Prince doth challenge in another Princes Dominions contrary to and above the Laws of the Land and what obedience it is that subjects may pay to such a forreign Prince without the privity and contrary to the command of his own Soveraign which cannot be done by a general Answer but by distinct assigning the bounds of the Popes Temporal and Spiritual Power in England and what the full intent of them is that the King may discern whether he hath enough of either to preserve himself and the Peace of the Kingdom 3. That till such time as the Roman-Catholick Subjects of England give as good security to the King for their Fidelity and peaceable behaviour as all his other subject do they have no cause to wonder that they may be made subject to such Laws and restraints as may disable them from being dangerous when they profess to owe obedience to a forreign Prince who doth as much profess not to be a friend to their Countrey and will not declare what that obedience is 4. That the Roman Catholick Subjects of England have a more immediate dependance on the Pope than is allowed in any Catholick Countryes and that those who under pretence of Religion refuse to declare that it is in no Earthly Power to absolve them from their Fidelity to the King do refuse to give as full satisfaction and security for their Allegiance as Catholick Subjects do give for their Fidelity to Catholick Kings there being no French Roman Catholick who dares refuse to do it 5. That there is so much the more reason to require this since the late instance of the Irish Rebellion wherein the Pope absolved the Kings Subjects from their Oaths and took upon himself to be their General in the Person of his Nuntio and assumed the exercise of the Regal Power both at Land and Sea and imprisoned those Catholicks and threatned to take away their Lives who had promoted the peace and desired to return to the Kings subjection and hath since given a severe check to those of the Irish Nobility and Clergie who had declared that the Pope had no Power to dispense with their Fidelity to his Majesty or to absolve them from any Oaths they should take to that purpose and imployed his Nuntio to discountenance and suppress that Declaration and to take care that it should proceed no further and that Cardianl Barbarine at that same time put them in mind that the Kingdom of England was still under Excommunication and since that the Pope hath made many Bishops in Ireland which his Predecessors had forborn to do from the death of Queen Elizabeth to A. D. 1640. And therefore there is no reason to believe that the Court of Rome doth recede from its former principles as to these things § 2. These several particulars carry so much weight along with them as may easily raise the expectation of any one to see what Mr. Cressy will reply to them And in truth he enters the Field like a Champion for he saith his Apologie is published permissu Superiorum and what he writes on this special subject he desires the Person of Honour to consider not as the inconsiderable opinion of one particular person only And he doth assure him that there is not any one Point of Controversie upon which they more earnestly desire to be summoned to give an account before equal Iudges than this Thus he enters the lists and walks his ground and brandishes his sword and makes legs to the Judges with more than ordinary assurance and fails in no point of a Champion but overcoming his Adversary Which he is so far from that after these Bravado's and flourishes he dares not stand before him but looks round about him to discern any way to escape But although it be beneath the Greatness of his Adversary to pursue him over all his Bogs and to draw him out of his Fastnesses yet I shall endeavour to bring him into the Lists again that his Adversary may not go away blushing at so mean a Triumph There are five things which Mr. Cressy offers at by way of Answer to the Discourse of the Person of Honour on this subject 1. That there is no reason to suspect the Catholick subjects of England to be more wanting in Fidelity to their Prince than of other Nations whose Catholick Ancestors were so far from acknowledging any Supremacy of the Pope in Temporals and much less any Authority in him to depose Princes that even in those times when Church-men had the greatest Power in this Kingdom Statutes were made with the joynt Votes of the Clergic upon occasion of some Usurpations of the Roman Court in which the Penalty was no less than a Praemunire against any one who without the Kings License should make any Appeals to Rome or submit to a Legats jurisdiction or upon the Popes Summons go out of the Kingdom or receive any Mandats or Brieffs from Rome or purchase Bulls for presentments to Churches and which is most considerable the ground of their rejecting Papal Usurpations is thus expressed For the Crown of England is free and hath been free from earthly subjection at all times being immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalities of the same and not subject to the Pope to which he saith the Bishops assented and the Lords and Commons declared their Resolution to stand with the King in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against him his Crown and Regalitie in all points to live and to dye 2. That whatsoever they suffer here in England by vertue of the Poenal Laws it is purely for their Religion and the Catholick faith and therefore he parallels our Poenal Laws with those of the Medes and Persians against Daniel and of Nero Domitian and Dioclesian against the Apostles and their successors and yet Mr. Cressy confesses that the occasion of the Poenal Laws was the treasonable actions of some of their own Religion but he adds that they were scarce one score of persons and abhorred by all the rest for which actions of theirs he confesseth that care is taken of exacting Oaths both of Fidelity and Supremacy from Roman Catholicks as dangerous Subjects and dayes of Thanksgiving are kept for the discovery and prevention of such personal Treasons whereas saith he the whole Kingdoms deliverance from almost an universal Rebellion designing the extinction of Monarchy and Prelacy both and executing the murder of the lawful Soveraign is not esteemed a sufficient motive for such publick Thanksgivings neither it seems is there at all a necessity of requiring from any a Retraction of the Principles of Rebellion or a promise that it shall not be renewed By which we might think Mr. Cressy had been utterly a stranger in his own Countrey and had never heard of the thirtieth of Ianuary or the twenty ninth of May which are solemnly observed in our Church and the Offices joyned
desires it may be noted 11 R. 2. the Commons pray that those that bring in the Popes Bulls of Volumus and Imponimus may be reputed for Traytors 13 R. 2. the Statute of Provisors was again confirmed notwithstanding the Protestations of the Bishops in Parliament against any Statute made in restraint of the Popes Authority and a Praemunire added against those that bring any sentence of excommunication against those that execute it 15 R. 2. the Archbishop of York being Chancellor told the Parliament one of the Causes of calling them was the restoring to the Pope what belonged to him about Provisions but in the same Parliament Sr. William Brian was sent to the Tower for bringing a Bull from Rome against some that had robbed him which Bull being read was judged prejudicial to the King his Council and in derogation to his Laws 16 R. 2. the Commons grant to the King that by the advice of his Lords and Commons he should have power to moderate the Statute of Provisions to the honour of God saving the Rights of the Crown so as the same be declared the next Parliament to the end the Commons may then agree or no. In this Parliament happened an extraordinary thing For William Courtny Archbishop of Canterbury made his Protestation in open Parliament saying That the Pope ought not to Excommunicate any Bishop or intermeddle for or touching any presentation to any Ecclesiastical dignity recovered in any of the Kings Courts He further protested that the Pope ought to make no translations to any Bishoprick within the Realm against the Kings will for that the same was the destruction of the Realm and Crown of England which hath alwayes been so free as the same hath had none earthly Soveraign but only subject to God in all things touching Regalities and to none other the which his protestation he prayed might be entred Then passed the famous Statute of Praemunire upon occasion of the Popes Bulls of excommunication coming into England against certain Bishops who it seems at last were brought to obey the Laws and that which the Archbishop of Canterbury protested was a part of the Statute wherein the Commons not only declared their resolution to live and dye with the King in defence of the Liberties of the Crown against the Papal Usurpations but moreover they pray and in justice require that he would examin all the Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal severally and all the States of the Parliament how they think of the cases aforesaid which be so openly against the Kings Crown and in derogation of his Regality and how they will stand in the same cases with our Lord the King in upholding the Rights of the said Crown and Regality By which it appears that the Commons had a great suspicion of the Spiritual Lords And it seems they had reason for the Temporal Lords declared frankly their concurrence with the Commons and that the Cases mentioned were clearly in derogation of the Crown as it is well known and hath been a long time known Mr. Cressy would make us believe that all the Bishops present and the Procurators of the absent unanimously assented but the very words of the Statute say the contrary for there it is added that the Lords Spiritual did make their Protestation first