To return to th' Archbishop who came home with this Legatine power 1127. crowns the King at Windsor and in May following holds a Councell at Westminster cui praesedit ipse sicut Apostolicae sedis legatus which is the first Councell any Archbishop is noted to have held as a Papall Legat and during his life which was seven years England did not see any other 27. After his death the See of Canterbury lay two years vacant so a fit time for the Pope to look this way especially K. Stephen making it part of his title that he was confirmed by him in his Kingdome therefore 1138. Innocentius the second sent hither Albericus Bishop of Hostia the second stranger I find exercising the Legatine auctority in England yet he was not at first received for one but vix tandem pro reverentiâ— Domini Papae He indeed went farther then ever any had for he not onely called the Clergy Apostolica auctoritate as our Historians terme it to a Synod I confesse he avoyds the word in his letters of summons styling it colloquium perhaps not to enter into dispute with the King who then took himself to be the onely caller of them and the allower of what they did but did farther command the Prior and Convent of Canterbury c. to chuse such an Archbishop cui sacrorum canonum auctoritas in nullo valcat obviare cui comprovinciales Episcopi pariter debeant assentire cui Dominus Rex nec possit nec debet assensum suum juste denegare but farther not at all intromitting himself And in the Councell he held amongst other particulars he ordained that if any injured an Ecclesiastick person Nisi tertio admonitus satisfecerit anathemate feriatur neque quisquam ei praeter Romanum Pontificem nisi mortis urgente periculo modum poenitentiae finalis injungat This is the first that by Canon ought done in England was referr'd to Rome as having a greater power then the English Bishops to absolve of the Laws of Hen. the 1. I shall speak hereafter But whether it were not here much regarded or th' excesses used by King Stephen against certain Bishops and the prohibiting a Councell held 〈◊〉 Winchester to send to Rome as against the dignity of the realm or that he freed of imprisonment desired to make so potent a party as the Clergy then was more of his side I cannot say but assuredly it was again renewed in a Councell at London about some four years after 28. The same Pope 1139. conferr'd upon Henry K. Stephens Brother and the potent Bishop of Winchester this Legatine power which was by him publish't in a Councell at Winchester where his faculties wâ—re read bearing date the 1. March and being as well Angliae Dominus by reason of the power he held wiâ—h Stephen as Apostolicae sedis Legatus he called thither th' Archbishop that had then some contest with the Monks of St. Augustines whom the Pope generally favour'd against him referr'd to his decision from Rome so that he caused both parties the second time to appear there before him 1143. as Legat and by compromise ended the businesse Yet this calling of the Archbishop unto him was not taken well and the same year 1143. he did by Apostolick command restore Ieremy removed by Theobald notwithstanding his appeal to Rome to be Prior of Canterbury which restitution the said Prior did not think fit to stand by but for avoiding trouble took an 100. marks to pay his debts and placed himself in St. Augustines By these carriages there grew great distasts between these two great Prelats the one as Archbishop prohibited Winchester all Ecclesiastick functions however the Popes Legat and both apply themselves to the Pope from whence our Historians do fetch the use of Appeals to Rome as indeed there could not well be any cause of them before for as the one case is the first ever any Archbishop was called out of his Diocese to make answer to any Legat as his Superior so I believe it will be hard to give an example of ought done by th' Archbishop in his own Bishoprick till now alter'd by a forreign auctority And here having mentioned the introducing of Appeals the reader will give me leave to digresse a little both to shew what is meant by them and the manner of prosecution of them and then to return and observe the event of the Archbishops and Legats in the Court of Rome 29. It cannot be denyed the word Appeal to have been used in former times with reference to the Papacy Cum praesul sedem Apostolicam appellasset sayes Malmsbury of VVilfred and a Councell held in Italy concerning him Apostolicam sedem de suâ causâ appellans and of some others Yet nothing is more certain then those in whose time this was did not at all hold the Pope to have any power of righting him other then by intercession not as a superior Court by sentencing in his favour to undo what had past Theodore without whose assent the King could not have deprived him of his seat for when the Popes Letters were brought hither for his restitution Egfrid with th' advise of his Bishops not onely refused but clapt VVilfred in prison and after his death the Pope sending others vita graves aspectu honorabiles Alfrith though he received the men with great reverence yet would by no means admit the restauration they came about but affirmed it against reason to do it he having been twice condemned proper quaelibet Apostolica scripta And as this was in a time when Christianity most flourished in this Nation having in generall fortissimos Christianosque Reges so of the Kings that did it of Egfrid Beda left that he was piissimus Deo dilectissimus neither can he find any other thing to blame in Alfrith worthily and the Bishops that did concur in the action were holy men well seen in divine and secular learning so that it is not imaginable any thing past them not warranted by the Doctrine and rules of this Church 30. For the understanding of which we are to know the word Appeal is taken severall wayes sometimes to accuse sometimes for referring our selves to some one for his judgment such was that of VVilfreds appealing to Rome as to a great spirituall Doctor and Church whose judgment was very venerable in the World as of late Iohn Calvins and the Church of Geneva was to them of Scotland and Frankford c. another way we take it for removing a cause from an inferior to a superior Court or Iudge that hath power of disannulling whatsoever the former did and this is that our Historians affirm not to have been in use till after 1140. It is certain long after VVilfred the Bishops and Nobility did assure Anselme that for any of the great ones especially him to have
England ever saw a Privy Councellor He having sometimes sought that dignity in Henry the 5 ths time upon the news the Archbishop of Cant. gave the King notice of it in a letter yet extant which did so affect that Prince as he was sometimes heard to say that he had as lieve set his crown beside him as see him wear a Cardinals hat But he being soon after taken away and the honour conferr'd on this Prelate in Iune 1426. by Martin the 5. at his coming into England the Lords of his Maties Councell caused him to make a Protestation for his comportment in the future and the 8th of Hen. the 6. it was agreed by the Lords in Parliament he should be on the Kings part required to attend his Maties Counsells sub protestatione tamen subsequente quod quotiens aliqua materiae causae vel negotia ipsum Dominum Regem aut regna seu dominia sua ex parte una ac sedem Apostolicam ex parte altera concernentia hujus concilii regiis communicanda tractanda fuerint idem Cardinalis se ab hujusmodi consilio absentet communicationi earundem causarum materiarum negotiorum non intersit quovis modo c. and yet his former engagement made to the Councell to be firme and inviolable Upon which the said Cardinall the 18. of December 8. H. 6. Ann. 1429. after his thanks to the King and Lords and his admitting the said Protestations tanquam rationi consonas was received for one of the Councell But I return to that I was treating of 39. The truth of this barring Appeals is so constantly averr'd by all the ancient monuments of this Nation as one not finding how to deny it falls upon another way that if the right of Appeals were abrogated it concludes not the See