Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	enter_v	king_n	scotland_n	2,905	5	8.4813	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34067	Friendly and seasonable advice to the Roman Catholicks of England by a charitable hand.	Comber, Thomas, 1645-1699.	1677 (1677)	Wing C5468; ESTC R1768	62,503	180

Emperor Anastasius The Vicar of God by the Divine command presiding over the Earth An Authority like this also was exercised by the Western Emperors of the French Line being stayled The Rulers of the True Religion a Title given to Charles the Great and to Ludovicus by two several Councils which they had called and the present French Kings do claim the Supremacy over the French Churches as may be seen in ●●ohellus and P. Pith●us cited before Sect. 5. One of the French Writers telling us it is the Opinion of his Nation that Le Royiassisté de son Conseil d'estate est ●●●es Di●● Chief Terrie● de l'Eglise de son Royanme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pape And it may be proved concerning other Christian Princes that they allow not the Pope to impose his Decrees on their Kingdoms nor to exercise any Jurisdiction among them but by their special License and consent and prohibite his exercising any power over their Subjects when they please And why may not the King of England being a free and absolute Monarch be allowed as great a Priviledge in his own Dominions Do you not tell us that Pope Eleutherius called King Lucius by the Title of Vicar of Christ and doth not King Edgar call himself Christs Vicar and none taxed this Title then Did not the Saxon Kings preside in all National Councils and make Laws for Religion by the advice of their own Bishops by their own Authority Did they not erect new Sees for Bishops and change them as they saw fit Did they not invest all Bishops by delivering the Ring and Pastoral Staff And the same power was still exercised by K. William the Conqueror for all things both Divine and Humane depended on his Order saith an Old Historian And when the Pope began to encroach upon the King's Supremacy here in England he was generally opposed as we noted before And in the aforesaid Parliament of Richard the Second the Nation declared That they would not endure that the Crown of England should be submitted to the Pope and the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him defeated and avoided at his pleasure for Bracton our most famous Lawyer affirms that The Kings of England have no Supream on earth but God And accordingly the Kings and Parliaments of this Nation made Laws in reference to Religion as they saw expedient and among the rest they enacted many Laws in a direct opposition to the Pope's Spiritual as well as Temporal Jurisdiction declaring thereby that they esteemed him no Head of this Church but an ambitious and dangerous Encroacher upon the Rights of the Crown as you will find by perusal of those several Statutes cited in the Margin By which Laws long since enacted it is declared to be Treason to receive or harbour any Agents or Emissaries from Rome against the King's Proclamations and without his special License Upon all which Considerations the Judges have declared that the Act of Parliament for Restoring the Supremacy over the Church unto the Crown was not the introducing a New Law but a declaration of the Old For it was many hundred years before that King Henry the Second did declare That be would account it high Treason in any man that should affirm the Pope's Authority was above his And before that Anselm was told That it was impossible for him to keep the Faith which he owed to the King and to pay Obedience to the Pope contrary to his Royal Pleasure Which methinks may fitly admonish you who do own the Pope's Supremacy over England and yet glory much in your Loyalty to the King to enquire how these two can stand together Our Saviour saith No mancan serve two Masters Matth. vi 24. however not two Supream Lords neither can there be two highest Powers in one Kingdom nor can any Subjects obey both since they will sometimes command contrary things 'T is true if the Roman Bishop would profess to our King as his Predecessor Leo the Fourth did to Lotharius of France Concerning your Capitulars or Imperial Precepts we through the assistance of Christ promise as much as we are able to keep and conserve the same for ever If he would acknowledge himself subject to our King in his Dominions as his Predecessors were to the Emperours of Old if he behaved himself toward his Majesty as S. Gregory did to Mauritius who calls that Emperour his Lord and himself his Servant declaring that He was subject to the Emperours Commands and accordingly had done his duty in publishing a Law which the Emperour ordered him to promulge though for his own part he thought it not agreeable to the Laws of God If the present Popes claimed no more than a Primacy of order and precedency among other Bishops then the case might easily be determined But you know of later times the pretences of Rome are much higher for she challenges a Supremacy over all Christian Princes a power to depose them an Authority to abrogate or dispense with their Laws and absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance a Priviledge to be appealed unto as to the last and highest Tribunal on Earth so that Clement the Fifth is recorded in the Acts of the Council of Vienna to have said That all the Right of Kings depended on him alone and Boniface the Eighth owned himself not only Lord of France but of all the World for So great was the Impudence of this Boniface saith the French Chronologer that he presumed to affirm the Kingdom of France was a Fee of the Papal Majesty And as to this Kingdom Pope Innocent the Fourth saith That the King of England was his Vassal and his Slave and they esteem England also a Fee of the Papacy and so is Ireland too it seems Whereupon the Pope hath dared to nominate a King of Ireland and hath given away the Kingdom of England to those who attempted to conquer it he hath condemned our Laws and absolved the Subjects of England from their Allegiance upon which many of your Party have entred into Conspiracies and Rebellion So that now it appears the Pope claims an Absolute Supremacy over our King and his Realms and how he can be a good Subject of the King of England who professes Obedience to this Forreign Princely Prelate is very hard to be understood if you believe this claim and own the Pope to be above the King you must then obey him even when his Orders contradict those of your lawful Sovereign and so you are the Pope's Subjects not the King 's nor can his Majesty have any security of your Allegiance any longer than he pleases the Roman Bishop so that he Reigns over you at the Pope's mercy I know many of you English Catholicks have so Loyal an affection for the King that your Church-men are forced to invent many plausible pretences to perswade you that the Supremacy claimed by the Pope

