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england_n	duke_n	king_n	robert_n	4,240	5	8.8192	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07192	Of the consecration of the bishops in the Church of England with their succession, iurisdiction, and other things incident to their calling: as also of the ordination of priests and deacons. Fiue bookes: wherein they are cleared from the slanders and odious imputations of Bellarmine, Sanders, Bristow, Harding, Allen, Stapleton, Parsons, Kellison, Eudemon, Becanus, and other romanists: and iustified to containe nothing contrary to the Scriptures, councels, Fathers, or approued examples of primitiue antiquitie. By Francis Mason, Batchelour of Diuinitie, and sometimes fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxeford.	Mason, Francis, 1566?-1621.	1613 (1613)	STC 17597; ESTC S114294	344,300	282

malueris Catholico Antistite gratiam Communionem Apostolicae sedis habente accitis in hoc sibi assistentibus duobus vel tribus Episcopis similem gratiam Communionem habentibus munus Consecrationis recipere valeas c. Concedimus facultatem Dat. Bonon 1532. Pontificatus nostri decimo That is ¶ Clement Bishop to our welbeloued sonne Thomas elect of Canterbury We grant licence to thee that thou mayest receiue the gift of Consecration of whatsoeuer Catholick Prelat thou wilt so he enioy the fauour and Communion of the Apostolicke See two or three Bishops enioying the like fauour and communion being sent for and assisting him in this businesse Or was he entangled with any Ecclesiasticall censures which might peraduenture be imagined to hinder his Consecration That is more then we find or if he were behold his absolution ¶ Clem. dil fil Thom. Cran. Archidiac de Tanuton in Ecclesia Wellensi Magistro in Theol. salutem Te a quibusuis excommunicationis suspensionis interdicti alijsque Ecclesiasticis sententijs censuris poenis a iure vel ab homine quauis occasione vel causa latis si quibus quomodolibet innodatus existis c. tenore praesentium absoluimus c. Dat Bonon 1532. 9. Mart. That is ¶ Clement to our welbeloued sonne Thomas Cranmer Archdeacon of Tanuton in the Church of Wells Master or Doctor in Diuinity Salutation We absolue thee by the Tenor of these presents from whatsoeuer sentences of excommunication suspension and interdiction and other Ecclesiasticall sentences censures and punishments inflected by the Law or by man vpon any occasion or cause if by any meanes thou be intangled with any Or was he not Consecrate by so many and such Bishops as the Popes Bull prescribed The time place and persons are extant in Record against which you can take no exception The briefe extract whereof I will communicate vnto you for your better satisfaction Tho. Cran. consecrated 30. of March 1533. 24. H. 8. by Iohn Lincolne Iohn Exon. Henry Assaph OR was it not performed with wonted Ceremonies according to the vsuall forme of your Church But those continued all the dayes of K. Henry the 8. euen when the Pope was banished as Sanders confesseth ¶ Sand. de schis p. 297. Ceremoniam autem solennem vnctionem more Ecclesiastico adhuc in consecratione illa Episcopali adhibere voluit That is It was the will and pleasure of King Henry the eight That the Ceremony and solemne vnction should be vsed after the maner of the Church in that Episcopall consecration Or did he want the Pall which if we may beleeue you containeth the name of an Archbishop with the fulnesse of Bcclesiasticall power But this was sent him from your holy father ¶ Clem. Episc. dilecto filio Tho. Electo Cantuar. Pallium ipsum de corpore beati Petri sumptum per venerabiles fratres nostros Archiep. Ebor. Episcop Londin Tibi assignandum per praefatum nuntium tuum duximus destinandum vt ijdem Archiepiscopus Episcopus vel eorum alter illud tibi postquam munus consecrationis acceperis assignent c. Dat. Bonon 1532. 5. Non. Mart. That is We thought good that it should be appointed by your foresaid messenger That the Pall it selfe taken from the body of blessed Peter should be assigned vnto you by your venerable brethren the Archbishop of Yorke and the Bishop of London that the said Archbishop and Bishop or either of them may assigne it vnto you after you haue receiued the gift of Consecration PHIL. I deny not that Cranmer was truely ordained because Catholicke Bishops consecrated him and so I confesse that hee liued and died a true Bishop but peraduenture he was neuer any lawfull Archbishop of Canterburie ORTHOD. Why so hee was Canonically chosen by the Church of Canterburie with the consent of the King and the Popes approbation appearing both by his Bulls and the Pall which hee sent him hee was Canonically consecrated by his Comprouincials with the Popes consent who stiled him Thomam Cranmerum olim Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem i. Thomas Cranmer sometimes Archbishop of Canterburie both in his Bull of Commission to the Bishops of London