of Wine and prayes over it and offers it to the married Couple to tast but the Bridegroom dashes it against the Wall in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem so the Bridegroom in sign of sorrow puts on a black Cloak and the Bride a black Hood Mr. Addison tells of the Barbary Jews That they are married at the Bride's Chamber only by putting a Ring on the Woman's finger and pronunciation of these words by the Rabbi Thou art Married or Sanctified unto this Man with this Ring according to the Law And when married they use a foolish Ceremony if the Bride is a Virgin they give her Wine in a narrow-mouth'd Cup if a Widow in a broad mouth'd Cup and after the Bridegroom casts a raw Egg at the Bride c. And how the fopperies of such Ceremonies come by God's Law to make a marriage or no marriage or legitimate or illegitimate the Child no rational Man ever understood Plurality of Wives As to the determination of number of Wives by Nature it seems to be according to the number she her self gives As in the East and Southern climes the Feminine number naturall exceeding the Males many fold And in times of great destructions by Wars such as are foretold Isa 3.25 Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in War and her Gates shall lament and mourn and being desolate shall sit upon the ground And in that day seven Women shall take hold on one Man In the Kingdom of Benym amongst the Negro's the King hath five or six hundred Wives and his Subjects keep 20 30 40 50. 60. according to their ability and the poorest sort five or six and some a Dozen Hierotinus an Arabian King had six hundred Children by Concubines so it seems excessive multiplication may be one reason against Plurality It was a Law amongst the Garamants That when any Woman married had three Children she should be separated from her Husband because a multitude of Children cause Men to have covetous hearts and if any Woman bring forth more Children they shall be slain before their Eyes Aristotle in his Politiques thinks it profitable That Plebeians should not have too many Children and therefore allows Divorce lest the Wives should bear too many Connubia mille non illis generis nexus non pignora curae sed numero languet pietas Claud. de Bell. Gild. Amongst the Medes antiently Polygamy was so far from being esteemed a fault that it was a punishment for a common Person not to have seven Wives and for Noble Women to have less then five Husbands Heylin 814. Of the custom of the Jews to keep one barren Wife and another to breed One Barren and another Breeding Wife Selden de Jur. natur lib. 5. pag. 586. translates out of a Jewish Rabbi these words Sub diluvium hominum mos erat ut pro libitu binas sibi duceret quisque uxores alteram prolis gratia alteram in Concubitum ea autem quae prolis gratia haberetur velut vidua quamdiu superstes esset degebat sed ea quae in Concubitum adhiberetur sterilitatis exhaurire solebat Poculum ut sterilis redderetur atque juxta virum accumbere solita velut meretricio ornabatur habitu And in another place ornata etiam velut nova nupta lautiores comedebat dapes acerbius autem durius tractabatur socia lugebat vidua To which alludes Job 24.2 as 't is in the Hebrew he fed the Barren which brings not forth but did no good to the Widow Moses saith Cursed be he that lieth with his Sister Incest the Daughter of his Father or the Daughter of his Mother Deut. 27.22 Yet Abraham allowed it in his time and married Sarah And Amram took him Jochebed his Father's Sister to Wife and she bare him Aaron and Moses and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years Exod. 6.20 Aretas King of Arabia Petraea and Herod fell at strife the one with the other for this cause which ensueth Herod the Tetrarch had married Aretas his Daughter with whom he lived married a long time afterwards taking his Journey towards Rome he lodged with Herod his half Brother by the Father's side for Herod was the Son of Simon 's Daughter which Simon was the High Priest and there being surprized with the love of Herodias his Brother's Wife who was Daughter to Aristobulus their Brother and Sister to the great Agrippa he was so bold as to offer her some speech of marriage which when she had accepted Accords were made between them That he should banish his Wife Aretas far from him who complaining to her Father the Arabian King of the injury done her by her Husband Herod the same raised War between him and Herod Josep lib. 18. cap. 7. de Antiq. And Aretas overt rowing Herod's Army divers Jews were of opinion That this Judgment fell upon him because he had cut off John's head by the instigation of Herodias ibid. But as for this opinion divers believe that it hath been foisted into Josephus vid. Blâ—ndell Hist Sybill But as to the Point in question of Incest 't is very clear That John justly reproved Herod for marrying his Brother's Wife whether there was a Judgment followed on it or not But it cannot be infer'd that the cause why he reproved it or why the War followed on him was Incest but the cause thereof is more likely to be because he so wrongfully Divorced his first lawful Wife and likewise caused his Brother's Wife to be Divorced from him while his Brother was alive and Tetrarch of Galilee that he might have her from him So here was a double Divorce matter enough to reprove without minding any Incest which agreed likewise with the Doctrine of Christ and 't is manifest that was the only cause of the War and not any pretence of Incest for Aretas would have raised the War alike if the wrong had been done his Daughter by a strange Woman as if it had been by a Kinswoman Therefore no Argument can be brought that St. John's opinion was this was Incest nor that any Judgment happen'd for Incest but rather for unlawful Divorces so the marrying the Brother's Wife to raise up Seed to the Brother seems a custom tolerated for hardness of their hearts and not to be imitated by Christians Tryal of Virginity more wicked then the Bill of Divorce for this was after the Husband had lain with her Tryal of Virginity and perhaps likewise he might have got her with child Deut. 22.13 It is said If any man take a Wife and go in unto her and hate her and give occasion of speech against her and say I took this Woman and when I came to her I found her not a Maid Then shall the Father of the Damsel and her Mother take and bring forth the Tokens of the Damsel's Virginity unto the Elders of the City in the Gate and the Damsel's Father shall say
cùm vix esset dare causam quin ratione peccati possit deferri ad Ecclesiam Object 3 Stat. Merton gives them no Jurisdiction It 's alledged That it appears by the Statute of Merton that Henry the Third writ in his time to the Bishop to certifie Marriage and Bastardy First It is to be understood therefore that in the time of Pope Alexander the Third Anno Dom. 1160. which was Anno 6. H. 2. in whose time all Matrimonial Causes beonged to the King's Courts This Constitution was made That Children born before Solemnization of Matrimony where Matrimony followed should be as Legitimate to inherit to their Ancestors as those that were born after Matrimony It is likewise further to be known that King John the Father of Henry the Third who made this Statute of Merton following was by the then Pope Innocent Excommunicated King John Excommunicated as likewise at the same time was the Emperor Otho and the whole Kingdom of England Interdicted and so remained for the space of Six Years Three Months and Fourteen Days during all which time there was no Church open for Marriages or Burials but the poorer People were buried like Dogs in Ditches and where they married God knows Through which King John was driven to such distress by his own Bishops and Barons and the French assisting the Pope against him that he was forced before he could get to be released of this Excommunication to pay the Pope vast Sums of Money and to lay down his Crown and Scepter Mantle Sword and Ring the Ensigns of his Royalty at the feet of Pandolphus the Pope's Legat and submit himself to the Mercy and Judgment of the Church Two Days some write Six it was before the Legat restored him to his Crown which he likewise received again on no better Terms then to hold the Kingdom of England and Lordship of Ireland from the See of Rome at the Annual Tribute of a Thousand Marks Silver and the Excommunication was not to be taken off but deferred till further and full satisfaction was made to the Clergy which was not done till Two Years after The Bishops being hereby arrived at so great an height of their Tyrannical Power over this King The Bishops usurped the exercise of Ecclesistical Laws by force over their Kings As that when the King having obtained absolution had gather'd a great Army to have been revenged on the French King the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury told him 't was against his Oath at his Absolution and the King in a great passion reply'd He would not defer the Business for his pleasure seeing Lay-judgment appertained not to him the Arch-Bishop presumed to threaten his native Soveraign that unless he desisted he would Excommunicate him Note therefore That in the time of H. 3. who was the Eldest Son of King John the Bishops continued to assume the Power of Lay-judments as well in Marriages as they did of shutting up of Churches in which they were made from the Pope to whom they had inforced King John to surrender his Crown and not from the King 's Writ as that Statute of Merton shews rather a proud Renunciation and scorn to answer the King 's Writ concerning Marriage then any use permitted by them to the King of the same unless he would as his Father had done lay down again his Crown to them and have Marriage judg'd according to the Law of the Pope for otherwise they tell him plainly They neither will nor can answer his Writ as appears by the Statute it self the words whereof follow 20 H. 3. Cap. 9. To the King 's Writ of Bastardy Whether one being born before Matrimony may Inherit in like manner as he that is born after Matrimony All the Bishops answer'd That they would not nor could not answer to it because it was directly against the common Order of the Church that is meant the Romish Church And all the Bishops instanted the Lords that they would consent that all such as were born afore Matrimony should be Legitimated as well as they who were born within Matrimony as to the succession of Inheritance for so much as the Church accepteth such for Legitimate And all the Earls and Barons answer'd with one voice That they would not change the Laws of the Realm which hitherto have been used and approved Coke 2 part Inst 97. It is said Though the Bishops are Spiritual Persons yet in case of general Bastardy when the King writes to them to certifie who is lawful Heir to any Lands or other Inheritances they ought to certifie according to the Law and Custom of England and not according to the Roman Canons and Constitutions yet if they do make their Certificate according to the Canon Law No remedy against Bishops making Certificates contrary to the King's Laws General Bastardy uâ—urped by Bishops not given them by Law and not the Law of the Land there appears no Remedy unless such a one as is worse then the Disease Sir Galfred le Scrope Cheif Justice saith Before this Statute of Merton the Party pleaded not general Bastardy but that he was born out of Espousals and the Bishop ought to certifie whether he were born before Espousals or not and according to that Certificate to proceed to Judgment according to the Law of the Land And the Prelates answered That they could not nor would not to this Writ answer and therefore ever since special Bastardy viz. that the Defendant c. was born before Espousals hath been Try'd in the King's Courts and general Bastardy in the Bishops Court and herewith agree out old Books and the constant Opinion of the Judges ever since Coke 2 part Inst 99. It being before granted That the Law of England cannot be changed but by an Act of Parliament and Magna Charta being before made and being a Declaration of the ancient Common Law First That no Freeman was to be put out of his Free-hold or Inheritance but per legale Judicium parium and there being no cause of its own Nature more Temporal or more concerning Succession to Temporal Inheritance then Marriage It was contrary to Magna Charta and the Common Law to judg the Fact of it by any other Judges then Juries and the Law of it by any other Judges then those of Temporal Courts and though the Pope and Bishops in those Superstitious times forced the Kings many times as they did King John to yeild his Crown and the Subjects to yeild their Marriages and other Temporal Rights to their Arbitrary and Saleable Sentence for fear of Excommunication yet doth not this any way prove that the Jurisdiction of Marriage was ever granted them by any Law or Act of Parliament or could be without it were contrary to a known Common Law and Act of Parliament which expressly gave the trial of Temporal Rights and Inheritances to a Legale Judicium parium and not to any Ecclesiastical Judges or Laws Now therefore it being clear they had
not to be objected against us because we are not subject to Foraign Laws Again that custom or use of Civil or Canon-Laws or Precedents doth not make Civil or Canon-Law the Law of England appears by the use of Sentences of Philosophers and Poets and Precedents of Historians all as much used in Courts of Records of Courts of Judicature as the Civil or Canon-Law yet doth not this use or custom make these Sentences of Philosophy and Poets and the like to be the Law of England or obligatory to the People of England unless such Sentences of Philosophers and Poets are selected from the rest and inacted or confirmed by Act of Parliament to be hereafter the Laws of England And they are so far otherwise from being Laws of England that Cardinal Woolsey Mich. 21. H. 8. Coram Rege was Indicted That he intended Antiquissimas Angliae Leges penitus subvertere enervare universumque hoc Regnum Angliae ejusdem Regni populum Legibus imperialibus vulgo dictis Legibus Civilibus earundem Legum Canonibus in perpetuum subjugare subducere c Let any shew a sensible reason why the Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges who actually bring in the whole heap of Civil and Canon Laws to judge of the Marriages Filiation and Succession of the Subjects and amongst them the new coin'd Law at the Council of Trent made when Forein Jurisdiction was abolish'd and thereby actually deprive him of that invaluable liberty to which every Native Subject is born and is confirmed to him by so many Acts of Parliament And those great Fundamental Acts Magna Charta and the Petition of Right to have his Birth-right tried per legale judicium parium deserve not as high a censure by Parliament as Cardinal Woolsey had who only intended to do the same And if any hath any mind to consult besides the Laws and Precedents against Forein Laws and Precedents Bod. lib. 1. of a Common-wealth fo 107 108. will give him some satisfaction Forein Laws become not the Laws of this Land by being used by Lawyers where he saith It was in most strong Terms judged by a Decree in the Court of Paris in the Case of Philip the Second the French King That be was not bound unto the customs of the Civil Law at such time as they who were next kindred would have redeemed of him the Countrey of Guyens howbeit that many both think and write the Prince to be bound to that Law for that they think that Law to be Common to all Nations and not Common to any City And yet than the which Law the Romans themselves in some Cases thought nothing more unreasonable But our Ancestors would not have even our Subjects bound to the Roman Laws as we see in the Ancient Records that Philip the Fair erecting the Parliament of Paris and Mompelier declared That they should not be bound unto the Roman Laws And in the erection of Universities the Kings have always declared That their purpose was to have the Civil and Canon Laws in them publickly professed and taught to make use thereof at their discretion but not that the Subjects should be any way bound thereto lest they should seem to derogate from the Laws of their own Countrey by advancing the Laws of strangers And for the same cause Alaricus King of the Goths forbad upon pain of death any Man to alledge the Roman Laws contrary to his Decrees and Ordinances which M. Charles du Moulin my Companion and Ornament of all Lawyers mistaking is therefore with him very angry and in reproach calleth him therefore barbarous howbeit that nothing was therein by Alaricus decreed or done but that which every wise Prince would of good right have decreed and done For Subjects will so long both remember and hope for the Government of Strangers as they are Govern'd by their Laws The like Edict there is of King Charles the Fair and an old Decree of the Court of Paris whereby we are expresly forbidden to alledge the Laws of the Romans against the Laws and Customs of our Ancestors Yea the King of Spain also hath upon Capital pain forbidden any Man to alledge the Roman Laws in confirmation of their own Laws as Oldrad writeth And albeit there was nothing in the Laws and Customs of their Country which differ'd from the Roman Laws yet such is the force of that Edict that all men may understand that the Judges in deciding of the Subjects Causes were not bound unto the Roman Laws And therefore much less the Prince himself who thought it a thing dangerous to have his Subjects bound unto strange Laws And worthy he is to be accounted a Traitor that dares to oppose strange Laws and strange Decrees against the Laws of his own Prince In which doings when the Spaniards did too much offend Stephen King of Spain forbad the Roman Laws to be at all taught in Spain as Polycrates writeth Which was more straightly provided for by King Alphonsus the Tenth who commanded the Magistrates and Judges to come unto the Prince himself and as often as there was nothing written in the Laws of their Country concerning the matter in Question Wherein Baldus is mistaken when he writeth the Italians to be bound to the Roman Laws but the French no otherwise than so far as they should seem unto them to agree with Equity and Reason For the one is as little bound as the other howbeit that Italy Spain the Countries of Province Savoy Languedoc and Lyonnois use the Roman Laws more then other People And that Frederick Barbarossa the Emperour caused the Books of the Roman Laws to be published and taught the greatest part whereof have yet no place in Italy and much less in Germany But there is much difference betwixt a Right and a Law for a Right still without command respecteth nothing but that which is good and upright but a Law importeth a Commandment for the Law is nothing else but the Commandment of a Soveraign using of his Soveraign Power Wherefore then as a Soveraign is not bound unto the Laws of the Greeks nor of any other stranger whatsoever he be no more is he bound unto the Roman Laws more then that they are conformable unto the Law of Nature which is the Law whereunto saith Pindarus all Kings and Princes are subject From which we are not to except either the Pope or the Emperour as some pernicious Flaterers do saying That those two viz. the Pope and the Emperour may of Right without cause take unto themselves the Goods of their Subjects Object 5 Forein Laws cannot be baptized with the name of the King's Laws without act of Parliament As to what is mention'd of baptizing Forein Ecclesiastical Laws by the name of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of England he seems still to mistake and puts baptizing by the name where it should have been confirmation by the name and that confirmation too to be given not by the Bishops but the
Parliament Besides there is not de facto that name given for the Ecclesiastical Court is kept in the Bishop's name and not in the King's name And the Bishop takes all the profits and not the King Fain he would mend the matter and says That a Leet is kept in the Lord's name and he hath the profits yet it is the King's Court. It might better been said it was once the King 's before he gave it or sold it to the Lord of the Leet as are many Lands not being Ancient Crown-Lands The King purchases but if he sell again such Lands for valuable considerations the propriety as well as the name of such Lands is then in the buyer and not in the King Therefore though he hath set out his Book as baptized both in Latin and English by the name of de jure Regis Ecclesiastico and of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws yet with due Reverence to the opinion of so great a Father of the Law it may be said there appears none either to baptize or confirm the name nor any God-father to it but himself Neither will the Title of the King 's Temporal Laws set upon Magna Charta which gives that liberty to every Subject of Tryal of his Birth-right per legale judicium parium be consistent with the Title of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws which take it away and give it to a Trial by Certificate of the Bishop Object 6 It is again by Coke alledged and Precedents cited That Edward the Confessor William the First Henry the First Henry the Third Edward the First Edward the Second and all English Kings have Govern'd and Ruled both the Kingdom and the Holy Church and have given Jurisdiction to Abbots Priors and Bishops and have granted prohibitions when they transcended the bounds of their Jurisdictions and that Reges sacro oleo uncti sunt spiritualis Jurisdictionis capaces but still this is nihil ad rhombum nor pertinent to make good the Name or Title he hath set his Book of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws For there is a great difference if he had Entitled it de jurisdictione Regis Ecclesiastica for the King's Jurisdiction and the King's Laws are clean divers things And there is a great difference where he grants Jurisdiction to Ecclesiastical Persons and where he grants them by what Laws they shall exercise that Jurisdiction for the King 's of England have Anciently granted Jurisdiction and Commissions to Ecclesiastical persons as Bishops and Priests to be Judges in the King's-Bench Chancery and other Courts yet could they not grant them power to judge by any other Laws than the Laws of England except by Act of Parliament Then as to granting prohibitions where the King had not or could not by Law grant them Jurisdiction proves nothing that any King did or could by Law grant them Jurisdiction of general Bastardy without Act of Parliament or that there was any Law or Act of Parliament which gave them Jurisdiction of general Bastardy because the King's Courts durst not grant prohibitions for general Bastardy For in those superstitious times neither the King nor Judges dar'd provoke their Excommunication and therefore at the making of the Statute of Merton when the contest was between the Ecclesiastical and Secular Power which of them should give the Law to Marriage The Temporal Judges for fear of their Excommunication took only like the Jackal what the Lion refused and left them which they called special Bastardy So quod non capit Christus capit fiscus which is intended of the false Christ for the true Christ took nothing from it but paid tribute to it Besides if many Jurisdictions should judge by other Laws this would be destructive both to the King and Subject Though the King therefore give the Sword he cannot change the Ballance as is in effect confess'd by Coke himself 3 pt Inst fol. 120. in his Exposition of the Statute 27 E. 3. of Praemunire where he saith The right of King and Subjects not triable per alias Leges or aliud Examen then the laws of the Land If Freehold and Inheritance Goods or Chatâ—les Debts or Duties wherein the King and Subjects have a right or property should be judged per aliam legem which he mention'd before to be Civil or Canon Law And other Trial which he makes to be any Trial except by Jury or be drawn ad aliud examen These three mischiefs endeavour'd to be prevented in the said Statute would necessarily follow viz. Disherison of the King and his Crown the Disherison of all his People and the undoing of the Common Law And fol. 121. he farther saith Some have made a question whether since the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was acknowleged in the Crown an Ecclesiastical Judge holding Plea of a Temporal Matter belonging to the Common Law doth incur the danger of a Praemunire Though hereof is no question at all yet lest any Man might be led into an Error in a Case so dangerous we will clear this point by Reason Precedent and Authority The Reason holdeth still to draw the Matter ad aliud examen c. And he citeth before several Precedents and says The reason of all these Cases is because it drawes matters Triable at Common Law ad aliud examen and to be discussed per aliam legem Peter du Moulin that famous Protestant Divine writes That there was a a Book printed in the former Age entitle The Canons of the Apostles Anti-Christian whereby the Temporal power of the Pope is wholly taken away And the sixth Canon expresly forbids a Bishop to meddle in Civil affairs And in the 84th Canon are these words A Bishop that meddles in War or seeks to obtain these two things that is to say the Empire of Rome and the Sacerdotal Government let him be deposed for the things of Caesar are to be given to Caesar and the things of God to God And that one Arnold who Preached this Doctrine That the Pope had no Jurisdiction nor any thing to do with the Temporal affairs with great applause was in the year 1155 made a Martyr and most cruelly burnt at Rome by the order of Pope Adrian And this agrees with the Testimony of Christ himself Bishops Judg. not only as to Jurisdiction of Marriage and Legitimation but all other matters wherein Temporal propriety comes in question that he refused the Jurisdiction of it as appears Luk. 12.13 And one of the company said unto him Master speak unto my Brother that he divide the inheritance with me And he said unto him Man who made me a Judge or Divider over you It appears therefore the Episcopal Jurisdiction of judging or dividing Temporal goods in the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Courts came not from Christ but was usurped by Anti-Christ by force of Fire and Faggot and is from him derived to Bishops and Ecclesiastical Courts to the destruction of the rights of Princes and the liberty and propriety of the people
