willing and minding to maintain and defend the holy Church and the Lawes and Statutes of the same TO ROOT ALL SVCH ERRORS and HERESIES OUT OF OUR KINGDOME OF ENGLAND as much as in us lies and the hereticks so convicted to punish WITH CONDIGNE PUNISHMENT and considering that such hereticks convicted and condemned in forme aforesaid both ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF GOD AND MAN AND THE CANONICALL INSTITUTIONS IN THIS CASE ACCUSTOMED OUGHT TO BE BURNED WITH FIRE We command you as straitly as we may or can firmely injoyning you that you do cause the said William being in your custody in some publike and open place within the Liberties of your City aforesaid the cause aforesaid being published to the people TO BE PVT INTO THE FIRE and IN THE SAME FIRE REALLY TO BE BVRNED to the great horror of his offence and the manifest example of other Christians and this upon the perill that will fall thereupon you may by no means omit Teste Rege apud Westm 26. Febr. Anno Regni sui 2. This condemnation of Sautry and writ for his burning was in time before the Statute of 2. H. 4. passed in Parliament and was made by advise of the Lords Temporall in Parliament only without the Commons as the Parliament roll demonstrates Soone after which one John Badby was likewise burned by vertue of a like writ and sundry others after him From this writ I shall observe First that by the Canonicall Law and Sanctions generally used and received in England and in forraign parts Bishops both in their Synods and Consistories usurped authority to convict condemn Hereticks and deliver them over to the secular power to be corporally punished which is further cleared by the expresse words of the Statute of 2. H. 4. cap. 15. but they could neither attach nor imprison them before that Act in this Kingdome 2. That the burning of Hereticks with fire was not introduced by the Statute of 2. H. 4. or this writ then first made by advise of the Temporall Lords but was a punishment accustomed in this case according to the Law of God and man and canonicall institutions used in this Realme long before this Act made as the very words of the writ compared with this Statute of 2. H. 4. made in Parliament in the same yeare soone after this Writ attest 3. That this writ framed in Parliament for Sautry onely not others made in time somewhat before this Statute the same Parliament makes no recitall at all of this Statute as it ought to do if grounded on it therfore not ordained by it What alterations then did this Statute make of the Law in former times used in this case only these First it gave power to Ordinaries and Diocesans to cause to be arrested and kept in safe custody such who were suspected or defamed of Heresy or keeping hereticall Bookes and writings till they did canonically purge themselves or abjure their heresies 2. It gave them power to fine such persons to the King 3. If any person convicted before them of heresie refused to abjure his Heresy or relapsed againe into it after abjuration it gave them Authority to turne him over to the secâ—lar Court and after sentence of Heresie passed against him in the presence of the Sheriffe of the Shiere or Mayor or Sheriffes and Bayly of the Corporation where such Heretick was proceeded against whom this Act enacted the Diocesan or his Commissary to summon to be personally present at the sentencing of Hereticks it enjoyned these secular Officers to give assistance to the Diocesan of the same place and his Commissaries in this case and without any further Inditement triall or judgement at common Law formerly used in cases of heresie when capitally proceeded against after such sentence pronounced without any writ de Haeretico Comburendo to receive the same person so sentenced into their custody and to cause him to be burnt in an high place before the people that such punishment might strike feare into the minds of others to deterre them from such wicked Doctrines and hereticall erroneous opinions and the said Sheriffs Majors and Bayliffs of Counties Citties Burroughs and Townes were to be attending ayding and assisting to the Diocesans and Commissaries in such cases which they were not bound to be before as appeares by the expresse words of the Act. 4ly It gave every Bishop and his Commissary power to question and condemne Hereticks in their Consistories and then to deliver them over to the secular powers to be burned which none but a Synod or Convocation for ought appeares by any Presidents could do before So as the maine alteration wrought by this Act was That these temporall Officers were to be â—…ending ayding and assisting to the Ordinaries and their Commissaries and present at their sentence given against Hereticks and after sentence passed by them alone without any indictment Iudgement verdict at Common Law or Writ of the Kings to burne them to Ashes by which the lives of all were made subject to the Convocations yea to every Ordinaries and Commissaries power alone and that without and before any lawfull triall by their Peers or any legall indictment or conviction â—ccording to the Law of the Land contrary to Magna Charta ch 29. 5. Ed. 3. â— 9. 25. E. 3. Stat. 5. c. 4. 28. E. 3. c. 3. 15. E. 3. Stat. 1. c. 3. 4. 37. E. 3. c. 18. 42. E. 3. c. 3. This was the great grievance introduced by this Act and the cause of its repeale and of all other Statutes of this kinde by 1. Eliz. c. 1. So as this Statute of Hen. the fourth was no â—â—tâ—oduction of a new Law but only a confirmation of the Common Law as to the punishment it selfe of burning Hereticks as is evident by the premiâ—e though introductive of a new Law in the manner of proceeding and other precedeâ—t reâ—pect And in this sence Mr. Fox his words are tâ—â—e That hithe to â— till the making of 5. R. 2. 2 H. 4. The Popish Clergie had not authority sufficient by any Politick Law or Statute of this Land to proceed unto death against any person whatsoever in case of Religion but only by the usurped tyranny and example of the Court of Rome But yet the King and his Iudges had power to proceed against imprison and burne Hereticks to death by the Common Law though the Ordinary had not as I have proved This law gave the Ordinaries and Clergy a new power in this respect to condeme and burn such as they held Herticks which they had not before Hence the Pope sent his Letters to King Richard the second to suppresse Wiccliffe and his followers and bring them to condigne punishment and to be assistant to the Bishops herein qui in prosecutione istius negotij noscuntur favore AVXILIO TVAE CELSITVDINIS INDIGERE Whereupon the King writ Letters to the Vniversity and Chauncellor of Oxford to apprehend imprison and convict them
for their tenents which they could not doe but by this royall command by any Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction then in use Fitzherbert a learned Iudge in his Natura Brevium written in Henry the 8. his Raigne fol. 269. determines thus Note it appeares by Britton in his Booke that Hereticks shall be burned and it appeares by that Booke THAT THIS IS THE COMMON LAW But Note that the person who shall bee burnt for Heresie ought to be first convicted thereof by the Bishop which is his Diocesan where he abides abjure the same after if he relapse into this Heresie or any other be condemned thereof in the said Diocesse then he shal be delivered to the secular power by the Clergy to do with him as the King shall please and then it is like the King may pardon him if he will or grant a Writ De Haeretico comburendo to burne him Then reciting the ancient forme of the Writ forecited he proceeds thus And by this Writ it appeares that a Man ought to be convicted of Heresie by the Archbishop and all the Clergy of his Province abjured of the same and after newly convicted condemned by the Clergie of his province and that in their generall Councell of Convocation But now by the Statute of 2. H. 4. c. 15. it is ordained that any Bishop in his Dioâ— may convict a man of Heresie and adjure him after relapse newly convict condemne him thereof and warne the Sheriffe or other Officer to take and put him into the fire c. and this the Sheriffe or other Officer ought to do by the Bishops precept and that Without any Writ to be directed to them By the King to doe iâ— And this is the cause as it seems that this writ is not put in the new Registers because this writ will not serve nor ought to be sued at this day but it is void and nul in Law by reason of this Act. But now by the Statute made in 25. H. 8. c. 14. this Statute of 2. H. 4 is repealed and made voyd and now it is ordained by this last Statute that he who is abjured of Heresie and after falls in relaps and is convicted of it before the Ordinary that yet the Ordinary ought not to commit him to the lay power to burne him without the Kings writ De Haeretico comburendo first purchased thereupon as appeares by the said Act more at large Sir Ed. Cooke in the 3d. Part of his Institutes c. 5. p. 39. 