matter it now appeared that the said Mr. Huntley in the moneths and yeares articulate especially since the 27 of March 1625. had beene by the said Mr. Archdeacon divers times willed or required to Preach a Uisitation Sermon and had time sufficient to provide himselfe that Mr. Huntley without all due respect of Mr. Archdeacon or the canonicall obedience hee ought unto him with words of scorne and contempt refused to performe that duty as was justified out of his owne answers both in words and writing that Mr. Doctor Kingsley hereupon appealed to the Lord Archbishop of Cant. his Grace who is immediate Ordinarie and Metropolitane to them both for redresse herein that his Grace upon notice thereof wrote a particular letter to said Mr. Huntley the true copy whereof after the originall shewed to Mr. Huntley was left with him and therein advised and required Mr. Huntley to prepare himselfe to preach a Uisitation Sermon he having time enough given him to prepare himselfe for that purpose which commandement of his Grace the said Mr. Huntley slighted and utterly refused to performe that duty and not desisting after such refusall came unsent for or uncalled for to Mr. Archdeacon aforesaid being in his Uisitation amongst the Clergie and sitting there to heare causes very malepartly and unreverently charged him the said Mr. Archdeacon of falsehood or injustice and in a very arrogant and irrespective manner laid downe an hundred pounds in gold upon the table and offered to lay wagers with him the said Mr. Docter Kingsley the Archdeacon that he had done him the said Huntley wrong or the like in effect without any due respect of the said Archdeacon his person or place and to the encouragement of other refractary persons as was there also proved to the Court for which his grosse abuses and contempts the Court held him well worthy to be punished and so much the rather because the court was of opinion and so proncunced that the said Mr. Huntley was by the Lords Grace of Cant. his Ordinary the Archdeacon aforesaid injoyned to doe no more then what by Law and custome according to his canonicall obedience hee was tyed to performe yet neverthelesse the court at this time reserving to themselves their further censure as occasion should be offered for the present only ordered him the said Mr. Huntley upon the commandment of the Archdeacon of Cant. upon a competent warning to bee given him to Preach a Sermon at the next Uisitation to be holden by Mr. Archdeacon of Cant. and afterwards before the Clergy in the said Uisitation to acknowledge his fault in conceptis verbis as shall be prescribed by any three or two of the Commissioners Judges of the Court unto whom it is now referred to set down the same he is juditially admonished and required to appeare here personally in this place the second court day of the next tearme to certifie of his due performance thereof accordingly whereupon afterwards namely one the 19. of Aprill Anno Dom. 1627. at Westminster aforesaid in the County of Middlesex aforesaid the aforesaid George Huntley then and there being publikely called appeared personally And being then there by the foresaid most Reverend father in Christ Lord the Lord George by Divine providence Archbishop of Cant. primate of all England and Metropolitane Richard of Durham Iohn of Rochester Lewis of Bangor Thomas of Coventry and Lichfield William of Bath and Welles Theophilus of Landaffe Robert of Bristoll respectively Bishops Dudley Digges and Henry Marten Knights Iohn Donne Walter Balcanqnall William Kingsley Thomas Worrall professors of Divinity Edmond Pope Hugh Barker Doctors of Law Commissioners aforesaid demaunded whether hee the said George had performed the foresaid order made the foresaid eigth day of February Ann. Dom. 1626. foresaid as is aforesaid or no to wit whether he had Preached his Uisitation Sermon according to the requisition and command of the foresaid Archdeacon of Cant. and made his submission conceptis verbis before the Clergie as was injoyned him by the foresaid Court of high Commission aforesaid he the said George Huntley then and there acknowledged that he had done neither and then and there alleaged frivolous matter in excuse thereof to witt that Mr. Archdeacon aforesaid had not warned him by a lawfull processe to Preach But it appeared to the said Court of high Commission by affidavit made that the foresaid Master Archdeacon had given him sufficient warning by a publike officer and a competent time to provide himselfe to Preach a Uisitation Sermon and he being a man sufficiently qualified by his gifts of learning for that purpose not withstanding contemptuously refused to performe his duty therein and also that he the said George Huntley refused to performe his submission conceptis verbis as was enjoyned unto him The said Court of High Commission unamimi consensu prononuced him guilty of a great affront and contempt not onely to the said Mr. Archdeacon and the Lord Archbishop of Cant. primate of all England and metropolitane and his the said Huntleys immediate Ordinary unto whom the said Huntley is tyed by oath