who ought only to stand to Caesar's Judgment Seat and to be tried per legale judicium parium for the same According to this principle Henry the first Pope Paschal seeking to incroach on the liberty of the Kingdom writes unto him in this manner Netum habeat sanctitas vestra quod me vivente auxiliante deo dignitates usus Regni nostri Angliae non imminuentur si ego quod absit in tanta me dejectione ponerem Optimates mei totus Angliae populus id nullo modo paterentur Let your Holiness know that by God's help while I live the Dignities and Customs of our Kingdom of England shall not be diminished and though I which God forbid should suffer my self to fall into so dejected a condition my Nobles and whole People of England will never suffer it Object 7 It is further objected in behalf of Trial of marriage by Ecclesiastical Laws that by the Statute of 25 H. 8. c. 19. which gives power to the King to appoint 32 persons to examin the Canons and to continue such as they think fit and abridge the rest It is provided That such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodical Provincials being already made which be not contrariant or repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the damage or hurt of the King's Prerogative Royal shall now still be used and executed as they were before the making of this Act till such time as they be viewed searched or otherwise order'd and determined by the said 32 persons or the most part of them which Statute is revived 1 Eliz. 1. To which is answer'd That 1. what is contrariant or repugnant to the Law of God is made void without this proviso and the assuming the Jurisdiction of marriage and dividing Inheritances insuing thereby is before proved to be Anti-Christian for Spiritual persons who alledge themselves Successors of Christ and much more therefore the assuming the Legislative power or giving Laws or Canons for the same 2. It is shewen likewise before that the same power of Legislation and Jurisdiction concerning marriage was usurped by Fire and Faggot and Excommunication and therefore their Canons concerning marriage are not intended or if they were yet this proviso cannot Lawfully preserve such usurpations so contrary to the Law of God 3. It is manifest that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Laws and Canons of marriage are contrariant and repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm as First the Canons then made were That marriage should be a Sacrament and thereby draw to it self Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which latter Acts of Parliament establishing the Protestant Religion doth thereby abolish the being of marriage a Sacrament and consequently the Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical incident to it as a Sacrament and the Canons which make it so or give any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction relating to the same 4. All Ecclesiastical Canons of marriage are contrariant and repugnant to Magna Charta and draw the Subject from his liberty propriety and Birth-right ad alias leges aliud examen and aliud judicium then legale judicium parium which Magna Charta of liberties to the Subject hath been confirmed by several Kings succeeding above thirty times Object 8 It is objected Admit there is no Act of Parliament gives Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction of Marriage yet the unwritten Law of Use and Custom which is the Common Law of England and so long toleration gives it To which may be answer'd That by the Canon Laws Malus usus abolendus besides there was never any use of Jurisdiction of marriage in the Ecclesiastical Courts otherwise then in reference to the same as being a Sacrament which being now taken away cessante causa ratione legis cessat lex So likewise where the thing which a Use or Custom concerns is but changed the Use and Custom vanisheth as if by custom a Rate Tith be paid for two Fulling Mills in one House and one of them is changed to a Corn Mill the custom is gone But besides this being malus usus is of it self void and were it never so long used can never grow to have the obligation of the Common Law or to be thereby the Common Law As was well answered by a young Gentleman when complaint was made in Parliament against the wrongful incroachments of the Ecclesiasticks and they alledged for themselves That they had used and accustomed time out of mind to practise what was excepted against He reply'd So have Thieves at Shooter's Hill used time out of mind to Rob there yet the Law allows no such prescription nor doth the forced Toleration of their wickedness by such people as were not able to resist their Robberies oblige Successors to follow their precedents Reasons against Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Marriage 1. Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage came from the Devils c. The first Reason against Ecclesiastical Laws is in regard of the wicked Authors for all the Laws by which Bishops judge Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession were invented by Daemons Pagan Gods and Goddesses Magicians Aruspices Astrologers South-sayers Priests of Priapus and Venus Jupiter Juno Cybele Flora Diana common Prostitutes Popish Saints Popish Councils Popes or Papists The Canon prohibiting and nulling all Marriage without a Priest in a Temple except by the Pope's good License or Dispensation was made by the Pope and the Council of Trent as appears Ego Concil 147. pt 5. Concil 197. pt 6. as a main Pillar to support their tottering Kingdom against the growing strength of the then Lutheran Protestants All marriage Preists instituted in the Mysteries of Priapus and they took their pious precedents from the old Pagan Priests of Priapus and Venus and they had it from their Damons or Devils That all the ancient Pagan Priests were first initiated in the Mysteries of Priapus before they could be capable to execute the Priests office cannot be denied and is testified by divers Authors and particularly by Cornelius Agrippa de van Sci. p. 738. in these words Sordidissimus Priapus pro Deo habitus hunc coluerunt primi illi Religionum artifices Chaldaei Aegyptii Assyrii Babylonii Arâ—bes Scythae Aethiopes ac perinde tota Africa Asia Europa nec fas erat ullum sacerdotem fieri qui Priapi sacris non erat initiatus Hic est ille Belphegor idolum omnium antiquissimum quod Chamos dictum est à Chamo filio Noe. The filthy Priapus was estemed a God and was worshiped by those first founders of Religion the Chaldeans Egyptians Assyrians Babylonians Arabians Scythians Phoenicians Ethiopians and even all Africa Asia and Europe neither was it lawful for any to be a Priest unless he were first initiated in the Rites of Priapus This is that Belphegor of all other Idols the most ancient which is likewise called Chamos of Cham the Son of Noah Now this was the Law of these Priests for the wicked ends which are after mentioned Dispensation with Incest came
Juvenal Veniet cum signatoribus Auspex and of Ovid Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait and they declared to the parties the unlucky Ides Kalends and all the dismal times and days which got the Cheats much money from the foolish people and to continue the same Trade the same was revived by Popes and Councels of Laodicea Iterda and Trent by their prohibitions of Marriage in times of Advent Septuagesima and Rogation Pope Soter made the Law prohibiting Marriage without delivery of the Woman by the Father and receiving a Benediction from the Priest Delivery by the Father and Benediction by the Priest yet Christ saith For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and though a Father may deny to give his Daughter so liberal a Portion if she marry without his consent as he would give with it yet can he not prohibit her to marry and when Rachel said to Jacob Give me children or I die and he in anger replyed Am I God he thereby shews that 't is not the Benediction of the Priest or Pilgrimages to Saints cause fertility or sterility but Children are the gift of God Marriage within the fourth degree Pope Calixtus made the Law prohibiting Marriage within the fourth degree either of Consanguinity or Affinity and others extend the same as well to Spiritual as Carnal kindred The Law prohibiting Marriage without License was first set up by the Priests of Priapus and Venus License to marry And the Priests of Diana her self could no more live without License-money for Marriage then those of Venus which made the Virgins of Greece before they presumed to marry humbly to beg the Goddess's pardon that they left her Nunnery for which they brought good Fees and Offerings to the Priests Power of the Pope translated to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Law of Dispensations Legitimations and Confirmations of Marriages and Children and the whole Papal power therein translated to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by 25 H. 8.21 was made by Papists in a time of Popery The Law of Banes was invented by Popes and revived by the late long Parliament Banes and the Laws of New England only translating the Marriage to the Magistrate instead of the Priest Marriage without a Priest or Temple The Law prohibiting marriage without a Priest and a Temple was invented by the Priests of Priapus and Venus and revived by the Pope and Council of Trent In all these Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage the two Strumpets Theodora of Justinian Strumpets and Theodora of Pope Sergius and that impudent Quean Marozia and other Strumpets of the Popes had a great hand We are like therefore to have excellent Laws in the Bishops Courts and Justice for Marriage Fillation and Succession while the Laws of such Legislators continue All Laws prohibitory of Marriage or Meats came from the Devil Lastly There needed not to those who believe the Scripture this Recital of so many wicked persons to be Authors of this mention'd Ecclesiastical Laws for it is manifest by the Scripture it self that all Laws prohibitory of Marriage or Meats they being things not indifferent but necessary for the preservation of Humane Nature in the least Ceremony or Circumstance where they are not prohibited by the Law of God came from the Devil as appears 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. Now the Spirit saith expresly That in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking lyes in Hypocrisie having their consciences seared with an hot Iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving I conclude therefore that all the fore-mentioned Ecclesiastical Laws prohibiting marriage without their Popish Ceremonies or Circumstances not appointed by God came from the Devil or many Devils The Final causes of the Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Marriage invented by Daemons and the Priests of Priapus and Venus were Lust Covetousness and Ambition of the Priests The second Reason against Ecclesiastical Laws is the wicked ends for which they were invented which were no other but only to satisfie the insatiable Lust Covetousness and Ambition of Priests As to which the Indian Histories mention That in the Kingdom of Molabar neither the King or People are allowed to have a Wife Luft Covetousness Ambition of Priests the only ends of Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage unless sanctified for him by the first nights Lodging of the holy Bramin who is their Priest which is the reason that there the King's Sons succeed not to the Kingdom but their Sister's Sons for they say they know not the Father but they know the Mother Linschot Little better is done in Catholic Kingdoms often times though not openly yet secretly by those unchristian Bramins the Cardinal Confessors and it is common in Italy for Catholics to jeer one another that their Children are Fils de Prestre The Benyan Indians give their Priests the first fruits of their Wives and think the Marriage will not be blessed without it The Southern Americans in divers parts think it a great Devotion to offer their Daughters to be first defloured by the Priest The Algier Mahometans and the people of other parts of Africa think it a meritorious work to prostitute their Wives to their Morabates or holy Saints whom they esteem their Prophets And Leo Afer who was that Countrey-man tells a story of one of these holy Prophets who came to a Town and espying a handsom Woman being a person of very good quality and great esteem in the Town yet the Prophet took her being at a Bath and lay with her openly in the concourse of a great multitude of people who applauded the Fact as a great honour to the Lady and many of them ran to congratulate her Husband how happy he was to have so holy a Man partner with him in his Wife and when some of the better sort of people whose discretion was a degree above the common superstition of their Religion went and informed the Magistrates of the Town of the foul and shameful act was committed by a Vagabond Prophet and they sent their officers to apprehend him the people rose upon them and would have knockt out the Brains both of Officers and Magistrates had they not speedily desisted Carpenter reporteth from a Monk of Doway That not long ago it was a custom in Biscay a Province in Spain that every Man having married a Wife sent her the first night to the Priest of the Parish which it seems was the Fee due to the Priest for his labour the same day of marrying her in his Temple Carp 193. So it was at the door of the Tabernacle Hophni and Phinehas Sons of the Priest lay with the Women of the congregation 1 Sam. 2.22 To the Temple of Marriage the Popish Priests have of latter times added the Chappel of Ease of Auricular Confession Auricular Confession in a more commodious
henceforth all Iustices of or in the Courts where any Plea is or shall be depending taken or moved in which Pleas so depending taken or moved Bastarvy shall be alledged against any person party to the same Plea and thereupon an Issue joyned which by the Law ought to be certified by the ordinary that the Iudges or one Iudge of or in the Courts where the said Plea is or shall be depending taken or moved before the time that any Writ of Certificate pass out of the same Court to the Ordinary to certifie upon the Issue so joyned or to be Ioyned shall make a Remembrance under their Seals or his Seal at the suit of the Demandant or Tenant Plaintiff or Defendant in the Plea in which the Bastardy is or shall be alledged reciting the Issue that is joyned in the same Plea of Bastardy and certifying to the Chancellor of the King of England for the time being to the intent that thereupon Proclamation be made in the said Chancery by threé Months once in every Month that all persons pretending any interest to object against the parties which pretendeth himself to be Mulier that they sue to the ordinary to whom the Writ of Certificate is or shall be directed to make their allegations and objections against the party which pretendeth him to be Mulier as the Law of the Holy Church requireth And the said Chancellor having notice of the said Remembrance and Issue joyned and being required by the said Demandant or Tenant Plaintiff or Defendant having the said Remembrance to make the said Proclamation as aforesaid The same Chancellor for the time being shall cause to be made Proclamation in the form aforesaid And the Proclamation so made shall certifie in the Court where the said Plea in which the Bastardy is alledged another time shall be depending And that the Iudges of or in the Court where the same Plea is or shall be depending taken or moved before any Proclamation so to be made in the Chancery make one time such Proclamation openly in the same Court and also another time when the Proclamatâ—on shall be certified by the Chancellor of England and made in the form above rehearsed then the said Iudge shall award the said Writ of Certificate to the Ordinary to certifie upon Issue so joyned or to be joyned and if any Writ of Certificate be made or granted before that all the Proclamations in the form aforesaid be made and certified that then the said Writ of Certificate and the Certificate of the Ordinary thereupon made or to be made shall be void in Law and of none effect And if any Writ before this time be directed to any Ordinary to certifie if the said Eleanor Wife of James be Bastard or not and at this time not certified if it be certified hereafter by virtue of the said Writ that the same Certificate of the said Ordinary so made be void and of none effect Rast pla fo 29.105.261.280.577.609 That one Circuit of Action is too much is well known where 't is unnecessary as on penal Bonds sued at Common Law the party injuried is repell'd from any Plea of Equity either that he paid the Money and the Creditor refuses to deliver up his Bond or to give him an acquittance or that he received an acquittance but it was since burnt by fire or he hath since by any other casualty lost it and forces him to a costly tedious and sometimes inextricable Suit for releif in the Chancery whereby the remedy unless for a very great Sum becomes worse then the disease All which Pleas of Equity and others of the like nature might have been far better determin'd in the same Court of Common-Law as is excellently well done in Scotland by admitting those Pleas of Equity in the same Court and on proof of them restricting the Penalty of the Bond to principal Interest Cost and Damage But here the Birth-right of the Subject wherein not only all his Bonds but Lands and Goods are concern'd is put to a tedious Circuit in the Chancery of Suite and Proclamations and after that again to another Circuit of Action in the Spiritual Court and then again to a third Circuit to Common-Law of Prohibitions and then again to a fourth Circuit back to the Spiritual Court by a Consultation Circuits enough to tire any horse much more any honest man yet shall he never come to the end of his journey at last or if he do he shall be rob'd with Theives and as this Statute mentions if true men fail false Witnesses shall be suborn'd against him which if he had staid in one Court and rid no Circuit at all but the matter had been there tried by Twelve good men and true at a Nisi Prius in his own Country none of these Theives or false Witnesses would have dared to appear as they presume to do in so great a Forest as London in the Chancery Ecclesiastical Courts Affidavits and Examiners Officers there aâ—terrible oppression of the Subjects or if they did they would be easily taken or discover'd There are four mischiefs appear in this Statute caused by Ecclesiastical Laws 1. Circuit of Action 2. Endless delay and costs 3. Subornation and perjury of Witnesses 4. Interfering of Jurisdictions One in ordine ad Spiritualia the other in ordine ad Temporalia one in ordine ad naturalem Equitatem the other in ordine ad Legem communem and as to the same certâ—inly a greater Calamity cannot fall on the miserable Client then to be made a Borderer between two Enemies-Countries an Hare between two Dogs a Mouse between two Cats and a Corne between two Milstones Priesthood changed changeth the Law It is said Heb. 7.12 The Priesthood being changed there is of necessity a change also of the Law Either therefore the Papists Preisthood is not intended to be changed into a Protestant-Priesthood but the whole Papal power translated in time of Popery by the 25. H. 8.21 from Rome to Lambeth must so stand for ever or if it be intended this Papal-Priesthood shall be changed into a Protestant 't is not the changing the Person from Italian to English or the place from Tyber to Thames will do it but 't is the changing of the Laws from Papal to Protestant for Papal Laws and a Protestant Priesthood are no more consistent then Fire and Water Many more great exceptions there are against Ecclesiastical Laws which my great hast forceth me to pretermit CHAP. VI. Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession not to be judged by such Laws of England Scotland or Ireland as are Reliques of Popery and contrary to the Law of God Of the Law making Marriage a Sacrament Of the profound Popery of the common Lawyers of Transubstantiation of two persons into one person and the mischeifs thereof A Note taken at Kings-Bench of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton between a Man and Woman Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife
the Doctrine of Christ for ab initio non fuit sic that a verbal Contract of words should pretend above the real Contract of carnal knowledg And the Lady Grey though it doth not appear but that she was otherwise a very vertuous Lady yet if she knew the truth of what is before mention'd concerning the Lady Lucy she cannot be excused in taking that Husband to her self who had already given the first pledg and made the cheif and real Contract of Marriage with another Woman and far happier might she have been if she had ascended a meaner but more lawful Bed for the Earl of Warwick at his return home from France finding by this Marriage his Embâ—ssage frustrated the Lady Bona deluded the French King abused and himself made a stale and the disgraceful Instrument of all this deeply resented and waiting his time raised an Army and by surprize took the King Prisoner and presently conveyed him to Middleton-Castle in York-shire to remain there in safe custody with the Bishop of York where if he had not by fair words and Money gotten his Keepers to permit him the recreation of Hunting and thereby means to escape he had lain at Mercy And after he was escaped and had gather'd sufficient Forces whereby he made the Earl of Warwick fly to the French King where he was honourably received yet the Earl returned again so Potent with the French joined with the great party he had in England that the King was fain to fly to Burgundy and the new advanced Queen to take Sanctuary at Westminster And though her Husband again returned and by a hazardous Battel wherein Warwick himself and many other Lords were slain he recover'd again his Kingdom yet he had so little quiet and less security that what injoyment she obtained of him was always in fear and danger of the Field and other Competitors of the Bed after a man guilty so more unhappy then her self and when she lost him by death she lived to see those Remains of him he had left her two hopeful Sons most cruelly Murther'd and for the conclusion of all her self confined to the Monastery of Bermondsie in Southwark and all her Goods confiscate by her own Son in Law Henry the Seventh yet no just cause appearing against her In which Monastery in great pensiveness within few Years she died There is a Case reported by Sir Jo. Davies and likewise mention'd by the learned Dr. Godolphin in his Repertorium Canonicum 488. to have happened in Ireland which was this G. B. Esq had Issue C. B. on the Body of J.D. whom he had never carried to Priest or Temple but his Son C. B. Desertion of a Woman after a Child for a richer in Ireland was begot by natural marriage without any Pontifical Ceremony About Sixteen Years after G. B. having found a Lady who was richer and of a greater Estate and Reputation then his first Woman by whom he had his eldest Son C. B. Marries her with assent of her Friends by whom he had Issue E. B. and died after the death of G. B. the said C. B. his reputed Son and his Mother being both left alive continued silent by the space of nine Years 'till they happened to have one of their Kindred Bishop of K. by whom they then were encouraged by new hope to obtain their Right who it seems not experienced in the Forms of Judicial Proceedings without any Libel exhibited and not Convocatis Convocandis proceeded to take the Depositions of many Witnesses to prove that the said G. B. Twenty-nine Years before had lawfully married and took to Wife the said J. D. Mother of the said C. B. And the said C. B. was the Legitimate and lawful Son and Heir of the said G. B. And these Depositions so taken the said Bishop caused to be ingrossed and reduced into the Form of a solemn Act and having put his Signiture and Seal to that Instrument delivered the same to C. B. who publish'd it and thereupon alledged himself Son and Heir to the said G. B. Hereupon an information is put into the Castle-Chamber in Ireland against the Bishop suggesting a Conspiracy to Legitimate C. B. Son and illegitimate E. B. the Daughter of the said G. B. And for this Practice the said Bishop and others were Censured This Case and the foremention'd Case of Kenne are both contrary one to another and both contrary to the Law of God In Kennes Case the wrong Heir is Legitimated by the nullifying of a lawful Marriage consummate by carnal knowledg and birth of the right Heir by Sentence of the Spiritual Jurisdiction and there the Common-Law will not releive the right Such Faith they say they are bound to give to the Spiritual Sentence whether right or wrong whether with cause or without cause until the Spiritual Judg revoke his own Sentence himself but here where a right Heir is made Legitimate by Sentence Declaratory of a lawful Marriage between the Father and Mother of the right Heir in the Castle-Chamber the Common-Law will Legitimate the wrong Heir and will give no faith to the Sentence of the Spiritual Judg if that they think it wrong so it seems the Common-Law in Westminster-Hall and the Common-Law in the Castle-Chamber are very contrary one to another as to the point of giving faith concerning Marriage and Legitimation to Spiritual Jurisdiction yet both contrary to right and destructive to the lawful Heir according to the Law of God and both give faith to Common and Canon-Law above the Supreme Law and Legislator Amongst the Greeks the manner of the Contract of Marriage was The Parties going to the Temple before the Priest the Man swore in the presence of Witnesses Se sponsam post concubitum invitum non deserturum That he would not after he should have lain with the Woman forsake her without her consent Arch. Att. 156. The like form of words in the Marriage-Contracts was used by the ancient Romans who shall rise up in Judgment against the Popes who unless Parties mumble the aforemention'd Nonsense of Verba de praesenti give Licence for Money to deceive and desert a Thousand though they have never so many Children by them and to make all Women common and to their own Priests to give example being interdicted all verbal Marriage that they may have the more liberty to abuse the real and to take and leave all they please and as oft as they please The like do the Guiny Priests who converse with the Devil and their form of Contract of Marriage is no doubt according as he will have it For the Woman is there sworn to the Man that she will not desert but the man swears not to her nor will oblige himself by any verbal Contract but is to be left as free as any Popish Priest whatsoever Desertion after deflouring hath caused Seditions and Civil Wars This deflouring and desertion was a while in fashion amongst the Roman Nobles and Patricians who
and those Laws which follow them they will on Divorce under the name of Alimony give the Woman more then the Interest of her Portion amounts to which incourages all Women to seek Divorces whereas the form of Divorce amongst the Romans was Res tuas tibi habeto and she was not to have more then she brought with her and the same is the Law of the Jews and all other Nations except such as live under Popish Ecclesiastical Laws And the injustice of our Ecclesiastical Laws to the contrary is not one of the least causes why Divorce and Separations are of late grown so frequent because Women know they shall gain by the Divorce and rob their Husbands of more then ever they brought them Of the Law of Divorcing after Procreation of a Child for precontract or pre copulation without pre procreation Of the Law prohibiting liberty of private Marriage without publick Witnesses Of the Law giving the Jurisdiction of the secret causes of Divorce between Parents and secret uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses to publick Tribunals Of the Law compelling persons married though mortal Enemies to Co-habitation Of the Law of Divorce à Mensa Thoro. Of the Canon compelling the parties on Divorce for Adultery to give Bonds and Sureties not to marry again during each others life Of the custom of Protestants marrying with Papists Edward the Fourth was as is alledged first verbally contracted to Eleanor Daughter to john Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury married after to Sir Thomas Butler Baron of Sudley after this verbal contract he married Elizabeth the Widow of Sir John Gray she lived his Wife Eighteen Years and Eleven Months and he had issue by her Three Sons and Seven Daughters Elizabeth his eldest Daughter was first promised in marriage to Charles Dauphin of France but married after to King Henry the Seventh Edward the Fourth being dead leaving his two Sons young in the custody of his Brother Richard the Third they were after murdered by him to make his own way to the Crown but first in preparation thereto Dr. Shaw in a Sermon by him Preached at Paul's-Cross took for his Text Spuria vitulamina non agent altas radices And to make short work they were after by Act of Parliament Proclaimed Bastards and not inheritable to the Crown on no other Allegation made but the pre-contracts before mention'd with Eleanor Butler as is recorded in the Parliament Roll. Husband divorces the Wife for cause of precopulation committed by himself Buchanan rerum Scoticarum lib. 11.652 relates That Earl Bothwel aspiring to obtain the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots compelled his Wife to accuse him of pre-copulation with another Woman before he married his Wife Gordonia Bothuelii uxor cogitur in duplici foro litem de Divortio intendere apud judices Regios accusat uxor maritum adulterii quae una justa apud eos erat divortii causa apud judices Papanos lege vetitos tamen ab Archiepiscopo fani Andreae ad hanc litem cognoscendam litem dare accusatur idem ante Matrimonium cùm propinqua uxoris stupri consuetudinem habuisse nulla in Divortio faciendo nec in testibus nec in judicibus fit mora intra enim decimum diem lis suscepta disceptata dijudicata est After he saith one thing thought necessary was ut consuetae servarentur Ceremoniae ut videlicet publice in conventu civium tribus diebus Dominicis nuptiae futurae inter Jacobum Heburnum Mariam Stuartam denuntiarentur ut si quis quid vitii ant impedimenti sciret quo minus legitimè coirent rem ad Ecclesiam deferrent And after he saith Cùm de nuptiis in Ecclesia denunciandis ageretur lector cujus id munus erat constanter recusare collecti Diaconi seniores cùm reluctari non auderent jubent Ecclesiastem nuptias futuras de more edicere is quidem hactenus paruit ut se vitium quidem scire profiteretur ac paratum seu Reginae seu Bothuelio cum vellent judicare is cum in arcem accersitus venisset Regina eum ad Bothuelium remisit qui quanquam nec blanditiis nec minis Ecclesiastem de proposito deduceret nec rem disputationi committere auderet tamen nuptias apparat unus Orcadum Episcopus est inventus qui gratiam aulicam veritati praeferret caeteris reclamantibus causasque proferentibus cur Legitimae non essent nuptiae cum eo qui duas uxores ad huc vivas haberet tertiam ipse suum nuper fassus adulterium demisisset ita indignantibus omnibus bonis vulgo etiam execrante propinquis per literas improbantibus inchoatus publicis Ceremoniis simulatis etiam factas detestantibus tamen Matrimonium celebratur Which fore-mention'd pre-contract alledged against Edward the Fourth was no more just cause to Illegitimate his Children then it was to Murder them nor was his pre-copulation with another Woman confess'd by Earl Bothwel any more just cause to Divorce his Wife then it was to aspire to the Kingdom 32 H. 8. cap. 38. takes notice of the great mischiefs insuing by dissolving by pre-contract Marriage consummate by bodily knowledge and fruit of Children or Child which Statute follows in these words WHereas heretofore the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome 32 H. 8. cap. 38. Of precontract hath always entangled and troubled the meér Iurisdiction and regal power of this Realm of England and also unquieted much the Subjects of the same by his usurped power in them as by making that unlawful which by God's Word is Lawful both in Marriage and other things as hereafter shall appear more at length and till now of late in our Soveraign Lord's time which is otherwise by learning taught than his predecessors in time past long time have beén hath so continued the same whereof yet some sparks be left which hereafter might kindle a greater fire and so remaining his power not to seem utterly extinct Therefore it is thought most convenient to the King's Highness his Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons of this Realm assembled in this present Parliament that two things especially for this time be with diligence provided for whereby many inconvemences have ensued and many more mought ensue and follow As where heretofore divers and many Persons after long continuance together in Matrimony without any allegation of either of the parties or any other at their Marriage why the same Matrimony should not be good just and lawful and after the same Matrimony Solemuized and Consummate by carnal knowledge and also sometimes fruit of Children ensued of the same Marriage upon pretence of former Contract made and not Consummate by carnal Copulation for proof whereof two Witnesses by that Law were only required beén divorced and separate contrary to God's Law and so the true Matrimony both so Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with bodily knowledge and confirmed also with fruit of Children had betweén
Father as we say He quha will have mony Gods he 's na God Postremo Blundus lib. 8. Romae triumphantis is inquit qui illegitimè natus esset ex Concubina vel scorto contumeliae causa Spurius dicitur cò quòd Sabini muliebre pudendum Sporon appellarunt haec ille in bonesto originis genere in lucem editos infami inhonesta appellatione not are voluerunt Veteres And that part of Weemens Claiths sick as of their Gown and Petticoat quhilk under the Belt and before is open commonly is called the Spare As concerning the Succession of Bastard these short rules are to be observed conform to the Law and Practice of this Realm First That na Bastard nor na Person notch procreat and gotten in lawful Marriage maie ony ways be lauchful Aire or Successor to ony of our Soveraine Lordis Leiges lib. 2. c. in Custodiis 50. for be the Law of God Ismael being Bastard gotten upon ane bound Woman Agar micht not be Aire to Abraham with Isaac Gen. 21.10 Because all right of Succession is by reason of bluid and Consanguinity of the Fathers side quhilk is called Jus Agnationis and theirfar ane Bastard quhais Father is incertain be the Law Kin. is understand be reason of bluid to be sib to na man and nane to him I have done both Coke and Skene right and presented what they say to the full now I hope I may have liberty to do the Truth right against them and if I answer but these two I need trouble the Reader with no more for I shall answer all the Law of the highest repute in Great Britain and with the same stroke overthrow all the Bastard-Law of Lawyers and Bastard-Divinity of Bishops in the three Kingdoms Question The Question is Whether Mamzer in the Old Testament and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New are falsely translatèd Bastard Coke and Skene whether retained by the Bishops or free appears not but their best endeavours appear as far as they can to defend the charge of falsity of the translation and to prove the same true which they try to do by the ways following 1. By Etymologies 2. By Authority 3. By Rhime 4. By Reason As to Etymologies they derive Bastard from Bassaris which they say signifies Meretrix 1. What is this to the purpose to prove Nothus a Bastard 2. It is denyed that Bassaris signifies Meretrix for Eustathius will have Bassara to signifie Nutrix Bacchi or a Drunken Mad Woman and Bassaris to signifie Vulpecula First They derive Etymologies from Spurius from Aerd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privativa particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Sporadene from Sporan from the Spare but what agreement have these in sound or sense with Mamzer or Nothus or what Sequel as to the Question can be deduced from them had it not been as pertinent for them to have recited those ridiculous Etymologies which derive Lepus from Levipes and Lapis from Laedipes and Beere from Be here and Money from My honey and concluded Ergo the Bishops have not falsely translated Mamzer and Nothus for there is no reason why Meretrix may not come from an Hare as well as a Fox loquendum cum Vulgo they call her a light Woman And Solomon Prov. 7.11 saith Her Feet abide not in the House Now she is without now in the streets which she ws she is a Levipes And did not Fabius Maximus shew his shoe to one who askt him why he put away his Wife and say Is it not a fair shoe yet none knows besides my self where it wrings my Foot which shews she is a Laedipes then may she not be as well Drunk and Mad with Beer as with Wine which shews such Women may be derived from the one as well as the other and may she not better be called Meretrix from Money then from Wine for Meretrix dicitur à Merendo from letting her self to hire for Money or Reward and this as well agrees with My honey as Money for Solomon saith Prov. 5.3 The lips of a strange Woman drop as an honey-comb and do not the Poets say That a Bee which makes honey stung Cupid by the Finger while he was stealing it whereof he complained to his Mother and doth not this as well prove that Venus came from Bassaris and that Cupid is in Hebrew Mamzer and in Greek Nothus and that therefore Mamzer and Nothus do signifie Bastard which is to infer quodlibet ex quolibet and conclusions from non sequitur's Behold the fantastick Fundamentals of a Matrimonial Divinity and Law built on Etymologies of sounds and air inveloped in the darkness and Clouds of strange Languages of Hebrew Chaldee Syriack Greek and Latine the like to which if done in English would be derided by the very Boys Secondly The next Argument to make good their Bastard-Law is Authority Coke to begin fetches an Author out of Goal without an Habeas Corpus to give him Authority to bring him to any Court he calls him Fleet. lib. 1. cap. 5. Next he makes bold with Bracton and the Book of Assizes E. 3. H. 4. H. 6. E. 4. Skene musters up as before mention'd old King Malcomb the Second Paloeotus Budaeus the Pandects all having the unhappiness to be born bred buried and made in the times of the highest Popery and Superstition and though Plutarchus writ excellently against Superstition and was no Papist he was a Pagan Priest of Apollo who was a Devil and his Priest partial in whatsoever tended to Daemonalatry or the great gains accruing thereby to the Diabolical Priesthood Grotius whom I shall after cite as to his Gigantomachia in making all Giants Bastards in his learned Peice de Jure Bell. Pacis wheresoever he comes to touch on Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession instead of the immutable Law of Nature collects together the old Superstitious Laws Customs and Ceremonies of the Pagans Greeks and Romans and on that sandy Foundation builds Marriage Filiation and Successions on private Pacts and Covenants of Parties or on the publick Pacts or Precepts of human Laws and the Mercenary considerations of Portions Dowries Jointures Morgengabicas Taâ—ls contrary to the Divine ends instituted by God of Marriage All which Authorities or were there numberless more of private Persons or publick States or of Nations Angels Daemons or Men are already shewn to signifie nothing against the least Commandment in the Moral-Law of God Thirdly As to the Rhyming Verses if so great Laws and Nations are no Authority a Poet can be none Pictoribus atque Poetis quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa Potestas And it shall be further shewn after That if Coke allow but this his own Poet to be Authenteck three words of his two Verses confute him unanswerably Fourthly As to Arguments of Reason Coke hath none at all except Quia Filiatio non potest probari which hath been answer'd before in the Law of the Husband 's Fathering the Wive's
devour her Child as soon as it is born The People who are Terrae Filii to be the Earth helping the Woman Prelacy being wroth and going to make War with Dissentient Protestants to be the Dragons being wroth with the Woman and going to make War with the Remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God Old Teslament false translated by Bishops in 848 places and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ And that these are not the only false translations which Bishops make of the Scripture appears by the great Linguist Broughton who in his Advertisements of Corruptions affirms to the then Bishops of England That their publick translations of Scriptures is such as that it perverts the Text of the Old Testament in no less then Eight Hundred Forty Eight places and causeth Millions to reject the New Testament and to run into Eternal Flames Sixthly To shew that Coke needs no other to confute him in the signification of Nothus not to be a Child born out of Wedlock but a plece of his own Rhime I shall recite it which is by him set down Manseribus scortum notho Moechus dedit ortum and is a false Verse for No in Notho is short which might happen by some Error of his Scribe but the true Verse is in Calv. Lex whence I suppose he might have it Sed Moecha Nothis dedit ortum which Moecha signifies an Adulteress which she cannot be unless she is a Married Woman therefore it is plain the Rhime it self confutes him that Nothus is not a Child born out of Wedlock but in Wedlock which is unanswerable as to him because ex ore suo though not as to others who are on better reasons unanswerably answer'd before They corrupt the Press both as to Scripture and Law and interdict Protestants to write against Papists or answer them Act of Parliament against Lollards counterfeit by Bishops Coke 3. part 40. saith There was a Statute supposed to be made 5. R. 2. That Commissions should be by the Lord Chancellor made and directed to Sheriffs and others to Arrest such as should be Certified into the Chancery by the Bishops and Prelates Masters of Divinity to be Preachers of Heresies and notorious Errors their Fautors Maintainers and Abetters and to hold them in strong Prison until they will justifie themselves to the Law of the Holy Church By colour of this supposed Act certain Persons that held Images were not to be worship'd c. were holden in strong Prison until they to redeem their vexation miserably yielded before these Masters of Divinity to take an Oath and did swear to worship Images which was against the Moral and Eternal Law of Almighty God We have said by colour of the supposed Statute c. not only in respect of the said Opinion but in respect also that the said supposed Act was in truth never any Act of Parliament though it was Entred in the Rolls of Parliament for that the Commons never gave their consent thereunto And therefore in the next Parliament the Commons prefer'd a Bill reciting the said supposed Act and constantly affirmed that they never assented thereto and therefore desired that the supposed Statute might be aniented and declared void For they protested that it was never their intent to be justified and to bind themselves and their Successors to Prelates more then their Ancestors had done in times past And hereunto the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Ypleist au Roy. And mark well the manner of the penning the Act for seeing the Commons did not assent thereunto the words of the Act are It is Ordained and Assented in this present Parliament That c. And so it was being but by the King and the Lords It is to be known that of ancient time when any Acts of Parliament were made to the end the same might be published and understood especially before the use of Printing came into England the Acts of Parliament were ingrossed into Parchment and bundled up together with a Writ in the King's name under the great Seal to the Sheriff of every County sometime in Latine and sometime in French to command the Sheriff to proclaim the said Statutes within his Bailwick as well within Liberties as without And this was the course of Parliamentary Proceedings before Printing came in use in England and yet it continued after we had the Print till the Reign of H. 7. Now at the Parliament holden in 5. R. 2. John Braibrook Bishop of London being Lord Chancellor of England caused the said Ordinance of the King and Lords to be inserted into the Parliamentary Writ of Proclamation to be proclaimed amongst the Acts of Parliament which Writ I have seen the purclose of which Writ after the recital of the Acts directed to the Sheriff of N. in these words Nos volentes dictas concordias sive ordinationes in omnibus singulis suis Articulis inviolabiter observari tibi praecipimus quod praedictas concordias sive ordinationes in locis infra Balivam tuam ubi melius expedire volueris tam infra libertates quam extra Publice Proclamari teneri facias juxta formam Praenotatam Teste Rege apud Westm 26. Maij. Anno Regni Regis R. 2.5 But in the Parliamentary Proclamation of the Acts passed in Anno 6. R. 2. the said Act of the 6. R. 2. whereby the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was declared to be void is omitted and afterwards the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was continually Printed and the said Act of 6. R. 2. hath been by the Prelates ever from time to time kept from the Print A Counterfeit Act Printed by Bishops against Protestants What English Protestant can read this without horror what doth he not observe it why 't is that Counterfeit Act of Parliament 5. R. 2.1382 whereby Bishops usurp to be Judges of the Souls and Consciences of Protestants and to put them in strong Prison till they conform and submit to the will of the Bishop 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they usurp to be Judges of Heresie and to make Protestants Hereticks when they please 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they have compell'd the Subjects to swear to worship their Idols 't is that Counterfeit Act whereby they have dragged so many Pious Martyrs to the Stake and burnt them filling the whole Land with fiery Furnaces 't is that Counterfeit Act by which the Bishops have usurped Power to destroy Religion Liberty Propriety and Lives of all Protestant Subjects at their pleasure 't is that Counterfeit Act which was never assented to but disclaimed detested abrogated and declared null and void by the House of Commons 6. R. 2. Anno 1383. and hath been yet most presumptuously caused to be printed as a valid Act by the Bishops being Masters of the Press and the true Act of Abrogation 6. R. 2. Whereon all the Subject hath depends most wickedly suppress'd and never Printed Coke 2.