40 41. writes that it appeareth by Bracton Britton Fleta Stamford and All our Bookes that hee that is duly convict of Heresie shall be burnt to death even by the Common Law That the Dioâ—ae an hath Iurisdiction of Heresie and so it hath bin put in are in all Queene Elizabeths Raigne and accordingly it was resolved by Fleming Chiefe Iustice Tanfield chiefe Baron Williams and Crooke Iustices Hil. 9. Iaâ— R. in the care of Legate the Hereticke that upon a conviction before the Ordinary of Heresie the writ De Haeretico comburendo doth lie The Ecclesiasticall Iudge at this day cannot commit the person that is convict of Heresie to the Sheriffe albeit he be present to be burnt but must have the Kings writ De Haeretico comburendo According to the Common Law For now all Acts of Parliament are repealed And the reason why Haeresie is so extreaâ—lâ— and fearefully punished is for that Gravius est aeternam quam temporalem ledere majestatem The party duly convicted may recall and abjure his opinion and thereby save his life but a relapse is fatall For as in case ' of a disease of the Body after a recovery recidiuation is extreamely dangerous So in case oâ— Heresie a disease of the soule a relapse is incurable And as he who is a Lâ—per of his body is to be removed from the society of men least he should infect them y the Kings Writ De Leproso amovendo So he that hath Lepram animae that is to be convicted of Heresie Shall be cut off least he should poyson others by the Kings Writ De Haeretico comburendo But if the Hereticke will not after conviction abjure he may by force of the said Writ be burnt without abj ration He addes that when an Act of Parliament is made concerning matters meerely spirituall as Heresie yet that Act being part of the Lawes of the Realme the same shall be construed and interpreted by the Iudges of the Common Law who use to conferre with those that are learned in that profession which hee proves by the resolution in Iohn Keysers case Mich. 5. E. 4. rot 143. Coram Rege and Hillary Warners case M 11. H. 7. rot 327. in the Common Pleas This is cleare by the Authority of the Councell at Oxford under Tho. Arundell Archbishop of Canterbury Anno Dom. 1448. for the punishment of Hereticks and suppression of Heresies In uberiorem fortificationem juris communis in hac parte as the Constitutions of it determine which likewise informe us Quod licet inter crimen Haeresis lesae Majestatis in legibus diversis quaedam paritas reputetur est tamen dissimilis culpa paenamque exigit GRAVIOREM divinam quam humanam offendere Majestatem By which Authorities it is cleare to me First that our Kings in ancient times did at first make use of Synods and Convocations only to advise them what was Heresie and Apostacy what not not to convict and condemne Hereticks to be burnt and that Heresie and Apostacy are offences inquirable inditable and triable in a criminall way at the Kings suit in the Kings Courts before his Iustices by the ancient common Law of this Realme and punishable after indictment and conviction by BVRNING death if not forfeiture of Lands as in case of Treason against the King himselfe 2ly That the Writ De Haeretico comburendo is grounded and warranted by the common Law not introduced by the Statutes of 2. H. 4. c. 15. or 2. H. 5. c. 7. which neither prescribe nor make mention of it the Statute of 25. H. 8. â— 14. being the first Act that names it as well as the writs De Excommunicato capiendo Apostata Capiendo introduced by the common law withoutany Act of Parliament with the writ ad deliberandum Clericum Ordinario and the like 3ly That the Statutes of 2. H. 4. c. 15. 2. H. 5. c. 7. 25. H. 8. c. 14. during the time they were in force tooke away this power from the Iudges to condemne He reticks giving them authority only to enquire after them returne their Inquisitions to the Ordinaries by way of information not conviction or evidence vesting all the power of condemning Hereticks in the Convocation Ordinaries and their Commissaries during their continuance which Statutes being repealed by 1 Eliz. c. 1. the common Law is thereby revived Therefore the Iudges at this day by the ancient common Law of Engl. may indict and condemne
Lollards and such as they then deemed Hereticks but death it selfe in case they abjured not their Heresie upon a Conviction and sentence of Heresie before the Ordinary or his Commissary to whom all Sheriff Majors and other Civill Officers were enjoyned to be assistant and present at their Sentences of condemnation if required and upon their Sentence alone without any Writ de Haeretico comburendo or Order from the King they were to burne the persons condemned and not abjuring in a publique place to terrifie others as you may read in the printed Act it selfe which differs something from the record 7. H. 4. Rot. Parl. nu 62. there was a like Petition exhibited by the Prelates for a new and severer Law against the Lollards and that all might apprehend and enquire of such and no Sanctuary might be granted to them wherein the name of the Commons was used by meanes of Sir Iohn Ticketoft and others but this iâ— seemes miscaried and was never printed or published by the Prelates as the former was The next law against Heretiks is 2. H. 5. c. 7. which ratified the former Acts prescribed an Oath to Sheriffes and other Officers to assist and attend the Ordinaries in prosecution of Hereticks Lollards Added a confiscation of the lands Goods and Estates of such as were convicted of Heresie and delivered over to the secular power whether they were executed or burnt or not and of all hereditaments of Lands in others for their use and ordered Iudges of Assise and Iustices of Peace in their Sessions to enquire after Hereticks their fautors maintainers Bookes Writings Sermons Conventicles and to apprehend them to transmit their inquiries to the Ordinaries or their Commissaries to informe them but not to be used as evidence the Ordinaries being left to proceed according to the lawes of Holy Church This Act restrained the Iudges and Iustices power to punish Heretickes unpon Indictment by the Common Law and made Heresie no civill but an ecclesiasticall offence only for the present as some of our Law-Bookes stile it After this the Statute of 25. H. 8. c. 14. repeales the Statute of 2. H. 4. for these foure reasons mentioned in the Preface of it First because that Act doth not in any part thereof declare any certaine cases of Heresie contrary to the determination of Holy Scripture or the Canonicall Sanctions therein expressed whereby the Kings loving and obedient Subjects might be learned to eschew the dangers and paines in the said Act specified or to abhorre and detest that foule and detestable crime of Heresie 2ly Because these words Canonicall Sanctions and such other like contained in the said Act are so generall that the most expert and best learned man of this Realme diligently lying in wait upon himselfe cannot eâ—chew and avoid the penalty and dangers of the said Act and Canonicall Sanctions if hee should be examined upon such captious interrogatories as is and hath beene accustomed to be ministred by the Ordinaries of this Realme in cases where they will suspect any person or persons of Heresie 3ly For as much as it standeth not with the right order of Iustice or good equity that any person should be convict and put to the losse of his life good name or goods unlesse it were by due accusation and witnesses or by presentment verdict confession or Outlawarie since by the Lawes of the Realme for Treason committed to the perill of the Kings most royall Majesti upon whose surety dependeth the wealth of this whole Realme no person may or can be put to death but by presentment verdict confession or processe of Outlary 4ly For that there be many Heresies and paines and punishments for Heresies declared and ordained in and by the said Canonicall Sanctions and by the Lawes and Ordinances made by the Popes and Bishops of Rome and by their Authoritie for holding doing preaching or speaking of things contrary to the said Canonicall Sanctions Lawes and Ordinances which be but Humane being meere repugnant and contrarious to the Prerogative of the Kings imperiall Crowne regall jurisdiction Lawes Statutes and Ordinances of this Realme by reason whereof his people of the same observing maintaining defending and due executing of the said Lawes Statutes and Prerogative Royall by Authority of that Act of 2. H. 4. may be brought into slander of Heresie to their great infamy and danger and perill of their lives Neverthelesse for as much as the most foule and detestable crime of Heresie should not go unpunished but be utterly abhorred detested and eradicate nor that any Hereticks should be favoured but that they should have condigne and sufficient punishment for the repressing of Hereticks such erronious opinions in time comming It enacts That the Statutes of 5. R. 2. 