them St Augustine doth name some opinions for hereticall have small affinity with Divinity and who shall read Philastrius of Heresies must needs approve Cardinall Bellarmin's censure of him that he accounts amongst them many are not properly Heresies as the word is now taken The first Councell of Constantinople held 381. expresly affirms by the name of Heretick to understand such as professing the same faith yet did make a separation from those canonicall Bishops were of their communion But the construction what opinion was hereticall did ever so far as I have observed belong to the spirituall Magistrate who after the pattern held out in holy Writ if any new erroneous opinion did peep the neighbour Bishops and Clergy taking notice of it did assemble condemn it and by their letters gave notice of what had past them to absent Churches if the case were difficult the presence of any famous Clerk was desired who for settling peace as who would not was easily drawn out of his own home so was Origen sent for into Arabia And that this form continued in condemning Heresy till Constantine seems to be very plain by the proceedings against Paulus Samosatenus and divers others remaining yet in history and the writings of the fathers But for the prosecution of an Heretick farther then to avoid him I know no example till after God having given peace to his people under Christian Emperours they finding if the Church were in trouble the State to be seldome otherwise did provide as well for the calling of Bishops to Councells that might condemn Heresies as by lawes to punish Hereticks 3. The Councell of Nice therefore having in the year 325. censured the opinions of Arius for hereticall the Emperour that had formerly granted priviledges to Christians 326 declared haereticos atque schismaticos his privilegiis alienos c. and that no man might be deceived by the ambiguity of the word Heretick Gratian and Theodosius in the year 380. did declare who onely were to be so reputed viz. all who secundum Apostolicam disciplinam evangelic amque doctrinam patris filii spiritus sancti unam deitatem sub parili majestate sub pia trinitate credamus hane legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti reliquos vero dementes vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere and the year following did not onely in Ianuary renew the said Edict but in Iuly commanded all Churches to be delivered those Bishops who held that profession nihil dissonum profana divisione facientes sed Trinitatis ordinem personarum adsertionem divinitatis ordinem c. and for the more assurance as a mark of their being orthodox did hold communion with the Catholick Bishops of any one seat there remembred as Damasus of Rome Nectarius of Constantinople Pelagius of Laodicea Diodorus of Tarsus Optimus of Antioch c. omnes autem qui abeorum quos commemoratio specialis expressit fide communionis dissentiunt ut manifestos haereticos ab ecclesits expelli Which note Iustinian likewise in the year 541. having prescribed goes farther that sacram communionem in Catholica ecclesia non percipientes à Deo amabilibus sacerdotibus haereticos juste vocamus 4. Before these lawes it is not to be wondred if every one desired to be joyned in communion with some one of those seats whose Bishops were so recommended for conserving the Apostolick faith for the sanctity of their manners and for keeping schism out of the Church which being usually joyned with sedition in the Common wealth Princes seem to have an especiall eye how it might be avoided but after these Edicts they certainly did it much more and there being in the world no Bishop more famous then the Roman nor any other named in these parts of Europe then he every one endeavoured to live united to that Church whose form the Councell of Nice 325. for before that ad Romanam ecclesiam parvus habebatur respectus as Pius secundus writes approving in distribution of the ecelesiastick government and Emperours now in point of belief the Roman Chair became so eminent as for to shew themselves orthodox many especially of the Latins did hold it enough to live in the communion of that See and the Fathers in that Age to give high expressions of being in union with it S. Ambrose shewing the devotion of his brother Satyrus in a tempest adds yet farther as a mark of it Advocavit ad se Episcopum percontatus que ex eo est utrumnam cum episcopis catholicis hoc est cum Romana ecclesia conveniret and S. Hierom a person very superlative in praising and reprehending writing about the same time to Damasus Ego nullum primum nisi Christum sequens Beatitudini tuae id est cathedrae Petri communione consocior c. and in the year 602. a certain Bishop returning out of schism spontanea voluntate did swear he in unitate sanctae ecclesiae catholicae communione Romani Pontificis per omnia permansurum c. All which in time bred an opinion that Chair could not entertain an error and the beginning of the mark absolutely inverted for those men who at first were as others sought unto because they did conserve the religion S. Peter had planted in Rome must in after-ages be onely held to maintain the same doctrine because they are in that See so that the Doctrine did not commend the person but the being in that seat and recommended from thence be it what it will it ought to be received insomuch as Cardinall Bellarmine doubts not to write Si Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare for which he was afterward forced to an Apology yet is not in my opinion so absurd as the rule left by certain religious persons 1606. to their confidents at Padoua containing ut ipsi Ecclesiae catholicae understanding the Pope omnino unanimes conformesque simus si quod oculis nostris apparet album nigrum illa esse definierit debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare c. 5. But to return whence I have a little digress't it being plain by these lawes the Emperours restrained points of Heresy to the Catholick Doctrine of the Father Son and holy Ghost the ground of the four first generall Councils and others not to be esteemed hereticks in which sense I conceive sundry of the ancients take the word as S. Hierome when he sayes all Hereticks leave God and Socrates when he agrees such as condemned Origen finding not to blame his opinion of the holy Trinity must confesse he held the right faith and Leo the first when in an epistle about 449. he exhorts the Emperour Theodosius to consider the glory of S. Peter
other but in the foundation most sound most orthodox that holy man never intending such a superiority over this Church as after was claimed The Bishops of England in their condemnation of Wicliffs opinions do not at all touch upon those concerned the Popes supremacy and the Councell of Constance that did censure his affirming Non est de necessitate salutis credere Romanam Ecclesiam esse supremam inter alias Ecclesias doth it with great limitations and as but an error Error est si per Romanam Ecclesiam intelligat universalem Ecclesiam aut concilium generale aut pro quanto negaret primatum summi Pontificiis super alias Ecclesias particulares I conceive therefore the Basis of the Popes or Church of Romes authority in England to be no other then what being gained by custome was admitted with such regulations as the kingdome thought might stand with it 's own conveniency and therefore subject to those stipulations contracts with the Papacy and pragmatiques it at any time hath made or thought good to set up in opposition of extravagancies arising thence in the reformation therefore of the Church of England two things seem to be especially searcht into and a third arising from them fit to be examined 1. Whether the Kingdome of England did ever conceive any necessity jure divino of being under the Pope united to the Church and sea of Rome which drawes on the consideration how his authority hath been exercised in England under the Britons Saxons and Normans what treasure was caryed annually hence to Rome how it had been gained and how stopt 2. Whether the Prince with th' advise of his Cleargy was not ever understood to be endued with authority sufficient to cause the Church within his Dominions be by them reformed without using any act of power not legally invested in him which leads me to consider what the Royal authority in sacris is 1. In making lawes that God may be truly honoured 2 things decently performed in the Church 3. Profainesse punished questions of doubt by their Cleargy to be silenced 3. The third how our Kings did proceed especially Queen Elizabeth under whose reformation we then lived in this act of separation from the sea of Rome which carries me to shew how the Church of England was reformed by Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Elizabeth Wherein I look upon the proceedings abroad and at home against Hereticks the obligation to generall Councells and some other particulars incident to those times I do not in this at all take upon me the disputation much less the Theologicall determination of any controverted Tenet but leave that as the proper subject to Divines this being onely an historicall narration how some things came amongst us how opposed how removed by our ancestors who well understanding this Church not obliged by any forraign constitutions but as allowed by it self either finding the inconvenience in having them urged from abroad farther then their first reception heare did warrant Or that some of the Cleargy inforced opinions as articles of faith were no way to be admitted into that rank did by the same authority they were first brought in leaving the body or essence as I may say of Christian religion untouched make such a declaration in those particulars as conserved the Royall dignity in it's ancient splendour without at all invading the true legall rights of the state Ecclesiasticall yet might keep the kingdome in peace the people without distruction and the Church in Vnity CHAP. II. Of the Britans 1. I Shall not hear inquire who first planted Christian Religion amongst the Britans whether Ioseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes S. Peter or Elutherius neither of which wants an author yet I must confess it hath ever seemed to me by their alleadging the Asian formes in celebrating Easter their differing from the rites of Rome in severall particulars of which those of most note were that of Easter and baptizing after another manner then the Romans used their often journeying to Palestina that they received the first principles of Religion