directions that no man can observe them as every one swears to do and perform the necessary duties of the Priestly Office together The testimony of Iohannes Diaconus hath been long since answered by Gallonius who hath shewed him to be a very incompetent witness in this matter But they have not at all taken notice of the Testimony of Malmsbury who saith that the Benedictin Order came into England from the Abby of Fleury being brought hither by Oswald who had been a Monk there not long before the Council of Winchester which first made any establishment of it here I do not then deny that this Order was introduced by a particular devotion of some persons in some few places before to which the testimonies of Wilfrid Benedict Biscop and Aldelmus refer but the general reception of it was not before the times of Dunstan and with what confusions and disorders with what severities and injustice to the Canonical and Secular Clergy it was then established may be easily seen in our Histories For Dunstan Oswald and Ethelwald set themselves with all their power which was great by the Favour of King Edgar to drive out the Canons out of the Cathedral Churches belonging to them and to bring in the Monks in their Rooms and other Bishops thought it a good way to preferment to follow their example And from hence forward the Benedictin Monks kept the possession not only of the greater Monasteries but of several of the Cathedral Churches contrary to the design of their Rule if the Cistertian Abbots may be believed who declare their Resolution to keep to the Benedictin Rule and therefore would wholly withdraw from Cities and have nothing to do in Churches that so they might live retired not upon the profits of Churches but upon their own stock and industry according to the intention of their Rule And that this Resolution of the Cistertians was most agreeable to the Benedictin Rule is declared by the many Bulls of Popes which are extant for the confirmation of the Cistertian Order or rather Reformation of the Benedictin according to the first design and letter of their Rule § 7. Thus far Mr. Cressy's resolution to stand to it that Christianity was established in England by the Disciples of S. Benedict hath drawn me to the Discourse of the means and Persons by which England was converted but it may be after all this he may find out a reserve to himself viz. that he did not mean it of the first knowledge of Christianity but of the firm settlement of it But neither can this be his meaning nor if it were is it any truer than the former It cannot be his meaning for his words are that the English Saxons were indeed converted by the Disciples of S. Benedict by which it is plain he speaks of the first Conversion but suppose he did not the establishment or settlement of Christianity is no more owing to the Benedictins than the first Conversion of the Nation For which we are to consider that a sudden Apostasie soon happened to Paganism after the death of the first Princes who professed Christianity For Eadbald King of Kent Son to Ethelbert revolted from it but he soon repented his Apostasie and sent for Mellitus and Iustus out of France again but the state of Christianity remained more desperate in the Eastern parts after the death of Sebert and the Apostasie of his Sons and although some hopes appeared by the Conversion of Erpenwald yet his death happening soon after things were as bad as ever till the return of Sigebert out of France who brought Felix a Burgundian Priest with him who was the great instrument of restoring Christianity in those parts Among the West Saxons Birinus was the first Preacher of Christianity but he was so far from being a Benedictin that Mr. Cressy himself confesseth that he was not by profession a Monk In the Northern parts after the revolt of the Sons of Edwin Christianity was wholly restored in the time of King Oswald by the Scottish Christians among whom himself was Converted and Baptized Bede at large relates the coming of Aidâ—nus and his excellent piety zeal and charity whose good example many others followed till by great diligence in preaching and an excellent conversation they had settled Christianity much more firmly than ever and from thence Christianity was conveyed into the Middle parts of England in the time of Peada by Finanus who carried with him four Pâ—iests Cedda and Adda and Betti and Diuma whereof the last was a Scot and the other English this Diuma was made Bishop and consecrated by Finanus after him succeeded Ceolla a Scot too after him Trumâ—ere consecrated by the Scots after him Iaruman after him Ceadda At the same time saith Bede the East Saxons recovered the Christian faith by the endeavours of King Oâ—wi of Northumberland with their King Sigbert who was likewise Baptized by Finanus and he consecrated Cedda to be their Bishop By which we see that when Christianity was settled and established in England how much more it was owing to the piety and care of the Scottish Christians than to the Roman Missionaries for all the Northern parts the Midland and East Saxons were throughly converted by them the East Angles by Felix a Burgundian the West Saxons by Birinus one sent from Rome but no Monk and only the parts of Kent by the Roman Monks but not Benedictins And hath not Mr. Cr. now very great reason to stand to this assertion That the English Saxons were converted to Christianity by Benedictin Monks § 8. But it may be yet Mr. Cressy thinks they were never true Christians till they had received the Roman customes and that the honour of making them good Catholick Christians belonged to the Benedictins or at least to the Roman Missionaries For all that I can find they were very good Christians in Mr. Cressy's esteem but only in the Customes wherein they differed from the Roman Church For Mr. Cressy confesseth that the Scots Picts and Brittains in all matters of faith agreed with the Saxon that is the Roman Church but it is plain withall that the great zealot for the Church of Râ—me Wilfrid refused to receive Orders among them and gives this as the reason of it because the Apostolical See did not allow thâ—◠〈…〉 on with it for speaking of the 〈◊〉 Scottish Bishops he saith 〈…〉 Apostolica sedes in communiâ—◠〈…〉 neceos qui Schismatâ—cis consenâ—â—â—â— it seems then the Brittish and Sâ—â—â—â—â—sh Churches stood excommunicated at that time by the Church of Rome and therefore he desires to go into France ut sine controversia Apostolicae sedis licet indignus gradum Episcopalem merear accipere so that the Pope would neither allow their Churches nor their Ordinations So William of Malmsbury saith that he would neither be ordained by the Scottish Bishops nor by any ordained by them because the
who so meekly resigned his Crown to the Popes Legat and did swear homage to the Pope declaring that he held the Kingdom in Fee from him upon the annual payment of a thousand Marks And I desire it may be observed that the Oath of Fealty extant in Matthew Paris and the Records of the Tower and the Vatican Register which King Iohn made to the Pope hath no other expressions in it than are contained in the Oath which all the Popish Bishops now take at their consecration only with the variation of necessary circumstances And although Sr. Tho. Moor once denyed any such thing as King Iohns Resignation of his Crown yet the matter is now past all dispute by the concurrence of the Records of the Tower and the Vatican Register and the Authentick Bull of the Pope and the Epistles of Innocent the third published out of MS. by Bosquet now a Bishop in France wherein the devout Pope attributes thus resignation of his Crown to no less than the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and saith the Kingdom of England was then become a Royal Priesthood and in another Bull he accepts of the Resignation and declares that whereas before these Provinces were subject to the Roman Church in Spirituals they were now become subject in Temporals too and from hence he requires an Oath of Fealty from himself and all his Successors and charges all persons under severe penalties not to dare to infringe this Charter And although the Parliament 40 Edw. 3. did deny the payment of the Popes Tribute upon the invalidity of King John ' s Charter not being done by the consent of the Barons as the Pope said it was yet we are to consider what Gregory the seventh said to the Princes of Spain that a Kingdom once belonging to the See of Rome can never be alienated from it but although the Use be discontinued yet the Right still continues so that although the thing be never so much null and vain in it self yet it still serves for pretence to usurp the same temporal Power over our Princes when opportunity serves them And it is certain that Henry the third did swear homage and Fealty to the Pope at his Coronation and promised to pay the tribute which was performed several times in his Reign till the King and People protested against it in the Council of Lyons as a grievance of the Kingdom which was extorted by the Roman Court unjustly in a time of War and to which the Nobles had never consented and never would But whatever opinion the Nobles were of the Pope had the Bishops sure to him for upon his Message to them they all set their hands to King John ' s Charter of Resignation which highly provoked the King and made him swear that he would stand for the Liberty of the Kingdom and never pay the Tribute more while he breathed In the same Council the English complained that infinite numbers of Italians were beneficed among them that more money went out of England every year into Italy than the Kings Revenues came to that the Popes Legats grew more intolerable and by reservations and Provisions and one trick or other the Patrons were defrauded of their Right and the Clergy impoverished by unreasonable pensions and whoever would not presently submit his Soul was immediately put into the Devils Custody by Excommunication Notwithstanding all these complaints the Pope goes on in the same way with them and resolved to try how much the Asses back would bear without kicking the English Ambassadours go away highly incensed from the Council and resolved to defend their own rights but they yet wanted a Prince of Spirit enough to head them Before this time the insolence of the Roman Clergy was grown so intolerable to the Nation that the Nobility and Commonalty joyned together in a resolution to free themselves from this Yoke and threated the Bishops to burn their goods if they went about to defend them they sent abroad their Letters to several places with a Seal with two swords between which were written Ecce duo gladii hic in abuse of the Roman Court and it seems they destroyed the goods of several Roman Clergy-men but Matt. Paris saith they were all excommunicated by the Bishop of London and ten Bishops more although Matt. Mestminster saith the Bishop of London was cited to Rome for favouring them and having his Purse well emptied was sent home again It seems the Pope was so nettled at the Remonstrance of the English Nobility at the Council of Lyons that he entred into a secret consultation with the King of France either to depose the King of England or to bring him wholly to his will so that neither he nor his people should so much as dare to mutter against the oppressions of the Roman Court and the Pope offered the utmost assistance of his Power for it but the King of France declined the employment However the Pope goes on with his work and grants a Bull for raising ten thousand Marks out of vacant Benefices in the Province of Canterbury which so incensed the King that he made at Proclamation that whosoever brought Bulls of Provision from Rome should be taken and imprisoned but this did little good saith Matth. Paris because of the uncertain humour of the King The same year a Parliament was called about the intolerable grievances of the Roman Court in which many of the Bishops favoured the Popes party but at the Parliaments meeting at Winchester the Ambassadors were returned from the Pope who gave a lamentable account of their Ambassy viz. that instead of any redress the Pope told them the King of England kicks and playes the Frederick whom he had deposed from the Empire in the Council of Lyons he hath his Council and I have mine which I will follow and withal they say they were scorned and despised as a company of Schismaticks for daring to complain Upon this the King issues out another Proclamation that no money should be sent out of England to the Pope At which the Pope was so enraged that he sent a severe Message to the Bishops of England under pain of excommunication and suspension to see his Money punctually paid to his Nuntio by such a day in London and the King by the perswasion of the Bishop of Worcester and some others fairly yields and gives up the Cause to the Pope After this the Pope sends for a third part of the profits of all Benefices from Residents and half from Non-residents with an Italian Gentleman called Non obstante that had almost undone the Nation the Clergie meet at London about it and make a grievous Remonstrance of their sad condition declaring that the whole Kingdom could not satisfie the Popes demands but it seems the Bishops brought the inferiour Clergie to it against the consent of the King and Parliament The next year the Parliament made
desires it may be noted 11 R. 2. the Commons pray that those that bring in the Popes Bulls of Volumus and Imponimus may be reputed for Traytors 13 R. 2. the Statute of Provisors was again confirmed notwithstanding the Protestations of the Bishops in Parliament against any Statute made in restraint of the Popes Authority and a Praemunire added against those that bring any sentence of excommunication against those that execute it 15 R. 2. the Archbishop of York being Chancellor told the Parliament one of the Causes of calling them was the restoring to the Pope what belonged to him about Provisions but in the same Parliament Sr. William Brian was sent to the Tower for bringing a Bull from Rome against some that had robbed him which Bull being read was judged prejudicial to the King his Council and in derogation to his Laws 16 R. 2. the Commons grant to the King that by the advice of his Lords and Commons he should have power to moderate the Statute of Provisions to the honour of God saving the Rights of the Crown so as the same be declared the next Parliament to the end the Commons may then agree or no. In this Parliament happened an extraordinary thing For William Courtny Archbishop of Canterbury made his Protestation in open Parliament saying That the Pope ought not to Excommunicate any Bishop or intermeddle for or touching any presentation to any Ecclesiastical dignity recovered in any of the Kings Courts He further protested that the Pope ought to make no translations to any Bishoprick within the Realm against the Kings will for that the same was the destruction of the Realm and Crown of England which hath alwayes been so free as the same hath had none earthly Soveraign but only subject to God in all things touching Regalities and to none other the which his protestation he prayed might be entred Then passed the famous Statute of Praemunire upon occasion of the Popes Bulls of excommunication coming into England against certain Bishops who it seems at last were brought to obey the Laws and that which the Archbishop of Canterbury protested was a part of the Statute wherein the Commons not only declared their resolution to live and dye with the King in defence of the Liberties of the Crown against the Papal Usurpations but moreover they pray and in justice require that he would examin all the Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal severally and all the States of the Parliament how they think of the cases aforesaid which be so openly against the Kings Crown and in derogation of his Regality and how they will stand in the same cases with our Lord the King in upholding the Rights of the said Crown and Regality By which it appears that the Commons had a great suspicion of the Spiritual Lords And it seems they had reason for the Temporal Lords declared frankly their concurrence with the Commons and that the Cases mentioned were clearly in derogation of the Crown as it is well known and hath been a long time known Mr. Cressy would make us believe that all the Bishops present and the Procurators of the absent unanimously assented but the very words of the Statute say the contrary for there it is added that the Lords Spiritual did make their Protestation first that it is not their mind to deny or affirm that the Bishop of Rome may not excommunicate Bishops nor that he may make translation of Prelates after the Law of Holy Church but it seems by the Records the Archbishop of Canterbury alone spoke plain to the sense of the Parliament and entred his Protestation different from the rest Neither do theâ— declare their assent to the freedom of the Crown of England from all earthly subjection and that it is immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalities of the same and not subject to the Pope which they touch not upon but only with several clauses of Reservation about processes excommunications and translations they declare in such and such cases they are against the King and his Crown and in these cases they would be with the King in maintaining of his Crown and in all other cases touching his Crown and Regality as they be bound by their liegeance which are words very ambiguous and imply a secret reservation of salvo Ordine suo jure Ecclesiae or with a salvo to the Oath they had taken to the Pope But however the Act passed and a praemunire by it lyes against all that procure or bring Bulls or any other things whatsoever which touch the King against him his Crown and Regality or his Realm By this Statute the Parliament 1 H. 4. declared that the Crown of England was freed from the Pope and all other foreign Power and it was one of the articlâ—s against Rich. 2. at his deposition that notwithstanding the Statutes he procured the Pâ—pes excommunication on such as brake the last Parliament in derogation of the Crown Statutes and Laws of the Realm And yet we find new Statutes of Provisors made 2 H. 4. c. 3 4. 