to performe canonicall obedience but also against his Majesties supreame power and authority in matters and causes Ecclesiasticall and this Court unto whom the same by Letters Patents under the great Seale of England is delegated and committed and therefore the said Court of high Commission held the said George worthie to be punished and first fined him in five hundred pounds to his Majesties use committed him to the new prison namely to the custody of Brian Wilton then warden of the new prison and there ordered him to remaine untill he shall give sufficient bond with suerties in a competent summe to his Majestie use aswell for the payment of his fine as it shall bee mitigated as for the performance of his submission heretofore enjoyned him c. Now these two parts of the High Commissioners first finall sentence containe the whole originall matter for which alone the High Commissioners aforesaid did fine me five hundred pounds and imprisoned me on the 19 day of Aprill 1627. and kept me in prison two whole yeares And for which alone without any other crime or fault afterward objectd against mee in any new articles or in any additionalls or superadditionalles to the first articles the Commissioners did on the 25 day of Iune 1629. by a sentence wherin they charge me with grievous and enormous crimes excesses and delicts mentioned in the foresaid articles in which articles there is never a crime charged upon me deprive and degrade me and thereupon kept me a prisoner untill the 10 day of May 1633. And for which alone on their last court day in Hilarie Terme 1630. they did excommunicate me because I would not deliver up my orders diaconatus presbyteratus And for which alone yet neither certified into the Exchequer by the h High Commissioners together with the fine aforesaid nor legally seene nor understood by the Barons
causes and therefore none might sue before them for Tythes Legacies Oblations Pentions or Portions First because this would bee a meanes to take away all Ecclesiasticall proceedings from the Ordinary Secondly because their sentences and Decrees are finall and no appeale lieth from them so that it might be very mischeivous if they should hold plea of all manner of Ecclesiasticall causes Thirdly because the first of Elizabeth giveth them power only in enormities 1. in hainous horrible and exorbitant crimes In the Exchequer in Ailemers case it was resolved that the High Commission might not meddle to punish one for working upon holy dayes 44 Eliz. rot 1255. in the Common Pleas in the case of Tailer and Masse a prohibition was granted where one was convented before the high Commission for giving irreverend speeches of a Minister for carrying his corne on holy daies and for not suffering the Parson and parishioners to goe through his yard upon Rogation weeke and for not giving them a repast in the perambulation as hee had used to doe and for whistling and knoeking upon the doore of the parson and saying hee did it to make the parson musick for the marriage of his Daughter for this ought to be before the Diocesan But my Lord there is one case at the common Law which I more esteeme than the three former because in this very point it conteines not only the resolution of all the reverend Judges then of this Court but also a reall confession of the High Commissioners themselves my very adversaries and that 's this mire owne case for the high Commissioners did at first Pasohae 1627. committ me to prison for breach of canonicall obedience in refusing to Preach the Archdeacons Uisitation Sermon after two yeares imprisonment when upon an habeas corpus I was set at liberty by the court paschae 1629. because that matter was coram non judice then trinitatis 1629 in their second finall sentence upon the same Articles wherein there is no crime objected against mee they charge me with grievous and enormous crimes mentioned in the Articles that so they might make the matter coram judice and within the cognisance of the High Commission So that by the canon and common Law and by the reall confession of my very adversaries the breaches of Canons or of Canonicall obedience unto the Canons belongs to the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary and onely grievous and enormous crimes to the cognisance of the High Commission court Ratio 2 My 2. reason my Lord is taken from the custome practise over England for it is the generall custome uniforme practise over all Eugl. for the Church wardens to make their presentments at the Ordinary or episcopall jurisdiction not at the High Commission Court therfore the breaches of Canons or of canonicall obedience unto the canons belongs to the jurisdiction of the Ordinary not to the cognisance of the high commission court And this reason being the generall custome uniforme practise over all England time out of minde both of all the Church-wardens in making their presentments of all the ordinaries in receiving them is the Common Law of the Land being in use nono Hen. 3. is confirmed by the 1. chap. of Magna Charta under the name of the Rights Liberties of the Church for as Lyndewode