some Late Writers pretending to answer the Letter to a Convocation Man particularly by the Author of a Letter to a Member of Parliament and by Dr. Wake in his Book intitled The Authority of Christian Princes over their Ecclesiastical Synods asserted c. This Book being written by a Person of some Station in the Church and as is pretended under the Cover of a Great Authority deserves to be examined with a more than ordinary care which accordingly I have resolved to bestow upon it Dr. Wake indeed has a Peculiar Talent at enlarging on a Controversie the shortest Point when it comes under his Fruitful Pen immediately improves into a Volume I shall not so far follow his Example as to trace all he has said step by step and Page by Page and take every Opportunity that he has given me of laying open his misapplied Reading and mistaken Reasonings That would be an Endless Task which I have no leisure for neither does the Cause require it nor would the Reader bear it I shall endeavour therefore as much as I am able to shorten this Debate and in order to it shall first of all make some General Reflections upon his way of managing it wherein I shall shew how very little there is in his Tedious Work that really concerns the Point disputed and how much of it is written against no body and for no End in the World that I can see but the Pleasure of Emptying his Common-Place-Book I may very aptly apply to him what Bishop Andrews said of a much Greater Adversary Etsi nobis lis nulla de Regiâ in Ecclesiasticis Potestate tamen exorari non potest Tortus quin in Campum exeat istius Controversiae ubi quaestio nobis nulla de eâ re ostendat tamen nobis Testes minimè necessarios Explicare scilicet voluit Opes suas ostendere quae habebat in Adversariis suis. Habebat autem ad hanc rem nonnulla si incidisset alicubi Iam quia non incidit occasionem arripit non valdè idoneam ea quoquo modo proferendi Vult enim Lectorem videre quà m Cupressum pingat eleganter * Tortura Torti p. 169 I shall not I hope be thought impertinent in displaying these Impertinences of his which I shall do in as narrow a compass and under as few Heads of Observation as the variety of the matter will admit of And I. I observe that Dr. Wake has put himself to a great deal of needless pains to prove a Point which he might if he pleased have taken for granted that every Christian Prince and Ours in particular has an Ecclesiastical Supremacy and that the Clergy are not by a Divine Right intitled to transact Church-affairs in Synods as they please and as often as they please without any regard to the Civil Christian Power that they live under Many of those numerous Instances he has produced of Princes intermedling with Church-matters here at home or abroad are designed only to assert this Great Truth which however is a Point that he needed not to have laboured so heartily because no Church of England man ever denied it not the Man he writes against I am sure who says only and what he says I shall not fear to say after him that the Civil and Spiritual Powers are distinct in their End and Nature Lett. to a Conv. Man pp. 17 18. and therefore ought to be so in their Exercise too The One relates to the Peace Order Health and Prosperity of the Man in this Life as a Sociable Creature the other concerns his Eternal State and his Thoughts Words and Actions preparative thereto The first is common to all Societies whether Pagan or Christian the Latter can rightly be exercised among Christians only and among them not as inclosed within any Civil State or Community but as Members of a Spiritual Society of which Iesus Christ is the Head who has also given out Laws and appointed a standing Succession of Officers under himself for the Government of this Society And these Ministers of his did actually govern it by these Powers committed to them from him for near 300 years before any Government was Christian. From whence says he it follows that such Spiritual Iurisdiction cannot be in its nature necessarily dependent on the Temporal for then it could never have been lawfully exercised till Kings States and Potentates became Christian. And agen in another place This Power having been claimed and exercised by the Apostles and their Successors without any Regard nay in Opposition to the Heathen Temporal Authority is therefore we say not necessarily in its own nature dependent on such Authority †P. 19 20. Than which Reasoning nothing certainly can be more just nor could that Writer have expressed himself with more Caution and Guard upon so nice an Occasion Dr. Wake seems here to have apprehended him as if he had affirm'd that Princes have nothing to do in Church-matters the Management of which lyes without their Sphere and no ways depends on Their Authority But no Man living could have struck this sense out of his words that was not either very Blind or very willing for some small End or other to misunderstand him Cannot this mighty Controvertist distinguish between Denying the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Power to be necessarily dependent on the Temporal and affirming it to be necessarily independent upon it Does he not see a difference between saying that the Church may subsist without the State and that the State has nothing to do in the Government of the Church If he does not he ought to forbear tampering in Disputes of this kind till his Judgment is better and his Head clearer But if seeing this difference he yet resolved to take no notice of it either because he had made Collections some time of his Life about the Supremacy and was resolved to take this Opportunity of giving himself the Credit of them or because he saw it would be of use to him to have the Writer he appears against represented under as Invidious Colours and his Opinions loaded with as much weight as was possible if this were the Case it must be allowed him that there was some little Art tho' I think no very great share of Honesty in his Management 'T is true the Letter to a Convocation-man immediately after the last words I transcribed from it adds And if we should say further that this Society has an Inherent and Unalterable Right to the Exercise of this Power it would be no more than what every Sect or Party among us claims and practises c. But Dr. Wake could not with any colour lay hold of this Passage as asserting the Independency of the Church on the State for besides that it is only a way of arguing drawn from other Mens Principles it is a few Lines afterwards expresly retracted and qualifyed But this says he is what at the present we neither do nor need say Notwithstanding which Dr.
