of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters without professing yet a stature to reach the top of this sublime or the bottom of this profound concern In the first place then we are to know that the King 's just and lawful Authority in Ecclesiastical matters is in part declared by a statute made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth Stat. 1 Eliz. Ca. 1. Non novam introduxit sed antiquam declaravit Coke 5. Rep. Cawdrys Case fo 8. And it was one of the Resolutions of the Judges in Cawdry's Case That the said Act of the First year of the Queen concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not a Statute introductory of a new Law but Declaratory of the Old But for our purpose it will be sufficient to transcribe the Preamble of the Act which runs thus Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithful and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled that where in time of the raign of your most dear Father of worthy memory King Henry 8. divers good Laws and Statutes were made as well for the better extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forrain powers and authorities out of this your Realm and other your Highness Dominions and Countrys as also for the * Nota. restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdictions authorities Superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging by reason whereof we your most humble and obedient Subjects from the 25. year of the raign of your said dear Father were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intolerable charges before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forrain power and authoritie as before that was usurped until such time as all the said good laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second years of the raigns of the late King Philip and Queen Mary your Highness Sister Intituled An Act repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick of Rome since the 20th year of King Henry 8. and also for the establishment of all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the Laity were all clearly repealed and made void as by the same Act of repeal more at large appears By reason of which Act of repeal your said humble Subjects were est-soons brought again under an usurped forrain power and authority and yet do remain in that bondage to the intolerable charges of your loving Subjects if some redress by the Authority of this your High Court of Parliament with the assent of your Highness be not had and provided May it therefore please your Highness for the repressing of the said usurped forrain power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this your Realm that it may be Enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament c. And then it proceeds to Repeal the said Act of Philip and Mary and revives the former Statutes of King Hen. 8. and King Edw. 6. abolisheth all usurped forrain powers and authorities and restoreth and uniteth all Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorites and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical to the Imperial Crown of this Realm This Statute doing Right to the Queen and her Successors ever since as in Temporal Causes the Kings of England by the mouths of their Judges in the Courts of Justice have judged and determined the same by the Temporal Laws of England So in all Ecclesiastical and spiritual Causes as Blasphemy Ecclesiastical Causes Stat. de circumsuecte agatis 13 Edw. 1. Articuli Cleri 9 Edw. 2. Fitzh Nat. Bre. 41 42 43 c. Apostasie from Christianity Heresie Schisme Ordering Admissions and Institution of Clarks Celebration of Divine service Rites of Matrimony Divorces Bastardy Substraction and Right of Tiths Oblations Obventions Dilapidations Reparation of Churches Probate of Wills and Testaments Administrations and Accounts upon the same Simony Fornication Incest Adulteries Sollicitation of Chastity Appeals in Ecclesiastical causes Commutation of Penance Pensions Procurations c. the Conusans of all which belongs not to the Common Law but the determination and decision of the same hath been by Ecclesiastical Judges according to the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this his Realm And although the said Stat. 1 Eliz. declares how and by whom the King may appoint the same to be done yet as is intimated before the King by Law may do the same although that Statute had not bin made And hence it was that Stephen Gardiner the noted Bishop of Winchester Significantiori vocabulo competentem Principi jure Divino poâ—estâ—tem exprâ—mi clarius voluâ—runt in his Oration De vera Obedientia once said That by the Parliaments stiling of King Hen. 8. Head of the Church it was no new invented matter wrought only their mind was to have the power pertaining to a Prince by God's law to be more clearly expressed by this Emphatical compellation And certainly this was the ground of that answer which King James gave to the Non-conforming Divines at the conference at Hampton Court upon the seven and thirtieth Article of the Church of England the said Divines urging that these words in the Article viz. Confer at Hamp Court fo 37. The Bishop of Rome hath no Authority in this land were not sufficient unless it was added nor ought to have To which the King being somewhat moved roundly replyed What speak you of the Pope's authority here Habemus jure quod habemus and therefore in as much as it is said He hath not it is plain and certain enough that he ought not to have Nor is this Authority united to the Crown of England only but of right also to all other Christian Crowns and accordingly avowed by all other Christian Princes And to this purpose I could multiply the Suffrages of many antient Fathers and Doctors of the Church but my aim being rather at matter of fact I will forbear the particularizing the explicite Judgements and Declarations of those Devout and just men who were as careful in its degree and proportion to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's as to God the things that are God's But for the matter of practice And in the first place here I cannot but take notice That in the first Ages of Christianity Religion did not only subsist but spread by immediate influence from Heaven only but when by vertue of the same influence it had once prevailed and triumphed over all oppositions of Pagan superstition and persecution and subdued the Emperours themselves and became the Imperial Religion then Ecclesiastical Authority assumed and fixed it self in its natural and proper place and the excercise of its Jurisdiction and what that was I shall shew also was restored to the Imperial Diadem and Constantine was no sooner setled in his Imperial Throne but he took the settlement of all Ecclesiastical
Sero recusat ferre quod subiit jugum But notwithstanding the infinite subtle arts and mighty efforts for that purpose the Papacy found it at any time a most difficult thing to carry any thing here by a high hand and to bring the Ecclesiastical State of this Nation to depend on Rome For our Princes never did doubt but they had the same Authority within their own Dominions as Constantine had in the Empire and our Bishops the same as St. Peter's Successors in the Church Ego Constantini Ailred Rival Coll. 361.16 Vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus said King Edgar in an eminent Speech unto his Clergy And what Power in the Church our Kings took themselves anciently to have appears by their Laws and Edicts published by themselves Leg. Edv. confess cap. 17. fo 142. Leg. Canut Inae apud Jornal Mart. Paris w. 2. and acknowledged by their subjects All speaking thus That the ordering and disposition of all Ecclesiastical Affairs within their own Dominions was their sole and undoubted Right the Foundation thereof being that Power which the Divine wisdom hath invested the Secular Magistrate withal for the defence and preservation of his Church and People against all attempts whatsoever And all our Laws and Lawyers concurring in this Rex sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Bracton Leg. Sanct. Edw. cap. 19.17 That the King of England is subject to no Power on Earth but to God only and in King Edwards Laws he is called Vicarius summi Regis as also in Bracton that being the Cognomen as it were given by Pope Eleutherius long ago to King Lucius here as not being under the power of any other And this in effect acknowledged by the whole Body of the English Clergy Reg. Hoveden in Hen. 2. pa. post fo 510. in a Letter of the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury to Tho. Becket An. D. 1167. as it stands recorded at large by Roger Hoveden To this it will be but seasonable and pertinent to add the Historical Instances and evidences some of them as occurr demonstrating as the continual claim and when they could the exercise of this Right by the Kings of this Island so the worthy resistances as from time to time have been made against all forraign usurpations and incroachments upon the same sufficient to shew that our Princes did not command the Ecclesiasticks here who made up so great a part of their subjects according to the will and pleasure of any forrain Potentate nor that they were only lookers on whilest others governed the English Church Therefore we may observe All Councils and Convocations Eadmer fo 25.5.11 Florent Wigorn An. 1070. fo 434. Stat. 25 H. 8.19 assembled at the King's appointment and by the King 's Writt Jubente praesente Rege as one says and that upon the same Authority as the Emperour Constantine had long before assembled the Council of Nice Some appointed by the King to sit in those Councils and supervise their actions Matt. Paris ad An. 1237. fo 447. ne ibi contra regiam coronam dignitatem aliquid statuere attentarent And Mat. Paris gives us the names of the Commissioners for that purpose in one of the Councils held in the time of King Hen. 3. And when any did otherwise he was forced to retract such