of the English Church so there is no question but it hath been ever the Tenet of it Pontificem Romanum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacrâ Scripturâ in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Which our Historians do mention as what proceeded from the constitutions of the Church and assent of Emperors not as of a thing in it self juris divini insomuch as 80. That proposition when it was propounded 1534. in Henry the 8 ths time in convocation all the Bishops without exception and of others onely one doubted and four placed all Ecclesiastick power in the Pope both the Universities and most of the Monasteries and Collegiat Churches of England approved avowed as the undoubted opinion of the Church of this Nation in all ages Neither can I see how it can be otherwise for if the Church of Canterbury were omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione if it were Mater omnium Anglicanarum Ecclesiarum suo post Deum proprio laetatur pastore that is if th' Archbishop had no mediate spirituall superior but Christ God if the power the Pope exercised over him within this Realm were voluâ—tate beneficio gained as I have shewed by little little voluntarily submitted unto it could be no other then jure humano and then it must be granted the Church of England could not hold any necessity of being in subjection to the See or Church of Rome jure divino as it is manifest they did not in that they sometimes acknowleded no Pope otherwhiles shewed an intent of departing from his union and the Bishops as well as Lay Lords advised Anselm Vrbani obedientiam abijcere subjectionis jugum excutere c. Neither could the Church of England be any way possible guilty of Schism adhering to their Ghostly Superior next and immediate under Christ Iesus As for the temporall profits the Court of Rome received hence though the denying them can be no just cause of such a spirituall imputation especially on privat men yet certainly who will examin their beginning as he shall find it to have been by the bounty or permission of our Princes so upon search he will perceive the Kingdome went no farther then the Common Law the precedent of former times and such an exigency did force them to of which therefore I shall adde a word or two CHAP. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England THe vast summes the Court of Rome did of late years upon severall occasions export out of this Kingdome mentioned in the statute of the 25. Hen. the 8. are spoken of by severall of our writers and though some have in generall expressed how much the Nation suffer'd in that kind yet none that I know in one tract did ever shew by what degrees the Papacy gained so great a revenue as the Commons in Edward the thirds dayes had cause to complain it did turn a plus grand destruction du Royaume qe toute la guerre nostre Seigneur le Roy. I have thought therefore that it will not be amisse to set down how the Pope came to have so great an influence over the treasure of the Clergy in this Land by seeking out how and when the greatest of the paiments made to him began what interruptions or oppositions were met with either at the beginning or in the continuance of them 2. The first payment that I have read of which gave the Pope an entrance as it were in to it was that bounty of our Princes known to this day by the name of Peter-Pence and this as it was given for an Almes by our Kings so was it no otherwise received by the Court of Rome Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita perperaâ—â— doloseque collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit saith Paschalis the 2. So that no question Polidore Virgil very inconsiderately termes it vectigal and others who by that gift contend the Kingdome became tributarium feudatarium S to Petro ejusque successoribus for though the word tributum may perhaps be met with in elder writers yet never did any understand the Pope by it to become a Superior Lord of the Lay fee but used the word metaphorically as we do to this day terme a constant rent a kind of tribute and to those who pay it and over whom we have in some sort a command we give the title of subjects not as being Princes over them but in that particular being under us they are for it styled our inferiors 3. What Saxon King first conferred them whether Ina as Ranulphus Cestrensis sayes report carryed or Offa as Iorvalensis I will not here enquire as not greatly materiall Polidore Virgil tells some write Ethelwolphus continued it with whom Brompton seems to concur It is true our Historians remember he caused 300. mancusas denariorum Malmsbury renders it trecentas auri marcas which was ten times the value of silver as another trecenta talenta to be carried every year from hence to Rome which could be no other then the just application of Peter-Pence for amongst sundry complaints long after from Rome we find the omission of no paiment instanced in but of that duty onely neither do the body of the Kingdome in their Remonstrance to Innocentius 4. 1246. mention any other as due from hence to Rome 4. This therefore thus confer'd by our Kings was for the generality continued to the Papacy yet to shew as it were that it proceeded only from the liberality of our Princes not without some stops Of those in the times of VVilliam the first Henry his Son I have spoke Henry the 2. during the dispute with Becket and Alexander the 3. commanded the Sheriffs through England that Denariibeati Petri colligantur serventur quousque inde Deminus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit During the Reign of Edward the 3. the Popes abiding at Avignon many of them French their partiality to that side and the many Victories obtained by th' English begat the proverb Ore est le Pape devenu Françeis Iesu devenu Angleis c. about which time our Historians observe the King gave command no Peter-Pence should be gather'd or pay'd to Rome And this restraint it seems continued all that Princes time for Richard the 2. his successor at his beginning caused Iohn Wickliffe esteemed the most knowing man of those times to consider the right of stopping them whose determination in that particular yet remains entituled Responsio Magistri Iohannis Wicliff ad dubium infrascriptum quaesitum ab eo per Dominum Regem Angliae Richardum secundum magnum Concilium anno regni sui primo then the question followes Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae
to commutation of penance which the law allowes he that would may find them in Lyndwood lib. 3. de immunitate ecclesiae cap. Accidit and lib. 5. de poenis cap. Evenit 21. If any ask a cause why the ancient Fathers did proceed with so great lenity against blasphemous hereticks as the Arrians Nestorians c. why when the Emperour would have punisht the furious Donatists with a pecuniary mulct the holy men of those times so earnestly interceded as to procure the remission and did requite their fury with such love meeknesse as to be able to say no one of them had payed what th' imperiall edicts might challenge when of late yeares men have been brought to the fire children exposed to misery by the loss of their parents estates even by Bishops and other of the Clergy whose opinions were neither so blasphemous as the Arrians nor their comportments so inhumane as the Donatists why they preached men relapsed even to a thousand times might yet live reconciled to the Church when as now such as have renounced an opinion Rome calls heresy being after found to hold it is seculari judicio sine ulla penitus audientia relinquendus which yet is not observed if he be a Prince as was Henry the 4. or perhaps a private man out of their power 22. To these demands I can give no other answer but that their offences being against the holy Trinity the pious Bishops of those times as men who watched for soules did content themselves to denounce what was heresy but having done that finding it not received to leave the punishment to him who assures it shall go worse with Sodom and Gomorrah then those refused their instructions and under him to the Secular magistrate did likewise follow his precept in forgiving even to seventy times seven times when on the other side the opinions of these later hereticks as they call them be rather against men and their Institutes then God as that Romanum praesulem reliquis episcopis paremesse Purgatorium ignem non inventri Celebritates sanctorum rejiciendas Iejuntis ab ecclesia institutis mhil inesse meriti c. and a perswasion gained none but the Ecclesiastick can punish Heresy who judge the opposer by the law of man howbeit they style it Christian yet how it agrees with divinity Iremit to the Canonists decision In the mean time I cannot but observe Simanca finds nothing out of holy writ but onely in divine Plato lib. 10. de legibus to maintain the position that semel tantum haereticis poenitentibus parcitur c. 23. This being then the proceeding against Hereticks in generall it will be necessary to see how it was formerly in England and how the Queen found it First it will not be unfit to premise that from the Conversion of the Saxons to the year 1166. no heresy was ever known to have been in England insomuch as we may safely conclude whatever doctrine we meet with in the publick homilies of the Church or other writers of elder times must be esteemed catholick however it now stand censured but in that year about XXX Dutch came hither that detested baptisme the Eucharist c. who being convict by Scripture in an episcopall councell called by the King at Oxford were remitted to his disposition that caused them to be whipt and burnt in the face and a command given none should either receive or relieve them so that they miserably perisht which severity his Maty did not think fit afterward to extend to those were then called Publicani as I have before shew'd though there were many in his dominions 24. For the punishment of Hereticks it cannot be doubted by the common Law that is the custome of the Realm of England to have been here as in other parts of the world by consuming them by fire Balaeus from the testimony of a chronicle of London reports one of the Albigenses to have been so made away there 1210. to which the learned Camden seems to allude when he sayes more dyed in Queen Maries time then this nation had seen ex quo regnante Iohanne Christiani in Christianos apud nos flammis saevire coeperunt The same Paramo saith is made good by an epistle of Tho. Waldensis to Martin the 5. but I have not seen it I am sure in that VValdensis I use it is not found But of the truth of the thing there is no question for Bracton writes of an Apostate Deacon that in a Councell held at Oxford 1222. by Stephen Langton was first degraded and then by the Lay committed to the fire with whom for the thing agrees Fleta yet by the way where you read in him per manum comburentur clericalem it is to be Laicalem for so is Bracton out of whom he transcribed it agreeing with the continuall practise both of this and other nations for the Clergy meddles not with execution 25. In Edward the 3 ds dayes about the year 1347. Polydore Virgil testifyes two Franciscans to have been burnt quod de religione male sentirent Neither did VVilliam Sautry a relapsed priest dye by any statute-law 2. H. 4. but convicted in a provinciall councell of th' Archbishop of Cant. the writ de haeretico comburendo bearing date the 26. February was by th' advice of the Lords Temporall sent to the Major of London to cause him be executed attendentes sayes it hujusmodi haereticos sic convictos damnatos juxta legem divinam humanam canonica instituta in hac parte consuetudinaria ignis incendio comburi debere c. But where VValsingham speaks as if he dyed during the sitting of the Parliament by vertue of the law then made against hereticks the historian is without peradventure mistaken for that Parliament begun about the 20. Ianuary ended the 10. March following did expresly provide on the petition of the Commons qe touz les estatutz ordenances faitz ou affaire en cest Parliament qe sont penalz ne tiegnent lieu ne force devant le feste de Peatecoste prochin venant les queles en le mesme temps puissent estre proclamez to which the answer is le Royle voet So that certainly he could not dye by that law which was not to take effect till so long after 26. But I confesse I did a little doubt of two particulars The one whether by the common Law a Lay man could be sent to the fire for any conviction by the Ecclesiastick for all the undoubted precedents I have met with unlesse that of the Albigenses were otherwise were of some Clearks within the pale of the Church that were so punisht and Bracton and Fleta both agree Clerici Apostatae comburantur whose words being penall I conceived stricti juris not to be construed by equity But indeed Fleta elsewhere speaks more generally Christiani Apostatae detrectari debent
