Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A20775
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A discourse of the state ecclesiasticall of this kingdome, in relation to the civill Considered vnder three conclusions. With a digression discussing some ordinary exceptions against ecclesiasticall officers. By C.D.
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Downing, Calubyte, 1606-1644.
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1632
(1632)
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STC 7156; ESTC S109839
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68,091
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106
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more partiall for their Prince than the Prelates of any other kingdome as appeares by their readinesse to examine this Legate and also by an epistle Decretall of Alexander the third to the Bishop of London Lib 4. tâ—â—t 17. câ—p 7. qui filij legitimi Sarisburiensis de nugis curial lib. 7. cap. 24 who then was Gilbert Foliot a man much commended by Mathew Paris and Iohn Sarisburiensis in that epistle hee curries favour with him in a cause which hee knew was of Ecclesiasticall cognizance and was so judged here in the Kings court as appeares out of Glanvill then Lord chiefe Iustice I think in the very particular case Glanvill lib. 7. cap. 15. Ad Regem Angliae pertinet de possessionibus iudicare Iohannes de Parisijs contra Bonifacium octavum cap. 12. But he feared seeing the Bishop could doe so much with the King and would doe so much for his King least hee should finde some way to entitle it to the Crowne and hee had good reason to feare since the Bishop had so often in the Kings behalfe opposed Thomas Becket and him These may bee some reasons why the Popes sent so many epistles into England and I am the more confirmed in them because I finde they were for the greatest part written by the most Pragmaticall Popes who busied and bestirred themselves most in setting up orders and new fresh Fryes and fraternities of Fryers and in pulling downe the powers both of our Kings and Bishops to wit from those seaven Popes who were the thirds and I thinke the worst of their names I am sure of their predecessors As for the most part they were written from Alex. 3. Lucius tertius Vrbanus tertius Clemens tertius Coelestinus tertius Innocens tertius and Honorius tertius these men did and undid very much because they were active and lived long If then this forme of Clergie was thus prejudiciall to our state before it was opposed and incensed by the statute of Proviso and Premunire and cast off by the Kings just re-assuming their power which shewes that all their right was nothing but our soveraignes wrong surely now wee are not to expect so much favour from them and therefore as the State then thought it necessarie and right to casheere it and brought their purpose fully to passe so it is now more necessary and just to keepe it out since it is infinitely increased in tyranny since that unhappy unadvised ill advised conventicle at Trent § 4. Those nations shall have the best use of that forme who propound a civill state as large as their Ecclesiasticall and to whom he hath first sought too for assistance and withall are able to overrule it For after Iustinianus the last of the true Roman Emperours and Gregory the last of the good Popes that See claue to Phocas who named the Pope Vniversall Bishop that hee might proclaime him Catholique Emperour But when in the next Centurie the Easterne Emperours were infested with Saracens warre began to pull downe images as some cause of the warres which the Pope endeavoured to set up againe then by the second Councell of Nice whether because they did him wrong in disobedience or rather because they could doe him no good the Greeke Pope Zachary fell off to the French before the next Centurie And then Pipin used him to confirme not to conferre his new atchived Kingdome for in those dayes they gave no such power neither did Pope Zachary claime it for hee deposed not Childericke but consented to the deposing which was by the Peeres of France neither did he set up Pipin in his roome but they that deposed the other onely sent to Rome to have Zacharies advise in it Bulla 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it might passe more plausibly in the world by the consent of so grave an Oracle as it hath alway beene good wisedome to winde in the conscience of one who is esteemed an upright Iudge for the countenance of an unusuall cause humorously undertaken by the first Author especially there being then a faction amongst the Bishops of France Baroâ— nal 〈◊〉 so that this inquirie of his judgement in point of fact did non submit to any claime of right And Gotefridus Viterbrensis affirmes and Baronius confesses Francos non Zachariae paruisse decreto Baroâ— nal 〈◊〉 sed acquievisse consilio and there is great difference betwixt an absolute injunction and a politique advise which is onely an answere out of discretion and left to discretion implies no obligation of necessitie But this is without question Pipin being ambitious of the Kingdome and desirous to cover and colour it with religious ends used the Pope to countenance and compasse his designe who would not withstand him being ingaged to him for protection and by bounty or which is likelier hee durst not being too much in his power But howsoever it was he clave fast unto the French for that Century especially to Charles the great the repairer of the Westerne Empire from whom the Caroline succession continued till Otho the third But then the French Kings being distracted by warres at home Augustinus de Aâ—cona de potest Papae quaest 37. Art 5. could no more assist them Gregory the fift an Almaine transferred it to the Almaines chose those seaven Electors but they agreed not well together after the Almaine Pope was dead and Italians succeeded they presently began to quarrell with the Emperour and to send challenges of right into Italy knowing that the Emperour was not able to doe much for them in giving them as the French had done and perceiving hee was more unable to hold from them that which they would have Segebertus â—hron passim so that the Emperours were continually imbroiled by them being not able to rule them decreasing as fast as they rose Then the opposition betwixt many particular Popes and Emperours as betwixt Gregory the seaventh and Henry the fourth and Alexander the third with Fredericke Barbarossa was very strong But after it grew to such a height that they were setled into factions of separations as the Ecclesiastiques and Imperialists especially in Italy Nabrigensis hist Anglicana lib. 4. cap. 13. which the Italians quickly perceiving because earnestly desiring the Emperours power over them to be looser began to make use of the Papall present opposition to procure their full liberty Abbas Vnspergensis chron passim and therefore these factions were most strong there Yet that grand faction distinguished by many formalities was principally maintained under the names of the Guelfs and Gibellins which swallowed up all the private and pettie familie factions of Italie As the Vrsini in Rome were Guelfes Mat hist Ann the Collonensi Gibellins the Vberti in Florence were Gibellins the Bondelmonti Guelfes and so it was in Naples Venice Millaine which strife continued hot till Boniface the eight who perceiving how much his predecessors had gained upon the Emperour and saw but little more