Constitutions as did Peckham or they were but in paucis servatae Lyâ—dw de soro competent cap. 1. as were those of Boniface as Lyndwood ingenuously doth acknowledge No Synodical Decree suffered to be of force but by the King's allowance Eadmer fo 6.29 and confirmation In hoc concilio ad emendationem Ecclesiae Anglicanae assensu Domini Regis Gervas Dorobern An. 1175. fo 1429. Mat. Paris Hen. Huntingd Eadm passim Pat. 8 9 Johan R. m. 5.8 primorum omnium regni haec subscripta promulgata sunt capitula as Gervasius Dorobern informs us No Legate suffered to enter into England but by the King's leave and swearing to do nothing prejudicial to the King and his Crown All matters of Episcopacy determined by the King himself Eadmer 115.23 inconsulto Romano Pontifice No Appeals to Rome permitted None to receive Letters from the Pope Thorn Coll. 2152. Coke 3. Instit cap. 54.10.127 Hoveden Hen. 2. fo 496. without shewing them to the King who caused all words prejudicial to him or his Crown to be renounced and dis-avowed by the bringers or receivers of such Letters Permitted no Bishops to Excommunicate Eadmer fo 6.31 or inflict any Ecclesiastical censure on any Peer nisi ejus praecepto Caused the Bishops to appear in their Courts Addit Mat. Paris fo 200 to give account why they excommunicated a subject Bestowed Bishopricks on such as they approved Forent Wigorn An. 1070. fo 536. and translated Bishops from one See to another Erected new Bishopricks Godwin de Praef. Angl. So did King Hen. 1. An. 1109. Ely taking it out of Lincoln Carlile 1133. out of York or rather Durham Commanded by Writ Coke 2. Instit 625. Addit Mat. Paris fo 200. nu 6. the Bishops to Residency Placed by a Lay hand Clerks in Prebendary or Parochial Churches Ordinariis penitus irrequisitis as it is phrased in Matt. Paris By these and many other instances of the like nature exercised by our Kings it appears that the English ever took the outward Policy of this Church or Government of it in foro exteriori to depend on the King And therefore the writs of Summoning all Parliaments express the calling of them to be Pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis nos statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus c. In the Reign of King Edward the first Broâ—k Tit. Praemunire pl. 10. A subject brought in a Bull of Excommunication against another subject of this Realm and published it to the Lord Treasurer of England and this was by the ancient Common Law of England adjudged Treason against the King his Crown and Dignity for which the Offendor should have bin drawn and hang'd but at the great instance of the Chancellor and Treasurer he only abjur'd the Realm King Edw. Trin. 19 Ed. 3. Fitzh Quare non admisit pl. 7. presented his Clark to a Benefice within the Province of York who was refused by the Arch-bishop for that the Pope by way of Provision had conferred it on another The King thereupon brought a Quare non admisit the Archbishop to it Pleaded that the Bishop of Rome had long time before Provided to the said Church as one having Supream Authority in that case and that he durst not nor had power to put him out who was possessed by the Pope's Bull. But for this high contempt against the King his Crown and Dignity in refusing to execute his Soveraign's commands against the Pope's Provision by Judgement of the Common Law the Lands of his whole Bishoprick were seized
3. Cap. 1 2. Stat. 38 Ed. 3. Cap. 3. Stat. Statutes of Pâ—ovâ—sors and Preminire 16 Ric. 2. Cap. 5. Stat. 2 Hen. 4. Cap. 3. Stat. 6 Hen. 4. Cap. 1. Stat. 7 Hen. 7. Cap. 6. Stat. 3 Hen. 5. Cap. 4. Stat. 1 Hen. 7. Cap. 4. Stat. 24 Hen. 8. Cap. 12. Stat. 25 Hen. 8. Cap. 21. Stat. 1 Eliz. Cap. 1. c. By all which with the foregoing Resolutions and Presidents to which a multitude more to the same purpose might be added it doth appear clearly that long before the time of King Hen. 8. divers Statutes and Laws were made and declared against forrain incroachments upon the Rights of the Crown in this matter and those as sharp and severe as any Statutes for that purpose have been made in later times though then both King Lords and Commons that made those Laws and the Judges that did interpret them did for the most part follow the same Opinions in Religion which were held and taught in the Church of Rome And therefore those that will lay upon this Nation the imputation of Schism for denying the Pope's Supremacy here Vid. Case de Premunire in St. John Davys Rep. must charge it many Ages before the time of King Henry the eighth For the Kings Lords and Commons of this Realm have ever been most eminent for asserting their just Rights and Liberties disdaining to become a Tributary Province as it were to the See of Rome or part of St. Peter's earthly Patrimony in Demesn And the Faith and Loyalty of the English race hath bin generally such though true it is that every Age hath brought forth some singular monsters of disloyalty as no pretence of zeal or Religion could ever draw the greater part of the Subjects for to submit themselves to a forrain Yoke no not when Popery was in greatest height and exaltation of all which the aforesaid Statutes are manifest Evidences being generally made at the Prayer of the Commons as by their Preambles may appear most worthy to be read Particularly in the Preamble to the Statute of 16 Ric. 2. They complain Sta. 16 Ric. 2. cap. 5. That by Bulls and Processes from Rome the King is deprived of that Jurisdiction which belongs of right to his Imperial Crown That the King doth lose the service and Counsel of his Prelates and learned men by translations made by the Bishop of Rome That the King's Laws are defeated at his will the Treasure of the Realm is exhausted and exported to inrich his Court And that by those means the Crown of England which hath ever bin free and subject unto none but immediately unto God should be submitted unto the Bishop of Rome to the utter destruction of the King and the whole Realm which God defend say they and thereupon out of their zeal and loyalty they offer to live and dye with the King in defence of the liberties of the Crown And then they pray the King to examine all the Lords in Parliament what they thought of these wrongs and usurpations and whether they would stand with the King in defence of his Royal liberties which being done the Lords Spiritual and Temporal did all answer that these usurpations of the Bishop of Rome were against the liberties of the Crown and that they were all bound by their Allegiance to stand with the King and to maintain his Honour and Prerogative Upon producing and averrement of all this it is requisite some satisfaction be given about the conclusion that hapned so different to these premises For if the Kings and People of England have in all times been so sensible of and zealous for their just Rights how could the Roman Power in derogation of those Rights arrive to such a consistence and height as here it was for many years To this as to the means and manner of that acquist to keep within our Historical compass First let it be premised as undoubtedly true That before the time of the Norman Conquest the Bishops of Rome had very little or nothing to do here as well in matter of Fact as of Right For before that time the Pope's Writ did not run in England His Bulls of Excommunication and Provision came not hither no Citations or Appeals were made from hence to the Court of Rome Our Archbishops did not purchase their Palls there Neither had the Pope the Investiture of any of our Bishopricks And Ingulphus who lived in the Conquerours time a Favourite and one preferred by him thus informs Ingulph Hist fo 901. A multis namque annis retroactis nulla Electio Praelatorum erat libera mere Canonica sed omnes dignitates tam Episcoporum quam Abbatum per annulum baculum regis curia pro sua Complacentia conferebat For as it is observable that under the Temporal Empire of Rome Brittain was one of the last Provinces that was won and one of the first that was lost again So under the Spiritual Empire of the Pope England was one of the last Countrys of Christendom that received the Yoke and one of the first that cast it off But for our purpose that the Bishops of Rome had any Jurisdiction or Hierarchical Authority in the times of the Brittains Saxons or Danes there is an altum silentium in all our Histories and Records For the times of the Brittains Eleuth Epist Eleutherius Pope about 180 years after Christ writes to Lucius the Brittish King and stiles him God's Vicar within his own Kingdom and sure he would not have given that Title to the King if himself under pretence of being God's Vicar-General on Earth had claimed Jurisdiction over all Christian Kingdoms After that Beda Eccl. Hist Matt. Westm Polychron Fab. Huntingd. c. about the year 600. Austin the Monk was sent by Pope Gregory into England to convert the Saxons to the Christian Faith But the Brittish Bishops then residing in Wales gave no regard either to his Commission or his Doctrines as not owing any duty to or dependence upon Rome but still retained their Ceremonies and Traditions which they received from the East Church upon the first plantation of Christianity being both divers and contrary to those of the Church of Rome which Austin did indeavour to impose upon them Usser de Prim. Eccl. Brit. Then about the year 660 there is a famous disputation celebrated between one Colman and one Wilfrid touching the Observation of Easter wherein the Brittains differed from the practice of the Roman Church from which is plainly inferrable that the Authority of the Bishop of Rome was at that time of no estimation in this Island And that the Primitive Churches of Brittain were instituted according to the form of the East and not of the West Church Nay upon the first coming of Austin and his retinue into Brittain there was such a strangness and averseness to him that one Daganus a British Beda Eccl. Hist lib. 2. cap. 4 Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. fo 129.
