Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	henry_n	king_n	pope_n	16,586	5	6.9376	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91392	The true grounds of ecclesiasticall regiment set forth in a briefe dissertation. Maintaining the Kings spirituall supremacie against the pretended independencie of the prelates, &c. Together, vvith some passages touching the ecclesiasticall power of parliaments, the use of synods, and the power of excommunication.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.	1641 (1641)	Wing P428; Thomason E176_18; ESTC R212682	61,943	101

was not the learning and knowledge of all Bishops at his command to be imployed as if it were his owne Bishops themselves might erre and dissent and in that point many of them did erre and hold against the truth and without his ayde this division was irreconcileable but by his influence and superintendence truth might obtaine a faire tryall and Bishops themselves might be convinced by Bishops This case in Divinity might be too intricate for his sole judgment and too pondrous for his actuall determination but what he could not doe single and personally Hee might well effect by the counsell and advice of his most moderate and disinteressed Clergie for in Divinity the Prince is as in juridicall or Martiall affaires As he is not alwayes the ablest Divine so neither is he the ablest Lawyer nor the ablest Souldier and yet by the advice of Divines Lawyers and Souldiers He may conclude that wisely which neither He without them nor they without him could ever have concluded Therefore against this remisse cold slacknesse and haesitancy of Valentinian we may oppose the politike and couragious resolution of Constantine Theodosius and diverse other pious Emperors who all did compose debates and end controversies and vindicate Truth and Religion from many errors and abuses wch otherwise had bin endlesse and remedilesse After the first 5. or 6. hundred yeares Episcopacy began to invade the rights of Royalty by the Sophistications and impostures of the See of Rome and till this last Age Princes almost every where did blindly and superstitiously too farre abandon their owne right but by the light of Nature the wisest Kings in all Countryes were ever the most refractory and most impatient of the Popes tyranny and in the most ignorant times some there were found that made resistance to the same Much bloud was shed upon this Theme in diverse other Countries and even in our own stories we find that though England was prone otherwise to be the Popes Asse yet in the quarrell of supremacy it was jealous and had almost perpetuall conflicts I will only cite one story Henry the second was a very puissant Prince and in all other things except only Ecclesiasticall He was fortunate and victorious but his misery was that He raigned in such an Age as the Pope was in his Zenith and had to doe with Becket of all the Popes dependents the most seditious Henry the first his Grandfather out of the greatnesse of his Spirit and wit had passed these Lawes That no Appeal should stand That no Bishops should go out of the Realme That no Tenant in Capite should bee excommunicated That no officiall of the Kings should be interdicted without the Kings leave and consent And that Clergimen should be subject to secular judgement and that Lay-men under the King should judge of Tythes and other causes Ecclesiasticall At these just and necessary Lawes the Clergie hitherto rested quiet if not contented but now a most rebellious Becket arises to spurne against them and in his mouth they are dangerous incroachments and breaches upon the Church Rather than hee will subscribe to these so long establisht Lawes He departs the Kingdome in contempt of the King and with all violence and bitternesse that may bee incenses the Pope the King of France and all the Italian and French Bishops against his naturall Lord The King at first gallantly relyes upon the edge of his temporall sword and whets it sharper in behalfe of his legall prerogative and for some yeares together stands out against the danger of the Popes confounding blow but at last when Becket the fierce Traytor was slaine through the execrations and anathemas of the Pope and by the threats and exclamations of the King of France and diverse other Bishops and Potentates He is beaten from his ground swearing fealty to the Pope and his successors and admitting of Appeales to Rome Long it was before hee would submit himselfe in this contestation betwixt a subject and himselfe to the Romish Tribunall or yeeld to any condemnation being untryed and unheard and it appeares by the Popes forbearance of his last thūderbolt that the Pope was diffident in his power and durst not sentence him if He had not yeelded before the sentence But I leave Popery come now to our reformed times The dead time of night being now over Luther began to crow in Germany and to give notice of light ready to dawn upon the Earth and no sooner did that light appeare but that diverse Princes began to awake and to shake off that blind servitude of Rome which had so long layne upon them and lock'd up their senses like a deepe sleepe How be it the light was not alike welcome to all some fully and wholly gave it entertainement others opened some Curtaines onely and so yeelded themselves to a little further slumber Henry the eighth here in England was well pleased with that Doctrine which discovered his owne independence and the weakenesse of the Popes Prerogative but those further monstrous deformed errors and superstitions of Rome which are founded upon its