in such Cases my Lord Coke delivers as certain in point of Law and from thence calls it the Court of Convocation Nor can I see what injury it would be to the Crown to allow the same power to the Convocation still that by Law may be exercised in any other Ecclesiastical Court and which must needs be inseriour in dignity to this But still the question is Whether of Right the Convocation ever had a power to judge any more than to make Canons without the King's Assent And by consequence whether though the Statute of Henry the Eighth should not have deprived them of that power yet the King's Prerogative be not against it For should this be so then whatever Laws have restored the King to his supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters will lie against this presumed Right of the Convocation too and so though that Law should not yet some others may have limited their power in this respect also And here I shall not presume to determine any thing but only offer these following Observations First That in several of the Convocations in which the persons before-mention'd were judged the Process was made either by the express Command or Leave of the King And in all of them for ought we know it may have been so And Secondly That in the Commissions by which our Convocations are now enabled to act the King gives them leave to conferr debate treat consider consult and agree of Matters and Causes as well as of Canons Orders and Constitutions and which seems to imply that they need the King's License as much to judge of the one as to deliberate about the other But be this as it will thus much I take to be out of all doubt that as by our Ancient Customs recognized by the Lords Spiritual as well as Temporal in the Great Council at Clarendon Anno 1164 It was among other things resolved that none of the Servants of the King or of such as held of him in capite might be Excommunicated without his leave And again that in Case of Appeals any person who thought himself injured might appeal from the Arch Deacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and from him to the King by whose order the affair was finally to be determined in the Court of Arches and not be suffer'd to proceed any farther without leave of the King so in Conformity both to these Principles and to that power which I have before shewn has ever been claimed and exercised by Christian Princes in this respect I do presume that the King may not only lay a Prohibition upon the Convocation not to proceed in judgment against any person whom he shall think fit to take into his special Protection but after they have judged any one may receive an Appeal from them and order an Enquiry to be made whether they proceeded Fairly and Canonically with him and either confirm suspend or annul their Sentence as he shall find it reasonable for him to do This I am sure the ancient Emperors did and the Bishops and Councils not only submitted to it but allowed of it And if this our Kings may not do I shall be glad to be inform'd by what particular Law or Custom this Power has been taken from them And this brings me to the last point now to be consider'd 3dly What Authority our Kings have over their Convocations after they have done what they were called for That the Convocation cannot meet without the King 's Writ I have before shewn from the express Authority of an Act of Parliament And that the same Authority is required to the Dismission as to the Calling of it has been the declared opinion of our greatest Lawyers in this Case When a Question was raised by some few in the lower House of Convocation Anno 1640. Whether they might lawfully continue to sit after the Parliament was Dissolved The Arch-Bishop besought His Majesty that for their better Assurance his learned Council and some Other Persons of Honour well acquainted with the Laws of the Realm might deliver their Judgment upon it This His Majesty Graciously Approved and the Question was accordingly put to Them They answer'd as followeth under their Hands The Convocation being called by the King 's Writ under the Great Seal doth continue untill it be Dissolved by Writ or Commission under the Great Seal And accordingly we know that not only upon their Dissolution but for Every Prorogation that is made of it there is a Writ sent by the King to the Arch-Bishop and They cannot break up when they please but must continue to Sit as long as the King shall think fit to Require Them so to do Such Authority has His Majesty over their Assemblies nor has He any less over their Acts. It is I think agreed on all hands that no Acts of Convocation are of any force untill they are Confirm'd by the Royal Authority And that is all I am now concern'd to determine How far or What persons they will oblige when Confirm'd by the King without the Concurrence of the Parliament is another Question in which I am not at present concern'd to Engage But tho' of this therefore in General there be no doubt yet I cannot tell whether some Men may be willing to allow the King all that Authority which I have before shew'd Other Princes have claim'd and which I see no Reason why our Own Kings should not Enjoy It is expressly provided by the 25th of Hen. 8th That the Convocation shall not only not presume to make any Canons without the King's permission but that having made Them They shall not presume to promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodal unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to promuige and execute the same And even then it is farther Provided by the same Act That No Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be Contrariant or Repugnant to the King 's Prerogative-Royal or to the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm And from whence as they are naturally deduced so were these two Points deliver'd by the Judges before the Committee of the Lords as the Law with reference to this Matter 1. That when upon Conference the Convocation has concluded any Canons yet they cannot execute any of their Canons without the Royal Assent And 2. That they cannot execute Any after Royal Assent but with these Four Limitations 1st That they be not against the Prerogative of the King 2dly Nor against the Common-Law 3dly Nor against any Statute-Law 4thly Nor against any Custom of the Realm And this the learned Reporter tells us was but an Affirmance of what was the Law before the said Statutes as appears by the 19 Ed. 3. Title Quare non Ad 〈…〉 isit 7. Where it is held
to shew that it ought not Easily to be neglected And therefore tho I know no Positive Law that do's determine the King 's Absolute and free Will as to this matter yet I humbly conceive that so ancient and setled a Custom ought to be held to and our Princes accordingly still order the one to be summon'd as often as the other is called But now secondly If by sitting be meant as in the present question I suppose it is their meeting to do Business and being allow'd to come together for that purpose Then I reply that for such their sitting I know no Law besides the absolute and free power of the Prince Custom we are sure is as much against this as it has been for the other and any Statute or positive Law for it has not that I know of been pretended to Indeed whilst the Clergy were wont to assess themselves and their sitting upon that account was necessary for the support of the Government they were not only summon'd to meet but were wont actually to assemble and sit so long as it was requisite for them to do for this purpose But that being done they were for the most part forthwith Adjourned and met no more till the King had some new occasion for their assistance And that I may not be thought to speak this at all adventures I will offer an instance or two of it The Convocation which met the first of King James the First was by Prorogations continued from time to time for seven years together Yet except it were in his first year we do not hear of any great business that was done by them more than that of granting Subsidies which I have mention'd In King Charles the First 's time there were but few Parliaments and therefore we are not to look for Convocations in that When his Son King Charles the Second return'd the famous Convocation of 1660 met to remedy those disorders which the Civil Wars had occasion'd In order whereunto it was necessary for them at the first to sit and settle the Affairs of the Church but that being done they were by the King 's Writ prorogued eighteen several times successively and it does not appear by the Journal of it which I have seen that any thing material was afterwards done by it And as their sitting so thirdly I affirm that their acting too does depend upon the Will of the Prince They cannot enter upon any business without his special Commission for it And whether he will grant them such a Commission or no depends entirely upon his own Will But when I say that the sitting and acting of the Convocation does depend upon the absolute and free Will of the Prince and which terms I make use of only because they are prescribed to me by one whom at present I am obliged to follow I must observe that by his absolute and free will I understand a Will not determined by any humane Law to act otherwise than according to the Dictates of a Man 's own Reason and upon the last Result of his own Judgment he would do For otherwise there are Laws which in this as in all other cases of the like Nature determine the most absolute Sovereigns in the World and we do not deny our King as well as all other Princes to be subject to them The Law of Reason is a Law by which every wise Man does and every Man as such is obliged to act The positive Law of God and the common Principles of Right and 〈◊〉 are another Law by which all Christians of what Bank or Authority 〈◊〉 both out of duty to God and with regard to their own Consciences are required to attend And lastly The publick Good and Welfare of the Community is another Law to which all Princes even those who in other respects are the most absolute are oblig'd to look and with the observance of which they cannot dispence tho' no human Constraint lies upon them to force them thereunto or to punish them if they do not By all these Laws Princes are obliged And the Will of the Prince regulated by these Laws but not under the direction of any more particular Obligations is that Will on which I affirm the sitting and acting of the Convocation to depend The Government has intrusted him with the Power of giving them leave to sit and act when he pleases and when he pleases he may deny them to do either But still it was supposed when that trust was committed to him that he should use it with Prudence and Moderation and as he should from time to time be perswaded would be most for the publick Good both of the Church and State And therefore fourthly Notwithstanding any thing that has hitherto been said I shall not doubt to affirm that whenever the King is in his own Conscience convinced that for the Convocation to sit and act would be for the Glory of God the Benefit of the Church or otherwise for the publick Good and Welfare of his Realm he is obliged both by the Law of Reason as a Man by his duty to God as a Christian and by his duty to his People as a Ruler set over them for their Good to permit or rather to command his Clergy to meet in Convocation and transact what is sit for any or all these ends to be done by them As on the other hand whensoever he is clearly and evidently convinced that for them thus to come together would be needless or hurtfull to these ends it is then his duty to restrain them from sitting and that tho' he should be never so importunately desired by some that they may sit or rail'd at by others for not allowing them so to do These I take to be the plain Consequences of the foregoing Discourse And by them I suppose a clear and full Resolution is given to the first general Question viz. Whether there be any Law that commands or permits the sitting and acting of the Convocation besides the absolute and free Pleasure of the Prince And if there be What that Law is And how far the Prince is obliged by it I might now proceed upon this foundation without any more ado to examine what has been offer'd by our late Author to the contrary and so pass on to the other part of my Discourse But because it may be a matter of some Satisfaction as well as use to those whose Enquiries have not lain this way to know what has been the State of our Convocations ever since we have any accounts that we can rely upon concerning them I will therefore take leave to digress so far from my present business as may suffice to shew this in a short History of our Convocations from the first Conversion of the Saxons to Christianity down to our present Times CHAP. IV. In which the State of the Convocation is Historically deduced from the first Conversion of the Saxons to our Own Days SO great is the Uncertainty to
those I shall therefore think my self concern'd in the first place to Consider Now among these not to mention the two Conferences of Austin with the British Bishops I know of none more ancient than that which was held before King Oswi and his Son at Streanshealch in the Monastery of Hilda concerning the time of Easter the form of Tonsure and as Florence of Worcester adds some other Ecclesiastical Matters Whether King Oswi by his Authority called this Synod it do's not appear this we know that He not only consented to the meeting of it but also sate with his Son in it and managed the debates of it He proposed the business for which they met and at last finally Resolved what was to be held to with Reference to the Points that had been debated And tho' the Argument that determined him to embrace St. Peter's Tradition rather than St. John's viz. that He kept the door in Heaven and therefore He durst not contradict him lest when he came thither the Apostle should Resuse him Entrance was but very mean and suitable to the Rudeness and Ignorance of those Times yet we see what Authority our Princes from the beginning had as to these matters and how considerable a part they were allow'd in their Synods But more eminent as well as more exact were the Synods held by Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury in the first of which at Herudford as the Bishops of several Provinces were assembled so did they Agree with Theodore upon many usefull Constitutions for the Government of the Church And as this Synod first setled the Discipline of the Church in these Parts so did that of Heathfield which met about seven years after establish the Faith of it It admitted of the decisions of the Five first General Councils and setled the Catholick doctrine of the Church against the several Heresies which had been condemn'd in those Councils In both these Synods it is expressly said that Theodore Presided And so he did in the next I am to take notice of which was held at Atwyford Anno 685. In which among other things St. Cuthbert was chosen Bishop of Lindisfarn and upon Easter-day was Consecrated by seven Bishops who Attended upon the King at that solemn Season By whose Authority these Councils were call'd it do's not sufficiently appear to Us but that in this last King Egfride was present we are expressly inform'd And the constant Custom of the Princes in those days will not suffer us to doubt but that it was by their Direction that their Bishops both met and acted in Them At the Council of Cloveshoe Anno 742 not only Aethelbald K. of the Mercians Presided but his Princes and Officers were present too Yet this was properly an Ecclesiastical Synod and the Matters transacted in it all Related to the Church Nor is this so much to be wonder'd at seeing in the Legatine Synods held by Gregory and Theophylact sent hither by Pope Adrian the First for that purpose Our Kings not only directed the Assembling of Them but together with their Nobles sate in Them And to testify their Consent to what was done together with their Lords as well as Bishops subscribed to the Acts of Them And these are the chief of those Ecclesiastical Synods which were held in these Times As for the many Others whose Acts remain to Us they are manifestly Civil Conventions and most of them such Assemblies of the States as were afterwards call'd by the Name of Parliaments Among these as none ought more to be consider'd so were none more plainly such than Those in which our Ancient Saxon Laws were either drawn up or publish'd And a very considerable part of which relate to the Order and Discipline of the Church Thus Ina made his Laws with the Consent of his Bishops and all his Aldermen K. Alfred collected his with the advice of all his Wise-men K. Edward the Elder and Guthrun review'd and enlarged Them as assisted by their Wise-men And tho' in the Preamble to the Laws of K. Aethelstan we find mention only made of his Archbishop and Bishops because they indeed only drew up those Laws which were more properly Ecclesiastical yet in the Close of them we are told that all these Constitutions were publish'd in one of those Synods at which not only Wulfhelm the Archbishop but all his Great and Wise-men were present that is were publish'd in one of his Great Councils by him K. Edmund compiled his Laws in the Assembly of his Wise-men as well Ecclesiasticks as Lay-men So did Edgar and Ethelred afterwards And lastly Canutus in the Preface to his Laws not only tells us that they were made with the Advice of his Wise-men to the Glory of God-Almighty the Ornament of his Kingly Majesty and the Good of the Common-wealth But precisely notes the time when he compiled them namely That they were made at Christmas in the City of Winchester where he then kept that Feast and his Nobles according to the ancient Custom attended upon him and sate in Council with him To run thro' all the other Councils of the like nature in which Constitutions have been made and Debates held concerning things relating to the Church would engage me in a needless as well as tedious Research I shall only mention a few of those of chiefest Note which together with those before spoken of may suffice to give us a right Understanding of the Nature and Quality of them At Becanceld about the Year 694 Withred King of Kent held a General Council and if the relation be true it was indeed of an extraordinary Composition There were present at it not only the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Rochester with the Lords and others of the Laity but the Abbots Abbesses Priests and Deacons of the Clergy It was called by Archbishop Brithwald at the Kings Command And not only the King and Bishops but all others of the Clerical Order subscribed to it At Berghamsted the same King about three Years after held another Council with his Bishops and Military Men and by their common Consent made several Constitutions to be added to the Laws and Customs of Kent But more remarkable is the Council at which Wulfred presided under Kenulph King of the Mercians Anno 816. At which as at that of Becanceld before not only a great number of Bishops were present but together with the King came also his Princes Dukes and Lords And all these were surrounded with the rest of the Holy Orders Abbots Priests and Deacons treating with one accord of what was usefull or necessary for the Church I insist not upon the Synods of Cloveshoe assembled by Beornulfe King of the Mercians Anno 822 824 And both which were evidently great Councils of that Nation As were also the Council of London An. 833 Of Kingstone An. 838 Of Kingsbury An. 851 Of Winchester An. 855 Of
unwilling to believe it tho' all the while it is apparent that by that very Insinuation they hope to make it stick the more they think they have done their Business They have Guarded themselves against being called to account for it by Men and I am Afraid they never once think what Account they must give for it to God It is by this little Artifice that this bold Writer has presumed to vent such Calumnies against the Greatest and best Men as had they really been true could hardly have been Reported without a Crime Has traduced the King as a Man of No Religion but particularly as no Friend to the Church of England The Arch-bishop as either Ignorant of the Churches Interests or too much a Courtier to trouble the King about them The Bishops as Men that value not what becomes of the Church so long as they can but keep their Honour and their Dignity in the State The Inferiour Clergy as full of Discontents and Dissatisfaction as Persons who have been ill used and resent it accordingly And lastly even the Parliament its self as a Body that has never yet done any thing in favour of Religion nor that seems at all disposed to do any thing for the Advantage of it And when such is the Case of all these what wonder if he freely declares his Apprehension of a General Conspiracy of all Sorts of Men among Us to undermine the Catholick Faith so that it is much to be feared no Order no Degree or Place among Us is wholly free from the Infection It would be endless for me to insist upon these and the like Reflections which He seems industriously to have catcht at in every Part of his Letter I shall instead of all examine the Story with which he concludes it and so take my Leave of Him There was says He a Time when the Clergy was deem'd Publick Enemies and us'd as such viz. in the Reign of Edw. 1. but it was upon a very Honourable Account because they Asserted the Laws of the Realm The King at that Time did by Commission against the ancient Laws and Customs of the Kingdom pretend to collect Money without the Assent of Parliament not from the Clergy only but from the Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Realm The Latter did too many of them submit the Clergy stoutly Resisted it So that Sir Robert Brabazon the King ' s Chief Justice pronounced openly in the King ' s Bench in terrorem that from thenceforth no Justice should be done at their Suit and that Justice should be done against Them in the King's Courts at any Man's Suit This Passage I mark'd when I first read the Institutes as a very extraordinary one 't is pag. 529. 2 Inst I suppose you will think it so too and that England was then bless'd with a Righteous Chief Justice This is the Fable and the Moral of it is not difficult King William is the Edward here meant The present Clergy are like those here mention'd deem'd Publick Enemies but upon a very Honourable Account because they Assert the Laws of the Realm that is stand up for Another Interest and are Enemies to the Present Government For this they are not only Deem'd Publick Enemies but are Used as such Some of them have been turn'd out of their Preferments Others have been Discountenanced and not Preferr'd according to their Deserts because they also have Honourably stood up for the Laws of the Realm that is for another Interest tho' they have again and again sworn Obedience to the Present Government and some of them tho' sore against their Wills even Subscribed the Association in Defence of it To say nothing of Others who were the most forward and busie of any in the Kingdom to help on the Revolution and to establish that Government they now dislike And this they have done at the same time that the Laity have too many of them submitted And will I hope shew that they are Able to defend the Government which they have established against all the Enemies of it tho' they are never so much censured and reviled by these new Patriots for their so doing Having thus accounted for this Story as related by this Gentleman and that too imperfectly from Sir Edw. Cook Whose Authority in point of History he is willing to allow of tho' He cannot Away with it in a Point of Law I shall in Justice to the Memory of that Great Prince and most worthy Judge give a true Account of this whole Matter And let this Author if He pleases make as pertinent an Application of it for me as if I am not mistaken I have done for Him King Edward the 1st having exhausted his Stores in the War of Scotland and that with Great Honour to Himself and Advantage to the Nation call'd his Parliament at St. Edmundsbury the Day after All Souls and accounted his Circumstances to Them The Laity readily Granted him a Subsidy as desired but the Clergy pretending their Fear of the Pope's Bull deny'd in any wise to assist Him Pope Boniface the VIIIth being desirous to advance the Liberties of the Church had the Year before publish'd a Constitution by which he sorbad the Clergy to pay any Taxes to their Prince without the Pope's Consent and Excommunicated as well the Receivers as Payers of such Taxes This was the Bull which these Good Men stood upon and this that Pope publishd at the particular Desire of Robert Winchelsea Arch-bishop of Canterbury and of the Rest of the Clergy of England The King tho' he were sufficiently sensible of their jugling and displeased at it nevertheless gave them time till the next Parliament to consider what they had to do and how to make some better and more satisfactory Answer to Him But in the mean time He caused all their Stores to be sealed up And the Arch-bishop to be even with Him at the same time order'd this Bull of the Pope to be publish'd in all the Churches of his Province The next Parliament being met at London the Day after Hilary the King again demands a Supply of them They persist in their Denyal and the King thereupon puts them out of his Protection And holding his Parliament with his Barons without them an Act is pass'd by which all their Goods are Confiscated to the King's Use. In this State the Clergy were when the Lord Chief Justice as my Lord Coke says Sir Robert Brabazon who was then Chief Justice not of the King's Bench but of the Common-pleas declared to the Attorneys of the Bishops and Clergy what the King and Parliament had done He bade them acquaint their Masters That from thenceforth no Justice could be done for them in the King's Court tho' they should be never so much injured but that Justice might be had against Them by any who had need and would move it to the Court. Now this was no more