Faction one Petrus de Luna was set up at Avignion as Antipope against him between these was great strugling and holding till the death of Innocent but the Faction dyed not with him Petâ—r Moon for the Cardinals chose Gregory the twelfth between whom and Peter de Luna who called himself Benedict the thirteenth the schism continued with great sury whereby such mischief and disturbance grew in the world that to appease the matter there was no other remedy but to depose them both which was done in a Council at Pisa and a third man Alexander the fifth chosen in their rooms the two disbanded Popes sneaking away to their Friends But this Alexander soon dying as not injoying his dignity above eight moneths A Neapolitan Balthasar Cossa was chosen in his stead who took the name of John the twenty-fourth and then the two discarded Popes peep out and begin to stir again with many abetters on all sides To compose all which there being now three Popes on foot at once a Council was call'd at Constance where all these three were deposed in which transaction the King of England had a great stroke as Platina expresly sayes but long it was In vita Johan 24. and with much ado before all would submit to Martin the fifth who was then chosen Gregory the twelfth dyed soon of grief upon it Peter de Luna betakes himself to a strong Castle and stands upon his guard and justification having many friends and particularly the Scots as is specially remembred but all would not do his party was run down and he from that time vanished The third that is John 24. took his heels and ran for 't in a disguise but being discovered and apprehended by the Count Palatin he was kept several years a Prisoner Platina sayes in the Castle of Heidelberg Camerar Hist meditat l. 4. cap 7. but Camerarius hath it in the Castle of Mansheim where sayes he they use to shew the Chamber in which he was imprisoned and where at his Exit he left these verses of his own making bewailing the lubricity of fortune the vanity of the world and his own Captivity Qui modo summus eram gaudens nomine Praesul Tristis abjectus nunc mea fata gemo Excelsus Solio nuper versabar in alto Cunctaque gens pedibus oscula prona dabat Nunc ego poenarum fundo devolvor in imo Vultum deformem quemque videre piget Omnibus e terris aurum mihi sponte ferebant Sed nec gaza juvat nec quis amicus adest Sic varians fortuna vices adversa secundis Subdit ambiguo nomine ludit atrox Papa fecit I who of late injoy'd the highest place Now all forlorn bewail my wretched case I lately wore the glorious Triple Crown All kiss'd my feet with humbly-falling down But now I 'me thrown into a pit of woe And my abhorred face dare hardly show From all parts treasure flowed in to me But now or Gold or Friend I cannot see Thus Fortune's rolling wheel pursues its scope Sometimes she smiles and then deludes our hope By the Pope But up his exauctoration or reducement one made this Distich Balthasar imprimis vovitabar inde Johannes Depositus rursus Balthasar ipse vocor First Balthasar and then Pope John I was But now depos'd for Balthasar must pass Neither was all this labouring tugging and canvassing for that supream dignity of the Popedom only but proportionably as great endeavours and expences were had for the obtaining of the intermediate promotions of Priorys Abbacys Bishopricks and Cardinalships all being as mediate steps whereby to mount at last the Pontifical Throne And this matter of promotion and preferment continually carryed great summs to Rome from private and particular persons who aimed to climb as high as money would carry them and without that the greatest merit or endeavours were but to little purpose Ambition is rooted in the nature of all men and scarce ever any took Orders but he design'd to arrive at the highest dignity his Order was capable off hence all that holding thrusting and striving for all those improveable and growing preferments here from the Priest to the Bishop and all that appealing and running to Rome for Confirmation and after that all the sollicitations bribing and driving of interests for a Cardinalship and never any rest till they arrive at St. Peter's Chair or the Grave In the raign of King Henry the Fifth Spâ—ed Chron. in Hen. 5. what a vast summ of money was amassed by H. Beaufort Bishop of Winchester of which at one time he lent the King 20000 l. and took his Crown to pawn for it with part of this he obtain'd a Cardinalship but lived not to finish with the rest his design'd purchase of the Papacy In the raign of King Henry the Eight Lo. Herb. Hist Hen. 8. the great and rich Woolsey was never quiet but alwayes caressing and presenting with great summs sometimes the Emperour sometimes the K. of France and at all times some leading Cardinals for their interest and favour for his Election to the Popedom and thereupon after the death of Pope Leo the tenth he renews his sollicitations to the Emperour and French King and sends Doctor Pace his Agent with good summs to the Cardinals at Rome but Adrian the sixth was chosen before the heavy sollicitor came to the end of his journey But then again after the death of this Adrian Woolsey puts hard for it again with all that wooing intreaty and money could do but such an ill Planer reign'd over his projects that he was gull'd of his money and baffled once again Julio de Medici by the name of Clement the seventh carrying it clear from him but a little to comfort our repulsed Cardinal upon his earnest request this Pope Clement condescended that the Legantine power which Adrian before had granted only for five years and so from five years to five years should now be conferr'd â—on Woolsey for term of life whereby he might injoy a kind of Papal authority in England which he missed at Rome but this Cordial proved too strong for him to digest and utterly ruin'd his constitution as by the series of his story doth appear And now these mighty endeavours and expenses for those promotions in the Court and Church of Rome to Cardinalships and the Papacy makes me conceive it not altogether impertinent here to make a little enquiry what Countrymen of ours attained those dignities and whether the pains and cost expended was answered by the preferment I confess not many of our Countrymen have reached those high dignities of Pope and Cardinal though always some or other of them have been gaping and aspiring that way the Pontifical Chair and the steps to it having been mostly possest by Italians intimated by that noted Observation in Italy it self That of the Romans Sr. Edw. Sands Eâ—rop specal 10.91 the Priests are the most wicked And of the
or Scottish Bishop happening into their Company he would neither eat with them nor under the same roof where they were as Mellitus Laurentius and Justus complained in an Epistle of theirs to the Scots Bishops For the Saxons though King Ina Larga Reg is Benignitas or some other gave the Peter-pence partly as Alms and partly in recompence of a house erected in Rome for entertainment of English Pilgrims Yet it is certain that Alfred Athelstan Edgar Edmund Canutus Edward the Confessor so called and divers other Kings of the Saxon race gave all the Bishopricks of England per annulum baculum without any other Ceremony or any application to Rome as was usual by the Emperour the French King and other Christian Princes so to do as also in all their Laws for the Government of the Church here they consulted only with their own Clergy without any regard to the Authority of Rome But under the Norman Conquest the Papal usurpation march'd in for as the Conquerour came in with the Pope's Banner So either by the way of complemental gratitude or surprize the Pope presently layd hold upon part of the purchase as boasting all was gain'd by his aid and blessing And thereupon he sent two Legats into England favourably received by the Norman by whom a Synod of the Clergy was convened Will. Malm. de gest Ponâ—if Angl. lib. 1. fo 204. Rog. Hoveden pa. prior fo 453. and old Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury deposed because he had not purchased his Pall in the Court of Rome and many other Bishops and Abbots displaced on supposal for the like reasons of the invalidity of their Titles but speciously to place the Normans in their rooms or rather ultimately to introduce the Papal authority in cases of the Church Amongst these is to be noted that the King having earnestly moved the old Bishop of Worcester Matt. Paris Hist in Will 2. fo 20. Wulstan to give up his Staff his answer was that he would only give it up to him of whom he first receiv'd the same and so the old man went to St. Edwards Tombe and there offer'd up his Staff and Ring with these words Of thee O holy Edward I received my Staff and Ring and to thee I now Surrender the same again not acknowledging any authority in the Pope or in any other on his behalf to receive or dispose them as Matthew Paris relates the story at large And though the Conqueror did thus Complement the Pope in the admission of his Legates and some other small matters yet how far he really submitted himself appears by an Epistle to Gregory the seventh by him wrote thus Excellentissimo S. Eccl. Pastori Gregorio Gratia Dei Anglorum Rex Dux Normannorum Willielmus Salutem cum amicitia Hubertus tuus Legatus ad me veniens ex tua parte me admonuit ut tibi successoribus tuis fidelitatem facerem de pecunia quam antecessores mei ad Romanam Ecclesiam mittere solebant melius cogitarem unum admisi alterum non admisi fidelitatem facere nolui nec volo quia nec ego promisi nec antessores mees antecessoribus tuis id fecisse comperio Pecunia tribus fere annis in Gallia me agente negligenter collecta est nunc vero divina misericordia me in regnum meum reverso quod collectum est per praefatum Legatum mittetur quod reliquum est per Legatos Lanfranci Archiep. fidelis nostri cum opportunum fuerit transmittetur c. But in the time of his next successor K. Will. Rufus a further attempt was made that is to draw