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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
rest_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	peter_n	2,802	5	7.9482	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29199	A just vindication of the Church of England, from the unjust aspersion of criminal schisme wherein the nature of criminal schisme, the divers sorts of schismaticks, the liberties and priviledges of national churches, the rights of sovereign magistrates, the tyranny, extortion and schisme of the Roman Communion of old, and at this very day, are manifested to the view of the world / by ... John Bramhall ...	Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.	1654 (1654)	Wing B4226; ESTC R18816	139,041	290

flowers of the Crown so they might but hold the Diademe it self from their competitors Therefore our Ecclesiasticall law was called the Kings law because the edge and validity of it did proceed from authority royal our Ecclesiasticall Courts were stiled the Kings Courts by his Judges It is true the habitual Jurisdiction of Bishops flowes from their Ordination But the actual exercise thereof in Publick courts after a coercive manner is from the gracious concessions of Soveraign Princes In a word the law being meerly intended as a remedy against usurpation it cannot be a new Law but onely a Legislative declaration of the Old Common Law of England I will conclude this Chapter with the words of Bishop Bilson As for his Patriarchate by Gods law he hath non● in this Realm for Six hundred years after Christ he had non● for the last Six hundred years looking after greater matters he would have none Above or against the Princes Sword he can have none to the Subversion of the Faith or oppression of his Brethre● he ought to have none you must seek further for Subjection to his Tribunall This Land ●weth him none CHAP. V. That the Britanick Churches were ever exempted from forraign Iurisdiction for the first six hundred years And so ought to continue THirdly supposing that the reformed Church of England had separated it self from Rome and supposing that the municipal laws of the Realm then in force had not warranted such a separation yet the British Churches that is the Churches of the British Islands England Scotland and Ireland c. by the constitution of the Apostles and by the solemne sentence of the Catholique Church are exempted from all forraign Jurisdiction and cannot be Schismatical in the lawful vindication of a just priviledge so well founded for the clearer manifestation whereof let us consider First that all the twelve Apostles were equall in mission equall in commission equall in power equall in honour equal in all thing● except priority of order without which no Society can well Subsist So much Bellarmine confesseth that by these words As my father sent me so send I you Our Saviour endowed them with all the fulnesse of power that mortall men were capable of And therefore no single Apostle had Jurisdiction over the rest par in parem no● habet potestatem but the whole Colledge of Apostles to which the supream Mesnagery of Ecclesiasticall affaires did belong in common whether a new Apostle was to be ordained or the office of Deaconship was to be erected or fit persons were to be delegated for the ordering of the Church as Peter and Iohn Iudas and Sylas Or informations of great moment were to be heard as against Peter himself Though Peter out of Modesty might condescend and submit to that to which he was not obliged in duty yet it had not become the other Apostles to sit as Judges upon their Superiour placed over them by Christ. Or whether the weightier questions of the calling of the Gentiles and circumcision the law of Moses were to be determined still we find the Supremacy in the Colledge Secondly that drousy dream that the plenitude of Ecclesiastical power and Jurisdiction was given by Christ to Saint Peter as to an ordinary Pastour to be derived from him to his Successours but to the rest of the Apostles as delegates for tearm of life to die with themselves as it is lately and boldly asserted without reason without authority either divine or humane so it is most repugnant to the doctrine of the Fathers who make all Bishops to be the Vicars and Embassadours of Christ not of the Pope and successours of the Apostles indifferently Vicaria ordinatione who make but one Episcopacy in the world whereof every Bishop hath an equal share St. Peter was a Pastor and the Pastoral office is of perpetual necessity in the Church True But so were all the rest of the Apostles Pastors as well as he And if we examine the matter more narrowly cui bono for whose advantage this distinction was devised it was not for S. Peters own advantage who setting aside his principallity of order is confessed to have had but an equall share of power with his fellow Apostles but fo rs the Popes advantage and the Roman courts whom they desire to invest solely with the key of all originall Jurisdiction And if we trace on this Argument a little further to search out how the Bishop of Rome comes to be Saint Peters heire ex ass● to the exclusion of his Elder Brother the Bishop of Antioch they produce no authority that I have seen but a blind ill grounded legend out of a counterfeit Heg●sippus of Saint Peters being about to leave Rome and