other Bishops that sate with him the last Parliament which being the onely thing alleged by them in the Authours life time and proved so undeniably to be false is enough to condemne all the rest of their Hearesay reports for groundlesse fables of our Registers of King Edwards Bishops of Bishop Barlow and of the forme of our ordination Directing him who will cleare all those doubtes what he hath to do as if we were their Iournymen Let them not trouble themselves about that they are cleared to the least graine But if they will receive advise for advise and pursue a prudentiall course which they prescribe to others if they regard the present face of the skie and looke well to their owne interest and the present conjuncture of their affaires they have more need and are more ingaged in reputation to defend themselves then to oppugne others So they conclude their discourse with this short Corollary How unfortunately was Charles the first late King of England misinformed in matter of his Bishops and Clergy what scruple could he have had if he had known the truth to give way to the Parliament to pull downe Parliament Bishops who were so farre from being de jure divino that they were not so much as de jure Ecclesiastico We thanke you Gentlemen for your good will The Orthodox Clergy of England are your feare And you know what commonly followeth after feare Hate Oderunt quos metuunt What pitty it is that you were not of King Charles his Councell to have advised him better yet we observe few Princes thrive worse then where you pretend to be great ministers If you had counsailed him upon this Subject perhaps you might have found him too hard for you as another did whose heart he burst with downe right reason If ever that innocent King had a finger in the blood of any of that party that was it to choake a man with reason but certeinly that wise Prince would not have much regarded your positive conclusions upon hearsay premisses We hold our Benefices by human right our offices of Priests and Bishops both by divine right and humane right But put the case we did hold our Bishopricks onely by humane right Is it one of your cases of conscience that a Soveraigne Prince may justly take away from his Subjects any thing which they hold by humane right If one man take from another that which he holds justly by the law of man he is a thief and a robber by the law of God Let us alter the case a little from our Bishoprickes to their Colleges or their treasures If any man should attempt to take them from them upon this ground because they held them but by humane right they would quickly cry out with Ploiden the case is altered Be our right divine or humane or both if we be not able to defend it against any thing the Fathers can bring against it we deserve to lose it FINIS ERRATA P. 14. l. 9. r. that the. p. 15. l. 22. r. as to p. 18. l. 9. and p. 19. l. 10. r. Tobâ—e p. 20. l. 20. r. requested p. 23. l. 2. d. present p. 30. l. 2 r. Chapel p. 37. l. 23. r. to present p. 40. Maâ—g lib. 3. p 47. l. 1. r. chap. 4. and in like manner correct the number of the chapter till chap. â—1 p. 63. l. 21. r. temporal and commons in p. 76. l. 20. r. 1599. p. 77. l. 8. Rolles r. Acts. p. 82. l. 20. r. Ac iâ—dem Decanus Capitulum c. And p. 86. ad l. 24. Marg. add Rot. par 14.2 Eâ—â—zab p. 101 l. 10 r. Commissaru l. 19. assensu r. Consilio p. 104. l. â— Marg. add Regist. Parker Tom. 1 sol 10. l 12. r. per Thomam Yale l. 25. r. se adjuâ—â—it p. 105 l. 7. r. dix erunt Anglico take c. as in the Preface p. 108. l. 25. r. John Incent p. 117. l. 11. r. Metropolitano salutem c. p. 127. l. 7. d. of p. 154. l. 1. d. that p. 162. l. 14. r. 1572. p. 168. l. 14 râ— r. merry and for w. r. we p. 188. l. 7. r. Fifâ—ly p. 190. l. ult r. 31. Iul. p. 191. l. 12. r. num 27. p. 200. l. 19. r. September 9. p. 211. l. 10. p. 212. l. 12. and p. 213. l. 10. for Dean of the Aâ—ches r. Archbishop or his Commâ—ssioner Treatise of the nature of Catholick faith and haeresy c. 2. p. 9. The first reason Seeond reason De Schism Angl. c. 3. p. 400. Edit Rom. The third Reason 25. H. 8. c. 20. Resp. Int. 8. August Rot. 14. Pars 2. Elisab Acworth cont monar Sander l. 6. p. 195. Sand. de Schism l. 2. p. 350 Confut. Apol. parte 6. c. 2. Brookes Novel Cafes placit 493. Ace worth cont Sander l. 2. pag. 197. De Schismate l. 2. p. 282 Edit Rom. Cardinall Poles Dispensation De Schism l. 2. p. 305. De Schism l. 2. p. 350. A fifth reason Rotâ— pars 1 4.2 El. Reg. Cran. fol. 334. The seventh Reason The seventh reason Rot. pa. 6.1 Elis. Ro Pars 2.1 Elis. Can. 36 8. Elc. cap. 1. Rot. pars 14.2 El. Reg. Park t. 1. f. 2. 8. El. c. 1. The eighth reason The tenth reason Survey c. 9. p. 122. In Ep. ad ami n. 5. 8. Elis. cap. 1. Deut. 19.15 Mat. 18.16 pa. 10. Bell. de Sac. Bapt. l. 1. c. 7. In praefaâ—ione De Eccles cont 2. q. 5 c. 3. In Titum c. 1
