as in justice he is bound he is not to be reputed a Schismatick If men might not be saved by a general and implicite repentance they were in a woful condition for who can tell how oft he offendeth Cleanse thou me from my secret faults And if by general and implicite repentance why not by general and implicite faith why not by general and implicite obedience So as they do their uttermost indeavours to learn their duties and are ready to conform themselves when they know them God looks upon his creatures with all their prejudices and expects no more of them then according to the talents which he hath given them If I had books for that purpose I might have cited many Lawes and many Authors to prove that the final separation from Rome was made long before the reformation of the Church of England But it is a truth so evident and so undeniable by all these who understand our affaires that I seem to my self to have done overmuch in it already I do expect that it should be urged by some that there was a double separation of the Church of England from Rome The former from the court of Rome The second from the Church of Rome The former in point of discipline The latter in point of Doctrine The former made in the daies of Henry the Eighth The other in the daies of Edward the sixth That if the Protestants were not guilty of the former yet certainly they were guilty of the later To this I give two answers first that the second separation in point of Doctrine doth not concern this question Whether the Church of England be Schismatical but another whether the Church of England be Haereticall or at least Heterodox for every error doth not presently make an haeresy which cannot be determined without discussing the particular differences between the Church of Rome and the Church of England It is an undeniable principle to which both parties do yeeld firm assent that they who made the first separation from the primitive pure Church and brought in corruptions in faith Leiturgy or use of the Sacraments are the guilty party Yea though the separation were not local but onely moral by introducing errours and innovations and making no other secession This is the issue of our controversie If they have innovated first then we are innocent and have done no more then our duties It is not the separation but the cause that makes a Schismatique Secondly I answer that as Roman Catholicks not Protestants were the authors of the Separation of England from the Court of Rome so the Court of Rome it self not Protestants made the Separation of England from the communion of the Church of Rome by their unjust and tyrannical censures excommunications and interdictions which they thundred out against the Realm for denying their spiritual Soveraignty by divine right before any reformation made by Protestants It was not Protestants that left the communion of the Church of Rome but the Court of Rome that thrust all the English Nation both Protestants and Roman Catholicks together out of their doores and chased them away from them when Pope Paul the third excommunicated and interdicted England in the daies of Henry the eighth before ever any reformation was attempted by the Protestants In that condition the Protestants found the Church and Kingdom of England in the daies of Edward the sixth So there was no need of any new separation from the communion of the Church of Rome The Court of Rome had done â—hat to their hands So to conclude my first Proposition Whatsoever some not knowing or not weighing the state of our affaires And the Acts and Records of those times have rashly or ignorantly pronounced to the contrary it is evident that the Protestants had no hand either in the separation of the English Church from the Court of Rome or in their separation from the Church of Rome The former being made by professed Roman Catholicks the later by the Court of Rome it self both before the reformation following in the dayes of Edward the sixth both at a time when the poor Protestants suffered death daily for their conscience upon the six bloody Articles CHAP. IV. That the King and Kingdom of England in the separation from Rome diâ— make no new Law but vindicate their ancient Liberties THe second Conclusion upon examination will prove as evident as the former that Henry the eighth and those Roman Catholicks with him who made the great separation from the Court of Rome did no new thing but what their predecessors in all ages had done before them treading in the steps of their Christian Ancestors And first it cannot be denyed but that any person or Society that hath an eminent reputation of learning or prudence or piety or authority or power hath ever had and ever will have a great influence upon his or their neighbours without any legal Jurisdiction over them or subjection due from them Secondly it is confessed that in the primitive times great was the dignity and authority of the Apostolical Churches as Rome Antiâ—ch Ephesus Hierusalem Alexandria which were founded by the Apostles themselves And that those ancient Christians in all their differences did look upon the Bishops of those Sees as honourable Arbitrators and faithful Depositaries of the genuine Apostolical traditions especially wherein they accorded one with another Hence is that of Tertullian Constat omnem doctrinam quae cum illis Ecclesiis Apostolicis matricibus et originalibus conspi at c. Whatsoever doctrine agrees with those Apostolical original mother Churches is to be reputed true And in this sense and no other Saint Cyprian a great admirer and imitater both of the matter and words of Tertullian whom he honoured with the title of his Master doth call the Church of Rome a Matrix and a root But if the tradition varied as about the observation of Easter between Victor Bishop of Rome and Polycrates Bishop of Ephesâ—s the one prescribing from St. Peter and S. Paul the other from S. Iohn