from all censures of the Church Nay we judge it most requisite and necessarie for the bringing the No offender freed from the censures of the Church partie which offendeth to repentance and amendment of life if presently upon sentence of death he be not executed that besides his temporall punishment the censures of the Church according to the qualitie of the offence may be used and executed against him yea and we thinke that the King by the holy law of God is bound by his regall power to command the Church duly and rightly to use the same censures not only against every adulterer defamer usurer c. but also against every thiefe every manslayer every traitor and every other offender For not only sinnes reputed with us Ecclesiasticall but all sins of what kind soever ought to be repented of and consequently against all sins the Ecclesiasticall censures ought to bee used And by whom should the same be exercised but by the Church Why then belike where an offender is punished in the Kings Court he shall againe be punished in the Ecclesiasticall Court and so for one offence be twise punished which were unreasonable To this we answer that it is not against reason that one man for one fault should be punished both temporally and spiritually First he consisteth For a man to be punished â—wiâ—e for one â—ault â—n two reâ—â—ect is 〈…〉 of two parts viz. of a body and of a soul in both which parts he hath offended Secondly he hath offended against two lawes the law of God and the law of the King For the execution of which two lawes there be two kinds of officers of two severall natures the king for the one law and the officers of the Church for the other law and both these kindes of officers have power given them immediately from God to execute the one Kingly and temporall the other pastorall and spirituall power And therefore we say it standeth with great reason that the soule causing the body to sinne should no more escape that punishment which is appointed for the soule by the law of God than the bodie should escape that punishment which is appointed for the body by the law of the King why then the officers of the Church may meddle with matters appertaining to the Kings law and what an indignitie to the King were that To this we answer that the officers of the Church in a several respect and to a several end dealing in one and the selfe same matter wherein the king dealeth may no more bee charged with dealing in matters appertaining to the Crowne by the exercise of their spirituall sword than can the King be charged with medling in the same matters to meddle with matters pertaining to the soule by the exercise of his temporall sword So that the spirituall power of the officers of our Saviour Christ which consisteth only in binding and loosing of the souls of men can not possibly by any reason or good intendment be construed now to be any more prejudiciall to the Kings prerogative or contrariant to the lawes of the Realme than it hath beene heretofore Because usurie incontinency and divers other crimes Ecclesiasticall have not beene punished only by Ecclesiasticall correction but also by corporall paine And therfore to take away this frivolous objection we instantly pray that the lawes of the Realme may still keepe their due and ordinarie course and that the Kings Scepter may retaine that ancient and Royall estimation which belongeth unto it and that it may be ordered by an irrecoverable law as followeth Potestas jurisdictio actionum quarumcunque civilium punitio castigatio externa omnium maleficiorum quâ—rumcunque famam facultates seu personas tangentium non penes Pastores Seniores Ecclesiae sed penes unum solumque Principem civilem Magistratum sunto quicunque iis non acquieverunt capâ—tali poena puniunto Whereupon falleth to the ground that cavillous and odious slander following in the Admonition viz. that the lawes maintaining the Queenes Supremacie in governing of the Church and her prerogative in matters Ecclesiasticall as well Elections as others must be also abrogated The contrary whereof being avouched throughout this whole assertion it shall be needlesse to spend any time in the refutation of so grosse an untruth ADMONITION Thos lawes likewâ—se must be taken away whereby impropriations and patronages stand as mens lawfull possession and heritage ASSERTION By a statute 15. R. 2. c. 6. because divers dammages and diseases oftentimes had hapned and daily did happen to the parochians of divers places by the appropriation of benefices of the same places it was agreed and assented that in every licence from thenceforth to bee made in the Chancerie of appropriation of any parish Church it should be expresly contained and comprised that the Diocesan of the place upon the appropriation of such Churches should ordaine according to the value of such Churches a convenient summe of money to be paid and distributed yearely of the fruits and profits of the same Churches by those that shall have the same Churches in proper use and by their successors to the poore parochians of the same Churches in aid of their living and sustentation for ever and also that the Vicar be well and sufficiently endowed By which statute it appeareth that every impropriation ought to be made by licence out of the Chancerie that it ought to be made to the use of Ecclesiasticall persons only and not to the use of temporall persons or patrons Now then all such parish Churches as without licence of the king in his Chancery have beene appropried to any Ecclesiasticall person and againe all such parish Churches as by licence of the King in his Chancerie have beene appropried to the use of lay persons they are not to be accompted mens lawfull possessions and heritages Besides this as many impropriations as whereupon the Diocesan of the place hath not ordained according to the value of such Churches a convenient summe of money to be paid and distributed yearly of the fruits of the same Churches c. to the poore Parochians of the same Churches in aid of their living and sustentation for ever yea and every Church also appropried as whereunto a perpetuall Vicar is not ordained canonically to be instituted and inducted in the same and which is not convenably endowed to doe divine service and to inform the people and to keepe hospitalitie there all and every such Church and Churches I say otherwise than thus appropried by the law of the Realme as it seemeth are not mens lawfull possessions and inheritances For by a Statute of king Henry the fourth every Church after the fifteene yeare of king Richard the second appropried by licence of the king against the forme of the said Statute of Rich. 2. if the same were not dulie reformed after the effect of the same statute within a certaine time appointed then the same appropriation and licence thereof made
AN ASSERTION FOR True and Christian CHURCH-POLICIE Wherein Certain Politike Objections made against the planting of PASTOURS and Elders in every Congregation are sufficiently ANSWERED And Wherein also sundry projects are set downe how the Discipline by Pastors and Elders may be planted without any derogation to the Kings Royall Prerogative any indignity to the three Estates in Parliament or any greater alteration of the laudable Lawes Statutes or Customes of the Realme than may well bee made without damage to the people IN DOMINO CONFIDO London Printed 1642. To the Right Honourable the LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in High COURT of Parliament Right HONOURABLE c. THe Ensuing Treatise which I am bold to present to Your wisedomes view containes principall politicall reasons grounded upon the Lawes of this Kingdom for the removing of the present Hierarchie and planting of a Governement by Pastors and Elders The appellation of Lay Elders hath beene very displeasing to many whereas the Elder intended to be planted is not lay but in regard of the service wherein hee is to bee imployed Ecclesiasticall The Author was an elaborate Student in the civill Law and a professor of it He was esteemed learned by the best of that profession as also by Divines and common Lawyers learned Sir Edward Cook late Chiefe Justice of the Kings Bench Sir Christopher Yelverton late Judge of the Common Pleas Sir Henry Finch late the Kings Serjeant at Law and others have given testimony of him The Treatise is an answer to diverse passages in a Book written by D. Whitgift late Archb. of Canterbury intituled An admonition to the Parliament The Author as I doubt not but will appeare to your Wisedomes hath written with the spirit of meekenesse and humility submitting all to the judgement of an High Court of Parliament hee disputes with the Great Bishop in a Scholasticall way without one syllable of reviling or bitter language which he ever detested Hee discovers the foundation of the Hierarchie to be totally illegall and to bee abolished by the abolition of the Papall Canon Law which appeares to be abolished by the statute of 25. of Henry 8. cap. 9. The truth whereof being discovered by the Authors means to the said learned Judge Sir Edward Cooke hee did most ingenuously acknowledge and did avow he never understood the statute so well before yet affirmed he thought he had read the said statute an hundred times May it please you in your wisedomes to commend the Treatise to bee viewed by the learned Gent. of the long Robe whose awfull judgments I shall ever honour Most true it is I dare averre there is little written in this Kingdome tending to the removall of the Episcopacie from Legall and Politicall arguments but the Author hath the arrowes in his quiver I say not that others have borrowed light from his Candle Right Honourable and Right worthy I shall humbly take further boldnes humbly presuming upon your Honourable favours if this poore model find acceptance in your sight to present you with a new impression of an abstract written in time of famous Queene Elizabeth a Book well knowne to learned King Iames by the same Author whose memory I am bound by nature to Honour Give mee leave onely now to make knowne unto you the Title and severall Treatises contained in it It is intituled An abstract of certaine Laws Canons and Constitutions Synodall and Provinciall in force within the Queenes dominions and for the most part unknowne to the subject It containeth these principall Treatises 1. That a learned Ministery is commanded by Law 2. That Pluralities are forbidden by Law 3. That it is unlawfull to make a Minister without a title 4. That it is unlawfull for a Clerk to have civill authority This abstract was seemingly answered by the rayling stile of a then Doctor Cozens but by a further incounter and the counterpoyson yet extant written by the same Author he departed the Field with Honour such was the opinion of many learned among others of the foresaid Reverend Judge Sir Henry Yelverton This treatise was never questioned nor quarreld for ought I ever heard Yet was the Author well knowne to many of the Bishops You may happily in your Wisdomes conceive some things might have beene omitted as not wholly incident to the time and some abbreviated in regard of the shortnesse of your