THE CONSECRATION AND SUCCESSION Of Protestant Bishops justified The BISHOP of DURESME vindicated And That infamous Fable of the ordination at the Nagge 's head clearly confuted By JOHN BRAMHALL D. D. Bishop of Derry Necesse est ut lancē in libra ponderibus impositis Deprimi sic animum perspicuis cedere GRAVENHAGH By JOHN RAMZEY Anno 1658. CHAP. I. The occasion of this Treatise THe fairest eares of Corne are soonest blasted so the more conspicuous the Church of England was among the reformed Churches as not being framed according to the brainsicke dictates of some seditious Oratour or the giddy humours of a tumultuous multitude but with mature deliberation and the free consent and concurrence of all the Orders of the Kingdome the more it was subjected to the envie and groundless calumnies of our Country men of the Roman Communion But of all the slanderous aspersions cast upon our Church that liyng fable of the Nagge 's head Ordination doth beare the bell away Those monstrous fictions of the Cretian bulles and minotaures devised by the Athenians to revenge themselves upon Minos King of Creete who had subdued them in a just warre and compelled them to send their sons to him for hostages were not more malicious nor that shamelesslie of Kentish long tailes more ridiculous The first deviser of it doth justly deserve the Character of A man of a brasen forhead and leaden hearie If the unpartiall reader after he have perused this treatise thinke I doe him wrong I do willingly submitte my self to his censure This prodigious fable received its deathes wound from Mr. Masons penne and hath remained ever since for the space of thirty yeares buried in deepe oblivion And those assaies which it maketh now to get wing againe by the assistence of two Ignatian Fathers are but the vaine attempts of a dying Cause Neither would I have troubled the Reader or my self to bring Owles to Athens or to confute a Cause which hath bene so demonstratively confuted to my hand but for two new additions lately spread abroad The one by orall tradition which concerneth my self That Father T. and Father B. had so confuted the Bishop of Derry in the presence of the King that he said he perceived his Father had made me a Lord but not a Bishop And that afterwards by my power I had procured those two Iesuits to be prohibited that presence So that whereas Father Talbot used to be the Interpreter in the Spanish treaties now he was not admitted and Don Iohn would admitte no other So the Bishop of Derry is accused not onely to have bene publickly baffeled but also to have bene a disturber of publick affaires Yet I know nothing of all this which concerneth myself I never heard of any such conference or any such words I never knew that Father Talbot was designed to that imploiment I was never guilty of having any such power muchlesse of any endevour to turne out any man If the Fathers seemed too pragmaticall to those who were intrusted or to involue the interest of their Religion into Civill treaties what is that to me If it were true they may thanke themselves If it were false they may thanke them who did it Whether true or false I never had an hand nor so much as a little finger in it All the truth that I know is this Hearing that these two Fathers had spoken largely in the Courte of the Succession of our English Bishops but never in my presence I sought out Father B and had private conference with him about it in the Iesuits College at Bruges and afterwards some discourse with Father T. and him together in mine owne Chamber Whatsoever they did say they put into writing to which I returned them an answer shewing not onely that there was not but that it was morally impossible there should be any such Ordination at the nagges head From that day to this I never heard any thing of it that concerned myself Now if a man should search for an Authour of this fabulous Relation he shall be sure to have it fathered upon some very credible persōs without names who had it from Iohn an okes whilest he was living and he had it from Iohn a Stiles and he had it from No body but feined it himself out of a good intention according to that case Theology which he had learned of Machiavell To advance the credit of Religion by all meanes possible true or false The other addition concerneth the learned and Reverend Bishop of Duresme one of the ancientest Bishops this day living in the Christian world being 95 yeares old at least That he owned and justified the nagges head Ordination in publick Parliament in the house of the Peeres It is very well we can not desire a better place where to have it spoken then the house of Parliament Nor better witnesses then the Lords spirituall and temporall We have no man of the Episcopall Order whose memory can reach so neare those times or in whose integrity we doe more confide then the Bishop of Duresme He might heare many things either from the persons praetended to have bene then consecrated or from the Notaries or witnesses who were then present at that imaginary Consecration Or at least he might receive the tradition of that age from such as were eiewitnesses of what passed Let it be put to his Testimony