miseries of his own May not both Factions see by this what a condition the poor Church of England is involved in by them The sight whereof althoug it justifie them not in their several courses as being not without example in their present practices yet it may serve to let you know that as the distractions and confusions under which we suffer are not the consequents of our translating of the Scriptures and publick Liturgies into the common vulgar Tongues so it is neither new nor strange that such confusionsand distractions should befal the Church 5. That the proceedings of this Church in setting out the English Liturgy were not meerly Regal and of the power of Soveraign Princes in Ecclesiastical affairs Having thus proved that nothing hath been done amiss by the Church of England with reference to Gods Word the testimonies of godly Fathes and the usage of the primitive times in leaving off the Latine Service and celebrating all Divine Offices in the English Tongue I am to justifie it next in order to the carrying on of that weighty business whether so Regular or not as we fain would have it I see you are not scrupled at the subject-matter of the Common-prayer-book which being translated into Greek Latine French and Spanish hath found a general applause in most parts of Christendom no where so little set by as it is at home All scruples in that kind have been already fully satisfied by our learned Hooker who hath examined it per partes and justified it in each part and particular Office But for the greater honour of it take this with you also which is alledged in the Conference of Hampton Court touching the Marquess of Rhosny after Duke of Sally and Lord High Treasurer of France who coming Ambassador to King James from Henry IV. and having seen the solemn celebration of our Service at Canterbury and in his Majesties Royal Chappels did often and publickly affirm that if the Reformed Churches in France had kept the same Orders as were here in England he was assured there would have been many thousand Protestants in that Kingdom more than were at that time That which you seem to stick at only is in the way and manner of proceeding in it which though you find by perusal of the Papers which I sent first unto you not to have been so Parliamentarian as the Papists made it yet still you doubt whether it were so Regular and Canonical as it might have been And this you stumble at the rather in regard that the whole Body of the Clergy in their Convocation had no hand therein either as to decree the doing of it or to approve it being done but that it was resolved on by the King or rather by the Lord Protector in the Kings Minority with some few of the Bishops by which Bishops and as small a number of Learned Church-men being framed and fashioned it was allowed of by the King confirmed or imposed rather by an Act of Parliament Your question hereupon is this Whether the King for his acting it by a Protector doth not change the Case consulting with a lesser part of his Bishops and Clergy and having their consent therein may conclude any thing in the way of a Reformation the residue and greatest part not advised withal nor yielding their consent unto it in a formal way This seems to have some reference to the Scottish Liturgie for by your Letter I perceive that one of the chief of your Objectors is a Divine of that Nation and therefore it concerns me to be very punctual in my Answer to it And that my Answer my be built on the surer Ground it is to be considered first whether the Reformation be in corruption of manners or abuses in Government whether in matters practical or in points of Doctrine 2. If in matters practical whether such practice have the character of Antiquity Universality and Consent imprinted on it or that it be the practice of particular Churches and of some times only And 3. If in points of Doctrine whether such points have been determined of before in a General Council or in particular Councils universally received and countenanced or are to be defined de novo on emergent controversies And these Distinctions being laid I shall answer briefly First If the things to be reformed be either corruptions in manners or neglect of publick duties to Almighty God abuses either in Government or the parties governing the King may do it of himself by his sole Authority The Clergy are beholden to him if he takes any of them along with him when he goeth about it And if the times should be so bad that either the whole body of the Clergy or any though the greatest part thereof should oppose him in it he may go forwards notwithstanding punishing such as shall gainsay him in so good a work and compelling others And this I look on as a Power annexed to the Regal Diadem and so inseparably annexed that Kings could be no longer Kings if it were denied them But hereof we have spoke already in the first of this Section and shall speak more hereof in the next that follows And on the other side if the Reformation be in points of Doctrin and in such points of doctrine as have not been before defined or not defined in form and manner as before laid down The King only with a few of his Bishops and Learned Clergy though never so well studied in the point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole Body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted whose Acts being ratified by the King bind not alone the rest of the Clergy in whose names they Voted but all the residue of the subjects of what sort soever who are to acquiesce in their Resolutions The constant practice of the Church and that which we have said before touching the calling and authority of the Convocation makes this clear enough But if the thing to be Reformed be a matter practical we are to look into the usage of the Primitive times And if the practice prove to have been both ancient and universally received over all the Church though intermitted for a time and by time corrupted The King consulting with so many of his Bishops and others of his most able Clergy as he thinks fit to call unto him and having their consent and direction in it may in the case of intermission revive such practice and in the case of corruption and degeneration restore it to its Primitive and original lustre whether he do it of himself of his own meer motion or that he follow the advice of his Council in it whether he be of age to inform himself or that he doth relie on those to whom he hath committed the publick Government it comes all to one So they restrain themselves to the ancient patterns The Reformation which was made under josias though in his Minority and acting by the Counsel of the
to be affirmed by the Bishops of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buchingham August 2. 1625. In which they signifie unto him that the said Articles being agreed upon and ready to be published it pleased Queen Elizabeth of famous memory upon notice given how little they agreed with the practice of piety and obedience to all Government to cause them to be suppressed and that they had so continued ever since till then of late some of them had received countenance at the Synod of Dort Next touching the effect produced by them in order to the end so proposed so far they were from appeasing the present Controversies and suppressing Baroe and his party that his disciples and Adherents became more united and the breach wider than before And though Dr. Baroe not long after deserted his place in the University yet neither was he deprived of his Professorship as some say not forced to leave it on a fear of being deprived as is said by others For that Professorship being chosen from two years to two years according to the Statutes of the Lady Margaret he kept the place till the expiring of his term and then gave off without so much as shewing himself a Suiter for it Which had he done it may be probable enough that he had carried it from any other Candidate or Competitor of what rank soever The Anti-Calvinian party being grown so strong as not to be easily overborn in a publick business by the opposite faction And this appears plainly by that which followed on the death of Dr. Whitacres who died within few days after his return from Lambeth with the nine Articles so much talk'd of Two Candidates appeared for the Professorship after his decease Wotton of Kings Collegd a professed Calvinian and one of those who wrote against Mountague's Appeal Anno 1626. Competitor with Overald of Trinity Colledg almost as far from the Calvinian doctrine in the main Platform of Predestination as Baroe Harsnet or Barret are conceived to be But when it came to the Vote of the University the place was carried for Overald by the Major part which as it plainly shews that though the doctrines of Calvin were so hotly stickled here by most of the Heads yet the greater part of the learned Body entertained them not so doth it make it also to be very improbable that Baroe should be put out of his place by those who had taken in Overald or not confirmed therein if he had desired And therefore we may rather think as before is said that he relinquished the place of his own accord in which he found his Doctrine crossed by the Lambeth Articles and afterwards his peace distracted dy several Informations brought against him by the adverse faction and thereupon a Letter of Complaint presented to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh subscribed by most of those who before had prosecuted Barret to his Recantation Which Letter giving very great light to the present business as well concerning Barret as Baroe though principally aimed at the last I think worthy of my pains and the Readers patience and therefore shall subscribe it as hereafter followeth A Copy of the Letter sent from some of the Heads in Cambridge to the Lord Burleigh Lord High Treasurer of England and Chancellor of the University RIGHT HONOURABLE our bounden duty remembred we are right sorry to have such occasion to trouble your Lordship but the peace of this University and Church which is dear unto us being brought into peril by the late reviving of new Opinions and troublesom Controversies amongst us hath urged us in regard of the places we here sustain not only to be careful for the suppressing the same to our power but also to give your Lordship further information hereof as our honourable Head and careful Chancellor About a year past amongst divers others who here attempted publickly to teach new and strange Opinions in Religion one Mr. Barret more boldly than the rest did preach divers Popish Errors in St. Maries to the just offence of many which he was enjoyned to retract but hath refused so to do in such sort as hath been prescribed with whose fact and Opinions