2. H. 5. c. 7. for the punishment and reformation of Hereticks and Lollards and every provision therein not repugnant to this Act shall stand in full strength and that Sheriffes in their Townes and Stewards in their Leets Rapes and Wapentakes shall have power to inquire of Heretickes as of common Annoyances and to certifie their inquiries to the Ordinary in such manner as the Justices of Assise and of the Peace might doe by the Statute of 2. H. 5. c. 7. and that the Ordinaries after such presentment and indictment proved by the Oath of two lawfull witnesses at the least and not otherwise or by any other meanes might convict convent arrest and apprehend such persons presented or indicted of any Heresie And that he that happened to be lawfully convicted before the Ordinary in his open Court and in open place of the Heresie whereof hee was accused or presented shall abjure the same and if he refused and renounced the same then he should do such reasonable penance for his offence as shal be limited by the discretion of the Ordinaries And if he refused to abjure or after abjuration fall into relapse and were duely accused or presented and corvict thereof as aforesaid that then in such cases he shall be committed to Lay power TO BE BVRNED in open places for example of others as hath been accustomed the Kings Writ De Heretico comburendo first had and obtained for the same And it likewise provides that no manner of doing speaking or communication or holding against any Lawes made by the Bishops of Rome or by their Authority for the advancement of their owne worldly glory and ambition given them by humane Lawes or Policies and not by Holy Scripture contrariant and repugnant to the Lawes of this Realme and the Kings Prerogative Royall shall be deemed reputed accepted or taken to bee Heresie After this in 31. H. 8. c. 14. 34. H. 8. c. 1. 35. H. 8. c. 1. severall Lawes were made to punish certaine particular points of Doctrine commonly called the Six Articles with death and the losse of Goods as you may read at large in the Acts themselves the last whereof somewhat mitigates and explaines the former These Lawes proving very
Vniversum Orbem qui sub Calo est a peccatis morte liberaret Eusebius highly commends and approves the Edict of Constantine the For sappressing and punishing Hereticks relating the good effects thereof Theodoret Eccle. Hist lib. 5. c. 2 3. l. 1. c. 10. Evagriuâ— Eccles Hist l. 4. c. 11. Russinuâ— Eccles Hist l. 1. c. 1â— Sozomenus Eccles Hist l. 3. c. 17. l. 7. c. 6 24. Nicophorus Eccles Hist l. 8. c. 18. l. 11. c. 30. l. 12. c. 15. l. 13. c. 17. Socrates Scholacticus Eccles Hist l. 5. c. 7. Cassiodor in his Tripartita Hist l. 1. c. 7. l. 2. c. 20. l. 4. c. 13 18 21 26 31 32 33. l. 7. c. 4 9. l. 9. c. 2 4 10 19 21 27 28 30 33 36. l. 10. c. 27. l. 11. c. 3. 17. Record and commend the Lawes and Procéedings of Christian Emperours both against Hereticks Pagans and Schismaticks as well for their punishment as suppression Leo the first writes thus of the Priscillianists and their Heresie Meritò Tatres nostri sub quorum temporibus haeresis haec nâ—sanda prorupit per totum mundum instanâ—er egere ut impius furor ab Vniversa Ecclesia pelleretur Quandò etiam mundi Princepes iâ—a hanc sacrilegam amentiam detestati sunt ut Authorem ejus ac plero que discipulos LEGVM PVBLICARVM ENSE PRO STERNERENT Videbant enim omnem curam honestatis auferri simulque divinum jus humanumque subverti si hujusmodi hominibus VS QVAM VIVERECVM TALI PROFESSIONE LICVISSET Et profuit diù ista districtio Ecclesiae Lenitati quae etsi sacerdotali contenta judicio cruentas refugit ultiones severis tamen Christianorum Principum constitutionibus adjuvatur dum ad spirituale nonnunquam recurrant remedium qui timent corporale supplicium Ex quo autem multas provincias hostilis occupavit irruptio executionem legum tempestates interdixere bellorum ex quo inter sacerdotes Dei difficiles commeatus rari caeperunt esse conventus invenit ob publicam perturbationem secreta perfidia libertatem ad multarum mentium subversionem his malis est incitata quibus debuit esse correcta our present deplorable condition And Epist 7. He commends Theodosius the Emperour for his most pious care of Christian Religion Ne scilicet in populo Dei aut Schismata aut Haereses aut ulla scandala convalescant Dâ—oscorus Archbishop of Alexandria though accused and convicted of Heresie and deprived for it in the great general Council of Calcedon Act. 1. cried out FLAMMIS DIGNOS HAERETCOS That Hereticks were worthy to be burned Non solum poenis dignus est Eutiches sed IGNE Optatus Milivetanus lib. 3. contr Parmenianum compares the deed of one Macarius who had SLAINE AND PUT TO DEATH Maradus and Donatus two Donatists to the deeds of Moses Phyneas and Elijah In slaying Idolaters and Idolatrous false Prophets justifying this Action of his Athanasius Epist ad Orthodoxos determines thus Si Acatius Ludoxius Patrophilus â—uâ— talia Scribant qui quaeso non OMNI SVPPLICIO DIGNIFVERINT Joannes Mâ—â—â—â—â—ius Resp ad Homisd Papam writes thus Nisi Christum Fiâ—ium Dei qui pro nobis passus est in carne unum esse sancta individua Trinitate suerit confessus Dioscorus PELAGO MANCIPETVR Gregory the first Epist l. 1. Epist 72 to Gennadius and in other places quoted by Gratian Causa 23. qu. 3 4. and Bernard Sermo 66. Super Cantica approve The suppressing and punishing of Hereticks by the Sword of the Civill Magistrate and by death it selfe though Bernard dislikes the Peoples tumultuous murdering of them in a malicious manner which Justine Martyr in his Epistle Ad Zenam Serenum Ambrose Epist 27. Severus Sulpitius sacrae Hist l. 2. Ivo Carnotensis Decret pars 13. c 114. doe likewise censure and Augustine justly blamed in the seditious Donatists and their Circumcellioes in his forecited passages Epist 48. Yea this Gregory the first thanks Gennadius for making warre upon obstinate Hereticks exhorting him to procéed therein Our owne venerable Beda in Cantica Cant. l. 3. Tom. 4. Col. 748. on these words Capite nobis vulpes pusillas quae demoliantur vineas determines That all men ought in their severall places to take and beat down Hereticks and Schismaticks Ne fidem Ecclesiae quam unam esse oporteâ— eorum infestatio scinderet atque in partes distraheret And he addes that he saith not capite vobis sed nobis vulpes pusillas for this reason Vt hinc magis OMNES qui possent ad debellandam sive corrigendam Haereticorum nequitiam accenderet quo eo sibi in hoc agendo deservire monstraret suamque esse vineam quâ—m defenderet ipse laborum piorum remuneratione ostenderet And Ecclesiasticae Hist Gentis Anglorum l. 1. c. 21. He both records and approves the Banishment of the Pelagians out of this our Island for their Heresie Isiodor Hispalensis quoted by Gratian Causa 23. qu. 5. writes thus Principes seculi nonnunquam intra Ecclesiam potestatis adeptae culmina tenent ut per eandem potestatem Disciplinam Ecclesiasticam muniant ut quod non praevalent sacerdotes efficere per doctrinae sermonem potestas hoc imperet per disciplinae terrorem Saepe per Regnum terrenum coeleste Regnum proficit ut qui intra positi contra fidem disciplinam agunt rigore Principum conterantur ipsamque disciplinam quam utilitas Ecclesiae exercere non praevalet cervicibus superborum potestas Principalis imponat c. I could adde many more Authorities of the Ancients to this purpose but these may suffice and you may read more of them in Gratian Causa 23. If any object the Authority of Hilary Contra Auxentium who forced men with armed power to embrace his Arrian opinions whereupon he thus checks him for it Ac primum misereri licet nostrae Aetatis laborem praesentium temporum stultas opiniones congemiscere quibus patrocinari Deo humana creduntur ad â—uendam Christi Ecclesiam ambitione seculari laboratur Ac nunc prob dolor divinam fidem fuffragia terrena câ—mmeâ—dant inopsque virtutis suae Christus duâ— ambitu nomini suae conciliatur arguitur Terret exiliis carceribus Ecclesia credique sibi cogit quae exiliis carceribus â—redita est c. I answer with Marsilius Patavinus who objects it that this was objected onely against Auxentius the Arrian as he was a Bishop or Clergy man to whom no coercive power nor externall forcible Authority by the Sword belonged or against the Clergies own using of externall force not against the Coercive and Penall power of Christian Princes and Magistrates to whom God hath given the Sword of Justice to suppresse and punish Hereticks as well as other Malesactors So as it makes nothing at all against my conclusion and yeelds our Opposites who never cite it but this Nonsequitur The