and Ely authorising them to proceed against him And likewise in his Bull of prouision for Cardinall Poole Neither did he onely giue him the title of an Archbishop but he tooke order also for his Degradation which was openly performed by the Commissioners Concerning which it is famously knowen That whereas they did onely Vnpriest Ridley Hooper and Farrer as taking them for no Bishops they did Vnbishop Cranmer taking from him both his Episcopall and Archiepiscopall robes In the doing whereof Cranmer said vnto them Which of you hath a Pall to take away my Pall To whom they answered That they did it by the Popes Commission Wherefore you must of force confesse without all peraduenture That he was not onely Bishop but also truely Archbishop of Canterburie PHIL. Let all this be granted yet I must needs adde that his proceedings were Schismaticall and opened a way for the great Schisme of Henry the eight CHAP. VII Of the abolishing of Papall Iurisdictions by King Henry the eight which the Papists iniuriously brand with imputation of Schisme ORTH. FOrasmuch as it is the custome of Papists to brand the raigne of King Henry the eight with the odious name of Schisme let me a little dispell those clouds and mists wherewith they darken the glorie of that Heroicall Prince When the time was come that it pleased the Almightie to deliuer England from the vsurped authoritie of the Bishop of Rome the beginning of it did grow from a detestable dispensation For whereas Prince Arthur elder sonne to Henry the 7. had married the Lady Katherine daughter to Ferdinando King of Spaine it pleased God that the said Prince Arthur shortly after deceased without issue so his yonger brother Henry Duke of Yorke was proclaimed Prince of Wales Now Ferdinando King of Spaine being disappointed of his former hope and still desirous to make his daughter Queene of England after long suite with great cost and charges in the life time and with the consent of Henry the 7. obtained a dispensation that she being wi●e to the one brother might lawfully be married to the other This matter was referred first to Pope Alexander the sixt then to Pius the third both which died before it could be accomplished After them succeeded Iulius the second the noble warriour who brake through al difficulties couragiously granted the dispensation contrary to the opinion of all the Cardinals of Rome being Diuines By vertue whereof Prince Henry being yet of tender yeeres was contracted to his brothers wife While the marriage was expected it pleased God that in Spaine Elizabeth mother to the Lady Katherine and in England Henry the seuenth departed this life so the kingdome descended to Henry the eight who was

once of minde to haue proceeded no further But after the funerall of his father some of his Councell alleadging reasons and producing the Popes dispensation so preuailed with him that the marriage proceeded and they had issue besides those that died in their infancie the Lady Marie This was misliked of many insomuch that when a motion was made of a marriage betweene the Duke of Orleance and the Lady Mary one of the Counsellours to the French King made a doubt whether shee were the king of Englands lawfull daughter because shee was begotten of his brothers wife which scruple was first mooued in the Court of Spaine and thence was spread to France and Flanders Moreouer Cardinall Woolsie aduised Longland Bishop of Lincolne the Kings Confessor to admonish him of it Which the Bishop modestlie refused as fitter to bee performed by himselfe So the Cardinall vndertooke the businesse to whom the King answered Take heed that you call not againe into question a thing which is alreadie iudged About three daies after Longland beeing brought by Wolsey vnto the King entreated his Maiestie That hee would permit the matter to bee considered and examined In the meane time the Cardinall did cast abroad rumors among the people concerning the blemish of the former marriage and how both the Germanes and French men misliked the same which hee is supposed to haue done not of conscience but of malice and subtilty because hauing missed the Popedome by the Emperours meanes hee would bee reuenged of the Queene which was the Emperours Aunt and withall hee is said to haue commended vnto King Henry The beautifull Ladie Margaret Sister to the French King hoping by the assistance of two such mightie Princes in time to aspire to the Popedome WHich proiect though God which scattereth the imaginatiōs of the proud disapointed him of his purpose was such that nothing could haue bin inuented either more profitable for the kingdome or more pernicious to himselfe the Pope and the Court of Rome For this scruple did kindle such a fire in the kings bosome that it vexed his very soule and conscience Whereupon the king being desirous to haue the matter decided to the vttermost so farre preuailed with Pope Clement the seuenth that hee appointed two