from Asia And if afterward Caelestinus the Pope did send according to Prosper Germanus vice sua to reclaim them from Pelagianisme certainly th' inhabitants did not look on it as an action of one had authority though he might have a fatherly care of them as of the same profession with him as a Synod in France likewise had to whom in their distress they address themselves to which Beda attributes the help they received by Germanius and Lupus 2. After this as the Britans are not read to have yeilded any subjection to the Papacy so neither is Rome noted to have taken notice of them for Gregory the great about 590. being told certain children were de Britannia insula did not know whether the Countrey were Christian or Pagan and when Augustine came hither and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome the Abbot of Bancor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree in charity to help them in word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience then this they did not know due to him whom he named to be Pope nor to be father of fathers 3. The Abbots name that gave this reply to Augustine seems to have been Dinooth and is in effect no other then what Geffry Monmouth hath remembred of him that being miro modo liber alibus artibus eruditus Augustino pâ—tenti ab episcopis Britonum subjectionem diversis monstravit argument ationibus ipsos ei nullam debere subjectionem to which I may adde by the testimony of Beda their not only denying his propositions sed neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habiturum respondebant And it appears by Gyraldus Cambrensis this distance between the two Churches continued long even till Henry the first induced their submission by force before which Episcopi Walliae à Menevensi Antistite sunt consecrati ipse similiter ab aliis tanquam suffraganeis est consecratus nulla penitus alii Ecclesiae facta professione vel subjectione the generality of which words must be construed to have reference as well to Rome as Canterbury for a little after he shewes that though Augustine called them to councell as a legat of the Apostolique sea yet returned they did proclaim they would not acknowledge him an Archbishop but did contemn both himself and what he had established 4. Neither were the Scots in this difference any whit behind the Britans as we may perceive by the letter of Laurentius Iustus and Mellitus to the Bishops and Abbots through Scotland in which they remember the strange perversenesse of one Dagamus a Scottish Bishop who upon occasion coming to them did not only abstain eating with them but would not take his meat in the
from the bearers as private Clerks by deputation from thence did sit his superiors in determining differences between him and others who by strength were taken from his jurisdiction 43. After which Popes having gained an entrance found means to reduce the grant of Legatus natus to no more then stood with their own liking by inventing a new sort of Legat styled Legatus à latere by reason of his near dependance on the Popes person who employed in matters of concernment at his being here the power of the former slept which distinction of Legats seems to me to have had its birth after 1180. first applyed by any of our writers to Iohannes Anagninus Cardinalis 1189. by Hoveden which style yet others who then lived do not give him Of this Legat it is that Henry Chichley in a letter yet extant under his own hand wrote to Henry the 5. that Be inspection of Lawes and Chronicles was there never no Legat à latere sent in to no lond and specially in to your rengme of Yngland witoute great and notable cause And thei whan thei came after thei had done her legacie abiden but litul wyle not over a yer and summe a quarter or ij monthes as the nedes requeryd And yet over that he was tretyd with or he cam in to the lond whon he schold have exercise of his power and how myche schold bee put in execution An aventure after hee had bee reseyved hee would have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple as indeed if he stayed long he sometimes gained the censure of being occultus inimicus regni but this was not till the Popes had brought th' Archbishops much under by laying a necessity on them of receiving the Pall from Rome and at the taking of it of making profession de fidelitate canonica obedientia that is had obliged them by Oath to defend regalia Sancti Petri. Of which because I find th' introducing not much touched by our writers a great means to advance this forraign power it will not be amisse to say somewhat and first of the Pall. 44. The Pallium from whence our English word Pall was a garment with which the Professors of Arts as Grammar Rhetorick Musick might cloath themselves as it seems to me by Tertullian they did yet was held most proper for such as professed Philosophy And therefore when a begging fellow came to a noble Roman palliatus crinitus being asked what he was the man half angry replyed he was a Philosopher mirari cur quaerendum putasset quod videret to which the Gentleman returned Barbam Pallium Philosophum nondum video From whence I gather it was for the most peculiar to them So Eusebius shewes on Heraclas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking the habit of a Philosopher notwithstanding his being a Christian retained it and lib. 8. cap. 21. at the martyrdom of Porphyrius a disciple of Pamphilus he describes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a short cloak or Pall covering the shoulders 45. But it seems the primitive Christians in wearing of it did attribute some Sanctity to the garment for grande pallii beneficium est saith Tertullian sub cujus recogitatu impii mores vel erubescunt whereupon the Councell of Gangra not an 100. years after pronounced him Anathema used the Pallium quasi per hoc habere se justitiam credens c. Now from the danger of superstition of the one side and the being especially worne by Philosophers of the other I am apt to think it became in the end proper onely to some Bishops who might challenge it as learned Philosophers yet not at all likely to attribute more to the Robe then reasonable and in time either by collation of Emperors or otherwise appropriated to some particular Churches who having that mark were after the seats of Archbishops for the most part For though Alcuinus be of opinion the Pall is nothing but a distinction between an Archbishop and his suffraganes yet underfavour I conceive that must be taken of th' acception of the word in the time he lived not as used in St. Gregories dayes who gives Augustine at the bestowing the Pall upon him the title of Archbishop no more then he doth Syagrius Bishop of Austun in Burgundy which Town notwithstanding that guift by St. Gregory was never reputed to have other then an Episcopall chair and suffragan to the Archbishop of Lions to this day So that certainly at first all that had the Pall were not eo nomine Archbishops to whom it became especially proper after the Emperor relinquisht it to the Popes disposing who at first no question had a good part in the conferring of it himself 46. The deed is yet extant by which Valentinian bestowed it on the Church of Ravenna about the year 430. I know some who find not how to deny it hold this an honourable vestment such as Emperors themselves wore which opinion Baronius justly confutes and rather thinks it forged yet he citing out of Liberatus that Anthemius expell'd the Church of Constantinople Pallium quod habuit imperatoribus reddidit discessit gives no glosse how he could return to the Emperor his Pall and depart if he had nothing to do with it and it is manifest in Gregory the greats dayes that Church did not onely prescribe for the use of the Pall but for doing it contrary to the will and opinion of that Father And the same Doctor elsewhere saith he had dealt apud piissimos dominos the Emperors to send him Anastasius concesso usu Pallii and afterward being desired by Brunichilda to grant it to Syagrius of whom before he shews his readinesse propter quod serenissimi Domini Imperatoris prona voluntas est concedi haec omnino desider at So that certainly at the beginning if Princes did not bestow it yet it was not done against their wills which after-times did in Europe solely appropriate to the Pope who yet gave it not against their liking as Lucius the 2. sending it to the Bishop of Winchester who yet never made use of it teacheth us 47. But what this Pall imported or what the receiver had of advantage by it writers I think do not alwayes agree Isidorus Pelusiota who writ about the year 430 is of opinion the Bishop as a type of Christ wears that cloak of wool to shew himself imitator of the great shepheard that will bear the strayed sheep on his shoulders St. Gregory sayes it signifies humility justice c. I have shew'd before Alcuinus his opinion of it But what soever signification it was at first thought to carry certainly the necessity of fetching it from Rome was not so urgent as in these later the Papall interest made it esteemed We do not read that ever Laurentius or Mellitus received thence the Pall yet no man
