Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	person_n	2,621	5	4.6847	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56215	The sword of Christian magistracy supported, or, A vindication of the Christian magistrates authority under the Gospell, to punish idolatry, apostacy, heresie, blasphemy, and obstinate schism, with corporall, and in some cases with capitall punishments ... by William Prinne of Lincolns Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1653 (1653)	Wing P4099; ESTC R15969	222,705	186

so much as the least pitty The PIOVS RIGOR OF THIS SEVERITY not only PURGED the Kingdome of England of that Plague which had already crept into it BVT ALSO PREVENTED THAT IT SHOULD NO MORE CREEP INTO IT BY THE TERROR STRUCK INTO THE HERETIKES So our Nubrigensis whose words I have faithfully englished The forraign Sectaries thus severely punished were no other then professed Anabaptists and schismatickes pronounced hereticks for their obstinacy Their punishment was harsh yet deemed just and necessary in those times and it had this good issue which may induce us now to a fitting and just severity against obstinate Hereticks Schismaticks Blasphemers Anabaptists it suppressed the spreading of their pestilent Errors for the present in England and preserved it safe from their infection for the future Timely and discreet Flebotomie is ever the best cure against this Gangraene of obstinate Schisme and Heresie Only this I shall observe by the way that these Anabaptists for ought I find never pretended that the King and civill Magistrates had no power to punish them for matters of Religion as our Anabaptists and Sectaries now plead and write The sinnes of Heresy and Apostacy were so odious in this our Realm that by the very ancient common Law of England they deserved were punishable with death yea the soarest death of all others BURNING as being no lesse then High Treason against the King of heaven and Gravius est aeternam quam temporalem laedere majestatem That these were thus punishable by the very common Law of England before the Statute of 5. R. 2. Stat. 2. c. 5. surreptitiously procured without the Commons assent and repealed the next Parliament or the Statutes of 2. H. 4. c. 15. and 2. H. 5. c. 7. is apparent unto me by the Authority of our ancient Law Bookes I read in Bracton l. 3. c. 9. f. 123 124. who writ in King Henry the 3. his reigne That if a Clergy man be convicted of Apostacy he shall be for it depriued and afterwards per manum laicalem COMBVRATVR he shall be burnt by the hands of Laymen as it hapned in the Councell of Oxford under Stephen Archbishop of Canterbury to a certain Deacon who became an APOSTATE for a certain Jew who when he bad been degraded by the Bishops statim fuit JGNI TRADITUS per manum Lai●●lem he was presently delivered to the fire by Lay hands And c. 23. f. 144. b. The Jewes may circumcise their owne sonns but not a man of another religion for if they do it they shall be gelt by way of punishment I read that in the Councell held at Oxford An. 1222. in the 6. year of Henry the 3. under Stephen Archibishop of Canterbury an execrable Impostor was convented before him who suffered himselfe to be wounded in his hands feet and side that by the resemblance of these bloody impressions he might perswade the people he was their Saviour who being condemned by the Councell was immured between two walls as a Monster too impious and unworthy to dye by humane hands and another who pretended her selfe to be Mary the mother of Christ and a third who pretended her self to be Mary Magdalen were immured with him Matthew Paris Matthew Parker and others write that they were crucified And Mat. Paris relates that Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne lying on his deathbed An. 50. of Henry the 3. pronounced the Pope to be an Heretick and the Friars Nunnes and Preachers also to be Hereticks for not opposing but favoring him and concluded thereupon with R m. 1. verse last qui talia agunt consentiunt DIGNI SUNT MORTE Therefore in those daies Hereticks were deemed worthy to dye as well temporally as eternally which confirmes that in his time Hereticks deserved to be put to death John Britton Bishop of Hereford Doctor both of the civil and canon Law who writ a Book of the Lawes of England then in use about the 5. year of King Edward the first by the Kings command lib. 1. cap. 9. De Arsouns or persons that were to be burned by judgement of Law informs us That such who burned houses in times of peace and were therof convicted shall be burned so as they shall be punished by the selfesame thing wherein they offend And THE SAME JUDGEMENT have Sorcerers and Sorceresses and Sodomites and MISCREANTS or HERETICKS openly attainted who are to be enquired after And this was no new Law as appears by the preamble of the King to this Booke but les leys que len ad use en nostre Royalme AVANT SES HOVRES Therefore it is cleare by this Authority that the burning of Hereticks was in use before this Kings reigne though we find few or no presidents of it and inquirable by the Justices and other temporall Officers of the King as Britton writes in this chapter but