Archbishoprick at Litckfield took away six Bishopricks formerly subject to the See of Canterbury and detained the Lands above thirty years till at last restored by the judgement of two or three Parliamentary Great Councils after many Petitions and Complaints upon full hearing and examination Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury for refusing to Crown King William the Conqueror and holding the Bishoprick of Winchester in Commendam with his Archbishoprick together with many other Bishops and Abbots was deprived by the Kings procurement and kept Prisoner at VVinchester during his life receiving only a small allowance out of the Exchequer to support him dying in Prison his Bishoprick remained void two years space in the Kings hands no lesse than twenty five Manors being taken away from it till recovered by â— ansraue his Successor in a famous Council of the Noble and Elders of England held at Penindene King VVilliam Rufus banished Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury out of the Realm for Treason against him and his Soveraign Power and seised his Temporalties till his death after which King Henry the first recalling him he most trayterously and obstinately oppugned the Kings Prerogative of investing Bishops in their Bishopricks by a Ring and Pastoral-slast and refusing to do homage to the King or to consecrate any Bishops who received Investitures from him or did Homage to him for which he was banished for three years out of the Realm all his Temporalties and Goods moveable and immoveable seised into the Kings hands with the Temporalties Goods of those Bishops who renounced their Investistures by the Kings donation by Anselmes perswasion King Stephen seised all the Goods and Temporalties of Theobuld Archbishop of Canterbury and banished him the Realm for departing out of England to Rome upon the Popes summons contrary to his expresse royal Prohibition and for interdicting the King and whole Realm After which being restored to his Archbishoprick by the other Bishops mediation his Goods and Temporalties were again consiscated and seised into the Kings hands Anno 1152. for refusing to Crown Eustace King Stephens Son he forced to flye the Realm which he caused to be infested with fire sword and bloudy wars Thomas Bâ—cket Archbishop of Canterbury an infamous perjured Traytor to and Rebel against King Henry the second his advancer and indulgent Soveraign grand Oppugner of his Royal Prerogatives and of the Customs of the Realm contrary to the Oath and Recognition of himself and all the Bishops Clergy and Temporal Lords in the famous Great Council of Clarindon endeavouring totally to exempt the Clergy from all Temporal power jurisdiction and judicature for the most detestable Crimes and Murders had all his Goods and Moveables by judgment of the Bishops and Peers condemned and confiscated to the King his Temporalties seised into the hands all his Moneys Jewels Plate confiscated together with all the Clergy-men goods who adhered to him all his Kindred Man Woman and Child secured and afterwards banished the Realm together with himself for sundry years and was at last slain in the Cathedral Church at Canterbury for his manifold Treasons Rebellions against the King to the great disturbauce both of the Churches and Kingdoms peace King Iohn An. 1205. seised upon all Archbp. Huberts Lands and Possessions after his death for his manifold Contempts and Oppositions against his Royal authoritie and resolutions during his life Stephen Langhton his next Successor in the Archiepiscopal See of Canterbury for his manifold Treasons and Rebellions against King John had all his Temporalties and Goods seised by the King and was suspended from his Archbishoprick and threatned to be deprived of it by the Pope Archbishop Boniface being commanded by King Henry the third to relinquish his Archbishoprick and depart the Realm by reason of the grievous Complaints both of the Clergy and Commonalty against him thereupon selled his Woods leased out his Lands extorted what moneys he could from his Tenants and carried all with him in to Savoy where he dyed King Edward the first Anno 1301. put Robert Winchelsie Archbishop of Canterbury with all the other Bishops and Clergy out of his Protection and the Parliament House and seised the Archbishops Temporalties Goods Debts After which divers High Treasons and Rebellious Conspiracies were laid to his Charge by the King who thereupon the second time seised all his Temporalties and Goods moveable and immoveable appealed him to the Pope banished him the Realm forbidding any of his Subjects under grievous penalties to harbour him and seised all the Lands of the Monks of Canterbury and banished them the Realm for furnishing this Arch-traytor secretly with necessaries King Edward the second caused all the Goods of Iohn Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury to be seised and his Temporalties to be sequestred into his hands whiles Bishop of Winchester for taking that Bishoprick by Provision from the Pope against his Royal command After which being advanced to Canterbury by King Edward the third he was soon after accused of Treason Treachery and Conspiracy with the French and Pope against the King whose designs against them he crossed all he could whereupon the King resolved to commit him Prisoner to the Tower of London whither he sent the Bishop of Chichesier then Lord Chancellor and the Bishop of Lichfiâ—ld then L. Treasurer Prisoners for the like offences Wherupon this Archbp. flying to Canterbury and there standing on his Gard refused to render himself carrying himself very insolently and rebelliously against the King both in his Sermons and Excommunication saying That he had received no honor nor advancement from the King but ONLY FROM GOD and that he would give an account of his Actions in no. Court and to no Person but in Parliament Whereupon a Parliament was summoned and divers hainous Crimes charged against him by the King which the King after great suit and intreaty pardoned Simon Langham Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England Anno 1371. was put from his Office his Temporalties seised and stripped of all his Archiepiscopal ensigns for receiving from Pope Vrban the Cardinalship of St. Sixtus without King Edward the third his privity who was highly offended with him for it Anno 1386. Simon Sudbury Archbishop of Canterbury in the insurrection of Iack Straw was beheaded on Tower-Hill his Head fixed on a Poll and set on London Bridge as a Traytor and Enemy to the King and People King Rich. the 2d highly offended with Will. Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury for receiving his Archbishoprick by provision from the Pope against the Law and his Prerogative Royal and for other Misdemeanours commanded all his Goods and Temporalties to be seised and forced the Archbishop himself to hide his Head for fear of imprisonment till he made his peace with him Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury was impeached and condemned of High Treason against the King in the Parliament of 21 Rich. 2. by judgement of Parliament for which he was
against the Kings Prerogative the King was so highly offended with him as he had just cause that he presently banished him the Realm and seised his Temporalties Giles de Bruse Bishop of Hereford for siding with the Barons in their wars against King Iohn and consenting to the Interdict had all his â—oods and Temporalties seised and was banished the Kingdom by King Iohn Peter de Eveblancks 42. Bishop of Hereford for his intollerable Oppressions Treacheries and Exorbitances was arrested by the Barons in the year 1263. in his own Cathedral Church where they seised upon his Goods divided his Treasure amongst their Souldiers before his face and then imprisoned him a long time in Ordley Castle as a mere Pest and Traytor both to Church and State Adam de Orlton or Tarleton the 46. Bishop of Hereford was arrested of High Treason for aiding the Mortymers with men and armes against King Edward the second and being indicted and brought to the Kings-bench Bar at Westminster to be arraigned for this Treason the Archbishops of Canterbury York and Dublin accompanied with their Suffragan Bishops came forcibly with their Crofiers rescued took him away from the Bar and protected him from the Kings Justice but the Indictment being found true upon proof his Temporalties were thereupon seised into the Kings hands till by this Bishops instigation he was deposed from the Crown and soon after murdered by his advice When Queen Isabel and her Son Prince Edward were with their Army at Oxford this Bishop steps up into the Pulpit and there taking these words for his Text My Head grieved me he made a long Discourse to prove That an Evil Head not otherwise to be cured must be taken away applying it to King Edw. the 2 d. that he ought to be deposed and afterwards he counselled the Queen to depose make him away which being effected at Berkley Castle by thrusting a hot Spit into his fundament none then appeared so earnest a Prosecutor of these Murderers as this Traitorous Bishop who set them on work to whom when many of his own Letters were produced and shewed concerning this most traytorous inhuman Act he eluded them by sophistical interpretations and utterly denyed he was any way consenting thereunto when as in truth he was the chief occasion and adviser thereof Iohn Trevenant the 51. Bishop of Hereford was one of the prime Actors in the deposition of King Richard the second and setting up King Henry the 4th in his Throne for which he demerited not only a sequestration of his Temporalties but a Decollation though he escaped both Charles Booth Bishop of Hereford was excepted out of the General pardon of the Praemunire granted by King Henry the 8th to the Clergy in Parliament 22 H. 8. c. 15. for which his Goods and Temporalties were confiscated to the King Agelrick Bishop of the South-Saxons since Chichester was deprived by VVilliam the Conqueror Anno 1078. with sundry other Bishops and Abbots in the Councils of VVinchester and VVindsor for their Treasons and Conspiracies against him and afterwards imprisoned Thomas Rushock the 20th Bishop of Chichester a lewd pernicious Prelate Anno 1388. was banished the Court as a Traytor and pernicious Counsellor to King Richard the second his Lands and Goods confiscated himself banished and deprived of his Bishoprick by Act of Parliament and had suffered death too as a Traytor but that his Guiltiness made him fly before he could be apprehended Richard Sampson the 37th Bishop of Chichester Anno 21 H. 8. was committed Prisoner to the Tower for relieving certain trayterous Persons who denyed the Kings Supremacy George Day Bishop of Chichester Octob. 10. 1551. was deprived of his Bishoprick for denying the Kings Supremacy maintaining the Popes and other Misdemeanours and his Temporalties seised Iohn Christopherson Bishop of Chichester was deprived of his Bishoprick by Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. for denying the Queens Supremacy and to take the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance Henry Spencer Bishop of Norwich a Martial Prelate more imployed in the Field than in the Pulpit and the Popes General against the Flemmings Anno 1385. had all his Temporalties seised into the Kings hands for two years for raising an Army and passing the Seas without and against King Richard the second his command and was likewise questioned fined and ransoned in Parliament for his misdemeanours in that military imployment Alexander Bishop of Norwich being elected by the Monks against the Kings consent Anno 1406. had his Temporalties kept from him by the King and his Person imprisoned at Windsor almost a year Richard Nyx Bishop of Norwich in the 25 of H. 8. was attainted in a Praemunire put out of the Kings protection his Person imprisoned his Lands Goods and Chattels seised and forfeited to the King for citing the Maior of Thetford into his Spiritual Court and forcing him to revoke a Presentment upon Oath contrary to Law Hugh Novant Bishop of Chester or Coventry and Litchfield as some stile him for conspiring with the King of France and Earl Iohn against his Soveraign King Richard the first to detain him still in Prison and plotting all the Mischief he could for the destruction of the King and Kingdom was in a Grand Parliamentary Council held at Nottingham about the year 1198. adjudged to Ecclesiastical censures and the seisure of his Temporalties as a Bishop and also to banishment and a Fine of 5000 Marks by the Temporal Lords as an Officer to the King VValter Langton Bishop of Chester by King Edward the second his command was arrested by the Constable of the Tower and imprisoned above two years space in several Castles his Lands and Temporalties seised into the Kings hands his Goods confiscated and after that compelled to answer to divers hainous Crimes whereof he was accused Cutbert Scot Bishop of Chester for his disobedience to Queen Elizabeth was committed Prisoner to the Fleet and displaced Edilred King of Mâ—rcia for some just displeasure against Putta Bp. of Rochester burned his Church and City and forced him to desert his Bishoprick to which he would never afterwards return Godwin Bishop of Rochester was for many months besieged in his City of Rochester by King Ethelred for some contempts against this King who would not raise his Siege upon any intreaty till the Bishop had submitted himself and likewise paid him an hundred pounds Fine Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester was grievously questioned in Parliament by the House of Commons Anno 25 H. 8. for saying That all their doings against the Clergy was for lack of Faith after which he was indicted and condemned of High Treason for countenancing the Revelations of Elizabeth Barton and denying to acknowledge the Kings Supremacy over Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes for which Treason be was executed upon Tower-hill though a Bishop and new-made Cardinal June 21. 1535. and his Head set upon London Bridge Edmond
de Bromfield the 48th Bishop of Landaff was for a long time committed Prisoner to the Tower his Temporalties seised and Goods confiscated by King Richard the second for procuring and bringing in the Popes Bulls of Provision contrary to his own Oath and the Laws of the Land to make himself Abbot of Bury Richard Bishop of Bangor siding against King Iohn his Soveraign with Lâ—olin Prince of VVales was taken Prisoner by the King in his own Cathedral Church and put to a ransom of 200. Hawks Roger Young Bishop of Bangor was imprisoned two or three years for his disobedience against King Henry the 4th and confederating with that Rebel Owen Glendor Arthur Bishop of Bangor was attainted in a Praemunire in the 36. year of King Henry the 8th for suing for the right of Patronage and Tithes of the Church of Langeyneiin in his Spiritual Court which belonged only to the Kings Temporal Courts for which he was put out of the Kings protection his Goods confiscated Temporalties seized and his Person adjudged to be imprisoned according to the Statute he sold away 5. fair Bells out of the Steeple of his Cathedral Giso Bishop of Bath and Wells had many conflicts with King Herald who forced him to fly the Realm and seized his Temporalties all his Reign Ioceline Bishop of Bath and Wells joyned with Archbishop Langhton and other Bishops in excommunicating his Soveraign King Iohn and interdicting the Kingdom for which offences his Temporalties were seized his Goods confiscated himself forced to fly and banished the Realm for five years space Robert Stillington Bishop of Bath and Wells for siding with the bloudy Usurper Richard the third at whose Coronation he was specially employed and for yielding assistance to Lambert the Counterfeit Earl of Warwick and other Treacheries was publickly accused of High Treason against King Henry the 7th and also arrested of High Treason in the University of Oxford whether he fled for Sanctuary imprisoned in the Castle of Windsor till his death Anno 1491. and his Goods and Temporalties seized William Barlow Bishop of Bath and Wells was attainted in a Praemunire by which his Temporalties and Goods were forfeited to the King Gilbert Bourne the 47. Bishop of Bath and Wells for denying the Queens Supremacy and refusing the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance to her 1 Eliz. was deprived of his Bishoprick And to mention no more Presidents in so plain a Case August 4. 1641. Walter Bishop of Winchester Robert Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield Godfry Bishop of Glocester Ioseph Bishop of Exeter Iohn Bishop of Asaph George Bishop of Hereford Matthew Bishop of Ely William Bishop of Bangor Robert Bishop of Bristol Iohn Bishop of Rochester Iohn Bishop of Peterborough Roger Bishop of Landaffe and William Bishop of Bath and Wells were all of them joyntly and 2. of them particularly impeached by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament for several high Crimes and Misdemeanors contrary to the Kings Prerogative the Fundamental Laws of the Land the Rights of Parliament the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence After which most of them with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York were committed Prisoners to the Tower their Goods and Temporalties sequestred and sold by sundry Ordinances of Parliament If any out of Ignorance or Prejudice should deem all these proceedings against the Persons and Temporalties of our Archbishops and Bishops from age to age illegal unjust or sacrilegious let them peruse the Statutes of 1 E. 3. c. 2. 14 E. 3. c. 3. 25 E. 3. c. 6. 2 R. 2. c. 7. 13 R. 2. Stat. 2. c. 8. 43. 16 R. 2. c. 5. 6 H. 4. c. 7. And the year books of 20 E. 2 Fitz. Corone 237. 16 E. 3. and 14 E. 3. Fitz. Quare non admisit 3 7 8 11 21 E. 3. 3 30 60. Book Contempts 5. 19. 22 E. 3. 22 26. Ass. 19. Brook Forfeiture 82. 106. 29 E. 3. 42. Fitz. Execution 159. 38. Ass. 22. Grant 1. 38 E. 3. 12. 46 E. 3. Praemunire 1. 10 H. 4. 6. 14 H. 4. 14. 8 H. 6. 3. 9 E. 4. 28. 27 H. 8. 14. 22 Brook Exigent 3 Stamford l. 2. c. 45. Cook 5. Report f. 12 13. 8. Report f. 68. Cooks 3. Institutes c. 36. 54. Sir Iohn Davis Reports f. 84. the case of Praemunire Upon perusal of all which it will most evidently appear that both our Parliaments and Judges have frequently declared resolved that both their Persons may lawfully be attached imprisoned banished executed their Temporalties seized and Goods confiscated to the King for their Offences Contempts Rebellions both by the Common and Statute Laws of England and therefore by like reason their Lands may be alienated and taken from them for their offences or abuses of them without sin sacrilege or injustice by our Kings and Parliaments beyond all contradiction as they have been from time to time both by the Emperors of Rome Greece Germany the Kings and Kingdoms of France Spain Hungary Italy Denmark Sweden Poland Scotland and Ireland as well as England 6ly That as the Lands and Temporalties of Bishops Abbots Cathedrals by their very first Charters of Endowments and Foundations were alwaies lyable to these 3. Temporal charges and Secular services though dedicated to God and his Church to wit Military Expeditions and Charges of War for the defence of the King and Kingdom the building and repairing of Castles and Bridges commonly expressed in antient Charters under this exception Exceptis Expeditione Pontis Arcis constrictione vel necessariis defensionilus Arcium quae nulli unquam possint laxari So if the Bishops and Abbots upon the Kings writs of Summons refused to send in their Proportions of Horse and Armes according to the Number of the Knights sees they held by and perform these Services to our Kings in times of War or Danger or denied to grant competent Aydes and Subsidies to our Kings when demanded their Temporalties Lands Goods Movables were usually seized into the Kings hands for this Contempt as is evident by Claus. 4â— H. 3. m. 3. 6. Dorso the presidents of Archbishop Winchelsie and other Bishops forecited p. 52 53 c. So our Kings in times of War have frequently seized upon Archbishops Bishops and Church-mens Lands and given them to their Commanders and Souldiers witnesse the presidents of King Osfa and Kenulphus of old who took away sundry Mannors and Lands from the Archbishops of Canterbury which they partly divided amongst their Captains and Souldiers and partly retained to themselves with other presidents since And not only so but the Knights Citizens Burgesses and sundry Lords in successive Parliaments even in times of Popery have often pressed our Kings to take away sell and alienate the great superfluous Mannors Lands Temporalties of Bishops Abbots and Church-men for easing the Kingdom and people from Taxes and maintaining of Earls Nobles