time and of the high affaires now in hand But may it please you being about so to doe I found the light must have bin much Eclipsed and the truth obscured I am over bold most humbly to commend the defence of what he writes grounded upon the laws of the Kingdome to your most Honourable protection It shall be enough for me to attend among the meanest of your servants having heretofore had the happinesse to have bin a member though unworthy of the Honourable House of Commons Presenting your honours and your grave wisdomes with my heartiest prayers and humblest service In most humble manner I intreate your pardon of and for The Contents THe defenders of the Hierarchy confesse their government is not apostolicall pag. 2. The bringing in of the discipline desired causeth no alteration of temporall laws nor the officers of a kingdom 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 No feare that prophane men will overthrow the Gospell if the forme of Church government be altered 10. The description of lukewarme professors that will be of that religion the King will be of 11. The Puritan protestants can never overthrow the Gospell 13. Neither can the Papist because he is overthrown by the Gospel 13 The planting of an Apostolicall government will draw no alteration of the Lawes of the Realme 14. The whole Papal Law is totally abolished by the statute of the 25 of Henry 8. c. 19. of the submission of the Clergie as appeares by the body of the statute and the proviso from the 15. to the 20. Canon and civill Lawes no part of the Lawes of the Realme but by sufferance 15 An imbasement for Civillians to have preferment by the offices of the Canon Law that ought not to be used 17 18 19. Whence it followeth that the papall Canon Law being abolished the papall offices and functions of Archbishops and Bishops are also abolished being grounded upon the same Law 20 Power properly and improperly called spirituall 20 21 Bishops remaine ordinary by custome provinciall Canons and statute Law though papall lawes be abolished 21 The King though Supreame governour of the Church cannot give Archbishops and Bishops spirituall power properly called spirituall that power must be derived from the Scripture 20. The Bishops did use a plenary power devised and promulged new Canons without the Queenes assent 23 All the Bishops together can make no new Law and yet every Bishop doth make many lawes 24 All temporall officers do draw their power from the King one way or other 25 The Charter of England confirmeth not the power of Archbishops or Bishops because their power appeares not by the
regall Crown nay because the contradictorie hereof is affirmed and this denyed and because we learn by law as he saith that matters in fact are not intended to be done till they be proved so we must still put the upholders and executioners of this law to their proofe and in the meane while tell them that the forraigne and Papall Law is but a pretended necessary and disused law that it is not inspired with the life of Law and that it is fathered by them to be such a Law as is an headlesse a fetherlesse and a nocklesse arrow which is not fit to be drawne or shot against any subject of the King And from this voidance abolition and nullitie of forraigne and papall Canon Law because sublato principali tolluntur accessoria it followeth that all offices and functions of papall Archbishops papall Bishops papall Suffraganes papall Archdeacons papall Deanes and Chapters papall Priests papall Deacons papall Subdeacons papall Chancellors papall Vicars generall papall Commissaries and papall Officials meerely depending upon the authoritie and drawne from the rules and grounds of that Law are likewise adnihilated and of no value Howbeit for so much as by the opinion of some learned Civilians By the opinion of the Civilians the papall Canon law seemeth to be in force there seemeth unto them a necessary continuance of the same forraigne and papall Law by reason that Archbishops and Bishops doe now lawfully as they say use ordinarie Archiepiscopall and Episcopall jurisdiction which they could not as they thinke doe if the same common law were utterly abolished and for so much also as some learned in the Canon lawes do maintaine that since the statute Apology of certain proceedings in Courts Ecclesiastical of 1 Eliz. c. 1. the Archbishop and Bishop cannot lawfully claim any ordinarie spirituall jurisdiction at all but that the spirituall jurisdiction to be exercised by them ought to bee delegated unto them from the King by a Commission under the great Seale Forasmuch I say as there are these differences of opinions it seemeth expedient to be considered by what law and by what authoritie Archbishops and Bishops exercise Archiepiscopall and Episcopall power in the Church And to the end this question may fully bee knowne and no scruple nor ambiguitie be left what power spirituall may be intended Power properly and improperly called spirituall Queens Injunct and execut of justice to be exercised by them We distinguish spirituall power into a power properly called spirituall and into a power improperly or abusively called spirituall Ther power properly called spirituall is that spirituall power which consisteth and is conversant in preaching the Word administring the Sacraments ordaining and deposing Ministers excommunicating or absolving and if there bee any other spirituall power of the like property and nature Now that this power properly called Power properly called spirituall was never in the Queenes person spirituall could have beene drawne from the person of our late Soveraigne Lady the Queene unto Archbishops and Bishops we deny For the Queenes Royall person being never capable of any part of this spirituall power how could the same bee derived from her person unto them Nemo potest plus juris in alium transferre quam ipse habet Archiepiscopall and Episcopall power therefore exercised in and about these mysteries of our holy Religion ordinarily and necessarily must belong unto the Archbishop and Bishop by the canon of the holy Scriptures otherwise they have no power properly called Power improperly called spirituall is indeed but a temporall power spirituall touching these things at all The power which improperly is called spirituall is such a power as respecteth not the exercise of any pastorall or ministeriall Church to the internall begetting of faith or reforming of manners in the soule of man but is such a power as wherby publike peace equitie and justice is preserved and maintained in externall things peculiarly appropried and appertaining unto the persons or affaires of the Church which power indeed is properly a temporall or civill power and is to bee exercised onely by the authoritie of Temporall and Civill Magistrates Now then to returne to the state of the point in Question touching this later power improperly called spirituall by what law or by what authoritie the Archbishops and Bishops doe exercise this kinde of power in the Church I answer that they cannot have the same from any forraigne Canon Law because the same Law with all the powers and dependences thereof is adnulled And therefore that this their power must and ought to be derived unto them from Bb. where From whence then is their power derived Hereunto we answer that before the making of that act spirituall jurisdiction did appertaine unto Bishops and that Bishops were ordinaries aswell by custome of the Realme canons constitutions and ordinances provincial and synodall as by forraigne canon law And that therefore these canons constitutions and ordinances provinciall or synodall according to Bishops remaine ordinaries by custome provinciall Canons statute law though papall Canon law be abolished 25. h. 8. c 20. 25. h 8. c â—6 the true intent of that act could not still have been used and executed as they were before if the Bishops had not still remained ordinaries Moreover it is cleare by two statutes that the Archbishops and Bishops ought to be obeyed in all manner of things according to the name title degree and dignitie that they shall be chosen or presented unto and that they may doe and execute minister use and exercise all and every thing and things touching or pertaining to the office or order of an Archbishop or Bishop with all ensignes tokens and ceremonies thereunto lawfully belonging as any Archbishop or Bishop might at any time heretofore do without offending of the prerogative royall of the Crown and the laws and customes of this Realm Let it be then that by custome canons provinciall and statute law Bishops be and do remaine ordinaries yet aswell upon those words of the statute 25. H 8. without offending of the prerogative Royall as upon the statute of 1. Eliz. cap. 1 there remaineth a scruple and ambiguitie whether it be not hurtfull or derogatorie unto the Kings Prerogative Royall that Ordinaries should use and exercise their ordinarie power improperly called spirituall without a commission under the great Seale or that such their power should be as immoderate and excessive now as in times past it was by the Papall Canon law Concerning the first by the Statute of 1 Eliz. c. 1. and by the Statute of 8 Eliz. c. 1. the Queene was recognized to be in effect the Ordinarie of Ordinaries The Queen was supreme ordinary of ordination that is the chief supreme and soveraign Ordinary over all persons in all causes aswell Ecclesiasticall as Temporall Where it seemeth to follow that all the branches and streams aswell of that power which improperly is called spiritual as of that power which properly is called