Christs meeting him upon the way and admonishing him to return to Rome where he must be crucified for his name which reason halts on both sides The foundation is Apocryphal and the superstruction is weak and unjointed without any necessary connexion Thirdly it appeareth not to us that the Apostles in their daies did either set up any universall Monarchy in the Church or so much dilate the borders or bounds of any one mans single Jurisdiction as to subject so great a part of the Christian World as the Western Patriarchate to his obedience The highest that they went if any of those Canons which bear their names be genuine was to nationall or provincial Primates or Patriarchs for a Protarch or Primate and a Patriarch in the language of the ancient Church signified one and the same thing in whose praeheminence there was more of order and care then of single Jurisdiction and power Read their three and thirtieth Canon It behooves the Bishops of every distinct Nation to know him who is their first or Primate and to esteem him as their head And to do nothing that is of difficulty or great moment contrary to his opinion But neither let him do any thing without the opinion of all them This Nationall Primacy or Protarchat● or Patriarchate under which the Britannique Churches flourished for many ages is the very same which we contend for Fourthly it is worthy of our inquiry how in processe of time some Primates did obtain a much more eminent degree of honour and a larger share in the government of the Church then others And of this their adventitious Grandeur we find three principal fountaines First ancient customes Secondly the Canons of the Fathers And thirdly the edicts of Christian Princes First ancient customes Upon this ground the first generall Councel of Nice settled the authority and priveledges of the three Patriarchal Sees of Rome Alexandria and Antioch Let ancient customes prevail And these customes commonly proceeded either from the memory of the Apostles who had founded such Churches from whence as from Apostolical fountaines their neighbours did fetch sound doctrine and reciprocally paid to them due respect So

that is by their doctrine by their example and by their approbative suffrage Iust ar● thou O Lord and right are thy judgments Authoritative confirmation implies either a sole Legislative power or at least a negative voice Whereas it is as clear as the light that the Popes anciently never had either the one or the other in the Catholick Church We meet with no confirmations of General Councels of old but onely by the Emperours whereby Ecclesiastical Sanctions became civil Lawes and obliged all the Subjects of the Empire under a civil pain Wherefore it is no matter whether the Pope confirmed the decree or not whether it was confirmed or unconfirmed it lets us see what was the Catholique tradition and the sense of the Christian world in those daies And we abide in it Secondly I reply that this decree was most conciliarly made and consequently confirmed made after due examination and discussion without any under-hand packing or labouring for voices made in the publick Session not privately before the Deputies of the Nations For clearing whereof take this Dilemma Either this decree and the subsequent Acts done by vertue and in execution thereof were conciliarly made and confirmed and consequently valid in the judgment of the Romanists themselves or unconciliarly made and consequently according to their rules not confirmed but invalid If they grant that this decree was conciliarly made and confirmed then they grant the question If they say it was not conciliarly made nor confirmed then Martine the fifth was no true Pope but an intruder and an usurper and consequently his confirmation was of no value for in pursuance of this very decree and by virtue of that doctrine therein delivered the other Popes were deposed and he was created Pope But to clear that passage from all ambiguity There were in the Councel of Constance the Deputies of the Nations as a selected Committee to examine matters and prosecute them and prepare them for the Councel What was done apart by these Deputies by this Committee was not conciliarly done But what was done in the publick Session of the Councel upon their report that was conciliarly done Now so it was that one Falkemberch had published a dangerous and seditious book which had been complained of to the Deputies of the Nations and condemned by them But the conjoynt body of the Councel in their publick Session had not condemned it conciliarly Yet after the Councel was ended and after the Cardinal had given the Fathers their Conge or leave to depart and dismissed them with Domini ite in pace Fathers depart in peace And the Fathers had answered Amen When there was nothing left to do but to hear a Sermon and be gone The Ambassadours of Polonia and Lituania very unseasonably pressed the Pope to condemn that book alledging that it had been condemned by the Deputies of the Nations To which the Pope answered That he confirmed onely those Acts of the Councel which were conciliarly made That is to say Not the Acts of the Deputies of the Nations apart but the publick Acts of the whole Session This is the genuine sense of that passage which bears its own evidence along with it to every one that doth not wilfully shut his