interdictorum absolutionis prodeat à qua constitutionis ipsorum vinculum prodiit 6. This is the first if not the onely time that to what was acted at Rome an obedience was required here as not to be dispensed with but from thence for it is undoubted this Kingdome never held it self tyed by any thing past there till received here as Eadmerus rightly observes things done there not ratified here to be of no value And when VVinchelsea 1296. would have introduced the contrary it cost him dear the Clergy forced to reject the command and the Court to quit her pretenses 7. But the dispute however the right stood grew so high the King told Anselme the Pope had not to meddle with his rights and wrote that free letter we find in Iorvalensis col 999 30. which I have likewise seen in an old hand recorded amongst divers other memorialls of the Archbishops of Canterbury though I must needs say it seems to me by Paschalis his answer repeating a good part of it not sent by those he names but former messengers In this controversy the Popes returnes were so ambiguous that he writ so differing from their relations were sent it was thought fit Anselme should himself go to Rome with whom K. Henry sent another who spake plainly his master nec pro amissione regni sui passurum se perdere investituras Ecclesiarum and though Rome were willing to comply in other particulars told Anselme denying that he could not assure him of a welcome in England who thereupon retired to Lyons where finding slender comfort from Rome he sought the King by letters and after by the means of Henry's sister made his peace at which yet he was not permitted such was his spirit to enter England denying to communicate with them had received Bishopricks from the King but by the Popes dispensation The conclusion was Paschalis taught by experience neither the Court of Rome nor th' Archbishop gained ought by this contest however he would not at first abate praedecessoris sui sententiae rigorem yet now admitted great limitations to what Vrban had establisht So as the King assenting none for the future should be invested per laicam manum which was no more but what he formerly did himself he would now cause to be performed by a Bishop the other agreed no prelats to be barr'd of promotion etiamsi hominia Regi fecerint hoc donec per omnipotentis Domini gratiam ad hoc omittendum cor regium molliatur c. which yet the King soon after on the Popes permission of them to the Dutch did threaten sine dubio se resumpturum suas investituras quia ille suas tenet in pace but for ought I find it went no farther then their swearing fealty to the King which seems to have been long continued 8. The Papacy finding by this contest the difficulty of carrying any thing here by an high hand thought of more moderate wayes for bringing the Clergy of this nation wholy to depend on Rome but that could not be without diminishing the power the Archbishop held over them and therefore must be wonne by degrees to advance which nothing could more conduce then to have a person of wisdome reside here who might direct this Church according to the Papall interest But this was thought fit to be given out before practic 't and likely to be doubly opposed for th' Archbishop well understood the admitting a Legat for that end to be in suae dignitatis praejudicium And the King suffered none to be taken for Pope but whom he approved nor any to receive so much as a Letter from Rome without acquainting him with it and held it an undoubted right of the Crown ut neminem aliquando legati officio in Anglia fungi permitteret si non ipse aliqua praecipua querela exigente quae ab Archiepâ—scopo Cantuariorum caeterisque Episcopis regni terminari non posset hoc fieri à Papa postularet c. 9. Things standing thus in the year 1100. th' Archbishop of Vienna coming into England reported himself to have the Legatine power of all Britain committed unto him which was with so much admiration of the Nation as a thing had not been heard of before that if he had any at least he thought not fit to make use of his Commission but departed a nemine pro Legato susceptus nec in aliquo Legati officio functus 10. Fourteen years after Paschalis the 2. by Letters of the 30. of March and 1. of April expostulates with the King about severall particulars of which one is his admitting neither messenger nor Letter to be received but by his leave but see the words Sedis Apostolicae nuncii vel literae praeter jussum regiae majestatis nullam in potestate tuâ susceptionem aut aditum promerentur nullus inde clamor nullum inde judicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinantur c. and the year following addrest Anselme nephew to the late Archbishop and after Abbot of St. Edmundsbury hither shewing by Letters he had committed unto his administration vices Apostolicas in Anglia This made known here though the bearer were not permitted to enter the Kingdom the Clergy and Nobility gathered in councell at London concluded th' Archbishop should go to the King in Normandy make known unto him the antient custome of the Realme and by his advice to Rome as being the person was most interessed in it ut haec nova annihilaret from whence he obtained the Letter or rather declaration to the King and Clergy the same author hath recorded So by this care the matter was again stopt 11. The King 1119. sent his Bishops to a Councell held by Calixtus the 2. at Reims at their departing gave them these instructions Not to complain of each other because himself would right each of them at home That he payed that rent his predecessors had formerly done and enjoyed likewise those priviledges had been formerly permitted them That they should salute the Pope from him hear his precepts but bring no superfluities into his Kingdome but see the words Rex Anglorum praelatis regni sui ad Synodum ire permisit sed omnino ne alicujus modi querimoniam alterutrum facerent prohibuit Dixit omni plenariam rectitudinem conquerenti faciam in terra mea redditus ab anterioribus constitutos Romanae Ecclesiae singulis annis errogo privilegia nihilominus ab antiquis temporibus pari modo mihi concessa teneo Ite dominum Papam de parte mea salutate Apostolica tantum praecepta humiliter audite sed superfluas adinventiones regne meo inferre nolite c. Certainly this prince did hold the Pope with the advice of a Councell might labour to introduce superfluous inventions which the English were not tyed to receive the disputes of his Bishops be by him ended at home without carrying
ejus successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint that the English Bishops being excommunicated by the Pope might not take an oath of obedience to his commands quia regni consuetudines impugnabat though he did never exercise any authority here but according to such stipulations contracts and agreements with our Princes as the Lawes permitted and therefore when he sent hither a Legat à Latere he was tretyd with or he cam in to the lond whon he schold have exercise of his power and how myche schold bee put in execution An aventure after he had bee reseyved he whold have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple c. as the Archbishop wrote to Hen. 5. as I have shewed numb 53. 73. Though the Lawyers of the Kingdome do constantly affirm as the Law and Custome of the Realm the Kings Courts never to have carried regard to any forraign excommunication and if any such came from Rome not to be put in execution but by allowance first had to which effect it is remembred the Bishops of London and Norwich having publish't in their Dioceses the Popes excommunication of Hugh Earl as it seems of Chester without the privity of Hen. the 2. or his Chief Iusticiar the Kings writ issued out in this manner Londoniensis Norwicensis Episcopi sint in misericordia Regis summoneantur per Ficecomites Bedellos ut sint contra Iusticias Regis ad rectum faciendum Regi Iusticiis ejus de eo quod contra statuta de Clarendone interdixerunt ex mandato Papae terram comitis Hugonis excommunicationem quam Dominus Papa in ipsum fecerat per suas parochias divulgaverunt sine licentia regis This however contracted in Hoveden 1165. and in Paris 1164. yet the difference is such as may deserve a remembrance It seems to me what our Kings claimed not to be altogether unlike the Exequatur of Naples observed to this day in that Kingdome notwithstanding all contests from Rome 74. Neither did the Crown ever relinquish this right not at the peace after Beckets death when Henry the 2. assented to quit no other then Consuetudines quae introductae sunt tempore suo which it is manifest this was not as appears by Eadmerus It is farther observable that by the common Laws that is the common Custome of this Realm the sentence of the Archbishop is valid in England and to be allowed in the Kings Courts though controuled by the Pope and to shew our Princes had no regard to anything of this nature from thence other then such a complying with a reverend Prelat as I have formerly mentioned did admit it may not here be unfitly inserted what Froissard writes of Edward the third with whom the Flemings joyned against the French upon which but I shall deliver it in his own words Adonc le Roy de Frances ' en complaignit au Pape Clement sixieme qui getta une sentence d' excommuniement si horible qu'il n' estoit nul prestre qui asast celebrer le divin service De quoy les Flamens envoyerent grande complainte au Roy d' Engleterre lequel pour les appaiser leur manda que la primiere fois qu'il rappasseroit la mer il leur ammeneroit des Prestres de son pais qui leur chanteroient la Messe vousist le Pape ou non â—ar il estoit bien privilegié de ce faire par ce moyen s' appaiserent les Flamens c. As for the priviledge here spoken of that can be no other then the obligation all Kings owe unto God for seeing his word sincerely taught them live under their protection without the disturbance of any 75. In which kind ours have been so far from yieldding obedience to the Papall attempts as Edward the first could not be induced to spare the life of one brought a Bull from the Pope might have made some disturbance but by his abjuring the Realm as his grandchild Edward the 3. did cause some to suffer for the same offence And on occasions our Kings have prohibited all entercourse with Rome denied their Bishops going thither so much as for confirmation but the Metropolitans if need were should by the Kings writ be charged to confirm them commanded their subjects not to rely on any should come from thence affirming quod in regnum nostrum nec propter negotium nostrum nec vestrum ullatenus intrabit ad terram nostram destruendam Yet notwithstanding so notorious a truth back't with so many circumstances grounded upon unquestioned monuments of antiquity hath not been received but the bare affirmation Christ by pasceoves meas intended Peter and by consequence the Pope to be the generall Pastor of the world and the meaning of those words to be that he should regio more imperare hath so far prevailed with some as to esteem the standing for the rights of the Kingdome the Laws and Customes of the Nation to be a departing from the Church Catholick and to esteem no lesse then Hereticks those who defending that which is their own from th' invasion of another will not suffer themselves to be led hood-winkt to think the preservation of their proper liberty is a leaving Christ his Church or the Catholick faith 76. I dare boldly say whoever will without partiality look back shall find the reverence yielded from this Church to Rome for more then a thousand years after Christ to have been no other then the respect of love not of duty and Popes rather to consulere then imperare their dictats to have been of the same nature the German Princes were of old auctoritatâ— suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate never requiring a necessity of obedience eo nomine that they came from Rome but for that they were just and reasonable neither did the Pope send any Agent hither to see them put in execution but th' Archbishop according to the exigent of times receiving his wholesome advises caused such as he held of them did conduce to the good of the English Church to be observed So Theodore received those of Pope Martin but did not them concerning Wilfred from Agatho When Alexander the 2. had exempted the Abbot of St. Edmunds-bury from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Norwich Lanfrank took the Act from the Abbot and Gregory the 7. is so far from using commands in the cause as he onely earnestly intreats the Archbishop he would stop the Bishop of Norwich from molesting the said Abbot yet himself as it seems did not restore the Bull of immunity to him during that Popes life but of this before In the year 1070. on the Kings desire in a Councell at Windsor Ageâ—â—icus Bishop of the South-Saxons is degraded and his Bishoprick confer'd on Stigandus Alexander the 2. not approving what had past writes
elsewhere advises Rufus unto Conemur una tu regia potestate ego Pontificali authoritate quatenus tale quid inde statuatur quod cum per totum fuerit regnum divulgatum solo etiam auditu quicunque illius fautor est paveat deprimatur I can take this for no other but that in the laws of Ethclstan Debent episcopicum seculi judicibus interesse judiciis ne permittant si possint ut aliqua pravitatum germina pullulaverint And the laws of Henry the first are expresse the use to have continued in his daies for they approve the ancient institution That generalia Comitatuum placita certis locis vicibus convenire debere That the Iudges in those Courts were Episcopi Comites Vicedomini c. The causes they dealt in and order of proceeding agantur primo debita verae Christianitatis jura secundo Regis placita postremo causae singulorum c. And why may not certa loca here be what Anselme calls Parochia the Conqueror Hundred 10. But good laws are not alwaies suddenly put in execution and this of the Conqueror we may take to have slept till towards the beginning of King Stephen's time it had got some strength for then we meet with plain precedents of the Ecclesiastick Courts being sever'd from the Lay. Theobald of Canterbury molesting the monastery of St. Augustines concerning certain Priviledges granted from the Papacy th' Abbot obtained a bull from Innocentius 2. of the 20 November 1139. in his houses favour in which the Pope expostulates with th' Archbishop quod occasione privilegii nostri idem monasterium vehementer infestas ecclesias eidem coenobio pertinentes eundem abbatem ordinare non sines quin potius violent a dominatione ecclesias eorum firmatas diceris infregisse presbyteros tous invito Abbate ejusdem loci fratribus contra Romanae ecclesiae privilegia quibus idem coenobium est munitum in eis ponere praesumpsisse nec his contentus abbatem ipsum homines ejus ad placitandum super hoc in curiam tuam prout asserunt praesumptuose traxisti eisque ob eam rem poeuam molieris infligere c. 11. VVilliam Thorne who mentions this 1139. 