temporall should have beene derived originally unto the Bishop from her Highnesse person as from the only head and fountain of all the same spirituall power within her Kingdomes in such manner and form and by such commission under the great Seal as her H. temporall Officers Justicers and Judges had their authorities committed unto them And to this opinion Master D. Bilson seemeth to accord For all power Pag. 348. saith he is not only committed to the sword which God hath authorised but is wholly closed in the sword Against the head that it shall not be head to rule and guide the feet can be no prescription by reason Gods Ordinance for the head to governe the body is a perpetuall and eternall law and the usurpation of the members against it is no prescription but a confusion and the subversion of that order which the Pag. 114. 130. God of heaven hath immutably decreed and setled Besides there resteth saith the Remonstrance unto the Bishops of this Realme none other but subordinate and delegate authoritie and that the matter and heads wherein this jurisdiction is occupied are by and from the Christian Magistrates authoritie In whom as supreme Governour all jurisdiction within her Dominions aswell Ecclesiasticall as Civill by Gods and mans law is invested and their authoritie Ecclesiasticall is but subordinate under God and the Prince derived for the most part from the Prince From which two Statutes and judgements of the gorernours of the Church contained in these two bookes for these two 1 Eliz. c. 1 8 Eliz. c. 1. books were seen and allowed by the Governours of the Church I leave it to be considered if the Bishop did exercise the same improper and abusive spirituall power and jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall only and alonely in their owne names stiles and dignities and under their own seales of office and that also by authoritie of forraign and Papall laws if I say the Bishop did these things after this and this manner I leave it then to be considered whether their exercise of such power were derogatory and prejudiciall in a very high degree to the prerogatives of the Royall Crown or not For my part because I finde by the forraign Canon Law that Papall Bishops bee the Popes sonnes and are priviledged to carry the print and image of the Pope their father namely that they have plenitudinem potestatis within their Diocesses as the Pope pretendeth Ex. de Major obe to have power over the whole world For quilibet ordinarius saith the same law in sua Dioecesi est major quolibet principe and because also notwithstanding whatsoever the B b. have written that M. Bilson pag. 330. they were the Queenes B b and had their authoritie derived unto them from the Queene they did in her life time put the same Papall Law in execution and by the same law did take upon them plenitudinem potestatis within their Diocesses I for my part I say can not as yet otherwise conceive but that exceedingly â—hey did intrude themselves into the Royall preeminences priviledges and prerogatives of the Queene For by what other authoritie than by a certaine The Bb. by a plenary power devised and promulged new Canons without the Queenes assent plenarie power did they in their owne names for the government of their severall Churches within their severall Diocesses from time to time make promulge and by vertue of mens corporall oathes put in execution what new Canons Injunctions and Articles soever seemed good unto them without any licence or confirmation from the Queene first had and obtained thereunto By which pretensed plenarie power it seemeth that the statute made to bring the Clergie in submission to the King was covertly deluded and our late Soveraigne Lady the Queene cunningly bereaved of that regall authoritie over every particular Diocesan or Ordinarie which notwithstanding by the Parliament was given unto her Highnesse over the whole body and state of the Clergie For if once there bee no necessitie of the Kings licence assent or confirmation to such Articles Canons or Injunctions as every Ordinarie shall make within his jurisdiction then must it be intended that the Statute of submission hath covertly permitted severall members severally to doe and to execute those things which apparently and in expresse terms the whole convocation was commanded and with the same in verbo sacerdotii had promised not to doe then the which what can seeme more unreasonable and absurd For then might all the Ordinaries joyne hand in hand and agree all together in one never in any of their convocations assembled by the Kings Writ to devise make or promulge any Canons Ecclesiasticall at all And what assent licence or confirmation from the King could then be needfull Or how then was the Clergie brought in submission to the King For then should it not be with them as it is in the proverbe A threefold cord is not easily broken but then should it be with them contrary to the proverbe for they being all fast knit and bound together unto the Kings authoritie by a cord of twenty foure threads might easily be broken but being severed and pluckt assunder into twenty foure parts one from the other the 24 Bishops can make no law with out leave And yeâ— every B. doth make many lawes King with all his regall power might not be able so much as to break one of the least threads wherewithall one of their cords was twisted If the Lord Major the Sheriffs Aldermen and whole communaltie of the Citie of London should promise unto the King upon their fidelities not to set any price upon Wines or other victuals by their common Councell within the said Citie unlesse the King under his privie signet should first authorize them so to doe were it not a meere collusion of the Kings meaning if every particular Alderman should set prices of such things in every particular ward But against the collection made from the Statutes 1 8 Eliz. and the judgement of the divines aforesaid A collection made against the former reason by an Apologie for sundry proceed by jurisdi â—â— pag. 5. the author of an Apologie to his understanding reckoneth the same collection to be a very simple collection and against the same he answereth and reasoneth in effect thus If as is collected all power spirituall by a commission under the great Seale must bee derived from the Queene to warrant the execution of it unto him that is to exercise it then must the like warrant bee procured for every temporall office to execute his temporall office But every temporall officer must not procure like warrant to execute his temporall office Therefore a Commission under the great Seale must not be procured to warrant the execution of the said spirituall power The consequence of his major proposition being false he laboureth notwithstanding to make the same good and in effect for the same argueth thus All temporall authoritie as
absolutely and as really is revested in the person of the Queene as is the said spirituall authoritie Therefore as all spirituall Officers for the execution of the said spirituall power must have their authoritie derived unto them from the person of the Queene under the great Seale so likewise must all temporall officers for the execution of their temporall offices have the like commission The consequence of which enthimeme followeth not though the antecedent be true For although as well all temporall as all the said spirituall authoritie improperly so called was really and absolutely in the person of the Queene yet hereupon it followeth not that by one and the selfe same meanes alone and namely by a commission under the great Seale all temporall and the said spirituall power in every part and branch thereof should be drawne alike from the Queenes person For there be divers and sundry meanes to derive temporall authority wheras there seemeth to be but one only means to derive the said spirituall authoritie and then marke the substance of the authors argument Some temporall Officers as Stewards of Leets Constables and sundry other Officers must not draw their temporall authoritie from the Queene by a Commission under the great Seale Therefore no spirituall Officers as Archbishops Bishops Archdâ—acons and sede vacante Deanes and Chapters must draw any of their spirituall authoritie from the Queen by a Commission c. Which argument drawne from a particular affirmative unto a generall negative what weaknesse it hath every young Logician can discerne And as for Stewards of Leets though they have no Commission Though all temporall officers draw not their power from the King by the great seale yet by one meanes or other withdraw it from the King under the great Seale yet for the execution of their Stewardships they have a Commission under the Seale of the Exchequer Constables Decennary or Tythingmen and Thirdboroughs have their authorities derived unto them from the Kings person by the very originall and institution of their offices Sheriffs of Countries Coroners Escheators and Uerderors have their offices and their authorities warranted unto them by the Kings writs out of the Chancerie But it was not the minde of the Law-makers saith the Author that the Ordinaries by a commission under the great Seale should draw their said spirituall power from the Queen What the mindes of the Law-makers were touching this point it mattereth little or nothing at all Neither is it to purpose whether a commission under the great seale be necessarily required or not required by vertue of that statute 1 Eliz. c. 1. to warrant the said spirituall power unto Ordinaries Only it sufficeth that the Queen having all power improperly called spiritual invested in her Royall person and being really and actually seised of all the said supreme spirituall authoritie could not have any part of the same spirituall power drawne from her but by some one lawfull and ordinarie meanes or other For if this rule be true in every common person quod meum est sine mea voluntate à me auferri non potest how much more doth the same rule hold in the Royall prerogatives rights priviledges dignities and supremities of a King wherfore to say that all supreme and ordinarie power improperly called spirituall was really and actually inherent in the Royall person of the Queen and to say also that some of the same inferiour and ordinarie power not derived from the Queen was neverthelesse in the persons of inferiour ordinaries is as much to say that some branches of a tree may receive nourishment from elsewhere than from the root that some members of the bodie are not guided by the head and that some streames flow not from their fountaines And now to conclude this part against the Canon Law and their Offices and functions thereof I dispute thus The forraign and papall canon law with all the accessories dependances offices and functions thereof is utterly abolished out of the Realme Therefore the same law is no part of the lawes of the Realm and therefore also it is evident that there will not follow any alteration of the Lawes of the Realme by the taking of it away Which Canon Law also with other lawes and functions how easily the same without any inconveniences may bee supplied shall God willing be presently made apparant if first we shall answer to that challenge which the state of Prelacie may seeme to make for the continuance of their Lordly primacie out of the words of the great Challenge for Lordly primacy out of the great Charter answered Charter Concerning which challenge namely that by the great Charter Lordly Archiepiscopall and Episcopall primacie or jurisdiction belonging to the state of Prelacie is belonging unto them I demand unto what Church this great Charter was granted And whether it were not granted unto the Church of God in England The words of the Charter are these Concessimus Deo hâ—c praesenti Mag. Charta c. 1. Charta nostra confirmavimus pro nobis haeredibus nostris in perpetuum quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit habeat omnia jura sua integra libertates suas illaesas We have granted unto God and by this our present writing have confirmed for us and for our heires for ever that the Church of England be free and that she have all her rights and liberties whole and unhurt Now by this Charter if the same bee construed aright there is provision made first that such honour and worship be yeelded by the King and his subjects his and their successors and posteritie unto God as truly and indeed belongeth unto him Secondly that not only such rights and liberties as the King and his progenitors but also that such as God had endowed the Church of England with should inviolably be preserved And in very deed to speake truly and properly such rights and liberties only are to be called the rights and liberties of the Church of England which God himselfe hath given by his Law unto his universall Church and not which the Kings of England by their Charter have bequeathed to the particular Church of England When therefore question is made that by the great Charter the Kings of England are bound to maintaine the rights and liberties of the Church of England wee are to enquire and search what rights and liberties God in his holy word hath granted unto his universall Church and so by consequence unto the Church of England one part of the Catholike Church And this questionlesse was the cause that moved the victorious Prince Henry the eight so effectually and powerfully to bend himselfe against the Popes supremacie usurped that time over the Church of England For saith the King we will with hazard of our life and losse of our Crowne uphold and defend in our Realmes whatsoever wee shall know to be the will of God The Church of God then in England not being free nay having her rights and liberties
