which seems to have past with the Kings concurrence 64. For to deprive VVilliam elected some whatafter Archbishop of York where he did not joyn was not so easy This man chosen 1142 by the greater part of the Chapter after five years sute in the Court of Rome St. Bernard opposing him had in the end his election annull'd by Eugenius 3. in a Councell held at Reims the Chanons of York exhorted to chuse another some of which made choice of Henry Murdack then as it seems with the Pope who coming as Archbishop into England was not suffer'd to enter on his Archbishoprick and excommunicating Hugh de Puzat a person preferr'd by VVilliam was himself by him excommunicated no intermission of divine service in the City admitted and Henry's means to gain his See was by drawing the Bishop of Duresme Carlisle the King of Scots and by the Popes advise this very Hugh by sweetnesse to his party and in the end by the Kings Son whom it seems he promised to get advanced to the Crown by the power of Rome making his peace with Stephen who soon after employed him thither on that errand And this I take to be the second English election was ever here annull'd by Papall auctority 65. Here I may observe that at first when ever the Pope made voyd an election he did not take upon him to appoint another in the place vacant but either sent to the Clergy of the same Church to chuse another as those to whom it appertained so did Eugenius 3. to York when this H. Murdack was chosen Innocentius 3. when Stephen Langton or else the Bishoprick lay vacant as London after Anselme from 1139. to 1141. But elections being with much struggling settled wholy in the Clergy and Innocentius 3. having by definitive sentence excluded the English Bishops from having any part in that of th' Archbishop of Canterbury they becoming wholy appropriated to the Chapters of Cathedralls the Pope began to creep in and ex concessa plenitudine Ecclesiasticae potestatis as he speaks without any formality of choice to confer not onely Bishopricks but other Ecclesiastick promotions within the precincts of others Dioceses and by that means to fill the fat benefices of the Nation The first Archbishop of Canterbury promoted by this absolute power of the Church of Rome seems to have been Richard 1229. non electo sed dato ad Archiepiscopatum 66. The French Agent in his Remonstrance to Innocentius 4 tus attributes the beginning of these collations to Innocent the 3d. and I have not read that either Paschalis the second Gelasius Calixtus or Innocent 2. though forced to live sometimes out of Rome did ever exercise auctority that way But I will give it in his own words Certe non multum temporis clapsum est ex quo Dominus Papa Alexander persecutionis cogente incommodo venit in Franciam confugiens ad subsidium inclytae recordationis Regis Ludovici patris Regis Philippi à quo benigne susceptus est stetit ibi diu forte vivunt aliqui qui viderunt eum ipse tamen in nullo gravavit Ecclesiam Gallicanam ut nec unam solam praebendam aut aliud beneficium ipse Papa dederit ibi sed nec aliquis praedecessor suus nec multietiam de successoribus dederunt in sua auctoritate beneficium aliquid usque ad tempora Domini Innocentii 3. qui primus assumpsit sibi jus istud in tempore suo Revera dedit multas praebendas similiter post ipsum Dominus Honorius Dominus Gregorius simili modo fecerunt sed omnes praedecessores vestri ut publice dicitur non dederunt tot beneficia ut vos solus dedistis c. 67. In what year th' Ambassador from France made this complaint is not set down But Mat. Paris in his Historia minori makes mention of it as done in or about 1252. Diebus sub eisdem Episcopo Lincolniensâ— computante compertum probatum est quod iste Papa scilicet Innocentius quartus plures redditus extortos ad suam contulit voluntatem quam omnes ejus praedecessores prout manifeste patet in lugubri querimonia quam reposuerunt Franci coram Papa pro suis intolerabilibus oppressionibus quae redacta est in scriptum Epistolae admodum prolixae quae sic incipit Dicturus quod injunctum est mihi c. quaere Epistolam c. By which it appears that great liberty the Papacy took in conferring Ecclesiastick preferments within the Dioceses of others took its rise from Pope Innocent and as it seems to me not at the very beginning of his time for 1199. Gelardus Archdeacon of St. Davids coming from Rome quia idem G. Menevensis Ecclesiae in curia Romana se dicebat electum hoc ipsum cassavit Archiepiscopus alium-sacravit canonice electum though he after bestowed on him a Church of 25. marks and this in a case the Pope had so earnestly espoused as he wrote to the Bishops of Lincoln Duresme and Ely si Archiepiscopus Cantuariae saepe dictum Gilardum consecrare differret ipsi Apostolica authoritate freti illum consecrare non differrent which yet th' Archbishop as against the English liberty did not doubt to oppose and disannul 68. But thus it continued not long for Honorius the immediate successor to Innocentius 3 us shewing such as served th' Apostolick see and resided with it were worthy congruis beneficiis honorari and were therefore possest of divers both in England and other parts which they did administer with so great care quod non minus beneficiantibus quam beneficiatis utiliter est provisum unde quia nonnunquam beneficiatis hujusmodi decedentibus beneficia quae obtinuerant inconsultis hiis ad quos eorum donatio pertinebat aliis successive collata perpetuo illis ad quos pertinent videbantur amitti propter quod etiam murmurabant plurimi alii se difficiliores ad conferendum talibus beneficia exhibebant Nos volentes super hoc congruum remedium adhibere ne cuiquam sua liberalitas sit dampnosa per quam potius meruit gratiam favorem statuimus ut clericis Ecclesiae Romanae vel aliis Ytalicis qui praebendas vel Ecclesias seu alia Ecclesiastica beneficia in Anglia obtinent vel obtinuerint à modo decedentibus Praebendâ—e vel Ecclesiae seu alia beneficia nequaquam à nobis vel alio illa vice alicui conferantur sed ad illos libere redeant ad quos illorum donatio dinoscitur pertinere c. Dat. Lateran quarto Kalend. Martii Pontificatus nostri anno quinto 69. Yet neither this nor the renewing of it by Gregory the 9. with a speciall indulgence directed venerabilibus fratribus universis Archiepiscopis Episcopis aâ— dilectis fil is Abbatibus aliis Ecclesiarum Praelatis per Angliam constitutis ut si quando ad vos literae Apostolicae pro beneficiandis
interdictorum absolutionis prodeat à qua constitutionis ipsorum vinculum prodiit 6. This is the first if not the onely time that to what was acted at Rome an obedience was required here as not to be dispensed with but from thence for it is undoubted this Kingdome never held it self tyed by any thing past there till received here as Eadmerus rightly observes things done there not ratified here to be of no value And when VVinchelsea 1296. would have introduced the contrary it cost him dear the Clergy forced to reject the command and the Court to quit her pretenses 7. But the dispute however the right stood grew so high the King told Anselme the Pope had not to meddle with his rights and wrote that free letter we find in Iorvalensis col 999 30. which I have likewise seen in an old hand recorded amongst divers other memorialls of the Archbishops of Canterbury though I must needs say it seems to me by Paschalis his answer repeating a good part of it not sent by those he names but former messengers In this controversy the Popes returnes were so ambiguous that he writ so differing from their relations were sent it was thought fit Anselme should himself go to Rome with whom K. Henry sent another who spake plainly his master nec pro amissione regni sui passurum se perdere investituras Ecclesiarum and though Rome were willing to comply in other particulars told Anselme denying that he could not assure him of a welcome in England who thereupon retired to Lyons where finding slender comfort from Rome he sought the King by letters and after by the means of Henry's sister made his peace at which yet he was not permitted such was his spirit to enter England denying to communicate with them had received Bishopricks from the King but by the Popes dispensation The conclusion was Paschalis taught by experience neither the Court of Rome nor th' Archbishop gained ought by this contest however he would not at first abate praedecessoris sui sententiae rigorem yet now admitted great limitations to what Vrban had establisht So as the King assenting none for the future should be invested per laicam manum which was no more but what he formerly did himself he would now cause to be performed by a Bishop the other agreed no prelats to be barr'd of promotion etiamsi hominia Regi fecerint hoc donec per omnipotentis Domini gratiam ad hoc omittendum cor regium molliatur c. which yet the King soon after on the Popes permission of them to the Dutch did threaten sine dubio se resumpturum suas investituras quia ille suas tenet in pace but for ought I find it went no farther then their swearing fealty to the King which seems to have been long continued 8. The Papacy finding by this contest the difficulty of carrying any thing here by an high hand thought of more moderate wayes for bringing the Clergy of this nation wholy to depend on Rome but that could not be without diminishing the power the Archbishop held over them and therefore must be wonne by degrees to advance which nothing could more conduce then to have a person of wisdome reside here who might direct this Church according to the Papall interest But this was thought fit to be given out before practic 't and likely to be doubly opposed for th' Archbishop well understood the admitting a Legat for that end to be in suae dignitatis praejudicium And the King suffered none to be taken for Pope but whom he approved nor any to receive so much as a Letter from Rome without acquainting him with it and held it an undoubted right of the Crown ut neminem aliquando legati officio in Anglia fungi permitteret si non ipse aliqua praecipua querela exigente quae ab Archiepâ—scopo Cantuariorum caeterisque Episcopis regni terminari non posset hoc fieri à Papa postularet c. 9. Things standing thus in the year 1100. th' Archbishop of Vienna coming into England reported himself to have the Legatine power of all Britain committed unto him which was with so much admiration of the Nation as a thing had not been heard of before that if he had any at least he thought not fit to make use of his Commission but departed a nemine pro Legato susceptus nec in aliquo Legati officio functus 10. Fourteen years after Paschalis the 2. by Letters of the 30. of March and 1. of April expostulates with the King about severall particulars of which one is his admitting neither messenger nor Letter to be received but by his leave but see the words Sedis Apostolicae nuncii vel literae praeter jussum regiae majestatis nullam in potestate tuâ susceptionem aut aditum promerentur nullus inde clamor nullum inde judicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinantur c. and the year following addrest Anselme nephew to the late Archbishop and after Abbot of St. Edmundsbury hither shewing by Letters he had committed unto his administration vices Apostolicas in Anglia This made known here though the bearer were not permitted to enter the Kingdom the Clergy and Nobility gathered in councell at London concluded th' Archbishop should go to the King in Normandy make known unto him the antient custome of the Realme and by his advice to Rome as being the person was most interessed in it ut haec nova annihilaret from whence he obtained the Letter or rather declaration to the King and Clergy the same author hath recorded So by this care the matter was again stopt 11. The King 1119. sent his Bishops to a Councell held by Calixtus the 2. at Reims at their departing gave them these instructions Not to complain of each other because himself would right each of them at home That he payed that rent his predecessors had formerly done and enjoyed likewise those priviledges had been formerly permitted them That they should salute the Pope from him hear his precepts but bring no superfluities into his Kingdome but see the words Rex Anglorum praelatis regni sui ad Synodum ire permisit sed omnino ne alicujus modi querimoniam alterutrum facerent prohibuit Dixit omni plenariam rectitudinem conquerenti faciam in terra mea redditus ab anterioribus constitutos Romanae Ecclesiae singulis annis errogo privilegia nihilominus ab antiquis temporibus pari modo mihi concessa teneo Ite dominum Papam de parte mea salutate Apostolica tantum praecepta humiliter audite sed superfluas adinventiones regne meo inferre nolite c. Certainly this prince did hold the Pope with the advice of a Councell might labour to introduce superfluous inventions which the English were not tyed to receive the disputes of his Bishops be by him ended at home without carrying
