Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	england_n	king_n	parliament_n	6,414	5	6.7618	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04286	An apologie for the oath of allegiance first set foorth without a name, and now acknowledged by the authour, the Right High and Mightie Prince, Iames, by the grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. ; together with a premonition of His Maiesties, to all most mightie monarches, kings, free princes and states of Christendome.	James I, King of England, 1566-1625.; Paul V, Pope, 1552-1621.; Bellarmino, Roberto Francesco Romolo, Saint, 1542-1621.	1609 (1609)	STC 14401.5; ESTC S1249	109,056	264

thinke he doth not meane by his Diuina Dogmata the word of the God of heauen but onely the Canons and Lawes of his Dominus Deus Papa otherwise all his Primacie of the Apostolike Sea would not be so much sticken vpon hauing so slender ground in the word of God And for the great feare he hath that the suddennes of the apprehension the bitternes of the persecution the weaknesse of his age and other such infirmities might haue bene the cause of the Arch-priests fall in this I haue already sufficiently answered him hauing declared as the trueth is and as the said Blackwel himselfe wil yet testifie that he took this Oath freely of himselfe without any inducement therunto either Precebus or Minis But amongst all his citations he must not forget holy Sanderus and his Vi●ibilis Monarchia whose person and actions I did already a little touch And surely who will with vnpartiall eyes read his bookes they may well thinke that he hath deserued wel of his English Roman-Church but they can neuer thinke but that he deserued very ill of his English Soueraigne and State Witnesse his owne books whereout I haue made choice to set downe here these few sentences following as flowers pickt out of so worthy a garland Elisabeth Queene of England doth exercise the Priestly act of teaching and preaching the Gospel in England with no lesse authority then Christ himself or Moses euer did The supremacy of a woman in Church matters is from no other then from the Deuill And of all things in generall thus he speaketh The King that wil not inthrall himselfe to the Popes authority he ought not to be tolerated but his Subiects ought to giue all diligence that another may be chosen in his place assoone as may be A King that is an Heretike ought to be remoued from the kingdome that he holdeth ouer Christians and the Bishops ought to endeuour to set vp another assoone as possibly they can Wee doe constantly affirme that all Christian Kings are so far vnder Bishops and Priestes in all matters appertaining to faith that if they shall continue in a falt against Christian Religion after one or two admonitions obstinately for that cause they may and ought to be deposed by the Bishops from their temporal authority they hold ouer Christiās Bishops are set ouer temporall kingdomes if those kingdomes do submit themselues to the faith of Christ We doe iustly affirme that all Secular power whether Regall or any other is of Men. The anoynting which is powred vpon the head of the King by the Priest doeth declare that he is inferiour to the Priest It is altogether against the will of CHRIST that Christian Kings should haue supremacie in the Church And whereas for the crowne and conclusion of all his examples he reckoneth his two English martyrs Moore and Roffensis who died for that one most weighty head of doctrine as he alleadgeth refusing the Oath of Supremacie I must tel him that he hath not bene well informed in some materiall points which doe very neerly concerne his two said martyrs For it is cleare and apparantly to be prooued by diuers Records that they were both of them committed to the Tower about a yeere before either of them was called in question vpon their liues for the Popes Supremacie And that partly for their backwardnesse in the point of the establishment of the Kings succession wherunto the whole Realme had subscribed and partly for that one of them to wit Fisher had had his hand in the matter of the holy mayd of Kent he being for his concealement of that false prophets abuse found guiltie of misprision of treason And as these were the principall causes of their imprisonment the King resting secure of his Supremacie as the Realme stood then affected but especially troubled for setling the crowne vpon the issue of his second marriage so was it easily to be conceiued that being thereupon discontented their humors were therby made apt to draw them by degrees to further opposition against the King and his authoritie as indeed it fell out For in the time of their being in prison the Kings lawfull authoritie in cases Ecclesiasticall being published and promulged as wel by a generall decree of the Clergie in their Synode as by an Act of Parliament made thereupon they behaued themselues so peeuishly therein as the old coales of the Kings anger being thereby raked vp of new they were againe brought in question as wel for this one most weighty head of doctrine of the Pope his supremacy as for the matter of the Kings marriage and succession as by the confession of one of themselues euen Thomas Moore is euident For being condemned he vsed these wordes at the barre before the Lords Non ignoro cur me morti adiudicaueritis videlicet ob id quod nunquam voluerim assentiri in negotio matrimonij Regis That is I am not ignorant why you haue adiudged me to