this Popes Letter but pleaded the Fundamental Laws and Customs of the Land Consuetudo regni mei est à patre meo instituta ut nullius praeter licentiam Regis appelletur Papae qui consuetudines regni mei tollit potestatem quoque coronam Regis violat It is a Custom of my Kingdom instituted by my Father that no man may appeal to the Pope without the Kings licence He that takes away the Customs of my Kingdom doth violate the Power and Crown of the King And these Laws were no other then the Laws of the Confessor viz. the old Saxon Laws but also in the execution of these things the Bishops of England adhered to the King and Laws and denied their suffrage to their Primate as you may read in the Bishop of Derry's Vindication of the Church of England p. 63 64. 14. After pag. 65. he instances out of Sir Hen Spelman conc an 78. Legations as rare as Appeals before the Conquest that Gregory Bishop of Ostium the Popes Legate did confess that he was the first Roman Priest that was sent into these parts of Britain from the time of Austin and that those Legates were no other then ordinary Messengers or Ambassadors sent from one Neighbour to another Such a thing as Legantine Court or a Nuntio's Court was not known in the British world and long after 15. See Speed in the Life of Stephen para 4. where Stephen having The Pope and all the English Hierarchy conspire with Stephen against Maud the undoubted Heir of Henry the first entred his Government in the year of our Lord 1135. the 2. of December and was crowned at Westminster the 26. of the same moneth being S Stephen's day by William Corbel the Archbishop of Canterbury who with the rest of the Bishops doing him homage and knowing now he would yield to any conditions for performance whereof his brother the Bishop of Winchester did there engage himself for a Pledge they all took their Oath of Allegiance conditionally traiterously I might say to obey him as their King so long as he should preserve their Liberties and the vigor of Discipline And that the Lay-Barons made use also of this policy appeareth by Robert Earl of Gloucester who sware to be true Liegeman to the King as long as the King would preserve to him his dignity and keep all covenants c. And having buried the body of Henry the First he went to Oxford where he acknowledged he attained the Crown by Election only and that the Pope Innocentius confirmed the same 16. The next contest which after Anselm happened between the King The second contest between the King and Pope and from what cause and the Pope was caused by Tho. Becket Archbishop of Canterbury For Stephen the Usurper having made a Law whereby the Temporal Judges might not meddle with Ecclesiastical persons Henry the Second upon many disorders committed by the Clergy did repeal this Law and restored the antient Laws of this Realm commonly called Avitae leges whereby the persons of Priests were not exempted from being judged by the Temporal Judges And though the Archbishop sware to observe the Laws restored by the King yet was he absolved by Pope Alexander 3. Nor could the Archbishop ever after be brought to conform to the Laws called Avitae leges which was the cause of his assassination and of great trouble to the King and Realm And whether this man did deserve to be canonized for his stubborn disobedience to the Laws of his Country which no ways concerned Faith but only Civil and Temporal obedience and those not new neither but a restitution of the antient Laws let any man judge 17. The first occasion of the quarrel between King John and Innocent The quarrel between King John and the Pope the Third was Hubert the Archbishop of Canterbury being dead the Monks of S. Augustine in that City elected without any licence of the King one Rainold and took an oath of him to go to Rome and take his investiture from the Pope The King incensed hereat caused John Gray to be chosen and desired the Pope to ratifie this last choice The Pope notwithstanding confirms the former The King hereupon grows angry and divers of the Monks against their own act refuse to accept him The Pope although Rainold were chosen by the Monks and confirmed by the Pope adviseth the Monks to choose Stephen Langton the Monks do so the King is highly exasperated and forbids all Appeals to Rome and did alleadge that he had Bishops Prelates Nobles and Magistrates of his own who could according to the Laws of the Land decide and determine all Controversies which should arise in Church or Commonweal The Pope insisted upon the election of the Cardinal Stephen Langton was Cardinal of Chirsogone and required the King not only to give him the quiet possession of the See but also to recall all such Monks as were exiled and to restore them to their Goods which were seised on by the King for the last choice and for default to interdict him and the whole Realm The King is so far from obeying that he seised upon the Lands and Goods of those Bishops to whom the Pope had forsooth given the power of Interdiction The Pope constant in his resolutions by Pandulphus and Durant interdicts the King and Kingdom and gives it the French King King John driven into a great strait gives his Crown and Kingdom to the Pope he good man had before given it to the French King Philip the second sirnamed Augustus and his son Lewis had gotten such footing in England that he would not be gotten out The Pope interdicts both father and son but his curses took not such place that they would give over what they had gotten by the first grant nor did these troubles end until the English Nation uniting themselves under Henry 3. did by plain force drive Lewis out of England to such an insufferable height was the Papacy grown in those days 18. Although the stubborn Barons made Henry 3. swear to observe The Bishops in H. 2 his reign conspire against him the Ordinances made in the Mad Parliament at Oxford and the Archbishop of Canterbury and nine other Bishops did denounce a Curse against all those who either by direction arms or otherwise should withstand the Ordinance of the Twelve Peers which gave the exercise of all Regality to them yet did the Pope absolve him from it very easily Addit Matth. Paris 990. 19. How zealous the most noble Prince Edward the first was in the Contests between the Pope and Ed. 2. cause of Christianity and how observant of the Papal power is evident by his victorious Voyage into Holy Land But he afterwards became hated by the Churchmen both in respect of the Statute of Mortmain made in the fourth year of his Reign and also because that by the advice of William Marchyan his chiefest Treasurer he seised into his hands the
pretended Salique Law 30. Delegata potestas non potest participari No man can participate No Prince can give sell or transfer his power much less alien the power which he is intrusted with But supreme power is delegate from God to every Prince and therefore no Prince can give sell or bequeath his power to any other The King is Gods Lieutenant upon earth Coke 3 par Inst cap. Deodands fol 57. 31. It may be the Electors are the Instruments by which the Elected Elective Monarchy King or Monarch receives his power but I do not understand how such a King can be a Supreme Prince Yet this by the way Neither now nor heretofore was ever such Prince chosen either by the people in general or by the Masters in families nor the Electors chosen by them 32. Aristocracy is when a company of men met in Councel ascribe Aristocracy to themselves whatsoever power is due to any rightful Monarch not being chosen by the people in general but have places either by birth or as they are chosen by the Council such is the state of Venice such were the Roman Senate and Ephori of Lacedemon 33. Democracy is when they who being free of the City do meet at a Democracy time and place appointed where they choose Ministers and Officers make and alter laws and do whatsoever they think good or what shall appear good to them as represented to them by popular Orators But because business might so fall out that there might be a necessity of making War or Peace raising mony for defence of the Commonwealth c. besides the times and places appointed the Athenian Archon and Tribunes of the Roman people had liberty given them to assemble the people when they thought fit I think no man can well tell whether the Roman Government before Caesars dictatorship were Democratical or Aristocratical For though men might appeale from the Consuls to the Tribunes yet by an Act of the Senate after the suppressing of the Gracchi the Consuls might provide that the Common-wealth should receive no detriment which is as general and high a power as can be given No wonder then if Marius pretending the power of the Common wealth and Sylla the authority of the Senate should reduce both Rome and Senate to so lamentable a condition and that Julius Cesar assisted by Lucius Antonius and Quintus Curio the Tribunes of the people and Pompey by the Senate should raise such War and commotion every where to the utter subversion of the absolute power as they called it both of Senate and people CHAP. IV. Of the three Species of Government viz. Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy 1. IMperium est duplex solutum legibus and astrictum legibus this is There are but 3 species of Government and all compounded Government is either supervacantous or destructive to the Governors and Governed Empire restrained to the Laws and is of Magistrates who although they command private men yet they themselves are bound by the laws and command of their superiors which is the power of our Judges Justices c. That is Majesty an Empire which is the Arbitrator Moderator Controuler and maker of all laws and who justly has it is accountable only to God and this Empire is so essential to all Government that without it there can be no Kingdom or Commonwealth there cannot be any property any meum or tuum but what this Empire gives no man has any security of his life or estate but as he is preserved and protected by this power or command And though government do differ as it hath been and yet is in many places of the world in specie viz. Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy yet in all of them this power or command is the same and equal viz. Supreme And this power or command must be in one thing viz. in one man in one court in one people but if it be divided into two or more it is either supervacaneous or destructive for those two or more in whom this divided Empire does consist must either agree or disagree in the same thing if they agree to will or nill the same then it is supervacaneous for it had been all one if but one part had willed it and frustra fit per plura c. but if they disagree in willing or nilling the same thing it is destructive for it is impossible for the Subject to obey because the Law it self is a contradiction and if the Subject obeys one he disobeys the other and to obey neither brings Anarchy and confusion upon all the governed What is left then but the Subject to be divided aswell as the power and a Kingdom divided in it self cannot stand St. Mar. 3. 24. Neither are the Governors in whom this divided power or command does consist in any better case then the Subject for Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas Lucan Impatiens consortis erit It were infinite to enumerate the sad consequences which division of Kingdoms have brought upon those Kingdoms where they were made Let any man look upon the Estate of the Roman Empire when it was divided by Constantine the Great among his three sons Constantinus Constantius Constans Nor did ever the Empire retain the name and dignity after the division made by Theodosius to his sons Arcadius and Honorius Nor was the Western Empire ever raised again to near the greatness it had in Charlemaines time after the division made by Lotharius Lewis and Charles sons of Lodovicus Pius and what horrible confusions followed upon the divisions is easie to be imagined whenas in the first Battel between the brethren was slain the greatest part of the Nobility of France and more men died in it then in any other battle that hapned in France since that fought between Ecius and Attila King of the Huns in the fields of Catalonia But that we may not go so far and yet find examples neerer home Rodry Maure or Rodry the great King of Wales Son of Mersyn Frith had issue three Sons Mervin Anarawd and Cadelh In the yeare when he dyed viz. anno dom 877. King Alfred alias Alured then reigning in England this Great Rodry divided his Kingdome of Wales into three Principalities The First he called Guyneth the English Northwales the Latinist Venedotia The Second Principality was called Powisland in Latine Powisia of some Westwales bordering upon England The Third he called Deherborth the English Southwales in Latine Demetia The First Principality some say he gave to Mervin others to Anarawd The Second to Anarawd some say to Cadelh The Third to Cadelh some say to Mervin The First was the best because it was quietest The Second often invaded and troubled by the English Into the Third often incursions were made by the English the Norman and Fleming The division of this Kingdom however it was wrought in process of time such a division between these Princes as it was never quiet untill it