their Duty to God and the Church as not to have let the Laws loose upon such Offenders if they knew them And till they do so this Censure of Dr. Wakes must pass for a Scandalous Reflection both on their Lordships and his Brethren But this is the Ordinary Cry of Designing Writers who from hence raise to themselves a Character of Impartiality of a singular Integrity and Courage Their Own Vertues also shine to advantage upon such a Comparison and withal they intimate by it how fit they are to be advanced to a Post wherein they may correct such Enormitys And when that happens it will make some Amends or Excuse for their not effectually doing the Duty of their station if to their Complaints about the Lives of Churchmen they add others concerning the Church it self and say that even her Canons and Constitutions want reforming Dr. Wake seems to have hinted His Opinion in the case already where he says that the Church of England has a Peculiar Veneration for the Discipline and Doctrine of the Primitive Church beyond most Churches in the World †Pref. p. 4. Beyond most Churches why what Churches in the world have more or so much where are they planted what are their Names Is it the Scotch the French or the Dutch Church he means is it a Church with Bishops or without them Let him speak out and tell us the Church that has a truer or even so true a Regard for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive Church as the Church of England has and then we shall know by what Model she is to be reformed and withall be let perhaps into the secret Reason of the Present Disuse of Convocations Grotius though a Forreigner would have taught him better Language Nullibi atque in Angl◠says he tantus honor piae defertur Antiquitati †Ep. 2. Should not an English Divine speak of our Constitution with at least as much respect as a Dutch Layman The Liberty Dr. W. has taken in his Censures is considering his Present Rank in the Church a little too early nor will the Pattern he follows in it justify him My Lord of Sarum indeed may freely have tax'd the Vices of the Clergy even in Books where he was defending the Orders of the Church of England or the Truth of the Christian Religion His High Station is his Warrant for whatever he has done of this kind lately and a Bar to all manner of Reply And his Former Reprehensions should they have been somewhat too Free are capable of this Excuse that being a Stranger he might not then have throughly acquainted himself with the state of our Church or the Characters of its Members And if he saw faults in them it was not to be expected that he should conceal them with the same Tenderness as if he had had his Birth and Breeding amongst them But Dr. Wake is neither Above those he reproves nor has drawn a different Air from them He was Baptiz'd and Educated in Our Communion and receiv'd his first Impressions of Men and Things in an University a Place that has not been thought apt to instill into its Members a Disesteem of their Holy Mother or a love of blackening and betraying their Brethren Methinks Men who talk so much of Moderation and Temper would do well to shew it in allowing a Common share of those Good Qualitys to some of their Neighbours who can be contented well enough without Titles but are however very loth to be stript of their Good Names The Comfort of such Good Men whom his General and Undistinguishing Censures have thus aspers'd must be to say to themselves as St. Cyprian once did Neque nobis Ignominia est pati à fratribus quae passus est Christus nec illis Gloria est facere quae fecerit Judas It was the Abhorrence I had of this Unworthy Treatment which the Reputation and Rights of the Order have found from Dr. W. and of the Slavish Tendency of his Principles in respect both to Church and State that gave me Resolutions of exposing the Weakness and Insincerity of his Attempt and of doing Right to Truth and an Injur'd Constitution He has modestly wish'd this Argument a Better Hand and a Better Head †Pref. p. VI. than his Own How far in these respects I am fitted for the Service I cannot say However One Quality there is unmention'd by Him but no less requisite than either of these a Better Heart I mean and that I am sure I have brought along with me to the Work and should there be further Occasion for it I trust that it will not fail me The Dr. I do not doubt considering on which side he wrote thought himself as secure in his Defyance as a Crown-Champion at a Coronation and that No body would have been hardy enough to take up the Gaunt let he threw down Something of this kind seems to have been in his Thoughts when he said that the Gentleman he attacks had written in such a manner as would not he suppos'd at all encourage any one to stand up in defence of him †Ib. p. 1. But in this as well as in a Thousand Other things he finds his Mistake There are he sees Those who will not desert Truth when it grows out of fashion and have Courage enough to espouse a Good Cause though Great Names and Great Interests are made use of to discountenance it Not that the Author of these Papers is concern'd any ways to vindicate the Manner of that Gentleman 's Writing whom the Doctor engages it is his Argument only that he undertakes to defend in which he thinks him to have dealt both Skilfully and Honestly professes himself freely to be of his Opinion has reasserted it here in this Book and will by the Divine Assistance go on to maintain it He matters not what Dirt may be thrown at him on this account he expects to traduc'd by little Officious Pens and by Dr. Wake 's the least of them as Disaffected and Undutyful But as he is satisfy'd of the Uprightness of his Intentions and knows how full his Heart is of Duty and Respect toward Those whose Characters ought always to be and shall ever be Sacred with him so he thinks he has taken a very proper way of expressing it in what follows where it seems to him that he pleads for his Majesty's Honor and my Lord Archbishop's Interest more effectually than they can pretend to do who differ from him It is certainly for the Honor of the Crown to be attended always with the Great Council-Spiritual of the Realm as well as Temporal and my Lords Grace of Canterbury is never so Considerable as when he is at the Head of the Clergy of his Province The Author is perswaded that he cannot make a more wellcome Present to good Governors either in Church or State than by affording them a True Account of the Wants and Rights of such as are entrusted to