desire to Understand than the Laws and Antiquities of the Country in which I live but especially of the Church in which I minister And I am not a little pleas'd to see that there are at this time so many Persons of Excellent Parts no less addicted to these Researches and much better Able to pursue them than I am It may possibly be some provocation to One or Other of These to give us a more perfect Account of the present Subject to see how little is here done in it The Argument certainly deserves Consideration and I heartily wish it a better Hand and a better Head too than any that has yet appear'd upon it In the following Treatise having first stated the Subject I was to go upon and settled the Method I thought most proper to be observed in the prosecution of it I in the next place go on to lay the Foundation of what I had to say with Reference to our own Laws and Constitutions upon the Practice and Opinions of the Antient Church and of all the Christian Countries round about us for above 800 years after Christ. I consider'd that the Church of England beyond most Churches in the World has a peculiar Veneration for the Discipline as well as Doctrine of the Primitive Church And I thought it would be no small Evidence of my good Intentions towards it upon this Occasion to shew that I pretended to nothing in behalf of our own Kings but what the Bishops and Clergy from the fourth Century downwards had readily allow'd to their Emperours And what all Other Christian Princes continued to Enjoy till the Papal Authority prevail'd over Them and deprived them of that Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters which They originally had and to which the Reformation has again so justly restored them And now having laid so good a Foundation I thought I might proceed the more freely to Enquire into the Case of our own Country and see what Authority the King of England has over his Convocations and by what Law or Custom he enjoys that Authority In this I was forc'd to confine myself within the time of the Reformation because it was about the Beginning of that that Our Kings were restored to their Supremacy in this as well as in other matters or at least had their Authority more solemnly recognized by the Clergy and established by the Parliament than ever it had been before But lest such a Supremacy as this should seem to depend rather upon the Authority of an Act of Parliament than to be derived from that Original Power in Ecclesiastical Causes which belongs to all Christian Princes and to Ours as well as to any and which was Exercised by them many Ages before any Statute was made to intitle them thereunto Having shewn what the Law as to these matters now is I thought it might not be amiss to enlarge my Enquiry and to see how the Case has stood in this particular from the first Conversion of the Saxons to the time wherein I began my former Disquisition And upon search I found and I think have plainly made it appear that the Authority I here assert to the King is no other than what our most antient Princes till about 1100 years after Christ continued to exercise and even then claim'd a Right too when they were not any longer permitted to excercise it If in pursuing of this Enquiry through so many past Ages I have sometimes taken the liberty to fill up those Vacancies which through the want of Materials proper for such an Undertaking often fall in my way with Reflections a little foreign to my proper Business I hope it will not be taken for any great Offence in a Work of this Nature especially considering that my very Digressions are rather not directly to the purpose of my present Subject than altogether distant from it As for the remainder of my discourse which is spent in Answering the Letter to a Convocation-man I shall only say thus much that I have not designedly either over-look'd any of its Arguments or made an imperfect much less a false Representation of them I have examined every thing that seem'd considerable enough to be taken notice of and I hope have fully answered what I have examined I am not aware that in doing of this I have given my Adversary any hard Treatment tho' I cannot but say He has taken care oftentimes to deserve it But I thought it unreasonable to be guilty of that my self which I look'd upon to have been a fault in Him 'T is true I have all along spoken my mind with great freedom and where I sound any thing amiss have not stuck to own it tho'it seemed to reflect upon those of my own Order Till Clergy-men cease to be Men they will be guilty not only of Follies and Imprudencies but of Sins too as well as others and to what purpose should I dissemble that which whether it be confess'd or not all the World knows to be but too True Were our Faults so private that to allow of them were to publish them I am sure no One should be more careful to hide them than I would be But I cannot conceive it to be either for the Credit or Interest of the Church to dissemble those Vices which those who Commit them take no Care to Conceal If any one should be so unreasonable as to take occasion from hence to think hardly of our Profession or to be scandalized at our Religion for the Faults of those who minister in It I would only desire them to consider that we live in an unhappy Age and make up a large Number of Men and it can hardly be thought but that where so many thousands wait at the Altar some there should be who are much fitter to be cast out of the Church than to officiate in it In the mean time God be thanked Many there are who are as Eminent for their Piety as some others are Notorious for their Irregularities and this Advantage they ought to have to recommend our Religion beyond what the others should have to defame it that these live agreeably to the Rules of their Holy Profession whereas the others must be confess'd to have scandalously departed from them To conclude the following Treatise as it was truly intended for the Service of the Church of England so I hope it may be of some Use to many in it At least it will satisfie Those who have taken Offence at the Letter here examined that it speaks not the Sense of All if of any of our Clergy And shew that many there be who no less disapprove the Assertions of this Author than they are justly offended at his Bold and Scandalous Reflections THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE Design of the following Treatise with a short Account of the Method that is proposed to be observed in the Prosecution of it The Order of the Questions proposed in the Letter to a Convocation man changed and an Enquiry design'd to
Synods of this kind during this Period § 14. c. Of the Ecclesiastical Matters of most note that were transacted in the great Councils of the same Period § 18. c. II. Period From the coming in of K. William I. to the 23d of K. Edward I. The Papal Power began about this time to prevail over the Princes Authority § 21. By what degrees it did so § 22 c. William the Conqueror stood out against its Incroachments and continued the Affairs of the Church in the same state they were in before § 24. So did his Sons after him § 25. What that State was ibid. An Historical Account of the chief Ecclesiastical Synods under King Willam I. § 26 27. King William II. § 28. King Henry I. § 29. How the Pope now began to send his Legats hither and by that means encroach'd upon the King's Prerogative in the business before us § 30. How the Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave the next shock to it § 31. Of the Affairs of the Church under K. Stephen § 31. K. Henry II. § 32. K. Richard I. § 33. K. John § 34. K. Henry III. § 35. K. Edward I. § 36. How far our Kings during this Period continued to transact the Affairs of the Church in their Great Councils § 37 III. Period From the 23d of King Edward I to the 25th of King Henry VIII Of the Nature of the Civil Government about the beginning of this Period particularly of the Great Council of the Nation § 43. Of the Change which some suppose was about this time made in it § 44 45 That the same Change was made in the Ecclesiastical which seems to have been made in the Civil part of it § 46. What place from thenceforth the Inferiour Clergy had in it shewn From the Parliament Writ § 47. From the Parliament Rolls § 48. How our Great Councils Met and Acted at the beginning of this Establishment § 49. Of the State of the Convocation as it is a Provincial Synod about this time shewn From the difference between the Parliament and Convocation Writ § 50 51. How the Convocation came to bè summon'd at or about the same time with the Parliament § 51. Whether One may not be held without the Other § 52. By whom the Convocation in these times was wont to be Called § 53. Of the chief Convocations held under K. Edw. I. § 54. K. Edw. II. § 55. K. Edw. III. § 56. Of the Opposition which began about this time to be made to the Pope's Usurpations ibid. Of the Convocations under our following Kings to the time of King Henry VIII § 58 ad 61. Period IV. From the 25th of K. Henry VIII to Our Own Times An Historical Account of the Statute 25. Hen. VIII cap. 19. § 62 63 64. Of the Dependance which the Convocation has upon the Parliament § 65. Whether the Convocation as it now stands be any part of the Parliament § 66. Of Select Committees and the Great Use that has been made of them under this Period § 67. The several Ways of transacting Ecclesiastical Affairs at this day consider'd in Five Particulars § 68. It is at the Prince's choice by which of these he will from time to time transact them § 69 70. CHAP. V. The Opinion advanced in the Late Letter to a Convocation Man stated and the Arguments examined by which the Author of it pretends to shew 1. That the Convocation has a Right to meet whenever the Parliament does And 2. That being Met it has also a Right to Act without any Licence from the King to empower it so to do The Subject of this Chapter proposed § 1. And the Questions in debate stated from the Words of the Letter here to be Examined § 2. Whether the Church has any Original Inherent Right of its Own to Assemble Synods § 3. The First Question brought to its true State § 4. The Second Question in like manner reduced to its true bounds § 5. I. Question § 6. That the Convocation has a Right to Sit as often as the Parliament meets does not follow 1. From any supposed Parallel between them § 7. Which is examined and answer'd ib. That there is more need of frequent Parliaments than of frequent Convocations § 8. 2. Nor from the 8th Hen. VI. § 9. 3. Nor from its power to judge in matters of Heresie § 10. 4. Nor from the Bishops Parliament Writ § 11. The Objection of the Archbishop's being prohibited by the King's Justice to hold a Synod by his Own Authority neither well Related nor to the purpose § 12. 5. Nor from the Descriptions of a Convocation in the Law Dictionaries § 13 II. Question § 14. That the Convocation being Met may proceed to Act without the King's Licence Not proved 1. From any thing unreasonable that would follow if it might not § 15. 2. Nor from any supposed Right which they have to the King's Licence if it be needful § 16. 3. Nor from the Parallel again urged between the Convocation and the Parliament § 17. 4. Nor from the Prohibitions antiently sent by the King to it § 18. 5. The Stature 25. Hen. VIII Vindicated from the new Interpretation given of it by this Author § 19 20. The King 's Right to send Commissioners to sit in Convocation nothing to his Advantage § 21. Of the Authority of the Convocation in point of Judicature § 23. The Case between Dr. Standish and the Convocation Related as it stands in our antient Law Books § 24. CHAP. VI. Some Rules laid down by which to judge for what Causes and at what Times Synods ought or ought not to be Assembled And the Allegations brought to prove a Convocation to be at this time necessary to be held Examined by Them It is confess'd that the King ought to suffer the Convocation to sit when the Necessities of the Church do really require it § 1 The Author's Position laid down and the Method proposed for the Examining of it § 2. I. That Synods are oftentimes Useless and even Hurtful to the Church § 3. The Ends for which Synods ought to be call'd best shew when it is fitting to call them § 4. The General Measures from whence to judg of this from thence stated § 5. From those General Measures the following Particular Rules deduced 1. Synods ought not to be called to determine plain and clear Matters § 6. 2. Nor for such as have by an Equal or perhaps Greater Authority been already determined § 7. 3. Nor to do that which may be done by more Easie and Ordinary Methods § 8. 4. Nor when there is no probable Expectation of any Good to come from their Meeting § 9. 5. Nor in Unquiet and Unsettled Times § 10. II. What the Author of the Letter c. has offered to prove that it is necessary a Convocation should now meet § 11. It is confess'd that we stand in great need of a Reformation but it does not thence follow that we
of a Priestly Mind you have commanded your Priests to be gathered together into one Place to treat of such things as are Necessary We have according to the Purpose of your Will and the Heads which you gave to us answer'd in Our Definition as to us seem'd Good So that if those things which we have Established are also approved of as Right by your Judgment The Consent of so great a King and Lord may Confirm the Sentence of the Priests to be observed with the Greater Authority And thus have I done with the First Thing which I proposed to Consider I have shewn what Authority the Christian Prince has always been accounted to have over Ecclesiastical Synods with respect to the Assembling of them to their Proceedings whilst they are Sitting and to the Confirming or Annulling their Decrees afterwards I shall make only an Observation or two upon the whole with Respect to our present purpose and so conclude this Chapter And 1st I must take notice that whatever Privileges I have here shewn to belong to the Christian Magistrate they belong to Him as such They are not derived from any positive Laws and Constitutions but Result from that Power which every such Prince has Originally in Himself and are to be look'd upon as part of those Rights which naturally belong to Sovereign Authority Hence we find that All Princes in All wountries how different soever they have been in other Respects have yet evermore claim'd an Equal Authority in these Matters And the little Kings of Suevia and Burgundy accounted themselves to have as good a Title to Them as the Roman Emperors in their most flourishing Estate had Which being so it will follow 2dly That every Sovereign Prince has a Right to Exercise this Authority within his Dominions And that to prove this Right it is sufficient to shew That he is a Sovereign Prince and therefore ought not to be deny'd any of those Prerogatives which belong to such a Prince among which this Authority is One. 'T is true such Princes may by their own Acts limit themselves as they think fitting And these Limitations may give such Assemblies a Privilege in One Country beyond what they have in Another But then these Limitations must be plainly proved to have been made in their favour And till they are so the Prince must be accounted to have a Right to that Power which as a Prince belongs Him and is not yet proved to have been given away by Him And therefore 3dly Whereas it is now to be Enquired What the Authority of our Kings is over our Convocations We have thus far proceded towards the discovery of it that we have shewn what Power They had Originally over Them and as Christian Princes ought still to Enjoy And those who will Restrain Them with narrower Bounds must first shew how they came to lose that Power which they would take from Them and which till This shall be cleared they must be Presumed still to have a Right to CHAP. III. Of the Authority which our Own Kings have over their Convocations with Respect both to their Meeting and Acting first and to the Confirming or Annulling of their Acts after WE have now seen what Authority all Other Christian Princes have claim'd and Exercised over their Clergy from the first Conversion of the Empire to Christianity till the Prevalence of the Papal Power began to deprive Them of that Supremacy which of Right belong'd to Them Let us go on upon this Foundation to Enquire II. Whether our Own Kings have not as Great an Authority over their Convocations as any Other Princes have ever pretended to over their Councils That this of Right they Ought to have I have before observed The only Question is whether our Own particular Constitution has interposed to deprive Them of that Authority which we have already shewn did originally belong to Them And here I might justly leave it to Those who advance such Pretences to produce their Proofs and shew us upon what Grounds they do it And account the Right of our Kings to this Authority to have been sufficiently established in that common Claim which I have already proved all Christian Princes as such have ever made to the Exercise of of it But that nothing may be wanting to the clearing of this Matter beyond all reasonable Exception I shall to the General Argument I have before made use of add those particular Confirmations which our own Laws and Customs afford us of this Truth And shew that by our own Constitution the King of England has all that Power at this day over Our Convocation that ever any Christian Prince had over his Synods 1st Then if we consider His Authority as to the first thing before-mention'd viz. of Calling together of the Clergy in Convocation We are told by One of the most Eminent Professors of our Laws that it was among other Points Resolved by the Two Chief Justices and other Judges at a Committee of Lords in Parliament Trin. 8. Jac. 1. That a Convocation cannot Assemble at their onvocation without the Assent of the King And One would think such Persons should not only be very well Qualified to know what our Law is but should also be very Careful especially at such a Time and in such a Place not to deliver any thing for Law which They were not very well assured was so But because some have excepted against the Authority of this Report as a Piece that was published after the Death of the Author and in Suspected Times Tho' I cannot see what Interest any One should have to falsifie his Relation in the Instance before Us We will take his Opinion from a Book which we are sure is Authentick and lies open to no Exceptions 4. Instit. pag. 322. Where treating expresly about the Court of Convocation He affirms that the Clergy were never Assembled or Call'd together at a Convocation but by the King 's Writ And in which tho' I am sensible He has spoken a little too Generally as to matter of Fact yet in point of Law and in which only I make use of his Authority I cannot but look upon him to have been absolutely in the Right It being certain that the Clergy not only now cannot but never could be lawfully call'd together in Convocation but by the King 's â—rit or with his Consent And in assirming this I say no more than what was the joint Opinion of the whole Representative Body of the Nation as well of the Clergy in their Convocation as of the rest of the Realm in Parliament 25 Hen. 8. And from whence if from any Authority we may certainly the best take our Measure to judge Whether a thing does of Right belong to the King and is a part of his Royal Prerogative or No. For 1st As for the Clergy We are told in the Preamble to the Act of the 25 Hen. 8. chap. 19. That the Clergy of this Realm of England had acknowleged
That if a canon-Canon-Law be against the Law of the Land the Bishop ought to Obey the Commandment of the King according to the Law of the Land Now these two Things being supposed and in which the Law at the present cannot be doubted to be very clear That no Acts of Convocation can be put in Execution or be promulged in Order to a Publick Observance without the King's Licence And that the King's Licence cannot give the Convocation any Authority to promulge or execute any Canons but what are Agreeable to the Laws and Customs of the Realm it must of Necessity follow 1st That the King has not only a Right to Review the Acts of Every such Convocation but ought moreover to submit Them to the Examination of his Learned Council in the Law That so he may the more securely be able to judge Whether they be Consistent with the Laws of his Realm and by Consequence capable of receiving any Enforcement from Him Forasmuch as it would be not only too Rash and Unseemly but even a Vain Thing for the King to expose his Prerogative by undertaking to give Authority to that which by being contrary to the Laws already Establish'd has such a natural defect in its Original Constitution as will not suffer it to be Capable of Any 2dly That notwithstanding the Resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation yet still the King is to remain the last Judge not only of the Lawfulness but of the Expediency too of their Constitutions and has Authority either to Ratifie or Reject Them as He with the Advice of his Council shall think Them either Usefull or Otherwise to the Church When His Majesty gave Liberty to our last Convocation to consider of the several Points which in his Commission he proposed to Them and permitted Them to draw into Forms Rules Orders Ordinances Constitutions and Canons such Matters as to Them should seem Necessary and Expedient for the Purposes which He had before proposed to Them and the same being set down in Writing from time to time to Exhibit and Deliver or to Cause to be Exhibited and Delivered to Him He thus goes on to declare what was to be done after such their Resolutions should be delivered in by Them To the End that We as Occasion shall Require may thereupon have the Advice of our Parliament and that such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things as shall be thought Requisite and Convenient by our said Parliament may be presented to us in due Form for Our Royal Assent if upon Mature Consideration thereof We shall think sit to Enact the same And from whence it appears to have been His Majesty's Intention had that Convocation proceeded to any Resolutions to have submitted the Examination of their Acts not only to his Parliament but that being done to have Reserved the final Judgment of Them to his Own Consideration And we cannot doubt but that it was upon the best Advice of his Learned Council in the Law that He so Intended But more full and express to this purpose is the Commission of King Charles the First to the Convocation of 1640 before mentioned Wherein having granted the same Liberty we here meet with to his Clergy To set down in Writing and to Exhibit or Cause to be Exhibited to Him All and Every the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things to be by Them from time to time Conferr'd Treated Debated Consider'd Consulted and Agreed upon He adds To the end that We upon mature Consideration by Us to be taken thereupon may Allow Approve Confirm and Ratifie or Otherwise Disallow Annihilate and Make Void such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of Them so to be by force of These Presents Consider'd Consulted and Agreed upon as We shall think Fit Requisite and Convenient But this is not yet all In the close of his Commission he again Reserves to Himself the same Power in these Remarkable Words Provided always and our Express Will Pleasure and Commandment is That the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of Them so to be by force of These Presents Consider'd Consulted or Agreed upon shall not be of Any Force Effect or Validity in the Law but only such and so many of Them and after such time as We by our Letters Patent under our Great Seal of England shall Allow Approve and Confirm the same These are the Limitations under which that Convocation Acted and from which these three Conclusions will Unavoidably follow 1st That the King by granting the Convocation license to consider and draw up any Canons Orders or Constitutions or to determine any Matters or Causes do's not give them any final decisive Power of Concluding those affairs but Empowers them only to deliver their Judgment to Him which He may either Approve or Reject as He shall afterwards see Cause to do 2dly That in determining concerning their Resolutions He is not obliged either to Approve and Confirm or else to Reject and Annihilate ALL that they have done but may judge distinctly of Every particular Point or Matter debated by Them and severally pass his judgment upon Them May give Force and Authority to some things and at the same time make Void and disallow of Others And this 3dly Not only upon his Own private judgment or upon the Advice of any select persons of his Clergy tho' it be a matter Ecclesiastical but with the advice of his Council who by his Command are also Empowred to judge of what the Convocation has done and whose Opinion if He approves of it He may preferr to that of his Clergy But we will go on with the History of this Convocation and see how these several Conclusions may be yet farther clear'd and confirm'd by it When by Vertue of this Commission the Convocation had drawn up such Canons and agreed upon such Orders as to them seem'd most proper to answer the Ends proposed by the King to Them We are told by His Majesty in His Declaration of June 30th following that according to His direction They had Offered and Presented the same to Him desiring Him to give His Royal Assent to what They had done Now as hereby they plainly acknowledged His Majesty to have all that Authority as to this matter which in His Commission he had pretended to so we find the King still proceeded according to the same measures he had first laid down to the Ratification of what they presented to Him For thus the Declaration goes on We having diligently with great Content and Comfort Read and Consider'd all the said Orders Ordinances and Constitutions agreed upon as is before express'd And finding the same such as We are persuaded will be very profitable not only to Our Clergy but to the whole Church of this Our Kingdom and to All the true Members