that it is not their mind to deny or affirm that the Bishop of Rome may not excommunicate Bishops nor that he may make translation of Prelates after the Law of Holy Church but it seems by the Records the Archbishop of Canterbury alone spoke plain to the sense of the Parliament and entred his Protestation different from the rest Neither do theâ— declare their assent to the freedom of the Crown of England from all earthly subjection and that it is immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regalities of the same and not subject to the Pope which they touch not upon but only with several clauses of Reservation about processes excommunications and translations they declare in such and such cases they are against the King and his Crown and in these cases they would be with the King in maintaining of his Crown and in all other cases touching his Crown and Regality as they be bound by their liegeance which are words very ambiguous and imply a secret reservation of salvo Ordine suo jure Ecclesiae or with a salvo to the Oath they had taken to the Pope But however the Act passed and a praemunire by it lyes against all that procure or bring Bulls or any other things whatsoever which touch the King against him his Crown and Regality or his Realm By this Statute the Parliament 1 H. 4. declared that the Crown of England was freed from the Pope and all other foreign Power and it was one of the articlâ—s against Rich. 2. at his deposition that notwithstanding the Statutes he procured the Pâ—pes excommunication on such as brake the last Parliament in derogation of the Crown Statutes and Laws of the Realm And yet we find new Statutes of Provisors made 2 H. 4. c. 3 4. 6 H. 4. c. 57. 7 H. 4. c. 6 8. 9 H. 4. c. 8. In the 1 H. 5. it was again enacted that all Statutes made against Provisors from Rome should be observed § 20. By which we see that although the Parliament shewed a very good will towards the restraint of the Popes Usurpations yet it all signified very little as long as his Authority and Supremacy were acknowledged here for what did Laws signifie when the Pope could null them by a Bull from Rome And it was in those days verily believed by those who did acknowledge the Popes Supremacy and followed the Church-men in their opinions that an Act of Parliament had no power at all upon conscience if it were repugnant to the Laws of the Church i. e. as they then thought to the Popes decretals And we need not wonder at that after the Popes Decretals were digested into a Body of Canon Law and that looked upon by all the hearty Friends to the Church of Rome as the Rule of Conscience in what it determined Which we need not at all to wonder at since Petrus de Marca himself declares That the Constitutions of Princes are in themselves null when they are repugnant to the Canons and received Decrees of Popes and that Bishops have alwayes abstained from the execution of them as much as they durst by which we see that Acts of Parliament were no certain indications of the judgement of the Church or the generality of the People in that time but notwithstanding all the Statutes the good trade of Provisors went on still and the Court of Rome never wanted Chapmen for their forbidden Wares For many of our Bishops dying in the time of the Council of Câ—nstance Martin 5. assoon as he was well settled in his place put in several Bishops by way of Provision at his own pleasure and nulled elections
Lords do Why be not under your Bishops visitation and léege men to our King Why make yée men believe that your golden Trental sung of you to take therefore ten shillings or at least five shillings woll bring souls out of Hell or out of Purgatory if this be sooth certes yée might bring all the souls out of paine and that woll ye nought and then yée be out of charity Why make ye men believe that he that is buried in your habit shall never come in Hell and ye wéet not of your self whether ye shall to Hell or no if this were sooth ye should sell your high houses to make many habits for to save many mens souls Why covet ye shrift and burying of other mens Parishens and none other Sacrament that falleth to Christian folk Why busie ye not to hear to shrift of poor folk as well as of Lords and Ladies sith they may have more plenty of shrift fathers than poor folk mow Why covet you not to bury poor folk among you sith they béen most holy as ye sayn that ye béen for your poverty Fréer when thou receivest a penie for to say a Mass whether sellest thou Gods body for that penie or thy prayer or else thy travel If thou saiest thou wilt not travel for to say the Mass but for the penie that certes if this be sooth then thou lovest too little méed for thy soul and if thou sellest Gods body other thy prayer then it is very simonie and art become a chapman worse than Judas that sold it for thirty pence Why bearest thou God in hand and slanderst him that he begged for his meat sith he was Lord over all for then had he béen unwise to have begged and have no néed thereto Fréer after what Law rulest thou thée where findest thou in Gods Law that thou shouldst thus beg what manner men néedeth for to beg for whom oweth such men to beg Why beggest thou so for thy Brethren If thou saiest for they have néed then thou dost it for the more perfection or else for the least or else for the meane If it be the most perfection of all then should all thy Brethren do so and then no man néeded to beg but for himself for so should no man beg but him néeded And if it be the least perfection why lovest thou then other men more than thy self For so thou art not well in charity sith thou shouldst séek the more perfection after thy power living thy self most after God And thus leaving that imperfection thou shouldst not so beg for them And if it is a good mean thus to â—eg as thou dost then should no man do so but they béen this good mean and yet such a mean granted by you can never be grounded on Gods Law for then both lerid and leard that ben in mean degrée of this world should go about and beg as you do And if all should do certes well nigh all the world should go about and heg as ye done and so should there be ten beggers against one Yever Why wilt thou not beg for poor bedred men that ben poorer than any of your Sect that liggen and mow not go about to help himselfes sith we be all Brethren in God and that Bretherhed passeth any other that ye or any man could make and where most néed were there were most perfection either else ye hold them not your pure Brethren but worse but then ye he unperfect in your begging Whos 's ben all your rich Courts that ye han and all your rich Iewels sith ye séen that ye han nought ne in proper ne in common If ye sain they ben the Popes why gather ye then of poor men and Lords and so much out of the Kings hand to make your Pope rich And sith ye sain that it is great perfection to have nought in proper ne in common why be ye so fast about to make the Pope that is your Father rich and put on him imperfection sithen ye saine that your goods ben all his and ye should by reason be the most perfect man it séemeth openlich that ye ben cursid Children so to slander your Father and make him imperfect And if ye sain that the goods be yours then do ye ayenst your rule and if it be not ayenst your Rule then might ye have both plow and cart and labour as other good men done and not so beg by Cosengery and idle as ye done If ye say that it is more perfection to beg than to travel or to work with your hand why preach ye not openly and teach all men to do so sith it is the best and most perfect life to the help of their fouls as ye make Children to beg that might have béen rich heirs Why hold ye not S. Francis his Rule and his Testament sith Francis saith that God shewed him this living this Rule certes if it were Gods Will the Pope might not fore do it or else Francis was a lier that said in this wise Why will ye not touch no coined money with the Cross ne with the Kings head as ye done other Iewels both of Gold and Silver certes if ye despise the Cross of the Kings head then ye be worthy to be despised of God and the King and sith ye will receive money in your hearts and not with your hands it séemeth that ye hold more holiness in your hands than in your hearts and then be false to God Why have yée exempt you from our King's Laws and visiting of our Bishops more than other Christian men that liven in this Realm if ye be not guilty of traitorie to our Realm or trespasâ—es to your Bishops Fréer what charity is this to the people to lie and say that ye follow Christ in poverty more than other men done and yet in curious and costly housing and fine and precious clothing and delicious and liking féeding and in treasure and jewels and rich ornaments Fréers passen Lords and other rich worldly men and soonest they should bring their cause about be it never so costly though Gods Law be put a back Fréer what charity is this to prease upon a rich man and to entice him to be buried among you from his parish Church and to such rich men give letters of Fraternity confirmed by your general Seal and thereby to bear him in hand that he shall have part of all your Masses Mattens Preachings Fastings Wakings and all other good déeds done by your Brethren of your Order both whilest he liveth and after that he is dead and yet ye witten never whether your déeds be acceptable to God ne whether that man that hath that letter be able by good living to receive any part of your déeds and yet a poor man that ye wite well or supposen in certain to have no good of ye ne given to such letters though he be a better man to God than such a rich man nevertheless this poor man