eyes This was an accidental emergent after the Synod was ended and not the solemn purposed confirmation And concerning that glosse that the decree is to be understood onely of dubious Popes or Popes whose title is litigious As it contradicts the text it self which includes all dignitaries whosoever of whatsoever title peaceable or litigious Popes or others So it is sufficiently confuted by the very execution of the decree An inferiour may declare the lawful right of his Superiour and where there are divers pretenders establish the possession in him that hath the best title But to make right to be no right to turn all pretenders right or wrong out of possession onely by the last Law of Salus Populi c. for the tranquillity of the people This is a prerogative of Sovereign Princes and a badge of Legislative authority This was the very case of the Councel of Constance They turned out all pretenders to the Papacy the right Pope and the Antipopes all together Some of them indeed by perswasion but such perswasion as might not be resisted And one whose title seemed clearest which rendered their perswasions as unto him ineffectual by plain power For so the Councel with the consent and concurrence of Christian Princes did find it expedient for Christendome Lastly though the Popes do not abolish the order of Bishops or Episcopacy in the abstract yet they limit the power of Bishop● in the concrete at their pleasure by exemptions and reservations holding themselves to be the Bishops of every particular See in the world during the vacancy of it And making all Episcopal Jurisdiction to flow from them and to be founded in the Popes Lawes Because it was but delegated to the rest of the Apostles for term of life But resided soly in Saint Peter as an Ordinary to descend from him to his Successours Bishops of Rome And to be imparted by them to other Bishops as their Vicars or Coadjutours assumed by them into some part of their charge By this account the Pope must be the universal or onely Bishop of the world The keyes must be his gift not Christs And all the Apostles except Saint Peter must want their Successours in Episcopal Jurisdiction What is this but to trample upon Episcopacy and to make them equivocal Bishops to dissolve the primitive bonds of brotherly unity to overthrow the discipline instituted by Christ and to take away the line of Apostolical Succession The name of Oecumenical or universal Bishop is taken in three senses one without controversie lawful one controverted whether lawfull or unlawfull And one undoubtedly unlawful and Schismatical In the first sense an universal Bishop signifies no more then an eminent Bishop of the universal Church implying an universality of care and vigilance but not of Jurisdiction And in this sense all the five Protopatriarchs used more Emphatically to be caled universal Bishops Either by reason of their reputation and influence upon the universal Church or their presidence in general Councels In another sense an universal Bishop signifies such a Bishop who besides an universal care doth also challenge an universal Jurisdiction This was that title which Iohn Bishop of Constantinople affected omnibus praeesse nulli subesse And again Cuncta Christi membra sibimet supponere universalitatis appellatione This was that title which Gr●gory the Great and his predecessours refused if they did refuse any such title For it were evident madnesse to fancy that ever any General Councel did offer any particular Bishop the title of the only Bishop of the world This title in this sense was that which Gregory himself did condemn as a vain profane wicked blasphemous Antichristia● name Lastly the name of Universal Bishop may be taken exclusively for the only

special Licence of the Senate Upon pain that the Lands so alienated should be sold and the money divided between the Common-Wealth the Magistrate executing the Law and the party prosecuting the processe Fourthly the Duke and the Senate had imprisoned an Abbat and a Canon for certain crimes whereof they stood convicted Paul the fifth resented these things very highly and commanded the Duke and Senate of Venice to abrogate these Lawes so prejudicial to the authority of the Pope to the rights of holy Church and to the priviledges of Ecclesiastical persons And to set their prisoners forthwith at liberty Or otherwise in case of disobedience he excommunicated the Duke and Senate and all their partakers And subjected the City of Venice and all the Dominions thereunto belonging to an interdict And moreover declared all the Lands and goods which either the City of Venice or any of the persons excommunicated did hold of the Church to be forfeited And lastly commanded all Ecclesiastical persons high and low upon their obedience to publish that Bull and to forbear to celebrate all divine offices according to the Interdict upon pains contained therein as also of suspension sequestration deprivation and incapacity to hold any Ecclesiastical preferments for the future But what did the Venetians whilest Paul the fifth thundered against them in this manner They maintained their Lawes they detained their prisoners They protested publickly before God and the world against the Popes Bull as unjust and void made withont reason against the Scriptures and the doctrine of the holy Fathers and the Canons of