6 H. 4. c. 57. 7 H. 4. c. 6 8. 9 H. 4. c. 8. In the 1 H. 5. it was again enacted that all Statutes made against Provisors from Rome should be observed § 20. By which we see that although the Parliament shewed a very good will towards the restraint of the Popes Usurpations yet it all signified very little as long as his Authority and Supremacy were acknowledged here for what did Laws signifie when the Pope could null them by a Bull from Rome And it was in those days verily believed by those who did acknowledge the Popes Supremacy and followed the Church-men in their opinions that an Act of Parliament had no power at all upon conscience if it were repugnant to the Laws of the Church i. e. as they then thought to the Popes decretals And we need not wonder at that after the Popes Decretals were digested into a Body of Canon Law and that looked upon by all the hearty Friends to the Church of Rome as the Rule of Conscience in what it determined Which we need not at all to wonder at since Petrus de Marca himself declares That the Constitutions of Princes are in themselves null when they are repugnant to the Canons and received Decrees of Popes and that Bishops have alwayes abstained from the execution of them as much as they durst by which we see that Acts of Parliament were no certain indications of the judgement of the Church or the generality of the People in that time but notwithstanding all the Statutes the good trade of Provisors went on still and the Court of Rome never wanted Chapmen for their forbidden Wares For many of our Bishops dying in the time of the Council of Câ—nstance Martin 5. assoon as he was well settled in his place put in several Bishops by way of Provision at his own pleasure and nulled elections
prevent any farther suspicion of my meaning I do declare I am for no other Church than that Church of England which is established by Law among us But it must be allowed to those who plead for seeing Visions that sometimes they may dream Dreams Having therefore cut off so much impertinency I shall reduce the matter yet to a narrower compass by casting by the large account he gives of the several Books written by himself in all which tedious Discourse the wisest thing he saith is That Books relating to personal things are scarce ever so long-lived as a yearly â—lmanack and serve only to increase the uncharitableness and injustice of the present Age in which men will be sure to censure all Books and Persons and are indifferent whether they condemn the Plaintiff or Defendant or both I shall not therefore feed so bad a humour by medling with any personal Disputes but come now to the main things which deserve any farther discussion in the passages between the Person of Honour and Mr. Cressy CHAP. II. Of the Charge of Fanaticism and Mystical Divinity § 1. ANd the first thing is about the Charge of Fanaticism which gave the Title to that Book of Mr. Cressy ' s upon which the Person of Honour bestows his Animadversions This Mr. Cressy said he would begin with and particularly that part of my Book which concerns the life and prayer of Contemplation commended and practised only in the Catholick Church it being a State he saith which from the Infancy of the Church hath been esteemed the nearest approaching to that of Glorified Saints and this is that from whence I took an occasion to vilifie him but adds that he is very well content to receive his proportion of scorn with such companions as Thaulerus Suso Rusbrochius Blosius c. But to the end I may not boast he saith of the Novelty of my invention and profanely employed wit he doth assure me that he heard the same way much better acted a long time since but the Actor was obliged to make a Recantation Sermon for it I thank Mr. Cressy for more of his Charity still in that he parallels the representing the Fanaticism of their Church with the histrionical representing the life of our Saviour and his Attâ—ndants it seems there is no great difference to be made between the Reverence due to the Founders of their Monastick Orders and to the Son of God himself I do assure him if I had no better opinion of our Blessed Saviour as to his Wisdom and all manner of Excellencies than as yet I see ground to have of the Founders of their Orders I should be far from that esteem I now have of the Christian Religion but however the Person of Honour hath better informed Mr. Cressy ' s memory viz. That the Recantation Sermon was made upon the account of State-matters and therefore Mr. Cressy very wisely passeth it over in his Epistle Apologetical To this the Person of Honour adds That Mr. Cressy had no such reason to be enraged at me for this Charge since the provocation was given me by my Adversary by whom the beginning of so many Sects Fanaticisms was laid to the charge of the Church of England which unseasonable and untrue reproach made it necessary for me to answer and refell that calumny and as reasonable to let them know that their own Church is much more lyable to that accusation than the other and why this provocation should be so innocent an assault for the one and the defence by the other should prove so heinous an offence will require an impartial Judge to determine To this Mr. Cressy thus answers That my Adversary chanced unhappily though innocently to let drop out of his pen one line or two which has undone us all I know no design of undoing them that any of us have had unless it be as some men think they are undone when they are kept from doing mischief but I hope we may have leave to take care of our own preservation and of that Religion we ought to value above our lives but suppose it were so whom may they thank for it him that gave the provocation or him that did but his duty in Defence of his Church and Religion But come come Mr. Cressy let us not flatter our selves it is not the Fly upon the Wheel that raises the Dust we Writers of Controversies are no great Doers or Undoers of publick business But Mr. Cressy denyes that my Adversary did lay the imputation on the Church of England and craves leave with all due respect to tell the Person of Honour that it was a great mistake in him to say so Of that we may judge by the very words produced by Mr. Cressy viz. Whether the judgement of King Henry viz. in forbidding the Bible to be read in English ought not to have been followed in after-times let the dire effects of so many new Sects and Fanaticisms as have risen in England from the reading of the Scripture bear witness In which words the rise of Sects and Fanaticisms is plainly imputed to the reading the Scripture the reading of the Scripture in English is an effect of the Reformation of the Church of England for it is the Church of England as reformed that is only the subject of the dispute And therefore I appeal to any indifferent person whether the Reformed Church of England doth not in their Opinion bear the blame of all the Sects and Fanaticisms But this is too plain a thing to be insisted upon No saith Mr. Cressy the very naming of Fanaticism and England in the same line was provocation enough for me who seemed with an impatient longing to have watched for such an advantageous opportunity to empty my voluminous store of Collections How strangely may some be deceived by an overweening imagination I was so far from having a Voluminous store of Collections that I never thought of the Subject till it came in my way to answer it and then I remembred some things I had read to that purpose which put me upon a farther search into the history of those things And since Mr. Cressy will have it out this is the true account of the birth of that terrible Mormo that hath brought so many reproaches and execrations upon me § 2. There are two parts of this Charge of Fanaticism which Mr. Cressy thinks himself particularly concerned in and which I shall therefore handle distinctly the one concerns Mystical Divinity and the other the honour of S. Benedict and his Rule and Order these two Mr. Cressy sets himself with all his force to defend and I hope before I have done to make Mr. Cressy repent the heat he hath shewed about them I begin with that concerning Mystical Divinity of which Mr. Cressy still speaks with the greatest Veneration imaginable he had before called it The practice of Christian Vertues and Piety in the greatest perfection this life
Prince doth challenge in another Princes Dominions contrary to and above the Laws of the Land and what obedience it is that subjects may pay to such a forreign Prince without the privity and contrary to the command of his own Soveraign which cannot be done by a general Answer but by distinct assigning the bounds of the Popes Temporal and Spiritual Power in England and what the full intent of them is that the King may discern whether he hath enough of either to preserve himself and the Peace of the Kingdom 3. That till such time as the Roman-Catholick Subjects of England give as good security to the King for their Fidelity and peaceable behaviour as all his other subject do they have no cause to wonder that they may be made subject to such Laws and restraints as may disable them from being dangerous when they profess to owe obedience to a forreign Prince who doth as much profess not to be a friend to their Countrey and will not declare what that obedience is 4. That the Roman Catholick Subjects of England have a more immediate dependance on the Pope than is allowed in any Catholick Countryes and that those who under pretence of Religion refuse to declare that it is in no Earthly Power to absolve them from their Fidelity to the King do refuse to give as full satisfaction and security for their Allegiance as Catholick Subjects do give for their Fidelity to Catholick Kings there being no French Roman Catholick who dares refuse to do it 5. That there is so much the more reason to require this since the late instance of the Irish Rebellion wherein the Pope absolved the Kings Subjects from their Oaths and took upon himself to be their General in the Person of his Nuntio and assumed the exercise of the Regal Power both at Land and Sea and imprisoned those Catholicks and threatned to take away their Lives who had promoted the peace and desired to return to the Kings subjection and hath since given a severe check to those of the Irish Nobility and Clergie who had declared that the Pope had no Power to dispense with their Fidelity to his Majesty or to absolve them from any Oaths they should take to that purpose and imployed his Nuntio to discountenance and suppress that Declaration and to take care that it should proceed no further and that Cardianl Barbarine at that same time put them in mind that the Kingdom of England was still under Excommunication and since that the Pope hath made many Bishops in Ireland which his Predecessors had forborn to do from the death of Queen Elizabeth to A. D. 1640. And therefore there is no reason to believe that the Court of Rome doth recede from its former principles as to these things § 2. These several particulars carry so much weight along with them as may easily raise the expectation of any one to see what Mr. Cressy will reply to them And in truth he enters the Field like a Champion for he saith his Apologie is published permissu Superiorum and what he writes on this special subject he desires the Person of Honour to consider not as the inconsiderable opinion of one particular person only And he doth assure him that there is not any one Point of Controversie upon which they more earnestly desire to be summoned to give an account before equal Iudges than this Thus he enters the lists and walks his ground and brandishes his sword and makes legs to the Judges with more than ordinary assurance and fails in no point of a Champion but overcoming his Adversary Which he is so far from that after these Bravado's and flourishes he dares not stand before him but looks round about him to discern any way to escape But although it be beneath the Greatness of his Adversary to pursue him over all his Bogs and to draw him out of his Fastnesses yet I shall endeavour to bring him into the Lists again that his Adversary may not go away blushing at so mean a Triumph There are five things which Mr. Cressy offers at by way of Answer to the Discourse of the Person of Honour on this subject 1. That there is no reason to suspect the Catholick subjects of England to be more wanting in Fidelity to their Prince than of other Nations whose Catholick Ancestors were so far from acknowledging any Supremacy of the Pope in Temporals and much less any Authority in him to depose Princes that even in those times when Church-men had the greatest Power in this Kingdom Statutes were made with the joynt Votes of the Clergic upon occasion of some Usurpations of the Roman Court in which the Penalty was no less than a Praemunire against any one who without the Kings License should make any Appeals to Rome or submit to a Legats jurisdiction or upon the Popes Summons go out of the Kingdom or receive any Mandats or Brieffs from Rome or purchase Bulls for presentments to Churches and which is most considerable the ground of their rejecting Papal Usurpations is thus expressed For the Crown of England is free and hath been free from earthly subjection at all times being immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalities of the same and not subject to the Pope to which he saith the Bishops assented and the Lords and Commons declared their Resolution to stand with the King in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against him his Crown and Regalitie in all points to live and to dye 2. That whatsoever they suffer here in England by vertue of the Poenal Laws it is purely for their Religion and the Catholick faith and therefore he parallels our Poenal Laws with those of the Medes and Persians against Daniel and of Nero Domitian and Dioclesian against the Apostles and their successors and yet Mr. Cressy confesses that the occasion of the Poenal Laws was the treasonable actions of some of their own Religion but he adds that they were scarce one score of persons and abhorred by all the rest for which actions of theirs he confesseth that care is taken of exacting Oaths both of Fidelity and Supremacy from Roman Catholicks as dangerous Subjects and dayes of Thanksgiving are kept for the discovery and prevention of such personal Treasons whereas saith he the whole Kingdoms deliverance from almost an universal Rebellion designing the extinction of Monarchy and Prelacy both and executing the murder of the lawful Soveraign is not esteemed a sufficient motive for such publick Thanksgivings neither it seems is there at all a necessity of requiring from any a Retraction of the Principles of Rebellion or a promise that it shall not be renewed By which we might think Mr. Cressy had been utterly a stranger in his own Countrey and had never heard of the thirtieth of Ianuary or the twenty ninth of May which are solemnly observed in our Church and the Offices joyned
