of a Priestly Mind you have commanded your Priests to be gathered together into one Place to treat of such things as are Necessary We have according to the Purpose of your Will and the Heads which you gave to us answer'd in Our Definition as to us seem'd Good So that if those things which we have Established are also approved of as Right by your Judgment The Consent of so great a King and Lord may Confirm the Sentence of the Priests to be observed with the Greater Authority And thus have I done with the First Thing which I proposed to Consider I have shewn what Authority the Christian Prince has always been accounted to have over Ecclesiastical Synods with respect to the Assembling of them to their Proceedings whilst they are Sitting and to the Confirming or Annulling their Decrees afterwards I shall make only an Observation or two upon the whole with Respect to our present purpose and so conclude this Chapter And 1st I must take notice that whatever Privileges I have here shewn to belong to the Christian Magistrate they belong to Him as such They are not derived from any positive Laws and Constitutions but Result from that Power which every such Prince has Originally in Himself and are to be look'd upon as part of those Rights which naturally belong to Sovereign Authority Hence we find that All Princes in All wountries how different soever they have been in other Respects have yet evermore claim'd an Equal Authority in these Matters And the little Kings of Suevia and Burgundy accounted themselves to have as good a Title to Them as the Roman Emperors in their most flourishing Estate had Which being so it will follow 2dly That every Sovereign Prince has a Right to Exercise this Authority within his Dominions And that to prove this Right it is sufficient to shew That he is a Sovereign Prince and therefore ought not to be deny'd any of those Prerogatives which belong to such a Prince among which this Authority is One. 'T is true such Princes may by their own Acts limit themselves as they think fitting And these Limitations may give such Assemblies a Privilege in One Country beyond what they have in Another But then these Limitations must be plainly proved to have been made in their favour And till they are so the Prince must be accounted to have a Right to that Power which as a Prince belongs Him and is not yet proved to have been given away by Him And therefore 3dly Whereas it is now to be Enquired What the Authority of our Kings is over our Convocations We have thus far proceded towards the discovery of it that we have shewn what Power They had Originally over Them and as Christian Princes ought still to Enjoy And those who will Restrain Them with narrower Bounds must first shew how they came to lose that Power which they would take from Them and which till This shall be cleared they must be Presumed still to have a Right to CHAP. III. Of the Authority which our Own Kings have over their Convocations with Respect both to their Meeting and Acting first and to the Confirming or Annulling of their Acts after WE have now seen what Authority all Other Christian Princes have claim'd and Exercised over their Clergy from the first Conversion of the Empire to Christianity till the Prevalence of the Papal Power began to deprive Them of that Supremacy which of Right belong'd to Them Let us go on upon this Foundation to Enquire II. Whether our Own Kings have not as Great an Authority over their Convocations as any Other Princes have ever pretended to over their Councils That this of Right they Ought to have I have before observed The only Question is whether our Own particular Constitution has interposed to deprive Them of that Authority which we have already shewn did originally belong to Them And here I might justly leave it to Those who advance such Pretences to produce their Proofs and shew us upon what Grounds they do it And account the Right of our Kings to this Authority to have been sufficiently established in that common Claim which I have already proved all Christian Princes as such have ever made to the Exercise of of it But that nothing may be wanting to the clearing of this Matter beyond all reasonable Exception I shall to the General Argument I have before made use of add those particular Confirmations which our own Laws and Customs afford us of this Truth And shew that by our own Constitution the King of England has all that Power at this day over Our Convocation that ever any Christian Prince had over his Synods 1st Then if we consider His Authority as to the first thing before-mention'd viz. of Calling together of the Clergy in Convocation We are told by One of the most Eminent Professors of our Laws that it was among other Points Resolved by the Two Chief Justices and other Judges at a Committee of Lords in Parliament Trin. 8. Jac. 1. That a Convocation cannot Assemble at their onvocation without the Assent of the King And One would think such Persons should not only be very well Qualified to know what our Law is but should also be very Careful especially at such a Time and in such a Place not to deliver any thing for Law which They were not very well assured was so But because some have excepted against the Authority of this Report as a Piece that was published after the Death of the Author and in Suspected Times Tho' I cannot see what Interest any One should have to falsifie his Relation in the Instance before Us We will take his Opinion from a Book which we are sure is Authentick and lies open to no Exceptions 4. Instit. pag. 322. Where treating expresly about the Court of Convocation He affirms that the Clergy were never Assembled or Call'd together at a Convocation but by the King 's Writ And in which tho' I am sensible He has spoken a little too Generally as to matter of Fact yet in point of Law and in which only I make use of his Authority I cannot but look upon him to have been absolutely in the Right It being certain that the Clergy not only now cannot but never could be lawfully call'd together in Convocation but by the King 's â—rit or with his Consent And in assirming this I say no more than what was the joint Opinion of the whole Representative Body of the Nation as well of the Clergy in their Convocation as of the rest of the Realm in Parliament 25 Hen. 8. And from whence if from any Authority we may certainly the best take our Measure to judge Whether a thing does of Right belong to the King and is a part of his Royal Prerogative or No. For 1st As for the Clergy We are told in the Preamble to the Act of the 25 Hen. 8. chap. 19. That the Clergy of this Realm of England had acknowleged
that the Convocation of the same Clergy is always hath been and ought to be Assembled only by the King 's Writ And 2dly As for the Laity the Parliament in the same Act not only concurs in the same opinion with Them in the Preamble before-mention'd that this their Acknowledgment was according to the Truth But in the Body of the Act it self have Provided thereupon that from thenceforth They never should meet in Convocation without the King's Leave to Empower them so to do Be it enacted say They by the Authority of this present Parliament according to the said Submission and Petition of the said Clergy That They ne any of Them from henceforth shall presume to Attempt c. Nor shall Enact c in their Convocations in time Coming Which always shall be assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ And from all which it is Evident that in the Opinion both of that Parliament and of that Convocation the King not only ought to have and by Law now has the sole Authority of Calling the Clergy together in Convocation but that this is such a Power as did always of Right belong to Him and that no Convocation ever could be lawfully assembled without his Permission or against his Hence it is that not only our Present Convocations are all summoned by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishop of Each Province for that purpose but if we look back to the times preceeding this Statute we shall find the same to have been the antient manner of summoning of Them And tho' in a matter of this Nature it is not to be expected we should be able to produce the very Copies of the Writs by which our Convocations were called from the beginning yet I shall hereafter plainly prove that from the beginning they did meet by the King's Command And we have the very Writs of Summons as far back as the 9 Edw. 2 that is to say for above 200 years before this Acknowledgment of the Clergy and Act of Parliament were made Such Right have our Kings to Call their Convocations Nor is their Authority any less in all those Circumstances which I have shewed were wont to Accompany their Calling Them If we consider the Time and Place of their Meeting they are expresly limited in the Writ by which They are Summon'd And tho' Custom has of late so far prevail'd that the Convocation has generally met at the same Time that the Parliament has done and at St. Paul's Church or Chapter House in London yet have not our Kings ever been so far confined in either of these Particulars as not to have it still in their Power to call the Convocation at any other time or to any other place which they shall think sit In that antient Summons I before mention'd perhaps the most antient of any we have now remaining of the 9th of Edw. II. The Convocation was call'd to meet Febr. 9. but the Parliament sate October 16. foregoing And in the Writs of these latter times though the Convocation be call'd and its Session confin'd to that of the Parliament yet still if the King pleases he may continue the sitting of the one after the other is prorogued or even dissolv'd And for the Place it is sometimes determin'd to be St. Paul's London but for the most part is left with a Greater Latitude to be held at any other Place which the Archbishop shall judge to be more convenient for it And the same is the Case as to the Persons who are to come to the Convocation and the Choice of whom as it is still determin'd by the King 's Writ so must it be allow'd to have Originally depended upon it For having first declared in General the Reason wherefore he had resolv'd to call his Clergy together He next goes on to specifie in particular whom he required the Archbishop to summon to the Convocation That he should Order first the Bishops of his Province with the Deans and Archdeacons to come in Person and secondly the Chapters and Archdeaconries to send their several Proxies to represent them the Chapters one of their body and every Archdeaconry two to be chosen by them for that purpose I shall not need to enquire how this came to be the settled number that was to make up our Provincial Synods or Convocations Whether this manner of Choice was deriv'd from the antient manner of holding Convocations into the Parliamentary Writs or from the Parliamentary Writs of King Edward I. into the summons of Convocations which from thenceforth usually met together with the Parliament Howsoever this were thus much is evident that since the Power of Assembling the Clergy in such Convocations is seated Originally in the King so that they have no Authority to come together but what he gives them It must follow that neither can any other Persons have a just Right to come to these Assemblies than such only as are commissioned by him or are chosen by such Rules as he has preserib'd for the choise of those whom he allows to be sent to them It remains then that not only the caling of our Convocations but the determination of the Time and Place of their sitting of the Persons who are themselves to come to them and of the manner of choosing Representatives for those who are not all depend upon the Authority of the Prince and were originally deriv'd from thence And so lastly does their very sitting too For however Custom which in time becomes a kind of Law has in this as well as in some of the foregoing Circumstances so far prevail'd that when soever a Parliament is held a Convocation is call'd together with it yet is this rather a matter of Form than any effectual Summons And the King still keeps his Antient Power to all intents and purposes in his own hands and suffers them not either to sit or act but when and as often as he thinks fit so to do Nor is this to be look'd upon as any Encroachment upon the Liberties of the Clergy but as the Assertion of a Power which always did and of right ought to belong to the Prince For though it has now for some Ages been the Custom to Convene the Clergy as often as the Parliament meets yet as it is manifest that when this Custom first began they met not so much as an Ecclesiastical Synod as a part of the Parliament of the Realm So all the Use that was generally made of Them was to concur with the Other Estates in granting of Money to the King which having done they were commonly dismiss'd without entring upon any other Business The Convocation then tho' it consisted of Ecclesiastical Persons was yet assembled for a Civil End and seems rather to have been a State Convention than a Church Synod And however the King usually added a Conciliary Summons to his Parliamentary Writ and thereby not only assembled the Proctors of the Clergy under another
Character but with them many Others of the Regular Clergy who had no place in the Parliament Writ yet still the Design was in Both the same viz. That they might thereby more effectually confirm what had in Parliament been granted to the King and the Monks and Friers become engaged by their own Consent not to oppose the levying of it Now this being the true Ground of the Convocation's being call'd together with the Parliament Custom and if you will the Constitution of our Government founded thereupon does indeed give them a Right to be summon'd when the Parliament is and accordingly they are still summon'd together with it But as they have no Custom to warrant them to deliberate or enter upon Business unless the King pleases to allow them so to do so neither have they any Right in that Particular but the King is still as much at Liberty in that respect as if there had never been any such Custom established for the Calling of them In short were it still the Method as formerly it was for the Clergy to Assess themselves but much more were the Case so now as antiently it seems to have been that they were a part of the Great Council of the Nation and whose Consent was requisite to the passing of Parliamentary Acts it would then be very evident wherefore they were Called and what they had to do But this being altered and yet the Antient Summons still continued it makes some Men think it an odd Thing that the Convocation should be Called to no purpose Not considering that but for those Ends which are now ceased they never had been wont either to be summon'd to Parliament or at the same time with it and that those being determined they have a Right to nothing but a Summons and it were no great Matter whether they had a Right to that or no. And this may suffice to shew what Authority our King has by the particular Laws of our Own Constitution to assemble the Convocation and that without his Writ they neither now can nor ever could regularly come together by any other Way I proceed 2dly To enquire What Power he has to direct their Debates when they are Assembled And here we are again told by the same Person whose Authority I before alleged that the second Point agreed upon by the Chief Justices and Judges at the Committee of the Lords was That the Convocation after their Assembly cannot confer to constitute any Canons without License de l'Roy Nor is this any more than what the Statute of the 25 Hen. 8. has directly establish'd When having recited the Promise which the Clergy had in their Petition made to the King That they would never from thenceforth presume to Attempt Allege Claim or Put in Ure Enact Promulge or Execute any new Canon Constitution Ordinance Provincâ—â—â— or Other or by whatsoever Name they shall be called in Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence may by them be had to MAKE PROMULGE and EXECUTE the same and that his Majesty do give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf They thereupon Enact That ne They nor any of Them frow henceforth shall presume to Attempt Alledge Claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Orders Provincial or Synodal or any Other Canons Nor shall Enact Promulge or Execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever Name or Names they may be called in their Convocation in Time coming Unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to MAKE PROMULGE and EXECUTE such Conons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodal I have transcribed this Paragraph of that Act at large to the End it may the more evidently appear that the Intention of it was as well to Restrain the Clergy from MAKING as from PROMULGING and EXECUTING any Canons without the Assent and Licence of the King first had for their so doing And which is indeed so plain that had not the constant Practice of all following Convocations and the Opinions of the most Learned in Our Laws so expounded the Sense of it yet we could not have been easily mistaken in it For besides that it was apparently the Design of this Act to Restrâ—ain the Clergy from doing somewhat which they had been wont to do in their Convocation the Statute it self interprets its own Expressions and tells us that by presuming to Attempt c. was meant as well presuming to MAKE as to Promulge and Execute any Canons or Constitutions without the Assent and Licence of the King first had by Them so to do Whether the Convocation may not without the King 's Writ deliberate of such things as may be fit to be done by Them for the Service of the Church I shall not undertake to say Certain it is that they may not so deliberate as to come to any Authoritative Resolution upon any particular Point or to frame any Order or Constitution of what kind soever it be without the King 's Leave which is in Effect to say that they may not debate Synodically at all without it To deliberate of what might usefully be consider'd by Them and to Petition the King thereupon for Leave so to do This as it is no Attempting to make a Canon c. so does it not I conceive come within the Design of that Prohibition which this Act has laid upon them And if the King allows the Convocation to sit I do not see wherein they would transgress in framing such an Address supposing that his Commission had not before prevented all Occasion for such an Application But then still this is but asking Leave to act as a Synod And it will after all remain in the King's Breast what Answer to make to such a Request and whether he will grant them that Leave which They desire or no As therefore the Convocation cannot Meet but by the King 's Writ so neither being Met can they proceed to any Canonical Debates or Resolutions without it For by vertue of this Act they are forbid not only to Make but to Attempt that is as I understand it to do any thing that tends towards the making of any Canons without his Warrant for their Doing of it And therefore when the King sends out his Writs for the Convocation to meet he therein reserves to himself the Privilege of Naming the Subject which they are to deliberate and resolve upon For having mention'd by way of Form in the beginning of the Writ That for certain urgent Affairs of great Concern both to the Church and Kingdom He had commanded the Arch-bishop to summon the Clergy to come together to such a certain Place and at such a certain Time He thus declares what they were to do when they met Ad Tractand c. Namely That they were To Treat Consent and Conclude upon the Premises and such other Matters as should more clearly be declared to them when they came together in
in such Cases my Lord Coke delivers as certain in point of Law and from thence calls it the Court of Convocation Nor can I see what injury it would be to the Crown to allow the same power to the Convocation still that by Law may be exercised in any other Ecclesiastical Court and which must needs be inseriour in dignity to this But still the question is Whether of Right the Convocation ever had a power to judge any more than to make Canons without the King's Assent And by consequence whether though the Statute of Henry the Eighth should not have deprived them of that power yet the King's Prerogative be not against it For should this be so then whatever Laws have restored the King to his supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters will lie against this presumed Right of the Convocation too and so though that Law should not yet some others may have limited their power in this respect also And here I shall not presume to determine any thing but only offer these following Observations First That in several of the Convocations in which the persons before-mention'd were judged the Process was made either by the express Command or Leave of the King And in all of them for ought we know it may have been so And Secondly That in the Commissions by which our Convocations are now enabled to act the King gives them leave to conferr debate treat consider consult and agree of Matters and Causes as well as of Canons Orders and Constitutions and which seems to imply that they need the King's License as much to judge of the one as to deliberate about the other But be this as it will thus much I take to be out of all doubt that as by our Ancient Customs recognized by the Lords Spiritual as well as Temporal in the Great Council at Clarendon Anno 1164 It was among other things resolved that none of the Servants of the King or of such as held of him in capite might be Excommunicated without his leave And again that in Case of Appeals any person who thought himself injured might appeal from the Arch Deacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and from him to the King by whose order the affair was finally to be determined in the Court of Arches and not be suffer'd to proceed any farther without leave of the King so in Conformity both to these Principles and to that power which I have before shewn has ever been claimed and exercised by Christian Princes in this respect I do presume that the King may not only lay a Prohibition upon the Convocation not to proceed in judgment against any person whom he shall think fit to take into his special Protection but after they have judged any one may receive an Appeal from them and order an Enquiry to be made whether they proceeded Fairly and Canonically with him and either confirm suspend or annul their Sentence as he shall find it reasonable for him to do This I am sure the ancient Emperors did and the Bishops and Councils not only submitted to it but allowed of it And if this our Kings may not do I shall be glad to be inform'd by what particular Law or Custom this Power has been taken from them And this brings me to the last point now to be consider'd 3dly What Authority our Kings have over their Convocations after they have done what they were called for That the Convocation cannot meet without the King 's Writ I have before shewn from the express Authority of an Act of Parliament And that the same Authority is required to the Dismission as to the Calling of it has been the declared opinion of our greatest Lawyers in this Case When a Question was raised by some few in the lower House of Convocation Anno 1640. Whether they might lawfully continue to sit after the Parliament was Dissolved The Arch-Bishop besought His Majesty that for their better Assurance his learned Council and some Other Persons of Honour well acquainted with the Laws of the Realm might deliver their Judgment upon it This His Majesty Graciously Approved and the Question was accordingly put to Them They answer'd as followeth under their Hands The Convocation being called by the King 's Writ under the Great Seal doth continue untill it be Dissolved by Writ or Commission under the Great Seal And accordingly we know that not only upon their Dissolution but for Every Prorogation that is made of it there is a Writ sent by the King to the Arch-Bishop and They cannot break up when they please but must continue to Sit as long as the King shall think fit to Require Them so to do Such Authority has His Majesty over their Assemblies nor has He any less over their Acts. It is I think agreed on all hands that no Acts of Convocation are of any force untill they are Confirm'd by the Royal Authority And that is all I am now concern'd to determine How far or What persons they will oblige when Confirm'd by the King without the Concurrence of the Parliament is another Question in which I am not at present concern'd to Engage But tho' of this therefore in General there be no doubt yet I cannot tell whether some Men may be willing to allow the King all that Authority which I have before shew'd Other Princes have claim'd and which I see no Reason why our Own Kings should not Enjoy It is expressly provided by the 25th of Hen. 8th That the Convocation shall not only not presume to make any Canons without the King's permission but that having made Them They shall not presume to promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodal unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to promuige and execute the same And even then it is farther Provided by the same Act That No Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be Contrariant or Repugnant to the King 's Prerogative-Royal or to the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm And from whence as they are naturally deduced so were these two Points deliver'd by the Judges before the Committee of the Lords as the Law with reference to this Matter 1. That when upon Conference the Convocation has concluded any Canons yet they cannot execute any of their Canons without the Royal Assent And 2. That they cannot execute Any after Royal Assent but with these Four Limitations 1st That they be not against the Prerogative of the King 2dly Nor against the Common-Law 3dly Nor against any Statute-Law 4thly Nor against any Custom of the Realm And this the learned Reporter tells us was but an Affirmance of what was the Law before the said Statutes as appears by the 19 Ed. 3. Title Quare non Ad 〈…〉 isit 7. Where it is held