AN HISTORICAL VINDICATION OF The Church of England In point of SCHISM As it stands separated from the ROMAN and was reformed 1 Elizabeth Deuteronomy 32. 7. Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask thy father and he will shew thee thy elders and they will tell thee Jeremiah 6. 16. Ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls LONDON Printed for Samuel Speed at the Rain-bow in Fleetstreet near the Inner Temple-gate 1663. To the READER I Know how easily men are drawn to believe their own observations and expressions may prove as welcome to others as they are pleasing to themselves And though few books live longer then the Authors who send them to the presse and fewer avoid an opinion they might have been as well spared as come abroad yet neither the hazard their makers run nor the little gain they reap can hinder those have a Genius that way from suffering others to be as well Masters and censurers of their thoughts as themselves This being then the venture every writer exposes himself unto the Reader may not a little marvell how I have been brought to hazard my self on the same Seas I have seen so many Shipwrackt in I shall desire him to adde this to what is already in the first chapter as my Apology Reading some times in Baronius that all things were well done in the Catholick Church had venerable antiquity for their warrant and that the Roman Church did not prescribe any thing as an holy tenet but such onely as delivered by the Apostles preserved by the Fathers were by our ancestors transmitted from them to us I cannot deny to have thought for certainly Truth is more ancient then Error this being made good and that she did commend them to us in no other degree of necessity then those former ages had done but she had much more reason on her side then I had formerly conceived her to have but in examining the assertions it seemed to me not onely otherwise but that learned Cardinall not to have ever been in this consonant to himself confessing the Catholick Church not alwayes in all things to follow the interpretations of the most holy Fathers On the other side it seemed to me somewhat hard to affirm the Papacy had incroached on the English and neither instance when where nor how Hereupon as I perused our ancient Laws and Histories I began to observe all changes in matters Ecclesiasticall reported by them in which I had sometimes speech with that learned Gentleman I mention in the first chapter whom I ever found a person of great candor integrity and a true Englishman I noted likewise how the Reformation of Religion was begun with us how cautiously our ancestors proceeded not to invade the Rights of any but to conserve their own Many years after I know not by what fate there was put into my hands as a piece not capable of answer in relation as well to the fact as reason it carried without at all my seeking after it or hearing of it a treatise of the Schisme of England carrying the name of one Philip Scot but as told me composed by a person of greater eminency dedicated to both the Universities and printed permissu superiorum truly in my judgment neither illiteratly nor immodestly writ but in reading of it I found sundry particulars some perhaps onely intimated others plainly set down I could no way assent unto as that Clement the vij did exercise no other auctority in the Church then Gregory the great had done That the Religion brought hither by Augustine varyed not from that was before the Reformation That the English made the separation from the Church of Rome That in doing so we departed from the Church Catholick I was not ignorant it might be found in the writings of some Protestants as if we departed from Rome which I conceive is to be understood in respect of the Tenets we separate from holding Articles of faith not of the manner how it was made Having gone through the book I began to look over my former notes and putting them for my own satisfaction in order found them swell farther then I expected Vrceum institui exit amphora and when they were placed together I shewed them to some very good friends to whose earnest perswasions being such as might dispose of me and mine I have in the end been forced to yield making thee partaker of that I never intended should have past farther then their eyes Yet in obeying them I shall desire to be rightly understood That as I do not in this take upon me the disputing the truth of any controversiall tenet in difference between us and the Church of Rome so I meddle not with any thing after Pius quintus came to the Papacy who first by private practises and then open excommunication of her Majesty declared himself an enemy in open hostility with this state which therefore might have greater reason to prevent his endeavours by some more sharp laws against such as were here of his inclination then had been seen formerly with which I meddle not Thus the Reader hath the truth both how I came to compose and how to print this If he find any thing in it like him he must thank the importunity of others if to misdoubt I give him in the margin what hath lead me to that I affirm if to dislike his losse will not be great either in time or cost and perhaps it may incite him to do better in the same argument and shew me my errours which proceeding from a mind hath not other intent then the discovery of truth no man shall be gladder to see and readier to acknowledge then From my House in East-Peckham the 22. May MDCLVII Roger Twysden A TABLE Of the CHAPTERS CHAP. I. AN Historicall Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism And how it came to be entred upon fol. 1 Chap. II. Of the Britans fol. 7 Chap. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with fol. 9 Chap. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England fol. 74 Chap. V. How far the Regall power did extend it self in matters Ecclesiasticall fol. 93 Chap. VI. How the Kings of England proceeded in their separation from Rome fol. 118 Chap. VII How the reformation was made under Queen Elizabeth fol. 126 Chap. VIII How Queen Elizabeth settled in this Kingdom the proceeding against Hereticks fol. 135 Chap. IX Of the farther proceeding of Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation fol. 174 AN Historical Vindication OF THE Church of England in point of SCHISM CHAP. I. 1. IT is now more than twenty yeares since defending the Church of England as it was setled 1 Eliz. for the most perfect and conformable to Antiquity of any in Europe a Gentleman whose conversation for his Learning I
their complaints beyond Seas according to th' Assize of Clarendoun the King in nothing obliged to Rome but in the payment of Peter-pence as his father had before exprest himself 12. In November following the Pope and King had a meeting at Gisors in Normandy where Calixtus confirmed unto him the usages his father had practic 't in England and Normandy and in especiall that of sending no Legat hither but on the Princes desire Yet notwithstanding the same Pope not fully two years after addrest another Legat to these parts but he by the Kings wisdome was so diverted ut qui Legati officio fungi in tota Britannia venerat immunis ab omni officio tali via qua venerat extra Angliam à Rege missus est c. 13. But here by the way the reader may take notice these words Collata Impetrata Concessa Permissa used by our best authors in speaking of the Rights of the Crown in points of this nature do not import as if it had onely a delegatory power from the Pope by some grant of his as is fancied by those would have it so for we read of no such concessions from him unlesse that of Nicholas the 2. of which in the next But that they were continually exercised the Pope seeing either approving or at least making no such shew of his disliking them as barr'd their practice which by comparing the said authors is plain Eadmerus p. 125 53 54. speaks as if these customes were concessa fungi permissa from Rome which pag. 118 33 40. he calls antiqua Angliae consuetudo libertas Regni c. So pag. 116 22. he terms them privilegia Patri Fratri suo sibique à Romana Ecclesia jam olim collata c. about which yet it is manifest even by him the Court of Rome was ever in contest with our Kings about them who maintained them as their Royalties against it and challenged by Henry the 1. by no other title then dignitates usus consuetudines quas Pater ejus in regno habuit c. which the Pope calls honores quos antecessorum nostrorum tempore Pater tuus habuer at and affirmes to be grata in superficie interius requisita Legati vocibus exposita gravia vehementissima paruerunt so far have Popes been from conferring the least unto them see cap. 3. n. 19. 14. It is true things done by Princes as of their own Right Popes finding not means to stop would in former ages as later by priviledge continue unto them Nicholaus Papa hoc Domino meo privilegium quod ex paterno jure susceperat praebuit said th' Emperours Advocate And the same Pope finding our Kings to expresse one part of their Office to be regere populum Domini Ecclesiam ejus wrote to Edward the Confessor Vobis posteris vestris regibus Angliae committimus advocationem ejusdem loci omnium totius Angliae Ecclesiarum vice nostra cum Concilio Episcoporum Abbatum constituatis ubique quae justa sunt As a few years since the Republick of Venice not assenting to send their Patriarch to an examination at Rome according to a Decree of Clement the 8 th Paulus Quintus declared that imposterum Venetiarum Antistites Clementis decreto eximerentur so that now that State doth by an exemption what they did before as Soveraign Princes Besides Kings did many times as graunts ask those things of the Pope they well understood themselves to have power of doing without him Henry the 5 th demanded of Martin the 5. five particulars to which his Ambassadors finding him not so ready to assent told him se in mandatis habere ut coram eo profiteantur Regem in iis singulis jure suo usurum utpote quae non necessitatis sed honoris causa petat ut publicam de ea re coram universo Cardinalium coetu protestationem interponant And to the same purpose there are sundry examples yet remaining on record where the King on the petition of the Commons for redresse of some things of Ecclesiastick cognizance amisse first chuses to write to the Pope but on his delay or failing to give satisfaction doth either himself by statute redresse th' inconvenience or command the Archbishop to see it done 15. But here before I proceed any farther because it cannot be denyed in former times there was often intercourse between the Church of England and Rome and such as were sent from thence hither are by some styled Nuncii by others Legati I think it not amisse to consider what the cause was one side so much opposed the sending a Legat and the other so laboured to gain it 16. After the erection of Canterbury into an Archbishoprick the Bishops of that See were held quasi alteriâ—s orbis Papae as Vrban the 2. styled them did onely exercise vices Apostolicas in Anglia that is used the same power within this Island the Pope did in other parts the one claiming because Europe had been converted by disciples sent from Rome the other that he had sent preachers through England And is therefore called frequently in our writers princeps Episcoporum Angliae Pontifâ—x summus Patriarcha Primas and his seat Cathedra Patriarchatus Anglorum and this not in civility onely but they were as well sic habiti as nominati It is true the correspondency between it and the Roman was so great they were rather held one then two Churches yet if any question did arise the determination was in a councell or convocation here as the deposing Stygand the settling the precedency between Canterbury and York the instructions I mentioned of Hen. 1. to his Bishops the right of the Kingdome that none should be drawn out of it auctoritate Apostolica do enough assure us if recourse were had to Rome it was onely ut majori Concilio decidatur quod terminari non pâ—tuit as to the more learned divines to the elder Church of greatest note in Europe by whom these were converted and therefore more reverenced by this as that was most sollicitous of their well-doing and most respected for their wisdome All which is manifest by that humble Letter Kenulphus others of Mercia wrote about 797. to Leo the 3. wherein it plainly appears he seeks to that See for direction because the conversion of the Nation first came from thence and there resided in it men of sound learning whom he doth therefore desire as quibus à Deo merito sapientiae clavis collata est ut super hac causa which was the placing an Archiepiscopall chair at Litchfield cum sapientibus vestris quaeratis quicquid vobis videatur nobis postea rescribere dignemini By which it is clear his inquisition was as unto persons of profound literature had the key of knowledge conferred