Christian Wife which he had of the Royal Family of the Franks named Bertha whom he received from her Parents on that condition that he would suffer her to enjoy her Religion and to have a Bishop to attend her whose name was Luidhardus What can be more plain from hence than that the first entertainment which Christianity met with in the Saxon Court was by the means of Queen Bertha and her Bishop Luidhardus This Queen Bertha was the only daughter of Châ—ripertus King of Paris one of the four sons of Clotharius among whom his Kingdom was divided by Ingoberga and her marriage is mentioned by Gregorius Turonensis to the Son of the King of Kent which marriage was in all probability solemnized before the death of Charipertus now Charipertus dyed A. D. 567. so that Christianity had been known about thirty years in King Ethelberts Court before ever Augustin set footing upon English ground And is it conceivable that when a Bishop had performed the exercises of the Christian Religion for thirty years in a Church for that purpose viz. S. Martins near Canterbury the English Saxons should know nothing of Christianity till Augustins arrival But this is not all for we have great reason to believe that the Conversion of the Saxons to Christianity is in a great measure owing to this Queen and her Bishop Luidhard or Letardus who had been Bishop of Senlis in France as Thorn tells us I know herein how much I shall provoke the whole Generation of Romish Missionaries but I value not the displeasure of those whom Truth and Reason will enrage William of Malmsbury himself a Benedictin Monk and one of the most judicious of our Monkish historians saith that by Ethelberts match to Queen Bertha the Saxons began by degrees to lay aside their barbarous customs and by conversation with the Frâ—nch became more civilized to which was added the holy and single life of Letardus the Bishop who came over with the Queen by which without speaking he did invite the King to the knowledge of Christ our Lord by which means it came to pass that the mind of the King being already softened did so readily yield to the preaching of Augustin By which it appears that the main of the business as to the Kings Conversion was effected before Augustins coming only for the greater solemnity of it a Mission from Rome was obtained and I am much deceived if Gregory himself doth not imply that it was at the request of the English Saxons themselves I know very well what an idle story the Monks tell of the occasion of the conversion of the English Nation viz. S. Gregories seeing some pretty English boys to be sold for slaves at Rome and having luckily hit upon two or three pious quibbles in allusion to the names of their Nation and Countrey and King he was at last in good earnest moved to seek the Conversion of the whole Nation A very likely story for so grave a Saint I do not quarrel with it on the account of the custom of selling English slaves but for the Monkishness i. e. the silliness of it I know Bede reports it but he brings it in after such a fashion as though he were afraid of the anger of his Brethren the Monks if he had left it out for he mentions it as a reverend tale with which the Monks used to entertain themselves that had come down to them by that infallible method of conveyance viz. Oral Tradition and quotes nothing else for it Whereas in the Preface to his History he tells his Readers that in the matters relating to Gregory he relyed on Nothelmus who had been at Rome and had searched the Register of the Roman Church but we see as to this story he saith he had nothing but an old Tradition for it But since Mr. Cressy is so zealous in Vindication of this story I desire the other part of it may not be left out which is told by Broâ—pton Abbot of Iorval viz. that S. Gregory and his companions were come three dayes journey towards England and then sitting down reading in a Meadow a Grashopper leapt upon his Book and made him leave off reading then S. Gregory thinking seriously upon this little creatures name for his wit lay much that way he presently found this mysterie in it Locusta saith he quasi loco sta which saith Brompton he spake by a Prophetick Spirit for messengers immediately came upon them from Rome and stopped their journey And surely he had been much to blame to undertake such a journey upon the instigation of one quibble if he had not been as ready to turn back upon the admonition of another But to set aside these Monkish fopperies the best Authority we can have in this case is of S. Gregory himself several of whose Letters are still extâ—nt in the Register of his Epistles relating to this affair In one sent to the Kings of France Theodoric and Theodebert he expresseth himself thus Atque ideo pervenit ad nos Anglorum gentem ad fidem Christianam Deo miserante desiâ—eranter velle converti sed sacerdotes vestros è vicino negligeâ—eâ— desideria eorum cessare suâ aahâ—rtatione succendere Ob hoc igitur Augustinum servâ—â—m Dei praesentium portitorem cujus zelus studium bene nobis est cognâ—tum cum aliis servis Dei praevidâ—mus illuc dirigendum Quibus etiam injunximus ut aliquos secum è vicino debeant presbyteros 〈◊〉 cum quibus eorum possint mentes agnoscere voluntatem admonitione sua quantam Deus donaverit adjuvare and to the same purpose he writes to Brunichildis their Mother Indicamus ad nos pervenisse Anglorum gentem Deo annâ—ente velle fieri Christianam c. Which are the most remarkable testimonies we could desire to our purpose for these Letters were sent by Augustin the Monk before ever he had been in England and therein the Pope expresseth the desire of the English Nation to embrace Christianity not barely of Ethelbert and his Court that this desire was made known at Rome that upon this the Pope sends Augustin and his Companions that the French who were their Neighbours had been too negligent in this Work and began to be more slack than formerly in it that however now since he had taken so much care to send these on purpose for that work he intreats them to send over so many Priests as might serve for their interpreters which is a plain discovery that there had been entercourse about the Christian Religion between the French and the Saxons before and that still they understood their language so well as to serve for interpreters to Augustin and his Brethren Mr. Cressy who pares and clips testimonies to make them serve his purpose renders those words Anglorum gentem desideranter velle converti velle fieri Christianam only thus that the English Nation were in a willing disposition to receive the
plain that either the Pope in terms contradâ—cts Christ or he must look on all that pretence of Christs appearance as an idle story only made to amuse the Friers and withal adds several Glosses for explication of the said Rule And the kind Pope adds That although he believed S. Francis to have had a pious intention in his former command yet without the least regard to any divine Inspiration he declares that they were not at all bound by it and gives these substantial reasons for it because his Testament could not oblige without the consent of the Superiours and Brethren of the Order neither had he power to oblige his Successor What becomes of the Divine Revelation all this while But the main thing which troubled the Franciscans was that they found their Order could not subsist without having some things belonging to them as Utensils Books and other moveables and some among them said the property of these things belonged to the Order in common the subtle Pope found out an excellent Gloss for this viz. that they should keep to their Rule to have no property either in special or incommon but they should have the use of them only the dominion and property should be reserved to those to whom it did belong and that nothing should be sold exchanged or alienated without the Authority and Consent of the Cardinal Protector of the Order By which the Pope supposing the Donors not to reserve the property to themselves entitles himself and all his Successors to the Dominion and property of all Houses and Goods belonging to the whole Order which was not only a Salvo for their consciences but a suâ—e way to keep them alwayes in subjection to the Papal See And from hence the Popes have taken upon them the management of their affairs by Syndics and Procurators impowred by them as appears by several Bulls of Martin the fourth and fifth Eugenius the fourth Sixtus the fourth and others And this same Pope Gregory the ninth takes to the Apostolical See the Right and property of the Church of Assisium which was magnificently built by the contributions procured by Elias while he was General of the Order and by vertue of his Apostolical Power declares the Church to be wholly Free and subject immediately to the Roman See This Favour of the Popes and sudden multiplication of this Order and the manner of their living gave a very great Jealousie to the Secular Clergy in all parts for notwithstanding this high pretence to Poverty they knew that so many men must be maintained out of the Church one way or other and although it were under the pretence of an Eleemosynarie maintenance yet they undertaking the Office of preaching and hearing Confessions and having no Titles could not subsist without manifest encroaching on the rights of the Clergy And so it was found and complained of in all parts but to little purpose the Popes for good ends of their own resolving to carry them through in spight of the Bishops and Clergy For this puâ—pose they were forced to be still writing Bulls in their behalf ninety seven Bulls are printed together of this one Pope by their Annalist with a respect to their Order besides many extant in the Annals themselves of which several of them are to the Bishops of Italy Spain France and other parts not to molest this new Order For as their Annalist saith about this time their Fame spreading abroad the People gave liberally to them and built them houses and stately Churches with rich â—rnaments Only to shew the perfection of their poverty and finished them with all manner of conveniences