hujusmodi de caetero emanarunt ad provisionem ipsorum inviti non teneamur nisi de hac indul gentia plenam fecerint mentionem Dat. Lateran 15. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno 4 to c. could quiet the English or keep them from that confederation in Mat. Paris 1231. beginning Tali Episcopo tali capitulo Vniversitas eorum qui magis volunt mori quam à Romanis confundi c. Which the Popes by wisdome and joyning the Regall auctority with their spirituall sound means to bring to nought and pursuing the Papall interest without regarding what had past from them gave the Kingdome occasion 1241. to observe that in onely three years Otho had remained Legat here he bestowed more then 300. spirituall promotions ad fuam vel Papae voluntatem the Pope having contracted as the report went with the Romans to confer to none but their Children and Allies the rich benefices here especially of Religious houses as those perhaps he had most power over and to that effect had writ to the Bishops of Canterbury and Salisbury ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent So that in the Councell at Lions 1245. they complain of these exorbitances and shew the revenues the Italians received in England not to be lesse then 60 thousand marks of which more hereafter and in the year following 1246. reiterated their griefs to Innocentius 4 tus quod Italicus Italico succedit Which yet was with little successe for the Popes having as we have heard first settled all elections in the Ecclesiasticks and after upon severall occasions on the submitting of the English to his desires bestowed the benefices in this and other Kingdomes on his dependents Iohn the 22. or as some seem to think Clement the 5. his immediate predecessor endeavored the breaking of elections by Cathedralls and Convents reserving the free donation of all preferments to himself alone 70. From whence proceeded the reiterated complaints â— against Papall Provisions in the Parliaments of Edward the 3. and Ric. the 2. for this Kingdome never received his attempts in that kind to which purpose the History of Iohn Devenish is remarkable The Abbot of St. Augustines dying 1346. the 20. Ed. 3. the Convent by the Kings leave chose VVm. Kenington but Clement the 6. by Provision bestowed the Abbacy on Iohn Devenish whom the King did not approve of yet came thither armed with Papall auctority The Prior and Convent upon command absolutely denyed him entrance ingressum monasterii in capite denegando who thereupon returned to Avignon The businesse lying two years in agitation the King in the end for avoyding expences and other inconveniences ex abundanti concessit ut si idem Iohannes posset obtinere à summo Pontifice quod posset mutare stylum suae creationis â—ive provisionis scilicet non promoveri Abbatia praedicta ratione donationâ—s vel provisionis Apostolicae sed ratione electionis capituli hujus loci illa vice annueret suis temporalibus gaudere permitteret sed quidem hujusmodi causa coram ipso summo Pontifice proposita concludendo dixit se malle cedere Pontificio quam suum decretum taliter revocare c. Which so afflicted the poor man as the grief killed him on St. Iohn Baptists Eve 1348. without ever entring the Abby and the dispute still continuing the Pope 1349. wrote to the King Ne Rex impediret aut impediri permitteret promotos à curia per bullas acceptare beneficia sibi taliter incumbentia To which his Mary answer'd Quod Rex bene acceptaret provisos clericos qui esseâ—t bonae conditionis qui digni essent promoveri alios non 71. But the year following 1350. the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons meeting in Parliament complain with great resentment of these Papall grants shewing the Court of Rome had reserved to it self both the collation of Abbeys Priories c. as of late in generall all the dignities of England and Prebends in Cathedrall Churches c. Upon which the statute of Provisors was in that Parliament enacted which was the leader to those other statutes 27 and 38. Ed. 3. The 48. Ed. 3. 1374. the treaty between Ed. the 3. and Gregory the XI was concluded after two years agitation wherein it was expressely agreed quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur c. Notwithstanding which the Commons the next Parliament prefer'd a petition shewing all the benefices of England would not suffice the Cardinalls then in being the Pope having by the addition of XII new ones raised the number to XXX which was usually not above XII in all and therefore they desire it may be ordained and proclaimed that neither the Pope nor Cardinalls have any Procurator or Collector in England sur peine de vie de membre c. Yet the inconveniences still continuing 3. Ric. 2. produced that statute is in the print I shall not here repeat otherwise then that the Commons in the Roll seem to lay the beginning of these excesses no higher then Clement the 5. 72. By these arts degrees and accessions the Church of Rome grew by little and little to that immensenesse of opinion and power it had in our nation which might in some measure whilst it was exercised by connivence onely upon the good correspondency the Papacy held with our Kings and Church be tolerated and the Kingdome at any time by good Lawes redresse the inconveniences it susteined But that which hath made the disputes never to be ended the parties not to be reconciled is an affirmation that Christ commanding Peter to feed his sheep did with that give him so absolute a power in the Church and derived the like to his successors Bishops of Rome as without his assent no particular Church or Kingdome could reform it self and for that he as a Bishop cannot be denied to have as much power as others from Christ and may therefore in some sense be said to be Christs Vicar to appropriate it onely to the Pope and draw thence a conclusion that jure divino he might and did command in all particulars Vice Christi And though no other Church in the Christian World doth agree with the Roman in this interpretation though Historians of unquestioned sincerity have as we have in some measure heard in their own ages deliver'd when and how these additions crept in and by what oppositions gained that our Princes have with th' advise of the Lay and Clergy ever here moderated th' exorbitances of the Papacy in some particular or other and likewise reformed this Church though the stipulations between our Kings and Rome have not been perpetuall but temporary not absolute but conditionall as is to be seen in that past between Alexander the 3. and Hen. the 2. viz. juravit quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis
of the English Church so there is no question but it hath been ever the Tenet of it Pontificem Romanum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacrâ Scripturâ in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Which our Historians do mention as what proceeded from the constitutions of the Church and assent of Emperors not as of a thing in it self juris divini insomuch as 80. That proposition when it was propounded 1534. in Henry the 8 ths time in convocation all the Bishops without exception and of others onely one doubted and four placed all Ecclesiastick power in the Pope both the Universities and most of the Monasteries and Collegiat Churches of England approved avowed as the undoubted opinion of the Church of this Nation in all ages Neither can I see how it can be otherwise for if the Church of Canterbury were omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione if it were Mater omnium Anglicanarum Ecclesiarum suo post Deum proprio laetatur pastore that is if th' Archbishop had no mediate spirituall superior but Christ God if the power the Pope exercised over him within this Realm were voluâ—tate beneficio gained as I have shewed by little little voluntarily submitted unto it could be no other then jure humano and then it must be granted the Church of England could not hold any necessity of being in subjection to the See or Church of Rome jure divino as it is manifest they did not in that they sometimes acknowleded no Pope otherwhiles shewed an intent of departing from his union and the Bishops as well as Lay Lords advised Anselm Vrbani obedientiam abijcere subjectionis jugum excutere c. Neither could the Church of England be any way possible guilty of Schism adhering to their Ghostly Superior next and immediate under Christ Iesus As for the temporall profits the Court of Rome received hence though the denying them can be no just cause of such a spirituall imputation especially on privat men yet certainly who will examin their beginning as he shall find it to have been by the bounty or permission of our Princes so upon search he will perceive the Kingdome went no farther then the Common Law the precedent of former times and such an exigency did force them to of which therefore I shall adde a word or two CHAP. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England THe vast summes the Court of Rome did of late years upon severall occasions export out of this Kingdome mentioned in the statute of the 25. Hen. the 8. are spoken of by severall of our writers and though some have in generall expressed how much the Nation suffer'd in that kind yet none that I know in one tract did ever shew by what degrees the Papacy gained so great a revenue as the Commons in Edward the thirds dayes had cause to complain it did turn a plus grand destruction du Royaume qe toute la guerre nostre Seigneur le Roy. I have thought therefore that it will not be amisse to set down how the Pope came to have so great an influence over the treasure of the Clergy in this Land by seeking out how and when the greatest of the paiments made to him began what interruptions or oppositions were met with either at the beginning or in the continuance of them 2. The first payment that I have read of which gave the Pope an entrance as it were in to it was that bounty of our Princes known to this day by the name of Peter-Pence and this as it was given for an Almes by our Kings so was it no otherwise received by the Court of Rome Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita perperaâ—â— doloseque collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit saith Paschalis the 2. So that no question Polidore Virgil very inconsiderately termes it vectigal and others who by that gift contend the Kingdome became tributarium feudatarium S to Petro ejusque successoribus for though the word tributum may perhaps be met with in elder writers yet never did any understand the Pope by it to become a Superior Lord of the Lay fee but used the word metaphorically as we do to this day terme a constant rent a kind of tribute and to those who pay it and over whom we have in some sort a command we give the title of subjects not as being Princes over them but in that particular being under us they are for it styled our inferiors 3. What Saxon King first conferred them whether Ina as Ranulphus Cestrensis sayes report carryed or Offa as Iorvalensis I will not here enquire as not greatly materiall Polidore Virgil tells some write Ethelwolphus continued it with whom Brompton seems to concur It is true our Historians remember he caused 300. mancusas denariorum Malmsbury renders it trecentas auri marcas which was ten times the value of silver as another trecenta talenta to be carried every year from hence to Rome which could be no other then the just application of Peter-Pence for amongst sundry complaints long after from Rome we find the omission of no paiment instanced in but of that duty onely neither do the body of the Kingdome in their Remonstrance to Innocentius 4. 1246. mention any other as due from hence to Rome 4. This therefore thus confer'd by our Kings was for the generality continued to the Papacy yet to shew as it were that it proceeded only from the liberality of our Princes not without some stops Of those in the times of VVilliam the first Henry his Son I have spoke Henry the 2. during the dispute with Becket and Alexander the 3. commanded the Sheriffs through England that Denariibeati Petri colligantur serventur quousque inde Deminus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit During the Reign of Edward the 3. the Popes abiding at Avignon many of them French their partiality to that side and the many Victories obtained by th' English begat the proverb Ore est le Pape devenu Françeis Iesu devenu Angleis c. about which time our Historians observe the King gave command no Peter-Pence should be gather'd or pay'd to Rome And this restraint it seems continued all that Princes time for Richard the 2. his successor at his beginning caused Iohn Wickliffe esteemed the most knowing man of those times to consider the right of stopping them whose determination in that particular yet remains entituled Responsio Magistri Iohannis Wicliff ad dubium infrascriptum quaesitum ab eo per Dominum Regem Angliae Richardum secundum magnum Concilium anno regni sui primo then the question followes Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae
possit legitime imminente necessitate suae defensionis thesaurum Regnidetinere ne deferatur ad exteros etiam Domino Papa sub poena censurarum virtute obedientiae hoc petente relicto viris peritis quid dici debet in ista materia secundum jus canonâ—cum secundum jus Angliae velcivile solum restat suadere partem affirmativam dubii secundum principia legis Christi then shews those paiments being no other then Almes the Kingdome was not obliged to continue them longer then stood with its own convenience and not to its detriment or ruine agreeing therein with that of Divines extra casus necessitatis superfluitatis Eleemosyna non est in praecepto 5. But in the Parliament held the same year the question was concluded for there this petition being prefer'd que y puisse estre declaree en cest present Parlement si la charge de la denir Seint Pierre appelle Rome peny seraleve des dites Commes paye al Collector nostre Seint Perele Pape ou noun the answer was soit fait come devant ad este usee By which the use of them being again returned did so remain till Henry the 8 ths time For though in a councell held at London 1408 it was treated de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis yet that it past farther then words I have not observed But King Henry 1533 4 took them so absolutely away as though Queen Mary repealed that Act and Paulus Quartus dealt earnestly with her Agents in Rome for restoring the use of them yet I cannot find they were ever gather'd and sent thither during her time but where some Monasteries did answer them to the Pope and did therefore collect the taxe that in processe of time became as by custome pay'd to that house which being after derived to the Crown and from thence by grant to others with as ample profits as the Religious persons did possesse them I conceive they are to this day pay'd as an appendant to the said Mannors by the name of Smoak-mony 6. Before I passe from this one thing is not to be omitted that however the Pope had this as a due and for that end his Collector did abide in England yet he might not raise the auncient accustomed proportion of the Taxe nor in any kind alter the manner of taking it for when Rigandus from the Pope endeavored that he was streightly prohibited by Edward the 2. The Act it self is printed As for the value these Peter-Pence did amount to I have seen in an old MS. belonging to the Church of Chichester a Bull said to be of Gregory 5 ths that did proportion them after this manner Episcop Episcop  l. s. d.  l. s. d. Cant. 07 18 00 Exoniensis 09 05 00 London 10 10 00 Wigorniensis 10 05 00 Roffensis 05 10 00 Herefordens 06 00 00 Norwicensis 21 00 00 Bathon 12 00 00 Eliensis 05 00 00 Sarisbur 17 00 00 Lincolniensis 42 00 00 Coventrensis 10 00 00 Cicestrensis 08 00 00 Eborac 11 10 00 Winton 17 06 08     Dat. apud Vrbem Veterem x. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno secundo But this could not be the Bull of Gregory the 5. who dyed about 997. before Ely was erected or Episcopall chaires placed in Lincoln or Norwich 7. The last article in the oath prescribed the Clergy from the Pope of obedience to him was not any way to alienate the possessions of their houses inconsulto Romano Pontifice Whether this clause were inserted when 1115 it was first required of Raulf th' Archbishop of Cant. I have not been able to certify my self and am apt to believe it was not for though we find it in Math. Paris when it was first imposed on Abbots and Bishops yet that was after the Court of Rome had tasted the sweetnesse of taxing other Churches neither is it in any of those conditions mentioned by Diceto But when ever it came in it implying a right of alienating the possessions of Religious houses and Churches with the Papall licence bred an opinion that without his assent there could be no good sale made of their estates by any temporall or spirituall power whatsoever though with their own concurrence and the Court of Rome grew to maintain That being a Mother she ought to be relieved by her Children Gelasius the second in his distresse 1118 is said to have desired à Normannica Ecclesia subsidium orationum magis pecuniarum yet certainly the Norman Church did not then at all condescend to any for the French Agent in the Lugubri querimonia of which before mentions him amongst divers others who expell'd Italy fled into France for succour yet non in aliquo gravaverunt Ecclesiam Gallicanam nec dando beneficta nec petendo subsidium pecuniae vel armorum sed spiritualibus armis scilicet lacrymis orationibus quae sunt arma ministrorum Christi maluerunt esse contenti c. So that certainly if any collection were made for Gelasius it was so private publick notice was not taken of it 8. The first extraordinary contribution raised by allowance for the Popes use in this Kingdome I take not to have been before 1183. when Lucius 3 us at odds with the Citizens of Rome not any ways able to resist their fury sent to Henry the 2. postulans ab eo à clericatu Angliae auxilium The thing was taken into consideration and for the precedent it was not thought fit any thing should be given as from the Clergy but that they might raise a supply amongst themselves for the King without permitting a forraign Agent to intermeddle and his Majesty might with that relieve the Pope as he should see occasion But take in the Historian his own words Consuluit Rex Episcopos suos clerum Angliae de petitione summi Pontificis cui Episcopus Clerus consuluerunt ut ipse secundum voluntatem suam honorem faceret auxilium Domino Papae tam pro se quam illis quia tolerabilius esset plus placeret eis quod Dominus Rex si vellet accepisset ab eis recompensationem auxilii illius quam si permisisset nuncios Domini Papae in Angliam venire ad capiendum de iis auxilium quia si aliter fiereâ— posset verti in consuetudinem ad detrimentum regni Adquâ—â—vit Rex consilio corum fecit auxilium magnum Domino Papae in auro argento The judicious reader may observe hence things very remarkable as that the King did in points concerned the Pope consult with the English Church and followed their advise the great care the Clergy took to avoid any sinister consequence in future and therefore did themselves give to the Prince as to whom it was due from them and not to the Pope who by custome might come to claim it as indeed he
auctority to cause the English Church be reformed by th' advice of their Bishops and other of the Clergy as agreeing with the practise of all ages For who introduced the opinion of Transubstantiation made it an article of Faith barr'd the Lay of the Cup Priests of marriage who restored the Mass in Queen Maries dayes before any reconciliation made with Rome but the Ecclesiasticks of this Kingdome under the Prince for the timebeing who commanded or connived at it CHAP. VI. How the Kings of England proceeded in their separation from Rome 1 IT being by what is already said undoubted the Clergy called together by the Prince or meeting by his allowance have ever had a power of reforming this Church commanding things juris positivi in it and likewise dispensing with them and that the statute 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12. that saith in effect as much is no other then a declaration of the Common law that is the custome of the realm the next enquiry will be for acquitting the Church of England in point of schism how this separation from Rome was made 2. Henry the 8th having long pursued a cause Matrimoniall with Clement the 7. who shewed so much complyance to determine it in his favour as he sent Cardinall Campeius hither to joyn with Wolsey the Kings creature in the businesse and upon the Emperours successe in Italy the cause after many delayes being revoked to Rome the King upon the opinions of many forreign Divines of the invalidity of his marriage with Queen Katharine caused the case to be determined by the English Church which judgement yet he would have in some measure submitted to the Court of Rome so as he might have given the persons to whom it was delegated by the Pope full information and the Cardinalls of the Imperiall faction excluded having any part in the decision But Clement hearing what had past in England with more then ordinary hast determins the cause against him which how much it would irritate any Prince of so great power and so high a spirit as our Henry I shall leave others to judge And here I might alledge many forreign examples of those who upon lesse indignities have stopt all entercourse with Rome as Lewis the 12. and Henry the 2. of France if I had undertook to write an apology for him 3. The King upon the advertisement of these proceedings by the Pope which was at the beginning of the year 1534 falls first to those courses his auncestors had formerly done when they had occasion to know how they ought to comport themselves in any thing towards Rome which was to have the advise of the English Church and thereupon wrote to the Universities great Monasteries and Churches of the Kingdome the 18. May 1534. to the University of Oxford requiring them like men of virtue and profound literature to diligently intreat examine and discusse a certain question viz. An Romanus Episcopus habeat majorem aliquam jurisdictionem sibi collatam in sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alius quivis externus Episcopus and to return their opinion in writing under their common seal according to the meer and sincere truth of the