absolute Prerogative and are as inconsistent with light as the Prerogative it selfe He tooke no delight to looke upon So farre as his owne interest and worldly advantage was represented by the beames of the Gospell so farre his eyes thought it amiable And so farre Bishop Gardiner though a Bishop was ready to assist him but so farre as his spirituall interest and the generall advantage of his Subjects was concerned so farre Hee and Gardiner both could remaine as blind as Sir Thomas More T is wonderfull that so sharp-sighted a man as Sir Thomas More was should lay downe his life in justification of the Popes supremacie but t is more wonderfull that Gardiner should see the weakenesse of that supremacie and yet still adhere to diverse other Popish superstitions as absurdly resulting from the same principles The State of Venice also out of meere policy has long been at defiance with the Court of Rome so farre as meere rules of Government guide and direct it but in all other spirituall delusions and impostures it is as dead as heavie-eyed as ever Spaine France and Germany also though they speake not the same yet they now doe the same as Venice they all shut up and impale the Popes Authority within Peters Patrimony leaving him no command but within his owne Italian territories and yet besides his authority they cast off nothing else so much doe we generally esteeme Earth before Heaven and our temporall advantages before the subsistance of our soules But let reason of State bee what it will The Parliament here agrees to annex to the Crowne of Henry the eighth and his successors whatsoever sole independent power was before challenged in Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall things by the Pope or any Church-Man whatsoever And Hooker seemes both to confesse and justifie the same for sayes H Our Kings of England when they are to take possession of the Crown have it

Politicians have invented to be profitable nay necessary for the universall government of Mankind for what one man can receive Appeals either in temporall or spirituall affaires or direct finall unerring dispatches to all the remote climates of the earth at one time or what a cursed vexation were it for all people of all languages and customes to be chained to One City thither to travell for all finall determinations and there to attend confused sentences and in the mean time to endure at home endlesse dissentions and hopelesse divisions under the insufficient rule of subordinate limited Princes and Bishops Surely had Mahomet preached any such grosse doctrine amongst his ragged barbarous Arabians hee had never tamed and broken them so easily to his wretched usurpation T is wonderfull that our Ancestors could drink of such a cup of intoxication in the worst of times but that the nauseous dregs of its bottome should now be obtruded upon us in these golden shining dayes is almost past belief The Pope never yet had the rule of a third part of the World but so far as hee ha's had it he ha's given sufficient testimony how insupportable great Monarchies are both to the Governour and the governed And where the yoke of Rome ha's prevailed what ha's that infallible judgement and unlimitable power which the Pope pretends to for our good what ha's it availed the Church of God when the Easterne Churches were in Unitie this gave them occasion to depart and revolt but when the rent was what vertue had the Pope to reduce them to unite The like may bee asked concerning all Protestant Countries now falne from Romish obedience nay of al Turks Heathens not yet subdued to the triple crown if Christ intended the Popes infallibilitie for the discovery of all errors and heresies and his supremacie for the subjugation of al such as would maliciously persevere in discord errours and heresies how comes this intention to be so defeated and frustrated if the Popes keyes be potent enough for both these purposes why does he not force all men to come in within his sheepfold and if not why does he pretend so much Would Christ put into one Bishops hand an universall Scepter such as the World never before heard of such as hee himselfe here on earth never exercised and yet leave it contemptible to the greatest part of the World if ignorance prevail and incredulity let the key of knowledge assist us and bring us into light if stubbornes and perversnesse have hardned our hearts let the key of power dissolve and bruize us and if hee can doe neither of these what vertue is there in the Roman Oracle what benefit is there in that prophetick chaire what priviledge ha's Peter more then Iohn Shall the Citie of Rome it selfe be upheld and secured from ever erring and falling away and shall not England shall not Scotland shall not all Nations be the like The power of the Pope is the same in all Countries if it faile in England it may faile at Rome if it faile not at Rome it would not faile in England but that the Pope is lesse propitious O why should his mercy bee more narrow then his vertue O let him once againe graciously ascend his reverent chaire let him congregate generall Councils and there poure out the treasures of his inspired breast let him there give judgements as cleere pure irrefragable and as obvious to humane apprehension as Scripture it self nay if something more sufficient then Scripture be necessary for the composing of all our strifes let him give us Solutions in a phrase more powerful then the Apostles ever used and prescribe rules more convincing then God himselfe or Christ in his incarnation ever prescribed and if Kings and Emperours still make