was the Synod under Arch-Bishop Dunstan called The National Synods were diversly called sometimes by the Pope sometimes by the King as the first moving occasion concerned either of them For Pope Agatho in a Synod at Rome ordered that a Synod should be called in Saxony viz. England Sacrosancta authoritate nostra Synodali unitate and many Legatine Synods in succeeding times demonstrate the same That the Saxon Kings also called them upon occasion is obvious through all the Councils and needless to instance amongst so many particulars The Provincial Synods were sometimes convocated by the King and sometimes by the Arch-bishop and sometimes joyntly The Diocesan were called by the Bishop In the National and Provincial sometimes Kings moderated alone sometimes the Arch-bishop alone and sometimes they joyned together The Assistants were others both of the Clergy and Laity of several Ranks or Degrees and it seemeth that Women were not wholly excluded for in a Synod under Withered King of Kent Abbatisses were present and attested the acts of that Synod together with others of the Clergy of greater degree The matters in action were either the making or executing of Laws for Government and because few Laws passed that did not some way reflect upon the King and people as well as the Clergy the King was for the most part present and always the Lords and others Yet if the matters concerned the Church in the first act the King though present the Arch-bishop was nevertheless President as it besel at a Synod at Clevershoe An. 747. and another at Celchith An. 816. And in the Reign of Edward the Elder though the Synod was called by the King yet the Arch-bishop was President Concerning all which it may be in the sum well conceived that in the penning of the Councils aforesaid either the Clergy being Pen-men were partial or negligent in the setting down of the right form and that the Kings called these Assemblies by instance of the Archbishop and sometime presided in his own person and sometimes deputed the Archbishop thereunto The executing of Laws was for the most part left to the Diocesan Synods yet when the cases concerned great men the more general Councils had the cognizance and therein proceeded strictly sparing no persons of what degree soever Examples we find hereof amongst others of one incestuous Lord and two delinquent Kings Edwy and Edgar Nay they spared not the whole Kingdom for in the quarrel between Cenulphus the King and Archbishop Wilfrid the whole Kingdom was under interdict for six years space and no Baptism administred all that time Nor were they very nice in medling with matters beyond their sphere even with matters of Property for at a Provincial Council for so it is called they bore all down before them even the King himself as in the case between Cenulphus the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the Monastery of Cotham The like also of another Synod concerning the Monastery of Westburgh It 's true the Lords were present and it may be said that what was done was done in their right yet the Clergy had the rule and begat the Child and the Lay-Lords onely might challenge right to the name This concurrence of the Laity with the Clergy contracted much business and by that means a customary power which once rooted the Clergy after they saw their time though not without difficulty turned both King and Lords out and shut the doors after them and so possessed themselves of the whole by Survivorship But of this hereafter The particular Diocesan Synods were as I said called by the Bishops within their several Diocesses The work therein was to preach the Word as a preparative then to visit and enquire of the manners of the Clergy in the worship of God and of all matters of scandal and them to correct These Synods were to be holden twice every year at certain times and if they met with any matter too hard for them to reform they referred it to the Provincial or National Synod CHAP. XIV Of Causes Ecclesiastical AS the power of Synods grew by degrees so did also their work both which did mutually breed and feed each other Their work consisted in the reforming and setling matters of Doctrine and Practice The first was the most ancient and which first occasioned the use of Synods In this Island the Pelagian Heresie brought in the first precedent of Synods that we have extant and herein it will admit of no denial but in the infancy of the Church the Teachers are the principal Judges of the nature of Errour and Heresie as also of the truth as the Church is the best guide to every Christian in his first instruction in the principles but after some growth there is that in every Church and Christian that makes itself party in judging of truth and errour joyntly with the first Teachers And therefore 't is not without reason that in that first Synod although Germanus was called Judex yet the people hath the name of Arbiter and 't is said that they did contestare judicium Blasphemy was questionless under Church-censure but I find no footsteps of any