exortus prosapia dum carnis clausus carcere tenebatur pauper spiritu mente mitis justitiam sitiens misericordiae deditus mundus corde vere pacificus prout firmiter recolimus nos expertos utpote cujus apud nos diu laudabilis conversatio gloriosae vitae insignia ex mulâ—a familiaritate quam nobiscum habuit eadem fuerunt evidentius nobis nota quod Sanctitatem ipsius conversationem laudabilem cernebamas quemadmodum degens in seculo magnis pollebat meritis nunc veniens in coelo magnis corruscare miraculis dignoscatur in tantum quod ipsius meritis intercessionibus gloriosis lumen caecis surdis auditus verba mutis gressus claudis alia pleraque beneficia ipsius patrocinium implorantibus coelesti dextera conferuntur de quorum miraculorum corruscatione multiplici nonnullis de regno nostro certitudinaliter innotescit Nos attendentes per Dei gratiam fideles in Christo nosque praecipue populum regni nostri ejus posse suffragiis adjuvari ut quem familiarem habuimus in terris mereamur habere Patronum in coelis Sanctitati vestrae devotissime supplicamus quatenus tantam lucernam absconsam sub modio remanere diutius non sinentes set eam mandantes super Candelabrum collocari hiis qui sunt in domo Domini solatium praebituram dignemini ipsum ascribere Sanctorum Cathologo venerando ut ejus precibus Dominus exoratus gratiam in praesenti gloriam nobis praebeat ia futuro Conservet vos Altissimus ad regimen Ecclesiae suae per tempora foeliciter longiora Dat. apud Westm Secundo die Novemb. Anno regni nostri 33. And upon this as I said before he was Canonized for a Saint The Letter it self I have the rather exemplified at large that you may see upon what ground the Popish Confidence is founded and what by-wayes have been beaten in quest of Heaven King Henry the seventh had a desire to have had King Henry the sixth Lo. Bacon Hist Hen. 7. fo 227. his Predecessor Canonized for a Saint thereby to acquire some coelestial Honour to his own House and Line of Lancaster and for that purpose he dealt with Pope Julius who knowing that he had an able Chapman in hand made his demands accordingly Some indeed say that that Pope who was a little more than ordinary jealous of the dignity of the See of Rome and of the Acts thereof knowing that King Henry the sixth was reputed in the world but for a simple man was afraid it would diminish the estimation of that kind of Honour if there were not a distance kept between Innocents Lo. Bacon supr Speed Chron. in Ed. 4. fo 885. and Saints But the general opinion was that Pope Julius was too dear which the wary King perceiving having somewhat tasted of the charge in expences upon witnesses References Commissions and Reports for the verification of his Holy Acts and Miracles a thing usual in the Court of Rome when a good Client comes thought good to reserve his money for some better bargaine and withdrew his suit betimes Et sic nihil inde venit The manner of Canonizations with the Ordinary charges Sir H. Spelm. Conc. Tomâ— fol. 717 718. too long to be here inserted but most worthy to be noted you may find exhibited by Sir H. Spelman in the second Tome of his excellent collection of the English Councils CHAP. XXI Pope's Legats Collectors IN the foregoing Chapters particular instances have been made of some of those many and great summs of money heretofore going out of England to the Pope and Court of Rome with some of the wayes and means of drawing the same thither wherein we had occasion of mentioning the Pope's Legates Agents Collectors and Officers imployed about the gathering and transmitting those summs of some of whom it will not I conceive be impertinent to revive some memorials as tending something to the amplification of the particulars before specified Pandulfus of these shall be the Antesignanus though not first in time Pandulsus Matt. Paris John Serres Hist in Phil. August Speed Chron. yet as most notorious To him as the Pope's substitute it was that King John was inforced to surrender his Crown laying the same his Scepter Robe Sword and Ring the Royal Ensigns at his feet subscribing to a Charter whereby he surrendred his Kingdom to the Pope and paying an Annual Pension of 1000 marks for both the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and professing that thenceforward he would hold Crown and Kingdoms as a Feudetary to the Pope But of this Legat and this action enough before in King John's Pension from whom we pass to Nicolas Thusculanus Nicolas Thusculanus who was the next Legat and came to get the former Grant of King John renewed This man sped so well in his Negotiation as he returned to his Master with great summs of money besides having disposed of a multitude of the spiritual Dignities and Benefices to the Pope's Kinsmen to Italians and Strangers all absent unknown and insufficient yea and to some unborn John Derlington was several years Collector of Peter-Pence Jo. Derlingt Disms and other summs accruing hence to Pope John Nicolas the third and Martin the third of whom Leland sayes thus Jo. Leland Coll. Nullo enim tempore defuerunt suae artes Romanis corrodendi pecunias relicto religioso Apostoli Petri Derlingtonus iniqui proditoris Judae permansit in Officio to reward which service of Derlington the Pope by Provision made him Archbishop of Dublin In an 7 Ed. 1. Bal. de Script Britt Cent. 4. c. 56. wherein as John Bale sayes he carryed himself ut mercenarius non Pastor non ut pascat sed ut mulgeat vel tondeat Otho comes next Otho Matt. Paris fo 446. Acts Mon. Tom. 140.260 H. d'Knight coll fo 2440. who how received and presented how he abused the King pilled the Clergy and in intolerable manner damnified the whole Kingdom is at large related by Matthew Paris and others one viz. Henry de Knighton gives him this exit Hic cum esset onustus pecunia quaedam Statuta edidisset reversus est ad locum unde exierat Of him we meet with this passage Once making an essay to enter Scotland to see what he could get there the Scots King advised him to beware for his Subjects were rough fellows and certainly would do him a mischief when they understood his errand Besides it being a bare Country he might well be slighted as once an honest poor man did the Thieves which he was told were broken into his house Let them alone said he for they will have much ado to find something in the dark when I my self can find nothing in the light But notwithstanding all this discouragement on he went as far as he durst that is to the Borders where some of the Bishops of Scotland meeting him partly with good words and partly with meances
12. but by matter of Record and that in regard of the Dignity of his Person Secondly Causa Necessitatis as in case to avoyd the Attainder of him that hath Right to the Crown As if the right Heir to the Crown be Attaint of High Treason yet shall the Crown descend to him and eo instanti when it happens without any other reversal the Attainder is purged as it fell out in the Case of King Henry 7. lest in the interim 1 Hen. 7. fo 4. b. there should be an Interregnum which the Law of England will not suffer any more than nature doth a Vacuum As also by vertue of this Politick Capacity though the King be within Age yet he may make Leases and Grants and the same shall be valid for otherwise his revenue would decay and the King would not be able to reward service c. Thirdly Causa Vtilitatis As when Lands and Tenements or Possessions descend from his collateral Ancestors being Subjects as suppose from the Earl of March c. to the King the King is seised or possessed of them jure Coronae in his Politick Capacity and they shall go with the Crown And in this Capacity it was that Queen Elizabeth had and injoyed all that belonged to Queen Mary though they were but Sisters of the half Blood which no others could do And as the Crown of England is Descendible to the Heirs males yet when a King dies and leaves no Son but Daughters only the Crown and Dignity Royal descends to the Kings eldest Daughter alone and to her Posterity and so it hath bin declared by a Parliament for Regnum non est divisibile Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 22. And there shall be no Possessio fratris of the Lands of the Crown for the quality of the Person doth in these and many other likes cases alter the descent So as all the Lands and Possessions whereof the King is seised or possessed jure coronae shall attend upon and follow the Crown unto whomsoever it shall Descend for the Crown and the Possessions of the same are concomitantia The naturall Body of the King being thus invested with his Politick and Royal Capacity we behold him as the Representative and Lieutenant of God Almighty who is King of Kings All Power is from God and Imperium non nisi Divino fato datur And therefore Plato did say That God did not appoint and establish men that is men of a common sort and sufficiency and purely Humane to rule and govern others cautiously to be understood but such as by some Divine touch singular vertue and gift of Heaven do excel others and therefore they are called Heroes and stand in Comparison with others as we may conceive of the Air which if we do compare with the Heavens it is a kind of Earth but if we compare it with the Earth it is then a kind of Heaven So of King's if we compare them with God Almighty they are but a kind of men but if we compare them with other men they are a kind of gods both intimated in that of the Psalmist I have said ye are gods but ye shall dye like men This Royal majesty of the King of England is replenished with plenary and undoubted Right and Authority to rule and govern all his Subjects and that in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal For this Kingdom of England is a Soveraign Empire or Monarchy consisting of one Head the Soveraign or King and of a Body Politick the People and this Body is distinguished into the Clergy and the Laity all of them intirely Subject to their Royal Head the King who as before is said is furnished and instituted with an intire Authority over every Subject of what degree or quality soever and that in all causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal For otherwise the King would be imperfect in his Authority contrary to the true notion of Soveraignty and thereby disabled to deliver Justice in all causes to all his Subjects or to punish all crimes and offences within his Dominions a consideration of high import for the necessary security both of Prince and People But notwithstanding the full and Soveraign Right of the King to rule and govern all his Subjects and that in all causes and consequently the just and necessary duty of all his Subjects to yield a full and intire Obedience to all the Kings good Laws for it is the Law that measures out and spiriteth the King's Authority as it directs and enforces the Subject's Obedience yet so it hath bin and so it is in our Antinomian times partly by the obstinacy and devotedness of some the weakness and ignorance of others and the peevishness and perversness of many that there is a multitude of natural born Subjects in