England ever saw a Privy Councellor He having sometimes sought that dignity in Henry the 5 ths time upon the news the Archbishop of Cant. gave the King notice of it in a letter yet extant which did so affect that Prince as he was sometimes heard to say that he had as lieve set his crown beside him as see him wear a Cardinals hat But he being soon after taken away and the honour conferr'd on this Prelate in Iune 1426. by Martin the 5. at his coming into England the Lords of his Maties Councell caused him to make a Protestation for his comportment in the future and the 8th of Hen. the 6. it was agreed by the Lords in Parliament he should be on the Kings part required to attend his Maties Counsells sub protestatione tamen subsequente quod quotiens aliqua materiae causae vel negotia ipsum Dominum Regem aut regna seu dominia sua ex parte una ac sedem Apostolicam ex parte altera concernentia hujus concilii regiis communicanda tractanda fuerint idem Cardinalis se ab hujusmodi consilio absentet communicationi earundem causarum materiarum negotiorum non intersit quovis modo c. and yet his former engagement made to the Councell to be firme and inviolable Upon which the said Cardinall the 18. of December 8. H. 6. Ann. 1429. after his thanks to the King and Lords and his admitting the said Protestations tanquam rationi consonas was received for one of the Councell But I return to that I was treating of 39. The truth of this barring Appeals is so constantly averr'd by all the ancient monuments of this Nation as one not finding how to deny it falls upon another way that if the right of Appeals were abrogated it concludes not the See of Rome had no jurisdiction over this Church except one should be so senselesse as to imagine the Prefect of the Pretorian Court were not subject to th' Emperors auctority because it was not lawfull full to appeal from them according to the Law in the Digests To which I answer that if it be granted which is very disputable this Law is to be extended to th' Emperor yet it proceeded from himself who might limit his own power but he is desired to consider this canon of Appeals did not from any Pope for the Africans did and the Church of England doth maintain it as an inherent right of their own to give Laws in that particular and ever had strong contests with the Papacy about it which held it an honour not to be parted with and they opposing him in it must of necessity have held that superintendency he exercised over them not to be jure divino for then no man could have exempted himself from having recourse unto him In France there are severall Courts of Parliament from which no Appeal lies who receiving that priviledge from the King it cannot be said to be in diminution of his Royalty because that they have he gave but if ever any of them should claim this as of their own right denying the King to have at any time a power of intermedling with them I shall leave the objector to draw what consequence he will from it for my part I can no other but that they esteemed themselves very little his subjects 40. The reader will pardon this digression which I have the longerstood upon to give him the more full satisfaction how Appeals were first brought in and how pursued I shall now in what manner the Legat and Archbishop prosecuted theirs who being both before Lucius the 2. 1144. the Bishop of Winchester was dismist his legatine commission and the Pope finding with how great difficulty the Ecclesiastick affairs of this Kingdome could be managed by any Legat without the Archbishop of Canterbury thought of a very subtile invention to conserve his own auctority and not have any crossing with that Prelat which was to create him and his successors Legatinati by which such things as he did before and had a face of enterfeering with the Papal plenitude and were not so easy to devest th' Archbishop of exercising he might be said to do by a Legatine power of which it was not long before the Pope made use as is to be seen in his Decretalls where Alexander the 3. resolves he could not hear jure metropolitico matters Episcopall that came not unto him per appellationem that is in a legall way but jure Legationis he might such as were brought unto him onely per quaerimoniam an invention often practic 't afterward and highly advantagious to the Court of Rome as what made Bishops but his Deputies 41. The Antiquitates Britannicae Eccles. and from him Harpsfield speak as if this honour were first bestowed on Theobald which it seems to me could not be till the taking it away from Winchester by Lucius the 3. after the death of Innocentius 2. Diceto sayes Caelestinus 3. about some ten years after Lucius bestowed on Hubert plenitudinem potestatis in officio Legationis inauditam à seculis I confesse I do not well understand in what it did consist that had not been formerly heard of to whom the Pope had committed Vices suas in Anglia Scotia but it fully proyes that power derived from Rome was then looked on as a thing newly crept in But whosoever did first confer it the matter is not great certain it is by it the Papall auctority was not a little in time increas't there being none of the Clergy almost to question ought-came from Rome the Archbishop on whom the rest depended himself operating but as a Delegate from thence 42. To which purpose it may not unfitly be observed that when the Papacy did first attempt the exempting some great monasteries from the jurisdiction of their Ordinary it was salva primatis reverentia or as Malmsbury explains it Archiepiscopi tantum nutum in legitimis spectaturus But however thus carefully penned not to thwart with th' Archbishop being brought hither was taken away by Lanfrank not permitted to be made use of the Abbot finding no other way to regain it but multorum preces Yet afterward the Pope without scruple exempted them not onely from their Diocesan but even such as were under th' Archbishops nose with all pertaining to them were taken out of his own jurisdiction and he who at first preserved others rights had those houses now at an easy rate removed from his own A fact of infinite advantage to the Papacy by which it had persons of learning in all parts who depending wholy on it defended what was done to be by one had a power of doing it and he who at first did solely agere vices Apostolicas in Anglia was under no Legat permitted no Bul from Rome to be made use of in England but by his approbation was so far now from taking them away
of the English Church so there is no question but it hath been ever the Tenet of it Pontificem Romanum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in Sacrâ Scripturâ in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Which our Historians do mention as what proceeded from the constitutions of the Church and assent of Emperors not as of a thing in it self juris divini insomuch as 80. That proposition when it was propounded 1534. in Henry the 8 ths time in convocation all the Bishops without exception and of others onely one doubted and four placed all Ecclesiastick power in the Pope both the Universities and most of the Monasteries and Collegiat Churches of England approved avowed as the undoubted opinion of the Church of this Nation in all ages Neither can I see how it can be otherwise for if the Church of Canterbury were omnium nostrum mater communis sub sponsi sui Iesu Christi dispositione if it were Mater omnium Anglicanarum Ecclesiarum suo post Deum proprio laetatur pastore that is if th' Archbishop had no mediate spirituall superior but Christ God if the power the Pope exercised over him within this Realm were voluâ—tate beneficio gained as I have shewed by little little voluntarily submitted unto it could be no other then jure humano and then it must be granted the Church of England could not hold any necessity of being in subjection to the See or Church of Rome jure divino as it is manifest they did not in that they sometimes acknowleded no Pope otherwhiles shewed an intent of departing from his union and the Bishops as well as Lay Lords advised Anselm Vrbani obedientiam abijcere subjectionis jugum excutere c. Neither could the Church of England be any way possible guilty of Schism adhering to their Ghostly Superior next and immediate under Christ Iesus As for the temporall profits the Court of Rome received hence though the denying them can be no just cause of such a spirituall imputation especially on privat men yet certainly who will examin their beginning as he shall find it to have been by the bounty or permission of our Princes so upon search he will perceive the Kingdome went no farther then the Common Law the precedent of former times and such an exigency did force them to of which therefore I shall adde a word or two CHAP. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England THe vast summes the Court of Rome did of late years upon severall occasions export out of this Kingdome mentioned in the statute of the 25. Hen. the 8. are spoken of by severall of our writers and though some have in generall expressed how much the Nation suffer'd in that kind yet none that I know in one tract did ever shew by what degrees the Papacy gained so great a revenue as the Commons in Edward the thirds dayes had cause to complain it did turn a plus grand destruction du Royaume qe toute la guerre nostre Seigneur le Roy. I have thought therefore that it will not be amisse to set down how the Pope came to have so great an influence over the treasure of the Clergy in this Land by seeking out how and when the greatest of the paiments made to him began what interruptions or oppositions were met with either at the beginning or in the continuance of them 2. The first payment that I have read of which gave the Pope an entrance as it were in to it was that bounty of our Princes known to this day by the name of Peter-Pence and this as it was given for an Almes by our Kings so was it no otherwise received by the Court of Rome Eleemosyna beati Petri prout audivimus ita perperaâ—â— doloseque collecta est ut neque mediam ejus partem hactenus Ecclesia Romana susceperit saith Paschalis the 2. So that no question Polidore Virgil very inconsiderately termes it vectigal and others who by that gift contend the Kingdome became tributarium feudatarium S to Petro ejusque successoribus for though the word tributum may perhaps be met with in elder writers yet never did any understand the Pope by it to become a Superior Lord of the Lay fee but used the word metaphorically as we do to this day terme a constant rent a kind of tribute and to those who pay it and over whom we have in some sort a command we give the title of subjects not as being Princes over them but in that particular being under us they are for it styled our inferiors 3. What Saxon King first conferred them whether Ina as Ranulphus Cestrensis sayes report carryed or Offa as Iorvalensis I will not here enquire as not greatly materiall Polidore Virgil tells some write Ethelwolphus continued it with whom Brompton seems to concur It is true our Historians remember he caused 300. mancusas denariorum Malmsbury renders it trecentas auri marcas which was ten times the value of silver as another trecenta talenta to be carried every year from hence to Rome which could be no other then the just application of Peter-Pence for amongst sundry complaints long after from Rome we find the omission of no paiment instanced in but of that duty onely neither do the body of the Kingdome in their Remonstrance to Innocentius 4. 1246. mention any other as due from hence to Rome 4. This therefore thus confer'd by our Kings was for the generality continued to the Papacy yet to shew as it were that it proceeded only from the liberality of our Princes not without some stops Of those in the times of VVilliam the first Henry his Son I have spoke Henry the 2. during the dispute with Becket and Alexander the 3. commanded the Sheriffs through England that Denariibeati Petri colligantur serventur quousque inde Deminus Rex voluntatem suam praeceperit During the Reign of Edward the 3. the Popes abiding at Avignon many of them French their partiality to that side and the many Victories obtained by th' English begat the proverb Ore est le Pape devenu Françeis Iesu devenu Angleis c. about which time our Historians observe the King gave command no Peter-Pence should be gather'd or pay'd to Rome And this restraint it seems continued all that Princes time for Richard the 2. his successor at his beginning caused Iohn Wickliffe esteemed the most knowing man of those times to consider the right of stopping them whose determination in that particular yet remains entituled Responsio Magistri Iohannis Wicliff ad dubium infrascriptum quaesitum ab eo per Dominum Regem Angliae Richardum secundum magnum Concilium anno regni sui primo then the question followes Dubium est utrum regnum Angliae
auctority to cause the English Church be reformed by th' advice of their Bishops and other of the Clergy as agreeing with the practise of all ages For who introduced the opinion of Transubstantiation made it an article of Faith barr'd the Lay of the Cup Priests of marriage who restored the Mass in Queen Maries dayes before any reconciliation made with Rome but the Ecclesiasticks of this Kingdome under the Prince for the timebeing who commanded or connived at it CHAP. VI. How the Kings of England proceeded in their separation from Rome 1 IT being by what is already said undoubted the Clergy called together by the Prince or meeting by his allowance have ever had a power of reforming this Church commanding things juris positivi in it and likewise dispensing with them and that the statute 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12. that saith in effect as much is no other then a declaration of the Common law that is the custome of the realm the next enquiry will be for acquitting the Church of England in point of schism how this separation from Rome was made 2. Henry the 8th having long pursued a cause Matrimoniall with Clement the 7. who shewed so much complyance to determine it in his favour as he sent Cardinall Campeius hither to joyn with Wolsey the Kings creature in the businesse and upon the Emperours successe in Italy the cause after many delayes being revoked to Rome the King upon the opinions of many forreign Divines of the invalidity of his marriage with Queen Katharine caused the case to be determined by the English Church which judgement yet he would have in some measure submitted to the Court of Rome so as he might have given the persons to whom it was delegated by the Pope full information and the Cardinalls of the Imperiall faction excluded having any part in the decision But Clement hearing what had past in England with more then ordinary hast determins the cause against him which how much it would irritate any Prince of so great power and so high a spirit as our Henry I shall leave others to judge And here I might alledge many forreign examples of those who upon lesse indignities have stopt all entercourse with Rome as Lewis the 12. and Henry the 2. of France if I had undertook to write an apology for him 3. The King upon the advertisement of these proceedings by the Pope which was at the beginning of the year 1534 falls first to those courses his auncestors had formerly done when they had occasion to know how they ought to comport themselves in any thing towards Rome which was to have the advise of the English Church and thereupon wrote to the Universities great Monasteries and Churches of the Kingdome the 18. May 1534. to the University of Oxford requiring them like men of virtue and profound literature to diligently intreat examine and discusse a certain question viz. An Romanus Episcopus habeat majorem aliquam jurisdictionem sibi collatam in sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alius quivis externus Episcopus