for their subsistence which drew the envy and hatred of the Bishops and Parochial Clergy upon them and the whole controversie between them was whether these independent Friers should gather congregations to themselves or no and therein perform all divine offices and receive the oblations of the people without any subjection to the Bishops And in this dispute the Pope took part with the Friers and published two Bulls in their behalf to all Bishops extant in the Decretals enjoyning them to forbear giving any disturbance to the Friers in those matters And now the sublimity of their Poverty began to shew it self in the height and stateliness of their Fabricks if any one would see the habitation of Poverty he may read the description their Annalist gives of their Convent at Paris and the Church belonging to it and he will imagine so much is the World altered that Poverty did vye with Solomon himself as to the glory both of his Temple and Palace There were some in those days who were not subtle enough to reconcile these things with perfect poverty and thought a lower degree of it might have served the Franciscaâ—s as it did other Friers but notwithstanding these glorious Fabricks did not look very like the poor Cottages S. Francis enjoyned them nothing would content these men but the very sublimity of Poverty Richardus Armachanus in his Sermons at Pauls Cross against the Friers saith they were so far from the Poverty they pretended to that he thought them bound in Conâ—cience to give in charity to others out of their superfluitiâ—s For saith he these men who call themselves Beggers have houses like Kings Palaces Fishponds larger than Earles have Churches more costly than Cathedrals more rich and noble Ornaments than all the Bishops of the World his Holiness only excepted But it cost him dear â—or not being able to reconcile these things with perfect poverty for after many years trouble occasioned by the Friers he died at Avignon The plain Country-man in Chaucer asks the Frier a great many untoward Questions concerning their Order which I doubt the wisest of their Order will not easily answer as Freer how many Orders be on earth and which is the perfectest Order Is there any perfecter Rule than Christ himself made If Christs Rule be most perfect why rulest thou thée not thereafter Why shall a Fréer be more punished for breaking the Rule that his Patron made than if he break the hests that God himself made If your Order be perfect why get you your Dispensations to make it easie Certes either it séemeth that ye be unperfect or he that made it so hard that he may not hold it And siker if ye hold not the Rule of your Patrons ye be not then their Fréers and so ye lye upon your selves Why make you as dede men when ye be professed and yet be not dead but more quick beggers than you were before and it séemeth evil a Dede man to go about and beg Why make yée you so costly houses to dwell in sith Christ did not so and dede men should have but Graves as falleth it to dede men and yet ye have more Courts than many Lords of England for ye now wenden through the Realm and ech night will lig in your own Courts and so mow but few right
should keep the Feast at the same time with the Brethren that came out of the circumcision although they were mistaken in their calculations not with those that remain in the circumcision but with those that came out of it saith Epiphanius which he understands of the Bishops of Ierusalem fifteen of which continued to A. D. 136. till towards the end of the Empire of Hadrian at which time Marcus was the first Bishop that was made of the Gentiles Petavius knows not what to make of this constitution for by it he supposes the Christians were obliged to keep Easter with the Iews on the fourteenth day for he takes it for granted that the Bishops of Hierusalem did so as he confesses some of the Apostles did but the Learned Primat of Armagh thinks Petavius mistaken in this because although they did then 〈◊〉 the Iewish computation yet he supposes that they did keep Easter not with the Iews on what day of the Week soever it fell but on the Sunday in honour of our Saviours resurrections And it cannot be denyed that Narcissus Bishop of Hierusalem and Theophilus of Caesarea with Cassius of Tyre and Clarus of Ptolemais do in their Synodical Epistle declare that they agreed with the Church of Alexandria viz. in keeping it on the Lords day and that this had been the constant practice of the Church of Hierusalem And it is plain Epiphanius understood it so or else it was to no purpose to distinguish in this matter those who remained in the circumcision and those which came out of it But notwithstanding these Churches and the Western did observe the Lords day for the Paschal feast yet in the way of reckoning it they did observe the Iewish computation both as to the Age of the Moon and the Vernal Aequinox For although Constantin in his Letter doth upbraid the Iews that they kept their Pasch before the Aequinox which was then rightly fixed on March 21. yet we are to understand it of the Astronomical Aequinox and not of that which was in popular use among them which might anticipate the other about three dayes because according to their beginning the month Nisan from March 5. the fourteenth of the Moon might fall on the eighteenth day and so their Passeover be kept three dayes before the Aequinox at the time of the Nicene Council For as Claviâ—s observes God doth not tye his Church to the subtleties of Astronomical Calculations but to the common judgement of sense in which the Aequinox hath the latitude of four dayes with us and as many more in those more Southern parts The like liberty was used in the Christian Church before the Nicene Council for in the Council of Caesarea they do allow the celebration of Easter before the Aequinox which they then supposed to be March 25. and yet they reckon three dayes before that among those on which the Paschal Sunday might fall as appears by the Epistle of one Philippus about the Council of Caesarea extant in the Works of Bede wherein he saith that after the Resurrection or Ascension of our Saviour the Apostles being dispersed abroad and employed in preaching the Gospel could appoint nothing concerning the Paschal Feast but did observe it on the fourteenth of the Moon what day soever it fell upon Thus far sure the Brittish and Scottish Christians were no Hereticks in doing as the Apostles did But after saith he the Apostles were gone the Christian Churches observed different customs both as to Paschal Fast and Feast upon which by the direction of Pope Victor a Council was called at Caesarea for setling the way of keeping Easter where after they have fixed the Aequinox on the eighth of the 5. Kal. of April they determined that the three dayes before should be taken within the Paschal limits so that the Sunday for Easter might be reckoned on any day from the 11. Kal. of April to the 11. Kal. of May viz. from the two and twentieth of March to the one and twentieth of April inclusive and withal they add that it should not be lawful for any to exceed these limits And yet afterwards these limits were so far exceeded that the Latin Church in Leo ' s time made the Cycle of the Paschal Sundayes to consist of thirty three dayes and the Alexandrian Cycle took in two dayes more viz. the twenty fourth and twenty fifth of April because they found the former limits too strait unless they were understood of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they called it i. e. that the anniversary day of our Saviours passion should alwayes fall between the two and twentieth of March and one and twentieth of April § 11. The first person who published a Paschal Canon was Hippolytus Bishop of Porto A. D. 222. above an hundred years before the Council of Nice which was found A. D. 1551. and set forth by Scaliger with Notes upon it in which Canon he makes the nearest Paschal Sunday to be the sixteenth of the Moon which is March 20. beginning the Lunar Month March 5. which is one day before the Nicene Aequinox and five before that of Caesarea and in which he reckons the Paschal Sundayes not from the fifteenth to the one and twentieth but from the sixteenth to the two and twentieth By which we may easily see what reason Wilfrid had to make the then practice of the Roman Church to have been the Universal practice of the Christian Church for the two fundamentals of the Rule then in use were that the Paschal Sunday should be reckoned from the fifteenth to the one and twentieth and that it should never be before the Aequinox The first we meet with who laid down this Rule about the Aequinox was Dionysius of Alexandria who sat there from A. D. 247. to A. D. 264. wherein he was followed by Anatolius Bishop of Laodicea who would by no means have the Paschal Sunday observed before the Aequinox which he following Sosigenes supposed to be March 25. but made the first Easter day to be March 27. But that which is most observable in him to our purpose is that he reckoned neither as the Latins from the sixteenth to the two and twentieth nor as the Alexandrians from the fifteenth to the one and twentieth but from the fourteenth to the twentieth just as the Brittish and Scottish Chruches did as appears by the second fifth and eighteenth of his Cycle published out of MSS. by Aegidius Bucherius with learned Annotations and so makes no scruple at all of that which Wilfrid and Bede made such a great matter of viz. of keeping Easter day upon the fourteenth and therein complying with those notable Hereticks called the Quartodecimani But Anatolius in the Preface to his Canon was so far from supposing an universal consent of the Church in his time that he complains of very different and contrary Cycles that were then in Use some following Hippolytus his Cycle of sixteen others the Iewish Cycle of