of Libels and Lampoons It increases unlearned Sects and Heresies who if drawn to Print would either not be able to form their Doctrine in Principles or Positions or if they were they would appear so absurd as would be fit to imploy boys to laugh at rather than Doctors to confute Such were Mahomet's whose Alchoran is not therefore suffered to be Printed or Translated 5. It causes the more dangerous way of spreading Heresies both learned and unlearned to be neglected how to prevent which is the secret creeping into private Houses leading Captive silly Women with whom they walk like the Pestilence in the dark whereas if they appeared in Print or publick Preaching they might be known where they are and opposed 6. It stops the truth of all intelligence which is so invaluable a Treasure and difficult to be got into the Gates of Princes 7. A free Press is the pulse of the Body politic from which is impossible for the wisest State-Physician to discern or prevent the public Distempers unless it is suffer'd to beat free without a Ligature 8. It stops all just causes of complaint and appeal of the Subject to the King and Parliament against Judges and great Officers both Spiritual and Temporal It was my own ill fortune to be prickt Sheriff of a County which enforced me to draw a Petition to be presented to the King and Parliament desiring some remedy against the old Popish Oath continued to be imposed on Sheriffs wherein they swear to destroy the Protestant Religion under the name of Lollary and likewise to be relieved against the extortions of Officers of the Exchequer on Sheriffs which not knowing how otherwise conveniently to Address I appointed the Messenger to get a License to Print which he tryed to do but though there was nothing in it but Humility and Truth as who dare present otherwise to the Legislative Power The Licenser Swore He would not License it for Five Hundred Guinneys whereby it could not be done 9. It stops all presentments by the People to the King and Parliament of public grievances in regard the extent of the Three Kingdoms is great and remote and therefore neither fit nor possible multitudes should come so far to present Petitions in person and if not done in person there are so many Papists and Foreign Agents and their favourers in the way as may and do often intercept from the King's knowledg the humble applications of his Protestant Subjects as is easie to do when perhaps comprised only in one sheet of Paper To avoid therefore the stifling of all just complaints of the Subjects and the ill consequences which have been too often occasioned thereby of presenting Petitions by Tumults and Armies It is far more safe and equal that the Press should be open to the People in all public Addresses to Supream Authority it being many times a sufficient satisfaction to them if they understand that the King and Parliament do but vouchsafe to hear their complaints and desires though they think it not fit to grant them And a Child will often times awe his Enemies from harming him if he do but threaten them he will tell his Father where they know he hath that liberty given him 10. It appears by experience That the Liberty of the Press in Holland and other Foreign States where permitted not only bring no inconveniences but very great benefits and advantages to the People By pretence of giving the King the name of Supremacy they have taken the Thing to themselves The word Supremacy is of so infinite Extent as it can properly be attributed to none but the Divine Power of God and the words Jurisdiction and Government with which it is joyned in the Stat. 1. Eliz. 1. which gives the Form of the Oath of Supremacy are of that Vast Latitude that in their large literal Sense they include all Legislative Judicial and Executive Power amongst men and the Subject matters over which it is exercised are all Divine and Human Rights yea what is more all things Spiritual and Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal circumscribed in nothing to difference it from the Papal Supremacy pretended over Heaven Earth and Hell but the Bounds of her Majesties Dominions within which no wise man ever believed Heaven and Hâ—ll to be contained though the Bishops under pretence of the same Supremacy given her Majesty which the Pope had have in the Royal name exercised the same not only in matters of Marriage Filiation and Succession concerning which I intend here only to contend with them but in all other matters of Oppression of the Consciences and Rights of the Subjects both as to Religion Liberty and Propriety as high as ever the Pope did though never any such Supremacy was intended either by the Statute or Oath to make Canons Judg or Execute but what hath before been or lawfully may be exercised or used so the word lawfully refers to time past as well as future and that neither Pope nor Bishops had ever any lawful Supremacy or Power to make or use Canons or Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Marriage Filiation or Succession but did the same by Usurpation in this Realm is sufficiently proved before against my Lord Coke's Ecclesiastical Law P. 31. and the Form of the Oath makes the Ecclesiastical Supremacy no higher than the Temporal Supremacy which every one knows in all Acts of Legislation is joyntly in the King and Parliament and not singly in either Estate And therefore Bishops can claim to exercise no Supremacy from one unless they have it from both nor of any matter which is not within the Kings Dominions or of any other human Power but only belongs to the Kingdom of God And that Pious Queen her Self who began her Reign with the Statute and Oath of Supremacy soon found the words so general and thereby obscure and the letter wrested to such extremity by Episcopal Expositions that she endeavour'd by a Subsequent Declaration published to have explained and limited according to the true intention but the same not being done by Act of Parliament became not of that Force was desired and left the Bishops more liberty to exercise more Supremacy in the Royal Name by pretence then was in truth intended in the Act or Oath And the subtlety wherewith they glossed their designs appears in the Act it self of which they were the chiefest contrivers For first they begin with a Nolo Episcopare alas as if they intended never to Episcopate or seek for Ecclesiastical Supremacy againâ— for they utterly abolish all Foreign Power which was the Popes and all usurped Power which was their own and annex all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown which includes the Jurisdiction of Marriage Filiation and Succession and many other matters for they knew if any part of the Supremacy had been left at Rome they could never have got it to Canterbury and though the one eased the Burden of the Subject no more than the other but rather by
between them and the Prince they never pretend any such thing as Consecration in either but a civil Contract obliged by mutual Oaths To shew some farther Authority therefore that never any Pope of Rome or Ralf of Canterbury or other Bishop had any Authority from Christ in the New or the Prophets or Priests in the Old Testament to make Tradition of a Crown to any Temporal Prince but the same belonged to the People or their Representative who were to be Subjects It is evident 1. as to Christ John 18.36 His Kingdom is not of this World 2. He never had any Crown but that of Thorns Matth. 27.29 Nor any Robes but the seamless Coat John 19.23 As to the Prophets and Priests in the Old Testament they never made Tradition of any Crown to any King of Israel or Judah but they received them from the People such as wore them and not from any Prophet or Priest for though Nunrod as is already mention'd alledged or feigned before his Usurpation of the first Monarchy that God shewed him miraculously a Crown in the Clouds and Constantine likewise alledged or feigned that God shewed him miraculously a Cross in the Clouds yet never any material Crown or Cross dropt from the Clouds neither doth it appear in Scripture or any History that any material Crown was ever by Miracle made by God or sent by any Prophet or Priest who should have Authority to make Tradition thereof and thereby give Investiture of a Kingdom nor Robes for though Gen. 3.21 God made Coats of Skins and clothed Adam and Matth. 6.30 clothed the Lillies yet it is before said Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Which shews though God made the Lillies he made not Solomon's Robes And the Prophet Ahijah 1 Kings 11.30 though he prophesied the Kingdom to Jeroboam gave him neither Crown nor Robes but rather disrobed him for he caught his new Garment he bad on and rent it in twelve pieces and gave him ten of them And they were the People only that gave him the Investiture by Crown and Robes if those Ceremonies were at all used for it is said Cap. 12.20 The People sent and called him unto the Congregation and made him King over all Israel there was none that followed the House of David but the House of Judah only And Verse 24. It appears that this was from God yet were not the Priests hand in it to Crown him for they would not forsake the Sacrifice at Jerusalem which Verse 27. made Jeroboam to fear that if the people should go thither to sacrifice they would again return to Rehoboam and caused him for prevention to set up the two Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel As to the Coronation of Saul and David we find Saul had a Crown for the Amalekite 2 Sam. 1.10 who tells David he slew him saith I took the Crown that was upon his Head and the Bracelet that was on his Arm and have brought them hither unto my Lord. Coronation of Saul not by the Priest but People 1. It appears not that Samuel gave him this Crown neither is it probable for as hath been said before it appears not in any History that God ever sent a material Crown by any Prophet and as to the Jewish Priests Custom they could have none Saul being the first King in that Kingdom and Law they could have none for the Priest to make Tradition of the Crown to the King for Moses mentions no such thing therefore it was done by the People who were of necessity to shew their assent and acknowledgment by some external Ceremony of acknowledgment of their Governor which after the manner of the Nations after whose example they desired to have a King was by Tradition of a Crown and bringing him Presents which Presents appear 1 Sam. 10.27 to be made by the People and not the Priest for it is there said The Children of Belial said How shall this man save us and they despised him and brought him no Presents Coronation of David on a Conquest by himself As to the Coronation of David it was in a Kingdom he obtained by Conquest made by himself by taking the Crown from the Conquer'd King's Head and setting it on his own head without Prophet or Priest or Contract with the People 2 Sam. 12.26 And Joab fought against Rabbah of the Children of Ammon and took the Royal City And Joab sent Messengers to David and said I have fought against Rabbah and have taken the City of Waters Now therefore gather the rest of the People together and encamp against the City and take it lest I take the City and it be be called after my name And David gather'd all the People together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it And he took their Kings Crown from off his Head the weight whereof was a Talent of Gold with the Pretious Stones and it was set on David's Head Thus appears Coronation to be over a Conquer'd People Coronation of David on a Contract by the People but when David hath to do with a free People of Judah and Israel it appears he neither assumed the Crown himself with his own hand nor received Tradition or Investiture of any Prophet or Priest of the same but from the People on Contracts mutually agreed Yea not only the Crown but the Anointing it self which signified the Kingdoms was given by the People or which is all one by their Representative in Parliament and not by the Priest as will appear from the Texts following viz. 1 Sam. 16 13. where it is said concerning David when he was brought before Samuel Then Samuel took the Horn of Oil and anointed him in the midst of his Brethren and the Spirit of the Lord came on David from that day forward 2 Sam. 2.4 The men of Judah came and there they anointed David King over the House of Judah And 2 Sam. 5.1 Then came all the Tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron And Verse 3. So all the Elders of Israel came to the King to Hebron and King David made a League with them in Hebron before the Lord and they anointed David King over Israel And 1 Chron. 1.1 Then all Israel gather'd themselves to David unto Hebron And Verse 3. Therefore came all the Elders of Israel to the King to Hebron and David made a Covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord and they anointed David King over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel By which appears first that the anointing by Samuel of David gave him no Investiture of the Kingdom for Saul was then alive but only he prophesied by this he should be King and Successor after Saul's death and by Miracle prepared and made him capable and fit to execute the Office by giving him from that time the Spirit of God which Miracle likewise followed the anointing of his Predecessor Saul 1 Sam. 10.1 to the 12th Verse But
Ten Wives of a Turk which kind of Luxury first corrupts the mind Nil non permittit mulier sibi turpe putat nil Cum virides gemmas collo circumdedit cum Auribus extensis magnos suspendit elenchos and corrupts and effeminates the State by exhausting the Treasury in Faeminine which is necessary to be bestowed in Military Ornaments and maintenance Seneca saith That Women would wear too rich Inheritances at their Ears And it is related of the Daughter of a Proconsul That she wore at one time in Apparel and Jewels the value of Three Millions of Crowns This Vanity is by many attributed to be one of the chief causes of the decay and ruin of the Roman Empire I should but trespass on the Readers patience to recite the excessive Costs particularly and the profuseness of Princes and great Persons in Masking Tilting Tuneaments at publick Weddings in one whereof a French King Tilting in Person was kill'd by the casual running of a Splinter of the staff of the Lance into his Eye as likewise to describe the Gluttony Riot and Drunkenness accompanying Marriage-Feasts they being all notorious 6. It undoeth the Poor in their Marriages The chief times of the Year seasonable for Marriage of Advent Septuagesima and Rogation it deprives the Poor of the use of Gods Ordinance for they are neither able to lose their days labour to travel to the Court nor to expend the Money necessary to pay for a License to Marry and when Married publickly by a Priest in a Temple the expense of new Cloths for Man and Woman the Wedding Dinner the Barrel of Beer the Bridale-Night the Baptizing of the Child the God-Fathers and God-Mothers the Gossips and Churching the Woman Falling all within the compass of the Year most commonly bring the Poor man so far in Debt that he never recovers out of it as long as he lives I was informed of a certain Poor Man who intending to be Married agreed the day with the Minister and Clerk and accordingly on a Prayer day he and the Woman came to the Church intending to be Married and came up to the appointed place in the Body of the Church where the Minister reading first the Form prescribed of the Institution and Ends of Marriage before he joined their hands to Contract them the man to be Married laid his Money on the Ministers Book that he might proceed to Marry him which the Minister refused to do unless he would give him more Money than there was the man answer'd There was all he had and prayed him to accept thereof the Minister peremptorily refused unless he made up the Price to Marry him the Poor man seeing no remedy took up his Money again and he and his Woman returned to his House without any joining or Benediction of the Priest and whether he had a Malediction I cannot tell but at Night the Couple that were thus Churched and not Married the Ceremonial way went to Bed and Married themselves the Real way which though contrary to Episcopâ—l Canons yet no Bishops can shew to be contrary to the Moral Law of God but every one can shew that Laws of compulsion of a Poor man to marry by the Ceremony of a Priest and giving liberty to the Priest to refuse to Marry him unless he pay him more than he hath are contrary to the Moral Law of God for this is prohibiting to Marry and a depriving of the Poor of the Use of Gods Ordinance which is already proved to be the Doctrine of Devils 7. It causeth immadesty in Brides wanton Songs and Ceremonies premiscuary Dancing and corruption of Youth How modest Nature is in the State of Innocence appears well in the expression of a Vertuous young Lady a Virgin who said She wondred how any Woman could have the face to go openly to Church with a Man and the Custom of most Nations not to suffer any Woman to appear in Publick without a Veil manifesteth the same Yea Mahomet himself forbids Women to expose themselves to publick view for thus Alch. Cap. 33. P. 262. he represents God speaking to him Oh Prophet speak to thy Wives and thy Daughters and the Wives of True Believers that they cover themselves with Veils And Cap. 24. Speak unto the true believing Women that they retain their Sight and that they be Chast that they suffer nothing of their Beauâ—y to be seen but what ought to be seen and that they cover their Bosome and their Visage that they permit them not to be seen but by their Husbands their Children the Children of their Husbands their Brothers their Nephews their Sisters their Women their Daughters Maid-Servants and Slaves their Domesticks that are not capable of Marriage and Children that regard not the Beauty of Women And this publick exposing of Virgins in their Marriages to be the Gazing-stocks of the multitude in a Congregation seems likewise against the precept in Scripture 1 Cor. 11.10 For this cause ought a Woman to have Power on her Head because of the Angels which is interpreted covering on her head and is likewise prohibited by Christ Matth. 5.28 Whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart If it be therefore Adultery to look on a Woman to lust after her then is it a Temptation to Adultery to expose her who is to be another mans Wife to the publick view of the whole Congregation in all the dress of Temptation whereof Beauty can be capable Qui videt is peccat qui non te viderit ergo Non cupiet Facti crimina lumen habet Propert. lib. 3. Eleg. Who sees thee Sins who not doth neither hate Nor love thee Light hath all the Crimes of Fate Why it is not more modest therefore for Virgins to Marry in Thalamo than in Templo appears not I shall recite not here the particular wanton Songs and Ceremonies which are used with us and in other Nations by reason of this pompous Ceremony of leading the Bride to the Priest and Temple amongst a Rout of Boys for whom between her Banning and her Churching it is asufficient sport a Week after lest the same should cause what I endeavour to avoid the Corruption of Youth and shall only here mention the grave Admonition of a Poet concerning the same Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat Intra quae Puer est procul hine procul inde Puellae Lenonum Cantus pernoctantis Parasiti Maxima debetur puero reverentia siquid Turpe paras nec tu pueri contempseris Annos Juvenal 8. It exposeth to publick view what God hath commanded to be secret and ridiculously appointeth ocular Witnesses of what is invisible and neither lawful nor pussible to be seen Of this Vid. P. 101 104. before 9. It causeth Community of Women Community of Children Fornication Adultery Stews Brothels and the dissemination of most contagious and deadly Diseases amongst the People As to Community of Women it
they pleased the Protestant Admiral Coligni was the first whom the King with a Counterfeit Countenance and Promises and great Donatives drew to Court the Queen of Navarrâ— was next drawn thither but soon after died as was generally believed of Poison that was given her in some perfumed Gloves to conceal which the Chirugions that open'd her would not touch her head pretending that she died of an Imposthume in her side the Cardinal Castilion was also at that time poison'd which though after confess'd by him that had done it yet was not then so much as suspected the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde were then drawn to Court and received with all the signs of Friendship could be invented a Dispensation was obtained from the Pope for the Marriage and the chief Heads of the Protestants were all drawn to Paris on pretence to assist at the Solemnities of the Marriage on the Seventeenth of August the King of Navarre was Married and four Days were spent in all the Bravery of Diversions that are usual on such occasions but were now performed with more than ordinary Magnificence and Joy there was but one part of the Kings deportment which could give any ground of Jealousie which were the horrid and Blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations which he made Use of on all occasions to persuade them of the Reality of his Professions which always raise suspitions in sober and wary Persons these the King used so frequently that the Writers of that time say he seldome spoke three words without some Terrible Oath or Blasphemous Expression but it was now high time to Execute his Design not valuing his Oaths the Duke of Guise was therefore put upon it to get the Protestant Admiral Assassinated who imployed therein one Maurenell who had formerly Assassinated another Person for him this Rogue he placed in the House of one who had been his Tutor near St. German of Auxerre where the Admiral used to pass as he went or came from the Louvre therefore on the Twenty Second of August about Noon as the Admiral was going home from the Court reading a Paper that he had in his hand the Assassinate that was laid for him shot him from the House where the Duke of Guise had placed him his Fury was charged with three Bullets that were believ'd to be poison'd one of these carried away part of the Fore-finger the other struck in his left Arm the third missed The King was in the Tennis-Court when the news was brought him and Personated a deep Resentment and said in a Tone seeming full of Affliction and with a Terrible Oath Shall I never have quiet and so threw away his Racquet and went out in a Rage The Duke of Guise did also counterfeit some Surprize The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde came to the King to complain and desired his leave to go out of Town seeing men were not safe so near the Court the King seemed more to Resent it than they and with the most horrible Oaths that he could think of Swore he would Execute such Revenge on all that were found guilty as should never be forgotten and desired them to stay and be witnesses of it and visited the Admiral who lay sick of his Wounds with great shew of condoleing his misfortune but in short after all these and many other counterfeit Shews a Council is called by The Most Christian most Perjured King wherein it was Resolved That not only the Persons of Quality of the Religion should be killed but every one of what condition soever of that Profession should be Massacred and amongst them violently was moved that the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde should run the common Fate of the rest till with much ado moderated by another Party that they should be only enforced to change their Religion and the Conduct of the whole Business was committed to the Duke of Guise to destroy all the Protestant Hereticks through the Kingdom who first ordered a strong Guard to be set about the places where the Admiral and his Friends Lodged that none might escape and to have a multitude of Torches and Flambeaux ready only to light out of their Windows and a multitude of Soldiers whose Sign should be a White Linnen Sleeve on the left Arm and a White Cross in their Caps and the pretence was that these should shew the King a Divertisement in the Night in the Counterfeit Assaulting of a Fort and the time appointed for the Execution was at Tolling of the Great Bell of the Palace which should be done near the break of Day and then they were to light their Torches and March the Signal was given the Morning of the 24th of August St. Bartholomew's Day being Sunday part of the Soldiers are sent to the Lodgings of the Wounded Admiral to go through with the Murder begun and Seven breaking into his Chamber all Armed there killed him and the Duke of Guise being below the Court bid them to throw him out of the Window which was done and either the Duke or the Count of Angoulesme for it is differently reported wiped his face for it was disfigured with Blood to know if it was be indeed and perceiving it was trampled on his Belly and went away an Italian cut off his head and carried it to the Queen Mother and then embalmed it and sent it to the Pope then all the Ignominy and Barbarity possible was exercised on the Dead Carcass his Fingers and Hands were cut off his Body dragged about the Streets thrown into the Seine and hanged up in Chains his Feet uppermost and a Fire was set under to burn which only Roasted and consumed it not here the horrible Massacre began and ended not till it had run through the whole City and Countrey with all the most Hellish Butcheries could be devised one would cut off the Nose another the Ear a third the Hands a fourth the Arms of the same Party before they would be so merciful as to kill him No Degrees Age or Sex spared Young or Old Infant or Suckling and a single Death satisfied not till they made them die many Deaths and till as is Estimated there were destroyed an Hundred Thousand Innocent Protestants The Cruelty of which was so abhor'd by the Soldiers themselves that many of them endeavour'd to save many of the Protestants for sure of all Men the most Valiant are the most Merciful but the more than Feminine Cruelty of the Babylonish Bishops which they derived from the Woman who sate on the Beast so set on the Multitude as made them worse than all the wild Beasts in the World which justly gives cause of Abhorrence against Episcopal Compulsion to Marry by a Priest in a Temple the same being the means without which this Perfidious and Bloody Massacre could not have been Effected Why the Ottoman Emperors Marry not by a Priest or in a Temple and of the Bloody Murders ensued of the Sons of Solyman the Magnificent