of it if they be well Observed Have therefore for Us our Heirs and lawfull Successors of our special Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion given and by these Presents do give Our Royal Assent according to the Form of the said Statute or Act of Parliament aforesaid to All and Every of the said Canons c. But because in the Beginning of this Declaration the King alledges the Example of His Royal Father for what He did whose Pattern he proposed to follow in this Particular I cannot but observe that He did stick so closely to it as to use the very same Form almost the very same Words in confirming these Canons of 1640 that the Other had done in Ratifying of those of 1603. And from whence we may the more undoubtedly conclude That as the Consequences before drawn from the Tenour of these publick Instruments are in point of Reason plain and unavoidable so is their Authority in point of Law Certain and Indisputable and that our Kings do not only in fact Claim and Exercise such a Power as we have now seen over their Convocations but have also an apparent Right to the Exercise of it Whether our Kings may not only Confirm such and so many of the Canons c. of their Convocations as they shall judge Expedient and Refuse and Reject the Rest but may also by their supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Correct and Amend those which they do allow of I shall not undertake to say But so we are told King Henry the Eighth did and that in a Case of the strictest nature in framing the very Articles of Religion which were afterwards publish'd by his Authority Anno 1536. Thus much I believe may warrantably be asserted That as the King has Power without a Convocation to make and publish such Injunctions as he shall think the Necessities of the Church to Require and to Command the Observance of Them so may He with the Advice and Consent of His Parliament much more not only make what Ecclesiastical Laws He shall think sitting for the Discipline of the Church but make such use of the Convocation and the Resolutions agreed to in it in Order thereunto as He shall think fit And as I have shewn the French King's heretofore to have done may not only confirm or disallow but may sometimes even alter and correct what is done by Them according to His Own liking And now that I have mention'd this Convocation of King Henry the Eighth I will make a Reflection or two upon that King 's dealing with that Assembly and so conclude these Remarks It would be needless for me to observe after the account I have already given of the Act which was Pass'd but a few years before by the same King to that purpose that this Convocation was call'd by his Writ I will rather take notice that the Articles of Religion set forth by them were not only corrected by that Prince after they had been framed by the Convocation but were drawn up by Them according to the Method and Directions which He gave to them for that purpose So his Declaration to all his loving Subjects in Confirmation of these Articles informs Us. And for because we would the said Articles and Every of Them should be taken and understanden of you after such Sort Order and Degree as appertaineth accordingly We have Caused by the Assent and Agreement of our Bishops and Other learned Men the said Articles to be divided into Two sorts whereof the One part containeth such Things as be Commanded expressly by God and be Necessary to Salvation and the Other containeth such Things as have been of a long continuance for a decent Order c. tho' they be not expressly commanded of God nor necessary to our Salvation But that which I would principally observe in this Declaration is Upon what Grounds and with what Examination the King gave his Assent to those Articles I have before said and from the words now Quoted it sufficiently appears that the Articles here referr'd to did at least in one great part of Them relate to Doctrines of Faith and that in the most necessary Points of it And yet see what Liberty that King took in judging as well as correcting of what they had done He was speaking of the design he had in calling of that Convocation and from thence proceeds in these Words to declare his sense of what the Clergy had done in it Where after long and mature Deliberation had of and upon the Premises finally They have Concluded and Agreed upon the most special Points and Articles as well such as be Commanded of God and are Necessary to our Salvation as also divers Other matters touching the Honest Ceremonies and Good and Politick Orders as is aforesaid Which their Determination Debatement and Agreement forsomuch as WE THINK to have proceeded of a Good Right and true Judgment and to be Agreeable to the Laws and Ordinances of God and much profitable for the stablishment of that Charitable Concord and Unity in our Church of England which we most desire We have caused the same to be Publish'd Willing Requiring and Commanding you to Accept Repute and Take them accordingly Such a Judgment did this Prince assume to himself over those Acts of his Clergy which the most properly fall under an Ecclesiastical Determination And so little have our Princes thought Themselves obliged either to Receive Themselves or to Impose upon Others any of their Orders or Decisions but as they were finally persuaded that what they had done proceeded from a sound Judgment and would be for the Benefit of their Church and Kingdom to be Observed And now from what I have before asserted and I hope sufficiently proved to be the Rights of all Christian Princes in General and to be not only not contradicted but rather to be expressly declared by our Own Laws and Customs to be the Prerogative of our Own Kings in this Particular It will be no hard matter to give a Clear and Positive Answer to the first General Question proposed to be Resolved in all the Parts of it For first Whereas it is demanded Whether there be any Law that Commands or Permits the Sitting and Acting of the Convocation besides the Absolute free Pleasure of the Prince I Reply That if by Sitting be meant their being Summon'd at such times as the Parliament is Assembled there is a Continued Immemorial Custom which do's determine the Prince to Summon a Convocation at such Seasons and leaves it not any longer to his free and absolute Will Whether he will Summon it or no When this Custom first began or How long it has become the setled and constant Method with us to have a Convocation Call'd at the same time that the Parliament meets it matters not to our present Purpose to Enquire Sure we are that this has been the Custom ever since the 25th of Henry the Eighth And that is enough
those days of which I am at present to discourse was briefly this 1. They had every Year a General Council of the Kingdom made up of the chief Men both in Honour and Employ whether Civil or Ecclesiastical and therein Laws were made with the Assent of the Prince both for the Church and State In Matters purely Spiritual such as the Articles of Christian Faith the Clergy advised alone and what was upon their Advice determined by the Prince became a Law as to those Matters In Matters of a Mix'd Nature as in Regulating the Discipline of the Church The Great Lords deliberated together with the Bishops And the Prince confirm'd what by the Common Advice and Consent of Both was Recommended to Him But because it might so fall out that some Affairs might arise which neither could be foreseen at those General Meetings nor might be deferr'd till their next Assembling Therefore 2. To prevent any Inconvenience that might happen by this means there was another Great Council held every Year made up of a select Number of those who came to the General Assembly and by them were such Matters determined after the same Manner and with the Concurrence of the same Authority by which the Other proceeded Such was the method of proceeding in these Publick Affairs abroad and the same was in Effect the Polity of our Own Country under the Government of our Saxon Princes They had their General Councils first in which they Deliberated of all Publick Matters And these Councils consisted of the Archbishops Bishops and Abbots of the Clergy and of the Wise-men Great-men Alder-men Counts that is to say of the chief of the Laity indifferently call'd in those Times by any or all these Names In these Councils they debated both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Affairs and made Laws with the Prince's Consent and Concurrence for the Ordering of Both. And this they did as far as I can judge after the like manner that we have seen the French were wont to do The Bishops and Clergy advised apart in Matters purely Spiritual But the Great-men debated together with them in Civil and Mix'd Affairs and in which the interest of the State was concern'd as well as that of the Church Thus Athelstan when he publish'd his Ecclesiastical Laws tells us that He did it with the Counsel of his Bishops But when he came to his Other Constitutions we find from their Subscription that his Nobles as well as Bishops were Present and that Both assisted at the making of Them Whether besides these General Councils there were not in those Times some more particular Ones with Us as there were in France I shall not undertake to say That in process of time there were we are very sure and to which such only of the Bishops and Great-men were call'd as the Prince thought sit to Advise with Indeed as to any setled times of these Councils meeting it do's not appear that as yet there were any fix'd tho' afterwards a Custom began to be introduced of holding these Great Councils Once every Year But yet within this period Our Princes began very Solemnly to keep the Three Great Festivals of the Year with their Bishops and Lords And by that means in some sort held a Council three times every Year with Them It is true our ancient Laws make mention of a solemn Assembly that was convened every Year upon the first of May in which the chief both of the Clergy and Laity met together And this differ'd but little from such a Council as We are now speaking of But yet it do's not appear that in these Meetings any great Affairs of State were transacted much less any Laws made but rather the main business that was done in them was solemnly to Renew their Oath of Fidelity to the King and for the Maintenance of the Laws already made But tho' the Greatest part of what concern'd the Church was therefore transacted with us as it was abroad in these State Councils yet it cannot be doubted but that within this Period there were held several Ecclesiastical Convocations or Synods properly so called To these not only the Archbishops and Bishops were admitted but the Abbots and other Clergy were called Insomuch that in some of them we find Priests Deacons and Monks and even Abbesses also mention'd And besides these not only the Prince was for the most part present but often-times his Nobility together with Him In these Synods sometimes the Canonical Discipline was inforced and Matters of Faith establish'd But generally they met for Other purposes and did little more than either confirm the Estates or Privileges of some Religious Houses or transact the like particular Affairs And still the General concerns of Religion were setled either by the Bishops and Abbots apart or else by them together with the Great Men in the Common-Council or Parliament of the Realm And now having said thus much to clear the way for a Right Understanding of the Method in which Ecclesiastical Affairs were wont to be transacted in those Times in which Christianity first began to be setled among Us by our Saxon Ancestors I shall go on to take a short View of the most considerable Assemblies whether Synods or Councils that were held in this Country before the Time of the Norman Conquest It was about the Year of Christ 596 that Austin the Monk having determined to undertake the Conversion of the Saxons in these Parts with the Leave of Pope Gregory Arrived here And having with Good success persuaded Ethelbert King of Kent to become his Proselyte He from thenceforth began to have a very Great Authority with Him We are told by a Monkish Historian that about the Year of our Lord 605 that King being now fully confirm'd in the Christian Faith did with Bertha his Queen and Eadbald his Son and with Austin his Bishop and the Great Lords of his Land solemnly keep his Christmas at Canterbury And there in a Common Council both of his Clergy and People He endow'd the Monastery which Austin had Founded in that City and granted several large Privileges and Immunities to it I have before observed that it was an Ancient Custom of our Kings to keep the Three Great Festivals of the Year with an Extraordinary State and Solemnity Their Bishops and Great Men attended upon Them and they appear'd in the highest Pomp of Majesty they could put on among Them and took those Occasions to transact such affairs as they thought expedient for the publick Welfare If there be any Credit to be given to this Relation for which I dare not answer then we must look upon this to have been such a Civil Council Sure we are that in after-times many were held of the like Kind But tho' in these days the affairs of the Church were for the most part determined in such Meetings yet I have before said that some Synods they had which were properly Ecclesiastical and
Controversie of that Prince with Becket his Archbishop may alone suffice to shew When being angry with the Archbishop for Excommunicating one who held of him and did him service without first obtaining his leave so to do he in his Parliment at Westminster proposed to the Bishops that they should promise to observe the Ancient Laws of the Realm This they refused to do but with a Proviso put in to secure their own Liberties The King resenting this the Archbishop and Bishops in a great Council at Oxford promised that they would submit to what he required of them But when he thereupon held his Parliament at Clarendon and the particular points which they were to yield to were proposed to them Becket tho' he had at first sworn to observe them yet afterwards flew off from it and never left till he at last lost his Life in an obstinate Opposition of the King's Prerogative From this time the power both of the Pope and Clergy began very much to prevail For the King being upon this occasion forced to a dishonourable Submission and the following Princes especially King John sinking their Authority still lower the Efforts which were made by the Laity against it were for some time but very seeble Nor could the Parliament sufficiently vindicate its Power against the Encroachments that were daily made upon the Civil Jurisdiction But however both our Kings and our Parliaments began by degrees to recover their Authority and to return to their former strength tho' indeed it was not till about the End of this Period that they did so And how far they then extended their Power both over Ecclesiastical Persons and in regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters their Acts still remaining and many of them still in force too sufficiently shew and all which are so well known that I shall not need to insist more particularly upon them III PERIOD From the 23d of King Edward the First to the 25th of King Henry the Eighth In the last Period we met with a considerable Change by the Usurpation of the Pope and Weakness of our Princes made in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Supremacy We are now to account for no less a change in the Civil State If the opinion of those may be admitted who here fix the first Settlement of our Parliament upon that lasting and excellent Foundation upon which it has ever since stood and upon which it is to be hoped it shall ever continue to stand That our Kings from the beginning had their great Councils and which tho' not yet call'd by that Name were nevertheless instead of a Parliament to them has before been observed and cannot be deny'd or doubted of by any To these the most eminent Persons of the Kingdom as well Clergy as Laity were wont to be called before the time of the Norman Conquest And when by occasion thereof the Conquerour made a change in the Tenures of Lands in this Country from thenceforth all the great Men and Clergy who held of him by Baronies and ow'd him Service thereby were summon'd by him to his great Councils And with these all such others as held of him in capite were obliged to attend at them whensoever their Presence should be required and that was for the most part as often as the Prince wanted Money and expected a supply from them Thus much the Charter of King John implies and this seems to have been the true Constitution of our Parliament till about the latter end of King Henry the Third's time How a change was then made and what occasion was taken for the making of it it is not needfull for me in this place to enquire But that in the 49th Year of that King the Commons were summon'd by Writ to come to Parliament is confess'd by those who deny that they ever had any place in it before Whether they from thenceforth continued to be constantly called to these Councils or whether there was an Interruption in this new Establishment from that time till about the 18th of King Edward the First as it is hard to determine so is it not very material to my present business to enquire That which we are sure of is that in the 18th of King Edward the First they were again summon'd and so have continued ever since to be But tho' it be therefore confess'd that the Commons were constantly call'd to the Parliament from the 18th of Edward the First yet it does not appear that the Method now observed of chusing of them was so soon brought in The most ancient Authorities that are alledged for this are the Writs of the 23d of the same King and from which time accordingly some have dated the full Settlement of our present most wise and admirable Constitution And as this is the Change which seems to have been made about this time in the secular part of our Parliament so have we reason to believe that at the same time there was no less a change made in the Ecclesiastical part of it For whereas before only the Bishops and Abbots who held of the King by their Baronies were wont to be summon'd thither in the 49th of Henry 3. when the Commons began to be call'd several of the Inferiour Clergy were also call'd together with them and that for ought appears in a larger Proportion than the Laity themselves were And when in the 23d of Edward 1st the constitution of the Parliament came to be setled as now it is the Inferiour Clergy were put upon the very same foot that the Commons were in it And as with respect to the one a Writ was issued out to the Sheriff of each County to return such a certain number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses so with relation to the other a Clause was inserted into the Writ of the Bishop of every Diocese to send the Dean of his Cathedral and his Archdeacons in person and out of the Chapter and Archdeaconries to chuse such a number of Proctors as was thought sufficient to represent the Clergy of each Diocess in it 'T is true we are told that in some few Writs at the beginning this Clause was sometimes omitted By what means or upon what account they cannot tell But then as we find that when this general Clause was omitted particular Writs were sent to several of the Inferiour Clergy to come to Parliament so the same Learned Person who furnishes us with this Remark does ingenuously confess that after a diligent search of our Records it did appear to him that these Defects were soon over and that from the 6th of Edw. 3. the Clergy have continued to be as duly and constantly summon'd to Parliament as the Commons themselves have been Indeed so evident is the truth of this that our greatest Lawyers and Antiquaries do not deny the inferiour Clergy to have been once a member of the Parliament My Lord Coke has told us That many