to the Crown of England on condition that he should hold it in Fee from the Papal See but I find no such thing mentioned by Ingulphus or Gulielmus Pictaviensis who understood the Conquerors affairs as well as any being about him at that time neither would Gregory the seventh have omitted it but however Bertholdus Constantiensis or rather Bernaldus an Author of that time and the Popes Poenitentiary affirms confidently that William King of England made this whole Nation tributary to the Pope which there is no pretence for but only that he after some demurr caused the antient Eleemâ—synarie Peter-pence to be sent to Rome So careful had Princes need to be of the continuance of Gifts to Rome which in time are looked on as a Tribute and that Tribute an acknowledgement of Fealty and that Fealty proves a Subjection in Temporals But this was not the only dispute between these two Conquerors for Gregory the seventh at the same time that he sent Hubert his Legat to England about the Oath of Fealâ—y he sent Hugo to keep a Council in France against the investitures of Bishops by Lay-hands and afterwards in a Council at Rome solemnly condemned them and threatned deposition to all that received them and the vengeance of God upon those that gave them The bottom of which lay not in the pretence of Simony but because it was too great a token of their subjection to the Civil Power and Gregory the seventh was as Bertholdus saith a most zealous defender of Ecclesiastical Liberty i. e. the total exemption of Ecclesiastical persons from subjection to the Civil Power and Eadmerus saith that the Bishops made their homage to the King before they received investiture by the Staff and the Ring But notwithstanding all these Decrees and Threatnings William the Conquerour as that Author tells us would never part with the Rights of the Crown in this matter and he declares that he would not only keep the antient Saxon custom of investiture as Ingulphus and other Authors shew it to have been but all the antient customs of his Predecessors in Normandy relating to Ecclesiastical affairs So that all Ecclesiastical as well as Civil things saith Eadmerus were under his command These customs were 1. That none should be acknowledged Pope but whom the King pleased 2. That no Bulls should be received but such as were approved by the King 3. That nothing should be decreed in Provincial Councils but by his Approbation 4. That no Persons about the King should be excommunicated without his knowledge but besides Pope Gregory charged him with two more enormities viz. 5. Hindering all appeals to Rome of Bishops and Arch-bishops which was such a thing he saith that a Heathen would not have done it 6. Seizing upon the person of his Brother Odo being a Bishop and imprisoning him which he said was plainly against Scripture Qui vos tangit tangit pupillam oculi mei Nolite tangere Christos meos which no doubt were understood of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Patriarchal and Iewish Church But I do not find that King William did at all recede from the Rights of his Crown although the Pope according to his skill quoted Scripture against them and although the Bishop of Baieux was clapt up on the account of Treason as our Historians agree yet in Pope Gregories opinion he suffered for Religion and the preservation of Divine Laws and such men as Mr. Cressy might have compared such Laws with those of Nero and Domitian but I think they durst not have done it in the Conquerours time who at the Council of Illebon in Normandy declared his resolution to maintain the customs of his Predecessors relating to Ecclesiastical affairs § 5. After the death of Gregory the seventh there was no Pope acknowledged in England for eleven years because of the Schism between Urban and Clement and our King had declared for neither of them And william Rufus told Anselm who would fain have gone to Urban the second for his Pall that he had not yet acknowledged him for Pope and therefore he should not go And saith he if you own him without my Authority you break your faith to me and displease me as much as if you did endeavour to take away my Crown Anselm however stands upon it that himself had owned him for Pope and would do so whatever came of it and would not depart from his obedience for an hour A Parliament being called at Rockingham upon this occasion the Nobility and Bishops all advised him to submit to the King Anselm notwithstanding cryes Tues Petrus super hanc Petram c. Qui vos tangit tangit pupillam oculi as Gregory the seventh had done before him and to as much purpose but no such things saith he are said of Kings or Princes or Dukes or Earles and therefore he resolved to adhere to the Pope The King being acquainted with his answer sends some of the Nobles and Bishops to him to let him know that the whole Kingdom was against him and that hereby he endeavoured to take away one of the Flowers of his Crown from him by depriving him of one of the antient Rights of it and withal that he acted contrary to his Oath to the King Anselm if we may believe Eadmerus who lived in his time and was his constant companion stood upon his priviledge that an Archbishop of Canterbury could be judged by none but the Pope and so by that means was wholly exempt from the Royal Power and he bore all the affronts he met with patiently out of his firm devotion to the Papal See The Bishop of Durham whose advice the King asked in this matter told him that Anselm had the Word of God and Authority of S. Peter of his side The King said he would never endure one equal to himself in his Kingdom and therefore took off his protection from him and commands the Nobility and Bishops to disown him and banishes his Counsellors and gives him time for a final answer The mean while the King tryes by several arts to gain him viz. by sending to Urban secretly for the Pall and acknowledging him to be Pope and at last they brought it to this issue that he should receive the Pall at the Kings hands which he utterly refused to do and would take it no otherwise but off from the Altar of Canterbury After this he desires leave to go to the Pope the King denyes it he persists in his intreaty the King absolutely denyes it he resolves to go however because saith he it is better to obey God than men As though God had commanded him to disobey the King in this matter When the Bishops had disswaded him from it and told him they would keep their fidelity to the King Go saith he then to your Lord and I will hold to my God Did he mean the same
Orders upon any crime whatsoever were to be delivered over to be punished by the Secular Power And what could such a pretence arise from but only from Gregory the sevenths principles of Government viz. that the Civil Power had nothing at all to do with Ecclesiastical Persons and that all the Subjection and Obedience they owed was only to the Pope as their Soveraign and that this was the Liberty which Christ purchased for his Church with his own blood as Paschal the second answered the Emperours Ambassadors and as Becket very frequently expresses it in his Epistles A blessed Liberty and worthy the purchase of the Blood of Christ viz. a Liberty to sin without fear of punishment or at least any punishment which such persons would be afraid of for the utmost Becket could be perswaded to in the case of the Canon of Bedford convicted of murder was only to confine him to a Monastery for a time which was a very easie expiation of Murder So that the Benefit of Clergie was a mighty thing in those dayes But it is impossible to give any tolerable account of Beckets actions unless we suppose this to have been his Ground and Principle that God had exempted by his Law all Clergy-men by vertue of being such from any subjection to Civil Power For if they owe any subjection they are accountable for their breaches of the Laws to that power to which they are subject if they are not accountable for any crimes they must be supposed to be wholly independent on the Civil Government § 11. Neither is there any ground for such an exemption by the ancient Municipal Laws of England either in the Saxon or Norman times and I cannot but wonder to see the Laws of Princes concerning Ecclesiastical Persons brought to prove their total exemption from the power of Princes which was that Ecclesiastical liberty which Becket did plead for For according to his principles neither Alured nor Edward nor Canutus nor any other Prince had any thing to do to appoint the punishments of Ecclesiastical Persons but their judgement was to be wholly left to their own Superiours And supposing there had been such Laws among the Saxons Becket would not have valued them at all but rather have thought them a prejudice to his Cause and an encouragement to Hen. 2. to have repealed those and made others in their place For why should not the Power of this King be as good as the Saxons to make and alter Ecclesiastical Laws as they saw convenient but Becket understood his business better than so He would not upon any terms be brought to the tryal whether they were ancient Customes or no which the King contended for the King offered it very frequently and by any fair ways of tryal and declared he would renounce them if they did not appear to be so he appealed often to the judgement of the Church of England about it and would stand and fall by it and none of these things would be accepted of by which it is evident that either there were no Laws could justifie Becket or he thought the producing them would be hurtful to his cause for not one of all the Customs he excepted against was in his opinion so bad as for Princes to take upon themselves to determine Ecclesiastical causes and to appoint the punishments of Ecclesiastical Persons For then he knew the King need not to stand upon the proof of his other Customes this one Right of the Crown would put an end to the whole dispute For if Henry 