4. Steph. observes which is warranted by the bull it self quod iste Theobaldus primo Abbatem conventum ad causas trahere conatus est and is the first I have noted in which th' Ecclesiasticks alone did force men to plead in their Courts which as it doth prove they then had them so we may conclude them not long to have been possest of that power for it is altogether improbable if that act of King VVilliam had been in his and his sonns time generally practic 't but some Archbishop in above fifty years might have attempted as much if not to the Abbot at least to some other as after this the examples are frequent of which one in the 122 epistle of Iohannes Sarisburiensis is not unworthy the remembring Symphorian a Clergy-man of York accused one Osbert Archdeacon of the same Church before king Stephen the Bishops and Lords 1154. for making away VVilliam the late Archbishop of that See by poyson A question grew to whether Court this cause belonged The King affirmed it to belong to the temporall for the heynousness of the fact and because it was first entred upon in his presence But before the decision Stephen dyed and Henry the 2. succeeded de cujus manibus saith my Author vix cum summa difficultate in manu valida cum indignatione Regis omnium procerum jam dictam causam ad examen ecclesiasticum revocavimus from whence it was by Appeal carryed to Rome 12. But what this manus valida should be that took the case from the King I cannot imagine for it is undoubted in all disputes of this nature the Kings Courts have been ever Iudges to what Court the cause did belong Bracton speaks very clearly Iudex ecclesiasticus cum prohibitionem à Rege susceperit supersedere debet in omnicasu saltem donec constiterit in curia Regis ad quem pertineatat jurisdictio quia si Iudex Ecclesiasticus aestimare possit an sua esset jurisdictio in omni casu indifferenter procederet non obstante regia prohibitione c. and 1080 VVilliam the first in a Councell at Illebon in Normandy by th' advise of both estates Ecclesiastick and Secular did settle many particulars to belong to the cognizance of the spirituall Iudge and concludes that if any thing were further claimed by them they should not enter upon it donec in curia Regis monstrent quod habere debeant Neither were the Lay to molest them in the exercise of ought there mentioned Donec in curia Regis monstrent quod Episcopi inde habere non debeant So in both reserving the decision to his own Courts of what pertained to each in so much as what that strong hand should be did thus take this from the King I must prosesse not to understand And that our Kings had ever an inspection over those Courts is not to be doubted by the Charge against Becket in which Henry the 2. urgeth quod cuidam Iohanni coram ipso litiganti plenam justitiam non exhibuit super hoc ad Regis praesentiam vocatus venire contempsit To which th' Archbishop answered praefato Iohanni condignam non defuisse justitiam Iohannem non legaliter curiam suam infamasse qui non super evangelium ut moris est sed super veterem cantuum codicillum quem secum tuler at voluerit pejer are c. and for his not attending the King to give him satisfaction in the point pleaded th' excuse of sicknesse yet for that contempt was adjudged to loose his moveables By which it is evident th' Archbishop did then exact oaths of such as were called into his Court that he was to give an account to the King of his carriage in it who by his constitutions hath ever directed the manner of proceedings in it See Mat. Paris Anno 1247. pag. 727 29. Anno 1246. pag. 716. 1. But of this more hereafter 13. The Conqueror though he did shew so much complyance with the Romanist as not to deny any thing former Kings had acknowledged to the Papacy as due yet farther then they had gone would in nothing submit unto it and as they had by their edicts guided the ecclesiastick affaires of this kingdome so he proceeded in his lawes à l gibus sanctae matris Ecclesiae sumens exordium as did his sonne Henry the 1. How far they did conceive this their power to extend in those to matters nothing can better teach us then the lawes they and such as came after them princes against whom no exceptions can lye establisht and usages they maintained as the rights of the Kingdome in opposition of all encroachments whatsoever 14. To enumerate all these Priviledges I conceive them
recourse to Rome without the Kings leave to be inauditum usibus ejus omnino contrarium and therefore required of him an Oath quod nunquam amplius sedem Sancti Petri vel ejus vicarium pro quavis quae tibi ingeri queat causa appelles I know Anselm an Italian where the opinion of the Papall absolutenesse had now begun to root did maintain this was Petrum abjurare and that Christum abjurare and is the first of our Bishops spake any thing in that sort with whose sense the Kingdome did not concur in it For it is manifest in those dayes and after Appeals to Rome were not common In the year 1115. Paschalis the 2. expostulates with Henry the 1. that Nullus inde clamor nullum judicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinatur and again vos oppressis Apostolicae sedis appellationem subtrahitis And Anselme himself speaking of the proceeding of the King in a case by him esteemed onely of Ecclesiastick cognizance lays down the manner to be that it should be onely ad singulos Episcopos per suas parochias aut si ipsi Episcopi in hoc negligentes fuerint ad Archiepiscopum primatem adding nothing of carrying it to Rome of which I know no other reason but that it was not then usuall to remove causes from the Primate thither Yet after this either the importunity of the Pope prevailed with the King or the passage was inserted after his dayes into the Lawes carry his name as some other in the same chapter may seem to have been but certain in them though he give for a rule that of Pope Fabian or Sixtus 3. ibi semper causa agatur ubi crimen admittitur yet a Bishop erring in faith and on admonition appearing incorrigible ad summos Pontifices the Archbishops vel sedem Apostolicam accusetur This is the onely case wherein I find any English Law approve a forreign judicature 31. But whether from the countenance of this Law or the great oppressions used by the Legat King Stephens Brother or the frequency of them it is certain 1151. Appeals were held a cruell intrusion on the Churches Liberty so as in the Assize at Clarendoun 1164. collected by the body of the Realm the 8. Chapter is solely spent in shewing the right of the Kingdome in that particular which Iohannes Sarisburiensis interprets quod non appellaretur pro causâ aliquâ ad sedem Apostolicam nisi Regis Officialium suorum venia impetraâ—a Upon which the Bishop of London moved Alexander the third Beckets cause might be determined appellatione remota at which the Pope seems to be moved and told him haec est gloria mea quam alteri non dabo And though it seems by a Letter of the same Prelat the King would have restrained his power onely to such as had first made tryall of receiving justice at home claiming ex antiqua regni institutione ob civilem causam nullus clericorum regni sui fines exeat c. and that too if amiss would have corrected by th' advise of the English Church yet while th' Archbishop lived that would not be hearkened to but after his death at the peace which 1172. ensued between him and the Church of Rome it was onely concluded the King not to hinder Appeals thither in Ecclesiastick causes yet so as a party suspected before his going was to give security not to endeavour malum suum nec regni But the Kingdom meeting in Parliament at Northampton 1176. not fully four years after would not quit their interest but did again renew th' Assize of Clarendoun using in this particular somewhat a more close expression Iusticiae faciant quaerere per consuetudinem terrae illos qui à regno recesserunt nisi redire voluerint infra terminum nominatum stare in curia Domini Regis utlagentur c. in effect the same as Gervasius Dorobernensis well understood who tells us Rex Angliae Henricus convocatis regni primoribus apud Northamptoniam renovavit assisam de Clarendonia eamque praecepit observari pro cujus execrandis institutis beatus martyr Thomas Cantuariensis usque in septennium exulavit tandem glorioso martyrio coronatus est 32. After which the going to Rome remained during this Kings and his Son Richard's time onely according to their pleasures the Clergy lying under the penalty of this Law if they did attempt farther then the Princes liking of which we have a very pregnant example in the case of Geffrey Archbishop of York K. Richards Brother who accused to Coelestinus 3 us that he did not onely refuse Appeals to Rome but imprisoned those who made them upon it the Pope commits the cause to be heard by the Bishop of Lincoln and others who thereupon transfer themselves to York where hearing the Testimonies of those appeared before them assigned him a time to make his defence to the Pope But the Archbishop being then well with his Brother pretended he could not present himself in Rome for the Kings prohibition and the indisposition of the aire Not long after the King and he fell so at odds quod praecepit illum dissaisiri de Archiepiscopatu suo c. Coelestinus upon this takes an opportunity to declare a suspension to be notifyed through all the Churches of his Diocese injoyning what the King had before the Lay as well as the Clergy ne ipsi Archiepiscopo vel officialibus ejus in tempor alibus respondere praesumant donec de ipso Archiepiscopo aliud duxerimus statuendum The offence with his Brother still remaining the Bishop expecting now no help at home goes upon this to Rome makes his peace with the Pope and returns but the King committed the â—are even of the Spiritualls of his Archbishoprick to others without permitting him or his Agents to meddle with ought till about two years after he reconciled himself to the Crown after which he gave Innocentius 3 us occasion to write Non excusare te potes ut debes quod illud privilegium ignoraris per quod omnibus injuste gravatis facultas patet ad sedem Apostolicam appellandi cum iu ipse aliquando ad nostram audientiam appellaris and a little after Nec auctoritatem nostram attendis nec factam tibi gratiam recognoscis nec appellationibus defers quae interponuntur ad sedem Apostolicam c. And about the same time Robert Abbot of Thorney deposed by Hubert th' Archbishop was laid in prison a year and half without any regard had of the Appeal by him made to the Pope and this to have been the practice during King Richards time the continued quarrells of Popes for not admitting men to appeal unto them doth fully assure as 33. But Innocentius 3 us having prevailed against King Iohn and the Clergy great instruments in obtaining Magna Charta from that Prince either in favour of
averoient frank election de lour Prelatz solonc la ley de Dieu de seint Esglise ent ordeigne perpetuelment a durer c. and a little after d'Engleterre soleient doner Eveschez autres grantz dignites trestouz come il fait aujourdui Esglises parochiels le Pape ne se medlast de doner nul benefice deinz le Royalme tanqez deinz brief temps passe c. 59. And this to have been likewise the custome in France the complaint of the French Ambassador to Innocentius 4 tus assures us Non est multum temporis saith he quod Reges Francorum conferebant omnes Episcopatus in camera sua c. and our writers do wholy look upon the placing Lanfrank in Canterbury as the Kings act though it were not without th' advise of Alexander the 2. Neither did Anselme ever make scruple of refusing the Archbishoprick because he was not chosen by the Monks of Canterbury and in that letter of them to Paschalis the 2. 1114. though they write Raulf in praesentia gloriosi Regis Henrici electus à nobis clero populo yet whosoever will note the series of that election cannot see it to have been other then the Kings act insomuch as our writers use often no other phrase then the King gave such preferments c. And whilst things stood thus there was never any interposing from Rome no question who was lawfully chosen the Popes therefore did labour to draw this from the Princes medling with as much as was possible Some essay might be 1108. at the settling Investitures for then Anselme writ to Paschalis Rex ipse in personis eligendis nullatenus propria utitur voluntate sed religiosorum se penitus committit consilio But this as the practice proved afterwards was no more but that he would take the advise of his Bishops or other of the Clergy for as Diceto well observes our King did in such sort follow the Ecclesiastick Canons as they had a care to conserve their own rights The â—ittest way therefore for the Pope to get in was if there should happen any dissensions amongst themselves that he as a moderator a judge or an Arbitrator might step in 60. About the Conquest an opportunity was offer'd on the contentions between the two Archbishops for primacy in which Canterbury stood on the bulls true or false of former Popes that had as a great Patriarch made honourable mention of them When they were both 1071. with Alexander the 2. by his advise it was referr'd to a determination in England and accordingly 1072. Wm. the first with his Bishops made some settlement which by them of York was ever stumbled at pretending the King out of reason of State sided with Canterbury But this brake into no publick contest till 1116. Thurstan elected to York endeavored at Rome to divert the making any profession of subjection to Cant. but failing in th' attempt that Court not liking to fall into a contest it was not probable to carry resigned his Archbishoprick Spondens Regi Archâ—epiâ—copo se dum viveret non reclamaturum yet after the Clergy of York sued to the Pope for his restitution which produced that letter from Paschalis the 2. in his behalf to Hen. the 1. is in Eadmerus wherein he desires if there were any difference between the two Sees it might be discust in his presence Which was not hearkned to but Calixtus the 2. in a Councell by him held 1119. at Reimes of which before the English Bishops not arrived the Kings Agent protesting against it the Archdeacon of Cant. telling the Pope that jure he could not do it consecrated him Archbishop of York upon which Henry prohibits him all return into his dominions And in the enterview soon after at Gisors though Calixtus earnestly laboured th' admitting him to his See the King would by no means hearken to it So the Pope left the businesse as he found it and Thurstan to prove other wayes to gain th' Archbishoprick 61. Who thereupon became an actor in the peace about that time treated between England and France in which his comportments were such that proniorem ad sese recipiendum Regis animum inflexit so as upon the Popes letters he was afterwards restored ea dispositione ut nullatenus extra provinciam Eboracensem divinum officium celebraret donec Ecclesiae Cantuariensi c. satisfaceret This I take to be the first matter of Episcopacy that ever the Pope as having a power elsewhere of altering what had been here settled did meddle with in England It is true whilst they were raw in Christianity he did sometimes recommend Pastors to this Church so Vitalian did Theodore and farther shewed himself sollicitous of it by giving his fatherly instructions to the English Bishops to have a care of it so did Formosus or some other by his letters 904. upon which Edward th' elder congregated a Synod wherein five new Bishops were constituted by which an inundation of Paganisme ready to break in on the West for want of Pastors was stopt But it is apparent this was done not as having dominion over them for he so left the care of managing the matter to their discretion as he did no way interesse himself in it farther then advise 62. A meeting of English Bishops 1107. at Canterbury or as Florentius Wigorniensis stiles it a Councell restored the Abbot of Ramsey deposed 1102. jussu Apostolico or as Eadmerus juxta mandatum Domini Papae It is manifest this command from Rome to be of the same nature those I mentioned of Calvins or at the most no other then the intercession of the Patriarch of a more noble See to an inferior that by his means had been converted For his restitution after the reception of the Papall letters seems to have been a good while defer'd so that what past at Rome did not disannull his deprivation here till made good in England as at a time when nothing thence was put in execution but by the Regall approbation as the Pope himself complained to the King But after the Church of Rome with th' assistance of th' English Clergy had obtained all elections to be by the Chapters of the Cathedralls upon every Scruple she interposed herself 63. The greatest part of the Convent of London 1136. chose Anselme Abbot of St. Edmundsbury for their Bishop contrary to the Deans opinion and some few of the Chanons who appealed to Rome where th' election 1138 was disannulled the Bishoprick by the Pope recommended to Winchester his then or rather soon after Legat which so remained till 1141. This is the first example of any Bishop chosen received and in possession of a Church in this Kingdome whose election was after quash't at Rome and the sentence obeyed here as it is likewise of any Commendam on Papall command in the Church of England all