at all So that it may be rather termed a Representative of the Free Corporations then a Representative of the Freeborn people of England The House of Commons therefore cannot be a Representative of the Freeborn people of England But suppose them the Representatives of the Freeborn people of this Nor the Supreme Authority of the Nation Nation yet cannot they be the Supreme Authority of it for no power can act beyond the power of its being I say therefore that no Representative can be supreme or superior to the cause of its being The House of Commons therefore cannot be granting it the Representative of the Freeborn people of this Nation the Supreme Authority of the Nation But if the house of Commons be not sent by the people and their Representatives Who creates them and by what right do they make a house of Commons Before we answer this Quaere wee will see of what sorts of men a house Of what sorts of men the house of Commons is compounded of Commons is compounded A house of Commons is compounded of three sorts of men viz. Knights of Counties Citizens sent by Cities and Burgesses of Corporations Barons of the Cinque Ports are the same thing differently expressed with Burgesses of Corporations Now that all Cities Burroughs Corporations and Cinque Ports are not so jure naturali nor by any inherent birthright but from their Charter which is nothing else but the Kings grant is so manifest that I think no man in his wits will deny But all Cities and Corporations are not alike in priviledges but more or less as they are impowred by their Charter or Grant of the King Some Corporations have Liberties Priviledges and are impowred to send Burgesses others have Liberties and Priviledges but not qualified to send Burgesses nay some Cities have Liberties and Priviledges but not endewed with this right of having Representative in the house of Commons as the Cities of Durham and Ely And as neither Cities nor Burroughs are endewed with these their Liberties What creates the house of Commons and Priviledges by any inherent birthright so neither are the Counties nor Inhabitants endewed with any right of sending Knights of their Counties by any inherent birthright for then had all the Counties a like right one as another and all the Inhabitans a like vote and they mighr create representatives as often as they should see occasion But all these are most evidently false for we have shewed before that not only the division of this Nation into Counties was an act of the Kings but all Counties are not alike endewed with this Priviledge some Counties in Wales sending but one and the County of Durham none at all Nor have all men a like vote in electing and yet as much subject to Laws made in Parliament as other men but men only who have 40 s. yearly freehold rent nor can these 40 s. a year men when they will send their representatives What then does impower these to send representatives Why let Sir Ed. Coke say Inst 4. p. 1. Knights of Shires Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Burroughs are respectively elected by the Counties Cities and Burroughs by force of the Kings Writ So that the Kings Writ is the first and efficient cause of the pag. 28. house of Commons as well of the Knights as Citizens and Burgesses the Commons cannot begin nor be dissolved without the King in person or representation If then Rebellion be as the sin of Witchcraft as the Holy Ghost saies Annot. and if crimen lesae Majestatis be the highest crime and impiety as all Lawyers hold and if Gratitude be one the chief of all Moral virtues as all men hold for si ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris no man who is an ingrateful man but has rendred himself as if he had committed all manner of wickedness How impious then is it for men only from the Kings grace endewed with this high favor to convert it in opposition and derogation of that power and person from whence they originally received it But they say if the Commons did it then was it done by the people and so just and not to be questioned as if the people were not a thing to be governed and all as much subject to the King and Laws as every one or that a thing just or unjust in it self were more just or unjust because more or fewer did it Will any man say the crucifying of our Saviour was therefore just because many of the Jews did it or that a rout or riot is therefore lawful because done by many men or that it is not paricide or regicide if many Sons and Subjects kill their Parents and King As all the Members of both houses are created by the King so cannot The Parliament cannot begin but by the King these Members be formed into a body but by the King either by his Royal presence or representation By representation two waies either by a Guardian of England by Letters Patents under the great Seal when the King is in remotis out of the Realm or by Commission under the great Seal of Inst 4. p. 6. England to certain Lords of Parliament representing the person of the King he being within the Realm in respect of some infirmity This House is so far from being the Supreme Authority of the Nation The Jurisdiction of the Commons House that they are not a Court of Judicature nor can impose an Oath or take any mans Examination Yet Sir Ed. Coke says Inst 4. 28. that the House of Commons is to many purposes a distinct Court because he says they cannot be prorogued or adjourned but by its self yet gives no more It is true indeed that to many purposes among themselves they do judge their Members and Elections and have a Committee for Religion but these things are more of custom whether good or bad I cannot tell then of any original right that I know or ever heard of And Sir Ed. Coke Inst 4. 11. says They being the general Inquisitors of the Realm have principal care in the beginning of Parliaments to appoint Committees of Grievances both in Church and Commonwealth of Courts of Justice of Priviledges and of Advancement of Trade They have been wont too ever since the Statute de Tallagie non concedendo of course to grant the King Aids in extraordinary cases The House of Peers assisted as aforesaid are the Supreme Court of The Jurisdiction of the House of Lords Judicature in this Nation not only to judge whether matters presented to them by the Commons be fit or requisite for the King to pass into Laws as Monsieur Bodin well observes who disputes this better then any of our English Lawyers that I know of has done but also of Writs of Error and of matters of Fact either not determinable in other Courts or else when though they are determinable in other Courts yet in regard of nicety or
cum populi multitudine copiosa ac omnibus adhuc in eodem Parliamento personalit ' existent ' votis Regiis unanimiter consentientibus praeceptum decret ' fuit quod Monasterium Sancti Edmundi c. sit ab omni jurisdictione episcopor ' com' illius ex tunc imperpet ' funditus liberum exemptum c. Illustris rex Hardicanutus pred' regis Canuti filius haeres success ac sui patris vestigior ' devotus imitator c. cum laude favore Aegelnod ' Dorobornensis nunc Cantuariensis Alfrici Eborac ' episcopor ' aliorumque episcopor ' suffragan ' nec non cunctorum regni mei mandanorum principum descriptum constituit roboravitque praeceptum were Acts of Parliament Ibidem Rex Eldredus convocavit Magnatos Episcopos Proceres Optimates ad tractandum de publicis negotiis regni And this was a Parliament Inst 4. p. 3. But none of these you will say have the obligation of Laws upon us Well let us see those Acts of Parliament which have and what is the difference By the way no Acts of Parliament are now nor these 400 years have had the force of Statute-Laws in England but those made in Henry the Third's time and since And what was the first and great Act of Magna charta but Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Magna Charta an Act of Parliament Ireland c. We have granted to God and by this our present Charter have confirmed for us and our heirs for ever That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole rights and liberties inviolable We have granted also and given to all the Freemen of our Realm for us and our heirs for ever those Liberties underwritten to have and to hold to them and their heirs of us and our heirs for ever Note this great Charter which made the Church and Nota bene Kingdom of England the most free in the world was a free and voluntary act of an English Monarch in Parliament And all that violation and destruction of all those happy Grants and Concessions both in Church and State have been made by a cursed conspiracie of a factious and seditious company of men falsly and most injuriously arrogating to themselves the name of Parliament without and against the Kings good mind and pleasure Charta Foresta was Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Normandy and of Guyen c. We will that all Forests which King Henry our Grandfather afforested shall be viewed by good and lawful men c. Statutum Hiberniae was nothing else but Henry by the grace of God King of England c. To his trusty and welbeloved Gerard son of Maurice Justicer of Ireland greeting Commanding him to cause the Customs recited in the Act and used in England to be proclaimed and streightly kept and observed in Ireland Statutum de Anno Bissextili was The King unto the Justices of the An. 21. H. 3. Bench greeting c. The Statute intituled Assisa panis cervisiae was An. 51. H. 3. The King to all to whom these presents shall come greeting We have seen certain Ordinances c. Stat. de Scaccario The King commandeth that all manner of Bailiffs Sheriffs An. 51. H. 3. and other Officers as well Justices of Chester c. Statutes made in the Parliament at Marleborough wherein the King An. 52. H. 3. made these Acts Ordinances and Statutes underwritten which he willeth to be observed for ever firmly and inviolably of all his Subjects as well high as low Statute of Westminster the first were the Acts of Edward the son of An. 3. Ed. 1. Henry c. by his Council and the assent of Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and all the Commonalty of the Realm c. the King ordained and established these Acts underwritten which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole Realm First the King willeth and commandeth that the peace of Holy Church and of the Land be well kept and maintained in all points and that common right be done to all as well poor as rich without respect of persons c. Statutes made at Gloucester where our Soveraign Lord the King for An. 6. Ed. 1. the amendment of the Land and for the relief of his people c. hath provided and established these Laws underwritten willing and commanding that from henceforth they be firmly observed within the Realm Statute of Rutland hath no other title then The King to his Treasurer An. 10. Ed. 1. and Barons of the Exchequer and to his Chamberlains greeting c. Articuli super Chartas were Grants in Parliament made by the King An. 20. Ed. 1. at the request of the Prelates Earls and Barons assembled in Parliament Note the Commons are not so much as named in these Acts of Parliament The Statute of Quo Warranto made at Gloucester and Statute de Protectionibus An. 30. Ed. 1. An. 33. Ed. 1. made at Westminster the King only speaks Stat. de conjunctim Feoffatis The King unto all to whom these c. An. 34. Ed. 1. greeting And after the recital of the things contained in the Act it is said In witness of which thing we have caused these our Letters Patents I my self being Witness at Westminster Statute of Amortising of Land made by Ed. 1. only the King speaketh Ordinatio pro statu Hiberniae made 17 Ed. 1. the King speaketh by the assent of his Council Statute Ne Rector prosternat arbores in coemiterio only the King speaketh and neither Council nor Parliament mentioned An. 35 Ed. 1. Statute for Knights hath no other title then Our Lord the King hath An. 1. Ed. 2. granted c. And Stat. de frangentibus prisonam 1 Ed. 2. hath nothing to create it a Law but The King willeth and commandeth and neither Parliament nor Council named in either of them Articuli Cleri made at Lincoln the King and his Council are named An. 9. Ed. 2. The Statute of York was made by the King by the assent of the Prelates An. 12. Ed. 2. Earls Barons and Commonalty there assembled So that in these three Kings reign although the King did enact them in Parliament yet the manner was different almost in all In Ed. 3. his time was the form of enacting Laws truly defined and An. 1. Ed. 3. much used by him and the subsequent Kings At the Parliament holden at Westminster King Edward at the request of the Commonalty and by their Petition made before him and his Council in the Parliament and by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other great men assembled at that Parliament hath granted c. In the next Parliament holden at Northampton the Laws are made by An. 2. Ed. 3. him and by the assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other great