Appeals to the Court of Rome and that appears in the noted transactions with Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury at large reported in our stories And afterwards in the time of King Henry the first another step was made viz. to gain to the Pope the Patronage and Donations of Bishopricks and other Benefices Ecclesiastical at which the King taking courage writes roundly to the Pope thus Notum habeat Sanctitas vestra Hist Jorvall Coll. quod me vivente Deo auxiliante dignitates usus regni nostri non minuentur si ego quod absit in tanta me directione ponerem magnates mei imo totius Angliae populus id nullo modo pateretur Notwithstanding which upon the regress or restoring of Anselme and some difficulties that pressed the King in reference to his elder Brother Robert Matt. Paris in Hen. 1. fo 63. in a Synod held by Anselme at London in the year 1107. a Decree passed Cui annuit Rex Henricus statuit as Matthew Paris saith ut ab eo tempore in reliquum nunquam per donationem baculi pastoralis vel annuli quisquam de Episcopatu vel Abbatiaper Regem vel quamlibet laicam manum investiretur in Anglia But yet with this clause of salvo Sr. H. Spelâ— Concil Tom. 2. fo 28. Suis tantum juribus regalibus sepositis exceptis as appears in the Exemplification of the Acts of that Synod by the learned Collector of our English Councils In recompence whereof the Pope that there might be quid pro quo yielded to the King that thenceforth no Legate should be sent into England without the King's leave and that the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being should be for ever Legatus natus and for the honour of the See it was obtained that the Archbishop of Canterbury should in all General Councils sit at the Pope's foot tanquam alterius orbis Papa But this agreement was soon broken on both sides the Pope sending his Legates and the King resuming the Investiture of Bishops Matr. Paris fo 65. as the same Historian relates in divers instances In the next troublesome raign of King Stephen it was won clearly that Appeals should be made to the Court of Rome established in a Synod at London Speim Concil Tom. 2. fo 44. held by Henry Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legat for before that time In Anglia namque Appellationes in usu non erant as un unquestionable Historian hath it donec eas Henricus Wintoniensis dum Legatus esset Hen Huntingdon lib. 8. fo 395. malo suo crudeliter intrusit in eodem namque Concilio ad Romani Pontificis audientiam ter appellatus est And in the raign of King Henry the second began the claime and usage of exempting Clarks from the secular Power whatever their crimes were And from this root sprang the famous contention between this King and his Archbishop Thomas Becket together with the Constitutions of Clarendon for the rectifying that abuse at large to be read and observed in the Historians of those times To all this it will be but pertinent to subjoine some brief disquisition touching the Canon Law how and by whom compiled and when introduced into this Iland under which where admitted no small part of the Papal authority was neatly and artificially drawn in For which
and Religion than in those that dwelt nearest to Rome the main point of Religion there practised being how to draw this Prince or that State or Territory under the Spiritual Dominion of the Pope Pâ—atin in vits Gâ—â—g 7. there esteemed the very Atlas of the World with power to depose dispose and impose in all Kingdoms as he please But for true Christianity Hosâ— in de Orâ—g Monac li. 6. ca. 66. Hospinian affirms that the name of Christian in the Italian tongue was used to note a Block-head and a Fool. Add to this the many Treasons Rebellions Perjuries Wars and Commotions raised in Christendom about this very quarrel And for this main drift of the Papacy for Dominion in all places but now mentioned it is visible that the Pope's Supremacy is the foundation that supports the whole building of that Hierarchy and therefore it hath been thought necessary by them always to lay that stone in the first place As about the year 1594. the Bishops of South Russia being under the King of Poland but of the Greek Church submiâ—ted themselves to the Bishop of Rome in the point of Jurisdiction yet not without special reservation of the Greek Religion Brierw Inquir cap. 18. fo 138. and Rites before they would acknowledge their subjection as appears by the Articles of conditions extant Whereby it is manifest that the Pope aim'd not so much to reduce those Churches to the Truth as to his own Obedience As the Emperours and our Kings John and King Hen. 8. thunder'd against only for impugning the Pope Supremacy though they held all other points of Romish Religion And as the Papacy gained in this matter in some places and in some measure so it lost much more in others by straining and aspiring to an unlimitted authority suis ipsa Roma viribis ruitâ— For when the Pope and his Clergy endeavoured the advancement of their Sâ—veraignty over the World upon this occasion any Countreys fell away not only from 〈◊〉 Dominion but also from many other corrupt Dâ—ctrines of the Church of Rome For when they perceived that the chief struggle and design was for Temporal Greatness that many conclusions tending to that end were obtruded as Articles of Faith so manifestly contrary to the Dictates of Christianity and prejudicial to the Rights of others Then both Princes and People began to look into their Title and examine their Evidences and finding them all defective and defeasible thought there was no other remedy but quite to cut off that Power that would not be confin'd whereby this Image of Papal Supremacy became broken and thrown down in many Countreys and is but in a tottering condition in several others at this day The Kings and Princes of the Earth maintaining the just Rights of their Crowns and Kingdoms against this Usurpation on these and the like grounds and reasons viz. That the Title and Power of Kings is far more ancient than this pretended Spiritual Dominion and Quod prius est tempore potius est jure and that in this sence Grace destroyeth not nature and Kings must not lose by becoming Christians That Dominion is expresly given in Scripture unto Kings and is as expresly denyed in Scripture unto the Clergy That as the Pope claimeth at best to be but the Vicar of Christ and that not as he was God it is most certain that Christ never impeach'd impair'd or impos'd upon the Temporal Right of any man the same Authority that Princes had either by the Law of Nature or of Nations before his coming the same he left untouch'd at his departure neither did any of the Apostles or Disciples after his recess ever innovate in the same That the Church in this world is not at home but in a state of perigrinancy and militancy and it is neither Reason nor Justice that strangers should either expell or domineer over the ancient Inhabitants and Melior est conditio possidentis as the Lawyers speak That the proper Rights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacra Regni Sacra sublimâ—â— and Qualities of Majesty and Soveraignty are to be both perpetual and absolute as not depending upon any other nor subject to any exception or restraint That these Rights consist in managing affairs of the highest nature which cannot be separated from the Soveraign Power for upon the guiding of them all the fortunes of a State depend That nothing is of so high a nature in a State as Religion for inasmuch as Religion commandeth the Conscience Religio à Religando and holdeth the soul in subjection if supremacy therein be acknowledged in any forrainer the very sinews as I may say of Soveraignty are cut asunder And it is the most destructive Error in Policy and Government to allow to any other a power of disposing or declaring in matters of Religion either besides above or against the Prince himself by which means any King or Prince would soon be despoil'd of his Authoriâ—y and his Subjects drawn from their due Allegiance upon pretences of Conscience and Religion But now for a Conclusion of this Discourse touching the Kings Supremacy it will be but pertinent and reasonably expected to clear one thing viz. whereas upon restitution of that Right to the Crown by the Statute made in the First year of Queen Elizabeth some were induced to conceive by the generality of the words that affirm her Majesty to be Supream Governor as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical causes as Temporal c. as if it had bin an usurping upon the Sacred function of the Church properly belonging to them in Sacred Orders To give satisfaction in this we may in the first place observe in what Sphears and in what distances all the Divines agree that Ecclesiastical Authority doth move and for our purpose at this time Bellarmine shall suffice for all Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. li. 4. c. 22. s 1. who divides Spiritual Power into that of Ordinis and that of Jurisdictionis For that of Ordinis it appears chiefly in the Administration of the Sacraments That of Jurisdiction is held to be double First Internal where the Divine or Holy man by Demonstrations Perswasions Instructions Heavenly Counsel and the like so convinceth the inward Conscience of a man as it presently resigns and yields obedience to that which is proposed as did those Three Thousand Souls Acts 2.37 41. which were converted at the Preaching of St. Peter Secondly External when Christians in foro exteriori are compelled to their duty and Obedience Now for that first power of Order and for that power of Jurisdiction Internal our Kings never claimed or pretended to claime or excercise them or either of them The example of Vzza sufficiently lessoning all persons to keep within their due and proper distances and Offices in God's service 2 Sam. 6.7 this bold person being immediately stricken by the Divine Hand for his error and for his acting an irregular part in the holy Procession of the Ark.