Cardinals to heare the matter Wolsey Archbishop of Yorke Campeius who arriued the seuenth of October 1528. At this time there was great war between Charles the Emperor and Francis the French king about the kingdome of Naples wherein the Pope wished that the French might preuaile least the Emperour obtaining it should sit too close vpon his skirts Wherefore to weaken the Emperour he moued a league betweene the English and the French for procuring whereof hee did not onelie referre this matrimoniall cause to his said Legats but also of his owne meere motion no man requesting him gaue Campeius a secret Bull in his bosome dated the sixth of the kal of Ian. anno 1527. Wherein hee infringeth the former dispensation affirming that the king could not continue in such a matrimonie without sinne Whereupon he decreed that after the declaration of the nullitie of the former marriage and the kings absolution it should be lawfull for him to marry another This Bull hee forbad him to shew to any saue onely to the King and Cardinall Woolsey And though openly he commaunded him to handle the cause with all expedition yet secretlie hee willed him to protract the time promising that hee himselfe would watch a fit oportunitie to publish the Decree So the King and Queene were cited to appeare before them in May following at which time after some debating of the cause they protracted the sentence till the beginning of August notwithstanding the Kings earnest entreatie to haue a finall determination one way or other for the better quieting of his troubled conscience When August came the King expected an end but the crafty Cardinals considering that if they should iudge according to Gods law it would bee a great derogation from the Church of Rome deuised delayes so Campeius alleadged that hee was a member of the Court of Rome whose custome was to keepe a solemne vacation in the dogge daies and thereupon deferred iudgement till October following In the meane time the Pope seeing that King Henry could not bee drawne by hope of diuorce to take part with the French sent to Campeius Commanding him to burne the former Bull. And before the beginning of October Campeius was called home by the Popes letters The King beeing thus deluded sent to the Pope at Bononie requesting some end but hee would needs pause vpon the matter till he came to Rome ABout this time it pleased the diuine prouidence so to dispose that the King for his recreation went to Waltam twelue miles from London in the way imparted his griefe to Stephen Gardiner his Secretary and Doct. Fox his Almoner intreating them to bee carefull in so weighty a cause It fell out that they lodged in the house of one Master Cressy whither Cranmer also beeing tutor to two of Master Cressyes sonnes was come at that time with his pupils by reason of the plague then in Cambridge At supper they asked his iudgement concerning the Kings cause hee answered that nothing did more prolong the cause nor more torment the Kings conscience then the dilatory protractions and winding inuolutions in the Romane Court with which snares whosoeuer are once intangled doe hardly euer recouer themselues Wherefore hee thought good that leauing those Courtly trials and delayes wherewith the King was so tossed with such griefes of minde The opinions of Diuines both in our owne Vniuersities and in others should bee enquired concerning this cause which is determinable by the Lawe of God and not by the Law of man And if the Diuines shall agree and pronounce that the marriage is lawfull or vnlawfull by the Law of God let not the king seeke any more to the Court of Rome but cause sentence to bee giuen in his owne dominions according to the iudgement of the Diuines so being cheerefull in minde and free in conscience hee may liue a Princely life and worthy this common-wealth in lawfull matrimonie which is to be wished of all vs Christian subiects This answere pleased them exceedingly and they presently related it vnto the King to whom Doctor Fox made mention of Cranmer but Gardiner would haue challenged all the glory to themselues Then said the King Where is that Cranmer hee hath the sowe by the right eare If I had knowne this deuice but two yeeres before I might haue saued much charges and trouble so the King conferred with Cranmer and commanded him to set downe his minde in writing at the deliuery whereof the King asked him if hee would stand to iustifie that which hee had written before the Bishop of Rome Cranmer answered yea that I will doe by Gods grace if your Maiestie doe