of Spaine which hath of old beene so disquieted with the continuall incursions and invasions of the Moores and Saracens from the South and Gothes from the North that it hath scarce time to settle as water tossed But when it did pitch vpon the forme of a Monarchie it was electiue as appeares out of the Councell of Tolledo Conâ—il Toletan 5. cap. 3. Si quis ad Regiae Majestatis pervenire fastigia ambit absque electione nobilitatis Anathema sit yea and in their latter dayes their forme of inauguration doth import and imply the same for thus it runnes Nos qui vale mos tanto comme vos y podemos mas quae vos vos elegemos Hieronymus de Blanca de Hist â—egamine Rey con estas y estas conditiones intra vos y nos yea and the Justice of Aragon hath had as much power as ever the Parliament of Paris as in plaine not onely in their vnlimited immunities but also the power they vsed against the Kings edicts as may bee seene in their writs called los manifestados y iure firmos from which power Idem Thua though the Inquisition haue freed the Kings since Fardinando yet I doe not conceiue how that state should bee more free then before because it is vnder the power of a tyrannicall Inquisition So that the Kings of Spaine had done more providently in preventing their prevailing greatnesse if wee consider their domestique freedome in government though their advancement may advantage them to bring forraine states vnder their servitude But it was hard to hinder them from at least so much power as they were able to take from the other so that Tullie had no great reason to aske Atticus and that in Greeke as a secret Ad A 9. ep not to bee vnderstood of any that should intercept his letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 few doubt it and this may bee most vnquestionable with Spaine witnesse Naples and Millaine These Inqiusitors are like Ephori in the Spartaine republique whose Kings are observed to haue the most restrained power Thuâ— for the chiefe of these Inquisitors hath a great power over the King in his owne Court Inquisitor generalis qui Aulam Regiam sequitur Thes lit cum adjunctis conciliarijs Ecclesiastici ordinis potestatem contra ipsum Regem vsurpari potest so that by all this it is plaine that the Spanish Monarchie hath not long beene a free Monarchie at home But that which makes most to proue these states not absolute is because an appeale will lie from any of them to the Optimates and orders of their Kingdomes for extrema provocatio is one principle inter summa iura imperii Clap Arcâ— lib. In imperio tamen Germanico vt testantur pragmatici ad sacram supernam Cameram provocatur apud Gallos ad octo curias matores apud Hispanos ad quatuor curias even as a generall Councell is aboue the Pope being electiue As for the other states of European Monarchies without all question they are at this present electiue as Poland which made their King Miecislaus send Lampartus Bishop of Cracovia to Pope Benedict the seaventh vt Regem se Polonorum posteros suos esse iuberet Herbert histor Poloniae lib. 1. sed ea res propter iustas causas ad aliquod tempus dilata fuit yea it was never obtained but it still continues electiue Moderata est principis Poloniae potestas Thuaenus hist lib. 50â— quia non naturae legibus in paternum regnum succedit sed communibus suffragiis senatorii equestris ordinis publica exclamatione nobilitatis eligitur Hungary also is electiue although the Spaniard hath intailed it upon the match with the Infanta which will easily bee cut off and suffer a recovery into the former freedome In Hungaria liberam habent electionem Cominaeus lib. 10. Coment inde ab eius morte proceri Budae conveniunt I might shew the like of Denmarke but no more of that I know not how this may be taken but I hope well because in this I deliver onely what is licenced intelligence even as Honorius and Theodosius did interdict ne alicuius regni arcana scrutarentur Guiccardino Hypomneses Polit 106. but it was with this Proviso Legatus tamen reversus omnia narrare debet § 4 These instances are sufficient to proue that our present Prince hath most vnresistible power and so most vnrestrained right to favour and freely bestow immunities priviledges and revenewes vpon any single society or singular person within his Dominions Now the next thing to bee prooved is that as hee hath more right to shew favour to what state hee will so hee hath more reason then they all to favour his Clergie most This government of our King is not more free in it selfe then it is freely and willingly sustained which shewes that it is the ancient equall and as it were the most naturall government of this Iland and therefore the power is most right because naturallized by custome when as in other Kingdomes yea in many pettie particular states that little power they haue improoved by force they keepe and exercise by the same meanes Hence it is that they dare onely trust forrainers to be their guards as the French haue the Scots and Suitzers the Dukes of Florence the low Dutch which choyse doth either proceed from tyranny in the Kings or perfidiousnes in the nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as for instance Arist R 1. cap. the first Dukes of Florence were esteemed no lesse for it was libell-wise written over the doore of Cosmus De Medices the first Duke where he was sicke and tooke physick qui Medicè vivit miserè vivit which they vnderstood of the Medicean tyrannie both in respect of his feares and their wrongs in his oppression And in this age there were some that would haue brought an Italian guard into France and Scotland but it was when they aspired to vsurpe them both Thuanâ— lib. 23. Guisiani Italorum custodias quòd assuetis negotiis suis non satis fiderent adhibent sui potiùs quà m regni aut regis munimento when as our Kings haue found out by long experience that to be true which Dion Chrysostome told Trajane the Emperour Dion Ch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they regard no guard but the loue of the subject But to returne It is no small encouragement to me before I argue it in any point and a strong argument for me that a sacred Soveraigne hath and doth proue it true in his most royall and religious practice For I doe not beleeue that there hath beene any Emperour Monarch or Potentate since Charles the first and the great that did ever so truly and constantly favour and carefully protect a poore Clergie as hee hath done But let vs consider what great reason of this favour there is wherein I will not search vainly into