Secundus Salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Charissimum in Christo filium nostrum Henricum Angliae Regem illustrem quem peculiari caritate complectimur aliquo insigni Apostolico munere in hoc regni sui primordio decorandum putantes mittimus nunc ad eum Rosam auream Sancto crismate delibutam odorifico musco aspersam nostrisque manibus de more Rom. Pontificum benedictam quam ei e tuâ fraternitate inter missarum Solemnia per te celebranda cum ceremoniis in notula alligata contentis dari volumus cum nostra Apostolica benedictione Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum sub annulo Piscatoris Die quinto Aprilis Anno Millesimo quingentesimo decimo Pontificatus nostri Septimo In the Irish rebellion in the raign of Queen Elizabeth Camâ— Eâ—â—zab the Pope as a token of favour sent to Desmond a principal Leader amongst the Rebels a gracious Agnus Dei and a hallowed Ring â—rom his own finger which Desmond wore about his neck as a charm or preservative against all dangers But his traitorous Consederates being beaten and dispers'd this pittiful deluded favourite wander'd a long time in the woods and bogs till at last almost starved he was found in a poor Cattage and notwithstanding his Defensative had his head cut off by a common Souldier Afterwards Speed Chronâ— in Elizâ—b in another rebellion in Ireland the Pope sent to Tir-Oen the grand Ringleader for his incouragement certain Indulgences and a precious Plume of Phoenix feathers for a Trophey of his victories but they proved but Icarus wings whereby he soared the higher to get the more miserable fall Sometimes again the Pope Bishop Carlton's Remem cap. 4. fo 39. Greg. 13. out of good Husbandry rewards or incourageth his Creatures with Titles of Honour as Thomas Stukeley an Arch Traitor to Queen Elizabeth was by the Pope Created Marquesse of Lagen Earl of Wexford and Caterloghe Vicount of Morough and Baron of Rosse all famous places in Ireland And it was the Pope's design if Stukeley's Rebellion had succeeded Boon Companion to have made his Son James Boncompagno King of Ireland CHAP. XI Collections COllections and Contributions set on foot and vigorously promoted for divers purposes was another means of draining great summs frequently out of the Kingdom And amongst these Contributions for relief of the Holy Land as well for the quantity of the summs as for the misimployment were very considerable but of that we will note more anon in a Chapter apart for that purpose And here we will take notice of some other occasions for which such Collections were made King John to gratifie the Pope granted license and safe Conduct to the Fryers of the Hospital of St. Maries in Rome to Preach and make Collections throughout England for the maintenance of their House built by the Pope as appears by his Letters Patents Pat. 15 Johan m. 7. nu 20. Rex omnibus suis fidelibus tam Clericis quam Laicis c. Salutem Sciatis quod concessimus fratribus Hospitalis S. Mariae in Saxia apud Romam licentiam praedicandi in regno nostro Angliae fideliâ—m eleemosynas caritative petendi accipiendi ad sustentationem pauperum praedicti Hospitalis secundum formam privilegii Apostolici quod inde habent c. Teste moipso apud Rading 10. Die Decembris Anregni nostri 15. In the seventh year of King Edward the first some counterfeit Fryers Bre. Reg. 7 Edw. 1. in Turri Lond. Pro fratribuâ— S. Antonii of the Order of St. Anthony of Vienna wandring abroad and Collecting Alms throughout England the King upon Complaint thereof issued out his writ for their apprehension The Abbots of the Cistercian and Praemonstratensian Orders beyond the Seas Bundel Inq. An. 26 Ed. 1. imposing subsidies Aides and Contributions on the Monasteries of their Orders in England then under them whereby much money wools and other Commodities were transported out of England to the great grievance and mischief of the Kingdom King Edward the first issued out writs to all the Sheriffs of England to inquire of those abuses and to stop the current of them As by the said writs still preserved upon Record it doth appear And afterwards to stop the like exportation of moneys and Goods for they would not be brought totally to give over the same King Pat. 27 Ed. 1. Pro Abbate de Gerendon by his special writ prohibited all of the Cistercian Order except one viz. the Abbot of Gerendon Com. Leic. who was of that Order to presume to go beyond the Seas on that account So the Abbot of Cluny sending his Proctors into England to demand and Collect great summs of money from the Monasteries and Priories of their Order here and on all Ecclesiastical persons on whom they had conferred Benefices without the King's license the King sent out his Writs as well to the said Proctors to inhibite their proceedings as also to the Warden of the Cinque Ports not to permit any Monk of that Order or any other Servant or Messenger to pass the Seas or carry over any moneys without his special license the writ to the Warden of the 5. Ports was thus Rex dilecto fideli suo Roberto de Burghersh Custodi Quinque Portuum suorum Claus 28 Ed. 1. m. 14. Salutem Datum est nobis intelligi quod Abbas Cluniacensis quosdam ex suis Monachis in Angliam specialiter destinavit ad petendum levandum c. reciting the occasion at large Ideo vobis mandamus firmiter injungentes quod nullum Monachum Ordinis praedicti vailettum seu alium nuncium quemcunque pecuniam deferentem ad partes transmarinas transire permittatis sine nostra licentia speciali Teste Rege apud Blidam c. The like mandate went out afterwards to the Constable of Dover Claus 29 Ed. 1. m. 8. dorso and Warden of the Cinque Ports not to permit any Canon Valet or other Messenger of the Order of the Praemonstratenses to carry any moneys or to pass out of England without the King 's special license as was done before for Cluny But yet so prevalent were these begging Fryers by their importunities and favourers that the Monastery of Cluny having sustained great losses and being deeply in debt as was suggested the King notwithstanding his former Prohibitions was perswaded to grant to the Abbot thereof and his Agents to come and collect an Aid and relief from all the Cells and Monasteries here subject to that Order and from all their Tenants within his Dominions with full protection and incouragement so to do Cl. 34 Ed. 1. Pro Abbate Cluniacensi as by his Patent for that purpose remaining upon Record and too long to be here inserted it doth appear And upon such and the like occasions it was that sometimes privately and at other times openly and with the King's license Collections and Contributions were fet on foot and carryed on throughout
him that King John wrote to the Pope the next year Matr. Paris in An. 1206. fo 214. Quod uberiores sibi fructus proveniant de regno Angliae quam de omnibus regionibus citra Alpes c. That the Pope had greater profits out of England than all other Countreys on this side the Alpes c. Nay and these Levys were continued sometimes for six years together as Thorn notes Thorn ut supr wherein the Kings themselves were wont to promote the business by being indulged by the Popes to go snips in the gains After the death of Pope Clement the 4th the See of Rome continued void two years and ten months Matt. Westm fo 352. Contin Matt. Paris fo 976. Tho. Walsingh by reason of the great discord and potent factions amongst the Cardinals And at last Theobald the Arch-deacon of Liege who had been comrade and fellow-souldier with our King Edw. 1. in the Holy Land was elected and took the name of Gregory the 10th whereupon was made these verses Papatum munus tenet Archidiaconus unus An. D. 1272. Quem Patrem Patrum fecit discordia fratrum The Papal Office one Archdeacon takes Whom Father of Fathers Brethren's discord makes King Edward the First coming out of the H. Land into England after the death of his Father King Henry the Third touch'd at Rome where he was nobly entertained and caressed by his old friend this then Pope Gregory the 10th and between them it was contrived to raise some great summs in England under pretence of aid and succour for the Holy Land and in pursuance thereof a special Nuntio was sent from the Pope Reimundus to compell all Ecclesiastical persons to pay Two years Dismes but so it happened that as the moneys came in the King and the Pope's Collectors scrambled for it but the Pope as was believed got the greatest share and the King wanting for his occasions of state was forced to borrow several summs of the Collectors on sufficient security given for repayment Pat. 20 Ed. 1. m. 10. as by the Bonds Securities Counter-bonds and Acquittances upon that occasion still extant amongst the Tower Records may be seen and by this token that at one time the King received of the Pope's Collectors 100000 marks but not one penny as I can learn employed for the use pretended And from this practice of the King and Popesgoing sharers in these and other summs gotten from the People when discovered grew that infamous Proverb Matt. Paris in An. 1255. fo 917. That the King and the Pope were the Lion and the Wolf as on the like distasted occasion these Satyrical Rhimes had also been made Ecclesiae navis titubat regni quia clavis Errat Flor. Hist An. 1306. Rex Papa facti sunt unica capa Hoc faciunt Do Des Pilatus hic alter Herodes The Church's ship in safety cannot home pass When the chief Pilot once mistakes his Compass When King and Pope are given both to plundring One Pilate proves the other Herod thundring Which trick of sharing with the Popes Arnold Ferron de reb Gall. was learned by the French Kings of ours but some of them grew so cunning at last as to put all that was raised that way into their own Pockets and so out-shot the Pope in his own Bow CHAP. XIV Croisado's CRoisado's and vowed expeditions to the Holy Land and against Turks and Infidels dispenced withall or commuted was another trick of the like nature and oftentimes brought great summs into the Pope's Exchequer For it being observed that the Turks ever warred against the Christians with great alacrity S. Hen. Blunts voiage into the Levanâ— upon a belief that if they were killed ipso facto they went into Mahomet's Paradise The Pope to beat the Turk at his own Weapon would oftentimes publish a Croisado that is invite persons to undertake expeditions against the Infidels upon promise of pardon of all their sins Gapitula apud Gaitintun Chron Gervas fo 1522. Temp. Hen. 2. Speln Concil Tom. 2. fo 117. Rad. de Diceto Coll. 707. Quicunque Clericus vel Laicus crucem acceperit ab omnibus peccatis suis auctoritate Dei beatorum Apost Petri Pauli summi Pontificis liberatus est absolutus as was declar'd in one of our Councils Upon which multitudes of all sorts as Kings Nobles and Common people according to the zeal and perswasion of those times would vow to go and list themselves for the Holy War and in token thereof continually afterwards wore upon their Backs Crouchbacks the sign or badge of a Red Cross as being to fight against the enemies of Christ's Cross Now the Pope being God's Lieutenant over these Troops for mony would absolve these of their vows or such of them as upon second thoughts desired to stay at home Will. Malmâ—â— lib. 4. cap. 2. Frequently would he also divert and turn their Arms to other uses as to subdue the Albigenses Waldenses and many others of the Popes private enemies Matt. Paris in An. 1250. fo 803. And Matt. Paris tells a story how once the Pope sold these crossed Pilgrims to others even for ready money as the Jews did their Sheep and their Doves in the Temple Besides when some great expedition was in hand and great contributions made to carry on the War the Pope must be made the Treasurer but never gave any account of his disbursements keeping or converting all or most of the money to his own use Also in absence of Princes upon those expeditions the Popes and their Officers took their full swings to the inriching themselves besides many other considerable advantages and acquists as by the Histories and Complaints of Christendom in that matter most fully and at large it doth appear CHAP. XV. Ambassadors Agents AMbassadors Leiger and Extraordinary Proctors and Agents constantly residing at Rome with their retinues and servants maintained there by our Kings drew as constantly great summs of money out of the Kingdom For Rome being the seat of Policy and the Popes making themselves concern'd and busie in the affairs of all Princes these took it as it was indeed their interest to have continually their respective Agents and Ambassadors there to sollicite for their Master's interest to oppose contrary Factions and to gain intelligences And for these and the like purposes our Kings always had two three or more at a time there from and to whom multitudes of Internuntio's Carryers and Messengers were continually posting and running with Letters Instructions and Dispatches all occasioning a vast expence And by these it was â— Ninotismo dâ— Roma that the Popes were courted and caressed their Nephews Cardinal Patrons and Favourites bribed and presented For the Popes are never without their Creatures and Privado's a Caesar Borgia a Donna Olympia or some such like who must be effectually dealt withall and by them way made to the Pope's ear and savour besides
and unacquainted and half forgotten Suppliants poor Prisoners of God the silly Souls in Purgatory here abiding and induring the grievous pains and hote clensing fire c. But yet not trusting to the uncertain Charity of others most persons strained to the utmost and many most excessively their fortunes considered to leave some provision behind them for that purpose and most commonly by their last Wills and Testaments which were accounted sacred and carrying an Obligation more than ordinary for all persons concern'd to see them performed and thereby or by Acts executed in their life-time it was not rare for many men though they had many Children to provide for or many debts to pay to post-pone all relations and considerations to this concern of the Soul and to appoint and take Order for Masses Satisfactory Anniversaries Obits Requiems Dirges Placebo's Trentalls Lamps Lights and other offices to be performed daily weekly monethly or yearly as far as the summs destin'd would afford for the ease and help of the Testator's Soul Masses satisfactory Masses were the Romish service appointed to be said or sung at a certain time or times and at an appointed place at such an Altar or in such a Chappel with special reference to or remembrance of such a Soul or Souls tormented in Purgatory An Anniversary Anniversaâ—y was the appointment and performance of Prayers at such or such a time once a year for the souls of deceased persons Commonly upon the day of the death of the party who appointed it and this in imitation of the old Anniversary dayes whereon the Martyrdom or deaths of Saints were celebrated An Obit Obit was a funeral Office performed for the dead and for his Soul's health at certain times and place appointed A Requiem Requiem was on Office or Mass commonly sung for the dead so called from those words in it Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine A Dirge Dirge quasi dirige was an office of the same nature for Souls in Purgatory so called from the first word of the first Antiphone in the Office Dirige c. A Placebo Placebo was another such like Office or Service performed for the health and good Estate of some Soul or Souls so called from the word Placebo being the first word of the Office A Trental from the French Trente Trental was a service of thirty Masses said or sung for the dead or a service performed thirty dayes after their death Lamps and Lights Lamps Lights were by many ordered to be continually burning before some certain Altan Image or place or over some Sepulcher so hallowed as conceived to afford some ease or benefit to Souls in Purgatory The revenues that were given and setled for the maintenance of these and such like devices which were very considerable throughout the Kingdom were by the Stat. 1 Edward the sixth Cap. 14. Stat. 1 Ed. 6. Cap. 14. given to the King and they as vain and Superstitious inventions quite nulled What an esteem was formerly had of the vertue and efficacy of these Masses c. may partly appear by a memorable Record still extant viz. Alianor Consort of King Edward the first dying Pat. 19 E. 1. m. 11. Litera supplicatoria de orando pro regina defuncta the King sent out a writ to all the religious Houses and Monks of Cluny in England to sing Masses and make Prayers for her Soul and to câ—rtifie him the number of the Masses they should perform on that behalf that proportionably he might shew his gratitude to them So in the year 1290. Chron. W. Thorn Coll. 1958. Dominus Thomas Prior of Christs Church in Canterbury concessit Domino Regi in festa translationis beati Edvarâ—i Quinquaginta Psalteria Duo Millia CCCL Missas pro animabus Progenitorum suorum Reginarum Angliae as an Extraordinary liberality and spiritual Alms. As is related by W. Thorn And about the same time also it was Bundel Brev An. 19 Ed. 1. in Turt Lond. that Arnald Otho Abbot of Condam sent a certificate to the King to inform him what Prayers Masses and Anniversarys he and his Monastery had ordered for the speedy translation of his deceased Queen to the heavenly joys From all this now may easily be apprehended the force of vitiated and depraved Imaginations when men's Intellectua's are first blinded with ignorance and then led by Superstition being affrighted with uncouth relations of Apparitions Miracles and the horrours of an imaginary Purgatory what will they not do or undertake to alleviate and mitigate in tanto if not in toto those approaching torments and for that purpose suffer themselves to be haled and pulled sometimes one way by guides as blind as themselves and sometimes another by treacherous and dangerous designers Yet in the darkest of these times there wanted not some that could discern that all was not right and that they were gotten into a very uncertain and dangerous road and in as much danger from their guides as the enemy which they would avoid Some of these in a more serious way protesting and advising both against the Errour and the danger of it had their mouths soon stopp'd when others more jocular between jest and earnest as it were made bold with the corruptions and abuses of the times witness the wits and Satyrists of their respective times Rob. of Glocester John Harding Jeffrey Chancer John Gower Rob. Longland alià s Piers Plowman Lydgate and many more whose dull rimes carryed a cutting sence with them Indeed though the Lashes of a Satyrist seldom or never produce amendment of Epidemical vices and Errors yet in this they have their fruit that thereby posterity is oftentimes more truly informed of the manners and genius of times than by the professed Historian who rarely touches that string And by these the abuses and cheats of Priests Monks and Fryers in their Masses Confessions Shrifts Penances Pardons Indulgences Miracles Reliques c. all serving to fill the people's brains with vain and terrible apprehensions and to empty their purses were according to the wit of their respective Ages to the warning of this notably and smartly detected arraigned and condemned A multitude more of instances might be given of the Chargeableness and expensiveness of Popery whereby the People were daily abused and improverished to the inriching of others with their spoils whose natural office and duty was to feed and not to fleece the flock Hence hath bin noted the ready tendency of degenerate Religion when it throws off its spiritual temper at the same time to grasp at Temporal Power and Temporal Riches How that Power was usurp'd we have in part seen in the first Tract and how the Riches were ingross'd we have endeavoured to make some discovery in this and amongst all the Arts used for that purpose none proved more effectual than this device of Purgatory this was the fire that alwayes kept the Pope's Kitchin warm and gave life