of Convocations as understood by this Author and meant of their sitting as often as the Parliament meets is therefore One of the chief Rights of the Church or indeed any of its Rights at all unless by Accident I utterly deny When the Exigencies of the Church call for a Convocation and there is a manifest need of its Assembling then I do confess the Church has a right to its sitting And if its Circumstances be such as to Require their frequent sitting during those Circumstances it has a Right to their frequent meeting and sitting And if the Prince be sensible of this and yet will not suffer his Clergy to come together in that Case I do acknowledge that he would abuse the trust that is lodg'd in him and deny the Church a benefit which of right it ought to enjoy But as in a Well-establish'd Church it can hardly be supposed that there should be such a frequent need of Convocations so to Oblige the Clergy frequently to come together when there is no manner of Reason for their so doing would be in truth to injure the Church and oppress its Ministers In-as much as it would require them to leave their Cures and be at the trouble and charge of attending the Convocation without doing any manner of Good either to the Church or Realm by such their meeting And therefore to settle this first Point the summ of it is this That the Church has a Right to have its Convocation call'd as often as the Parliament is Assembled I agree That the Convocation thus called has a Right to sit and act whenever the Circumstances of the Church require it so to do I allow also But that the Convocation ought of Right not only to be summon'd but to meet and do business as often as the Parliament sits whether there be any need for such its meeting or no This I utterly deny And I am persuaded it would be a Burden to the Clergy rather than a Privilege to oblige them to such an Attendance This then is the first Thing wherein we differ viz. That He affirms that the Convocation ought of Right not only to be summon'd whenever the Parliament meets but Regularly and of Course to sit and act too tho' there should not be any the least Occasion for its so doing The next Question is Whether being met they may proceed to any Synodical Acts without the King 's special License first had to Authorize them so to do And here our Author tells us That if the Convocation be a Court and have a certain Jurisdiction belonging to it Or if it be a Legislature and have the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws as it certainly both is and has then the liberty of Conferring and Discussing is necessary to its very Existence Which last Expression tho' it be hard to make any good sense of yet I readily Agree to what I take to be his meaning in it For certainly Justice will be but lamely executed and Laws be very unaccountably made if those who are to judge and determine have not the liberty of conferring and discussing Matters in Order thereunto But tho' when the Convocation therefore is to judge or make Laws They must undoubtedly be allow'd to Conferr and Discuss yet may not the Clergy be restrain'd by certain Limitations from either judging or making Laws except when the Government shall think fit to permit them so to do And if former Abuses have made it necessary for the Government to put them under such a Restriction and the Clergy have themselves consented to it and thought that all things consider'd it would be safer for them to Act by the King's direction that at the Motion of every Warm Unthinking Member of their Own Body who should throw a snare in their way and run them into such Inconveniences as they should not be able easily to get out of As in such a Case they would have no liberty to judge or make Laws without License so neither would they have any need to conferr or discuss where They had no power to conclude any thing Now this I affirm to be Our Case and I must freely own I take it to be our Happiness that it is so It being more than probable that had not the Prince had this Tie upon Us we should before this time have run our selves into yet worser divisions than we now labour under and in all appearance have exposed both Our selves and the Church for a prey to the Common Enemy of Both. So that now then to state this Other point aright The Question between us is this Whether the Laws and Customs of this Realm have not Restrain'd the Clergy from entring on any Synodical Debates in Order to the making of any Canons or Constitutions without the special License of the King first had to Warrant them so to do That the King ought never to require the Convocation to meet more than out of form in Parliament-time but when He has some Business for it to do is on all hands agreed That when they do meet They ought to have Commission sent to them to empower them to go to work and not sit idly gazing at one another is also allow'd That lastly upon those Points which they are empowred to handle they ought to have a full liberty of Conferring Discussing and Arguing That they ought to be left to speak with all Reasonable Freedom and not be either check'd in the House or call'd to any Account out of it for any thing that was said in pursuance of these Ends is readily granted The only difficulty is Whether the Convocation being Met the Clergy ought not to Confine their Debates to the subject which the King proposes to them and not wander upon any other Matters which shall chance to be started by any of their own Members and proceed to determine Synodically concerning Them Having thus reduced the subject in debate to its proper bounds I shall now proceed with all due exactness to put together the Arguments which He has brought in proof of those Points wherein we differ and to consider what may be reasonably Replied to Them And 1st That the Convocation has a Right not only to be formally summon'd but to sit and act too as often as the Parliament meets He endeavours to prove by these following Arguments 1st From the Parallel which there seems to be between the Parliament and the Convocation Each consists of two Houses and these have or should have their several Prolocutors The One of these Courts is of the same Power and Use with Regard to the Church that the Other is in Respect of the State Nay tho' they have different Names and the Word Parliament be appropriated to signifie a Temporal Legislature yet anciently the same Appellation belong'd to them both A Witena-Gemote signified what We call a Parliament and a Church Gemote what We call a Convocation And therefore One would think that whenever the
claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons Nor shall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinance Provincial by whatsoever Name or Names they may be called in their Convocations in Time Coming which alway shall be Assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodal upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing contrary to this and being thereof convict to suffer Imprisonment and to make fine at the King 's Will. Provided alway that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in Execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocations of the Clergy which shall be Contrariant or Repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm any thing contained in this Act to the contrary hereof notwithstanding V. The Commission sent by King Charles Ist. to the Convocation of 1640. 1. CHarles by the Grace of God c. To all whom these Presents shall come Greeting Whereas in and by One Act of Parliament made at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of King Henry VIIIth reciting that whereas the King 's Humble and Obedient Subjects the Clergy c. Reciting all verbatim as in the Extract Numb iv And lastly it is provided by the said Act that such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial which then were already made and which then were not Contrariant or Repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the Damage or hurt of the King 's Prerogative-Royal should then still be used and executed as they were before the making of the said Act until such time as they should be view'd search'd or otherwise Order'd and Determin'd by the Persons mention'd in the said Act or the more Part of them according to the Tenour Form and Effect of the said Act as by the said Act amongst divers other things more fully and at large it doth and may Appear 2. Know ye that we for divers urgent and weighty Causes and Considerations us thereunto especially moving of Our especial Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion have by Vertue of our Prerogative Royal and Supreme Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical given and granted and by these Presents do Give and Grant full free and lawful Liberty Licence Power and Authority unto the most Reverend Father in God William Lord Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan President of this present Convocation for the Province of Canterbury during this Present Parliament now assembled and to the Rest of the Bishops of the same Province and all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-deacons Chapters and Colleges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province That they the said Lord Archbishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and the Rest of the Bishops and other the said Clergy of this present Convocation within the said Province of Canterbury or the greater Number of them whereof the said President of the said Convocation to be always One Shall and may from Time to Time during the present Parliament Propose Conferr Treat Debate Consider Consult and Agree upon the Exposition or Alteration of any Canon or Canons now in force and of and upon any such Other New Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they the said Lord Bishop President of the said Convocation and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergy of the same Province or the Greater Number of them whereof of the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation to be One shall think necessary fit and convenient for the Honour and Service of Almighty God the Good and Quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof to be from Time to Time observ'd perform'd fulfill'd and kept as well by the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops and their Successors and the rest of the whole Clergy of the said Province of Canterbury in their several Callings Offices Functions Ministries Degrees and Administrations as also by all and every Dean of the Arches and other Judges of the said Bishops Courts Guardians of Spiritualties Chancellors Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Commissaries Officials Registers and all and every Other Ecclesiastical Officers and their Inferiour Ministers whatsoever of the same Province of Canterbury in their and every of their distinct Courts and in the Order and Manner of their and every of their Proceedings and by all other Persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being Members of the Church it may concern them And further to conferr debate treat consider consult and agree of and upon such other Points Matters Causes and Things as We from Time to Time shall deliver or cause to be deliver'd unto the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation under our Sign-manual or Privy-Signet to be debated consider'd consulted and concluded upon the said Statute or any Other Statutes Act of Parliament Proclamation Provision or Restraint heretofore had made provided or set forth or any other Cause Matter or thing whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. And we do also by these Presents give and grant unto the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and to the Rest of the Bishops of the said Province of Canterbury and unto all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-deacons Chapters and Colleges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province full free and lawful Liberty Licence Power and Authority that They the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergy of the same Province or the greater Number of them whereof the said President of the said Convocation to be One all and every the said Canons Orders Ordinances Constitutions Matters Causes and things so by them from Time to Time conferr'd treated debated consider'd consulted and agreed upon shall and may set down in Writing in such Form as heretofore hath been accustom'd and the same so set down in writing to exhibit and deliver or cause to be exhibited and delivered unto Us to the End that we upon mature Consideration by Us to be taken thereupon may Allow Approve Confirm and Ratifie or otherwise Disallow Anhillate and make void such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of them so to be by force of these presents consider'd consulted and Agreed upon as we shall think fit requisite and convenient 4. Provided always that the said Canons Orders Ordinances Constitutions Matters and Things or Any of them so to be consider'd consulted and agreed upon as aforesaid be not contrary or repugnant to the Liturgy establish'd or the Rubricks in it or the xxxix Articles or any Doctrine Orders and Ceremonies
of the other Two But tho' this therefore be the General Method which I shall Observe yet I am sensible that in order to the better clearing of the former of these Questions I must take a much larger Compass than our Author's Design led him to do And to the end I may not barely answer his Allegations but may also give some tolerable Account of the true Nature and Rights of our Convocation which for all this Gentleman has yet done may still continue to be as little understood as those of a Jewish Sanhedrim I shall endeavour to examine this Matter to the bottom as far as my Skill will enable and my Leisure permit me to do it For as our Author has rightly observed that an exact and full Account of this Matter cannot be given but by one who has great Skill in our English Laws and Antiquities I may add and in the Laws and Antiquities of the Church too which Dyet must be competently understood oâ— this Subject can never be throughly handled so must I freely profess that neither will my other Affairs allow me to be very exact nor does my Profession as a Divine intitle me to so much Skill as I am sensible is requisite to the perfecting of such an Undertaking But however I will candidly offer what I have met with and where I chance to be mistaken especially in Matters of Law which lie out of my Way I hope those who are more learned will make a reasonable Allowance for my Errors CHAP. II. The first General Point proposed and the Method laid down for the handling of it In pursuance whereof a General Enquiry is first made into that Power which Christian Princes have always been allow'd to exercise over their Ecclesiastical Synods or Convocations with respect both to the Calling of them to the Managing of them when Sitting and to the Confirming or Annulling their Acts after wards TO come then without any more ado to the Business in hand the first and main Thing to be consider'd is this Whether there is any Law that commands or permits the Sitting and Acting of the Convocation besides the absolute free Pleasure of the Prince And if there be What that Law is And How far the Prince is obliged by it This I take to be the true state of the Question and I shall treat of it in this following Method I. I will enquire What Power Christian Princes in general have claim'd over such Convocations with respect both to their Assembling and Acting and to the giving Force and Authority to what is done by them II. I will consider Whether our Kings have not the same Authority over our Convocation that all other Christian Princes have claim'd over their Synods And III. Upon this Foundation I will Examine what this Author has alledged to the contrary and offer what I conceive may fairly be replied to it And I. Let us enquire What Power Christian Princes in general have claim'd over their Synods with respect both to their Meeting and Acting first and to the giving Force and Authority to what is done by them That Christian Princes have a Right not only to exercise Authority over Ecclesiastical Persons but to interpose in the ordering of Ecclesiastical Affairs too neither our own Articles and Canons nor the Consent of the Universal Church ever since the Empire became Christian will suffer us to doubt There is no one so great a Stranger to the History of the Holy Scriptures as not to know what Authority the Jewish Princes under the Law pretended to as to this matter And how far the first Christian Emperors follow'd their Examples were other Authors silent yet that one Assertion of Socrates would not suffer us to be ignorant where he affirms That ever since they became Christians the Affairs of the Church have depended upon them and the greatest Synods been assembled by their Order and still says he continue to be assembled It was a famous Saying of Constantine the first Christian Emperor to his Bishops That They indeed were Bishops in things within the Church but that He was appointed by God to be Bishop as to Those without And how far the succeeding Emperors continued to look upon the well ordering and Governing of the Church to be one great part of that Duty which God expected from them The Epistle of Theodosius and Valentinian to to St. Cyril and the rest of the Metropolitans whom they summoned to meet in the General Council of Ephesus abundantly shews Let us look into the several Collections of the Roman Laws The Code of Theodosius The Code and Novels of Justinian The yet later Collection of Basilius Leo and Constantine that followed after How many Constitutions shall we find in every one of these relating to Ecclesiastical Affairs to the Order and Government of the Church to the Election and Consecration of Bishops and Priests to the Lives Offices and Privileges of the Clergy to the Erection and Liberties of Churches to the Service of them nay and even to the very Faith which was to be taught and profess'd in Them And when the Empire began to be parcell'd out into several lesser States and Kingdoms We find their several Princes still maintaining the same Authority as to all these things that the Emperors had done before As from the Capitularies of the French and German Princes the Collections of the Spanish Councils our Own Antient Laws and the Histories which remain of the several Other Countries does evidently appear But of the Authority of Princes in Ecclesiastical Matters and over Ecclesiastical Persons in general there is no doubt Nor should there one would think be any more whether One great part of their Authority as to these Matters has not always been accounted to consist in the Power to convenâ— Synods and to order whatsoever relates both to the assembling and acting of them And for the better Proof of which I shall now distinctly consider what their Power is with respect 1 To the calling of such Synods or Convocations 2 To the directing of their Proceedings when they are Assembled And 3 To the approving and confirming their Constitutions afterwards And 1 Let us consider What the Power of the Civil Magistrate is as to the Convening of Ecclesiastical Synods and Convocations It has ever been look'd upon as one great part of the Prince's Prerogative that no Societies should be incorporated nor any Companies be allow'd to meet together without his Knowledge and Permission The Roman Law was especially very severe as to this Particular And tho' after the Conversion of the Emperors to the Faith of Christ a provision was made for the Publick Assemblies of the Church for Divine Service yet before that Tertullian who understood these matters as well as any one of his time tho' he excused their Meetings upon all Other Accounts could not deny but that they fell under the Censure of
their Meeting and was greatly satisfied at their Behaviour in it It was not long after this that as Baronius himself confesses Theodorick summon'd another Synod at Rome to judge of the Crimes alledged against Symmachus Bishop of that See and submitted the Determination of that Affair to their Resolution And when Caesarius Bishop of Arles desired to convene a Provincial Synod in France according to the direction of the Antient Canons and the Allowance of the Laws to that purpose Yet he did not think it sitting so to do till he had obtained the Consent of Alaric the Goth for it And it is expresly noted that it was held by his Allowance What Caesarius here did with respect to Alaric an Arrian Prince the same did Avitus Bishop of Vienne with regard to Sigismond the Son of Gundebald King of the Burgundians whom he had not long before converted to the Catholick Faith He call'd even his Provincial Synod with the King's Consent And tho' himself Metropolitan of that District yet presided in it by the Prince's Order Such was the Authority by which these lesser Synods were wont to be held immediately upon the breaking of the Empire And that thus it continued till the Prevalence of the Papal Power began to overthrow the Prince's Right will appear from a short View of this matter in some of the principal States which arose out of the Ruins of it And 1. That this was so in the Kingdom of Spain the Councils of Toledo the most eminent of Any in that Country both for Number and Authority sufficiently demonstrate That the Second of these was call'd by the Permission of Amalaric the Synod it self owns But the Third and I think the most considerable of them all is yet more full to our present purpose It was a General Council of that whole Nation In it the Goths adjured their Heresie and embraced the Catholick Faith This Faith was first establish'd in Spain by the Authority of this Council and several very useful Canons were framed by it for the Government of the Church for the Time to come And all this was done by the Command of Reccaredus their King Who with Badda his Queen subscribed to the Orthodox Faith in it and made not only his Bishops but the chief of his Nobility and others subscribe to it It would be needless for me after so clear an Evidence as this Synod has given us of the Authority by which Councils were antiently Convened in Spain to spend any long time in the particular Examination of the several Councils that follow'd after It shall therefore suffice barely to say thus much that the Fourth of Toledo Another National Council and of great Authority in those parts met by the Order of Sisenandus as the Third had done by that of Reccaredus The Fifth by the Command of Cinthila who also confirm'd the Acts of it The Sixth of Cinthilan The Seventh of Chindaswind The Eighth of Recceswinthus The rest by the Order of the several Princes which follow'd after As from the Acts of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth the last of these Synods it does evidently appear As for their Provincial Synods they were not indeed always summon'd by the express particular Order of those Princes But yet even these were held by Vertue of that Authority which the Third Great Council of Toledo under Reccaredus before mention'd had given to them It was by vertue of this Allowance that the Synods of Narbonne and Saragosa were assembled and in Both which for that Reason it is said that they met according to the Order of that Prince and to the Appointment of that Council 2. And the same Authority which these Kings used in Spain did their next Neighbours the Suâ—vian Princes exercise in Galaecia during the time of their Empire there The Second Council of Braga the Metropolis of that Country is expresly declared to have met at the Command of Ariamirus or as some have rather thought of Theodimirus their King It was by the same Authority that the Synod of Lugo not long after was assembled to divide the Country into several Provinces and to erect a greater number of Bishopricks in it And when by Vertue of this Division the Clergy of that Country were come together in two Provincial Synods under their respective Metropolitans according to the ancient Canons in that behalf Miro his Successor order'd them to meet both together in a General Council at Braga and there agree upon such Constitutions as they should find the Necessities of the Church to require 3. If from hence we cross over to the Kingdom of Burgundy we shall find those Princes in possession of the same Rights over their Synods that the other Kings have been shewn to have exercised The Inscription of the Second Council of Lyons assembled about the Year 567 shews that it was call'd by the Command of Guntramn their King who also not long after assembled another Synod at Challon as Gregory of Tours informs us It was by the Order of the same Guntramn that the Great Council of Mascon was held And when that had not sufficiently restored the Discipline of the Church he not only assembled another at Lyons but more in several other places at Valence Poitiers Mascon c. all whose Acts expresly avow the Authority by which they met 4. In Germany Carloman first and then Charles the Emperor as they were the great Restorers of Religion and Assertors of the Discipline of the Church so will they afford us a sufficient proof of the Prince's Authority in this particular It was the former of these who with the Advice of his Clergy and Nobles called the Council of Ratisbon which is accounted among the First of Germany An. 742. And how the Other continued by the same Authority to summon the like Assemblies the several Synods of Wormes Valenciennes Aix la Chappelle but especially the two Great Councils of Mentz and Frankford in the latter of which not only the Bishops of Germany but of France and Aquitain were assembled together and over all Whom Charles the Emperor presided abundantly shew No sooner was this great Prince dead but Ludovicus Pius his Successor after his Example call'd together his Clergy to Aix-la-Chappelle for the correction of the Negligence and Ignorance of the Bishops and for the better regulating of the Lives of the Clergy And having fully determined whatsoever was thought expedient in Order thereunto he commanded a strict Obedience to be paid to the Constitutions which had been made by them And when this did not yet sufficiently correct the Abuses of those times He not only summon'd a Second Council to meet at the same place but being met he proposed to them such Heads as he conceived to be farther necessary with respect both to the Lives and Doctrine of the Bishops and Clergy and order'd the