with our auncestors better called Rights I hold impossible the foundation or ground upon which they are built being that power the divine wisdome hath invested the secular Magistrate with for preservation of his Church and people in peace against all emergencies from whomsoever proceeding as the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury writ to Thomas Becket 1167. Rex à Domino constitutus paci providet subjectorum per omnia ut hanc conservet Ecclesiis commissis sibi populis dignitates Regibus ante se debitas exhibitas sibi vult exhiberi And this issuing from so great auctority as in effect the body of all the Clergy of the realm cannot be imagined to be other then the constant opinion of th' English Church In what these Rights have been put in practise in opposition to Rome of which I now treat may in some sort be told but to say these they are and no other is that I mean cannot be So that we may say the affirmative these they are but not the negative others they are not Therefore Eadmerus will have it of the Conquerour that Cuncta divina simul humana ejus nutum expectabant that is in foro exteriori insomuch as when the Clergy 1530. gave the King the title of Head of the Church they intended no other then their fore-fathers when they called him the Defender Patron governor Tutor of it 15. Which the French do attribute to their Kings with more hard expressions Ce que monstre says one que les evesques de ce temps la estimerent le Roy assistè de son conseil d' estat estre apres Dieu Chef terrien de l' Esglise de son Royaume non pas le Pape in the negative Which another explains thus Ce n'est point pour cela que je vueille dire ce que aucuns ount trop indistinctement proferè que les dits Roys Princes Souveraignes soient en leurs estats privativement à tous autres Chefs uniques absolus de l' Esglise de tous les minister d' icelle car pour lereguard de ce que concerne le maniement des choses purement sacrees come l' administration de la parole de Dieu des Sacrements la puissance de lier ou delier voire de regler en particulier le dedans de chacune Esglise la sur-intendance en appartient aux Evesques autres Chefs de la Hierarchie Ecclesiastique a chascun selon leur rang degrâ— Then shewing by a comparison that as the head-Architect leaves to his inferior Agents the use of such instruments as are proper for their undertakings so il n' appartient poynt au Roy de manier les choses sacrees ny supporter comme l' on dit l' arche d' alliance ils doivent laisser cela a ceux de la vocation mais ils peuvent voire soâ—â— tenuz devant Dieu veiller sans cesse avoir l' oeil ouvert a ce que ceux de cest ordre profession principale aussi bien que ceux des autres moindres apportent enloyaute sain conscience tout soin diligence purete sincerite au maniement des charges a eux commises conformement a leur loix regles canons lesquels au cas qu' ils serroient negligez â—ffacez par la rouille de l' antiquite ou que par la malice des hommes il fust besoign d' enfaire des noveaux ils sont tenu user de leur puissance pourn y sapporter des remedes soit par leur Ordonances pragmatiques soit par leurs jugements arrests executions d' iceux e'est ce qu'en France nos predecesseurs ont tousjours appelle la police exterieure sur l' Esglise de la quelle les Empereurs Roys Princes on t use jouy sans contredit tant que l' esglise s'est conservee en sapurete qu' aucuns d' icelle ne se sont ingerez sortants de leurs bornes l. miles d' usurper les functions Royales Insomuch as Benigne Miletot doth not onely affirm their Kings to be Chess Protecteurs Conservateurs de leur esglise Gallicane but pag. 657. recites a speech of th' Archbishop of Vienna made to Henry the 4. 1605. in which he did affirm que le Roy estcit le Coeur la Teste de l. ur corps 16. And other Headship then this I do not know to have been ever attributed to any of our Princes Certainly they did never take on them the exercise of any thing purely sacred but as supream Head Rulers or Governours under God by their Commissioners of which such as bare most sway were ever the Spirituality to visit reform redresse c. all errours Heresies schisms abuses c. And for that the rust of antiquity as that authour styles it had much over-spread the Canons of the Church to assigne sixteen of the Clergy whereof four to be Bishops and as many of the Lay of which four to be learned in the Common laws of this realme to peruse and examineth ' ecclesiasticall laws of long time here used and to gather order and compile such laws ecclesiasticall as shall be thought to his Majesty his said Counsell and them or the more part of them to be practised and set forth within this realme In pursuance of which the 11. November 5 to of Edward the 6. he nominated two Bishops two Divines two Doctours of the Law two Esquires to supervise the ecclesiastick laws of this Kingdome and to compile such a body as were fit to be put in practise within his Dominions whose intendments for it past no further were after printed by Iohn Day 1571. and are no other then what the French for the manner of doing maintain their King might do neither doth th' Inquisition of Spain publish any thing of that nature without th' allowance of their King as I shall shew hereafter 17. So that in my opinion the question cannot be whether Princes are not capable of such a Right but whether it were invested in the Crown formerly and made good by such a continued practise as might authorise ours to take that title when offered by the Clergy 1530. as well as the French Kings have without incroaching on that power th' ecclesiasticks had and by our laws ought to exercise in England Now certain our Kings did in many things go along with the French in causes ecclesiasticall Rex Anglorum exemplum accipiens ab illis Baronibus qui sua statuta sanxerunt in Francia quibus Dominus Francorum favorem jam praebuit sigillum apposuit c. Clement the 7. being held prisoner 1527. by th' Emperour the 18 th of August Cardinall Woolsy made an agreement with the French for setling â—h ' ecclesiastick government of each Kingdome during the Popes captivity For the French I shall remit the reader to the Deed
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be
other but in the foundation most sound most orthodox that holy man never intending such a superiority over this Church as after was claimed The Bishops of England in their condemnation of Wicliffs opinions do not at all touch upon those concerned the Popes supremacy and the Councell of Constance that did censure his affirming Non est de necessitate salutis credere Romanam Ecclesiam esse supremam inter alias Ecclesias doth it with great limitations and as but an error Error est si per Romanam Ecclesiam intelligat universalem Ecclesiam aut concilium generale aut pro quanto negaret primatum summi Pontificiis super alias Ecclesias particulares I conceive therefore the Basis of the Popes or Church of Romes authority in England to be no other then what being gained by custome was admitted with such regulations as the kingdome thought might stand with it 's own conveniency and therefore subject to those stipulations contracts with the Papacy and pragmatiques it at any time hath made or thought good to set up in opposition of extravagancies arising thence in the reformation therefore of the Church of England two things seem to be especially searcht into and a third arising from them fit to be examined 1. Whether the Kingdome of England did ever conceive any necessity jure divino of being under the Pope united to the Church and sea of Rome which drawes on the consideration how his authority hath been exercised in England under the Britons Saxons and Normans what treasure was caryed annually hence to Rome how it had been gained and how stopt 2. Whether the Prince with th' advise of his Cleargy was not ever understood to be endued with authority sufficient to cause the Church within his Dominions be by them reformed without using any act of power not legally invested in him which leads me to consider what the Royal authority in sacris is 1. In making lawes that God may be truly honoured 2 things decently performed in the Church 3. Profainesse punished questions of doubt by their Cleargy to be silenced 3. The third how our Kings did proceed especially Queen Elizabeth under whose reformation we then lived in this act of separation from the sea of Rome which carries me to shew how the Church of England was reformed by Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Elizabeth Wherein I look upon the proceedings abroad and at home against Hereticks the obligation to generall Councells and some other particulars incident to those times I do not in this at all take upon me the disputation much less the Theologicall determination of any controverted Tenet but leave that as the proper subject to Divines this being onely an historicall narration how some things came amongst us how opposed how removed by our ancestors who well understanding this Church not obliged by any forraign constitutions but as allowed by it self either finding the inconvenience in having them urged from abroad farther then their first reception heare did warrant Or that some of the Cleargy inforced opinions as articles of faith were no way to be admitted into that rank did by the same authority they were first brought in leaving the body or essence as I may say of Christian religion untouched make such a declaration in those particulars as conserved the Royall dignity in it's ancient splendour without at all invading the true legall rights of the state Ecclesiasticall yet might keep the kingdome in peace the people without distruction and the Church in Vnity CHAP. II. Of the Britans 1. I Shall not hear inquire who first planted Christian Religion amongst the Britans whether Ioseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes S. Peter or Elutherius neither of which wants an author yet I must confess it hath ever seemed to me by their alleadging the Asian formes in celebrating Easter their differing from the rites of Rome in severall particulars of which those of most note were that of Easter and baptizing after another manner then the Romans used their often journeying to Palestina that they received the first principles of Religion from Asia And if afterward Caelestinus the Pope did send according to Prosper Germanus vice sua to reclaim them from Pelagianisme certainly th' inhabitants did not look on it as an action of one had authority though he might have a fatherly care of them as of the same profession with him as a Synod in France likewise had to whom in their distress they address themselves to which Beda attributes the help they received by Germanius and Lupus 2. After this as the Britans are not read to have yeilded any subjection to the Papacy so neither is Rome noted to have taken notice of them for Gregory the great about 590. being told certain children were de Britannia insula did not know whether the Countrey were Christian or Pagan and when Augustine came hither and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome the Abbot of Bancor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree in charity to help them in word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience then this they did not know due to him whom he named to be Pope nor to be father of fathers 3. The Abbots name that gave this reply to Augustine seems to have been Dinooth and is in effect no other then what Geffry Monmouth hath remembred of him that being miro modo liber alibus artibus eruditus Augustino pâ—tenti ab episcopis Britonum subjectionem diversis monstravit argument ationibus ipsos ei nullam debere subjectionem to which I may adde by the testimony of Beda their not only denying his propositions sed neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habiturum respondebant And it appears by Gyraldus Cambrensis this distance between the two Churches continued long even till Henry the first induced their submission by force before which Episcopi Walliae à Menevensi Antistite sunt consecrati ipse similiter ab aliis tanquam suffraganeis est consecratus nulla penitus alii Ecclesiae facta professione vel subjectione the generality of which words must be construed to have reference as well to Rome as Canterbury for a little after he shewes that though Augustine called them to councell as a legat of the Apostolique sea yet returned they did proclaim they would not acknowledge him an Archbishop but did contemn both himself and what he had established 4. Neither were the Scots in this difference any whit behind the Britans as we may perceive by the letter of Laurentius Iustus and Mellitus to the Bishops and Abbots through Scotland in which they remember the strange perversenesse of one Dagamus a Scottish Bishop who upon occasion coming to them did not only abstain eating with them but would not take his meat in the
