Roman Catholick Physicians and Lawyers had incurr'd by his Acts of Parliament I have told you But what if I should now tell you how afterwards he did take care as it were unâ liturâ to delete the Execution of â—…ll the Penal Laws disabling ones and others against the Roman Catholicks and that as to what he did therein the most zealous Protestants among his Bishops and the Lords Temporal and others of his Privy Council did concur with him in so doing A. I think you would tell me of that which was very strange B. As in the Happy future State of England it was with an intent to detect the Degeneracy and Vanity of the Politick and Protestant-would-be's of the Age who pretended to Advance Religion by Excluding the next Heir in p. 219. shewn that one of the general and publick Articles sent by King James the First to his Embassador in Spain in Order to the Match with the Infanta was that the Children of this Marriage shall no way be compell'd or constrain'd in point of Conscience or Religion wherefore there is no doubt that their title shall be prejudiced in case it should please God that they turn'd Catholicks and that it was afterward sent as an additional Article offer'd from England that the King of Great Britain and Prince of Wales should bind themselves by Oath for the Observance of the Articles and that the Privy Council should sign the same under their Hands and that accordingly the Articles were sign'd by Archbishop Abbot John Bishop of Lincoln Keeper of the Great Seal Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord high Treasurer of England Henry Viscount Mandevile Lord President of the Council Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Privy Seal Lewis Duke of Richmond and Lennox Lord high Steward of the Houshold James Marquess of Hamilton James Earl of Carlisle Lancelot Bishop of Winchester Oliver Viscount Grandison Arthur Baron Chichester of Belfast Lord Treasurer of Ireland Sir Thomas Edmonds Knight Treasurer of the Houshold Sir John Suckling Comptroller of the Houshold Sir George Calvert and Sir Edward Conway Principal Secretaries of State Sir Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Julius Caesar Mr. of the Rolls and for the truth of which Facts reference is there made to Mr. Prynne's Introduction to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Trial p. 43 so you may there read it in p. 44. that some private Articles were agreed on and probably were Sworn to by the same Persons that the other general ones were and of which private ones the first was in short That none of the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks should at any time hereafter be put in Execution But you may thus see it at large viz. That particular Laws made against Roman Catholicks under which other Subjects of our Realms are not comprehended and to whose Observation all generally are not obliged as likewise general Laws under which all are equally Comprised if so be they are such as are repugnant to the Romish Religion shall not at any time hereafter by any means or chance whatsoever directly or indirectly be commanded to be put in Execution against the said Roman-Catholicks And we will cause that our Councel shall take the same Oath as far as it pertains to them and belongs to the Execution which by the hands of them and their Ministers is to be exercised The 2d was That no other Laws shall hereafter be made anew against the said Roman Catholicks but that there shall be a perpetual Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion within Private Houses throughout all our Realms and Dominions which we will have to be understood as well of our Kingdom of Scotland and Ireland as in England c. And the 4th was That we will interpose our Authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favour of the Roman-Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage and that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate the particular Laws made against the said Roman-Catholicks c. And the Conclusion there is viz. That we will interpose our Authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favour of the Roman-Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage and that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate the particular Laws made against the said Roman-Catholicks to whose observance also the rest of our Subjects and Vassals are not obliged as likewise the general Laws under which all are equally comprehended to wit â—…s to the Roman-Catholicks if they be such as is aforesaid which are repugnant to the Roman-Catholick Religion and that hereafter we will not consent that the said Parliament should ever at any time Enact or Write any other new Laws against Roman-Catholicks We accounting all and singular the preceding Articles ratified and accepted out of certain Knowledge as far as they concern us our Heirs or Successors approve ratifie applaud and promise bonâ—… fide and in the word of a King by these Presents inviolably firmly well and faithfully to keep observe and fulfill the same and to cause them to be kept observed and fulfilled without any Exception or Contradiction and do confirm the same by Oath upon the holy Evangelists notwithstanding any Opinions Sentences or Laws whatsoever to the contrary In the presence of the most Illustrious Don John de Mendoza Marquess of Inojosa and Don Charles Coloma Extraordinary Ambassadors of the