Mothers for man-slayers c. and ANY OTHER THING CONTRARY TO SOUND DOCTRINE Whereas against the fruits of the Spirit there is no Law Gal. 5. 22 23. that is to punish them or any Christians for them Whence I thus argue If Heresies Idolatry Schisms Blasphemies too as Christ resolves Mat. 15. 19 Mar. 2. 22. be works of the flesh not Spirit as wel as Witchcraft Murders deserving death as wel as they and the Law of God is made for the punishment of the disobedient ungodly unholy and prophane and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine as wel as for Murderers of Fathers and Mothers and Man-slayers then the Christian Magistrate under the Gospel when he sees just cause may and ought by the Law of God to punish men with corporal and capital punishments for Heresies Idolatry Blasphemies and dangerous Schismes being works of the flesh as well as for Murther Witchcraft and such as murther and destroy mens souls as wel as those who only murther their bodies since no reason can be rendred out of Scripture why they should punish some works of the flesh only and not others But the Supposition is true and ratified by the forecited texts Ergo the Sequel cannot be gainsaid but must be granted If any Object That the Subjects of Christs Kingdom are a spiritual people born of the Spirit and therefore without the reach of any outward force and beyond not only the power but cognizance of the Magistrate secular powers which are but a carnal and worldly Institution I answer First that the Heresies Errors Schisms Blasphemies of such as are pretended to be a spiritual people and Subjects of Christs Kingdom born of the Spirit are meerly carnal and works of the flesh not Spirit as Paul expresly resolves therefore admit the Magistrate and secular power to be but a carnal Ordinance they are yet within the reach and cognizance both of their power and censure as well as Treasons Murthers and other Felonies of such Saints and spiritual people Secondly The Argument is but a meer fallacy Flesh and blood and the Civil Magistrate hath nothing to do with them that are born of the Spirit in things of the Spirit Ergo It hath nothing to do with them in the fruits and works of their flesh which deserve both punishment and censure Thirdly This Objection casts a scandal reproach upon Magistrates and their Authority in calling them the power of the world flesh and blood a carâ—â—l Ordinance outward and secular power as if they were not Gods Ordinance as wel as Ministers of the Word for the good of men and punishment of all Malefactors as wel Saints as others as is resolved Row 13. 1. to 6. Fourthly It is a meer Popish Argument used by the Pope and Popish Clergy in former times to exempt themselves from all secular power abusing that text of 1 Cor. 2. 15. But he that is spiritual judgeth all thingâ— yet hee himself is judged of no man which I wonder Mr Dell forgot to quote as those who now object it may read at large in Antiqu. Ecclesiae Brit. p. 245. and sundry Popish Authors De Immunitate et Exemptione Clericorum So that these New-Lights who pretend themselves most opposite to Popery do but in truth revive it among us in an higher degree then ever by giving to all those they please to stile Saints spiritual people or the faithful the very same yea a greater exemption from the civil Magistrates power then ever the Papists gave unto their Clergy only and no others My eleventh Argument is this Private Christians are strictly and frequently enjoyned to beware of avoyde turn away from and not to receive or admit into their houses any Hereticks Apostates Schismaticks or false Teachers Matth. 7. 15. Rom. 16. 17 18. Phil. 3. 2. 2 Tim. 2. 16. 17. c. 3. 5 6. c. 4. 15. 2 Pet. c. 3. 17. 2 John 10. 11. Yea when and where there were no Christian Magistrates to restrain and punish them the Apostles themselves delivered them unto Satan 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. Wished that they were even cut off for troubling the Church Gal. 5. 12. Willed Ministers to stop their mouthes rebuke them sharply and after the first and second admonition to reject because they subverted whole houses and overthrew the faith of many Tit. 1. 11. 13. c. 3. 10 11. 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. 2 Tim. 2. 18. And the Churches of Pergamus Thyatira and the Angels of them when they had no Christian Magistrates are particularly blamed by God for suffering such who held the doctrine of Baalam and of the Nicholaitans which Christ hated and for SUFFERING that woman Jezebel who called her self a Prophetesse to teach and seduce his servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols Threatning to cast her and those that committed fornication with her into great tribulation unlesse they repented Yea saying I WIL KIL HER CHILDREN WITH DEATH and all the Churches shal know that I am he which searcheth the reins and heart and I wil give unto every of you according to your works Rom. 2. 14. to 24. Therefore when and where there are Christian Magistrates they may and must by like reason expel reject banish such out of their Dominions not admit them into their territories cut them off for troubling the Church stop their mouthes and not suffer them to teach and seduce their people yea kil them and their children where there is just cause with death since Christ himself threatens to do it not only immediately by himself but also mediately by the Magistrates who are his Ministers Avengers and must not bear the Sword in vain but punish such evil doers with it Rom. 13. 3 4. and to render to them according to their works The Argument holds undeniably because Christian Princes and Magistrates are the Nursing fathers of the Church to defend protect it against these Seducers and devouring wolves to preserve the peace the unity of it and the purity of Doctrine and worship in it as the Scripture warrants and Divines have ever asserted in all ages of the Church til some New-Lights and Sectaries of late opposed it in others to procure impunity to themselves to vent their Errors without controle My twelfth Argument shal be deduced from these following Gospel Texts Luke 19. 27. Where Christ after the Parable of the Talents concludes thus But those mine Enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring hither AND SLAY THEM BEFORE MY FACE Christ doth not slay them immediately himself but the Magistrates who are his Ministers servants revengers they are to bring and slay them before his face for their Treason and Rebellion against him Mat. 21. 33. to 44. Mark 12. 1. to 12. Luke 20. 9 to 19. Where the Lord of the Vineyard who let it out to husbandmen who stoned his servants and killed his Son when he cometh he wil miserably DESTROY those wicked men and let
c. And if he will deny it I am ready to prove it for the King as belongs to the King to do Chap. 4. Sect 11. p. 42. he defines that deadly sinnes are to be punished with death and mortall paine and that such punishments are warranted by the old Testament and to be inflicted to prevent eternall death After which Sect. 14. p. 252. Of the punishment of Treason he determines thus That Sodomy is to be punished with burying the party alive under ground Sorcery by burning in the fire The JVDGEMENT OF HERESY is fourfold The 1. is Excommunication the 2. Degradation the 3. Disinherison the 4. dee' ARSE en Cinders TO BE BVRNED TO ASHES By this punctuall Authority of Horne it is most cleare to me First that Hereticks and Apostates as well as Sodomites and Sorcerers even as they were Hereticks were inditable and triable at the Kings suite in the King Courts by the very common Law of England without any precedent conviction of Heresie by the Ordinary of the Diocesse or by a Nationall or Provinciall Synod and that the Judges of the common Law when any Heretick or Apostate was to be proceeded against criminally and capitally for his life were to judge what was Heresie and what not not the Bishops or Synod only as well as in the case of a r Prohibition or Habeas Corpus 2. That such Inditements were usuall and a set forme of them used and pursued in Edward the first his raigne and were then to be found in the Rolls of ancient Kings long before him therefore were then of long of ancient use and warranted by the ancient common Law of England before his raigne 3. That the Bishops and Clergy could punish heresie onely with Excommunication and Degradation not with death ◠4. That by the ancient Common Law of England in Edward the first his reign and in the reigne of ancient Kings before him Heresy as heresy and Sorcery only as Heresie and a branch thereof and under the name of heresy was inditable in the Kings Court at the Kings suite and punished with burning to death and so the writ De Haeretico Comburendo if necessary when grounded upon the Judges sentence warranted by the common Law and the judgement of burning given by it long before any Statute made against Heresy in the reigne of Richard the second or Henry the fourth 5. That Hereticks and Apostates who are such indeed may at this day be indicted for their heresy and Apostacy in the Kings Bench or at the Assises by the very common Law of England and upon sufficient proofes be there convicted condemned and adjudged to be burnt this power of the Judges at common Law to try and condemne Hereticks being not now restrained by any Statute nor taken away by the Statute of 1. Eliz. cap. 1. which repeales all former Statutes against Hereticks or Heresy which only concerned Bishops Ordinaries and their proccedings in case of Heresie grounded on them not the King or his Judges The next Authority I shall cite is that of Fleta written by a learned Lawyer imprisoned in the Fleet as Sir Edward Cooke informes us in Edward the third his raigne and taken for the most part out of Bracton lib. 1. cap. 3. Christiani Apostatae Sortilegii hujusmodi DEBENT COMBVRI Contrahentes verò cum Judaeis vel Judaeabus pecorantes Sodomitae in terra vivi confodiantur per testimonium legale vel publicè convicti A cleare Authority that Apostates which comprehends all such as fall into Heresy Judaisme or Paganisme after they have embraced the true Christian orthodox faith South-sayers and such like which comprehends Hereticks likewise OVGHT TO BE BURNT even by the common Law then in use and that Christian who turned Jewes and Sodomites were to be buried alive After this Wickliffe and his followers called Lollards infesting the Pope and Prelates with their Doctrines and invectives against their Antichristian Tenets and impostures they being greatly favored by some Nobles and eminent Knights about the end of the reigne of King