Knights and other Military men to ayd our Kings in their Wars and have actually taken away divers Mannors Lands and Tenements from our Archbishops Bishops and Cathedrals as well as from Abbots Priors Monasteries and given them to our Kings or such as they should appoint The House of Commons in two several Parliaments held in the years of our Lord 1403. and 1404. under King Henry the 4th when this King wanted and demanded aydes and monies from them to carry on his Wars against the Welch-men at home and the French with other Enemies abroad counselled and pressed the King to seize upon the Lands of the Bishops Abbots and Spiritualtie to supply his wants with their Temporalties and Superfluities Whereupon there grew a great contest in the Parliament between the Clergy and Laity the Speaker of the Commons House and the Knights affirming That they had often served the King in his Wars not only with their Goods but also with their Persons in very great Dangers and Ieopardies whiles the Prelates and Spiritualty sate idle at home and helped the King nothing at all Whereupon the Bishops and Clergy to preserve their Temporalties from being taken away in these two Parliaments readily gave the King a Tenth in the first of these Parliaments and a Tenth and an half in the second After this the Knights and Commons in the year 1410. presented this Petition to King Henry the 4th and the Lords in Parliament To our Most Excellent Lord the King and all the Nobles in this present Parliament assembled all your faithfull Commons humbly demonstrate and truly affirm that our Lord the King might have out of the Temporal Possessions Lands and Tenements which are occupied and proudly leudly and unprofitably spent consumed and wasted by the Bishops Abbots and Priors within this Realm so much in value as would suffice to sustain in food 15. Earles 1500. Knights 6200. Esquires and 102. Hospitals more then now be Pressing the King and Lords to take away these Temporalties which they proudly and unprofitably consumed and to imploy them on other publick uses But by the subtilty and potency of the Bishops Abbots and Clergy from whom the King demanded a Tenth to be annually granted to him during his life wherein they were ready to gratifie him they preserved their Temporalties for that present Yet afterwards the Commons in Parliament Anno 1414. renewed this their old Petition to King Henry the 5th and the Lords to seise upon the Bishops and Abbots Temporalties shewing how many Earls Knights and Esquires they would maintain exhibiting a Bill to that purpose Hereupon the Bishops and Abbots whom it touched very near much fearing the issue determined to assay all wayes to put by and overthrow this Bill minding rather to bow than break agreeing first to offer the King a great sum of mony to put by his demand and afterwards intituling the King to sundry Provinces and the whole Realm of France in this Parliament and stirring up the King and Nobles to regain the same by force of armes Towards the recovering and regaining of which antient Right and Inheritance they granted the King in their Convocation such a sum of mony as by Spiritual persons never was to any Prince though the whole Christian world before these times given and advanced By which policy and grant they preserved their Temporalties from being taken away from them by that Parliament Yet some of their Manors and Temporalties were parted with to the King and Lords to purchase their peace after every of these Parliaments In the Parliament of King Henry the 8th in the 22d year of his Reign there were sundry Bills exhibited in Parliament against the abuses of the Bishops and Clergy and many hot contests between the Commons and Prelates who at the last brought them within the compasse of a Praemunire in this Parliament to the confiscation of all their Goods Temporalties and imprisonment of their Persons for submitting to Cardinal Wolsie his Power legatine from the Pope contrary to the Laws of the Realm and the Kings Prerogative Whereupon upon the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury proferred to give the King the sum of one hundred thousand pounds and those of the Provinces of York eighteen thousand pounds more and likewise agreed to give the King the Title of THE SUPREAME HEAD OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEXT UNDER CHRIST which they would never do before to take off the forfeiture of the Praemunire Which the King accepting of granted all the Bishops and Clergy a General Pardon in Parliament out of which Iohn Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of Hereford with six more Clergy-men only were excepted and soon after this Parliament many of the Bishops Temporalties and Manors were granted by them to the King by their special conveyances besides others of them leased or granted to Courtiers great Officers and Favourites to preserve the remainder of them In the Parliament of 37 H. 8. by a special Act of Parliament printed in our Statutes at large under a feined pretext of Exchanges and other Recompences the Manor of Rippon in Yorkshire together with 69. other Manors there named their members and appurtenances were alienated and taken away from the Archbishoprick and Archbishop of York nine Manors one Castle with sundry Parks and Rectories belonging to the Archbishoprick to Canterbury the Manors of Chelmesford and Crondon with the Park of Crondon and all their Members Rights and Appurtenances were alienated and taken quite away from the Archbishops of Canterbury and Bishops of London and their Successors and by these Bishops Indentures and this Act of Parliament setled on the King his Heirs and Successors for ever as well against the said Archbishops and Bishop of London and their respective Successors as against the respective Deans and Chapters of York Canterbury London and their Successours and every of them any Law Custom Statute or other thing to the contrary hereof had or made notwithstanding as in and by the said Act worthy perusal is more at large recorded Besides these the City of Bath the Manors Markford Chedder Chew Claverton Compton Dando Compton Panel Congesbury Clanmore Everchurch Hâ—riton Kineston Lâ—dâ—ord Pucklechurch Wellington Westerleigh VVatton VVecke VVile Yatton with sundry other Farmes Tenements Hundreds and Appropriations have been alienated by and taken from the Bishoprick of Bath and VVills the Manors of Sherburn Sunning and sundry others from the Bp. of Salisbury and sundry other Manors Lands Tenements Farmes from the Bishops of VVinchester Lincoln Ely Chichester Norwich Exeter Hereford Coventry and Litchfield Durham Carlisle before and since 37. Henry the 8th And had not the Statute of 1 Lac. c. 3. restrained the Alienations of Bishops Lands and Revenues they had long ere this had no Lands or Rents at all to dispose of In the Parliament of 7 E. 6. by a special Act of Parliament the Bishoprick of Durham with all the Lands and Hereditaments thereof were
let it then be burned with the fire of faith But these men albeit they have many neighbours dwelling near unto them yet for very pride they will not call any man unto them chusing rather to continue still ignorant then to ask any question And if they do know any man to enquire for his neighbour in such case by and by they cry out upon him as an heretick presuming more upon their own heads than having confidence in their wisdom But I exhort you to give no credit unto their outward appearance for already it is verefied in them which the Satyrical Poet saith No credit is to be given unto the outward shew for which of them all is it that doth not abound with most shamefull and detestable vices And in another place he saith They are very dainty of their speech and have great desire to keep silence And thus much hath Mr. Wilhelmus Let all such hear whom this parable doth touch for I with the rest of the Masters Bachelors and Students of our University considering how hard a matter the condemnation of the forty five Articles of Wickliff without reason is and how grievous a thing it were if we should thereunto consent doe call together my neighbours the Doctors of this Universitie and all others which would object any thing against the same that we might presently finde out the reason of the condemnation of this article concernning the taking away the temporalties from the Clergie Notwithstanding I doe professe that it is not my intent like as it is not the meaning of the Universitie to perswade that Princes or secular Lords should take away the goods from the clergie when they would or how they would and convert them to what use they list But our whole intent is diligently to search out whether this Article as touching the taking away of temporalties from the Clergie may have in it any true sense whereby it may be defended without reproof Wherefore this Article being the seventeenth in the number of the forty five is propounded under this form The Lords temporal may at their own will and pleasure take away the temporal goods from the Clergie if they doe offend and therein continue It is thus proved The Kings of the Old Testament took away the temporal goods at Gods commandement from the Clergie that is to say from the Priests offending Therefore the Kings of the New Testament at Gods commandment may do the like when as the Priests of the new law do offend The consequence dependeth upon a similitude And the antecedent is evident First it is proved by Solomon in the 3. of the Kings 2. chapter which Solomon deposed Abiathar the high Priest because he had taken part with Adonias the brother of Solomon to make him King without the advice either of David or of Solomon himself which ought to reign and set up Sadoc the Priest in the place of Abiathar because he had not consented with Abiathar unto Adonias as it is written in the 3. book of Kings 1. chapter where it is said Adonias the son of Agithe exalted himself and said I will reign and made unto himself chariots and horsemen and forty men which should 〈◊〉 before him neither did his father rebuke him at any time saying Wherefore hast thou done this For he was very comely being second son next to A solon and his talk was with Iâ—â—b the son of Saâ—via and Abiathar the Priest which took part with Adonias But Sadoc the Priest and Benatas the son of Ioiada and Nathan the Prophet and Semei and Serethi and Felethi and all the power of Davids host were not on Adonias part This was the cause of the deposing of Abiathar because he took part with Adonias that he should be King against Solomon the eldest Son of King David wherefore it is written in the third book and second chapter of the Kings The King said unto Abiathar the Priest Goe your wayes unto Anathoth thine own field for thou art a man of death but this day I will not slay thee because thou hast carried the Ark of the Lord before my father David and didst labour in all things wherein my father laboured Then did Solomom cast out Abiathar that he should be no more the Priest of the Lord that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled which he spake upon the â— use of Hâ—li in Silo. Behold the most prudent King Solomon according to the wisdom which was given him of God did exercise his power upon the said Priest putting him out of his priesthood and setting in his place Sadoc the Priest This was a greater matter than to take away the temporalties If then in the Law of Christ which now raigneth over us a Bishop should likewise rebell against the true heir of the kingdom willing to set up another for King why should not the King or his heir have power in like case to take away the temporalties from him so offending Item it is also evident by the King Nabuchodonozor which had power given him of God to lead away the children of Israel with their Priests and Levites into the captivity of Babylon as it is written 4 book of the Kings 25 chapter Item it is read in the 4. book of Kings and 12. chapt how that Ioas the most godly King of Iuda according to the wisdom which God had granted him took away all the consecrate vessels which Iosaphat Ioram and Ochosias his fore-fathers Kings of Iuda had consecrated and those which he himself had offered and all the treasure that could be found in the temple of the Lord and in the Kings Palace and sent it unto Azthel King of Syria and he departed from Ierusalem Mark how this most holy King exercised his power not only in taking away the temporalities of the Priests but also those things which were consecrate in the Temple of the Lord to procure unto the Commonwealth the benefit of peace Item in the 4. book and 18. chapter of the Kings it is written how that the holy King Ezechias took all the treasure that was found in the house of the Lord and in the Kings treasury and brake down the Pillars of the Temple of the Lord and all the plates of gold which he himself had fastned thereupon and gave them unto the King of the Assyrians yet was he not rebuked of the Lord therefore as he was for his other sins as it appeareth in the 2d book of Kings 18. chapter Forsomuch then as in time of necessity all things ought to be in common unto Christians it followeth that the secular Lords in case of necessity and in many other common cases may lawfully take away the moveable goods from the Clergy when they do offend Item it is also read in the 12. of St. Matthew that the Disciples of Jesus to slak their hunger upon the Sabbath day pulled the ears of corn and did eat them and the Pharisees rebuked them therefore unto
Pope Eugenius saith that Lordship was forbidden the Apostles Again as Ecclesiastical Persons do joyfully receive Prayers from Kings and Dukes for their good works so by the same account when they do offend they obediently ought to receive punishment from them for their evil work The consequence holds for punishment for sin being humbly patiently received is more profitable to a Man than Prayse for a good work Whereupon St. Gregory writeth to Mauritius the Emperour that did persecute him I do believe that by so much the more you do please Almighty God by how much the more you do punish me that am an evil Servant to him If therefore the Pope without offence did so humbly receive punishment from the Emperour why should not an inferiour Clergy-man be as patient who justly nay peradventure who grievously offendeth why should not he I say receive patiently punishment from him who is his King or Prince or Duke and to whom he is subjected Saint Peter the imediate Vicar of Christ saith in his first Epistle and second Chapter Submit your self to every Creature for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supream Or unto Governours as unto those who are sent by him for the punishment of Evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God In order to this Rule Pope Leo did subject himself to Ludovicus the Emperor as it is written 2 Quaest. 