The respective Churches did conform themselves to their Superiours or if they were free as the Britannique Churches were to their own judgment or to the example of their neighbour Churches or kept them to the tradition delivered unto them by their first converters As in this very controversie about Easter and some baptismal rites the Brittish and Scottish Bishops alwaies adhered to the Eastern Church A strong presumption that thence they received the faith and were not subordinate to the Patriarchal See of Rome But yet all this honourable respect proceeded from a free prudential compliance without any perpetual or necessary subjection Afterwards some Churches lost some gained the place and dignity of Apostolical Churches either by custome so Ephesus lost it or by the Canons of the Fathers so Constantinople did get it or lastly by Imperial priviledges so Iustiniana and Carthage obtained it Thirdly it
resolutely oppose so many Sentences and Messages from Rome and condemn him twice whom the Pope had absolved Consider that Wilfride was an Arch-Bishop not an inferiour Clerk And if an appeal from England to Rome had been proper or lawful in any case it had been so in his case But it was otherwise determined by those who were most concerned Malmesbury supposeth either by inspiration or upon his own head that the King and the â— Arch-Bishop Theodore were smitten with remorse before their deaths for the injury done to Wilfride and the slighting of the Popes Sentence Letter and Legates But the contrary is moâ—â— apparently true for first it was not King Alfrede alone but the great Councel of the Kingdom also nor Theodore alone but the main body of the Clergy that opposed the Popes Letter and the restitution of Wilfride in that manner as it was decreed at Rome Secondly after Alfrede and Theodoret were both dead we find the Popes sentence and Wilfrides restitution still opposed by the surviving Bishops in the Raign of Alfredes son To clear the matter past contradiction let us consider the ground of this long and bitter contention Wilfride the Archbishop was become a great pluralist and had ingrossed into his hands too many Ecclesiastical dignities The King and the Church of England thought fit to deprive him of some of them and to confer them upon others Wilfride appealed from their sentence unto Rome The Pope gave sentence after sentence in favour of Wilfride But for all his sentences he was not he could not be restored untill he had quitted two of his Monasteries which were in question Hongesthill deane and Ripon which of all others he loved most dearly and where he was afterwards interred This was not a conquest but a plain waving of his sentences from Rome and a yeelding of the question for those had been the chief causes of the controversie So the King and the Church after Alfredes death still made good his conclusion That it was against reason that a person twice condemned by the whole Councel of the English should be restored upon the Popes Bull. And as he did not so neither did they give any assent to the Popes Legation So unfortunate were appeales to Rome in those daies And as unfrequent as unfortunate for from that time untill Anselmes daies after the Norman Conquest in the Raign of Henry the first we do hardly meet with another appeal Then Pope Paschalis the second had devised a new Oath for Arch-Bishops when they received their Pall An oath much wondered at in all places as a strange innovation Significasti reges Regni majâ—res admiratione permotos c. You signified unto me that Kings and Nobles were moved with admiration that the Pâ—ll was offered unto you by our Ministers upon condition that you should take an oath which they brought you written from us c. This oath was that which animated Anselme to contest so hotly with the King The main controversie was about this very question of Appeales to Rome The King pleaded the fundamental Lawes and Customes of the Land consuetudo Regni mâ—i est à Patrâ— meo instituta ut nullius praeter licentiam Regis appelletur Papa Qui consuetudines regni tollit potestatem quoque coronam Regis violat c. It is a custome of my Kingdome instituted by my Father that no Pope may be appealed unto without â—the Kings License He that takes away the Customes of the Kingdome doth violence to the power and Crown of the King It is to be noted that the Lawes established by his Father that was William the Conquerour were no other then the Lawes of Edward the Confessor that is to say the old Saxon Lawes So he might justly say both that it was an ancient immemorial custome of the Kingdom and also that it was instituted or established by his Father So Hoveden tells us that at last he yeelded to the request of his Barons c. that was by his authority to confirm the Lawes of King Edward But the best was that though Anselme the Archbishop was obliged by oath to the Pope yet the Bishops were not so soon brought into the same bondage And therefore the former Authour tells us that In his exequendis omnes Episcopi Angliae Primati suo suffragium negarunt In the execution of these things all the Bishops of England did deny their suffrage to their Primate So unanimous were they in this point Which unanimity of the whole Realm both Clergy and Laity doth appear yet more evidently by the Statute of Clarendon made in the Raign of the grand-child of this King when all the Prelates and Peeres of the Realm did confirm the former ancient Brittish English custome not onely by their consents but by their oathes whereof we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter And upon this custome was that Law grounded which our Histories do make mention of Si quis inventus fuerit literas vel mandatum ferens Domini Papae c. capiatur et de eo sicut de Regis traditore regni sine dilatione fiat justitia If any one be found bringing in the Popes Letter or Mandate let him be apprehended and let