obedience unto Rome and conformitie by name there was one Boniface sent from Rome to Scotland a main Agent for Rome in these affairs but he was opposed openly by severall of the Scots Culdees or Divines namely by Clemens and Samson who told him freely That he and those of his Party studied to bring men to the subjection of the Pope and slavery of Rome withdrawing them from obedience to Christ and so in plain termes they reproached to him and to his assistants That they were corrupters of Christs Doctrine establishing a Sovereignty in the Bishop of Rome as the onely successour of the Apostles excluding other Bishops That they used and commanded Clericall tonsure That they forbad Priests Marriage extolling Celibat That they caused Prayers to be made for the dead and erected Images in the Churches to be short That they had introduced in the Church many Tenets Rites and Ceremonies unknown to the ancient and pure times yea contrary to them For the which and the like the said Clemens and those that were constant to the Truth with him were excommunicated at Rome as Hereticks as you have in the third Volume of the Concels although the true reasons of their excommunication be not there set down In the eighth Age the poor people were so blindly inslaved and intoxicat with the Cup of Rome that they thought it a truely holy Martyrdome to suffer for the interest of Rome yet although most men had left God to worship the Beast in these dayes God raised up sundry great Lights in our Church as Alcuin Rabanus Maurus his Disciple Iohn Scot and Claudius Clemens In this we shall remarke the constant goodnesse of God towards his people who made his Light shine in some measure thorow the greatest and thickest darknesse by raising up these men who did bear witnesse to the Truth both by word and writing so that God did not altogether leave off his people The Bishop of Rome caused to declare Alcuin for his Book of the Eucharist many yeers after his death an Heretike So Rome persecutes the Saints of God even after their death In the ninth Age both Prince and People by dolefull experience did finde the idlenesse pride ambition avarice and ryot of Church-men occasioned by the indulgence of Prince and People wherefore at Scone under King Constantine the second there was had a convention of States for reforming the disorders in the Church In this Assembly it was ordained That Church-men should reside upon their charge have no medling with secular affairs that they should instruct the people diligently and be good examples in their conversations that they should not keep Hawks Hounds and Horses for their pleasure that they should carry no Weapons nor be pleaders of civill Causes but live contented with their own provisions in case of failing in the observance of these points For the 1 time they were to pay a pecuniary mulct or fine for the 2 they were to be deprived from Officio and Beneficio Thus you see in these most blinde and confused times That resolute Princes and People did oppose manifestly the Popes omnipotency and highest Sovereignty In the later part of the same Age King Gregory was most indulgent to Church-men he was so farre from curbing and keeping them under that he granted them many things they had not had before Then in a convention of States holden at Forsane it was ordained That all Church-men should be free of paying Taxes and Impost from keeping watch and going to warfare Item They should be exempt from all Temporall judicature Item All Matrimoniall Causes were given over to be judgement of Church-men as also Testaments Legative Actions and all things depending upon simple faith and promise Likewise the right of Tithes with liberty to make Lawes Canons and Constitutions to try without the assistance of the temporall Judge Heretikes Blasphemers Perjured Persons Magicians c. Lastly it was ordained That all Kings following at their Coronation should swear to maintain Church-men in these their Liberties and Priviledges In these dayes lived a Learned man called Iohn Scot sirnamed Aerigiena because he was born in the Town of Aire he published a Treatise De corpore sanguine Domini in Sacramento wherein he maintained the opinion and doctrine of Bertram whereby he offended highly the Sea of Rome In the tenth Age things grew worse and worse The Church-men did so blinde the King Constantine the third That they perswaded him to quit the Royall Crown and take the Clericall Tonsure of a Monk which he did at Saint Andrews There were some Priests in these dayes who did strive to have liberty to take lawfull Wives but in vain A little thereafter there were new disputes for Priests marriage one Bernet a Scots Bishop stood much for that cause in a nationall Councell In this Age although that avarice and ambition had corrupted and perverted Religion generally yet there were constantly some godly men who albeit they could not openly stop and oppose the torrent of these times given to Idolatry and Superstition did instruct and teach the people That Christ was the onely propitiation for sin and that Christs blood