2. had the same Power that Edgar had when he said that the tryal of the manners of Ecclesiastical Persons belonged to him and therefore gave Authority to Dunstan and the rest to expell criminal Clergy-men out of Churches and Monasteries why might not he punisht Ecclesiastical persons And then to what purpose had Becket contended with the King if he had allowed him as much power as the Saxon Kings did make use of And what if the Saxon Laws did appoint the Bishops to examin Clergy-men and pass sentence upon them in criminal causes was not the punishment already established by the Kings Laws and the Bishop only the Minister of the Kings Iustice upon Ecclesiastical Delinquents And even in the Laws of Edward the Confessour in case of default in Ecclesiastical Courts a liberty is allowed of going to other Courts and in the Laws of the elder Edward any one in Orders is appointed to make compensation according to the nature of his crime and without sureties he was to go into prison but in case of a capital offence he was to be taken that he might undergo penance from the Bishop for his fault Where by capital offence we are not to understand such as were punished with death but the Poenitential Canons of Egbert tell us by capital crimes were understood Pride Envy Fornication Adultery Perjury c. But the Laws of Canutus appoint degradation for murder by a Clergy-man and compensation and banishment withal which were Civil punishments after degradation the very thing which Becket denyed and in case this compensation were not undertaken within thirteen days then the Person was to be out-Law'd which to be sure was a civil punishment By the Laws of King Alured if a Priest killed a man he was to lose his priviledges and the Bishop was to expel him out of the Temple being already degraded unless due compensation were made i. e. if he did not undergo the Civil punishment For then the greatest crimes excepting murder of a Prince or Lord by his Subject or Vassal or killing any in a Sacred place or Treason might be expiated by pecuniary Mulcts and Ecclesiastical Penance according to the Poenitential Canons For it appears by the old Poenitential Canons of Theodore and Egbert that murder had so many years penance appointed for its expiation which had been a vain thing if it had been punished with death now in this case it was but reasonable that the guilty Person should be delivered to the Bishop to receive his Penance whether he were a Clergy-man or Lay-man And the Laws of Princes did inforce them to submit to Ecclesiastical Penance So King Alured commands in case of perjury that the Person be taken into the Kings custody for forty dayes that he might undergo the Penance which the Bishop shall impose upon him and if he escaped he was not only to be anathematized but put out of all protection of the Law and by the Laws of King Edmund any Person guilty of Murder was not to come into the Kings presence till he had undergone the Penance enjoyned him by the Bishop And from hence I suppose it was that in the Saxon Times the Bishop and the Sheriff sate together in the same Court as appears by the Laws of Edgar and Canutus not barely to instruct the people in the Laws of God and man but as the Sheriff was to appoint
omnem Angliam a laico duodenni vel quindecim annorum contra Dom. Papam Alexandrum B. Thomam Archiepiscopum quod eorum non recipient literas neque obedient mandatis Et si quis inveâ—tus foret literas eorum deferens traderetur Potestatibus tanquam Coronae Regis capitalis inimicus Here we see an Oath of Supremacy made so long ago by Henry the second and those who out of zeal or whatsoever motive brought over Bulls of the Popes made lyable to the charge of Treason but the Archbishop by vertue of his Legatine Power took upon him to send persons privately into England and to absolve them from this Oath as is there expressed The same year the King being in Normandy sent over these Articles to be sworn and observed by the Nobles and People of England 1. If any one be found carrying Letters from the Pope or any Mandate from the Archbishop of Canterbury containing an Interdict of Religion in England let him be taken and without delay let justice pass upon him as upon a Traytor to the King and Kingdom 2. No Clergie-man or Monk or Lay-Brother may be suffered to cross the Seas or return into England unless he have a Pass from the Kings Iustice for his going out and of the King himself for his return if any one be found doing otherwise let him be taken and imprisoned 3. No man may appeal either to the Pope or Arch-bishop and no plea shall be held of the Mandates of the Pope or Archbishop nor any of them be received by any person in England if any one be taken doing otherwise let him be imprisoned 4. No man ought to carry any Mandat either of Clergie-man or Laick to either of them on the same penalty 5. If any Bishops Clergie-men Abbots or Laicks will observe the Popes interdict let them be forthwith banished the Realm and all their Kindred and let them carry no Chattels along with them 6. That all the Goods and Chattels of those who favour the Pope or Archbishop and all their possessions of whatsoever rank order sex or condition they be be seized into the Kings hand and confiscated 7. That all Clergie-men having revenews in England be summoned through every County that they return to their places within three months or their revenues to be seized into the Kings hands 8. That Peter-pence be no longer paid to the Pope but let them be gathered and kept in the Kings Treasury and laid out according to his command 9. That the Bishops of London and Norwich be in the Kings Mercy and be summoned by Sheriffs and Bailiffs to appear before the Kings Iustices to answer for their breach of the Statutes of Clarendon in interdicting the Land and excommunicating the person of Earl Hugh by vertue of the Popes Mandat and publishing this excommunication without Licence from the Kings Iustices I hope these particulars will give full satisfaction that the Controversie between King Henry the second and Becket was not about some antient Saxon Laws but the very same principles which Gregory the seventh first openly defended of the Popes temporal Power over Princes and the total exemption of Ecclesiastical Persons from Civil Iudicatures § 14. 2. This will yet more appear if we consider that the Pleas used by Becket and his party were the very same which were used by Gregory the seventh and his Successors The beginning of the quarrel we have seen was about the total exemption of Men in any kind of Ecclesiastical Orders from civil punishments which was the known and avowed principle of Gregory the seventh and his successors and it seems by Fitz Stephen that several of the Bishops were for yielding them up to the Secular Power after deprivation and said that both Law and Reason and Scripture were for it but Becket stood to it that it was against God and the Canons and by this means the Churches Liberty would be destroyed for which in imitation of their High-Priest they were bound to lay down their lives and bravely adds that it was not greater merit of old for the Bishops to found the Church of Christ with their blood than in their times to lay down their lives for this blessed liberty of the Church and if an Angel from Heaven should perswade him to comply with the King in this matter he should be accursed By which we see what apprehension Becket had of the nature of his cause from the beginning of it for this was before the King insisted on the reviving the Antient Customs at Clarendon Where it seems Beckets heart failed him which the Monks and Baronius parallel with S. Peters denying Christ but it seems the Cock that brought him to Repentance was his Cross-bearer who told him that the Civil Authority disturbed all that wickedness raged against Christ himself that the Synagogue of Satan had profaned the Lords Sanctuary that the Princes had sat and combined together against the Lords Christ that this tempest had shaken the pillars of the Church and while the Shepherd withdrew the sheep were under the power of the Wolf A very loyal representation of the King and all that adhered to his Rights After this he spoke plainly to him and told him he had lost both his conscience and his honour in conspiring with the Devils instruments in swearing to those cursed customs which tended to the overthrow of the Churches Liberty At which he sighed deeply and immediately suspends himself from all Offices of his Function till he should be absolved by the Pope which was soon granted him The Pope writes to the King very sharply for offering to usurp the things of Iesus Christ and to oppress the poor of Christ by his Laws and Customs and threatens him to be judged in the same manner at the day of judgement and tells him of Saul and Ozias and Rehoboam and parallels his sin with theirs and bids him have a care of their punishments And was all this zeal of the Pope only for the good old Saxon Laws When the Bishop of Exeter begged the Archbishop at Northampton to have regard to his own safety and theirs too he told him he did not savour the things of God he had spoken much more pertinently according to P. W. if he had told him he did not understand the Saxon Laws When the Earl of Leicester came to him to tell him he must come and hear his sentence he told him that as much as his soul was better than his body so much more was he bound to obey God and Him than an earthly King and for his part he declared he would not submit to the Kings judgement or theirs in as much as he was their Father and that he was only under God to be judged by the Pope and so appealed to him Which being an appeal to the Pope in a Civil cause about accounts between the King and him it does plainly shew that he did not think the King had any Authority over