a kind of Conciliary Authority to it Or if this be not yet plain enough let it farther be observed that the Council hereupon treated Nestorius both in Words and Actions as a Catholick Bishop and invited him to come and sit among them as such Which evidently shews that the Council made no doubt but that the Emperor had sufficient Authority to suspend those Synods Decrees and that by his Suspension their Sentence had not yet taken place against him And the same was done in the Case of Eutyches the next great Heretick that infested the Church Who being condemn'd by Flavian Patriarch of Constantinople and his Council obtain'd of Theodosius another General Council to meet at Ephesus under the Presidence of Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria In this Council by the Power and Fury of Dioscorus all was tumultuously transacted and Flavian was condemn'd as having deposed Eutyches contrary to the Canons Against this Sentence Flavian appeals and Pope Leo being applied to calls a Synod at Rome and therein rejects the Acts of the Ephesine Council in which all things had been carried in a very disorderly and â—ncanonical Manner For the better repealing of which Leo applies to Theodosius for help He intreats him that he would by his Authority resâ—ind all that had been done either by Flavian against Eutyches or by Dioscorus against Flavian or at least would suspend it till a General and Free Council should determine the Matter 'T is true this Theodosius would not consent to tho' Leo had interested no less Persons than Valentinian and his Empress in the Cause with him But yet Leo's Request shews that he thought the Emperor had Power to resâ—ind the Acts of Both those Councils And his Refusal convinces us that he himself thought he was no way concluded by what Leo and his Synod had resolved in Opposition to the Council of Ephesus However what Theodosius refused Marcian assented to He caused a General Council to be held at Calcedon and when he found Flavian to be justified by it he revoked both the Definition of the former Synod and the Constitution of Theodosius against him Such an Authority were the Emperors wont to exercise over the Acts of the most General Councils in confirming suspending or annulling their Sentences And so undoubtedly did the Bishops in those times believe that they ought of Right to be allow'd such an Authority Nor has the Prince any less Power to judge of their Constitutions than to enquire into their Sentences and either to confirm or reject them as he approves or not of their Decisions When Reccaredus confirm'd the Canons of the Third National Council of Toledo he gave this Reason why he did it That they were composed with great maturity of Sense and Understanding that they were agreeable to his Judgment and conformable to the Discipline of the Church It was the same Perswasion that moved Ervigius to confirm the Acts of the Thirteenth Synod held in the same City He specially recited and approved of their Decrees and by his Royal Authority form'd their Canons into an Ecclesiastical Law for all his People to observe The same did Egica in the Seventeenth Council He recited the several Heads of what the Fathers had done and upon a mature Consideration a full Knowledge and Approbation of their Acts he gave force to them The truth is it seems to have been the usual Method of the Princes about this time not so much to confirm the very Acts of their Synods as to form the Substance of their Definitions into a Law and to take Occasion from their Decrees to determine such things as concern'd the Church Thus the Spanish Kings now mention'd did and so Clotharius the Third did with Respect to the Fifth Council of Paris An. 615. He publish'd his Edict in the Close of it and therein expresly establish'd what the Fathers in the Synod had agreed to It was after the same manner that a great part of the Capitulars of the French Kings were composed They took the Substance of what their Synods had agreed to and having examined and form'd it according to their own liking they publish'd it for a Law to their Subjects Insomuch that sometimes they have even referr'd to the Canons of their Synods for the more clear understanding of what the Law had only briefly and in general deliver'd Such in particular was the Use which both Carloman and Charles the Emperor made of his Synods They call'd them as their Council to advise them in Ecclesiastical Matters and their Synods look'd upon themselves no otherwise They submitted their Decrees to their Examination and pretended not to expect that They should confirm them any farther than they appear'd to them to deserve it Thus the Fathers in the Third Council of Tours declare that they met to assist the Emperor by their Remarks of what they judged to need some Amendment And having drawn up their Opinions in Fifty one Canons they thus finally conclude All These things we have thus debated in Our Convention But how it will please our most Pious Prince hereafter to Act with Relation there unto we his faithful Servants are Ready with a willing Mind to submit to his Pleasure And the same was the Deference which the Council of Arles which met the same Year paid to his Authority These things say the Fathers which we found to need Amendment we have in a few words after the shortest manner observed and decreed to present to our Lord the Emperor Beseeching his Clemency that if Any thing be found wanting it may be supplied by his Prudence If any thing be designed otherwise than in Reason it ought to have been by his Judgment it may be Amended if any thing be Well and Rationally decreed it may thro' his Help by the Blessing of God be brought to Perfection Such a Submission did these Synods pay to their Emperor And this makes good what Eginhart a Contemporary Author of the Life of Charles the Great has observed as to this Matter That Councils by his command were held throughout all France for correcting the State of the Church And the Constitutions which were made in Each of Them were All together Compared and Examined by Him in the Convention of Aix la Chappelle Anno 813. I might farther confirm this from the Instances of many other Synods which have in like manner own'd the same Authority But I shall conclude all with the Words of that Council which gave Pattern to all the Rest of that Country I mean the First Council of Orleans under King Clouis Anno 511 whose Epistle to the King runs in these Terms To their Lord the Son of the Catholick Church the most Glorious King Clouis all the Priests whom you have commanded to come to the Council For as much as so great a Care of our Glorious Faith stirs you up to the Honour of the Catholick Religion that with the Affection
that the Convocation of the same Clergy is always hath been and ought to be Assembled only by the King 's Writ And 2dly As for the Laity the Parliament in the same Act not only concurs in the same opinion with Them in the Preamble before-mention'd that this their Acknowledgment was according to the Truth But in the Body of the Act it self have Provided thereupon that from thenceforth They never should meet in Convocation without the King's Leave to Empower them so to do Be it enacted say They by the Authority of this present Parliament according to the said Submission and Petition of the said Clergy That They ne any of Them from henceforth shall presume to Attempt c. Nor shall Enact c in their Convocations in time Coming Which always shall be assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ And from all which it is Evident that in the Opinion both of that Parliament and of that Convocation the King not only ought to have and by Law now has the sole Authority of Calling the Clergy together in Convocation but that this is such a Power as did always of Right belong to Him and that no Convocation ever could be lawfully assembled without his Permission or against his Hence it is that not only our Present Convocations are all summoned by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishop of Each Province for that purpose but if we look back to the times preceeding this Statute we shall find the same to have been the antient manner of summoning of Them And tho' in a matter of this Nature it is not to be expected we should be able to produce the very Copies of the Writs by which our Convocations were called from the beginning yet I shall hereafter plainly prove that from the beginning they did meet by the King's Command And we have the very Writs of Summons as far back as the 9 Edw. 2 that is to say for above 200 years before this Acknowledgment of the Clergy and Act of Parliament were made Such Right have our Kings to Call their Convocations Nor is their Authority any less in all those Circumstances which I have shewed were wont to Accompany their Calling Them If we consider the Time and Place of their Meeting they are expresly limited in the Writ by which They are Summon'd And tho' Custom has of late so far prevail'd that the Convocation has generally met at the same Time that the Parliament has done and at St. Paul's Church or Chapter House in London yet have not our Kings ever been so far confined in either of these Particulars as not to have it still in their Power to call the Convocation at any other time or to any other place which they shall think sit In that antient Summons I before mention'd perhaps the most antient of any we have now remaining of the 9th of Edw. II. The Convocation was call'd to meet Febr. 9. but the Parliament sate October 16. foregoing And in the Writs of these latter times though the Convocation be call'd and its Session confin'd to that of the Parliament yet still if the King pleases he may continue the sitting of the one after the other is prorogued or even dissolv'd And for the Place it is sometimes determin'd to be St. Paul's London but for the most part is left with a Greater Latitude to be held at any other Place which the Archbishop shall judge to be more convenient for it And the same is the Case as to the Persons who are to come to the Convocation and the Choice of whom as it is still determin'd by the King 's Writ so must it be allow'd to have Originally depended upon it For having first declared in General the Reason wherefore he had resolv'd to call his Clergy together He next goes on to specifie in particular whom he required the Archbishop to summon to the Convocation That he should Order first the Bishops of his Province with the Deans and Archdeacons to come in Person and secondly the Chapters and Archdeaconries to send their several Proxies to represent them the Chapters one of their body and every Archdeaconry two to be chosen by them for that purpose I shall not need to enquire how this came to be the settled number that was to make up our Provincial Synods or Convocations Whether this manner of Choice was deriv'd from the antient manner of holding Convocations into the Parliamentary Writs or from the Parliamentary Writs of King Edward I. into the summons of Convocations which from thenceforth usually met together with the Parliament Howsoever this were thus much is evident that since the Power of Assembling the Clergy in such Convocations is seated Originally in the King so that they have no Authority to come together but what he gives them It must follow that neither can any other Persons have a just Right to come to these Assemblies than such only as are commissioned by him or are chosen by such Rules as he has preserib'd for the choise of those whom he allows to be sent to them It remains then that not only the caling of our Convocations but the determination of the Time and Place of their sitting of the Persons who are themselves to come to them and of the manner of choosing Representatives for those who are not all depend upon the Authority of the Prince and were originally deriv'd from thence And so lastly does their very sitting too For however Custom which in time becomes a kind of Law has in this as well as in some of the foregoing Circumstances so far prevail'd that when soever a Parliament is held a Convocation is call'd together with it yet is this rather a matter of Form than any effectual Summons And the King still keeps his Antient Power to all intents and purposes in his own hands and suffers them not either to sit or act but when and as often as he thinks fit so to do Nor is this to be look'd upon as any Encroachment upon the Liberties of the Clergy but as the Assertion of a Power which always did and of right ought to belong to the Prince For though it has now for some Ages been the Custom to Convene the Clergy as often as the Parliament meets yet as it is manifest that when this Custom first began they met not so much as an Ecclesiastical Synod as a part of the Parliament of the Realm So all the Use that was generally made of Them was to concur with the Other Estates in granting of Money to the King which having done they were commonly dismiss'd without entring upon any other Business The Convocation then tho' it consisted of Ecclesiastical Persons was yet assembled for a Civil End and seems rather to have been a State Convention than a Church Synod And however the King usually added a Conciliary Summons to his Parliamentary Writ and thereby not only assembled the Proctors of the Clergy under another
the Kings behalf The Affairs then which the Convocation is in general to debate about and consent to are the Urgent Affairs which concern the King the Church and the Realm And these therefore are the constant Introduction of every Convocation Writ But what those Affairs are with Reference to Any or All of These which every particular Convocation is call'd to consider That the King reserves to himself to declare to Them and they are when met to expect his special Direction and not to ramble after their own Fancies on any Matter within this general Compass without his Warrant It has indeed been questioned by a Late Author Whether this Clause was antiently inserted into these Writs and he would fain have it thought that herein also the Clergy have of late been encroach'd upon But the Forms of Publick Instruments are not so easily altered If they were we might rather have expected that some other Expressions which relate to those Privileges which the Clergy formerly enjoy'd but which have now for a long time been utterly laid aside should have been omitted or changed than this which is perfectly agreeable both to the Laws of the Realm and to his Majesty's Royal Prerogative in these Matters But indeed this Clause if not as antient as the Writ it self is yet of very great Antiquity And we have at this day Writs as far back as King Henry the Sixth's Time in which this Clause is found in the very same Words that it is continued in at this day But were there any doubt to be made concerning the Authority of this Clause yet that Method that has always been taken by the King to set the Convocation on Work would be more than enough to shew how intirely their Deliberations depend upon his Direction When the last Convocation under his present Majesty was met the King by his Principal Secretary of State sent his Commission to Them In which having taken notice of the Statute of Henry the Eighth before mentioned and the Obligation which was thereby laid upon Them not to proceed to any Business without his Licence first had so to do he does therefore in order to their proceeding with Safety to Themselves and pursuant to the true Purpose and Intent of that Law particularly declare upon what Points he allow'd Them to Consult and under what Conditions he gave them Authority so to do That they should consider of any Alterations which they thought proper to be made in the Form Rites or Ceremonies of our Divine Service That they should Review the Book of Canons Should consider What Defects or Abuses might be found in the Ecclesiastical Courts How the Manners both of the Ministers and People might more effectually be Reform'd And such Provision be made that None should hereafter be Admitted into Holy Orders but such as were duly qualified both in their Lives and Learning to be received into the same These are the Heads on which the Clergy of that Convocation were directed to debate And even upon these they were to deliberate under these following Restrictions 1st That the President and Greater Number of the Bishops were to be always present And 2dly That even upon these General Heads they should consider only such particular Points Matters Causes or Things as his Majesty should propose or cause to be proposed by the President of the Convocation to Them Such was the Commission by which the last Convocation was set on work And to prepare the particular Matters which the King reserved to himself to propose to Them and upon which alone They were allow'd to debate His Majesty some time before the Convocation was to meet appointed a Select Committee of the Bishops and Clergy to consult about the same Matters and to draw up such Resolutions as they should think most fitting for him to lay before the Convocation when it should be Assembled Nor was this any New Invention any Unusual Restraint laid upon the Clergy in these days of Doubt and Distrust but the constant Method which had before been pursued ever since the 25 Hen. 8. It cannot be deny'd but that whatever his present Majesty may in some Mens Opinions be said to be yet without all Question King Charles the First was a true Friend to the Episcopal Clergy Nor can it any more be doubted whether Archbishop Laud had not both Care enough to Examine into the Rights of the Convocation and Interest enough with that Prince to assert the Privileges of it Let us therefore to avoid all Exceptions in this Case enquire how things pass'd in that Famous Convocation of 1640 wherein much was done and great Offence given to those who Resolved not to be pleased with any thing that either that King or that Archbishop did but nothing that can justly be found fault with by such as we are now especially concerned if it may be to convince Now that Convocation being met by vertue of the same Writ that is still made use of in these Cases the King sent his Special Commission to them to impower them to Act bearing date April 15. 1640. In this Commission he first at large Recites the Statute of the 25 Hen. 8. as from the time that it was made it had always been the Custom in the like Commissions to do to shew the need they had of his Royal Licence and Assent to enable them to go on with safety in their Debates and Resolutions Having done this He in the next place prefaces the Permission he was about to grant to them with these very Words which ought not to be omitted Know ye therefore that We for divers urgent and weighty Causes and Considerations Us thereunto moving of our Especial Grace certain Knowledge and Meer Motion have by vertue of our Prerogative Royal and Supreme Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical given and granted and by these Presents do give and grant full free and lawful Liberty Licence Power and Authority to the most Reverend Father in God c. I shall not need to make any Remarks upon this Preamble which fully answers all the Pretences of those who fancy not only the Sitting but the Acting too of the Convocation to be a matter of Right naturally belinging to Them And that either no Commission at all is needful to Authorize them so to do or that if there be the King is of Course obliged to Grant it to them For first That without the King's Commission they cannot proceed to any Business of Themselves without Violating an Act of Parliament and encroaching upon the King's Prerogative Royol and Supreme Authority in Cases Ecclesiastical is here directly asserted And that such a Commission the King may lawfully Grant or refuse as he thinks convenient not only the constant Custom of our Princes in adjourning their Convocations excepting only at such times as they had something for them to do assures us but the very words of the present Commission directly imply For how came the King to grant this
himself On the 11th of July in the same Convocation the Bp of Hereford produced a certain Book containing the Articles of Faith and Ceremonies of the Church Which being read by the said Bishop the said Honourable Thomas Cromwel the Archbishop and other Prelates with the Prolocutor and Clergy of the Lower House by their Subscriptions Approved of the said Book On the 15th of July It was agreed by the Lord Cromwel the Archbishop and Convocation as to certain Ordinances c. And lastly On the 20th of July the Bishop of Hereford produced a certain Book containing the Causes why the King ought not to appear at the General Council then to be held Which Book the aforesaid Honourable Lord Thomas Cromwel the Archbishop and the Rest of the Convocation by their Subscriptions approved of Thus did the King's Commissioner not only sit but act with the Bishops in their Convocation And I am not aware of any Law that has debar'd the King if need were to do that again now which King Henry 8. heretofore did And this may suffice to shew what Authority the King has over Our Convocation both by the Statute and Common Law by his own Prerogative as a Christian Prince and by the Particular Concessions of our own Parliaments and Convocations But we are told that the Convocation must be consider'd by Us not only as an Ecclesiastical Synod but as an Ecclesiastical Court too and which as such has Jurisdiction to deal with Heresies Schisms and other meer Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Causes juxta legem divinam Canones S. Ecclesiae And herein their Power is not at all Restrain'd by any particular Statute but still remains whole and entire to Them In this respect therefore the Convocation may at least act without the King's Licence and as of Right against any Bishop Priest or Deacon for such Offences This is the Doctrine of our Late Author but is not so clear to me as he would make it That Provincial Synods heretofore did look upon Themselves as endued with a sufficient Authority to proceed against any of their Own Body who by any of the Crimes before mentioned had deserved their Censure is not to be deny'd The Provincial Councils of old did so but especially in the Case of Heresie wherein the Church has ever Accounted it self to be particularly Concern'd But then it must be remember'd too that when they had so proceeded against Any One the Prince still judged whether they had acted Canonically or no And if he found a just Reason to move Him so to do he did oftentimes suspend their Sentence and order a new Enquiry in some other Synod to be made of such a Matter and after all determined it at last as He saw Cause Thus Theodosius did in the Case of Nest orius after he had been Condemn'd in two several Provincial Councils And thus Constantius before him had done in the Case of Photinus a worser Heretick He received his Appeal from the Council of Sirmium and order'd a new Examination to be made of his Case and then confirm'd the Sentence of the Synod and concurr'd in the Deposition of him And when Flavian Patriarch of Constantinople had in like manner condemned Eutyches for his Heresie the Emperor not only referr'd the Matter to the Council of Ephesus to be re-heard by it but when by the indirect Management of Dioscorus that Synod instead of Confirming his Sentence against Eutyches condemn'd Flavian himself tho' Orthodox and Innocent Theodosius not only refused to suspend the Sentences of Both till another Free Council might be call'd to judge of the Matter but left the Sentence of this last Council to remain in force and would not suffer any other Synod to be called about this Affair as long as He lived As for our own Convocation it is not deny'd but that antiently They were wont to judge of Heresy in it The first Instance that occurs of this and that the case of Pelagianism excepted as antient as the first coming of Heresie into our Country is that of the Council of Oxford held about 1260 and the Occasion of which was this It had happen'd some time before that about 30 Persons came over hither out of Germany and held secret Meetings differing from the common Opinion of the Church in several Particulars but chiefly as to the points of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist To prevent the spreading of their Errors the King commanded that Council to meet at Oxford and there to judge of them Being convened before this Synod and convicted of their Errors and refusing to abjure them they were pronounced Hereticks by it and deliver'd back to the King to be punished by the Civil Power It is in a Provincial Council held by Steph. Langton that we meet with the next Instance we have of the like Proceedings In this we are told of two Impostors upon one of whom were found the five Wounds of the Crucifixion convicted and condemn'd by the Judgments of the Church But Bracton adds to these another and a more notable Instance He tells us of a certain Deacon who out of Love to a Jewish Woman apostatiz'd from the Faith of Christ and was thereupon sentenc'd and degraded by the Synod and deliver'd over to the Secular Power to be Burnt for it And the same was the manner by which Sautre was condemn'd as appears not only by the Writ still extant for his Execution but from the Rolls of the Parliament 2 Hen. 4. in which the order was given for issuing out the Writ to the Sheriffs of London for it Feb. 26. He was first examined and condemned by the Clergy in Convocation and by them deliver'd up to the Civil Magistrate to be burned And tho' the Lord Cobham was not finally sentenced in Convocation but by the Archshop of Canterbury assisted by the Bishops of London and Winchester after it was risen yet was this Cause first brought on there and he was therein both Adjudged an Heretick and Excommunicated as such The Truth is so great is the Scandal and so severe in those days was the Punishment too of Heresy that it has moved some very Learned Men to think that before the 2 Hen. 4. no one could be otherwise convicted of it than in a Provincial Synod or Convocation And tho' my Lord Coke maintains this to be a Mistake and affirms that the Bishop always had as He still has Power to convict of Heresy and to proceed by the Censures of the Church against such as are guilty of it yet this is no Argument why the Convocation should not still retain its antient Authority and have the Power of doing that which any single Bishop alone may do But here then a question may arise that will deserve to be consider'd on this occasion and that is When any one is to be convicted of Heresie or of any other the like Ecclesiastical Crime in Convocation who it is
