more the Synods and Convocations at this day who are so far from being the Representative-Church of England that the people of England have not the least vote or suffrage in their Election they have not any hand I had almost said nor heart neither in the choice I am sure nor head in it I mean their advice is not askt about it Nor indeed as I shall prove hereafter are these Synods fairly Elected by the votes and suffrages of the Clergy the Inferiour Clergy and so also are not so much as the Representatives of the Clergy For though the Generality of the people heed them not so much yet they look upon the Inferiour Clergy to be at their Beck and still within their Clutches And to that purpose to make them easie and gentle to be ridden and to bear like Issachar all the burdens they impose without daring to kick them off they mouth them before they back them with an c. Oath in the 6th Can of 1640. of Canonical obedience which if they had not a good Swallow would choak them in the going down But finally my Babe of Grace forbear c. Cleveland's Poems will be to far to Swear For 't is to speak in a familiar Stile A Yorkshire Wea-bit longer than a Mile This pretty c. Oath of obedience Canonical is in these words Can. 6. of 1640 I A. B. Do Swear That I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government established in the Church of England as concerning all things necessary to Salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that which is so established nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. as it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand nor yet ever to subject it to the Vsurpations and Superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and Swear according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the Faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ And if any man Beneficed or Dignified in the Church of England or any other Ecclesiastical person shall refuse this c. Oath the Bishop shall give him a Months time to inform himself and at the Months end if he refuse to take it he shall be suspended ab officio and have a second Month granted and if then he refuse to take it he shall be Suspended ab officio beneficio and have a third Month granted him for his better Information but if at the end of that Month he refuse to take the Oath abovenamed he shall be deprived of all his Ecclesiastical Promotions whatsoever and execution of his Function which he holds in the Church of England Solomon says The mercies of the wicked are cruel Prov. 12.10 but whether the Imprudence or the Impudence the ignorance or the audaciousness be greater for men at this day to dare to put those Canons in execution and to Quote them and give them in charge as Rules and Canons and Laws to the present Clergy when they are condemned by 17 Car. 1.11 and also by 13 Car. 2.12 Query What Penalty they do incur that dare set up Laws in Defiance of the Statutes of this Realm to enthral the Kings Liege People For both Laity and Clergy are in a fine Dilemma at this wicked rate Since that whosoever denies the King and Parliament to be the only Legislators or affirms that the ancient Hierarchy of the Pope is yet in being or that any other have power to make Laws in this Realm contrary and Repugnant to the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Customs and Laws or Statutes of this Realm shall be punisht c. on the one hand For what skills it to cut off the Popes Prelatical Hierarchical or Pastoral head and set up with a new-name another in the Room of it whether Presbyterian Fifth-monarchy Prelatical or any other Bigots this is to cut off Hydra's head when another as bad and alike as two Twins starts up in the Room of it But on the other hand if either Clergy or Laity derogate from Holy Synod and do not acknowledge it to be the Representative-Church of England Can. 139 140 141. Anno 1603. and that dare affirm that the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons and the rest or c. is Antichristian or contrary to the word of God shall be Excommunicated never to be absolved until they repent and publickly revoke this wicked Error I know some that have as good a Swallow us the best Latitudinarian of them all Can. 7. 1603. but of all cornute things they most dread a Dilemma for though you escape one horn you are catcht and tost upon the other To affirm the Pope or any thing like the Conclave any other Pastoral head to be the Supream head and Governour of the Church is to incur a Praemunire by denying the Kings Supremacy as also by denying the King and Parliament to be the only Legislators And there is not a Protestant in England if a Lay-man that dares or does deny the Kings Supremacy and that the King and Parliament are the only Legislators Law-makers or Canon-makers Nay the Lay-men are not much afraid to say that the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops c. or Reliquos whether Commissaries Officials Arch-Deacons Sumners or Apparitors Surrogates Registers deputy Registers Canons Petty canons Prebends Residentiaries Non-Residentiaries Chapters Chanters Precenters Rural-Deans Sub-Deans Vicar-Generals Lay chancellors c. which last are a kind of Lay-elders which we laugh at in the Presbyterians are not sound nor in the least mentioned in the word of God although they are threatned