Cranmer's r. Parkers p. 413. l. 8. for as r. has p. 457. l. 24. for owning r. owing THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Clergies Right to Frequent Synods by the Canons and Practice of the Universal Church admitted and approv'd in this Realm Pag. 4. Chap. II. Their Legal Right of holding these Assemblies concurrently with every New Parliament p. 28. Chap. III. Their Right when met to Treat Resolve and Act in all Instances and to all Degrees under that of Enacting a Canon without Qualifying themselves for it by a Royal License The sense of the 25 Hen. 8. c. 19. carefully inquir'd into p. 78. Chap. IV. Some General Reflections on Dr. Wake 's Way of managing this Controversie which set aside so much of his Book as is Immaterial and Foreign to the Point in Hand p. 118. Chap. V. An Answer to some Objections made to the Clergies Right of meeting with every New Parliament where the Rise Nature and Force of the Clause Praemunientes in the Bishopsâ—Writ and of the Convocation-Writ that goes out with the Summons for the Parliament are fully consider'd p. 212. Chap. VI. Dr. Wake 's Distinction between a Right of being Summon'd and a Right of Meeting and Sitting Examin'd together with a Reply to his Objection drawn from the Convocation having now left off to give Subsidies p. 263. Chap. VII An Answer to what is objected from their being now no Member of Parliament and an Occasion taken from thence to deduce an Account of the Lower Clergies Interest in the Great Councils of the Realm through the several Periods of Time from the Earliest Saxon Ages downwards p. 273. Chap. VIII The Second Point of the Clergies Right of Treating c. without a License strengthen'd against the Exceptions that are made to it from Parallel Instances of a Like Restraint practis'd towards Other Bodies from the Perpetual Practice of Convocations since the 25 H. 8. from the Opinion of Dr. Cousins and the Resolution of the Judges 8vo Jacobi c. p. 356. Chap. IX Some Instances of Dr. Wake 's Extraordinary Skill in the Subject of Debate Lately Printed for Tho. Bennet A Compleat History of the Canon and Writers of the Books of the Old and New Testament by Way of Dissertation with useful Remarks on that Subject In Two Volumes By L. E. Du Pin Doctor of the Sorbonne and Regius Professor of Philosophy in Paris Done into English from the French Original An Account of the Court of Portugal under the Reign of the Present King Don Pedro the Second with some Discourses on the Interests of Portugal with Regard to other Sovereigns Containing a Relation of the most Considerable Transactions that have pass'd of late between that Court and those of Rome Spain France Vienna England c. Campania Foelix Or a Discourse of the Benefits and Improvements of Husbandry Containing Directions for all manner of Tillage Pasturage and Plantation as also for the making of Cyder and Perry with some Considerations 1. upon the Justices of the Peace and Inferior Officers 2. on Inns and Alehouses 3. on Servants and Labourers 4. on the Poor To which are added Two Essays 1. of a Country-House 2. of the Fuel of London THE Rights Powers and Priviledges OF AN English Convocation STATED and VINDICATED THE Little Book which gave occasion to Dr. Wake 's Voluminous Answer proposed to Consider First What Need there was of a Convocation and then What were the Rights of the Clergy of the Church of England in relation to it Presuming I suppose that a Claim of Right could never come so decently from Subjects to their Prince as after shewing that they were under a Necessity of making that Claim Dr. Wake who is a great Master of Method has thought fit to change the Order of the Questions and to enquire first into the matter of Right before he allows the Point of Expedience to be Debated I shall be forc'd to dissent from this Gentleman so often in very concerning Points hereafter that I will not give my self the trouble of disputing a Trifle with him here and shall therefore take the Method He has Prescribed me I am so fully satisfied of the Truth and Reasonableness of what I contend for that I care not at which end of the Argument I begin The Two great Convocation-Rights chiefly insisted on in that Paper and endeavoured to be set aside by Dr. Wake in his Answer to it are these I. A Right of Meeting and Sitting in Convocation as often as a New Parliament Meets and Sits II. A Right of Treating and Deliberating about such Affairs as lie within their proper Sphere and of coming to fit Resolutions upon them without being necessitated antecedently to Qualify themselves for such Acts and Debates by a License under the Broad Seal of England Indeed these Rights of the Clergy do at present lie under some Disadvantage both because they have not of late years been duly Claimed and Exercised and because Some even of the Clergy themselves have freely given them up and publickly owned and maintained the Church to be at the Absolute Mercy of the Crown in these Particulars But whatever Prepossessions Men may be under on this account yet if the Cause may be allowed a fair Hearing I doubt not but in the following Papers clearly to prove That the Church's Rights are in both these Instances plain and indisputable and that therefore whatever Concessions some of her Unwary or Designing Members may have made to her Prejudice they must be accounted for on some other Bottom beside that of the mere force of Truth and how silent soever She her self may have been in the Vindication of these Rights yet the reason of that silence was not because she had nothing to say CHAP. I. THE Way in which I intend to proceed is First To State and Confirm the Two Points in Question shewing upon each of them wherein the Right claim'd seems to consist and what I take to be the chief Evidences and Proofs upon which it is founded After this I shall consider the Exceptions of all sorts that have been taken to this Claim by Dr. Wake or any other Writer who has appeared on the same side particularly by the Author of the Letter to a Member of Parliament Upon the first of the Two Points in order to give our selves a clear Account What the present Right is it will be requisite to step back a little and enquire What the former Usage has been What the Custom of this particular Church and Realm in relation to such Assemblies And what also the general Practice of the Church of God in all Ages A Convocation or Provincial Synod for so we now use the Word may be considered either Simply in it self or as Attendant on a Parliament I shall take these Two several Views of it and the first of them in this present Chapter That such Assemblies have been held frequently from the very beginning of Christianity and under Heathen Emperors appears abundantly
before-hand led the way and that All therefore that those Princes generally did was to re-enact by the Civil what had been before enacted by the Ecclesiastical Authority and to give the Church Decisions more weight and force by inserting 'em into the Body of the Imperial Laws and annexing further Penalties to the Breach of them This is so certain and known a Truth that even at this day we can point out the several Canons upon which almost all the Civil Constitutions of those Princes were founded and in which the matter of 'em was either particularly and in Terms or at large and in general determined And if in some few Instances we should not be able to do this what wonder is it when it is considered at what a Vast Distance of Time we live from the first Rise of these things and how many Antient Church-Monuments that would have given light in these matters have in the course of so many Ages perished Iustinian in his Laws appeals frequently to the Canons and professes to follow them * Nov. 6. c. 1. Ibid. §. 