knowledge of the method in which Ecclesiastical Affairs were wont to be transacted in these most remote times upon which I am now entring and that the understanding of these will very much depend upon a right apprehension of the nature of those great Councils I shall have so much occasion to insist upon in this Period I will endeavour in the first place to give the most distinct account I can of them and that from Foreign Historians as well as from those of our Own Country And here were the manner of holding Parliaments as truly ancient as its Preface pretends and as some affirm that it is we should be able to go on the more easily in our Account of these Councils But because there are many things which make me justly suspect the Antiquity of that piece I must be forced to look out for some other Guides of a better Note and of whose Sincerity there can be no doubt That there was all along in these days a very near Affinity between the Polity of France and that of our own Country in its Ecclesiastical as well as in its civil Establishment might from many Instances evidently be made appear Those Northern Nations who about 400 years after Christ began to over-run the greater part of Europe were very much alike in their Manners and Constitutions And the Government which at the beginning they setled in those Countries in which they six'd tho' in some Circumstances it might vary yet in the main was the same too Now the Parliaments of France for so in aftertimes the great Councils of the Nation were call'd by them as well as with us were first brought into a setled Order and Method by Pepin Brother to Carloman about the year 744 in the very times we are noâ— discoursing about And the manner in which he did it was this He call'd together his Bishops and great Lords to a Council at Soissons and there with the advice of both commanded the ancient Canons to be observed and set out several new Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy as well as of the Laity And to the end that the State of both might be kept in better order they farther decreed that from thenceforth such a Synod should be held for the same purpose once every Year And thus this Affair stood for some time till about eleven years after being a little at leisure from those Wars which had almost continually exercised him he began to put his Kingdom into a better Posture To which end having again call'd together almost all the Bishops of France he resolved to have two Meetings held every year the first upon the Kalends of March in the presence of the King and at such place as he should appoint the other upon the Kalends of October at Soissons or at such other place as the Bishops at the former Meeting should agree And here began a manifest difference to appear between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Synods For at the former of these there met not only the Bishops but the chief of the Lay Lords of the Realm In that were Laws made both for the Civil and Ecclesiastical State and being framed by the Council were examined and confirmed by the King Whereas at the latter there appear'd only the Bishops and Clergy and these made no new Constitutions but only consulted together about the State of the Church and if need were prepared matter for the next State Meeting or else took care to order the Reformation of Mens Manners according to the Laws already made Such was the Polity which that King establish'd for the Ordering both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Affairs But now this Settlement begun by Pepin was very much improved by Charles the Great And because of this we have a very exact account given us by Hincmarus out of the Writings of Adalardus Abbot of Corbey and a near Relation of Charles himself it may not be amiss to take a short View of it In the first place then He appointed two Assemblies to be held every Year the One a General Council of all the Bishops Abbots and Lords of the Realm The Other more select consisting only of a certain number of the more aged and honourable of all these such as the Prince should think sit to chuse together with his principal Ministers of State whom he also call'd to it In the General Council all the publick Affairs for the following Year were setled In the Other were handled such incidental Matters as not being foreseen could not by Consequence be provided for in that Great Assembly and yet were of such a Nature that They ought not to be deferr'd till that Council should meet again In Both these Councils tho' chiefly in the General One Laws were made both for the Church and Realm The King proposed to them what He would have them debate upon and having for three days consulted together they laid the Result of their Debates before Him and his Choice and Approbation determined the Matter But that which I would chiefly observe in these Councils is this That as the Causes which sell in to be handled by them were of a different Kind so were they dispatch'd by Them after a different Manner If the Matter to be deliberated upon were purely Spiritual in that Case the Bishops and Abbots went apart by Themselves and debated upon it If it were wholly Civil or Military the Lords alone consulted about it If it were of a mix'd Nature as relating to the Government or Discipline of the Church then they Both together treated of it But which soever it were still the King consider'd of their Resolutions and determined all as He saw fit From this difference both of the Matters debated in these Assemblies and of the Manner of deliberating upon Them the same Assembly is oftentimes called both a Royal and Synodical Council Thus Sigebert styles the Council of Trebur under the Emperour Conrade Anno 1031. And thus may many of our ancient Councils be distinguish'd I shall mention only One in which a learned Antiquary of our Own Country has made the same Remark the famous Synod of Aenham at which not only the Bishops and Abbots but the lay Nobility were present But yet the most part of what was done in it related to the Church and was concluded by the Clergy alone who went apart from the Other Lords for that purpose It were an easie matter to shew that the same method of deliberation continued to be observed not only in our more Ancient General Councils of this period but even after the Reduction of our Parliament to the Form in which it now is But this would lead me too far away from those Times I am now upon And I shall have a more proper Occasion hereafter to take notice of it In the mean time from what has been said it appears that the Method of transacting publick Affairs in France in
any Pope but such as was agreeable to his Will and Pleasure And particularly that he would not endure any Synod to be held by the Bishops of England or any thing to be determined in any Ecclesiastical Causes without Leave and Authority first had from him to empower them so to do And the same was the Resolution of his Sons after him And tho' being necessitated for the sake of their civil Interests to yield a little some of our following Princes did submit to the Papal Usurpations yet no sooner was their Government grown strong and their Peace setled but both our Kings and our great Men presently began to assert their Freedom and to cast off those Chains which the Pope had watch'd his Opportunity to put upon them So that now then to give a short account of the method of managing the Affairs of the Church in this Period it was briefly this In the great Council of the Realm and which tho' alter'd in some circumstances by the Conquerour from what it was before yet still continu'd in the main the same as the Bishops and most considerable of the Abbots had a place so now as heretofore Ecclesiastical as well as civil Causes were handled by them and Laws pass'd for the Government of the Church no less than of the State In the other and more select Councils of our Kings which in this Period were held sometimes at the great Feasts and sometimes at such other Seasons as our Princes thought sit and to which they took such of their great Men only both Ecclesiastical and Secular as themselves thought sit many Affairs of the Church were also debated tho' not with such Authority as in the other more general Councils Besides these Assemblies as from the beginning of this Period Ecclesiastical Synods did often meet so in them were the rest of those Matters transacted which appertain'd to the Church But then these as they met not without the King's Licence so neither did they determine any thing but by his Consent nor were their Acts of any Authority until they were confirm'd by him This was the State of the Church in the beginning of this Period whilst it as yet stood free from the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome How it came to be enslaved afterwards will better appear from that particular view we are now to take of those Councils in which any thing of greater Moment relating to the Church has been concluded I have before observed how our Princes very early began with great Solemnity to keep the three chief Festivals of the Year and to be attended by their Bishops and Lords at them At one of these Seasons presently after he was setled in the Government the Conquerour commanded a Synod to be held and made use of the Pope's Au 〈…〉 rity and the Presence of his Legats to strengthen what he had to do in it Having thus assembled the Bishops apart into an Ecclesiastical Council he proceeded not only to deprive Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury who in some measure deserved it but several others of the Clergy for no other real reason but only that he did not love them or else wanted to have his Normans in their places And having thus proceeded as far as he thought good in this Council he stopt still the next solemn Festival And then in another Synod of the same kind and assembled by the same Authority he went on to farther Deprivations after the like manner as he had done before It was at a like meeting of his Bishops and Lords about two years after that resolving the great Council into an Ecclesiastical Synod he determined the Primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the Archbishop of York and subscribed his Name to the Acts of it What that Synod was which Lanfrank sometime after held at Westminster we are not told This we are inform'd that it was call'd by the King's Command and that he was present at this as he had been at the other two Whether this were the same Council which we find recorded by Malmsbury in the life of Lanfranc or whether there was another assembled the same year I cannot tell But that a Synod was held about this time at London we are well assured In this many ancient Canons were revived and the foundation laid for renewing the Ecclesiastical Discipline of the Church And because this had not sufficiently determined what was necessary to be done the next Year after he held another at Winchester in which several usefull Constitutions were establish'd the Heads of which still remain to us These are the chief of those Ecclesiastical Synods that we are told were assembled under K. William the Conquerour And the last of which however said to have been call'd by Lanfranc who also presided in them yet still we must remember what we have before in general observed of this King that the Archbishop call'd them by his Command Who also approved their Acts before he suffer'd them to have any Authority in this Realm For the farther Confirmation of which Remark let us only cast our Eye upon the Conduct of this Prince as to these matters in his own Dutchy of Normandy and from thence we shall be able the more certainly to judge what Power he claim'd over his Clergy in his new Dominions And here we find that at Whitsontide Anno 1086 he assembled his Parliament at Roan The Members who composed it were the same that in those days made up ours There were present the Archbishop Bishops and Abbots of his Territories and with them the great Lords of the Laity Being met they made several Laws for the Government both of the Church and State and he was both present at their Debates and by his Authority confirm'd what had been agreed on by them And when some time before the Archbishop of Roan held a Provincial Synod with his Bishops and Clergy purely to consult of the Affairs of the Church and several Canons were compiled by them the Acts of it observe that the Conquerour was himself both present at the making of them and that he afterwards confirm'd them by his Command Such was the Authority which this Prince exercised over his Synods As for his Successor King William the Second he was not at all less but rather was more stiff in asserting his Rights as to these matters than ever his Father had been Insomuch that being on a time desired by Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury To employ his Authority to the restoring of Christianity almost utterly defaced in his Realm He ask'd him What he would have him do Command says Anselm Councils to be renew'd according to ancient Custom There let it be enquired what has been done a miss and let a seasonable Provision be made for the remedying of it There has not been held a general Council of Bishops since you came to the Crown nor for some time before Through this defect many
times they have appear'd there as Spiritual Assistants to consider consult and consent Only he affirms that they never had Voices there because they were no Lords of Parliament the force of which Argument I shall leave to the House of Commons to answer In the mean time I must observe that in the case of Bird and Smith Trin. 4. Jac. 1. upon a Deprivation made of Smith by the High Commissioners for not Conforming to the Canons of the Church the Lord Chancellour having call'd Popham Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench Coke of the Common Pleas and Fleming Lord Chief Baron to his assistance it was agreed to by all the three without any Exception That the Canons of the Church made by the Convocation and King without the Parliament shall bind in matters Ecclesiastical as well as an Act of Parliament Because the Convocation of the Clergy was once a Member of the Parliament but afterwards for Convenience separated and therefore does carry its peculiar Jurisdiction along with it in the Convocation House For which reason also a Clergy-man cannot be chosen a Member of the House of Commons nor a Lay-man of the Convocation as Coke then declared had been resolved in a Conference of the two Houses 21 Hen. 8. And as concerning the other part of my Lord Coke's Assertion that the Proctors of the Clergy never had Voices in Parliament because in the Writ of Summons it is said that they were call'd Ad consentiendum his quae tunc ibidem de communi consilio dicti regni nostri contigerit ordinari it may suffice to observe that tho' this be indeed the present Form yet when both the Clergy and Commons were first called to this great Council they were both summon'd to another purpose and in words that did expresly intitle them to act in it In the 23d Edw. 1. the first Summons for ought appears that was ever regularly issued out for them they were called Ad Tractand Ordinand Faciend nobiscum cum caeteris praelatis proceribus aliis incolis Regni nostri In the 4th Edw. 3. Ad Faciend Consentiend And this continued to be the usual Form afterwards And these are the very Words that were used in the Commons Writs in the same Parliament 4 Edward 3 And which tho' alter'd about the 26th of that King into others of greater force Ad Tractand Consulend Faciend Yet that Form lasted not very long but in the 46 of the same King it again was worded Ad Faciend Consulend and so has continued to this day And a more ancient Authority than this in my Lord Coke's Account has told us that the Clergy were call'd Ad Tractand Deliberand That their names were call'd over the beginning of every Parliament that they had a Voice in it and made a part of the Commons there But because this is a point that will best be clear'd by matter of Fact we will enquire a little what the Clergy were wont heretofore to do there For as for the Forms of Summons tho' I conceive at first they were very properly drawn and do mark out to us the undoubted Rights of those to whom they were sent as they were allow'd of in those ancient times yet how little they may signifie now the Form of our Parliamentary Writs in the Praemonentes to the Bishop does alone too evidently shew In the 6 Edw. 3. after the Archbishop of Cant. and Bishop of London had declared how that the French King designing an Expedition to the Holy Land had desired our King to go along with him and that this was the cause of calling that Parliament Sir Jeffery le Scroop added by the King's Commandment that the same was called as well to redress the Breach of the Laws and Peace as for the King 's going to the Holy Land The Bishops answer'd That it did not properly appertain to them to counsel in matters of Peace and to prescribe for the punishment of Evils And so together with the Proctors of the Clergy they went apart to consult about the Matters proposed to them In the 13th of the same King the King appointing Commissioners in his stead to begin and continue the Parliament we find the Dean of York as Treasurer standing next to the Archbishop in the Commission And in the Parliament which met the Michaelmas before it being resolved to hold another upon the Octaves of Hilary the Archbishops were order'd to summon their respective Convocations to be ready to meet with it In the 18th of the same Edw. 3. at the opening of the Parliament complaint was made that sundry of all Estates were absent whereat the King did no less muse than he was thereat offended Wherefore he charged the Archbishop for his part to punish the Defaults of the Clergy and he would do the like touching the Parliament And in the same Session the Resolution being taken that the King should end the War he was engaged in either by Battle or an Honourable Peace the King agreed And in order thereunto the Clergy of Cant. granted him a Triennial Disme and the Commons two fifteens of Counties and two Dismes of Cities and Towns It was the usual custom of the Commons in those days to begin such Bills as they thought necessary to have pass'd by Petition to the King in Parliament Thus they did in this Parliament 18 Edw. 3. which being ended the Bishops and Clergy exhibited their Petitions also being in number seven whereto the King answer'd and the same comprized in the Statute for the Clergy still extant In the Preamble of which the King takes notice of the Triennial Disme granted to him by the Prelates and Procurators of the Clergy of both Provinces In the 1 Rich. 2. we again find the Clergy petitioning in like manner And in the 21st of the same King the Commons by Sir John Bussey their Speaker pray the King that forasmuch as divers Judgments were heretofore undone for that the Clergy were not present therefore they pray'd the King that the Clergy should appoint some to be their common Proctor with sufficient Authority thereunto And the Bishops thereupon appointed Sir Thomas Piercie their Proctor to assent in the name of the Clergy And by vertue whereof when the Parliament took a new Oath to the King the Bishops and Abbots themselves took it and Sir Thomas Piercie as Proctor for the Clergy was sworn to the same And when in the same Parliament Sir John Bussey offer'd the King a Subsidy from the Commons and thereupon desired his general Pardon the Clergy gave the like power to Sir William â—e Scroop of Wilts to answer for them that they late did to Sir Thomas Piercie And when finally upon the advice of Sir John Bussey the Lords were required again to swear not to alter any thing of what was done in this Parliament not only the Bishops and Temporal Lords did so but sundry