7. in these words If we have done any thing incompetently and have not to your Subjects observed the true rule of the Law we are ready to amend and correct all things according to yours and your Counsels judgement for if we who ought to correct the sins of other men do commit greater offences our selves certainly we are not the Disciples of Christ but as with grief we speak it we shall be above all others the Masters of Errour And in his tenth Distinction writing to the Emperour of Obedience he hath these words As for the most faithfull and irrefragable keeping and observing of the Imperial Orders and Precepts and of the Bishops our Predecessors Glosse that is of the Emperours who are anointed after the manner of Bishops we professe that both now and alwaies to the uttermost of our Power by the Grace of God we will be most carefull and if per adventure any other Man either hath or shall inform you otherwise be assured for certain that he is a Lyar. Behold how that holy and devout Pope calling even Emperours by the Name of Bishops according to the rule of the Apostle Saint Peter did submit himself as well to obedience as to punishment Why therefore should not a Clergy-man of the Kingdom of Bohemia submit himself for the Lords sake to the King in obedience and if he hath offended in punishment also and not only to the King but unto Dukes and not to Dukes only but also to every humane Creature for by how much the more he humbleth himself in this world for God by so much he shall be the more exalted by God in the world to come And what binders that this should be done but Pride only by which Antichrist doth extoll himself above our most humble Lord and Master Iesus Christ. Also the foresaid opinion concerning the ablation of Temporalties seemeth to be manifest out of the Prophecy of Hildegardis the Virgin which she puts down in her Books under Eugenius the Pope in the Counsel of Treverse approved and allowed by many Bishops of France Italy and Almaine which were there present whereas also Saint Bernard himself was present the which Virgin prophecying spake in this manner The Kings and other Rulers of the World being stirred up by the just judgement of God shall set themselves against them and run upon them saying We will not have these men to reign over us with their rich Houses and great Possessions and other worldly riches over the which we are ordain'd to be Lords and Rulers and how is it meet or comely that those shavelings with their tooles and chisils should have more souldiers or more or richer armour or artillery than we So is it not convenient that one of the Clergy should be a man of War neither a Souldier to be one of the Clergy Wherefore let us take away from them that which they do not justly but wrongfully possess And immediatly after she saith The Omnipotent Father equally divideth all things that is to say the Heavens he gave unto the heavenly Creatures and the Earth unto the earthly And by this means was there a just division made between the Children of men that the Spirituality should have such things as belong unto them and the Secular people such things as are meet and necessary for them so that neither of these two sorts do oppresse each other by violence for God doth not command that the one Son or Child should have both the Cloak and the Coat and the other should go naked but he willed that the one should have the Cloak and the other the Coat Wherefore the secular sort ought to have the Cloak for the greatnesse of their worldly cares and for their Children which daylie increase and multiply The Coat he giveth unto the Spiritualitie that they should not lack clothing and that they should not possess more than necessity doth require Wherefore we judge and think it good that all these aforesaid be divided by reason and equity And whereas the Cloak and the Coat are both found there the Cloak should be taken away and given unto the needy that they do not perish for lack or want These aforesaid spake the Virgin Hildegardis plainly foreshowing the taking away of the Temporalities from the Clergy by the secular Lords and shewing for what cause they shall be so taken away And what manner of division shall be made of those things that are taken away that they be not consumed and spent unprofitably This blessed Hildegardis whose Prophecie this flourished about the year of our Lord 1046. as it is written in Martins Chronicles Also Hugo in his second Book of Sacraments in the second part third Chapter and 7. saith The Laity forasmuch as they intermeddle with earthly matters necessary unto an earthly life they are the left part of the body of Christ. And the Clergy for so much as they do dispose those things which do pertain unto a spiritual life are as it were the right side of the body of Christ. And afterward interpreting both these parts himself he saith A spiritual man ought to have nothing but such as pertaineth unto God unto whom it is appointed to be sustained by the Tithes and Oblations which are offered unto God but unto the Christian and faithfull Laity the possession of the Earth is granted and unto the Clergy the whole Charge of Spiritual matters is commited as it was in the Old Testament And in his seventh Chapter he declareth how that certain things are
ordered to be banished the Realm his Temporalties seised his Lands and Goods forfeited Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury was committed Prisoner and impeached convicted of High Treason against Queen Mary for aiding the Usurper Queen Iane against her and his Goods and Temporalties seised Edmond Grindon Archbishop of Canterbury falling into Queen Elizabeths displeasure was suspended from his Archiepiscopacy by her order till his death Archbishop Abbot for killing his Keeper by Chance-medly in shooting at a Back was suspended from his Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction by King Charles the first for sundry years and his Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction power delegated to others And Will. Laud the last Archbishop of that See in the Parliament of 16 Caroli was impeached of sundry High Treasons and high Misdemeanours against the King and Kingdom by the Commons of England and Scots Commissioners for which he was upon full Tryal and Hearing imprisoned atttainted condemned and beheaded on Tower-hill his Goods and Temporalties sequestred seised sold by Judgment and Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament To these numerous Presidents of the Archbishops of Canterbury I shall annex some paralel ones of the Archbishops of York VVilfred Archbishop of York for his Treason in favouring and aiding the rebellious Danes and perswading Queen Ermenburga to desert her Husband the King was by King Egfreds prosecution twice condemned and deprived of his Archbishoprick in two several Councils his Temporalties and Goods seised his Person imprisoned his Archbishoprick divided into two or three more Bishopricks and himself exiled some write for ten others for eight years together till at last with much importunity many Letters from the Pope others he was restored to his See Wolstan Archbp. of York for his hamous Treason in deserting his natural Christian King Edgar against his Oath Allegiance Piety Function Christianity and adhering to the invading heathen Danes who wasted the Country and endeavoured to rout out the Christian Religion and for murdering divers Citizens of Hertford was deprived of his Bishoprick and imprisoned by the King for a year and at last murdered himself Turstan Archbishop of York for receiving his consecration from the Pope at the Council of Rhemes against King Henry the first his expresse command and his own Oath and Faith to the King was banish'd the Realm his Temporalties seised by the King for five years space and he hardly permitted to return into England after many mediations and menaces of the Pope in his behalf Geoffry Plantaginet Archbishop of York for breaking his Oath with King Richard the first was kept from his Temporalties and imprisoned by William Longchamp After this Anno 1194. upon several complaints against him in Parliament for hindering the Kings Officers to gather a Tax in his Diocesse and sundry contempts against King Iohn his Lands and Goods were seised and returned into the Kings Exchequer by the Sherift of York-shire by the Kings command for which he excommuniting the Sheriff was suspended his Bishoprick and forced to pay a Fine of 1000 l. for his restitution After which for excommunicating those who collected a Tax for the King he was banished the Realm and his Temporalties seised for above five years time the See being kept void above ten years space in the Kings hand when he was first made Archbishop Thomas Corbrig Archbishop of York for obeying and preferring the Popes commands before the Kings in admitting the Popes Clerk to the Chapel of St. Sepulchres in York and rejecting the Kings about the year 1300. had for this his contempt three Baronies antiently belonging and annexed to his Archbishoprick taken away and kept from him by King Edward the first during the Archbishops life without restitution Alexander Nevil Archbishop of York was attainted of High Treason in the Parliament of XI King Richard the second his Temporalties and Estate seised and his Person adjudged to perpetual imprisonment in Rochester Castle who flying the Realm Pope Vrban made him Archbishop of St. Andrews in Scotland but the Scots refusing to own his Papal Authority he was stripped of both Archbishopricks and forced to live a poor Parish-Priest in Lovain till his death Richard Scroop Archbishop of York was condemned and beheaded for High Treason against King Henry the fourth and all his Temporalties Monies Goods seised and consiscated to the King An. 1405. George Nevil Archbp. of York Brother to Henry Nevil the Great Earl of Warwick a perfideous Traytor both to King Edward the 6th and Edward the 4th in the year 1472. was arrested of High Treason at VVindsor by King Edward the 4th all his Plate Money and other movable Goods to the value of 20000 l. seised for the King together with a Miter of inestimable value by reason of the many rich stones adorning it which the King broke and made a Crown thereof for himself the profits temporalties of hi-Bishoprick were taken into the Kings hands for above 4. years space and himself long imprisoned at Calis Guisnes for his Treason against the King Cardinal Thomas Wolsie Archbishop of York a most insolent proud ambitious covetous Prelate for his manifold misdemeanours Oppressions and high crimes against the King kingdom people and Kings royal Prerogative was first attainted in a Praemunire An. 21 H. 8. whereupon the K. seised all his Goods and took away the Great Seal from him After which the Lords and Parliament exhibited sundry Articles of High Treason and other Misdemenours against him Upon which by the Kings command he was arrested at Cawood of High Treason by the Earl of Northumberland in November 1536. his Plate Goods and Temporalties seised himself caried Prisoner towards London with intent to bring him to the Tower to be further proceeded against to a void which infamy he poysoned himself with a strong Purgation whereof he died at Leycester Abby after which the King seised all his Lands and Manors though a Cardinal and Archbishop To these Presidents of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York I shall annex the like of some other inferiour Bishops William de sancta Maria Bishop of London for interdicting the whole Realm and excommunicating King Iohn together with Edward Bishop of Ely and Maugerus Bishop of VVorcester who concurred with him in this interdict and excommunication to gratifie the Pope had all their Goods and Temporalties seised upon by the King Anno 1201. their Castles demolished and themselves banished the Realm for five years space Fulco Basset Bishop of London a great Stickler for the Pope against King Henry the third whom he oft affronted â—â—â—â—essed the King and Pope might take away his Bishoprick his Miter and Crosier but not his Helmet and Sword wherein he most gloried and consided Henry Sandwich Bishop of London against his corporal Oath of Fealty and Homage to King Henry the third was a prime Stickler in the Barons wars against this King and Promoter of the Articles of Oxford in the forty
till September 11. An. 1100. at which time the King received him into his favour and restored him to his Bishoprick After which he fell again into the Kings displeasure and dyed of grief that he could not clear himself of the Rebellion charged against him which he was summoned to answer In the year of our Lord 1101. K. Henry the first upon the innumerable complaints to him made against Ranulph Flambard Bishop of Durham by the Vote of a whole Parliamentary Council clapt him up Prisoner in the Tower of London for a most notable Oppressor Extortioner Rebel Traytor prepared to act any wickednesse who was likewise created by VVilliam Rufus both Chancellor and Treasurer of England This Bishop afterwards escaping into Normandy perswaded Duke Robert to invade the Realm to the great disturbance thereof and effusion of much Christian bloud After which having purchased his peace with large Gifts â—et the K. exacted from him great sums seised on all his Goods Bishoprick Edgar King of Scots about the year 1100. gave the Town of Berwick to the Bishop of Durham but because he afterwards wrought Treason against him he lost the Gift the King thereupon resuming the Town into his own hands Hugh Pusar Bishop of Durham who purchased the Earldom of Northumberland of King Richard the first for giving a rude sawcy answer to King Henry the second had his Castle of Durham seised into the Kings hands Anno 1184. and otherwise was afflicted by him Anthony Beak or Bek Bishop of Durham excommunicating the Prior and Monks of Durham notwithstanding their Appeal to the Pope and King and going to Rome without the Kings License King Edward the first thereupon seised his Temporalties and Liberties and appointed a new Chancellour new Justices and other Officers of Durham During this his disgrace this King for his conâ—empts took away three Manors and the Church of Symondbury from the Bishoprick with divers other Lands He being with other Bishops put out of the Kings protection for denying to grant him an ayde he and they were forced to make their peace with large Gifts the grant of the fifth part of thier Ecclesiastical Goods and Revenues for one year After the death of Lewis Beaumont the Monks of Durham electing a Monk of their own for their Bishop the Archbp. of York consecrating him without the Kings License the King thereupon refused to restore his Temporalties to him and caused Richard de Bury without any election of the Monk or Chapter to be made and consecrated Bishop in his place whereupon the Monk retired into the Monastery Cuthert Tonstall Bishop of Durham for his disobedience to King Edward the 6th was committed Prisoner to the Tower of London Decemb. 20. 1551. where he continued all his Reign the King being so highly offended with him that in 7 E. 6. by a special Act of Parliament the Bishoprick of Durham was dissolved and all the Lands and Hereditaments thereof given to the King his Heirs and Successors though afterwards the Bishop and Bishoprick were restored by Queen Mary but in 1 Elizabeth this Bishop was deprived of his Bishoprick by Act of Parliament for refusing the Oath of Supremacy and opposing the Queens proceedings and committed Prisoner to Lambeth Our learned Martyr William Tyndal writing of this Bishop Tonstall observes That the cause why he left the Bishoprick of London for Durham was only covetousness and ambition Neither addes he is it possible naturally that there should be any good Bishop so long as the Bishopricks be nothing save wordly pomp and honour superfluous abundance of all manner of Riches and Liberty to do what a man list unpunished things which only the evil desire and good men abhor Roger the great rich Bishop of Salisbury who contrary to his Oath Duty and Allegiance to King Henry the first his Advancer and Maud his Daughter set up and made Stephen a Usurper King thereby involving the Kingdom in intestine bloudy wars and feuds all his Reign by a divine retaliation of his Perjury and Treachery had his Person imprisoned his 2. newly repaiâ—ed Castles of Shâ—rborn and Malmesbury with his stately new built Castle of Devises and all his ammunition and treasures in them seised upon with the â—astles of his Nephews and Creatures Nigellus Bp. of Ely Alexander Bp. of Lincoln for real or pretended offences which Castles K. Stephen refused to restore or to be judgd by the Bishops or their Canons in the Council of Winchester sommoned by the Popes Legate to debate the legality of their seisure by the King and to restore them to the Bishops which the King would by no means give his consent to do the Archbp. of Rhoan justifying the lawfulness of these Castles seisure in the Council as well as the Kings Lawyers Richard Milford Bishop of Salisbury was by order of the Barons in Parliament in XI R. 2. removed from the Court and imprisoned in the Castle of Bristol as a pernicious Whisperer Flatterer evil Counseller Traytor to the King and Kingdom William Ayscoth Bishop of Salisbury Confessor to King Henry 6. by his oppressions ill dealing and consenting to the yielding up of Anjou and Mayen to the hands of the French King so far incensed the Nobles and vulgar Rabble his Tenants too against him that in the insurrection of Iack Cade June 29. 1450. some of these Bishops Tenants coming to Edâ—ndon in VVilishire whiles he was there saying Masse seised upon him even in the Church drew him from the Altar arrayed in his Pontifical Massing Vestments carried him to the top of a Hill not far off and there whiles he was kneeling on his Knees cleft his Head in two stript him naked to the skin and renting his bloudy shirt into several pieces took every man a rag to keep it as a monument of this their exploit Which though tumultuous and illegal in them was yet a just judgement of God upon himself for opreâ—sing his Tenants and other publick misdemeanours Anno. 873. Alfred Bishop of Leicester was deprived of his Bishoprick for his misdemeanours by King Elfred Vlâ— Bishop of Lincoln was banished the Realm and hardly escaped with his life together with Robert Archbishop of Canterbury and VVilliam Bishop of London by Edward the Confessor by the advise of his Nobles assembled in a Parliamentary Council for giving this good King wicked Counsel an incensing him against the English causing the King to infringe his good Laws and not to administer upright Justice to his People which he promised to reform upon their banishment Alexander Bishop of Lincoln was banished the Land forced to fly into Scotland and deprived of his Bishoprick Anno 1070. for opposing VVilliam the Conquerour as an Invador of the Church and ravishers of Ecclesiastical things the Norman Conquerors making bold with all the Money Chattels Charters they could find in any Monastery which they diligently searched by the Kings command who