notwithstanding their mouldy Pretences as if they had come from far and were descended from Ancient Times their true Original is much later and nearer to this present Age. And now Secondly it will be easie to determine That as the Roman is not the Old Religion so neither ought the Professors of it to appropriate to themselves the Name of Catholick For whether we take it in the Primary and Grammatical sense for Vniversal or in its common acceptation for True Believers The Romanist hath no peculiar Right to this Venerable Title First because their Faith in those Points wherein it differs from the Church of England is not Universal for as the judicious Mr. Brerewood computes the Christians holding the Faith of Rome are not above a fourth part of those who believe in Christ And the excellent Author of Europae Speculum thus makes out the Account The Greek Church saith he in number exceeds any other and the Protestants in number and circuit of Territory are very near equal to the Papal part these are two fourth parts to which if we add the Oriental Christians which are not of the Roman Communion and those under Prester John or the Abassine Christians we have another fourth part of the Christian people and then the Romanists are but one fourth part of Christians only And it is very odd to say that the fourth part is the whole And surely my Friends you cannot seriously think the Roman Church to be the Vniversal or Catholick Church in this sense when you remember that the Pope's Authority is not acknowledged by the Generality of those Christians living in England Scotland and Ireland with the Plantations thereunto belonging nor by those of Denmark and Sweden nor by those of Transylvania Walachia and Moldavia nor by the large Church of Russia nor by the populous States and Provinces of the Dutch with their many Plantations abroad nor by at least five parts of six of the vast Country of Upper Germany nor by two parts of three of the Switzers nor by those of Geneva and Piedmont nor by very many in France Hungary Poland c. How many Millions of Christians are there in the Eastern World who have no dependance on the Roman Church The Christians of the Greek Church properly so called under the three Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch those of Armenia who are professed Enemies of Rome and yearly Excommunicate the Pope The Georgian Christians with many other lesser Names in Asia the Abassine Christians in Africa all these are not of the Communion of the Roman Church and therefore how can that Church pretend to the Title of Vniversal or Catholick in this sense But secondly if you say you are Catholicks that is true Believers in all Points I desire you to consider that none say so but your Selves and 't is suspicious their Witness is not true who bear witness to themselves S. John v. 31. And where so many Articles of Faith are New it is probable some are False since the Oldest things in Religion are the truest and the best So that upon the whole Enquiry the Church of England may more justly claim the Title of Catholick because the Principles thereof are few and clearly deduced from Scripture believed in the Primitive Church and universally received by all sorts of Christians who differ in some Ceremonies but for the Points which this Church accounts necessary to Salvation the whole Christian World generally agrees in them And since the Religion of the Church of England is the most Ancient and most Vniversal you will be more truly of the Old Religion and more properly styled Catholicks by embracing the Faith professed in your own Country and disowning those who damn all Christians but them of their own Party although it be Evident there are in the World Christians far more in number than they and among those many equal in Learning and superior in Piety to the best of the Roman Church who are reprobated and sentenced to Eternal Flames by their uncharitable Anathema's SECTION II. Whether the said Opinions were not introduced for evil Ends ALthough all this be matter of Fact and acknowledged by your own Writers yet I must expect the venerable Esteem you have so long had for the Roman Church will make you slow to believe this deserved Charge of Innovation and perhaps you will wonder how so pure so Celebrated and so Orthodox a Church as Rome Primitive was should vary so much from her first Faith yet since the Change is so Evident and so well attested I hope at least your Curiosity will tempt you to Enquire First For what ends she should bring in these New Doctrines Secondly By what means they became so generally believed Thirdly Of what nature the things themselves are Fourthly Whether there be Authority sufficient in the Roman Church to Impose them on the whole Christian World Fifthly Whether the Catholicks of England ought to be swayed by that Authority to embrace them And if in examining these Particulars any thing shall be spoken which sounds harshly to your ears accustomed to hear nothing but Encomiums of Rome I shall desire you to consider that Truth is seldom grateful to Offenders and I must say with one of the Writers of the Popes Lives We relate these things because they were done and if the Popes would not have base or evil things reported of them they must do no such things or if they do them not fancy they can be so concealed as that they shall not be known nor related to Posterity Papyrius Masson de Vit. Pont. For my own part I profess I take no delight in Accusations nor shall I say any thing out of malice to that Church but out of pity to the Souls of those who without reason dote upon it If you enquire What ends the Roman Church could have to bring in these New Doctrines I Reply The first decay of that Church began in her Manners For after there were Christian Magistrates saith S. Hierome the Church became fuller of Riches and emptier of Vertue And for the Roman Bishops they began very early to affect a Dominion beyond the bounds of Priesthood as Socrates notes which made S. Basil say thirteen hundred years ago I hate the Pride of that Church and caused a Heathen Historian of that Age to say The Roman Bishops were richly clad carried in Litters and profuse in their feastings But the faults of that Age were small in respect of After-times for as their wealth and power increased their manners grew still worse and worse as we find by the complaints of Salvian and many others till at length about the ninth Age your own Baronius saith The face of the Roman Church was become most filthy when lewd and potent Curtezans swayed all there At whose pleasure Sees were changed Bishops placed and which is horrid to Pious ears their Paramors were thrust into S. Peter ' s Chair false Popes which