particular Law against it yet in Scotland a Law was made to punish it with cutting out the Tongue of the Delinquent But it may be feared that neither the Saxons nor their Roman Teachers were so zealous for the honour of Gods Name as to regard that odious sin unless we should account them so holy as that they were not tainted therewith and so needed no Law. But Apostacy was an early sin and soon provided against the Church-censure was allowed of in Britain before the Saxons Church had any breath Afterward it was punished by Fine and Imprisonment by a Law made by Alfred as he provided in like manner for other Church Laws The times anciently were not so zealous for due observance of Divine Worship unless by the Church-men who were the Leaders therein a foreign Canon was made to enforce that Duty long before but it would not down with the rude Saxons they or the greater sort of them were content to come to Church onely to pray and hear the Word and so went away This is noted by that ancient Writer in nature of an imputation as if somewhat else was to be done which they neglected this somewhat was the Mass which in those days was wont to be acted after the Sermon ended And it 's probable that if the Nobles were so ill trained up the inferiour sort was worse and yet find we no Law to constrain their diligence or to speak more plainly it 's very likely the Saxons were so resolute in their Worship as there was either little need of Law to retain them or little use of Law to reclaim them For it 's observed in their late Psalter that the Roman Clergy was not more forward to Image or Saint-worship
than the people were backward thereto and therein shewed themselves the true Seed of their Ancestors in Germany of whom it 's observed that they endured not Images but worshipped a Deity which they saw sola reverentia Sorcery and Witchcraft they had in abomination yet it was a sin always in a mist and hard to be discerned but by the quick-sighted Clergy and therefore it was left to their censure as a sin against the Worship of God. This Ethebald the Mercian King first endowed them with and they alone exercised the Cognizance thereof till Alfred's time who inflicted thereupon the penalty of Banishment but if any were killed by inchantment the delinquent suffered death by a Law made by Aethelstan And thus by degrees became one and the same Crime punishable in several Jurisdictions in several respects Concerning Perjury the Prelates had much to do therewith in future times and they had the first hint from Ina the Saxon King 's Grant to them of power to take Testimonies upon Oath as supposing that the Reverence that men might bear to their Persons and Functions would the rather over-awe their Tongues in witnessing that they would not dare to falsifie lest these knowing men should espy it and forthwith give them their doom But no positive Law allowed them that power of sentence till Aethelstan's Law gave it and upon conviction by the same Law distested the delinquents Oath for ever Sacriledge comes in the next place being a particular Crime meerly of the Clergy-mens invention and naming for before they baptized it you might have well enough called it Theft Oppression or Extortion This Crime the Prelates held under their Cognizance by vertue of that general Maxime That all wrong done to the Church must be judged by the Church The first time that I can observe they challenged this power was by Egbert Archbishop of York in the Seventh Century But nothing was more their own than Simony and that may be the reason why we find so little thereof either for the discovery or correcting of it All former Crimes were in their first act destructive to the Church but this advantageous and therefore though the Canons roar loud yet the execution is not mortal because it 's bent against the dignity and not the gain And although the Canon would not that any Presbyter should be made but presented therewith to some place to exercise his Function in yet it serveth not for those times when men were sent forth rather to make Flocks than to feed Flocks And yet the Theam of Marriage was the best Dish in all their Entertainment They had the whole common place thereof with the Appurtenances within the compass of their Text before ever it attained the honour of a Sacrament It was a branch of Moses Law whereof they were the sole Expositors and so seemeth to be cast upon them by a kind of necessity as an Orphan that had no owner Nevertheless a passage in Eusebius seemeth to report this Trust in the Civil Magistrate for he relateth out of Justin Martyr concerning a Divorce sued out by a godly Matron long before the Prelacie got into the Saddle or the Clergie had the power of Judicature And whereas Lucius taxed Vrbicius the Magistrate for punishing Ptolomy who was guilty of no Crime worthy of his cognizance in that kind amongst other Crimes enumerated by him whereof Ptolomy was not guilty he nameth the Crimes against the Seventh Commandment intimating thereby a power in the Judge to have cognizance of those