. Now from the danger of superstition of the one side and the being especially worne by Philosophers of the other I am apt to think it became in the end proper onely to some Bishops who might challenge it as learned Philosophers yet not at all likely to attribute more to the Robe then reasonable and in time either by collation of Emperors or otherwise appropriated to some particular Churches who having that mark were after the seats of Archbishops for the most part For though Alcuinus be of opinion the Pall is nothing but a distinction between an Archbishop and his suffraganes yet underfavour I conceive that must be taken of th' acception of the word in the time he lived not as used in St. Gregories dayes who gives Augustine at the bestowing the Pall upon him the title of Archbishop no more then he doth Syagrius Bishop of Austun in Burgundy which Town notwithstanding that guift by St. Gregory was never reputed to have other then an Episcopall chair and suffragan to the Archbishop of Lions to this day So that certainly at first all that had the Pall were not eo nomine Archbishops to whom it became especially proper after the Emperor relinquisht it to the Popes disposing who at first no question had a good part in the conferring of it himself 46. The deed is yet extant by which Valentinian bestowed it on the Church of Ravenna about the year 430. I know some who find not how to deny it hold this an honourable vestment such as Emperors themselves wore which opinion Baronius justly confutes and rather thinks it forged yet he citing out of Liberatus that Anthemius expell'd the Church of Constantinople Pallium quod habuit imperatoribus reddidit discessit gives no glosse how he could return to the Emperor his Pall and depart if he had nothing to do with it and it is manifest in Gregory the greats dayes that Church did not onely prescribe for the use of the Pall but for doing it contrary to the will and opinion of that Father And the same Doctor elsewhere saith he had dealt apud piissimos dominos the Emperors to send him Anastasius concesso usu Pallii and afterward being desired by Brunichilda to grant it to Syagrius of whom before he shews his readinesse propter quod serenissimi Domini Imperatoris prona voluntas est concedi haec omnino desider at So that certainly at the beginning if Princes did not bestow it yet it was not done against their wills which after-times did in Europe solely appropriate to the Pope who yet gave it not against their liking as Lucius the 2. sending it to the Bishop of Winchester who yet never made use of it teacheth us 47. But what this Pall imported or what the receiver had of advantage by it writers I think do not alwayes agree Isidorus Pelusiota who writ about the year 430 is of opinion the Bishop as a type of Christ wears that cloak of wool to shew himself imitator of the great shepheard that will bear the strayed sheep on his shoulders St. Gregory sayes it signifies humility justice c. I have shew'd before Alcuinus his opinion of it But what soever signification it was at first thought to carry certainly the necessity of fetching it from Rome was not so urgent as in these later the Papall interest made it esteemed We do not read that ever Laurentius or Mellitus received thence the Pall yet no man