I knew one who used when he had been cited to make Presentment according to the Charge in the Book of Articles to the Bishops Court he used always at his Return from Court to boast that he had presented omine bene and thought his Conscience well discharged whether all was ill or well as long as he presented something in his kind of Latine which he understood not The Evils are likewise considerable enough in keeping up still this old Popish Language in the written Instruments of Bonds Charters and Patents you shall not have a Bond in Latine written by an ordinary Clerk or Scribe in the Countrey but he is apt to mistake sometimes he will write Wiginti for Viginty Quadraginta for Quadringenti Quinquaginta for Quinginti or the like or mistake in the Dashes for if those too be not More Clericorum 't is as bad as false Latine yea to put in true Latine where they use to write it false may be dangerous for you run a hazard either to lose your Money or to fall into the misery of a Common Law Demurrer or a Chancery Suite which costs many times more than the Principal is worth to recover it Then further if the Obligor or Obligee understand not Latine nor can examine the Writing to be Sealed the Scrivener or Clerk may take Money of one part and Cheat the other as he pleaseth Then as for Latine in Charters and Patents they are Penn'd in such obsolete uncouth and Barbarous Terms that the King is many times abused and deceived in his Graunt and the Grauntees likewise and fall often into tedious and wastful Suites about a word which if they had been in English would never have been nor happen'd As bad mischiefs likewise often fall out by the Physician 's using this Popish Language in his Bills as by the Lawyers for the Apothecaries Boys though they have been at School know not all the words in the Dictionary nor can they find there the Barbarous Words and Terms of Latine or Greek Physick nor their Antick and unnecessary Notes or Characters of Weights and Measures So that oftentimes by mistake either of the Ingredient or Dose many a Patient is thereby Poison'd and kill'd and be he Protestant or Papist they find alike that their Implicite Faith in the Doctors Latine did not save but destroy them though they come not to complain after they are dead Again to keep Laws and Judgment in Latine shews that Bishops are not as they falsely pretend Successors to Christ nor to the Apostles for those who had mission from them had the gift of Tongues purposely that they might Preach to every Nation in their own Language as appears Acts 2.7 And they were all amazed and marvelled saying one to another Are not all these which speak Galileans And how bear we every Man in our own Tongue wherein we were born Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judâ—ea and Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia in Aegypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Jews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians we do hear them speak in our Tongues the wonderful works of God And 1 Cor. 14.18 I thank my God I speak with Tongues more than you all Yet in the Church I had rather speak five words with my Vnderstanding than Ten Thousand words in an unknown Tongue To Judg a Nation therefore in an unknown Tongue is Anti-Christian and Anti-Apostolick Though the Turk prohibites Translation of his Alcoran out of the Arabick Tongue into the Turkish Language yet he permits the People to have matters of Justice administred to them in their own Tongue In old Rome the Forms of Actions and Judicial Proceedings were for many Ages kept hid by the Priests in secret amongst the pretended Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of their gods which matters of Religion and Justice were by most of the Ancient Priests kept in a Language unknown to the People under the name of a Sacred Language and only understood by the Priests one of these Books of Forms Cneius Flavius a Clerk to one of the Priests Copied or Translated and Published one to the great Indignation of his Master and of all the rest of the College of Priests But so grateful was the doing the same to the People that they advanced him to great Honours and made him a Curule Aedile only for doing the same In the Councils of Venice the Nobles are bound to use the Venetian Language and when any hath begun to speak Latine they have him in great Dislike clapping their hands and crying out hold hold Govern Ven. 26. In China though the Languages of the Provinces differ yet have they one General Court-Language call'd Quonhoa for their Courts and Writings which is common through all China by means whereof the Magistrate need not in every Province to learn a new Language Though the Persian Empire was very great and contained an Hundred and Twenty Provinces and every Province had a Satrapa or Sheriff to Govern it yet Esther 1.22 Ahasuerus sent his Writs unto all these Sheriffs into every Province according to the writing thereof and unto every People after their own Language The Greeks and Romans had their Proceedings in their own Language And in Germany all Law-Suites are in the German Language as saith Clapmarius de Arcan Dom. P. 119. Constitutio imperii est ne in Camera lites alia Lingua intendantur nisi Germanica Jerem. 5.15 Threatens as the greatest Plague I will bring a Nation upon you from far and after he saith a Nation whose Language thou knowest not neither understandest what they say Their Quiver is an open Sepulchre they are all mighty men and they shall eat up thy Harvest and thy Bread which thy Sons and thy Daughters should eat they shall eat up thy Flocks and thy Herds they shall eat up thy Vines and thy Fig-trees they shall impoverish thy Feneed Cities wherein thou trustedst with the Sword And what do Bishops with their Latine and false Latine and the whole Language of the Beast but the same This is a great Evil yet would be Remedied with a word and would make his Majesties Name Renowned to future Generations that he was the first King of England who vouchsafed to send his Commands to his Subjects in the same Royal Language which he spoke himself They Judg for Fees and not for Salary Bajazet's fury against Judges taking Bribes In the time of Bajazet the Fourth the Turkish Kingdom growing in Greatness grew likewise in Corruption but especially in the Men of Law and Judges of his Courts who made all Justice saleable for Bribes whereat Bajazet grievously inraged commanded divers of the same Judges to be apprehended determining to the Terror of others to have executed them whose dangerous Estate was much pitied by Alis Bassa and other Courtiers they perhas selling their Places to them and thereby forceing them to sell Justice to others yet none of
them durst adventure seeing Bajezet was of a furious Nature and in his Anger dangerous to be spoken with to mediate in their behalf no not Alis Bassa Charadin Bassa's Son whom of all men he favour'd most There was at that time in the Court an Aethiopian Jester who under some Covert pleasant Jest would often times bolt out to the King in his greatest heat what his gravest Councellors durst not speak to him in secret This Jester Alis Bassa requested to devise some means to entreat the angry King in behalf of these Judges promising to give him what he would desire if he could appease the Kings displeasure The Aethiopian without fear undertook the matter and presently put on his Head a rich Hat all wrought over with Gold and accoutred in all other his Cloths suitably presented himself before the King with a great counterfeit Gravity whereat Bajazet marveling asked him the cause why he was so Gay I have a Request unto your Majesty said he and wish to find favour in your sight Bajazet more desirous than before to know the matter asked what his Request was If it stand with your pleasure said the Aethiopian I would fain go as your Ambassador to the Empeperor of Constantinople in hope whereof I have put my self in this readiness To what purpose wouldst thou go said Bajazet To crave of the Emperor some Forty or Fifty of his old grave Monks and Friers to bring with me hither to the Court. And what should they do here said Bajazet I would have them placed said the Jester in the rooms of the old doteing Judges whom you intend as I hear to put to death Why said Bajazet I can place others of my own People who are better in their rooms True said the Aethiopian for Gravity of Look and Countenance and so would the old Monks and Friers serve as well but not so learned in the Laws and Customs of your Kingdom as are those in your displeasure If they are Learned why do they then contrary to their Learning pervert Justice and take Bribes There is a good reason for that too said the Jester What reason said the King That can he that there standeth by tell better than I said the Jester pointing to Alis Bassa who forthwith commanded by Bajazet to give the reason with great Reverence first done shewed that those Judges so in displeasure were not conveniently provided for and were therefore enforced many times for their necessary maintenance to take Rewards where they could get them to the staying of the due course of Justice which Bajazet understanding to be true commanded Alis Bassa to appoint them convenient stipends for their maintenance and forthwith granted their Pardon Whereupon the Bassa set down Order That of every matter in Suit exceeding One Thousand Aspers the Judges should have Twenty Aspers which Fees they yet take to this day Whence may be Observed 1. That to place Judges in Courts to undergo the incessant labours of hearing multitudes of Causes and not to allow them honourable maintenance is the ready way to make men of ordinary Principles Freebooters and to take the Prey for themselves So the meanness of the Salary in Russia being but an Hundred Marks per Annum makes the Judges extream Extortious on the People 2. That those who buy either Judicial or Ministerial places in Judicatories must sell again and the sale of either is contrary to the Law of God and of infinite Damage to the Publick turning the weights of Justice to the false weights of Merchandize as says the Poet Ergo Judicium nihil est nisi publica Merces Quid faciunt leges ubi sola Pecunia Regnat 3. That the Basha when he was appointed to provide the Judges maintenance by stipend providing the same by Fees made them worse then before and gave them a pretence to take Bribes of the People under the name of Fees and there are none more corrupt Judges for Bribery than the Turks to this day and well they may if they take Fees Neither Judg nor Minister to take Fees but Salary It was the Ancient Law of England that none having any Office concerning the Administration of Justice should take any Fee or Reward of any Subject for the doing of his Office Coke 2. part 176. and by the Statute Westm 1. cap. 25. neither Judicial nor Ministerial Officer as Sheriff Escheator Coroner Bailiff Gaoler Clerk of the Market Aulnager nor other inferior Minister or Officer of the King whose Offices do any way concern the Administration or Execution of Justice or the common good of the Subject or the Kings Service but shall be paid of what they receive from the King on pain the Offender against this Act shall pay double Damages of the Plaintiff and shall be otherwise punish'd at the Will of the King Marrying for Fees contrary to the Laws of God and of the Land By which appears that the Episcopal Judging of Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession for Fees and the granting of Licenses of Marriage by Bishops and taking of Fees by a Priest for Banns or Marriage of any Persons in a Temple or elsewhere is wicked abominable and contrary to the Laws of God and Fundamental Laws of the Land and they ought to be punish'd for doing the same and had not Bishops corrupted the true Doctrine of Gods Ordinance of Marriage to obtain Fees and other covetous and ambitious Ends Men had at this day Married according to the Moral Law of God and not the Ceremonial Laws of Priapus and Venus The Inconveniences which ensue Judges and Ministers taking Fees are 1. As Coke saith 2 part 210. When neither Judges or Ministers had any Fees then had they no colour to exact any thing of the Subject who knew they ought to take nothing at all of them they being maintained by Salary from the King but when some Acts of Parliament changing the Rules of the Common Law gave to the Ministers of the King Fees in some particular Cases to be taken of the Subject whereas before all their Office was done without taking now no Office at all is done without taking and a gap being once open'd there was after no bounds to the breach so it causeth Oppression 2. It causeth corruption of Justice for if a Judg take Fees it is from the Plaintiff and Defendant and he will sell Justice to him who gives him the greatest but if he take a Salary he takes it from the Publick and will be for the Publick good and not partial to the Parties 3. The Publick by giving the Salary and receiving the Fees increases the Publick Treasury for the vast Income of Fees far exceeding the Merits of the Judges and Officers it is just the overplus should be applied to discharge Publick Burdens and not to fill private Pockets and what was unequally shared amongst Officers ignorant and idle by way of Fees The English in Scotland turn'd all the Fees of Courts into
Courts and only takes in the Rich. 1. Because of the remoteness of sending for Writs the same being the greatest part sent for Hundreds of Miles 2. They are limited to so many short Returns only to multiply unnecessary Fees for Aliases and Pluries that they are extreamly troublesome and costly to the Poor 3. The Forms of them are so ticklish that when got they are easily abated and overthrown for the miss of a word a syllable and often a dash to an half word not made more clericorum and often for false Latine A Writ abates likewise for any default of Form varying from the Register Omission variance in order of words from the order used in Chancery the following matters are likewise good exceptions to abate Writs rasure interlining false Latine yet they never write true Omission of the words Vi Armis or of the words Contra pacem Outlawry Misnaming a Twice naming of the Person Misnaming of the Village or Hamlet Misnaming of Barockshare for Barkshire Misnaming of the Village Misnaming of the Person so variance between the Writ and the Declaration or Count in the least toy is a sufficient Exception to overthrow both Writ Declaration and Count Hastings Hasting as 9. E. 4.42 43. Det by Edward Hastings and Counts that he by the name of Edward Hasting recovered Land in Ancient Demesne and One Thousand Pounds Damages and brings his Action for the Damages by Three Justices against Five the Writ ought to abate 28. Ass 52. A Record removed and a Variance between the Record and the Mittimus and the Certiorari for one was H. Green Just Green and de Green Molineux Moliney and the Writ was Henry de Green the omission of the word De stopt the proceeding of the Justices Trespass the Writ was Molineux the Protection Moliney and therefore disallowed for the Variance 7. H. 6.22 Nuper omitted Trespass against J. N. nuper de D. in the Protection Nuper was omitted therefore Variance 19. H. 48. Audita querela upon an Indenture which was Langa White the Writ was Lang Whaite which put the Party to great Cost to get it to be amended 21. H. 6.7 7. Port. said an Outlawry was reversed for the Variance between Dockwra and Dockawre 21. H. 6.7 Dockwra Dockawre I. In the Obligation the Defendant was named J. M. de M. in the Writ M. was left out and therefore abated 38. E. 3.24 In Mayhem the Writ was Contra pacem Nuper Regis and the Count Contra pacem nunc Regis therefore it abated 8. H. 4.21 2. E. 4.25 Amendment 21. A Dispute is whether Wagam and Vagam are a material Variance Wagam Vagam Count less than the Writ A Judgment given in a Writ of Annuity was reversed because the Writ was That Twenty-six Marks Six Shillings Eight Pence was Arrear of the Yearly Rent of four Marks and in the Count Six Shillings Eight Pence omitted which is a Variance 9. E. 4.51 54. Here the Poor man was punish'd for his Conscience because he desired less in his Count than his Attorney had put into his Writ and it is said there that is not Misprision of the Clerk to be amendable because the Count is made by the Party and not by the Clerk A world of other Abatements of Writs there are too many to trouble at this time the Reader with both as to Variances between the Writ and Count and between the Writ and another Writ between the Writ and Specialty between the Writ and Testament between the Writ Count and Specialty between the Writ and Warrant of Attorney c. And the more Writs are abated and Causes thereby overthrown the more Money the Courts and Clerks get to send out new but the more miserably are the Poor by them oppress'd and it were more merciful in short to deny them Hearing than to cause them to hazard and lose all that little they have and at last not to be Heard This mischief of Writs was first invented by the College of Priests at Rome and were called Formulae Juris which is little Forms or diminutives of Forms the little Forms were those we call Writs the greater Forms whereof the lesser pretended to be as the Contents of the Chapters were what They called Libels and We Bills and Declarations These Formulae though set up by the Priests for their Gain were contrary to the Law of the Twelve Tribes in regard Oblatio Libelli being by that Law to precede Vocatio in jus as before is shewn these Writs or Formulae were useless and the Forms of Libels were sufficient to direct the People themselves Original Writs abolished by Justinian and better than the other which were so rigorous in their punctilios of Formalities Vt cadente Syllaba caderet Causa these Forms therefore of Original Writs of the Priests were totally abolished by Justinian lib. 2. tit 58. De Formulis impetrationibus Actionum Sublatis Juris Formulae aucupatione syllabarum insidiantes cunctorum Actibus radicitus amputentur Dat. X. Calend. Feb. Constantio III. Constante II. A A. COSS. Let Forms of Actions insidiating by hawking at Syllables in all mens Suits be cut up by the Roots Baldus Notes on the place Quia supervacuae Formulae sunt sublatae non oportet Actiones à Pontificibus impetrare sed sufficit eas apertè proponere and very well against this insidiation of Writs in Words and Syllables agrees the expression of Isa 29.21 They make a man an offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turn aside the Just for a thing of nought The like to this of Justinian was done by that famous King James the Fifth the great Justitiar of Scotland where they had formerly their Writs as we have till they were sick of them and able to bear them no longer which was remedied by an Act of Parliament Jac. 5 p. 6. cap. 75. The words of which Act follow ordering a Copy of the Libel to the Person or dwelling House The Ordour of Summounding all Persons in Civil Actions Copy of a Bill or Declaration served in stead of a Writ ITem For eschewing of great Inconvenientes and Fraude done to our Soveraine Lordis Lieges by Summounding of them at theire dwelling places and oft times falslie and gettis never knawledge thereof It is Statute and Ordained That in times cumming quhair ony Officiar or Schireffe in that parte passes at Commande of the Kingis Letters or the Schireffes Stewardes Baronnes or Baillies Precept to Summound ony Partie if they cannot apprehend them Personallie they sall passe to the Ȝett or Dure of the principall dwelling place quhair the Person to be Summonde dwellis and hes their actual Residence for the time and there sall desire to have entresse quhilk gif it be granted they sall first schaw the cause of theire cumming and gif they cannot get the Party Personally they sall schaw their Letters or Precept before