onely did wash us from the guilt of sin In the eleventh Age Malcome gave away a part of the Crown Lands among his Nobles for their good service against the Danes the Nobles in recompence thereof did grant unto the Crown the ward of these Lands with the benefit that was to arise by the marriage of the Heir Untill the later part of this Age the Bishops of Scotland although they had raised their Order unto a great power and riches yet they were not distinguished in Diocesses so till then indifferently wheresoever they came they did Ministrate their Function without lording over one particular place or calling themselves Lords of any place The Diocesses wherein Scotland was divided at first were these Saint Andrews Glasgo Murray Catnes Murthlac or Aberdene The Bishops of Rome taking upon them in these dayes to be above Kings and to conferre in matters of Honour upon Kings how and where they pleased and so by this means to put a farther tye of Vassalage and subjection upon Princes To this effect in the yeer 1098. ordained King Edgar to be anointed with externall Oyl by the Bishop of Saint Andrews a rite which till that day had not been in use among our Kings yet they were as much the anointed of the Lord before as they have been since and as any other Princes who before them had this externall anointing from the Sea of Rome although the Romish Writers do make a greater esteem of these Kings anointed by them then of others because they conceive them to be more their own Here note by the way That all Princes whatsoever in Scripture-Language are said to be the Anointed of the Lord and so Cyrus was named although he was never anointed with externall Oyl Next although the first Kings of Israel were anointed as Saul David and Solomon with
Prince and people under pretext of Piety but with bad successe as by the wofull experience of following times we have found These new Bishop-Prelats having pretty well setled their own condition for maintenance which although it did exceed much the allowance of former Ages to Church-men yet it was very moderate in regard of the following times Next they obtained great Lands and Revenues from Prince and People for other Presbyters and Ministers who formerly had been very little burdensome to the people for by their own industry and work of their hands did provide for themselves necessaries for the most part by this means the Prelats tie the other Presbyters and Ministers to them and secondarily bring in by little and little idlenesse and slacknesse in discharging their calling from whence are risen all the evills we have seen since in the Church After the beginning of the fifth Age to wit 521. yeers in this Island began the old Saturnalia of Rome which was first kept in honour of Saturne but by the Successors of Iulius Caesar it was ordained to be kept to the memory of him and was called Iulia to be celebrated unto the honour of Christs Birth in the later end of December The occasion was this Arthur that renowned Prince wintering at York whereof he newly had made himself Master with his Nobles bethought himself with them to passe some dayes in the dead of winter in good chear and mirth which was done forth with as it is given out for devotion to Christ although that then true Devotion was very little regarded for as these men did exceed the Romans during this Feast in Ryot and Licentiousnesse So they continued the Feast double the time that the Ethnick Romans were wont to kept it for the Romans kept it onely five dayes but these kept it ten dayes with their new devotion yea those of the richer sort in time following have kept it fifteene dayes Thus was the beginning of the prophane idlenesse and ryot of Christmas now kept twelve dayes with foolish excesse and ryot As these Christmas keepers did mistake the way of honouring Christs Birth by this kinde of solemnity so did they mistake the time of his Birth for the most exact Chronologers tells us that Christ was born in October and not in December The Scots retain still the old name Iulia of this preposterous-holy-Feast for they call it corruptly Iul Although they never kept it of old not being subject to the Romans The French and Italians in this are nothing behinde with us for beside That they share with us in these Saturnalia Iulia or Christmas They go beyond us in ryot and fooleries in their Bacchanalia which they call Carnaval or Mardigras before Lent which in old time was kept to the honour of Bacchus But the corruptions that were brought in our Church from Rome in the fourth and fifth Age were nothing to what was brought in in the sixth and seventh Age for then was Religion turned upside down and so changed into Superstitious Ceremonies and Idolatry authorized by false miracles that there was hardly left any trace of true Religion among men in these dayes Palladius was the first that acquainted us with Rome as we have said and that brought in Prelacy amongst us a little after the beginning of the fourth Age which he and his Successors by degrees brought unto a great height both in worldly pomp and means