in the fifth booke of his provinc tit de sententia ex communicationis cap. cum saepius verbis Ecclesiasticae libertatis Saith Ecclesiastica libertas inter caetera consistit in libero exercitio Iurisdictionis Ecclesiasticae And this custome Ecclesiasticall liberty jurisdiction hath lately been cleer'd by the resolution of all the reverend Judges then of the 3. Honorable Courts of Common Law as appeares by his Majesties Proclamation dated at Lyndhurst 18. August 13. Caroli wherein they affirme that the Bishops Archdeacons other Ecclesiasticall persons may keepe their visitations as usually they have done then they may receive all presentations from the churc-wardens as usually they have done then they now have a generall jurisdiction as formerly they have had And this their resolution is fully warranted by the fift proviso of the 2. cha of the 1. of Eliz. for that proviso and paragraph gives power to all Archbishops Bishops to every of their Chancellours Commissaries Archdeacons and other ordinaries aswell to inquire in their visitations synods and elsewhere within their jurisdiction at any other time and place to take accusations and informations of all and every the things above mentioned done committed or perpetrated within the limits of their jurisdictions authority to punish the same by admonition excommunication sequestration or deprivation other censures and processe inlike forme as hath heretofore been used in like cases that is cases of Ecclsiasticall cognisance by the Queenes Ecclesiasticall lawes not by a commission as some would have it but by the Queenes Ecclesiasticall lawes Which last words doe approve of such a jurisdiction as the ordinaries at that time did exercise according to the Ecclesiasticall lawes of the land at that time both before and since that time the Ordinaries did do exercise a generall jurisdiction according to the Ecclesiasticall lawes of the land without a commission as appeares upon record in their owne Courts the Canons Ecclesiasticall lawes of the land doe approve of that generall jurisdiction of the Ordinaries as appeares by the body both of Lyndewodes provinciall of the legantine constitutions of Otho and Othobon and also by tenne of our last Canons made primo Iacobi namely by the 109. to the 119. so that in this second reason the Common and Canon and Statute Law doe concurre and all three shew that the breaches of Canons or of canonicall obedience unto the canons belong to the jurisdicton of the ordinary and not to the cognisance of the High Commision Court Ratio 3 My third reason my Lord is taken from his Majesties Letters Patents confirming the canons of our Church made primo Iacobi for therein after he hath in the first place confirmed those canons with his Letters Patents out of his supreme Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and in the second place charged all his loving subjects of both Provinces to keepe and observe all those Canons in every point wherein they doe or may concerne every or any of them and in the third place charged all Archbishops Bishops and all others that exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme to see and procure that all within their jurisdictions doe observe the foresaid canons in the former manner then in the fourth place he gives power to the said Archbishops Bishops and to all others that exercise any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction within this Realme to inflict all the punishments mentioned in those canons upon the violators of those canons so that by his Majesties owne gift grant primo Iacobi The breaches of canons or of canonicall obedience unto the canons are assigned
not every fault punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land but only all great greivous and enormous crimes punishable by the Ecclesiaticall lawes of this land are reserved to the jurisdiction of the Crowne and cognisance of the high Commission for otherwise those wordes will abrogate the nineteenth of the twenty fifth of H. the eight before revived in that Statute and will also swallow up all the ordinary Jurisdictions over England contrary to an other Statute there revived in behalf of the ordinary jurisdiction made 23. Henry 8. intituled an act that no person shall be cited out of the diocesse where he or shee dwelleth except in certaine cases and also contraty to the foresaid fift Proviso of the second cap. of the first of Elizabeth And Lastly by this excellent rule of Saint Hilary in his ninth book de trinitate Intelligentia dictorum ex antecedentibus consequentibus expectetur For this makes the severall parts of that Statute accord one with another and the whole Statute to be as a body at unity in itself and yet herein my Lord by making one part of a statute interpret another we give no more to that Honourable Court than is due to every discret man for unusquisque suorum verborum optimus interpres condentis est interpretari Ratio 6 My sixt reason My Lord is taken from the oath of Canonicall obedience which every Bishop administers and which every incumbent takes at his admission and