with Excommunication which in their sense is eternal damnation until they recant publickly and within 40 days after Excommunication the Gaol But the Clergy men poor Souls they are hamper'd with an c. Oath of Canonical obedience dare not say any thing in defiance of that c. Oath though it be condemned which they honest men do not know at least very few of them by Act of Parliament namely by the 13 Car. 2.12 as aforesaid The Statute 25 Hen. 8.19 condemns the Popes Supremacy and all Hierarchy and Canons which were prejudicial to the Kings Prerogative Royal 25 H. 8.19 and to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and gives Power and Authority to the King Hen. 8. to nominate and assign at his pleasure thirty two Persons of his Subjects whereof sixteen to be of the Clergy and sixteen of the Temporality Some Lay-elders then in those times of the upper and nether House of the Parliament to view search and examine the Canons Constitutions and Ordinances
and make Canons and Laws by themselves alone as if they alone were the Church Thus when Magna Charta says That Holy Church should be free They always meant and it is so construed at this Day Let the Clergy be free from Taxes Impositions c. So that by the Church of England is meant the Clergy of England A little Church then surely in so great a Realm and a great pity that so many Lay-Brethren should dye out of the Pale of the Church And yet the Dignitaries of the Church not content to be onely amongst the Croud of other Clergy-men the Church streighten the Bounds and take in the Pale to more scanty Limits making themselves when in Synod especially and Convocation at least the Representative-Church and of power to see for all the rest and to bind them to what Decrees and Laws they list Thus the Articles of Religion Regn. Eliz. Anno Domini 1562. Articuli de quibus convenit c. Articles agreed upon in the Synod of London By and Between the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Both Provinces and all the Clergy What little share the Inferiour Clergy have in making such Articles I have shown already and also that 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed on which those Articles seem to be founded Which yet I say not to weaken the force and vertue of them they are so good so moderate so charitable so Christian-like in themselves that they need no voucher no Statutes to vouch them they are so honestly come by For Pride and Passion Prejudice and Peevishness Malice and Revenge the wonted Inmates were excluded the Convocation-House when those 39. Articles of the Church of England were composed and nothing but the Naked-Truth permitted entrance 'T is strange you 'l say and in a Synod too compos'd of Clergy-men and of the few too But I care not for that once it happened to be so it seems But still I say under favour The Holy Apostles never took so much upon them to make Canons and Constitutions but by assent and consent as well as joint Promulgation in the names of all the Lay-Brethren or when the multitudes of Disciples were encreased at least they might I hope have a vote in chusing who should represent them in this representative Church Which if true and It is before sufficiently prov'd then surely as the Church of Corinth Ephesus Galatia c. were the Christians of Corinth Ephesus Galatia c. Clergy and Lay together though those distinctions were not then known so really and truly The Church of England are all the Christian's of England over them under Christ the King is the Visible Head and Supreme Governour in the Executive power and the King and Parliament in the Legislative or Canon-making Power With what tollerable modesty then can the Clergy alone much less a few of them arrogate to themselves the Title Priviledges and Immunities of the Church of England Tell not me that it was so when the Pope usurp't the Supremacy what is that to us now I know that when Magna Charta was made by Holy Church being Free was meant Let the Clergy be free from Taxes c. but how little did the Prelates value that Law for though the Clergy by that Statute was free from Impositions and Burdens yet the Prelates did not so much regard it seems but that they notwithstanding would venture to Pill and Poll the Inferiour Clergy by Procurations Synodal's Visitations and many more vexations as if the Clergy was free for no body to fleece but for themselves alone and that too arbi trarily Better it is for them much better to be thrown up in Common as of yore amongst the Laity again and take Neighbour's-fare by Acts of Parliament than by being an Inclosure and exempt be made the peculiar of arbitrary-Impositions though by the men of their own Cloth none were so unkind to Joseph as his own Brethren he had fairer Quarters from the Gypsees As the Clergy all of them have as much His Majesties Protection as other folk and the benefit of the Laws nay and the benefit of the Clergy too if they need it as much as any Lay-men good reason therefore they should contribute equally with others to Taxes and Arms and to the Poor c. But 't is sad when this will not suffice but for enjoying the name and nothing but the name of the Church They shall not only pay First-Fruits and Tenths to His Majesty as bound by Law but to pay without end and without Law all the Arbitrary Impositions that Rich and great Men of their own Cloth shall lay upon them for Letters of orders Institution Induction Licences to Preach Procurations Synodals Visitations and then again for shewing these Letters of Orders Institutions c. 