same house they abode yet they salute them with the honourable titles of their dearest lords and brethren A certain signe of a wide distance between the opinions of Rome then and now when men are taught not so much as bid them farewell do not submitunto it sure our first Bishops know no such rule who placed in their Calendar for Saints and holy men as well Hilda Aydon and Colman the opposers of Rome as Wilfred Agilbertus and others who stood for it CHAP. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with AFter the planting of Christian religion amongst the Saxons th' Archbishop of Canterbury became a person so eminent all England was reputed his Diocese in the colledge of Bishops London his Dean whose office it was to summon Councels Winchester his Chancellour Salisbury or as some Winchester his Precâ—tor or that begun the service by singing Worcester or rather Rochester his Chaplain and the other the carrier of his Crosse expected no lesse obedience from York then himself yielded to Rome voluntate beneficio it being th' opinion of the Church of England it was but equall ut ab eo loco mutuentur vivendi disciplinam à cujus fomite rapuerunt credendi slammam The dependence therefore of the Clergy in England being thus wholly upon th' Archbishop it will not be amisse to take a little view both of what esteem he was in the Church and how it came to be taken off and by degrees transferr'd to a forreign power 2. Upon the conversion of the Saxons here by the preaching of Augustine and his companions and a quiet peace settled under Theodore to whom all the English submitted Parochiall Churches by his encouragement began to be erected and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation as being the successour of Saint Peter the first bishop of the world Patriark of the West that resided in a town held to nourish the best Clerks in Christendome and the seat of the Empire insomuch as the devout Britan who seemes as I said to have received his first conversion from Asia did go to Iudea as a place of greatest sanctity so amongst the Saxons Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur But as this was of their part no other then as to a great Doctour or Prelate by whose solicitude they understood the way to heaven and to a place in which religion and piety did most flourish so th' instructions thence were not as coming from one had dominion over their faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming other then that respect is fit to be rendred from a puisne or lesse skilfull to more ancient and learned Teachers As of late times when certain divines at Frankford 1554. differed about the Common-prayer used in England Knox and Whittingham appealed to Calvin for his opinion and receiving his 200. Epistle it so wrought in the hearts of many that they were not so stout to maintain all the parts of the Book as they were then against it And Doctor Cox and some other who stood for the use of the said Book wrote unto him excusing themselves that they put order in their Church without his counsell asked Which honour they shew'd him not as esteeming him to have any auctority of Office over them but in respect of his learning and merits 3. As these therefore carried much honour and yielded great obedience to Calvin and the Church of Geneva by them then held the purest reformed Church in Christendom so it cannot be denyed but our Auncestors the Saxons attributed no lesse to the Pope and Church of Rome who yet never invaded the rights of this as contrary to the councel of Ephesus and the Canons of the Church of England but left the Government of it to the English Prelats yet giving his best advice and assistance for increasing devotion and maintenance of the Laws Ecclesiasticall amongst them in which each side placed the superiority From whence it proceeded that however the Pope was sought to from hence he rarely sent hither any Legat. In the Councell of Calcuith held about 180. years after Augustine it is observed a tempore Sancti Augustini Pontificis sacerdos Romanus nullus in Britanniam mâ—ssus est nisi nos And Eadmerus that it was inauditum in Britannia quemlibes hominum super se vices Apostolicas gerere nisi solum Archiepiscopum Cantuariae 4. But after the Pope instead of being subject began to be esteemed above th' Ecclesiastick Canons and to pretend a power of altering and dispensing with them and what past by his advise and counsell onely was said to be by his authority he did question divers particulars had been formerly undoubtedly practic 't in this Kingdom he seeing them and not shewing any dislike at it as The receiving Investitures of Churches from Princes The calling Synods The determining causes Ecclesiasticall without Appeals to Rome The transferring Bishops c. but the removing these from England unto a forraign judicature being as well in diminution of the rights of the Crown as of this Church past not with out opposition 5. For Anselm an Italian the first great promoter of the Papal authority with us pretending he ought not be barr'd of visiting the Vicar of St. Peter causa regiminis Ecclesiae was told as well by the Bishops as lay Lords That it was a thing unheard and altogether against the use of the realme for any of the great men especially himself to presume any such thing without the Kings licence who affirmed nequaquam fidem quam sibi debebat simul Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra suam voluntatem posse servare And the Archbishop persisting in his journy thither had not onely his Bishoprick seized into the Kings hand but the Pope being shew'd how his carriage was resented here did not afford him either Consilium or Auxilium but suffered him to live an exile all that Princes time without any considerable support or adjudging the cause in his favour Which makes it the more strange that having found by experience what he had heard before that it was the King not the Pope could help or hurt him this visit being so little to his advantage at his first presenting himself to Henry the first he should oppose that Prince in doing him homage and being invested by him a right continued unto that time from his Auncestors and by which himself had received the Archbishoprick from his brother and this on a suggestion that it was prohibited in a councell held at Rome in which he went so far as to tell the King quod nec pro redemptione capitis mei consentiam ei de iis quae praesens audivi in Romano Concilio prohiberi nisi ab eadem sede
their complaints beyond Seas according to th' Assize of Clarendoun the King in nothing obliged to Rome but in the payment of Peter-pence as his father had before exprest himself 12. In November following the Pope and King had a meeting at Gisors in Normandy where Calixtus confirmed unto him the usages his father had practic 't in England and Normandy and in especiall that of sending no Legat hither but on the Princes desire Yet notwithstanding the same Pope not fully two years after addrest another Legat to these parts but he by the Kings wisdome was so diverted ut qui Legati officio fungi in tota Britannia venerat immunis ab omni officio tali via qua venerat extra Angliam à Rege missus est c. 13. But here by the way the reader may take notice these words Collata Impetrata Concessa Permissa used by our best authors in speaking of the Rights of the Crown in points of this nature do not import as if it had onely a delegatory power from the Pope by some grant of his as is fancied by those would have it so for we read of no such concessions from him unlesse that of Nicholas the 2. of which in the next But that they were continually exercised the Pope seeing either approving or at least making no such shew of his disliking them as barr'd their practice which by comparing the said authors is plain Eadmerus p. 125 53 54. speaks as if these customes were concessa fungi permissa from Rome which pag. 118 33 40. he calls antiqua Angliae consuetudo libertas Regni c. So pag. 116 22. he terms them privilegia Patri Fratri suo sibique à Romana Ecclesia jam olim collata c. about which yet it is manifest even by him the Court of Rome was ever in contest with our Kings about them who maintained them as their Royalties against it and challenged by Henry the 1. by no other title then dignitates usus consuetudines quas Pater ejus in regno habuit c. which the Pope calls honores quos antecessorum nostrorum tempore Pater tuus habuer at and affirmes to be grata in superficie interius requisita Legati vocibus exposita gravia vehementissima paruerunt so far have Popes been from conferring the least unto them see cap. 3. n. 19. 14. It is true things done by Princes as of their own Right Popes finding not means to stop would in former ages as later by priviledge continue unto them Nicholaus Papa hoc Domino meo privilegium quod ex paterno jure susceperat praebuit said th' Emperours Advocate And the same Pope finding our Kings to expresse one part of their Office to be regere populum Domini Ecclesiam ejus wrote to Edward the Confessor Vobis posteris vestris regibus Angliae committimus advocationem ejusdem loci omnium totius Angliae Ecclesiarum vice nostra cum Concilio Episcoporum Abbatum constituatis ubique quae justa sunt As a few years since the Republick of Venice not assenting to send their Patriarch to an examination at Rome according to a Decree of Clement the 8 th Paulus Quintus declared that imposterum Venetiarum Antistites Clementis decreto eximerentur so that now that State doth by an exemption what they did before as Soveraign Princes Besides Kings did many times as graunts ask those things of the Pope they well understood themselves to have power of doing without him Henry the 5 th demanded of Martin the 5. five particulars to which his Ambassadors finding him not so ready to assent told him se in mandatis habere ut coram eo profiteantur Regem in iis singulis jure suo usurum utpote quae non necessitatis sed honoris causa petat ut publicam de ea re coram universo Cardinalium coetu protestationem interponant And to the same purpose there are sundry examples yet remaining on record where the King on the petition of the Commons for redresse of some things of Ecclesiastick cognizance amisse first chuses to write to the Pope but on his delay or failing to give satisfaction doth either himself by statute redresse th' inconvenience or command the Archbishop to see it done 15. But here before I proceed any farther because it cannot be denyed in former times there was often intercourse between the Church of England and Rome and such as were sent from thence hither are by some styled Nuncii by others Legati I think it not amisse to consider what the cause was one side so much opposed the sending a Legat and the other so laboured to gain it 16. After the erection of Canterbury into an Archbishoprick the Bishops of that See were held quasi alteriâ—s orbis Papae as Vrban the 2. styled them did onely exercise vices Apostolicas in Anglia that is used the same power within this Island the Pope did in other parts the one claiming because Europe had been converted by disciples sent from Rome the other that he had sent preachers through England And is therefore called frequently in our writers princeps Episcoporum Angliae Pontifâ—x summus Patriarcha Primas and his seat Cathedra Patriarchatus Anglorum and this not in civility onely but they were as well sic habiti as nominati It is true the correspondency between it and the Roman was so great they were rather held one then two Churches yet if any question did arise the determination was in a councell or convocation here as the deposing Stygand the settling the precedency between Canterbury and York the instructions I mentioned of Hen. 1. to his Bishops the right of the Kingdome that none should be drawn out of it auctoritate Apostolica do enough assure us if recourse were had to Rome it was onely ut majori Concilio decidatur quod terminari non pâ—tuit as to the more learned divines to the elder Church of greatest note in Europe by whom these were converted and therefore more reverenced by this as that was most sollicitous of their well-doing and most respected for their wisdome All which is manifest by that humble Letter Kenulphus others of Mercia wrote about 797. to Leo the 3. wherein it plainly appears he seeks to that See for direction because the conversion of the Nation first came from thence and there resided in it men of sound learning whom he doth therefore desire as quibus à Deo merito sapientiae clavis collata est ut super hac causa which was the placing an Archiepiscopall chair at Litchfield cum sapientibus vestris quaeratis quicquid vobis videatur nobis postea rescribere dignemini By which it is clear his inquisition was as unto persons of profound literature had the key of knowledge conferred
hujusmodi de caetero emanarunt ad provisionem ipsorum inviti non teneamur nisi de hac indul gentia plenam fecerint mentionem Dat. Lateran 15. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno 4 to c. could quiet the English or keep them from that confederation in Mat. Paris 1231. beginning Tali Episcopo tali capitulo Vniversitas eorum qui magis volunt mori quam à Romanis confundi c. Which the Popes by wisdome and joyning the Regall auctority with their spirituall sound means to bring to nought and pursuing the Papall interest without regarding what had past from them gave the Kingdome occasion 1241. to observe that in onely three years Otho had remained Legat here he bestowed more then 300. spirituall promotions ad fuam vel Papae voluntatem the Pope having contracted as the report went with the Romans to confer to none but their Children and Allies the rich benefices here especially of Religious houses as those perhaps he had most power over and to that effect had writ to the Bishops of Canterbury and Salisbury ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent So that in the Councell at Lions 1245. they complain of these exorbitances and shew the revenues the Italians received in England not to be lesse then 60 thousand marks of which more hereafter and in the year following 1246. reiterated their griefs to Innocentius 4 tus quod Italicus Italico succedit Which yet was with little successe for the Popes having as we have heard first settled all elections in the Ecclesiasticks and after upon severall occasions on the submitting of the English to his desires bestowed the benefices in this and other Kingdomes on his dependents Iohn the 22. or as some seem to think Clement the 5. his immediate predecessor endeavored the breaking of elections by Cathedralls and Convents reserving the free donation of all preferments to himself alone 70. From whence proceeded the reiterated complaints â— against Papall Provisions in the Parliaments of Edward the 3. and Ric. the 2. for this Kingdome never received his attempts in that kind to which purpose the History of Iohn Devenish is remarkable The Abbot of St. Augustines dying 1346. the 20. Ed. 3. the Convent by the Kings leave chose VVm. Kenington but Clement the 6. by Provision bestowed the Abbacy on Iohn Devenish whom the King did not approve of yet came thither armed with Papall auctority The Prior and Convent upon command absolutely denyed him entrance ingressum monasterii in capite denegando who thereupon returned to Avignon The businesse lying two years in agitation the King in the end for avoyding expences and other inconveniences ex abundanti concessit ut si idem Iohannes posset obtinere à summo Pontifice quod posset mutare stylum suae creationis â—ive provisionis scilicet non promoveri Abbatia praedicta ratione donationâ—s vel provisionis Apostolicae sed ratione electionis capituli hujus loci illa vice annueret suis temporalibus gaudere permitteret sed quidem hujusmodi causa coram ipso summo Pontifice proposita concludendo dixit se malle cedere Pontificio quam suum decretum taliter revocare c. Which so afflicted the poor man as the grief killed him on St. Iohn Baptists Eve 1348. without ever entring the Abby and the dispute still continuing the Pope 1349. wrote to the King Ne Rex impediret aut impediri permitteret promotos à curia per bullas acceptare beneficia sibi taliter incumbentia To which his Mary answer'd Quod Rex bene acceptaret provisos clericos qui esseâ—t bonae conditionis qui digni essent promoveri alios non 71. But the year following 1350. the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons meeting in Parliament complain with great resentment of these Papall grants shewing the Court of Rome had reserved to it self both the collation of Abbeys Priories c. as of late in generall all the dignities of England and Prebends in Cathedrall Churches c. Upon which the statute of Provisors was in that Parliament enacted which was the leader to those other statutes 27 and 38. Ed. 3. The 48. Ed. 3. 