resistance let him put on his robes of Majesty and terrour let him passe over them as Serpents and Basilisks whilst the stroke of his foot upon the earth fils all Countries with battalions of armed men nay if terrestriall forces come not in fast enough let him shake the Heavens with the thunder of his voice and call downe Seraphims to his attendance and let the highest orders of Heaven give testimony to his earthly Deity I might frame the like expostulations after a sort against our own Prelats also but I forbeare for if God ha's given them sole knowledge to determine all controversies and power to enact all Ecclesiasticall Canons doubtlesse hee ha's given them some binding coercive force correspondent thereunto and if so why doe they not expel all dissention by it if their vertue extend no further then to exhortation why do they urge commands upon us if they have a commanding power why do they not second it with due compulsion And as this is sufficient to prove independent power due to Christian Princes in all causes whatsoever so Historie makes it as plaine that Christian Princes at their first entrance till Popery beganne to intoxicate them did clayme and exercise the same as their due Constantine had {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} given him for his Title and wee know hee shewed himselfe no lesse and wee know his Successours for divers Ages did assume and verifie the same Title as their due And therefore Bilson proves out of Socrates and other Historians That in the Primitive Christian Emperours times all Ecclesiasticall affairs did depend upon Emperours and that the greatest Synods and Councels were called at their appointment and that Appeals from Councels were reserved to them and sometimes over-ruled by them and that all Ecclesiasticall Laws were by them enacted confirmed and repealed and that the greatest Prelates were by them ordered and commanded and that whole Provinces and Kingdomes were by them visited and reformed in all cases whatsoever And this truth the learnedst of Papists will nor deny and those wch do deny the same rely upon some particular exception onely and have very few instances before the Popes inthronization at Rome and these of matters of fact and not rights alledged neither Valentinian the Elder is one maine Instance and he when strife was betweene the Arians and the Orthodox Christians would not take upon him to determine the same his modest Answer was non est meum judicare inter Episcopos And Ambrose sayes of him Inhabilem se ponderi tanti putabat esse Iudicii Valentinian here was a pious Emperor and Orthodox but his blame was as Socrates justly taxes him that though he honoured those that were of his true faith and sound opinion yet he in the meane time let the Arians doe what they list And this cannot be excused for if hee was doubtfull of his owne faith this was ignorance and if Hee was not and yet tolerated Arianisme this was neglect in him and if he did shunne this decision as burthensome to him this was impious and if as intricate this was inconsiderate For what if hee could not judge as a Bishop could not he therefore judge by Bishops

painted out before their eyes even by the very solemnities and rights of their inauguration to what affaires by the same Law their supreme power and authority reaches Crowned we see they are and Inthronized and Annoynted the Crowne a signe of Military dominion the Throne of sedentary or Iudiciall The Oyle of Religious and sacred power Hee here Attributes as supreme a rule and as independent in Religious and sacred affaires as Hee does either in Military or Iudiciall and hee accounts that venerable Ceremony of Vnction as proper to the Kings of England as that of Crowning or Inthroning Neverthelesse it is now a great objection against this chiefly of Dominion that it may descend to Infants under age as it did to King Edward the sixth Or to Women as to Queene Mary and Elizabeth and whatsoever wee may allow to men such as Henry the eighth yet it seemes unreasonable to allow it Women and Children The Papists thinke this objection of great moment and therefore Bellarmine in great disdaine casts it out that in England they had a certaine Woman for their Bishop meaning by that woman Q. Elizabeth And Q. Elizabeth her selfe knowing what an odium that word would draw upon her both amongst Papists and many Protestants also consults her Bishops about it and by their advice sets forth a declaration certifying the world thereby that shee claymed no other Head-ship in the Church but such as might exclude all dependency upon forreigne Head-ships and secure her from all danger of being deposed How this paper could satisfie all I cannot see My thinkes the Bishops in this did as warily provide for their owne clayme as the Queenes for whatsoever power Shee had in the Church it was either absolute Coordinate or Subordinate If it was subordinate Shee was in danger of deposition and was to bee ordered and limited and commanded by her Superior If her power was Co-ordinate She had no more power over her equall than her equall had over her and it being as lawfull for her equall to countermand as it was for her to command her power would be as easily disabled and made frustrate by her equalls as her equalls by hers In the last place therefore if her power or headship were absolute why did not her Bishops uphold and declare the same Such dallying with indefinite expressions and dazelling both our selves others with meere ambiguities does often very great harme for uncertainty in Law is the Mother of confusion and injustice