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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26737	The ancient liberty of the Britannick church, and the legitimate exemption thereof from the Roman patriarchate discoursed on four positions, and asserted / by Isaac Basier ... ; three chapters concerning the priviledges of the Britannick church, &c., selected out of a Latin manuscript, entituled, Catholico-romanus pacificus, written by F.I. Barnes ... ; translated, and published for vulgar instruction, by Ri. Watson.; De antiqua ecclesiae Britannicae libertate. English	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.; Barnes, John, d. 1661. Catholico-romanus pacificus. English. Selections.; Watson, Richard, 1612-1685.	1661 (1661)	Wing B1029; ESTC R9065	27,797	82

was Legate of Gregory the Roman Bishop The same also appears out of the constancy of the Britains in their rejection of the said Augustin whom although sent Express by the Roman Pontifie that hee might preside over the Britains yet saith Bede All the Britain Bishops refused to acknowledge him for their Arch-Bishop as who had an Arch-Bishop of their own whosoever hee then was whom it would not bee hard to know from the prerogatives of his Metropoly and priviledge of his seat in Councils As for the state of the Britannick Churches and their partition it will bee worth our pains to search it in the undoubted Records of the British Antiquity From the very time therefore of Constantine the Great and so of the Nicene Council all Britany was in times past canton'd into three onely Provinces over which were after the Romane manner in temporal affairs three Romane Proconsuls or Praesidents as likewise in spiritual there praesided as many Arch-Bishops commonly called Metropolitans from their Metropolies or principal Cities wherein were resident both the secular and sacred Provost or Metropolitane The first of these three Provinces was called Maxima Caesariensis the Greatest Caesarian or inverted if either way to be Englished the Metropolitan whereof was the Bishop of York The second was called Britannia primo the first Britain the Metropolitane of which was the Bishop of London The third was Britannia secunda the second Britain called the Legionary Metropoly and thereof the Is●ane Bishop or Bishop of Ca●ruske in the Tract or County of Monmouth That was the state of this Metropoly from Lucius unto King Arthur in whose time the Metropolitical dignity was transferred to the Bishop of St. Davids to whom were subject as Suffragans the Welch Bishops until in the time of Henry the first or as some will have it Henry the third the same Metropolitane was reduced under the obedience of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Now whatsoever either in the Provinces themselves or Churches was afterward irregularly parjeted from abroad that cannot prejudice the Imperial authority to which belongs as we have before shewed both to dispense the external Government of the Church and to establish the jurisdictions which it limits Much less can a Usurpation advanced by force or fraud derogate from the Oecumenick decrees of the Ancient Fathers or frustrate so many most grave Canons venerable for their age published thereupon such as is the premised 6th Canon of the Nicene Council for the Ancient Prerogatives and the second Canon of the Constantinopolitan by which is charged That no Bishop approach any Churches situate without his bounds which most grave Canon I wish the Bishop of Rome had religiously observed the Peace of the Church had been better assured the Council goes on commanding that all bee kept according to what was defined at Nice And that these may not seem too remote from our Britain the Canon concludes in a general Sanction That all things ought to be done according to that custome of the Fathers in force But that such had been the custome of the Britains as to have all weighty affairs Synodically disputed within themselves appears out of Bede Moreover to have been in use that the Bishops of that Nation were consecrated by one Bishop Baronius himself somewhere observes At that time truly so beautiful was the state of affairs in Britain until some ages after the Council of Nice Augustin the Monk was sent by Gregory who what hee could not by right first by fraud then by the armed assistance of Ethelbert and his new-converted Anglo-Saxons indeavoured to force the Catholick Bishops of Britain to acknowledge and receive him for their Arch-Bishop but they couragiously replied That they could not abandon their ancient Priviledges and subject themselves to the mandates of strangers That any other custome had been in the sacred Government of the British Church no man can ever evince out of genuine Antiquity And so much concerning the second Position The third Position bearing proportion to the second The Britannick Church was 1 with very good right 2 restored by her Soveraign to her Ancient Ecclesiastical Liberty 3 and that according to the Rule of the Ancient Catholick Canons by which was confirmed for the future the intire Liberty of the Churches TO the first whatsoever the Rebels at this day on either side falsely alledge to the contrary it appears out of very many Histories and the Authentick Chronicles that the Kingdome of England hath been an Empire and so accounted in the world which was governed by one supream Head or King both in Spirituals and Temporals and that wholly independent of any forein Prince or Supremacy whatsoever on earth This is the very marrow expressed from the formal words of a statute at large set out to this purpose by the Assembly of Parliament that is of the whole Kingdome in the 24th year of King Henry the eighth