thought to have obliged us more then that declaration of the Bishops 1615 did the French who having meurement delibere sur la publication du concile de Trente ont unaniment recognu declarè recognoissent declarent estre obligez par leur devoir conscience a recevoir come de fait ils ont receu recoivent le dit concile promettent l'observer entant qu' ils peuvent par leurs fonctions auctorite spirituele pastorele and caused the same to be printed Yet that of Trent had never validity in France nor the other in England notwithstanding what thus past the Clergy 38. Neither was that other Councell of Lateran under Innocentius 2. ever received here though the Pope there insignem sacrorum Decretorum textum congessit yet nimis abundans per universum orbem nequitia terrigenarum corda contra ecclesiastica scita obduravit from whence it proceeded that when they were divulged they did no good quoniam à principibus optimatibus regnorum cum subjectis plebibus parvi pensa sunt Now that it was never received here appears besides this testimony in that the marriage of a professed Nun was adjudged valid contrary to the 7. Canon of it and that too after it was registred in the Canon Law which shews this Church did neither admit the Canons of forreign Councells nor the Canon Law it self to alter their ancient customes as is farther manifest by the statute of Merton cap. 9. Neither was the Councell of Sardis ever allowed in England as is manifest by what before of Appeals which yet by the Capitulars of Charls the great and Ludovicus Pius was even in that particular in France which made St. Bernard write of them in multas posse eas devenire perniciem si non summo moderamine actitentur Appellatur de toto mundo ad te id quidem c. for so the place is to be read as I have seen in two very good Mss and one late printed not as in the former editions of him as at Paris 1586. By these precedents the Reader may judge how necessary it was for the Parliament to make a distinction of Councells Now in these with sundry of as doubtfull credit being of late printed at Rome as if they were of equall value with the first I have thought fit to instance And here having made mention of receiving Councells as if that added strength unto them it will be necessary to say something of that too for the fuller clearing of this Church 39. The Apostles as they shewed a pattern for holding Councells to settle disputes amongst Christians so Paul and Silas in their travells delivering the Decrees by them ordained to be kept by severall Churches shew'd it to be reasonable such as were absent should receive what was done in any Synod before they were obliged by it and accordingly in the primitive times those were not present at the holding a synod had the results sent or brought unto them after the conclusion taken who did in their own Churches subscribe finding them just and pious what the others had in Councell agreed upon and then reposed them amongst their Records called by St Hierom Scrinia publica Ecclesiarum arcae c. So Cecilian being present at Nice brought to Carthage the Decrees there concluded who submitted unto them and S. Athanasius of that Councell sayes Huic Concilio universus orbis assensum praebuit quanquam multae habitae sunt Synodi hujus tamen omnes sunt memores tumper Dalmatiam Dardaniam aliasque insulas Siciliam c. plerique in Arabia hanc agnoverunt subscriptione approbarunt c. And of the Councell at Sardis it is recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I English thus Osius the Bishop subscribed and so did thâ— rest These things being copied out the Synodâ—n Sardis sent to those could not be present who were of the same mind wâ—th what had been determined of those subscribâ—d in the Synod and of the other Bishops these are the names 40. After which Athanasius from whom this epistle is taken adds qui igitur decretis 〈…〉 sunt isti in universum 344. Hence it grew that though some Councells had but few at the holding of them yet the subscriptions were numerous Baronius observes the 5th Councell of Carthage to have been held by 22 onely I conceive it should be 72. yet had 217. subscribers which was after the ending of it by Bishops in their own Churches when they admitted of it So the Synod of Antioch about 341. sending their conclusions to absent Churches writ unto them they did believe they would assent to what they had done et ca quae visa sunt recta roborantes cum consensu sancti Spiritus consignabitis It is of no use to dispute here whether this were an Arrian or a Catholick Councell be it either it still denotes the manner then used as doth the third Councell of Toledo held Anno 589. which speaks thus Constitutiones sanctorum conciliorum Niceni Ephesini Constantinopolitani vel Chalcedonensis quas gratissima aure audivimus consensione nostra veras esse probavimus de toto corde de tota anima de tota mento nostra subscripsimus and another held there having received with the letters of Pope Leo the 2. the sixth generall Councell invited all the Prelats of Spain ut praedicta synodalia instituta quae miserat nostri etiam vigoris manerent auctoritate suffulta omnibusque per nos sub regno Hispaniae consistentibus patescerent divulganda 41. By all this it is plain the manner of former times was to disperse the Decrees of Councells to absent Churches who by subscriptions were said to have confirmed and so far as lay in them by suffrage to have given strength to that such meetings had agreed unto And as Popes did thus confirme what other Bishops had concluded in their Synods so did they in like manner his In the year 1095. Vrban the 2. held a Councell at Clermont in Auvergne at which were present severall Prelats of Normandy who at their return brought letters from the Synod upon which VVilliam Archbishop of Roan caused the Norman Bishops to meet there who capitula Synodi quae apud Clarum-montem facta est unanimiter contemplati sunt scita quoque Apostolica confirmaverunt It is true the Pope being the Patriarch of most note in the world and of greatest dignity in the West usually the Acts of forraign Councells were directed unto him which he dispersed through Italy and other parts of Europe but his approbation was not enough to oblige other Churches till what came from him was by themselves allowed neither was this dispersing so appropriated to his Papacy as if there were never any other divulging of them the second Councell of Nice held 787 or 788 as Diâ—eto accounts was sent from Constantinople to Charls the great
other but in the foundation most sound most orthodox that holy man never intending such a superiority over this Church as after was claimed The Bishops of England in their condemnation of Wicliffs opinions do not at all touch upon those concerned the Popes supremacy and the Councell of Constance that did censure his affirming Non est de necessitate salutis credere Romanam Ecclesiam esse supremam inter alias Ecclesias doth it with great limitations and as but an error Error est si per Romanam Ecclesiam intelligat universalem Ecclesiam aut concilium generale aut pro quanto negaret primatum summi Pontificiis super alias Ecclesias particulares I conceive therefore the Basis of the Popes or Church of Romes authority in England to be no other then what being gained by custome was admitted with such regulations as the kingdome thought might stand with it 's own conveniency and therefore subject to those stipulations contracts with the Papacy and pragmatiques it at any time hath made or thought good to set up in opposition of extravagancies arising thence in the reformation therefore of the Church of England two things seem to be especially searcht into and a third arising from them fit to be examined 1. Whether the Kingdome of England did ever conceive any necessity jure divino of being under the Pope united to the Church and sea of Rome which drawes on the consideration how his authority hath been exercised in England under the Britons Saxons and Normans what treasure was caryed annually hence to Rome how it had been gained and how stopt 2. Whether the Prince with th' advise of his Cleargy was not ever understood to be endued with authority sufficient to cause the Church within his Dominions be by them reformed without using any act of power not legally invested in him which leads me to consider what the Royal authority in sacris is 1. In making lawes that God may be truly honoured 2 things decently performed in the Church 3. Profainesse punished questions of doubt by their Cleargy to be silenced 3. The third how our Kings did proceed especially Queen Elizabeth under whose reformation we then lived in this act of separation from the sea of Rome which carries me to shew how the Church of England was reformed by Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Elizabeth Wherein I look upon the proceedings abroad and at home against Hereticks the obligation to generall Councells and some other particulars incident to those times I do not in this at all take upon me the disputation much less the Theologicall determination of any controverted Tenet but leave that as the proper subject to Divines this being onely an historicall narration how some things came amongst us how opposed how removed by our ancestors who well understanding this Church not obliged by any forraign constitutions but as allowed by it self either finding the inconvenience in having them urged from abroad farther then their first reception heare did warrant Or that some of the Cleargy inforced opinions as articles of faith were no way to be admitted into that rank did by the same authority they were first brought in leaving the body or essence as I may say of Christian religion untouched make such a declaration in those particulars as conserved the Royall dignity in it's ancient splendour without at all invading the true legall rights of the state Ecclesiasticall yet might keep the kingdome in peace the people without distruction and the Church in Vnity CHAP. II. Of the Britans 1. I Shall not hear inquire who first planted Christian Religion amongst the Britans whether Ioseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes S. Peter or Elutherius neither of which wants an author yet I must confess it hath ever seemed to me by their alleadging the Asian formes in celebrating Easter their differing from the rites of Rome in severall particulars of which those of most note were that of Easter and baptizing after another manner then the Romans used their often journeying to Palestina that they received the first principles of