hoped for some comfort at the Popes hand but finding none hee was forced so much as in him lay to resigne his kingdoms to Pope Innocent such is the innocency of Popes and to farme thē again at a 1000. marks by the yere Thus the Pope had caught a pretty morsel but it was too hot for him therefore he was glad presently to disgorge it In the time of the said king came into England one Iohannes Florentinus the Popes Legate hauing but 3. men and 3. horses whereof one was lame who gathered great heapes of money hoysted vp saile and bad England adew Likewise Pandulphus when hee came to make a bargaine with the king for his master the Pope prouided and carried away with him 8000. pounds About the same time the Pope called a generall councell at Rome where the Bishops being weary with doing of nothing desired leaue to depart which they could not obtaine without a great sum of mony that they were forced to borrow of the Romane Merchants and pay to the Pope In the reign of Henry 3. The Pope sent a bul that no English man should be preferred til prouision were made for ● Romans for each of thē 100. poūds by the yere neither did he expresse their names but described them in a confused maner The sonne of Bumphred of such such that if any of them should die he might foist another into the place At this time the Romans were posessed of so many benifices withall were so insolent that the whole body of the nobles cōmons ioyning together did stile thēselues in the subscriptions of their letters The whole cōpany of thē which had rather die then be confoūded of the Romans In the reigne of the same King The Roman Helluo sent a Nuntio called Otto into England with letters vnto the king signifying What a great scandall and reproch was brought vpon the Church of Rome because no man could dispatch his affaires in that Court without great summes of money and the cause which constrained them vnto this was their pouertie therefore hee desired that the English men like naturall Children would releeue the pouerty of their Mother and the meanes thereof which hee with the Councell of his Brethren the Cardinalls had deuised was this that euery Cathedrall Church in England should bestow vpon him two Prebendes the one of them to bee giuen by the Bishop the other by the Chapter And likewise that euery Abbey should bestow vpon him so much as belonged to the maintenance of two Monkes one portion whereof to bee giuen by the Abbot and the other by the Couent But the English men deluded him of his purpose for the king went out of the Councell and the Bishops departed to their own home without the leaue of the Legate and the rest that remained said they could doe nothing in the absence of them whom it most concerned The like suite was commensed in France by another of the Popes Legates to whom the Proctour of the Archbishop of Lions answered That it was not possible that this grant should fill the gulfe of the Romane couetousnesse because plenty of riches did alwaies make the Romans madde And the councell of France did thus answere the Legate Let the zeale of the whole Church and of the holy Romane See mooue you because if there should bee a generall oppression of all men it might bee feared least there should houer ouer our heads a generall departure which God forbid In the yeere 1231. there was set out a prohibition that none which farmed any benefice of any Romane should from henceforth pay them any Rent Anno 1232. a sort of armed men with their faces couered set vpon the barnes of a certaine Romane and sold out the corne to the country and gaue much of it to the poore For which the Bishop of London with other tenne Bishops did strike the authours with an anathema Notwithstanding the same yeere the barnes of the Romanes almost through all England were robbed the authour whereof was one Sir Robert Twinge a Yorkeshier Knight who had beene defeated of the bestowing of his Benefiee by the Popes prouision In the yeere 1234. the Pope sent his nuntioes into England with power legatine which by preaching begging commanding threatning and excommunicating got infinite summes of money vnder colour of the holy Land neither was it known in what gulfe that money was drowned In the yeere 1237. base and vnlearned persons came daily armed with the Popes Bulles If any resisted they would procure hee should bee excommunicated so it came to passe that where noble and daintie Clergy men Gardians and Patrons of Churches did vse with their riches to honour the countrey round about them to entertaine passengers to refresh the poore these base persons voide of good manners and full of subtiltie Proctors and Farmers of the Romanes scraping whatsoeuer was precious and profitable in the land sent it into farre countries to their Lords liuing delicately of Christes patrimonie and proud with other mens goods Therefore a man might see sorrow of heart water the eye-lids of holy men complaints breake out and groanes multiplied many saying with bloody sighes It is better for vs to die then to see the miseries of our countrie and of holy men VVoe to England which once was the Prince of Prouinces the ladie of nations the glasse of the Church a patterne of Religion but now is become vnder tribute In the yeere 1239. Sir Robert Twinge the Yorkeshier Knight before mentioned a Romane being thrust by a