the Church to the high prejudice of the secular power with grievous and universal scandal They commanded all the Clergy within their Dominions to celebrate divine offices duly notwithstanding the Popes interdict And at the same time they published and licensed sundry other writings tending to the lessening of the Papal greatnesse and Jurisdiction of the Roman Court Sundry of which books were condemned by the Inquisition as containing in them many ●ings temerarious calumnious scandalous seditious schismaticall heretical and the reading and keeping of them was prohibited under pain of excommunication During this contestation the Duke of Venice died And the Pope prohibited the Venetians to proceed to the election of a new Duke The Senate notwithstanding the Popes Injunction or Inhibition proceed to the election The people are unanimous and resolute to defend their just liberties The Clergy celebrate divine Offices duly notwithstanding the Popes interdict Only one order with some few others adhered to the Pope and for their labour were banished out of the Venetian City and Territories The Pope called home his Legate from Venice The Venetians revoked their Ambassadours ordinary and extraordinary from Rome The Pope incited the King of Spain to make war against the Republick to reduce them to the obedience of the Church And the Venetians being aided by their Roman Catholick allies armed themselves for their own defence It is not unworthy of our observation what was the doctrine of the Venetian Preachers and Writers in those daies as it is summed up by an eye-witnesse and a great Actour in those affaires That God had constituted two Governments in the world the one spiritual the other temporal either of them Sovereign in their kind and independent the one upon the other That the care of the spiritual was committed to the Apostles and their Successours Not to Saint Peter as a single Apostle and his Successours alone either at Antioch or at Rome as if all the rest were but Delegates for term of life wherein they agreed justly with us that as each particular Bishop is the respective Head of his proper Church So Episcopacy or Saint Cyprian's unus Episcopatus the conjoynt body of Bishops is the Ecclesiastical head of the militant Church That the care of the temporal Government is committed to Sovereign Princes That these two cannot intrude the one into the office of the other That the Pope hath no power to a●null the Lawes of Princes in temporall things nor to deprive them of their Estates nor to free their Subjects from their allegiance That the attempt to depose Kings was but 520 years old contrary to Scriptures contrary to the examples of Christ and of the Saints That to teach that in case of controversie between the Pope and a Prince it is lawful to persecute him by treachery or force Or that his rebellious Subjects may purchase by it remission of sins is a seditious and sacrilegious doctrine That the exemption of Ecclesiastical persons and their goods from the secular power is not from the Law of God but from the piety of Princes sometimes more sometimes lesse according to the exigence of affair●s That Papal exemptions of the Clergy are in some places not received at all in other places but received in part And that they have no efficacy or validity further then they are received That notwithstanding any exemption Sovereigns have power over their persons and goods whensoever the necessity of the Common-wealth requires it That if any exemption whatsoever be abused to the disturbance of the publick tranquillity the Prince is obliged to provi●e remedy for it That the Pope ought not to hold himself infallible nor promise himself such divine assistance That the authority to bind and loose is to be understood clave non errante That when the Pope hath censured or excommunicated a Prince the Doctours may lawfully examine whether his key have erred or not And when the Prince is certified that the Censure against him or his Subjects is invalid he may and ought for the preservation of publick peace to hinder the execution thereof preserving his Rel●gion and convenient reverence to the Church That the excommunication of a multitude or a Prince that commands much people is pernicious and sacrilegious That the new name of blind obedience lately invented was unknown to the ancient Church and to all good Theologians destroyes the essence of virtue which is to work by certain knowledge and election exposeth to danger of offending God excuseth not the errours of a spiritual Prince and was apt to raise sedition as the experience of the last fourty years had manifested What conclusion would have followed from these premisses if they had been thoroughly pursued it were no difficult matter to determine It may perhaps be objected That the Venetian State had these priviledges granted to them by the Popes and Court of Rome And it is thus far true That they had five Bulls Two of Sixtus the fourth one of Innocent the eighth one of Alexander the sixth and the last of Paul the third But it is as true that none of these Bulls concerned any of the matters in debate but only the punishment of delinquent Clergy-men It hath been an old subtlety of the Popes that when the Emperours or Councels had granted any Ecclesiastical priviledge or honour to any person or Society which it was not