same c. To which after mature deliberation and examination not onely of the places of holy Scripture but of the best interpreters for many dayes they returned answer the 27. Iune 1534. without all peradventure according to the ancient tenet of the English Romanum Episcopum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Of this answer I have thought fit to make particular mention though assented to by all the English Clergy because Oxford hath been ever held aemula Parisiensis Ecclesiae fundamentum fountain Mere de nostre foy Chrestiene as I formerly touched whose opinion the English Church hath therefore highly esteemed and sought on all occasions of this nature of which to give some examples 4. Upon the election of Vrban the 6. France Scotland Flanders and divers other parts adhering to Clement who resided at Avignon the French King 1395. caused a meeting of the Clergy of his dominions to search whether had the better right to the Papacy whose judgment was for Clement which under the seal of the University of Paris was sent to Richard the 2. who thereupon fecit convocationem Oxoniae de peritioribus Theologis tam regentibus quam non regentibus totius regni and they on the contrary judged Vrban to have the better title whose opinion under the seal of the University of Oxford returned to the King was by him transmitted into France 1408 in Concilio Cleri celebrato Londoniis assistentibus doctoribus Vniversitatum Cantabrigiae Oxoniae tractatum est de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis about which time twelve of the University of Oxford on the Archbishops desire in the name of the rest examined the books Doctrines of Wickliffe sent their resolutions to a Synod at London in an epistle yet extant By all which it is manifest how much their opinions were esteemed in this Kingdome And I hold it undoubted a Prince following so great advise chalked out to him by the practise of his ancestors could not be guilty of so heinous a crime as schism arising onely from disobedience to any spirituall superior whatsoever Gerson sayes a private person runs into no contempt of the Keyes in divers cases by him enumerated as one dum dicit aliquis juristarum vel theologorum juxta conscientiam suam quod hujusmodi sententiae non sunt timendae vel tenendae hoc praesertim si observetur informatio seu caâ—tela debita ne sequatur scandalum pusillorum qui aestimant Papam esse unum Deum And Navar the greatest Canonist of his time qui unius doctoris eruditione ac animi pietate celebris auctoritate ductus fecerit aliquid excusatur etiamsi forte id non esset justum alii contrarium tenerent And to this purpose many more Doctors may be alleged 5. This as it was done by him so he was led unto it by the example of his predecessors as I have partly toucht before and shall therefore alledge no other but that in the disputes between Becket and Henry the 2. the Archbishop endeavouring to interesse Alexander the 3. in the difference that Prince caused it to be written unto him Si juri vestro vel honori praejudicatur in aliquo id se totius Ecclesiae regni sui consilio correcturum in proximo pollicetur and a little after Dominus Rex plurimum sibi justificare videtur cum in omnibus quae dicta sunt Ecclesiae regni sui consilio simul judicio se pariturum pollicetur And this the often repeating of it not onely in a particular letter of the Bishop of London but of
all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury both to the Pope and Becket enough assure us how undoubted it was in those dayes that our Kings following the advise of the English Church did proceed on safe grounds for their justification in such quarrells 6. Neither was the opinion returned by these Divines so differing from the writings of other learned men as might make them any way guilty of schism Gerson speaking of the severall degrees of Divine truths places for the first such as are expresse in Scripture secondly those that are by evident consequence deduced from thence thirdly such as being delivered by Christ have been by the constant tradition of the Church derived to us of which he holds this proposition Vniversalis Ecclesia Pontifici Romano subjecta sit and adds non enim posset evidenter aut per consequentiam pure de fide ex legibus primi generis humana deductione fulciri c. and Contarenus in a small tract de potestate Pontificis of that question sayes An Auctoritas illa potestas qua Pontifex maximus fungitur sit ei consensu quodam hominis tributa an potius divinitus tradita qua de re hisce temporibus maximos tumultus excitatos esse perspicimus nec etiam veriti sint viri in omni disciplinarum genere celebres ac in Christianae Theologiae studio illustres in magno hominum conventu asserere hoc jus Pontificis humanume esse then adds that he ab horum hominum sententia maxime dissentire ac prope compertum habere divinitus concessum esse Pontifici jus illud c. So that this learned Cardinall was not altogether resolved in the point but as a disputable question had it prope compertum The truth of which I leave him to dispute with the Orientall Christians It is manifest Francis the first was of the contrary judgement and our Countryman Stapleton delivers it as a Catholick tenet of former times undoubtedly agreeing with that of the English Church non divino sed humano jure positivis ecclesiae decretis primatum Romani Pontificis niti c. 7. But I return to our King who now fortifyed by the opinion of the Universities publick disputations in the convocation and severall precedents of former Princes his predecessors in his rights whereas the Parliament before in some particulars restrained the profits of Rome as in the payments of Annates Peter-pence making Appeals to it whose beginnings with us I have formerly noted did the 26. Hen. 8. 1533 declare his Maty his heirs and successors Kings of this realm shall have full power auctority from tyme to tyme to visit represse redresse c. all such errors heresies abuses c. which by any manner spirituall authority or jurisdiction may be lawfully reformed repressed ordered redressed c. This the Court of Rome interpreted a falling off from the Church and the English no other then a declaration of that right had ever resided in the Crown and which I believe it will be a difficult task to disprove them in 8. For those two articles Paulus 3. accuses the King of as Hereticall and schismaticall viz. quod Romanus Pontifex caput ecclesiae Christi vicarius non erat quod ipse in Anglica ecclesia supremum caput existebat c. for the first I never heard it affirmed by the King in that generality the words import for the Pope is a temporall prince as well as a spirituall father and so far as I know he never denyed him to be the head of the Church of his own dominions nor of France and Spain c. if those Kingdomes will admit him to so great a preeminence the thing he onely stood upon is that he was not so instituted by Christ Universall Bishop and had alone from him such an omnipotency of power as made him absolute Monarch in effect of the universall Church and was so in England For his being vicar of Christ in that sense other Bishops may be said to be his vicegerents as before I do not see how it can be well denyed him but that this Vicarship did import the giving him that power he did then exercise here is what the Church of England hath ever constantly denied As for the Kings being Head of Church I have before shewed he neither took it nor the Parliament gave it in other sense then the French have alwayes attributed it to their Princes neither for ought I find was it so much sought by King Henry as prest on him by the Clergy of which the Bishop of Rochester was one that subscribâ—d to it and his Ancestors did the same things before he did after under the names of Protectors Tutors Christi vicarii Domini Agricolae c. 9. For the other particulars mentioned in the Bull as his beheading the Bishop or Cardinall of Rochester the burning of Beckets bones the taking the treasure and ornaments at his Shrine to which may be added the suppressing and converting into Lay hands the Monasteries of the Kingdome I shall not say much having not taken on me to defend that Princes actions Yet for the taking off the head of Rochester if he were convict of treason I must give the answer of Edward the 3. to the Clergy in that kind en droict de Clerks convictz de treason purceo qe le Roy toutz ses progenitors ount este seisis tut temps de faire jugement execution de Clercz convictz de treson devers le Roy sa Royale Mageste come de droict de la corone si est avis au Roy qe la ley en tien cas ne se poet changer and then he cannot be said to have dyed other wise then by law As for the goods and ornaments of Churches by him layd hold on it is certain his predecessors in their extremities had shew'd him the way as the Conquerour who took all the ready money was found in Religious houses Richard the first who took all to the very Chalices of Churches and yet th' Archbishop afterwards regio munimine septus universos monachorum to wit of Christ Church redditus oblationes tumbae beati martyris Thomae fecit saisiari in manu Regis and Edward the first 1296 fecit omnia regni monasteria perscrutari pecuniam inventam Londonias apportari fecitque lanas corias arrestari c. And in those dayes Bishops did tell Kings The saurus ecclesiae vester est nec absque vestra conscientia debuit amoveri to which the King verum est The saurus noster est ad defensionem terrae contra hostes peregrinos c. And perhaps it would be no hard labour to shew all Princes not onely here but elsewhere to have had how justly I will not determine a like persuasion And he then being excommunicated by Paulus 3. for maintaining what the Crown had ever been in