death to wit for that I would neuer consent in the busines of the new marriage of the King By which his owne confession it is plaine that this great martyr himselfe tooke the cause of his owne death to be only for his being refractary to the King in this said matter of Marriage and succession which is but a very fleshly cause of martyrdome as I conceiue And as for Roffensis his fellow Martyr who could haue bene content to haue taken the Oath of the Kings Supremacy with a certaine modification which Moore refused as his imprisonment was neither onely nor principally for the cause of Supremacy so died he but a halting and a singular Martyr or witnes for that most waightie head of doctrine the whole Church of England going at that time in one current and streame as it were against him in that argument diuerse of them being of farre greater reputation for learning and sound iudgement then euer he was So as in this point we may wel arme our selues with the Cardinals own reason where hee giueth amongst other notes of the true Church Vniuersalitie for one we hauing the generall and Catholike conclusion of the whole Church of England on our side in this case as appeareth by their booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England called The institution of a Christian man the same matter being likewise very learnedly handled by diuers particular learned men of our Church as by Steuen Gardiner in his booke de vera obedientia with a preface of Bishop Boners adioyned to it De summo absoluto Regis Imperio published by M Bekinsaw De vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae Bishop Tonstals Sermon Bishop Longlands Sermon the letter of Tonstall to Cardinall Poole and diuers other both in English and Latine And if the bitternesse of Fishers discontentment had not bene fed with his daily ambitious expectation of the Cardinals hat which came so neere as Calis

against a Iudgment that was giuen by the Kings Iudges And likewise Because one entred vpon the Priory of Barnewell by the Popes Bull the said Intrant was committed to the Tower of London there to remaine during the Kings pleasure So as my Predecessours ye see of this Kingdome euen when the Popes triumphed in their greatnes spared not to punish any of their Subiects that would preferre the Popes obedience to theirs euen in Church matters So farre were they then from either acknowledging the Pope for their temporal Superior or yet from doubting that their owne Church-men were not their Subiects And now I will close vp all these examples with an Act of Parliament in King Richard 2. his time whereby it was prohibited That none should procure a Benefice from Rome vnder paine to be put out of the Kings protection And thus may yee see that what those Kings successiuely one to another by foure generations haue acted in priuate the same was also maintained by a publike Law By these few examples now I hope I haue sufficiently cleared my selfe from the imputation that any ambition or desire of Noueltie in mee should haue stirred me either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any further authoritie then that which other Christian Emperours and Kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say as Parsons doeth in his answere to the Lord Cooke That farre more Kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped Authoritie some perchance lacking the occasion and some the abilitie of resisting them for euen by the ciuill Law in the case of violent intrusion and long and wrongfull possession against mee it is enough if I proue that I haue made lawfull interruption vpon conuenient occasions But the Cardinall thinkes the Oath not onely vnlawfull for the substance thereof but also in regard of the Person whom vnto it is to bee sworne For saith he The King is not a Catholike And in two or three other places of his booke he sticketh not to call me by my name very broadly an Heretike as I haue already tolde But yet before I be publikly declared an Heretike by the Popes owne Law my people ought not to refuse their Obedience vnto me And I trust if I were but a Subiect and accused by the Pope in his Conclaue before his Cardinals he would haue hard prouing me an Heretike if he iudged mee by their owne ancient Orders For first I am no Apostate as the Cardinall would make mee not onely hauing euer been brought vp in that Religion which I presently professe but euen my Father and Grandfather on that side professing the same and so cannot be properly an Heretike by their owne doctrine since I neuer was of their Church And as for the Queene my Mother of worthie memorie although she continued in that Religion wherin she was nourished yet was shee so farre from being superstitious or Iesuited therein that at my Baptisme although I was baptized by a Popish Archbishop shee sent him word to forbeare to vse the spettle in my Baptisme which was obeyed being indeed a filthy and an apish trick rather in scorne then imitation of CHRIST And her owne very words were That shee would not haue a pockie Priest to spet in her childs mouth As also the Font wherin I was Christened was sent from the late Queene heere of famous memorie who was my Godmother and what her Religion was Pius V. was not ignorant And for further proofe that that renowmed Queene my Mother was not superstitious as in all her Letters whereof I receiued many she neuer made mention of Religion nor laboured to perswade me in it so at her last words