of Rome had no jurisdiction over this Church except one should be so senselesse as to imagine the Prefect of the Pretorian Court were not subject to th' Emperors auctority because it was not lawfull full to appeal from them according to the Law in the Digests To which I answer that if it be granted which is very disputable this Law is to be extended to th' Emperor yet it proceeded from himself who might limit his own power but he is desired to consider this canon of Appeals did not from any Pope for the Africans did and the Church of England doth maintain it as an inherent right of their own to give Laws in that particular and ever had strong contests with the Papacy about it which held it an honour not to be parted with and they opposing him in it must of necessity have held that superintendency he exercised over them not to be jure divino for then no man could have exempted himself from having recourse unto him In France there are severall Courts of Parliament from which no Appeal lies who receiving that priviledge from the King it cannot be said to be in diminution of his Royalty because that they have he gave but if ever any of them should claim this as of their own right denying the King to have at any time a power of intermedling with them I shall leave the objector to draw what consequence he will from it for my part I can no other but that they esteemed themselves very little his subjects 40. The reader will pardon this digression which I have the longerstood upon to give him the more full satisfaction how Appeals were first brought in and how pursued I shall now in what manner the Legat and Archbishop prosecuted theirs who being both before Lucius the 2. 1144. the Bishop of Winchester was dismist his legatine commission and the Pope finding with how great difficulty the Ecclesiastick affairs of this Kingdome could be managed by any Legat without the Archbishop of Canterbury thought of a very subtile invention to conserve his own auctority and not have any crossing with that Prelat which was to create him and his successors Legatinati by which such things as he did before and had a face of enterfeering with the Papal plenitude and were not so easy to devest th' Archbishop of exercising he might be said to do by a Legatine power of which it was not long before the Pope made use as is to be seen in his Decretalls where Alexander the 3. resolves he could not hear jure metropolitico matters Episcopall that came not unto him per appellationem that is in a legall way but jure Legationis he might such as were brought unto him onely per quaerimoniam an invention often practic 't afterward and highly advantagious to the Court of Rome as what made Bishops but his Deputies 41. The Antiquitates Britannicae Eccles. and from him Harpsfield speak as if this honour were first bestowed on Theobald which it seems to me could not be till the taking it away from Winchester by Lucius the 3. after the death of Innocentius 2. Diceto sayes Caelestinus 3. about some ten years after Lucius bestowed on Hubert plenitudinem potestatis in officio Legationis inauditam à seculis I confesse I do not well understand in what it did consist that had not been formerly heard of to whom the Pope had committed Vices suas in Anglia Scotia but it fully proyes that power derived from Rome was then looked on as a thing newly crept in But whosoever did first confer it the matter is not great certain it is by it the Papall auctority was not a little in time increas't there being none of the Clergy almost to question ought-came from Rome the Archbishop on whom the rest depended himself operating but as a Delegate from thence 42. To which purpose it may not unfitly be observed that when the Papacy did first attempt the exempting some great monasteries from the jurisdiction of their Ordinary it was salva primatis reverentia or as Malmsbury explains it Archiepiscopi tantum nutum in legitimis spectaturus But however thus carefully penned not to thwart with th' Archbishop being brought hither was taken away by Lanfrank not permitted to be made use of the Abbot finding no other way to regain it but multorum preces Yet afterward the Pope without scruple exempted them not onely from their Diocesan but even such as were under th' Archbishops nose with all pertaining to them were taken out of his own jurisdiction and he who at first preserved others rights had those houses now at an easy rate removed from his own A fact of infinite advantage to the Papacy by which it had persons of learning in all parts who depending wholy on it defended what was done to be by one had a power of doing it and he who at first did solely agere vices Apostolicas in Anglia was under no Legat permitted no Bul from Rome to be made use of in England but by his approbation was so far now from taking them away
which seems to have past with the Kings concurrence 64. For to deprive VVilliam elected some whatafter Archbishop of York where he did not joyn was not so easy This man chosen 1142 by the greater part of the Chapter after five years sute in the Court of Rome St. Bernard opposing him had in the end his election annull'd by Eugenius 3. in a Councell held at Reims the Chanons of York exhorted to chuse another some of which made choice of Henry Murdack then as it seems with the Pope who coming as Archbishop into England was not suffer'd to enter on his Archbishoprick and excommunicating Hugh de Puzat a person preferr'd by VVilliam was himself by him excommunicated no intermission of divine service in the City admitted and Henry's means to gain his See was by drawing the Bishop of Duresme Carlisle the King of Scots and by the Popes advise this very Hugh by sweetnesse to his party and in the end by the Kings Son whom it seems he promised to get advanced to the Crown by the power of Rome making his peace with Stephen who soon after employed him thither on that errand And this I take to be the second English election was ever here annull'd by Papall auctority 65. Here I may observe that at first when ever the Pope made voyd an election he did not take upon him to appoint another in the place vacant but either sent to the Clergy of the same Church to chuse another as those to whom it appertained so did Eugenius 3. to York when this H. Murdack was chosen Innocentius 3. when Stephen Langton or else the Bishoprick lay vacant as London after Anselme from 1139. to 1141. But elections being with much struggling settled wholy in the Clergy and Innocentius 3. having by definitive sentence excluded the English Bishops from having any part in that of th' Archbishop of Canterbury they becoming wholy appropriated to the Chapters of Cathedralls the Pope began to creep in and ex concessa plenitudine Ecclesiasticae potestatis as he speaks without any formality of choice to confer not onely Bishopricks but other Ecclesiastick promotions within the precincts of others Dioceses and by that means to fill the fat benefices of the Nation The first Archbishop of Canterbury promoted by this absolute power of the Church of Rome seems to have been Richard 1229. non electo sed dato ad Archiepiscopatum 66. The French Agent in his Remonstrance to Innocentius 4 tus attributes the beginning of these collations to Innocent the 3d. and I have not read that either Paschalis the second Gelasius Calixtus or Innocent 2. though forced to live sometimes out of Rome did ever exercise auctority that way But I will give it in his own words Certe non multum temporis clapsum est ex quo Dominus Papa Alexander persecutionis cogente incommodo venit in Franciam confugiens ad subsidium inclytae recordationis Regis Ludovici patris Regis Philippi à quo benigne susceptus est stetit ibi diu forte vivunt aliqui qui viderunt eum ipse tamen in nullo gravavit Ecclesiam Gallicanam ut nec unam solam praebendam aut aliud beneficium ipse Papa dederit ibi sed nec aliquis praedecessor suus nec multietiam de successoribus dederunt in sua auctoritate beneficium aliquid usque ad tempora Domini Innocentii 3. qui primus assumpsit sibi jus istud in tempore suo Revera dedit multas praebendas similiter post ipsum Dominus Honorius