written of the common law is reported hath beene in times passed presented and punished in leets and law-dayes in divers parts of the Realme by the name of Letherwhyte which is as the booke saith an ancient Saxon terme And the Lord of the Leet where it hath beene presented hath ever had a fine for the same offence By the statute of those that be borne beyond the seas it appeareth that the King hath cognizance 25. Ed 3. of some bastardy And now in most cases of bastardie if not in all by the statute of Eliz. the reputed father of a bastard borne is lyable to be punished at the discretion of the justices of peace Touching perjurie if a man lose his action by a false verdict in plea Perjurie if punishable temporally in some cases why not in all of land he shall have an attaint in the Kings Court to punish the perjurie and to reforme the falsitie And by divers statutes it appeareth that the Kings temporall Officers may punish perjurie committed in the Kings temporall Courts And though it be true that such perjury as hath risen upon causes reputed spirituall have beene in times past punished only by Ecclesiastical power and censures of the Church yet hereupon it followeth not that the perjurie it selfe is a meere spirituall and not a temporall crime or matter or that the same might not to be civily punished By a statute of Westminster 25. Edw. 3. it was accorded that the Vsurie King and his heires shall have the cognizance of the usurers dead and that the Ordinaries have cognizance of usurers on life to make compulsion by censures of the Church for sinne and to make restitution of the usuries taken against the lawes of holy Church And by another statute it is provided that usuries shall not turne against any being â—0 h. 3. â— 5. within age after the time of the death of his Ancestor untill his full age But the usurie with the principall debt which was before the death of his ancestor did remaine and turne against the heire And because all usurie being forbidden by the law of God is sinne and detestable it was enacted that all usurie lone and forbearing of money c. giving dayes c. shall be punished according to the forme of that Act. And that every such offender shall also bee punished and corrected according to the Ecclesiasticall lawes before that time made against usurie By all which statutes it seemeth that the cognizance and reformation of usurie by the lawes of the Realme pertaineth onely to the King unlesse the King by his Law permit the Church to correct the same by the censures of the Church as a sin committed against the holy law of God Touching heresies and schismes albeit the Bishops by their Episcopall and ordinarie spirituall power grounded upon Canon law or an evill custome have used by definitive sentence pronounced in their Consistories to condemn men for heretikes and schismatikes and heresies schismes are punishable by the kings laws afterward being condemned to deliver them to the secular power to suffer the paines of death as though the king being custos utriusque tabulae had not power by his kingly office to inquire of heresie to condemn an heretike and to put him to death unlesse he were first condemned and delivered into his hands by their spirituall power although this hath been I say the use in England yet by the statutes of Richard the second and Henry the fifth it was lawfull for the Kings Judges and Justices to enquire of heresies and Lollards in Leets Sheriffs 25. h. 5. c. 14. turnes and in Law dayes and also in Sessions of the peace Yea the King by the common law of the Realme revived by an act of Parliament which before the Statute of Henry the fourth was altered may pardon a man condemned for heresie yea and if it should come to passe that any heresies or schismes should arise in the Church of England the king by the Lawes of the Realme and by his Supreme and 1 Eliz c. 1. Soveraigne power with his parliament may correct redresse and reforme all such defaults and enormities Yea further the king and his 1 Eliz. c. 1. parliament with consent of the Clergie in their Convocation hath power to determine what is heresie and what is not heresie If then it might please the king to have it enacted by parliament that they which opiniatively and obstinately hold defend and publish any opinions which according to an Act of Parliament already made have beene or may be ordered or adjudged to bee heresies should bee heretikes If it please the King heretikes may be adjudged felons and heresies felonies and felons and their heresies to be felonies and that the same heretiks and felons for the same their heresies and felonies being arraigned convicted and adjudged by the course of the common law as other felons are should for the same their heresies and felonies suffer the paines of death there is no doubt but the King by vertue of his Soveraigne and Regall Lawes might powerfully enough reforme heresies without any such ceremoniall forme papall observance or superstitious solemnitie as by the order of the Canon Law pretended to bee still in force have beene accustomed And as these offences before mentioned bee punishable partly by temporall and partly by Ecclesiasticall authoritie so drunkennesse absence from divine service and prayer fighting quarrelling and brawling in Church and Churchyard defamatorie words and libels violent laying on oâ— hands upon a Clarke c. may not onely bee handled and punished in a court ecclesiasticall but they may also be handled and punished by the King in his temporall courts By all which it is evident that the Clergie hath had the correction of these crimes rather by a The cognizance of all crimes as well as of some crimes â—â— the law of God belong to the King custome and by sufferance of Princes than for that they be meere spirituall or that they had authoritie by the immediate law of God And if all these as well as some of these crimes by sufferance of Princes and by a custome may be handled and punished spiritually then also if it please the King may all these as well as some of these crimes without a custome be handled and punished temporally For by custome and sufferance only some of these crimes be exempted from the cognizance of the King and therefore by the immediate law of God the cognizance as well of all as of some oâ— these crimes properly appertaineth unto the King And then the judgement of those men who defend judgements of adulterie slander c. to be more temporall and by the temporall Magistrate only to be dealt in seemeth every way to be a sincere and sound judgment Howbeit they doe not hereby intend that the party offending in any of these things and by the Kings law punishable should therefore wholly bee exempted and freed
untill hey shall plainly demonstrate unto us that the same is not Oligarchy For if hereafter they shall revoke their former disgracefull judgements against the discipline by Pastours and Elders containing in it the very nature of true Aristocracie and wiâ—hall instruct â—s better of the true nature of their owne government of the Church by Prelacie they shall find us filyable to their opinion so that it be grounded upon the principles and reasons of truth In the meane season after the fashion of the Admonitors manner of admonishing the people wee most humbly beseech the King and Parliament to be enformed that it is greatly to bee feared if Prelacy bee Oligarchie that the Prelates It is to bee feared least by the example of Prelates Oligarchie be brought in the common-weale will endeavour to transferre that manner of government from the Church unto the Common-Weale And that the Common-Weale shall as miserably be rent and torne with factions and uproares as now the Church is disquieted by schismes and divisions For if onely a few of the richest and welthiest sort shall get an head and beare all the sway in the Common-Weale they shall think by the Principles and reasons of Oligarchie that they have injuâ—y if they have not as much to doe in civill mattes as the Prelates have to doe in the matters of the Church And what hereof may follow as the Admonitor leaveth so doe I also leave it to the judgment of other Only if the way hereof already hath beene troden A caveat against Oligarchie out unto them by some who have not written nor spoken but yet practised the principles and reasons of Oligarchie in the Common-Weale onely then this I say and adde as a Caveat that the danger to come is more heedfully to be prevented For like as in good harmony to make the Musicke perfect is required a moderate and proportionate inequality of voices which if it too much exceed taketh away all the sweet melody so by too much immoderate inequality or disparitie of Citizens the Common-Weale falleth to ruine But why may not the Government of the Church by Prelacie The government of the Church by Prelacy is not Monarchicall be a Princely and a Royall Government Indeed this question if it should bee resolved by the Rules and Principles of the Canon Law I could hardly disprove that government to be Princelike for as hath been said before quilibet Ordinarius in Diocoesi est major quolibet Principe Yea and every Bishop by the same Law hath as absolute a spirituall power within his Diocesse as a King hath a temporall power within his Kingdome But because that Law with the rules and principles thereof is or ought to be discarded out of this Kingdome we will not wade in it Only wee say that the government of the Church by Prelacy cannot bee any kinde of Royall and Monarchiall government because Prelates have not like power spirituall as Kings and Monarchs have power temporall For there was never yet lex regia de Praelatorum spiâ—ituali imperio lata qua Praelatis in eos omne imperium suum potestatem aut Deus aut Institut de jure natur gent ci § Sed quod populus Dei contulerit And therefore where the people have made the fore said regall Law as there it is justly said quodcunque Imperator per Epistolam constituit vel cognoscens decrevit vel edicto praecepit legem esse constat and quod Principi placuit legis habet vigorem So likewise where there is no such regall Law made in the Church there it is justly affirmed quod