Third within less then three years after the death of S. Gregory did assume the title of Universal Bishop and Head of the Church but rather by the donation of Phocas who had no more right to give it then the Parliament had to give Henry the Eighth the Head of the Church of England nor had Phocas any colour of title to the Empire and have continued it ever since 4. S. Gregory in his 76. Epistle to the Emperor Maurice says Nunquid Neither S. Gregory nor his predecessors did claim superiority over Temporal Princes ego in hac re piissime Domine propriam causam defendo Do I herein defend mine own cause O gracious Lord And Dominus meus fuisti quando adhuc Dominus omnium non eras ecce per me servum ultimum suum vestrum respondebit Christus You were then my Lord when you were not Lord of all viz. the Empire behold Christ himself shall answer by me who am his and your meanest servant And when the Emperor Maurice had made a law That no Soldier should turn Monk until his warfare were ended Gâ—eg ad Manâ— Aug. lib 3. eâ— 61. Gregory disliked the law and gave the Emperor this sense of it Ego quidem missioni subjectus eandem legem per diversas terrarum partes transmitto quia lex ipsa omnipotenti Dec minime concordat ecce per suggestionis meae paginam dominis nunciavi utrobique ergo quae debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quid sensi minime tacui I being subject to your command have transmitted your Law to be published through divers parts 〈◊〉 2. ep 61. of the world And because the Law it self is not pleasing to Almighty God I have represented my opinion thereof to my Lords whereforee I have performed my duty on both sides in yielding obedience to the Emperor and not concealing what I thought for God And Boniface the First sent an humble supplication to Honorius desiring him by his authority to provide some remedy against the ambitious contention of the Clergy concerning the Bishoprick of Rome The Emperor Honorius at his request established Dist 92. cap. Eccle. cap. Victor a law That none should be made Bishop of Rome through ambition charging all Ecclesiastical Ministers to cease from ambition appointing moreover that if two were elected neither of them should be taken but the election to proceed further to another to be chosen by a full consent of voices as it is expressed dist 79. cap. Si duo If then S. Gregory himself were so zealous an opposer of Universal Bishop and Head of the Church and to that purpose introduced that sentence of Servus servorum Dei to deter all subsequent Bishops of Rome from such arrogance And if S. Gregory did acknowledge himself so humble a Subject to Maurice and that Boniface the First did petition Honorius by his authority to provide against the irregularities in the very election of the Bishop of Rome there was no such thing in these days as Cardinals and the Election of the Pope in the Conclave then sure in the days of S. Gregory and before neither did the Popes assume this title of Head of the Church nor a power of disposing and transferring Kingdoms at their pleasure But affirmanti incumbit probatio and let any man that affirms either prove either 5. That above one half of what is now called Britain did retain the Though S. Cregory were the first yet was he not the onely Converter of the English Saxons Christian faith notwithstanding the persecution of the Saxons is sufficiently evident if we consider Scotland and Wales which always retained Christianity since it was first planted Nor were the very Saxons themselves utterly destitute of Christianity For Berta the wife of Ethelbert King of Kent and daughter to the French King was tolerated to observe the rites of Christian religion with Bishop Luidhard and this was before that S. Gregory was excited or inspired to undertake to preach to the English Saxons It is true that Ethelbert after his own conversion did endeavor to Seld. Anae Anglo Brit. lib. 2. cap. 2. pag. 62. have planted the Christian faith both in the Kingdoms of Northumberland and the East-Angles with fair hopes of good success for a season but it took not effect for within a short time both Kings and Kingdoms forsook their Religion and apostated from Christ The Kingdoms of the West-Saxons and of the South-Saxons under Kingils their King who did unite the Heptarchy into a Monarchy were converted by the preaching Speed in the Kings of the West-Saxons an 611. Beda lib. 3. cap. 4 5. Idem lib. 3. cap 21. Speed in the Kings of the East-Angles an 636. of Berinus an Italian by the perswasions of Oswald King of Northumberland Oswald King of Northumberland was baptized in Scotland and Religion luckily planted in that Kingdom by Aidan a Scotish Bishop Penda King of Mercia was converted and Christened by Finanus Successor of Aidan by means of a Marriage with a Christian Princess of the Royal family of Northumberland Sigibert King of the East-Angles in whose days and by whose means Religion took root among the East-Saxons was converted and Christened in France 6. No sooner was the name of Christ preached but the English presently The zeal of our Ancestors upon their conversion with such fervent devotion and zeale consecrated themselves unto Christ that they took incredible pains in propagating Christianity in celebrating Divine service performing all functions and duties of piety building Churches and endowing them with rich livings so that there was not another Region in Christendom that could make reckoning of more Monasteries richly endowed yea and divers Kings there were that preferred a religious and Monastical life before their Crown and Kingdom So that many holy men also this Land brought forth which for their firm profession of Christian Religion constant perseverance therein and sincere piety were canonized Saints that it gave place to no Christian Province in this behalf And like as Britain was called by Porphyry a plenteous province of Tyrants so England may be truly named a most fruitful Island of Saints Camb. Brit tit Angl. Sax. 7. The Bishop of Derry in his book of the Just vindication of the Church The Popes universal power was not received under the English Saxon Kings before the Conquest of England pag. 57. does affirm that not any of the petite Saxon Kings or their Subjects though some of them indebted to S. Gregory for their Conversion and all of them much weakened by their sevenfold division for at first there was of seven Kings but only one who was a Christian namely the King of Kent neither was it any of his progeny who afterward did unite the Heptarchy into a Monarchy much less that any of the succeeding Kings of England or of Great Britain did ever make any solemn formal or obliging acknowledgment of
vero Regi prout ipsa feret facti ratio satisfacito aut graves sceleris admissi poenas rex ipse repetito Christiana siquidem fide imbuti regis est Deo illatas graviter pro facti ratione ulcisci injurias If any one entred into Holy Orders or one living with him be imposed upon or cheated in those things which belong to his estate or life then let the King himself unless he can procure it otherwise be to him in place of Patron and Kindred but the Cheator shall make the King satisfaction according to the valure of the fact or the King himself shall take great punishment of the wickedness committed for it is the part of a King endued with Christian religion severely to punish injuries according to the quality of the deed offered to God 10. For the proving of this Sir Edward Coke in the Proeme to the The antient Common-law did not admit of Appeals to Rome in cases Spiritual sixth Part of his Reports cites an Act of Parliament made 10 H. 2. an 1164. where it was enacted As concerning Appellations if any shall arise from the Archdeacon they must proceed to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and if the Archbishop do fail in doing Justice it must lastly come to the King that by his precept the controversie may be ended in the Archbishops Court so that there ought not to be any proceeding further without the assent of the King And that this among many other might not taste of innovation the Record saith This recognition or record was made of a certain part of the customs and liberties of the Predecessors of the King to wit of Henry his Grandfather and of other Kings which ought to be observed in the Kingdom and held of all for the dissentions and discords often arising between the Clergy and our Soveraign Lord the Kings Justicers and the Peers of the Realm And all the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Clergy with the Earls Barons and all the Nobles c. have sworne and assuredly promised in the word of mouth in one consent to keep and observe the said recognition toward the King and his heirs in good sooth without evil meaning for ever 11. The Revenue of Danegelt was first enacted because of Pyrates The Kings before the Conquest by their own authority did impose Taxes upon Church-lands For infesting the Country they did persist as much as they could to the devastation of it And to repress their insolence the yearly return of Danegelt was enacted viz. Twelve pence for every Hide of all the Country Mr. Selden in lib. 2. cap. 4. Analecton Anglobritannicon fol. 77. makes a Hide of land to be as much as could be tilled by one plough in a year Mr. Lambert in the Laws of King Edward fol. 128. makes a Hide to be one hundred acres of land to maintain them who should resist the irruption of the Pyrates when they met them But from the Danegelt every Church should be free and quiet and all land which was in the dominion of the Church wheresoever it lay paying nothing at all in such redemption for men did more confide in the prayers of the Church then in the defence of arms But if Lex vult non supervacaneum then is it clear that the Church-lands were liable to be taxed by the King for it had been a supervacaneous thing to have excepted the lands of the Church in this Law if the lands of the Church had not been liable to have been taxed at all And to manifest more clearly that the exemption of Church-land from Taxes was a meer concession of our Kings take the Stat. of Ethelulph the successor of Egbert written Analect Angl. lib. 2. cap. 4. pag. 77. with his own hand Our Lord reigning for ever Whilst that we see perillous times in our days the fire of war the taking away of our goods together with the cruel depredations of our destroying enemies and barbarous Pagan nations do lie upon us the multiplied tribulations do afflict us even to utter destruction Wherefore I Ethelulph King of the West-Saxons with the councel of the Bishops and my Princes giving wholsom councel and the only remedy have consented I have determined that every portion given to the holy Church whether of either Sex serving God or to miserable Lay-men always the tenth Mansion where it is least or the tenth part of all Goods be made for ever free that it be safe and defended from all secular services yea from the Kings greater or lesser tributes or the taxations which we call Winterden and that it be free of all things for the forgiveness of our souls and sins to serve God alone without Expedition building of Bridge and fortifying of Castle 12. If King Ethelbert were obliged to S. Gregory for the Conversion At what time the Pope first usurped jurisdiction over the Crown of England of the English Saxons to the Faith Prince Edgar Athelin was smally beholding to Pope Alexander 2. For Edgar being Grandson to Edmund Ironside and the undoubted Heir to the English Monarchy after the death of Edward the Confessor Alexander not only allows the Conquerors pretensions to the Crown of England but interdicts all those who should Speed fol. 405. par 27. See the effects of the Popes curse Speed fol. 415. par 2. oppose him So that though Harold were an Usurper yet was his Holiness his Interdiction as much against the undoubted Title of Edgar as against Harold Nor were all titles of rights and interests of the English Monarchy ever perfect and compleat from that time until they were all united and perfected in King James 13. How far the Britanick Churches were from any dependence upon At what time the first contest hapned between the King Pope about the investiture of Bishops the Church of Rome we have already shewed And so free were the Churches of England under the Saxon Kings before the Conquest that before the Appeal of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury to Pope Paschal 2. scarce any Appeal was ever made to Rome but that of Wilfreds which was overruled by the King and Church So that for near a thousand years after the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith although by means of S. Eleutherius and Gregory the Great we do not find any thing which may prove the superiority of the Roman Church over either the Britanick or English And how strange a thing the investiture of the English Bishops by the Pope was to the King and Kingdom of England appears by the Letter of Paschal to Anselm in answer to Anselm's Significasti Reges De Elect. Pet. cap. 4. Regni Majores admiratione promotos c. You have signified to me that Kings and Nobles were moved with admiration that the Pall was offered to you by our Ministers upon condition that you should take an Oath which they brought you written from us And the King not only opposed