't is that makes you so poor and beggarly generally and consequently contemptible world without end I cannot but with some complacency read the Statute of 16. Rich. 2.5 where the King and Parliament when Popery was in its Zenith did not forget that they and the Clergy the Inferiour Clergy too were English-men namely That Whereas the Commons of the Realm in this present Parliament have showed to our redoubted Lord the King grievously complaining That whereas our said Lord the King and all his Liege People ought of right mark that and of Old time wont mark that too to sue in the King's Court to recover their Presentments to Churches Prebends and other Benefices of Holy Church to the which they had right to Present The cognizance of Plea of which Presentment belongeth only mark that too to the Kings Court of the old Right of his Crown used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors Kings of England And when Judgments shall be given in the same Court upon such a Plea and Presentment mark that too The Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Spiritual Persons which have Institution of such Benefices within their Jurisdiction be bound mark that too and have made Execution of such Judgments without Interruption mark the Reason for another Lay-Person cannot make such Execution And also be bound of right mark that too to make Execution of many other the King's Commandments c. too long here to insert but concluding That against the offenders Process by Praemunire facias should be made and not only against the offenders but against their Procurators Executors Maintainors mark that too as in the Statute of Provisors 27 Edw. 3.1 and against All other which do sue in any other Court mark that too in derogation of the Regality of our Lord the King Whence it appears That even in those Popish times Patrons most whereof were Lord of the Mannors and gave the Tythes and Glebe should present right and good reason and give their own may they not do what they will with their own to what Clerk they please giving him thereby Jus ad rem and then the Bishop and Archdeacons by Institution and Induction as Instruments in Law because a Lay-person as
illa absolutos c. This amongst many others wherein I could instance is but to shew that the King's Judges did controul the inferiour Jurisdictions called Ecclesiastical and Judge whether the cause or contempt deserved Excommunication and accordingly commanded Absolution c. as I have known the Lord Chief Baron in his Majesties Court of Exchequer about seven years ago command Doctor Lake Commissary of Lincoln and then in Court to absolve one King c. to which the Doctor making some tergiversation the Lord Cheif Baron threatned to lay him by the heels for his contempt For it is great insolency for a Commissary Official or his Master the Arch-deacon to excommunicate in their Courts and Visitations the Kings Subjects except by Authority and Commission from God or the King From God they have no power to excommunicate or to hear Causes then hath any Parish-Priest in his Parish if so much And if they have a Commission from the King let them shew it but when they have shewn it I dare say it will run with submission to His Majesties Decrees in his superiour Courts Courts of Record at Westminster Courts of good and great use Courts that have his Majesties Authority and Commission to shew for what they do Courts that do not bear the Sword in vain Courts that are not made up only of an empty noise of Curses and Anathema's thundring and cracking as if they came from Heaven when all is but vox praeteria nihil and not of little or no use but to vex and weary out the Supplicants Suiters and Attendants by enriching some few not of the best of mankind with Money Money And on the contrary how careful have our Kings of England been rather to encourage Parish-Ministers that labour and look after the Flock even in times of Popery as for instance in this Brief sub privato sigillo Edwardi 1. anno regni ejus 33. in these words Rex dilecto sibi Ricardo Oysel Ballivo suo de Holdernesse salutem Mandamus vobis quod de exitibus Molendinorum nostrorum in Belliva vestra faciatis Decimas dari Personis Ecclesiarum in quarum Parochiis Molendina ista existunt prout alii Magnates de regno nostro ac hominis partium illarum Decimas dant de exitibus Molendinorum suorum Et nos vobis inde in compoto vestro ad Scaccarium nostrum debitum allocationem fieri faciemus T. R. apud Westm 20. die Octobris Per breve de privato sigillo And good reason sure had that valiant King to give all due encouragement to the Inferiour Clergy if we consider how he was affronted and defy'd and brav'd by the Prelates Polid. Virgil Angl. Hist l. 17. especially by Robert Arch-bishop of Canterbury so that the King was forc'd to put all the Rebellious Prelates and Clergy out of his protection seizing their Goods and Revenues until they at long-run submitted themselves after a tedious Bustle to which they were encouraged by Pope Boniface I know that the King granted his Favour afterwards and Protection to the said stout Arch-bishop Robert and the rest and suffered the