this Kingdom who in defiance of the Laws both in their Opinions and Practices deny or oppose our Soveraigns Supremacy On the one hand there are the Sectaries who notwithstanding the Law is the Standard of true Allegiance make the ground the rule and measures of their Allegiance to be their own private fancies And though the Law is the bright Sun shining in the Horizon of this Kingdom by the Light whereof every one ought to guide his actions yet these men out-stare this Sun and giddily run some of them after the Ignis fatuus of a pretended Light within them some after the false fires of a misguided zeal too many after the Boutfeaus or male-content Incendiaries and some after the very fumes of Hypochondriacal fits mistaken for visions and Revelations On the other hand there are the Devoto's of Rome who in contempt of the King's Laws and Authority make the rules and measures of their Allegiance to be the will and pleasure of a Forrainer As the Sectaries set up a Pope in every man's Conscience whilst they invest it with a power to control the Decrees of Princes and new Lights for themselves to live and walk by these contrarily put out their own Eyes and give themselves up to be led by an infallible Head as they think to whom whilst they yield a blind Obedience they cannot see to be good Subjects These men of both sorts strike at our Supremacy the very foundation and heart-string of Government and by whom the very Sinews of Soveraignty are cut asunder when either upon the suggestions of fanatical delusions or the imperious awes of an extraneous Power the King 's natural Subjects shall audaciously lift up their Hands and Heels against him My Province at this time to wave all disputes shall only be to make some discovery of those Foundations of Law Right and Authority whereon our King's Supremacy is built by the Legal and unquestionable Historical Evidences and Manifesto's of the same and whilst I keep close there I shall be sure to be on a safe bottom I shall not pretend to wade into the vast Ocean of the King's Prerogative in all its extensions but shall confine my self to the affair
of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters without professing yet a stature to reach the top of this sublime or the bottom of this profound concern In the first place then we are to know that the King 's just and lawful Authority in Ecclesiastical matters is in part declared by a statute made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth Stat. 1 Eliz. Ca. 1. Non novam introduxit sed antiquam declaravit Coke 5. Rep. Cawdrys Case fo 8. And it was one of the Resolutions of the Judges in Cawdry's Case That the said Act of the First year of the Queen concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not a Statute introductory of a new Law but Declaratory of the Old But for our purpose it will be sufficient to transcribe the Preamble of the Act which runs thus Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithful and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled that where in time of the raign of your most dear Father of worthy memory King Henry 8. divers good Laws and Statutes were made as well for the better extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forrain powers and authorities out of this your Realm and other your Highness Dominions and Countrys as also for the * Nota. restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdictions authorities Superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging by reason whereof we your most humble and obedient Subjects from the 25. year of the raign of your said dear Father were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intolerable charges before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forrain power and authoritie as before that was usurped until such time as all the said good laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second years of the raigns of the late King Philip and Queen Mary your Highness Sister Intituled An Act repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick of Rome since the 20th year of King Henry 8. and also for the establishment of all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the Laity were all clearly repealed and made void as by the same Act of repeal more at large appears By reason of which Act of repeal your said humble Subjects were est-soons brought again under an usurped forrain power and authority and yet do remain in that bondage to the intolerable charges of your loving Subjects if some redress by the Authority of this your High Court of Parliament with the assent of your Highness be not had and provided May it therefore please your Highness for the repressing of the said usurped forrain power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this your Realm that it may be Enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament c. And then it proceeds to Repeal the said Act of Philip and Mary and revives the former Statutes of King Hen. 8. and King Edw. 6. abolisheth all usurped forrain powers and authorities and restoreth and uniteth all Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorites and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical to the Imperial Crown of this Realm This Statute doing Right to the Queen and her Successors ever since as in Temporal Causes the Kings of England by the mouths of their Judges in the Courts of Justice have judged and determined the same by the Temporal Laws of England So in all Ecclesiastical and spiritual Causes as Blasphemy Ecclesiastical Causes Stat. de circumsuecte agatis 13 Edw. 1. Articuli Cleri 9 Edw. 2. Fitzh Nat. Bre. 41 42 43 c. Apostasie from Christianity Heresie Schisme Ordering Admissions and Institution of Clarks Celebration of Divine service Rites of Matrimony Divorces Bastardy Substraction and Right of Tiths Oblations Obventions Dilapidations Reparation of Churches Probate of Wills and Testaments Administrations and Accounts upon the same Simony Fornication Incest Adulteries Sollicitation of Chastity Appeals in Ecclesiastical causes Commutation of Penance Pensions Procurations c. the Conusans of all which belongs not to the Common Law but the determination and decision of the same hath been by Ecclesiastical Judges according to the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this his Realm And although the said Stat. 1 Eliz. declares how and by whom the King may appoint the same to be done yet as is intimated before the King by Law may do the same although that Statute had not bin made And hence it was that Stephen Gardiner the noted Bishop of Winchester Significantiori vocabulo competentem Principi jure Divino poâ—estâ—tem exprâ—mi clarius voluâ—runt in his Oration De vera Obedientia once said That by the Parliaments stiling of King Hen. 8. Head of the Church it was no new invented matter wrought only their mind was to have the power pertaining to a Prince by God's law to be more clearly expressed by this Emphatical compellation And certainly this was the ground of that answer which King James gave to the Non-conforming Divines at the conference at Hampton Court upon the seven and thirtieth Article of the Church of England the said Divines urging that these words in the Article viz. Confer at Hamp Court fo 37. The Bishop of Rome hath no Authority in this land were not sufficient unless it was added nor ought to have To which the King being somewhat moved roundly replyed What speak you of the Pope's authority here Habemus jure quod habemus and therefore in as much as it is said He hath not it is plain and certain enough that he ought not to have Nor is this Authority united to the Crown of England only but of right also to all other Christian Crowns and accordingly avowed by all other Christian Princes And to this purpose I could multiply the Suffrages of many antient Fathers and Doctors of the Church but my aim being rather at matter of fact I will forbear the particularizing the explicite Judgements and Declarations of those Devout and just men who were as careful in its degree and proportion to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's as to God the things that are God's But for the matter of practice And in the first place here I cannot but take notice That in the first Ages of Christianity Religion did not only subsist but spread by immediate influence from Heaven only but when by vertue of the same influence it had once prevailed and triumphed over all oppositions of Pagan superstition and persecution and subdued the Emperours themselves and became the Imperial Religion then Ecclesiastical Authority assumed and fixed it self in its natural and proper place and the excercise of its Jurisdiction and what that was I shall shew also was restored to the Imperial Diadem and Constantine was no sooner setled in his Imperial Throne but he took the settlement of all Ecclesiastical
as well by the Title of the said Act as by the Body of it An Act restoring to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over the state Ecclesiastical and spiritual 1 Eliz. 1. in divers places for that Stat. doth not annex any Jurisdiction to the Crown but that which in truth was or of right ought to be by the ancient Laws of this Realm parcel of the Kings Jurisdiction Now it is not unknown how from the root as it were of this inherent Authority grow the several Branches of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As that he hath the supream Right of Patronage over all England and all Ecclesiastical Benefices within the same so that if the immediate Patron present not a Clark in due time nor the Ordinary nor Metropolitan the Right of Presentation devolves on the King and there rests Nullum tempus occurrit Regi He only hath the Patronage of all Bishopricks and none can be chosen but by his Conge d' Eslier and whom he nominates none can be consecrated Bishop or take possession of the Revenues of the Bishoprick without a special Writ or Assent from the King The King only calls National or Provincial Synods and by his Commissioners or Metropolitans gives life to Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions relating to the Government and Ceremonies of the Church for reformation and correction of Heresies Schismes Contempts c. Halls Case Coke 5 Rep. The King hath Power to pardon the violation of Ecclesiastical Laws to dispence with the rigour of them and to regulate all Ecclesiastical Persons as that a Bastard may be made a Priest 11 Hen. 7.12 a. That a Priest may hold more Benefices than one That he may succeed his Father That he may be non-Resident c. And for his Superintendency over the whole Church the King hath the First-Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices And from him lyes no Appeal to any forrain Jurisdiction whatsoever Neither is it unknown what strange incroachments and usurpations have been made upon the fundamental Right of our Kings by the Popes and Court of Rome and again how strenuously in all times it hath been asserted and vindicated by the Kings and People