of it if they be well Observed Have therefore for Us our Heirs and lawfull Successors of our special Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion given and by these Presents do give Our Royal Assent according to the Form of the said Statute or Act of Parliament aforesaid to All and Every of the said Canons c. But because in the Beginning of this Declaration the King alledges the Example of His Royal Father for what He did whose Pattern he proposed to follow in this Particular I cannot but observe that He did stick so closely to it as to use the very same Form almost the very same Words in confirming these Canons of 1640 that the Other had done in Ratifying of those of 1603. And from whence we may the more undoubtedly conclude That as the Consequences before drawn from the Tenour of these publick Instruments are in point of Reason plain and unavoidable so is their Authority in point of Law Certain and Indisputable and that our Kings do not only in fact Claim and Exercise such a Power as we have now seen over their Convocations but have also an apparent Right to the Exercise of it Whether our Kings may not only Confirm such and so many of the Canons c. of their Convocations as they shall judge Expedient and Refuse and Reject the Rest but may also by their supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Correct and Amend those which they do allow of I shall not undertake to say But so we are told King Henry the Eighth did and that in a Case of the strictest nature in framing the very Articles of Religion which were afterwards publish'd by his Authority Anno 1536. Thus much I believe may warrantably be asserted That as the King has Power without a Convocation to make and publish such Injunctions as he shall think the Necessities of the Church to Require and to Command the Observance of Them so may He with the Advice and Consent of His Parliament much more not only make what Ecclesiastical Laws He shall think sitting for the Discipline of the Church but make such use of the Convocation and the Resolutions agreed to in it in Order thereunto as He shall think fit And as I have shewn the French King's heretofore to have done may not only confirm or disallow but may sometimes even alter and correct what is done by Them according to His Own liking And now that I have mention'd this Convocation of King Henry the Eighth I will make a Reflection or two upon that King 's dealing with that Assembly and so conclude these Remarks It would be needless for me to observe after the account I have already given of the Act which was Pass'd but a few years before by the same King to that purpose that this Convocation was call'd by his Writ I will rather take notice that the Articles of Religion set forth by them were not only corrected by that Prince after they had been framed by the Convocation but were drawn up by Them according to the Method and Directions which He gave to them for that purpose So his Declaration to all his loving Subjects in Confirmation of these Articles informs Us. And for because we would the said Articles and Every of Them should be taken and understanden of you after such Sort Order and Degree as appertaineth accordingly We have Caused by the Assent and Agreement of our Bishops and Other learned Men the said Articles to be divided into Two sorts whereof the One part containeth such Things as be Commanded expressly by God and be Necessary to Salvation and the Other containeth such Things as have been of a long continuance for a decent Order c. tho' they be not expressly commanded of God nor necessary to our Salvation But that which I would principally observe in this Declaration is Upon what Grounds and with what Examination the King gave his Assent to those Articles I have before said and from the words now Quoted it sufficiently appears that the Articles here referr'd to did at least in one great part of Them relate to Doctrines of Faith and that in the most necessary Points of it And yet see what Liberty that King took in judging as well as correcting of what they had done He was speaking of the design he had in calling of that Convocation and from thence proceeds in these Words to declare his sense of what the Clergy had done in it Where after long and mature Deliberation had of and upon the Premises finally They have Concluded and Agreed upon the most special Points and Articles as well such as be Commanded of God and are Necessary to our Salvation as also divers Other matters touching the Honest Ceremonies and Good and Politick Orders as is aforesaid Which their Determination Debatement and Agreement forsomuch as WE THINK to have proceeded of a Good Right and true Judgment and to be Agreeable to the Laws and Ordinances of God and much profitable for the stablishment of that Charitable Concord and Unity in our Church of England which we most desire We have caused the same to be Publish'd Willing Requiring and Commanding you to Accept Repute and Take them accordingly Such a Judgment did this Prince assume to himself over those Acts of his Clergy which the most properly fall under an Ecclesiastical Determination And so little have our Princes thought Themselves obliged either to Receive Themselves or to Impose upon Others any of their Orders or Decisions but as they were finally persuaded that what they had done proceeded from a sound Judgment and would be for the Benefit of their Church and Kingdom to be Observed And now from what I have before asserted and I hope sufficiently proved to be the Rights of all Christian Princes in General and to be not only not contradicted but rather to be expressly declared by our Own Laws and Customs to be the Prerogative of our Own Kings in this Particular It will be no hard matter to give a Clear and Positive Answer to the first General Question proposed to be Resolved in all the Parts of it For first Whereas it is demanded Whether there be any Law that Commands or Permits the Sitting and Acting of the Convocation besides the Absolute free Pleasure of the Prince I Reply That if by Sitting be meant their being Summon'd at such times as the Parliament is Assembled there is a Continued Immemorial Custom which do's determine the Prince to Summon a Convocation at such Seasons and leaves it not any longer to his free and absolute Will Whether he will Summon it or no When this Custom first began or How long it has become the setled and constant Method with us to have a Convocation Call'd at the same time that the Parliament meets it matters not to our present Purpose to Enquire Sure we are that this has been the Custom ever since the 25th of Henry the Eighth And that is enough
Convocation is called They should not only meet Formally but sit and act as the Parliament do that there should be a Session of Convocation as well as a Session of Parliament Now not to be too curious in examining the Parallel here offered betwixt these two and which were it as exact as I am confident it is not would yet no more prove their Privileges to be Equal than the Likeness of two Corporations in having a Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council would prove that therefore in despight of their several Charters they must have all the same Privileges also 1st I am not satisfied that the Convocation is of the same Power with Regard to the Church that the Parliament is in Respect of the State Because I am told by very good Lawyers that the Convocation in making Ecclesiastical Constitutions must proceed by certain Rules and cannot even with the King's consent conclude any thing contrary to the Laws or Statutes or Customs of the Realm But now the Parliament is not subject to any such limitations Its Power is Arbitrary and Uncontroulable And being joyn'd with the Royal Authority can enact what it will for the publick Good any Law Statute or Custom to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding 2. As for the Word Parliament I shall not much contend with him about it It is well known that it was a name brought in by the Normans and but late Received among Us to denote those Meetings of State which were anciently called mycel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Colloquium Concilium Synodus and the like It is more extraordinary which He tells us that as Wittena-Gemote was wont to signifie what we call a Parliament so Church-Gemote denoted what we call a Convocation And for which I am confident He will be hard put to it to bring us any Author elder than Sir Edw. Coke from whom as poor Godolphin first so has he now taken it at all Adventures Tho' were this true the Observation would amount in plain English to no more than this That as a Parliament was anciently call'd an Assembly of the Wise-men so was a Convocation call'd an Assembly of Church-men And of which if He can make any Use I shall not envy him the Honour of so weighty and critical a Remark Were it needfull in Return to these little Remarks to mention the several Differences that might be assigned between these two Assemblies I might easily enlarge them into many more particulars and of much greater Importance than Those which He has alledged To say nothing of the Convocations being multiplied according to the number of the Provinces into which the Church is divided and representing the Clergy not of the whole Church but only of One part of it whereas the Parliament is an Assembly for the whole Realm The manner of Consulting Resolving and Acting is very different in the One and in the Other The Authority of the Archbishop is much other in the Convocation than the Lord-Keepers is in the Parliament But especially the Power of the Parliament in making Laws free and unbounded whereas the Convocation is by Authority of Parliament determined both in its Principle and Power of Acting And can neither Debate effectually nor Resolve to any purpose of any thing but what is Agreeable to the Laws of the Realm and is no wise prejudicial to the Civil interests of any But to allow of the supposed Parallel between the Parliament and Convocation What will this Gentleman inferr from it Not I hope that the One should therefore â—it and act whenever the Other do's A Father for example has two Sons They are both his Children both of the same Sex both Equally Related to Him perhaps and both Equally Beloved by Him But will this Author from thence conclude That they have an Equal Right to his Estate and ought Equally to succeed in it This would be a very Agreeable conclusion to many I make no doubt but I am afraid will hardly be allow'd by the Elder Brothers to be a Just One 'T is true a Father in this Case may possibly have left them Portions alike and have made them as equal in their Fortunes as they were in their Relation to him And so perhaps Our Constitution may have made the Parliament and the Convocation But whether the Father has done this must be proved from the settlement of his Estate and not from any supposed Equality of Right in his Sons to his Affection And whether Our Constitution has given these Assemblies an Equal right to meet â—it and act must be determined by the Laws and Customs of the Realm and not be collected from imaginary Parallels and wild Inferences which have neither any Law and but very little Sense in Them 3. As for those State Maxims which he has finally added to support this Argument it will then be proper to give a Reply to them when this Author shall have shewn us that there is any thing in them to be Replied to In the mean time I must observe that whether we consider the Nature or End of the Parliament the Necessities of the Civil Affairs or the Interest which Both the Prince and People may have in the Assembling of it there must in all probability be always a much greater need of Frequent Parliaments for the benefit of the State than of Frequent Convocations for the Welfare of the Church When a National Church is once thoroughly Establish'd and neither needs any farther Laws to be made for the enforcing of its Discipline or any new Confessions to be framed for the security of its Doctrine When its Liturgy and other Offices are fix'd and stated and there is so far from being any need of altering or improving any of these that it is thought a Crime but even to suppose that it is possible to improve them or to make any Alterations but for the Worse in them I cannot imagine untill something arises to unsettle such a Constitution what a Convocation could have to meet about But this is not the Case of the Civil State which is God knows subject to many more changes than the Ecclesiastical and will oftner want to have publick Remedies applied for the redress or prevention of its publick Evils Perhaps a Prince arises who affects an Arbitrary sway and his Ministers joyn in the same designs with him and nothing less than the Authority of a Parliament can put a stop to their Attempts This therefore may make it necessary in times of Peace and Quietness for the Parliament to meet at certain times to prevent such attempts and to keep every Member of the Constitution within its due bounds And such was the Case of the last Reign It may be the Common-wealth is assaulted by its Enemies from abroad and those Enemies are countenanced by a factious discontented Party at home and it is necessary for the Parliament to meet and to raise Supplies for the Defence of the Realm against the One and to make some
is at best but miserable Harangue to oppose against the Express Authority of the Law and the Common Prerogative which All Christian Princes have from the beginning laid claim to as to this Matter But He urges farther 2dly That supposing a License were necessary yet for that very Reason it ought to be Granted And it matters not much whether we say that a License ought ex debito Justitiae to be Granted to empower them to deliberate Or whether they have of Themselves a Power of deliberation without such License expressly given That whenever the King requires the Convocation to sit he ought to send them a License to act is out of doubt because otherwise he would either oblige them to meet to no purpose or would lay a snare in their way by bringing them together and putting them upon acting without a License which by Law they ought not to do But that this is granted Ex debito Justitiae I utterly deny because in all the Commissions I have ever seen 't is particularly said to be Granted by the King of his special Grace and meer Motion which cannot with any propriety of Speech be said of what in justice belongs to them The truth of the Case is this The 25 of Hen. 8th has restored the Crown to its Royal Authority as to this matter It has put the Power of directing the Convocation as of Right it ought to be into the King's hands They cannot Act without his Licence and he is not Obliged by any Law to grant it to them but may allow or not allow them to Do business as he thinks it will be most expedient for the Churches Welfare That therefore the King do's at any time Grant them such a Licence is of his Own Good Pleasure Nor can it any Otherwise be accounted a Debt of Justice than as he is Obliged in Justice to his People to Do whatsoever he thinks to be for the Publick Good But yet in point of Reason it must be confess'd that the King either ought not to Require his Clergy to meet together more than for Form sake Or that if he do's He ought to Commission Them to act too That so they may neither meet to no purpose or which is Worse do it to their Own detriment by Acting Otherwise than the Law allows Them to do And therefore I do Agree that in a very large improper sense of the Words it may be said that when they do sit a Licence ought ex debito Justitiae to be Granted to them Because they ought not to sit but when their sitting will be for the Good of the Church and when that is so the King is obliged in Justice to the Church to give them Licence to Act. But in this Gentleman's sense I utterly deny either that the Convocation has any right to Meet whenever the Parliament do's Or that upon every such Formal Assembling they ought to have a Commission sent to them to Empower them to Act tho' I still affirm that they are not at Liberty to Act without it As for what is here again urged 3ly from the Rights of the Parliament It may suffice to say That neither do's the Parliament lie under the same Restrictions that the Convocation do's nor can it with any Consistency to our Constitution be supposed that it should do so The Parliament Acting in Concurrence with the King have the Legislative Power in their Hands They neither are Restrain'd by any Laws nor is it possible they should be But the Convocation is truly no more than an Ecclesiastical Council It s business is to Advise and Assist the King in things pertaining to the Church And tho' I know it will displease this Author to be told so yet I must again put him in mind that the Clergy have no power to make laws They may draw up Canons and Constitutions within the Limits which the Parliament has set to them and the King may confirm them And that being done they will have a due force But still Laws they are not unless in a very imperfect Sense the same in which the Convocation is a Legislature and the Master of a family a Monarch within his Own House But tho' I cannot therefore joyn with this Author in his Argument yet I heartily concurr with him in his Conclusion of it That an English Christian King is as much Obliged by the Laws and Usages had and accustomed in this Kingdom in regard to the Church as the Sovereign of England is with relation to the State This I say is unquestionably true and brings us to the true way of deciding the Point before us If by the Laws and Usages of this Kingdom the Convocation has a Right to sit and act as this Gentleman affirms let those Laws be produced and those Usages made out and I submit But if according both to the Laws and Usages of the Realm the Convocation be wholly in the King's hands As I think I have abundantly shew'd that it is then let our Author be concluded by his Own Rule and Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's to God the things that are God's But our Author here again objects to himself what if he had not I dare say no man living would ever have Objected to him that the Convocation has oftentimes been prohibited by the King to deal with any thing that concern'd his Crown and Dignity c. And he thus makes his Advantage of it That since those Prohibitions were only to keep the Convocation from Excess and within their just bounds it is evidnetly supposed that they may intermeddle with any Other Matter without Express Licence Whether that be supposed or no I cannot tell this I am sure is that the Clergy in those days were but too apt to meddle with matters in their Convocation that did not at all belong to them And I doubt were some mens Notions allow'd of we should find but too much need of having these kind of Prohibitions brought again into Practice But the truth is when those Prohibitions were wont to be sent to the Convocation the Clergy oftentimes did not only Meet but Act too without the King's Licence And by both usurp'd upon the Royal Authority And to suppress these abuses and to vindicate the King's Supremacy it was that the Statute of the 25 H. 8. c. 19. was pass'd Since which time we meet with none of these Prohibitions and I hope the Crown will never fall any more into such hard Circumstances as to stand again in need of them As for what this Author in the next place excepts against the Authority of Cokes xiith Report I am but little concern'd in it The fortunes of the Crown depend not upon the Credit of it Let those who build their Opinion as to these matters upon the Resolution of the Judges there Related if Any such there be undertake the Defence of it We are now come to the main Point and which
beyond all Others if not to help to Reform the World yet certainly to take Care that they do not help to make it Worse Whilst Pride and Pâ—â—vishnâ—ss Hatred and Evil-will Divisions and Discontents prevail among those who should teach and correct Others And instead of improving a true Spirit of Piety and Purity of Love and Char 〈…〉 of Peaceableness and Humility we mind little else but our several Interests and Quarrels and Contentions with one another What wonder if we see but little Success of our Ministry and are but little Regarded upon the account of it We must Reverence our Office our selves if ever we mean that others should Reverence us upon the accou 〈…〉 of it A Teacher who is an Hâ—retick iâ— any Point of Doctrine may do somewhat to Corrupt the Faith But 't is the Minister who shews himself an Infidel in his Practise that Roots up the very Foundations of Religion and prompts Men to cast off at once all Belief of it And thus have I consider'd those Evils from whence this Author has endeavour'd to shew that it is absolutely necessary a Convocation should be call'd for the Redress of them I go on 2dly To Examine what He has Offer'd to prove that nothing but a Convocation can do it And 1st The Bishops He says cannot safely proceed in Matters of Heresie because of the Danger they may Incurr thereby But this is an Argument that either really proves nothing or if it do's will prove more than He desires it should It being certain that the Convocation can no more declare Heresie or proceed any farther in the Punishment of it than any Single Bishop by Law may do What is by our Law to be accounted Heresie the Stat. of 1 Eliz. c. 1. has declared And tho' that Statute particularly Referrs to the High Commissioners yet is it by Construction a Safe Rule for all Others to proceed by As for the Punishment of it I do not find it in the least doubted but that a Bishop may proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures against Hereticks And certain it is that now they can Go no farther So that here then there is no such mighty Danger unless for those who would make more to be Heresie than the Law has declared so to be And if that be the Danger this Author speaks of I believe all Wise and Charitable Men will desire that they may be always lyable to it However as I before observed be the Hazzard what it will the Convocation is subject to the same Limitations that every single Bishop lies under And the One if they are too busie may as easily run into a Praemunire as the Other 2. As for the Authority of the Universities I confess it extends only to their Own Members But yet so great a Number of Those who make the chiefest Figure among Us when they are Men have commonly their Education there in those Years in which they ought to be well settled in their Principles of Religion as â—ell as in their other Notions that I cannot but account it a kind of Pâ—â—lick B 〈…〉 sit to the Church and Kingdom not only that those Great Bodies hold so Sound and Intire but that they are endued with a sufficient Power to hinder any Contagious Principles to spread within them and to infect their Members His Majesty's Authority is next excepted agaiâ—st as extending no farther than to inforce the Exercise of those Powers which says He I have already shewn and Experience proves to be too short Or clogg'd with too much Difficulty and Discouragement to attain the End we all so much want and contend for 'T is true his Majesty does not pretend to enlarge his Supremacy beyond those Bounds which the Laws of the Realm have set to it Nor has he any Need so to do The Authority of the King in all these Matters is by Law very Great and extensive And I believe few Evils can happen to the Church which may not in Good Measure be provided for by it But here our Author opens himself and gives us a broad Hint what it is He wants He would have the Bishops or rather the Convocation empower'd to determine what they please to be Heretical And when they have done so to proceed against their Own Members it not against Others accordingly By Vertue of this Power whatsoever Books were publish'd by Men whom they did not like should be censured and executed as Heretical and the Authors be obliged to a Retractation of Them And I am sometimes afraid this Gentleman do's really fancy the Convocation to have a certain Original Inherent Right in it so to do Should this be so and should there chance to be any considerable Number of his Convocation Friends of the same Opinion I shall onlâ— say 't is Happy for Them that they are not permitted to come together For certainly they would quickly undo themselves if they were It can hardly be doubted but that upon this Supposition one of the first things these Members would do would be to fall soul upon Dr. Sherlock as an Heretick Now let us only suppose the Dean to have as much Kindness for himself and Regard to his Own Reputation as we see the Men of the last Age had And that he should thereupon take the same Course to defend himself that Dr. Standish before did Who can tell what the Opinion of the Temporal Judges in such a Case might be Or what they might make of their proceeding And tho' King Henry the 8th let the Matter fall and took no farther notice of it yet should they now be deem'd to have fallen under a Praemunire by such an Attempt who will ensure them that another Prince shall not take the Advantage of it But indeed tho' when Men are Resolved to maintain an Hypothesis 't is no great matter what they affirm and in such a Case his Majesty's Authority may seem nothing to them yet I cannot imagine what a Convocation can do that the King may not as well and much more safely do in these Matters He can Forbid some Men to affect new Terms Can discourage Others who advance new Theories to the detriment of the Authority of the Holy Scriptures He can publish Rules for the Preaching of Some and Orders to Reform the Vices of Others But indeed he cannot by all this or by any thing else that He can do Oblige some Men And therefore ought the less to be blamed if he do's not trouble himself to Go out of his Way to gratifie their peevish and unreasonable Desires 4. And now we are come to the last Authority I mean that of the King and Parliament and if this also be thought Unable to do Our Business we may I think venture to Conclude that the Immoderate Passion which this Gentleman has for the sitting of a Convocation do's so Byass him that He can Approve of nothing else But why may not the Parliament be as well Qualified to put a Stop to