Catholick King of George Calvert Knight one of our Chief Secretaries of Edward Conway Knight another of our Chief Secretaries of Francis Cottington Baronet of the Privy Councel to our Son the Prince of Francis de Corondelet Apostolical or the Pope's Prothonotary and Arch-Deacon of Cambray Dated at our Palace at Westminster the 20 day of July 1623. in the English style Jacobus Rex A Compared and true Copy George Calvert Chief Secretary The Form of the Oath which the Lords of the Councel took to the former Articles is this which followeth found among the Lord Cottington's Papers Formula Juramenti à Consiliariis Praestandi Ego N. Iuro me debitè plenéque observaturum quantum ad me spectat omnes singulos Articulos qui in tractatu Matrimonii inter Serenissimum Carolum Walliae Principem Serenissimam Dominam Doâ—…nam Mariam Hispaniarum Iâ—…fantem continentur IURO ETIAM Quod neque per me nec per Ministrum aliquem inferiorem mihi inservientem legem ullam contra quemcunque Catholicum Romanum conscriptum executioni mandabo aut mandari faciam Poenamve ullam ab earum aliqua irrogatam exigam Sed in omnibus quae ad me pertinent Ordines à Majestate sua ex ea parte constitutos fideliter observabo Thus far Mr. Prynne who verifies the Facts above-mention'd not only from my Lord Cottington's Papers but from the Mercure Francois Tom. 9. A.
THE OBLIGATION Resulting from the OATH of SUPREMACY To Assist and Defend the Pre-eminence or Prerogative OF THE Dispensative Power BELONGING To the KING his Heirs and Successors In the asserting of that Power various Historical Passages occurring in the Usurpation after the Year 1641. are occasionally mentioned And an Account is given at large of the Progress of the Power of Dispensing as to Acts of Parliament about Religion since the Reformation and of divers Judgments of Parliaments declaring their Approbation of the Exercise of such Power and particularly in what concerns the Punishment of Disability or Incapacity Princes are Supreme over Persons not over Things This is the Supreme Power of Princes which we teach that they be Gods Ministers in their own Dominions bearing the Sword and freely to permit and publickly to Defend that which God commandeth in Faith and good Manners c. Princes may Command the Bodies of all their Subjects in time both of War and Peace c. Out of all Question where Princes may by God's Law Command all Men must obey them c. The Prince may discharge the Servant but no Man can discharge the Subject The Word of God teacheth you to obey Princes the words of men cannot loose you BISHOP BILSON of the SUPREMACY LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the Harrow at Chancery-Lane End in Fleetstreet William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar and William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1687. To the Right Honorable JOHN Earl of MELFORT Viscount of Forth Lord Drummond of Rickartone c. His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Kingdom of Scotland and one of His Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council in both Kingdoms of England and Scotland c. MY LORD AS the Historian hath told us of Ireland that long ago while the Arts and Sciences were generally banish'd from the Christian World they were enthroned in Ireland and that Men were sent thither from other Parts of Christendom to be improved in Learning so I have elsewhere observ'd that in some late Conjunctures and particularly during the turbid Interval of the Exclusion men might well be sent to Scotland to learn Loyalty And I having taken occasion in the first Part of this Discourse to shew my self a just honourer of that Country and as I may say somewhat like a Benefactor to it by sending thither the notices of some pass'd great Transactions that might possibly there give more light and life to the Moral Offices of Natural Allegiance or Obedience did hold my self obliged in Common Justice to address this Part of my Work to your Lordship For as your Station here qualifies you beyond other Subjects to receive what Tribute is offer'd to your Country so your handing it thither will necessarily make it there the more acceptable And when I consider with what an incomparable Tenderness for the Monarchy and its Rights so many of the Statutes of Scotland since the Year 1660. have been adorn'd I am apt to think that any matter of Presidents or Records by me recover'd out of the Sea of time where they lay so long useless and neglected and now happening to be serviceable to those Moral Offices before-mention'd would by the so many in that Kingdom devoted to consummate Obedience and Loyalty be more valued then if I could have imported into that Realm another such Treasure as that which lay so long buried in the Ocean near the Bahama Islands and that whoever Contributed to your Loyal Country any Substantial Notions that might enrich it in the discharge of the Duties of the born and sworn Allegiance would be esteem'd there as some way sharing in the honour of Arauna in giving like a King to a King. Long may your great Master live happy in the Enjoyment of the faithful Services of so vigilant a Minister as your Lordship who by the universality of your Knowledge accompany'd with universal Charity for all Mankind have appear'd to be born as I may say for the time of his most glorious Reign the time chosen by Heaven for Mercies Triumph on Earth Nothing vulgar was