for the times by the inconsiderate debonnarty of the Prince and simplicitie of the people but not without struggling and resistance by pious and wise men for many yeers it was the work of Church-men set a foot by Palladius so till the sixth Age that is upon the matter two hundred yeers to raise themselves to Power and Authority and Means whereunto they came insensibly so much the rather because they were sparing for these dayes to invert the main Doctrine of the true Religion The People and Magistrate seeing their Religion remaining in its maine were without great difficulty drawn over to give way unto the greatnesse of the Church-men But when these gallant fellows had wrought their own ends they did shew plainly what was within their hearts for then they declared themselves to be enemies both to God and to Man by their vitious lives contrary to the Laws of God and man Their false Doctrine contrary to Gods Word their Tyrannicall domineering over the people and withdrawing themselves from due obedience unto the lawfull Magistrate In a word by directly opposing God abusing men to their utter ruine of soul and body and setting up their own inventions for the Laws of God and men they were a bringing this height of iniquitie to passe about the matter of two hundred yeers likewise to wit the sixth and seventh Age although the workers of iniquity did at last bring their mischievous designe to an end by the permission of God irritated against men for their sins who not adhearing unto him were abandoned so that they became a prey unto Satan and his instruments to follow all iniquity yet such was the mercy of God towards men in these most corrupt times that the devill and his instruments went not so cleerly on with their wicked businesse but they had now and then from time to time remoraes and lets in it by those whom God raised up to bear witnesse to his Trueth and in these dayes sundry of the Scots Divines were very stout in the keeping of the ancient Tenets and Rites which they had received from their first Apostles Disciples to Saint Iohn according to the Church of the East Witnesse the great strugling they had about the keeping of Pasche or Easter-day for till then the Scots had kept the day of Pasche upon the fourteen day of the Moon whatsoever day of the week it fell out on the Romanists called those that kept so this day quartadecimani and condemned them as Hereticks and they kept the day constantly upon the next Sunday following and not upon a working day at last the Scots were constrained to yeeld in this as in other Rites unto Rome Culman and divers others Scotish men did so stoutely oppose the Romanists in the point of Easter-day and in other Tenets that they chose it being given to their choice either to submit unto Rome or to quit the setlings they had in the North of England rather to lose their Benefices then to yeild So standing fast to the Customes of the Scots Church wherein they had been born and bred they returned home to Scotland About the end of the seventh Age men from Scotland given to ambition and avarice went frequently to Rome for preferment in the Church and seeing it lay much that way then they did their best to advance the designe of the Romish Party wherein all the skill of worldly men was employed both in Rome among the Scots of that Party many men went to and fro between Rome and Scotland to bring the Scots to a full
some of the following Kings namely where there was any opposition feared of setling them in the Royall Throne for further Confirmation were anointed Read diligently the History of the Kings and you shall not finde that each one or every one of them was anoynted externally although they were all the Anoynted of the Lord. Next you shall note That the Oyl wherewith Samuel anoynted Saul and David and so the Oyl wherewith other Kings were anoynted was not an Oyl consecrated as that wherewith the High-Priest c. was anoynted but common Oyl The reason of the Scripture-phrase whereby all Princes are said to be anoynted is this Anoynting in first and most ancient times was a signe of setting apart of a man for the Office of a King Hence by progresse of time any man that was set aside by Gods providence to execute the Office of a King whether he came thereunto by Succession or by choice or by Conquest was called the Anoynted of the Lord because they had the thing signified by Gods appointment notwithstanding they wanted the signe to wit the Oyntment Further we shall observe here That not onely those whom God hath set aside to be Kings be called the Anoynted of the Lord but also the people whom he hath set aside or apart for a peculiar end So the Prophet speaking of the People of Israel in Gods Name useth this expression Touch not mine Anoynted For their sake I have reproved Kings Moreover note That as the people set aside by God are said to be his Anoynted so they are also called A Royall Priesthood Kings and Priests Not that every one of the people is a King or a Priest these being particular Callings no more then they were anoynted but because they are