your Lordship was made acquainted hy Dr. Some the Deputy Vice-Chancellour Hereby offence and division growing as after by Dr Baroes publick Lectures and determinations in the Schools contrary as his Auditors have informed to Dr. Whitacres and the sound received Truth ever since her Majesties Reign we sent up to London by common consent in November last Dr Tyndal and Dr. Whitacres men especially chosen for that purpose for conference with my Lord of Canterbury and other principal Divines there that the Controversies being examined and the truth by their consents confirmed the contrary Errours and contentions thereabouts might the rather cease By whose good travel with sound consent in Truth such advice and care was taken by certain Propositions containing certain substantial points of Religion taught and received in this University and Church during the time of her Majesties Reign and consented unto and published by the best approved Divines both at home and abroad for the maintaining of the same truth and peace of the Church as thereby we enjoyed here great and comfortable quiet until Dr. Baroe in January last in his Sermon Ad Clerum in St. Maries contrary to restraint and Commandment from the Vice-Chancellour and the Heads by renewing again these Opinions disturbed our peace whereby his Adherents and disciples were and are too much emboldned to maintain false doctrine to the corrupting and disturbing of this University and the Church if it be not in time effectually prevented For remedy whereof we have with joint consent and care upon complaint of divers Batchelors of Divinity proceeded in the examination of the cause according to our Statutes and usual manner of proceeding in such causes whereby it appeareth by sufficient Testimonies that Dr. Baroe hath offended in such things as his Articles had charged him withal There is also since the former another Complaint preferred against him by certain Batchelors in Divinity that he hath not only in the Sermon but also for the space of this fourteen or fifteen years taught in his Lectures preached in his Sermons determined in the Schools and printed in several books divers points of doctrine not only contrary to himself but also contrary to that which hath been taught and received ever since her Majesties Reign and agreeable to the Errors of Popery which we know your Lordship hath always disliked and hated so that we who for the space of many years past have yielded him sundry benefits and favours here in the University being a stranger and forborn him when he hath often heretofore busie and curious in aliena Republica broached new and strange questions in Religion now unless we should be careless of maintaining the truth of Relgiion established and of our duties in our places cannot being resolved and confirmed in the truth of the
Clergy Subsidies presented to the Kings of England ever since the 27th of Queen Elizabeth and in the form of the Certificates per Praelatos Clerum returned by every Bishop to the Lord High Treasurer and finally Nos Episcopi Clerus Cantuariensis Provinciae in hac Synodo more nostro solito dum Regni Parliamentum celebratur congregati in the Petition to K. K. Philip and Mary about the confirmation of the Abby Lands to the Patentees So that though many Statutes have been made in these later times excluso Clero the Clergy that is to say the inferiour Clergy being quite shut out and utterly excluded from those publick Councils yet this proves nothing to the point that any Act of Parliament hath been they either were shut out by force or excluded by cunning As for Kilbancies book which that Author speaks of Proing pract of Parl. p. 38. in which the Justices are made to say 7 H. 8. that our Sovereign Lord the King may well hold his Parliament by him and his Temporal Lords and by the Commons also without the Spiritual Lords for that the Spiritual Lords have not any place in the Parliament Chamber by reason of their Spiritualties but by reason of their Temporal possessions Besides that it is only the opinion of a private man of no authority or credit in the Common-wealth and contrary to the practice in the Saxon times in which the Bishops sate in Parliament as Spiritual persons not as Barons the reason for ought I can see will serve as well to pretermit all or any of the Temporal Lords as it can serve to pretermit or exclude the Bishops the Temporal Lords being called to Parliament on no other ground than for the Temporal possessions which they hold by Barony If it be said that my second answer to the argument of Excluso Clero supposeth that the inferior Clergy had some place in Parliament which not to be supposed makes the Answer void I shall crave leave to offer some few observations unto the consideration of the sober and impartial Reader by which I hope to make that supposition probable and perhaps demonstrative First then we have that famous Parliament call it Concilium magnum or Concilium commune or by what other name soever the old Writers called it summoned by King Ethelbert Concil Hen. Speiâ—â— Anno 605. which my Author calleth Commune concilium tam Cleri quam Populi where Clerus comprehendeth the body of the Clergy generally as well the Presbyters as the Bishops as the word populus doth the lay-subject generally as well Lords as Commons or else the Lords and Commons one of the two must needs be left out And in this sense we are to understand these words in the latter times Matth. Paris in Hen. 1. as where we read that Clerus Angliae populus Vniversus were summoned to appear at Westminister at the Coronation of King Henry the first where divers Laws were made and declared subscribed by the Arch-bishops Bishops and others of the principal persons that were there assembled Rong Hov. in Hen. 2. that Clero populo convocato the Clergy and People of the Realm were called to Clarendon Anno 1163. by King Henry II. for the declaring and conforming of the Subjects liberties that in the year 1185. towards the latter end of the said Kings Reign Convocatus est Clerus populus cum tota Nobilitate ad fontem Clericorum Matth. Paris in Hen. 2. the Clergy Commons and Nobility were called unto the Parliament held at Clerkenwell and finally that a Parliament was called at London in which the Arch-bishop of Canterbury was present cum toto Clero tota secta Laicali Quadrilog ap Selden Tit. of Hon. pt 2. c. 5. in the time of King John Hitherto then the Clergy of both ranks and orders as well as Populus or tota secta Laioalis the Subjects of the Laity or the Lords and Commons had their place in Parliament And in possession of this right the Clergy stood when the Magna Charta was set out by King Henry III. wherein the Freedoms Rights and Priviledges of the Church of England of which this evidently was one was confirmed unto her of the irrefragable and inviolable authority whereof we have spoken before Magna Charta cap. 1. The Cavil of Excluso Clero which hath been used against the Voting of the Bishops in the House of Peers comes in next for proof that the inferiour Clergy had their place or Vote with the House of Commons if in those times the Lords and Commons made two Houses which I am not sure of the Clergy could not be excluded in an angry fit or out of a particular design to deprive them of the benefit of the Kings protection if they had not formerly a place amongst them and if we will not understand by Clerus the inferior Clergy which much about that time as before we shewed began to be the legal English of the word we must needs understand the whole Clergy generally the Clergy of both ranks and orders But our main proofs are yet to come which are these that follow First it is evident that antiently the Clergy of each several Diocess were chargeable by Law for the expences of their Proctors in attending the service of the Parliament according as the Counties were by Common law since confirmed by Statute 23 H. 6. c. 11. to bear the charges of their Knights the burroughs and Cities of their Representees which questionless the Laws had not taken care for but that the Clergy had their place in Parliament as the Commons had Rotul Patent 26 Ed. 3. pt 1. 1. M. 22. And this appears by a Record of 26th of King Edward III. in which the Abbot of Leicester being then but never formerly commanded to attend in Parliament amongst others of the Regular Prelates petitioned to be discharged from that attendance in regard he held in Frank-Almoigne only by no other tenure Which he obtained upon this condition ut semper in Procuratores ad hujusmodi Parliamenta mittendos consentiat ut moris est eorundem expensis contribuat that is to say that he and his Successors did give their Voices in the choice of such Procurators as the Clergy were to send to Parliament and did contribute towards their charges as the custom was Next in the Modus tenendi Parliamentum which before we spake of there is a modus convocandi Clerum Angliae ad Parl. Regis Modus tenendi Parl. Ms. V. Titles of hon pt 2. a form of to the Court of Parliament said to be used in the time of Edward the Son of Ethelred presented to the Conqueror and by him observed which shews the Clergy in those times had their place in Parliament Which being but a general inference shall be delivered more particularly from the Modus it self which informs us thus Rex est caput principium finis Parliamenti