be first made Whether the Convocation has a Right to Meet and Act as often as the Parliament does § 1. The Method which this Author has taken to vindicate this supposed Right of the Convocation censured § 2. The Design of the following Treatise laid out § 3. CHAP. II. The first General Point proposed and the Method laid down for the handling of it In pursuance whereof a general Enquiry is first made What Power Christian Princes have always been allowed to exercise over their Ecclesiastical Synods or Convocations with respect both to the sitting of them to the managing of them when sat and to the Confirming or Annulling of their Acts after The first General Question proposed and the Method laid down for a full Resolution of it § 1. That Christian Princes have Authority over Ecclesiastical Persons and in Ecclesiastical Causes § 2. And that Particularly with reference to their Synods and Convocations § 3. Which I. Cannot meet without their Permission or against their Consent § 4. That the eight first General Councils were all call'd by the Emperors Authority § 5. So were all the lesser Synods held under the Roman Emperors § 6. The Gothish Princes in the Empire kept their Synods to the same Rule § 7. So did the Princes of the several Kingdoms which rose up out of the Ruins of it Of Spain § 8. Portugal § 9. Burgundy § 10. Germany § 11. France § 12. The Bishops and Clergy never opposed this or made any Complaints against it § 13. 1 Christian Princes have often call'd such Councils by their own Authority without the Advice of their Clergy and refus'd to do it when the Bishops have desir'd it § 14. Who 2 Being so refused have never pretended to meet in Council against their Will or asserted any Right so to do § 15. 3 No not in Provincial Councils for which they seem'd to have some Right on their side § 16. 4 That the Prince has a Right to determine the Time and Place of their meeting § 17. 5 And may direct what Persons shall be allow'd to come to them § 18. The first Point summ'd up § 19. II. Of the Princes Authority over Ecclesiastical Synods when they are met § 20. 1. He has a Right to prescribe to them What they shall debate about § 21. The Ground of this ibid. The several Methods that have been taken by them to do this § 22. The Practice of the Church in Confirmation hereof In the Roman Empire § 23. In other places § 24. 2. To determine in what Manner and Order they shall proceed in their Debates § 25. The Practice of the Roman Emperors in confirmation hereof § 26. 3. To sit with them and to preside over them So the Emperors did § 27. And so did the Princes who succeeded them in their several States § 28 c. How far the Prince thus presiding may act synodically with his Clergy § 31. III. Of the Authority of the Prince over these Conventions after they have ended what was to be done by them § 32. The Clergy cannot regularly break up their Synod without his leave § 33. Their Acts are of no Authority till confirm'd by him § 34. How far the Prince is at liberty to examine their Determinations to confirm annul or amend them § 35. What Power he has over their Judgments § 36. What over their Constitutions § 37. The whâ—lâ— applied to our own Case § 38. CHAP. III. Of the Authority which our own Kings have over their Convocations with respect both to their Meeting and Acting first and to the Confirming or Annulling their Acts after That our Princes ought of Right to have the same Authority over their Convocations as any other Princes have before been shewn to have § 1. I. That the Convocation cannot meet without the King 's Writ to empower them so to do § 2. The Judges Opinion to this purpose ibid. The Parliaments and Convocations § 3. The King has a Right to name the Time and Place of their Meeting § 4. As also to appoint what Persons shall come to it § 5. Being summon'd it lies in his Breast whether they shall sit or no. § 6. II. That being Met they have no Power to Act but by the King's Permission § 7. This also confirm'd by the Opinion of the Judges agreeably to the Act of the 25 Hen. 8. And farther proved from the Tenour of the Convocation-Writ § 8. The Form of which is the same now that antiently it was wont to be § 9. As also from the Commissions wont to be sent to them for that purpose § 10. Several Instances of which are offer'd § 11. From the judgment of the Convocation in the 1. Edw. VI. § 12. Of the Power of our Kings to sit with or to send Commissioners to their Convocations § 13. Whether the Convocation as a Court may proceed to judge any Cause without the King's Licence § 14. The Convocation did antiently judge of Heresie § 15. How it judged § 16. It is most probable that it cannot judg any person without the King's Leave § 17. It is certain the King may in a particular Case prohibit them so to do § 18. And Suspend or Annul their Sentence ib. III. Of the Authority which our Kings have over their Convocations after they have done what they were called for They cannot break up without the King's Licence § 19. His Authority requisite to confirm their Acts. § 20. How far and in what Cases He is empower'd to Confirm them ibid. The King has power not only to Review their Acts himself but to submit them to the Judgment of his Council § 21. The Practice of this proved to § 24. Whether he may Alter and Correct their Definitions ibid. From the whole an Answer is distinctly given to the first Question proposed § 25. CHAP. IV. In which the State of the Convocation is Historically deduced from the First Conversion of the Saxons to our own Times The Occasion of this Enquiry and the Method proposed to be observed in it § 1. 1. Period How the Affairs of the Church were transacted from the first Conversion of the Saxons to the Time of the Norman Conquest The Clergy summoned to Convocation after Two very different Manners By the Parliament Writ § 2. By the Provincial Writ § 3. The Foundation of this laid in these first times wherein the Clergy were members of the Civil Councils as well as of Ecclesiastical Synods § 4. Of the Nature of our Great Councils in these times and how Ecclesiastical Affairs were transacted in them § 5. Shewn from the like Councils in France Under Pepin § 6. Under Charles the Emperor § 7. Their manner of Debating § 8. Their Politie clear'd § 9. The Nature of our own Great Councils stated upon this Foundation § 10 11 12 Of the Ecclesiastical Synods of these Times Of what Persons they consisted By what Authority they were held § 13. A particular View taken of the principal
their Meeting and was greatly satisfied at their Behaviour in it It was not long after this that as Baronius himself confesses Theodorick summon'd another Synod at Rome to judge of the Crimes alledged against Symmachus Bishop of that See and submitted the Determination of that Affair to their Resolution And when Caesarius Bishop of Arles desired to convene a Provincial Synod in France according to the direction of the Antient Canons and the Allowance of the Laws to that purpose Yet he did not think it sitting so to do till he had obtained the Consent of Alaric the Goth for it And it is expresly noted that it was held by his Allowance What Caesarius here did with respect to Alaric an Arrian Prince the same did Avitus Bishop of Vienne with regard to Sigismond the Son of Gundebald King of the Burgundians whom he had not long before converted to the Catholick Faith He call'd even his Provincial Synod with the King's Consent And tho' himself Metropolitan of that District yet presided in it by the Prince's Order Such was the Authority by which these lesser Synods were wont to be held immediately upon the breaking of the Empire And that thus it continued till the Prevalence of the Papal Power began to overthrow the Prince's Right will appear from a short View of this matter in some of the principal States which arose out of the Ruins of it And 1. That this was so in the Kingdom of Spain the Councils of Toledo the most eminent of Any in that Country both for Number and Authority sufficiently demonstrate That the Second of these was call'd by the Permission of Amalaric the Synod it self owns But the Third and I think the most considerable of them all is yet more full to our present purpose It was a General Council of that whole Nation In it the Goths adjured their Heresie and embraced the Catholick Faith This Faith was first establish'd in Spain by the Authority of this Council and several very useful Canons were framed by it for the Government of the Church for the Time to come And all this was done by the Command of Reccaredus their King Who with Badda his Queen subscribed to the Orthodox Faith in it and made not only his Bishops but the chief of his Nobility and others subscribe to it It would be needless for me after so clear an Evidence as this Synod has given us of the Authority by which Councils were antiently Convened in Spain to spend any long time in the particular Examination of the several Councils that follow'd after It shall therefore suffice barely to say thus much that the Fourth of Toledo Another National Council and of great Authority in those parts met by the Order of Sisenandus as the Third had done by that of Reccaredus The Fifth by the Command of Cinthila who also confirm'd the Acts of it The Sixth of Cinthilan The Seventh of Chindaswind The Eighth of Recceswinthus The rest by the Order of the several Princes which follow'd after As from the Acts of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth the last of these Synods it does evidently appear As for their Provincial Synods they were not indeed always summon'd by the express particular Order of those Princes But yet even these were held by Vertue of that Authority which the Third Great Council of Toledo under Reccaredus before mention'd had given to them It was by vertue of this Allowance that the Synods of Narbonne and Saragosa were assembled and in Both which for that Reason it is said that they met according to the Order of that Prince and to the Appointment of that Council 2. And the same Authority which these Kings used in Spain did their next Neighbours the Suâ—vian Princes exercise in Galaecia during the time of their Empire there The Second Council of Braga the Metropolis of that Country is expresly declared to have met at the Command of Ariamirus or as some have rather thought of Theodimirus their King It was by the same Authority that the Synod of Lugo not long after was assembled to divide the Country into several Provinces and to erect a greater number of Bishopricks in it And when by Vertue of this Division the Clergy of that Country were come together in two Provincial Synods under their respective Metropolitans according to the ancient Canons in that behalf Miro his Successor order'd them to meet both together in a General Council at Braga and there agree upon such Constitutions as they should find the Necessities of the Church to require 3. If from hence we cross over to the Kingdom of Burgundy we shall find those Princes in possession of the same Rights over their Synods that the other Kings have been shewn to have exercised The Inscription of the Second Council of Lyons assembled about the Year 567 shews that it was call'd by the Command of Guntramn their King who also not long after assembled another Synod at Challon as Gregory of Tours informs us It was by the Order of the same Guntramn that the Great Council of Mascon was held And when that had not sufficiently restored the Discipline of the Church he not only assembled another at Lyons but more in several other places at Valence Poitiers Mascon c. all whose Acts expresly avow the Authority by which they met 4. In Germany Carloman first and then Charles the Emperor as they were the great Restorers of Religion and Assertors of the Discipline of the Church so will they afford us a sufficient proof of the Prince's Authority in this particular It was the former of these who with the Advice of his Clergy and Nobles called the Council of Ratisbon which is accounted among the First of Germany An. 742. And how the Other continued by the same Authority to summon the like Assemblies the several Synods of Wormes Valenciennes Aix la Chappelle but especially the two Great Councils of Mentz and Frankford in the latter of which not only the Bishops of Germany but of France and Aquitain were assembled together and over all Whom Charles the Emperor presided abundantly shew No sooner was this great Prince dead but Ludovicus Pius his Successor after his Example call'd together his Clergy to Aix-la-Chappelle for the correction of the Negligence and Ignorance of the Bishops and for the better regulating of the Lives of the Clergy And having fully determined whatsoever was thought expedient in Order thereunto he commanded a strict Obedience to be paid to the Constitutions which had been made by them And when this did not yet sufficiently correct the Abuses of those times He not only summon'd a Second Council to meet at the same place but being met he proposed to them such Heads as he conceived to be farther necessary with respect both to the Lives and Doctrine of the Bishops and Clergy and order'd the
himself On the 11th of July in the same Convocation the Bp of Hereford produced a certain Book containing the Articles of Faith and Ceremonies of the Church Which being read by the said Bishop the said Honourable Thomas Cromwel the Archbishop and other Prelates with the Prolocutor and Clergy of the Lower House by their Subscriptions Approved of the said Book On the 15th of July It was agreed by the Lord Cromwel the Archbishop and Convocation as to certain Ordinances c. And lastly On the 20th of July the Bishop of Hereford produced a certain Book containing the Causes why the King ought not to appear at the General Council then to be held Which Book the aforesaid Honourable Lord Thomas Cromwel the Archbishop and the Rest of the Convocation by their Subscriptions approved of Thus did the King's Commissioner not only sit but act with the Bishops in their Convocation And I am not aware of any Law that has debar'd the King if need were to do that again now which King Henry 8. heretofore did And this may suffice to shew what Authority the King has over Our Convocation both by the Statute and Common Law by his own Prerogative as a Christian Prince and by the Particular Concessions of our own Parliaments and Convocations But we are told that the Convocation must be consider'd by Us not only as an Ecclesiastical Synod but as an Ecclesiastical Court too and which as such has Jurisdiction to deal with Heresies Schisms and other meer Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Causes juxta legem divinam Canones S. Ecclesiae And herein their Power is not at all Restrain'd by any particular Statute but still remains whole and entire to Them In this respect therefore the Convocation may at least act without the King's Licence and as of Right against any Bishop Priest or Deacon for such Offences This is the Doctrine of our Late Author but is not so clear to me as he would make it That Provincial Synods heretofore did look upon Themselves as endued with a sufficient Authority to proceed against any of their Own Body who by any of the Crimes before mentioned had deserved their Censure is not to be deny'd The Provincial Councils of old did so but especially in the Case of Heresie wherein the Church has ever Accounted it self to be particularly Concern'd But then it must be remember'd too that when they had so proceeded against Any One the Prince still judged whether they had acted Canonically or no And if he found a just Reason to move Him so to do he did oftentimes suspend their Sentence and order a new Enquiry in some other Synod to be made of such a Matter and after all determined it at last as He saw Cause Thus Theodosius did in the Case of Nest orius after he had been Condemn'd in two several Provincial Councils And thus Constantius before him had done in the Case of Photinus a worser Heretick He received his Appeal from the Council of Sirmium and order'd a new Examination to be made of his Case and then confirm'd the Sentence of the Synod and concurr'd in the Deposition of him And when Flavian Patriarch of Constantinople had in like manner condemned Eutyches for his Heresie the Emperor not only referr'd the Matter to the Council of Ephesus to be re-heard by it but when by the indirect Management of Dioscorus that Synod instead of Confirming his Sentence against Eutyches condemn'd Flavian himself tho' Orthodox and Innocent Theodosius not only refused to suspend the Sentences of Both till another Free Council might be call'd to judge of the Matter but left the Sentence of this last Council to remain in force and would not suffer any other Synod to be called about this Affair as long as He lived As for our own Convocation it is not deny'd but that antiently They were wont to judge of Heresy in it The first Instance that occurs of this and that the case of Pelagianism excepted as antient as the first coming of Heresie into our Country is that of the Council of Oxford held about 1260 and the Occasion of which was this It had happen'd some time before that about 30 Persons came over hither out of Germany and held secret Meetings differing from the common Opinion of the Church in several Particulars but chiefly as to the points of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist To prevent the spreading of their Errors the King commanded that Council to meet at Oxford and there to judge of them Being convened before this Synod and convicted of their Errors and refusing to abjure them they were pronounced Hereticks by it and deliver'd back to the King to be punished by the Civil Power It is in a Provincial Council held by Steph. Langton that we meet with the next Instance we have of the like Proceedings In this we are told of two Impostors upon one of whom were found the five Wounds of the Crucifixion convicted and condemn'd by the Judgments of the Church But Bracton adds to these another and a more notable Instance He tells us of a certain Deacon who out of Love to a Jewish Woman apostatiz'd from the Faith of Christ and was thereupon sentenc'd and degraded by the Synod and deliver'd over to the Secular Power to be Burnt for it And the same was the manner by which Sautre was condemn'd as appears not only by the Writ still extant for his Execution but from the Rolls of the Parliament 2 Hen. 4. in which the order was given for issuing out the Writ to the Sheriffs of London for it Feb. 26. He was first examined and condemned by the Clergy in Convocation and by them deliver'd up to the Civil Magistrate to be burned And tho' the Lord Cobham was not finally sentenced in Convocation but by the Archshop of Canterbury assisted by the Bishops of London and Winchester after it was risen yet was this Cause first brought on there and he was therein both Adjudged an Heretick and Excommunicated as such The Truth is so great is the Scandal and so severe in those days was the Punishment too of Heresy that it has moved some very Learned Men to think that before the 2 Hen. 4. no one could be otherwise convicted of it than in a Provincial Synod or Convocation And tho' my Lord Coke maintains this to be a Mistake and affirms that the Bishop always had as He still has Power to convict of Heresy and to proceed by the Censures of the Church against such as are guilty of it yet this is no Argument why the Convocation should not still retain its antient Authority and have the Power of doing that which any single Bishop alone may do But here then a question may arise that will deserve to be consider'd on this occasion and that is When any one is to be convicted of Heresie or of any other the like Ecclesiastical Crime in Convocation who it is