or Scottish Bishop happening into their Company he would neither eat with them nor under the same roof where they were as Mellitus Laurentius and Justus complained in an Epistle of theirs to the Scots Bishops For the Saxons though King Ina Larga Reg is Benignitas or some other gave the Peter-pence partly as Alms and partly in recompence of a house erected in Rome for entertainment of English Pilgrims Yet it is certain that Alfred Athelstan Edgar Edmund Canutus Edward the Confessor so called and divers other Kings of the Saxon race gave all the Bishopricks of England per annulum baculum without any other Ceremony or any application to Rome as was usual by the Emperour the French King and other Christian Princes so to do as also in all their Laws for the Government of the Church here they consulted only with their own Clergy without any regard to the Authority of Rome But under the Norman Conquest the Papal usurpation march'd in for as the Conquerour came in with the Pope's Banner So either by the way of complemental gratitude or surprize the Pope presently layd hold upon part of the purchase as boasting all was gain'd by his aid and blessing And thereupon he sent two Legats into England favourably received by the Norman by whom a Synod of the Clergy was convened Will. Malm. de gest Ponâ—if Angl. lib. 1. fo 204. Rog. Hoveden pa. prior fo 453. and old Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury deposed because he had not purchased his Pall in the Court of Rome and many other Bishops and Abbots displaced on supposal for the like reasons of the invalidity of their Titles but speciously to place the Normans in their rooms or rather ultimately to introduce the Papal authority in cases of the Church Amongst these is to be noted that the King having earnestly moved the old Bishop of Worcester Matt. Paris Hist in Will 2. fo 20. Wulstan to give up his Staff his answer was that he would only give it up to him of whom he first receiv'd the same and so the old man went to St. Edwards Tombe and there offer'd up his Staff and Ring with these words Of thee O holy Edward I received my Staff and Ring and to thee I now Surrender the same again not acknowledging any authority in the Pope or in any other on his behalf to receive or dispose them as Matthew Paris relates the story at large And though the Conqueror did thus Complement the Pope in the admission of his Legates and some other small matters yet how far he really submitted himself appears by an Epistle to Gregory the seventh by him wrote thus Excellentissimo S. Eccl. Pastori Gregorio Gratia Dei Anglorum Rex Dux Normannorum Willielmus Salutem cum amicitia Hubertus tuus Legatus ad me veniens ex tua parte me admonuit ut tibi successoribus tuis fidelitatem facerem de pecunia quam antecessores mei ad Romanam Ecclesiam mittere solebant melius cogitarem unum admisi alterum non admisi fidelitatem facere nolui nec volo quia nec ego promisi nec antessores mees antecessoribus tuis id fecisse comperio Pecunia tribus fere annis in Gallia me agente negligenter collecta est nunc vero divina misericordia me in regnum meum reverso quod collectum est per praefatum Legatum mittetur quod reliquum est per Legatos Lanfranci Archiep. fidelis nostri cum opportunum fuerit transmittetur c. But in the time of his next successor K. Will. Rufus a further attempt was made that is to draw Appeals to the Court of Rome and that appears in the noted transactions with Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury at large reported in our stories And afterwards in the time of King Henry the first another step was made viz. to gain to the Pope the Patronage and Donations of Bishopricks and other Benefices Ecclesiastical at which the King taking courage writes roundly to the Pope thus Notum habeat Sanctitas vestra Hist Jorvall Coll. quod me vivente Deo auxiliante dignitates usus regni nostri non minuentur si ego quod absit in tanta me directione ponerem magnates mei imo totius Angliae populus id nullo modo pateretur Notwithstanding which upon the regress or restoring of Anselme and some difficulties that pressed the King in reference to his elder Brother Robert Matt. Paris in Hen. 1. fo 63. in a Synod held by Anselme at London in the year 1107. a Decree passed Cui annuit Rex Henricus statuit as Matthew Paris saith ut ab eo tempore in reliquum nunquam per donationem baculi pastoralis vel annuli quisquam de Episcopatu vel Abbatiaper Regem vel quamlibet laicam manum investiretur in Anglia But yet with this clause of salvo Sr. H. Spelâ— Concil Tom. 2. fo 28. Suis tantum juribus regalibus sepositis exceptis as appears in the Exemplification of the Acts of that Synod by the learned Collector of our English Councils In recompence whereof the Pope that there might be quid pro quo yielded to the King that thenceforth no Legate should be sent into England without the King's leave and that the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being should be for ever Legatus natus and for the honour of the See it was obtained that the Archbishop of Canterbury should in all General Councils sit at the Pope's foot tanquam alterius orbis Papa But this agreement was soon broken on both sides the Pope sending his Legates and the King resuming the Investiture of Bishops Matr. Paris fo 65. as the same Historian relates in divers instances In the next troublesome raign of King Stephen it was won clearly that Appeals should be made to the Court of Rome established in a Synod at London Speim Concil Tom. 2. fo 44. held by Henry Bishop of Winchester the Pope's Legat for before that time In Anglia namque Appellationes in usu non erant as un unquestionable Historian hath it donec eas Henricus Wintoniensis dum Legatus esset Hen Huntingdon lib. 8. fo 395. malo suo crudeliter intrusit in eodem namque Concilio ad Romani Pontificis audientiam ter appellatus est And in the raign of King Henry the second began the claime and usage of exempting Clarks from the secular Power whatever their crimes were And from this root sprang the famous contention between this King and his Archbishop Thomas Becket together with the Constitutions of Clarendon for the rectifying that abuse at large to be read and observed in the Historians of those times To all this it will be but pertinent to subjoine some brief disquisition touching the Canon Law how and by whom compiled and when introduced into this Iland under which where admitted no small part of the Papal authority was neatly and artificially drawn in For which
the same to have been Infinite I shall therefore only profess to give you a Remembrance of some for a taste of all the rest Ex ungue Leonem c. And in pursuance of our purpose we will begin with the Peter-pence which at first though but a Donative or Alms as shall be presently shewed yet by the inference of a Right from Prescription of Time and the manner of exaction at last it became a burden and an incumbrance to the whole Nation and though this was but small in respect of other payments yet time swelled them to a vast account CHAP. I. Peter-pence PEter-pence Cowell Interp in verbo Spelm. Gloss Matt. Westm in An. 727. Polychron lib. 5. cap. 24. Antiquit. Briâ—t fo 58. 69. Denarii Sancti Petri call'd in the Saxon Tongue Romefeoh the Fee of Rome and sometimes also Romescot and Rome-peny was if we may so properly term it a Tribute of Alms given by the ancient Saxon Kings to the See of Rome Some say that Ina a King of the West-Saxons was the first Donor about the year 720. at such time as he was in Pilgrimage at Rome Others say that Offa a King of the Mercians first gave them about the year 790. But probably the truth may be and Matt. Westm insinuates no less that these being Kings of several Kingdoms in the Saxon Heptarchy each of them might be the first Donor within their respective Dominions The occasion upon which Offa gave the same Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. fo 311. Acts and Mon. fol. 103. is storied thus Ethelbert King of the East-Angles a vertuous Prince being perswaded by his Council to marry against his own inclination went to Offa in design to obtain his Daughter Athilrid to Wife but King Offa's wife being averse to the match in treacherous manner caused Ethelbert to be slain whereupon Offa in some sort to expiate that horrid act Chro. Jo. Brompt Coll. 776. gave the Peter-pence to St. Peter's Church in Rome But at last by Adelwolph this tributary Alms was ratified and given throughout the whole Kingdom The Charter whereby King Offa gave the Peter-pence remains still extant under seal 1. Instit fo 7. a. W. Dugdale Antiq. of Warw. 133. 673. Vid. Matt. Paris in vita Rob rti Abb. S. Albâ—ni fo 80. as Sr. Edw. Coke affirms which if true it was not heeded by such as have affirmed that the first sealed Charter that we have in England is that of King Edward the Confessor upon his founding of Westminster Abby and that in imitation of the Normans amongst whom he had been educated But Sr. Edw. Coke adds further that the sealing of Charters and Deeds is much more ancient than some have imagined and to that purpose besides that sealed Charter of King Offa he makes instance in a Charter of King Edwin Brother of King Edgar bearing date An. Dom. 956. under his own seal with the seal also of the Bishop of Winchester to it and this long before the Normans entrance But this by the way only For the Peter-pence Sim Dunelm Coll. to 150. â—tow Annal. fo 26. which in the Saxon Laws are often termed Regis Eleemosyna it was a Penny for every House in which was Twenty Penny-worth of any kind of goods to be paid yearly on Lammas day Lambert fo 78. Jâ—rnall Col. 871. And in K. Edwards Laws there is a very strict constitution for the payment of them so that in time it was esteemed consuetudo quasi Apostolica as Matt. Westm hath it à qua neque Rex neque Archiepiscopus Abbas vel Prior aut aliquis in regno immunis erat Only I find that the Monastery of St. Camb. Britt fo 410. Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. fo 311. Alban's in honour of that Proto-Martyr to whose memory it was founded was alone quit as to that charge and that by the Indulgence of King Offa as Mat. Westm relates This payment as before is said at first and for a long time was termed and esteemed as indeed it was a Tribute of Alms being styled in the Laws of Canutus Leges Canut in Jornal 920. Larga Regis benignitas and in those of the Confessor Regis Eleemosyna and so it was received also by the Court of Rome Epist Hen. 1. in Eadmer fo 113. as Pope Paschalis the 2. to one of our Kings Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita dolose collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit Sim. Dunelm Coll. fo 150. And Sim. Dunelmensis thus Hoc anno Eâ—helhelm comes Wilton Eleemosynam Regis Elfredi detulit Romam And all this importing no more but that Charity was the first foundation of it and the Pope to have been the King's Beads-man as it were and not the King the Popes Homager Yet the continuance occasioned the pretence of an absolute Tribute Pol. Verg. lib. 4. and Polydor Vergil the Historian and sometimes the Pope's Collector of the Peter-pence here improperly terming it Vectigal S. Cressy Church H st li. 29. ca. 15. S. Cressy is so ingenuous as to give him a reproof for so doing yet in that notion it was exacted a long time by the Pope's Officers But yet upon some distaste some of our Kings would sometimes adventure to deny payment as King Edward the Third did once in his time the reason whereof is storied to be this viz. Polychron Stow. Mat. Westm c. when in his raign was the great contest between the two Kings for the Crown of France and many of the Popes then residing at Avignion in the Territories of France being most of them French-men did too partially take part with the French King So that after the great and famous victory obtained by the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers this was set up in Vienna and several other places and after grew into a kind of Proverb viz. Ore est le Pape devenu Franceys Hen. de Knighton Coll. fo 2615. Et Jhesu est devenu Angleys Ore serra veou que ferra plus Le Pape ou Jhesus id est The Pope is now all Frenchify'd And Jesus on the English side And now you see which of these two The Pope or Jesus most can do And therefore because the Popes took part with the French our King Edw. 3. commanded the Peter-pence should be no longer paid which Prohibition all that King's time continued till the raign of his next Successor King Rich. 2. And some offers being then made to gather them again at a Parliament a Petition was preferr'd that it might be declared by Parliament whether the charge called Rome-penny should be levied of the Commons and paid to the Pope's Collector Rot. Parl. 1. R. 2 na 84. or no and the Answer to it was Soit fait come devant ad este use and so they were reviv'd again by that weak King But yet it was Resolv'd by the Casuists of those times of
much upon the Clergy afterward though the King and Temporal Lords oftentimes prov'd sturdy Matt. Paris fo 361 362. For Pope Gregory the ninth An. D. 1229. demanded a Tenth of the moveables both of the Lay and of the Clergy to which the Lords would not consent Nolentes Baronias vel Laicas possessiones Rom. Ecclesiae obligare but the Clergy with some grumbling pay'd it And eleven years after he demanded a fifth part of the goods of the Clergy upon which great debate was taken Matt. Paris An. 1240. fo 536. the Clergy appealing to the King that they held their Baronies of the King and could not charge them without his consent that having before given a Tenth this again of a Fifth might create a custom with divers other weighty reasons But all would not do for the King was not against it and the Archbishop for his private ends beginning to deposite all were drawn in at last to pay which occasion'd that complaint the year following Id. fo 549. That there remain'd not so much treasure in the Kingdom as had in three years bin extorted from it the vessels and ornaments of the Church excepted But notwithstanding that reluctancy Matt. Paris fo 549. 666. 701. notwithstanding that notable Remonstrance preferred in the Council of Lions An. D. 1245. from the body of the Kingdom of the heavy burdens the Nation lay under by the exactions of Rome and likewise to the Pope himself the year following Pope Innocent the fourth invented a new way to charge every Religious House to find a number of Souldiers yearly for his service and to fight for the Church militant and about the same time attempted also ut si Clericus extunc decederet intestatus ejusdem bonas in usus D. Papae converterentur that is the Pope would make himself heir or Executor to every Clark that should dye intestate and not long after it was that he received from the Clergy eleven thousand Marks as an addition to six thousand he had receiv'd the year before And then and from that time the Pope made no spare to drain and exhaust the English Clergy at his pleasure to the shameful scandal of the Holy See at that time and to the notorious ignominy poverty and contempt of this Church and the Clergy thereof Matt. Westm Flor. Hist in An. 1301. And of these times it was that Matthew Westminster makes this complaint Porro illis diebus sal terrae caput vulgi in magnum Hydropem ceciderunt quanto enim plus pecuniam humorem hauriebant tanto amplius eam sitiebant Sedit ergo in tristitia fidelium Ecclesia deducta per vocales tutores suos miserabiliter sub tributo In those dayes the Head of the people was fallen into a dropsie which the more money it suck'd in the more it thirsted after more therefore the Church of the faithful sat disconsolate being by her Governours brought under a most miserable tribute and servitude An. D. 1302. Annal. of Ireâ— in Camb. Brit. fo 163. At this time also it was that these grievous exactions reached into Ireland recorded in the Annals thereof That the Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Benefices in England and Ireland were exacted by Pope Boniface the eight for three years as a Subsidy to the Church of Rome against the King of Arragon Neither did our Hyperborean neighbours escape Scot-free in this deluge of exaction Tho. Walsing Hist fo 48. Ypodig Neust fo 89. Flor. Hist in Ed. 1. fo 417. H. Knighton Coll. c. Pol. Vergil Fabian Speed c. Nay no less there would satisfie the Pope but the whole Kingdom for it was that Boniface the eight that then claimed the whole Realm of Scotland as part of St. Peters Patrimony against our K. Edward the first and sent his Bull of demand to the King for that purpose between whom there passed several Answers and Replies in the point and the conclusion was That the incroaching Pope was glad to sit down worsted in the cause the transactions of all which stand registred amongst the Tower Records exemplified at large to posterity by Walsingham Matthew Westminster Knighton and more briefly by others But all this while the poor Clergy languished being continually pill'd poll'd and squeezed by the unlimited avarice of this Pope and his successors emptying the Kingdom of its money and filling it with complaints the product of its poverty CHAP. IV. King John 's Pension THe troublesom raign of our King John is sufficiently related by all our Historians in whose straits the Pope appeared sometimes for him and sometimes against him but once taking him in a great exigence Jo. Serres Hist in Phil. August Matt. Paris in An 1213. fo 236. the King was wrought upon to surrender his Crown to Pandulfus the Pope's Legate and substitute laying the same with his Scepter Robe Sword and Ring the Royal Ensigns at his feet subscribing also as is said to a Charter whereby he surrendred his Kingdom to the Pope and professing that thence forward he would hold his Crown as a Feudatary to the Pope and paying an annual Pension or Tribute of 1000 marks for both his Kingdoms of England and Ireland the insolent behaviour of the Legate at this the Historians fully describe which I list not now to insist on but cannot but remember that Matt. Paris says that with this Charter and 10000 l. sterl in hand Id. fo 237. Pandulfus goes triumphing away to Rome But then when or how long after this yearly rent or tribute of 1000 marks was paid our Writers seem not to agree though all concur in the invalidity of the surrender Vid. Speed Chron. in vita Johan Rot. Parl. An. 40 Ed. 3. And at a Parliament held at Westm An. 40 Ed. 3. the Chancellour then Bishop of Ely declared to the Lords and Commons How the King understood that the Pope for the Homage that K. John did to the See of Rome for the Realms of England and Ireland and for the Tribute by him granted meant by Process to cite the King to Rome to Answer thereunto wherein the King required their advice The Bishops for themselves desired respite of Answer till the next day as also did the Peers and Commons at which time the whole Estate came together and by common consent Enacted and Declared That forasmuch as neither King John nor any other King could bring this Realm and Kingdom in such thraldom and subjection but by common assent of Parliament the which was not done And therefore that which he did was against his Oath at his Coronation besides many others causes If therefore the Pope should attempt any thing against the King by process or other matters in deed that the King with all his Subjects should with all their force and power resist the same Then for the Tribute or Pension of 1000 marks it appears to have been sometimes paid with intermissions for Pope Honorius having gratified K. Hen.