1374. the treaty between Ed. the 3. and Gregory the XI was concluded after two years agitation wherein it was expressely agreed quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur c. Notwithstanding which the Commons the next Parliament prefer'd a petition shewing all the benefices of England would not suffice the Cardinalls then in being the Pope having by the addition of XII new ones raised the number to XXX which was usually not above XII in all and therefore they desire it may be ordained and proclaimed that neither the Pope nor Cardinalls have any Procurator or Collector in England sur peine de vie de membre c. Yet the inconveniences still continuing 3. Ric. 2. produced that statute is in the print I shall not here repeat otherwise then that the Commons in the Roll seem to lay the beginning of these excesses no higher then Clement the 5. 72. By these arts degrees and accessions the Church of Rome grew by little and little to that immensenesse of opinion and power it had in our nation which might in some measure whilst it was exercised by connivence onely upon the good correspondency the Papacy held with our Kings and Church be tolerated and the Kingdome at any time by good Lawes redresse the inconveniences it susteined But that which hath made the disputes never to be ended the parties not to be reconciled is an affirmation that Christ commanding Peter to feed his sheep did with that give him so absolute a power in the Church and derived the like to his successors Bishops of Rome as without his assent no particular Church or Kingdome could reform it self and for that he as a Bishop cannot be denied to have as much power as others from Christ and may therefore in some sense be said to be Christs Vicar to appropriate it onely to the Pope and draw thence a conclusion that jure divino he might and did command in all particulars Vice Christi And though no other Church in the Christian World doth agree with the Roman in this interpretation though Historians of unquestioned sincerity have as we have in some measure heard in their own ages deliver'd when and how these additions crept in and by what oppositions gained that our Princes have with th' advise of the Lay and Clergy ever here moderated th' exorbitances of the Papacy in some particular or other and likewise reformed this Church though the stipulations between our Kings and Rome have not been perpetuall but temporary not absolute but conditionall as is to be seen in that past between Alexander the 3. and Hen. the 2. viz. juravit quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis
of the English Church so there is no question but it hath been ever the Tenet of it Pontificem Romanum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacrâ Scripturâ in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Which our Historians do mention as what proceeded from the constitutions of the Church and assent of Emperors not as of a thing in it self juris divini insomuch as 80. That proposition when it was propounded 1534. in Henry the 8 ths time in convocation all the Bishops without exception and of others onely one doubted and four placed all Ecclesiastick power in the Pope both the Universities and most of the Monasteries and Collegiat Churches of England approved avowed as the undoubted opinion of the Church of this Nation in all ages Neither can I see how it can be otherwise for if the Church of Canterbury were omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione if it were Mater omnium Anglicanarum Ecclesiarum suo post Deum proprio laetatur pastore that is if th' Archbishop had no mediate spirituall superior but Christ God if the power the Pope exercised over him within this Realm were voluâ—tate beneficio gained as I have shewed by little little voluntarily submitted unto it could be no other then jure humano and then it must be granted the Church of England could not hold any necessity of being in subjection to the See or Church of Rome jure divino as it is manifest they did not in that they sometimes acknowleded no Pope otherwhiles shewed an intent of departing from his union and the Bishops as well as Lay Lords advised Anselm Vrbani obedientiam abijcere subjectionis jugum excutere c. Neither could the Church of England be any way possible guilty of Schism adhering to their Ghostly Superior next and immediate under Christ Iesus As for the temporall profits the Court of Rome received hence though the denying them can be no just cause of such a spirituall imputation especially on privat men yet certainly who will examin their beginning as he shall find it to have been by the bounty or permission of our Princes so upon search he will perceive the Kingdome went no farther then the Common Law the precedent of former times and such an exigency did force them to of which therefore I shall adde a word or two CHAP. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England THe vast summes the Court of Rome did of late years upon severall occasions export out of this Kingdome mentioned in the statute of the 25. Hen. the 8. are spoken of by severall of our writers and though some have in generall expressed how much the Nation suffer'd in that kind yet none that I know in one tract did ever shew by what degrees the Papacy gained so great a revenue as the Commons in Edward the thirds dayes had cause to complain it did turn a plus grand destruction du Royaume qe toute la guerre nostre Seigneur le Roy. I have thought therefore that it will not be amisse to set down how the Pope came to have so great an influence over the treasure of the Clergy in this Land by seeking out how and when the greatest of the paiments made to him began what interruptions or oppositions were met with either at the beginning or in the continuance of them 2. The first payment that I have read of which gave the Pope an entrance as it were in to it was that bounty of our Princes known to this day by the name of Peter-Pence and this as it was given for an Almes by our Kings so was it no otherwise received by the Court of Rome Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita perperaâ—â— doloseque collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit saith Paschalis the 2. So that no question Polidore Virgil very inconsiderately termes it vectigal and others who by that gift contend the Kingdome became tributarium feudatarium S to Petro ejusque successoribus for though the word tributum may perhaps be met with in elder writers yet never did any understand the Pope by it to become a Superior Lord of the Lay fee but used the word metaphorically as we do to this day terme a constant rent a kind of tribute and to those who pay it and over whom we have in some sort a command we give the title of subjects not as being Princes over them but in that particular being under us they are for it styled our inferiors 3. What Saxon King first conferred them whether Ina as Ranulphus Cestrensis sayes report carryed or Offa as Iorvalensis I will not here enquire as not greatly materiall Polidore Virgil tells some write Ethelwolphus continued it with whom Brompton seems to concur It is true our Historians remember he caused 300. mancusas denariorum Malmsbury renders it trecentas auri marcas which was ten times the value of silver as another trecenta talenta to be carried every year from hence to Rome which could be no other then the just application of Peter-Pence for amongst sundry complaints long after from Rome we find the omission of no paiment instanced in but of that duty onely neither do the body of the Kingdome in their Remonstrance to Innocentius 4. 1246. mention any other as due from hence to Rome 4. This therefore thus confer'd by our Kings was for the generality continued to the Papacy yet to shew as it were that it proceeded only from the liberality of our Princes not without some stops Of those in the times of VVilliam the first Henry his Son I have spoke Henry the 2. during the dispute with Becket and Alexander the 3. commanded the Sheriffs through England that Denariibeati Petri colligantur serventur quousque inde Deminus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit During the Reign of Edward the 3. the Popes abiding at Avignon many of them French their partiality to that side and the many Victories obtained by th' English begat the proverb Ore est le Pape devenu Françeis Iesu devenu Angleis c. about which time our Historians observe the King gave command no Peter-Pence should be gather'd or pay'd to Rome And this restraint it seems continued all that Princes time for Richard the 2. his successor at his beginning caused Iohn Wickliffe esteemed the most knowing man of those times to consider the right of stopping them whose determination in that particular yet remains entituled Responsio Magistri Iohannis Wicliff ad dubium infrascriptum quaesitum ab eo per Dominum Regem Angliae Richardum secundum magnum Concilium anno regni sui primo then the question followes Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae
possit legitime imminente necessitate suae defensionis thesaurum Regnidetinere ne deferatur ad exteros etiam Domino Papa sub poena censurarum virtute obedientiae hoc petente relicto viris peritis quid dici debet in ista materia secundum jus canonâ—cum secundum jus Angliae velcivile solum restat suadere partem affirmativam dubii secundum principia legis Christi then shews those paiments being no other then Almes the Kingdome was not obliged to continue them longer then stood with its own convenience and not to its detriment or ruine agreeing therein with that of Divines extra casus necessitatis superfluitatis Eleemosyna non est in praecepto 5. But in the Parliament held the same year the question was concluded for there this petition being prefer'd que y puisse estre declaree en cest present Parlement si la charge de la denir Seint Pierre appelle Rome peny seraleve des dites Commes paye al Collector nostre Seint Perele Pape ou noun the answer was soit fait come devant ad este usee By which the use of them being again returned did so remain till Henry the 8 ths time For though in a councell held at London 1408 it was treated de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis yet that it past farther then words I have not observed But King Henry 1533 4 took them so absolutely away as though Queen Mary repealed that Act and Paulus Quartus dealt earnestly with her Agents in Rome for restoring the use of them yet I cannot find they were ever gather'd and sent thither during her time but where some Monasteries did answer them to the Pope and did therefore collect the taxe that in processe of time became as by custome pay'd to that house which being after derived to the Crown and from thence by grant to others with as ample profits as the Religious persons did possesse them I conceive they are to this day pay'd as an appendant to the said Mannors by the name of Smoak-mony 6. Before I passe from this one thing is not to be omitted that however the Pope had this as a due and for that end his Collector did abide in England yet he might not raise the auncient accustomed proportion of the Taxe nor in any kind alter the manner of taking it for when Rigandus from the Pope endeavored that he was streightly prohibited by Edward the 2. The Act it self is printed As for the value these Peter-Pence did amount to I have seen in an old MS. belonging to the Church of Chichester a Bull said to be of Gregory 5 ths that did proportion them after this manner Episcop Episcop  l. s. d.  l. s. d. Cant. 07 18 00 Exoniensis 09 05 00 London 10 10 00 Wigorniensis 10 05 00 Roffensis 05 10 00 Herefordens 06 00 00 Norwicensis 21 00 00 Bathon 12 00 00 Eliensis 05 00 00 Sarisbur 17 00 00 Lincolniensis 42 00 00 Coventrensis 10 00 00 Cicestrensis 08 00 00 Eborac 11 10 00 Winton 17 06 08     Dat. apud Vrbem Veterem x. Kalend. Maii Pontificatus nostri anno secundo But this could not be the Bull of Gregory the 5. who dyed about 997. before Ely was erected or Episcopall chaires placed in Lincoln or Norwich 7. The last article in the oath prescribed the Clergy from the Pope of obedience to him was not any way to alienate the possessions of their houses inconsulto Romano Pontifice Whether this clause were inserted when 1115 it was first required of Raulf th' Archbishop of Cant. I have not been able to certify my self and am apt to believe it was not for though we find it in Math. Paris when it was first imposed on Abbots and Bishops yet that was after the Court of Rome had tasted the sweetnesse of taxing other Churches neither is it in any of those conditions mentioned by Diceto But when ever it came in it implying a right of alienating the possessions of Religious houses and Churches with the Papall licence bred an opinion that without his assent there could be no good sale made of their estates by any temporall or spirituall power whatsoever though with their own concurrence and the Court of Rome grew to maintain That being a Mother she ought to be relieved by her Children Gelasius the second in his distresse 1118 is said to have desired à Normannica Ecclesia subsidium orationum magis pecuniarum yet certainly the Norman Church did not then at all condescend to any for the French Agent in the Lugubri querimonia of which before mentions him amongst divers others who expell'd Italy fled into France for succour yet non in aliquo gravaverunt Ecclesiam Gallicanam nec dando beneficta nec petendo subsidium pecuniae vel armorum sed spiritualibus armis scilicet lacrymis orationibus quae sunt arma ministrorum Christi maluerunt esse contenti c. So that certainly if any collection were made for Gelasius it was so private publick notice was not taken of it 8. The first extraordinary contribution raised by allowance for the Popes use in this Kingdome I take not to have been before 1183. when Lucius 3 us at odds with the Citizens of Rome not any ways able to resist their fury sent to Henry the 2. postulans ab eo à clericatu Angliae auxilium The thing was taken into consideration and for the precedent it was not thought fit any thing should be given as from the Clergy but that they might raise a supply amongst themselves for the King without permitting a forraign Agent to intermeddle and his Majesty might with that relieve the Pope as he should see occasion But take in the Historian his own words Consuluit Rex Episcopos suos clerum Angliae de petitione summi Pontificis cui Episcopus Clerus consuluerunt ut ipse secundum voluntatem suam honorem faceret auxilium Domino Papae tam pro se quam illis quia tolerabilius esset plus placeret eis quod Dominus Rex si vellet accepisset ab eis recompensationem auxilii illius quam si permisisset nuncios Domini Papae in Angliam venire ad capiendum de iis auxilium quia si aliter fiereâ— posset verti in consuetudinem ad detrimentum regni Adquâ—â—vit Rex consilio corum fecit auxilium magnum Domino Papae in auro argento The judicious reader may observe hence things very remarkable as that the King did in points concerned the Pope consult with the English Church and followed their advise the great care the Clergy took to avoid any sinister consequence in future and therefore did themselves give to the Prince as to whom it was due from them and not to the Pope who by custome might come to claim it as indeed he