Dominus Gregorius simili modo fecerunt sed omnes praedecessores vestri ut publice dicitur non dederunt tot beneficia ut vos solus dedistis c. 67. In what year th' Ambassador from France made this complaint is not set down But Mat. Paris in his Historia minori makes mention of it as done in or about 1252. Diebus sub eisdem Episcopo Lincolniensâ— computante compertum probatum est quod iste Papa scilicet Innocentius quartus plures redditus extortos ad suam contulit voluntatem quam omnes ejus praedecessores prout manifeste patet in lugubri querimonia quam reposuerunt Franci coram Papa pro suis intolerabilibus oppressionibus quae redacta est in scriptum Epistolae admodum prolixae quae sic incipit Dicturus quod injunctum est mihi c. quaere Epistolam c. By which it appears that great liberty the Papacy took in conferring Ecclesiastick preferments within the Dioceses of others took its rise from Pope Innocent and as it seems to me not at the very beginning of his time for 1199. Gelardus Archdeacon of St. Davids coming from Rome quia idem G. Menevensis Ecclesiae in curia Romana se dicebat electum hoc ipsum cassavit Archiepiscopus alium-sacravit canonice electum though he after bestowed on him a Church of 25. marks and this in a case the Pope had so earnestly espoused as he wrote to the Bishops of Lincoln Duresme and Ely si Archiepiscopus Cantuariae saepe dictum Gilardum consecrare differret ipsi Apostolica authoritate freti illum consecrare non differrent which yet th' Archbishop as against the English liberty did not doubt to oppose and disannul 68. But thus it continued not long for Honorius the immediate successor to Innocentius 3 us shewing such as served th' Apostolick see and resided with it were worthy congruis beneficiis honorari and were therefore possest of divers both in England and other parts which they did administer with so great care quod non minus beneficiantibus quam beneficiatis utiliter est provisum unde quia nonnunquam beneficiatis hujusmodi decedentibus beneficia quae obtinuerant inconsultis hiis ad quos eorum donatio pertinebat aliis successive collata perpetuo illis ad quos pertinent videbantur amitti propter quod etiam murmurabant plurimi alii se difficiliores ad conferendum talibus beneficia exhibebant Nos volentes super hoc congruum remedium adhibere ne cuiquam sua liberalitas sit dampnosa per quam potius meruit gratiam favorem statuimus ut clericis Ecclesiae Romanae vel aliis Ytalicis qui praebendas vel Ecclesias seu alia Ecclesiastica beneficia in Anglia obtinent vel obtinuerint à modo decedentibus Praebendâ—e vel Ecclesiae seu alia beneficia nequaquam à nobis vel alio illa vice alicui conferantur sed ad illos libere redeant ad quos illorum donatio dinoscitur pertinere c. Dat. Lateran quarto Kalend. Martii Pontificatus nostri anno quinto 69. Yet neither this nor the renewing of it by Gregory the 9. with a speciall indulgence directed venerabilibus fratribus universis Archiepiscopis Episcopis aâ— dilectis fil is Abbatibus aliis Ecclesiarum Praelatis per Angliam constitutis ut si quando ad vos literae Apostolicae pro beneficiandis
ejus successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint that the English Bishops being excommunicated by the Pope might not take an oath of obedience to his commands quia regni consuetudines impugnabat though he did never exercise any authority here but according to such stipulations contracts and agreements with our Princes as the Lawes permitted and therefore when he sent hither a Legat à Latere he was tretyd with or he cam in to the lond whon he schold have exercise of his power and how myche schold bee put in execution An aventure after he had bee reseyved he whold have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple c. as the Archbishop wrote to Hen. 5. as I have shewed numb 53. 73. Though the Lawyers of the Kingdome do constantly affirm as the Law and Custome of the Realm the Kings Courts never to have carried regard to any forraign excommunication and if any such came from Rome not to be put in execution but by allowance first had to which effect it is remembred the Bishops of London and Norwich having publish't in their Dioceses the Popes excommunication of Hugh Earl as it seems of Chester without the privity of Hen. the 2. or his Chief Iusticiar the Kings writ issued out in this manner Londoniensis Norwicensis Episcopi sint in misericordia Regis summoneantur per Ficecomites Bedellos ut sint contra Iusticias Regis ad rectum faciendum Regi Iusticiis ejus de eo quod contra statuta de Clarendone interdixerunt ex mandato Papae terram comitis Hugonis excommunicationem quam Dominus Papa in ipsum fecerat per suas parochias divulgaverunt sine licentia regis This however contracted in Hoveden 1165. and in Paris 1164. yet the difference is such as may deserve a remembrance It seems to me what our Kings claimed not to be altogether unlike the Exequatur of Naples observed to this day in that Kingdome notwithstanding all contests from Rome 74. Neither did the Crown ever relinquish this right not at the peace after Beckets death when Henry the 2. assented to quit no other then Consuetudines quae introductae sunt tempore suo which it is manifest this was not as appears by Eadmerus It is farther observable that by the common Laws that is the common Custome of this Realm the sentence of the Archbishop is valid in England and to be allowed in the Kings Courts though controuled by the Pope and to shew our Princes had no regard to anything of this nature from thence other then such a complying with a reverend Prelat as I have formerly mentioned did admit it may not here be unfitly inserted what Froissard writes of Edward the third with whom the Flemings joyned against the French upon which but I shall deliver it in his own words Adonc le Roy de Frances ' en complaignit au Pape Clement sixieme qui getta une sentence d' excommuniement si horible qu'il n' estoit nul prestre qui asast celebrer le divin service De quoy les Flamens envoyerent grande complainte au Roy d' Engleterre lequel pour les appaiser leur manda que la primiere fois qu'il rappasseroit la mer il leur ammeneroit des Prestres de son pais qui leur chanteroient la Messe vousist le Pape ou non â—ar il estoit bien privilegié de ce faire par ce moyen s' appaiserent les Flamens c. As for the priviledge here spoken of that can be no other then the obligation all Kings owe unto God for seeing his word sincerely taught them live under their protection without the disturbance of any 75. In which kind ours have been so far from yieldding obedience to the Papall attempts as Edward the first could not be induced to spare the life of one brought a Bull from the Pope might have made some disturbance but by his abjuring the Realm as his grandchild Edward the 3. did cause some to suffer for the same offence And on occasions our Kings have prohibited all entercourse with Rome denied their Bishops going thither so much as for confirmation but the Metropolitans if need were should by the Kings writ be charged to confirm them commanded their subjects not to rely on any should come from thence affirming quod in regnum nostrum nec propter negotium nostrum nec vestrum ullatenus intrabit ad terram nostram destruendam Yet notwithstanding so notorious a truth back't with so many circumstances grounded upon unquestioned monuments of antiquity hath not been received but the bare affirmation Christ by pasceoves meas intended Peter and by consequence the Pope to be the generall Pastor of the world and the meaning of those words to be that he should regio more imperare hath so far prevailed with some as to esteem the standing for the rights of the Kingdome the Laws and Customes of the Nation to be a departing from the Church Catholick and to esteem no lesse then Hereticks those who defending that which is their own from th' invasion of another will not suffer themselves to be led hood-winkt to think the preservation of their proper liberty is a leaving Christ his Church or the Catholick faith 76. I dare boldly say whoever will without partiality look back shall find the reverence yielded from this Church to