something he got out of them as I remember about 3000 l. of which no doubt but he gave a good account At another time this Otho came to Oxford where he was entertain'd with good respect Ypod. Neustr fo 59 Knighton Coll. 2432 Polychron l. 7. c. 35. and the Schollers after dinner coming to give him a visite the rude Porter at the Gate gave them an uncivil repulse which with throwing scalding water in one of their faces and in revenge thereof the death of the Master Cook such a hubbub was raised that the Legate was glad for safety to get into the Steeple where sculking he might hear the rabble ranging about searching for him and crying out where is that Usurer that Simoniack that piller and poller and filcher of our money who perverting the King and subverting the Kingdom inricheth strangers with our spoils But in the dead of the night out he creeps and with some difficulty got over the River running to the King not far off to whom he tells a pittiful story with his hazards beseeching his protection for those of his Company in great danger left behind Whereupon the King presently sends a Company of armed men who apprehended thirty Schollers ingaged in the Riot which they carryed in Carts to Wallingford Castle and thence to London who being brought barefoot to the Legate's dore upon great intreaty of the Bishops and their penitent submission all were pardoned and the University released of Interdiction Petrus Rubeus comes next in play Pet. Rubeus for the understanding of whose Negotiation and Artifices I will give you only one Paragraph of Matthew Paris Matt. Paris in An. 1240. fo 533. Flor. Hist An. 1240. viz. Per eosdem dies venit in Angliam nova quaedam pecuniae exactio omnibus saeculis inaudita execrabilis Misit enim Papa pater noster Sanctus quendam exactorem in Angliam Petrum Rubeum qui excogitata muscipulatione infinitam pecuniam a miseris Anglicis edoctus erat emungere Intravit enim Religiosorum Capitula cogens seducens eos ad persolvendum exemplo aliorum Praelatorum quos mentitus asserebat gratanter persolvisse Dixit enim ille Episcopus ille ille Abbas ille jam libens satisfecit quidnam vos ignavi tam moramini ut grates cum muneribus amittatis Fecit enim praedictus Impostor jurare ut hoc genus pecuniam extorquendi nulli hominum infra dimidium anni facerent manifestum quasi eliciens hoc ex singulorum primitiva professione cum tantum de honestis sit Consilium Papale celandum Hoc faciendo more praedonum domesticorum qui fidem ab expoliatis extorquent ut nulli pandant nomina spoliantium Sed etiam si homines silerent lapides Ecclesiarum contra grassatores clamorem levarent Nec potuit hoc maleficium latere sub tenebris quomodo enim possent Praelati à suis sibi subjectis pecuniam exigere nisi causa exactionis exprimeretur To all which being so plain and notorious although there needs neither Translation nor Comment yet the English Reader may please to know the import of it to be this An D. 1240. That about that time came into England an abhominable way of exacting money never heard of before For our Holy Father the Pope sent a notable fellow Peter Rubeus by name who with a cunning mouse-trap trick wip'd the poor English of infinite summs of money For he would come amongst the Ecclesiasticks when they were met together in their Chapters and perswade and compel them to promise and pay certain summs telling them lies that many others had given freely That this Bishop and that this Abbot and that had given such and such summs and upbraiding them for their slackness Then the Impostor would make them swear that they would not discover to any one within half a year what they had given telling them that was the antient way of keeping the Popes secrets according to their Oath or promise at their first profession Therein doing like Thieves that extort Oaths from them they rob not to discover their names But here if men should hold their peace the very stones of the Churches would cry out against these robbers c. Contemporary with Rubeus Ruffious Mumelinus were Ruffinus and Mumelinus who acted their parts also in this Tragedy and of whom something before Stephanus Stephanus An. D. 1249. another of the Pope's Legates took his turn also to the great profit of his Master and the universal damage of the Kingdom For the Pope being at difference with the Emperour Frederick this Stephanus was sent to demand and collect the Tenths of all moveables of all the Clergy and Laity both in England Ireland and Wales on which occasion the Argument was apply'd That Rome being the Mother of all Churches ought to be relieved by her Children which was done very dutifully at that time Walo another Legat Walo must not be forgotten and his Province was to gather Procurations throughout all England of all Cathedrals Churches and Religious Houses which he managed strenuously William de Testa was another of the Pope's Legates and Collectors W. de Testa Flor. Hist An. 1307. Tho. Walsin fo 64. Ypod. Neust 97 98. Matthew Westminster and Thomas Walsingham end the raign of King Edward the first with the general Complaints of the Nobles Commons and Clergy of England against the grievances and exactions of this William de Testa and one Peter Hispan the Pope's Legat à Latere in the Parliament held at Carlile The Petitions and address to the King Ryley Placit Parliamentaria fo 376 377. Albertus c. for remedie of those grievances are very remarkable still preserved amongst our Records and lately exhibited to publick view Albertus Alexander Johannes Anglicus Johannes de Diva Ferentinus Martinus Rustandus Petrus Enguelbanck Gasper Pons Pol. Vergil and a multitude more might here be remembred but our Histories being generally fraught with their Acts and devices the curious are referred thither for more satisfaction if they please Besides these Legates Collectors Caursins Lombards and Factors there was another sort of men came over into England much instrumental in improving An. D. 1235. and transmitting the Pope's moneys And these were called Caursins and Lombards Mart. Paris in Hen. 3. fo 417. Italians by Country and terming themselves the Pope's Merchants these drove the trade of letting out of money of which they had great Banks and were esteemed far more severe and merciless than the Jews Matthew Paris gives this Etymology of the name Caursini quasi Capientes ursini because they worryed men like Bears Now because the Pope's Legates and Collectors were all for ready money when any summ by Levy First Fruits Tenths Dispensations c. became due and payable to the Pope by any Prelate Covent Priest or Lay person these Caursins would furnish them with present Cash upon their entring into some solemn Bond or
flood of Mischiefs whereby the purity of the Church was desiled and the Common-wealth perturbed That by his Reservations Commenda's and Provisions of Benefices for such persons as sought to fleece and not to feed the flock of God he committed a sin than which none was at any time more hateful to God or destructive unto man except that of Lucifer nor ever will be but the sin of Antichrist He signified further that no man could with a good Conscience obey the mandates he had sent though they came from the highest order of Angels for they tended not to the edification but the utter ruine of the Church With much more to the like purpose At all which the Pope was so gall'd that he exclaim'd against him thus What means this old dotard this surd absurd man thus to arraign our actions By Peter and Paul I could find in my heart to make him a dreadful example to all the World Is not the King of England our Vassal and both he and his at our pleasure But some of the more temperate Cardinals endeavour'd to allay the Pope's heat telling him the Bishop had said nothing Ut enim vera fateamur vera sunt quae dicit Mat. Parisupr but what they all knew to be true and that it would not be discretion to meddle with a person of his piety worth and fame whereupon all was smother'd and no more words made on 't But for that notable Epistle it self I have been credibly told that it is inrolled in perpetuam rei memoriam in the Red Book in the King's Exchequer at Westminster with this Marginal Note Papa Antichristus And there is a very memorable Epistle of Petrus Cassiodorus a noble Italian Knight Jo. Bal. de Rom. Pont. Act. lib. 6. Acts Mon. vol. 1. fo 46◠written to the English Church about the twenty ninth year of K. Edw. 1. exhorting them to cast off the Romish yoak of Tyranny oppression and exaction formerly preserved in Manuscript in St. Albans Monastery but since made publick too large to be here inserted but most worthy to be perused The Poets also according to the scantling of the wit of those times spared not to satyrize upon these intolerable exactions of the Popes one whereof made this Distich Roma capit marcas bursas exhaurit Antiquit. Britt An. 1337. arcas Vt tibi tu parcas fuge Papas Patriarchas Rome drains all Bags all Chests and Burses Of all their Pounds and Marks If therefore you would save your Purses Fly Popes and Patriarchs Observable also is it upon these incroachments and extorsions how sometimes our Kings would despond and tamely suffer the Popes and their Legates to grow upon them and at other times rouze up themselves and give some check to their insolencies As K. Hen. 3. though a facile man yet was once so inrag'd against Rubeus that he bad him be gone out of his Kingdom in the Devil's name And as these exactions were at the height in that King's time yet his Successors did not always suffer them so to continue being forced to set some bounds to those avaricious torrents Pol. Vergil Hist in Ric 2. lib. 20. by the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire and oftentimes to give stout denials to unreasonable demands as the English Clergy themselves at last Lo. Herb. Hen. 8. fo 57 59. adventured to do in the years 1515. and 1518. And observable also is it that Q. Mary though most zealous for the Doctrines of the Church of Rome yet in restoring the Pope's Supremacy she and the State were very cautious like those whom others harms had made to beware and some prudent provisions were made in that behalf Stat. 1 2 Phil. mar cap. 8. Coke 3. Instit cap. 4. fo 127. neither were the Statutes of Premunire repeal'd in all her raign but the Pope's Supremacy was restor'd not simpliciter but secundum quid as bounded within some legal limitations But her raign was short and not pleasant and the Pope wanted time to work her for his purpose for having got his head in he did not doubt but by degrees to thrust in his whole body for it is ever observable that in the Papal concerns there is no moderation for they must have all or nothing let their pretences and promises at first admission be what ever they will And whatever Prince or State shall once admit of any Papal authority within their Dominions their destiny may easily be read that they and their people must for ever after be slaves or if they once begin to boggle or kick the Casuists have legitimated many ways to rid them out of the World for the advancement of the Catholick cause and the propagation of the Roman Faith Now after this imperfect Account given of the Rents and Revenues of the Popes heretofore issuing out of this Kingdom if any one shall desire to have some estimate made of the summs I must profess it beyond the reach of my Arithmetick and when I see any Accountant do it Erit mihi magnus Apollo Yet this is certain that they were very vast Otherwise there was no ground for that Complaint which was made by the Kingdom 's Representative in the raign of K. Edw. 3. Rot. Parl. 50 Ed. 3. nu 105. Mat. Paris 224. That the Pope's Collector held a receipt or audit equal to a Prince Or for that which King John wrote to the Pope in his time That this Kingdom yielded him more profits than all the other Countreys on this side the Alpes Id. 224. Or for that boast of the Pope Vere inquit Papa hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia vere puteus est inexhaustus Et ubi multa abundant de multis multa sumere licet Antiq Britt fo 178. Or for the computation made in the time of King Hen. 3. Repertus est annuus redditus Papae talis quem ne regius quidem attigit That the Pope's rents exceeded the Crown revenues Or the Remonstrance to the same purpose from the whole Kingdom to Pope Innocent the fourth in the year 1245. Matt. Paris fo 666. 698. Act. Mon. Tom. 1. exhibited by Mat. Paris Fox and others too long to be here inferred but most worthy to be read and the import thereof throughly understood Nay we may well judge the Pope's incomes to exceed all account when it appears that notwithstanding some notable provisions of State to the contrary the Pope's intradó should yet carry so huge a proportion That in the Parliament held in the twenty third year of King Hen. Io. Herb. Hist Hen. 8. fo 330. 8. it was computed that the Papacy had received out of England for the Investitures of Bishops only since the second year of King Hen. 7. not much above 40 years 160000 l. sterling an incredible sum considering the scarcity and value of silver at that time and the laws against such exportations And the sums going to Rome
Guardians and Chiefs without framing or proposing any more doubts subtilties or scruples With all this contained in a very fair Bull the Delegates and Agents returned home And the Guardians and Chiefs of the Order in pursuance thereof applyed themselves to order and settle these matters But then besides the differences that arose amongst themselves when ever they agreed on any thing those Fryers against whose Opinion it was carryed would quarrel insolently at it and would be so far from yielding conformity that they did not spare to revile their Superiours calling them Fools and Dunces for no better understanding the Text of St. Francis his Rule And in this disorder they continued a long time untill In the year 1323. in the time of Pope John the 22. who resided at Avignion the Guardians and superiours of the Order went to complain once more to his Holiness that the Fryers would not obey the Orders they had agreed upon by vertue of the Bull of Pope Clement and humbly prayed his Holiness further directions and aid therein Whereupon the Pope sent Summons to all those Fryers who refused to obey their Superior's Decrees in all those controverted points that they should either personally or by writing certifie the Reasons of their obstinacy and when these were come in the Pope assembled all his Cardinals in Conclave where the Allegations for and against the Fryer's disobedience were all canvassed and debated at large and many offers and proposals made for a final conclusion of all but nothing of that nature was accepted and no agreement there was like to be except the Pope would juridically and openly and plainly give his Sentence in the case And thereupon the Pope gave Order for his definitive Bull to be drawn up wherein in the first place he highly extolled the Bulls of his Predecessors the Popes Nicholas and Clement wondring why men should decline the import and â—enor of them and then for himself he ordained and declared That the vilitie of Habits should be measured by the custom of every Country and after gave power and Commission to the Guardians and Superiors of the Order as did Pope Clement to make a Rule for the longitude latitude colour thickness fashion substance and vility as well of the Tunics as the Hood and upon all other circumstances accidents and dependances upon the same commanding all the Fryers to obey the Rules that should be made without any more Objections Arguments or Contradictions But neither would this Third Bull do the business for men esteemed it in effect no more than what had bin order'd before without any fruit And so the heats and disputes continued amongst the Fryers as high as ever Nay some spared not to reflect on the Pope himself saying that he did not rightly understand the points in controversie Others that he used too many Councellors and that one honest Tailor if the Pope could have found him would better have inform'd how to stitch up these rents than the whole Conclave and the greatest Scandal was that if the Pope the Vice-deus the Oracle of Truth the unerring Head the infallible Guide could not settle and put an end to differences of such inferiour nature how could he did many say infallibly judge and determine in matters of Faith and the more sublime points of Religion about which there were such differences in the world But at last these heats amongst the Fryers were somewhat allayed and cool'd with time and the generality of the Order betook thmeselves to the White and Black Colours as they come purely from the Beast and thence the denomination to the white and black Fryers and some of them intermingled the two Colours and made a third and from them came the Grey Fryers And for the Garments and Hoods they came to wear them long and large only the difference about the Sleeves was never yet accorded for some wear strait and little Sleeves and others wear large and wide for some conveniences and of this sort was that Fryer who when he was Preaching against stealing had all the time a Goose in his Sleeve And thus though their Infallible Judge could not or would not put an end to these differences amongst his own Creatures with all his Decretals and Extravagants as those Bulls were called yet at this time we shall here to them all put a FINIS An Essay of the Supremacy of the King of England within his Majesty's Realms and Dominions IN our view of the resplendent Majesty of our Soveraign Lord the King of England it must needs fare with us as with a curious eye that looks on the Sun in its full luster thereby discovering its own weakness sooner than the nature of that Glorious Body being dazell'd if it gaze too long and scorched Excellens objectum destruit sensum if it approach too near such a refulgent and disproportion'd Object And therefore that I may proceed with Truth and safety in this affair I must make use of the Instruments of Law and the skreen of Authorities to direct and defend me in my intended progress therein In the first place therefore we are to know That the King of England hath two capacities in him viz. One as a natural Body being descended of the Blood Royal of this Realm and this Body is of the same nature with his Subjects Plowd Comment seig Barkly's Case fo 234. Id. Case de Duchy fo 213. and subject to Infirmity Death and the like The other as a Politick Body or Capacity so called because it is framed by the Policy of man and in this Capacity the King is esteemed to be Immortal not subject to Infirmity Death Nonage c. And therefore when a King of England dyes the Lawyers have a peculiar way of expressing the same not saying the Death of the King but the King's demise Demise le Roy. And therefore in respect of this Politick Capacity it is often said That the King of England never dyes and by the Law of England there can be no Interregnum for upon the King's Demise his lawful Successor is ipso facto King without any essential Ceremony or Act ex post facto to be done For the coronation is but a Royal ornament Calvin's Case fo 10 11. and solemnization of the Royal Descent but no part of the Title And all this may be collected from the Resolutions of all the Judges in the case of Watson and Clark Seminary Priests who with others Hill An. 1 Jac. Cok. Pl. Coron 7. entered into Treason against King James before his coronation So King Henry the sixth was not crowned untill the eighth year of his Raign and yet several men before his Coronation were Attaint of Treason and Felony as by the Records thereof it doth appear The Reasons and causes wherefore by the Policy of the Law the King of England is thus a Body Politick are three viz. First Causa Masestatis The King cannot give or take Calvin's Case fo
