Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A17571
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The altar of Damascus or the patern of the English hierarchie, and Church policie obtruded upon the Church of Scotland
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Calderwood, David, 1575-1650.
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1621
(1621)
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STC 4352; ESTC S107401
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125,085
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228
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of conjunction and dissolution in the word the Church is to see that that order and these caveats bee observed which are contained in the word For it may fall out that both in binding up of marriage they may commit incest and in dissolving without a just cause may offend also It is the Churches duty to prevent and remove such offences But of other lawes civil and municipal they are not executors These lawes which are divine are of a mixt nature These which are civill belong onely to the civill Magistrate The Churches part is transferred to the cognisance of officials to whom it doth not belong And therfore Beza concerning this abuse writeth thus Sed quorsum hoc ad officiales promotores procuratores totam denique illam procorum colluviem quae Ecclesiam Dei iâ—mprideÌ„ devastat quorsum hoc ad illa non Ecclesiae tantuÌ„modo Christianae verumetiaÌ„ universi mundi de But what maketh this sayth he for officialls promoters Proctors and all that filth of swine which now a long time doth waste the Church of God What is this to these shamefull staines not onely of the Christian Church but also of the whole world Further beside the Churches part which is to take heed to offences and breach of Gods law they have taken the Canon law for the rule of their proceedings both in spousalls mariages and divorces And thirdly have taken in debts and dowries goods and chattels which are accessorie to marriage to judge upon and this must be called Ecclesiasticall cognisance Lastly these causes are of such weight that they are not to be committed to the skill or conscience of one base officiall It is observed by the author of the Assertion for Christian policie that mens inheritances many times hang in suspence upon question of lâ—gitimation or illegitimation of their children to be allowed or disallowed by the Canon law and that many Knights Esquires and Gentlemen doe complaine and bewaâ—le the stealing away and mariages of their daughters neeces neere kinswomen or wards Couples have been married and lived together 4 6 or moe yeares as man and wife and upon a new and sudden dislike and discontentment or upon a surmised precontract pretensedly proved by two suborned witnesses by vertue of the Canon law the husband was adiudged no husband the wife no wife Another example he relateth of one solemnly maried to a wife and after by reason of a precontract solemnly divorced from the same wife and compelled by censures of the Church to marry her for whom sentence of precontract was adjudged and yet authorized by the same consistorie about ten or twelve yeares after the divorce to resummon recall and rechallenge his first wife she having a testimoniall out of the same consistorie of her lawfull divorce and being againe solemnly maried to another husband Licences of mariage have been granted out of their Ecclesiasticall Court with a blanke So the partie licenced was enabled if it had been their pleasure to marry another mans wife or his wives sister Many moe grosse absurdities are there alledged by thâ— learned authour which the Reader will sâ—arce beleeve But I omit them and many other things which might be sayd anent the particulars set down in this Table Succesâ—â—on to the goods of the deceased is either or him who hath made his testamâ—nt or who hath died intestate The first 〈◊〉 her universall when the plea is for proving or improving the testament exhibited or particular when the suit is for to obtain a cerâ—ain legaâ—ie The sâ—cond is either properly when no testament is made or by way of inâ—estate as when there is none who will take upon them the burthen of executorie In either of the cases the action is either to obtaine the administration of the goods and that eitheâ— simply or with the later will annexed that it may be fulfilled or witâ— the tutorship and to the use of the Minâ—râ— or else the action is against him that ingyreth himselfe into the administration and intrometteth with the goods of the deceased not being inabled with any warrant Causes testamentarie and their appendicles are meere civill and temporall and therefore do not belong to spirituall Courts It is by the grant of Kings not by Ecclesiasticall right that Church consistories have medled with such causes Because Bishops were supposed to bee men of good conscience and that they would be carefull to see the later will of the deceased performed then others therefore they were reserved to Episcopal audience and cognisance of Ecclesiasticall Courts But this respect was not founded upon Gods word For we must not looke so much to conscience as to a lawfull calling or else all civill causes pleaded before a Iudge should be referred to Church-men because of their supposed good conscience And the truth is it is but supposed indeed For a Bishop or pastor that will medle in matters impertinent to his calling hath but a bad conscience Such a man will never make conscience of it more then another religious Christian. And what conscience they made of the matter may bee seene in that they transferred that which was committed to their trust to a base Officiall who hath as bad a conscience as the Bishop himselfe and badder if badder may be And as for skill in deciding such causes no man will deny but the civill judges are more able to cognosce and determine in them then Church-men By the common law sayth Lindwood these causes were not committed unto the Church but by the free grant of Princes And therefore in the lawes alledged by him approbation and insinuation of testaments are forbidden Clergiemen Et ratio redditur in juribus illis allegatis quia opprobrium est clericis si peritos ostendere velâ—â—t rerum for â—enseâ—â—â— May not matters of legacies and bequests of goods as well as of lands bee determined in remporall Courts Cannot the Iudges in temporal courts discerne upon proofes and other presumptions whether the testator was of perfect memorie or distracted as they doe in questions of lunacie madnesse or idiocie in men living Can they not define of two wills which is the first which is the later will whether the legacie remaine or bee recalled whether it bee pure or conditionall If a creditor may recouer his debt due by the testator in the teÌ„porall Court what should hinder a legatarie to recover his legacie in the same Court This poynt is made cleare and amplified in the Assertion of true and Christian Church policie To conclude then probates of wills committing of Administrations sequestrations of the goods of the intestate recovering of legacies taking up of inventaries c. belong not to a Church Consistorie and it is a very great abuse that such Consistories should be called Church consistories and that spirituall censures should bee put in execution by them Ecclesiasticall dues and rights are 1. tithes which are either Praediall Personall or Mixt. Praediall tithes are such as come of the