eam conspurcare sit nefas 8. This Letter received about the beginning of the Parliament which met the 24. of November 1548. may have been the cause of deferring th' exhibition of it to the House of Commons till the 19. December 1548. when the consideration of it was referred to Sr Thomas Smith his Maties Secretary and a very learned Knight who returned it back again the 19. Ianuary having kept it by him a full moneth after which it was expedited and printed in March following and the 6th of April 1549. the Mass by Proclamation removed But this book was not so perfect as it yielded no exceptions whether just or not I shall not hear examine I know learned men have judged variously it shall suffice me to say it was again revised by Bucer a great patron of Discipline and Martyr both in England and reprinted 1552. and to ought in or of this second edition during King Edwards reign I have not heard any Protestant did ever except 9. In Queen Maries time divers learned men retired from the heat of Persecution and by the favour of the Magistrate permitted a Church 1554. at Frankford laboured to retain this Liturgy whom Knox VVhittingham and some others opposed so far as one Haddon desired to be their Pastor excused himself and Mr. Chambers coming for that end from Zurick finding it would not be allowed retired back again and xvi learned men then at Strasburgh amongst which this Haddon Sandis afterward Archbishop of York Grindall of Canterbury Christopher Goodman famous for his book of Obedience remonstrated unto them That by much altering the said book they should seem to condemn the framers now ready with the price of their bloud to confirm it should give their adversaries occasion to accuse their doctrine of imperfection themselves of mutability and the Godly to doubt of what they had been perswaded that the use of it permitted they would joyn with them by the first of February their Letter bearing date the 23. of November 1554. 10. But nothing could move them to be like Saint Paul all things to all that he might gain some or relent any thing of their former rigour onely a Type of it drawn into Latine was sent to Calvin for his judgement who returned an answer the 18. Ianuary 1554 5. somewhat resembling the Delphick oracles That the book did not contein the purity was to be wisht that there were in it ineptias yet tolerabiles that as he would not have them be ultra modum rigidos so he did admonish others ne sibi in sua inscitia nimis placeant c. And here I cannot deny to have sometime wondred why in these disputes the opinion of Peter Martyr then at Strasburgh a person for learning no lesse eminent was never required but I have since heard him to have been alwayes a profest patron of it as one by whose care and privity it had been reformed 11. Whilst matters went thus in Germany certain learned men at Geneva were composing a Form for the use of the English Church there which 1556. was printed by Crispin with this title Ratio forma publice orandi Deum atque administrandi Sacramenta c. in Anglorum ecclesiam quae Genevae colligitur recepta cum judicio comprobatione D. Iohannis Calvini But this did not satisfy all for Mr. Lever coming to Frankford to be their Minister requested they would trust him to use such an order as should be godly yet without any respect to the book of Geneva or any other But his endeavours were soon rejected as not fit for a right reformed Church and the book it self hath received since sundry changes from that first type 12. In this posture Queen Elizabeth found the Church the Protestant party abroad opposing the book of Common prayer few varying in judgement not at unity with themselves nor well agreeing what they would submit unto She hereupon caused it to be again revised by certain moderate and learned men who took a great care for removing all things really lyable to exception and therefore where Henry the 8. had caused to be inserted into the Letany to be delivered from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome all his detestable enormities which remained all King Edwards time this as what might give offence to that party was thought fit to be strook out and where in the delivery of the Eucharist the first book of Ed. the 6. had onely this clause The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life and at the giving of the Cup no other then The bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life and the second book which was in force at his death had removed those two clauses and instead of them inserted Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving and accordingly at the delivery of the Cup from whence some might and perhaps did infer the faithfull Receiver not to have a real communication of Christs body in taking the Sacrament but onely a remembrance of his sufferings it was now thought fit both expressions should be retained that no man might have any just cause of scandall for be Christs presence never so reall even by Transubstantiation in the holy Sacrament we may upon Saint Pauls warrant do it in remembrance of him Thus at the first of her reign matters in religion past with so great moderation as it is not to be denyed very few or none of the Romish inclination if they did at any time go to Mass refused to be present in our Churches during the time of Divine Service But of another thing that likewise past at the same time it will be necessary to make some more particular mention CHAP. VIII How Queen Elizabeth settled in this Kingdome the proceeding against Hereticks 1 ANother particular no small argument of the Queens disposition fell into consideration this Parliament Her Sister had revived all the laws of former Princes against Hereticks even that of Hen. the 4. which her Father had on weighty considerations repealed and all proceedings against them till they came to their very execution pertaining to the Ecclesiastick how to find a means to preserve her subjects and yet not leave a license to every old heresy new invention fanatick spirit to ruffle the Church and trouble the world was a matter of no small difficulty But for the better understanding of what then past it will be requisite to consider how the condemning of Heresy and proceeding against Hereticks hath been both here and elsewhere how her Maty found it abroad in the Christian world and at home how thereupon she settled it 2. The words Heresy and Heretick were in the primitive Church not alwayes of so ill a sound as these later Ages have made
to commutation of penance which the law allowes he that would may find them in Lyndwood lib. 3. de immunitate ecclesiae cap. Accidit and lib. 5. de poenis cap. Evenit 21. If any ask a cause why the ancient Fathers did proceed with so great lenity against blasphemous hereticks as the Arrians Nestorians c. why when the Emperour would have punisht the furious Donatists with a pecuniary mulct the holy men of those times so earnestly interceded as to procure the remission and did requite their fury with such love meeknesse as to be able to say no one of them had payed what th' imperiall edicts might challenge when of late yeares men have been brought to the fire children exposed to misery by the loss of their parents estates even by Bishops and other of the Clergy whose opinions were neither so blasphemous as the Arrians nor their comportments so inhumane as the Donatists why they preached men relapsed even to a thousand times might yet live reconciled to the Church when as now such as have renounced an opinion Rome calls heresy being after found to hold it is seculari judicio sine ulla penitus audientia relinquendus which yet is not observed if he be a Prince as was Henry the 4. or perhaps a private man out of their power 22. To these demands I can give no other answer but that their offences being against the holy Trinity the pious Bishops of those times as men who watched for soules did content themselves to denounce what was heresy but having done that finding it not received to leave the punishment to him who assures it shall go worse with Sodom and Gomorrah then those refused their instructions and under him to the Secular magistrate did likewise follow his precept in forgiving even to seventy times seven times when on the other side the opinions of these later hereticks as they call them be rather against men and their Institutes then God as that Romanum praesulem reliquis episcopis paremesse Purgatorium ignem non inventri Celebritates sanctorum rejiciendas Iejuntis ab ecclesia institutis mhil inesse meriti c. and a perswasion gained none but the Ecclesiastick can punish Heresy who judge the opposer by the law of man howbeit they style it Christian yet how it agrees with divinity Iremit to the Canonists decision In the mean time I cannot but observe Simanca finds nothing out of holy writ but onely in divine Plato lib. 10. de legibus to maintain the position that semel tantum haereticis poenitentibus parcitur c. 23. This being then the proceeding against Hereticks in generall it will be necessary to see how it was formerly in England and how the Queen found it First it will not be unfit to premise that from the Conversion of the Saxons to the year 1166. no heresy was ever known to have been in England insomuch as we may safely conclude whatever doctrine we meet with in the publick homilies of the Church or other writers of elder times must be esteemed catholick however it now stand censured but in that year about XXX Dutch came hither that detested baptisme the Eucharist c. who being convict by Scripture in an episcopall councell called by the King at Oxford were remitted to his disposition that caused them to be whipt and burnt in the face and a command given none should either receive or relieve them so that they miserably perisht which severity his Maty did not think fit afterward to extend to those were then called Publicani as I have before shew'd though there were many in his dominions 24. For the punishment of Hereticks it cannot be doubted by the common Law that is the custome of the Realm of England to have been here as in other parts of the world by consuming them by fire Balaeus from the testimony of a chronicle of London reports one of the Albigenses to have been so made away there 1210. to which the learned Camden seems to allude when he sayes more dyed in Queen Maries time then this nation had seen ex quo regnante Iohanne Christiani in Christianos apud nos flammis saevire coeperunt The same Paramo saith is made good by an epistle of Tho. Waldensis to Martin the 5. but I have not seen it I am sure in that VValdensis I use it is not found But of the truth of the thing there is no question for Bracton writes of an Apostate Deacon that in a Councell held at Oxford 1222. by Stephen Langton was first degraded and then by the Lay committed to the fire with whom for the thing agrees Fleta yet by the way where you read in him per manum comburentur clericalem it is to be Laicalem for so is Bracton out of whom he transcribed it agreeing with the continuall practise both of this and other nations for the Clergy meddles not with execution 25. In Edward the 3 ds dayes about the year 1347. Polydore Virgil testifyes two Franciscans to have been burnt quod de religione male sentirent Neither did VVilliam Sautry a relapsed priest dye by any statute-law 2. H. 4. but