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england_n	ireland_n	parliament_n	statute_n	2,883	5	8.7954	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56127	The antipathie of the English lordly prelacie, both to regall monarchy, and civill unity: or, An historicall collection of the severall execrable treasons, conspiracies, rebellions, seditions, state-schismes, contumacies, oppressions, & anti-monarchicall practices, of our English, Brittish, French, Scottish, & Irish lordly prelates, against our kings, kingdomes, laws, liberties; and of the severall warres, and civill dissentions occasioned by them in, or against our realm, in former and latter ages Together with the judgement of our owne ancient writers, & most judicious authors, touching the pretended divine jurisdiction, the calling, lordlinesse, temporalities, wealth, secular imployments, trayterous practises, unprofitablenesse, and mischievousnesse of lordly prelates, both to King, state, Church; with an answer to the chiefe objections made for the divinity, or continuance of their lordly function. The first part. By William Prynne, late (and now againe) an utter-barester of Lincolnes Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1641 (1641)	Wing P3891A; Wing P3891_vol1; Wing P4074_vol2_CANCELLED; ESTC R18576	670,992	826

judiciall manner against Law and have perpetrated practised and done many other trayterous and unlawfull acts and things whereby as well divers mutinies seditions and rebellions have beene raised as also many thousands of his Majesties Liege people of this Kingdome have beene ruined in their goods Lands Liberties and Lives and many of them being of good quality and reputation have beene utterly defamed by Pillory mutilation of members and other infamous punishments By meanes whereof his Majesty and the Kingdome have beene deprived of their service in Juries and other publique imployments and the generall trade and traffique of this Island for the most part destroyed and his Majesty highly damnified in his customes and other Revenues That they the sayd Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry c. and every of them the better to preserve themselves and the sayd Earle of Strafford in these and other trayterous courses have laboured to subvort the rights of Parliament and the ancient course of Parliamentary proceedings all which offences were contrived committed perpetrated and done at such time as the sayd Sir Richard Bolton Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe Knights were Privie Counsellours of State within this Kingdome and against their and every of their Oathes of the same at such times as the sayd Sir Richard Bolton Knight was Lord Chancellour of Ireland or chiefe Baron of his Majesties Exchequer within this kingdome and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight was Lord chiefe Justice of the sayd Court of Common Pleas and against their Oathes of the same and at ●uch time as the sayd Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry was actuall Bishop of Derry within this Kingdome and were done and speciated contrary to their and every of their allegiance severall and respective Oathes taken in that behalfe For which the sayd Knights Citizens and Burgesses doe impeach ●he sa●d Iohn Lord Bishop of Der●y c. and every of them of high Treason again●t our Soveraigne Lord the King his Crowne and dignity● What proceedings will insue upon this accusation against this Prela●e time will discover Not to mention ●he lewd beastly Sodomiticall life and most detestable Actions of Aderton Bishop of Wa●e●ford●n ●n Ireland for which he was lately a●●aigned condemned and hanged as a Bishop without any preceding degradation to the great dishonour of his Rochet I shall close up this Historicall Epitome of the Irish Bishops with a Petition and Remonstrance of many thousand Protestan● Inhabitants in severall Counties of Ireland against Episcopacy presented lately to the High Court of Parliament here in England whe●ein the evill ●ruites and seditious oppressive ungodly practises of the present Irish Prelates are fully anatomized To the Honourable Assembly of Knights Citizens and Burgesses in this present Parliament The Humble Petition of some of the Protestant Inhabitants of the Counties of Antrim Downe Tyrone c. part of the Province of Ulster in the Kingdome of Ireland Humbly REpresenteth unto your grave Wisedomes and judicious considerations That your Petitioners having translated themselves out of the severall parts of his Majesties Kingdomes of England and Scotland to promote the Infant Plantation of Ireland wherein your Petitioners by their great labour and industry so much contributed to the settlement of that Kingdome as they were in a most hopefull way of a comfortable abode and when they expected to reape the ●●uite of their great and long labour partly by the cruell severity and a●bit●ary proceedings of the Civill Magistrate but principally through th●●nblest way of the Prelacy with their faction ou● Soules are starved our estates undone out famil●es impoverished and many lives among us cut off and destro●ed T●e Prelates whose pretended Authority though by some pub●●shed to be by divin● Right as we humbly conceive is directly against the same have by their Canons of late their Fines Fees and imprisonments at their pleasure their silencing suspending banishing and excommunicating of our learned and conscionable Ministers their obtruding upon us ignorant erronious and prophane persons to be our teachers their censuring of many hundreds even to excommunication for matters acknowledged by all to be indifferent and not necessary their favouring Popery in this Kingdome a double ●ault their persecuting purity and indeavouring to bring all to a livelesse formality divers of them being notorious incendiaries of the unquietnesse and unsetled estate betweene these Kingdomes with many the like too tedious to relate as more fully in our ensuing grievances doth appeare These our cruell Taske-masters have made of us who were once a people to become as it were no people an astonishment to our selves the object of piety and amazement to others and hopelesse of remedy unlesse hee with whom are bowels of compassion worke in you an heart to interpose for your Petitioners reliefe They therefore most humbly pray that this unlawfull Hierarchicall government with all their appendices may be utterly extirpated such course layd downe as to your great wisedomes shall ●eeme meete for reparation in some measure of our un-utterable dammages ●ustained by the parties thus injuriously grieved your Petitioners setled in a way whereby their persecuted Ministers may have leave to returne from exile and be freed from the unjust censures imposed on them ●●d an open doore continued unto us for provision of a powerfull and able ministry the onely best way to promote Plantation and settle the Kingdome in the profession and practise of true Religion Which as it is the earnest expectation so it shall be the dayly prayer of many thousands besides your Petitioners who will ever ent●eate the Lord for your direction herein and in all other your waighty and important affaires as becommeth your poore Petitioners c. A Particular of manifold evills and heavie pressures caused and occasioned by the Prelacy and their dependants BEfore they had so much as a pretended Canon for their warrant the Prelates urged their Ceremonies with such vehemency that divers of our most learned and painefull Ministers for not obeying them were s●lenced and many of us for the like oppressed in their Courts In the yeare ●634 they made such Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall as enjoyned many corruptions in the worship of God and government of the Church which exceedingly retarded the worke of reformation animated Papists and made way for divers Popish Superstitions Our most painefull godly and learned Ministers were by the Bishops and their Commissaries silenced and deprived for not subscribing and conforming to the sayd unlaw●ull Canons yea through the hotnesse of their persecution ●orced to flee the Land and afterward excommunicated to the danger of all and losse of some of their lives In their places others were obtruded not onely ignorant lazie and lukewarme but many of them unsound in doctrine prophane in life and cruell in persecution Many though sufficiently furnished were not admitted to the Ministry onely for not swallowing downe their groundlesse Innovations yea some though conforme yet for appearing strict in Life were likewise kept out Good and painefull

Oxford William Cliffe Geoffry Dowes Robert Oking Ralph Bradford Richard Smith Simon Mathew Iohn Pryn William Buckmaster William May Nicholas Wotton Richard Cox Iohn Edmunds Thomas Robertson Iohn Baker Thomas Barret Iohn Hase Iohn Tyson Doctors and Professors in Divinity and of the civill and Canon Law with the whole Convocation House and Clergy of Enland in their Booke intituled The Institution of a Christian man dedicated by them to King Henry the eight Printed Cum Privilegio subscribed with all their names and ratified by the Statute of 32. Henry the eight cap. 26. chap. Of the Sacrament of Order fol. 48. c. And King Henry 8. himselfe in his Booke inscribed A necessary erudition for any Christian man published with the advise and approbation of all the Prelates Clergy of England in their Convocation and of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and nether House of Parliament with the Kings owne royall Epistle to all his loving Subjects before it Anno 1545. by vertue of the Satute of 32 Henry the eight c. 26. Chap. of the Sacrament of Order Doe all thus joyntly determine of the calling jurisdiction Lordlinesse and secular imployments of Bishops The truth is that in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinctions in Orders but onely of Deacons and Ministers and of Priests or Bishop● And of these two Orders onely that is to say Priests and Deacons Scripture maketh expresse mention and how they were conferred of the Apostles by Prayer and imposition of their hands And to these two the Primitive Church did add and conjoyne certaine other inferior and lower degrees And as concerning the office and duty of the said Ecclesiasticall Ministers the same consisteth in true preaching and teaching the word of God unto the people i● dispensing and ministring the Sacraments of Christ in consecrating● and offering the blessed body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar in loosing and assoyling from sinne such persons as be sorry and truely penitent for the same and excommunicating such as b● guilty in manifest crimes and will not be reformed otherwise and finally in praying for the whole Church of Christ● and specially for the flocke committed unto them And although the office and ministry of Priests and Bishops stand c●iefly in these things before rehearsed ye● neither they nor any of them may exercise and execute any of the same offices but with such sort and such limitation as the Ordinances and Lawes of every Christian Realme doe permit and ●uffer It is out of all doubt that there is no mention made neither in Scripture neither in the writings of any authentical Doct●r or Author of the Church being within the time of the ●postles that Christ did ever make or institute any distinction or difference to be in the preheminence of power order or jurisdiction between the Apostle● themselves or between the Bishops themselves but that they were all ●quall in power author●ty and jurisd●ct●on And that there is now and since the time of the Apostles any such diversity or difference among the Bishops It was devised by the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church for the conservation of good order and unity of the Catholique Church and that either by the consent and authority or else at least by the perm●ssion and suff●rance of the Pr●nces and civill powers for the time ruling For the said Fathers considering the great and infinite multitude of Christian men so l●rgely encreased through the world and taking examples of the Old Testam●nt thought it expedient to make an order of degrees to be among Bishops and spirituall Governours of the Church and so ordained some to be Patriarks some to be Metropolitans● some to be Archbishops some to be Bishops and to them did limit severally not on●ly their certaine Diocesse and Provinces wherein they should exercise their power and not exceed the same but also certaine bounds and limits of their jurisdiction and power c. And lest peradventure it might be thought to some persons that such authorities powers and jurisdictions as Patriarks Primates Archbishops and Metropolitans now have or heretofore at any time have had justy and lawfully over any other Bishops were given them by God in holy Scripture We think it expedient and necessary that all men should be advertised and taught that all such lawfull powers and authority of one Bishop over another were and be given to them by the consent ordinance positive lawes of men only and not by any ordinance of God in holy Scripture and all other power and authority which any Bishop hath used or exercised over another which hath not been given to him by such consent and ordinance of men as is aforesaid is in very deed no lawful power but plaine usurpation and tyranny And therefore whereas the Bishop of Rome hath heretofore claimed and usurped to be head and governour over all Priests and Bishops of the holy catholique Church of Christ by the lawes of God It is evident that the same power is utterly fained and untrue VVee thinke it convenient that all Bishops and Pastors shall instruct and teach the people committed to their spirituall charge that Christ did by expresse words prohibit that none of his Apostles nor any of their successors should under the pretence of authority of the sword that is to say the authority of Kings or any civill power in this world yea or any authority to make Lawes or Ordinances in causes appertaining ●●to civill powers If any Bishop of what estate or dignity so●ver he be be he Bishop of Rome or of any other City Province or Diocesse doe presume to take upon him authority or jurisdiction in causes of matters which appertaine unto Kings and the civill pow●rs and ●heir Courts and will maintaine or thinke that he may so doe by the authority of Christ and his Gospel although the Kings and Princes would not permit and suffer him so to doe no doubt that Bishop is not worthy to be called a Bishop but rather a Tyrant and a usurper of other mens rights contrary to the Lawes of God and is worthy to be reputed none otherwise than he that goeth about to subvert the Kingdome of Christ for the Kingdome of Christ in his Church is spirituall and not a carnall kingdome of the world that is to say the very Kingdome that Christ by himselfe or by his Apostles and Disciples sought here in this world was to bring all Nations from the carnall kingdome of the Prince of darknesse unto the light of his spirituall Kingdome and so himselfe raigne in the hearts of the people by grace faith hope and charity And therefore sith Christ did never seeke nor exercise any worldly kingdome or dominion in this world but rather refusing and flying the same did leave the said worldly governance of kingdomes Realmes and Nations to be governed by Princes and Potentates in like manner as he did finde them and commanded also his

