then the being excluded from such places of honour and profit as they held in the Common-wealth yet with this proviso that he who had an estate of inheritance in a temporall Office refused to take the said oath did after upon better perswasion conform himself should be restored unto the said estate and that such as should maintain or defend the auctority preeminence power or jurisdiction spirituall or ecclesiasticall of any forreign Prince Prelate Person State or Potentate whatsoever not naming the Pope as her father had done should be three times convict before he suffered the pains of death 3. This Bill which no doubt the Popes carriage drew on being expedited in the house of Commons received reformation by the Lords committed the 13. March to the Lord Marquess of Winchester Lord Treasurer the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of VVestmorland Shrewsbury Rutland Sussex Penbrook viscount Mountague Bishops Exeter Carlisle Barons Clynton Admirall Morley Rich Willoughby North no one of them then noted for Protestantisme the 18. March past the Lords none dissenting but 8. Bishops the Earl of Shrewsbury Viscount Mountague and the Abbot of VVestminster and the same day sent to the house of Commons who upon perusall found again what to amend it in so as it had not it's perfection in both Houses till Saturday the 6th of May when the Parliament ended the Monday following at which time onely Viscount Mountague the interessed Clergy opposed it By which it cannot be questioned but the generality of the Lords did interpret that law no other then as indeed it was a restoring the Crown to it 's ancient rights for if otherwise without doubt there would have been as great an opposition at least made against it as some other statutes which past that Parliament met with that the Marquess of VVinchester the Lords Morley Stafford Dudley VVharton Rich North joyned with the Earls of Shrewsbury Viscount Mountague and the Prelats to have stopt 4. But whereas some were induced to think by the generality of the words that affirm her Highness to be supreme governour as well in all spirituall or ecclesiasticall causes as temporall as if it had been an usurping upon the sacred function in the interior as I may say of the Church properly belonging to them in holy Orders her Maty the same year did declare She did not challenge any other auctority then was challenged and lately used by King Henry the 8th and Edw. 6. which is and was of ancient time due to th' imperiall crown of this Realme that is under God to have the Soveraignty and rule over all manner of persons born within these her realms c. And that to be the onely sense of the Oath she caused to be confirmed the next Parliament at which time a Synod being held for avoiding diversity of opinions and establishing of consent touching true religion c. it did expresly declare they did not give to our Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or the Sacraments But that onely prerogative is given in holy Scripture by God himself that is that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be ecclesiasticall or temporall and restrain with the civill sword the stubborn and evil-doers c. And these articles were likewise confirmed by Parliament 13. Eliz. cap. 12. so that no man can doubt this to have been other then an acknowledgement what Princes had done formerly in all ages might be justly continued not an introductory of a new law but the assertion of the old right of our Kings 5. Another matter of great weight then likewise expedited was the settling the publick service of the Church in one uniform way King Edward the 6. intending such a reformation as might serve for edification caused certain pious and learned men to meet together who as it seems taking for their pattern the practise of the primitive times casting out of the Liturgies then used such particulars as were any way offensive shew'd their scope to be what they pretended to reform not make a new Church or Service and thereupon had by the aid of the holy Ghost as the Act of Parliament speaks concluded on and publisht the book of Common prayer with a form of administration of the holy Communion commonly called the Mass. But nothing humane is perfect at first this Book some few years after received in his time alteration and the word Mass I know not why more offensive in it then the Augustane Confession expunged with some other phrases in it 6. But for the better understanding how Queen Elizabeth found this Church it will not be amiss to look a little back Henry the 8. dying in Ianuary 154 6 7 leaving the Roman Service with some alterations not greatly considerable in it the wisdome of the State however intending a farther reformation was not immediately to abolish it so as the Lords meeting in Parl nt 1547. November the 4. though they had the Mass sung in English yet the Liturgy of the Church was not common in that language till after Easter 1548. This Session continuing till December 23. restored the Communion in both kinds upon which certain learned men by appointment met at VVindsor to consider of a decent Form for the administration of it which in March his Maty gave out backt with a Proclamation so as at Easter it began without compulsion of any to be put in practise and after Easter severall parochiall Churches to celebrate divine Service in English which at VVhitsuntide was by command introduced into Paul's but hitherto no book of Common prayer extant onely the manner of administring the holy Eucharist somewhat altered 7. During this while the Archbishop of Cant. 6. Bishops 3. Deans Doctors and 3. other onely Doctors were busied in reforming the publick Liturgy of the Church Iohn Calvin of Geneva a person then of high esteem advertised of it thereupon wrote to the Duke of Somerset the 22. October 1548 giving his judgement in these words quod ad formulam precum rituum ecclesiasticorum valde probo ut certa illa extet à qua pastoribus discedere in functione sua non liceat tam ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae quam ut certius ita conslet omnium inter se ecclesiarum consensus postremo etiam ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui novationes quasdam affectant and taking notice of the form already had for celebrating the Communion adds this Audio recitari isthic in Coenae celebratione orationem pro defunctis neque vero hoc ad purgatorii Papistici approbationem referri satis sâ—io neque etiam me latet proferri posse antiquum ritum mentionis defunctorum faciendae ut eo modo communio fidelium omnium in unum corpus conjunctorum declaretur sed obstat invictum illud argumentum nempe Coenam Domini adeo sacrosanctam esse ut ullis hominum additamentis