Edward the 3. and beginning of Richard the second the Prelates bearing then great sway in the Kingdome not daring to trust the Judges with the Triall of these New Hereticks as they stiled them taking hold of the President in the Councell at Oxford in King Henry the seconds raigne forecited and of the practise of the Pope and Popish Prelates in forraign parts took upon them in their Synods Convocations and likewise in private Consistories to condemne these Lollards for hereticks and upon their sentence there passed without any Inditement or triall at the common Law procured a writ which they might easily do being then Lord Chancellors and Lord Privie Seales for the most part De Haeretico comburendo to be directed in the Kings name to the Sheriffes of Counties and Mayors of Towns to burn such for Hereticks whom they alone had thus condemned before there was any Statute chiefly upon this ground that hereticks by the judgment of the common Law upon Inditements and Convictions in the Kings Courts were to be burned This is evident not onely by the Bishops proceedings in their Consistories against John Wickliffe John Aston Philip Repington Nicholas Harford William Swinderby and Walter Brute but also by that forme of writ de Haeretico Comburendo mentioned in Fitzherberts Natura Brevium f. 269. c. which was made in Parliament by the King and Lords for the burning of William Sautre a godly Martyr condemned of heresie in the Convocation at the earnest sollicitation of Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury in the 2. year of King Henry the fourth and burned by vertue of this writ the first Martyr we read of burnt by vertue of such a writ granted meerly upon a sentence given by the Prelates themselves without an Inditement and Judgment at Common Law This writ for his burning made without the Commons is thus translated into English by Mr. Fox The King c. to the Mayor and Sheriffs of Loadon greeting y Whereas the reverend Father Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of England and Legate of the Apostolike Sea by the assent consent and counsell of other Bishops his Brothers Suffragans and also of all the whole Clergy within his Province gathered together in his provinciall Councell the DUE ORDER OF LAW BEING OBSERVED in all points in this behalfe hath denounced and declared by his definitive sentence William Sautre sometimes Chaplaine fallen again into damnable heresie the said William had abjured thereupon to be A MOST MANIFEST HERETICK and therefore hath decreed that he should be degraded and hath for the same cause degraded him from all prerogative and priviledge of the Clergy decreeing to leave him unto the secular power and hath really so left him ACCORDING TO THE LAWES AND CANONICALL SANCTIONS SET FORTH IN THIS BEHALFE We therefore BEING ZEALOVS IN RELIGION and REVEREND LOVERS OF THE CATHOLIKE FAITH and of Justice
admit of Christian Princes and Majestrates to be the Iudges of Hereticks Schismatricks c. but only to be executioners of them when condemned first by them for Hereticks and delivered over as such unto them to burne or punish Every one hath the supreame Iurisdiction Power or Authority of judging in those things wherein he hath the supreame Power of punishing condemning and executing Offenders because all punishment and execution without a preceding Iudgement knowledge and conviction of the truth and reality of the crimes for which the party is punished or executed is rash and unjust and no Prince or Majestrate can justly punish another for opposing or not embracing that Faith and Religion which himselfe is not able and hath no jurisdiction to judge whether it be Heresie or Truth agreeable to Gods word it being contrary to â—ohn 7. 51. Acts 25. 15. 16. 17. the course of all Laws both Divine â— Humane But in the businesse of Faith and Religion Christian Princes and Majestrates have the supreame Iurisdiction Power Authority of condemning punishing and executing Hereticks Schiâ—maticks Blasphemers Apostates and Idolarers criminally or capitally as all ancient Fathers Councells Protestant Churches writers accord Therefore they only have the proper Iurisdiction and Conusance of their Crimes and are to try them as they doe other Malefactors by way of Indictment and Iury only 4ly Because Dr. Willet Bishop Davenant with other of our owne and â—orraign Protestant Divines accord That the Clergies encroaching of the power of judging and condemning Hereticks dolaters Schismaticks Apostates Blasphemers further then to excommunicate or degrade them only and denying the Christian Majestrate power to indict arraigne try and condemne them criminally to inflict pecuniary corporall or capitall censures on them is a meere Papall encroachment and innovation usurped about some three hundred and forty yeares since by the Pope and Popish Clergy by the connivance of Christian Princes to suppresse the Albigenses and Waldenses whom they feared the Civill Magistrate who favoured them would not condemne burne or put to death as Hereticks it left to their Tribunalls and thereupon appointed their owne speciall Inquisitors to proceed against them Therefore being a meere Papall usurpation and Encroachment upon the Kings Royall Prerogative and lawfull Power it is certainly abolished for ever by the Statute of â— Eliz. c. 1. and other Acts against the Popes usurpations 5ly Because forraigne Protestant States and Princes condemne no Hereticks to suffer losseof Liberty Goods life or banishment but such as themselves upon tryall and conviction before them judge such as appeares by the case of Valentinus Gentilis Servetus and other Hereticks condemned and executed by them Therefore our Iudges also doubtlesse ought to enjoy and exercise this Iurisdiction here in England as well as those in forraigne parts the rather because they have legall Conusance of Heresie and the like in case of an Habeas Corpus or Prohibition as our Law-Bookes resolve and so by like reason in case of an Indictment too the rather because the clauses in the very Writ De Haeretico Comburendo admit them such a power and the ancient common Law of England directly gave it them as I have already manifested which I hope will fully satisfie such who have beene hitherto doubtfull or contrary minded in this point And thus much for proceedings by the Common Law of England against Hereticks and Apostates which I thought fit to cleare because either not known to or mistaken by most and may be usefull for the future I come now to our owne Statutes against Heresie and Hereticks of which very briefly because all now repealed and touched upon before In the times of Popery there were severall Acts of Parliament made against those the Prelats and Clergy then pretended to be Hereticks to wit Iohn Wickliffe and his followers whom they stiled Lolards who were no Hereticks at all in verity as also against others really such though not principally intended in those Lawes The first Law was only a pretended Act fraudulently obtained by the Prelates without the Commons consent and published as a Law assented to by them 〈…〉 what manner you may read in the Marginal n Authors to wit the Statute of 5. R. 2. .5 Stat. â— The effect of it was that the Kings Commissions be made and directed to Sheriffs and other Officers and other persons learned upon the Bishops certificat made in Chancery from time to time to arrest all Lollard Preachers whom they styled Hereticks and also their fautors Abettors and to hould them in arrest and strong prison till they should justifie themselves according to the Law and reason of Holy Church But this pretended Act upon the Commons Petition in the next Parliament was revoked because they never assented to it nor was it granted by them for it was never their meaning to be justified by and binde themselves and their successors to the Prelates more then their Ancestors had done before them The next Statute against Hereticks is that of 2. H. 4. ch 15. procured as the former which was made only upon the Petition of the Prelates and Clergy of England who in their Petition desire that it may be ordained per dictam Regiam Majestatem ex assensu Magnatum aliorum Procerum in dicto Parliamento existentum And the Answer is Rex de consensu Magnatum aliorum procerum Regni sui without naming the Commons as appeares by the Parliament Roll yet the Prelates cunningly foisted this clause into their written and printed Copies which they inserted into their Constitutions in the Councell at Oxford An. 1408. some six yeares after this Law though not in the Parliament Rolls Super quibus quidem Novitatibus excessibus superius recitatis Praelati Clerus supradicti AC ETIAM COMMVNITATES DICTI REGNI in eodem Parliamento existentes dicto Domino Regi supplicaverunt ut sua dignaretur Regia celsitudo in dicto Parliamento providere de remedio oportuno Wherein the Commons consent is included who neither joyned in the Petition nor consented to the Act yet this clause continued in all our Printed Statutes both in the Latine and English Copies to give it the colour of an Act of Parliament as Mr. Fox truly observes in his Acts and Monuments vol. â— Edit 1640. p. 773. upon which ground among others this Statute was repealed by 25. H. 8. â— 14. being practised as a Law till ther Whence Walsingham stiles it a Statute and affirmes that William Satry a Presbyter burnt in Smithfield in the sight of many had this Law practised upon him Practizataque fuit haec lex in Pâ—eudo presbytero qui apud Smithfield multis aspectantibus EST COMBVSTVS though in truth he was burned before this Law passed upon a Writ made by the King and temporall Lords without the Commons or Prelates This Statute if I may so call it â—â—flicts not only imprisonment and fines upon