this peece of it may seasonably promote have induced mee to divide it into two parts the first whereof thou hast here compleate the second God willing thou shalt receive with all possible expedition In the mean season I shall desire thy favourable acceptation of this moity and of a perfect Table of the severall Chapters of the whole Treatise wherein thou maist behold the latter part in Epitome till thou enjoy it in grosse A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST PART Chap. I. COntaining the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Archbishops of Canterbury against their Soveraignes Kings of England and the severall Warres Tumults and Dissentions occasioned and raised by them in or against our Realme Chap. II. Of the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions State-schismes Contempts and Disloyalties of the Archbishops of Yorke against their Soveraignes and of the Warres Tumults and Civill Dissention● caused by them Chap. III. Comprising the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Disloyalties Warres Dissentions and State Schismes of the Bishops of London Winchester Durham Salisbury and Lincolne The TABLE of the Chapters of the second Part. Chap. IV. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Con●umacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of Ely Exeter and Hereford Chap. V. Containing the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of Chichester Carlile Chester and Norwich Chap. VI. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of S. Davids Landaffe Bangor Asaph Bath and Wels. Chap. VII Containing the severa●l Treasons Rebellions Seditions Schismes Contumacies Warres and disloyalties of the Bishops of France Normandy Scotland and Ireland with reference unto England Chap. VIII Containing certaine conclusions deduced from the premises with the judgements and r●solutions of divers of our ancient Writers and Martyrs and some of our learnedest Bishops and Authors in Queene Elizabeths raigne touching the pretended Divine Iurisdiction of Bishops their Treasons Rebellions Temporalties large Possessions and the uselessenesse unprofitablenesse and mischievousnesse of Lordly Bishops and their government in our Church Chap. IX Comprising an answer to the principall Objections alleaged by the Prelates in defence of the Divine pretended institution and for the continuance of their Episcopacie● in our Church ERRATA PAge 11. l. 40. read The King thinking p. 73. l. 21. such l. 33. a●t au Royans R●y p. 78. l. ●0 faithfull p. ●25 l. 28. granted gr●nted p. 132. l. 5. Edward deceasing p. 144. l. 1. D●acan●s p. 147. l 9 Datary p. 150. ● l 8. Penry p. 152. l. 24. against p. 156. l. 16. Saxons p. 171. l. 11. Archiepiscopall l. 15 un int●rrupt●d p. 176. l. 38 oppressions p 194 l. 13. undefi●ed p. 212. l. 14. they the. p. 220 l. 11. favour feare p. 234. l. 1. be app●ehended p. 2●8 l. 18. this the p. ●3● l. 6. dele a. p. 242. l. 1 dele and● l. 12. Edmond Edward p● 241 l 8. Bishop p. 260. l. 13. were where p. 261. l. 14. excellently learned p. ●62 l 37. ripped p. 284. l. 2●●●ele in p. 277 l. 27.35 deluded de●ivered p. 280 l. 2. Cales l 25. forfeiting fortefying p. 281 l. 31. said laid 282 l. 23 wi●e w●●e p 292. l. 23. grea●ly● p 295. l. 30. upon this p. 305 l. 20. left lift l. 28. or of p. 312. l. 40. ever● even p. 315. l. 9. learned unlearned p. 318. l. 24. examination excommunication p. 323. l. ●9 Geof●y● Hugh p. 327. l. 17. gravissima l. 27. accuse accurse p. 331. l. 20. strangers p. 334. l. 4. from his p. 336. l. 29. imployed In the Margin p. ●35 l. 6. Beacon l. 8. vol. 3. p. ●51 l. 5. Bishop See THE PROLOGVE THere is nothing more frequent in these latter day●s in the mouthes of our domineering Lordly Prelates than this triviall Paradox of Archbishop Bancroft which some would Originally father upon our late Soveraigne King James NO BISHOP NO KING as if Kings could neither bee nor continue Kings unlesse Prelates were suffered both to be and continue Lords and Princes Crownes irreparably lost if Bishops Miters were but once cast downe This absurd and groundlesse Assertion as it is evidently disproved by those many flourishing Kings and Kingdomes which have well subsisted with●ut Lord Bishops both before these Mushrome Lords Spirituall onely in Title but wholly Temporall in reality first sprouted up by insensible degrees in the Church of Christ so it is most infallibly convinced of notorious falshood by the multitude of those most execrable Treasons Treacheries Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Insurrections Seditions and Anti-Monarchiall practises of Lordly Prelates against their Soveraignes in all ages since they grew rich and potent in all Kingdomes and Churches where they have beene admitted of which there are so many presidents as would fully fraught many Folio Volumes and require another Baronius or Tostatus to digest into severall vast Tomes And I dare further adde to the immortall prayse of this loyall generation of Lordly Prelates that there is no one calling or profession of men whatsoever in the Christian World guilty of so many traiterous treacherous perfidious seditious rebellious contumacious practises and conspiracies against their lawfull Princes or that have proved such execrable firebrands of dissentions commotions bloody warres Rebellions and detestable Schismes both in Church and State as these Prelaticall Lords Yea I supp●se I may confidently averre without any errour or calumny that Lordly Prelates have beene the Originall Authors and contrivers of more Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Schismes Warres and Contentions in Christian Kingdomes than all other rankes and callings of men whatsoever not severally considered but united This I could at large demonstrate by an whole Volume of examples of Popes and Lordly Prelates in forraigne parts but I neede not travell abroad since we have so many presidents at home of our owne English Lordly Prelates as may abundantly suffice to illustrate this truth the chiefest whereof I have here collected and faithfully transcribed out of the Marginall Authors quoted to every of them whose very words I onely recite for the most part but where brevity or necessitie enfo●ce me to use my owne expressions for meth●d or connexion sake when the Historians either somewhat vary or are over-tedious in their relations or where one Historian relates some particulars which another omits in which case I must desire the Reader to peruse all the Authors quoted to each example lest examining onely one or two of them which record but a part and not the entire relation he should either wrong himselfe or censure me of calumnie or forgerie without just cause Neither let the Reader here expect an exact enumeration of all the Treasons Conspiracies Trecheries Rebellions Seditions Con●umacies Warres or State-schismes that our English Prelates have beene guilty of since they became potent Lords● for many of them no doubt were so secretly contrived and carryed by them that the Historians of their ●imes could have no information of them

with violence branded her in the fore-head with an hot Iron and then banished her into Ireland After which shee returning into England Odo apprehends her the second time and cuts off her sinewes at the ●ocke bone The King being therewith much exasperated spoyled all the Monkes of all their goods banished Dunstan the chiefe of the Monkes in●o Flanders who together with Cynesius the Bishop on the day of this Kings Coronation entred most audaciously into his Bed-chamber and by violence dragged him both out of his Bed and Bed-chamber where they pretended hee was sporting with his Concubine and threatned Odo with severe punishments who was taken away by death soone after and so delivered from all feare of the Kings displeasure This Odo together with his Monkes wrought so with the Subjects before his death that the Mercians with the Northumbrians did utterly cast off the yoake of obedience to Edwin and by an unanimous consent made choyce of his Brother Edgar for their King Deo dictante populo annuente God himselfe to wit by the mouth of Odo and the other Prelates and Monks dictating it and the people thereunto consenting writes Matthew Westminster Arch-bishop Parker and Bishop Godwin in the life of Dunstan Arch-Bishop of Canterbury after Odo record That during the time of Dunstan his Banishment into France King Edwin by the Rebellion of his Subjects at the instigation as is likely of our Monkes Prelates and their favourers was deprived both of his life and Kingdome Whereupon Edgar that succeeded him warned by his Brothers example was content to curry savour with them and Dunstan creating him first Bishop of Worcester next of London and finally of Canterbury A good reward for this his Treason Dunstan comming to the Arch-Bishopricke in this manner not long after caused King Edward to be slaine by his Souldiers for refusing to ayde the Bishop of Rochester against his Brother Agelredus who besieged that City and the Bishop The Monkes of that time impute th●s trecherous Act to Queene Alsdrith his Mother in Law and Gods Divine Judgement to excuse their Patron Dunstan After his Murther as Iohn Capgrave and Speed record this holy Arch-Bishop Dunstan would have advanced Edgith his sister to the Crowne and invested her against Etheldred the lawfull Heire had she not by the late experience of Edwards fall utterly refused that Title● which neither belonged to h●● Right nor was safe for her Person to undertake Whereupon Dunstan and the Monkes perceiving that Queene Elfrida Alferus Duke of Mercia and many Nobles combined for young Etheldred the right Hei●e disavowing Prince Edward surnamed the Martyr as illegitimate did with all their might oppose Etheldred holding their states dangerous and their new-gotten footing unsure if in the Nonage of the King Elfrida his Mother and other their Opposites should rule all under him as was probable For Elfrida hated Dunstan because hee desired to hinder King Edgar from ma●rying her after he was contracted to her rushing impudently into the Kings Bed-Chamber the first Night hee lay with her demanding of the King who it was he had in Bed with him who answering that it was his Queene and Consort Dunstan replyed that he could not marry her without offending God and breaking the institution of the Roman Church because of the spirituall Kindred that was betweene them he being her God-father often warning the King to be divorced from her which he refused Wherefore Dunstan and the P●elates considering that Edward was altogether wrought in their mould they abetted his Title to the Crowne though a Bastard as one lawfully borne and begot in the Nuptiall Bed of Queene Ethelfleda Their Claimes thus banded among the S●atesmen began to be diversly affected among the Commons and had put the Game to the Hazard if the wisedome of Dunstan had not seene ●he Chase For a Councell being assembled to argue their Rights the Arch-bishop came in with his Banner and Crosse and not staying for further debate de Iure did de facto present King Edward for their lawfull King and the Assembly consisting of Clergie men perswading peace drew the approbation of the rest and so was hee admitted and proclaimed their Soveraigne and after Crowned at Kingston by Dunstan and the true Heire put by for the time by this Arch-Traytor Dunstan and his Clergie till about three yeares after Edward was murthered by the procurement of Queene Elfrida and Etheldred Crowned King by Dunstan much against his will This King Dunstan and his Monkes continued to oppose● For Etheldred conceiving a just indignation against the Bishop of Rochester for his obstinacie and contumacious carriage towards him thereupon besieged his Citie Whereupon Dunstan commanded the King to desist from his purpose lest hee should provoke Saint Andrew the Patron of that City which the King refusing to doe without the Bishops submission and unlesse hee would likewise pay him an hundred pounds● Dunstan wondring thereat sent this Message to the King Because thou hast preferred Silver before God Money before an Apostle and Covetousnesse before me violent mischiefes shall come upon thee which the Lord ●ath spoken Such an Arch-Traytor and proud imperious Prelate was this Arch-Bishop Dunstan And if ●his Saint was such what thinke you may his Successors prove who were not so holy as to be Canonized This Dunstan before hee became Arch bishop of Canterbury caused King Etheldred to p●eferre him before all his Nobles and to ●ay up all his richest Royall Household-stuffe Charters Records with all his Wealth and Treasures in his Monasterie and finally to commit his very Kingdome Body and Soule to him so that all things were in Dunstans power the King not daring to doe any thing either in publike Affaires of the Kingdome or in his owne private Negotiations without Dunstans advice so that he alone exercised Royall Authority in every place In and by which he wholly imployed his endeavours how to enrich those Monasteries with Lands and Revenues which himselfe had founded or the Danes wasted wasting the Kings Treasury and appropriating the Crowne Lands to this purpose Which when King Edwyn comming to the Crowne sought to resume Dunstan much displeased herewith sharpely reprehended him then affronted him and at last cau●ed him to be murthered as is before remembred And for all this good service he was not onely made an Arch-Prelate but a Saint Siricius his next Successor but one consilio infausto by an unhappie if no● perfidious Traytorly advice perswaded King Etheldred in the thirteenth yeare of his Raigne to buy his Peace of the Danes at ten thousand pound annuall Rent to the ignominie and almost utter destruction of ●he whole Kingdome Which evill writes Henry Huntingdon hath continued to this very day and will longer endure unlesse Gods mercy helpe us For now wee pay that to our Kings out of Custome which was payd to the Danes out of unspeakeable feares Yea we a● this day have ●ared