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be
other but in the foundation most sound most orthodox that holy man never intending such a superiority over this Church as after was claimed The Bishops of England in their condemnation of Wicliffs opinions do not at all touch upon those concerned the Popes supremacy and the Councell of Constance that did censure his affirming Non est de necessitate salutis credere Romanam Ecclesiam esse supremam inter alias Ecclesias doth it with great limitations and as but an error Error est si per Romanam Ecclesiam intelligat universalem Ecclesiam aut concilium generale aut pro quanto negaret primatum summi Pontificiis super alias Ecclesias particulares I conceive therefore the Basis of the Popes or Church of Romes authority in England to be no other then what being gained by custome was admitted with such regulations as the kingdome thought might stand with it 's own conveniency and therefore subject to those stipulations contracts with the Papacy and pragmatiques it at any time hath made or thought good to set up in opposition of extravagancies arising thence in the reformation therefore of the Church of England two things seem to be especially searcht into and a third arising from them fit to be examined 1. Whether the Kingdome of England did ever conceive any necessity jure divino of being under the Pope united to the Church and sea of Rome which drawes on the consideration how his authority hath been exercised in England under the Britons Saxons and Normans what treasure was caryed annually hence to Rome how it had been gained and how stopt 2. Whether the Prince with th' advise of his Cleargy was not ever understood to be endued with authority sufficient to cause the Church within his Dominions be by them reformed without using any act of power not legally invested in him which leads me to consider what the Royal authority in sacris is 1. In making lawes that God may be truly honoured 2 things decently performed in the Church 3. Profainesse punished questions of doubt by their Cleargy to be silenced 3. The third how our Kings did proceed especially Queen Elizabeth under whose reformation we then lived in this act of separation from the sea of Rome which carries me to shew how the Church of England was reformed by Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Elizabeth Wherein I look upon the proceedings abroad and at home against Hereticks the obligation to generall Councells and some other particulars incident to those times I do not in this at all take upon me the disputation much less the Theologicall determination of any controverted Tenet but leave that as the proper subject to Divines this being onely an historicall narration how some things came amongst us how opposed how removed by our ancestors who well understanding this Church not obliged by any forraign constitutions but as allowed by it self either finding the inconvenience in having them urged from abroad farther then their first reception heare did warrant Or that some of the Cleargy inforced opinions as articles of faith were no way to be admitted into that rank did by the same authority they were first brought in leaving the body or essence as I may say of Christian religion untouched make such a declaration in those particulars as conserved the Royall dignity in it's ancient splendour without at all invading the true legall rights of the state Ecclesiasticall yet might keep the kingdome in peace the people without distruction and the Church in Vnity CHAP. II. Of the Britans 1. I Shall not hear inquire who first planted Christian Religion amongst the Britans whether Ioseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes S. Peter or Elutherius neither of which wants an author yet I must confess it hath ever seemed to me by their alleadging the Asian formes in celebrating Easter their differing from the rites of Rome in severall particulars of which those of most note were that of Easter and baptizing after another manner then the Romans used their often journeying to Palestina that they received the first principles of Religion from Asia And if afterward Caelestinus the Pope did send according to Prosper Germanus vice sua to reclaim them from Pelagianisme certainly th' inhabitants did not look on it as an action of one had authority though he might have a fatherly care of them as of the same profession with him as a Synod in France likewise had to whom in their distress they address themselves to which Beda attributes the help they received by Germanius and Lupus 2. After this as the Britans are not read to have yeilded any subjection to the Papacy so neither is Rome noted to have taken notice of them for Gregory the great about 590. being told certain children were de Britannia insula did not know whether the Countrey were Christian or Pagan and when Augustine came hither and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome the Abbot of Bancor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree in charity to help them in word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience then this they did not know due to him whom he named to be Pope nor to be father of fathers 3. The Abbots name that gave this reply to Augustine seems to have been Dinooth and is in effect no other then what Geffry Monmouth hath remembred of him that being miro modo liber alibus artibus eruditus Augustino pâ—tenti ab episcopis Britonum subjectionem diversis monstravit argument ationibus ipsos ei nullam debere subjectionem to which I may adde by the testimony of Beda their not only denying his propositions sed neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habiturum respondebant And it appears by Gyraldus Cambrensis this distance between the two Churches continued long even till Henry the first induced their submission by force before which Episcopi Walliae à Menevensi Antistite sunt consecrati ipse similiter ab aliis tanquam suffraganeis est consecratus nulla penitus alii Ecclesiae facta professione vel subjectione the generality of which words must be construed to have reference as well to Rome as Canterbury for a little after he shewes that though Augustine called them to councell as a legat of the Apostolique sea yet returned they did proclaim they would not acknowledge him an Archbishop but did contemn both himself and what he had established 4. Neither were the Scots in this difference any whit behind the Britans as we may perceive by the letter of Laurentius Iustus and Mellitus to the Bishops and Abbots through Scotland in which they remember the strange perversenesse of one Dagamus a Scottish Bishop who upon occasion coming to them did not only abstain eating with them but would not take his meat in the