of England the Papal Dominion rising and falling here according to the quality of the Times and the measures of resistance which it met withall And evident is it also by what means this forrain Dominion came to be owned here for in the Empire the Bishops of Rome usurp'd one half of the Imperial Power and annexed the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Supremacy to their own See for taking advantage of the publick distractions occasion'd partly by the incursions of the Barbarians on the North and East parts and chiefly by the divisions of the Empire it self and by some opportunities of serving some weak and vicious Emperours in their unworthy purposes they gain'd at last by force or fraud the whole Dominion of Religion to themselves and by pretending to the Spirit of Infallibility they usurp'd an absolute Empire over the Faiths and Consciences of men which yet they could not maintain without the continual disdained affronts to the Princes of Christendom the last whereof reduced under this yoke were the Kings of this Island and for which there were not Arts enough wanting As by making a bad use of innocent and good meanings and improving the humility of others for an advantageous step whereon to mount it self For when Religion came to a consistency here the Bishop of Rome was greatly reverenced by the Christians of this Island as one that was the Primate of one of the then most glorious Churches in the World Patriarch of the West and residing in a City famous for Arts and Learning and the seat of the Empire And then the fame of this eminent Bishop crescens eundo Tacit. Hist lib. 2. and majora credi de absentibus as Tacitus speaks acquired a mighty reverence for him in these remoter parts though the devout Brittains who received more probably their first conversion from Asia applyed themselves chiefly to Judaea as a place of the greatest sanctity yet amongst the Saxons for the reasons aforesaid Beda Hist li. 4. cap. 23. Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur as Ven. Beda hath it But as this was of their part no other than as to a great Doctor or Prelate from whose countenance and assistance they hoped for great advantages so those Instructions they received from Rome were not as coming from one that had Dominion over their Faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming more respect than what was decent and fit out of Charity Reverence and Christian affection each unto the other And therefore observable is it in that famous transaction of the Kingdom of France Platina in vita Zach 1. Spondan in eod about the deposing of Childerick and setting up Pepin in his room which some have contended to have been done by the Pope's Authority The Truth is Mente stupidus vitâ ignavus Paul Aemil. Childerick was set aside by the Peers of France for a Fool or Frantick and Pepin stepping up applyed himself to the then Pope Zachary to confirm not to confer his new obtained Kingdom for in those days they gave no such power neither did Pope Zachary claim it Only that such an extraordinary action might carry the better face in the world it was thought requisite to have the suffrage of so grave an Oracle and therefore Baronius confesses and that you will will say is much Baron Annal. Francos non Zachariae paruisse decreto sed acquievisse consilio and there is great difference between an Authoritative Injunction and a Prudential Advice which is only an Answer out of discretion and left to discretion and so can imply no obligation at all And Sabellicus relates it thus That the Peers of France deposed Childerick Sabell Ennâ—ad 8 lib. 8. and set up Pepin in his stead Romano Pontifice consulto whence this Gloss upon one of their Laws Papa deposuit id est deponentibus consensit But enough of this But certain it is that by one way or other the Papal Dominion arrived to a great height in the World and particularly in this Island in after times and then the former addresses of the Christians of this Island to the Bishop of Rome were made use of as notes and evidences of subjection and what had passed by the Popes advice and Counsel only was afterward said to have been done by his Authority And so the ordering and determining of Ecclesiastical affairs was endeavoured to be drawn to a forraign Judicature to the apparent prejudice and diminution as well of the Rights of the Crown as of this Church And therefore in this case it fared with our Ancestors as with her in the Tragedy Quisquis in primo obstitit Repulitque amorem tutus ac victor fuit Sâ—nec Trag. Hippolyt Qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum
into the King's hands and lost during his life And this Judgement was before any Act of Parliament made in that case Nota. And there it is said That for the like offence the Archbishop of Canterbury had bin in worse case by the Judgement of the Sages in the Law if the King had not extended favour to him Although by the Ordinance of Circumspecte agatis Coke 5 Rep. Case de jure R. Eccl. made in the thirteenth year of King Edward the first and by a general allowance and usage the Ecclesiastical Court held Plea of Tithes Oblations Obventions Mortuaries Redemption of Penance Laying of violent hands on a Clark Defamations c. yet did not the Clergy think themselves assured nor quiet from Prohibitions purchased by subjects till King Edward the second by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal Staâ— 9 Edw. 2. Artic. cler ca. 16. in and by consent of Parliament upon Petition of the Clergy had granted them Jurisdiction in those cases An Excommunication by the Archbishop Finzh Excom 4.16 Ed. 3. Broâ—k Excom pl. 5.14 H. 4. although it be dis-annulled by the Pope or Legate is to be allowed Neither may the Judges give any allowance of any such sentence of the Pope or his Legate And it hath often bin adjudg'd 30 Ed 3 Lib. Assiz pl. 19.12 Ed. 4.16 and declared That the Pope's Excommunication is of no force in England It is often Resolved in our Books that all the Bishopricks in England were founded by the King's Progenitors and the Advowsons vowsons of them all belong to the King and at first they were * Per traditionem annuli pastorasis baculi Donative And that if an Incumbent of any Church with cure dyes if the Patron Present not within six months the Bishop of that Diocess ought to collate that the cure be supply'd if he neglect by the space of six moneths the Metropolitan of that Diocess shall confer one unto that Church and if he also neglect six moneths then the Law gives to the King as Supreame within his own Kingdom and not to the Pope power to provide a Pastor The King may not only exempt any Ecclesiastical Person from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary but may grant unto him Episcopal Jurisdiction as it appears the King had done of antient time to the Archdeacon of Richmond 17 Ed 3.13 20 Ed. 3. And the Abbot of Bury was exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction by the King's Charter The King Presented to a Benefice 21 Ed. 3.40 and his Presentee was disturbed by one that had obtained Bulls from Rome for which offence he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment If Excommunication be the final end of any suit in the Court of Rome as indeed it is and be not allowed Fitzh Nat. Br. fo 64. f. or allowable in England as it hath often bin Declared It then follows that by the Ancient Common Law of England no suit for any cause though it be spiritual arising within this Realm may or can be determined in the Court of Rome Quia frustra expectatur eventus cujus effectus nullus sequitur At a Parliament held An. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib 25 Edward the third It was Enacted That as well they that obtained Provisions from Rome as they that put them in execution should be out of the King's Protection and that they should be dealt withal as the King's Enemies and no man so dealing with them should be impeached for the same At a Parliament held An. Stat. 16 Ric. 2. cap. 5. 16 Ric. 2. It is declar'd That the Crown of England hath bin so free at all times that it hath bin in subjection to none but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the said Crown to be submitted to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his Will And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be clearly against the King's Crown and his Regality used and approved in time of all his Progenitors in which points the said Commons professed to live and dye and to all which the Lords assented also as being thereto bound by their Allegiances It is resolved that the Pope's Collector 2 Hen. 4 fo 9. though he have the Pope's Bull for that purpose hath no Authority within this Realm And there it is said That the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realm are the King 's spiritual Judges And in another place it is said Papa non potest mutare Leges Angliae 11 Hen. 4. fo 37. Per Curiam In the raign of King Henry the sixth 1 Hen. 7. fo 10. the Pope wrote Letters in derogation of the King and his Regality and the Church-men durst not speak any thing against them But Humfrey Duke of Glocester for their safe keeping put them into the fire In the raign of King Edward the fourth 1 Hen. 7. fo 20. the Pope granted to the Prior of St. John's to have Sanctuary in his Priory and this was pleaded and claim'd by the Prior but resolved by the Judges Keilway Reports 8 H. 8. fo 191. b. That the Pope had no power to grant any Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore the same was disallowed by Judgement of Law In Brook Tit. Presentation al Esglise Bro. Present al Esglise p. 12. It is affirmed That the Pope was permitted to do certain things within this Realm by usurpation and not of right untill the Raign of King Kenry the eighth quod nota sayes the Book Stat. 24 Hen. 8. ca. 12.25 H. 8.21 And in what esteem the Pope's Authority here was in that King's time may sufficiently be collected from the Tenor and Purview of the Statutes about that affair in his raign made In the raign of King Kenry the sixth Henry Beaufort Uncle to the King being Bishop of Winchester was made Cardinal and thereupon purchased from the Pope a Bull Declaratory that he might still hold his Bishoprick yet it was held and adjudged that the See of Winchester was become void by the assumption of the Cardinalship and therefore the Cardinal fallen into a Praemunire 4 Hen. 6. in Arch. Turr. Lond. for which he was glad to purchase his pardon as by the Records of all this it doth appear It was Adjudged in the Court of Common Pleas Dier 12 Eliz. by Sir James Dyer Weston and the whole Court That a Dean or any other Ecclesiastical Person may resign as divers did to King Edward the sixth Vid. Grend ca. in Plowd Com. for that he had the Authority of the Supream Ordinary With all this may be noted also the several Statutes heretofore made against the usurpations of the Bishops of Rome in this Kingdom the principal whereof these viz. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib Stat. 27 28 Ed.