and to return their opinion in writing under their common seal according to the meer and sincere truth of the same c. To which after mature deliberation and examination not onely of the places of holy Scripture but of the best interpreters for many dayes they returned answer the 27. Iune 1534. without all peradventure according to the ancient tenet of the English Romanum Episcopum majorem aliquam jurisdictionem non habere sibi à Deo collatam in sacra Scriptura in hoc regno Angliae quam alium quemvis externum Episcopum Of this answer I have thought fit to make particular mention though assented to by all the English Clergy because Oxford hath been ever held aemula Parisiensis Ecclesiae fundamentum fountain Mere de nostre foy Chrestiene as I formerly touched whose opinion the English Church hath therefore highly esteemed and sought on all occasions of this nature of which to give some examples 4. Upon the election of Vrban the 6. France Scotland Flanders and divers other parts adhering to Clement who resided at Avignon the French King 1395. caused a meeting of the Clergy of his dominions to search whether had the better right to the Papacy whose judgment was for Clement which under the seal of the University of Paris was sent to Richard the 2. who thereupon fecit convocationem Oxoniae de peritioribus Theologis tam regentibus quam non regentibus totius regni and they on the contrary judged Vrban to have the better title whose opinion under the seal of the University of Oxford returned to the King was by him transmitted into France 1408 in Concilio Cleri celebrato Londoniis assistentibus doctoribus Vniversitatum Cantabrigiae Oxoniae tractatum est de censu obedientia Papae subtrahendis vel non subtrahendis about which time twelve of the University of Oxford on the Archbishops desire in the name of the rest examined the books Doctrines of Wickliffe sent their resolutions to a Synod at London in an epistle yet extant By all which it is manifest how much their opinions were esteemed in this Kingdome And I hold it undoubted a Prince following so great advise chalked out to him by the practise of his ancestors could not be guilty of so heinous a crime as schism arising onely from disobedience to any spirituall superior whatsoever Gerson sayes a private person runs into no contempt of the Keyes in divers cases by him enumerated as one dum dicit aliquis juristarum vel theologorum juxta conscientiam suam quod hujusmodi sententiae non sunt timendae vel tenendae hoc praesertim si observetur informatio seu caâ—tela debita ne sequatur scandalum pusillorum qui aestimant Papam esse unum Deum And Navar the greatest Canonist of his time qui unius doctoris eruditione ac animi pietate celebris auctoritate ductus fecerit aliquid excusatur etiamsi forte id non esset justum alii contrarium tenerent And to this purpose many more Doctors may be alleged 5. This as it was done by him so he was led unto it by the example of his predecessors as I have partly toucht before and shall therefore alledge no other but that in the disputes between Becket and Henry the 2. the Archbishop endeavouring to interesse Alexander the 3. in the difference that Prince caused it to be written unto him Si juri vestro vel honori praejudicatur in aliquo id se totius Ecclesiae regni sui consilio correcturum in proximo pollicetur and a little after Dominus Rex plurimum sibi justificare videtur cum in omnibus quae dicta sunt Ecclesiae regni sui consilio simul judicio se pariturum pollicetur And this the often repeating of it not onely in a particular letter of the Bishop of London but of
AN HISTORICAL VINDICATION OF The Church of England In point of SCHISM As it stands separated from the ROMAN and was reformed 1 Elizabeth Deuteronomy 32. 7. Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask thy father and he will shew thee thy elders and they will tell thee Jeremiah 6. 16. Ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls LONDON Printed for Samuel Speed at the Rain-bow in Fleetstreet near the Inner Temple-gate 1663. To the READER I Know how easily men are drawn to believe their own observations and expressions may prove as welcome to others as they are pleasing to themselves And though few books live longer then the Authors who send them to the presse and fewer avoid an opinion they might have been as well spared as come abroad yet neither the hazard their makers run nor the little gain they reap can hinder those have a Genius that way from suffering others to be as well Masters and censurers of their thoughts as themselves This being then the venture every writer exposes himself unto the Reader may not a little marvell how I have been brought to hazard my self on the same Seas I have seen so many Shipwrackt in I shall desire him to adde this to what is already in the first chapter as my Apology Reading some times in Baronius that all things were well done in the Catholick Church had venerable antiquity for their warrant and that the Roman Church did not prescribe any thing as an holy tenet but such onely as delivered by the Apostles preserved by the Fathers were by our ancestors transmitted from them to us I cannot deny to have thought for certainly Truth is more ancient then Error this being made good and that she did commend them to us in no other degree of necessity then those former ages had done but she had much more reason on her side then I had formerly conceived her to have but in examining the assertions it seemed to me not onely otherwise but that learned Cardinall not to have ever been in this consonant to himself confessing the Catholick Church not alwayes in all things to follow the interpretations of the most holy Fathers On the other side it seemed to me somewhat hard to affirm the Papacy had incroached on the English and neither instance when where nor how Hereupon as I perused our ancient Laws and Histories I began to observe all changes in matters Ecclesiasticall reported by them in which I had sometimes speech with that learned Gentleman I mention in the first chapter whom I ever found a person of great candor integrity and a true Englishman I noted likewise how the Reformation of Religion was begun with us how cautiously our ancestors proceeded not to invade the Rights of any but to conserve their own Many years after I know not by what fate there was put into my hands as a piece not capable of answer in relation as well to the fact as reason it carried without at all my seeking after it or hearing of it a treatise of the Schisme of England carrying the name of one Philip Scot but as told me composed by a person of greater eminency dedicated to both the Universities and printed permissu superiorum truly in my judgment neither illiteratly nor immodestly writ but in reading of it I found sundry particulars some perhaps onely intimated others plainly set down I could no way assent unto as that Clement the vij did exercise no other auctority in the Church then Gregory the great had done That the Religion brought hither by Augustine varyed not from that was before the Reformation That the English made the separation from the Church of Rome That in doing so we departed from the Church Catholick I was not ignorant it might be found in the writings of some Protestants as if we departed from Rome which I conceive is to be understood in respect of the Tenets we separate from holding Articles of faith not of the manner how it was made Having gone through the book I began to look over my former notes and putting them for my own satisfaction in order found them swell farther then I expected Vrceum institui exit amphora and when they were placed together I shewed them to some very good friends to whose earnest perswasions being such as might dispose of me and mine I have in the end been forced to yield making thee partaker of that I never intended should have past farther then their eyes Yet in obeying them I shall desire to be rightly understood That as I do not in this take upon me the disputing the truth of any controversiall tenet in difference between us and the Church of Rome so I meddle not with any thing after Pius quintus came to the Papacy who first by private practises and then open excommunication of her Majesty declared himself an enemy in open hostility with this state which therefore might have greater reason to prevent his endeavours by some more sharp laws against such as were here of his inclination then had been seen formerly with which I meddle not Thus the Reader hath the truth both how I came to compose and how to print this If he find any thing in it like him he must thank the importunity of others if to misdoubt I give him in the margin what hath lead me to that I affirm if to dislike his losse will not be great either in time or cost and perhaps it may incite him to do better in the same argument and shew me my errours which proceeding from a mind hath not other intent then the discovery of truth no man shall be gladder to see and readier to acknowledge then From my House in East-Peckham the 22. May MDCLVII Roger Twysden A TABLE Of the CHAPTERS CHAP. I. AN Historicall Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism And how it came to be entred upon fol. 1 Chap. II. Of the Britans fol. 7 Chap. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with fol. 9 Chap. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England fol. 74 Chap. V. How far the Regall power did extend it self in matters Ecclesiasticall fol. 93 Chap. VI. How the Kings of England proceeded in their separation from Rome fol. 118 Chap. VII How the reformation was made under Queen Elizabeth fol. 126 Chap. VIII How Queen Elizabeth settled in this Kingdom the proceeding against Hereticks fol. 135 Chap. IX Of the farther proceeding of Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation fol. 174 AN Historical Vindication OF THE Church of England in point of SCHISM CHAP. I. 1. IT is now more than twenty yeares since defending the Church of England as it was setled 1 Eliz. for the most perfect and conformable to Antiquity of any in Europe a Gentleman whose conversation for his Learning I
their complaints beyond Seas according to th' Assize of Clarendoun the King in nothing obliged to Rome but in the payment of Peter-pence as his father had before exprest himself 12. In November following the Pope and King had a meeting at Gisors in Normandy where Calixtus confirmed unto him the usages his father had practic 't in England and Normandy and in especiall that of sending no Legat hither but on the Princes desire Yet notwithstanding the same Pope not fully two years after addrest another Legat to these parts but he by the Kings wisdome was so diverted ut qui Legati officio fungi in tota Britannia venerat immunis ab omni officio tali via qua venerat extra Angliam à Rege missus est c. 13. But here by the way the reader may take notice these words Collata Impetrata Concessa Permissa used by our best authors in speaking of the Rights of the Crown in points of this nature do not import as if it had onely a delegatory power from the Pope by some grant of his as is fancied by those would have it so for we read of no such concessions from him unlesse that of Nicholas the 2. of which in the next But that they were continually exercised the Pope seeing either approving or at least making no such shew of his disliking them as barr'd their practice which by comparing the said authors is plain Eadmerus p. 125 53 54. speaks as if these customes were concessa fungi permissa from Rome which pag. 118 33 40. he calls antiqua Angliae consuetudo libertas Regni c. So pag. 116 22. he terms them privilegia Patri Fratri suo sibique à Romana Ecclesia jam olim collata c. about which yet it is manifest even by him the Court of Rome was ever in contest with our Kings about them who maintained them as their Royalties against it and challenged by Henry the 1. by no other title then dignitates usus consuetudines quas Pater ejus in regno habuit c. which the Pope calls honores quos antecessorum nostrorum tempore Pater tuus habuer at and affirmes to be grata in superficie interius requisita Legati vocibus exposita gravia vehementissima paruerunt so far have Popes been from conferring the least unto them see cap. 3. n. 19. 14. It is true things done by Princes as of their own Right Popes finding not means to stop would in former ages as later by priviledge continue unto them Nicholaus Papa hoc Domino meo privilegium quod ex paterno jure susceperat praebuit said th' Emperours Advocate And the same Pope finding our Kings to expresse one part of their Office to be regere populum Domini Ecclesiam ejus wrote to Edward the Confessor Vobis posteris vestris regibus Angliae committimus advocationem ejusdem loci omnium totius Angliae Ecclesiarum vice nostra cum Concilio Episcoporum Abbatum constituatis ubique quae justa sunt As a few years since the Republick of Venice not assenting to send their Patriarch to an examination at Rome according to a Decree of Clement the 8 th Paulus Quintus declared that imposterum Venetiarum Antistites Clementis decreto eximerentur so that now that State doth by an exemption what they did before as Soveraign Princes Besides Kings did many times as graunts ask those things of the Pope they well understood themselves to have power of doing without him Henry the 5 th demanded of Martin the 5. five particulars to which his Ambassadors finding him not so ready to assent told him se in mandatis habere ut coram eo profiteantur Regem in iis singulis jure suo usurum utpote quae non necessitatis sed honoris causa petat ut publicam de ea re coram universo Cardinalium coetu protestationem interponant And to the same purpose there are sundry examples yet remaining on record where the King on the petition of the Commons for redresse of some things of Ecclesiastick cognizance amisse first chuses to write to the Pope but on his delay or failing to give satisfaction doth either himself by statute redresse th' inconvenience or command the Archbishop to see it done 15. But here before I proceed any farther because it cannot be denyed in former times there was often intercourse between the Church of England and Rome and such as were sent from thence hither are by some styled Nuncii by others Legati I think it not amisse to consider what the cause was one side so much opposed the sending a Legat and the other so laboured to gain it 16. After the erection of Canterbury into an Archbishoprick the Bishops of that See were held quasi alteriâ—s orbis Papae as Vrban the 2. styled them did onely exercise vices Apostolicas in Anglia that is used the same power within this Island the Pope did in other parts the one claiming because Europe had been converted by disciples sent from Rome the other that he had sent preachers through England And is therefore called frequently in our writers princeps Episcoporum Angliae Pontifâ—x summus Patriarcha Primas and his seat Cathedra Patriarchatus Anglorum and this not in civility onely but they were as well sic habiti as nominati It is true the correspondency between it and the Roman was so great they were rather held one then two Churches yet if any question did arise the determination was in a councell or convocation here as the deposing Stygand the settling the precedency between Canterbury and York the instructions I mentioned of Hen. 1. to his Bishops the right of the Kingdome that none should be drawn out of it auctoritate Apostolica do enough assure us if recourse were had to Rome it was onely ut majori Concilio decidatur quod terminari non pâ—tuit as to the more learned divines to the elder Church of greatest note in Europe by whom these were converted and therefore more reverenced by this as that was most sollicitous of their well-doing and most respected for their wisdome All which is manifest by that humble Letter Kenulphus others of Mercia wrote about 797. to Leo the 3. wherein it plainly appears he seeks to that See for direction because the conversion of the Nation first came from thence and there resided in it men of sound learning whom he doth therefore desire as quibus à Deo merito sapientiae clavis collata est ut super hac causa which was the placing an Archiepiscopall chair at Litchfield cum sapientibus vestris quaeratis quicquid vobis videatur nobis postea rescribere dignemini By which it is clear his inquisition was as unto persons of profound literature had the key of knowledge conferred
