Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	catholic_n	church_n	communion_n	2,927	5	9.4030	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26737	The ancient liberty of the Britannick church, and the legitimate exemption thereof from the Roman patriarchate discoursed on four positions, and asserted / by Isaac Basier ... ; three chapters concerning the priviledges of the Britannick church, &c., selected out of a Latin manuscript, entituled, Catholico-romanus pacificus, written by F.I. Barnes ... ; translated, and published for vulgar instruction, by Ri. Watson.; De antiqua ecclesiae Britannicae libertate. English	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Barnes, John, d. 1661. Catholico-romanus pacificus. English. Selections.; Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1029; ESTC R9065	27,797	82

matter of fact whereto the Roman Bishop himself that I may speak the truth as gently as may be was at least accessory and therefore can be no competent Judge of the cause but rather if the business would bear a controversie it were to be presented to a truly Oecumenical or general free Council rightly and legitimately called Now so far is it from that the Britannick Church even refused to present her self or her cause before the Tribunal of such a Council that the Britannick Church rather holds a general Council to be above any Patriarch even the Roman himself according to that pair of Councils held at Basil and Constance This the Britannick holds together with the Gallican Church a renewing of the ancient concord with which Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as conscience permits were even at this time much to be wished it being manifest that above a thousand years since much friendship passed between the Gallican and the Britannick Church even at that time when the Britannick Church did not communicate with the Roman and certainly if both parties would mutually understand one the other without prejudice and that of the two which is in the extream would remit of its rigour that consent of the Britannick Church with the Gallican would not be so improbable as it seems at the first aspect to them that are ignorant of both or either But this onely by the way To our purpose again Wee say the Britannick Church doth so reverence the General Councils that she hath provided by a special Statute That not any one endued with spiritual jurisdiction shall declare or administer his Ecclesiastical censures or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresie but onely such as before had been determined ordered or adjudged to be heresie by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council This was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the very Catholick sense of the Britannick Church and her due esteem of General Councils which the old Parliament openly testified in the solemn Assembly of that whole Kingdome for we disdain to make mention in this place of the Cabals or Conventicles now adayes which reign in the turbulent rebellious State of that Church and Republick for those swarms of Sects are onely the Cancers and Impostemes of that lately famous Church which no more belong to the sacred body of the Britannick Church than a wenn doth to the body natural And truly if heretofore the great Mother of us all the Catholick Church seemed almost universally to be utterly swallowed by a sudden deluge of Arrianism what wonder is it if the Britannick Church but one of her daughters lye under the same fate for a time This for the first point Concerning the second it is to be very much observed That the Britannick Church at the time of her withdrawing was not truly in fact much less by right subject to the Bishop of Rome having been years before her reformation under Edward 6. altogether exempt from the Roman Patriarchate to wit by the Imperial Authority and by that of Prince Henry the eighth whom to have been impowred to do it by right appears before in the first Position But what occasion soever of the withdrawing at that time shall bee pretended it cannot prejudice the Royal Right or any way derogate from the ancient Custome of the Britannick Church Nay the British Nation could not have opposed either of the two without being hainously guilty both of Rebellion and Schism especially since that whole business of the Church's restitution was transacted with the express consent of the Britannick Clergy then Romane a Provincial Council of which alone in defect of a General was at that time the supream meerly Ecclesiastick tribunal of the Britannick Nation whereunto onely the Britannick Church ought to be or indeed could be subject because in that article of time no Council truly general sate As for that of Trent which afterward followed it was at highest onely Patriarchal to which consequently the Britannick Church before exempt by lawful authority from the Romane Patriarchate was no way subject Whereas therefore the Britannick Church can be said to have opposed it self to no lawful Ecclesiastick Authority at all which notwithstanding inseparably is of the essence of Schism certain it is that Church is no way Schismatical but on the contrary side the Britannick Church according to the singular moderation and Christian love she perpetually sheweth toward all Christians as she keeps off from her external Communion no Christian of what ever communion he be so that he hold the foundation intire but unless a most just excommunication put a bar opens her Catholick bosome and draws forth her holy breasts to any genuine Nursling of the Catholick Church so as well in Faith as the internal Communion of Charity as likewise in the external Communion of the Catholick Hierarchy and Liturgy yea and Ceremonies also she yet cherisheth and professeth an undivided peace and consent with the Catholick Church from which the Britannick Church never did nor ever will separate her self as being alwaies most tenacious of the whole truly Catholick foundation For one thing it is on the hinge of which just distinction is the whole state of this great controversie turned one thing I say it is to separate her self from the Catholick or Universal Church and to form to her self a Congregation or Religion apart different from the Catholick Church as in times past the Donatists did another not to communicate in all with some one particular Church as for instance the Latine or rather to abstain from the external worship which is used by some persons in some places under an express Protestation for thence is sprung the modest and innocent title of Protestants under Protestation I say so soon as the occasion of scandal should be taken away of reconciliation and under a vow not so much out of any absolute necessity as for publick peace and Catholick unity's sake of returning to the Communion of that particular Church from which that the Protestants were estranged yea in the latter age violently driven away by thunder and sword and fire is better known out of history than to want any proof or further amplification It appears therefore out of the Premises that the Britannick Church constituted in this as I may say her passive state of separation from the communion of the Bishop of Rome is wholly free from all blemish of Schism by reason that the Bishop of Rome himself first of all interrupted Christian communion with the Britannick Church and yet further inderdicteth the Britannick Church his communion and in that again the Pope extolleth himself above a General Council lawfully called unto which the Britannick Church hath ever attributed the decisive judgement while in his Bull of the Lords Supper he forbids an appeal from himself to a general Council To