3. Cap. 1 2. Stat. 38 Ed. 3. Cap. 3. Stat. Statutes of Pâ—ovâ—sors and Preminire 16 Ric. 2. Cap. 5. Stat. 2 Hen. 4. Cap. 3. Stat. 6 Hen. 4. Cap. 1. Stat. 7 Hen. 7. Cap. 6. Stat. 3 Hen. 5. Cap. 4. Stat. 1 Hen. 7. Cap. 4. Stat. 24 Hen. 8. Cap. 12. Stat. 25 Hen. 8. Cap. 21. Stat. 1 Eliz. Cap. 1. c. By all which with the foregoing Resolutions and Presidents to which a multitude more to the same purpose might be added it doth appear clearly that long before the time of King Hen. 8. divers Statutes and Laws were made and declared against forrain incroachments upon the Rights of the Crown in this matter and those as sharp and severe as any Statutes for that purpose have been made in later times though then both King Lords and Commons that made those Laws and the Judges that did interpret them did for the most part follow the same Opinions in Religion which were held and taught in the Church of Rome And therefore those that will lay upon this Nation the imputation of Schism for denying the Pope's Supremacy here Vid. Case de Premunire in St. John Davys Rep. must charge it many Ages before the time of King Henry the eighth For the Kings Lords and Commons of this Realm have ever been most eminent for asserting their just Rights and Liberties disdaining to become a Tributary Province as it were to the See of Rome or part of St. Peter's earthly Patrimony in Demesn And the Faith and Loyalty of the English race hath bin generally such though true it is that every Age hath brought forth some singular monsters of disloyalty as no pretence of zeal or Religion could ever draw the greater part of the Subjects for to submit themselves to a forrain Yoke no not when Popery was in greatest height and exaltation of all which the aforesaid Statutes are manifest Evidences being generally made at the Prayer of the Commons as by their Preambles may appear most worthy to be read Particularly in the Preamble to the Statute of 16 Ric. 2. They complain Sta. 16 Ric. 2. cap. 5. That by Bulls and Processes from Rome the King is deprived of that Jurisdiction which belongs of right to his Imperial Crown That the King doth lose the service and Counsel of his Prelates and learned men by translations made by the Bishop of Rome That the King's Laws are defeated at his will the Treasure of the Realm is exhausted and exported to inrich his Court And that by those means the Crown of England which hath ever bin free and subject unto none but immediately unto God should be submitted unto the Bishop of Rome to the utter destruction of the King and the whole Realm which God defend say they and thereupon out of their zeal and loyalty they offer to live and dye with the King in defence of the liberties of the Crown And then they pray the King to examine all the Lords in Parliament what they thought of these wrongs and usurpations and whether they would stand with the King in defence of his Royal liberties which being done the Lords Spiritual and Temporal did all answer that these usurpations of the Bishop of Rome were against the liberties of the Crown and that they were all bound by their Allegiance to stand with the King and to maintain his Honour and Prerogative Upon producing and averrement of all this it is requisite some satisfaction be given about the conclusion that hapned so different to these premises For if the Kings and People of England have in all times been so sensible of and zealous for their just Rights how could the Roman Power in derogation of those Rights arrive to such a consistence and height as here it was for many years To this as to the means and manner of that acquist to keep within our Historical compass First let it be premised as undoubtedly true That before the time of the Norman Conquest the Bishops of Rome had very little or nothing to do here as well in matter of Fact as of Right For before that time the Pope's Writ did not run in England His Bulls of Excommunication and Provision came not hither no Citations or Appeals were made from hence to the Court of Rome Our Archbishops did not purchase their Palls there Neither had the Pope the Investiture of any of our Bishopricks And Ingulphus who lived in the Conquerours time a Favourite and one preferred by him thus informs Ingulph Hist fo 901. A multis namque annis retroactis nulla Electio Praelatorum erat libera mere Canonica sed omnes dignitates tam Episcoporum quam Abbatum per annulum baculum regis curia pro sua Complacentia conferebat For as it is observable that under the Temporal Empire of Rome Brittain was one of the last Provinces that was won and one of the first that was lost again So under the Spiritual Empire of the Pope England was one of the last Countrys of Christendom that received the Yoke and one of the first that cast it off But for our purpose that the Bishops of Rome had any Jurisdiction or Hierarchical Authority in the times of the Brittains Saxons or Danes there is an altum silentium in all our Histories and Records For the times of the Brittains Eleuth Epist Eleutherius Pope about 180 years after Christ writes to Lucius the Brittish King and stiles him God's Vicar within his own Kingdom and sure he would not have given that Title to the King if himself under pretence of being God's Vicar-General on Earth had claimed Jurisdiction over all Christian Kingdoms After that Beda Eccl. Hist Matt. Westm Polychron Fab. Huntingd. c. about the year 600. Austin the Monk was sent by Pope Gregory into England to convert the Saxons to the Christian Faith But the Brittish Bishops then residing in Wales gave no regard either to his Commission or his Doctrines as not owing any duty to or dependence upon Rome but still retained their Ceremonies and Traditions which they received from the East Church upon the first plantation of Christianity being both divers and contrary to those of the Church of Rome which Austin did indeavour to impose upon them Usser de Prim. Eccl. Brit. Then about the year 660 there is a famous disputation celebrated between one Colman and one Wilfrid touching the Observation of Easter wherein the Brittains differed from the practice of the Roman Church from which is plainly inferrable that the Authority of the Bishop of Rome was at that time of no estimation in this Island And that the Primitive Churches of Brittain were instituted according to the form of the East and not of the West Church Nay upon the first coming of Austin and his retinue into Brittain there was such a strangness and averseness to him that one Daganus a British Beda Eccl. Hist lib. 2. cap. 4 Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. fo 129.