To return to th' Archbishop who came home with this Legatine power 1127. crowns the King at Windsor and in May following holds a Councell at Westminster cui praesedit ipse sicut Apostolicae sedis legatus which is the first Councell any Archbishop is noted to have held as a Papall Legat and during his life which was seven years England did not see any other 27. After his death the See of Canterbury lay two years vacant so a fit time for the Pope to look this way especially K. Stephen making it part of his title that he was confirmed by him in his Kingdome therefore 1138. Innocentius the second sent hither Albericus Bishop of Hostia the second stranger I find exercising the Legatine auctority in England yet he was not at first received for one but vix tandem pro reverentiâ— Domini Papae He indeed went farther then ever any had for he not onely called the Clergy Apostolica auctoritate as our Historians terme it to a Synod I confesse he avoyds the word in his letters of summons styling it colloquium perhaps not to enter into dispute with the King who then took himself to be the onely caller of them and the allower of what they did but did farther command the Prior and Convent of Canterbury c. to chuse such an Archbishop cui sacrorum canonum auctoritas in nullo valcat obviare cui comprovinciales Episcopi pariter debeant assentire cui Dominus Rex nec possit nec debet assensum suum juste denegare but farther not at all intromitting himself And in the Councell he held amongst other particulars he ordained that if any injured an Ecclesiastick person Nisi tertio admonitus satisfecerit anathemate feriatur neque quisquam ei praeter Romanum Pontificem nisi mortis urgente periculo modum poenitentiae finalis injungat This is the first that by Canon ought done in England was referr'd to Rome as having a greater power then the English Bishops to absolve of the Laws of Hen. the 1. I shall speak hereafter But whether it were not here much regarded or th' excesses used by King Stephen against certain Bishops and the prohibiting a Councell held 〈◊〉 Winchester to send to Rome as against the dignity of the realm or that he freed of imprisonment desired to make so potent a party as the Clergy then was more of his side I cannot say but assuredly it was again renewed in a Councell at London about some four years after 28. The same Pope 1139. conferr'd upon Henry K. Stephens Brother and the potent Bishop of Winchester this Legatine power which was by him publish't in a Councell at Winchester where his faculties wâ—re read bearing date the 1. March and being as well Angliae Dominus by reason of the power he held wiâ—h Stephen as Apostolicae sedis Legatus he called thither th' Archbishop that had then some contest with the Monks of St. Augustines whom the Pope generally favour'd against him referr'd to his decision from Rome so that he caused both parties the second time to appear there before him 1143. as Legat and by compromise ended the businesse Yet this calling of the Archbishop unto him was not taken well and the same year 1143. he did by Apostolick command restore Ieremy removed by Theobald notwithstanding his appeal to Rome to be Prior of Canterbury which restitution the said Prior did not think fit to stand by but for avoiding trouble took an 100. marks to pay his debts and placed himself in St. Augustines By these carriages there grew great distasts between these two great Prelats the one as Archbishop prohibited Winchester all Ecclesiastick functions however the Popes Legat and both apply themselves to the Pope from whence our Historians do fetch the use of Appeals to Rome as indeed there could not well be any cause of them before for as the one case is the first ever any Archbishop was called out of his Diocese to make answer to any Legat as his Superior so I believe it will be hard to give an example of ought done by th' Archbishop in his own Bishoprick till now alter'd by a forreign auctority And here having mentioned the introducing of Appeals the reader will give me leave to digresse a little both to shew what is meant by them and the manner of prosecution of them and then to return and observe the event of the Archbishops and Legats in the Court of Rome 29. It cannot be denyed the word Appeal to have been used in former times with reference to the Papacy Cum praesul sedem Apostolicam appellasset sayes Malmsbury of VVilfred and a Councell held in Italy concerning him Apostolicam sedem de suâ causâ appellans and of some others Yet nothing is more certain then those in whose time this was did not at all hold the Pope to have any power of righting him other then by intercession not as a superior Court by sentencing in his favour to undo what had past Theodore without whose assent the King could not have deprived him of his seat for when the Popes Letters were brought hither for his restitution Egfrid with th' advise of his Bishops not onely refused but clapt VVilfred in prison and after his death the Pope sending others vita graves aspectu honorabiles Alfrith though he received the men with great reverence yet would by no means admit the restauration they came about but affirmed it against reason to do it he having been twice condemned proper quaelibet Apostolica scripta And as this was in a time when Christianity most flourished in this Nation having in generall fortissimos Christianosque Reges so of the Kings that did it of Egfrid Beda left that he was piissimus Deo dilectissimus neither can he find any other thing to blame in Alfrith worthily and the Bishops that did concur in the action were holy men well seen in divine and secular learning so that it is not imaginable any thing past them not warranted by the Doctrine and rules of this Church 30. For the understanding of which we are to know the word Appeal is taken severall wayes sometimes to accuse sometimes for referring our selves to some one for his judgment such was that of VVilfreds appealing to Rome as to a great spirituall Doctor and Church whose judgment was very venerable in the World as of late Iohn Calvins and the Church of Geneva was to them of Scotland and Frankford c. another way we take it for removing a cause from an inferior to a superior Court or Iudge that hath power of disannulling whatsoever the former did and this is that our Historians affirm not to have been in use till after 1140. It is certain long after VVilfred the Bishops and Nobility did assure Anselme that for any of the great ones especially him to have
recourse to Rome without the Kings leave to be inauditum usibus ejus omnino contrarium and therefore required of him an Oath quod nunquam amplius sedem Sancti Petri vel ejus vicarium pro quavis quae tibi ingeri queat causa appelles I know Anselm an Italian where the opinion of the Papall absolutenesse had now begun to root did maintain this was Petrum abjurare and that Christum abjurare and is the first of our Bishops spake any thing in that sort with whose sense the Kingdome did not concur in it For it is manifest in those dayes and after Appeals to Rome were not common In the year 1115. Paschalis the 2. expostulates with Henry the 1. that Nullus inde clamor nullum judicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinatur and again vos oppressis Apostolicae sedis appellationem subtrahitis And Anselme himself speaking of the proceeding of the King in a case by him esteemed onely of Ecclesiastick cognizance lays down the manner to be that it should be onely ad singulos Episcopos per suas parochias aut si ipsi Episcopi in hoc negligentes fuerint ad Archiepiscopum primatem adding nothing of carrying it to Rome of which I know no other reason but that it was not then usuall to remove causes from the Primate thither Yet after this either the importunity of the Pope prevailed with the King or the passage was inserted after his dayes into the Lawes carry his name as some other in the same chapter may seem to have been but certain in them though he give for a rule that of Pope Fabian or Sixtus 3. ibi semper causa agatur ubi crimen admittitur yet a Bishop erring in faith and on admonition appearing incorrigible ad summos Pontifices the Archbishops vel sedem Apostolicam accusetur This is the onely case wherein I find any English Law approve a forreign judicature 31. But whether from the countenance of this Law or the great oppressions used by the Legat King Stephens Brother or the frequency of them it is certain 1151. Appeals were held a cruell intrusion on the Churches Liberty so as in the Assize at Clarendoun 1164. collected by the body of the Realm the 8. Chapter is solely spent in shewing the right of the Kingdome in that particular which Iohannes Sarisburiensis interprets quod non appellaretur pro causâ aliquâ ad sedem Apostolicam nisi Regis Officialium suorum venia impetraâ—a Upon which the Bishop of London moved Alexander the third Beckets cause might be determined appellatione remota at which the Pope seems to be moved and told him haec est gloria mea quam alteri non dabo And though it seems by a Letter of the same Prelat the King would have restrained his power onely to such as had first made tryall of receiving justice at home claiming ex antiqua regni institutione ob civilem causam nullus clericorum regni sui fines exeat c. and that too if amiss would have corrected by th' advise of the English Church yet while th' Archbishop lived that would not be hearkened to but after his death at the peace which 1172. ensued between him and the Church of Rome it was onely concluded the King not to hinder Appeals thither in Ecclesiastick causes yet so as a party suspected before his going was to give security not to endeavour malum suum nec regni But the Kingdom meeting in Parliament at Northampton 1176. not fully four years after would not quit their interest but did again renew th' Assize of Clarendoun using in this particular somewhat a more close expression Iusticiae faciant quaerere per consuetudinem terrae illos qui à regno recesserunt nisi redire voluerint infra terminum nominatum stare in curia Domini Regis utlagentur c. in effect the same as Gervasius Dorobernensis well understood who tells us Rex Angliae Henricus convocatis regni primoribus apud Northamptoniam renovavit assisam de Clarendonia eamque praecepit observari pro cujus execrandis institutis beatus martyr Thomas Cantuariensis usque in septennium exulavit tandem glorioso martyrio coronatus est 32. After which the going to Rome remained during this Kings and his Son Richard's time onely according to their pleasures the Clergy lying under the penalty of this Law if they did attempt farther then the Princes liking of which we have a very pregnant example in the case of Geffrey Archbishop of York K. Richards Brother who accused to Coelestinus 3 us that he did not onely refuse Appeals to Rome but imprisoned those who made them upon it the Pope commits the cause to be heard by the Bishop of Lincoln and others who thereupon transfer themselves to York where hearing the Testimonies of those appeared before them assigned him a time to make his defence to the Pope But the Archbishop being then well with his Brother pretended he could not present himself in Rome for the Kings prohibition and the indisposition of the aire Not long after the King and he fell so at odds quod praecepit illum dissaisiri de Archiepiscopatu suo c. Coelestinus upon this takes an opportunity to declare a suspension to be notifyed through all the Churches of his Diocese injoyning what the King had before the Lay as well as the Clergy ne ipsi Archiepiscopo vel officialibus ejus in tempor alibus respondere praesumant donec de ipso Archiepiscopo aliud duxerimus statuendum The offence with his Brother still remaining the Bishop expecting now no help at home goes upon this to Rome makes his peace with the Pope and returns but the King committed the â—are even of the Spiritualls of his Archbishoprick to others without permitting him or his Agents to meddle with ought till about two years after he reconciled himself to the Crown after which he gave Innocentius 3 us occasion to write Non excusare te potes ut debes quod illud privilegium ignoraris per quod omnibus injuste gravatis facultas patet ad sedem Apostolicam appellandi cum iu ipse aliquando ad nostram audientiam appellaris and a little after Nec auctoritatem nostram attendis nec factam tibi gratiam recognoscis nec appellationibus defers quae interponuntur ad sedem Apostolicam c. And about the same time Robert Abbot of Thorney deposed by Hubert th' Archbishop was laid in prison a year and half without any regard had of the Appeal by him made to the Pope and this to have been the practice during King Richards time the continued quarrells of Popes for not admitting men to appeal unto them doth fully assure as 33. But Innocentius 3 us having prevailed against King Iohn and the Clergy great instruments in obtaining Magna Charta from that Prince either in favour of