hereafter in a peculiar Treatise of our Prelates Schisms So he got a grant from the Pope to receive a Subsidie of all the Clergie of his Diocesse to wit foure pence out of every Mark to defray his Archie piscopall charges● under pretext of which by misinterpreting the Popes Bulls hee exacted from them a whole Tenth He endeavoured to exempt Clerkes from Temporall Jurisdiction and Courts in cases of Felony which being obtained divers Clerkes abused their Priviledges committed many hainous crimes so as the Bishops at the Kings and Nobles earnest request were enforced to make a strict Decree for their future punishment and restraint Besides he accompanyed Thomas Lile Bishop of Ely to the Barre where he was arraigned and found guilty of Murther yet admitted his appeale to purge himselfe before him as his Metropolitane after the Jury had found him guilty in affront of Law and Justice After which Ely breaking prison fled to Rome caused the Kings Judges to be Excommunicated together with their servants and their Lands to be Interdicted and such of them as dyed Excommunicated he caused to be unburied and to be digged out of their Graves in Church-yards and cast into Mires which caused great stirres in England At last this Arch-Bishop riding to Magfield fell into a Mire himselfe with his horse in which fall the horse striving to recover himselfe he was plunged over head and eares and drenched in the Myre and comming all wet into Magfield fell into a sleepe before his clothes were put off and so into a Palsey and there dyed A just punishment for his cruelty to the dead Corps o● those Excommunicate persons In his time there was a great mortalitie especially among Clergie-men 7● Bishops dying in one yeare Anno 1345. and 2. the next Simon Langham his next Successour was successively both Chancellour and Treasurer of England and in his time all publike Offices of the King and Kingdome were administred by Clergie●men for this Arch-Prelate was Chancellour Iohn Bishop of Bath Treasurer● David Wollor Priest Master of the Rolls William Wickham Arch-deacon of Lincolne Keeper of the Privie Seale Iohn Troy Priest Treasurer of Ireland Robert Caldwell Clerke Treasurer of the Kings House William Bug●rig Generall Receiver of the Dutchie of Lancaster William Asheby Chancellor of the Exchequer Iohn Newnham one of the Chamberlaines of the Exchequer and one of the Keepers of the Treasury and Kings Jewels and William de Mulso the other Iohn Ronceby Clerke of the Houshold and Surveyor and Comptroller of the Kings workes Roger Barnburgh and 7. more Clergy-men Clerkes of the Chancery● Richard Chesterfield the Kings under Treasurer Thomas Brantingham the Kings Treasurer in the parts of Guines Marke and Calice All which Clerkes abounded likewise with Ecclesiasticall Benefices and Dignities some of them possessing at least 20. Benefices and Dignities by the Popes owne license and having further liberty to retaine as many Livings as they could get This was in the yeare 1367. But not long after Anno 1371. upon a complaint of the Nobles in Parliament all Clergie-men were thrust out of Temporall Offices and Lay-men put into their places Holinshed out of Caxton saith that the King this yeare in Parliament demanded a subsidie of 50000. pound of the Laity and as much of the Clergie The temporall men soone agreed to that payment but the Clergie excused themselves with faire words and shi●ting answeres insomuch that the King tooke displeasure with them and deposed certaine spirituall men from their office of dignity as the Chancelour the Privy seale the Treasurer and such other in whose roomes he placed temporall men where as Ca●ton in truth saith that this subsidy was raised by the Clergie by good avisement out of their Lay Fee and that this their removall from Lay Offices was at the request and asking of the Lords in hatred of men of holy Church with which Walsingham accords This Arch-Prelate being very ambitious was without the Kings privity created by Pope Vrban Cardinall of S. Sixtus● with which newes the King being much offended seised on his Temporalties At which the Arch-Bishop nothing troubled did at last with much difficulty obtaine leave from the King to goe to Rome destitute of his Family and stript of all his Archiepiscopall Ensignes where he shortly after dyed William Witlesey who next enjoyed this See had some differences with the King about granting Subsidies At last he and the Clergie condescended to grant an Annuall Tenth upon condition that the King would free them from the intolerable yoak of the Popes oppr●●●ions But Wil. Courtney thē Bp o● Hereford after Arch-Bp of Cant. standing up stoutly in the midst o● the Synod sayd with a loud voyce That neither he nor the Clergies of his Diocesse would give any thing to the King be●ore the King had remedied those calamities under which the Clergie had long time suffered Whereupon the King sent Messengers to the Pope to Rome to take away Provisions Reservations and other Exactions wherewith the Clergie and people of England were grieved and put the Statute against Provisions in execution Simon Sudbury who next succeeded him about whose Election there was much debate was not long after his Instalment made Lord Chancellour of England and sundry other Clergie-men formerly put from the Administration of Temporall Offices and affaires by his example and meanes were restored to them againe those Lay-men who managed them being disgracefully thrust out thereupon Wakefeld Bishop of Worcester being made Lord High Treasurer This Arch-Bishop in the insurrection of Iacke Straw and Wat Tyler stirred up by Iohn Ball a seditious Priest was by this Vulgar rout who purposed to destroy all Bishops and Abbots proclaimed an enemie both to the King and people who were so incensed against him as their greatest enemie that apprehending him in the Tower of London where the King then was even whiles he was saying Masse they drew him out thence and with an Axe cut off his head like a Traytor The manner of which Execution is thus described by Wal●igham Godwin and others These Rebels in all haste came to the Tower where the Court then was requiring with great out-cries the Arch-Bishop The Arch-Bishop then Lord Chancellour having had some inkling thereof the day before had spent all that night in prayer and just when they called for him was saying of Masse in the Chappell of the Tower That ended and hearing of their comming Let us now goe saith he unto his men surely it is better to dye seeing to live it can be no pleasure With that in came these murthering Rebels crying Where is the Traytor Where is the Traytor He answered I am the Arch-Bishop whom I thinke you seeke but no Traytor With great violence then they drew him out of the Chappell and carried him to the Tower Hill● seeing there nothing but swords and weapons and hearing nothing but Kill kill away with the Traytor c. yet he was not so