Crimes as well as others But the Prelacie beginning to mount nibled at it in the second Centurie but more cleerly in the fourth when the persecutions were allayed and men of Learning began to feel their Honour and never left pursuit till they had swallowed the Bait and exercised not onely a Judiciary power in determining all Doubts and Controversies concerning the same but challenged an Efficienciary power in the Marriage-making This Garland Austin brought over with him and crowned the Saxon Clergie therewith as may appear by his Queries to Pope Gregory And thus the Saxons that formerly wedded themselves became hereafter wedded by the Clergie Yet the Civil Magistrate retained a supream Legislative power concerning it as the joynt Marriages between the Saxons Britons and Picts do manifest For it 's said of that Work that it was effected per commune concilium assensum omnium Episcoporum procerum comitum omnium sapientum seniorum populorum totius regni per praeceptum Regis Inae and in the time of Edward their King were enacted Laws or Rules concerning Marriage and so unto the Lay-power was the Ecclesiastical adjoyned in this Work. The Clergie having gained the Principal with more ease obtained the Appurthenances such as Bastardy Adultery Fornication and Incest There was some doubt concerning Bastardy because it trenched far into the Title of Inheritance and so they attained that sub modo as afterward will appear The Laws of Alfred and Edward the elder allowed them the cognizance of Incest although nevertheless the Civil Magistrate retained also the cognizance thereof so far as concerned the penalty of the Temporal Law. Adultery and Fornication they held without controul yet in the same manner as the former for the Civil Magistrate had cognizance thereof so far as touched the Temporal penalty And to give them as much as can be allowed it 's probable that in all or most of the Cases foregoing they had the honour to advise in determining of the Crime and declaring the Law or defining the matter for in those ignorant times it could not be expected from any other But how the cognizance of Tythes crept under their wing might be much more wondred at for that it was originally from the Grant of the People nor can a better ground be found by me than this that it was a matter of late original For till the Seventh Century the times were troublesome and no setled maintenance could be expected for the Ministry where men were not in some certainty of their daily Bread. And as it will hardly be demonstrated that this Title was ever in any positive National Law before the time of Charlemain in whose time by a Synod of Clergie and Laitie it was decreed that Tythes should be gathered by selected persons to pay the Bishops and Presbyters So neither can I find any Saxon National Constitution to settle this duty till Alfred's time although the Church-men had them as a voluntary Gift so far as touched the quota pars for the space of well-nigh a hundred years before But Alfred made a National Law under a penalty to enforce this Duty which the Canon could not wring from the Saxons how dreadful soever the Censure proved And by this means the Church had their remedy by Ecclesiastical censure for the matter in fact and
also the Civil Magistrate the cognizance in point of Right albeit future times introduced a change herein CHAP. XV. A brief Censure of the Saxon Prelatical Church-Government THis that I have said might at the first view seem to represent a curious Structure of Church-policie which might have put a period to time it self but to speak sine ira studio the height was too great considering the foundation and therefore ever weak and in need of props The foundation was neither on the Rock nor on good ground but by a Ginn screwed to the Roman Consistory or like a Castle in the Air hanging upon a pin of Favour of Kings and great men At the first they thought best to temporize and to hold both these their strings to their Bow but feeling themselves somewhat under-propped by the Consciences of the ignorant people they soon grew wondrous brave even to the jealousie of Princes which also was known so notoriously that the publick Synods rang That the Prelates loved not Princes but emulated them and envied their greatness and pursued them with detraction And if the Cloth may be judged by the List that one example of Wilfrid Archbishop of York will speak much He was once so humble minded as he would always go on foot to preach the Word but by that time he was warm in his Archbishops Robes he was served in Vessels of Gold and Silver and with Troops of Followers in such Gallantry as his Pomp was envied of the Queen A strange growth of Prelacy in so small a space as Eighty years and in the midst of stormy times such as then afflicted this poor Country But this is not all for never doth Pride lead the way but some other base Vice follows I will not mention the lives of the Monks Nuns and other Clerks Malmsbury speaks sufficiently of their Luxury Drunkenness Quarrelling and Fighting