themselves to prayer and Gods publick service Particularly Fitz-Herbert tells us that no plea shall be holden Quindena Paschae Nat. Brevium fol. 17. 1 Eli◠p. 168. because it is always on the sunday but it shall be holden crastino quindenae paschae on the morrow after So Justice Dyer hath resolved that if a Writ of scire facias out of the Common-pleas bear Test on a Sunday it is an errour because that day is not dies juridicus in Banco And so it is agreed amongst them that on a Fine levied with Proclamations according to the Statute of King Henry VII if any of the Proclamations be made on the Lords day all of them are to be accounted erroneous Acts. But to return unto the Canon where before we left however that Archbishop Langton formerly and Islip at the present time had made these several restraints from all servile labours yet they were far enough from entertaining any Jewish fancy The Canon last remembred that of Simon Islip doth express as much But more particularly and punctually we may find what was the judgment of these times in a full declaration of the same in a Synod at Lambeth what time John Peckham was Archbishop which was in Anno 1280. Lindw l. 1. tit de offic Archipresb It was thus determined Sciendum est quod obligatio ad feriandum in Sabbato legali expiravit omnino c. It is to be understood that all manner of obligation of resting on the legal Sabbath as was required in the Old Testament is utterly expired with the other ceremonies And it is now sufficient in the New Testament to attend Gods service upon the Lords days and the other Holy days ad hoc Ecclesiastica authoritate deputatis appointed by the Church to that end and purpose The manner of sanctifying all which days non est sumendus à superstitione Judaica sed à Canonicis institutis is not to be derived from any Jewish superstition but from the Canons of the Church This was exact and plain enough and this was constantly the doctrine of the Church of England Joannes de Burgo who lived about the end of K. Henry VI. doth almost word for word resolve it so in his Pupilla oculi part 10. c. 11. D. Yet find we not in these restraints that Marketting had been forbidden either on the Lords day or the other Holy days and indeed it was not that came in afterwards by degrees partly by Statutes of the Realm partly by Canons of the Church not till all Nations else had long laid them down For in the 28 of King Edward III. cap 14. it was accorded and established that shewing of Wools shall be made at the Stapie every day of the week except the Sunday and the solemn Feasts in the year This was the first restraint in this kind with us here in England and this gives no more priviledge to the Lords day than the solemn Festivals Antiq. Brit. in Stafford Nor was there more done in it for almost an hundred years not till the time of Henry VI. Anno 1444. what time Archbishop Stafford decreed throughout his Province ut nundina emporia in Ecclesiis aut Coemiteriis diebusque Dominicis atque Festis praeterquam tempore messis non teneantur that Fairs and Markets should no more be kept in Churches and Church-yards or on the Lords days or the other Holy-days except in time of Harvest only If in that time they might be suffered then certainly in themselves they were not unlawful on any other further than as prohibited by the higher powers Now that which the Archbishop had decreed throughout his Province Tabians Chronicle Catworth Lord Mayor of London attempted to exceed within that City For in this year saith Fabian Anno 1444. an Act was made by Authority of the Common Council of London that upon the Sunday should no manner of thing within the franchise of the City be bought or sold neither Victual nor other thing nor no Artificer should bring his Ware unto any man to be worn or occupied that day as Taylers Garments and Cordwayners Shooes and so likewise all other occupations But then it followeth in the story the which Ordinance held but a while enough to shew by the success how ill it doth agree with a Lord Mayor to deal in things about the Sabbath Afterwards in the year 1451. which was the 28 of this Henries Reign it pleased the King in Parliament to ratifie what before was ordered by that Archbishop in this form that followeth 28. H. 6. c. 16. Considering the abominable injuries and effences done to Almigvty God and to his Saints always ayders and finguler affistants in our necessities by the necasion of Fairs and Marhets upon their high and principal Feasts as in the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord. in the day of Corpus Christi in the day of Whitsunday Trinity Sunday and other Sundays as also in the high Feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady the day of all Saints and on Good Friday accustomably and miserably holden and used in the Keaim of England c. our Soveraign Lord the King c. hath ordained that all manner of Fairs and Markets on the said principal Feasts and Sundays and Good Friday shall clearly cease from all shewing of any Goods and Merchandises necessary Victual only ercept which yet was more than was allowed in the City-Act upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods aforesaid to the Lord of the franchise or liverty where such goods be or shall be she wed contrary to this Ordinance the four Sundays in Harvest except Which clause or reservation sheweth plainly that the things before prohibited were not esteemed unlawful in themselves as also that this Law was made in confirmation of the former order of the Archbishop as before was said Now on this Law I find two resolutions made by my Lords the Judges First Justice Brian in the 12th of King Edward the fourth declared that no sale made upon a Sunday though in a Fair or Market-overt for Markets as it seemeth were not then quite laid down though by Law prohibited shall be a good sale to alter the property of the goods And Ploydon in the time of Queen Elizabeth was of opinion Daltons Justice cap. 27. that the Lord of any Fair or Market kept upon the Sunday contrary to the Statute may therefore be indicted for the King or Queen either at the Assizes or general Goal delivery or Quarter Sessions within that County If so in case such Lord may be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept upon the sunday as being contrary to the Statute then by the same reason may he be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept on any of the other Holy-days in that Statute mentioned Nor staid it here For in the 1465. which was the fourth year of King Edward IV. it pleased the King in Parliament to Enact as followeth Our Soveraign Lord the
being thus discharged he shews in the next place Ibid. 48. that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinful man or of the wicked sinful man but rather that they shoudl turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Goats in St. Matthews Gospel Ite malidicti in ignem paratum he doth not say Maledicti patris Go ye cursed of the Father as it is Benedicti patris when he speaks of the sheep God intituling himself to the blessing only and that the fire is prepared but for whom Non vobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither Death nor Hell for damned men The last branch of his Discourse he resolves into six consequences as links depending on his Chain 1. Gods absolute Will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by Gods grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth every living soul to be saved and to come to the Kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his Son to save every soul and to bring it to the Kingdom of Heaven 5. God offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of Heaven 6. The nelgect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Council and Determination of God The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of che old Zuinglian Gospellers and the modern Calvinians as they take up the rest of the Sermon so to the Sermon I refer the Reader for his furtehr satisfaction in them I note this only in the close that there is none of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly call them which is not contained in terms express or may not easily be found by way of Deduction in one or more of the six consequences before recited Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be considered as namely first That the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel in these points was grown so strong that the Preacher calls it their Goliah so huge and monstrous that many quaked and trembled at it but none that is to say but few or none vel duo vel nemo in the words of Persius durst take up Davids sling to throw it down Secondly That in canvasing the absolute Decree of Reprobation the Preacher spared none of those odious aggravations which have been charged upon the Doctrines of the modern Calvinists by the Remonstrants and their party in these latter times Thirdly That the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross the greatest Auditory of the Kingdom consisting not only of the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and the rest of the chief men in the City but in those times of such Bishops and other learned men as lived occasionally in London and the City of Westminster as also of the Judges and most learned Lawyers some of the Lords of the Council being for the most part present also Fourthly That for all this we cannot find that any offence was taken at it or any Recantation enjoyned upon it either by the high Commission or Bishop of London or any other having Authority in the Church of England nor any complaint made of it to the Queen or the Council-Table as certainly there would have been if the matter of the Sermon had been contrary to the Rules of the Church and the appointments of the same And finally we may observe that though he was made Archbiship of York in the Reign of King Charles 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook Hill Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwich in the time of King James And thereupon we may conclude that King James neither thought this Doctrine to be against the Articles of Religion here by Law established nor was so great an Enemy to them or the men that held them as some of our Calvinians have lately made him But against this it is objected by Mr. Prin in his book of Perpetuity c. printed at London in the year 1627. 1. That the said Mr. Harsnet was convented for this Sermon and forced to recant it as Heretical 2. That upon this Sermon Perpetulty c. 304. and the Controversies that arose upon it in Cambridg between Baroe and Whitacres not only the Articles of Lambeth were composed of which more hereafter but Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same 3. That the siad Sermon was so far from being published or printed that it was injoyned by Authority to be recanted For Answer whereunto it would first be known where the said Sermon was recanted and by whose Authority Not in or by the University of Cambridg where Mr. Harsnet lived both then and a long time after for the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross and so the University could take no cognisance of it nor proceed against him for the same And if the Recantation was madea t St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given it would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the Bishop of London in whose Diocess the Sermon was preached for his Authority did not reach so far as Cambridg whither the Preacher had retited after he had performed the service he was called unto and if it were injoyned by the High Commission and performed accordingly there is no question to be made but that we should have heard of in the Anti-Arminianism where there are no less than eight leaves spend in relating the story of a like Recantation pretended to be made by one Mr. Barret on the tenth of May 1595. and where it is affirmed that the said Mr. Harsnet held and maintained the same errors for which Barret was to make his Recantation But as it will be proved hereafter that no such Recantation wass made by Barret so we have reason to believe that no such Recantation was imposed on Harsnet Nor secondly can it be made good that the Controversies between Doctor Whitacres and Dr. Baroe were first occasioned by this Sermon or that Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same For it appears by a Letter written from the heads of that University to their Chancellor the Lord Treasurer Burleigh dated March 18. 1595. that Baroe had maintained the same Doctrines and his Lectures and Determinations above 14 years before by their own account for which see Chap. 21. Numb 80. which must be three years at the least before the preaching of that Sermon by Mr. Harsnet And though it is probable enopugh that Mr. Wotton might give himself the trouble of confuting the Sermon yet it is more than probable that he was not required so to do by that