to be expected from a Person of your Lordship's extraordinary intellectual and moral Endowments and in whom the Loyalty and other Virtues of your many noble Ancestors have as it were lived extraduce And the World would be unjust to you if it acknowledged not its great Expectation answer'd by your greater Performances and particularly by your having been so eminently Ministerial in the Easing both the Cares of your Prince and of all his Subjects too by the Figure you have made in promoting the Ease of his People's Consciences and in further ennobling and endearing the Name of DRUMMOND by your Lordship's Prosecuting that by the Bravery of Action which the HISTORIAN of that your Name did by Words when he transmitted to Posterity the most Christian and Statesman-like Speech of Liberty of Conscience I know extant and as spoke by a Roman-Catholick Councellor in Scotland to King Iames the Fifth I most humbly kiss your Lordship's Hands and am My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient Servant P. P. THE OBLIGATION Resulting from the Oath of Supremacy To Assist and Defend the Pre-eminence or Prerogative OF THE Dispensative Power Belonging to the KING his Heirs and Successors c. PART I A. IN this Kingdom of England so naturally of old addicted to Religion and vehemence in it as to give a Bishop of Rome cause to complain he had more trouble given him by Applications from England about it then from all the World beside and afterward to make Geneva wonder at the Sabbatarians here exceeding the Iewish strictness and to cause Barclay in his Euphoâ—…mio to say of the English Nec quicqúam in numinis cultu modicum possunt and that our several Sects thought unos se Coelestium rerum participes exortes coeteros omnes esse did you ever observe hear or read of the style of Tenderness of Conscience so much used as in the year 41. and sometime afterward B. I have not From the Date of King Charles the First 's Declaration to all His loving Subjects about that time wherein he speaks of his Care for Exemption of Tender Consciences till the Date of King Charles the Second's Declaration from Breda wherein the Liberty of Tender Consciences is Provided for the clause of easing Tender Consciences ran through the Messages Addresses and Answers that passed between King and Parliament almost as much as the Clause of proponentibus legatis did run through the Councel of Trent A. But were not their Consciences extremely erroneous who thought themselves bound then to advance Religion by War B. Aâ—… and by a Civil War as you might have added against a Prince of the tenderest Conscience imaginable for that Character he had from an Arch-bishop in his Speech in the Parliament of 40 who said Our Sovereign is I will not say above other Princes but above all Christian men that ever I knew
be TENDER as he is likewise of our Liberty let us enter into a true and indifferent Consideration how far forth the Case in question may touch his Authority and how far forth our Liberty And to speak clearly in my opinion it concerns his Authority much and our Liberty nothing at all That Expression concerning tenderness for the Regal Rights was very acceptable to the House of Commons when his late Majesty in his Letter to them from Bredagh April 14. 1660 thus made use of it viz. We have not the least doubt but you will be as TENDER in and jealous of any thing that may infringe our Honour and Authority as of your own Liberty and Property which is best preserv'd by preserving the other Remember therefore that your tenderness for Property is best preserv'd by your tenderness for the Regal Authority and if you would have your thoughts adorn'd by a constant Idea of true English Loyalty like a noble Picture retain'd there let me direct you to a Saying which like an Original drawn by a great Master may be fit for you to Copy after viz. that Saying of the Lord Keeper Coventry in a Speech in the House of Lords viz. Some would have the King's Prerogative rather tall then great others è contra But none can be truly loyal but he that is a good Patriot and none can be a good Patriot but he that is truly loyal Nor need it be further insinuated to you that without your keeping up a tenderness for the Regal Rights you cannot maintain your tenderness for Oaths And here I must take occasion to tell you that one of my aims in entertaining you with the Queries relating to Oaths out of that Book was to lay before your thoughts a tenderness as to Oaths in general both in keeping the lawful ones you have taken and in not imposing unlawful doubtful unnecessary or inexpedient ones on others and on such as our Prince considering the several Constitutions of their minds both as to firmness and infirmness hath thought fit to exempt from taking such strong Physick Moreover if you will think that another of my aims was to mind you that the same Queries might have been as ingeniously and ingenuously put in the year 1673. before the passing of the Test-Act as they were in debating the Test-Bill in the year 1675 I shall allow you so to do You may too if you will here occasionally consider how soon God in the course of his Providence doth sometimes turn the Tables and make such who were lately so active in imposing on others Oaths that seem'd doubtful and oppressive to them to be in danger of suffering by the like Impositions Mr. Burrough's a Pious Independent Divine who lived in the