Religion from Asia And if afterward Caelestinus the Pope did send according to Prosper Germanus vice sua to reclaim them from Pelagianisme certainly th' inhabitants did not look on it as an action of one had authority though he might have a fatherly care of them as of the same profession with him as a Synod in France likewise had to whom in their distress they address themselves to which Beda attributes the help they received by Germanius and Lupus 2. After this as the Britans are not read to have yeilded any subjection to the Papacy so neither is Rome noted to have taken notice of them for Gregory the great about 590. being told certain children were de Britannia insula did not know whether the Countrey were Christian or Pagan and when Augustine came hither and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome the Abbot of Bancor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree in charity to help them in word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience then this they did not know due to him whom he named to be Pope nor to be father of fathers 3. The Abbots name that gave this reply to Augustine seems to have been Dinooth and is in effect no other then what Geffry Monmouth hath remembred of him that being miro modo liber alibus artibus eruditus Augustino pâ—tenti ab episcopis Britonum subjectionem diversis monstravit argument ationibus ipsos ei nullam debere subjectionem to which I may adde by the testimony of Beda their not only denying his propositions sed neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habiturum respondebant And it appears by Gyraldus Cambrensis this distance between the two Churches continued long even till Henry the first induced their submission by force before which Episcopi Walliae à Menevensi Antistite sunt consecrati ipse similiter ab aliis tanquam suffraganeis est consecratus nulla penitus alii Ecclesiae facta professione vel subjectione the generality of which words must be construed to have reference as well to Rome as Canterbury for a little after he shewes that though Augustine called them to councell as a legat of the Apostolique sea yet returned they did proclaim they would not acknowledge him an Archbishop but did contemn both himself and what he had established 4. Neither were the Scots in this difference any whit behind the Britans as we may perceive by the letter of Laurentius Iustus and Mellitus to the Bishops and Abbots through Scotland in which they remember the strange perversenesse of one Dagamus a Scottish Bishop who upon occasion coming to them did not only abstain eating with them but would not take his meat in the
their complaints beyond Seas according to th' Assize of Clarendoun the King in nothing obliged to Rome but in the payment of Peter-pence as his father had before exprest himself 12. In November following the Pope and King had a meeting at Gisors in Normandy where Calixtus confirmed unto him the usages his father had practic 't in England and Normandy and in especiall that of sending no Legat hither but on the Princes desire Yet notwithstanding the same Pope not fully two years after addrest another Legat to these parts but he by the Kings wisdome was so diverted ut qui Legati officio fungi in tota Britannia venerat immunis ab omni officio tali via qua venerat extra Angliam à Rege missus est c. 13. But here by the way the reader may take notice these words Collata Impetrata Concessa Permissa used by our best authors in speaking of the Rights of the Crown in points of this nature do not import as if it had onely a delegatory power from the Pope by some grant of his as is fancied by those would have it so for we read of no such concessions from him unlesse that of Nicholas the 2. of which in the next But that they were continually exercised the Pope seeing either approving or at least making no such shew of his disliking them as barr'd their practice which by comparing the said authors is plain Eadmerus p. 125 53 54. speaks as if these customes were concessa fungi permissa from Rome which pag. 118 33 40. he calls antiqua Angliae consuetudo libertas Regni c. So pag. 116 22. he terms them privilegia Patri Fratri suo sibique à Romana Ecclesia jam olim collata c. about which yet it is manifest even by him the Court of Rome was ever in contest with our Kings about them who maintained them as their Royalties against it and challenged by Henry the 1. by no other title then dignitates usus consuetudines quas Pater ejus in regno habuit c. which the Pope calls honores quos antecessorum nostrorum tempore Pater tuus habuer at and affirmes to be grata in superficie interius requisita Legati vocibus exposita gravia vehementissima paruerunt so far have Popes been from conferring the least unto them see cap. 3. n. 19. 14. It is true things done by Princes as of their own Right Popes finding not means to stop would in former ages as later by priviledge continue unto them Nicholaus Papa hoc Domino meo privilegium quod ex paterno jure susceperat praebuit said th' Emperours Advocate And the same Pope finding our Kings to expresse one part of their Office to be regere populum Domini Ecclesiam ejus wrote to Edward the Confessor Vobis posteris vestris regibus Angliae committimus advocationem ejusdem loci omnium totius Angliae Ecclesiarum vice nostra cum Concilio Episcoporum Abbatum constituatis ubique quae justa sunt As a few years since the Republick of Venice not assenting to send their Patriarch to an examination at Rome according to a Decree of Clement the 8 th Paulus Quintus declared that imposterum Venetiarum Antistites Clementis decreto eximerentur so that now that State doth by an exemption what they did before as Soveraign Princes Besides Kings did many times as graunts ask those things of the Pope they well understood themselves to have power of doing without him Henry the 5 th demanded of Martin the 5. five particulars to which his Ambassadors finding him not so ready to assent told him se in mandatis habere ut coram eo profiteantur Regem in iis singulis jure suo usurum utpote quae non necessitatis sed honoris causa petat ut publicam de ea re coram universo Cardinalium coetu protestationem interponant And to the same purpose there are sundry examples yet remaining on record where the King on the petition of the Commons for redresse of some things of Ecclesiastick cognizance amisse first chuses to write to the Pope but on his delay or failing to give satisfaction doth either himself by statute redresse th' inconvenience or command the Archbishop to see it done 15. But here before I proceed any farther because it cannot be denyed in former times there was often intercourse between the Church of England and Rome and such as were sent from thence hither are by some styled Nuncii by others Legati I think it not amisse to consider what the cause was one side so much opposed the sending a Legat and the other so laboured to gain it 16. After the erection of Canterbury into an Archbishoprick the Bishops of that See were held quasi alteriâ—s orbis Papae as Vrban the 2. styled them did onely exercise vices Apostolicas in Anglia that is used the same power within this Island the Pope did in other parts the one claiming because Europe had been converted by disciples sent from Rome the other that he had sent preachers through England And is therefore called frequently in our writers princeps Episcoporum Angliae Pontifâ—x summus Patriarcha Primas and his seat Cathedra Patriarchatus Anglorum and this not in civility onely but they were as well sic habiti as nominati It is true the correspondency between it and the Roman was so great they were rather held one then two Churches yet if any question did arise the determination was in a councell or convocation here as the deposing Stygand the settling the precedency between Canterbury and York the instructions I mentioned of Hen. 1. to his Bishops the right of the Kingdome that none should be drawn out of it auctoritate Apostolica do enough assure us if recourse were had to Rome it was onely ut majori Concilio decidatur quod terminari non pâ—tuit as to the more learned divines to the elder Church of greatest note in Europe by whom these were converted and therefore more reverenced by this as that was most sollicitous of their well-doing and most respected for their wisdome All which is manifest by that humble Letter Kenulphus others of Mercia wrote about 797. to Leo the 3. wherein it plainly appears he seeks to that See for direction because the conversion of the Nation first came from thence and there resided in it men of sound learning whom he doth therefore desire as quibus à Deo merito sapientiae clavis collata est ut super hac causa which was the placing an Archiepiscopall chair at Litchfield cum sapientibus vestris quaeratis quicquid vobis videatur nobis postea rescribere dignemini By which it is clear his inquisition was as unto persons of profound literature had the key of knowledge conferred
liked Paschalis the 2. quarrell'd with Hen. the first that Nullus inde clamor to prevent which this visiting Rome was at the very first inserted into the oath of an Archbishop who being head of the Province all the rest might have the same dependance 55. But because this did not reach such houses and persons as were exempt from the jurisdiction of th' Ordinary acknowledging no superior but the Pope the Councell of Lateran under Innocentius 3. 