if they thinke fitte without doubt he is the same man he was then or to the Testimony of any other of his age and Reputation whom they can produce We refuse no sort of proofe but onely vaine hear say which as our English proverbe saith is commonly and in this case most undoubtedly a lier Nay we would not refuse the Testimony of Mr. Neale himself though a professed enemy who was the onely founder of this silly fable so he might be examined upon oath before equall Iudges but compell him either to shame the divell and eate his owne words or to runne himself into such palpable absurdities Contradictions and impossibilities that no man of reason how partiall soever could give any credit to him My first taske shall be before I meddle with the fable it self to vindicate the Bishop of Duresme and the truth which is wounded through his sydes with this intimation to the Reader that if this branch of the Legend be proved apparently to be false which is pretended to have bene publickly acted in a full house of the Peeres of the Realme we can expect no truth from the voluntary reporte of one single meane malicious enemy to his own party And with all a confessed Spie of what was done at the Nagge 's head Breake ice in one place and it will crack in more CHAPT II. The Vindication of the Bishop of Duresme TO vindicate the Bishop of Duresme I shall first set downe the relation of this passage in the words of the Fathers themselves In the beginning of the late Parliament some Presbiterian Lordes presented
the Nagge 's head he saith onely that the consecration of the first Protestant Bishop was attempted there but not accomplished If it were onely attempted not accomplished then the Nagge 's head Ordination is a fable But it falleth out very unfortunately for Mr Wadsworths attempt that of all those first Protestant Bishops whose elections were all confirmed at Bowes Church about that time And it might be all of them it is very probable â—undry of them had a confirmation dinner at the Nagge 's head not one was confirmed in person but all of them by their Proxies Arch Bishop Parker by Doctor Bullingham Bishop Barlow and Bishop Scory by Walier Iones Bachelour of Law Bishop Grindall by Thomas Hink Doctor of Law Bishop Cox by Edward Gascoine Bishop Sands by Thomas Bentham c as appeareth by the authentick Recordes of their confirmation Bishops are ordinarily confirmed by Proxie but no man was ever consecrated no man was ever attempted to be consecrated by Proxie The four next witnesses are Mr. Collimoâ— Mr. Laithwait Mr. Faircloth and Mr. Leake two of them of the same order with these Fathers to whom the ArchBishop of Canterbury caused these Recordes to be shewed in the presence of himself the Bishops of London Durham Ely Bath and Welles Lincolne and Rochester They viewed the Register they turned it over and over and perused it as much as they pleased and in Conclusion gave this sentence of it that the booke was beyond exception To say that afterwards they desired to have the Recordes into prison to peruse them more fully is ridiculous Such Recordes may not goe out of the presence of the Keeper But these Fathers may see them as much as they list in the Registriâ— if they seeke for satisfaction not altercation Lastly Bishop Bonner had a suite with Bishop Horne and the issue was whether Bishop Horne were lâ—gally consecrated Bishop upon that â—câ—uple or rather cavill which I have formerlâ— mentioned If Mr. Neale who they say was Bishop Bonners Chaplein and â—ent on purpose to spie what the â—ishops did could have proved the ordination of Bishop Horne at the Nagge 's head he might not onely have cleared his Master but have turned Bishop Horne deservedly out of his Bishoprick But he was loath to forfeit his cares by avouching such a palpaple lie The Nagge 's head Ordination was not talked of in those daies How should it before it was first devised Mr. Sanders dedicated a booke to ArchBishop Parker which he called the Rock of the Church If the Nagges head Ordination had bene a serious truth how would he have triumphed over the poore Arch-Bishop To conclude â—f faith ought to be given to concurring Recordes Ecclesiasticall and civill of the Church and Kingdome of England If a full Parliament of the whole Kingdome deserve any credit If the testimony of the most eminent publick Notaries in the Kingdome If witnesses without exception If the silence or contradiction or confession of knowne Adversaries be of any force If the strongest presumtions in 〈◊〉 world may have any place that men in their right wittes will not ruine themselves willfully without necessity or hope of advantage If all these grounds put together do over ballance the clandestine Relation of a single malicious Spie without either oath or any other obligation then I hope every one who readeth these grounds will conclude with me that the Register of the Church of England is beyond all exception and the malicious Relation of the Nagge 's head Ordination a very tale of a tub and no