Popes Bull of prouision into a benefice whereof he was Patron went to Rome and made a grieuous complaint vnto the Pope so that the Pope reuoked his Bull of prouision By the said Sir Robert Twinge the h Nobles and Barons of England wrot vnto the Pope complaining that they were robbed of their presentations of their Ecclesiasticall liuings which their noble progenitours had enioyned from the first planting of Christianitie and were in danger to lose their patronages affirming that though the Pope had taken order by his Apostolicall letters that after the decease of any Italian or Romane promoted by the Popes prouision it should be lawfull for them to present a fit Clerke yet they did daily see the contrary put in practise which they called a common plague Anno 1240. Otho the Popes Legate required a procuration of foure Markes and where one Church did not suffice to the pa●ment two should ioyne together to one procuration The same yeere the Pope extorted the fift part of the goodes of all strangers beneficed in England and the same was demanded of Archbishops Bishops Abbots and the rest of the Clergie but the Bishops answered they could not vndergoe so vnsupportable a burden which concerned the whole Church without diligent deliberation of a synode But the Archbishop afterward did grant vnto it The same yeere Pope

Hales Archdeacon of Lincolne dying intestate left to secular men many thousand markes with great store of Plate and that Almarick Archdeacon of Bedford died also very rich and that Iohn Archd. of Northamton dyed worth fiue thousand markes besides thirty pieces of plate and infinite Iewels Hereupon he made a strange decree not without note of manifest couetousnesse to be proclaimed in England that if from thenceforth any Clerke should die intestate his goods should be turned to the vse of the lord the Pope the execution of which mandate he committed to the preaching Fryers and Minorites but the king hearing of it detesting the couetousnesse of the Romane Court forbade it as preiudiciall to him and his Realme The same yeere the Pope sent to the Bishops of England for a tallage of sixe thousand marke The Bishop of Norwich the Popes prowler in this behalfe wrote to the Abbot of S. Albans for 80. marke the king forbad him to pay and charged the Bishop of Norwich and other Bishops not to proceed in that exaction as they desired to keepe their Baronies holden of the King Thus the Church of England was miserably torne and ground betweene the King and the Pope as betweene two milstones moouing contrary wayes Yet the same yeere the courage of the king relented and he suffered the Church to be spoiled of the sixe thousand marke Then the Pope more bolde then euer before gaue in charge to all the prelates of England that all beneficed men if they were residents should pay the Pope the third part if non residents halfe of their goods but the king forbad the payment and the Clergie rendred many reasons why it was vnreasonable Anno 1247. There was holden a Parliament at London wherin were lamentable complaints of the Popes extortion and it was concluded that letters should be sent to the Pope in the name of the whole kingdome which was d●ne and they obtained only this that when the Pope was to make prouision here for his Nephewes or Cardinalls he should aske the king leaue The same yeere there came two English Friers Minorites with the Popes Bulls and got great summes of money they demaunded of the Diocesse of Lincolne 6000. marke the same yeere there was a Parliament and the Clergie granted to the Pope 11000. markes The same yeere the grieuances were much increased for the Prelates were suspended from Collation of Benefices till the greedines of the Romanes were satisfied Anno 1252. the Bishop of Lincolne caused a true account to be made of the reuenues of strangers in England and it was found to be more then 70000. markes Anno 1253. Robert Bishop of Lincolne sent to the Pope this Epistle following Let your wisdome know that I obey the Apostolicke Mandates with a filiall affection deuoutly and reuerently And being zealous of my Fathers honour I am contrary and opposite to those things which are contrary to the Mandates Apostolicke For I am bound to both by the Mandate of God Apostolicke Mandates neither are or can be other then the doctrines of the Apostles and of our Lord Iesus Christ the Master and Lord of the Apostles For the Lord Iesus Christ saith He that is not with me is against me But the diuine Holinesse of the Apostolicke See neither is or can be against him Therefore the tenour of the aforesaid Letter is not consonant to Apostolicke Holines but a thing much dissonant and disagreeing First because from this Addition Non obstante annexed to this and such like Letters which are dispersed farre and wide and not induced with any necessitie of the Law of Nature which is to be obserued there flowes a whole deluge of inconstancie boldnesse malepertnesse