To return to th' Archbishop who came home with this Legatine power 1127. crowns the King at Windsor and in May following holds a Councell at Westminster cui praesedit ipse sicut Apostolicae sedis legatus which is the first Councell any Archbishop is noted to have held as a Papall Legat and during his life which was seven years England did not see any other 27. After his death the See of Canterbury lay two years vacant so a fit time for the Pope to look this way especially K. Stephen making it part of his title that he was confirmed by him in his Kingdome therefore 1138. Innocentius the second sent hither Albericus Bishop of Hostia the second stranger I find exercising the Legatine auctority in England yet he was not at first received for one but vix tandem pro reverentiâ— Domini Papae He indeed went farther then ever any had for he not onely called the Clergy Apostolica auctoritate as our Historians terme it to a Synod I confesse he avoyds the word in his letters of summons styling it colloquium perhaps not to enter into dispute with the King who then took himself to be the onely caller of them and the allower of what they did but did farther command the Prior and Convent of Canterbury c. to chuse such an Archbishop cui sacrorum canonum auctoritas in nullo valcat obviare cui comprovinciales Episcopi pariter debeant assentire cui Dominus Rex nec possit nec debet assensum suum juste denegare but farther not at all intromitting himself And in the Councell he held amongst other particulars he ordained that if any injured an Ecclesiastick person Nisi tertio admonitus satisfecerit anathemate feriatur neque quisquam ei praeter Romanum Pontificem nisi mortis urgente periculo modum poenitentiae finalis injungat This is the first that by Canon ought done in England was referr'd to Rome as having a greater power then the English Bishops to absolve of the Laws of Hen. the 1. I shall speak hereafter But whether it were not here much regarded or th' excesses used by King Stephen against certain Bishops and the prohibiting a Councell held 〈◊〉 Winchester to send to Rome as against the dignity of the realm or that he freed of imprisonment desired to make so potent a party as the Clergy then was more of his side I cannot say but assuredly it was again renewed in a Councell at London about some four years after 28. The same Pope 1139. conferr'd upon Henry K. Stephens Brother and the potent Bishop of Winchester this Legatine power which was by him publish't in a Councell at Winchester where his faculties wâ—re read bearing date the 1. March and being as well Angliae Dominus by reason of the power he held wiâ—h Stephen as Apostolicae sedis Legatus he called thither th' Archbishop that had then some contest with the Monks of St. Augustines whom the Pope generally favour'd against him referr'd to his decision from Rome so that he caused both parties the second time to appear there before him 1143. as Legat and by compromise ended the businesse Yet this calling of the Archbishop unto him was not taken well and the same year 1143. he did by Apostolick command restore Ieremy removed by Theobald notwithstanding his appeal to Rome to be Prior of Canterbury which restitution the said Prior did not think fit to stand by but for avoiding trouble took an 100. marks to pay his debts and placed himself in St. Augustines By these carriages there grew great distasts between these two great Prelats the one as Archbishop prohibited Winchester all Ecclesiastick functions however the Popes Legat and both apply themselves to the Pope from whence our Historians do fetch the use of Appeals to Rome as indeed there could not well be any cause of them before for as the one case is the first ever any Archbishop was called out of his Diocese to make answer to any Legat as his Superior so I believe it will be hard to give an example of ought done by th' Archbishop in his own Bishoprick till now alter'd by a forreign auctority And here having mentioned the introducing of Appeals the reader will give me leave to digresse a little both to shew what is meant by them and the manner of prosecution of them and then to return and observe the event of the Archbishops and Legats in the Court of Rome 29. It cannot be denyed the word Appeal to have been used in former times with reference to the Papacy Cum praesul sedem Apostolicam appellasset sayes Malmsbury of VVilfred and a Councell held in Italy concerning him Apostolicam sedem de suâ causâ appellans and of some others Yet nothing is more certain then those in whose time this was did not at all hold the Pope to have any power of righting him other then by intercession not as a superior Court by sentencing in his favour to undo what had past Theodore without whose assent the King could not have deprived him of his seat for when the Popes Letters were brought hither for his restitution Egfrid with th' advise of his Bishops not onely refused but clapt VVilfred in prison and after his death the Pope sending others vita graves aspectu honorabiles Alfrith though he received the men with great reverence yet would by no means admit the restauration they came about but affirmed it against reason to do it he having been twice condemned proper quaelibet Apostolica scripta And as this was in a time when Christianity most flourished in this Nation having in generall fortissimos Christianosque Reges so of the Kings that did it of Egfrid Beda left that he was piissimus Deo dilectissimus neither can he find any other thing to blame in Alfrith worthily and the Bishops that did concur in the action were holy men well seen in divine and secular learning so that it is not imaginable any thing past them not warranted by the Doctrine and rules of this Church 30. For the understanding of which we are to know the word Appeal is taken severall wayes sometimes to accuse sometimes for referring our selves to some one for his judgment such was that of VVilfreds appealing to Rome as to a great spirituall Doctor and Church whose judgment was very venerable in the World as of late Iohn Calvins and the Church of Geneva was to them of Scotland and Frankford c. another way we take it for removing a cause from an inferior to a superior Court or Iudge that hath power of disannulling whatsoever the former did and this is that our Historians affirm not to have been in use till after 1140. It is certain long after VVilfred the Bishops and Nobility did assure Anselme that for any of the great ones especially him to have
till he had it none to be styled an Archbishop things added after mens holding a necessity of seeking it did so much contribute to the Papall advantage both in point of honour and profit For it is manifest Lanfrank Anselme and Raulf did dedicate Churches consecrate Bishops and Abbots were called Archbishops whilst they wanted it 51. Now the ice broken this Oath at first required onely of Archbishops when they took the Pall was by Gregory the 9 mutatis mutandis imposed on Abbots and Bishops About 1235. came into England occulta clausa sub bulla the like to which had not been seen was profered to Iohn 23. Abbot of St. Albans unacquainted with it when he could not ab illa obligatione resilire who is therefore noted that primo invitus dolens Romanorum jugum subiit servitutis and that prae omnibus Romanorum oppressionibus novis inauditis coepit molestari c. The thing I find of greatest exception is the obligation injoyning them to visit Rome which being in pursuance of the 26. chapter of the Councell of Lateran held onely 20. years before is censured Damnum gravamen praejudicium injuria jactura as that which alter'd the nature of the Church which had been from the foundation libera ingenua and was thus brought to serve the ends of the Court of Rome Truly after this I cannot see how there can be said to have been a free Papall Councell in Europe when such as it consists of being for the most Bishops and Abbots come with so high an obligation as an oath to defend the usages of Rome under the title of Regaliae Sancti Petri. In pursuance of which the Councell of Trent did expressely charge all Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and other who in future should meet in Provinciall Synods that veram obedientiam summo Romano Pontifici spondeant profiteantur I wish it had exprest what that had been 52. To return to that I was treating of This visiting the Roman Court however much prest on this Monastery of St. Albans yet was ever-excused till 1290. Iohn the 3. and 25. Abbot was forced to go thither for his confirmation but because the book is not printed I will give you my Auctors own words Iohannes de Berkamsted vir religiosus honestae conversationis Hic in crastino conceptionis beatae gloriosae virginis Mariae scilieet quinto idus Decembris anno Domini MCC nonagesimo per viam compromissi de gremio Ecclesiae concorditer electus ad curiam Romanam primus omnium abbatum hujus Ecclesiae pro confirmatione electionis suae obtinenda personaliter accessit ibique confirmatus est à summo Pontifice Nicholao à venerabili L. Ostiensi Episcopo Cardinali apud urbem veterem munus accepit benedictionis sic data maxima pecunia Papae Cardinalibus aliis de curia quam de mercatoribus Papae duris conditionibus ex mutuo recepit ab illa insatiabili curia â—vasit expletisque negotiis domum redire festinavit c. By which we may see who of this house went on this occasion first thither and why it was so earnestly urged from thence As for the Monastery of St. Augustins by reason of the often contentions with th' Archbishop the Monks there were much more prone to yield obedience to Rome who maintained them for the most against him then these other were yet the first of them I find to have took this oath was Roger the 2. elected Abbot 1253. For though the benediction of Robertus de Bello 1224. were at Rome where he gained th' Abbacy yet there being no mention of any oath presented to him then we must think it came in afterwards But for the fuller understanding how this visiting the Roman Church came in the Reader will give me leave a little to digresse 53. Christians in all ages have esteemed it a point of singular piety and devotion for any Ghostly Father or Doctor to have a care of those to whom they have the relation of being a Spirituall Superior either by planting Christian Religion amongst them reducing them out of error or otherwise some engagement on them Saint Paul sent for the Elders of Ephesus to come unto him at Miletus from whom they received those wholesome instructions we read in the Acts of the Apostles and according to this example there are divers exhortations in the writings and Epistles of the Fathers Before the year 517. a Councell held at Tarragona in Spain did ordain that every Bishop impletis duobus mensibus se Metropolitani sui repraesentet aspectibus ut ab illo monitis Ecclesiasticis instructus plenius quid observare debeat recognoscat quod si forte hoc implere neglexerit in Synodo increpatus à fratribus corrigatur Agreeing to which Iustinian in the year 541. did establish by Law that for the better observance of th' Ecclesiastick rules every Archbishop Patriarch and Metropolitan Sanctissimos Episcopos sub se constitutos in eadem Provincia semel aut secundo per singulos annos ad se convocare And Pope Zachary Ann. 743. in a Councell at Rome Omnes Episcopi qui hujus Apostolicae sedis ordinationi subjacebunt qui propinqui sunt annuè idibus mensis Maii sanctorum Principis Apostolorum Petri Pauli liminibus praesententur omnioccasione seposita c. After which Charls the Great did by law ordain ut unusquisque presbyter per singulos annos Episcopo suo rationem ministerii sui reddat tam de fide Catholica quam de Baptismo atque de omni or dine ministerii sui 54. About which time Boniface an Englishman the Popes Legat in Germany and Archbishop of Mentz in a Councell held in Germany the decrees whereof he sent to Cutbert then in the seat of Canterbury declaring how great the care of the Metropolitan ought to be of those under him shews how every Presbyter should once a year in Lent give an account to his Bishop who was to instruct him and with such things as he could not correct himself to acquaint th' Archbishop in a Synod Vt si Sacerdotes vel plebes à lege dei deviasse viderim corrigere non potuerim fideliter semper sedi Apostolicae vicario Sancti Petri ad emendandum indicaverim Sic enim ni fallor omnes Episcopi debent Metropolitano ipse Romano Pontifici si quid de corrigendis populis apud eos impossibile est notum facere sic alieni fient à sanguine animarum perditarum Cutbert according to this advise doth appoint the proceedings of the Bishop to be to the Archbishop in the same words he had received it from Boniface but passeth no farther to the Pope an undoubted argument it was not then usuall in England I have touched before the Conqueror did suffer no other correspondency with Rome then what he
hujusmodi de caetero emanarunt ad provisionem ipsorum inviti non teneamur nisi de hac indul gentia plenam fecerint mentionem Dat. Lateran 15. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno 4 to c. could quiet the English or keep them from that confederation in Mat. Paris 1231. beginning Tali Episcopo tali capitulo Vniversitas eorum qui magis volunt mori quam à Romanis confundi c. Which the Popes by wisdome and joyning the Regall auctority with their spirituall sound means to bring to nought and pursuing the Papall interest without regarding what had past from them gave the Kingdome occasion 1241. to observe that in onely three years Otho had remained Legat here he bestowed more then 300. spirituall promotions ad fuam vel Papae voluntatem the Pope having contracted as the report went with the Romans to confer to none but their Children and Allies the rich benefices here especially of Religious houses as those perhaps he had most power over and to that effect had writ to the Bishops of Canterbury and Salisbury ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent So that in the Councell at Lions 1245. they complain of these exorbitances and shew the revenues the Italians received in England not to be lesse then 60 thousand marks of which more hereafter and in the year following 1246. reiterated their griefs to Innocentius 4 tus quod Italicus Italico succedit Which yet was with little successe for the Popes having as we have heard first settled all elections in the Ecclesiasticks and after upon severall occasions on the submitting of the English to his desires bestowed the benefices in this and other Kingdomes on his dependents Iohn the 22. or as some seem to think Clement the 5. his immediate predecessor endeavored the breaking of elections by Cathedralls and Convents reserving the free donation of all preferments to himself alone 70. From whence proceeded the reiterated complaints â— against Papall Provisions in the Parliaments of Edward the 3. and Ric. the 2. for this Kingdome never received his attempts in that kind to which purpose the History of Iohn Devenish is remarkable The Abbot of St. Augustines dying 1346. the 20. Ed. 3. the Convent by the Kings leave chose VVm. Kenington but Clement the 6. by Provision bestowed the Abbacy on Iohn Devenish whom the King did not approve of yet came thither armed with Papall auctority The Prior and Convent upon command absolutely denyed him entrance ingressum monasterii in capite denegando who thereupon returned to Avignon The businesse lying two years in agitation the King in the end for avoyding expences and other inconveniences ex abundanti concessit ut si idem Iohannes posset obtinere à summo Pontifice quod posset mutare stylum suae creationis â—ive provisionis scilicet non promoveri Abbatia praedicta ratione donationâ—s vel provisionis Apostolicae sed ratione electionis capituli hujus loci illa vice annueret suis temporalibus gaudere permitteret sed quidem hujusmodi causa coram ipso summo Pontifice proposita concludendo dixit se malle cedere Pontificio quam suum decretum taliter revocare c. Which so afflicted the poor man as the grief killed him on St. Iohn Baptists Eve 1348. without ever entring the Abby and the dispute still continuing the Pope 1349. wrote to the King Ne Rex impediret aut impediri permitteret promotos à curia per bullas acceptare beneficia sibi taliter incumbentia To which his Mary answer'd Quod Rex bene acceptaret provisos clericos qui esseâ—t bonae conditionis qui digni essent promoveri alios non 71. But the year following 1350. the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons meeting in Parliament complain with great resentment of these Papall grants shewing the Court of Rome had reserved to it self both the collation of Abbeys Priories c. as of late in generall all the dignities of England and Prebends in Cathedrall Churches c. Upon which the statute of Provisors was in that Parliament enacted which was the leader to those other statutes 27 and 38. Ed. 3. The 48. Ed. 3. 