than the Pope treated him as a Christian and Catholick King and as the Popes predecessours had done â—is And after the writing of that Letter and the reconciliation with his Son Radulphus de Diceto Dean of S. Pauls about that time hath an Authentick Epistle of Henry the second to the Pope wherein he acknowledges no more than the common observance which was usual with all Princes in that Age whereas Feudatary Princes write after another Form So that I cannot but think it to be a meer complement of Petrus Blesensis without the Kings knowledge or else a Clause inserted since his time by those who knew where to put in convenient passages for the advantage of the Roman See It is said by some that Henry the second A. D. 1176. did revive the Statutes of Clarendon which the Pope and Becket opposed so much in the Parliament called at Northampton It is true that Gervase of Canterbury doth say that the King did renew the Assise of Clarendon for whose execrable Statutes Becket suffered but he doth not say that he renewed those Statutes but others which are particularly enumerated by Hoveden upon the distributing tâ—e Kingdom into six Circuits and appointing the itinerant Judges who were made to swear that they would keep themselves and make others to observe the following Assises as the Statutes were then called but they all concerned matters of Law and Civil Iustice without any mention of the other famous Statutes about Ecclesiastical matters Whereas at the same time it is said that King Henry the second granted to the Popes Legat though against the advice of his great and Wise men that Clergy-men should not be summon'd before Secular Tribunals but only in case of the Kings Forest and of Lay-fees which is directly contrary to the Statute of Clarendon but some men love to heap things together without well considering how they agree with each other and so make the King in the same page to null and establish the same Statutes But it is observable that after all this contest about the exemption of Clergy-men and the Kings readiness to yield it they were made weary of it at last themselves for as Richard Beckets successour in the See of Canterbury saith in his Letter to the three Bishops that were then three of the Kings Iustices the killing of a Clergy-man was more remisly punished than the stealing of a Sheep and therefore the Archbishop perswades them to call in the Secular Arm against Ecclesiastical Malefactors And now in his opinion the Canons and Councils are all for it and Beckets arguments are slighted and no regard had to the Cause he suffered for when he found what mischief this impunity brought upon themselves But for this giving up their Liberties the Monks revenge themselves on the memory of this Archbishop as one that yielded up those blessed priviledges which Becket had purchased with his blood Notwithstanding the sufferings the King had undergone by his opposing the Ecclesiastical encroachments we may see what apprehension after all he had of the declension of his own power and the miserable condition the Church was in by those priviledges they had obtained by that notable discourse which Gervase of Canterbury relates the King had with the Bishops in the time of Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury wherein with tears he tells them that he was a miserable man and no King or if a King he haâ— only the name and not the power of a King that the Kingdom of England was once a rich and glorious Kingdom but now a very small share of it was left to his Government And then gives a sad account of the strange degeneracy both of the Monks and Clergy and what saith he in the day of judgement shall we say to these things Besides Those of Rome see our Weakness and domineer over us they sell their Letters to us they do not seek justice but contentions they multiply appeals and draw suits to Rome and when they look only after Money they confound Truth and overthrow peace What shall we say to these things how shall we answer them at Gods dreadful Iudgement Go and advise together about some effectual course to prevent these enormities Was this spoken like a Feudatary of the Popes and not rather like a wiâ—e and pious Prince who not only saw the miseries that came upon the Kingdom and Church by these encroachments of Ecclesiastical Power but was yet willing to do his best to redress them if the great Clergy would have concurred with him in it who were a little moved for the present with the Kings Tears and pathetical speech but the impression did soon wear off from their minds and things grew worse and worse by the daily increase of the Papal Tyranny And when this great Prince was very near his end some of the Monks of Canterbury were sent over to him who had been extreamly â—roublesome to himself and the Kingdom as well as to the Archbishop by their continual Appeals to the Court of Rome and they told the King the Convent of Canterbury saluted him as their Lord I have been said the King and am and will be Your Lord Ye wicked Traytors Upon which one of the Monks very loyally cursed him and he dyed saith Gervase within seven dayes § 17. Having thus far shewed that the Controversie between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power was accounted a Cause of Religion by the managers of the Ecclesiastical Power and that so far that the great Defender of it is to this day accounted a Saint and a Martyr for suffering in it I now come to shew that the ancient panal Laws were made against that very Cause which Becket suffered for After the death of Henry the second Beckets Cause triumphed much more than it had done before for in the time of Richard the first the great affairs of the Nation were managed by the Popes Legats during the Kings absence and after his return scarce any opposition was made to the Popes Bulls which came over very frequently unless it were against one about the Canons of Lambeth wherein the King and Archbishop were forced to submit no hindrance made to Appeals and even in Normandy the Ecclesiastical Power got the better after long contests In the latter end of Richard the first the Pope began to take upon him the disposal of the best Ecclesiastical preferments in England either by translation or Provision or Collation which Fitz Stephen saith that Henry 2. told those about him after the four Courtiâ—rs were gone for England to murder Becket was the design Becket intended to carry on viz. to take away all Right of Patronage from the King and all Lay-Persons and so bring the gift of all Church-preferments to the Pope or others under him Upon the agreement of King Iohn with the Popes Legat he renounced all right of Patronage and gave it to the Pope but it is no wonder in him
this Constitution of the Pope was procured by Winchelsea's means and he caused it to be pulished in all Cathedral Churches After this the King sends a prohibition to the Bishops against doing any thing to the prejudice of himself or his Ministers and another against all excommunications of those who should execute this Law and herein he declares that the doing such a thing would be a notorious injury to his Crown and Dignity a great scandal to the people the destruction of the Church and it may be the subversion of the whole Kingdom and therefore he charges them by vertue of their Allegiance that they should forbear doing it At the same time he issued out Writs for apprehending and imprisoning all such persons as should presume to excommunicate any of his Subjects on the accont of this Bull of Pope Boniface and our Learned Lawyers mention out of their Books a Person condemned for Treason in this Kings time for bringing a Bull of excommunication against one of the Kings subjects but although they do not mention the time it seems most probable to have been upon this occasion Parsons laughs at Sr. Edw. Cook for saying this was Treason by the antient Commâ—n Law before any Statutes were made but it doth sufficiently appear by the foregoing Discourse that this was looked on as one of the antient Rights of the Crown that no forreign Authority should exercise any jurisdiction here without the Kings consent Besides this King revived another of the antient Customs forbidding all Persons of the Clergie or Laâ—ty to go out of the Kingdom without his leave and so stopt the freedom of Appeals to the Pope and by the Statute of Carlisle 35 Edw. â— All Religious Houses were forbidden sending any Moneyes over to those of their Order beyond Sea although required to do it by those Superiours whom they thought themselves bound in conscience to obey And it appears by the Statute of Provisors 25 Edw. 3. that the first Statute of this kind was made in this Kings time at the Parliament at Carlisle notwithstanding that the Pope challenged the liberty of Provisions as a part of the plenitude of his Power But although this Statute were then made yet it had the fortune of many good Laws not to be executed and therefore in Edward the thirds time the Commons earnestly pressed for the revival of it 17 Edw. 3. upon which they sent for the Statute of Carlisle and then sayes the Record the Act of Provision was made by the common consent forbidding the bringing of Bulls or such trinkets from the Court of Rome and in the next Parliament it was enacted that whosoever should by process in the Court of Rome seek to reverse judgement given in the Kings Courts that he should be taken and brought to answer and upon conviction to be banished the Realm or be under perpetual imprisonment or if not found to be out-lawed But notwithstanding these Laws the Commons 21 Edw. 3. complain still that Provisions went on in despight of the King and judgements were reversed by Process in the Court of Rome and therefore they pray that judgement may be executed upon delinquents and this matter brought into a perpetual Statute as had been often desired the King grants their desire and the Commons bring in a Bill to that purpose extant