justice passe upon him without delay as a traitor to the King and Kingdom And generally every man is interdicted or forbidden to appâ—al to the Pope And the Legations from Rome were almost as rare as appeals to Rome during the raigns of all the Brittish and Saxon Kings untill the Norman conquest As Gregory Bishop of Ostium the Popes own Legate did confess That he was the first Roman Priest that was sâ—nâ— into those parts of Bâ—iâ—tain from the time of S. Austin And those Legates were no others then ordinary messengers or Embassadors sent from one Neighbour to another Such a thing as a Legantine Court or a Nuncios Court was not known in the Brittish world in those ages and long after It is not enough to shew that one Roman Bishop did once send over one or two Doctors to help to propagate or confirm the faith or to lend their helping hands to Religion fainting This may well set forth their devotion and our obligation But further as to the present question it signifies just nothing Favours cease to be favours when they are done on purpose to deprive men of their ancient liberties The Brittish Bishops and English also have done as much for other Nations over whom they did never challenge any Jurisdiction The French Church sent over Germanus Lupus to help to root up the relicks of Pelagianisme in Brittain yet did never pretend thereby to any authority over the Brittaines Add to this that during all the time from St. Gregory to the conquest it was usual for the Brittish Saxon and Danish Kings with their Clergy or great Councel to make Ecclesiastical lawes and to regulate the external discipline of the Church within their
the severity of our Lawes or the rigour of our Princes since the reformation a motive to his revolt from our Church Surely the Inquisition was quite out of his mind but I meddle not with forrein affaires He might have considered that more Protestants suffered death in the short Raign of Queen Mary Men Women and Children then Roman Catholicks in all the longer Raignes of all our Princes since the Reformation put together The former by fire and faggot a cruel lingring torment ut sentirent se mori that they might feel themselves to die by degrees The other by the gibbet with some opprobious circumstances to render their sufferings more exemplary to others The former meerly and immediately for Religion because they would not be Roman Catholicks without any the least praetext of the violation of any political Law The latter not meerly and immediately for Religion because they were Roman Catholicks for many known Roman Catholicks in England have lived and dyed in greater plenty and power and reputation in every princes raign since the Reformation then an English Protestant could live among the Irish Roman Catholicks since their insurrection If a subject was taken at Masse it self in England which was very rare it was but a pecuniary mulct No stranger was ever questioned about his religion I may not here omit King Iames his affirmation That no man in his Raign or in the Raign of his predecessor Queen Elizabeth did suffer death for conscience sake or Religion But they suffered for the violation of civil Lawes as either for not acknowledging the political Supremacy of the King in Ecclesiastical causes over Ecclesiastical persons which is all that we assert which the Roman Catholicks themselves in Henry the Eighth's daies did maintain as much or perhaps more then we We want not the consent of their own Schooles or the concurrent practise of Kings and Parliaments of their own communion As Sancta Clara doth confesse Valde multi doctores c. very many Doctours do hold that for the publick benefit of the Commonwealth Princes have Iurisdiction in many causes otherwise being of Ecclesiastical cognisance by positive Divine Law and by the Law of Nature And though himself seem rather to adhere to others who ascribe unto them meerly a Civil power yet he acknowledgeth with the stream of Schoolmen that by their Soveraign Office by accident and indirectly for the defence of the Common-wealth and the preservation of publick Justice and peace they have great power over Ecclesiastical persons in Ecclesiastical causes in many cases As they may command Bishops to dispose their spiritual affaires to the peace of the Common-wealth They may remove the froward from their offices They may defend the oppressed Clergy from the unjust oppressions of Ecclesiastical Iudges c. which he confesseth to be as much as our Article setteth forth What the practise of other Kings and Princes is herein we shall see more fully when I come to handle my fifth Proposition Or else for returning into the Kingdome so qualified with forbidden orders as the Lawes of the Land do not allow The State of Venice doth not the Kingdom of France hath not abhorred from the like Lawes Or lastly for attempting to seduce some of the Kings Subjects from the Religion established in the Land In all these cases besides religion there is something of Election He that loves Danger doth often perish in it The truth is this An hard Knott must have an heavy Mall Dangerous and bloody positions and practises produce severe lawes No Kingdom is destitute of necessary remedies for its own conservation If all were of my mind as I believe many are I could wish that all Seditious Opinions and over rigorous statutes with the memory of them were buried together in perpetual oblivion I hold him scarce a good Christian that would not cast on one spade full of earth towards their interrement Pardon this digression if it be one Cruelty is a Symptome of Schisme Secondly I answer that though the Romanists could be contented to brand their own friends for the principall Schismaticks yet they shall never be able to prove us accessaries or fasten the same Crime upon us who found the separation made to our hands who never had any thing to do with Rome who never ought them any