Assistants whom I reverence do purpose to proceed in disquieting and traducing me as you have done by the space of three quarters of this year and so in the end mean to drive me out of the University I must take it patiently because I know not how to redress it but let God be judg between you and me These things I leave to your Worships favourable consideration for this I must needs say and peradventure it may tend to your credit when I shall report it that above the rest hitherto I have found you most courteous and most just I leave your Worship to Gods Direction and holy tuition expecting a gracious Answer Your daily Beadsman WILLIAM BARRET But here perhaps it may be said that though Barret might be as obstinate in refusing to publish the Recantation as this Letter makes him yet it appears by the whole course of those proceedings that his Doctrines were condemned by the heads of the University as being contrary to that which was received and established in the Church of England And that it was so in the Judgment of those men who either concurred in his Censure or subscribed the Letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh above-mentioned is a thing past question But this can be no Argument that Barrets Doctrines were repugnant to the Church of England because these Heads either in favour of Dr. Whitacres or in respect to Mr. Perkins were pleased to think no otherwise of them for if it be we may conclude by the same Argument that the Church of Rome was in the right even in the darkest times of ignorance and superstition because all those who publickly opposed her Doctrines were solemnly enjoyned by the then prevailing party to a Recantation and which is more it may be also thence concluded that the Doctrine maintained by Athanasius touching Christs Divinity was contrary to that which had been taught by the Apostles and men of Apostolical spirits because it was condemned for such by some Arrian Bishops in the Council or rather Conventicle of Tyre which was held against him 2. It cannot be made apparent that either Dr. Duport the Vice-Chancellor who was most concerned or Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professour for Divinity there had any hand in sentencing this Recantation Not Dr. Baroe because by concurring to this Sentence he was to have condemned himself Nor Dr. Duport for I find his place to be supplyed and the whole action govern'd by Dr. Some which shews him to be absent at that time from the University according to the stile whereof the Title of Procancellarius is given to Dr. Some in the Acts of the Court as appears by the Extract of them in the Anti-Arminianisin p. 64. compared with p. 63. But thirdly admitting that the Heads were generally thus enclined yet probably the whole body of the University might not be of the same Opinion with them those Heads not daring to affirm otherwise of Barrets Doctrine in their Letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh than that it gave just offence to many And if it gave offence unto many only it may be thought that it gave no offence to the Major part or much less to all for if it had the writers of the Letter would not have been so sparing in their expressions as to limit the offence to many if they could have said it of the most But of this we shall speak more in the following Chapter when we shall come to feel the pulse of the University in the great competition between Wotton and Overald after Whitacres death Of which Opinion Harsnet was we have seen before And we have seen before that Baroe had many Disciples and Adherents which stood fast unto him And thereupon we may conclude that when Dr. Baroe had for fourteen or fifteen years maintained these Opinions in the Schools as before was shewed which are now novelized by the name of Arminianism and such an able man as Harsnet had preached them without any Controul when the greatest audience of the Kingdom did stand to him in it There must be many more Barrets who concurred with the same Opinions with them in the University though their names through the Envy of those times are not come unto us CHAP. XXI Of the proceedings against Baroe the Articles of Lambeth and the general calm which was in Oxon touching these Disputes 1. The differences between Baroe and Doctor Whitacres the addresses of Whitacres and others to Archbishop Whitgift which drew on the Articles at Lambeth 2. The Articles agreed on at Lambeth presented both in English and Latin 3. The Articles of no authority in themselves Archbishop Whitgift questioned for them together with the Queens command to have them utterly supprest 4. That Baroe neither was deprived of his Professorship nor compelled to leave it the Anti-Calvinian party being strong enough to have kept him in if he had defired it 5. A Copy of the Letter from the Heads in Cambridg to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh occasioned as they said by Barret and Baroe 6. Dr. Overalds encounters with the Calvinists in the point of falling from the Grace received his own private judgment in the point neither for total nor for final and the concurrence of some other learned men in the same Opinion 7. The general calm which was at Oxon at that time touching these Disputes and the Reasons of it 8. An answer to that Objection out of the Writings of judicious Hooker of the total and final falling 9. The disaffections of Dr. Bukeridge and Dr. Houson to Calvins doctrines an Answer to the Objection touching the paucity of those who opposed the same 10. Possession of a Truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable for more fortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kind are rather to be valued by weight than tale FROM Barret pass we on to Baroe betwixt whom and Dr. Whitacres there had been some clashings touching Predestination and Reprobation the certainty of Salvation and the possibility of falling from the Grace received And the heats grew so high at last that the Calvinians thought it necessary in point of prudence to effect that by power and favour which they were not able to obtain by force of Argument To which end they first addressed themselves to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh then being their Chancellor acquainting him by Dr. Some then Deputy Vice-Chancellor with the disturbances made by Barret thereby preparing him to hearken to such further motions as should be made unto him in pursuit of that Quarrel But finding little comfort there they resolved to steer their course by another compass And having prepossest the most Reverend Archbishop Whitgift with the turbulent carriage of those men the affronts given to Dr. Whitacres whom for his learned and laborious Writings against Cardinal Bellarmine he most highly favoured and the great inconveniences like to grow by that publick discord they gave themselves good hopes of
the Church must continue without Reformation or else it must be lawful for National particular Churches to reform themselves In such a case the Church may be reformed per partes part after part Province after Province as is said by Gerson But I do not mean to trouble you with this Dispute For that particular Churches may reform themselves by National or Provincial Councils when the Church general will not do it or that it cannot be effected by a General Council hath been so fully proved by my Lord of Canterbury in his learned and elaborate discourse against Fisher the Jesuite that nothing can be added unto so great diligence But if it be objected as you say it is that National Councils have a power of Promulgation only not of Determination also I answer first that this runs cross to all the current of Antiquity in which not only National but Provincial Councils did usually determine in the points of Faith and these too of the greatest moment as did that of Antioch which if it were somewhat more than a National was notwithstanding never reckoned for a General Council I answer secondly as before that for one Heresie suppressed in a General Council there hath been ten at least suppressed in National and Provincial Synods which could not be in case they had no power of Determination And thirdly That the Articles or Confession of the Church of England are only Declaratory of such Catholick Doctrines as were received of old in the Church of Christ not Introductory of new ones of their own devising as might be evidenced in particular were this place fit for it But what needs any proof at all when we have Confession For the Arch-Bishop of Spalato a man as well studied in the Fathers as the best amongst them ingenuously acknowledged at the High Commission that the Articles of this Church were profitable none of them Heretical and that he would defend the honour of the Church of England against all the World And this he said at the very time of his departure when his soul was gone before to Rome and nothing but his Carkass left behind in England The like avowed by Davenport or Franciscus à Sancta Clara call him which you will who makes the Articles of this Church rightly understood according to the literal meaning and not perverted to the ends of particular Factions to be capable of a Catholick and Orthodox sense which is as much as could be looked for from the mouth of an Adversary So much as cost one of them his life though perhaps it will be said that he died in prison and the burning of his body after his death though he endevoured to save both by a Retractation So that in this case too we have omnia bene nothing amiss in the proceedings of this Church with reference to the Pope or a General Council But you will say that though we could not stay the calling of a General Council which would have justified our proceedings in the eyes of our Adversaries it had been requisite even in the way of civil Prudence to have taken the advice of the Sister-Churches especially