with that of the fifth of November and are purposely intended for that very thing which he denyes to be taken notice of by us in such a manner What must we say to such men who openly and to our faces deny that which the whole Nation knows to be true These stories might have passed abroad where they have been wont to lye for the Catholick Cause but to have the impudence to say such things here which every Boy can confute is not the way to advance the Reputation of their Church among us And what doth Mr. Cressy think the Renuntiation of the Covenant was intended for if not to prevent the mischief of the former Rebellion And is it possible for any man who knows the Laws of his Countrey concerning these matters to dare to say in the face of the Kingdom That it seems there is no necessity at all of requiring from any a Retraction of the principles of Rebellion or a promise it shall never be renewed If this be the way of defending the innocency of Roman Catholicks I had rather be accounted guilty than have my innocency thus defended 3. He saith We also confidently affirm so we have seen he hath done too much already that by vertue of the Spiritual Iurisdiction inherent in the Pope the Temporal Rights and Power of the King or even of the meanest of his Subjects are not at all abridged or prejudiced Which assertion he saith hath been alwayes maintained in France the Pope not contradicting it from whence it follows that it is agreeable to Catholick Religion After this I expected he should speak home to the purpose and say this is all the Power challenged by the Pope as to England or owned by any Roman Catholicks here which finding what he had affirmed about other matters I thought he would have made no scruple of but I see he durst not either for conscience or meer shame But how then doth he get over this difficulty Why English Catholicks saith he should be suspected not to be as tender of the just Rights and precious lives also of their Soveraign as the Catholick Subjects of any other Kingdom and why they should be thought to be willing to acknowledge any Temporal Power director indirect to be inherent in the Pope over the King or Kingdom to which not any Catholick Gentleman or Nobleman would submit I cannot imagine I am very much to seek for the sense of this and know not what the submitting relates to but I suppose something left out or struck out by his Superiours who did not take care to leave sense behind But is this indeed all the security Mr. Cressy offers that he cannot imagine it should be otherwise here than in France We find when he pleases he can imagine strange things and is this only out of the reach of his imagination What doth he think of the Kingdoms being under Excommunication at Rome as Cardinal Barbarine takes care to put the Irish Nobility in mind for some good end doubtless Is the Kingdom of France so What doth he imagine of Bulls from Rome prohibiting the taking the Oaths required Are there any such things in France What doth he think of the Popes Nuntio appearing in the Head of an Army and absolving the Kings subjects from their Allegiance I confess it was not much better in France in the time of the Holy League but what opinion had they of the Popes temporal Power then Cannot Mr. Cressy imagine that there are such people in England as Iesuits and it is not many years since their Reasons were therefore shewed to be Unreasonable in pleading an exemption from the Sanguinary Laws because they did hold the Popes power of deposing Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance And do not the Iesuitical party still plead that their opinion is the common doctrine of their Church confirmed by General Councils and approved by multitudes of Divines of all sorts and that the contrary is only asserted here by a very inconsiderable party whereof some are excommunicated at Rome for their zeal in this matter And do not we know how much greater sway the Iesuitical party hath among the Nobility and Gentry than the despised Secular Priests I do not at all question but the Nobility and Gentry of England would do as much to preserve the just Rights and precious lives of their Soveraigns as of any Nation in the World and have as great a sense of their own Honour as well as Interest and of the Duty they owe to their Countrey But ought not the Laws to take so much the more care to keep their Consciences untainted in these things they being such Persons whose Loyalty cannot be corrupted but under a pretence of Conscience and their Consciences being so much in danger by being under the direction chiefly of those who are the sworn servants to the Papal Power 4. He offers by way of satisfaction concerning their Fidelity that they will subscribe the French Declaration lately made by the Sorbon or the Censure of the Faculty of Paris A. D. 1626. and that very few if any at all would refuse subscription to that Form prescribed by the State in case that unlucky word heretical were left out As though all those who had hitherto refused to take that Oath had done it only upon this nicety that the word heretical were to be taken not in the sense of the Givers but of the Takers of the Oath whereas Mr. Cressy himself saith that common Reason teaches that all Oaths Professions and Promises are to be understood in the sense of those who frame and require them and not of those upon whom they are imposed But if this were all the ground of refusing this Oath among any of them Mr. Cressy therein charges them with the want of common Reason whereas I shall make it appear in the progress of this Discourse that this was far from being the true and only reason of Roman Catholicks refusing the Oath of Allegiance 5. That since Ordination abroad doth not in the least render English Priests defective in their duties to the Civil Magistrate it will follow that whatsoever penalty is inflicted on them on such an account is not inflicted according to the Rule of Iustice and by consequence that whatsoever blood shall be shed the guilt of it before God will be imputed to the whole Kingdom since it is shed by vertue of the whole Kingdoms votes and consent given long since upon motives long since ceased And therefore he charges it deeply upon my conscience to endeavour to free the whole Kingdom from such a guilt This is the substance of what Mr. Cressy saith upon this very important subject as himself calls it and by vertue whereof he hopes the poenal Laws may be repealed and those of their Religion may enjoy the Liberty of their Religion and all the Rights of Free-born Subjects Which are things too important to be debated in
precarious Princes and in a much more proper sense than the Popes use that Title The Servants of Servants Supposing then the Legislative and Civil Power to be equal since the Reformation and before our work is to compare the other circumstances together and if it appear that the Plea of Conscience and Religion did equally hold then and notwithstanding that the penalties were as great upon the same or far less occasions I hope our Laws will at least appear as just and reasonable as those were § 4. To make this out I must give an account of the State of those times and the Reasons and Occasions which moved the Law-makers to enact those Poenal Statutes in which I shall shew these two things 1. That they began upon a controversie of Religion and that the Poenal Laws were made against those persons who pleaded Religion 2. That the Reasons and Occasions of the Poenal Laws since the Reformation were at least as great as those 1. That the antient Poenal Laws were made upon a Controversie of Religion And to give a clear account of the Rise and occasion of them I must begin from the Norman Conquest for then those Foundations were laid of all the following controversies which happened between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power On the behalf of the Ecclesiastical Power was the plea of Conscience and Religion on the behalf of the Civil Power nothing but the just Rights of Princes and the necessary preservation of their own and the publick safety And this Controversie between the Two Powers was managed with so much zeal and such pretences of Conscience on the behalf of the Ecclesiastical Power that the Civil Power notwithstanding the courage of some Princes and the resolution of Parliaments had much ado to stand its ground or to be able to preserve it self from the encroachments and Usurpations of the other So that to see Princes give any Countenance to the same pretences would be almost as strange as to see them turn Common-wealths-men I know there were good Laws frequently made to strengthen the Civil Power but the very frequency of them shewed how ineffectual they were For what need many Laws to the same purpose if the first had any force at all and the multiplication of Laws for the same thing is a certain sign of defect in the Government To undeceive therefore all those who judge of the State of Affairs by the Book of Statutes I shall deduce the History of this great Controversie between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power in England so far as to shew the necessity there was found of putting an issue to it by casting out the Popes pretended Power and Iurisdiction in this Nation The two first who began this Dispute were both men of great Spirits and resolute in their undertakings I mean william the Conqueror and Gregory the seventh who was the first Pope that durst speak out and he very freely declares his mind about the subjection of the Civil Power to the Ecclesiastical and the exemption of all Ecclesiastical Persons and Things from the Civil Power In his Epistle to Herimanus Bishop of Metz about the excommunication of Henry the fourth and absolving his Subjects from their Allegiance he thus expresses himself Shall not that power which was first found out by men who knew not God be subject to that which God himself hath appointed for his own honor in the World and the head of which is the Son of God Who knows not that Kings and Dukes had their beginnings from men who gained their Authority over their equals by blind ambition and intolerable presumption by rapines and murders by perfidiousness and all manner of wickedness Is not this a very pretty account of the Original of Civil Power by the Head of the Church But this is not all for he adds While Princes make Gods Priests to be subject to them to whom may we better compare them than to him who is the Head over all the Sons of Pride who tempted the Son of God with promising him all the Kingdoms of the World if he would fall down and worship him This is better and better it seems it is as bad as the sin of Lucifer for Princes not to be subject to the Pope and it is like the Devils tempting Christ to offer to make Priests subject to the Civil Power Who doubts saith he that Christs Priests are to be accounted the Fathers and Masters of Kings aud Princes and all the faithful Now saith he is it not a lamentable madness if the Son should offer to make the Father subject to him but one of his Successors did not think so that set up Henry the fifth against his own Father or the Scholar his Master or to think to bind him on earth by whom he expects to be loosed in Heaven These were the Demonstrations of that Age and the main supports of the Cause and in his Epistle to William King of England he tells him that God had appointed two kinds of Government for mankind the Apostolical and Regal that is much that the same Government should come only from the sins of men and yet be from the appointment of God but we are to consider he writ this to a King whom he hoped to perswade and therefore would not tell him the worst of his thoughts about the beginnings of Civil Power but saith he these two powers like the Sun and Moon have that inequality by the Christian Religion that the Royal Power next under God is to be under the care and management of the Apostolical And since the Apostolical See is to give an account to God of the miscarriages of Princes his wisdom ought to consider whether he ought not without farther delay take an Oath of Fealty to him For no less than that would content him but William was not so meek a Prince to be easily brought to this as Robert of Sicily Richard of Capua Bertram of Provence Rodulphus and several others were whose Oaths of Fealty to him are extant in the Collection or Register of his Epistles But William gives him a resolute answer which is extant among the Epistles of Lanfranc that for the Oath of Fealty he had not done it neither would he because he never promised it neither did he find that ever his predecessors had done it to Gregories predecessors The Pope storms at this and writes a chiding Letter to Lanfranc Arch-bishop of Canterbury who like a better subject to the Pope than to the King writes an humble excuse for himself to the Pope and tells him he had done his endeavour to perswade the King but could not prevail with him And Cardinal Baronius saith the Pope took it very ill at his hands considering the kindness he had received from the Papal See For Alexander the second favoured his cause against Harold and sent him a consecrated Banner and if we may believe Henricus de Silgrave the Pope gave him his title
to the Crown of England on condition that he should hold it in Fee from the Papal See but I find no such thing mentioned by Ingulphus or Gulielmus Pictaviensis who understood the Conquerors affairs as well as any being about him at that time neither would Gregory the seventh have omitted it but however Bertholdus Constantiensis or rather Bernaldus an Author of that time and the Popes Poenitentiary affirms confidently that William King of England made this whole Nation tributary to the Pope which there is no pretence for but only that he after some demurr caused the antient Eleemâ—synarie Peter-pence to be sent to Rome So careful had Princes need to be of the continuance of Gifts to Rome which in time are looked on as a Tribute and that Tribute an acknowledgement of Fealty and that Fealty proves a Subjection in Temporals But this was not the only dispute between these two Conquerors for Gregory the seventh at the same time that he sent Hubert his Legat to England about the Oath of Fealâ—y he sent Hugo to keep a Council in France against the investitures of Bishops by Lay-hands and afterwards in a Council at Rome solemnly condemned them and threatned deposition to all that received them and the vengeance of God upon those that gave them The bottom of which lay not in the pretence of Simony but because it was too great a token of their subjection to the Civil Power and Gregory the seventh was as Bertholdus saith a most zealous defender of Ecclesiastical Liberty i. e. the total exemption of Ecclesiastical persons from subjection to the Civil Power and Eadmerus saith that the Bishops made their homage to the King before they received investiture by the Staff and the Ring But notwithstanding all these Decrees and Threatnings William the Conquerour as that Author tells us would never part with the Rights of the Crown in this matter and he declares that he would not only keep the antient Saxon custom of investiture as Ingulphus and other Authors shew it to have been but all the antient customs of his Predecessors in Normandy relating to Ecclesiastical affairs So that all Ecclesiastical as well as Civil things saith Eadmerus were under his command These customs were 1. That none should be acknowledged Pope but whom the King pleased 2. That no Bulls should be received but such as were approved by the King 3. That nothing should be decreed in Provincial Councils but by his Approbation 4. That no Persons about the King should be excommunicated without his knowledge but besides Pope Gregory charged him with two more enormities viz. 5. Hindering all appeals to Rome of Bishops and Arch-bishops which was such a thing he saith that a Heathen would not have done it 6. Seizing upon the person of his Brother Odo being a Bishop and imprisoning him which he said was plainly against Scripture Qui vos tangit tangit pupillam oculi mei Nolite tangere Christos meos which no doubt were understood of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Patriarchal and Iewish Church But I do not find that King William did at all recede from the Rights of his Crown although the Pope according to his skill quoted Scripture against them and although the Bishop of Baieux was clapt up on the account of Treason as our Historians agree yet in Pope Gregories opinion he suffered for Religion and the preservation of