Obeysance made to the King made a publicke Oration in Parliament be●ore the King and Peeres wherein hee shewed the Kings undoubted Title to sundry Provinces and the whole Realme of France with the injustice and nullity of the Salicke Law the onely Obstacle to his Title stirring up the King and Nobles by force of Armes to regaine the same and withall declared that his loving Clergie and subjects of the spiritualty to shew their willingnesse and desire to ayde his Majesty for the recovery of his ancient Right and true Inheritance had in their Convocation granted to his Highnesse such a Summe of money as by Spirituall Persons never was to any P●ince thorough the whole Christian World before those times given or advanced By which device seconded by the Duke of Exe●er he diverted and shifted off the Petition of the Commons and engaged the King and Kingdome in a long bloody and costly Warre The King himselfe professing on his death Bed that before the beginning of the same Warres hee was fully perswaded by men both Wise Pious and of great holinesse of life that in prosecuting his just Title he might ought both begin the same Warres and follow them till he brought them to an end justly and rightly and that without all danger of Gods displeasure or perill of soule Such an incendiary of war was this Arch-Embassadour of peace that should be Iohn Stafford preferred to the Bishopricke of Bath and Wells by provision from Pope Martin the fifth contrary to the Lawes enacted against Provisions from Rome immediately after Chichelyes death was in farther affront of the sayd Lawes promoted to the See of Canterbury by Pope Eugenius that prohibited usurpation of Papall Provisions de●ended by so many Lawes and Statutes being no whit abated through the Popes industry and the Prelates Treachery and ambition who would rather incurre the danger of these Lawes and dis-savour of their Princes then want a far Bishopricke though they paid Popes dearely for it This Arch-Prelate in the first Synod held under him at London Anno. 1444. confederating with the rest of the Clergie when a Subsidie was demanded of them petitioned that the Statutes of Provisors and the Writs or Actions of Praemunire which by the crafty and malicious interpretation of the Lawyers as they ●alsely ●urmised were turned to the destruction of the Clergie and disturbance of Ecclesiasticall Discipline might be either wholly abrogated or their rigour moderated● and that Lay-men for suing Clergie-men falsly in Temporal Courts might have some severe punishment inflicted on them by a Law But this their motion vanishing into smoake and the Judges restraining their extravagant proceedings in Ecclesiasticall Courts by Prohibitions and bringing them within the compasse of the Statutes against Provisions and in the danger of Premunire's which did much terrifie them hereupon the Arch-Bishop and Prelates in their next Synod at London An. 1446. presented a new Petition to the King in the Name of the whole Clergie of England wherein they grievously complained of the Lay-Judges who were ever very troublesome and despightfull to Clerkes desiring that the Statutes of Provision and Praemunire might be more equally expounded in favour of the Prelates by the Parliamen than it was by the Lawyers and that they might be restrained from granting Prohibitions to and exercising● any Jurisdiction over Spirituall Judges But this Petition proved ineffectuall it being provided by Statute that no spirituall Law shall have place contrary to a Common Law or Act of Parliament And this were not as the Lord Audley Chancellour of England once told Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in the Parliament House who thought it strange that Bishops authorized by the King could fall in a Praemunire the Bishops would enter in with the King and by meanes of his Supremacie order the Lairy as they listed but wee will provide quoth he that the Praemunire shall ever hang over your heads and so we Laymen shall bee sure to enjoy our inheritance by the Common Lawes and Acts of Parliament After this the Pope exacted of the Clergie of England a Tenth of all their Revenues and sent Nuncioes to the Arch-Bishop with Bulls to collect it But the King hearing of this secret fraud commanded the Arch-Bishop not to obey the Pope herein who yet was so farre a servant to the Pope and enemie to the King that during all his Archiepiscopall Raigne the Pope made Bishops by Provision against the Lawes of the Realme Iohn Kemp the next Arch-Bishop elected lawfully by the Monkes of Canterbury with the Kings consent refused to take his Arch-Bishoprike from the King but waving his Election received it by Provision from the Pope who sent over sixe severall Bulls to this end the first to the Arch-Bishop himselfe the second to the Chapter of Canterbury the third to his Provinciall Suffragans the fourth to the Clergie of the City and Diocesse of Canterbury the fifth to the people of the same the sixth to the Vassals of the Arch-Bishop by which Bulls the Pope increased much hi● Revenues And ●o obliege this Arch-Prelate the faster to him the Pop● by another Bull created him Cardinall of Saint Ruffine But this Arch-Bishop dying within one yeare and an halfe after his Consecration could doe him but little service Thomas Burgchier immedia●ely succeeding him by the speciall favour of King Henry the sixth this ingratefull Prelate made a Cardinall by the Pope some ●ew yeeres after An. 1461. crowned and consecrated Edward the fourth at Westminster to be King in his stead during King Henry his life and in a full Synod procured the Clergie to grant him a Tenth Afterwards in a Synod at London An. 1463. he● granted him another Subsidie and obtained a Grant from King Edward under his Seale that the Prelates should bridle the malice of those by whom their rights were violated as well by old Ecclesiasticall Lawes as by those new Lawes they should make both in all causes belonging to the Ecclesiasticall Court as also in the Tythe of great Trees of twenty yeares growth or more without the feare or penalty of the Statutes of Provisors or of the Writs or Actions of Premunire or of any Prohibition and that they might proceede therein without any consultation obtained And that if any of the Kings Judges or other secular Judges should by any Writs or Processe hinder or deterre any Arch-Bishop Bishop or Arch-deacon or their Vicars Officialls Commissaries or other Ecclesiasticall Judges That then upon the monition of the sayd Arch-Bishop Bishop c. so hindered or scared the sayd Judge should appeare in the Chancery at such day as the said Arch-Bishop or Ecclesiasticall Judge should appoint on paine of two hundred pound to answere to the King for this his contempt and that his Processe against the Ecclesiasticall Judge should by Royall Authority bee rescinded and pronounced to be voyd and frustrate In his time there were many Pilgrimages made both by King Edward the Queene

and others to that Arch-traytor Beckets Shrine at Canterbury where they offered many rich gifts Afterwards Anno. 1469. the Earle of Warwicke conspiring with others to free King Henry the Sixth from the Tower of London King Edward hearing of it went in Pilgrimage to Beckets Tombe to Canterbury and there held a Councell of five Bishops and many Peeres of the Realme from which the Arch-Bishop being suspected as trecherous and unfaithfull was wholly excluded King Edward deceasing this Arch-Prelate though hee made a Will sequestred all his goods as ordinary and seized the Great Seale the Privie Seale and the Royall Signer which hee detained in his custodie and whereas Richard Duke of Gloucester had traytorously plotted to murther his Nephewes Edward the Fifth and his Brother this Arch-bishop was imployed by him to goe to the Queene to get the young Duke of Clarence from her out of the Sanctuary at Westminster who using many reasons and flattering words to her in vaine at last made this deepe protestation That if she were content to deliver the Duke to him and to the other Lords present he durst lay his owne body and soule both in pledge not onely for his surety but also for his estate c. Whereupon with much adoe shee delivered the Duke into his treacherous hands who forthwith brought him into the Starre-Chamber to his Uncle the Lord Protector● Hee having both Brothers now in his power pretends them to bee illegitimate proclaimes himselfe right Heire to the Crowne procures first Pinker and then Doctor Shaw no doubt by the Arch Bishops helpe and privity in a Sermon at Pauls Crosse by which Sermon hee lost his honesty and soone after his life for very shame of the World into which hee never durst after to come abroad to publish to the people T●at Edward the fifth and his Brother were unlawfully begotten in Adultery not by the Duke of Yorke but others That Richard of Glocester was right Heire to the Crowne extolling him to the skies and slandering King Edward the Fourth with his Queene as never lawfully marryed to her Then proceeding treacherously to murther his poore young Nephewes and usurping their Royall Throne this Arch-bishop readily crownes him though a bloody and unnaturall Usurper as lawfull King of England and his Lady likewise Queene the other Bishops and Abbots assisting him in this action and accompanying him in their Pontificalibus This Usurper being afterward slaine the Arch-Bishop ever turning with the ●yde of things crownes Henry the 7. likewise King of England and shortly after departed this world Anno 1486. I finde not writes Godwin in his life that ever any English man connued so long a Bishop or that any Arch-bishop either before or after him in 800. yeares enjoyed that place so long for he continued Arch-Bishop 32 yeares and lived after the time of his first Consecration and promotion to the Bishopricke of Worcester 51. yeares and I marvell much that in all that while he never endeavoured to leave behinde him any good Deed for the perservation of his Memory Sure I am that his Treachery to the young Duke of Clarence and King Henry who advanced him and his Treasons in crowning two Usurpers with his base temporising remaine as so many survi●ing Monuments of his in●amie and disloyalty Iohn Morton his Successour whiles Bishop of Ely was accused by Richard the Third of many great Treasons and committed by him to the Tower from whence being removed and committed to the custody of Henry Duke of Buckingham he by degrees stirred up the Duke to plot the deposing of King Richard the Usurper and se●ting up of the Earle of Richmond for which the Duke not long after lost his head The Bishop in the meane time disguising himselfe escaped out of the Dukes custody fled first to Ely next to Flanders after which hee went to Rome never more intending to meddle with the world But King Henry the seventh having got the Crowne married King Edward the fourth his daughter and so united the Houses of Lancaster and Yorke which marriage was first devised by this Prelate called him home againe made him Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Chancellour of England whereunto the Pope annexed the honour of a Cardinall translating him from Ely to Canterbury by no lesse than sixe ●everall Bulls all against Law to augment the Fees In his time Richard Simon a Priest an ambitious wretch on hope to make himselfe the principall Bishop in England plotted the advancement of Lambert Synmell being his Pupill in the University of Oxford to the Crowne of England under the name of Edward Earle of Warwicke and conveying this Imposter to Dublin in Ireland hee there caused him to be proclaimed King of England after this to land with an Armie in England where in a Battell at Stocke-field in which many were slaine this Priest and his Co●●●erfeit were both taken Prisoners and attainted of High Treason yet this Simon or rather Sinon out of the extraordinary reverence to his function was not executed but onely committed to the Arch-Bishop who imprisoning him some space in his owne Prison delivering him over to the Major of London condemned him to a Dungeon and perpetuall shackles After which this Arch-Bishop imposed two great Subsidies on the Clergie of his Province to their great oppression forcing ●hem by the Popes authoritie to contribute so largely toward the charges of his tran●lation as of his owne Diocesse onely which is one of the least o● England hee received 354. pound sent Pope Inno●ents Bulls to all the Suffraga●es of his Province to publi●h and execute in open affront of the Lawes of ●he Realme the King● Prerogative Royall and the Subjects Libe●ties for which good Service the Pope by his Bulls appointed him to be Visi●●r of all the Monasteries and other places exempt from Archiepiscopall and Ordinary Jurisdiction throughout England and made him Cardinall of Saint Anastasia he perswaded the King to sue to the Pope not onely for the Popes canonization of King Henry the Sixth but likewise for the translation of his dead Corps from Windsor to Westminster Abbey and that in an unwor●hy manner when as the King might have done it by his own meere Royall Authoritie onely He procured his Rebellio●s predecessour Anselme with a great summe of money to be canonized at Rome for a Sa●nt and had many conflicts and contestations with the Bishops of London and other his Suffraganes abou● Probate of Wills and Jurisdiction of their Eccl●●ia●●icall Cour●s which caused Appeales to Rome whereupon ●he ●nferiour Priests with many others of his Province ca●● for●h sundry publike calumnies to his disgrace against whom Pope Alexander sent forth a Bull cruelly fulminating Excommunications against them And by this meanes the priviledges of the See of Canterbury oft times called into dou●t and controversie in former time were at la●t e●●ablish●● It seemes the Bishops in his dayes were very much hated by the inferiour Clergie whereupon