1215. provided such as pertained immediately to his rule should present themselves before him for confirmation si commode potest fieri which was here misliked But this Councell speaking not home in that it tolerated the sending personas idoneas per quas diligens inquisitio super electionis processu electis possit haberi c. to make th' excuse and being it self as I shall shew hereafter not much regarded till Gregory the 9 nephew to Innocentius inserted it for the most into the Decretalls and framed as I have said an oath too for the stricter obligation unto him it was again urged by Alexander the 4. ut quilibet qui in Abbatem exemptum extunâ— eligeretur Romanam curiam adiret confirmandus benedicendus which the same author styles Statutum enorme and cruentissimum And whereas some finding the burthen of running to Rome had obtained as a priviledge from thence ut non teneantur sedem Apostolicam usque ad certa tempora visitare contra formam praestiti juramenti ex quo illud evenit inconveniens quod Apostolicae sedis dignitas rarius visitatur in derogationem reverentiae quae ab omnibus debetur eidem c. the same Pope therefore revokes all manner of such concessions to whomsoever formerly granted In which year or perhaps 1258 Simon elected Abbot of St. Edmundsbury confirmed by Alexander the 4. the 22 October is noted to have been primus exemptorum in Anglia ad curiam Romanam pro sua confirmatione vocatus 56. Yet the Court of Rome however thus earnest at first either perceiving it ill relisht abroad and that forcing sodain mutations in Religion not to be of so good consequence in her prosecution was more moderate On Roger the xxiiii Abbot of St. Albons 1263. I do not find at all prest his successor Iohn the xxv I have shew'd was the first went thither for it So likewise Philip Abbot of Westminster 1258. obtained the favour to stay at home and Richard Ware his successor fetcht his consecration first thence But after the Court was fully in possession of what turned so much to her advantage an excuse was hardlier admitted and if any did obtain the favour to stay at home he payed a good round summe for it It is remembred Michael Abbot of St. Augustins elected 1375 did give Papae Cardinalibus ut possit benedici in Anglia 183l-02 -02s-06 -06d. and accordingly some other The Papacy having by these wayes abated the power of th' Archbishop found it easy his lett removed to bring the rest of the Clergy wholy to depend upon it by raising whom it liked to oppose that Prelat who were bound to maintain the Papall auctority which supported them in what they did and wringing the Investitures so far as lay in their power out of the hands of Princes to interest the Pope and his party in severall particulars under the notion of being matters Ecclesiasticall by which he brought the elections of Bishops solely to the Convent excluding both King and others and became as Patron of most Spirituall promotions in England which forme he yet laboured in the end to break too by reducing all to his own gift For the understanding of which as not impertinent to that I treat of it will be necessary to look a little higher 57. When any place became destitute of a Bishop it is certain in the primitive Church the Lay as well as the Clergy did concur in nominating who were to succeed in the charge that he who was to have th' inspection of all might not be brought into it with the repugnancy of any And this custome was so generall as St. Cyprian and 36. Bishops more meeting in Councell about the year 255. writing to certain in Spain spake as if it did descend de divina auctoritate It is not to be doubted but this course gave sometime opportunity to ambitious and contentious spirits as St. Augustine calls them of troubling the Churches peace and therefore the Councell of Laodicea before the year 360. did appoint the elections to Priesthood not to be by multitudes and divers holy Bishops desiring peace might continue after them in their flock were carefull or ever they dyed to know the person was to succeed in their chair Severus Bishop of Mela in Africa had exprest to the Clergy onely whom he thought fit to have been admitted after him to his Episcopacy This was likely to have bred some stir in respect the people were not acquainted with it had not St. Augustine by his pains and wisdome allayed the dispute to avoid which that good man nominated one Eradius for his successor whom the people with loud acclamations approved 58. This concurrence or joyning of the Lay with the Clergy that qui praefuturus est omnibus ab omnibus eligatur as Leo speaks in choice of Bishops I do no way question to have continued in the Church till after Charles the Great in whose Capitulars we find Episcopi per electionem cleri populi eligantur and to have been sent hither by Gregory the Great who in his Epistles makes often mention of it as we do find steps of it in our own Historians Yet certainly however there might be some formalities of the people the chief of elections here ever depended on the Prince as may be gathered by that Speech of Wolstan to the Confessors tombe that he had compell'd him to take the pastorall staffe And Edward the 3. wrote to Clement the 6. Cathedrales Ecclesias progenitores nostri dudum singulis vacationibns earundem personis idoneis jure suo regio libere conferebant postmodum ad rogatum ad instantiam dictae sedis sub certis modis conditionibus concesserunt quod electiones fierent in dictis Ecclesiis per capitula earundem c. So likewise in the Parliament the 50. Ed. 3. the Commons shew the King and great men were formerly in peaceable possession of giving preferments in holy Church But I will give the words themselves because I will not erre in the Translation Le Roy les grandes feurent en peisible possession de doner les Esvesches les benefices de seint Esglise come le fest le Roy St. Edward qe dona l' Evesche de Worcestre a seint Wolston puts par devotion des Roys fust par la Courte de Rome conferme qe les Cathedralx Esglises
them St Augustine doth name some opinions for hereticall have small affinity with Divinity and who shall read Philastrius of Heresies must needs approve Cardinall Bellarmin's censure of him that he accounts amongst them many are not properly Heresies as the word is now taken The first Councell of Constantinople held 381. expresly affirms by the name of Heretick to understand such as professing the same faith yet did make a separation from those canonicall Bishops were of their communion But the construction what opinion was hereticall did ever so far as I have observed belong to the spirituall Magistrate who after the pattern held out in holy Writ if any new erroneous opinion did peep the neighbour Bishops and Clergy taking notice of it did assemble condemn it and by their letters gave notice of what had past them to absent Churches if the case were difficult the presence of any famous Clerk was desired who for settling peace as who would not was easily drawn out of his own home so was Origen sent for into Arabia And that this form continued in condemning Heresy till Constantine seems to be very plain by the proceedings against Paulus Samosatenus and divers others remaining yet in history and the writings of the fathers But for the prosecution of an Heretick farther then to avoid him I know no example till after God having given peace to his people under Christian Emperours they finding if the Church were in trouble the State to be seldome otherwise did provide as well for the calling of Bishops to Councells that might condemn Heresies as by lawes to punish Hereticks 3. The Councell of Nice therefore having in the year 325. censured the opinions of Arius for hereticall the Emperour that had formerly granted priviledges to Christians 326 declared haereticos atque schismaticos his privilegiis alienos c. and that no man might be deceived by the ambiguity of the word Heretick Gratian and Theodosius in the year 380. did declare who onely were to be so reputed viz. all who secundum Apostolicam disciplinam evangelic amque doctrinam patris filii spiritus sancti unam deitatem sub parili majestate sub pia trinitate credamus hane legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti reliquos vero dementes vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere and the year following did not onely in Ianuary renew the said Edict but in Iuly commanded all Churches to be delivered those Bishops who held that profession nihil dissonum profana divisione facientes sed Trinitatis ordinem personarum adsertionem divinitatis ordinem c. and for the more assurance as a mark of their being orthodox did hold communion with the Catholick Bishops of any one seat there remembred as Damasus of Rome Nectarius of Constantinople Pelagius of Laodicea Diodorus of Tarsus Optimus of Antioch c. omnes autem qui abeorum quos commemoratio specialis expressit fide communionis dissentiunt ut manifestos haereticos ab ecclesits expelli Which note Iustinian likewise in the year 541. having prescribed goes farther that sacram communionem in Catholica ecclesia non percipientes à Deo amabilibus sacerdotibus haereticos juste vocamus 4. Before these lawes it is not to be wondred if every one desired to be joyned in communion with some one of those seats whose Bishops were so recommended for conserving the Apostolick faith for the sanctity of their manners and for keeping schism out of the Church which being usually joyned with sedition in the Common wealth Princes seem to have an especiall eye how it might be avoided but after these Edicts they certainly did it much more and there being in the world no Bishop more famous then the Roman nor any other named in these parts of Europe then he every one endeavoured to live united to that Church whose form the Councell of Nice 325. for before that ad Romanam ecclesiam parvus habebatur respectus as Pius secundus writes approving in distribution of the ecelesiastick government and Emperours now in point of belief the Roman Chair became so eminent as for to shew themselves orthodox many especially of the Latins did hold it enough to live in the communion of that See and the Fathers in that Age to give high expressions of being in union with it S. Ambrose shewing the devotion of his brother Satyrus in a tempest adds yet farther as a mark of it Advocavit ad se Episcopum percontatus que ex eo est utrumnam cum episcopis catholicis hoc est cum Romana ecclesia conveniret and S. Hierom a person very superlative in praising and reprehending writing about the same time to Damasus Ego nullum primum nisi Christum sequens Beatitudini tuae id est cathedrae Petri communione consocior c. and in the year 602. a certain Bishop returning out of schism spontanea voluntate did swear he in unitate sanctae ecclesiae catholicae communione Romani Pontificis per omnia permansurum c. All which in time bred an opinion that Chair could not entertain an error and the beginning of the mark absolutely inverted for those men who at first were as others sought unto because they did conserve the religion S. Peter had planted in Rome must in after-ages be onely held to maintain the same doctrine because they are in that See so that the Doctrine did not commend the person but the being in that seat and recommended from thence be it what it will it ought to be received insomuch as Cardinall Bellarmine doubts not to write Si Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare for which he was afterward forced to an Apology yet is not in my opinion so absurd as the rule left by certain religious persons 1606. to their confidents at Padoua containing ut ipsi Ecclesiae catholicae understanding the Pope omnino unanimes conformesque simus si quod oculis nostris apparet album nigrum illa esse definierit debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare c. 5. But to return whence I have a little digress't it being plain by these lawes the Emperours restrained points of Heresy to the Catholick Doctrine of the Father Son and holy Ghost the ground of the four first generall Councils and others not to be esteemed hereticks in which sense I conceive sundry of the ancients take the word as S. Hierome when he sayes all Hereticks leave God and Socrates when he agrees such as condemned Origen finding not to blame his opinion of the holy Trinity must confesse he held the right faith and Leo the first when in an epistle about 449. he exhorts the Emperour Theodosius to consider the glory of S. Peter