immodestie lying deceiuing distrusting and all vices thereupon insuing where of the number is infinite shaking and disturbing the puritie of Christian Religion and the tranquillitie of humane societie Moreouer after the sin of Lucifer which shall also be the sinne of Antichrist the child of perdition whom the Lord shall destroy with the breath of his mouth There is not nor cannot be any other kinde of sinne so aduerse and contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles and Euangelists and to our Lord Iesus Christ so hatefull so detestable and so abominable as to kill and destroy soules by defrauding them of the Office and Ministerie of the Pastorall charge Which sinnes they are knowne by most euident testimonies of holy Scripture to commit which being placed in the power of Pastorall charge doe get the wages of the Pastorall Office and Ministerie arising of the milke and wooll of the sheepe of Christ which ought to be quickened and saued and do not minister such things as are due vnto them For the very not administration of Pastorall Offices is by the testimony of Scripture the killing and destruction of the sheepe And to passe ouer the rest because it is somewhat long I will onely adde his conclusion And briefly recounting I say the Holinesse of the See Apostolicke can onely doe such things as tend to edification and not to destruction For this is the fulnesse of power to be able to doe all things to edification But these things which they call Prouisions are not for edification but for most manifest destruction Therefore the blessed See Apostolicke cannot accept of them because flesh and blood which shall not possesse the Kingdome of Heauen hath reuealed them and not the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which is in Heauen When this Letter came to the audience of the Pope he being not able to containe himselfe said Who is this dotish surd absurd oldman that with such rash presumption iudgeth our acts By S. Peter and S. Paul if my goodnature did not stay me I should hurle him into such a cōfusion that he should be the fable of the world an astonishment an example a wonderment Is not the King of England our vassall or to say more our slaue who is able at our becke to imprison him and to make him a slaue to shame and reproch But the Cardinals said vnto him Our good L. it were not expedient that we should decree any hard matter against the Bishop for that we may confesse the trueth those things which he saith are true we cannot condemne him he is a Catholicke yea and a most holy man more Religious then we and more holy then we more excellent and of a more excellent life so that he is supposed among all the Prelates of the world not to haue his better nor his equall The whole Clergie of France and England knoweth so much The trueth of such an Epistle which peraduenture is already knowne to many will be able to moue many against vs for he is counted a great Pilosopher perfitly learned in Greeke and Latin a zealous louer of righteousnes a reader in schooles of Diuinitie a preacher among the people a louer of chastitie a persecuter of

the example of Robert of Lincolne humbly intreating him that hee would mittigate the vsuall tyrranies by following the humilitie of his holy Predecessors and vsed these words Dixit dominus Petro Pasce oues meas non tonde non excoria non euiscera vel deuorando consume that is The Lord said to Peter feed my sheepe hee said not vnfleese them nor flea them nor vnbowel them nor consume them by deuouring But the Pope scorned these admonitions that were so holy In the yeere 1260. the Barrons sent foure Knights to the Pope To complaine of Aimer elect of Winchester and his Brethren of their murthers rapines iniuries and oppressions and with all commanded such as farmed their Churches of the Romans to pay them no rent so the Land was quiet by the space of three yeeres Anno. 1316. Lewis Beaumont a French man at the instance of the kings of England and France obtained of the Pope the Bishoprike of Durham he was so vnlearned that hee could not read the Bulles and instruments of his Consecration but comming to the word Metropoliticae after hee had stood long puffing and blowing and could not hit vpon it he said soit pour dit i. Let it stand for spoken and an other time comming to this dangerous word aenigmate hee said to the by standers in French P●r Saint Lowys il n'est pas courtoys qui ceste parolleyci escrit that is By Saint Lewis hee was not a courteous man that wrote this word here but though he had small Latin yet hee brought the Pope the more gold for he entred bond to pay him more then he was able to discharge in fourteene yeeres Anno. 1343. Pope Clement the 6. hauing made 12. Cardinals Made Prouisions in England for two of them of so many benefices next vacant as should amount to two thousand markes yeerely whereupon the king wrote thus to the Pope VVe doubt not but it is come to publike