appointed how many Souldiers every Bishop Abbot which held of him by Barony should find for the King in times of war from which they were formerly exempted Alexander Bishop of Lincoln Nephew to Roger the great Bishop of Salisbury built three new Castles at Banbury Newark and Sleford which King Stephen seised upon and took from him upon some pretended or actual Misdemeanours together with all the Ammunition and Treasure this Bishop had laid up in them and imprisoned the Bishop himself for holding the Castle of Devises against him and refusing to surrender it till constrained St. Hugh Bishop of Lincoln did much oppose the payment of any Subsidies or Taxes to King Henry the second Richard the first and King Iohn he resisted King Richard the first to his face when he demanded Taxes from his Subjects by means whereof and of another Bishop joyning with him he could gain no moneys from them Whereupon the King in a great rage banished both these Bishops confiscated all their Goods and seised the Goods of the other Bishops who thereupon submitted to the King Hugh Wallis or de VVills Bishop of Lincoln about the year 1209. owning that Arch-traytor Stephen Langhton for Archbishop of Canterbury and receiving his consecration from him contrary to King Iohns expresse command had all his Temporalties seised and himself kept fasting for four years space before they were restored After which he joyning with Lewis the French King and the Barons siding with him against King Iohn he was for these new Treasons not only prosecuted by the King but also excommunicated by the Pope and not absolved till he paid the Pope one thousand Mark and his Legat one hundred Marks sundry other of our Bishops being then fined for the like Crimes and that so deeply that they were compelled to sell all they had to satisfie the King Hugh Burwash Bishop of Lincoln though advanced by the special favour of King Edward the second to that See fell so far into his Royal displeasure within two years after his consecration for some contempts and offences against him that the King seised his Temporalties into his hands for two years space Anno 1324. he being restored to the Kings favour and his Temporalties again the grudge thereof stuck so far in his stomach that none was so forward to assist the Queen with mony armes forces nor so eager against the King to depose him as this Bishop of Lincoln and the Bishops of Ely Dublin and Canterbury by whose assistance and advice the King was not only deposed but murdered Thomas VVatson Bishop of Lincoln in the first year of Queen Elizabeth â—as by the Queen and Parliament deprived of his Bishoprick and committed to Prison for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and threatning to excommunicate the Queen for altering Religion King Stephen about the year 1140. banished Nigâ—llus Bishop of Ely for his Treason and Contempts against him seised his Castles and Temporalties during his life and kept them in his hands at least five years space after his death Gâ—offry Rydel his next Successor commonly called the proud Bishop of Ely had all his Moneys to wit 3060 marks of Silver and 205 pounds of Gold seised upon and confiscated by King RICHARD the first William Longchamp Bishop of â—ly both Protector Chancellour and Chief Justice of the Realm and Popes Legat during King Richard 1. his absence in the holy wars as he seised and spoyled the Temporalties and Goods of Geoffry Plantaginet Archbishop of York stripped him and his Followers of all they had dragged him by his Officers out of St. Martyns Church in Dover by force from the very Altar it self without the least respect to the greatness of his Person or holyness of the Place and thrust him Prisoner into Dover Castle so himself was soon after seised upon dragged by the Heels and imprisoned at Dover by the vulgar Rabble then forced out of the Realm by the Nobles and other Prelates and his Estate confiscated for his intollerable Tyranny and Misdemeanours Eustathius Bp. of Ely for pronouncing the Popes excommunication against King Iohn interdicting the whole Realm had all his Temporalties seised into the Kings hands his Goods confiscated himself forced to fly the Realm and to continue in exile many years all the Prelates and Clergy of England confederating with him herein being likewise commanded to depart the Realm their Possessions Baronies temporalties Goods seised confiscated and all of them put out of the Kings proteon Anno 1208. King Henry the third was so highly offended with Hugh Balsam Bishop of Ely that he seised upon his Temporalties caused all the Woods thereon to be cut down and sold the Parks to be spoyled the Ponds to be fished and wasted and havock to be made of all things for harbouring the Rebels then in armes aganst him Thomas Lilde Bishop of Ely a furious indiscreet Prelate upon King Edward the third his complaint to the Parliament was banished the Court during his life his Possessions seised on by the King till his death Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Ely for denying the Oath of Supremacy and opposing the reformation of Religion intended by Queen Elizabeth was committed Prisoner to the Tower and deprived of his Bishoprick by the Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth with other Popish Bishops deprived for the like offences the same year Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exeter Anno 1326. was assaulted by the people in London at the North-door of Pauls and dragged thence by them into Cheapside by the heels where they proclaimed him an open Traytor a Seducer of King Edward the second who left the charge of the City to him and a Subverter of their liberties after which stripping him of his Pontifical Garments they took off his Head from his Shoulders and set it on a Poll for a spectacle that the remembrance cause of his death never questioned might continue Living the 23d Bishop of Worcester Anno 1040. was accused by Elfrick Archbishop of York for procuring the death of Alfred eldest Son of Ethelred Whereupon King Hardeknute degraded him and gave his Bishoprick to Elfrick So Alfred Bishop of Worcester for his misdemeanours and opposition against King Hardeknute and having likewise a hand in the death of his half Brother Alfred was expulsed that See till his money purchased his peace Maugere the third Bishop of Worcester being one of the four Bishops who excommunicated King Iohn and put the whole Kingdom under an Interdict Anno 1208. had all his Goods confiscated his Temporalties seised by the King and being forced to fly the Realm for these misdemeanours died in exile Raynelmus the 30. Bishop of Hereford receiving his investiture from King Henry the first by the delivery of a Ring and Crosier according to the Law and Custom of that Age and afterwards resigning them into the Kings hands again to pleasure Anselme
taken away and setled in the King his Heirs and Successors And no longer since than 21 Iac. c. 30. york-York-house in the Strand was by special Act of Parliament by way of Exchange taken from the Archbishop of York and setled on King Iames his Heirs Successors and Assigns and after that on the Duke of Buckingham upon pretext that it was for the benefit of the Archbishops By all which Acts and Presidents it is most evident that our Kings Parliaments and Temporal Lords may not only seise sequester the Temporal Lands Goods Estates of Bishops and Church-men in cases of Delinquency and Contumacy but likewise substract alienate and sell them to supply the necessities of the King and Kingdom in times of war and extreme necessity without Sacriledge or Impiety which should cause our present Archbishops Bishops and Cathedralment to carry themselves with greater Loyalty and Dutifullnesse towards his Sacred Majesty with greater humility sobriety meeknesse and respect towards the Temporal Lords Commons and People than their Predecessors have done and make them very carefull of giving just offence or provocation to all or any of them especially at this present juncture of our Ecclesiastical and Civil Officers in so hopefull a way of future Settlement if their pride avarice ambition or indiscretion do not interrupt them 7ly That Archbishops Bishops Deans and Chapters themselves by their common consent may lawfully alienate sell and give away not only their Lands and Possession which were never solemnly consecrated but even their very consecrated Chalices Vestments and Ornaments of their Churches themselves though more peculiarly consecrated by Episcopal benedictions more immediately devoted to Gods service than their Lands and other Temporalties and that in cases of publick necessity or charity as to relieve the Poor in time of famine to redeem Captives to ransom their lawfull Kings to support their decayed Patrons and Benefactors to defend their native Country against invading Enemies or Christians against Infidels to prevent a greater mischief and for the benefit of the Church in general as sundry antient Councils and the Popish Canonists themselves have resolved Yea by the Popes consent without any of these Causes our Archbishops and Bishops might alienate sell morgage give away and dispose of the Lands belonging to their Bishopricks as the express clause in their Oath to the Pope not to do it without the Popes council and consent imports When our King Richard the first was most injuriously taken in his return from the Holy Land and for a whole year and three months space kept Prisoner by the Emperour of Germany and at last put unto a ransom of one hundred thousand pounds of Silver after the weight of Colen Anno 1093 the Kings Collectors being unable to levy so great a masse of moneys thereupon Majores quidem Ecclesiae thesauros ab antiquis congestos temporibus Ecclesiae Parochiales argenteos calices praemiserunt the Archbishops Bishops Abbots and Priors of all Conventual Churches gave the fourth part of their annual Rents and other inferiour Clergy-men the Tenth of their Tithes and the Cistercian Monks all their Wools towards his speedy ransom Yea the Chronicle of Brompton and others inform us that the Kings Collectors wanting monies after a double exaction of what they could scrape together from all parts Postrenis ut nulla vacaret occasio ad vasa sacra et utensilia Ecclesiae ventum est Ieaque per omnem Anglica regni latitudinem sacri Calices exactoribus regiis traduntur vel paulo infra pondus redimuntur Vasa etiam alia Cruces Praelatorum anuâ—â— cum auro de Sanctorum fereâ—ris abraâ—o sunt conflaia Nec erat hoc secundum Patrum decreta illicitum cum urgenâ—tisimus necessiiatis arâ—â—enlus instaret Nec ulla erat distinâ—â—â—o in this necessity Clerici Laici secularis religiosi rustici urbani sâ—à omnes indifferenter juxtà substantiae suae vires vel redditum quantitatem pro redemptione Regia portionem suam solvere cogebantur Privilegia Praerogativae Iunnunitates Ecclesiarunt tunc silebant penitus et vacabant Omnis enim dignitas libertas os suam oppilabat Cisterciensis quoque ordinis Monachi qui ab omni exactione Regie hactenus immunes extiterant tantò magis tunc onerati suerant quantò minus antea publici oneris senserant gravitatem Exacti quoque conctilanam suarum ovium resignarunt And should not our Bishops and Cathedral men now for and towards his Majesties most glorious redemption and his three whole Kingdoms ransom from near twelve years exile and captivity and for the future settlement of our Churches Kingdoms in sound and lasting peace in pursuance of his Majesties most gracious Declarations and Engagements at Breda and the Generals Parliaments Engagements before his happy return into England to give competent satisfaction to Purchasers of their Lands not only part with their antient Treasures Chalices Miters Crosiers Church Ornaments Copes but likewise with their late alienated Temporalties and Revenues for competent terms of years of lives reserving the antient or an improved rent rather than violate the publick saith peace of the King Kingdom Parliament oppugn his Majesties royal Commands the Lords Commons Parliaments Souldiers and Peoples desires by unreasonable demands or indiscreet covetous and violent proceedings against Purchasors and Tenants which may indanger if not demerit the forfeiture reseisure and new sales of all their Lands and Temporal Revenues in case of obstinacy and dis-satisfaction herein The rather because our Bishops by the Laws of England before the Statute of 1. Iac. c. 3. and other restraining Acts might with the consent of their Deans and Chapters not only lawfully lease their Lands for how many years or lives they pleased but likewise alien and sell the Inheritance thereof or charge them with what Rent-charges they pleased especially by the Kings consent as the grant of a Rent-charge out of the Glebe of a Parsonage by the Patron or Ordinary in time of vacancy or of the Parson Patron and Ordinary joyntly to a Layman shall bind the Successours in perpetuity as is evident by the Statutes of 37 H. 8. c. 16. 1 Jac. c. 3. 33 H. 8. c. 31. Littleton sect 648. Cooks 1. Institutes f. 343 344 44 45. and many other Lawbooks Not to adde many Presidents to those forecited in so clear a case it is registred by Bishop Godwin of Iohn Vâ—sly Bishop of Exeter in King Edward the 6th his Reign That of all the Bishops of the Land he was esteemed the best Courtier being better liked for his civil Behaviour than his Learning which in the end turned not so much to his credit as to the spoyle of his Church for of twenty two Lordships and Manors which his Predecessors had left unto him of a goodly yearly Revenue he left but three and them also leased out and where he found 13. Houses and Palaces too many by 12. for any one Apostolical Bishop well
If then it were neither Sacâ—iledge Impiety nor Injustice in these Parliaments and our Kings to take away sell alienate these Lands and Revenue of Priors Monks Monasteries and divert them from their primitive uses as our Bishops Dean and Chapters must grant as well as others or else renounce resign most of the Temporalties Rents Appropriations and Revenue they now enjoy originally belonging to Monasteries then by the self-same reason it can be no Sacriledge impiety or injustice for the King Lords Commons and Parliament upon the like grounds and considerations to take away sell alienate the temporal Land of Bishops Deans and Chapters if they offend or obstinately refuse to give the late Purchasers of them competent satisfaction for the Kingdoms Peace and Tranquility upon their commands and votes 9ly That is evident by our Histories Records Leager-books that all or most of the Manors Lands Tenements in England and Wales now in the possession of the King Queen Nobility Gentry and Commons of England have heretofore in some Age or other been solemnly consecrated devoted and given by their Ancestors to some Cathedral or Collegiate Church Abby Pâ—ioâ—y Nunnery Cell religious House or other or else by art fraud monyes vested in and setled on them in perpetuity as the Churches Patrimony Yet notwithstanding they have been alienated substracted or taken wholy from them in successive Ages and the inheritances of them setled in our Kings Nobles Gentry and Yeomanry without any scruple of Consciences or real or imported guilt of Sacriledge From whence it inevitably followeth That is the greatest part of all the Temporalties Lands and Revenues which our Archbishops Bishops Deans Chapters Prebends Abbots Priors Monks Templars Hospitallers and other Ecclesiastical or religious persons formerly enjoyed by as good right title in Law Conscience as those now or any of them yet enjoy them might be lawfully alienated or justly taken from them by our Kings Parliaments and Temporal Lords and may be still detained from them by the Purchasers of them their Heirs or Assigns without Sacriledge Impiety or Injustice Then by the self same reason the Lands and Temporalties they lately possessed or yet possess may upon any publick necessity or just occasion be alienated sold and taken from them by our Kings Parliaments Lords and Common without the guilt of Sacriledge or Impiety so as there be a competent maintenance left for the Evangelical Ministers Bishops and Pastors of Parochial Churches for the instruction edification and salvation of the Peoples souls committed to their charge There being the self-same reason of Sacriledge and no Sacrilege in alienating substracting selling detaining the major part of their Lands temporalties as of the Minor Or else if it be real Sacriledge to alienate sell detain any parcels of Lands or Temporalties formerly given by our antient Parliaments to others or vested in the Church or Church-men then all our Kings Parliaments Nobles Commons must be actually guilty of these sins and as far forth obliged in Justice Conscience to make full restitution of all Church-lands whatsoever formerly alienated or substracted as the late Purchasers of Bishops and Cathedral Lands and then the whole Kingdom or farre greatest part thereof must henceforth become the Churches and Church-mens Patrimony and our Kings Nobles Gentry Commonalty of all degrees their mere Homagers Vassals Farmers and Tenants at sufferance the antiquity of former alienations sales of Church-lands by our Ancestors if Sacrilegious and Impious rather aggravating than extenuating the Crime but no wayes justifying the Legality thereof it being a Maxime in our Law Quod ab initio non valet tractu temporis non convalescit and a Principle in Divinity that the older any sin is and the longer persevered in the more execrable and fit to be repented redressed and that Heirs Assignees and Successors are obliged to make restitution of sacrilegious Rapines as well as the immediate Authors of them 10ly That the Dispensation and Indulgence of Pope Iulius the 3d. himself Cardinal Pole Archbishop of Canterbury his Legate upon the Petition of all the Bishops and Clergy of England though Papists and the memorable Act of the whole Parliament of 1 2 Philip Mary c. 8. reciting them and confirming all alienations seisures sales of the Lands Manors Rents Revenues Goods as well of Archbishops Bishops Deans Chapters Prebends Cathedrals as of Abbots Priors Monks and other Religious Persons and Monasteries made by our Kings or Parliaments to the Crown and the Purchasers of all and every of them and their Heirs from the twentyeth year of King Henry the 8th till the first of Queen Mary during their revolt and pretended scisme from the Church of Rome and of all Ordinations Presentations Ecclesiastical Sentences and Proceedings for the publick peace benefit tranquility of the Church and Realm of England and satisfaction of Purchasors may for ever silence our Prelates and Cathedral mens loud cryes against the sacriledge of the late Sellers and Buyers of Bishops and other Cathedral mens Lands and enduce them to give the Purchasors of them full satisfaction by confirming their sales for a competent time For which end I shall transcribe so much of that memorable Act as concerns our present case and condition We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled representing the whole body of this Realm reduced received by your Majesties intercession to the unity of Christs Church and the obedience of the Sea Apolike of Rome and the Popes holyness governing the same make most humble suite unto your Majesties to be likewise means and intercessours that all occassions of contention hatred grudge suspition and trouble both outwardly and inwardly in mens Consciences which might arise amongst us by reason of disobedience may by authority of the Popes holyness and by ministration of the same unto us by the most reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Poole by dispensation toleration or permission respectively as the case shall require be abolished and taken away and by authoritie sufficient these Articles following and generally all others when any occasion shall so require may be provided for and confirmed First that all Bishopricks Cathedral Churches Hospitals Colleges Schools and other such foundations now continuing made by authority of Parliament or otherwise established according to the order of the Laws of this Realm sithens this scisme may be confirmed and continued for ever Item that mariages made infra gradus prohibitos consanguinitatis affinitatis cognationis spiritualis or which might be made void propter impedimentum publicae bonestatis justitiae or for any other cause prohibited by the Canons only may be confirmed and children born of those mariages declared legittimate so as those mariages were made according to the Laws of the Realm for the time being and be not directly against the laws of God nor in such case as the Sea Apostolike hath not used to dispence withall That institutions of