better so full of Ridiculous folly in it self that I wonder how any prudent man can relate it without laughter Who told this to Bluet Neale Who told this to Haberley Neale Who told it to the rest of the Prisoners at Wisbich Neale Onely Neale Who suggested it to Neale The Father of lies Neale made the fable Neale related it in Corners long after the time it was pretended to be acted If his Maister Bishop Bonner had knowne any thing of it we had heard of it long before That the Arch-Bishop should leave Lambeth to come to London to be consecrated That he should leave all those Churches in London which are immediately under his owne Iurisdiction to chuse a common taverne as the fittest place for such a worke That Bishop Bonner being deprived of his Bishoprick and a prisoner in London should send Neale from Oxford and send a command by him to one over whom he never had any Iurisdiction That the other Bishop being then a Protestant should obey him being a Roman Catholick when there were so many Churches in the City to performe that worke in where the Bishop of London never pretended any Iurisdiction That these things should be treated and concluded and executed all at one meeting that Bishop Bonner did foresee it would be so And command his servant to attend there untill he see the end of that businesse That the Bishops being about such a Clandestine worke should suffer a knowne enemy to stay all the while in their company is incredible If Neale had feined that he had heard it from one of the Drawers boies it had deserved more credit then this silly improbable inconsistent Relation which looketh more like an heape of fictions made by severall Authours by starts then a continued Relation of one man Quicquid ostendas mihi sic incredulus odi CHAPT VI. The Naggâ—s head Ordination is but a late devise Of the Earle of Nottingham Bishop Bancroft Doctor Stapleton the Statute 8. El. 1. And the Queenes dispâ—nsation NOw having laid our grounds in the next place let us see what the Fathers have to say further for themselves This storâ— of the Nagge 's head was first cnoâ—radicted bâ— Mason in the yeare 1613 yet so weakly and family that the aâ—tenâ—ive Reader may easily perceive he feared to be caught in a lie First the Fathers seem to argue after this manner Many Athenian writers did mention the Cretan Bulls and Minotaurs and Labyrinth but no Cretan did write against them therefore those ridiculous Fables were true Rather the Cretans laughed at their womannish â—evenge to thinke to repaire themselves for a beating with scolding and lying such ridiculous Fictions ought to be entertained with scorne and contempt Spreta exolescunt si irascaris agnita videmur Secondly it might be for any thing I know to the contrary Mr. Mason was the first who dissected this lie and laid the falsity of it open to the world but he was not the first who avouched and justified the Canonicall Consecration and personall Succession of our Protestant Bishops which is the same thing in effect the Bishop of Hereford did it before him and Doctor Reynolds before the Bishop of Hereford and he that writ the life of Arch-Bishop Parker before Doctor Reynolds and the Parliament before him that writ Arch Bishop Parkers life and the publick Registers of the Church before the Parliament Thirdly they would make us believe
rest of the English Catholick Doctors who did forsake all at home for Conscience sake would publish to the world in print the Nullity of Parkers Ordination thereby engaging posterity to commit so many damnable Sacrileges in reordeining those who had been validly ordeined already without due examination of the matter This plea is much like that of the old Roman that his Adversary did not receive the wound with his whole body that he might have killed him fairly They would have us rather put up the losse of our Holy Orders then the skill of their Doctors should be questioned If ReordinatioÌ„ be damnable Sacrilege the Authority of your own Doctors may be a fit medium to convince yourselves of Sacrilege not us of the Invalidity of our Ordination I hope Stephen the sixth and Sergius the third two Popes were other manner of men then your English Doctors and did both pretend to examine the matter as duely and to be as a verse from damnable Sacrilege as you yet they decreed publickly and most unjustly as you yourselves doe now confesse that all the holy Orders received from Formosus were void and compelled all those who had been ordeined by him to be reordeined Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. cap. 12. Mr. Mason cited the Testimony of a witnesse beyond all exception Charles Howard Earle of Nottingham Lord High Admirall of England who acknowledged Archbishop Parker to be his Kinsman and that he was an invited Guest at his CoÌ„secration at Lambeth To this the Fathers reply If this were true it proves onely that there was a good Dinner at Lambeth which might well be to conceale the shamefull Consecration at the Nagge 's head It proves there