Rome for more then a thousand years after Christ to have been no other then the respect of love not of duty and Popes rather to consulere then imperare their dictats to have been of the same nature the German Princes were of old auctoritatâ— suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate never requiring a necessity of obedience eo nomine that they came from Rome but for that they were just and reasonable neither did the Pope send any Agent hither to see them put in execution but th' Archbishop according to the exigent of times receiving his wholesome advises caused such as he held of them did conduce to the good of the English Church to be observed So Theodore received those of Pope Martin but did not them concerning Wilfred from Agatho When Alexander the 2. had exempted the Abbot of St. Edmunds-bury from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Norwich Lanfrank took the Act from the Abbot and Gregory the 7. is so far from using commands in the cause as he onely earnestly intreats the Archbishop he would stop the Bishop of Norwich from molesting the said Abbot yet himself as it seems did not restore the Bull of immunity to him during that Popes life but of this before In the year 1070. on the Kings desire in a Councell at Windsor Ageâ—â—icus Bishop of the South-Saxons is degraded and his Bishoprick confer'd on Stigandus Alexander the 2. not approving what had past writes
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be
same house they abode yet they salute them with the honourable titles of their dearest lords and brethren A certain signe of a wide distance between the opinions of Rome then and now when men are taught not so much as bid them farewell do not submitunto it sure our first Bishops know no such rule who placed in their Calendar for Saints and holy men as well Hilda Aydon and Colman the opposers of Rome as Wilfred Agilbertus and others who stood for it CHAP. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with AFter the planting of Christian religion amongst the Saxons th' Archbishop of Canterbury became a person so eminent all England was reputed his Diocese in the colledge of Bishops London his Dean whose office it was to summon Councels Winchester his Chancellour Salisbury or as some Winchester his Precâ—tor or that begun the service by singing Worcester or rather Rochester his Chaplain and the other the carrier of his Crosse expected no lesse obedience from York then himself yielded to Rome voluntate beneficio it being th' opinion of the Church of England it was but equall ut ab eo loco mutuentur vivendi disciplinam à cujus fomite rapuerunt credendi slammam The dependence therefore of the Clergy in England being thus wholly upon th' Archbishop it will not be amisse to take a little view both of what esteem he was in the Church and how it came to be taken off and by degrees transferr'd to a forreign power 2. Upon the conversion of the Saxons here by the preaching of Augustine and his companions and a quiet peace settled under Theodore to whom all the English submitted Parochiall Churches by his encouragement began to be erected and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation as being the successour of Saint Peter the first bishop of the world Patriark of the West that resided in a town held to nourish the best Clerks in Christendome and the seat of the Empire insomuch as the devout Britan who seemes as I said to have received his first conversion from Asia did go to Iudea as a place of greatest sanctity so amongst the Saxons Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur But as this was of their part no other then as to a great Doctour or Prelate by whose solicitude they understood the way to heaven and to a place in which religion and piety did most flourish so th' instructions thence were not as coming from one had dominion over their faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming other then that respect is fit to be rendred from a puisne or lesse skilfull to more ancient and learned Teachers As of late times when certain divines at Frankford 1554. differed about the Common-prayer used in England Knox and Whittingham appealed to Calvin for his opinion and receiving his 200. Epistle it so wrought in the hearts of many that they were not so stout to maintain all the parts of the Book as they were then against it And Doctor Cox and some other who stood for the use of the said Book wrote unto him excusing themselves that they put order in their Church without his counsell asked Which honour they shew'd him not as esteeming him to have any auctority of Office over them but in respect of his learning and merits 3. As these therefore carried much honour and yielded great obedience to Calvin and the Church of Geneva by them then held the purest reformed Church in Christendom so it cannot be denyed but our Auncestors the Saxons attributed no lesse to the Pope and Church of Rome who yet never invaded the rights of this as contrary to the councel of Ephesus and the Canons of the Church of England but left the Government of it to the English Prelats yet giving his best advice and assistance for increasing devotion and maintenance of the Laws Ecclesiasticall amongst them in which each side placed the superiority From whence it proceeded that however the Pope was sought to from hence he rarely sent hither any Legat. In the Councell of Calcuith held about 180. years after Augustine it is observed a tempore Sancti Augustini Pontificis sacerdos Romanus nullus in Britanniam mâ—ssus est nisi nos And Eadmerus that it was inauditum in Britannia quemlibes hominum super se vices Apostolicas gerere nisi solum Archiepiscopum Cantuariae 4. But after the Pope instead of being subject began to be esteemed above th' Ecclesiastick Canons and to pretend a power of altering and dispensing with them and what past by his advise and counsell onely was said to be by his authority he did question divers particulars had been formerly undoubtedly practic 't in this Kingdom he seeing them and not shewing any dislike at it as The receiving Investitures of Churches from Princes The calling Synods The determining causes Ecclesiasticall without Appeals to Rome The transferring Bishops c. but the removing these from England unto a forraign judicature being as well in diminution of the rights of the Crown as of this Church past not with out opposition 5. For Anselm an Italian the first great promoter of the Papal authority with us pretending he ought not be barr'd of visiting the Vicar of St. Peter causa regiminis Ecclesiae was told as well by the Bishops as lay Lords That it was a thing unheard and altogether against the use of the realme for any of the great men especially himself to presume any such thing without the Kings licence who affirmed nequaquam fidem quam sibi debebat simul Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra suam voluntatem posse servare And the Archbishop persisting in his journy thither had not onely his Bishoprick seized into the Kings hand but the Pope being shew'd how his carriage was resented here did not afford him either Consilium or Auxilium but suffered him to live an exile all that Princes time without any considerable support or adjudging the cause in his favour Which makes it the more strange that having found by experience what he had heard before that it was the King not the Pope could help or hurt him this visit being so little to his advantage at his first presenting himself to Henry the first he should oppose that Prince in doing him homage and being invested by him a right continued unto that time from his Auncestors and by which himself had received the Archbishoprick from his brother and this on a suggestion that it was prohibited in a councell held at Rome in which he went so far as to tell the King quod nec pro redemptione capitis mei consentiam ei de iis quae praesens audivi in Romano Concilio prohiberi nisi ab eadem sede