that judges him Whether he is to be judged by the Votes of the two Houses or whehe is to be judged by the upper House alone and the lower to stand in the nature of Prosecutors against him Or lastly Whether the Archbishop alone does properly judge and the rest concurr as Assistants to him and assent to what he does In answer to which Enquiry if I may be allow'd to offer my own Conjecture I do conceive that in such cases as these it is not so much the Convocation that judges as the Archbishop in Convocation For besides that it was never known that the inferiour Clergy were allow'd a Jurisdiction in such cases nor is there any reason why they should have it here First The very words of the Writ upon which Sautrey was burnt seem to speak in such a manner of his Conviction in Convocation as shew the power of Judicature to have been eminently in the Archbishop and that the rest were only of Council to him and consented to what he did Cum venerabilis Pater Thomas Archiepiscopus Cant. totius Angliae Primas Apostolicae sedis legatus de Consensu Assensu ac Consilio Episcoporum confratrum Suffraganeorum suorum necnon totius Cleri provinciae suae in Concilio suo Provinciali congregati per suam sententiam definitivam Haereticum manifestum pronunciavit declaravit c. Nor can this be sufficiently accounted for by looking upon the Archbishop as President of the Convocation and so acting as Speaker in it When the Lord Keeper in the House of Lords or the Lord High Steward in the Commission for Tryal of a Peer determine or give Sentence in any civil or criminal Cause we do not find it said That they with the Counsel and Assent of the Lords pronounce or award so or so but they deliver the Sentence of the Lords and declare that this or that is their Judgment And the same ought to have been the case here supposing that the Convocation or even the upper House had equally judged with the Archbishop The Writ must have run in the Name of the whole Body Whereas the Archbishop and Bishops with the rest of the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury in Convocation assembled have by their definitive Sentence pronounced c. Nor can any good reason I believe be given why the Writ did not run in this manner but because the Archbishop even in Convocation still retain'd the power of Judicature which I shall presently shew was peculiar to him and by vertue thereof judged of him And this will yet more clearly appear Secondly From the acts of the Convocation under K. Henry the Fifth Anno 1413 and the Process made against the Lord Cobham therein For first Upon several Provocations given and Affronts put upon the Clergy by the Lollards and that at the very time that the Convocation was sitting The Archbishop was required in behalf of the whole Clergy that he would vouchsafe to proceed against the Lord Cobham upon and concerning the Premises In pursuance of this request the Archbishop with a great part of the Convocation apply to the King for leave to proceed against him both because he was a Person in great credit with his Majesty and to be consider'd upon the account of his Own Honour and Quality Having obtain'd leave of the King to proceed against him it is said all along that my Lord of Canterbury summon'd him to appear before him in Convocation That when the Summons could no otherwise be executed upon him he orderâ—d it to be fix'd upon the doors of the Church of Rochester That upon the eleventh of September the day appointed for his appearance the Archbishop excommunicated him and after a farther process at last came to a final Sentence against him 'T is true tho' this process began in Convocation yet it was carry'd on and ended out of it But withal it is plain that tho' the Convocation was risen yet still the Archbishop continued the same process that began in it He sate in the Chapter House of St. Paul's he took the Bishops of London and Winchester first and then to them added the Bishop of Bangor for his Assistants Besides these a great number of the inferiour Clergy was present And when at last the Lord Cobham was brought before him the Archbishop took notice to him how he had been discover'd and accused in Convocation i. e. had been accused to himself in Convocation when they first desired him to proceed against him To all which let me add the Preamble to the Sentence which the Archbishop at last pass'd upon him and which shews that both in and out of Convocation the judgment of this matter lay before him We Thomas by Divine Permission c. in a certain Cause or Matter of Heretical Pravity of and concerning divers Articles upon which Sir John Oldcastle Knight Lord Cobham was accused before Us in the last Convocation of the Clergy of our Province of Cant. c. Nor let any one think that in asserting such an Authority to the Archbishop in these matters any injury is done to his Suffragan Bishops but rather were it otherwise the Convocation must apparently have encroach'd upon that eminent power of judging which the Archbishop heretofore had For tho' since the Statute of the 23 of Henry the Eighth the power of the Archbishop is very much restrain'd and he cannot now call whatever causes he pleases to his own judgment but only under the Limitations provided in that Act and therefore since that time the right of judging in this case would in the first instance have belonged to the Bishop of Rochester and to the Archbishop no otherwise than either by way of Appeal or upon some negligence or defect in the Diocesan to judge of it yet before that Statute the Archbishop had a power to call any cause immediately before himself and when therefore in his Syned he did do so we ought not to question but that it was he who properly speaking did judge and that the rest of the Bishops were only his Assistants in it I conclude then that tho' the person in such a case were try'd in Convocation yet precisely speaking it was the part of the lower House to discover and accuse of the Bishops to counsel and assist but of the Archbishop to hear and judge But still the main question remains to be consider'd namely Whether the Convocation howsoever it be that it judges may proceed in these cases without the King's leave or whether his Commission be necessary to justifie them in it That they are not restrained by vertue of that Statute which has so much retrench'd their power in other respects is confidently affirm'd Nor shall I deny but that the intention of that Act seems rather to restrain them from making any New Canons or Constitutions than from judging in causes Ecclesiastical according to the Canons already made That they had heretofore a power to judge
That if a Canon-Law be against the Law of the Land the Bishop ought to Obey the Commandment of the King according to the Law of the Land Now these two Things being supposed and in which the Law at the present cannot be doubted to be very clear That no Acts of Convocation can be put in Execution or be promulged in Order to a Publick Observance without the King's Licence And that the King's Licence cannot give the Convocation any Authority to promulge or execute any Canons but what are Agreeable to the Laws and Customs of the Realm it must of Necessity follow 1st That the King has not only a Right to Review the Acts of Every such Convocation but ought moreover to submit Them to the Examination of his Learned Council in the Law That so he may the more securely be able to judge Whether they be Consistent with the Laws of his Realm and by Consequence capable of receiving any Enforcement from Him Forasmuch as it would be not only too Rash and Unseemly but even a Vain Thing for the King to expose his Prerogative by undertaking to give Authority to that which by being contrary to the Laws already Establish'd has such a natural defect in its Original Constitution as will not suffer it to be Capable of Any 2dly That notwithstanding the Resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation yet still the King is to remain the last Judge not only of the Lawfulness but of the Expediency too of their Constitutions and has Authority either to Ratifie or Reject Them as He with the Advice of his Council shall think Them either Usefull or Otherwise to the Church When His Majesty gave Liberty to our last Convocation to consider of the several Points which in his Commission he proposed to Them and permitted Them to draw into Forms Rules Orders Ordinances Constitutions and Canons such Matters as to Them should seem Necessary and Expedient for the Purposes which He had before proposed to Them and the same being set down in Writing from time to time to Exhibit and Deliver or to Cause to be Exhibited and Delivered to Him He thus goes on to declare what was to be done after such their Resolutions should be delivered in by Them To the End that We as Occasion shall Require may thereupon have the Advice of our Parliament and that such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things as shall be thought Requisite and Convenient by our said Parliament may be presented to us in due Form for Our Royal Assent if upon Mature Consideration thereof We shall think sit to Enact the same And from whence it appears to have been His Majesty's Intention had that Convocation proceeded to any Resolutions to have submitted the Examination of their Acts not only to his Parliament but that being done to have Reserved the final Judgment of Them to his Own Consideration And we cannot doubt but that it was upon the best Advice of his Learned Council in the Law that He so Intended But more full and express to this purpose is the Commission of King Charles the First to the Convocation of 1640 before mentioned Wherein having granted the same Liberty we here meet with to his Clergy To set down in Writing and to Exhibit or Cause to be Exhibited to Him All and Every the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things to be by Them from time to time Conferr'd Treated Debated Consider'd Consulted and Agreed upon He adds To the end that We upon mature Consideration by Us to be taken thereupon may Allow Approve Confirm and Ratifie or Otherwise Disallow Annihilate and Make Void such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of Them so to be by force of These Presents Consider'd Consulted and Agreed upon as We shall think Fit Requisite and Convenient But this is not yet all In the close of his Commission he again Reserves to Himself the same Power in these Remarkable Words Provided always and our Express Will Pleasure and Commandment is That the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of Them so to be by force of These Presents Consider'd Consulted or Agreed upon shall not be of Any Force Effect or Validity in the Law but only such and so many of Them and after such time as We by our Letters Patent under our Great Seal of England shall Allow Approve and Confirm the same These are the Limitations under which that Convocation Acted and from which these three Conclusions will Unavoidably follow 1st That the King by granting the Convocation license to consider and draw up any Canons Orders or Constitutions or to determine any Matters or Causes do's not give them any final decisive Power of Concluding those affairs but Empowers them only to deliver their Judgment to Him which He may either Approve or Reject as He shall afterwards see Cause to do 2dly That in determining concerning their Resolutions He is not obliged either to Approve and Confirm or else to Reject and Annihilate ALL that they have done but may judge distinctly of Every particular Point or Matter debated by Them and severally pass his judgment upon Them May give Force and Authority to some things and at the same time make Void and disallow of Others And this 3dly Not only upon his Own private judgment or upon the Advice of any select persons of his Clergy tho' it be a matter Ecclesiastical but with the advice of his Council who by his Command are also Empowred to judge of what the Convocation has done and whose Opinion if He approves of it He may preferr to that of his Clergy But we will go on with the History of this Convocation and see how these several Conclusions may be yet farther clear'd and confirm'd by it When by Vertue of this Commission the Convocation had drawn up such Canons and agreed upon such Orders as to them seem'd most proper to answer the Ends proposed by the King to Them We are told by His Majesty in His Declaration of June 30th following that according to His direction They had Offered and Presented the same to Him desiring Him to give His Royal Assent to what They had done Now as hereby they plainly acknowledged His Majesty to have all that Authority as to this matter which in His Commission he had pretended to so we find the King still proceeded according to the same measures he had first laid down to the Ratification of what they presented to Him For thus the Declaration goes on We having diligently with great Content and Comfort Read and Consider'd all the said Orders Ordinances and Constitutions agreed upon as is before express'd And finding the same such as We are persuaded will be very profitable not only to Our Clergy but to the whole Church of this Our Kingdom and to All the true Members
which all humane Constitutions are exposed that tho' I have before sufficiently shewn what the Nature of our Convocation at present is and what Authority our Kings have over it yet we can by no means from thence conclude that this was always the case of it or that the Act of the 25th of King Henry the VIII did only restore our Kings to their ancient Rights over their Clergy and not rather give them a greater Power than ever they before had or than the Parliament ought to have put into their hands To clear this matter and withal to shew how Ecclesiastical Affairs have heretofore been transacted in this Realm I shall here take a short View of the State of our Convocation in times past and of the method that was wont to be observed in making of Canonical Orders and Constitutions from the Conversion of the Saxons to the settlement of it in that Form under which it continues to this very day And the Method I shall take for the better clearing of this matter shall be this I. I will consider how the Affairs of the Church were managed from the first Conversion of the Saxons to the time of the Norman Conquest II. From the coming in of K. William the Conquerour to the 23d of Edward the First About which time both the Parliament and the Convocation seem to have been fully setled upon the same foot on which they have both continued to stand ever since III. From the 23d of Edward the First to the 25th of Henry the Eighth When the Parliament and Clergy restored the Crown to those Rights which the Usurpations of the Court of Rome had before in great Measure deprived it of And IV. From the 25th of Henry the Eighth to our own times I PERIOD And First Let us enquire how the Affairs of the Church were transacted from the first Conversion of the Saxons to the time of the Norman Conquest It is evident to any one who has ever consider'd by what Authority and after what Manner our Clergy are called together in Convocation that when those Writs were framed which we still continue to make use of they referr'd to a double end and it was intended the Clergy should meet together under a double Capacity by vertue of them When the King issues out his Parliamentary Writs and summons the Bishops to come to that great Council every Bishop is thereby distinctly required To give notice to the Dean and Chapter of his Cathedral Church and to the Arch-deacons and Clergy of his Diocess of the King's Pleasure to the end that they the said Dean and Arch-deacon in their proper persons their Chapter by one and the Clergy of every Arch-deaconry by two Proctors lawfully chosen and empowered may together with the Bishop attend upon the King in Parliament and there consent to such things as shall be agreed upon for the good of the Church or State Now this Clause as it equally requires the inferiour Clergy as the rest of the Writ does the Bishop himself to come to Parliament so has the necessity of it been accounted so great that some have thought this to be the reason why if the See be Vacant the Writ shall in such a case bedirected to the Guardians of the Spiritualties viz. That by this means the Proxies of the Clergy may by them be proemonished to come to the Parliament according to their duty and as of ancient Custom they have been required to do It must therefore be allow'd and accordingly it is indeed confessed by those who have been the best acquainted with the Nature of our Constitution that the Clergy were anciently a part of the Parliament and that the Dignitaries and Proxies of the Lower Order did together with the Spiritual Lords make up the third Estate in it But now together with this Parliamentary Writ sent out to every Bishop in particular There is another general Order directed only to the Archbishop of each Province to call together the whole Clergy of their several Provinces to another place and usually upon another day The Copy of this Writ the Archbishop of Canterbury sends to the Bishop of London as Dean of the Episcopal College and requires him to summon the Clergy of his Province and to attend himself with the Clergy of his own Diocess according to the King's Command And this is more properly a Provincial Synod tho' at present it consists of the same Persons and was oftentimes heretofore employed to the same ends that the Clergy who came to the Parliament were and consulted at once both of the State of the Church and how to supply the Prince's Wants And as this is the case of the Clergy at the present so if we look back to those first Times we are now particularly to consider we shall find the foundation of this difference laid in them and clearly see how it came to be derived down from thence to the Times that follow'd after It has ever been the Wisdom as well as Piety of Christian Princes to pay a just deference both to the Judgment and Integrity of their Church-men And to think none more proper to advise with even in their civil Concerns and ostentimes to intrust too with the management of them than those whose Profession at once disposes them both to a greater extent of Knowledge and to a quicker sense of their duty than is ordinarily to be met with in other Men. And I believe there is no Nation where the Gospel of Christ has prevailed in which Ecclesiastical Persons have not been by a kind of general Consent admitted to the Management of civil Affairs and been advised with as well in matters relating to the State as in those which concern the Church Now as this first brought them into the Great Councils of Princes so was it the same opinion of their Ability and Integrity which first gave original to that part they now have and ever did enjoy in the Parliaments of this Nation For as our Princes from the beginning were wont to do all things of greater Moment with the Advice of their great Councils so in all those Councils the Clergy still had the chiefest place as in the progress of these remarks I shall have occasion very plainly to shew Nor were the Laity any losers at all by this For the Bishops and great Clergy-men being by these means present at their Councils and the King by his very Office having an original Right to deliberate concerning the Affairs of the Church as well as of the State it came to pass that these great Councils by degrees transacted both They deliberated as well of Ecclesiastical as of civil Affairs and the causes that concerned the Church were no less determined by the Judgment and Authority of the Laity than the civil ones were by the Advice of the Clergy But because it may be of some advantage to the right understanding of this whole subject to have a clear
London under Edred An. 948 Of Brandenford An. 959 Of London under Edgar An. 970 Of Winchester and Calne under Dunstan Archbishop of Cant. Of Aenham An. 1009 And of Westminster An. 1066. It is sufficiently evident from the instances I have already given that whatsoever the Synod or Council were in which the affairs of the Church were transacted they depended intirely upon the Princes Authority Who for the most part determined what was needfull concerning them in the great Councils of their Realms and when they did not â—et still kept the management even of their Ecclesiastical Convocations in their own hands And suffer'd them not either to meet act or establish any thing but according to their good Pleasure II PERIOD From the Coming in of William the First to the 23d of Edward the First Hitherto our Princes maintain'd their Rights and asserted that Authority which their Royal Sovereignty gave them over their Clergy But now the Papal Power began to shew its self and to usurp upon their Prerogatives And among other Instances in which it did so this before us was not the least till at last it grew up to that monstrous Pitch in which we shall find it about the latter end of this Period When the King was become of little value to his Synods which were wholly subject to the Popes direction and depended upon the Will either of his extraordinary Legats or of the Archbishop of Canterbury to whose See a kind of perpetual Legantine Power and Authority was in the end annex'd by him I should depart too much from my present subject should I look abroad and consider by what steps these Encroachments were carried on to the prejudice of the civil Power and against which no Princes either asserted their Authority with greater Vigour or took more care to recover it when lost by them than Ours did It shall suffice as a Preparatory to what we shall hereafter meet with barely to point out to you the Artifices that were made use of in order to this end and to shew by what secret and almost indiscernible Workings they first began to restrain and at last utterly destroy'd the Rights of Princes in the point before us And first having either sent their Legat into a Kingdom or else constituted some of the chief Bishops to bear that character the Prince indeed commanded the Clergy to assemble but the other as the Pope's Commissioner advised the doing of it Thus Boniface began the Usurpation in the time of Carloman Anno 745. He assisted as Pope Zachary's Legat in the third Council of Germany in which Gervitio Bishop of Mentz was deposed and the said Boniface put in his place And this Council as the Acts of it speak was held Carlomanno jubente Bonifacio consulente The Prince commanded the Legat advised it to be held But much greater was the advance which Pope John the VIII made in the time of Charles the Bald Anno 876. For now the Pope call'd the Synod and all the Emperour had to do was to require the Pope's Summons to be obey'd So the Acts of the Synod of Pontigon shew where we read That the Holy Synod was gathered together in the name of the Lord by the calling of John the most Blessed and Universal Pope and at the Command of Charles the Emperour And in the Acts of it among other things that were determined by it we find this Canon to our present purpose That As the Pope had with the Connivance Consent and Joynt-determination of the Emperour resolved to establish Ansegisus Archbishop of Sens to be his Legat and had bestow'd upon him the Primacy of France and Germany in calling of Synods and Canonically defining such things as were necessary so did the Fathers of the Synod agree to it and in like manner determine and establish I might take notice of many things determined in this Decree in manifest Derogation of the Emperour's Authority But I shall content my self to observe how by this time the Pope in those parts had got the power of Calling Synods wholly into his Hands and either himself expresly did it or else gave Commission to some other to do it in his Name and by vertue of his Authority 'T is true the Emperour consented to what was done in the present case but that was only to allow that particular Person one of his own Subjects to take upon him the Character of the Pope's Legat not to enable the Pope to grant such a power which he now assumed to himself a right to do And accordingly in the second Synod of Troyes held but two years after the same Pope coming into France to remedy the disorders of the Church and free it from some oppressions which it lay under call'd that Synod by his own Authority Made what Canons he thought needful for those times and publish'd them in the Council and the Council had the honour to approve and receive them from him But as Encroachments of this nature being once begun run still on to a greater excess so Pope Formosus soon carried the Usurpation yet farther He assembled by his Legat the Council of Vien the Metropolis of France and the Bishops met at his Command And from henceforth it became a setled Custom for the Pope by his Legats to call such Synods and to sit with the Bishops in those parts Nor did the Pope only by his Legats call such Synods and assist at them but even when the King himself was present the Legat now began to preside over them and to draw even matters of a civil Nature before him and judge of them So the Synod of Engelsheim under Agapetus the second and Otho the Emperour did It judged of the wrong that had been done to Lewis the 4th King of France and excommunicated the Person by whom it was done To such a Slavery had the Pope brought the Christian World about the beginning of the Period I am now entring upon He call'd Synods He presided over them He sent what Canons he pleas'd to be confirm'd by them and required their Consent to them And lastly He drew not only Ecclesiastical Affairs under their Cognizance but judg'd of the Affairs of Princes in them and the differences that arose among them concerning their civil Authority and Jurisdiction But to none of these Invasions would the Conquerour ever submit but on the contrary he held his Bishops to the same subjection which they paid to their Saxon Princes and tho' upon occasion he made use of the Pope's Authority to serve his own turn against Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury yet that being done he quickly put a stop to his Jurisdiction and suffer'd him not to meddle in any Matters but where it was for his interest to allow of it We are told by one than whom no one better understood the state of these matters that this Prince would not suffer any of his Subjects to acknowledge