of those which were engaged at the same time in the same designs which would have added reputation to us in the eyes of our Friends As for the taking counsel of the Sister-Churches it hath been touched upon already and therefore we shall say no more as to that particular unless the Sister-Churches of these latter times had been like the Believers in the infancy of the Christian Faith when they were all of one heart and one soul as the Scripture hath it Act. 4. their counsels had been dilatory if not destructive 'T is true indeed united Counsels are the stronger and of greater weight and not to be neglected where they may be had but where they are not to be had we must act without them And if we look into the time of our Reformation we shall find those that were engaged in the same design divided into obstinate parties and holding the names of Luther and Zuinglius in an higher estimate than either the truth of the Opinion in which they differed or the common happiness of the Church so disturbed between them The breach not lessened but made wider by the rise of Calvin succeeding not long after in the fame of Zuinglius Besides that living under the command of several Princes and those Princes driving on to their several ends it had been very difficult if not impossible to draw them unto such an Harmony of affections and consent in judgment as so great a business did require So that the Church of England was necessitated in that conjuncture of affairs to proceed as it did and to act that single by it self which could not be effected by the common Counsels and joynt concurrence of the others 'T is true Melancthon was once coming over in King Henries days but staid his journey on the death of Queen Anne Bullen and that he was after sEnt for by King Edward IV. Regis Literis in Angliam vocor as he affirms in an Epistle unto Camerarius Anno 1553. But he was staid at that time also on some other occasion though had he come at that time he had come too late to have had any hand in the Reformation the Articles of the Church being passed the Liturgy reviewed and settled in the year before And 't is as true that Calvin offered his assistance to Arch-Bishop Cranmer for the reforming of this Church Si quis mei usus esset as his own words are if his assistance were thought needful to advance the work But Cranmer knew the man and refused the offer and he did very wisely in it For seeing it impossible to unite all parties it had been an imprudent thing to have closed with any I grant indeed that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr men of great learning and esteem but of different judgments were brought over hither about the beginning of the Reign of K. Edward VI. the one of them being placed in Oxford the other in Cambridge but they were rather entertained as private Doctors to moderate in the Chairs of those Universities than any ways made use of in the Reformation For as the first Liturgy which was the main key unto the work was framed and settled before either of them were come over so Bucer died before the compiling of the Book of Articles which was the accomplishment thereof Nor do I find that Peter Martyr was made use of otherwise in this weighty business than to make that good by disputation which by the Clergy in their Synods or Convocations was agreed upon By means whereof the Church proceeding without reference to the different interesses of the neighbouring Churches kept a conformity in all such points of Government and publique order with the Church of Rome in which that Church had not forsaken the clear Tract of the primitive Times retaining not only the Episcopal Government with all the concomitants
erant omnia simpliciter tractabantur Petrus enim ubi conseeraverat oratione Pater noster usus erat Auxit haec mysteria Jacobus Episcopus Hierosolymitanus auxit Basilius auxere alii Nam Celestinus missae introitum dedit Gregorius KYRIE-ELEISON Gloria in excelsis Telesphorus c. These things saith he at first were but plain and naked For Peter when he Consecrated used the Pater noster James Bishop of Hierusalem much increased the mysteries the like did Basil and some others Celestine made the Introite Gregory added to it the Kyrie eleison Telesphorus the Gloria in excelsis Xistus the first put to it the trisagion or Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts Gelasius the Collations perhaps the Collects The Gospel and Epistle were brought in by Hierom the Allelujah borrowed from Hierusalem the Creed from the Council of Nice the Commemoration of the dead by Pope Pelagius the kissing of the Pax by Innocent the first and Agnus Dei was not sung saith he till the time of Sergius If so then as not Rome it self so neither was the Liturgy of Rome made in one day It took up longer time than so to come unto that bulk and greatness in which now it stands But out of doubt a Liturgy it had in the best times of it So had the Church of Millain those of France Spain England not every where the same nor much different from it Facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen qualem decet esse Sororum as once the Poet said in another case And so it stood until the Western Empire was conferred on the Kings of France who by their power and the importunity of the Popes of Rome setled the Roman or Gregorian Missal over all the West Till those times they had several Liturgies as before was said That of the Church of Millain called commonly Officium Ambrosianum not because made by him originally but because he reduced it to a better and more setled Form is extant still and used by special sufferance in the Church of Millain to this very day So also for the antient Liturgy of the Church of Spain which they call the Mosarabick Liturgy Bellarm. de Missa lib. 2. c. 18. which received great increase both for Form and Order from Isidorus Hispalensis and therefore is most commonly ascribed to him it is still used in Toledo by the like permission Id. Ibid. By whom the Liturgy of Spain was first composed or setled it is hard to say that Countrey yielding but few Writers whose works have come unto our hands But sure a Liturgy they had long time before the birth of Isidore and that most punctually observed in the Cathedrals or Mother-Churches From which when the Parochial Churches began to vary as it seems they did the Council of Girona Concilium Gerundense the Latines call it An. 517. recalled them to their antient duty enjoyning them to hold conformity in all the acts of publick worship with the Mother-Church the chief Cathedral of the Province and that as well for the order of the service the Psalmody the Canon as the use and custom of the ministration Concil Gerund Can. 1. Sicut in Metropolitana Ecclesia agitur ita in Dei nomine in omni Tarraconensi Provincia tum ipsius Missae ordo quam psallendi vel ministrandi consuetudo servetur So the Fathers ordered By which it doth appear most fully that antiently the Church of Spain had its proper Liturgy a prescribed Form of ministration and that not only fitted for the use of the Cathedrals or Mother-Churches but such to which the Parish Churches were to yield conformity And for the Gallick Church though they have now no other Liturgy than that which they received from Rome power and practice of the Emperours of the Caroline race being most operative at home in their own dominions yet antiently she had a Liturgy of her own for which see Beda's History of the Church of England l. 1. c. 27. as had other Churches Concerning which it was thus ordered at the Council of Vannes a City of Gallia Lugdunensis Concil Veneticum Can. 15. ut intra Provinciam nostram sacrorum ordo or rather ordinis Psallendi una sit consuetudo That in that Province there should be one Uniform course in all sacred Offices and in the order of singing from thenceforth observed This was in An. 453. or thereabouts Not that there had not been before those times a setled and established Liturgy in the Church of France but that too many had presumed as is since done in other places to neglect their rules and venture on new Forms of their own devising Finally for the Liturgy of the Church of England for of the British Rites or Forms there is nothing certain it seems to be coeval with the Church it self whether we look upon the same as Reformed or Planted not borrowed or derived from Rome as both the Papist and the Non-conformist bear the world in hand but fitted to the best edification of this people ex singulis quibusque Ecclesiis Beda in bist Eccl. l. 1. c. 27. our of the Rituals and received Forms of the most flourishing Churches at that time in being when first the Gospel was made known to the English Nation The passage is at large in Beda and thither I refer the Reader Nor was it otherwise than thus in the African Churches in case we should not reckon them as they are most commonly among the Churches of the West For besides what was noted from S. Cyprian in the former Chapter we find some fragments of the antient Liturgies in S. Augustine also Take this although not all as a taste for all Quod ergo in sacramentis fidelium dicitur ut Sursum corda habeamus ad Dominum August de bone perseverant c. 13 munus est Domini de quo munere ipsi Domino Deo nostro gratias agere à Sacerdote post hanc vocem illi quibus hoc dicitur admonentur dignum justum esse respondent Wherefore saith he that in the Sacraments of the Faithful it is said That we lift up our hearts unto the Lord is the Lords own gift for which all they who have affirmed so of themselves are after admonished by the Priest to give thanks to God which they acknowledge in their answer to be meet and right See to the same effect Epist 156. and in other places Which with the rest before observed out of other Fathers make it clear as day with what an high injustice they proceed against this blessed Church of England who have accused her for prescribing Responsories to be said by the people the Minister being as they say ordained by Scripture to be the peoples mouth to God Which Responsories I am sure Smectymn p. 12. I dare boldly say it are freer of Impertinencies and Tautologies though they charge this on them than any of the best of their extemporary prayers be