Service but the reciprocall duty of love who never did any act to oblige us to them or to disoblige us from them indeed it were something if they could produce a patent from Heaven of the Popes Vicariate Generall under Christ over all Christians But that we know they can never do Or but so much as an old Canon of a generall Councel that did subject us to their Jurisdiction So as the same were neither lawfully revoked nor their power forfeited by abuse nor quitted by themselves untill then they may withdraw their charge of Schisme Nay yet more though they could justifie their pretended title yet we acting nothing but preserving all things in the same condition we found them are not censurable as formal Schismaticks whilest we erre invincibly or but probably and are implicitely prepared in our minds to obey all our just Superiours so far as by law we are bound whensoever we shall be able to understand their right There have been many Schismes in the Roman Church it self Sometimes two Popes sometimes three Popes at a time One Kingdome sâ—bmitted to one this to another that to a third every one believing him to whom he submitted to be the right Pope and every one ready to have submitted to the right Pope if they had known who he was Tell me were all those that submitted to Antipopes presently Schismaticks That were too hard a censure The Antipopes themselves were the Schismaticks and the Cardinals that Elected them and all these who supported them for avaritious or ambitious or uncharitable ends We may apply to this purpose that which St. Austin said concerning Haereticks Qui sententiam suam quamvis falsam atque perversam nulla pertinaci animosâ—â—ate defendit praesertim quam non audacia praesumptionis suae pepererit sed à seductis et in errorem lapsis parentibus accepit quaerit autem cauta solicitudine veritatem câ—rrigi paratus cum invenerit nâ—quaquam est inter haereticos deputandus He that defends not his false opinion with Pertinacious animosity having not invented it himself but learned it from his â—rring parents If he inquire carefully after the truth and be ready to embrace it and to correct his errors when he finds them he is not to be reputed an Heretick If this be true in the case of Heresie it holds much more strongly in the case of Schism especially that Schism which is grounded only upon Humane constitutions He that disobeys a Lawful Superiour through invincible ignorance whom he deserted not himself but found him cast off by his parents if he be careful to understand his duty and ready to submit so far
that â—aught them this lesson certainly their prudence to prevent dangers was very commendable A third custome was that the revenues of all Ecclesiastical dignities belonging to the Kings demeisne during the vacancy were to be received by the King as freely as the rents of his own demeisnes Tell me who was then the Patron and Political Head of the Church A fourth Custome was that when an Arch-Bishoprick Bishoprick Abbacy or Priory did fall void the election was to be made by such of the principal dignitaries or members of that respective Church which was to be filled as the King should call together for that purpose with the Kings consent in the Kings own Chappell And there the person elected was to do his homage and fealty to the King as to his Liege Lord. That later form of Dei Apostolicae sedis gratia had taken no root in England in those daies The rest are of the same nature as that Controversies concerning Advowsons ought to be determined in the Kings Court Benefices belonging to the Kings patronage could not be appropriated without his grant When a Clergy man was accused of any Delinquency the Kings Court ought to determine what part of his accusation was of Civil and what part of Ecclesiastical cognisance And the Kings Justice might send to the Ecclesiastical Court to see it ordered accordingly None of the Kings Servants or Tenants that held of him in capite might be excommunicated nor their Lands interdicted before the King was made acquainted When it was questioned whether a Tenement were of Ecclesiastick or Lay fee the Kings Justice was to determine it by the oathes of twelve men All Ecclesiasticall persons who held any possessions from the King in capite were to do suit and service for the same as other Barons did and to joyn with the Kings Barons in the Kings Judgments untill it came to sentence of death or diminution of member To this memorial all the Nobility and Clergy of the English Nation did swear firmly in the word of truth to keep all the customes therein contained and observe them faithfully to the King and his heires for ever Among the rest Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury himself was carried along with the crowd to take this Oath Though shortly after he fell from it and admitted the Popes absolution By the Statute of Carlile made in the daies of Edward the first it was declared That the holy Church of England was founded in the estate of Prelacy within the Realm of England by the Kings and Peeres thereof And that the several incroachments of the Bishop of Rome specified in that Act did tend to the annullation of the state of the Church the disinheriting of the King and the Peeres and the destruction of the Lawes and rights of the Realm contra formam collationis contrary to the disposition and will of the first founders Observe in the estate of Prelacy not of Papacy within the Realm not without it By the Kings not by the Popes of whose exorbitant and destructive usurpations as our Ancestors were most sensible so they wanted neither will nor power to remedy them To corroborate this Law by former presidents and thereby to shew that our Kings were ever accounted the right Patrons of the English Church King Edelwalk made Wilfride Bishop of the South Saxons now Chichester King Alfrede made Assertie Bishop of Sherburn And Oenewulphus Bishop of