did after step so far as to prohibit their giving the King at all without his license endeavouring the gaining a supremacy over them as well in Temporalls as Spiritualls who hitherto had not meddled with collections of that nature For the same Henry about 17 years before after th' example of the French did cause a supply be made for the relief of the Eastern Church but I do not find it to have been either upon any motion from Rome or any part of what was so levyed to have been converted that way 9. But the former granted 1183. passing with so great circumspection perswaded the Popes not to think fit sodainly as it seems of attempting the like yet that the Church of England might not be unaccustomed to paiments they sometimes exhorted Christians to the subvention of the Holy Land and thereupon did distribute Spirituall Indulgences which cost them â—ot a farthing and procured Princes to impose on their Subjects for that end so did Clement the 3. or rather Gregory the 8 th about 1187. stir up Hen. the 2. and Philip Augustus Innocentius 3. King Iohn and as a generall Superintendent over the Clergy did then intromit himself and his Agents in the raising of it and so did convert some good proportion to his own use insomuch as Iohannes Ferentinus sent hither 1206. from the same Innocentius 3 us carryed hence a good quantity upon which King Iohn writ unto the Pope 1207. quod uberiores sibi fructus proveniant de regno Angliae quam de omnibus regionibus citra Alpes constitutis c. Yet truly to raise any considerable summe of mony from the whole body of the Clergy for support of the Papall designs I do not find any great attempt before Gregory the ix 1229. demanded a tenth of the moveables of both Lay and Ecclesiasticks to which the Temporall Lords would not at all assent Nolentes Baronias vel laicas possessiones Romanae Ecclesiae obligare and the Clergy were unwillingly induced to the contribution The Pope thus entred meddled no more with the Lay but of the Clergy eleven years after he demanded by his Legat a fifth part of their goods Many meetings were had about it they shewed the King they held their Baronies of him and could not without his assent charge them that having formerly given a tenth this of a fifth might create a custome and at a meeting in Barkshâ—re exhibited sundry solid reasons too long to be here repeated against the contribution But nothing would serve the King made for it and th' Archbishop out of private ends paying it they were in the end forced to yield such a supply as at his departure the year following it was say'd there did not remain so much treasure in the Kingdome as he had in three years extorted from it the vessells and ornaments of Churches excepted 10. But neither the paying it with so great reluctancy nor the Remonstrance prefer'd in the Councell of Lions 1245. from the body of the Kingdome of the severall exactions the Nation lay under from Rome and likewise to the Pope himself the year following could any way stop the proceedings but Innocentius 4 tus 1246 invented a new way to charge every Religious house with finding and paying a quantity of souldiers for his service in the wars for one year which being required from both the English and French produced here those prohibitions in the same Author against raising any Tallagium or auxilium But the French caused their Agent to use a serious expostulation in the businesse which because it is not printed I shall deliver at large as I find it Nuncii de novo accesserunt nova gravamina addentes supradictis Nuper enim mandavistis Ecclesiis ut quia persecutor vester ad partes istas venturus est mittant vobis militiam munitam ad resistendum ei quia non est concilium cedere venienti super quo satis excusabiles sunt Ecclesiae quia non habent militiam nec est in parte eorum mittere quod non habent quos etiamsi haberent mitterent non est tutum confidâ—re de ipsis Nec scitur etiam de illis utrum venturus sit quia etiamsi veniret praeferendum esset ut videretur concilio humano concilium Domini qui dicit Si persecuti fuerint vos in unam civitatem fugite in aliam c. And in the same year he attempted the making himself heir to any Clerk that should die intestate and the year following received from the Clergy eleven thousand marks exceptis exemptis tribus clericis as an addition to six thousand he had received the year before 11. I shall not here take upon me to repeat all the times and wayes by which the subject had his purse thus drained the labour would be too great and the profit too little it shall suffice to note the Court of Rome by much strugling overcame in the end all difficulties did arrive to that height the Commons were forced in Parliament 1376. to prefer this petition Si tost come le Pape voet avoir monoie pur maintenir ses guerres de Lombardy ou ailleurs pur despendere ou pur raunson auscuns de ses amys prisoners Fraunceys prises par Englois il voet avoir subsidie de Clergie d' Engleterre tantost celuy est grantez par les Prelats a cause qe les Evesqes n'osent luy contrestere est leve de Clergie sans lour assent ent avoir devant Et les Seculers Seigneurs my preignent garde ne ne font face coment le Clergie est destruict la monoye de Royalme malement emporte 12. And indeed the Kingdome had great reason thus to complain see one of many examples that may be alledged In the year 1343 the 17. Ed. 3. Clement the 6. sent hither to provide for two Cardinall Priests one out of the Province of York the other Canterbury in spirituall livings to the value of 1000. marks a piece sur une si generale coverte maniere qe la somme passer a dix mille marqes avant qe le doun soit accept But the State would not endure this but chasing their Agents out of the Kingdome the King sent through every County Ne quis ab eo tempore deinceps admitteretur per bullam sine speciali licentia Regis And a little after the Parliament held the 20. of Ed. 3. 1346. the Commons yet more plainly Nous ne voulons soeffrer qe payement soit fait as Cardinalx pour lour demoere en France de treter c. And soon after they represent this very particular of 2000. marks to be en anientissement de la terre and encrese de nos enemies and therefore qu'â—ls ne soient en nul maniere soâ—fferts c. In both which his Ma tie gives them content 13. Neither
vacantium which not occurring of any Pope before I cannot ascribe other to have begun them then he who though in a bull dated the 5. Ianuary 4. Pontificatus he mention Fructus redditus proventus primi anni beneficiorum yet by the doubts he there resolves shews the practice of them then newly brought into the Church But whereas the writers before-named agree the English of all Nations never received in this the full extent of the Papall commands I conceive it to arise from the good Laws they made against them of which before and after 17. It is hardly credible how great a masse of treasure was by these wayes sent hence into Italy The revenues th' Italians were possest of in England 1245. are accounted not lesse then 60. thousand Marks 1252. it was thought they did amount to 70. thousand all which for the most drained thither and in the Parliament held about an hundred years after the Commons shew what went hence to the Court of Rome tourne a plus grand destruction du Royalme qe toute la guerre nostre Seigr. le Roy yet notwithstanding so many statutes as were made by that Prince for moderating the excesses in this kind the 50 th they complain I shall give it contractedly the Popes collectâ—r here held a receipt equall to a Prince or Duke sent annually to Rome from the Clergy for Procuration of Albeys Priories First-fruits c. xx thousand Marks some years more others lesse and to Cardinalls and other Clerks beneficed in England as much besides what was conveyed to English Clerks remaining there to sollicite the affairs of the Nation upon which they desire his Ma â—y no collector of the Pope may reside in England 18. But the King as it seems not greatly complying with their desires the year following they again instance that certain Cardinalls notorious enemies had procured a clause d'anteferri to certain benefices within the Provinces of Canterbury and York that the Popes Collector was as very an enemy to this State as the French themselves that his house-keeping here at the Clergies cost was not lesse then 300l. by the year that he sent annually from hence beyond Seas at one time 20 thousand marks sometimes 20. thousand pounds and what was worse espyed the secrets of the Kingdome vacations of benefices and so dayly made the certainty known to the said Court did now raise for the Pope the first-fruits of all dignities and other smaller promotions causing by oath to pay the true value of them surmounting the rate they were formerly taxed at which now in the very beginning ought to be crusht c. Vpon which considerations they desire all strangâ—rs Clerks and others excepting Knights Esquires Merchants Artificers might sodainly avoid the Kingdom no subjects without the Kings expresse licence to be Proctors Aturneys Fâ—rmors to any such Alyen under the pain after Proclamation made of life member losse of lands and goods and to be dealt with as theeves and robbers no mony during the wars to be transported out of the Kingdom by exchange or otherwise on the forfeiture of it But to this the answer onely was Setiegnent les estatutz ordonances ent faites Whereupon the next Parliament the Commons prefer'd again three Petitions touching I. The paiment of First-fruits taken come due a la chambre nostre seint Pere yet not used in the Realme before these times was contrary to former treaties with the Pope c. II. Reservations of benefiâ—es III. By that way bestowing them on Alyens who sundry times employed the profits of them towards the raunsoming or araying their friends enemies to the King Of all which they desire his Ma ty to provide remedy as also that the Petitions the two last Parliaments of which before might be consider'd and convenient remedy ordained To which the answer is Les Seig rs du grand conseil ordeigneront due remedie sur les matires comprises enâ—estes trois billes precedentes And here I take the grand Councell to be the Privy Councell not the Lords in or out of Parliament called the grand Councell for the greatnesse of the affairs fell within their cognizance and named the 5. of Hen. the 4. to consist onely of six Bishops one Duke two Earls and other in all to the number of 22. 19. What order they establisht I have not met with it is manifest not to have been such as gave the satisfaction hoped for by the Commons renewing in effect both 3 o. and 5 to Ric. 2. the same suites and the inconveniences still continuing in the year 1386 7. 10. Ric. 2. William Weld was chosen Abbot of S. Augustins in the place of Michael newly dead who troubled with a quartan ague the French and Dutch on the seas the King inhibited his going to Rome for confirmation c. He thereupon employs William Thorn from whose pen we have the relation hoping to be excused himself of the journey who shewing the sufferings of the house the miserable state he must leave it in that he would expose it irrecuperabili casui ruinae that the King had commanded his stay was in the end told by the Pope after all means he could use Rex tuus praecipit quod non veniat electus ille Ego volo quod compareat examini se subjiciat and again after yet more earnest sollicitation quia audivimus turbationem inter Regem Barones suos the fittest time to contest with a prince multa sinistra de persona electi quod cederet Romanae ecclesiae in praejudicium absque personali comparitione non intendimus ipsum confirmare ne daretur posteris in exemplum The cause hanging three years in suspense the Abbot in fine was forced to appear in Rome for his benediction and returned with it not to his house till about the end of March 1389. the 12. Ric. 2. After which the next Parliament obtained the statute of Premunire against the Popes conferring any Benefice within the said Kingdome from the 29 of Ianuary then ensuing and no person to send or bring any summons or sentence of excommunication against any for the execution of the same law on the pain of being arrested put in prison forfeiture of his lands tenements c. and incurring the pain of life member c. The intent of which law Polidor Virgil rightly interprets to have been a confining the Papall auctority within the Ocean and for the frequent exactions of Rome ut nulli mortalium deinceps liceret pro quavis causa agere apud Romanum Pontificem ut quispiam in Anglia ejus autoritate impius religionisque hostis publice declararetur neve exequi tale mandatum si quod ab illo haberet c. To which law three years after some other additions were made and none of these were ever repealed by Queen Mary who though she did admit a union with the