set aside by God as Priests to offer daily unto him the Sacrifice of Righteousnesse c. And as Kings were anoynted with Oyl to signifie their setting aside for their peculiar Office so every one of us being anoynted in Baptisme by the holy Spirit is set aside to do justice c. as a King in our severall station Thus much have I in few words spoken of Kings anoynting and how the people are said to be anoynted or to be Priests and Kings because in the beginning of the fifteenth Age sundry were condemned as hereticks for saying That every man is a Priest in some kinde and that the anoynting of Kings is now needlesse being an invention of Rome to subject Princes unto it Some yeers after the beginning of the twelfth Age King David beside the Bishopricks formerly erected did erect the Bishoprick of Rosse Breachen Dunkel and Dumblane This debonaire Prince was so profuse towards Church-men that he gave them a good part of the ancient Patrimony of the Crown So he and his Successors were necessitated to lay Taxes and Impost upon the people more then formerly to the harm of the Common-wealth In this also he wronged the Church for the Clergie being rich and powerfull left their Function and gave themselves over to all riot and idlenesse Till riches made Church-men lazie this distinction in discharging the Duty of a Pastor or of the souls per se aut per alium was unknown While riches did not so abound in the Church Church-men kept more conscience in the discharging of their places In this twelfth Age the Scots although they had Bishops ever since Palladius who for a long time did discharge the Function indifferently in every place where they came to And although they had of later times distinguished the limits of the bounds wherein they were to execute their Calling by Diocesses yet in that Age I say they were not come to that height to have Primates Metropolitans and Arch-bishops Wherefore their neighbour the Arch-bishop of Yorke having gained the consent of the Pope bestirred himself very earnestly by the assistance of his King to have the Scotish Bishops acknowledge him for the Metropolitane whereunto the stoutest of the Scotish Clergie would not consent but they would depend immediately upon the Pope and to this effect Legats were sent from Rome to Scotland who being come hither and seeing the resolution of the Scotish Bishops not to submit to the Archbishop of Yorke and finding their own benefit thereby they did exempt and free the Scots Clergie from the trouble of the Arch-bishop of Yorke There was one Gilbert Bishop of Catnes a great strugler for this businesse About the later end of this Age sundry Priests were put from their Office because they had taken Orders upon Sunday In that time there was a Synod in Perth of Divines such as they were who decreed That Sunday should be kept holy from all work from Saturday at mid-day or twelve of the clock till Munday morning In the thirteenth Age few yeers after the beginning thereof divers kindes of Monks came into Scotland formerly unknown to the Land as Dominicans Franciscans Iacobins and sundry other of that sort of Locusts In this Age these Vermine of Monks did so multiply every where that at a Councell at Lyons it was decreed That no more new Orders of Monks should be admitted or tolerated But how the Decree hath been kept we see in our dayes Next the Monks of severall kindes gave themselves so to Begging that the people were much eaten up by them and the poor his portion was withdrawn which occasioned a great murmure among the Commons Upon this there was a Decree made then That onely the Minorites Praedicants Carmelites and Hermits of S. Augustine should have liberty to beg Whence they are called The four Mendicants Les quatre Mendiants Towards the end of this thirteenth Age fell out that great desolation of the State of Scotland occasioned by the Controversie for the Succession of the Crown betwixt Baliol and Bruce Baliol being constrained by the States of Scotland to break the promise he had made to Edward of England To subject the Crown of Scotland unto him for judging the cause on his side After much trouble and misery of War the State of Scotland receives Robert Bruce come of the second Branch for King recalling all the subjection and Allegiance that they had given to Baliol because of his unworthinesse to Reign who beside unfitnesse to bear rule over a Military People had basely condescended to enslave that Nation to whom their Liberty hath been so dear to this day that for it and the purity of true Religion which both by Gods mercy they now enjoy they have willingly and cheerfully undergone all hazard of life and means judging That if they suffered these two twins Liberty and Religion either to be infringed or taken from them they had nothing left them whereby they might be called men The remarkable History of King Iames the first of Scotland fitteth this purpose very well The Passage is this King Iames the first going into France was taken by the English and kept prisoner by them for many yeers In that time the King of England goes