said Arch-bishop to stand by him and his Son upon a wooden Scaffold erected before the Gates of Westminster-Hall for that purpose when with many Tears the King askt Pardon with all Humility not the Arch-bishop's Pardon but that the People would pardon him Walsingham Hist Angl. p. 36. but it was not for his humbling the proud Clergy as aforesaid but for his Arbitrary Government Dicens se minús bene tranquillè quam Regem deceret ipsos rexisse c. Rursum ut libertates contentas in Magna Charta Mat. West An. 1297. p. 409 410. Ypodigmae Neustr p. 84. de Foresta in usu extunc efficacius haberentur voluntarias super his exactiones inductas de caetero quasi id irritum revocaret petentibus Comitibus Baronibus Rex Articulos in praedictis chartis contentos innovari insuper observari mandavit Henry de Knyghton adds Rogavitque Populum accepta licentia ut omnia condonarentur ei orarent pro eo orabant quidam publicè alii vero sic alii vero occulte pauci vero bene Anno 32 Edw. 1. this King was again affronted by Thomas Corbridge Arch-bishop of York For when the King by his Letters Patents granted to Mr. John Bouhs the Prebend of Styvelington in the Church of St. Peter in York and commanded Thomas Corbridge the new Arch-Bishop to admit him c. after two successive Mandates he neglected to do it to the King's damage 10000 l. as in the Plea Rolls of Trinity Term held at York To be seen in the Receivers Office of the King's Exchequer at VVestminster 32 Edw. 1. is at large expressed Thereupon the Arch-bishop being summoned to answer this contempt before the King's Justices he appearing answered That he was always ready to obey the Kings commands so far as he could but he could not admit the King's Clerk because the Pope had conferred the said Prebendary and Chappel thereunto belonging on his own Clerks of whom they were now full and that he could not make void the Act of the Pope his Superiour Lord nor deprive or remove his Clerks And therefore prayed the King to hold him excused refusing to give any other answer Whereupon Judgment was solemnly given against him That what he alledged was no sufficient cause for him not to execute the Kings commands and that all his Temporalties should be seized into the Kings hands for this his contempt c. By which we may see that even in times of Popery the Kings of England have opposed the Popes Innovations and Usurpations and the Kings Justices have taken cognizance of these Ecclesiastical matters and that no Forreign Mandates or Bulls were pleadable in the Kings Courts in bar of the Kings Writs and that long before the Reign of King Henry 8. obedience to the Pope before the King was adjudged a very high contempt in Law and had a suitable punishment and that the Kings Temporal Courts had Soveraign Jurisdiction over the Ecclesiastical Proceedings which is also more evidenced by the several sorts of Mandates dates and Writs even in times of Popery frequently issued out against Arch-bishops Bishops Ecclesiastical Judges and Ordinaries commanding them to do this and that and prohibiting them not to do this and that witness the Writs of Quare impedit Quare incumbravit Quare non admisit de Clerico admittendo de copia libelli deliberanda de permutatione Beneficiorum de revocatione Praesentationis Bracton de Residentia facienda de cautione admittenda de Assisa ultima Praesentationis cessavit de Cantaria de Nonresidentia pro Clericis Regis de Praesentatione ad Ecclesiam Praebendam Capellam c. Nay it seems to me that even in times of Popery the Kings Judges would take no notice of any Excommunications Cook Instit 134.2 but what were decreed by the
Parliament in these words Noverint universi Quòd Dominus H. Rex Angliae illustris Anno. 37. H. 3. R. Comes Norff. Marescallus Anglin H. comes Hereford Essex I comes de Warewico Petrus de Sabbaudia Caeterique Magnaces Anglia consenserunt in sentiam Excommunicationis generaliter latam apud Westm Tertio decimo die Muii Anno Regni Regis Pradicte in hà c formà scilices Quod vinculo Praefacae sententiae ligenter omnes venientes contra libertates contentas in chartis communium libertatum Angliae de Foresta c. Dominus Rex praedicti Magnates omnes Communitas Populi protestantur publitè c. by Communitus Populi there I understand the Honse of Commons though it had not the form in those days which now it puts on and decently wears By which it appears that the King and his Lay-people would not trust the Clergy in those days with making Sentences of excommunication nor with declaring causes of Excommunication much less without the Privity of King and Parliament as some have presumed But matchless is the Malice of those men that are angry with all Lay-men that dare be so bold as to see their own way with their own and not with Clergy eyes and Prospectives The Conclusion THus have I stared these Quaries so needful to be discuss'd And prov'd That all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction like all other Jurisdictions must be deriv'd from the King or the Pope To assert the latter Incurs a Praemunire or to pretend any old ordinary Jurisdiction originally granted them from the Pope in their first creation and his Majesty has oblig'd himself never to Empower them by Commission any more By the Statutes of Hen. 8. all those ordinary Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical were cut off and they left without any in Queen Maries time as the Synod did confess as aforesaid But in King Edward's time their Ecclesiastical Proceedings were revived but with condition that all Citations Processes c. should be in the Name of the King the Head of the Church as in Original and Judicial Writs at the Common Law He being also Head of the State And in due acknowledgment also of this Supremacy The Seals of their Spiritual-Courts should have engraven in them The Kings Arms. Great very great Reason there is and there was for such a Statute as that 1 Edw. 6. But oh this Hierarchy this Power how sweet could the Bishops ever be brought to this I 'le warrant some of them would keep no Courts at all first but who cares For cui bono cui fini should be the question every man puts in all his affairs so here cui bono cui fini what are the Spiritual Courts good for at this day as they are managed I protest I cannot tell and yet no man in England has more reason to know their virtue than I nor scarce any has had more experience of them and in them and still as I said before I have an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of mine own For except a little money I should say a great deal of money ungedly money wickedly got by the Extortions of Registers I 'le prove what I say and shamefully against Law and money money from the poor Clergy the Inferiour Clergy and silly Churchwardens against the Common-Law Statute-Law Canon-Law Civil-Law Equity Conscience Reason and Humane Compassion all condemning this unnatural and Unkind Rapaeity Except these be good things I know not what they are good for not by what Authority they dare send out Citations without the King's Name Title and Seal against the King's Liege-People or how a Writ de Excummunicato Capiendo can legally be awarded the ground whereof being a Significavii under Seal a legal Seal unless the Kings Arms be engraven in the Seal of the Significavit and the Process on which it is founded also run in the King's Name c. Tell not me for I know it That the opinion of the Judges was ask't about this as in the said Proclamation But when was it It was when the High-Commission-Courts were in being no man durst speak any thing in these days against their Placet's It would be his ruine if he did But now since that Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed I for my part know not by what Authority we do these things And I write this as much for my own satisfaction and more than for any man 's else And that too in a discourse here such as it is neither Polite nor neatly dres't I have neither Will nor Leisure to write it over again and sleek it and polish it and make it Fine 't is now most natural most like my self plain and blunt not curious nor affected like my Garb not Rich and yet I hope not Slovenly For I am one of those that love my Pleasure and Humour so much as not to take over-much pains to please or displease any man alive However what Prudent Man would barter his Ease to purchase in Exchange the Reputation of a Writer not worth one farthing in this Scribling-Age For New Books are like New-Plays wherewith the Poets and Actors can scarce please One in Ten And though the Fops get there all the little Wit they have yet they will rail and disparage them but cannot notwithstanding for bear seeing them for their hearts I write as I speak right on and the Naked Truth and Home Truths purposely neglecting the wily circumspection of Flatterers and Dislemblers Fellows of no Soul And as I have writ this off-hand and what came next to hand and occur'd at present without pumping yet has not one word here slipt my Pen without its due weight and consiration nothing is here presented Crude and Immature but well-digested as a few of those things that my Head and Heart have long been full of though a late Occasion now gives them Birth no Abortion I hope For I am well assur'd that I have not only given Birth here to my own Conceptions but to the Conceptions also of almost the whole Nation whose Judgments are not blinden and brib'd by Interest And these last shall Be mine Enemies and they only But I hope also Psal 62.3 they shall be like a bowing Wall and a tottering Fence whilst I say and Pray the whose Psalm 62. I have no picque against any man in Particular no private Interest nor Revenge to gratifie but wish for my own private-Interest as well as for the publique-Weal That Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction were of force strength and vertue and not thus uncertain disorderly and precarious I have I confess in this Search and Inquiry Anatomiz'd and rip 't up to the Bottom some Secret parts yet I have also at the same time cast a vail over their Nakedness and hid their shame what I could I mean And in these Gentle Dissections if some think that I have gone too deep Let them consider that Old Vlcers and Fistula's are incurable except we search to the Bottom but in doing this also I hope I have retain'd the Property of a good Chirurgeon namely a Ladies Hand as well as a Lyons Heart And is there any but Babies and Boobies that will be frighted out of their Wits with a Scare-Crow or Magotte-Pye FINIS I Hereby allow and authorize Francis Smith Bookseller to Print my Book Entituled The Naked Truth the Second Part. Colchester November 2d 1680 Edmund Hiceringill