an Englishman or thus deny it let him take eleven and he be the twelfth c. Of Homicides by men Ordained Cap. 73. If a Bishop kill a man let it be recorded and let him repent twelve years seven years in bread and water and five let him fast three days in a week and on others let him use common sustenance If a Priest kill a man or a Monk let him lose his Order and repent ten years six in bread and water and four let him fast three days in a week on others let him use his meat If a Presbyter wound a man let him fast one hundred day If a Deacon kill a man let him be degraded and repent seven years four in bread and water and three let him fast three days in a week upon other let him use common meat If a Clerk shall kill a man let him repent six years four in bread and water two years three days in the week If a Laick kill a man let him repent five years three in bread and water and two years let him fast three days in the week If a man kill a man in Orders or his neighbor let him depart out of his Countrey and go to Rome and make the Pope and his Councel let him in like maner repent of Adultery or Fornication or lying with a Nun. These Laws are likewise set out by Mr. Abraham Whelock in the Appendix to his History of Bede Sir Ed. Coke Candrys Case says Henry the first did Ordain Anno 16. Regni sui as well in regard of his Ecclesiastical as Regal power that whensoever the Abbot of Reading shall die that all the Possessions do remain entire and free But how this should make any thing for the Kings Ecclesiastical Right in all Cases I do not understand for this Ordinance was onely concerning the Possessions of the Abbey and it is no Question but all the Bishopricks as well as Abbeys were originally of the Kings foundation and it appears by the Margent that the King was the particular Founder of this Abby what then hinders but that the King might dispose of the Revenues as he should think fit without having any Ghostly power in him Ecclesiastical Laws made by Henry the third Magna Charta FIrst we have granted to God and by this our present Chapter have confirmed Cap. 1. for us and our heirs for ever that the Church of England shall be free and shall enjoy all her whole Rights and Liberties inviolable Reserves to all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Templars Hospitalers Cap. 38. According to Sir Edward Coke Inst 2. yet the Statute-book in large divides this Act but into thirty seven Chapters and all persons Ecclesiastical all their free Liberties which they have had in time passed and all these Customs and Liberties aforesaid which we have granted to be holden within this Realm as much as appertains to us and our heirs we shall observe And all men as well Spiritual as Temporal as much as in them is shall observe the fame against all persons likewise And for this our Gift and Grant of these Liberties and of other contained in our Charter of Liberties of our Forest Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons Knights Freeholders and other our Subjects have given to us the fifteenth part of their moveables and we have granted to them on the other part that neither we nor our heirs shall procure or do any thing whereby the Liberty in this Charter contained shall be infringed or broken And if any thing be procured by any person contrary to the premisses it shall be of no force nor effect In the Reign of Hen. 3. Cawdries Case 3 H. 3. tit Proh 13. 4 H. 3. c. In all the time of Henry 3. and his Progenitors Kings of England and ever since if any man did sue afore any Judge Ecclesiastical within the Realm for any thing whereof that Court by allowance and custom had not any lawful cognisance the King did ever by his Writ under the Great Seal prohibit them to proceed Answ It is true indeed that not only Probate of Testaments but Cognisance of Tythes Granting of Letters of Administration Mortuaries Pensions Reparation of Churches do not belong to Ecclesiastical cognisance by any Divine positive institution but by allowance and custom of England And if all Customs suppose some Grant originally from Supreme humane Powers then what hinders but that the King might prohibit any Judge Ecclesiastical within the Realm for any thing whereof that Court by allowance and custom had not lawful conusance for Cujus est velle ejus est nolle And if the suggestion made to the Plea King whereupon the Prohibition was grounded were after found untrue then the King by his Writ of Consultation under the Great Seal did allow and permit them to proceed Also in all the Reign of H. 3. and his Progenitors Kings of England if any Issue were joyned upon Loyalty of Marriage General Bastardy or such like the King did ever write to the Bishop of the Diocese as Mediate Officer and Minister of his Court to certifie the Loyalty of the Marriage Bastardy or such like All which prove that those Courts were under the Kings jurisdiction and commandment It is true that not only all Courts and planting of Christianity were originally by the Kings command or permission but the persons of all men within the Realm are in his power And Marriage and Bastardy being so essential and whereupon the strength of mens estates and inheritances do depend what hinders the King to write to the Bishop to certifie the Loyalty of the Marriage And if it pleases him to do it as his mediate officer who shall contradict is Well let it be granted the Kings of England in cases of Bastardy and Loyal Matrimony have written to the Bishop of the Diocese as his mediate officer yet it will not follow that the Bishop is the Kings mediate officer in all things and cases which relate to his Episcopal function and jurisdiction Ecclesiastical Laws made by Edward the First THe King willeth that the peace of the holy Church be maintained in Stat. West an 3. Ed. 1. 1275. all points and that Religious Houses shall not be overcharged nor any Purveyance be made of any Prelate without the owners consent They who shall offend and be thereof attainted shall be committed to the Kings prison and after shall make fine and be punished according to the quantity and manner of the trespass and after as the King in his Court shall think fit c. It is provided also That when any Clerk is taken for guilty of felony Cap. 1. and is demanded by the Ordinary he shall be delivered to him according to the priviledge of the holy Church on such peril as belongeth to it after the custom aforetimes used And the King admonisheth the Prelates and enjoineth them upon the faith that they ow to him and for the common profit and
excommunicated or damned who differ in some things from the doctrine of the Pope who appeal from his decrees and hinder the execution of the ordinances of him or his Legates Although the Sesession of the Church King and Kingdom of England The reformation of King 1 d. was not Schismatical from the Papacy were an Act of Schism yet being done in the Reign of H. 8. one of the greatest favorers of the Papacy that ever was King of England and to his death as great an assertor of the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of it and in such a state independent from the Church of Rome was the Church and Kingdom at the time of Edwards Reformation whatsoever therefore his Reformation was yet could it not be Schismatical Whatever the Romanists pretend to unity and peace in their Church yet The rites and ceremonies of Edwards reformation were more uniform then before it is most manifest that in the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales in several places were used divers forms of Prayer commonly called the Service of the Church viz. that of Sarum of York of Bangor and Lincoln but also of late divers and sundry forms and fashions were used in the Cathedral and Parishes Church of England and Wales as well concerning the mattens or morning prayer and evening song as also concerning the holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of other Sacraments of See preamble to the Statute of 2 3. Ed. 6. Cap. 1. That the Scriptures Lords Prayer and Creed should be read in the English tongue is no new thing in England the Church whereas the service enjoyned in the Reign of Ed. 6 was uniform in all places of England and Wales as well in Parish Churches as Cathedrals In the Reign of King Ethelbald in the year of our Saviors incarnation 748. in a convocation held in the Prouince of Canterbury Cuthbert the Archbishop of his Clergy did Enact that the sacred Scriptures should be read in their monasteries the Lords Prayer and Creed taught in the English tongue Speed in the Reign of Ethelbald para 4. page 343. and how much it was against the Word of God and the custom of the ancient Church to use a tongue unknown to the people in common prayer and administration of Sacraments see the conference at Westminster an primo Eliz. which were never yet answered that I know of If any thing Heretical had been contained in the common Prayer administration Edwards reformation was not Heretical of Sacraments c. made in the Reign of Ed. 6. it would have been sufficiently shot at having so many adversaries at home and abroad but no such crime was ever that I ever heard of imputed to it if there be let the adversaries of it yet shew it affirmanti incumbit probatio If then not onely the Kings and supreme powers always under the old Covenant King Edwards Reformation was warrant-able materially and formally had this right of invoking the high Priest and other Priests and if God always punished the Kings of Judah and Israel for suffering the people to commit Idolatry and if God himself so often commends the zeal and reformation of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah Asa Josiah c. and if ever since Christianity the Bishops by that Divine Canon to Timothy have always had in 1 Tim. cap 2. their particular Churches right of composing publick Liturgies and in national Synods a right of composing publick and national Liturgies And the Liturgy of Edward being composed and received by the Bishops of the Church of England to that end convened and assembly by the King this Liturgy being neither schismattical nor containing any thing heretical is both for matter and form warrantable Object If the Sacriledge and extention of the civil Jurisdiction in giving the civil Magistrate licence to take cognizance of the publique Liturgy and administration of the Sacraments be objected The answer is easie Let the Courtiers and Parliament answer for it the Church was patient not agent in them The Church of Rome having robbed the poor laity of one half of the institution of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and kept the people in such The King and Church had great reason to make Reformation in Religion stupid ignorance that in the publick worship and service of God they should neither use their reason nor understanding by imposing it upon them in an unknown tongue as if in the publick worship and service of God he were not to be served by intellectual and rational creatures and had filled the Mass with more prayers to the Virgin Mary and Saints which could no ways relieve them and so at best super fluous and vain there was great reason in the King and Church to a make a reformation of the Religion and publick Worship and Service of God Of Queen Maries Ecclesiastical Laws Although King Ed. were a Prince of transcendent Vertue and Learning far above his years yet doubtless his youth was not onely much abused in his Reign where a man might have seen all the woes pronounced by God upon that Nation where the King is a childe or where a company of men in Parliament arrogate to themselves the Politick capacity of a King abstracted from his person but also at his very death caused not without suspicion of poyson was he deluded upon specious pretences by his whole Councel but principally by the Duke of Northumberland to make way for the Lady Jane Gray in the time of his sickness married to his fourth son Guilford Dudley to declare the said Lady Jane the rightful heir and successor to the English Monarchy to the manifest wrong and injury not onely of Queen Mary and Elizabeth afterward Queens of England but also of Mary Queen of Scots heir to Margaret the eldest daughter of Henry the seventh whereas the Lady Janes Title was descended from Mary the younger daughter of H. 7. yet it so pleased God that this unjust Will should onely bring destruction both to the Lady Jane and her husband whereas the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth and the Posterity of Mary Queen of Scots did all succeed and enjoy the possession of the English Diadem of which they were debarred by this Will of King Edward That the Title of Head of the Church was continued by Queen Mary appears by the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster the fifth of October in the first year of her Reign in the first and second session of it where she is stiled our Gracious Soveraign Lady Mary by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland but in the second Parliament of her Reign being holden at Westminster the second of April the first year of her Reign the Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland is not mentioned Declares