Divine Laws and such men as Mr. Cressy might have compared such Laws with those of Nero and Domitian but I think they durst not have done it in the Conquerours time who at the Council of Illebon in Normandy declared his resolution to maintain the customs of his Predecessors relating to Ecclesiastical affairs § 5. After the death of Gregory the seventh there was no Pope acknowledged in England for eleven years because of the Schism between Urban and Clement and our King had declared for neither of them And william Rufus told Anselm who would fain have gone to Urban the second for his Pall that he had not yet acknowledged him for Pope and therefore he should not go And saith he if you own him without my Authority you break your faith to me and displease me as much as if you did endeavour to take away my Crown Anselm however stands upon it that himself had owned him for Pope and would do so whatever came of it and would not depart from his obedience for an hour A Parliament being called at Rockingham upon this occasion the Nobility and Bishops all advised him to submit to the King Anselm notwithstanding cryes Tues Petrus super hanc Petram c. Qui vos tangit tangit pupillam oculi as Gregory the seventh had done before him and to as much purpose but no such things saith he are said of Kings or Princes or Dukes or Earles and therefore he resolved to adhere to the Pope The King being acquainted with his answer sends some of the Nobles and Bishops to him to let him know that the whole Kingdom was against him and that hereby he endeavoured to take away one of the Flowers of his Crown from him by depriving him of one of the antient Rights of it and withal that he acted contrary to his Oath to the King Anselm if we may believe Eadmerus who lived in his time and was his constant companion stood upon his priviledge that an Archbishop of Canterbury could be judged by none but the Pope and so by that means was wholly exempt from the Royal Power and he bore all the affronts he met with patiently out of his firm devotion to the Papal See The Bishop of Durham whose advice the King asked in this matter told him that Anselm had the Word of God and Authority of S. Peter of his side The King said he would never endure one equal to himself in his Kingdom and therefore took off his protection from him and commands the Nobility and Bishops to disown him and banishes his Counsellors and gives him time for a final answer The mean while the King tryes by several arts to gain him viz. by sending to Urban secretly for the Pall and acknowledging him to be Pope and at last they brought it to this issue that he should receive the Pall at the Kings hands which he utterly refused to do and would take it no otherwise but off from the Altar of Canterbury After this he desires leave to go to the Pope the King denyes it he persists in his intreaty the King absolutely denyes it he resolves to go however because saith he it is better to obey God than men As though God had commanded him to disobey the King in this matter When the Bishops had disswaded him from it and told him they would keep their fidelity to the King Go saith he then to your Lord and I will hold to my God Did he mean the same
would resume his too and it is evident he did so for Matth. Paris and Westminster say expresly that the King invested the next Archbishop of Canterbury with a staff and a ring after the ancient custom which was after the Lateran Council wherein the Pope again revoked the Emperours priviledge about investitures which he saith is contrary to the Holy Ghost and the Canonical Institution But where was the Holy Ghost then when he granted this priviledge After this the Pope complains of the King for retaining the other ancient Rights of hindering Appeals to Rome and not receiving Legats but at last Pope Calixtus yielded to the King the enjoyment of the Customs which his Father had in England and Normandy Was not this Pope very kind to the King who so patiently yielded to those customs which his Predecessors had condemned as contrary to Religion and making Christs death to no purpose The same Callisâ—us 2. in the Council of Lateran A. D. MCXXII put an end to the Controversie of investitures in the Roman Empire yielding to the Emperour the right of Investitures so it were performed without Simony and by a Scepter and not by a staff and a Ring because forsooth if it had been done by a ring it made it a kind of marriage and so made a spiritual Adultery between the Bishop and his Church as the former Popes very learnedly proved in their Epistles against Investitures § 7. This Controversie being at an end the Popes bethought themselves of a more subtle way of effecting their design which was by engaging the Bishops by oaths of Fidelity and obedience to themselves as well as taking away their homages and Fealty to Princes that so with less noise and more security they might compass the design of Ecclesiastical Liberty or rather slavery to the Pope Gregory 7. Urban 2. and Paschal 2. did all forbid Clargy-men to give any homage to Princes as Petrus de Marca proves from the Authentick acts of their several Councils instead of which they required an Oath of Fealty to themselves For it was not a bare oath of Canonical obedience which the Popes required but as much an oath of Fealty and Allegiance as ever Princes require from their other Subjects which will be made appear by comparing the oaths together The most ancient form of Allegiance I meet with is that prescribed in the Capitular of Charles the Great which is contained in very few words Promitto ego partibus Domini mei Caroli Regis filiorum ejus quia fidelis sum ero diebus vitae meae sine fraude vel malo ingenio as it is in the old Edition of the Constitutions but in the latter out of Sirmondus his Copy it is somewhat larger Promitto ego quod ab isto die in antea fidelis sum Domino Carolo piissimo Imperatori pura mente absque fraude malo ingenio de meâ parte ad suam partem ad honorem regni sui sicut per drictam debet esse homo Domino suo The ancient Form used in this Nation ran thus Tu jurabis quod ab ista die in antea eris fidelis legalis Domino nostro Regi suis haeredibus fidelitatem legalitatem ei portabis de vitâ de membro de terreno honore quod tu eorum malum aut damnum nec noveris nec audiveris quod non defendes pro posse tuo ita te Deus adjuvet Now let us compare these with the Oath made to the Pope I shall take that form which is published out of the Vatican MS. by Odoricus Raynaldus which was taken by Edmund Archbishop of Canterbury Ego Edmundus c. ab hac hora in antea fidelis obediens ero S. Petro S. R. E. D. Papae Gregerio suisque successoribus canonicè intrantibus Nonero in facto neque in consilio aut consensio ut vitam perdant aut membrum aut capiantur malâ captione Consilium vero quod mihi credituri sunt per se aut per nuntios suos sive per liter as ad corum damnum mesciente nemini pandam Papatum Romanum Regalia Sancti Petri aajutor eis ero ad retinendum defendendum salvo meo ordine contra omnem hominem c. This is enough to shew that if the other were properly Oaths of Allegiance to Princes this is so to the Pope and thereby they are bound to the very same obedience to the Pope as their Soveraign as anymen are to their own Princes For here is no exception at all of the Rights of Princes and the duty they owe to them not the least notice being taken of them as though they did owe them any allegiance which we plainly see was never intended should be paid by those who first imposed this Oath That Learned Gentleman Sir Roger Twisden supposes this oath to have been framed by Paschal 2. and it is certain that Rodulphus being made Archbishop of Canterbury in his time is the first we read among us that took an oath of Fidelity to the Pope with that of Canonical obedience after whose time we frequently meet with it but not before but in truth it is the very same oath only applying it to Church-men which Richard of Capua took by way of Fealty to Gregory 7. as may appear to any one that compares them together where there are the same expressions word for word by which we may see the strictest allegiance to the Pope is understood by it without the least reservation of any other Princes Rights And considering the doctrine and design of the first imposers of it it cannot be questioned but their intention was hereby to exempt the takers of it from all Allegiance to any other than the Pope But lest this design should be too easily suspected at first it went only along with the Pall to Archbishops then it came to Bishops shops and at last as the Gloss upon the Canon Law tells us to all that receive any dignity consecration or confirmation from the Pope and now the oath in the Pontifical is much larger than it was and by it the takers are bound to observe and defend the Papal reservations Provisions and mandates and to persecute to the utmost of their Power all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to the Pope Much kindness then is to be expected from all who are sworn to persecution and much allegiance to Princes from those who own the Pope to be their Soveraign in as express terms as any Subjects can do their Princes and so Cassander takes notice that several passages in this Oath relate to meer civil obedience which we owe to Princes and not to the Pope and for what relates to the Papacy if by it be understood the Papal Tyranny as no doubt it is be utterly condemns it as an unlawful oath and I extreamly wonder at those who make
was in defence of these Which I shall the rather do since I find his Life very lately published in French with a high character of him and dedicated to the King of France but especially because I find that those among us of that Religion who disown Gregory the sevenths principles are willing to believe him a Martyr upon other grounds viz. that his quarrel with the King was upon the account of the antient Municipal Laws of England which had a respect to the immunities of Clergie-men I shall therefore prove 1. That the matters in Dispute between the King and Becket were the very same that Gregory the seventh and his successors contended about with Christian Princes 2. That the pleas made use of by Becket and his party were no other than those which Gregory the seventh and his successors used so that they had no relation at all to the Municipal Laws but to the controversie then on Foot between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power In both which I hope to make some passages clearer than they have yet been having had the advantage of perusing several MSS. relating to this matter and especially that Volume of Epistles which Baronius accounts an unvaluable Treasure and as far as I can perceive the Cotton MS. is more compleat than the Vatican which Baronius made use of 1. For the matters in Dispute between them The whole controversie might be reduced to two heads 1. Whether Ecclesiastical Persons were unaccountable to the Civil Power for any misdemeanours committed by them 2. Whether the Pope had the Soveraign Power over Princes and all under them so that he might contradict the Kings Laws and Customs and command his Subjects against his consent to come to him and whether the Kings Subjects in such cases were not bound to obey the Pope let the King command what he please These in truth were the points in debate and the most weighty particulars in the Customs of Clarendon were but as so many branches of these In that Copy of them which is extant in the Cotton MS. and was drawn up by the Kings own Order the occasion of them is set down to have been the differences which had happened between the Clergie and the Kings Iustices and the Barons of the Kingdom about the Customs and Dignities of the Crown the most considerable of those which the Pope condemned were concerning 1. The Tryal of Titles of Advowsons and Presentations in the Kings Courts 2. The Tryal of Clergie-men before the Kings Iudges and the Churches not defending them after conviction or confession 3. That neither Archbishops Bishops or others should go out of the Kingdom without the Kings consent and giving security to the King that in going staying or returning they will do nothing to the prejudice either of the King or Kingdom 4. The profits of Ecclesiastical Courts upon absolutions for they demanded not barely personal security of all excommunicated persons to stand to the Churches judgements but Vadium ad remanens as the Law term was then which implyes real security or so much money laid down which was to come to the Court if they did not perform the conditions expressed For it was one of the things the Kings Ambassadour complained of to his Mother the Empress that the matters in controversie were not things of advantage to mens souls but to their own purses and that the Faults of Offenders were not punished in the Ecclesiastical Courts by the injoyning of Penance but by the giving of money And the Empress her self in her discourse with Nicholas de Monte the Archbishops Friend insisted on these pecuniary mulcts for sins as one of the great occasions of the troubles which made people suspect this pretence of Ecclesiastical Liberty to be only a cloak for their own profits But however the good Pope whether he understood this Vadium ad remanens or no at all adventures condemned it For what should the Court of Rome do without exchanging Money for Sins 5. That no Person who held of the King in capite or belonged to him should be excommunicated or have his Land interdicted without making the King acquainted with it or his Iustice in his absence 6. That in matters of Appeal they were to proceed from the Arch-deacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Arch-bishop and from thence to the King and not to proceed further without his express leave These were the main things in dispute and what do they all amount to but the very same Rights of the Crown which the Kings predecessors did insist upon and what could be the sense of Becket in opposing them but that Clergie-men were not accountable for their Faults to the Civil Power and in case of the Popes command whether upon appeal or otherwise Bishops and others were to go to his Court in spight of the King as Anselm and Theobald had done before It is agreed by Baronius himself that the quarrel brake out upon the Arch-bishops denying to deliver up the Clergie-man that was accused and convicted of Murder after Ecclesiastical Censure to the Secular Power which the King earnestly desired and Becket as peremptorily denyed And upon what principle could this be done but the highest pretence of Ecclesiastical Liberty that ever Gregory the seventh or any other asserted And it is plain by this that the King did not deny the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction nor hindered the proper Censures of the Church upon offenders but the Question was meerly this Whether Ecclesiastical persons having committed crimes against the publick peace were only to be punished with Ecclesiastical Censures and never to be delivered over to Civil Iustice Which was the main hinge of the Cause and which Becket stood to to the last And that this was the true State of the Controversie appears by the representation made of it to Alexander the third by the whole Clergie of the Province of Canterbury who confess that the peace of the Kingdom was very much disturbed by the insolence and crimes of some of the Clergie for upon the account of this exemption any Villains were safe if they could but get into any kind of Orders the King for the safety of his people pressed the Bishops after their Censures to give such guilty persons up to the Laws because bare degrading was by no means sufficient punishment for wilful murder which was all the Church censures reached to This all the Bishops at first opposed as derogatory to the Churches Liberty but afterwards Becket excepted the rest saw a necessity of yielding at present for as they confess themselves this liberty was extended even to a Lector or Acolythus and the Empress Matildis said that the Bishops gave orders very loosely without titles by which we may easily imagine what a miserable state the whole Kingdom might be in if these things were suffered So that we see the plea insisted upon at the beginning of the quarrell was that no persons in any Ecclesiastical