convicted in a provinciall councell of th' Archbishop of Cant. the writ de haeretico comburendo bearing date the 26. February was by th' advice of the Lords Temporall sent to the Major of London to cause him be executed attendentes sayes it hujusmodi haereticos sic convictos damnatos juxta legem divinam humanam canonica instituta in hac parte consuetudinaria ignis incendio comburi debere c. But where VValsingham speaks as if he dyed during the sitting of the Parliament by vertue of the law then made against hereticks the historian is without peradventure mistaken for that Parliament begun about the 20. Ianuary ended the 10. March following did expresly provide on the petition of the Commons qe touz les estatutz ordenances faitz ou affaire en cest Parliament qe sont penalz ne tiegnent lieu ne force devant le feste de Peatecoste prochin venant les queles en le mesme temps puissent estre proclamez to which the answer is le Royle voet So that certainly he could not dye by that law which was not to take effect till so long after 26. But I confesse I did a little doubt of two particulars The one whether by the common Law a Lay man could be sent to the fire for any conviction by the Ecclesiastick for all the undoubted precedents I have met with unlesse that of the Albigenses were otherwise were of some Clearks within the pale of the Church that were so punisht and Bracton and Fleta both agree Clerici Apostatae comburantur whose words being penall I conceived stricti juris not to be construed by equity But indeed Fleta elsewhere speaks more generally Christiani Apostatae detrectari debent
sculptilibus dicimus quae adbeatae Mariae Virginis vel aliorum sanctorum sunt fabricata memoriam quae tamen gratis grata prout de serico praediximus ad sororum altare vel hospitium vel alio apto loco honeste ponenda decernimus So that it is apparent then their use was esteemed no other then that of silk and these two articles seem to have been resolved on nigh the first foundation being in an hand differing from some other I shall mention by the Founder himself 16. In the year 1200 the house of Sixle or Sixhill in Lincolnshire was visited by the Abbat of Waredune as Commissioner of Otho the Popes Legat where about 20 articles were concluded for the government of the Order the fifth of which though it gave some more liberty then the former yet was not without restraint but take it from an hand of those times Anno gratiae MCC in visitatione facta de Sixl ' per Abbatem de WarduÌ„n auctoritate Domini Otonis Legati statuta sunt haec firmiter observanda Inprimis c. cap. 5. Item inhibetur ne picturarum varie tas aut superfluâ—tas sculpturarum de caetero fieri permittatur nec liceat alicubi yconias haberi nec imagines praeter ymaginem Salvatoris y. beatae Mariae Sancti Johannis Evangelistae Hitherto questionlesse the Church of England following the doctrine of St Gregory had been taught by testimonies of holy writ that omne manufactum â— adorare non liceat and though they might be lawfully made yet by all means to avoid the worship of them but see the progress 17. Sixty eight years after this Othobon being the Popes Legat in England did in his own person visit the chiefhouse of this Order and committed the others to Rodulphus de Huntedune the said Cardinalls Chaplain and penitentiary who associating to himself one Richard generall inquisitor of the Order of Semplingham did in the year 1268. conclude upon 74 or 75. heads or chapters for the government of them the 54 of which under the title de ymaginibus habendis is this Item cum secundum Johannem Damascenum ymaginis honor ad prototypum id est ad eum cujus est ymago pertineat ad instantiam Monialium earum devotionem ferventius excit andam conceduntur eis ymagines crucifixi beatae Mariae sancti Johannis Evangelistae quod possint habere in quolibet altari dedicato ymaginem ipsius sancti in cujus honore altare dedicatum est Sitamen gratis detur eisdem sicut beatus G. de serico de ymaginibus duxit statuendum celebretur ipso die festivitatis illius sancti die dedicationis ejusdem altaris missa ad dicta altaria etiamsi sint infra clausuram monialâ—um Thus they 18. By which it is manifest this Kingdom had not then received the 7th Councell for if they had there can be no thought they would have built their Article upon Damascens opinion onely But by all these we may see Images were brought into this Church by degrees by little and little First they were to have none onely wooden crosses were tolerated then they might not buy any but being given they might accept the image of our Lady and other Saints then an inhibition of all Saints except our Saviour the Blessed Virgin and St Iohn the Evangelist to which was added the image of that Saint their Altars were dedicated unto and these onely by concession not bought but given So that it is plain they were then taken for things onely indifferent as silk which they might use or be without no processions bowings kissing c. of them prescribed but how the practise was afterward that chapter of Arundell registred by Lyndwood may tell you which because it is long I shall not farther repeat it being printed then to adde that it is in him lib. 5. de Magistris cap. Nullus quoque and in another place he propounds this question Numquid ymago Christi sit ador anda cultu latriae and resolves si consideretur ut ymago tunc quia idem motus est in ymagiginem in quantum est ymago ymaginatum unus honor debetur ymagini ymaginato ideo cum Christus latria adoretur ejus imago debet similiter latria adorari Nec obstat Exod. xxvi ubi dicitur non facies tibi ymaginem nec sculptam similitudinem quia illud pro eo tempore erat prohibitum quo Deus humanam naturam non assumpserat c. 19. The Synod at Westminster finding things in this posture and their retention in many parts to have been joyned with a great abuse if not impiety took a middle course first to condemn all manner of adoration or worship of them and therefore every Sculptile had been removed out of Churches but whereas some use might be made of them for remembrance of histories past to retain in sundry parts such windows and pictures as might without offence instruct the ignorant in severall passages not unworthily preserved which if any man have since been offended at it must be on other grounds then I understand 20. As they proceeded with this circumspection not to depart from the primitive Church in matters juris positivi so did they take no less care in points of opinion for having declared which were the books of holy Scripture they did not absolutely reject the use of the other though they had been taught by the doctrine of St Hierom and St Gregory not to repute them in Canone but to admit them quia fidem religionem aedificant or as they say for example of life and instruction of manners 21. For praying to Saints however the Saxons might honor holy men departed â—o cultu dilectionis societatis quo in hac vita coluntur homines as S. Augustine speaks which what it is he explains elsewhere yet I am hardly perswaded to think they did admit any publick praying to them in the Church for I have seen and perused three ancient Saxon Psalters full of prayers but no one petition to any Saint whatsoever Eadmerus sayes the report went of VV â— the second that crederet publica voce assereret nullum sanctorum cuiquam apud Deum posse prodesse ideo nec se velle neo aliquem sapientem debere beatum Petrum interpellare yet he doth not censure this as hereticall but onely mentis elatio Gabriel Biel long after confesseth in his time some Christians as well as Hereticks were deceived in thinking Saints departed nobis auxiliari nec meritis possunt nec precibus The Church of England therefore following S. Augustine condemns all religious invocation of them as those were non adorandi propter religionem yet in respect they were honorandi propter imitationem to retain their commemoration by appointing a set service for the dayes on which it celebrated their memorialls thereby to
provoke us to imitation of their piety and to thank God that left such lights who by their doctrine instructed us and whose lives were examples for us to follow and in respect there are sundry Saints for whom there is no proper office to retain one day to praise God for the generality of all and beg of him that we may follow their pattern in all vertuous and godly living This if any mislike I intreat him to pardon me if I joyn not with him and if he will add more to give me leave to think he attributes to them by what name so ever he style it that is onely due to the Divine Majesty 22. For Purgatory however it might be held a private opinion yet certainly as an Article of Faith it could not be for the Greeks who have ever constantly denyed it were in communion with the Church of Rome till 1238. after which onely they began to be accounted schismaticks not so much for their opinions as denying subjection to the See of Rome for some of them coming to Rome 1254 de articulis fidei sacramentis fidei satis toler abiliter responderunt so that questionlesse the Historian could not then hold Purgatory an Article of Faith when those who did affirm Nullum Purgatorium est did give a tolerable account of their Faith Our Divines therefore charge these opinions onely as fond inventions grounded on no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the word of God that is as I have said before they deny them to be Articles of faith 23. In like manner having first declared the bread we break in the holy Communion to be a partaking of the body of Christ and the cup of blessing of his bloud they censure Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of bread and wine as what is not proved by holy writ and therefore no Article of faith c. And indeed how could they say lesse of so doubtfull a tenet so newly crept in that had burnt so many was so contrary to the ancient doctrine even of the English Church as the Saxon Homily yet remaining in an old Mss with this title A book of Catholick sermons to be repeated each year doth undoubtedly assure us It is true some of late have strove to give an answer to it as he that styled himself Bish. of Chalcedon will have the author perhaps to have been an heretick but that the time and title confutes all writers agreeing England to have been free from any heresy after S. Gregory till about the year 1166. If that therefore will not do he hath another viz. the Sermon to make more for Transubstantiation then what the Protetestants cite doth against it yet is silent both where the words are in it and who are the citers of them For my part to speak once for all take the whole Homily as it lies not one piece torn from the other and if the doctrine of it be such as he can digest I know not why we differ As for those two miracles which some dislike so far as to think them infarced into the work I confess them not to displease me at all for if they were inserted to prove the verity of Christs body in the Sacrament against those who held it bare bread yet it must be after such a ghostly and spirituall manner as is there represented without any other change in the substance of the bread and wine then is in the water of Baptism p. 33. not bodily but ghostly pag. 38. 