Winchester Edward the Confessor made Robert Archbishop whom before from a Monk he had made Bishop of London Thus the Saxon Kings in all ages bestowed Bishopricks without any contradiction The Norman Kings followed their example No sooner was Stigand dead but William the Conquerour elected Lanfrank Abbat of Saint Stephens in Caen to be Archbishop William Rufus upon his death-bed elected Anselme to be Archbishop of Canterbury And untill the daies of Henry the first the Popes never pretended any right nor laid any claim to the Patronage of the English Churches The Articles of the Clergy do prescribe that elections be free so as the Kings conge d'eslire or License to elect be first obtained and afterwards the election be made good â—y the Royal assent and confirmation And the Statute of provisors Our Soveraign Lord the King and his heires shall have and enjoy for the time the collations to the Archbishopricks and other dignities elective which be of his Advowry such as his progenitors had before free election was granted Sith the first elections were granted by the Kings progenitors upon a certain form and condition as namely to demand License of the King to choose and after choise made to have his Royal assent Which condition not being kept the thing ought by reason to return to its first nature Further by the same Statute of provisors it is declaratively enacted That it is the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the Realm that upon such mischiefs and dammages happening to the Realm by the incroachments and oppressions of the Court of Rome mentioned in the body of that Law The King ought and is bound by his oath with the accord of his people in Paâ—liament to make remedy and Law for the removing of such mischiefs We find at least seven or eight such Statutes made in the Raigns of several Kings against Papal provisions reservations and collations and the mischiefs that flowed from thence Let us listen to another Law The Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been iâ— no earthly subjection but immediately subjected to God in all things touching its regality and to no other and ought not to be submitted to the Pope Observe these expressions free at all times free in all things in no earthly subjection immediately subjected to God not to be submitted to the Pope And all this in Ecclesiastical affaires for of that nature were all the grievances complained of in that Law as appears by the view of the Statute it self Then if the Kings of England and the representative body of the English Church do reform themselves according to the word of God and the purest Patterns of the primitive times they owe no account to any as of duty but to God alone By the same statute it is enacted That they who shall procure or prosecute any popish Bulls and excommunications in certain cases shall incurre the forfeiture of their estates or be banished or put out of the Kings protection By other statutes it is enacted That whosoever should draw any of the Kings Subjects out of the Realm to Rome in plea about any cause whereof the cognisance belongeth to the Kings Court or should sue in any forrain court to defeat any judgment given in the Kings court That is by appealing to Rome they should incur the same penalties The body of the Kingdom would not suffer Edward the first to be cited before the Pope Henry the sixth by the Councel of Humphry
the time of his health and upon his death-bed for which he was stiled Romanorum malleus The hammer of the Romans whereby he so much irritated the Pope that he would have deposed him and accursed him in his life time if he had not been disswaded by his Cardinals in respect of the learning and holinesse and deserved reputation of the Bishop And after his death would have had his Corps disinterred and buried in a dunghill but that the Bishop appeared to him the night before and gave him or seemed to give him such a shrewd remembrance partly with words and partly with his crosier staffe that the Pope was much terrified and half dead so that he could neither eat nor drink the day following The Pope excommunicated Sewalus the Archbishop of York with Bell Book and Candle But non curavit voluntati papale relicto Iuris rigare muliebriter obedire Quapropter quantâ— magis praecipient Papa maledicebatur tanto plus a populo benedicebatur tacite tamen propter metum Romanorum He cared not to submit womanishly to the Popes will leaving the streight rule of the Law wherefore the more he was accused by the Popes command the more he was blessed of the People but secretly for fear of the Romans In his last sicknesse he summoned the Pope before the Tribunall of the high and incorruptible Judge and called Heaven and Earth to be his witnesses how unjustly the Pope had oppressed him Dixit Dominus Petro c. The Lord said unto St. Peter feed my sheep not clip them not flea them not unbowell them not devoure them They who desire to know what opinion the English had of the greedinesse and extortion of the Court of Rome may find them drawn out to the life by Chaucer in sundry places Such thriving Alchymists were never heard of in our daies nor in the daies of our fore-Fathers that with such ease and dexterity could change an ounce of lead into a pound of gold So they had great reason to say of England that it was a Well that could not be drawn dry And England had as much reason to whip these Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple This complaint is neither new nor particular as we shall see further in due place The second ground of our Ancestors separation of themselves from the Court of Rome were their most unjust usurpations and daily incroachments and intrenchments and extream violations of all sorts of rights civill and Ecclesiastical sacred and prophane They indeavoured to rob the King of the fairest flowers of his Crown As of his right to convocare Synods and to