Orders upon any crime whatsoever were to be delivered over to be punished by the Secular Power And what could such a pretence arise from but only from Gregory the sevenths principles of Government viz. that the Civil Power had nothing at all to do with Ecclesiastical Persons and that all the Subjection and Obedience they owed was only to the Pope as their Soveraign and that this was the Liberty which Christ purchased for his Church with his own blood as Paschal the second answered the Emperours Ambassadors and as Becket very frequently expresses it in his Epistles A blessed Liberty and worthy the purchase of the Blood of Christ viz. a Liberty to sin without fear of punishment or at least any punishment which such persons would be afraid of for the utmost Becket could be perswaded to in the case of the Canon of Bedford convicted of murder was only to confine him to a Monastery for a time which was a very easie expiation of Murder So that the Benefit of Clergie was a mighty thing in those dayes But it is impossible to give any tolerable account of Beckets actions unless we suppose this to have been his Ground and Principle that God had exempted by his Law all Clergy-men by vertue of being such from any subjection to Civil Power For if they owe any subjection they are accountable for their breaches of the Laws to that power to which they are subject if they are not accountable for any crimes they must be supposed to be wholly independent on the Civil Government § 11. Neither is there any ground for such an exemption by the ancient Municipal Laws of England either in the Saxon or Norman times and I cannot but wonder to see the Laws of Princes concerning Ecclesiastical Persons brought to prove their total exemption from the power of Princes which was that Ecclesiastical liberty which Becket did plead for For according to his principles neither Alured nor Edward nor Canutus nor any other Prince had any thing to do to appoint the punishments of Ecclesiastical Persons but their judgement was to be wholly left to their own Superiours And supposing there had been such Laws among the Saxons Becket would not have valued them at all but rather have thought them a prejudice to his Cause and an encouragement to Hen. 2. to have repealed those and made others in their place For why should not the Power of this King be as good as the Saxons to make and alter Ecclesiastical Laws as they saw convenient but Becket understood his business better than so He would not upon any terms be brought to the tryal whether they were ancient Customes or no which the King contended for the King offered it very frequently and by any fair ways of tryal and declared he would renounce them if they did not appear to be so he appealed often to the judgement of the Church of England about it and would stand and fall by it and none of these things would be accepted of by which it is evident that either there were no Laws could justifie Becket or he thought the producing them would be hurtful to his cause for not one of all the Customs he excepted against was in his opinion so bad as for Princes to take upon themselves to determine Ecclesiastical causes and to appoint the punishments of Ecclesiastical Persons For then he knew the King need not to stand upon the proof of his other Customes this one Right of the Crown would put an end to the whole dispute For if Henry 2. had the same Power that Edgar had when he said that the tryal of the manners of Ecclesiastical Persons belonged to him and therefore gave Authority to Dunstan and the rest to expell criminal Clergy-men out of Churches and Monasteries why might not he punisht Ecclesiastical persons And then to what purpose had Becket contended with the King if he had allowed him as much power as the Saxon Kings did make use of And what if the Saxon Laws did appoint the Bishops to examin Clergy-men and pass sentence upon them in criminal causes was not the punishment already established by the Kings Laws and the Bishop only the Minister of the Kings Iustice upon Ecclesiastical Delinquents And even in the Laws of Edward the Confessour in case of default in Ecclesiastical Courts a liberty is allowed of going to other Courts and in the Laws of the elder Edward any one in Orders is appointed to make compensation according to the nature of his crime and without sureties he was to go into prison but in case of a capital offence he was to be taken that he might undergo penance from the Bishop for his fault Where by capital offence we are not to understand such as were punished with death but the Poenitential Canons of Egbert tell us by capital crimes were understood Pride Envy Fornication Adultery Perjury c. But the Laws of Canutus appoint degradation for murder by a Clergy-man and compensation and banishment withal which were Civil punishments after degradation the very thing which Becket denyed and in case this compensation were not undertaken within thirteen days then the Person was to be out-Law'd which to be sure was a civil punishment By the Laws of King Alured if a Priest killed a man he was to lose his priviledges and the Bishop was to expel him out of the Temple being already degraded unless due compensation were made i. e. if he did not undergo the Civil punishment For then the greatest crimes excepting murder of a Prince or Lord by his Subject or Vassal or killing any in a Sacred place or Treason might be expiated by pecuniary Mulcts and Ecclesiastical Penance according to the Poenitential Canons For it appears by the old Poenitential Canons of Theodore and Egbert that murder had so many years penance appointed for its expiation which had been a vain thing if it had been punished with death now in this case it was but reasonable that the guilty Person should be delivered to the Bishop to receive his Penance whether he were a Clergy-man or Lay-man And the Laws of Princes did inforce them to submit to Ecclesiastical Penance So King Alured commands in case of perjury that the Person be taken into the Kings custody for forty dayes that he might undergo the Penance which the Bishop shall impose upon him and if he escaped he was not only to be anathematized but put out of all protection of the Law and by the Laws of King Edmund any Person guilty of Murder was not to come into the Kings presence till he had undergone the Penance enjoyned him by the Bishop And from hence I suppose it was that in the Saxon Times the Bishop and the Sheriff sate together in the same Court as appears by the Laws of Edgar and Canutus not barely to instruct the people in the Laws of God and man but as the Sheriff was to appoint
omnem Angliam a laico duodenni vel quindecim annorum contra Dom. Papam Alexandrum B. Thomam Archiepiscopum quod eorum non recipient literas neque obedient mandatis Et si quis inveâ—tus foret literas eorum deferens traderetur Potestatibus tanquam Coronae Regis capitalis inimicus Here we see an Oath of Supremacy made so long ago by Henry the second and those who out of zeal or whatsoever motive brought over Bulls of the Popes made lyable to the charge of Treason but the Archbishop by vertue of his Legatine Power took upon him to send persons privately into England and to absolve them from this Oath as is there expressed The same year the King being in Normandy sent over these Articles to be sworn and observed by the Nobles and People of England 1. If any one be found carrying Letters from the Pope or any Mandate from the Archbishop of Canterbury containing an Interdict of Religion in England let him be taken and without delay let justice pass upon him as upon a Traytor to the King and Kingdom 2. No Clergie-man or Monk or Lay-Brother may be suffered to cross the Seas or return into England unless he have a Pass from the Kings Iustice for his going out and of the King himself for his return if any one be found doing otherwise let him be taken and imprisoned 3. No man may appeal either to the Pope or Arch-bishop and no plea shall be held of the Mandates of the Pope or Archbishop nor any of them be received by any person in England if any one be taken doing otherwise let him be imprisoned 4. No man ought to carry any Mandat either of Clergie-man or Laick to either of them on the same penalty 5. If any Bishops Clergie-men Abbots or Laicks will observe the Popes interdict let them be forthwith banished the Realm and all their Kindred and let them carry no Chattels along with them 6. That all the Goods and Chattels of those who favour the Pope or Archbishop and all their possessions of whatsoever rank order sex or condition they be be seized into the Kings hand and confiscated 7. That all Clergie-men having revenews in England be summoned through every County that they return to their places within three months or their revenues to be seized into the Kings hands 8. That Peter-pence be no longer paid to the Pope but let them be gathered and kept in the Kings Treasury and laid out according to his command 9. That the Bishops of London and Norwich be in the Kings Mercy and be summoned by Sheriffs and Bailiffs to appear before the Kings Iustices to answer for their breach of the Statutes of Clarendon in interdicting the Land and excommunicating the person of Earl Hugh by vertue of the Popes Mandat and publishing this excommunication without Licence from the Kings Iustices I hope these particulars will give full satisfaction that the Controversie between King Henry the second and Becket was not about some antient Saxon Laws but the very same principles which Gregory the seventh first openly defended of the Popes temporal Power over Princes and the total exemption of Ecclesiastical Persons from Civil Iudicatures § 14. 2. This will yet more appear if we consider that the Pleas used by Becket and his party were the very same which were used by Gregory the seventh and his Successors The beginning of the quarrel we have seen was about the total exemption of Men in any kind of Ecclesiastical Orders from civil punishments which was the known and avowed principle of Gregory the seventh and his successors and it seems by Fitz Stephen that several of the Bishops were for yielding them up to the Secular Power after deprivation and said that both Law and Reason and Scripture were for it but Becket stood to it that it was against God and the Canons and by this means the Churches Liberty would be destroyed for which in imitation of their High-Priest they were bound to lay down their lives and bravely adds that it was not greater merit of old for the Bishops to found the Church of Christ with their blood than in their times to lay down their lives for this blessed liberty of the Church and if an Angel from Heaven should perswade him to comply with the King in this matter he should be accursed By which we see what apprehension Becket had of the nature of his cause from the beginning of it for this was before the King insisted on the reviving the Antient Customs at Clarendon Where it seems Beckets heart failed him which the Monks and Baronius parallel with S. Peters denying Christ but it seems the Cock that brought him to Repentance was his Cross-bearer who told him that the Civil Authority disturbed all that wickedness raged against Christ himself that the Synagogue of Satan had profaned the Lords Sanctuary that the Princes had sat and combined together against the Lords Christ that this tempest had shaken the pillars of the Church and while the Shepherd withdrew the sheep were under the power of the Wolf A very loyal representation of the King and all that adhered to his Rights After this he spoke plainly to him and told him he had lost both his conscience and his honour in conspiring with the Devils instruments in swearing to those cursed customs which tended to the overthrow of the Churches Liberty At which he sighed deeply and immediately suspends himself from all Offices of his Function till he should be absolved by the Pope which was soon granted him The Pope writes to the King very sharply for offering to usurp the things of Iesus Christ and to oppress the poor of Christ by his Laws and Customs and threatens him to be judged in the same manner at the day of judgement and tells him of Saul and Ozias and Rehoboam and parallels his sin with theirs and bids him have a care of their punishments And was all this zeal of the Pope only for the good old Saxon Laws When the Bishop of Exeter begged the Archbishop at Northampton to have regard to his own safety and theirs too he told him he did not savour the things of God he had spoken much more pertinently according to P. W. if he had told him he did not understand the Saxon Laws When the Earl of Leicester came to him to tell him he must come and hear his sentence he told him that as much as his soul was better than his body so much more was he bound to obey God and Him than an earthly King and for his part he declared he would not submit to the Kings judgement or theirs in as much as he was their Father and that he was only under God to be judged by the Pope and so appealed to him Which being an appeal to the Pope in a Civil cause about accounts between the King and him it does plainly shew that he did not think the King had any Authority over
Archbishop as he very punctually tells the Pope how he saluted him at first bare-headed and ran into his embraces how he bare his rebukes patiently and held his Stirrup at his getting upon his Horse if he had but trampled on the Kings Neck too he had been equal to the Pope himself and it might have raised some jealouâ—ie between them But for all this reconciliation Becket supposing himself the Conquerour resolved not to abate one jot of his rigour against those who had sworn to the ancient Customs and therefore procures power from the Pope to excommunicate the Bishops that had done it and to return to their excommunication those already absolved and to absolve none without taking an oath to stand to the Popes command This the Kings Officers upon his return into England told him was against the Customs of the Realm but they promised they should take an oath to obey the Law salvo honore Regni Becket at first said it was not in his Power to rescind the Popes sentence which he knew to be false for the Pope had given him power to do it and he immediately adds that he could absolve the Bishops of London and Salisbury if they took the common oath which was in the Cotton M S. se juri parituros but it is interlined se vestro mandato parituros as the Vatican Copy in Baronius hath it But the Archbishop of York told the other Bishops that the taking such an oath without the Kings consent was against the Kings Honour and the Customs of the Realm And it is observeable that the same time he was so zealous for the Bishops taking this oath to the Pope he peremptorily refused suffering those of his retinue though required to do it by the Kings Officers to take an oath of Allegiance to the King to stand by him against all persons nec vos excipientes nec alium saith he to the Pope neither excepting you nor any other as the Cotton M S. hath it very plainly but Baronius hath Printed it Nos whether agreeably to the Vatican M S. I know not but I am sure not to Beckets sense for he gives this reason of his refusing it lest by that example the Clergy of the Kingdom should be drawn to such an oath which would be much to the prejudice of the Apostolical See for by this means the Popes Authority would be discarded or very much abated in England Judge now Reader whether Becket did not remain firm to the Gregorian principles to the last and whether the immediate motive of his death did not arise from them for upon the oath required of the Bishops they with the Archbishop of York went over to the King in Normandy upon the hearing of which complaint the King spake those hasty words from whence those four Persons took the occasion to go over to Canterbury and there after expostulations about this matter they did most inhumanely Butcher him as he was going to Vespers in the Church upon which Ioh. Sarisburiensis who was his Secretary and present at his murder saith that he dyed an Assertor of the Churches Liberty and for defending the Law of God against the abuses of ancient Tyrants But what need we mention his judgement when the Pope in his Bull of Canonization and the Roman Church in his Office do say that he dyed for the Cause of Christ And what can be more plain from hence than that to this day all those who acknowledge him to be a Saint and a Martâ—r cannot with any consistency to themselves reject those principles for which he suffered any more than they can reasonably be supposed to reject the Republican principles who cry up the Regicides for Saints and Martyrs But this is a subject lately undertaken by another hand and therefore I forbear any farther prosecution of it § 16. After Beckets death the Royal Power lost ground considerably for to avoid the