cujuslibet in sua Parochia Feasts of the Dedication of particular Churches which in their several Parishes were to be observed with the same reverence and solemnity which the others were So also in a Synod of Archbishop Islips Lind. lib. 2. tit de feriis who was promoted to that See An. 1349. it was decreed that on the principal Feasts there named there should be a more strict and precise restraint from work and labour than had been before And among them we find the Dedication Feasts of particular Churches to be as high in their esteem as any of the greater Festivals By that which hath been said it appeareth most evident that the Dedication-Reast was to be Annually observed in each several Parish and that it was to be observed as solemnly as any of the greater Festivals and that it was to be observed and celebrated on that very day of the week moneth and year whereon the Church was Consecrated at the first Which being found to draw along with it no small inconvenience it pleased King Henry VIII An. 1536. to send out his Injunctions amongst other things for restraint of Holy-days In which Injunctions that which doth most concern this business are these two particulars 1. That the Dedication of Churches shall in all places throughout this Realm be Celebrated and kept on the first Sunday of the moneth of October for ever and upon no other day 2. That the Feast of the Patron of every Church within this Realm called antiently the Church Holy-day shall not from henceforth be kept and observed as an Holy-day as heretofore hath been used But that it shall be lawful to all and singular persons resident or dwelling within this Realm to go to their work occupation or mystery and the same truly to exercise and occupy upon the said Feast as upon any other work-day except the said Feast or Church Holy-day be such as must be else universally observed and kept as an Holy-day by this Ordinance following Acts and Monum part 2. P 387. Now how far these Injunctions were observed in these particulars whether they determined on the death of the Lord Cromwel by whose Authority in the Convocation House they were first set out and recommended to the King I am not able to determine upon any certain But forasmuch as I am able to conjecture by my own observation or collect from conference with old people I think the point may thus be stated That is to say that in such places where the day of the Dedication of the several Churches or the Church Holy-day as they call it now be worn out of memory they either are observed on the first Sunday in October or the next Sunday after Michaelmas-day which is called the Festum Dedicationis Ecclesiae in the Martyrologie or not kept at all But where there is any constant Tradition of the day or time of the Dedication of particular Churches or of the Festivals of that Patron or Tutelary Sain to whose name or memory according to the custom of those darker times the said Churches had been formerly dedicated in all such places as I take it the Festivals have been transferred to the Sunday following and then observed with great joy and chearfulness in liberal entertainments harmless sports and manlike exercises And in this estate they did continue in many parts of this Realm by the name of the Feasts or Wakes of such and such places respectively till the preciseness of some Ministers and the severity of some Magistrates prohibiting all lawful Recreations on the Lords day brought them both out of use and credit which gave occasion to the King to revive the Declaration of King James touching lawful sports and thereby to restore those Feasts to their former frequency for which consult his Majesties Declaration bearing date the 18th of October in the nineth year of his Reign An. 1633. But it is time to close this Corollary somewhat extravagant I confess but not impertinent altogether to my main design and therewithal to conclude this Narrative of Liturgies and set Forms of worship to the officiating whereof Churches and Churches Dedicated are of so great use Thus have I drawn together for the publick use what I have met withal concerning Liturgies and set Forms of publick worship that so it may appear to the sober Reader how much some men have laboured to abuse the world in making them the off-spring of the latter times By this the sober Reader may perceive if he list to see it that to draw the line of Liturgy so high as from the very times of Moses is nothing so unparallel'd a discourse as some men have made it and that there were such stinted Liturgies as that for which the Church of England pleadeth in Tertullians time Smectym p. 6. and some time before how strange soever they have made it This if it be made good it is all I look for because I did propose no further in the undertaking My purpose only was to draw down the descent and petigree of Liturgies and set Forms of publick worship as far as any of the Jewish or our Christian Antiquaries could conduct me in it taking the practice of the Gentiles in upon the by without descending to particulars either this or that Not that I think the Liturgy of the Church of England may not be justified and approved in all parts thereof in all the Offices and ministrations comprehended in it or that it may not easily be proved to be truely Christian Humble Remonstrance p. 13. and to have nothing Roman in the whole composure but that I should but actum agere and fall upon a point already handled The learned pains of our incomparable Hooker in this very kind made up of so much modesty and judgment as that whole work is hath too off long since those exceptions which had been made against the several Offices and whole course thereof by those unquiet spirits who first moved these Controversies Who so desires a thorow Vindication of it boty for Form and matter he may find it there This which is done in all humility I tender to the acceptation of all Orthodox and Religious men whose service it was principally intended for and next to the censure of the Supream Powers before whose Bar the cause of Liturgy is brought to receive its sentence If it can balance with the one it cannot but do service to the other in preservation of that Form and Order which hath made her glorious However I have done my duty humbly submitting the success to Almighty God to whom be praise and glory now and evermore A BRIEF DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE FORM of PRAYER Appointed to be used by PREACHERS BEFORE THEIR SERMONS Can. 55. By PETER HEYLYN D. D. Mat. vi 9. After this manner therefore pray ye LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. THE PREFACE IT was about the year 1636. when the Vnlicensed Press which had been almost out
departure of the Prince Elector Palatine in both of which he calls upon his Audience to joyn with him in Prayer by way of bidding moving or inviting Invitemus huc numen precemur preces offeramus and such like phrases All which thus laid together do most plainly shew that he did go that way which was prescribed by the Injunctions revived and ratified in the Canon and travel'd by those Worthies that went before him I mean to instance next in Bishop Jewel who lived and flourished after the setting out of the Queens Injunctions and dyed long time before the making of the Canon In a collection of his Sermons by John Garbrand of Oxon Printed 1583. there are these three passages which declare most plainly how he did understand the said Injunction one giving light unto the other Of these the first occurs in that upon the first of Haggai where having spent two leaves upon the entrance to his matter and made division of his Text we find it in a line by it self and a different character this word Pray and that noting out the place in which his Form of bidding prayer was at that time used More fully in his Sermon upon Rom. 13.12 where having entred on his matter he thus moves the people or as the Stile then was thus biddeth the Prayers But before I proceed to declare further that which is to be spoken at this present let us turn our bearts to God even the Father of lights that it may please him to open the Eyes of your understanding and to direct all our doings to his Glory Most fully and indeed as fully as may be to this purpose in that on Luc. 11.15 where having read his Text he doth thus move the people to joyn in prayer That it may please God so to order both my utterance and your understanding that whatsoever shall be spoken or heard may turn to the glory of his holy name and to the profit and comfort of his Church Before I enter into the exposition of these words I desire you to call upon our gracious God with your earnest and hearty prayer and here I commend unto you Gods holy Catholick Church and therein the Queens most excellent Majesty by the especial grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the true antient and Apostolick Faith and the highest Governour next under God of this Church of England c. that as God of his mercy hath marvellously preserved her to the possession of her right to the great comfort of all her Subjects hearts and to the Reformation of the Church so it may please him to aid and increase her with his holy Spirit to the continuance and performance of the same The Queens most Honourable Council with the residue of the Nobility the good Estate of both of the Vniversities and all other Schools of Learning the only Nurseries of this Realm the Bishops and Preachers that the number of them may be increased and that they may have grace to set forth the truth of Gods Gospel as their duty is diligently sincerely soberly timely and faithfully And the whole Commons of this Realm and specially such as speak ill or think ill of Gods holy Word that they may have grace to regard the Salvation of their Souls to lay aside all blind affection to hear the Word of God and so to come to the Knowledge of the truth This is the Form by him then used which plainly is by way of Exhortation not of Invocation a Form of Bidding prayer according as it is prescribed in the Injunction and no direct prayer with address to God as is now devised against the Injunction and the Canon And here it is to be observed that in this Form of Bishop Jewels there is not only a conformity to the Injunction that is by Bidding and Exhorting only but that therein he recommends unto them those particular heads which in the said Injunction are contained the last excepted As for the words or phrase of speaking he useth not the same precisely which are laid down in the Injunction but other words amounting to the same effect which also sheweth that whatsoever liberty is given us in the Canon by these words or to this effect by no means giveth us any power to change the Form of moving bidding or exhorting but only sheweth to what effect they must and may bid move or exhort the people The next in order of Ascent for so we purpose to proceed is Archbishop Parker the first Archbishop of Canterbury in Queen Elizabeths Reign who being Pro-vice-chancellor of Cambridge in King Edwards time and preaching at the Funeral there of Martin Bucer in the conclusion of his Sermon doth thus begin his Exhortation ad preces as it is there called or which comes both to one doth thus bid the prayers Vt igitur velum ignorantiae