with them and were indeed a most imperfect constitution of Defensors of Liberties against Senators permitted to be Hereditary and was no way to be remedied unless the People had taken on them the Election of the Senators as is now done by such Nations as have the Liberty of Parliaments but if Two dissentient Negatives or Houses or Parliaments are joined together in one House where the matter is to be carried by Plurality of Votes there dissentient opinions of the several Members are so far from hurting the Publick as they do the same much Good First by the contrary Dispute of the Question the Truth is the better understood Secondly When two Extremes contend they commonly moderate one another and produce a more temperate Sentence than if the whole Senate were all of the same mind without any Faction so as long as Cato and Caesar made Orations one against the opinions of the other in the Senate it mitigated them to moderation and it was the Contention in the Field and not in the Senate caused so much mischief to the Publick which could not be avoided in such a Senate which was no equal Representative Elected by the People but some Senators so disproportionable in Power as Caesar and Pompey were to the rest Strength of Union 13. Though Confederacy of Foreign Princes ought not to be neglected yet the Confederacy of the Three Parliaments by Union in one House is a far greater assistance than of any Three Foreign Princes Confederated and living in Foreign Palaces and such Three Protestant Parliaments in one House and under one Protestant King are by Gods help of greater Strength and Councel than any Three Catholick Kings and the Pope with them if they should wrongfully confederate against the Protestant Examples of Un on of Parliaments 14. All these and no question more dangers of Disunion and Benefits of the Union of Parliaments were foreseen to the Wisdom of King James of famous memory and how zealously the desire of such an Union was press'd on him by him between England and Scotland appears by the Act 1. Jac. cap. 1 2. And thereby Commissioners of each Nation were appointed to meet and Treat and to reduce their Dâ—ings therein to Writings or Instruments Tripartite every part to be subscribed and sealed by them and one part to be deliver'd to the King the other to the Parliament of England the other to the Parliament of Scotland this was promoted several times in the House and vigorously Seconded by many Noble Protestant-Patriots after which as appears Coke 4th part 347. there started a question amongst the Commissioners whether there could be made a new Kingdom of Great Britain before there was made an Union of Laws which Question was by Command of the King refer'd to all the Judges of England in Trinity Term Anno 2. Jac. who unanimously Resolved Coke being then Attorney General That Anglia had Laws and Scotia had Laws A ridiculous Answer of Judges touching Union of Kingdoms but this new Erected Kingdom of Britannia had no Laws and therefore where the Forms of all Judicial Proceedings of England are Secundum Legem consuetudinem Angliae it could not be alter'd Secundum Legem consuetudinem Britanniae an Answer fitter for Protonotaries than Judges as if no Union were possible to be made of Kingdoms but by Rastall's Book of Entries whereas one word of a Nuper would have salved this horrible objection and but two lines of a Proviso in the Act of Union might have made the Style of their Formality what they would have had it but this unlucky Pedantry of Theirs was a fatal Scourge to Great Britain for in all humane probabilities if there had been then made an Union of Parliament the late Bloody Intestin Wars had never been 3. Jac. cap. 3. A Recital is made of the long and worthy Labours of the Commissioners of England and Scotland and how albeit all things had been by them fully and effectually pursued and accomplished c. Yet for that divers other matters required present Dispatch by the Parliament and the matters concerning the Union might be consider'd as well any other Session therefore the same was defer'd for that time Anno 4. Jac. 1. An Act is made for Repealing certain Acts of Hostility in former Ages made between the two Nations where the Commissioners lost all the Pains they had taken to the discouragement of any other who should thereafter attempt the like so by the Power and Subtlety of the Popish Episcopal Party and Lawyers all whose Interests a Reformation of Laws for Britannia would have crossed the whole business and Attempts of Union have been ever since obstâ—ncted As for Examples In former Histories we find none more free than the Romans to Naturalize their Associates and to make the Natives of the Provinces Citizens of Rome The Grand Seignior takes into his Council the Natives of several Kingdoms yea though Christians when once Educated in his Religion The several States of Greece had not been able to have subsisted against the Persian had they not United themselves in one common Council of State though their Laws and Commonwealths remained several The Netherlands had been never able to have subsisted against the Spaniard had not the Provinces been United in one Staadt-House and Common Council yet is not that Union perfect they remaining still under several Laws and Customs and in the nature of several Commonwealths and therefore not impossible to be again divided as the Grecian States thereby were So were it impâ—ssible for the German Empire to subsist against the Turk were they not United in one Supreme Dyet and Common Councli for a Parliament of Kings in person as the Electors are in Power is better than none at all and better than a Confederacy of Kings by Proxies they remaining in their several Palaces yet in many other respects the Union being of the Prelates and Princes and not of an equal Representative of the People it is liable to perpetual dangers of Civil Wars and the Dividing of one Prince against another who may perhaps as the Captains of Alexander the Great and the Italian Princes in the end set up every one for himself there being nothing to hinder but the Terror of the Neighbouring Turk whereas if the Union were constituted of an Emperor and Parliament equally Elected by the People the Empire were invincible for the Prince were then but one and the Senate but one but this is impossible to be performed except in Protestant Dominions for then must the Pope and Prelates be Cashier'd which no Catholick Prince can or dare attempt How great thanks do we therefore owe to God who hath vouchsafed Protestants so great a Privilege to Unite all their Parliaments if they in blindness and stubborness neglect or resuse not so great a Mercy as perhaps may not again be so easily offer'd The Cantons of the Swiss could not subsist without being United in a Common Council
for State-Assairs So of the Grisons Yet do the Cantons remain in the nature of several Commonwealths with several Laws and Customs which Union is very imperfect Livy lib. 2. complains of this defect of Union of Councils in Rome and saith Profecto si essent in Republica Magistratus nullum futurum fuisse Romae nisi publicum consilium nunc in mille Curias Concionesque cum alia in Esquiliis alia in Aventino fiant Concilia dispersam dissipatam esse Rempublicam And by this doth Tacitus confess it was that Rome Conquer'd Great Britain Nec aliud adversus validissimas gentes pro nobis utilius quà m quod in commune non consulunt rarus duabus tribusque Civitatibus ad propulsandum commune periculum conventus ita dum singuli pugnant Vniversi vincuntur Neither saith he was there any thing so profitable for us against the most valiant Nations as that they had no Common Council a rare matter it was amongst them to have a Convention of Two or Three Cities against the common danger so while they every one fought single they are all Conquer'd Whereas if Great Britain had been then united under one King and one Parliament of the whole Island they perhaps might have as well said of his second Landing as of his first Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis So doth Justin mention of the States of Greece every one of them had at last their Councils apart and fought single whereby one after another they were all overthrown What hath United the Heptarchy of the Saxons and the mixture of Danes inseparably but the equal Mission of their Representatives to the same Parliament and what did Unite the Noble Remainder of Britains to England but the Statute of 27. H. 8.26 Enacting That all Persons born in Wales should enjoy all Liberties Privileges and Laws as other Subjects in England do and should send their Knights and Burgesses to the same Parliament with them The Glory of a King is the multitude of his People and what more Glorious for a King who hath the Royal English Scotish Irish and British Blood United in him who is the Head than to have the same United in his Parliament who is the Body Let it not offend if I mention here the late Experience of Union of the Three Parliaments in one House by the late Usurper seeing we are commanded to learn Wisdom though from the Serpent and if he under so great disadvantages of Opposition made great Benefit the lawful Prince may make far greater thereby and his Subjects likewise by his Favour participate of the same I cannot deny that it was my Fortune though I never sought it to be chosen for a County and to serve in that great Convention at Westminster Anno 1656. called then a Parliament wherein the Parliaments of England Scotland and Ireland were Convened and United in One with the same facility as they are Convened to sit in Three Places and there being then a War designed against Spain it was wonderful to see with what Expedition and Courage all things were moved towards the Design and what an Endearment it was between the Three Nations to meet be acquainted eat drink and converse together about the Common Concernments Having consider'd so far of the great Benefits of an Union of the Three Parliaments of the Three Kingdoms in One it may not be amiss next to consider the Requisits necessary to perfect the same 1. Whether an Union of Crowns be necessary to perfect an Union of Parliaments and Kingdoms It seems for the Affirmative 1. Because where the Natural Person of a King is One if the Politick Person or Capacity is not made One the one Politick Capacity may be divided against the other in the same Natural Person as on the Succession of King James to Queen Elizabeth the Queen of England had declared War against the King of Spain the King of Scotland was in Peace with them so in the diverse Rights of Two Crowns there was War and Peace at one time between the same Persons the like Doubts may arise Whether the Royal Assent may pass contrary Politicks Acts and Laws in the Parliament of one Nation to what he hath pass'd in the other in reference to the contrary Rights of each Crown Whereas if both are consolidated and made one no contrariety of Acts can happen 2. It is as dangerous to have Two Crowns as Two Marble-Chairs for they may be kept in several places and the more easily may an Usurper happen on the possession of one of them and the Vulgar be deluded to think Possession of those Signs of Supreme Honor to be equal to the Right and besides that a Fatality will follow them 3. Seeing it hath pleased God to make the Head of the Three Kingdoms One men ought to follow his Example and make the Crowns One 4. The continuance of several Crowns is apt to continue a perpetual memory of Hostilities between the Kingdoms 2. Whether an Unity of Protestant Churches is necessary to an Union of Protestant-Kingdoms It seems for the Affirmative Because if Protestant-Churches divide one against another the Kingdoms will be a Prey to the Papist and the Protestant will have none to Unite 3. Whether permission of Protestants to Excommunicate Protestants is consistent with the Unity of Protestant-Churches Neg. If the Pope Excommunicate Protestants it Unites them the firmer but if they Excommunicate one another they denounce War and destroy one another with their own hands and leave the Spoils to be divided by the Pope An Elegy on Protestants in the late Civil Wars Excommunicating Protestants LVgeat in trisidis jam moesta Britannia flammis Et doleat jam fulminibus percussa trisulcis Intonuit falsus nebulosa Tibride Petrus Et Magicis stolidum perterruit Artibus Orbem Piscator Twedae retonat multisque cachinnis Rupibus ingeminans sua fulmina misit ab Altis Becketi Lemures contra hunc torsere minaces A Thamisi gelidas Vulcania tela per auras Heu non Oceanus circum vaga Littora fusus Nec freta compescant tantis ardoribus ignes Risit Romanus Tarpeia Rupe Tyrannus Cumque suis inquit sese immisere Gebennis Pontifices Britonum per mutua vulnera tandem Ne sic deficerent inferno gurgite flammae Ipse super terram viventes igne cremabo Ecce jocum mintrat mus rodens Rana coaxat Et cum limosis ineunt certamina juncis Milvus spemque suam motis circumvolat alis Ipse paludosam sic vellem carpere Ranam Et sic ridiculum vellem discerpere Murem Englished LET Britain mourn who burns in triple Fires And struck with threefold Thunder-bolts expires A Peter false from Tyber in a Cloud By Magick Art did Thunder it aloud The Fisher-man of Tweed with many Mocks Return'd his Thunder double from the Rocks Proud Beckets Ghost ' gainst him from Thames broke forth And with Vulcanian Darts fired the North. What Ocean which her wandring Shores doth drench Or
nane against quhome the Process beis led be received in the Kings Castle or Place or in his Presence nor admitted to Councel or Parliament heard nor answer'd in the Law of Judgment of Fee and Heritage or uther Causes bot ever Eschewed as Cursed unto the time the said Persons cum to amendis and assyith the Party and obteine Absolution in Form of Law And Jac. 6. p. 3. cap. 53. in the Kings Minority an Act was got by the Kirk ' That all Excommunicate Persons not Conforming ' in Forty Days should be denounced Rebels and put to the Horn. The English Commissioners in the said late time of the Troubles had Instructions to take from the then Kirk such Letters of Horning and not to assist any Excommunication with the Temporal Sword which we performed accordingly The King of Spain joined with Tyrone and the Rebels in Ireland against Queen Elizabeth And Don John de Aquila Landing in Ireland with 4000 Spaniards intitled himself Master-General and Captain of the Catholick King in the Wars of God for holding and keeping the Faith in Ireland only on pretence of Excommunication Sextus Quintus the Pope of Rome on the Invasion prepared by Spain against England Anno 1588. sent out his Crusado as if against the Turks and having pass'd Sentence of Excommunication and Deprivation by his Bulls against Queen Elizabeth promising Pardon of Sins Heaven and Eternal Life to all who di'd in the Invasion 1. To grant a Pope or a Bishop Power to Excommunicate Protestant-Subjects is to grant him Power to Excommunicate Protestant-Kings 2. To grant him Power to Excommunicate Protestant-Kings is to grant him Power to Levy Money Raise Soldiers Denounce War and Depose them 3. Of the Dilemma of Danger threatning Princes who seek Security of Goverement from the Excommunication of Popes or Bishops either over a People Religious or Superstitious 4. Of the Impossibility of Security for Princes unless their Subjects are Educated or Instructed to be free from the Superstition of Excommunication and to contemn it 5. Of the Impossibility of obliging Popes or Bishops either by Benefits or Oaths Excommunication is as Proscription made a pretetence of Confiscation without shewing cause The Romans saith Aman. Marcellus proscribed Ptolomy the then King of Cyprus being their Confederate for no fault only they wanted Money in the Treasury who therefore poison'd himself and the Isle became Tributary to the Romans In the like manner do Popes and Bishop fall on the Richest with their Excommunication to fill their empty Purses Pope Gregory the Tenth Commanded Percham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to pay him Four Thousand Marks within Four Months on pain of Excommunication So Excommunication is a ready way to Levy Money for War Anno 1230. The Pope having Excommunicated the Emperor the Emperor was fain to pay for his Absolution an Hundred and Twenty Thousand Ounces of Gold Plat. Nam Anno 1231. The Emperor for memory of this hard Penny-worth for his Absolution put into a Pool at Helbrand divers Pikes and other Fishes with Brass Rings having Inscriptions of his name and the Year of the Lord one of the Fishes was taken up 267. Years after Ann. Suev Calv. Henry the Second after that Traitor Beckett the then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had been Slain though not by the Kings Command was enjoined amongst other things this Slavish Penance He walked Three Miles bare-foot on the sharp Stones that he at length had so cut his Feet they marked the ground with Blood every step he went And after this which was worse than Running the Gantilope he Received of the Priests Monks Bishops and Abbots on his naked Flesh so many Jerks with Rods Oh brave Pedants and Pontifical Government for Princes as according to Baronius amounted to at least Fourscore Lashes which doubtless was the Number the Jew administred to the vilest Rogues lest their Brothers should be despised in their Eyes and not heard to have been Exercised in their Eyes and not heard to have been Exercised on the Priests Bishops and Abbots themselves though they kill'd and murder'd many Lay-men without Law or Justice they incur'd only a deprivation and instead of Hanging which they deserved sometimes no more than a suspension Temporary ab Officio In the time of King John Anno 1211. The Pope Excommunicated him and gave the Kingdom of England to the King of France Paris Wend. The Pope Excommunicated Henry the Eighth and gave the Kingdom Primo Occupanti Queen Elizabeth was Excommunicated by Three Popes Pius Quintus Gregory the Thirteenth and Sextus Quintus Anno 1308. The Pope Excommunicateth Andronicus Emperor of the East and setteth up the King of Russia against him Bzou So he dealt alike with the East and Western Emperors Excommunications have brought the Venetians to extreme Straights formerly therefore they are yet no Friends of it Dandalus Duke of Venice was compell'd by Pope Clement the Fifth to Crouch under the Table Chain'd like a Dog before he could obtain Peace for the Venetians The Pope Excommunicated John King of Navar and Granted his Kingdom to the Spaniards Nicephorus Phocas Emperor of the East was Excommunicated by Polyeuchus then Patriarch of Constantinople because he had been God-father to a Child of Theophania Wife to his Predecessor and after his Predecessor's Death Married her Pope Zachary deposed Chilperick the French King and gave the Crown of France to Pepin The two French Kings H. 3. and H. 4. who were Assassinated had great Guards whereby it appears though Princes may secure themselves in Vaults and Caves from Thunderbolts yet can they not against the Bishops of Romes Ignis Fatuus of Excommunication but that to Assault them Per medios ire Satellites Et perrumpere amat saxa potentius Ictu fulmineo Eight Emperors were Excommunicated by Popes who were these Frederick the First Frederick the Second Philip Conrad Otho the Fourth Lewes of Bavaria Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth The Emperor Henry the Fourth Fought in Threescore and Two several Battles and had for the most part Victory he was Excommunicated by the Pope and to obtain his Absolution came Three Days together bare-foot to the Gates of the City Canusium where the Pope then was and with much difficulty obtain'd it The Catholick Majesties of Spain cannot secure themselves from Excommunication without Money nor their great Vice-Roys in America for a Rebellion was Raised in Mexico by the Arch-Bishop there Excommunicating the Governors the People by Superstitious Episcopal Education made more afraid of the Counterfeit Power of the Keys than of the true Power of the Sword and will side in Rebellion with the Bishop against the Secular Governor men may talk therefore and believe what they please that the Supremacy of the Temporal Sword is Consistent with the Spiritual of Excommunication but when it comes to Trial amongst a Superstitious People they will be very much deceived and perhaps Ruin'd Bzovius de Pont. Roman 611 612. to maintain the Power That the Popes may depose Kings
Recites a Catalogue of above Thirty Kings and Princes deposed by them all which pretended Power of Excommunication and if Bishops are granted the same Power of Excommunication which Popes have what hinders but that British Popes and British Bishops are thereby granted when they dare and have opportunity to Excommunicate and Depose Kings as well as the Romish Popes and Bishops who are as quiet as the British till they have opportunity and dare shew their Teeth Pagan Priests claim Supremacy in Judgment above Kings This was commonly practised by the Pagan Priests whom the Pope and Bishops follow to claim Supremacy in Judgment Jure Divine over their Kings to which purpose Tacitus speaks lib. 4. cap. 2. That the Priests amongst the Germans took on them the Power of Judicature not by Commission from the Prince but by Command pretended from God whom they account to be then in presence and to be assisting in their Fights which Power claimed by those ancient Pagan German Priests is no other than the Jurisdiction at this day claimed by the later German Arch-Bishops and Bishops over their Emperors The like Power long before them was claimed by the old Aegyptian Priests over their Kings whom they thereby divers times Sentenced and put to Death How vain the hopes are of obliging Bishops either by their Duty of Allegiance to their Native King or by Benefits or Oaths it appears by the Examples following Bishops not to be obliged by Benefits or Oaths When William the Conqueror came in he took this Kingdom from the Gift of the Pope and promised in consideration thereof to hold it Feudatory of him and thereupon coming hither with a Bull and an Hayne of St. Peter and other Romish Trinkets the Bishops who were then more Potent than the Temporal Barons forsook Edgar Atheling their Native Prince and the unquestionable Lawful Successor and betrai'd the Land to a Foreigner though he after served them in their kind and left not a man of them to sit in their Sees Henry the First after the Death of his Queen Matilda Married Adeliza the Daughter of Godfry Duke of Lorrain when she was to be Crowned Ralph Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who was appointed to Crown her first came to King Henry sitting Crowned in his Chair of State asking him Who had set the Crown on his head The King Answer'd He had now forgotten 't was so long since Well said the Arch-Bishop whosoever did it he did me wrong to whom it belonged and as long as you had it thus I will do no Office at this Coronation Then said the King do what you think good Whereupon the Arch-Bishop took off the Crown from the Kings Head and after at the People's intreaty set it on again and so proceeded to Crown the Queen It was a sufficient favour that the King appointed him to Crown his Queen and whosoever Crowned himself it was fit the King should have his own choice if done by a Bishop who should do it But the Arch-Bishop will have the Power of a Pope or none to put on and take off the Crown from a King at his pleasure so that unless well paid if he please the King shall not be Crown'd And all this Imperious Pride pâ—oceeds from his Imaginary Power of Excommunication and the Profuse Bounty of Kings towards Bishops which doth not oblige but disoblige and cause them to despise their Benefactors who have Raised them to Revenues equal or Superior to their ownâ— Of which a notable Example appears in Hubert another Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Anno Domini 1021. The Feast of the Nativity approaching King John and his Queen appointed to keep that Festival with great Magnificence at Guilford Hubert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being in disfavour of the King to shew how little he regarded it and to put an Affront on him Published he would keep a Châ—istmas of as great Magnificence as the King and accordingly performed it in his own Palace with that Splendor and Multitude of Attendants Richness of Banquets Pageantry Costly Attires and Gifts at Canterbury as the King could not exceed him at Guilford Matth. Par. in Antiq. Eccl Angl. in vita Huberti Which very much Incensed the King to see himself purposely outbraved by a Priest Anno 1473. Edward the Fourth Seised on the Mitre of George Nevil Arch-Bishop of York which was so Rich with Gold and Pretious Stones that the King of the same made himself a Crown and likewise he Seised on Twenty Thousand â—ounds-worth more of his Money and Goods A vast Sum in those Days Ant. Brit. Anno 1421. The King wanting Money for the French Wars pawned the Crown to the Bishop of Winchester for Twenty Thousand Pounds Ant. Brit. So we see the Bishops Head is as Richly Crowned as the Kings and when a Bishop grows so Rich a Broker besides as to take Crowns to pawn it may be then said in no Disloyal sence The Mitre is above the Crown for the Borrower is a Servant to the Lender Which Excess of Riches Insatiable Covetousness High Titles Precedency of the Temporal Barons and till the same was alter'd by Act of Parliament Precedency of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbâ—ry of the Kings Brothers themselves Elevates Prelacy to so great a height of intolerable Pride and makes them so much over-value their own Merits as 't is impossible to oblige them by Benefits Bishops perfidious to the English Kings Henry the Second Raised Becket from nothing to be Chancellor of England and after to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and to have the Education of his Son yet as soon as he saw himself invested with the Power of Excommunication he moved all the other Bishops being under the Oath of Canonical Obedience to him and Threatned the King that His Sword strook only with Temporal Death but that of Bishops strook the Soul with Eternal Death to Hell The difference between the King and the Bishop was the King would have it Ordained That the Clergy-men who were Malefactors should be Tri'd before the Secular Magistrate as Lay-men were this Becket Proudly opposed and said it was against the Privileges of the Church and therefore against the Honor of God and very high and hot the Contentions were about it till at last Becket condescended to assent to the Ordinance Salvo Jure Suo the King liked not the Clause as being delusive of the Ordinance at last with much ado the Arch-Bishop yields to this also and set his hand to the Ordinance and takes his Oath to observe it But going homewards his Cross bearer and some other about him blamed him for what he had done whereupon the next day when they met again he openly Repented his former Deed Retracts his Subscription and openly sent to the Pope for an Absolution of his Oath Which the Pope not only granted but incouraged him to persist in the Course he had begun The King seeing his Perjury and that there was no prevailing by fair means Seises on his Temporalities and