not by the Bishops and Clergy further then to Excommunicate them Andrew Horne in his Myrrour of Justices written in the end of King Edward the first or at least in King Edward the second his reigne hath these severall passages concerning Heresy and its punishment as Chap. 1. Sect. 4. p. 21 22 23. where speaking of Crimes and their Division of the Crime of Treason he writes thus Crime of Majesty or Treason is an horrible sinne done to the King and this is either to the KING CAELESTIAL or Terrestriall Against the King of heaven in three manners by HERESY Sorcery Sodomy HERESY is an evill and false beliefe arising from Error in the right Christian faith In this sinne is Sorcery and Divination which are members of heresy and arise from an evill beliefe After which he enumerates the severall sorts of Sorceries and Divinations contrary to the Law of God and the Church and to the right faith for which they are to be apprehended and removed from among the people of God that so no good Christian may be taken with their act nor partner with their sinne Chap. 2. Sect. 22. p. 141 142. he writes thus Of the Crime of Treason or Majesty there is no especiall or large Enditement but OF HERESY and Sorcery Of which if any be indited and drawn into judgment this is the Inditement pronounceable for the King by any of his people in this manner according as it is found IN THE ROLLES OF ANCIENT KINGS I say Sebourge here is defamed by good people of the THE CRIME OF HERESY for this that from an ill art and beliefe forbidden and by charmes and enchantment he took from Brightient by name on such a day c. the flower of his beare by which he lost the vent c. Or thus Molling who is here is defamed by good men that on such a day c. he renounced his baptisme and caused himselfe to be circumcised and became a Jew or Saracen or offered or sacrificed unto Mahomet in despite of God and in damnation of his soule and this sinne he did FELONIOVSLY

c. And if he will deny it I am ready to prove it for the King as belongs to the King to do Chap. 4. Sect 11. p. 42. he defines that deadly sinnes are to be punished with death and mortall paine and that such punishments are warranted by the old Testament and to be inflicted to prevent eternall death After which Sect. 14. p. 252. Of the punishment of Treason he determines thus That Sodomy is to be punished with burying the party alive under ground Sorcery by burning in the fire The JVDGEMENT OF HERESY is fourfold The 1. is Excommunication the 2. Degradation the 3. Disinherison the 4. dee' ARSE en Cinders TO BE BVRNED TO ASHES By this punctuall Authority of Horne it is most cleare to me First that Hereticks and Apostates as well as Sodomites and Sorcerers even as they were Hereticks were inditable and triable at the Kings suite in the King Courts by the very common Law of England without any precedent conviction of Heresie by the Ordinary of the Diocesse or by a Nationall or Provinciall Synod and that the Judges of the common Law when any Heretick or Apostate was to be proceeded against criminally and capitally for his life were to judge what was Heresie and what not not the Bishops or Synod only as well as in the case of a r Prohibition or Habeas Corpus 2. That such Inditements were usuall and a set forme of them used and pursued in Edward the first his raigne and were then to be found in the Rolls of ancient Kings long before him therefore were then of long of ancient use and warranted by the ancient common Law of England before his raigne 3. That the Bishops and Clergy could punish heresie onely with Excommunication and Degradation not with death ● 4. That by the ancient Common Law of England in Edward the first his reign and in the reigne of ancient Kings before him Heresy as heresy and Sorcery only as Heresie and a branch thereof and under the name of heresy was inditable in the Kings Court at the Kings suite and punished with burning to death and so the writ De Haeretico Comburendo if necessary when grounded upon the Judges sentence warranted by the common Law and the judgement of burning given by it long before any Statute made against Heresy in the reigne of Richard the second or Henry the fourth 5. That Hereticks and Apostates who are such indeed may at this day be indicted for their heresy and Apostacy in the Kings Bench or at the Assises by the very common Law of England and upon sufficient proofes be there convicted condemned and adjudged to be burnt this power of the Judges at common Law to try and condemne Hereticks being not now restrained by any Statute nor taken away by the Statute of 1. Eliz. cap. 1. which repeales all former Statutes against Hereticks or Heresy which only concerned Bishops Ordinaries and their proccedings in case of Heresie grounded on them not the King or his Judges The next Authority I shall cite is that of Fleta written by a learned Lawyer imprisoned in the Fleet as Sir Edward Cooke informes us in Edward the third his raigne and taken for the most part out of Bracton lib. 1. cap. 3. Christiani Apostatae Sortilegii hujusmodi DEBENT COMBVRI Contrahentes verò cum Judaeis vel Judaeabus pecorantes Sodomitae in terra vivi