confirm Synods within his own dominions of his Legislative and judiciary power in Ecclesiasticall causes of his Politicall Jurisdiction over Ecclesiastical persons of his Ecclesiasticall Feuds and Investitures of Bishops of his just Patronages of Churches founded by his Ancestors and of the last appeals of his subjects And as if all this had been too little taking advantage of King Iohns troubles they attempted to make the royall Scâ—pter of England Feudotary and tributary to the Crosier staffe of Rome at the annuall rent of a thousand marks Neither is this the case of England alone seeing they make the like pretensions in matter of fact almost to all Europe To say nothing now of that Dominion which some of them have challenged indirectly others directly over Soveraign Princes Nos imperia regna principatus et quicquid habere mortales possunt auâ—erre et dare posse We have power to take away and to give Empires Kingdoms Principalities and whatsoever mortal men can have because I confesse that it is not generally received by the Roman Church Mr. Blackwell made Archpriest of England by Clement the eighth cites Cardinall Allen with much honour to his memorie but much scandalized at his doctrine that none can be admitted King of England without the Popes leave His words are these Without the approbation of the See Apostolique none can be lawfull King or Queen of England by reason of the ancient accord made between Alexander the third the year 1171. and Henry the second then King when he was absolved for the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury That no man might lawfully take that Crown nor be accounted as King till he were confirmed by the Soveraign Pastor of our souls which for the time should be This accord afterwards being renewed about the year 1210. by King Iohn who confirmed the same by oath to Pandulphus the Popes Legate at the speciall request and procurement of the Lords and Commons as a thing most necessary for preservation of the Realm from unjust usurpation of Tyrants and avoiding other inconveniences which they had proved and might easily fall again into by the disorder of some wicked King To which he adds with the like disapprobation a like testimony of Stanislaus Christa novic a Polonian author who infers upon the former ground that the Pope may depose the King of England as being but a tributary King his words are these Illud impie Legislatores per jusjurandum extorquent a Catholicis c. The law-makers do impiously by an oath extort this from Catholicks to deny that the King may be deposed by the Pope and his Kingdomes and Countries by him disposed of For if by an Honourable and pious grant the Kingdome hav become tributary to the Pope why may he not dispose of it Why may he not depose the Prince being refractory and disobedient Thus a bold stranger altogether ignorant of our histories and of our lawes shoots his bolt at all adventures upon the credit of a shamefull fiction but from whom did they learn this lesson even from the Pope himself Bishop Grosthead had been a little bold with the Pope for his extorting courses calling him Antichrist and murtherer of Souls and comparing the Court of Rome to Behemoth that putteth his mouth to the river Jordan thinking to drink it up and stiling the oppression of the English Nation an Aegiptian Bondage He had good reason for the Court of Rome in those daies was grown past shame rubore deposito and consequently past grace The Pope irritated with this usage breaks out into this passionate expression Nonne Rex Anglorum noster est Vasallus et ut plus dicam mancipium Is not the King of England our Vassal or rather our Slave Or rather are these fit guests to be entertained in a Kingdom that make no more of our Soveraign Princes then their Vassals and Slaves who can neither be admitted to the Crown without their leave nor hold it but by their grace This relation of Cardinal Allen brings to my remembrance the question of Neoptolemus to Vlisses when he should have taught him the Art of lying how it was possible for one to tell a lie without blushing The Arch-Priest is much more ingenuous affirming that the assertions touching both the said Kings for matter of fact
any the least particle of divine right if there had been any such Nor could they justly be accused of violating that humane right which had been quitted long before nor be blamed rightly for denying obedience to him from whose Jurisdiction they were exempted by the Canon of an Oecumenical Councel and who had himself implicitely renounced that Ecclesiastical right which he held from the Church Perhaps some may conceive a defect in the manner of proceeding of the King and Church of England that they did not first make a Remonstrance of their grievances and seek redresse of the Pope himself So the Councel of Towers thought it fit Visum est tamen Concilio ante omnia mittendos Legatos ad D. Papam Julium c. It seemeth good to the Councel that in the first place messengers be sent from the French Church to the Pope who may admonish him with brotherly love and according to the Evangelical form of correction to desist from his attempts and to imbrace peace and concord with the Princes But if he will not hear the messengers let him be demanded to convocate a free Councel according to the decrees of the holy Councel of Basile And this being done and his answer received further provision shall be made according to right To this I answer first That it had been reasonable and just indeed that we had made our first addresse to the Pope if we acknowledged the Roman Bishop to be our lawful Patriarch But the same respect is not due to an usurper Secondly we have seen by frequent experience how vain and fruitlesse such addresses have proved from time to to time According to the former advise of the Councel of Towers the King of France sent Ambassadors to Rome but the Pope refused to hear them