this clause or words non obstante was first invented and used in the Court of Rome whereupon Marsil Petav. pronounces a dreadful Vae against that Court for introducing this clause of non obstante as being a bad president and mischievous to all the People of Christendom for when the Temporal Princes perceived the Pope to dispence with his own Canons they made no scruple to imitate him and dispence with their Penal Laws and Statutes Vid. le Case de Penal stat in Coke 7. Rep. and hereupon one Canonist said thus Dispensatio est vulnus quod vulnerat jus commune and another thus That all abuses would be reform'd if these two words viz. non obstante did not hinder And Matt. Paris reciting several Decrees made in the Council of Lions beneficial to the Church Mat. Paris in An. 1245. says thus Sed omnia haec alia per hoc repagulum non obstante infirmantur But now to return We have seen how by several steps and gradations it was after the Norman Conquest that the Court of Rome usurp'd upon the Crown of England in four main points of Jurisdiction under four of our Kings not immediately succeeding for of King Will. Rufus the Pope could gain nothing viz. 1. Upon the Conquerour by sending Legats or Commissioners to hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes and other purposes 2. Upon King Hen. 1. the Donation and Investiture of Bishopricks and other Benefices 3. Upon King Stephen in drawing of Appeals to the Court of Rome 4. Upon King Hen. 2. in the exemption of Clerks from the secular Power all rivetted and clinch'd by the new Decrees and Canons which were continually multiplyed and obtruded here and all this notwithstanding the generous resistances which at several times were made to all Neither would all this satisfie till an entire surrender of the Crown it self was obtain'd from King John re-granted him again to hold in Fee-Farm and Vassallage of the Court of Rome For it was both before in and after this King's time that by the boldness and activity of strangers and treachery or pusillanimity of subjects co-operating with the weaknesses and necessities of Princes the Papacy arrived to that height as to domineer in a most intolerable way both over the Purse the Conscience the Regality and all the most weighty concernments of the Nation Now to redress all this some unequal resistances were at divers times made Vid. Mat. Paris in H. 3. in toto King Hen. 3. was totally born down and his Kingdom and subjects reduced to utter poverty and slavery by this usurpation After him comes the noble King Edw. 1. who truly may be stiled Vindex Libertatis Anglicanae at his Father's death he was abroad in the Holy Land but no sooner return'd and Crown'd and finding his Kingdom in such a bad plight his first work was to put some stop to the career of Papal incroachments For the Pope having then summoned a General Council he would not suffer his Bishops to repair to it till he took a solemn Oath of them for their Loyalty and good abearing Then the Pope forbidding the King to War against Scotland he slights his prohibition and proceeds The Pope demands the First Fruits of Ecclesiastical Livings but the King forbids the payment thereof to him The Pope sends forth a general Bull prohibiting the Clergy to pay Subsidies to Temporal Princes whereupon a Tenth being granted to the King in Parliament the Clergy refused to pay it but the King seiseth their Temporalties for the Contempt and obtained payment notwithstanding the Pope's Buâ— After this he made the Statute of Mortâ—â—ain that the Church might not grow monstrous in temporal possessions In his time one of his subjects brougth in a Bull of Excommunication against another and the King Commanded he should be executed as a Traitor according to the ancient law but the Chancellor and Treasurer on their knees begged that he should be only banished He caused Laws to be made against bringing in of Bulls of Provision and Breves of Citation and made the first Statute against Provisors His Successor King Edw. 2. being but a weak Prince suffered the Pope to grow upon him but then the Peers and People withstood him all they could and when that unhappy King was to be depos'd amongst the Articles fram'd against him one of the most hainous was That he had given allowance to the Pope's Bulls After him King Ed. 3. a magnanimous Prince couragiously resisted the Pope's incroachments and caused the Statutes against Provisors to be severely put in execution and the Bishops of Winchester and Ely and Abbot of Waltham convicted and punished for their high contempts Yet during the nonage of King Rich. 2. the Pope's Bulls Stat. 16 R. 2. ca. 5. Breves and Legats became very busie and daring again whereof the People became so sensible and impatient that upon their special prayer the Stat. 16. R. 2. of Praemunire was enacted more severe and penal than all the former Statutes against Provisors and yet against this King as against King Ed. 2. it was objected at the time of his depose that he had allowed the Pope's Bulls to the enthralling of the Crown After this comes a weak King Hen. 6. and then another attempt was made if possible to revive the usurped Jurisdiction for the commons denying the King money when he was in great wants the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops offered the King a large supply if that he would consent that all the Laws against Provisors and especially that of 16 Ric. 2. might be repealed but the Duke of Glocester who before had burnt the Pope's Letters caused this motion to be rejected so that all those Laws by especial providence have stood in force untill this day All which with the Resolutions and Judicial Judgements before specified founded upon the ancient and good Laws of the Land have enabled our Kings at all times since to vindicate the just Rights of their Crown But King Hen. 8. designing a further Reformation which could not be effected whilest the Pope's authority had any life in England took this course First he writes to the Universities the Great Monasteries and Churches in his Kingdom and in particular May 18. 1534. to the University of Oxford requiring them as men of vertue In Archivis Oxon. ad An. 1534. Antiq. Eccl. Brit. fo 384. 37. Integrity and profound Learning diligently to examine discuss and resolve a certain Question of no small import viz. An Romanus Episcopus habeat majorem aliquam jurisdictionem sibi collatam in Sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alius quivis externus Episcopus and to return their Opinion in Writing under their common seal according to the meer and sincere truth thereof To which after mature deliberation and examination not only of the places of the Holy Scriptures but of the best Interpreters of the same for many days they returned Answer Jun. 27. 1534.
Romanum Episcopum majorem aliquam Jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis Externum Episcopum Conformable to which was also the Resolution of all the English Clergy Upon which and presently after King Hen. 8. was by Parliament agnized Supream Head of the Church in these his Dominions Stat 26 Hen. 8 cap. 1. whereby it was also Enacted and Declared That the King his Heirs and Successors Kings of England should have and enjoy united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this his Realm as well the Title and Stile thereof as all Honours Dignities Jurisdictions c. to the said Dignity of Supream Head of the Church of England belonging or appertaining with full power and authority to visit redress reform order correct restrain and amend all errours heresies abuses c. which Act Io. Hâ—rb Hist of Hen. 8 fo 380. though much to the support of the Regal Authority seem'd not suddenly to be approv'd by the King nor before he had consulted with his Council who shewed him many precedents of Kings of England that had used this power and with his Bishops who having fully discussed the point in their Convocations Declared That the Pope had no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom warranted by Gods word suitable to what was Declared by the Universities Colledges and Religious Houses with learned men of all sorts maintaining it necessary that such a power should be extant in the Realm for the Peace good Order and Government of the same the Reasons and Arguments of all which were couched in a Book of the King 's about that time published De vera differentiae Regiae Ecclesiasticae potestatis whence also the Learned Bishop Andrews in his Tortura Torti seems to have drawn diver assertions of the Regal Authority to which the Reader is referred A practice this I mean of consulting the Clergy and the Learned in a case of so great an import agreeable to former Presidents Tho. Walsing in An 1408. fo 420. as I find in Tho. Walsingham In concilio cleri celebrato Londoniis assistentibus Doctoribus Vniversitatum Cantabrigiae Oxoniae tractatum est de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis And as King Hen. 2. Rog. Hoveden in Hen. 2. pa. prior professed he would proceed in the great cause depending between him and his Archbishop Becket Now when King Hen. 8. was by Parliament agnized Supream Head of the Church within his own Dominions and by him for the reasons aforesaid owned and accepted what they meant by this may well enough be collected from the premises and from that notable Oration of Stephen Gardiner of True Obedience before mentioned which Title he neither took nor the Parliament gave in other sence than the French have always attributed it to their Princes and what the Royal Ancestors of King Hen. 8. Spelm. Conc. 437. Seld. ad Eadm 1â—5 â—â—g Edvard c. himself assumed under the Homonymous names of Tutors Protectors Governours Domini Christi Vicarii Agricolae c. and the like And this is the Supremacy which the Kings of England have always claimed and exercised within their own Dominions with the temporary