1374. the treaty between Ed. the 3. and Gregory the XI was concluded after two years agitation wherein it was expressely agreed quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur c. Notwithstanding which the Commons the next Parliament prefer'd a petition shewing all the benefices of England would not suffice the Cardinalls then in being the Pope having by the addition of XII new ones raised the number to XXX which was usually not above XII in all and therefore they desire it may be ordained and proclaimed that neither the Pope nor Cardinalls have any Procurator or Collector in England sur peine de vie de membre c. Yet the inconveniences still continuing 3. Ric. 2. produced that statute is in the print I shall not here repeat otherwise then that the Commons in the Roll seem to lay the beginning of these excesses no higher then Clement the 5. 72. By these arts degrees and accessions the Church of Rome grew by little and little to that immensenesse of opinion and power it had in our nation which might in some measure whilst it was exercised by connivence onely upon the good correspondency the Papacy held with our Kings and Church be tolerated and the Kingdome at any time by good Lawes redresse the inconveniences it susteined But that which hath made the disputes never to be ended the parties not to be reconciled is an affirmation that Christ commanding Peter to feed his sheep did with that give him so absolute a power in the Church and derived the like to his successors Bishops of Rome as without his assent no particular Church or Kingdome could reform it self and for that he as a Bishop cannot be denied to have as much power as others from Christ and may therefore in some sense be said to be Christs Vicar to appropriate it onely to the Pope and draw thence a conclusion that jure divino he might and did command in all particulars Vice Christi And though no other Church in the Christian World doth agree with the Roman in this interpretation though Historians of unquestioned sincerity have as we have in some measure heard in their own ages deliver'd when and how these additions crept in and by what oppositions gained that our Princes have with th' advise of the Lay and Clergy ever here moderated th' exorbitances of the Papacy in some particular or other and likewise reformed this Church though the stipulations between our Kings and Rome have not been perpetuall but temporary not absolute but conditionall as is to be seen in that past between Alexander the 3. and Hen. the 2. viz. juravit quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis
vacantium which not occurring of any Pope before I cannot ascribe other to have begun them then he who though in a bull dated the 5. Ianuary 4. Pontificatus he mention Fructus redditus proventus primi anni beneficiorum yet by the doubts he there resolves shews the practice of them then newly brought into the Church But whereas the writers before-named agree the English of all Nations never received in this the full extent of the Papall commands I conceive it to arise from the good Laws they made against them of which before and after 17. It is hardly credible how great a masse of treasure was by these wayes sent hence into Italy The revenues th' Italians were possest of in England 1245. are accounted not lesse then 60. thousand Marks 1252. it was thought they did amount to 70. thousand all which for the most drained thither and in the Parliament held about an hundred years after the Commons shew what went hence to the Court of Rome tourne a plus grand destruction du Royalme qe toute la guerre nostre Seigr. le Roy yet notwithstanding so many statutes as were made by that Prince for moderating the excesses in this kind the 50 th they complain I shall give it contractedly the Popes collectâ—r here held a receipt equall to a Prince or Duke sent annually to Rome from the Clergy for Procuration of Albeys Priories First-fruits c. xx thousand Marks some years more others lesse and to Cardinalls and other Clerks beneficed in England as much besides what was conveyed to English Clerks remaining there to sollicite the affairs of the Nation upon which they desire his Ma â—y no collector of the Pope may reside in England 18. But the King as it seems not greatly complying with their desires the year following they again instance that certain Cardinalls notorious enemies had procured a clause d'anteferri to certain benefices within the Provinces of Canterbury and York that the Popes Collector was as very an enemy to this State as the French themselves that his house-keeping here at the Clergies cost was not lesse then 300l. by the year that he sent annually from hence beyond Seas at one time 20 thousand marks sometimes 20. thousand pounds and what was worse espyed the secrets of the Kingdome vacations of benefices and so dayly made the certainty known to the said Court did now raise for the Pope the first-fruits of all dignities and other smaller promotions causing by oath to pay the true value of them surmounting the rate they were formerly taxed at which now in the very beginning ought to be crusht c. Vpon which considerations they desire all strangâ—rs Clerks and others excepting Knights Esquires Merchants Artificers might sodainly avoid the Kingdom no subjects without the Kings expresse licence to be Proctors Aturneys Fâ—rmors to any such Alyen under the pain after Proclamation made of life member losse of lands and goods and to be dealt with as theeves and robbers no mony during the wars to be transported out of the Kingdom by exchange or otherwise on the forfeiture of it But to this the answer onely was Setiegnent les estatutz ordonances ent faites Whereupon the next Parliament the Commons prefer'd again three Petitions touching I. The paiment of First-fruits taken come due a la chambre nostre seint Pere yet not used in the Realme before these times was contrary to former treaties with the Pope c. II. Reservations of benefiâ—es III. By that way bestowing them on Alyens who sundry times employed the profits of them towards the raunsoming or araying their friends enemies to the King Of all which they desire his Ma ty to provide remedy as also that the Petitions the two last Parliaments of which before might be consider'd and convenient remedy ordained To which the answer is Les Seig rs du grand conseil ordeigneront due remedie sur les matires comprises enâ—estes trois billes precedentes And here I take the grand Councell to be the Privy Councell not the Lords in or out of Parliament called the grand Councell for the greatnesse of the affairs fell within their cognizance and named the 5. of Hen. the 4. to consist onely of six Bishops one Duke two Earls and other in all to the number of 22. 19. What order they establisht I have not met with it is manifest not to have been such as gave the satisfaction hoped for by the Commons renewing in effect both 3 o. and 5 to Ric. 2. the same suites and the inconveniences still continuing in the year 1386 7. 10. Ric. 2. William Weld was chosen Abbot of S. Augustins in the place of Michael newly dead who troubled with a quartan ague the French and Dutch on the seas the King inhibited his going to Rome for confirmation c. He thereupon employs William Thorn from whose pen we have the relation hoping to be excused himself of the journey who shewing the sufferings of the house the miserable state he must leave it in that he would expose it irrecuperabili casui ruinae that the King had commanded his stay was in the end told by the Pope after all means he could use Rex tuus praecipit quod non veniat electus ille Ego volo quod compareat examini se subjiciat and again after yet more earnest sollicitation quia audivimus turbationem inter Regem Barones suos the fittest time to contest with a prince multa sinistra de persona electi quod cederet Romanae ecclesiae in praejudicium absque personali comparitione non intendimus ipsum confirmare ne daretur posteris in exemplum The cause hanging three years in suspense the Abbot in fine was forced to appear in Rome for his benediction and returned with it not to his house till about the end of March 1389. the 12. Ric. 2. After which the next Parliament obtained the statute of Premunire against the Popes conferring any Benefice within the said Kingdome from the 29 of Ianuary then ensuing and no person to send or bring any summons or sentence of excommunication against any for the execution of the same law on the pain of being arrested put in prison forfeiture of his lands tenements c. and incurring the pain of life member c. The intent of which law Polidor Virgil rightly interprets to have been a confining the Papall auctority within the Ocean and for the frequent exactions of Rome ut nulli mortalium deinceps liceret pro quavis causa agere apud Romanum Pontificem ut quispiam in Anglia ejus autoritate impius religionisque hostis publice declararetur neve exequi tale mandatum si quod ab illo haberet c. To which law three years after some other additions were made and none of these were ever repealed by Queen Mary who though she did admit a union with the
Church of Rome yet in restoring the Popes Supremacy the State used so great caution as it ever seemed to me rather a verball then reall admission of his auctority which it seems her Majesty well understood in that she would never permit Peito to appear before her in the quality of either Cardinall Bishop or Legat to all which he was preferred by Paulus 4. But where some would excuse these and such like laws as past by consent and toleration from Rome or at least by the importunity of the Lay that I have said doth enough shew the Papall care in suffering nothing they could stop might any way prejudice that See And for the Bishops passing the 16 Ric. 2. pressed by the Temporalty it is so much otherwise as that Statute is enrolled on the desire of the Archbishop of Canterbury Rot. Parl. 16. Ric. 2. numero 20. in fine 20. In the same Parliament the Commons as it seems much exasperated against the Popes collectour do yet farther petition he may have the warning of fourty daies given him to be gone out of the kingdome sur peine d'estre pris come enemy du Roy ranceone qe desore en avant nul collectour soit demoerant deinz le Royalme d' Engleterre s'ilne soit lige du Roy qe mesme cestui face nul rien a contraire de l'estatute de Provisors fait en cest present Parlement sur peine de vie de membre sanz perdon considerant les meschiefs damages qe les Collectours estranges ount faitz deinz le Royalme devant ces heures But to this the answer only is Le Roys ' advisera 21. After these petitions and laws however they sufficiently barr'd the Court of Rome from medling with this Church and enough shewed the right of the Kingdome in reforming of it self and redressing all inconveniences came unto it from beyond sea yet the King having a power of dispensing with those statutes this mischief ensued divers who easily obtained letters of provision to a good benefice from the Papacy sued to the King who held fair correspondency with the Popes that they might put his bulls in execution who delayed his concessions sometimes a year or longer after the vacation of the living during which the Ordinary had admitted some able person into the place who then began to be disturbed for prevention of which the statutes of 7. Hen. 4. and 3. Hen. 5. were made that no licence should be available against any possest of a living at the day of the date thereof and farther to make void all so granted After which the contract too long to be here inserted between Martin the 5. and the English Church for setling severall disputes of Ecclesiastick cognizance as of uniting benefices consolidations c. was concluded in which the Papacy seems to permit such particulars to the English Clergy as they would not be restrained in though formerly claimed not to be exercised but by his auctority Yet the 8. Hen. 5. n. 10. the Commons petition qe nul persone de quel estate ou condition qu'il soit ne amesne c. hors du Royalme d' Engleterre or ne argent pour marchandise de seinte Esglise ou autre grace ou priviledge d'seinte Esglise avoir ne pour autre cause queconque c. 22. It would be here tedious and not greatly pertinent to repeat all the provisions made in this kind for the well-governing the Clergy of this Kingdome and preserving of them free of destruction from abroad which yet were never such but the Pope and his officers did export a great quantity of treasure from them William Thorne hath recorded the disbursements to the Court of Rome at the election of Michael Abbot of Saint Augustine 1375. not to have been lesse then 428l. 17s. 10d. beside the expence of such as were sent and what was paid for the loan of mony to make these payments viz. 130l. 18s. 2d. Our Historians observe in the Parliament held 1532. 