or to convocate any Councel and before his death Anathematized Maximilian King of the Romans the Kings of France and of Navarre and divers other Princes Cardinals and Bishops deprived the Kings and Princes of their respective Realms and Principalities the Bishops of their dignities and benefices and gave their Kingdoms and Principalities to the first that could take them from which sentence they appealed to a future Councel The most ancient arbitrary imposition of the Popes upon the British Churches was the Pall an honourable and at first innocent ensign of an Archbishop otherwise of no great moment first introduced in the reigns of the Saxon Kings after the six hundreth year of Christ But in process of time it became vendible and a great summe was exacted for it whereof Canutus long since complained at Rome and had remedy promised as he well deserved of that See But how well it was observed the experience of after-ages doth manifest when both the price was augmented and withall an oath of allegiance to the Pope imposed Electo in Archiepiscopum sedes Apostolica pallium non tradet â—isi prius praesteâ— fidelitatis et obedientiae juramentum The See Apostolique will not deliver the Pall to an elect Archbishop unlesse he first swear fidelity and obedience to the Pope what was become of their old oath of allegiance to their King In the year 1245. the King the Lords spiritual and temporal and the whole Common-Wealth of England joyned together unanimously in a complaint and exhibited their grievances to Rome that the Pope extorted more then his Peter-pence out of the Kingdom contrary to law that the Patrons of Churches were defrauded of their rights strangers preferred souls endangered their bullion exported the Kingdome impoverished provisions made pensions exacted That the English were drawn out of the Realm by the authority of the Pope contrary to the customes of the Kingdom They complained of the coming among them of the Popes infamous messenger non obstante by which oaths customes writings grants statutes rights priviledges were not only weakened but exinanited They complained of collections without the Kings leave that hospitality was not kept the poor not sustained the Word not preached Churches not adorned the cure of souls neglected divine offices not performed and Churches ruined by the abuses of the Papal Court I cannot omit one clause in the letter of the Lords to the Pope Nisi de gravaminibus domino Regi et regno illatis Rex et râ—gnum citiùs liberentur oportebit nos ponere murum pro domâ— Domini et libertate regni Quod quidem ob Apostolicae sedis reverentiam hucusque facere distuliâ—us Vnlesse the King and Kingdom be quickly freed from these grievances we must make a wall of defence or partition for the house of the Lord and the liberty of the Kingdom which we have hitherto forborn to do out of our reverend respect of the Apostolique See They seem to allude to that wall which Severus made to save the Kingdom from the incursions of the Scots and Picts Surely that was not more necessary then than that wall of partition which Henry the eighth made afterwards to save the Realm from the affronts and extortions and injuries of the Roman Court. Neither did they make their addresses to the Pope alone but to the Councel of Lyons by the Procters of the whole Nobility and Commonalty of England for redresse of the violent oppressions intolerable grievances and impudent exactions which were practised in England by meanes of that hateful clause non obstante too often inserted in the Popes letters They represented that there were so many Italians for the most part ignorant and unlearned that understood not one English word nor did ever tread upon English ground beneficed among them that their yearly revenue exceeded the revenue of the Crown Neither did they complain onely but threaten and swear that they would not permit such abuses for the future But what ease did the poore English find by complaining to the Pope either in Councel or out of Councel Martine the Popes Commissioner for he could not send a Legate without the Kings consent extorts excommunicates interdicts the Pope himself is angry because like sturdy children they durst cry and whimper when they were beaten and perswades the King of France to invade England and either to depose the King or subject him to the Court of Rome which lost the Pope the heart of the English The King told them that their King began to kick against him and play the Frederick And they threatened that if he persisted they should be forced to do that which would make his heart ake After this Edward the third made his addresses likewise to Rome for remedy of grievances in the year 1343. How did he speed No better then his Great grandfather Henry the third The Pope was offended and termed his modest expostulation rebellion But that wise and magnanimous Prince was not daunted with words to requite their invectives he made the statutes of Provisoes and praemunire directly against the incroachments and usurpations of the Court of Rome Whereby he so abated their power