chap. 12. At which time the three Estates of England to wit the Clergy Nobility and Commons willing to recall the Ancient Rights of the Kingdome taken away rather by force and power than any Rule of the Canons decreed to have controversies ended within the bounds of the Kingdome without any appeal to foreiners which indeed is one principal prerogative of a Patriarchal Jurisdiction But upon this whole Britannick affair the thing most worthy our observation is That this decree for the liberty of the Britannick Churches was not introductive of a new Law as in spight to the Kings of Britain new upstarts calumniate who are either ignorant of or opposite to the Britannick priviledge but the said decree was onely declarative of an Ancient Custome which had constantly prevailed in England eight hundred years since and so many ages before yea and was intirely renewed as often as occasion required Concerning this most just assertion wee attest the ample Margin filled with a long train of the Ancient Britannick Statutes which the ingenuous Reader may be pleased at leisure to view and consider Whence by induction of parts will appear that this was no new enterprize nor a single irregular act of Henry the eighth alone but that long before the time of Henry the eighth this had been the ancient Supremacy of all the Kings of England over all persons and in all causes whatsoever so well Ecclesiastick as Temporal Wee proceed to the second and prove the Ancient state of the Church to have been such out of the undoubted Monuments of the Britannick Church where first wee may collect out of the fore-cited Venerable Bede as also Henry of Huntington no less than the rest That Augustine the Monk stirred up Ethelbert King of Kent against the Bishops of the Britains because they in behalf of the Ancient Britannick Liberty denied to subject themselves and their Churches unto the Roman Legate Yet further Huntington adds that neither the Britains nor Scots that is the Irish would therefore communicate with the English and

all these add what in conclusion is principally necessary to wit that the Britannick Church after the very sacred Canon of the Scriptures such as is defined in the † Conc. Laodic Can. ult ancient Councils adheres closely unto tradition truly universal as well Ecclesiastick as Apostolical both which lean on the testimony or authority of the truly Catholick Church according to that in Vincentius of Lirinum his fam'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or essay of ancient Catholicism Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus c. That which every where which alwaies which by all c. It appeareth that the Britannick Church bears upon these two Catholick principles to wit Holy Scripture before and above all and then Universal Tradition not onely because the general Council of Nice wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ancient Customes are underset and established but also the Britannick Church in a * The first Synod after her Articles of Religion were fixed An. 13. Regin Elizab. Provincial Council of her own hath most expresly ordained by a special Canon Wee conclude therefore That the Britannick Church such as shee was lately under Episcopacy rightly constituted was no way Schismatical neither materially nor formally since that she neither erected unto her self Chair against Chair which is the foul brand of Schismaticks in St. Cyprian Nor did that Church cut her self off from Episcopacy or made a Congregation at any time unto her self against her Canonical Bishops which ever is the formal character of Schismaticks by the definition of the o Concil Constantinop 1. Can. 6. vel 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Woe call them Hereticks which rend themselves from and set up Synagogues or Conventicles against our Canonical Bishops c. Constantinopolitan Council much less did she shake off her Bishops and with the continued succession of Bishops by consequence the succession of her Priests not interrupted as I may say from the very cradle of her Christianism And as for lawful ordination as well in the material part the imposition of hands as in the formal wherein signally by a set form of words both praerogative of Ordination and also jurisdiction is conferred on the Bishops this her ordination I say rightly and canonically performed by the Catholick Bishops shee proves out of the very Records or Monuments of Consecrations So that no man can by deserved right charge upon the Britannick Churches that ancient reproach of Schismaticks in p Matthew Parler a godly and learned man c. who was Chaplain to Henry the eighth c. being duly elected to the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury after a Sermon preached the Holy Spirit invoked and the Eucharist celebrated by the imposition of hands of three Bishops in former times William Barloe of Bathe Iohn Scory of Chichester Miles Coverdale of Exceter and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford was consecrated at Lambeth Hee afterward consecrated Edmund Grindal an excellent Divine to bee Bishop of London c. See Camdens Annals of the Affairs of England part 1. ad an 1559. Tertullian Vos ex vobis nati est is You are new Upstarts born yesterday of your selves Nay so tenacious are the genuine Britains of the ancient Religion and by consequence of her Catholick Discipline that for the intire restitution of their Bishops their most Gracious King himself Charls Emperour of Great Britain chuseth rather to suffer so many and so most undeserved injuries even which is horrid to be spoken to death it self which in dishonour and contempt of all q In good earnest this hainous fact so strikes at all Monarchs