Enormities have broke out and there being none to suppress them they have by an evil Custom grown to too great a Height To which the King answer'd Of this I will determine when I see fit and that at my own Pleasure not at yours And he kept his word with him For during his whole Reign there was no Ecclesiastical Synod held in England But what this King deny'd the next readily complied with For in the second Year of his Reign he consented to the desire of Anselm to call a Synod and accordingly at Michaelmas Anno 1102 a Convocation met in St. Peter's Church near London At this Synod not only the King but all his Nobles were present The Archbishop desiring they might be fully satisfied in the Orders which should be made to the end they might the more readily afterwards concurr with the Bishops in the enforcement of them For so the Iniquity of those times required in which for want of Synods Vice was grown to an extraordinary heigth and the Fervour of Christianity was much abated It was a long time after this before any other Ecclesiastical Synod was held in this Country but then there met one of an extraordinary Nature and which I must take particular notice of because that in it was made the first considerable Invasion upon the Princes Authority as to this matter in these parts Pope Honorius having appointed Jo. de Crema to go as his Legat into England he met the King in Normandy and after having been stop'd for some time by him managed his business so well as to obtain the King's Permission to come over hither Being arrived here he assembled a National Council by his Legatine Authority Anno 1125. And the method He took of doing of it is worth our Notice It being the first Instance we have of any thing of this nature that was Attempted here The Legate assuming to Himself the King's Prerogative commands the Archbishop of Canterbury to Issue out his Writ for the Calling of it This the Archbishop was forced to submit to yet being desirous to maintain his Own Authority as well as He could He drew up the Writ in these Words William c. Archbishop of Cant. to Urban Bishop of Landaff Health I signifie to you by this Letter that John Cardinal Priest and Legat of the Roman Church has by Our Order and Connivance design'd to Hold a Council at London the day of the Blessed Virgin 's Nativity Wherefore I Command you that at the Time and Place prefix'd you fail not to meet us with the Arch-deacons Abbots and Priors of your Diocess to Determine concerning Certain Ecclesiastical Affairs and to Reform or Correct what the Sentence of Our said Convocation shall agree is to be Reformed or Corrected The Council being thus Assembled the Legate presided in it He sate not only above the Archbishop and Bishops but above all the Nobility of England who came thither By this Pride of his he raised the Indignation of the whole Realm against Him And being caught in Bed with a Whore at Night after having bitterly inveighed against the Marriage of the Clergy the day before He was forced to leave the Kingdom in a very dishonourable Manner But tho' the Archbishop therefore did what he could to assert his Authority yet he was not without a very tender sense of the Assront that had been put upon Him To prevent the like for the future instead of maintaining the Rights of his See and the Privileges of his Country and in both which our Nobility would certainly have stood by Him He applied to Rome for a Legatine Power to be Granted to him and so unhappily brought both the Kingdom and his own Dignity under a greater Servitude Being return'd from Rome with his New Character Anno 1127. He the same Year held a Council not as Archbishop but as the Pope's Legate the first of the Kind that ever any Archbishop held in England To this was gather'd besides the Bishops a great Croud both of the Clergy and of the Laity But these were spectators only the Bishops alone Voted in it And all the Power the King was now allowâ—â— was after having heard what was defined by Them to Consent to it and to give leave to them to put in execution what had been as we see determined by Them But tho' the Clergy by this means began to get Ground upon this Prince yet it was not very long before he found out a way to be even with Them and that such a One as was very Gratefull to his Close and Thrifty disposition For about three years after having Observed how little the Decrees of the late Councils had prevailed to Oblige the Clergy to Abandon their Wives in another Council held at London August the 1st 1129. He persuaded the Bishops to leave the Ordering of that matter to Himself Which being done He exacted vast Summs of Money from the Married Priests and instead of forcing them to leave their Wives gave license to such as would pay for it to live on freely with Them King Henry being dead it cannot be wondred if the Invasions begun to be made upon the Prince's Rights towards the latter end of his Reign were not only continued but encreased under K. Stephen He who sounded One part of his Title to the Crown upon the Papal Authority could hardly be supposed capable of denying the Pope the same Power which his Predecessors had allow'd to Him And for the Opposing whereof he had himself so weak a foundation Three Synods we meet with during the Reign of this King and Every One held by the Legatine Power The first was in the Year 1138 It was call'd by Albericus Bishop of Ostia and all the favour which was allow'd the King was That He was present at it and help'd to make Theobaldus Archbishop of Canterbury in it But much less was his interest in the next of these Synods which met at Winchester about four years after and which was not only call'd without his leave by the Legatine Authority of his Brother the Bishop of that See but was assembled on purpose to Animate the Clergy against him and to prepare the way for Maude the Empress to overthrow Him But the fortune of the King prevail'd And about the End of the same Year in another Synod of the like kind at Westminster the Legate return'd to the King his Brother's Party and Recommended it to the People to pay that Obedience they Owed to Him Thus pass'd these Affairs in this troublesome Reign and in which the Authority first Usurp'd by the Pope in the time of King Henry the First got new strength and began now to plead prescription in its favour But now the Civil State being a little more Quiet the King was thereby in a better condition to Assert his ancient Rights And accordingly being inform'd that some foreign
Hereticks were privily got into England He commanded a Council of Bishops to meet at Oxford and to call them before them And being accordingly Convicted by them they were publickly punish'd by the Civil Power By whose Authority the next Convention of the Clergy was assembled the year following it do's not appear Certain it is that in the Election of the Archbishop of Canterbury for which they met all was managed to the King 's content and the person chose whom He recommended to them After the death of Becket Richard Archbishop of Canterbury held a Provincial Council At this the two Kings both Father and Son were present and all things were done not only under their Inspection but the very Council was held with their Consent and Good Will And the King with his Lords confirm'd the Decrees of it How these matters flood in the next Reign it will not be very easie to say In which the King was for the most part absent upon his Expedition to the Holy Land and by the means whereof the Affairs of the Kingdom suffered not a little at Home Yet Baldwyn the Archbishop designing to accompany the King before he set out assembled a Provincial Synod to settle the State of the Church and to take such care as he thought needfull to secure the Liberties of his See It was not long after that William Bishop of Eli held another Synod at Westminster But He being endued with the double Character both of Lord Justice of the Kingdom in Richard's Absence and of the Pope's Legate as we cannot tell by which Authority He called it so neither can it be doubted but that between Both he had a sufficient Authority so to do And the same was the Case of Hubert after Who being empower'd both by the King and Pope assembled a Synod at York Presided in it and made many useful Constitutions for the Government of the Church Thus stood the Affairs of our Convocations in these two Reigns We must now go on to another prospect to a Reign in which thro' the ill Circumstances of the Government and the Troubles that fell out by the means of it the Pope according to his Custom made farther Invasions upon the Prince's Right and at last rais'd up his Authority to the highest pitch that ever it arrived at in this Kingdom The King being absent upon his Affairs in France and Hubert still enjoying his Legatine Power by Vertue thereof call'd a Synod to Westminster Anno 1200 And tho' forbidden by Geoffry Earl of Essex whom the King had left as Lord Justice of England during his Absence yet nevertheless went on with it and made several Constitutions in it It was about six years after that Jo. Ferentinus being sent as Legate into England and having got together a vast Quantity of Money held a Synod at Redding and so took his leave of the Realm From henceforth all things began to run into Confusion The King Obstinately opposing the admission of Stephen Langton to the See of Canterbury and the Pope thereupon putting the Kingdom under an Interdict and at last Excommunicating the King himself But it was not long before the Pope and the King came to an Agreement dishonourable to Himself and derogatory to the Rights both of the Crown and Kingdom Insomuch that Stephen himself Opposed it and joyn'd himself to the Barons against both Pope and King in defence of his Countries Liberties It was upon this new Agreement between the King and Pope that John doing what He would with the Preferments of the Church the Archbishop held a Council at Dunstable Anno 1214 And deputed two of their number to go to the Legate whom the Pope on that Occasion had sent hither to stop both His and the King's Proceedings by putting in an Appeal against Them Both to the Court of Rome And the same year the said Legate having received full satisfaction from the King and being therefore to Relax the Sentence which had pass'd both upon Him and the Kingdom that He might do it with the more Pomp caused a solemn Council to be held at St. Paul's London and there Released the Realm from its Interdict and Restored the King to his Royal Authority And here we must put an End to these Enquiries during this troublesome Reign For from henceforth the Kingdom was in a continual disorder in the midst of which the King at last died But tho' by the Wise Management of the Earl of Pembrook his Governour King Kenry the 3d. soon brought things into a better posture in the State yet still the Usurpations were maintain'd in the Church and the Archbishop as Legate continued to Summon the Clergy to his Synod So did Stephen Langton Anno 1222 In which He held his famous Synod at Oxford and publish'd those Constitutions which still pass under his Name About four years after Otto the Legate coming hither to enlarge the Pope's Revenues before too great in this Kingdom held a Council at Westminster the day after Hilary and proposed to the Clergy the project upon which He came To avoid the design He had upon them the Bishops made answer that the King being indisposed was Absent and several of their Brethren were not come to the Synod and so they could Resolve upon nothing for want of Them The Legate who understood the meaning of this proposed to them that They should at least Agree to another Meeting about Mid-lent and he would undertake that the King should come to it But the Bishops replied That without the Consent of the King and their Brethren who were absent they could not Agree to any such Proposal And the King Himself forbad all who held any Baronies of Him to do any thing in prejudice of His Rights So zealous were these Men for the King's Prerogative when they needed it to guard them against the Encroachments of the Pope And so little do Men value how differently they behave themselves when their interests lead them to shift their Party and their Opinions But tho' the King now joyn'd with his Clergy against the Pope yet it was not very long before He himself invited the same Otho to come again as Legate into England Who being accordingly come hither held a Legantine Council at St. Paul's London in the Octaves of St. Martins to Reform the abuses of Pluralities and some other Enormities that were crept into the Church And there proposed his Constitutions to the Clergy that so by their Suffrage and Consent they might be establish'd for the Reformation of the State of the Church of England I insist not upon the two fresh Attempts that were made by this Legate upon the Clergy for Money and in Both which He was constantly refused by Them As was also Rustandus who succeeded him and by the like authority call'd another Synod to fleece the Clergy for the Pope's Advantage About three years after Boniface
Controversie of that Prince with Becket his Archbishop may alone suffice to shew When being angry with the Archbishop for Excommunicating one who held of him and did him service without first obtaining his leave so to do he in his Parliment at Westminster proposed to the Bishops that they should promise to observe the Ancient Laws of the Realm This they refused to do but with a Proviso put in to secure their own Liberties The King resenting this the Archbishop and Bishops in a great Council at Oxford promised that they would submit to what he required of them But when he thereupon held his Parliament at Clarendon and the particular points which they were to yield to were proposed to them Becket tho' he had at first sworn to observe them yet afterwards flew off from it and never left till he at last lost his Life in an obstinate Opposition of the King's Prerogative From this time the power both of the Pope and Clergy began very much to prevail For the King being upon this occasion forced to a dishonourable Submission and the following Princes especially King John sinking their Authority still lower the Efforts which were made by the Laity against it were for some time but very seeble Nor could the Parliament sufficiently vindicate its Power against the Encroachments that were daily made upon the Civil Jurisdiction But however both our Kings and our Parliaments began by degrees to recover their Authority and to return to their former strength tho' indeed it was not till about the End of this Period that they did so And how far they then extended their Power both over Ecclesiastical Persons and in regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters their Acts still remaining and many of them still in force too sufficiently shew and all which are so well known that I shall not need to insist more particularly upon them III PERIOD From the 23d of King Edward the First to the 25th of King Henry the Eighth In the last Period we met with a considerable Change by the Usurpation of the Pope and Weakness of our Princes made in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Supremacy We are now to account for no less a change in the Civil State If the opinion of those may be admitted who here fix the first Settlement of our Parliament upon that lasting and excellent Foundation upon which it has ever since stood and upon which it is to be hoped it shall ever continue to stand That our Kings from the beginning had their great Councils and which tho' not yet call'd by that Name were nevertheless instead of a Parliament to them has before been observed and cannot be deny'd or doubted of by any To these the most eminent Persons of the Kingdom as well Clergy as Laity were wont to be called before the time of the Norman Conquest And when by occasion thereof the Conquerour made a change in the Tenures of Lands in this Country from thenceforth all the great Men and Clergy who held of him by Baronies and ow'd him Service thereby were summon'd by him to his great Councils And with these all such others as held of him in capite were obliged to attend at them whensoever their Presence should be required and that was for the most part as often as the Prince wanted Money and expected a supply from them Thus much the Charter of King John implies and this seems to have been the true Constitution of our Parliament till about the latter end of King Henry the Third's time How a change was then made and what occasion was taken for the making of it it is not needfull for me in this place to enquire But that in the 49th Year of that King the Commons were summon'd by Writ to come to Parliament is confess'd by those who deny that they ever had any place in it before Whether they from thenceforth continued to be constantly called to these Councils or whether there was an Interruption in this new Establishment from that time till about the 18th of King Edward the First as it is hard to determine so is it not very material to my present business to enquire That which we are sure of is that in the 18th of King Edward the First they were again summon'd and so have continued ever since to be But tho' it be therefore confess'd that the Commons were constantly call'd to the Parliament from the 18th of Edward the First yet it does not appear that the Method now observed of chusing of them was so soon brought in The most ancient Authorities that are alledged for this are the Writs of the 23d of the same King and from which time accordingly some have dated the full Settlement of our present most wise and admirable Constitution And as this is the Change which seems to have been made about this time in the secular part of our Parliament so have we reason to believe that at the same time there was no less a change made in the Ecclesiastical part of it For whereas before only the Bishops and Abbots who held of the King by their Baronies were wont to be summon'd thither in the 49th of Henry 3. when the Commons began to be call'd several of the Inferiour Clergy were also call'd together with them and that for ought appears in a larger Proportion than the Laity themselves were And when in the 23d of Edward 1st the constitution of the Parliament came to be setled as now it is the Inferiour Clergy were put upon the very same foot that the Commons were in it And as with respect to the one a Writ was issued out to the Sheriff of each County to return such a certain number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses so with relation to the other a Clause was inserted into the Writ of the Bishop of every Diocese to send the Dean of his Cathedral and his Archdeacons in person and out of the Chapter and Archdeaconries to chuse such a number of Proctors as was thought sufficient to represent the Clergy of each Diocess in it 'T is true we are told that in some few Writs at the beginning this Clause was sometimes omitted By what means or upon what account they cannot tell But then as we find that when this general Clause was omitted particular Writs were sent to several of the Inferiour Clergy to come to Parliament so the same Learned Person who furnishes us with this Remark does ingenuously confess that after a diligent search of our Records it did appear to him that these Defects were soon over and that from the 6th of Edw. 3. the Clergy have continued to be as duly and constantly summon'd to Parliament as the Commons themselves have been Indeed so evident is the truth of this that our greatest Lawyers and Antiquaries do not deny the inferiour Clergy to have been once a member of the Parliament My Lord Coke has told us That many
times they have appear'd there as Spiritual Assistants to consider consult and consent Only he affirms that they never had Voices there because they were no Lords of Parliament the force of which Argument I shall leave to the House of Commons to answer In the mean time I must observe that in the case of Bird and Smith Trin. 4. Jac. 1. upon a Deprivation made of Smith by the High Commissioners for not Conforming to the Canons of the Church the Lord Chancellour having call'd Popham Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench Coke of the Common Pleas and Fleming Lord Chief Baron to his assistance it was agreed to by all the three without any Exception That the Canons of the Church made by the Convocation and King without the Parliament shall bind in matters Ecclesiastical as well as an Act of Parliament Because the Convocation of the Clergy was once a Member of the Parliament but afterwards for Convenience separated and therefore does carry its peculiar Jurisdiction along with it in the Convocation House For which reason also a Clergy-man cannot be chosen a Member of the House of Commons nor a Lay-man of the Convocation as Coke then declared had been resolved in a Conference of the two Houses 21 Hen. 8. And as concerning the other part of my Lord Coke's Assertion that the Proctors of the Clergy never had Voices in Parliament because in the Writ of Summons it is said that they were call'd Ad consentiendum his quae tunc ibidem de communi consilio dicti regni nostri contigerit ordinari it may suffice to observe that tho' this be indeed the present Form yet when both the Clergy and Commons were first called to this great Council they were both summon'd to another purpose and in words that did expresly intitle them to act in it In the 23d Edw. 1. the first Summons for ought appears that was ever regularly issued out for them they were called Ad Tractand Ordinand Faciend nobiscum cum caeteris praelatis proceribus aliis incolis Regni nostri In the 4th Edw. 3. Ad Faciend Consentiend And this continued to be the usual Form afterwards And these are the very Words that were used in the Commons Writs in the same Parliament 4 Edward 3 And which tho' alter'd about the 26th of that King into others of greater force Ad Tractand Consulend Faciend Yet that Form lasted not very long but in the 46 of the same King it again was worded Ad Faciend Consulend and so has continued to this day And a more ancient Authority than this in my Lord Coke's Account has told us that the Clergy were call'd Ad Tractand Deliberand That their names were call'd over the beginning of every Parliament that they had a Voice in it and made a part of the Commons there But because this is a point that will best be clear'd by matter of Fact we will enquire a little what the Clergy were wont heretofore to do there For as for the Forms of Summons tho' I conceive at first they were very properly drawn and do mark out to us the undoubted Rights of those to whom they were sent as they were allow'd of in those ancient times yet how little they may signifie now the Form of our Parliamentary Writs in the Praemonentes to the Bishop does alone too evidently shew In the 6 Edw. 3. after the Archbishop of Cant. and Bishop of London had declared how that the French King designing an Expedition to the Holy Land had desired our King to go along with him and that this was the cause of calling that Parliament Sir Jeffery le Scroop added by the King's Commandment that the same was called as well to redress the Breach of the Laws and Peace as for the King 's going to the Holy Land The Bishops answer'd That it did not properly appertain to them to counsel in matters of Peace and to prescribe for the punishment of Evils And so together with the Proctors of the Clergy they went apart to consult about the Matters proposed to them In the 13th of the same King the King appointing Commissioners in his stead to begin and continue the Parliament we find the Dean of York as Treasurer standing next to the Archbishop in the Commission And in the Parliament which met the Michaelmas before it being resolved to hold another upon the Octaves of Hilary the Archbishops were order'd to summon their respective Convocations to be ready to meet with it In the 18th of the same Edw. 3. at the opening of the Parliament complaint was made that sundry of all Estates were absent whereat the King did no less muse than he was thereat offended Wherefore he charged the Archbishop for his part to punish the Defaults of the Clergy and he would do the like touching the Parliament And in the same Session the Resolution being taken that the King should end the War he was engaged in either by Battle or an Honourable Peace the King agreed And in order thereunto the Clergy of Cant. granted him a Triennial Disme and the Commons two fifteens of Counties and two Dismes of Cities and Towns It was the usual custom of the Commons in those days to begin such Bills as they thought necessary to have pass'd by Petition to the King in Parliament Thus they did in this Parliament 18 Edw. 3. which being ended the Bishops and Clergy exhibited their Petitions also being in number seven whereto the King answer'd and the same comprized in the Statute for the Clergy still extant In the Preamble of which the King takes notice of the Triennial Disme granted to him by the Prelates and Procurators of the Clergy of both Provinces In the 1 Rich. 2. we again find the Clergy petitioning in like manner And in the 21st of the same King the Commons by Sir John Bussey their Speaker pray the King that forasmuch as divers Judgments were heretofore undone for that the Clergy were not present therefore they pray'd the King that the Clergy should appoint some to be their common Proctor with sufficient Authority thereunto And the Bishops thereupon appointed Sir Thomas Piercie their Proctor to assent in the name of the Clergy And by vertue whereof when the Parliament took a new Oath to the King the Bishops and Abbots themselves took it and Sir Thomas Piercie as Proctor for the Clergy was sworn to the same And when in the same Parliament Sir John Bussey offer'd the King a Subsidy from the Commons and thereupon desired his general Pardon the Clergy gave the like power to Sir William â—e Scroop of Wilts to answer for them that they late did to Sir Thomas Piercie And when finally upon the advice of Sir John Bussey the Lords were required again to swear not to alter any thing of what was done in this Parliament not only the Bishops and Temporal Lords did so but sundry