Praelato placuit legis non habet vigorem quodcunque Praelatus per Epistolam constituit cognoscens decrevit vel canone praecepit legem non esse constat And then how can every Prelate or why doth every Prelate by his sole authoritie injoyne Canons Articles Injunctions and orders to bee observed as Lawes in all the Churches of his jurisdiction If the Admonitor supposed the government of the Church by Prelacy to bee Monarchiall because the Queene was a Monarch and that If the government of the Church by Prelacy be Monarchicall theÌ„ may the government by pastors beâ— so to the Reverend Bishop governed under a Monarch then what did he else but put a weapon into the hands of Pastors and Elders to prove their government also to be Princely and Monarchiall Because Pastors and Elders desire not to have that manner of government to bee brought into the Church otherwise than by the Royall assent Soveraigne authoritie and expresse commandement of Our most Gratious King and Monarch Besides if any government may bee therefore said to be a Monarchy because the same is derived from an earthly Monarch how much more than may the government of the Churches by Pastors and Elders bee adjudged Monarchicall by reason the same is deduced from our heavenly and everlasting Monarch For the Reverend Bishops by their publike M. Horne bishop of Winch. M. â—ewell bishop of Sali M. Bilson bishop of Winch. preachings and apologeticall writings testifie that power and authoritie to ordaine and depose Ministers to excommunicate and to absolve to devise and to establish rites and Ceremonies in the Church to define what is truth to pronounce what is falsehood to determine what is schisme and to condemn what is heresie our Reverend Bishops I say confesse this power to be originally decided unto the true Bishops and Pastors of the Church from the Kingly and Soveraigne power of our Saviour Christ By what name therefore soever the government of Pastours and Elders in the Churches be called there is no manner of cause to dislike of the planting of that government in a Monarchy because the same is instituted by No cause for a Monarch to feare that his Christian subjects should have the sense of Aristocracy in Church government the Monarch of Monarches who is able and ready to uphold the state of all Monarchies in Common-Weales together with the state of Aristocracie in his Church Neither is there any cause for any Monarch in the world to feare the making of Christian common people by familiar expâ—rience to have the sense and feeling of the principles and reasons of Aristocracy For if a people have once submitted their neckes to the yoke of Christ they can live a peaceable â—nd godly life under all kindes of powers because they know all kind of powers to be the ordinance of God But especially there is not neither ever was neither ever can there be any cause for any King or Monarch of England greatly as the Admonitor insinuateth to feare that the common people will very easily transferre the principles and reasons Aristocracie to the government of the Common-Weale and thereupon be induced to thinke that they have injury if they have not as much to doe in civill matters as they have in matters of the Church seeing they also touch their commoditie and benefit
English Bishop having obtained his congedelieâ— oath Proh Deum dedine ego tot millia Florenorum pro volo Episcopari jam debeo dicere nolo or as was the answer of that English Bishop who having promised a Courtier one annuitie of twenty pound during his life out of his Bishopricke if hee could procure the speedy feâ—ling of his congedelier within a while after when it was sealed he rapt out an oath and sware by Jesus God that the same Gentleman had done more for him than an other great Courtier who before hand for that purpose had received from him one thousand markes But whether all Bishops buy their congedeliers dearer or better cheape is not a matter incident to this treatise only if they buy deare they may happily thinke with themselves that they may sell deare vendere jure potest emerat ille prius setteth not any price upon any wares in the Royall Exchange But to return The manner of the administration of spirituall Iustice in the Church by Prelacy to our purpose whence by occasion of those Bishoply oathes and answers we have a little digressed let us see what is the manner and forme of the administration of spirituall justice in the government of the Church by Prelacy as the same is ordinarily administred in all places throughout the Church of England Wherein that wee be not mistaken it is to be understood that the manner of administration of justice whereof we speake is that administration of justice only which respecteth the punishment of crimes Ecclesiasticall to bee inflicted by spirituall censures In all which cases penances suspension and excommunications in the Bishops consistory proceed from the judgement and authority of the Bishop alone if he be present or from the sentence and power of his Vicar generall or Commissary alone and if he be absent Nay doth not every such censure likewise in the Archdeacons consistory procâ—ed from the sole authority of the Archdeacon or if hee bee absent from the sole authority of his officiall But if the like course of the execution of Justice as this is cannot bee found to bee an oâ—dinary course of Justice in the Common-Weale where Justice is administred in criminall causes by the Ministery of a subject I would faine learne what prejudice may bee feared to redound unto the Common Weale if the administration of spirituall Iustice after a sort were established to bee after the same manner in the Church after which civill Iustice is already practised in the Common-Weale I said after a sort to this end least I should bee mistaken For the meaning is not that spirituall Iustice should be ministred exactly in No one subject in the Common Weale can alone exercise civill justice in causes criminall every respect after the manner of civill Iustice but the comparison standeth onely in this that as not any one temporall subject alone hath authority to heare to examine and to judge any one criminall cause in any Court of civill justice in the Common-Weale so likewise that any one spirituall person alone should have authority to be examiner and judge of any one criminall cause in any Court of spirituall Iustice in the Church For if certaine principall and godly persons associated unto a learned and zealous Pastor in the presence and with the consent and authority of the people of every Parish did enjoyne penance suspend or excommunicate a spirituall The administration of spirituall Iustice by pastors and Elders agreeable to the execution of civill justice in the Common-Weale Master D. Bancroft what his assistants Letter able to represse puritans in one parish D. Stanhope alone to represse all in a Diocesse offendor were not this forme of administration of spirituall Iustice more consonant agreeable and conformable to the daily execution of civill Iustice in the Courts of the Common-Weale than is the administration of spirituall Iustice by the Bishop alone or by his Vicar generall alone in his Consistory and to make this matter more familiar in the mind of the Reader for an instance or two let us suppose that Master Doctor Bancroft Parson of S. Andros in Holborne had chosen Master Harsnet to be his Curat and withall that Master Dodge Master Mercury Master Flower and Master Brisket all chiefe attendants on his late great Lord and Master were inhabitants within the same Parish and thâ—t the chiefe men of the same Parish had chosen those to be assistants to him and to his Curat for the inquisition of the demeanours of all the Puritans and Precisians within his Parish let this I say be supposed would not hee and they trow we thinke it a high scorne and an indignitie to be offered unto their Masterships in case it should bee insinuated that Master Doctor Stanhope were better able with one little blast of breath upon a peece of paper to blow away all Puritanisme out of the Citie and Diocesse of London than these great Chapleins and discreet Gentlemen with their thunderings and with their lightnings were able to fright the same out of one poore Parish in HOLBORNE And againe to make this matter yet a little more familiar to the minde of the Reader let us suppose again that thundering Master Merbury now Lecturer in the Church of Saint Mary Overis were Pastor of the same Church and had to be his assistants in the Ministery but simple M. Butterton and that they two for the Elders of the same Church to be chosen by the Parish had such and such and such men lovers of all honesty and godlinesse and enemies unto all dishonesty and ungodlinesse could not these learned and grave Ministers with the assistants of such wise and godly Borough-Masters bee as well able to reforme Papists Atheists Swearers prophaners of the Sabbath drunkerds adulterers and such like within the Borough of Southwarke as is Master Doctor Ridley to bring to any good amendment of life all such kind of persons within the whole Diocesse of Winchester If the examination and judgement of all theeveries pickeries burglaries robberies murders and such like were committed to Master Dâ—ctor Ridley alone for the Diocesse of Winchester and to Master D. Stanhope alone for the Diocesse of London were it not like that for one such malefactor as there is now we should shortly have an hundred And therefore to hold us still to the point in question it is very plaine and evident that this manner of spirituall justice mentioned to be executed by the Pastors and Elders is more correspondent to the administration of civill justice in the Common-Weale than is that manner of the execution of spirituall Iustice by Doctor Stanhope or Doctor Ridley by the Bishop of London or by the Bishop of Winchester For to begin with our meanest and basest Courts let them shew unto us any Court Leete Law-dayes Matters in Leets and Law dayes not overruled by one alone or Sheriffes turnes within any County City Towne Borough Village or Hamblet within the Realme wherein