interdict and excommunication threatned the Kingdom the King by his Ambassadours and the Bishops by their messengers did swear in the Court of Rome that they would stand to the Popes judgement for among the terms of the Kings reconciliation by the Popes Legats this was one of the chief that he should utterly disclaim the wicked Statutes of Clarendon and all the evil customs which in his dayes were brought into the Church and if there were any evil before they should be moderated according to the Popes command and by the advice of Religious Persons Thus after so many years contest were the Rights of the Crown and the Customs of his predecessours given up by this great Prince so true was that saying of Becket that their Church had thriven by opposition to Princes And if Petrus Blesensis may be believed this King stooped so low upon the Rebellion of his Son as to acknowledge his Kingdom to be Feudatary to the Pope The Authority of which Epistle is made use of not only by Baronius but by Bellarmin and others to prove that the King of England is Feudatary to the Pope or that he holds his Crown of him upon paying certain acknowledgments which it is hardly possible to conceive a Prince that understood and valued his own Rights so well as Henry the second did should ever be brought so low to confess without the least ground for it For when it was challenged by Gregory the seventh it was utterly denyed by William the Conquerour and never that we find so much as challenged afterwards of any lawful Prince by way of Fee before his time but only in regard of the Popes temporal Power over all Princes Although a late French Monk who published Lanfranc's Epistles wonders it should be denyed because of the Tribute anciently paid to Rome viz. of the Peter-pence which were not so called because paid to S. Peters pretended Successours but because payable on S. Peters day as appears by the Law of Canutus to that Purpose and were only Eleemosynary for the sustenance of poor Scholars at Rome as the late publisher of Petrus Blesensis confesses who withal adds that Henry the second denyed their payment but was perswaded to it again by Petrus Blesensis and him he acknowledges to have been the Writer of the foregoing Epistle And we must consider that he was alwayes a secret Friend of Becket and his Cause in the whole quarrel and being imployed by the King in his straits to write to the Pope to excommunicate his Son he knowing very well the prevalent arguments in the Court of Rome might strain a complement in the behalf of his Master to the Pope for which he had little cause to thank him although it may be Petrus Blesensis expressed his own mind whether it were the Kings or no. And we have no ground that I can find to imagin this to have been the Kings mind in the least for upon his submission a Clause was inseâ—ted that he was no longer to own the Pope
than the Pope treated him as a Christian and Catholick King and as the Popes predecessours had done â—is And after the writing of that Letter and the reconciliation with his Son Radulphus de Diceto Dean of S. Pauls about that time hath an Authentick Epistle of Henry the second to the Pope wherein he acknowledges no more than the common observance which was usual with all Princes in that Age whereas Feudatary Princes write after another Form So that I cannot but think it to be a meer complement of Petrus Blesensis without the Kings knowledge or else a Clause inserted since his time by those who knew where to put in convenient passages for the advantage of the Roman See It is said by some that Henry the second A. D. 1176. did revive the Statutes of Clarendon which the Pope and Becket opposed so much in the Parliament called at Northampton It is true that Gervase of Canterbury doth say that the King did renew the Assise of Clarendon for whose execrable Statutes Becket suffered but he doth not say that he renewed those Statutes but others which are particularly enumerated by Hoveden upon the distributing tâ—e Kingdom into six Circuits and appointing the itinerant Judges who were made to swear that they would keep themselves and make others to observe the following Assises as the Statutes were then called but they all concerned matters of Law and Civil Iustice without any mention of the other famous Statutes about Ecclesiastical matters Whereas at the same time it is said that King Henry the second granted to the Popes Legat though against the advice of his great and Wise men that Clergy-men should not be summon'd before Secular Tribunals but only in case of the Kings Forest and of Lay-fees which is directly contrary to the Statute of Clarendon but some men love to heap things together without well considering how they agree with each other and so make the King in the same page to null and establish the same Statutes But it is observable that after all this contest about the exemption of Clergy-men and the Kings readiness to yield it they were made weary of it at last themselves for as Richard Beckets successour in the See of Canterbury saith in his Letter to the three Bishops that were then three of the Kings Iustices the killing of a Clergy-man was more remisly punished than the stealing of a Sheep and therefore the Archbishop perswades them to call in the Secular Arm against Ecclesiastical Malefactors And now in his opinion the Canons and Councils are all for it and Beckets arguments are slighted and no regard had to the Cause he suffered for when he found what mischief this impunity brought upon themselves But for this giving up their Liberties the Monks revenge themselves on the memory of this Archbishop as one that yielded up those blessed priviledges which Becket had purchased with his blood Notwithstanding the sufferings the King had undergone by his opposing the Ecclesiastical encroachments we may see what apprehension after all he had of the declension of his own power and the miserable condition the Church was in by those priviledges they had obtained by that notable discourse which Gervase of Canterbury relates the King had with the Bishops in the time of Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury wherein with tears he tells them that he was a miserable man and no King or if a King he haâ— only the name and not the power of a King that the Kingdom of England was once a rich and glorious Kingdom but now a very small share of it was left to his Government And then gives a sad account of the strange degeneracy both of the Monks and Clergy and what saith he in the day of judgement shall we say to these things Besides Those of Rome see our Weakness and domineer over us they sell their Letters to us they do not seek justice but contentions they multiply appeals and draw suits to Rome and when they look only after Money they confound Truth and overthrow peace What shall we say to these things how shall we answer them at Gods dreadful Iudgement Go and advise together about some effectual course to prevent these enormities Was this spoken like a Feudatary of the Popes and not rather like a wiâ—e and pious Prince who not only saw the miseries that came upon the Kingdom and Church by these encroachments of Ecclesiastical Power but was yet willing to do his best to redress them if the great Clergy would have concurred with him in it who were a little moved for the present with the Kings Tears and pathetical speech but the impression did soon wear off from their minds and things grew worse and worse by the daily increase of the Papal Tyranny And when this great Prince was very near his end some of the Monks of Canterbury were sent over to him who had been extreamly â—roublesome to himself and the Kingdom as well as to the Archbishop by their continual Appeals to the Court of Rome and they told the King the Convent of Canterbury saluted him as their Lord I have been said the King and am and will be Your Lord Ye wicked Traytors Upon which one of the Monks very loyally cursed him and he dyed saith Gervase within seven dayes § 17. Having thus far shewed that the Controversie between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power was accounted a Cause of Religion by the managers of the Ecclesiastical Power and that so far that the great Defender of it is to this day accounted a Saint and a Martyr for suffering in it I now come to shew that the ancient panal Laws were made against that very Cause which Becket suffered for After the death of Henry the second Beckets Cause triumphed much more than it had done before for in the time of Richard the first the great affairs of the Nation were managed by the Popes Legats during the Kings absence and after his return scarce any opposition was made to the Popes Bulls which came over very frequently unless it were against one about the Canons of Lambeth wherein the King and Archbishop were forced to submit no hindrance made to Appeals and even in Normandy the Ecclesiastical Power got the better after long contests In the latter end of Richard the first the Pope began to take upon him the disposal of the best Ecclesiastical preferments in England either by translation or Provision or Collation which Fitz Stephen saith that Henry 2. told those about him after the four Courtiâ—rs were gone for England to murder Becket was the design Becket intended to carry on viz. to take away all Right of Patronage from the King and all Lay-Persons and so bring the gift of all Church-preferments to the Pope or others under him Upon the agreement of King Iohn with the Popes Legat he renounced all right of Patronage and gave it to the Pope but it is no wonder in him
another Remonstrance of the grievances of the Clergie and People of England which they sent to the Pope and Cardinals wherein they declare that it was impossible for them to bear the burdens laid upon them that the Kings necessities could not be supplyed nor the Kingdom preserved if such payments were made that the goods of all the Clergie of England would not make up the summ demanded but all the effect of this was only a promise that for the future the Kings leave should be desired which saith Matthew Paris came to as much as nothing By which we may judge of the miserable condition of this Nation under the intolerable Usurpations of the Court of Rome § 18. After so long tryal of the Court of Rome by Embassies Remonstrances and all fair wayes and no success at all by them at last they resolved upon making severe Laws the last Reason of Parliaments and to see what effect this would have upon the Clergie for the recovering the antient Rights of the Crown For we are to consider that the Controversie still was carryed on under the same pretence of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power and it is a fooâ—ish thing to judge of the sense of the Ruling Clergie at that time by the Acts of Parliament and Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire For by this time the Pope had them in such firm dependence upon him and they were fed by such continual hopes from the Court of Rome that they were very hardly brought to consent to any restraints of the Papal Power and in the Parliament 13 Rich. 2. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York for them and the whole Clergie of their Provinces made their solemn Protestation in open Parliament that they in no wise meant or would assent to any Statute or Law made in restraint of the Popes Authority but utterly withstood the same the which their Protestations at their requests were enrolled as that Learned Antiquary Sr. Robert Cotton hath shewed out of the Records of the Tower By which we see the whole Body of the Clergie were for the most exorbitant Power of the Pope and would not consent to any Statutes made against it So that what Reformation was made in these matters was Parliamentary even in that time and I do not question but the Friends to the Papal interest made the very same objections then against those Poenal Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire that others since have done against the Laws made since the Reformation And all that were sincere for the Court of Rome did as much believe it to be meer Usurpation in the Parliament to make any Laws in these matters For was the King Head of the Church might he not as well administer Saâ—raments as make Laws in deregation of the Popes Authority and Iurisdiction What was this but to make a Parliamentary Religion to own the Popes Sovereign Power no farther than they thought fit If any thing were amiss they ought humbly to represent it to his Holiness and to wait his time for the Reforming abuses and not upon their own Heads and without so much as the consent of their Clergie to make Laws about the restraint of that Power which Christ hath set up in his Church How can this be done without judging what the Pope hath done to be amiss and who dares say that his Holiness can so much err as to aim at nothing but his own profits without any regard to the good of the Church What! are they not all members and will they dare take upon them to judge their Head What! Sons rise up against their Father and Secular men take upon them to condemn the things which Christs Vicar upon earth allows What! and after all the Sufferings and Martyrdom of S. Thomas of Canterbury that ever we should live to see a Parliament of England make Laws against that good Old Cause for which he dyed This is but to increase the number of Confessors and Martyrs as all those will be who suffer by these Laws For do they not plainly suffer for Conscience and Religion although the Parliament may call it Treason What an honour it is rather to suffer than to betray the Churches Liberty for which Christ dyed or to disobey the Head of the Church who commands those things which the Parliament forbids And must we not obey God rather than men After this manner we may reasonably suppose the Roman Clergie and their adherents at that time to have argued but it is well Mr. Cressy at least allows these Stasutes of Provisors and Praemunire and boasts of the Loyalty of those Ancestors that made them but I fear he hath not well considered the occasions and circumstances of them and what opposition the Papal Clergie made against them or else I should think he could not afterwards have declaimed so much against the injustice and cruelty of our Poenal Laws But even those antient Statutes were passed with so much difficulty and executed with so little care that they by no means proved a sufficient salve for the sore they were intended for as will appear by this true account of them § 19. In the time of Edward the first who was a Prince both wise and resolute the grievances of the Kingdom by his connivance at the Papal encroachments for a long time grew to that height that some effectual course was necessary to recover the antient Rights of the Crown which had now been so long buried that they were almost forgotten but an occasion happened which for the time throughly awaked him to a consideration of them Bonif. 8. out of a desire still to advance Ecclesiastical Liberty had made a Constitution strictly forbidding any Clergie-man paying any Taxes whatsoever to Princes without the Popes consent and both the payers and receivers were to fall under excommunication ipso facto not to be taken off without immediate Authority from the Court of Rome unless it were at the point of death Not long after this the King demands a supply in Parliament the Clergie unanimously refuse on account of the Popes Bull the King bids them advise better and return a satisfactory Answer at the time appointed Winchelsea then Archbishop of Canterbury in the name of the whole Clergie declares That they owed more obedience to the Pope than to the King he being their Spiritual and the King only a Temporal Soveraign but to give satisfaction to both they desire leave to send to the Pope At which saucy answer the King was so much provoked that he put the whole Clergie out of his Protection and seized upon their Lands for which an Act of Parliament was made to that purpose saith Thorn And although many of the Clergie submitted and bought their peace at dear rates yet Winchelsea stood it out ready saith Knighton to dye for the Church of Christ which if he had done there might have been a S. Robert as good a Martyr as S. Thomas of Canterbury For our Historians say