Statutes and Priviledges was vacated and overthrown and his own revenues established upon the ruins of the Nation Dispensing with any thing nay every thing by which he might gain any thing as may be read at large in that notable Historian to whom for brevities sake we referr those that would receive further satisfaction therein and pass on to the CHAP. VII Indulgences Pardons INdulgences and Pardons shall in the next place be remembred as most powerful devices to draw money to Rome And because the import of these generally hath not been so well apprehended we will take liberty to make a little enquiry into the nature and vertue of them In the Primitive Times when the Christians had committed any hainous offence as for example either in denying their Faith or sacrificing to Idols for fear of persecution the parties offending were injoyned some severe and long Penance and the rigour of this the Bishops and Pastors had power if they saw cause to mitigate at their discretion which mitigation or relaxation of Punishment was called Indulgence or Pardon And this derived from St. Paul who released the incestuous Corinthian from the bond of Excommunication upon his humiliation and serious repentance And this manner of Indulgence was ancient and continued long in the Primitive Church But the Indulgence in the Roman Church is of another nature for seeing that Sin as they say deserveth as well some Temporal punishment as Eternal Damnation their Indulgence is a supposed Absolution from the guilt of Temporal punishment Vid. Pol. Vergil de invent rerum lib. 8. cap. 1. which punishment is inflicted they say in Purgatory and all this as they further add by the application of the merits of Jesus Christ and his Saints by the medium and method of the Church and these merits are termed Thesaurus Ecclesiae The Treasure of the Church and appliable to the souls of the dead burning in Purgatory to work out their Temporal punishment And this is the notion of Indulgence in the Roman Church if I mistake not for it is a Doctrine as difficult to understand as to maintain But this is certain that these modern new coin'd Indulgences differ infinitely from that of the Primitive Times for those which were first used for mitigation of Penance or Punishment are now reduced to be in stead of real private satisfactions and that which was formerly left to the discretion of every Bishop in his own Diocess to dispence in that manner with summum jus is now solely transferred to the Power and authority of the Pope and that not only from Penances and Punishments in this life but also from imprisonment pains and tortures in Purgatory for many thousands of years As whosoever in the state of Grace shall say seven prayers before the Crucifix Horae beaâ—ae Mar. Virg. secundum usum Sarum and seven Pater nosters and seven Ave Marys shall obtain Six and Fifty Thousand years of pardon fourteen thousand granted by St. Gregory fourteen thousand by Nicholas the First and eight and twenty thousand by Sixtus the 4th Bulâ—a Pli Quarti Dat. Rom. 1564. And amongst the Articles framed at the Council of Trent to be owned super forma juramenti professionis fidei this is one That the power of Indulgences was left by Christ in the Church and that the use thereof is most wholesom for Christs people For the Antiquity Authority and validity of these Indulgences as now practised let those maintain if they can whom it most concerns and who get by them for my business now is not to dispute only I cannot forbear to tell you what a learned Romanist says of them Cunerus Declam Dolendum mirandum c. It is to be lamented and admired how Catholicks write of Indulgences so timorously so coldly so diversly so doubtfully as if they were so far fetch'd or so uncertainly framed that they could hardly be proved We will therefore only take notice of their efficacy to draw money out of the Peoples purses our present purpose and for their power of drawing Souls out of Purgatory we leave it to another opportunity For the purpose of drawing money from the people there could not have been a more neat contrivance Rivet and therefore by one they have not improperly been called Emulgences Romarorum loculos impraegnare Mat. Paris Hen. 3. and by the Romanists themselves in their truest signification The Treasury of the Church For seeing the Pope was become the sole dispencer and disposer of them when he had occasion or a mind to amass moneys it was a ready and sure way upon pretence of Wars against the Turks or of Wars against Hereticks or Wars against the Emperour or any neighbor Prince or State with whom the Pope was at odds to send out and proclaim Marts and Sales for these Indulgences upon terms that those who would disburse any summs of money for the purposes aforesaid as the occasion was they should have Pardons and Indulgences for numbers of years proportionable to the summs they could or would deposite Hen. de Knighton Coll. 2671. Nam aliter non absolvebantur nisi tribuerent secundum posse suum facultatem suam For people could not be absolv'd except they did disburse as much as their abilities would afford as Hen. de Knighton deals plainly in the case And then for the poor and indigent truly they deserve our pitty when the Taxa Camerae Apostolicae deals thus plainly with them Taxa Cam. Apost Impress Paris Nota diligenter quod hujusmodi gratiae non conceduntur pauperibus quia non habent ergo non possunt consolari Note diligently that such graces are not granted to the poor because they have not wherewithal they cannot be comforted A very sad Case Now for those people that were conscious and certain they were guilty of many sins and perswaded they should lye frying in Purgatory many thousands of years to purge themselves and make them fit for Heaven who would not presently unstring and give even almost all they were worth for such advantages and to be freed from those bitterly represented pains and torments Then to assure people they were not cheated in these penny-worths and bargains the Mysterie of the Pope's Triple Crown was sufficient for anciently if not still the word Mysterium Mysterium was engraven thereon to denote and signifie the Rule and Authority the Pope bears in Heaven in Earth and in Purgatory And so these Indulgences and Pardons were trucked for and bought up at any rates untill people began a little to consider and look about them and to observe upon what terms and for what purposes these Indulgences were sent abroad wherein no distinction of persons or sins was made which reasonably might have been expected from Christ's Vicar that whosoever performed some religious rites and paid certain summs of money should have all their sins forgiven whatever they were so that all men who would come to the price
the whole Kingdom wherein all art and Rhetorick imaginable was used by suing Preaching and begging to draw people to unstring and deposite according to their respective abilities and inclinations by which means the Nation was always kept bare and poor whilst the wealth thereof was carryed away into forrain parts and mostly unto the Kings Enemies as appears by many complaints thereof for that purpose made Particularly Rot. Parl. An. 8 Ed. 3. in a Parliament held An. 8 Ed. 3. a special Petition and complaint was made by the Commons in that behalf And afterwards in several King's raigns a multitude more to the like effect as by our Parliamentary Records it doth appear which for brevities sake we here omit to specifie referring such as would receive further satisfaction therein to that excellent Abridgement of the Tower Records collected by the learned Sir Robert Cotton and lately printed Cardinal Woolsey at one time had raked up Twelve Barrels full of Gold Speed in H. 8. nu 77. and Silver to serve the Pope in his warrs c. CHAP. XII Courts COurts and Jurisdictions of the Pope both at Rome and within the Kingdom drew constantly out of the People's purses incredible Masses of money For to these Courts belonged Judges Officials Delegates Referendaries Commissaries Dataries Scribes Notaries Proctors Registers Summoners Apparitors Clarks Sollicitors and a multitude of other Officers who all by their places and practice grew rich sent great summs to their chief the Pope and help'd to beggar the people In these Courts all causes of Contentions and Instance between party and party as also ex officio were entertained and cherished And the charge and expence going this way was so much the worse in regard of the danger turmoil and vexation continually attending those that had to do in these Courts For by some other wayes men were wheadled and gull'd out of their money to their no small content but here they were squeezed racked and tortur'd as long as their purses or themselves could breath These Courts at first were pretended to be instituted for Ecclesiastical Persons and causes only But then at the instance of Ecclesiastical persons many of the Laicks were cited to Rome to make Answer concerning businesses not at all belonging to the Cognizance of that Court as matters of Inheritances Gages Pawns Contracts c. And Laicks also upon Oath or Allegation that they could not have Justice before their proper Judges were admitted and incouraged to bring their Causes to Rome or out of the King 's into the Pope's Court. And thereupon the Pope's Judges and Officers spared not to disturb all other places of Judicature in derogation of the King's authority excommunicating all that would not obey them And these Courts as they were managed became an accumulative charge and burden to the people For the right of Patronage belonging to divers Lay and Ecclesiastical persons was under Colour of Prevention or Provision by the power and authority of these Courts usurped by the Pope his Legats and Officers when Benefices were vacant and then the same usually conferred on Courtiers Favourites Italians and Strangers And these men dying either at Rome or in their way thither or thence their Benefices were conferr'd again by these Courts upon others to the great wrong of the right Patrons And then great Benefices would not he conferr'd on worthy persons or on any other unless temporary gratuities and continuing Pensions were first given and secured out of them to the Courtiers Dependants and Officers of the Pope And in granting these Benefices many Arts were used to get money under the names of Reservations Permutations Surrogations c. In these Courts also Excommunications were often denounced for trifles but not taken off without great charge Confirmations of Foundations Ecclesiastical Religious and charitable were here purchased with great summs of money When the Pope had any Aid or exhibition from the Ecclesiasticks here were contrivances that they should be sure to be repair'd again by the People All trifling frivolous causes drawn to these Courts but no dismission without good payment No Publick Penance here awarded without some private summs to be paid Licences for money to keep a feme putein Money exacted of Monks and Fryers for concubinage on presumption they had or might have quam pro quo Farming out Livings and Benefices to poor Vicars at such high rates as they were forced to get