withal Threatens a Proceeding against his Person Becket thereupon flies the Realm and appeals to the Pope and procures an Excommunication from the Pope of such Bishops as kept not their Oath of Canonical Obedience to him who was their Arch-Bishop The King of France Intercedes for Becket and the Pope Threatned Excommunication against the King himself if he Restored him not The King out of a Superstitious Fear of his Excommunication as appears by his Receiving afterward the Servile Penance imposed on him for Becket's death Restores Becket again to his See of Canterbury whither again arrived he continued notwithstanding the favour of the Kings Restauration as bad as before in Prosecuting his Excommunications he had got at Rome against such Bishops as sided with the King of which when the Excommunicated Bishops complained to the King and moved thereby his Passion He cried out Shall I never be quiet for this Priest if I had any about me that lov'd me they would find some way or other to Rid me of this trouble Whereupon Four Knights standing by took their Journey to find the Arch-Bishop whom they found at Church on the steps where they strook him on the Head with their Swords and killed him which though in the manner of doing it was no way Justifiable being without lawful Hearing and Trial Yet 't is very manifest that the Arch-Bishop by the Common Law it self without the trouble of an Attainder by Parliament might have been proceeded against Legally by Indictment of High-Treason and he was manifestly Guilty for it was by the Common Law High-Treason to appeal to a Foreign Prince And likewise for any Subject to bring an Excommunication from Rome against another Subject without the Kings Assent was Treason for this was the ready way to give the Pope Power to Raise Rebellions against the King when he pleased Bishops Traitors to King John The Bishops in the time of King John Conspired with the Pope and the French and the Temporal Barons and the Pope laid an Interdiction or Excommunication on the Kingdom for Six Years Three Months and Fourteen Days during which the Church Doors were shut up and there was neither Exercise of Religion Mass Marriage Baptism or Burial allowed in the Church or Church-Yard 'till the King would Surrender his Crown and take the Kingdom from the Pope and hold it Feudatory from him which the King was by the Treachery of his Bishops deserting him compell'd to do and accordingly he took off the Crown from his Head and laid it at the Feet of Pandulphus the Popes Legate the Pope to dispose of it how he pleased which he kept Three or Four Days from him and would not Restore again but on condition agreed That he and his Successors should hold it of the Pope and pay him for it the Yearly Tribute of a Thousand Marks which was a great Sum in those days besides all the other Tributes and Exactions which the Pope then had from the Subjects but this the King was fain to do before the Excommunication would be taken off from him and his Kingdom which being done and be perceiving himself clear from the Pope Resolved to Raise an Army and be Revenged on the French King whose Pensions had set all this on work against him and accordingly had Levied a very great Army having his Fleet all ready at Portsmouth to have Shipt them The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury thereupon told him He broke his Oath to the Pope at his Absolution if he Warr'd against the French King which in truth the Bishops had themselves by their Treason compell'd Him to To whom the King Replied in a great Passion That he would not defer the Business for his pleasure seeing Lay-Judgment belonged not to him The Arch-Bishop Threatned his Native Sovereign he would Excommunicate him unless he desisted and this was in behalf of a Foreign Prince his Enemy So far could French Pensions prevail with Prelats whereby the King to his great loss was enforced to Dissolve and Disband again his Army in the nick of Time when it was ready for Action Henry the Third the Tempest of the Barons-Wars beginning to Threaten him was asked by Robert Bacon a Frier Predicant What Sea-men feared most that they knew best themselves The Frier Replied My Lard I will tell you It is Petrae Rupes alluding to Petrus de Rupibus The name of the then Bishop of Winchester and under him meaning the whole Body of the Bishops Edward the First that wise and valiant Prince disdaining to be Priest-Ridden as his two Predecessors had been to so great danger of their Persons and Kingdoms and taught by their Experience that it was in vain to think of obliging by Benefits or Oath the Power of those who being a Body United and as it were an Army more firmly Banded under their Arch-Bishop than 't was possible to make the Lay-Nobility to be under their King he began first to Lop off from their Ecclesiastical Auxiliaries such Branches of Royal Power as he could do himself without a Parliament and Anno Reg. 6. Deprived many famous Monasteries of England of their Privileges and took from the Abbot and Covent of Westminster the Return of Writs granted them by the Charter of Henry the third And after he got to be Inacted by Parliament the Statute of Mortmaine against the so enormous Increase of their Temporal Possessions which was so detrimental to the Military Service of the Kingdom and in the Statute of Westminster 2. defalked the Jurisdiction of Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges He left not here but growing more upon them he Required the Moiety of all their Goods as well Spiritual as Temporal for one year and I think their money and moveables could grow no more the next year which he took in one year And at the first one Sr. John Knight stands up amongst them in their assembly and said Reverend Fathers if any here will Contradict the King's Demand in this Business let him stand out in the midest of this Assembly that his person may be known and seen as one Guilty of the Breach of the King's Peace At which speech they all sate mute and though it put them into Extreme grief and perplexity they yet were fain to yield to his demand Dan. Hist Which if he had been possessed with a dastardly fear of Excommunication he had no more dared to do than his Predecessors Yet some say to be able to deal with his own Bishops he was fain to send the Pope a Furnish of gold for his Chamber to have his Connivence Edward the second Anno Regni 17 after the Overthrow he Received by the Treachery of his own in Scotland Bishops Traitors to E. 2. Caused the Bishop of Hereford to be Arrested and Accused of High treason for aiding the Kings Enemies in their Late Rebellion but he Refused to Answer being a Consecrated Bishop without leave of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury whose Suffragan he was and who he said was
his direct Judge next the Pope and without Consent of his fellow-Bishops who then all arose and humbly desired the Kings Clemency in his behalf but finding him Resolute they took away their fellow-Bishop from the Bar and delivered him to the Custody of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury till some other time the King should appoint for his answer to what he was charged withal Shortly after he was again taken and Converted as before which the Clergy understanding The Bishops rescue a Traitor-Bishop from the Bar of Justice the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury York and Dublin and Ten other Bishops all with their Crosses erected went to the place of Judgment and again took him away with them Charging all men on pain of Excommunication to forbear to lay violent hands on him with which audacious Act the King was much displeased and presently Commanded inquiry to be made Ex officio Judicis Concerning those objections against the Bishop whereto he Refused to appear and answer and he being found Guilty of the same Judgment was passed against him as Contumaciously absent and thereupon all his Goods and Possessions were seised into the Kings hands this Act Lost him the Clergy and added Power to the Discontented Party which by Reason of the misfortunes of the Prince and his having advanced unpopular officers As Gaveston and Spencer were grown in the people and Concurred to his after Deposeing from the Throne and horrible Murder when Deposed Hence may be very well observed in what a sad Condition a Prince is who must Depend on the Protection of Bishops and their Excommunications And how shamelesly notwithstanding they will boast that no Bishop no King For here are France and Scotland Confederated against the Kingdom the King is valiant but young and unexperiensed his Bishops and Barons are Corrupted against him by French Pensions and cause the Overthrow of his Army he discovers one of the Bishops guilty of the Treason and had he not been Rescued by the other Traytor-Bishops his Companions he might perhaps have discovered the whole Plot and all his Complices The King very Justly Sentences him both as Mute and Contumaciously absent and seises on his Estate as forfeit What more Just proceeding than this here is no condemning without Liberty of Answer and Hearing yet this must lose the King all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in England and Ireland and all the Clergy of both Kingdomes who received Ordination from them And they will no longer be his subjects unless he will allow them to betray and sell him to his Enemies and not Punish or question the Treason But all concur to irritate the Temporal Barons the people and his own Trayterous Queen to depose and destroy him And the Bishop of Hereford Preaching before her took this Text My Head aketh my Head aketh and thence drawes this wicked Doctrine and Use to a wife that she must cut off her Husbands Head who was her Head and when after the King was deposed and his son chosen the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Preached in Westminster-Hall on this Text Vox Populi Vox Dei to encourage the people in the Treason which was after perfected by his horrible murder in Prison The next Consideration will be how this might have been prevented by his Renowned Father who was of such Wisdome Vigilance and Valour as neither Gaveston nor Spencer nor Bishops Dared to abuse if he had suspected they would have practised such Treachery against the younger yeares of his son Concerning which it seemes he was able and might have easily prevented it had he not Committed two oversights the one was That he only Banish'd Gaveston and had not cut off his head if he had deserved it for assoon as he was dead Gaveston returned again and corrupting the young King was the first occasion his Enemies made Use of to cast the vices and misgovernments of his Favorites on himself It may be here objected That perhaps though Gaveston was a wicked vitious person yet he might not be Guilty of any Crime for which he might be lawfully put to death To which is answered That it possibly might be so though it be not likely And if he were not Guilty of such a Crime he ought not to have been put to Death for a Throne cannot be Established by shedding Innocent Blood But neither he nor his son needed to have been Guilty of it for his son needed not have sent for him Contrary to his Fathers Command and though he incurr'd that fault the Lords cut â—ff his Head who must answer for it and freed him from the Guilt and danger of him The second oversight was of more weight that was When he made an Act against Mortmain for the future he had not taken away as H. 8. after did all that was before Mortmained And when he took the Moiety of the Reverend Fathers Money and Goods he had not taken all and when he Lopt the Branches of Privileges and Jurisdictions of Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks he had not took both Root and Branch For it is as lawful to take present Mortmaines as 't is to prohibit Future And if lawful to take the Moiety it was lawful to take the Whole And if lawful to take the Branches it was as lawful to take the Root of Hierarchy which if he had done This clear Benefit he had Received by it he had left his son secure from any Spiritual French Pensioners who are the most Dangerous sort of all other And the Temporal Barons could not have had without them so great and specious advantages to have Betrayed him 2 He had freed him from such Audacious Traytors as would Rescue their fellowes from the Bar of Justice which Temporal Barons never dared do 3 He had fâ—eed all his successors who should happen to be superstitious from having Rebellions raised against them and themselves Deposed by Excommunication by abolishing Bishops and their ordination which had been an advantage none of his neighbour Emperours or Kings could hitherto ever obtain nor if Bishops had been taken away Episcopal or Ecclesiastical Government by halves though it was sufficient to abate their Power as to himself it was worse for his Son than if he had done nothing at all for he thereby left Bishops and a Clergy full of Rancour in their minds for those blowes they had been beaten with by the Father which though they dare not revenge themselves on him yet did they on his Son to his destruction and though there never had been a Gaveston or a Spencer would have found other pretences enough for their Treasons which they could not have done had he cleane abolish'd them and not left a See for a Bishop to fit in Arch-Bishop threatens to Excommunicate Edw. 3. Edward the Third being with his Army in France and disappointed of his Supply of Treasure upon his last Return into England had in great displeasure Removed his Chancellor and Imprison'd his Treasurer with other Officers most of them Clergy men
John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on whom the King likewise laid the blame of his Wants writes a proud Letter to the King and desired him and his Council without delay to deliver the said Prisoners otherwise he plainly writes That according to his Pastoral Charge he must proceed to the Execution of the Sentence of Excommunication concluding how notwithstanding it was not his Intention to include the King Queen or their Children so far as by Law they might be Excused It was well for the King he was in the head of a brave Army in France for if he had been single as his Father was they who durst Menace him amongst all his Forces in the Field if he had lost the Day as his Father did were as likely to bring him for a French Pension to as miserable a destruction as they brought his Father but by Gods Providence he proved afterward Victorious but first Replied by another Letter to the Arch-Bishop That Relying on his Council he was first put on the Action of the French and that he had promised and assured him he should not want Treasure to perform the work and that notwithstanding by the negligence and malice of the said Arch-Bishop and his Officials those Provisions Granted him by his Subjects in Parliament were in so slender proportion Levyed and with such delays sent over as he was pressed of necessity to his great Grief and Shame to Condescend to the late Truce with the French though extreme Wants charged with mighty Debts forced him to throw himself into the Gulf of the Usurers in such sort as he began to look into the Dealing of his Officers some of which upon apparant notice of their ill Administration of Justice their Corruptions and Oppressions of his Subjects he removed from their Places and others of mean Degree he Committed to Prison and there detained them to the end he might find out by their Examinations the truth of their Proceedings Then he charges the Arch-Bishop with his own Corruption and declares how himself being under Age had through his ill Council made so many Prodigal Donatives prohibited Alienations and excessive Grants and Gifts that thereby his Treasury was utterly Exhausted and his Revenues diminished and how the Arch-Bishop corrupted with Bribes Remitted without reasonable cause great Sums which were due unto him applying to his own Use or Persons ill deserving many Commodities and Revenues which should have been preserved for his necessary Provisions and concluded Unless he desisted from his Rebellious obstinacy he intended in due time and place more openly to proceed against him and the King before the Arch-Bishop Submitted caused a Letter to be sent to the Pope from the Parliament not to make any more Collations of Benefices in England and prohibited them on pain of Death on any that should present or admit them which Resolute slighting of Excommunication both from Arch-Bishop and Pope though in the very time of War with France made the Pride of the Arch-Bishop stoop and with much ado got himself Reconciled to the Kings favour for which the King was bound to thank God and not the Pope or Bishop who gave him that Victory and Success against the French as neither Pope or Arch-Bishop dared to Excommunicate him Against Richard the Second one of the Articles brought against him to have him deposed was That whereas the Realm is immediately holden of God after he had obtained divers Acts for his own particular Ends he obtained Bulls heavy Censures from Rome to observe and perform them contrary to the Honour and ancient Privilege of this Kingdom whereby appears That even in a time of Popery the Assistance of the Pope and Bishops which were included in it was so far from being a Protection to the King that it was Destructive to him much more is the Assistance of Bishops likely to be Destructive rather than a Safety in a time of Protestancy The Bishop likewise Concurr'd with the rest and accused him That he had taken Money Jewels and Plate from them at his going into Ireland Bishops accuse R. 2. for Trifles to Depose him so far were they from seeking to preserve the Kings Life with those Superfluities of theirs where they could keep them and their Bishopricks together that they shewed their Fidelity to their Native King by endeavouring to destroy him For such Trifles divers other Articles were laid against him in behalf of the Bishops by whose doing only the King was utterly undone Truss 46. And not one of all the Bishops in England or Ireland spoke so much as one word to preserve their Native Sovereigns Life but only one namely Thomas Mercks Bishop of Carlisle Dilemma of danger from Excommunication As to the Dilemma a Prince falls under in expecting safety of Government from the Power of Excommunication of Popes or Bishops either the greater part of his Subjects will be Religious or Superstitious if Religious they will so easily see through the Superstition of Consecration and Excommunication as it will rather Irritate and Provoke them as it did in the late unhappy Civil Wars but if Superstitious will the Pope or Bishop make Use of the great Interest and Strength they gain thereby in the People to advance their pretended Spiritual Sword above the Temporal and their own Supremacy above Temporal Kings and Princes which if Resisted by the Princes of such Subjects hazards their being Deposed and losing Kingdoms and Lives together as appears by the Examples before Recited In the same danger is a Prince who Trusts a Temporal Officer whether Treasurer or other with too much Power of Money as Theocritus Anno 518. caused Amantius an Eunuch to give Justin Amantius the General of the Army a great Sum of Money to give the Soldiers to choose Theocritus Emperour but Justin distributed it for himself and so obtained himself the Empire The Western Emperours first raised the Popes to that height as to Excommunicate the Eastern Emperours the succeeding Popes to return their Advancers due thanks Excommunicated after the Western Emperour The French Kings assisted and after raised the Popes to such height that they Excommunicated Deposed and Poisoned the Western Emperour after by the same Power the French King gave them in thanks they Excommunicated and Assassinated the French Kings The Princes of Sicily and Naples had been mighty defendors of the Papacy but when they had made it mightier than themselves the Succeeding Popes took from them their Sovereignty to themselves As to the Impossibility of Safety of Princes amongst Subjects Educated in fear of Excommunication Subjects Educated in fear of Excommunication dangerous to Princes It is to be Noted as well from the Testimony of approved Authors as from the Scripture it self that amongst the Primitive Christians those who are now called Bishops but in the Original word signifie only Overseers were Parochial Bishops or Overseers and not Provincial and that they were the same with Presbyters and differ'd not in