8. Nov. 58. sub finem Nov. 123. c. 36. And by this Pattern the French and German Princes in after-times framed their Capitularies taking the Subjects of them from the Resolutions of antecedent Synods †Decrevimus juxta Sanctorum Canonum Regulas Caroloman in Syn. Leptin Anno 747. and even referring themselves thither for the more clear understanding of what their Law only briefly and in General delivered ‖ P. 91. A Truth so Notorious that Dr. Wake himself durst not dissemble it And it would puzzle a man therefore to shew how such Laws should any ways derogate from the Authority of Synods which they took their rise from and were made on purpose to support and confirm I must put the Doctor in mind here of a way of arguing made use of by one of his Seconds in this Controversie where he is disputing against the Universities Authority to declare Heresie there he lays down this Position That the Convocation of the University of Oxford have never forbid any Doctrine to their Scholars before that very particular Doctrine was first declared Erroneous or Heretical by some Persons who were then reputed to have Power to declare Heresie * L. M. P. p. 69. The Truth of this Assertion I at present trouble not my self with but supposing it true the Inference that arises from it has weight I own and when applied to our Present Argument is of use to inform us what Secular Decrees in Church-matters are no ways prejudicial to the Power of the Church and the Authority of Synods And this was an Head I say upon which Dr. Wake should have explained himself largely and openly if he had intended a fair state of this Controversie or had had any other New in what he wrote than merely to serve a Turn and to advance some colourable kind of Plea for a Practice which if he knew any thing of these matters he must know was indefensible and be writing all the while for his Point against his Conscience and if he knew nothing of it with what Conscience could he undertake to determine it These are words that I do not easily persuade my self to bestow on any Man but his Gross Prevarications and Disguises of Truth in Doctrines of so great moment wherein the Interests of his Order and of Religion are so nearly concerned force this hard Language from me Nor stops he at General Reflections in this case but brings them home also to our own Church and Constitution pretending in his Appendix †Num. vii to give us an Abstract of several things relating to the Church which have been done since the 25 Hen. 8. by Private Commissions or otherwise out of Convocation In which Abstract many of the Points mentioned had certainly the Authority of Convocation tho' he would fain have us believe they had not and that antecedently to the Civil Injunction Others are such Acts of Ordinary Power as by the consent of All Churches and Parties of Men every Christian Prince is confessedly intitled to and some few perhaps might be owing to the Necessity of Affairs which would not then admit of more Regular Methods and should not therefore be vouched as reasonable Precedents and setled Rules and Standards of acting in more quiet times which is manifestly Dr. Wake 's End in producing them The Reader must forgive me if I detain him so long as to run through the Particulars of this List and shew upon each of 'em how far the Ecclesiastical Power concurred and led the way to it It will be a dry unpleasing Task but is of use to clear the Orderliness of some steps taken in those times which are generally misunderstood and is necessary to wipe off the Dirt thrown by Dr. Wake on the English Reformation the Process of which I am satisfied was very Regular and Canonical in most Cases tho' in some by reason of the Loss of Records it cannot easily be proved so Of this we are in General assured by such as lived at the time when those Records were in being particularly by Sir Robert Cotton and Mr. Fuller The first in his Posthuma * P. 215. has these words If any shall object that many Laws in Henry the Eighth's time had first the Ground in Parliament it is manifested by the Dates of their Acts in Convocation that they All had in that place their first Original The Latter speaks as follows Upon serious Examination it will appear that there was nothing done in the Reformation of Religion save what was acted by the Clergy in their Convocations or Grounded on some Act of theirs precedent to it with the Advice Counsel and Consent of the Bishops and most Eminent Church-men confirmed upon the Post-fact and not otherwise according to the Usage of the best and purest Times of Christianity * Church-Hist xvi Cent. p. 188. To which I shall add the Testimony of one who must be allowed a Good Witness in this case my Lord of Sarum He assures the Bishop of Meaux in the Answer he made to his Variations that Our Parliaments and Princes have not medled in matters of Religion any other way but that they have given the Civil Sanction to the Propositions made by the Church and this is that which Christian Princes do in all Places †P. 35. And in 1604 I find a Puritan Writer making this Challenge Let them if they can shew any one Instance of any Change or Alteration either from Religion to Superstition or from Superstition to Religion to have been made in Parliament unless the same freely and at large have been first agred upon in their Synods and Convocations ‖ Assertion of True and Christian Policy P. 168. Which is no otherwise considerable I own than as it comes from the Pen of an Adversary These are General Proofs which would go a good way towards setting aside the Particulars in
others and there was no change made in a Tittle by Parliament So that they only Enacted by a Law what the Convocation had done * Pp. 74 75. And agen As it were a Great Scandal on the first General Councils to say that they had no Authority for what they did but what they derived from the Civil Power so is it no less unjust to say because the Parliaments impowered †Here I must beg leave to say that his Lordship's Expression is not Exact The Parliament did not impower but approve of them some Persons to draw Forms for the more pure Administration of the Sacraments and Enacted that these only should be lawfully used in this Realm which is the Civil Sanction that therefore these Persons had no other Authority for what they did Was it ever heard of that the Civil Sanction which only makes any Constitution to have the force of a Law gives it another Authority than a Civil one The Prelates and other Divines that compiled our Forms of Ordination did it by vertue of the Authority they had from Christ as Pastors of his Church which did impower them to teach the People the pure Word of God and to administer the Sacraments and perform all other Holy Functions according to the Scripture the Practice of the Primitive Church and the Rules of Expediency and Reason and this they ought to have done tho' the Civil Power had opposed it in which case their Duty had been to have submitted to whatever Severities and Persecutions they might have been put to for the Name of Christ or the Truth of his Gospel But on the other hand when it pleased God to turn the Hearts of those which had the Chief Power to set forward this good Work then they did as they ought with all thankfulness acknowledge so great a Blessing and accept and improve the Authority of the Civil Power for adding the Sanction of a Law to the Reformation in all the Parts and Branches of it So by the Authority they derived from Christ and the Warrant they had from Scripture and the Primitive Church these Prelates and Divines made those Alterations and Changes in the Ordinal and the King and the Parliament who are vested with the Supreme Legislative Power added their Authority to them to make them obligatory on the Subjects * Pp. 53 54. I have produced these Passages at length not so much for any Light they give to the Particular we are now concerned in the Authority of the English Ordinal as for the General Use they may be of in setling the Dispute between Dr. W. and the Church about the Distinction of the Two Powers Ecclesiastical and Civil and the Obligations we are under to the Decisions of the one antecedently