these opinions the Civil Power was not only allow'd but desir'd to interpose with them and an Act made for the Prosecution of Hereticks Anno 1401 2 Hen. 4. But tho' by this means therefore a new subject was started to exercise the debates of our Convocations yet still the Pope ceased not to attempt upon the Crown with his wonted Usurpations To oppose which Richard the 2d call'd his Clergy together Anno 1398 and demanded of them Whether the Pope had Power to translate Bishops and dispose of Preferments as he had again that Year notoriously done Instead of giving any direct answer whereunto they cautiously reply'd That it was their opinion the King should write to the Pope to desist from such Practices for the time to come At which the King being justly offended told them That had they boldly asserted his Right he would have firmly stood by them and have protected them against the Power of the Court of Rome King Richard being deposed and King Henry being willing to ingratiate Himself with the Clergy scarce a year pass'd without a Convocation The main business of which still was to suppress the New Opinions and to prosecute the Maintainers of Them But except this there is little from this time forth to be observed to our present purpose in Them But tho' I shall not therefore need to insist any farther upon the particular View of the Convocations of these times yet a Law there is which must not be pass'd by It was made in favour of the Clergy by King Henry the Sixth Anno 1430. And the substance of it is That the Clergy in Convocation should be allow'd for Themselves and their Servants all the same Protections and Privileges which had been Granted to Members of Parliament and which by Vertue thereof they still continue to Enjoy I shall close up these Remarks with the account of one Other Convocation and that such as is not to be parallell'd in all its circumstances in any part of our History King Henry the Eighth having call'd a Parliament to Westminster Anno 1529 Commanded Warham Archbishop of Canterbury to Summon a Convocation of the Clergy to meet about the same time in St. Paul's Church London Cardinal Woolsey who as Archbishop of York had no place in the Convocation and was desirous to bring every thing within his Own Management by his Legatine Power dissolves the Convocation held at the King's Command by Warham and Orders the same Synod to Appear before himself as the Pope's Legate the next day at Westminster Where having got a sufficient Subsidy granted by Them to the King he soon dismiss'd the Assembly And thus have I given a brief Account of the most considerable Assemblies of the Clergy in Convocation during this Third Period Many there are which I have pass'd by without making any mention at all of Them And it may be sufficient here in the Close of all to say this one thing concerning Them That for the most part the Great End our Kings had in Summoning of Them was to get Money from Them as the main thing they did when they met was to consider what Measures to take and what Excuses to urge to avoid the Giving of it IV PERIOD From the 25th of King Henry the Eighth to Our Present Times We are now come to the last Part of these Reflections to the Time in which our Convocation was finally setled by Parliamentary Authority in the State in which it now stands and under which Condition I have in the foregoing Chapter consider'd the Rights of it I shall here only give a short account how it came to be thus setled and what Methods our Princes have from thenceforth taken for the Management of their Ecclesiastical Affairs and the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy King Henry the Eighth having been a long time trifled with by the Court of Rome in the business of his Divorce and being not of a Humour to bear such an Opposition as was thereby made to his Desires Resolved at last to break off all Communication with it And in pursuance thereof pass'd an Act against Appeals to Rome and for ending Ecclesiastical Suits within his Own Realm Anno 1533. It was not long after this that Warham dying and Cranmer being made Archbishop of Canterbury the business of the Divorce which had so long been depending was finally determined by Him The news of which being got to Rome the Pope not only Annull'd the Archbishop's proceeding but Commanded the King to do it likewise And upon his Refusal to hearken to Him publish'd against Him a Sentence of Excommunication as He had before Threatned to do To prevent that Breach which this must otherwise have necessarily made between Them the French King interposed so effectually with the Pope who about this time came as far as Marseilles to Treat with Him that He offer'd new Terms of Accommodation to King Henry and the Archbishop of Paris thereupon undertook to make up the difference betwixt Them And now all things seem'd to tend to Peace The King was willing to accept of the Pope's Offers and the Pope no less desirous to gain the King The misfortune was that the Pope confined Him to so short a time that his Messenger could not get to Rome so soon as had been required And the Imperial Faction wrought so powerfully upon the Pope that he refused to enlarge it but for six days till He might see what the King would do before He proceeded to a final Sentence against Him The Quarrel therefore now being come to a heighth and the King resolved to maintain his Authority Many Laws were pass'd the next year for the better Establishment of it And because he was sufficiently aware that His chiefest opposition might be likely to arise from the Clergy He resolved to take an effectual Course with Them And of which it will be requisite to give some short Account I have before Observed what severe Laws were made by Edward the Third in his 25th 27th and 28th Years against the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome These were confirm'd by King Richard the Second in his 12th and 13th Years And because the Pope still went on nevertheless in his Practises in his 16th Year the famous Act of Praemunire was pass'd against All Bulls c. from the Court of Rome under Pain of Perpetual Banishment with the forfeiture of the Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels of those who should either procure or make use of Them But notwithstanding these Laws the Pope still proceeded in his Own way and the Clergy were always ready to assist him in it And by these means there were but very few of any Note among Them who had not upon some account or other incurr'd the Penalty before mention'd Upon this Ground therefore the King resolved to attacque Them And They being well Aware of the danger of it determined by any means to Avoid it In Order whereunto They first
its determinations Proceeds in the next place for their sakes who have No Religion at the bottom nor any Notion of a Church however for their Worldly Interest they may pretend to this or that Party by joyning Themselves to its Communion to shew What the Law of their Country says in this Case That so they may be for ever silenced in this Question and not dare to mutter any more after what this New Pythagoras shall have declared to Them And having thus engaged our attention he proceeds Oraculously to pronounce KNOW therefore says He that a Convocation is an Ecclesiastical Court or Assembly Essential to our Constitution and Establish'd by the Law of it It is the Highest of all Our Ecclesiastical Courts or Assemblies Is called and convened in Parliament time by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishops It consists of all the Clergy of both Provinces either Personally or Representatively present In the Upper House are the Archbishops and Bishops In the Lower House or House of Commons spiritual are the Deans Arch-deacons One Proctor for Every Chapter and Two for the Clergy of Each Diocess This is the Court. The frequent sitting of this Court is One of the Chief Rights of the Church of England The Church of England is a National Church and to such it is certainly incident to have National Synods or Convocations And in like manner to those Synods to have freedom of Speech or Debate about Matters proper for their Cognizance relating to the Being or Well-being of their Body as a Church And if the Church of England have any Rights or Privileges this of Assembling Debating and Conferring is certainly One and the Chief of Them 'T is true a Convocation cannot Assemble without the Assent of the King His Writ is necessary in Order to it And his Prerogative do's Empower him to Prohibit the Clergy Assembling in Synod without his Summons But then it is as true too that the Assembling of Them is not entirely dependant on His Will nor lodged purely in the Breast of the Sovereign But it is with the Convocation as it is with the Parliament The King is intrusted with the Formal part of Summoning and Convening it but so that by the very Essence and Constitution of our Church a Convocation ought at certain times to Meet Sit and Act and the Fundamentals of our Government shew Him When and How his Power in this Respect is to be Exercised and that it ought not to be at his free Will and Pleasure To Grant therefore that the King's Writ is necessary to the Assembling of the Convocation The Question is Whether that Writ ought not to Issue whensoever a Summons goes out for a Parliament And to this we say That the Law of the Realm hath directed the King or at least His Chancellour Keeper or Other Minister having the Custody of the Great Seal to Issue forth such Writs and they can no more be Omitted than any Single Peer's Summons to Parliament Thus far our Way is plain and clear But supposing all this the Question still is Whether or no the Convocation may conferr after their Summons and Meeting without the King ' s Special License and Assent In answer to which I must acknowledge that the Common Received Opinion is in the Negative However if what has been offer'd already with regard to their Convening have any weight in it it must hold also in some degree with respect to their Conferring and Treating when met about Matters proper to their Cognizance If they are a Court and have their Jurisdiction and are a Legislature and have the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws both which they certainly are and have then the liberty of Conferring and Discussing is necessary to their very Existence c. This is the Summ of what this Author has asserted as to the point in Question and for the most part is express'd in his Own Words Let us now see Wherein we differ from One another And reduce the matter in debate between Us to as narrow a Compass as we can And 1st Tho' I will not enter upon a New Subject yet I must needs say I am by no means satisfied that the Church has either Command or Authority from God to assemble Synods or by Consequence any inherent and unalterable Right to make any such authoritative Definitions as He supposes in Them I am not Aware that either in the Old or New Testament there is so much as One single direction given for its so doing And excepting the singular Instance which we have Acts XVth I know of no Example that can with any shew of Reason be offer'd of such a Meeting And whether that were such a Synod as we are now speaking of may very justly be doubted The foundation of Synods in the Church is in my Apprehension the same as of Councils in the State The necessities of the Church when it began to be enlarged first brought in the One as Those of the Common-wealth did the Other And therefore when Men are Incorporated into Societies as well for the service of God and the salvation of their Souls as for their Civil peace and security these Assemblies are to be as much subject to the Laws of the Society and to be regulated by Them as any Other publick Assemblies of what kind soever are Nor has the Church any Inherent divine Right to set it at liberty from being Concluded by such Rules as the Governing part of every Society shall prescribe to it as to this Matter This is my Notion of these things and thus I conceive Synods are to be managed in Christian States As for those Realms in which the Civil Power is of another Persuasion natural Reason will prompt the Members of every Church to consult together the best they can how to manage the affairs of it and to Agree upon such Rules and Methods as shall seem most proper to preserve the Peace and Unity of the Church and to give the least offence that may be to the Government under which they live And what Rules are by the Common-consent of Every such Church agreed to ought to be the measure for the assembling and acting of Synods in such a Country Whether this notion will please this Author or no I cannot tell If it do's not I hope he will shew me wherein my Error lies and how I may correct it In the mean time this security I have that if I am mistaken I err with Men of as great a Judgment and as comprehensive a Knowledge in these Matters as Any can be who differ from Me. But to come to that which I am now more properly to examine That the two Convocations consider'd as a National Synod are the Highest Ecclesiastical Assembly of this Kingdom I readily Agree Nor shall I deny but that a Convocation may be said to be Essential to our Constitution But that the frequent sitting
is at best but miserable Harangue to oppose against the Express Authority of the Law and the Common Prerogative which All Christian Princes have from the beginning laid claim to as to this Matter But He urges farther 2dly That supposing a License were necessary yet for that very Reason it ought to be Granted And it matters not much whether we say that a License ought ex debito Justitiae to be Granted to empower them to deliberate Or whether they have of Themselves a Power of deliberation without such License expressly given That whenever the King requires the Convocation to sit he ought to send them a License to act is out of doubt because otherwise he would either oblige them to meet to no purpose or would lay a snare in their way by bringing them together and putting them upon acting without a License which by Law they ought not to do But that this is granted Ex debito Justitiae I utterly deny because in all the Commissions I have ever seen 't is particularly said to be Granted by the King of his special Grace and meer Motion which cannot with any propriety of Speech be said of what in justice belongs to them The truth of the Case is this The 25 of Hen. 8th has restored the Crown to its Royal Authority as to this matter It has put the Power of directing the Convocation as of Right it ought to be into the King's hands They cannot Act without his Licence and he is not Obliged by any Law to grant it to them but may allow or not allow them to Do business as he thinks it will be most expedient for the Churches Welfare That therefore the King do's at any time Grant them such a Licence is of his Own Good Pleasure Nor can it any Otherwise be accounted a Debt of Justice than as he is Obliged in Justice to his People to Do whatsoever he thinks to be for the Publick Good But yet in point of Reason it must be confess'd that the King either ought not to Require his Clergy to meet together more than for Form sake Or that if he do's He ought to Commission Them to act too That so they may neither meet to no purpose or which is Worse do it to their Own detriment by Acting Otherwise than the Law allows Them to do And therefore I do Agree that in a very large improper sense of the Words it may be said that when they do sit a Licence ought ex debito Justitiae to be Granted to them Because they ought not to sit but when their sitting will be for the Good of the Church and when that is so the King is obliged in Justice to the Church to give them Licence to Act. But in this Gentleman's sense I utterly deny either that the Convocation has any right to Meet whenever the Parliament do's Or that upon every such Formal Assembling they ought to have a Commission sent to them to Empower them to Act tho' I still affirm that they are not at Liberty to Act without it As for what is here again urged 3ly from the Rights of the Parliament It may suffice to say That neither do's the Parliament lie under the same Restrictions that the Convocation do's nor can it with any Consistency to our Constitution be supposed that it should do so The Parliament Acting in Concurrence with the King have the Legislative Power in their Hands They neither are Restrain'd by any Laws nor is it possible they should be But the Convocation is truly no more than an Ecclesiastical Council It s business is to Advise and Assist the King in things pertaining to the Church And tho' I know it will displease this Author to be told so yet I must again put him in mind that the Clergy have no power to make laws They may draw up Canons and Constitutions within the Limits which the Parliament has set to them and the King may confirm them And that being done they will have a due force But still Laws they are not unless in a very imperfect Sense the same in which the Convocation is a Legislature and the Master of a family a Monarch within his Own House But tho' I cannot therefore joyn with this Author in his Argument yet I heartily concurr with him in his Conclusion of it That an English Christian King is as much Obliged by the Laws and Usages had and accustomed in this Kingdom in regard to the Church as the Sovereign of England is with relation to the State This I say is unquestionably true and brings us to the true way of deciding the Point before us If by the Laws and Usages of this Kingdom the Convocation has a Right to sit and act as this Gentleman affirms let those Laws be produced and those Usages made out and I submit But if according both to the Laws and Usages of the Realm the Convocation be wholly in the King's hands As I think I have abundantly shew'd that it is then let our Author be concluded by his Own Rule and Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's to God the things that are God's But our Author here again objects to himself what if he had not I dare say no man living would ever have Objected to him that the Convocation has oftentimes been prohibited by the King to deal with any thing that concern'd his Crown and Dignity c. And he thus makes his Advantage of it That since those Prohibitions were only to keep the Convocation from Excess and within their just bounds it is evidnetly supposed that they may intermeddle with any Other Matter without Express Licence Whether that be supposed or no I cannot tell this I am sure is that the Clergy in those days were but too apt to meddle with matters in their Convocation that did not at all belong to them And I doubt were some mens Notions allow'd of we should find but too much need of having these kind of Prohibitions brought again into Practice But the truth is when those Prohibitions were wont to be sent to the Convocation the Clergy oftentimes did not only Meet but Act too without the King's Licence And by both usurp'd upon the Royal Authority And to suppress these abuses and to vindicate the King's Supremacy it was that the Statute of the 25 H. 8. c. 19. was pass'd Since which time we meet with none of these Prohibitions and I hope the Crown will never fall any more into such hard Circumstances as to stand again in need of them As for what this Author in the next place excepts against the Authority of Cokes xiith Report I am but little concern'd in it The fortunes of the Crown depend not upon the Credit of it Let those who build their Opinion as to these matters upon the Resolution of the Judges there Related if Any such there be undertake the Defence of it We are now come to the main Point and which
Our Author therefore Labours all he can to Get over And that is How we are to understand the Statute of the 25. H. 8. Whether as Prohibiting the Clergy only to Promulge and Execute any Canons c. but what are Confirm'd by the King Or Whether we are to look upon it to have forbidden Them to debate and conclude upon any without his Licence first had so to do And here I shall neither enter into any Controversy with this New Critick about the propriety of Expression in which Our Acts are too often defective Nor complain of his very Partial and Imperfect Recital of it Tho' in this he will find it hard to justifie himself to those who will take the pains to compare the Words of the Statute with that Account which he has given in his Letter of it But supposing the Act to have been so obscurely or doubtfully drawn up as to be really capable of either of the Senses here contended for which yet truly I think it is not will only consider whether there be not much more reason to preferr Oars than to allow of His. For which end 1st I would Ask this Author Whether supposing One of these Senses can evidently be made appear to have been Always and Universally Received as the meaning of this Act ever since it was Made and the Other be Confessedly a New and Singular for I must not now say a Forced Interpretation of it that Ought not in all Reason to be Stuck to which has prevail'd from the beginning rather than That which was never Allow'd of nor for ought I know so much as heard of till this Gentleman first enlightned the World with it Again 2dly Let me demand farther Whether this will not be still more Reasonable if it can be shewn that that Sense of this Statute which we Affirm has hitherto Universally Obtain'd has also been confirm'd by the Constant Practice of Those who were most concern'd to Enquire into the Meaning of it And had withall the Best Opportunities of knowing what was indeed intended by the Legislators in Making of it 3dly and lastly Let me Ask Whether we ought not yet more undoubtedly to acquiesce in this Sense if it has been Generally and Constantly admitted not only by such as were the most Concern'd and best Qualified to judge of it but whose Interest it was withall to have declared against this Sense and to have Asserted that Other which this Author has here advanced supposing there had been any Rational Ground for Them so to do These I conceive are very plain Questions and either this Gentleman must recede from the most Commonly Received Rules of Interpreting Laws or he must Consent to the Reasonableness of them and be Concluded by Them To apply then these General Rules to the Case in hand I believe no reasonable Man will doubt but that the Kings of England have had as Good Opportunities of Understanding the Sense of their Own Laws as any Other Person whatsoever can pretend to They have had their Judges their Council learned in the Law their Own Great Counsellours at all times to advise with And these have not only Authority to make an Authentick declaration of the Sense of any Statute but have been actually consulted by Them concerning the meaning of this very Act. Unless we should be so unreasonable as to Suppose that Our Princes have from time to time sent Commissions to their Convocations to empower them to Act And that with peculiar Relation to this Law and yet never Consulted with their Judges c. in drawing of them Or were ever better inform'd by Them when they saw how Grosly they had mistaken the Sense of it But it may be our Kings were Parties in this Case and had an interest to prefer this Interpretation of that Statute before the Other that so they might the better Exalt their Own Power by it Let this also be supposed But still I hope the Convocation its self had no interest to joyn with them in this design and to help by a wrong interpretation of this Act to bring themselves into Bondage That next to the King the Convocation may be accounted as well Qualified to understand the true Sense of a Statute which it so nearly concern'd them to look into as any Private Critick I believe no Modest Man will deny Our Author I am sure has too Great a Veneration for that Learned Body to doubt of their Ability I had almost said Authority to Expound an Act of Parliament Let him therefore tell us What Convocation has there been ever since this Act was made that has ever refused the King's Licence sent to them in pursuance of it Or has Protested against it Or has ventured to proceed to Conferr Deliberate and Make Canons without the King's Licence first Obtain'd to Warrant them so to do That our Kings have constantly sent their Commissions to them to keep them from falling under the Censure of this Statute We are very sure That Our Convocations have evermore thankfully received these Commissions and proceeded to Act under the Authority of Them cannot be deny'd That they have refused to Act till they Received the King's Licence and when they have suspected that the date of it was determined have insisted upon having a New One sent to Them we can prove beyond any Reasonable Exception But that ever any Convocation Rejected such a Licence or presumed to Act without it from the time that this Law was made I have never heard nor can this Gentleman I believe give me an Instance of Either I conclude therefore that supposing there were indeed a just Ground to doubt of the meaning of this Statute which yet I must again prosess to my Apprehension there is not yet still That Sense of it which has Obtain'd ever since it was made according to which Our Kings have for above 150 Years proceeded to Give such Licences as we now contend for to their Convocations And their Convocations have continued to accept of and to Act by them Which our Greatest Lawyers have declared themselves in favour of and which no Man that I know of besides this One Author has ever pretended to call in Question I say that Sense which has all these Advantages and is in its self most agreeable to the Words of the Act and the Occasion that was given to the making of it ought in all Reason to be preferr'd to any new Construction that can be set up against it tho' such construction might in some measure be made of the Words of the Law and afford some shew of Reason to enable a Witty Man to talk very plausibly in favour of it Whether these Considerations will seem sufficient to this Author to justifie the Old Received Sense of this Statute I cannot tell nor do's the King's Authority depend so much upon it that I should need to say any more to it That without his Writ the Convocation cannot Meet this Gentleman