Others witness thereto and tell us that the Clergie seldom read the Scripture and did never preach and were so grosly ignorant that Alfred the King being a diligent Translator of Latine Writers into the Saxon Tongue rendreth this reason Because they would be very useful to some of his Bishops that understood not the Latine Tongue Nor were the Presbyters of another dye for that King bewailing their ignorance in his Letter to Wolfegus saith That those which were de gradu spirituali were come to that condition that few of them on this side Humber could understand their Common prayers or translate them into Saxon and so few as I do not saith he remember one on this side the Thames when I began to reign And the Synod that should have salved all covers the Sore with this Canonical Plaister that those of the Clergie that could not say Domine miserere in Latine should instead thereof say Lord have mercy upon us in English. It was therefore a vain thing for the Clergie to rest upon their Works or Title of Divine Right their great Pomp sacred Places and savour of Kings commended them to the Administration or rather Adoration of ignorant people and the favour of the Roman Chair unto the regard of Kings who maintained their interest with the Conclave on the one side and with the People on the other side by their means and so they mutually served one another It cannot be denied but the Pope and Kings were good Cards in those days yet had the Prelacie maturely considered the nature of the Saxon Government so much depending upon the people they might have laid a more sure foundation and attained their ends with much more ease and honour I commend not the base way of Popularity by principles of Flattery but that honourable service of Truth and Vertue which sets up a Throne in the minds of the Vulgar few of whom but have some sparks of Nature left unquenched for though Respect may chance to meet with Greatness yet Reverence is the proper Debt to Goodness without which we look at great men as Comets whose influence works mischief and whose light serves rather to be gazed upon than for direction The foundation thus happily laid the progress of the building was no less irregular in regard of their ends that they aimed at For first they admitted the Laity into their Synods who were not so dull but could espie their ambition nor so base spirited as to live in slavery after conviction This Errour was espied I confess but it was too late and though they reformed it yet it was after Four hundred years labour And in the mean time by the contentions of the Clergie amongst themselves Kings had first learned so much of their Supremacy and the Laity so much of their Liberty as they began to plead with the Clergie and had brought the matter to issue before the Synod could rid themselves of these Lay-Spectators or rather Overseers of their ways and actions A second Errour was the yoking of the Bishops power under that of the Synods for they had little or no power by the Canon that was not under their controul neither in admission or deprivation of Presbyters or others determining of any Cause nor passing sentence of Excommunication And this could not but much hinder the hasty growth of Antichrist's power in this Kingdom Nor could it ever be compleated so long as the Synods had the chief power Nevertheless the inthralled spirits of the Clergie and terrour of the Papal thunder-bolt in continuance of time surmounted this difficulty and Synods became so tame and easily led as if there had been but one Devil to rule amongst them all For if any quick eye or active spirit did but begin to peep or stir the Legate e latere soon reduced him into rank and kept all in awe with a Sub poena of unknown danger A third error was the allowing of peculiars and exemptions of Religious Houses from ordinary jurisdiction and this was an error in the first concoction a block in the way of Prelacy and a clog to keep it down This error was soon felt and was occasion of much mutiny in the body Ecclesiastical but exceeding profitable for Rome not only in point of Revenue by the multitude of Appeals but especially in maintaining a party for the Roman See in case the Prelacy of England should stumble at the Supremacy of Rome Otherwise it seemed like a Wen upon the body rather than any Homogene Member and without which certainly the English Prelacy had thriven much better and the Roman Chair much worse In all which regards I must conclude that the Prelatical Government in England was as yet like a young Bear not fully licked but left to be made compleat by time and observation CHAP. XVI Of the Saxons Common-wealth and the Government thereof and first of the King. HAving already treated of the Saxon Church in order I am now come to the Republick which in all probability will be expected to be suitable to their original in Germany whereunto having