boody to the true Professors of the Gospell thereupon the Statute of 1. Ed. 6. c. 12. repeald and utterly made void all Lawes and Statutes formerly made concerning Hereticks or opinions in Religion and so they continued repealed during all King Edward the sixt his Reigne But Queene Mary comming to the Crowne and restoring the Popes and Prelates exploded Jurisdictions thereupon The Statute of 1. 2. Phil. and Maryâ— 6. revived them all in whose Reign they were put in vigorus execution to the destruction of many Godly Christians as we may read at large in Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments vol. 3. But shee deceasing and Queene Elizabethâ—â—cceding â—â—cceding The Statute of 1. Eliz. c. 1. repealed all these Lawes againe revâ—ed by Queene Mary and leaves Ordâ—… and the High Commissioners liberty to proceed against Heretickes only by Ecclesiasticall Censures with thes provisoes Provided alwayes and be it enacted as is aforesaid that no manner of Order Act or determination for any matter of Religion or cause Ecclesiasticall had or made by the Authority of this present Parliament shall be accepted deemed reputed or adjudged at any time hereafter to be any Errour Heresie Schisme or Schismaticall opinion any Order Decree Sentence Constitution or Law whatsoever the same be to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that such person or Persons to whom your Highnesse your Heires or Successors shall hereafter by Letters Patents under the Great Seale of England give Authority to have or execute any Jurisdiction Power or Authority Spirituall or Temporall or to visi Reforme Order or Correct any Errors Heresies Schismes Abuses or Enormities by vertue of this Act shall not in any wise have Authority or power to order determine or adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresie but only such as heretofore have beene determined ordered or adjudged to bee Heresie by the Authority of the Canonicall Scriptures or by the first 4. Generall Councells or any of them or by any other Generall Councells wherein the same was declared Heresie by the expresse and plaine words of the said Canonicall Scriptures or such as hereafter shall be Ordered judged or determined to be Heresie by the High Court of Parliament of this Realme with the assent of the Clergie in their Convocation any thing in this Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding So as this Act defines what shall be adjudged and punished as Heresie by the High Commissioners and may serve for a good Rule to the Judges and Parliament now to proceed by in judging what shall be reputed reall Haeresie and Blasphemy in future times But this clause of this Act is now repealed by an Act of this present Parliament which takes away the High Commission and so all Statutes concerning Heretickes or Heresie are now wholly repealed and the Ordinaries power to punish them totally abolished by the Ordinances abolishing Episcopacy Yet this is observable that both before and after the repeale of all Statutes concerning Haeresie by 1 Eliz. c. 1. some reall Heretickes and Anabaptists were condemned and burnt for Haeresie by vertue of the Common Law of England I read if Fox his Acts and Monuments that in King Henry the 8. his Reigne in the yeare of our Lord 1535. ten Datch men accounted for Anabaptists were put to death in sundry places of the Realme and that other tenne repented and were saved and two of the said Company pardoned by the King albeit the definitive sentence was read And well might they deserve this sentence if our learned Martyr John Philpot may be credited who writes in a godly Letter to a friend of his That Axentius one of the Arrian Sect with his Adherents was one of the first that denyed the Baptisme of Children and next after him Pelagius the Hereticke and some others that were in St. Bernards time and in our dayes the Anabaptists an inordinate kinde of men stirred up by the Devil to the destruction of the Gospel So he o An. 1538. Two Anabaptists were burned in Smithfield three then bore fagots and abjured the Realme but this was before these Acts repealed After their repeale in the 17. yeare of Queene Elizabeth Anno 1575. A congregation of Anabaptists being Dutch-men was discovered in a House without the Barres of Aldgate LONDON 27 of them were taken and sent to Prison 4. of them bearing Fagots recanted their Haereticall opinions at Pauls Crosse the 5th day of May The 21. of May one man and two women Anabaptists Dutch were in the Consistory at Pauls condemned to be burnt in Smithfield after great paines taken with them the Women were converted and the Man banished Nine Women of them and a Man were publikely Carted and whipped by the Sheriffs Officers on the first of Iune and then carried to the Water side from Newgate and shipped and banished never to returne more into England The 22. of Iuly two Dutchmen Anabaptists were burned in Smithfield who died with great horror roaring and yelling And by this meanes England was then preserved from their infection Anno 1579. being 21. Eliz. Mathew Hamant for execrable Haeresie and Blasphemy not fit to repeat against Christ and the Holy Ghost and denying their Deity and the use of Baptisme and Sacraments in the Church was on the 13. day of April condemned at Norwich by the Bishop of the Diocesse in his Consistory as an Haeretick and on the 20th of May burned publikly in the Castle of Norwich his Eares being first cut off in the Market place for horrible blasphemy against the Queene r Anno. 25. Eliz. on the 18. day of September one Iohn Lewes who named himselfe Abdeit an obstinate Haereticke denying the Godhead of Christ and holding divers other damnable Haeresies much like his Predecessor Hamant WAS BVRNED AT NORWICH Hil. 9. Jacobi one Legat was juditially convented convicted and condemned by the Bishop of the Diocesse for his Heresie and it was resolved by the Judges of the Kings Bench that a Writ De Haeretico comburendo lay upon the judgement and some say he was burnt accordingly 9. Jacobi 19. Novembris Anno Dom. 1611. one Edward Wrightman of Burton upon Trent was convented before Richard Neale Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield for denying the Trinity the Deity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and affirming himselfe to be Christ and the Holy Ghost and the Scriptures spoken of them to be meant of himselfe all which he affirmed and justified in his Answers to his Articles and persisted in the same after many conferences whereupon on the 5th of December following he was condemned for an obstinate and incorrigible Haereticke and excommunicated with the great Excommunication and adjudged by the Bishop to be delivered over to the secular power to be capitally punished according to the Atrocity and haynousnes of his crimes and Blasphemies whose Articles and sentence I have in my custody Whether he were actually burnt or reprived as one frantique
death as unlawfull in it self but admits it lawfull and that they may deserve it Secondly That he speaks here onely of making a Law to put false Teachers and Seducers to death in that Age which he would by no meanes then admit of not because it was unlawfull but onely inconvenient at that time because it was likely to be abused to the shedding of innocent blood Thirdly that he held it then sufficient and lawfull too for the Magistrates to banish Seducers and false Teachers though they did not put them actually to death and by consequence held it lawfull to imprison and fine them too which is lesse then banishment yea him selfe writ to Methusum very earnestly that they should not receive the Anabaptists into their City but expell them so that Luther is point blank against Master Dell in that for which he cites him and for the Magistrates suppressing banishing Hereticks Schismaticks and Seducers I shall onely adde one passage more out of Luther point-blank against Master Dels opinion and quotation * Postil Dominica 5. post Epiphaniam .44 where interpreting the Parable of the Tares he resolves That the Masters bidding the servants let them alone till the Harvest doth neither inhibit nor restraine Church-Officers or the Civill Magistrate from restraining and punishing of Hereticks and other Malefactors with Ecclesiastical and temporall punishments concluding thence in these words Reliquae deindè sunt scandalorum cohertiones poenes Magistratum familiarum Patres morum disciplinae Magistros Hic adeò nulla phohibitio in suis officiis per hoc Christi praeceptum statuitur ut sunt haec omnia cum acerimis sanctissimis mandatis à Deo sancita Custodit Magistratus non solum secundam verùm OMNIUM MAXIME PRIMAM TABULAM Idololatrias Blasphemias Execrationes Perjuria ULCISCITUR Oblatas HAERETICAS in verum Deum contumeliosas atque alias eas BLASPHEMIAS DOCENTES COERCET Praefractiores