23 Hen. 8. it was computed the Papacy had received out of England for only the Investitures of Bishopricks in the fourty years last past an hundred and sixty thousand pound sterling which is four thousand pound by the year an incredible summe considering the poverty of the Realm for lack of silver the weight of the mony then currant and the strict laws of former Princes against such like transportations 23. Thus having shew'd the beginning of the Papall auctority with us and how from the generall power all Bishops received from Christ and the fatherly care such as were instrumentall in the conversion of a people did carry to them as their spirituall children and the obedience they likewise yielded to their ghostly fathers the Pope began by steps as I may say to exercise a dominion over the Clergy here and not stopping there upon various pretences by severall waies and as it appears degrees to become so far lord of their Temporalls that they might not dispose of them well contrary to his liking because he had the sole rule of all committed to him from Christ the first point I conceive sufficiently proved viz. that what was gained thus by great industry at sundry times by severall means could no way speak his superintendency over this Church jure divino The second point remains whether our Princes by the advise of their Clergy had not auctority to cause them reform this Church without any new assumption of power not formerly invested in the Crown which leads me to shew what the Regall power in sacris was here held to be before Hen. the 8. and Rome divided each from other CHAP. V. How far the Regall power did extend it self in matters ecclesiasticall 1. BEfore I enter into the dispute of the right the kings of England did exercise in the regiment of this Church I hold it not unnecessary to see in what Divines hold ecclesiastick auctority doth consist Bellarmine Turrecremata and others divide spirituall power into Ordinis which they refer to the administration of the Sacraments and Iurisdictionis which they hold double internall where the Divine by perswasions wholesome instructions ghostly counsell and the like so convinces the inward conscience as it is wholly obedient to his dictates such as those of St. Peter were Acts ii 37. and externall where the Church in foro exteriori compells the Christians obedience Now for the first and second of these the King did not take upon him at all to meddle for he neither assumed to himself a power of preaching teaching binding or loosing in foro animae administring the holy Sacraments conferring Orders nor to any particular is properly annexed to them only to such things as are of the outward policy of the Church as that God may be truly served such as transgresse the received lawfull constitutions even of the Church fitly punished by the right of his Crown the continued practice of his
comburi and Britton of Miscreants so to be served without distinction of the quality with whom Sr. Edward Cook concurs Another thing I questioned whether any Bishop within his Diocese alone could convict one of heresy before 2. Hen. 4. cap. 15. of which hereafter for whatever the power of the Ordinary was there is very little example of his putting it in exercise before the times of VVickliff 27. Who began to be taken notice of about the end of Edward the 3. or rather the beginning of Rich. the 2. in whose doctrine at least that they fathered on him though there were good Corn yet was it not without Tares But when it grew common and to be hearkned unto the Prelats laboured to procure a law his Maties Commissions should be directed to the Sheriffs and other his Ministers to arrest all preachers their fautors c. to hold them in prison till they will justifi themselves according to reason and the lawes of the holy Church How this past I should be glad to learn for not onely the printed statutes but the Roll of Parl nt expresly mentions the Commons agreeing to those Acts yet the next meeting they do disclaim to have given any assent unto it quiel ne fust unques assentu ne grante parles coēs mes ce qe fust parle de ce fust sanz assent de lour qe celuy estatut soit anntenti to which the Kings answer is y plest au Roy. How it fell out this latter was not counted an Act Sr. Edward Cook hath shew'd which tells us why it past again without opposition in Queen Maries dayes I wish that learned Gentleman had given his opinion how the record came to be so faulty as to affirme a concurrence of the lower House to that they never assented 28. In King Hen. the 4 ths time his successour that law past which greatly increased the power of the Ordinary allowing him to imprison fine determine all causes of heresy according to the canonicall Decrees within three moneths on which words Canonicall Sanctions the Bishops so behaved themselves That the most learned man of the realm diligently lying in wait upon himself could not eschue and avoid the same act and Canonicall Sanctions if he should be examined upon such captious interrogatories as is and hath been accustomed to be ministred by the Ordinaries of this realm in cases where they will suspect of heresy c. Upon which if any did refuse obedience to his Diocesan in ought as paying a legacy c. there would be means found to bring him within the suspicion of heresy And certainly the proceeding of some Diocesans upon this statute gave quickly scandall for onely nine yeares after we find the Commons petition qe please a nre soveraigne Seig r le Roy grantier qe si ascun soit ou serra arreste par force de l' estatute fait l' an de vostre regne seconde al requeste des Prelats Clergie de vostre Royalme d' Engleterre q' il purra estre lesse a mainprise faire sa purgation franchement sanz destourbance d' ascun en mesme le Conteou il est arrestu qe tieles arrestes soient desore en avant faitz en due forme de ley par les Viscount Mairs Baillifs ou Conestables nostre Seign r le Roy sanz violent affray our force armes en depredation de leur biens ou autre extortion ou injurye queconcque en celle affaire But to this le Roy se voet ent aviser is all the answer given But whereas VValsingham speaks of this Parl nt as insected with Lollardy certainly to me there is no such thing appeares in the Roll but rather the contrary But I confesse I did think before that law of H. 4. no Bishop in his Diocese without a Provinciall Councell could have convicted any man of heresy so as to have caused him been burnt for mans life being a point of so high concernment in the law and heresy laying so great an imputation on the party it seemed not to me probable every angry Bishop in his Court should alone have power of determining what was by the canonicall Sanctions so esteemed and whose words or writings could admit no other sense then hereticall and with this it seemed to me the practice did concur for the Deacon burnt at Oxford suffered after conviction in a Provinciall Synod and the conviction of VVilliam Sautry shewes plainly to have been after the same manner the Writ running Cum vener abilis pater Thomas c. de consensu assensu ac consilio coepiscoporum ac confratrum suffragancorum suorum nec non totius cler◠Provinciae suae in concilio suo provinci ili congregato juris ordine in hac parte requisito in omnthus observato c. intimating as it seemed to me if otherwise the Order of law had not been observed And I did ever conceive this Law had increased the Power of the Ordinary as well in permitting him singly to pursue the canonicall Sanctions in convicting an heretick as in sining and imprisoning of him especially the statute of Q. Mary that gave it life after the repeal of Hen. the 8 affirming before such revivall the Ordinary did want auctority to proceed against those that were infected with Heresy But I have since found better opinion it was otherwise 29. After this 2. Hen. 5. a Parliament at Leicester enacted The Chancellour Treasurer Justices of the peace Sheriffs c. should take an Oath for destroying all manner of Heresies commonly called Lollardries to be assistant to the Ordinary therein Persons convict of Heresy to loose their fee-simple land Iustices of the Kings Bench of the Peace and of Assize to enquire of all holding any errours or heresies as Lollards their maintainers receivers fautors c. and for that end a clause to be put into the Commissions of Iustice of the Peace yet forasmuch as the cognizance of heresie errours and Lollardries belonged to Iudges of holy Church and not to the secular the inditement taken by them not to be evidence but for information before the spirituall Iudge into whose hands the person suspected to be delivered within ten dayes after his enditement every man empanell'd in the Enquest for the tryall of them to have in England 5 pounds in Wales forty shillings in land by the year c. Which three lawes were each repealed by Hen. the 8th or Ed. the 6. and again restored by Q. Mary under whom by vertue of them had in lesse then three yeares been spoyled for religion more Christian bloud of her subjects then in any Princes reign since Lucius 30. Things standing thus when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown the Ecclesiastick auctority exercised at home and abroad with rigour and austerity rather then Christian mildnesse still to permit that was the continuing a fire to consume her people and yet for every
artioulos super quibus erat principaliter tractandum consulendum super negotio terrae sanctae quomodo posset recuperari tueri super ordine Templariorum qui pro nullo habebatur praecepitque omnibus Praelatis singulis qui convenerant quod super praemissis articulis usque ad secundam sessionem deliberarent II. In secunda sessione facta est long a disputatio de ordine Templariorum utrum stare posset vel deleri de jure deberet Et erant pro ordine Templariorum praelati quasi omnes praeter praelatos Franciae qui propter timorem Regis Franciae per quem ut dicebatur totum illud scandalum fuerat aliud facere non audebant Erant in toto Concilio quod Concilium dici non merebatur quia ex capite proprio omnia fecit Dominus Papa non respondente neque consentiente sacro Concilio baculi pastorales circa cxxx III. In tertia sessione Dominus Papa sedit pro tribunali ab uno latere Rex Franciae ab altero Rex Naverniae filius ejus surrexit que quidem Clericus inhibuit sub poena excommunicationis majoris ne aliquis loqueretur verbum in concilio nisi licentiatus vel requisitus à Papa Recitatoque processu Templariorum adjecit Papa Quod licet ex processu praehabito ipsum Ordinem de jure delere non posset tamen ex plenitudine potestatis Ordinem delevit nomen habitum terras eorum possessiones Hospitalariis conferendo aggregando uniendo 35. The like may be said of the Councel of Lateran under Innocentius 3. in which there was onely recitata as what the Pope had before concluded on capitula lx quae aliis placabilia aliis videbantur onerosa c. Which with the great extortion then exercised on the prelats appeared in it the little credit it gained in England might justly cause th' Antiquitates Britannicae Ecclesiae write it to end in risum scomma which words are none of Mat. Paris but of the auctors though the marginall note against them in the edition of Hanaw 1605. hath given an occasion of mistake which should have been placed five lines lower as it is in that of London 1572. for that he there speaks of the prelats borrowing to satisfy the papall avarice is as Archbishop Parker or whosoever else composed those lives thus delivered in Historia minori Tunc autem temporis solutum est concilium generale Papa vero praelatis petentibus licentiam repatriandi minime concessit immo à singulis auxilium in pecunia postulavit quam recessurt cum viaticis cogebantur à Mercatoribus curiae Romanae duris conditionibus mutuare sic cum benedictione papali ad propria remearunt per idem tempus instante festo Paschali c. 36. This I have the rather transcribed because some are of opinion that Councell ended 1215 which certainly it did not till towards Easter the year following and then too abruptly the Pope called away on a suddain for appeasing the wars growing in Italy the 16 Iuly 1216. dyed which makes it without either time when it began or ended nothing being fully concluded but th' expedition against the Sarazins for the recovery of the Holy land Of this I have made the more particular mention for that having given advertisement of it to Doctor Wats who hath with great sincerity and judgment put out Mat. Paris that he might clear the Archbishop in his Adversariis I know not by what fate he applies his note to pag. 138 5. which referrs to the Councell held there by Alexander the 3. 1179. when it should have been to pag. 272. or pag. 274. 