their money again of the People by Confessions Anniversaries Obits c. Burial denyed to all that died suddenly or by chance on presumption they dyed in mortal sin until here some good summ was paid With infinite other tricks and devices to draw money from the people practised by these Courts and their Officers tedious to enumerate but more intolerable to be born as may in some measure appear by the Stat. of Praemunire and Provisors Vid. Coke Plâ—cit Coren cap. 53. W. Prin Record of King John H. 3 Ed. 1. pointed at in the former discourse with the Suits Attachments and Prohibitions for suing for Lay Fees in these Courts in derogation of the Crown and impoverishing of the People exemplified by Mr. Prinne out of the Tower Records To these Courts also the Popes sometimes would be so audacious as to cite even Kings themselves as claiming Jurisdiction over them Thus Pope Boniface the eighth Matt. Wesâ—m in An. 1301.10.435 having a Controversie with our King Edw. 1. touching the Realm of Scotland which the Pope affirmed belonged to the Church of Rome wrote to the King That if he pretended any Title to the Realm of Scotland he should send his Proctors to the Court of Rome with all his evidences proofs and Instruments touching the same there to have and receive Justice in the premises At another time Pope Innocent the fourth summoned King Henry the third Westm Mâ—tt An. 1246. fo 3â—7 to appear to Answer to one of his Vassals David by name and to give him satisfaction for some wrongs as he said he had done him But in the first case the King by advice of his Lords and Barons slighted the citation and to the other nothing was return'd but scoffs and derision CHAP. XIII Contributions for the Holy Land COntributions for relief of the poor distressed Christians in the Holy Land and to carry on the War against the common Enemy of Christendom were frequently set on foot Sim. Dunelâ—â— Hist fo 249. And by that means great summs were as often drain'd out of the Kingdom but then a small or no part thereof imployed for those purposes Chron. W. Thorn Coll. 1926. Gerviâ—s Dorobern 1522. For to this end the Popes often prevailed with Princes to impose on their subjects and made them the Instruments on this pretence to hook money out of their pockets Johannes Ferentinus was sent hither from the Pope about that matter An. D. 1206. and sped so well in his negotiation and carryed such a great quantity of money away with
excepting those that were Conventual and thereupon Summons was given to all the said Priors to appear on the Octaves of St. Hillary at Westminster and to bring with them all their Charters and Evidences whereby the King and his Council might be satisfied whether they had been Priories Conventual time out of mind or not But notwithstanding this Act and that the former seisures had been made upon this ground that by transportation of the revenues belonging to these English Cells to those Houses in France whereunto many of them belonged and were subordinate the King's Enemies at such times as he had warrs with the French were assisted in the Parl. held at Leic. An. 2 Henry the fifth it being considered that though a final peace might afterwards be made between England and France yet the carrying over such great summs of money yearly to those forraign Monasteries would be much prejudicial to this Kingdom and the People thereof there was an Act then made that all the possessions in England belonging to the said Priories-Alien should thenceforth remain to the King his Heirs and Successors for ever excepting such whereof special declaration was then made to the Contrary Rot. Parl. 2 Hen. 5. nu 9. Al intent sayes the Act que divine Services en les lieux avantdictz purront pluis duement estre fait per genti Anglois en temps avenir que n'ount este fait devant cest heurs en icelles per gents Francois c. intimating the mis-imployment of the same And so from thenceforth our Kings disposed of these Priories-Alien and all their revenues arising hence in such manner as they thought most conducible to the good and ease of themselves and the People Which Act of State proved a Praeludium to the dissolution which befel the intire English Monasteries in the raign of King Henry the eighth CHAP. XVIII Knights Templars and Hospitallers THE Orders of the Knights Templars and Hospitallers were also possessed of large revenues and lands here a great part of the profits whereof was transported away and spent out of the Kingdom For the Original Rule and nature of these Orders several have collected and exhibited them particularly Mr. Dugdale W. Dâ—gd Hist of Warw. fo 704 An. 1 Ed. 2. to whom those that would be satisfied therein are referred For our purpose let it be sufficient to note That in the year 1307. by the King 's special command Hen. d'Knighton coll 2531 and a Bull from the Pope the Templars were generally throughout the Kingdom laid hold on and cast into prison and all their possessions seised into the King's hands Th. Walsingh Hist fo 73. An. D. 1311. The crimes objected against them were very hainous contain'd in divers Articles but whether true or false we will not now examine And it was not long after that the whole Order was condemned and suppress'd in a General Council at Vienna under Pope Clement the fifth and their possessions given to the Knights Hospitallers who injoyed the same here till the 32. year of King Hen. Stat. 32 H. 8â— cap. 24. 8. when an Act of Parliament was made reciting That divers of the King's subjects called Knights of St. John of Jerusalem abiding beyond the Sea receiving yearly out of this Realm great summs of money have unnaturally and contrary to the duty of their allegiances substained and maintained the usurped power and authority of the Bishop of Rome lately used and practised within this Realm he the said Bishop being common Enemy to the King our Soveraign Lord and this his Realm and considering that it were better that the possessions in this Realm belonging to such as adhered to the Bishop of Rome should be imploy'd and spent within this Realm for the defence of the same than converted to and amongst such unnatural subjects c. It was enacted That the said Corporation of Knights Hospitallers within his Majesties Dominions should be utterly dissolved and that the King his Heirs c. should have all their Mannors Lands c. And so the Kingdom was freed of that mischief which their transporting so much money yearly out of it had occasioned Queen Mary a Princess more zealous than wise or politick made some attempt to restore the Convents dissolved by her Father Sand. de Schism lib. 2. fo 30â— and Brother particularly re-instating the Benedictines at Westminster The Carthusians at Shone The Brigetteans at Sion The Dominicans at Smithfield in London A sort of Franciscans heretofore zealous for the legality of her Mother's marriage at Greenwich And the Hospitallers of St. John's of Jerusalem in Clarkenwell But her example was not followed by any of the Nobility or others who had incorporated any of the Abby Lands into their estates but the Queen restored only what remained in the Crown un-aliened from the same But yet such a beginning of hers gave a shrewd alarme to all the rest that they should be attaqued in convenient time with some Acts of resumption which would compel them to refund and that the rather because Cardinal Pool in that Act in this Queen's raign to secure the Abby Lands to the then Owners without a formal passing whereof to quiet at present so many persons concerned Popery would not so easily have bin restored at that time would not absolve their consciences from restitution but only made as it were a temporary palliate cure the Church of Rome but suspending that power which in due time was to be put in execution But for our Hospitallers as I said before they were with some others restored and placed in their shatter'd mansion in Clarkenwell Stow. Survey fo 483. Sir Thomas Tresham being made the Prior of the Order But the short raign of that Queen prevented further restitutions And Queen Elizabeth coming to the Crown permitted all things to remain for some time as she found them so that at her first Parliament she sent writs to the Lo. Prior Tresham and Abbot Fecknam to appear as Barons therein but they were scarce warm in their Seats but they with all the rest of the late restored Orders were once again dissolved and the Kingdom 's fears of refunding and resumption for that time cured with addition of hope never to be so frighted again As Allies and Successors to these Knights Templars and Hospitallers it will not be amiss something to note of the Knights of Malta How they were first expulsed out of the Holy Land and then out of Rhodes by the Turks how afterwards they seated at Nice and Syracuse successively and at last setled in the Island Malta where now they are we referr those that would be satisfied therein to the Historians and Travellers that have taken notice of them Gro. Sandies Trav. lib. 4. fo 229. Travels of Jo. Ray. fo 303. But we are informed by our late Travellers That now in the City of Valetta in Malta they have Alberges Halls or Seminaries of the eight several Nations of the Order
as well by the Title of the said Act as by the Body of it An Act restoring to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiastical and spiritual 1 Eliz. 1. in divers places for that Stat. doth not annex any Jurisdiction to the Crown but that which in truth was or of right ought to be by the ancient Laws of this Realm parcel of the Kings Jurisdiction Now it is not unknown how from the root as it were of this inherent Authority grow the several Branches of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As that he hath the supream Right of Patronage over all England and all Ecclesiastical Benefices within the same so that if the immediate Patron present not a Clark in due time nor the Ordinary nor Metropolitan the Right of Presentation devolves on the King and there rests Nullum tempus occurrit Regi He only hath the Patronage of all Bishopricks and none can be chosen but by his Conge d' Eslier and whom he nominates none can be consecrated Bishop or take possession of the Revenues of the Bishoprick without a special Writ or Assent from the King The King only calls National or Provincial Synods and by his Commissioners or Metropolitans gives life to Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions relating to the Government and Ceremonies of the Church for reformation and correction of Heresies Schismes Contempts c. Halls Case Coke 5 Rep. The King hath Power to pardon the violation of Ecclesiastical Laws to dispence with the rigour of them and to regulate all Ecclesiastical Persons as that a Bastard may be made a Priest 11 Hen. 7.12 a. That a Priest may hold more Benefices than one That he may succeed his Father That he may be non-Resident c. And for his Superintendency over the whole Church the King hath the First-Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices And from him lyes no Appeal to any forrain Jurisdiction whatsoever Neither is it unknown what strange incroachments and usurpations have been made upon the fundamental Right of our Kings