and this is the mother of uncertainty According to this obscure declaration of supremacy in the Queenes paper many Papists at this day take the Oath penned in the Statute for that purpose they will abjure the Popes supremacy as to deposition of Princes but not in any thing else and they will hold the King supreme as to all deposers but not as to all men else Those which are not bloudy and dangerous but by the light of nature abhorre regicides rest themselves upon these shallow distinctions but such as are Iesuitically furious and murdrous break through them as meere Cobwebs and the more secure Princes are from the other the lesse safe they are from these These men will still insist upon absolute supremacy somewhere to rest and that it cannot rest in Women or Minors they will still insist upon this argument If the Queene be not competent for that lower Order to whom the Word and Sacraments are committed then shee is not competent for that higher Order which has power over the lower but the Queene is not competent for the lower therefore not for the higher They say that to prescribe Lawes to Preachers is more than to preach and to have power over Ordination is something greater than to enter into Orders and therefore the Law cannot justly give that which is more and greater when God denyes that which is inferior and lesse Our Divines make a very short unsatisfying reply to this Their reply is that though our Bishops owe some kind of subjection to Kings yet the authority of preaching c. is not from Kings but from Christ Himselfe Christ they say giveth the Commission Kings give but a permission only All the power at last of our Kings which is acknowledged equall with that of the Iewish and has been so farre all this while magnified and defended against Papists inables them now no further than to a naked permission in religious affaires their most energeticall influence is permission T is true the Commission of the Apostle was from Christ His Ite docete was their authority And so it remaines still to all their successors but is it therefore a reason that there is now no other Commission necessary Where Christs Commission was particular it was good without any other humane commmission nay permission it selfe was not requisite the Contents of that Commission was not only Ito Doceto but Tu Petre Tu Paule c. Ito doceto but now there remaines nothing of that Commission but the generality Ito doceto the particularity requires now particular Commissions and meere permissions will not serve the turne And as for succession we may suppose that our Saviours first Commission was vigorous as to that purpose but we must know That the Apostles being both Governours and Preachers all that commission which was given them as Governours was not given them as Preachers There must still be successors to the Apostles in Governing and Preaching but it s not necessary that the same men now should succeed in both offices and that whatsoever was commanded or granted to the one office the same should bee granted and commanded to the other The Civill Iudges and Councellors of State under the King are not without Generall Commissions from Heaven to doe justice and preserve order in their severall subordinate stations and yet they depend upon particular commissions too from Gods immediate Vice-Gerent And it seemes to me a weake presumption that Officers in Religion should have more particular Commissions from GOD than Officers of State or that Princes should bee more permissive and lesse influent by way of power in the Church than in the Common-Wealth He that observes not a difference betwixt these times under Christian Princes and those under unbeleeving Caesars is very blind and He is no lesse that thinks particular Commissions now as necessary when Princes joyne to propagate the Gospell as they were when supreme power was abused for its subversion And so makes no difference betwixt a Nero and a Constantine Did Constantine gaine the style of Head-Bishop or Bishop of Bishops meerely by permitting the true worship of God And let us lay aside the strangenes of the Name and apply the thing I meane the same Episcopall power to Queene Elizabeth as was to Constantine and what absurdity will follow What is intended by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which may not bee as properly applyed to Queene Elizabeth as to Constantine If the Patriarchs and Kings of Iudah

perverted by private interest and that they are superior to all Christians under their charge yea grant them a right to make what Canons they please and grant them no power to compell obedience to the same and to punish disobedience to the same and this would take away peace and cause much mischiefe and disturbance every where and this we cannot thinke God would be the Author of How ridiculous are the Popes anathemaes to those which renounce his allegiance they seem to us but meere Epigrams sent abroad to provoke laughter And yet why doe they not appeare as ridiculous in Italy as in England were it not for common consent they were not in more force amongst Italians then Englishmen and there is no more true naturall vigor in the Popes Bulls to procure common consent in Italy then in England we may gather then from hence that there is no Ecclesiasticall Supremacie but founded upon the same basis of common consent as temporall supremacie is and being so founded it cannot be Divine or unalterable or above common consent so as to have any efficacie without much lesse against it That some Nations are gull'd and cozen'd out of their consents is no presedent