impediment The Lights of the Apostles on this side the Alpes I shall visite personally or by my Deputy once every yeare and those beyond the Alpes once every two yeares unlesse I am there-from absolved by an Apostolicall dispensation I shall not alien or sell the possessions belonging to my Arch-Bishopricke nor give nor morgage nor infeofe any of them afresh or any wayes alien them without the Popes Counsell So God me help and the holy Evangelists This Oath every Arch-Bishop and Bishop not onely in England but likewise in Spaine France Germany and other Kingdomes used to take to the Popes unholinesse No wonder therefore if they were such Traytors Rebels and Conspirators against their Kings such sticklers ●or the Pope such Champions ●or his unjust usurpations upon th●ir Soveraignes Prerogatives and so forward to twhart and discover al those designes o● their Princes which were any wayes displeasing or disadvantagious to the Pope who as long as this Oath continued and Bishops that tooke it bore sway in our Kingdome being both Privie Counsellers of State Lord Chancellours Lord Privie Seales Lord Treasurers or other great Officers never lost his hold or usurped power among us which he still ke●pes onely by meanes of Bishops in other Kingdomes where the Prelates yet take this Oath of Alleagiance to him But this Oath which like a mystery of Iniquity was concealed from our Princes being discovered to King Henry the eighth in the twenty fourth yeare of his raigne this wise Prince considering the disloyal●ty and mischiefe of it sending for the Speaker and Commons House of Parliament spake thus unto them Welbeloved Subjects We had thought the Clergie of our Realme had beene our Subjects but now We have well perceived that they be but halfe Our Subjects yea and scarce our Subjects For all the Prelates at their Consecrations take an Oath to the Pope cleane contrary to the Oath they make unto Vs with which the Pope usually dispensed but never with any Oath made to himselfe which must be observed and stand good what ever Oath else bee violated so that they seeme to be his Subjects and not ours And so delivering them the Coppy of both Oathes of this to the Pope and the other to himselfe required them to invent some order that he might not be thus deluded The discovering and opening of these Oathes which were read in Parliament both to the King and People as both Hall and Mr. Fox record was the occasion that the Pope lost all h●s interest and Jurisdiction here in England within short while after This Oath to the Pope being thereupon abolished and made voyd by the Statute and a new Oath to the King prescribed and ministred to the Bishops together with an Oath of Alleagiance wherein the Popes Authority stands abjured and the King acknowledged Supreame head on earth under Christ of the Church of England the forme of which Oathes are recorded in Mr. Fox Mr. Hall and the Statute of 28. Hen. 8. c. 10. The Prologue of which Act with the Oath ●herein prescribed being pertinent to our purpose I shall here recite AN ACT EXTINGVISHING the Authority of the Bishop of Rome FOrasmuch as notwithstanding the good and wholsome Lawes Ordinances and Statutes heretofore made enacted and established by the Kings Highnesse our most gracious Soveraigne Lord and by the whole consent of his High Court of Parliament for the extirpation abolition and extinguishment out of this Realme and other his graces Dominions Seigniories and Countries of the pretended power and usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome by some called the Pope used within the same or elsewhere concerning the same Realme Dominions Seigniories or Countries which did obsuscate and wrest Gods holy Word and Testament a long season from the spirituall and true meaning thereof to his worldly and carnall affections as Pompe Glory Avarice Ambition and Tyranny covering and shadowing the same with his humane and politicke Devises Traditions and inventions set forth to promote and stablish his onely Dominion both upon the soules and also the bodies and goods of all Christian people excluding Christ out of his Kingdome and rule of mans soule as much as he may and all other temporall Kings and Princes out of their Dominions which they ought to have by Gods Law upon the bodies and goods o● their Subjects whereby he did not onely rob the Kings Majestie being onely the supreame head of this his Realme of England immediately under God of his honour right and preheminence due unto him by the Law of God but spoyled this his Realme yearely of innumerable treasure and with the losse o● the same deceived the Kings loving and obedient Subjects perswading to them by his Lawes Bulls and other his deceivable meanes such dreames vanities and fantasies as by the same many of them were seduced and conveyed unto superstitious and erronious opinions so that the Kings Majestie the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons of this Realme being over-wearied and fatigated with the Experience of the infinite abominations and mischie●es proceeding of his impostures and craftily colouring of his deceits to the great damages of soules bodies and goods were forced of necessity for the publicke weale of this Realme to exclude that forraine pretended power jurisdiction and authority used and usurped within this Realme and to devise such remedies for their reliefe in the same as doth not onely redound to the honour of God the high praise and advancement of the Kings Majestie and o● his Realme but also to the great and inestimable utility of the same And notwithstanding the sayd wholsome Lawes so made and hereto●ore established yet it is commen to the knowledge of the Kings Highnesse and also to divers and many his loving faithfull and obedient Subjects how that divers seditious and contentious persons being Impes of the sayd Bishop of Rome and his See and in heart members of his pretended Monarchy doe in corners and else-where as they dare whisper inculke preach and perswade and from time to time instill into the eares and heads of the poore simple and unlettered people the advancement and continuance of the sayd Bishops fained and pretended authority pretending the same to have his ground and originall of Gods Law whereby the opinions of many be suspended their judgements corrupted and deceived and diversitie in opinions augmented and increased to the great displeasure of Almighty God the high discontentation of our sayd most Dread Soveraigne Lord and the interruption of the unity love Charity concord and agreement that ought to be in a Christian Region and Congregation For avoyding whereof nd repression of the follies of such seditious persons 〈◊〉 are the meanes and Authors of such inconveniences Be it enacted ordained and established by the King our Soveraigne Lord and the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same That if any person or persons

dwelling demurring inhabiting or resiant within this Realme or within any other the Kings Dominions Signiories or Countries or the Marches of the same or elsewhere within or under his obeysance and power of what Estate Dignity Preheminence Order Degree or Condition soever he or they be after the last day of July which shall be in the yeare of our Lord God 1530● shall by Writing Cyphering Printing Preaching or Teaching Deed or Act obstinately or malicio●sly hold or stand with to extoll set forth maintaine or defend the Authority Jurisdiction or Power of the Bishop of Rome or of his See hereto●ore claimed used or usurped within this Realme or in any Dominion or Countie being of within or under the Kings power or obeysance or by any pretence obstinately or maliciously invent any thing for the extolling advancing setting forth maintenance or defence of the same or any part thereof● or by any pretence obstinately or maliciously attribute any manner of Jurisdiction Authority or P●eheminence to the sayd See of Rome or to any Bishop of the same See for the time being within this Realme or in any of the Kings Dominions or Counties That then every such person or persons so doing or offending their ayders assistants comforters abettors procurers maintainers factors Counsellours concealors and every of them being thereof lawfully convicted according to the Lawes of this Realme for every such default and offence shall incurre and run into the dangers penalties paines and forfei●ures ordained and provided by the Satute of Provision and Prae●●nire made in the ●6 yeare of the Raigne of the Noble and Valiant Prince King Richard the second against such as attempt procure or make provision to the See of Rome or elsewhere for any thing or things to the derogation or contrary to the Prerogative Royall or Jurisdiction of the Crowne and Dignitie of this Realme And for stronger defence and maintenance of this Act It is ordained and enacted by authority aforesayd that all every Ecclesiastical Judge ordinary chancellour commissary official vicar-generall and other Ecclesiastical officer or minister of what dignity preheminence or Degree soever they shall be and all and every Temporall judge justicia● Major bayliffe sheriffe under-sheriffe Escheater Alderman Iurat Constable Head-borough third-borough borsholder every other said officer Minister to be made created elected or admitted within this Realme or any other the Kings Dominions of what state order degree or condition soever he shall be from and after the sayd last day of July shall before he take upon him the Execution of such Office make take and receive a Corporall oath upon the Evangelists before such person or persons as have or shall have Authority to admit him That he from henceforth shall utterly renounce refuse relinquish or forsake the Bishop of Rome and his authority power and jurisdiction and that he shall never consent nor agree that the Bishop of Rome shall practise exercise or have any manner of authority jurisdiction or power within this Realme or any other the Kings Dominions but that he shall re●ist the same at all times to the uttermost of his power and that from hen●eforth he shall accept repute and take the Kings Majestie to be the onely supreame head in earth of the Church of England and that to his cunning wit and uttermost of his power without guile fraud or other undue meanes he shall observe keepe maintaine and defend the whole effects and contents of all and singular Acts and Statutes made and to be made within this Realme in derogation extirpation and extinguishment of the Bishop of Rome and his authority and all other Acts and Statutes made and to be made in reformation and corroboration of the Kings power of supreame head in earth of the Church of England and this he shall doe against all manner of persons of what estate dignity degree or condition they be and in no wise doe nor attempt nor to his power suffer to be done or attempted directly or indirectly any thing or things privily or apertly to the let hinderance dammage or derogation thereof or of any part thereof by any manner of meanes or for any manner of pretence and in case any o●th be made or hath beene made by him to any person or persons in maintenance defence or favour of the Bishop of Rome or his authority jurisdiction or power he repute the same as vaine and adnihilate So helpe him God c. I could wi●h this obsolete Oath were now againe revived to hinder the further growth of Popery This forementioned Oath to the Pope usually taken by all our Prelates being one maine Pillar to support the Popes usurped Monarchy both at home and abroade and a chiefe engine to undermine the royall Prerogatives of Christian Princes and perchance the groundworke of many of our owne and forraine Prelates Treasons Treacheries Rebellions Conspiracies and contempts against their Soveraignes It will not be amisse no● impertinent here to inser● that excellent discourse which our famous Martyr Doctor Barnes hath long since made upon it in his Supplication to King Henry the 8. where he thus writes I dare boldly say that if we poore men which be now condemned for Hereticks and also for Traytors against our King had not beene the Realme of England had not stood in ●o good a condition as it is for men had beene bound still in their Conscience to obey this wretched Idoll who durst have kept this innumerable summe of money within the Realme that yearely was sucked out by this Adder if our godly learning had not instructed their Conscience Let all the Libraries be sought in England and there shall not be one Book written in 4. C. yeares and admitted by the Church of Rome and by our spiritualty found that doth teach this obedience and fidelity toward Princes and delivereth our Realme from the bondage of this wicked Sathan the Pope or else that is able to satisfie and to quie● any mans Conscience within this Realme and yet I dare say he is no● in England that can reprove our learning by the doctrine of our Master Christ or else of his holy Apostles Yea men have studyed and devised how they might bring our mighty Prince and his Noble Realme under the feete of this Devill There could be nothing handled so secretly within this Realme but if it were either pleasant or profitable to the Pope to know then were all the Bishops in England sworne to reveale tha● matter to him This may well be proved by their shamefull and trayterous oath that they contrary to Gods Law mans Law and order of nature have made to this false man the Pope The words of their oath written in their owne Law be these● manner● There hath been wondrous packing used and hath cost many a thousand mens lives ere that the spiritualty brought it to passe that all they should be sworne to the Pope and owe none obedience to any man but to him onely This