confodiantur per testimonium legale vel publicè convicti A cleare Authority that Apostates which comprehends all such as fall into Heresy Judaisme or Paganisme after they have embraced the true Christian orthodox faith South-sayers and such like which comprehends Hereticks likewise OVGHT TO BE BURNT even by the common Law then in use and that Christian who turned Jewes and Sodomites were to be buried alive After this Wickliffe and his followers called Lollards infesting the Pope and Prelates with their Doctrines and invectives against their Antichristian Tenets and impostures they being greatly favored by some Nobles and eminent Knights about the end of the reigne of King Edward the 3. and beginning of Richard the second the Prelates bearing then great sway in the Kingdome not daring to trust the Judges with the Triall of these New Hereticks as they stiled them taking hold of the President in the Councell at Oxford in King Henry the seconds raigne forecited and of the practise of the Pope and Popish Prelates in forraign parts took upon them in their Synods Convocations and likewise in private Consistories to condemne these Lollards for hereticks and upon their sentence there passed without any Inditement or triall at the common Law procured a writ which they might easily do being then Lord Chancellors and Lord Privie Seales for the most part De Haeretico comburendo to be directed in the Kings name to the Sheriffes of Counties and Mayors of Towns to burn such for Hereticks whom they alone had thus condemned before there was any Statute chiefly upon this ground that hereticks by the judgment of the common Law upon Inditements and Convictions in the Kings Courts were to be burned This is evident not onely by the Bishops proceedings in their Consistories against John Wickliffe John Aston Philip Repington Nicholas Harford William Swinderby and Walter Brute but also by that forme of writ de Haeretico Comburendo mentioned in Fitzherberts Natura Brevium f. 269. c. which was made in Parliament by the King and Lords for the burning of William Sautre a godly Martyr condemned of heresie in the Convocation at the earnest sollicitation of Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury in the 2. year of King Henry the fourth and burned by vertue of this writ the first Martyr we read of burnt by vertue of such a writ granted meerly upon a sentence given by the Prelates themselves without an Inditement and Judgment at Common Law This writ for his burning made without the Commons is thus translated into English by Mr. Fox The King c. to the Mayor and Sheriffs of Loadon greeting y Whereas the reverend Father Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of England and Legate of the Apostolike Sea by the assent consent and counsell of other Bishops his Brothers Suffragans and also of all the whole Clergy within his Province gathered together in his provinciall Councell the DUE ORDER OF LAW BEING OBSERVED in all points in this behalfe hath denounced and declared by his definitive sentence William Sautre sometimes Chaplaine fallen again into damnable heresie the said William had abjured thereupon to be A MOST MANIFEST HERETICK and therefore hath decreed that he should be degraded and hath for the same cause degraded him from all prerogative and priviledge of the Clergy decreeing to leave him unto the secular power and hath really so left him ACCORDING TO THE LAWES AND CANONICALL SANCTIONS SET FORTH IN THIS BEHALFE We therefore BEING ZEALOVS IN RELIGION and REVEREND LOVERS OF THE CATHOLIKE FAITH and of Justice

Hereticks and Apostates to be burnt the rather because the Bishops power is abolished cortrary to the opinion of 27. P. 8. 14. delivered when those Lawes were in force and of Sir Edward Cooke in his third Institutes p. 40. That at this day no person can be indicted or impeached for Heresie before any temporall Iudge or other that hath temporall Iurisdiction as upon the perusall of the Statutes of 5. R. 2. c. 5. 2. H. 4. c. 15. 2. H. 5. c. 7. 25. H. 8. c. 14. 2. Phil. and Mary c. 6. appeareth For these Acts being repealed as he there grants the old common Law of England is thereby revived as to Hereticks and Apostates and so at this day any person may be indicted impeached condemned before the temporall Iudges of the Kings Courts for apparent reall Heresie contrary to the Word of God and 4. first Generall Councels in such sort as they were and might be before these Statutes 4ly That since the repeale of these Statutes no man upon a bare conviction of Heresie before the Ordinary or Commissary justly may or ought to be put to death or burnt by the Writ De Haeretico comburendo unlesse he were likewise first legally indicted and convicted by a Iury in the Kings Courts as all other capitall Malefactors Felons and Traytors are My reasons are F●●st because it is directly contrary to Magna Charta c. 29. the Petition of Right 5. E. 3. c. 9. 25. E 3. c. 4. and other forecited Statutes of Edward the 3d. and contrary to the right order of Iustice good equity and the Lawes of the Realme as is resolved in the Stat. of 25. H. 8 c. 14. 