allegeance but not with the oath of supremacie for feare of troubling his tender conscience The statute of the supremacie was explained the same year of Qu. Elizabeths raigne in an admonition added to the injunctions as followeth That her Maiestie neither doth nor ever will challenge any other authority then was challenged and lately vsed by the noble kings of famous memory king Henry the 8. and king Edward the 6. which is and was of ancient time due to the Imperial crown of this Realme that is under God to have the soveraignty and rule over all manner of persons born within these her realmes dominions and countries of what estate soever they be either Ecclesiasticall or temporall so as no other forraigne power shall or ought to have superiority over them In this admonition the subjects are made to understand that her Maiestie did not claime power to minister divine offices in the Church as to preach the word and minister the sacraments They have been too simple who have construed the statute in such a sense For no wise man will thinke that kings and Queens will take upon them either the paines or worldly discredit to preach the word minister the sacraments intimate to the congregation the sentence of excommunication The statute doth make no mention of divine offices in the Church but of jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall which is and was in time of papistrie exercised at visitations and in Ecclesiasticall courts This explanation therefore of the admonition annexed to the Injunctions and ratified by Parliament in the fift yeare of Qu. Elizabeth derogateth nothing from the former statute but onely summeth it in more generall tearmes To challenge no more then was challenged and lately used by the noble kings of famous memory K. Henry 8. and Edward 6. is to challenge to be head of the Church to have all jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall flowing from the possessour of the Crowne as from the head and fountaine Mr. Fox in his Acts Monuments relateth that in the 34. of K. Henry the 8. it was enacted That the king his heirs and successors kings of that Realme shall bee taken accepted and reputed the onely supreme head on earth of the Church of England and shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the Imperiall crowne as well the title and stile thereof as all honours dignities preeminences iurisdictions priviledges authorities immunities profits and commodities to the sayd dignitie of supreme head of the same Church belonging and appertaining and that they shall have full power authority from time to time to visit represse redresse reforme and amend all such errors abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever they be which by any manner of spirituall authority or iurisdiction might or may lawfully be reformed repressed ordered redressed corrected or amended In a rescript of Edward the sixth it is thus written to Cranmer Archbishop of Canterburie Seeing all manner of authoritie and iurisdiction as well Ecclesiasticall as secular doth slow from our regall power as from a supreme head c. we give unto you power by these presents which are to endure at our good pleâ—sâ—re to give and promove to the sacred orders even of the Eldership or as they use to speake Priesthood any within your Diocie Anno 1. Edw. 6. cap. 12. an act was made That the Bishop should bee maâ—e by the Kings letters patents and not â—y election of Deane and Chapter and that they should make their proces and writings in the Kings name and not under their own names and that their seales should be the Kings armes This act repealed in the 1. of Queen Mary was revived in the 1. of K. James It was objected to Bishop Farrar in the dayes of the same yong king Edward that hee deserved deprivation because hee constituted his Chancellor by his letters of commission omitting the kings majesties stile and authority and that he had made collations and institutions in his owne name and authority without expressing the kings supremacie His answer was that howbeit there was some default of formalitie in the commission yet his highnes stile and authority was sufficiently expressed in the sayd commission Neither did the sayd Chancellor offer to visit but in the Kings name and authority to the sayd Bishop committed And as to the other poynt that hee made his collations and institutions in his owne name not by his own authority nor by any others save the kings authority expressing in them the kings supremacie with the Bishops own name and seale of office Whitgift sometime Bishop of Canterburie sayth We acknowledge all jurisdiction that any court in England hath or doth exercise be it civill or Ecclesiasticall to be executed in her Majesties name and right and to come from her as supreme Governour And againe in another place The Prince having the supreme government of the Realme in all causes and over all persons as she doth expresse the one by the Lord Chancellor so doth she the other by the Archbishops Dr. Bancroft who was afterward made Bishop of London and at last Bishop of Canterbury in a Sermon made at Pauls Crosse anno 1589. maketh her maiesty a petie Pope and assigneth unto her not some of the Popes power but all honours dignities preeminences iurisdictions privileges authorities profits and commodities which by usurpation did at any time appertaine unto the Pope belike relating the words of the act made in the 34. Henry 8. Our Bancroft Mr. Spottiswood pretended Archbishop of Saintandros at the pretended deposition of N. in the high commission sayd likewise I say unto you N. the king is now Pope and so shall be To be supreme governour in all causes Ecclesiasticall then is not onely to be an avenger with the sword as Bilson would make the Iesuits beleeve in his book of obedience but also to be judge in matters of errour and heresie superstition and idolatry and all other causes Ecclesiasticall and as a supreme governour to communicate this power to auy naturall borne subject In the Parliament holden at Perth anno 1606. where a number of the Nobility consented to the restitution of the Bishops to their 3 estate and old privileges that they might get the other prelacies erected in temporall Lordships it was declared in the second act That the whole estates of their bounden dutie with most hartie and faithfull affection humbly and truely acknowledge his Maiestie to be soveraigne Monarch absolute Prince iudge and governour over all persons estates and causes both spiritnall and temporall within his sayd Realme He is then not onely governour but judge also over all causes But the nature of the supremacie may be yet better conceived when we have taken a view of the particular rights of the supremacie and of the power granted to the high commission The Kings supremacie considered particularly consisteth either of things which are granted onely by statute or restored by statute as due of right to the Royall Crowne Granted first by