Sero recusat ferre quod subiit jugum But notwithstanding the infinite subtle arts and mighty efforts for that purpose the Papacy found it at any time a most difficult thing to carry any thing here by a high hand and to bring the Ecclesiastical State of this Nation to depend on Rome For our Princes never did doubt but they had the same Authority within their own Dominions as Constantine had in the Empire and our Bishops the same as St. Peter's Successors in the Church Ego Constantini Ailred Rival Coll. 361.16 Vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus said King Edgar in an eminent Speech unto his Clergy And what Power in the Church our Kings took themselves anciently to have appears by their Laws and Edicts published by themselves Leg. Edv. confess cap. 17. fo 142. Leg. Canut Inae apud Jornal Mart. Paris w. 2. and acknowledged by their subjects All speaking thus That the ordering and disposition of all Ecclesiastical Affairs within their own Dominions was their sole and undoubted Right the Foundation thereof being that Power which the Divine wisdom hath invested the Secular Magistrate withal for the defence and preservation of his Church and People against all attempts whatsoever And all our Laws and Lawyers concurring in this Rex sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Bracton Leg. Sanct. Edw. cap. 19.17 That the King of England is subject to no Power on Earth but to God only and in King Edwards Laws he is called Vicarius summi Regis as also in Bracton that being the Cognomen as it were given by Pope Eleutherius long ago to King Lucius here as not being under the power of any other And this in effect acknowledged by the whole Body of the English Clergy Reg. Hoveden in Hen. 2. pa. post fo 510. in a Letter of the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury to Tho. Becket An. D. 1167. as it stands recorded at large by Roger Hoveden To this it will be but seasonable and pertinent to add the Historical Instances and evidences some of them as occurr demonstrating as the continual claim and when they could the exercise of this Right by the Kings of this Island so the worthy resistances as from time to time have been made against all forraign usurpations and incroachments upon the same sufficient to shew that our Princes did not command the Ecclesiasticks here who made up so great a part of their subjects according to the will and pleasure of any forrain Potentate nor that they were only lookers on whilest others governed the English Church Therefore we may observe All Councils and Convocations Eadmer fo 25.5.11 Florent Wigorn An. 1070. fo 434. Stat. 25 H. 8.19 assembled at the King's appointment and by the King 's Writt Jubente praesente Rege as one says and that upon the same Authority as the Emperour Constantine had long before assembled the Council of Nice Some appointed by the King to sit in those Councils and supervise their actions Matt. Paris ad An. 1237. fo 447. ne ibi contra regiam coronam dignitatem aliquid statuere attentarent And Mat. Paris gives us the names of the Commissioners for that purpose in one of the Councils held in the time of King Hen. 3. And when any did otherwise he was forced to retract such Constitutions as did Peckham or they were but in paucis servatae Lyâ—dw de soro competent cap. 1. as were those of Boniface as Lyndwood ingenuously doth acknowledge No Synodical Decree suffered to be of force but by the King's allowance Eadmer fo 6.29 and confirmation In hoc concilio ad emendationem Ecclesiae Anglicanae assensu Domini Regis Gervas Dorobern An. 1175. fo 1429. Mat. Paris Hen. Huntingd Eadm passim Pat. 8 9 Johan R. m. 5.8 primorum omnium regni haec subscripta promulgata sunt capitula as Gervasius Dorobern informs us No Legate suffered to enter into England but by the King's leave and swearing to do nothing prejudicial to the King and his Crown All matters of Episcopacy determined by the King himself Eadmer 115.23 inconsulto Romano Pontifice No Appeals to Rome permitted None to receive Letters from the Pope Thorn Coll. 2152. Coke 3. Instit cap. 54.10.127 Hoveden Hen. 2. fo 496. without shewing them to the King who caused all words prejudicial to him or his Crown to be renounced and dis-avowed by the bringers or receivers of such Letters Permitted no Bishops to Excommunicate Eadmer fo 6.31 or inflict any Ecclesiastical censure on any Peer nisi ejus praecepto Caused the Bishops to appear in their Courts Addit Mat. Paris fo 200 to give account why they excommunicated a subject Bestowed Bishopricks on such as they approved Forent Wigorn An. 1070. fo 536. and translated Bishops from one See to another Erected new Bishopricks Godwin de Praef. Angl. So did King Hen. 1. An. 1109. Ely taking it out of Lincoln Carlile 1133. out of York or rather Durham Commanded by Writ Coke 2. Instit 625. Addit Mat. Paris fo 200. nu 6. the Bishops to Residency Placed by a Lay hand Clerks in Prebendary or Parochial Churches Ordinariis penitus irrequisitis as it is phrased in Matt. Paris By these and many other instances of the like nature exercised by our Kings it appears that the English ever took the outward Policy of this Church or Government of it in foro exteriori to depend on the King And therefore the writs of Summoning all Parliaments express the calling of them to be Pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis nos statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus c. In the Reign of King Edward the first Broâ—k Tit. Praemunire pl. 10. A subject brought in a Bull of Excommunication against another subject of this Realm and published it to the Lord Treasurer of England and this was by the ancient Common Law of England adjudged Treason against the King his Crown and Dignity for which the Offendor should have bin drawn and hang'd but at the great instance of the Chancellor and Treasurer he only abjur'd the Realm King Edw. Trin. 19 Ed. 3. Fitzh Quare non admisit pl. 7. presented his Clark to a Benefice within the Province of York who was refused by the Arch-bishop for that the Pope by way of Provision had conferred it on another The King thereupon brought a Quare non admisit the Archbishop to it Pleaded that the Bishop of Rome had long time before Provided to the said Church as one having Supream Authority in that case and that he durst not nor had power to put him out who was possessed by the Pope's Bull. But for this high contempt against the King his Crown and Dignity in refusing to execute his Soveraign's commands against the Pope's Provision by Judgement of the Common Law the Lands of his whole Bishoprick were seized
into the King's hands and lost during his life And this Judgement was before any Act of Parliament made in that case Nota. And there it is said That for the like offence the Archbishop of Canterbury had bin in worse case by the Judgement of the Sages in the Law if the King had not extended favour to him Although by the Ordinance of Circumspecte agatis Coke 5 Rep. Case de jure R. Eccl. made in the thirteenth year of King Edward the first and by a general allowance and usage the Ecclesiastical Court held Plea of Tithes Oblations Obventions Mortuaries Redemption of Penance Laying of violent hands on a Clark Defamations c. yet did not the Clergy think themselves assured nor quiet from Prohibitions purchased by subjects till King Edward the second by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal Staâ— 9 Edw. 2. Artic. cler ca. 16. in and by consent of Parliament upon Petition of the Clergy had granted them Jurisdiction in those cases An Excommunication by the Archbishop Finzh Excom 4.16 Ed. 3. Broâ—k Excom pl. 5.14 H. 4. although it be dis-annulled by the Pope or Legate is to be allowed Neither may the Judges give any allowance of any such sentence of the Pope or his Legate And it hath often bin adjudg'd 30 Ed 3 Lib. Assiz pl. 19.12 Ed. 4.16 and declared That the Pope's Excommunication is of no force in England It is often Resolved in our Books that all the Bishopricks in England were founded by the King's Progenitors and the Advowsons vowsons of them all belong to the King and at first they were * Per traditionem annuli pastorasis baculi Donative And that if an Incumbent of any Church with cure dyes if the Patron Present not within six months the Bishop of that Diocess ought to collate that the cure be supply'd if he neglect by the space of six moneths the Metropolitan of that Diocess shall confer one unto that Church and if he also neglect six moneths then the Law gives to the King as Supreame within his own Kingdom and not to the Pope power to provide a Pastor The King may not only exempt any Ecclesiastical Person from the Jurisdiction of the Ordinary but may grant unto him Episcopal Jurisdiction as it appears the King had done of antient time to the Archdeacon of Richmond 17 Ed 3.13 20 Ed. 3. And the Abbot of Bury was exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction by the King's Charter The King Presented to a Benefice 21 Ed. 3.40 and his Presentee was disturbed by one that had obtained Bulls from Rome for which offence he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment If Excommunication be the final end of any suit in the Court of Rome as indeed it is and be not allowed Fitzh Nat. Br. fo 64. f. or allowable in England as it hath often bin Declared It then follows that by the Ancient Common Law of England no suit for any cause though it be spiritual arising within this Realm may or can be determined in the Court of Rome Quia frustra expectatur eventus cujus effectus nullus sequitur At a Parliament held An. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib 25 Edward the third It was Enacted That as well they that obtained Provisions from Rome as they that put them in execution should be out of the King's Protection and that they should be dealt withal as the King's Enemies and no man so dealing with them should be impeached for the same At a Parliament held An. Stat. 16 Ric. 2. cap. 5. 16 Ric. 2. It is declar'd That the Crown of England hath bin so free at all times that it hath bin in subjection to none but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the said Crown to be submitted to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his Will And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be clearly against the King's Crown and his Regality used and approved in time of all his Progenitors in which points the said Commons professed to live and dye and to all which the Lords assented also as being thereto bound by their Allegiances It is resolved that the Pope's Collector 2 Hen. 4 fo 9. though he have the Pope's Bull for that purpose hath no Authority within this Realm And there it is said That the Archbishops and Bishops of this Realm are the King 's spiritual Judges And in another place it is said Papa non potest mutare Leges Angliae 11 Hen. 4. fo 37. Per Curiam In the raign of King Henry the sixth 1 Hen. 7. fo 10. the Pope wrote Letters in derogation of the King and his Regality and the Church-men durst not speak any thing against them But Humfrey Duke of Glocester for their safe keeping put them into the fire In the raign of King Edward the fourth 1 Hen. 7. fo 20. the Pope granted to the Prior of St. John's to have Sanctuary in his Priory and this was pleaded and claim'd by the Prior but resolved by the Judges Keilway Reports 8 H. 8. fo 191. b. That the Pope had no power to grant any Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore the same was disallowed by Judgement of Law In Brook Tit. Presentation al Esglise Bro. Present al Esglise p. 12. It is affirmed That the Pope was permitted to do certain things within this Realm by usurpation and not of right untill the Raign of King Kenry the eighth quod nota sayes the Book Stat. 24 Hen. 8. ca. 12.25 H. 8.21 And in what esteem the Pope's Authority here was in that King's time may sufficiently be collected from the Tenor and Purview of the Statutes about that affair in his raign made In the raign of King Kenry the sixth Henry Beaufort Uncle to the King being Bishop of Winchester was made Cardinal and thereupon purchased from the Pope a Bull Declaratory that he might still hold his Bishoprick yet it was held and adjudged that the See of Winchester was become void by the assumption of the Cardinalship and therefore the Cardinal fallen into a Praemunire 4 Hen. 6. in Arch. Turr. Lond. for which he was glad to purchase his pardon as by the Records of all this it doth appear It was Adjudged in the Court of Common Pleas Dier 12 Eliz. by Sir James Dyer Weston and the whole Court That a Dean or any other Ecclesiastical Person may resign as divers did to King Edward the sixth Vid. Grend ca. in Plowd Com. for that he had the Authority of the Supream Ordinary With all this may be noted also the several Statutes heretofore made against the usurpations of the Bishops of Rome in this Kingdom the principal whereof these viz. Stat. 25 Ed. 3. de Provisorib Stat. 27 28 Ed.
3. Cap. 1 2. Stat. 38 Ed. 3. Cap. 3. Stat. Statutes of Pâ—ovâ—sors and Preminire 16 Ric. 2. Cap. 5. Stat. 2 Hen. 4. Cap. 3. Stat. 6 Hen. 4. Cap. 1. Stat. 7 Hen. 7. Cap. 6. Stat. 3 Hen. 5. Cap. 4. Stat. 1 Hen. 7. Cap. 4. Stat. 24 Hen. 8. Cap. 12. Stat. 25 Hen. 8. Cap. 21. Stat. 1 Eliz. Cap. 1. c. By all which with the foregoing Resolutions and Presidents to which a multitude more to the same purpose might be added it doth appear clearly that long before the time of King Hen. 8. divers Statutes and Laws were made and declared against forrain incroachments upon the Rights of the Crown in this matter and those as sharp and severe as any Statutes for that purpose have been made in later times though then both King Lords and Commons that made those Laws and the Judges that did interpret them did for the most part follow the same Opinions in Religion which were held and taught in the Church of Rome And therefore those that will lay upon this Nation the imputation of Schism for denying the Pope's Supremacy here Vid. Case de Premunire in St. John Davys Rep. must charge it many Ages before the time of King Henry the eighth For the Kings Lords and Commons of this Realm have ever been most eminent for asserting their just Rights and Liberties disdaining to become a Tributary Province as it were to the See of Rome or part of St. Peter's earthly Patrimony in Demesn And the Faith and Loyalty of the English race hath bin generally such though true it is that every Age hath brought forth some singular monsters of disloyalty as no pretence of zeal or Religion could ever draw the greater part of the Subjects for to submit themselves to a forrain Yoke no not when Popery was in greatest height and exaltation of all which the aforesaid Statutes are manifest Evidences being generally made at the Prayer of the Commons as by their Preambles may appear most worthy to be read Particularly in the Preamble to the Statute of 16 Ric. 2. They complain Sta. 16 Ric. 2. cap. 5. That by Bulls and Processes from Rome the King is deprived of that Jurisdiction which belongs of right to his Imperial Crown That the King doth lose the service and Counsel of his Prelates and learned men by translations made by the Bishop of Rome That the King's Laws are defeated at his will the Treasure of the Realm is exhausted and exported to inrich his Court And that by those means the Crown of England which hath ever bin free and subject unto none but immediately unto God should be submitted unto the Bishop of Rome to the utter destruction of the King and the whole Realm which God defend say they and thereupon out of their zeal and loyalty they offer to live and dye with the King in defence of the liberties of the Crown And then they pray the King to examine all the Lords in Parliament what they thought of these wrongs and usurpations and whether they would stand with the King in defence of his Royal liberties which being done the Lords Spiritual and Temporal did all answer that these usurpations of the Bishop of Rome were against the liberties of the Crown and that they were all bound by their Allegiance to stand with the King and to maintain his Honour and Prerogative Upon producing and averrement of all this it is requisite some satisfaction be given about the conclusion that hapned so different to these premises For if the Kings and People of England have in all times been so sensible of and zealous for their just Rights how could the Roman Power in derogation of those Rights arrive to such a consistence and height as here it was for many years To this as to the means and manner of that acquist to keep within our Historical compass First let it be premised as undoubtedly true That before the time of the Norman Conquest the Bishops of Rome had very little or nothing to do here as well in matter of Fact as of Right For before that time the Pope's Writ did not run in England His Bulls of Excommunication and Provision came not hither no Citations or Appeals were made from hence to the Court of Rome Our Archbishops did not purchase their Palls there Neither had the Pope the Investiture of any of our Bishopricks And Ingulphus who lived in the Conquerours time a Favourite and one preferred by him thus informs Ingulph Hist fo 901. A multis namque annis retroactis nulla Electio Praelatorum erat libera mere Canonica sed omnes dignitates tam Episcoporum quam Abbatum per annulum baculum regis curia pro sua Complacentia conferebat For as it is observable that under the Temporal Empire of Rome Brittain was one of the last Provinces that was won and one of the first that was lost again So under the Spiritual Empire of the Pope England was one of the last Countrys of Christendom that received the Yoke and one of the first that cast it off But for our purpose that the Bishops of Rome had any Jurisdiction or Hierarchical Authority in the times of the Brittains Saxons or Danes there is an altum silentium in all our Histories and Records For the times of the Brittains Eleuth Epist Eleutherius Pope about 180 years after Christ writes to Lucius the Brittish King and stiles him God's Vicar within his own Kingdom and sure he would not have given that Title to the King if himself under pretence of being God's Vicar-General on Earth had claimed Jurisdiction over all Christian Kingdoms After that Beda Eccl. Hist Matt. Westm Polychron Fab. Huntingd. c. about the year 600. Austin the Monk was sent by Pope Gregory into England to convert the Saxons to the Christian Faith But the Brittish Bishops then residing in Wales gave no regard either to his Commission or his Doctrines as not owing any duty to or dependence upon Rome but still retained their Ceremonies and Traditions which they received from the East Church upon the first plantation of Christianity being both divers and contrary to those of the Church of Rome which Austin did indeavour to impose upon them Usser de Prim. Eccl. Brit. Then about the year 660 there is a famous disputation celebrated between one Colman and one Wilfrid touching the Observation of Easter wherein the Brittains differed from the practice of the Roman Church from which is plainly inferrable that the Authority of the Bishop of Rome was at that time of no estimation in this Island And that the Primitive Churches of Brittain were instituted according to the form of the East and not of the West Church Nay upon the first coming of Austin and his retinue into Brittain there was such a strangness and averseness to him that one Daganus a British Beda Eccl. Hist lib. 2. cap. 4 Spelm. Concil Tom. 1. fo 129.