to the Sanctions of the other I subscribe to his Lordship's state of it and think nothing can be said more justly and truly 1552. The Observation of Holy-Days ordered by Act of Parliament Ibid. pag. 191. This Act traced the Steps of the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book relating to Holy-Days and ordered none to be kept Holy but what had before-hand been so ordered to be kept by the Clergy in Convocations only it added New Penalties 1553. A New Catechism by the King's Order required to be taught by Schoolmasters Ibid. p. 219. This Catechism was published with the Articles of 1552. and had I suppose the very same Convocational Authority which those had It was compiled indeed by Poynet but is said in the King's Patent annexed to have been afterwards perused and allowed by the Bishops and other Learned Men by which we are to understand either the Convocation it self or a Grand Committee appointed by it and upon which its Power was devolved That the whole Convocation have been by these or such like Terms about this time often expressed the Instances given in the Margent * The Six Articles in the Act 31 H. 8. c. 14. are said to be agreed to by the Archbishops Bishops and other Learned Men of the Clergy who a little before are styl'd a Synod or Convocation In the Articles of 1536. See 'em in Bishop Burn. Vol. 1. Coll. of Rec. p. 305. the Convocation is expressed by the Bishops and others the most Discreet and Learned Men of the Clergy The Articles of 1552. are in the Title said to be such de quibus in Synodo Londinensi inter Episcopos alios Eruditos viros convenerat And iâ— will scarce I think bear a Reasonable Doubt whether these Articles passed the Convocation Finally The Act about Holidays as 't is called is in the Canon it self See it in Sparrow p. 167. said to be decreed by the King with the Common Assent and Consent of the Clergy in Convocation assembled But in the King's Letter to Bonner about it the words are By the Assents and Consents of all you Bishops and others Notable Personages of the Clergy of this our Realm in full Convocation and Assembly had for that purpose will evince And that this Catechism was generally understood to have the Authority of Convocation is plain even from the Exception made to it by Dr. Weston †For that said he there is a Book of late set forth called the Catechism bearing the Name of this Honourable Synod and yet put forth without your Consents as I have learned c. â—ox Vol. 2. p. 19. in the first Synod of Queen Mary but plainer still from Philpot's Reply to that Exception which discovers also to us somewhat of the Manner by which the Convocation came to be Intitled not to this Catechism alone but to several other Pieces that seem to carry the Name of a Committee only upon them His words are that This House of Convocation had granted the Authority to make Ecclesiastical Laws unto certain Persons to be appointed by the King's Majesty and whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws They or the most part of them did set forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided it might be well said to be done in the Synod of London although such as be of this House now had no notice thereof before the Promulgation And in this Point be thought the setter forth thereof nothing to have slandered the House since they had our Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as They thought convenient and necessary * â—bid p. â—0 The Knowledge of the Time and Circumstances of appointing this Committee we have lost together with the Acts themselves however plain it is from this Assertion of Mr. Philpot made in open Convocation that such a Committee there was named by the Crown at the Instance of the whole Clergy and that this Catechism among other things passed them and had on that account as He judged the Authority of Convocation It is left to the Reader by whom in this caâ—e he will be guided the Churches Martyr or her Betrayer And here the Instance of the Catechismus ad Parochos is very pat
â—estored in the Last Reign but was then uniâ—ersally disallowed and has since been solemnâ—y condemned by the Declaration of Rights as â—ne cause of the Abdication Whatever thereâ—ore Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth â—id in vertue of their Supreme Headship whatâ—ver the Three succeeding Princes did by their Ecclesiastical Commissions is not therefore beâ—ause Their Act or Right a present Branch of the Regal Supremacy all those Extraordinary Powers and Jurisdictions which were peâ—uliar to that Title or that Court being now â—eturned to the King in Parliament And When Dr. Wake therefore tells us that he is not â—ware of any Law that has debarred the King from â—aving his Commissioner or Vicar General in Convocation now as Henry the Eighth before had * P. 114. â—e shews how unfit he is under such a deep â—gnorance of our Constitution to write on â—his Argument for a very moderate share of â—kill in these things was methinks sufficient to have made him aware of the Illegality of King Iames's Commission I shall beg leave not to think that this is a Principle approved by â—his Grace of Canterbury or that his Grace would â—ow give place to such a Vicar General IX One thing more I have to offer and with that shall shut up these General Remarks Dr. W. distinguishes not between those Powerâ— in which the Crown is Arbitrary and those in which it is purely Ministerial between Royal Acts that are Free and such as are Necessary so that by the Rules of our Constitution the King cannot omit them For example he tells us That the King determines what Persons * P. 103. shall meet in Convocation at what Time †P. 103. and in what Place And this he talks of in such a manner as if the Prince were perfectly and equally at Liberty in all these Respects and under no manner of Tye from the Laws and Usages of this Kingdom 'T is true as to the Place of their Meeting he is free and may appoint their Session in what part of his Country he thinks fit just as he may that of the Lords and Commons But as to the Time he is so far restrain'd that some Times there are when he ought to call them together by the Fundamental Rules of our Constitution and those are as often as Writs for a New Parliament go out As for the other Convocations in the Intervals of Parliament if our Constitution now after an hundred and fifty years disuse knows any such thing which I shall not here dispute 't is as to These only that the Issuing out Writs for the Clergy can be matter of Grace and Favour or become the Subject of Deliberation But as to the Persons that are to meet the Crown has no Power of determining who or how many they shall be for the Law has determined this before-hand The King may indeed name whom he pleases to Deaneries and Bishopricks but when he has done so Those and no other must be Summoned to Convocation And in this he does not seem to have left himself at so much Liberty as he still has in relation to the House of Lords to which he can by Writ call whom he pleases whereas it may be questioned whether his Writ can give place to any one in the Upper House of Convocation but Bishops only The Truth is the King appoints the Persons that are to come to Convocation just as he does those that are to come to Parliament some have a Right of sitting there in Person and to those therefore he directs Particular Writs Others have a Right of being represented there and those therefore he orders to send up