the Realm of Ireland of the K. highnesse most honourable privie Councell chosen by him for the assistance of his Royal person in matters appertaining to his Kingly estate and lastly of the supreme and grand Councell of the three estates in Parliament for matters concerning the Church the King and the common weale For whether respect be had unto the secret affaires of the Kings estate consulted upon in his Highnesse Councell Chamber by his privie Councellers or whether we regard the publike tractation of matters in Parliament there can be no man so simple as not to know both these privie and open negotiations to be carried by most voices of those persons who by the K. are called to those honourable assemblies And what a vaine jangling then doth the Admonitor keepe and how idely and wranglingly doth he dispute when against the government of the Church by Pastours and Elders hee objecteth that the same will interrupt the lawes of the Realme that it will bee great occasion of partiall and affectionate dealing that some will incline to one part and that the residue will be wrought to favour the other and that thereby it will be a matter of strife discord schisme and heresies Howbeit if never any of these extremities and dangers have fallen out in the common weale by any partiall ot affectionate dealing of the Kings Deputies Presidents Judges Justicers and other Officers and Ministers associated unto them for the administration of Justice or equitie in any of the Kings civill Courts how much lesse cause have we to feare any partialitie affection working inclination favour strife debate schismaticall or hereticall opinions if once Pastours and Elders in every Congregation and not throughout a Diocesse one Bishop alone had the spirituall administration of the Church cause Can many temporall Officers Justicers and Judges rightly and indifferently administer the Law and execute jâ—stice and judgement without that that some doe incline to one part and without that the residue be wrought to favour the other part And cannot spirituall Officers dispatch spirituall affaires without that that they be partially and affectionally disposed What is it so easie a matter that the Ancients of God and the Ministers of Christ can the one part incline to righteousnesse and the residue be wrought to favour wickednesse can some incline to God and unto Christ and can other some be wrought to follow Satan and Antichrist For what other controversie is requâ—red to be decided by Pastours and Elders than the controversie of sin between the soule of man and his God And is there any Christian Pastour or Elder that will be wrought rather to favour the sinne of a mortall man than the glory of his immortall God But to leave the state of the kingdome and common weale and the good usages and customes of the same let us come to the state of the Church it selfe and to the lawfull government thereof established even amongst us at this The government of the Church ought not to be by one alone day For whatsoever our Reverend Bishops practise to the contrary yet-touching ordination and deposition of Ministers touching excommunication and absolution touching the order and rule of Colleges Cathedral Churches and the Vniversities the Ecclesiastical law doth not commit the administration of these things and regiment of these places to any one person alone The Vniversities admit not the government of the Chancellour being present nor of his Vicechancellour The government in the Vniversities not by one alone The government in Colledges not by one alone himselfe being absent as of one alone the Doctors Procurators Regents and non-Regents have all voices and by most oâ— their voices the Vniversitie causes take successe The businesses of Colledges by the statutes of their founders are commended to the industrie and fidelitie of the President Viceprovost and Fellowes unto the Provost and Viceprovost and Fellowes unto the Warden Sub-warden and fellowes unto the Master and fellowes and unto such like Officers and fellowes The Cathedrall The government of Cathedrall Churches not by one alone Churches their livings and their lands their revenues and their dividents their Chapiters and their coâ—ferences depend upon the will and disposition of the Deane and Chapiter and not of the Bishop alone Neither can the Bishop alone by any ancient canon law pretended to be in force place or displace excommunicate or absolve any Ecclesiasticall person without the judgement of the Chapiter Ex de exces Prela c. 2. Exc. de hiis quaes cons cap c novit And aswell by a statute 21. H. 8. c. 13. as also by the booke of consecrating Archbishops c. the presence of divers Ministers and the people is required at the ordiâ—ation of every Minister As for the deposition or degradation of Ministers under the correction of the reverend Whether the degradation of a Minister be warrantable Monsieur de â— Iesis 164. in the 2 book of the Masse Bb. be it spoken I think they have not so much as any colour of any law for it The form of the degradation of a popish and sacrificing Priest by the Canon law can be no pretext to degrade a Minister of the Gospell because a Minister of the Gospell is not set into his charge per calicem patinam with a cup full of wine and dish full of hostes neither receiveth hee any character at all of a shaveling priest And because a Minister of the Gospell is ordained only after that manner which the statute law hath appointed how should the ordination made by so high an authoritie be undone by any other power unto the former manners of the administration of the causes of the Vniversities Colledges and Cathedrall Churches may be added the execution of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction committed The ecclesiasticall Commission exercised by many commissioners and not by one heretofore by the Queen unto the Ecclesiastical Commissioners For althought by the words of the statute her Highnesse had full power and authoritie by her letters patents to assign name and authorize any one person a naturall borne subject to execute spiâ—ituall jurisdiction yet neverthelesse according to the laudable usages and customes of her Kingdome and courts temporall she evermore authorised not one alone but divers and sundry aswell temporall as Ecclesiasticall persons for the execution thereof Which manner of The ecclesiasticall commission commanded by the Bishops if it please the King may be enlarged unto all parishes wherin are godly preaching Ministers commission because the reverend Bb. commend the same and avow that it would do more good if it were more common it cannot but seem to be a most gratefull thing unto all good men especially unto those reverend Fathers if humbly wee beseech the king that his highnesse would be pleased to make it more common And therfore in the behalfe aswell of the reverend Bb. as of all the learned and grave Doctors and Pastours of every Church we most instantly
which is of humane institution if it be answered that the Bishop by reason Whether L. Bishopâ— by pastorall authority may excommunicate a Pastor of his pastorall power which he is said to have over all the Pastors and people of his Diocesse may lawfully not onely minister the Word and Sacraments but also the Discipline of Christ unto them all then it followeth that by a Pastorall power one Pastour may bee a Pastour of Pastors which is against the Scriptures and contrary to the brotherly and fellow-like authority which is common to all Pastors under the Sunne and betweene whom touching their Pastorall functions there is to this day by the Scriptures as little superiority and as great a paritie as ever there was betweene Apostles and Apostles betweene Prophets and Prophets or betweene Evangelists and Evangelists and as at this day there is betweene Bishops and Bishops betweene Archbiâ—hops and Archbishops or betweene Patriarkes and Patriarkes yea and as is between Earles and Earles Dukes and Dukes Kings and Kings Emperours and Emperours For no greater superiority or preheminence hath any one Pastor over the person or function oâ— an other Pastour touching the administration of any thing properly belonging to either of their pastorall functions than hath one Pastors over small flockes are as truly pastors as pastors over great flocks As great paritie betweene pastors pastor as between Apostles and Apostles Emperor over the person or function of an other Emperor or one King over the person or function of an other King or one Lord Biâ—hop over the person or function of an other Lord Biâ—hop or one Archbiâ—hop over the person or function of an other Archbishop or than had one Apostle over the person or function of an other Apostle Nay then hath one eye over an other eye one hand over an other hand one arme over an other arme or one foot over another foote And therefore if touching the functions which Pastors either among themselves have in common one with the other or which they have over their flockes there be no disparity but that the Pastors to whom small flockes are committed doe as really and as truly participate of the nature of true Pastors as those great Pastors doe upon whose great shoulders great burthens are imposed it behoveth great Pastors to prove unto us by the holy Scriptures that by the institution of their great pastorall function they have their power so enlarged as that thereby they may preach the Word minister the Sacraments and excommunicate and that on the other side the little Pastours have their power by the institution of their petie pastorall offices so streitned as whereby they may only preach the Word and administer the Sacraments but not excommunicate it behoveth I say great Pastors to bee able sufficiently to shew unto us these things out of the holy Scriptures or else it seemeth to stand with reason and equity deduced from the same Scriptures that a Pastor over a few should have like power to teach and to governe a few as a great Pastor over many hath to instruct and to rule many Marry if they thinke that onely great Pastors bee true Pastors and that great powers spirituall bee onely true powers spirituall then let them also conclude that onely great Knights be true Knights that onely great Dukes be true Dukes that onely great Kings be true Kings and that onely great principalities temporall bee true principalities temporall Which conclusion if they shall judge to be conclusionlesse because King Rehoboam had Not only Kings of great kingdomes but also Kings of small kingdomes bee true Kings as large a Patent to feede and to commmand two Tribes as King Salomon his Father had to command and to feede twelve or as the Archbishop of Yorke may suppose himselfe to have over nine or tenne Counties as the Archbishop of Canterbury can have over nine and thirtie or fortie then me thinketh it a matter very reasonably of them to be confessed that all true Pastors whether they be great Pastors or little Pastors may lawfully exercise all manner of such true power spirituall as unto true spirituall Pastors by the holy Scriptures doth appertaine For if Bishops being great Pastors may therefore preach and minister the Sacraments because they be as they say true Pastors then also may little Pastors therefore excommunicate because they bee as the Scripture saith true Bishops Wherefore if the Lord Bishop of London by vertue of his Pastorall office as he thinketh which with his brethren the other Pastors of his Diocesse he hath in common deriveth unto him immediately from the Word of God may lawfully excommunicate then the Pastorall office which Master Doctor Andrews hath over the people of his Parish of Saint Giles without Creeplegate and the Pastorall function which Master Doctor White hath over the people of Saint Dunstones within Temple-barre being as absolutely and as immediately deduced unto them out of the same word what proofe can bee made out of the word that the Bishop being not Lord Pastour of the Pastours of his Diocesse may lawfully by the word excommunicate all manner of offenders both Pastors and people within his Diocesse and yet neverthelesse that neither Master Doctor Andrewes and Master Doctor White by the same word may excommunicate