purpose we must know that after the Power of the Bishops of Rome came to some consistency in the world and the Pope began to look upon himself as a spiritual Prince or Monarch he presently began to attempt to give Laws to Nations and People as a badge of his Soveraignty but then well knowing That ubi non est condendi authoritas ibi non est parendi necessitas he would not impose those Laws at first peremptorily upon all People but offered them timide and precario and in such places where he presumed they would find the freest reception and in order to this at first he caused certain Rules to be collected for the Order and Government of the Clergy only which he called Decreta and not Laws or Statuta and these Decrees as they were called were first published in the year 1150 in the raign of our King Stephen and whereas Sr. Edward Coke Sr Ed. Coke Pref. aâ— 8. Relat. in the Preface to the eighth Report sayes that Roger Bacon the learned Fryer saith in his Book de impedimentis Sapientiae That King Stephen forbad by publick edict that no man should retain the Laws of Italy then brought into England we may with some assurance intend it of these Decrees about that time compil'd and publish'd And these were received Keilways Rep. 7 Hen. 8. fo 184. and observed by the Clergy of the Western Churches only for those of the Eastern Churches would never admit these Rules or Canons Afterwards the Bishops of Rome attempted to bring the Laity also under the obedience of these Canons and for that purpose they first began with Rules or Canons about abstinence and dayes of Fasting to be observed by the Laity Maâ—sil Pat. lib. Defens Pac. pa. 2. c. 23 Durard Rat. Di. l. 4. c. 6 7. as well as Clergy which at the first institution were termed by that mild word Rogationes and thence the week of Fasting before the Feast of Pentecost came to be called Rogation week in regard this time of Abstinence was at first appointed by an Ordinance called Rogatio and not Praeceptum or Statutum When the Laity had swallowed this Ordinance of Fasting then De una praesumptione ad aliam transivit Romanus Pontifex as Marsil Pata hath it that is the Bishop of Rome proceeded to make and publish several other orders by the name of Decretals and these were published about the year 1230. An. 14 Hen 3. Mat. Paris in Hen. 3. fo 417. and made or proposed to bind all the Laity as well Princes as their Subjects in several matters relating to their Civil and Temporal concerns As That no Lay-man should have the Donation of Ecclesiastical Benefices That no Lay man should marry within certain degrees out of the degrees limited by the Levitical Law That all Infants born before Espousals should after Espousals be adjudged Legitimate and capable to inherit That all Clarks should be exempt from the Secular Power and divers more such like But then we must know that these Decretals so made were not intirely and absolutely receiv'd in all parts of Christendom but only at first in the Temporal Territory of the Pope which on that account is call'd by the Canonists Patria Obedientiae but wholly rejected in England France and other Christian Countreys which thence are sometimes called Patriae consuetudinariae as resolving to adhere to their old Laws and Customs As the Canon that prohibits Donation of Benefices per Laicam manum was always disobeyed in England France the Realm of Naples and divers other Countrys The Canon to legitimate Infants born before marriage was specially rejected in England when in the Parliament held at Merton Stat. de Merton An. 20 Hen. 3. Omnes Comites Barones una voce responderunt Keilway 7 H. 8. fo 181. b. Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari quae hucusq usitatae sunt c. The Canon that exempted Clerks from the Secular Power was never observed fully in any part of Christendom Infallible arguments that these Canons received not the force of Laws from the Court of Rome as if that had power to give Laws to all Nations without their respective consents but the approbation and usage of the People received them as they pleased partially and specially as to Places Times and parts of those Canons and for the same reason that some rejected one others did more and some all of them as Bodin says Bodin de Repub lib. 1. cap. 8. That the Kings of France upon erecting of their Universities there declare in their Charters that the Profession of the Civil and Canon Laws may there be receiv'd and used according to discretion but not to bind as Laws Now when the Bishop of Rome perceived that many of his Canons were embraced in several Countreys under colour thereof he claim'd Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within those Realms with power to interpret and dispence with his own Canons and for that purpose sent his Legates about with Commissions to hear and determine causes according to those Laws which upon their first exhibition Marsil Pat. ut supr pa. 2. c. 23. as is before noted he durst not call Laws or Statuta ne committeret crimen laesae Majestatis in Principes as Marsil Patav observes who further says that these Canons inasmuch as they were made by the Pope neque sunt humanae leges neque divinae sed documenta quaedam narrationes But as is said when he perceiv'd they were allowed and used in part or in whole in divers Countreys they were revised digested and compil'd into Volumes and called Jus Canonicum and being appointed to be read and expounded in publick Schools and Universities they were commanded to be obeyed by all under pain of Excommunication with declaration of the Pope's power to interpret abrogate or dispence with them at his pleasure and thereupon the Canonists say Lib. 6. de Const cap. Licet Papa in omnibus pure positivis in quibusdam ad jus Divinum pertinentibus dispensare potest quia dicitur omnia jura habere in scrinio pectoris sui quantum ad interpretationem dispensationem In the 25th year of King Ed. 1. An Dom. 1297 Tho. Walsing Stow in hoc anno one Simon a Monk of Walden began first to read the Canon Law in the University of Cambridge and the year after it began to be read also in the University of Oxford in the Church of the Friers Praedicants and from that time got ground in England being sometimes admitted and sometimes rejected according to the Ebb or Flow of the Papal interest here but how really this Canon Law was an innovation and usurpation here it is sufficient but to peruse the Preamble to the Statute of Faculties Stat. 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. and Dispensations made in the raign of King Hen. 8. to which the Reader is referred As another Branch of the Pope's power in the matters aforesaid we may observe that
the two and twentieth An. D. 1316. among whom Walsingham speaking of that Pope saith thus Tho Walsingh in Ed 2. fo 84. Summus Pontifex reservavit Camerae fuae primos fructus beneficiorum omnium in Anglia per triennium vacantium And Ranulph Cestrensis thus Johannes 22. Lib. 7. cap. 42. in H. Knighton Coll. fo 2534. Beneficiorum per mortem seu resignationem vacantium sive per translationem primos fructus reservavit But howsoever or by whomsoever these became first impos'd after the Popes had been absolutely and throughly seized of them then they claimed them Jure Divino by example of the High Priest amongst the Jews Numb 18.6 who had Tenths from the Levites But Pol. Vergil sings another note in the place above referr'd to insinuating the maintenance of the Pope's grandeur to be the first rise of them and that this was one of the fairest flowers in the Triple Crown but when the payment of them had been continued some competent time it was politickly done upon any questioning to assign them a Divine Original which was sure to satisfie such as used to take the Pope's word for far greater matters The payment of these with other great summs of which more anon so strangely impoverish'd the Kingdom that notwithstanding that allegation or pretence of Divine Right the Kings of England made no scruple sometimes to forbid the payment of them 2 Ed. 3. Claus Rot. m. 4. 25 Ed. 3. 47 Ed. 3. as K. Ed. 3. once discharged the Pope's Nuntio from collecting the First Fruits c. and many Prohibitions were granted against the Popes Collectors on complaint made by the grieved Commons in Parliament as appears by the several Collections thereof made by the Lord Coke Coke Jurisd of Courts cap. 14 Stat. 2 H. 4. cap. 1. 1 Ric. 2. and in one Statute made to remedy that grievance it was termed a Horrible Mischief and Damnable Custome and at another Parliament it was call'd a Very Novelty But herein did the policy of the Court of Rome notably appear that sometimes when the Kingdom complain'd of its burdens and the Kings in some exigency calling for the Subjects Aids and thereupon the Pope's revenue in danger of a temporary if not a total stop the Popes would in such a juncture and perhaps in a frolick of bounty concede or assign the First Fruits c. for some time to the King as for one year or more as the occasion seem'd to require and in particular Pol. Vergil Hist lib. 20. fo 405. Pope Vrban gave them to King Richard the second to aid him against Charls the French King And this project serv'd excellently well both to habituate the People to payment and to win the Kings for their continuance to whom they might be thus useful in any case of extremity But the policy of after Parliaments went a reach beyond that of the Popes for as a perpetual addition to the revenues of the Crown they were by a Statute in the time of King Henry the eighth given to the King his Heirs Stat 26 Hen. 8. cap. 3. and Successors for ever And then for the ordering of these First Fruits and Tenths there was a Court erected An. 32 Hen. 8. Stat. 32 Hen. 8. cap. 45. but this Court was dissolv'd again An. 1 Mariae but King Philip and Queen Mary gave them not again to the Pope but by Authority of Parliament discharged the Clergy thereof Afterwards by a Statute Stat. 1 Elâ—z 4. in the first year of Queen Elizabeth they were revived and reduced again to the Crown yet was the Court never restored but the First Fruits and Tenths were ordered to be within the Rule Survey and Government of the Court of Exchequer and a new Office and Officer created viz. a Remembrancer of the First Fruits and Tenths of the Clergy who taketh all compositions for them and maketh out Process against such as pay not the same And now they are to be paid in such manner as is directed and appointed in and by the said Statutes oâ— 26 Hen. 8. and 1 Eliz. The Stat. 26 Hen. 8. appointing that every Spiritual person shall pay or secure by Bond his First Fruits before his actual possession of his Benâ—fice and that an Obligation for First Fruits shall be of like force as a Statute Staple and that no more shall be taken for such an Obligation than eight pence and for an Acquittance four pence and if any person shall be convict by Presentment Verdict Confession or Witness before the Lord Chancellor or other Commissioners to have entred upon any Spiritual Living before composition or payment he shall forfeit the double value of the First Fruits Stat. 3 Ed. 6. cap. 20. And if Tenths being due shall not be paid within forty dayes after demand thereof made by the Bishop or his Officers and thereupon certificate made under Seal of the Bishop or Collector the party making default shall be deprived ipso facto of that one Dignity or Benefice Besides it is to be remembred Stâ—t 1 Eâ—iz 4. that Vicarages not exceeding Ten Pounds per annum and Parsonages not exceeding Ten Marks per annum shall not pay First Fruits but all are to pay Tenths Then for the valuation of Ecclesiastical Livings we are to know that antiently they were valued by a Taxation Book made An. 20 Ed. 1. Coke 4 Instir fo 120. which still remaineth in the Exchequer But then another Book of Taxation was made An. 26 Hen. 8. kept in that Court also and according to this latter Taxation are the values of Ecclesiastical Livings computed for the payment of the First Fruits and Tenths And so much as every Living is there valued so much it is said to be in the Kings Books and so much must be paid for First Fruits Yet every Spiritual person at his Composition and entring into Specialties to pay the same shall have deduction of the Tenth part thereof and that in respect of the Tenth as shall be by him paid that year for by the Stat. 27 Hen. 8. Stat. 27 Hen. 8. cap. 8. none shall pay Tenths the same year that they pay First Fruits therefore they are deducted as aforesaid The way now of Composition for First Fruits is for the Parson Presented Admitted c. with sufficient Sureties to enter into Four Bonds each conditioned for the payment of the Fourth part of the First Fruits deducting the Tenth as aforesaid the first Bond payable at half a years end the second Bond at a Twelve-moneths end the third at a year and halfs end and the fourth at two years end and so the party hath two years time to pay the First Fruits And then by the Statute of 1 Eliz. cap. 4. it is appointed That if an Incumbent continue in his Benefice half a year after the last avoidance and then dye or be legally outed before the end of the year then he his Executors Administrators or
3. by his menacing Bull to Geoffry de Lysimaco earnestly demanded by Otho his Legate all the arrears of the 1000 marks annual rent granted by his Father K. John due from the beginning of his Papacy and the King's reign who therupon paid all those arrears amounting to 10000 marks for which he desired the Popes allowance and acquittance by this Letter Claus 10 H. 3. m. 2â— doâ—so still kept upon the file Dom. Papae salutem Ad instantiam magistri O. Subdiaconi Capellani vestri viri utique prudentis merito commendabilis qui ad nos transmissus ex parte vestra requirebat à nobis instanter ea quae restare à tempore Papatus Vestri credidit de annuo censu nostro vobis debito Paternitati vestrae praesentibus intimamus quod venerabili Patri P. Norwic. Episc septem millia quadringentas tresdecem marcas dimidium de praedicto censu solvimus sicut mâ—minit ipse pariter confitetur Et ad perficiendum octo millia marcarum praedicto magistro Ottoni solvi fecimus quingentas quater viginti sex marcas dimidium Et praeterea mille marcas tibi assignari fecimus De mille vero marcis vobis satisfecerint Magister Stephanus de Eketon Magister Stephanus de Ducy nuncii nostri sicut nobis significastis Et sic de toto tempore Papatus vestri plenarie vobis est satisfactum Supplicamus igitur sanctitati vestrae quatenus nobis super hoc literas vestras patentes dignemini destinarâ— Teste meipso apud Westmonast 24. die Martii Anno regni nostri Decimo An even reckoning so far And then it appears that in the 33 year of King Hen. 3. Pope Innocent the 4th in the sixth year of his Papacy sent to the King to demand this 1000 marks due for that year An. 33 H 3. in Turri Lond. by this Instrument or Bull Innocentius Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei charissimo in Christo filio Regi Anglorum illustri salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Excellentiam tuam affectione paterna rogamus quatenus mille marcas sterlingorum quas pro anno praesenti Ecclesiae Romanae nomine Census debes dilecto filio Thesaurario Domus militiae Templi London solitae devotionis affectu nomine nostro facias assignari Dat. Lugdun 5 Kal. Augusti Pontificatus nostri sexto Dorso De censu annuo Dom. Papae debito But whether any thing or no was paid upon this demand appears not But by the Liberate Rolls it appears 31 H. 3. m. 1. that this rent due for the 31 year of K. H. 3. was then paid to the Treasurer of the Temple In the year 1276. Pope John 21. sent such another Bull or demand to K. Edw. 1. still preserv'd amongst the Tower Records whereby he demanded the arrears of this annual rent of 1000 marks for seven years then last past and also for that year but whether payment was made accordingly there remains no evidence and when or how much was afterwards paid upon this account is now uncertain But from these footsteps thereof which we find amongst our Records it may well be collected that the Popes being sensible of the defeasibleness of their Title to this Rent durst not always insist upon it but sometimes when they met with an easie King or one whose affairs required the Pope's countenance or aid then they would put on a demand of this rent with the arrears of it and many times without doubt were gratifi'd therein but then with wise and resolute Kings they had the discretion to let it alone and so by continuance of time and non-claim the rent came at last to be extinguish'd CHAP. V. Appeals APpeals to the Court of Rome was another way of drawing great summs of money out of England continually thither And these began most visibly in the time of King Stephen Gervas Dorobern coll fo 1667. according to that of Gervasius Doroberniensis Inusitatae enim erant in Anglia Appellationes usque quo Henricus extitit Wintoniensis Episcopus remembred also by Hen. Huntingdon Hen. Huntingd lib. 8. â—0 395 who tells us also the occasion related at large by Bishop Godwin in the life of Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury And then when the Popes had tasted the sweets of the gains accruing this way all incouragement was given to Appellants so that afterwards there scarcely happen'd any controversie of value but one party or other would presently Appeal to the Pope and Court of Rome for the management of which Appeals it was necessary to retain Proctors Notaries Advocates Agents Sollicitors and many other Officers who all living by the employment expected always to be well paid And in the Court of Rome were continually resident a multitude of Officers Judges Clarks Scribes Advocates Canonists Civillians Referendaries who every one must have a finger in every cause brought thither by Apppeal and be all well paid and brib'd for Bulls Breves Citations Commissions Sentences References Expeditions with innumerable sorts of Processes issuing during the depending of causes which were never speedily ended but spun out to the utmost length with all incouragement of Appellant Suitors bringing grist to the mill and as long as any money flowed to make the wheel go And as these Appeals were purchased in suits between party and party most commonly to the utter undoing of the Plaintiff or Defendant and many times of them both the Pope having the fineness when he had cracked the Nut to take the kernel to himself and to give one shell to one of them and the other to the other so oftentimes they caused a far greater mischief being made use of by haughty turbulent and undutiful subjects especially Church-men to cross and oppose their Soveraigns upon every or any pretence whatsoever Witness the Appeals of Anselme Becket the Monks of Canterbury with multitudes more from the King and his Laws to the Pope as in all our Histories most frequently occurr All which tended only to carry huge sums to Rome and to bring thence no less mischiefs to the King and Kingdom And besides this multitudes of Appeals were founded upon the Elections of Bishops Abbots Priors Deans c. for it was very rare to have all parties acquiesce in an Election but Incapacity Simony Surprize or some irregularity would be pretended and then presently an Appeal must be made to Rome and there generally the cause determined for that party which brought the most money Venalesque manus ibi fas ubi plurima merces Acts Mon. fo 259. As once John Hereford was elected Abbot of St. Alban's Monastery but upon some dis-satisfaction taken thereat Reynold the Physician and Nicholas a Monk were instantly posted away with a huge bag of Money to Rome whereby the Election was confirm'd upon these terms That the new Abbot should swear every third year by himself or some other to visit the Limina Apostolorum in Rome with a subintelligitur that he should