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
from the bearers as private Clerks by deputation from thence did sit his superiors in determining differences between him and others who by strength were taken from his jurisdiction 43. After which Popes having gained an entrance found means to reduce the grant of Legatus natus to no more then stood with their own liking by inventing a new sort of Legat styled Legatus à latere by reason of his near dependance on the Popes person who employed in matters of concernment at his being here the power of the former slept which distinction of Legats seems to me to have had its birth after 1180. first applyed by any of our writers to Iohannes Anagninus Cardinalis 1189. by Hoveden which style yet others who then lived do not give him Of this Legat it is that Henry Chichley in a letter yet extant under his own hand wrote to Henry the 5. that Be inspection of Lawes and Chronicles was there never no Legat à latere sent in to no lond and specially in to your rengme of Yngland witoute great and notable cause And thei whan thei came after thei had done her legacie abiden but litul wyle not over a yer and summe a quarter or ij monthes as the nedes requeryd And yet over that 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 hee had bee reseyved hee would have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple as indeed if he stayed long he sometimes gained the censure of being occultus inimicus regni but this was not till the Popes had brought th' Archbishops much under by laying a necessity on them of receiving the Pall from Rome and at the taking of it of making profession de fidelitate canonica obedientia that is had obliged them by Oath to defend regalia Sancti Petri. Of which because I find th' introducing not much touched by our writers a great means to advance this forraign power it will not be amisse to say somewhat and first of the Pall. 44. The Pallium from whence our English word Pall was a garment with which the Professors of Arts as Grammar Rhetorick Musick might cloath themselves as it seems to me by Tertullian they did yet was held most proper for such as professed Philosophy And therefore when a begging fellow came to a noble Roman palliatus crinitus being asked what he was the man half angry replyed he was a Philosopher mirari cur quaerendum putasset quod videret to which the Gentleman returned Barbam Pallium Philosophum nondum video From whence I gather it was for the most peculiar to them So Eusebius shewes on Heraclas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking the habit of a Philosopher notwithstanding his being a Christian retained it and lib. 8. cap. 21. at the martyrdom of Porphyrius a disciple of Pamphilus he describes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a short cloak or Pall covering the shoulders 45. But it seems the primitive Christians in wearing of it did attribute some Sanctity to the garment for grande pallii beneficium est saith Tertullian sub cujus recogitatu impii mores vel erubescunt whereupon the Councell of Gangra not an 100. years after pronounced him Anathema used the Pallium quasi per hoc habere se justitiam credens c. Now from the danger of superstition of the one side and the being especially worne by Philosophers of the other I am apt to think it became in the end proper onely to some Bishops who might challenge it as learned Philosophers yet not at all likely to attribute more to the Robe then reasonable and in time either by collation of Emperors or otherwise appropriated to some particular Churches who having that mark were after the seats of Archbishops for the most part For though Alcuinus be of opinion the Pall is nothing but a distinction between an Archbishop and his suffraganes yet underfavour I conceive that must be taken of th' acception of the word in the time he lived not as used in St. Gregories dayes who gives Augustine at the bestowing the Pall upon him the title of Archbishop no more then he doth Syagrius Bishop of Austun in Burgundy which Town notwithstanding that guift by St. Gregory was never reputed to have other then an Episcopall chair and suffragan to the Archbishop of Lions to this day So that certainly at first all that had the Pall were not eo nomine Archbishops to whom it became especially proper after the Emperor relinquisht it to the Popes disposing who at first no question had a good part in the conferring of it himself 46. The deed is yet extant by which Valentinian bestowed it on the Church of Ravenna about the year 430. I know some who find not how to deny it hold this an honourable vestment such as Emperors themselves wore which opinion Baronius justly confutes and rather thinks it forged yet he citing out of Liberatus that Anthemius expell'd the Church of Constantinople Pallium quod habuit imperatoribus reddidit discessit gives no glosse how he could return to the Emperor his Pall and depart if he had nothing to do with it and it is manifest in Gregory the greats dayes that Church did not onely prescribe for the use of the Pall but for doing it contrary to the will and opinion of that Father And the same Doctor elsewhere saith he had dealt apud piissimos dominos the Emperors to send him Anastasius concesso usu Pallii and afterward being desired by Brunichilda to grant it to Syagrius of whom before he shews his readinesse propter quod serenissimi Domini Imperatoris prona voluntas est concedi haec omnino desider at So that certainly at the beginning if Princes did not bestow it yet it was not done against their wills which after-times did in Europe solely appropriate to the Pope who yet gave it not against their liking as Lucius the 2. sending it to the Bishop of Winchester who yet never made use of it teacheth us 47. But what this Pall imported or what the receiver had of advantage by it writers I think do not alwayes agree Isidorus Pelusiota who writ about the year 430 is of opinion the Bishop as a type of Christ wears that cloak of wool to shew himself imitator of the great shepheard that will bear the strayed sheep on his shoulders St. Gregory sayes it signifies humility justice c. I have shew'd before Alcuinus his opinion of it But what soever signification it was at first thought to carry certainly the necessity of fetching it from Rome was not so urgent as in these later the Papall interest made it esteemed We do not read that ever Laurentius or Mellitus received thence the Pall yet no man
doubts of their being as lawfull Archbishops as Augustine was Giraldus Cambrensis and Hoveden agree the Bishops of St. Davids in Wales did use the Pall till Samson about the time of the Saxons flying from an infection carryed it with him yet neither of them report him to have fetch 't it from Rome nor after the wanting it did the rest of the Bishops there either refuse his consecration deny obedience to the See or make profession to any other before Henry the first induced them by force But to come to the Saxons after Paulinus there are five in the Catalogue of York expressely said to have wanted it amongst which Wilfred that ruled all the North as his Bishoprick yet are reputed both Archbishops and Saints and of others in that series it will not be easy to prove they ever used it Albertus the 8. Bishop about 767. had it not till the seventh year accepti Episcopatus nor Adilbaldus or Ethelbaldus the 14. Anno 895. till the fourth year postquam acceper at Episcopatum An undoubted argument that Canon of Pelagius recorded both by Ivo and Gratian that no Metropolitane should defer above three months sending for it to Rome was never received in this Church Gregory the great sayes it ought not to be given nisi fortiter postulanti and the same Father with a Councell at Rome Anno 595. decreed pro pallio omnino aliquid dare prohibeo So that in those times the one side perhaps did not much urge the taking of it nor the other greatly seek after a thing brought small advantage and was so far to be fetch 't 48. But after the Court of Rome began to raise to it self a revenue from other Churches this Pallium that was no other then a distinctive ornament not to be payed for began to be set at so immense a rate that Canutus going to Rome 1031. did mediate with Iohn the 19 that it might be more easy to his prelats in which though he had a favourable answer yet in Hen. the 1. his time it was so much th' Archbishop of York could not pay the money without an heavy debt Mat. Paris doth intimate as if Walter Gray translated from Worcester to that See 1215 had not his Pall at lesse then ten thousand pounds accepto pallio saith he Episcopus memoratus rediit in Angliam obligatus in curia Romana de decem millibus librarum estirlingorum which was about the silver of 30000l. now Coin being then after the rate of 20d. the ounce But after times according to the Bishop of Landaffe reduced it to the certainty that each Bishop payed 5000. duckets for it every one of the value of 4s. 6d. our money which yet I do not see how to make agree with the Antiquit. Brit. Ecclesiae that speakes onely of 900. aureos ducatos payed by Cranmer 49. But to omit the gain came by the garment that certainly was a means of drawing a great obligation from all Archbishops to the Papacy for about 1002. a new oath de fidelitate canonica obedientia was devised to be tender'd every Archbishop at the reception of it For the more full understanding of which we are to know VVilliam the first after he had settled the Kingdome in quiet wholy possest of it would not in any kind acknowledge a farther obedience to Rome then his predecessors had but maintained the rights of the Kingdome in every thing against the liking of that Court in many particulars barring all men for taking any for Pope but whom he designed insomuch as after Gregory the 7. 