uniting to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdiction Authorities Superiorities and Preheminencies to the same of right belonging and appertaining By reason whereof her most humble Subjects from the time of the 25 H. 8. were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and vexations before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such foreign Power and Authority as before that was usurped * And to the The Statute of 1 2 Ph. Ma. cap. 8. which restored to the Pope all which this Stat. takes away declares that nothing was done prejudiciall to the Crown in so doing intent that all usurped power Spirituall and Temporall might for ever be extinguished and never be used or obeyed in this Realm or any other her Majesties Dominions It was therefore by the Authority of that Parliament enacted That no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spirituall or Temporall should at any time after the last day of that Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall within this Realm or within any other the Queens Dominions or Countries that then were or hereafter should be but from henceforth the same should be clearly abolished out of this Realm and all other her Dominions for ever And it was then also established and enacted That such Jurisdiction Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall as by any Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner of errors heresies schismes abuses offences contempts and enormities should for ever by authority of that Parliament be united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And that the Queen her Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to assigne name and authorize when and as often as the Queen her Heirs and Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as should please the Queen her heirs and successors such person or persons being naturall born Subjects to the Queen her heirs or successors as the said Queen her heirs or successors should think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under the said Queen her heirs and successors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within these Realms of England or Ireland or any other her Dominions and Countries and to visite reform redress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schismes abuses contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner spirituall or ecclesiasticall Power Authority or Jurisdiction could or might lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the encrease of virtue and conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm And that such person or persons so to be named assigned authorized and appointed by the said Queen her heirs and successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act and of the Letters Patents under the said Queen her heirs and successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the tenor and effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding This Statute doth create the oath of Supremacy to be taken by all men who hold any Office or take from the Queen her heirs and successors any Fees or Wages within this Realm or other her Highnes Realms or Domiminions the form and tenor of it is I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Queens Highness is the only supreme Governor of this Realm and all other her Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall and that no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realm and therefore I doe utterly renounce and forsake all forrein Jurisdiction Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queens Majesty her Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm So help me God and the contents of this Book If any person dwelling or inhabiting within this Realm or any other of the Queens should within 30. dayes after the determination of the Session of that Parliament by Writing Printing Teaching c. maintain any forrein Power or Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall or shall advisedly put in use any such forrein Power or Jurisdiction within any of her Highness Dominions he and his Aiders Abettors Counsellors c. shall forfeit to the Queen her Heirs and Successors all his goods and chattels as well reall as personall If any person so convict be not worth in Goods and Chattels the summe of 20 s. every such person upon conviction over and besides the forfeiture of his Goods and Chattels shall suffer imprisonment by the space of a whole year without Bail or Mainprise And that all and every the Benefices Prebends and other Ecclesiasticall promotions and dignities of every person spirituall so offending and being attaint shall be utterly void and the Patron and Donor may present as if the Incumbent were actually dead For the second offence the party offending shall incur the danger of a Premunire For the third offence after conviction and Attainder the party offending shall suffer death and forfeiture of all his Goods as in case of High Treason The offender must bee impeached for preaching teaching or speaking any thing against the Premisses within a yeere after such preaching teaching or speaking and if any person shall be imprisoned for preaching teaching or speaking against this Statute and if be not indicted within the space of one half yeer next after his offence that he be discharged and set at liberty No matter of Religion or cause Ecclesiasticall made by this Parliament shall be judged Error Heresie Schism or schismaticall opinion Such Persons as shall bee authorized by Letters Patents under the Broad-seale of England shall have jurisdiction power or authority spirituall to visite reform order or correct any errors heresies schisms abuses or enormities But by virtue of this Act they have not authority to determine or adjudge any thing to bee heresy but only such as heretofore have beene determined by Canonicall-Scripture or the 4 first generall Councells or any
CHARLES IT is a thing very worthy of great consideration To thinke how the singular virtues and eminent qualities of so good and pious a Prince should come to so cruell so unfortunate an end for in him was all those amiable qualities which in another age would have rendred him reverenced and admired So singular Piety That the Portracture of King CHARLES in his sufferings will be a Character of it beyond all expression but his own so ardent a zeale in Religion that not any Regular in Religion was a more devout observer of his Order then the King was of the Rites and Liturgy of the Church So free from Simony that the suspicion of it in any man how deserving soever otherwise was sufficient bar from any advancement in the Church So just that though he every day saw the Puritan-faction budding out more formidably both in Church or State yet did he never proceede illegally or in an extrajudiciall manner against any man before the stormes of his Adversaries broke out upon him on every side So mercifull that the Scotish Lord Balmerino An. 1634. being legally convict of Treason was pardoned by him Nor was Louden proceeded against for holding correspondency with the King of France without the Kings privity and giving him the Title of Du Roy nor in all his Reigne how formidable soever the faction grew did he before the war brake out against him put any to death except one in the Lambeth conspiracy for fomenting and contriving the conspiracy against him To these may be added a profound Judgement in the affaires both of Church State how much it appeared in the former appears in the entercourse between him and Master Hinderson nor was his Pietie to his Parents lesse conspicuous being truly the principall Mourner at his Mothers funerall and chose rather to expresse the Piety hee owed to his Father in attending his dead body to his grave although contrary to the custome of his predecessors then to insist upon nicities of State So singular was his conjugall love and chastity to his Queene that a little before his death he commanded the Princesse Elizabeth his daughter to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never strayed from her and that his love should be the same to the last Jealous he was of the honour of the English Church and Nation and well understanding that where mens mindes are not well knit in Religion nothing will long keep their affections cemented He had a great desire to have finished King James his designe of uniting the Kirk of Scotland in an Uniformity with the Church of England who had made some progresse in an Assembly held at Aberdeen 1616. and afterward in another at Perth 1618. which King Charles got passed in Parliament of Scotland 1633. In him was a perpetuall love to the good and an infinite desire of doing good to all These noble vertues and graces towards God his Parents Wife and Subjects were adorned with most eminent and singular personall vertues and graces as moderation in prosperity magnanimity in adversity so wonderfull patience that after the fight of Cropredy-bridge in his march after the Earl of Essex it chanced that one of his Carriages brake in a narrow long Lane where his Majesty was to passe and gave a stop to him at a time when a great showre of rain happened to fall some of them who were neer about him offered to hew out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get some shelter in the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake the Canon upon any occasion at which some seeming to admire his patience his Majesty lifting up his hat said That as God had given him afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his afflictions So severe an observer of his words and actions that he was never observed to say any thing lightly or rashly or in his personall actions did any thing which might render his person or authority contemptible So temperate that in all his life he was never observed disorderly to exceed in eating or drinking affable yet conserving the dignity of his Majesty to all men free and open in his conversation little practicing the only lesson which Lewis the eleventh would learn his Son Charles the ninth Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare So frugall that though he had a Queen and plentifull Issue and expended much more in repairing the Navy for recovering the Soveraignty of the narrow seas then he received of his Subjects and the Exchequer left empty by his Father yet he encreased it before the first Scotish expedition to a greater mass then was ever found since it was exhausted by Henry the Eighth So elegant and pure a stile he had in writing that I expect to live to see it as much imitated by Englishmen as Caesar's was among the Romans Neither which is no lesse remarkable were any of these virtues stained with any suspected vice To the qualities of his mind were joyned Ornaments of his body every way answerable a venerable and gracious aspect yet best when he did not speak agility of members so disposed that in riding the great Horse running the ring vaulting shooting in the Crosbow Musket and sometime the great Ordinance He was thought to be the best Marksman and comliest manager of the great Horse of any man in the three Nations nor was lesse judicious in choosing a Winter Deere which is one of the hardest taskes of a Woodman then excellent in shooting a Deere Dr. Harvey Gen. Anim. exerc 64. pag. 422. propt med affirmes him to be delighted in observations the Dr. made of the causes of Generation from his dissection and Anatomies of the Deere in Hampton-Court c. but whether wanting that magnanimity of looking dangers in the face upon their first budding which is so necessary to the conservation of Regality or whether not having sufficiently understood that benefits conferred upon seditious men never begot any obligation of gratitude upon them but on the contrary they alwaies make advantage of them to get more untill not having more to expect grow jealous least their benefactors might by some means better reassume them then they extort them they hate them which usually ends in the murder of Princes but thinking to overcome his adversaries by his benefits example and clemency or to give satisfaction to all Factions of his Subjects he preferred all Factions in his Court and Councell though he excluded them out of the Church whereby he gave vent to all the Factions so as the veneration of the Royal name became every day more contemptible the Factions increased daily more formidable his counsels became distracted and betrayed and all the treasure he had gathered consumed in the first Northern expedition against the Scots where having many advantages to have subdued them he made a dishonorable peace with them io the increase of their reputation and losse of his own being destitute of treasure and