vel illi facere teneamini ut praeferatur Et ne vos quod absit propter hujusmodi gratiam reddamini procliviores ad illicita in posterum committenda nolumus quod si ex confidentia remissionis hujusmodi forte aliqua commiseritis quo-ad illa praedicta remissio vobis nullatenus suffragetur Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc Paginam nostrae concessionis voluntatis infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire Si quis autem hoc attentare praesumpserit indignationem omnipotentis Dei beatorum Petri Pauli Apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum Dat. Romae apud S. Petrum Nonas Julii Pontificatus nostri anno secundo Anno Domini MCCCXC A little further to shew the power and vertue of these Indulgences to draw the Peoples mony and I think the best effect of these piae fraudes we may note how by means thereof many of our Churches and religious houses were from time to time built and repaired As the Abby and Church of Crowland by the relation of Petrus Blessensis Camb. Brit. in Lincolâ—sh in the time of K. Hen. 2. by an Indulgence for the third part of Penance injoined for sins committed to all that helped forward the work W. Dugdale Hist of St. Pauls Cath. fo 11 12. And to instance in no more but the Cathedral of St. Paul's in London a multitude of Letters are avowed by Mr. Dugdale to have been by him seen and read by which Indulgences extending to certain numbers of days for penance was granted to all such as being contrite and confest should afford their help to so good a work particularly Hugh Foliot An. D. 1228. Bishop of Hereford granted an Indulgence for 20 days penance to be in force for seven years Richard Wethershed Archb. An. D. 1230. for 40 days penance Henry Archb. An. D. 1235. of Colen in Germany granted for the same purpose relaxation of 50 days penance Afterwards in the reign of K. Hen. 3. these several Indulgences were granted viz. Edmund Archb. of Cant. for 20 days penance Walter Archb. of York for 40. Joscelin Bishop of Bath 38. Walter Bishop of Carl. for 40. Rich. Bishop of Rochester 40. Hugh Bishop of Cov. and Lichf 30. William Bishop of Norwich 20. Cum multis aliis c. Afterwards An. D. 1244. in the year 1244 comes an Indulgence from Walter Bish of Norwich extending to those which should either for devotions sake visit the Tomb of Roger Niger or give assistance unto the work As also some time after An. D. 1252. another for the like purpose from Richard Bishop of Exeter In the same year Pope Innocent the 3. sent out a Pardon for 40 days penance to all such as should assist to carry on the work But in the year following Laurence Bish of Rochester in his Indulgence adds the visiting of the said Tomb of Roger Niger To these succeed the Indulgences of Boniface Archbishop of Cant. for 40 days John Bishop of Landaff for 20 days William Bishop of Sarum for 20 days Afterwards the fruits of these being found a multitude of Letters hortatory were issued out by several Bishops with Indulgences as aforesaid for the same purpose viz by Fouk Basset Bishop of Lond. Richard Bishop of Lincoln Giles Bishop of Salisbury John Bishop of Winchester Walter Bishop of Salisbury Robert Bishop of Durham Godfry Bishop of Worcester Thomas Bishop of Hereford And after all this An. D. 1281. within a few years another Letter hortatory issued out by John Archb. of Cant. affording the same number of days for Indulgence as the other Bishops had done The like from William Bishop of Norwich And some time after that the like from John Bishop of Norwich An. D. 1283. and Roger Bish of Salisbury After which one Simon a Cardinal of Rome gave one hundred days release to all such as should give to the repair of the whole fabrick With these came also contributions from Ireland which began An. D. 1237. and continued several years granted by Christian Bishop of Emely for 20 days William Bishop of Leghlin for 30 days Gilbert Bishop of Imely for 21 days Isaac Bishop of Killalow for 8 days William Bishop of Conor for 40 days Thomas Bishop of Elfin for 40 days David Bishop of Cashall for 40 days Thomas Bishop of Down for 40 days And to shut up the bead-roll there came only one from Scotland viz. from Albinus Bishop of Brechin whose Indulgence reached but ten days but then of such extent that it included all persons who for devotion sake should visit the Altars of St. Edmund Archbishop of Cant. and St. Edward the King scituate in that Cathedral and there either pray for the soul of the Lady Isabel de * Daughter to william King of Scotland and wise to Rob 〈◊〉 Brus of Amandalâ— Brus or give something to the Fabrick Thus you see how that in several times and ages several Bishops practised this power of granting of Indulgences but that practice being experimented derogatory and prejudicial to the Supremacy of Rome an Act of resumption passed in that Court and the power of granting Indulgences reduced and fixed where they took their first rise Now to what summ or summs the moneys raised by Indulgences and appropriated to Rome amounted to we may well conceive them to exceed all account when as once in the Switzer's Country Hist of Councâ— of Trent lib. 1 sect 27. a scanty and barren place to England there was at one time raked up by these Indulgences managed by one Frier Samson of Milan no less than One hundred and twenty thousand Crowns And the Contemplation of their efficacy for that purpose made one once say That the Pope could never want money so long as he could hold a pen in his hand and one of the Popes themselves thus prophanely to boast Quantas nobis divitias comparavit haec fabula Christi but no more of that Lastly for the Authority and validity of these Indulgences I gave you before the Opinion of a Romanist I will now conclude with this of a Protestant viz. That these Indulgences have no foundation either in Antiquity in Reason or in Scripture Not in Antiquity in regard they began but about 400 years ago Not in Reason Vid. Chemnit Examen de Indulg ap 4. for how can one meer man satisfie for another dispence with another to another and by another Not in Scripture which says expresly The blood of Christ which purgeth us from all sin and When we have done all we can we are unprofitable servants CHAP. VIII Reliques c. REliques Agnus Dei's Crosses Pictures Beads Swords Bracelets Feathers Roses Shoos Boots Parings of Nails Drops of Milk drops of blood Hair Medals Ashes Dust Rags Chips Consecrated Wax and innumerable other hallowed knacks come next in play And by these the People were constantly gull'd out of their money For these were daily brought over from Rome and bartered
would not be behind in their liberal Donations Bequests and Presents especially when they were perswaded it was for their soul's health and to which full hands would contribute as much as bare feet For A Papa undique nunciatum est Antiq. Bri fo 302. si Romam Jubilatum veniant accepturos singulos peccatorum veniam at his qui aut valetudine aut negotiis impediti ire non poterant fecit potestatem vota pecuniâ— redimendi as the provision was in that case Here I conceive it will not be impertinent to make a little inquiry into the Original Use and Ends of these Jubile's And for that we must know Platina in vita Bonifac. 8. Polydor. Vergil de Invent. â—er lib. 8. cap. 1. Lassels voiage of Italy part 2. fo 38. that Pope Boniface the Eight in some imitation of the Jewish Jubile in the year 1300. instituted the first Jubile promising remission of all their sins to all such as should at Jubile time visit the Limina Apostolonum at Rome Lassels a modern Traveller in his voyage of Italy affirms these Limina Apostolorum to be some steps about the High Altar in St. Peter's Church at Rome And this Pope Boniface ordained should be observed every hundred year at which solemnity there was such a confluence of people that they scarcely could all crowd into the City After that Clement the Sixth appointed the Jubile to be celebrated every Fiftieth year An. D. 1350. Platin. in vita ejus Vid. Chron. Will. Thorn fo 2195. Tho. Walfingh in Ed. 3. fo 160. that all men might be in compass to receive the benefit of it the hundred year Jubile like the Ludi Seculares in old Rome being thought too much out of distance for many that might thirst for the comforts of a Jubile But then Pope Sixtus the 4. out of compassion to all those longing souls appointed the Jubile to be kept every Five and Twentieth year An. D. 1475. and began it in the year 1475. But lastly Pope Alexander the 6. in a strain of Charity beyond all the rest and to accommodate all that should desire the benefits of a Jubile Polyd. Vergil uâ—supra to save the charges and hazard of journeying to Rome as also to improve the profit thought good to make over those graces by way of exchange to such as would pay a competent rate seeing many could not or would not come so far to fetch them And in his time the Jubile falling in the year 1500 being the 16th year of our King H. 7. he sent one Jasper Pons Lo. Bacon Hâ—st Hen. 7. fo 199. a Spaniard his Commissioner over into England One represented to have been better chosen than such as went into Germany on that account who carryed the business with some prudence and semblance of holiness insomuch as he levyed great summs of money to the Pope's use and with little scandal at that time with whom it was thouht then the King shared the moneys although some argument was made to the contrary afterwards by a Letter which Cardinal Adrian the King's Pensioner wrote to the King from Rome some years after for this Cardinal being to perswade the Pope on the King's behalf to expedite the Bull of Dispensation for the Marriage between Pr. Henry and the Lady Katharine to which the Pope seemed somewhat difficil he used it as an argument of the King's merit to that See that he had touched none of those Deniers that Pons had levyed in England And now because the proceeding and managery of this noted Jubile as to the rates and summs that were paid upon the distribution of the Heavenly Grace as they call'd it in that manner may give a little light to what was done elsewhere in like case we will here exemplifie the rates thereof as they were Copyed out of an old Roll heretofore in the custody of the late learned Sr. Wever Fun. Mon. fo 165. Simonds d' Ewes The Roll contains the Articles of the Bull of the holi Jubile of full remissyon and gret joy graunted to the Relme of Englond Wales Irelond and Garnsey according to the trew meaning of our holy Fader wherein was declared That the Kyng with all his progeny all Archebuschopps Buschopps Abbots Duks Erles Barons Knygtes Sqyres Gentilmen Yeomen Cetezins and all oder Chrysten peple which truly confessyd and contryte shold vysit soche Chorches as should be assigned by Gaspar Pons the Holi Fader's Imbassator and ther put into the Cheste soch sum of mony as is here following taxed shall have the same Indulgence Pardon and Grace with remissyon of all syn as if they had gone personally to Rome in the year of Grace c. And then after some preliminary Articles about ordering of the business comes this The tax that every man shall put into the Cheste that woll receyve the gret grace of Jubeley FVrst every man and woman what degree or condition or state soere they be If he be Archebuschop Duk or oder dignite sprituall or Temporall havyng londs to the yerely valour of M M. l. or above if thei will receyve this gret Indulgens and Grace of this Jubiley for themselfs and ther wyfes and chyldren not maryed shall wythout disseyt put into the cheste ordeined for that entent of trew and lawful moni iij l. vij s. viij d. Also every man and woman that hath londs and rents to the yerly value of M l. must pay for themselfs and wyfs xl s. Item all thos that hath londs c. to the yerly valour of CCCC l. must pay xxvj s. viij d. Item All thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of CC l. must pay xiij s. iv d. Item All thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of C l. must pay vi s. viij d. Item All thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of XL l. must pay ij s. vi d. Item All thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of XX l. must pay xvi d. Item All men of Religion havyng londs c. to the yerely valour of MM l. must pay for themselfs and their Covent x l. Item Thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of M l. must pay for them and their Covent v l. iv s. Item Thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of CCCCC l. must pay for them and their Covent iij l. vi s. viij d. Item All thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of CC l. must pay for them and their Covent xx s. Item Thos that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of XL l. must pay for them and their Covent x s. Item Secular men and wemen that hath londs c. to the yerely valour of XL l. whos movable goods extendyth to M l. must pay for themselfs and their wyfs xl s. Item Thos whos goods movable extendyth to CCCC l. must pay for themselfs and wyfs vi s. viij
Pensions and Gratuities to servants and Officers through whose hands business ran for expedition Intelligence c. One memorable Record testifying all this with the King's care to transmit moneys to his Ambassadors for the purposes aforesaid it will not be amiss here to exhibit Paâ— 8 9 Joh. Reg. â— 5 m. 3. Rex omnibus Mercatoribus ad quos c. Sciatis quod quicunque mutuo tradiderit Hen. Abbati Belli loci Thomae de Ardinton Amfredo de Dene nunciis nostris quos misimus ad curiam Romanam pro negotiis nostris quingentas marcas nos ei vel nuncio suo has literas nostras referenti una cum literis praedictorum nunciorum summam illius mutui eas plene persolvemus Et ad hoc nos obligamus per nostras has literas patentes Teste Dom. P. Winton Episcopo apud Rokingham 20 die Febr. anno regni nostri 8. Et injunctum est Thomae de Ardinton Amfredo de Dene qui habent in hac forma quatuor paria chartarum singulas de D. Marcis ita quod per totum sunt M M marc quod nihil inde expendant sicut diligant corpora sua ante consummationem negocii pro quo remittuntur ad Curiam Et debent reddere Justic cartam de M marcis de priore itinere suo in quo tulerunt chartas de MMM marcis non expenderunt per totum nisi M M marcas vacatis inde 30 Marc. de uno anno de foedo P. fil Ric. fratri Dom. Papae O. Hanibal 60 Marc. ad dict termin cassand de 50 Marc. Et nepoti Dom. Port. 20 Marc. Et Praeceptum est Justicâ— quod cartam illam afferat Regi Et praeceptum est Thomae de Ardinton quod cartam nepotis Dom. Port quae liberetur antequam nomen inserebatur afferat quoniam nomen nesciebatur cum carta scripta fuit A notable Record this implying the King's care and caution in that affair So King Edward the First sending Franciscus Accursius and other Messengers to Rome about his Affairs there issued several Instruments for furnishing them with money and payment of the annual Pension to his Advocate in Rome and to a Cardinal at Rome granted to them till they could be preferred by him to Benefices or Offices of greater value all preserv'd to this day too long to be here transcrib'd Pat. 6. Ed. 1. m. 6. De Dâ—â—â—iis Fran. Accursio fociis nunciis Regis ad cur Romaâ—am and of which let this one satisfie as a specimen of the rest Rex Orlandino de Podio sociis suis mercatoribus de Luk salutem Mandamus vobis quod de denariis nostris vel vestris is custodia vestra existentibus habere faciatis dilecto Cierico nostro Domino Francisco Accursio sociis suis nunciis nostris ad curiam Romanam proficiscentibus rationabiles expensas suas quibus indigent in cundo ibidem morando redeundo ad expeditionem negotiorum praedictorum Et cum sciverimeâ— quantum eis liberaveritis nos debitam allocationem seu quietanciam vobis inde habere faciemus Teste Rege apud Shetwik xvij die Sept. Many other transcripts Chart. 1 John nu 12. Claus 10 Hen. 3. m. 1. dors Pat. 52 Hen. 3. nu 15. Pro R.S. Angeli Diacon Cardinal Claus 9 Ed. 1. and Instruments of like nature might here be produced as likewise promises and assurances of gratuities and annual pensions to Cardinals and others to ingage them to promote the King's businesses in the Court of Rome And in one year only King Edw. 1. sent Letters and Addresses with competent summs and arrears of Pensions to no fewer than seventeen Cardinals and Officers in the Court of Rome to ingage them to attend and promote his affairs there By these Ambassadors and Agents the Kings gratuities and bounty was handed to the Popes upon several occasions Lo. Herb. Hist fo 211. as King Henry the Eighth in the year 1526. sent to Pope Clement the seventh being in some distress Holinshead in Hâ—n 8. Thirty Thousand Ducats for a Present At another time in the same King's raign the Pope being under restraint and want by the Emperours means the Cardinal of York carryed at one time out of the Kingdom 240000 l. of the King's Treasure Speed in H. 8. to work his delivery The last publick Ambassador sent hence and residing at Rome was Sir Edward Carne Doctor of the Civil Law Knighted by the Emp. Charles the Fifth who lay Leiger there several years and there dyed about the beginning of the raign of Queen Elizabeth and ever since that way of negotiation and expence to the great ease of the Exchequer hath ceased CHAP. XVI Strangers Beneficed ANother way of draining infinite summs out of this Kingdom to Rome and Italy was the conferring of Bishopricks and all sorts of Ecclesiastical Benefices Offices and Promotions upon Strangers and chiefly Italians These constantly residing at Rome and in Italy had their Farmers Factors and Agents here to Collect their Rents and Revenues and transmit the same to Rome to be received and spent there In the year 1253. Matt. Paris in An. 1253. an Inquisition was taken of this whereby it appeared that the Ecclesiastical Revenues in England of the Italians whereof many were Boys more Dunces but all Aliens did amount to no less than Threescore and ten thousand Marks per annum esteemed a greater revenue at that time than that of the King which occasioned the sharp Letter of Rob. Grosthead to the Pope about that grievance with the Pope's disdainful reception of the same at large related by Mat. Paris and of which more hereafter At a Parliament held An. 1379. Rot. Parl. An. 3 Ric. 2. a great complaint was made of forrainers holding Ecclesiastical Benefices many Cardinals at Rome having the best Promotions and Livings conferred on them or granted to hold in Commendam Acts Mon. Tom. 1. f. 389. of which there are Catalogues yet extant And of this many mischiefs did insue As little or no Divine Service or Instruction of the People No Hospitality kept for relief of the Poor Decay of Houses and increase of Barbarisme so that between the Italian Hospitality which none could ever see and a little Latin Service which few or none could understand the poor English were ill fed but worse taught And lastly the exhausting the wealth of the land to the impoverishing of the People and weakning of the King and Kingdom in case of invasion or any attempts against them But how all this was then resented you shall hear more anon Memorable is it that in the raigns of King Hen. 7. and King Hen. 8. the Bishoprick of Worcester had four Italians successively of which none ever lived there Johannes Gigles or de Liliis Goâ—w de Pâ—aeful Angl. in Wâ—gâ—â—n born at Luca. Sylvester Gigles his Nephew succeeded Julius Medices a Cardinal of Rome Nephew to Pope Leo