for us for as many Nations are addicted to Mahomits commandes as are to the Popes and in this the dominion of Mahomet is as spirituall as the Popes and is as strong a case to over-rule us as the Popes for if consent were to be forced the Pope might as well force Mahometans as Christians and if it be free his Empire depends as much upon it as Mahomets They then that have erected a Spirituall supremacie not depending upon common consent have been in a great error and they that slight common consent as not capable of a spirituall supremacie seem to have been as much mistaken Many of our Divines say that Parliaments are temporall Courts and so not of spirituall jurisdiction and others say that they may as well frame acts to order the Hierarchie in heaven as to dispose of Ecclesiasticall things on earth both these seeme to me verry erroneous The Argument methinks is equally strong as God would not give a right to binde up other men by Statutes and Commandements but he would give some power withall to drive men by constraint to observe and yeeld obedience to the same so He would not indue any Prince or Court with such power but He would give a right of binding equall and congeniall to that power Princes of themselves are sacred as I have proved and spiritually sacred how much more then are they accounted sitting in Parliament and if Princes in Parliament how much more Princes and Parliaments for to Princes on their awfull Tribunalls is something more due then at other times but to Princes in Parliament there is most of all due in regard that there they are invested with more then their owne naturall power common consent having not derived all power into the King at any other time or in any other place but reserved much thereof till a full union be in Parliament besides setting aside the sanctity of power in Parliaments yet in regard that they are assisted with the best counsell of Divines so they ought not to be accounted meere Temporall Courts for what better advise can those Divines give out of Parliament then in Parliaments Some Parliaments in England have made some Ecclesiasticall acts excluso clerò nay that which was the the most holy act which ever was established in England viz. The Reformation of Religion was passed invito clero and when these things are not only legall but honorable shall we limit Parliaments in any thing wherein the votes of the Clergie are concomitant and concurrent with the Laytie Hooker sayes that the most naturall and religious course for the making of Lawes is that the matter of them be taken from the judgement of the wisest in those things whom they concerne and in matters of God he saies it were unnaturall not to thinke the Pastors of our soules a great deale more wise than men of secular callings but when all is done for devising of Lawes it is the generall consent of all that gives them the forme and vigor of Lawes This we allow of for the most part but wee conceive this to be understood of such Divines as in the judgement of Parliaments are omni exceptione majores for it was not unnaturall in the beginning of the Reignes of Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth to thinke that the Lords and Commons were better Judges of Religion than the Bishops and the Convocation house as matters then stood in England For the whole body can have no sinister end or interest to blinde them but the whole Clergie which is but a part of the whole body may and therefore the whole body is to judge of this and when they see a deviation in the Clergie and observe the occasion of it they must not blindly follow blinde guides but doe according to that light which God hath given them And certainly it were contrary to that interest which every man hath in the Truth that any should be obliged to receive it from other mens mouths without any further inquiry or judgement made upon the same The meanest man is as much interessed and concerned in the truth of Religion as the greatest Priest and though his knowledge thereof be not in all respects equally easie yet in some respects it may be easier for want of learning doth not so much hinder the light of the Laymen as worldly advantage and faction sometimes doth the Priests Examples of these are infinite corruption in the Church before our Saviour and in our Saviours daies and ever since hath oftner begun amongst the greatest Priests Rabbers and Bishops than amongst the meaner Laitie And for this cause God requires at every mans hands an account what doctrine he admits what Lawes he obeys holding no man excused for putting blinde confidence in his ghostly Father and not taking upon him to weigh and try how sure his grounds were And if every private man stand so responsible for his particular interest in the Truth being equally great in the Truth shall not whole States and Nations whose interest is farre greater than their Priests or Bishops is give a sadder account to God if they leave themselves to be seduced by such men which are as liable to error as themselves If wee consider the meere matter of Lawes they are either profitable for the Church or not if they are profitable why should wee thinke that Princes and Parliaments want power to impose Lawes upon themselves for the availe of their owne soules they standing to God accountable for the same according to the greatnesse of their owne interest and if they are not profitable there is no obedience due to them whether Priests or Princes make them and that they be not profitable is equally doubtfull whether Priests or Princes make them Take then Lawes to be questionable as all