6. and thinks he called the lives of the Abbots the Historia minor who I am perswaded never saw that book but did write candidly what he found in Historia minori 37. But that this Councell was never received generally here is manifest in that divers Canons in it were not of force in England as the 3 the 41 the 46 to which I may adde the very first for though Peckham 66 years after did make a constitution in that point yet he did to my understanding not speak of Christs presence in the Eucharist so grossely nor determine it to be by Transubstantiation as the first chapter of the other doth but of that hereafter And whosoever shall persue Simon Sudburies constitions 1378 touching confession will find so much variation from the 21 chapter of that Synod as he cannot think he took that for a rule not to be varied from To which I may adde that Peckham provides the punishment of the negligent conserver of the holy Sacrament to be secundum regulam concilii generalis meaning the 20th chapter of this I speak of which had it been of force otherwise he had no doubt commanded the due observance of it not by his command added strength to the rule there given It is true Stephen Langton to ingratiate himself with Rome whom he had so much displeased as the Pope intended to remove him from his Archbishoprick on the Kings desire but stopt on the intercession of the Court and his being a Cardinall did at the end of his Synod at Oxford 1222 enjoyn the Councell of Lateran held under Pope Innocent in the paying of Tythes and other litigious causes to be observed in Synodis episcopalibus constitutiones illius concilii una cum istis prout videbitur expedire exponi volumus recitari which last words Binius hath changed I know not on what auctority to volumus observari when questionlesse th' English took them for advise not a precept and their little regard of them appears by the particulars mentioned Neither doth Lyndwood make any mention of this part though he have I think all the rest were agreed there is it self altogether omitted in some old copies of that Councel I have seen one of which is joyned with the Mss. Annals of Burton Abby in Sr Thomas Cottons Library But the Acts of this Councell being with divers others printed at the end of the constitutions of Otho and Othobon at Paris 1504 and since by Binius transferred into his third tome the second part this is alledged by some men as if what past at Lateran had been of undoubted validity with us when no question what was done there hath never been taken here as the decrees of a generall Councell like that of Nice or c. but of Innocentius 3 us as they stand in the Decretalls compiled by Gregory the 9th his Nephew with this title Innocentius 3. in Concilio Lateranensi as those by him propounded but not fully concluded in councell according to Plantina and from which this Church varied as occasion served Yet if any shall insist this conclusion of 1222. to have been of greater validity then I speak I must adde that if it really were made with such an intent by the Ecclesiasticks it cannot be
from the Pope he made much scruple of believing it but it being in a place where books were at hand I shew'd him on what ground I spake and asked him if he thought men could be Devils to write such an odious lie had it not been so Well says he if this were heard in Rome amongst religious men it would never gain credit but with such as have in their hands the Maneggi della corte for that was his expression it may be held true 6. Indeed the former author doth not expresse as perhaps then not so fit to be publisht the particulars those articles did contain were writ with the Abbots own hand which later pens have divulged but that in generall it should be any thing lay in the Popes power on her acknowledging his primacy and certain no other could by him have been propounded to her nor by her with honour accepted then that of his allowing the English Liturgy so that they who agree he did by his Agent according to his letter make propositions unto her must instance in some particulars not dishonorable to her self and Kingdom to accept or allow what these writers affirm to have been them And I have seen and heard weighty considerations why her Majesty could not admit her own reformation from Rome some with reference to this Church at home as that it had been a tacite acknowledgment it could not have reformed it self which had been contrary to all former precedents others to the State of Christendom as it then stood in Scotland Germany and France but with this I have not took upon me to meddle here 7. Yet what the Queen did upon this message seems to have given no very ill satisfaction for Sr Edw. Carne then in Rome advised the Pope the same year to invite her to the Councell of Trent promising him half the Kingdom with her own liking would receive his messenger which yet was found otherwise the reasons why are some toucht by Historians and may more at large be seen in Sr Nicholas Throgmortons negotiations then her Ambassador in France Certainly the French were not altogether out of an opinion or at least would have it thought so of her sending to the Synod which the Pope however he invited her was not a little troubled at But the great combination of the Popish party supported by France against England made her see she could expect no good where they were predominant upon which she caused the divines of her Kingdom in councell to consider of a just and lawfull reformation who meeting 1562 reviving the Acts of a Synod held at London ten years before under Ed. the 6th and explaining some few expressions and omitting some points rather of dispute then faith did conclude on 39 articles so just so moderate so fully agreeing with the doctrine of the primitive fathers and with the ancient tenets and practise of this very Church in the times of the Britons and Saxons as if any shall say no Clergy in any age or place have held out a more exact rule he may be easilyer contradicted then justly blamed or confuted 8. For having laid their ground that holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of Faith c. they do upon that Basis establish the doctrine of the three Creeds the Nicen Athanasian and Apostles heretofore ever held to contain Ecclesiarum omnium fidem and that the Romish doctrine of Purga of Purgatory Pardons worshipping adoration of Images relicks Invocation of Saints c. is not warranted by Scripture that is are no articles of faith and then proceed to settle such other things as are juris positivi with so just a moderation as is hardly elsewhere to be found changing nothing for the generall but where the practice of their own ancestors did justify their doings without at all extending themselves to any thing where they had not antiquity their warrant 9. Following which they restored the cup having the Councell of Clermont under Vrban the 2 that Corpus Dominicum sanguis singulatim accipiantur the command of Paschalis the 2. and the practice of the English Church where sickly people women as well as men were to be provided of a pipe to receive it by as was expresly injoyned the order of the Gilbertines about â—200 The thing being already printed I need here repeat no more but onely add that this permission of theirs was no other but a restoring to minores ecclesias that is Parochial or Country Churches that liberty Peckham had deprived them of not 300 yeares before For I do not find any prohibition but the Lay might ever have been partakers of it with us in majoribus that is Cathedrall Churches for Lyndwood in his gloss upon the English constitutions about 1430 propounds this question Sed numquid in istis ecclesiis Cathedralibus aliis majoribus liceat non celebrantibus dum communicant recipere sanguinem Christiin specie vini videtur ex hac litera quod sic argumento sumpto à contrario sensu quod est in jure fortissimum ut c. hoc bene putarem verum saltem quoad ministrantes sacerdoti ministranti c. 10. For the permitting of Matrimony to the Clergy it is undoubted all here had the liberty of marrying before Lanfrank in a Councell at VVorcester 1076. did rather advise then command the contrary which Huntington who was himself the son of one in holy orders sayes was first prohibited by Anselm 1102. But multi presbyterorum statuta Concilii Londoniensis post ponentes suas soeminas retinebant aut certe duxerant quas prius non habebant c. so that his constitutions came quickly neglected Priests both marrying and retaining their wives At which though the King were somewhat displeased yet soon after he took a piece of money of them for it and they kept them by his leave Divers constitutions were after made by severall Archbishops and Legats in the point as by Steph. Langton at Oxford 1222 registred by Lyndwood yet it is manifest they did secretly contract marriage which some are of opinion they continued till towards the end of Edward the 3 ds reign This I am the rather induced to believe out of that in Knighton that Iohn de Alithwerl Clerk was slain by his wife and servant in his own house at Leicester 1344. for which fact she was burnt and he hanged Now I conceive had she been onely his concubine not his servant she had not suffer'd by the judgement of burning for the murther but hanging onely neither can I interpret the word Clericus for other then one in holy Orders prohibited marriage by the Canons of Rome though I know large loquendo as our Lyndwood hath
it omnes in Ecclesia ad divinum officium ordinati are sometimes so styled of which such as were infra subdiaconatum might retain their wives but those were in subdiaconatu or above were to quit them But the Canons yet remaining made at sundry times from Lanfrank even to Chichly by the space of more then 300 yeares enough assure us this point of Celibat was not easily imposed on the English Clergy and assures us such as laid it might take it off again 11. For Images if the Saxons had any use at all of them in their Churches for ornament for history to which end S. Gregory holds they might be permitted for memorialls of holy men departed as we have of late seen they being only thus applyed I conceive with the Bishop of Salisbury the weight of the question not so great yet it was a thing voluntary no command of the Churches injoyning it till after the Conquest And here the question is not whether Augustine might or did bring the picture of our Saviours Crosse in his banner as most Protestants yet retain it but whether he placed them in the Church with an intent to have worship of any kind attributed unto them for which purpose I confesse I have not heard of them till many yeares after for the vision of Egwinus and the Councell of London setting up of Images being made good so far as I know by no author of any antiquity I cannot but take it with Baronius for a meerfigment 12. It is certain 792 the Bishops of England declared their dissent from the second Councell of Nice in point of Images held onely 4 yeares before according to Diceto and where some interpret that they did onely condemn the worship the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by using the Latin word adorare it cannot be denyed but they did reject that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Orientall Bishops had established in which sense they used the word adorare which is often as well in holy writ as by humane authors taken for that reverence is given a creature as for the religious duty we only owe to the Divine Majesty see Gen. xxiii 7 12. Ingulphus a writer not long after Constantinopolim pervenimus ubi Alexim imper atorem ador antes c. So Arundell in his constitutions adorationem crucis gloriosae 13. To this narrative Harpsfield gives the title of commentitia insulsa fabula and thinks it not writ by Sim. Dunelmensis or Mat. VVestminster he might have added Hoveden the Ms. history of Rochester but that it was anciently inserted into them For answer to which he would be desired to produce any one old copy without it not mangled so as it doth prodere furtum by wanting it I have seen divers of Hoveden Mss. some of Math. West but never did one wherein it was not found not in the margin but in the text it self and so it is in Dunelmensis his Ms. at Bennet Colledge in Cambridge For my part I do not know how any thing we mislike in History may not after this manner be rejected if a relation gathered from monuments of an elder date which are perisht yet cited by one who lived not so long after the time he speaks of but they might well come to his hands whom we find very sincere in such citations as yet remain out of more old authors then himself ever esteemed of good credit in the Church of God and in his narration followed ad verbum by those who writing of the same matter succeeded him I confesse I say if this may be cast away as a lying foolish fable I know not what shall gain credit But what will men not lay hold on in a desperat shipwrack I remember Baronius prest with the testimony of Luitprandus in the deposition of Iohn the 12. by imperiall auctority makes no question of denying the five last chapters of his 6. book to have been written by him though never doubted for more then 600 years since he lived 14. Another Doctor I confesse seems to give a more difficult objection that Alâ—uinus who is said to have writ against the second Nioen Councell in the point of Images doth in his book de divinis officiis say prosternimur corpore ante crucem mente ante Deum veneramur crucem per quam redempti sumus c. and this from an author had written against Images he would have imply a veneration of them even in his time who opposed them by the English Church But what hath the reverence of the Crosse to do with the worship of Images It is not to be denyed but Christians in their talk and writings did extoll and magnifie the Crosse forced thereunto by the Gentiles who spake ignominiously of him that dyed upon it yet I believe it will be difficult to shew any Law or Canon before the Conquest injoyning the use much lesse that attributed any religious worship unto Images 15. It is true the Councell of Celicuith 816. did charge unicuique Episcopo ut habeat depictam in pariete oratorii aut in tabula vel etiam in altaribus quibus sanctis sint utr aque dedicata c. which was clearly for memoriall and ornament as it hath been very common in some Churches to have on the wall the Image of Queen Elizabeth and such as have built an Isle or window to have their statue or picture set up in it which in some parts perhaps remain to his present yet no man ever held any religious duty fit to be given them nor any man compell'd to set them up Now that there was no precept of the Church commanding their use I speak from the rules of Sempringham about 1148. that doubtlesse did not vary from the generall practise of Christians here yet hath this expresse statute Sculpturae vel picturae superfluae in Ecclesiis nostris seu in officinis aliquibus Monasterii ne fiant interdicimus quiâ— dum talibus intenditur utilitas bonae meditationis vel disciplina religiosae gravitatis saepe negligitur cruces tamen pictas quae sunt ligneae habemus So that it seems to me they did account all pictures so superfluous as not to have them but onely painted crosses this was one of the first foundation And in another place which I take to be somewhat after the buying of them and silk as things indifferent are alike interdicted yet a direction how to bestow any thing of that nature should be left them but see the words Nihil de serico ematur à nostris vel de nostro ad nostrorum opus vel ad aliquid religioni contrarium seculi vanitatibus amminiculum â—nec etiam ad quodlibet sacerdotale indumentum nisi constet esse necessarium Si vero datur secundum arbitrium Prioris omnium communi utilitati usui mancipetur hoc idem de Yconiis vel aliis