1084. till 1095. about 11. years there was no Pope acknowledged in England denying any to receive letters from thence but acquainting him with them and many more of which elsewhere all which being exercised by him were never questioned during his time nor while Lanfrank lived after him though he hath been ever reputed an holy man But Anselme succeeding in his seat great contentions arose between him and VVilliam the second The King with the Nobility pressing him as the usage of the Realme not to depend on Rome as of necessity he on the other side deciating all such customes to be contrary to Divinity right c. chose rather to live an exile all that Kings time then any way submit to those customes had been practis't never disputed or questioned by any Archbishop here before 50. But that Prince being soon after taken away and Paschalis the 2. succeeding almost at the same time considering as it seems by what weak bands forraign Bishops were tyed to the Papacy how easy it was for them to fall from it that Gregory the 7 th was not satisfied even with Lanfranks carriage in Episcopali honore positus who restrained his obedience to canonum praecepta that Anselme alone had opposed the whole body of the Kingdome that every Prelat might be neither of his temper or opinions framed an oath the effect of which you may see in Diceto Ann. 1191. in Mat. Paris and others the full which every Archbishop at the reception of the Pall was to render At the tendring this one in Sicily made a scruple of taking it as that Nec ab Apostolis post Dominum nec in conciliis inveniri posse statutum the like did some in Polonia to whom the Pope answers as in cap. significasti objurgatorily quasi Romanae Ecclesiae legem concilia ulla praefixerint And going on with the designe whereas at the assuming of this Pall by Anselme 1095. it was no otherwise then thus Pallium super altare delatum ab Anselmo assumptum est atque ab omnibus pro reverentia Sancti Petri suppliciter deosculatum c. at the taking of it by Raulf 1115. his immediate successor we find it with this addition Sicque delatum super Altare salvatoris pallium est à Pontifice inde susceptum facta prius de fidelitate canonica obedientia professione Deiâ—de pro reverentia beati Petri ab omnibus deosculatur c. Which profession being never met with as made by any Archbishop of Cant. before but frequently after by such as were his near successors as Tho. Becket Baldwine c. we must conclude him to have been the first from whom it hath ever been required I know Bellarmine interprets a Bishops returning out of schisme 602. and voluntarily by oath promising to live in communion with the Pope to be a swearing of obedience to that chair but certain there is a difference between obeying and living in communion of which see cap. 7. n. 4. between an oath inforced and one voluntarily taken After this as wayes to augment the Court many priviledges were annexed to it as that none before his receiving that ornament might convocate councells make Chrisme dedicate Churches ordain Clerks consecrateâ—Bishops that being Pontificalis officii plenitudo
till he had it none to be styled an Archbishop things added after mens holding a necessity of seeking it did so much contribute to the Papall advantage both in point of honour and profit For it is manifest Lanfrank Anselme and Raulf did dedicate Churches consecrate Bishops and Abbots were called Archbishops whilst they wanted it 51. Now the ice broken this Oath at first required onely of Archbishops when they took the Pall was by Gregory the 9 mutatis mutandis imposed on Abbots and Bishops About 1235. came into England occulta clausa sub bulla the like to which had not been seen was profered to Iohn 23. Abbot of St. Albans unacquainted with it when he could not ab illa obligatione resilire who is therefore noted that primo invitus dolens Romanorum jugum subiit servitutis and that prae omnibus Romanorum oppressionibus novis inauditis coepit molestari c. The thing I find of greatest exception is the obligation injoyning them to visit Rome which being in pursuance of the 26. chapter of the Councell of Lateran held onely 20. years before is censured Damnum gravamen praejudicium injuria jactura as that which alter'd the nature of the Church which had been from the foundation libera ingenua and was thus brought to serve the ends of the Court of Rome Truly after this I cannot see how there can be said to have been a free Papall Councell in Europe when such as it consists of being for the most Bishops and Abbots come with so high an obligation as an oath to defend the usages of Rome under the title of Regaliae Sancti Petri. In pursuance of which the Councell of Trent did expressely charge all Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and other who in future should meet in Provinciall Synods that veram obedientiam summo Romano Pontifici spondeant profiteantur I wish it had exprest what that had been 52. To return to that I was treating of This visiting the Roman Court however much prest on this Monastery of St. Albans yet was ever-excused till 1290. Iohn the 3. and 25. Abbot was forced to go thither for his confirmation but because the book is not printed I will give you my Auctors own words Iohannes de Berkamsted vir religiosus honestae conversationis Hic in crastino conceptionis beatae gloriosae virginis Mariae scilieet quinto idus Decembris anno Domini MCC nonagesimo per viam compromissi de gremio Ecclesiae concorditer electus ad curiam Romanam primus omnium abbatum hujus Ecclesiae pro confirmatione electionis suae obtinenda personaliter accessit ibique confirmatus est à summo Pontifice Nicholao à venerabili L. Ostiensi Episcopo Cardinali apud urbem veterem munus accepit benedictionis sic data maxima pecunia Papae Cardinalibus aliis de curia quam de mercatoribus Papae duris conditionibus ex mutuo recepit ab illa insatiabili curia â—vasit expletisque negotiis domum redire festinavit c. By which we may see who of this house went on this occasion first thither and why it was so earnestly urged from thence As for the Monastery of St. Augustins by reason of the often contentions with th' Archbishop the Monks there were much more prone to yield obedience to Rome who maintained them for the most against him then these other were yet the first of them I find to have took this oath was Roger the 2. elected Abbot 1253. For though the benediction of Robertus de Bello 1224. were at Rome where he gained th' Abbacy yet there being no mention of any oath presented to him then we must think it came in afterwards But for the fuller understanding how this visiting the Roman Church came in the Reader will give me leave a little to digresse 53. Christians in all ages have esteemed it a point of singular piety and devotion for any Ghostly Father or Doctor to have a care of those to whom they have the relation of being a Spirituall Superior either by planting Christian Religion amongst them reducing them out of error or otherwise some engagement on them Saint Paul sent for the Elders of Ephesus to come unto him at Miletus from whom they received those wholesome instructions we read in the Acts of the Apostles and according to this example there are divers exhortations in the writings and Epistles of the Fathers Before the year 517. a Councell held at Tarragona in Spain did ordain that every Bishop impletis duobus mensibus se Metropolitani sui repraesentet aspectibus ut ab illo monitis Ecclesiasticis instructus plenius quid observare debeat recognoscat quod si forte hoc implere neglexerit in Synodo increpatus à fratribus corrigatur Agreeing to which Iustinian in the year 541. did establish by Law that for the better observance of th' Ecclesiastick rules every Archbishop Patriarch and Metropolitan Sanctissimos Episcopos sub se constitutos in eadem Provincia semel aut secundo per singulos annos ad se convocare And Pope Zachary Ann. 743. in a Councell at Rome Omnes Episcopi qui hujus Apostolicae sedis ordinationi subjacebunt qui propinqui sunt annuè idibus mensis Maii sanctorum Principis Apostolorum Petri Pauli liminibus praesententur omnioccasione seposita c. After which Charls the Great did by law ordain ut unusquisque presbyter per singulos annos Episcopo suo rationem ministerii sui reddat tam de fide Catholica quam de Baptismo atque de omni or dine ministerii sui 54. About which time Boniface an Englishman the Popes Legat in Germany and Archbishop of Mentz in a Councell held in Germany the decrees whereof he sent to Cutbert then in the seat of Canterbury declaring how great the care of the Metropolitan ought to be of those under him shews how every Presbyter should once a year in Lent give an account to his Bishop who was to instruct him and with such things as he could not correct himself to acquaint th' Archbishop in a Synod Vt si Sacerdotes vel plebes à lege dei deviasse viderim corrigere non potuerim fideliter semper sedi Apostolicae vicario Sancti Petri ad emendandum indicaverim Sic enim ni fallor omnes Episcopi debent Metropolitano ipse Romano Pontifici si quid de corrigendis populis apud eos impossibile est notum facere sic alieni fient à sanguine animarum perditarum Cutbert according to this advise doth appoint the proceedings of the Bishop to be to the Archbishop in the same words he had received it from Boniface but passeth no farther to the Pope an undoubted argument it was not then usuall in England I have touched before the Conqueror did suffer no other correspondency with Rome then what he