obstructions above mentioned that is in Soveraign way to Rule and Govern all their Subjects of what degree and quality soever to call their own Clergy and Church-men together and with their advice to see the Church reformed and by Act of Parliament to have all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored and united to the Crown as in the First year of Q. Eliz. was done inlarged on before And here it will not be unnecessary to observe and know how that Restitution was resented by the Queen's Subjects at that time And for that observe and observable it was the general complyance and complacence of the People in it as also that from the First until the Eleventh year of that Queen's raign Cokâ— 5 Rep. de ure Reg. Eâ—câ—esiastico fo 35. no person of what perswasion of Christian Religion soever at any time refused to come to the Publick Divine Service celebrated in the Church of England and established by publick Authority within this Realm until the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus in the Eleventh year of her Majesties Raign came out against her whereby he deprived her of all her Right Authority Dignity and Priviledge in or unto these her Realms and Dominions and absolved all her Subjects of their Allegiance After this Bull it was that those who regarded the Pope's power or threats more than their Prince's just Authority or their own Allegiance refused to come to Church and from that occasion first acquired the stile of Recusants Vid. Camb. Annal. This gave rise also to a multitude of treasonable practices and conspiracies against the Queens life taken up also against King James Vid. Arth. Crohagans case in Crook 1. Rep. continued against our late Soveraign King Charls the First and still fermenting to break forth upon all opportunities to promote the Catholick cause and all abetted by the traitorous Doctrine of King-killing justified and proclaimed to the World by Bellarmin Co licenzâ— con priviâ—egio Baronius Mariana Emanuel Sa Allen Creswell and others both Natives and Strangers the consequence whereof was this That though Treason was always in the intention yet God be praised nothing hath yet been brought to Execution but the Traitors In this affair St. Jo. Davys D sc of Ireland fo 242. I find a memorable Observation of a grave Statesman That in the Indentures of submission of the Irish to King Hen. 8. all the Irish Lords did acknowledge him to be their Soveraign Lord and King and owned his Supremacy in all causes utterly renouncing the Pope's Jurisdiction most worthy of note says he in that when the Irish had once resolved to obey the King they made no scruple to renounce the Pope Besides these which have been experienc'd in our own Country infinite have been the mischiefs occasion'd in the World upon this score of Supremacy and Dominion and that by the mighty strugling and bickerings that have been maintained between the Papacy and the Princes of the Earth about the gaining and keeping this Power Besides the general Observations that a great means of the growth of the Turkish Empire to it s now formidable stature hath been the Wars and disturbances wrought upon this ground amongst the Christians themselves Also the decay and corruption of sincere piety and devotion by the turning the current of Religion out of its pure primitive channel into the sink of disputes and controversies about the Rights and Bounds of Dominion when Christ himself hath told us That his Kingdom is not of this world This caused Divine Religion to degenerate into Humane Policy and upon this it was that Machiavel too truly observed Mach. Disc on Tit. Liv. lib. 1. cap. 12. That there was now here less Piety
And that of Vzziah a King indeed proclaming aloud both the sin and danger in trespassing beyond the stated and just bounds and limits in Religious Offices whilst under his usurped Pontifical Robes 2 Chron. 26.21 he wore a loaâ—hsome leprosie to his dying day as a most signal mark of the Divine vengeance for Exchanging his Scepter for a Censer to offer up unwarranted and noisome Incense But God be thanked neither of these is the case of our Kings who otherwise have taken f r their patterns divers other Noble Hâ—zekiah Jâ—siah c. vertuous and Religious Princes to whose Honour it is recorded how though they neither offered Sacrifice nor Incense yet that they cleansed the polluted Temple reformed the corrupted Religion and manners of their times and caused Judah and Jerusalem to serve the Lord. So ours never assumed to themselves a Power or Authority of Preaching Teaching binding or loosing in foro animae Administring the Holy Sacraments conferring Orders or any thing in particu ar properly annexed to those Orders But only in matters External that is of Jurisdiction external the last Branch of Ecclâ—siastical Authority and what belongs to the outward Polity of the Church they look upon it as their duty and honour to become Nursing Fathers to see that the true God be publickly worshipped to see that Atheists Polyâ—heists and all such as break the Moral and eternal Law be Corrected chastised and restrained upon which acconut it is often said that Rex est Custos utriusque Tabulae To see that good and wholesome Laws be made and established for the good government of the Church That both the Church and Church-men be regulated and defended in their respective Rights Possessions Interests and concerns and that such as do transgress the lawful constitutions of the Church be duely punished and to this purpose the Regal Office is thus described in King Edward's Law Rex Leg. Edv. Confes cap. 17. fo 142. quia vicarius Summi Regis est ad hoc est constitutus ut regnum terrenum populum Domini super omnia Sanctam veneretur Ecclesiam ejus regat ab injuriosis defendat Jo. Brompt Coll. 761 923. c. And much to the same purpose in those of Ina Canutus and others And hence it also is that in those Laws we often find the Prince extending his Commands unto the same things the Priest did his Exhortations And thus the premises considered it plainly may be collected wherein the formalis ratio of our King's Supremacy and Ecclesiastical Authority doth consist which being inherent in their Crowns they do and may at all times put in practice sine ulla labe Christianitatis and without praying the Aid of any forraign Power or Potentate whatsoever And further to anticipate all prejudice and Scandal in this matter Queen Elizabeth in the same year of the Restitution of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to her Crown did declare she did not challenge any other authority Admoniâ—ions annexâ—d unto the Injâ—â—ctions 1 El. then was challenged and lately used by King Henry the eighth and King Edward the sixth which is and was of ancient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the Soveraignty and rule over all manner of persons within her Realms and Dominions c. And for the Oath of Supremacy appointed by the said Stat. 1 Eliz. whereby her Highnesse's Supremacy was Declared in the stile aforesaid It was Dâ—clared in a Statute made the next Parliament Stâ—t 5 El. Ca. 1. That the said Oath shall be taken and expounded in such form as is set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Q. Majesty's Injunction c. At which time also a Synod being held for avoiding of diversity of Opinions and establishing of consent touching true Religion c. It did expresly declare Artic. 37. That they did not give to our Princes the ministring of God's word or the Sacraments But only that Prerogative as is given in the Holy Scriptures by God himself viz. That they should rule all Estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil sword the stubborn and evil doers c. Stat. 13 Eliz. cap. 12. And thâ— Articles of this Synod were likewise confirmed by Parliament So that now no man need doubt but that all this was but acknowledgement that what our Kings and Princes had done in former Ages might lawfully be continued by their Royal Successors and that therein they did not usurp upon the Rights and Offices of others but only maintained their own and that all these Declaratory Supervening Statures passed and Enacted upon the most weighty Reasons of State were not Introductory of any new Law but only Assertory of the just Rights and Prerogative of the Kings and Crown of England Like as a Reformation once made in the ancient Roman Empire Jul. Capitolin vit Ant. 〈◊〉 by the Emperour Antoninus Philosophus is thus celebrated by Julius Capitolinus in his life Jus autem magis vetus restituit quam novum fecit Applicable as well to all the other points and branches of the Reformation here as to that of the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction But the clearing that I leave to the Divines And thus have taken a brief view only for much more might have bin added out of our authentick Records and Histories as of the ancient Rights of Kings and Princes in general so particularly of our own in matters Ecclesiastical How the same have for some time been suppressed and usurp'd upon by the Papal Faction but happily Vindicated and restored in these latter Ages In which affair no Country hath proceeded more regularly laudably or legally than this our Kingdom of England the Princes of the same as Supream within their own Dominions calling together their own Clergy and with their assistance and advice reforming the Church And what remains now but my submission and pardon for the presumption of this attempt upon my Soveraign's Supremacy seeing that Prince may be said in a manner to be deposed that is made the Subject of an usurping Pen. FINIS