c. was publickly worshipped and served And men who were of no Religion were always stigmatised with the most opprobrious name of Atheists as the most vile of Men. * Flaminem assiduum Jovi Sacerdotalem creavit Liv. lib. 1. Numa Pompilius therefore in the first place took care for the institution of a Religion among the Romans and to this end he created a Priest who should daily offer Sacrifice to Jupiter And so zealous were the * Selden Annal Angl. lib. 1. c 4. Caesar de Bell. Gal. lib. 6. Gamb Brit. p. 12. Druides in the old age of our Ancestors before Christianity was planted among us in their Religion or Publick Forms of Worshipping of God that none but the Priests and Schollars might learn them nor would they commit them to Letters both because they would not have them divulged least they should grow contemptible by being exposed to the view of the rude and ignorant multitude as also that their Schollars might the better retain them in their memory * Nicias Orat. Thucid. lib. 7. Nicias as the chief Argument of his justification and hope of belief from the gods in his greatest adversity says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have worshipped the gods frequently according to Law And heretofore in the Church of England set Forms of Prayers were not onely ordained that her sons of her Religion might meet at publick times to worship and serve God but the Minister or Priest was obliged every day to offer up the publick worship and service of God whether there were any present but himself or not for all sorts of men in their several vocations and stations That as the fire upon the Altar among the Jews might never go out so among us Christians might no day pass wherein the Publick Service of God was not offered up for all sorts of men 2. That Men honor and obey their Superiors Subjects their Soveraigns Children their Parents Servants their Masters 3. That Men be not Tale-bearers or Back-biters but avoid evil communication 4. That Men do not make advantage of anothers weakness to his damage 5. That Man in all things keep his Integrity that is not to answer so Integrity to another as to deceive him by equivocation or mental reservation if it does not appear that there is evil intent in the question 6. That Men perform their promise made although it be to their hinderance Promise 7. That Men bear a grateful minde for benefits received that is that Gratitude they do not suffer him from whom they receive a benefit to be in a worse condition then he was before he conferred it And if they have not in their power wherewith to satisfie yet that they bear it so in their mindes as to be ready to satisfie to their power Some Creatures who are not endued with Reason do imitate this Virtue the Storks when their Parents are viete and broken with age do relieve them by feeding and providing for them wherefore the Greeks called the Stork 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beneficiorum retributorem See Grotius Annotations upon his Preface De Jure Belli Pac. 8. That men do well to their Wives Children and others as by nature and affinity allied unto them 9. That men be merciful wherein men ought not so much to observe the quantum as the cause of shewing mercy or pitty 10. That in revenge men do not respect the evil past but minde the future good which may happen from the punishment 11. That they neither by deeds words or countenance use another contumeliously 12. That they be not high-minded or over-conceited of their birth person or parts 13. That they be lowly minded and modest 14. Not to accept or respect persons in judgment 15. Where no Law gives propriety there ought community to be 16. Those things which can neither be divided or used in common that the decision be by lot 17. That the first-born be preferred and the Male before the Female 18. * That no man endeavor c. For that which is any mans by Divine Institution cannot be aliened neither by his will nor the will of all the men in the world and therefore cannot Episcopacy or Priesthood after Consecration and Imposition of hands be transferred because they are by Divine Institution Yet whatsoever Bishop or Priest shall endeavor for reward or price to alien it or deny it for safety of his life may as well be esteemed a prophane person as Esau was That no man endeavor to transfer or alien by Pact or Promise that right which God by the Law of Nature or Divine Institution hath given him 19. That Protection be granted to Ambassadors and Mediators of Peace 20. That no man seek private Revenge for any supposed Injury 21. That Judgment be pronounced without hope of reward or for applause of men 22. That where Evidence of Fact does not clearly appear that they take information from Witnesses 23. That the Judge be indifferent not byassed to either party either by Natural relations or by any precedent Obligation 24. These Moral Virtues are commanded by the Moral Law and are most truly and properly so as they are revealed and declared to mankinde by God in the holy Scriptures For the Will of God commanding in the Scriptures that is in the Old and New Testament is in all things by highest right to be obeyed and followed And because God hath created man with an immortal and eternal Soul and does not will the death that is the eternal death of a sinner he offers every man grace who does not refuse it by preferring some other things to lay hold of those means which he hath revealed in them for the obtaining of his eternal happiness 25. But because a man cannot well bear all these Virtues in his minde The sum or cause of all Moral Virtues contained in the Second Table in every action which a man intends if he would know whether it be against the Law of Nature or not Let him suppose himself in place of him with whom he intends this action and if he be not willing that this thing should be done to him let him not do it to another for upon this short and easie rule Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them depends all the Law and the Prophets Matth. 7. 12. CHAP. V. Moral Virtues are commanded by God in the holy Scripture 1. THe Lord said Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying On this wise Religion or the worshiping of God in a Publick set form was instituted by God under the old and new Testament shall ye bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them Numb 6. 22
and for the reason De terra vero Salica nulla portio haereditalis mulieri veniat sed ad virilem sexum tota terrae haereditas perveniat Bodin de rep p. 745. 13. For the authority of it the learned do not agree by whom it was The authority of it by D'-Avila made nor whether any French King ever made any such or not D'avila in the beginning of the first book of the Civil wars in France recites the most probable conjecture which is That the French when they left their habitation to seek fresh quarters sate down at the river Sala which divides Misnia Westward from Turingia and there forsooth did agree to choose themselves a King and did make Constitutions which should be fundamental and unalterable ever after and those Constitutions being made at the river Sala are called Salique Laws 14. There is no story of Guy of Warwick Amadis de Gaule or the Dun How probable Cows rib but is of as much authority and probability as this For can it be imagined that a company of Rogues and Thieves going to rob and thieve at Gads-hill should agree at Greenwich to make unalterable Laws for their government and succession before they were possessed of any thing and what they make their Laws of is nothing but what they shall rob and cheat other men of 15. But Bodin will not undertake to tell by whom or when it was made Bodin's opinion it is strange you will say that making up his discourse almost of Histories he hath nothing to say for this he only saies it is not new as many men think but engraven in the most ancient tables of the Salians in these words De terra vero salica c. ut supra So Bodin names neither by whom nor when Para. 12. this Salique Law was made Did ever man infer so fondly that because the Salian women did not inherit therefore the French Crown cannot descend to women But mark now if this be a consequence The women of the Land of Salia do not inherit and therefore no female can inherit the French Monarchy then if the men of the Land of Salia will alter this constitution the descent of the French Monarchy is altered by an Act of the men of Salia for Cessante ratione legis cessat lex and sublata causa tollitur effectus In their contest with the Popes the Kings of France say they hold their Crown of God whereas if Bodin says true they hold it by a Law written in the Tables of the Salians I can say no more for the authority of this Law unless I should repeat the same things again out of De Serres and other learned French Historians 16. This Law cannot be altered by the King and Estates general The eternity of it I had thought that only the Laws of Nature had been unalterable It is a rule that Unumquodque dissolvi potest eo ligamine quo ligatum est And if this Salique Law be a constitution of Man by that power which made it a constitution by that power it may be altered 17. De terra vero Salica nulla portio haereditatis mulieri veniat sed ad virilem The reason of it sexum tota terrae hereditas perveniat Now let any man that is in his wits or understands any thing of the nature of a Law judge whether there be any shadow of reason in this For a Law is the rule or direction of him who does govern to be observed by them who are governed How then can the Crown of France descend according to the customs of the Salians if the French Crown be not subject to the men of Salia and they had given the King and his successors this unalterable Law of not descending to the female but where this country Salia should be I could never find so much as the name in any Geographer or Historian ancient or modern Sure the Romans so curious in searching and describing of Countries would not have overseen it especially the Emperor Julian warring so long in those parts of Germany not above sixty years before they suppose Pharameund departs out of Salia for to seek better quarters in Gaule 18. The two main parts of the Salique Law are That the Crown shall The two main parts of the Salique Law descend to the next heire male and if the heire be ana infant that the next Prince of the blood who is a Major shall during his minority be his Guardian and Regent Yet Bodin is fearful that the Salique Law was not bar enough against our Ed. the third being never before heard of saies Hailâ—n he saies pag. 745. Whenas the controversie concerning the Crown of France was between Philip Earl of Valoys and Ed. the third King of England Philip defended the Salique Law by the Voconian which ordained by the consent of the Fathers and Princes that in that controversie no man should use the authority of forrain Lawes but every one should study for his profit the Salique Law But when the question was 1563 whether Charles the ninth were a Major at fourteen years of Age currant or compleat the Parliament of Paris would have taken upon them to decide it when Charles sends them word I do not mean that you should deale in any thing but with the administration of good and speedie justice to my subjects understand hereafter that you are not confirmed in your offices by me to be my Tutors or Protectors of my Realm nor Governors of my City of Paris as hitherto you have perswaded your selves Besides Charles the seventh Anno 1420. was adjudged to banishment and unworthy to succeed in any of the signories of France by all the Courts of the Parliament of Paris And so about 7 years since was the Prince of Condi and so was Henry the forth by all the three Estates at the general assembly at Bloys Anno. 1588. So that is is evident that this immutable Law is not so inviolably kept by the French themselves when it does not serve their turn How should the Voconion Law oblige against Ed. the third and not the Acts of Parliament of Paris and general Assembly at Blois oblige against Charles the seventh and Henry the fourth for ubi eadem est ratio ibi idem est jus 19. There cannot be a more imprudent act then to make any one Ward The imprudence of the Salique Law to him who is his next heire especially to a Crown which frees any one from all attainders what then can be more imprudent then this part of the Salique Law which gives the pupil King into the hands of the next heire who murthering him makes way for himself to the Kingship By our Country Laws no man could be Guardian to the person of a Ward but the next of blood to whom the inheritance could not descend But this part of the eternal Law has not of late been observed by the French Nation whereas the contrary hath been