the humours of his Servants to keep his head above water but especially after he was chased by the Scots and quite out of breath he calls for help of all but first of the Clergie and bespeaks them with the Ordinance of Articuli Cleri wherein he gives some satisfaction to the complaints formerly mentioned which it seems by Baronius were exhibited in Parliament Ecclesiastical cognizance extendeth unto Tythes Oblations and Mortuaries and to pecuniary recompence In the first times neglect or denial of Church-duties was punished in the King's Court by Fine Afterwards the Bishop was joyned in that Work and the Tythable Goods were seized eight parts whereof were taken to the Lords and the Bishops use by moyeties a ninth part left to the Owner and the tenth to the Church Nor had the Bishops any peculiar Courts of cognizance of causes till the times of the Normans nor as yet in those times had they power to all intents For though it be true that the Roman Tribute of Peter-pence was allowed by the Conquerour's Law to the Bishop's Court yet we find no Law for Tythes and other profits to be recovered by the Ecclesiastical Court till about the end of Henry the second 's Reign or King Steven's time For at a Council at London in Henry the second 's time it was ordained that three Summons in the Pope's name should be made to such as payed not their Tythes and in case they then refused they should be Anathema And after that time in a Council at Oxford under Steven Archbishop of Canterbury it was decreed that the Laity should be entreated first to pay their Tythes and then if necessity require that they should be compelled by Ecclesiastical censure So as their power crept up by degrees in recovering of Church duties as it did in Testamentary matters and at length Henry the third worn and spent with the Barons Wars about his latter end yielded to Boniface the Archbishop his importunate demands and first gave liberty to the Clergie to be their own Judges and yet the Lay-Judges although divers of them were Clergie men did not suddenly forbear till this Law came which gave some satisfaction to the first and fourth Articles of Complaint foregoing Ecclesiastical cognizance extendeth not to a fourth part of the Tythes of any Living nor to pecuniary mulcts for sin saving by way of commutation The Complaint of the Clergie in Henry the third's time was against the King's prohibition in case of Tythes indefinitely for in those times and afterwards in Edward the first 's time the King's Court had the cognizance of all Tythes and therefore in the Statute of West 2. c. 5. the Writ of Indicavit was allowed in case of right of any portion of Tythes yet the Church still gained ground and about or before the death of Edward the first the Temporal Judge had yielded unto the Clergie the cognizance of a portion of Tythes under the value of the fourth part for in the Article next foregoing the Clergies complaint was that the Kings Justices held cognizance of the fourth part and here they were confined thereto by this Law which the Clergie could never remove For violence done to Clerks the offender shall render damage in the Kings Court but Excommunication Penance and Commutation shall be in the Bishops Court. The Canon-Law had an ancient claim to the protection of Clerks both as touching their persons and estates and prevailed so far as they were thereby emboldened to offer violence unto others But as I formerly shewed by a Law in Henry the Second's time the Temporal Judge resumed his original power and this became a sore evil between the Clergie and Laity for though it were allowed that Clerks should not be sued but before the Ecclesiastical Judge in such cases yet it was no warrant for the Laity likewise to be called before the Ecclesiastical Judge in such cases and therefore the Clergies complaints shew that the matter was doubtful and that the Lay-Judge generally maintained his Jurisdiction although sometimes he disclaimed it as it may appear in the case of a Trespass in the nature of a riot committed upon the Priory of St. John's of Jerusalem in the seventh year of Henry the Third when as it was adjudged per Curiam that it belonged to the Ecclesiastical Court to punish But in Edward the First 's time by the Ordinance of Circumspecte agatis and Articles concerning prohibitions the difference was made between damages and pro reformatione and the same affirmed by this Law and so the matter setled and the fourth Article of the Clergies complaint in some measure was satisfied Defamation within Cognizance of the Ecclesiastical Court and corporal penance therefore and Commutation The words are general and peremptory with a non obstante the Kings prohibition and yet the Law afterwards restrained the sence to defamation for crimes or offences triable in the Ecclesiastical Court and this gave further satisfaction to the fourth Article of the Clergies complaint foregoing Tythes of new Mills may be recovered in the Ecclesiastical Court. This Tythe of Mills was a new encroached Tythe never mentioned in any former Law of this Kingdom nor demanded by the Synod at London Anno 1173. which mentions Fruit-Trees young broods of living creatures that are tame Herbage