was a good Consecration as well as a good Dinner the words are to honour his Consecration and the solemnity thereof with his presence It had been something uncivill to encumber the Tavern with a Consecration and not stay dinner there The Earle was invited to the Consecration at Lambeth therefore it was at Lambeth The Earle was not at the Nagge 's head Mr. Neale himself who see more then ever was acted or so much as thought of did not see that Is it the Custome when one is invited to a Consecration to come after it is done to dinner or to invite a Nobleman to a Consecration in one place and then be consecrated in another This had been so farre from concealing the shamefulnesse of such a brainsick Consecration that it been a ready meanes to divulge it to all the world They adde Besides we must take the Earles Friends word for the Earles Testimony and Mr. Masons word for his namelesse Friend That is none of Mr. Masons fault but Mr. Holywoods Mr. Constables Mr. Sacroboscoes Dr. Champneys Mr. Fitz Herberts Mr Fitz-Simons who first broached this odious Fable Mr. Mason published this relation to the world in print while the Earle was yet living on purpose that they might enquire and satisfy themselves if they did not they can blame no body but themselves if they did by themselves or their Friends as it is most likely they did it is evident the answer did not content them and so we never heard more of them since It had been the greatest folly in the world to allege the Testimony of such a Noble man in his Life time contrary to his own knowledge which might have been disproved from his own Authority and so have easily laid Mr. Mason flat upon his back You may remember your own case with the Bishop of Durham But it was too true to be contradicted then and too late to be Contradicted now They say they bring more then one witnesse of the Nagge 's head Consecration Pardon me You never produced one yet and which is lesse then producing you never so much as named a witnesse whilst he himself was living In or about the yeare 1603. you first named Mr. Neale and innocent Iohn Stow when they were both dead you might as well have named the man in the Moone as Iohn Stow. Onely I confesse you named the Bishop of Durham in his life time and you see what is the issue of it and if you had named the others in their life times you must have expected a like issue either the perpetuall infamy of your witnesse or the utter confusion of your Cause You speake much of the learning and virtue and judgement of your hearsay Witnesses who knew how to distinguish between an Episcopall Consecration and a banquet I hope you doe not meane that the Earle of Nottingham did not know how to distinguish between a banquet and a Consecration if he did not the High Admiralship of England was ill committed to him or that he had not as much regard to his honour and Conscience as any of your Priests We meddle not with their Learning and virtue but we are no more obliged to take their Testimonies upon hearsay then they would take our Testimonies They have giveÌ„ an account to God and know before this time whether they have done well or ill They proceed The Priests and Iesuits to whom the Recordes were shewed in King Iames his time protested against them as forged and improbable as appeareth by the Testimony of men yet living whose honesty cannot be called in question Father Faircloth one of the imprisoned Iesuits testified so much to many by word of mouth and in writing Where is the writing where is the protestation why are they not produced Still here are no proofes but upon Hearsay One eye Witnesse is worth an hundred such who can sweare to no more but that they heard it and God knowes through how many Hucksters hands I hope the Bishop of Durhams case will make them more wary for the future But they are angry with some Protestants who endeavour to make this well grounded story a meer Fable and thereby call many persons of much more learning virtue and prudence then themselves Fooles or knaves We are plain Macedonians who call a Fable a Fable without either welt or gard yea so notorious a Fable that but that you tell us the Contrary we could not believe that any one of you did ever give any credit to it your selves any more then the Athenians did believe those monstrous Fables of Bulls and Minotaures which themselves had raised because some of their eminent Citizens had devised it or related it But we call no men Fooles or Knaues That langguage is too unmannerly for civill Writers What new Topick is this because we cannot beleeve a â—mans relation or his Iudgement do we straightway call him Foole or Knave Excuse me there are credulity and prejudice and mistakes and pious frauds in the world and none of these will willingly weare the Livery of Knaves or Fooles We are not of the same mind with Pope Stephen and Pope Sergius for the reordeining of those who had been ordeined by Formosus yet we do not call them knaves or Fooles We cannot beleeve what you yourselves have