through the side of one King of Great Britain that unless it incense all Kings and Princes whatsoever as to a most just indignation so to a serious revenge it may be feared that the contagion of such a damnable example will diffuse its infection into Neighbour-Kingdomes it so threatneth and menaceth the destruction and ruine of Monarchy it self since that in the most seditious Epilogue of the perfidious Covenant in most express words they exhort and animate other Christian Churches as they love to speak which either groan under the yoak of Antichristian Tyranny or that onely are in danger of it that they would joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant with them forsooth to the enlargement of the Kingdome of Iesus Christ c. You hear the words yee Christian Princes yea and you see their deeds It is the affair of you all that is acted but of such among you especially whom particularly they will seem to have marked out with that black character of Antichristianism which in the sense of these Traitours is not so common to every meridian but that it seems to threaten some Region before other with its malignity God avert all of that nature portended by it Christian Monarchs those most desperate Rebels threaten to their King and not long since potent Monarch then abolish Episcopacy as mindful of that r At the Coronation of the King of England the Arch-Bishop consecrating in the name of the whole Clergy twice adjures the King in these words ss 1. † This is translated out of the Latin Copy My Liege Will you grant conserve and by your oath confirm the Laws Customes and Liberties given unto your Clergy by the Glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor The King answers I do grant and take upon mee to keep them Also ss 5. The Arch-Bishop advertiseth the King in these words My Lord the King Wee beseech you that you will conserve to us and the Churches committed to our trust all Canonical Priviledges and that you will protect and defend us so as every good King ought to be a Protector and Defender of Bishops and Churches put under his Government The King almost in the same words promiseth That hee to the uttermost of his power God helping him will keep the Canonical priviledges of the Churches and that hee will defend the Bishops themselves Afterward the King being lead to the Altar there touching with his hand the Holy Bible solemnly swears That hee will perform all these things adding moreover this Imprecation to be trembled at So help mee God and the contents of this holy Book I thought fit to insert here this form of the Kings Oath taken out of the Royal Records themselves that it may bee made manifest to the whole Christian world That His Majesties magnanimity and constancy hitherto is to be imputed not to pertinacy but Religion whatsoever otherwise is said by such as blaspheme or reproach him with their 〈◊〉 language Oath to be trembled at whereby hee religiously bound himself to God and the Church at his Coronation The Clergy and likewise better part of the Nobility as also the Britannick people dispersed here and there Rivals with their King in this part of his Religion refuse not to undergo the loss of all their estates persecutions banishments yea are ready to indure all kindes of extremity to their very last

Augustine their Bishop more than with Pagans the reason was because Augustine did seem to deal uncanonically with them by constraining them to receive him for their Arch-Bishop and subject themselves to the mandates of strangers when as the Ancient manners of the Britannick Church required that all things should be synodically transacted within themselves Hence is it that the Britains did alwaies celebrate their Ordinations within themselves and this is also another honorary priviledge of the Patriarchal Jurisdiction and concerning this wee again appeal unto Bede in his history of Aidan the Bishop yea to Baronius himself where quoted before who relates out of Lanfranke the custome of the Kingdome to have been that the Bishops thereof were consecrated by one single Bishop but that these ancient Customes of Britain were abrogated by the force rather and power of the Anglo-Saxons than by any Synodical consent The said Bede testifieth the same where hee relates that Colman the Bishop Finanus's Successour in the Pontificate of the Northymbrians with his fellows chose rather to desert Episcopate and Monastery than their Ancient Manners Which fact of Bishop Colman is worth observation lest what some falsely pretend onely the Monks of Bangor may seem to have rejected Augustin against whom charged upon them this was the Legitimate defence of the ancient Britains these being their very words out of Beda before That they could not abandon their ancient manners without the consent and license of their own Bishops And truly this answer of the Britains was grounded on very irrefragable very Catholick reason and that because this unwonted subjection had contradicted the sixth Oecumenick Canon of the Council of Nice which expresly commands the Ancient Manners to bee kept This had also destroyed the eighth Canon of the first Ephesine Council by which first such usurpation to wit in the case of the Cyprian Church is called in Hypothesis a thing innovated beside Ecclesiastick Constitutions and Canons of the Holy Fathers which as common diseases therefore needs a greater remedy because the dammage is greater which it brings Secondly Therefore the Holy Synod in Thesi as they say or in general commands that that should be observed in all Dioceses and Provinces wheresoever Behold the Authentick Charter of the Britannick Liberty Thirdly That no Bishop the Roman not