institution and it is alleaged against me in the defendant plea both in the first and third articles and also in the high Commission sentence and the oath it selfe is expressed in the instrument of my admission and institution in these very wordes Te primitus de legitima canonica obedientia nobis successoribus nostris in omnibus licitis honestis mandatis per te praestanda exhibenda ad sancta evangelia rite iuratum admittimus We admit thee saith the ordinary having first been rightly sworne by the holy Gospells to performe lawfull and Canonicall obedience to us and our successours in all our lawfull and honest mandates And this canonicall obedience as Lyndewode in the first booke of his provincicall tit de maior obedientia cap. Presbiteri verbis in virtute obedientiae shewes is such obedience as the canons and constitutions rightly made and published doe require and the Cannon law shewes that this canonicall obedience consists in these three things In reverentia exhibenda in mundato suscipiendo in iudicio subeundo In yeilding canonicall reverence to the ordinaries person in undertaking his canonicall mandates and in standing to his canonicall judgements And therefore my Lord as wee the incumbents by taking this oath of Canonicall obedience are bound by this oath in thinges concerning the Canons to stand to the ordinaries canonicall judgements so the ordinary by administring this oath unto us and by accepting this oath from us is bound by this oath in things concerning the canons to judge us according to the canons And by both these it appeares that the breaches of canons or of Canonicall obedience unto the Canons belongs to the Jurisdiction of the ordinary and not to the cognisance of the High Commission Court And this reason my Lord is stronger against my adversaries by their own confession in their plea then it is in truth and by my allegation for the defendants in their plea challeng canonical obedience from every incumbent to and for every ordinary and they do extend this canonicall obedience not onely so farre as the Canons but also as far as the lawes in generall and the custome reacheth and therefore in challenging canonicall obedience from every incumbent to and for every ordinary and in extending that canonicall obedience not onely so farre as the Canons but also as farre as the laws in generall and the custome reacheth they doe under the name of canonicall obedience challenge from every incumbent to and for every ordinary a jurisdiction as generall as the canons lawes in generall and the custome will warrant whieh is as generall as can be unlesse they would bring in arbitrary and blind obedience Ratio 7 My seaventh and last reason My Lord to prove that the breaches of canons or of canonicall obedience unto the canons belongs to the iurisdiction of the ordinary and not to the cognisance of the high Commission is taken from the opinion of our late Lord and Soveraigne King Iames and of Arch-bishop White-gift whereof the former being ad miraculmm usque acutissimus did in his time give the authority to the High Commission court and the latter being a Bishop according to this rule of Saint Paul a Bishop must be holy just and unrebukeable was in his time the cheife person under the other to excercise and execute that authority in the high Commission court And this their opinion as it was at first publickely deliv'rd in a solemne assembly of the church to reforme what was amisse and confirme what was well established so it hath beene extant in print to the view of the world full 30. yeares and upwards in a Treatise stil'd the summe and substance of the conference at Hampton Court In the eighty ninth pag. whereof King Iames makes this exception against the High Commissioners that the matters wherein they dealt were base and meane and such as ordinaries at home in their owne jurisdictions might censure whereunto in the 90. pag. Arch-bishop Whitegift answereth that though the matters be base and meane and the fault of that nature that the ordinary jurisdiction may censure it yet in two cases no more onely in two cases the high Commission may interpose First when the party delinquent is to great so that the ordinary dares not proceed against him or Secondly so wealthy in his estate or so wilfull in his contumacy that he will not obey the summons and censure of the ordinary and so the ordinary is forced to crave helpe at the High commission And it seemes My Lord that the High Commissioners and the defendants would make this latter my case for in the 14. Article objected against me in the high Commission court and pleaded against me in this court by the defendants they both say that the ordinary desired the assistance of the High commission against me But it is certaine My Lord that in this matter I am not within either of these cases for I being but a Presbyter and of a single benefice am not so great as great as I am and as great as the defendants would make me that the ordinary my Lords Grace of Canterbury Primate of all England should be afraid to proceed against me at his ordinary jurisdiction if his cause were good neither was I ever contumacious for I was never summoned or cited to appeare at the ordinary jurisdiction And therefore in this case seeing the fault if it be a fault is but petty and small but the breach of a canon or of canonicall