Butter Cheese with other particulars but mentions not new Mills It is true that anciently Mills paid Tythes but such they were which were ancient and had paid the same by custom and such as by Law in the Confessors time were declared to be given a Rege Baronibus populo But by the second Article of the Clergies complaint next foregoing it appears that the Kings Mills refused to pay this Tythe now whether the new Mills were called the Kings Mills as being made upon the publick streams by the Kings license or whether the Mills newly made within the Demesnes of the Crown it is not to be insisted upon but it is evident that till this Law made the new Mills would not Tythe their labours One and the same matter may be tryed at the Common-Law after Sentence in the Spiritual Court in divers respects The great sore that was complained of was that the Clergie after purgation in the Ecclesiastical Court made were proceeded against in the Kings Court in case of breach of peace or Felony as may appear out of the 16th Article of the Clergies first complaints and the 8th Article of that taken out of Baronius Nevertheless the present Law subjoyns an example of the questioning a Lay-man in the Ecclesiastical Court in case of violence done to a Clerk as a matter which may be tryed in the Ecclesiastical Court and yet reviewed by the Kings Court. The Writ de Excommunicato deliberando shall not issue forth but upon evident breach of the Kings Liberty This might be intended in satisfaction of the Tenth Article of the Clergies complaint
also been cleared by another Pen. That their work at such times was to advise concerning such matters as should be propounded to them by the King in Parliament their Summons do shew the particulars whereof for the most part concerned supplies of Money from the Church-men And yet sometimes matters of great moment were debated therein As in a Convocation summoned by Henry the Fifth in his ninth year the preheminence of Pope Eugenius above the Council of Bazil was debated and as much as they could they determined the same The credit of their decisions in former time I believe was not much amongst the people because the men were looked upon with an evil eye Now that the Parliament seemeth to own them in their way and to protect them their determinations are somewhat The Church-men espy their opportunity and whilst the benevolent influence of the State is in its first heat they improve it in this manner The times were now come about wherein light began to spring forth conscience tobestir itself and men to study the Scriptures This was imputed to the idleness and carelesness of the Clergie who suffered the minds of young Scholars to luxuriate into Errours of Divinity for want of putting them on to other Learning and gave no encouragement to studies of humane Literature by preferring those that were deserving The Convocation taking this into consideration do decree That no person should exercise any jurisdiction in any Office as Vicar-general Commissary or Official or otherwise unless he shall have first in the University have taken Degrees in the Civil or Canon Law. A shrewd trick this was to stop the growth of the study of Divinity and Wickliff's way and to imbellish mens minds with a kind of Learning that may gain them preferment or at least an opinion of abilities beyond the common strain and dangerous to be meddled with Like some Gallants that wear Swords as Badges of Honour and to bid men beware because they possibly may strike though in their own persons they may be very Cowards And no less mischievously intended was this against the rugged Common-Law a Rule so nigh allied to the Gospel-way as it favoureth Liberty and so far estranged from the way of the Civil and Canon-Law as there is no hope of accommodation till Christ and Anti-Christ have fought the field Thus much of the Church of England in relation to the State now as it is absolutely considered in regard of the several degrees of persons therein Although these three Kings were much endeared to the English Clergy yet the difference between the Laity and them growing high the King 's principal care is now to keep an even hand between them both for he that will back two Horses at once must keep them even or put his joynts to the adventure First Henry the Fourth granteth That no more shall be paid to Rome for the first-fruits of Archbishops and Bishops than hath been anciently used The occasion hereof was to prevent the horrible mischief and damnable custom of Rome for such are the very words of that Statute unto which the Clergy gave their Vote if not the first Vote and therefore certainly did neither believe nor honour that infallible Chair as their own Mother nor did they bear her Yoke further than their own benefit and reason of State did require For though the immediate benefit of this Law did descend upon the Prelacy yet it also much concerned the interest both of the honour and benefit of the Nation that the Clergy should not be at the Pope's pleasure to tax and assess as he