hujusmodi de caetero emanarunt ad provisionem ipsorum inviti non teneamur nisi de hac indul gentia plenam fecerint mentionem Dat. Lateran 15. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno 4 to c. could quiet the English or keep them from that confederation in Mat. Paris 1231. beginning Tali Episcopo tali capitulo Vniversitas eorum qui magis volunt mori quam à Romanis confundi c. Which the Popes by wisdome and joyning the Regall auctority with their spirituall sound means to bring to nought and pursuing the Papall interest without regarding what had past from them gave the Kingdome occasion 1241. to observe that in onely three years Otho had remained Legat here he bestowed more then 300. spirituall promotions ad fuam vel Papae voluntatem the Pope having contracted as the report went with the Romans to confer to none but their Children and Allies the rich benefices here especially of Religious houses as those perhaps he had most power over and to that effect had writ to the Bishops of Canterbury and Salisbury ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent So that in the Councell at Lions 1245. they complain of these exorbitances and shew the revenues the Italians received in England not to be lesse then 60 thousand marks of which more hereafter and in the year following 1246. reiterated their griefs to Innocentius 4 tus quod Italicus Italico succedit Which yet was with little successe for the Popes having as we have heard first settled all elections in the Ecclesiasticks and after upon severall occasions on the submitting of the English to his desires bestowed the benefices in this and other Kingdomes on his dependents Iohn the 22. or as some seem to think Clement the 5. his immediate predecessor endeavored the breaking of elections by Cathedralls and Convents reserving the free donation of all preferments to himself alone 70. From whence proceeded the reiterated complaints â— against Papall Provisions in the Parliaments of Edward the 3. and Ric. the 2. for this Kingdome never received his attempts in that kind to which purpose the History of Iohn Devenish is remarkable The Abbot of St. Augustines dying 1346. the 20. Ed. 3. the Convent by the Kings leave chose VVm. Kenington but Clement the 6. by Provision bestowed the Abbacy on Iohn Devenish whom the King did not approve of yet came thither armed with Papall auctority The Prior and Convent upon command absolutely denyed him entrance ingressum monasterii in capite denegando who thereupon returned to Avignon The businesse lying two years in agitation the King in the end for avoyding expences and other inconveniences ex abundanti concessit ut si idem Iohannes posset obtinere à summo Pontifice quod posset mutare stylum suae creationis â—ive provisionis scilicet non promoveri Abbatia praedicta ratione donationâ—s vel provisionis Apostolicae sed ratione electionis capituli hujus loci illa vice annueret suis temporalibus gaudere permitteret sed quidem hujusmodi causa coram ipso summo Pontifice proposita concludendo dixit se malle cedere Pontificio quam suum decretum taliter revocare c. Which so afflicted the poor man as the grief killed him on St. Iohn Baptists Eve 1348. without ever entring the Abby and the dispute still continuing the Pope 1349. wrote to the King Ne Rex impediret aut impediri permitteret promotos à curia per bullas acceptare beneficia sibi taliter incumbentia To which his Mary answer'd Quod Rex bene acceptaret provisos clericos qui esseâ—t bonae conditionis qui digni essent promoveri alios non 71. But the year following 1350. the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons meeting in Parliament complain with great resentment of these Papall grants shewing the Court of Rome had reserved to it self both the collation of Abbeys Priories c. as of late in generall all the dignities of England and Prebends in Cathedrall Churches c. Upon which the statute of Provisors was in that Parliament enacted which was the leader to those other statutes 27 and 38. Ed. 3. The 48. Ed. 3. 1374. the treaty between Ed. the 3. and Gregory the XI was concluded after two years agitation wherein it was expressely agreed quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur c. Notwithstanding which the Commons the next Parliament prefer'd a petition shewing all the benefices of England would not suffice the Cardinalls then in being the Pope having by the addition of XII new ones raised the number to XXX which was usually not above XII in all and therefore they desire it may be ordained and proclaimed that neither the Pope nor Cardinalls have any Procurator or Collector in England sur peine de vie de membre c. Yet the inconveniences still continuing 3. Ric. 2. produced that statute is in the print I shall not here repeat otherwise then that the Commons in the Roll seem to lay the beginning of these excesses no higher then Clement the 5. 72. By these arts degrees and accessions the Church of Rome grew by little and little to that immensenesse of opinion and power it had in our nation which might in some measure whilst it was exercised by connivence onely upon the good correspondency the Papacy held with our Kings and Church be tolerated and the Kingdome at any time by good Lawes redresse the inconveniences it susteined But that which hath made the disputes never to be ended the parties not to be reconciled is an affirmation that Christ commanding Peter to feed his sheep did with that give him so absolute a power in the Church and derived the like to his successors Bishops of Rome as without his assent no particular Church or Kingdome could reform it self and for that he as a Bishop cannot be denied to have as much power as others from Christ and may therefore in some sense be said to be Christs Vicar to appropriate it onely to the Pope and draw thence a conclusion that jure divino he might and did command in all particulars Vice Christi And though no other Church in the Christian World doth agree with the Roman in this interpretation though Historians of unquestioned sincerity have as we have in some measure heard in their own ages deliver'd when and how these additions crept in and by what oppositions gained that our Princes have with th' advise of the Lay and Clergy ever here moderated th' exorbitances of the Papacy in some particular or other and likewise reformed this Church though the stipulations between our Kings and Rome have not been perpetuall but temporary not absolute but conditionall as is to be seen in that past between Alexander the 3. and Hen. the 2. viz. juravit quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis
to the King this cause seemed to him non ad plenum tractata ideoque sicut in canonibus cautum est in pristinum locum debere restitui judicavimus Deinde causam ejus juxta censuram canonicae traditionis diligenter retractandam definiendam praedicto fratri nostro Archiepiscopo Lanfranco commisimus It is certain however some writers might upon this or for â— other causes think his degradation to have been non canonice those times did not interpret this though writ with so great earnestnesse for other then advise or intercession not as of a person had an absolute power of commanding in the businesse for we never read of any proceedings upon it not Lanfrank at all ever to meddle in the case that he ever esteemed Stigand a lawfull Bishop Epist. 