their Proxies that is indeed the Constitution appoints what Persons or Communities shall be Summon'd and the King according to that Rule does as often as he is pleas'd to call a Parliament by his Ministers Execute that Summons And if Convocations are upon the Level with Parliaments in this respect as 't is certain they are Dr. Wake had best have a care how he attempts to prove that it is the King 's Right to appoint who shall come to those meetings because this implies that if he should think fit not to appoint 'em they would have no Right to come which is a Doctrine of very dangerous consequence and not likely to recommend the maintainer of it to the Thanks of either House of Parliament Dr. Wake is not content to assert this Power to the King unless he does it upon the bottom of an Imperial Power for after he has prov'd as he thinks in his First Chapter that the Emperors of Rome and Germany were Absolute in all these respects he goes on in his Second to shew that by our own Constitution the King of England has all that Power at this day over our Convocation that ever any Christian Prince had over his Synods * P. 98. and immediately in the same Particulars of Time Place and Person draws the Parallel between ' em 'T is true as to Place the Kings of England are as Arbitrary as those Emperors were however his way of making out this both of the One and the Other is somewhat singular Abroad Pepin's determining the Place of his Synods meeting is prov'd from his determining that they should meet either at Soissons or at such other place as the Bishops should agree upon †P. 38. At home the same thing manifestly appears because our Princes leave their Synods with a Great Latitude to be held either at St. Paul 's or at any other Place which the Archbishop shall judge to be more convenient ‖ P. 103. Which is very true for the words of the Writ to the Archbishop have for some hundred years run ad conveniendum in Ecclesia c. vel alibâ— prout melius expedire videritis which is just such a Determination of the Place they are to meet in as Dr. Wake 's Book is of the Point in question He has much such another Argument to prove that the Emperors determined the Persons too that were to come to their Great Councils because in Three of them which he there mentions they left it to the Metropolitans when they came to bring such of their Suffragan Bishops as they thought fit along with ' em And when the Princes says he who followed after Summon'd their National Synods They in like manner directed the Choice of those who were to come to them * Pp. 39 40. If they directed the Choice in like manner I may venture to say that they did not direct it at all for those Emperors gave no Directions for the Choice but as He says left it intirely to the Discretion of the Metropolitan or rather as the Truth is left it to the several Provincial Synods to determine what Bishops should wait upon their Archbishop to the Council Were Dr. Wake 's Conge d'estire to be so drawn up as to leave the Chapter to which it shall be sent at as great a
here laid down is no new Scheme of mine contriv'd to serve a Turn but what has in the main been long ago asserted by the Learned Mr. Sheringham in his Book of the Supremacy In the Saxon Times says he Laws were commonly made by the Approbation and Consent of the Nobles Archbishops and Bishops in a Publick Synod or Parliament sometimes the Queen was present sometimes the Inferior Clergy and sometimes also the Commons but that hapned very seldom †P. 52. Which coming from the Pen of one of known skill in our English Antiquities and in a Treatise not at all design'd to assert the Liberty of the Subject does on both these accounts carry a particular weight with it and will with those who have a due regard for that excellent Writer be a strong presumption of the truth of all I have offer'd on this Argument Another clear proof of the Lower Clergys assisting frequently at those Great Councils may be drawn from the Subscriptions of Charters where we frequently meet with Capellani and Presbyteri and sometimes with simple Deacons among the other Witnesses One instance or two have been given already to which these following ones may be added A Charter of King Ethelred (⸪) So it should be though the MS. by the mistake of the Scribe puts Edgar instead of Ethelred to the Church of Pauls Ann. 867. is subscrib'd by several Ministri Abbates Presbyteri intermingled †Lib. MS. Paul Eccl. notat B. f. 20. a. In another of the same Prince to the same Church after the Bishops Duces Satrapae two Presbyters and a Deacon follow * Ib. fol. 21. The Saxon Chronicle affords us one of these Instruments with all the subscriptions at length which belong'd to the Church of Peterborough and was fram'd A. D. 664. and to this also Eoppa Presbyter and Wilfridus Presbyter are Witnesses †P. 37. But the two Charters of King Edgar to the Monasteries of Westminster and Ramsey are in this respect most observable To the first after the King his Sons 14 Bishops and 11 Abbats 9 Presbyters subscribe and the last of these thus Writes Ego Oswardus Presbyter cum supradictis cum aliis 107 Presbyteris infractores hujus firmitatis excommunicavi Nine Duces follow and after them this Note Ad ultimum itaque unà cum Rege Filiis ejus nos omnes Confratres Coepiscopi cum totâ hâc populosâ sanctâ Synodo ejusdem loci omnes futuros Abbates c. contestamur Quatenus c. Quod si aliquis praesumpserit illum sicut Violatorem atque Transgressorem hujus Nostri Decreti imò Apostolici ante summum judicem cùm venerit saeculum judicare per ignem responsurum super hâc re invitamus †Cartularium Caenobii Westm. in tit Sulcardus Bibl. Cot. Faustina A. 3. fol 11. That to the Monastery of Ramsey is sign'd by fix Presbyters and the last of the six adds also Ego Aethelsi Presbyter cum supradictis aliis quamplurimis Presbyteris infractores hujus firmitatis excommunicavi It pass'd in a mixt Council of those times cùm in Natali Dominico as the Charter speaks omnes Majores totius regni mei tam Ecclesiasticae Personae quam Saeculares ad Curiam meam celebrandae mecum festivitatis gratiâ convenissent The Alii Quamplurimi Presbyteri are also mention'd once again in the Body of it and in the Close this Passage occurs Post hujus itaque Privilegii donationem excommunicaverunt omnes Episcopi Abbates Presbyteri qui in plurimâ numerositate eodem die affuerunt eos qui hoc institutum in fringerent c. †Monast. vol. 1. pp. 235 236. To which I shall add a like Passage from the Confessor's Priviledge to the Church of Westminster Post hanc Donationem excommunicaverunt omnes Episcopi Abbates totius Angliae Monachi ac Clerici eos qui hoc constitutum infringerent ‖ Ibid. p. 61 I could multiply Instances of this kind but I forbear because these I think are sufficient to shew that the Inferior Clergy were an usual Part of the great Saxon Councils since their Names are often either added to or mention'd in those Charters which pass'd in such Councils and which were not otherwise held Valid and Binding as appears by a remarkable Instance breifly set down in the Evidentiae Cantuarienses * X. Script p. 2218. but more largely explain'd by the Monasticon †Egbertus Athelwolf filius ejus dederunt Ecclesiae Christi c. quod Manerium priùs eïdem Ecclesiae dedit Baldredus Rex Sed quia non fuit de consensu Magnatum regni donum id non potuit valere Et ideò isto anno in Concilio apud Kingstone celebrato ab Archiepiscopo â—eolnotho restauratum est Ecclesiae antedictae