averoient frank election de lour Prelatz solonc la ley de Dieu de seint Esglise ent ordeigne perpetuelment a durer c. and a little after d'Engleterre soleient doner Eveschez autres grantz dignites trestouz come il fait aujourdui Esglises parochiels le Pape ne se medlast de doner nul benefice deinz le Royalme tanqez deinz brief temps passe c. 59. And this to have been likewise the custome in France the complaint of the French Ambassador to Innocentius 4 tus assures us Non est multum temporis saith he quod Reges Francorum conferebant omnes Episcopatus in camera sua c. and our writers do wholy look upon the placing Lanfrank in Canterbury as the Kings act though it were not without th' advise of Alexander the 2. Neither did Anselme ever make scruple of refusing the Archbishoprick because he was not chosen by the Monks of Canterbury and in that letter of them to Paschalis the 2. 1114. though they write Raulf in praesentia gloriosi Regis Henrici electus à nobis clero populo yet whosoever will note the series of that election cannot see it to have been other then the Kings act insomuch as our writers use often no other phrase then the King gave such preferments c. And whilst things stood thus there was never any interposing from Rome no question who was lawfully chosen the Popes therefore did labour to draw this from the Princes medling with as much as was possible Some essay might be 1108. at the settling Investitures for then Anselme writ to Paschalis Rex ipse in personis eligendis nullatenus propria utitur voluntate sed religiosorum se penitus committit consilio But this as the practice proved afterwards was no more but that he would take the advise of his Bishops or other of the Clergy for as Diceto well observes our King did in such sort follow the Ecclesiastick Canons as they had a care to conserve their own rights The â—ittest way therefore for the Pope to get in was if there should happen any dissensions amongst themselves that he as a moderator a judge or an Arbitrator might step in 60. About the Conquest an opportunity was offer'd on the contentions between the two Archbishops for primacy in which Canterbury stood on the bulls true or false of former Popes that had as a great Patriarch made honourable mention of them When they were both 1071. with Alexander the 2. by his advise it was referr'd to a determination in England and accordingly 1072. Wm. the first with his Bishops made some settlement which by them of York was ever stumbled at pretending the King out of reason of State sided with Canterbury But this brake into no publick contest till 1116. Thurstan elected to York endeavored at Rome to divert the making any profession of subjection to Cant. but failing in th' attempt that Court not liking to fall into a contest it was not probable to carry resigned his Archbishoprick Spondens Regi Archâ—epiâ—copo se dum viveret non reclamaturum yet after the Clergy of York sued to the Pope for his restitution which produced that letter from Paschalis the 2. in his behalf to Hen. the 1. is in Eadmerus wherein he desires if there were any difference between the two Sees it might be discust in his presence Which was not hearkned to but Calixtus the 2. in a Councell by him held 1119. at Reimes of which before the English Bishops not arrived the Kings Agent protesting against it the Archdeacon of Cant. telling the Pope that jure he could not do it consecrated him Archbishop of York upon which Henry prohibits him all return into his dominions And in the enterview soon after at Gisors though Calixtus earnestly laboured th' admitting him to his See the King would by no means hearken to it So the Pope left the businesse as he found it and Thurstan to prove other wayes to gain th' Archbishoprick 61. Who thereupon became an actor in the peace about that time treated between England and France in which his comportments were such that proniorem ad sese recipiendum Regis animum inflexit so as upon the Popes letters he was afterwards restored ea dispositione ut nullatenus extra provinciam Eboracensem divinum officium celebraret donec Ecclesiae Cantuariensi c. satisfaceret This I take to be the first matter of Episcopacy that ever the Pope as having a power elsewhere of altering what had been here settled did meddle with in England It is true whilst they were raw in Christianity he did sometimes recommend Pastors to this Church so Vitalian did Theodore and farther shewed himself sollicitous of it by giving his fatherly instructions to the English Bishops to have a care of it so did Formosus or some other by his letters 904. upon which Edward th' elder congregated a Synod wherein five new Bishops were constituted by which an inundation of Paganisme ready to break in on the West for want of Pastors was stopt But it is apparent this was done not as having dominion over them for he so left the care of managing the matter to their discretion as he did no way interesse himself in it farther then advise 62. A meeting of English Bishops 1107. at Canterbury or as Florentius Wigorniensis stiles it a Councell restored the Abbot of Ramsey deposed 1102. jussu Apostolico or as Eadmerus juxta mandatum Domini Papae It is manifest this command from Rome to be of the same nature those I mentioned of Calvins or at the most no other then the intercession of the Patriarch of a more noble See to an inferior that by his means had been converted For his restitution after the reception of the Papall letters seems to have been a good while defer'd so that what past at Rome did not disannull his deprivation here till made good in England as at a time when nothing thence was put in execution but by the Regall approbation as the Pope himself complained to the King But after the Church of Rome with th' assistance of th' English Clergy had obtained all elections to be by the Chapters of the Cathedralls upon every Scruple she interposed herself 63. The greatest part of the Convent of London 1136. chose Anselme Abbot of St. Edmundsbury for their Bishop contrary to the Deans opinion and some few of the Chanons who appealed to Rome where th' election 1138 was disannulled the Bishoprick by the Pope recommended to Winchester his then or rather soon after Legat which so remained till 1141. This is the first example of any Bishop chosen received and in possession of a Church in this Kingdome whose election was after quash't at Rome and the sentence obeyed here as it is likewise of any Commendam on Papall command in the Church of England all
ejus successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint that the English Bishops being excommunicated by the Pope might not take an oath of obedience to his commands quia regni consuetudines impugnabat though he did never exercise any authority here but according to such stipulations contracts and agreements with our Princes as the Lawes permitted and therefore when he sent hither a Legat à Latere he was tretyd with or he cam in to the lond whon he schold have exercise of his power and how myche schold bee put in execution An aventure after he had bee reseyved he whold have used it to largely to greet oppression of your peple c. as the Archbishop wrote to Hen. 5. as I have shewed numb 53. 73. Though the Lawyers of the Kingdome do constantly affirm as the Law and Custome of the Realm the Kings Courts never to have carried regard to any forraign excommunication and if any such came from Rome not to be put in execution but by allowance first had to which effect it is remembred the Bishops of London and Norwich having publish't in their Dioceses the Popes excommunication of Hugh Earl as it seems of Chester without the privity of Hen. the 2. or his Chief Iusticiar the Kings writ issued out in this manner Londoniensis Norwicensis Episcopi sint in misericordia Regis summoneantur per Ficecomites Bedellos ut sint contra Iusticias Regis ad rectum faciendum Regi Iusticiis ejus de eo quod contra statuta de Clarendone interdixerunt ex mandato Papae terram comitis Hugonis excommunicationem quam Dominus Papa in ipsum fecerat per suas parochias divulgaverunt sine licentia regis This however contracted in Hoveden 1165. and in Paris 1164. yet the difference is such as may deserve a remembrance It seems to me what our Kings claimed not to be altogether unlike the Exequatur of Naples observed to this day in that Kingdome notwithstanding all contests from Rome 74. Neither did the Crown ever relinquish this right not at the peace after Beckets death when Henry the 2. assented to quit no other then Consuetudines quae introductae sunt tempore suo which it is manifest this was not as appears by Eadmerus It is farther observable that by the common Laws that is the common Custome of this Realm the sentence of the Archbishop is valid in England and to be allowed in the Kings Courts though controuled by the Pope and to shew our Princes had no regard to anything of this nature from thence other then such a complying with a reverend Prelat as I have formerly mentioned did admit it may not here be unfitly inserted what Froissard writes of Edward the third with whom the Flemings joyned against the French upon which but I shall deliver it in his own words Adonc le Roy de Frances ' en complaignit au Pape Clement sixieme qui getta une sentence d' excommuniement si horible qu'il n' estoit nul prestre qui asast celebrer le divin service De quoy les Flamens envoyerent grande complainte au Roy d' Engleterre lequel pour les appaiser leur manda que la primiere fois qu'il rappasseroit la mer il leur ammeneroit des Prestres de son pais qui leur chanteroient la Messe vousist le Pape ou non â—ar il estoit bien privilegié de ce faire par ce moyen s' appaiserent les Flamens c. As for the priviledge here spoken of that can be no other then the obligation all Kings owe unto God for seeing his word sincerely taught them live under their protection without the disturbance of any 75. In which kind ours have been so far from yieldding obedience to the Papall attempts as Edward the first could not be induced to spare the life of one brought a Bull from the Pope might have made some disturbance but by his abjuring the Realm as his grandchild Edward the 3. did cause some to suffer for the same offence And on occasions our Kings have prohibited all entercourse with Rome denied their Bishops going thither so much as for confirmation but the Metropolitans if need were should by the Kings writ be charged to confirm them commanded their subjects not to rely on any should come from thence affirming quod in regnum nostrum nec propter negotium nostrum nec vestrum ullatenus intrabit ad terram nostram destruendam Yet notwithstanding so notorious a truth back't with so many circumstances grounded upon unquestioned monuments of antiquity hath not been received but the bare affirmation Christ by pasceoves meas intended Peter and by consequence the Pope to be the generall Pastor of the world and the meaning of those words to be that he should regio more imperare hath so far prevailed with some as to esteem the standing for the rights of the Kingdome the Laws and Customes of the Nation to be a departing from the Church Catholick and to esteem no lesse then Hereticks those who defending that which is their own from th' invasion of another will not suffer themselves to be led hood-winkt to think the preservation of their proper liberty is a leaving Christ his Church or the Catholick faith 76. I dare boldly say whoever will without partiality look back shall find the reverence yielded from this Church to Rome for more then a thousand years after Christ to have been no other then the respect of love not of duty and Popes rather to consulere then imperare their dictats to have been of the same nature the German Princes were of old auctoritatâ— suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate never requiring a necessity of obedience eo nomine that they came from Rome but for that they were just and reasonable neither did the Pope send any Agent hither to see them put in execution but th' Archbishop according to the exigent of times receiving his wholesome advises caused such as he held of them did conduce to the good of the English Church to be observed So Theodore received those of Pope Martin but did not them concerning Wilfred from Agatho When Alexander the 2. had exempted the Abbot of St. Edmunds-bury from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Norwich Lanfrank took the Act from the Abbot and Gregory the 7. is so far from using commands in the cause as he onely earnestly intreats the Archbishop he would stop the Bishop of Norwich from molesting the said Abbot yet himself as it seems did not restore the Bull of immunity to him during that Popes life but of this before In the year 1070. on the Kings desire in a Councell at Windsor Ageâ—â—icus Bishop of the South-Saxons is degraded and his Bishoprick confer'd on Stigandus Alexander the 2. not approving what had past writes