nothing but iâ—â—posuâ—mus that he had put the Crown upon him So the Emperour complaines in his letter to the Bishops A pictura coepit à pictura ad Scripturam processit Scriptura in authoritatem prodire conatur c. It began with paiuâ—ing from painting it proceeded to writing And at last they sought to justifie it by authority We will not said he suffer it we will not indure it we will rather lay down our Imperial Crown then suffer the Empire it self to be deposed with our consent Let the pictures be defaced let the writings be retracted that perpetual monuments of enmity between the Sâ—â—pter and the Miâ—er may continue Thus Pope Adrian failed of his design But his successour Iohn the 22. renewed the Papal claim against Ludovicus the fourth in higher termes as appeareth by his own Bull wherein he affirms that after the translation of the Roman Empire from the Grecians to the Germans by his predecessours the Popes summus ille honor beneficium Pontificis Maximiesse solet the Empire used to be the Popes gift Adding that the elections of the German Princes were invalid unlesse the Pope universi orbis Christiani Pater atque Princeps Dei Optimi Maximi Legatus suo numine faveat aspiret should approve it And finally commanding the Emperour to quit his Crown and Imperial dignity and not to reassume them but by his command nisi jussu mandato nostro But the Emperour appealed the Electours and other Princes protested against the Popes pretended power And the Emperour and all the States of the Empire made a solemn constitution against it This was the second repulse yet the Popes were not so easily shaken off It fortuned about the year 1400 that the Electoral Colledge deposed Wenceslaus from the Empire and chose Rupert Prince Palatine in his place communicating the whole businesse whilest it was in agitation to the Pope to have his spiritual advice and the countenance of the Apostolique See but yet reserving the power entirely to themselves Howsoever Pope Boniface the ninth layes hold of this opportunity and declares by his Bull that the Electours did it by his authority authoritate nostrâ suffulti And confirmes the said deprivation as good and lawful This incertainty of succession and this Papal pretension made sundry Emperours more fearful to grapple with the Popes or to right themselves from their grievous exactions and usurpations In the year 1455. after the death of Nicholas the fifth the Germans bewailed their condition to Frederick the third and sought to perswade him that he would no longer obey the Roman Bishops unlesse they would at least give way to a pragmatical sanction for the maintenance of the liberties of the German Nation like that of the French Kings for the priviledges of the Gallicane Church They shewed thar their condition was much worse then the French and Italians whose servants especially the Italians without a change they were deservedly called Rogabant urgebant Proceres populique Germaniae gravissimis tum rationibus tum exemplis tum utilitatem tum necessitatem Imperii c. The Princes and people of Germany intreated and pressed both the advantage and necessity of the Empire They implored his fidelity they prayed him for his Oathes sake and to prevent the infamy and dishonour of their Nation that they alone might not want the fruit of their National decrees that he had as much power and was as much obliged thereunto as other Kings c. Nec certè procul abfuit c. It wanted not much saith Platina Molinaeus goes further His rationibus victus permotus Imperator c. The Emperour being overcome and moved with these reasons was about to make as full a Sanction for his Subjects as the King of France had done for his What hindered him Onely the advice of Aeneas Sylvius who perswaded him rather to comply with the Pope then with his people upon this ground that Princes disagreeing might be reconciled but between a Prince and his people the enmity was immortal Motus hac ratione Imperator spretâ populorum postulatione Aeneam Oratorem deligit qui ad Calistum mitteretur The Emperour being moved with this reason despising the request of his people sends the same Aeneas as his Ambassadour to Calistus The truth is this The Emperour feared the Pope and durst not trust his own Subjects Whence it proceeded that seven years before his death he not onely procured his son Maximilian to be crowned King of the Romans but also took him to be his companion in the Empire ne post obitum suum ut factum fuisset transfereretur imperium in aliam familiam lest the Empire after his death as without doubt it had come to passe should have been transferred into another family Yet notwithstanding these barres or remora's the uncertainty of succession and Papal pretensions the Emperours have done as much in relation to the Court of Rome as the Kings of England First Henry the eighth within his own Dominions did exercise a power of convocating Ecclesiasticall Synods confirming Synods reforming the Church by Synods and suppressing upstart innovations by ancient Canons The Emperours have done the same Charles the Great called the Councel of Franckford consisting of 300. Bishops Witnesse his own letter to Elipandus Iussimus Sanctorum Patrum Synodale ex omnibus undique nostrae ditionis Ecclesits congregari Concilium VVe have commanded a Synodical Councel to be congregated out of all the Churches within Our Dominions Neither did he onely convocate it but confirm it also Ecce ego vestris petitionibus satisfaciens congregationi Sacerdotum auditor arbiter adsedi Discernimus Deo donante decrevimus quid esset de hac inquisitione firmiter tenendum Behold I satisfying your requests that is of the Elipandians and Foelicians who made Christ but an adoptive son of God did sit in the Councel both as an hearer and as a Iudge VVe determine and by the gift of God have decreed what is to be held in this inquiry And it is very observable how he disposed the resolutions of this Councel into four Books The first book contained the sense of the Roman Bishop and his Suffragans The second of the Archbishop of Millain and the Patriarch of Aquileia with the rest of the Italian Bishops The third the votes of the German French and British Bishops The last his own consent The Romans had no more part therein then others to set down their own faith and to represent what they had received from the Apostles Neither did they onely convocate Councels and confirm them but in them and by them reformed innovations and restored ancient truths and Orders So did the same Emperour By the counsel of our Bishops and Nobles we have ordained Bishops throughout the Cities and do decree to assemble a Synod every year that in our presence the Canenical decrees and lawes of the