thought good Secondly Henry the Fifth added unto the Prelacy some kind of increase both of Honour and Power viz. to visit Hospitals that were not of the King 's own foundation and to reform abuses there for the Patrons either had no power to punish or will or care to reform them And thus upon the point although they lost a Right yet they gained ease Thirdly The same King confirmed by a Statute unto Ordinaries the cognizance of Accounts of Executors for their Testators Estates which formerly was granted by the Canon-Law but they wanted power to execute and a Right to have and receive In all these the Clergie or Prelacy were the immediate gainers In as many other things the people were made gainers and yet the Clergie were no losers otherwise than like the Kite of that prey which was none of their own First They refused formerly to grant Copies of Libels either thereby to hinder the course of Prohibitions or to make the Copies the moredear and Money more cheap with them Henry the Fifth finding this a grievance to the people passeth a Law That all Ordinaries shall grant the Copies of Libels at such time as by Law they are grantable Secondly As the probate of Wills had anciently belonged to the Ordinary by the Canon-Law and formerly also confirmed to them by the Parliament so it also regulated and settled the Fees for such Service But the Clergy having been ever under the noutriture of their Mother Rome that loved to exceed they likewise accounted it their liberty to take what they could get But the nigher they come to engage with Kings in their Government according to Law the more reformed they grow Formerly Edward the Third had settled their Fees but they would not hold to the rule Now the Law is doubled by Henry the Fifth with a penalty of treble damages against Delinquents Furthermore the very Priests could not contain their Pater-Nosters Requiems Masses and such Wares they had engrossed and set thereof what price they pleased The Market was risen to that height that Edward the Third undertook to set a rate upon those Commodities but that also would not hold long Henry the Fifth he sets a certain stipend somewhat more than Edward the Third had done and yet less than the Priests had formerly Lastly Some Laws were made wherein the Commonwealth gained and the Church were losers First Whereas the Church-men formerly held all holy things proper and peculiar to their own Cognizance especially such as concerned the Worship of God the Parliament now began to be bold with that and never asked leave It had now for a long time even since the Saxon times been the unhappy condition of this Church of England amongst others to decay continually in Piety and right Devotion but through the light that now revived and God's goodness it in these times came to pass that the people did entertain some sense of their duty towards God more than formerly and begin to quarrel the abuses done to the Lords day in the manner of the keeping thereof London hath the honour for beginning this Reformation by an Act of their Common Council The Parliament within seven years after that engage the whole Kingdom in that service though therewith also are adjoyned other holy Feasts then holden and all Fairs and Markets are enjoyned to cease on that
the Legislative power in point of Doctrine which doubtless issueth from the same principle of Power with the former For if the Church which as a pillar and ground holdeth for the Truth be the company of professing Believers then ought it not to seem strange if these in their representative do intermiddle with this Power or rather duty And for the matter in fact neither did the King challenge this Power nor did the Parliament make any difficulty of Conscience in executing the same and yet there were many Learned and Conscientious men of that number They therefore as touching the Doctrine proceed in the same way with that formerly mentioned concerning the Discipline And a Committee also is by them made of the King and Learned men to set down rules for Faith and Obedience and for the order of the publick Worship of God according to the Word of God. And these rules are confirmed by a Statute so as the King hath a power in the point of Doctrine but it is a derivative power it is a limited power to himself and not to his Successors and to himself and others joyned with him And lastly nothing must be done contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom Secondly The Parliament hath not onely a right to grant and limit this power unto others but also to execute the same immediately by its self And therefore before they granted this power to this Committee whereas formerly the Pope usurped the power to be the Omega to the resolves of all Councils the Parliament intercepted that to their own Jurisdiction in flat opposition to the infallibility of the Roman Chair so far as to disherize some Opinions which by the sentence of that infallible mouth had been marked with that black brand of Heresie And what they did before this Act of Delegation to