partaker of the sin or offence Therefore foresee unto your own soul provide for your nephews and for such as you do desire to reign after you provide for your country and with diligence provide for the correction and punishment of that sin before our Creator do stretch out his hand to strike And in his next Chapter he writeth unto the French King Whatsoever you do understand to pertain either unto the honour and glory of our God to the reverence of the Church or to the honour of the Priests that do you diligently cause to be decreed and in all points to be observed Wherefore once again we do move you that you command a Synod to be congregate and as we wrote lately unto you to cause all the carnal vices which raign amongst your Priests and all the wickednesse and Simony of your Bishops which is most hard to be condemned and reproved utterly to be banished out of your Kingdom and that you will not suffer them to possesse any more substance under your dominion then Gods commandement doth allow Behold how carefully blessed Gregory doth exhort the Queen and the King to punish the vices of the Clergy lest through their negligence they should be partakers of the same and how they ought to correct their Subjects For as it is convenient to be circumspect and carefull against the outward enemies even so likewise ought they to be against the inward enemies of the soul. And like as in just war against the outward enemies it is lawfull to take away their goods so long as they continue in their malice so also is it lawfull to take away the goods of the Clergy being the inward enemy The consequence is proved thus for so much as the domestical enemies are most hurtfull Item it is thus argued if God be the temporal Lords may meritoriously and lawfully take away the temporal goods from the Clergy if they do offend For this point let us suppose that we speak of power as the true authentike Scripture doth speak Mat 3. 9. God is able even of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Whereupon it is thus argued for if God be he is omnipotent and if he so be he may give like power unto the secular Lords And so consequently they may meritoriously and lawfully use the same power But lest that any man may object that a proof made by a strange thing is not sufficient it is therefore declared how that the temporal Lords have power to take away their almes bestowed upon the Church the Church abusing the same as it shall be proved hereafter And first thus It is lawfull for Kings in cases limited by the Law to take away the movables from the Clergy when they do offend it is thus proved For the temporal Lords are most bound unto the works of greatest mercy most easie for them but in case possible it should be greater almes and easier temporal dominion to take away their almes from such as build therewithall unto eternal damnation through the abuse thereof than to give the said almes for any bodily relief Ergo the assumption is true Whereupon first this sentence of the Law of Christ in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the third Chapter is noted whereas the Apostle writeth thus When we were amongst you we declared this unto you that he that would not work should not eat Wherefore the law of nature doth license all such as have the governance of Kingdoms to correct the abuse of the temporalities which would be the chief cause of the destruction of their Kingdoms whether the temporal Lords or any other had endowed the Church with those temporalities or not It is lawfull for them in some case to take away the temporalities as it were by way of Physick to withstand sin notwithstanding any excommunication or other Ecclesiastical censures forsomuch as they are not endowed but only with condition thereunto annexed Hereby it appeareth that the condition annexed to the endowing or enriching of any Church is that God should be honored the which condition if it once fail the contrary taking place the title of the gift is lost and consequently the Lord which gave the almes ought to correct the offence Excommunication ought not to let the fulfilling of justice Secondly according to the Canon Law 16 question 7. this sentence is noted where it is thus spoken as touching the Children Nephews and the most honest of the kindred of him which hath builded or endowed the Church That it is lawfull for them to be thus circumspect that if they perceive the Priest do defraud any part of that which is bestowed they should either gently admonish or warn him or else complain of him to the Bishop that he may be corrected But if the Bishop himself attempt to do the like let them complain of him to his Metropolitane and if the Metropolitane do the like let them not defer the time to report it in the ears of the King For so saith the Canon Let them not defer to report it in the ears of the King To what end I pray you but that he should do correction neither is it to be doubted but that correction doth more appertain unto the King in this point for their goods whereof he is chief Lord by a substraction proportional according to the fault or offence Item is thus proved It is lawfull for the secular Lords by their power to do correction upon the Clergy by some kind of fearfull discipline appertaining to their secular power Ergo by like reason it is lawfull for them by their power to do such correction by all kind of fearfull discipline pertaining unto their secular power For so much then as the taking of their temporalities is a kind of fearfull discipline pertaining unto the secular power it followeth that it is lawfull for them thereby to do such correction And consequently it followeth that the truth is thus to be proved The consequence is evident and the antecedent is proved by Isidore 23. quest 5. Principes where it is thus written There should be no secular powers within the Church but only for this purpose that whatsoever thing the Priests or Ministers cannot bring to passe by preachings or teachings the secular powers may command the same by the terrour and fear of discipline For oftentimes the heavenly Kingdom is profited and bolden by the earthly Kingdom that they which are in the Church and do any thing contrary unto faith and discipline by the rigour of the Princes may be troden down and that the power of the rulers may lay that discipline upon the necks of the proud and stif-necked which the utility and profit of the Church cannot exercise or use Item all things that by power ought to work or bring to any perfect end by the reasonable measuring of the mean thereto may lawfully use by power the substraction or taking away of the excesse and the addition of the want
upon them the office or duty of getting keeping and distributing all such manner of riches The minor is hereby proved that no man ought to have riches but to that end that they be helps preferring and helping unto the office which is appointed of God Therefore in case that secular possessions do hinder the Clergy from their duty the secular power ought to take it away for so did the Apostles Acts 6. saying It is not lawfull for us to leave the Word of God untaught and to minister unto tables It is confirmed Every good Christian is bound to be helpfull to his neighbour in those things especially which do concern the publick good But it will be a great help to a Clergy man to be deprived of his temporal possessions it being granted they do retard him from his duty due unto God Therefore the person more sufficient is bound in such a case by the Law of Christ to deprive him of temporal possessions But Kings and Lords temporal are the most sufficient for this being truly said to be Lords and Possessors of temporal estates and undoubtedly this would especially concern the publick good to make such a de-generation of temporals which in their nature are but a burden to a Clergy man retarding him in his spiritual duties and so many thorns as our Saviour speaks it in the 8. of St. Luke Choaking the Word of God Moreover Kings and secular Princes are the chief or capital Lords of goods temporal having a care over the Church and a special power for the inferring of such a Coaction as it is manifest 2â— quest 5. Principes where by the authority of Isiodore 30. Etymol 53. It is thus written Let secular Princes know that they must render an account to God for the Church which they are to maintain for Christ. And in the same question it followeth It is proper to Kings to execute Iustice and Righteousnesse and to deliver from the hand of the gain sayers and slanderers those who are orpressed by force and to assist the Stranger Orphan and Widow who more easily are oppressed by the powerfull And in the same question it followeth The King ought to prohibit thesis punish adulteries destroy the wicâ—ed from the earth not suffer paricide and perjured persons to live nor their own sons to live wickedly And by declaring where a Bishop abuseth the goods of the Church Blessed Gregory writes thus as it is recited in the Decretals 16. quest 7. Decret where having taught that the goods of the Church are common he subjoyneth We have received a bad report that some Bishops confer not the Tithes belonging to their Diocesse and the Oblations of charitable Christians on the Priests or â—oor but on Lay persons viz. Souldiers or their own Servants or which is worse on their Kindred If therefore any Bishop shall be found to be a transgressor of this Precept he is to be ranked amongst the greatest Hereticks and Anti-christs And as the Nycen Council censured of persons guilty of Simony both the Bishop who giveth and the Lay men who receive are without ransome price or benefit to be condemned to the punishment of everlasting fire Therefore what faithfull King Prince or Lord would not resist such contagious persons who infect their own mother Whence 3. quest 2. Si Episcopus The Canon speaketh in these words If a Bishop by his ill life shall wast the goods of the Church he is to be removed from his Patrimony untill full knowledge be had of the dilapidation he hath made after the Example of Tutors and Curats who being suspected are removed from their Cure or Tutelage untill a more full knowledge he had of the suspected person But the Doctors say that the dilapidation ought first to be proved which being done an assistant ought to be given to him to the end of the Trial but the Correction would then be taken from the secular Prince It seemeth therefore the correction of the Prelate being wanting It belongeth to the King to dispose of his goods according to the Civil Law Every Member of the Church ought to help one another but temporal Lords are Members of the Church with Priests beneficed But the case so may be that the chiefest help they can afford them is to deprive them of their temporal goods therefore in such a case they ought to do it And the Power or the Sword of which the Apostle maketh mention Rom. 13 being sufficient for this And by consequent it being superfluous to appoint another it seems they have a power whether some case doth extend it self to the correction of the Clergy For if I ought to help even the beast of my enemy being out of the way or lying down Exod. 21. How much more in the new Testament having the opportunity and power so to do ought I to free from the jaws of the Devil the Soul of my Curate insnared with the Mammon of Inquity There being a power of Fact and a power of Right It is granted that the King de facto may take away the Temporals from a Clergy-man being a Delinquent and it is granted withall that the taking away of the said Goods may be an occasion to that Ecclesiastick person for the abandoning of all wordly affairs and devoting himself more peculiarly to the worship of God This Case will not be denyed by any faithfull Christian not over-blinded with the dross of Temporal things For as St. Augustin saith It is expedient for many to fall into manifest sins that knowing their own frailty they may live more humbly and by grieving for their sins they may be more cautious how they sin again It is therefore much more expedient that many be poor and to be without the civil Dominion The Case admitted it is manifest that the King doth a good work in the General now every such work may be well done therefore he may well take away the Goods from an Ecclesiastical person for if the greater part of evil works may in the generality of them be well done much more may every good work in the generality of it For it is not repugnant to Grace or Almes that this good work proceedeth from it neither is it to be doubted but that God in such a Case doth give a power to the King which he eternally ordaineth to the performance of his pleasure It being granted then that the King and the said Ecclesiastick may reign together in Heaven there would be both notice and joy for the taking away of such a Temporal estate although by our Childish blindness it appeareth to men of a grosse understanding to be disadvantageous Again if this be an error that Temporal Lords may at their pleasure take away temporal things from Ecclesiastical persons being habitually Delinquent then it is false also against the true way of the Church and so Heresie because that All truth is in the holy Scripture as Saint Augustine often affirmeth and
am not so silly as to be ignorant that you are made Dispencers but to edification not to destruction Amongst Dispensators or Dispensers it is required that a man be found faithfull when Necessity urgeth a Dispensation is excusable when Profit inviteth it the Dispensation is laudible but this Profit must be publick and common and not private and particular for where neither of these two are it is not a faithfull Dispensation but a cruel Dissipation From the words of this Saint it is manifest that priviledging or exempting is not a faithfull Dispensation but a cruel Dissipation If Clergy-men be exempted let their sin be never so enormous to from being corrected by any but the Pope only For what is the profit of the Church that Clergy-men should be wanton and rampant as Bulls and like untamed Horses neigh unto their Neighbours wives unless in such grievous exorbitancies some yoak or curb be imposed upon them by the Princes For Priviledging Dispensation or Exemption ought not to be an Authority to them for the committing of sin for St. Augustin in his fourth Book intituled Authority Quaest. 23. saith That he who sinneth sinneth not by the Authority but against the Authority of the Law Again the addition of temporal Goods is commonly not so near to the last necessity of salvation by corporal punishment as the taking away of the Abuse is near to the last necessity of the perpetual Salvation both of Soul and Body As it is a work of greater mercy to take away a Sword from a Mad-man that would kill himself than to give a Sword to a persecuted man to defend himself from one that doth endeavour to kill him for it is worse for a man to be killed by himself than by another for the first is damnable the second just or meritorious And to this sence is that of Saint Augustin 5. Quaest. 5. Not every one who spareth is a Friend nor every one who scourgeth is an Enemy for the wounds of a Friends are better than the fraudulent kisses of an enemy it is better to love with security than to deceive with lenity And to the same purpose is that which followeth It is safer to take Bread from a hungry man if having abundance of Bread he neglecteth Iustice than to give Bread to a hungry person that being seduced he may acquiesce in Injustice And again He who binds a Mad-man and he who awakens and rouzeth up a Lethargick-man is a friend to them both although he is troublesom to them Thus for Saint Augustine by whose example if Lords Temporal are bound to give charitable Gifts to the Clergy that they may be the better incouraged to the performance of their Duties they are also bound by the same law of Almes to take away the said Gifts from those that do abuse them least by suffering the abuse they destroy their own Souls And hence it is that amongst all the sins to which the Superiours of our Kingdom of Bohemia are most obnoxious the greatest are Blind zeal False mercy and a Consentanious omission either by negligence or which is above all most horrible when mony i received for giving consent unto a Crime and the Enemy of Christ is unjustly defended by the Almes given to the Clergy Whereupon St. Augustine in his 3. Epist. to Macedonia writeth We more mercifully do draw back than give to such Persons for he doth him no good who helpeth a man but rather doth pervert him and oppresse him Whereupon it is to be admired why a Clergy-man who hath a thorn in his foot will suffer a Lay-man to pull it out that he might walk the better and will not suffer him when Riches do choak his affections to take them away from him that so walking uprightly in the footsteps of Christ he might save his Soul unless peradventure he would show thereby that he loveth the soal of his Foot better than he doth his Soul For if he loved his Soul better he would then with joy sustain the plunder of his Temporals for so those Christians did to whom the Apostle writeth Heb. 10. you took joyfully the spoyling of your Goods knowing in your selves that you have in Heaven a more enduring substance And since our Saviour having no fault in himself did humbly and willingly endure the losse of his Garments and a most bitter and ignominious Death the example of our Saviour and the consciousness of his own Guilt should move every Clergy-man even patiently to endure the taking away of his Goods But if a Clergy man doth so grievously murmur against the taking away of the mammon of Iniquity how would he endure reproach and blows and spittle and martyrdom and Death it self for the Name of Christ Such a Clergy-man never thinketh of that in St. Ambrose concerning the contempt of the world In which he hath these words O most wretched man with what a fraud art thou circumvented with what a grief art thou deceived with what a snare art thou captivated who fearest that thy wordly possessions should be taken from thee and hast no fear in the mean time of losing of that most excellent Creature thy own Soul Again God permitteth Ecclesiastical persons so exorbitantly to offend that they may deserve to be plundered of their possessions neither doth he cause the plundering of them but by setting Temporal Lords on work to see such an Execution thorowly performed This Article therefore is true But peradventure it will be objected That by the addition of this Particle that it is in their lawfull Power so to do according to their own arbitration the whole strength of the Instance above-mentioned is taken away Nevertheless according to the five Rules of Logick and Metaphysicks it is manifest and plainly consequent that if the King and Temporal Lords cannot do so according to their own Arbitrement it must be so because that Arbitrement is either a Power Judicial or a Judicial Act of the same Power and grant what may be granted If the Temporal Lords could not act so according to that Power or such an Act it would follow that they have no power to act any thing at all For if they ought to expect the Arbitration of the Bishop of Rome or of the Archbishops and all the Clergy of this Kingdom the chief Power would reside in the Clerks only and the great Prelates and Bishops of the Kingdom and so our King should not be King of Bohemia neither any of the Peers of the Land or Lords Temporal should have any visible Power which must wholly and necessarily be reduced to the Clergy and by consequence the Clergy it self should be secularly over the King which is directly against the Law of Christ Luke 22. where our Saviour saith That the Kings of the Gentiles do exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But you shall not be so On which place Saint Bernard writing to the