late times referring in his Irenicum to the Impositions and Persecution design'd by the Presbyterians against those of his Perswasion saith there but the Tables may turn one day wherein the Sufferers shall have the greatest Ease and the Inflicters the sorest Burthen But God forbid that their Brethren should lay it upon them tho it were put into their Power to do it And you may take notice that the Book we before spoke of owns the Activity of the Roman-Catholick Lords then in hindering that Test's being brought on Protestants the Consideration whereof may I think justly incline all who account it their Happiness to have been freed from that design'd Oath not to grudge at the favour that hath been extended by the Diâ—…pensative Power to particular Roman-Catholicks excused from taking other Oaths or at any just favour if ever happening to be afforded them by the Authentick Interpretation of what in the Statute-Oaths seems doubtful to them So tender was the Government in the time of Edward the 6th about the not making the Consciences of the People uneasie by Oaths that you will find it in the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws begun in Harry the 8th's Reign and carry'd on in his that the Magna nomina who were employ'd to make a New Body of Laws did in Compassion to the Consciences of those who took the usual Promissory Oaths for the observance of the Statutes of Universities Collegiate Churches and such like Societies and Corporations order this Clause to be added to the Oaths viz. Haec omnibus partibus servabo â—…uibus cum sacrâ Scripturâ cum legibus civilibus Ecclesiasticis hujus Regni consentient quantum vires meae patientur The School-men saith one would be thought most tender and most curious in the point of Oaths They mince them out so fine that a wholâ—… Million of Oaths may stand as some speak of Angels on the point of a sharp needâ—…e I have therefore not wonder'd at it when I have seen men standing on this sharp point of Oaths so often inconsistent with themselves Notwithstanding what I told you out of my Lord Coke that an Oath cannot be ministred to any unless the same be allow'd by the Common Law or by some Act of Parliament neither can any Oath allow'd by the Common Law or by Act of Parliament be alter'd but by Act of Parliament yet as you know that the House of Commons in the 30th year of Queen Elizabeth desiring that no Oath or Subscription might be tendred to any at their entrance into the Ministry but such as is expresly prescribed by the Statutes of this Realm except the Oath against Corrupt entring did thereby however approve of the tendring of that Oath so my Lord Coke likewise Inst. 3. c. 71. viz. Of Simony seems to approve of that Oath in saying that Simony is the more odious because it is accompany'd with Perjury for the Presentee c. is Sworn to commit no Simony referring there to Lynwood and had before in that Chapter referr'd to Canon 40. 1 Iacobi 1603. The Oath against Simony You may too remember what I so lately told you of my Lord Coke's having with some approbation or fair respect mention'd the Clergy's Oath of Canonical obedience And I can tell you that I lately looking on the Charter of the Corporation of Shipwrights granted by King Iames the First in the Tenth year of his Reign observed therein that Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Sir Thomas Flemming Lord Chief Justice of England Sir Edward Coke Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas did pursuant to the Statute in the 19th year of Henry the 7th allow and approve under their Ha ds and Seals divers Articles Acts and Ordinances for the better Order Rule and Government of the Art or Mystery of Shipwrights exhibited to them by the Corporation and did moreover oâ—…in the form of three new Oaths to be taken by the Officers and Freemen of that Corporation and did DISABLE the Refusers of such Oath to be Members of the Corporation But I may here occasionally by the way tell you what you will find in Croke 3d. Sir Edward Coke Sheriff of Buckingham's Case viz. That upon several Exceptions there mention'd as by him
shall further But I conceive it here necessary for me to acquaint your Lordship that I have been often put to it as speaking cum vulgo grosso modo and for brevity's sake to use the aforesaid Expression of Dispensing with Disability and with Disability incurr'd by Act of Parliament that is with what is generally enacted to be incurr'd and SEEMS to be alike incurr'd by all Persons who perform not what the Act enjoins and which Dispensing with Disability is frequently used in popular discourse for the pardoning it and for the liberatio à poenâ and as the Lord Chief Iustice Vaughan's Report by me so much cited mentions dispensing to have been defined by some of the Iudges But to a judgment so vastly comprehensive and profoundly penetrating as your Lordships the dispensing with Disability must easily appear to be properly meant of the preventing it and the dispensing with what might Cause it according to the style of Queen Elizabeth's Letters Patents or effect the actual incurring of what will reverâ be incurr'd by the Persons not exempted by Dispensation from the doing what the Law enjoins and which will be made to appear obvious to every man's understanding in one of the following Parts and wherein I shall have occasion to speak less cum vulgo and more closely and accurately of