she cōmanded her Master-houshold a Scottish Gentleman my seruant and yet aliue shee commanded him I say to tell me That although she was of another Religion then that wherein I was brought vp yet she woud not presse me to change except my owne conscience forced mee to it For so that I led a good life and were carefull to doe iustice and gouerne well she doubted not but I would be in a good case with the profession of my owne Religion Thus am I no Apostate nor yet a deborder from that Religion which one part of my Parents professed and an other part gaue me good allowance of Neither can my Baptisme in the rites of their Religion make me an Apostate or Heretike in respect of my present profession since wee all agree in the substance thereof being all baptized In the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost vpon which head there is no variance amongst vs. And now for the point of Heretike I will neuer bee ashamed to render an account of my profession and of that hope that is in me as the Apostle prescribeth I am such a CATHOLIKE CHRISTIAN as beleeueth the three Creeds That of the Apostles that of the Councell of Nice and that of Athanasius the two latter being Paraphrases to the former And I beleeue them in that sense as the ancient Fathers and Councels that made them did vnderstand them To which three Creedes all the Ministers of England doe subscribe at their Ordination And I also acknowledge for Orthodoxe all those other formes of Creeds that either were deuised by Councels or paticular Fathers against such particular Heresies as most reigned in their times I reuerence and admit the foure first generall Councels as Catholike and Orthodoxe And the said foure generall Councels are acknowledged by our Acts of Parliament and receiued for Orthodoxe by our Church As for the Fathers I reuerence them as much and more then the Iesuites doe and as much as themselues euer craued For what euer the Fathers for the first fiue hundreth yeeres did with an vnanime consent agree vpon to be beleeued as a necessary point of saluation I either will beleeue it also or at least will be humbly silent not taking vpon me to condemne the same But for euery priuate Fathers opinion it bindes not my conscience more then Bellarmines euery one of the Fathers vsually contradicting others I wil therefore in that case follow S. Augustines rule in iudging of their opinions as I finde them agree with the Scriptures what I find agreeable thereunto I will gladly imbrace what is otherwise I will with their reuerence reiect As for the Scriptures no man doubteth I will beleeue them But euen for the Apocrypha I hold them in the same account that the Ancients did They are still printed and bound with our Bibles and publikely read in our Churches I reuerence them as the writings of holy and good men but since they are not found in the Canon we account them to be secundae lectionis or ordinis which is Bellarmines owne distinction and therefore not sufficient whereupon alone to ground any article

after such things but for them that were throughly instructed in Gods word they could neuer suffer any syllable thereof to be corrupted Nay if need required they would for the maintenance thereof refuse no kinde of death Indeed the loue of the Emperour ought to be greatly esteemed with pietie but pietie taken away it was pernicious This is the truth of the history Now compare the case of Basill with the Arch-priests Basill was solicited to become an Arrian the Arch-priest not once touched for any article of faith Basill would haue obeyed the Emperour but that the word of GOD for bade him this man is willed to obey because the word of GOD commandeth him Basill highly esteemed the Emperours fauour if it might haue stood with pietie the Archpriest is exhorted to reiect it though it stand with true godlinesse in deed to embrace it But that hee may lay load vpon the Arch-priest it is not sufficient to exhort him to courage and constancie by Eleazars and Basils examples but hee must be vtterty cast downe with the comparing his fall to S. Peters and Marcellinus which two mens cases were the most feareful considering their persons and places that are to be found or read of either in all the books of diuine Scripture or the volumes of Ecclesiasticall histories the one denying the onely true God the other our Lord Sauiour IESVS CHRIST the one sacrificing to idols with the profane heathen the other forswearing his Lord and Master with the hard-hearted Iewes Vnlesse the Cardinall would driue the Archpriest to some horrour of conscience and pit of despaire I know not what hee can meane by this comparison For sure I am all that are not intoxicated with their cup cannot but woonder to heare of an Oath of Allegiance to a naturall Soueraigne to bee likened to an Apostats denying of God and forswearing of his Sauiour But to let passe the Disdiapason of the cases as his ill-fauoured coupling S. Peter the head of their Church with an apostate Pope I maruaile he would remember this example of Marcellinus since his brother Cardinall Baronius and the late edition of the Councels by Binnius seeme to call the credite of the whole history into question saying That it might plainely be refuted and that it is probably to be shewed that the story is but obreptitious but that he would not swarue from the common receiued opinion And if a man might haue leaue to coniecture so would his Cardinalship too if it were not for one or