the very Letter and text of some Commissions that I have seene have this power that they may punish a Minister for any fault committed in his owne cure or else where that is punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land By which words my Lord it appeares that first there must bee some fault Secondly that that fault must be against some law Thirdly that it must bee against some Ecclesiasticall law of the land or else that Honorable Court by the very Letter and text of the largest commissions that I ever saw have no power to punish a Minister And though this their Commission my Lord doth much outstrip the first of the first of Eliz. the statute whereon it is grounded for that statute extends not to every fault punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of this land for then it would swallow up all the ordinary jurisdictions over England but onely to greivous and enormous crimes punishable by the Ecclesiasticall lawes of the land as the Counsell on both sides in the speciall verdict betweene Allen and Nash have confest and the wordes of the statute as I before have shewed doe necessarily enforce Yet in this case of mine to shew mine owne innocency and the goodnesse of my cause not to make a precedent in other mens cases I will give the defendants free leave and liberty to exceed both the statute and their Commission I will not coope them up and confine them within the lists and limits of the Ecclesiasticall lawes as the most indulgent and munificent Commissions that ever I saw doe yea and must doe unlesse they will make their Commission as well Temporall as Ecclesiasticall no my Lord I will not require an Ecclesiasticall law let them produce an law canon civill common statute or divine nay my Lord I will once againe deale more Nobly and generously more heroically and munificently with that Honorable court with those Augustins Hieromes Gregories Ambroses with those Nazianzens Chrysostomes Origens Basils with those reverend right reverend most reverend Prelates and Patriarchs of our church I will not require a whole law noe not a full period of a law Let them onely produce some colon nay some comma of law onely nay my Lord I will once againe deale more Nobly and generously more heroically and munificently with that Honorable court I will not require a whole colon no nor a whole comma of law neither that were too too an Herculean labour for that Honorable Court for those Canonists Civilians and Divines for those commissaries chancellours Arch-deacons Deanes Bishops Arch-bishops let them onely produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some shaving some scraping some paring some shred peece particle or fragment of Law nay let them onely produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unum unum apicem one jot one apex one tittle one pricke or point of law of any law my Lord and I doe most willingly and most instantly submit And now my Lord as the defendants doe pretend a fault so likewise they doe pretend a law the pretended fault is my refusall to Preach the Archdeacons Visitation Sermon the pretended law is the Law of Canonicall obedience They say that my refusall to preach the Arch-deacons visitation sermon at the Arch-deacons command is a breach of Canonicall obedience And now my Lord we are come to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad statum causae ad caput controversiae for this Canonicall obedience is the whole and sole ground and foundation and supportation of the whole sentence against mee and it cannot be understood and determined whether my refusall to preach the visitation sermon be a breach of canonicall obedience or not unlesse it be first knowne and understood what this Canonicall obedience is so that in the first place my Lord there is a necessity imposed upon mee breiflly to present unto your Lordship what this Canonicall obedience is The high Commissioners in the first part of their finall sentence as it was given in their owne Court make Law custome and Canonicall obedience three different and distinct thinges For therein they say that the Archdeacon in injoyning Huntley to preach his visitation sermon hath commanded him no more than the said Huntley was bound to doe by law custome and by his Canonicall obedience and herein by making Canonicall obedience a third and distinct thing from law and custome they shew that they onely use the name of Canonicall obedience but intend arbitrary or blind obedience that is a generall and universall obedience to all the Arch-deacons commandes though they swarve both from law custome whereby they make every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop a law-maker within his owne jurisdiction and every of their commands binding and compulsive though fortified neither by law nor Custome But your Lordship as it seemes not content herewith steps a degree further