cordibus nostris detrahetúr discutiatur ab oculis invidiae caligo atque profundâ cogitatione consideratione hunc tristem casum pro occasione à Deo oblatâ confiteamur c. Coram Deo clemente misericorde nos prosternamus piis precibus ab eo misericordiam invocemus In quibus Commendo vobis Ecclesiam Catholicam Sanctam Dei Communionem ut cum dignâ confessione c. progrediatur in cognitione ejus voluntatis in Domini nostri Salvatoris fide persistat orate insuper pro omnibus iis qui per errorem atque infidelitatem manifestò deprehenduntur extra Ecclesiam vel qui hypocriticâ dissimulatione habentur de eadem cum sint reverâ synagoga Satanae ut vocem Christi summi Pastoris unanimes audiant efficiamur unum ovile unum grex uno ore corde gloriam tribuentes Deo Patri Domini nostri Jesu Christi Orate pro Ecclesiâ Anglicanâ Hibernicâ ambarum supremo capite proxime à Christo Illustrissimo Clementissimo Domino nostro Rege Edwardo ejus nominis sexto c. Precemur etiam pro nobis ipsis ut quemadmodum Patres Veteris Testamenti versabantur in continuis votis expectatione primi adventus Servatoris nostri in carne c. sic nos sub novo testamento sobriè piè justè vivamus in hoc mundo acerrimâ cupiditate secundum ejus adventum manentes unà cum dormientibus Fratribus plenam redemptionem Corporum nostrorum ejus glorioso corpori conglutinandorum sitientes consociati Abrahamo Isaaco Jacobo c. This I have here set down in the Latine tongue according as I find the same in the opera Anglicana of the said Martin Bucer pag. 898. which if it be compared with the Kings Injunctions will manifestly appear to be conform thereto in each particular the special recitation of the Kings Sisters the Protectours Grace the Clergy and Nobility being all included though cut off with c. and cometh also very near to that of Bishop Jewel before remembred both of them keeping to the Form of bidding moving
the Baise-maine which consists of Offerings Churchings Burials Diriges and such other casualties amounteth to as much per annum as their standing rents Upon which ground Sir Edwin Sandys computeth their Revenue at six millions yearly In Italy besides the temporal Estate of the Popes of Rome the Clergy are conceived to have in some places a third part of the whole but in most a moiety In Spain the certain rents of the Archbishoprick of Toledo are said to be no less than 300000 Crowns per annum which is far more than all the Bishops Deans and Prebendaries do possess in England In Germany the Bishops for the most part are powerful Princes and the Canons of some Churches of so fair an Intrado and of such estimation amongst the people that the Emperours have thought it no disparagement to them to have a Canons place in some of their Churches And as for the Parochial Clergy in these three last Countreys especially in Spain and Italy where the people are more superstitious than they be in Germany there is no question but that the Vailes and Casualties are as beneficial to them as the Baise-main is to the French But here perhaps it will be said that this is nothing unto us of the Realm of England who have shook off the superstitions of the Church of Rome and that our pains is spent but to little purpose unless we can make good our Thesis in the Churches Protestant We must therefore cast about again and first beginning with France as before we did we shall find that those of the Reformed party there not only pay their Tithes to the Beneficiary who is presented by the Patron to the Cure or Title or to the Church or Monastery to which the Tithes are settled by Appropriations but over and above do raise a yearly maintenance for those that minister amongst them Just as the Irish Papists pay their Tithes and duties unto the Protestant Incumbent and yet maintain their own Priests too by their gifts and offerings or as the people in some places with us in England do pay their Tithes unto the Parson or Vicar whom the Law sets over them and raise a contribution also for their Lecturer whom they set over themselves In other Countreys where the Supream Governours are Reformed or Protestant the case is somewhat better with the common people although not generally so easie as with us in England For there the Tithes are taken up by the Prince or State and yearly pensions assigned out of them to maintain the Ministers which for the most part are so small and so far short of a Competency though by that name they love to call it that the Subject having paid his Tithes to the Prince or State is fain to add something out of his purse towards the mending of the Stipend Besides there being for the most part in every Church two distinct sorts of Ministers that is to say a Pastor who hath Cure of souls and performs all Ministerial offices in his Congregation and a Doctor like our English Lecturers which took hint from hence who only medleth with the Word The Pastor only hath his Stipend from the publick treasury the Doctor being maintained wholly as I am credibly informed at the charge of the people and that not only by the bounty or benevolence of Landed men but in the way of Contribution from which no sort of people of what rank soever but such as live on Alms or the poor Mans box is to be exempted But this is only in the Churches of Calvins platform those of the Lutheran party in Denmark Swethland and high Germany having their Tithes and Glebe as they had before and so much more in Offerings than with us in England by how much they come nearer to the Church of Rome both in their practice and opinions especially in the point of the holy Sacrament than the English do And as for our dear Brethren of the Kirk of Scotland who cannot be so soon forgotten by a true born English man the Tithes being setled for the most part on Religious houses came in their fall unto the Crown and out of them a third was granted to maintain their Minister but also ill paid while the Tithes remained in the Crown and worse than alienated to the use of private Gentlemen that the greatest part of the burden for support of the Ministry lay in the way of contribution on the backs of the people And as one ill example doth beget another such Lords and Gentlemen as had right to present to Churches following the steps of those who held the Tithes from the Crown soon made Lay-fees of all the Tithes of their own demesnes and left the Presentee such a sorry pittance as made him burthensome to his Neighbours for his better maintenance How it stands with them now since these late alterations those who have took the National Covenant and I presume are well acquainted with the Discipline and estate of the Scottish Kirk which they have bound themselves to defend and keep are better able to resolve us And so much for the proof of the first proposition namely That never any Clergy in in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge of the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England And yet the proof hereof will be more convincing if we can bring good evidence for the second also which is II. That there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance and support of his Parish Minister but his Easter-Offering And that is a Paradox indeed will the Reader say Is it not visible to the eye that the Clergy have the tenth part of our Corn and Cattel and of other the increase and fruits of the Earth Do not the people give them the tenth part of their Estates saith one of my Pamphlets Have they not all their livelihoods out of our purses saith another of them Assuredly neither so nor so All that the Clergy doth receive from the purse of the Subject for all the pains he takes amongst them is two pence at Easter He claims no more than this as due unless the custom of the place as I think in some parts it is bring it up to six pence If any thing be given him over this by some bountiful hand he takes it for a favour and is thankful for it Such profits as come in by Marriages Churchings and Funeral-Sermons as they are generally small and but accidental so he is bound unto some special service and attendance for it His constant standing fee which properly may be said to come out of the Subjects Purse for the administration of the Word and Sacraments is nothing but the Easter-offering The Tithes are legally his own not given unto him by the Subject as is now pretended but paid unto him as a Rent-charge laid upon the Land and that before the Subject either Lord or Tenant
Realm Apud eund p. 219. Thus do we read that Egbert who first united the seven Kingdoms of the Saxons under the name of England did cause to be convened at London his Bishops and the Peers of the highest rank pro consilio capiendo adversus Danicos Piratas Charta Whitlafii Merciorum Regis ap Ingulf to advise upon some course against the Danish Pirates who infested the Sea coasts of England Another Parliament or Council call it which you will called at Kingsbury Anno 855. in the time of Ethelwolph the Son of Egbert pro negotiis regni to treat of the affairs of the Kingdom Chart. Bertulfi Merc. Regis ap Ingulf Ingulfi Croyland hist the Acts whereof are ratified and subscribed by the Bishops Abbots and other great men of the Realm The same King Ethelwolph in a Parliament or Assembly of his States at Winchester Anno 855. Cum consilio Episcoporum principum by the advice and counsel of the Bishops and Nobility confirmed unto the Clergy the tenth part of all mens goods and ordered that the Tithe so confirmed unto them should be free ab omnibus secularibus servitutibus from all secular services and impositions In the Reign of Edred we find this Anno 948. In Festo igitur nativitatis B. Mariae cum universi Magnates regni per Regium edictum summoniti tam Archiepiscopi Episcopi ac Abbates quam caeteri totius Regni proceres optimates Londoniis convenissent ad tractandum de negotiis publicis totius Regni Id ibid. p. 49. edit Lond. viz. That in the Feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin the great men of the Realm that is to say Archbishops Bishops Abbots Nobles Peers were summoned by the Kings Writ to appear at London to handle and conclude about the publick affairs of the Kingdom Mention of this Assembly is made again at the foundation and endowment of the Abbie of Crowland Id. p. 500. and afterwards a confirmation of the same by Edgar Anno 966. praesentibus Archiepiscopis Espiscopi Abbatibus Optimatibus Regni in the presence of the Archbishops Bishops Id. pag. 501. 