Augustine their Bishop more than with Pagans the reason was because Augustine did seem to deal uncanonically with them by constraining them to receive him for their Arch-Bishop and subject themselves to the mandates of strangers when as the Ancient manners of the Britannick Church required that all things should be synodically transacted within themselves Hence is it that the Britains did alwaies celebrate their Ordinations within themselves and this is also another honorary priviledge of the Patriarchal Jurisdiction and concerning this wee again appeal unto Bede in his history of Aidan the Bishop yea to Baronius himself where quoted before who relates out of Lanfranke the custome of the Kingdome to have been that the Bishops thereof were consecrated by one single Bishop but that these ancient Customes of Britain were abrogated by the force rather and power of the Anglo-Saxons than by any Synodical consent The said Bede testifieth the same where hee relates that Colman the Bishop Finanus's Successour in the Pontificate of the Northymbrians with his fellows chose rather to desert Episcopate and Monastery than their Ancient Manners Which fact of Bishop Colman is worth observation lest what some falsely pretend onely the Monks of Bangor may seem to have rejected Augustin against whom charged upon them this was the Legitimate defence of the ancient Britains these being their very words out of Beda before That they could not abandon their ancient manners without the consent and license of their own Bishops And truly this answer of the Britains was grounded on very irrefragable very Catholick reason and that because this unwonted subjection had contradicted the sixth Oecumenick Canon of the Council of Nice which expresly commands the Ancient Manners to bee kept This had also destroyed the eighth Canon of the first Ephesine Council by which first such usurpation to wit in the case of the Cyprian Church is called in Hypothesis a thing innovated beside Ecclesiastick Constitutions and Canons of the Holy Fathers which as common diseases therefore needs a greater remedy because the dammage is greater which it brings Secondly Therefore the Holy Synod in Thesi as they say or in general commands that that should be observed in all Dioceses and Provinces wheresoever Behold the Authentick Charter of the Britannick Liberty Thirdly That no Bishop the Roman not excepted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should invade any other Province which from the beginning hath not been under his or his predecessours jurisdiction as for instance did Augustin the Monk Fourthly The Oecumenick Canon goes on and a hundred and fifty years more or less before Augustins invasion of the Britannick Church as it were fore-seeing it by provision declares it to be void in these most weighty words That if any one shall invade it and make it his own by force hee shall restore it Fifthly Yet further for the following words are most emphatical and which as by and by shall appear seem chiefly to regard the Roman Bishop himself The Holy Synod warneth that the Canons of the Holy Fathers be not passed by nor that the pride of secular power creep in under the specious pretence of administring sacred Affairs and by little and little unawares wee lose that Liberty which our Lord Iesus Christ the deliverer of all men hath purchased for us by his blood Yea the Holy Oecumenical Synod for the greater enforcement yet again repeats the decree It hath therefore pleased the Holy and Universal Synod to decree that to every Province be preserved pure and inviolate the rights which it had from the very beginning according to ancient Custome every Metropolitane and so the Britannick having liberty to take Copies of the Act for his Security Yet the Holy Synod concludes according to its Oecumenical Authority If any one shall bring any Sanction every word is most general repugnant to those which now are defined it hath pleased intirely the Holy and Universal Synod that it bee void Hitherto for the Liberty of the Churches extends the most express Canon of the Catholick Church which after the matter of fact first declared completes the matter of right in favour as well of the Britannick as Cyprian Church For since as out of the praemises appears the Britannick Church in the West enjoyed the same priviledge wherewith the Cyprian Church was honoured in the East why may not shee lawfully resume what is her own in time of peace which was taken from her by tumult and force in a turbulent time of the wars The sum of the whole most Inculent Canon is this The ancient and truly Catholick Church would have the rights of every Church preserved not taken away and if they be taken away by force or fraud what Patriarch soever doth it his fact is declared void and moreover hee is commanded to restore that Province which he hath made his own Now that this Canon was establisht in a tacite opposition to the Roman Bishop himself is not obscurely to bee collected out of the Acts of that Council for it is evident from them that the Canon prevailed notwithstanding the Epistle of Innocent the first to Alexander wherein the Roman Bishop declared that the Cyprians were not wise according to Faith if they subjected not themselves to the Patriarch of Antioch when as notwithstanding wee see the decree of the Universal Synod plainly contrary to the Papal sentence wherein namely it was judged that this was attempted by the Antiochian beside the Canons and that therefore all the letters brought by him against the Cyprians were of no effect Hitherto the third Position The last followeth The Fourth and last Position The Britannick Church persevering in its Primitive Exemption from the Roman Patriarchate so far is it from that it ought or can be therefore called Schismatical that rather in the very same respect before truly Catholick Iudges that Church appears both to have been and yet really to bee by so much the more every way Catholick by how much that Church more than others is an Assertour of the whole Ancient Catholick Liberty which by so many sacred Canons of four General Councils the Nicene Constantinopolitan Ephesine and Chalcedonian the Catholick Fathers have decreed and antecedently declared to remain ratified for ever against all future usurpations SInce the time that the ancient Liberty of the Britannick Church was by right resumed as before with the solemn consent of the whole Kingdome the Britannick Church now truly Catholick in the rest can by a like right retain the same without the loss of her Catholicism without any brand of Schism much less of Heresie We do willingly owe the proof of this assertion to Barns a most learned and peaceable man at the same time when hee writ it a Roman Priest a Monk in the order of the Benedictins a Britain and therefore no unfit Arbiter of this Britannick Cause First Therefore whether the causes of our withdrawing were sufficient is no way a matter of Faith but wholly