Evangelical Bishops from our Saviours time had no Temporal Lands or Possessions till the year of our Lord 319. when the Emperor Constantine the Great first endowed Bishops and Church-men with them as Matthew Westminster and others record though his pretended Donation of Rome and other Temporalties to Popes their successions as St. Peters Patrimonie be a mere forgery as Laurentius Vallâ— Dr. Crakinthorâ—e and others quoted by them prove at large Now Iohannis Paâ—â—siensis Higden Wickliffe the Lord Coâ—â—am Purvey Iohn Frith Nauclerus Bishop Iewel Thomas Beacon and others relate That when Constantine endowed the bishops and Church with Temporal Lands and Possessions the voyce of an Angel was heard in the ayre crying Hodie venenum infunditur in Ecclesiam This day is Poyson powred into the Church of God and from that time they observe because of the great Riches and Temporalties the Church and Bishops had they were made the more Secular and had more worldly business than Spiritual devotion and more outward Pomp and Splendor than inward Holyness the Daughter riches which the Church brought â—orth devouring her Mother Which if an experimental verity as sundry of our own and foreign Writers attest as I have elsewhere proved at large then it can be no Sacriledge or Impiety but wholsom physick for the King and Temporal Lords and Commons in Parliament for just causes to take away this poyson from Bishops and Cathedral Churches which hath so much poysoned corrupted them and to reduce them to the condition of the Primitive Bishops who by the Decrees of the 4th Councel of Carthage c. 14 and the Exceptions of â—gâ—â—rt Archbishop of York Anno 750. c. 26. were only to enjoy mean Houshold-stuff course Food and HOSPITIOLVM a little Cottage near the Church not a Royal Palace or Lordly Manors which made them more Proud Lordly Secular Tyrannical Pompous Covetous than any Temporal Lords and to take precedence of them both in great Councils Parliaments and other publick Assemblies yea to intrude themselves into the greatest Temporal Offices to the great neglect of their Spiritual Functions they scorning to hold and follow the Plough of Christ after they became Lords and Barons of the Realm as Bishop Latymer proves at large in his 4th Sermon of the Plough and forgetting these Canons of the 4th Council of Carthage c. 19 20. Vt Episcopus pro rebus transitoriis non litiget provocatus Vt Episcopus nullam rei familiaris curam ad se revocet sed Lectioni et Orationi et verâ—i Dei praedicationi tantummodo vacet as the primitive Bishops did which would gain our present Bishops more love respect reverence with God and all good men than all their Lordly Pomp Temporal Lands or Baronies which in all Ages have made Bishops and Cathedral-men more Secular than Spiritual more proud luxurious covetous vicious than religious or vertuous as Gregory Nazianzen Oratio 26. 35. Isiodor Pelusiota Epist. l. 2. Epist. 125. l. 3. Epist. 223. Gregorius Magnus lib. Pastoralis Curae part 2. c. 6. Moralium in Job l. 24. c. 29 30. Homil. 17. in Evangelia Gildas acris Correptio c'eri Britanniae St. Bernard Sermo 22 23 77. Cantica ad Clerum in Concilio Rhemensi de Consideratione ad Eugenium l. 1 2 3 4. Epist. 42. Henrico Senoniensium Archiepiscopo Johannis Sarisburiensis de Nugis Curialum l. 8. c. 17 23. Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bath Tractatus de constitutione Episcopi Johanni Wigorniensi Episcopo Epistola 15 18 22 25 43 64. Robertus Holcot in lib. 5. Sapientiae Lect. 77. Alexander Frabricus Destructorium Vitiorum pars 4. c. 8 14 21 22. pars 5. c. 2. pars 6. c. 2. 26 40. John Wickliff Dialogorum l. 3. c. 14 17 23. Alvarus Pelagius de plancotu Ecclesiae l. 1. Artic. 70. D. l. 2. Artic. 1. to Artic. 17. Nicholaus de Clemangis de Corrupto Ecclesiae statu c. 17 18 19. Episcopus Chemnensis Onus Ecclesiae cap. 14 to 27. Joannes Aventinus Annal. Boyorum l. 5 6 7 8. Albertus magnus in Evangelium Johannis c. 10. Picus Mirandula Oratio ad Leonem 10. Petrus de Aliaco de reformatione Ecclesiae Abbas Uspergensis Paralip p. 164. Fasciculus Rerum expetendarum p. 173. Maâ—sâ—l Patavinus Defensoris Pacis part 2. c. 11. Theodoricus à Niem l. 3. c. 41 45. l. 2. Nemore Unionis c. 19 Guicciarden Historiae Ital. l. 6. St. Brigets Revelationes passim Petrus de Vinels Epist. l. 1. c. 35. Illiâ—icus Catologus Testium Veritatis Peirce Plowman his complaint of the Abuses of the World Sir Geofry Chaucer in his Ploughmans tale Lucifer Prince of Darkness his Letters to the Prelates of England written as is supposed by William Suinderby a Martyr Dr. Barnes his Supplication his Articles p. 210 to 216. and Mr. William Tyndal his obedience of a Christian man and Practise of Popish Prelates Iohn Bale de Vitis Pontificum Centuriae Scriptorum Brit. and Image of both Churches on the Apocalypse Iohn Frith a Martyr in his Answer to Mr. Mâ—res Preface Roderick Mâ—rs his Supplication to King Henry the 8th and Parliament c. 23 24. Another Supplication to King Henry the 8th printed 1544. The Image of a very Christian Bishop and of a counterfeit Bishop printed Cum Privilegio Regali under King Henry the 8th William Wraghton his Hunting and Rescuing of the Rhomish Fox dedicated to King Henry the 8th Henry Sâ—albridge his Exhortatory Epistle to his True Country-men of England against the pompous Popish Bishop thereof printed in H. the 8th his reign at Basil Martin Buâ—er Regins Professor of Divinity in Cambridge Dâ— Regno Christi dedicated to King Edward the 6th l. 2. c. 1 2 12. De vi usu sancti Ministerii The Image of both Pastors printed at London Cum Privilegio 1550. Bishop Hooper on the 8th Commandement p. 78 79. Bishop Latymer his 4. Sermon of the Plough Matthew Parker or Iocelin Antiquitates Ecclesiae Brittannicae p. 139 to 144. Thomas Bâ—acon his Reports of certain men and in his Supplication vol. 3. Bishop Iewel in his Sermon on Haggai 1. p. 176. and on Matthew 9. p. 198. All which the Studious may elsewhere peruse at leasure and sundry others joyntly attest Upon which consideration not only Wickliff and Hus but several of our Martyrs as William Suinderby Walter Bruce Iohn Purvey Sir Iohn Oldcastle Lord Cobham Sir Iohn Borthick justified the lawfullness and necessity of taking away the Bishops abused Temporalties which were such poyson to them 3ly That many of our Kings by the Laws and Customs of the Realm and by vertue of their Royal Prerogative have kept our Archbishops and Bishops Temporalties in their hands and taken the profits of them as their Demesn rents keeping their Sees when void by death translation or resignation for sundry years together as all the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors
and Great-men of the Realm acknowledged and ratified by their Oaths in their famous Recognition in the Great Council held at Clarendon Anno Domini 1164. which these Presidents will abundantly evidence In the year of Grace 653. after the death of Honorius Archbishop of Canterbury that See continued void 18. months Anno 669. after Adeodatus his death it remained void almost 4. years Anno 690. after Theodorus his death it was kept void almost two years and as long after Tâ—twins decease Anno 734. After Cuthberts death Anno 758. it was vacant above one year Anno 7. 2. two years after Bregwins death Anno 790. three years after Lamberts death Anno 830. above one year after VVilfreds decease Anno 958. almost three years after Odo his expiration Anno 1089. four years after Lanfrankes departure Anno 1109. five years after Anselmes death Anno 1136. two years after VVilliam Corbel Anno 1151. three years after Richard VVethershed Anno 1242. two years after St. Edmond Anno 1270. as long after Boniface Anno 1502. two years after Henry Dean An. 1558. one year after Cardinal Poole Anno 648. After Paulinus the first Archbishop of York that See was kept vacant 20. some say 30. years Anno 1114. sundry years after Thomas the second Anno 1140. almost two years after Thurstan Anno 1151. ten years after Rogers death Anno 1213. four years after Geoffry Anno 1255. thirteen months after VValter Gray Anno 1303. after Thomas de Corbridge above two years Anno 1315. two years after VVilliam de Greenfield Anno 1240. two years after VVilliam de Melton Anno 1405. two yearrs and an half after Henry Scroop an Arch-traytor beheaded for Treason Anno 1423. two years after Henry Bluet Anno 1449. almost four years after Iohn Kemp Anno 1464. two years after VVilliam Booth almost a full year both after Cardinal VVolsie and Edward Lee Anno 1559. after Nicholas Heath two years 1568. after Thomas Young above one year Thus long have both our Archbishopricks been kept void and their Temporalties held in our King hands to their own use by vertue of their Prerogative Royal without any Sacriledge Injustice Impiety or any reall prejudice to Church or State An. 619. after Mâ—llitus Bp. of London his translation to Canterbury that See continued void 32. years together An. 664. 2 years An. 1133.7 years after Gilbert Anno 1187. after Gilbert Foliot above two years An. 1279. above one year after Iohn de Chishul Anno 1303. almost two years after Richard de Graneford Anno 1â—01 after Thomas Savage above two years Anno 1171. after the death of Henry de Bloyes the Bishoprick of VVinchester was kept void above 3. years Anno 1238. after Peter de la Roch five years Anno 1243. after VVilliam de Rawley sixteen years Ethâ—lmarus by the Kings donation holding it nine years without consecration Anno 1259. after Henry de VVengham six years Anno 1493. after Peter Coventry above one year Anno 1500. after Thomas Langton two years Anno 1528. after Richard Fox two years Anno 1530. after Cardinal VVoolsey almost 4. years Anno 1131. after the death of Hervetus first Bishop of Ily that See was void above two years Anno 1169. after Nigellus the second Bishop five years Anno 1197. after VVilliam Longchamp above one year Anno 1214. after Eustachius above five years Anno 12. 6. after VVilliam de Rilkenny above one year Anno 1297. after VVilliam de Luda two years Anno 1373. after Iohn Barnet two years Anno 1434. after Philip Morgan three years Anno 1500. after Iohn Alcock one whole year Anno 1533. as long after Nicholas VVest Anno 1581. after Richard Coxe almost twenty years together Anno 1163. after the death of Robert de Chisney the fourth Bishop of Lincoln that See continued vacant almost seventeen years Geoffry Henry the second his base son taking the profits thereof without any consecration by the Kings Concession Anno 1584. after VValter de Constantiis two years Anno 1200. after St. High almost three years Anno 1206. after VVilliam de Breyos three years Anno 1â—90 after Iohn Russel two years Anno 1513. after VVill. Smith one year Anno 1085. the Bishoprick of Coventry and Lichfield was kept vacant two years after the death of Peter and as long An. 1127. after Robert Peach as long An. 1180. after Guaccus Pâ—â—â—n as long An. 1208. after Gâ—â—ffry de Muschamp An. 1238. almost 3. years after Alexander de Savenshy An. 1243. after Hugh Patâ—shull 2. years An. 1386. as long after Richard Scroop An. 1490. as long after Iohn Hâ—sse An. 1099. after Osmond his death the second Bishop of Salisbury that See was 8. years kept vacant An. 1225. after Richard Poore â— years An 1270. 4. years after VValter de la Vaile An. 1588. 3. years after Iohn Pierce 1596. 2. years after Iohn Coâ—â—well An. 1166. the Bishoprick of Bath and VVels upon the death of Robert continued void 8. years 8. months and 15. daies An. 1242. after Ioceline 2. years An. 1262. after VVilliam Burton An. 1503. as long after Oliver King An. 1547. as long after VVilliam Knight An. â—3â—â— 3. years after Gilbert Barkely An. 1590. 2. years after Thomas Godwin An. 1103. the Bishoprick of Exeter after Oâ—bertus decease was kept vacant 4. years An. 1182. after Bartholmeus Iscanus 2. years An. 1119. after VVilliam Herbert the last Bishop of Thetford his death that See now Norwich was kept vacant 2. years 1214. after Iohn de Grey it was kept vacant 7. years 1222. after Pandulfus 3. years An. 1236. after Rodulphus almost 3. years and as long after VVilliam de Raleigh An. 1240. after Henry Spencer An. 1406. almost 2. years An. 1095. after the death of VVolstan Bishop of VVorcester that See was kept vacant 2. years An. 1113. as long after Sampson An. 112â— almost as long after Theulphus and An. 1179. after Rogâ—â— An. 1184. after VVilliam de Northale 5. years An. 119â— after Iohn de Constantiis two years An. 1212. as long after Maugere An 1373. as long after VVilliam de Lyn An. 1417. as long after Thomas Pondrell An. 1427. 7. years after Thomas Polton An. 1590. 3. years after Boniface Brent An. 1056. the Bishoprick of Hereford after Leoneards death continued four years vacant An â—127 after Richard above 4. years An 1167. after Robert de Melim above 6. years An. 1539. after Iohn Skip above 13. years An. 1585. after Herbert West full 17. years An. 1526. the Bishoprick of Chichester was void almost 4. years after Iohn Reempale his death An. 1006 after Richard Fitz-Iames 2. years An. 1235. the Bishoprick of Rochester after Henry de Sandfords death was kept vacant 3. years An. 1277. 2. years after VValter de Merton An. 1316. after Thomas de VValdham 3 years An. 1401. as long after Iohn Baltisham An. 1538. after Iohn Fisher two years An. 1557. the new created Bishoprick of Oxford after the decease
of Iohn King first Bishop there was kept vacant ten years An. 1568. after Henry Curwin the second Bishop it was kept void twenty one years together An. 1592. after Iohn Vnderhill the third Bishop it continued void 11. years so little want was there of a Bishop in that poor See An. 1559. the new created Bishoprick of Gloucester after Iames Brooks the third Bishop his death was kept vacant three years An. 1578. as long after Edmond Cheyney An. 1538. the new erected Bishoprick of Bristoll after Paul Bresh the first Bishop was kept vacant four years An. 1578. three years after Richard Cheyney which See continued void otherwise than by Commendam thirty one years together An. 1593. it continued vacant ten years together So little need was there of a Bishop in this See An. 1397. the Bishoprick of St. Davids after Iohn Gilberts death was vacant four years An. 1592. after Marmaduke Middleton almost two years An. 1133. the Bishoprick of Landaffe upon Vrbans decease was kept void six years An. 1183. after Nicholas ap Georgant five years An. 1240. after Elias de Raynor above four years An. 1287 after VVilliam de Brews nine years An. 1213. the Bishoprick of Bangor after Robert of Shrewstury was kept vacant two years An. 1374. as long after Iohn Gilbert An. 1378. after Iohn Swassham twenty years An. 1266. after Amanus the first Bishop of Rangor that See was vacant two years An. 1313. after Lewâ—lin six years An. 1406 after Iohn Trevour five years An. 1439. after Robert five years An. 1017. after Aldbanus of Durham that See continued void above three years An. 1096. as long after VVilliam Carlapho An. 1140. after Geoffry Rusus above five years An. 1207. after Philip of Poytiers above ten years An. 1226. above two years the King threatning the Covent that they should have no Bishop in seven years An. 1237. after Richard Pâ—ore two years till Ethelmate his half Brother whom he commended to the Monks election should be of age An 1505. after William Severus two years An. 1587. after Richard Barnes almost two years An. 1577. the Bishoprick of Chester was kept vacant two years If then all our Bishopricks in several ages to omit the long vacancies of later times have been thus kept void 2,3,4,5 6,7,8,10,15,20 30. years or more together at divers times to omit all annual vacancies without any prejudice to the Church or State and with very great benefit to the Kings of England who enjoyed the Temporalties in the mean time then certainly Diocaesan Bishops are no such necessary Creatures of divine institution in the Church of Christ as some esteem them but that they may be spared and their Lands Temporalties sold or leased as well as thus seised by our Kings without Sacriledge or Injustice when as no Parish Churches can spare or want their Parochial Ministers who are of Gods institution above six months at most After which if the Patron present not in the interim an able and sufficient Clerk the Ordinary by the Canon Common-law may collate and sequester the profits in the mean time only to defray the officiating of the Cure which must be at no time intermitted or neglected because of Divine institution and so absolutely necessary both for the Peoples instruction and salvation which these long vacancies prove Diocaesan Bishops are not 4ly That as our Bishops Abbots Priors did originally for some hundreds of years receive their actual Investitures into their Churches Temporalties from the King alone per Annulum Baculum by a Ring and Pastoral staff delivered to them in nature of a Livery and seilin extorted from our Kings by the violence and tyranny of Pope Vrban and Pascal the 2. and Treason of Archbishop Anselme against the Right of the Crown and Custom of the Realm so they did likewise hold all their Baronies and Temporalties from swear Fealty and do Liege Homage to our Kings for the same as their Supream Liege Lords like other Barons and were as far forth responsible for them to the Kings Iustices and Ministers as Lay-Barons and Tenants were which they all acknowledged in their Recognition to King Henry the second in the Council of Clarindon as our Histories assure us and were lyable to forfeit them for their Treasons Rebellions Disloyalties and Contempts against the King and his Crown as well as Lay-men our Kings being alike Soveraign Lords and Kings to them as well as other Subjects and Tenauts and that Iure Domini as their Supreme Landlords and Patrons from by and under whom alone they held their Temporalties 5ly That the Kings of England as Supream Heads and Governours under Christ of the Church of England have in all ages enjoyed and exercised a Soveraign Power and Jurisdiction over all Archbishops Bishops Deans Chapters Abbots Priors and other Ecclesiastical Persons in all Causes whatsoever as well as over their Temporal Subjects to visit reform order correct restrain amend punish all their Errors Heresies Offences Contempts Enormities Treasons Rebellions against their Persons Crowns Dignities and Royal Authority punishable by any Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Temporal Authority or Iurisdiction and to punish their Persons by imprisonments banishments death scisure sequestration confiscation of their Temporalties Bishoppricks real and personal Goods and Estates as is enacted by the several Statutes against Provisors and the express Statutes of 25 H. 8. c. 19 21. 