that simple and blind obedience should be alwaies given to their Laws as if there were neither Laws of God or any to whom they were given intellectual or reasonable creatures And though no man ought to censure much less to reproach the actions of his superior yet are no mens actions so censured as great mens and so much the more by how much the greater they are for Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Iuvenal Crimen habet quanto major qui peccat habetur And if Sabinianus were so malitious a detractor from the works of St. Gregory if Bonifacius the eight used such undue means for the attaining the Papacy if Gregory the seaventh were so wicked as the Council of Brixia makes him if Alexander the sixt were so wicked a man as Platina makes him if so many decrees of the antecedent Popes have been abrogated by the subsequent Popes if Marcellinus burned Incense to Idols if Liberius consented to the Arrians and gave his suffrage to the condemnation of St. Athanasius if Honorius were condemned for a Monothalite by the sixth general Council if John 22. were condemned by the Divines of Paris for teaching that the soules of the just shall not see God untill the general resurrection then is it not possible but that either contradictions are no contradictions but the same things or the Popes have not alwaies been infallible But it is more then time to return to the question 1. That St. Paul did preach the Gospel here in England is affirmed by By whom Christian Faith was first preached and a Church planted in Britain Lib. 2. cap. 40. Theodo lib. 9. de curandis Graecorum affectibus Paulum è priori captivitate Roma dimissum Britannis aliis in Occidente Evangelium predicasse And Nicephorus saies that Simon Zelotes Doctrinam Evangelii ad Occidentalium oceanum insulasque Britannicas perfert But that ever a Christian Church was planted in this Island before that at the request of King Lucius in the reign of Commodus and not of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as Beda saies Elutherius sent Fugatius and Damianus I do no where find for not only the superstition of the Druides was publickly professed but after that a Christian Church was planted Lucius converted the three Archiflamines of London York and Carleton into Archbishopricks and the other Flamines Platina in vita St. Eleutherii into Bishopricks Yet that ever after the Bishop of Rome did claim any power or jurisdiction of these British Churches I no where find nay the contrary is very probable for they not only adhered in the observation of Easter to the Eastern Church from St. Johns observation thereof at Ephesus and not according to the determination of Pius Anicetus and Soter Bishops Beda lib. 2. cap. 2. of Rome but also the British Bishops when Augustine was sent by St. Gregory to preach and convert the English Saxons to Christianity did refuse to acknowledg any superiority from him nor by any perswasion or command of him would or could leave their ancient usages without consent of their fellowes as a man may see in Beda Nor were these Bishops in those daies Lib. 2. cap. 2. ever esteemed nay not by Beda himself as much a reverencer as he was of the Church of Rome Hereticks or Schismaticks and out of the Pall of the Lib. 2. cap. 2. Church c. but right Catholick and godly men 2. That the English Saxons after they had driven the antient Britains The conversion of the English Saxons by the Pope Gregory the great not only out of all that part of Britain which is now called England some into Britaigne in France called Britania Aremorica from whence it is supposed that Country took its denomination others into Wales but also Christianity it self and themselves continued Pagan untill they first received the Faith by the preaching of Augustine and Miletus sent by Gregory the great is consonant to all the Histories of the Church nor does to me appear any colour of Reason or Authority to the contrary 3. But that St. Gregory did not at that time arrogate to himself the Neither St. Gregory nor any of his predecessors did assume the title of head of the Church Title either of universal Bishop head of the Catholick Church or any superiority over Temporal Princes is as clear as if it were written with a sun-beam For in the contest between St. Gregory and John Jejunator Bishop of Constantinople about superiority universal Bishop and head of the Church Gregory says in his Epistle to Mauritius Nullus Romanorum Pontificum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit nullus Praedecessorum meorum hoc tam profano vocabulo uti consensit None of all the Bishop◠of Rome ever took upon him this name of singularity viz. of Universal Bishop none of my Predecessors would ever use this prophane stile Et universa Ecclesia corruit quando is qui appellatur universalis cadit The whole Church falleth when he which is called Universal Bishop falleth Et nos hunc honorem oblatum nolumus recipere We would not accept of this honor offered unto us Epist 80. And in his Epistle to John claiming to himself this title he says Tu quid Christo universalis ecclesiae capiti in extremi judicii dicturus es examine qui cuncta ejus membra tibimet conaris Universalis appellatione supponere What answer wilt thou make to Christ the Head of the universal Church at the trial of the last Judgment which thus by the name of Universal Bishop seekest to make all his members subject unto thee And unto Anastasius Bishop of Antioch he writes Ut de honoris vestri injuria taceam si unus episcopus lib. 6. ep 188. vocatur universalis universa ecclesia corruit si unus universus cadit Not to speak of the injury done to your honor if one Bishop be called universal then if that one universal Bishop goes down the whole Church falleth And afterward Vos eandem causam nullam dicere non debetis quia si hanc aequanimiter portamus universae ecclesiae fidem corrumpimus Ye ought not to say it is a business of no importance for if we patiently abide these things we destroy the faith of the whole Church And comparing the pride of this Name with the pride of Antichrist he says Nunquid non cum se Antichristus veniens Deum dixerit frivolum valde erit sed tamen nimis perniciosum Si quantitatem vocis attendimus duae sunt syllabae si pondus lib. 6. ep 194. iniquitatis universa pernicies And lib. 4. ep 33. he says In isto scelesto vocabulo consentire nihil aliud est quam fidem perdere To consent to this wicked Name is nothing else but to lose the Faith This and much more you may read in lib. 4. ep 80. ep 99. and in S. Gregory's epist to Eulogius Patriarch of Alexandria Howbeit Boniface the
It was afterwards in open Parliament by grievous complaint of all the St. 25. Ed. 3. Commons of this Realm shewed that the grievances and mischiefs aforesaid did daily abound to the great damage and destruction of this Realm more then ever before viz. that of late the Bishop of Rome by procurement of Clerks and otherwise had reserved and did reserve daily to his collation generally and especially as well Archbishopricks Abbeys and Priories as all other dignities and other benefices of England which were of the Advowry of people of the holy Church and gave the same to Aliens as well as to Citizens and taketh of all such benefices the first fruits and many other profits and a great part of the treasure of this Realm was carried away and dispended out of the Realm by the Purchasers of such graces and also by such privy reservations many Clerks advanced by the true Patrons which peaceably holden their advancements by long time were suddenly put out Wherefore the said Commons did pray the said Soveraign the King that since the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm was such that upon mischiefs and damages which hapned to this Realm he ought and was bound of the accord of his people therefore to provide remedy and Law c. The said King Ed. 3. seeing the mischiefs and damage aforesaid c. and forasmuch as he was bound by his Oath to see the same to be kept as a Law of this Realm though that by sufferance and negligence it had been sithence attempted to the contrary also having regard to the grievous complaints made to him by his people in divers his Parliaments holden heretofore willing to ordain remedy for the great damage and mischiefs which had hapned and daily did happen to the Church of England by the said cause by the assent of all the great men and the commonalty of the said Realm to the honor of God and profit of the said Church of England and of his Realm did order and establish that the free election of all Archbishops Bishops and all other dignities and benefices electory in England should hold from henceforth in the manner as they were granted by the Kings progenitors and founded by the ancestors of other Lords and that all Prelates and other people of the holy Church which had Advowsons of any benefices of the Kings gift or of any of his progenitors or of other Lords and Donors to do divine service and other charges thereof ordained should have their collations and presentments freely as they were enfeoffed by their donors and in case that reservation collation or provision be made by the Court of Rome of any Archbishoprick Bishoprick Dignity or other Benefice in disturbance of the election collation or presentments aforesaid That at the time of the avoidance that such reservations collations and provisions ought to take effect the said Ed. 3. and his heirs should have and enjoy for the same time collations to the Archbishopricks and other dignities elective which is of his Avowry such as his Progenitors had before that free election was granted since that the elections were first granted by the Kings progenitors upon a certain form and condition as to demand license of the King to chuse and after the election to have his Royal assent and not in other manner which condition not kept the King ought by reason to resort to his first nature Upon complaint made by the great men and commons it was assented St. 27 Ed. 3. and accorded by the King great men and commons aforesaid that all the people of the Kings Allegiance of what condition that they be which shall draw any out of the Realm in plea whereof the conusance pertaineth to the Kings Court or of things whereof Judgement were given in the Kings Court or which did sue in any other Court to defeat or impeach the Judgments given in the Kings Court should incur the danger of a Premunire Made to confirm the Acts made the 25. and 27. years of the said Kings Reign but those that made those good Laws against such capital offenders St. 28 Ed. 3. Cap. 1. 2. 3. 4. were cursed defamed and reproved by such as maintained the usurped jurisdiction of the Church of Rome against which an especial Act of Parliament was made by the King and his whole Realm prohibiting thereby such defamations and reproofs In the Reign of Richard the second Against an Incumbent of the Church of England another sueth a provision 12 Rich. 2. tit Jurisdict 18. in the Court of Rome and there pursueth until he recovereth the Church against the Incumbent and afterward brought an action of account against him as receiver of divers sums of money which in troath were the oblations and offerings which the Incumbent had received and the whole Court was of opinion against the Plaintiff and thereupon he became nonsuit It is declared by that Parliament that the Crown of England hath been St. 16 R. 2. Cap. 5. so free at all times that it hath been in subjection to no Realm but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the same Crown be to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his will to the perpetual destruction of the King his Soveraignty Crown and Regality and of all his Realm And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be declared against the Kings Crown and his Regality used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors In the Reign of H. 4. H. 4. fol. 9 It is resolved that the Popes Collector though he hath the Popes Bull to that purpose hath no jurisdiction within this Realm and there the Archbishops and Bishops c. of this Realm are called the Kings spiritual Judges By the ancient Laws Ecclesiastical of this Realm no man could be convicted of Heresie being high-Treason against the Almighty but by the Archbishop Fitz. nat B. 269. Candries Case and all the Clergy of that Province and after abjured thereupon and after that newly convicted and condemned by the Clergy of that Province in the general councel of the convocation but the St. of 2 H. 4. Ca. 15. doth give the Bishop of the Dioces power to condemn a Heretick and that before that Statute he could not be committed to the secular power to be burnt until he had once abjured and was again relapsed to thar or some other Heresie whereby it appeareth that the King by the consent of Parliament directed the proceedings in the Court Ecclesiastical in case of Heresie and other matters more Spiritual Well but suppose the King did so it proves nothing for it is but matter of Fact But it does not appear neither that this direction of the King by consent of Parliament did direct the proceedings in the