subjects minding of his high goodnesse and great benignity so alwayes to impart the same unto them as justice being duly administred all rigour being excluded and the great and benevolent minds of his said subjects largely and many times approved towards his highnesse and specially in their Convocation and Synode now presently being in the Chapiter house of the Monastery of Westminster by correspondence of gratitude to them to be requi●ed of his meere motion benignity and liberality by authority of this his Parliament hath given and granted his liberall and free pardon to his said good and loving spirituall subjects and the said Ministers and to every of them to be had taken and enjoyed to and by them and every of them by vertue of this present Act in manner and forme ensuing that is to wit The Kings Highnesse of his said benignity and high liberality in consideration that the sad Archbishop Bishops and Clergie of the said Province of Canterbury in their said Convocation now being have given and granted to him a subsidie of one hundred thousand pounds of lawful●mony currant in this Realme to be levied and collected by the said Clergy at their proper costs and charges and to be paid in certaine forme specified in their said graunt thereof is fully and resolutely contended and pleased that it be ordained established and enacted by authority of this his said Parliament that the most Reverend Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury Metropolitan and Primate of all England and all other Bishops and Suffragans Prelates c shall be by authority of this present pardon acquired pardoned released and discharged against his Highnesse his heires successours and executors and every of them of all and all manner offences contempts and trespasses committed or done against all and singular Statute and Statutes of Provisours Provisions and Premunire and every of them and of all forfeitures and titles that may grow to the Kings Highnesse by reason of any of the same Statutes and of all and singular trespasses wrongs deceits misdemeanours for●eitures penalties and profits summes of mony paines of death paines co●porall and pecuniar as generally of all other things causes quarrels suits judgements and exactions in this present Act hereafter no● excepted nor soreprised which may be or can be by his Highnesse in any wise or by any meanes pardoned before and to the ten●h day of the moneth of March in the 22. yeare of his most Noble Raigne to every of his said loving subjects Provided alway that this Act of free pardon shall not in any wise extend or be beneficiall to the Reverend Father in God Iohn Archbishop of Dublin now being in the Kings Dominions of Ireland nor shall in any wise extend to pardon discharge or acquit the Bishop Hereford Peter Ligham Iohn Baker Adam Travers Robert Cliffe Rouland Philips and Thomas Pelles Clerkes who it seemes were guilty of some notorious crimes against the King and therefore excepted out of this generall pardon But to returne againe to Warham This Archbishop persecuted and shed the blood of some of our Martyrs and caused the corpes of VVilliam Tracy Esq. for some orthodoxe passages in his Will to be taken out of the grave and burn● for an Hereticke by an Order made in Convocation sending a Commission to Doctor Parker Chancellour of Worcester to execute this wicked sentence who accomplished the same King Henry the eighth hearing his Subject to be taken ou● of the ground and burnt without his knowledge or due order of Law sent for the Chancellour laid this to his charge as an high offence who excused himselfe by this Archbishops command then newly dead but in conclusion it cost the Chancellour 300● to pu●chase his pardon and would have cost the Archbishop more had not his death prevented this danger In fine this Archbishop VVarham and Fisher B. of Rochester gave credit and countenance to the forged visions revelations of Elizabeth Barton afterwards condemned of high Treason for the same as ●●nding to the reproach perill and destruction of the Kings pers●n honou● fame and dignity and Thomas Laurence Register to the Archbishop it is likely by his Masters privity proceeded so farre as to write a booke of her counterfeit miracles revelations and holinesse for which she and her complyces were afterwards execu●ed as Tiburne as they had justly deserved being attainted of treason by Parliament among which cursed c●ue Richard Maister Priest Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity and Henry Deering Munkes of Canterbury Henry Gold Bachelor of Divinity Thomas Laurence Register to the Archbishop o● Canterbury Warham and Hugh Ric. a Frier observant who seduced this silly girle to effect their owne and the Prelates designes the better thereby suffered death as Traytors by hanging drawing and quartering at Tiburne The act of their attainder treasons and execution is at large related by M. Hall in his Chronicle 25. H. 8. f. 218 221 222 223 224. to which I shall referre the Reader Thomas Cranmer next to him in succession was made Archbishop by King Henry the 8. much against his will for in his Discourse with D. Martyn a little before his Martyrdome being charged by him that he had aspired to the Archbishopricke of Canterbury he replyed I protest before you all there was never man came more unwillingly to a Bishopricke than I did to that insomuch that when King Henry did send for mee in Post that I should come over I prolonged my journey by seven weekes at the least ●hinking that ●ee would be forgetfull of mee in the meane time Hee comming to the See tooke the like Oath to the Pope as his predec●ss●●rs had done and therefore was deeply charged of perju●y by Martyn for renouncing and swearing against the Popes Supremacie afterward though he answered that the first oath was against the Lawes of God of the Realme the Kings Prerogative and made void by Parliament and so not binding After the nullifying of which oath partly by his meanes but principally by the Lord Cro●wels whom the King made his Vicegerent Generall in all Ecclesiasticall affaires and causes and superiour to the Archbishop of Canterbury in place and Ecclesiasticall power the Popes Supremacy and usurped jurisdiction was by severall Acts of Parliament quite abolished out of England as prejudiciall and directly opposite to the Kings Prerogative Royall King Henry dying the Archbishop swore to his will by which Queene Mary was to succeed to the Crowne as next heire in case King Edward died without issue King Edward seeing the obstinacie of Q●●en● Mary in matters of Religion what a pillar she was like to prove to the Church of Rome and persecutor of the true Professors of the Gospell ordaines by his last VVill that Queene Mary should be put by the Crowne and the Lady Jane succeed him as next Heire to which Testament all the Councell swore and the Archbishop too at last after much adoe Whereupon King Edward and Queene

and concluded there was no such meaning couched in it as was suggested but the quite contrary namely That he could not be an absolute King unlesse the Bishops who had still beene Rebellious d●sloyall and opposite to their Soveraignes so farre as to uncrowne or make them no Kings in a manner were suppressed which was all I intended in this passage as is evident by its opposition to their no Bishop no King by the speech of King John who hearing of Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury his death sayd I was never a King till now by reason of Huberts presumptuous daring to crosse and frustrate his royall resolutions from whence I borrowed this mis-interpreted clause by Mr William Tyndals passages here cited to the same eff●ct Part. 2. p. 366.369 which I alluded to and by the whole scope of the Antipathy to this effect By this malicious false suggestion with others of like nature heretofore the sole cause of al my former sufferings the world may easily judge what malicious calumniators what impudent false informers our Lordly Prelates are and how much I have beene beholding to them for their malicious mis-interpretations of my words and misrepresentations of my sincere intentions to his Majestie whom they ever laboured to incense against me by these most sinister meanes and not content therewith since his Majestie hath beene satisfied touching this fore-cited passage some of them have not spared to report abroade to others That there were such passages in my Prologue for which my life might be questioned and I beleeve it true were they to be both my accusers and Iudges but blessed be God this ever hath beene and shall be my consolation that they can onely slander not convict me of any disloyalty or misdemeanor And if they will still calumniate me for well doing as hitherto they have done that golden Apothegme of Alexander the great will be a sufficien● Antidote against the poyson of their tongues and pens Regium est malè audire cùm benè facias Now lest they should chance to slander me for any false quotations by reason of the variety of the Impressions and Pages of some of our Historians I have frequently quoted to prevent this inconvenience I shall advertise them and thee kind Reader what Editions I have used Malmesbury Huntindon and Hoveden here quoted were Printed at Francfort by Wich●lus Anno 1601. Matthew Paris Tiguri 1589. Matthew Westm. Londini 1570. Walsingham Londini 1574. by Iohn Day Speed London 1623. Holinshed the last Edition Of Godwins Catalogue of Bishops there are two Editions the first Printed by Geo●ge Bishop 1600. the latter with a Discou●se of the Conversion of Britaine and some Additions Printed for Thomas Adams London 1615. both these Editions I have quoted for the most part promiscuously and sometimes with distinction if the pages vary in one Edition peruse the other and these Editions of the Historians which I follow and then every page and quotation will prove true and punctuall if examined And now Reader having given thee this advertisement I shall desire God to Sanctifie this Treatise to thy private information and the publick Reformation of all corruption in our Church Farewell A COMPLEATE TABLE OF THE SEVERALL CHAPTERS of this Second Part of the Antipathy which may serve in steede of an Index Chap. IV. COmprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies Disloyalties c. of the Bishops of Ely Exeter Worcester and Hereford Chap. V. Containing the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies Disloyalties c. of the Bishops of Chichester Carlile Norwich Chester Coventry and Lichfield Chap. VI. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies Disloyalties c. of the Bishops of Rochester S. Davids Landaffe Bangor Asaph Bath and Wels with a short touch of the Bishop of Oxford Bristow Peterborough and Glocester and of our Bishops in generall Chap. VII Containing the severall Treasons Rebellions Seditions Schismes Contumacies Warres and disloyalties of the Bishops of France Normandy Scotland and Ireland in reference to our Kingdome and Kings of England Chap. VIII Containing certaine Conclusions deduced from the Premises with the judgements and resolutions of divers of our ancient Writers Martyrs and some of our learnedest Bishops and Authors in Queene Elizabeths Reigne touching the pretended Divine Institution and Iurisdiction of Bishops their Treasons Rebellions Temporalties large possessions intermedling with secular affaires the taking away of their Temporalties not to be sacriledge and the uselessenesse unprofitablenesse and mischievousnesse of Lordly Bishops and their government in our Church Chap. IX Comprising an answere to the principall Objections alleaged by the Prelates in defence of the pretended divine Institution and for the continuance of their Episcopacy in our Church Kind Reader I pray correct these subsequent Errors which have escaped the Presse in some Coppies in my absence ERRATA IN the booke p. 200. l. 18. or read for p. 203. l. 12. insolently 207. l. 2. him to ● him To. p. 235. l. 12. mony p. 238. Manwaring p. 242. l. 2. than l. 6. henries Stephens p. 250 l. 10. forced p. 251. l. 36.11000 p. 255. l. 1● Eiic●rent p. 322. l. 2. not p. 328. l. 1. after averre p. 322. l. 34. Churches Churchmen p. 342. l 7. our your p. 356. l. 10. Cefenas p. 393. l. 11. It is p. 404. l. 11. and destruction p. 405. l. 18. that p. 411. l. 8. perceive p. 417. l. 19● Fisher Fish p. 419. l. 11. be both p. 424 l. 3. dele in p. 430. l. 21. can cannot l. 22. In Master p. 434. l. 23. fol. l. 24.32.22 l. 37. or spirituall p. 435. l. 6. dele greate p. 446. l. 5. Pastures p. 440. l. 3. he thus writes And l. 10. where which p. 453. l. 5. understand l. 15. Erasmus p. 481. l. 31. Angelorum l. 33. this booke p. 482. l. 16. never ever l. 31. of and. p. 484. l. 32. men p. 486. l. 6. by Paul p. 490. l. 27. deny deem l. 35. it them p. 499. l. 23. habetur p. 501. l. 13. dele together p. 503. l. 11. dele other p. 510. l. 6. dele ad l. 31. whole In the Margin p. 208. l. 2. Fordham p. 357. Ioan Baleus Scrip. Brit. Cent. 3. c. 61. omitted p. 253.254 are omitted p. 365. l. 9 Common Canon p. 487. l. 2. Timotheum l. 5. Romanorum p. 499 l. 12. H. 8. p. 500 l. 14. Finan p. 513. l. 25. Ingulph THE SECOND PART OF THE Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy both to Regall Monarchy and civill Vnitie CHAP. IV. Conteining the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and disloyalties of the Bishops of Ely Exeter Worcester and Hereford THe Bishopricke of Ely was first erected by the pride of Richard Abbot of Ely who in respect of his great wealth disdained to live under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincolne to whose Diocesse Cambridge-shire at that time appertained But hee had reasonable pretences or his ambition He caused the King to be told that the Diocesse of Lincolne was