26 H. 8. c. 1 3. 27 H. 8. c. 10. 28 H. 6. c. 7. 10. 31 H. 8. c. 14. 32 H. 8. c. 22 24 26. 33 H. 8. c. 29. 34 35 H. 8. c. 17 19. 37 H. 8. c. 17. 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 8 Eliz. c. 1. 13 Eliz. c. 12. and other Acts The several Writs De Excommunicato capiendo De Excommunicato deliberando De Cautions admittenda Quare impedit Quare incumbravit Quare non admisit Quod Episcopus admittat Ne admittas Ne exeas Reguum Vi Iacca removenda and especially by the several Writs of Prohibition and ad Iura Regia and Capias pro contemptu wherewith our Records and Law-books are full fraught I shall only recite some memorable Presidents of our Kings and Parliaments proceedings against our Archbps. Bishops in seising their temporalties confiscating their Estates banishing them the Realm suspending from and depriving them of their Bishopricks yea in imprisoning executing their Persons for their rebellions Treasons Conspiracies Contempts against them and their Royal Prerogatives in former ages worthy their and our most serious consideration and remembrance To begin with our Archbishops about the year of Christ 765. Offa King of Mercians being highly offended with Iambertus or Lambert as some stile him Archbishop of Canterbury for his oppositions against him seised and took away all his Temporalties within his Kingdom detaining some of them to himself and giving the rest of them to his Souldiers and Courtiers and moreover by the Popes consent erected a new
second year of his Reign which took away his just Regal Power and Government of the Realm and delegated it to twelve Commissioners which Articles all the Bishops consented unto and sealed with their Seals and this Bishop amongst the rest for which in a Council held at VVestminster he was suspended both from his Episcopal Office and Bishoprick which were sequestred into the Kings hands Edmond Bonner Bishop of London a grand Persecuter and Burner of Gods true Saints yea a bitter Enemy to King Edw. the 6th and Queen Elizabeth was twice deprived of his Bishoprick for his Contempts and Misdemeanours once in King Edward the 6th his Reign and again in the first year of Queen Elizabeth for refusing the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance and murthering so many Protestants under Queen Mary and by Authority of the Queen and Parliament committed Prisoner to the Marshalsee among Rogues where he died amongst Rogues and Murderers and was buried at midnight in obscurity Wina Bishop of VVinchester so highly offended Kenewalchus King of the West Saxons who advanced him that in the year 666. he drave him out of his Country and deprived him of his Bishoprick About the year of Christ 1107. King Henry the first was so far incensed against VVilliam Gifford whom he had formerly invested in the Bishoprick of Winchester by the delivery of a Ring and Crosier for renouncing thâ—◠〈◊〉 Investiture and refusing his Consecration out of fear to displease Archbishop Anselm that he seised his Temporalties and banished him the Realm Henry de Bloys Bishop of VVinchester against his Oath of Fealty and Allegiance to Qâ— Maud dis-inherited her of the Crown and set up K. Stephen in her stead who not long after falling out with this Bishop seised all his Castles whereupon he revolted to Maude and procured a Pall from the Pope to be made Archbishop of VVinchester and to have seven Bishopricks annexed to his Province VVilliam Raley Bishop of VVinchester for excommunicating the Maior Citizens and Monks of VVinchester for obeying King Henry the third his Edict not to give him or his any victuals or lodging and interdicting the Cathedral there was forced to fly the Realm and relinquish his Bishoprick till by Archbishop Bonifaces and the Popes mediations which cost him a gratuity of 6000 l. he made his peace with the King Ethelmar Bishop of VVinchester caused the Barons assembled in a Parliamentary Council at Oxford to take up Armes against him for his intollerable Insolencies Tyrannies Exorbitancies Oppressions and to drive him out of the Realm who seising on all his Goods and Treasure they could meet with writ Letters and sent Agents to Rome to stop his return into England which neither the King Lords nor Commons would permit upon any Letters or sollicitations from the Pope on his behalf to King Henry the third and the Lords Iohn Gernsey Bishop of VVinchester was excommunicated by the Popes Legat his Temporalties seised and he forced to fly to Rome for an absolution for taking part with the Barons against King Henry the third subscribing and ratifying with an Oath the Antimonarchical Provisions of Oxford in derogation of the Kings Royal Power and Government against his Oath and Allegiance to the King Henry VVoodlock Bishop of VVinchester interceeding to King Edward the first for Robert VVinchessie Archbishop of Canterbury banished for Treason and calling him his good Lord had his Temporalties seised Goods confiscated and was put out of the Kings protection VVilliam VVickham Bishop of VVinchester for wasting and embesselling the Kings Treasure to a great value wherein he was condemned had all his Goods seised his Temporalties bestowed on the young Prince of VVales and was likewise banished above twenty miles from the Court Stephen Gardiner Bishop of VVinchester for a seditious Sermon preached before King Edward the sixth and disobeying the Kings Injunctions was committed Prisoner to the Fleet and afterwards to the Tower of London for two years space and an half after which he was deprived of his Bishoprick seised into the Kings hands and sent to Prison again being an implacable enemy to King Edward the sixth and the Lady Elizabeth afterwards Queen of England whose death he oft contrived and had well-nigh accomplished Iohn White Bishop of VVinchester to obtain this fat Bishoprick promised to give the Pope 1600 pounds a year out of it during his life which Sin the Pope seemingly detesting he was forced to pay much dearer ere he could obtain it he threatned to excommunicate Queen Elizabeth in the first year of her reign for which he was committed to Prison After that for refusing 〈◊〉 take the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 the Queen he and thirteen more Bishops were deprived of their Bishopricks and others placed in their roomes Kenulph the tenth Bishop of Durham in the year of Christ 750. was apprehended and committed Prisoner of the Castle of Bebba and his Church besieged by Egbert King of Northumberland for misdemeanours against him Fgelrick 16. Bishop of Durham charged with Treason and Conspiracy against VVilliam the Conqueror Pyracy on the Sea and disturbing the peace of the Kingdom was for these offences commited perpetual Prisoner to VVestminster Abby where he lamented his misdemeanours and dyed very penitently Egelwyn the 17. Bishop of Durham for raising two Rebellions against King William the Conqueror and excommâ—â— the King with all his Followers as Invadors and Robbers of the Church was banished the Realm deprived of his Bishoprick and at last invading the Realm was taken Prisoner in the Isle of Fly by the King and committed close Prisoner to Abyngdon Anno 1071. wherâ— refusing to take any sustenance he died of anger grief and hunger Not mention the tragedy of VVaâ—cher Bishop of Durham created Bishop and likewise Earl of Northumberland by VViliam the Conqueror the first Spiritual and Temporal Lords of this See who turning a very great Oppressor of the People so far incensed them by the murther of Leulsus by Leoswin and Gilbert his Chaplain and Kinsman that they assaulted him and his Followers in the Cathedral Church where they fortified themselves slew the Bishop himself and all his retinue to the number of one hundred Persons and set the Church on fire VVilliam Kairlipho his next Successor in the See of Durham though advanced to that Office by King VVilliam Rufus and made one of his Privy Counsel yet he most treacherously and ungratefully conspired with Odo Bishop of Bayon and other Great men Anno 1088. to deprive him of his Crown which the King who most trusted and favoured him of any other took very grievously at his hands whereupon he marched to Durham in person with his Army which this Bishop by strong hand held out against him till at last he was enforced to surrender the City and himself to the Kings mercy who thereupon banished him the Realm for three years taking the profits of his Temporalties
furnished he left only one House bare and unfurnished yet charged with sundry fees and annuities whereby this Bishoprick which sometime was accounted one of the best became in Temporal Lands one of the meanest If then our Bishops and Cathedral men themselves may thus alienate sell charge exchange their Temporal Lands and Possessions or lease them out to their Wives Children Kindred Courtiers Friends without Sacrilege or Impiety No doubt the King Temporal Lords and Commons in Parliament may much more alienate lease charge them upon any publick necessity for the Kingdoms ease peace settlement after so many years Wars and Revolutions without any Sacrilege or Injustice all circumstances duly considered 8ly That the Lands formerly given to Abbies Priories Monastries Templers Hospitalers and other Religious Orders were dedicated to God and the Church with greater Ceremonies and Solemnities ratified by more Charters Confirmations of our Kings and Parliamentary Councils and by more solemn Anathemaes Curses Excommunications then any Lands setled on Bishops Deans Chapters or Cathedrals as the Charters themselves yet extant and our Histories resolve beyond dispute Yet our Kings in all ages before and since the Conquest have not only seized their Temporalties in times of War but likewise detained them in their own hands to their own use and given them to their Officers Captains and Souldiers by way of pay or recompence for their salaries and that both before and since the Conquest as the Emperors of Germany and Kings of France Spain Hungary Poland Denmark Sweden Russia have frequently done and that of late years too as well as antiently by the Iesuits perswasion who affirm it to be lawfull and Iustas esse causas Monasteriorum fundationes in meliores usuâ— convertendi jam Pontifex Caesar Episcopi Principes judicarunt et verbis et factis Data sunt Monasteria in Belli sumptus data multa Episcopis data ad seminaria data Parochiis as Alphonsus de Vargas Relatio de Stratagem Iesuiticum c. 49. relates their words which he amplifies from c. 43 to 54. I shall instance only in some few Domestick presidents Beored King of the Mercians in the years of Christ 870. and 871 when the invading barbarous Danes plundered sacked burnt sundry Monasteries and the Mannors belonging to them putting the Monks and Abbots they met with to the Sword as well as others without discrimination seized upon divers Monasteries and their Lands retaining most of them in his own hands and giving the residue of them to his Commanders and Souldiers for the better maintenance of his Wars and Forces against the Danes for defence of the Kingdom and People against their invasions thus recorded by Ingulphus Abbot of Croyland Bâ—orredus autem Rex Merciorum hoc intermedio cum Britonibus occupatus qui crebris eruptionibus Occidentalem partem Regni sui Merciae inquietabant audiensque Danos plagam ejus Orientalem plaga miserabili percussisse venit Londonias contracto maximo exercitu pertransiens per Regni sui plagas Orientales totam Heliensem insulam fisco suo applicavit procedensque in patriam Girniorum omnes terras de Medeshamstedensi monasterio in manum suam cepit scilicet quicquid inter Stanford Huntingdon Wischect dicto monasterio dudum pertinuerat remotiores vero terras sparsim per patriam jacentes stipendiariis militibus exercitus sui assignavit id secit de terris monasterii S. Pegae de Reifirâ— quasdam sibi retinuit quasdam militibus suis dedit id fecit etiam de terris monasterii Gutblaci de Croyland quasdam stipendiariis militibus distribuit quasdam sibi confiscavit Et licet venerabilis pater Godriâ—us saepius repetendo penes Regem Ministros suos multos sudores consumeret chartas donatorum Regumque confirmationes una cum suo proprio chirographo saepissime offenderet nihil semper nisi vacua verba reportans demum de negotii sui proposito penitus desperabat Cernens itaque malitiam temporis nimiam malitiam Regis terrarum cupidissimam statuit tandem secum hujusmodi Regias donationes surdo tempore petransire ac usque melâ—ora tempora succederent deinceps sub silentio dissimulare laetus nimium exultans quod totam circumjacentem insulam liberam ab omni exactione Regali absolutam multum specialius sibi quam multis aliis monasteriis tunc contigerat Regia gratia concessisset Recesserunt ergo illo tempore de dicto monasterio Croyland usque ad praesentem diem non redierunt illae possessiones scilicet manerium de Spalding datum Adelwulpho Comiti cum omnibus pertinentiis suis manerium de Deping datum Langfero militi panetario Reg cum omnibus pertinentiis suis manerium de Croxâ—on datum Fâ—rnodo militi vexillario Regis cum omnibus pertinentiis suis manerium de Kirsoton Kunerby in Lindefie cum omnibus pertinentiis datum Comiti Turgoto Bufenhaâ—e vero Halington tunc fisco appropriata postea per industriam Domini Turketuli Abbatis Croyland donationem piissimi Regis Edrad restauratoris dicto monasterio fuerant restituta Similiter omnes caeterae teriae aliquando Croylandiae pertinentes quas Rex Bâ—orredus cisco suo assumpserat scilicet Quarpelade Suâ—turton Langtoft Baston Repingale Nirfby Draiton Chirning Glaphtorn Adington Standon Badby per gratiam inclyti Regis Edredi diligentiam Abbatis Turketuli Croylandiae who redeemed them with very great sums of money whith he mentions p. 878 879. reddebantur Transiens tunc Rex Bâ—orredus cum sito exercitu in Lyndesâ—e latissimas terras monasterio de Bardney dudum pertinentes fisco suo accepit immotas vero in diversis patriis divisas jacentes militibus suis dedit Besides the same Ingulphus records that in the 6. year of King Edward the Confessor though a great Patron of Abbots Monks and Monasteries Anno Dom. 1048. Wulgat Abbot of Pegeland by sundry sutes in the Kings Courts of Justice not only lost the site of his Monastery but after that all the Mannors and Lands formerly given thereunto after the Abbot of Burge hath recovered the former site of the Monastery and enforced him to rebuild the Abby in another place Illo in tempore venerabilis pater Dominus Wulgatus Abbas Pegelandiae diutissimam calumniam passus ab Abbatibus Burgi Elfino Aâ—wino Leofrico Abbatiae suae sedem amittens tandem succubuit proh nesas totum situm monasterii sui judicio regalis curiae perdidit Tantum tunc potuit super justitiam pecunia contra veritatem versutia in curia Regis Hardecnuti Comitis Godwini potentia Cumque praedictus Abbas Wulgatus amisso situ monasterii sui juxta proximi fluvii crepidineâ— Weland nomine in suo manerio magis vicino de Northamburgt fundamenta novi monasterii jecisset illuc Abbatiam suam transferre disponeret Ecclesiamque ac dormitorium cum caeteris claustralibus officinis adjutus multorum