be baptized within 30 days after birth Leg. Inae cap. 2. pag. 1. II. And because it seems some Priests were negligent performers of that duty That such as were not prepared or denied the baptizing of them should be punished Leg. Ed. Guthruni cap. 3. pag. 42. excerptiones Egberti cap. 10 11 12. in concil Spelm. pag. 259. where you may observe the Kings precept to impose on the transgressor the payment of 12 ora but the Bishops to be onely persuasive III. No person to be admitted to the Eucharist be a Godfather receive confirmation from a Bishop not knowing the Pater Noster and Belief Canones dati sub Edgaro legibus ejus annexi cap. 17. 22. p. 67. Leg. Canuti cap. 22. p. 105. Spelm. Concil cap. 22. pag. 599. IV. That persons instructed should receive the Communion thrice every year Leg. Canut cap. 19. p. 104. V. Restrained by their laws matrimony to the 6th degree of consanguinity Leg. Canut cap. 7. p. 101. VI. Reserved to themselves a liberty of dispensing with the marriage even of Nuns Leg. Alured cap. 8. p. 25. And it is not to be forgot in that particular Lanfrank joyns the Kings advise as a person of equall power with his own hoc est saith he consilium Regis nostrum VII Commanded th' observance of Lent principali auctoritate Beda lib. 3. cap. 8. VIII Appointed certain daies to be held festivall by the better sort but allowed the servant and labourer to work in them Leg. Aluredi cap. 39. pag. 33. which the laws of Canutus seem after to take away Leg. Canut cap. 42 43. pag. 118. See there pag. 103. cap. 14 16 17. which was likewise exercised 1393. by Richard the 2. I omit here their edicts for the observation of the Lords day payment of Tythes Incontinency and such like held now merely of Ecclesiastick cognizance for the multiplicity of them IX Divided old and erected new Bishopricks Beda lib. 3. cap. 7. lib. 4. cap. 12. lib. 5. cap. 19. And yet this is that Cardinall Bellarmine holds a point of so high concernment no man can do it without auctority obtained from Rome which yet we never read to have been asked though Theodore 679 erected five consensu Regis at one time and some other altogether without the Popes liking as those in the North after th' expulsion of Wilfrid Confer Beda lib. 4. cap. 12. cum libro 5. cap. 20. But of this before X. Caused the Clergy of their Kingdome to meet in councels Malms fol. 26. a. 38. and sometimes presided themselves in them though the Popes Legate were present Concil Spelm. pag. 292 293. pag. 189 passim ibid. Vita Lanfranci cap. 6. col 1. pag. 7. Vide Florent Wigorn An. 1070. pag. 434. 7. Of the Crowns commanding in these particulars it is apparent to have been in possession the Pope seeing and not interrupting any whit whilst the Saxon and Dane bare here the sway when to speak truth it seems to me not so much to have been insisted on by whose auctority the thing commanded was done as a care taken of all sides nothing should be required but just and pious which made each precept without dispute from what author soever it proceeded be readily yielded unto and so the Normans found it under whom the first contentions concerning jurisdiction with the See of Rome began For before William the first possest himself of this Crown it is certain the English Bishops had no ordinary Courts distinguish'd from the Lay but both secular and ecclesiastick Magistrate fate and judged together what pertained ad observantiam religiouis locis suis à suae diaoeceseos synodis as was likewise the custome in France 8. This were enough manifest in that we find the Lay not only present but subscribers to many of our ancient Councels did not the laws of Ethelstan Edgar Canutus farther assure us It is probable inferiour judicatures did refer matters of doubt to the greater Courts or scyâ—egemor to be held twice a year as the former edicts and some Councels did establish which produced that care in the Councel of Celichyth 816. the Bishop should transcribe judgements given in qualicunque synodo of what pertained to his diocese and he to keep one copy and the party whom it concerned another of such determination which I take to be those laws mentioned by Eadmerus which as they were reposed in some parts of the Church so were the pleas as it seems usually there held But the Conqueror finding these proceedings to be non bene neque secundum sanctorum canonum praecepta c. did by his Charter make a distinction of the Courts that such as were convented by the Bishop should answer non secundum Hundred sed secundum canones episcopales leges c. The Charter to Remigius Bishop of Lincoln is upon record published by many and was certainly by the Conquerour directed to every Diocese through the Kingdome for I have seen in an hand of Edward the first one for London testifying it was then found in the Episcopall register there 9. When this past the King whether at the Popes Legats being here for deposing Stygand 1070. about which time Historians remember he made some beginning for settling the English laws and is therefore likely to have then past this or when they were here for settling the dispute between York and Canterbury or at what other time is uncertain Yet I cannot deny it seemeth to me to have given th' occasion of those expressions in Alexander the 2. his letter to him that the world in maligno positus plus solito pravis incumbat studiis tamen inter mundi principes rectores egregiam vestrae religionis famam intelligimus quantum honoris sanctae Ecclesiae tum Simoniacae vires opprimendo which is apparently spoken of Stygand tum catholicae libertatis usus officia by which questionlesse he points at this charter confirmando vestra virtus impendat non dubia relatione cognoscimus c. Now certainly if he did grant it during the life of the Pope it must not have been after 1073. in which year he died I confesse I have not met with any clear example of the practice of it during the reigns of that King or either of his children For though Anselme about 1106. writes to Henry the first who had punisht certain Clerks not observing the decrees of a Councell held at Westminster 1102 quod hactenus inauditum inusitatum in ecclesia Dei de ullo Rege de aliquo principe non enim pertinet secundum legem Dei hujusmodi culpam vindicare nisi ad singulos episcopos per suas parochias yet I conceive this is to be interpreted of the King doing it alone without the Bishop not when they both joyned together after the manner then in use which himself
which is printed but th' English were to be such as should be agreed to praelatis accitis de mandato auctoritate praedicti invictissimi Angliae Regis whose determinations were to be consensu ejusde invictissimi Angliae Regis But where my Lord Herbert conceivs this to have been the first taste our King took in governing the Clergy I can no way be of his opinion for without peradventure the Cardinall neither did nor durst have moved one step in making the Ecclesiasticks lesse depend on the Papacy then the Common law or custome of the realm warranted knowing he must without that back have lost not onely Clement the 7. but all Popes and the Court of Rome which must and had been his support on the declining favour of so heady and dangerous a Prince as Henry the 8 th had he not cast off both the Cardinall and his obedience to that See almost together But how much he had the Clergy before this under his government the History of Richard Hunne is witnesse sufficient and the rights the Conquerour and his successours were ever in contest with the Papacy about and maintained as the laws customs of the Realm enough shew they did not command th' Ecclesiasticks here according to the will of any forraign potentate nor were meer lookers on whilst another govern'd the English Church some of which I shall therefore here set down I. They admitted none to be taken for Pope but by the Kings appointment II. None to receive letters from him without shewing them to the King who caused all words prejudiciall to him or his crown to be renounced by the bringers or receivers of them III. Permitted no councels but by their liking to assemble which gained the name of convocations as that alwayes hath been and ought to be assembled by the Kings writ IV. Caused some to sit in them might supervise the actions and legato ex parte Regis regni inhiberent ne ibi contra Regiam coronam dignitatem aliquid statuere attentaret and when any did otherwise he was forced to retract that he had done as did Peckham or were in paucis servatae as those of Boniface V. Suffered no Synodicall deree to be of force but by their allowance and confirmation Rex auditis concilii gestis consensum praebuit auctoritate regia potestate concessit confirmavit statuta concilii à Gulielmo Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo sanctae Romanae ecclesiae legato apud Westmonasterium celebratt In hoc concilio ademendationem ecclesiae Anglicanae assensu Domini Regis primorum omnium regni haec subscripta promulgata sunt capitula c. VI. Permitted no Bishop to excommunicate or inflict any ecclesiastick censure on any Baron or Officer nisi ejus praecepto VII Caused the Bishops appear in their Courts to give account why they excommunicated the subject VIII Caused such as were imprisoned after fourty dayes standing excommunicate to be freed by writ without th' assent of the Prelat or satisfaction giving the King and his Iudges communicating with them tam in divinis quam profanis and commanding none to shun them though by the Ordinary denounced excommunicate IX Suffered no Legat enter England but with their leave of which before X. Determined matters of Episcopacy inconsulto Romano Pontifice XI Permitted no Appeal to Rome of which before XII Bestowed Bishopricks on such as they liked and translated Bishops from one See to another XIII Erected new Bishopricks so did Hen. the 1. 1109. Ely taking it out of Lincolne Carlisle 1133. out of York or rather Duresme but of this before XIV Commanded by writ their Bishops to residency XV. Commanded their Bishops by reason of Schism vacancie of the Popedome c. not to seek confirmation from Rome but the Metropolitan to be charged by the Kings writ to bestow it on the elected XVI Placed by a lay hand Clerks in Prebendary or Parochiall Churches Ordinariis penitus irrequisitis And it is not here unworthy the remembring that VV m Lyndwood a very learned Canonist who writ about an 100. yeares before Henry the 8 ths difference with Clement the 7. finding the Crown in possession of this particular not agreeing with the rules of the Canon law is so perplext as in the end he finds no way to make the act valid but that he doth it by Papall priviledge For if by prescription Episcopo sâ—iente tolerante it could not be good for though the King might confer the temporalls of the Church non tamen potest dare jure suo potestatem circa spiritualia viz. circa ea quae pertinent ad regimen ecclesiasticum ministrationem sacramentorum sacramentalium nec non circa ecclesiasticae jurisdictionis exercitium hujusmodi quae jure spiritualia sunt nec in hoc casu potest sibi prodesse praescriptio etiam longissimi temporis quia talia spiritualia non possunt per regem possideri per consequens nec ut transeant sub sua potestate possunt praescribi nec consuetudine introduci c. In which he will havean hard contest with divers French and Italians who maintain Che tutte le raggioni che si possono acquistare per dispensa del Papa si possono acquistar anco per consuetudine la quale sopravenga contraria alla legge that a prince may prescribe for such acts as he can acquire by the Popes dispensation XVII Prohibited the Lay yielding obedience or answering by Oath to their Ecclesiastick superiour inquiring de peccatis subditorum which I take to have been in cases not properly of their cognizance not of witnesses either in causes Matrimoniall or Testamentary XVIII I shall conclude these particulars with one observation in Mat. Paris where the Ecclesiasticks having enumerated severall cases in which they held themselves hardly dealt with adde That in all of them if the spirituall Iudge proceeded contrary to the Kings prohibition he was attached appearing before the Iustices constrained to produce his proceedings that they might determine to which court the cause belonged and if found to pertain to the secular the spirituall Iudges were blamed and on confession they had proceeded after the prohibition were amerced but denying it were compell'd to make it good by the testimony of two vile Varlets but refusing such purgation were imprisoned till by oath they freed themselves to the Iustices that being cleared even by the Lay they had no satisfaction for their expence and trouble By which by the way it is manifest how much the Kings Courts had the superintendency over the Ecclesiastick 18. These and many other particulars of the like nature daily exercised notwithstanding the clamour of some Ecclesiasticks more affecting their own party then the rights of the Crown make there can be no scruple but the English did ever understand the
all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury both to the Pope and Becket enough assure us how undoubted it was in those dayes that our Kings following the advise of the English Church did proceed on safe grounds for their justification in such quarrells 6. Neither was the opinion returned by these Divines so differing from the writings of other learned men as might make them any way guilty of schism Gerson speaking of the severall degrees of Divine truths places for the first such as are expresse in Scripture secondly those that are by evident consequence deduced from thence thirdly such as being delivered by Christ have been by the constant tradition of the Church derived to us of which he holds this proposition Vniversalis Ecclesia Pontifici Romano subjecta sit and adds non enim posset evidenter aut per consequentiam pure de fide ex legibus primi generis humana deductione fulciri c. and Contarenus in a small tract de potestate Pontificis of that question sayes An Auctoritas illa potestas qua Pontifex maximus fungitur sit ei consensu quodam hominis tributa an potius divinitus tradita qua de re hisce temporibus maximos tumultus excitatos esse perspicimus nec etiam veriti sint viri in omni disciplinarum genere celebres ac in Christianae Theologiae studio illustres in magno hominum conventu asserere hoc jus Pontificis humanume esse then adds that he ab horum hominum sententia maxime dissentire ac prope compertum habere divinitus concessum esse Pontifici jus illud c. So that this learned Cardinall was not altogether resolved in the point but as a disputable question had it prope compertum The truth of which I leave him to dispute with the Orientall Christians It is manifest Francis the first was of the contrary judgement and our Countryman Stapleton delivers it as a Catholick tenet of former times undoubtedly agreeing with that of the English Church non divino sed humano jure positivis ecclesiae decretis primatum Romani Pontificis niti c. 7. But I return to our King who now fortifyed by the opinion of the Universities publick disputations in the convocation and severall precedents of former Princes his predecessors in his rights whereas the Parliament before in some particulars restrained the profits of Rome as in the payments of Annates Peter-pence making Appeals to it whose beginnings with us I have formerly noted did the 26. Hen. 8. 