himself acknowledges And I am sure whenever the King shall think fit to let them Meet He will send Them his Licence to Act too If they accept his Licence and proceed to Act by vertue of it this will afford us a new Argument to prove that we are not mistaken in the Sense we give of this Statute If not we shall then in all probability be set Right in it and upon a Judicial determination which this Author tells us was wanting in Cokes Report be satisfied what Skill this positive Man has in Interpreting of Acts of Parliament And whether tho' there be No Sense yet there may not be Good Law on the side of the King's Prerogative And now I may venture to say we have seen the utmost of what this Author can do As for what he next catches at That my Lord Coke affirms that the King had heretofore a Right to send Commissioners to sit with the Clergy in Convocation tho' Quo jure he says it do's not Appear And therefore it must be supposed that the Clergy had a Right to debate of what they pleased because else it would have been needless to send a Commissioner to Watch them I must needs say I do not see by what Rules of Reason any such Consequence will follow from it Unless we should suppose that because Men are limited to Act by certain Rules therefore there is no danger of their transgressing of Them The ancient Emperours we are well assured tied up their Councils to very Strict Rules Yet so dull were They that for that very Reason they sent Commissioners to sit with their Bishops that so they might take Care to keep them within bounds and see that they acted according to the Rules they had prescribed to Them 'T is true the Clergy in those days did take the Liberty to transact many things in their Convocations without any particular Licence from the King to warrant Them so to do And this rendred the presence of such Commissioners more necessary heretofore than it is Now. But that they did take upon them to do this is no proof that they had a Right to do it any more than their attempts in many other instances prove that they ought to have enjoy'd all those priviledges by which it is on all hands allow'd that they did oftentimes notoriously Usurp upon the Royal Authority There is yet a little spiteful Suggestion for I cannot call it an Argument drawn from Magna Charta and the King's Coronation-Oath But these things will then be fit to be Consider'd when He shall first have proved the Church to have such a Right as he supposes but has not yet offer'd one tolerable proof of unless we should take a Confident Assertion for proof in which it must be confess'd he has not been Wanting In the mean time whilst the Church is deprived of no Liberty that either the Laws have given it or it ought of Right to enjoy the King may keep his Coronation-Oath and Magna Charta be as sacredly observed as any One could Wish it should be tho' the Clergy be not allow'd all that unreasonable Liberty which some Men plead for on their Behalf but which neither the Clergy nor Convocation have Themselves ever pretended to But whatever Restraints may be pretended to be laid upon the Convocation by this Act with regard to the making of Laws and Constitutions For Laws this Author will have the Convocation to make as well as the Parliament yet the Exercise of their Jurisdiction as they are a Court properly so called is certainly left free and intire to them This He takes for Granted and never so much as attempts a Proof of it And therefore there is no more for me here to do after what I have already said as to this matter If the Case be so as it is here supposed If neither the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes nor the Laws of the Realm nor the Custom of Convocations which like that of the Parliament is I conceive the Law of Convotion have restrained the Clergy as to these Matters I am sure I shall be far from desiring to lay any Restraint upon them I shall conclude this whole Chapter with a Relation which I meet with in One of our Ancient Reports and which being added to what I have before observed may contribute a little to the better understanding of the power of the Convocation in the Particular we are now upon In the 4. H. 8. An Act of Parliament was made to deny the benefit of the Clergy to certain Malefaâ—â—ors therein mentioned The Clergy being angry at this as intrenching too much on the Rights of the Church for the Church in those Days was always wont to be very tender of her Rights whether they were for the publick Good or no About three years after the Parliament then sitting the Abbot of Winchomb in a Publick Sermon at Pauls Cross not only Preach'd against the said Act and all Those who had Consented to the Passing of it but farther Affirm'd that All Clerks who have once been admitted into any Holy Orders whether Greater or Lesser were from thenceforth Exempt from all temporal Punishment before any Temporal Judge for any Criminal Cause whatsoever The Lords Temporal and Commons being alarum'd at this Petition the King that he would order this Point to be publickly argued by Divines and Canonists on both sides And thereupon a Certain Day was appointed by the King for that purpose at the Black-Fryars London Among the Council for the King was Doctor Henry Standish a Learned Man and Guardian of the Mendicant Fryars in London The Cause was handled and many Members of both Houses were present And in the Opinion of all who heard it Dr. Standish had so much the Better of the Council that argued for the Clergy that it was moved to the Bishops that they should Oblige the Abbot Publickly to Recant his Assertions At Michaelmas following the Clergy sitting in Convocation cited Dr. Standish to appear before them to answer to such Articles as should there be Exhibited against Him He appeared as he was order'd and four Articles were first proposed by the Archbishop to Him and being afterwards encreased to six were deliver'd to Him in Writing All tending to the purport of what he had before Asserted in defence of the King's Authority And he was Required upon a Certain Day to Answer to Them It seems to assert the King's Authority over the Clergy was accounted in those days to be no less than Heresie and perhaps may still be thought by some Men to come near to it Doctor Standish easily perceived what the Convocation drove at And being sensible that He should not be Able to withstand their Malice and Authority put Himself under the King's Protection and referr'd his Cause to Him The Clergy being a little surprised at this protest to the King that their Process against Him was not for any thing he
all Private Cases which are determinable in Other Courts and before some Other Judges which the Law has provided for Them And the King might as well Assemble his Parliament to try a Thief or a Felon as his Convocation to convict a Man of Heresie or Schism There are Civil Courts appointed for the One and Ecclesiastical Courts provided for the Other And if these Neglect or Refuse to do their Duty there are Shorter Ways of Applying a Remedy to it than by calling either a Parliament or Convocation for such a Purpose And such are secondly such Disorders as either the Bishop in his Diocess the Arch-bishop in his Province Or the King in the whole Church have sufficient power by their Own immediate Orders or Injunctions to redress Whether they be Occasion'd by Mens departing from the Rules and Measures already prescribed to Them Or for want of a Vigorous Execution of those Laws by which they ought to be punish'd for their so doing Indeed where the Discipline and Authority of the Church its self is defective and Irregularities both in the Clergy and Laity abound for want of a Power sufficient to suppress them a Convocation may be needful to consider How a Remedy may be provided for this Defect and the Church be enabled more successfully both to Guard the Faith and to Reform the Manners of its Members And I heartily wish our Circumstances were such that a Convocation might meet for this Purpose But I am afraid our Distemper is become too Great to be healed And that we are Uncapable of such a Discipline as above all things We the most Want And therefore 4thly And to go on with these Remarks As in such Cases as I have hitherto mentioned it is needless to Call a Convocation so would it be in Vain to Assemble it for such purposes in which there were no probable Expectation of Success or hope that any Good should be done by it This as for ought I know it may be One Great Reason why a Convocation is not called to Review some of our Publick Offices to Improve our Discipline And to Reform many Disorders in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so am I the rather Confirm'd in my Opinion of the little Probability there is of any Good to be yet done by a Convocation in this respect that amidst all the Reasons Offer'd by this Author to prove the necessity of holding a Convocation He has never Once given any Intimation of these matters tho he could not but know that they were look'd upon by the Government as the principal things for which a Convocation might be wanting But 5thly And to have done As there are many Cases for which it would be improper to call a Convocation so may there be some Times too in which it â—ould be altogether Unadvisable to Assemble it When Mens Passions are let loose and their Minds disorder'd When their Interests and Designs their Friends and their Parties nay their very Judgments and Principles lead them different Ways and they Agree in nothing so much as in being very Peevish and Angry with One Another When their very Reason is depraved and they judge not according to Truth or Evidence but with Respect of Persons and Every One Opposes what Another of a different Perswasion either Moves or Approves of What Good can the Prince propose to Himself or any Wise Man hope for from any Assembly that can be brought together under the unhappy Influence of These and the like Prepossessions It was the sense of this made a Wise Man in the last Age tell Charles the Vth That it appear'd by Experience and might from Reason be demonstrated that those Affairs seldom succeeded well which were to be done by Many And if such be the inconvenience to which Number alone exposes such meetings in the best times Sure I am both Reason and Experience will much more convince Us that in times of doubt and discontent this will be more likely to be the Case and that under such Circumstances there is little Good to be expected from them And this may suffice in General to shew what those Cases and those Times are in which the Prince may have Reason to think that it is either needless or improper for him to suffer his Clergy to Meet and Act in Convocation I Go on II. Secondly Upon these Principles to Examine what this Author has Offer'd to prove the Necessity or even Expediency of their present Assembling Now this He pretends to make out by these 2 Ways 1st By Proving that there is upon many Accounts an Absolute necessity that something should be done for the Defence of Religion and the Church And 2dly By shewing That what is thus necessary to be done can be done no Other Way but by a Convocation 1st That something is necessary to be done He proves from the Open Looseness of Mens Principles and Practises and that setled Contempt of Religion and the Priesthood which He says has prevail'd every where And upon this General Ground he go's on to dilate in several Particulars which must therefore he Consider'd by Us. But before I proceed any farther in this Debate I must here once for all profess that I should be far from Opposing any thing that could reasonably be proposed to be done in Order to so Good an End as the Reforming the Open Loosness of Mens Principles and Practises would certainly be I am by no means Unsensible that a Great Part of what this Author here complains is but too true Tho' whether the Loosness of Mens Principles has corrupted their Manners or the Depravity of their Manners may not rather have been at the bottom one great Cause of the Corruption of their Principles I am not able to determine And were a Convocation necessary to Vindicate the Church from being in any degree accessary to these Crimes or had it Authority sufficient to Reform this Licentiousness I would much rather joyn with this Author in Petitioning for their Sitting than Contend with Him about the Expediency of it But being fully Satisfied that the Convocation has neither Strength sufficient to Grapple with these Enormities nor is in any respect necessary to assert the Churches Innocence But especially being perswaded that should it meet for any such purpose under our present Circumstances it would only expose its Own Authority and our Religion to the Greater Contempt of Profane and Wicked Men I shall proceed with all freedom to Examine the Reasons here alledged and to Vindicate not only the King's Honour but the Churches too and shew that if the Other Ways which this Author here Rejects be not sufficient to Reclaim Mens Vices neither can it be hoped that the Convocation should be able by any Orders it can make to Reclaim Them First then Let us suppose that as he alledges Scepticism Deism and even Atheism its self is pouring in upon Us Would this Gentleman have a Convocation called to
beyond all Others if not to help to Reform the World yet certainly to take Care that they do not help to make it Worse Whilst Pride and Pâ—â—vishnâ—ss Hatred and Evil-will Divisions and Discontents prevail among those who should teach and correct Others And instead of improving a true Spirit of Piety and Purity of Love and Char 〈…〉 of Peaceableness and Humility we mind little else but our several Interests and Quarrels and Contentions with one another What wonder if we see but little Success of our Ministry and are but little Regarded upon the account of it We must Reverence our Office our selves if ever we mean that others should Reverence us upon the accou 〈…〉 of it A Teacher who is an Hâ—retick iâ— any Point of Doctrine may do somewhat to Corrupt the Faith But 't is the Minister who shews himself an Infidel in his Practise that Roots up the very Foundations of Religion and prompts Men to cast off at once all Belief of it And thus have I consider'd those Evils from whence this Author has endeavour'd to shew that it is absolutely necessary a Convocation should be call'd for the Redress of them I go on 2dly To Examine what He has Offer'd to prove that nothing but a Convocation can do it And 1st The Bishops He says cannot safely proceed in Matters of Heresie because of the Danger they may Incurr thereby But this is an Argument that either really proves nothing or if it do's will prove more than He desires it should It being certain that the Convocation can no more declare Heresie or proceed any farther in the Punishment of it than any Single Bishop by Law may do What is by our Law to be accounted Heresie the Stat. of 1 Eliz. c. 1. has declared And tho' that Statute particularly Referrs to the High Commissioners yet is it by Construction a Safe Rule for all Others to proceed by As for the Punishment of it I do not find it in the least doubted but that a Bishop may proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures against Hereticks And certain it is that now they can Go no farther So that here then there is no such mighty Danger unless for those who would make more to be Heresie than the Law has declared so to be And if that be the Danger this Author speaks of I believe all Wise and Charitable Men will desire that they may be always lyable to it However as I before observed be the Hazzard what it will the Convocation is subject to the same Limitations that every single Bishop lies under And the One if they are too busie may as easily run into a Praemunire as the Other 2. As for the Authority of the Universities I confess it extends only to their Own Members But yet so great a Number of Those who make the chiefest Figure among Us when they are Men have commonly their Education there in those Years in which they ought to be well settled in their Principles of Religion as â—ell as in their other Notions that I cannot but account it a kind of Pâ—â—lick B 〈…〉 sit to the Church and Kingdom not only that those Great Bodies hold so Sound and Intire but that they are endued with a sufficient Power to hinder any Contagious Principles to spread within them and to infect their Members His Majesty's Authority is next excepted agaiâ—st as extending no farther than to inforce the Exercise of those Powers which says He I have already shewn and Experience proves to be too short Or clogg'd with too much Difficulty and Discouragement to attain the End we all so much want and contend for 'T is true his Majesty does not pretend to enlarge his Supremacy beyond those Bounds which the Laws of the Realm have set to it Nor has he any Need so to do The Authority of the King in all these Matters is by Law very Great and extensive And I believe few Evils can happen to the Church which may not in Good Measure be provided for by it But here our Author opens himself and gives us a broad Hint what it is He wants He would have the Bishops or rather the Convocation empower'd to determine what they please to be Heretical And when they have done so to proceed against their Own Members it not against Others accordingly By Vertue of this Power whatsoever Books were publish'd by Men whom they did not like should be censured and executed as Heretical and the Authors be obliged to a Retractation of Them And I am sometimes afraid this Gentleman do's really fancy the Convocation to have a certain Original Inherent Right in it so to do Should this be so and should there chance to be any considerable Number of his Convocation Friends of the same Opinion I shall onlâ— say 't is Happy for Them that they are not permitted to come together For certainly they would quickly undo themselves if they were It can hardly be doubted but that upon this Supposition one of the first things these Members would do would be to fall soul upon Dr. Sherlock as an Heretick Now let us only suppose the Dean to have as much Kindness for himself and Regard to his Own Reputation as we see the Men of the last Age had And that he should thereupon take the same Course to defend himself that Dr. Standish before did Who can tell what the Opinion of the Temporal Judges in such a Case might be Or what they might make of their proceeding And tho' King Henry the 8th let the Matter fall and took no farther notice of it yet should they now be deem'd to have fallen under a Praemunire by such an Attempt who will ensure them that another Prince shall not take the Advantage of it But indeed tho' when Men are Resolved to maintain an Hypothesis 't is no great matter what they affirm and in such a Case his Majesty's Authority may seem nothing to them yet I cannot imagine what a Convocation can do that the King may not as well and much more safely do in these Matters He can Forbid some Men to affect new Terms Can discourage Others who advance new Theories to the detriment of the Authority of the Holy Scriptures He can publish Rules for the Preaching of Some and Orders to Reform the Vices of Others But indeed he cannot by all this or by any thing else that He can do Oblige some Men And therefore ought the less to be blamed if he do's not trouble himself to Go out of his Way to gratifie their peevish and unreasonable Desires 4. And now we are come to the last Authority I mean that of the King and Parliament and if this also be thought Unable to do Our Business we may I think venture to Conclude that the Immoderate Passion which this Gentleman has for the sitting of a Convocation do's so Byass him that He can Approve of nothing else But why may not the Parliament be as well Qualified to put a Stop to
than declaring to them how the Law then stood and still is in the like Cases And in which it is Agreed that Men Attaint or Outlaw'd shall be put to answer in Any Action against them because it is to their Prejudice But in an Action brought by Them they shall not be Answered because it is to their Benefit So that if the Chief Justice committed any Fault it must be either in Obeying the Law or in declaring to their Council what Incapacities the Clergy lay under That is for acting uprightly in his Place and judging according to the Laws of the Realm which is not wont to be accounted a Crime in such Persons The truth is there is hardly a Man of those Times upon whom this Author could more unluckily have Reflected than this Sir Robert Brabazon He was made Second Justice of the Common-pleas by King Edward 1st about the 18th Year of his Reign Seven Years he served his Prince in that Station and was then for his Merits created Lord Chief Justice of that Court Anno 24. Edw. 1. In the first Year of his Son King Edw. 2. He was sworn anew into his Place And about Seven Years after had the Care of the Treasury committed to him till a Lord Treasurer should be chosen which was done about a Year after And being thus Grown Old in the Service of his two Masters and disabled to attend any Longer at his Court that he might sit down with Honour He was in Consideration of his Great Fidelity chosen into the King's Council and in that Quality ended his Life This is the Man whom this discreet Author has endeavour'd to Bespatter and this was the Crime for which he so tragically exclaims against Him And now upon the whole matter let this Gentleman freely say What he has to except against in the Conduct of this Great Prince Or whether upon a true State of this Matter He will espouse the Cause of the Archbishop and Clergy Here is a brave and war-like Prince engaged in a War of the utmost Consequence to his Country and People He carrys it on himself with Vigor and ends it with Glory He forces his Enemy not only to yield to Him but to Own his Authority and do him Homage Being Return'd with Victory He calls his Parliament and is Readily assisted by his Lay Subjects to pay his Debts and prepare himself against his Other Enemies Only his Clergy not only Refuse to contribute to the Defence of their Country but put an Indignity of the basest Nature upon their King Like the Pharisees with their Vow of Corban they first procure the Pope to pass an Order against their assisting of Him and then with a Jewish Hypocrisie look demure and pretend That truly they would Assist him with all their Hearts but the Pope has forbidden it And they dare not do it In return to this Usage the King determines no longer to afford his Protection to those who had deliver'd themselves up to Another Interest and thereupon refused to contribute any thing to the Support of the Government by which they were secured in the peaceable Enjoyment of their Own Rights and Estates And the Parliament thought his Resolution so just that they closed in with it and readily confirm'd it with their Authority This was the Case of the whole Clergy then and it is but too like the Case of some of them Now. And the Effect was that being by this means brought to a Sense of their Duty the greatest Part of them presently submitted to the King and All the next Year granted a Supply to Him And have thereby left us this Observation That the only way to deal with some Persons is to treat them as they deserve And to let them know that those are unworthy of the Protection of the Government who are Embark'd in an Interest different from it and Refuse to Contribute to the Necessities of it APPENDIX CONTAINING Some PUBLICK ACTS and Other Collections referr'd to in the Foregoing Discourse APPENDIX I. The Ancient Form of summoning an Abbot to Parliament Ex Reyner Apost Benedict p. 149. Append. Part. iii. num LXIX HEnricus Dei Gratia Rex Angliae c. N. Abbati S. Albani Quia de Avâ—samento consilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis Nos Statum Defensionem Regul nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contingentibus quoddam Parleamentum apud Westminster tali die teneri Ordinavimus ibidem Uobiscum cum Ceteris Prelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti Regni nostti Colloquium habere tractatum Uobis in â—ide dilectione quibus Nobis tenemini firmiter injungendo Mandamus Quod consideratis dictorum negotiorum Arduitate Periculis imminentibus Personaliter intersitis Nobiscum ac cum Prelatis Magnatibus Proceribus predictis super predictis Negotiis traâ—taturi Uestrumque Consilium impensuri hoc sicut nos Honorem nostrum ac Salvationem Defensionem Regni Ecclesie predicte Expeditionemque dictorum Negotiorum diligitis nullatenus Omittatis Teste meipso The Parliament Abbots thus summon'd Ex Eod. 1. Abbas Glastoniae 2. Abbas S. Augustini Cant ' 3. Abbas S. Petri Westmonaster ' 4. Abbas S. Albani 5. Abbas S. Edmundi de Bury 6. Abbas S. Petri de Burgo 7. Abbas S. Johannis Colcestriae 8. Abbas Eveshamiae 9. Abbas Winchelcumbiae 10. Abbas Croylandiae 11. Abbas de Bello 12. Abbas Redingiae 13. Abbas Abendoniae 14. Abbas Salopiae 15. Abbas S. Petri Gloucestriae 16. Abbas Bardeneyae 17. Abbas S. Benedicti de Hulmo 18. Abbas Thorneiae 19. Abbas Ramseiae 20. Abbas Hydae 21. Abbas Maimesbiriae 22. Abbas S. Mariae Eborac ' 23. Abbas Selbeyae 24. Abbas Tavestoke 25. Prior Conventriae II. The Ancient Writs of Summons of a Bishop to Parliament Cl. 49. H. 3. M. 11. Dors. in Schedula HEnricus dei Gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae Dux Aquitaniae venerabili in Christo Patri R. eadem Gratia Episcopo Dunelm Salutem Cum post Gravia turbationum diserimina dudum habita in Regno Charissimus Filius Edwardus Primogenitus noster prâ— pace in Regno nostro Assensuranda Firmanda Obses traditus extitisset jam sedata benedictus Deus turbatione predicta super deliberatione ejusdem salubriter providenda plena securitate tranquilitate pacis ad Honorem Dei Utilitatem totius Regni nostri firmanda totaliter complenda ut super Quibusdam al 〈…〉 is Regni nostri Negotus que sine Consilio vestro aliorum Prelatorum Magnatum nostrorum nolumus expediri cum iisdem tractatum habere nos oportet Uobis Mandamus Rogantes in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini quod Omni Occasione post-posita Negotiis al 〈…〉 s pretermissis sitis ad nos London in Octabis S. Hilarii proxim futur Nobiscum cum predictis Prelatis Magnatibâ—s nostris quos ibid. vocari fecimus super premissis tractatur Concilium impensur Et