Vol. 1. p. 20. out of another Writer And if in the Subscriptions to many other such Priviledges and Muniments we find none of the Clergy under Abbats that is not to be wonder'd at since the Members only of highest Rank and Dignity were us'd to sign though all consented as we have already * See p. 32. of this Book heard from Ingulphus and may from the following Passages in some of the Conquerors Charters further learn One of them made in the 15 th Year of his Reign thus concludes Convenientibus in unum cunctis Patriae Primatibus in Nativitate domini c. Scripta est haec Charta auctorisata ab Excellentioribus Regni Personis Testificata Confirmata Corroborata * Sulcardus f. 42. In another of the Year 1075 pass'd in an Universal Synod as the word there is the Conqueror decrees Communi Consensu maximè Episcoporum Abbatum aliorum in signium nostrorum Procerum (⸪) Ib. fol. 39. And in a third granted A. D. 1077. the subscriptions are but few However the Members composing that Synod where it pass'd the Charter it self tells us were Numerous and all these are said Hanc eandem Chartam cooperante sibi in omnibus Divin â Pietate honorific è perficientes complevisse Quorum igitur Memoriam Nomina singulatim exprimere huic Paginulae longum fastidiosum videtur exprimere †Ibid. p. 38. So that tho' the Subscriptions of Charters inform us clearly who were Members of those great Councils yet do they not shew us also who were not since Multitudes were Present at such Meetings who yet did not Subscribe It is not however improbable that under the Title of Ministri some of the Inferior Clergy might often be comprehended especially when these Ministri sign'd as they sometimes did in great Numbers and so as to bear no Proportion to the other Ranks of Witnesses either of the Clergy or Laiety †Thus a Charter granted to the Monastery of Abingdon is attested by 60 Ministri 7 Duces and 8 Bishops Monast. v. 1. p. 103. This will seem a
Capitaneïs Marinariorum iisdem Marinariis c. who it seems at the beginning of the Dispute had been sent to quarter upon them The form of the Writ to those Captain-Mareeners is very remarkable and to be seen among Ryley's Records †P. 462. who also gives us an account of near 300 Letters of this kind that issu'd out for the Regular Praelats only The very next Year to this the King demanded a Third * M. West pp. 425 426. of that Half that was left and was with great difficulty and after a long Contest prevail'd with to accept the Disme * M. West pp. 425 426. which they offer'd him Wearied with these Exactions and foreseeing no End of them the Clergy resolv'd at last to take refuge in the Pope's Authority as oppress'd Men will seek Relief at any hand where it is to be had and by Archbishops Winchelsey's means procur'd a Bull from Pope Boniface forbidding them to give any further Aids without Consent of the Holy See and upon this Head excus'd themselves in a Parliament held the next year at St. Edmundsbury †Nov. 3. 1296. where he again demanded a Fifth after having in Dr. Wake 's Quaint Expression accounted his Circumstances to them * P. 350. and that Excuse not being accepted referr'd themselves for their Final Answer to a Full Convocation of the Province which should be call'd by Ecclesiastical Authority for now they met only upon a Lay-Summons Respite accordingly was given Them till Hilary next and in the mean time their Stores and Granaries all seal'd up by the King's Officers to be ready for Confiscation if they persisted in their refusal as they did when on the Day prefix'd they assembled at Pauls by a Mandate from Archbishop Winchelsey * See his Register f. 205. and after 8 days †M. West p. 429. fruitless debate separated Upon which they were as it should seem prosecuted in the King's Bench and judg'd out of the King's Protection one of the Justices there after sentence pronounced adding openly in terrorem these Memorable Words * Vos domini Attornati Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Abbatum Priorum caeterarum Personatum omnium ex Clero nuntiate Dominis vestris dicite quòd de caetero in CuriaÌ„ domini Regis nulla flet eïs justitia de quâcunque re etiam si illata fuerit iis injuria atrocissima Justitia tamen de eïs fiet omnibus conquerentibus eâ—m habere volentibus Knighton c. 2491. You the Attornys of the Archbishops Bishops Abbats Priors and other Ecclesiastical Persons tell your Masters that from henceforth no Right shall be done on their Behalf in the King's Courts whatever Injurys they receive but Justice shall be done upon them at the suit of any Man After this their Lands were seiz'd their Goods confiscated and their Persons subjected to all manner of Affronts and Indignities While they were under this Outlawry the King call'd his Lay Nobles to Sarum and there held a Council Excluso Clero at which high Words arose and great Heats hapned between Him and his Barons so that Roger Bigod Earl Marshal when upon his refusal to go in person to the Wars in Gascoigne the King in passion told him By God Sir Earl you shall either go or hang made this sudden and stout reply And by the same Oath Sir I will neither go nor hang †Knight p. 2493. Upon which He and many others left the Place in Discontent and wearied with the Kings Oppression and Tyranny I speak the Words of Westminster * Ad ann 1297. p. 430. held a Parliament in the Marches without him The Meeting of Sarum being up the Archbishop summon'd another Provincial Council to meet at Pauls in Midlent 1297 * Vide Procuratorium Subprioris Capituli Bathon apud Pryn. Parl. Wr. Vol. 1. p. 118. But that too dispers'd without coming to a Temper or pitching upon any Expedient And thus the matter rested till the Counts and Barons came in openly to their Quarrel as they did in a Parliament of that Year at Lincoln †Rex indixit Parliamentum apud Lincoln in Octavis S. Ioh. Bapt. in quo orta est dissensio inter ipsum quosdam Comites Barones regni quòd tam Clerum quam Populum intolerabili onere conabatur opprimere Petebat enim iteratò a Clero medietatem omnium bonorum suorum à LaiÌ„cis verò sextum Denarium Responderunt ergo Comites Barones sine assensu Archiepiscopi Cant. totius Cleri tam onerosam importabilem Exactionem se nullo modo subire Sed petebant instanter bona potiùs Ecclesiae Sanctae sua injustè à Regiis Ministris communiter capta indilatè restitui Articulos Punctos in Magnâ Chastâ contentos de caetero observari Eversden ad ann 1297. joyntly protesting against the King's Exorbitances and insisting upon a Redress of Grievances So that the King who saw himself oppos'd on All sides was forc'd at last to be reconcil'd to both and to beg pardon of Both together as he did even with Tears when he restor'd the Archbishop to his Temporaltys on the 14 th of Iuly †Westm. ibid. afterwards And this struggle finally ended in a Confirmation of the Great Charter and the Charter of the Forests enlarg'd by a new Article which provided that no state for the future should be tax'd separately but only by Common Consent of Parliament This is a faithful and full account of that Transaction between the King and his Clergy which Dr. W. neither like a good Historian a good Church-man nor a good Englishman has so represented as if the Clergy had been altogether blameable and the King had done nothing but what the Laws of the Land allow'd of But in all that vast Heap of Mistakes his Book there is not any one Particular further from Truth than this or less becoming the Pen that it comes from They were faulty indeed in applying to the Pope but it was an Error of those times when the Pope's Power over the Clergy was thought very great and carried very far even by the Consent of the Laiety Besides never Men could be more tempted than they were to make use of this Extraordinary Remedy Accordingly they were so far from being blam'd by their Country for procuring this Bull that the Great Men all stood by them in it and publickly approv'd it For so I find it recorded in a List of Grievances which were by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal presented to the King a Year or two afterwards and enter'd in a Register of that time together with the Answers to Each as in a Roll of Parliament At the close of these the Prelats excuse themselves from consenting to the Contribution desir'd by reason of the Bull of Pope Boniface to which the Answer annex'd is Non placuit Regi sed Communitas Procerum approbavit However allowing 'em to