did the Papacy having gained the possession as I may term it of taxing impose these payments for one year onely upon forreign Churches as at first but for six successively one after the other So did Iohn the 21. in the year 1277. and Clement the 5. in the Councell of Vienna 1311. pretending an employment against the Infidells but procuring Princes to joyn with them in the collecting that it might be pay'd with more facility and therefore gave them either the whole or part of what was so raised from whence no doubt grew that proverb so full of infamy That the King and Pope were the Lion and Wolf did in the end as we have heard convert the treasure to the ransoming their friends the maintenance of their wars and such like mundane ends The French affirm the first of their Kings who shared with Rome in these levies to have been Charls le Bel about 1326. which if it were our Kings were before them but such as succeded knew there as well as elsewhere how to apply what was thus gather'd wholy to themselves wiping the Popes clean out and notwithstanding all complaints in that kind from Rome Duarenus observes the Crown of France to have none more certain or speedy revenue then that is thus raised of the Ecclesiasticks 14. But these exactions grew so burthensome Martin the 5 th at the Councell of Constance 1417. was constrained to establish Nullatenus imponantur generaliter super totum clerum nisi ex magna ardua causa utilitate universalem Ecclesiam concernente de consilio consensu subscriptione fratrum nostrorum sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalium Praelatorum quorum consilium commode haberi poterit nec specialiter in aliquo regno vel provincia inconsultis praelatis ipsius regni vel provinciae c. Upon which Decree a supply of the Tenth being twice demanded viz. 1515 and 1518. by Leo the x th against the Turk th' English Clergy denyed them both times Thus the Papacy by little and little gained in England the power of sometimes laying that Tax on Church-men is to this day known by the name of a Tenth which became limited as we have seen and after by statute the 26. Hen. 8 th transfer'd to the King to be pay'd annually unto him as were likewise the First fruits or profits of one year commonly called Annats for I take them to be the same of all spirituall livings of which a word 15. The first raising of them seemeth to have been that when the Court of Rome did confer on Clerks and Chaplains residing with them benefices in the Dioceses of others they who thus obtained from that Chair not onely the Spirituall of Ordination but likewise the Temporall of Profit did at first either to shew their gratitude or for that the Pope would have it so voluntarily give the whole or some part of the first years revenue to the Court by whose favour they received all and the Papacy perceiving the gain did thus accrue laboured to extend it farther was in some sort imitated by other Bishops and for avoyding the shew of Simony cover'd what was thus took with the names of Annates Vacantiae Minuta servitia Scripturae and such like But as St. Gregory tolerating onely a liberality to be given after the reception of the Pall his successors knew how to turn it to a revenue so these however at first begun did afterwards become anâ—ually a profit What others did in this kind is not necessary to that I treat of but upon the practice of the Church of Rome the 25. Ed. 3. the Commons exhibit this petition to the King Prie sa Commune c. de veer regarder c. d'Engleterre Provendres en Esglises Cathedralles les donne si bien as Aliens come as Denezeins issint ad le Pape toutz les primers fruicts des dits benefices By which it appeares the Papacy that formerly took the first-fruits of onely such livings as men dyed possest of in the Court of Rome had an intent of extending them to all were de Patronage espiritel but whether an active King stopt upon this the endeavours of that See or the Popes wise men thought it not â—it to make too sodain an irruption into the profits of other Churches is not greatly materiall but 25. years after the Commons again represent the Popes Collector Ore de novel cest an nele prest unqes devant al oeps du Pape les primiers fruitz de chesâ—un benefice dont il fait provision ou collation except de graces grantez aux povres ou il ne soleit prendre nulles fruictes â—orsqe soulement des beneficez vacantz en la Court de Rome 16. But in whose time these first-fruits began to be taken there seems to me some difference amongst writers Theodoricus à Niem who lived in the Court of Rome Secretary as some write to Gregory the xi or rather as it seems to me of Vrban the vi sayes Boniface the ix circa decimum annum sui regiminis viz. 1399. primos fructus unius anni omnium Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Abbatiarum vacantium suae camerae reservavit it a quod quicunque extunc per eum promoveri voluit ante omnia cogebatur solvere primos fructus ecclesiae vel monasterii cui praefici voluit c. With whom Platina agrees Annatarum usum primus imposuit Bonifacius ix hac conditione ut qui beneficium consequeretur dimidum annui proventus fisco Apostolico persolverent sunt tamen qui hoc inventum Iohanni xxii ascribunt c. The same likewise Polidore Virgil affirms though he speak as if some thought them of an higher time which under favour I do not credit for Nicholaus Clemanges in the treatise he writ concerning them saith that when such reservations fell into consideration in the Councell of Constance he lived whilst it â—ate no beginning could be assigned before Iohn the xxii began them pro certo passagio ultramarino quibusdam aliis necessitatibus suis. To which I may adde the opinion of the wise and learned Cardinall d'Ossat Iâ—han xxii François de nation dont il me deplaist fust le primier que outre les taxes Annates qu'il inventa c. And Ranulphus Cestrensis one of that time saith of him Beneficiorum per mortem seu resignationem vacantium sive per translationem primos fructus reservavit ita ut Rector iustitutus taxationem beneficii sui aut residuum taxationis acceptaret ex qua cautela innumerabiles thesauri ad manus Papae devenerunt c. and Knighton himself reservavit curiae omnes primos fructus vacantium Ecclesiarum sive per mortem sive per resignationem c. Walsingham 1316. Summus Pontifex reservavit camerae suae primos fructus beneficiorum omnium in Anglia per trienntum
vacantium which not occurring of any Pope before I cannot ascribe other to have begun them then he who though in a bull dated the 5. Ianuary 4. Pontificatus he mention Fructus redditus proventus primi anni beneficiorum yet by the doubts he there resolves shews the practice of them then newly brought into the Church But whereas the writers before-named agree the English of all Nations never received in this the full extent of the Papall commands I conceive it to arise from the good Laws they made against them of which before and after 17. It is hardly credible how great a masse of treasure was by these wayes sent hence into Italy The revenues th' Italians were possest of in England 1245. are accounted not lesse then 60. thousand Marks 1252. it was thought they did amount to 70. thousand all which for the most drained thither and in the Parliament held about an hundred years after the Commons shew what went hence to the Court of Rome tourne a plus grand destruction du Royalme qe toute la guerre nostre Seigr. le Roy yet notwithstanding so many statutes as were made by that Prince for moderating the excesses in this kind the 50 th they complain I shall give it contractedly the Popes collectâ—r here held a receipt equall to a Prince or Duke sent annually to Rome from the Clergy for Procuration of Albeys Priories First-fruits c. xx thousand Marks some years more others lesse and to Cardinalls and other Clerks beneficed in England as much besides what was conveyed to English Clerks remaining there to sollicite the affairs of the Nation upon which they desire his Ma â—y no collector of the Pope may reside in England 18. But the King as it seems not greatly complying with their desires the year following they again instance that certain Cardinalls notorious enemies had procured a clause d'anteferri to certain benefices within the Provinces of Canterbury and York that the Popes Collector was as very an enemy to this State as the French themselves that his house-keeping here at the Clergies cost was not lesse then 300l. by the year that he sent annually from hence beyond Seas at one time 20 thousand marks sometimes 20. thousand pounds and what was worse espyed the secrets of the Kingdome vacations of benefices and so dayly made the certainty known to the said Court did now raise for the Pope the first-fruits of all dignities and other smaller promotions causing by oath to pay the true value of them surmounting the rate they were formerly taxed at which now in the very beginning ought to be crusht c. Vpon which considerations they desire all strangâ—rs Clerks and others excepting Knights Esquires Merchants Artificers might sodainly avoid the Kingdom no subjects without the Kings expresse licence to be Proctors Aturneys Fâ—rmors to any such Alyen under the pain after Proclamation made of life member losse of lands and goods and to be dealt with as theeves and robbers no mony during the wars to be transported out of the Kingdom by exchange or otherwise on the forfeiture of it But to this the answer onely was Setiegnent les estatutz ordonances ent faites Whereupon the next Parliament the Commons prefer'd again three Petitions touching I. The paiment of First-fruits taken come due a la chambre nostre seint Pere yet not used in the Realme before these times was contrary to former treaties with the Pope c. II. Reservations of benefiâ—es III. By that way bestowing them on Alyens who sundry times employed the profits of them towards the raunsoming or araying their friends enemies to the King Of all which they desire his Ma ty to provide remedy as also that the Petitions the two last Parliaments of which before might be consider'd and convenient remedy ordained To which the answer is Les Seig rs du grand conseil ordeigneront due remedie sur les matires comprises enâ—estes trois billes precedentes And here I take the grand Councell to be the Privy Councell not the Lords in or out of Parliament called the grand Councell for the greatnesse of the affairs fell within their cognizance and named the 5. of Hen. the 4. to consist onely of six Bishops one Duke two Earls and other in all to the number of 22. 19. What order they establisht I have not met with it is manifest not to have been such as gave the satisfaction hoped for by the Commons renewing in effect both 3 o. and 5 to Ric. 2. the same suites and the inconveniences still continuing in the year 1386 7. 10. Ric. 2. William Weld was chosen Abbot of S. Augustins in the place of Michael newly dead who troubled with a quartan ague the French and Dutch on the seas the King inhibited his going to Rome for confirmation c. He thereupon employs William Thorn from whose pen we have the relation hoping to be excused himself of the journey who shewing the sufferings of the house the miserable state he must leave it in that he would expose it irrecuperabili casui ruinae that the King had commanded his stay was in the end told by the Pope after all means he could use Rex tuus praecipit quod non veniat electus ille Ego volo quod compareat examini se subjiciat and again after yet more earnest sollicitation quia audivimus turbationem inter Regem Barones suos the fittest time to contest with a prince multa sinistra de persona electi quod cederet Romanae ecclesiae in praejudicium absque personali comparitione non intendimus ipsum confirmare ne daretur posteris in exemplum The cause hanging three years in suspense the Abbot in fine was forced to appear in Rome for his benediction and returned with it not to his house till about the end of March 1389. the 12. Ric. 2. After which the next Parliament obtained the statute of Premunire against the Popes conferring any Benefice within the said Kingdome from the 29 of Ianuary then ensuing and no person to send or bring any summons or sentence of excommunication against any for the execution of the same law on the pain of being arrested put in prison forfeiture of his lands tenements c. and incurring the pain of life member c. The intent of which law Polidor Virgil rightly interprets to have been a confining the Papall auctority within the Ocean and for the frequent exactions of Rome ut nulli mortalium deinceps liceret pro quavis causa agere apud Romanum Pontificem ut quispiam in Anglia ejus autoritate impius religionisque hostis publice declararetur neve exequi tale mandatum si quod ab illo haberet c. To which law three years after some other additions were made and none of these were ever repealed by Queen Mary who though she did admit a union with the
elsewhere advises Rufus unto Conemur una tu regia potestate ego Pontificali authoritate quatenus tale quid inde statuatur quod cum per totum fuerit regnum divulgatum solo etiam auditu quicunque illius fautor est paveat deprimatur I can take this for no other but that in the laws of Ethclstan Debent episcopicum seculi judicibus interesse judiciis ne permittant si possint ut aliqua pravitatum germina pullulaverint And the laws of Henry the first are expresse the use to have continued in his daies for they approve the ancient institution That generalia Comitatuum placita certis locis vicibus convenire debere That the Iudges in those Courts were Episcopi Comites Vicedomini c. The causes they dealt in and order of proceeding agantur primo debita verae Christianitatis jura secundo Regis placita postremo causae singulorum c. And why may not certa loca here be what Anselme calls Parochia the Conqueror Hundred 10. But good laws are not alwaies suddenly put in execution and this of the Conqueror we may take to have slept till towards the beginning of King Stephen's time it had got some strength for then we meet with plain precedents of the Ecclesiastick Courts being sever'd from the Lay. Theobald of Canterbury molesting the monastery of St. Augustines concerning certain Priviledges granted from the Papacy th' Abbot obtained a bull from Innocentius 2. of the 20 November 1139. in his houses favour in which the Pope expostulates with th' Archbishop quod occasione privilegii nostri idem monasterium vehementer infestas ecclesias eidem coenobio pertinentes eundem abbatem ordinare non sines quin potius violent a dominatione ecclesias eorum firmatas diceris infregisse presbyteros tous invito Abbate ejusdem loci fratribus contra Romanae ecclesiae privilegia quibus idem coenobium est munitum in eis ponere praesumpsisse nec his contentus abbatem ipsum homines ejus ad placitandum super hoc in curiam tuam prout asserunt praesumptuose traxisti eisque ob eam rem poeuam molieris infligere c. 11. VVilliam Thorne who mentions this 1139. 