excepted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should invade any other Province which from the beginning hath not been under his or his predecessours jurisdiction as for instance did Augustin the Monk Fourthly The Oecumenick Canon goes on and a hundred and fifty years more or less before Augustins invasion of the Britannick Church as it were fore-seeing it by provision declares it to be void in these most weighty words That if any one shall invade it and make it his own by force hee shall restore it Fifthly Yet further for the following words are most emphatical and which as by and by shall appear seem chiefly to regard the Roman Bishop himself The Holy Synod warneth that the Canons of the Holy Fathers be not passed by nor that the pride of secular power creep in under the specious pretence of administring sacred Affairs and by little and little unawares wee lose that Liberty which our Lord Iesus Christ the deliverer of all men hath purchased for us by his blood Yea the Holy Oecumenical Synod for the greater enforcement yet again repeats the decree It hath therefore pleased the Holy and Universal Synod to decree that to every Province be preserved pure and inviolate the rights which it had from the very beginning according to ancient Custome every Metropolitane and so the Britannick having liberty to take Copies of the Act for his Security Yet the Holy Synod concludes according to its Oecumenical Authority If any one shall bring any Sanction every word is most general repugnant to those which now are defined it hath pleased intirely the Holy and Universal Synod that it bee void Hitherto for the Liberty of the Churches extends the most express Canon of the Catholick Church which after the matter of fact first declared completes the matter of right in favour as well of the Britannick as Cyprian Church For since as out of the praemises appears the Britannick Church in the West enjoyed the same priviledge wherewith the Cyprian Church was honoured in the East why may not shee lawfully resume what is her own in time of peace which was taken from her by tumult and force in a turbulent time of the wars The sum of the whole most Inculent Canon is this The ancient and truly Catholick Church would have the rights of every Church preserved not taken away and if they be taken away by force or fraud what Patriarch soever doth it his fact is declared void and moreover hee is commanded to restore that Province which he hath made his own Now that this Canon was establisht in a tacite opposition to the Roman Bishop himself is not obscurely to bee collected out of the Acts of that Council for it is evident from them that the Canon prevailed notwithstanding the Epistle of Innocent the first to Alexander wherein the Roman Bishop declared that the Cyprians were not wise according to Faith if they subjected not themselves to the Patriarch of Antioch when as notwithstanding wee see the decree of the Universal Synod plainly contrary to the Papal sentence wherein namely it was judged that this was attempted by the Antiochian beside the Canons and that therefore all the letters brought by him against the Cyprians were of no effect Hitherto the third Position The last followeth The Fourth and last Position The Britannick Church persevering in its Primitive Exemption from the Roman Patriarchate so far is it from that it ought or can be therefore called Schismatical that rather in the very same respect before truly Catholick Iudges that Church appears both to have been and yet really to bee by so much the more every way Catholick by how much that Church more than others is an Assertour of the whole Ancient Catholick Liberty which by so many sacred Canons of four General Councils the Nicene Constantinopolitan Ephesine and Chalcedonian the Catholick Fathers have decreed and antecedently declared to remain ratified for ever against all future usurpations SInce the time that the ancient Liberty of the Britannick Church was by right resumed as before with the solemn consent of the whole Kingdome the Britannick Church now truly Catholick in the rest can by a like right retain the same without the loss of her Catholicism without any brand of Schism much less of Heresie We do willingly owe the proof of this assertion to Barns a most learned and peaceable man at the same time when hee writ it a Roman Priest a Monk in the order of the Benedictins a Britain and therefore no unfit Arbiter of this Britannick Cause First Therefore whether the causes of our withdrawing were sufficient is no way a matter of Faith but wholly

matter of fact whereto the Roman Bishop himself that I may speak the truth as gently as may be was at least accessory and therefore can be no competent Judge of the cause but rather if the business would bear a controversie it were to be presented to a truly Oecumenical or general free Council rightly and legitimately called Now so far is it from that the Britannick Church even refused to present her self or her cause before the Tribunal of such a Council that the Britannick Church rather holds a general Council to be above any Patriarch even the Roman himself according to that pair of Councils held at Basil and Constance This the Britannick holds together with the Gallican Church a renewing of the ancient concord with which Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as conscience permits were even at this time much to be wished it being manifest that above a thousand years since much friendship passed between the Gallican and the Britannick Church even at that time when the Britannick Church did not communicate with the Roman and certainly if both parties would mutually understand one the other without prejudice and that of the