the Nature of Dispensing and of its effects in either forum then yet I have had And now having Named that Great Queen I shall not doubt but since the Members of the Church of England do now under our most puissant and most just Monarch find themselves as secure in the Profession of the Religion by Law establish'd as they did in her great and glorious Reign it will upon recollection of thought appear as natural to them to hold themselves obliged to shew the same tenderness for every branch of Prerogative and particularly for that of the Dispensative Power that was then so remarkable in Parliament and throughout the Realm My Lord Your Lordship 's most Obedient Servant P. P. PART II. B. I again bid you welcome and am ready to go on where we last left off and do not in the least doubt of your welcoming any thing I can say to you that may import you to know in order to your sworn assistance and defence of every Privilege belonging to the Crown And I shall frankly tell you that you and other Protestants who in a late Conjuncture did shew a more then ordinary zeal against Popery or Papal Usurpations ought to consider that you have thereby put your selves under an especial Obligation of tenderness â—…for all the rights of your Prince and of hating all popular Usurpations or diminutions thereof with an exemplary and most perfect hatred and of thereby avoiding the being judged hypocrites and factious A. I do herein most fully agree with you and that the late zeal of the same Persons against papal Usurpations and for popular ones was a scandal to the Age. I remember you once observ'd to me how tender the Protestants in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the first were of every Right and Privilege of the Crown with the most perfect tenderness while the Attaques from the Court of Rome against those Princes had made the highest Ferment in the minds of the Populace But I think there never was any Conjuncture of time here when so many of the declaimers against Popery and so many of the fautors of Plot-witnesses were so much at the same time for a Plot and no Plot and for a King and no King that is to say did so much make a stalking-horse of Popery whereby to strike at Prerogative B. But you know that the talk of Plots and Popery was before apply'd to that use You know Archbishop Laud in his Star-chamber Speech A 1637. mentions it p. 11. as the scope of the Libellers of the Faction to kindle a jealousy in Mens minds that there were some great Plots in hand to change the Religion established and to bring in I know not what Romish Superstition And the history of those times sheweth you how the Men that cry'd up Plots then did decry Prerogative And in the Conjuncture of 41. the famous Protestation of May the 5th that year begins with Out-cries of Designs of Popish Priests and Iesuits and other Papists and their PLOTS and CONSPIRACIES and the Preface of the Covenant runs on in the style of â—…loody Plots and Conspiracies But you likewise know the dismal state of Prerogative in those times then occasion'd by raising of those false Alarms of Plots And I may account it as a beneficial Providence to the Age that shortly after our last Plot-Epoche M r. Hobbs his History of the Civil-Wars coming first out in print through the License of the Press and having been reserved to the detecting then the artifices of the Demagogues that produced the Usurpations between the Years 1640. and 1660. the Book notwithstanding all the prejudice against the Author whether just or unjust being writ with so much strength and beauty of Wit as to make it fly like lightning round the Kingdom in so many Impressions did then prove to many ingenious and thinking Men an effectual Antidote against the poysons of those old Artifices then again scatter'din the Press being so destructive to Loyalty as heretofore Sir Iohn Davis in his Report of the Case of praemunire Hil. 4. Iacobi doth but right to the loyalty of Roman Catholicks and to the genius of the People of England when he saith there That the Commons of England may be an example to all other Subjects in the World in this that they have ever been TENDER and sensible of the wrongs and dishonours offer'd to their Kings and have ever contended to upheld and maintain their Honour and Soveraignty And their Faith and Loyalty hath been generally such tho every Age hath brought forth some particular Mâ—…nsters of disloyalâ—…y as no pretence of Zeal of Religion could ever withdraw the greater part of the Subjects of submit themselves to a foreign yoke no not when Popery was in its height and exaltation It is therefore no marvel that toward the latter end of the Reign of the late King the very Mobile who had been so zealous against papal usurpations and so fiery in charging ALL Papists with disloyalty did upon their discovery of the artifices of republican deluders to put an inglorious domestic yoke on the Monarchy then think themselves obliged by the universality of their loyal addresses to shew the more extraordinary zeal against any Popular Usurpations And so I account it but natural to you who are made è meliore luto to be ready to shew your most consummate zeal for every Privilege of the Crown A. It is not possible for any Man to wish me more sensible of my obligation in this point then I really am and the rather for that I find so many mens loyalty to be but a kind of loud noisy nothing or a