27 28. who in the year 1075. being in a Councell at London according to the Decrees of it removed his Episcopall Chair from Selsey to Chichester of which he died Bishop 1087. without being at all for what appears questioned or disturbed after the first grant of it Divers examples of the like nature occur too long to be repeated where the King or his chief Iustice prohibit the Papall precepts from being put in execution and it is agreed by Lawyers that not the command but the constant obedience is it which denotes a right of commanding and in cases of this nature prohibentis potior est condito one example in the negative when the thing is stood upon being of more weight then twenty by compliance in the affirmative 77. It is probable neither the King nor the Bishops would introduce any new matter of great concernment into this Church without the privity of so great a Doctor Patriarch of a See from which their auncestors had received the first principles of Christian Religion but it is manifest what past if he were acquainted with it was by their own auctority not his When Off a intended the erecting of Litchfield into an Archbishoprick he did it by a Councell at Calcuith Lambertus as what he approved not producing crebra sedis Apostolicae vetera nova edicta against it yet the thing proceeded Lucius the 2 went so far in his intentions to raise Winchester to an Archiepiscopall Chair as he sent the pall to the Bishop yet it being not approved here as the event shews that Town never yet had the honour Henry the first having in his Lawes appointed how a Bishop Presbyter Monk Deacon c. should suffer committing homicide concludes Si quis ordinatum occidat velproximum suum exeat de patria sua Romam adeat Papam consilium ejus faciat de adulterio vel fornicatione vel Nunnae concubitu similiter poeniteat Where it is observable the King ordains the Penance permits the delinquents peregrination to Rome to receive from the Pope as from a great Doctor of the Church spirituall counsell which else he was not admitted to seek for peregrina judicia modis omnibus submovemus and again ibi semper causa agatur ubi crimen admittitur 78. VVilliam the first who began his expedition against Harald by the counsell of Alexander the 2. and received a banner from him minding the deposition of th' Archbishop of Canterbury procured the Pope to send certain Ecclesiasticks hither to joyn in the action as likewise soon after for determining the question of precedency between Canterbury and York upon which there grew an opinion Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem à nullo hominum nisi à solo Papa judicari posse vel damnari nec ab aliquo cogi pro quavis calumnia cuâ—quam eo excepto contra suum velle respondere This no doubt was promoted by th' Archbishops as what exempted them from all home jurisdiction the Bishops in generall did after think in some sort to introduce and thereupon put in this petition in Parliament 18. Ed. 3. qe pleise a Roy en maintenance del estat de seint Esglise graunter ordeiner en cest Parlement qe nul Ercevesque ou Evesque â—oit desormez arreynez ne empesâ—hez devaunt ses Iusticos en cause criminele par quecunque voye de si come sur tiele cause nulle alme ne les poet juger si noun le Pape seulement But to this the answer is no other then Il est avis qe en cause de crime nul Ercevesque ou Evesque soit empesche devant les Iustices si le Roy ne le commande especialment tant qe autre remedie soit ordeinez which he did likewise confirm by Charter there registred and as Walsingham hath truly recorded 79. This opinion though new to the English questionlesse incouraged Anselme to oppose the King in many particulars and Popes to go farther as to claim Princes should not confer Investitures nor define matters of Episcopacy c. then to bestow preferments within this Kingdome at first by consent and with the limitation no Italian to succeed another then to reserve to themselves the collation of all benefices of which before To conclude this whosoever will without prejudice weigh the reformation of England by Hen. the 8. Edward the 6. and more especially Queen Elizabeth in the point of supremacy must grant these Princes did not assume to themselves any thing but such particulars as the Court of Rome had in a long series of time incroached in on the Crown and English Church If at any time our auncestors styled the Pope Princeps Episcoporum it was in no other sense then they did St. Peter Princeps Apostolorum by which what principality they intended him we cannot better understand then by the Saxon who renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostola the Elder of the Apostles If they called him successor or Vicarius Petâ—i they were not alone appropriated to him for Petrus Blesensis and others give the Bishop of York the same titles and the Bish. of Bath who had a Church dedicated to St. Peter he bids remember quia Petri Vicarius estis So did they likewise in some sense call Kings Christs Vicars as well as Bishops If at any time they gave the Pope the title of head of the Church it was as being the first Bishop he was held to be as St. Bernard tells us in beneficam causam as they termed Oxford the fountain and mother of our Christian faith I cannot therefore but with a late writer that sayes England had a known subjection to Rome acknowledged even by our Laws ever from the conversion of our Country under St. Gregory had expressed in what particulars that subjection did consist what those Laws are and where to be found The truth is as there is no doubt our Auncestors in former times would not have joyned with the Synod of Gap in causing so disputable ambiguous a question as that the Pope is Antichrist to have been taught as the faith
possession of can no way be said to have departed from the Church but the Pope to have injuriously proceeded against him who maintained onely the just rights and liberties of his kingdome according to his coronation oath 10. And this is the case and fully answers so far as it appears to me whatsoever can be objected against the reformation begun by him or made more perfect by Edward the 6. for the manner of doing it viz. that they as supreme Princes of this Kingdome had a right to call together their own Clergy and with their advise to see the Church reformed by them And if otherwise I should desire to know how the Masse without any intermission was restored by Queen Mary for it is manifest she returned the use of it immediately after her brothers death yet Cardinall Pool reconciled not this Kingdome to Rome till the 30th of November above a year after and then too on such conditions onely as the Parliament approved during which space she as Queen gave directions to the Ordinaries how they should carry themselves in severall particulars which as it is probable she did by th' advice of her Bishops so there is no reason to condemn the like proceedings in Edward the 6. 11. I have before shewed how far the royal power went in compiling the book of Common prayer for a Catechism published by the same Prince it being composed by a learned person presented to his Maty and by him committed to the scrutiny of certain Bishops and other learned men quorum judicium sayes his Maty magnam apud nos authoritatem habet after their allowance it was by him recommended to be publickly taught in Schools Likewise the Articles for taking away diversity of opinions in points of religion were agreed upon in a Synod at London by the Bishops and other learned men Regia authoritate in lucem editi The King in framing them taking no farther on himself then he had in the book of Common prayer And Queen Mary though she quitted the title of head of the Church which yet she did not so suddenly as Saunders intimates did in effect as much So that hitherto there is no way of fixing any schism on the English Church for neglect of obedience it having been eversubject to the Archbishop of Canterbury and others its lawfull superiors restoring to him the ancient right belonged to his chair of being their spirituall pastor next and immediately under Christ Iesus But the Kingdome being re-united to the See of Rome by Queen Mary though what I have said doth in a good part free it of schism yet in respect the reformation I onely took upon me to defend was made by Queen Elizabeth and continued since it will be necessary to make some more particular mention how it did passe CHAP. VII How the reformation was made under Queen Elizabeth 1. ELizabeth the daughter of Henry the 8th by Queen Anne Bolen being received by all the estates of the Kingdome assembled in Parliament and proclaimed Queen caused her sisters Ambassador Sr Edward Kerne then residing at Rome to give an account of this her being called to the Crown to Paulus 4 tus the Pope who being in union with France and out with the house of Austria then strictly joyned with England and both at odds with the French told him either perswaded by them or upon his own heady disposition England was a Fee of the Church of Rome That she could not succeed as illegitimate That he could not go