did after step so far as to prohibit their giving the King at all without his license endeavouring the gaining a supremacy over them as well in Temporalls as Spiritualls who hitherto had not meddled with collections of that nature For the same Henry about 17 years before after th' example of the French did cause a supply be made for the relief of the Eastern Church but I do not find it to have been either upon any motion from Rome or any part of what was so levyed to have been converted that way 9. But the former granted 1183. passing with so great circumspection perswaded the Popes not to think fit sodainly as it seems of attempting the like yet that the Church of England might not be unaccustomed to paiments they sometimes exhorted Christians to the subvention of the Holy Land and thereupon did distribute Spirituall Indulgences which cost them â—ot a farthing and procured Princes to impose on their Subjects for that end so did Clement the 3. or rather Gregory the 8 th about 1187. stir up Hen. the 2. and Philip Augustus Innocentius 3. King Iohn and as a generall Superintendent over the Clergy did then intromit himself and his Agents in the raising of it and so did convert some good proportion to his own use insomuch as Iohannes Ferentinus sent hither 1206. from the same Innocentius 3 us carryed hence a good quantity upon which King Iohn writ unto the Pope 1207. quod uberiores sibi fructus proveniant de regno Angliae quam de omnibus regionibus citra Alpes constitutis c. Yet truly to raise any considerable summe of mony from the whole body of the Clergy for support of the Papall designs I do not find any great attempt before Gregory the ix 1229. demanded a tenth of the moveables of both Lay and Ecclesiasticks to which the Temporall Lords would not at all assent Nolentes Baronias vel laicas possessiones Romanae Ecclesiae obligare and the Clergy were unwillingly induced to the contribution The Pope thus entred meddled no more with the Lay but of the Clergy eleven years after he demanded by his Legat a fifth part of their goods Many meetings were had about it they shewed the King they held their Baronies of him and could not without his assent charge them that having formerly given a tenth this of a fifth might create a custome and at a meeting in Barkshâ—re exhibited sundry solid reasons too long to be here repeated against the contribution But nothing would serve the King made for it and th' Archbishop out of private ends paying it they were in the end forced to yield such a supply as at his departure the year following it was say'd there did not remain so much treasure in the Kingdome as he had in three years extorted from it the vessells and ornaments of Churches excepted 10. But neither the paying it with so great reluctancy nor the Remonstrance prefer'd in the Councell of Lions 1245. from the body of the Kingdome of the severall exactions the Nation lay under from Rome and likewise to the Pope himself the year following could any way stop the proceedings but Innocentius 4 tus 1246 invented a new way to charge every Religious house with finding and paying a quantity of souldiers for his service in the wars for one year which being required from both the English and French produced here those prohibitions in the same Author against raising any Tallagium or auxilium But the French caused their Agent to use a serious expostulation in the businesse which because it is not printed I shall deliver at large as I find it Nuncii de novo accesserunt nova gravamina addentes supradictis Nuper enim mandavistis Ecclesiis ut quia persecutor vester ad partes istas venturus est mittant vobis militiam munitam ad resistendum ei quia non est concilium cedere venienti super quo satis excusabiles sunt Ecclesiae quia non habent militiam nec est in parte eorum mittere quod non habent quos etiamsi haberent mitterent non est tutum confidâ—re de ipsis Nec scitur etiam de illis utrum venturus sit quia etiamsi veniret praeferendum esset ut videretur concilio humano concilium Domini qui dicit Si persecuti fuerint vos in unam civitatem fugite in aliam c. And in the same year he attempted the making himself heir to any Clerk that should die intestate and the year following received from the Clergy eleven thousand marks exceptis exemptis tribus clericis as an addition to six thousand he had received the year before 11. I shall not here take upon me to repeat all the times and wayes by which the subject had his purse thus drained the labour would be too great and the profit too little it shall suffice to note the Court of Rome by much strugling overcame in the end all difficulties did arrive to that height the Commons were forced in Parliament 1376. to prefer this petition Si tost come le Pape voet avoir monoie pur maintenir ses guerres de Lombardy ou ailleurs pur despendere ou pur raunson auscuns de ses amys prisoners Fraunceys prises par Englois il voet avoir subsidie de Clergie d' Engleterre tantost celuy est grantez par les Prelats a cause qe les Evesqes n'osent luy contrestere est leve de Clergie sans lour assent ent avoir devant Et les Seculers Seigneurs my preignent garde ne ne font face coment le Clergie est destruict la monoye de Royalme malement emporte 12. And indeed the Kingdome had great reason thus to complain see one of many examples that may be alledged In the year 1343 the 17. Ed. 3. Clement the 6. sent hither to provide for two Cardinall Priests one out of the Province of York the other Canterbury in spirituall livings to the value of 1000. marks a piece sur une si generale coverte maniere qe la somme passer a dix mille marqes avant qe le doun soit accept But the State would not endure this but chasing their Agents out of the Kingdome the King sent through every County Ne quis ab eo tempore deinceps admitteretur per bullam sine speciali licentia Regis And a little after the Parliament held the 20. of Ed. 3. 1346. the Commons yet more plainly Nous ne voulons soeffrer qe payement soit fait as Cardinalx pour lour demoere en France de treter c. And soon after they represent this very particular of 2000. marks to be en anientissement de la terre and encrese de nos enemies and therefore qu'â—ls ne soient en nul maniere soâ—fferts c. In both which his Ma tie gives them content 13. Neither
did the Papacy having gained the possession as I may term it of taxing impose these payments for one year onely upon forreign Churches as at first but for six successively one after the other So did Iohn the 21. in the year 1277. and Clement the 5. in the Councell of Vienna 1311. pretending an employment against the Infidells but procuring Princes to joyn with them in the collecting that it might be pay'd with more facility and therefore gave them either the whole or part of what was so raised from whence no doubt grew that proverb so full of infamy That the King and Pope were the Lion and Wolf did in the end as we have heard convert the treasure to the ransoming their friends the maintenance of their wars and such like mundane ends The French affirm the first of their Kings who shared with Rome in these levies to have been Charls le Bel about 1326. which if it were our Kings were before them but such as succeded knew there as well as elsewhere how to apply what was thus gather'd wholy to themselves wiping the Popes clean out and notwithstanding all complaints in that kind from Rome Duarenus observes the Crown of France to have none more certain or speedy revenue then that is thus raised of the Ecclesiasticks 14. But these exactions grew so burthensome Martin the 5 th at the Councell of Constance 1417. was constrained to establish Nullatenus imponantur generaliter super totum clerum nisi ex magna ardua causa utilitate universalem Ecclesiam concernente de consilio consensu subscriptione fratrum nostrorum sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalium Praelatorum quorum consilium commode haberi poterit nec specialiter in aliquo regno vel provincia inconsultis praelatis ipsius regni vel provinciae c. Upon which Decree a supply of the Tenth being twice demanded viz. 1515 and 1518. by Leo the x th against the Turk th' English Clergy denyed them both times Thus the Papacy by little and little gained in England the power of sometimes laying that Tax on Church-men is to this day known by the name of a Tenth which became limited as we have seen and after by statute the 26. Hen. 8 th transfer'd to the King to be pay'd annually unto him as were likewise the First fruits or profits of one year commonly called Annats for I take them to be the same of all spirituall livings of which a word 15. The first raising of them seemeth to have been that when the Court of Rome did confer on Clerks and Chaplains residing with them benefices in the Dioceses of others they who thus obtained from that Chair not onely the Spirituall of Ordination but likewise the Temporall of Profit did at first either to shew their gratitude or for that the Pope would have it so voluntarily give the whole or some part of the first years revenue to the Court by whose favour they received all and the Papacy perceiving the gain did thus accrue laboured to extend it farther was in some sort imitated by other Bishops and for avoyding the shew of Simony cover'd what was thus took with the names of Annates Vacantiae Minuta servitia Scripturae and such like But as St. Gregory tolerating onely a liberality to be given after the reception of the Pall his successors knew how to turn it to a revenue so these however at first begun did afterwards become anâ—ually a profit What others did in this kind is not necessary to that I treat of but upon the practice of the Church of Rome the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons exhibit this petition to the King Prie sa Commune c. de veer regarder c. d'Engleterre Provendres en Esglises Cathedralles les donne si bien as Aliens come as Denezeins issint ad le Pape toutz les primers fruicts des dits benefices By which it appeares the Papacy that formerly took the first-fruits of onely such livings as men dyed possest of in the Court of Rome had an intent of extending them to all were de Patronage espiritel but whether an active King stopt upon this the endeavours of that See or the Popes wise men thought it not â—it to make too sodain an irruption into the profits of other Churches is not greatly materiall but 25. years after the Commons again represent the Popes Collector Ore de novel cest an nele prest unqes devant al oeps du Pape les primiers fruitz de chesâ—un benefice dont il fait provision ou collation except de graces grantez aux povres ou il ne soleit prendre nulles fruictes â—orsqe soulement des beneficez vacantz en la Court de Rome 16. But in whose time these first-fruits began to be taken there seems to me some difference amongst writers Theodoricus à Niem who lived in the Court of Rome Secretary as some write to Gregory the xi or rather as it seems to me of Vrban the vi sayes Boniface the ix circa decimum annum sui regiminis viz. 1399. primos fructus unius anni omnium Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Abbatiarum vacantium suae camerae reservavit it a quod quicunque extunc per eum promoveri voluit ante omnia cogebatur solvere primos fructus ecclesiae vel monasterii cui praefici voluit c. With whom Platina agrees Annatarum usum primus imposuit Bonifacius ix hac conditione ut qui beneficium consequeretur dimidum annui proventus fisco Apostolico persolverent sunt tamen qui hoc inventum Iohanni xxii ascribunt c. The same likewise Polidore Virgil affirms though he speak as if some thought them of an higher time which under favour I do not credit for Nicholaus Clemanges in the treatise he writ concerning them saith that when such reservations fell into consideration in the Councell of Constance he lived whilst it â—ate no beginning could be assigned before Iohn the xxii began them pro certo passagio ultramarino quibusdam aliis necessitatibus suis. To which I may adde the opinion of the wise and learned Cardinall d'Ossat Iâ—han xxii François de nation dont il me deplaist fust le primier que outre les taxes Annates qu'il inventa c. And Ranulphus Cestrensis one of that time saith of him Beneficiorum per mortem seu resignationem vacantium sive per translationem primos fructus reservavit ita ut Rector iustitutus taxationem beneficii sui aut residuum taxationis acceptaret ex qua cautela innumerabiles thesauri ad manus Papae devenerunt c. and Knighton himself reservavit curiae omnes primos fructus vacantium Ecclesiarum sive per mortem sive per resignationem c. Walsingham 1316. Summus Pontifex reservavit camerae suae primos fructus beneficiorum omnium in Anglia per trienntum