be Summon'd to the Convocation as often as the Other Estates are to the Parliament But as Our Kings have often been wont to hold Convocaons when there were no Parliaments sitting so in this very Age we know the Convocation was continued after the Parliament was dissolved and our most Eminent in the Law declared that it might lawfully be so How long our Archbishops went on by their Own Authority to call these Convocations I am not able precisely to determine But as it is observed by One who has been very Curious in these Remarks of Simon Langham first That He summon'd such Synods partly at the desire and command of the King and partly without the King's Letters at his own pleasure and of Thomas Arundell after That the Convocation of 1408 as almost all the Others of His Time were called by the sole Letters and Command of the Archbishop tho' nevertheless He sometimes held Them at the desire of the King and by vertue of his Letters for the Publick Affairs of the Realm So it is plain that not only in these times the King did often send his Orders to the Archbishop for this purpose but that from the very time of Edward the First He had been constantly used so to do And it is no improbable con 〈…〉 ure of our Church-Historian that about the End of Arundell's time the King began wholly to Assume this Power and that from thenceforth no Convocations were call'd but at his Command That this was the Case in Henry the Eighth's time the Act of his 25th Year Chapt. 19. tells us And whosoever shall weigh the Introduction of that Statute will see cause to conclude from the Wording of it that so it had been for some considerable time before And now having thus prepared the way for a Right understanding of the nature of the Convocation as it was first setled in the beginning of this Period and has from thence been derived down to Us Let us go on to take a brief View of the chiefest of those Meetings of which any Account remains to Us and from thence we shall be able more clearly to discover the Nature of them and what dependence of Right they ought to have upon the Royal Authority No sooner was Winchelsea made Archbishop of Canterbury but He presently turn'd his Mind to the Reformation of his Court of Arches and for the better accomplishing thereof call'd a Provincial Synod in which He publish'd those Orders for the Regulation of it which still Remain to us under his Name The next year after the same Archbishop held Another Synod and therein agreed that a Sentence of Excommunication should be publish'd against all such as should Infringe the Liberties granted by the King in his Great Charter and Charter of the Forest and that the Copies of Them order'd by the King and Parliament to be sent to Every Cathedral Church should according to their Command be publickly Read to the People Assembled there There were some other things done in this Convocation for the better securing of the Privileges of the Church and an Order publish'd by the Archbishop throughout his Province to make known to the Clergy what had been Resolved by Them What was design'd to have been done in the Convocation again called the year following is not known All that we are told of it is That two Fryars appear'd there in behalf of the King to shew that notwithstanding the Pope's Prohibition the Clergy might lawfully grant a Subsidy to the King to help Him in his Wars Which being done they laid a Command upon the Clergy under pain of Imprisonment not to publish any Sentence of Excommunication either against the King or against any that put Themselves under his Protection and thereupon the Synod immediately broke up For the better understanding of which we must know that the Archbishop had procured a Bull from Rome to forbid the Clergy to grant the King any farther assistance without his leave first had for the doing of it The King hereupon put the Clergy out of his protection And then the Clergy granted him a fifth part of their Goods only the Archbishop Himself stood out and had his Goods Confiscated But so ill were the Circumstances of the King at that time that he thought it not safe to Contest it with Him but in a little time return'd again to Peace with the Archbishop and restored his Goods to Him But this Reconciliation lasted not long the King seeming rather to have waited for an Opportunity of doing him a mischief without hurting himself than to have truly forgiven him And therefore being now in better Circumstances with the Pope He accused the Archbishop of having been the chief Fomenter of all the late Troubles he had met with from his Barons and forced him to go to Rome to answer for it And when in the last year of his Reign He held his Parliament at Carlisle An. 1308 He caused an Inhibition to be Put upon William de Testa a new Legate sent to get up more Money here and a Restraint to be laid upon such Monks as had Lands in England but whose capital Houses were in other Kingdoms So earnestly did this King labour to recover his Authority from those intollerable Usur pations that had been made upon it No sooner was King Edward the Second His Son Crown'd but He gave the Archbishop now Return'd from Rome to understand that He would not suffer his Realm to be obliged either by the Decrees of the General Council of Lyons abroad or by the Constitutions of Otho and Ottobon at home against his Consent And therefore that he should not deprive any of his Chaplains of their Benefices on any pretence of Pluralities or Non-Residence But still the Pope's Authority both in assembling and managing of our Convocations nevertheless prevailed An eminent instance of which we have in the Convocation held the year after and from whence we may collect how they were order'd about this time The Pope having resolved to suppress the order of the Knights-Templers summons a general Council to mâ—et at Vienne To this he invites or rather commands our Archbishops and Bishops to come And that they might be the better prepared for what they were to do there he requires the Archbishop of Canterbury to assemble a Provincial Synod and therein to deliberate about the affairs of the Knights-Templers and to dispose the way for their more essectual Condemnation at the general Council The Archbishop having received this order from the Pope immediately sends his Writ to the Bishop of London requiring him to call the Bishops and Clergy to a Convocation The Bishop of London sends abroad his Summons accordingly And when they met the usual Preliminaries being over the Pope's Bulls were in the first place read next the Bishop of London's Certificate to shew what he had done in obedience both to the Pope's and
Archbishop's Command and so they proceeded to the business for which they were called And here then we have a full Representation of the State of our Convocation and how it was managed in these times Great was the Usurpation which the Pope in all this made upon the King's Authority And it ought the rather to be taken notice of because this Archbishop was otherwise a hearty Friend to the Liberties of his Country and had a true respect and value for the King whose Follies and Excesses wrought so far upon him that they are at last thought to have broke his Heart The next Archbishop that succeeded him as he came in by the Pope's Authority so to maintain his Power the better he took care by such means as seldom fail in the Roman Court to gain mighty Privileges from that See Being supported with these he proceeds to make a Provincial Visitation holds several Synods at Oxford Lambeth and in other places And in one at Westminster publishes his Provincial Constitutions And all that the King was able to do was to send a Prohibition to him not to attempt or do any thing to his Prejudice or to the Prejudice of the State his Crown or Kingdom As for Simon Mepham who succeeded this Archbishop he held some few Synods and made some Provincial Constitutions in neither of which there is any thing extraordinary to be observed And the same must be said of the Convocations held by Archbishop Stratford who follow'd after In all which there is little to be taken notice of more than this that what Constitutions were made by them he ordered to be observed by his own Authority and to be publish'd by the Clergy throughout his Province But here tho' it be not necessary to our present purpose yet it may not be amiss to observe how our Kings began by degrees to assert their Authority and to put a stop if not an end to the Usurpations of the Court of Rome It was about the Year 1343 that the Pope desiring to encrease his Revenue here sent a Message to the Clergy to perswade them out of the two Provinces of Canterbury and York to maintain too Cardinals at Rome This being brought before the Parliament it was resolved by the common Consent of that great Council to let the Pope freely know that they were grown weary of his Impositions and neither could nor would bear any longer those Burdens which he was continually laying upon the Kingdom For which end it was also resolved that whosoever procur'd any Benefice in this Realm by vertue of the Pope's Provision should be obliged to come and live upon it and not be suffer'd to draw the Wealth of the Nation into other Countries And least this should not do it was also farther establish'd that no one should be admitted to any Benefice upon the Authority of any Bull from Rome without the King 's special License and Consent And all the Lords and Nobles declared that if the Pope went on by his Provisions to dispose of Benefices whether to Foreigners or others which their Ancestors had given by way of Charity to religious Persons to pray for them they would forthwith seize them into their own hands and dispose of them as they thought good This was a brisk stand and some restraint it did put to the Pope's Exorbitancies And yet it was but a year after that he sent two Bishops to the King to prevail with him to revoke these orders But our Historians tell us that they received a short Answer and presently return'd home again And the next year following the King put a Fine upon all Foreign Clergy-men and took of every one according as they were able to give It would be too long for me to say how far this great King following herein the steps of his Royal Grandfather King Edward I. proceeded to maintain his own Authority and the Liberties of his Country against the Papal Encroachments I shall only add that notwithstanding all the endeavours of the Court of Rome to the contrary he constantly adhered to the Laws made against Provisors c. And when the Pope publish'd his Indulgence at Rome Anno 1349 he not only expresly forbad any of his Subjects to go thither but recall'd those who were already there But to return to our Convocations and the method observed in holding of them When the Archbishop complain'd in the Parliament of the Violation that was made of the Privileges of the Church in that Clergy-men known to be such were oftentimes forced to appear before the King's Judges it was freely told him that in this nothing was done but what was absolutely necessary to the Peace of the Realm For that the Ordinary was so negligent in punishing of them that there would be no bounds set to their Excesses unless the civil Magistrate took some care to restrain them The Archbishop was sensible that this was but too true and thereupon he went apart with his Parliamentary Clergy and by their common Advice and Consent set forth an order for the more severe confining and punishing of such Offenders As for the other Synods held by this Archbishop there being little remarkable in them I shall not need to insist upon them It was about the Year 1393 that the famous Statute of Proemunire was pass'd and by which it was hoped that an effectual stop would have been put to the Usurpations of the See of Rome And indeed it has been said by some that from this time forward our Archbishops did leave off to summon Convocations by their own Authority and call'd them only at the King's Command But tho' I am not altogether satisfied in this particular yet that they now began to be more moderate in the Exercise of their Power I do easily believe And certain it is that not only after this Act but all along before when things ran at the highest against the Royal Prerogative yet still our Kings often interposed their Authority and summon'd Convocations by their own Writs directed to the Archbishop as they still continue to be at this day And now the Preaching of Wickliffe and the Opinions by him brought in began to be taken notice of Insomuch that Courtney being Archbishop thought it needfull to hold a Synod at London on purpose to pass a Sentence of Condemnation upon them Whether he did this at the King's Command or by vertue of his own Legatine Authority I shall not enquire But this we are assured that the King thereupon issued out his orders for the Arresting of all such as held any Heretical Tenets and particularly that opposed the Doctrine of the Church agreed upon in that Convocation And the same was the business of the Councils held by Arundel his Successor first at Oxford Anno 1394 then at London Anno 1408. And lest the orders of such Synods should not be sufficient to put a stop to the growth of
these opinions the Civil Power was not only allow'd but desir'd to interpose with them and an Act made for the Prosecution of Hereticks Anno 1401 2 Hen. 4. But tho' by this means therefore a new subject was started to exercise the debates of our Convocations yet still the Pope ceased not to attempt upon the Crown with his wonted Usurpations To oppose which Richard the 2d call'd his Clergy together Anno 1398 and demanded of them Whether the Pope had Power to translate Bishops and dispose of Preferments as he had again that Year notoriously done Instead of giving any direct answer whereunto they cautiously reply'd That it was their opinion the King should write to the Pope to desist from such Practices for the time to come At which the King being justly offended told them That had they boldly asserted his Right he would have firmly stood by them and have protected them against the Power of the Court of Rome King Richard being deposed and King Henry being willing to ingratiate Himself with the Clergy scarce a year pass'd without a Convocation The main business of which still was to suppress the New Opinions and to prosecute the Maintainers of Them But except this there is little from this time forth to be observed to our present purpose in Them But tho' I shall not therefore need to insist any farther upon the particular View of the Convocations of these times yet a Law there is which must not be pass'd by It was made in favour of the Clergy by King Henry the Sixth Anno 1430. And the substance of it is That the Clergy in Convocation should be allow'd for Themselves and their Servants all the same Protections and Privileges which had been Granted to Members of Parliament and which by Vertue thereof they still continue to Enjoy I shall close up these Remarks with the account of one Other Convocation and that such as is not to be parallell'd in all its circumstances in any part of our History King Henry the Eighth having call'd a Parliament to Westminster Anno 1529 Commanded Warham Archbishop of Canterbury to Summon a Convocation of the Clergy to meet about the same time in St. Paul's Church London Cardinal Woolsey who as Archbishop of York had no place in the Convocation and was desirous to bring every thing within his Own Management by his Legatine Power dissolves the Convocation held at the King's Command by Warham and Orders the same Synod to Appear before himself as the Pope's Legate the next day at Westminster Where having got a sufficient Subsidy granted by Them to the King he soon dismiss'd the Assembly And thus have I given a brief Account of the most considerable Assemblies of the Clergy in Convocation during this Third Period Many there are which I have pass'd by without making any mention at all of Them And it may be sufficient here in the Close of all to say this one thing concerning Them That for the most part the Great End our Kings had in Summoning of Them was to get Money from Them as the main thing they did when they met was to consider what Measures to take and what Excuses to urge to avoid the Giving of it IV PERIOD From the 25th of King Henry the Eighth to Our Present Times We are now come to the last Part of these Reflections to the Time in which our Convocation was finally setled by Parliamentary Authority in the State in which it now stands and under which Condition I have in the foregoing Chapter consider'd the Rights of it I shall here only give a short account how it came to be thus setled and what Methods our Princes have from thenceforth taken for the Management of their Ecclesiastical Affairs and the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy King Henry the Eighth having been a long time trifled with by the Court of Rome in the business of his Divorce and being not of a Humour to bear such an Opposition as was thereby made to his Desires Resolved at last to break off all Communication with it And in pursuance thereof pass'd an Act against Appeals to Rome and for ending Ecclesiastical Suits within his Own Realm Anno 1533. It was not long after this that Warham dying and Cranmer being made Archbishop of Canterbury the business of the Divorce which had so long been depending was finally determined by Him The news of which being got to Rome the Pope not only Annull'd the Archbishop's proceeding but Commanded the King to do it likewise And upon his Refusal to hearken to Him publish'd against Him a Sentence of Excommunication as He had before Threatned to do To prevent that Breach which this must otherwise have necessarily made between Them the French King interposed so effectually with the Pope who about this time came as far as Marseilles to Treat with Him that He offer'd new Terms of Accommodation to King Henry and the Archbishop of Paris thereupon undertook to make up the difference betwixt Them And now all things seem'd to tend to Peace The King was willing to accept of the Pope's Offers and the Pope no less desirous to gain the King The misfortune was that the Pope confined Him to so short a time that his Messenger could not get to Rome so soon as had been required And the Imperial Faction wrought so powerfully upon the Pope that he refused to enlarge it but for six days till He might see what the King would do before He proceeded to a final Sentence against Him The Quarrel therefore now being come to a heighth and the King resolved to maintain his Authority Many Laws were pass'd the next year for the better Establishment of it And because he was sufficiently aware that His chiefest opposition might be likely to arise from the Clergy He resolved to take an effectual Course with Them And of which it will be requisite to give some short Account I have before Observed what severe Laws were made by Edward the Third in his 25th 27th and 28th Years against the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome These were confirm'd by King Richard the Second in his 12th and 13th Years And because the Pope still went on nevertheless in his Practises in his 16th Year the famous Act of Praemunire was pass'd against All Bulls c. from the Court of Rome under Pain of Perpetual Banishment with the forfeiture of the Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels of those who should either procure or make use of Them But notwithstanding these Laws the Pope still proceeded in his Own way and the Clergy were always ready to assist him in it And by these means there were but very few of any Note among Them who had not upon some account or other incurr'd the Penalty before mention'd Upon this Ground therefore the King resolved to attacque Them And They being well Aware of the danger of it determined by any means to Avoid it In Order whereunto They first