and makes Canonicall obedience not onely a third and distinct thing from law and custome but also a thing opposite and contrary to law and custome for termino trinitatis 1637. when when your Lordship delivered your opinion in the speciall verdict betweene Allen and Nash your Lordship said that if the Arch-deacon did owe me an 100. pounds by bond he might by vertue of my Canonicall obedience command mee to deliver up that bond the money not being yet paid Or he might command me by vertue of my Canonicall obedience to send him a yoke of fat oxen a couple of good Coach-horses or a score of fat weathers which I am sure is not onely beyond but contrary to law and custome and more than either his Majesty or any of his royall predecessours did ever chalenge of any freeborne subject either by the oath of allegiance or oath of supremacy whether your Lordship have altered this your opinion or no I know not the high Commissioners I suppose have altered theirs For certaine it is that the former wordes of the first part of their first finall sentence as it was given in their owne Court are altered in the defendants plea wherein they make Canonicall obedience not a third and distinct thing from law and custome as before but a subordinate relative and a proportionable thing to law and custome by changing these their former wordes law custome and his canonicall obedience into these law and custome according to his Canonicall obedience And this alteration as I suppose proceeded from the acute and polite wit of you Master Justice Heath at that time the Kings Attourney Generall and Commissioners counsell who seeing that the Commissioners by the former wordes did make canonicall obedience a third and distinct thing from law and custome that thereby they did under the name of canonicall obedience chalenge arbitrary and blind obedience to and for every Arch-deacon Bishop and Arch-bishop that thereby they made themselves all lawmakers within their severall jurisdictions and that so at once by two wordes they gave two deadly woundes one to his Majesties supreame jurisdiction who under God is the onely lawmaker within this land
have his obedience perfect indeed the Abbot bid him thrust his naked arme into a great seething pot full of meat pull out the lowest peece of meat that was in the pot and added that if the scalding liquor did not hurt his naked arme then his obedience was perfect indeed Malmesburiensis in his second book de gestis Pontificum Anglorum in the life of Elstan saith that the Monke did doe so and his hand and arme received no harme and thereby as by a miracle his obedience was knowne to be perfect indeed In the third place they extend it to thinges wicked and ungodly Cardinall Bellarmine de Pontifice Rom. lib. 4 cap. 5. tells us that if (x) Si autem Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona et virtutes malas misi vellet contra conscientiam peccare the Pope should so farre forth erre as to command vices and to forbid vertues the Church were bound to beleeve that vices are good and vertues are evill unlesse she will sinne against her owne conscience and Cardinall Cusanus excitat lib. 2. Serm. 2. excitat lib. 6. serm super respice domine de caelo vide requires every man to yeild both implicite faith blind obedience not onely to the Popes erronious doctrine but also to the erronious doctrine of his own prelate and that without any further search or inquiry after the truth (y) Quam firma est aedificatio ecclesiae quia nemo potest decipi etiam per malum praesidentem si dixeris domine obedivi tibi in praeposito hoc tibi sufficiet ad salutem Tu enim per obedientiam quam facis praeposito quem ecclesia tollerat decipi nequis etimasi praeceperit alia quam debuit praesumit enim ecclesia de illa sententia cui si tu obedieris magna erit merces tua Obedientia igitur irrationalis est consummata obedientia prefectissima scil quando obeditur sine inquisitione rationis sieut iumentum obedit domino suo how strong saith he is the building of the Church for no man can be deeeiued no not by an evill prelate If thou say unto God O Lord I have obeyed thee in my prelate this shall suffice thee unto salvation for thou canst not be deceived by thine obedience which thou yeildest unto thy prelate whom the church suffereth though he command thee other thinges than he ought to doe for the Church presumeth his sentence to be good which sentence if thou obey thy reward shall be great Obedientia igitior irrationalis est consummata obedientia perfectissima Therefore saith hee obedience unreasonable obedience without reason blind obedience is consummate and most perfect obedience that is saith he when thou obeyest thy prelate without seeking a reason even as an horse obeyeth his Master Suppose now my Lord that the Pope should teach the Church and the Bishop should teach those of his diocesse and the generall of the Jesuites should teach those of his order not such doctrine as * Defens fidie lib. 6. cap. 6. mysteria patrum Iesuit p. 159. 160. 