1533 declare his Maty his heirs and successors Kings of this realm shall have full power auctority from tyme to tyme to visit represse redresse c. all such errors heresies abuses c. which by any manner spirituall authority or jurisdiction may be lawfully reformed repressed ordered redressed c. This the Court of Rome interpreted a falling off from the Church and the English no other then a declaration of that right had ever resided in the Crown and which I believe it will be a difficult task to disprove them in 8. For those two articles Paulus 3. accuses the King of as Hereticall and schismaticall viz. quod Romanus Pontifex caput ecclesiae Christi vicarius non erat quod ipse in Anglica ecclesia supremum caput existebat c. for the first I never heard it affirmed by the King in that generality the words import for the Pope is a temporall prince as well as a spirituall father and so far as I know he never denyed him to be the head of the Church of his own dominions nor of France and Spain c. if those Kingdomes will admit him to so great a preeminence the thing he onely stood upon is that he was not so instituted by Christ Universall Bishop and had alone from him such an omnipotency of power as made him absolute Monarch in effect of the universall Church and was so in England For his being vicar of Christ in that sense other Bishops may be said to be his vicegerents as before I do not see how it can be well denyed him but that this Vicarship did import the giving him that power he did then exercise here is what the Church of England hath ever constantly denied As for the Kings being Head of Church I have before shewed he neither took it nor the Parliament gave it in other sense then the French have alwayes attributed it to their Princes neither for ought I find was it so much sought by King Henry as prest on him by the Clergy of which the Bishop of Rochester was one that subscribâ—d to it and his Ancestors did the same things before he did after under the names of Protectors Tutors Christi vicarii Domini Agricolae c. 9. For the other particulars mentioned in the Bull as his beheading the Bishop or Cardinall of Rochester the burning of Beckets bones the taking the treasure and ornaments at his Shrine to which may be added the suppressing and converting into Lay hands the Monasteries of the Kingdome I shall not say much having not taken on me to defend that Princes actions Yet for the taking off the head of Rochester if he were convict of treason I must give the answer of Edward the 3. to the Clergy in that kind en droict de Clerks convictz de treason purceo qe le Roy toutz ses progenitors ount este seisis tut temps de faire jugement execution de Clercz convictz de treson devers le Roy sa Royale Mageste come de droict de la corone si est avis au Roy qe la ley en tien cas ne se poet changer and then he cannot be said to have dyed other wise then by law As for the goods and ornaments of Churches by him layd hold on it is certain his predecessors in their extremities had shew'd him the way as the Conquerour who took all the ready money was found in Religious houses Richard the first who took all to the very Chalices of Churches and yet th' Archbishop afterwards regio munimine septus universos monachorum to wit of Christ Church redditus oblationes tumbae beati martyris Thomae fecit saisiari in manu Regis and Edward the first 1296 fecit omnia regni monasteria perscrutari pecuniam inventam Londonias apportari fecitque lanas corias arrestari c. And in those dayes Bishops did tell Kings The saurus ecclesiae vester est nec absque vestra conscientia debuit amoveri to which the King verum est The saurus noster est ad defensionem terrae contra hostes peregrinos c. And perhaps it would be no hard labour to shew all Princes not onely here but elsewhere to have had how justly I will not determine a like persuasion And he then being excommunicated by Paulus 3. for maintaining what the Crown had ever been in
then the being excluded from such places of honour and profit as they held in the Common-wealth yet with this proviso that he who had an estate of inheritance in a temporall Office refused to take the said oath did after upon better perswasion conform himself should be restored unto the said estate and that such as should maintain or defend the auctority preeminence power or jurisdiction spirituall or ecclesiasticall of any forreign Prince Prelate Person State or Potentate whatsoever not naming the Pope as her father had done should be three times convict before he suffered the pains of death 3. This Bill which no doubt the Popes carriage drew on being expedited in the house of Commons received reformation by the Lords committed the 13. March to the Lord Marquess of Winchester Lord Treasurer the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of VVestmorland Shrewsbury Rutland Sussex Penbrook viscount Mountague Bishops Exeter Carlisle Barons Clynton Admirall Morley Rich Willoughby North no one of them then noted for Protestantisme the 18. March past the Lords none dissenting but 8. Bishops the Earl of Shrewsbury Viscount Mountague and the Abbot of VVestminster and the same day sent to the house of Commons who upon perusall found again what to amend it in so as it had not it's perfection in both Houses till Saturday the 6th of May when the Parliament ended the Monday following at which time onely Viscount Mountague the interessed Clergy opposed it By which it cannot be questioned but the generality of the Lords did interpret that law no other then as indeed it was a restoring the Crown to it 's ancient rights for if otherwise without doubt there would have been as great an opposition at least made against it as some other statutes which past that Parliament met with that the Marquess of VVinchester the Lords Morley Stafford Dudley VVharton Rich North joyned with the Earls of Shrewsbury Viscount Mountague and the Prelats to have stopt 4. But whereas some were induced to think by the generality of the words that affirm her Highness to be supreme governour as well in all spirituall or ecclesiasticall causes as temporall as if it had been an usurping upon the sacred function in the interior as I may say of the Church properly belonging to them in holy Orders her Maty the same year did declare She did not challenge any other auctority then was challenged and lately used by King Henry the 8th and Edw. 6. which is and was of ancient time due to th' imperiall crown of this Realme that is under God to have the Soveraignty and rule over all manner of persons born within these her realms c. And that to be the onely sense of the Oath she caused to be confirmed the next Parliament at which time a Synod being held for avoiding diversity of opinions and establishing of consent touching true religion c. it did expresly declare they did not give to our Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or the Sacraments But that onely prerogative is given in holy Scripture by God himself that is that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be ecclesiasticall or temporall and restrain with the civill sword the stubborn and evil-doers c. And these articles were likewise confirmed by Parliament 13. Eliz. cap. 12. so that no man can doubt this to have been other then an acknowledgement what Princes had done formerly in all ages might be justly continued not an introductory of a new law but the assertion of the old right of our Kings 5. Another matter of great weight then likewise expedited was the settling the publick service of the Church in one uniform way King Edward the 6. intending such a reformation as might serve for edification caused certain pious and learned men to meet together who as it seems taking for their pattern the practise of the primitive times casting out of the Liturgies then used such particulars as were any way offensive shew'd their scope to be what they pretended to reform not make a new Church or Service and thereupon had by the aid of the holy Ghost as the Act of Parliament speaks concluded on and publisht the book of Common prayer with a form of administration of the holy Communion commonly called the Mass. But nothing humane is perfect at first this Book some few years after received in his time alteration and the word Mass I know not why more offensive in it then the Augustane Confession expunged with some other phrases in it 6. But for the better understanding how Queen Elizabeth found this Church it will not be amiss to look a little back Henry the 8. dying in Ianuary 154 6 7 leaving the Roman Service with some alterations not greatly considerable in it the wisdome of the State however intending a farther reformation was not immediately to abolish it so as the Lords meeting in Parl nt 1547. November the 4. though they had the Mass sung in English yet the Liturgy of the Church was not common in that language till after Easter 1548. This Session continuing till December 23. restored the Communion in both kinds upon which certain learned men by appointment met at VVindsor to consider of a decent Form for the administration of it which in March his Maty gave out backt with a Proclamation so as at Easter it began without compulsion of any to be put in practise and after Easter severall parochiall Churches to celebrate divine Service in English which at VVhitsuntide was by command introduced into Paul's but hitherto no book of Common prayer extant onely the manner of administring the holy Eucharist somewhat altered 7. During this while the Archbishop of Cant. 6. Bishops 3. Deans Doctors and 3. other onely Doctors were busied in reforming the publick Liturgy of the Church Iohn Calvin of Geneva a person then of high esteem advertised of it thereupon wrote to the Duke of Somerset the 22. October 1548 giving his judgement in these words quod ad formulam precum rituum ecclesiasticorum valde probo ut certa illa extet à qua pastoribus discedere in functione sua non liceat tam ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae quam ut certius ita conslet omnium inter se ecclesiarum consensus postremo etiam ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui novationes quasdam affectant and taking notice of the form already had for celebrating the Communion adds this Audio recitari isthic in Coenae celebratione orationem pro defunctis neque vero hoc ad purgatorii Papistici approbationem referri satis sâ—io neque etiam me latet proferri posse antiquum ritum mentionis defunctorum faciendae ut eo modo communio fidelium omnium in unum corpus conjunctorum declaretur sed obstat invictum illud argumentum nempe Coenam Domini adeo sacrosanctam esse ut ullis hominum additamentis
2. verbo praeterea n De auctor usu Pallii cap. 3. Vid. concil Lateranense sub Innocentio 30. cap. 3. o Eadmer pag. 22 19. p Ibid. pag. 6 46. pag. 23 31. pag. 111 6 18 32. q Ibid. pag. 23 42. p. 111 32. passim apud Historicos r De jurejurando cap. 4. s Mat. Paris Vit. Abbat pag. 140 31. t Mat. Paris Hist. major pag. 410 39. u Vit. Abbat pag. 140 39. x Ibid. pag. 141 49. y Ibid. pag. 142 1. z Mat. Par. Vit. Abbat pag. 133 23. pag. 141 52 56. ⸫ Sess. 25. cap. 2. a Vitae Abbat St. Albani MS. in Iohanne 3. Abbate 25. b Wmus Thorn col 1899 22. c Ibid. col 1880 3. d Acts xx 17 to the end e Cap. 5. tom 1. Concil f Novel 123. cap. 10. g Baron to 9. Ann. 743. n. 19. * Capit. Car. c. lib. vii cap. 108 109. h Concil Spelm. pag. 237 238. i Confer Concil Spelm p. 238 §. ut Episcopi p. 251 cap. 25. k Eadmer pag. 113 2. l tom 4. Concil gen Rom. m cap. 26. Concil Lateran n Mat. Paris Ann. 1257. pag. 951. 41 44. o pag. 956 7. p Reynald Annal. Eccles. to 14. Ann. 1257. n. 50. * Monasticon Anglicanum pag. 296. col 1. q Vitae Abbat MS. r Mat. Paris pag. 972 51. s W m Thorn col 2185. sequent col 2153 46. t card Ossat Epist. 296. Rom. 22 Decembr 1601. u Cypr. Epist. 68. n. 4. edit Pamelii x Epist. 110. y Cap. 13. * turbis apud Gratianum Dist. 63 cap. 6. * Milevis z August Epist. 110. a Leo Epist. 89 cap. 5. b Caroli Magni Capit. lib. 1. cap. 84. c Lib. 2. Epist. 26. Ind. 10. Epist. 22 26. Ind. 11. alibi d Vide continuat Flor. Wigorn. Ann. 1128. p. 506. Ann. 1139. pag. 532. e Ailred de miraculis Edwardi col 406. 37. f Epist. Edwardi 3. apud Walsingh pag. 151. 42. Ann. 1343. g Rot. Parl. 50. Ed. 3. n. 94. h Ibid. n. 111. i Additament Mat. Paris MS. in Bibliotheca Çotton fol. 135 a. cui initium Dicturus c. of which hereafter k A Willielmo Lanfrancus electus est Malms fol. 116 b. 38. Rex constituit Lanfrancum Archiepiscopum Cant. Florent Wigor p. 436. Ann. 1070. Sim. Dunelm col 202 6. l Eadmeâ— p. 6 41. m Vide ibid. p. 16 48. p. 17 18. n Ibid. p. 109 40. c. o Hunt lib. 7. fol. 219 a. 1. p Apud Eadmer pag. 93 42. q Ann. 1175 col 587 21. r Vide eas apud Malmsburiensem fol. 118 a. 32. s Lanfranc Epist. 3. pag. 301. t Stubs de Arch. Ebor. col 1706 31 u Eadmer p. 118 5 15. * Eadmer p. 120 50. p. 121 6. y Eadmer pag. 125. z Sim. Dunelm Ann. 1120. col 242 25. a Eadmer pag. 136 43. b Beda lib. 4. cap. 1. Note Malmsbury fol. 26. a. â—3 says this was Ann. 904. but that agrees not with Formosus his Popedome Baronius therefore corrects it to 10. and makes Ann. 894. n. 11. but at that time Edward was not King c Flor. Wigorn p. 47â— d Eadmer pag 92 14. e supra n. 20. f Hoc per literas olini mandaverat Eadmer g Eadmer pag. 113. pag. 115. h Diceto col 506 507. i Vide Iohan. Hagulstad ab Ann. 1142. ad Ann. 1152. ⸫ Bernard Epist. 106 234 235 237 238. k Iohan. Hagulst col 276 8. l Mat. Paris Ann. 1207. pag. 222 40. m Diceto col 507 53. 508 20. * Mat. Paris Ann. 1206 p. 214 44. n Tulla Gregor 9. apud Mat. Paris Ann. 1229. pag. 355 46. o Mat. Paris pag. 355 44. p Additament Mat. Paris MS. in Bibliotheca Cotton sol 135. cui initium Dicturus quod injunctum est mihi q Mat. Paris Hist. minor Ann. 1252. pag. 287. fol. 143. b. col 1. MS. in Bibliotheca Regia Westmonast r Roger Hoved fol. 453. b. 39. 454. b. 2. Gervas Dorobern col 1682 27. in vitâ Huber s In antiquo MS. Bullarum Romanorum Pontificum Archiepisc Cant. Pulla 〈◊〉 Honor. 3. ⸫ 26. Febr. 12â—1 t In eodem MS. Gregor 9. Bulla 3. ⸫ April 17 Ann. 1230. u Mat. Pariss p. 371 18. x Mat Paris Ann 1241. pâ— 549 18 22â— c. y Idem Annâ— 1240 p. 5329 43. z Apud Mat. Paris p. 6â—7 36. a cap. 4. n. 17. b Mat. Paris Ann. 1246. pag. 6â—9 9. c Cardinal Ossat Epist. 296. dâ—t Rom 1601. Decembr 2â— d Rot. Parl. 3. R. 2. n. 37. e W m Thorn 2082 2. sequent vide Walsingham Ann. 1374. pag. 184 1. Thorn Ann. 1373. col 2187 57. See the History of Nicholaus de Spyna resigning the Abby of St. Augustins and on his nominating him Thomas Fyndon prefer'd to be Abbot thereby Martin the 4. who on the receipt of the Papall Bulls acquainted Edward the 1. with what had past at Rome himself being in England yet by command the house was seized into the Kings hand and he at the Parliament held at Acton Burnell fined at 400. marks pro eo quod sic fuerat creatus in Abbatem licentia Domini Regis minime petita Thorn Col. 1939 1. 1934. f Fide varias lectiones ad col 2117. 54. quae vero ibi debent interseri pertinent ad Hist. de qua hic agitur col 2082. g Hen. Knighton col 2601. 37 49. h Rot. Parl. octav Pâ—rif 25. Ed. 3. n. 13. See the words of the peition cap. 4. n. 15. i Walsing hist. 1374. pag. 184 6. Rot. parl 1. R. 2. n. 66. Thorn 1373. col 2187 58. k Rot. Parl. 50. Ed. 3. n. 110 115. * Gregory 11. k â— Ric. 2. cap. 3. 7. Ric. 2. cap. 12. l Christi vicarii sacerdotes sunt qui vice Christi legatione funguntur in Ecclesia Eusebii Papae Epist 3. to 1. Concil Electum à Fratribus Christi Vicariâ—m suscipiant scil in Abbatem Hydensium leges ab â—dgaro cap. 15. Concil Spelm. pag. 440. quis locus poterit esse tutus si rabies sancta sanctorum cruentat Vicarios Christi alumnos Ecclesiae dilacerat Epist. W i Senonensis apud Hoved Ann. 1171. fol. 299. b. 32. de marie Thomae Archiepiscopi m Gervas Dorobern col 1422 18. Hoved fol. 303. a. 1. Ann. 1172. n Iohan. Sarisbur Epist. 279. p. 483. ⸫ Epist. Hen Chichly in vita ejus pag. 79. o Fitz. Excommengement 4 6 10. p â—ide Hoveden fol. 284. b. 23. q Ex antiquo MS. r â—oram Hoveden s pag. 103 43. t Girolamo Catena vita di Pio 5 to pag. 96 97. 98 100. in 8 vo Romae 1587. Adriani Hist. lib. 19. pag. 1378. A. u Ger. Dorobern col 1422 50. x pag. 6. y 2. H. 4. Accion sur le case 25. Fitz. * 31. Ed. 3. Excommengement 6. z Froissard to 1 cap. 47. pag. 58. Gall. * Benedictus xii Iacobus Meierus Anâ—al Flandr Ann. 1 40. fol. 141 a. a Assise lib. 30.