by the Popes and Court of Rome and again how strenuously in all times it hath been asserted and vindicated by the Kings and People of England the Papal Dominion rising and falling here according to the quality of the Times and the measures of resistance which it met withall And evident is it also by what means this forrain Dominion came to be owned here for in the Empire the Bishops of Rome usurp'd one half of the Imperial Power and annexed the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Supremacy to their own See for taking advantage of the publick distractions occasion'd partly by the incursions of the Barbarians on the North and East parts and chiefly by the divisions of the Empire it self and by some opportunities of serving some weak and vicious Emperours in their unworthy purposes they gain'd at last by force or fraud the whole Dominion of Religion to themselves and by pretending to the Spirit of Infallibility they usurp'd an absolute Empire over the Faiths and Consciences of men which yet they could not maintain without the continual disdained affronts to the Princes of Christendom the last whereof reduced under this yoke were the Kings of this Island and for which there were not Arts enough wanting As by making a bad use of innocent and good meanings and improving the humility of others for an advantageous step whereon to mount it self For when Religion came to a consistency here the Bishop of Rome was greatly reverenced by the Christians of this Island as one that was the Primate of one of the then most glorious Churches in the World Patriarch of the West and residing in a City famous for Arts and Learning and the seat of the Empire And then the fame of this eminent Bishop crescens eundo Tacit. Hist lib. 2. and majora credi de absentibus as Tacitus speaks acquired a mighty reverence for him in these remoter parts though the devout Brittains who received more probably their first conversion from Asia applyed themselves chiefly to Judaea as a place of the greatest sanctity yet amongst the Saxons for the reasons aforesaid Beda Hist li. 4. cap. 23. Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur as Ven. Beda hath it But as this was of their part no other than as to a great Doctor or Prelate from whose countenance and assistance they hoped for great advantages so those Instructions they received from Rome were not as coming from one that had Dominion over their Faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming more respect than what was decent and fit out of Charity Reverence and Christian affection each unto the other And therefore observable is it in that famous transaction of the Kingdom of France Platina in vita Zach 1. Spondan in eod about the deposing of Childerick and setting up Pepin in his room which some have contended to have been done by the Pope's Authority The Truth is Mente stupidus vitâ ignavus Paul Aemil. Childerick was set aside by the Peers of France for a Fool or Frantick and Pepin stepping up applyed himself to the then Pope Zachary to confirm not to confer his new obtained Kingdom for in those days they gave no such power neither did Pope Zachary claim it Only that such an extraordinary action might carry the better face in the world it was thought requisite to have the suffrage of so grave an Oracle and therefore Baronius confesses and that you will will say is much Baron Annal. Francos non Zachariae paruisse decreto sed acquievisse consilio and there is great difference between an Authoritative Injunction and a Prudential Advice which is only an Answer out of discretion and left to discretion and so can imply no obligation at all And Sabellicus relates it thus That the Peers of France deposed Childerick Sabell Ennâ—ad 8 lib. 8. and set up Pepin in his stead Romano Pontifice consulto whence this Gloss upon one of their Laws Papa deposuit id est deponentibus consensit But enough of this But certain it is that by one way or other the Papal Dominion arrived to a great height in the World and particularly in this Island in after times and then the former addresses of the Christians of this Island to the Bishop of Rome were made use of as notes and evidences of subjection and what had passed by the Popes advice and Counsel only was afterward said to have been done by his Authority And so the ordering and determining of Ecclesiastical affairs was endeavoured to be drawn to a forraign Judicature to the apparent prejudice and diminution as well of the Rights of the Crown as of this Church And therefore in this case it fared with our Ancestors as with her in the Tragedy Quisquis in primo obstitit Repulitque amorem tutus ac victor fuit Sâ—nec Trag. Hippolyt Qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum
into the King's hands and lost during his life And this Judgement was before any Act of Parliament made in that case Nota. And there it is said That for the like offence the Archbishop of Canterbury had bin in worse case by the Judgement of the Sages in the Law if the King had not extended favour to him Although by the Ordinance of Circumspecte agatis Coke 5 Rep. Case de jure R. Eccl. made in the thirteenth year of King Edward the first and by a general allowance and usage the Ecclesiastical Court held Plea of Tithes Oblations Obventions Mortuaries Redemption of Penance Laying of violent hands on a Clark Defamations c. yet did not the Clergy think themselves assured nor quiet from Prohibitions purchased by subjects till King Edward the second by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal Staâ— 9 Edw. 2. Artic. cler ca. 16. in and by consent of Parliament upon Petition of the Clergy had granted them Jurisdiction in those cases An Excommunication by the Archbishop Finzh Excom 4.16 Ed. 3. Broâ—k Excom pl. 5.14 H. 4. although it be dis-annulled by the Pope or Legate is to be allowed Neither may the Judges give any allowance of any such sentence of the Pope or his Legate And it hath often bin adjudg'd 30 Ed 3 Lib. Assiz pl. 19.12 Ed. 4.16 and declared That the Pope's Excommunication is of no force in England It is often Resolved in our Books that all the Bishopricks in England were founded by the King's Progenitors and the Advowsons vowsons of them all belong to the King and at first they were * Per traditionem annuli pastorasis baculi Donative And that if an Incumbent of any Church with cure dyes if the Patron Present not within six months the Bishop of that Diocess ought to collate that the cure be supply'd if he neglect by the space of six moneths the Metropolitan of that Diocess shall confer one unto that Church and if he also neglect six moneths then the Law gives to the King as Supreame within his own Kingdom and not to the Pope power to provide a Pastor The King may not only exempt any Ecclesiastical Person from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary but may grant unto him Episcopal Jurisdiction as it appears the King had done of antient time to the Archdeacon of Richmond 17 Ed 3.13 20 Ed. 3. And the Abbot of Bury was exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction by the King's Charter The King Presented to a Benefice 21 Ed. 3.40 and his Presentee was disturbed by one that had obtained Bulls from Rome for which offence he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment If Excommunication be the final end of any suit in the Court of Rome as indeed it is and be not allowed Fitzh Nat. Br. fo 64. f. or allowable in England as it hath often bin Declared It then follows that by the Ancient Common Law of England no suit for any cause though it be spiritual arising within this Realm may or can be determined in the Court of Rome Quia frustra expectatur eventus cujus effectus nullus sequitur At a Parliament held An. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib 25 Edward the third It was Enacted That as well they that obtained Provisions from Rome as they that put them in execution should be out of the King's Protection and that they should be dealt withal as the King's Enemies and no man so dealing with them should be impeached for the same At a Parliament held An. Stat. 16 Ric. 2. cap. 5. 16 Ric. 2. It is declar'd That the Crown of England hath bin so free at all times that it hath bin in subjection to none but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the said Crown to be submitted to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his Will And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be clearly against the King's Crown and his Regality used and approved in time of all his Progenitors in which points the said Commons professed to live and dye and to all which the Lords assented also as being thereto bound by their Allegiances It is resolved that the Pope's Collector 2 Hen. 4 fo 9. though he have the Pope's Bull for that purpose hath no Authority within this Realm And there it is said That the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realm are the King 's spiritual Judges And in another place it is said Papa non potest mutare Leges Angliae 11 Hen. 4. fo 37. Per Curiam In the raign of King Henry the sixth 1 Hen. 7. fo 10. the Pope wrote Letters in derogation of the King and his Regality and the Church-men durst not speak any thing against them But Humfrey Duke of Glocester for their safe keeping put them into the fire In the raign of King Edward the fourth 1 Hen. 7. fo 20. the Pope granted to the Prior of St. John's to have Sanctuary in his Priory and this was pleaded and claim'd by the Prior but resolved by the Judges Keilway Reports 8 H. 8. fo 191. b. That the Pope had no power to grant any Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore the same was disallowed by Judgement of Law In Brook Tit. Presentation al Esglise Bro. Present al Esglise p. 12. It is affirmed That the Pope was permitted to do certain things within this Realm by usurpation and not of right untill the Raign of King Kenry the eighth quod nota sayes the Book Stat. 24 Hen. 8. ca. 12.25 H. 8.21 And in what esteem the Pope's Authority here was in that King's time may sufficiently be collected from the Tenor and Purview of the Statutes about that affair in his raign made In the raign of King Kenry the sixth Henry Beaufort Uncle to the King being Bishop of Winchester was made Cardinal and thereupon purchased from the Pope a Bull Declaratory that he might still hold his Bishoprick yet it was held and adjudged that the See of Winchester was become void by the assumption of the Cardinalship and therefore the Cardinal fallen into a Praemunire 4 Hen. 6. in Arch. Turr. Lond. for which he was glad to purchase his pardon as by the Records of all this it doth appear It was Adjudged in the Court of Common Pleas Dier 12 Eliz. by Sir James Dyer Weston and the whole Court That a Dean or any other Ecclesiastical Person may resign as divers did to King Edward the sixth Vid. Grend ca. in Plowd Com. for that he had the Authority of the Supream Ordinary With all this may be noted also the several Statutes heretofore made against the usurpations of the Bishops of Rome in this Kingdom the principal whereof these viz. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib Stat. 27 28 Ed.