atque in errore pertexendo contumaciores cum certissimo plurimum EXITIO pro malificiis PUNIENDOS SUSCIPIT Nequè cum boc facit Zizania evellere intelligitur quia cum suo officio in eo regno non versatür ubi interdictum de evellendis Zizaniis positum est Non igitur Magistratus hujus generis vitae corporalis Officiales quùm se scandalis perturbantibus tranquilitatem severa vindicatione obviam eunt Zizania contra Christi mentem evellunt sed id praestant pro parte sua ut verum Triticum in Ecclesia à Zizaniis non prorsus opprimatur Regnum Dei in terris non penitus exolescat Master Dell therefore might in wisdome have forborne his extravagant quotation of Luther whose Works I presume he never read which he tels us not where we may find among his numerous Volumes as he should have done His next quotation is a saying of Augustine out of Polanus but Augustine is most expresse against him not onely in his forecited passages against Petilian and the Donatists but in many others mustred up by Gratian Causa 23. quest 4 5. where you may read them at large to which I shall adde this sentence in his 166. Epistle where thus he writes To whom is it said Serve the Lord with feare c. is it not to Kings But how doe Kings serve the Lord with feare unlesse it be by a religious severity in prohibiting those things which are done against the Lords commands For every one of them serves him after one manner as be is a man after another manner as he is a King For as he is a man he serves him in living faithfully but as he is a King he serves him in prescribing Lawes commanding just things and prohibiting the contrary CONVENIENTI RIGORE SANCIENDO with convenient rigor and punishments like as Hezekiah served him in destroying Idols Groves and high Places And as Josiah served him And he addes this as a Reason elswhere Rex a Regendo dicitur non autem regat QUI NON CORRIGIT If Kings then be Kings of Hereticks Schismaticks Seducers Blasphemers Idolaters or Apostates as well as of other Subjects they must not onely governe but correct and punish them too by enacting severe Lawes against them and seeing them put in execution as this Father informes us That the devout and orthodox Roman Emperours not onely made severe Lawes against the Donatists and other Hereticks and Schismaticks but likewise appointed Dulcitius an eminent Colonel and Notary to take speciall care to see them executed Unhappy Master Dell to quote such a Father out of Polanus who is so pointblank against him and refutes his whole Sermon in his Books against the Epistles of Parmenianus and Petilian the Donatist Contra Cresconium Gram. Epist 48 50 as those who will take paines to peruse them may discover I wish this learned Gentleman hereafter to peruse and read Authors well before he quotes them and not to take them upon trust with such disadvantage to his cause and reputation too His other Authority out of Master Tyndal is nothing to purpose who speaks not one word against Kings Emperours or Christian Magistrates suppressing or punishing Hereticks and reforming the Church by outward power but writes expresly for it at large in his Books Intituled THE OBEDIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN MAN and THE PRACTICE OF POPISH PRELATES where he asserts That Kings and Magistrates are in the room of God that their Lawes are Gods Lawes and that they are to punish all evill doers and any sinne that shall break out and though he blameth them for being the Popes and Bishops Hangmen in his dayes to kill whomsoever they condemned without more adoe vpon their bare commandement without any due examination of the cause Yet if upon their owne examination they shall find them to be Heretecks or false Teachers he then admits They may justly punish and put them to death without any danger exciting both Emperours and kings to reforme the Church and to shake off the Yoake both of the Pope and Prelates together with their Canons Superstitions and false Doctrines So that this holy Martyr oppugnes Master Dels opinion for which he quotes him and speaks only of forcing Infidels by the Sword of war without instruction to embrace the Christian Faith His last Authority is Vlricus Ab Hutten but where his words are recorded he makes no mention neither are they pertinent being spoken to a Councell of Priests as he confesseth not to Christian Magistrates which yet he foisteth into his English translation of his words not being in the Latin Surely as this foisting is unsufferable so I must acquaint Master Dell that this quotation was very unhappy and fatall to his cause since this very Author hath written a Book DE SCHISMATE EXTINGUENDO wherein he refutes that very opinion he would fasten on him And thus I have given you a briefe account of Master Dels great skill and learning in mistaking mis-citing perverting every Author which he cites whose
Apostales may and ought to be put to death and he cites Beza Junius Becanus Zanchius Perkins Danaeus Bullinger and the Professors of Leydon to be of this opinion That ringleading and seducing Hereticks are to be punished to death with many Popish Authors who are of the self same judgment Master Edwards in his Anti-Pologia and Gangraenaes asserts the like with our London Essex and Suffolk Ministers in their Petitions to both Houses for the punishing and suppressing of Heresies Schismes Blasphemies The Independents in New-England it selfe as Master Cotton Master Hooker and others are of the same judgment and de facto banished Master Williams Mistris Hutchinson and other Hereticks and Schismaticks out of their Plantation In few words John Goodwin himselfe in a Book intituled M. S. to A. S. p. â—0 Master Henry Burton in his Vindication of the Churches commonly called Independent p. 70. and Master Jeremy Burroughs of Heart-Divisions p. 20 21. three grand Independents conclude against Master Dell That the Magistrate may fight with and punish Superstition Heresie Schisme as well as with corruption of manners where there is no danger of fighting against God And Mastor Burroughs from Zech. 13. 3. grants That in the times of the Gospel of which this Text is a Prophesie all erronious or idolatrous Prophets or Teachers should be brought before the civill Magistrate to receive condigne punishment even to the taking away of life in some cases Finally even the very Ringleaders of the Anabaptists themselves who to propagate their owne errors without restraint first cryed doâ—me the Magistrates coercive power in matters of Faith asserting That they ought not by their Lawes and Edicts to compell men to come to the publick meetings or punish any man with corpopall or capitall punishments for any error or heresie and at last denied Magistracy it selfe Did afterwards when they got the power into their owne hands not onely make and proclaime themselves Magistrates and Kings exercising more barbarous bloody tyrannies then the worst of Tyrants ever did but professedly asserted and maintained That all those who would not be Re-baptized and embrace their fanatick opinions were to be slaine and put to death as wicked men and Infidels and their Lands and Goods to be confiscated to themselves the onely Saints and accordingly they murdered and put to death many of their owne Members and thousands of others in Suaben Munster and other parts of Germany violently seizing on their Lands Castles Houses Goods till they were themselves suppressed and dissipated by the sword and above an hundred thousand of them slaine and executed in sundry places of Germany as the Marginall Authors record at large Therefore their own pactice Doctrine subverts this their pretended Anti-Magistraticall position It did so heretofore in Germany and dotâ— so already even in New and Old England where they have any power and I pray God we feel not as sad effects and symptomes hereof ere long at home as ever they did in Germany All these Authorities will I hope overballance Master Dels opinion and mis-quotations to the contrary Having fully answered and totally routed all Master Dels forces against the coercive power of the civill Christian Magistrate in case of Heresie Schisme Blasphemy I shall next fall upon a few Reserves of some of his Saints in the Army and of their Champion Master John Goodwin which I shall quickly scatter and then conclude The twelfth Objection made by some Sectaries in the Army against the Magistates punishment of Blasphemy is thus expressed in a Letter written by a godly Minister June 3. 