161. Swarez teaches that it is lawfull for any man actually to depose and kill a King by the Popes sentence First excommunicaed deposed and devested of his Subjects allegiance and fealty But such doctrine as * Mr. Anthony Arnoulds plea. pag. 11. 12 Varade Principall of the Iesuites in France taught Barriere namely that to murder Henry the fourth of France though a Catholique and not excommunicate was a meritorious worke and that for that deed hee should goe straight unto Paradise or that to murder any other good King good Magistrate good man is a meritorious worke and that for that deed hee that doth it shall goe straight unto Heaven In this case according to this doctrine what were the Church the Bishops subjects and the Jesuites bound to doe onely vi mandati virtute obedientiae without any reference to those manifold subtilties distinctions and subdistinctions in the Jesuites King-killing doctrine why the Church saith Bellarmine it tied in conscience to beleeve and obey the Pope though he teach vertue to be vice and vice to be vertue otherwise she sinnes against her conscience The Bishops subjects must obey him without requiring a reason as an horse having a bridle on his head followes his Master and this saith Cusanus is perfect obedience and after the fact is done if they say unto God O Lord wee have obeyed thee in our prelate they have every one his quietus est this shall suffice them unto salvation nay their reward shall be great And the Jesuites even by their vow are bound to obey their generall even as Iesus Christ himselfe ubique in omnibus every where and in all thinges yea when he commands them to kill and murder And hereupon Campian in that one of his three (z) Generalis praepositi nostri dâ—creto quod ego tanquam mandatum caelitus missum a Christo ipso sancitum veneror Praga Romam ubi Generalis nostri perpetua sedes est Roma deinde in Angliam contendi Campian Epist prefixed before his ten reasons directed to Queene Elizabeths counsell saith that he came over into England iussu sui Generalis tanquam iussu ipsius Christi at the command of his generall as at the command of Christ himselfe and what to doe Even by his owne confession as Sir Edward Coke in Caudreys case saith to make a party for the Catholicke cause that is to withdraw the Queenes subjects from her allegiance and to reconcile them to the Church of Rome which as Sir Edward Coke there saith is treason and punishable with death by the common lawes of the Land And if any will further see the fruites and effects of this arbitrary and blind obedience let him cast his eyes upon Felton at the command of Pope Pius Quintus setting up upon the Bishop of London his gates an excommunication against his owne Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth that peerelesse Lady Let him cast his eyes upon Iacob Clement murdering King H. the 3. upon Francis Ravaillac murdering King Henry the fourth both of France And lastly upon the Gun-powder treason plotted and contrived by the advice and approbation of Henry Garnet superiour of the Jesuites here in England and of Oswold Tesmond Iohn Garrard and other Jesuites as appeares by the 2. of the third of Iames. And this is the reason my Lord that such monstrous impieties and such matchlesse villanies are done by the inferiour at the command of the superiour in the Church of Rome not in the Church of England because the Church of Rome doth approve and embrace arbitrary and blind obedience and the two parts and kinds thereof uncanonicall and anticanonicall and extends it to thinges fond and frivolous ridiculous and absurd yea wicked and ungodly which the Church of England doth utterly reject and contents her selfe with Canonicall
Cause And yet what they cannot prove my Lord I out of a desire of peace and concord with them will voluntarily grant unto them Concessio 1. retortio in adversarios Dabo ex supposito quod non dabo ex animo Let it then be custome what followes why this Then the Cause is a civill Ecclesiasticall Cause and not a criminall Cause and then it is and hath been all this while coram non judice and so the sentence and whole proceedings of the Commissioners are utterly voyd Concessio 2. retortio in adversarios Secondly be it custome then the Arch-deacon hath broken the custome and not I for the Commissioners in the first part of their first finall sentence extant in their Plea made an Order that I upon the Arch-deacons Mandate and a competent warning thereby to me given should preach a Sermon at the Arch-deacons next Visitation Now this Order is the custome or else it is not If this Order be not the custome then I being bound to observe the custome am not bound to observe this order or else being bound to observe this order I am not bound to observe the custome Let them chuse which they will they are faulty in either If this Order be the custome then the Arch-deacon and not I hath broken both Order and custome because he only sent an Apparitor with a postscript private letter or message to warne me to preach his Visitation Sermon but sent no mandate or processe or publike instrument for that purpose out of his Court by his Apparitor as he should have done both by the Order and custome and both these the Defendants confesse in their Plea and they shall be both shewed against them at large in my answer to to the fourth accessory Confutatio 1 Thirdly it is not custome for if it be custome then it is custome contrary to the 36. 