to commutation of penance which the law allowes he that would may find them in Lyndwood lib. 3. de immunitate ecclesiae cap. Accidit and lib. 5. de poenis cap. Evenit 21. If any ask a cause why the ancient Fathers did proceed with so great lenity against blasphemous hereticks as the Arrians Nestorians c. why when the Emperour would have punisht the furious Donatists with a pecuniary mulct the holy men of those times so earnestly interceded as to procure the remission and did requite their fury with such love meeknesse as to be able to say no one of them had payed what th' imperiall edicts might challenge when of late yeares men have been brought to the fire children exposed to misery by the loss of their parents estates even by Bishops and other of the Clergy whose opinions were neither so blasphemous as the Arrians nor their comportments so inhumane as the Donatists why they preached men relapsed even to a thousand times might yet live reconciled to the Church when as now such as have renounced an opinion Rome calls heresy being after found to hold it is seculari judicio sine ulla penitus audientia relinquendus which yet is not observed if he be a Prince as was Henry the 4. or perhaps a private man out of their power 22. To these demands I can give no other answer but that their offences being against the holy Trinity the pious Bishops of those times as men who watched for soules did content themselves to denounce what was heresy but having done that finding it not received to leave the punishment to him who assures it shall go worse with Sodom and Gomorrah then those refused their instructions and under him to the Secular magistrate did likewise follow his precept in forgiving even to seventy times seven times when on the other side the opinions of these later hereticks as they call them be rather against men and their Institutes then God as that Romanum praesulem reliquis episcopis paremesse Purgatorium ignem non inventri Celebritates sanctorum rejiciendas Iejuntis ab ecclesia institutis mhil inesse meriti c. and a perswasion gained none but the Ecclesiastick can punish Heresy who judge the opposer by the law of man howbeit they style it Christian yet how it agrees with divinity Iremit to the Canonists decision In the mean time I cannot but observe Simanca finds nothing out of holy writ but onely in divine Plato lib. 10. de legibus to maintain the position that semel tantum haereticis poenitentibus parcitur c. 23. This being then the proceeding against Hereticks in generall it will be necessary to see how it was formerly in England and how the Queen found it First it will not be unfit to premise that from the Conversion of the Saxons to the year 1166. no heresy was ever known to have been in England insomuch as we may safely conclude whatever doctrine we meet with in the publick homilies of the Church or other writers of elder times must be esteemed catholick however it now stand censured but in that year about XXX Dutch came hither that detested baptisme the Eucharist c. who being convict by Scripture in an episcopall councell called by the King at Oxford were remitted to his disposition that caused them to be whipt and burnt in the face and a command given none should either receive or relieve them so that they miserably perisht which severity his Maty did not think fit afterward to extend to those were then called Publicani as I have before shew'd though there were many in his dominions 24. For the punishment of Hereticks it cannot be doubted by the common Law that is the custome of the Realm of England to have been here as in other parts of the world by consuming them by fire Balaeus from the testimony of a chronicle of London reports one of the Albigenses to have been so made away there 1210. to which the learned Camden seems to allude when he sayes more dyed in Queen Maries time then this nation had seen ex quo regnante Iohanne Christiani in Christianos apud nos flammis saevire coeperunt The same Paramo saith is made good by an epistle of Tho. Waldensis to Martin the 5. but I have not seen it I am sure in that VValdensis I use it is not found But of the truth of the thing there is no question for Bracton writes of an Apostate Deacon that in a Councell held at Oxford 1222. by Stephen Langton was first degraded and then by the Lay committed to the fire with whom for the thing agrees Fleta yet by the way where you read in him per manum comburentur clericalem it is to be Laicalem for so is Bracton out of whom he transcribed it agreeing with the continuall practise both of this and other nations for the Clergy meddles not with execution 25. In Edward the 3 ds dayes about the year 1347. Polydore Virgil testifyes two Franciscans to have been burnt quod de religione male sentirent Neither did VVilliam Sautry a relapsed priest dye by any statute-law 2. H. 4. but convicted in a provinciall councell of th' Archbishop of Cant. the writ de haeretico comburendo bearing date the 26. February was by th' advice of the Lords Temporall sent to the Major of London to cause him be executed attendentes sayes it hujusmodi haereticos sic convictos damnatos juxta legem divinam humanam canonica instituta in hac parte consuetudinaria ignis incendio comburi debere c. But where VValsingham speaks as if he dyed during the sitting of the Parliament by vertue of the law then made against hereticks the historian is without peradventure mistaken for that Parliament begun about the 20. Ianuary ended the 10. March following did expresly provide on the petition of the Commons qe touz les estatutz ordenances faitz ou affaire en cest Parliament qe sont penalz ne tiegnent lieu ne force devant le feste de Peatecoste prochin venant les queles en le mesme temps puissent estre proclamez to which the answer is le Royle voet So that certainly he could not dye by that law which was not to take effect till so long after 26. But I confesse I did a little doubt of two particulars The one whether by the common Law a Lay man could be sent to the fire for any conviction by the Ecclesiastick for all the undoubted precedents I have met with unlesse that of the Albigenses were otherwise were of some Clearks within the pale of the Church that were so punisht and Bracton and Fleta both agree Clerici Apostatae comburantur whose words being penall I conceived stricti juris not to be construed by equity But indeed Fleta elsewhere speaks more generally Christiani Apostatae detrectari debent
then onely Rex Francorum and by him 792. hither where it was rejected 42. From hence it proceeded that part of the Acts of one Councell did not bind some Churches which did others as some parts of the Councell of Chalcedon and Ephesus seem not to have been received in Rome in S. Gregories time to which may be added some Canons of the 7th Councell But I believe it will be hardly shewed from the ancients that any Church neither intervening in Councell by proxy nor that did after admit of it were ever held concluded by any though never so numerous Certainly none was ever held of greater esteem amongst Catholicks then the Councel of Nice yet S. Augustine in his dispute with an Arrian confesses neither the Councell of Nice ought to prejudice the Arrian not that held at Ariminum him sed utrisque communibus testibus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet And St. Hilary comparing two Councells one of 80. Bishops which refused the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that of Nice which received it sayes si contraria invicem senserunt debemus quasi judices probare meliora so not onely taking from them all infallibility but allowing others to judge of their doings before they submitted unto their determinations And this hath been the so constant observance in all times as no age ever held the Latin obliged by the Grecian Synods which they have not received neither doth the Greek Church to this day hold themselves tyed by the determinations of Florence or to the many other of the Latin touching the procession of the holy Ghost and other points in difference to which they have not submitted 43. But for that the Acts of Councells without temporall auctority to inforce the observance of them were no other then persuasive Princes either on the incitation of their Bishops or convinced of the justnesse and piety of what had past in those Ecclesiastick Assemblies did often by their letters exhort or by their laws command the observance of what resulted from them So Constantine after the Councell of Nice wrote that letter remains recorded in Socrates and Theodoret to some absent Churches for their admitting the resolutions of it in which he tells them he had undertook that what the Romans had already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their judgment would willingly receive And Gratian Valentinian Theodosius did in the year 381. by their rescripts establish the same Councell as Iustinian by the law before mentioned did all the fourfirst which I take to be the same St Augustin calls inserting them actis proconsularibus 44. Of later times Popes having by severall arts acquired the greatest part of Episcopall power to be devolved to them have likewise claimed it as a right belonging to the Papacy not onely to call Councels but to determine which are generall who are to vote in them and therefore though properly or dinarie none but Bishops have there say they jus suffragii yet ex privilegio consuetudine Cardinalls Abbats and Generalls of Orders are