this Constitution of the Pope was procured by Winchelsea's means and he caused it to be pulished in all Cathedral Churches After this the King sends a prohibition to the Bishops against doing any thing to the prejudice of himself or his Ministers and another against all excommunications of those who should execute this Law and herein he declares that the doing such a thing would be a notorious injury to his Crown and Dignity a great scandal to the people the destruction of the Church and it may be the subversion of the whole Kingdom and therefore he charges them by vertue of their Allegiance that they should forbear doing it At the same time he issued out Writs for apprehending and imprisoning all such persons as should presume to excommunicate any of his Subjects on the accont of this Bull of Pope Boniface and our Learned Lawyers mention out of their Books a Person condemned for Treason in this Kings time for bringing a Bull of excommunication against one of the Kings subjects but although they do not mention the time it seems most probable to have been upon this occasion Parsons laughs at Sr. Edw. Cook for saying this was Treason by the antient Commâ—n Law before any Statutes were made but it doth sufficiently appear by the foregoing Discourse that this was looked on as one of the antient Rights of the Crown that no forreign Authority should exercise any jurisdiction here without the Kings consent Besides this King revived another of the antient Customs forbidding all Persons of the Clergie or Laâ—ty to go out of the Kingdom without his leave and so stopt the freedom of Appeals to the Pope and by the Statute of Carlisle 35 Edw. â— All Religious Houses were forbidden sending any Moneyes over to those of their Order beyond Sea although required to do it by those Superiours whom they thought themselves bound in conscience to obey And it appears by the Statute of Provisors 25 Edw. 3. that the first Statute of this kind was made in this Kings time at the Parliament at Carlisle notwithstanding that the Pope challenged the liberty of Provisions as a part of the plenitude of his Power But although this Statute were then made yet it had the fortune of many good Laws not to be executed and therefore in Edward the thirds time the Commons earnestly pressed for the revival of it 17 Edw. 3. upon which they sent for the Statute of Carlisle and then sayes the Record the Act of Provision was made by the common consent forbidding the bringing of Bulls or such trinkets from the Court of Rome and in the next Parliament it was enacted that whosoever should by process in the Court of Rome seek to reverse judgement given in the Kings Courts that he should be taken and brought to answer and upon conviction to be banished the Realm or be under perpetual imprisonment or if not found to be out-lawed But notwithstanding these Laws the Commons 21 Edw. 3. complain still that Provisions went on in despight of the King and judgements were reversed by Process in the Court of Rome and therefore they pray that judgement may be executed upon delinquents and this matter brought into a perpetual Statute as had been often desired the King grants their desire and the Commons bring in a Bill to that purpose extant in the Records but the Statute of Provisors did not pass till 25 Edw. 3. which is the common Statute in the printed Books yet soon after we find that the Commons pray for the execution of it and the Kings answer was that he would have it new read and amended then 27 Edw. 3. passed that other Statute of Praemunire against Appeals in Civil Causes to the Court of Rome which we have seen Becket made a considerable part of the Churches Liberty which Christ had purchased and practised it himself at Northampton appealing from King and his Parliament to the Pope in a meer Civil Cause of Accompts between the King and him Yet after all these Statutes 38 Edw. 3. a Re-enforcement of them was thought necessary in another Statute made that year against Citations to Rome and Provisions wherein are grievous complaints that the good antient Laws were still impeached blemished and confounded the Crown of our Lord the King abated and his person very hardly and falsly defamed the treasure and riches of the Kingdom carryed away the inhabitants and subjects of the Realm impoverished and troubled the Benefices of the Church wasted and destroyed Divine Services Hospitalities Alms deeds and other Works of Charity withdrawn and set apart the Great men Commons and Subjects of the Realm in body and goods damnified And yet Sr. R. C. saith that in the Record are more biting words a Mysterie he saith not to be known of all men In 40 Edw. 3. It was declared in Parliament by common consent that if the Pope should attempt any thing against the King by process or other matters in deed that the King with all his Subjects should with all their force and power resist the same Yet still so deep rooting had the Popes power gotten in this Nation that 47 Edw. 3. The Commons beg remedy still against the Popes provisions and complain that the Treasure of the Realm was carryed away which they cannot bear and 50 Edw. 3. A long Bill was brought in against the Popes Usurpations as being the Cause of all the Plagues injuries famine and poverty of the Realm and there they complain notwithstanding all former Laws that the Popes Collector kept his Court in London as it were one of the Kings Courts transporting yearly to the Pope twenty thousand Marks and commonly more and that Cardinals and other Aliens by reason of their preferments here have sent over yearly twenty thousand Marks and that the Pope to ransom the Kings enemies did at his pleasure levy a Subsidy of the Clergie of England and that to advance his gain he did commonly make translations of Bishopricks and other Dignities within the Realm and therefore again the Commons pray the Statutes against Provisors may be renewed which they repeated 51 Edw. 3. but all the answer they couâ—d get was that the Pope and promised redress the which if he do not the Laws therein shall stand but upon another Petition promise was made that the Statutes should be observed In 1 R. 2. the Commons are at it again upon the same complaints and it is declared to be one Cause of calling the Parliament 3 R. 2. and an Act then passed wherein as Sr. R. C. observes the Print makes no mention of the Popes abuses which the Record expresly sets down and that the Pope had broken promise with Edward the third and granted preferments in England to the Kings enemies 7 R. 2. another Statute was made against Provisions wherein the Print differs from the Record as the same Person
made by Chapters so that in two years time he put in thirteen Bishops in the Province of Canterbury in spight of all the Statutes of Provisors and made his Nephew Prosper Colonna Arch-Deacon of Canterbury at fourteen years of Age who afterwards had as many Benefices granted him in England as came to five hundred Marks Besides he granted Appropriations Dispensations c. as he pleased without regard to the English Nation These things the English Ambassadours complained of in the Council of Constance and at last the Pope came to an Agreement with them which were called the Concordates between Martin 5 and the Church of England in which no manner of regard was had to the Statutes of Provisors although so often repeated only some agreements were made between the Pope and the English Bishops about Unions of Churches the capacity of English Bishops for any Offices of the Roman Court and such like But other Ambassadours who came a little after these pressed the matter somewhat harder upon the Pope against Provisions and Aliens and the Kings Supplies out of the moneys raised for the Court of Rome the Pope giving them no favourable answer they replyed unless he did presently satisfie their demands the King would make use of his own Right because it was not necessity but respect that made them seek to him and pray that they might enter this Protestation before the Cardinals by the Kings Command At this same time the States of France renewed their Statutes against the Popes Usurpations and added that they would not acknowledge him Pope till he consented to them and the Rector of the University of Paris was proceeded against as a Traytor for appealing from the Kings Edicts to the Pope Notwithstanding all this the same Pope sends his Nuncio into England to raise moneys who was called Ioh. Opizanus but he was cast into Prison for his pains for which the Pope expostulated very sharply with the Duke of Bedford about it H. 5. being then dead Archbishop Chiâ—helâ— was in that time no friend to the Popes continual encroachments upon which as appears by the Records he was cited to Rome and the Commons make it their request to the King that he would write to the Pope on his behalf but we are told by a considerable Lawyer that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops offered the King a large supply if he would consent that all the Laws against Provisors might be repealed but it was rejected by Humphry Duke of Gloucester who had lately cast the Popes Bull into the fire This is certain that Card. Beaufort then Bishop of Winchester incurred the penalties of the Statutes of Provisors 10 H. 6. for which he was questioned in Parliament but at last had his Pardon granted by the King with the consent of all the Estates By which we see that not one of all the Papal encroachments was ever cut off by the severity of the Poenal Laws as long as the Popes Supremacy was allowed for never any thing was more vigorously attempted more frequently enacted more severely threatned than this business of Provisors yet in despight of all the Laws it continued still as long as the Pope was allowed to have a Power above Laws and that he could null abrogate or dispense with them as he pleased And thus far I have given an impartial account of the ancient poenal Laws of England The like to which have been made in France Spain Italy Flanders and other parts of Europe as might be easily proved if it were necessary but I forbear that § 21. And come to compare the ancient poenal Laws of our own Nation with the modern as to the Reasons and Occasions of them that by them we may judge whether those who allow the ancient Laws to be just can have any ground to charge the present with injustice and Cruelty which can be only on one of these two grounds 1. Either that the Occasions of the present Laws were not so great Or 2. That the old Laws did not relate to the exercise of their Religion as the latter do I shall consider both of them 1. For the occasions of the present poenal Laws Mr. Cressy confesseth them to have been Treasons not consequentially only when an act may be declared to be Treason which in it self is not so but such Treasons as all Mankind acknowledge to be such viz. depriving Soveraign Princes of their Crown and Dignity endeavouring by open Rebellions and secret conspiracies to take away their Lives if these be not Treasons theâ—e are none such in the world And that these were the Occasions of the present poenal Laws I shall not produce the Testimony of the Lord Burleigh in his Book published on occasion of the poenal Laws called The Execution of Iustice in England not for Religion but for Treason imprinted at London A. D. 1583 but I shall make use of the Testimony of Persons less lyable to the exception of our Adversaries viz. The Secular Priests who printed their Important Considerations A. D. 1601. wherein their whole design is to shew that the poenal Laws considering the many Treasons which were the occasions of them were very just and merciful For they acknowledge 1. That the State of Catholicks was free from persecution the first ten years of Queen Elizabeth and that Parsons and Creswel confessed as much 2. That themselves were the true Causes of the change that was made towards them by Pius 5. moving a Rebellion here by Ridolphi exciting the King of Spain abroad to joyn his Forces and denouncing a Bull of Excommunication against the Queen and absolving her Subjects from their subjection on purpose to foment their Rebellion for depriving her of her Kingdom which they prove by particular circumstances 3. That they could hardly believe these things themselves till they saw them expressed and owned in the Life of Pius Quintus printed and allowed 4. That notwithstanding these things and the Rebellion breaking forth 1569. the Prisoners were only under greater restraint but none were put to death on that occasion but only such who were in actual Rebellion wherein they confess the Queen did no more than any Prince in Christendom would have done 5. That upon these occasions a Parliament was called 1571. and a Law made against the bringing any Bulls from Rome Agnus Dei's Crosses or Pardons and against all persons that should procure them to be brought hither which Law although they think it to have been too rigorous yet they cannot but confess that the State could not without the imputation of great carelesness of its own safety have omitted the making some Laws against those of their Religion And although they were in their opinion too severe yet they acknowledge 1. That the occasions were extraordinary most outragious as they expressed it 2. That the execution of them was not so Tragical as was represeuted 6. They believe that neither this Law nor any other would have been
reservations in their minds they give instead of real satisfaction greater cause of jealousie because of the abuse they put thereby upon the Government For if men do aequivocate in renouncing aequivocation which it is very possible for men that hold that Doctrine to do they thereby forfeit their credit to so high a degree that they cannot be safely trusted in any Oaths or Protestations This therefore ought to be made sure that men use the greatest sincerity in what they do or else there is no ground to grant any favour upon their offers of satisfaction 3. Where there is sufficient ground to believe that the much greater number will not give sufficient satisfaction as to the renouncing the dangerous principles to Civil Government there is no reason for a total repeal of the Poenal Laws already established For if the Reason of the Laws was just at first and the same Reason continues it becomes not the Wisdom of a Nation to take off the curb it hath upon a dangerous and growing party and however cautious and reserved many may seem while the Laws are in force no man knows how much those principles may more openly shew themselves and what practices may follow upon them when impunity tempts them I do not plead for sanguinary Laws towards innocent and peaceably minded men whatever their opinions be and how hardly soever my Adversaries think and speak of me I would shew my Religion to be better than theirs by having more Charity and Kindness towards them than I â—ear they would shew me were I in their circumstances but I find that even some of themselves think fit not to have those Laws taken off from men of the Iesuitical Principles as appears by a Discourse written to that purpose since his Majesties Return by one of their own Religion Wherein he shews 1. That the Iesuitical party by their unjust and wicked practices provoked the Magistrates to enact those Laws and that their seditious principles are too deeply guilty of the Blood of Priests and Catholicks shed in the Kingdom ever since they came into it and that it is their principle to manage Religion not by perswasion but by command and force and then reckons up the several Treasons in Queen Elizabeth's time the Iesuitical design of excluding the Scottish succession and title of our Soveraign the Gunpowder Treason which if it were not their invention he confesses they were highly accessary to it by prayers before hand and publick testifications after the fact was discovered nay many years after they did and peradventure to this very day still do pertinaciously adhere to it 2. That their practices of usurping Iurisdiction making Colledges and Provinces in and for Enland possessing themselves of great summs of money for such ends are against the ancient Laws of the Land even in Catholick times it being the Law of England that no Ecclesiastical Community may settle here unless admitted by the Civil Power and those that entertain them are subject to the penalties ordained by the Ancient Laws 3. That it is no evidence of their Loyalty that any of them have been of the Kings side it being a Maxim or Practice of their Society in quarrels of Princes and Great men to have some of their Fathers on one part and others for the contrary which is a manifest sign they are faithful to neither 4. That there is no ground to trust them because of their doctrine of Probability and their General can make what doctrine he pleases probable for the opinion of three Divines is sufficient to make a Doctrine probable and whatever