4. Steph. observes which is warranted by the bull it self quod iste Theobaldus primo Abbatem conventum ad causas trahere conatus est and is the first I have noted in which th' Ecclesiasticks alone did force men to plead in their Courts which as it doth prove they then had them so we may conclude them not long to have been possest of that power for it is altogether improbable if that act of King VVilliam had been in his and his sonns time generally practic 't but some Archbishop in above fifty years might have attempted as much if not to the Abbot at least to some other as after this the examples are frequent of which one in the 122 epistle of Iohannes Sarisburiensis is not unworthy the remembring Symphorian a Clergy-man of York accused one Osbert Archdeacon of the same Church before king Stephen the Bishops and Lords 1154. for making away VVilliam the late Archbishop of that See by poyson A question grew to whether Court this cause belonged The King affirmed it to belong to the temporall for the heynousness of the fact and because it was first entred upon in his presence But before the decision Stephen dyed and Henry the 2. succeeded de cujus manibus saith my Author vix cum summa difficultate in manu valida cum indignatione Regis omnium procerum jam dictam causam ad examen ecclesiasticum revocavimus from whence it was by Appeal carryed to Rome 12. But what this manus valida should be that took the case from the King I cannot imagine for it is undoubted in all disputes of this nature the Kings Courts have been ever Iudges to what Court the cause did belong Bracton speaks very clearly Iudex ecclesiasticus cum prohibitionem à Rege susceperit supersedere debet in omnicasu saltem donec constiterit in curia Regis ad quem pertineatat jurisdictio quia si Iudex Ecclesiasticus aestimare possit an sua esset jurisdictio in omni casu indifferenter procederet non obstante regia prohibitione c. and 1080 VVilliam the first in a Councell at Illebon in Normandy by th' advise of both estates Ecclesiastick and Secular did settle many particulars to belong to the cognizance of the spirituall Iudge and concludes that if any thing were further claimed by them they should not enter upon it donec in curia Regis monstrent quod habere debeant Neither were the Lay to molest them in the exercise of ought there mentioned Donec in curia Regis monstrent quod Episcopi inde habere non debeant So in both reserving the decision to his own Courts of what pertained to each in so much as what that strong hand should be did thus take this from the King I must prosesse not to understand And that our Kings had ever an inspection over those Courts is not to be doubted by the Charge against Becket in which Henry the 2. urgeth quod cuidam Iohanni coram ipso litiganti plenam justitiam non exhibuit super hoc ad Regis praesentiam vocatus venire contempsit To which th' Archbishop answered praefato Iohanni condignam non defuisse justitiam Iohannem non legaliter curiam suam infamasse qui non super evangelium ut moris est sed super veterem cantuum codicillum quem secum tuler at voluerit pejer are c. and for his not attending the King to give him satisfaction in the point pleaded th' excuse of sicknesse yet for that contempt was adjudged to loose his moveables By which it is evident th' Archbishop did then exact oaths of such as were called into his Court that he was to give an account to the King of his carriage in it who by his constitutions hath ever directed the manner of proceedings in it See Mat. Paris Anno 1247. pag. 727 29. Anno 1246. pag. 716. 1. But of this more hereafter 13. The Conqueror though he did shew so much complyance with the Romanist as not to deny any thing former Kings had acknowledged to the Papacy as due yet farther then they had gone would in nothing submit unto it and as they had by their edicts guided the ecclesiastick affaires of this kingdome so he proceeded in his lawes à l gibus sanctae matris Ecclesiae sumens exordium as did his sonne Henry the 1. How far they did conceive this their power to extend in those to matters nothing can better teach us then the lawes they and such as came after them princes against whom no exceptions can lye establisht and usages they maintained as the rights of the Kingdome in opposition of all encroachments whatsoever 14. To enumerate all these Priviledges I conceive them
with our auncestors better called Rights I hold impossible the foundation or ground upon which they are built being that power the divine wisdome hath invested the secular Magistrate with for preservation of his Church and people in peace against all emergencies from whomsoever proceeding as the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury writ to Thomas Becket 1167. Rex à Domino constitutus paci providet subjectorum per omnia ut hanc conservet Ecclesiis commissis sibi populis dignitates Regibus ante se debitas exhibitas sibi vult exhiberi And this issuing from so great auctority as in effect the body of all the Clergy of the realm cannot be imagined to be other then the constant opinion of th' English Church In what these Rights have been put in practise in opposition to Rome of which I now treat may in some sort be told but to say these they are and no other is that I mean cannot be So that we may say the affirmative these they are but not the negative others they are not Therefore Eadmerus will have it of the Conquerour that Cuncta divina simul humana ejus nutum expectabant that is in foro exteriori insomuch as when the Clergy 1530. gave the King the title of Head of the Church they intended no other then their fore-fathers when they called him the Defender Patron governor Tutor of it 15. Which the French do attribute to their Kings with more hard expressions Ce que monstre says one que les evesques de ce temps la estimerent le Roy assistè de son conseil d' estat estre apres Dieu Chef terrien de l' Esglise de son Royaume non pas le Pape in the negative Which another explains thus Ce n'est point pour cela que je vueille dire ce que aucuns ount trop indistinctement proferè que les dits Roys Princes Souveraignes soient en leurs estats privativement à tous autres Chefs uniques absolus de l' Esglise de tous les minister d' icelle car pour lereguard de ce que concerne le maniement des choses purement sacrees come l' administration de la parole de Dieu des Sacrements la puissance de lier ou delier voire de regler en particulier le dedans de chacune Esglise la sur-intendance en appartient aux Evesques autres Chefs de la Hierarchie Ecclesiastique a chascun selon leur rang degrâ— Then shewing by a comparison that as the head-Architect leaves to his inferior Agents the use of such instruments as are proper for their undertakings so il n' appartient poynt au Roy de manier les choses sacrees ny supporter comme l' on dit l' arche d' alliance ils doivent laisser cela a ceux de la vocation mais ils peuvent voire soâ—â— tenuz devant Dieu veiller sans cesse avoir l' oeil ouvert a ce que ceux de cest ordre profession principale aussi bien que ceux des autres moindres apportent enloyaute sain conscience tout soin diligence purete sincerite au maniement des charges a eux commises conformement a leur loix regles canons lesquels au cas qu' ils serroient negligez â—ffacez par la rouille de l' antiquite ou que par la malice des hommes il fust besoign d' enfaire des noveaux ils sont tenu user de leur puissance pourn y sapporter des remedes soit par leur Ordonances pragmatiques soit par leurs jugements arrests executions d' iceux e'est ce qu'en France nos predecesseurs ont tousjours appelle la police exterieure sur l' Esglise de la quelle les Empereurs Roys Princes on t use jouy sans contredit tant que l' esglise s'est conservee en sapurete qu' aucuns d' icelle ne se sont ingerez sortants de leurs bornes l. miles d' usurper les functions Royales Insomuch as Benigne Miletot doth not onely affirm their Kings to be Chess Protecteurs Conservateurs de leur esglise Gallicane but pag. 657. recites a speech of th' Archbishop of Vienna made to Henry the 4. 1605. in which he did affirm que le Roy estcit le Coeur la Teste de l. ur corps 16. And other Headship then this I do not know to have been ever attributed to any of our Princes Certainly they did never take on them the exercise of any thing purely sacred but as supream Head Rulers or Governours under God by their Commissioners of which such as bare most sway were ever the Spirituality to visit reform redresse c. all errours Heresies schisms abuses c. And for that the rust of antiquity as that authour styles it had much over-spread the Canons of the Church to assigne sixteen of the Clergy whereof four to be Bishops and as many of the Lay of which four to be learned in the Common laws of this realme to peruse and examineth ' ecclesiasticall laws of long time here used and to gather order and compile such laws ecclesiasticall as shall be thought to his Majesty his said Counsell and them or the more part of them to be practised and set forth within this realme In pursuance of which the 11. November 5 to of Edward the 6. he nominated two Bishops two Divines two Doctours of the Law two Esquires to supervise the ecclesiastick laws of this Kingdome and to compile such a body as were fit to be put in practise within his Dominions whose intendments for it past no further were after printed by Iohn Day 1571. and are no other then what the French for the manner of doing maintain their King might do neither doth th' Inquisition of Spain publish any thing of that nature without th' allowance of their King as I shall shew hereafter 17. So that in my opinion the question cannot be whether Princes are not capable of such a Right but whether it were invested in the Crown formerly and made good by such a continued practise as might authorise ours to take that title when offered by the Clergy 1530. as well as the French Kings have without incroaching on that power th' ecclesiasticks had and by our laws ought to exercise in England Now certain our Kings did in many things go along with the French in causes ecclesiasticall Rex Anglorum exemplum accipiens ab illis Baronibus qui sua statuta sanxerunt in Francia quibus Dominus Francorum favorem jam praebuit sigillum apposuit c. Clement the 7. being held prisoner 1527. by th' Emperour the 18 th of August Cardinall Woolsy made an agreement with the French for setling â—h ' ecclesiastick government of each Kingdome during the Popes captivity For the French I shall remit the reader to the Deed
all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury both to the Pope and Becket enough assure us how undoubted it was in those dayes that our Kings following the advise of the English Church did proceed on safe grounds for their justification in such quarrells 6. Neither was the opinion returned by these Divines so differing from the writings of other learned men as might make them any way guilty of schism Gerson speaking of the severall degrees of Divine truths places for the first such as are expresse in Scripture secondly those that are by evident consequence deduced from thence thirdly such as being delivered by Christ have been by the constant tradition of the Church derived to us of which he holds this proposition Vniversalis Ecclesia Pontifici Romano subjecta sit and adds non enim posset evidenter aut per consequentiam pure de fide ex legibus primi generis humana deductione fulciri c. and Contarenus in a small tract de potestate Pontificis of that question sayes An Auctoritas illa potestas qua Pontifex maximus fungitur sit ei consensu quodam hominis tributa an potius divinitus tradita qua de re hisce temporibus maximos tumultus excitatos esse perspicimus nec etiam veriti sint viri in omni disciplinarum genere celebres ac in Christianae Theologiae studio illustres in magno hominum conventu asserere hoc jus Pontificis humanume esse then adds that he ab horum hominum sententia maxime dissentire ac prope compertum habere divinitus concessum esse Pontifici jus illud c. So that this learned Cardinall was not altogether resolved in the point but as a disputable question had it prope compertum The truth of which I leave him to dispute with the Orientall Christians It is manifest Francis the first was of the contrary judgement and our Countryman Stapleton delivers it as a Catholick tenet of former times undoubtedly agreeing with that of the English Church non divino sed humano jure positivis ecclesiae decretis primatum Romani Pontificis niti c. 7. But I return to our King who now fortifyed by the opinion of the Universities publick disputations in the convocation and severall precedents of former Princes his predecessors in his rights whereas the Parliament before in some particulars restrained the profits of Rome as in the payments of Annates Peter-pence making Appeals to it whose beginnings with us I have formerly noted did the 26. Hen. 8. 