the tenth and afterwards Pope himself by the name of Clement the seventh Hieronymus de Nugutiis upon the resignation of Jul. Medices injoyed it many years And such prevalence had the Popes and Cardinals in this matter that once King Edw. 1. having promised the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabine at his instance to present one Nivianus an Italian his Chamberlain to a Benefice in Licolnshire then in his gift by the death of another Italian the Popes Chaplain and forgetting his promise presented his own Clark thereunto but being reminded thereof to make good his promse Pâ—t 5 E. 1. m. 16. De praesemation pro M Aptonio de Niviano he revoked his first Presentation and Presented Nivianus to it as appears by his Patent for that purpose still preserved amongst our Records At such time as Rubeus Mar. Paris in An. 1240. fo 540 and Ruffinus two of the Pope's Factors were very busie here in England in Collecting money for the Pope one Mumelinus comes from Rome with Four and twenty Italians with orders that they should be admitted to so many of the best Benefices that should next fall void Mâ—â—t Pâ—jâ—â— codem anno And in the same year it was that the Pope made agreement with the People of Rome that if they would effectually aid him against Frederick the Emperour their Children should be put into all the vacant Benefices in England And thereupon order was sent to Edmund Arch-bishop of Cant. the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury that Provision should be made for Three hundred Romans Children to be served of the next Benefices that should fall unde stupor magnus corda haec audientium occupavit timebaturque quod in abyssum desperationis talia audiens mergeretur as the Historian hath it But this made such an impression upon the Archbishop being a tender man to see the Church in that manner wounded and so much evil in his days that he disposed of his affairs and retired into France where for a little while he lived Godw. in vita ejus bewailing the deplorable state of his Country and of grief dyed at Pontiniac CHAP. XVII Priories-Alien PRiories-Alien were another cause or means of carrying great summs for a long time out of the Kingdom And these were of this Original viz. according to the devotion of the times many forraign Monasteries and Religious Houses were endowed with possessions here in England and then the Monks beyond Sea partly to propagate more of their own Rule and Order and partly to place Stewards as it were to transmit a good proportion of the Rents and profits of these their new acquir'd possessions at so great a distance would either by themselves or the assistance of others build a Cell or competent and convenient reception for some small Covent to which they sent over from time to time such numbers as they thought fit and constituted Priors over them successively as occasion required and thereupon they were called Priories-Aliens because they were Cells to some Monasteries beyond the Seas And these Foundations became frequent after the Conquest So as in the raign of King Edward the third they were increased to the number of one hundred and ten in England With some proportion or allowance out of the revenues of these the Prior and Monks sent over were maintained and the residue transmitted to the Houses to which they were allyed to the great damage of the Kingdom and inriching of strangers In time the Foundations of these Priories-Alien became very numerous being spread all over the Kingdom Lamb. Peram of Kent Weav Fun. Mon. One John Norbury erected two the one at Greenwich the other at Lewsham in Kent both belonging to the Abby of Gaunt in Flanders At Wolston in Warwick-shire a Cell W. Dugd. Warw. in Wolston or Religious House was founded subordinate to the Abby of St. Peter Super Dinam in France Another at Monks-Kirby in the same County Id. fo 50. founded by Geffry Wirce of Little Brittain in France appropriated to the Monastery of Angiers the principal City of Anjou And another at Wotton Wawen in the same County Id. fo 604. a Cell of Benedictin Monks belonging to Conchis in Normandy of all which Mr. Dugdale hath several remarks of Antiquity At Hinckley in Leicester-shire Burton Descrip of Leic. fo 134. a Priory of Canons Aliens was founded by Robert Blanchmains Earl of Leicester or as some say by Hugh Grandmeisnell Baron of Hinckley belonging to the Abby of Lira in Normandy and this of a very good value Roger de Poictiers founded a cell for Monks-Aliens at Lancaster Cambd. Brit. in Lancast Edward the Confessor Id. in Glocest fo 362. by his Testament assign'd the religious place at Deochirst in the County of Gloucester and the Government thereof to the Monastery of St. Denis near Paris in France in this remarkable that it will be hard to given another instance of such an assignation before the Norman Conquest King Henry the third once gave licence to the Jews Stow Survey in Broadst Ward Lindwood Constit lib. 3. Tit. 20. at their great charge to build a Synagogue in London which when they had finished he order'd should be dedicated to the Virgin Mary and then made it a Cell to St. Anthony's in Vienna And near unto Charing-Cross there was another Stow Survey in Westm fo 495. annexed to the Lady of Runciavall in Navarre in the Diocess of Pampelone founded in the fifteenth year of King Edward 4. At Sion Cambd. in Midd. fo 420. in Middlesex there was antiently a Monastery for Monks-Aliens Mr. Cambden tells us when they were expuls'd and how it was converted into a Nunnery for Virgins to the honour of our Saviour the Virgin Mary and St. Briget of Syon But Lindwood tells us Lindwoed l. 3. Tit. 20. that the Superior House to which at first it belonged not mentioned by Mr. Cambden was at Wastena in the Kingdom of Sweden of the Rule of St. Austin But the richest of all for annual revenue Harpsfield Catalog Ae l. Rel. fo 762. was that which Yvo Talbois built at Spalding in Lincoln-shire giving it to the Monks of Angiers in France the yearly revenue whereof was valued at 878 l. 18 s. 3 d. per annum Instances might be made of a multitude more of the like Foundations all tending to carry money out of the Kingdom and most commonly to the King's Enemies beyond the Seas Which mischief being apprehended Rot. Parl. 50 E 3. nu 128. and great complaints thereof frequently made in Parliament these Priories-Alien became oftentimes seised into the King's hands and the revenues thereof sequestred to the King's use and then restitutions made and seisures again as occasion required untill the fourth year of King Henry the fourth Claus 4 Hâ—n 4. nu 30. when a new consideration was had in Parliament about these Priories-Alien and resolved that all should again be seised into the King's hands
which are the French Italians German English Provençal Auvergnois Castilian and Arragonian These Albergs are buildings like Colledges and the Seignior of each Nation is Superiour of the Alberg Grand Prior of his Nation of the Gran Croce as they call it and of the Privy Council of the Great Master Amongst these there is an Alberg or an apartment for the English Nation or rather a piece of ground inclosed with the foundation of an Alberg the Walls being not quite reared up This standing now void for want of English to stock it some of the Citizens would have bought the ground to have built upon but the Grand Master and Council would not sell it expecting that one day the English Nation would be reduced again to the Obedience of the Roman Church and then it would be finished and replenish'd with such for whom it was first designed In the time of Mr. Sand's being there an Irish-man living in Naples and receiving a large Pension from the King of Spain bore the Title of Grand Prior for the English but who hath since succeeded in that Office I have not thought it very necessary to inquire And in like manner as we are informed the other dissolved Orders especially those as were of greatest note and most richly endowed still keep up and continue their Successions as well as they can with Rentals and Particulars of the possessions of their respective Houses in hopes they will revert once again to their former use CHAP. XIX Elections of Popes and Cardinals THE Election and making of Popes and Cardinals was another way of carrying great summs frequently out of England to Rome And that upon this account The Pope being both a spiritual Monarch and a Temporal Prince it could not otherwise be but by that sway which he bore in the Consciences of such as owned his authority he came to have a great influence over all the State affairs of Christendome besides his challenging a power to depose Kings absolve Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance dispence with Vows and Oaths and dispose of Kingdoms and States as he pleased and then the Kings and States of Europe acting according to their respective rules of State and Policy there continually happen'd a reciprocation and recurrence of Treaties Leagues Alliances Quarrels and Warrs amongst them And the Popedome being Elective all those Princes and States amongst whom our Kings had their proper concerns made it their interest and utmost endeavour in a vacancy to procure the promotion of such a one to that See as might be favourable or at least not noxious to their interests and designs And hence all the subtile contrivances the secret Cabals sometimes the twisting and at other times the unravelling of interests and factions the canvassing of parties the buying of votes the purchasing of intelligence the bribing of Officers and any thing or every thing that money would do must be set on foot and carryed on with utmost vigour cost and pains At such a time and occasion Rome becomes throng'd with Ambassadors and Agents with their Guards and Retinue from all quarters and all at a vast expence watching labouring and sweating every one for his Master's business whilst the roads are pester'd with Messengers Curriers and Posts carrying and re-carrying of News intelligence and instructions Then by reason of all this packing and canvassing it often happens that the Conclave cannot agree in many moneths though generally those Princes who had bin most liberal have had their turns serv'd and many times again by reason of the fierce opposition and difficulties the Cardinals not to disgust the contending factions are fain to pitch upon some heavy old overgrown man who is likely to do neither hurt nor good or at least not long and sometimes again the Conclave becomes so divided and rent that one part of them chooses a Pope and another part an Anti-Pope and when these with their partisans have for some time scuffl'd tug'd and fought for 't in comes a third dog and catches the hare from them both and sometimes three Popes have been up and in play at one time In this hurly-burly St. Peter's chair is overturn'd and broke in pieces one Pope snatches up part of it and runs into Germany another scrambles for another part and runs with it into France whilst another pieces up the remaining shivers and seats himself at Rome Presently the world is fill'd with complaints Remonstrances and Manifesto's The Emperour storms and sayes his man had foul play and that his Imperial Eagle shall fly his utmost pitch to do him right The surly Spaniard grumbles and protests he will hazard all his Indies before his Creature shall be so baffled And the French King swears that all his Flowers de Lis shall wither before his Confident shall be rooted out neither are our Kings of England only lookers on whilst this game is in playing but either their Arms or their money must be layd to stake on one side In this Battle-Royal after many incounters and ran-counters the weakest though not alwayes the worst most commonly goes to the Walls one of them perhaps sent out of the world with a Fig or a Potion another entrapp'd and thrown into a Dungeon whilst the third for a few moneths or it may be years struts up and down claps his wings and crows as victor and then goes himself to the Pot and leaves the Pit for other Combatants and the spectators to their expectation of more sport Of this sort Bellarmine reckons up six and twenty schisms in the Roman Church but Onuphrius a more exact accountant Onuphr in vita Clem. 7. reckons up thirty whereof some lasted ten some twenty and one fifty years The Contemplation whereof hath caused some to make a very shrewd objection against the perfect unity compleat succession and Divine Infallibility so much boasted of in that Church I might and could easily here make particular instance of all these famous bickerings scuffles and counter-scuffles but the same being obvious to all that converse with books Dr. Stilling-fleet of the divisions of the Rom. Churâ—h and something having bin lately worthily done to that purpose and it being a Parergon to the drift of these papers we will no further ingage in these quarrels than to note that they were cause for the reasons aforesaid of great expence to our English Kings when they thought it their interest to have a friend seated in the Pontifical chair and the reason of that Policy now ceasing we being altogether unconcern'd in that affair the money that used to leak that way is kept within the Kingdom to the great ease quiet and benefit both of King and People I will only here take liberty to mention one famous schisme the procedure and conclusion thereof justifying all that we have before pointed at in this matter About the year 1404. Platina in vitis Innoc. 7 Greg. 12. Alex. 5. Jo 24 Innocent the seventh being Pope by the prevalence of a