two sentences in that Councell of Sinuessa which serued for his purpose namely that Prima sedes à nemine iudicatur And Iudica causam tuam nostrâ sententià non condemnaberis But to what purpose a great Councel as he termes it of three hundred Bishops and others should meete together who before they met knew they could doe nothing when they were there did nothing but like Cuckowes sing ouer and ouer the same song that Prima sedes à nemine iudicatur and so after three dayes sitting a long time indeed for a great and graue Councell brake so bluntly vp and yet that there should be seuenty two witnesses brought against him and that they should subscribe his excommunication and that at his owne mouth he tooke the Anathema maranatha how these vntoward contradictions shal be made to agree I must send the Cardinall to Venice to Padre Paulo who in his Apologie against the Cardinals oppositions hath handled them very learnedly But from one Pope let vs passe to another for what a principall article of faith and religion this Oath is I haue alreadie sufficiently proued Why he called S. Gregory our Apostle I know not vnlesse perhaps it be for that he sent Augustine the Monke and others with him into England to cōuert vs to the faith of Christ wherein I wish the Popes his successours would follow his patterne For albeit he sent them by diuine reuelation as he said into England vnto King Ethelbert yet when they came they exercised no part of their function but by the Kings leaue and permission So did King Lucius send to Eleutherius his predecessor and hee sent him diuers Bishops who were all placed by the Kings authoritie These conuerted men to the faith and taught them to obey the King And if the Popes in these dayes would but insist in these steps of their forefathers then would they not intertaine Princes fugitiues abroad nor send them home not onely without my leaue but directly against the lawes with plots of treason and doctrine of rebellion to drawe Subiects from their obedience to mee their naturall King nor be so cruell to their owne Mancipia as returning them with these wares put either a State in iealousie of them or them in hazard of their owne liues Now to our Apostle since the Cardinall will haue him so called I perswade my selfe I should doe a good seruice to the Church in this my labour if I could but reape this one fruit of it to moue the Cardinal to deale faithfully with the Fathers and neuer to alledge their opinions against their owne purpose For this letter of Gregorius was written to Iohn Bishop of Palermo in Sicily to whom he granted vsum pallij to be worne in such times in such order as the Priests in the I le of Sicily and his predecessours were wont to vse and withall giueth him a caueat that the reuerence to the Apostolike Sea be not disturbed by the presumption of any for then the state of the members doth remaine sound when the head of the Faith is not bruised by any iniury and the authoritie of the Canons alwayes remaine safe and sound Now let vs examine the words The epistle was written to a Bishop especially to grant him the vse of the Pall a ceremony and matter indifferent As it appeareth the Bishop of Rome tooke it well at his hands that hee would not presume to take it vpon him without leaue from the Apostolique Sea giuing him that admonition which foloweth in the words alledged out of him which doctrine we are so far frō impugning that we altogether approue allow of the same that whatsoeuer ceremonie for order is thought meet by the Christian Magistrat and the Church the same ought inuiolably to bee kept and where the head gouernour in matters of that nature are not obeyed the members of that Church must needs run to hellish confusion But that Gregory by that terme caput fidei held himselfe the head of our faith and the head of all Religion cannot stand with the course of his doctrine and writings For first whē an other would haue had this stile to be called Vniuersalis Episcopus hee sayd I doe confidently auouch that whosoeuer calleth himselfe or desireth to be called Vniuersall Bishop in this aduancing of himselfe is the forerunner of the Antichrist Which notwithstanding was a stile far inferiour to

the naturall Allegiance and next clearely confirmed by this Oath which doeth nothing but expresse the same so as no man can now hold the faith or procure the saluation of his sould in England that must not abiure and renounce his borne and sworne Allegiance to his naturall Soueraigne And yet it is not sufficient to ratifie the last yeeres Breue by a new one come foorth this yeere but that not onely euery yeere but euery moneth may produce a new monster the great and famous Writer of the Controuersies the late vn-Iesuited Cardinall Bellarmine must adde his talent to this good worke by blowing the bellowes of sedition and sharpening the spur to rebellion by sending such a Letter of his to the Arch-priest here as it is wonder how passion and an ambitious desire of maintaining that Monarchie should charme the wits of so famously learned a man The Copie where of here followeth TO THE VERY REuerend Mr. George Blackwel Arch-priest of the English Robert Bellarmine Cardinall of the holy Church of Rome greeting REuerend Sir and Brother in CHRIST It is almost fourty yeeres since we did see one the other but yet I haue neuer bin vnmindful of our ancient acquaintance neither haue I ceased seeing I could doe you no other good to commend your labouring most