Common-wealth h●th sustained by the exorbitant courses of the Bishops and knowing well what the wiseman saith Eccles. 8.11 Tha● i● sen●●nce be not speedily executed against ●n evill w●rke the h●arts ●f the son●e of men are set upon further mischiefe ●he timely r●dr●sse whe●eof doth better become the wisedome of Parliament● then a too-late wofull r●pentance have commanded me to represent unto your Lordships That Walter Bishop of Winchester Robert Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield Godfry Bishop of Glocester Joseph Bishop of Ex●ester John B●shop of Asaph William Bishop of Bath and Wells Geo●ge B●shop of Hereford Matthew Bishop of Ely William B●shop of Bangor Robert Bishop of Bris●oll John B●shop of Roch●ster John Bish●p of Peterborough Morgan Bishop of Landaffe Together with Willi●m Archbishop of Canterbury and others of the Clergie of that Province at a Convocation or Synod for the same Province begun at London in the yeare 1640. did contrive make and promulg● severall Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiasticall containing in them divers matters contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamentall L●wes and Statutes of the Realme to the Rights of Parliament to the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence And to adde the more weigh● and efficacie to this their monstrous designe They did at the same Synod under a specious and faire Title grant a Ben●vol●nce or Contribution to his Majesty to be paid by the Clergy of that Province contrary to Law It rested not there for though this had beene enough to have affrighted and terr●fied the Kings people with strange apprehensions and feares yet that these might not seem to be contrivancies of their brain or Fancies o●ly● they were put in Execution and were executed upon divers with animosity and rigour to the great oppression of the Clergy of this Realme and other his Majesties subjects and in contempt of the King and of the Law Whether these persons my Lords that are culpable of these Offences shall be thought fit to have an Interest in the Legislative power your Lordships Wisdome and Justice is able to judge But for these matters ●nd things the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House in Parliament in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England doe impeach the said Bishops before-named of the Crimes and Misdemeanors before expressed and do therefore pray that they may bee forthwith put to their Answers in the Presence of the Commons and that such further Proceedings may bee had against them as to Law and Justice shall appertaine Now that the world may take notice what Power the Clergy in their Con●ocation have to make Canons and Constitutions to bind the subjects and of what validity their late Canons are I shall avouch the Votes of the Commons House concerning them as I find them printed at the end of this Impeachme●t of Bishops The Votes concerning the Bishops late Booke of Canons in the House of Commons THat the Clergy of England convented in any Convocation or Synod or otherwise have no power to make any Constitutions Canons or Acts whatsoever in matter of doctrine or otherwise to binde the Clergy or Laity of this Land without the common consent of Parliament That the severall Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiasticall treated upon by the Archbishops of Canturbury and Yorke Presidents of the Convocation for the respective Provinces of Canterbury and Yorke and the rest of the Bishops and Clergy of these Provinces and agreed upon by the Kings Majesties licence in their ●everall Synods begun at London and Yorke 1640. doe not bind the Clergy or Laity of this Land or either of them And thus I have don● with our English Lordly Prelates whose only study is and hath been to support their Lordly dignity not true religion devotion and piety● I shall conclude with them in Saint Bernards words Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum zelum fervere sola pro dignita●e tuenda Honori totum datur sanctitati nihil aut parum Nisi quod sublime est hoc salutare dicamus quod gloriam redolet id justum Ita omne humile probro ducitur inter Palatinatos Et tunc potissimum volunt dominari cum professi fuerint servitutem Fideles se spondent ut opportunius fidentibus noceant Ante omnia sapientes sunt ut facia●t mala b●num autem facere nesciunt Hi invisi terrae coe●o utrique injecêre manus impii in Deum temerarii in sancta seditiosi in invicem aemuli in vicinos inhumani in extraneos quos neminem amantes amat nemo Hi sunt qui subesse non sustinent praeesse non norunt superioribus infideles inferioribus importabiles Docuerunt linguam suam grandia loqui cum operentur exigua Blandissimi adulatores mordacissimi detractores simplicissimi dissimulatores malignissimi Proditores O miserandam Sponsam talibus creditam Paranymphis qui assignata cultui ejus proprio retinere quaestui non verentur Non amici profectò Sponsi sed aemuli sunt Erunt inquam hujusmodi maximo studio corrigendi ne pereant aut ne perimant coercendi CHAP. VII Containing the severall Treasons Rebellions Seditions Schismes Contumacies Warres and disloyalties of the Bishops of France Normandy Scotland and Ireland with reference unto the Kings of England HAving thus passed through the Treasons Rebellions Seditions Warres and disloyall practises of our English Lordly Prelates I shall here in the next place give you a taste of the like crimes and practises of some French Norman Prelates against our Kings their Soveraignes either here or in Normandy and likewise of the Bishops of Scotland and Ireland which I thought meet to couple with our English Prelates these Kingdomes being now happily united under the Government of our gracious Soveraigne and his deceased Father French and Norman Bishops Acts of this kind I shall begin with Saint German Bishop of A●xerre in France of whom it is storyed that comming into England in King Vortigerns time and repairing to his Court with his Companions in a cold frosty night the King shut him out and would give him no lodging which the Kings Herdsman seeing taking pitty upon them and commiserating their affliction lodged them in his house and killed a calfe which they did eate at supper whose bones Saint German commanded to be brought to him when supper was ended and putting them all into the Calves skin he miraculously rais●d up the Cal●e againe from the dead whereas Christ and his Apostles never raised any dead beast but dead men onely and put him to his damme where he sell a eating hay And on the next day by command from God as some writers affirme German deposed Vortigerne from his Kingdome and made the Herdsman King in his place to the great admiration of all men and from thence forth the King● of the Britaine 's descended from the race of this Herdsman But Gildas in his History saith that this happened not to

Parliament holden in the first yeare of the Queenes Majesties Raigne was no Parliament for that your Bishops refused wilfully to agree unto the godly Lawes there concluded yee seeme therein to bewray in your selfe some want of skill the wise and learned could soone have told you that in the Parliaments of England matters have evermore used to passe not of necessity by the speciall consent of the Archbishops and Bishops as if without them no Statute might lawfully be enacted but onely by the more part of the voyces yea alt●ough all the Archbishops and Bishops were never so earnestly bent against it And Statutes so passing in Parliament onely by the voyces of the Lords temporall without the consent and agreement of the Lords Spiri●uall have neverthelesse alwayes bin confirmed and ratified by the reall assent of the Prince have bin enacted published under the names of the Lords spirituall Temporall Read the Statutes of King Edward the first There shall yee finde that in a Parliament solemnly ho●tlen by him at S. Edmundbury the Archbishops and Bishops were quite shut forth and yet the Parliament held on and good and wholsome lawes were there enacted the departing or abs●nce or malice of the Lords Spirituall notwithstanding In the records thereof it is written thus The King keeping the Parliament wi●h his Barons the Clergy that is to say the Archbishops and Bishops being shut forth it was enacted c. Likewise In provisione de Martona in the time of King Henry the third Whereas matter was moved of Bastardy touching the Legitimation of Bastards borne before Marriage The Statute past wholly with the Lords Temporall whether the Lords Spirituall would or no yea and that contrary to the expresse Decrees and Canons of the Church of Rome The like hereof as I am informed may be found Rich. 2. An. 11. c. 3. Howbeit in these cases I must confesse I walke somewhat without my compasse Touching the judgement hereof I re●erre my selfe wholly unto the Learned Further whereas yee call the Doctrine of Christ that now by Gods great mercy and to your great griefe is universally and freely preached a Parliament Religion and a Parliament Gospell for such sobriety becommeth you well and may stand you in stead when learning fayleth yee might have remembred that Christ himselfe at the beginning wa● universally received and honoured through this Realm by assent of Parliament and further that without Parliament your Pope himselfe was never received no not in the late time of Queene Ma●y Yea and even then his holinesse was clogged with Parliament conditions that whatsoever had beene determined in Parliament and was not repealed were it never so contrary to his will and Canons should remaine still inviolable and stand in force Otherwise his holinesse had gone home againe Such M. Harding is the authority of a Parliament Verily if Parliaments of Realmes be no Parliaments then will your Pope be no Pope Therefore as you now call the truth of God that wee professe a Parliament Religion and a Parliament Gospell even so with like sobriety and gravity of speech yee might have said Our Fathers in old times had a Parliamen● Christ. And your late Fathers and Brethren had of late in the time of Queene Mary a Parliament Faith a Parliament Masse a Parliament Pope Neither is it so strange a matter to see Ecclesiasticall causes debated in Parliament Read ●he Lawes of K. Inas K. Elfred K. Edward K. Ethelstane K. Edmund K. Edgar K. Canute and yee shall find that our godly fore-fathers the Princes and Peeres of this Realme never vouchsafed to intr●at of matters of Peace or Warre or otherwise touching the Common State before all controversie● of Religion and causes E●clesiasticall had beene concluded King Canut● in his Parliament holden at Winchester upon Christmas day after sundry Lawes and Orders made touching the Faith the keeping of H●ly-dayes Publik● prayers learning of the Lords Prayer receiving of the Communion thrice in the yeare the manner and ●orme of Baptisme Fasting and other like matters of Religion in the end thereof saith thus Iam sequitur institutio Legum Secularium Now followeth an order of Temporall Lawes In a Parliament holden by King William the Conquerour it is written thus Rex quia Vicarius Summi Regis est ad hoc constituitur ut Regnum populum Domini super omnia sanctam Ecclesiam regat defendat c. The King for as much as hee is the Vicar of the Highest King is thererefore appointed to this purpose that hee should rule and defend the Kingdome and people of the Lord and above all things the holy Church c. Hereby it appeareth that Kings and Princes are specially and of purpose appointed by God not onely to defend but also to Governe and Rule the Holy Church Thus farre Bishop Iewell who here clearly affirmes that Parliaments may be kept and matters of Religion there determined without Bishops Neither is this any strange doctrine for not onely M● Richard Crompton in his Iurisdiction of Courts fol. 19 20. who cites this passage of Bishop Iewell is of the same opinion but in the famous case of Doctor Standish in the 7. yeare of King Henry the eight at a meeting at Blacke Fryers before the King himselfe the whole Temporall Councell and a Committee of both Houses of Parliament it was resolved by all the Judges That our Lord the King may very well hold his Parliament by himselfe his Temporall Lords and by his Commons altogether without the Spirituall Lords for the spiri●uall Lords have no place in the Parliament Chamber of reason of their spirituality but only by reason of their Temporall possessions or Baronies And if this be not sufficient evidence● Bishop Latimer in his fourth Sermon of the Plough p. 19 20. complaines against Bishops placing in being Lords of the Parliament makes this one chiefe cause that they be unpreaching Prelates lazie loyterers and idle Ministers Yea Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester a great Patriot of Episcopacie resolves and proves as much in his Booke intituled The true difference betweene Christian Subjection and unchristian Rebellion part 3. p. 540 541 542. If her Majes●y receiv●d and ●stablished nothing but the truth of Christ in her Pa●liament in vaine do you barke against God and the Magistrate for lacke of competent Courts Ecclesiasticall Judges and legall meanes to debate and decide matters of Religion Wh●n God commandeth all humane barres and Lawes do cease If they joyne with God they may be used if they impugne the truth they must be despised And yet in our case the Scepter united and adjoyned it selfe to the word of God and therefore if Princes may command for truth in their owne dominions as I have largely proved they may why should not the Prince having the full consent of her Nobles and Commons restore and settle the truth of God within her Realme Phil. Lay men may not pronounce of