Scot who runs presently to Rome for confirmation and the King presently sends after him the Bishop of Lichfield and the Prior of Lanthony to sollicite against Scot but after a long tugging and expence of all their money on both sides it was determined that a third man viz. Richard Poor should have the Bishoprick After the death of Stephen Langton Matt. Paris in An. 1228. fo 350. 355. Anâ—quit Brit. in viti Richard Maâ— Archbishop of Canterbury the Monks made choice of Walter de Hempsham to succede him at which the King then being displeased Walter hasts away to Rome as the use then was for his confirmation and the King presently sends after him as his Proctors the Bishops of Coventry and Rochester who appearing before the Pope complained grievously of the misdemeanor of the Monks in making choice of that man as being of no experience suitable to that Dignity but of mean learning one of a debauched and scandalous life having gotten several Bastards upon a Nun and for his extraction his Father had bin condemn'd and hang'd for Theft as himself had also deserv'd having bin a Ringleader amongst Rebels and Traitors But all this would not satisfie the Pope to set him aside Polychron 1.7 cap. 34. until the King ingaged the Pope should have a Disme or the Tenth part of all the moveable goods both of Clergy and Laity throughout England and Ireland which granted the election of Walter Hempsham was declared null and Richard Wethershed promoted to the place The next Successor to Richard Wethershed was Edmund between whom Antic Brit. Godw. in vita Edmundi and the Monks of Rochester a great contest happen'd about the election of one Richard Wendover to be their Bishop whereupon the Bishop goes to Rome and the Covent send their Proctors and these carrying the most money got the cause and Edmund condemn'd by the Pope in 1000. Marks The Bishoprick of Chichester being once void Matt. Paris iâ— Hen. 3. the Canons there elected one Robert Passelew to gratifie the King who had a great kindness for the man but others stemaching him means was made at Rome to have his election quashed and one Richard de la Wich to have the place and thereupon all parties run to Rome with money Bribes complaints and recriminations all which being heard and the money taken the King's man was fob'd off and Wich setled in the See The story is at large in Matthew Paris and a multitude more of like nature might here be exhibited but these shall suffice with this averrement that seldom any election went so cleverly off but something extraordinary came to the Pope besides what was certain by the first Fruits From which we proceed to payments of other natures CHAP. III. Legatine Levies THE Statute of 25 Henry 8. Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. Providing that no more summs of money shall be pay'd to the Bishop of Rome begins with recital how the subjects of this realm had for many years been greatly decayed and impoverished by intolerable exactions of great summs of money taken and claimed by the Bishop of Rome called the Pope and the See of Rome as well in Pensions Censes Peter-pence Procurations Fruits suits for Provisions and Expeditions of Bulls for Archbishopricks and Bishopricks and for Delegacies and Rescripts in Causes of Contentions and Appeals Jurisdictions Legantine Dispensations Licences Faculties Grants Relaxations Writs of perinde valere Rehabilitations Abolitions and other infinite sorts c. as the words of the Statute are I cannot now pretend to enumerate or specifie them all when the Statute declares them to be infinite and therefore we shall content our selves to point but at some of them beginning with the Legatine Levies as I may call them Vid. Matthew Westm Flor. Hist in An. 1245 1246. c. Mart. Paris Polychron c. And these were summs of money exacted and levyed upon the King's Subjects throughout the whole Kingdom by Legats and Officers for that purpose deputed by the Pope And these were called for as often as the Popes pretended a need of them for the Court of Rome did inculcate and would have the world to believe Matth. Paris An. 1226. fo 328. That being a Mother she ought to be relieved by her Children Now the first Extraordinary Contribution raised for the Pope in this Kingdom of this kind appears to have bin about the year 1183. when Pope Lucius the third having some quarrel with the Citizens of Rome Rog. Hovedeâ— P. Postenor fo 622. sent to King Henry the second postulans ab co à clericatu Angliae auxilium requiring Aid from him and his Clergy whereupon Consuluit Rex Episcopos suos Clerum Angliae de petitione Summi Pontificis Cui Episcopi Cleri consuluerunt ut ipse secundum voluntatem suam honorem faceret auxilium D. Papae tam pro seipso quam pro illis quia tolerabilius esset plus placeret eis quod D. Rex si vellet accepisset ab eis auxilii recompensationem quam si permisisset Nuncios D. Papae in Angliam venire ad capiendum de eis auxilium quia si aliter fieret posset verti in consuetudinem ad regni sui detrimentum Adquievit Rex consilio suorum fecit auxilium magnum D. Papae in auro argento The King consulted the Bishops and Clergy about the Popes request to whom the Bishops and Clergy returned That the King might if he so pleased and for his honor send aid to the Pope as well for himself as for them because it would be more tolerable and more acceptable to them for his Majesty if he pleased to take a Compensation from them for his Aid than that he should permit the Pope's Officers to come into England to receive it of them which might turn to a custom detrimental to the Kingdom To this counsel the King adher'd and sent a great Aid to the Pope in Gold and Silver as Rog. Hoveden hath at large related the Carriage of that business In which several passages are very remarkable as that the King did in matters that concern'd the Pope consult with the English Church and follow'd their advice and then the care and circumspection of the Clergy to avoid mischievous consequences for the future and that not without very good cause for the Popes were so prone to be busie and tampering in this matter of money that afterward in the time King Edward the first Papa miâ—it bullas inhibitatorias quod nulla persona Ecclesiastica daret seculari personae contributionem ullam absque licentia specialita Romana curia concessa in hac parte Henry de Knighton Coll. 2489. he prohibited the Clergy from giving any thing to the King without his leave first obtained and that under pain of the great excommunication a great presumption this but without any considerable effect to the purpose intended But notwithwanding the before mention'd caution the Popes gained
much upon the Clergy afterward though the King and Temporal Lords oftentimes prov'd sturdy Matt. Paris fo 361 362. For Pope Gregory the ninth An. D. 1229. demanded a Tenth of the moveables both of the Lay and of the Clergy to which the Lords would not consent Nolentes Baronias vel Laicas possessiones Rom. Ecclesiae obligare but the Clergy with some grumbling pay'd it And eleven years after he demanded a fifth part of the goods of the Clergy upon which great debate was taken Matt. Paris An. 1240. fo 536. the Clergy appealing to the King that they held their Baronies of the King and could not charge them without his consent that having before given a Tenth this again of a Fifth might create a custom with divers other weighty reasons But all would not do for the King was not against it and the Archbishop for his private ends beginning to deposite all were drawn in at last to pay which occasion'd that complaint the year following Id. fo 549. That there remain'd not so much treasure in the Kingdom as had in three years bin extorted from it the vessels and ornaments of the Church excepted But notwithstanding that reluctancy Matt. Paris fo 549. 666. 701. notwithstanding that notable Remonstrance preferred in the Council of Lions An. D. 1245. from the body of the Kingdom of the heavy burdens the Nation lay under by the exactions of Rome and likewise to the Pope himself the year following Pope Innocent the fourth invented a new way to charge every Religious House to find a number of Souldiers yearly for his service and to fight for the Church militant and about the same time attempted also ut si Clericus extunc decederet intestatus ejusdem bonas in usus D. Papae converterentur that is the Pope would make himself heir or Executor to every Clark that should dye intestate and not long after it was that he received from the Clergy eleven thousand Marks as an addition to six thousand he had receiv'd the year before And then and from that time the Pope made no spare to drain and exhaust the English Clergy at his pleasure to the shameful scandal of the Holy See at that time and to the notorious ignominy poverty and contempt of this Church and the Clergy thereof Matt. Westm Flor. Hist in An. 1301. And of these times it was that Matthew Westminster makes this complaint Porro illis diebus sal terrae caput vulgi in magnum Hydropem ceciderunt quanto enim plus pecuniam humorem hauriebant tanto amplius eam sitiebant Sedit ergo in tristitia fidelium Ecclesia deducta per vocales tutores suos miserabiliter sub tributo In those dayes the Head of the people was fallen into a dropsie which the more money it suck'd in the more it thirsted after more therefore the Church of the faithful sat disconsolate being by her Governours brought under a most miserable tribute and servitude An. D. 1302. Annal. of Ireâ— in Camb. Brit. fo 163. At this time also it was that these grievous exactions reached into Ireland recorded in the Annals thereof That the Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices in England and Ireland were exacted by Pope Boniface the eight for three years as a Subsidy to the Church of Rome against the King of Arragon Neither did our Hyperborean neighbours escape Scot-free in this deluge of exaction Tho. Walsing Hist fo 48. Ypodig Neust fo 89. Flor. Hist in Ed. 1. fo 417. H. Knighton Coll. c. Pol. Vergil Fabian Speed c. Nay no less there would satisfie the Pope but the whole Kingdom for it was that Boniface the eight that then claimed the whole Realm of Scotland as part of St. Peters