any one of their Parishioners at all Nay further what reason can there bee afforded from the Law of God that Master Doctor Abbot Deane of Winchester that Master Browne Master Barlow and diverse other Prebendaries in the Church of Winchester having certaine parochiall and Pastorall Churches annexed to his and their Deanry and Prebendes and Master D. Grey in his Parish by their pastorall functions should have absolute authority unlesse it bee during the time of the L. Bishops trienniall visitation to exercise the discipline of Christ within their severall and peculiar Churches and yet notwithstanding that neither Master Richman nor Master Burden being both of them grave godly and learned Pastors should have at any time any pastorall authority to exercise any censure at all And as it is in the Churth of Winchester so is it in the Church of Pauls in the Church of Salisbury and in well nigh all the Cathedrall and Collegiall Churches throughout the Realme The Deane Prebendaries and Canons having certaine parochiall Churches exempted from the Bishop within their exempt and peculiar jurisdictions by meere Pastorall authority for Episcopall authority by the Lawes of the Church have they none may exercise all manner of spirituall censures and that as well by their substitutes as by themselves Nay Rurall Deanes in Cheshire c. use some part of Episcopall power Episcopall power to excommunicate granted by papall priviledges or prescribed use Power to excommunicate if it be of divine right may not be prescribed which is more in Cheshire Lancashire Yorkeshire Richmondshire and other Northern parts there be many whole Deanries exempted from the Bishops jurisdiction wherein the Deanes and their substitutes have
immediately from your highnesse by and under your Highnesse letters patents And whereas also by a statute made in the first yeare of King Edward the sixth entituled an Act what seales and stile Bishops or other spirituall persons shall use it was ordained that all and singular Archbishops and Bishops and others exercising Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction should in their processe use the Kings name and stile and not their owne and also that their Seales should be graved with the Kings arms And forasmuch also as it must be highly derogatorie to the imperiall Crowne of this your Highnesse Realme that any cause whatsoever Ecclesiasticall or temporall within these your Highnesse Dominions should bee heard or adjudged without warrant or commission from your Highnesse your heires and successors or not in the name stile and dignity of your Highnesse your heires and successors or that any seals should be annexed to any promise but onely your Kingly seale and armes May it therefore please the King at the humble supplication of his Commons to have it enacted That the foresaid branch of the foresaid Act made in the first yeare of Queene Elizabeth her raigne and every part thereof may still remaine and for ever bee in force And to theend the true intent and meaning of the said statute made in the first year of K. Edw. the sixth may be declared and revived that likewise by the authoritie aforesaid it may be ordained and enacted that all and singular Ecclesiasticall Courts and Consistories belonging to any Archbishops Bishops Suffraganes College Deane and Chapter Prebendarie or to any Ecclesiasticall person or persons whatsoever and which have heretofore beene commonly called reputed taken or knowne to be Courts or Consistories for causes of instance or wherein any suite complaint or action betweene partie and partie for any matter or cause wherein judgement of law civill or Canon hath beene or is required shall and may for ever hereafter be reputed taken and adjudged to be Courts and judgement seates meerely Civill secular and temporall and not henceforth Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall and as of right belonging and appertaining to the Royall Crowne and dignitie of our Soveraigne Lord King James that now is his heires and successors for ever And that all causes of instance and controversies betweene partie and partie at this day determinable in any of the said Courts heretofore taken and reputed Ecclesiasticall shall for ever hereafter bee taken reputed and adjudged to be causes meerly Civill secular and temporall as in truth they ought to bee and of right are belonging and appertaining to the jurisdiction of the Imperiall crown of this Realme And further that your Highnesse Leige people may bee the better kept in awe by some authorized to bee your Highnesse Officers and Ministers to execute justice in your Highnes name and under your Highnesse stile and title of King of England Scotland France and Ireland defender of the Faith c. in the said Courts and Consistories and in the said causes and controversies Be it therefore enacted by the authorities aforesaid That all the right title and interest of in and to the said Courts and Consistories and in and to the causes and controversies aforesaid by any power jurisdiction or authoritie heretofore reputed Ecclesiasticall but by this Act adjudged civill secular and temporall shall for ever hereafter actually and really be invested and appropried in and to the Royall person of our Soveraigne Lord the King that now is his heires and successors Kings and Queenes of this Realme And that it shall and may be lawfull to and for our said Soveraigne Lord and King his heires and successors in all and every Shire and Shires Diocesse and Diocesses within his Highnesse Dominions and Countries by his and their letters patents under the great Seale of England from time to time and at all times to nominate and appoint one or moe able and sufficient Doctor or Doctors learned in the Civill Law to bee his and their civill secular and temporall Officer and Officers Minister and Ministers of justice in the same civill secular and temporall Courts and Consistories which in and over his and their royall name stile and dignitie shall as Judge and Judges doe performe and execute all and every such act and acts thing and things whatsoever in and about the execution of justice and equitie in those Courts according to the course and order of the civill Law or the Ecclesiasticall canons and constitutions of the Realme as heretofore hath beene used and accustomed to bee done by for or in the name of any Archbishops Bishops Colledge Cathedrall Church Deane Archdeacon Prebendary or any other Ecclesiasticall person or persons whatsoever And that all and every such civill secular and temporall Officer and Officers Minister and Ministers Judge and Judges in his and their processe shall use one manner of Seal only and none other having graved decently therin your Kingly armes with certaine characters for the knowledge of the Diocesse or Shire And further be it enacted c. That it shall and may be lawfull by the authoritie aforesaid for our said Soveraigne Lord the King his heires and successors from time to time and at all times to nominate and appoint by his and their Highnesse Letters Patents under the great Seale of England for every Shire and Shires Diocesse and Diocesses within his or their highnesse Dominions one or more able and sufficient persons learned in the Civill Law to be his and their Notarie and Notaries Register and Registers by him and themselves or by his or their lawfull Deputie or Deputies to doe performe and execute all and every such act and acts thing and things as heretofore â—â— the Courts and Consistories Ecclesiasticall aforesaid hath beene and â—ow are incident and appertaining to the office of any Register or Notarie And further at the humble suit of the Commons c. it may please the King to have it enacted that all and singular matters of Wills and Testaments with all and every their appendices that all and singular matters of Spousals and Marriages with their accessories that all and singular matters of defamation heretofore determinable in the Ecclesiasticall Courts and if there bee any other causes of the like meere civill nature shall bee heard examined and determined by the said civill and secular Officers and Iudges in the said civill and secular Courts according to the due course of the civill Law or statutes of the Realme in that behalfe provided And that all matters of Tythes Dilapidations repayre of Churches and if there bee any other of like nature with their accessories and appendices shall be heard examined and determined by the said civill and secular Officers and Judges in the said Civill and Secular Courts according to the Kings Ecclesiasticall Lawes Statutes and customes of the Realme in that behalfe heretofore used or hereafter by the King and Parliament to be established And at the humble suite of the Commons may it please the King to
of the Common Law before the Kings Judges and Justices of the Kings bench and Common pleas By a Statute of 32. H. 8. c 7. it is cleare that all tyths oblations c. and other Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall profits by the lawes and statutes of the Realme may be made temporall as being admitted to be abide and goe to and in temporall hands lay-uses and profits From the reason of which statute it is cleare that those lawes likewise may be reckoned amongst us for temporall lawes which by the lawes and statutes of the Realme may be executed by temporall and lay persons and which are conversant about temporal and lay causes If then the execution of the Lawes touching these matters may lawfully remaine and abide in the hands of Doctors of the Civill Law being temporall and lay persons as alreadie under the Bishops they doe it cannot be denied but that the Kings Judges and Justices of both benches may bee as competible Judges to put in execution the lawes concerning these matters as Doctors of the Civill Law or other lay men be But the causes are not reputed and called temporall and lay causes amongst us What for that if in their owne nature simply considered these causes be merely lay and temporall causes such causes I meane as whereof the King a lay civill and temporall Magistrate by his lay civill and temporall Magistracie derived unto him immediately from the holy law of God may and ought to take cognizance and thereupon either in his owne Royall person or by the person of any of his inferiour Officers may give absolute and peremptorie judgement If I say these things be so what booteth it or what wisedome is it to contend that these causes and matters have been and are still adjudged to be therefore Ecclesiasticall and no temporall causes because through an abusive speech or through a vaine and evill custome they have beene so led and accompted in times past And what if it hath pleased the Kings Progenitors by sufferance to tolerate the executions of such Lawes as concerne these things to bee in the hands and power of Ecclesiasticall persons yet hereupon it followeth not that in very deede and truth the Magistracie of the said Ecclesiasticall persons was an Ecclesiasticall Magistracie or that they were Ecclesiasticall Magistrates but their Magistracie was and remained still a temporall magistracie and they were and abode