agree to Offer the King a Summ of Money And in the next place by an Act of Convocation to submit Themselves to Him and Recognize his Royal Authority over Them This was that submission upon which the Act for Regulating the Convocation was drawn and in which among Other things these two Points became setled both by Parliament and Convocation First That the Clergy have no Right to meet in any Synod without the King's License testified by his Writ to the Archbishop And Secondly That being Met They cannot proceed to Act but according to his Direction Thus was the Crown after a long Invasion upon it Restored to those Rights it anciently enjoy'd and which our Kings as we have seen continued to assert till the Papal Power or Interest became too strong for Them And accordingly ever since the Convocation has continued to assemble and act according to these Measures so that I shall not need to take any more particular View of its Proceedings It is I conceive without all doubt that since the passing of this Act the Convocation has still been summon'd as often as a Parliament has been held And as long as the Clergy therein continued to assist the Government by granting of Subsidies it has generally been allow'd to sit too as often as it was necessary for that purpose tho' it has seldom done any thing besides But altho' it has t 〈…〉 efore been the General Custom for the Convocation to meet whensoever the Parliament do's yet neither since the Passing of this Act nor before have these two been accounted to have so inseparable a Relation to one another but that if the King pleased the Convocation might be held when the Parliament was not And the Parliament sit and act and yet the Convocation do neither An instance of the former of these we have within about four years after the Passing of the Convocation-Act The Archbishop by Order of the Vicar-General call'd a Convocation Anno 1537. And the Clergy accordingly both Met and Did business tho' no Parliament was held that Year As for the latter it is a matter of daily practise and has been so ever since the Reformation It is certain then that the Convocation as we now understand it that is to say as it is an Assembly of the Clergy call'd by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishops and by their Order Grounded thereupon is an Assembly altogether different from the Parliament of this Realm and evidently no Member of it The only Question is What we are to think of it when it meets together with the Parliament and has a pretension to its Assembling as well by the Bishop's Parliamentary Summons as by the Archbishops Orders When Mr. Philpot was examined before the Lords of the Council Novemb. the 6th Anno 1555 concerning the Heresie of which he was Accused One part of His Plea for himself was That they took advantage of certain things that had been spoken by him in Convocation And that for this He ought not to be call'd to account Because that House being a Member of the Parliament ought to be a place of free speech for All Men of the House by the ancient and laudable Custom of this Realm And indeed so firmly was this Notion setled in the Minds of the Clergy in those days that in the Convocation held the first year of Edw. the Sixth a Motion was made That it should be desired in the Name of the Lower House of Convocation that their House might be United to the House of Commons But the Lords Rich and Windsor told Mr. Philpot That the Convocation was No Part of the Parliament tho' by an Old Custom it was call'd together by One Writ of Summons with the Parliament To their Opinion Mr. Philpot submitmitted nor shall I pretend to enter any Plea against it Thus much is plain That the Convocation was once accounted in this Respect a Member of the Parliament And the Reason why it was accounted so was Because by this Writ of Summons the lower Clergy were Called no less than the Bishops themselves to it Now thus they continue to be summon'd still The Writ is the same it ever was Is as constantly Issued out and as expressly Worded as when they were from thence confess'd to be a part of the Parliament And therefore the Reason of the thing being the same one would think it should still inferr the same Conclusion But Logick is one thing and Law is another And all this notwithstanding the Clergy is now no Member of the Parliament Nor is there any Reason why it should be For now there being so many learned Bishops there I suppose heretofore there were no Bishops there their Presence is no longer holden necessary So my Lord Coke has learnedly determined this matter Which makes me the more wonder that the Presence of the Inferiour Clergy being no longer holden necessary it should nevertheless be holden necessary to continue their Summons and not rather be thought adviseable to Reduce the Bishop's Writ to its first Form when the Proctors of the Clergy not coming neither were they summon'd to Parliament Such then is the Case of our Present Convocation But now besides these Provincial Synods there is another sort of more select Conventions if not first introduced yet more especially made use of in this last Period And they consist of such Certain Bishops and Clergy-men as the King thinks sit to Choose and by his Commission to Authorize to meet together at such time and in such place as he therein prescribes to them To these he proposes whatsoever it be that he would have them to consult about and having so done they are to lay the Result of their Opinions according to his Direction before Him That by such Synods as these the Reformation was especially carried on is not to be deny'd They have often determined the greatest Matters And upon their Advice the Government has accordingly proceeded without ever consulting any larger Convocation concerning them But this was in some measure owing to the Necessities of those times in which a great part of the Clergy were yet engaged in the Romish Errors Enemies to the Reformation and therefore not qualified to promote so good a Work At present their business is chiefly this Either to Advise the King in such Matters as He do's not think it necessary to trouble the Convocation to meet about Or else in Matters of a greater Moment to prepare what may be sit for the King to lay before the Convocation that since they must not debate on any thing without his leave He may thereby be the better enabled to Propose what is Expedient to Them So that now then if we would know after what manner Ecclesiastical Affairs have been transacted since the time of the Reformation we shall find it to have been by some or other of these Five following Ways 1. Sometimes the King has by his Own
its determinations Proceeds in the next place for their sakes who have No Religion at the bottom nor any Notion of a Church however for their Worldly Interest they may pretend to this or that Party by joyning Themselves to its Communion to shew What the Law of their Country says in this Case That so they may be for ever silenced in this Question and not dare to mutter any more after what this New Pythagoras shall have declared to Them And having thus engaged our attention he proceeds Oraculously to pronounce KNOW therefore says He that a Convocation is an Ecclesiastical Court or Assembly Essential to our Constitution and Establish'd by the Law of it It is the Highest of all Our Ecclesiastical Courts or Assemblies Is called and convened in Parliament time by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishops It consists of all the Clergy of both Provinces either Personally or Representatively present In the Upper House are the Archbishops and Bishops In the Lower House or House of Commons spiritual are the Deans Arch-deacons One Proctor for Every Chapter and Two for the Clergy of Each Diocess This is the Court. The frequent sitting of this Court is One of the Chief Rights of the Church of England The Church of England is a National Church and to such it is certainly incident to have National Synods or Convocations And in like manner to those Synods to have freedom of Speech or Debate about Matters proper for their Cognizance relating to the Being or Well-being of their Body as a Church And if the Church of England have any Rights or Privileges this of Assembling Debating and Conferring is certainly One and the Chief of Them 'T is true a Convocation cannot Assemble without the Assent of the King His Writ is necessary in Order to it And his Prerogative do's Empower him to Prohibit the Clergy Assembling in Synod without his Summons But then it is as true too that the Assembling of Them is not entirely dependant on His Will nor lodged purely in the Breast of the Sovereign But it is with the Convocation as it is with the Parliament The King is intrusted with the Formal part of Summoning and Convening it but so that by the very Essence and Constitution of our Church a Convocation ought at certain times to Meet Sit and Act and the Fundamentals of our Government shew Him When and How his Power in this Respect is to be Exercised and that it ought not to be at his free Will and Pleasure To Grant therefore that the King's Writ is necessary to the Assembling of the Convocation The Question is Whether that Writ ought not to Issue whensoever a Summons goes out for a Parliament And to this we say That the Law of the Realm hath directed the King or at least His Chancellour Keeper or Other Minister having the Custody of the Great Seal to Issue forth such Writs and they can no more be Omitted than any Single Peer's Summons to Parliament Thus far our Way is plain and clear But supposing all this the Question still is Whether or no the Convocation may conferr after their Summons and Meeting without the King ' s Special License and Assent In answer to which I must acknowledge that the Common Received Opinion is in the Negative However if what has been offer'd already with regard to their Convening have any weight in it it must hold also in some degree with respect to their Conferring and Treating when met about Matters proper to their Cognizance If they are a Court and have their Jurisdiction and are a Legislature and have the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws both which they certainly are and have then the liberty of Conferring and Discussing is necessary to their very Existence c. This is the Summ of what this Author has asserted as to the point in Question and for the most part is express'd in his Own Words Let us now see Wherein we differ from One another And reduce the matter in debate between Us to as narrow a Compass as we can And 1st Tho' I will not enter upon a New Subject yet I must needs say I am by no means satisfied that the Church has either Command or Authority from God to assemble Synods or by Consequence any inherent and unalterable Right to make any such authoritative Definitions as He supposes in Them I am not Aware that either in the Old or New Testament there is so much as One single direction given for its so doing And excepting the singular Instance which we have Acts XVth I know of no Example that can with any shew of Reason be offer'd of such a Meeting And whether that were such a Synod as we are now speaking of may very justly be doubted The foundation of Synods in the Church is in my Apprehension the same as of Councils in the State The necessities of the Church when it began to be enlarged first brought in the One as Those of the Common-wealth did the Other And therefore when Men are Incorporated into Societies as well for the service of God and the salvation of their Souls as for their Civil peace and security these Assemblies are to be as much subject to the Laws of the Society and to be regulated by Them as any Other publick Assemblies of what kind soever are Nor has the Church any Inherent divine Right to set it at liberty from being Concluded by such Rules as the Governing part of every Society shall prescribe to it as to this Matter This is my Notion of these things and thus I conceive Synods are to be managed in Christian States As for those Realms in which the Civil Power is of another Persuasion natural Reason will prompt the Members of every Church to consult together the best they can how to manage the affairs of it and to Agree upon such Rules and Methods as shall seem most proper to preserve the Peace and Unity of the Church and to give the least offence that may be to the Government under which they live And what Rules are by the Common-consent of Every such Church agreed to ought to be the measure for the assembling and acting of Synods in such a Country Whether this notion will please this Author or no I cannot tell If it do's not I hope he will shew me wherein my Error lies and how I may correct it In the mean time this security I have that if I am mistaken I err with Men of as great a Judgment and as comprehensive a Knowledge in these Matters as Any can be who differ from Me. But to come to that which I am now more properly to examine That the two Convocations consider'd as a National Synod are the Highest Ecclesiastical Assembly of this Kingdom I readily Agree Nor shall I deny but that a Convocation may be said to be Essential to our Constitution But that the frequent sitting
of Convocations as understood by this Author and meant of their sitting as often as the Parliament meets is therefore One of the chief Rights of the Church or indeed any of its Rights at all unless by Accident I utterly deny When the Exigencies of the Church call for a Convocation and there is a manifest need of its Assembling then I do confess the Church has a right to its sitting And if its Circumstances be such as to Require their frequent sitting during those Circumstances it has a Right to their frequent meeting and sitting And if the Prince be sensible of this and yet will not suffer his Clergy to come together in that Case I do acknowledge that he would abuse the trust that is lodg'd in him and deny the Church a benefit which of right it ought to enjoy But as in a Well-establish'd Church it can hardly be supposed that there should be such a frequent need of Convocations so to Oblige the Clergy frequently to come together when there is no manner of Reason for their so doing would be in truth to injure the Church and oppress its Ministers In-as much as it would require them to leave their Cures and be at the trouble and charge of attending the Convocation without doing any manner of Good either to the Church or Realm by such their meeting And therefore to settle this first Point the summ of it is this That the Church has a Right to have its Convocation call'd as often as the Parliament is Assembled I agree That the Convocation thus called has a Right to sit and act whenever the Circumstances of the Church require it so to do I allow also But that the Convocation ought of Right not only to be summon'd but to meet and do business as often as the Parliament sits whether there be any need for such its meeting or no This I utterly deny And I am persuaded it would be a Burden to the Clergy rather than a Privilege to oblige them to such an Attendance This then is the first Thing wherein we differ viz. That He affirms that the Convocation ought of Right not only to be summon'd whenever the Parliament meets but Regularly and of Course to sit and act too tho' there should not be any the least Occasion for its so doing The next Question is Whether being met they may proceed to any Synodical Acts without the King 's special License first had to Authorize them so to do And here our Author tells us That if the Convocation be a Court and have a certain Jurisdiction belonging to it Or if it be a Legislature and have the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws as it certainly both is and has then the liberty of Conferring and Discussing is necessary to its very Existence Which last Expression tho' it be hard to make any good sense of yet I readily Agree to what I take to be his meaning in it For certainly Justice will be but lamely executed and Laws be very unaccountably made if those who are to judge and determine have not the liberty of conferring and discussing Matters in Order thereunto But tho' when the Convocation therefore is to judge or make Laws They must undoubtedly be allow'd to Conferr and Discuss yet may not the Clergy be restrain'd by certain Limitations from either judging or making Laws except when the Government shall think fit to permit them so to do And if former Abuses have made it necessary for the Government to put them under such a Restriction and the Clergy have themselves consented to it and thought that all things consider'd it would be safer for them to Act by the King's direction that at the Motion of every Warm Unthinking Member of their Own Body who should throw a snare in their way and run them into such Inconveniences as they should not be able easily to get out of As in such a Case they would have no liberty to judge or make Laws without License so neither would they have any need to conferr or discuss where They had no power to conclude any thing Now this I affirm to be Our Case and I must freely own I take it to be our Happiness that it is so It being more than probable that had not the Prince had this Tie upon Us we should before this time have run our selves into yet worser divisions than we now labour under and in all appearance have exposed both Our selves and the Church for a prey to the Common Enemy of Both. So that now then to state this Other point aright The Question between us is this Whether the Laws and Customs of this Realm have not Restrain'd the Clergy from entring on any Synodical Debates in Order to the making of any Canons or Constitutions without the special License of the King first had to Warrant them so to do That the King ought never to require the Convocation to meet more than out of form in Parliament-time but when He has some Business for it to do is on all hands agreed That when they do meet They ought to have Commission sent to them to empower them to go to work and not sit idly gazing at one another is also allow'd That lastly upon those Points which they are empowred to handle they ought to have a full liberty of Conferring Discussing and Arguing That they ought to be left to speak with all Reasonable Freedom and not be either check'd in the House or call'd to any Account out of it for any thing that was said in pursuance of these Ends is readily granted The only difficulty is Whether the Convocation being Met the Clergy ought not to Confine their Debates to the subject which the King proposes to them and not wander upon any other Matters which shall chance to be started by any of their own Members and proceed to determine Synodically concerning Them Having thus reduced the subject in debate to its proper bounds I shall now proceed with all due exactness to put together the Arguments which He has brought in proof of those Points wherein we differ and to consider what may be reasonably Replied to Them And 1st That the Convocation has a Right not only to be formally summon'd but to sit and act too as often as the Parliament meets He endeavours to prove by these following Arguments 1st From the Parallel which there seems to be between the Parliament and the Convocation Each consists of two Houses and these have or should have their several Prolocutors The One of these Courts is of the same Power and Use with Regard to the Church that the Other is in Respect of the State Nay tho' they have different Names and the Word Parliament be appropriated to signifie a Temporal Legislature yet anciently the same Appellation belong'd to them both A Witena-Gemote signified what We call a Parliament and a Church Gemote what We call a Convocation And therefore One would think that whenever the
new Laws for the suppression or discovery of the Others And this has been the Case of the present Government But now what Effect have all these Civil Exigencies had upon the Affairs of the Church Unless it be that an Act of Toleration has been made which our Author professes He envies not to the Dissenters or if He did I hope He would not have the Convocation pretend to Repeal it In short all he can alledge are certain disorders which either there is a sufficient provision already made against Or if there be not I doubt the Convocation will hardly be able to do any thing farther for the more effectual Redress of Them But however this I shall have Occasion more particularly to consider when I come to examine what He has said to prove the necessity which He pretends there is for the sitting of a Convocation And I must not anticipate here what will more properly as well as more fully be handled there So little is there in his first Argument which he has brought to prove that the Convocation has a Right to sit as often as the Parliament meets and has been unwarrantably deny'd by the Government so to do Let us see whether his next proof be any better Now that 2dly is no less than an Act of Parliament 8 Hen. VI. ch 1. The substance of which Statute is this That the Clergy who are called by the King 's Writ to Convocation shall fully Use and Enjoy such Liberty and Defence in Coming Tarrying and Returning as the Great Men and Commonalty of England called or to be called to the Kings Parliament do Enjoy and were wont to Enjoy or in time to come ought to Enjoy Well be this so But is there any thing in this Statute which says that the Clergy shall come to the Convocation when ever the Great Men and Commonalty of England do to the Parliament That is not pretended But what is there then in this Act to the purpose of our present Enquiry Why in the Preamble to it 't is said that The Clergy Coming to Convocation were often-times and commonly molested From whence our Author admirably concludes That therefore they did oftentimes and commonly in those days meet in Convocations That this can reasonably be inferr'd from those words I am by no means satisfied which only signifie that when the Clergy went to Convocation they were very often molested by Arrests c. but do's not at all imply that the Convocation used often to meet However let this be Granted In Henry the Sixth's time the Convocation often met therefore it met whenever the Parliament sate How do's that appear Nay but we must go farther Therefore of right it ought to meet now whenever the Parliament do's Nay but this will not yet do Therefore it ought not only formally to meet but to sit and act too as often as the Parliament assembles This our Author must mean or He alledges this act to no purpose And he who can draw this Consequence from that Act must be a mighty Man of Reason indeed and too unequal a Match for Men of ordinary Skill in Logick to deal with And yet after all this I confess is true The Convocation in those days did sit and act too for the most part as often as the Parliament met For the Clergy in those days assessed Themselves and without their sitting either as a Member of the Parliament which heretofore they were Or in a Provincial Synod which commonly met with the Parliament the King could have no supply from the Church But as for Ecclesiastical business for ought I can find they did as little with their Often-meeting then as they do with their Seldom-meeting now And were this the Case of the Convocation still were the business of its assembling principally if not only to give Money to the Government I believe instead of this Vindication of its Right to â—it we should rather have seen a Complaint against the charge and trouble of it At least I am pretty confident neither this Gentleman nor his Convocation-Friend would have been much concern'd for their Meeting or have been at all scandalized at those unwarrantable Adjournmen's they have now so tender a sense of But 3dly The Convecation says this Author is an Ecclesiastical Court. To it belongs the punishment of Heresies And in ancient times it was frequently and of necessity used for that End for without it there could be no punishment of Heresie Since the 25th of Hen VIII this is in good measure again the Case And it cannot reasonably be supposed to be in the King 's absolute Will whether it shall exercise this Jurisdiction or not This is his next Argument and should we intirely allow of it it would only prove that the King ought to permit Them to meet and act whenever any Hereticks were to be convicted by Them But would by no means shew either that they have a right even in such a Case to meet without the King's leave Or that the King ought of Right to let them sit when there is no such need of it But indeed if my Lord Coke be in the right there is a manifest mistake in the very foundation of this Argument For the Bishop of the Diocess had always Power to convict of Heresie and to proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures against Hereticks All that he was defective in was that He had no power to Imprison and for want of that could not proceed often-times to any purpose against them This Power therefore was given to the Bishop by the 2d of Hen. IV. And tho' now the Civil Penalty that was wont to be inflicted upon Hereticks be taken away yet has it been resolved that the Bishop may still proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures against Them Whether this be so or not I shall leave it to this Gentleman to enquire who possibly may be better acquainted with such matters than I am But if it be then 't is manifest there can be no need of the Convocations meeting to do that which may be as well done by the Bishops without it And these are only some lesser Arguments with which our Author design'd to skirmish before we came to his main battle But now we are to begin to look to our selves For 4thly His next Proof is taken from no less a Topick than the Parliamentary-Writ and in his Own Opinion â—s an Argument of Invincible Strength to Establish the Necessity of Convocations meeting as often as Parliaments In answer whereunto I do readily agree that when the Proemonition to the Bishop to Summon his Clergy to Parliament was first put into that Writ the Clergy thereby summon'd had as much right to meet by Vertue of it as the Bishop himself had And it is accordingly by Our best Antiquaries acknowledged that in Ancient times the Inferior Clergy were a Member of the Great Council of the Nation as well as the Bishops and Abbots But then this