2ly Because the Sheriffe could not execute any man by vertue of this Writ or without it before the Statute of 2. H. 4. c. 5. nor after it without this Writ unlesse he were actually present at the sentence as is resolved 2. Mariae Brooke Heresie 1. Therefore this Statute and all others in pursuance of it being totally repealed this Writ and the proceedings on it upon a bare sentence of the Ordinary is as I humbly conceive meerely void in Law and contrary to Magna Charta And therefore it is considerable whether the resolution of the Iudges in Legates case forecited be not erronious though seconded by Sir Edward Cooke For though the Ordinary of every Diocesse both before and after these Acts might convict any person for Heresie and excommunicate or degrade him by the common Law yet the Sheriffe could not execute him by any such convictions either without or by vertue of a Writ De Haeretico comburendo but by power of those Acts now all repealed as is resolved by 25. H. 8. c. 1. 4 Yet that an Hereticke or Blasphemer convicted and condemned of Heresie or notorious Blasphemy by a whole Nationall Synod or Convocation may by Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament without any previous Indictment be lawfully executed by a Writ De Heretico comburendo even at this day seemes probable to me since it was usual before any Statute made by the connivance of the common Law 5ly That an Hereticke and Apostate legally indicted and convicted in the Kings Courts before the Iudges for Heresie or Apostacy and adjudged to be burnt may at this day by the common Law be executed without such a Writ by vertue of the judgement only by the Sheriffe who is an Officer to the Court as well as other Felons may be and are usually executed in other cases without a Writ And if the Parliament will be pleased by a Law to declare what are Heresies in particular and what Heretickes and Apostates in speciall shall be indicted and proceeded against at the common Law as they did heretofore in case of Treasons by the Stat. of 25. E. 3. c. 2. there will be as great benefit and no more danger of Tyranny or Persecution in permitting commanding the Iudges to proceed against Hereticks and Apostates who are Traytors unto God and Religion according to the ancient Rules of the common Law then there now is in their proceedings against Traytors to the King and Kingdome upon the Statute of 25. E. 3. c. 2. a very good president as I humbly conceive for framing a new capitall Law against Heresies and Blasphemies Now the reasons which confirme me in this opinion That all Heresies Blasphemies Schismes Apostacies Idolatries are triable and punishable in a criminall or Capitall manner only by an indictment and legall Tryall at the common Law but not upon any sentence given by the Clergy in Convocation or the Bishops in their Consistories are these First because the Priests under the Law were neither appointed to condemne nor execute such unlesse upon extraordinary occasions in default of the Majestrat but only the Majestrates and people as Deut. 13. with other precepts and precedents forecited manifest especially Iob. 31. 26. 27. 28. If I behold the Sunne when it shined or the Moone walking in brightnesse or my heart hath beene secretly enticed to worship them or my mouth hath kissed my hand this also were an iniquity TO BE PVNISHED BY THE IVDGE for I should have denyed the God that is above Secondly Because all such under the Gospell since Christs time were anciently punished with imprisonment confiscation of goods disinherison banishment death only by the civill Lawes Edicts of Godly Emperours Kings and civill Majestrates and by their sentences and Iudgements in pursuance of them as is apparant by the premised and subsequent Lawes and Histories No Prelats Councells Synods anciently having power to passe any such civill corporall or capitall sentence against them but the civill Iudges and Majestrate only Hence Lucas Tudensis about 350. yeares since writing of the Albigenses reputed for Hereticks records that a judice Regionis capti sunt Et ut digni erant flaminum ignibus traditi confessing it to be the civill Magistrates duty both to restraine and punish them concluding thus Regum Principum est hoc ministerium scilicet fidei rebelles occidere per se vel per ministros suos Quod nisi sollicite fecerint rationem reddent Domino de his quae eorum dissimulatione vel negligentia ab impijs perpetrantur Remunerabuntur autem si illorum ministeriocultus fidei conservetur Hence Iulius Firmicus writes thus to the Emperors Constans and Constantius vobis sacratissimi Imperatores ad vindicandam puniendam Idololatriam necessitas imperatur hoc vobis Dei summi lege praecipitur 3ly Because all the godly Councells Bishops Fathers in former ages yea Popes themselves have written to and importuned Godly Emperors Kings Magistrates to apprehend suppresse punish Hereticks Schismaticks Blasphemers and Apostates informing them it was their duty to do it to which all Orthodox Protestant Churches Writers at this day subscribe yea and the Papists too From whence Paeraeus Dr. Willet Bishop Davenant and generally all Protestant Divines thus argue against the Popish Prelates and Clergie who will not