temporall Magistrates For not more can the qualitie of the person alter the nature of the cause than can the qualitie of the cause alter the nature of the person And if it be true that matters determinable in times past by a Magistracie abusively called Ecclesiasticall be notwithstanding properly temporall matters and that the same Magistracie also be a temporall and no spirituall Magistracie what a childish and poore conceit is it to challenge and threp upon the temporall Magistrate that he hath none or very few temporall lawes touching those matters and that therefore the people should not solicit an alteration of abuses in Church government left for want of temporall lawes the people should bee without Ecclesiasticall discipline It will be no small matter saith he to apply these things to the temporall law yea and so say I to But what of that The question is not how hardly these things may be applyed to the temporall law but how small a matter it were to apply the temporall law unto these things For it is not said in any law that casus ex juribus but it is said in all lawes that ex casibus jura nascuntur The temporall law may easily be applyed to causes now reputed Ecclesiasticall And indeed the Phisition applyeth not the disease to his Phisick but he prepareth his phificke for the disease The husband-man he measureth not his ground by the seed but his seed by the ground The Draper he meateth not his yard by the cloth but his cloth by the yard If in like manner the temporall lawes and the grounds and rules thereof were applyed to these matters of tythes marriages c. whereof he speaketh what more alteration could there bee of the temporall law by such an application then there is an alteration of the plummet by laying it to the stone or than there is an alteration of the rule or yard by laying them to the timber and cloth Besides he that rightly and after an exact and equall proportion can apply one rule or maxime of the temporall law to many more cases than whereupon it hath beene usually in former times applyed hee may rather bee reputed an additioner than an alterer of the Law But how may the temporall Law be applyed to those matters how even so and so as followeth By the statute of 32. H. 8. c. 7. it is declared that tythes oblations how tythes may bee recovered in the Kings temporall Courts c. and other Ecclesiasticall or spirituall profits c. being lay mens hands to lay uses be no more Ecclesiasticall but temporall goods and profits and that if any person were diseased deforced wronged or otherwise kept or put from his lawfull inheritance estate seisin c. of in or to the same by any person claiming or pretending to have interest or title in or to the same that then in all and every such case the person so disseised deforced or wrongfully kept from his right or possession shall and may have his remedie in the Kings tempoâ—al Courts as the case shall require for the recoverie of such inheritance by writ originall c. to be devised and granted out of the Kings Court of Chancery in like maner c. It is there likewise provided that that Act shall not extend nor be expounded to give any remedie cause of action or suite in the Courts temporall against any person which shall refuse to set out his tythes or which shall detaine c. his tythes and offerings But that in all such cases the partie c. having cause to demand or have the same tythes shall have his action for the same in the Ecclesiasticall Courts according to the ordinance in the first part of that act mentioned and none otherwise Now then sithence every person whether he be lay or Ecclesiasticall having right to demand tythes and offerings hath the partie from whom those tythes be due bound and obliged unto him and sithence also the partie not dividing yeelding or paying his tythes doth actually and really detaine the same and thereby doth unjustly wrong the partie to whom they be due contrary to justice and the Kings lawes sithence I say these things be so what alteration or disadvantage could befall or ensue to the Common Law or the Professors thereof if so be it might please the King with his Parliament to have the last part of this Act so to be explained extended and enlarged as that the same might give remedy in the Kings temporall Courts by writ originall to be devised and granted out of the Chancerie against
the papall canon law must needs take place because by the same law consent of Parents is not de necessitate but The canon law preferred by the reverend Bishops before the law of God and the civill law de honestate tantum and because also matrimonia debent esse libera non pendere ex alieno arbitrio Wherein the reverend Bishops under their favourable patience can not clearely excuse themselves of much oversight in so slender managing of a matter of so great and high a consequence The holy law of God by publike authoritie hath been commanded within this Realme to bee sincerely and purely taught received and embraced The civill law hath not had her free course in this case hindered by any law of the Realme And how then commeth it to passe that the canon law being in this point repugnant to both these Lawes should notwithstanding be preferred beare sway and take place in this Realme before and above both these Laws especially Certain speciall points to be provided about mariages the same in this point as being against the law of God being utterly taken away The abuses past and mariages past under colour and pretext of this law may and ought to be bewailed and repented of yea and that no such mariages in time to come may be made I leave it to be considered whether it might not tend to the advancement of the Law of God be honourable for the King and commodious for the Common Weale providently to provide these things following viz. First that no matrimonie secretly contracted against the will or unknowning of or to the father or him or her that hath the keeping education or government of the partie to be maried before he or she come to a certaine age should in any sort be good or available to make the posteritie of those who shall bee so maried legitimate or inheritable Secondly that every contract of mariage concluded with consent of parents Tutor Governour or Gardian should be forcible and effectuall to bind both parties irrevocably whether the same contract with an intent to conclude a mariage be made by wordes of the present or future tence it skilleth not Thirdly that every man stealing away contracting and marrying a maide under the age of certaine yeares without consent of father tutor governour or gardian should be a felon and for such his felonious act suffer the paines of death And lastly that all licences to marry without banes asking according to the intendment of the booke of Common prayer bee forbidden and unlawfull for ever Which things if they might be observed it is very likely that mens inheritances as now many times they doe should not hang in suspence upon question of legitimation or illegitimation of their children to be allowed or disallowed by the commonlaw There should not any such long and tedious suites and variances hereafter fall out betweene the posterities and children of one man for the right and interest of their Ancestors lands Neither should Sir Thomas Lucie nor Sir Edmond Complaint heretofore made upon stealing away and marying mens daughters how they may cease Ludlow nor the Lady Norton nor Master Cooke the Kings Atturney generall nor many moe Knights Esquires and Gentlemen complaine and bewaile the stealing away and mariages of any their daughters Neeces neer Kinswomen or Wards Neither could it bee possible that one woman might procure foure or five severall licences for the mariage of foure or five severall husbands all of them being alive together and not one of them dead Neither should there any licence of mariage be granted out of any Ecclesiasticall Court to any man or woman with a blanck whereby the partie licensed was enabled to have maried another mans wife or his owne or his wives sister Neither should any couples maried and living together foure six or more yeers as man and wife upon a new and suddaine dislike or discontentment and upon a surmised precontract to be pretensedly proved by two suborned witnesses be adjudged by vertue of the canon law to be no husband and to be no wife Neither should any man being solemnly maried to a wife and afterward by reason of a precontract solemnly divorced from the same his wife and by censures of the Church compelled to marry her for whom sentence of precontract was adjudged be re-authorised by the same Consistorie about ten or twelve years after the divorce to resummon recall and rechallenge his first wife especially she having a testimoniall out of the same Consistorie of her lawfull divorce and being againe solemnly maried to an other husband Wherefore to conclude these matters of tythes testaments and Mariages if the King should not be pleased to have the studie of the civill law advanced by some such law as whereof the former project maketh mention I dispute for the enlarging of the common law thus If it stand with reason with the grounds and rules of the common law and with the Kings Royall prerogative that in cases of Tythes Testaments and Mariages the King if it may please him so to provide by Parliament may give remedie unto complaynants by writs out of the Charcorie and that complaints in such cases may effectually be redressed upon such writs in the Kings Courts And if also sundry matters of Tythes Testaments and Marriages bee already handled in the Kings Courts if these things I say be so and so may be then with little reason did the Admonitor warne us that a very great alteration of the common law must follow and that it will bee no small matter to apply these things to the temporall law But the antecedent is true as hath beene already shewed Therefore the consequent is true ADMONITION Indgements also of adulterie slander c. are in these mens judgments meere temporall and therefore to be dealt in by the temporall Pag. â—â— Magistrate only ASSERTION We are indeed of this judgement that in regard of the Kings Royall Office these judgements of adulterie and other criminall Causes comprised within this clause c. ought no more to be exempted from the Kings temporall Courts than matters of theft murder treason and such like ought to be And for the maintenance of our judgements we affirme that there is no crime or offence of what nature or qualitie soever respecting any commandement contained within either of the two tables of the holy law of God if the same be now corrigible by spirituall power but that some fault and contempt one or other of the like nature and qualitie as comprised under the same commandement hath beene evermore and is now punishable by the Kings Regall and temporall jurisdiction For adulterie as the same is to be censured by penance in the Ecclesiasticall Courts so is ravishment also buggerie and sodomie to bee punished in the Kings Court by paine of death And as hath beene accustomed that Ordinaries by censures of the Church may correct fornicators so fornication also as in some bookes