in the Records but the Statute of Provisors did not pass till 25 Edw. 3. which is the common Statute in the printed Books yet soon after we find that the Commons pray for the execution of it and the Kings answer was that he would have it new read and amended then 27 Edw. 3. passed that other Statute of Praemunire against Appeals in Civil Causes to the Court of Rome which we have seen Becket made a considerable part of the Churches Liberty which Christ had purchased and practised it himself at Northampton appealing from King and his Parliament to the Pope in a meer Civil Cause of Accompts between the King and him Yet after all these Statutes 38 Edw. 3. a Re-enforcement of them was thought necessary in another Statute made that year against Citations to Rome and Provisions wherein are grievous complaints that the good antient Laws were still impeached blemished and confounded the Crown of our Lord the King abated and his person very hardly and falsly defamed the treasure and riches of the Kingdom carryed away the inhabitants and subjects of the Realm impoverished and troubled the Benefices of the Church wasted and destroyed Divine Services Hospitalities Alms deeds and other Works of Charity withdrawn and set apart the Great men Commons and Subjects of the Realm in body and goods damnified And yet Sr. R. C. saith that in the Record are more biting words a Mysterie he saith not to be known of all men In 40 Edw. 3. It was declared in Parliament by common consent that if the Pope should attempt any thing against the King by process or other matters in deed that the King with all his Subjects should with all their force and power resist the same Yet still so deep rooting had the Popes power gotten in this Nation that 47 Edw. 3. The Commons beg remedy still against the Popes provisions and complain that the Treasure of the Realm was carryed away which they cannot bear and 50 Edw. 3. A long Bill was brought in against the Popes Usurpations as being the Cause of all the Plagues injuries famine and poverty of the Realm and there they complain notwithstanding all former Laws that the Popes Collector kept his Court in London as it were one of the Kings Courts transporting yearly to the Pope twenty thousand Marks and commonly more and that Cardinals and other Aliens by reason of their preferments here have sent over yearly twenty thousand Marks and that the Pope to ransom the Kings enemies did at his pleasure levy a Subsidy of the Clergie of England and that to advance his gain he did commonly make translations of Bishopricks and other Dignities within the Realm and therefore again the Commons pray the Statutes against Provisors may be renewed which they repeated 51 Edw. 3. but all the answer they couâ—d get was that the Pope and promised redress the which if he do not the Laws therein shall stand but upon another Petition promise was made that the Statutes should be observed In 1 R. 2. the Commons are at it again upon the same complaints and it is declared to be one Cause of calling the Parliament 3 R. 2. and an Act then passed wherein as Sr. R. C. observes the Print makes no mention of the Popes abuses which the Record expresly sets down and that the Pope had broken promise with Edward the third and granted preferments in England to the Kings enemies 7 R. 2. another Statute was made against Provisions wherein the Print differs from the Record as the same Person
God which the Gloss upon the Canon Law speaks of our â—ord God the Pope and it is hard to conceive any other could be meant in this case The King sends some of the Bishops and Barons to him to put him in mind of his Oath to observe the Laws and Customs of the Realm he told him they were to be understood with the reservation of being according to God and that it was not so to keep him from going to the Pope and therefore he would not observe it and so takes his leave of the King to be gone and the King after his going seizes upon all his profits I desire to know of such as Mr. Cressy whether the King or Anselm were in the right in all this affair And if the King had used greater severity to him whether Anselm had suffered on the account of Religion Or Treason But he complains to the Pope that the Law of God and Authority of the Pope and Canons were overwhelmed by the Customs of the Realm and therefore he resigns his Archbishoprick to him and desires the Pope to put one into it which was contrary to the antient Rights of the King The Pope in a Council at Rome solemnly excommunicates all Lay-persons that gave Investitures of Churches and all that received them and all Ecclesiastical persons that paid Homage to Princes saying it was very unfit that they who made their God should put their hands into the obscene and cruel hands of Princes as Eadmerus relates it who was present in the Council § 6. After the death of Rufus Anselm returns for England the new King Henry the first demands the accustomed Homage from him he denyes it and gives the late Council at Rome for his reason adding further if the King would submit to the Decrees of that Council there would be peace between them otherwise he would be gone again The King was very unwilling to part with the Rights of his Predecessors in the Investiture and Homage of Bishops for saith Eadmerus it seemed to him as much as to lose half his Kingdom and yet was afraid to let Anselm go lest by his means the Pope should have set up his Brother Roberts Title against him the King being in this strait endeavours to gain time and sends Ambassadors to the Pope to try if he could procure his consent to let him enjoy his own Rights Pope Paschal the second in his long Epistle to Henry absolutely condemns them as inconsistent with God with justice or with salvation and adds that to the wit of his predecessors that it was a monstrous thing for a Son to beget a Father or a man to make a God but Urban gave that as a reason against it because Priests were men that did make a God now Priests saith he in Scripture are called Gods and are not Princes or Secular Powers The King not at all moved with this Bull requires from Anselm either to pay him homage and to consecrate those that had received investitures from him or immediately to be gone out of the Kingdom and withal declares that he would preserve the Rights of his Predecessors nor would endure any in his Kingdom that would not do him homage the Nobility and the rest of the Bishops joyn with the King and used all perswasions to keep him from submitting to the Pope The King hoping to compose this matter sends three Bishops to the Pope to let him know saith Eadmerus that if the King did not enjoy his Rights he would banish Anselm and renounce the Pope But Brompton hath the smart Letter the King sent upon this occasion wherein he tells him he would not fail of that respect and obedience which his predecessors had shewn to the Popes on condition that all the Honors Uses and Customs which his Father had in his predecessors times might be freely enjoyed by him and that by the help of God none of them should be lessened in his time and if saith he which God forbid I should be so base to let them go yet my Nobility nay the whole people would by no means suffer it The Pope told them he would not yield to the King in this matter to save his Life and writes word to the King that by the judgement of the Holy Ghost he had forbidden all investitures by Princes and encourages Anselm in his opposition to the King with some impertinent texts of Scripture For of all men the Popes notwithstanding their pretence to infallibility have been very unhappy in applying Scripture in their Bulls and it would be one of the strangest Commentaries that ever the World saw to set down the places of Scripture produced by them with their interpretations of them but that is not my present business The King called together the Great men of the Nation in Council at London and sends some of them to Anselm to know whether he would observe the customs of his predecessors or be gone The Bishops pretending private instructions contrary to the Popes Bulls Anselm desires time to know the Popes mind and still stands to the Popes Letters upon which the King told him he would bear these delays no longer Quid mihi de meis cum Papa what have I to do with the Pope about my own Subjects What Rights my Predecessors had are mine too whosoever would take them away from me is my enemy and every one that is my Friend knows it Anselm tells him that to save his life he would not contradict the Popes decrees unless he were absolved by him The King would not so much as hear of the Popes Bulls nor suffer others to do it which grieved Anselm much and away he goes again to receive comfort from the Pope The King sends an Ambassadour to the Pope who told him his Master would lose his Kingdom rather than the Investiture of Bishops the Pope very graciously replyed Before God I will lose my head rather than he shall quietly enjoy them But at last the Pope was content he should enjoy other customes excepting this of Investitures the King was not at all satisfied with this but sends word to Anselm he must not set foot on English ground unless he would promise to observe the former customs of the Realm which he still refused to do and after several endeavours to compose this difference the King was at last forced to yield up the ancient Right of Investiture and retain only homage which the Pope and Anselm were at present contented with but this Agreement held not long for notwithstanding the Pope did lay so much weight on this business of Investitures as besides what is mentioned already he said that Christ dyed in vain if Lay-investitures were allowed yet the King was certainly informed that this same Pope had yielded Investitures to tâ—e Emperour Henry 5. as Florentius Wigorniensis and Malmsbury report and therefore Anselm writes to the Pope that the King