to be allowed voice and that there needs no other then the Popes confirmation in Rome to oblige all Christians to the observance of any he shall hold out for such as Pius 4 tus by his bull of the 18 Iuly 1564. declared all in the Councell of Trent juris positivi did the world from the first of May before c. And though all History agree and the very Councells themselves assure us the causing the East and West to meet in those assemblies to have been ever done by Emperours and that Princes on occasions have called the Clergy within their estates together for composing disputes in religion yet the bare affirmation without any real proof hath so far prevailed with some men as to esteem him little other then an heretick shall maintain the contrary 45. But Kings have not so easily parted with these rights for the State of France notwithstanding the many sollicitations of Popeâ— from abroad and their Clergy at home hath no hitherto been induced to approve what was determined at Trent however you shall hardly meet with any of the Roman party but he will tell you that the points of faith there agreed upon are received in France but not of manners and government which is in a kind true yet contains a notable fallacy for the Ecclesiasticks of that kingdom finding the difficulty of procuring that Councell to passe have in their provincial Synods conspiratione quadam venia in quaque Dioecesi cogendi Synodos impetrata inserted the greatest part of the doctrinall points of it into those Councells so that it is truth they are indeed there received yet not for that they were concluded upon in Trent but because Episcopall Councells have each in their Dioceses establisht what they could perswade nec regibus nec supremis Parlamentorum curiis ut Synodi istius Canones in acta sua referrent observandos publicarent Neither hath the Councell of Florence under Eugenius 4 tus or of Lateran held by Iulius the 2. and Leo the 10 been hitherto allowed by France or England where the most zealously affected to Rome as Sr Thomas Moore have maintained the superiority of a generall Councell above the Pope in opposition to either of them though that be a point rather of faith then manners Upon which grounds those Councells before spoken of did not bind here farther then what was in them hath been made good by provinciall Synods within the Nation By all which it being certain neither this Church nor Kingdom hath ever been tyed by the Acts of any forraign councell not admitted here and being perhaps a thing of some intricacy what determinations the Realm had received after the four first generall Councells her Majesty took the way of receiving them as absolutely necessary but others with such limitations as are in the statute and for the future nothing to be heresy but what should be determined to be such by the Parliament with th' assent of the Convocation CHAP. IX Of the farther proceeding of Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation 1. THings thus settled in 1º Eliz. the Parliament ended the Liturgy of the Church commonly called the book of Common prayer reformed and published the Queen following the examples of her predecessors and relying on the ancient Symbols as the doctrine of the Catholick Church gave command the Creed the Pater-noster and ten Commandements as the grounds for a Christian to believe and frame his life after should be taught her subjects and none to presume to come to the Lords table before they could perfectly say them in English 2. Hitherto to my understanding her Majesty had not done any thing not warranted by the practise of her predecessors not that could be justly interpreted a departing from the Apostolick faith or indeed from Rome it self where she kept an Agent till Paulus 4 â—s
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
1381. cannot deny the truth of the assertion quod panis vinum remanent post consecrationem in naturis suis adhuc servatur Laicis antiquitus servabatur And here it is not unworthy the remembring that by the law of the 6 Articles 31. Hen. 8. cap. 14. containing in effect the body of Popery no man was to dye as an Heretick but he who denyed this Tenet all others onely as felons or men endangering the peace of the Kingdome by teaching contrary to what was publickly received By which it likewise appears in fixing th' imputation of Heresy the English looked on their home Determinations not those of any forreign Church 29. But I do not take upon me to dispute matters controversall which I leave as the proper subject to Divines it shall suffice onely to remember the Church of England having with this great deliberation reformed it self in a lawfull Synod with a care as much as was possible of reducing all things to the pattern of the first and best times was interpreted by such as would have it so to depart from the Church Catholick though for the manner they did nothing but warranted by the continuall practice of their predecessors and in the things amended had antiquity to justify their actions and therefore th' Archbishop of Canterbury in a provinciall Synod begun in S. Pauls the 3 of April 1571 and all other Bishops of the same Province gave especially in charge to all preachers to chiefly take heed that they teach nothing in their preaching which they would have the people religiously to observe and believe but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the old Testament and the new and that which the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine So that nothing is farther off truth then to say such as reformed this Church made a New religion they having retained onely that which is truly old and Catholick as Articles of their faith 30. Thus was Religion reformed and thus by the Queen establisht in England without either motion or seeking any new way not practised by our Ancestors but using the same courses had been formerly traced out unto them for stopping profaneness and impiety when ever they peeped in the Church And certainly to my understanding there can be none that will with indifferency look upon those times but he must however he mislike the thing done approve the manner of doing it Yet the favorers of Rome ceased not to proclaim all had thus past to have been hereticall without instancing any particular as to say such a carriage was after the manneâ— of Hereticks ever condemned by the Catholick Church and by orthodox writers in former times or such a Tenet in your confession was held heresy from this place of Scripture anciently by such holy Fathers met in generall Councell and to raise stirs and commotions in the Commonwealth to excommunicate the Queen as flagitiorum serva free her subjects of their allegeance to give out we had a Parliament-religion Parliament-Gospell Parliament-Faith and this before ever the 39 Articles one main pillar of the English reformation were confirmed by Parliament 31. Upon the whole it is so absolutely false that the Church of England made a departure from the Church which is the ground and pillar of truth as I am perswaded it is impossible to prove she did make the separation from the Roman it self but that having declared in a lawfull Synod certain opinions held by some in her communion to be no articles of faith and according to the precedent of former times and the power God and nature had placed in her self redressed particular abuses crept into her the Pope and his adherents without ever examining what was the right of the Kingdom in such like cases that had from all antiquity done the same would needs interpret this a departing from the Church because he resolved to maintain as articles of faith thrust on others as such some ambiguous disputable questions the English did not think fit to admit into that number To make a departure from Christs Church is certainly a very hainous offence she never commanding ought but what is conformable to his will nor requiring her children to believe any thing as matter of faith but what is immediately contained in the word of God or by evident consequence drawn from it and as she excludes no Christians from being her children who by their own demerits deserve not to be out of the divine favour so in opposing those who endeavour to procure some tenets to be admitted for hers which cannot be deduced from that ground we do not depart from her but gainsay humane errours and conceipts which they would infer to be her commands who acknowledges them not But as St Augustine in a dispute with a Donatist utrum schismatici nos simus an vos non ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut judicet Ecclesiam suam so may I whether we are the schismaticks or the Church of Rome Christ himself be the Iudge But whether divided from the other being matter of fact let the histories of former times the extraordinary proceedings of the See of Rome of late against the Queen and this Commonwealth be compared and I am confident the judgment may be referr'd to any indifferent person though of that belief who made the separation and whether this Kingdom on so high provocations did any thing would not have been parallell'd by former times had they met with the like attempts 32. Neither can the Crown in this reformation be any way said to have enterprised on the papall primacy which for ought I know it might have acknowledged so far as is exprest or deduced from holy Scripture or laid down in the ancient sacred Councells or the constant writings of the orthodox primitive Fathers and yet done what it did but to have exercised that auctority alwayes resided in it for conserving the people under it in unity and peace without being destroyed by the Canons and constitutions of others not suffering a forraign power ruine them to whom it owed protection In which it did not trench upon the rights of any but conserved its own imitating therein the Imperiall edicts of severall Princes and of those were in possession of this very diadem conformable to their Coronation oath 33. And from hence may be answered that which Rome brings as her Achilles touching the succession and visibility of the Protestants Church and doctrine in all ages since Christ for if theirs have been it is impossible to say the others have not the former adding onely more articles for a Christian to believe which the latter will not embrace as needfull so that if theirs as they so much glory have had the continuance from the Apostles these needs must which onely denies some part of that they hold Protestants says Stapleton have many things lesse then Papists they have taken away many things