sculptilibus dicimus quae adbeatae Mariae Virginis vel aliorum sanctorum sunt fabricata memoriam quae tamen gratis grata prout de serico praediximus ad sororum altare vel hospitium vel alio apto loco honeste ponenda decernimus So that it is apparent then their use was esteemed no other then that of silk and these two articles seem to have been resolved on nigh the first foundation being in an hand differing from some other I shall mention by the Founder himself 16. In the year 1200 the house of Sixle or Sixhill in Lincolnshire was visited by the Abbat of Waredune as Commissioner of Otho the Popes Legat where about 20 articles were concluded for the government of the Order the fifth of which though it gave some more liberty then the former yet was not without restraint but take it from an hand of those times Anno gratiae MCC in visitatione facta de Sixl ' per Abbatem de WarduÌ„n auctoritate Domini Otonis Legati statuta sunt haec firmiter observanda Inprimis c. cap. 5. Item inhibetur ne picturarum varie tas aut superfluâ—tas sculpturarum de caetero fieri permittatur nec liceat alicubi yconias haberi nec imagines praeter ymaginem Salvatoris y. beatae Mariae Sancti Johannis Evangelistae Hitherto questionlesse the Church of England following the doctrine of St Gregory had been taught by testimonies of holy writ that omne manufactum â— adorare non liceat and though they might be lawfully made yet by all means to avoid the worship of them but see the progress 17. Sixty eight years after this Othobon being the Popes Legat in England did in his own person visit the chiefhouse of this Order and committed the others to Rodulphus de Huntedune the said Cardinalls Chaplain and penitentiary who associating to himself one Richard generall inquisitor of the Order of Semplingham did in the year 1268. conclude upon 74 or 75. heads or chapters for the government of them the 54 of which under the title de ymaginibus habendis is this Item cum secundum Johannem Damascenum ymaginis honor ad prototypum id est ad eum cujus est ymago pertineat ad instantiam Monialium earum devotionem ferventius excit andam conceduntur eis ymagines crucifixi beatae Mariae sancti Johannis Evangelistae quod possint habere in quolibet altari dedicato ymaginem ipsius sancti in cujus honore altare dedicatum est Sitamen gratis detur eisdem sicut beatus G. de serico de ymaginibus duxit statuendum celebretur ipso die festivitatis illius sancti die dedicationis ejusdem altaris missa ad dicta altaria etiamsi sint infra clausuram monialâ—um Thus they 18. By which it is manifest this Kingdom had not then received the 7th Councell for if they had there can be no thought they would have built their Article upon Damascens opinion onely But by all these we may see Images were brought into this Church by degrees by little and little First they were to have none onely wooden crosses were tolerated then they might not buy any but being given they might accept the image of our Lady and other Saints then an inhibition of all Saints except our Saviour the Blessed Virgin and St Iohn the Evangelist to which was added the image of that Saint their Altars were dedicated unto and these onely by concession not bought but given So that it is plain they were then taken for things onely indifferent as silk which they might use or be without no processions bowings kissing c. of them prescribed but how the practise was afterward that chapter of Arundell registred by Lyndwood may tell you which because it is long I shall not farther repeat it being printed then to adde that it is in him lib. 5. de Magistris cap. Nullus quoque and in another place he propounds this question Numquid ymago Christi sit ador anda cultu latriae and resolves si consideretur ut ymago tunc quia idem motus est in ymagiginem in quantum est ymago ymaginatum unus honor debetur ymagini ymaginato ideo cum Christus latria adoretur ejus imago debet similiter latria adorari Nec obstat Exod. xxvi ubi dicitur non facies tibi ymaginem nec sculptam similitudinem quia illud pro eo tempore erat prohibitum quo Deus humanam naturam non assumpserat c. 19. The Synod at Westminster finding things in this posture and their retention in many parts to have been joyned with a great abuse if not impiety took a middle course first to condemn all manner of adoration or worship of them and therefore every Sculptile had been removed out of Churches but whereas some use might be made of them for remembrance of histories past to retain in sundry parts such windows and pictures as might without offence instruct the ignorant in severall passages not unworthily preserved which if any man have since been offended at it must be on other grounds then I understand 20. As they proceeded with this circumspection not to depart from the primitive Church in matters juris positivi so did they take no less care in points of opinion for having declared which were the books of holy Scripture they did not absolutely reject the use of the other though they had been taught by the doctrine of St Hierom and St Gregory not to repute them in Canone but to admit them quia fidem religionem aedificant or as they say for example of life and instruction of manners 21. For praying to Saints however the Saxons might honor holy men departed â—o cultu dilectionis societatis quo in hac vita coluntur homines as S. Augustine speaks which what it is he explains elsewhere yet I am hardly perswaded to think they did admit any publick praying to them in the Church for I have seen and perused three ancient Saxon Psalters full of prayers but no one petition to any Saint whatsoever Eadmerus sayes the report went of VV â— the second that crederet publica voce assereret nullum sanctorum cuiquam apud Deum posse prodesse ideo nec se velle neo aliquem sapientem debere beatum Petrum interpellare yet he doth not censure this as hereticall but onely mentis elatio Gabriel Biel long after confesseth in his time some Christians as well as Hereticks were deceived in thinking Saints departed nobis auxiliari nec meritis possunt nec precibus The Church of England therefore following S. Augustine condemns all religious invocation of them as those were non adorandi propter religionem yet in respect they were honorandi propter imitationem to retain their commemoration by appointing a set service for the dayes on which it celebrated their memorialls thereby to
provoke us to imitation of their piety and to thank God that left such lights who by their doctrine instructed us and whose lives were examples for us to follow and in respect there are sundry Saints for whom there is no proper office to retain one day to praise God for the generality of all and beg of him that we may follow their pattern in all vertuous and godly living This if any mislike I intreat him to pardon me if I joyn not with him and if he will add more to give me leave to think he attributes to them by what name so ever he style it that is onely due to the Divine Majesty 22. For Purgatory however it might be held a private opinion yet certainly as an Article of Faith it could not be for the Greeks who have ever constantly denyed it were in communion with the Church of Rome till 1238. after which onely they began to be accounted schismaticks not so much for their opinions as denying subjection to the See of Rome for some of them coming to Rome 1254 de articulis fidei sacramentis fidei satis toler abiliter responderunt so that questionlesse the Historian could not then hold Purgatory an Article of Faith when those who did affirm Nullum Purgatorium est did give a tolerable account of their Faith Our Divines therefore charge these opinions onely as fond inventions grounded on no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the word of God that is as I have said before they deny them to be Articles of faith 23. In like manner having first declared the bread we break in the holy Communion to be a partaking of the body of Christ and the cup of blessing of his bloud they censure Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of bread and wine as what is not proved by holy writ and therefore no Article of faith c. And indeed how could they say lesse of so doubtfull a tenet so newly crept in that had burnt so many was so contrary to the ancient doctrine even of the English Church as the Saxon Homily yet remaining in an old Mss with this title A book of Catholick sermons to be repeated each year doth undoubtedly assure us It is true some of late have strove to give an answer to it as he that styled himself Bish. of Chalcedon will have the author perhaps to have been an heretick but that the time and title confutes all writers agreeing England to have been free from any heresy after S. Gregory till about the year 1166. If that therefore will not do he hath another viz. the Sermon to make more for Transubstantiation then what the Protetestants cite doth against it yet is silent both where the words are in it and who are the citers of them For my part to speak once for all take the whole Homily as it lies not one piece torn from the other and if the doctrine of it be such as he can digest I know not why we differ As for those two miracles which some dislike so far as to think them infarced into the work I confess them not to displease me at all for if they were inserted to prove the verity of Christs body in the Sacrament against those who held it bare bread yet it must be after such a ghostly and spirituall manner as is there represented without any other change in the substance of the bread and wine then is in the water of Baptism p. 33. not bodily but ghostly pag. 38. 36. a remembrance of Christs body offered for us on the Cross. p. 46. 24. And this may serve for answer to that his Achilles by which his doctrine of Transubstantiation manifestius patebit of Odo Archbishop of Canterbury about 940. converting miraculously the Eucharist in formam carnis ad convincendum quosdam qui suo tempore coeperunt de ea dubitare to which I shall first remember that when St Augustine was prest with certain miracles of Donatus and Pontius which the Donatists urged to prove the truth of their doctrine he gives this answer Removeantur ista vel figmenta mendacium hominum vel portenta fallacium spirituum aut enim non sunt vera quae dicuntur aut si haereticorum aliqua mira facta sunt magis cavere debemus and after a learned discourse he tells of some in the Catholick Church had happened in the time of St Ambrose at Milan upon which he gives this grave censure Quaecunque talia in catholica fiunt ideo sunt approbanda quia in catholica fiunt non ideo ipsa manifestatur catholica quia haec in ea fiunt Ipse Dominus Jesus cum resurrexisset à mortuis discipulorum oculis videndum manibusque tangendum corpus suum offerret ne quid tamen fallaciae se pati arbitrarentur magis eos testimoniis Legis Prophetarum Psalmorum confirmandos esse judicavit ostendens ea de se impleta quae fuerant tanto ante praedicta c. and a little after Hoc in Lege Prophetis Psalmis testatus est hoc ejus ore commendatum tenemus Haec sunt causae nostrae documenta haec fundamenta haec firmamenta 25. To apply this to our case the Church Catholick hath ever held a true fruition of the true Body of Christ in the Eucharist and not of a signe figure or remembrance onely but as the French confession que par la vertue secrete incomprehensible de son Esprit il nous nourrit vivifie de la substance de son corps de son sang c. and therefore we can agree to these verses Christ was the Word that spake it He took the Bread and brake it And as that Word did make it So I believe and take it Here is then a Catholick Sermon commanded to be read in the Church many years before the word Transubstantiation was heard as the doctrine of it teaching me this participation with Christ however true yet is not fleshly but spirituall if therefore this miracle were not to convince those held the communicating of Christ in the Sacrament to have been no other then fantasticall and the bread to have been and conveyed no other to us then bare bread must not I according to St Augustine avoid it as the fancies of lying men or the operation of deceiving spirits c. And this as it may serve in generall for all miracles so in particular for that of late divulged of a poor mans legg cut off in Spain and buried yet four years after restored which if it be not some imposture as the golden tooth in Silesia or of Arnald Tilly taken in Francis the 2 ds time not onely by others but by the very wife of Martin Guerre for her husband and which held the Parliament of Tholous so much perplexed to resolve we must not according to this holy mans doctrine believe for that or any