fidelium Eleemosyuls reaedificare non segniter insudaret Fernotus miles Dominus de Bosworth dictum manerium de Northburt datum fuisse de progenitoribus ejus monasterio sanctae Pegae monachis ibidem Deo servientibus ex Abbatis propriis chirographis patenter ostendit Unde consequenter allegavit quod cum Deo sanctae Pegae Abbas Wulgatus monachi sui à modo ibidem non servirent dictum manerium à modo non haberent Acceptatum est hoc à Regis justitiario confestim adjudicatum est dictum manerium de Northburt cum omnibus suis pertinentiis praedicto militi Fernoto tanquam jus suum haereditarium de monachis Ecclesiae sanctae Pegae alienatum perpetuò sublatum Quod cum per universum Regnum citius fuisset cognitum scilicet Abbatem de Peikirk prius amisisse monasterium suum consequenter manerium ad monasterium quondam pertinens similiter Edmerus miles Dominus de Holbrok calumniam movit contra eundem Abbatem monachos suos de manerio suo de Makley Horsingus de Wathe calumniatus est pro manerio suo de Badington Siwardus Comes de manerio suo de Bernack Hugolonus thesaurarius de manerio de Helieston alii plures de aliis maneriis dicto monasterio dudum pertinentibus omnes eadem ratione in dicta causa contra monachos obtinuerunt tam de maneriis quam de monasterio suo dictus Abbas de Peikirk monachi sui nequiter ac crudeliter ejecti sunt ut nunquam alicui veniat damnum solum Cum itaque Abbas Wulgatus conventus suus monachi scilicet 18. sic de monasterio destituti vagabundi in proximo dispergendi in omnem ventum pro extrema miseria fluctuarent misertus eorum piissimus rex Edwardus omnes in suam curiam suscepit usquequo eis provideret suam capellam ac aulam quotidie frequentare imperavit If then Lands formerly dedicated to God and Monasterial Churches may thus be taken away and recovered from them by Law without sacriledge or injustice they may by like reason upon most occasions be alienated and taken from them by the King Parliament and Temporal Lords Gualther Mapes and Mr. Cambden out of him inform us that in King Edward the Confessors reign Godwin Earl of Kent having a design to gain the Manor of Barkley in Gloucester-shire to himself belonging to a Nunnery there situated where the Castle now stands passing by the Nonnery left his Nephew a very beautifull and elegant young man in the Nunnery who lodged therein so long under pretext of sickness that with his costly Gifts Beauty and Courtship he so far corrupted the chastity of the Abbesse and Nuns who attended him by turns that he begat and left them all great with childe and turned these lambs into Wolves After which posting thence to Earl Godwin and acquainting him therewith he thereupon informing the King that the Abbesse and all the Nuns were prâ—stituted Strumpets and great with Childe the King issued a Commission to enquire thereof and finding it to be true the Nuns were cast out and the Manor given to Earl Godwin who begged it of the King from whom it came to the Barons of Barkly who have enjoyed it as the Head of their Barony for any Generations without any Sacriledge or Impiety By the Common law of England our Kings in all Ages by their Prerogative Royal in times of war danger and upon sundry other occasions have seised the Lands Benefices Rents Revenues Monies Goods of Priors Abbots Monks and other Ecclesiastical Persons who were aliens to their own uses without Sacriledge or Impiety as is evident by the Fine Rolls of 23 E. 1. m. 1 2. claus 23 E. 1. dors 4. cl 24 E. 1. m. 11. claus 25 E. 1. dors 12 20 22. claus 20 E. 2. dors 9. Rot. Fin. 20 E. 2. m. 9. Rot. Fin. 14 E. 3. m. 11 12 18 19 20 c. cl 15 lâ— 3. pars 3. dors 6. Rot Fin. 16 E. 3. m. 26. cl 19 E. 3. pars 1. m. 17. Rot. Fin. â—3 E. 3. m. 26. and sundry other 〈◊〉 and Claâ—sâ— Roll in tâ—â— Tower â—y sundry Parliament lâ—oâ—ls and our lâ—â—wâ—ooks too And upon the Commons Petition in the Parliament of 2. H. 4. the Prior aliens Lands weâ—e not only â—eiâ—ed into the Kings hands but likewise sold and aheaâ—red into Lay-mens hands to maintain the wars against the French and Welshmen To preâ—eâ—mit all particular seisuâ—es alienations sale substractions of Abbots Priors Monasteries and Religions Persons Lands mentioned in our Histories and Record the respective Parliaments of 27 H. 8. 31 H. 8. c. 1â— 37 H. 8. c. â—1 E. c. 14 by several Acts collected by Rastall Title Monasteryes upon Mr. Fish his supplication of Beggars several Petitions and Complaints of the Commons and Inquisition taken upon oath and returned into the Exchequer of the Sodomitical adulterous incontinent vitious lives of Abbots Monks Nuns and other religious Persons remaining on Record in the Exchequer published at large by Iohn Speed in his History Weaver and others totally suppressed all Monasteries Prioâ—ies Nunneries Cells and other religious Houses and setled the inheritance of all their Lands Rents Revenues Possessions whatsoever in the Crown of England and that without any sacriledge impiety or injustice never since resumed nor ever likely to be restored to them in succeeding Ages being for the most part alienated sold and distributed by our Kings into the hands of the Nobility Gentry Commonalty and Corporation of the Kingdom and into the hands of all or most of the Archbishops Bishops Deans Chapters Prebends Colleges in England Ireland who repute it neither Sin nor Sacriledge in themselves to receive detain enjoy these Monastical Lands and Possessions out of whose spoyle the Bishopricks Deans and Chapters of Glocester Châ—tâ—r Oxford Peterborough and Westminster it self were first erected by Parliaments and Statutes of 31 H. 8. c. 15.33 H. 8. c. 31 34 35 H 8. c. 12 15 17. and the Letters Patents of King Henry the eight under his Great Seal translating the Conventual Churches of Bristol Glocester Oxford Peterborough and VVestminster into Cathedral Churches and Sees of Bishops and the Abbots Priors Covents of these Churches into Bishops Deans Chapters limiting the bounds of their Diocesse taken out of other antient Bishopricks and granting them all their Episcopal and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as derived only from our Kings the Supream heads of the Church of England under Christ and to be exercised only in their Names Stiles Rights steeds by these Bishops and their Officers as the Statutes of 26 H. 8. c. 1. 37 H. 8. c. 16 17. 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 8 Eliz. c. 1. and their very Patents resolve us not by any real or adherent Divine Episcopal Jurisdiction derived to them immediately from Christ himself
Act I shall annex Pope Iulius his Letters and Reasons sent to Queen Mary Anno 1554. for the granting of the forecited Dispensation which occasioned this Statute That all such as by just Title according to the Laws or Statutes of this Realm for the time being have any Possessions Lands or Tenements lately belonging to Monasteries Priories Bishopricks Colleges Chantries Obits c. whether they have purchased them for their money or are come to possesse them by gift grant exchange or by any other legal means whatsoever may retain and keep the same in their Possessions and have the same ratified and established unto them by the confirmation and dispensation of the Sea Apostolick Causes and Reasons why such Dispensations may be justly granted with honour and conscience 1. The State of the Crown of this Kingdom cannot well be sustained to govern and rule with honour if such Possessions be taken from it for at this day the greatest part of the Possessions of the Crown consisteth of such Lands and Possessions 2. Very many men have with their monies bought and purchased great portions of those Lands from the most Excellent Kings Henry the VIII and Edward the VI. who by their Letters Patents have warranted the same of which Lands and Possessions if the Owners should now be dis-possessed the King should be bound to repay unto them all their money which would arise to such an huge Masse that it would be a very hard matter for the Crown to restore it 3. The Nobles and Gentry of this Realm most of whom have sold and alienated their antient inheritances to buy these new cannot live according to their degrees if these Possessions should be taken from them 4. The Purchasors or Owners of such Lands and Possessions in as much as they came to them by just Title according to the Ordinance of the Kings of this Kingdom have held and do still hold a good and justifiable course in obtaining of them 5. The enjoying of such Lands and Possessions is so common unto every state and condition of Men Cities Colleges and Incorporations that if the same be taken from them there will necessarily follow thereupon throughout the Kingdom a sudden change and confusion of all Orders and Degrees 6. Seeing the Goods and Possessions of the Church even by the authority of the Canon Laws may be aliened for the redemption of Captives and that the same may be done by that Church only to whom such Possessions do belong It is fit and reasonable that such Dispensations should be granted for continuing of possession already gotten for so great a good of publick concord and unity of the Church and preservation of this State as well in body as in soul. The consideration of this Statute Letter and Reasons of the Pope himself and our Popish Prelates Clergy in Queen Maries daies may perswade our present Prelates and Cathedral men to the like Moderation Candor and Ingenuity for the satisfaction of the King Parliament Purchasors and preservation of the Kingdoms Churches Tranquility now and hereafter Finally because there is now an extraordinary great clamour against Sacriledge in most Pulpits new Pamphlets and in the Commons House it self by many who understand not truly and thoroughly what Sacriledge is I shall for a close of this Appendix inform them 1. That the word Sacriledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only once and no more used in sacred writ Rom. 2. 22. What the Apostle there means by committing Sacriledge and what this Sin should be both old and new Expositors do very much disagree I shall render them an account of 10. several opinions of Expositors concerning it who comment on this Text neither of them suiting with that which now alone is declamed against as the sole and only Sacriledge 1. Origen Ambrose and some others interpret Sacrilege The Iews violating of Christ the true Temple of God by crucifying him with their sins stealing him out of the Scripture and denying Christ MAGNO SACRILEGIO 2ly Chysostome Theodulus Theophylact Peter Martyr Dr. Willet expound it to be the Iews sparing of Idols and using of things consecrated to idolatry out of covetousness to their own private commodity which by the Law of God they should have destroyed which Calvin and Gualter mislike not And Peter Martyr thence infers Potest quidem Respublica Magistratus noster ea quae superstitiosa sunt auferre et corum pretia in usus pios et bonos convertere without any Sacriledge 3ly Gorhan defines this Sacriledge to be the giving of divine worship unto Idolls 4ly Calvin and Piscator expound it to be the contempt of the Divine Majesty 5ly Haymo informs us that Spiritual sacrilege est sacrorum verborum prevaricatio the praevarication of Gods word but according to the Letter he defines it Sacrarum rerum surtum verbi gratia Quisquis de the sauro Ecclesiae vel de substantia Dei familiarium aliquid occulte abstrahit Sacrilegium perpetrat which extends only to Goods not Lands with whom Lyranus the Syriack interpretation some Popish Commentators accord 6ly Peter Martyr and Lucas Osiander interpret it to be the buying and selling of the Priests Office Orders Benefices Bishopricks as many have done and still do who are really guilty of Sacrilege as well as Symony 7ly Paraeus and others expound it of polluting Gods Service with Iewish and humane inventions 8ly Grynaeus understands it of arrogating to their own merits that which was peculiar to the grace of God 9ly Peter Martyr applyes it to Fly his Sons and such other Priests who violently took away and appropriated to themselves the things offered and consecrated unto God 10ly Primasius Bishop of Vtica in Africk St. Augustine Disciple flourishing in the year 440. in his Commentary on this Text resolves SACRILEGIVMEST QUOD PROPRIE IN DEVM COMMITTITVR QVASI VIOLATIO VEL PRAEVARICATIO MANDATORVM Adding that the Apostle in the next words Per praevaricationem legis Deum inhonoras EXPOSVIT SACRILEGIVM Rhemigius and Haym◠concur in substance with him And indeed this definition of Sacriledge that it is the breach or violation of the sacred law of God is most agreeable to the Apostles meaning and proper etymology of the word Hence Laurentius de Pinue a great Canonist and Angelus de Clavafio in his Summa Angelica Sacrilegium derive and define Sacrilegium quasi Sacrae legis lesio a more proper etymology than that of Innocentius the Pope quasi Sacriledium Now none of all these antient or modern Expositors define Sacrilege to be a taking away alienating or selling the Lands of Bishops Deans Abbots Priors Cathedrals Covents or Chapters never intended by the Apostle in those primitive times of the Gospel when the Apostles themselves and Evangelical Bishops in and immediately after their Age had neither Silver nor Gold nor Temporal Lands or Possessions to take away plunder steal or alienate as is evident by Acts 3. 5 6.
Priests Monks overmuch freequented of late and former times as well in England as in forein parts Now all these Sacrileges as they have no real ground or foundation in Gods word tending only to secure the persons goods of Prelates Church men and other Ecclesiastical persons and all kinds of Traytors Malefactors Debtors Bankrupts Cheates flying unto them and their Churches for Sanctuary and hiding their Goods within their precincts to protect them from the Kings and Civil Magistrates power Laws Officers Executions as our own Histories Statutes and Law-books resolve in the several cases of Thomas Bâ—cket Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert de Burgo Earl of Kent Iohn Saâ—age and sundry others See 50 E. 3. c. 6. 2 R. 2. c. 3. 21 H. 8. c. 2 7.4 H 8. c. 2. 26 H 8. c. 13. 28 H. 8. c. 7 13. 32 H. 8. c. 12 15. 2 E. 6 c. 2 13. 1 and 2 Philip and Mary c. 4. 1 Mary c. 6. 5 Eliz. c. 10 14 19 20. 13 Eliz. c. 7. 14 Eliz. c. 5. 18â— Eliz. c. 3. Kelway f. 91 188 190 1 H. 7 10 23 29. Stamford l. 2. c. 38 39. Brook and Ash Title Sanctuary So the bare alienation or ablation of Bishops Abbots and Cathedral mens Lands by our Kings Parliaments or Clergy men themselves fall neither within the words nor intention of any of these Sacrileges extending only to sacred persons Goods and Chattels not to the sale of Mannors Landâ— Tenements Rents Temporalties of Church-men which is no Sacrilege either within the Canonists or Scholemens definition or division of Sacrilege 4ly That Hostiensis and other Canonists cited by him inform us That whoever doth any injury to Ecclesiastical persons commits Sacrilege and not only so but that it is Sacrilege for any man to question or dispute the Judgement or Decrees of the Pâ—pe or to transgresse dis-respect any publick Laws not to yield due reverence to the Popes or Bishops Canons to violate an Holy-day to imploy a Jew in any Office or to oppresse any pious Place or Hospital under the Patronage or Protection of the Church But these things I presume our Bishops and Cathedral men themselves will ingenuously confesse to be no Sacrilege at all notwithstanding the Popish Canonists and Schole mens resolutions And by like reason the Kings or Parliaments alienation or ablation of their supefluous or abused Church-Land Temporalties must prove no real Sacrilege though some Popes Popish Canonists and Scholemen have concluded it to be so 5ly That Alexander Alensis and others resolve That it is Sacrilege for any Lay-Men with their Families Cattle and Goods to be received or enter into Churches Chaples or Churchyards or to eat drink and lodge in them in times of Peace But if they do it in times of War and Necessity to preserve themselves against the Enemies in cases of eminent danger as they did frequently during the Danish and Norman Invasions and during our Civil Wars then it is no Sacrilege at all Vbi est hujusmodi necessitas non est Sacrilegium If then the case of eminent danger necessity and War will make that to be no Sacrilege in this case which otherwise would have been Sacrilege Then by the self-same reason the Kings or Parliaments ablations sales of the Lands of Bishops Deanes Chapters Abbots Priors in times of War and publick Necessity to defray the vast debts and expences of the Kingdom will prove to be no Sacrilege at all by the definition of Popish Scholemen of old yea of some late Iesuits both in Germany and Spain as well as of Iohn Wickliff Iohn Hus and other fore-cited Protestant Divines and Martyrs concurring in Judgement with them FINIS ERRATA at the Pâ—esâ—e P. 3. l. 3.25 r. 43. p. 26. l. 6. Almes â— Charâ—â— p. 33. l. â—◠〈◊〉 r. praises p. 36. l. 9. r. this is p. 4â— l. 28. Successors 〈◊〉 l. 19. Plancta p. 49. l. 19. dominii p. 50. l. 7. â—aica p. 62. l. 31. excommunicate p. 63. l. 5. Lord. p. 65. l. 11. Monks p. 84. l. 4. Officers r affairs p 91. l. 9. most r. just p. 93. l. 16. iuherent p. 94. l. 15. impated p. 100. l. 2. praesenti l. 26. relaxandi p. 101. l. 16. minus l. 29. consentientes r. 101. l. spiritualis p. 57. l. 38. Edward 6. r. Henry p. 63. l 1. r. Nâ—â—â— Margin p. 48. l. 19. r. l. â— l 20. r. Anselm Glessarum Hunagium * Quem dabis mihi de numero EpiscoporuÌ„ qui non plus invigilet subdâ—â—orum evacuandis marsupiis quam vitus extirpandis Ubi est qui orando flectat iram Ubi est qui praedicet annum acceptibilem Domino Pauci admodum sunt qui non quae sua sunt quaerunt Diligunt munera nec possint pariter deligere Christum qui a manus dederunt mammonae Bernard Sermo 77. super Cantica ‖ See Grotius de Jure Bell. l. 3. c. 10. a Acts 5. 42. c. 20 21 28 1 Cor. 9. 14 to 24. 2 Tim. 4. 1. 2. Rom. 15. 18. 19 20. Mar. 16. 16. a Eccles Hist Gentis Auglorum l. 3. c. 4. 28. l. 4. c. 3. b Actus Pontisicum Cant. col 1636 1637. c Beda Eccles. Hist. l. 1. c. 27. Spelman Concil p. 96. Surius Concil Tom. 1. p. 359. d Spalato de Repub. Eccl. l. 9 c. 7. 2. 36. Bernard super Cantica Sermo 77. Goncio ad clerum in concilio Rhemensi e Gervasius Dorob actus Pontif. Cant. col 1636 1637. Beda f Lu. 22 24 25 26. Vidos omnem ecclesiasticum zelum fervere sola pro dignitate tuenda Honori totum datur sanctitati nihil aut parum Bern. de consid ad Eugenium l. 4. c. 2. g 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. h Deut 33. 26 27. [a] Iohn Fox Acts Monuments London 1641. Vol. 1. p. 563 564. 565 566 587. * Fox Acts Monuments Vol. 1. p. 595. c An allegory upon the Paschal lamb A Protestation whereby he giveth light unto the Reader how the proposition aforesaid is to be understood and addeth that the goods of the clergy are not utterly to be taken away but in case they doe abuse the same Nabuchodonozor Ioas. Ezechias David Case of necessity Titus and Vespasian The example of Christ paying of tribute St. Ambrose his mind Christ commanded tribute to be paid unto the Emperor Paul appealed to the Emperor St. Ambrose there in the 8. distinct Daniel 2. St. Augustine Magistrates keepers of both Laws The duty of Kings to punish the Clergy Matthew 21. Wisedom 11. An objection of the desire of other mens goods St. Augustine 14. quest 4. 1 Cor. 3. The clergy subject unto the Emperor and King by means of their possessions Paschasius in 〈…〉 cap. 〈◊〉 The 〈…〉 the Clergy Gregory writeth to the French Queen Wicked Priests the destruction of the people St. Gregory to the French King * Beneficium propter affictum When and how the title of any gift is lâ—st It