Patriarchs and Bishops they dare not Excommunicate an Emperor of such a People who Contemn their Excommunication and would Revenge it on themselves if they should presume to make a vain noise with it Christ commands Wisdom to be learnt of the Serpent and the experience of all Ages witnesseth to whosoever will but consult Histories That there was never any Prince Gentile or Jew Mahumetan or Christian who admitted near his Throne Episcopal or Pontifical Consecration Ordination or Excommunication could that remain He or his Posterity secure or not Ruin'd or Plagued by those Devils Transformed which he Superstitiously or Impudently had Raised against himself or them as may sufficiently appoar by the Examples before Recited Presbyters independent Lastly 9. If Parochial Bishops and Presbyters were Elected by the Congregations or several Parishes these were Independents in the Primitive Christians time and no Prelacy was amongst them for though the Cities or Parishes in greatness might exceed one another in greatness and in Precedence yet the Presbyters Elected were as Independent one of another as Members of Parliament Elected from great and small Shires As to the Impossibility of obliging Bishops by Oath Bishops not to be obliged by Oath It is impossible to oblige those by Oaths who claim to be Judges of Oaths and Perjury as all Bishops do and their Spiritual Courts for how many and easie pretences will they find to Evade and Nullifie them sometimes a Parte Ante Force or Circumvention sometimes matter Ex post Facto that though at first Law yet by new matters since arising the same is became unlawful to be kept So grant a Bishop the Jurisdiction of Perjury he will never Judg himself guilty of it nor any Subject who breaks his Oath of Allegiance to the King in obedience to the Bishop and the rather because he is not bound to shew any Cause or Reason of his Judgment neither as Coke will have it to be question'd in the Kings Courts of what he hath the Jurisdiction 25. H. 8. Cap. 19. The Clergy Promise the King in verho sacerdotii that they will never her ceforth Praesume to attempt alledge claime or put in ure enact promulge or execute any Canons Constitutions Ordinance Provinciall or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the Kings most Royal assent may be to them had and that his Majesty do give his most Royal assent so it appeares they used to make them before presuming on their Power of Excommunication yet when Queen Mary came in they were as high again as ever notwithstanding their Promises Holy water to wash off Oaths There was a water which Ran in the way Appia dedicated to Mercury wherein the old Pagan Romans did believe if they dipped a Laurell Branch therewith calling on Mercury That they were discharged thereby from any breach of Oath and Perjury they had Committed Alex ab Alexandr Genial Dier The Popes have store of this Holy Water and no doubt can spare some to the Bishops as well as Holy Oyle Guiccuardin Com. de Pol. Relates a then in use Proverb Proprium esse Ecclesiae odisse et timere Caesares Ecclesiastical Lawes and Excommunications therefore made by such Enemies are not likely to be friends to Kings or subjects Bishops are Ecclesiastical Persons Aiming at a supremacy in Judgement of Heresy in Judgement of Oaths in Excommunication all inconsistent with Temporal Supremacy as is their Interest which hath alwayes made them perfidious to Temporal Powers Popes perjured The French King besieged Pope Alexander the Sixth in his Castle of St Angelo from whence after a time he came out swearing to such capitulations as he could obtain and the French King kissing his foot Amongst other Articles he agreed the French King should have his Son Caesar Hostage for the Performance but not long after Caesar making an Escape his Father the Pope contrary to his Oath contracted a League Contrary to the French to their great Prejudice and it was the Custom of that Pope to use most Oaths when he intended most to deceive Pope Julius the second had obliged himself by Oath to have a General Council within two years after his Election to the Popedome but this being not performed Maximillian the Emperour and Lewes the French King Conven'd a Synod at Pisa whither some Cardinals under protection of the French King caused the Pope to be summon'd to make his appearance but the Pope instead thereof Excommunicated them and the French King and call'd an Anti-Synod at Rome to whom he Excuses his Oath and Dies but how he Excused it after he was Dead the Historian doth not mention Anno. 1414. In the Council of Constance convened by Sigismond the Emperour and Pope John the Third Consisting of about a Thousand Bishops and Doctors and Continued four years yet amongst so many Bishops Vix una Fides Bishops perjured for though these declared that the Council was above the Pope yet they Resolved to be as perfidious to Protestants as he and accordingly there ordained That faith ought not to be kept with Hereticks Here they order'd the bones of John Wickliff that famous Primitive Protestant of England to be digged out of his Sepulchre and burnt at this Council likewise was John Hus and Jerome of Prague contrary to the safe conduct and faith given them by the Emperour and Bishops Perfidiously and Cruelly made Martyrs and burnt for the Protestant Religion Here you see were a thousand Bishops yet none kept the Promise of safe conduct Burchard Arch-Bishop of Magdeburg taking some offence at his Citizens besieged them with Armed Power but they Redemed their liberty with a summe of money he thereupon Swearing he would molest them no more yet shortly after he besieged them again but this Perjury was justly met with for in a Sally they took him Prisoner at which time by his humble Demeanor and counterfeit Oaths never to molest them more They Released him but when he was at Liberty getting a Despensation for his Oath from Pope John the 23d he began to molest them again Murthering them whom he had sworn to Maintain But it was Gods will he should be once again caught and cast into Prison and Punished for his wickedness Magdeb. Cent. And did not the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Becket as well as Burchard Arch-Bishop of Magdeburg as is before mention'd commit as great a Perjury against his native King Henry the second after all the Labour and pains taken with him both by fair and foul meanes to bring him to Agreement assoon as he Recovered home to his House by Retracting his Oath and getting an absolution from the Pope for the same Bishops compell H. 2. to accept the Kingdom on their Terms or not to have it By the Pretended Power of Consecration Ordination and Excommunication Popes and Bishops Pretend a Divine Mission to Anoint and Crown Kings and then again to Excommunicate and Depose them all to
Null all Oaths of allegiance unless they will buy their Crownes of them and pay Tribute There is in our own English History a Manifest Example of the same in that noble King Henry the second who Complaines to his Parliament against the Bishops and the whole Clergy That in their Election of King Stephen his Predecessor who was a Collateral Heir they had imposed on him their own Conditions with all advantages to themselves whereby they Deprived his Mother Maud the Empress and him who was her issue and the right Lineal Heir of the Succession to the Crown And how they dealt with the People as well as with the King appears by the Complaint of the Lay-Nobility to the King at the same time That the Privileges of the Clergy hindred all Execution of Justice that the same could have no Passage through the Kingdom and having Exempted themselves from the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate there had been since the beginning of his Reign above an Hundred Man-slaughters Committed within the Realm of England by Priests and men within Holy Orders Dan. Hist 83. Such were the Fruits of Bishops and persons within Holy Orders and the three fine Knacks of Consecration Ordination and Excommunication wherewith they both Allured and Terrified the Superstitious People And such were the fruits of their pretended Divine Mission with the Olive Branch of Peace for tho Unction and Crowning of Kings who confected their Oyntment of the Ingredients mention'd in Psal 55.21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter but War was in his heart his words were softer than oyle yet were they drawn swords 1. Of Gods Preservation of John Keysar notwithstanding his Excommunication and Delivery to Satan by an Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 2. Of Delivery to Satan by Bishops and their Prohibition to cast him out again by Fasting and Prayer without the Bishops Licence 3. All Excommunication and delivery to Satan by Bishops without a Sign of Mission from God if Malefice follow ought to be Punished as Witchcraft if not as a Cheat. 4. To grant a Bishop Power of Excommunication is to grant him Power to set up Idolatry to make all Sins equal to Pardon all Sins for Money Coke part 3.42 Ex Mich. 5. E. 4. Rot. 143. Coram Rege Keysar deliver'd to Satan protected by God John Keysar was Excommunicated by the greater Excommunication before Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Legate of the Aposto lick See at the Suit of another for a reasonable part of Goods and so Remained Eight Months and the said Keysar openly affirmed That the said Sentence was not to be feared neither did he fear it and albeit the Arch-Bishop or his Commissary hath Excommunicated me yet before God I am not Excommunicated And he said he spoke nothing but the Truth And so it appeared for that the last Harvest standing so Excommunicate he had as great plenty of Wheat and other Grain as any of his Neighbours saying to them in scorn That a man Excommunicate should not have such Plenty of Wheat the Arch Bishop denying these words to be within the Statute of H. 4. concerning Lollards who were the Primitive Protestants and Protomartyrs of England did by his Warrant in writing comprehending the said Cause by Pretext of the said Statute Commit the Body of the said Keysar to the Gaol at Maidstone for that saith he in respect of publishing the said words Dictum Johannem non immerito habemus de Haeresi suspectum by reason whereof the said John Keysar was Imprison'd in Maidstone Gaol and in Prison detained under Custody of the Keeper there untill by his Councel he moved Sir John Markham then Chief-Justice Justice of England and other the Judges of the Kings-Bench to have an Habeas Corpus and thereupon as it ought a Habeas Corpus was granted upon which Writ the Gaoler Returned the Cause and Special Matter and withal according to the Writ had his Body there The Court upon mature Consideration and on Conference with Divines Resolved That upon the said words Keysar was not to be Suspect of Heresie within the said Statute as the Arch-Bishop took it and therefore the Court first Bailed him and after he was deliver'd for that the said Arch-Bishop had no Power by virtue of the said Act to Commit to Prison John Keysar hereby proved the Arch-Bishop to be no Incantor Messium but he thereby proved though he was no Witch yet he was a Cheat. Prohibition to cast out the Devil by Fasting and Prayer In the Book of Canons newly Printed 1673. the Canon 72. contains these words No Minister or Ministers shall without the Licence and Direction of the Bishop of the Diocess first had and obtained under his Hand and Seal attempt upon any pretence whatsoever either of Possession or Obsession by Fasting and Prayer to cast out any Devil or Devils under pain of Imputation of Imposture or Cozenage and Deposition from the Ministery The Bishops in prohibiting to cast out the Devil without their Licence imitate something the Popish Exorcists part of whose Exorcism is according to Mengus Flagell Daemon p. 36. The Exorcist ties a Stole about the Neck of the Party with three knots saying Oh ye Abominable and Rebellious Spirits I Adjure Conjure and Compell you wheresoever you have your Residence in this man by the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost that ye immediately understand the words of my Conjuration and the virtue of it and that ye dare not depart from the Creature of God and Image of Christ without my Licence This is not only Anti-Protestant and the way to bring in all the Popish Magick and Exorcisms into the Church but is Anti-Christian for Christ himself affirms There is no holier or higher way of casting out the Devil than by Fasting and Prayer as appears Matth. 17.14 And when they were come to the multitude there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying Lord have mercy on my Son for he is Lunatick and sore vexed for oft-times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water And I brought him to thy Disciples and they could not cure him And verse 18. And Jesus rebuked the Devil and he departed out of him and the Child was cured from that very hour Then came the Disciples to Jesus apart and said Why could not we cast him out And Jesus said unto them Because of your Vnbelief for verily I say unto you if ye have Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed ye shall say unto this Mountain Remove hence uâ—to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting Christ agian will not suffer the Disciples to prohibit any to cast out the Devil as Mark 9.38 And John answered him saying Master we saw one casting out Devils in thy Name and we forbad him because he followed not us But Jesus said Forbid him not for there is no man that shall
them cleérly frustrate and dissolved Further also by reason of other Prohibitions then God's Law admitteth for their lucre by that Court invented the dispensation whereof they always reserved to themselves as in kindred or affinity betweén Cousin-germans and so to the fourth degreé carnal knowledge of any of the same kin or affinity before in such outward degreés which else were lawful and be not prohibited by God's-Law and because they would get money by it keep a reputation of their usurped Iurisdiction whereby not only much discord between lawful married persons hath contrary to God's ordinance arisen much debate and suits at Law with wrongful vexation and great damage of the Innocent party hath been procured and many just Marriages brought in doubt and danger of undoing and also many times undone and lawful Heirs disherited whereof there had never else but for his vain-glorious usurpation beén moved any such question since freédom in them was given us by God's Law which ought to be most sure and certain But that notwithstanding marriages have been brought into such an uncertainty thereby that no marriage could be surely knit and bounden but it should lye in either of the parties power and arbiter casting away the fear of God by means and compasses to prove a pre-contract a kindred and alliance or a carnal knowledge to defeat the same and so under the pretence of these allegations afore rehearsed to live all the days of their lives in detestable adultery to the utter destruction of their own Souls and provocation of the terrible wrath of God upon the places where such abominations were used and suffer'd Be it therefore Enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That from the first day of the Month July next coming in the year of our Lord God 1540. All and every such Marriages as within this Church of England shall be Contracted betweén lawful Persons as by this Act we declare all Persons to be lawful that be not prohibited by God's Law to marry such Marriages being Contract and Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with Bodily knowledge or fruit of Children or Child being had therein betweén the parties so married shall be by Authority of this present Parliament aforesaid Deémed Iudged and taken to be Lawful Good Iust and Indissolvable notwithstanding any pre-contract or pre-contracts of Matrimony not Consummate with Bodily knowledge which either of the parties so married or both shall have made with any other person or persons before the time of Contracting that Marriage which is Solemnized and Consummate or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as afore and notwithstanding any Dispensation Prescription Law or other thing granted or confirmed by Act or otherwise And that no reservation or prohibition God's Law except shall trouble or impeach any Marriage without the Levitical degrees And that no person of what estate degreé or condition soever he or she be shall after the first day of the Month of July aforesaid be admitted to any of the Spiritual Courts within this the King's Realm or any his Graces other Lands and Dominions to any Process or Plea or Allegation contrary to this aforesaid Act. 1. Here it appears what a necessary stroke this Act gave against the usurped power of Ecclesiastical Laws and Jurisdiction in this and other points of Marriage forbidding any Spiritual Courts within this Realm or any his other Lands and Dominions to admit any Process Plea or Allegation contrary to this Act. And although hereby one of the heads of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was as is said of the Beasts Rev. 13.3 as it were wounded to death yet so great was the subtilty of the Serpent that the Ecclesiastics soon after by abusing the minority of that most pious though young King Edward the Sixth got all what the wisdom and courage of his Father had Enacted against them repealed by the Son 2 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23. Edward the Sixth abused by Papists in his Minority to repeal his Father's Act of Precontracts And thinking themselves therein not sufficiently secure they again procured the same to be repealed by 1 Eliz. 1. In which repeals I can see nothing but a Papist Plot against them both to revive those Ecclesiastical Laws by their own Authority against themselves which might have yielded most dangerous pretences against their own Legitimations and Marriages and Issue if they had happen'd to have had any For certainly no Marriage or Issue can be secure or certain if any fraudulent person may secretly pre-contract or pre-copulate with any vile person and take Bonds of him or her to release the same upon request and then marry another person Ignorant and Innocent and have Children procreate between them and then cause the party who had the pre-contract or pre-copulation to sue and obtain a Divorce against the Innocent person to be Divorced and Children Bastardized and Disinherited and then to give a release to the party conspiring in the fraud How is it possible to avoid this wickedness if pre-contract or pre-copulation should be allowed a sufficient cause to dissolve Marriage Consummate by the Birth of a Child And how is it possible propriety to be if a distinction be not kept between it and contract and between obligation and possession according to the old Rule of Law Rem Domino vel non Domino vendente duobus in jure est potior traditione prior And the Rule of the Civil Law and fundamental of all Nations who have propriety Obligatio non impedit translationem Dominii sed translatio Dominii praecedens impedit obligationem l. si quidem 1. C. de donat inter virum Notwithstanding all which Reasons preceding and likewise those in the mention'd Act of H. 8. The Ecclesiastics though straining their Wits and Eloquence to the highest in the Act of repeal by Ed. 6. yet cannot alledge the least reason except only this That if pre-contract should not dissolve Marriage the parties might part from one another at the Church door and then the Wedding Dinner would be spoiled which surely may be sufficiently and over satisfied by recompence in value were it a Half-Crown Ordinary But a lost Virginity to an Innocent Woman who was married bona fide and knew nothing of this pre-contract and her Child can never be repaired if the Marriage be dissolved Nulla reparabilis Arte Laesa pudicitia est deperit illa semel Propert. The Act of Repeal of the said most excellent Law of Henry the Eighth against pre-contracts follows 2 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23. 2 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23. WHereas in the 32 year of the Reign of the late King of famous memory King Henry the Eighth Because that many inconveniences had chanced in this Realm by breaking and dissolving of good and lawful Marriages yea whereupon also sometimes Issue and Children had followed under
the colour and pretence of a former Contract made with another the which Contract divers times was but very slenderly proved and often but surmised by the malice of the party who desired to be dissolved from the Marriage which they liked not and to be coupled with another There was an Act made That all and every such Marriages as within the Church of England should be Contracted and Solemnized in the face of the Church and Consummate with Bodily knowledge or fruit of Children or Child being had between the parties so married should be by Authority of the said Parliament Deémed Iudged and taken to be Lawful Good Iust and Indissolvable notwithstanding any pre-contract or pre-contracts of Matrimony not Consummate with Bodily knowledge which either of the Persons so married or both had made with any other Person or Persons before the time of Contracting of that Marriage which is Solemnized or Consummated or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as by the same Act more plainly may appear Since the time of which Act. although the same was Godly meant the unruliness of Men hath ungodlily abused the same and divers inconveniences intolerable in manner to Christian Ears and Eyes followed thereupon Women and Men breaking their own promises and faiths made by the one unto the other so set upon sensuality and pleasure that if after the Contract of Matrimony they might have whom they more favoured and desired they could be contented by lightness of their nature to over-turn all that they had done afore and not afraid in manner even from the very Church-door and Marriage Feast the Man to take another Spouse and the Spouse to take another Husband more for Bodily lust and carnal knowledge then for surety of faith truth or having God in their good remembrance contemning many times also the Commandment of the Ecclesiastical Iudge forbidding the parties having made the Contract to attempt or do any thing in prejudice of the same Be it therefore Enacted by the King's Highness The Lords Spiritual Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled That as concerning pre-contracts the said former Statute shall from the first day of May next coming cease be repealed and of no force or effect and be reduced to the estate and order of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm which immediately before the making of the said Statute in this case were used in this Realm So that from the said first day of May when any cause or contract of Marriage is pretended to have beén made it shall be lawful to the King 's Ecclesiastical Iudge of that place to hear and examine the said Cause And having the said Contract sufficiently and lawfully proved before him to give sentence for Matrimony commanding Solemnization Co-habitation Consummation and Tractation as it becometh Man and Wife to have with inflicting all such pains upon the disobedients and disturbers thereof as in times past before the said Statute the King 's Ecclesiastical Iudges by the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws ought and might have done if the said Statute had never been made Any Clause Article or Sentence in the said Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Of the Law making private Marriage or carnal knowledge between persons not prohibited by the Law of God to marry Fornication Private Marriage or carnal knowledge is of two sorts the one without publick Witness the other without any Witness at all and both by the Popish Laws because if permitted they would spoil their gains are prohibited and called clandestine Marriages The publick Witnesses are the Priest or Magistrate private Witnesses are any other Marriage without Witness nor clandestine not appointed by Law The Law of England makes all private Marriage and carnal knowledge without publick Witness Fornication The Law of Scotland in some cases relieves though there be a defect and no publick Witness of the Marriage by the Priest as appears in the before cited Author Craig Feud 269. If there appear private Witnesses of Men or Instruments but in all cases likewise where there are neither publick or private Witnesses they leave it to be Fornication That which I here affirm against both is Marriage without Witness not Fornication 1. That carnal knowledge between parties not prohibited by the Law of God to marry is not Fornication nor any other Crime though in the highest secrecy and without any Testimony of Men or Instruments whatsoever 2. That privacy of Marriage being not prohibited nor publication commanded by God all parties ought to have liberty of Conscience to use the one or the other according as suits best with their occasions As to the first there are these reasons That private Marriage without Witness is not Fornication nor any other Crime 1. There is no Law of God prohibiting private Marriage without Witness Where there is therefore no Law there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 2. It is before shewen That for any human Law to prohibit Marriage or Meat where not prohibited by the Law of God the same came from the Devil 1 Tim. cap. 4. v. 1 2 3. And that therefore the Law of the Pope and Council of Trent which nulls all Marriages except made before a Priest in a Temple and two Witnesses came from the Devil and the Priests of Priapus and Venus for filthy lucre to the Priests 3. Isa 45.7 It is said I create evil And Isa 5.20 It is said Wo unto them that call good evil and evil good That put darkness for light and light for darkness Here is therefore a curse pronounced against those who if God created not marriage without Witnesses evil of their own heads call it evil and where God created it to be in darkness and natural modesty of their own heads will have it by Torch-light and the whole Parish of Witnesses 4. All Fornication is Polyandry and Confusio seminum whereby the Child cannot know the Father nor the Father the Child but here is no such thing it is impossible therefore to be Fornication Liberty Conscience to marry with or without Witnesses As to the second Point which I am to maintain That privacy of Marriage without Witnesses being not prohibited by the Law of God nor publication commanded by the same no human power ought to presume to prohibit what Marriage God hath not prohibited but all persons ought to be left liberty of Conscience to marry publickly or privately with or without Witnesses as it suits best with their conveniences and occasions as is the use and practice in all other civil Contracts which men do with or without Witnesses as they think best and were never accused of sin if they had no Witnesses whereon to bring their Action only that Party is justly charged with sin who wilfully breaks his Contracts because there are no Witnesses but God to prove it against him Against these Positions I shall first answer the Objections and then shew further Reasons to confirm the same