averoient frank election de lour Prelatz solonc la ley de Dieu de seint Esglise ent ordeigne perpetuelment a durer c. and a little after d'Engleterre soleient doner Eveschez autres grantz dignites trestouz come il fait aujourdui Esglises parochiels le Pape ne se medlast de doner nul benefice deinz le Royalme tanqez deinz brief temps passe c. 59. And this to have been likewise the custome in France the complaint of the French Ambassador to Innocentius 4 tus assures us Non est multum temporis saith he quod Reges Francorum conferebant omnes Episcopatus in camera sua c. and our writers do wholy look upon the placing Lanfrank in Canterbury as the Kings act though it were not without th' advise of Alexander the 2. Neither did Anselme ever make scruple of refusing the Archbishoprick because he was not chosen by the Monks of Canterbury and in that letter of them to Paschalis the 2. 1114. though they write Raulf in praesentia gloriosi Regis Henrici electus à nobis clero populo yet whosoever will note the series of that election cannot see it to have been other then the Kings act insomuch as our writers use often no other phrase then the King gave such preferments c. And whilst things stood thus there was never any interposing from Rome no question who was lawfully chosen the Popes therefore did labour to draw this from the Princes medling with as much as was possible Some essay might be 1108. at the settling Investitures for then Anselme writ to Paschalis Rex ipse in personis eligendis nullatenus propria utitur voluntate sed religiosorum se penitus committit consilio But this as the practice proved afterwards was no more but that he would take the advise of his Bishops or other of the Clergy for as Diceto well observes our King did in such sort follow the Ecclesiastick Canons as they had a care to conserve their own rights The â—ittest way therefore for the Pope to get in was if there should happen any dissensions amongst themselves that he as a moderator a judge or an Arbitrator might step in 60. About the Conquest an opportunity was offer'd on the contentions between the two Archbishops for primacy in which Canterbury stood on the bulls true or false of former Popes that had as a great Patriarch made honourable mention of them When they were both 1071. with Alexander the 2. by his advise it was referr'd to a determination in England and accordingly 1072. Wm. the first with his Bishops made some settlement which by them of York was ever stumbled at pretending the King out of reason of State sided with Canterbury But this brake into no publick contest till 1116. Thurstan elected to York endeavored at Rome to divert the making any profession of subjection to Cant. but failing in th' attempt that Court not liking to fall into a contest it was not probable to carry resigned his Archbishoprick Spondens Regi Archâ—epiâ—copo se dum viveret non reclamaturum yet after the Clergy of York sued to the Pope for his restitution which produced that letter from Paschalis the 2. in his behalf to Hen. the 1. is in Eadmerus wherein he desires if there were any difference between the two Sees it might be discust in his presence Which was not hearkned to but Calixtus the 2. in a Councell by him held 1119. at Reimes of which before the English Bishops not arrived the Kings Agent protesting against it the Archdeacon of Cant. telling the Pope that jure he could not do it consecrated him Archbishop of York upon which Henry prohibits him all return into his dominions And in the enterview soon after at Gisors though Calixtus earnestly laboured th' admitting him to his See the King would by no means hearken to it So the Pope left the businesse as he found it and Thurstan to prove other wayes to gain th' Archbishoprick 61. Who thereupon became an actor in the peace about that time treated between England and France in which his comportments were such that proniorem ad sese recipiendum Regis animum inflexit so as upon the Popes letters he was afterwards restored ea dispositione ut nullatenus extra provinciam Eboracensem divinum officium celebraret donec Ecclesiae Cantuariensi c. satisfaceret This I take to be the first matter of Episcopacy that ever the Pope as having a power elsewhere of altering what had been here settled did meddle with in England It is true whilst they were raw in Christianity he did sometimes recommend Pastors to this Church so Vitalian did Theodore and farther shewed himself sollicitous of it by giving his fatherly instructions to the English Bishops to have a care of it so did Formosus or some other by his letters 904. upon which Edward th' elder congregated a Synod wherein five new Bishops were constituted by which an inundation of Paganisme ready to break in on the West for want of Pastors was stopt But it is apparent this was done not as having dominion over them for he so left the care of managing the matter to their discretion as he did no way interesse himself in it farther then advise 62. A meeting of English Bishops 1107. at Canterbury or as Florentius Wigorniensis stiles it a Councell restored the Abbot of Ramsey deposed 1102. jussu Apostolico or as Eadmerus juxta mandatum Domini Papae It is manifest this command from Rome to be of the same nature those I mentioned of Calvins or at the most no other then the intercession of the Patriarch of a more noble See to an inferior that by his means had been converted For his restitution after the reception of the Papall letters seems to have been a good while defer'd so that what past at Rome did not disannull his deprivation here till made good in England as at a time when nothing thence was put in execution but by the Regall approbation as the Pope himself complained to the King But after the Church of Rome with th' assistance of th' English Clergy had obtained all elections to be by the Chapters of the Cathedralls upon every Scruple she interposed herself 63. The greatest part of the Convent of London 1136. chose Anselme Abbot of St. Edmundsbury for their Bishop contrary to the Deans opinion and some few of the Chanons who appealed to Rome where th' election 1138 was disannulled the Bishoprick by the Pope recommended to Winchester his then or rather soon after Legat which so remained till 1141. This is the first example of any Bishop chosen received and in possession of a Church in this Kingdome whose election was after quash't at Rome and the sentence obeyed here as it is likewise of any Commendam on Papall command in the Church of England all
which seems to have past with the Kings concurrence 64. For to deprive VVilliam elected some whatafter Archbishop of York where he did not joyn was not so easy This man chosen 1142 by the greater part of the Chapter after five years sute in the Court of Rome St. Bernard opposing him had in the end his election annull'd by Eugenius 3. in a Councell held at Reims the Chanons of York exhorted to chuse another some of which made choice of Henry Murdack then as it seems with the Pope who coming as Archbishop into England was not suffer'd to enter on his Archbishoprick and excommunicating Hugh de Puzat a person preferr'd by VVilliam was himself by him excommunicated no intermission of divine service in the City admitted and Henry's means to gain his See was by drawing the Bishop of Duresme Carlisle the King of Scots and by the Popes advise this very Hugh by sweetnesse to his party and in the end by the Kings Son whom it seems he promised to get advanced to the Crown by the power of Rome making his peace with Stephen who soon after employed him thither on that errand And this I take to be the second English election was ever here annull'd by Papall auctority 65. Here I may observe that at first when ever the Pope made voyd an election he did not take upon him to appoint another in the place vacant but either sent to the Clergy of the same Church to chuse another as those to whom it appertained so did Eugenius 3. to York when this H. Murdack was chosen Innocentius 3. when Stephen Langton or else the Bishoprick lay vacant as London after Anselme from 1139. to 1141. But elections being with much struggling settled wholy in the Clergy and Innocentius 3. having by definitive sentence excluded the English Bishops from having any part in that of th' Archbishop of Canterbury they becoming wholy appropriated to the Chapters of Cathedralls the Pope began to creep in and ex concessa plenitudine Ecclesiasticae potestatis as he speaks without any formality of choice to confer not onely Bishopricks but other Ecclesiastick promotions within the precincts of others Dioceses and by that means to fill the fat benefices of the Nation The first Archbishop of Canterbury promoted by this absolute power of the Church of Rome seems to have been Richard 1229. non electo sed dato ad Archiepiscopatum 66. The French Agent in his Remonstrance to Innocentius 4 tus attributes the beginning of these collations to Innocent the 3d. and I have not read that either Paschalis the second Gelasius Calixtus or Innocent 2. though forced to live sometimes out of Rome did ever exercise auctority that way But I will give it in his own words Certe non multum temporis clapsum est ex quo Dominus Papa Alexander persecutionis cogente incommodo venit in Franciam confugiens ad subsidium inclytae recordationis Regis Ludovici patris Regis Philippi à quo benigne susceptus est stetit ibi diu forte vivunt aliqui qui viderunt eum ipse tamen in nullo gravavit Ecclesiam Gallicanam ut nec unam solam praebendam aut aliud beneficium ipse Papa dederit ibi sed nec aliquis praedecessor suus nec multietiam de successoribus dederunt in sua auctoritate beneficium aliquid usque ad tempora Domini Innocentii 3. qui primus assumpsit sibi jus istud in tempore suo Revera dedit multas praebendas similiter post ipsum Dominus Honorius Dominus Gregorius simili modo fecerunt sed omnes praedecessores vestri ut publice dicitur non dederunt tot beneficia ut vos solus dedistis c. 67. In what year th' Ambassador from France made this complaint is not set down But Mat. Paris in his Historia minori makes mention of it as done in or about 1252. Diebus sub eisdem Episcopo Lincolniensâ— computante compertum probatum est quod iste Papa scilicet Innocentius quartus plures redditus extortos ad suam contulit voluntatem quam omnes ejus praedecessores prout manifeste patet in lugubri querimonia quam reposuerunt Franci coram Papa pro suis intolerabilibus oppressionibus quae redacta est in scriptum Epistolae admodum prolixae quae sic incipit Dicturus quod injunctum est mihi c. quaere Epistolam c. By which it appears that great liberty the Papacy took in conferring Ecclesiastick preferments within the Dioceses of others took its rise from Pope Innocent and as it seems to me not at the very beginning of his time for 1199. Gelardus Archdeacon of St. Davids coming from Rome quia idem G. Menevensis Ecclesiae in curia Romana se dicebat electum hoc ipsum cassavit Archiepiscopus alium-sacravit canonice electum though he after bestowed on him a Church of 25. marks and this in a case the Pope had so earnestly espoused as he wrote to the Bishops of Lincoln Duresme and Ely si Archiepiscopus Cantuariae saepe dictum Gilardum consecrare differret ipsi Apostolica authoritate freti illum consecrare non differrent which yet th' Archbishop as against the English liberty did not doubt to oppose and disannul 68. But thus it continued not long for Honorius the immediate successor to Innocentius 3 us shewing such as served th' Apostolick see and resided with it were worthy congruis beneficiis honorari and were therefore possest of divers both in England and other parts which they did administer with so great care quod non minus beneficiantibus quam beneficiatis utiliter est provisum unde quia nonnunquam beneficiatis hujusmodi decedentibus beneficia quae obtinuerant inconsultis hiis ad quos eorum donatio pertinebat aliis successive collata perpetuo illis ad quos pertinent videbantur amitti propter quod etiam murmurabant plurimi alii se difficiliores ad conferendum talibus beneficia exhibebant Nos volentes super hoc congruum remedium adhibere ne cuiquam sua liberalitas sit dampnosa per quam potius meruit gratiam favorem statuimus ut clericis Ecclesiae Romanae vel aliis Ytalicis qui praebendas vel Ecclesias seu alia Ecclesiastica beneficia in Anglia obtinent vel obtinuerint à modo decedentibus Praebendâ—e vel Ecclesiae seu alia beneficia nequaquam à nobis vel alio illa vice alicui conferantur sed ad illos libere redeant ad quos illorum donatio dinoscitur pertinere c. Dat. Lateran quarto Kalend. Martii Pontificatus nostri anno quinto 69. Yet neither this nor the renewing of it by Gregory the 9. with a speciall indulgence directed venerabilibus fratribus universis Archiepiscopis Episcopis aâ— dilectis fil is Abbatibus aliis Ecclesiarum Praelatis per Angliam constitutis ut si quando ad vos literae Apostolicae pro beneficiandis