Patrimony against our K. Edward the first and sent his Bull of demand to the King for that purpose between whom there passed several Answers and Replies in the point and the conclusion was That the incroaching Pope was glad to sit down worsted in the cause the transactions of all which stand registred amongst the Tower Records exemplified at large to posterity by Walsingham Matthew Westminster Knighton and more briefly by others But all this while the poor Clergy languished being continually pill'd poll'd and squeezed by the unlimited avarice of this Pope and his successors emptying the Kingdom of its money and filling it with complaints the product of its poverty CHAP. IV. King John 's Pension THe troublesom raign of our King John is sufficiently related by all our Historians in whose straits the Pope appeared sometimes for him and sometimes against him but once taking him in a great exigence Jo. Serres Hist in Phil. August Matt. Paris in An 1213. fo 236. the King was wrought upon to surrender his Crown to Pandulfus the Pope's Legate and substitute laying the same with his Scepter Robe Sword and Ring the Royal Ensigns at his feet subscribing also as is said to a Charter whereby he surrendred his Kingdom to the Pope and professing that thence forward he would hold his Crown as a Feudatary to the Pope and paying an annual Pension or Tribute of 1000 marks for both his Kingdoms of England and Ireland the insolent behaviour of the Legate at this the Historians fully describe which I list not now to insist on but cannot but remember that Matt. Paris says that with this Charter and 10000 l. sterl in hand Id. fo 237. Pandulfus goes triumphing away to Rome But then when or how long after this yearly rent or tribute of 1000 marks was paid our Writers seem not to agree though all concur in the invalidity of the surrender Vid. Speed Chron. in vita Johan Rot. Parl. An. 40 Ed. 3. And at a Parliament held at Westm An. 40 Ed. 3. the Chancellour then Bishop of Ely declared to the Lords and Commons How the King understood that the Pope for the Homage that K. John did to the See of Rome for the Realms of England and Ireland and for the Tribute by him granted meant by Process to cite the King to Rome to Answer thereunto wherein the King required their advice The Bishops for themselves desired respite of Answer till the next day as also did the Peers and Commons at which time the whole Estate came together and by common consent Enacted and Declared That forasmuch as neither King John nor any other King could bring this Realm and Kingdom in such thraldom and subjection but by common assent of Parliament the which was not done And therefore that which he did was against his Oath at his Coronation besides many others causes If therefore the Pope should attempt any thing against the King by process or other matters in deed that the King with all his Subjects should with all their force and power resist the same Then for the Tribute or Pension of 1000 marks it appears to have been sometimes paid with intermissions for Pope Honorius having gratified K. Hen.
matters into his care and cognisans He call'd Synods and Councils and ratified their Canons into Laws He routed the Conventicles of the Donatists made Edicts concerning Festivals the Rites of Sepulture the immunities of Churches the Authority of Bishops the Priviledges of the Clergy with divers other things relating to the outward Politie of the Church In which affair he was carefully followed by his Successors as evidently may appear to all conversant in the Civil Law And the aforesaid Stephen Gardiner in that his notable Oration of true Obedience makes instance in the Roman Emperour Justinian who with the approbation of all the world at that time set forth those Laws of the most Blessed Trinity the Catholique Faith Justiniani factum qui leges edidit de Trinitate de fide Catholica c. Steph. Wint. Orat. fo 19. of Bishops and Clergy-men and the like The like also appears by the most famous Partidas set forth by Ferdinando the Saint and his Son Alphonso for the antient Kingdoms of Castile Toledo Leon and others of Spain celebrated in the Spanish Histories Correspondent to which also hath bin the practice of the Kingdom of France Lew. Turquet Hist of Spain whose Kings have ever been esteemed in some sence the Heads of their Church and this is the reason that the opening their most ancient Councils under the first and second the Merovingian and Caroline line was ever by the power and authority and sometimes the presidency of their Kings and Princes It being a noted saying in one of their Councils Câ—ncil Parisienâ— 6. lib. 2. cap. 2. Cognoscant Principes Seculi se Deo debere rationem propter Ecclesiam quam à Deo tuendam accipiunt And according to this Doctrine C d. Lâ—g Antiq Gall. fâ— 827. Lâ—ndenbrog for matters of Church or State of Charls the Great Ludovicus Pius Lewis le Gros Pepin and others collected by the French Antiquaries And at this day generally amongst the Lawyers and most learned of the French Nation it is held and declared Vid. le Reâ—â—w de le Council de Trent Boreâ— lib. 4. de Decret Eccl. Gall. That the Bishop of Rome was anciently the First and chiefest Bishop according to the dignity of of Precedency and order not by any Divine institution but because Rome was the chief City of the Empire That he obtained this Primacy over the Western Church by the grace and gift of Pepin Charls the Great and other Kings of France And that he hath no power to dispose of temporal things That it belongs to Christian Kings and Princes to call Ecclesiastical Synods to establish their Decrees to make wholesome Laws for the government of the Church and to punish and reform abuses therein That the Laws whereby their Church is to be governed are only the Canons of the more ancient Councils and their own National Constitutions and not the Extravagants and Decretals of the Bishop or Court of Rome That the Council of Constance assembled by Sigismund the Emperour with a concurrent consent of other Christian Princes Decreeing a General Synod or Council to be Superior to the Pope and correcting many abuses in the Roman Church which yet remain in practice was a true Oecumenical Council as also was the Council of Basil That the Assembly of Trent was no lawful Council and the Canons thereof rather to be esteemed the Decrees of the Popes who call'd and continued it than the Decrees of the Council it self and that in regard the number of Bishops there met was but small bearing no proportion to the import of a General Council as also the greatest part of those present were Italian and Vassals to the Pope and nothing there resolved on but what was before determined at Rome which then occasion'd this infamous by-word That the Holy Ghost was carryed in Cloak-bags every Post from Rome to Trent That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ought to be administred under both kinds and that at the least a great part of Divine Service ought to be performed in the vulgar Tongue Thus far the French and Many the like instances might here be added to the same purpose but yet under favour all Crowns Imperial must give place in regard of this one Flower or Jewel of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown of England For as the first Christian King that ever the world saw is recorded to have been of this Island the renowned Lucius so is he intimated to be the first that ever exercised Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction being directed thereunto by Pope Eleutherius Vâ—d Eleuth Epist to fetch his Laws by the advice of his Council out of the Old and New Testament and by the same to Govern his Kingdom wherein he was God's Vicar According to which advice the Brittish Saxon Danish and first Kings of the Normans have governed their Churches and Church-men as may appear by the Laws by them for that purpose made Archaionem Analect Angl. Brit. li. 1 2. Hist Cambr. fo 59. Jo. Brompton c. and lately exhibited to the publick by Mr. Lambard Mr. Selden Dr. Powell and others Neither can any Ecclesiastical Canons for Government of the English Church be produced till long after the conquest which were not either originally promulged or afterwards allowed either by the Monarch or some King of the Heptarchy sitting or directing in the National or Provincial Synod Nay in the after usurping times there is to be seen the Transcript of a Record An. Manus Chronic Abb. de Bello Vide the like Charter of exemption to the Abbot of Abbindon by Kâ—nulphus in Stanf. pl. Cor. l. 2. fo 111. b. 1 Hen. 7. fo 23 25. 3 Hen. 2. wherein when the Bishop of Chichester opposed some Canons against the Kings exemption of the Abby of Battel from Episcopal Jurisdiction the King in anger replyed Tu pro Papae authoritate ab hominibus concessa contra dignitatum Regalium authoritates mihi à Deo concessas calliditate arguta niti praecogitas Dost thou go about by subtilty of Wit to oppose the Pope's authority granted by the connivence of men against the authority of my Regal Dignity given by God himself And thereupon requires reason and justice against the Bishop for his insolence And thus it is most easily demonstrable that the Kings of England have had these Flowers of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction planted in the Imperial Crown of this Realm even from the very beginning of the Christian Monarchy in this Island where we hope they have now taken such root that neither any Fanatick whispers at home nor the roaring of any Romish Bulls from abroad will ever be able to shake or blast the same And from hence was the Resolution of our Judges mentioned before in the Case of Cawary Cook 5. Rep. De Jure Reg. Eccl. that the said Statute made in the first year of the Queen concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not introductory of a new Law but Declaratory of the old which appears