is so must be done by them when commanded by their Superiours so that the tenderness of their Consciences is only about doing or doing what their Superiours orders them besides their doctrines about deposing Princes Equivocations mental Reservations and divers other juggles 5. That they have never yet renounced the doctrine of the Popes deposing Princes that their Generals order against teaching this doctrine was a meer trick and never pretended to reach England that Santarellus his Book was Printed ten years after it teaching the power of deposing in all latitude and why should the peace of Kingdoms have no better security than their Generals Order Who knows how soon that may alter when good circumstances happen and then it will be a mortal sin not to teach this doctrine that the Iesuits have never spoken one unkind word against this Power of deposing Princes that when the Pope shall think fit to attempt deposing a King of England no doubt their Generals Order will be released 6. That by their particular vow of obedience to the Pope they are bound to do whatever he commands them as for example if the Pope should excommunicate or depose the Prince and command them to move Catholicks to take up Arms they are bound by their Vow to do it 7. That they make themselves Soveraigns over the Kings Subjects by usurping a power of life and death over those of their Order for pretended crimes committed in England which is High Treason for their Subjects have other Soveraigns besides the King 8. That there can be no sufficient security given by them who hold the Popes personal infallibility for whatever protestations or renunciations they may make at present they will be obliged to the contrary whensoever the Pope declares his judgement so and therefore no hearty Allegiance can be expected from those who hold it but such as must waver with every blast from Rome 9. That they not only renounce the doctrines of Equivocation and Mental Reservation without which all other protestations afford very little security but men ought to be assured that they do not practise them when they do renounce them and he desires them to find out some way for this which it seems came not into his head 10. That without renouncing those doctrines which are dangerous to the Civil Government there is no reason to expect favour from it for temporal subjection to Princes is the main ground of the peace and good Government of the Common-wealth and what is against that is against the Law of God and Nature § 24. I now come in the last place to consider the proposals made by Mr. Cressy for satisfaction to the Government and the repeal of the poenal Laws which are of two kinds 1. Subscribing the censures of the Faculty of Paris 1663. and 1626. 2. Taking the Oath of Allegiance if the word heretical were turned into Repugnant to the word of God But 1. It were worth knowing what Authority Mr. Cressy had to make these proposals in behalf of all the Roman-Catholicks of England he saith indeed that his Book is published permissâ— Superiorum and what he writes is not the inconsiderable opinion of one particular person only And what then It may be two or three more may be of his mind it may be his Superiours are it may be several Gentlemen not governed by the Iesuitical party aâ—e but is the
State of Affairs so mightily changed among them since 1662 Will not the same Reasons â— old good still that the Iesuitical party is not to be trusted in these matters have they made any renunciation since of any of those doctrines which were thought so dangerous then or are they quite gone from us and to use Mr. Cressy's own comparison like Rats have forsaken a sinking Ship It would be great Joy to the whole Nation to hear we were so well rid of them but which way went they in what storm were they carried Was it in the late great Hurrican or were they conveyed invisibly through some passage under ground But they are subtle men they say and full of tricks and therefore may seem to be gone and not be gone even as they please Mr. Cressy it seems hath a a Power beyond Proclamations for he can send away the whole Fry in a trâ—ce but a turn of his hand and not a Iesuit or a man of his principles appears more in England But for all this neither the Benedictins nor Secular Priests can get rid of them so easily they swarm and govern too much for their interests they have too many Colleges in England to forsake them so easily and too rich a Bank to run away and leave it behind them it may be some of the poorer Orders would fain be fingering of it and therefore represent the poor harmless Iesuits as the only dangerous persons to the Civil Government whereas they think themselves as honest as their neighbours and say they hold no doctrines but what other Divines hold as well as they and if they understood themselves they would find to be the doctrine of the Catholick Church for six hundred years only a few temporizing Secular Priests and some others out of spight to them and hopes to get a better harvest to themselves when they are gone would lay all the blame upon the Iesuits whereas the doctrine they own was the general doctrine of their Church and received here in England the Council of Lateran which decrees the Popes power over Princes having been received here by the Council at Oxford A. 1222. and what aâ—do is made now with the Iesuits as though they had been the first broachers and only maintainers of the doctrine of the Popes power of deposing Princes which hath been decreed in Councils accepted by Churches and only opposed by some out of the passions of fear or hopes from temporal Princes What do ye tell us say they of the Sorbon a Club of State Divines that act as if they believed the King of France 's infallibility though they will not own the Popes What matter is it what some few men say that are over-awed by Secular Princes Shew us the Divines at Rome where men may speak freely that hold otherwise Was the Popes Nuncio that appeared so bravely for the Catholick Cause in the Head of an Army in Ireland a Iesuit or were 〈…〉 adherents that cast off the Kings Authority there Iesuits Are all the Anti-Remonstrants in Ireland Iesuits And what think we are not all those who opposed the Irish Romonstrance very ready to give full satisfaction in these matters Nay in the good humour Mr. Cressy found all English Roman Catholicks it was pitty he had not gone farther and who knows but in so lucky a day the Pope and Cardinal Barbarine might have subscribed the Censures of the Faculty of Paris But well fare the honest Apologist for the Iesuits who answered the Reasons unreasonable and declares that he is no Iesuit yet he saith plainly it would be a temerarious oath to for swear in general terms a deposing Power in the Pope but to detest it as an heresie would be absolutely Schismatical but he gives very foolish Reasons why the effect of that power need not be feared in England because forsooth Constantine left out England in his Donation to the Pope did he so indeed it was a great kindness to the place of his Nativity But withall he adds though there be much talk of King Johns Resignation of his Crown to the Pope yet the Deed of Conveyance lies so dormant in the Vatican that it could never be awaked or produced on any provocation And is this the security the Pope will never exercise his deposing Power in England But do not you think the Pope makes too much of it to shew it to all comers and yet this Apologist need not have gone to the Vatican to have seen that very Bull of the Pope wherein King John 's Resignation is contained for it was â—ately to be seen in England But suppose King John 's Original were burnt at Lions as our Historians think hath the Pope never challenged any Power over Princes but where they were feudatary to hâ—m Alas for his Ignorance the Pope â—or a need hath a threefold claim to this Pâ—wer and he can make use of which he thinks best the feudatary the direct temporal and the indirect temporal The Feuâ—ataâ—y is by voluntary resignation the direct teâ—poral by the Canon Law and the indirect by the Sins of Princes for those if they happen to be of a right kind as Heresie Apostasie Mis-government c. give the Pope a notable title to their Crowns for then they fall to him by way of Escheat as the principal Lord but suppose the Pope should to save quarrels quit the Feudatary Claim what security is there against the two other that may do as much mischief as the first For all that I can see then Mr. Cressy had not sufficient Letter of Atturney to declare in behalf of all the Roman Catholicks that they would subscribe the Censures of the Sorbon for the Popes deposing Power is yet good doctrine among many of them But why did Mr. Cressy take no notice of any difference among them about these points Must we Protestants be still thought such pittiful Animals as not to know that which hath been publickly canvased among them about the full Age of a man viz. near seventy years Alas for us we never heard of Blackwell and Barclay and Widdrington of one side nor of Bellarmin and Singleton and Fitzherbert of the other We have only a little Grammar Learning and can make a shift to understand the Greek Testament and read Calvins Institutions or Danaeus upon Peter Lombard but for these deep points it is well we have ever seen those that have heard others say they have seen the Books that handle them But why should Mr. Cressy so slily pass over the business of the Nuntio in Ireland was that nothing to the purpose Did not the Person of Honour mention it several times that he could not avoid seeing it But we must forget all those things and Cardinal Barbarins Letters about the Irish Remonstrance and whatever is material if it cannot be answered is better let slip Yet is it possible for us to believe that all Roman Catholicks are so willing now to renounce the dangerous doctrines when
declared by the Laws to be the True which is established by them Now if a party appears active and dangerous whose Principles are destructive to the Religion established by Law I appeal to any man of common sense whether it be sufficient ground for the Toleration of it that one objection is taken off when the other remains in its fuil force That which is then to be considered in this case is whether such a party which is dangerous without Toleration will grow less dangerous by it which I think needs no great consideration and it will require as little to shew the danger that will come to the Established Religion by a Toleration of Popery not only by the diligence industry and number of the Priests who will be glad to make new Converts to gain new Residences they being at present so much over-stocked besides their desires to approve themselves to the Court of Rome for preferments by their activity and telling brave stories beyond Seas of their exploits against hereticks as a late Miles Gloriosus among them hath done how many Legions of Hereticks they have blown away by the Power of Principles and Demonstrations but by the obligation that lyes upon them that receive preferments from Rome to persecute Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to the Pope to their uttermost which is expressed in the Oath they take to the Pope as appears by the Pontifical so that these men must either be perjured or persecute when it lyes in their Power And can any Nation in the World think it Wise or Safe to give Toleration to Wolfs among Sheep to those that have solemnly sworn to persecute to their power all that own the Established Religion and that look upon all such as in a damned condition that do not submit to their Church Till they abate of their monstrous uncharitableness till they renounce their Oaths to the Pope till they can give good security of their quiet behaviour in not seducing others what pretence can there be for their being allowed a free exercise of their Religion supposing they should take the Oath of Allegiance But as to their dignified Clergy I mean such of his Majesties Subjects whom the Pope hath taken upon him to make Bishops without his consent which was not suffered by some Princes even in times of Popery it ought farther to be considered what security any following Oath can give as to those that have taken a former Oath of Allegiance to the Pope as I have already proved it to be as much as King Iohn's was upon the Resignation of his Crown nay yet farther they are bound now by that Oath to defend all those Provisions and Reservations and Apostolical Mandates which were accounted the intolerable grievances of this Nation long before the Reformation But why may they not enjoy equal liberty with the Sectaries I am not pleading the Sectaries Cause neither would others plead it now but for a farther end nor would I extenuate the guilt of their Separation but they are blind that do not see the difference between the parties if not as to number yet as to interest forreign dependence and danger to the Church of England for surely a man is not in so much danger of being stung to death by Gnats as being poisoned by Vipers I mean in respect of the avowed principle of Persecuting all dissenters in the Roman Church which it were easie to manifest not only from our domestick story and the entertainment in Queen Maries dayes and from the History of the Inquisition abroad but from the Cabal at the Council of Trent between the Popes Legats and the Embassadours of Catholick Princes about the utter extirpation of the Protestant Religion and the defigns that were carried on in prosecution of this in most parts of Europe especially in Germany Flanders and France but I shall not meddle with the secret Intrigues but the open and avowed principles In France Claudius de Sainctes published a Book against Toleration A. D. 1561. wherein he pleads with all his strength for the utter extirpation of Protestants the like did Iacobus Pamelius in Flanders and both of them answer all the common and popular arguments now brought for Toleration the same did Scioppius in Germany and we all know what the dreadful consequences were in all those places But this is a subject too large to enter upon now For my part I am no Friend to Sanguinary Laws on the account of Religion and if the Wisdom of our Law-makers should think fit to change that popular way of publick suffering which the sufferers would have still believed to be for Religion into a more effectual course of suppressing the growth of a party so dangerous to our established Religion I should more rejoice it may be therein than those who are more concerned in it Provided that the pretence of making new Laws more accommodate to our present State be not carried on meerly with the design of leaving our Church without any security by Law at all against so violent and dangerous a party for it is a much easier matter to repeal old Laws than to make new ones And if the objection against the old Laws be that they are not executed it ought to be considered whether the same objection will not lye against others unless they be such Laws as will execute themselves and we have little Reason to believe that they who bid difiance to our present Laws and make sport with Proclamations will be perswaded by gentler means to obey others And is such an affront to Laws a sufficient Motive to Lenity And we have good ground to think that that they look upon all our Laws whatever they be as things of no force at all upon their Consciences as being null in themselves because they are contrary to the Popes Authority and the Constitutions of their Church And I believe if our modern Papists were pressed home the generality of those who are obnoxious to the Poenal Laws would not acknowledge those Ancient Rights of the Crown which were challenged by William the Conquerour William Rufus Henry the first Henry the second before his submission to the Pope and afterwards by Edward the first and Edward the third viz. No exercise of any forreign jurisdiction here without the Kings consent no liberty of going out of the Kingdom though upon the Popes Command without the Kings leave and while they allow this Power to the Pope to command his Majesties Subjects they make him Soveraign over them and make them more fearful of disclaiming his Power No Decrees of Popes or Bulls to be received without the Kings approbation No Bishops to be made by Papal Provisions out of the plenitude of his Power c. Those who will not reject these which were challenged by the Kings of England long before the Reformation as their ancient and undoubted Rights with what face can they plead for the Repeal of the Poenal Laws when the ancient Law of