painfully in the Lords vineyard in my prayers to GOD. And I doubt not but that I haue liued all this while in your memory and haue had some place in your prayers at the Lords Altar So therefore euen vnto this time wee haue abidden as S. Iohn speaketh in the mutuall loue one of the other not by word or letter but in deede and trueth But a late message which was brought vnto vs within these few dayes of your bonds and imprisonment hath inforced mee to breake off this silence which message although it seemed heauy in regard of the losse which that Church hath receiued by their beeing thus depriued of the comfort of your pastorall function among them yet withall it seemed ioyous because you drewe neere vnto the glory of Martyrdome then the which gift of God there is none more happy That you who haue fed your flocke so many yeeres with the word and doctrine should now feed it more gloriously by the example of your patience But another heauy tidings did not a litle disquiet and almost take away this ioy which immediatly followed of the aduersaries assault and peraduenture of the slip and fall of your Constancy in refusing an vnlawfull Oath Neither truely most deare Brother could that Oath therfore be lawfull because it was offered in sort tempered and modified for you know that those kinde of modifications are nothing else but sleights subtilties of Sathan that the Catholique faith touching the Primacie of the Sea Apostolique might either secretly or openly be shot at for the which faith so many worthy Martyrs euen in that very England it selfe haue resisted vnto blood For most certaine it is that in whatsoeuer wordes the Oath is conceiued by the aduersaries of the faith in that Kingdome it tends to this end that the authoritie of the head of the Church in England may be transferred from the successour of S. Peter to the Successour of K. Henry the eight For that which is pretended of the danger of the Kings life if the high Priest should haue the same power in England which hee hath in all other Christian Kingdomes it is altogether idle as all that haue any vnderstanding may easily perceiue For it was neuer heard of from the Churches infancy vntill this day that euer any Pope did command that any Prince though an Heretike though an Ethnike though a Persecutor should be murdered or did approue of the fact when it was done by any other And why I pray you doeth onely the King of England feare that which none of all other the Princes in Christendome either doeth feare or euer did feare But as I saide these vaine pretexts are but the trappes and stratagemes of Satan Of which kinde I could produce not a f●we out of Ancient Stories if I went about to write a book● and not an Epistle One onely for example sake I will call to your memory S. Gregorius Nazianzenus in his first Oration against Iulian the Emperour reporteth That he the more easily to beguile the simple Christians did insert the Images of the false gods into the pictures of the Emperor which the Romanes did vse to bow dawne vnto with a ciuill kind of reuerence so that no man could doe reuerence to the Emperours picture but withall he must adore the Images of the false gods whereupon it came to passe that many were deceiued And if there were any that found out the Emperours craft and refused to worship his picture those were most grieuously punished as men that had contemned the Emperour in his Image Some such like thing me thinkes I see in the Oath that is offered to you which is to so craftily composed that no man can detest Treason against the King and make profession of his Ciuill subiection but he must be constrained perfidiously to denie the Primacie of the Apostolike Sea But the seruants of Christ and especially the chiefe Priests of the Lord ought to be so farre from taking an vnlawfull Oath where they may indamage the Faith that they ought to beware that they giue not the least suspicion of dissimulation that they haue taken it least they might seeme to haue left any example of preuarication to faithfull people Which thing that worthy Eleazar did most notably performe who would neither eate swines flesh nor so much as faine to haue eaten it although hee saw the great torments that did hang ouer his head least as himselfe speaketh in the second booke of the Machabees many yong men might be brought through that similation to preuaricate with the Law Neither did Basil the great by his example which is more fit for our purpose carrie himselfe lesse worthily toward Valens the Emperour For as Theodoret writeth in his Historie when the Deputy of that heretical Emperour did perswade Saint Basill that he would not resist the Emperour for a little subtiltie of a few points of doctrine that most holy and prudent man made answere That it was not to bee indured that the least syllable of Gods word should bee corrupted but rather all kind of torment was to be embraced for the maintenance of the Trueth thereof Now I suppose that there wants not amongst you who say that they are but subtilties of Opinions that are conteined in the Oath that is offred to the Catholikes and that you are not to striue against the Kings Authoritie for such a little matter But there are not wanting also amongst you holy men like vnto Basil the Great which will openly auow that the very least syllable of Gods diuine trueth is not to be corrupted though many torments were to be endured and death it selfe set before you Amongst whom it is meete