1533 declare his Maty his heirs and successors Kings of this realm shall have full power auctority from tyme to tyme to visit represse redresse c. all such errors heresies abuses c. which by any manner spirituall authority or jurisdiction may be lawfully reformed repressed ordered redressed c. This the Court of Rome interpreted a falling off from the Church and the English no other then a declaration of that right had ever resided in the Crown and which I believe it will be a difficult task to disprove them in 8. For those two articles Paulus 3. accuses the King of as Hereticall and schismaticall viz. quod Romanus Pontifex caput ecclesiae Christi vicarius non erat quod ipse in Anglica ecclesia supremum caput existebat c. for the first I never heard it affirmed by the King in that generality the words import for the Pope is a temporall prince as well as a spirituall father and so far as I know he never denyed him to be the head of the Church of his own dominions nor of France and Spain c. if those Kingdomes will admit him to so great a preeminence the thing he onely stood upon is that he was not so instituted by Christ Universall Bishop and had alone from him such an omnipotency of power as made him absolute Monarch in effect of the universall Church and was so in England For his being vicar of Christ in that sense other Bishops may be said to be his vicegerents as before I do not see how it can be well denyed him but that this Vicarship did import the giving him that power he did then exercise here is what the Church of England hath ever constantly denied As for the Kings being Head of Church I have before shewed he neither took it nor the Parliament gave it in other sense then the French have alwayes attributed it to their Princes neither for ought I find was it so much sought by King Henry as prest on him by the Clergy of which the Bishop of Rochester was one that subscribâ—d to it and his Ancestors did the same things before he did after under the names of Protectors Tutors Christi vicarii Domini Agricolae c. 9. For the other particulars mentioned in the Bull as his beheading the Bishop or Cardinall of Rochester the burning of Beckets bones the taking the treasure and ornaments at his Shrine to which may be added the suppressing and converting into Lay hands the Monasteries of the Kingdome I shall not say much having not taken on me to defend that Princes actions Yet for the taking off the head of Rochester if he were convict of treason I must give the answer of Edward the 3. to the Clergy in that kind en droict de Clerks convictz de treason purceo qe le Roy toutz ses progenitors ount este seisis tut temps de faire jugement execution de Clercz convictz de treson devers le Roy sa Royale Mageste come de droict de la corone si est avis au Roy qe la ley en tien cas ne se poet changer and then he cannot be said to have dyed other wise then by law As for the goods and ornaments of Churches by him layd hold on it is certain his predecessors in their extremities had shew'd him the way as the Conquerour who took all the ready money was found in Religious houses Richard the first who took all to the very Chalices of Churches and yet th' Archbishop afterwards regio munimine septus universos monachorum to wit of Christ Church redditus oblationes tumbae beati martyris Thomae fecit saisiari in manu Regis and Edward the first 1296 fecit omnia regni monasteria perscrutari pecuniam inventam Londonias apportari fecitque lanas corias arrestari c. And in those dayes Bishops did tell Kings The saurus ecclesiae vester est nec absque vestra conscientia debuit amoveri to which the King verum est The saurus noster est ad defensionem terrae contra hostes peregrinos c. And perhaps it would be no hard labour to shew all Princes not onely here but elsewhere to have had how justly I will not determine a like persuasion And he then being excommunicated by Paulus 3. for maintaining what the Crown had ever been in
eam conspurcare sit nefas 8. This Letter received about the beginning of the Parliament which met the 24. of November 1548. may have been the cause of deferring th' exhibition of it to the House of Commons till the 19. December 1548. when the consideration of it was referred to Sr Thomas Smith his Maties Secretary and a very learned Knight who returned it back again the 19. Ianuary having kept it by him a full moneth after which it was expedited and printed in March following and the 6th of April 1549. the Mass by Proclamation removed But this book was not so perfect as it yielded no exceptions whether just or not I shall not hear examine I know learned men have judged variously it shall suffice me to say it was again revised by Bucer a great patron of Discipline and Martyr both in England and reprinted 1552. and to ought in or of this second edition during King Edwards reign I have not heard any Protestant did ever except 9. In Queen Maries time divers learned men retired from the heat of Persecution and by the favour of the Magistrate permitted a Church 1554. at Frankford laboured to retain this Liturgy whom Knox VVhittingham and some others opposed so far as one Haddon desired to be their Pastor excused himself and Mr. Chambers coming for that end from Zurick finding it would not be allowed retired back again and xvi learned men then at Strasburgh amongst which this Haddon Sandis afterward Archbishop of York Grindall of Canterbury Christopher Goodman famous for his book of Obedience remonstrated unto them That by much altering the said book they should seem to condemn the framers now ready with the price of their bloud to confirm it should give their adversaries occasion to accuse their doctrine of imperfection themselves of mutability and the Godly to doubt of what they had been perswaded that the use of it permitted they would joyn with them by the first of February their Letter bearing date the 23. of November 1554. 10. But nothing could move them to be like Saint Paul all things to all that he might gain some or relent any thing of their former rigour onely a Type of it drawn into Latine was sent to Calvin for his judgement who returned an answer the 18. Ianuary 1554 5. somewhat resembling the Delphick oracles That the book did not contein the purity was to be wisht that there were in it ineptias yet tolerabiles that as he would not have them be ultra modum rigidos so he did admonish others ne sibi in sua inscitia nimis placeant c. And here I cannot deny to have sometime wondred why in these disputes the opinion of Peter Martyr then at Strasburgh a person for learning no lesse eminent was never required but I have since heard him to have been alwayes a profest patron of it as one by whose care and privity it had been reformed 11. Whilst matters went thus in Germany certain learned men at Geneva were composing a Form for the use of the English Church there which 1556. was printed by Crispin with this title Ratio forma publice orandi Deum atque administrandi Sacramenta c. in Anglorum ecclesiam quae Genevae colligitur recepta cum judicio comprobatione D. Iohannis Calvini But this did not satisfy all for Mr. Lever coming to Frankford to be their Minister requested they would trust him to use such an order as should be godly yet without any respect to the book of Geneva or any other But his endeavours were soon rejected as not fit for a right reformed Church and the book it self hath received since sundry changes from that first type 12. In this posture Queen Elizabeth found the Church the Protestant party abroad opposing the book of Common prayer few varying in judgement not at unity with themselves nor well agreeing what they would submit unto She hereupon caused it to be again revised by certain moderate and learned men who took a great care for removing all things really lyable to exception and therefore where Henry the 8. had caused to be inserted into the Letany to be delivered from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome all his detestable enormities which remained all King Edwards time this as what might give offence to that party was thought fit to be strook out and where in the delivery of the Eucharist the first book of Ed. the 6. had onely this clause The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life and at the giving of the Cup no other then The bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life and the second book which was in force at his death had removed those two clauses and instead of them inserted Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving and accordingly at the delivery of the Cup from whence some might and perhaps did infer the faithfull Receiver not to have a real communication of Christs body in taking the Sacrament but onely a remembrance of his sufferings it was now thought fit both expressions should be retained that no man might have any just cause of scandall for be Christs presence never so reall even by Transubstantiation in the holy Sacrament we may upon Saint Pauls warrant do it in remembrance of him Thus at the first of her reign matters in religion past with so great moderation as it is not to be denyed very few or none of the Romish inclination if they did at any time go to Mass refused to be present in our Churches during the time of Divine Service But of another thing that likewise past at the same time it will be necessary to make some more particular mention CHAP. VIII How Queen Elizabeth settled in this Kingdome the proceeding against Hereticks 1 ANother particular no small argument of the Queens disposition fell into consideration this Parliament Her Sister had revived all the laws of former Princes against Hereticks even that of Hen. the 4. which her Father had on weighty considerations repealed and all proceedings against them till they came to their very execution pertaining to the Ecclesiastick how to find a means to preserve her subjects and yet not leave a license to every old heresy new invention fanatick spirit to ruffle the Church and trouble the world was a matter of no small difficulty But for the better understanding of what then past it will be requisite to consider how the condemning of Heresy and proceeding against Hereticks hath been both here and elsewhere how her Maty found it abroad in the Christian world and at home how thereupon she settled it 2. The words Heresy and Heretick were in the primitive Church not alwayes of so ill a sound as these later Ages have made
2. verbo praeterea n De auctor usu Pallii cap. 3. Vid. concil Lateranense sub Innocentio 30. cap. 3. o Eadmer pag. 22 19. p Ibid. pag. 6 46. pag. 23 31. pag. 111 6 18 32. q Ibid. pag. 23 42. p. 111 32. passim apud Historicos r De jurejurando cap. 4. s Mat. Paris Vit. Abbat pag. 140 31. t Mat. Paris Hist. major pag. 410 39. u Vit. Abbat pag. 140 39. x Ibid. pag. 141 49. y Ibid. pag. 142 1. z Mat. Par. Vit. Abbat pag. 133 23. pag. 141 52 56. ⸫ Sess. 25. cap. 2. a Vitae Abbat St. Albani MS. in Iohanne 3. Abbate 25. b Wmus Thorn col 1899 22. c Ibid. col 1880 3. d Acts xx 17 to the end e Cap. 5. tom 1. Concil f Novel 123. cap. 10. g Baron to 9. Ann. 743. n. 19. * Capit. Car. c. lib. vii cap. 108 109. h Concil Spelm. pag. 237 238. i Confer Concil Spelm p. 238 §. ut Episcopi p. 251 cap. 25. k Eadmer pag. 113 2. l tom 4. Concil gen Rom. m cap. 26. Concil Lateran n Mat. Paris Ann. 1257. pag. 951. 41 44. o pag. 956 7. p Reynald Annal. Eccles. to 14. Ann. 1257. n. 50. * Monasticon Anglicanum pag. 296. col 1. q Vitae Abbat MS. r Mat. Paris pag. 972 51. s W m Thorn col 2185. sequent col 2153 46. t card Ossat Epist. 296. Rom. 22 Decembr 1601. u Cypr. Epist. 68. n. 4. edit Pamelii x Epist. 110. y Cap. 13. * turbis apud Gratianum Dist. 63 cap. 6. * Milevis z August Epist. 110. a Leo Epist. 89 cap. 5. b Caroli Magni Capit. lib. 1. cap. 84. c Lib. 2. Epist. 26. Ind. 10. Epist. 22 26. Ind. 11. alibi d Vide continuat Flor. Wigorn. Ann. 1128. p. 506. Ann. 1139. pag. 532. e Ailred de miraculis Edwardi col 406. 37. f Epist. Edwardi 3. apud Walsingh pag. 151. 42. Ann. 1343. g Rot. Parl. 50. Ed. 3. n. 94. h Ibid. n. 111. i Additament Mat. Paris MS. in Bibliotheca Çotton fol. 135 a. cui initium Dicturus c. of which hereafter k A Willielmo Lanfrancus electus est Malms fol. 116 b. 38. Rex constituit Lanfrancum Archiepiscopum Cant. Florent Wigor p. 436. Ann. 1070. Sim. Dunelm col 202 6. l Eadmeâ— p. 6 41. m Vide ibid. p. 16 48. p. 17 18. n Ibid. p. 109 40. c. o Hunt lib. 7. fol. 219 a. 1. p Apud Eadmer pag. 93 42. q Ann. 1175 col 587 21. r Vide eas apud Malmsburiensem fol. 118 a. 32. s Lanfranc Epist. 3. pag. 301. t Stubs de Arch. Ebor. col 1706 31 u Eadmer p. 118 5 15. * Eadmer p. 120 50. p. 121 6. y Eadmer pag. 125. z Sim. Dunelm Ann. 1120. col 242 25. a Eadmer pag. 136 43. b Beda lib. 4. cap. 1. Note Malmsbury fol. 26. a. â—3 says this was Ann. 904. but that agrees not with Formosus his Popedome Baronius therefore corrects it to 10. and makes Ann. 894. n. 11. but at that time Edward was not King c Flor. Wigorn p. 47â— d Eadmer pag 92 14. e supra n. 20. f Hoc per literas olini mandaverat Eadmer g Eadmer pag. 113. pag. 115. h Diceto col 506 507. i Vide Iohan. Hagulstad ab Ann. 1142. ad Ann. 1152. ⸫ Bernard Epist. 106 234 235 237 238. k Iohan. Hagulst col 276 8. l Mat. Paris Ann. 1207. pag. 222 40. m Diceto col 507 53. 508 20. * Mat. Paris Ann. 1206 p. 214 44. n Tulla Gregor 9. apud Mat. Paris Ann. 1229. pag. 355 46. o Mat. Paris pag. 355 44. p Additament Mat. Paris MS. in Bibliotheca Cotton sol 135. cui initium Dicturus quod injunctum est mihi q Mat. Paris Hist. minor Ann. 1252. pag. 287. fol. 143. b. col 1. MS. in Bibliotheca Regia Westmonast r Roger Hoved fol. 453. b. 39. 454. b. 2. Gervas Dorobern col 1682 27. in vitâ Huber s In antiquo MS. Bullarum Romanorum Pontificum Archiepisc Cant. Pulla 〈◊〉 Honor. 3. ⸫ 26. Febr. 12â—1 t In eodem MS. Gregor 9. Bulla 3. ⸫ April 17 Ann. 1230. u Mat. Pariss p. 371 18. x Mat Paris Ann 1241. pâ— 549 18 22â— c. y Idem Annâ— 1240 p. 5329 43. z Apud Mat. Paris p. 6â—7 36. a cap. 4. n. 17. b Mat. Paris Ann. 1246. pag. 6â—9 9. c Cardinal Ossat Epist. 296. dâ—t Rom 1601. Decembr 2â— d Rot. Parl. 3. R. 2. n. 37. e W m Thorn 2082 2. sequent vide Walsingham Ann. 1374. pag. 184 1. Thorn Ann. 1373. col 2187 57. See the History of Nicholaus de Spyna resigning the Abby of St. Augustins and on his nominating him Thomas Fyndon prefer'd to be Abbot thereby Martin the 4. who on the receipt of the Papall Bulls acquainted Edward the 1. with what had past at Rome himself being in England yet by command the house was seized into the Kings hand and he at the Parliament held at Acton Burnell fined at 400. marks pro eo quod sic fuerat creatus in Abbatem licentia Domini Regis minime petita Thorn Col. 1939 1. 1934. f Fide varias lectiones ad col 2117. 54. quae vero ibi debent interseri pertinent ad Hist. de qua hic agitur col 2082. g Hen. Knighton col 2601. 37 49. h Rot. Parl. octav Pâ—rif 25. Ed. 3. n. 13. See the words of the peition cap. 4. n. 15. i Walsing hist. 1374. pag. 184 6. Rot. parl 1. R. 2. n. 66. Thorn 1373. col 2187 58. k Rot. Parl. 50. Ed. 3. n. 110 115. * Gregory 11. k â— Ric. 2. cap. 3. 7. Ric. 2. cap. 12. l Christi vicarii sacerdotes sunt qui vice Christi legatione funguntur in Ecclesia Eusebii Papae Epist 3. to 1. Concil Electum à Fratribus Christi Vicariâ—m suscipiant scil in Abbatem Hydensium leges ab â—dgaro cap. 15. Concil Spelm. pag. 440. quis locus poterit esse tutus si rabies sancta sanctorum cruentat Vicarios Christi alumnos Ecclesiae dilacerat Epist. W i Senonensis apud Hoved Ann. 1171. fol. 299. b. 32. de marie Thomae Archiepiscopi m Gervas Dorobern col 1422 18. Hoved fol. 303. a. 1. Ann. 1172. n Iohan. Sarisbur Epist. 279. p. 483. ⸫ Epist. Hen Chichly in vita ejus pag. 79. o Fitz. Excommengement 4 6 10. p â—ide Hoveden fol. 284. b. 23. q Ex antiquo MS. r â—oram Hoveden s pag. 103 43. t Girolamo Catena vita di Pio 5 to pag. 96 97. 98 100. in 8 vo Romae 1587. Adriani Hist. lib. 19. pag. 1378. A. u Ger. Dorobern col 1422 50. x pag. 6. y 2. H. 4. Accion sur le case 25. Fitz. * 31. Ed. 3. Excommengement 6. z Froissard to 1 cap. 47. pag. 58. Gall. * Benedictus xii Iacobus Meierus Anâ—al Flandr Ann. 1 40. fol. 141 a. a Assise lib. 30.