against the declarations of Clement the 7. and Paulus 3 ius That her assuming the name and government without him was so great an audacity she deserved not to be hearkned to But he being willing to proceed paternally if she would renounce her pretensions and freely remit her self to his arbitrement he would do what lay in his power with the dignity of the Apostolick See A strange reply to a civil message were it not derived to us by an unquestionable hand and that it came from Paulus 4 ius to whom it was not an unusuall saying that hee would have no Prince his compagnion but all subjects under hys foot Upon this unwillingnesse to acknowledge her Queen at Rome th' Archbishop of York who had before affirmed no man could doubt of the justnesse of her title and the rest of the Bishops refused to Crown her As for that some write it was because they had evident probabilities she intended eyther not to take or not to keep the oath was then to be administred unto her especially in the particular of not maintaining holy Churches lawes in respect she had shewed an aversenesse to some ceremonies as commanding the Bish of Carlile not to elevate the consecrated Host. who stoutly refused her and out of fear she would refuse in the time of her sacre the solemn divine ceremony of Vnction these are certainly without any colour and framed since For as for the last the ceremony of anointing she had it performed as had King Iames who succeeded her who would not have his Queen crowned in Scotland without it For the other it is altogether improbable that he to whom the command was by her given would of all the rest have assented to crown her had he conceived that a cause why it might have been denied neither indeed did she alter any thing materiall in the service of the Church till after the conference at Westminister 1559. the 31. March and the Parliament ended 2. To passe therefore by these as excuses found out after the deed done the true reason being no question something came from the Pope in pursuance of that answer he had given her Agent the Queen seeing she could expect nothing from the Papacy laboured to make all safe at home or to use her own phrase to take care of her own house and therefore as she had reason desired to be assured of her subjects fidelity by propounding an oath to certain of them which is seldome a tie to other then honest minds But the way mens minds distracted in points of religion the law of Henry the 8. extinguishing the auctority of the Bishop of Rome being very severe for securing himself in bringing such as did but extoll the said auctority for the first offence within the compass of a praemunire and that refused to take it of treason was not easy to be pitcht upon besides styling the King head of the Church which many made a scruple at to which effect a bill being presented to the house of Commons the 9. of February after many arguments had upon it the 13. of February upon the second reading it was absolutely dasht and upon great consideration taken the 14. Febr. a Committee appointed to draw a new Bill in which an especiall care was taken for restoring onely the ancient jurisdiction of the Crown and the Queen neither styled supreme Head nor the penalty of refusing the Oath other
himself an Inquisitor in Sicily and expresly writes of that subject is clearly of an opinion it could not be before the conclusion of the Councell of Lateran and for proof gives in my judgement a very probable reason viz. That no Papall Decretall or History preceding did ever name any such Inquisitor that very Councell when it treats of Heresy speaks of no other Judge then the Bishop now it ending about Easter 1216. as I shall shew hereafter if granted by Innocentius it must be at some time between March and the 16. Iuly 1216. when that Pope dyed Yet I cannot omit that Camillus Campegius in his additions to Zanchinus speaks as if after that Councell Friar Dominick had not his auctority from the Papacy immediately but from one Bertram or Bertrand a Cardinall Priest but who that Bertram was I confess I have not been able to satisfie my self Ciaconius remembers one of the name employed against the Albigenses promoted to that honour by Innocentius 3 us 1212. but he styles him onely a Cardinall Deacon as he hath another so called that was a Priest but he was no Cardinall till Honorius 3 us in December 1216 preferr'd him to the honour so was not capable of serving Pope Innocent in that degree 10. But whosoever first began it Frederick the 2d certainly much augmented their power publishing the 22. of February 1224. three lawes at Padua by which he did constitute the Dominicans Inquisitors through the Empire yet taking all others under his protection and appointing such as should be convict of Heresy ut vivi in conspectu hominum combur antur flammarum commissi judicio c. That these edicts were publisht at the onely instance of Honorius 3 us is very probable in that they are not any way recorded but in papall bulls quoad verba as I shall shew hereafter After which severall persons in divers parts proceeded against them by commission from Rome so as the Bishop who was the ordinary detector of Heresy had little to do and became daily to have lesse and lesse that although his power be not in those cases absolutely taken off yet it is so impaired as it gives place to the Inquisitor insomuch as if one suspected of Heresy be cited by him and the Bishop at the same time his appearance must first be in the Inquisition and the reason given is because they have a power by a delegated commission from the Pope whereas to the other jure divino haec cura incumbit in haereticos inquirere and Simanca yet more plain Cum Episcopi non habeant secretum carâ—erem nec ministros idoneos ad procedendum adversus haereticos non possunt servare ordinem illum qui praefinitus est Inquisitoribus quam ob remusque eo tantum procedere debent ut in haereticos vel suspectos inquirant summariam probationem Inquisitoribus secreto mittere debent So that what power the Bishop hath in this kind from Christ he is now become little other then agent or substitute to the Inquisitor in point of Heresy 11. But these Commissioners exercising their auctority with Fire Tortures and the like in short time found themselves infinitely mistaken in expecting by such violence to render that peace in the Church and obedience in the world the primitive Fathers by the truth of their Dictats evidence of reason and piety of their lives drew men unto for in some places they were expell'd by the peoples fury hardly any where continued but by strong hand their carriage being so full of Scandall as Clement the 5. in the Councell of Vienna could not but acknowledge they had so exceeded the power committed to them by the Apostolick See ut quod in augmentum fidei per circumspectam ejusdem sedis vigilantiam salubriter est provisum dum sub pietatis specie gravantur innoxii cedat in fidelium detrimentum For these men took upon them under the Pope not onely to construe what was heresy or complying with it but on those imputations to imprison fine confiscate mens goods to the destruction of honest people and families which forced some States to limit their proceedings barre them of prisons proper to themselves and the wise Venetian appoint three Senators to supervise their actions insomuch as this delegated power did so decline as notwithstanding the many constitutions of Innocentius 4 tus Alexander the fourth and severall other popes yet extant for regulating of it out of Italy it was little taken notice of in Spain it remained obscurum debilitatumque till Ferdinand and Isabella 1479. by agreement with Xistus 4. or as others 1484. with Innocentius 8 did so renew it as Simanca doubts not to write they did introduce it into that Kingdome which I conceive to be in respect of the alterations in the proceedings now used to those were formerly for that tribunall in preceding times committed from the Papacy to Friars regulars who most depended on Rome and therefore said to be the Popes Court is since by this concord become in effect no other then the Kings being recommended to the care