the King and other Committees for this work they did afterwards as not concluding their own power by any thing that they had so done as may appear by their Censure of the Translation of the Bible made by Tindall By their establishing another Translation By their ordering and appointing what persons might read the same By their qualifying the fix Articles and the like The Parliament then hath a power which they may grant and yet grant nothing away they may limit this power in others as they will and yet not conclude themselves And the King by accepting this limited power must disclaim both the Original and absolute Right and cannot claim the same by right of Headship or Supremacie This was one great Windfal which the Parliament had from the ruines of Rome not by way of Usurpation but re-seizure For their possession was ancient and though they had been dispossest yet that possession was ever under a continual claim and so the right was saved A second that was no less fatal unto that See was the loss of all power over Ecclesiastical persons in this Kingdom For whereas the Popedom had doubly rooted it self in this Nation one way by the Regulars the other by the Seculars the Parliament by the dissolutions of Monasteries c. consumed one to ashes and by breaking the fealty between the other and the Pope parted the other root and the stock asunder and thence ensued the down fall of this tall Cedar in this Nation and Prelacie now left alone must fawn elsewhere or lie along a posture wherein that rank of men can never thrive Up again they peep and espying a King that loved to towre aloft they suddenly catch hold promising their help to maintain his flight and so are carried up and like a Cloud born between Heaven and Earth making the Commons beholding to them for the Kings Sunshine and the King for their interests in the people and for his superlative advancement above them all Now though the English Prelates may think their Orb above the Winds yet were they herein deceived The Parliament had power in their Election before the Pope usurped that to himself now that they are discharged Kings are possessed of them by Conge d'eslire but it is not by way of restitution For Kings were never absolutely possessed of any such power but as Committees of Parliament and by delegation and concession from them and therefore must render an account to them and abide their judgement when they are thereto called Thirdly The Parliament had the disposing and ordering of all the Church-Revenues as the Laws concerning Monasteries Sanctuaries Mortuaries First fruits Tenths Annates and suchlike sufficiently manifesteth Fourthly The Parliament had the power of granting Licenses Dispensations and Faculties setting a Rule thereunto as in case of Non-residency and delegating the power to Committees whereof see more in the Chapter following concerning ordinary Jurisdiction Fifthly The Parliament reserved the Cognizance of all Appeals for final Sentence unto themselves and disposed of all the steps thereunto as unto them seemed most convenient For though it be true in some cases the Archbishop of Canterbury had the definitive Sentence and in other cases the Convocation yet was this but by a temporary Law and this also granted to them by the Parliament which took it away from the Pope and never interested the Crown therein but made the Archbishop and the Convocation their immediate Delegates so long as they saw good Afterwards when they had done their work viz. The determining the Appeal and Divorce of Queen Katherine and some other matters the same hand that gave that power took it away and gave it not to the King or Crown but to Delegates from the Parliament from time to time to be nominated by the King and may as well alter the same and settle the power elsewhere when they please And therefore after the Appeal of the Dowager thus determined and the Sentence definitive thus setled upon Delegates the Parliament nevertheless determined the other Causes of the Marriages of the Lady Anne Bullen and the Lady Anne of Cleve the jurisdiction of the Crown never intermedling therein So as upon the whole it must be acknowledged that however the King was Supreme Head of causes Ecclesiastical yet had he not the definitive sentence in Appeal nor absolute Supremacy but that the same was left to the Parliament Sixthly and lastly what attempts the Parliament had met with partly from the designs of some great men that sought their own ends and partly from the endeavours of these Kings that sought their own height and greatness above their peoples good hath been already related and the utmost issue had been truly stated viz. That the gains have come to the Kings persons and not to their Crown and that therein they have put their Seal to the Law and made their submission to the Parliament as touching both their persons and power Add hereunto that however Henry the Eighth aimed much at himself in his ends in two other main interests that most nighly concerned him yet the chief gain came to the Parliament The