Majesties royall prerogative more oppressive to his Loyall Subjects and more destructive to the fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and liberties of the Subject than all other professions of men whatsoever For first they have presumed to keepe Consistories Visitations Synods and exercise all manner of Episcopall Jurisdiction in their Diocesse without his Majesties speciall Letters Patents or Commissions under the great Seale of England authorizing them to doe it contrary to the Statutes of 26. Hen. 8. c. 1.37 Hen. 8. c. 17. 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 1. Eliz. c. 1.5 Eliz. c. 1. and 8. Eliz. c. 1. Secondly they have dared to make out all their Processes Citations Excommunications Suspensions Sentences Probates of Wills Letters of Administation Writs of Iure Patronatus accounts of Executors and the like in their owne names and Stiles and under their owne Seales alone not the Kings as if they were the onely Kings the Supreame Ecclesiasticall heads and Governours of the Church of England not his Majesty contrary to the Statutes of 37. H. 8. c. 17. 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 1 Jac. c. 25. Thirdly they have presumed in Printed Bookes to justifie these proceedings to be Lawfull and not content herewith they have most audaciously caused all the Judges of England to resolve and moved his Majestie to d●clare and proclaime these their disloyall unjust usurpations on his Crowne to be just and legall when as I dare make good the contrary against all the Prela●es and Lawyers of England and have done it in part in my Breviate of the Prelates intolerable incroachments upon the Kings Prerogative royall and the Subjects Liberties This resolution of ●he Judges against the Kings Prerogative the Prelates have caused to be ●nrolled both in the High Commission at Lambeth and Yorke and in all their Ecclesiasticall Courts throughout England in perpetuam rei memoriam the Arch-bishop of Canterbury keeping the Originall certificate of the Judges among the records of his Court as a good evidence against his Majesty and his successors Fourthly they have pillored stigmatized banished close imprisoned and cut off the eares of those who have opposed these their encroachments upon his Majesties Prerogative Royall according to their Oath and duty to deterre all others from defending his Majesties Title Fifthly they have taken upon them to make Print and publish in their owne names by their owne authorities without his Majesties or the Parliaments speciall License new Visitation Oathes Articles Injunctions Canons Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies enforced them on Ministers Church Wardens Sidemen and others and excommunicated suspended silenced f●ned imprisoned and persecuted his Majesties faithfull and loyalest Subjects for not submitting to them contrary to the Statutes of 25. H. 8. c. 19.21.27 H. 8. c. 15.3 Ed. 6. c. 10.11 1 Eliz. c. 2.13 Eliz. c. 12. Magna Charta c. 29. and the Petition of Right Sixthly they have presumed to grant Licenses to marry without banes and to eate flesh on fasting dayes in their owne names a Prerogative peculiar to the King alone who onely can dispense with penall Lawes and the booke of Common Prayer which enjoyne no marriages to be solemnized unlesse the Banes be first thrice asked in the Church Seventhly they have adventured to hold plea of divers cases in their Consistories of which the Conusance belongs onely to the Kings temporall Courts which the formes of Pro●ibitions and Ad Iura Regia in the Register determine to be a dis-inheriting of the Kings Crowne and Royall dignity a contempt derogation and grievous prejudice to his Royall authority and intolerable rebellion affront disloyalty and contu●acy to his Soveraigne Iurisdiction Eighthly they have stopped the current of the Kings owne Prohibitions to their Ecclesiasticall spitefull Courts in cases where they have beene usually granted in former ages even in times of Popery and of the most domineering Prelates and oft questioned threatned convented the Kings Judge● before the King and Lords of the Councell for granting them An insolency and affront to Soveraigne Justice which no former ages can Parallell Ninthly they have disobeyed his Majesties Prohibitions proceeded in contempt and despite of them yea they have committed divers to prison who have sued for and delivered Prohibitions in a faire dutifull manner in the High Commission Court and Articled against one Mr. Iohn Clobery in the High Commission onely for suing out of a Prohibition to that Court as if it were a Capitall o●fence For which contum●cy and Rebellion their temporalities might bee justly seised into the Kings hands and themselves attainted in a Pre●unire Adde to this that the now Archbishop of Canterbury hath many times openly protested in Court that he would breake both the necke and backe of Prohibitions And Matthew Wren whilst Bishop of Norwich in the 14. yeare of his M●jesties reigne procured his Majestie to declare under his Highnesse great Seale of England his royall pleasure That if any person within the sayd City of Norwhich should refuse to pay according to the rate of two shillings the pound in lieu of the Tithes of Houses unto the Minister of any Parish within the sayd City that the same should be heard in the Court of Chancery or in the Consistory of the Bishop of Norwich And that in such Case no Prohibition should be granted against the said Bishop of Norwich their Chancellors or Commissaries in the sayd Courts of Consistory Tenthly they h●ve disobeyed and contemned his Majesties just and lawfull-commands in a most p●remptory and insolent manner of which I shall give onely one memorable instance His Majesty about the yeare of our Lord 1629. taking notice of the Bishops Non-residence from their Bishoprickes and how they lived for the most part idlely in London hunting after new prefe●ments to the ill example of the in●erior Cl●rgi● the delapidation and ruine of their mansion houses the decay of Hospitality the impairing of their woods and temporalties the increase of Popery and decrease of Religion was pleased to send a letter to Doctor Abbot then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for the redresse of the sayd inconveniences commanding him in his Royall name to enjoyne every Bishop then residing about London upon his Canonicall Obedience under paine of his Majesties displeasure forthwith to repaire to his Bishopricke and no longer to abide about London The Arch-Bishop hereupon sends his Secretary with this his Majesties Letter to the Bishops then in London and Westminster charging them upon their Canonical Obedience according to this Letter presently to depart to their several Bishoprickes His Secretary repaired with this Letter and the Arch-bishops instructions to Dr Howson the Bp of Durham lodging on Snowhill neare Sepulchers Church and required him in the Arch-bishops name by vertue of his Canonicall obedience to repaire to his Bishoprick according to his Majesties command He hereupon in a great rage giving the Secretary some harsh words told him plainly that he neither would nor could obey this mandate for he had many great

they list themselves Notwithstanding any Appellation provocation priviledge or exemption in that behalfe to be had made pretended or alleadged by ANY PERSON OR PERSONS therefore by Lords and Peeres as well as others resident or dwelling in any place or places exempt or not exempt within the Realmes of England and Ireland and Principality of Wales for no les●er circuite would content them and all Lawes Statutes Proclamations or other grants Priviledges or Ordinances which be or may seeme contrary to the premises notwithstanding What Matthew Paris writes of the Popes Non-obstantees in his Bulls which first begar them Per illud verbum adjectionem detestabilem Non Obstante omnem ●xtinguit justitiam praehabitam I may more truely affirme of this that it extinguisheth all Iustice yea his Majesties Supremacy our fundamentall Lawes Statutes and the Subjects Liberties since it robs the King of the Regall right of receiving appeales as supreame head of the Church of England for releese of his oppressed Subjects and of the honour of his Royall Lawes Proclamations grants exemptions which must all stoope to the Prelates pleasures and strips the Subjects naked of the benefit and protection of all Lawes Statutes Proclamations and other grants priviledges Ordinances or exemptions whatsoever which might shelter them from the Prelates tyranny and oppressions So that you have here the very height of Treason Conspiracy and Contumacy against his Majestie the Lawes of the Realme and hereditary liberties of the people In all these respects to omit other particulars our Prelates if they be not direct Traytors to his Majestie and the Realme so farre as to incurre a Capitall Censure as is more than probable or at least a Praemunire of which there is no question yet I dare averre they are the most notorious Rebels the obstinatest contemners enemies and oppugners of his Majesties Royall Prerogative the Fundamentall Lawes of the Realme and just Liberties of the Subject this day breathing inferiour to none of their predecessors in contumacy and disobedience to their Soveraigne and our Lawes what ever they prete●d and exceeding them in many particulars Having thus I hope sufficiently answered all our Prelates Arguments for the supportation and continuance of their Lordly Prelacy in our Church and their Evasions to shift off this Antipathy as no way pertinent unto them give me leave onely to observe these sixe remarkeable Circumstances in our Prelats premised Treason Conspiracies and Rebellions which highly aggravate their offences and make them farre more execrable Traytors Rebels and delinquents than all other rankes of men and then I shall conclude First they have presumed to justifie their Treasons and Rebellions against their Soveraignes as pious religious holy and commendable actions and to Canonize these Episcopall Arch-Traytors and Rebells not onely for chiefe pillars patriots and defenders of the Churches Liberties but even for holy Saints and Martyrs as appeares by the examples of Dunstan Anselme Becket Edmund of Canterbury Hugh of Lincolne S. Germain 〈◊〉 Richard Scroope of Yorke with others no Laymen having yet beene so happy as for their Treasons and Rebellions onel● or especially to bee Sainted and adored as many Bishops and Clergie men have beene Hence Doctor Barnes in his Supplication to King Henry the 8. p. 190. writes thus I would not speake how damnable it is to institute Masses for a willing Traytor and murtherer there was never no learning that could allow this But there is no remedy he that dyes against his King and for the maintaining of your Treason must needes be a Saint if Masses blessings and miracles will helpe for all these bee at your Commandment to give where your list So that we poore men must be accused of insurrection and Treason and we must beare all the blame we must be driven out of the Realme we must be burned for it when as God knowes there is no people under heaven that more abhorreth and with earnester ●eart resisteth and more diligently doth preach against disobedience than we doe yea I dare say boldly let all your bookes be searched tha● were written this 500. yeares and all they shall not declare the authority of a Prince and the true obedience toward him as one of our little bookes shall doe that be condemned by you for heresie and all this will not helpe us But as for you you may preach you may write you may doe you may sweare against your Princes and also assoile all other men of their obedience towards their Princes you may compell Princes to be sworne to you and yet are you children of obedience and good Christian men And if ye dye for this doctrine then is there no remedy but you must be Saints and rather than faile ye shall doe miracles which he proves by the example of Thomas Becket of Germane formerly cited who was made a Saint for deposing King Vortiger and making his Neat-heard King in his steed These shamefull and abominable things doe ye prayse and allow and in the meane time condemne us for heretickes and Traytors Secondly in interceding for saving rescuing protecting rewarding Trayterous and Rebellious Bishops after their Treasons and Rebellions committed and warding off the sword of Justice from their Mitred Pates though worthy of ten thousand deaths when as all others Peeres or Commons whom they have drawne into their Treasons Rebellions and Conspiracies have beene sure to suffer the rigor of Justice without any mitigation or pardon this most of the premised instances witnesse especially that of Adam de Tarlton Part. 1. p 54.55.56.57.265.266 Thirdly in mincing extenuating excusing and patronizing the Treasons Conspiracies and Rebellions of Prelates and referring them to the Pope or their owne Ecclesiastical-Tribunalls that so they might scape unpunished● a priviledge and tricke of Episcopall Leger-de-maine that no Layman was capable of but onely Bishops and Clerkes Fourthly in slandering reviling censuring excommunicating their Princes together with ●heir Judges and Officers for the execution of Justice on Bishops who have beene Arch-Rebells Traytors and Conspirators as appeares by the examples of Richard Scroope and others which story of Scroope Doctor Barnes thus descants on in his Supplication to King Henry the 8. p. 188.189 Doe you not remember how that in the dayes of Henry the fourth a captaine of your Church called Richard Scroope Archbishop of York did gather an Host of men and waged battle against his King but God the Defendor of his Ruler gave the King the victory which caused the Traytor to be beheaded And then your fore-fathers with their devillish cra●t made the people beleeve by their false Chronicle that at every stroke that was given at the Bishops necke the King received another of God in his necke And whereas the King was afterward stricken with a sickenesse you made him and all his Subjects beleeve that it was Gods punishment because he had killed the Bishop and not thus content but you fained after his death that he did miracles Is not