of Clerks secular and Lawyers the Dominicans who formerly governed it altogether excluded unlesse where the Inquisitors require their counsell 12. The style or manner there used being that his Maty names an Inquisitor generall whom the Pope approves and after is not at all admitted to interpose for that Inquisitor nominates a Councell of which himself is President for number and persons as the King likes as sometimes five to which Philip the 2. added two more and these be of the gravest divines of Spain ever residing at or near the Court who compose all differences arising in particular Courts receive all appeals punish the defect of agents and relates to none but the King Of this Councell as I said the Inquisitor generall is President whose auctority is very ample for he nominates all provinciall Inquisitors and their Officers who yet enter not on their charges but by the Kings allowance whom on occasion he removes and punishes releases all penances appoints visitors over particular Courts and though he be directed by the rule of the Canon Law and papall bulls yet on occasion varies from them as is manifest by these Instructions Relinquendum est arbitrio prudentiae Inquisitorum ut procedant juxta juris dispositionem in his quae hic non expresse dâ—clarantur is answerable to none but the King admitting the Pope either very little or not at all insomuch as Pius 4 tus 1565. sending the Cardinall Buon compagno into Spain upon the cause of the Archbishop of Toledo committed by the Inquisition there six yeares before on an imputation of heresy the Kings counsell liked not he should alone examine that Prelate without joyning two Spaniards both in the processe and sentence Neither did that State receive the Councell of Trent 1564. by other
it omnes in Ecclesia ad divinum officium ordinati are sometimes so styled of which such as were infra subdiaconatum might retain their wives but those were in subdiaconatu or above were to quit them But the Canons yet remaining made at sundry times from Lanfrank even to Chichly by the space of more then 300 yeares enough assure us this point of Celibat was not easily imposed on the English Clergy and assures us such as laid it might take it off again 11. For Images if the Saxons had any use at all of them in their Churches for ornament for history to which end S. Gregory holds they might be permitted for memorialls of holy men departed as we have of late seen they being only thus applyed I conceive with the Bishop of Salisbury the weight of the question not so great yet it was a thing voluntary no command of the Churches injoyning it till after the Conquest And here the question is not whether Augustine might or did bring the picture of our Saviours Crosse in his banner as most Protestants yet retain it but whether he placed them in the Church with an intent to have worship of any kind attributed unto them for which purpose I confesse I have not heard of them till many yeares after for the vision of Egwinus and the Councell of London setting up of Images being made good so far as I know by no author of any antiquity I cannot but take it with Baronius for a meerfigment 12. It is certain 792 the Bishops of England declared their dissent from the second Councell of Nice in point of Images held onely 4 yeares before according to Diceto and where some interpret that they did onely condemn the worship the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by using the Latin word adorare it cannot be denyed but they did reject that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Orientall Bishops had established in which sense they used the word adorare which is often as well in holy writ as by humane authors taken for that reverence is given a creature as for the religious duty we only owe to the Divine Majesty see Gen. xxiii 7 12. Ingulphus a writer not long after Constantinopolim pervenimus ubi Alexim imper atorem ador antes c. So Arundell in his constitutions adorationem crucis gloriosae 13. To this narrative Harpsfield gives the title of commentitia insulsa fabula and thinks it not writ by Sim. Dunelmensis or Mat. VVestminster he might have added Hoveden the Ms. history of Rochester but that it was anciently inserted into them For answer to which he would be desired to produce any one old copy without it not mangled so as it doth prodere furtum by wanting it I have seen divers of Hoveden Mss. some of Math. West but never did one wherein it was not found not in the margin but in the text it self and so it is in Dunelmensis his Ms. at Bennet Colledge in Cambridge For my part I do not know how any thing we mislike in History may not after this manner be rejected if a relation gathered from monuments of an elder date which are perisht yet cited by one who lived not so long after the time he speaks of but they might well come to his hands whom we find very sincere in such citations as yet remain out of more old authors then himself ever esteemed of good credit in the Church of God and in his narration followed ad verbum by those who writing of the same matter succeeded him I confesse I say if this may be cast away as a lying foolish fable I know not what shall gain credit But what will men not lay hold on in a desperat shipwrack I remember Baronius prest with the testimony of Luitprandus in the deposition of Iohn the 12. by imperiall auctority makes no question of denying the five last chapters of his 6. book to have been written by him though never doubted for more then 600 years since he lived 14. Another Doctor I confesse seems to give a more difficult objection that Alâ—uinus who is said to have writ against the second Nioen Councell in the point of Images doth in his book de divinis officiis say prosternimur corpore ante crucem mente ante Deum veneramur crucem per quam redempti sumus c. and this from an author had written against Images he would have imply a veneration of them even in his time who opposed them by the English Church But what hath the reverence of the Crosse to do with the worship of Images It is not to be denyed but Christians in their talk and writings did extoll and magnifie the Crosse forced thereunto by the Gentiles who spake ignominiously of him that dyed upon it yet I believe it will be difficult to shew any Law or Canon before the Conquest injoyning the use much lesse that attributed any religious worship unto Images 15. It is true the Councell of Celicuith 816. did charge unicuique Episcopo ut habeat depictam in pariete oratorii aut in tabula vel etiam in altaribus quibus sanctis sint utr aque dedicata c. which was clearly for memoriall and ornament as it hath been very common in some Churches to have on the wall the Image of Queen Elizabeth and such as have built an Isle or window to have their statue or picture set up in it which in some parts perhaps remain to his present yet no man ever held any religious duty fit to be given them nor any man compell'd to set them up Now that there was no precept of the Church commanding their use I speak from the rules of Sempringham about 1148. that doubtlesse did not vary from the generall practise of Christians here yet hath this expresse statute Sculpturae vel picturae superfluae in Ecclesiis nostris seu in officinis aliquibus Monasterii ne fiant interdicimus quiâ— dum talibus intenditur utilitas bonae meditationis vel disciplina religiosae gravitatis saepe negligitur cruces tamen pictas quae sunt ligneae habemus So that it seems to me they did account all pictures so superfluous as not to have them but onely painted crosses this was one of the first foundation And in another place which I take to be somewhat after the buying of them and silk as things indifferent are alike interdicted yet a direction how to bestow any thing of that nature should be left them but see the words Nihil de serico ematur à nostris vel de nostro ad nostrorum opus vel ad aliquid religioni contrarium seculi vanitatibus amminiculum â—nec etiam ad quodlibet sacerdotale indumentum nisi constet esse necessarium Si vero datur secundum arbitrium Prioris omnium communi utilitati usui mancipetur hoc idem de Yconiis vel aliis