of them or by any Generall Councell wherein the same was declared heresie by expresse and plaine words of Scripture or such as should be determined Heresie by the high Court of Parl. with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This Statute revives the 23 H. 8. 9. 24 H. 8. 12. 25 H. 8. 20. 25 H. 8. 21. 26 H. 8. 14. 28 H. 8. 16. So much of the Act of the 32 H. 8. 38. concerning precontracts of Marriages and touching degrees of Consanguinity as by the 2 Ed. 6. 23. was not repealed the 37 H. 8. 17. the 1 Ed. 6. 1. This Act repeales the Statute of the 1 2. Ph. M. 6. the 1 2 Ph. M. 8 except those things touching the Premunire in the said Statute It repeales the 5 R. 2. 5. the 2 H. 4. 15. the 2 H. 5. 7. made for the punishment of Heresies by fire and faggot This statute repeales the statute of the first of Mary and the 2 and revives Stat. 1 Eliz. cap. 2. the statute of the 5 6 of Ed. 6. for the uniformity of Prayer and administration of the Sacraments with the alteration or addition of certain Lessons to be used every Sunday of the yeere and the forme of the Letany altered and corrected and two sentences only added in the delivery of the Sacrament to the Communicants If any Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should say or sing Common-Prayer mentioned in the said Booke in such Cathedrall or Parish-Church or other places where he should Minister the same in such manner and forme as is mentioned in the said Booke refuse to doe the same or use any other forme or shall preach declare or speake any thing in derogation of the said booke or any thing therein contained or any part thereof and shall thereof be lawfully convicted according to the Lawes of the Land by the Verdict of 12 men or confession or notorious evidence of the fact shall forfeit to the Queene c. for the first offence the profits of one whole yeere next after such conviction of all his spirituall Benefices and suffer imprisonment for the space of six moneths without Bayle or Mainprize If any such person once convicted concerning the Premisses shall after such conviction offend and be thereof lawfully convict shall suffer imprisonment for the space of one whole year and be deprived ipso facto of all his spirituall promotions and that it shall be lawfull for all Patrons and Donors of such Spirituall promotions to present or collate to the same as if the person or persons so offending were dead If any person be convicted the third time of the premisses he shall ipso facto be deprived of all his spirituall promotions and shall suffer imprisonment during life Any person that shall offend and be convicted inform aforesaid concerning any of the premisses not being beneficiall or having any spirituall promotion shall for the first offence after such conviction suffer imprisonment for the space of one whole year without Bail or Mainprise and for the second offence after lawfull conviction shall suffer imprisonment during life If any person shall doe or speak any thing in derogation of the book of Common-prayer or disturb or interrupt any Parson Vicar or other Minister in any Cathedrall or Parshi Church or Chappel in the celebration of the Common-prayer or ministration of the Sacraments or shall compell or cause any other Service to be celebrated being thereof lawfully convict shall for the first offence forfeit to the Queen c. the summe of one hundred Marks and for the second offence the summe of four hundred Marks and for the third offence he shall forfeit all his Goods and Chattels and suffer imprisonment during life If any person shall for the first offence be convict of the premisses in form aforesaid and shall not pay the sum to be paid by virtue of his conviction that instead thereof he shall suffer imprisonment for the space of 6. moneths without Bail or Mainprise and he that shall not pay for the second conviction shal suffer imprisonment for the space of 12. moneths without Bail or Mainprise Every person shall having no lawfull or reasonable excuse to be absent diligently and faithfully endeavour to resort to the usuall places where Common-prayer and such Service of God shall be used upon Sundayes and other dayes appointed to be kept holy and there abide orderly and soberly during the time of Common-prayer Preaching and other Service of God upon pain of punishment by censures of the Church and twelve pence to be levied by the Church-wardens to those of the poor of the Parish by way of distress The Ordinaries and all other Officers Ecclesiasticall as well in places exempt as not exempt within their Diocess have power and authority by this Act to correct and reform and punish by Church censures all who shall offend within their Jurisdictions The Justices of Oyer and Determiner or Justices of Assise in open and generall Sessions have power to hear determine and punish these offences yet so that every Arch-bishop and Bishop in their severall Diocesses by virtue of this Act may associate or joyn themselves with the said Justices No person shall be molested for any offences abovesaid unlesse he be indicted at the next generall Sessions next after such offences are committed All Lords of Parliament for their third offence shall be tried by their Peers Chiefe Officers of Cities and Boroughs have the like authority to hear and determine the offences aforesaid as the Justices of Assize and Oyer and Determiner have Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors Commissaries Arch-Deacons and other Ordinaries having any peculiar Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction have by virtue of this Act power in their Visitations Synods and elsewhere within their Jurisdictions to enquire and take the accusations and informations of all the offences aforesaid and to punish the same by Admonition Excommunication Sequestration or Deprivation and other censures in like form as heretofore has been used by the Queens Ecclesiasticall Laws Any person offending in the premisses and punished therefore by the Ordinary having a testimoniall thereof under the Ordinaries Seal shall not for the same offence be convicted before the Justices and likewise punished for the first offence by the Justices he shall not again receive punishment of the Ordinary Such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers shall be reteined Anno 5 Eliz. cap. 1. and be in use as was in this Church of England by authority of Parliament in the 2 year of the Reign of Ed. 6. untill other Order shall be taken by authority of the Queen with the advice of the Commissioners appointed and authorised under the Great Seal of England for causes Ecclesiasticall or of the Metropolitan of the Realm It was enacted That whatsoever person inhabiting in the Queens Dominions who by word or deed should maintain that the Bishop of Rome had any authority or jurisdiction in any of the
their submission to the Church of Rome But on the contrary when Austin first arrived in England he stayed in the Island of Thanet until he knew the Kings pleasure and offered not to preach in Kent until he had the Kings licence to preach throughout his Dominions c. Neither was there any Appellant from the Conversion of the English he says to Rome until Wilfrid Archbishop of York who notwithstanding pag. 60. that he gained Sentence upon Sentence at Rome in his favor and notwithstanding that the Pope did send express Nuntio's into England on purpose to see the Sentence executed yet could he not obtain his restitution or benefit of his Sentence for six years during the reigns of Egbert and Alfred his son yea Alfred told the Popes Nuntio's expresly That he honored Spelm. concil an 705. them as his Parents for their grave lives and honorable aspects but he could not give any assent to their Legation because it was against reason that a person twice condemned by the whole Council of the English should be restored upon the Popes Letter And after he says That after Alfred and pag. 62. Theodore were both dead Theodore was the Archbishop of York that opposed Wilfrids Donation from the Pope and continued it so long as he lived we find the Sentence of the Pope and Wilfrids Restitution still opposed by the surviving Bishops in Alfreds Sons reign c. Neither were there any Appeals to Rome from that time until after the Conquest in the reign of Henry the First by Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury 8. See Comment Lit. sect 648. pag. 344. where it appears by our All Bishopricks were of the Kings foundation originally and donative books and divers Acts of Parliament that at first all the Bishopricks in England were of the Kings foundation and Donative per traditionem baculi id est the Crosier which was the Pastoral staff annuli the ring whereby he was married to the Church King Henry the First being requested by the Bishop of Rome to make them elective refused it But King John by his Charter bearing date quinto Junii anno decimo septimo When they became eligible and by what power granted that the Bishopricks should be eligible So that all Bishopricks were not only at first of the Kings foundation and Donative but afterwards became eligible from no other cause but the Kings Charter 9. That the sacred character of Priesthood does not free men from The Kings of England before the Couquest did exercise their Regal power over all persons in all cases the subjection due to the Laws of their Prince and Country is not only evident by many examples in Sacred Writ and by almost infinite precepts and examples of Gospel and holy Martyrs in primitive times but also by a concurrent consent of all Histories where Christianity hath been planted And that these powers have been justly exercised by the Kings of England before the Conquest among the many Laws of Ina Withred Alfred Edward Athelstan Edmund Edgar Athelred Canutus and Edward take these of Canutus Si quis sacra tenens pejerasse convictus fuerit ei manus praeciditor ni dimidiatam Lambert Saxon laws lex 33. f. 113. sui capitis astimationem domino atque episcopo dependerit neque vero deinceps qui juret dignus putandus est nisi quidem Deo cumulatè satisfecerit atque ab ejusmodi in posterum nefario scelere abstinendi fidejussores admoverit If any in Holy orders be convict of Perjury let him be branded on the hand unless he shall pay to the King and Bishop half the price of his head Neither shall he afterward be esteemed worthy to take an Oath unless he shall have abundantly satisfied God and shall have given Sureties that afterward he shall abstain from such wickedness Si quis eorum qui arae deservierint alicui mortem obtulerit omni cum divini lex 36. 114. tum humani juris patrocinio excludatur nisi quidem cum exilio cumulatè id sceleris compensarit atque caesi etiam cognatis satisfecerit aut saltem una cum hominibus qui jurent idoneis omnem criminis suspicionem diluerit Hanc vero quae Deo hominibus debetur compensationem intra ter denos idque cum fortunarum suarum omnium discrimine dies aggreditor If any one who serves at the Altar shall kill any man let him be excluded from the protection of Divine and Humane laws unless with his banishment he may abundantly satisfie that wickedness and shall also give satisfaction to the kindred of him who is killed or at least together with sufficient men who shall give Law-gager their oaths shall wash away all suspition of the crime And let him go in hand to make this compensation which is due to God and men within thirty days and that upon the forfeiture of all his fortunes Si eorum qui arae deservierint aliquis hominem occiderit aut insigne aliquod lex 38. ibid. perpetrarit flagitium gradu honore dispoliatus proinde atque ei Papa circumscripserit habitandi locum exulato ac cumulatè compensato Sin is crimen fuerit inficiatus excusatio tripla esto Atque in hanc quae Deo hominibus debetur compensationem intra ter denos aggrediatur dies ab omni legis commoditate destitutus habetor If any one who serves at the Altar shall kill a man or commit any foul offence despoiled of his honor let him be banished the place of his habitation and make abundant satisfaction yea though the Pope make it void But if he deny the crime let his excuse be threefold and if within thirty days he does not endeavor to give this satisfaction which is due to God and man let him be outlawed Si quis sacris inauguratus rei capitalis obnoxius extiterit comprehenditor lex 40. 115. atque ut tandem episcopo criminis admissi poenas dependat asservator If any one in Holy orders be guilty of any capital crime let him be apprehended and fafely kept until he be punished by the Bishop for the crime committed Si quis sacrum ordinem atque vivendi formulam commutarit pro ipsa lex 46. 116. ordinis dignitate sive capitis aestimatione mulcta legis violatae poena sive rebus suis omnibus compensato If any one shall change his holy order and form of living for the dignity of the order or price of the head let him be fined for punishment of the violation of the Law or forfeit all he hath But how far this good Prince was from having any spight to Holy Orders or men separated to the Worship of God and Service at the Holy Altar he does enact Siquis sacris initiatus incoláve in iis quae ad fortunas Law 37. fol. 114. vitamve ejus spectarint decipiatur tum ei rex ni is aliunde habuerit loco Patroni cognatorum esto Fraudator