is a Convocation that for many years past has had no Existence And the Convocation of which we are now disputing is quite another thing Is summon'd by another kind of Writ and consisted of another sort of Persons As by comparing the ancient Writs of both may evidently be discern'd So that this invincible Argument has one terrible defect in it that whether it could otherwise be answer'd or not yet 't is evidently nothing at all to the purpose But here our Author objects against himself That once upon a time the Archbishop call'd a Synod by his Own Authority without the King's License and was thereupon prohibited by Fitz-herbert Lord Chief Justice but the Archbishop regarded not his Prohibition What this is to his purpose I cannot tell nor do I see wherefore he brought it in unless it were to blame Rolls for quoting Speed for it And therefore in behalf of Both I shall take the liberty to say thus much That I know not what harm it is for a Man in his Own private Collections for such Rolls's Abridgment was tho' afterwards thought worthy of a publick View to note a memorable passage of History and make a Remark of his Own upon it Out of one of the most faithfull and judicious of all our Modern Historians I have before taken notice of this passage and that not from Speed but from Roger Hoveden from whom I suppose Speed may also have taken the Relation I shall therefore only beg leave to set this Gentleman to whom all our Historians are I doubt equally unknown right in two particulars by telling him that neither was Fitz-herbert the Man who prohibited the Archbishop nor was he Chief Justice when he did it His Name was Geoffrey Fitz-Peter He was Earl of Essex and a very Eminent Man in those days And his Place was much greater than this Author represents it even Lord Justice of England which he was first made by King Richard Anno 1198. And held in the King's absence to his death Anno 1213 In which year K. John going over into France constituted Peter Bishop of Winchester Lord Justice in his Place And now we are come to a low Ebb indeed the description of the Convocation as it stands in our Law-Dictionaries and that too like all the rest nothing to the purpose The Convocation is by them described to be a meeting of the Clergy in Parliament-time And some there were in the Long Parliament of 1641 who thought it could not lawfully be held but while the Parliament sate Well what follows Why therefore the Convocation has a Right to sit and act as often as the Parliament meets For a close Reasoner let this Author alone In the mean time I have before shewn that tho' the Convocation be Summon'd together with the Parliament yet it may sit when the Parliament do's not And we are like to have a hopefull time of it to answer such proofs where there is neither Law in the Antecedent nor Reason in the Consequence These then are the Arguments which this Author has offer'd to establish his first assertion namely That the Convocation has a Right to sit and act not only upon all such Occasions as the Necessities of the Church or Realm require it should but generally and without regard to any thing there is for them to do as often as the Parliament is Assembled I proceed II dly To consider What he has alledged for his Other Position Viz. That being met they have no need of any License from the King to empower them to act but may conferr debate and make Canons and do any other Synodical business which they think fit by their Own Authority And that either no Commission at all is needfull to enable them to do this or that if there be it ought of Course to be granted to Them In order whereunto I must in the first place observe that those who affirm that the King's License is necessary to warrant the Convocation to act do not sound their Opinion either upon the Power he has to assemble it or upon the Form of the Writ by which he Summons Them tho' that do's plainly seem to imply that some such Commission is to be expected from him But either first in General Upon that supreme Authority which Every Christian Prince as such has in Ecclesiastical Matters And by vertue whereof whenever they have admitted their Clergy to meet in Synods they have still prescribed to them the Rules by which they were to proceed in Them Or else 2dly In Particular Upon the Statute of the 25 Hen. VIII which has expressly declared this Power to belong to the King and forbidden the Clergy to presume to act Otherwise than in subordination thereunto But against this our Author excepts For first Is the Case be so Then is the Convocation an Assembly to little or no purpose whatsoever If their Tongues be entirely at the King's Will 't is improper to give their Resolutions any Title but the King's Rules and Ordinances They are to all intents and purposes His upon whose Will not only their Meeting but their very Debating depends In answer whereunto I reply First That either there is really no Inconvenience in all this Or if there be it follows not from what I am now asserting For certain it is that this was the Case of the most General and famous Councils that were ever held in the Church And which were not only call'd by the Emperour's Authority but being met acted intirely according to their prescription But indeed I cannot perceive that any of those hard things this Author so much complains of do at all follow from this supposition For what tho' the King do's propose to them the Subject of their Debates What they are to consult about and draw up their Resolutions upon Are They not still free to deliberate conferr resolve for all that Will not their Resolutions be their Own because the King declared to them the General Matter upon which they were to consult Is a Counsellor at Law of no use or has he no freedom of Opinion because his Client puts his Case to Him Or do's our Law unsitly call the Answer of a Petit-Jury its Verdict because the Judge Summ'd up the Evidence to them and directed them not only upon what points but from what proof they were to Raise it What strange Notions of things must a Man have who argues at such a Rate as this And might upon as good Grounds affirm the Parliament its self not to be free as he has deny'd the Convocation to be so because that in the main parts of their Debates That also is as much tho' not so necessarily directed by the King in what He would have them consult about I have insisted the more upon this particular because it is one of the most popular Arguments he has offer'd in defence of his Opinion tho' alas 't
Our Author therefore Labours all he can to Get over And that is How we are to understand the Statute of the 25. H. 8. Whether as Prohibiting the Clergy only to Promulge and Execute any Canons c. but what are Confirm'd by the King Or Whether we are to look upon it to have forbidden Them to debate and conclude upon any without his Licence first had so to do And here I shall neither enter into any Controversy with this New Critick about the propriety of Expression in which Our Acts are too often defective Nor complain of his very Partial and Imperfect Recital of it Tho' in this he will find it hard to justifie himself to those who will take the pains to compare the Words of the Statute with that Account which he has given in his Letter of it But supposing the Act to have been so obscurely or doubtfully drawn up as to be really capable of either of the Senses here contended for which yet truly I think it is not will only consider whether there be not much more reason to preferr Oars than to allow of His. For which end 1st I would Ask this Author Whether supposing One of these Senses can evidently be made appear to have been Always and Universally Received as the meaning of this Act ever since it was Made and the Other be Confessedly a New and Singular for I must not now say a Forced Interpretation of it that Ought not in all Reason to be Stuck to which has prevail'd from the beginning rather than That which was never Allow'd of nor for ought I know so much as heard of till this Gentleman first enlightned the World with it Again 2dly Let me demand farther Whether this will not be still more Reasonable if it can be shewn that that Sense of this Statute which we Affirm has hitherto Universally Obtain'd has also been confirm'd by the Constant Practice of Those who were most concern'd to Enquire into the Meaning of it And had withall the Best Opportunities of knowing what was indeed intended by the Legislators in Making of it 3dly and lastly Let me Ask Whether we ought not yet more undoubtedly to acquiesce in this Sense if it has been Generally and Constantly admitted not only by such as were the most Concern'd and best Qualified to judge of it but whose Interest it was withall to have declared against this Sense and to have Asserted that Other which this Author has here advanced supposing there had been any Rational Ground for Them so to do These I conceive are very plain Questions and either this Gentleman must recede from the most Commonly Received Rules of Interpreting Laws or he must Consent to the Reasonableness of them and be Concluded by Them To apply then these General Rules to the Case in hand I believe no reasonable Man will doubt but that the Kings of England have had as Good Opportunities of Understanding the Sense of their Own Laws as any Other Person whatsoever can pretend to They have had their Judges their Council learned in the Law their Own Great Counsellours at all times to advise with And these have not only Authority to make an Authentick declaration of the Sense of any Statute but have been actually consulted by Them concerning the meaning of this very Act. Unless we should be so unreasonable as to Suppose that Our Princes have from time to time sent Commissions to their Convocations to empower them to Act And that with peculiar Relation to this Law and yet never Consulted with their Judges c. in drawing of them Or were ever better inform'd by Them when they saw how Grosly they had mistaken the Sense of it But it may be our Kings were Parties in this Case and had an interest to prefer this Interpretation of that Statute before the Other that so they might the better Exalt their Own Power by it Let this also be supposed But still I hope the Convocation its self had no interest to joyn with them in this design and to help by a wrong interpretation of this Act to bring themselves into Bondage That next to the King the Convocation may be accounted as well Qualified to understand the true Sense of a Statute which it so nearly concern'd them to look into as any Private Critick I believe no Modest Man will deny Our Author I am sure has too Great a Veneration for that Learned Body to doubt of their Ability I had almost said Authority to Expound an Act of Parliament Let him therefore tell us What Convocation has there been ever since this Act was made that has ever refused the King's Licence sent to them in pursuance of it Or has Protested against it Or has ventured to proceed to Conferr Deliberate and Make Canons without the King's Licence first Obtain'd to Warrant them so to do That our Kings have constantly sent their Commissions to them to keep them from falling under the Censure of this Statute We are very sure That Our Convocations have evermore thankfully received these Commissions and proceeded to Act under the Authority of Them cannot be deny'd That they have refused to Act till they Received the King's Licence and when they have suspected that the date of it was determined have insisted upon having a New One sent to Them we can prove beyond any Reasonable Exception But that ever any Convocation Rejected such a Licence or presumed to Act without it from the time that this Law was made I have never heard nor can this Gentleman I believe give me an Instance of Either I conclude therefore that supposing there were indeed a just Ground to doubt of the meaning of this Statute which yet I must again prosess to my Apprehension there is not yet still That Sense of it which has Obtain'd ever since it was made according to which Our Kings have for above 150 Years proceeded to Give such Licences as we now contend for to their Convocations And their Convocations have continued to accept of and to Act by them Which our Greatest Lawyers have declared themselves in favour of and which no Man that I know of besides this One Author has ever pretended to call in Question I say that Sense which has all these Advantages and is in its self most agreeable to the Words of the Act and the Occasion that was given to the making of it ought in all Reason to be preferr'd to any new Construction that can be set up against it tho' such construction might in some measure be made of the Words of the Law and afford some shew of Reason to enable a Witty Man to talk very plausibly in favour of it Whether these Considerations will seem sufficient to this Author to justifie the Old Received Sense of this Statute I cannot tell nor do's the King's Authority depend so much upon it that I should need to say any more to it That without his Writ the Convocation cannot Meet this Gentleman
either did or said when he was of Council for his Majesty but for Other Tenets Elsewhere and at Other times advanced by Him And therefore pray his Assistance according to his Coronation Oath and as He desired to avoid the Censures of the Church The Clergy thus proceeding the Lords and Judges of the Realm at the Instance of the House of Commons address also to the King and desire him by vertue of his Coronation Oath that He would assert his Temporal Jurisdiction and protect Standish in the Great peril in which He was against the Malice of the Clergy who evidently Objected to him the same Tenets which He had defended in Right of the King's Authority Being thus applied to on Both sides the King first consults with Dr. Veysey Dean of his Chapel and having had his Opinion orders the Justices of his Courts and his Own Council both Spiritual and Temporal with several Members of the Parliament to meet at the Black-Fryars and there to take Cognizance of the Cause between Standish and the Convocation and to hear what Standish had to say for himself in answer to the Points objected to Him The Cause is heard and in conclusion Standish is acquitted and the whole Convocation judged to have incurred a Praemunire by their Citation and Prosecution of Him Upon this the King comes himself to Baynards Castle all the Bishops and a Great Part of the Parliament with the Judges attending upon Him Being sate Woolsey as Cardinal and in high favour with the King first applies to Him in behalf of the Convocation and prays that the Cause might be Referr'd to the Judgment of the Court of Rome This was seconded by Warham Archbishop of Canterbury in the name of All the Clergy and much was Argued for and against This. At length the King deliver'd himself to this Effect to them That by the Order and Sufferance of God He was King of England and as such would maintain the Rights of his Crown and his Royal Jurisdiction in as ample a manner as any of his Progenitors had done before Him Then he commanded the Convocation to dismiss Standish which accordingly they did And were content for that time to let the Royal Supremacy get the better of the Spiritual Jurisdiction CHAP. VI. Some Rules laid down by which to judge for what Causes and at what times Synods ought or ought not to be Assembled And the Reasons suggested by the Author of the Letter c. to prove a Convocation to be at this time Necessary to be held Examined and Answer'd HItherto we have been stating the matter of Right between the King and the Convocation And if I do not very much deceive my self I have plainly made it appear against the Author of the Late Letter to a Convocation-Man that that Venerable Body have neither any Right to Meet nor Power to Act but as the King shall Graciously Allow them to do But now having Asserted this in Vindication of the Prince's Prerogative I must not forget what I have before confess'd as to this matter and see no Cause yet to Retract viz. That His Majesty both as a Christian and a King is Obliged to permit his Clergy to Sit and Act whensoever he is perswaded that the Necessities of the Church require it and it would be for the Publick Good of his People that They should do so And tho' 't is true the Law has intrusted Him with the Last Judgment of this and without which it would be impossible for him to maintain his Supremacy in this Respect yet certainly He ought to be by so much the more careful to Consider the Interest of the Publick by How much the Greater the Trust is which the Publick in Confidence of such his Care has Reposed in Him It must be confess'd indeed that our present Author has neither taken a very proper Method of communicating his Advice to the King nor done it in such a Manner as if He design'd to perswade either the King or his Ministers to pay any Great Deference to his Judgment On the contrary it appears that in all that he has said he intended rather to Reflect upon the Administration of Affairs and to raise discontents in Mens Minds against the Government than to do any Service either to Religion or the Church But however I will consider nevertheless what he has alledged to shew That our present times call for a Convocation and that the King ought not any longer to prevent their sitting The Question to be examin'd is thus proposed by Him What Occasion there is at present for a Convocation And his Answer to it is Short and Vehement full of Warmth as being I suppose design'd to Enflame That if Ever there were need of 〈◊〉 Convocation since Christianity was Establish'd in this Kingdom there is need of One Now. To clear this Point and see how well this Author makes Good so bold an Assertion I shall take this Method 1st I will lay down some General Rules by which we may the better Judge at what Times and in what Cases it may be either necessary or expedient for a Prince to call a Convocation And then proceed 2dly To Consider What this Gentleman has offer'd to prove the Necessity of a Convocation under our present Circumstances to be so exceeding Great and Urgent as He pretends it is I. That Synods may in some Cases be as Useless to the Church as in Others they are Expedient Every Man 's Own Reason will tell him And that such Times may happen in which they may be apt to prove not only Useless but Hurtful we have not only the Experience but the Complaints of the Best Men to convince us It was a severe Judgment which Gregory Nazianzen pass'd upon the Synods of his Time and is the more to be Regarded because it was the Result of a frequent Tryal and a sad Observation That He fled all such Assemblies as having never seen any One of them come to a Happy Conclusion or that did not Cause more Mischief than it Remedied Their Contention and Ambition says he is not to be Express'd And a Man may much easier fall into Sin himself by judging of Other Men than He shall be able to Reform their Crimes There is scarce any thing in Antiquity that either more Exposed our Christian Profession heretofore or may more deserve our serious Consideration at this day than the Violence the Passion the Malice the Falseness and the Oppression which Reigned in most of those Synods that were held by Constantine first and after him by the following Emperours upon the Occasion of the Arian Controversy Bitter are the Complaints which we are told that Great Emperour made of Them The Barbarians says he in his Letter to One of Them for fear of Us Worship God But we mind nothing but what tends to Hatred to Dissention in One word to the Destruction of Mankind And what little Success other Synods have oftentimes
all Private Cases which are determinable in Other Courts and before some Other Judges which the Law has provided for Them And the King might as well Assemble his Parliament to try a Thief or a Felon as his Convocation to convict a Man of Heresie or Schism There are Civil Courts appointed for the One and Ecclesiastical Courts provided for the Other And if these Neglect or Refuse to do their Duty there are Shorter Ways of Applying a Remedy to it than by calling either a Parliament or Convocation for such a Purpose And such are secondly such Disorders as either the Bishop in his Diocess the Arch-bishop in his Province Or the King in the whole Church have sufficient power by their Own immediate Orders or Injunctions to redress Whether they be Occasion'd by Mens departing from the Rules and Measures already prescribed to Them Or for want of a Vigorous Execution of those Laws by which they ought to be punish'd for their so doing Indeed where the Discipline and Authority of the Church its self is defective and Irregularities both in the Clergy and Laity abound for want of a Power sufficient to suppress them a Convocation may be needful to consider How a Remedy may be provided for this Defect and the Church be enabled more successfully both to Guard the Faith and to Reform the Manners of its Members And I heartily wish our Circumstances were such that a Convocation might meet for this Purpose But I am afraid our Distemper is become too Great to be healed And that we are Uncapable of such a Discipline as above all things We the most Want And therefore 4thly And to go on with these Remarks As in such Cases as I have hitherto mentioned it is needless to Call a Convocation so would it be in Vain to Assemble it for such purposes in which there were no probable Expectation of Success or hope that any Good should be done by it This as for ought I know it may be One Great Reason why a Convocation is not called to Review some of our Publick Offices to Improve our Discipline And to Reform many Disorders in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so am I the rather Confirm'd in my Opinion of the little Probability there is of any Good to be yet done by a Convocation in this respect that amidst all the Reasons Offer'd by this Author to prove the necessity of holding a Convocation He has never Once given any Intimation of these matters tho he could not but know that they were look'd upon by the Government as the principal things for which a Convocation might be wanting But 5thly And to have done As there are many Cases for which it would be improper to call a Convocation so may there be some Times too in which it â—ould be altogether Unadvisable to Assemble it When Mens Passions are let loose and their Minds disorder'd When their Interests and Designs their Friends and their Parties nay their very Judgments and Principles lead them different Ways and they Agree in nothing so much as in being very Peevish and Angry with One Another When their very Reason is depraved and they judge not according to Truth or Evidence but with Respect of Persons and Every One Opposes what Another of a different Perswasion either Moves or Approves of What Good can the Prince propose to Himself or any Wise Man hope for from any Assembly that can be brought together under the unhappy Influence of These and the like Prepossessions It was the sense of this made a Wise Man in the last Age tell Charles the Vth That it appear'd by Experience and might from Reason be demonstrated that those Affairs seldom succeeded well which were to be done by Many And if such be the inconvenience to which Number alone exposes such meetings in the best times Sure I am both Reason and Experience will much more convince Us that in times of doubt and discontent this will be more likely to be the Case and that under such Circumstances there is little Good to be expected from them And this may suffice in General to shew what those Cases and those Times are in which the Prince may have Reason to think that it is either needless or improper for him to suffer his Clergy to Meet and Act in Convocation I Go on II. Secondly Upon these Principles to Examine what this Author has Offer'd to prove the Necessity or even Expediency of their present Assembling Now this He pretends to make out by these 2 Ways 1st By Proving that there is upon many Accounts an Absolute necessity that something should be done for the Defence of Religion and the Church And 2dly By shewing That what is thus necessary to be done can be done no Other Way but by a Convocation 1st That something is necessary to be done He proves from the Open Looseness of Mens Principles and Practises and that setled Contempt of Religion and the Priesthood which He says has prevail'd every where And upon this General Ground he go's on to dilate in several Particulars which must therefore he Consider'd by Us. But before I proceed any farther in this Debate I must here once for all profess that I should be far from Opposing any thing that could reasonably be proposed to be done in Order to so Good an End as the Reforming the Open Loosness of Mens Principles and Practises would certainly be I am by no means Unsensible that a Great Part of what this Author here complains is but too true Tho' whether the Loosness of Mens Principles has corrupted their Manners or the Depravity of their Manners may not rather have been at the bottom one great Cause of the Corruption of their Principles I am not able to determine And were a Convocation necessary to Vindicate the Church from being in any degree accessary to these Crimes or had it Authority sufficient to Reform this Licentiousness I would much rather joyn with this Author in Petitioning for their Sitting than Contend with Him about the Expediency of it But being fully Satisfied that the Convocation has neither Strength sufficient to Grapple with these Enormities nor is in any respect necessary to assert the Churches Innocence But especially being perswaded that should it meet for any such purpose under our present Circumstances it would only expose its Own Authority and our Religion to the Greater Contempt of Profane and Wicked Men I shall proceed with all freedom to Examine the Reasons here alledged and to Vindicate not only the King's Honour but the Churches too and shew that if the Other Ways which this Author here Rejects be not sufficient to Reclaim Mens Vices neither can it be hoped that the Convocation should be able by any Orders it can make to Reclaim Them First then Let us suppose that as he alledges Scepticism Deism and even Atheism its self is pouring in upon Us Would this Gentleman have a Convocation called to