49. and 52. Canons made 1. Iacobi that is about 39 years since and then it must be custome either before those canons were made or else only since If it were custome before those canons were made then it was before that time tried and obtained in some contradictory judgement for consuetudo non valet nisi sit obtenta in Contradictorio judicio Now can the Defendants shew any contradictory judgement before that time wherein this pretended custome was determined to be custome If they can let them shew it and I submit If they cannot idem est nen esse non apparere If it were not custome before the former Canons were made it cannot grow to be a custom since Nine and thirty years prescription is not sufficient to make a custome for consuetudo est cujus contrarium memoria hominum non existit and if this custome be but of 39. years standing there are divers men yet living which can remember the contrary Nay my Lord seeing a custome cannot grow in the time of opposition if we will make an exact computation we must from the former 39. years defalke full 16. years because so long this controversie hath been on foot and this custome oppos'd And then at the begining of this controversie there remains but 23. years since the making of the former Canons and since the begining of this pretended custome if it began since those Canons were made And then at begining of this controversie this pretended custome being but of 23. years standing could not be custome according to the former rule seeing at the begining of this controversie there were divers men then living who could remember the contrary Concessio 3 Confutatio 2 But in the fourth place my Lord let it be custome and a tried and determined custome in a contradictory judgement and that before those Canons were made yet by those Canons it is abrogated For cannot an Act of Parliament cut off a known custome of England tried and determined in a contradictory judgement at the Common Law There is I suppose no question of it and the reason as I conceive is because all the parties that have right in that custome are either personally or vertually present in Parliament and there by making a contrary Act give up their right to that custome and then by the same reason seeing none had right in the former custome but the Arch-deacons Bishops and Arch-bishops on the one side and the Incumbents under them on the other side and the three former were personally present in a provinciall Synod and the others vertually present in the Clerks of the Convocation and all on both sides by making the former Canons gave up their right to the former custome that custome is and must be abrogated by the former Canons Confutatio 3 But in the fift place my Lord it cannot be custome First because it is contrary to the Word of God as appears by my three first arguments Secondly because it is contrary to the whole course and tenour of the Canon Law in the body of the Canon Law in Lyndewodes provinciall in the Legantine Constitutions of Otho and Othobon and in our last Canons all which I have formerly shewed And lastly because it is contrary to naturall equitie and contra naturalem aequitatem nulla valet consuetudo etiamsi omnes homines de mundo aliter facerent saith the Canon Law Now this rule of naturall equity is deliver'd by our Saviour Luke 10 7. The labourer is worthy of his hire which is true e converso he that hath the hire is bound to performe the labour And this labourer is the Visiter and his labour is to Visit that is to preach and to correct and his hire for that labour is Procurations and all these I have formerly proved It is then contrary to naturall equitie for us to detain Procurations from the Visiter when he Visits us that is preacheth unto us and correcteth us It is likewise contrary to naturall equity for the Visiter to require Procurations when he doth not Uisit that is preach and correct It is most apparently contrary to naturall equitie for the Visiter to require Procurations of the Incumbents for Visiting them that is for preaching unto them and for correcting them and yet to impose upon them the Visitation Sermon the speciall part of that labour for which the Visiter requireth and receiveth his Procurations of the Incumbents And upon this ground the Canon Law affirms quod in procuratione ratione visitationis debita non currit praescriptio And then there can be no custome to binde the Incumbents either to pay Procurations or to preach the Visitation Sermon The third Argument There is one weake argument my Lord yet remaining and that 's this The Arch-deacon is tanquam oculus Episcopi and therefore may enjoyn the Ministers within his jurisdiction to preach his Visitation Sermon that thereby he may see and learn and know their sufficiency I do confesse my Lord that in the Canon Law the Arch-deacon is called oculus Episcopi and which is more vicarius