502. Abbots and Peers of the Kingdom Like convention of Estates we find to have been called by Canutus after the death of Edmund Ironside for the setling of the Crown on his own head of which thus the Author Rog. Hoveden Annal. pars prior p. 250. Cujus post mortem Rex Canutus omnes Episcopos Duces necnon principes cunctosque optimates gentis Angliae Londoniae congregari jussit Where still we find the Bishops to be called to Parliament as well as the Dukes Princes and the rest of the Nobility and to be ranked and marshalled first which clearly shews that they were always reckoned for the first Estate before the greatest and most eminent of the secular Peers And so we find it also in a Charter of King Edward the Confessor the last King of the Saxon race by which he granted certain Lands and priviledges to the Church of Westminster Anno 1066. Cum consilio decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Comitum aliorumque Optimatum Ap. H. Spelman in Concil p. 630. with the Council and decree of the Archbishops Bishops Earls and others of his Nobles And all this while the Bishops and other Prelates of the Church did hold their Lands by no other Tenure than in pura perpetua eleemosyna or Frank almoigne Cambden in Brit. as our Lawyers call it and therefore sat in Parliament in no other capacity than as spiritual persons meerly who by their extraordinary knowledg in the Word of God and in such other parts of Learning as the World then knew were thought best able to direct and advise their Princes in points of judgment In which capacity and no other the Priors of the Cathedral Churches of Canterbury Ely Winchester Coventry Bath Worcester Norwich and Durham the Deans of Exeter York Wells Salisbury and Lincoln the Official of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of the Arches the Guardian of the Spiritualties of any Bishoprick when the See was vacant Selden Titles of hon part 2. c. 5. and the Vicars general of such Bishops as were absent beyond the Seas had sometimes place and suffrage in the house of Lords in the Ages following But when the Norman Conqueror had possest the State then the case was altered the Prelates of the Church were no longer suffered to hold their Lands in Frankalmoigne as before they did or to be free from secular services and commands as before they were Although they kept their Lands yet they changed their Tenure and by the Conqueror Mat. Paris in Will 1. Auno 1.70 were ordained to hold their Lands sub militari servitute either in Capite or by Baronage or some such military hold and thereby were compâ—â—lable to aid the Kings in all times of War with Men Arms and Horses as the Lay subjects of the same Tenures were required to do Which though it were conceived to be a great Disfranchisement at the first and an heavy burden to the Prelacy yet it conduced at last to their greater honour in giving them a further Title to their place in Parliament than that which formerly they could pretend to Before they claimed a place therein ratione Officii only by reason of their Offices or spiritual Dignities but after this by reason also of those ancient Baronies which were annexed unto their Dignities Stamfords Pleas l. 3. c. 1. en respect de lour possessions l'antient Baronies annexes a lour dignities as our Lawyers have it From this time forwards we must look upon them in the House of Parliament not as Bishops only but as Peers and Barons of the Realm also and so themselves affirmed to the Temporal Lords in the Parliament holden at Northamptâ—n under Henry 2. Non sedimus hic Episcopi sed Barones nos Barones vos Barones Ap. Selden Titles of hon p. 2. c. 5. Pares hic sumus We fit not here say they as Bishops only but as Barons We are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Which last is also verified in terminis by the words of a Statute or Act of Parliament wherein the Bishops are acknowledged to be Peers of the Land Stat. 25 Edw. 3. c. 5. Now that the Bishops are a fundamental and essential part of the Parliament of England I shall endeavour to make good by two manner of proofs whereof the one shall be de jure and the other de facto And first we shall begin with the proofs de jure and therein first with that which doth occur in the Laws of King Athelstan amongst the which there is a Chapter it is Cap. 11. entituled De officio Episcopi quid pertinet ad officium ejus and therein it is thus declared Spelm. concil p. 402. Episcopo jure pertinet omnem rectitudinem promovere Dei scilicet seculi
no appeal but only to the whole body of that Court the King Case of our Assairs p. 7 8. and both the Houses the Head and Members But this they do not as the upper House of Parliament but as the distinct Court of the Kings Barons of Parliament of a particular and ministerial jurisdiction to some intents and purposes and to some alone which though it doth invest them with a power of judicature confers not any thing upon them which belongs to Sovereignty Then for the Commons all which the Writ doth call them to is facere consentire to do and consent unto such things which are ordained by the Lords and Common Council of the Kingdom of England and sure conformity and consent which is all the Writ requireth from them are no marks of Sovereignty nor can an Argument be drawn from thence by the subtlest Sophister to shew that they are called to be partakers of the Sovereign power or that the King intends to denude himself of any branch or leaf thereof to hide their nakedness And being met together in a body collective they are so far from having any share in Sovereignty that they cannot properly be called a Court of Judicature as neither having any power to minister an Oath Id. p. 9. or to imprison any body except it be some of their own Members if they see occasion which are things incident to all Courts of Justice and to every Steward of a Leet insomuch that the House of Commons is compared by some and not incongruously unto the Grand Inquest at a general Sessions whose principal work it is to receive Bills and prepare businesses Review of the Observat p. 22. and make them fit and ready for my Lords the Judges Nay so far were they heretofore from the thoughts of Sovereignty that they were lyable to sutes and punishments for things done in Parliament though only to the prejudice of a private Subject until King Henry VIII most graciously passed a Law for their indemnity For whereas Richard Strode one of the company of Tinners in the County of Cornwall being a Member of the Commons House had spoken somewhat to the prejudice of that Society and contrary to the Ordinances of the Stanneries at his return into the Country he was Arrested Fined Imprisoned Complaint whereof being made in Parliament the King passed a Law to this effect viz. That all suites condemnations 4 Hen. 8. c. 8. executions charges and impositions put or hereafter to be put upon Richard Strode and every of his Complices that be of this Parliament or any other hereafter for any Bill speaking or reasoning of any thing concerning the Parliament to be communed and treated of shall be void and null But neither any reparation was allowed to Strode nor any punishment inflicted upon those that sued him for ought appears upon Record And for the Houses joyned together which is the last capacity they can claim it in they are so far from having the supream Authority that as it is observed by a learned Gentleman they cannot so unite or conjoyn as to be an entire Court either of Sovereign or Ministerial jurisdiction no otherwise co-operating than by concurrence of Votes in their several Houses for preparing matters in order to an Act of Parliament Case of our Affairs p. 9. Which when they have done they are so far from having any legal Authority in the State as that in Law there is no stile nor form of their joynt Acts nor doth the Law so much as take notice of them until they have the Royal Assent So that considering that the two Houses alone do no way make an entire Body or Court and that there is no known stile nor form of any Law or Edict by the Votes of the two Houses only nor any notice taken of them by the Law it is apparent that there is no Sovereignty in their two Votes alone How far the practice of the Lords and Commons which remain'd at Westminster after so many of both Houses had repaired to the King c. may create Precedents unto Posterity I am not able to determine but sure I am they have no Precedent to shew from the former Ages But let us go a little further and suppose for granted that the Houses either joynt or separate be capable of the Sovereignty were it given unto them I would fain know whether they claim it from the King or the People only Not from the King for he confers upon them no further power than to debate and treat of his great Affairs to have access unto his person freedom of speech as long as they contain themselves within the bounds of Loyalty authority over their own Members Hakewell of passing Bills in Parliament which being customarily desired and of course obtained as it relates unto the Commons shews plainly that these vulgar priviledges are nothing more the rights of Parliament than the favours of Princes but yet such favours as impart not the least power of Sovereignty Nor doth the calling of a Parliament ex opere operato as you know who phrase it either denude the King of the poorest robe of all his Royalty or confer the same upon the Houses or on either of them whether the King intend so by his call or otherwise For Bodin whom Mr. Prynn hath honoured with the title of a grand Politician Prynn of Parliament par 2. p. 45. Bodin de Repub doth affirm expresly Principis majestatem nec Comitorum convocatione nec Senatus populique praesentia minui that the Majesty or Sovereignty of the King is not a jot diminished either by the calling of a Parliament or Conventus Ordinum or by the frequency and presence of his Lords and Commons Nay to say truth the Majesty of Sovereign Princes is never so transcendent and conspicuous as when they sit in Parliament with their States about them the King then standing in his highest Estate as was once said by Henry VIII who knew as well as any of the Kings of England how to keep up the Majesty of the Crown Imperial Nor can they claim it from the People who have none to give for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is The King as hath been proved before doth hold his Royal Crown immediately from God himself not from the contract of the People He writes not populi clementia but Dei gratia not by the favour of the People but by the grace of God The consent and approbation of the People used and not used before the day of Coronation is reckoned only as a part of the solemn pomps which are then accustomably used The King is actually King to all intents and purposes in the Law whatever immediatly on the death of his Predecessor Nor ever was it otherwise objected in the Realm of England till Clark and Watson pleaded it at their Arraignment in the first year of King James Speeds History in K James Or grant