Rome but the Pope to end the strife put Stephen Langton his Cardinal and Creature into the place whose insolence promoted if not occasion'd all the mischiefs that happen'd in that King's time too large to be here specified but fully related by all Writers of that time Roger Curson Roger Curson An. D. 1211. Mart. Paris Matt. Westm Balaeus Onuphrius about the year 1211. was created Cardinal Of him I find little amiss spending the most of his time in the Holy War untill at his return he came the Pope's Legate into England as an instrument to promote the intolerable exactions which the Kingdom suffered in the time of King Hen. 3. but he presently vanished the time place or manner of his death being not now to be retrived Robert Somercot Rob. Somercot An. D. 1231. Ciaconius Onuphr M. Paris created Cardinal under Pope Gregory the ninth is character'd to have been a person of very great merit and after the death of that Pope stood fairest for the Election but the Italian Cardinals resolving to have none but one of their own Country our Somercot was poison'd in the very Conclave Robert Kilwardby sate six years Archbishop of Cant. R. Kilwardby A. D. 1278. Godwin in vita ejus and then for a Cardinalship relinquish'd his See and going into Italy to take possession of his new dignity within a few months he dyed of poyson at Viterbium there Of this man there is a memorable story implying the practice of the Popes in making the English money their property and disposing the same at their pleasure as also his ingenuity once in shifting himself neatly out of such an incumbrance Antiquit. Brit. in vita Kilw fo 189. William Chillenden the Prior of Canterbury had spent 1300 marks about his Election but the Pope setting him aside a little to stop his grumbling and make him some recompence promised him that the next Archbishop should pay him 1300 marks which sum when Chillenden came to demand of Kilwardby being the next comer in the Archbishop dealt seriously and plainly with him and told him that if he persisted to have the money he knew privately so much of his irregularity that he could and would out him of his Priory at which Chillenden was so frighted that he durst make no further demand and so the Archbishop sav'd his money Hugo de Evesham Hugo d'Evesh An. D. 1287. a famous Physician was dignified with a Cardinalship by Pope Martin the fourth after whose death he for his worth Bal. de Script Brit. and learning being just at point of being chosen Pope was poisoned as Somercot had bin before him to colour which Ciacon Ciaconius sayes he dyed of the Plague William Macklesfield W. Macklesfield An. D. 1303. was made Cardinal by Pope Benedict the eleventh but he dyed four moneths before his Cap came and therefore when it was brought it was with great solemnity set upon his Tomb. Walter Winterborn W. Winterb An. D. 1305. created Cardinal to succeed Macklesfield but injoy'd his honor a very few moneths Thomas Joyce presently succeeds Winterborn Thom. Joyce Fratres Praedicatores these three last were all of the same Order In the year 1311. this Cardinal returning from his negotiation with the Emperour Godw. in vita Tho. Joyce in Sabaudia lethali morbo correptus vitam terminavit as our Author hath it Sertor of Wales Sertor Wallens An. D. 1361. dyed in Italy the fates denying him the honour in the juncture of time ante susceptum pileism as Macklesfield did before Grimoaldus de Grisant Gri. d'Grisant An. D. 1366. Kinsman of Pope Vrban the fifth and by him created Cardinal dyed at Avignion but how not known Simon Langham first Bishop of Ely Sim. Iangham An. D. 1376. Antiq. Britt Godw. in vita and thence translated to Canterbury and at last created a Cardinal on which account he went to Avignion and there as he sate at dinner was suddenly snatch'd away by a Paralysis Adam Easton Cardinal Adam Easton An. D. 1385. siding with some other Cardinals in a great faction between two Anti-Popes seven of his Comrades were sewed up in bags and thrown into the Sea whilst this Adam degraded and tortured was thrown into a most loathsome dungeon where he lay starving for five years together but upon the turn of times was afterwards drawn out and liv'd a few years Phillip Repingdon Canon Phil. Reping An. D. 1408. and Abbot of Leic. Chancellor of Oxford Bishop of Lincoln and at last created Cardinal of St. Nereus by Pope Gregory the twelfth Acts and Mon. fo 409. became upon his promotions so intolerably terrible and cruel that he dyed most hateful and hated being towards his latter end generally called Philip Rampington Henry Beaufort the rich Cardinal H. Beaufort An. D. 1426. of whom something before Notwithstanding all his wealth dyed frustrate of the Papacy and despairing of better injoyments in another world Christopher Bambridge Chr. Bamb Godw. in vita P. Jovius Archbishop of York and then Cardinal Sojourning and intent on his office at Rome was there poisoned by Rivaldus de Modena a Priest and one of his domesticks Thomas Woolsey Tho. Wolsey An. D. 1520 a Butcher's sonne of Ipswich Archbishop of York Chancellor of England Lo. Herb. Hist Hen 8. Cardinal and Legat à Latere whose high spirit not content with all the preferrement the world could afford except the very highest put him upon wooing labouring and bribing at a vast expence to obtain the Papacy in which attempt he receiv'd two notable repulses a Brewers Son by name of Adrian the sixth being preferr'd before him Thereupon he applies himself to Pope it so in England by vertue of his Legatin power that he ranne himself into a Premunire and the displeasure of a terrible and resolute King Cook 4 Instit fo 89. and many Articles were framed against him of which this was one That he was so audacious as to rown the King in his Eare and blow upon him at such time as he had the foul and contagious disease of the great Pox broken out in several places of his body but as he was going towards London under guard to make Answer to his crimes in sad apprehension thereof he dyed heart-broken with grief or poison Guicciard Hist of Italy fo 910. at the Abby of Leicester Guiâ—ciardin hath this note of him An example in our dayes worthy of memory touching the power which Fortune and envy have in the Courts of Princes And it was his insolence that made Charls Brandon the Noble Duke of Suffolk once say It was never merry in England since we had Cardinals amongst us John Fisher Bishop of Rochester John Fisher An. D. 1535. Speed Chron. in Hen. 8. Herb. c. having made himself obnoxious to the King's Laws and displeasure by opposing his Supremacy the Pope to secure his life as conceiving the King
of the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters without professing yet a stature to reach the top of this sublime or the bottom of this profound concern In the first place then we are to know that the King 's just and lawful Authority in Ecclesiastical matters is in part declared by a statute made in the first year of Queen Elizabeth Stat. 1 Eliz. Ca. 1. Non novam introduxit sed antiquam declaravit Coke 5. Rep. Cawdrys Case fo 8. And it was one of the Resolutions of the Judges in Cawdry's Case That the said Act of the First year of the Queen concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not a Statute introductory of a new Law but Declaratory of the Old But for our purpose it will be sufficient to transcribe the Preamble of the Act which runs thus Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty your faithful and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this your present Parliament assembled that where in time of the raign of your most dear Father of worthy memory King Henry 8. divers good Laws and Statutes were made as well for the better extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forrain powers and authorities out of this your Realm and other your Highness Dominions and Countrys as also for the * Nota. restoring and uniting to the Imperial Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdictions authorities Superiorities and preheminences to the same of right belonging by reason whereof we your most humble and obedient Subjects from the 25. year of the raign of your said dear Father were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intolerable charges before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forrain power and authoritie as before that was usurped until such time as all the said good laws and Statutes by one Act of Parliament made in the first and second years of the raigns of the late King Philip and Queen Mary your Highness Sister Intituled An Act repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick of Rome since the 20th year of King Henry 8. and also for the establishment of all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the Laity were all clearly repealed and made void as by the same Act of repeal more at large appears By reason of which Act of repeal your said humble Subjects were est-soons brought again under an usurped forrain power and authority and yet do remain in that bondage to the intolerable charges of your loving Subjects if some redress by the Authority of this your High Court of Parliament with the assent of your Highness be not had and provided May it therefore please your Highness for the repressing of the said usurped forrain power and the restoring of the Rights Jurisdictions and preheminences appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this your Realm that it may be Enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament c. And then it proceeds to Repeal the said Act of Philip and Mary and revives the former Statutes of King Hen. 8. and King Edw. 6. abolisheth all usurped forrain powers and authorities and restoreth and uniteth all Jurisdictions Priviledges Superiorites and Preheminences Spiritual and Ecclesiastical to the Imperial Crown of this Realm This Statute doing Right to the Queen and her Successors ever since as in Temporal Causes the Kings of England by the mouths of their Judges in the Courts of Justice have judged and determined the same by the Temporal Laws of England So in all Ecclesiastical and spiritual Causes as Blasphemy Ecclesiastical Causes Stat. de circumsuecte agatis 13 Edw. 1. Articuli Cleri 9 Edw. 2. Fitzh Nat. Bre. 41 42 43 c. Apostasie from Christianity Heresie Schisme Ordering Admissions and Institution of Clarks Celebration of Divine service Rites of Matrimony Divorces Bastardy Substraction and Right of Tiths Oblations Obventions Dilapidations Reparation of Churches Probate of Wills and Testaments Administrations and Accounts upon the same Simony Fornication Incest Adulteries Sollicitation of Chastity Appeals in Ecclesiastical causes Commutation of Penance Pensions Procurations c. the Conusans of all which belongs not to the Common Law but the determination and decision of the same hath been by Ecclesiastical Judges according to the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of this his Realm And although the said Stat. 1 Eliz. declares how and by whom the King may appoint the same to be done yet as is intimated before the King by Law may do the same although that Statute had not bin made And hence it was that Stephen Gardiner the noted Bishop of Winchester Significantiori vocabulo competentem Principi jure Divino poâ—estâ—tem exprâ—mi clarius voluâ—runt in his Oration De vera Obedientia once said That by the Parliaments stiling of King Hen. 8. Head of the Church it was no new invented matter wrought only their mind was to have the power pertaining to a Prince by God's law to be more clearly expressed by this Emphatical compellation And certainly this was the ground of that answer which King James gave to the Non-conforming Divines at the conference at Hampton Court upon the seven and thirtieth Article of the Church of England the said Divines urging that these words in the Article viz. Confer at Hamp Court fo 37. The Bishop of Rome hath no Authority in this land were not sufficient unless it was added nor ought to have To which the King being somewhat moved roundly replyed What speak you of the Pope's authority here Habemus jure quod habemus and therefore in as much as it is said He hath not it is plain and certain enough that he ought not to have Nor is this Authority united to the Crown of England only but of right also to all other Christian Crowns and accordingly avowed by all other Christian Princes And to this purpose I could multiply the Suffrages of many antient Fathers and Doctors of the Church but my aim being rather at matter of fact I will forbear the particularizing the explicite Judgements and Declarations of those Devout and just men who were as careful in its degree and proportion to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's as to God the things that are God's But for the matter of practice And in the first place here I cannot but take notice That in the first Ages of Christianity Religion did not only subsist but spread by immediate influence from Heaven only but when by vertue of the same influence it had once prevailed and triumphed over all oppositions of Pagan superstition and persecution and subdued the Emperours themselves and became the Imperial Religion then Ecclesiastical Authority assumed and fixed it self in its natural and proper place and the excercise of its Jurisdiction and what that was I shall shew also was restored to the Imperial Diadem and Constantine was no sooner setled in his Imperial Throne but he took the settlement of all Ecclesiastical
and Religion than in those that dwelt nearest to Rome the main point of Religion there practised being how to draw this Prince or that State or Territory under the Spiritual Dominion of the Pope Pâ—atin in vits Gâ—â—g 7. there esteemed the very Atlas of the World with power to depose dispose and impose in all Kingdoms as he please But for true Christianity Hosâ— in de Orâ—g Monac li. 6. ca. 66. Hospinian affirms that the name of Christian in the Italian tongue was used to note a Block-head and a Fool. Add to this the many Treasons Rebellions Perjuries Wars and Commotions raised in Christendom about this very quarrel And for this main drift of the Papacy for Dominion in all places but now mentioned it is visible that the Pope's Supremacy is the foundation that supports the whole building of that Hierarchy and therefore it hath been thought necessary by them always to lay that stone in the first place As about the year 1594. the Bishops of South Russia being under the King of Poland but of the Greek Church submiâ—ted themselves to the Bishop of Rome in the point of Jurisdiction yet not without special reservation of the Greek Religion Brierw Inquir cap. 18. fo 138. and Rites before they would acknowledge their subjection as appears by the Articles of conditions extant Whereby it is manifest that the Pope aim'd not so much to reduce those Churches to the Truth as to his own Obedience As the Emperours and our Kings John and King Hen. 8. thunder'd against only for impugning the Pope Supremacy though they held all other points of Romish Religion And as the Papacy gained in this matter in some places and in some measure so it lost much more in others by straining and aspiring to an unlimitted authority suis ipsa Roma viribis ruitâ— For when the Pope and his Clergy endeavoured the advancement of their Sâ—veraignty over the World upon this occasion any Countreys fell away not only from 〈◊〉 Dominion but also from many other corrupt Dâ—ctrines of the Church of Rome For when they perceived that the chief struggle and design was for Temporal Greatness that many conclusions tending to that end were obtruded as Articles of Faith so manifestly contrary to the Dictates of Christianity and prejudicial to the Rights of others Then both Princes and People began to look into their Title and examine their Evidences and finding them all defective and defeasible thought there was no other remedy but quite to cut off that Power that would not be confin'd whereby this Image of Papal Supremacy became broken and thrown down in many Countreys and is but in a tottering condition in several others at this day The Kings and Princes of the Earth maintaining the just Rights of their Crowns and Kingdoms against this Usurpation on these and the like grounds and reasons viz. That the Title and Power of Kings is far more ancient than this pretended Spiritual Dominion and Quod prius est tempore potius est jure and that in this sence Grace destroyeth not nature and Kings must not lose by becoming Christians That Dominion is expresly given in Scripture unto Kings and is as expresly denyed in Scripture unto the Clergy That as the Pope claimeth at best to be but the Vicar of Christ and that not as he was God it is most certain that Christ never impeach'd impair'd or impos'd upon the Temporal Right of any man the same Authority that Princes had either by the Law of Nature or of Nations before his coming the same he left untouch'd at his departure neither did any of the Apostles or Disciples after his recess ever innovate in the same That the Church in this world is not at home but in a state of perigrinancy and militancy and it is neither Reason nor Justice that strangers should either expell or domineer over the ancient Inhabitants and Melior est conditio possidentis as the Lawyers speak That the proper Rights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacra Regni Sacra sublimâ—â— and Qualities of Majesty and Soveraignty are to be both perpetual and absolute as not depending upon any other nor subject to any exception or restraint That these Rights consist in managing affairs of the highest nature which cannot be separated from the Soveraign Power for upon the guiding of them all the fortunes of a State depend That nothing is of so high a nature in a State as Religion for inasmuch as Religion commandeth the Conscience Religio à Religando and holdeth the soul in subjection if supremacy therein be acknowledged in any forrainer the very sinews as I may say of Soveraignty are cut asunder And it is the most destructive Error in Policy and Government to allow to any other a power of disposing or declaring in matters of Religion either besides above or against the Prince himself by which means any King or Prince would soon be despoil'd of his Authoriâ—y and his Subjects drawn from their due Allegiance upon pretences of Conscience and Religion But now for a Conclusion of this Discourse touching the Kings Supremacy it will be but pertinent and reasonably expected to clear one thing viz. whereas upon restitution of that Right to the Crown by the Statute made in the First year of Queen Elizabeth some were induced to conceive by the generality of the words that affirm her Majesty to be Supream Governor as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical causes as Temporal c. as if it had bin an usurping upon the Sacred function of the Church properly belonging to them in Sacred Orders To give satisfaction in this we may in the first place observe in what Sphears and in what distances all the Divines agree that Ecclesiastical Authority doth move and for our purpose at this time Bellarmine shall suffice for all Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. li. 4. c. 22. s 1. who divides Spiritual Power into that of Ordinis and that of Jurisdictionis For that of Ordinis it appears chiefly in the Administration of the Sacraments That of Jurisdiction is held to be double First Internal where the Divine or Holy man by Demonstrations Perswasions Instructions Heavenly Counsel and the like so convinceth the inward Conscience of a man as it presently resigns and yields obedience to that which is proposed as did those Three Thousand Souls Acts 2.37 41. which were converted at the Preaching of St. Peter Secondly External when Christians in foro exteriori are compelled to their duty and Obedience Now for that first power of Order and for that power of Jurisdiction Internal our Kings never claimed or pretended to claime or excercise them or either of them The example of Vzza sufficiently lessoning all persons to keep within their due and proper distances and Offices in God's service 2 Sam. 6.7 this bold person being immediately stricken by the Divine Hand for his error and for his acting an irregular part in the holy Procession of the Ark.