hastily thought for He was too Great and Good a Person to be employed in such Vile Offices No it was Iohn de Metingham a Clergyman who utter'd those words as the Annals of Worster expresly tell us †P. 520. a fit Instrument to be made use of in the Oppression of his Brethren For look through all our History and you shall find that wherever the Clergy have smarted under any Great Hardship some of their Own Order have been still at the bottom of it without whose Helping Hand the Rights and Priviledges of the Church never were and never would be invaded Thus much to take off the Aspersions with which Dr. W. has loaded the Clergy of those times very Indecently and Untruly Their Conduct I do not in every respect pretend to justify However I think it capable of a Fair Excuse if their Circumstances be consider'd And accordingly I observe that among all our Historians of Note Antient or Modern there is not One that I know of who has thoroughly taken the King's part in this Dispute none I dare say that has represented it so much to the Disadvantage of the Clergy as this Gentleman of the Function has done And yet several of these were Laymen particularly Daniel the most sensible of the Moderns calls the King 's Proceeding in this Case a strain of State beyond any of his Predecessors †P. 194. It was a Debt I ow'd to Truth to set this Story right and I would have done it had Iews or Heathens been the Subject of it Whatever the Popish Clergys faults were yet want of Love to their Country was none of 'em the true Interests of which they understood and espous'd generally and were ever fast Friends to the Libertys of it They were bad Christians but good Englishmen which is more than can be said for some of their Successors who with a Purer Religion have been worse Members of the Common-wealth than They. Their Dependence indeed on a Forreign Head misled 'em in Church affairs but against the Exactions and Usurpations even of the Pope himself in Civil Matters none declar'd more loudly or made a more vigorous stand than They. Matthew Paris is an Instance of this kind worth our notice who tho' of a Monastery that ow'd all its Immunities and Exemptions to the Pope yet takes the English side all along against Papal Encroachments and his Works therefore the best part of our History are a mere Satyr on the Court of Rome written indeed not in the mannerly way of later times but however with a Spirit of great Honesty and Freedom Disinterestedness a Love of Truth and a Generous Concern for the Publick shine through every Page of him Qualitys which it were well if some Modern Historians who have spent a great many Popular Invectives against Monks and Monkish Writings had been pleas'd to observe and imitate Their Works as well as Persons would then have been in much greater Esteem with the Age wherein they liv'd and have had a much surer Title to the Applause of Posterity If what I have said of the Popish Clergy be suspected any ways my Lord Coke will vouch for the Truth of it who with great Candor and Justice observes of that very Reign we are upon that Allbeit divers Judges of the Realm were Men of the Church as Briton Martin de Pateshull William de Raleigh Robert de Lexington Henry de Stanton and many others and that the Honourable the Officers of the Realm as Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Master of the Rolls c. were in those days Men of the Church yet they ever had such honourable and true-hearted Courage as they suffer'd no Encroachment by any Forreign Power upon the Rights of the Crown or the Laws and Customs of the Realm †Vpon the Stat. of Westm. I. cap. 51. Among so many Excellent Persons what wonder is it if a false hearted Clergyman or two were found true neither to the Libertys of their Country nor the Interests of their Order Every Age and every Body of Men has had and will have its Iohn de Metingham's it is enough if the Age and the Body they were of has constantly abhorred them From what has been before related it appears that this Exclusion of the Clergy from Parliament so much talk'd of is as much misunderstood for in the first place That was really no Parliament from whence they were excluded but a Colloquium or Tractatus only as the Writ of Summons †Dugdale Summon p. 18. expresly calls it And the common Opinion that this hapned at the Parliament of St. Edmondsbury in crastino Animarum is a common mistake for the Clergy were certainly both summon'd thither ⸪ Dugd. p. 13. and present there throughout the whole Session †MS. Chron. Eccl. Cant. Eversden ante citat But they were not so in the Council of Sarum on St. Matthias's day to which it appears by our Rolls ⸫ Dugdale p. 19. that some particular Barons and Knights only were call'd but not one of the Clergy And here therefore Knighton ‖ Col. 2492. and Eversden * Rex Parliamentum suum apud Sarum cum Laïcis ad hoc tantùm vocatis in die cinerum tenuit positively fix the Exclusion and what they say the whole course of the Story manifestly confirms The Pretence for this Exclusion I suppose to have been the Clergys Outlawry and the seizure of their Temporaltys which was judg'd a sufficient reason for denying 'em their Writs of Summons And this also seems to have been the Ground of that famous Resolution of the Judges in Keilway's Reports †fol. 181. where it is affirm'd that the King might hold his Parliament without the Spiritual Lords i. e. when those Lords Spiritual are in the case of Outlaws and under a Premunire as they were when that Judgment was given and incapable therefore as Opinions then ran of their seats in Parliament But later Times and greater Authoritys have decided quite contrary it being upon several solemn Debates in the House of Commons 35. Eliz. resolv'd * See Sir Symonds d' Ewes Jour p. 518. that a Man under an Outlawry was capable of being elected a Member and what does not disable a single Person from being chosen into Parliament could be no sufficient reason for shutting the whole Spiritualty out of it who are One of the Greatest Estates of this Realm †1. Eliz. c. 1. All therefore that this celebrated Instance amounts to is that the King having put the Clergy under an Outlawry against Law and Reason held a select Council of the Laiety without them against all Rule and Custom And it must be remember'd that this was not only Excluso Clero but Excluso Populo too for neither had the Countys Citys and Burroughs any Representatives there and such an Instance can I am sure no ways prejudice the Parliamentary Interest of the Clergy To proceed