knowledge after what maner from the beginning of the Church when it had the first birth in our Kingdome of England the anciēt stock of famous memory of our progenitours Kings of England and of the nobles and faithfull people of the said kingdome for the exercise of diuine worship built Churches and endowed them with ample possessions and fenced them with priuileges placing in thē fit ministers which happily set forward Catholike faith in languages people subiect vnto them by whose care diligence the vineyard of the Lord of hosts was then very fertil in beauty and fruit But which is to bee lamented the plants of that vineyard are degenerated into wildshrubs and the beares of the wood roote it out wild beasts deuoure it while by impositions and prouisions of the See Apostolike which grow more grieuous thē they were accustomed the hands of vnworthy persons especially of strangers seize vpon the Lords inheritance contrary to the godly will ordination of the donors the dignities thereof fat benefices are conferred vpō persons born out of the Land many times suspected vnto vs which are not resident vpō the same benefices know not the faces of the sheep cōmitted vnto thē nor vnderstood their language but neglecting the cure of souls like hierlings seek only temporal gaine by this means the worship of Christ is diminished the cure of souls neglected hospitality is withdrawn the rights of Churches are lost the houses of Clerkes are ruinated the deuotion of the people is lessened Clerkes of the kingdome men of great learning and honest conuersation which might well performe the charge and gouernment and were fit men for our affaires and publicke Councels forsake their studie because hope of fit preferment was taken away hitherto the kings letter But the Pope tooke this in great dudgion and called the kings dealing rebellion Anno 1345. The king directly contrary to the tenour of his former letters and the desires of his nobles wrote to the Pope that his Secretary Thomas Hatfield might bee made Bishop of Durham against whom when some of the Cardinals tooke exceptions for his insufficiencie the Pope answered si rex hac vice supplicasset pro asino obtinuisset that is If the King at this time had made request for his asse he should haue obtained it Anno 1364. being the thirtie eight of Edward the third there was held a Parliament wherin was made the statutes of prouisoes and premunire by which the power of the Court of Rome in England being bridled did neuer preuaile afterward with such licentiousnesse and impunitie Anno 1367. Vpon a view taken it was found that some had aboue twentie Churches and dignities by the authoritie of the Pope and that they were further priuiledged to hold so many more as they could get without measure or number Anno 1399. The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Arundel intreated the King in the name of the Clergie that he would take away by his regall authoritie the papall prouisions whereby it was come to passe that learned men studying in Vniuersities seeing the rewards giuen to vnworthy and ambitious fellowes seeking them at Rome did forsake their studies So ignorance expelled learning About the yeere 1419. Pope Martin the fifth bestowed in England 13. Bishoprickes by translations and prouisions in the space of two yeeres while Henry the fifth was in the warre Anno 1420. The same Pope translated Richard of Lincolne to Yorke but the Deane and Chapter standing vpon the lawes enacted against papall prouisions resisted till the Pope was constrained by newe Bulles to bring the said Richard backe againe to Lincolne by which example of the Yorkeshire men the papall authoritie in prouiding Bishoprickes against which neither the Lawes of the kingdome nor the Kings Proclamations nor the threatnings of the Nobles and Commons preuailed was broken and weakened Anno 1424. Henry Chichly Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinall was made the Popes Legate but the Kings Attorney appealed from him and the Pope to the next generall Councell then the Archbishop made a protestation that he would not exercise it without the Kings licence Anno 1497. Pope Alexander sent Iohn de Egles into England with large commission but it seemeth that there was nothing to bee gotten and therefore he sent his Notary Robert Castilensis with new mandates who required of euery Curate an English noble About the yere 1499. The Pope translated Thomas Merkes from the Bishoprick of Carlill to the imaginarie Bishopricke of Samos in Greece Anno 1500. Pope Alexander kept a yeere of Iubile promising remission of sinnes to all that went to Rome or redeemed their iourney with money and at the same time to make them more liberall hee gaue out that there should bee a great expedition against the Turkes and that the Pope would goe thither in person as the Generall of the field The Popes Proctor in England for this purpose was Gasper a Spaniard who