two which is in the extream would remit of its rigour that consent of the Britannick Church with the Gallican would not be so improbable as it seems at the first aspect to them that are ignorant of both or either But this onely by the way To our purpose again Wee say the Britannick Church doth so reverence the General Councils that she hath provided by a special Statute That not any one endued with spiritual jurisdiction shall declare or administer his Ecclesiastical censures or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresie but onely such as before had been determined ordered or adjudged to be heresie by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council This was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the very Catholick sense of the Britannick Church and her due esteem of General Councils which the old Parliament openly testified in the solemn Assembly of that whole Kingdome for we disdain to make mention in this place of the Cabals or Conventicles now adayes which reign in the turbulent rebellious State of that Church and Republick for those swarms of Sects are onely the Cancers and Impostemes of that lately famous Church which no more belong to the sacred body of the Britannick Church than a wenn doth to the body natural And truly if heretofore the great Mother of us all the Catholick Church seemed almost universally to be utterly swallowed by a sudden deluge of Arrianism what wonder is it if the Britannick Church but one of her daughters lye under the same fate for a time This for the first point Concerning the second it is to be very much observed That the Britannick Church at the time of her withdrawing was not truly in fact much less by right subject to the Bishop of Rome having been years before her reformation under Edward 6. altogether exempt from the Roman Patriarchate to wit by the Imperial Authority and by that of Prince Henry the eighth whom to have been impowred to do it by right appears before in the first Position But what occasion soever of the withdrawing at that time shall bee pretended it cannot prejudice the Royal Right or any way derogate from the ancient Custome of the Britannick Church Nay the British Nation could not have opposed either of the two without being hainously guilty both of Rebellion and Schism especially since that whole business of the Church's restitution was transacted with the express consent of the Britannick Clergy then Romane a Provincial Council of which alone in defect of a General was at that time the supream meerly Ecclesiastick tribunal of the Britannick Nation whereunto onely the Britannick Church ought to be or indeed could be subject because in that article of time no Council truly general sate As for that of Trent which afterward followed it was at highest onely Patriarchal to which consequently the Britannick Church before exempt by lawful authority from the Romane Patriarchate was no way subject Whereas therefore the Britannick Church can be said to have opposed it self to no lawful Ecclesiastick Authority at all which notwithstanding inseparably is of the essence of Schism certain it is that Church is no way Schismatical but on the contrary side the Britannick Church according to the singular moderation and Christian love she perpetually sheweth toward all Christians as she keeps off from her external Communion no Christian of what ever communion he be so that he hold the foundation intire but unless a most just excommunication put a bar opens her Catholick bosome and draws forth her holy breasts to any genuine Nursling of the Catholick Church so as well in Faith as the internal Communion of Charity as likewise in the external Communion of the Catholick Hierarchy and Liturgy yea and Ceremonies also she yet cherisheth and professeth an undivided peace and consent with the Catholick Church from which the Britannick Church never did nor ever will separate her self as being alwaies most tenacious of the whole truly Catholick foundation For one thing it is on the hinge of which just distinction is the whole state of this great controversie turned one thing I say it is to separate her self from the Catholick or Universal Church and to form to her self a Congregation or Religion apart different from the Catholick Church as in times past the Donatists did another not to communicate in all with some one particular Church as for instance the Latine or rather to abstain from the external worship which is used by some persons in some places under an express Protestation for thence is sprung the modest and innocent title of Protestants under Protestation I say so soon as the occasion of scandal should be taken away of reconciliation and under a vow not so much out of any absolute necessity as for publick peace and Catholick unity's sake of returning to the Communion of that particular Church from which that the Protestants were estranged yea in the latter age violently driven away by thunder and sword and fire is better known out of history than to want any proof or further amplification It appears therefore out of the Premises that the Britannick Church constituted in this as I may say her passive state of separation from the communion of the Bishop of Rome is wholly free from all blemish of Schism by reason that the Bishop of Rome himself first of all interrupted Christian communion with the Britannick Church and yet further inderdicteth the Britannick Church his communion and in that again the Pope extolleth himself above a General Council lawfully called unto which the Britannick Church hath ever attributed the decisive judgement while in his Bull of the Lords Supper he forbids an appeal from himself to a general Council To