1646. who was then in the Army They would not have the old Military orders set forth by the Earle of Essex observed That BLASPEMERS should be boared through the Tongue The argument that they urged was That sinnes which are directly against God should be punished by God Upon which ground they hold that Heresie Atheisme c. should not be punished by the Magistrate because they are sinnes directly against God c. To this I shall answer first that if this ground were true then God the Fountaine of Justice being as able to punish sinnes directly against himselfe as well under the Law as Gospel would not have in positive tearmes commanded such who were guilty of open Blasphemy and Idolatry being sinnes directly against him to be stoned and put to death without any mercy as I have proved he did and those godly Magistrates and Princes wsto punished Idolaters with death under the Law had been Murderers and Delinquents This argument therefore which taxeth God himselfe and his precepts of direct injustice under the Law must be rejected by the Objectors as blasphemous or else they must make it appeare by Scripture that though these sinnes under the Law were by Gods owne command to be punished with death by the civill Magistrate and people yet now under the Gospel he hath resumed the power of punishing them onely to himselfe and deprived Christian Magistrates of it which they can never doe Secondly By this reason Magistrates must not punish direct Atheists openly professing there is no God nor such Hereticks who deny the Trinity or the Deity of Christ and the holy Ghost nor such as deny there is any Heaven or Hell since these sinne directly against God himselfe O the piety of Master Dels anointed faithfull Saints is this their zeale their piety their sanctity Thirdly they must by this reason punish no sinne at all no not Rebellion Murder Treason Sorcery Adultery for these sinnes are directly committed against God who prohibits and whose prohibition makes them sinnes but sinnes onely indirectly against men as they are Gods creatures and beare his image Fourthly if this paradox be true then by the self same reason God himselfe is not to punish any sinne committed imediatly against men as Murder Adultery c. nor may God nor man punish sinnes committed by beastly men with Beasts because not directly committed against God or man in the Objectors sense and then what becomes of the truth of Heb. 13. 4. Revel 21. 8. cap. 22. 15. Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge and they shall have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with fire and Erimstone And of Levit. 18. 23. cap. 20. 15 16. If a man lye with a Beast he shall be surely put to death and he shall slay the Beast And if a woman approach unto any Beast and lye downe thereto thou shalt kill the woman and the Beast they shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them Fiftly the Magistrates are but Gods Ministers Avengers Deputies to execute wrath upon all evill doers whence in Scripture they are called Gods said to sit on Gods Throne and to judge for the Lord Therefore certainly they may and ought to punish all sins directly acted against God whose Deputies they are rather and more severely then any other as Judges and Kings
peoples punishing Idolatry Blasphemy with other eâ—rots under the Law as well as under the Gospel Secondly it utterly subverts all Magistracy whatsoever for as a Magistrate may possibly fight and sinne against God through error and mistake in punishing Heresie Schism Blasphemy c. so likewise he may through ignorance misinformation bribes affection feare hatred Superiours commands and the like wrest Judgment and judge punish men unjustly not onely criminally or civilly but capitally too and so draw upon him the guilt of innocent blood Ergo it is unlawfull for any man to be a Magistrate or Judge between man and man much more to be a King whose exercise of his supream authority is usually liable to more dangerous sinnes corruptions manifold temptations abuses and dangers of fighting against God then other inferiour Officers Secondly this reason militates against all other Callings and Professions whatever which have their proper sinnes temptations that attend them but especially against the Ministry who are far more apt to broach Errors Heresies Schismes to fight against God and his Truth then Magistrates as the Objector hath done for many yeers together both in the Presse and Pulpit Therefore this Cretensis if he credit his owne argument must henceforth give over his preaching writing conventicling for feare of fighting every day more and more against God his Truth People since like evill men and seducers he grow every day worse and worse more hereticall and erronious and at last is like to turne either Atheist or nothing Thirdly it fights against the performance of all holy duties there being a great deale of danger in performing them our prayecâ—s may be turned into sinne the Word it selfe may be the savour of death unto us and condemne us at the last yea we may eat and drink our owne damnation at the Lords owne Table as many doe Ergo by Master Goodwins Argument we must abandon all holy duties in regard there are such dangers in them to our soules and then farewell all Religion and the Scriptures too which many wrest to their owne confusion Fourthly the danger of any lawfull power or calling must not take away nor suspend the lawfull use thereof and this danger in the Magistrates calling must make him more cautious in doubtfull cases of Heresie Blasphemy Error Schisme but not more negligent or lesse zealous in such as are cleer and evident to his conscience by the light of Scripture and consent of all Ages Churches Fiftly for his assumption it holds onely in doubtfull cases not in plaine and apparent as most cases of Idolatry Blasphemy Heresie grosâ—e Error and Schisme are which the Magistrate may boldly proceed to punish without scruple and in doubtfull cases the Magistrate is to resolve his owne conscience fully the best he may and to proceed with more deliberation mildnesse and if at last he be throwly convinced that what the Delinquents deem to be truth and agreeable to the Word be apparent Heresie Error Idolatry Schisme his owne conscience then not theirs must be his rule to proceed by neither must he wound his owne conscience nor betray his liberty trust to spare them or their Heresies Errors Schismes Blasphemies Idolatries no more then he may spare Traytors Murderers Theeves Sorcerers who deem themselves innocent oâ— pretend conscience to justifie their crimes But I have already refuted this Argument more largely in my Answer to former Objections I therefore passe to the next The fifteenth Objection is this That power which was never attributed to any Christian Magistrate by any Christian but onely by those who had very good assurance that it should be used fer them and on their side is not like to be a power conferred on them by divine right or by God because it is no wayes credible that within the compasse of so many Ages as are by gone no one man of that conscientious generation of Saints which hath been wont so frequently to deny it selfe even unto death should acknowledge such a power in the civill Magistrate as did by divine right belong unto him onely because such an acknowledgment was like to make against himselfe But that coercive power in matters of Religion for the suppressing of Errors Schismes Heresies c. was never attributed to the civill Magistrate by any Christian but onely by those who were very confident that it would be used for their turnes and effect their desires Ergo he ought not to claime it To this I answer first that this very Argument is built upon meer humane reason without any shadow of Scripture to warrant it and is a meere surmise of a crazy atheisticall braine to elude yea contradict direct Texts of Scripture by which kind of argumentation both the Scripture and Deity it selfe may be subverted by luxuriant wits Secondly this Arguer playes the hypocrite against his owne judgment and conscience tacitely confessing that if the civell Magistrote would be for him to set up Independency and not against him he would plead as hotly for his authority and coercive power as any Presbyterian but because he conceives the Parliament and Magistraâ—es are against his way therefore he pleads against their coercive power to suppresse it as the Donatists did of old upon this very ground who made use of Julian the Apostates Edicts against the orthodox Christians to restraine them but condemned Constantines Lawes to restraine themselves as is evident by St Augustines forecited passages yea our Independents at first seemingly pleaded for the Parliaments and civill Magistrates coercive power whiles they had any hopes to make use thereof for the advancement of their owne Party as the Arminians did in Holland till the States declared against them and then they retracted what they had written in defence of their coercive corrective power and writ expresly against it Thus the g Independents and Anabaptists doe now God defend us from such grosse Hypocrites and Turn-coots as this changling Objector who will be sure to strike in and make use of the prevailing Party if he conveniently may Thirdly Theeves Wolves Foxes yea all kind of hurtfull men and creatures might make the very selfe same argument as this Objector doth no Theeves but onely true men who thought the Judges sure on their party did ever hold it lawfull for Judges to condemne and hang men for stealing a little money or goods to supply their wants Ergo no Judge ought to claime or execute such a power No Wolf or Fox did ever hold it lawfull for any Shepheard to hunt take or kill them for killing and devouring their Lambs or Sheep because they did it by an instinct of nature according to their naturall genious onely to fill their bellies and satissie hunger but only Shepheards and Sheep-masters Ergo it is unlawfull for any to hunt take or kill them No Adulterer Whoremaster or Drunkard will averre that it is lawfull for the Magistrate to punish them for Adultery