36. a remembrance of Christs body offered for us on the Cross. p. 46. 24. And this may serve for answer to that his Achilles by which his doctrine of Transubstantiation manifestius patebit of Odo Archbishop of Canterbury about 940. converting miraculously the Eucharist in formam carnis ad convincendum quosdam qui suo tempore coeperunt de ea dubitare to which I shall first remember that when St Augustine was prest with certain miracles of Donatus and Pontius which the Donatists urged to prove the truth of their doctrine he gives this answer Removeantur ista vel figmenta mendacium hominum vel portenta fallacium spirituum aut enim non sunt vera quae dicuntur aut si haereticorum aliqua mira facta sunt magis cavere debemus and after a learned discourse he tells of some in the Catholick Church had happened in the time of St Ambrose at Milan upon which he gives this grave censure Quaecunque talia in catholica fiunt ideo sunt approbanda quia in catholica fiunt non ideo ipsa manifestatur catholica quia haec in ea fiunt Ipse Dominus Jesus cum resurrexisset à mortuis discipulorum oculis videndum manibusque tangendum corpus suum offerret ne quid tamen fallaciae se pati arbitrarentur magis eos testimoniis Legis Prophetarum Psalmorum confirmandos esse judicavit ostendens ea de se impleta quae fuerant tanto ante praedicta c. and a little after Hoc in Lege Prophetis Psalmis testatus est hoc ejus ore commendatum tenemus Haec sunt causae nostrae documenta haec fundamenta haec firmamenta 25. To apply this to our case the Church Catholick hath ever held a true fruition of the true Body of Christ in the Eucharist and not of a signe figure or remembrance onely but as the French confession que par la vertue secrete incomprehensible de son Esprit il nous nourrit vivifie de la substance de son corps de son sang c. and therefore we can agree to these verses Christ was the Word that spake it He took the Bread and brake it And as that Word did make it So I believe and take it Here is then a Catholick Sermon commanded to be read in the Church many years before the word Transubstantiation was heard as the doctrine of it teaching me this participation with Christ however true yet is not fleshly but spirituall if therefore this miracle were not to convince those held the communicating of Christ in the Sacrament to have been no other then fantasticall and the bread to have been and conveyed no other to us then bare bread must not I according to St Augustine avoid it as the fancies of lying men or the operation of deceiving spirits c. And this as it may serve in generall for all miracles so in particular for that of late divulged of a poor mans legg cut off in Spain and buried yet four years after restored which if it be not some imposture as the golden tooth in Silesia or of Arnald Tilly taken in Francis the 2 ds time not onely by others but by the very wife of Martin Guerre for her husband and which held the Parliament of Tholous so much perplexed to resolve we must not according to this holy mans doctrine believe for that or any
1381. cannot deny the truth of the assertion quod panis vinum remanent post consecrationem in naturis suis adhuc servatur Laicis antiquitus servabatur And here it is not unworthy the remembring that by the law of the 6 Articles 31. Hen. 8. cap. 14. containing in effect the body of Popery no man was to dye as an Heretick but he who denyed this Tenet all others onely as felons or men endangering the peace of the Kingdome by teaching contrary to what was publickly received By which it likewise appears in fixing th' imputation of Heresy the English looked on their home Determinations not those of any forreign Church 29. But I do not take upon me to dispute matters controversall which I leave as the proper subject to Divines it shall suffice onely to remember the Church of England having with this great deliberation reformed it self in a lawfull Synod with a care as much as was possible of reducing all things to the pattern of the first and best times was interpreted by such as would have it so to depart from the Church Catholick though for the manner they did nothing but warranted by the continuall practice of their predecessors and in the things amended had antiquity to justify their actions and therefore th' Archbishop of Canterbury in a provinciall Synod begun in S. Pauls the 3 of April 1571 and all other Bishops of the same Province gave especially in charge to all preachers to chiefly take heed that they teach nothing in their preaching which they would have the people religiously to observe and believe but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the old Testament and the new and that which the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine So that nothing is farther off truth then to say such as reformed this Church made a New religion they having retained onely that which is truly old and Catholick as Articles of their faith 30. Thus was Religion reformed and thus by the Queen establisht in England without either motion or seeking any new way not practised by our Ancestors but using the same courses had been formerly traced out unto them for stopping profaneness and impiety when ever they peeped in the Church And certainly to my understanding there can be none that will with indifferency look upon those times but he must however he mislike the thing done approve the manner of doing it Yet the favorers of Rome ceased not to proclaim all had thus past to have been hereticall without instancing any particular as to say such a carriage was after the manneâ— of Hereticks ever condemned by the Catholick Church and by orthodox writers in former times or such a Tenet in your confession was held heresy from this place of Scripture anciently by such holy Fathers met in generall Councell and to raise stirs and commotions in the Commonwealth to excommunicate the Queen as flagitiorum serva free her subjects of their allegeance to give out we had a Parliament-religion Parliament-Gospell Parliament-Faith and this before ever the 39 Articles one main pillar of the English reformation were confirmed by Parliament 31. Upon the whole it is so absolutely false that the Church of England made a departure from the Church which is the ground and pillar of truth as I am perswaded it is impossible to prove she did make the separation from the Roman it self but that having declared in a lawfull Synod certain opinions held by some in her communion to be no articles of faith and according to the precedent of former times and the power God and nature had placed in her self redressed particular abuses crept into her the Pope and his adherents without ever examining what was the right of the Kingdom in such like cases that had from all antiquity done the same would needs interpret this a departing from the Church because he resolved to maintain as articles of faith thrust on others as such some ambiguous disputable questions the English did not think fit to admit into that number To make a departure from Christs Church is certainly a very hainous offence she never commanding ought but what is conformable to his will nor requiring her children to believe any thing as matter of faith but what is immediately contained in the word of God or by evident consequence drawn from it and as she excludes no Christians from being her children who by their own demerits deserve not to be out of the divine favour so in opposing those who endeavour to procure some tenets to be admitted for hers which cannot be deduced from that ground we do not depart from her but gainsay humane errours and conceipts which they would infer to be her commands who acknowledges them not But as St Augustine in a dispute with a Donatist utrum schismatici nos simus an vos non ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut judicet Ecclesiam suam so may I whether we are the schismaticks or the Church of Rome Christ himself be the Iudge But whether divided from the other being matter of fact let the histories of former times the extraordinary proceedings of the See of Rome of late against the Queen and this Commonwealth be compared and I am confident the judgment may be referr'd to any indifferent person though of that belief who made the separation and whether this Kingdom on so high provocations did any thing would not have been parallell'd by former times had they met with the like attempts 32. Neither can the Crown in this reformation be any way said to have enterprised on the papall primacy which for ought I know it might have acknowledged so far as is exprest or deduced from holy Scripture or laid down in the ancient sacred Councells or the constant writings of the orthodox primitive Fathers and yet done what it did but to have exercised that auctority alwayes resided in it for conserving the people under it in unity and peace without being destroyed by the Canons and constitutions of others not suffering a forraign power ruine them to whom it owed protection In which it did not trench upon the rights of any but conserved its own imitating therein the Imperiall edicts of severall Princes and of those were in possession of this very diadem conformable to their Coronation oath 33. And from hence may be answered that which Rome brings as her Achilles touching the succession and visibility of the Protestants Church and doctrine in all ages since Christ for if theirs have been it is impossible to say the others have not the former adding onely more articles for a Christian to believe which the latter will not embrace as needfull so that if theirs as they so much glory have had the continuance from the Apostles these needs must which onely denies some part of that they hold Protestants says Stapleton have many things lesse then Papists they have taken away many things
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be