Romanum Episcopum majorem aliquam Jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis Externum Episcopum Conformable to which was also the Resolution of all the English Clergy Upon which and presently after King Hen. 8. was by Parliament agnized Supream Head of the Church in these his Dominions Stat 26 Hen. 8 cap. 1. whereby it was also Enacted and Declared That the King his Heirs and Successors Kings of England should have and enjoy united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this his Realm as well the Title and Stile thereof as all Honours Dignities Jurisdictions c. to the said Dignity of Supream Head of the Church of England belonging or appertaining with full power and authority to visit redress reform order correct restrain and amend all errours heresies abuses c. which Act Io. Hâ—rb Hist of Hen. 8 fo 380. though much to the support of the Regal Authority seem'd not suddenly to be approv'd by the King nor before he had consulted with his Council who shewed him many precedents of Kings of England that had used this power and with his Bishops who having fully discussed the point in their Convocations Declared That the Pope had no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom warranted by Gods word suitable to what was Declared by the Universities Colledges and Religious Houses with learned men of all sorts maintaining it necessary that such a power should be extant in the Realm for the Peace good Order and Government of the same the Reasons and Arguments of all which were couched in a Book of the King 's about that time published De vera differentiae Regiae Ecclesiasticae potestatis whence also the Learned Bishop Andrews in his Tortura Torti seems to have drawn diver assertions of the Regal Authority to which the Reader is referred A practice this I mean of consulting the Clergy and the Learned in a case of so great an import agreeable to former Presidents Tho. Walsing in An 1408. fo 420. as I find in Tho. Walsingham In concilio cleri celebrato Londoniis assistentibus Doctoribus Vniversitatum Cantabrigiae Oxoniae tractatum est de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis And as King Hen. 2. Rog. Hoveden in Hen. 2. pa. prior professed he would proceed in the great cause depending between him and his Archbishop Becket Now when King Hen. 8. was by Parliament agnized Supream Head of the Church within his own Dominions and by him for the reasons aforesaid owned and accepted what they meant by this may well enough be collected from the premises and from that notable Oration of Stephen Gardiner of True Obedience before mentioned which Title he neither took nor the Parliament gave in other sence than the French have always attributed it to their Princes and what the Royal Ancestors of King Hen. 8. Spelm. Conc. 437. Seld. ad Eadm 1â—5 â—â—g Edvard c. himself assumed under the Homonymous names of Tutors Protectors Governours Domini Christi Vicarii Agricolae c. and the like And this is the Supremacy which the Kings of England have always claimed and exercised within their own Dominions with the temporary obstructions above mentioned that is in Soveraign way to Rule and Govern all their Subjects of what degree and quality soever to call their own Clergy and Church-men together and with their advice to see the Church reformed and by Act of Parliament to have all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored and united to the Crown as in the First year of Q. Eliz. was done inlarged on before And here it will not be unnecessary to observe and know how that Restitution was resented by the Queen's Subjects at that time And for that observe and observable it was the general complyance and complacence of the People in it as also that from the First until the Eleventh year of that Queen's raign Cokâ— 5 Rep. de ure Reg. Eâ—câ—esiastico fo 35. no person of what perswasion of Christian Religion soever at any time refused to come to the Publick Divine Service celebrated in the Church of England and established by publick Authority within this Realm until the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus in the Eleventh year of her Majesties Raign came out against her whereby he deprived her of all her Right Authority Dignity and Priviledge in or unto these her Realms and Dominions and absolved all her Subjects of their Allegiance After this Bull it was that those who regarded the Pope's power or threats more than their Prince's just Authority or their own Allegiance refused to come to Church and from that occasion first acquired the stile of Recusants Vid. Camb. Annal. This gave rise also to a multitude of treasonable practices and conspiracies against the Queens life taken up also against King James Vid. Arth. Crohagans case in Crook 1. Rep. continued against our late Soveraign King Charls the First and still fermenting to break forth upon all opportunities to promote the Catholick cause and all abetted by the traitorous Doctrine of King-killing justified and proclaimed to the World by Bellarmin Co licenzâ— con priviâ—egio Baronius Mariana Emanuel Sa Allen Creswell and others both Natives and Strangers the consequence whereof was this That though Treason was always in the intention yet God be praised nothing hath yet been brought to Execution but the Traitors In this affair St. Jo. Davys D sc of Ireland fo 242. I find a memorable Observation of a grave Statesman That in the Indentures of submission of the Irish to King Hen. 8. all the Irish Lords did acknowledge him to be their Soveraign Lord and King and owned his Supremacy in all causes utterly renouncing the Pope's Jurisdiction most worthy of note says he in that when the Irish had once resolved to obey the King they made no scruple to renounce the Pope Besides these which have been experienc'd in our own Country infinite have been the mischiefs occasion'd in the World upon this score of Supremacy and Dominion and that by the mighty strugling and bickerings that have been maintained between the Papacy and the Princes of the Earth about the gaining and keeping this Power Besides the general Observations that a great means of the growth of the Turkish Empire to it s now formidable stature hath been the Wars and disturbances wrought upon this ground amongst the Christians themselves Also the decay and corruption of sincere piety and devotion by the turning the current of Religion out of its pure primitive channel into the sink of disputes and controversies about the Rights and Bounds of Dominion when Christ himself hath told us That his Kingdom is not of this world This caused Divine Religion to degenerate into Humane Policy and upon this it was that Machiavel too truly observed Mach. Disc on Tit. Liv. lib. 1. cap. 12. That there was now here less Piety
purpose we must know that after the Power of the Bishops of Rome came to some consistency in the world and the Pope began to look upon himself as a spiritual Prince or Monarch he presently began to attempt to give Laws to Nations and People as a badge of his Soveraignty but then well knowing That ubi non est condendi authoritas ibi non est parendi necessitas he would not impose those Laws at first peremptorily upon all People but offered them timide and precario and in such places where he presumed they would find the freest reception and in order to this at first he caused certain Rules to be collected for the Order and Government of the Clergy only which he called Decreta and not Laws or Statuta and these Decrees as they were called were first published in the year 1150 in the raign of our King Stephen and whereas Sr. Edward Coke Sr Ed. Coke Pref. aâ— 8. Relat. in the Preface to the eighth Report sayes that Roger Bacon the learned Fryer saith in his Book de impedimentis Sapientiae That King Stephen forbad by publick edict that no man should retain the Laws of Italy then brought into England we may with some assurance intend it of these Decrees about that time compil'd and publish'd And these were received Keilways Rep. 7 Hen. 8. fo 184. and observed by the Clergy of the Western Churches only for those of the Eastern Churches would never admit these Rules or Canons Afterwards the Bishops of Rome attempted to bring the Laity also under the obedience of these Canons and for that purpose they first began with Rules or Canons about abstinence and dayes of Fasting to be observed by the Laity Maâ—sil Pat. lib. Defens Pac. pa. 2. c. 23 Durard Rat. Di. l. 4. c. 6 7. as well as Clergy which at the first institution were termed by that mild word Rogationes and thence the week of Fasting before the Feast of Pentecost came to be called Rogation week in regard this time of Abstinence was at first appointed by an Ordinance called Rogatio and not Praeceptum or Statutum When the Laity had swallowed this Ordinance of Fasting then De una praesumptione ad aliam transivit Romanus Pontifex as Marsil Pata hath it that is the Bishop of Rome proceeded to make and publish several other orders by the name of Decretals and these were published about the year 1230. An. 14 Hen 3. Mat. Paris in Hen. 3. fo 417. and made or proposed to bind all the Laity as well Princes as their Subjects in several matters relating to their Civil and Temporal concerns As That no Lay-man should have the Donation of Ecclesiastical Benefices That no Lay man should marry within certain degrees out of the degrees limited by the Levitical Law That all Infants born before Espousals should after Espousals be adjudged Legitimate and capable to inherit That all Clarks should be exempt from the Secular Power and divers more such like But then we must know that these Decretals so made were not intirely and absolutely receiv'd in all parts of Christendom but only at first in the Temporal Territory of the Pope which on that account is call'd by the Canonists Patria Obedientiae but wholly rejected in England France and other Christian Countreys which thence are sometimes called Patriae consuetudinariae as resolving to adhere to their old Laws and Customs As the Canon that prohibits Donation of Benefices per Laicam manum was always disobeyed in England France the Realm of Naples and divers other Countrys The Canon to legitimate Infants born before marriage was specially rejected in England when in the Parliament held at Merton Stat. de Merton An. 20 Hen. 3. Omnes Comites Barones una voce responderunt Keilway 7 H. 8. fo 181. b. Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari quae hucusq usitatae sunt c. The Canon that exempted Clerks from the Secular Power was never observed fully in any part of Christendom Infallible arguments that these Canons received not the force of Laws from the Court of Rome as if that had power to give Laws to all Nations without their respective consents but the approbation and usage of the People received them as they pleased partially and specially as to Places Times and parts of those Canons and for the same reason that some rejected one others did more and some all of them as Bodin says Bodin de Repub lib. 1. cap. 8. That the Kings of France upon erecting of their Universities there declare in their Charters that the Profession of the Civil and Canon Laws may there be receiv'd and used according to discretion but not to bind as Laws Now when the Bishop of Rome perceived that many of his Canons were embraced in several Countreys under colour thereof he claim'd Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within those Realms with power to interpret and dispence with his own Canons and for that purpose sent his Legates about with Commissions to hear and determine causes according to those Laws which upon their first exhibition Marsil Pat. ut supr pa. 2. c. 23. as is before noted he durst not call Laws or Statuta ne committeret crimen laesae Majestatis in Principes as Marsil Patav observes who further says that these Canons inasmuch as they were made by the Pope neque sunt humanae leges neque divinae sed documenta quaedam narrationes But as is said when he perceiv'd they were allowed and used in part or in whole in divers Countreys they were revised digested and compil'd into Volumes and called Jus Canonicum and being appointed to be read and expounded in publick Schools and Universities they were commanded to be obeyed by all under pain of Excommunication with declaration of the Pope's power to interpret abrogate or dispence with them at his pleasure and thereupon the Canonists say Lib. 6. de Const cap. Licet Papa in omnibus pure positivis in quibusdam ad jus Divinum pertinentibus dispensare potest quia dicitur omnia jura habere in scrinio pectoris sui quantum ad interpretationem dispensationem In the 25th year of King Ed. 1. An Dom. 1297 Tho. Walsing Stow in hoc anno one Simon a Monk of Walden began first to read the Canon Law in the University of Cambridge and the year after it began to be read also in the University of Oxford in the Church of the Friers Praedicants and from that time got ground in England being sometimes admitted and sometimes rejected according to the Ebb or Flow of the Papal interest here but how really this Canon Law was an innovation and usurpation here it is sufficient but to peruse the Preamble to the Statute of Faculties Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. and Dispensations made in the raign of King Hen. 8. to which the Reader is referred As another Branch of the Pope's power in the matters aforesaid we may observe that